#i guess I had to analyse the whole event

[rainofthetwilight]

LEVI I WANNA GIVE YOU TRAMUA ABOUT ARIN

So, we all know that Arin is struggling to improve his spinjitzu and he feels useless and just wants his parents back.

…He feels jealous. And we know that he doesn’t have an elemental power according to Doc Wyatt.

And he will *probably* fight Sora if he finds out that Sora “helped” his Object Spinjitzu.

What I see from Arin is that he is slowly getting traumatized..

And I have multiple questions from where Arin’s arc is going.

My biggest question is, is the ninja holding Arin him back or his parents holding him back? I think it both.

Not to mention that there is so much foreshadowing to Arin’s arc.

And why do I imagine Arin is just trapped in like, a cage full of insecurities, or trauma? And I can imagine that he can’t get out of that cage.

Ras said that Arin is not improving since the first time they met, Egalt said that Arin is useless, Sora is improving and might be able to learn spinjitzu, and most importantly, Lloyd’s and Arin’s relationship is slowly falling apart like Wu and Morro.

My poor Arin is just having one HECK of a trauma here. And I swear to the Fsm if the writers gives Arin has even more trauma in season 2 part 2 than part 1 I will throw a chair.

But who knows…? Someone said that it was a cannon event that every sunshine character has an angst arc.

Sorry for making you insane, Levi I just wanted to share this idea with you just for fun.

And also, do you think that Arin is going through 5 stages of grief or..? Idk, I wanted to ask you and tell me what’s your thoughts on this.

AHDHAJDBJAJDJAJSNANA YEAH I'M. I'M NOT OKAY RN 👍👍👍

also absolutely do NOT apologize for making me insane I am literally loving these asks so much bro SHDJAJDJW 😭 I love analysing silly lil lego characters w/ you all <333

the thing about the foreshadowing is that it actually feels very intentional, like obv I know foreshadowing is pretty much always intentional but like..you get what I mean?

they are constantly reminding us how much of a great person arin is, in s1 especially. he's a good friend, he's kind, he trusts people quickly, always has that hope in him and so much more. something is definitely going to happen, even if the whole sora helping him thing didn't happen, he is going to be put through the wringer whether if he actually gets an evil arc or not

plus, he already is traumatized. loosing your parents and neighborhood all in one day while navigating an entire new world with so many new places and people on your own (at first) , while only being atleast 10 years old, is pretty traumatizing all in itself. but even after all of these years, he still had hope, he still had hope that his parents and heros could come back. and guess what? his heros did come back, and what did he exactly say again?

''if I loose hope the ninja could come back, then I loose hope that my parents could come back."

even after the ninja came back, his parents didn't. all these years he relied on his hope for the ninja to come back to bring his parents back aswell, but their whereabouts are still unknown. add that to the extreme pressure of saving the world from ending and the amount of self doubt he has, that's when the shell of his hope finally began to crack

in s1, the return of the ninja gave him even more hope than he had before. he was still excited and animated, and finally got his dreams to come true (becoming a ninja). the thought of his parents holding him back didn't plague him as much as now, because that hope in him was still there and it only grew stronger each adventure. but now, even after a long while since the ninja had came back, his parents were nowhere to be found. and that just hurts

dude the insecurities part AGHDJS...the weight of being a ninja was finally becoming heavy on his shoulder and that only added to his frustration and anger of not being good enough. he sees his friends around him improve, and be useful in a way, unlike how he had failed time and time again without achieving results. and with egalt calling him useless and ras constantly reminding him how he still hadn't improved, and he feels jealous even tho he doesn't want to, and it just made everything worse.

I'm also thinking abt how sora accidently reminded him of how he didn't imporve aswell, by saying "your spinjitzu is just as good as when I met you!". and even though she meant it in absolute good faith, that's just it to arin. that's it, he was still in the same level he was the first time, he didn't improve. and with how he got angry at her when she was only trying to cheer him up after what happened, I can't even imagine what would happen if the news of that spinjitzu throw help thing comes out

ALSO. ARIN GOING THROUGH THE FIVE STAGES OF GRIEF. DUDE NOW THAT I THINK ABT IT..

anon had also sent an ask abt this too!!!

so like, now that I actually think abt it, what if that hope was actually just a cover of his denial? the five stages as we all know are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance in that order. so like...what if that hope wasn't really hope, but instead a disguise for denial?

whenever the topic of his parents came up, especially in s1, he kept denying the fact they wouldn't come back. same with the ninja, he still believed they were out there

and now in s2, we see his self doubt and his trauma catch onto him. we saw how angry he was at himself, even to the point of shoving lloyd away when trying to comfort him and almost snapping at sora when she was trying to do the same. we don't see much of that 'hope' like in s1 anymore. it's much more..sadder, more angrier even

and with all this, he's most definitely going through them, now on the second stage. first in denial of his parents and the ninja not returning, and now anger at himself and the world for hating him like this

when I tell you I am so so excited to see what they do with arin's arc w/ all of this going on for his character I am not lying bro, I'm so insane AHDJSKDJJW 😭👍

[alsopartgekkos]

A Sallow Grave - what did go wrong and why

So, a try to delve a bit into the whole quest situation, because for one I love trying to analyse stuff, and Seb has some unearthing of his sallow ass to do. Buckle up.

Spoilers for Sebastian Sallow’s questline, mentions of death, psychological abuse and just general rumblings in no particular order.

Part one of idk how many.

And for a start probably I need to say, that nothing in that questline was okay. And though I do not agree with Sebastian's actions, it’s interesting to see how everything led to this exact outcome, and how he is, undoubtedly, more a result of his upbringing and problematic teenagehood, rather than was inclined or destined to something inherently.

So let's start up with early childhood, shall we? 

Little is known about the twins in earlier years, but they were raised in a full family, and their parents were described as passionate academics, passing thirst for knowledge and optimistic, open minded mindset to their children. It’s noted that they would spend days in the cellar, probably often leaving both Sebastian and Anne to themselves, which undoubtedly resulted in a strong bond between the two. Even years later for Sebastian it's never only just “my sister”, he underlines multiple times that Ann is his twin, the other missing half. 

However tragic events come to pass, and due incident Mr. and Ms. Sallow are gone, and since it’s noted that usually children with magical ability exhibit it by the age of seven, the twins could’ve been between age 5 to 7, where children undergo most important psychological development. They were left on their own, just the two of them, Sebastian subconsciously later opting the role of a fatherly figure, a protector, probably the elder twin. They also left their home - the place holding happiest memories, for Feldcroft and living with their uncle. 

Let us not actually forget that technically, and by Victorian standards no less, both Anne and Sebastian are orphans. Yes, they live with Solomon and he does provide for them, but they are perceived as two different entities altogether. There’s Solomon Sallow, separately, and there are the twins, and although it is never truly stated or hinted whenever wizards had different, more prodigious social structure, Sebastian and Solomon do verbally differentiate between the family. And they’re lucky in a way, because staying with close family is still better than any other sort of a magical orphanage.

The trick is, though, that Solomon as a person, probably was not ready for what he was dealing with, nor has the qualities of a child caretaker. He’s a former Auror: sure, providing safety for two kids, but he’s a battle worn veteran, who gave up the work of his life, plagued by his own wrongdoings [and not having luxury of therapy, let’s be honest], possibly troubled feelings against his brother and most likely PTSD in the form of rage fits. Which is no good thing for a child to be around. 

[Enter the fanon territory, following by the post here, I do think there was some sort of sibling rivalry between Solomon and his brother, and I think that he was to a degree enamoured with the twins' mother. It’s really easy to spot in their conversations, that being “his father’s son” is his own trauma projected into a child, whilst Sebastian can’t comprehend why it’s a bad thing. For him father is a happy memory and a role model, this bright inquisitive mind. For Solomon his brother is, probably, an example of passion going too far, of obsession, his own lost opportunities. And he sees Sebastian growing to be just the same, even before Anne is cursed he’d been this way, so I assume there’s something going on there. Besides well asserting dominance in the household, bc somebody didn’t live well though Aedipus complex I guess.]

Being tasked with bringing up two kids isn’t easy even for a full family, let alone a man with issues, so we start at that. And before Hogwarts became an outlet for both Sebastian and Anne, about 5 years passed, where both of them were mostly formed as people. 

We can assume from what both Anne and Sebastian tell, the relationship with their uncle has always been tense. And it’s easy to see why except for the above.

In the scene where he destroys a Shivelfig he is the one to get verbally aggressive first, and when blames his own outburst and Anne’s following seizure to be Sebastian’s fault. And something tells me that’s not the first time such an argument arises. [As Anne mentions below]

It’s certainly a gaslighting tactic to justify himself [Seb and his uncle have lots in common haven't they sometimes]. And that “what have you done” rhetoric stays with his uncle for the rest of the narrative, and is ultimately a poor communication method. He also intrudes in their safe moment of connection, overseeing the conversation, not to mention that he intrudes in their personal space with little regard to understand what happens [not even minding MC as a matter of fact]. 

