#half-baked meta

[thelongestway]

hey no shade but you know dungeon meshi isn't actually based off dnd right? there are definitely some overlapping concepts and it can be fun to analyze it through a dnd lens but really it's its own homebrew fantasy setting. just checking bc i nearly got in an argument w someone over dungeon meshi lore the other day only to realize it was because they were trying to apply dnd lore to it ahahaa

Oh yeah, absolutely, it's its own thing. You don't even have to go far to show how it's its own thing: for one, the whole set-up with the dungeons being what they are isn't found anywhere else in D&D-inspired material that I know. You could maybe reflavor Halaster's Undermountain to something like the Dungeon Meshi dungeons, but that would be another layer of homebrew. That said, I do have the feeling that Ryoko Kui grew up on the same kind of D&D material that I did - stuff like Elminster's Ecologies, or old school Greyhawk materials. Her story genuinely feels like an AD&D game run by an old-school DM, maybe even earlier in the editions (hi, Chilchuck and "I'm a rogue, I'm not gonna fight"!). I don't mean that she follows D&D canon in any meaningful sense--her stuff isn't set in Greyhawk, nor on Abeir-Toril, nor on Krynn, etc. But I do think she's someone who's inspired by old school stuff, even as she makes her work thoroughly her own.

An acquaintance of mine once wrote that long tabletop games gain a quality that she called "being well-trod". This is when the players and DM are so familiar with the world they live in that it becomes, well, lived-in. They don't need to look up rules anymore to extrapolate: they understand the logic of the setting, and they get the same kind of intuitive feel for the world that we do when living in our own world, in real life. A feeling of where the boundaries lie, and how things work.

This is how I feel about Dungeon Meshi and D&D. It feels like a work written by someone who walked the same paths that I did, and whose work is therefore both new and startlingly familiar. That's it in a nutshell, but then I also wrote a bunch of examples, which got very long, so cut for length and spoilers!

I wrote somewhere in the tags on my Dungeon Meshi posts that it's incredibly surreal reading a story that seems to be informed by the exact materials that you base your own homebrew games on. Kui takes her work in a wholly different direction than I did - but the disparate elements of the story would fit in like a glove, because they're based on similar logic. I could quite literally take any of the ecologies elements of Dungeon Meshi and put them into a given module I'm running, and it would need less adaptation than 5e material. And most of the cultural/racial elements of Dungeon Meshi? That, too. Where it's not a one for one match, it would so easily be explainable by "different continent".

Let's take the example you're probably here from: the Canaries and elves in general, and let's take elves in general first. In D&D, there's been a switch in models of elven aging throughout the years: from "they are literal babies up until 60-ish, and then have 40 years of actual adolescence" to "yeah they grow to full adult size at about the same speed as the other races, and are then just culturally considered too young to make their own decisions". I am decidedly not a fan of the second model - I think it takes away from the cool biologies early D&D thrived on. BG3's treatment of Astarion's age of death, for instance, keeps throwing me. Yeah, I get it: it fits in with the edition they're working off, but I hate it. That's not how things work on our Faerun! But then we get to Marcille's backstory, and we see that she has the problems old school half-elves did, and you're like "oh, well of course someone invested in weird cool biology as an author would interpret elves like that." Her treatment of age makes sense to me. She makes the races as alien as possible, and hits that vibe of "D&D-style fantasy is its own thing, with its own set of rules" that I love. In contrast, and unlike any prototypes I know, Kui takes her half-foots in a different direction! They don't live longer than tall-men, they live shorter lives, closer to goblinoids. And I think it's for the same reason: because it's that much cooler to have different experiences of life in humanoid races. This is decidedly Not D&D, but it would absolutely fit into that vein.

With smaller details, I keep joking around here that the Canaries are grey elves, and of course they're not. But then Kui keeps putting in these tiny little details - which can be either nods to existing material, or the same extrapolations that other authors drawing upon high fantasy tropes have made. The white ships that have travelled all the way from Tolkien's Valinor to Evermeet and now to Shima. The fact that the Canaries have basically the right color scheme for grey elves threw me completely: I was not expecting that! Elves being that specific brand of destructive that they are - jeez, the Canaries would be right at home in Myth Drannor, or during the Crown Wars. So I joke around about these specific dolts a lot, and I am having an inordinate amount of fun seeing if my predictions that come from running a Myth Drannor game for a good long while now come true. And it goes on. Marcille doesn't prepare spells, and the magic here is obviously not Vancian. But Mithrun's teleport shenanigans are literally stuff I've done in games. The differences between races in D&D aren't because of wishes made by mortals; they're built in by gods for their own purposes. But the towns that spring up around anomalous spots and that have to deal with the weirdness have the same vibe. Kui draws on a more extensive tradition than just D&D, of course, but she transforms the tradition in a very similar way to old D&D. Of course the elves' magic in Kui's work does weird and creepy stuff with soulbinding and immortality; that's been their dark side since Tolkien and Celebrimbor's work with Annatar, and then it turned into stuff like elves regularly sacrificing their lives in high magic rituals in Faerun. Of course Senshi's backstory is about the dwarves that have dug too deep - but they are, of course, distinct from gnomes, and the gnomes are a peculiar and interesting breed of arcana specialists. Of course Chilchuck is a Burglar - but he works on dungeon delving unions, of all things! It's a familiar transformation, so the world makes sense to me, and I love it. So yeah. Tl;dr: not D&D ofc, but the vibe is there, and I am having fun with it.

