#can not explain why i felt the need 2 compare these scenes but i did

[cringe-but-proud]

What the wind blows in

Logan Howlett x gn!Reader

Warnings!!: Some language (barely), reader has a dead dad, but it’s not a significant part of the story. I think that’s it

A/n: This is heavily inspired by the scene in X-Men Origins where Logan is taken in by those nice old people. But, it’s supposed to take place maybe a day after X-Men origins. I liked writing it. Might do a part 2 if enough of you ask for it 😋 Requests are open. Please send me X-Men requests. Please. PLEASE. PLEASE!!!!!!!!

As soon as you got off of the bus, cold winter air seemed to bite at your exposed skin, sending a small shiver down your spine as you began to walk down the long, winding road that would eventually lead to your your home.

When you’d left the house for some groceries earlier that day, you’d figured you’d be fine with just a coat. But, now you were internally ridiculing your past self for not grabbing some gloves and maybe even a hat or scarf on your way out.

Your fit of self discipline was interrupted when you caught a glimpse of the door to your old barn closing. You stopped, staring at the door for a moment to see if it would move again. When it remained motionless, you began cautiously walking toward your front door, eyes never leaving the barn for more than a second.

As soon as you were inside, you locked the door and went to swiftly put the paper grocery bags down on the counter. You’d worry about putting them away later. Right now you had to make sure there wasn’t an intruder on your property.

Arming yourself with a kitchen knife, you walked back to the front of your house and peeked out of the small window on the front door. It didn’t look like anything was out there. That would have to be good enough.

You stepped outside, holding out the knife, and cautiously walked over to the barn.

You would’ve liked to have been calm in this situation, like some badass that wasn’t afraid of anything. But, truthfully you were pretty terrified. If there was someone in the barn, were you supposed to just tell them to leave? What if they try to attack? You’re not mentally prepared to kill someone; even if it is out of self defense!

With a deep breath (that did nothing to ease your nerves), you opened the barn door.

It was quiet and there weren’t any visible signs that someone had been there.

“Hello?” You called out, immediately comparing yourself to the first character to die in a bloody horror movie. God, you hoped that wouldn’t be the case.

You swore you heard some shuffling somewhere in the barn and you had to refrain from screaming and sprinting back to the house. Swallowing down your fear, you walked into the barn, eyes sweeping over the area until you finally saw him.

On the floor of the barn, practically curled up into himself and shivering was a man in clothing that was absolutely not appropriate for the weather.

“What are you doing?” You immediately asked, grip on the knife tightening.

He looked up from his spot on the ground and for a moment when you were looking at those big, brown eyes you felt a twinge of sympathy.

“I don’t wanna cause any trouble.” The man said, raising his hands slightly so that you could see them. “I was just….” He let out a sort of huff. “I was freezing out there.”

Your guard lowered just slightly. “Why were you out here in the freezing cold anyway?”

“I….” He trailed off. You should’ve assumed he was coming up with a lie. That’s what any rational person would think. But, something about his expression made it seem like he was genuinely trying to figure out why he was out here. “I was looking for the nearest town.” He finally said. He took a pause, looking a bit frustrated with himself as he spoke his next sentence. “Listen, I don’t have anywhere I can go. I don’t even know what state I’m in, and I’ve been aimlessly walking down empty roads looking for some kind of civilization for…. I mean, probably for hours now. I just need somewhere warm to rest for a while.” You could tell he was trying to explain his situation calmly, but he was still shaking like a leaf from the cold.

“Just let me stay in here for a night.” He said. “I promise you won’t even know I’m here.”

You looked at him in silence for a moment, thinking it over. Caution lights definitely should’ve been going off in your head. If you were making rational decisions today, you wouldn’t have ever even come out here. You would’ve stayed in your house and called the police the second you suspected a trespasser. But, now you were here, and now this cold, and frankly pathetic man was asking (almost begging) to stay here. And maybe you were an idiot for feeling sympathy for a guy that was technically breaking and entering. But, in the moment, none of that mattered and none of that changed your answer.

“Get up and follow me.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Get up and follow me.” You repeated. “I don’t want you to freeze to death out here.”

And that’s how you ended up with a stranger in your house.

The first thing you did was give him a warm blanket which he gladly wrapped around himself. Next you lit the fireplace.

“What’s your name?” You asked as you stood and walked to the kitchen to finally put your groceries away.

“Logan.” He replied. “You?”

“Y/n.”

Logan hummed in acknowledgment. “This is a nice place you’ve got, Y/n.”

“Oh, thanks.” You glanced up at him. “My dad gave it to me.”

“Your dad gave it to you?” He repeated with a sarcastic chuckle. “He must be loaded.”

“Oh, no. I mean-“ You cleared your throat. “Uh, I inherited it. When he died.” You said awkwardly.

“Oh.” Logan’s face fell and he looked away.

You cringed internally and quickly changed the subject. “Are you hungry?”

“Uh-“

You interrupted him before he had the chance to decline. “I’ll make you something.” You turned away and began pulling ingredients from your fridge to make a sandwich. You made it in silence. He ate it in silence (apart from a muttered “thank you” that he gave you when you initially gave him the food).

You were the one to finally say something.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking….” You began. “Are you, um…. Homeless?” You asked carefully.

Logan chuckled dryly. “Something like that.” He replied.

“And you said you don’t know what state you’re in?”

“Nope.”

“Virginia.”

“Jesus.” He muttered, shaking his head.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Logan glanced over. “Just not anywhere close to where I thought I might be.”

You wanted to ask more questions. Ask how he ended up here, where he was planning on going, if he really didn’t have anywhere he could go. But, you figured he probably didn’t want to answer a lot of questions right now. So, you instead made an offer.

“You can stay here for the night if you need to.”

He looked over to you, looking a bit confused, maybe surprised. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.” You shrugged.

Logan chuckled dryly. “You make a habit out of trusting strangers this much?”

“No.” You answered truthfully.

“No?” He repeated. “What’s so special about me?”

You swore he gave you a quick Look up and down. But, you told yourself you were seeing things. You told yourself you didn’t see his lips almost twitch into a smirk.

Instead of answering the question, you got up and straightened your clothes a bit. “Do you need anything?” You asked.

Logan leaned back a bit, clearing his throat. “Some warmer clothes would be nice.”

“Yeah. Yeah, uh— Sure thing.”

You sort of left Logan alone for a while (other than giving him some of your dad’s old clothes and showing him the guest bedroom where he would sleep for the night). It was mostly because you didn’t want to admit that he’d flustered you earlier and you didn’t want to give him the opportunity to fluster you again.

But, alas, your hospitable nature got the better of you. The sun had gone down and the soft ambient noises of nature shifted from birds chirping to crickets.

You knocked on the door to the room Logan was in, holding a fluffy blanket.

“Yeah?” He called from inside the room.

“I’ve got something for you.”

A brief pause. “Come in.”

You entered and tried giving a small, polite smile to him.

“I worried you might be cold.” You said, holding up the blanket a bit as if he couldn’t clearly see it already. You walked over and set it on the bed next to him, still neatly folded up from when you grabbed it from the closet you kept all of the towels and blankets in.

“You don’t have to use it. I just figured I should bring it, y’know, just in case. Um—“ you shifted a bit awkwardly. “If you need anything else, my room is right down the hall. So, feel free to as-“

“Why’re you being so nice to me?” He asked, cutting you off.

You paused briefly, not knowing how you should answer that. When you finally did answer, it wasn’t really a proper reply to what he said. “What?”

“You’re being oddly sweet to a guy you only met today after he broke into your private property.” Logan said plainly. “Why? You’ve got every reason not to trust me, and yet, here you are, giving me extra blankets cause you’re worried I’ll get cold.”

Okay, well, when he put it like that, it made you sound like an idiot. Now you really didn’t know what to say. You just stood in silence for a moment before speaking again. “I don’t know.” That definitely wasn’t the kind of answer that was helpful at all. You continued. “You needed help. Isn’t that reason enough?”

Logan took a moment before shaking his head. “There aren’t many people in the world who do stuff like this without asking for something in return.”

You shrugged. “Well, maybe I’m one of the few that just wants to be nice.”

Logan didn’t say anything for a moment. He just looked at you. He looked at you like he was trying to figure you out, like if he looked hard enough he’d know if you were telling the truth. “You’re good.” He finally decides.

“Thanks?” You reply, the compliment catching you off guard a little bit.

“Too good. Guys like me don’t deserve to be treated nice by people like you.”

You shake your head. “I disagree.”

“Yeah, that’s cause you don’t know me.” Logan chuckles dryly, but you don’t laugh.

“I mean it. If I thought you were a bad guy, I would’ve called the police by now.”

He hummed. “Can’t argue with that.” He said. “Still, I wouldn’t consider myself a good person.”

“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” You decide, giving Logan a small smile.

Logan chuckles softly. “You’re like an angel.”

Your face immediately begins to heat up and you turn away so he doesn’t see your flustered state. “Thanks, uh…. I’ll let you get your sleep now.” You try your best to sound casual as you walk to the door.

“Y/n.” Logan calls before you can shut the door behind you. You turn back to him and hope that the darkness of the hallway hides your flushed cheeks. “Thank you.” He says sincerely, his eyes not leaving yours for a second.

You take in a deep breath. “It’s not a problem.” A beat passes. “Goodnight.”

As you walk down the hall to your room, you find yourself silently hoping that Logan’s stay lasts a little longer than just tonight.

[harbo-urr]

Alhaitham's and Kaveh's relationship in the Sumeru arhon quest: new perspective (for me, maybe for you too!).

Oh it will be long...

It started with my short thoughts about their first on-screen dialog and how it feels different now compared to a year ago, but then spiralled into me re-watching the entire Sumeru archon quest to properly analyse Alhaitham's hidden struggles during it and Kaveh's (not big but) actual plot relevance.

Disclaimer: I'm aware that English VAs were way more emotional then Chinese, especially in 3.2, but, for the sake of having the information to analyse, lets believe that at least the official eng text of their interactions is more or less correct... (I'm sorry I only know English and other languages most likely have translation errors as well anyway).

I'm also assuming that you've read their character stories and know their more deep personalities, not just "cold smart guy and artsy broke guy".

Anyway, I hope someone will find the analyses below as entertaining as I do.

1. Kaveh and Alhaitham: what we see during their first on-screen interaction.

Now, let's all time travel into the day when the last part of Sumeru's quest dropped. These sweet days... Version 3.2, two versions before we got Alhaitham as a playable character and four versions before Kaveh. By this point we've already known a little information about Alhaitham, mostly from the archon quest itself, and next to nothing about Kaveh.

Well, we knew some info, but it was mostly leaks and speculations, nothing more than "a genius architect who lives with Alhaitham because he is broke".

Now, if you didn't read the leaks and just carefully played the quest, you could actually catch some phrases here and there that implied that Alhaitham lives with someone before it was openly confirmed, but again, it's not specific at all. That is why our first meeting with a brand new sexy blond boy was so extreme in all ways. It was beautiful, emotional, entertaining and... extremely toxic. Both Alhaitham and Kaveh behaved surprisingly aggressive (calmer in Chinese but still more negative then what we usually see now). It was fun to watch, and made a lot of people including me really interested in those two from the get go.

But re-watching this dialog now after almost a year felt... Weird. Yes sure, they bicker, it's their thing, but if you compare any other scene with them later it's not nearly as intense... especially on Alhaitham's side (yes, even if you don't listen to va and just read the lines).

So it got me thinking. Why did Alhaitham behave like that? Was it a random writing decision for the drama effect? Or was there something more going on that I didn't understand?

After going through everything from start to finish I believe that yes, there was. But I'll need go through a lot of content recap to fully explain what I mean.

2. First aka "the first on-screen" aka "Where were you when Sumeru needed you most!?" dialog

It is essentially our first glimpse of Kaveh, which we catch in the library on the search for Alhaitham.

Kaveh has just returned to the city so he has no idea what is going on. The shown interaction starts with Kaveh demanding Alhaitham to put his book away and explain what is happening at the Academia. The fact that Kaveh is already pretty irritated when we first see him tricks us into thinking that he's a short-tempered overly dramatic guy, which is...

Well, partly true, but having already experienced how sweet Kaveh actually is we can see through that and realize that Alhaitham most likely was ignoring Kaveh's questions for some time now, and that's why our Kaveh was already on edge when we started. Already weird and we're just at the first line.

After that they bicker a little, Kaveh again asks about the Academia, on which Alhaitham answers: "Oh? I thought you would already knew the inside story."

Then they bicker again (2) and Alhaitham goes hard on Kaveh here. He even agrees with Kaveh that he doesn't say anything nice about him, because "anyone who knows you as well as I do would do the same". DAMN, Alhaitham, that's brutal even for you, why are you so mad, is something bothering you? Oh well..

Then they bicker again (3) and Alhaitham proposes Kaveh to move out of his house, but Kaveh ignores it and tries asking about the Academia again. Alhaitham ignores it as well and says "Forget what's going on with the Academia, haven't you been busy with your construction project?".

Kaveh doesn't want to answer this question and says that he's "getting angry just thinking about it" (worth noting). Kaveh then wants to change the subject again, but Alhaitham doesn't give up and asks about Kaveh's project again ("Where were you when Sumeru needed you most?").

Then they bicker again (4) and Kaveh leaves to ask around.

Huh, that was heated...

Lets do a little bit of unpacking.

So, Kaveh wanted to know more about the Academia and Alhaitham was constantly changing the subject. It can be read as Alhaitham mocking Kaveh just for the sake of it, but if we pay a little more attention to what Alhaitham is saying every time he interrupts Kaveh, it becomes more interesting.

1) "Oh? I thought you would already knew the inside story."

2) "Forget what's going on with the Academia, haven't you been busy with your construction project?"

3) "Where were you when Sumeru needed you most?"

Each time Alhaitham changes the subject, he talks about Kaveh being away for the time of the quest. Let's remember the golden rule of miscommunication conflicts: to understand what actually bothers your opponent you need to spot a repetitive theme in their words. And Alhaitham has a pretty clear pattern. Interesting.

But let's move on to the next dialog.

3. Second aka "second on-screen" aka "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" dialog

Kaveh returns after asking around and confronts Alhaitham about it ("WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?") (just a funny line). After some bickering (5) Alhaitham agrees to finally tell him what happened. He mentions that Kshahrewar sage was a part of conspiracy as well on which Kaveh reacts surprised and says "...could this be why they sent me out on a project?". However Alhaitham replies that it's just a coincidence and proceeds to suddenly go hard on Kaveh again, saying "whatever you were doing won't have any significant impact now or in times to come" (auch, Alhaitham, auch). Then they bicker again (6) and the dialog ends.

This interaction is more relevant to the "Kaveh plot relevance" section, but the important things for now are:

Kaveh: "...could this be why they sent me out on a project?"

Alhaitham: "I think its just a coincidence ... whatever you were doing won't have any significant impact now or in times to come."

And why is it important?

I find the flow of this whole conversation to be very weird, since it goes "confrontation - agreement - information share - speculation - confrontation". In other words, first Alhaitham doesn't want to talk, but Kaveh persuades him, learns about the sage, brings up his mission in the desert, and Alhaitham returns to the confrontation mode again.

It can be interpreted as Alhaitham just using every opportunity to disagree with Kaveh just cause, but at the same time his words sours exactly after Kaveh talks about him being missing from the quest. Coincidence? I don't think so.

All these little things got me thinking. Why is Kaveh's absence so triggering for Alhaitham? Sure they're close or whatever, but they both value their freedom very highly and it's probably not too rare for them to disappear for a day or two for work. Why is it such a big deal now?

