Tumgik
#how much of him can i screenshot and post before they come after me <- the normal comic readers who are not delusional like me
synth-spinner · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media
w.. wuh.. cries in a way that's awesome..
58 notes · View notes
bamsara · 3 months
Note
I dont know if it was intentional but I love that Narinder when he sees Lamb throwing up he turns gentle and pushes their wool and ears back so they dont get stained with vomit and for some reason it reminded me of how when Nari was throwing up too after the nightmare he had when they were on route to fight Leshy, Lambert helped him with camellias for the nausea.
Ahh, parallels. I think.
IM SO GLAD YOU POINTED THAT OUT allow me to ramble for just a moment.
Narinder was trapped in the Afterlife for over 1000 years, with little social skills and plagued by wishing for vengeance and his only company being two kittens who become disciples under his rule. He has terrible social skills, if not lacking them entirely.
(I would argue that Aym and Baal also have horrific nonexistent social skills, so those three cat's can't really help each other communicate properly to anyone else outside themselves.)
It can be argued that since The One Who Waits had other vessels to pass time and try to kill /annoy his siblings before the prophesized Lamb arrival, that he would have developed them a little bit more, but I would argue that the power balance would have been oodles more severe since the vessels weren't the promised one. He didn't need them, so if they no longer were of service or disobeyed him, he got rid of them. Whether just sending them out or killing them, any how.
Lamb, however, knows they are the last Lamb, the prophesized liberator of The One Who Waits, and therefore his only option. They knew that they were his only reasonable way out of there (whether they asked for it or not) so they were oodles more comfortable than how a professional relationship would have been.
So they asked questions, bothered him, played and ran around him. Complained and vented to him. Yapped and yapped. What is he gonna do? Kill them? Find a new vessel? He can't. "You're as trapped into this prophecy as much as I am, so let's be friends"
Example parts from Chapter 3:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
The power balance equalizes because Lamb did not see his presence a God, but rather a fellow prisoner and victim of fate. Rude and demanding, but in the same chains as they were. 'My lord' was simply formalities at first.
This puts Narinder / The One Who Waits in social situations he hasn't been in (or hardly been in) in over a thousand years, and frankly, he had no idea how to navigate them:
Example from Chapter 5:
Tumblr media
The God of Death has not needed to comfort or 'be there' for someone in a long, long time. The Lamb's presence is what forces him to try, even if his first attempt aren't perfect. So in that same chapter, he'll ask them a question to distract them. Conversation. Like how they do it.
Tumblr media
While I won't post a screenshot of everytime this happens in written format (not including the dreams/memories/flashbacks that haven't been posted yet)-
The One Who Waits is pushed outside of his bubble when it comes to socializing in a way that isn't just 'God-to-Lowly-Vessal' format. He has to talk to them like a person, because he's being talked to like a person, not a god on a pedestal.
Obviously after the final battle and betrayal (to both of them, otherwise known as the Grand Miscommunication) this means nothing for a while as tempers are still high and feelings are hurt. But overtime, this returns, and can show in small ways (ways that may not seem like comfort but is certainly an attempt) like just in Chapter 18:
Trying to bring them an 'offering' (breakfast) mirroring other times the Lamb has done the same for him:
Tumblr media
Crudely offering to replace something they are upset at losing/later offering reassurance abet in a curt way:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
And what you mentioned: earlier when the Lamb is throwing up, narration shows they're having trouble with keeping their wool, cloak, bell, ect all back at the same time. He can see that. He has a mental boiling pot explosion over the fact that helping them is even a want that he has after the denial crisis he's experiencing where the only answer a minute ago seemed like he needed to kill them, and he chose comfort.
It is intentional. Narinder is learning how to show care, and allowing himself to show care. Slowly, and not perfect, but learning.
991 notes · View notes
txttletale · 9 months
Text
roadhogsbigbelly is doubling down. genuinely incredible (yes i am aware how deeply funny it is to start a serious post with that sentence. it is my one allotment of levity)
Tumblr media
oh okay you just assumed that "loliporn" was involved and something that i deserved to be associated with defending and accused of making "integral to the queer identity" because of stuff that the OP (who i cannot stress enough i never followed or talked to or knew in any fucking way!) did that got called out months after i made my addition?
youtube
the rest of his post is just a very lengthy way of saying "umm if you didn't want to be called a pedophile because you were mean about stardew valley maybe you should be more careful about how you reblog from". yeah buddy im sure you apply that standard to yourself too huh. im sure you pull out your Bad Person detector every time you reblog a fucking post and beam OP with it. you literally screenshot my post about how as a trans women i get this standard uniquely applied to me and went "um its a good standard though. answer for the actions of every fucking person youve ever reblogged a post by".
and all this whole fucking schtick where he's like "ummmm im not calling you a pedophile :) i just assumed you thought 'loliporn was integral to the queer identity' based on source: i made it up and am going out of my way to repeatedly say you're agreeing with pedophiles and not being wary enough about pedophiles and that 99% of people who make the type of post im accusing you of making are pedophiles" is so fucking pathetic and if you fall for it you are a blatant transmisogynist like come the fuck on man.
i am no longer having a nice time on the computer, i am pretty fucking angry. and all this because he "doesnt have much skin in the game" but he doesn't like my stardew valley takes! yeah man real proportionate response.
not to mention the aside he makes to say 'wah wah someone told me to kill myself' amiguito do you have any fucking idea what my inbox has looked like since this entire transmisogynistic harassment campaign began a week ago? i delete those asks because i'm not into flaunting every piece of online abuse i get to make myself look like the victim in computer arguments but it has been constant and graphic! breaking news, women are people too, some of the most cutting-edge research suggests they might even have feelings!
"oh i censored her identity i dont know how she even found it" oh okay so you were anonymously pedojacketing me to your thousands of followers while vaguing about a post i made that had thousands of notes and using the same screenshot that an uncensored version of was passed around with thousands of notes as part of a transmisogynistic harassment campaign last fucking week?
youtube
how could anyone possibly have guessed it was me! it's a real mystery man it was basically witness protection. "oh but i didn't know, i didn't know she was trans", maybe he'll also say he didn't know about the harassment campaign, hey fucker, maybe apply some of the constant scrutiny you're reserving for women who are mean about farming game and apply it to yourself and consider looking into these things before baselessly making pedo accusations against someone!
this transmisogynistic crybully shit is absolutely fucking insufferable and i am absolutely sick of it and anyone who buys into it. i'm done assuming good faith or ignorance. i am not going to be a good placid little bullying target and acquiesce to this vile shit. it's truly fucking incredible that a tme guy can be found out as an actual pedophile and guys like mr. belly can immediately jump into action to use this as an opportunity to denounce a trans woman who had one interaction with him ever that consisted of five minutes spent typing an addition to a post and hitting ''reblog''. & if you don't find that sickening then straight up you are not safe for trans women to be around.
947 notes · View notes
krypticcafe · 8 months
Note
i wanna know how u think 141 + König & Alejandro would react/feel about reader doing this trend with them, ofc reader doesn't upload it or anything they just record it for fun :]
if the link doesn't work the trend is basically a person is putting on lipstick and they "mess up" and their s/o wipes it off for them and the camera pans to their s/o covered in kissmarks
this has been on my mind for a while i think its so sweet 🥲 i lovelovelove ur writing!! its so good lik oml <33
Lipstick trend w/COD:MWII men
rating: teen
character(s): Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, John Price, John "Soap" MacTavish, Simon "Ghost" Riley, Gary "Roach" Sanderson, Hound König, Alejandro Vargas / GN!Reader
warning(s): language, suggestiveness
wordcount: ~1.6k
summary: Silly little lipstick trend with your silly little military boyfriend.
a/n: the money I'd pay to kiss these men dizzy.
Tumblr media
Gaz
Knew about the trend for a while, was wondering if you'd do it, so it's not much of a surprise when you come to him asking about it.
Honestly, he thinks it's a little cheesy, but he's not so insecure that he doesn't want to do it, he's happy to make you happy.
Literally won't stop teasing you like "You sure you're doing this just for the trend?" when you're smooching him all over his face.
When you're done, you can't but stare for a bit.
"What, too pretty for words, love?"
"Shut up, Garrick."
"Make me."
Now his lips are a bright red to match yours<3
The recording goes pretty smoothly, but by the end of it, Gaz can be seen bursting into giggles which in turn makes you giggle a little until the recording cuts off.
You guys don't post it publicly, but I like to think Gaz posted a screenshot of when the two of you are in frame, looking at each other with goofy smiles.
Tumblr media
Price
The last person you'd expect to be up with any trends, but it's alright, you're here to help him!
He's hesitant, only because he's a bit bashful! When it comes to these silly little recordings and any of your playful schemes, he gets a little shy about it.
But if you really bat your eyes, pout a little, maybe even tug on his sleeve...
"Please? Just this once, sweetheart?"
He sucks in a deep breath. He's a captain for Christ's sake, he's resisted things worse than this, and no amount of hellish torture has ever made him crack in the slightes-
"Pretty please? For me, Johnny?"
What was he thinking about again?
He sits there while you practically bounce in your spot while you lather on thick layers of lipstick, wondering if this will haunt him.
But all his bashfulness goes out the window when you cup his face oh-so-gently, smother him with kisses, giggling about how ticklish his facial hair is, how it nearly messes you up, how you smile proudly at your work and at him.
You swear you won't post it because you know he can't risk his reputation as a captain... but you also know nothing is stopping you from bringing it up every now and then to him.
Pulling up the pictures and videos, smugly grinning and ogling them while he groans at how smug you are.
Real proud of that one, aren't you?
Tumblr media
Soap
"So basically for the trend I just need to put on some lipstick, kiss yo-"
"Say less."
Literally he doesn't care what he has to do, this man wants his kisses.
He'll be all "You missed a spot" when you're applying the marks on his face.
Your guys' version of the trend is a little different.
Instead, the video starts with you putting on lipstick, Soap takes it, commenting how the shade would look good on him, applying it on his lips before smothering you with kisses in the video, leaving the two of you all covered in lipstick stains.
After you wiped your face off, you notice Soap hasn't.
He's just staring smugly at the mirror, rubbing his chin, talking about how "Y'know, I think this actually looks good on me" and "Think I'll keep it on for today, yeah?"
"Honey, you can't go out like that."
"An' why not? I'm jus' wearin' makeup."
"Don't be a smartass- hey! Get back here MacTavish!"
Every day that man tests your patience, but you wouldn't have it any other way.
Tumblr media
Ghost
"You won't budge until I say yes?"
You're sitting on his lap on the bed, keeping him still, batting your eyes with faux innocence. He could lift you off if he wanted, but he doesn't, and that alone is enough of an answer for you.
"Nope."
He's trying to pretend so much that he doesn't care too much about it, that he's just letting you do whatever you want. Obviously, he's just playing along.
However, it isn't until you kiss that particular spot of his neck just right under his jaw where the stubble stops that it escalates.
"Oh? Is the lieutenant feeling ticklish?" You coo.
"'m not ticklish-" He's cut off by more kisses peppered around the area and a few extra on his face.
"Mhm, really, because," You're giggling in between your words, "When I kiss you here," He forces the fakest cough he's ever made when you kiss the same spot against, nipping it slightly. All he can do is lean back into the couch, leg bouncing impatiently, trying to bite back a chuckle or two until he finally cracks. The two of you are in a quiet fit of snickers and giggles until you finally let up.
After making the video, you silently gush over it, replaying it over and over. There's a hint of redness on his cheeks, and his eyes seem to flicker from you to the camera, it's the most flustered you've ever seen him be and you got it all on tape, lucky you.
Tumblr media
Roach
"That's so dumb, of course I wanna do it."
Roach is all for goofy little couples trends, so it's nothing new if you ask him to do another.
"Babe, stay still would you?" You pout, "I'm gonna have to start over if you keep squirming!"
"Mmm, I think I'd like that."
"Of course you would." Rolling your eyes, you pinch his cheek and he yelps, apologizing and letting you continue. He really can't help it though, it's really ticklish for him.
It takes maybe three tries for you to get the video right, ending with one where Gary messed up your makeup for you by swooping in to give you a sloppy smooch and clumsily wiping it only to further smear it while in a fit of giggles. He claims you were taking too long so he put matters in his own hands.
"So when do I get to do you?"
"What are you talking about, that's all there is- Gary!"
"Nuh-uh, c'mere!"
