#i love them all i analyize them all

[neilphen]

[elvenbeard]

A Day in the Life (like any other) - 2076 edition

Time for some big VP projects again :3 This one was so much fun to set up, edit, and assemble into a post (several, really, I took so many pics). I'll share some more details on all scenes below the cut but yes. I really wanted to give a glimpse into how I picture Vince's life to look like when he still worked for Arasaka - and how, specifically during late 2076, the days began to bleed into each other, he got trapped in an endless cycle, and, in hindsight, was lucky that Jackie helped break him out of it all.

Days for Arasaka employees start early and are long - on a relatively calm and normal day, he probably would have to get up and get ready between 6-7 am. At that time he needed lots of meds, boosters, drugs to get out of bed in the morning and make it through the day somehow, keep up his performance the way it always used to be prior to some traumatic event TM that happened in early/mid 2076.

He lived close to Corpo Plaza though at least, so walking to work was feasible, and a means to get some semi-fresh air and actual movement in during a day otherwise spent mostly in front of the computer.

Occasionally I think Jenkins would call for a morning meeting (and few people would like those), where he'd discuss important measures, plans, and so on. Some more impressions from this, because I love setting up big group scenes:

Most of Vince's day would probably have consisted of data analysis, overseeing and planning strikes against enemy corporations on big and small scales, and maintaining Arasaka's own security and secrets. I love the many little glimpses into the dark and twisted corpo workday we get through what NPCs say and the Corpo dialogues, but I'd love to know even more!

For his lunch he'd actually leave the office, and if no coworker invited him elsewhere, Vince would always be drawn to the Plaza. Find a nice spot to sit or just walk around the Plaza a couple of times to clear his head and sort his thoughts for the rest of the day. In 2077 it's still one of his favourite places in all of NC, and watching the holographic fishes swim their circles has something calming and meditative about it. Spoiler alert, in that spot he's sitting here in these pics he ends up after Mikoshi, stumbling out of Arasaka Tower. He just sits down and passes out watching the fish ;_;

But now, back to 2076:

I figure, with the kinds of high stakes missions Counterintel probably carries out, a lot of planning has to go into them. And preparation as close to real-life condition as possible. So I think the agents probably play through their missions in cyberspace prior to carrying them out in the real world, in a safe environment, recording everything, and analyizing it the next day during the morning meeting.

As a very traditional Japanese corporation it's probably customary at Arasaka to not really be allowed to leave your workplace before your boss hasn't. So It often gets late, everyone is tired and frustrated, and not rarely the same groups of people would end up in the same bars. Vince doesn't and didn't drink back then, but being in and around Japantown certainly was an opportunity to stock up on drugs or otherwise numb himself from what his life had become at that point.

He was never very close to any of his coworkers besides Harry, who I always pictured as some kind of guiding figure for him. He was there long before Vince started at Arasaka, and he'll probably remain there in his little cubicle for as long as he still cares to keep to himself and a low profile, just doing his thing well with little ambitions to make it big. The latter is what usually breaks corpos their neck, but I think for every V, Jenkins, Abernathy, there are at least a dozen Harrys who are content with being a tiny, insignificant cogwheel in the huge corporate machinery.

Vince's days would often end way too late and at that time he's incapable of sleeping without pills and the like, so it begins how it ends: self-medicating in the hopes it will somehow make this never-ending cycle easier to bear.

[zoeyslament]

In acting class, we learned about Stainislavski’s Theory, and a big part of that is Objective. So I took my RtC Pokemon AU and analyized it for Objective!

also, feeling obligated to tag @margo-mania, the kool moot who is helping develop this goofy au!

Stainislavski’s Theory as used in my stupid RtC AU

“Objective”

Group objective: To find, study, and befriend (and maybe fight) the mythical Pokémon Deoxys

Singular Objectives:

Ricky: Wants to study the Pokémon that come from a land beyond our own. Spends hours staring up at the sky, looking for something, anything, that proves other life exists. Once he catches wind of Deoxys’s landing, he knows he’s found his evidence

Noel: Wants nothing more than to draw and write about the beauty and magic of Legendary and Mythical Pokémon. He tags along with Ricky because he’s starting to get lonely when it’s just him traveling alone with Absol. 

Ocean: Your stereotypical “wants to be the very best” trainer. She gets caught up with Noel and Ricky after her Vaporeon accidentally attacks them. She has been recently defeated at a Gym, and once the boys tell her about their quest to find Deoxys (Quest for the Other Worlds, as Noel calls it in his journal) she tags along in hopes that defeating Deoxys will make her strong enough to become the Champion.

Constance: She’s lived her entire life cooking at her family’s inn. She loves her family and her home region, but she also longs for adventure. While they’re staying at the Inn, Ricky lets her look through his notes on space Pokémon. She is intrigued, and in the night, knocks on the group’s door. The four of them then run off into the night.

Mischa: A real man of mystery. His objective is entirely unclear. All the group knows is that he’s from a land far away and he’s been training with his Zoroark. It’s later revealed that he used to be a recruit of Team Plasma and feels really bad for it, so he’s distant. It doesn’t help that he and Noel are falling in love throughout this entire story because I am a sucker for Nischa. (Yes the others tease them the entire time)

Penny: Oh, dear sweet Penny…she’s on the run from the cops the entire time. She’s an ex Team Magma member who never quite abandoned her team. She’s mostly with Team Cyclone right now because they’re protecting her from law enforcement!

[bciwasinlove]

"I just feel like some really want them to have had some horrible break up" but on the other hand you have people who say that they've never broken up or if they have it has lasted for 2 days, that they've only ever had eyes for each other, that they've only slept with each other, that any arguments they've had are over petty small things. People are projecting their perfect ideal relationships on them which isn't realistic. I advise you listen to Walls. Almost all of Louis' songs are about letting someone go and missing them. There's a very clear break up. That's not to say they haven't got back together. You can break up and get back together. But there was a break up, and that's okay.

Let me rephrase that a bit there are some who really want/make larry out to be a very toxic ass relationship on and off for years [basically being like ross and rachel from friends] which why ???

Typically the ones who think they broke up long term are the same ones who think louis is a dad and use it to justify that so he doesn't look like a cheater OR it's to justfiy X beard being a real relationship.

And yeah, there are people who think they haven't broken up that's a completely normal thing to believe. Doesn't mean they think larry was/is a perfect relationship or that larry hasn't had any fights or breaks [which is different than a break up]. Obviously with their situation shit hasn't been easy but it doesn't mean they just up and left one of the only ppl they could relay on when their life got hard.

I honestly don't understand those who think they had a long term break up bc when you ask them why they think that they just say "it's not possible for them [larry] to be together that long with no break ups/never having been with other people" which is ??? my grandparents have been together since the 50s and haven't been with anyone else since bc sometimes when you know you just know.

The way one half of larry acts when other people [even their fellow bandmates] are affectionate to the half of larry tells me there is little change they would even want to try being with anyone else + all that has happened during and after 1D has shown me they have always been together and wish to be free.

*Sharing clothes, living together, matching tattoos, singing songs about loving one person and only one person, singing about wanting to be free, wishing for freedom, flirting on stage, flirting in interviews, jealousy/possessiveness, the 2 week deal which lasted many years, having the same time period off when it came to solo tours amongst other things*

You tell me to "listen to walls" I have listened to walls many many times and even explained why I DONT believe it's a break up album. Since I don't care to re explain my reasoning [it's a long one] if you care that much you can read my post on walls the album.

https://www.tumblr.com/arrowpointshome/646495000768757760/how-would-you-analyize-or-interpret-the-song

In general with L&H songs their not singing about a break up their telling THEIR story and THEIR personal struggles being a closeted person and in a private gay relationship steming down to working in a industry run by homophobic people. Louis literally said he's the story [when it comes to walls] it's his journey of self acceptance on who he is and what he has gone through in life along with his partner.

As a last side note I happen to notice most who think they had a long term break up are younger or have never been in a long term relationship while most who think they didn't break up are older. Plus anyone in this fandom I've come to know well who's married has always been on the spectrum of they didn't break up so just a thought there.

[popculturebuffet]

Pirate Month Finale: One Piece Poll Winner: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island!: Pretty Spooky Huh Folks?

Ahoy swabs and welcome to the final review of pirate month, my monthlong salute to piracy. And I decided to shove off this grand experiment with one of the greatest pirate franchises of all time, One Piece!

My love of One Piece is paradoxical, as I dearly love it as one of my faviorite mangas, an intricatley built work that's bonkers as it is epic, the story of one man's goal to become pirate king and the band of misfits he picks up along the way. I'm also super behind as while i've read spoilers, i have not read the work itself from Amazon Lily onward, as I simply haven't found the method or time to do so yet. I truly WANT to and miss this franchise and intend to rectify that before the manga ends.

That being said it's obvious reviewing the ENTIRE series would fill up a month at the LEAST, especially a series this size. Thankfully like many popular anime one piece has a buncha cruncha movies. Unthankfully most of them haven't gotten a proper release in the US as of the time of this article. Yeah it's weird: The two recap films (Though none of the specials as far as I know), covering the events of Alabasta and Drum Island, have gotten translated but otherwise only the films from Strong World onward have been released. And stupid old me used to think it was simply because there weren't any before that, hence why they translated desert princess and the pirates: episode of alabasta (which I used to own), first.

Yeah.. as I found out via the YouTube channel TotallyNotMark, which I HIGHLY recommend as he does blind reviews of various manga, analysis of dragon ball all sorts of good stuff, reviewed all the one piece films both pre and post oda's involvment in them, which piqued my intrest. So to help explore this further I put it to you guys to pick one for me from my own selectoins and my patrons. And I gotta thank you all as it not only ended up being THE most popular poll i've done, but compettion got so heated, I had to do a SECOND vote. And because the second option, Clockwork Kakruki Castle, was SO popular i'l lbe reviewing it sometime next year so if I do another one piece poll (For next pirate month or just for my own amusement), the result won't be obvious. So thank you all

This one is out of all the movies I hadn't seen yet (Having only seen Strong World, Film Z and Episode of Alabasta before this) the one that intrigued me the most both for how impressed Mark was with it, and for the director, Mamoru Hosada. While I've seen criminally little of his work, I know him well from his digimon work, being the director for both the 20 minute promo film and the much more known and loved Our War Game, aka the first and second segments of digimon the Movie. For the record the Our War Game dub still holds up well, with only ONE part in the original film not matched by the dub while the short film.. dosen't mostly because the film added a bunch of excessive narration that critics call

He's a director with a unique visual style, tons of flair, and thus seeing him tackle ANOTHER franchise I love was a VERY easy sell.

Unsuprisingly I loved this one, and as I want more people to see it properly, i'm going to do something unusual for me. See normally I do full spoilers in my review wether the work is recent or not. It helps me analyzie it fully and normally I feel you can still enjoy it. However this film has such massive swerves in the plot and tone that I recommend going in with as little spoilers as possible. So i'm going to take a page from multiple youtubers book and try and review the film WITHOUT spoilers first, then dive into analyizing the spoilery bits after a warning. So you can come back. If you've seen it all, then your good to go hombre.

This film.. is a masterpiece. While I fear I use that term a bit too often and have tried to be more sparring.... in this case it FULLY and unconditionally applies. This film is easily the best anime film based on an existing property i've seen which may seem a tad narrow but keep in mind i'ts beating out the likes of dragon ball super: broly and Pokemon The Movie 2000 when I say this. And for anime film themselves, which mostly consists of miazaki's genius works, it's still high up there, as well as with just plain animation. In every catagory this one is a high water mark and one I would watch again.

