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heliza24 · 7 months

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I want to talk a little bit about Daniel in the Interview with the Vampire show, because the new trailer material has me stuck thinking about him, and also I’ve never written about how meaningful he is as disabled character to me before.

I don’t see many people thinking about show!Daniel in these terms, but he’s a canon disabled character. And I think the way he is written is just SO good. The acerbic wit, his relationship to doctors and his medication, his rueful acceptance of the way his disability has changed him. It is all so correct!! It’s really incredibly rare to have not only a disabled character written this well but specifically a chronically ill character written this well. His illness is always present; it doesn’t get forgotten about by the story. It gives Daniel insight into the vampires (more on this in a min), but it also gives Louis and Armand leverage over him. When Louis triggers his Parkinson’s symptoms? Deeply not ok. But that’s what made it such a great scene, and really made Louis feel dangerous and threateningin that moment. Armand and Louis arranging Daniel’s meds is a sign of great care and also great power over Daniel. It’s the perfect way to communicate the complicated power dynamic in their relationship.

I also just fucking love that this show takes place in 2022 and doesn’t erase the pandemic. Covid is a very present concern for Daniel and I cannot describe how validating that is for me as someone who is clinically vulnerable to Covid and who has had to really limit my life and take a lot of precautions because everyone else has decided to stop caring whether they pass on Covid or not. The fact that Daniel gets on a plane to Dubai is a BIG DEAL. He’s risking his life to talk to Louis and Armand before he’s even in the room with them. He really wants to be there. I have to make a similar calculation every time I travel, and trust me, getting on that plane knowing getting sick could spiral you into even worse health or kill you is really hard.

I think making Daniel disabled and including the pandemic is kind of a genius level decision on a thematic level. Of course Daniel is now facing down his mortality, which gives him a whole new lens on the vampires and the fact that he once asked them to turn him. And the pandemic further highlights his fragility, and is also possibly being used as a cover for drama that’s happening in the vampire world. But I think it also really sets Daniel up as a foil to Louis.

There’s a lot of analysis of the vampire chronicles that reads vampirism as a metaphor for queerness. But I would actually propose that it’s a much neater parallel for disability and illness in a lot of ways. So many of Louis’s initial experiences after being turned resonated with me, as someone who became chronically ill in my 20s. My appetite and relationship to food completely changed, much like Louis. My relationship with the outdoors and the sun changed, because of dysautonomia and allergy reasons. I was very mad, and very depressed, and I too have missed out on birthday parties and big life events like Louis did because I was too sick to go. Hell, you can even say that the way that Louis is treated as evil by his family, that the way vampires literally can’t be a part of society during the day, is reminiscent of ableist exclusion and ugly laws. (Ugly laws were laws that forbid disabled people, especially those with visible differences, from being out in public, and they were on the books in many American municipalities until the 1970s.) You can look at Lestat being an out and proud vampire in the first few episodes on the season and imploring Louis to leave his shame behind as a queer thing, but you can also view it as a disabled thing. Disabled people are portrayed as monstrous so often (and in a way that has gone relatively unexamined compared to say, the queer coded villain trope) that sometimes it’s just easier to embrace that label: I’m the monstrous Crip, but at least I’m not ashamed of or disgusted by who I am anymore.

I do think the real strength of this adaptation is that while you can find parallels between queerness or disability or other forms of marginalization with vampirism, ultimately it’s not a one-to-one parallel. It speaks to the real world but ultimately it is a gothic horror story about supernatural monsters. So I don’t mean to say that vampirism directly equals disability, because it does not. But I do think that making Daniel disabled was an intentional choice to help draw out some of those parallels, and I think the text is richer for it.

So Louis and Daniel have had these kind of parallel experiences of uncontrollable and difficult things happening to their bodies. It sets them up perfectly as foils, and even, I would argue, as the A plot and B Plot protagonists. This is one of my favorite ways of kind of examining the structure of a TV show (or maybe it’s that most of my favorite shows seem to be structured this way?). When TV was all episodic, it would be common to refer to the A plot (mystery of the week), B plot (interpersonal drama happening as the mystery gets solved) and C plot (any overarching plot tying the season together) in an episode. Now that stuff is serialized, there’s often a main protagonist, who has the main dramatic question and the most agency, and then there is often a secondary B plot that explores similar themes and mirrors the A plot, or presents a second main character who is the ldifferent side of the same coin” to the main protagonist. (My favorite example of this is Flint and Max in Black Sails, and I’ve also made the argument that Wilhelm and Sara fit this pattern in Young Royals.) In IwtV, Louis is obviously the main protagonist of the show, especially in the A Plot, which is the stuff taking place in New Orleans/Paris. But I would argue that Daniel is the protagonist of the B Plot set in Dubai. At the very least they’re intentionally set up as mirrors of each other:

They are both unreliable narrators, who are struggling with the way memory contorts (through memory erasure, illness, deliberate obfuscations, and just the passage of time). The most recent teaser trailer, where we hear Louis saying “I don’t remember that”, with panic in his voice, further underlined this similarity between Louis and Daniel to me. I don’t know if it means that Louis has also had his memory tampered with, as I’m assuming Daniel has, but I do think it means that Louis is going to be struggling with feeling out of control of his own narrative more in season 2, a thing that was already starting for Daniel in season 1.

They are also both locked into power struggles with people more powerful than they are. The fact that Louis is under Lestat in the flashbacks and above Daniel in the Dubai scenes in terms of power/status makes it all the more interesting. And, if we want to go ahead and assume that the Devils Minion’s years have happened in the past by the time we get to Dubai— it’s possible that both Daniel and Louis are united in being the less powerful partner in their own respective fucked up gothic romances.

They’re also both the audience’s entry point into their respective stories. Louis’s narration guides us into the world of vampires. Daniel’s questioning satisfies our human curiosity in Dubai.

I think one of the things that makes the show so special is the way that these two protagonists interact. In a lot of shows the a plot and the b plot stay pretty separate. I love talking about Black Sails for this because I think it’s such a good example; Flint and Max never exchange dialogue the entire show, even though they’re so clearly affecting each other the whole time. But the way that Louis and Daniel clash in Dubai is so exciting. We see them both wrestling for control of the narrative. It’s thrilling to watch and it just hammers home the theme of how complicated and changeable stories can be.

I am SO excited to see how the Dubai scenes play out in season 2 because of it. I really can’t wait. I’m really hoping we’ll see Daniel and Louis’s relationship evolve in surprising ways, and I’m holding my breath that we’ll get a lot of Armandaniel material to work with. (I have a whole other post drafted that’s much less smart than this one and is just me waxing poetic about Devil Minion’s theories which I may post at some point. You have been warned.)

I do have two wishes for Daniel in the new season, and they’re 1: that he gets to have romance/sex, because disabled (and older!) characters are so often seen as unworthy of being desired, and I would like to see that challenged and 2: that he continues to refuse to be turned/is not offered a vampiric cure for Parkinson’s. The magic cure for a disability or chronic illness is probably my least favorite disability trope, because it serves to erase disabled characters and representation from the narrative, and I want to see my experiences continue to be reflected in Daniel’s. That means that whatever ending Daniel’s story has will probably have at least a bit of tragedy baked into it, but I’m ok with that.

#interview with the vampire amc #interview with the vampire #iwtv #daniel molloy #armandaniel #devils minion #louis de pointe du lac #armand #my meta #my crip media reviews #devil’s minion

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raelle-writing · 7 months

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DFF Final Episode trailer: analysis and speculation

Co-credit for this analysis goes to @kerrikins - this was also cross-posted from our fan account on Twitter @.DFF_Fanatics

If you want to just reblog the trailer and not our analysis, I uploaded it in this post.

There are a lot of interesting details in this trailer, so we've analyzed it all below:

The trailer starts off with what basically seems like a recap of the show so far. Showing us the group going into the woods, them being friends at school... and then showing snippets of Phee and Jin getting close, as well as Tee and White.

Then, as the trailer continues, we see Jin and Non together, and then the last shot that goes black and white is Phee and Non... reminding us of the real reason that everything in the present is happening now.

Then, of course, we see Tan mixing the hallucinogen. We already know he used this to spike the drinks of the friend group when they first entered the woods. And in the preview for episode 11, we see Tan lighting a joint - perhaps getting them all high on hallucinogens again...? Which could be what causes the hallucinations in this trailer.

From this point on, we can assume what we're seeing are hallucinations. The drug that Tan uses, he previously mentioned can cause people to hallucinate their fears - but also their secrets. So we have to wonder if what we're seeing are the boys' fears, or something they're hiding.

The first we see is Fluke, and on the surface it seems straightforward. His fear is being arrested - as we already know, he's scared of something tainting his record and preventing him from becoming a doctor.

But then when you look closely, there's some interesting details. Fluke is standing in the hallway outside of Keng's office at the tutor school - and why would Fluke's subconscious be manifesting that he'd be arrested specifically right there?

Perhaps because he did something wrong there, something that still haunts him? Could be he feels guilty for not stopping Jin from recording or releasing the video... or could be he did something more, since he says to the hallucination of Non that he's sorry he did something bad?

(I still strongly suspect that Jin wasn't the one who released the video - though he likely thinks he did - and that Fluke was involved in the release, as I previously wrote in another meta).

Next, we see Top, hallucinating Non. My first question is, is Top still alive? Is he hallucinating while he's bleeding out on the floor? Did the gunshot somehow miss vital organs so he's relatively "fine"? How is he still involved in the action, considering I definitely thought he was dead?

rom the start, Top was the strongest believer that Non was dead and haunting them. His fear is manifesting here, in Non haunting him. Also because he was the one who helped Tee carry Non away - he may feel directly culpable in Non's death, if he doesn't know that Tee was involved with Non later. That might be why his fear of Non haunting him is so strong.

Next we see Tee holding a knife. Then we're shown scenes in quick flashes - what looks to be Tee stabbing Non (who is wearing the same shirt he disappeared in) and then White, laying on the floor of a gaming arcade, bleeding out.

In the preview for episode 11, we see Tee promise to help Non, and then later we see him screaming as if in grief.

My interpretation is that the hallucination above was of Tee killing Non - perhaps because Tee believes that he caused Non's death, and that's the secret he carries. Or perhaps Tee did kill Non himself, and that's why he hallucinates that same scenario. And then the sudden switch to White bleeding out could be Tee's fear. That he'll kill White, too. Or cause his death somehow, just like he did to Non.

Next, we see Jin. First we see him holding the knife, then we see him standing in front of a bunch of screens, all showing scenes of Jin in compromising positions. Jin's secret? His secret that he was the one who filmed Non... or his fear? Jin's fear could be exposure. Having his vulnerability put on display the way he did to Non.

It's also interesting that some of the scenes shown in those videos aren't ones we've seen yet. My guess is that they're more times that Phee and Jin had sex, that just weren't shown to the audience.

Or perhaps, it's a manifestation of Jin's guilt. That his fear is twisting him, putting himself in Non's position to understand what Non felt when Jin recorded that video...

And last, we see Phee. It starts with Non talking to Phee, saying roughly "when you said you would protect me it was a lie wasn't it?" Then we see a shot of Non in a bloody bathtub - which seems like a clear reference to suicide.

Phee's next hallucination is the same - he's running, but unable to reach Non before he jumps off the building and falls to his death. Phee's fear - that his final words to Non were what then caused Non's death. That when he told Non to "get lost and die," Non went and did just that.

Now of course another question here is - why is Phee hallucinating? So far he's been the one who got the antidote since he worked with New. The likely answer is that he betrayed New by telling Jin about their plan, and therefore is now in New's way...

One final thought: It's very interesting that we don't get a hallucination scene in this trailer for White. Is he dead? Unconscious? Involved...? We have no idea, and the trailer gives no hints.

This is all just speculation of course - it'll be interesting to see how things play out in the next two episodes!

ETA: someone on Twitter pointed out that the shot of Tee and White in the computer room is likely White’s hallucination since he’s wearing the clothes from the forest and Tee is not. But I have no idea what his hallucination might mean

#dead friend forever #dff #dff the series #dff meta #dff analysis #dff spoilers

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viaphni · 4 months

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RUINED REALLTY SEASON THREE: CATALYST TRAILER ANALYSIS

I have to completely admit that the end of season 2 and its epilogue had me very hesitant for the way things are going, and I am still a little hesitant, but i DO BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE 1000% COOKING

First of all, that trailer was AMAZING!

The music, atmosphere, and cinematography were all done very very well (and great voice acting from Rinzler too)

But onto the actual trailer

It opens up on the results of the Soulstice's arrival, with Light alone, showing everybody's souls stolen away and their bodies on the ground. Light has lost it all. He immediately blames himself. It's also made apparent pretty quickly that Soullless is still present in some way, and is going to play a significant role again.

One of the first really interesting things to occur is Light taking the Soul Eater's weapon in his hands.

He stares at it for a moment before picking it up, the screen fading to black. But why would he be using his worst enemy's weapon? What benefit does it serve him? Mostly likely, I think it would have something to do with Soulless. Whether he likes it or not, Light now has a complete tie to the Soulstice itself. As he takes it, he says "And now, another threat is here..."

