#i'm always happy to go into her involved meta

[ofbloodandbullets]

@deficd / 616!Doctor Strange sent a meme.

“You haven’t told me who you are.“

"Mm." A noncommittal response, at best, allowing herself a few heartbeats time to examine him for herself. "I'm surprised that my reputation hasn't preceded me ... what with the all seeing, all knowing that you and your .... " The tip of her tongue pressed against the back of her teeth for a moment's pause again as she searched for something less offensive than the first turn of phrase that came to mind. "Sect claim to be." She'd never had much patience for those that meddled in the supernatural; in her experience with them they'd rarely proven an exception to the 'power corrupts' theme and when the misuse of such power could lead to the unraveling of time and reality itself?

She didn't like having to be here. She didn't like putting herself in the middle of problems that couldn't be solved with her kind of skills and she didn't like the idea of putting a bullseye on herself. Magic didn't like being around her and it was unpredictable at best when she was around which tended to make team ups with those that practiced it dicey at best. "And you, Strange, can call me Andy."

[thesoftboiledegg]

This was such a great episode! I expected crazy shit to happen, especially with the hyper-realistic video game. I was like, "OK, this entire episode is going to turn out to be a simulation" and was pleasantly surprised when the "hyper-realism" was just a joke.

Anyway, it makes me so happy that Beth is bisexual. I figured she was, but the show never stated it either way. That's four out of five--only Morty is left. And to be honest, I think he's bisexual after his weird, unexplained obsession with Bruce Chutback in season 5, but the episode didn't outright say it.

I loved watching Beth and Space Beth fall for each other and go on dates. And OK, they're the same person, but they've made different choices and had wildly different life experiences. This created some tension and intrigue because they're not just repeating the same words and phrases back to each other like an echo.

Sarah Chalke gave a great performance, too. I'd say this is easily her best performance in the entire show. The dialogue was so natural that it sounded like it came from a live-action drama and not a cartoon. Rick and Morty has always had decent dialogue--and Rick in particular sounds like a real person talking at times--but this was another level of realism.

These new writers definitely know what they're doing. Damn.

I could NOT believe it when Rick said that he's fooled around with other Ricks. Holy shit. I actually paused and rewound the video because I was like "...did he seriously just say that?" It's been part of fandom culture for years, but I NEVER thought it would be in the show. Especially with C-137, who's a notorious Rick killer and hates them almost as much as he hates himself.

This makes me so happy! And it's yet another confirmation that Rick is pansexual. Give it up, homophobic fans, because the evidence just keeps mounting.

And like the other episodes in seasons 5 and 6, "Bethic Twinstinct" shows a new side of Rick--someone who's calmer, more patient and willing to help his family instead of just taking what he wants, then throwing a hissy fit when they get sick of it.

Rick's relationship with Jerry is changing, too. He says that he installed the "pillbug protocol" because he got drunk with Jerry one night (that's pretty big in itself) and installed the protocol because Jerry said that's what he "wanted most in the world." Rick wasn't being an asshole. He actually gave Jerry something that he wanted.

And yeah, Rick could be lying, but I think he's telling the truth this time.

Overall, this episode was a good combination of everything. Beth exploring various aspects of her personality, Rick bonding with Beth and his grandkids, Jerry letting out his frustration instead of being passive. Admittedly, Morty and Summer didn't do much, but they were still fun. I enjoyed the meta jokes about how they've had a million Thanksgivings and don't even know how old they are at this point.

This episode didn't explain those creepy posters where Space Beth appears to be controlling her family, so I'm guessing she'll turn up again--and this time, it might not be so friendly.

Anyway, the one part I disliked was the ending. The implication was "Haha yeah, Jerry's got two hot wives that will fool around in front of him." Normally, I'd call it lowkey sexist, but this episode did have Beth and Space Beth exploring a romantic relationship without Jerry's involvement. Still, I'm not a fan. I guess they're cucking Jerry in there? lmao.

Some might dislike this comparison, but Rick and Morty is starting to remind me of Moral Orel, especially with this episode in particular. Both shows start off as rambunctious comedies but explore more mature and dramatic themes as they go on. Honestly, "Bethic Twinstinct" wasn't that funny, but the character development is a worthy trade-off for me.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[twig-tea]

I am freaking out about Be My Favorite Ep8. So much happened! All of it so good! How does this show continue to surprise me?!

This isn't going to be coherent, sorry in advance.

First, the way this show never lies to us in the previews but still manages to make us second-guess?! I think @respectthepetty said this first and it's remained true; I was truly blown away by how the preview of Kawi confessing on the balcony was undercut but still borne through, and even moreso how Kawi crying in Pisaeng's arms in the past/present is made more poignant as we the audience realize that Kawi's also reacting to what he knows happens in this moment in the past, which is his father dying. The storytelling! The throughline from that moment of realization last episode! And the additional weight this gives to Kawi's decision to go back anyway, to relive this moment of loss knowing he absolutely could not fix it?! I am freaking out about how good this is. No wonder he hesitated before going back in time! No wonder he was overwhelmed! I'm not ok.

Then that bit about Kawi asking Pisaeng to stay away in public!! As @lurkingshan said this show is definitely paralleling Krist's real experience and real history, and as an apologist/redemption vehicle I have to say it is doing its job, damn, A++ to everyone involved in that decision.

Then we got Pisaeng's mother once again turning me into an absolute rage monster. @waitmyturtles already said what I wanted to say about this, how her suggestion to run is perfectly contrasted with Max's conversation with Kawi about how it may be more difficult but staying and fighting is worthwhile [note: no judgment to people who legitimately have to leave to survive, as a person who only exists because my Jewish relatives left Ukraine before the town was murdered! Time and place, nuance, etc]. I think @bengiyo is right and this woman is evil, and I always love a story where the banality of evil is allowed to shine.