The animation, as is typical for it's director is gorgeous. It's a wonderful blend of Oda's iconic style and Hosada's gorgeous, low line , brightly saturated animation. The two combine effortlessly, and the bright hues Hosada prefers fit wonderfully with these cast, while still alwoing them to move a bit diffrently. There's tons of gorgeous set pieces too and much like Oda himself, Hosada made sure the island felt like a character with each area our heroes end up in, from an omnious jungle to a canal for the most epic and gorgeus game of ring toss ever, to the finale in a dark dismal cavern, everything loks breath taking, you get a sense of where everything is in relation to each othe r(Which as I realized from mark's reviews of the manga itself is something One Piece excells at), and thus your transported to this majestic and beautiful island.. but also run because things get very dark very quickly

Which brings us to the films tone which for some is a turn off: While the film starts like a typical arc of One Piece, the crew get a mysterious invitation to a resort island and Luffy of course is all in on diving into it because it mentioned bringing your nakama (or as he puts it because their pirates), they end up over their heads fighting some weirdos who challenge them to

Lead by the mysterious and titular Baron Omatsuri, whose crew of former pirates compete with our heroes in said ordeal, and things are far more than they seem and our heros naturally have to beat this guy, save the island and all that good stuff.

The story isn't out of place. Honestly this could easily take place right between Skypeia and Water 7 and be intergrated with the main story if Oda wanted it to, and it even feels like a typical crew origin story as one of the island's few omatsuri unrelated inhabitants, Brief, is a pirate with a tragic backstory Luffy bonds with and could've easily joined the crew were this canon. It's part of why the film works is that it feels fully on brand and on quality with the world Oda set up, his writing and characters despite him not being involved at all as far as I can tell. Even the weridness of the Baron's crew and the ordeals of hell feels VERY oda: we have a weird speckled man who has a giant pet goldfish our heroes have to combine their skills to rangle into a bucket (Whcih is an excellent highllight of the film where EVERY strawhat contributes and robin delivers an awesome coup de grace after realizing that the rules never mattered and she can just cheat, creating a finger net with her powers. )

To a high stakes ring toss compettion down a river, which is easily the most beauitful part of the film, and Sanji getting so annoyed with a chef doing Mongollian BBQ on a griddle using giant food he challenges him to a fight. Is that last one as plot relevant? No. Does it matter?

It does what a good writer should do when taking on material they didn't create, and something most good writers for marvel and dc do: Have it match the style and honor what went before, but make it your own in the process.

That being said part of making it it's own.. is where this film apparently divides people: See this work isn't just an action shonen adventure piece like usual.. but a horror film, one using the very themes of one piece as a whole and twisting it into something truly horrifying. As a fan of horror these days, I naturally loved that but I also went in KNOWING it took a turn. If you don't like horror, you likely won't like this one and that's fine. While it's not bloody, well not any more than one piece, it is DEEPLY unsettling, with a fairly ominous tone even before we find out what Omatsuri's deal is and the nightmarish climax kicks in. The last half hour is bleak, unsettling and epic in equal measures so if your not ready for that, you might want to skip this one. And yes the world of one piece has some very horrifying concept: a power that turns you into a toy and wipes people smemories of you, everything about lava murder man with the two names, the celstial dragons horrible amount of power, crocodile draining luffy of all moisture. Ther'es some true nightmarish stuff in there, but nothing really out of step with most manga. In contrast this one is both horrifying emotoinally in what it puts LUffy through, something equal to the nightmare that was the end of Sabody if you need a yardstick, and just in tone. It's GOOD horror, but you have to be ready and even being prepared for things to go sideways, it was still VERY intense.

That being said said intensety also has emotoinal complexity. While many complain "this really sin't one piece".. it honestly truly is. It's a story of overcoming odds to protect those you care about, and as well as how doing so can corrupt and twist you. It's diffrent from the normal tone sure.. but the core of the work is still there and if you can stomach the unsettling last act, then you'll REALLY enjoy this one as it easily stands with some of the best tales of the strawhats proper.

So with that in mind

SPOILERS BITCHES GET OFF THE BOAT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING IMPORTANT ABOUT THE FILM.

So with that we come to what makes it so horrifying and the film so brilliant: See our big bad Baron Omatsuri.. is a truly haunting, tragic and complicated villian. He's still not a good man and still needs to loose less our heroes all die via mean white mother from outer space and she's bad. But Omatsuri's backstory is heartbreaking: Like Luffy he had a crew who were his "nakama' , his true companions, his family of choice, people he'd fight and die for and loved before anything else... and he lost them all. Not through any fault of his own, not through anything wrong., but through one of the most common hazzards of sea travel: The storm. A storm destroyed his boat and left him alone.. and thus he found lily, a cartoon lily whose on his shoulder the whole movie, gives him wood powers.. and is VERY hungry. In exchange for feeding her scores of victims, she brought back a simulation of his crew, plant zombies who don't remember what happened to them and who he misleads and who can't die as long as lily lives and is fed. He's easily what LUFFY could've become in his lower moments and oddly despite coming WELL before the heartbreak of Sabody and the Paramount War, foreshadows them well by showing just how much a pirate can break and what they'll do to get these sort of things back. If it wasn't for Jinbei or knowing his crew was alive, would Luffy be willing to make this sort of bargin? If he were in a position to get his brother back, would he have taken the same bait despite the cost? It's easy to say no and on a good day he absolutely woudln't.. but on the worst day of his life when he's lost everything? When he's broken completely? Whose to say Luffy coudln't of sunk to the depths the baron did if someone hadn't pulled him out of it and got hi mto focus his energies into getting stronger instead? That's what makes Omatsuri so damn compelling: He's just a hare off what Luffy could've become and instead has turned into his complete oppsiite: someone who will GLADLY destroy other people's friendships and lives as long as he gets what he wants, who mocks the concept of nakama because he truly lost his. And someone who GLOATS while basically crucifying luffy as he's forced to watch his crew be abosrbed into the giant worm... plant.. thing.

Yeah as you can tell this one also gets lovecraftian, at least in design as while lily's brain is grafted to omatsuri ti's stomach.. is a giant dune-esque sandworm type thing, a white tube that reflects attacks and whose top is a horror scape that slowly sucks people inside. And Luffy gets to WATCH as that happens, after his crew had already been breaking apart due to omatsuri's machinations. It's easily one of the most heartwrenching bits of the franchise and that is a LONG list it's hard to climb to. Sure we know deep down it'll sort itself out, this movie isn't canon and all that.. but the movie does good in making you still feel the pain anyway: that Luffy has TRULY lost everything.

What saves him is what always does: other people. Specifically the other residents. The afformentioned Brief is a charlie Chaplin esque fellow, who even gets an utterly hilarious chase scene with luffy earlier in the movie who at first seems like comic relief.. but ends up being the core of the movie. He lost his Nakama to Omatsuri, the hitler mustach.. errrr j.jonah jameson... toothbrush mustache pirates. Yeah that's it. And we see the two options someone has after that: breif despite having lost his nakama STILL fights, and tries to help Luffy despite being outmatched as omatsuri has the wicked cool power of arrows he can direct anywhere, and given sharp objects are one of Luffy's only weaknesses yeah... dosen't go well. He's seen what can be lost.. but dosen't give up. I meant what I said that if this were canon, he'd be a strawhat: He's brave, fights despite heavy loss, and Luffy outright calls him nakama, accepting him because despite Omatsuri mocking the poor guy for weakness... he's strong. He kept fighting even though he lost EVERYTHING, simply so this horror show dosen't continue, making tunnels, planning just so he can win and allying with Luffy despite both being outmatched.

In contrast we have the Teacup Pirates.. who are really just a family who came here for vacation, the mom got eaten and now the dad tries to look strong for his kids despite his older teenage daughter know he's full of shit.. and as we find out his yougner daughter Daisy

Has super hearing, but belives in him anyway. He does a terrible but understandable action, refusing to help chopper earlier when he's taken.. but later realizes his kids truly belivie in him. He gets an arc going from someone so terrified they can't do the right thing.. to someone who risks everything to fire an arrow into daisy, destroying her and saving the day. It's another thing this has: the characters are damn strong and the emotoinal pull is massive.

The horror elment again is also strong, from Omatsuri sicking a faceless horde with guns on our heroes , to his tendency to snipe anyone who gets too close to things, hence why Robin and Chopper despite finding out stuff end up not to useful, and of course th efinale. Oh my the finale. So yeah if the stygian arakis worm wasn't enough it then EXPLODES over a red backdrop.. and daisy FUSES with omatsuri, not only taking on a terrifying face.. but then becoming some horrifying monstroisty with all the strawhats suspended in it

Yeah this film has some great horror and is deadly intense, with the last bit being great as Luffy is IMPALIED with tons of arrows. .but keeps going. This is what I mean by the series spirit: Luffy ONLY gives up when he thinks his crew is dead. earlier when Omatsuri first shows his true colors Nami leaves thinking he's not carring to look.. but he instead charges the guy DEMANDING his missing friends (as in horror fashion Chopper, Robin and Usopp were picked off one by one and Nami, Sanji and Zoro follow after) and even as he gets crucificed sends his fucking head to try and save Zoro. This film gets luffy fully an dgets one piece: it's a work about friendship, and how far you'll go. For Omatsuri it meant selling his soul but for luffy.. it's what keeps his soul going and ultimately wins the day. By showing someone how to be better.. he saved his friends, the surivvors and the world And Omatsuri gets a fitting sendoff.. not as the corrupt man he became.. but greeted by his crew as he passes on, with them telling him he should'v ecreated a new nakama.

So yeah as you can tell emotoinally it's graet and really the only two flaws are part of the plot: The first is the film just kinda.. ends. It's a great ending: Luffy, barely moble as usual after punching out some tyranical jackass, reunites with the other survivors then turns his head up and sees his friends, recovered, free and wandering what the hell is going on. Now granted I think the film would be a smidge more impactful if luffy had to start over, but I get this is a liscened work and thus has to keep everyone alive, the only time being based on ane xisting property holds the film back. And it ends on Luffy grinning as his friends are confused, happy he finally has his Nakama back. And then just ends without explaning what happens to the teacup family or Brief. it just.. ends. It's a good impactful ending it just feels.. cut short. Like there's still a lot of loose ends to tie up.

The other is minor: Nami's grudge against Usopp. Now people complain about the strawhats fighting here.. and I disagree when it comes to Zoro and Sanji. They USUALLY hate each other and can't go five minutes without arguing. This is normal for the most part and only esclates due to the tension of the situation. And while you could say that's out of character.. it is partly Sanji's fault there there. Granted he dickishly blames Luffy but the point is the two fight on a normal day, being trapped on an island in a death game probably woudln't help.

Nami and Usopp is clearly meant to be similar.. but she's mad he seemingly abandoned her.. after it's proven he didn't and ewas just flying out to fly ina nd save everybody and be all badass as one's lord and savior should. God i love that long nosed man. So it just falls flat.

That being said everything else works: the ordeal from hell provides plenty of the action the series is known for, while also having a nice invesgitation portion as Luffy, Robin and Chopper find out more, and the horror at the end is as beautiful as it is terrifying. This film is amazing so watch it however you can till there's an offical release. As it stands there isn't a way to watch it as it isn't on Crunchyroll for some reason , as even undubbed it'd still be neat. Btu there's a wonderful fan sub out there, so go check that out. Seriously watch this film.

So that does it for pirate month. This was a fun voyage but it's time to weigh anchor for a while. If you'd like to vote in more polls like the one that made this movie, join my patreon, links on the blog, and i'll see you in a week. Thanks for reading.

[undercat-overdog]

Trying to get back into writing Bones - is it working? idk - but here’s a bit from it that will be in the next chapter. Or maybe not in its present form; I’ve done a fair bit of rethinking Celebrimbor’s thoughts towards his Feanorian relations and might cut those bits entirely.

~

“There was mourning too. Grief for what had been done and not done, and grief too for what had might have been and now will never be; the tales say that Nienna comes to those in Mandos to weep with them. If she came to me I have no memory of it, but I certainly knew her song, those weeping equations.” Celebrimbor eyed his companion. “Though apparently I could have spared myself some of that grief and found my way back to life sooner, for I wept that I would never see you again. Count it another sin of yours, if you will, that you made me linger in Námo’s care.”