And Void's new reign of terror is displayed:

We are shown the Yellow Kingdom again, and the areas around it, completely overtaken by Darkness. Void must have taken complete control of the situation, as we just saw Seer with active dominance over their body in the epilogue. Maybe it was a defense mechanism to keep him alive after Corrupt's attack?

After these shots, we see what I think is the center tower of the kingdom—and there is a deep, bottomless pit surrounding it where the moat of lava once was.

It reminds me a bit of the castle entrance to the Depths from Tears of the Kingdom. Void might have something important down there.

A few more shots cycle through of the tower, and we see this—

The camera is descending into the chasm.

Next, we see a room maybe akin to some kind of lab?

It could also be a big machine. Somebody is standing there, but even with heightened exposure and brightness, it's hard to tell who it is. I'm sure it's Void, however, due to the chasm and darkness. This shot is really interesting, too--

--because it seems to be the view of the surface from this area underground. With heightened exposure, the walls look very machine-like.

Whether that or a lab, it clearly serves a primary purpose in Void's plans. (One of my first thoughts was likely a stretch, but I asked myself if it could be similar to the Soulstice--in the way that a machine was created to steal all souls, another would be created now to spread Darkness. Shadow Sabre did something similar in RQ.)

The next four shots emphasize what seems to be some of our new group of main characters.

We see the Purple Leader in his home. Him coming into the main cast will be very interesting, as I'm sure it will give us more opportunities to learn about the histories with people like the Sorcerer and Phantasia, strong links to the Soulstice. I'm sure this knowledge will be vital to the fight.

Now this next photo--I can't exactly tell what's going on here? It appears to be Corrupt's lab? When the exposure and brightness are edited, I can't see any details. But this is 1000% Corrupt is just is trust frfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrffrfr Corrupt is alive

The shot then switches to an Indigo and an unidentifiable Aquamarine who seems to be imbued with light energy, given the white eye. I assumed this could be Aaron, but his soul got stolen. Who knows? The Indigo is the Doctor Indigo, I would think--given the coat and monocle, but he didn't have a design in Season 2, so I'm unsure. Both of these could be completely new characters.

And now, Dimension facing off with the Soulstice. It seems that Dimension will play a much bigger role now and actually put in the work for once. I guess that was his final straw? Or maybe the season will start and he will still show absolutely no concern.

A couple of interesting shots of Light and Soulless show up after this.

In a similar fashion to the Season 2 intro, Light walks towards the camera and glitches into his other forms, this one being Soulless. It only emphasizes his apparent new role in the season.

After this, we see a standoff between the main cast and the main opposition. Light, Professor, Dimension, Purple, and...a strange new variant of Assistant. It makes me think of the assistant robot from A Dark Soul, which was also themed around light. In the beginning of the trailer (and in the thumbnail), we only see the Assistant as a head. I guess he got repaired, and Light was a major factor playing in it.

I'd also like to point out how odd the new Sculk Steves look. They have gray streaks, like light energy. Since Corrupt was absorbed by the Soulstice, I imagine that the light crystal he held became of high use to the Soulstice, allowing it to power up these Steves like this.

The patterns on the ends of their limbs also look much bigger/brighter/saturated, or maybe its just the lighting--like soul flames instead of the typical sculk steve pattern.

The Steve standing above in the second picture catches my eye, though. It seems to be a "normal" being, and even appears to be holding something if you look closely.

Right by the head there. This figure is also standing closest to the Soulstice, so they must be important. Could it be Corrupt? Well if you watch a few more seconds--

Right there. We see Light fighting with who appears to be that figure. But that sword... We have seen that sword before!

Corrupt's sword.

We never saw Corrupt disappear when the Soulstice found him. It's more than probable that he simply could have just absorbed the light energy from him, used it to power up the sculk steves and other operations, and left Corrupt weakened. But what purpose would he have even leaving him alive? The Soulstice has everything it needs now, right?

Light found Toxin, too. And with a potion effect? He seems weakened. Perhaps Void has abandoned him and Light will team up with him? He already seemed to be cracking during his fight with Light in the forest where his prior identity as Soren was revealed. Is it finally time we get Soren back? Or will he still be evil?

The next few shots depict a battle between Light and Void, seemingly at his new base of operations. I'd put photos, but I'm almost out of space, and I want to keep this all in one post. Plus, there isn't a lot to analyze there.

The final shots of the trailer are some of my favorite ones.

There's a good bit to break down here.

We start out by seeing Light's cursed form, except his curse appears to have spread greatly. I've also just realized that he doesn't have his soul-afflicted eye in this form. Images of Purple Leader, Soulstice, Professor, Soulless, and Assistant are not surprising--we already know of their larger roles. I believe that's Corrupt again in the 5th shift. As for the 8th, I'm a bit confused. I don't think we know who this person is. However, the purple belt definitely brings up a few ideas, even if they're stretches. Could we meet a new Purple Steve--maybe even Phantasia?? I doubt that's the case, as it seems pretty outlandish. The Yellow Leader being present actually makes a lot of sense as well. His Darkness should give him resistance to the Soulstice.

BUT, I'm really focusing in on those last three. Louis, Cliff, and,, Seer.

We saw the Elites' souls taken. Clearly, they find their way back to the land of the living eventually (and with some sick new redesigns.) Louis doesn't change much, but Cliff appears to now be entirely a Light Steve. Which brings up another thought--if he is now 100% light, does this mean that he is completely purged of Darkness? Is his Shadow gone? Is his shadow the reason he had to become fully light?

And then there's Seer. There's no doubt that this is him. My friend @chaoticcyprus brought up this photo:

We saw this shot during the semi-finale when Void was battling the Soul Eater. The outfit aligns perfectly, except now his hood is down, and he seems to have been set free from whatever chains held him previously.

But how would Seer and Void separate? I assume it would have something to do with Corrupt's final blow on Void.

Corrupt dealt an absolutely MASSIVE amount of power onto his opponent. I'm sure that the sheer amount of light energy could be enough to somehow split Void and Seer apart. It would explain Void's sudden spike in power and authority that he seems to have in the next season.

As for any final thoughts,,, I can't think of much else for now.

But I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone else has to say, and also what the team presents for Catalyst!

#ruined reality #The trailer was genuinely sick #VERY much excited to see what they cook up #But i swear #I SWEAR #IF THOSE LEADERS DONT GET BROGUHT BACK........#IM GOING ON MY DOXXING ARC.................................#.#Anywho #Very peak #If anything is contradicting in this post i apologize #This was my live analysis #I am not proofreading 1300+ words...

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dykeomania · 1 year

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as hockey season approaches:

an extended headcanon that's been in my head for a year. character-analysis-y. ellie. abby. messiness. this was just in my notes app, it's mid, y'all can have it.

i have this scene that I've written and rewritten in my head a million times where it's hockey!ellie (college athlete) and all of her friends/exes/lol? who are on the team (cat, riley, and dina) sitting in the farthest back row of a solemn team meeting.

ellie's a stellar forward. abby's a stellar goalie. they play for the same team, but the friction is crazy. and see what had happened was -- everyone knows that ellie and abby's friend groups don't like each other. and alright, fine, coach marlene has worked to create an environment where that can simply be at lax. but anyone with a set of eyes and basic common sense can tell that what happened was simply six years worth of whispers behind hands and shit-talking in group chats brought to fruition, and it's curious how it didn't happen sooner. the explosion, to put it lightly, in which during both of their sophomore seasons at BC when ellie checked abby's shoulder on the ice after a failed near-goal-face-off, which turned into expletives flying through the plexiglass like bullets, which turned into helmets flying and both of them being on the ground of the ice wailing at each other, was clearly an overdue manifestation of eachother's frustrations and presumptions. it was unclear who shoved who first but, alas, it was irrelevant.

and as entertaining as it was to watch, no one won. because let's really get into it: ellie can't help that she's trailer park trash. she can't help that she grew up in bumfuck, wyoming and moved to fucking dorchester / haverhill / wherever the fuck while abby got to spend the summers with her family on the cape. she can't help that abby is daddy's-money-fuck-you-rich and they get to go their winter cabin over christmas break, and ellie doesn't want to go home because she hasn't really faced her father figure since she left for college and frankly, she doesn't know if she wants to.

she can't help that she's the first one in her family to do this and she had to work for everything -- her scholarship to the prep school that both her and abby went to, her athletic scholarship to BU -- whereas abby is a third-generation-doctor in the making who could simply just afford to be anywhere. she can't help that the end of the day, despite all of the work she's put in, she still has to be here. and look at the back of abby's fuckass fishtail braid.

abby on the other hand, can't help that when everytime she searches the stands for her dad's face during games, she only sees most of ellie's family waving banners and flags. she can't help that that's how it's always been. she can't help that her dad doesn't have time to care about the work she's putting in to school and to hockey, and she can't help that ellie gets to be normal -- gets to sleep, gets to party, gets to hang out and fuck whoever she wants with no consequence, and never, ever invites her to the fucking pregame.

she can't help that ellie doesn't spend as much time thinking -- about working out, about watching what she's eating, about socializing; seriously, how the fuck does she socialize so effortlessly despite being the dimmest fucking person she's ever seen--

like, it's six years in the making. from boarding school, to now.

all those punches, all that yelling, all that cussing, all that spitting,

and yet, no one won.

and you know what? maybe if they knew about how much they actually had in common, things would've turned out differently. they would be pleasantly surprised to find out that they could have conversations about their relationships with their father figures, and how thanksgiving is typically the worst holiday of the year. how to some extent, at the end of the day, it's all for a photo op. ellie is naturally good at hockey and is having a great time in college, but has a degree to bring home to her family, and to her demise, she wants that degree to have "astrophysics" on it. abby doesn't even know if she wants to go to medical school. but she knows that if she doesn't get in, despite everything that advantages her (which is a real fucking possibility according to her, given that she got a C-in orgo) it'd just be another reason for her dad to not look at her. and really, that's all she wants. just to fucking be seen.

but unfortunately, no gives a fuck about that.

so ellie will continue to keke in the group chat with her friends and abby will continue to openly talk shit with hers, and who knows? if shit doesn't hit the fan, then maybe they can get to a point in the conversation where they can finally agree to just let shit slide. maybe ellie will finally agree to start inviting abby to their fucking pregames.

but as of rn, ellie's gonna keke in her group chat.

because no way abby just tried to call out ellie's dating habits when she's fucking one of their coaches on the low--

#ellie williams x reader #ellie williams #abby anderson #i guess dare i say #ellabs #lmfao #gn

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sirenjose · 9 months

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Analysis of Galatea Claude (+ Holloway Sanatorium Theory)

Holloway could be where Simon was sent following his accident. His trailer did mention “sanatorium”, which is the term used in the CN and JP versions of Annie’s letter, while the English version of Annie’s letter calls it a “nursing home”, which matches with the term used regarding where Simon was sent in Lily’s deductions and backstory.

Simon and Lily, as part of the Barriere family, would be part of the middle/upper class and thus would qualify for the Holloway Sanatorium.

Also, as Simon was said to have suffered “severe brain and body trauma, becoming paraplegic, mentally regressed to a toddler, demented, and unable to speak”, this could match with how Holloway Sanatorium was said to care for those with mental health problems and learning disabilities. With this facility being for the upper class, that could also explain why Lily needs a lot of money for Simon’s medical bills, especially as, unlike Annie, Simon wouldn’t be in the “temporary ward”. He’d be long-term.

I know some have said Simon could’ve actually been sent to White Sand Street Asylum, in part due to Galatea appearing during Lily’s trailer while Lily was visiting her brother.

Holloway Sanatorium was built by Thomas Holloway as an asylum for the mentally ill in Surrey. They used the name “sanatorium” instead of asylum due to the “stigma attached to being admitted to an asylum”.

So it technically is an asylum, just with emphasis on those who were better-off.

It was said “it was for a superior kind of inmate, somewhere between those who had only small means, and those who were more comfortably off but who could not have afforded the luxury of individual private care (although private rooms were also provided here). The original purpose was to cater for ‘200 patients, divided into four classes, 1st, 2nd, sick and feeble, and excited. All day-rooms, dormitories and single rooms had a south and south-western aspect. Attendants’ rooms were placed between day-rooms and dormitories with a glass window or doors of communication that allowed them to keep the patients under observation’”.

In its first year, 73 patients were admitted, whose primary diagnoses included anxiety, melancholia, mania and dementia. Some patients worked in the gardens or farm, or in indoor domestic work, while during leisure they could stroll through the grounds, or play tennis, croquet, or cricket.

In 1888, “gentlewomen” were the largest number admitted “a category made up of unmarried women of a good class, but perhaps without much in the way of financial resources”. In 1892, it had 615 patients being treated for insanity caused by “domestic and business troubles, worry and overwork”. Other reasons given were “influenza, drink, nervous shock and sunstroke”.

This would at least connect to and explain Annie being there (the large number of females, the mention of causes being worry, and for women of good class but without much in the way of financial resources). Simon could also fit based on his own mental and bodily issues.

But I wanted to also bring up the idea its possible Galatea could’ve been sent here for a time too.

Galatea was born to the Claudes, who are described as a “family of artists”, and we see in Galatea’s 1st deduction that she got started as a sculptor and displaying her skill from an early age.