Then. Then!! We got Kawi giving Pisaeng the diary. The way I GASPED. I cannot tell you all how much I was not struggling with Kawi confessing to Pisaeng with the imbalance of both age and knowledge on his side, and this show said "Not Today, Lying By Omission Gang! Full and Enthusiastic Emotional Consent Only" 😭 I have so many emotions about this. When we saw him with it in the preview I was worried Pisaeng had found it and read it and drawn weird conclusions about what Kawi wants (which...I was half right lol). Kawi really did not have to share this at this point in the narrative, and as that balcony conversation showed, it was a hard sell as the truth. But now everything is on the table. The secrets are out! Anything that comes now will be something external, that they can then choose to either fight together or let break them apart.

I have Thoughts about the future mystic guy showing up in this episode. Are we to take his offer as a representation of the "easy way out" and Pisaeng rejecting it as an indicator of his character [This is currently my favourite theory but I'm not fully convinced; it fits with @lurkingshan's brilliant meta about the way this show is pushing for doing the work, accepting consequences, and not taking shortcuts though]? If Pisaeng had said yes, would he have been given a chance to change his past (but it's a strange moment for him to want to change, having gotten hope from Kawi for the first time); or would he have been given a glimpse of his future to help him make a decision in the present? Are we supposed to think that Pisaeng and Kawi are soulmates and this guy is their guardian angel trying to help them get together faster (but he seemed happy that Pisaeng turned him down?)?

And on that note, I just have to say that I am as happy as everyone else that we're seeing Kawi finally take responsibility for his choices and their consequences, finally think about the impact on other people, and work actively to make the lives of his friends better not just his own. It makes sense to me that Kawi needed to see "success" as he'd defined it and realize it sucked before he was willing to let that go. It also makes sense that he'd mature more quickly after getting years of memories every time he goes into the future. And I think experiencing the loss of his father, Pearmai, and Pisaeng in succession via memory really helped him put in perspective who was important to him. He seems to need to see how something falls out rather than thinking it through in advance, so this seems in character as a means of gaining clarity. The way he was talking about himself with Pisaeng in that flashback was so interesting too, "you didn't tell anyone about me, did you?" as though there IS something to tell; living that future really solidified Kawi as Queer for Kawi, in ways his uncertainty in the present/past hadn't. And there's something lovely about Kawi coming to terms with his sexuality in the past because he's seen how much it hurts Pisaeng in the future if he doesn't. I also really, really love that he still hesitated, and had trouble getting it out because as @waitmyturtles said, change is not easy.(This also feels connected to some of what @dribs-and-drabbles has written about Kawi rewriting his sense of self in real-time).

I'm 100% with @grapejuicegay that I want Kawi to decide to live in the past as his present and to be present for it, and shockingly it seems like in this episode he's already come to that decision himself?! Which now has me wondering what the conflict will be in future and what it will have to do with time travel.

I'm calling now [get ready to clown] that Kawi's going to get too tempted to check his future one last time over a decision, even though Pisaeng tells him not to, and gets stuck in a future he doesn't like. Wild speculation: Pisaeng is dead because of Kawi and Kawi goes to the future guy for one last chance, and he's given two choices: keep things as they are or go back to the first timeline. Kawi goes back to the first timeline (because you can't ever really go back and fix your past), but takes the lessons he learned to improve his (and all his friends') present and future. This show has been really good at giving me better than I could come up with, and I'm looking forward to being proven wrong.

Most of all I just want to celebrate in this moment that this show is doing everything I had hoped (none of which I expected to get), and none of what I'd feared, and it has far, far surpassed my expectations!

[skitskatdacat63]

Tysm for the tags @monacobasedgirldad @schumigrace @fernandoalonzoo sry im a bit late getting to this lol

Are you named after anyone?

My great great grandmother(I think??), though she was named Katarzyna, and I was born Catherine, but go by Catie obviously(this lowkey annoys my mom lmao, especially bcs if I were to have a nickname, it was supposed to be Cate.)

When was the last time you cried?

Today, over classical music. I think I cry at least once a day 😭 I am very emotional

Do you have kids?

Nope :)

What sports did you play/have you played?

I played soccer when I was a kid. Also does marching band count?

Do you use sarcasm?

All the fucking time, literally constantly. And also we sarcastically bully each other in my family, so I have to pull myself back from accidentally insulting people 😭

What is the first thing you notice about people?

Hmmmm, I feel like ive done this tag game before bcs I remember writing this exact answer. But usually I notice if someone is a good conversationalist or not. Like do they like to lead the convo, do they like to listen to the other people, do they talk too much, too little, are they awkward about it? It's just very interesting to me, bcs I think that kinda thing really does instantly show you if you're going to be compatible with a person(as a friend or more etc.) Cause I talk a lot a lot, and I think it's difficult to get along w people who are untalkative but also people who talk an equal amnt if not more djkfkglg.

What is your eye color?

Just brown!

Scary movies or happy endings?

Scary movies definitely. I mean im not opposed to a happy ending obviously, but that's not really what im always looking for in a movie, I guess? Rn I'm trying to think of my top movies, and man, not a lot of them have happy endings 😭 But I literally just watched two horror movies the past wknd so! Even though they make me paranoid

Any talents?

I think I could go on a rant about anything if you gave me a bit of time. I really think I can just talk endlessly. Is that a skill? Or is it just annoying..? But yeah I'm not sure, but I think I'm pretty good at absorbing information and being able to go on and on about it.

Where were you born?

America rahhh 🦅🦅 I like my state a lot even though I feel like all my peers keep saying "ugh I don't want to be in [insert state] anymore" Smh how dare you

What are your hobbies?

Mostly drawing! I draw both F1 fanart(pretty much all selfmade AUs tho) and ocs. I like writing lore and worldbuilding and meta, but not really writing itself. I like reading fic and watching movies as well. And I think one of the main things I do these days tbh is read about history and keep up with politics. I get more and more involved with it as the days go by, but unlike drawing, I don't really have an outlet for it sigh sigh. So that's why a lot of AUs involve history and random other things, bcs its fun to involve my interests with each other!

Do you have any pets?