Annatar rolled his eyes. “That in particular I won’t. The mourning you felt for others I will in part, though not in total; there were others in your life who did to themselves as I did to myself.”

“You went rather farther into evil and unmaking of self than did my father and uncle,” Celebrimbor said. “And them I had somewhat more hope of seeing again; you I thought lost forever.”

He caught Annatar’s hand and pressed a kiss to the back. “Thank you for proving me wrong.”

Annatar did not pull his hand away when Celebrimbor set it down, but instead entwined their fingers.

After a moment Celebrimbor said, “You were right in part; you weren’t the only one I loved once who’d become the enemy. I have no less hope of seeing my father and uncle than I once did, but neither do I have more.”

He paused and asked what he never had, for he had long ago put it out of mind and perhaps the answer terrified him. “Annatar, you are one of the gods: what do you know of the Everlasting Darkness?”

“No more than you do, I suppose; I don’t know what it is, or if it even exists. Perhaps Feanor meant it to be the void outside Ea; perhaps unmaking for all of eternity; perhaps his Oath conjured it into being. Perhaps it is merely some darkness within Námo’s halls. But the whole thing was nothing but foolishness.”

Foolishness indeed, Celebrimbor thought, though he recognized the irony of Sauron saying such, and worse than foolishness.

He said, “Curufin’s mother Nerdanel asked Mandos what had become of her husband and sons; he said that they were in his custody, save Maglor who I suppose still lives.”

“If Mandos said that, then they are. Námo is many things, but he is above all the lord of that which is and that which must be and he does not lie. I cannot tell you that you will see your father and uncle again, but they were not consigned to the darkness.”

Celebrimbor breathed out, some ancient, heretofore unnoticed constriction about him easing.

“Thank you. It’s not a kind place, Mandos, but kinder than the Void or—” he waved his hand; Annatar’s lack of knowledge about the Eternal Darkness had surprised him somewhat.

His companion looked at him sharply but the query he pressed against Celebrimbor’s mind was gentle.

Celebrimbor had never discussed Mandos with anyone other than Annatar, though he had listened as others talked of it. Some had said it was peaceful, restful, others that it was cold. His old colleague Analye of the Mírdain had been fascinated by its metaphysical structure and would talk at length about her various theories, but had said not a word of what she experienced there. No one had expressed any desire to return.

“Thinking was strange,” he said. “There were no neural pathways to guide and channel thoughts. I do not believe I have many memories of Mandos, for lack of the flesh that creates them, and yet the memory remains in my soul: for all that the body and soul are joined, they can be... It is not healthy for one of my kind to be without a body; it is aberration, though at first it was a blessing, considering what led to my death.

“The tales of Middle-Earth had it wrong. Souls do not meet and share news in those halls, nor meet at all I think, or if I did meet another I remember it not. I knew not what passed after my death; Vaire’s tapestries are not knowable to those who are dead, for they have no eyes to see nor hands to touch. There is nothing but the self and the full knowledge of your life, if you can bear to know it, and if you can bear to confront all that you did and were, and all that was done to you. I could, by and large, once I had recovered from your torture of me. That, perhaps, was easier sans flesh, and easier by far once I returned to life, for these hands and nerves have no memory of what was done to their predecessors.

“I wished so much to be alive when I was dead; all that I was yearned for it. Returning to the world was the happiest moment of my lives and death. Does that answer your question?”

Annatar exhaled and looked at the sky.

“What do you wish for me to say, Celebrimbor?”

Celebrimbor didn’t answer him but said, “Whatever it was, Mandos was a kinder fate than the other options you thought of. Do you remember that, what you told me at the end? From your own mind, or whatever it is that you call a mind, not my memories.”

“I do,” Sauron said softly. “I followed you here, though I remembered you not at the end and only knew that in the West was the slightest chance of existence. But I knew that I had sent something here once, something once dear, precious, as I thought my own self to be, so that it could continue to exist, and that perhaps I could survive too.

“And now, how can I be anything but glad of it?”

[skyephobic]

hi! this ask is my response to ur response lmao because i just can't stop the urge to response😭 so apologies for a messy ask

but yep yep!! akane isolating himself is the solution he believed in to stop going insane (although would've love to see an akane going insane) and for him to actually prefer to clean clocks is hilarious because in canon, akane is annoyed for being an errand kid. and i love the clock keepers having a fam dynamic so i appreciate the idea of akane being a big bro to mirai – it's fucking cute.

i like ur additional change that akane is more stubborn and stuck in the denial stage whenever something new happens! gotta love the irony that a clock keeper of the present fears for the goddamn present.

i like aoiaoi experiencing a wholesome friendship in another life so instead of letting it become a plot relevance, i offer aoi being able to see the other side in an unclear manner because of her bloodline. considering that the akanes are associated with the spiritual world (in the past, that is) because of their special blood, it would've make sense(?) that all of them can see the other side but most doesn't have a strong sixth sense.

as such, i offer again the akane aoi in this world was born with a weak sixth sense. but she pretends that she can't see the mokkes stealing the belongings of her classmates nor acknowledging that nene-chan talking with a spiritual being that aoi can't see – after all, nene-chan is just being silly and tell aoi about it, right? she insists to herself that she's paranoid for thinking that someone is watching her skipped the fourth step of the staircase and that tsuchigomori-sensei had two arms, not an extra four. aoi even pretends that akane is a schoolmate she talks to when the two of them are alone and not a lost spirit who could've died wearing theatric clothes because akane aoi isn't that desperate to fight off the loneliness to the point of thinking that a non-human being as a close friend.

akane might understand what a television or telephone is and is undergoing the process of understanding twitter, but the slangs of the current generation will confuse the hell out of him ("teru what is lmao" "it means laughing my ass off" "but you're not laughing?") argh the possibility of akane being adorable for asking questions and getting more excited is fucking cute

AND YES TERUKANE IM SORRY BUT I JUST CANT HELP SLIPPING THEM IN!! i would've love to think more about them in this au but i ran out of thinking juice. but gotta love that akane's heart be pounding whenever he saw teru and teru just being conflicted that he might've fall in love with a supernatural hahaa hope those two suffer here

and i am glad that my theory on the clock keepers race somewhat make sense! and the evolution of their abilities might've come from their rumours ever since these three started to remain on the near shore. (just remembered about the rumours shit oops)

and you're welcome! i am glad that my asks fueled ur insane jshk thoughts!!!

DONT APOLOGIZE IM HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE RESPONDING TO THESE ??? ITS GENUINELY SO FUN I PROMISE ur free to dm me about these too because im so happy talking about akane

its not like he LIKES cleaning, he just doesn't know what to do- and it's a part of his routine. mirai asks him why he does it if he doesnt like it and hes just like "i have to" When no the fuck he doesnt. his routine is clean -> reorganize -> take care of mirai -> clean again . mirai follows him around the entire time or he carries her.. im obsessed with akane being her older brother figure i can go on about it for hours ..

akane fearing what he controls is so.. akane of him. i can't explain it but he fears the concept of time itself because it passes by so fast and he doesnt even realize he cant grasp it all

ALSO ?? UR ANALYIZATIONS ON AOI ND THE AOIAOI FRIENDSHIP ARE SO GOOD ???? im better at analyzing characters like akane and mitsuba but ur analyzations are just so . I wnat to eat them

I LOVE INCLUDING TERUKANE IN AUS DONT U WORRY teru explaining present day terms and slang and akane's just staring at him with a love-struck expression and teru notices but he just keeps talking .. akane's listening but he looks so in love its insane he doesnt even realize i want to push him out of the way so teru will give me a chance

ALL UR THEORIES ARE SO GOOD I LOVE THEM ALL .... PLEASE KEEP GOING ... ive never heard anyone talk about the other clock keepers so im so happy Litrelaly

this is so adding to my insaneness im ENJOYING IT !!!!

[inspiteallthedanger]

Hii!! I really like your approach to song analyes! Would you like to share your take on "If I Fell" and "I'm So Tired"??

First, thanks so much! I have so many thoughts that anyone wanting to read them gets an essay, which I love.

So, here we have two massive John songs (in terms of insights). They also give insights into what the ever living heck was going on between John and Paul.

If I Fell: I’m not convinced he wrote this with Paul in mind. But it does fit for what was going on with them. John is not good at being vulnerable emotionally. All he wants is total, complete assurance that loving someone will be ‘worth it’. I think John is aware that he’s a lot and that if he ‘falls’ it’s going to be hard. So, he doesn’t want to do that if it turns out he’ll be out there all alone.

Side note - do we need to talk about that sentiment being echoed in When I’m Sixty Four (although note what they want commitment about is… not the same)? People think Paul was way more secure and less controlling but I’m not sure I agree. But that’s not what you’re asking about.

(Side Mclennon note - they are BOTH trying to get the other to commit but without asking and holding themselves back until the other does. That’s the conflict - also because neither can commit in the ways required)

I’m So Tried: this one is about what’s going down in India x. So we need to bear in mind whatever that baggage was when thinking about this song. Tl:dr of which is John’s really badly falling apart mentally and he feels like Paul’s not supporting him.

The received wisdom is that it’s about Yoko. Which… nah. I mean, from what we know Yoko is pursuing John so why wouldn’t she believe that he’s hurting/needs her? Given what happens when John gets back, it seems unlikely she was giving that vibe. I guess she feels like the only option as the subject because it’s a pining, “can’t get you outta my head” song. There’s also the ‘three weeks’ reference which makes sense because that’s how long it would have been since they had contact. To me, it’s not necessarily romantic - but it is about someone he thinks can save him. He talks about ways he’s trying to self-sooth but can’t do it and so needs help.

It’s possible to see that the person he cares about/ wants is causing his turmoil. But I don’t see it that way (well not the sole reason - they may be making it worse though). I think he’s having a terrible time and wants to reach out for help but can’t because he doesn’t think he’ll be believed. Again why would Yoko not believe him? But you know who might not? Paul. He doesn’t do well with conflict and we know he isn’t good at emotional support (see… everything about him and specifically his letters to Brian). He also might not believe that he’s part of the problem or that John cares about him in a vital way. Plus he also fits the three weeks, because that’s how long John’s been with him in India (seeing him every day) and yet… nothing. Paul isn’t trying to reach out to him how John wants.

Obviously that could be romantically or sexually (and my opinion on that is highly changeable) but the fact it doesn’t have to be, makes it way more likely (to me) that it was explicitly about Paul. Let’s not talk about the White Album and how that confirmed allllll of this to John.

[tuiyla]

Rewatched 'If I Can't Have You' and started questioning who is dumber, me or the writers.

Santana goes off about wanting fame above all else, and how the song contextualize that. But it's very clearly a lie. I assumed she got embarassed by Schue's weird lawyer assumption after singing her first public love song to Brittany. But this episode frames it as a legit desire. And she books an international commercial withing her first months in NYC.

See, Santana was characterized as someone who values her eduaction, and both in Michael and at the end of Gleever, she seemed willing and even wanting to get an higher eduaction. But then she dropped out in Diva due to alienation and disinterest. And in Little Tapestry she mentions wanting to ho back.

To sum it up, like, is this decent writing? Like, I guess Santana was starstruck after meeting Blaine's brother, but to such a degree? Was the fame thing properly set up or implied before Gleever happened? Does this add nuance to Santana's charactet or is this a classic case of Glee being Glee? Yeah, real people are allowed to have multipule interests, motives, and conflicting ambitions, but fiction doesn't typically operate this way.

What I'm asking is how would you approach the topic of fame and education when analyizing Santana.

Would love to hear your thoughts. And I apologize for this jumbled mess.

Okay Anon, I know it's been a while, apologies, but I hope you're reading this and if so thanks for bearing with me. (Maybe give me a shout if you are reading lol.) This wasn't a mess at all, I loved reading this message and I'm always, always down for Santanalysis, when I have the time that is. And now I do, so let's get into it because I was also thinking about this exact topic when I rewatched Glee-ver so I was so grateful to get this ask. Also ftr the writers are definitely dumber because they are incompetent and you’re a smart egg. We’re gonna read into things and do the writers’ job for them, as with all Glee meta but that’s just to make sense of things and ponder more about Santana’s ch than the writers ever did.