Tumblr media
Hound
He's confused as ever but agrees to it on a whim since he's often entertaining your needs and wants anyways.
As you settle on his lap, his hands rest on your sides and he looks up at you with affectionate eyes. He was looking at you like that when you were putting on your lipstick, too. You almost don't want to ruin his pretty little face, but at the same time, you think it'd look so much prettier with your kisses all over it<3
His eyes close and he stays still while you mark his face all over, even when your lips tickle sensitive spots like his scars. Patient as ever.
When you pull away, he looks like such a doll for you. Your hands cup his face and his lashes flutter open, showing those big brown eyes still giving you the same adoring look, and your chest is basically hammering. He can probably hear it, too. He reaches up to hold your hands and presses his lips against the knuckles. You swear your heart just stopped.
"Everything alright, sugar?"
Oh fuck, what were you supposed to be doing?
"Mhm." You nod frantically, face burning while his thumb brushes over a knuckle, "Y-You know, maybe we can just... tonight... haha... holdmeplease?"
Yeah... you never did quite get your video.
Tumblr media
König
"What, with me?" He asks, bewildered.
"Of course?? Who else am I going to do it with? Oh sure, let me call up Horangi, I bet he'll be happy to-"
"Nonono! I want to do it!"
Moments later, he's sitting on the edge of your bed, hood off, fidgeting awkwardly, and watching you quietly. Now you know what he meant when they told him he couldn't stay still for the life of him.
"König, honey, you act like I'm going to hurt you or something." You chuckle, popping your lips as you apply your lipstick in the mirror. He wasn't even this skittish in bed so what had him all jittery?
Setting your hands on his shoulders, you reassure him with a kiss first on the forehead. "Relax, I just want to take a video, that's all."
"Sorry schatz, I'll behave." He hums, easing up at your touch and you smile, planting kisses all over. It seems he just didn't know what exactly he was in for.
You show him how he looks on your phone, "Thoughts?"
"Not bad..." He attempts to wipe off the marks, but you swat his hand away from him.
"You think we're done, mister?"
"Huh?" Practically pouncing on him, you cut him off with a hungry kiss, hovering your body over his. What, he didn't seriously think all you wanted was a video, did he?
Tumblr media
Alejandro
He snickers, "If you just wanted my attention, you could've asked."
"I'm serious, Alejandro, it's a thing!" You beam, pointing to the videos on your phone.
He jokingly dismisses your claim and settles onto his office chair, looking at you expectantly. You're confused for a moment, what was he staring at you for?
"Are we going to do this or not? Don't tell me it was actually an excuse now, mi vida."
"No!" You blurt, though now you're debating if you should do this or just leave him waiting with how much he wants to tease you. Then again, you can't pass up this opportunity.
While applying your makeup, you can spot him quietly admiring you in the corner of his eye, and it nearly throws you off your game.
As you kiss him, he keeps his eyes on you, a grin on his lips. Not for a single moment does he tear his attention away from you, instead pointing at a few spots for you to mark.
"I got it, I got it," You huff, mumbling to yourself, "You're certainly enjoying this, colonel..."
Post-production, when you get up to wipe off your lips, he looks at you with offense, "What, that's it?"
"Yes..?"
"Nonono, I think we need to do it again, my way, this time." He snickers, pulling you in by the waist.
"Your way? Alejandro!" You whine without fighting back as he pulls you in for a longer kiss, all your protests forgotten.
Tumblr media
a/n: homies i kinda regret writing this so close to valentine's day haha...
559 notes · View notes
vamossainz55 · 1 year
Note
hi, nik! fellow carlos enthusiast here hoping you could write a kiss to shut him up. he’s come home from the gym (post sweaty thirst trap selfie) and is venting about pierre. reader smooches him to stop, reassuring him that he could never do wrong in her eyes 🤫😘
a/n: hi anon, i love love loved writing this. carlos doesn't necessarily vent but reader does smooch him to shut him up. slight jealous carlos, i couldn't help myself sorry. i hope you enjoy <3
(+ insta au at the end w the infamous photo)
let's sweat it out, - cs55
it started as a joke, and it wasn’t meant to be taken as anything beyond that. you didn’t think he’d take it too seriously either as his ‘pobrecito’ comment hinted that the spanish driver hadn’t even taken pierre’s comment to heart. but here you were, watching carlos putting on his shoes on with his back turned towards you.
five years of being together meant you didn’t need to look at carlos’ face to know he’s not in the best mood. you can tell by the way he tightens his shoelaces, the little huff he lets out before he gets up.
“amor,” you say, rolling your eyes when he responds with dime before saying your name. he always did this when he was annoyed, refusing to use any pet name.
“i was joking,” you say for the nth time. you know carlos isn’t upset with you, the frustration of it all probably culminating into him being put into a bad mood. 
“maybe you shouldn’t have squeezed him carlos,” he says, voice high pitched with a scrunch of his nose. you roll your eyes at his childish response, crossing your arms over your chest.
“are you mocking me carlos?” your voice is sharp this time, a warning for him not to push it.
he hears it loud and clear since he instantly turns to look at you. “sorry, i know you were joking.” he murmurs before sighing. “i’m gonna go for a run and workout. i’ll be back in a few. do you mind waiting for a late lunch?” he comes over, resta his knee on the edge of the bed to kiss your forehead. 
“mhm, thought you were sorry.” you murmur but smile small at the offer anyways. his hand gently squeezes your elbow before he pulls away. “okay, i’ll wait for you for lunch.” 
_
you figure lunch will be… interesting. a few minutes after carlos had left you had seen pierre’s instagram story, a replay of when carlos had supposedly squeezed him. 
‘don’t be mad but,’ you had texted him along with a screenshot of the post. it took an hour for him to answer, and what he had sent was one of the last things you had expected to see. 
he replies with a photo and nothing else. you open the chat to see what it exactly is and you feel your cheeks burn red as soon as you see it. 
the photo is… something. you can see the droplets of sweat forming at almost every strand of hair he has. his locks are disheveled, lips parted as if in the midst of panting. your eyes trail to his collarbones, down to his chest and you have to cover your face, suddenly embarassed as your blush travels down your chest. 
before you even muster the courage to reply the notification comes in, carlossainz55 posted on their story. 
you’re bright red when you see the photo appear on your screen again. ‘carlos’ you text, 'what is this!! delete!!!!’. it’s technically not explicit, the caption of it saying gym time but it looks so intimate, reminds you of late nights or early mornings that has you feeling antsy. 
he doesn’t answer though, not after two texts or five, and you end up hiding your phone inside the closet to stop yourself from looking at that photo. he knows how much waiting drives you crazy. 
so he’s not surprised when he gets home to find you in the kitchen, lunch barely started even though he had texted you thirty minutes ago saying he was on the way. 
“you didn’t text me back, lost your phone?” carlos asks, smiling innocently at you when you turn over to look at him.
he’s still wearing his gym clothes, the change of clothes left in the bag he had dropped by the door. the fabric clings onto his body and he doesn’t miss the way you eye him. 
“left it to charge upstairs,” you murmur, red when you realise carlos fully knows your ogling him. 
“oh?” he says before coming closer to you. “but what if you miss one of pierre’s post?” carlos asks, raising his brow. 
“huh?” you ask, almost surprised by his words. carlos shrugs, hooks his fingers into the belt loops of your jeans. he pulls you close, loves the way you move towards him without question.
“maybe he releases another statement hm?” his lips hover over yours. “i mean… i shouldn’t have squeezed him after all. my fault hm,” you lean close to kiss him, already riled up from earlier but he doesn’t let you, leans back. “isn’t that what you said this morning?” 
“carlos,” you whine, the ingredients on the counter well forgotten. 
“you’re so busy with what pierre has to say, giving him all the attention in the world. he must be right hm?” your lips come close again, wanting to interrupt him but he still doesn’t let you.
“everybody knows you didn’t do anything carlos,” you say, antsy for a kiss already. 
“mhm, everybody but my girlfriend.” he says, raising his brow.
that’s exactly the moment you realize what all of this is really about. carlos wasn’t mad at pierre, he was jealous of your attention on him. 
“god, you’re annoying,” you say, and carlos knows you’ve finally gotten it. “i was joking.” 
carlos hums. “are you sure?” 
“yes, carlos.” his hands grip your waist. 
“really sure?”
“carlos,” 
“were you re-“ the words are taken from his lips when you press yourself against him. you cup your face and his hands go to squeeze your waist, lifting you to the counter to let you sit there. he smiles against your lips, lets a soft sigh of satisfaction once you both pull away. 
"you know i'll always back you first right?" you ask, raising your brow and carlos nods, pressing his lips against yours again.
"mhm, i know." he says, pressing kisses to your neck. you let your eyes flutter shut but you're quick to remember the story he had posted earlier, and you have to ask.
“so… the photo?” you question, hands already roaming under his shirt. 
“well, needed to make sure pierre was the last thing on your mind,” he says smugly. “did it work?”
you wait for a moment, watch as carlos tries to kiss you but this time you lean back, making him regret doing the same earlier. he pouts, blinks when you tap his nose with his finger. 
“hmm, i don’t know. maybe.” you say against his lips before kissing him again. 
yourusername
Tumblr media
liked by carlossainz55, charles_leclerc, landonorris and 293,758 others
yourusername dont worry about him guys. i'll let him squeeze me all he wants 😏 🤫 1 hour ago
charles_leclerc: ... oh 😦 54m ago
fan1: who wants to bet it took charles more than ten minutes to get what yn meant 28m ago liked by carlossainz55
fan2: WHY IS NOBODY SAYING ANYTHING ABOUT THE MEME 26m ago
fan1: no bc the mouth froth is so real. 25m ago
carlossainz55: coming home rn 🏃🏻‍♂️ 59m ago
yourusername: you're literally right next to me 57m ago
landonorris: NOT INFRONT OF THE KIDS 40m ago
yourusername: what kids? we're making them rn 20m ago
landonorris: i'm gonna throw up 🤢 18m ago liked by charles_leclerc
fan3: not the carlos sainz apologist 10m ago
fan4: LMAO shes his gf ofc she would be??? 6m ago liked by yourusername
yourusername: carlos apologist first, carlos fucker second 3m ago
fan4: girl i-
938 notes · View notes
nalooksthrough · 2 months
Text
Dale Dimmadome Analysis (with screenshots)
Dale is one of my favourite characters on the show. He's a funny evil man, that amuses me with his antics and his role as a child slave/kidnap victim in the original series leaves a lot to be explored.
This analysis will be talking about his attachment to money which trust me is a lot more interesting than it sounds. This will be quite a long post. I'll put a cut under this paragraph, so that the people who aren't interested don't have to scroll through the whole post.
Going to assume that since you decided to keep reading, that your interested in what I have to say. This analysis will only be covering "Stanky Danky" and "Lost and Founder's Day" with a brief mention of "Operation Birthday Takeback". I think those two episodes are more than sufficient enough to convey my point.
When we first meet Dale in "Stanky Danky" he's seen coming down from a helicopter, onto a big stage to sell products to people. He appears to be level headed with confidence oozing out of him. But this changes the moment he realises that people aren't going to buy anything.
Tumblr media
He almost immediately starts to panic.
Tumblr media
He starts shuttering as he calls out to the crowd to buy more things.
Tumblr media
His panic becomes anger. Briefly switching back to panic before fully settling into anger. His anger then becomes targeted at the person whose telling these people not to buy from him. He questions who this girl is, what's her name.
Tumblr media
Once he's learnt her name. He starts thinking up a way he can stop her and get the customer's interest back.
Tumblr media
And once he's found it he strikes.
Tumblr media
Going as far as to kidnap Danky and emotionally manipulate him just so he can get what he wants.
Tumblr media
Leaving the monster in an isolated area of his estate when he's not of any current use to him. I mean talk about becoming your abuser.
Tumblr media
And when Hazel and Danky leave he rushes out calling out to the trash monster, saying that he was "like a son" to him. Trying to appeal to Danky's emotions, desperately trying to get him back. All so he doesn't lose that source of profit.
Tumblr media
And when he starts losing all his profits at the end of the episode he falls to his knees, wailing in a fit of despair. He's obsessed with money, he needs it and he's willing to do anything to get it. This obsession of his is best shown in "Lost and Founder's Day"
Tumblr media
He spends the first portion of the episode happily monologing as he explains how his Dim Watches "tickle" a child's brain to indicate when they want something. Everything is going exactly as he planned.