Also - can you tell me about the argument? I am super curious, and I wonder if the person you were arguing with was working from 5e material.

[disorganisedautodidact]

I didn’t want to derail this excellent post, but reading it made me want to put my own (not-yet-fully formed) take on the oath out there. The feather summarizes the silmarillion podcast described oaths as “writing an if-then-clause into the universe” and that phrase has been living rent free in my head and powering my headcanons. So in the case of the Oath of Feanor, what I think it does is add an if-then-clause to the Song, meaning that if someone has a silmaril and they CAN get to them, they will try and get it back, by force if necessary.

Note that I said “will” not “have to”. It’s not merely an obligation, it’s something that’s going to happen whatever they do. It also doesn’t turn them into puppets, though, they still have some agency - but the oath becomes part of the general conditions under which they can make choices. The metaphor I’ve been trying out in my head is forces of nature, like the weather. Rain doesn’t take away your free will obviously - you can make all sorts of choices if it’s raining! But these choices don’t include sitting on dry grass outside and letting the sun warm your face. You simply can’t do that when it’s raining. Similarly, the sons of Feanor have choices after swearing the oath. But these choices do not include leaving someone in peace who holds a silmaril.

(DELAYING an attack is clearly possible - they waited for years before attacking Sirion, and they were capable of being strategic about when to mount a direct attack on Morgoth - clearly the oath doesn’t make them run mindlessly into whoever holds a silmaril with a weapon. that doesn’t mean they were able to ignore Morgoth, or that the kinslayings were a willing choice!)

(Please join me in imagining the horror of that. Knowing that you have choices, but whatever choice you make will lead you into slaughtering innocents unless they give you the silmaril, which they’re not going to do because they don’t have a single reason to believe anything you say ... what I think happened in the case of the third kinslaying is that Maedhros despaired of ever being able to prevent that outcome and chose to get it over with (his brothers probably got to that point before he did))

[verecunda]

So this shot at the beginning of Episode 1:

I’ve been rewatching series 1, and it occurred to me - belatedly - that maybe this helmet is Celeborn’s? The way this scene comes straight after that one of Finrod in battle almost seems like a bit of cinematographic sleight-of-hand, suggesting that the helmet belongs to him. Except Finrod isn’t wearing a helmet in the previous scene. Which isn’t to say he couldn’t have been wearing a helmet, and it was knocked off during the fighting - but it would be a strange choice to associate a character with something we never see him wearing. And Galadriel’s later reference to him being killed in a “place of darkness and despair” sounds more like a nod to his canonical death in the dungeons of Tol-in-Gaurhoth than a death on the battlefield.

On the other hand, we know that she last saw Celeborn heading off to war, and his armour was - uh - distinctive (silver clam! <3). So it would make sense that it would be in her mind, and that it would catch her eye while she was searching the ground after the battle.

(Incidentally, did that mound of helmets put anyone else in mind of the Hill of the Slain? Not the same thing, obviously, but I thought it had a similar vibe. Maybe Celeborn went with Beleg and Mablung to join the Union of Maedhros, and disappeared during the Nirnaeth?)

[beguilingcorpse]

weaponry in the locked tomb is so interesting because when you break it down it's like:

guns exist in-universe but are used by the freedom fighter terrorist organization almost exclusively

swords are (were?) commonplace enough that gideon was able to find and train with a decently well-balanced two-hander on the ninth, despite the fact that the ninth has no military force or even interplanetary traffic. gideon's sword is at least 20 years old, probably older

swords are definitely still in use within the empire, at least by cavaliers, but likely within the cohort as a whole. to my memory there are no mentions of cohort members carrying military-issue guns

even though they're trained in a variety of weapons and techniques, cavaliers (are supposed to) carry exclusively rapiers. gideon prefers her two-hander and cam carries twin shortswords, but these seem to be rare and shocking exceptions to the standard.

rapiers are used by cavaliers explicitly for the purpose of lyctorhood. they're light enough that a scrawny necromancer without swordfighting experience can pick it up and rely on their cav's training without needing to build the muscle to wield the sword effectively

because of the secretive nature of the megatheorem, and lyctorhood as a whole, most people just follow the rapier rule because it's tradition. it is what is done. harrow makes this pretty clear at the beginning of gtn

cavaliers can carry a variety of offhand weapons. it seems like the full spectrum of middle age weaponry is possible - but still, no guns. not even secretly, as with cam's dual blades. some cavs choose to carry material for their necromancers as their offhand - ortus carries a bowl of bones for harrow, and i can only assume "the powder" mentioned as harrow's choice for gideon's offhand towards the beginning of gtn is some kind of bone dust

from a doylist perspective, all of this creates a aesthetic that starts very analog and gothic and gradually grows into a more standard sci-fi space opera through the series. by ntn, we've hit most of the established genre weaponry tropes that we've come to expect from older futuristic space media like star wars and alien. blasters and guns are standard fare, and it makes sense to hold off on introducing them until the scope of the story gets broader and more interplanetary