Yes I do! Two cats and two dogs. The cats are named Jin and Frank. Jin is basically me in cat form, he's so anxious 😭 and Frank is like my brother, he's such a little bastard who loves to hiss all the time. My dogs are named Maisie and Ruby. Maisie is a menace to society, but she is also the most beautiful dog ever, so I forgive her. Her name makes me laugh bcs she's named after this book character, Maisie Dobbs right? So her name tag says Maisie Doggs

How tall are you?

Around 5'4

Favorite subject at school?

Politics >:) But I'm pretty interested in philosophy as well rn. Unfortunately my love for foreign languages has been slipping in the semester or so, bcs my professors on that side kinda suck. So I've been putting more energy into my other major, and now all I can talk about is history, politics and philosophy, etc etc. It's just a lot of fun and very interesting to me!

Dream job?

Man, sometimes I wish I could just be a student forever, I just want to keep learning all about the world and other things. But I'd like a job that's not too static, something that pushes me out into the world a bit, maybe smth in the government or like a non-profit idk yet!

Ahhhh I'm doing this a bit late so I'm not sure who's done it yet, I feel like mostly everyone has :,) I tag anyone who's interested, like seriously I'd love to see people's answers who I haven't yet!!

[backjustforberena]

Question: Laena as daddy’s girl and laenor as Mummy’s boy. Do you think they had this family structure? Why/why not?

Scenarios: Rhaenys teaching them how to fly like a badass. Eg. the importance of a strong bond, modifications to the saddle, not flying too high.

Swimming with them as young children in the bay on a hot day.

THIS GOT LONG, I'M SORRY.

META: Oh, boy, thank you for sending this in! And the answer to the first one, about dynamics is: certainly yes. Although, ironically and perhaps obviously given the world they inhabit, they spend more time with the other parent. Laenor spends years with his father in the Stepstones and on the flip side, Laena has a lot of time alone with her mother whilst the men are away.

I remember listening to interviews where Eve would say that Corlys was harder on Laenor than Rhaenys perhaps was, and Steve called Laena "the apple of his eye", and how family and legacy were everything to these two.

Rhaenys's connection to her children is a lot more emotional and typically maternal: it's worrying over their happiness, it's making sure that parameters will be in place if Laena weds Viserys (i.e what Laena says about being bedded), it's wishing Laena home from Pentos, watching her son dance at his betrothal with a smile on her face, hugging him before giving him away, having her heart torn by their misery.

Corlys's relationship is more typically masculine. He wants to provide for them; safety and security and power. Making them good marriages, wanting them to conform to society's expectations because that is what will get them ahead, that will be less painful. He wants his children to be the best of the best. He's got high standards, but never anything that suggests it's crushing or detrimental.

Laena, in particular, sounds a lot like her father when she grows up - talking about Valyrian blood and being more than the existence Daemon binds her to in Pentos. She wants to go home and give birth and have her children raised as Velaryon children are raised. She yearns for her family. She still sent letters to her mother, after all. Letters where she hid nothing - how else did Rhaenys know Laena wanted to return home? But Laena is also a dragon-rider, like her mother. Claimed a dragon, like her mother. Married a man for love, like her mother. Yet she travelled like her father did, and wore her father's house colours after marriage, (except when riding - like her mother).

Laenor is everything a lord would wish for in a son. Most characters note on his goodness. How he is a fine knight. He's battle-tested, with a strong bond with his dragon. He's kind and loves war as his father does. He yearns for the sea and for battle, like his father. He's got armour, like his father, participates in the strategy of the Stepstones and is trusted enough that Corlys goes with his plan. Between young and teen Laenor, he even starts doing his locs like his father. His saddle has a seahorse on it. Yet he's incredibly sensitive, and loves with his whole heart. When his loved one is murdered, he screams - like his mother. When his sister is dead, he dies a little bit with her. He chafes at court because it hurts him, like Rhaenys does. And he goes through great tragedy that was not of his own making.

But as much as I think the parents have "favourites", you don't get the feeling that it's overtly biased, in the way they parent or the way they relate to one another - they don't favour one child over the other. Although, we have very little to base that conclusion on, given that horrifically, we have very few scenes of them as a family unit and they barely speak a word to one another. Except, perhaps in deleted scenes. Overall, to me, the Velaryons came across as a very harmonious family. Neither parent is distant - they're both involved in the decisions that surround their children and always think (albeit perhaps not enough or even correctly) about their well-being and their futures. To the point that it's really the only thing that severs their marriage. Both of the siblings, after marriage, look back to their parents and to things that signify their house - there's no resentment from Laenor for making him marry Rhaenyra. There's no distance created from Laena, knowing they had proposed her match to Viserys. No effect at all. They take comfort in one another. They can't have a family outing without matching either.

SCENARIOS: Rhaenys teaching them how to fly would be amazing. Even in the one scene we have of Laenor and Rhaenys flying together, Meleys gives out instructions to Seasmoke and takes the lead over the fleet. It's very cute. And I can imagine Driftmark has it's own dragonkeepers, but Rhaenys would still take a proactive role in this. I can only imagine how empty the skies felt when her children had flown the nest. And I imagine this sort of lesson is something she now recreates with Baela.

And those kids must swim like fishes. Wild swimming as well. I bet Laenor would do a cannonball and Laena learnt to do an impressively graceful dive into the water.