After a shot argument he practically sends Sebastian, who only arrived, off, perfectly knowing what kind of bond the siblings have. It is a cruel thing to do, no matter how well justified. And acts with utter nerve as if nothing happened, casually dismissing MC in the conversation, getting quickly frustrated if their point of view does not align with his. It’s something many have experienced with a strict [and often unloving] parent. Not to mention he apologises on behalf of his nephew for some reason, not on his own, like sir you were rude.

[an interesting tidbit: he’s not looking at Sebastian. He’s looking straight at Anne, as if to make sure she understands that she shall not hope for the best and accept his better judgement as the only outcome. As Sebastian says “she’s not herself” ever since she stayed with Solomon, and if that isn’t a red flag well idk.]

And if you look at Sebastian [actually two times, second being with the relic], he’s absolutely helpless. His tantrums and his anger is not the first reaction to aggression. It’s fear. He watches hopelessly, brows raised and ashamed, how his uncle turns his achievements, his work into nothingness and he does not respond back immediately. [Which can be another form of response to domestic abuse] Because there’s still a child there, who is listening to what is said to him. And it’s absolutely heartbreaking to see.

[horizon-verizon]

You’re a whole coon, of course Rhaenyra hates women, especially Black women, she tried to murder a 16 years-old Black girl, slut shamed her, called her racial slurs, and linked Nettles “ugliness/attractiveness” to her Blackness. Rhaenyra literally acted like a pathetic pick me in regard to Daemon and Nettles. If given the chance, Rhaenyra would have enslaved her. TB must truly despise Daenerys to compare her to Rhaenyra, they couldn’t be more different. (The way Rhaenyra is never mentioned in Dany’s chapters and GRRM has never discussed them in conjunction with the other, finally y’all can thanks HOTD for turning her into a progressive and flawless Mary Sue).

And really an insanely privileged white woman dying after putting a bounty on a lowborn Black’s girl head should be a good thing right ? We just gon have to celebrate Rhaenyra death with Nettles.

If you say so, anon, I guess I'm a straight up coon. 🤷🏿‍♀️

I suppose arguing how no one can be a feminist in a medieval world is coonish. I guess that pointing out how unconstructive it is to go "she wasn't a feminist so we shouldn't care about any possible effect her coming into power like the men before and after her have been able to will have an effect on other noble women's power to maybe implement some pro-women stuff in their own domains" to us analyzing why/how Rhaenyra is important to the history of Westeros and Daenerys is coonish.

I guess it's coonish of me to flout so many non-Nettles arguments of Rhaenyra's supposed bad leadership and amorality not once, but TWICE (that I remember), where it clearly just veers into straight up sexism: HERE and HERE....thus coming into why I even bother defending Rhaenyra (in some points).

It's not like I haven't already wrote several time in several posts how Rhaenyra's trying to get Nettles' head reveals much about the Targ-Andal paradigm she grows up in and tries to use to bolster herself through her going after Nettles to the end. It's not like I don't see how essentially different Daenerys and Rhaenyra are as people through the Nettles event as well as how they grow up and come into their positions of power and how/why they desire those roles:

It's not like I haven't already written about the Black Jezebel stereotype at least three times, including on Twitter and here. It's not like I have defended Nettles not just from "dettles" stans but also from people who call themselves Rhaenyra stans while bashing on Nettles and Mysaria, totally misunderstanding both characters and what even a supporting character is.

But sure, I'm a coon bc I don't want to ignore the journey of Rhaenyra's downfall and make distinct where she decided to destroy another woman vs her being the victim. Sure, I'm a whole coon.

And for the last fucking time, "compare" does not always or only mean "these two things are exactly alike and I will show you how"! "Comparison" analyses means that you will list out what traits or developments two things have, what inspirations, and see how they differ and how they don't. And through such a process, you will find out how many and how well/or not these two or more things are alike and how.

For Dany and Rhaenyra, I never said these girls/women were the same person. I said that both women, as women in male-designated positions of power, have to deal with people in world AND out of world must contend with misogynist feelings towards of their not deserving power or leadership on account of their gender, no matter what sort of characterization either had BECAUSE even with the main series not being like F&B, not being a history book, PEOPLE IN THE FANDOM STILL TEND TO MISREAD OR TWIST DANY'S ACTIONS AGAINST HER CHARACTER AND GRRM'S INTENT. Rhaenyra is meant to contextualize that very experience into a real event of catastrophe, she was set against ever since she was 10 bc she was female and another, older woman wanted power denied to her directly bc she was a woman. This is a fact, you nor I can change that. There is a difference between what we learn from the events to make the conclusions of who should rule ideally and what we should shoot for VERSUS thinking of the situation at hand for what it would have been like for the character.

F&B (having been written after the main series) continues even this "analysis" phenomenon; what do people choose to believe when it's a woman at the center of their stories?! No matter her real circumstances or their knowledge of things not present in their understanding of the world and of history?

I also mention, several times, how it is here, Rhaenyra's end, where the Targs lose their dragons because they have assimilated into the intenser patriarchal paradigm already mentioned to the point where they weakened their women's positions by denying them their autonomy and political powers...which plot sequence wise leads to the end of the dynasty as whole and Dany's exile. I'm must be a coon to not want Nettles, a 17 year old, to fuck a 50 year old, esp with her being his bio daughter. No, anon, I am too repulsed with direct vertical incest (parent-child, grandparent-grandchild, etc.).

Then there is how the Bloodstone Emperor and the Amethyst Empress and how the former usurped tha latter and plunged the entire world into mythological "darkness"--thus leading up to the importance of the Azor Ahai, aka Dany, directly seems to reflect how another brother--Aegon II--usurped his older sister--Rhaenrya--and thus the world loses a strong magical tool against darkness "dragons". An obvious link....

In fact, I tend to repeat how different they are as people! There's this whole thread talking abt the very thing I despise abt some critiques of Rhaenyra. I even say many times that Rhaenyra couldn't have the throne after the Nettles letter, that at that point, there needed a "refresh". Up until then, there was simply more reason for us to not think her a real terror except for maybe Addam and Alyn. But I have my misgivings there and it comes down to timing and grief.

No, Rosby and Stokeworth do not count and why? I already wrote why, but for someone who doesn't stan Rhaenyra or is not a fan of hers but actually stans just Daenerys--the previous ozymalek says:

I have myself said several times how I disliked how they rewrote show1Rhaenyra to make her a much less assertive version of herself, and I agree with others how they made her female-friendless. No matter how amoral or moral she was, similarly to Dany, people have written her sexistly in the show. I believe that this is CENTRAL to the point of F&B, how people refuse to see the point of it.

Finally, I really don't see how the hell show!Rhaenyra even is a Mary Sue or a NLOG, bc for the first, she displays no skill she excels over others at. A Mary Sue is:

Show!Rhaenyra, for some reason, seems "perfect" to some people. Esp with Luke saying so in epi 8. I never felt that way, I always thought she (older, not younger) was too meek and that is her great flaw---due to the sexist writing, but if kept at face value, that's the great flaw. Other definition: Who is inserting themselves into her character on the show? you got proof?

A NLOG (not like the other girls) is a Cersei like character who goes out of their way to destroy/diminish most women who are competitors for their power or destroy any semblance of socially-defined femininity and socially-coded feminine "weakness" so as to appeal to the male authority and get privileges. Problem is that EVERY SINGLE FEMALE MONARCH AND WOMAN IN SOME SORT OF AUTHORITY OVER MEN IN EVERY SINGLE PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY had to convince their male supporters that they were the one they should follow to some degree more than any male heir or candidate--during a time where they had to either fight for their "birthright" or they were planning coups (Catherine the Great), came into power through some accident, or whatnot--that their rule was in it for them. There is no pattern of woman-hating or self-hating to define Rhaenyra as a NLOG, where she consistently tries. NLOGs tend to hate women even in their own "race" or group for perceived acts of upheaval and destabilizing their positions of power. Alicent was and she uses misogyny to do so, so Alicent is not Rhaenyra's victim; other way around. Rhaenyra has all reason to despise Alicent, justified even. It's more than the positions, it's the whole targeting since 10 deal and trying to espouse Rhaenyra's inherent unworthiness for power.

So Rhaenyra deciding to do the Rosby/Stokeworth bit is her seeing how her greatest ally, a sexist man, has basically all her ships during wartime and insisting she does not give those girls their father's seats is Rhaenyra choosing wrongly, yes, but something I don't think that you or a small number of women would bow under considering the other shit she was going through. Yes, even black/PoC women. Again, this is not about Nettles but about women vs women (yes with them all being white or white-adjacent) bc I know that this will be the next thing some will say as a counterargument to what I'm saying here.