from a watsonian perspective, it's a little more difficult to draw concrete conclusions without the context that atn will inevitably provide. but if i had to hedge a guess, i'd say that, as with most things, It's All John Gaius's Fault. when he resurrected the galaxy i'd assume that he wanted to keep the aesthetics of medieval imperialism, and given his 21st century liberalism probably didn't want guns to be part of the equation. but they were anyways - we know this because wake carries a big one - and instead of standardizing firearms within his military and for his lyctors, he clings to the aesthetics of swordplay. please correct me if i'm remembering it wrong, but to my knowledge every gun shown in the series is either directly linked to boe or implied to be sourced from them. jod dooms his own lyctors and military by refusing to update their weaponry.

all of this poses a lot of questions about atn: who will carry a gun, and why? where did the gun come from? why DON'T the lyctors just use firearms? and most importantly: will they be fighting zombies with swords???

[camille-lachenille]

I was thinking about how, in fanfictions and in the fandom in general, Elrond is often depicted as a pure Noldorin lord, if not a die hard Fëanorian. And while I do enjoy Fëanorian!Elrond, the more I think about it the more I am convinced Elrond is not the fëanorian one of the twins. Elros is. Elros who adopted seven eight pointed stars as the heraldic device of his whole dynasty, a symbol still used 6000 years after his death. Elros who had Quenya be the official language of Númenor. Elros who decided to leave Arda for an unknown fate after his death; not Everlasting Darkness but not the rebirth in the bliss of Valinor either. He choose to go to a place Elves aren’t supposed to go, just like Fëanor and his sons went back to Beleriand. Elros, the mortal man, who decided to forge his own path in the world.

And I am not saying Elrond didn’t, because Eru knows how much strength, patience and stubbornness Elrond must have to become who he is in LotR. But when I first re-read LotR after reading the Silm, he did not strike me as Fëanorian at all (except for the no oath swearing rule that seems to apply in Rvendell). In fact, Elrond, and all three of his children, are defined by being half-Elven. Elrond is so much at the same time they had to creat a whole new category for him. He is described as kind as summer in The Hobbit, but also old and wise, and his friendly banter with Bilbo in FotR show he is also merry and full of humour. Elrond is both Elf and Man despite his immortality, and this is made quite clear in the text.

But. If I had to link him to an Elven clan, I’d say Elrond is more Sinda than Noldor, and even that is up to debate. Rivendell, this enchanting valley hidden from evil thanks to his power, is like a kinder version of Doriath. Yet, the name of Last Homely House and Elrond’s boundless hospitality make me think of Sirion: Rivendell is a place where lost souls can find s home, where multiple cultures live along each other in friendship and peace.

In FotR, Elrond introduces himself as the son of Eärendil and Elwing, claiming both his lineages instead of giving only his father’s name as is tradition amongst the Elves. It may be a political move, or it may be a genuine wish to claim his duality, his otherness, or even both at the same time. But from what is shown of Elrond in LotR, he seems to lean heavily in the symbols and heritage from the Sindar side of his family, rather than the Noldor one. I already gave the comparison with Doriath, but it seems history repeats itself as Arwen, said to be Lúthien reborn, chooses a mortal life. Yet Elrond doesn’t make the same mistake as Thingol by locking his daughter in a tower and sending her suitor to a deathly quest. Yes, he asks Aragorn to first reclaim the throne of Gondor before marrying Arwen, but this isn’t a whim on his part or an impossible challenge. Aragorn becoming king means that Middle-Earth is free from the shadow if Sauron and Arwen will live in peace and happiness. Which sounds like a reasonable wish for a parent to me.

Anyways, I went on a tangent, what strikes me with Elrond is his multiple identity. Elrond certainly has habits or traits coming from his upbringing amongst the Fëanorians, and he loved Maglor despite everything. The fact he is a skilled Minstrel shows he did learn and cultivate skills taught by a Fëanorion, that he is not rejecting them. There is a passage at the end of RotK, in the Grey Havens chapter, where Elrond is described carrying a silver harp. Is this a last relic from Maglor? Possible.

But while Elros choose the path of mortality and showed clear Noldorin influences in the kingdom he built, Elrond is happy in his undefined zone he lives in. He is an Elf, he is a Man, he is Sinda and Noldo and heir to half a dozen lost cultures and two crowns. He is the warrior and the healer, the only one of his kind in Middle-Earth. And that is why I will never tire of this character and I love so much fanworks depicting him as nuanced and multiple yet always recognisable as Elrond.

[melbatron5000]

Reality is . . . off

Here's me, screaming into the void. I've got no theory, only Clues.

Reality seems to be acting strangely in Season 2 of Good Omens. Mostly around Aziraphale. My examples:

This season seems to be from Aziraphale's point of view, and all the colors and lighting seem to be very bright and vibrant.

The note from Maggie -- another post on Tumblr (damned if I can find it now) pointed out that she puts her phone down right as Aziraphale comes into her shop for the first time. She seems to be texting him, but the text message arrives to his door as a note in the mail slot because that's how he expects to receive correspondences.