We see she progresses quite quickly according to her 2nd deduction, which mentions her surpassing (likely her teacher’s) expectations and who wants to bring Galatea to Paris or Florence for the better “artistic atmosphere” and “expand her vision and benefit her artistic cultivation”.

Unfortunately, when Galatea was 18, she was diagnosed with dwarfism.

We know the Sanatorium was primarily for those with mental issues. Galatea’s 3rd deduction does have a doctor mentioning her having a “rare illness” that will cause her “serious challenges to her physically and mentally” in the long term. So maybe she could’ve been sent there right before and for a time after her diagnosis.

Dwarfism doesn’t typically affect a person’s intellectual ability. Those with dwarfism mostly all have normal intellectual capacities, but this is during the Victorian era, when these sorts of issues weren’t as well understood. In the Victorian era, they commonly associated physical differences or disabilities with intellectual or mental impairment and could be subjected to prejudices or discriminatory treatment. People with these sort of disabilities were seen as defective back then, with their issues believed to affect their ability to work and even their morals (due to the belief physical appearance was believed to reveal a person’s moral compass and chances at success).

This would actually connect to Galatea’s deduction 4, where we see someone saying about Galatea that “tangible beauty is out of her reach. She’s just a ‘child’ after all”. This shows that people thought Galatea as someone stuck, physically and mentally, as a “child”, which connects to how this deduction also talks about the “price of being ‘naïve’”.

Along this same line, Galatea’s 5th deduction, likely by her teacher again, says that Galatea was unable to “adapt to her new life in Florence”. Her teacher believes the reason for this is because Galatea is “still too immature, both physically and mentally”, before saying she may need a “change of environment to stimulate her talent once more”.

This again proves people saw Galatea’s dwarfism as affecting/stunting her mentally, not just physically.

Besides this, regarding Galatea’s inability to “adapt” should refer to how her backstory says “she realized that her soul would be imprisoned in this young girl's shell forever, and she fell into endless resentment. In anger, her creativity also entered a bottleneck period”. This creative “bottleneck” is why Galatea’s teacher suggests she change environment to “stimulate her talent once more”.

Dwarfism shouldn’t actually have any affect on Galatea’s ability to sculpt, so as we see this bottleneck was created by Galatea’s own feelings rather than any inability. Galatea was frustrated at the fact she’d forever remain looking like a child. Despite how mature she actually was, she would only ever been seen as a child, when she wanted to be viewed as equals and an adult. This belief that Galatea was only a child would also mean Galatea wouldn’t be taken as seriously. They would only ever focus on the fact that she was “defective”. Despite how vast her creativity or imagination was, or how great her mind was, Galatea was stuck on the fact she would forever be “imprisoned in this young girl’s shell”.

This connects to how Galatea is stated to like “beautiful, mature women”, something she wants to be and dreams about, but is unfortunately hampered by her being “imprisoned” in her current body due to her condition.

This was before Galatea gained her self-confidence. After her diagnosis, she possibly had a fair amount of self-doubt, as well as may have lacked proper support, not to mention felt the weight of how everyone around her saw her as basically less than she was due to her issue.

These were the things hampering Galatea’s ability to create. She was likely unable to focus on anything besides her issue and how people treated her as a result (which could also imply she did lack support and/or didn’t even have a sympathetic ear to listen to her feelings).

It was around this time that Galatea was said to have received an invitation from a “mysterious wealthy businessman” who “invited her to go to his home to make a statue for him”. This relates to Galatea’s deduction 6, which lists one of the envelopes as being a “check signed by Baron DeRoss”.

When she returned from this appointment, she came back “bursting with strong creative desire and dazzling sculpting talent, as if she was a different person”.

Galatea’s 3rd letter is likely a description of what she did for Baron DeRoss during this time.

The task he assigned her was to restore a “collection of sculptures dedicated to the Muses”. They were made using a technique that Galatea had imitated during her studies in Florence to “produce a number of animal sculptures”. 1 of these animal sculptures she made was mentioned in her 1st letter to be a “bird” she describes as “imprisoned in stone”.

The reason she describes it that way is to parallel herself. She is also someone “imprisoned” in a body that won’t change, just like stone. It is possible these animal sculptures were the ones she created during her “bottleneck” while she was still consumed by her “resentment” and frustration over her condition.

Her deduction 6 says there are several envelopes that had an “incomplete wax seal that seems to be part of a fern pattern”, which means they came from Oletus Manor and thus that Galatea and Baron DeRoss had more correspondence between each other before Galatea got the invitation and went to the manor. It is possible it was during this correspondence, before she got an invitation, that she sent him the bird sculpture. It’d fit with how Galatea was at that time before the trip to Baron DeRoss’ manor, as she describes the bird as “A meaningless, disorderly, insignificant work of which the spirit gradually died”, which relates to Galatea’s creative bottleneck while she was still consumed by resentment and frustration. This would explain how Baron DeRoss could’ve noticed how Galatea used the same technique as creator of the muse statues, and that would be why he invited her. This would also explain why Galatea says in her 1st letter that “when I see it again” (referring to the bird) she “destroyed it”. She made the bird, then sent it to Baron DeRoss, then when she was invited and went to his manor, she saw it again, and after seeing and studying the Muse statues, she decided to destroy the bird she made.

Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure yet who the creator of the muse statues was, the one who is described as “not a world-renowned sculptor” but was “a genius favored by art yet scorned by fate, has long since returned to ash, the tragic victim of a vicious fire”.

Although, Alice during Ashes of Memory 1 does say “These sculptures are mechanisms designed by Mr. Lapadura, and all the doors in this manor can be opened with the nightingale’s song”, though we know he has not died in a fire yet, as Burke is at least around through game 10 (with Tracy, Luca, Charles, and Bonbon). That could mean Burke may have modified the sculptures to have the mechanisms used to open the secret doors in the manor, but may not have been the one to actually sculpt them. He just designed the “mechanisms” in them.

While at the manor, Galatea studies the Muse statues and spends “an inordinate amount of time on my task, far more than necessary” due to making “a number of discoveries, ones that were not mentioned to me before”. As for the discoveries Galatea refers to, one of them is how there are “two genuine sculptures of the Muse Terpsichore in different poses”, while the 2nd discovery was “a near-perfect counterfeit of Calliope”.

Regarding Terpsichore, Galatea says it is rare to see 2 of the same figure in 1 set, and generally only happens when “a piece is lost during the sculpting process, forcing the artist to complete the original set with a new replacement”.

As for Calliope, Galatea initially says she has an “imperfection… left by her creator” before then commenting “Perhaps it isn't an imperfection at all, but an incomplete section of the sculpture? Much like the words written on the counterfeit's back (which have been rubbed away), perhaps it's simply waiting for the artist to return and finish what was started”. Galatea states Baron DeRoss needs to make a decision regarding it, likely regarding what to do or whether to complete the “incomplete section of the sculpture”. It is when he makes this decision Galatea feels she’ll return to the manor to “ensure that she is made whole”.

Besides that 1 incomplete section, Galatea finishes “restoring” what she can of the other statues. This is likely happening around the time Baron DeRoss (Orpheus) is restoring the rest of the manor and its grounds after he took over (after the manor had been ruined following the DeRoss tragedy when Alice’s parents were killed). Galatea obviously becomes obsessed over those statues and completing the one imperfection of the near-perfect counterfeit of Calliope. This could tie to how Galatea in her 1st letter says she “used to pursue the praise of fools. But now I don't have time to care for such trivial matters”, which fits with how we know Galatea is an “obsessed and crazy perfectionist” based on her design notes.

It is because of this trip that Galatea in her 1st letter talks about learning of the “fragile existence of the body itself” as well as “heard the divine birth of a sculpture” and the “truth of art breaking out of its shell”. This connects to the bird, which she described as “imprisoned in stone”, and to Galatea herself, and could relate to her now thinking about how to essentially break it and herself out of their “imprisonment”. This could tie to how the design notes say her goal is to “create a most perfect self” and how she “immerses herself as her own creation when sculpting”.

Her condition at first had made it seem like her goal would be “impossible to reach in her life” due to the “sick joke destiny played on her”. She saw herself and her creations as “ordinary”, “imperfect”, and “unable to be loved”. This realization, once she heard her diagnosis, caused her to be consumed by “hate, rage, and madness”. After her trip to the manor, working to restore the Muse statues, Galatea now had her own “muse” and a strong desire (due to her perfectionism) to come back to the manor so she could complete Calliope.

The experience changed her. Especially with all the time she had to think, I believe this helped rebuild her confidence and erase whatever self-doubts she had, with the help of her fixation on her goals, allowing her to break free of her earlier creative bottleneck. Rather than Galatea suddenly having so much new talent after her trip, I believe it was talent she already had but couldn’t access due until she broke free of the psychological chains created by herself and others due to their views regarding her condition.

She returns to Florence from Oletus Manor, eventually telling her father that “I’ve learned so much more from this trip than when I was in Florence previously”. As a result of what she’s learned, she tells him that she has “decided to end my study here and return home soon” and to reserve “side hall in the annex for my creative purposes”, making it clear she’s gotten past her bottleneck. We know from Galatea’s backstory that her family were initially “very happy” at her change and talent.

Some time later, we know from Galatea’s 8th deduction that she received “Volume 10 of Ovid's The Metamorphoses”. Based on the stamp with a fern pattern, this means this book came from Baron DeRoss. In Book 10 of Ovid’s The Metamorphoses are a number of stories, including the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice as well as the tale of Pygmalion and the Statue.

In this book, Pygmalion’s story is sung by Orpheus after he loses Eurydice the 2nd time. Pygmalion was a king of Cyprus who swore off women after seeing the vices of some (the Propoitides who had become prostitutes) that lead shameful lives. Instead, he devoted himself to art and sculpted a statue out of ivory of what he felt was the ideal women. He ended up falling in love with his creation (that he’d poured his heart and soul into) due to its beauty. Pygmalion named the statue Galatea and treated it like a real woman. When Aphrodite’s festival day comes, he prayed to her, asking for a wife like his statue, and the goddess brings the statue itself to life, which Pygmalion marries.

This connects very well to Galatea’s accessory Marble Bust, which has the description “It's a shame that it will never be real”.

Pygmalion wanted to create the ideal women after seeing the shameful lives some lived. To Galatea, her current condition is like the shameful women, and like how Pygmalion wanted to create an image of the ideal woman in response, Galatea’s goal is to create a perfect version of herself in response to her diagnosis. We know she works on this upon returning to her parents’ home as Galatea’s deduction 9 is about a “sculpture of a female named ‘Galatea’” that demonstrated Galatea’s “delicate” technique but also displayed the ideal version of herself based on the description of the “elegant curves of the body and tension of life bursting out of it will make it difficult to look away”. Deduction 9 is titled “Effect of Anticipation: You will become the most perfect creation”.

Galatea was finally received admiration and acclaim, as the review sates “the Claude's upcoming star is rising again” but as we heard in Galatea’s 1st letter, she no longer cares about the “praise of fools”, instead describing it as “trivial matters”. All that matters is creating her masterpiece, the image of what Galatea imagines her “perfect self” to look like.

She becomes obsessed with it just like how Pygmalion fell in love with his own creation. Her backstory states her parents noticed she spent more and more time in her work room, to the point she neglected eating and drinking. Her parents became even more concerned when they noticed she “often talked to the statues, as if they were alive”.

This is just like how Pygmalion treated his statue like a real woman before Aphrodite made it real.

This continued until one day, seeing Galatea talking to her statue again, Galatea’s father threw it off the terrace in a fit of range. Unexpectedly for him, Galatea jumps after it “without hesitation”. This connects to Galatea’s deduction 10, which describes the “Broken pieces of plaster scattered all over the floor” of Galatea’s sculpture, the image Galatea created of her “perfect self”.

It is said there were pieces for everything except the head. This could mean Galatea hadn’t finished her creation yet, and still needed to complete the head before her father destroyed the statue.

Galatea as a result of her jumping off the terrace after her creation becomes hemiplegic (paralyzed). This incident also results in Galatea’s parents deciding their daughter was crazy and thus sent her to an asylum, where they used “various inhuman ‘treatment methods’ on Galatea, but her condition did not improve”.

Galatea seems to have eventually ended up at White Sand Street Asylum based on the existence of the headless statue from that trailer appearing in 1 of the cells of White Sand Street Asylum in game.

I think it’s possible Galatea could’ve been at Holloway Sanatorium at least temporarily (then transferred later to White Sand Street Asylum when Galatea’s madness worsened. Or maybe she was here before her trip to the DeRoss manor, as people saw dwarfism as something that also affected a person’s mental abilities, though I prefer the idea that she at least could’ve been at Holloway first then transferred to White Sand later if anything).

We know Galatea was restrained eventually and put in what looks like a cell based on her trailer.

Holloway Sanatorium did have and employ physical restraints, such as straps and jackets, such as to stop patients from injuring themselves or others. Back then, it was more commonly utilized than it is today (not until the 1950s that it was limited to unless a patient was brought in by the police). Seclusion was another form of restraint, with patients confined to ‘strong rooms’ which contained only a bed, chair, and small table. There were four protected or ‘padded’ cells at Holloway, 2 in the male ward and 2 in the female one. In these rooms, the walls were literally padded, and the floor was made from a grey, rubbery, waterproof material. A drain ran around the edge of the room. There would be a mattress on the floor, strong canvas sheets, and a rubber pot was provided for sanitation. The ward doctor had to order a patient to be secluded, which would last from 8am to 8pm, at which point the order had to be renewed.