But then I also remembered that Kaveh, basically the only family Alhaitham has (yes I call people you willingly live with a family, its my life experience), went missing from home exactly when the fishy stuff at the Academia started resurfacing. And he was gone for a long time, at least for the duration of the quest, which is about two in game weeks.

Even if Alhaitham is not a very emotional person, he still values family, home, routine and comfort very highly. So, in theory, the sudden empty house should have affected him in some way, right? That's how I decided to check Alhaitham's behaviour during the archon quest and it was.. interesting.

4. Alhaitham's side of the Sumeru quest, with me fillng in the gaps.

Let's think about all these quest days from his perspective.

You're simple logical guy who already for quite some time lives with an annoying but kind of endearing roommate, who you drink coffee with in the morning and often discuss intellectual or not really stuff. Sometimes you argue but he's perspective on life fascinates you as a scholar, so you don't mind it too much. Ultimately you're just used to him in your life.

Then one day you go to your work, which brings you just enough money to feel completely comfortable, but you start feeling that something fishy is going on behind the scenes. Some sages disappear, your archon is treated like a power source and there are weird rumours about the divine knowledge capsules. Then you get a sudden assignment - investigate a blond traveller with a talking fairy. And sages propose to pay you with the divine knowledge capsule.

Suspicious. If it's such a big deal, why would they promise you it as a present for a simple spy work?

You decide to get to the bottom of this and for this you need to buy the capsule yourself. You're sure that the infamous merchant Dori has some, but you're definitely in the black list as the Academia's scribe... Ah, how lucky is it. Your roommate just so happen to have a strong connection to Dori. If you give him money and an excuse why he needs the capsule so much she would definitely sell it to him. It settled then.

You come home. But you're roommate isn't there. You wait. He doesn't come back. You're confused and decide to check using you're connections at the Academia, and... he suddenly was requested to the desert? And just left? Why would he leave exactly when everything was going to get weird? Did he know something? Did Academia want to temporarily move him out of the picture? Maybe they did something worse than that? Was it all a coincidence?

You don't know and you have no time. You need to spy on Traveller. You need to buy a capsule. It seems that you're alone in it.

Dori didn't sell you a capsule. That wasn't unexpected but still worth the try. You decide to make the mysterious traveller to buy it for you. It went great. You find out more about capsules, you steal one yourself. You realise that the divine knowledge offered by the sages was a trap to dispose of you. Your roommate still didn't come back. It's been what, almost a week? Whatever. It's nice and quiet at your home.

You meet Traveller again on your way to the desert to investigate the source of the capsules. You run into Cyno and a bunch of other people and you seem to finally get the lead to answers that you wanted. You find out that the capsules were extracted from the brains of scholars who were send to the desert by the Academia and then abducted. You're roommate was also sent to the desert by the Academia. Uh. He's fine. You have your problems to deal with.

You and your unexpected but quite pleasant team find out that sages want to create a God. It seems it's time to rescue your archon. You came up with a pretty good plan. Noe you need to return to the city after these couple of days in the desert. When you come home, your roommate still isn't there.

The next day your team is preparing for the plan and Cyno says that you all need to go home and have a good rest.

"...Thankfully I had my place to myself recently. It's been nice and quiet."

"...Huh?"

Dehya stares at you confused.

You didn't realise that you said it out loud and you're not sure how other people deal with situations when they say something without thinking.

"Oh, nothing"

You went home and slept alright.

The plan worked, Nahida was saved, sages punished, akasha destroyed, your comfortable routine is safe again. It's still nice and quite at home, so you go to the library to read some books.

"Alhaitham, what happened in the Academia?!"

You hear a familiar voice. After all this time he returns like nothing happened.

5. And this was a recap of Alhaitham's side of the archon quest!

Interpretations can vary of course, but the way I see it, Alhaitham was very bothered by Kaveh's sudden disappearance. He clearly expresses that he wishes Kaveh was in the team during the quest ("Where were you when Sumeru needed you most?"). From this we can guess that Kaveh really left without any warning and had Alhaitham known about it, he would most likely stopped him.

I think Alhaitham quickly found out where Kaveh was (connections) but he had no means of contacting him quickly and maybe didn't even know the exact location. At first it was a minor inconvenience because of the Dori situation, but he probably wasn't bothered to much by it. But after he found out that sages actively tried to dispose of him by making him insane, he probably realised that the situation was way worse that he initially thought. And Kaveh still was somewhere in the desert with no means to contact him.

So what Alhaitham does next? He goes to the desert. Yes, it was for the plot reasons, but let's agree, he at least considered a possibility that he could run into Kaveh there. But he never did. And what's more, he found out that the Academia was abducting scholars and sucking their brains out. Let's be real, the theory that Kaveh was send to the desert for the reasons connected to knowledge capsules, most likely was on Alhaitham's mind, and in a bad universe it could've been correct.

Well, Kaveh did return home after all. But by that point Alhaitham's supressed stress about this whole situation was so great, that it resulted in him being genuinely salty at Kaveh during their first on-screen dialog and even saying "Well, maybe then you should move out of my house" - which, at least from my point of view, is way worse then his usual teasing about Kaveh being broke and homeless or whatever.

6. About Kaveh's role in the archon quest besides making Alhaitham sad

Ag, that's a very fun topic. I don't know how I totally missed it the first time, maybe it was the lack of respect for Kaveh, idk, but he was 100% purposefully sent away for the time of the quest.

Sages wanted to move him out of the picture just like they wanted to do with Alhaitham using knowledge capsule. Except they knew that Kaveh would not be too interested in the capsules. So they needed something else to remove him... Like a sudden very urgent request to build a children's hospital somewhere very deep in the desert for people who are literally dying without it! Huh, well, I just made it up, but I believe that sages came up with something very similar.

Kaveh is the type of person to jump straight into any charity he sees and ask next to none questions about it, so it would be the easiest way to send him away for good. Plus I believe that it could've been the reason why he didn't talk with Alhaitham about it and disappeared so sudden. Children are dying! No time for talking! But then he arrived to the said place in the desert and it was just a mess. Maybe a fake project, maybe literally nothing, maybe a trap. In other words - not the project he was told he is needed for.

It's something that we don't get spelled out for us (Alhaitham even denies it cause he's angry at that moment), but timings are just too perfect to be a coincidence. And that's not the only proof - Kaveh himself heavily implies that there was something very fishy about this mission.

He straight up avoids answering Alhaitham's questions about it, and says "Thinking about it makes me angry". Why would he say this about the Academia project? It's not like he had a specific annoying client. Kaveh was sent as a representative from the Academia to be the head of some "construction project" after all, he presumably was the boss there. So it can only mean that there was something wrong with the project itself.

Plus immediately after he finds out that his sage was a part of the conspiracy, he says "So that's why they sent me there", which further implies that whatever was happening on that mission in desert – it was either absurd (if the sages just wanted to keep Kaveh away for some time) or very dangerous (if they wanted him dead). Unfortunately Kaveh's the last person who would tell us about the danger to his life, so we can forget about learning what the hell was that mysterious mission.

Ah, and about why would sages want Kaveh away. Sure it can be because of his connections to Alhaitham, but…

I think anyone who knows Kaveh more then 10 minutes would know that if he found out what sages are planning to do with a literal child and what they do to other scholars, he would die but not let them continue all of it. And he is quite popular among students and citizens alike, so he could've been a potential threat for the sages.

Makes me wonder how many other potential dangers did sages eliminate in some way for their plan. Probably not too many, but still interesting behind the scenes of their actions.

AND NOW, AFTER ALL THIS THINKING, I FINNALY, FINALLY, WAS ABLE TO UNDERSTAND ALHAITHAM'S FINAL LINES IN THE ARCHON QUEST.

Let's return to the end of the act 5. After we had a feast at the Grand Bazar, we were able to one last time talk to each member of our Sumeru-rescue team.

Alhaitham said this:

Which was always bothering me, because:

One: He suddenly becomes quite sentimental and talks about happiness, which is cool to see, but at the same time... He very rarely talks about subjective emotions. And what's more, he seems genuinely enjoying the thought of it. He isn't really the kind of person who gets his sense of satisfaction out of someone else's happiness (it's one of the things he parallels Kaveh in), so what's this all about?

Two: He extremely abruptly switches the topic to point out that he "seems to have taken both keys when he left the house" (tbh I thought that I accidentally clicked on him the second time and it's the new dialog, but no, it is all specifically a one long dialog).

Well well well. What do we have here.

When I first read these lines I decided that's it's just a weird writing without normal conversation flow. First Alhaitham is satisfied that he's plan worked and his daily life is safe, but says it through pointing out that other people are happy rather then explicitly stating that he's happy. Then he yaoi baiting us with "haha, harassing Kaveh is so much fun" and that's all there is to it.

But.

Now that we know more about Alhaitham's daily life during the archon quest, let's think about the keys some more.

He was able to take both keys because Kaveh was at home and his keys were there either. On his way out to meet us, Alhaitham saw Kaveh's keys on their usual place and took them as well, ultimately making Kaveh unable to leave the house. Which also means...

Kaveh will definitely be at home when Alhaitham returns after the feast.

So if we flip everything based on this logic, Alhaitham tells us: "This is a great evening. This gathering is special. People are finally happy. They feel happiness from the bottom of their hearts. And when I return home there will be someone waiting for".

Which is. So. PRECIOUS!.. Something clicked in my brain when I first realized this meaning and these lines are finally making a lot of sense!

It's the perfect final words for his little character journey in this quest. He protected the life he had and loved, everything and everyone were back to normal again and for him it is a true happiness felt from the bottom of his heart. Just precious.

Final words

Anyway, yes, that's why I believe that during the archon quest Alhaitham was actually constantly worrying about Kaveh at the back of his mind and maybe even feeling lonely, which resulted in his great boom of toxicity during their first on-screen dialog, but after some time he cooled down and slipped into his usual happy comfortable and not "nice and quiet" life again.

And fuck the sages for sending away our boy Kaveh (who actually knows a lot about desert since he works there often) and making our rescue-Nahida-group one competent person shorter.

Thanks for your time and tears, you, the person who read this!

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

I watched TBOSAS today (Sunday) and I’m sadly not very well (bad cold or flu), but I wanted to try and make a little post to appreciate the film/give my thoughts.

I saw the first three Hunger Games movies on opening weekend during my teens - the only one I didn’t watch at the cinema was Mockingjay Part 2, because it coincided with my GCSE mocks and some other stuff I had going on. I saw the first one twice at the cinema, once on opening weekend with one friend and then a second time with my then-best friend a few weeks later; I saw CF and MJP1 with my younger sister on opening weekend because it’s one of the few series we both love and so it’s one of the few things we can both enjoy together. My point is that I’m a huge THG fan, have been since I read the first book in late 2011 when I was 13 - I even still have my Mockingjay pin that I bought in March 2012 from Waterstones that I still wear!

Anyway, I read TBOSAS during lockdown, my sister bought the book and let me read it after she did, so this has been one of my most anticipated movies of the year!

!Spoilers below!

I was ill when I watched it and I’m even iller now but I’ll try to remember as much as I can

I LOVED IT

I’m glad they made Coriolanus Snow hot because I felt so conflicted watching him and that’s EXACTLY what was needed for the character, he’s got this beautiful exterior but he is POISON inside

Rachel Zegler was AMAZING by the way, I’m not her biggest fan by any means but I say fuck the haters

Hunter Schafer as Tigris was AMAZING casting, she really needs to shine away from Euphoria because damn she was so good in this film

Just in general casting ATE in this movie; Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman etc

Tigris was spot on: “I wouldn’t sing a note for you” and pointing out that Coryo needed to get Lucy Gray’s trust in order to help her win

Arachne Crane deserved death, idc 🤷‍♀️

NO ARACHNE FUNERAL LIKE THE BOOK?!?

The fact that the tributes were just dumped in a zoo and put on display like animals?!? Compared to six and a half decades later where the tributes are glammed up and treated like royalty, even allowed to train before entering the arena??? I love how starkly different it is

I won’t lie, Lucky Flickerman stole the film whenever he was in the scene 😭😅 absolute scene stealer?!?

Lucky trying to cancel his dinner reservations on night 1 of the games because “this is taking longer than I expected” 💀

Also telling one of the mentors not to puke on the floor after their tribute was killed?!?! Iconic really

“Those drones really are not very good” - PLEASE 😭

You can definitely tell Lucky is an ancestor of Caesar lol

The bow and arrow when Coryo enters the arena?!?! 👀🏹

Coryo killing Bobbin was BRUTAL. He could have stopped after the first hit, that was self defence - but he carried on and kept hitting him. It was definitely a huge moment

I obviously knew Wovey wasn’t going to survive, but god DAMN it 😭 DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE HER SO SWEET AND LIKEABLE?!? She just wanted to go home, and those were her last words before she was killed by the snakes 😭

Coryo really cheated just so Lucy Gray could survive, and it still has me questioning whether he cares for her or if it is just to do with the Plinth prize? 🤔

“What are the Hunger Games for, Mister Snow?” And all I can think about was him explaining in the original HG movie why there’s a Victor, why they don’t just kill 24 kids at random:

THE SNAKE SCENE IN THE ARENA WHERE LUCY GRAY SINGS?!? ASDFGHJKL THIS IS CINEMA

The Games felt so much more primal and sad, like you could tell all of them were just trying to survive, even Coral who seemed to target Lucy Gray ruthlessly but then before her death made the comment that it can’t have all been for nothing…

The fact that Gaul didn’t want to call an end to the games even though Lucy Gray was the final survivor, and it was only when the other mentors were chanting to let her out, to call it, that she finally did it…

I nearly lost my shit during the first hanging scene because I suddenly remembered that THIS was what the Hanging Tree song was based on; “they strung up a man they say who murdered three” “dead man called out for his love to flee” etc. And that is EXACTLY what happened, right to a tee: the man protesting his innocence, calling for his love to go…

Listen I may be REALLY off, but the meadow where Coryo and Lucy Gray met up again… is it the same meadow from the final scene in Mockingjay P2 with Everlark and their kids?!?

It probably isn’t but it reminded me of it idk

THE KATNISS PLANT - FORESHADOWING 😭 “it’s not ready yet” “things change fast” ASDFGHJKL

SEJANUS PLINTH YOU HAVE ALWAYS DESERVED BETTER 😭 knew it was coming but I was so sad

The scene where they hang Sejanus was so chilling, because the birds (i think they were Jabberjays and not Mockingjays but I could be wrong?) repeated his blood curdling calls for help as he was hung, like I was so haunted by it afterwards

No wonder Coriolanus Snow hates the fucking birds, Jesus Christ

THE CABIN AND WOODS SCENES?!?

The absolute tonal shift when he finds the guns, when Lucy Gray remarks that she’s the only loose end as if it’s a taunt, a challenge etc.

Coriolanus running through the woods, screaming “AFTER EVERYTHING I HAVE DONE FOR YOU?!?” - it just SCREAMS toxic relationship quite frankly, like whether you believe there was any genuine love at all or not, it just screams how toxic the relationship was between them. It was doomed from the start frankly

I was so concerned that the film would make it clear whether or not he killed Lucy Gray, but thankfully they left it ambiguous just like the book. Did one of his bullets hit her? Did she fly free?