Changing the Bentley into Our Car -- and in the flashback to 1941 that happens after the trip to Edinburgh in the show, the Bently is still a four-door. He changed it and then made it so it always was that way. (There's a line in the book about someone being powerful enough to change something and then make it so it always was that way -- something that's repeated about the Book of Life, too. Hmm . . .) No wonder Crowley just opens up the back door to put his plants in, it's always had a back door at that point! And please don't @ me with the Bently is not a Clue -- the change happens right in scene, on screen. That was not a "they hoped no one would notice" moment. And yes, I know they weren't able to use Mary for the second season. They got a reasonable look-alike, and then changed that car into a four-door. For why??

The Bentley following him when he parks it. People have said, "Oh, yes, the Bentley is sentient, of course!" But it hasn't done anything to show that until after Aziraphale drives it. And don't @ me with the Queen -- the gag in the book says that any album left in a car for more than a fortnight transmogrifies into The Best of Queen. It's not the Bentley doing that, it's just a fact of Queen. (Can confirm.)

Aziraphale is terrible at magic. But somehow, when he really needs to make a trick work, he does it. Oh, yeah, babe? You just put that photo right up your sleeve slick as that? Hm.

That 25 Lazarii miracle. Neither of them expected that. Yet there it was.

The whole ball. He wasn't casting miracles, reality was just -- conforming itself to what he wanted.

Now my point is . . . I don't know. My observation is that reality seems to be following Aziraphale's wishes, and I don't think he even realizes that it shouldn't be. Not entirely. Or is it that he knows reality is re-shaping itself around him, and he's enjoying it?

Reality is not warping around Crowley in the same way, and Crowley seems to be able to feel something's wrong. Coming in waves, like a hangover.

Now, I have heard it said that Neil has also pointed out that our angel and demon warp reality just by existing. Okay, actually makes sense. How could an occult and celestial being not mess with reality without even realizing they're doing it?

Am I chewing on a nothing burger?

Is Aziraphale turned up somehow?

What is going on.

[calmlb]

when i think about where the anime left off…

2 hours later

…i can’t stop thinking about this part of the s5 op

• Fukuchi + pages (of the book?)

• a hand ominously dropping a book (the book?)

• sskk charging into a fight

• the clock in the background

who do we know who deals with time travel?

and this is the last thing we heard from her 👀

the clock could just be symbolic of Amenogozen… but i’d love to see Wells make a reappearance since it’s relevant to her ability

it would also be a perfect time to tie in 55 Minutes (a more sskk focused light novel), & make another callback to the Order of the Clock Tower

i personally think 55 Minutes needs to be animated before Stormbringer, bc there’s so much foreshadowing & world building in it that’s important to Stormbringer

[slitheringghost]

Voldemort and Manipulation of Power Structures

I wanted to explore one of the most fascinating parts of Voldemort's character, which is his immense consciousness of the power hierarchy and structures of magical society and his ability to manipulate them, as well as his consciousness of his own place in those power structures, and how he often plays on those weaknesses.

There are many ways in which he demonstrates this - i.e. he tells Quirrell “There is no good and evil, there is only power" and seems to follow that regarding his own beliefs; he sees himself in followers similarly disenfranchised as him (Harry, Snape, Ginny, Bellatrix, etc.), and we see him use this with them as a combination of genuine identification and manipulation; and we especially see this hyperawareness of the pureblood power structures that killed Merope in the locket protections (see my meta Slytherin Locket Cave: The Life and Death of Merope Gaunt and this addendum) and how that ties into his consciousness of the legal system and who is vulnerable and disposable to it.

In this meta I’ll explore some more of those instances.

1. Chamber of Secrets

His interactions regarding the Chamber attacks are particularly telling:

“It was my word against Hagrid’s, Harry. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student.. on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls

Well, how it looks... is that Armando Dippet, until Tom Riddle specifically clarified to him otherwise, was assuming Tom was Muggleborn, while there was a monster petrifying and hospitalizing Muggleborns for months and ended up killing one, and then told him he'd be safer at his orphanage. This is also something Tom plays on to Harry:

“My dear boy, you must see how foolish it would be of me to allow you to remain at the castle when term ends. Particularly in light of the recent tragedy... the death of that poor little girl.... You will be safer by far at your orphanage. As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Magic is even now talking about closing the school. We are no nearer locating the — er — source of all this unpleasantness...." “Lucky that I recorded my memories in some more lasting way than ink. But I always knew that there would be those who would not want this diary read.” [...] “I mean that this diary holds memories of terrible things. Things that were covered up.” [...] “Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the person who’d opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the headmaster, Professor Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade me to tell the truth. A story was given out that the girl had died in a freak accident. They gave me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could happen again.”

Tom correctly points out Dippet’s embarrassment about the attacks and attempt to cover them up. Dumbledore says that “Dippet was very fond of Voldemort and convinced of his honesty”, yet that didn’t stop Dippet from initially seeing Tom’s life as disposable as other Muggleborns, and it’s clear Tom realized this fact.