Tumblr media
Until it isn't.
Tumblr media
The moment he spots someone not buying anything he starts getting angry. Ranting at the screen.
Tumblr media
His anger only growing more when he realises that this "anomaly" is stopping other people from buying things too.
Tumblr media
And when Dev points out that stuff is still getting sold and they are still earning money. He shuts him down.
Tumblr media
Stating that while yes people are still buying things. The profit he's making from the festival in going down. And he is not happy about it.
Tumblr media
In fact he's so enraged by this that he starts to send drones and his son after it so that he can "learn it's secrets". He can't handle the idea that someone doesn't want to buy anything from him.
Tumblr media
And when that doesn't work, he activates the statues. Putting the whole festival on lock down until he can track down the "anomaly".
Tumblr media
And when a drone points out how counter productive terrorising the festival attendees is to earning money and making a profit. He quite literally shuts it down.
Tumblr media
And at the end of the episode, when the statues are put to a stop and everyone leaves.
Tumblr media
He's back in that pit of despair. A literal stream of tears flowing out of his eyes. And he so affected by this that he spent literal months studying this "anomaly" figuring out why it didn't seem interested in buying anything during the festival. And the thing is. If he had just left it alone. The festival would have gone on without much of a hitch. But he just couldn't, because it was never about the money. Not really. It was about him.
It's clear that he puts a lot of value onto money. More than most. With money being tied directly to his identity and sense of security. The more money he makes, the better he feels about himself and when he starts to lose money, he takes it as a direct attack on him. He knows what it's like to have nothing and he doesn't ever want to be in that state again. So he obsessively tries to earn more and more in order feel secure in himself. But it's never enough. And when someone threatens that security he goes on the defence. Even at the cost of the losing other potential sales.
And when he loses all his profits and is no longer generating money, he breaks. And for a brief moment, he's no longer Dale Dimmadome owner of Dimmadome G0bal.
He's Dale. A frighten young boy working in a factory underneath a lemonade stand, whose only wish is for his father to come and rescue him.
169 notes · View notes
lu-is-not-ok · 4 months
Text
*rises from the grave*
*trips and falls flat on my face*
Heyyyy, it's ya boy, your favorite chronically exhausted Hong Lu identity that forgor about posting to Tumblr. Hi. Hello.
So. Timekilling Time, huh? Very fun, very exciting, we love focusing on Sinners that are misunderstood both in and out of character. We love Rodya, Hong Lu, and Ryoshu focus. We love Ryoshu's butch mustache swag.
Anyway, allow me yap about it a bit, because I took frame by frame screenshots of the teaser and I haven't yapped on Tumblr in a while. I'll also give a general update on how I've been doing at the end of the post for those who are interested.
The first thing I've noticed in the teaser is Dante actually lays out the exact traits that their choice of Sinners would need. These being (exact wording):
Someone who can support Dante
Someone who can remain laser-focused on the case
Someone who can be free from biased judgement while making rational, quick spur-of-the-moment decisions
In other words, we need Sinners who will help Dante out, are able to stay focused, and who can think on their feet without relying on their own internal biases.
I think it's important to lay those out as clearly as possible, because it makes the selections made by Dante and Verg very interesting, and also kind of funny.
Let's look at Dante's picks - Yi Sang, Meursault, and Faust. These are all, at a surface level, decent general picks, as all three of them are seen as smart and rational. However, if we look at them while keeping the previously mentioned traits in mind, it turns out these three might just be some of the worst picks Dante could ever fucking make.
The biggest issue - none of these bitches can think quickly. Faust is especially notorious for this, as it's consistently pointed out how she always needs a long time to come to a conclusion or otherwise has to pause to come up with answers. We also know Yi Sang is the type of person to get lost in his thoughts and just meander instead of getting to the point. Meursault is a bit of an outlier in that we see that he can think quickly, but if he's not given any orders he's never gonna act on those thoughts. Admittedly, he has been getting better at speaking up over time, but he's still mostly in this "only does what he's told to do" mode of operations.
This is where their issues split up a little bit.
Yi Sang is probably the most likely to be supportive of Dante out of the three - we see that he cares about others and has learned to interfere and give advice when he feels it's necessary (though who knows if he's doing well enough to keep that up after Canto 6, oof). No, rather his other issue lies in the focus department. This is the guy who, as I previously mentioned, meanders all over before getting to the point. Again, like Meursault, he has been getting better at not doing that, but he's still got ways to go.
Faust and Meursault on the other hand have the opposite issue. While they're fairly goot at staying focused on what they have to do, the issue is that they never fucking speak up. They're probbably the furthest from being supportive of Dante. They're most likely to learn info and just keep it to themselves until everyone has wasted way too much fucking time. Hell, Meursault would probably make a decently good detective if allowed to do the case all on his own, but since he's meant to be a part of a group, he's unlikely to help out that much without Dante directly ordering him around.
Now, onto Verg's picks - Rodya, Hong Lu, and Ryoshu. This is where things get really, really interesting. Because we have the reverse situation to Dante's picks - on the surface the choices seem random and counter-intuitive, but if we look deeper, it turns out they all fulfill the requirements surprisingly well.
I'm about to go on a tangent here, but I find it extremely important that we're focusing on this group of Sinners in the first Intervallo between what I consider to be the most thematically different arcs within Limbus. The first half of Inferno has been pretty squarely about confronting one's past, whether learning to face it properly after running away from it (Gregor, Rodya, Sinclair), or learning to move past it after refusing to let go of it (Yi Sang, Ishmael, Heathcliff).
However, looking at the Sinners we have left, it feels like the second half of Inferno might be focused less on the past specifically, but more about the Sinners' general reality. Especially the next upcoming trio of Cantos - Don Quixote, Hong Lu, and Ryoshu - have some heavy thematic focus on the idea of one's perception of reality, especially fitting for the three Sinners with weird eye shit going on.
With Timekilling Time focusing on the Sinners most misinterpreted by others in-character (and out of character), it feels like the perfect intro to this switch in thematic focus - exploring the actual realities of people who are otherwise hard to understand.
Anyway, back to discussing how Rodya, Hong Lu, and Ryoshu fit Dante's requirements.
Supportive of Dante - this is the requirement all three fulfill pretty well. Let me explain.
Rodya is probably the most obvious - she's a hypegirl through and through, and happy to take the reigns in some way or another if nobody else is able to, as we see in Canto 2. She's often one of the first people to point out when someone is not doing well, and shares a lot of her insight if in the mood, but she also knows when discretion is necessary.
Hong Lu is a fun one here - he's extremely perceptive and insightful, often sharing his thoughts with very little prompting. His only issue is that he tends to backpedal when he feels like he said something wrong, or generally just words shit in weird slightly offensive ways. He's supportive, he just doesn't always talk like he is.
Ryoshu is one I find most interesting here, as a lot of people seem to miss this about her character - despite her short temper and peculiar manner of carrying herself, she's actually pretty understanding and helpful towards people she's on amicable terms with. She always explains her acronyms if asked (and when she doesn't it's usually because people stop asking or Sinclair translates instead), she listens when told to stand down or otherwise do something when asked of by Dante or Sinclair, and the reason she tends to stay quiet is because she only speaks when she feels what she has to say is important.
Staying focused - this one is a bit harder to judge, but I'd say the only one who might not fulfill this one is Hong Lu, but only by a margin. Ryoshu is shown to get so focused she gets impatient when she can't get to the point, and Rodya always has her goal in mind even when she might act like she doesn't. Hong Lu is a bit harder to judge, as he seems to be the type to prioritze gathering information and satiating his curiostiy over the main goal, but in a case like this that might just be a massive plus.
Unbiased quick thinking - again, all three fulfill the quick thinking part very well. Rodya shows it constantly throughout Canto 2, Hong Lu shows it best in social interactions, and Ryoshu just doesn't want to waste time and so she naturally thinks quickly as well. It's when we come to the unbiased part that things get extremely interesting.
As individuals, Rodya, Hong Lu, and Ryoshu are all very biased people. Rodya sees the world from the perspective of someone who suffered in the poor Backstreets. Hong Lu sees the world from the perspective of a rich Nest dweller coming from a family of dubious morality. Ryoshu sees the world from the perspective of (probably) an ex-Ring member obsessed with the art that is reality. Their backgrounds color the information they take in a lot.
However... this means that as a group, all three balance each other's biases out. Rodya's cynicism gets balanced out by Hong Lu's idealism, which is balanced by Ryoshu's realism. Their backgrounds couldn't be more different, and thus give the widest possible perspective when put together.
I think this is the point Verg is making with this selection. Dante's selection is the easy way out. It's people that Dante already knows how to deal with, and would rather pick even if their skillsets don't fit the situation. Verg is making Dante learn how to work with Sinners who might be harder to deal with, but have skillsets more fitting for the situation at hand.
Dante can't keep half-assing everything by always turning to the same few people. Every Sinner in the group has their use and are smart in their own unique ways. They have to figure what every Sinner's strong point is, otherwise they'll end up putting everyone in danger by relying on people who are simply not good in a situation while ignoring those who could help.
So... that's what I think.
Anyway, personal general update - I'm still alive! And also very swamped with college and constant exhaustion. So, things will have to change a bit moving forward.
Number one - I will not be returning to old analysis requests. There's too many at this point, and I just don't have the time to sit down and write longass posts whenever I want anymore. However, that isn't to say E.G.O and Sin analyses will never return! I have plaaans for what I want to do with those moving forward, it just may take some time to materialize.
Number two - I'm generally just more active on Discord than on Tumblr. Yapping on Discord feels more natural for me, as it's just... less formal than making a full post I guess. So, if you want to discuss things with me, or if you're on a server that you think would do well with having me yapping in there, feel free to shoot me an invite link in replies (or in DMs if you don't want it to be public)!
Number three - Go check out the Absolute Pride Resonance event on Youtube! I'm not a part of it maybe next time wink wink nudge nudge, but you should still check it out cause it's a bunch of cool people doing very scuffed streams, as is fitting for the scuff Project Moon is known for.
Alright, that's it. I still don't know how to end Tumblr Posts. Bye.
187 notes · View notes
lenaboskow · 3 months
Text
i'm bored at work so here's an updated list of everything tommy kinard has ever said or done that makes him a bad person who hasn't changed/learned from his mistakes (even if he's not being inherently/explicitly racist anymore) (before you come at me for saying people can change, here's my previous pinned post from 7x05 that explains how he hasn't. i go into it more here about the back half of the season, but all of these points still stand)
season two
chimney begins
the first thing tommy says to/about chimney is "did you forget to tip the delivery driver?". if it wasn't for the fact that they had asian food delivered and chimney is asian, this could've been passed off, but instead they chose to have the first act of racism/general harassment be done by tommy, not the racist captain.
then when they return from a call and see chimney dutifully cleaning, tommy says to chimney: "you're still here?". not inherently racist, but still rude
we get some montages of chimney being left out/harrasef, and tommy is always at the forefront. it culminates in the locker room scene where tommy says "i don't think about you enough to hate you", which again isn't inherently racist but it is rude.
at the end, the only way chimney manages to earn a semblance of respect from tommy is by saving his life, which is fucked up. you shouldn't have to save someone's life to he treated with dignity. but fine, maybe tommy learned his lesson, right?
wrong
hen begins
at the beginning, tommy, chimney, gerrard, and a few others are standing up in the loft while hen walks in. gerrard says a few racist/sexist words, and chim stands up for her. tommy just stands there, not even looking like he might want to say something. not saying something when it happens is almost as bad as doing, and obviously chimney, who'd been there a shorter time, was brave enough to stand up for her.
then tommy, during a meal, tommy says about hen: "new york bitchiness is a compliment?". there's no non sexist explanation for this comment
actually that entire meal, he ignores chimney's attempts move the conversation away, which says a lot
again, general enabling of the racism and sexism
now, we don't know a whole lot about how hen and chimney interacted with tommy after the events of their begins episodes, but we do know they weren't close enough to keep in touch after. chimney loses touch for two years immediately after he leaves, and by season seven hen forgot that tommy worked at harbor. i don't know about you, but that doesn't seem like behavior for people who worked closely for ten years.
during hen's "see me" speech, tommy looks pissed off to be there, and then proceeds to look annoyed when he apologizes to her at the end of the episode (if you can even call it that)
post begins episodes
season seven
this episode was from buck's pov, so it's actually the time where tommy is the most tolerable. that doesn't mean he doesn't have his moments, though:
7x04
calling buck "kid" and "evan" is a weird way to introduce a love interest. tommy calling him "kid" shows that tommy is aware of the age difference, which as i explain here is at least the same as buck and abby's (and here why that screenshot of tim saying he's 40 is irrelevant). also, tommy calls buck "evan" with no on screen explanation, and we know that lou was explicitly told tommy isn't "allowed" to call him buck. you know the only other characters who aren't allowed to call him buck? his parents. that's all I'll say.
we don't really see much of tommy again until the basketball scene, and then it's focused on buck and eddie anyways, so the next time we see him and buck really interact is the loft scene (which is telling about who buck was trying to get the attention of, but that's a different conversation). in this scene, tommy makes a condescending remark about how "we weren't trying to make you feel left out" and "eddie can have more than one friend", which... again, brings us back to the age difference because it sounds like (in context) that tommy is reprimanding a child. having them kiss right after that was definitely an interesting choice (in terms of their relationship)
oh the date. i have so many feelings about this. we know that tommy knows buck isn't out, because buck told maddie they purposely picked an out of the way spot, and despite the face tommy made at the comment, he didn't seem surprised when buck told him it was his "first date with a dude" (it seemed more like a "i already know this, you don't have to repeat it" face). because of this, the way tommy acted when eddie showed up and freaked buck out has no excuse. the closet comment? even if tommy didn't know buck wasn't out and decided he didn't want to date someone who wasn't out, he shouldn't have made that comment knowing it could out buck to his best friend, who he clearly wasn't ready to tell. lucky for buck, eddie's an idiot (affectionate) with a one track mind (buck) and didn't register the comment.