You are correct, however, in how similar Rhaenyra's behavior abt Nettles is pick-me-ish and NLOG concerning her intent to turn Daemon back to her and how this was her seeing Nettles as competition for "control" over Daemon, who was one of her principal military commands as well as her romantic partner...and like i said once before, this is a reflection on how this Andal-Targ patriarchal paradigm makes its own female "terrors" through misogyny. To ignore the process is to endanger its justified repetition. Yeah, Rhaenyra ends up becoming like Alicent in that way after the consistent losses, and I mean defaulting back to destroying another woman for a simulation of power. This doesn't mean that she was a feminist or that she didn't intend on using the Black Jezebel reasoning to get rid of "competition" to feel more in control. It does mean that her behavior reveals her enmeshment in the xenophobic, aristocratic, patriarchal Targ-Andal feudalist paradigm that she chooses to use to, again, construct more feelings of power at a time where she seemed to feel she was losing more and more--after the betrayals and the deaths of her sons in that moment. And yet if there is anything to be extracted from her narrative it is how that built-in classism (the companion and parent of racism) can become the thing these women default onto to retrieve/gain the agency & power denied to them. I believe this is also where you can draw a core similarity to Cersei, who is rather the starkest extreme example of that classism making up for her internalized misogyny through her Lannister Exceptionalism.

The discourse has to include how we, the readers, over-blame Rhaenyra for things she has either very little control over or what she had no control over and for trying to, again, assert herself (before Nettles). She's a reflection of her times and situation; doesn't mean she isn't still a victim. You don't need to like her. I never asked for people to do so. I don't care if you do or not, I've never needed that. Just don't lie or twist information or ignore clear patterns GRRM establishes that are also important, or try to erase the lines of harm done to her and undo the work GRRM is doing to point out this pattern of misogyny that contextualizes one very key aspect of Dany's journey: sexism doesn't care how goo or classist you are, you are a woman so you will be subject to disenfranchsement, distorotion of facts, and destruction...if you are not like Dany, who intuitively and "rationally" discovers lanes of power while reintegrating her beign to the natural process and relationships between herself and her dragons for the ecological benefit of the entire world (the Others, again). Unlike Rhaenyra, Dany doesn't fall into the ideological "trap" or the noblewoman's save-grace of exploiting of lowborn people AND dragons but intelligently seeks other non-exploitative ways to use her dragons and those inspired by he bravery. This again, does not erase or override the sexism that ties these two together.

It's a paradox, not a contradiction.

[idontknowreallywhy]

Resurface 13 - Relive

Parts 1-12 here.

Again, apologies to John. This was meant to be Virgil’s story but you’re the only one who remembers it so… guess I’ve hit you pretty hard with the bad feelings stick also. You get a hug out of it though so err, it’s all fine 😁

🧡💙💚🧡💙💚🧡💙💚🧡💙💚🧡💙💚🧡

John hadn’t taken his eyes off Virgil the entire time he had been speaking. Scott had remained as still as possible, maintaining the limited physical contact between them but trying not to do anything to interrupt the sudden flood of words. Once he got going, his usually reticent brother could paint a vivid verbal picture from that incredible memory of his. It was just John was very rarely emotionally unrestrained enough to get going in the first place.

Scott was torn between needing to know every last detail that could possibly help him understand what to do next and wanting to envelop his rigid little brother in a crushing hug and tell him to stop. To stop because it was ok now and Scott could fix it by himself and wasn’t going to make him relive it again.

The need to know won. Because he needed to know this now to help save another little brother from an unknown threat. And he couldn’t do it alone - this one couldn’t be a solo op.

Scott was not oblivious to the fact there could be a secondary rescue mission of sorts once the primary one was dealt with.

He was doing a fairly good job of compartmentalising so far. He restrained his emotional reaction to hearing Virgil had punched Dad. He kept still, tried not to flinch. He locked away the creeping sense of horror and focussed on the fragments on information that might help now - John’s account of Virgil’s demeanour, the words that had upset him and triggered a violent reaction. Trying to pinpoint precisely what Dad had got wrong and Scott could try to do differently. John hadn’t heard much of their conversation which complicated matters and Scott forced himself to put to one side the question of whether he could fix whatever Virgil’s issue with their father was - that was a question for later. Right now, they just needed to retrieve Virgil from wherever he had got lost.

So focussed was he on analysing that interaction, in fact, that he almost missed the next part of John’s story and when the meaning of his words filtered into his brain all the carefully crafted compartments crumbled to rubble.

“HE FELL?!”

John started and twisted to look at Scott.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t get there in time. I should have been closer. I should have been better…”

Scott gave in to the crushing hug urge and John did not appear to object. They sat there a moment, John, seemingly entirely drained, had melted into Scott’s chest, his big brother repeating reassuring things about how John couldn’t have known, that he wasn’t to blame for events out of his control. A little voice in the back of Scott’s mind suggested it wasn’t only John that needed to remember this. He ignored it in favour of trying to work out how on Earth Virgil had survived a 3 and a half storey fall and how Scott could possibly have remained unaware of it.

John appeared to read his thoughts and pulled back to look him in the face.

“He didn’t fall the whole way. I think his clothes got caught, or he managed to grab on to the edge of the roof which slowed his momentum. He fell from there to the glass overhang of the verandah. Hit his head pretty hard though… we heard it.”

That part of the glass roof had remained cracked for years… Brains eventually replaced the whole thing with a more durable material during his upgrades to the ranch. Scott had never thought to ask how it had become damaged, everything in the aftermath of getting home was such a blur perhaps at the time he hadn’t even realised it was new.

“Hence the ambulance.”

“Yes. I don’t know how they got him down. Gordon and Alan were… upset… and I had to be with them, not let them see… just in case…” John tailed off uncharacteristically and looked up at the ceiling, then rallied himself.

“Grandma arrived some hours later and told us he’d survived the fall but was sick. And then it was just the four of us for a while - Dad stayed at the hospital with Virgil.”

“Wait, Dad didn’t call to tell you before that?!”

“He had a lot going on. I’m not sure he wasn’t slightly concussed as well actually.”

Scott’s blood was unnaturally chilly as he contemplated what that meant.

“All that time you didn’t know…”

John blinked rapidly, wrinkled his nose and cleared his throat before looking away from Scott and fixing his gaze on Virgil.

“I thought I’d lost both of you, yes.”

🧡💙💚🧡💙💚🧡💙💚🧡💙💚🧡💙💚🧡

[maybemoonout]

if you were to put together a milex starter pack, what would be the top moments you’d include?? love your blog btw! 💗

Hi there anon! I'm so sorry it took me so long to answer this, there's just a lot going on right now for me so I only really found the time to answer this now! I hope you don't mind and still see this T_T

A starter pack sounds like such a fun idea! I want this to be sort of a bite sized post that allows new people from the fandom to find a little bit of everything they need to know. I think that's a good idea, so I decided with that!

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To get started, I wanted to link this post by @i-m-a-leaf-on-the-wind who made an AMAZING full blown post proving milex and it's wonderfully detailed and full of interview moments that start from the true beginning. A GREAT read if you need something to get you started!!

Some of my favorite moments that I got from that post are:

— Alex Turner on ‘Hot Press’ (x)

— Miles Kane, Les Inrocks Magazine 2016 (x)

And many many more from that post, it's also a great place to collect gifs since it has a lot, just remember to credit @i-m-a-leaf-on-the-wind !!

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Another GREAT post to read about their relationship is this post by @paperlovesadness that discusses Miles and Alex's relationship as the definition of Twin Flames. It's INCREDIBLY detailed and has sources for all the interviews mentioned. It's honestly such an interesting study, the definition of twin flames, even outside Milex, so please do give it a read!!

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More great reads for this fandom are song analyses! You can find tons just by searching, but personally I have read all the song analyses of @yellowloid and @paperlovesadness, and I love them A LOT. I also have a few of my own, just check out my #ask !!

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@puppetsspace started a Milex Timeline of events but it only ever made it to 2007, I don't know if anyone else made a bigger timeline but this is still a great blog to check out for the early timelines! My favorite one there has to be this post where Miles sees Alex for the first time and he looks in awe. Very sweet!

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@yummilexhub created a full blown collection of the entire EYTCTE Tour!! A great place to get sources and clips!! please check it out here!

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Now for some more fun stuff, if I had to choose my favorite moments it would be really... difficult. I have A LOT in mind and I honestly can't pick just a few so I'll try limiting it as much as I can.

---

1. The Iconic Øyafestivalen 2016 hug

Need I say more? Miles HIMSELF posted this moment, so it's not surprising everyone loves it, including meself.

2. The Iconic Coachella Kiss

This is honestly my favorite for 2 reasons:

[edited] I was unfortunately a slave to the internet but I originally said here that they were really banned but really its just a rumour!! I hears the guy handling coachella really wasn't happy with the whole thing thoigh, still funny lmfao

It was the one of the few moments that were the closest to a kiss, there are a few others but this one is the most popular and most iconic because again of said reason in #1.

3. Sharing Clothes

This ones not really a moment but a collection of moments. I find it EXTREMELY FUNNY that whenever people do those "boyfriend style" things on Alex, you see the regular array of ex girlfriends or current girlfriend, and out of nowhere, it's just Miles HAHAHAHHA. LIKE IT'S FUNNY AS HELL. I find it kinda sweet that Miles is somehow the... consistent out of all of the styles, like no matter the era of Alex there's gonna be a moment where he shares clothes with Miles, compared to the others who obviously only ever share with him in one period. I guess that's the perks of being the best friend?