2. Half-Blood Prince

There’s Tom joking about being the “half blood heir of Slytherin” with his friends, enjoying the irony of playing on his background:

“I don’t know that politics would suit me, sir,” he said when the laughter had died away. “I don’t have the right kind of background, for one thing.” A couple of the boys around him smirked at each other. Harry was sure they were enjoying a private joke, undoubtedly about what they knew, or suspected, regarding their gang leader’s famous ancestor.

And then the way he flirts with and manipulates Hepzibah Smith is particularly interesting to me, especially combined with his framing of Hokey and using Kreacher for the locket:

“Hurry up, Hokey!” said Hepzibah imperiously. “He said he’d come at four, it’s only a couple of minutes to and he’s never been late yet!” “Now then,” said Hepzibah happily, “where’s Hokey? Oh yes, there you are — take that away now, Hokey.” The elf obediently took the boxed cup, and Hepzibah turned her attention to the much flatter box in her lap.

“Now, now, not so fast, or I’ll think you’re only here for my trinkets!” pouted Hepzibah. “I am ordered here because of them,” said Voldemort quietly. “I am only a poor assistant, madam, who must do as he is told. Mr. Burke wishes me to inquire —”

Just like he recognizes the parallel between Merope’s treatment and a house elf/slavery, you can tell he’s noticing the same parallel with himself - and he’s playing into it.

Of course, plenty of his politeness with Hepzibah is necessity, but in the above quote he’s milking his “weakness” and playing the obedient servant - because he knows that power dynamic between them is what Hepzibah Smith is attracted to (and that she enjoys fussing over him as the “poor assistant” - i.e. Hepzibah feeding him with the cakes and telling him he’s overworked, etc.).

Then there’s his framing of his uncle - while the majority of the specifics of Morfin’s confession is revenge for his mother, you can tell Tom’s enjoying the irony of framing Morfin and getting him sent to Azkaban for killing Muggles as a fuck you to his pureblood relatives in general:

“And so what? Morfin gave a Muggle a bit of what was coming to him — what about it, then?” “Morfin has broken Wizarding law,” said Ogden sternly. “Morfin has broken Wizarding law.’” Gaunt imitated Ogden’s voice, making it pompous and singsong. Morfin cackled again. “He taught a filthy Muggle a lesson, that’s illegal now, is it?” [...] “Summons! Summons? Who do you think you are, summoning my son anywhere?” “I’m Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad,” said Ogden. “And you think we’re scum, do you?” screamed Gaunt, advancing on Ogden now, with a dirty yellow-nailed finger pointing at his chest. “Scum who’ll come running when the Ministry tells ’em to? Do you know who you’re talking to, you filthy little Mudblood, do you?”

“The Ministry, on the other hand, knew at once that this was a wizard’s murder. They also knew that a convicted Muggle-hater lived across the valley from the Riddle house, a Muggle-hater who had already been imprisoned once for attacking one of the murdered people. “So the Ministry called upon Morfin. They did not need to question him, to use Veritaserum or Legilimency. He admitted to the murder on the spot, giving details only the murderer could know. He was proud, he said, to have killed the Muggles, had been awaiting his chance all these years. He handed over his wand, which was proved at once to have been used to “kill the Riddles. And he permitted himself to be led off to Azkaban without a fight.

Of course this doesn't stop him being a total hypocrite and looking down on Muggles himself, just like his awareness of house-elf oppression and ability to use it doesn’t stop him from completely underestimating Kreacher.

Because one of the biggest ways Voldemort’s arrogance manifests is his belief in his ability to manipulate these power structures, how he sees himself as an outsider in magical society who is always chessmaster-ing it, his certainty that everyone else but him are simply too imprisoned by those oppressive structures to resist against and fight back against them - that he’s the only one that can truly rise above them.

[o-wild-west-wind]

So this fun poll by @iris-in-the-rain pointed out how Ed contradicts himself between seasons 1 and 2 re: the reason for shaving his beard, and honestly…it struck me as a really good example of how Ed and Stede are somewhat unreliable narrators of their own stories, with a tendency to convince themselves of alternate truths (not to be confused with lying—because I think they genuinely believe these unconsciously self-altered narratives).

To the point of the beard question, I think both statements are partially true—but more specifically, I think he’s convinced himself over time of having taken greater initiative in the act than what initially transpired. Considering that his beard is so inextricably linked with his identity/persona, it would make sense that when reliving the memories of the situation, he sees every part of it as something he did, more so than something he was made to do. So while both statements he makes about it are likely technically true (he probably was asked to shave it, and he also probably felt personally motivated to do so in this clean slate of a situation), it’s very plausible that his memory over time has overstated his own role in it all.

This is, in essence, the same reason that Stede doesn’t end up telling Ed what happened the night he left; Stede’s memory of the event isn’t what we all saw as the audience. Stede sees himself as the instigator of his running away, even though it was something he was technically pressured into doing.

I just think it’s interesting how many ways the show plays with memory, especially when considering this in the context of things like the alternate takes used in the s2 flashbacks, the moon size, etc. It's all a very clever way of adding even more subtextual depth to these characters. And it’s also kind of cool how the subjectivity of it all allows for multiple different readings of events like this to be supported by its audience...because it means there's not really a wrong answer to these questions (which I think can also be applied to others like "did Ed actually plan to kill Stede," "is Ed conscious of the way he compartmentalizes his acts of violence," etc., and the lack of open discussion between Stede and Ed throughout much of s2 as a whole).