[jakowskis]

@buffetpallascat doing a good ol' days reply because i had enough thoughts on this to warrant some meta, in my typical rambling fashion. hope you don't regret engaging by the time im done dfhkdsf

for starters, you're very welcome, i'm glad you enjoy the post :D

as for your question - i meant moreso that it was typical of the fandom, although it was also very much influenced by societal trends of the time, too. fandom's always had a rocky history with women, especially women who supposedly 'get in the way of "slash" couples', but the way fandom misogyny is performed has changed; i see more willful erasure of female characters these days than flat out blatant misogyny. in tw fan content from the 00s, i've seen gwen hatefully AND casually called some pretty horrible things that i rarely see fictional or real women called nowadays, simply because standards have changed. hell, one of the comms i linked, the twgenre finders one, there was several entries requesting fic where gwen experiences, like, bodily harm? not in a whump-y way, they actually wanted to recreationally read fic about her getting physically injured and suffering, out of some bizarre sense of malice towards her. simply because she 'gets in the way of janto'. and i can't even fathom that existing nowadays. pretty much everyone outside of weird little 12 year olds knows that's not acceptable. not to mention it's just weird.

interestingly i've also noticed a lottttt of change in how the fandom... reacted to and treated janto as a couple back in the day, versus now. people in 2006 were not normal about gay people. we know fandom's history with fetishizing gay men, and it was even worse in 2006 with an exceptionally rare canon gay couple being received by a jarringly hetero-but-'slash'-obsessed fanbase.

i mean, i don't wanna generalize. i saw a poll recently about how fandom is not mainly composed of straight women, contrary to popular belief, at least anymore, and i guess the question is, was it ever? i have seen a lot of the people involved in fandom in the 00s identify themselves as straight, but was that partially because of the culture of that era? have any of those people since come out as some type of queer? maybe, for some of them, that was them exploring their queerness in a safe environment, when the culture around being gay in real life was a lot different.... the same way modern fandom culture continues to be for those of us who aren't in accepting homes. if they were 20smth year olds in the 2010s/2020s, rather than the 2000s, would they still identify as straight?

not sure. but i've made a habit of going on the profiles of old lj accounts, and i'll sometimes wind up going through the journals and the personal posts of authors i respect, etc etc. a significant amount of mid 00s fic writers were straight women in their 30s - 40s, many married, some with kids. very different demographic to modern fandom. very different climate they lived in vs the one we're in.

(although, bonus note, i also once found a thread of bisexuals in 2006 praising torchwood's depiction of bisexuality, and that made me exceptionally happy. but also maybe a little sad, because torchwood's my personal fav bi rep, too, in 2023, and the fact that we've had nothing better in seventeen years is a bit of a bummer. but i digress.)

anyway, this is all to say, i've seen some insanely fetishy shit about jack and ianto that rubbed me exceptionally wrong. that gross dehumanizing, severely homophobic place where it's like... ahh, ok, so you don't see them as people, you see them as sexy dolls you can mash together. but, ofc, that's how i view it as a bisexual person in 2023 who's been on tumblr far too long. they didn't see any problem with it. they might've even seen it as progressive. how can you be homophobic when you're obsessed with the little gay people on ur screen? but it's the opposite end of the 'homophobes reducing gay ppl down to what they do in their beds' trope, and it comes across as dated and icky now.

i mean, i consume a lot of older media, i know how to turn off my 21st century sensibilities and remind myself things used to be different, but it's honestly an impressive difference. there's some fantastic fics from that era of the fandom, in fact most of my favorite fics are from that era, but i often get quite a bit of culture shock reading things. particularly, i'm always impressed by people in the 2000s, an extremely biphobic era, applying their impressive period-typical 'bisexuals aren't real' beliefs to The Bisexual Show. torchwood's rep's not perfect (again, a product of its era), but i've seen a fantastic amount of gay!ianto and straight!owen, because bisexual men don't exist, obviously, and jack's not bisexual, he's the amazing slutty space man, except he's mostly gay because all that matters is janto. and i don't even really see explorations of gwen or tosh's bisexuality at all, because, again, women who?

i found a comm a while back, i didn't include it on my list because it wasn't torchwood-exclusive and didn't have much content in the tw tag, but it was a lgbtfest, and contained fics about the team and their relationships with their bisexuality, and it was really intriguing to me to see queerness as understood by regular people in 2007/2008, y'know, not by gay writers or activists or films. i have no way of knowing if any of them were speaking from any personal place, but it was just interesting, because none of the fics i read in that comm had that same brand of tone-deaf sex-focused homophobia to them, they were progressive for the time, but it was still apparent to me that they were written by people with a mid to late 00s understanding of being gay, and i do think it's interesting, that substantial difference.

got a bit off topic, but now that i mentioned the initial fandom being overwhelmingly composed of women, i can also add that i think internalized misogyny factored hugely into the fandom's disdain for gwen. the 'strong female' trope doesn't just annoy straight men, it also annoys a lot of women (though not consciously) - not because they're opposed to well-written women, but because society tells us certain things that'd be admirable and complex and sympathetic out of a male hero are unacceptable out of a female one. it's the double standard. jack does some awful shit, but i rarely see him criticized. i've straight up seen fans go "jack's kind of a bastard, but it's ok because he's hot", which is fine in jest, i've joked about shit like that with characters, but it's not so cute when those same people turn around and condemn gwen for her actions. hell, or owen. i've literally seen someone say they'd like owen more if he was more conventionally attractive. like, ok, you're clearly just here for the janto eye candy. you haven't brought any substantial critical thinking skills. pls take ur shallow ass and leave. but back to gwen - she was held to a standard none of the other characters are held to. they picked on her for the stupidest shit. and her worse sin, the infidelity, it's bad, sure, but i've seen countless male characters who cheat on their partners who are beloved by their fandoms. it's just fucking gross. i fucking hate hypocrites.

dude, yknow what?? i've even seen fucking tosh bashing. WHO THE FUCK HATES TOSH????

ok im done. sorry for my babbling. but yeah, i think it's a fascinating thing. i love how humans change and develop with the times and how we can map the changes and how they affect media, and it's fun to observe in fandom because it's there, too, but no one's looking so i get to feel like a little scientist fdskjfds. ok i will cease with the excessive babbling now

[ecoamerica]

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[basedkikuenjoyer]

A Marvelously Wonderful Life

1102 was a very tough chapter to write about. I usually have a draft ready from the Raws, but here there were a few angles I had to look at it from. So y'all are getting a Christmas bonus. On the surface this is just a cool, cool chapter. We split between Kuma and Bonney's stories, showing the former's side of known events. It's so moving in it's own right, do remember part of why I choose to focus on the meta narrative aspects is because it's hitting very close to home. And y'all this one's a doozy. Bookends. So this flashback begins with Ginny saving the day at God Valley the way she did and now ends with Kuma setting a precedent for the exact narrative trope we're looking for? Showing hidden sides of known events.