Some examples:

Striped Shirt

Leather Jacket

Fred Perry Cardigan

4. The Albums being called "their baby"

This one is a little more of a stretch because I've only ever seen it one time. In this interview Alex says "for the past 8 years we've considered...trying for another baby" then they both start laughing hysterically. It's funny and cute :)) If anyone ever sees a different moment where Alex and Miles call the albums their babies, please do let me know!

5. I Want You (She's So Heavy)

These gifs explain themselves I think

///

I honestly can't think of more on top of my head right now, if anyone wants to add more please do! I'll definitely add more later but for now, this is my starter pack!

I hope this is a good little collection of stuff for you guys to see a little bit of everything!

[pomefioredove]

Wahhh I love your writings so so so much and you absolutely deserve 500 and more ToT seeing your posts always makes my day!! I saw the match-up event and knew I had to join, it'll be my first time trying one of those!

It is kinda hard to describe myself... Which I guess says something about me? I'm a total homebody, finding comfort in solitude and the sort of freedom that comes with being able to express myself, by myself, with no restraint. But even then, there's nothing I don't love about the bustling nighttime, basking in the sort of romantic air of the evening as I admire the city lights and the ambience of energy.

I'm the type of person that finds myself in people. For better or for worse, my presence is determined by those I choose to be around... So overall I'm a big people pleaser and am kind of starved for good friendships and affection, having always had a hard time keeping connections or finding people that truly want to be with me, which in turn makes me a bit of a loner, I suppose... I do truly yearn though lol, so the want for connection is still there, raging within. It's almost a painful sort of pining, because I never hold a grudge.. Even if someone does wrong by me, I will always be ready to welcome them again with open arms. I'm fiercely loyal, so I long to have people reciprocate that.

I adore anything that keeps my mind going and gives me that feeling of satisfaction and indulgence... I would say I find that feeling in my passion for art, writing, and reading... analysing my favorite movies and literature, getting to notice little things about the people around me and storing them in the back of my mind as little anecdotes I can smile about. Putting myself in the shoes of others, letting my imagination go wild— that small balcony full of potted plants is so beautiful and cozy, I wonder what the interior of the home is like, then... Small, full of zen, with warm lights? That person on the sidewalk, waiting for the bus with headphones on, they look like they would like jazz, or maybe something more upbeat?

Im also a dreamer, I guess I can describe it as such haha. Im a hopeless romantic by heart, yet sometimes I find myself feeling a twinge of apprehension at the thought of truly being in a relationship... Maybe it's because it's uncharted territory, or it's because that "dreaming" side of me has that sort of "prince charming" fantasy that I've always wished for, even on a more realistic level. But even then, I know I can be patient and let time do it's thing while I focus on bettering my own future, and finding happiness and comfort in myself in the meanwhile.

I feel like maybe I've made this a bit too long haha.,,, take your time, and have a wonderful day! 🩷🩷

I match you with 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐮𝐬 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐚

anon I hope that you were purposefully trying to get him. I think you might actually be his soulmate oh my god

The First Impression:

Do you believe in love at first sight? Malleus does.

The connection is immediate. He's drawn to you like a moth to a flame, and conversing with you only enchants him more. Perhaps you bump into each other somewhere in the dead of night, or maybe you're just classmates, either way he simply knows.

Why He Fell:

Malleus soon finds himself purposefully seeking out your company, wanting to get closer but not sure how. This whole "friendship" thing is quite new to him, after all, and he doesn't want to scare you off.

There's no telling what exactly it is that makes him fall in love, but he falls, and he falls hard. He relishes in every moment you spend together, whether it's talking about your shared passion for the arts, or listening to you describe dreams. Your perspective on life is so... fascinating to him, he can simply never get enough of it. Your attention to detail, your appreciation of the little things, your ceaseless curiosity and active imagination, the care you feel for strangers... You quite literally change his world view.

Perhaps he's not exactly a prince charming, but he's close enough.

The Relationship:

There's a sense of understanding between the two of you when it comes to your loneliness. Later on, Malleus will question if he could tell that you felt as isolated as he did when he first saw you, if that was what drew him closer. But he doesn't put much thought into it. You enchanted him, and that's enough of a reason.

Though, perhaps, in the end, it's that shared loneliness that drives you together again and again. Your fierce loyalty, your craving for love and affection. You make each other feel safe and secure, which is all Malleus could really ask for at the end of the day.

He truly grows into himself during the course of your relationship, becoming a more stable, caring, and emotionally intelligent version of himself. You truly bring out the very best in him, and he can only hope he does the same for you.

There are awkward moments, of course, being two people that have no prior relationship experience. There's miscommunication, the occasional bruised ego, but there's truly nothing that could tear you apart. Malleus is devoted, reliant on his loved ones in such a way that perfectly mirrors your loyalty, and the both of you are quick to forgive and talk and move on. Probably the healthiest relationship to ever healthy.

He absolutely adores you from beginning to end.

[sapphire-weapon]

(1) Hey there! I've been totally engrossed in your meta analyses on RE. You've nailed everything I've felt about the Aeon ship but couldn't express. It's tough to share views on Aeon nowadays without backlash. Their dynamic always puzzled me, like I get the trauma bonding and that they care abt each other, but come on, she keeps being part of the world Leon swore to destroy and that's not enough of a red flag for him? (cont)

(2) With the RE4 remake, it looks like they're trying to change their whole relationship, and I'm here for it. It's obvious he's rejecting her, but people blindly try to convince themselves they're a thing. They will look for the dumbest or overanalyze things to prove Aeon is alive and well, but will ignore the devs' clear attempts to show Leon flirting with Ashley. Like it's right there. There's dialogue and everything lol (3) I've got a few questions for you, if that's okay. There are still some things about Ada I can't figure out (though I guess that's what makes her interesting), and I'd love to hear your thoughts. 1. Why does Leon let Ada take the sample? Do you think she knew he wouldn't stop her?

Just for clarity's sake -- you said later that this was about Remake, so we're talking about the Amber, not the Sample.

Leon lets Ada take it for two reasons:

He trusts Luis. And if Luis and Ada had an arrangement, then Leon trusts that Ada's not going to sell the Amber to someone who shouldn't have their hands on it.

He knows what happened the last time he got between Ada and her mission objective: she almost fucking died. Would've died if not for something breaking her fall.

I don't know if Ada knew that Leon wouldn't stop her, but I'd be willing to bet that that was the reason why she namedropped Luis in the first place. She saw the "for Luis" scene; she probably banked on Leon trusting Luis more than he distrusted her.

And she was right.

2. In SW, Ada shows concern for Leon, like her voice softening when she talks about him. She's clearly into him sexually, but do you think she'd want something more than just a physical relationship? (cont.) (4) Could this be tied to her self-perception, like maybe she's pursuing Leon to prove something to herself, maybe a sign of insecurity?

Still talking about Remake, just to be clear.

I'mma be real wit u homie: I don't see what you see here. I've played through SW a few times, but I never noticed her voice softening for him in this way. I saw her speaking at a lower volume because she's talking to herself, but that's because... she was talking to herself.

So the answer is no and no. None of Ada's sense of self is wrapped up in Leon. At all. She has some sentimental attachment to him because Ada gets sentimental about people and things (for reference, see: Ada being sincerely hurt when Wesker rejects her in chapter 3, also Ada honoring Luis's memory and dying wishes for the remainder of SW after he dies), but she has no real concern for him otherwise. He's just a Thing that she wants, and Ada goes after what she wants.

3. What future do you see for Aeon? How could their relationship evolve if it's not just about tension or hints of a physical relationship like in the OG timeline? Do you think Ada will have some character growth, especially in RE6? They tried so hard to show Ada had a heart, and Aeon seemed almost like a couple, but that didnt go anywhere... again lol. (cont.)

Still talking about Remake.

In order:

There is no future for Aeon.

Right now, there is no evolution possible for their relationship, because Ada isn't there yet as a character. She needs to be someone that Leon can actually trust, and she isn't. He explicitly pushes her away in 4 for that reason. Her character change in 4 is a good start, but that's all it is. Ada still has a lot of independent growing to do in order for Leon to even tolerate her, and I honestly don't know when they could possibly fit that into the events of the series. They would have to create whole-ass new games that take place in between numbered titles just for the Remake timeline, and I really just don't see them doing that.

I've said this over and over again, but: we need to see what RE5make does. It doesn't sound like Wesker's just going to let her betrayal go this time like he did in OG, and there's a real possibility that RE5make won't kill him off. It is impossible to speculate on RE6make right now, and I wish people would stop asking me to.

Don't forget that RE6 OG ends with Leon rejecting Ada, too. There's no point to building up Leon and Ada's relationship just to have him reject her again. He's already rejected her now in 4. We're past that. Moving on. There's a real opportunity for Capcom to do something completely new with Ada's character now that they've wrapped up the Aeon melodrama early, so let's just... let them.

(5) Do you think Leon being on his own in Infinite Darkness and Death Island, with no Ada references, means CAPCOM is rethinking the ship in the OG timeline? Could CAPCOM's preference for keeping characters single be part of this (if thats even true and not another random news some fans made up)? or maybe they don't know what to do with them?