Holloway did also employ treatments that would be considered inhumane today, including hydrotherapy and “continuous baths,” in which the patient would sit for hours in a tub of hot water and have cold water poured over their head. We already mentioned they used physical restraints like straps, jackets, and locked gloves as well as padded rooms. They also did other things including use hypnotic/sedative drugs like chloral and sulfonal, central nervous system depressants like paraldehyde, electrotherapy, force feeding, and more.

So this would still fit the description of where Galatea was sent.

Her backstory states that she refused to communicate with living people and would carve anything she could get her hands on. In her backstory trailer, we see her carving an apple, which matches her Fleeting Beauty accessory. It then says she “always carved out the same face and named it after herself, but due to the limitation of materials, she could only carve out a head before being caught and then treated again”.

Galatea naming her masterpiece after herself once again connects back to Pygmalion naming his ideal woman Galatea as well as to how this creation is meant to be Galatea’s image of a perfect version of herself.

As we know, Galatea gradually fell into madness, and it was said she was sent to a “remote yard” with a single female nurse taking care of her. This is the same female nurse we see in Galatea’s trailer.

Holloway did at least have a courtyard, and we’ve already discussed the “strong rooms”, which could be described as “remote” and away from the majority of everything else.

When Thomas Holloway was first working to build the sanatorium, he did set out for it not to hold any that were “epileptic, paralysed or dirty” and “no patient was to remain there for more than a year, no hopeless cases were to be admitted, there was to be no readmission” though we know this rule was broken in its early years (Thomas died before the sanatorium was completed), with plenty of examples of patients that stayed more than 1 year, as well as patients that were admitted despite being described as “hopeless cases”, paralyzed, or epileptic. The Sanatorium, despite what it was built for, was primarily concerned about profit (which is why it started doing voluntary admittance to attract customers).

As for the nurse assigned to Galatea, we know Galatea kills her, then placed on her headless body (a “mature woman”) “Galatea's head, which she had sculpted countless times” to complete her “masterpiece”. After that, Galatea disappears, leaving the “blood-soaked hospital room” behind, which the building staff would later find.

We do know Galatea eventually makes her way back to Oletus Manor to attend game 0, the very first game held.

Side not regarding where Galatea was held.

During the Stormy Night Surprise anniversary event, after Succubus is arrested by Sheriff/Officer Jose, Inference goes to her later to ask about Monstrous Bird. He finds her at “an asylum reserved for the wealthy dealing with sensitive familial issues”.

An “asylum” for the “wealthy” fits Holloway Sanatorium (with the “sensitive familial issues” tying to people sent there due to mental issues). And if Succubus was “accustomed to this kind of situation”, that could mean she’s been here before, which could leave an opening for the idea Galatea (looking at the parallels) could’ve been at a mental facility more than just the once (potentially before she was ever paralyzed?).

#idv #identity v #galatea claude #sculptor #idv galatea #identity v galatea #idv sculptor #identity v sculptor #sirenjose analyses and theories

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milburnandnyman · 1 year

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DON’T BULLSHIT ME - the analysis

Why I think there’s no fucking way Joy wouldn’t be Jakob’s and why I’m almost betting they had to write Mikael out and that’s why we got that bullshit, lacking-in-context story:

1. Jean can be a silly woman, but she is not dumb. I cannot imagine a sex therapist who wouldn’t be highly aware of these things and also as someone who has already been pregnant once in her life, to miscalculate things so horridly as in not to know who the father of her child is.

2. Jean was very outspoken about protection, there is a scene from S2 where she is attending the SexEd class at Otis’ school and she tells the students “remember, it is always your right to say no” as in response to a case where someone insists on not using protection.

3. According to these words and the fact that she is a sex therapist with a previously quite sexually active lifestyle, I am 100% sure she has always used protection, no exception.

4. Yes, Jean slept with both Jakob and Dan on that very same day which is evocative, but as previously mentioned, I am sure she’s used a condom, both with Dan and Jakob, because even if she and Jakob liked one another, I don’t think you just tell a person that you’ve had a vasectomy when you’re about to have sex with them for the first time and even if, they were still strangers, I don’t think that’d convince her not to use it, at least in terms of STD’s etc. I think it’s highly unlikely she got pregnant on that day by either of them.

5. Despite Jean kissing Remi, there was no one else in terms of sex after her and Jakob started dating. She was exclusive with Jakob.

6. I believe as Jean and Jakob became exclusive and things got serious, I think that’s when Jakob probably mentioned his vasectomy to Jean. It’s no secret that a lot of couples prefer to have sex without a condom, so the fact that they were a serious couple and that the vasectomy should theoretically keep them “safe” (haha), was probably enough of a reason to go au naturelle.

7. A lot of women actually get pregnant despite the man having had the vasectomy. You can find a ton of such stories, also, the doctor herself had said to Jean “stranger things have happened”. Yes, condoms can break, but if you’ve been cream-pied by your bf god knows how many times, despite the vasectomy, that’s a lot of shots. Pun intended.

8. While the timeline is not thoroughly explained, according to the story, S1 begins at the start of the school year and S2 is supposed to be around spring term. Jean gives birth on October 25th in S3, which is post-summer break. Jean is not due for 8 weeks at the time, so her due date should be sometime in December, meaning, Jean got pregnant sometime in March or early spring. (I think S1 and S2 contain some more dates to confirm this, a bill at Maeve’s trailer and some other stuff that kinda support bits of the timeframe.)

9. I highly doubt that the first season stretched from September and all the way up to the next spring, I think S2 actually started during the spring term and there was a time jump, so I personally think the sex with Dan was too far away for him to even be considered the father (of course, they can imply whatever they want, but according to logic - again, seems unlikely).

10. I think the time jump could have had Jean and Jakob dating in secret anywhere from a month to a couple of months, now, while we cannot be 100% sure of this, I still think a certain amount of time had passed in between.

11. Jean says she found out she was pregnant “quite late on”, but has also stated “I really didn’t know what I was going to do”, probably implying she still had the time to decide, this means she wasn’t pregnant for longer than 12 weeks. It is usually up until the 12th week mark where you have the time to decide to terminate the pregnancy. In my opinion, she must have found out somewhere in between 8-10 weeks, considering she called it “late”.

12. She had already broken up with Jakob when she found out, it could’ve been merely days or a good week after that, maybe more, but who knows, it does however give us about an extra week into the pregnancy and we can consider that when assuming how long they could’ve been a couple for beforehand.

13. The moment Jean found out, she was obviously surprised “but that’s impossible” and right away blurts out “but he’s had a vasectomy”. She right away thought of Jakob and has even expressed her surprise, due to his vasectomy, but it didn’t make her question if the baby might be someone else’s. Again, the doctor confirmed getting pregnant that way is not that unlikely.

14. Since Jean had already broken up with Jakob at the time and he had made it clear, that he doesn’t want to reconcile, Jean was quite free to decide about her pregnancy. If she ever doubted that the baby wasn’t Jakob’s, I see absolutely no reason why she would feel forced to keep it and turn her life upside down. I think Jean knowingly kept that baby, because she knew it was her and Jakob’s and there was the inevitable emotional attachment to it, so it would probably be hard for her to terminate the pregnancy and she even says it later on how one of the reasons was that “it just seemed fated”.

15. During the entire S3 there are too many lines that support Jean’s indeed very sure and convinced of Jakob being the father: Otis’ “mom, you have to tell him” - I’m pretty sure you don’t lie to your own son about who the father is, “you’ve impregnated me”, “I’m 48 and he’s had a vasectomy” so confirming in front of a therapist, that even to her it seemed impossible, yet, still, it happened, then the way she remained so sure when Jakob was beginning to grow doubtful “don’t be ridiculous”, agreeing to that DNA test without even a glimpse of a doubt and being completely shocked by the results later on. All of these to me are not behaviors of someone who “a part of me always knew she wasn’t his”, but quite the contrary.

16. The fact that Jean, despite loving Jakob, couldn’t even go back to confront him and has, for example, only decided to make it known that she “wanted to try again” later on at the therapist’s, just goes to show how vulnerable she felt after the heartbreak, so no wonder she waited a couple of months before even gathering the courage to tell Jakob, she was probably terrified and upon doing it, she actually tried to play it cool at first like “I only want you to be involved if it’s something that you would like”. So, I don’t think she’d go into it lightly and lie about it if she had any doubts about the paternity, just to use Jakob. Even the therapist asked her if she decided to keep the baby, because she still wanted to be with Jakob, to which she replied “absolutely not” and I really think that she’d probably rather just ghost him forever if she knew the baby wasn’t his as opposed to trapping him into being the father. Jean is the kind of person who really prefers to run away from her feelings at times like these.

If you actually managed to read the entire thing, thank you, you are a champ.

Yes, I know this fucking analysis won’t change S4 and they have made their choice, all I’m trying to say is, that I am suspicious of this all and I really think there was something about not being able to cast Mikael Persbrandt, that have made them change the story last minute, because it just felt so loose and if this was actually intended all this time, then all of these things from before simply don’t make sense. It puts their entire arc to question.

All of these are also the reason why I always believed that the DNA thing was just something to play with them some more and have never doubted Jakob being Joy’s father, not even for a moment.

#jean milburn #jakob nyman #jeankob #gillian anderson #sex education #sex education season 4 #jean x jakob #mikael persbrandt #wasting my life to analyze shit like this #god help me #yes i am vulnerable right now

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lurkingshan · 1 year

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La Pluie: Do you still believe in soulmates?

Earlier I was chatting with @sliceduplife about this week’s La Pluie and how the show has been layering in the subversion of the soulmate concept, and they reminded me that this is literally the last screen of the show’s teaser trailer:

Which kind of blew my mind a little. Because it confirmed for me that this show was being open about its intention to interrogate the idea of soulmates right from the start. They’ve never been particularly subtle about it. It’s been right in front of us all along, but given how trained we all are as a bl/romance audience to have certain expectations tied to romance conventions, this intentional subversion of the soulmate trope seems to have caused some confusion. And thus, I was compelled to do a rundown documenting how the show has used the context around our characters to guide our understanding of this theme. I’ve talked about some of this in other posts but please indulge me as I organize my scattered thoughts into one coherent piece. Shouts also to @wen-kexing-apologist and @bengiyo for reading this over for me and making sure I didn’t miss anything (over to WKA for the body language analysis).

Let’s start at the start. In the very first episode, Saengtai tells us plainly in his opening voiceover that no one knows why some people have hearing loss or why some of them start hearing another person after they turn 20, and that the idea that this is a soulmate connection is a social construct that most choose to believe. So right off the bat, the show is telling us the soulmate idea is not necessarily true and inviting us to question the lore.

Then within this same episode we are introduced to two couples involving people with hearing loss: Tai’s parents, who are hearing loss soulmates that are divorcing, and the couple in the cafe, one of whom has hearing loss, and one who does not. One example of a soulmate pair that is ending their romantic relationship permanently, and one example of a person with hearing loss who has chosen to be with someone who is not their soulmate. Interestingly, the show did not and has not since countered these examples by including even a single happy soulmate couple in the story for Tai and Patts to see as an example.

The show then built on this by giving us direct commentary about the skeptical point of view via Lomfon. He (and presumably, plenty of others) believes that the hearing loss connection is a scientific phenomenon and the soulmate idea is just a romantic notion with no basis in reality. He believes that people should not be expected to enter romantic relationships with their hearing loss partners, and that choice is what matters most. Again, we are being explicitly invited to question the lore and encouraged to doubt.

As we got into the romance between Tai and Patts, the show took basically every opportunity to undermine the idea that they should be together because they are fated soulmates, and instead emphasized over and over again that their individual choice and feelings are what matter most:

Tai is not interested in meeting his soulmate at all. In fact, he actively avoids it and leaves poor Patts on read for two entire years. Had they not happened to meet in the real world, Tai likely still would never have spoken to him.

Patts meets Tai in the wild, is immediately attracted to him, and begins pursuing him all without knowing they are soulmates. This is crucial for establishing that it was not the hearing loss connection that brought them together, nor is it the hearing loss connection that serves as the basis for their relationship. It was the genuine attraction Patts felt for Tai that got their relationship started. Patts says explicitly that he wants to “defy his destiny” after meeting Tai.

Tai becomes interested in Patts only after meeting him in real life. Because he’s a hot, kind, generous animal doctor who Tai is attracted to, not because he is the person he hears when it rains.

In the early stages of their relationship, Tai struggles to trust Patts after overhearing some things out of context that he misunderstood. The hearing loss connection actually creates distance between them rather than bringing them closer together.

Patts and Tai have their first date before their soulmate connection is acknowledged between them. We saw that they were vibing and getting to know each other without that connection being part of the equation, and in fact, that connection was the thing causing Tai to hold back. Once Patts knows that, he understands what’s been going on with Tai and after one very emotional drunken kiss, gives him space to process - literally, he physically removes himself and leaves a note. The revelation, once again, causes distance between them rather than bringing them together.