That's it, that's like...the entire foundational building block of all this weird shit I've said. Kiku was perfectly set up to do this with all of Wano, but it'd really start looking like a new recruit narrative fast. It's not just saying that the same way anyone could do that, we've pointed out several specific places where you could guess something happened based on context clues. Miss Unassuming is kinda the #1 archetype to pair with a twist told that way. In essence, this flashback starts and ends by setting a precedent. That's one way you could look at it, given I can tie both to Victoria Cindry is blowing my mind.

You cheeky lil shit. Don't worry, I'm not getting ahead of myself. This could just be a last note of the flashback and next chapter we're back to fighting Saturn. Kuma pops in to save the day with a last ounce of humanity, the miracle we didn't see with Cindry. Tomorrow we'll talk big picture, why I still wonder if this is a red herring walking the same line as Yamato. But first we have to ask the basic question, where does 1103 go from here? Because it can do that...but did we see it? A repeat of how we came back from the big cutaway. When we skipped the night in the lab. Is this the start of us coming back to that? Don't forget that was a double-bluff too.

That is an intriguing possibility. Always cool when you see the concept you expected but in a different way that's instantly so much better. Yeah, that is the way to play with the flow of this narrative. Skip the night, get to the high drama, fill in the night, finish the fight. To me, if that's what we're doing then this is almost assuredly heading towards the "Double Rashomon" idea. There'll be one more segment away. Maybe it's the alternate take on Wano. Maybe that's through Sword and Drake's report. Maybe it's the two Stussys as a pretext to let Marco do it. Maybe it's something completely different with or without alt-Wano as the fourth, real one. Neat right?

Crackle. Oh man, story's picking up another frequency again. There's something I'm left with here. Kuma's a total patron saint of teddy bears and genuinely good dudes everywhere. He's so cuddly and sweet and I know some of y'all are gonna hate me for this but he's also kind of a trusting idiot. So it's interesting you have that "Bakura" split personality element seep in.

We've broached this subject before, it's where Okiku was an evolution of Himura Kenshin. Which is really just the difference between a man making big, grandiose axioms about nonviolence vs. a sensible, pragmatic woman who will bear the burden of doing what's necessary as a last resort. Remember how much Kuma's sacrifices troubled Ginny. A little more grit and realism from the very spiritual Kuma probably would have been better for everyone involved, but at least people end up remembering you as a figure like Oden.

Makes this little crackle very interesting. It theoretically works as a Chekov's Gun; a way for Kuma to have a happy ending if Vegapunk snuck it in anyways. Or it works as a roadmap for where Kuma, saintly as he may be, fell short and is part of something bigger. Recall, we do make a point of showing something similar out of Vivi losing her cool in a tense conversation with Cipher Pol. (Psst, and Stussy setting up still struggling with personal identity issues that are silly to worry too much about.)

[hamliet]

Hi! I just want to say I love your alchemy meta posts related to asoiaf! So many things clicked after reading them. Wanted to ask, you mentioned that Dany/Jon have an active/passive motif in their respective arcs, can you elaborate on that? Does it refer to their future arc in TWOW? (Dany going all out on slavery/conquest, Jon adopting a more apathetic attitude to the impeding doom of the Long Night...)

Hi!! So, you're here to nag me about the meta I said I would write and never did despite outlining it, yes, fair enough. (I'm kidding with you! Thanks actually for this kick in the pants.)

It's actually a motif for both Jon and Dany's arcs throughout the entire story. So let's start by redefining again what the point of passive/active is. In alchemy, the main goal is the "union of opposites," usually embodied in two characters in literature. The classic opposites tend to have the following motifs/symbols associated with them:

Male: Sun, sulphur, fire and air, hot and dry, red, gold, heart, active.

Female: Moon, mercury (or quicksilver), earth and water, cool and moist, white, silver, mind, passive.

ASOIAF switches the genders, which is very interesting. Jon is marked as white, water (snow), has qualities of mercury (mercury can shift states very easily; Jon goes undercover), is cunning, is of course associated with the cold north. Dany...

Well, Dany actually starts A Game of Thrones as passive (not wanting to marry Drogo and begging Viserys not to make her), but by the end of the first book she is fully active. This actually fits her other "alchemical" motifs because she starts off as white, the "moon of [Drogo's] life,", silver, etc. but by the end of the first book is reborn out of fire, and is therefore marked as sun, sulfur, gold, fire and air (flying on fire-breathing dragons), hot and dry (the territory of Essos), etc.

And of course, Dany is active, while Jon is passive. Let's go through the books, shall we? The active/passive motif exists in relationships as well as their internal motivations/personal goals.

Let's compare their (romantic/sexual) relationships first. Jon is reluctant to get involved with Ygritte and only does when there is little choice; he is attracted to her, so I wouldn't say it's nonconsensual, but there's also certainly an element of "do it or die." Dany also had little choice with Drogo, but by the middle of AGOT she's the one initiating public sex with him without any shame.

Jon's other quasi-romantic relationship so far is with Val, which thus far is (and likely will forever remain) unconsummated, with Jon fully committing to never violating his vows again. He also refuses to marry Val even though doing so would be politically expedient for Stannis. In contrast, Daenerys initiates with Daario, and she is the one who decides to marry Hizdahr even though she doesn't want to, for reasons of political expedience. She's actively making these choices.

It's even present in how they treat subordinates in regards to sex. Dany has sex with Irri and feels guilty for it, because even if Irri is happy to do so, she's still Dany's servant, and Dany knows there's an uncomfortable power dynamic there and expressly feels guilt over it. Jon is instead defined by what he doesn't do: his brothers of the Night's Watch spread rumors about him and Satin, but the reality is that nothing is going on and there probably isn't any attraction there either. Dany takes action; Jon does nothing and thinks that it'll all blow over and people will come to accept Satin, when that is very naive. (I'm not saying Jon is doing anything wrong; he's not. It's just an interesting parallel I noticed.)

Then let's talk their purposes and internal motivations. Jon defines himself as illegitimate, as Ned Stark's bastard. Daenerys defines herself as the rightful heir to the Targaryen dynasty. How does this translate into active vs passive?