7x05
then we have tommy leaving buck at the curb. leaving the date isn't the problem, it's the fact that he didn't tell buck until he got in the uber, which obviously upset buck (though he was admittedly more upset over lying to eddie). the rest of the episode is spent on buck coming out to eddie, and we don't see tommy again until buck is apologizing for the date, which... why should buck have to apologize for not being ready to come out? buck did nothing wrong on the date. if you just figured out you were queer and hadn't had the chance to tell your best friend before they accidentally crashed your date, you'd react the same way, don't try to tell me otherwise. it was tommy who should've apologized, plain and simple.
the bachelor party. tommy's excuse for not dressing up made no sense to me... he was obviously going to have to change anyways, so why not put in a little effort for your date? i see people saying that only eddie put effort in, but henren was dressed too, just more subtly. tommy chose not to dress up, and made a half hearted excuse of "they had henleys in the 80s" (which you would know, wouldn't you, 70s baby?)
7x06
we only see tommy during the medal ceremony, and he still manages to say something to piss me off. "enjoy it while it lasts" because he can't indulge his boyfriend for two seconds. it's becoming a pattern, i'm afraid
then we have tommy leaving, which fair he's on call, and we don't see him again until the hospital kiss. this is the only time we see tommy look remotely interested in buck the entire episode (every other time he has an rbf face, even when they're hugging).
7x09
7x10
the date scene was a weird way to end their s7 relationship. buck was opening up about his trauma, tried to find middle ground by saying "so we both have daddy issues" (nothing in the context made it seem sexual, in fact i didn't realize until tommy made the joke, so it's possible buck didn't either) and then tommy says "i don't" despite admitting that he did only a few seconds before. buck says with a slightly resigned (barely there, but still there) tone, "but you think i do" and tommy responds with "god i hope so". any other context and it would've been fine, but buck had just been talking ahout how his father figure literally died and came back to life. there's a post somewhere (pretty sure it was an ask someone sent me actually, if i can find it i'll link)that talks about how buck has a habit of going along with his love interests to avoid causing waves, and how that's exactly what buck was doing in 7x10, and it makes perfect sense. if buck had a problem with it, he wouldn't immediately say. he'd sit on it for weeks before even considering bringing it up (like natalia and death, and how he avoided taylor in s5). even if he wasn't uncomfortable, it doesn't take away from the fact that the timing was weird and buck wasn't in a good headspace to respond properly.
in conclusion
tommy is repeatedly a bad person. just because he hasn't said anything racist or sexist since season two, it doesn't negate this. you'll notice that almost all of his scenes are here, if not all. the writers have chosen to have him repeatedly look bad and like someone who only cares about himself (with the way he constantly tries to defend his actions by blaming gerrard, and how he only cares about his feelings about being out), but the bt stans are too excited at the prospect of two white men kissing (or just two men and they don't care who, thus dumping eddie, it depends on the bt) that they choose to look past it and hate on ryan/eddie instead.
these last three months in the fandom have felt so different compared to the rest. the fandom i knew pre s7 would never act this way. is it because lou is a nepo baby? i know it's not because of his looks. but either way, i'm disappointed, and hope s8 treats us (fans who actually care about the characters and don't actively want less for them) better
(if i missed anything, let me know and i'll edit the post to add it)
185 notes · View notes
creepling · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
FICS FOR GAZA !
hello peeps! i am taking part in wip sponsorships for @ficsforgaza to help out with donations for the many fundraisers they have linked.
to meet with the terms, i am only offering sponsorships of works about video game characters. this includes my usual tcm game wips, alongside one i have of boomer from ssktjl.
here is an outline of steps to participate; send a screenshot that is proof of donation alongside the wip you are sponsoring into my inbox. $1 donated to a fundraiser = 100 words written for the sponsored wip. the word counts i provide are just rough estimations and i am willing to go over if the donations go higher! once a work is completed, i will give special thanks to donators for their contribution to the fic and the aid for gaza!
my limit is $20 for 2k, but feel free to donate as much as you can seperately from my wips!
click here for a further explanation from ficsforgaza if you are still unsure. their blog also has tabs on FAQ, fundraisers and all the info you need.
reminder: do not donate to ME. only send me proof of donation.
MY WIPS
BAD TINDER DATE WITH BOOMER (title still to be decided)
ssktjl!captain boomerang x fem!reader. bad first impressions. enemies to lovers. eventual smut? mini-fic series.
you have a reputation for liking the bad boys. your friends have warned you'll get your heart broken and it's time to move on to better things. after a horrible date with the aussie boomerang-slinger, you decide to finally take their advice. but it's not that easy moving on. there is something about him you can't get enough of...
progress: 676/6000 words
TO DEVOUR IS TO LOVE: CHAPTER 2
tcm game original character. multiple ships. dead dove - do not eat. general tags on this post.
in the second chapter, winona slaughter is navigating through the city life. fate aligns with her hunger and she crosses paths with maria flores and her group of friends. all is well as they take the abnormal, but intriging rural girl under their wing. but winona is struggling to cope with the buffet that she surrounds herself in. let's see how long she can last before things get messy...
progress: 4312/5500 words
THE BABYSITTER (title still to be decided)
johnny slaughter x fem!reader. babysitter trope. stalking. violence and gore. non-con. minor character death. dark smut. dead dove - do not eat.
reader finishes up her babysitting shift and expects the usual routine of her boyfriend picking her up. she doesn't know that someone is watching her, and is waiting for the right time to prance. when johnny finally digs his nails into reader, he knows a sadistic way to get her to succumb to him and have some derranged fun.
progress: 0/1500-2000 words
FOXY (title still to be decided)
johnny slaughter x fox-hybrid!reader. smut. petplay. dom/sub. minor injury. primal. humiliation. tags still to be decided.
fox-hybrid!reader gets caught up in one of hitchhikers traps when trying to snag nugget from the family property. unlucky for them, johnny's been working outside and spots the commotion. finding the hurt, scared reader, johnny takes them in with a devilish smirk. now he's got a little pet he can play with, and he ain't gonna play nice.
progress: 0/1000 words.
IN THE BLUEBONNET FIELD (title still to be decided)
johnny slaughter x fem!reader. smut. stalking. yandere. primal. non-con. knifeplay. bloodplay. dead dove - do not eat.
johnny has been stalking the reader for weeks, relishing in their scared state. as the days go by, the reader feels like she is being watched, catching glimpses of an unknown man following her every move. with morbid curiousity, the reader decides to treck through the bluebonnet fields to finally come face to face with her stalker. when he takes her advances, he finally has her at his mercy.
progress: 0/3000 words.
Tumblr media
dividers by @thecutestgrotto.
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.
166 notes · View notes
loveandleases · 29 days
Note
I actually forgot asking you this XD
So imagine a type of personality - like a shy, sweet, easily flustered MC, maybe in pastel or cozy comfort clothes / A badass, take-no-shit-from-no one MC with the combat boots, jacket and tight jeans. (Stay with me here)
Then the ROs discover (whether through online, insta post or just a friend msging) one of those black and white model pics - and it's soft!MC being hot, sexy and a 'status fatale' (gender neutral way of femme fatale? ;; closest description I can get at 4am) vibe OR badass!MC being classy, elegant and fabulous in a fancy, charming way? How would the ROs feel seeing that?
(and just so Cam doesn't get jealous of another photographer took this photo - let's say the photo was taken by a mutual friend of MC and Cam, who is also a photographer, is happily dating/engaged/married AND is totally doing this to tease both MC and Cam 🤣)
Feel free to decide if this is in rela or not :3 enioy~
Lol, where you playing Fields this late!? Status finale really has a ring to it~ (lets do crush stage!)
❤️Cam - He was just doom scrolling when he saw the photo, it took him less than a minute to recognize MC. Dressed up like that. They look hot and he is definitely pouting. Pouting and screenshotting the image for future...inspiration? Yeah, yeah inspiration. He needs to do a new shoot anyways. He will try and beat around the bush about it, why MC took the photo, why they didn't tell him. Then he will just say that as your bestie, you owe him a shoot. That is totally how this works. He needs to be allowed to capture you in the same way...this isn't for selfish reasons. He will get flustered, looking at the photo again. MC captured in a different way, its thrilling to him. When MC gives him a questioning glance Cam will stutter pretend he has something to do. That friend who took the photos is going to get a very rude wake up call, because Cam wants all of them. Very gimme gimme gimme.
💙 G - They get strangled on their tea, smacking themselves on the chest to try and catch their breath. G was just looking at the recent clothing line coming up, knowing they needed to get something nice to wear to see their parents. What they didn't expect was to see MC, clothes hugging their body, the look in their eyes made G's skin heat. Had they seen it before? Those eyes looked so alluring and yet, G can't remember if this is the first time they've seen it or not. G will be annoyed that they enjoy how MC looks, that it does more than make them think about MC. A thought they will try to knock out of their head as soon as it pops in. They will bury the emotions as deep as possible, after they look at the photo a few more times. No matter how much they hate to admit it, they always thought MC was attractive. With a bitter taste in their mouth there is one thought in G's mind, I wasn't the only one who thought so.
💚 Kara - Too cute! She's screen shotting, sending MC a text. "Why don't you ever take cute photos with me?" She was serious in her question, though she ensured to send a few emojis to come off as playful. Granted Kara's online presence is high, these photos she would keep to herself. Just like she did with the memories of when she would spend time with MC when they worked together. There's nothing wrong with thinking your sibling's ex-fiancé is attractive, sweet, funny. Especially when they're your friend. There's no underlying meaning as to why Kara makes the photo her background...none at all.
💛 M - They had seen the photo when scrolling, just something to break up the time between when they waited for their editor to reply back. M had tossed their phone behind them, and hopefully somewhere that they could find later. Their face bloomed with a blush, one they covered under their palms, face pressed so hard against the desk that it would likely leave a mark. They might have squealed appreciatively at the photo...maybe...possibly. To them it almost seemed impossible to be MC, they never looked like that before. Maybe that's why their so flustered, because they looked different. Should they ask MC about it? Damn it....why are you so....in a maid costume though? Alright...time to find their phone.
💜 Isaac - They try to ignore that feeling in their chest, the one that is telling them they like what they see, they want to see more, want to be around MC more. In fact they go so far as to close out the page and try and push the image from their thoughts. Which is easier said than done. MC looks good, great even. So good that it's leaving Isaac feeling like they should have saved that damn photo. That worries them, this feeling of wanting to hold on to them, even just a fraction. They'll make a flirty remark later on when they see MC, because that's what they do, a nice little cover. Flirt and feign ignorance. Ignorance of what they feel for MC, of the potential there.