To make a long story short, I think her genuine desire for fame but also If I Can’t Have You being about Brittany can coexist. I remember reading such a bad take on this song on reddit and I’ve been defensive of it ever since lol. I think you’re right, it’s both a song dedicated to Brittany and Santana getting defensive when Schue makes his weird assumptions, but it was also about fame. Because at this point in the story Santana has realised she wants fame and she wants to shine but she’s highly insecure and unsure about the how, so the questioning and assumptions from Will don’t help. And though she’s out and proud, we all remember how that went down and so it’s little wonder she also lashes out because of the romantic implications. It’s not that she doesn’t love Brittany and the song wasn’t, in part, for her, but Santana really does not like to be defined by others. Is it any wonder. So she sets Schue right on both accounts.

That’s the If I Can’t Have You of it all, now on the topic of Santana, education, and more crucially fame.

I say more crucially fame because I think to explore education would be a side tangent that includes a lot, i.e. even more speculation since Glee never bothered clearing things up about her upbringing. For example, we can headcanon that her claims of Lima Heights do have validity and that she didn’t grow up well-off because her dad was actively studying to be a doctor and only began working when she was slightly older. Thus installing in her an sense of importance when it comes to education, but who knows how Alma and Maribel played a role in that. This is just a headcanon that tries to make the pieces fit, and I think it’s worth exploring in its own post, but this is gonna be long enough even if we mainly focus on fame.

So for now I’m just gonna agree with you and say that those examples do point to Santana valuing education. I think there’s power in her doing so, as an Afro-Latina woman, as characters like Sebastian and Sue throw racist insults relating to education at her. Heck, even Glee itself as a TV show implies things like sex work in relation to her over and over again, which we know the show has fucked up views of, and the whole Glee-ver plot is, if we’re honest, about Santana being shallow and learning to value education as the “proper” route. Oh, Flopson. I mean, tell me this isn’t how it’s framed.

I wouldn’t go as far to call it decent writing, especially because Flopson himself is involved, but it’s writing we can make work and I think season 4 is a decent enough attempt at giving her an actual arc about this. Santana’s later seasons storyline, from season 3B up until 5x19 is mainly about two key things: friendships and her career/future. Post-coming out (khmm, outing), I think the writers struggled as to how best involve Santana in the main story but she was popular and Naya could more than carry it so they tried and found these two pillars. Were they aware that these two were the main things, not sure; season 6 tells me no. But to me everything to do with Santana in this period leads back to these two concepts, and the career/future one obviously leads us to fame.

To answer,  Was the fame thing properly set up or implied before Gleever happened?, I’ll say kinda but again, let’s not give Glee too much credit. Season 2 began building Santana up as a powerhouse performer who can’t be counted out and, finally, 2x21 Funeral made it clear that she had ambitions about performing. She auditions for the solo and then clearly cares so much when they lose at Nationals. Santana grew to care for Glee and as her role expanded, the writing made more of an effort to not only feature Naya’s voice but give an in-universe reason as to why Santana’s singing so often. So we have that sort of buildup in season 2 (and trust me I have thoughts on s2 and how much Santana sings and its narrative relevance, but another day). Then, with the Troubletones plot it’s Mercedes, best girl Mercedes who recognizes Santana’s talent and ignites this need to be heard and seen.

I think we can, if we’re being generous to Glee’s writing, view all of this as preamble to her post-graduation plans and desire for fame. Santana loves to perform and knows she’s damn good at it. And while yes, she does say she doesn’t care how she gets there, I think it’s pretty clear she’s primarily going for a performing arts type of thing even in Glee-ver. I think she had blind ambition even before Schue started making weird assumptions and she got defensive but then everything is just to cover up the insecurity of not knowing what she’s doing and what she wants. She doesn’t have the passion for Broadway that “Gayberry” do and isn’t so sure about being a recording artist like Mercedes is. Glee later tries to frame this uncertainty as her being lazy but we’re gonna ignore that racist implication and say fuck you to Glee for it. Santana’s not lazy, she’s just... lost. And I do believe this adds nuance to her character, we just have to dig rather deep. Luckily I have a shovel reserved just for Santanalysis.

I would say there’s enough in season 2 and 3 to make us buy that she wouldn’t be comfortable in Kentucky and the University of Louisville. Santana values education but she feels out of place there and, after trying to move towards the past and being convinced by Brittany to follow her dreams instead, she goes to NYC where she continues to be unsure about what she wants exactly. I like this general arc for her, even though it doesn’t get a proper resolution, because I think it shows that she has ambition and has a passion for performing but just doesn’t know how to channel that. To go back to If I Can’t Have You, her speech was the embodiment of this young teenage fire and ambition that doesn’t actually have a plan in mind. Just the goal of fame.

Now, why she wants fame so bad is something that made me a think a lot. Why do people want to be famous? Rachel, for example has a layered but pretty easy to understand relationship with fame and her arc has always centered it. The writers, when bothering to make Santana more than a vapid cheerleader didn’t fully think her relationship with fame through. I think the most convincing argument is that she wants to be seen and understood, loved even, and wants it through something that she loves, performing. She says in 2x20 Prom Queen that she just wants one night where she’s accepted and not an outsider, and what is being famous if not getting the public’s approval. And I think one of my favourite Santana quotes also ties into this:

You taught me to be a strong Latina woman. To be bigger than the world was ever gonna give me permission to be. And I have.

Santana tells Alma in 6x06 What the World Needs Now. Santana has a funny relationship with people’s expectations of her and shaping perceptions, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that part of her wanting fame is wanting to be bigger than the world wanted her to be. As an Afro-Latina lesbian who suffered so much to fit in, now wanting to shape her own image and shining like the star she is. I think initial blind ambition, tempered with education that she then leaves behind to pursue all kinds of things - dance, acting, Broadway, music, PR - makes for an interesting story. I sure wish it was better developed and, you know, leading somewhere, but I think it fits with her character. And her desire, often aimless desire for fame coexists with the voice in her head that does think education is important.

UofL wasn’t for her, either way, and it wasn’t something she chose in the first place (and, actually, someone remind me to write about her relationship with cheerleading and her ultimately rejecting it) but like you mentioned she decides to go back to college in season 6. I really like that for her, even if we never find out more. I like that she tries a bunch of different things with some success and some failure, until she finds a firmer sense of self with her friends and her wife and then decides to take a step back and get a degree after all. I wish we knew more about her major or even where she ended up going (NYU?) but I’ll take the breadcrumbs I can get from season 6.

Like I said there’s more to explore about her relationship with education, but so much of that depends on how we headcanon her homelife. We do know that education matters to her, but UofL just wasn’t the way and Santana’s story was one where she needed time to figure things out. I’d say her obsession with fame, to the degree it manifests in Glee-ver and how it’s handled, is not exactly well set up but it overall works for her character. She wants things but doesn’t know exactly what they are and how to achieve them. She has a tendency to go overboard and think too much of others’ expectations, which in turn make her want to rebel against them. Fame, for whatever reason, is a good enough motivation for her to have in the latter half of the series and it gets somewhat of a decent setup in the first half. Personally, my main beef with Santana when it comes to education and fame isn’t even that, it’s just the lack of a proper resolution. If we had that there’d be much more to discuss.

[nikialexx]

you had the kindest, most graceful response to that ask and now i’m in even more awe 😭😭 this kind of productive dialogue is not something i’m used and i’m kind of really proud that all the nonsense i word vomited actually had some impact? is that ok to feel? sorryyy 😭😭

honestly, i’m w you on the ‘haven’t read the books in years’ thing except mine is almost a decade, i think? i’ve also loved in hc/fic world because it’s just more fun lol

and hey, all power to people who throw canon aside for personal enjoyment. i know it might seem like i was shitting on that but i promise i wasn’t, i do the same quite often + i love fics where authors go completely off the rails. (mainly harry centric ones tho) bc u always get the coolest plots and stuff when they stop caring about existing limits.

idk there’s isn’t really a point to this—i just really liked ur response so much i was like !!!!! but i also just wanted to say,,,,it’s so cool ur considering changing sirius in ur writing bc i know from experience, that is not easy and i don’t think i’d be able to do something like that lol

it definitely had an impact and honestly thank you for all of it 😭. i just didn't remember the last time I'd seen a post criticizing remus, or more specifically a post criticizing remus in a way that didn't immediately make me get all defensive/annoyed with the person who'd made it. so when you showed up i was like: 👀👀👀 i must know more.

and god i fully agree on the productive dialogue thing lmao i actually genuinely enjoy discussing/analyizing things especially when it's an opinion i disagree with and i know that not everyone uses fandom for that purpose and i totally respect that cause it's definitely tiring lol. but then there's that percentage who reacts with outright anger and aggressiveness at someone disagreeing with them on a fandom opinion and tbh it always confuses me 😭.

and yeah don't worry it didn't come across like you were saying people shouldn’t divert from canon!! actually u did specifically mention that that wasn't the thing you had a problem with on one of ur posts lol, so i get it.

writing Sirius' character never comes easy to me so i'm just looking for as much info as I can get from people who do understand him 😅. so everything you said about how he's written in a lot of wolfstar fics was super helpful cause i had truly not considered that before. so thank u again!!

[starlightshore]

is it wrong to portray chara as not necessarily seeing the dreemurrs as a traditionally family? like the dreemurrs never call them their child or sibling but they obviously loved them & saw them as their own. is it bad to see chara as someone who wasn't ready to call them their family, a common situation with kids living with nonfamily

anon i am not your moral judgement. i can't tell you what is or isn't wrong. do not go looking for strangers to tell you that, i can not do this for you.

but the main thing is that with kris being adopted, with the twin beds and the wording of "became like a sibling to..." "they lost two children in one night" and then there's asgore saying "you have the same hope in your eyes (as chara)" to frisk then imminently talking about adopting them. it's... really hard to see them as siblings.It’s clear Toriel was close to Chara. She goes straight to Chara's grave when she thinks she’ll never see Frisk again. Asgore too, still keeps the "Mr.Dad Guy" sweater. (which, considering how BIG asgore is, a sweater like that would of taken ages for them to make) I think it's more likely Chara couldn't bring themself to call them mom and dad. Maybe that and grief is why.

but i am NOT you and I do not tell you how to interpret things or the morality of how you interpret things. if you find meaning in them being close but not quite family, then I couldn't nor would want to take that away. but I would really be judging if it's for ship reasons. cause then it's a case of "well it's not technically incest" which is the biggest load of shit ever. but i assume that isn't your reason so i won't go on about it.

like... i'm just someone online. i can condemn what I find morally wrong but I'm not going to guide you on morality, you know? it's your choice. all i can say is look at the evidence and analyize what you're saying when you interpret something -and if that may have any negatives that come from it. my mom was adopted, so the whole adoption thing is a personal family matter for me, i'm very vocal and invested in seeing Chara's adoption being depicted without nasty or harmful things. but that's not the same thing as me telling you what IS or isn't right. i hope i'm making sense.

[itsonlystrange]

STRANGER THINGS THEORIZERS/ANALYIZERS, ANSWER THIS QUESTION PLEASE!

How do you think season four will end? There’s talk of a “middle of the action” cliff hanger, having season five pick up directly after episode five with no break in between. I don’t see how that would happen as usually the end of the season has a “final battle”, and I don’t see how a season could pick up directly off of that and then immediately go back into the action for season five.

Usually with ST, the first 2-3 episodes are relatively uneventful. It’s usually one or two characters that are on to the mystery, and there really isn’t a major event until episode four.

Examples being:

Season 1: End of e3, Will’s “body” was found.

Season 2: end of e3, Will gets possessed

Season 3: end of e3, Will realizes the Mind Flayer is back.