Daenerys is active in regards to protecting slaves and freeing them. She just doesn't always do it wisely. But she intervenes and stops several assaults and frees people, crowning herself queen in Meereen to stay queen.

Jon, on the other hand, is a lot more passive. He refuses to help Gilly when she asks for help at the visit to Craster's because it's just not done and would violate his vows. Jon is forced by Qhorin Halfhand to go undercover with the Wildings; literally, he's pushed into it. Even when he is elected as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, he did not campaign for himself nor seek it out. It's passivity, and a sharp contrast to Daenerys's deliberate seeking of power.

However, what they both do with power is very similar. Daenerys wants to free people and save them. Jon, too, wants to save the Wildlings. They can't help but empathize with people mistreated around them. Daenerys definitely sees herself in slaves (sold to Drogo), in sexual assault victims (again, Drogo), and in people forcibly taken to strange lands (being raised in Essos, always on the run). Jon sees himself in the Wildlings, always defined as an "other" despite being very human (Wildlings and bastards are treated differently for no legitimate reason). Both struggle with duty vs passion, with Dany choosing duty (Hizdahr) over passion (Daario), and Jon of course as well (choosing the Night's Watch over Ygritte and over Val).

As for the future, well. Every character tends to become "the monster you think I am," to quote Tyrion. What is the monster everyone thinks Daenerys is? What is the monster everyone thinks Jon is?

The Mad King's Daughter.

Bastards are craven.

Both quotes occur multiple times in every single book. Both Jon and Dany try to define themselves as different from this. Jon refuses to be craven. Dany is in denial about who her father was, but there's also a level wherein she worries about her own sanity, so she suspects something.

Both Jon and Dany also make an opposite decision in A Dance With Dragons. Jon finally chooses to be active and march south; the problem is that this completely destroys duty and is foolish. Dany chooses to be passive and robes herself in white and pearls again in her marriage to Hizdahr. It just... doesn't work out for either of them.

Both have tried so hard, and gotten nothing. They're going to sink into their flaws, their tendencies towards activity and passivity, and also become the monsters people think they are. HOWEVER. Their arcs are not going to end with them as monsters. They need to see what they are capable of becoming to truly face their demons and overcome them.

Daenerys is going to go on the warpath in The Winds of Winter. I think that's very clear from her final chapter in A Dance With Dragons. She tried to temper herself. She chained her dragons. She married a Meereenese man. She let the fighting pits reopen. It hasn't brought the peace she's been seeking. I think she'll use fire and blood to subdue her enemies and take Westeros.

Jon, on the other hand, has just been killed. Melisandre is clearly going to resurrect him. He wanted to march south and ditch duty before he died, and I don't doubt he'll ditch duty. Why hang around the Night's Watch when they just killed you? He's probably going to sink into apathy, especially once he finds out that Arya is not the girl in need of rescue. His family is nowhere around him. He was just killed by his new "brothers." Why bother? Why keep caring? Why keep trying? I definitely see him ditching the Watch but not coming to Stannis's aid either.

Also, both will get a reveal about their parents. Dany will learn that the Mad King was truly evil when King's Landing blows up in her face in a green blur of her dad's wildfyre. Jon will learn he's actually not Ned Stark's bastard... not even his son, in fact. Dany's reveal will be a result of her action, Jon's will almost certainly be a reveal from someone else to him, not his own searching. Dany will be horrified because of what her father wanted to do and what she committed (even if she didn't mean to go so far), while Jon will be horrified by what was omitted by the man he thought was his father.

But the answers to their problems can be found through each other. Jon will find his family again--his siblings Arya, Bran, maybe Rickon, and Sansa--and meet Sam again, too. He'll find love with Daenerys, someone who has messed up atrociously and still wants to do good. And he'll find out that being a Targaryen is not a taint through her; even when you'e messed up, you can still be a hero. Daenerys will be wondering why on earth she even has her dragons and how she can possibly rule after leaving the city in ashes, and along come the Others. She's the only one who can defeat them. She'll just have killed f!Aegon (likely unintentionally) and knew he was a fraud, but here's an actual family member. She's not the last Targaryen; instead of seeing that as a threat, I think she'll see it as a comfort eventually. Dany will help Jon remember his duty again, and Jon will help Dany love and be loved again, and together they'll save the world.

[itsgwencayyye]

I'm really thinking and like ok the cookies are really similar in vibe to the happy pills, but they don't really make the eggs go crazy like the pills did. Unless a parent eats a cookie we won't know for sure if the eggs are immune or the cookies just aren't happy pill aligned. But then why were the pills developed in the first place. They only appeared after the eggs went missing and forever blew shit up. So the happy pills were made to bring all the islanders under control in the absence of the eggs. With all that I assume that the eggs and the happy pills have the same functions of making the islanders happy and distracted so the federation can do whatever its been wanting to do. Maybe the happy pills are made of a similar substance that the eggs are made of but less diluted which is why the pills have a more intense effect. It would also make sense because we know the eggs are inorganic so them being creatures made to ensure the islanders stay happy and orderly. And this idea is less connected but we know that the federation has been trying and failing different types of cloning experiments likely for the 20 years since the last promo for the island was made. We know some of the current islanders were involved in the old experiments and there are current cloning/gene splicing experiments the federation are doing now. The eggs could be a result of this cloning to some extent, the biggest piece of evidence to that being tallulah. Because asides from meta reasons why the fuck is she even here (prefacing this by saying she is one of my favorite eggs and this isn't neg towards her at all). Like she is the only egg on the island that was made specifically for one person, she has wilbur's hair, and her bed is noted with egg bed(wilbur) rather than the other item naming systems of the other egg beds. We also know that to some extent q!wilbur whether he remembers it or not is extremely close with the federation because he fucking funds the island, so it's not weird to think they might have his DNA on hand. But why give him a child that is directly modled after him that he's the sole parent of if he's just gonna leave soon unless they were trying to keep him on a leash and always wanting to come back. They don't let anyone but him leave so they need to keep him happy and wanting to come back for so many reasons. Like I fully believe the eggs are fully designed to keep the islanders in check and control them. The federation sees them as tools to achieve this and take their lives away and threaten them in order to threaten the islanders. But the federation would not directly kill an egg (they do however refuse to revive them probably as a form of punishment and rule enforcement) because it would lose the trust and happiness the eggs provide, leading to the kinds of revolts the islanders were staging right after the eggs went missing. Those revolts is probably the exact reason some of the codes came after the eggs so hard. They knew that the eggs were made of that happy pill material kinda stuff and as long as they're around the federation is not going to truly go down. Every side ignores that the eggs are just kids. TLDR: eggs were the og happy pills and are made to control the islanders and that's why the codes were after them, and also cloning may or may not be a factor in their creation