It’s so interesting that Lucy Gray and her games were completely and utterly wiped, there was no trace of them - but her songs, her art, survived even after she disappeared. Songs like the Meadow song and the Hanging Tree survived and were passed on through District 12, becoming part of their culture - Snow couldn’t destroy that, no matter how hard he might have tried

Someone on Twitter made this comment and I agree:

Also YES, I noticed that Tigris called him “Coryo” until their last scene together, and then it was “Coriolanus” 😭 and also the fact that she warned him not to turn into his father, his father had hate in his eyes… and then at the end, she sadly tells him “you look like your father, Coriolanus” 😭

The small little hints of the man Coriolanus Snow is in the original series though??? The roses, the Katniss plant Easter egg, etc. And then there’s the fact we see glimpses of what later became his preferred method of killing his enemies - poison. He put poison in the compact and gave it to Lucy Gray, and then he poisoned Casca Highbottom… it’s just so fascinating to think of who this young 18 year old becomes later on, the way he changed over the course of the next 64 years and how those changes came directly from what happened in this story.

Ending the film with Donald Sutherland’s delivery of “It’s the things we love the most that destroy us” from the original movies?!?! FUCK YEAH I WAS THIS CLOSE TO SCREAMING

Honestly it’s got to be VERY hard to play a younger version of a Donald Sutherland character, but especially this one because that man KILLED the part in the films, but I think Tom Blyth did a really good job and I could definitely see hints of the older Snow being included in his performance, like I could genuinely believe it was the same character?

The fact that 64 years later a dark haired girl from District 12 wearing a mockingjay pin and singing songs once sung by a girl he thought dead absolutely fucked his life up?!? We love to see it. It’s like Lucy Gray gave him a middle finger lol

I’ll be honest, as soon as we left the cinema I said to my sister “the only thing is now I want to watch the original four Hunger Games movies” 😭

That’s all I can think of right now because I’m very feverish, I’ve got work in the morning and it was also a long film so there was a LOT going on, but I absolutely LOVED IT. The Hunger Games has truly been the only franchise that has a prequel that has been nearly universally loved and accepted by the fans, Suzanne Collins is truly amazing.

[notmasonpines]

Building a Canon-Compliant, Consistent and Comprehensive Scheme for Constructing Glyph Combos

Tl;dr: Yes, I did cram as much alliteration into that title as possible. Anyway, I set out to create my own system for making glyphs from scratch, using the basic concepts we’re shown in the show, here is my thought process all laid down along with the results. Since this has expanded over time to become a monstrous dissertation, the layout for this will be Basic Concepts, where all the basic concepts from the show are listed as the foundation for this system, followed by Basic Vocabulary, where the words for the glyph ‘language’ are made up, proceeded by Grammar Rules, where I think up the rules of the system and use what I’ve got so far to analyse the simpler combo glyphs made by Luz and co. The penultimate section is Shortcuts and Misc. Stuff, where I take a look at Philip’s WIP glyphs (seen at the start of Them’s the Breaks, Kid), attempt to figure out what they could mean in this system to yield the canon effects, and work in the miscellaneous stuff that appears on them. And lastly Conclusion, where I use this system to build a glyph combo from scratch for a spell that appears in the show.

Also, here's an Imgur album for every illustration coming up in this post.

I’ve gone pretty deep into this, so if something that I think makes perfect sense makes absolutely no sense to you, please comment and ask for clarification or something. Also, if you know of another system someone made for this, I couldn't find it, so I'd love to see those as well.

Quick note before I begin: This literal essay is not me attempting to figure out how the actual system within the show works. To be honest, I don’t even think there is a fully worked-out system behind the scenes. Glyph combos were highly underutilised in the show, especially compared to single-glyph usage, so there wouldn’t be much point in building an entire system of rules for constructing them if you’d only need to use it in a few instances. Instead I think the crew simply put together some glyphs that intuitively felt like they’d work for the few glyph combos we do get, and then added some extra doodads for each to hint at the existence of a complex ruleset that would allow for four glyphs to reproduce every possible spell.

So yeah, I’m not setting out to make a system that perfectly explains every glyph combo we see, especially the advanced ones Philip uses (it feels weird to say Belos is using glyphs, dunno why). You certainly won’t see me crying in bed after this if what I come up with doesn’t fit perfectly with everything. Instead I’ll be taking the basic concepts the show has laid out for us, take some aspects/cues from the show’s glyph combos, and build a system with that for my own needs (I’m writing a crossover with Harry Potter and I want to have a consistent system for turning HP spells into glyph combos). Though I will at least attempt to budge things around to have the simpler glyph combos work out with whatever I come up with, and I’ll also see how closely I get the more complicated combos once that’s done. If things do happen to work out, then consider me a happy guy.

(Edit from me after having written everything out, about a day later: I did actually manage to read all the glyph combos from the show and get a meaning that corresponds to what happens in canon, so that was a very pleasant surprise. Except the teleportation glyph. I’m not even going to attempt reading it so I don’t actually know if that one would work with this system or not. But hey, here’s a nice prospect to look forward to if you attempt reading what has become a dissertation lol: some actual decent results).

Update: I removed the redundant secondary elements from the 2- and 3-mergers and added more useful ones.

Basic Concepts

Let’s list the basic concepts we can use from observing the show first.

a.1) There exist four basic glyphs, each with an elemental meaning: Light, Ice, Plant, and Fire. Though I’d like to say that Life is a more accurate descriptor for Plant, just that plants are the easiest living things to imagine and grow when using it (And growing sentient things might be a bit iffy).

a.2) There also is a fifth sorta glyph that I'll call a Null glyph, which has a glyph border but no symbol inside. Philip used it in his most complex glyphs and Luz used it in her mist generating glyph.

I think a glyph that has no meaning on its own can be quite useful as a building block, either when a glyph is needed somewhere but you don’t want to use any of the actual glyphs, as a way to indicate absence, or as a place to input external variables (Interesting fact, on the golden glyph bubble thing Luz conjured as a Titan-hybrid there are five connected glyphs evenly spread out over it. You can see Light, Plant, and Fire most of the time, with Ice visible below as one of the two obstructed glyphs later, leaving the final one as Null if the trend of no repeats continues).

b) Glyphs can have small variations to their symbols, changing their effects slightly. Glyphs can also have a single or double border.

c) While size determines the power behind a glyph’s effect, intent also plays a large role, primarily in how and when a glyph activates, where/on what it generates its effect, and what shape and direction its effect has.

d.1) Glyphs can also have secondary meanings, which are related to their element. The only examples we get are Power, Colour and Reflection for the Light glyph (from the notes near the start of Echoes of the Past), though judging by the question marks they weren’t sure if those were the right words either, and Reflection fits less with Light and more with Ice imo.

d.2) We also know which meaning a glyph has ‘diffs 4 placement’, whatever that means.

e.1) Glyphs can be chained together into closed circuits, which can technically be any shape (rectangular in Luz’s neon shop sign) but are preferably circular. This allows for glyphs to be activated simultaneously.

e.2) Chaining multiples of the same basic glyph together allows for multiple separate instances of the same element to be summoned simultaneously.

e.3) Putting two different glyphs in a circuit can yield a new, merged, secondary element (like Doodle God or Little Alchemy or whatever floated your boat back then), the only known example from the show being Mist from Fire and Ice.

e.4) The basic glyphs are always drawn in the same orientation within glyph combos, with one known exception that I’ll ignore because it occurs in the teleportation glyph.

f.1) Glyphs are like a language that describe what you want the ambient magic to do, with the basic glyphs being the words and circuits being the sentences, though this seems distinct from how circuits function from e.2. This also seems to be closer to a natural language than something like a coding language, as there’s an actual being that you talk to which casts the magic for you (I’m assuming that using glyphs communicates telepathically with a subconscious part of Papa Titan’s soul, since it stops working once his soul isn’t there anymore to respond and use his magic in the way the glyphs instruct him to. I’m also saying his subconscious because having him consciously hear and act on magic instructions would be hell).

f.2) Context clues, synonyms, metaphors and subtext thus play a role in reading glyphs, as they do with natural languages. Though with intent added to the mix to disambiguate, though you can't just press a single glyph and expect your intent to do everything (God, wouldn’t it be nice if sending intent along with what you say was a thing we could do. So many avoided miscommunications).

f.3) Glyphs overlapping will cause confusion and glitches in the language, like overlaying text or saying words at the same time.

g) With these 4(/5) basic glyphs, chaining glyphs in circuits, and whatever rules, secondary elements from merging, and secondary meanings of glyphs exist, you can reproduce any spell a Boiling Isles witch can cast.

And with that out of the way, let’s get started.

Basic Vocabulary

First things first, a vocabulary of only four words (a.1) is far too little to make a decent system out of, so it’s a good thing we have point d.1 to take from. Sadly we’re seriously lacking in any confirmed secondary meanings to have a decent vocabulary, so I’ll already have to resort to thinking up my own. See below what I've come up with.

For the four basic glyphs I added four sets of pairs of secondary meanings. To add my own twist and to make things feel more cohesive, each meaning is paired up with an opposite, colour-coded here with the glyph it’s paired up with. Three sets of pairs are paired up with meanings from one of the three other glyphs, and the fourth set is a pair of opposites from the same glyph.

And since this acts as a language (f.1) we should also add in the ability to use word types. In this case, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. From the word types, pronouns aren’t needed, and prepositions and conjunctions can be figured out through context or some indicator. So, for each meaning we can add the noun, verb, adjective and adverb variations where it’s possible in the above. And let’s also add the ability to use close synonyms when needed (f.2). Like Evolve being interchangeable with Change or Transform as a verb. Or the noun version of Obscure, Obscurity, being interchangeable with Secret. The intent of the user and context can be what decides which synonym is used (c).

Speaking of, we also need a way to indicate which form of word is being used for each glyph, so let’s bring in point b for this.

Let’s have the standard design of the glyph symbols indicate a noun, and the variant design of the symbols can indicate a verb (changing direction of diagonal stripes for Light, the kite to triangle for Ice, and the dot to small circle for Plant and Fire), and I’ll also add a use for the double border, which I’ll call the ad-der, since I’ll have it change the noun design into its adjective meaning and the verb design into the adverb version (it would’ve fit better if nouns were called jectives, or adjectives were called adnouns, but we can’t have everything). This probably won't perfectly match up, especially since some glyphs have more alternate designs, but that's a concession I'll make.

Also, just ignore how the secondary meanings in the first table aren’t all in noun form, I just put in what type of word fit best, but assume that the noun version applies to the standard design.

Now we have a small vocabulary built up, but from first glance it’s still missing a bunch of useful words that we’ll want this language to have to describe every spell (g), and only using words related to one of the elements will always keep this limited, even if you add more.

So let’s pull in point e.3 and see what words we can come up with when merging the four elements. Once again this will require coming up with things from scratch, since the only confirmed case is Fire and Ice into Mist. See my confusing attempt at a table below.

Since using multiples of the same glyph just allows for getting multiples of the same effect (e.2) I kept those combinations out. And since I want as extensive a vocabulary as possible, let’s allow for the order of combining elements to be important as well.

With the only instance of merging elements being with two, I’ll take the opportunity and make three-mergings possible as well, see my further confusing attempt below.

I once again added a restriction of not allowing multiples of the same element in a merging, to at least somewhat restrict the extent of this (since I don’t like leaving blanks).

As you can see, there aren’t as many traditional elements in these combinations, and a lot of abstract stuff, which does make things feel quite similar to the secondary meanings I already defined. But as I said before, you couldn’t get these abstract concepts just from associated meanings of one basic element, and there are a few new elemental things here too.

I also attempted going up one more time by using all four basic glyphs in mergings, trying to figure out combos between the 3-mergers and the final unused element, as well as pairing up 2-mergers with the ones coming from the two other unused elements, but those combinations had no decent solutions that I could come up with, so I’m keeping it to this.

Side-note, playing Doodle God when your base set has only one of the traditional elements (Fire) is actually pretty annoying and restrictive. Like, what useful, distinctive natural element can you come up with by combining Ice with Plant or Light, or Fire with Plant? Coal isn’t exactly a useful element to have in this vocabulary.

Either way, with that all done, we have built up a decent vocabulary. Now we can start setting up some basic ‘grammar’ rules and see how to put these words together.

Grammar Rules

Let’s start with figuring out how we can indicate which secondary meaning a glyph has. All we know is that secondary meaning ‘diffs 4 placement’ (d.2). As I see it, there are only two possible interpretations. Either it means the placement of one glyph relative to the others decides meaning, which would get far too complex as a basis to build rules on (And just imagine, in the case of a small combo of five glyphs you’d already have twenty total relative positions to take into account, i.e. twenty possible different meanings).

So with that option discarded, the one remaining is that the specific position of a glyph on one of those circles/circuits is what determines meaning, like the circuit being divided into equal sectors (eight in this case, since I have eight secondary meanings per glyph). This can explain why all glyphs are typically drawn in the same direction, so the general orientation of an entire construction is set and the location of a glyph is easy to determine from a glance. It also explains why circuits are preferably drawn as circles rather than something like rectangles, since on a circle divided into equal sectors it’s much easier to spot which sector/angle a glyph is in, compared to using a rectangle or some other weird shape.

And since we have very little examples of glyph combos in the show, let alone explicit confirmation of which placement would be which meaning, let’s once again assign the placements ourselves, though with some reference towards the simple glyph combos we see in the show. See my attempt at making a usable diagram below.

As another twist to add something more interesting, I have the pairs of opposite meanings sitting on opposite ends of the circle.

In this way, a glyph without a circuit is simply its elemental meaning, but when you want a secondary meaning, you can indicate which one you want by putting the associated basic glyph on the specific sector of the circle (f.2), more specifically centred exactly on one of the cardinals or the diagonals, meaning top, right, bottom-left etc. (a neat consequence from using eight secondary meanings, and another reason for me to not expand that specific vocabulary). See an example below.

So now let’s get to the meat and potatoes, how a basic glyph combo is set up.

The first observation is that glyph combos almost always have some glyph at the centre. This central focus or anchor seems to determine what element is used in the spell, or how the spell is expressed, similar to being the core word of a sentence. For example, the Light glyph in both the invisibility spell and safety hover bends light in the first case, and emits a soft glow when active in the second.

For Fire, Philip’s teleportation glyph emits a pillar of flame when activated.

As a side-note, we also see from Philip’s later glyphs that, in my interpretation, a secondary meaning can also be used as a focus/anchor (Fire on bottom-left for water fountain (Motion) and Plant on bottom-left for monster arm (Evolve/Change)). I’ll get to them later, but merged elements can also be used as the central point. A Null glyph can also be a central glyph, and doesn’t have to be drawn since context excludes any other option of being the centre instead (f.2).

I also think that, in general, Ice and Plant glyphs will enact a spell more gradually, while Light and Fire glyphs will do so quickly/almost instantaneously. Also, Plant and Fire glyphs make a spell grow over time, while Ice and Light glyphs don’t. But that’s just an idle thought.

To make actual sentences with other words, however, we also need to add further descriptors on what this central/anchored word should do. This is where the glyph circuits come in, forming concentric circles centred on the central glyph. All glyphs and their corresponding meanings on this circle are direct descriptors for the central glyph that apply at the same time (e.1). Let’s call these descriptor circuits.

One quick note, with this setup we can run into the problem of needing two different glyphs to be at the same location, causing an overlap (f.3). To avoid this, let’s add the ability to draw a circle tangent to this point, keep one of the two glyphs on the tangent point as a ‘tangent glyph’, and move the other to somewhere else on the circle. See illustration below. Let’s call it a spacer circle/circuit. In the case of three or even all four glyphs overlapping, all can go somewhere on the circle. The position of the glyphs on this circuit doesn’t matter, but at least one should be off-grid, i.e. not centred on cardinals or diagonals (to clear up distinction issues later).