[gjdraws]

I am now in the possession of five separate comic ideas for due south

is this what it's like to be assaulted by plot bunnies

[thelongestway]

One interesting thing about Gwyndala's heirloom is how unreliable it is when dealing with other Vau N'Akat. Her father's Drednok knocks it out; her father reminds her that before it was hers, it was his (and I am SO betting we are getting a mirror of this scene in S2 - yes I am thinking about it, I really, really, really want to see it!).

She can't fight the Vau N'Akat with their tools. The heritage is more theirs than hers, for now.

I wonder if she can use it with them for other purposes.

[severus-snaps]

Snape and Poison

I got distracted whilst writing a different meta so just thought I'd list every time I've come across that Snape was associated with poison in the series.

I first started thinking about all of this because Lucius was trying to get rid of poison in Borgin & Burkes at the beginning of CoS:

“ — and as you see, certain of these poisons might make it appear — ” “I understand, sir, of course,” said Mr. Borgin. “Let me see …”

...and I liked the idea that Snape was originally the one to brew it. Although unlikely, I also enjoy the idea that Snape had a hand in both the poison Draco attempted to use to kill Dumbledore, and Voldemort's emerald potion which ultimately did kill Dumbledore - because how sad if, no matter what he did, Snape was always the one destined to end Dumbledore's life?

It's obvious that Snape is most closely associated with potions in the books, but Snape is also the most consistently associated character with poison (with the notable exception perhaps being Slughorn - but even then it's shown that Harry is mostly learning from the Prince):

Philosopher's Stone Snape's introductory lesson outlines how a bezoar will save you from most poisons; he brews poisons for the PS riddle; his introductory speech includes how to "stopper death":

Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar? ... For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. … I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death

From WebMD: Aconite contains a strong, fast-acting poison that causes severe side effects such as nausea, vomiting, breathing problems, heart problems, and death.

Snape's riddle/poem:

Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line. Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore, To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four: First, however slyly the poison tries to hide You will always find some on nettle wine’s left side

Chamber of Secrets Snape looks as though anyone who approached him about a love potion would be force-fed poison in CoS:

“My friendly, card-carrying cupids!” beamed Lockhart. “They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn’t stop here! I’m sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you’re at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I’ve ever met, the sly old dog!” Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.

Prisoner of Azkaban The trio think Snape is trying to poison Lupin in PoA; Snape sets an essay on undetectable poisons; Snape warns that potions brewed incorrectly can turn to poisons (revisited when the Trio visit Arthur in hospital in OotP post-Nagini, and a sign reads: "A clean cauldron keeps potions from becoming poisons."), and threatens to 'poison' Trevor.

Harry looked curiously at the goblet ... Professor Lupin took another sip and Harry had a crazy urge to knock the goblet out of his hands. “Professor Snape’s very interested in the Dark Arts,” he blurted out. “Some people reckon — ” Harry hesitated, then plunged recklessly on, “some people reckon he’d do anything to get the Defense Against the Dark Arts job.” “But if he — you know” — Hermione dropped her voice, glancing nervously around — “if he was trying to — to poison Lupin — he wouldn’t have done it in front of Harry.” Harry sat finishing a nasty essay on Undetectable Poisons for Snape. “Everyone gather ’round,” said Snape, his black eyes glittering, “and watch what happens to Longbottom’s toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don’t doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned.”

Goblet of Fire Snape implies he'll poison someone, and Harry absolutely thinks that Snape wants to poison him in GoF; Moody says Dark wizards can poison an unattended cup, and regularly checks his food for poison (wouldn't do him any good if they were undetectable however); Snape later threatens to practically do the same thing to Harry that Moody is trying to avoid by only drinking from a flask, and slip something into Harry's drink [only with Veritaserum this time, not poison] when he thinks Harry has broken into his potions supplies again

“Brilliant!” said Harry. “It’s Potions last thing on Friday! Snape won’t have time to poison us all!” “Antidotes!” said Snape, looking around at them all, his cold black eyes glittering unpleasantly. “You should all have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be selecting someone on whom to test one. …” Snape’s eyes met Harry’s, and Harry knew what was coming. Snape was going to poison him. Moody had told them all during their last Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson that he preferred to prepare his own food and drink at all times, as it was so easy for Dark wizards to poison an unattended cup. [“It is Veritaserum — a Truth Potion so powerful that three drops would have you spilling your innermost secrets for this entire class to hear,” said Snape viciously. “Now, the use of this potion is controlled by very strict Ministry guidelines. But unless you watch your step, you might just find that my hand slips” — he shook the crystal bottle slightly — “right over your evening pumpkin juice. And then, Potter … then we’ll find out whether you’ve been in my office or not.” - interesting also because Moody had also been in Snape's office] Professors McGonagall and Moody kept them working until the very last second of their classes too, and Snape, of course, would no sooner let them play games in class than adopt Harry. Staring nastily around at them all, he informed them that he would be testing them on poison antidotes during the last lesson of the term. He found it hard to concentrate on Snape’s Potions test, and consequently forgot to add the key ingredient — a bezoar — meaning that he received bottom marks... Snape handed Dumbledore a small glass bottle of completely clear liquid: the Veritaserum with which he had threatened Harry in class.