Once it’s out in the open, because of their hearing loss connection, Tai and Patts experience immense pressure from their loved ones to get together immediately. This hinders more than helps them, as it raises the stakes on their relationship right out of the gate and makes Tai anxious and Patts cautious.

Nara is introduced to the narrative in order to show us that Patts actually had a love before Tai, and one that he was genuinely happy with. There is a universe where Patts could have gotten back together with her and lived quite well. Had he not run into Tai in the real world, that’s probably the universe he’d be living in.

As they get to know each other and their attraction grows, Tai is actively in distress about Patts being his soulmate because he is so devastated about what happened with his parents and he fears they will end up the same way. Moving past his fear about this is the biggest obstacle to their romance.

Don’t think I didn’t notice that during the crucial few episodes when Tai and Patts started seeing each other and getting to know each other properly, it didn’t rain once. From the time Patts took Tai out on a date and they got drenched (and didn’t even use their connection because they were together) until Tai wandered up the mountain, we were in a rain free zone. All of that crucial relationship development, all of that trust-building, every moment of the time we saw them actually falling in love, happened entirely without the involvement of the hearing loss connection.

Tai and Patts finally affirm their love and decide to be together after directly discussing their doubts and uncertainty about the soulmate connection, mutually declaring that their feelings are real even if the soulmate bond is not, and committing to be with each other regardless. What matters is they really love each other.

Throughout this entire series of events spread over a few months, Tai’s only hesitation about this relationship is that he doesn’t want to get involved with his soulmate. Because if they weren’t soulmates? They would just be two single dudes who met, sparked, and immediately started dating. But because they are connected by hearing loss, it’s all way more complicated than that, and they had overcome a lot of internal struggle to be together.

The show has now introduced Lomfon’s hearing loss, which does not seem to be following the rules of the soulmate construct as we know them. We are clearly not done interrogating the concept of soulmates; the show has more yet to say and we know that Lomfon is going to end up in a romantic relationship with Tien, not either of the people he can hear when it rains.

So. Do you still believe in soulmates?

#la pluie #thai bl #no i am never going to shut up about this show thanks for asking #shan shouts into the void

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binniesoob · 2 years

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The Name Chapter: Temptation Explained

This analysis is going to include the lyrics of the songs, as well as the choreographies and the Sugar Rush Ride music video!

Feel free to share your insights and/or theories, or to point it out if you see any inaccuracies :)

TW: slight mentions of themes such as violence, death, drugs and sensuality. I decided to include them to not leave out core aspects, but I didn't go in depth for any of them to keep this as friendly as possible.

Before we dive in, just a reminder that I've already analysed The Name Chapter concept trailer and the new logo in my storyline summary here, while you can find my analysis of the tracklist posters here. I recommend reading both before this, if you haven't yet! Especially because I'm going to reference themes that I've already explained there, such as the game and seasons motifs, and their true names.

— INTRO: what the album is about

Let's start with the group’s official website that provides a description of the album:

"The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION depicts youth on the brink of adulthood. After experiencing conflict and chaos, the boys feel a desire to postpone their growth and linger in the freedom of Neverland. Their journey forward despite this desire is a representation of today’s generation as they continue to grow through the challenges of the world."

As we know, this Chapter is strongly inspired by Peter Pan, who has become a cultural icon symbolizing youthful innocence and escapism. Just like he leads children to abandon real life for Neverland, a place where they will never have to grow up, the Cat does with TXT, who find their escape at Magic Island.

(continues under the cut)

In the tale in it also hinted that Peter Pan used to "thin the Lost Boys" out when they got too old or when there was too many of them, meaning he may exile or kill them (cr. peter pan wiki). Some theories suggest that the Lost Boys who grow up become pirates who, with Captain Hook, try to fight Peter.

Especially with this album though, there are also numerous similarities with the story of Doctor Faustus, a play by Christopher Marlow which was later taken up by J.W. Goethe, in which this scholar is so greedy for knowledge that he is not satisfied with academic knowledge, venturing into the field of black magic. He makes a pact with the devil Mephistopheles, who makes him the false promise of enabling him to obtain greater knowledge, when in reality he'll only take his soul. Throughout the opera, Faustus is continually debating with two angels, one good and one evil, symbolizing the two sides of human nature.

Likewise, throughout their discography, TXT are always represented vacillating between their good side, "the angel", and their bad side, "the demon". See Angel or Devil of course, Eternally, but also the duologies New Rules-No Rules and Puma-What if I'd been that Puma (in Korean Balance Game).

It also perfectly connects with TXT's villain, the Cat: in The Star Seekers, he temps Yeonjun to make a pact with him, promising more power to defeat the Dragon Clan (see the animation The Doom's Night), when in reality he will bring their dark sides (which we see in Eternally) to prevail, so that he can control them at will taking advantage of the power that TXT already have. Its aim is to prevent them from reaching "tomorrow", their future, and therefore their goal: to remember the promise they made as children with the Star and renew it, so that the latter lights up again and restores hope for people's dreams. After all, their name, Tomorrow By Together, means a group that "comes together under one dream in hopes of building a better tomorrow".

"Tomorrow", defined as "the one in which nobody believes" is also Soobin's true name, the one who has visions about the future of the group. Certainly, the prospect of leaving behind the visions that make him suffer so much is nothing but a relief, but it also means giving up his crucial role in achieving their goal, and above all himself.

In real life these metaphors can be transposed as our inner demons that induce us to bask in the temptations the world offers, distracting us from suffering but also from achieving our goals, and finally leading to losing ourselves.

— THE SONGS

Temptation is a concept album, meaning that listening to the songs in the order they are put is crucial to understand the story it tells. That's why the first song we are going to talk about is...

— Devil by the Window

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It's Korean title "자정의 창가에서 만난 악마의 목소리는 달콤했다" translates into "The voice of the devil I met by the window at midnight was sweet".

The song depicts the devil, aka the Cat, tempting TXT with the false promise of taking them to a place where they can enjoy their youth forever, exactly as we saw him do in The Name Chapter concept trailer.

This is the Lullaby stage of the Temptation. Let's analyze the lyrics of the song integrating it with the choreography to see how it happens!

🎶 Lie, lie, lie, lie down / Go rest your eyes / Just fall asleep, sweet dreams / You can't get off the ride 🎶

These verses give the feeling of the devil luring the group by humming them a lullaby, however immediately revealing his purpose: prevent them to return to reality. The emphasis placed on "lie" is interesting: the word plays with its double meaning of "laying down" and "lying", and whose repetition gives us the idea of the incitement and impatience of the devil. In the choreography, Hueningkai plays the devil outside the window (represented by Soobin and Beomgyu's shoulders) waiting to enter their room once they are alone and under the covers, just like Peter Pan used to do.

🎶 A wolf in sheep clothes / His disguise / In the ni-ni-ni-night / You'll be hiding inside 🎶

Now it's Soobin's turn to play the devil: in the choreography he metaphorically takes off the mask that hides his true intentions. The alliteration of "ni-ni-ni-night" gives us the idea of the lullaby again, but also of the footsteps of the devil advancing in the room: in the choreography Soobin approaches and seduces Hueningkai.

The line "You'll be hiding inside" can refer to the devil hiding in the shadows of the room, but could also be a metaphor for inner temptations, anxieties and worries, which usually haunt us when we go to sleep, after a whole day trying to avoid them.

🎶 Oh, what ya doing? / You got some time today? / Oh, what a nuisance / Come, come, come out to play 🎶

The role of the devil passes onto Taehyun, who rhetorically asks Yeonjun if he has time for him, complaining about his possible negative answer, and rather inciting him to use the time by playing with him.

🎶 High, so high, the crimson sky / It's way too sweet to turn down / I scream and shout, but no one's 'round / There's no way to escape it 🎶

With the pre-chorus the mood of the song starts to change. TXT are tempted by the red sky, so by twilight, which we know is the moment in which it is possible to travel between the real world and the magical one.

The devil shows them a taste of what they will find if they follow him, and this is all too fascinating and sweet to be rejected. At the same time, however, the group (everyone's good sides) protests and tries to escape, in vain. In the choreography, Taehyun walks among the others to "exit", but they prevented it, turning him to "enter" again.

🎶 I met the devil by the window / Traded my life / Temptation touched my tongue / Spread the wings of desire / He's whispering / "Give up, don't you put up a fight" / Said the devil by the window / "Dream on, dream on, good night" 🎶

The chorus references the pact Yeonjun makes with the Cat, trading his life unwittingly as the Lost Boys do once they follow Peter Pan to Neverland. TXT themselves have explained that the move they perform during the line "traded my life" represents the devil who catches them when they try to escape from danger. The devil dissuades them not to fight him, supported by the temptations that are irresistible and greedy: after a taste they are won't stop wanting and asking for more.

🎶 Waste, waste away / In the gutter with me / No, I can't tell what is fake / In my reality / I see the waves, see the waves / Wash over me / Oh, stay, you can stay / When you're tempted to leave 🎶

Being in the gutter means being in a state of degraded condition, that's exactly the situation the group finds itself once they fall for the lie of the devil, but they don't really understand it because their reality is altered and they can't tear truth apart from falsehood. In real life these effects can refer to when you are under the influence of hallucinogenic substances, but "have your mind in the gutter" in slang also means constantly thinking about sex related things, in addition to the fact that frequently pleasure is compared to waves that wash over the body.

At this point, in the choreography we see everyone in the chokehold of temptation, Yeonjun literally (after all, we know that in the story he is the weakest one in the face of temptation), while Beomgyu reaches out towards the viewers (as we will soon see, also in Sugar Rush Ride), which can be interpreted both as an attempt to lure them in as well, but also as a request for help to get him out, since he is the one who's most aware of all of the dangers they face.

🎶 High, high, high / I feel my body drifting into the sky / I won't come down, come down, come down, I'll fly / Weightless without a worry into the night / He said, "Dream on, dream on, dream on" 🎶

The mood of the song changes completely now: these lines allude to when pleasure, whatever temptation it is caused by, hits. Therefore, TXT are surrendering to temptations. If before they were lying in their beds, now they start flying to be taken to Neverland, with the illusion of leaving their worries behind on the ground. This time the devil doesn't wish them good night: in his plans the group is destined to continue dreaming again, again and again, in a loop that never sees the arrival of the night, and so the end.

This not being able to stop reminded me of a legend in Irish and Welsh folklore concerning fairies (after all, Peter Pan is accompanied by Tinkerbell, a fairy), according to which one must stay away and respect the fairy mushroom rings in the woods or they risk being dragged inside by the fairies, to dance with them without being able to stop until you drop from exhaustion. This legend seems to be referenced in another TXT song: No Rules from The Chaos Chapter, whose lyrics are also strongly connected to those of Devil by The Window. Some examples:

"Close your eyes again/ And continue your dream"

"Is it A.M. or P.M. right now? / I'm confused because all of the broken patterns / Don't know what's right, I don't get it / Woo, my world is panic"

"The vi-i-ibe that I dreamed of every day / A dri-i-ive that can't be stopped / One more time, yeah / I just wanna dance / Dance until we can't no more"

The third chorus then changes into: "I don't wanna feel this vi-i-ibe / I want to stop this real vi-i-ibe / I'm getting tired / I don't wanna dance / Dance anymore"

Now, going back to the Devil by the Window's choreography, it's also important to note that most of the steps refer to being controlled like a puppet, just like the Cat does in the concept trailer:

The sigh that ends the song seems to recall waking up startled, only this awakening won't happen in their room...

— Sugar Rush Ride

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Now it’s time for the Daydream stage of the Temptation. The group awakens in Neverland and we can notice that they have been brought there by the train, a vehicle that appears frequently in the storyline, not only in Magic Island and Run Away, but also in Frost, in the Can't You See Me comeback show and in the scenes included in Act:Lovesick

An important detail is that the train has two engravings: "promise" and the number 304. The first refers to the promise that TXT made as children, but also to Yeonjun's real name. The second refers to their debut, which happened on March 4, and it's also the date associated with the Star Festival (which can be seen in Soobin's vision in Eternally) during which TXT met for the first time as children and made the promise.

The boys look around disoriented, but it doesn't take long before they adapt to the new environment: Yeonjun is obviously the first, who drags Taehyun with him, and the two start running along the beach.

🎶 The thoughts soon stopped breathing / When you get back / My determination comes instantly undone / For you 🎶

Thoughts and worries are suffocated by the relief and light-heartedness that Neverland and the "sugar rush" bring, as well as the determination to not fall into temptation.

The group becomes one with nature, their clothes are soiled with dirt and they have vines on them, to be exact, grapevines, symbol of fertility, transition and well-being, as well as being related to the Greek god Dionysus (which we will talk about again later on).

The fact that the victory of temptations is placed in an idyllic landscape is no coincidence: the figure of Peter Pan is connected to that of the ancient Greek deity Pan, whose flute Peter learns to play, thus acquiring his name. Pan is the god of forests and lives in Arcadia, an idealized land where men and nature live in perfect harmony. Does this name ring a bell? 👀 One of the two versions of the album The Dream Chapter: Magic has it, the album which includes TXT's first escape to Magic Island.