🖤 Ardent - Damn, color him impressed. In fact color him more than impressed. Who knew the person he sees fighting to keep their eyes open, dressed in pjs, hair all messed up when its time for rent could look like this. Well....to be honest Ardent thought MC looked good like that too, but he will deny it. He thinks MC looks hot, too hot. Unfair really considering he doesn't get to see MC all dressed up. Ardent would be a bit annoyed, because why does the people who get to photograph MC get to witness how good they look and not him. That picture is coming with him, across the hall where he will annoyingly knock on the door until MC answers, and he will make a quip about if you're making such good money modeling he will want more rent. (just to get under mc's skin) "Ya know what, I need a decoy date. Mom's coming in down. Call it a favor? Or..I'll even let you skip out on next months rent."
116 notes · View notes
fuckyeahisawthat · 25 days
Note
Please, talk about the Gom Jobbar scene
Oh hell yes.
So this is one of those posts that really should be a short video essay of me talking over the scene but instead it is gonna be a loooooong wall of text and screenshots. Maybe it will assume its final form some day if I'm ever in possession of the free time and patience to make video essays. I also highly recommend watching Denis Villeneuve's own breakdown of this scene from 2021. I'll try not to duplicate things said there.
We have to start with the setup, which begins with this scene:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
We see Jessica on her knees, in the rain, waiting for an arriving ship. These are the first shots in the movie where we see Jessica when no one else is watching her, and this woman who stood calm and composed before representatives of the Emperor of the Known Universe is terrified. Which creates an immediate sense of dread over whoever is coming in that ship.
Tumblr media
Whomst in the fuck now?
We also get this shot where we're alone with Jessica. It's a little hard to see in a still frame but there's a moment where she, like, steels herself before she wakes Paul up.
Tumblr media
Holy fuck tho, I just noticed the similarities between this shot and the one of the Bene Gesserit arriving, with the almost monochromatic color palette and the shafts of white light.
Once Paul wakes up we shift to his POV. He immediately knows something is off ("What's wrong?" is the first thing he says) but gets no information about what's happening.
Tumblr media
Then we get this short scene, where Paul is told he is going to meet the Reverend Mother and but not much else about what's going on. The whole "She wants to know about your dreams." "How does she know about my dreams?" [no answer from Jessica] exchange, I think, implies that she knows because Jessica told her about Paul's dreams, which is this little tiny betrayal of confidence that gives Paul the first inclination that his mother may not be someone he can fully trust in this situation. Which is exactly what Dr. Yueh warns him about immediately after.
We also get two new languages used in this scene. Dr. Yueh speaks to Paul in Mandarin, which he understands and presumably Jessica does not. This gives us a piece of information about Paul's curiosity toward other cultures and his facility with languages. And Jessica uses the Atreides battle sign, which Paul also understands. Outside the library, Jessica pauses to give Paul one more silent warning, although she still hasn't told him what's about to happen.
This is just the setup. So before we've even entered the room, we've created this sense of unsettled foreboding dread (the Denis Signature Vibe) without a clear understanding of why things are happening--which is exactly how Paul feels.
I should also add that in the book, this scene takes place during the day, with the Reverend Mother sitting in front of a window. Shifting it to the middle of the night not only makes it way creepier but also tells us that (1) the Reverend Mother is the kind of person who can command Jessica's attention at any time of day or night and (2) this is all somewhat illicit and possibly is happening without Leto's knowledge.
Tumblr media
Whomst in the fuuuuuuck?
We get this sort of weird POV shot of Paul crossing the room when it's not actually happening:
Tumblr media
which I think is supposed to suggest some subtler form of control than the Voice, which Paul resists.
Before they've even properly entered the room, Mohiam manages to insult both Paul's parents ("defiance in the eyes, like his father" and dismissing Jessica with a curt "leave us"). And the first thing Paul says is to defend his mother's place in the social hierarchy ("You dismiss my mother in her own house?") with all the haughtiness you would expect.
The power dynamic gets rapidly clarified.
Tumblr media
Momentary aside to say that I love the composition of this shot. Neither of them are quite on the third--they're just a bit too close to each other to make the shot look balanced. But neither of them are in center frame either--the box is in the center. They're not exactly aligned to the light gray columns between the bookshelves behind them, either, and the bookshelves are just slightly asymmetrical. It all makes things feel just a little claustrophobic and unsettling. Denis Villeneuve frequently uses this technique of creating unbalanced shots and intentionally leaving too much space in awkward parts of the frame to create a sense of unease.
Paul isn't kneeling in the book either--he's standing beside the chair in a setup that I don't think would actually work given the heights of the actors here, or would look awkward as hell. So they've solved a practical blocking problem and done some storytelling with it as well.
This is where we get our first look at the Voice at full power, and it's one of only two scenes where we get some subjective POV of what it feels like to be Voice-controlled (the other one being Feyd-Rautha and Lady Margot's interaction which deserves its own post). I really like that they didn't go for Voice Slow (zombie shuffling across the room) because Voice Fast is much more disturbing. The subjective experience of it seems closest to like, blacking out and waking up in a place or doing a thing and not knowing how you got there. The camera effect is just a really fast dolly and a slick edit, but Timothée really sells it with his split-second moment of confusion and shock before he realizes what happened and gets angry about it.
Tumblr media
So now we're here, with the poison needle and the pain box.
"No need to call the guards. Your mother stands behind that door. No one would get past her."
Tumblr media
This is a slick fucking piece of editing. Because just as Paul is learning that his mother has not only trapped him in this situation but is ensuring it continues uninterrupted, we cut to Jessica for the first time since she left the room and we see how absolutely terrified she is.
Also from this point, the sound in the film starts crossing the barrier of the door--we hear some of the dialogue between Paul and Mohiam when we're on shots of Jessica, and when the pain sound effect starts up, we hear it continuously on both sides of the door. So even though Jessica is not literally experiencing the pain, it feels like she is vicariously.
It would be really easy to tip the balance of sympathy in this scene one way or the other--toward Paul who's realizing his mother has handed him over to a painful and potentially lethal test, or toward Jessica who is listening to her child scream in pain and not only cannot stop it but is tasked with making sure it continues. But Denis Villeneuve is an absolute master at controlling and directing your POV in a way that allows you to feel sympathy for multiple characters at once and engage with complicated, contradictory emotional landscapes, and this is a little demonstration of what he's going to do on a much larger scale later in the story.
Timothée's pain acting...is excellent, that's all I'll say about that. Love that he's allowed to get all gross and drippy with it.
Now we get to the litany against fear.
Tumblr media
Jessica starts it specifically in response to hearing Paul scream on the other side of the door. So, practically, she is using it to control her own fear. But the way the scene is intercut, it plays as if she is almost coaching or guiding Paul into controlling his own reactions. With every line that she says, we cut back to Paul as he is starting to master the situation.
"I must not fear." Paul is not in control here and seems about at his physical limit for keeping his hand in the box.
Tumblr media
"Fear is the mind-killer." This is the one where it really seems like he could be reciting the same litany in his head or under his breath.
Tumblr media
"Fear is the little death that brings obliteration." We don't really see Paul's face in the accompanying shot, but the pain sound effect really goes into overdrive, like she is pushing him harder.
"I will face my fear and I will permit it to pass over me and through me." Seems like Paul is getting to some kind of Zen place or whatever where he can withstand the pain.
Tumblr media
This is when the first flash of vision pops up and the balance of power starts to shift in Paul's favor. We realize it at the same time both he and the Reverend Mother do.
Tumblr media
Then we have this great moment where he looks up at her and we don't quite know what is happening but somehow Paul has started to win this interaction. And we go through a whole Face Journey with him that's intercut increasingly rapidly with Jessica's lines, flashes of the visions, and Mohiam's reaction as she starts to realize she's lost control of the situation.
Tumblr media
"And when it has gone past--"
Tumblr media
"I will turn the inner eye to see its path--"
Tumblr media
"--and where the fear has gone, there will be nothing--"
Tumblr media
"Only I will remain."
Tumblr media
This part is great because like...nothing is happening. He just looks up at her. But we know that whatever battle is going on between them, Paul is winning now.
(Side note: this is a duel, right? This is his first of three duels, and like the duel with Feyd, he wins it on his knees.)
Then as soon as she says, "Enough," the facade cracks again a little.
Tumblr media
And then he does the thing!! That is one of my favorite Paul physicalities!! Where he tilts his chin up so he can look down his nose at someone. Which is particularly audacious when you're on your knees.
Tumblr media
It looks arrogant but there's also something a bit...childish? about it. It's something that he does specifically when he feels he does not have control of the situation and he's trying to regain it. He does it to the Emperor at the end of Part Two.
Anyway I LOVE the whole section of intercutting between Jessica and Paul because like. They are physically separated by a door but emotionally they feel connected. She put him in this situation, but then it's almost like she is reminding him that she also gave him the training to survive it. Which like, isn't that a microcosm of their whole fucked-up relationship?
"...You inherit too much power."
"What, because I'm a duke's son?"
"Because you are Jessica's son. You have more than one birthright, boy."
Almost all the dialogue from this scene is taken word for word from the book (although sometimes condensed). This is one of the few lines that got changed. In the book, Jessica is the one who reminds Paul that he is a duke's son--not her son. In general the movie dialogue is more faithful to what's in the book than you might expect. But every once in a while there is a line that feels like it's talking back to the original text like this.
There's another little emotional reversal right at the end of the scene, when Jessica comes in and her face just floods with relief at realizing Paul is still alive. But meanwhile you can see that Paul is really processing how betrayed by her he feels.
Tumblr media
And then, after all that, they do talk about his dreams.
Denis has said in interviews that this was one of the very first scenes they filmed. Which is. Insane to me. This is an iconic scene from the book that every fan will come to with expectations and it's a really hard acting job! For everyone involved but especially for Timothée, because so much of the scene turns on him having an intense reaction to something that's not real and generally just...doing stuff with his face, and hoping that the sound design and the score and some scenes that haven't been shot yet will sell what's going on. Usually you would want to work up to an intense emotional scene like this, give the cast and crew a little time to get comfortable with each other. Nope! Anyway Denis has also said that he knew after this scene that he had cast correctly and yeah. I would say so.
95 notes · View notes
dtmsrpfcringe · 1 month
Note
We don't hate women. We hate women who are abusive towards their partners.
Michael and David both deserve better and just because you want to buy into what PR and social media tells you, you don't have to attack other people for being upset over actors they care about possibly not being happy.
David wouldn't leave Georgia, they are married and have children, so he feels responsible. He always puts other people before himself. And Anna played it well with the babies, as harsh as it sounds. Michael would feel terrible leaving the girls. People staying in relationships doesn't prove you right, sadly. It's no sign of anything other than commitment and commitment doesn't always come from a place of love.
By saying that Michael and David shippers want to see them unhappy in their relationship, you show that you're missing the point. The whole point of shipping them is wanting them to be happy. You just want to be hateful towards people who don't suppprt your narrative, it seems.
GOD I WISH TUMBLR WOULD LET ME ADD TEXTS BEFORE ASKS SO I COULD SAY “Warning: you’re about to hear one of the most moronic takes I have ever heard” *insert gif of amanojaku from ghost stories here* okay let’s…we have to break this down it’s too much for me to just laugh at and go “wow this is dumb as hell”
“We don’t hate women, we just make up stuff so we can justify hating them”- you. where’s…where’s any shred of proof that either women are even a little bit abusive? I mean don’t you think we would have seen some of that by now? And no, enty lawyer doesn’t count as proof and neither does random screenshots of a bit of text with zero context. Also neither do jokes online with your partner when they’re okay with it (and make the same jokes quite literally all the time) and nobody sees a problem with it except the people that conveniently hate these women.
2. “Michael and David both deserve better” yes I’m sure the rich white middle aged men who are two of the most popular actors in their countries who have girlfriends/wives and kids who love and adore them are surely hurting because some weirdo on tumblr says it.
3. Hate to tell you this but married people with children divorce all the time. It’s not like if they divorce he is going to suddenly vanish in a puff of smoke babe.
4. Even if that’s true, your theory of him only staying out of responsibility is bullshit. Someone who stays for the kids isn’t going to dip their wife into a kiss on the red carpet and look at her like a hozier song sounds. If there’s any event or interview where he can find a way to praise Georgia, he does it. He always talks about her. After events they’ve been seen kissing deeply and walking arm in arm honeymoon style.