Order of the Phoenix Ron says "Poisonous toadstools don’t change their spots" when discussing Snape, his general personality, and whether Snape ever truly stopped working for Voldemort (echoes leopards never change their spots/Moody's "spots that don't come off" in GoF); Snape discusses the use of Veritaserum, poison, and venom on Harry with Umbridge, and expresses his 'sympathy' (read: apparent desire) to use poison on Harry; when advising Harry to continue Potions during his careers discussion, McGonagall said that poisons and antidotes were essential study for Aurors, and that Snape would not accept students below an Outstanding

“I wish you to provide me with a potion that will force him to tell me the truth!” “I have already told you,” said Snape smoothly, “that I have no further stocks of Veritaserum. Unless you wish to poison Potter — and I assure you I would have the greatest sympathy with you if you did — I cannot help you. The only trouble is that most venoms act too fast to give the victim much time for truth-telling…” “...Then you ought to do Charms, always useful, and Potions. Yes, Potter, Potions,” she added, with the merest flicker of a smile. “Poisons and antidotes are essential study for Aurors. And I must tell you that Professor Snape absolutely refuses to take students who get anything other than ‘Outstanding’ in their O.W.L.s, so — ”

Half-Blood Prince The Prince inherently understood Golpalott’s Third Law on antidotes to poisons, and then the plot revisits the bezoar from PS both as a means of helping Harry in class but also to save Ron.

“You sure the Prince hasn’t got any tips?” Ron muttered to Harry. Harry pulled out his trusty copy of Advanced Potion-Making and turned to the chapter on antidotes. There was Golpalott’s Third Law, stated word for word as Hermione had recited it, but not a single illuminating note in the Prince’s hand to explain what it meant. Apparently the Prince, like Hermione, had had no difficulty understanding it. And there it was, scrawled right across a long list of antidotes: Just shove a bezoar down their throats. Harry stared at these words for a moment. Hadn’t he once, long ago, heard of bezoars? Hadn’t Snape mentioned them in their first-ever Potions lesson? “A stone taken from the stomach of a goat, which will protect from most poisons.” It was not an answer to the Golpalott problem, and had Snape still been their teacher, Harry would not have dared do it... He hurtled back to Ron’s side, wrenched open his jaw, and thrust the bezoar into his mouth.

Not rooted in reality at all but a theory I once came across that I cradle like a fascinating little animal that I just can't stop looking at, is that Snape and Dumbledore somehow switch bodies before 'Dumbledore' takes Harry to the cave, and then switch back in time for Dumbledore to actually die at Snape's hand.

And, of course, the (separate but works here too) theory that back as a 'real' Death Eater, Snape helped Voldemort with the emerald potion that was already killing Dumbledore when Snape finished the job.

Deathly Hallows More tenuously, Aberforth asks "where will you lot traffick potions and poisons when my pub’s closed down", and it was the Hog's Head where Snape was lurking when he overheard the prophecy - whether that was as part of his role as spy/he was applying for a job like Trelawney said, or because he was an opportunist with a sideline in poisons - I enjoy both ideas).

Not just poison: Snape and venom

The series also mixes up (or at least uses interchangeably at times) venom and poison; although to a lesser extent associated with venom, Snape does have his moments where he is associated with venom - ultimately, of course, his final moments are spent under the influence of Nagini's.

Snape is described as shooting Harry (and Ron) "a look of pure venom" in CoS; he sets an essay on antivenoms in OotP; "Harry’s anger at Snape continued to pound through his veins like venom" during Occlumency lessons in OotP; "The only trouble is that most venoms act too fast to give the victim much time for truth-telling" says Snape, two books before attempting to find a way to tell the truth no matter how fast-acting Nagini's venom is; when Harry sees Arthur dying of Nagini's bite, it is Snape who has to teach Harry Occlumency to prevent such a thing from happening again, and Snape who ultimately dies of the same attack - but he does not, due to timing (mid-Battle and all) or ill will receive the same rush from the entire Order to attempt to save him, and despite all of his knowledge of poisons and venoms and antidotes, also does not save himself - despite Slughorn being described as carrying around antidotes to things like Veritaserum on the off chance that Dumbledore tries to get a memory out of him, so carrying antidotes for a well-prepared and cunning Slytherin of a certain level of skill is not unheard of, or impossible.

[verecunda]

“When Morgoth was defeated, it was as if a great, clenched fist had released its grasp from my neck. And in the stillness of that first sunrise, at last, I felt the light of the One again.”

Okay, so, I’ve been seeing a fair amount of dismay over this line from the Angbang side of the fandom, and I can sympathise up to a point, but I thought I’d throw in my own Angbang-shipping tuppenceworth on it.