Pan is also linked to fertility and has strong sexual connotations, he is agile and perpetually cheerful, but also feared: his name derives from "panic" because, if annoyed, he causes havoc and terror. His image was then taken up by Christianity as an iconography of Satan, after all Pan has attributes such as goat foot, tail and horns. It's all coming together, right? Peter Pan, Pan, the Devil and the Cat are all superimposable figures.

🎶 Come a little closer / You whisper / Swallow / The sugar rush / Feast up in the night sky / Sweet desire / Taking me into the dream / The liar on the bedside 🎶

These lyrics, in addition to being very sensual, refer to Devil by the Window: the devil, "the liar on the bedside", takes them to the dreamy dimension that is Neverland where he incites them to take advantage of the "sugar rush". "Feast up" recalls the dissolute and wanton parties and rituals in honor of Dionysus (called Bacchus in Roman mythology), the archaic Greek deity of vegetation, later identified as the god of ecstasy, wine, inebriation and liberation of the senses. Dionysus also embodies the primal instincts of human beings, which can violently resurface if repressed and not properly elaborated.

It is no coincidence that this move is included in the choreography, which is very reminiscent of the representations of the banquets in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. TXT themselves have called it "the grape move", in which they metaphorically approach a bunch to their mouth. In the latest behind-the-scenes photos shared on Weverse, we can see that Yeonjun is holding grapes.

But the places depicted in the music video also refer to the iconic ones of Peter Pan: The Hangman's Tree, his and the Lost Boys hideout, and the Mermaid Lagoon:

🎶 I can feel it I can’t resist it / That sweet devilish smile / You open my locked door so easily / Oh my, I see the stars / The devil said

Gimme, gimme more / Come here, more / Let’s play, more* / Sugar rush-ush, sugar rush-ush, ah / Gimme, gimme more 🎶

The boys can't resist the sweet temptations that easily pervade them and make them metaphorically and literally see the stars. In the chorus we can hear the devil whistling: in many countries of the world, whistling is superstitiously associated with him. The "sugar rush" that boys experience is fast and addicting, and therefore pushes them to want more. The way it is sung, using the rhetorical figure of the climax, reflects this perfectly.

*In the official video the verse “같이 놀자 더” was simply translated as “let's play more”, but it has deeper connotations: it can also be translated as “let me give you a piggyback ride” because these lines come from 춘향가 (Chunhyangga), the most famous and one of the only five surviving traditional pansori (a folk genre of Korean musical storytelling) from the Joseon Dynasty era (1392–1910). They symbolize the whisper of the devil. During the press conference on the album release, Hueningkai shared: “We made a lot of new attempts this time, fusing different elements in an unfamiliar way. We used some parts of Chunhyangga in our lyrics and featured the movements of Korean traditional dance in our choreography.” And Taehyun added: “We believe our Korean fans will find this combination fresh, and our international followers will get the chance to explore Korea’s traditional culture and story.” (cr. Genius lyrics annotations)

In the choreography, apart from it clearly reflecting the corresponding lyrics, TXT take turns playing the devil who tempts the group, manipulating them like a puppet and preventing their escape, like in Devil by The Window:

🎶 You’re so addictive / My veins full of sweets / The forbidden lines slowly / Fade away / This daze-like anemia / But I prefer it that way / Every cell under my skin / Becomes more sensitive 🎶

I think these lyrics are pretty self-explanatory: this is how the "sugar rush" works once it enters the body. They seem to especially hint to the symptoms experienced when under the influence of drugs.

During their time at Neverland, each member of the group experiences their temptations and "sugar rush" in a different way, as shown in the video. Let's see how exactly 👀

HueningKai finds a gecko, and when he touches it, it changes color to purple. The gecko is the animal associated with him in his debut Questioning Film, while in Magic Island Kai is associated with a dragonfly, and in the debut Comeback Show, he turned the goldfish purple. Yellow and violet fishes can be seen in 0x1=Lovesong as well.

Now, which other semi-animal being in TXT's storyline is purple? The Dragon.

We know that Kai is the one who builds the labyrinth to contain their "secret", aka their dark sides or "monsters" or inner demons, but he is also associated with the role of videogame programmer, for example in the "Boy" version of the album The Chaos Chapter: Freeze: Kai is the one who made/will make the game that TXT are playing to escape real life, and it was therefore him who created the final boss, the Dragon!

Later in the video, Kai is the first to be shown covered in glitter, the fairy dust that allows the Lost Boys to fly to Neverland, while he experiences his "sugar rush".

Yeonjun on the other hand, both in the debut Questioning Film and in the music video of Sugar Rush Ride, is associated with two elements:

1) the caterpillar, symbol of transformation, metamorphosis, and growth. Caterpillars do not just become butterflies, but they go through many changes to get there: same thing goes for Yeonjun. (cr. animalhype.com)

2) pink flowers that in Sugar Rush Ride are fern flowers, which have magical connotations in Baltic mythology. According to the myth, they bloom for a very short time on the eve of the summer solstice. In Polish folk legends a person who manages to find the flower will be filled with exceptional supernatural wisdom, but the seekers had to be exceptionally careful, and used protective rites. For example, people were getting completely naked and girding their body with garlands made of an herb called mugwort... anything familiar? In the video, Yeonjun removes his shirt while running and has vines around his waist.

'Looking for a fern flower' was also often a pretext for young people to hide together in the woods and spend romantic time alone. In the Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian tradition, in addition to the idea that the finder of the fern flower will become rich or happy, it is sometimes perceived as a symbol of fertility. (cr. Wikipedia and lamusdworski.wordpress.com)

Yeonjun, attracted by the flowers, approaches and crushes them in his hand, and their nectar causes him the "sugar rush". These scenes have a strong suggestive charge, hinting to someone indulging in their sexual desires.

The flower's nectar dripping down his hand made me think of the "gods nectar", Ambrosia, the god's food in Greek mythology. The word comes from the Greek a- (negation) and βροτός (mortal) and can be translated as "food that only immortals can consume" but also "food that makes immortal": TXT don’t want to grow up, they want to stay young forever, and therefore immortal. Plus, we know that TXT keep dying during the game they are playing, especially Yeonjun, so one of the temptations could also be obtaining immortality.

Next, we have Soobin, who is associated with:

1) the mantis, symbol of courage and persistence. The people of Ancient Greece and Egypt saw the praying mantis as a guide for those who needed direction, either in life or death. In Buddhism, the praying mantis represents patience and perseverance (cr. birdsandblooms.com)

2) a white flower, which looks like a Narcissin Anemone, delicate white flower similar to daffodils/Narcissus flowers. In his Questioning Film Soobin has Anemones!

3) water, the medium through which he experiences temptation, literally sinking into it. When they're on the beach in the beginning, he plays with the waves, and later he finds a puddle and looks at himself in it, like Narcissus did to admire his beauty. In Greek mythology, Narcissus was punished by the gods for his disdain for anyone who fell in love with him, making him fall with his own image reflected in water, in which he died by drowning while trying to reach for his reflection. Furthermore, Narcissus is also considered a symbol of autoeroticism. Soobin pushes himself further and further to achieve his "sugar rush", not realizing the danger he is in.

Taehyun is instead associated with the element of air, where we see him levitate. Precisely, his animal symbol are birds: in the Questioning Film we see a parrot, while in Sugar Rush Ride an eagle and feathers, that surround him when he experiences his "sugar rush" in front of the tree. The latter has a different appearance in this setting: in addition to recalling that of the Nightmare concept, it refers to Yggdrasil, the sacred tree in Norse cosmology linked to the real name of Taehyun. We have already seen Yggdrasil several times in music videos: in Magic Island, in The Doom's Night, in Blue Hour and in Frost.

Beomgyu has the butterfly as a symbol, which we already know stands for the announcement of winter's, and therefore adulthood's, arrival in We Lost the Summer and Frost. In this album the butterfly was used to announce the arrival of the devil, as in the tale Tinkerbell preceded the arrival of Peter Pan.

In Sugar Rush Ride the butterflies enchant and lure Beomgyu into temptation, but they don't have it easy: he fights back and tries to escape, taking refuge in a cave. Unlike the others, he opposes so much resistance because we know that he is the only one who is fully aware of the dangers they are facing, and he's the one who experiences the "tinnitus", ringing in his ears triggered by his subconscious that tries to keep him awake and alert. However, sooner or later, Beomgyu also succumbs.

🎶 You're bad, you liar / What did you do to me, sugar? / It's me who's bad / I know this bad desire, sugar 🎶

“Get away” Hueningkai yells. The Daydream turns into the Nightmare when the boys realize that the devil is a liar: the promised eternal bliss given by the sugar rush is actually only temporary and leads to addiction and to the arise of their dark sides.

We will deepen this with the analysis of Farwell Neverland, but, at the end of the music video, the group decides to leave Neverland. Kai turns to the viewer as he did in the Concept Trailer of The Dream Chapter: Magic, where he asked if "should we run away" to Magic Island, while here he seems to ask us if we should abandon it.

— Happy Fools

🎶 There’s a lot of things to do / But no plans to do them / They say the future’s always more important than the present / No matter what they say / I don't know, give it up / Already hopped on it, so I’ll properly enjoy this crooked ride

They say I'm stupid / Even if it’s a little delayed, I’m not afraid / It's happy every day / I’m trapped tightly in a sweet moment / Leave the worries to the me of tomorrow / This moment won’t come again, yeah 🎶

The lyrics of this song are pretty self-explanatory. As TXT themselves explained, they wrote it with the intention of expressing the desire to enjoy life and the present moment, without being pressed by things to do. However, this also means ending up procrastinating if a balance is not found between not taking life with frenzy and indulging in sweet-doing-nothing. That's why they become Happy Fools: enjoying their time at Neverland/Magic Island they ignore their responsibilities, leaving them to their "tomorrow" selves, and delaying their growth.

🎶 I don't want to leave / This path of pleasure / I'm like a butterfly (Butterfly) / A honeybee that only works / Even that sky where the sun’s setting / Won't know whether it’s pretty (Get it, get it) 🎶

The pre-chorus was written by Beomgyu, who revealed in his interview with Marie Claire Korea that:

(cr. @/translatingTXT on twitter)

🎶 Don't wanna do my thing / I won't regret it / I'll be the laziest Superman / So follow me / The pleasant taste of laziness / Is very sweet / A dream-like guilty pleasure is right in front of me 🎶

In this song, TXT's temptation is laziness, which they carry like a contradictory superhero who invites listeners to act like him. TXT themselves are the tempters, like in the Sugar Rush Ride choreography, as they themselves explained during the Comeback Showcase with the press.

— Tinnitus (Wanna be a rock)

🎶 Baby, I just wanted to be / Wanted to be hot stuff (You know?) / Party every day, like the weekend / Raise the volume, as if I am fish that met the water (Higher)

At the end of the day, feed is a disaster / Last night was overflowing with filters (Ah) / Momentarily let out a sigh / I know that I can't be a rockstar 🎶

Yeonjun and Taehyun participated in writing the lyrics to this track. They wanted to express the feeling of dreaming of becoming a big, famous, acclaimed rock star but thinking you don't have what it takes or the talent for it; as well as the disappointment when discovering that the entertainment world it's not all shimmering gold as it seems.

🎶 Even if I cover my ears, the daze gets louder / The empty sound is deafening / As if submerged in a fishbowl, the bruises and tinnitus fills it up / In the empty noise, feel so lonely 🎶

In the pre-chorus they refer to the “tinnitus” aka “when you experience ringing or other noises in one or both of your ears. The noise you hear when you have tinnitus isn’t caused by an external sound, and other people usually can’t hear it.”

In spirituality, Tinnitus can indicate that you are being influenced by someone who is negative in nature, the presence of a harmful energetic being in your space, causing a triggering of false belief systems and chaotic energy.

So, tinnitus it's used by TXT’s subconscious to alert them of the danger and lies behind the Cat, Neverland, and their temptations. They try not to listen, to deny the truth, but it doesn’t work and it keeps on dazing them. And they feel lonely because, as we said, the person that hears the ringing is the only one that can hear it, and TXT don’t share the experience with the others.

In Sugar Rush Ride Beomgyu is the only one experiencing it, but in TXT’s videos we have already witnessed this phenomenon: in Magic Island (minute 6:45, 7:40, 8:55) it happed to Soobin and Yeonjun and it resembled the ringing of a bell: it was a warning of the Cat approaching.

The line "As if submerged in a fishbowl" reminded me of the fish imagery they have been using especially in 0x1=Lovesong:

🎶 Rockstar minus the star / Just a rock, okay? / I had a dream / Without knowing anything / A noisy dawn / But a void at the end / Tinnitus filling my ears / It's deafening as if I am locked inside

I don't have that kind of talent / Deep story / I admit it, I'm not a "born to be" / Even when I see myself, I know I am nothing special / My twinkling dream / It's been long since it faded away / Waiting for every second / I want to become a rock 🎶

TXT feel hopeless in front of the hardships they have to face. It's easy to get discouraged by difficulties, especially when you fear that you won't succeed. Insecurities makes you think you're not made for something and/or that there are way better and more talented people out there, and you're nothing special in comparison, even if it's not true, because everyone has their precious contribution to give to the world.