5. as for Anna and Michael, (David and Georgia too but they seem more open to pda) they don’t owe you pda. Michael has been more than adamant about defending his girlfriend on twitter and good for him about it.
6. if you guys were genuinely concerned with Michael and David’s impending relationship crashes, why is it always tied to their love for one another? The only people who see This rampant “abuse and unhappiness” is this group of people who believe David and Michael are actually in love and want to elope together. Nobody else. Not even other Sheenant shippers. You guys literally just hate them, I mean Invisibleicewands has been talking shit on Anna since she posted her first photo with Michael back in 2019 and hasn’t stopped.
7. “And Anna played it well with the babies, as harsh as it sounds.” seriously what the absolute crap is this supposed to mean my dude? I’ve gotta be honest….you know how smex works right? Michael could absolutely choose to use protection!!! Why is it on her? Not on him. He’s had kids before I think he knows that a stork doesn’t bring the baby. Holy hell you people make my eyes hurt
8. (finally) funny you should bring up narratives, you know considering you’re part of the group that thinks any affection towards anybody else that isn’t them is PR (thinking of the Joseph Fiennes hug fiasco) that lied about Georgia and Anna being abusive, that has tried time and time again and moved the goalpost, that fabricates evidence and tries to send death threats to people who speak out, and then lie about it, that your group is the one who can’t handle women working together and have to call everything PR. The same group that ignores the fact that Anna and Georgia are friends, to talk grave shit on them. Newsflash sweetheart, we aren’t the ones pushing the narrative here. You only want to see David and Michael happy as long as it aligns with your delusion. Have the day you deserve.
anyways, I think this is going to be my pinned post. Mostly because I want this to be embarrassing if you ever try to come back here and lie on Betty whites internet again, but also because I think this addresses so many tin hat talking points at once. Just because we love aziraphale and crowley doesn't mean we get the right to insert ourselves into their personal lives, you wouldn't want someone else praying for your relationship to fail.
89 notes · View notes
tbhimnoteasyonmyself · 7 months
Text
WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH PHEE?
(and other equally puzzling things)
An EXTREMELY EXTENSIVE Post-Episode 10 Analysis/Theory
So, okay. Episode 10 was A LOT. Like... A LOT, A LOT. And a lot of this lot seems... Weird as fuck. So many odd choices were made in the narrative.
Top's drugged manipulation; White pulling info about shrooms out of his ass; Fluke becoming a victim of involuntary drug abuse ghosts of his past and begging for mercy after "all he did to Non"... But nothing beats Phee's OOC moments in ep.10 while he's alone with Jin.
Which is what compels me to make this post. Because this series has been nothing but the richness of detail and now suddenly... It's all over the place? Call it wishful thinking (or Last Twilight trauma) but I don't think so. And it mostly comes down to: Phee. And whatever his "agenda" is.
Tumblr media
PS: All screenshots of the show I use (and I will use a lot) will have been brightened because this show is FUCKING DARK, BOYYYYYY and I don't think y'all deserve to force your sight at 3AM to enjoy my posts.
WHAT HAPPENS AND WHY IT'S SUSPICIOUS
So? What does Phee say and do when he's alone with Jin in ep.10 and why am I suspicious of it?
It's hard to say for sure. But we can base ourselves off of 3 things: what we hear him say, what Jin replies to him and the flashbacks (no, they're not just there to fill in time for this very short episode, they serve a narrative purpose).
So let's do this analysis following the order in which things are shown to us, shall we?
First of all, we get a short flashback. The events are as follows:
Phee and New go to see the gang's film
New approaches Phee and they talk
New and Phee decide to try and figure out what happened to Non by infiltrating the group
New and Phee join the gang's school and start asking questions
Jin decides to leave Thailand
New suggests going to Por's mansion for the goodbye party
Phee questions New in the lab about his decisions
New suggests using their homemade drug on the group as a truth serum
Phee asks if the drug is deadly and New denies it
Although we don't hear Phee tell this to Jin, Jin does reply very angrily something along the lines of "and you just let him carry on with it? why didn't you stop him? what the fuck is wrong with y'all???", so we can assume we've been shown what Phee told him.
So far, it's very unsuspicious. We've been shown these events before in the actual flashbacks so we can be fairly sure all of that is true.
It starts to get suspicious, however, when Phee replies to him: "There's so much more that you don't understand. About Non, and Tan".
And I think Jin feels the vibe too because, the man standing on his tall pillar of morality and righteousness /s, says he'll give Phee another chance to cut the bullshit and tell him everything. And so Phee sighs and the dreaded narration of ✨New's Murderous Adventures✨ starts.
So Phee tells Jin (and consequently us) that:
Phee and New set up a bunch of cameras to spy on the gang
New drugged the drinks
It was supposed to end when everyone was high at the party but New didn't follow the plan
New deleted the camera files
Phee kept drugging the group
Por's injury wasn't an accident but a trap that he thinks New set
New's drug enhances people's inner fears
Phee "never thought New would be so cruel with Uncle Dang"
New drugged Top at the temple
New must've left the hard disk for White to find
By the time he figured New's plan, there was nothing he could do about it (and we see him looking distressed at New's arrival at the house)
Now, here we have some interesting things. Let me list them for you.
Why would Phee keep drugging the group after Por got hurt?? If, as he claims, he didn't mean for people to get hurt, why would he keep people on drugs while a man is dying on the couch? Especially when the guy you're on a revenge mission with is ELIMINATING THE CONTENT OF THE CAMERA RECORDINGS!! That sure isn't gonna help anyone survive!
How does Phee know about Top??? He and Jin never saw Top arrive at the house. For all they know, that bro is lost in the woods. Right??
HOW THE FUCK DOES HE KNOW WHITE GOT THE HARD DRIVE??? There's no signal in the woods. We've established that. When White tells Tee and New about his actions they're ALONE. The only other person there is LITERALLY THE MASKY (I'm calling the masked person that for convenience, it's shorter. besides, it seems the fandom has been calling them that anyways, so... yeah). So how does he know? How does he know???
Tumblr media Tumblr media
And in that same fucking sequence: THE MASKY TRIES TO HURT NEW!!! But if New told Top to hurt everyone who hurt Non, why would he hurt him??? And why, my friends, WHY would he SAVE TEE, when he's the only witness of those events??? It would be so easy to just say the masky killed Tee and he couldn't save him... Is it 4D chess??? Is it a different masky??? Or, is it simply not true that New did that?
Tumblr media Tumblr media
It's very confusing, weird and suspicious. But let's wait it out, guys, because there's more to PheeJin in the temple.
After this odd-ass narration, they're back to having a convo. Which goes as follows:
Jin (very validly) asks Phee what the fuck is wrong with him and New
Phee says he'd never allow them to go if he knew New was going for murder instead of just confessions ("you can hate me if you want but I never wanted anyone to get hurt, I swear" or whatever he said)
Jin asks if Tan is New and Phee is Non's boyfriend
Phee confirms Jin's suspicions and even adds that "p'New came back from England"
Jin asks if they ever saw the group as their friends
Phee says they wanted to infiltrate the group to find the truth because they didn't know shit about what happened to Non and it's haunting them (good choice of words there, very subtle /s)
Phee explains his motivation, stating he told Non to "get lost and die"
Jin confesses to recording the child grooming revenge porn tape and posting it on Twitter (-_-)
Jin explains his motivation, saying he respected Non's relationship (by constantly making moves on him?) but couldn't stand him cheating on Phee (so he one-upped him by committing not one but two actual severe crimes?)
Phee appears to be mad and disgusted so he says "Fuck. So we both were the ones who hurt Non?", gets up and starts pacing (oh no! the big boy is angy~~~ /s)
Jin gets up like a sad wet cat
Phee randomly finds an axe and takes some exposition out of his ass by stating "this must be Tan's axe that he keeps as a spare. But it's good"
Phee breaks the gate
So by this point Phee's whole speech sounds a bit insane, considering the type of person we've seen he is. Not to mention he just INSTANTLY calms down upon finding an axe and just decides to move on. Like ??? Excuse me??? If that ain't weird then idk what is. Like, sure, Phee is a very confusing and confused character (as better explored by @crysta1ized in this post). He seems to have his heart divided between many things and they could all be pulling at his strings there. HOWEVER, we have to remember Phee's also THIS guy:
Tumblr media
Does this look like the kind of person who would just move on after a (perceived) treason? Does he??
And, the thing about this is that it gets worse.
After the scene cuts back from the house, Pheejin are lost in the damn woods (parallels to New and Tee? mayhaps, man, mayhaps...) These are the events there:
Phee is back to supporting Jin's weight with his body while they walk (which makes no fucking sense bc Jin hurt his SHOULDER which is a part of his UPPER BODY so there's no reason why he couldn't walk on his own but okay, sure)
They make no progress walking for a while, even despite trying to mark the places they've already been at
Jin is very upset that Phee's not very good at navigating through unknown forests at night
Phee, however, is very understanding and says: "Jin. I told you that I would be the one who would protect you. So I'll get you out of here" then PROCEEDS TO HOLD HANDS with him and continues with: "Right now, our friends are waiting for us to help them. So, you must stay strong. Believe in me"
Jin nods (because, despite trying to play the apathetic bitch, he's a softie and very much has feelings™)
PheeJin finally find the exit of the fucking forest
DO Y'ALL SEE HOW SOMETHING'S VERY WRONG WITH PHEE HERE??? Bro's not just acting weird (that would be fine, we love weirdos. *looks at New and winks* <3), he's abnormal. He's not acting like himself.
So, before I jump into trying to make some sense out of all of this, I'll just add the last scene of PheeJin alone in ep.10, last anyone come tell me I missed it:
They're arriving at the mansion
Jin falls down
Phee abandons the axe to help him
I don't think this one is particularly relevant to analyse Phee's character in this episode (although the axe is certainly relevant for other plots and our dear 9th person) but it's there. After this, they're back in the house with everyone and Por's rotting corpse.
PHEE IS HIDING THINGS
So what the fuck happened, really? Well, a lot. Some are easier, I think, to interpret, some aren't but regardless, there was a lot going on with Phee. To make this very complex thing a bit easier to understand, I'll start from the things I think are a bit easier to explain and/or are more solid and then I'll move from there towards the rest of this mess. Okay? Ok- (gets shot bc I hate John Green).
One thing for me that's nearly set in stone is that Phee, at the very least, isn't telling Jin everything. If he was, then the flashbacks would've started with PheeNon's falling love montage but they don't. They start at the cinema. Plus, Jin has to ask if Phee is Non's boyfriend and Tan is New, like he's piecing things by himself. If Phee had told him that, he wouldn't need to ask. AND Phee would've have referred to New as New during his whole monologue but he did not. He kept saying "Tan". He only started doing so after Jin asked the question and he confirmed Tan was New.
Tumblr media
Curiously enough, he also never mentions the antidote he knows exists and KNOWS New brought along. And that neither of them ever used on the others.
The million-dollar question here is then, naturally: why? Various reasons, I believe.
1st of all I think we have to account for the feels. Phee is definitely in a weird ass zone with Jin but it's something. And he feels that something (whatever it is. believe me I could make an entire post about that shit, it's so fucking complex, man, and it only gets worse this episode). He likes Jin, even if he tries not to or if he dislikes that he likes him. It's undeniable. So yes, of course, he doesn't want Jin to hate his guts more than necessary.
But also... We cannot forget why Phee himself is there: to find out what happened to Non. And what does he get out of the conversation he has with Jin? That's right. A confession.
Now, I don't think it's the confession he expected if his reactions are anything to go by:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
I mean... If this is not the face of a man thinking "well, shit", then idk what it is. And also because, idk if it's a subtitle error or not, but he seems to ask "what did you three do?" when he's inquiring about the events of the past, so...
Tumblr media
Someone is being excluded.
Still, I think it's super possible he was hoping to get something out of it. After all, even if he assumes Jin is innocent in his actions, I don't think he's excluding him from having knowledge of what went down. That would make his positive bias even sillier.
So yeah, sure, I bet Phee feels genuinely guilty and it hurts him to be in the situation he's in and he definitely wants to be in a good place in terms of his relationship with Jin, especially because, as he said, he doesn't know if they can get out of the temple. But also... As Ta (Phee's actor) himself said in an interview: Phee can be really manipulative (I can't find the damn interview rn but, during my search, I found @raelle-writing had also mentioned it in this post, so I think it's enough to say I didn't dream that shit). You know... 2 things can be true at once.