Sauron was Morgoth’s devoted servant, no question about it. The books say so, and the show even describes him as such at the beginning of the first episode. But when we actually meet Sauron, he’s in his post-War of Wrath repentance stage. How sincere is he? The actor and the writers have all said they prefer to leave that ambiguous, but Tolkien himself described him as beginning the Second Age with “fair motives”, so he seems to have regarded this stage as genuine. So I do too - that’s a fascinating bit of nuance right there. And frankly, if we accept that Sauron did genuinely repent, then it stands to reason that, however great his loyalty, there must have been a period, at least, that he rued the day he ever met Melkor. 

The bottom line is this: Melkor trusted Sauron, gave him power and what seems to have been a lot of privileges. He may even have loved him (here canon is regrettably silent). But however positive their relationship may have been, it was still based on Melkor turning Sauron to evil. There is something there that is fundamentally screwed up.

I know some people have taken issue with the violent imagery of Morgoth’s fist about Sauron’s neck, while others have been pointing out the complicated emotions of people who have been in abusive relationships. I’m not going to get into the question of whether Morgoth was actually violent to Sauron (again, canon is silent, and there’s room to extrapolate either way) - rather I’d like to talk about what’s actually going on in this line.

Sauron is describing his feelings at the moment of his repentance, when (in his mind, at least) he decided to turn from evil to good. And, to be honest, the image he uses is very apt, because it perfectly mirrors the nature of evil in Tolkien’s world. It is limiting; it is constricting. The lesser antagonists, such as Gollum and the Nazgûl, are stripped of free will, their existence entirely revolving around Sauron and/or the Ring.

But ultimately, the Big Bads have it even worse. The books make clear that even as Morgoth and Sauron grow in evil, they lose power, and their existence is increasingly limited. They both lose the basic ability to change their shape, stuck in a single, terrible form; they’re even stripped of their real names. Each one, even at the height of his rule as the Dark Lord, is a terrible, brooding monster confined to his own fortress, unwilling or unable to go forth. Even as they send their evil out into the world, they themselves are reduced, trapped. It’s a hideous existence, a kind of existential suffocation.

The line in the show may describe literally the sort of dynamic Sauron had with Morgoth. Personally, I hope they go with something that balances the clenched fist with the “devoted/beautiful” servant also described. I'd eat that up with a spoon. But on its own, I think the line illustrates very well the feeling Sauron would have at the moment of his repentance - even though we know it can’t last.

[elancholia]

People in the late 20th century thought the fundamental arc of human history was exploration, whereas now it looks like it's information processing.

In traditional science fiction, the historically progressive human urge is wanderlust, the pull of unknown geography, horror vacui or amor vacui depending on how you look at it. Those writers invoke the elapse of time that separated Kitty Hawk from the moon landing. They recite a procession of discoverers that includes Columbus or the Polynesians and whose next logical steps are space colonization and superluminal travel. Era-defining technologies are transportation technologies. You still get this now, sometimes. In a much-dunked-upon scene in Star Trek: Discovery (2017), a character's litany of great inventors includes the Wright brothers, the guy who invented FTL, and Elon Musk.

The corresponding fear, of course, is alien invasion—that we are not Columbus but the Indians.

Now, the developments actually restructuring people's lives are either of the computer or on the computer. The PC, the internet, smartphones, social media, LLMs. Bits, not atoms. It has been this way for some time, though it hasn't fully made its way into culture. The progenitors of the new future are writing, the printing press, the abacus. We can see the arc clearly in retrospect, now that the future seems likely to be defined by machine learning.

Just as before, there is some anxiety that our trajectory will lead us into the grip of alien intelligences, horrendous and devouring.

If you go back to the period stretching (roughly) from the late 19th century through the Second World War, stories often hinge on wonder-substances and novel fundamental forces. This was, of course, an era in which a new force or element was turning up every other week. You couldn't swing a cat without hitting one. They discovered guncotton when some guy left his fouled lab coat next to an oven. Hence, Vril, the Ray, the "eighth and ninth solar rays" of Burroughs's Mars. In later stories, this sort of stuff is generally secondary, though superhero fiction preserves more of the old mentality.

[camille-lachenille]

Aragorn’s elvish name is Estel, high or enduring hope. He’s the personification of hope against all odds in a world slowly falling apart.

Éowyn doesn’t have any estel left in her. She sees hope in the person of Aragorn and tries to catch it, this fleeting glimpse of hope. And when he rejects her, she rides to her death, heart full of despair. Because of this, the Black Breath has a strong hold on her, and Aragorn, estel, brings her from the brink of death.

Faramir too, is under the Black Breath, and he has little reasons to hope. Yet he stil has estel, and he accepts readily Aragorn as his king. He continues to hope when he and Éowyn are almost alone in left behind in Minas Tirith and the world is on the verge of destruction.

And it’s this enduring hope, Faramir’s estel, that Éowyn sees. She accepts his words of comfort because he has estel enough for the two of them and she is beginning to understand for herself, what hope really is. Aragorn was a projection, a personification of everything she didn’t have, but Faramir is her hope.

[artbyblastweave]

Team Fortress 2 developed Lore but I think it never quite metastasized narrative themes. Comics felt like they were on the verge of doing so but they also were buckling under the weight of being the main conventional narrative in which there was room to give everyone a character arc which was taken sorta seriously. But not, like, very very seriously. Not even a missed opportunity per se. Something somehow even more melancholy than that