So, there’s a pattern here. You get regular domestic, school, normal related stuff in the beginning, until the end of episode three/ episode four, where revalations are made.

So, with this theoretical “middle of the action, end of season cliff hanger”, it would be confusing as to where it could pick up, and how?

Usually with st we get three acts. The first being the relatively normal start of the season. Only one or two characters are on to something. The second act is in the middle of the season, where most characters are preparing to confront the main issue of the season. This is where discoveries are. Then the third act is where they finally confront that main issue. Then there’s a 1-3 month time jump where things are back to normal.

But for this theoretical season five ending, that wouldn’t happen. There’d be an ambiguous ending, maybe one where everyone is hanging on for dear life, and then credits. And then season five picks up right there. Which would just totally destroy the construct the writers have created for their seasons. Not only for act three of season four, but for all of season five.

There would be no “calm before the storm” or an ‘act one’ if we just pick up in the middle of the action again. It would mean that season five is essentially just a part two to season four, which I don’t see working out well for stranger things. They have a layout that they’ve used, and I feel like doing something this spontaneous, especially for the end of the show, right now, seems off. The final season of any show is undoubtedly one of the most important. It doesn’t matter if the first or middle seasons were fantastic or bland, if the final season doesn’t do better and doesn’t end with a WHAM, then the show will go down in history that way. The final season determines how a show is remembered, how the critics remember it, and doing something like this for a show as big as stranger things this late in the game seems risky, not to say they wouldn’t do it. Because if they did, it would mean they had had this planned for awhile.

I’d also like to add that I am not opposed to this idea! we don’t know how it will end which is the exciting part! This is all speculation. I think that they would 100% be able to tell a compelling story while not following the format they have previously. However, it is definitely something the writers would have to be cautious of. Especially since ST seems to take big gaps in between seasons, having season five pick up directly after season four, while in real life we’ve waited a good 12-18 months, it would definitely leave some fans feeling disconnected. Especially because a lot of fan favorite moments are those “calm before the storm” montages or episodes. Hell, the shopping mall scene from season three was so well done and almost every fan I know enjoyed it. So having it pick up in the middle of the act could potentially be jeoprodizing that, and also potentially losing character development. A lot of times in tv shows (not necessarily in stranger things, but sometimes it has happened!) a character will be so caught up In the drama or the main event of the season that they will lose their character development. Season two of ST did it best, season 3 did it worst. In season 2 (and one!) they were able to keep that compelling drama and the main supernatural events but also keep the characters developing even in the last episodes, rather than have the drama fill up the whole episode and the characters own thoughts to the point where a majority of that characters personality for the end of the season solely revolves around the drama. But in seasons one and two, they were able to have characters develop, and do better, and progress, even while the major cinematic events were happening. However In season three, we got a lack of character growth, especially in those final episodes where character growth had previously been so prevalent. Don’t get me wrong, characters DID develop, but for a season that’s tag line was “one summer can change everything.” not much changed- character wise. Sure, plot lines came and go, new ones were introduced, but the characters stayed relatively the same. No revelations were made. For example: Will had a plot line that was just utterly dropped. They spent so long building that dramatic sequence up and his fight with Mike and the destruction of castle byers and then they just left it. Which, I understand, was done of purpose. They obviously left those lose ends untied up for season four. Or how about El: she got a scene which supposedly was supposed to prove how she was independent and didn’t need mike (because she totally doesn’t and is a baddie!) but then in the end crawls right back to him, despite obviously not caring about their break up previously and seeming much happier without him. Lucas didn’t progress at all. Mike stayed the same, except he realized he totally didn’t like El at the end of season 3. But other than that, Mike didn’t change much. He didn’t get any scenes where he realized “oh! I was such a jerk!” He just CONTINUED to be that way. Max didn’t progress too much. I was hoping she would open up or allow herself to be vulnerable, or maybe she could realize why she is so harsh sometimes, other things that would have made for a great arc. Dustin didn’t change much, he just got smarter, I guess? And so on so forth. Everyone is relatively the same. We never really see Nancy and Jon resolve the fight, besides the elevator scene. When they BOTH had great points in that fight and I agree that they should both work on those issues. And the only thing that really changed was the Byers moving and Hopper ‘dying.’

Now, I may be going off the rails here, sorry. But my point is: we KNOW they can do great character development while also keeping that science fiction action and mystery we love. But we also know they can butcher it and not even realize !

There are definitely pros and cons of doing this cliffhanger thing. Of course, nobody really knows what will happen. We still have to factor in new characters, or if these new characters will even be apart of season five at all. We could be left with sort of a half middle of the action cliff hanger, similar to season one or two, where the audience knows that mr mind flayer is back, but the characters don’t. Maybe we won’t even get a month time skip, and maybe we’ll get only a few days! Maybe season five will only pick up one month after season four, instead of 6 months to a year! We genuinely don’t know!

Season three was the weakest, but it wasn’t bad. They showed their diversity, and that they could switch things up if needed. All I hope for is good character growth at this point. And if too much action jeoprodizes the character growth (like season three!) then I don’t want it! But I know it’s totally possible to have both. They did it twice, they can do it again! I have high hopes for season four and it’s ending. And in no way am I against the idea of us kinda getting a shot and fire cliffhanger ending that bleeds into season 5.

Anyways, I doubt this will happen. I feel like they will follow the format they usually use. Give us a time jump in the last 20 minutes of season four, everything seems fine, season five picks up a couple months later, everything’s fine for a few episodes, WHAM! Action, ending, epilogue, roll credits. Not to say I wouldn’t enjoy a ‘middle of the action’ ending cliffhanger or whatever, I probably would! (Hoping they are able to balance it out this time instead of jumbling all the ‘growth’ into the first and last bits of the season.) This is not meant to say that I would dislike something like this. In fact, other shows have done something similar and I enjoyed them even more then a regularl time skip! I’m doing my best to show both sides of the argument here. I know a lot of people have their own opinions on this topic.

I’ll enjoy whatever they do, but I’d like to hear your opinions on this! How do you think season four will end?

[proditoreques]

Who was a tougher foe? The Romans or the Picts?

Usually their questions are met with jests or good humour the Saber class Servant is rarely so thoughtful in composing her responses, her eyes glaze over momentarily as past battles are analyized both from life and undeath.

"Both were worthy foes each with their own merits just know Anon that I speak of each foe with the respect they deserve." She pauses a moment allowing her statement to sink in before continuing, knowing the the Empress Nero herself could swoop in on the conversation the Knight is picking her words carefully - though in her own way she is searching for a way to undermind either foe, she had seen many Knights of varying names all to either force be it in battle or raid times.

"For the Romans their formations changed the face of warfare while the Celts were busy pelting each other with steel, shite and bagpipes the Romans were able to walk up on forts without fear of catching their towers arrows. Their military minds were strong and most of their Centurions natural leaders with both skill in logistics and warfare. Though at times during my bouts with them I found at times..they fell apart when their formations were shattered. Brave their spears, break their phalanx, shatter their resolve and if you can cut the head off the serpant - tactics I used an untold numbers of times against them. Their major failing was at the worst of times the pompus baffoons they sent as their commanders or generals, little posh boys wanting to play at war on daddys well earned coin. ...I often had more respect for the Roman legionary Sargents that were in the thick of it than their glorious leaders commanding safely from a tent. Though that said: I cannot deny their strenght when lead by a deft hand. After all the Romans held a great deal of land during my lifetime."

Unfettered by concern a bluebird lands not far from the twos place within the garden Mordred lingering a few moments to watch it go about its evening bath. She smiles slightly clapping her hands to refocus herself unfortunaty scaring the little critter away...something Atlanta will no doubt scold her for later that cat had eyes everywhere.

"The Picts method of warfare was unconventional leaning more towards tribal tactics and guerilla warfare. They would strike fast and be out faster raiding both our people and Roman forces - I even remember hearing the mooned guardsman after climbing over Hadrians wall with several sheep. Mistaking them for nothing but a unorginized rabble would be a fatal mistake though, something I learned during my time as a Squire was always watch for movement in the countryside. Picts loved to hit our forces when they were busy navigating hazards, chokepoints or in areas they thought were safe - never blink with a Pict about you'll catch an arrow or blade in the throat before you open your eyes. However if you played their tactics against them or came prepared besides hidden archers their forces could be underprepared for a head on fight. If you caught them on the backfoot or fought smart they were moderatly easy to disperse...though saying that they were always peristant and excellent trackers so expecting another ambush or counter attack was common place. Some of their fights were almost mystical in standards of endurance taking multiple wounds to finally put down for good, they were fearless and thought nothing about charging a Knight with a tower shield in full plate armour...in fact I would say they reveled in it. I remember many an encounter that went badly against the Picts, they were indeed a fearsome foe."

She pauses once again weighing up facts measuring strength and weaknesses of each. "To answer your qustion Anon; I would say the Picts were indeed my more fearsome foe. No matter how many battles they fought or no matter how great the odds, they never backed down to us never accepted my Fathers rule or left their lands, truely they fought us to the bitter end beyond my grasps of life affore Father ended my short reign." Mordred grins nerviousls "And don't tell Nero I was talking shit about Roma she would not be happy to hear it."

[silver-wield]

Do you think that Aerith saying "you can't fall in love with me" is proof that OG Cloud had fallen in love with Aerith, since she does seem to know things from the future? But then she says it's not real. So I guess in OG, Soldier Cloud fell in love with Aerith and Real Cloud is in love with Tifa? Hmm...what do you think? Thank you for all your analyes!

He's not in love with her. He met her 2 days ago. It's not Disney.

This is the gold saucer date reference where Aerith regrets not getting to meet real Cloud. It's also meant as a straight statement from both of their perspectives.

Aerith is telling him he can't because she's in love with Zack. Who died last week.

She's also telling Cloud he can't because he's in love with Tifa.

The narrative to OG Midgar is now retconned. Bringing it up as evidence when those words weren't said and those scenes no longer occur is willful blindness towards this narrative. Future speculation of unseen OG scenes still to come can only work in a what if context until we get them.

This Midgar is Cloud's recent past. Not OG. I see no point in what iffing a past that no longer exists.

Remake Cloud has shown pretty clearly he's into Tifa every step of the way. He became friends with Aerith with a suggestion of some confusion on his part, but confusion doesn't automatically mean romantic feelings. He woke up from a mako coma a week ago. He doesn't know what he feels about anything aside from anxiety and grief.

Cloud isn't in touch with his feelings enough to have a relationship with either girl, and by the time he's back in touch with those feelings in OG, he knows they're for Tifa only. Since the devs have stated major story beats remain the same, it's safe to conclude this will too.

Whatever Cloud thought he felt for Aerith was an illusion. Fake. Just like she said.

[bciwasinlove]

how would you analyize or interpret the song walls?cause i‘ve heard a lot of people say it‘s a break up song as it‘s written in past tense and basically saying he‘s stronger now after a break up (maybe even from a toxic relationship), he‘s risen above it and it doesn‘t really sound like a love song about an ongoing romance, does it?

Hi anon this is going to be a long one bc there is no quick answer to this so just know you asked for this.

First let's get one thing straight the ones who claim Walls [the album in general] is a break up album are the "Rads" short for Radical Louies. Essentially they are toxic louies who once were a larry shipper [not even a real larrie] but now hate Harry bc their mad Louis hasn't gotten the same promo and solo opportunities Harry has and some how in their eyes that's Harry's fault. They don't see it was Syco trying to sabotage Louis and in no way is Louis being sabotaged Harry's fault. Rads try to twist the truth and believe Harry left Louis for fame so since they hate Harry they have twisted the meaning of Walls to in their head a break up from a toxic relationship. They also really want LT2 to be a HUGE SHADE break up album which is 100% not the case so don't believe their crap.

Tho I heard you may have sent this same ask to others [who probably ignored you] so there is a chance you are a rad trying to find out what larries believe. Either way if you are a confused larrie or an undercover rad you probably need this info that no one else will bother giving you the time of day to tell you but I myself thought why not I'll answer you.