We also see from the teleport glyph that you can have multiple descriptor circuits all concentrically surrounding the central glyph. In the case of a second circuit, I’ll take it as meaning that the glyph combination it encircles can already count as its own nested spell, and this second circuit applies to the entirety of the enclosed spell. The reading order for this would thus be from centre to edge. I also think each added layer of circuit to the central focus produces a spell that can technically function on its own, even if it might be too unwieldy or useless or have dangerous side-effects without further description.

But what if there’s a nested spell that’s separate from the one already built up from the central glyph, an entire spell that needs to be applied to the main spell along with other descriptors in the same circuit? In that case we could attach a different glyph combo, like a nested sub descriptor circuit (subcircuit for short), onto one or more of the main descriptor circuits (if more exist). This subcircuit has the same rules as the main circuit, except it may not have a central glyph if it matches that of the main one, and might only work on other spells. In short, it's like a subroutine (if we’re pulling in coding language).

To also distinguish it from the previous spacer circle, let’s specify that a subcircuit has a glyph on an intersection point with other circuits, an ‘intersecting glyph’, rather than on a tangent point as a ‘tangent glyph’. We can also use this by saying that the glyphs on a subcircuit that occupy an intersection with another circle indicate that the subcircuit applies to those other circles. In order to line things up, you’d have to play with the size and location of the circle in relation to the main circle. Though you’d also have to keep in mind that glyphs on an intersection could have multiple meanings with their different placements for each of the different circles, which may be unwanted. To combat that, let’s add a rule that a glyph on an intersection always applies its meaning only to the more nested or otherwise smallest circle of the intersection, unless specified otherwise (we’ll get back to that later), and if there’s no other way you could use a Null glyph to add a connection (a.2).

With the main descriptor circuits, subcircuits, and spacer circuits, there’s only one more that is needed to make sure every bit of the vocabulary can be applied.

To add the merged/secondary elements from before, let’s add a merger circuit, which has the two or three elements you want to merge to form the secondary element, and let’s have them all equally spaced, reading the order of elements from left-most and moving clockwise.

To make sure this can be distinct from the sub- and spacer circuits, let’s say that, unlike the prior two, it has both a glyph only on an intersection point (or multiple) and at least one of the glyphs on a merger circuit is off-grid. In the case of 2-mergers that’d have to be both, and for 3-mergers you’re guaranteed to have at least one off-grid anyway (The joys of matching up a circle divided into equal threes with a circle divided into equal eighths). So now a subcircuit only has an intersecting glyph (or more) and all glyphs on the grid, spacer circuits only have a tangent glyph (or more) and at least one glyph off-grid, and merger circuits only have an intersecting glyph (or more) and at least one glyph off-grid.

This actually leaves open another useful combination, a circuit with only a tangent glyph (or more) and all glyphs on-grid. Let’s call this last combination a specification circuit, which adds extra descriptors onto only the glyph at the tangent point. It’s not a spell on its own, but adds adjectives and adverbs to the noun or verb it’s tangent to the other circuit with.

As a quick overview for some visualisation, here’s a glyph spell I put together, containing each of the circuits I’ve mentioned above, and with glyphs randomly thrown in. Though this was just set up for explanation purposes, let’s also try an attempt at reading said glyph with the rules I’ve set up and see if anything reasonable pops up (and keep your look-up diagrams with you. Can’t believe I made actual look-up diagrams).

Surprisingly, though maybe it’s just me spotting patterns in nothing, this isn’t complete gibberish, and I’d interpret this spell as being something that connects memories that are in danger of being absorbed by someone else to light balls, but also using it to order them and move them around, as long as the subject is aware of it happening. Sounds a bit like a mindscape defence against mind-reading. So yeah, that’s the basics out of the way.

Let’s see how this works out with the basic glyph combos in the show.

Invisibility glyph:

Lightened (centre, adjective) coloured (top-left, adjective) transparency (bottom-right, noun) order (bottom-left, noun) → Subject becomes lightened by coloured transparency through order → Invisibility through camouflage. Side-note, the bottom-left glyph can be absent and the glyph still works, as seen in its first instance. But I think the ‘order’ allows for multiple to be camouflaged by the one glyph.

Safety hover glyph:

Light (centre, noun) stillness (top-right, noun) movement (bottom-left, noun) → Use light on movement to make stillness → Stop subject’s movement instantly.

Snow/Command glyph (copyright, Lilith):

Null (centre, not drawn, surrounding circle isn’t a merger circuit (repeats of Ice) so isn’t acting as central glyph, meaning the empty space is an implied Null glyph) power (top, adjective) weakness (bottom, noun) preserved (left, adjective) removed (right, adjective) → The external object touching the centre is removed, this process is powered through weakness, yet the object is preserved → Break down this object through sheer power but keep the debris (In the case of the ice blob, break it down and powder it into snow)

So that turned out pretty well (Though I did already say I ordered the diagram with secondary glyph meanings to at least make sense of the basic glyphs).

Let’s go one final step further and see what we can use from what Philip eventually used in his glyphs.

Shortcuts and Miscellaneous Stuff

Let’s add one more concept to this entire system before that though.

h) Condense and simplify glyphs as much as possible.

Obviously, for usability it’s always best to find a way to get the same spell/effect with a glyph that’s easier to draw. And since this system is like a language, it’s like saying there are multiple ways of saying the same thing, with some faster to say than others.

But more than that, it’s also like shortening actual sentences with contractions, abbreviations, and finding that one specific obscure word in the Thesaurus that you previously had to use several words for to describe. For example, if you have multiple non-concentric circuits you could attempt orientating them to have multiple instances of the same glyphs overlap and work from there.

Another thing that was mentioned a while back was how glyphs on intersections only apply to the smaller circuit, unless specified. Well, let’s say this can be specified by drawing a straight line from the intersection glyph to the central glyph of the bigger circle, indicating it contributes simultaneously to both circles with two separate meanings.

This way of using straight lines to show a glyph is pulling double- or triple-duty can also be applied to drawing a line between two glyphs on the same circuit. This would make use of the previously discarded concept for how glyph meanings are ‘diff 4 placement’, indicating that the connected glyphs also have additional meanings based on their relative placement to one another.

For example, let’s take Philip’s petrification glyph.

Petrification glyph:

Iced (centre, adjective) removed (right, adjective) [Change (relative bottom-left, noun)] preserved (left, adjective) organism (bottom, noun) [Stilled (relative top-right, adjective) inorganic (relative top, adjective)] → Organism is removed but preserved, by having changed the stilled organism into something inorganic.

That already works amazingly on its own, though there’s also this funky plant glyph that’s unconnected to a circle but still connected to other glyphs by straight lines.

Something that hasn’t been tackled yet is how to actually use the primary meaning of the basic glyphs outside of being the central focus, because there’s no other place in the current rules for the basic glyphs to apply their elemental meaning on anything. So let’s make it so that a basic glyph that’s disconnected from a circle still has primary meaning, and is applied to other glyphs with straight lines. In this case that would add that iced life is preserved.

…This obviously doesn’t work too well since in canon the petrification is permanent and kills the petrified person, but I’ll gladly hop onto the convenient lifeboat that is the context of this glyph being incomplete. I’d say Philip was originally experimenting with a way of turning someone into stone as a defensive spell, but a) didn’t know how to express stone yet, and b) didn’t want it to be permanent, since that would be pretty iffy unless he already has all the power over the Boiling Isles and nobody attempting to question him for killing people. So this original glyph just turned the subject ‘inorganic’, which is apparently just some weak dust, so the preserving of life to make it reversible is pretty useless here anyway. Clearly not complete yet. In the completed, proper petrification glyph, the small Plant glyph with the two connections would be gone to make it irreversible, and a merger circle of Fire and Plant (Earth) with the two glyphs intersecting with another, appropriately sized merger circle with Ice as the third glyph (Hard), bringing a total circuit for (Hard Earth = Stone).

Either way, let’s add elemental modification to the toolkit.

Let’s go to the other three of Philip’s WIP glyphs and try to make sense of them, plus whatever extra features were added. First up, water fountain.

Water fountain glyph:

Sever (centre (top-left), verb (there’s no real noun for ‘sever’, and no double border so all that’s left is verb)) tangible (top-left, adjective) still (top-right, adjective) transparent (bottom-right, adjective). We also have some funky spiral lines connecting the three to the central point. My current translation would be ‘sever something here that’s tangible, still, and transparent’. My guess is that my boi Phil was trying to make a glyph that could isolate groundwater and get it out of the ground, probably for survival purposes since groundwater would be drinkable compared to the Boiling Sea and Rain (Luz assumes the glyph is meant to make a water fountain, but that’s just what she sees the glyph doing, not what its intended use is). Obviously he didn’t know how to properly express ‘groundwater’ at this point, or thought it was too bulky to write down that way, and went with a vague description of ‘tangible but transparent and still (not moving in the ground)’ instead. I think the spiralling lines here are supposed to provide a direction for the motion (there’s no motion glyph in here, i.e. Fire bottom-left, but severing water from the ground would probably push it up and give it some motion regardless, so the lines help direct it). It would make sense, since just bringing water straight up would make it fall back down on the ground, so you need a little trajectory to have it land in a gathering bowl next to the glyph. That said, let’s add motion lines.

Next up, monster arm:

The new feature here is a partial circle segment capped off by two fire glyphs. The first thing that comes to mind for me is that this is supposed to be an abbreviation for when you have to draw the same glyph on neighbouring locations of the circuit. So instead you only draw the correct glyph at the ends of the sequence and let the line imply the rest of the meanings involved. In this case: Evolution/Change (centre (bottom-left), noun) Protect Decay Weak Motion Hurt Sever Deception (right-to-top (clockwise), nouns), and on a second circuit ring, Evolution (bottom-left, noun). My current thoughts are that the ground or whatever sits at the central circle undergoes a change into something that can protect, move, hurt, sever, and deceive. And whatever that thing becomes is then told to continue evolving/changing/adapting.

What I think makes this glyph a failed WIP is that, though the segment already excludes Chaos (top-right), which would be pretty detrimental for a construct you want to order around, it does still include Weak and Decay (bottom and bottom-right), which makes the monster arm physically weak, prone to damage and slowly breaking down over time, as demonstrated in the episode. But Philip didn’t want to let go of using the segment to draw only two Fire glyphs instead of five either, as further breaking up the segment would isolate the Fire glyph on the right, which would separate the glyph from the system and turn it into a separate one that happens to occupy the same space, and a full circuit would require drawing five glyphs too). I think a good solution that Philip probably used in the completed version would be to use the Null glyph to further exclude the meanings that aren’t desired while keeping the full line segment intact.

Definitely useful to simplify the drawing process, so let’s add sequence segments as well.

Last of the WIP glyphs: the tornado glyph, which is the only one that actually works decently, on a small scale anyway, and saved for last for good reason.

We now have some sort of combination of circle segments positioned in layers, and direct line connections with both disconnected and connected element glyphs, as well as straight radial lines coming from the central glyph.

Since these Fire glyphs are on actual circular segments, let’s begin simply with the normal secondary meanings.

Tornado glyph: Icy (centre, adjective) Emitted (bottom-left, adjective) Sever (top-left, verb) Protection (right, noun) Weakness (bottom, noun).

Alright, so it took a while, but if I really want to make sense of this I’ll have to budge some parts of the word type indicators in the right direction. In this case, the bottom glyph will be changed to the adjective version, and the right glyph turned into its verb version.

To start with, as a circle segment, the line trajectory is only associated with Fire, and with the radial line segments in the bottom-left and bottom-right we’ll add those meanings as well. And the connection to the bottom-left Light glyph means something as well. So we now have Emitted (Light, bottom-left) Movement (Fire, bottom-left) Weak (Fire, bottom) Decays (Fire, bottom-right), so ‘an emitted movement that’s weak and decays’. It’s also connected to the circle segment one layer deeper, which has Protect (Fire, right) Decay (Fire, bottom-right). So we have ‘an emitted movement that’s weak and decays, but is protected from decay’. Since the line segment connects the outer circuit line (with the Light glyph) to the central glyph, and the outer glyphs apply to the inner ones, we also add some directionality. So now it becomes ‘an emitted, weak movement that decays as it moves inwards, but is protected from slowing down in total’. That’s probably just me budging everything, but that sounds like how the movement within a vortex of air behaves.

Lastly, the top circle segment has Sever (Fire, top-left) and Chaos (Fire, top-right), and has no connection between the outside circuit and the central glyph. So I’d say ‘sever chaos’ i.e. counteract the chaotic movement of the already existing air, and thus making it organised when it begins moving. Altogether, this glyph describes an ‘emitted, uniform motion that decays as it goes inwards but remains stable overall’. It might’ve been a bit wonky to get here, but none of the rules I’ve made have been contradicted yet and it actually got a decently accurate reading out of it.

Conclusion (plus an attempt to make a glyph from scratch for an existing spell)

So yeah, that’s literally all there is, and I think I got a cohesive system together that fits all the concepts I listed at the start, even if it’s certainly got a lot of cogs, but that’s to be expected when your system is described as a language.

Technically I could also cover Philip’s Teleportation glyph or the unlocking glyph Belos used to enter the Grimwalker area in the Skull, but that’s a) too much effort and probably doesn’t match up with my meanings for the former, but it can be left up as an exercise to the reader. And b) the additional rules the latter glyph could imply would probably be far too complex and unnecessary for this post, or for making glyphs altogether. We gotta keep in mind that that glyph is from someone who’s been experimenting and drawing for 400 years, so the previous simplifications/tricks I covered in the last section would be far more amplified and complex.

Either way, with that all finished up, let’s use it to build a glyph from scratch that mimics a complex spell we see used in canon but doesn’t have a glyph counterpart.

For this, I’ll use the ‘quick-step’ spell we see Eda and Lilith use, where they turn into flame and quickly move elsewhere, reappearing at the end. Hunter does something similar with Flapjack, but there it’s done with light.

So, the central component of this entire spell will be moving. And the descriptor circuit for that movement will be something like ‘[move] a person quickly along a path’. ‘Quickly’ here can be made with a merger circuit. Then, if I want to recreate the spell accurately, the path needs to be specified to be somewhat short, so you can’t just use it to teleport somewhere far away. This can easily be done by specifying that it has to be visible for the caster before they cast it, using a specification circuit.

The next component will be the turning the person into fire. This sounds like a spell on its own, even if it’s pretty deadly, so it’ll be a nested spell that links to the main circuit through a subcircuit. The subcircuit will then be something like ‘change person into fire’. Since this spell is still very much deadly on its own, it’ll also need its own specifier saying that the person should be preserved during the change, for protection.

Lastly, it still needs a way to reverse this change from fire back to person once the spell has reached the end of the connection. In this case, ‘Reverse’ and ‘Ending’ can both be made from merger circuits.

Now we just need to add all those circuits together, making sure each type of circle has the right border glyphs and glyph positioning (tangent or intersecting, on-grid or off-grid), and lastly the condition of ‘reverse transformation spell at end of trajectory’ needs to be properly linked up.

And with that we get the final Quick-Step glyph below.

Some additional notes. The top circuit didn’t technically have to go at the top-right, but it did need to intersect with the main circuit through one of its glyphs. The only other place where it wouldn’t have overlapped with the main circuit’s glyphs would’ve been in the top-left, with the merger circuit for ‘Fast/Quick’ needing to rotate down on the main circuit a bit to accommodate. But in that case the series of connected circuits for the ‘reverse at end of trajectory’ would’ve been impossible to draw compactly. Either they’d go straight over the main circuit, or going around the circuit would require giant circles.