Which brings me to the next part:
PHEE IS LYING
That whole talk of "I never thought he would hurt you", "if I had known I wouldn't have let you come", blah, blah, blah. That's some major BULLSHIT.
Phee knew exactly what New was capable of. At least, on a subconscious level. After all, if my friends started being murdered, my 1st assumption would not be that my best friend did it. Unless, of course, my best friend was spiralling down to madness, constantly using drugs to see his dead brother and answering shit like this:
Tumblr media
With a smirk on, when I ask him if the absynthe is gonna kill our friends. Because yeah, sure, I guess the green won't kill them. But you can't tell me this motherfucker wouldn't. He definitely would. And if we can infer that, so does Phee, who has been living with him as his close friend for the last 3 years.
In fact, the very fact that he feels the need to ask whether or not the drugs will kill the gang is proof enough that he, to some extent and, whether or not he's aware of it, KNOWS that's, at least, a possibility. Knows that's something New would do.
So yeah, he's perhaps not just lying to Jin (but also to himself) or not intentionally lying, but he's lying nevertheless. Phee knew this was a possibility. He knew New was capable of stuff like that. And when he pieces the story together, that's him admitting, even if no one realizes, that he knew it. And that he let it happen, in fact, because he never tried to stop the drugging. Or talked to New about what was going on (you'd think if he had that he would've told Jin in that situation). His biggest weapon is his knowledge and he chose not to swing the sword sooner. How very Fluke of him, isn't it? Especially because now 2 people are dead and that's on New, right? Right???
Not necessarily.
NEW IS NOT A MURDERER (initially)
You see, for all we see New is fine with death and murder in episodes 9 and 10, he makes it clear his nº1 goal is to figure out what happened to Non when he gets in front of a fucking firearm to harass Tee into talking.
Tumblr media
So why would he talk Top into murder? Why would Top attack him?? Why would he kill Uncle Dang?? And why, on the goddamn Earth, would he eliminate the recordings in the house when his whole motivation is
Tumblr media
(Thank you, hallucination Non <3) to expose them??? Especially when the only other person who knew about the hidden cameras was Phee. It makes no sense! Sure, he might've contemplated the murder, but on a later phase of the plan, I think. The priority was, always, to get them to confess on camera so he could later use the recordings to expose them to the country and clear Non's image. 'Cause we cannot forget, while the people close to Non don't buy the bullshit TV news sensationalist story (and, therefore, are searching for the truth), the rest of the country thinks Non is a slut who ran away with mafia money and his teacher (because, like @delululover explains in this post: Asian culture tends to normalize grooming of older teens and even blame them for the situation).
So what are we seeing when Phee narrates the events? Well, probably just Phee's guesses.
He thinks New is deranged and has drugs and that Top is missing and now they're being attacked by this person, who is conveniently wearing a mask. So he guesses that's Top. Plus, he doesn't know New was attacked by Masky in the middle of the forest.
He knows, like everyone else, that New had the hard drive. And, when Top and New go out in the woods with the bike he remains in the house. So, it's possible he saw the hard drive there where New left it before he went out.
Tumblr media
And, because the only 2 people remaining in the house, as far as Phee knows, are Fluke and White, and New DEFINITELY wouldn't want the drive to get into Fluke's hands, he must've assumed New wanted White to find it (which may or may not be true but it's irrelevant, I think).
And, yes, calm down, I can hear you scream: "But how did he know White watched the video???" And the answer I bring you is very simple: he didn't. He has no idea. And the best part is: you only think he knows because you know. But Phee never says that. He says New left the hard drive there for White to find. And that's it. He never mentions a video whatsoever.
Now, is it convoluted? Yes. Absolutely. But we have to think this is Phee we're talking about. He's the guy who always thinks he has the upper hand (a.k.a thinking he can save Non or that he's not falling in Love with Jin). It's almost impossible for him to think he's in the dark as to what is happening to them. After all, in his narrative of his life, he is the hero. And, I know, lots of people in the fandom see it that way as well, so... It's not impossible to imagine that's what the story is trying to sell us. It's trying to make us believe Phee knows. When in reality, I think, it's more likely that Phee's the embodiment of this meme:
Tumblr media
Okay. But then if New didn't do it, then who did? Because something is obviously going on with Top, right? And Uncle Dang IS very much dead. So what the fuck is that all about?
THE SECRET 9TH PERSON? ENTITY? THING?
As discussed several times by several people in this fandom, there's a very high possibility that there's someone else with them in the woods.
@blmpff points out the existence of various versions of the mask here. @subtextsays points out the crutches in the bathroom scene with Top here. There's this shit:
Tumblr media
Whatever it fucking means (besides the fact that it gives me the hibbie jibbies). Someone is also obviously taking care of the Janta cult because there's fresh food in the offerings.
Tumblr media
@raelle-writing also points out here that New is also seeing stuff even though our favourite insane motherfucker has got (and has been using!) the antidote.
And, as of episode 10, as @babyangelsky pointed out in this post, when PheeJin are lost in the damn woods, the cuts on the wood Phee supposedly make keep changing.
Tumblr media
Which makes both of us question if they're all the same cut or even all done by Phee.
So, I think this is enough to speculate Phee could very much just be misinterpreting the whole thing and attributing guilt to New when, in fact, someone else has been causing the deaths.
Now you may question who and that's all very fair. You should even. But that is not what this post is about and, frankly, thank god, because this is already a monstrous creation.
So let's pick these cuts in the wood and use it as a segway to the last part of this, shall we?
PHEE IS AS BENEVOLENT AS A GREEK GOD
So Phee's mad. Super mad. He's passing around and cursing.
Jin, the only person he probably genuinely thought didn't do anything, is the one who recorded and posted the video.
And then Phee finds an axe. And, suddenly, Phee changes. Why?
Well, we have to look at it with what urges Phee to talk in the first place (besides his feelings and his wants): Phee is losing hope. He states it himself that he doesn't think they're going to be able to get out of the temple. So, he talks. Sure, he doesn't say everything but it's the closest to being honest with Jin we've ever seen him be.
And then their whole reality changes. Because Phee found an axe. And it all comes down on him: they are going to get out of there. And what now?
As @yellingaboutkp states in this post Phee is not only hard to read for us or confusing to the other characters (Jin mainly). He's also hard to read and confusing to himself: "...is Phee still playing Jin? It seems like he's trying to, but the more time he spends with Jin, the harder it's getting to stick to the plan."
Thus, what we see at the end of their time in the temple and alone in the woods is a mix of things, I believe.
Phee needs to feel like he's in control again. And with the original plan being ruined and Jin knowing too much (and there's no way he's not gonna speak, in fact, it's the very first thing he does when they arrive at he house) he's simply not. So when he tells Jin everything is gonna be alright, he's also trying to tell that to himself. He's trying to reassure himself that they're gonna get out of that huge mess. And, perhaps, in saving Jin also finding some redemption because, according to his own narration of the events, he let New go too far (as Jin points out).
Phee also knows more now. And maybe, if he was able to get Jin to speak once, without even having to force anything out of him. who knows if he cannot do it a second time in front of the cameras they've set inside the house? So he's trying to follow the script and manipulate him into trusting him, like he always has been trying to do. Except this time he's more bitter about it. And this, alongside with reason 1, is why these two scenes feel so different:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
And lastly: Phee knows the catastrophic effects his words and actions had on Non when they broke up. He knows the consequences of his rage. It's the entire reason why he's there. Because he failed at being a good boyfriend the 1st time. Does he really want that to happen again? Does he want to fail Jin too? There's a reason (besides the story itself and his need to justify himself to Jin) why we see that flashback of his break-up with Non in this episode. And I believe this is it. (so yeah, I understand it might be frustrating to see Phee be more benevolent to Jin who fucked up big time than Non who didn't do anything, it is EXACTLY because he wasn't benevolent to Non that Jin is getting princess treatment)
So, in conclusion: Phee is fucking confused. And it carries on being that way for the rest of the episode. Phee calls New out but he doesn't seem to care too much about Por being dead on the couch. He helps Jin on the ground, but he doesn't say a thing about Fluke pointing a gun at Tee. Sure, he does ask for the gun at a certain point but isn't that just more of Phee's desperate need to get control back?
And we see this all come down to the preview of the next episode and what it's probably going to mean:
Tumblr media
Phee finally has got things under his control again. But this means, surprise, surprise, that Phee's gotta make a choice: to shoot (and stand on New's side) or not to shoot (and stand on the gang's side). Which, of course, metaphorically is a choice, in good romance and BL fashion, between 2 lovers: Non and Jin. But also, in good storytelling, as, once again, @raelle-writing (can't help myself, Rae's posts are FIRE 🔥🔥 sksksksksks) explores better in this post: a choice between the past and the present; continuing to drown in grief and a wish for revenge or choosing to move on and heal.
And, as I (YES, if I'm gonna tag a bunch of people and their works, YOU BET, I'm gonna link my own stuff) explore in this post about White's identity and role in the story (and other people in the fandom have commented as well), I'm inclined to believe he's gonna pick the gang, Jin, the present, healing. Because this is a story about the damage caused by cycles of violence and grief. And a story about how, the only way to stop them, is to choose not to participate in them by letting go.
(and also because we already have characters who represent different choices like Non, who was always stuck in the future because he kept getting deeper and deeper into shit, thinking tomorrow would be better; or New, who is very obviously stuck in the past, unable to let go of the things he didn't do, the things he didn't prevent and only ends up losing more and more as a consequence)
CONCLUSION
Thank you for your time and attention. Feel free to comment and discuss this with me. And I'll see you either on my next long-ass monologue or next Saturday as we watch episode 11!
All the love 💜💜💜
PS: Shout-out to the group chat, including, but not limited to: @ayansbff, @cyberstalking and @squishysquadstuff who have listened to me ranting about this post since Saturday and told me to eat when I was too focused on writing it. Your patience was fundamental in carrying me through this monstrous project (it took me 10 hours to write all this) 💜💜💜.
179 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
(the post editor malfunctioned and after a series of unfortunate events the original ask post is gone, so I had to make this screenshot mockup of the ask, sorry)
Thank you for prodding me to finish up a draft that's been sitting there for an inexplicably long time.
I will divide puns into exact homophones, which are pronounced exactly the same, and near homophones, which consist of the same phonemes with different tones. Though exact homophones are much punnier in speech, Internet jokes rely heavily upon text input and most people use phonetic-based Chinese input systems, meaning their autocompletes will often suggest near homophones and people will use them if they're funny enough.
To make this slightly statistically sound and not just me making up random puns, I grabbed 700k viewer comments from the years NiF was available on Youku, 2015 to 2020 (courtesy of danmu box). These danmu/弹幕 comments are timed to a particular moment in the show so they splash across the screen while you watch.
Tumblr media
Let's start with the heavy hitters:
Xie Yu/谢玉 is an exact homophone of xièyù/泄欲, literally discharging desire, which means satisfying one’s lust or orgasming. Xie Yu's name occurs 5000+ times in the comments versus almost 900 orgasms.
Prince Yu/誉王 is an exact homophone of yùwáng/欲王, meaning prince of lust, and a near homophone, of yùwàng/欲望, which means desire (or the chaotic evil penis). The latter is far more likely to be autocompleted and shows up 1500+ times versus 200+ for the prince of lust.
Yùjīn/豫津 is a near homophone of yùjìn, 欲禁, or forbidden lust/abstinence. Because bath towel/浴巾 is an exact homophone and again far more likely to come up first in autocomplete, people overwhelmingly refer to him as the towel. In the comments, bath towel is used nearly 7000 times, 10x more frequently than his actual name, which is made up of two not-super-common characters.
Mei Changsu is often addressed as Su-xiong/苏兄 by Jingrui and Yujin in canon, which is an exact homophone of sūxiōng/酥胸, a literary term for supple and beautiful breasts that might have the same old-fashioned connotation as heaving bosom does in English. I'm going to call him gorgeous tits because he does bear a striking resemblance to the azure tit:
Tumblr media
I've seen Chinese MCS fans note this resemblance before, but these birds don't have titillating names in Chinese so you can have this bonus joke for English speakers. Anyways, gorgeous tits are invoked in nearly 6000 comments versus almost 1200 for Su-xiong itself.