Second Louis and Harry have been happily in love for 10 years and have not officially broken up. Yes they have had issues like any couple does but it did not stem from eachother their issues stemed from them being forcibly closeted, the stunt gfs and their labels thus their songs are not break up songs but songs about not being able to be free and forced to fake date others when all they want is to publicly be with the one they love.

Now that that is out of the way here's why Walls is about Louis loving one person and one person only since he was 18. I'm doing the whole album [minus TOU] bc it is impossible to state why Walls the song is not a break up song without mentioning the others like Too Young [which rads also claim as a break up song] bc the album as a whole paints the whole picture.

Bree's analysis on Walls

Kill My Mind:

You kill my mind, raise my body back to life and I don't know what I'd do without you now.

KMM is definitely the sexual song of Walls [not No Control type sexual but just we click right from the start sexual] It has the I just met you and we are figuring one another out vibe [both physically and just as people] and how right from the start Louis craves Harry and his attention. It has a similar vibe to Watermelon Sugar which Harry said is about the euphoria of falling in love and the way the other person makes you feel right from the start. Louis in KMM is saying I've just meet someone and they are now all I think about, crave and I don't know how I would be able to live without them.

Don't Let It Break Your Heart:

And I know you left apart of you in New York under your bed in a box, but your doing better.

Flashback to HS1 "Ever Since New York" seems like they both love to mention something happening in NY with their lover. We may never know what happened but it's always a funny coincidence when they mention the same places in their songs almost like their singing about the same situation.

Life gets hard and it gets messed up when you give so much, but it's not enough when the highs to high and the lows to low when you love somone and they let you go.

As I stated before their issues involved the stunts [fake dating women] so when Louis says love someone and they let you go he means when his lover gave into what they were being told to do for the sake of their careers. As young as they were when this all started it's hard not to think they may have fell for the lies being fed to them. So Harry let "Louis go" by being seeing with a ton of women gaining himself the brand of "lady's man" while also being forced to watch Louis be with someone else [Eleanor] and publicly act like that was the one he loved. Harry wrote the song Just a Little Bit of Your Heart which is a prime exactly of those feelings. Harry loves Louis so much but he only gets to love him privately while Eleanor gets to loves him publicly and as Harry wrote a little bit of your love is better then none.

Were driving down a one way road to something better. What hurts you is going to pass you'll be doing better.

This shows they know the pain all the bad things thrown their way won't stick around forever. They will overcome this and one day they will see the light at the end of the tunnel or the rainbow after the storm.

We Made It:

Cause we made it, Underestimated and always underrated. Now we're saying goodbye waving to the hard time yeah it's gonna be already.

Do I need to explain it I would say the title alone and this chorus makes it very clear. Break up who when where how? They had hard ships but NOT from their own doing. WMI is about how decpite all they were put through they made it. Flashback to Harry HS1 tour with Kacey in a rainbow dress at MSG in front of 36k people singing "[their/where] still together still going strong." They want you to know nothing will break them apart no matter how hard anyone tries. We are keeping the bad in the past and moving forward to a better tomorrow.

Share a single bed and tell each other what we dream about. Things we'd never say to someone else out loud.

This reminds me of their Xfactor days or early 1D tour days bc in 1D interviews it was always made clear they would share rooms and also how on the bus Louis bunk was filled with his junk so where did he sleep then? Also there are many former Xfactor contestants that have come out and said they were forced to be in the closet on the show. Flashback to an article claiming the people in charge of the 2010 Xfactor season tried to hide and keep a same sex couple apart wonder who that was? That line is about when they were young and the late nights they spent together wondering how their future was going to go. They were still just big smiles, wide eyed, oblivious young boys when they imagined only good things to come of the future with them and the band.

We were only kids just trying to work it out. Wonder what they'd say if they could see us now?/ Don't know why they put all of this on us when we're so young. Done a pretty good job dealing with it all.

We were only kids [when Louis fell in love with said person] and we're so young reminds me of Harry's song To Be So Lonely where he says "Don't blame me for falling I was just a little boy." They both mention falling in love at a young age and both mention how after all this time they are still just as in love as back then but just a little less naive/oblivious. They are both hinting at a higher person [their label/management] who didn't approve of their love and telling them it wasn't going to work out. Harry going you can't be mad at me I was only a boy and Louis going wonder what would happen if they saw us now meaning look we didn't let you win. They tried so hard to separate Louis and Harry but it didn't work and Louis wants us and THEM especially to know they are still very much together, they handled it as best at they could and they weren't going to let them keep Louis and Harry apart.

Meet you at your uni, cheap drink, drink em all night

This is what we call a stunt line to push a narrative. Harry does stunt songs [Carolina and Cherry] while Louis does stunt lines. This line is suppose to allude to the album being for Eleanor [bc she went to Manchester Uni] but the rest of the album is so clearly not for her. If this song was about a break up from Harry then why would they bother adding in a stunt line about Eleanor when the public story is El and Louis are happily still together with Louis planning to marry her? Unless Walls isn't a break up album and it's very loudly Louis declaring him and Harry are still happily together and they wanted to try and force the image that Louis is happily in love with Eleanor. Also funny how this album is gender neutral and has no she pronouns in it unlike Zayn's new album having she pronouns.

Too Young:

We were to young to know we had everything. Too Young, I wish I could've seen it all along. I'm sorry that I hurt you, darling, no we were to young

This song is all about how when Harry was only 16 and he was 18 [Louis himself saying the song is about meeting the one at 18] he was to young to realize he had the best lover he was ever going to have, he had it all. As I said before issues in songs = management/stunts and this is Illuding to how Louis let them minupulate them and do what it was they wanted aka stunting and forcing Louis to be with Eleanor and Harry have a "lady's image" since he was only 16 and Louis now looking back and realizing he should have fought harder. Louis at the time didn't realize how much all this would hurt Harry having to share Louis [once again Just a Little Bit of Your Heart is Harry's feelings about that] and its once he's older he realizes what he did to hurt the only one who he ever truly loved and it pains him to know he put his lover through that even if it wasn't Louis fault Harry went through that.

I've been looking back a lot lately me and you is all I've ever known. Oh I can't believe I gave in to the pressure. When they said a love like this would never last. I didn't know no better now I realize yeah I realize.

So similar to before he's saying Harry is all he's ever known and him giving in to the pressure was about agreeing to fake date Eleanor and allow them to be heavily closeted. Reflecting back on those days he regrets so much what he agreed to do. They said a love like this wouldn't last is their management/label not agreeing with them being together and how two boys in a boyband marketed towards young women won't last, they won't sell records as an out gay couple with Louis believing their lies for a bit and he now regrets ever thinking they were right. This is a reflection song of not understanding what he had when he was so young but he sees it clearly now and he will never let THEM win he loves Harry and won't ever let him go ever.

Walls:

These high walls, they came up short now I stand taller then them all. These high walls never broke my soul and I watched them all come fallin down for you.

The high walls he refers to is all the assholes who tried to break him, break Harry and tried to ruin his career out of spite. This is towards the ones who told him they would never succeed being as they are a committed gay couple. Louis for a time believed them when they said their love wouldn't last, no one will want to listen to their music as a gay couple but eventually he realized they were wrong and those walls he had up filling him with doubt and insecurities were broken down. He allowed his "high walls" to come down because Harry was worth the effort it took to bring them down.

So this one is a thank you for what you did to me. Why is it that thank you's are often bittersweet? I just hope I see you one day and you say to me, Oh.

This is what one calls a metaphor he does not mean a physical person he means the walls he had up for a long time making him feel so insecure bc of how some of the people around him that made him feel so worthless crushing his spirt for so long. The metaphorical person he is thanking for helping him become the person he is today is the wall he broke down. The hardships he dealt with when he was younger got him to where he is today.

For every question why you were my because

Why am I still fighting?

Why have I not given up yet?

The because to his question is his lover HERE is where he directly refers to his lover. Harry is someone who is worth fighting for and will always be one of the reasons he hasn't stopped fighting. He loves Harry more then anything and will fight until the day he can publicly hold his hand, publicly post pictures of them together, publicly go on dates and publicly declare his love for him.

Habit:

You're the habit that I can't break, you're the feeling I can't put down, you're the shiver that I can't shake, you're the habit that I can't break, you're the high that I need right now.

Written over and over throughout the song these are some of the most important lines he wrote about Harry. It's Louis way of saying even if he wanted to, even if it would be easier for him and Harry he can never let him go. Harry's version of this is in Adore You when he sings "You don't have to say you love me, you don't have to say nothing and you don't have to say you're mine. I'd walk through fire for you just let me adore you like it's the only thing I'll ever do." Harry is saying even if publicly you can never say you love me I know you do and I will do anything for you because I am madly in love and could never let you go. They both would go through hell along side each other then being partially happy and the other not being by their side. Harry is the only one he ever wants to spend his life with and no matter what hardships they are put through there is no scenario where being without each other is a better alternative.

I took some time 'cause I've ran out of energy of playing someone I heard I'm supposed to be but honestly, I don't have to choose anymore

The line of all lines he took time away bc he was tired of the facade of faking what makes him happy, faking loving some girl, faking being anything but himself. He's back now and knows without a doubt who he is and is proud of it. No more confusion, no more lies he loves a curly haired dimpled boy and no one will tell him he can't love him. Harry's version of this is the chorus of Lights Up "All the lights couldn't put out the dark, runnin' through my heart. Lights up and they know who you are, know who you are. Do you know who you are? Shine step into the light, shine so bright sometimes, shine I'm not ever going back." They both tell you they have figured out whi they are and are very proud of who they have become and no one will tell them they can't be anything but themselves. They WILL scream it out loud and proud letting everyone know who they love one day [as if 16 and 18 year old H&L didn't already do that.]

And it's been ages, different stages come so far from Princess Park. I'll always need ya in front of me, in front of me

Oh the line that shocked every larrie I know. When he first sang this song and we first heard this line at a live concert everyone was shocked because we all knew what their was only one meaning to it. It was such a drastic line that the Elounors tried to claim he sang Starbuck [until the official lyrics came out.] Princess Park is the name of the apartment/flat complex all of the 1D boys lived in after the Xfactor BUT Niall, Liam and Zayn had their own apartment/flat while Louis and Harry shared one and they always made it very clear to everyone they met that they lived together.

So in a love song Louis sings about how him and his lover have come so far since their Princess Park days and his lover will always be the one he needs. Putting Harry's fav love song Sweet Creature plus Louis line about his lover together it would read " And, oh, we started two hearts in one home, come so far [since] princess park. I'll always need you in front of me. Wherever I go you bring me home" you do the math here. Their lyrics sink up just as much as their tattoos do.

Always You:

I went to Amsterdam without you and all I could do was think about you and oh-oh-oh I should've known

The Amsterdam line one of those lines that can be fact checked and proven to not be for Eleanor. So Louis took Eleanor to Amsterdam for her birthday at a gay bar no less back in July/August of 2017. Then a week or two later wrote the song Always You leaking a snippet of it to us where the lines of him singing about how he went to Amsterdam without his lover and his lover was all he could think about were heard. If he went with Eleanor then clearly that isn't his lover but we know this. Fast forward 2020 Walls comes out and we FINALLY hear the full song of Always You.

Louis said he only put the song on the album because the fans wanted it but if it was just because of us and the song wasn't THAT important to him why did he leak those lines back in 2017 that could easily be fact checked that the lover he sings about isn't Eleanor? It's like he wanted us to know it's not for Eleanor this line is important. So the fact that almost 3 years later he still put the song out shows the song means a lot to him and even in 2020 the meaning of the song still resonates with him and how it will Always be THIS one person that means everything to him. Funny though how his loudest, easily fact checkable songs [to not be about Eleanor] are the ones he downplays the most about importance to him.