And then there’s also the inside line segments of the subcircuit. I haven’t established the rules for how those would work, and I’m playing it a bit loose there, but basically the places where the circles jump down in layer (shorter radius) is where the glyphs on the outside ring slot in. If the segment had jumped down a layer where a glyph from the outside hadn’t been connected into it, then it would’ve been the corresponding definition for the Fire glyph at the start of the circuit. The reading order here is also from the Fire glyph towards the centre. And lastly, the outside circuit of the spell ‘organism change inorganic’ does need disambiguation, since it could also be read as ‘inorganic change organism’. The direction of how the inside circuit approaches the middle helps disambiguate that, giving it a defined reading order, which is then read in reverse once the ‘Reverse’ circuit comes into play.

And…wow, I think that’s all. I’ve spent an entire day typing this out (plus way too many days of experimenting with things and coming up with some rules), and few people will probably see this, but damn that was satisfying to write out.

For those of you who read all the way to the end, or God forbid actually took the time to take it all in, thank you very much!

…I’m going to bed.

[botherkupo]

Woo finished all 8 episodes of atla live action show. So here are my final thoughts:

Show had its weaknesses but overall was very enjoyable. Would watch again

I loved everything they did with Zuko, Azula, and Ozai. I’ve rambled about this a few times now so won’t add anything more. Just want to emphasize that all extra scenes/changes etc were very satisfying for me and made me excited for the future seasons

I wasn’t sold on Iroh in that first episode but he grew on me quickly and the use of Leaves From the Vine still makes me heart ache. Perfect emotional touch. (Also Zuko saying Lu Ten would be proud to have Iroh as a father before the NWT battle was so sweet)

Aang was wonderful. Some parts with the Avatars being like” bro get your act together” felt repetitive at times, but I also like we got to see all the last 3 avatars. (Also Kuruk focusing on spirit battles was cool. Thank you for giving him more substance and explaining why Koh may have targeted him through Umi)

One thing I really appreciate about Aang here is that yes he didn’t technically “run away” and get trapped in the iceberg. He left to calm down because he was feeling so overwhelmed, then all that stuff happens, and then 100 years passes and he’s stuck not knowing how to be the Avatar — especially in a world so different from his own. The part where he said he didn’t belong in the world was just 😭😭😭🥺🥺🥺

Anyway I like that Aang is trying even though he’s so uncertain and lost. He has his flaws and he has his strengths and at the end of the day his role will be to fight for peace and try bring back the world he knew — when ppl could have fun and be friends with other nations. Also yeah the whole direction they went with the Ocean Spirit was awesome. Aang knew what was going to happen but he did it anyway because he thought that was all he could do, even if it meant he would be lost. I was very emotional lol

In terms of Sokka and Katara, this show definitely feels like it has placed Zuko and Aang as the leads. So yeah, in some ways Katara has stepped back a bit this season compared to what we saw in the cartoon. I honestly wasn’t happy with all the ways she was handled but overall I am still happy with her in the show. Her fight with Pakku was awesome, I love she rounded up the female waterbenders to fight, and I cried when she was calling out to Aang as he was lost to the Ocean Spirit. I think she will be even better in season 2, since her story in this season was about overcoming her trauma and not holding herself back for anyone

On that note, the 8 episode limit definitely made the show suffer in terms of pacing for those last few episodes. I would have loved to have seen Katara do more to fully accept she IS a master. I also didn’t feel much for Sokka and Yue since I felt he had better chemistry with Suki. They definitely could have done with more episodes to build that relationship up. I did like Yue though and how her sacrifice felt less like a destined thing the Moon Soieit had always intended her to do and more like something she chose to do freely.

Also can I just say the horrified screech I made when Momo got hit. I was going noooo momo the whole time until he got healed. (Show needed more Momo. Also Appa. Budget probably made their appearances few snd far between but still. Momo is my fav and I missed him)

It was interesting how they completely changed Hahn but also quite refreshing. One of things I do like about this live action (and I’m probably in the minority) is that they made complete changes sometimes. We all know the story, but it was cool to see unexpected stuff, especially since I could appreciate the changes. Like Yue actively choosing not to marry Hahn (even more so because natla Hahn is not a dickhead) is more satisfying to me than her feeling all sad about a betrothal she doesn’t want. (Also meant we got to see Katara earn Pakku’s strength all on her own instead of because he used to have the hots for Gran Gran)

I thought the show also did well combining omashu, Jet stuff, and Mechanist together. I’m actually happy we didn’t have to deal with The temple being taken over by the mechanist etc because it never sat well with me anyway. Also the episode limit meant they had to focus on ways to condense season 1 into a satisfying story — I think they did good with what they had. We have to remember the cartoon had heaps of episodes to work with, and animation is a different medium with a lot of strengths when it comes to fantasy etc

Anyway, this is getting super long. I will wrap it up by again saying the live action is not perfect but it is a good show that hits all the right emotional beats. I really hope it will get renewed and we’ll get the full story

[esta-elavaris]

Omg I am so glad u feel the same way about Polin and Penelope- they pissed me off so badddddd. I had to skip through their scenes; they were just so unlikeable to me :3 Plus the fact that Penelope is seen as such a loveable character when she just isn’t, like I think she’s an interesting character but they way they’ve portrayed her as having no faults just gives me no hope for any sense of redemption for her in the next part of season 3

I'm always here to supply the takes that are not only correct, but also so, so wise.

Nah joking aside, I can't with them. I've seen people complain that this season doesn't focus on them enough but I think that's why I can get through it - the only thing I've enjoyed about their story so far is Lord Debling. I also really don't like the arguments that like "oh well the people who don't like Polin just don't because they're not attracted to them!!!1" and other disingenuous arguments like that, which almost turn supporting them into a moral thing, and it's very tiring. Just like Polin.

Like, I loved Daphne and Simon's season. I wasn't attracted to either of them. (Kate and Anthony, however, holy shit). I think there are two main problems, tbh. The previous seasons understood that they had a very limited amount of time to build up chemistry, have us rooting for them, and while instilling drama and plot. It feels like they've gone into season 3 assuming that's all already done and that the chemistry has been established and we're already rooting hard for them, and so they don't need to put the same effort in, and it shows. I actually thought they were cute in season 1, and I felt bad for Pen at the end of season 2 solely in the moment where she overhears him, because it pulled at my own ugly duckling heartstrings, but other than that it's just...meh. They feel so lacking compared to the two couples we've had so far.

But yeah, it's also Penelope. Like it's an absolute testament to Nicola Coughlan's acting that I'm even tempted to feel bad for her in her scenes with Eloise etc. but once the uhhh bare bones human empathy passes I'm left with no sympathy at all. If my former best friend did everything that Pen has done, and then she tried to marry my brother, I'd commit Actual Crimes. No warning, no "well I'll give you X amount of time to tell him", nothing. There'd be not only scenes, but entire productions. I think Eloise is actually an insanely big person for even giving her that ultimatum and a chance for her to explain in her own words.

And like you said if they portrayed it as a flaw to be overcome, or as something she started for the wrong reasons and then felt actually sorry about overall rather than solely when one or two people got hurt, it'd be one thing. But rn it has such "she girlbossed too close to the sun and Eloise is a big meanie, god forbid women do anything" energy and I cannot be arsed. I just don't see how it can be wrapped up in a way that still has her writing as Whistledown, that also feels satisfying and not like an absolute pisstake.

Hell, even if they had her own it and took it from a place of "maybe it's wrong but I don't care" I'd have more time for it than a character acting like a wounded baby over problems they themselves purposely created (which pisses me off like nothing else in general), and having the whole thing be structured in a way that suggests we're supposed to be distraught for her.

But at least we have Benedict.

[girljpg]

i warched good omens season 2

i have a lot to say that doesn't really amount to anything so i'm gonna start typing at random

i liked the romantic vibe of the season and all the cute flashbacks. the dialogue between the leads was appropriately trusting and sweet. they really leaned into showing how they rely on each other. i also like that the conflict was pretty small in scale compared to season 1. it's not armageddon, but there were still some stakes if you include all the humans that almost died. although.... heaven and hell seem to know exactly where crowley and aziraphale are... yes, they fooled them at the end of s1, but wouldn't they idk. try other means? why didn't they get their names erased from the book of life earlier if that was something higher up angels could do? whatever

i like that there were real actual gay characters (lesbians even! who looked like real people!) even though I was worried they were getting together too fast, the reveal towards the end that they were going to move slow felt realistic. but them having to talk crowley into confessing his feelings felt ripped straight from a fanfiction. the lesbians comparing themselves to aziraphale and crowley was a bit on the nose. many moments did in fact feel like fanfiction. the dancing together, the "I need you!", the "We can just be us." all of that was cute and probably something i would've written idk could you do any better??? i am not immune to fluff. but also, that's a grown man. does it not take agency away from the character to have his relationship explained to him? and then they had the gall to not even show us this conversation. ideally he would've come to a conclusion about his feelings on his own-- perhaps after seeing gabe and beez fuck off to alpha centauri and going huh. i guess you can just do that. or even just through way of flashback-- oh no wait. all of the flashbacks were from aziraphale's point of view for some reason. why didn't azi get any realizations? you know michael sheen would've ate

the "i was wrong dance" well here's the thing i did clap

I thought the set of the street in london with all the little shops looked nice although there were always so so many extras walking around. is london really that crowded?

i thought they kind of wasted muriel's character. she seems to disappear for a long time before the plot calls for her to conveniently be there. i know she's meant to be a bit dim but surely she noticed 70 demons walking down the street.... ALSO i thought the book crowley handed her was going to be good omens but it. was not

looooved shax loved new beelzebub. who else. idk everyone was really giving it their all. megatron showed up for all of two episodes i think but was pivotal for the ending. what are you doing neil. gabriel is also doing. things. they wasted jon hamm as well by making him a frustrating himbo. one of the only scenes i liked with him was crowley yelling at him for trying to kill aziraphale in s1 and then trying to jump out a window and then calling crowley nice. but that whole bit felt more like a crowley scene than a gabe scene. he does get a mug with his name on it tho and hypocritically falls in love with the fly lady so all is forgiven.

i'm gonna be real with you all.. the way they filmed the kiss felt awkward. the way the camera swings around and crowley grabs him felt very....... rehearsed? a little unnatural, i think. the way crowley LUNGES. idk i need to rewatch the last ten minutes again. and it went on so long. we got like three of four angles on it like whoah. but the reaction face we got out of michael sheen. mamma mia

"I forgive you." asdejgkasdgahdgdfs when i say i paused the ep for extended laughter lmfaoooooo. clutching a wine bottle to my chest and cheering. this fucken guy. babygirl is distraught for all of about ten seconds before it's time to start the new job. i did start yelling at my screen after that point. he had no right to look crowley dead in the eye across the street and not run back to him. COWARRD. i understand why he did it but COWARD. why, after sooo long, would you think crowley would jump for joy to be an angel again... i watched all eight minutes of the credits certain that there was going to be more but nope. catch ya next time for the second coming (of jesus?? <- does not know things about the bible)

so i was pretty satisfied with that watch. i wish the season was longer than 6 episodes but tbh they had to make this story from nothing and it shows in the romcom hijinks and threadbare mystery. but it was fun and went by quickly. then i check on the fandom and they're, get this, upset for some reason about this ending. there's no pleasing some fans i guess. good job neil you've pissed off the people who wanted them to kiss AND the people who didn't want them to kiss, bravo! hopefully in a month or so everyone will cool down about it. and if not well. plenty of fanfic fodder until season 3. not that i read good omens fanfic, but it'll be there. just be happy there was a kiss alright!!!!!!?!!!1

(i just know we're going to get a flood of people calling aziraphale a big meanie and crowley a poor little scrimbly blimbo meow meow who got rejected. booooo stop that right now)

[aceofnace]

4x10 was truly one of the worst tv experiences of my life bc what was that with Tristan and Nancy, literally what in the fresh hell was that? They looked so in love, they have them so much it's driving me batshit. Even with the theory of the black door I can't accept that, the only way I'll stomach it is if he's some form of ace or has half of his soul on top of the black door. If they're going to go the Tristan is her soulmate in every lifetime but she's gonna choose ace in this one I might need to be committed bc who does that to their main ship in the last 2 eps of the show, the only form I'll accept is if she's been destined for Tristan but she's been choosing ace in every lifetime too. I can't even begin to imagine how they're gonna wrap this up in a way that's remotely satisfying, bc they're gonna need half of the last 2 eps to just be about nace, I'm sorry but now that we're getting no scenes of them actually together I'm gonna need a sex scene a rain kiss the most romantic hug and I love you soulmates in every life confirmation and a wedding or a scene that confirms they're married with a daughter or something I'm not kidding

I get it. Somehow, I was less angry after first watching 4x10 than I was after watching 4x09, which makes no sense because Tristan wasn't even officially in 4x09, but I think it's only because I went into 4x10 with the lowest of low expectations that we'd get any Nace so I was at least a little prepared. But I wasn't prepared for was...that ending scene with Nancy and Tristan on the floor. Yeah, they looked a little too cozy. And Nancy used her soft voice with him that she normally only uses with Ace. And that forehead touch? NO, THAT'S HER MOVE WITH ACE! WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING?

Look, at this point, I have no idea what's going on, other than it's something very strange and will end up explaining everything in the end. But will it be a satisfying explanation? That remains to be seen. My guess as of right now as to how or why that scene took place is this: if Nancy went to the black door with a specific sin with the purpose of erasing/altering her feelings for Ace (so that they could be happy again and easily move on), then it could explain why Tristan is so enamored with her—because the sin of hers that he ate was charged with her love for Ace. And maybe Tristan doesn't remember a sin once he's back in his human form, but it's possible that he subconsciously does. And as for Nancy, her newfound feelings for Tristan are easy to explain: the black door altered her memories and her feelings. She has only really shown any actual interest in Tristan since the episode after she supposedly went to the black door. Even in 4x07 when she told Ace she'd gone through an intense situation with Tristan and wasn't sure how she felt about it yet, it was easy to see that she was testing him. She wanted to see if that bothered him. And when Ace showed no signs of it bothering him (even though it absolutely did) she was visibly disappointed and so upset she dropped the dice she was holding onto. No, these "feelings" Nancy suddenly has for Tristan are not real.

If you re-watch that last scene with them, surrounded by candles, staring into each other's eyes while talking about walking paths together many times before, it's actually not as romantic as it seems upon the first viewing. Compare how Nancy stares into Tristan's eyes with the way she has been staring into Ace's eyes ever since the scene in his apartment in 3x13. There's just no comparison. When she looks at Ace, you can feel the deep yearning, the desire, the unadulterated love. When she looks at Tristan at the end of 4x10, she looks curious. Like she's trying to solve a mystery. But she also, honestly, look like she's maybe under a little bit of a spell. There's no real warmth to her. There's no longing there. And yeah, they touched foreheads, but they didn't kiss. WHY didn't they kiss? This is Nancy we're talking about here. This girl doesn't shy away from physical contact with men she's attracted to. If she had wanted to kiss Tristan, she would have. Heck, she was trying to kiss Ace for all of 4x01 even though she knew it would kill him. Now, you could say, "well, the Glasses interrupted them before they could kiss", but they really didn't. There was plenty of time for either Nancy or Tristan to lean in and at least touch lips, but no attempt was made by either one. That is WEIRD. Especially with how that scene was set up. Again, something very strange is going on here.

I feel like I'm getting off-track here, so I'll get back to the point of your ask. The soulmate thing is weird and very out-of-the-blue. I'm not sure where they're going with it, and I'm not even sure where I'd want them to go with it. I don't really see the point of introducing a character late in the game and then revealing that he and Nancy have walked this world together many times before as soulmates. That would be a very interesting (unaffectionate) choice for the writers to make, knowing how rabid the fanbase has always been about Nace and how we've been calling them soulmates since season 2. So we'll just have to wait and see what they've got up their sleeves. I'm with you, though, I could definitely get on board the train of Nancy choosing Ace in every lifetime, even though she's been destined to be with someone else. Any other scenario will probably not sit right with me.