These feelings perfectly connect to the storyline: their "twinkling dream" can refer to dreams they had as children that were lost once they separated, forgot their promise, and the Star turned off. While, the line “I had a dream / Without knowing anything” can reference how childhood dreams can seem unfeasible and illusory when you grow up and you know more of the world, but it can also be traced back to the dreams/premonitions TXT have been having but not understanding.

Being that TXT reach Neverland/Magic Island via dreams, when they wake up with tinnitus the dawn becomes "noisy", which leaves room for inner emptiness given by the loss of the carefree time spent there.

🎶 Wanna live a new life / But I'm a bit lazy / What is my existence? / Give me an answer / I think being a rock / I think it would good / Just rolling around / My own rock 'n' roll 🎶

One of the reasons behind their insecurities are the temptations that have led them away from the right path and from their goals, especially the laziness we talked about with Happy Fools. TXT feel lost and come to think they'd rather be an inanimate object that has no feelings or responsibilities to worry about, and console themselves with the ironic thought that it could become their way of doing rock 'n' roll.

— Farwell, Neverland

Ultimately, the temptations and Neverland only brought suffering to the group, and so they decide to abandon them once and for all.

🎶 Every day is warm, every day is the same season / Boys don't grow up / A kiss from the sun that never sleeps / No one can see the stars / A paradise, full of lies / I wanted to turn a blind eye 🎶

The "paradise full of lies" reminded me of another TXT song: Valley of Lies. Not surprisingly, the animation for the video closely resembles the location in Bali where they filmed Sugar Rush Ride:

🎶 My last refuge / I hoped for endless flying / It's the end, it's true

Everything that was beautiful / I know it's not true / Trying to spit out that cruel lie / To the paradise of irresponsible dreams / I'll say my last goodbye / My Peter Pan 🎶

In Neverland/Magic Island it's always summer and day, also because when sunset comes, before night falls, TXT are forced to leave it. Staying there TXT believe they can never grow up, and that's a beautiful lie promised by a lying devil: they can't delay or prevent adulthood, no matter how hard they try. Time is up for them at Neverland, they acknowledge and accept it.

🎶 Neverland, my love, goodbye now / And I'm free falling / Stars, sleep with comfort / 'Til I be calling 🎶

Yeonjun's says that "stars" can "sleep" comfortably until TXT are going to be "calling" them: this is of course a reference to the Star, that is still asleep and is going to wake up only when TXT sing the promise song.

🎶 No matter where I go / This is no home / Even if I'm afraid, I'm going down / Goodbye, Neverland, my love 🎶

If Peter Pan flew them to Neverland, which they realize can't be their home, now they're falling down to the real world.

These last two verses also reminded me of Icarus that flew too close to the sun, causing his wings to melt and him to fall down, free falling. After all, Icarus was the son of Daedalus, the one who built the labyrinth in which the two were then imprisoned by the king who had commissioned it. To escape, father and son built wings.

We know that Hueningkai is the one who builds the labyrinth, plus he is the member to which the wings are associated, therefore he is Daedalus (he has mechanical wings in Nap of a Star), but, who is Icarus?

In Sugar Rush Ride, we saw that Taehyun is the one associated with air, his temptation and "sugar rush" at Neverland consists in flying, we know that his animal symbol are birds, plus there's actually a TXT music video where we see TXT fall down from the sky and Taehyun has mechanical wings: 0x1=Lovesong Japanese Version!

So, later in The Name Chapter, after TXT will enter Kai's labyrinth to confront their dark sides (as seen in the Concept Trailer), they will abandon it, and Taehyun/Icarus, may not save himself. This seems to be confirmed also by the fact that, while the other members are in different locations wearing casual clothes and despairing about the stars (which are their dreams) falling from the sky, Taehyun wears an uniform in an abandoned school, and at the end of the music video he disappears, leaving it behind.

Taehyun himself said that this song already anticipates what we will see in The Name Chapter 2... does it include his death?

(Just a reminder that TXT die several times in the storyline but always come back to life, because 1) the events take place in Magic Island/Neverland, their fantasy and/or 2) their characters experiencing these things are inside the game txt are continuously playing in real life until they win and so conclude it.)

And that is all for now!

Thank you so much for reading!! Stay tuned for my The Name Chapter 2 predictions post and feel free to share your thoughts if you want <3

masterlist

#tomorrow x together #txt #tomorrow by together #the star seekers #the name chapter #the name chapter: temptation #sugar rush ride #tnc: temptation #txt lore #— txt lore #i've been working on this for a month lol can i say that i'm proud of it?#i had so much fun as well <3 #simply fashinated by the imagery and by how everything is connected and not a sigle detail left to chance #once again i am #kissing all txt's creative directors and artists that made these on the forehead like yeonjun did to soobin in blue hour era as we speak #long post

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satoshi-mochida · 1 year

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Exploration-based adventure game Refind Self: The Personality Test Game announced for PC, iOS, and Android

Gematsu Source

Publisher PLAYISM and 7 Days to End with You developer Lizardry have announced exploration-based adventure Refind Self: The Personality Test Game for PC, iOS, and Android. It will launch in November worldwide.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

All players approach games in varied ways, making different choices. No one ever plays in exactly the same way. Indeed, how a person plays can be an indicator of their personality… And Refind Self is a game where you can learn all about that personality.

Story

You are an android. The story begins with you standing at the grave of the Doctor who created you. The world is populated by robots in various forms, created for numerous purposes. Travel to places key to your memories of the Doctor, interact with the robots, and unravel the secrets behind the future the Doctor sought and what you were entrusted with.

Important Characters

Protagonist – The player, a robot created by the Doctor as an EAI: an AI that can take action based on emotions.

Dull – A robot clerk at the café. Always lazy due to misconfiguration by the Doctor.

GoGo Scrap – A robot that collects scraps. Sociable and boylike.

Inori – A shepherd robot created to carry out orders.

How to Play

Go wherever you feel like, converse, investigate, play minigames… Simply play as you please. There are no game overs, and there’s no right or wrong way to progress. With each action you take, your personality will be analyzed. Once analysis is 100% complete… Congratulations, you’ve beaten the game! Your personality results will then be revealed. If you want to know more about your personality, you can go back to play again and again. Of course, this also goes for those who want to know the truth of the story.

Personality Comparison and Sharing

Your test results are stored in an online database, and you’ll be issued a unique results ID. You can share your results ID, and view others’ results to compare them with your own. Perhaps similar personalities mean good compatibility? That’s another way of having fun with your results. *Test result data does not include any personal identifiable information.

Examples of Possible Personalities

Adventurer (Passion) – One dedicated to going where none have gone, and doing what may be impossible.

Leader (Morals) – A proactive and responsible sort, who keeps promises and fulfills duties.

Planner (Methods) – A meticulous sort who does anything they can to prepare and increase odds of success.

Sage (Daring) – One who always prepares for possible crises; better to reliably avoid loss than to chance gain.

Samurai (Judgment) – A strong-willed sort who doesn’t hesitate, sticking to their first decision

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

English

youtube

Japanese

youtube

#Refind Self: The Personality Test Game #Refind Self #Lizardry #Playism #Adventure game #Gematsu #Youtube

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asoulwithadream · 1 year

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analysis and theory with soul: doctor who 60th anniversary special trailer

"i've got a memory. after a very long time, something's coming back."

i think by this the doctor means the toymaker. the last official encounters between the toymaker and the doctor were in a comic during twelve, however i'm not exactly sure if that is the long time ago which he mentions, since the comics usually have little to no relevance to the televised canon. the last time we physically see the toymaker is during william hartnell's tenure as the first doctor, which explains the very long time (a minimum of 1715 ago years for him! possibly a lot more)

this thing. this furry little thing. i have a feeling that he will be a great cause of annoyance for a lot of the characters in the special and i thank him for it. look at his face. he's allowed to do whatever he wants.

anyways, i think that the toymaker may be after him, for whatever reason. perhaps he has a special power (kind of looks like the hybrid child of a house-elf and demiguise from harry potter— teleportation and future-telling? omg it's a tardis—)

i also maybe have a theory that the rocket which we can see in the trailer is what he arrived in. in the teaser, we can see it (and it looks like something the thing would arrive in) and we can see rose walking towards it. scared, he was carried back to the house in a shed by rose who wanted to help (the box in the teaser), and then she went a got her mum because she had no idea what to do next. however, thing successfully ran away when the external forces began to attack donna's house. rose went after it, and found it there next to the trash, finally getting an answer as to what he is scared of. this being the monsters, or the toymaker's creations.

these being the monsters, sent by the toymaker to collect it. however, the human government seems to also be aware of the thing, and has sent its own forces to go get it. while donna's mum and the doctor are having their little fistfight indoors, maybe-unit and these roach-like things they seem to be getting it on outside.

next point of interest: i think this shot comes first in this specific selection of moments. they seemed to have landed somewhere, with an obviously different lighting than the shots below, so perhaps this is the exterior portion of their environment, (maybe even physically outside) and they're trying to get in through the door behind them, which donna so badassly pushes the button to get through too

they seem to be after something, after something so inexplicably bad which has made the TARDIS run away out of fear, leaving them stranded wherever they are, which is probably the location of the thing they're after. furthermore, throughout the trailer it seems that the TARDIS has been malfunctioning for some reason (having to be carried away by helicopter, this). i think this very bad thing is the reason for both the doctor's distress in the following shots and donna's surrender in those after that.

what i think this place may be is the toymaker's new toyroom. there have been multiple instances of the toyroom breaking, and if we go back to the comic toymaker he was last seen: "a lonely god, drifting through time and space in his magical toy box". (a nice note to the doctor too) we don't know what happened to the toymaker's toyroom, and we don't know how big it can get. the last time the TARDIS was in the toyroom, it was given to the toymaker for an advantage to the doctor. maybe she doesn't want to go through that again, or maybe theres something else coming.

but can we take a moment to appreciate donna's absolute slay in this scene? "something so bad the tardis ran away? then. we go. and kick it's arse!"

i don't like it how these two shots appear to be in the same scene. i really don't like it. i very much really don't like it. it's pretty obvious— same clothing, same lighting, perhaps not in sequence but probably in the same general part of the special.

there is something which has made the doctor Devastated, capital d. and i don't like it. because we've seen that grief usually, rather than causing a temperamental explosion from the doctor with screaming and crying, he becomes resigned, maybe shedding tears but quiet, curling up into himself as if he wished he could collapse like a dying star.

but here he's visibly very upset. "why does it have to be like [this]". maybe its a reflection of his frustration with donna's condition— she can't remember him or else she dies, and maybe prior to this scene something related to that has happened, causing something else to happen to her. OR MAYBE, he's being more generally reflective, angry as to why everyone he holds dear suffers at one point or another, usually because of him.

these thoughts stem from this other shot, which seems to take place in the same general location (background + lighting) and maybe even in the same scene, before the shots above. something is in front of her, and she is scared— a robot? the toymaker? it must be an aggressive object, as she raises her hands in surrender.

additional notes:

the following words will be chaotic and difficult to understand or interpret: OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD WHY IS THE TRAILER SO GOOD OH MY GOD THEY DID IT SO PERFECTLY AND THEY HAD THE DRAMATIC MUSIC AND DEAR ME DONNA NOBLE HONEY LIGHT OF MY LIFE WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOU ARE YOU ARLIGHT IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO YOU I WILL EAT MY HAT I WANT TO CRY OMG NOVEMBER CAN'T COME FAST ENOUGH AAAAAAAAAAAH

#doctor who #dw #doctor who 60th anniversary #14th doctor #donna noble #just my two cents #doctor who trailer

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peterchu42 · 6 months

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Trailer analysis time! Potential spoilers ahead.

I've been avoiding the rumours as much as possible so that I could come to the trailers with a fairly fresh set of eyes so I could connect crumbs mentioned in Doctor Who Magazine to scenes seen here. We've suspected that episode 2, The Devil's Chord was a musical for some time given the costume of the villain but some shots basically confirm that so that'll be interesting to hear ahead of Eurovision. The episode with the Doctor stuck on a landmine seems to be set on a planet undergoing terraforming which is definitely an interesting way to add a time limit. Earth is also going to undergo that terraforming at some point. The shot of a overgrown TARDIS is in the same place as that mysterious figure in a previous trailer who also pops up in the background of the first Ch-Ch-Changes Ruby shot. Overall, two main things stand out to me: the increased presence of the supernatural and the focus on history alterations. We've seen it with mavity and it seems like we'll be seeing more in both episodes 1 and 2.

I'm really looking forward to this upcoming series. Even if I have my issues with it's release method of being on iPlayer before terrestrial broadcast.

#doctor who #potential spoilers

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pl9090 · 9 months

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New Years Notices

1.Posting Schedule. Due to health problems I'd rather not get into, the once a week schedule will not be maintained. I will try to do so when I can but fortnightly is more likely going forward, (except for posts that have to be on symbolic days). This is only supposed to be an online repository not a proper blog, social media really isn't my thing.

2.Posting Nature. While analysis and profiles will continue, (there's no lack of ideas and thus headaches trust me) I will also: a.Cover more of the expanded Faction Paradox/Doctor Who footprint. b.Develop more creative/visual material. At the very least I'd like to finish a trailer script for, "Where?". c.Offer the possibility of collaborations and answering any questions outside of posts. d.Try and get in contact with some of the authors at some point.