I went to Tokyo to let it go. Drink after drink, but I still felt alone I should've known

When it comes to this song the Amsterdam line is Louis speaking [because he went to Amsterdam without Harry] while the Tokyo line is Harry speaking [because Harry went to Tokyo without Louis] and after Harry came back from Tokyo, Japan Louis was seen wearing a ton of new clothes from Japanese clothing brands. This is both of them saying I may be in a wonderful new place but it's not the same without you here. They are sad and alone and would rather be with each other then traveling around the world.

I'm wastin' my time when it was always you, always you. Chasin' the high, but it was always you, always you

I think this is self explanatory he sees no reason to even think about being with someone else because he knows without a shadow of doubt [thinks he always knew deep down] it was always Harry. There was never going to be anyone else for him but Harry.

I went from LAX to Heathrow. Walked through my door, but it felt nothing like home cause you're not home. Waiting to wrap your legs around me

LA and London are their two main residences and places they tend to go back and forth a lot. When he "goes home" if Harry is not there Louis feels as though it doesn't really feel like home because home to Louis is wherever Harry is. They can travel all around the world, meet a ton of new people but no place and others will ever make them feel fully satisfied unless their lover is by their side.

Fearless:

Cashin your weekend treasures, for a suit and time a second wife. Now I'm not saying that you could have done better just remember that I, I've seen that fire alight.

The first line is a nod to the industry itself and how to get your "weekend tresures" [be famous and earn a lot of money] you have to put up a fake facade, acting and looking the way they want you to because in their eyes if you are not the conventional person Hollywood wants they believe you will not make them the money they desire because we all know they only care about money nothing else. At a cost of the real them they must put on a fake smile, go out there sing doing nothing unconventional and they will get money and fame.

The second line yes they are happily together and Louis doesn't want or believe Harry will find someone else but he has seen Harry when all of this gets to be to much and when Harry puts up a facade of I've never had an issue with all of this Louis reminds him that I've seen you when your not fine, it's ok to not always be fine and I am here for you when things are not rainbows and sunshine.

Tell me do you still remember feeling young? And strong enough to get it wrong in front of all these people? Just for tonight, look inside and spark that memory of you.

Refering back to Xfactor and early 1D days he's asking Harry if he remembers those days together back when they hadn't really gone through hardships yet and all the strength they had during their youth willing to take on the world together. He's asking him to bring that strength back and remember the younger version of himself. He's asking him to not give up because the younger him wouldn't want him to. It's been 10 years and they are still fighting, fighting as hard as they did when they were merely teenagers not knowing what lied ahead but wer happy as long as it meant they had each other in the end.

Now if happiness is always measured by the life we design, the car on the drive then you should feel better then ever but you know as well as I it's all lies.

This line speaks volumes as stated before with Fearless we have references to the industry and even just life in general. From the outside looking in they got money, fame, material things, they have it all and if deciding who is more happy in life was based on those things then they would win but Louis is telling Harry we both know that isn't the case. The industry isn't sunshine and rainbows, they treat people like shit and strip away everything about a person if they don't think their real self will sell. They only want to make a profit off them and don't care about how they feel about any of it. Everything is a lie the truth must be counseled.

Perfect Now:

You say to me your jeans don't fit, you don't feel pretty and it's hard to miss. I wish you could see my point of view as someone staring back at you.

This song is personally underrated to me I love this song. This song is so uplifting when you are feeling insecure and negative about yourself. Louis personally had a certain curly haired boy in mind when he wrote this. He's talking about Harry's insecurities with himself and Louis wishes Harry could see things from his view and how amazing and perfect Harry is to him.

Cause everybody is looking at you now. I guess some queens don't need a crown and I know why. Even when your tears are following now still someone, you're perfect now.

One of those it's definitely not for Eleanor moments. We all know [especially during fine line era] everyone was talking about Harry, knows his name and eyes turn to him when he walks in the room. Louis is so proud of Harry and is happy everyone else sees what he sees but Harry doesn't always see what others see in him and during those times where he is not already Louis is saying I will be right there with you. I am with you through the good and the bad because even when tears are running down his face Harry is still perfect to Louis.

Cause you're the only one when it's said and done. You make me feel like being someone good to you. Even at your worst you steal the scene.

No matter where life takes them, no matter how hard it gets Louis is reassuring Harry he will always be there by his side. At the end of it all when the final act is over and the curtain is closeting he will still be there because there will never be anyone else he wants to be next to at the end of all of this. Louis looks into Harry's eyes he watches all he does and is intrance wanting nothing more then being the one to be there when he is down and always being the who makes the pain go away even if for a moment.

Defenseless:

I hate to say, but I do we're sleeping on our problems like we'll solve them in our dreams. We walk up early morning and they're still under our sheets.

*Sigh* this is reality setting in things aren't perfect. In their line of work, being who they are, being a closeted gay couple things aren't going to be perfect 100% of the time. Most of the time they would rather ignore all the shit they are forced to indure but Louis realizes just ignoring it all won't make it go away he will wake up each morning next to Harry knowing those issues will always be around by neither fault of their own. He hopes one day they will get to be a happily open couple who posts pics online, goes out on public dates and gets to live the domestic life they always wanted but right now that just isn't their reality. Their reality is I can only look at you for more then 5 seconds or touch you when no one is around to notice.

Been up all night, all night running my lines but it's only the truth. Been up all night not sure how to say this right got so much to loose. / You just keep on building up your fences but I've been so defenseless.

Another metaphor here Louis wondering how to bring this up to Harry and not upset him. The last thing Louis ever wants is for him to be the reason Harry has a frown upon is wonderful face. Harry is more the one to bottle up and ignore the negative things while Louis is the more practical one and he knows he has a ton to loose [Harry and his love] if he doesn't go about this situation right.

No you don't have to keep on being strong for you and me acting like you feel no pain I know you do. And I can't get inside your head when you're lost in your pride but you don't have a thing to prove.

Harry is the one who bottles up his pain, puts on the fake smiles, and makes everyone believe he is perfectly fine. He acts like he can handle what he is forced to indure 100% of the time but Louis sees through that and just wants him to open up more. He knows Harry feels just as much pain as he does and wishes he wouldn't hide it and pretend everything is always fine. Louis wants to be able to help Harry through the pain and to let know he will always be there for him no matter what so don't pretend your always fine just to make others around him, make Louis feel better.

I hope I'm not asking to much just wanna be loved by you. And I'm to tired to be tough just wanna be loved by you.

Louis is tired of pretending, wishes everyone understood, wishes what he is asking for wasn't to much. All he wants is to be loved by Harry and live the domestic life he always invisioned with Harry and no one else but his live is not that simple.

Only The Brave:

Pour mercy, mercy on me, set fire to history. I'm breaking my own rules, I'm crying like a fool. It's a church of burnt romances and I'm to far gone to pray. It's a solo song and it's only for the brave.

I'm sure you understand Louis is gay but if you didn't this line right here is all you need to understand that. No straight man is going to write or sing those lines. He's gone down a path of self discovery and figuring himself out he knows he is and he is to far gone to turn back now but he has no desire to even if he could turn back. He is proud of who he is and doesn't care what anyone else thinks of him.

If the truth tell, darling, you fell, like their ain't enough dying stars in your sky. It's a tell tale and it's only hello, hello, no goodbyes.

It's only hello no goodbyes meaning the confusion, the is this for life between Louis and Harry questions are gone. They aren't turning back, they aren't saying goodbye, they are only saying hello to what lies ahead. The truth is clear, their story is clear, they fell for one another and Harry metaphorical speaking fell for Louis in a way where his star shines brighter then ever just by being with him.

Pour mercy, mercy on me, I'll fall upon my knees and they'll say, I told you so come on when you know you know. All the lonely shadows dancing from the cradle to the grave.

When you know you know they knew right from the start it's me and you until the end. Some won't agree but in the end that does not matter to Louis because he only cares about Harry being by his side. He will not apologize for falling in love he loves who he loves and that is it.

We Made It Directors Cut MV:

If the lyrics alone don't tell you the full story then the music video mini movie should. It sums up everything I explained. Louis being forced to do things he doesn't want, it effecting his relationship to the point their drowning [Harry in Falling MV] but manage to survive. Louis lover never speaking but the girl with ties to the evil one in charge does until eventually Louis breaks free from the man in charge controlling him and Louis finally gets to run away with his lover because he made sure they would make it in the end.

Ending:

Walls is about self discovery, learning to overcome your insecurities "breaking down your walls" no matter how hard it may be and Louis understanding he met the one at 18 and how Harry will always be worth fighting for, THEY will always be worth it bc they knew even as young as they were they were going to get married, have kids and grow old together. So you still want to tell me how any song on Walls is about a break up or Louis moving on from Harry because I certainly don't see it. Walls is Louis perspective on their 10 year relationship and his support and love towards Harry if you want Harry's perspective and his support and love toward Louis you would have to dive into HS and FL but that's a whole other analysis.

They have not given up on each other even if at times it would have been easier they didn't so I will never give up on them. They continue to fight I have been in this fandom supporting them for 10 years watching their continous fight and I will be here another 10 years supporting them if that is how long it takes for them to get the life they knew they wanted when they were only 16 and 18.

[popculturebuffet]

Watchmen Reviewed Issue by Issue Part 1: “At Midnight, All The Agents” (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! I’m Jake, I review comics and animation, and as you can tell I have a new project.. and this one’s a bit nervewracking. Watchmen is one of THE Comic Books. When people think about the medium, this is one of the things that comes to mind. It’s so integral to comics, how they evolved for better and for worse, and so iconic that the idea of tackling it it’s a lot, especially since SO MANY people have analyized it before me. So many people have poured through this iconic work. What could I add?

And i’ve realized the answer is “i don’t know, but it can’t hurt to try”. I’ve read no analysis’ on the comic, no think pieces, i’m going into this purely with my own opinon and it if overlaps, it overlaps. If I miss something, I miss it and with this much detail and craft I likely will. I’m going to give this series my best analysis, make silly jokes all the while and see how it all turns out. 

So with that an introduction for that one person in the back who hasn’t at least heard of Watchmen: Watchmen is a 1986 DC Comics Maxisereis from legendary bitter hermit and actual wizard Alan Moore and the should be also legendary but isn’t often David Gibbons. 

Watchmen came about as Alan Moore’s star had risen to it’s absolute top: he’d made his name reinventing second tier Captain Marvel (Aka Shazam) knockoff Marvelman (Redubbed miracleman in the states because marvel didn’t own him.. yet), via a horrifying deeply introspective run that heavily deconsturcted comics. This lead to DC giving him a shot, giving him their low selling and low rent book Swamp Thing in hopes he could work the same magic. He did and having read about half that run, it’s a true work of art that still holds up. 

 So with a bonafied rep for taking characters and making them bonafied stars and with DC having just bought Charlton comics, which had a massive line of superheroes to play with, Moore was the obvious choice to reinvent them and teaming up with Gibbons (Who as he realted in a story ironically found his career thanks to a poster Moore Made for a small sci fi novel company that lead to Gibbons getting an ad job for them and then getting scounted as a comics).

The problem was while the story they turned in was great it was also unusable for it’s intended purpose. This story would leave a few of these characters dead and those left wouldn’t really work in a wider universe. The editors wisely didn’t just throw things out entirely though: they knew what they had and simply had Moore and Gibbons rework it into an original tale. So they tweaked a few things and truly got into the meat of it , creating an alternate history so they could comment on just how terrifying Regan Era America was without pissing off people who loved the right wing bastard right away. The results speak for themselves: Watchmen is all time iconic. 