RE6 ends with Leon rejecting Ada. It's already been rethought. It's over. It's done. It's been decided. The Aeon arc has concluded. The focus of Leon's character going into the end of his story is now his relationship with the government -- which is where it should've been all along.

If they go back on that rejection in RE9, that's bad storytelling. And I actually trust the current writing staff at Capcom to know that and stick to the script. But who knows, they could always make a fool of me in the end.

I also don't know where "Capcom prefers the characters to stay single" even comes from. I've never seen a source, never read a quote, never been linked to an interview. I'm pretty sure it's shit that fans made up because they're salty their ship isn't canon yet lmao

Thanks a ton for your insights. They've really helped me get more out of the games and improve my own analysis. I'll definitely support you on Kofi! 💖

<3333333333 I don't have a functioning Ko-Fi currently, but I appreciate the sentiment all the same.

[houkagokappa]

I went to Desucon Frostbite this weekend :3

The head organizer commented that it was their 10th year attending Desucon events, and that's actually true for me too, Desucon Frostbite 2014 was one of the first cons I ever attended (never forget and please let me forget).

I always attend the opening and closing ceremonies. This year they did a small performance spoofing Death Note and sentai stuff, which was well made as usual and I'm always impressed by, considering the performers are volunteers and not professionals.

This year's guest of honor was composer and musician Yasuharu Takanashi. He held a concert on Friday night together with Finnish metal musicians I feel some amount of national shame not knowing, because they seemed like fairly big names. I'm not big on metal music, but it's always nice listening to live music, and it was fun to get something to do on Friday night, since most con activities don't start until Saturday. I also attended Takanashi's panel on Saturday, and although I wasn't familiar with the music he composed to Naruto or Fairy Tale, he was an entertaining guest (comes with the profession, some writers/directors they've had in the past have been a little awkward). Me and my friend spent the entire time hungering for a Show By Rock!! mention, as he had apparently worked on that as well, but alas it wasn't brought up and we didn't dare ask him about it during audience questions.

As for other programs, I attended a lecture on character and clothing design in Suisei no Majo, which was really nice and informative. I haven't read any staff interviews on it, so I didn't know anything about the designing process or the people behind it and it was fun to learn about it. I also went to a lecture on analysing yuri, which was disappointing, since it contained little to no actual analyzing on what makes yuri "yuri". They made a lot of jokes about the famous Iori Miyazawa "Yuri Made Me Human" interview and I would've loved to hear their takes on the whole "yuri of absence" concept, how much truth or weight we should put on it, why the yuri classification matters, or if it even matters, considering the freedom and joy of your own interpretations vs. the importance of representation and author intent, or how expectations and readings differs in the West compared to Japan, etc.. Their lecture was on the shorter side and went over some common misconceptions over terminology and reader demographics, which I guess was nice, although I feel like (or at least hope) most people in the room would already be aware of those. Overall I think the lecture description might've been at fault here, because it gave me the impression there would be more actual discussion and analysis on these topics/I misinterpreted what the lecture would be about. At least people seemed to enjoy the jokes.

Then, me and my friend always attend the AMV contest, and this year I left the contest happy, because for once all of my favourite AMV's got honorable mentions or won some of the prizes! The audience favourite award usually goes to some humor video I don't care for, but this year it went to a PMMM video I actually really, really liked!! My other favourites were the PMMM/SKU mashup which worked surprisingly well, and another SKU one. Same series, but very different AMV's lol.

Another tradition I have is to drink the official Desu Drinks, although I should stop because they're small, expensive and not that interesting anymore (Kill la Kill takaisin!!!!). This year I drank "Beck", which contained Finlandia, ginger ale and a slice of lime. It was good, but not "10,50€ good". For Saturday's dinner we went to one of the Indian restaurants that was still operating in Lahti (restaurants DO NOT stay open there). The food was pretty basic, but good, as expected from a place like this.

I brought my Monogatari itabag with me, because I wanted to celebrate the recent Off Season and Monster Season announcements (plus it's fun to use my itabags, and it's quite practical to have a big bag with me even if it weighs a ton lmao). As for merch, I bought Farwell to my Alter by Nio Nakatani at the con flea market for very cheap, and then I FINALLY got my hands on the first volume of March Comes in Like a Lion. I've been wanting to get it from my local shop, but they've never had it when I've been there to look for it. I'm suuuuuper happy to have it in my hands!!!! Then I bought one roll of washi tape from the artist alley with adorable long-tailed tits and plum blossoms. I suppose it's good I didn't spend that much money this con, although there was more manga that tempted me (why must River's Edge be 20€ ugh, maybe next time).

I was also happy to briefly see and chat with some of my kimono friends, and then I finally met up with @akroglam who I've been mutuals with for ...7 years? That was a lot of fun, although I felt like a stalker for all the "I saw that on your twitter/tumblr" comments I made :P

And here you have it, my diary entry for the Desucon Frostbite weekend. Thanks for taking the time to read it :)

[eetarot]

The first official post.

I posted some preliminary work over on @qwertyfingers a few days ago, but I've decided to be organised for once and stick everything on it's own blog, so here's an intro post for organisational clarity. I'll be posting any and all updates about the project here, and that's all it'll be used for, to keep the streams from crossing.

What is this project?

I’m aiming to produce a full major arcana for a tarot, using themes, imagery, characters and places pulled from Everything Everything lyrics and odds and ends like interviews, song Q&As and so on.

Some major arcana cards have immediately evident analogues in EEs body of work. For example, The Empress is a ‘great mother’/'mother nature’ figure, protective and wrathful in turn, obvious parallels to Tin (The Manhole).

They will embrace me tonight as a A father and a son And I will carry homo sapiens through the night

Our Empress can be represented by the Fox, and potentially bring in some evolution imagery from Choice Mountain, Leave the Engine Room.

Judgement meanwhile is a representation of a rapture-like apocalyptic event that rewrites everything we know - which is heavily telegraphed in much Mountainhead but especially Wild Guess and The Witness.

Do you know what I saw? Nothing but endless fields of bodies swimming in the pit There was blinding light There were many eyes How could I know that? How could I know that? If I wasn’t there?

The role of Judgement in this deck will be played by this great accident in the pit. The exact visual it will take on is less apparent, but we have our basic inspiration already.

Other cards are more difficult. The Devil is hard precisely because there are almost too many options to draw from, but few prominent or recurrent enough to be the obvious choice. There are multiple places to draw lyrical inspiration for The Hermit from, but none of them provide any visual information. But this whole thing is a process and I’ll get there eventually.

Why are you doing this?

I had the initial idea for this project in 2021. I became really intrigued by tarots status as a sort of agreed-upon set of glyphs and stories shared across time and spent a lot of time researcing the different designs and meanings of cards throughout time. I don’t “believe” in the power of tarot any more than astrology (i.e. not at all), but I’m fascinated by the function of the imagery and art of the cards themselves.

During my reading I got to thinking about what I feel strongly enough about to consider creating a deck and I struck upon this. The first card I ever had a plan for was The High Priestess. Described as a sort of spiritual or social leader-by-example, a representative of the best of humanity and our collective knowledge. In a tounge-in-cheek way, that’s exactly what Come Alive Diana is about.

Her phantom head is thinking for all mankind I saw her portrait in the Mail Her phantom head was directing the holiest of hunts

I was immediately struck by the image of a spectral Diana cradling her own severed head in a pretty gruesome pastiche of the traditional depiction of the card, and haven’t been able to get the thought of it out of my mind since. It’s spiralled out of control since then.

So yeah. Mostly I’m doing this because it interests me on a purely artistic level, and because it’s a fun challenge to approach something really creative in a strangely scientific way. Like I’m dissecting and analysing a bunch of art I really enjoy and creating horrifying chimeras with the remains. I love it.

How will it all get done?

I’m a relatively experienced watercolour and gouache painter and illustrator, though I’ve never tackled a project this big before. The thing that scares me most is having to learn architectural drawings for at least two of the cards I have planned so far. But I look forward to it.

Right now I’m working on typing up all of the notes I have scattered between sketchbooks and notepads about my ideas for different things and making sure I know which areas need my attention most right now. Otherwise, I’m just vibing.

I welcome any questions or suggestions you might have in my ask box or messages! In an ideal world I’d like to complete all of the card artwork myself, but I have no pre-existing skill in graphic or product design and have no idea how to go about choosing a font or designing a card beyond the illustration and so if that’s something you do know about and would like to get involved please do.

Currently I have no plans of printing these up or making any overtures towards this being more than a casual passion project. My only experience with the professional art world is very informal local gallery shows and I don’t feel ready to change that!