[orionsangel86]

Hey, just wanted to tell you I am sorry you are being targeted and your words are being twisted. I don't really see what resolution does that person want? To publicly self-flagellate? What do they want to achieve? Feel free to not answer this ask obv. Just here to offer you support.

Thank you I appreciate it.

The whole thing is very frustrating and quite sad. I agree with her on the issues of fandom racism. I have never not agreed on these things. She has been attempting to twist my words and use them against me but I stand by my words. With all things there is nuance involved. There is a difference between claiming that yes, fandoms are racist and in general lean towards shipping white male characters. Yes, I do think that had Lucienne been played by a white male actor and remained Lucien as in the comic that the ship might be more popular as well.

But thats not the same as claiming that all Dreamling shippers are racist. That if you DON'T ship Morphienne you are racist. The minute you start using racism as a reason to shit on a ship you lose my respect because its no longer about a genuine concern for racism and instead becomes a game of "my ship is better than yours". The minute you start mocking Dreamling shippers and calling them "delusional" you've lost me - I have a huuuuge issue with people calling shippers delusional I was in SPN fandom for fucks sake I had 7 years of people calling me delusional and I really don't appreciate it.

I don't know what the end goal was. Whatever it was, they were going about it wrong. I desperately want more focus on other characters outside of Dreamling, anyone who follows me knows this about me. My blog is very much a mix of all Sandman content, both show and comic, and I always reblog everything I can find about the other characters to ensure that creators of fanworks devoted to other characters are getting noticed and supported by the fandom.

I have also never denied Hob's problematic side. I have never tried to excuse Hob for his crimes and have had extensive discussions about this over the past year. I am baffled that this has happened now. I think it must be a build up of frustration over the past year as Dreamling has become more and more popular and dominated online Sandman fandom and whats so annoying is that I totally understand how that could be frustrating. I feel for people who don't ship it and would rather focus on Lucienne, or Calliope, or Rose Walker, because I have seen how little content there is for them and its not always easy to just say "well go make it!" because even if you do make it, its not getting anywhere near the amount of attention as a similar fanwork for Dreamling or Hob would get. But that's no excuse to resort to hateful rhetoric. That's no excuse to start pointedly claiming racism because you don't like how popular a ship is.

In the end I did block her. She basically told me too. I think if I didn't the conversation would have kept going round and round in circles. I don't like it though. I'm hoping that in time we can put this behind us and engage in civil discussions again, but it just all became petty with the flashing of receipts like "gotcha's" and racism accusations of anyone who hinted at disagreement.

I want this fandom to be a safe space for poc, and I want us to be able to discuss the racism inherent in fandom spaces without spiralling into shipping wars, and I will always be happy to engage with anyone who wants to discuss these issues and how we can tackle them appropriately. For the time being though, I'm gonna go pour all this energy into my Lucienne x Gault meta. Hopefully something good can come of this in the end.

[linkspooky]

Hello, Link. How are you?

What do you think of Aizen Sosuke and Urahara Kisuke from Bleach? Have it ever crossed your mind that they have some narrative resemblance (The Strongest Vs The Intellectuals) to Gojo and Geto in JJK? I'm curious about your thoughts :) The

Happy Bleach Monday! A new meta every monday! Thank you for the ask. 

You’re right to point that out anon, actually I’ve always read Kisuke Urahara and Aizen Sosuke as two sides of the same coin closer to one another than anyone else despite being on opposite sides of the combat. Urahara says the above quote in reference to Mayuri, but Mayuri, Aizen, and Urahara are all similar in that they value their minds above all else. Also, Urahara having a read on a character as amoral as Mayuri is really telling. 

1. The View from On Top

This meta will largely be about Urahara himself because he’s a much more well rounded character, but Aizen is a good lens for reading Urahara because Aizen himself is the first person to make the comparison between them. Aizen Mr. God Complex in a rare show of humbleness even admits that Urahara’s mind is better than his. 

They both complete partial (incomplete) Hogyoku’s, they both conduct experiments on others (without their permission), in fact Urahara’s Hogyoku is so much better than Aizen’s, that Aizen had to concoct a plan to steal it. 

Ichigo using Tense Zangetsu is the one who beats down Aizen, by sacrificing all of his spirit energy in order to temporarily grow stronger than him, but, even finaln Getsuga is not enough and the one who truly defeats Azien is Kisuke by outwitting him with a long term strategy, and choosing to seal him rather than kill him. 

You could even go so far as to say that the one Aizen was truly doing battle against was Urahara, everyone else involved in the fight are just soldiers in their conflict. Kisuke relied on Ichigo to weaken Aizen enough that his sealing Kido would take effect, but it’s Kisuke who had the winning plan. Aizen also, acknowledges very few people, even his strongest allies, but Kisuke is one of them. Ichigo even speculates that the reason Aizen wanted to conquer soul society was because of his desire for an equal, that his extreme power and intelligence only served to isolate him from the moment he was born, and he confides this in front of Urahara... 

While Urarhara looks on with a melancholy expression on his face but decides to hold his tongue, almost like he can understand what Aizen feels in his isolation. 

Their intelligence isn’t the only quality they share, but also how their intelligence isolates them, because that influences all of their decisions. To reiterate: it’s almost like Aizen and Kisuke went to war with each other over the course of the Hueco Mundo arc as a whole, because the way Kisuke acts is less like an ally fighting on the same side, and more like a general. 