#faction paradox #doctor who #bbc doctor who #whoniverse #new years #notice

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twdmusicboxmystery · 2 years

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just saw the dead city trailer and ran here. What do you think about the time jump there with older Hershel playing into everyone reuniting with the CRM? Ready for your FTWD analysis too. also just realized FTWD will probably coincide with dead city. Going into the new phase with low expectations and hopefully a good outcome🤞🏻

Yeah, I saw them. Super exciting! The thing is, I don't think Hershel will actually be significantly older. I seem to remember them talking about a very small time jump, like maybe a few months, but I don't think it will be more than that. The actor who plays Hershel does look older, but that's just because kids age so quickly on film. It's been 2 years since this young man first portrayed Hershel, so of course he'll look older. That doesn't mean he is in the show.

Cailey Fleming, who plays Judith on the show, is kind of an exception here. She's a 14-year-old who still looks like she's ten, lol. But that's not true of most kids. So, I wouldn't worry overly much about there being a time jump.

As for other observations about the two new trailers, here is what I sent my fellow theorists:

@twdmusicboxmystery:

A few things that immediately jumped out at me.

Maggie says someone is “the key” to getting Hershel back. We’re meant to believe she’s talking to Negan, and she may be. But we know they can sometimes splice together trailers in a way that can be misleading. But this is a theme we saw heavily in S4 and S5, including around Grady.

The storyline they lay out for Fear, brief tho it may be, feels like a template for the CRM. People raising an army to challenge a larger organization.

June looks exactly like Leah in this picture:

Any insight into who the guy in the wanted poster is? It COULD be Rick. Doesn’t look like him in particular, but closer to him than to Beth, lol.

I got IMDb to try and confirm weather or not they’re using the same actor for Hershel. I think they are, but none of the spin-offs are listed anywhere on IMDb yet. Not Dead City and not Daryl Dixon. Which is a little strange since fans can edit the pages. It’s odd that no one has added them.

I almost feel like maybe they’re purposefully being kept off the pages for now. Though I don’t know why they would do that.

@galadrieljones:

That is weird about IMDb. I agree it makes it seem like they don’t want the info out there. It’s strange like the spin offs still don’t seem real? Esp the Daryl one.

@wdway:

You asked who we thought was in the wanted poster. I think it is Negan.

I've been thinking about some of the scenes that we've seen in the past seasons that implied that Negan might know something about the CRM but maybe not realize that's who it is and I think that Negan might be smart enough not to question certain things to closely.

When Jadis held him at the junkyard she called the CRM helicopter which he saw. Nothing was ever explained about how he just totally ignored that. At the satellite station they had a room where they were growing pot I wonder if he was growing pot to sell to some group connected to the CMR in exchange for other medical supplies like insulin that we saw with Tina, Sherry and Dwight had stolen when they left the sanctuary.

In Here's Negan there was a lot of open questions about the cancer medicine he got from the doctor in the RV. It just seem to me there are a lot of questions that were put out and then skipped over.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Great points! I hadn't thought of that. 👍

So, these are our initial thoughts about the two trailers. What does everyone else think?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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reallca-blog · 2 years

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Unwrapping the Wonka Bar: The Leftovers Vol.1 - The “Woman in Shop” Theory (and a Birthday Celebration!)

Greetings readers,

This side series builds off my work from the main Unwrapping the Wonka Bar series, basically, whenever something gets cut from a post of the main series but I still feel it has some value, I post it here as a Leftover for you all to enjoy. And to commemorate an important date for us in the CATCF fandom, I give you all this Leftover!

Now, this post has nothing to do with the original question of where Charlie’s town could be located, but while conducting the last analysis, I resurfaced this thought that I have had rattling around in the back of my mind for a couple of years now and I thought I would finally share this with all of you. While the actress who plays the “Woman in Shop” is named and has amassed a small list of credits over the years, I am here to propose that “Deborah Weston” is not a real person. In fact, I am here to propose that the “Woman in Shop” is being played by none other than our very own Dr. Julia Winter, because don’t you tell me that they don’t have the same creepy, high-cheekboned smile.

Bear with me here, my theory of the case goes that at some point in the 2040s, Doctor Winter grows tired of giving prostate exams and having to check if a patient’s particular bodily fluid should be that color and one day just says eff this and begins to regret forgoing acting to become a doctor. Her midlife crisis drives her to purchase one of the new Tesla Time Machine that Elon Musk just released, you know, right after he finished reducing Twitter to nothing but ashes for the seventh time just that month, and she time travels back to 2004 where she manages to sneak back onto the set of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Pinewood Studios in order to relive her glory days as an actor. It is then that one of the crewmembers confuses her for one of the extras needed for an upcoming scene, the one where Charlie finds his Golden Ticket and gets harassed by adults into selling it to them. While this might have been the moment where others might have cracked under pressure for getting caught and admitted to being an imposter, Doctor Winter, always quick on her feet, quickly unpacked her acting skills she kept stored away in the corner of her mind since she was a teenager and quickly commits to her new role with pride. Even going so far as to play the role with a North American Accent, while also not doing the totally smug European thing where their North American Accent is just an impersonation of a Texan or a southern hillbilly, but instead made her character sound like a normal person one might find somewhere in Anglo-North America.

She of course plays her part well, overwhelming poor little Charlie into staying frozen in between two vultures until Bill the Shopkeeper has to shame the adults and tell the lucky winner to run straight home with his prize and is praised by her fellow scene members as soon as the camera stops rolling. Now, while this praise was a great change of pace from the thankless infected scab treatment and other duties a doctor must attend to, acting did not offer Doctor Winter the sense of purpose that she hoped to find once again. But that was until she looked off to the corner and spotted a young girl practicing her lines yet struggling to remember them. And so she approached the young girl in order to help her and in the spirit of an afterschool special, it turns out young girl was her eleven-year-old self. It all came back to her now, performing on screen for the first time as stressful for her, but Doctor Winter bucked up and imparted some cliché wisdom about perseverance onto her younger self. It was only until she saw the confidence in her younger as she quickly scurried off to the stylist's trailers so that they could doll her up to play the little brute that Doctor Winter remembered why she became a doctor, her true calling is to help people. And with that sense of purpose restored, Doctor Winter returns to the 2040s where she can continue to offer the good people of Sweden some of that good, old-fashioned socialist healthcare.

Well...that's enough shitposting for one day.

But in all seriousness, I believe I speak for the entire CATCF fandom when I wish Dr. Julia Winter a Happy Thirtieth Birthday!

Happy.

Thirtieth.

Birthday.

Veruca Salt is thirty years old. (P.S.: Veruca Salt is actually 28 because her character is nine years old in the film. But still!)

I don't know how I feel about this. Is this what it's like to feel old?

That’s it for the first installment of Unwrapping the Wonka Bar: The Leftovers. Join us next time we post a quick little insight into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Also, make sure to check out the original Unwrapping the Wonka Bar series and follow us to keep up to date for when we post updates and other content.

Also, if you have better quality images of the scenes from the film I included in this post, feel free to share them with me so that I may replace the ones I used to improve the experience for the reader.

See you all next time!

#unwrapping the wonka bar #unwrapping the wonka bar: the leftovers #charlie and the chocolate factory #charlie and the chocolate factory 2005 #unwrappingthewonkabar #charlieandthechocolatefactory #catcf #catcf 2005 #dr. julia winter #julia winter #juliawinter #happy birthday #veruca salt #verucasalt

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procrastinatorproject · 2 years

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I posted 1,878 times in 2022

48 posts created (3%)

1,830 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tehriz

@regionalpancake

@thelaithlyworm

@jazzfic

@stra-tek

I tagged 1,875 of my posts in 2022

#star trek picard - 443 posts

#funny stuff - 442 posts

#cristobal rios - 152 posts

#star trek picard season 2 - 115 posts

#star trek - 110 posts

#picardpositivity - 98 posts

#i have such talented friends! - 90 posts

#picard season 2 spoilers - 85 posts

#cats - 76 posts

#tumblr - 75 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#and how else are you going to share bits of stories that you won't post for months or years if ever because finishing things is hard 🙈😅

My Top Posts in 2022:

I spent quite some time yesterday yelling about Star Trek with the wonderful @regionalpancake and @curator-on-ao3, and I need to share their comedic genius with the world!

We were talking about how, if the Zhat Vash are so extremely opposed to synthetic life and any form of AI, could they possibly manage to hack the androids on Mars and to cause them to go rogue? To which Curator commented:

“I’m an iPhone user and I couldn’t hack an android!”

This was followed some time later by a discussion about how in recent Trek, there has been an increasing distinction between People Who Matter and Those Who Don’t. And how its encumbent upon the people who are less significant for the fate of the world to sacrifice themselves for the Important People.

With regards to this, Pancakes observed of Rose (from Dr Who), a character who thinks she is unimportant and whom the Doctor tells that There Are No Unimportant People:

“If she were a Star Trek character, Rose would have been cannon fodder.”

Curator: “You mean... canon fodder? :D”

I don’t know if these are funny to anyone but me, but I laughed so hard I had to go find my asthma spray. So I needed to share XD

59 notes - Posted July 30, 2022

Holo-Tech Database

Over the last seven or so months, I have watched through every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s the first time I’ve seen the entire series, there were quite a few episodes in the later seasons I’d never seen before. Quite an enjoyable experience on the whole.

But because I’m me, of course I didn’t just watch TNG. Instead, I took notes every single time the holodeck or any other piece of holo-technology played a part in the plot, were the setting for even the briefest of scenes, or so much as got mentioned. Essentially, I’m building towards a database of every little scrap of canonical information about holo-technology that I can get my hand on. And this was a start.

I haven’t had the time or energy to look through all of my notes in detail. There is a lot of information in there already. Of course, I’ll only be able to draw any real conclusions once I add in all the data from DS9, Voyager, and PIC, (since I’m interested in the state of technology at the time La Sirena is in operation, because of course that’s what this is about), but it’ll be quite a while before I get there.

So, in lieu of any detailed analysis, here are some quick impressions of my first foray into holo-episode-tracking!

[Image ID: a table showing the number of total holo-episodes for TNG is 58, and breaking that number down for each season. Season 1 has 10 episodes, season 2 has 8, season 3 has 6, season 4 has 9, season 5 and 6 both have 8, and season 7 has 9 episodes. /end ID]

See the full post

65 notes - Posted January 27, 2022

30 Days of Picard Postivity

With just over 30 days to go, the premiere of Star Trek: Picard season 2 (3rd March in the US, 4th March internationally) is fast approaching, and I for one cannot wait to get back into the world I fell in love with two years ago. Thirty days is quite some time, however, and even though new trailers and promo pics seem to be dropping daily, I felt like we could use something to tide us over until March.

After the long hiatus, I think this is the perfect time to revisit all the things we enjoyed about season 1. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has forgotten a lot of the details of those episodes, and who would love to see some of the wonderful characters, locations, and stories back on my dash. So, without further ado:

ProcrastinatorProject Proudly Presents:

30 Days of Picard Positivity

See the full post

70 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

Massive Picard Season 2 Spoilers Ahead

So the latest episode of The Ready Room, the Star Trek recap show hosted by Wil Wheaton, had a preview of Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. It's interviews with all of the main actors and they explain in some detail where they're characters are at at the beginning of season 2.

It puts a lot of shots from the trailers in perspective and I have a lot of thoughts that I want to share, but because this is a very, very explicit spoilery preview, I'm putting both the video and my initial reaction under the cut.

Anyone in the US (or with a decent VPN): You can find the full Ready Room episode on the Paramount+ youtube page, but I'm not going to link it here, because, youk know, tumblr 😋

See the full post

73 notes - Posted February 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I just had a realization about why Agnes Jurati’s story in Star Trek: Picard season 2 feels so wrong to me, and I am going to inflict it on all of you!

Spoilers for the entirety of season 2 ahead! CW: Mention of depression, PTSD, anxiety, and emotional manipulation

Also: CW long post

(NB: I’m going to completely disregard the discrepancy in Agnes’s character between seasons 1 and 2. I think when you take Agnes’s story and development from the first season into account, her “arc” in season 2 falls apart completely. But for the sake of this argument, I’m going to meet the season 2 writers on their terms. I’m going to ignore the character of season 1 Agnes, and instead will simply look at season 2′s Jurati to explain why I think the story the writers gave her falls flat.)

I was taking notes for a way-too-long essay about my problems with PIC season 2 (which I may or may not write eventually), and I was trying to put into words why it always irks me when people say merging with the Borg Queen was a satisfying end to Jurati’s arc.

What I was never able to put my finger on until now is that when the Borg Queen and Jurati merge at the end of episode 9, that’s not actually the culmination of Jurati’s arc. It’s the Queen’s.

See the full post

74 notes - Posted May 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #i want to point out that of the almost 2000 posts on my blog this year #THREE were not tagged! THREE! 🤣😂🤣😂#i knew i was an obsessive tagger but i didn't think my record was *that* good #(not that most of the tagging is particularly consistent....)#also: so many of my friends! 🤩#also also: 'star trek picard' beat out 'funny stuff' by ONE post #at least i am balanced? 🤣🙈#anyway. this is fun!

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