[sillytorch]

Seeing this news about RT is a trip when you have your rwby blog go semi inactive for nearly 2 years due to getting into other stuff (and life shit too I guess)

I literally made this blog only cuz I just wanted to post my Roman related shitposts and analyses w/o clogging up my main blog (which was meant to be an art blog but it turned into a personal blog oops~)

I've had a lot of memories from this fandom both good and not so good and on top of that, participating in this fandom pushed me further into my art

I mean even though I'm not as active as I used to be, I still post RWBY art here and there. Still will tbh and I'm emphasizing the whole "here and there" timings. Idk what's going to happen with RWBY other than just wait and see and also to archive the crap out of it b/c more media (new and old) keeps on getting erased every single time

Man I'm just... This got me through some times like college and the pandemic... Not sure why I'm making this sound like some send off post (it's not a send off post). Sentimentality I guess ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Anyways I'll keep on just using this blog to retweet any rwby news, nice art, boosts for current events, as well as my own art rwby or not

[taylors-fourth-cat-meow]

Okay so besides book one I haven't reread the rest of the series so I'm not sure if this take is 100% correct but, does the story actually acknowledge Feyre's change in behavior ? Because I've seen enough people say that the reason everyone changed was because of the traumatic events UTM however that just feels like something people came up with in order to justify everyone's behaviour.

And this isn't to say that, trauma won't change people because it will but I feel like in Feyre's case it's more of an opposite situation where instead of Feyre being more cautious around the NC she easily believes Rhysand, and her old morals are completely disregarded even though said morals have protected her before and throughout UTM.

I also know that the reason why she may have such a trusting view on faeries is because of Tamlin's explanations in the first book but even with that logic it still doesn't make sense how she completely changed her views in a way that makes her more vulnerabled when the book's say otherwise.

I do think it's possible for trauma to make you second guess yourself, what Feyre is going through can be possible but SJM doesn't really present it that way if anything it feels unintentional, like she intended Feyre to be more cold hearted and cautious in the rest of the series but its not executed right.

Idk what this rambling is its been a while but anyways, your thoughts?

Hey bestiee!!

Nah the story actually does not acknowledge her 180 change in character at all. It's all just the unde the guise of the human girl who went utm died there. The thing is Acotar Feyre wud have never fallen for Rhysand. That ship wud have never worked. Hence in order to make them compatible it was necessary to change her personality. And yes trauma does change people but in Feyre's case it's used to justify the change in her character and all of her misdeeds .

Look I personally don't think that the series was supposed to be more than one book. Like that seems like the only logical explanation for all the character changes and retcons. I mean m sure no one can be that dumb right?

The whole series is hot mess. Feyre's character is a mess too. Feyre is very prideful in the first book and actively hates the Fey. But then she's been Fey herself for two seconds and starts cursing like them and acting like them. This whole series revolves around Rhysie. Feyres character had to be pulled down so that Rhysie cud swoop in and build it up again. U see that was his redemption. And I think sjm aimed to make Feyre more... Powerful and morally grey towards the end of the series but couldn't execute it. It's like she couldn't stand to imagine if someone spoke I'll about her precious feyre. Hence we can see that Feyre does wrong things and commits mass murders but is never called out for it.

But at the end of the day ni matter how much he analyse Feyre's character is just plain and simple bad writing on sjm's part.

[feathers-blown-in-the-wind]

This will be an attempt to analyse Passion with slightly less rambling and fangirling and a bit more sense so buckle up !

The Gabenath subplot (+ Émilie)/The Agreste subplot

I'm gonna start with that because it's the cause of the akuma plot.

Gabriel is trying very hard to be a decent father for Adrien. The whole pancake thing is as jarring as we expected, and Nathalie definitely agrees with us. The first scene they share is full of unresolved tension, with Gabriel acting very friendly, going as far as to say she is part of the family, while Nathalie very clearly want to jump at his throat. Which she does the instant Adrien leaves the room.

It's quite obvious that she's still very much displeased with Gabriel about what happened in Evolution. The most interesting part of their argument is that we finally get new infos on Emilie, in the form of videos. Emilie had asked Nathalie to stop Gabriel from looking for the Miraculous, and instead they should both focus on parenting Adrien (she explicitely ask Nathalie to be a new mother to him, which will come back later on). Passion implies here that 'vilain Emilie' is probably a theory that will never come true, or at the very least that Adrien will always be her top priority. And it seems to be the case for Nathalie too.

Now on Gabriel's side of things, the events of Destruction made him even more determined. The cataclysm wound seems to be spreading (I don't have a picture on hand but I do believe it didn't go quite this low in ep3) and failing isn't an option anymore : he has to get the Miraculous (though I think he might have implied it wouldn't necessarily be for Emilie)

The scene serves a clear purpose : Adrien is at stakes here and both of them know it.

As many had theorised, Gabriel guilttrips Nathalie into helping him again : if they don't succeed, Adrien will lose this pretend family he has and be left completely alone, since both of them don't have much time left.

This scene clearly shows one thing : Gabenath is pretty much gone and the only thing they have in common anymore is Adrien.

They basically are a divorced couple playing nice for their child and I think it's going to be a very interesting dynamic go explore. I wonder how far Gabriel will go into the whole 'Nathalie is family now' and how much Adrien will too.

I'm also gonna adress Adrien's relationship with his dad here and speculate on what it entails for the event of illusion :

It seems whatever Nino has discovered didn't really change Adrien's dynamic with Gabriel so either Adrien didn't believe him or Nino hasn't quite reached the conclusion that Gabriel is/is working for Monarch. Both would be possible, but I think we can trust Adrien still loves his father and doesn't seem to be wary of him (then again it's Adrien so I probably shouldn't have expected anything else)

Adrien is apparently willing to lie to his father to avoid offending him in the breakfast scene, given Nathalie mentions Adrien usually prefers his pancake without stuff on it (they say ''nature" in French but I have no idea how to translate that). It seems like a thinly veiled attack on his neglect of Adrien to show her anger at Gabriel playing house so she might not be completely honest but I think it's interesting to note. We can safely guess that Adrien is afraid to make a wrong move that causes his father to pull back (like he has done before, in Felix for example with the whole "I support your relationship" thing)

So yeah first part of a slightly more coherent summary

I'll come back for Marinette and Adrien's subplot later

[heinzpilsner]

It's basically me analysing things with Yon Rha again, but withot being too offensively unempathic and biased, lol

Hey, I'm trying, you can give me that at least!

(Perhaps if I didn't ignore all my notifications, I'd get it faster, but hey, I quite enjoy my little intellectual puzzle here so far. Don't wanna spoil it for myself with interactivity, lol)

Okay, thinking of Katara's encounter with Yon Rha not through the prizm of my zutara brainrot now (not gonna pretend it is not affecting my judgment, it most definitely still is, lol), maybe I'm not giving enough credit to the cognitive/informational component of this event.

(Your honour, there are so many components in here, and whose components have components on their components! You can't expect me to juggle all of them at the same time and not ending up like Zuko during his date with Jin, lol)

Previously I said it was a fruitless trip, but I didn't really take into account the specifics of the case - the ones connected to learning Yon Rha's side of the story and seeing him as a person, - as well as more subtle psychological consequences of the encounter. But as I said early, I'm not a psychologist (also, not the most emphatically gifted person around, as you already can tell I guess, yikes), and my understanding of intricacies of such inner workings is quite limited.

Also, there is a thing to consider - I don't know much about the writer, and how psychologically competent she was. Of course, I could go full "author is dead" approach here and try and read really hard into this case as if it was a real life event (I wouldn't be surprised if someone much more competent than I already did it though), but... I'm trying working through "what author really implied by this" logic when analysing tSR because I respect the writer's ability to build a coherent psychological narrative within her work - given how ambitious she was with the complexion of chosen topics, you'd expect no less from her. Just throwing a bunch of random events on your audience end expect them to built their customised narrative out of it may be a fun postmodern game, but... Just but, I guess.

What I'm saying here is that there's two things about the encounter that can be easily noticed even by most casual watchers but not by me apparently geez.

First of them is that Katara learns there was a reason behind her mother's death - namely, Katara's waterbending. Oh boy. What can I say? I guess the girl could live without the guilt and painful associations connected to her bending produced by the knowledge. Another point to my "maybe facing Yon Rha wasn't such a great idea after all" argument, I guess.

Still, it was important for Katara to learn about her mother's last moments and sacrifice. It was pretty insensitive of me to overlook this fact in my previous analysis (... and I can only imagine how many people I potentially pissed off by this, oops. In my defence though - the whole "revenge" context was pretty distracting). I guess you can't call the trip completely fruitless then - althouht the fruits, may I say, were bittersweet at best and sour at worst.

(Thinking about it now, it's kinda curious that the only truly valuable thing Zuko got from his "closure" with Ozai well, except for the valuable opportunity to practice his lightening redirection was information about his mum as well, even though it wasn't his initial intention. Was it a deliberate parallel, I wonder?

... Wait a minute, why it wasn't Zuko's intention though? It would make much more sense, if you ask me. Oh well, I guess writers had too many things to juggle on their hands as well.)

Another thing is that at the start of the episode Yon Rha was a "monster" for Katara, and then he became just an empty sad man to her. I take it as a deliberate point the writer made. But what exactly does it mean within the narrative? Just a fact of life? A thing for Katara (and audience) to reflect on with no real consequences within the plot?

Or was Yon Rha's personality somehow connected to why Katara forgave Zuko, after all? But how, exactly?