That said before we can get into this first issue and see why there’s one last thing to address I don’t want to leave for later.  Moore and Gibbons got screwed over terribly with this series. And I don’t mean in terms of things like promotion or what not: the book was heavily promoted as far as I can tell and while a sleeper hit caught on enough to truly change comics, for better and for worse. But when Moore you know wanted to OWN something he’d clearly created... DC Refused. It’s not a new story, creators being mad they don’t own their creations but here i’ts especailly galling given DC has pumped out a movie (Which we’ll get to at the end of this yearlong look at the story), two sequels (which I might get to at some point but probably not RIGHT after this. We’ll see), and tons of merch.  How DC screwed him out of this is incredibly obnoxious and one of their worse acts and I feel you really CAN’T takl about the series without this. It helped lead to Image which while that started.. messily to say the least, it’s bloomed into tons of indies that allow the creators to take their work if the contracts up and creators to get WAY more rightful residuals. So while things overall have changed.. it’s still shitty how Moore’s treated. I may not always agree with the old curmudgeon.. but I do get why he REALLY cannot stand DC. Same with Gibbons who has done more work with them again but isn’t exactly fond of them either. 

But enough elephants in the room, enough prep, the clock has hit midnight, a window has been broken, a man is dead... and the agents are all stirring under the cut. Content Warning: Gonna be a lot of these over this series but content warnings for talk of Rape and Suicide. Discretion is advised. 

We open with a great shot, which pans directly in from the cover, as do they all. The covers are all fantastic by the way, I just choose to go with the titles for each story as it’s a bit more distinct and helps my reviews stand out. 

Our first page is beautiful, with Gibbons art truly being striking, using an iconic 9 panel layout that many comics would ape after this, just enough for the action but enough to fit everything in. It’s gorgeous work. 

What’s less gorgeous is the dialouge coming from Rorschach's war journal. Rorshach is a costumed vigilante in this setting.. and is to me THE prototype for the 90′s style anti-hero. He kills, he’s heavily flawed, he’s deranged, and he constantly calls out other heroes for not doing enough. Rorschach is one of the primary inspirations for 90′s love of assholes who kill and monologue constantly, along with The Dark Knight Returns of course. 

The thing is though... the edgelords who kept making characters like this.. entirely missed the POINT of Rorschach. All they saw is that he looks cool (Which fair play, Gibbons design for him is iconic for a reason and one of the best superhero designs period), and does some really cool things. But from page one.. Rorschach is a terrible person who rambles about how bad society is, judges other and is about as far right as you can get. 

These are the thoughts of a man who needs serious psychatric help. He even does get a therapist later.. i’ts just a shame it’s a guy hoping to write a book and who Rorschach slowly destroys instead of anyone actually capable. 

This came as a shock because I hadn’t re-read watchmen in decades, so young me likely didn’t focus on just how far right this guy is. And i’m not against the character for being on the right. There’s been plenty of good rightwing characters and there are a handful of real life right wingers who AREN’T horrible monsters who rail against masks and vaccines while the world burns around them. I’m against him because his views are extreme, he looks down on other people as a judgmental asshole. Again one of his first, and most iconic lines is “All the whores and the policticans will lookup and shout “Save Us!” and i’ll whisper back... “No”.”. While he drives the plot and IS trying to solve a genine crime that dosen’t make him a good person. Putting on Spandex dosne’t make you a hero, it’s what you do in it, what you do as a person that counts, which is a big part of this story: just because you WANT to make a better world dosen’t mean your capable of it or that the world will LET you improve it. It’s one of those works that takes superheroes and slaps them in the face with reality, but does so in a way that dosen’t condem most of THEM (There are some really bad ones like Rorshach and Comedian) but shows society wouldn’t let that kind of idealisim and heroisim change it for the better. 

Point is Rorschach is not a good person, nor someone to idolize. Cosplay as yes, his costume again is straight fire, but he as a person sucks. 

Okay so moving on. We pan up, yes Dave Gibbons pulled off a freaking camera pan in a comic my god this art is amazing, to two detectives investigating the murder of Edward Blake, a goverment agent and costumed hero known as the Comedian, as they posulate HOW he could’ve died and we see it in flashback, though minus who actually did it. This is a murder mystery after all. I might spoil that mystery when the time is right, just as a heads up, but it is a well crafted one. It also gives us some needed exposition on the World of Watchmen.  In 1977, 8 years before this story, the Keene Act was passed which banned all costumed heroes, with only two staying active as sanctoined goverment agents.  If this sounds familiar both the Incredibles and Civil War (both the godawful comic and awesome movie adaptation) took this idea and ran with it. 

Thus only three heroes were left active: Blake, Doctor Manhattan who we’ll meet.. and Rorschach who didn’t quit when the act was passed, the one likeable thing he’s done all comic. So Shacky breaks into the crime scene and finds Comedian’s costume and it.. certainly is a choice

Like i’m all for BDSM, truly, and I get it was intetinonally supposed to be like this.. but why? Ed isn’t into BDSM, that i’m aware of the comic may correct me on this, and as a black ops mask it’s no less conspcious. He didn’t even change the res tof the outfit. He just changed from a domino mask to something out of Dennis Renold’s Tool Chest. And that’s not even getting into the fact that, as we’ll learn, Blake is a bastard so there’s a LOT of disturbing implications from him choosing to wear a fetish mask. And also the implicatoin that Moore and Gibbons do not know how BDSM works. But given this was the 80′s and the internet didn’t exist yet, they at least have more excuse than 80% of media. 

So we next cut to my faviorite of our main cast, Dan, aka Nite Owl II, whose having his weekly chat with Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl. Like Rorshach was based off the Question, a crime solver with a near identical outfit just no face instead of bloch face, Nite Owl is based off my boy Ted Kord, the endearingly dorky second blue beetle. Though I feel Ted being an endearing dork with weight issues is ironically BASED on Dan whose BASED on him. It makes my head spin just thinking about it. Dan and Hollis relationship is really sweet too, with Hollis gladly regalling his replacement with how he ran into an old foe at the supermarket. Turns out hes a great guy, they have a lot in common. Gonna get brunch saturday. So the two head off. 

Dan heads home to his apartment and finds Rorshach eating a can of beans Dan had in a suprisingly iconic shot. The two used to be team up buddies, kind of like spider-man and daredevil if daredevil went off his meds. He throws Dan the iconic button from the opening, seriously that shot of the smiley with blood my god, and says i’ts “human bean juice” before having a laugh”

Anyways Dan takes Inky Boy down to his old HQ to talk things over, and Inky shuts down Dan’s attempts to right this off as a burglary or political killing: Blake was too good for a common burglar to get him, even at his current age and made far too many enmies. Shack Attack suggests Hollis because he has no tact, since Hollis wrote some things about Blake in his book.. things we’ll get to.  We’ll also actually get to see some of the book but more on that later. 

We do get a REALLY good scene with the two though where for once, Shake Shack makes a good point. 

Dan is geninely rattled by this. This also sets up the format for the rest of this issue: Rickity Shack visiting people to invetigate them for the murder case.  It’s a clever way to get everyone on the board and feed us small bits about them, things that will be filled in later as the story goes on. 

So Your Gonna Hear Him Roar(Schah) decides to go to a dive bar and randomly intergoate people. The bartender is udnerstandably afraid of him as Inky has MURDERED people before.. and his response to some guy wh dosen’t know him laughing.. is to break the guys fucking fingers to get info no one has any clue of. Great detective work top notch.

So after that scene that.. sure did happen.. we get our next interview, Ozymandis, the world smartest man who retired before the writing was on the wall and became a mega mogul and liseecned himself to all shit, which Rorshach takes issue with because of course he does. Which I also find hilarious given how most conservatives love selling out, aint that right bottle of alex jones supliments that flies into my window to haunt me every night before I go to sleep? Veidt is shown in a positive light though, showing that he retired for his own reasons, is seemingly conflicted over it like everyone else, and points out blake was “pratically a nazi”. We also get another humanizing moment from Shack Diesel as he admits he didn’t suspect Veidt yet but as a likely next target if this is a superhero killing spree, he wanted him to be ready. 

So we get out final interview and it’s a two fer as I”m Regretting this Running Gag And Probably WOn’t Do It Again Next Month breaks in to talk to two more heroes: Dr. Manhattan, the cold detached only other superhero and his girlfriend Laurie, the former silk spectre II, picking up after her mom. Also just so we can get this out of the way yes, Dr. Manhattan is extra super duper naked and yes we do see his penis on OCCASION, though Gibbons takes pains not to show it too often. He has a big blue penis that probably glows too. 

The conversatoin between the two is so far ahead of it’s time I see it in the corner of my eye as I type. Laurie isn’t remotely sad about Blake’s death as Blake attempted to rape her mother and actually did choke her. And Inky’s response to this.. is to call them allegations and call an ATTEMPTED RAPE a “Moral lapse”. This causes Dr. Manhattan to casually teleport Rorshach away because he upset his girlfriend. It’s a nice subtle display of just HOW powerful and detached this guy is: with just a THOUGHT Rorshach is outside and unlike everyone else he never intergoated manhattan or laid into him like everyone else. We’ll get more on smurf dick later. Laurie is still a bit rattled and feeling cooped up decides to call up Dan for a friendly reunion dinner. 

So after another page of deranged man ranting, and a nice show that Nixon is still in office, another nod for things to come, we catch said dinner as it’s ending, with the two old friends reuniting with tons of chemistry, a nice contrast to how detached Laurie’s relationship with her blue beau feels. IT’s just small storytelling things like that that tell you you have a great one. The two reminsice over an old villian who was into being beat up.. who naturally met rorshach and thus his death as they didn’t have a safe word. We also get more of Laurie’s character: While Dan clearly misses the life.. Laurie seems not to because her mom shoved her into it.... yet part of her clearly does miss it. It’s more complicated than being forced into a roll she never wanted and as the two muse on the comedians death.. things will only complicated further

Under The Hood:

Yeah for those not familiar with Watchmen, every issue has a suplementary written bit. As a teen I stupidly sped through these as I was and still am an impatient bastard. That was a huge mistake as a LOT of the work’s worldbuilding and a lot of good stuff are in these, a mistake I thankfully won’t be making again. Oddly adding prose bits to comics never truly caught on, and only might NOW thanks to the Krakoa era of x-men which has added little info page bits that really splash things up or get otu exposition well

So for this issue it’s chapters of Hollis’ Book, Under the Hood. The first is simply to settle people into the book, relating a story about how the boss at the garage his dad used to work at used to really love tacky sexual novelty gags... which lead to a truly tragic moment when the guy gets a call his wife left him for his head mechanic and emptied their accounts and has been cheating on hi mfor two years. He comes out to announce this.. while wearing fake boobs which leads to resounding laughter as no one knows how to react.. and possibly to the poor man’s suicide that night. The reason for this grim tale is that Hollis wanted to open with what he considered the saddest thing he could think of. And that he felt more rediculous dressing up as an owl.

The second is more plot based, going into Hollis’ grandpa an absuvie racist old asshole who his dad hated, but who was sweet to Hollis. and while Hollis acknowledged the guy was a bastard he gave him an ingrained sense of justice which lead to Hollis joining the police.. but it didn’t feel like enough. Cue the dawn of superhero comics with Superman, and Hollis sneaking copies from kids while on the beat (to avoid being demoted for reading a childrens magazine. yes the stigma against superhero comics existed even in the 30′s.). He fantasied a bit about a simplier world as a costumed hero but wrote it off as just fantasies.. till he read a paper article about the first costumed hero, hooded justice, a man in a black hood with a noose around his neck... nad decided to be the second. 

So overall an excellent first issue. I don’t be doing my usual final thoughts as watchmen, while released issue by issue really is one massive story, so I feel judging each instalment may not work. I could change my mind as this project is going to span a year, one issue a month. Still it was an incredibly strong start in both stories and I look forward to next month. I don’t remember when everything happens, so I look forward to revisiting it and if this issue is any indication it’s every bit as good as it’s rep. See you real soon.

If you loved this review, follow for more, reblog it to help get the word out and if you want to help me make more reviews like this consider joining my patreon.  This retrospective is entirely thanks to one of my Patrons, Kev, and you too can have me look at whatever comic you want issue by issue if you sign up. 5 buck patrons get a review of a single comic issue or tv episode or special a month, so ther’es no better time to sign up! You can also talk to me personally on my discord server and twitter, links to all bellow. Good day to you. 

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