After all the pain and suffering we've gone through this season, we deserve to get a "sex scene a rain kiss the most romantic hug and I love you soulmates in every life confirmation and a wedding or a scene that confirms they're married with a daughter". I'm hoping we at least get one of those, but I'm not sure if we will since time is running out and it's running out fast. No matter what, we'll get at least one more kiss, and it will probably replace their last one as being the best kiss of Nancy's life. But we might have to just accept that's all we'll get in the end, and we'll just have to dream of what could've been had everything been done differently.

[mejomonster]

Justice in the dark, finished ep 2:

I am just so beyond overwhelmed I'm watching it honestly. I was lucky to experience Guardian a year after it came out, which got me into cdramas and cnovels and studying chinese, which got me into priests writing in particular, and i never had to anticipate or hope for guardian. I was lucky to just find it's cdrama version as my first experience period of a cdrama and of the story. It was everything I loved personally (just the perfect niche choices for Me). I never had to anticipate or wonder or hope if an adaptation would exist or be good. Because for me it was already perfect on first watch (yes even horrifically bad cgi cat da qing - I have a particular fondness for awful cgi at times especially in campy shows like Xena and Doctor Who so the low budget only added to my enjoyment personally lol).

Then Word of Honor came out. After id studied chinese for a year, worked a lot to drag myself through reading 28 chapters of tian ya ke and my first significant chunk of reading a priest novel in original chinese. I had OPINIONS. My biggest being they NEEDED to be morally grey fucked up people, needed to lie and put on acts like in the book, and Gong Jun was my dream casting for Wen Kexing but I'd have settled for anyone with a decently fitting performance. My expectations of a live action drama were absolutely blown away. The cast was actually my specific dream cast, Gong Jun pulled a better performance than I've Ever seen him do prior (just perfect in WoH specifically he really did amazing), Zhou zishu is SUCH a hard character to act much like Zhang Qiling in dmbj in that he is quiet and keeps himself private so an actor NEEDS to be really good at the performance to the audience to get across the characters internal world and get the character to come off correctly. He did it. So absolutely blown away by performances as good as Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong did for Zhao yunlan and shen wei, when I had no expectations they'd be As Good only hopefully sufficiently good. So acting was WOW. the side cast actors also absolutely blew me out of the water. The entire show team did honestly - the costumer showed how MUCH can be done with costumes and wig regardless of budget (compare WoH wigs to The Untamed or Eternal Love - just more unique designs for everyone's wigs in woh). The sets are simple but distinguishable and again while it's just a simple X setting in woh I still found the sets more memorable than the Eternal Love sets overall, the fighting is choreographed GOOD (1 I heard by the same person as Ultimate Note which would explain a lot as both have fun action scenes, 2 I love The Untamed in many regards but also there's fight scenes where extras swing at nothing so fight choreography wasn't quite as strong u know), the color design in post production isn't like ideally natural but it shows off the costumes and further makes the limited budget look distinguished as it's own fully realized concept. Way Better than I ever expected honestly (guardian had limited set budget too and honestly it DID look cheap it only was beloved by me because they make it so Ridiculous in certain aspects it Crosses into Doctor Who level weird sci fi design). And finally the script - handled by a good writer, I felt, that kept the core story elements I wanted and added some more. I didn't like the "knew each other as kids" element which if you know me you know why. But since I always treat live action cdramas as Alternate Universe stories? I could appreciate they didn't bring up knowing each other in a like "we are connected cause of it way" but more as a "strangers who briefly crossed paths once and so have some experiences they both somewhat relate or connect to" which let the script writer mostly keep the original novel relationship vibe. Basically? I'm still absolutely stunned and blown away we got a GREAT drama, let alone a good one.

I knew Sha Po Lang had a drama filmed and DONE. I hadn't read it so I thankfully had no great attachment to the story being done right. I was excited because I love priest stories so I know it'll be based on good source material, and I LOVE the idea of steampunk historical. I had no idea on what to expect though besides potentially horrifically bad cgi for the steampunk elements if they didn't cut them out completely? Or cheap but functional cgi like Once Upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain (it'll be miraculous if it's like The Lost Tomb Reboot or Utlimate Note or Love Between Fairy and Devil in terms of quite Decent nice cgi). I had no expectations until an actor I admire was cast as one of the leads. Then I figured: well this will be a GOOD show to watch. Because that actor is worth watching Just by being in it since he'll give a great performance, and the source material came from priest so it can only be so bad. I figured THAT drama was what to mentally prepare for! Then it didn't come! We're still waiting.

Now finally to Silent Reading. It's my favorite priest novel. Of any adaptations to have expectations about, it's this one for me. I made edits for this one. I watched bilibili fanvideo edits for the book and had opinions on which aesthetic choices worked best. I cared. I saw it (like a couple other novels I'm excited for adaptations for) was getting adapted too! After sha po lang, way later, casting dragging on. I assumed okay temper yourself you won't even see it until Immortality 2ha is out (lmao ;-; ). I also decided BECAUSE it's my favorite? I figured I would be disappointed and let down. So I tried not to even hope itd be good. I hoped, desperately, decent actors would be cast who could do a good solid job. I got immensely lucky when Fei Du was cast cause I know from Go Ahead that guy can ACT so at least fei du would be wonderful to watch. I had no idea about anyone else and again tempered my expectations to please please just be Decent. (So Tao Ran being Perfectly cast and acted is blowing my goddamn mind nonstop). I also hoped, for an expectation, a visual aesthetic like Under the Skin or some video edits I'd seen on bilibili. Just a sort of Beyond Evil, Flower of Evil, The Guest, sort of gritty thriller grounded somewhat in reality but at the edge kind of. A detective show with a psychologically heavy lean to it. Possibly a little stylistic even in color choice cause I personally like shows that visually look like Their Own thing (even if it looks less natural - like I love Goodbye My Princess and Heroes visually even though it's such extreme color editing). And finally I hoped for a serviceable bare minimum... bare minimum... solve murders and stick at least basically to the book cases script. I really had no idea what to expect of writing wuality except a "PLEASE be Decent you're working with great source material, it's already got an audio drama with a script u should barely have to work to make this Decent just don't make it awful." So yeah. Low expectations. I probably could have been happy with Granting You a Dreamlike Life level writing quality, visual quality (except dear fuck please with blues instead of that yikes yellow gyadl used a ton), and passable actors.

Instead I got way better than my expectations and it's breaking my mind a little. Color grading? Blue greens and I'm sure some people hate it I fucking love it to pieces. (If I'd give any visual critique it's that I think they're over smoothing actors and I love gritty real looking skin but I recognize a lot of cdramas generally make the choice to face smooth and use filters so it's going to crop up in some stuff I watch :/ it's not totally awful in that I can see Luo's stubble and sometimes Fei Du's cover-up powder on his little nose, but overall the contrast intensity and color grading they chose makes the skin look less gritty in combo with I imagine some skin smoothing filters). I personally Love the cgi I have seen, which i assumr either means cheap cgi came up EONS since guardian or they got bigger cgi budget for a crime drama that shouldn't need them than I would've figured. The city bits that I imagine are fake establishing shots look way better than guardian and in line with Ultimate Note quality at times (at least they're not too noticeably bad is my point). The extreme lighting choices are unnatural for sure but I really like them since there's a heavy metaphor right now of Luo as the light and Fei Du in the dark, and seeing that visual metaphor play out with actual bright lights/intense shadows frequently in scenes is so visually satisfying to me, you can read their mental states just by the lighting (one scene Fei Dus emotions drop and it goes from sunny to storming which is REALLY on the nose and funny but also I love how thoroughly this way of using light is through the entire show). Green and blues also seem to be being used for light and dark, life and death, warmth and cold, Luo and Fei. I never had the expectation so Much detail would be put to visuals and I'm so beyond grateful.

Next, the music. Oh my god the music. So far it's not like Life Changing to me the way Guardians soundtrack was (I love Chen Xuerans music - he also did some Tomb of the Sea music I also love). But I didn't expect the music to even be more than servicable, yet I'm enjoying it enough I want to go look up the tracks? (Also WoH had a banger soundtrack forgot to mention that). I love the choice of piano instruments frequently in the background music, it's extremely fitting of this particular story with priest naming chapters after famous literature and just the vibe of old detective stories. At the same time? Again there's this comparison between a very piano and western orchestra background ost, and the very modern English song that's kind of pop music that Fei Du plays often and with Tao Ran and sometimes plays in scenes with Luo. It's like the light/dark lighting, the music juxtaposition. It's such a noticeable choice, and it really adds to how effective the scenes are. I did not expect the music to shine to me. It's not like WoH levels yet in terms of any particular song lyrics, but the music playing when Fei Du was young seeing his mom, and the music playing at the end of ep 2 as Luo talks to Fei Du about his mom, were both impactfully used.

Writing: not much to say except oh my fuck I can't believe I'm seeing these scenes I love acted out. Acted out properly, like I pictured them. ;-; I'm amazed how much they're sticking to book honestly. I. Am just incredibly overwhelmed moving on. It feels like coming home honestly, a new scene starts and I know exactly where I am from the novel. I actually happen to enjoy when cdrama adaptations change story (Alternate Universe story) so id be just pleasant too if the story Does happen to change, but at the moment this is maybe the most faithful (*except the little sci fi intro note) adaptation I've seen of any book in general in my life. I am so so happy. I loved the scene in Tao Rans car. The scenes of Fei as a child is better than anything I could have possibly ever imagined (Luo coming from the light to cover his eyes and stop the horror, pulling him safe to the light, just the visuals and music absolutely <3 ;-; ). The scenes with Fei Du, Tao Ran, and Luo Wenzhou are just like I imagined them (this may not be true for everyone though lol - I read with the feeling they really were cold and bristly while caring/pushing into each other's business, but not even seeing each other as friend or romantic options at the start - this is coming off just like I imagined, with Tao Ran exactly just... right out of my brain perfect kudos to the guy playing him he's singlehandedly changing my life damn). I saw some people mentioning not seeing much chemistry between Luo and Fei. I may change my mind later but... as of ep 2? I'm happy to say I'm seeing exactly what the novel gave me at the same points in the plot. I actually think the shows giving a Touch more because it's really Really hammering home how Luo and Fei have revolved around each other 7 years, are stuck together in a situation they can't move past, are yin yang light dark warmth cold passion logic alive dead, and those kind of fucking parallels really hammer very obviously that as lovable as Tao Ran is it's really Luo/Fei who are the main characters and who have effected each other's lives most greatly. Yes Tao Ran is Luos best friend and was his partner since their first case of Feis mom - but Luo is who reached out slightly More to Fei Du, who made it his entire purpose to help this kid, who this kid Blamed for being unable to help, who chose to keep trying to take care of Fei for 7 years ever since (Tao ran also doing so because he was involved). Yes Fei Du crushes on Tao Ran as a safe outlet, because Tao Ran won't reciprocate (for a variety of reasons from being straight to thinking of himself as someone taking care of Fei like an older brother - and that emotional position of his is uniquely why he can give such direct advice to Fei that Fei wouldn't take as kindly to as from an actual romantic option like Luo). Fei Du acts emotionally more open with Tao, and certainly tries harder to try and live healthier by associating wirh Tao (and Tao indulges it because it does make Fei feel more human and connected). But it's clear Luos the one who makes Fei face his fears directly, who cuts through the shield entirely, the one who's words actually genuinely shake Fei Du. Tao Ran can call Fei out but on some level Fei won't break from it since it's Tao saying it, can close back up if he does open enough to take it to heart. Luo is fundamentally a person thats Too important to Fei for Fei to control how he handles him. Luo changed his life, was his hope then his hopelessness. And still remains both. The show is absolutely hammering that. Whereas the book? If you didnt know Luo was going to be the main character, you'd figure Fei/Tao was going to be at least an initial ship. Or Tao/Luo if only it was friends to lovers (just me then lol). My point is the shows clear irs got a very specific "bromance" angle and it's hammering it as much as Merlin/Arthur got hammered with 2 sides of the same coin he's your destiny. And more.

Acting again. I also love all the side characters so far. Love the casting choices all around. Zhang Donglan was not how I pictured lol but I liked his actor, the core investigation group is just like I pictured.;-; <3

Luos actor. So eyecandy in a screencap he is not particularly. In motion? He's looks wise passable for Luo. Which is like... when I read the book Luo was traditionally handsome like some superhero (Captain joke from the book and all) but in regular man's roughed up clothes of regular financial means, basic work haircut, could tone himself down if needed. So Zhao Yunlan, while I love him (good job Bai Yu) is too "pretty" to be Luo - the leather jacket too flashy, the whole look just too flashy. Luos styling in the show is acceptable as it looks like an everyday man's less flashy version of Zhao Yunlan, which is about where Luo lands. I imagined a more Model handsome type for Luo just because I imagined him more Abruptly in your face handsome hero (think Captain America) compared to "blends into the background next door neighbor cute" that is Tao Ran (and tbf show Tao Ran is Perfect.... I imagined Yang Yang but dressed/styled toned down, and this actor visually is like a 96% match to an actual fancast edit I made so.. he's perf). Luos actor instead also has a similar "everyday man next door" handsome. On the upside its probably realistic given he qnd Tao Ran should feel on the same level. On the other no its not mu mental picture of Luo - I couldn't even fancast him because he's SO specific in my mental interpretation. But back to the point: as an actor he does look suitable while playing the role. His actual acting? That's where it really matters. When I read, Luo was SUCH a specific character to me if an actor can't pull it off it'll hurt. His actor is doing Perfect. I'm beyond grateful. He's just like Luo in my head. His voice is a touch different but it's acted great so it's fine. The only scenes that jar me are ones where I can clearly know someone edited a scene or added a thing to his costume to make him look like Zhao Yunlan lmao, just because it feels less like Luo and I know it? Like his scene saving a girl from a mugger on a bike was so reminiscent of show Guardian Zhao Yunlan getting off the motorbike. The glasses and leather jacket in ep 1 on Luo screamed "similar to Zhao yunlan" but toned slightly down, and the scene he talks to get into the crime scene felt very echoey of Zhao yunlan doing that to get into the first crime scene in Guardian. The actor made it flow fine, and he Feels like Luo so I'm happy as peaches. But there were some moments in ep 1 I think lol either director or writer or someone wanted to reference Guardian or rely on that similarity to give the watcher a familiar impression. The actor is Really nailing the small moments of acting with his team, and the emotional moments with Fei are just so well done.

Anyways in summary? I had so few expectations and they've been far surpassed. I'm amazed how much extra stuff I didn't even want to hope for is also lovely in this. I'm so !!!!

[madymoo-fandom]

My Opinions on Dragon Age Exodus

Currently I have 509.9 hours on DA:2 and even tho no one asked or cares, I'm gonna ramble on about it.

DA:2

In my opinion, DA2 is the worst for role playing purposes. If often feels like it doesn't matter when you say for do, it almost always has the same outcome. I've played a good Hawke, an evil Hawke and a great area Hawke and the variety between each playthrough is light.

However, the characters are pretty good. Not as good as Origins but still. Almost all the characters are driven by past trauma and is the main points of each of their character arcs. None of them "get over" their traumatic past but most of them do learn how to cope with it. Personally I like this very much, a lot of media shows characters eventually just get over their PTSD to never be brought up again or struggle, when PTSD has a habit of fading and bubbling up again at the best of times and is often a main contributer to the reason why people act a sertain way, differing depending on their up brings. It doesn't just disappear.