I can only think of juxtaposition. "Look at this guy, Zuko is not so empty and cares about his mum, hence he's worth of forgiveness" kind of logic. But... I mean, Zuko has many problems obviously but emptiness was never one of them, lol. It still counted, perhaps - amongst other small weights on the scales (the weight of it depends entirely on Katara's previous assessment of Zuko's personality though, and I have reasons to believe it wasn't so unflattering at this point).

Does this whole 'cognitive' perspective rearrange my understanding of the reasons behind Katara's forgiveness of Zuko? Yep.

Looking at the trip as meaningful for Katara now (Zuko helped her to learn about her mother's sacriface), it makes much more sense to me. Many of my previous arguments still stand, but the weight shifted more towards platonic reasons (I mean, on one hand, this reason is linked to their connection in Ba Sing Se and reinforces it, but on the other, it's a rational reason for forgiveness, as opposed to irrational ones).

Which feels more appropriate by being less shippy, even though it was fun to compose bizzare conspiracy theories about secretly coded zutara puzzle left by the writer for us to decipher, lol (Your honour, the writer was zutara, it wouldn't be that unlikely!)

It's all about interpretations though. As I said, there are so many components in here you can easily transform the context by shifting the weights as you like.

(Ugh, my posts manage to become obsolete so fast. But hey, it's my live thinking process you're looking at, what do you expect, lol?

I'm not trying to create perfect things for people to repost or something. It's just me playing with my mind to relax. It's nice.)

[neverland-l0stgirl]

Shizuka no Umi no PARAISO Thoughts and Feels (Spoilers)

So I finally finished watching the TouMyu stage Shizuka no Umi no PARAISO thanks to subtitles from @waterlinkedgirl. It’s taken me this long because I rarely have time to sit and watch something with subtitles :(

I want to say that this is almost a perfect stage and definitely my favorite TouMyu show that I have seen so far. Perhaps it’s because I am partial to Okamiya Kurumu and his character Tsurumaru, but I would like to think it’s because I found the storyline the most cohesive and compelling out of the shows I have seen so far.

I do have the following thoughts though. Spoilers ahead...

Unless requested, I’m not going to do a full summary of the show. I’m only going to talk about the single scene in the whole show that confused me.

I am going to backtrack a little bit though...

PARAISO is about the Shimabara Rebellion, which is mainly known as a Christian peasant rebellion against the local domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo period. It was a really tragic event where roughly 37,000 people were massacred, including women and children. The Touken Danshi are sent back to this period to preserve history, which means that they must ensure the massacre is carried through successfully.

I understood most of the themes of the show, such as the explanations of why history has to be preserved. The point of “we must not erase history but learn from it instead” is easy to understand. I even understood why Matsuigou has to to repeat his killings of the rebels even though this must have been PTSD-inducing. He needs to understand that his actions have a grander purpose in order to overcome his trauma. Unlike the first time, Buzengou is there to support him this time. I understood all that.

What I had trouble understanding, though, was the exchange between Tsurumaru and Matsudaira Nobutsuna. When I first watched this scene, I attributed my confusion to my minimal understanding of Japanese culture. Although I am Asian-American and can comprehend many aspects of Asian culture, my upbringing and education were foremost Western/American, and thus my ideals and moral compass align entirely with Western/American ideals.

During the exchange between Tsurumaru and Matsudaira, Tsuru asks him why he has decided to massacre all of the rebels. Matsudaira’s reply is that the people must feel regret to prevent similar tragedies from occuring in the future; that war is never the answer, but politics should be changed instead; that the way to end war is through war; that he does this in order to uphold Tokugawa Ieyasu’s ideals for peace (tying back to Kishou Hongi and Mihotose). Tsurumaru agrees with the sentiments and says that he is glad that someone like Matsudaira exists in this era.

Now here is the part I didn’t understand at first. At face value, what Matsudaira says made sense. Especially in today’s nuclear bomb-armed world where a war can mean total destruction of humankind, pacifism seems to be the correct answer; however, thinking back to what I learned in 7th grade World History, wasn’t war a constant in feudal Japan? Instead of war, what were the people supposed to do? Stay silent while facing oppression? Here in the U.S., we are all about that religious freedom. Is the value I’m supposed to take away from this show, just shut up and accept oppression for the sake of peace?

But I guess those thoughts were because I didn’t understand the Shimabara Rebellion.

I was glad to find out that TouMyu actually did its research on history and historical analyses when writing this script instead of just taking the event at face value. For example, there were mentions of Christianity not being the sole reason for the uprising; that women and children died; that Toyotomi was not necessarily more lenient on the Christians; that Amakusa Shirou may or may not have been the actual leader behind the rebellion. All of these points are backed by historians. What I didn’t realize until I did some deep, deep googling was that Matsudaira’s points of “politics need to be changed instead” and “Tokugawa Ieyasu wants to preserve peace” are also two sentiments that have been expressed by historians when talking about the Shimabara Rebellion. While there are barely any English language sources that do a deep dive into the Shimabara Rebellion, I did find this article: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ghj/vol15/iss1/7

In the above article, the author discusses that the normal way of the Daimyo during the Tokugawa Shogunate was actually to appease the peasants and not be too out-of-line in the exploitation of the working class in order to preserve peace and prevent rebellions; however, the Daimyo in the Shimabara and Amakusa regions took it too far, and the cruel exploitation of the peasant class, along with religious persecution, finally drove the peasants to rebel. In the end, the lords of Shimabara and Amakusa committed seppuku due to the humiliation of the prolonged rebellion that resulted in surprisingly high casualties on the side of the Shogunate.

After the war, the Shogunate took measures that included appeasement and leniency toward the working class (although religious acceptance was not part of the deal) to prevent such tragedies from recurring.

After reading all of that, Matsudaira’s words began to make sense. He was sincere in his pacifism and his beliefs that changes in policy was the answer to resolve conflict and that Tokugawa was crucial to maintaining peace.

I hope I made sense in my explanations, but like the Touken Danshi said, Shimabara was a complex event that wasn’t all black or all white.

I probably should have planned a more cohesive essay, but instead I just word-vomited into a text box.

I do wish that the show gave a more explicit explanation of Matsudaira’s sentiments. Without the additional research, it was very easy for me to perceive the moral of the show as “just accept the oppression as a means to keep peace” while I was actually searching for a theme like “we need to show other human beings compassion despite differences in beliefs,” which can be seen as a very Americanized ideal.

That’s it for today. I really hope I made sense.

On a lighter note, I really enjoyed the interactions between Tsurumaru and Ookurikara. I thought their personalities balanced each other very well. I can’t wait for Souki!!!

[lucky-fy]

~ mutuals I want to know better ~

That was quite the surprise @easy-revenge ! Thanks for the tag!

Last song I listened to: Breezeblocks by alt-j and the whole time, I was thinking about Falin and Marcille from Dungeon Meshi… I mean… “Please don’t go, I’ll eat you whole, I love you so […]”

Fav colour: hmm, tough choice. I’m more of colour-hater than a colour lover (I don’t like purple, even if I use it all the time for shading, lol). I guess I do like brown a lot, when accompanied with blue. Nice combo, no matter the shade. I like brown tabby cats best (I’m more of a blue eyes lover, though)

Currently watching: some seasonal anime, like Mushoku Tensei season II.

Currently reading: I’m giving Dungeon Meshi a re-read, with the official French translation this time around. I’m taking notes for fanfic writing. Otherwise, Brave New World is waiting on the nightstand.

Sweet/savoury /spicy: never heard of savoury as a flavour, aha. Is it umami? Probably is. In any case, I’m not picky and I like them all. What I’ll eat will depend on my mood.

Relationship status: single and not really looking for a partner. I’d prefer to be well on HRT before trying to find someone, if I ever bother to go looking. I’m more of a “ride or die” type of person, so casual stuff is out the window in any case, lol.

Current obsessions: *looks at my blog* Dungeon Meshi, ahaha. I can’t wait for the anime, I’m sure Trigger will do well. Kinda hoping for a full-series adaptation! Otherwise, Chainsaw Man is still on my mind, always. I have a bunch of CSM Beastars!AU WIP, fanart wise.

Last thing I googled: “Akita Inu”, as I was talking with a relative and they said they saw a tall Japanese-type dog. I showed them pictures, to which they said “yes, that’s the dog I saw!”

Currently working on: many things… Completing my current sketchbook for student credits, writing a “scientific Pokédex” for student credits (an excuse to look into many animal species and expand my own knowledge for work later on, all while having fun with speculative biology), re-reading Dungeon Meshi, analyse the characters and write fanfic for them (starting with a Laios and Lycion thing… I haven’t decided what yet), learn basic video editing so I can make the Dungeon Meshi edits I want to see (Talk by Hozier with the Winged Lion *cough*), write for my OC on Master Poké (RP forum, there’s a summer writing event going on). I've also had this idea for a Skyrim fanfic, featuring a werewolf Khajiit who has lived a big part of their life in Falkreath. Shit happens. Anyway… I won't be able to complete all of this before classes start again *sigh*

tagging: @catcrow236 @rachaeltad @brn-t if you want, of course. No pressure! :D

[duckbeater]

Story Assignment / Did You Prevail?