Now you can enjoy one of the comments from the above screenshot exclaiming over these names:
浴巾裹着酥胸,泄欲,这都什么什么 a bath towel (yujin) wrapped around gorgeous tits (su-xiong), orgasming (xie yu), what is all this
And the following off-color joke retold many times throughout the episodes:
Why is Mei Changsu called Su-xiong and not Mei-xiong? Because he has gorgeous tits, not tiny ones (Méi-xiōng/梅兄 is an exact homophone of flat-chested/没胸).
Here are some rarer-but-still-good puns:
Gōng Yǔ/宫羽 is a near homophone of gòngyù/共浴, bathing together (cue viewer comments about how she and bath towel belong with each other).
Níhuáng/霓凰 is a near homophone of nǐhuáng/你黄, slang meaning you’re perverted.
The emperor lives in Yǎngjū Hall/养居殿, a near homophone of penis hall since yángjù/阳具 is the yang implement, though it's most popularly punned with pigpen (I wrote about this here if you scroll to the end).
The travelogue Mei Changsu wrote annotations in, 翔地记, is an exact homophone of xiángdìjì/降帝记, or records of subduing the emperor (which I can only interpret as MCS’s Dom Diaries on how to conquer Jingyan).
To conclude, here’s a stacked area chart of the four horsemen of punny NiF names and how often they're spammed:
Tumblr media
153 notes · View notes
amiizuki · 3 months
Text
(a 2 weeks late repost of my comment from this Reddit post, cause I forgor)
things RWBY "teaches":
Tumblr media
if someone lies and hides info from you – beat them up, yell at them, and then proceed to later do the exact same thing they did to someone else. except this time consider whoever tries to call you out for lying evil
Tumblr media
if, after you run away without explanation, one of your friends decides to follow you and try to help – slap them in the face repeatedly and berate them loudly
Tumblr media Tumblr media
if a person, who previously helped you and your friends multiple times without expecting much in return, is on edge and looks like they're on the verge of a panic attack – scowl at them the whole time, like they murdered your family or something (add bonus scowling and start thinking of them as pure evil, if said person also starts to call you out for betraying and lying to him earlier)
Tumblr media
when it comes to forgiving and offering redemption – only offer it if the person in question is female; if the person is male then continue villainizing them or kill them altogether
Tumblr media
if your overly stressed sibling is having a meltdown in front of you – scowl at them, while protecting your date from said sibling, as if they were an insane lunatic ready to kill
Tumblr media
if you see your friend/sibling commit sudoku, once again, in front of you – watch it happen, without even attempting to stop them, and then spend some time having a group hug with your friends, before remembering about your dead friend/sibling
bonus stuff, that were said by other people in that same comment thread:
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
also a somewhat long addendum to the 3rd point, because rewatching the Gravity scene, to grab screenshots of Yang's face, somehow made me angrier than it did the first time I saw it:
lemme fucking tell you, that Yang did not start to scowl at Ironwood after he called RWBY out for being lying hypocrites. her angry face, in fact, appeared the moment he started talking! sure, at first it looked more like a slightly confused scowl, but a scowl nonetheless. girl even had her hands in fists already, like c'mon (at least during the moment when Ruby realizes Cinder was the one who left the chess piece, Yang's hands aren't visible in earlier shots, so I can't tell if she had them like that the whole time or not)
so this potato sack looking cunt, who supposedly had PTSD and should supposedly know how it looks and feels like, saw this overly stressed man, who ALSO has PTSD, and who just got faced with an image reminding him of one of the most traumatic events in his life, starting to freak out about the safety of his people and kingdom, and, again, overall looking like he's about to have a full on panic attack, and her gigabrain idea was to fucking SCOWL the whole time he's talking. wowww Yang, what a nice and kind thing you're doing there! I can feel soooo much sympathy coming towards this distressed general, who you actively lied to with no remorse by the way, from your ugly ass scowl. this will definitely help to deescalate the situation and calm Ironwood down, and it definitely won't make him call you out for being a lying shithead and throw your desaturated blonde ass out of the window.
oh, but I guess Ironwood isn't a cute catgirl named Blake, so he doesn't deserve anything more than an angry look from Yang. makes sense, considering Ruby isn't a cute catgirl named Blake either, and so Yang constantly forgets that she exists, only remembering Ruby when it's time to scowl at her, call whatever she's planning dumb, or when it's time to go drink boba and go shopping with her, instead of spending that time planning on how to defeat Salem who has 2 or 3 relics.
81 notes · View notes
swannieluv · 9 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
.𖥔 ݁ ˖꩜ (Almost) free – (PLATONIC) Wriothesley x Teen!Reader
✦⸼࣪⸳𝐆𝐍!𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫
✦⸼࣪⸳ 𝐖𝐜: 1,5k
✦⸼࣪⸳ 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆!!: Mentions of torture (?) and food poisoning.
✦⸼࣪⸳ A/N: HII! This was my first time writing a request and writing for Wriothesley, so I hope you can enjoy it!! Tumblr ate my last (three) draft before I posted, so I had to put an screenshot </3.
✦⸼࣪⸳ @wenutted
Tumblr media
╰┈─➤Wriothesley was certainly a man with a lot of work to do. As the Duke of Meropide Fortress, his duty also extended to the most "troublesome" prisoners in the place. Among them was none other than [Name], a juvenile offender bold enough to steal from authority figures in the city of Fontaine.
It was during a summer afternoon that he met them. Wriothesley was on the wait for the arrival of a criminal on reports of serial thefts of jewelry and priceless possessions. There were no witnesses or traces that could lead to the identity of this thief, so even the Marechaussee Phantom was unable to follow their tracks, coming to the conclusion that they were someone ingenious and extremely experienced at what they did.
Well, what he didn't expect was that the notorious bandit he had been waiting for was a teenager with a bad sense of humor and terrible acting.
The "menace on the loose" who was giving the Fontaine authorities such a headache was right there in front of him, caught after falling asleep in a very comfortable seat inside the Court of Fontaine. It could be said that their carelessness had handed them over to their own hunters.
When asked abouth how they had managed to flee so fast from the crime scenes and hide themselves. The only answer they gave, with a straight face, was:
“I was literally just going in and out through the front doors.”
Quite the unexpected answer.
"Your Grace?" Wriothesley was cut short from his thoughts by two fingers snapping in front of his eyes. The only person brave enough to do that, without a doubt, was them. "What are you thinking? I thought we were going to have tea together."
"Me? Well, I was remembering the first time you set foot in this place." He crossed his arms and let out a little sigh. Their sentence was running out with each passing second, and he didn't want to admit that he would miss them if they left.
"Oh, when I gave you the middle…" He quickly shushed them with a hand right in front of their face.
"Yeah, I know. You were terrible to deal with back then." He ran his fingers through their hair playfully, messing it up.
"But I'm better today," they retorted with a simple sentence that carried a deep weight behind it.
A few months had passed since the incident with the Beret Society. [Name]'s behavior had changed drastically since they had been invited to join the group. In the end, it had all been a tremendous lack of humanity on Dougie's part; recruiting the youngest prisoner in the place and putting them through the same punishment he used with adults while handling the Aqua Doloris.
Before, they were sharp in their comments and too relaxed for their own good, one of the reasons that led them to this place after all. It quite amazed Wriothesley at how they ended up avoiding being caught by the Marechaussee, when they definitely didn't even know how to hide or lie.
They played a big part in their little game against Dougie, making Wriothesley start to pay more attention and spend some extra time supervisioning them.
"If I leave, Your Grace will miss me so much that you'll want to lock me up in that cell again. But guess what? You won't,” they sarcastically declared while jumping down the stairs.
“If you fall down those stairs, you won't be able to leave here before recovering; You know that, right child?” Wriothesley could imagine them falling. It wouldn't be their first time hitting the ground hard.
But contrary to expectations, it was Wriothesley who tripped and almost fell down the stairs, holding on tightly to the banister; trying his best to act as if nothing had happened. An embarrassing silence between them.
“Pfft…”
It was all that could be heard, them laughing at him, who remained motionless in place. Maybe he really was going to miss that little pest who, until now, had given him nothing but trouble. There was only one day until they're officially a free citizen again, but even though they joked about the possibility of leaving, their final decision had not yet been made.
"You really are fearless, aren't you?" He chuckled and looked straight into their eyes. "Not everyone has the nerves to joke like that, maybe I should ask for your sentence to be increased or something..."
Click, click.
Soft footsteps approached them, a sound they were both used to hearing through Meropide.
"I brought tea."
From the top of the stairs, Sigewinne had a smile on her face, carrying a small tray with her. At the sight of it, their faces instantly paled. As Sigewinne didn't have the same senses as humans, her cooking was peculiar, to say the least.
"Did you ask her to do it?" Wriothesley whispered to the teen as he watched Sigewinne walk down to them.
"Definitely not. She must have heard we were supposed to do it today."
The two exchanged glances, as if in telepathic communication. The current plan was to escape from the tea without hurting the feelings of the melusine in front of them. So as soon as she got close enough, the lame excuses began.
"Well, Sigewinne, I'd love to enjoy this wonderful drink with you but," she said in a pained tone, a terribly fake performance, "my tummy hurts, so I'll pass this time. You can give my cup to His Grace, he loves tea after all."
They held their belly, pretending to be in pain. But as always, Sigewinne knew how to get around the situation.
"Hm? There's nothing to worry about, this tea is good for the intestinal flora."
"Wonderful news, right, [Name]?" Wriothesley nudged Sigewinne lightly. After all, revenge is a dish best served cold. "Unfortunately, I won't be able to join you two. Duty calls, child.”
Their jaw dropped. That's it, there was no way out of this. Wriothesley could only grin at them and walk away while [Name] was being forced towards their usual tea-time spot. His grin had the exact following translation: "You're doomed."
And so, [Name] had to drink the cursed beverage.
Tumblr media
Knock, knock.
Wriothesley's head rose to look at the door. He was just finishing his paperwork, something he could do another day, but which he needed to pretend he was doing so as not to make it so obvious why he wasn't drinking the tea Sigewinne had made.
"Who's there?"
"Someone who’s going to be outside the Fortress as soon as they can," the familiar voice on the other side of the door mocked, sounding like [Name] had finally made his choice, "I don't really like the part about being a juvenile offender or something like that."
Wriothesley let out a low laugh and let them in. He was genuinely not surprised by such a decision. [Name] was a thief on the loose around Fontaine and never stayed in one place for long. Name's preference to not remain contained within the walls of Meropide Fortress was certainly not surprising.
"What made you not want to stay here?" He crossed his arms and leaned further back in his chair; it was a rather comical situation for him.
"Here is nice. I've got food, a roof over my head, people to talk to," they mimicked his action and crossed their arms, "and you're here. But I do miss my true freedom outside those thick walls."
He stared at them with a fond smile on his face. He was quite sad that he would need to say goodbye to that child. Even if selfishly, Wriothesley secretly wished they wouldn't leave Meropide yet. Maybe he did have a favorite prisoner, after all.
“Now, can I get my ‘ultra mega hyper master favorite prisoner’ title before I go?”
They looked at him with stars in their eyes. To be honest, it was quite laughable.
“We’ll see how it goes.” He placed down the papers in his hand, waiting for them to speak more. Wriothesley definitely couldn't do that, even though it would be hilarious to see the other's reaction.
He got up and walked over to them. Unlike expected, Wriothesley hugged them and patted their head. And with a big smile on his face, he could proudly say:
"Enjoy your life out of here, little prick.” He gave them a playful, painless smack on the head.
“Thank you, Your Grace; but…”
They smiled mischievously at him and pointed to the door. Through it, came Sigewinne with her snack tray.
“To show my appreciation towards Your Grace and the great time I had here, I kindly requested my little friend Sigewinne to prepare the best pastries ever.”
The snacks presented to him had a suspicious smell. Maybe Sigewinne was also voluntarily partaking in this small prank. It was hard to say because of her usual smile.
“Just for you.”
In the end, even he couldn't escape getting a taste from his own medicine.
Tumblr media
✦⸼࣪⸳♡ BONUS:
“I thought you would be free. What happened, [Name]?”
Sigewinne put a finger over her mouth, trying to understand the reason why they would stay inside such a place when they wanted to be free.
“I got sentenced to more time for ‘murder attempt through food poisoning’.”
“Towards who?” She tilted her head in confusion, an interested look in her face.
“...”
They silently pointed towards the Duke.
“Oh.”
177 notes · View notes