The combat is much better in DA2, I get that a lot of people who played Origins first really miss that slow pace combat, but it just wasn't for me and in da2 I actually feel like I'm kicking an enemy's a$$, when in DAO, I honestly just felt like I was knocking them out.

DA:2 DLC

Packs

These DLC's don't really add any new quest or gameplay, just new codex, weapons, armors and accessories, some only ment for certain companions. I honestly use a lot of cosmetic mods and having the packs did limit the need for me to download armor mods, since my main is a Mage in DA2 and all of the mages armors suck compared to the other classes, with the exception of Hawke's signature equipment, Mantle of the Champion, which in my option, the mage variant is the best version.

The Exhaled Prince

Honestly, I don't really like Sébastien. His quest are boring, his character is bland, and his romance just really bad and clearly just a second thought. He could have been a great character with an as3xual romance, but they just flopped it. His backstory too. With the trend of characters with traumatic backstories in this game, they could have done so much more with survivors guilt and made him so much more compelling. Its just disappointing. Honestly, if I didn't buy the DLC bundle, I wouldn't pay for him separately.

Mark of the Assassin

Honestly, this is my favorite DLC in DA2. I really liked Tallis and wish she was used as the companion DLC instead. The plot is fun, the dialog is actually really funny and its just a good time.

Legacy

I have mixed opinions about this DLC. Its good but I don't like it more than the vanilla game, the key is cool, the fact you can basically build your own weapon is nice and the final boss was a fun play but over time, the dlc felt a bit repetitive. I'm assuming they had some plans for the third game at this time and always planned for Corypheus to be the main antagonist of DA3 but it feels like he shouldn't have been scene this much in DA2. Its hard for me to explain. I kinda wish the Architect was the main antagonist for the Legacy DLC, learning about whats to come and wanting to destroy Corypheus, with him basically hoping to wipe out all darkspawn. I understand you can kill him in Awakening, but they reconned Leliana's and Anders's possible deaths before, clearly no one is safe from being brought back to life.

[loominggaia]

Anonymous asked:

Vampire anon. Just got some more things to say and ask. I love Ivy, she’s a bitch but atleast it seemed like she actually cared about Lillian to some degree. And seeing her put her creeper husband in his place, felt so good after reading one of the most uncomfortable, painful scene I’ve ever read in a piece of literature. I just can’t stand molestation or sexual assault scenes in general, and seeing Diarrhea Dusk somehow even more fucked up form of molestation made me wanna puke.

Also I’m pissed as hell at Alaine/ Glenvar and Lukus for their dragging Lillian into their hog hunting activities! This is the LAST thing she needs after escaping her life as diarrhea dusk sex slave/ punching bag/ & food lure. And I whole heartedly agree with a commenter in Pog Bait that Including Lillian in Hog hunting can only end in disaster. She’s very immature/ highly impressionable/ has no true conventions of her own/ and doesn’t really understand the world at all.

I totally feel you, Anon. I try to be tasteful about the way I write difficult scenes like that, like I don’t want to go into any more detail than necessary. But that doesn’t make it any easier to write or read, especially if you’re sensitive to those things. I don’t want to shy away from those dark subjects because that would feel...forced? Disingenuous? I don’t know, it wouldn’t feel honest to exclude it completely. Even though Looming Gaia is a fantasy world, I still want it to feel “real” and lifelike in its own context. The characters deal with the same things people in real life do, and I feel like that’s what makes them feel more alive.

BUT at the same time, I never want to write those subjects in a way that feels exploitive/masturbatory. And I don’t mean masturbatory in a strictly sexual sense, but in a “misery porn” sense, where characters suffer just for the sake of suffering. I hate that crap. If they suffer, I want it to make sense in the context of their situation and play a role in their future development.

All that said, I agree about Ivy too! She’s supremely fucked up in her own ways, but she’s practically a saint compared to Dario and the rest of the Dusks. Aunt Vivi didn’t seem so bad either, she was probably the nicest one in that castle. I have a feeling she didn’t subscribe to Dario’s cult-think and was probably just tagging along because she had no other choice. Aunt Mystique was definitely chugging Dario’s kool-aid by the pitcher though, and Cousin Dimitri was just a creepy little freak who was gunning to fill Dario’s shoes one day (and he probably would have eventually, if things went a little differently...). At least Lilian had 1 or 2 people in that household who were like...almost semi-normal. Kind of. I imagine their kindness went really far with her.

As for Alaine, Lukas, and Glenvar, they’re...doing their best. But oh god they are just so ignorant. They think they’re helping Lilian by teaching her to defend herself and “giving her confidence”, but they just don’t realize the extent of what she’s been through and how this might re-traumatize her. They’re vaguely aware that her ex-husband was a controlling dick who smacked her around, but only Zeffer knows that her situation was straight up horror-novel material. He tries to explain to them, but the FGG thinks he’s kind of nuts so they tend not to put much stock in what he says. Not like he’s equipped to help her either--he’s so fucked up he can’t even help himself. He knows she needs special care, but he doesn’t even know where to begin finding it.

Alaine thinks hog-hunting will help Lilian reclaim her sense of power the way it helped her. After all, both Alaine and Lilian were brainwashed and oppressed by tyrants. Likewise, Lukas knows that Lilian suffered sexual slavery just like he did, and Glenvar knows she was thrust into a world she wasn’t prepared for just like he was. Hunting “bad guys” makes them feel better, so why wouldn’t it help her?

That’s their logic, but little do they realize not everyone heals the same way and Lilian can’t just jump back on her feet like they did. Unlike them, she was never standing to begin with. She’s just barely beginning to learn that standing is an option.

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[faunastanza]

Circlet of the Sun pt. 2

(part 1) (part 3)

There's more ranting and then another repetition of the same thing we've heard over and over. Harmonitor says that it must not have been clear enough or must not have been sending the right signals, because why would Sir Press be doing the exact opposite otherwise? It's not your fault, it must be something with me! That must be it! I don't know if Glip realizes how many times they say this or how passive-aggressive it is.

Sila says that they didn't hear Harmonitor and that if they try to disengage then they'll freak out and kill themselves and it'll be all your fault. Right after, Harmonitor says that Sila never actually said any of those things, they're just what Harmonitor inferred from her behavior.

an implicit threat

Harmonitor dissociates which seems to be the solution to everything in this comic. There's a bunch more vague-ing about Discord drama, including a reference to a character named Ciero. Apparently Ciero and another character acted out what Sila was doing wrong in an RP or something, while Glip yells THIS IS YOU, THIS IS YOU, IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T SILENCE ME. Sila and Glip have a stilted conversation and Sila tells Glip to stop vagueposting about her lol.

vaguepost, me??

Glip protests, asking why Sila thinks it was vagueposting and what they were vagueposting about. Sila responds saying that Glip said that she was playing the victim and didn't know it. In response to this Glip/Harmonitor seems to have a panic attack about how they can never write or draw again, and then explains that they made Harmonitor to symbolize that they're only here to help.

Glip posts some more snippets from the conversation, apparently unaware that it doesn't make them look good.

why did you make a little play with characters about your feelings instead of talking to me directly about them

Glip doesn't answer because all of Sila's questions feel like traps and Sila doesn't listen to their answers anyway. Sila says that they saw feelings that Glip had kept hidden from them in the play and felt bad about it, particularly because they had asked Sila to open up to them. Glip says that they (drumroll) forget, and asks if they always kept their feelings hidden from Sila.

Sir Press, now with ANOTHER new name, Selfish-Harm (Get it) doesn't respond as Glip says that she never wants to hear criticism from nobody, and if they told Selfish-Harm their feelings then Selfish-Harm would just flip out and hurt someone. Glip explains that the name Selfish-Harm means that they hurt themselves and then blame others for it, just in case you couldn't catch that.

There's a bunch more yelling and rambling, with Glip at one point comparing Selfish-Harm to their abusive dad and one time that he flipped out and punched them and threatened to kill their mom and himself. Apparently they tried to tell Selfish-Harm this at some point but she didn't see the resemblance. She apologizes for triggering that memory but says she didn't need to remember it, so they're even and she implores Glip not to be mad anymore or they'll stay in the memory forever. In the end Selfish-Harm lets Harmonitor go.

Harmonitor/Glip starts to head off for rest and Selfish-Harm stops them to say one more thing. "I should get off the stage right now. I have a hard time saying 'no' to you because I trust you so much." she says.

Harmonitor is taken aback, thinking that if Selfish-Harm didn't want to go on stage then they didn't have to, they could have just talked about it privately. The cleaver shows up all evil and bloody to say what that really means is that if she does anything she doesn't want to do then it's because Glip coerced her, and she'll tell everyone.

so scary

I mentioned scenes up there. My memory of this is fuzzy, but there were these intense sessions on Glip's discord server where people acted out their arguments in front of other people who may or may not have decided who was wrong or right, I forget. You'd have to agree to do a scene with someone else and there were a bunch of weird rules to it, and unsurprisingly it resulted in a lot of drama. When Sila/Glip talks about scenes or stages in this huge thing, that's what they're talking about.

Anyway, the blade comes down on Harmonitor who convulses oh no a Glipsert is being mutilated again by evil people, it's a moebius strip, but Harmonitor does say that they wanted to talk to Selfish-Harm in public on stage because they were scared of her, but didn't tell her that.

really does look like random white and red scribbles now

Anyway, Harmonitor decides that this means that she can never express any feelings around Selfish-Harm ever again about anything and can only do what she wants and has a breakdown. I feel sort of like a parent hearing two children crying about how the other one hurt their feelings. I just want to know what's happening to the actual characters in this comic. Remember when there were gay my little ponies with giant yaoi hands? who could forget.

Selfish-Harm cleaver talks about how they think girls getting caught and punished for being in the wrong place at the wrong time is hot. Also apparently Sila said they thought Glip had some kind of undiagnosed disorder at some point lol.

took it just the way you'd expect

There's more and more and more yelling. Apparently at one point Sila said that although their community was against call-outs they'd been trigger happy with them lately. This made Glip so angry that they made this huge callout. Sure proved them wrong there, huh.

join our community today! this won't happen to you! (maybe)

There's more yelling now with Harmonitor with the screw eye we've seen sometimes on Scissors. Not sure what that signified before now, but in this it seems to signify that Harmonitor is just Glip again but angry. Another layer of nesting dolls.... all Glips....

Speaking of, Hothead screams about how much they hate Sila and how everyone in the discord hates Sila actually and to stop acting like a creep. We abruptly cut to Quill trying to write. He's happy with his work and while it'll NEVER be good as Papaya's obviously, he hopes it's worth gracing her presence and that she might find something she can use in her better plays. Quill's creator writes guest stories for Floraverse. Just bringing that up again, no reason. There's a big long thing with Sir Press riding Quill like a horse (but he goes by Quibble here) that's just more yelling about Sir Press treating everyone bad.

Out of nowhere in the middle of it though, plot shows up again.

like a jumpscare, these returns to the plot

Quibble says that they find the place where the seeds would have been planted and the blood would have been spilled and where something was supposed to grow. But Sir Press told them that kind of thing could hurt someone so it's better that it doesn't exist. But I thought Sir Press liked violence and suffering! Now I don't know what's going on!

It goes right back into angry whining and yelling and this goes on for a while. It's all the same thing we've already heard but that's not going to stop Glip I guess. It goes on and on and on. Euphobia is at a jail cell in Clear Watching, which it describes as the Eternal Labryinth. Glip does seem to get defensive about people not liking Call-Clout which, lol.

paige and cc just had a fun party together before, it's fine

A new character pops up that looks like a bad creepypasta villain named Encore, Pain Whore. But... there's already a character called Encore... a pretty significant character... why are you using the same name for this new one... what are you doing...

encore.exe

Unless this is supposed to be some kind of warped version of Encore but in the process of typing that I realized I don't care. It's just another mouthpiece for Glip anyway. I don't know why Glip comes up with all these different variations of a character when they all just say the same thing. A scribble that might be CC says they know that Sila won't take this seriously or learn from it and that they're not welcome back into their community. So this really is just shouting at an empty chair.

They also threaten to kill Sila if she ever says she cares again, which is nice.

i don't think the odds of that are very high

They say they hate Sila and that they've never known her and can never say that they knew her, and they don't know anyone by her name and she'll never be whole. They then say maybe they should make it a funny violent story so Sila will listen, then says "gosh, anyone hurt by this story must REALLY deserve it". They then say that Sila said that it'd be a funny gag when she died in that script she wrote but it makes them gag! Get it!! Get it!!!

Glip then clarifies that when they said they wanted to kill Sila it was just a gag in a sarcastic way.

are those little bug teeth

There's more and more along the same lines, and since this was supposedly put together by a bunch of people I'd wonder if that's why it repeats so much but I think it's easily as likely that Glip just does this. There's a hilarious bit where Glip points at the screen basically to go YOU, THIS IS YOU like you're trying to threaten your little sibling into doing something.

this is you! [knocks over lamp] don't mess with me!

After some more yelling, Sila comes back this time as a giant foot, saying she has a play for Papaya to put on. Name's Extoenerate, because of course.

referred to as a foot man but this is still sila, so

Extoenerate starts getting off on asking Papaya her opinion. Papaya looks at the scripts and keeps her feelings hidden so she can try to get a read on what Extoenerate is like. It's the same script of Papaya killing someone which she is again horrified by. Stuck in a moebius strip with this, I told you.

Papaya expresses reservations about the script while keeping actual explanations for her feelings to herself. It's okay when she does it though. Extoenerate keeps getting off on the conversation. She asks why Extoe needs her help, and she says she always finishes too fast by herself. Get it.

say my feelings to someone's face? nope

It goes back and forth with the foot suggesting a way for the feet to exposed when she dies. It'll be very hot when the shopkeeper yells at the other person, the foot says, they were inspired by seeing Papaya tell at someone in her shop the other day. The foot gets mad that Papaya is kinkshaming her lol.

what if kinkshaming IS my kink

The foot rants about how unfair it is that Papaya didn't like her script and threatens to kill her. No one understands!! Papaya then says fine, we should put the story on the stage (with site under it get it, ON THE SITE, GET IT) because she wouldn't want to KINKSHAME them. That whole bit at the beginning with the fox coming into the story? That was Sila's script. what a twist.

Glip/Papaya says that Sila walked right into their trap, thinking that they wouldn't say any of this. They then post what I assume is a list of rules you have to agree to to RP in Glip's server which are bonkers. They're in a full apoplectic rage now, I think because Sila implied they also signed the rules? Or maybe it's because Sila signed the rules but is still upset. I'm not sure but boy they're angry.

imagine showing this to someone out of context. wait

Glip then vaguely threatens to choke Sila to death.

just a joke! i promise! (maybe)

There's also some more out of context discord screencaps. Personally, I don't think Glip's server sounds like a fun place to be.

everyone seems really angry there

Two more victims show up who are also actual people in the discord who decided to join in on this fun callout party. They then throw Extoe into an extremely funny panel.

each glip consists of four glips simultaneously

Look at that. Just look at it lololol. Anyway, this is related to another thing if I remember right, although again, my memory of things are hazy. There was a channel on the server I think called Clear Watching, where you could be sent if people wanted to yell at you or if you broke the rules or something. There I think you'd be muted and people could just say whatever to you until you repented and got to leave? Something like that. It was a punitive thing I'm almost sure and selective muting was a part of it.