Peter Handke’s memoir A Sorrow Beyond Dreams is notable for its brevity and also the brevity of its composition. In less than 90 pages he examines his mother’s suicide, sketches something of her backwoods youth in interwar Germany, sympathetically evokes her enervating middle years (child-rearing, poverty, spirit-killing monotony), then analyzes her life’s coda—a time of curiosity, social reinvention and zest. By elevating her consciousness, she apparently collapsed all that’d come before, made it ugly and non-negotiable. To quit the past required a whole bottle of sleeping pills.  

Handke’s analyses is forensic, delicate and rational. You believe he loves his mother not from sentimental asides or fantasies of saving, but by his devotion to the truth, which, given his mother’s unhappiness and pettiness and lack of education, has a nearly universal meaningless. What did her death mean? Who could it possibly affect?

Anyway, he finished the book in two months, and included the odd occasional all-caps abstraction. When I’m walking around at night I sometimes think, “NEAT, CLEAN and JOLLY,” or “WEAK-KNEED,” or “GREAT FALL,” or “MEANWHILE HAD GONE OUT OF EXISTENCE,” and know I’m occupied once more with my little sorrow beyond dreams.

—

“Man,” I texted Mackie, “I’ve been awake since 3AM. It’s 5 now. Jerked off 2x. No sleep.” I hit send before deciding my intentions. I don’t think we know what to say to each other, but we’re always saying things to each other, and it’s never, “Was thinking about you, how great it’d be to be turn over and just talk to you in the dark.” I don’t know if he’d actually ever say that to me—seems wishful. Mackie is not very nice and he lives very far away. 

—

Went to a party on Wednesday. I wore dark blues down to my briefs, and navy small shoes with no arches. I got off the train hobbling and talked myself up in the alleys on the way to the two-story condo where we’d celebrate night 4 of Hanukkah. I’d slept with the host, obviously, and one or two friends in attendance. I’m not really a part of this group, I’ve just—I guess I’ve penetrated it, as they say. 

I had rehearsed convos in my head. I had slammed a blue-bottled beer before getting on the train and felt woozy but competent, just a little in pain. Everyone there seemed leagues more jovial and put together and interesting and adult than me, I felt, immediately on opening the door. I had forced an earring in a closed hole and my left ear was berry red and throbbing—a part of why I felt so juvenile. Grown men don’t just press past the barrier of healed skin. It made a small gratifying popping sound as it cleared the other side and felt hot-hot, and it’s a sensation I’ll repeat (it’s a sensation writing repeats). 

For a while, to get out of the heat and press of my successful and attached gay cohort, I hung out with the only female in attendance, Bernice, a noted fag hag (I believe she condones this use), and stroked a paw of the small dog seeking refuge in a pillow-pile beside me on the over-plush couch. Because I felt lonely, I wanted to ask, “Bernice, why do you exclusively attend these kinds of events? Why do you exclusively attend events where you’re shunted to an oversized couch with a social incompetent? What’s the deal with you and gays?” Instead we talked about our jobs. This inadvertently dimensionalized Bernice for me. 

“I’ve done so much bullshit work for the last decade,” she snorted, “and in 2022 I got hired as a special projects consultant for an absolutely broken renewable energies firm.” She explained the firm’s stultifying snags on ESG semantics, its optical insecurities, how it quavered on progressive politics, waffling on bygone  talking points. “I was loaned out,” said Bernice. “Um, so my firm actually salaried me. I could say whatever I wanted in the vaunted halls of the executive suites and the buffet boxes of free sports tickets and the Connecticut mansion parties. And I called them cowards. I really busted their balls for weeks and weeks—on op-eds, white papers, social media posts, ‘the state security alignment’—I’m sorry, I mean the police—and also, who are those tadpoles in DC—”—“Lobbyists,” I breathed—“Lobbyists,” she breathed back, “I called them out on how based and cucked and knob-choked they all were on the teeny fucking penises of the DC lobbyists. I wanted them to feel so small and stupid and dry and bad, for what they were making, which was millions every day, millions on millions, while I—finally—afforded a Kia. I hate feeling poor. At our age? Don’t you?” “Yes. I hate it.” “Right. So I made them feel poor, a little bit.”

During this peroration I got trembly and blank, excited and critical. I let this leave me. I said, “Did you prevail?” and Bernice said, “The fuck no. But god damn! I made sixteen-kay in November. You ever make that much in a month?” “No, never, and I never,” I said. I told her how had I finally afforded a new car by taking a job at a bank. Bernice has also studied literature. (I don’t think she keeps a blog.) We cheersed saying, “Eat the rich,” [clink], “Eat the rich,” and that felt very correct. The dog licked my palm, perhaps mistaking our intent. “We’re not gonna eat you,” I said, and the dog chittered his teeth at me.

Later that night I made out with a guy name Andrew (such an indelible millennial name), and then never talked to him again though we’ve texted somewhat since.

Mackie asked what I was up to that night and I sent him a couple photo and video updates that were greeted by silence. The next AM he was sending obscure memes again. Out of jealousy, I told myself.

—

It’s odd—I didn’t really solve why Bernice exclusively hangs out with thirty-something gays who ignore her. (My last theory is that she enjoys recreational drugs: her gay friend group is really into those.) Past the obscure memes, I solicited Mackie for some explanation. He unimaginatively offered misogynistic trash, with the line, “Can’t pull but likes to watch.” Typing that up makes me feel very late and very closed-minded to the asexual community, although assuming Bernice is asexual feels as offensive as assuming she hangs out with queers for ketamine. Sometimes our friends, our networks, our densest and most particular milieus spring upon us by accident. And yet—she’s consulted for a living. She made $16K in November. She’s canny. Also clearly she hates straight rich white men. What gives?

I texted the host, thanking him for his hospitality; I texted Andrew, thanking him for his wonderful plump kisses; I texted other men who’d breeched my IG stronghold with accolades and complaints about my attention and comportment. A guy I’d “met” on Grindr and spoken to in the kitchen let me know I’d “rejected him” after he’d shared his album; that’d I stopped talking to him after seeing him naked. But—he was glad we’d met in real life, because he’d had the opportunity to confirm I did read books. He’d written: “When you talk, you use big words.” Embarrassed, I messaged him back saying, “I didn’t reject you. I’m just bad at Grindr. And yeah, I read books.” (Guys: the fact remains, I read books.)

I did reject him. His body repulsed me. He’d been overweight for years and undertaken marathon training, so all the skin on him was oozing and angry and stretched like taffy. Also I wasn’t that into his penis. Judging his fitness—his ripeness—his fuckability—based on something as arbitrary as cock-hardness and a sculpted torso—is the remit of the sexually unenlightened. I know! Not wanting to bang Stu because his body gave me the squick (and his body giving me the squick because of socially inherited standards of gay male beauty) drove me slightly batshit. I’d gone to Hanukkah Night 4 hoping for no part of that—hoping, indeed, for enlightenment. And still, I was confronted in the corner of the kitchen with a man who I had no intention of sleeping with, with him later asking me, “Why?” Also, I think that’s a party foul. If I’d been hideous on Grindr that’d be one thing, but I’d only been silent. 

(I’d gone to Hanukkah Night 4, actually, fully with the intention of some very beautiful, intelligent man courting me, seducing me, sweetly asking if he might take me home. Mackie reminded me: “You went to a gay party hoping to get laid.” When I revisit our texts, I see that on Wednesday night, I did jokingly say, “Wearing blue briefs tonight in case I get laid.”)

—

Prevail in the sense of what. 

I keep telling myself, if you just write in the style (or concern) of Grace Paley, you’ll manage your output better. You’ll actually write, rather than not write, which—bizarre to point out—a lot of egregiously more talented writers simply don’t do. They either don’t read Grace Paley or they don’t take her example seriously. Can’t drop the kids off at the sitter? Disappointing a union rep? Grocery store reverie? Class action lawsuit? Neighborhood defense? Teaching Zoomers dialogue? Furious about parking? Guys being complete pricks? What’s for breakfast? (“Our shrinking family requires more coffee, more eggs, more cheese, less butter, less meat, less orange juice, more grapefruit.”) Seasons shift their responsibilities [planting, watering, raking, shoveling] and finally the apartment, the car, the stoop, and [even] the park demand a graceless apology and accounting for. How do you come by these treasures? 

Paley gives you freedom to remark on the banal frustrations and the relentless petty drama of existing while renting. So too of dating while maybe dating others (a grace for the gays), and of wanting to attend an alderman’s fundraiser but maybe sliding one or more of your dates there, too—a Jane Jacobs by way of Nora Ephron. Maybe I only read her young writing. Perhaps I only read her young concerns. (No: She was 63 when she published the breakfast items above.) But everything feels fresh and hilarious and condoned. “You will sorely fuck this up, surely, but the lesson of living in the city will stick.” (I wrote that last quote, not Grace Paley.)

—

Later, Mackie texted, “Stop being annoying and text me back.”

I sent him maybe the 81st photo of me in my underwear, haggard, glasses, brushing my teeth, and the caption, “All clear.”