Anyway, Ash and Zen or maybe Glip or just everyone I guess continues to be mad, forever. They say they wrote a story about how awful Sila is and Sila didn't want to see it and that hurt them real bad. They say Sila didn't want to see it because it didn't have her fetish or fighting in it but I am skeptical. Sila apparently said she didn't want them using her characters in their hate story and this also hurt their feelings because she said they had blanket permission to do whatever with her character when she signed up into this loony bin of a discord.

i tried to respect that you didn't want me to write a hate story about your character but it was really hard

There isn't even any art at this point, it's just caps on white.

hearing this in robocop's voice

There are some more Discord screencaps, along with that same "why would you think that if it wasn't true? I guess i'm just bad and stupid then!" line of logic that shows up everywhere.

guess so!

I guess Sila and Glip talked about Glip making a hateful cameo with them and Sila didn't like that. Glip shouts that it was supposed to hurt them, duh! Idiot!! I wanted to hurt you for hurting me!! But it's okay when I do it.

although, didn't glip say they didn't expect sila to read this? who IS this for then?

Glip has reached full rage meltdown at this point.

you are just mad because you are angry

In the middle of this there's a "maybe it's because violence sucks, and you suck too!" which is kind of hilariously mild compared to the rest of it. Anyway it clarifies that Papaya didn't say any of this out loud because she didn't want to make Sila have some kind of unreasonable meltdown over being told to die because she wrote a bad script. Papaya tries to give Sila concrit on her scripts and it has another hilarious bit with Papaya saying that characters shouldn't just be black and white.

lol

She also says she doesn't think that the flowercat would just enjoy yelling that she's right, which is even funnier considering that this VN is like two hours of them doing just that.

evidence works against you here

Papaya asks why the flowercat wouldn't defend herself, and Sila says that her Mary Sue character has a special ability where she can wipe the memories of people she attacks, and she's able to strike people's worst vulnerabilities in a way that causes the most harm without actually hurting them, whatever that means. Glip says harm without hurt is gaslighting and that Sila is threatening to literally wipe their memories. When I say literally I do mean literally.

don't give me amnesia, internet person

Just gonna toss this little guy in here because I think the face is funny.

9_6

[eat-pray-cry]

All the Light We Cannot See: In Defense of the Netflix Adaptation (Part 3)

PART 3: CHANGES - THE BAD

WARNING: SPOILER ALERTS

Okay, let’s talk changes. First, let me clarify that all the changes were, in my opinion, justifiable. Did I like all of them? No. Can I see why they were made? Yes.

That said, behold my list of the bad (but not quite ugly) changes, and why I didn't mind them.

In the book, Verner destroys the radio, much to Jutta’s dismay. In the show, Verner continues listening to the radio, against Jutta’s wishes. I actually thought this change was delicately executed. The only difference I see here is that in the show, Jutta cautions against the dangers of listening to the radio, whereas in the book, she cautions against becoming misinformed. In the end, she is still established as a voice of reason, while simultaneously reinforcing that Verner was deeply attached to the Professor’s lessons.

The journey to Saint-Mailo, where Marie and Papa steal a car instead of enduring the grueling journey by foot. Two reasons why I think this is justified, both of which are technical. (1) Time. Keep in mind that a visual platform has limited time, so context had to be condensed as much as possible. To me, this scene was meant to convey that Daniel LeBlanc had a way of creating the charm and humor out of a bad situation. We saw this throughout the book, the show conveyed it in this scene. (2) Tone. Bear in mind that the show was aiming for a more hopeful tone, so the tragedy needed to be concentrated in certain scenes. This was not one of them. Showing a long and grueling journey would have made the show lean more towards the likes of All Quiet on the Western Front.

Verner’s time in Schulpforta is condensed. This makes sense to me. Again, the show had to condense a lot of context, so it had to be done here. Nevertheless, I thought they condensed it beautifully. The scene with Verner running from his ‘traditional welcome’ was heartbreaking.

Random details - omission of the model as a puzzle, addition of von Rumpel’s lady friend and Captain Schmidt. These, to me, were just tools for condensing the story. Am I sad that the house as a model wasn’t featured? Yes. The model, to me, was a very important indicator of Marie’s cleverness. Not to mention her connection with Verner, as Verner was the only other character in the book who was able to open it. But, simply put, the show did not have space for this detail. As for von Rumpel’s lady friend and Captain Schmidt, they were just mere tools for condensing the story. The lady friend was used to explain von Rumpel’s motivations, just as Captain Schmidt was used to show how badly Verner wanted to protect Marie.

Extra nazis, and all of them were “comically evil”. I’m only mentioning this because I’ve heard this comment several times. Let me start by giving credit where credit is due. Yes, the book was masterful in portraying nuance, and that included the nazi figures in Verner’s life. The thing is, subtlety doesn’t play out as well in a visual platform. It’s a show. Condensed, visual tension was necessary. As a result, the nazi figures had to be greatly dramatized compared to the figures in the book. 

Etienne is a badass. Okay, okay, I admit that even I felt iffy about this one, but I managed to make it make sense. First, keep in mind that the Etienne we met at the beginning of the show is PRESENT Etienne. He had already evolved. He’s had time to become brave. This is further reinforced by the flashback where we do see the Etienne that we knew from the book - the hermit suffering from PTSD - and we see the precise moment he grows out of it (aka “a tiger you will be again”). If anything, my only complaint is that he was already quietly involved in the Resistance by the time we meet him.

[breakingarrows]

Video Games as Theater and Language

Oftentimes video games are compared to movies under the assumption that this is the closest form of media related to games. Lots of games desperately want to be movies, which feeds this assumption, but ever since writing an essay on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare I've been thinking more and more how video games are stage plays, theater performances where the developer is the director and the player the actor, and an entirely new language. From my essay,

Replaying games such as this, you can begin to see behind the curtain, at all the various triggers the game is requiring. As director, Infinity Ward has set up cues: enemy spawning and despawning, set piece triggers, NPC barks, all that the player has to move about in to bring about a proper performance. This is heightened when performing video capture, as I did on my replay, where you want to give a good performance for not just the game and yourself but for those who might watch your video. Every first playthrough of a game is something of wonder, as you poke and prod at the game to see what it's capable of. All subsequent replays only reveal the systems that allowed that first wonder to exist. Eventually you reach a point of rehearsed replay, where you recount to other viewers how this mechanic is unique to a few sections or to watch the set piece occur on cue.

This orientation of thinking led me to the player's relationship to the developer and the question of whether or not they are aware of it. After decades of game playing I've learned to anticipate the developer's intention when playing linear campaigns. Listening to old podcasts at the time of Uncharted 2: Among Thieve's release I hear complaints about failing to fulfill the requirements of the game to progress. Friction being created between the actors actions not lining up with he director's intent, except in this case the director is not present to have a conversation with, to seek advice from. Instead you might seek counsel from GameFAQs or an online forum or friend who has or is playing the same game. This friction appears when the actor is not moving to the correct marker, occupying space another actor is supposed to fill, failing the timing on a cue, failing to perform the required action to enact the next scene. For those who are aware of a developers hand while playing a game, such as the color coding of climbable ledges and pathways in Uncharted 2, where did we learn this? Was it simply taught to us by uncountable time within games such as Call of Duty, Half-Life, Uncharted, Gears of War, and the like?

Ideas and thoughts such as this can generally be placed under thinking about "game design," a sort of literary theory of game in which we analyze and debate and deduce the intent of the author(s) and examine how well their message was read, how "natural" it felt to fulfill the requirements wordlessly set before us. This approach is what leads us to "How Super Mario Bros Mastered Level Design" in which they examine the text's ability to encode in us an entirely new language of play without words or tutorial. This language we have learned is most sharply brought into focus when attempting to explain a game's limitations to anyone not fluent, the stereotypical and true example for me being when my wife asks me questions about whatever game I may be playing, why I can't perform action X or Y, why the limits exist and what purpose they serve. Often I find it difficult to satisfactory explain without retreating into the refrain, "It's just the way it is."

Games teach us to observe and interpret signals, cues, specific phrases and images, and instantly translate them into a required reaction. Playing can often be a conversation between the player and the text, testing if the game can interpret our input just as much as we need to interpret its own. It is fascinating how we have been taught, trained, and learned an invisible language shared only by those with a similar history to our own and we continue to engage with the experimentation of any new game and poke and prod at its outer walls, knowing the history of limitations and wondering just how much further this specific stage might allow us to go.

[ankhisms]

angry cinematic parallels

watanabe shu in episode 3 of senpai danjite koidewa and miura ryosuke in episode 2 of mairunovich

[dathen]

Okay I have some complicated thoughts following Melanie’s arc that all build on top of each other and hinge HEAVILY on unreliable narrator interpretations so bear with me

In my relisten I’m at the beginning of s3, and it always shocks me a bit at how quickly she interprets Martin’s interaction with her as hostile.  I’m going to skip over the “it’s understandable, Melanie’s had a hard time in her career” disclaimers since there’s plenty of meta on that already, and instead follow the effects of this tendency: not on others, this time, but on her

(This got absurdly long and covers so many episodes so I’m going to split it into separate pre- and post-bullet surgery posts)

Rewinding a bit, the last time she was at the Institute, she was starting to get along with Jon before he seemed confused about her comment on “the other Sasha.”  It takes her a split second to interpret that confusion as him suddenly deciding to gaslight and mock her, gets angry and tells him there is something seriously wrong with him, and leaves before he can ask what she means.  Given how tenuous their truce was and the fact she and Jon had mocked each other in the past, it’s an outburst that at least has some personal history behind it.

But only a couple episodes later, we learn that it’s not just Jon she responds to in this way.  In TMA 84, she meets our Martin Blackwood!  Customer service voice opposite-of-Jon politeness extraordinaire!  And as soon as he gets confused about the two Sasha comment, she.......immediately assumes that HE is also trying to gaslight her.  She insists that “I’m not doing this again” without giving him a chance to ask or explain, so they miss the opportunity to piece together the deal with the Not!Sasha.  Her doing this with someone she just met shows a much broader pattern than her interactions with Jon.

That very episode, Elias offers Melanie a job, and she accepts despite Martin’s protests.  Later, she accuses them all of them being an “old boy’s club” because she interpreted Martin’s warnings as sexism rather than trying to protect her.  As the audience, we see the unreliable narrator of her perspective at work: we know that Jon and Martin were genuinely confused, and we know that Martin was trying to save her, and that all of these instances were her seeing it as people being out to get her.

Hop forward to the notorious gossip scene in TMA 106.  Here, Melanie complains about Martin being hostile to her.  My first assumption was that this was all offscreen, but after this parade of misinterpretation and comparing to her and Martin’s actual interactions, I have to wonder:

TMA 84, after Martin tells Melanie about the murder, and right before Elias interrupts:

Martin:  Are you sure you’re alright?

Melanie:  Yes!  I just got… God, I’m kind of at the end, you know?

Martin:  The end of what?

Melanie:   Everything.  Friends, clues, savings. Everything.  Options.  There’s nowhere left for me to go . I don’t know why, but…  I just, I just felt that perhaps coming here might help.  And talking things out with Jon.  I mean, I mean he’s awful, but at least he listens, you know?

Martin:   (soft) Yeah.  ...I’m sorry.  Um, is there anything that I could, like, maybe...do for you?

They get interrupted immediately after this, so this was the first impression Melanie was given.  Then, when Elias offers the job, she...assumes Martin’s “I don’t think that’s a good idea” is from sexism, when he’d just been talking about murders and disappearances that caused that very job opening.

TMA 88 

Melanie:   Are you alright?

Martin:  Yeah… Sorry, just a lot of change recently, y’know.  You and John and Sasha and… everything’s gone a bit wrong.  It’s the not knowing, you know?  I mean, Jon’s still alive.  Not sure why, but I’m sure of that.  But Sasha, I…

Melanie:   Yes, it’s… it’s probably, um…

Martin:   Sorry, sorry, I’m...  What do you need?

Next interaction!  Oh this one HURTS.  Martin takes her question literally, and starts telling her why she’s not alright, a reverse of their earlier exchange.  But Melanie came by for a question and wasn’t prepared for an honest answer, so Martin quickly reels it in and asks what he can do for her once again.

Skipping forward a bit in that same scene:

Martin:   Oh, you weren’t here when we took the place over from Gertrude!  It’s been over a year just to get it like this.  I mean, I think the database was on Jon’s list, but--

Melanie:  So how do you track someone down?

Martin:   Oh, oh well, y’know, we’ve a few contacts in various record offices around the place.  Aside from that it’s just… just a bit of detective work, really.  Tim used to do a great line in impersonating people to utility companies!  Heh, the number of times he got them to give him ‘his own’ address--

Melanie:  Right, right… Um, this one, the name is 'Jude Perry.’ Doesn’t mean anything to you, does it?

I LOVE THIS EXCHANGE.  I TREASURE IT.  Having bottled up his emotions, Martin is going in full Friendly Helpful Coworker mode.  There are so many little details here signaling that he’s embracing her as part of the team, sharing anecdotes about Tim’s shenanigans and Jon’s old plans, looping her in as One of Them as he helps her get what she needs.  This is the kind of approach you go to management trainings to get, to help new hires feel welcome and part of things.  But alas, Melanie is in a hurry and wants to cut to the chase, so all this is lost on her.

TMA 98 - I won’t copy it all in here because it’s long, but this is an overwhelmingly positive interaction.  She asks if he’s okay, but he bottles it up and says he’s fine.  This time, she presses, and he admits it’s because of the statements.  Martin ends up asking for help!! and Melanie agrees!  She’s on the way to murder Elias, but she still gets credit for “I’ll ask him to cut you some slack.”  Then she invites him to drinks!

And then.... TMA 106

Melanie:   Anyway, Martin’s always been lovely to you.

Basira:  Hmm. I don’t know, I mean, you should have seen him when I turned up last year. I think he thought I was trying to steal his precious Archivist.

Melanie:   Ahhh. I got the exact same when Jon was hiding out, and came to me with his “source on the inside” stuff.  Martin was not impressed.

WAIT WHAT

We just looked over all their interactions!  They were all soft and lovely and welcoming!!  But then we hear Melanie with “well unlike how he is to me, Martin is nice to you.”  This was taken at face value for years, but when you line up all of the above, I feel there is a strong basis to say this is another case of Melanie’s first impressions + over-defensiveness gone wrong.  Just like we saw her initial bickerings with Jon solidify into series-long hostility, her interpreting Martin’s confusion as gaslighting and warnings about the job as sexism seems to have doomed her opinion of him long-term.  We hear Martin being kind and concerned and welcoming, then hear Melanie contrast it as bad treatment.

Recently, a mutual considered this even further to how she talked about losing all of her friends with the Ghost Hunt UK circles:

Melanie:  Even back then, I could feel all my old friends starting to distance themselves from me. ...  I stopped asking the others for help, and I kept my research to myself. I talked to them less and less. By the time I was arrested, I think a lot of them had already given up on me.

I have to wonder...did this sort of dynamic play out here, too?  Did she assume that her friends’ concern was judgment or hostility?  Were they giving up on her, or did she lash out and push them away?  Either way, it’s easy to see parallels to s2 Jon in her description, here, with her withdrawing and diving alone into increasingly risky research without asking for help.  And s2 Jon definitely shared Melanie’s tendency to see offers for help and support as hostile.  (Aside:  I interpret her and Georgie as not very close at this point, like a networking contact rather than a friend; Melanie comes to Jon for someone to talk to about her struggles above her, and Georgie seems to be unaware of all of Melanie’s encounters pre-s3)

And on that downer note I am ending part 1...but PART 2 IS GOING TO BE WAY HAPPIER THAN THIS.  Here, we see Melanie with a lot of people who would have supported her if she let them:  Martin, Jon, possibly the friends she said abandoned her.  But in her effort to protect herself and not let history repeat for how she’d been hurt in the past, she ends up alone and spiraling.