To add onto this, Yammamoto himself is in charge of Soul Society because he’s the oldest and the strongest, but he’s not exactly a strategic fighter, he’s led around by the nose the entire Soul Society arc by Aizen because he’s too traditional and refuses to adapt. 

Kisuke as a general though, it shows in how he treats people on his side. If Aizen sees everyone as a tool for his potential conquest, he doesn’t ask, he manipulates them, loyalty means almost nothing to him. This even reflects in his Shikai release, Kyoka Suigetsu is a sword of perfectly illusion, he has an absolute control over whoever sees his release. 

Urahara mirroring him, manipulates his own allies countless times. He makes decisions on his own, and he never informs them of these decisions. Even when he has good intentions, he never trusts them enough to let them be in the know. 

He inserts the Hogyoku into Rukia’s soul, never bothering to tell her this fact, which leads to the entire soul society arc. Aizen’s manipulations might have been revealed earlier if Ichigo and friends were working with a full set of facts, remember from the beginning Rukia’s execution was seen as an overreaction to a more minor offense. However, everyone went along with it due to Aizen’s manipuations in slaughtering the governing body of soul society, and forcing an execution in order to remove the Hogyoku from her soul. 

It’s not just about not trusting though, when Urahara simply chooses not to tell people about his plans, he takes their choices away from him. Keeping these secrets is a manipulation because it removes their ability to tell him no, or choose to not cooperate with him. Urahara’s harsh decisions also have a pretty serious consequence. Another instance is with Orihime. 

Urahara’s actions in telling Orihime to stay away from the battlefield are borne out of a fear that Aizen will see Orihime and take an interest in her power. His intentions in telling her to stay away from the front lines are to protect her. However, rather than just tell her the real reason why he thinks she should stay hidden something she probably would have agreed with if she was told the full story he just chooses once again to tell her off in the cruelest way possible. Getting Orihime to do what he wants and what is strategiaclly better is more important than Orihime’s choices and feelings. This also, has a consequence because Rukia encourages her to train and fight anyway, which attracts Aizen’s intentions and ends up with her getting kidnapped anyway. 

Aizen manipulates his allies and make their choices for them for the greater good (FOR THE GREATER GOOD). His actions mirror Aizen, their positions in the conflict are just opposite ones. As shown again by their final conrontation, both Urahara and Aizen have met and know the secret of the soul king, however Urahara fights in order to keep the balance of the world as it is currently and Aizen chooses to disrupt the balance of the world in order to change it.

Aizen’s goal is to replace the soul king, and in fairness to Aizen we don’t know what kind of ruler he would be, or if he thought that all of his ruthless actions would result in a better world, but it would come at the cost of the world that came before it. 

This is where I’m going to touch lightly on the follow up sequel novel CAN’T FEAR YOUR OWN WORLD, which is spoilers, but important for Bleach’s worldbuilding to explain context. The great twist of Can’t Fear Your Own World is that the soul king and lynchpin of Soul Society is a corpse. The Soul King was originally a person like Ichigo who had the abilities of a soul reaper, hollow, and quincy, who was betrayed by his companions and then pretty much crucified in order to divide the three worlds (human, soul society, hugeco mundo) and stabilitze them. Aizen’s goal is to pull that lynchpin out and destabilize the three worlds. 

Urahara on the other hand always stays on the side of maintaining the current balance. His allignment is always neutrality, and that may be why he always makes decisions that are aloof and cold with little respect to their agency. 

2. That’s What It Means to be a True Scientist

Urahara is alligned differently than Aizen by choosing balance, but his motivations what fuels his actions are not that different, once again revealed to us at the end of Can’t Fear Your Own World, in a brief conversation with Shuhei Hisagi, and then Yoruichi.

To explain further context Kisuke asks if he developed the Hogyoku to create a more perfect Konpaku (artificial soul) one that would be powerful enough to remove the corpse of the Reio so he would no longer have to serve as the lynchpin for the three world. However, after Hisagi is gone Kisuke admits a more honest truth. 

“Mr. Hisagi probably thinks that I created the Hogyoku for the Reio’s sake.”  “That’s not necessarily mistake though, right?”  There was both regret and self-derision in his words as Urahara looked back at his own past. “All I wanted to do was create something new. The goal for doing so was secondary. I just wanted to open a new door. I used the Reio as an excuse to open tha locked door. I simply followed my own desires... FUndamentally, I am no different from Mr. Kurotsuchi and how he sacrifices so many in order to fulfill his craving for research.”  “Kisuke, you...” “But, Ms. Hiyori did see through me. THat’s why, to take a neutral position... well to be accurate, it’s not neutral, but I decided to entrust some matters to a very soul reaper-like soul reaper.” His features softened then as he spoke about Hisagi. “When time comes that I really do become someone who could be called a villain, it would be best to leave someone behind who can defeninitely determine that I’ve sinned, right?” 

You could even say the reason Urahara always chooses balance over everything else is because he’s aware of his capability to become like Aizen, and is afraid of his more unsavory tendencies. If he always chooses to fight on the side of balance he’s minimizing the risk of harm someone like him can do to the world. The drawback of that though is it leaves Urahara as a rather stagnant person incapable of growth. 

Here’s where I return to Mayuri. Kubo once mentioned Mayuri is an example of a necessary evil, because for all of his amoral actions he is firmly on the side of Soul Society. Urahara is another, ruthless person who happens to be alligned with Soul Society’s benefit. Urahara is one the who recruited Mayuri in the first place, exactly aware of all the harm he was capable of doing, because he thought it would be to Soul Society’s benefit in the long runn. 

There’s one small difference between them though, in regards to their motivation for creating a Konpaku Soul. Hogyoku was originally created, to make a more perfect developed Konpaku (artificial soul) and Mayuri endeavors to do the same with Nemu. Mayuri’s motivations in creating Nemu are exactly the same as Kisuke’s, basically to see if he can do it. 

However, unlike Kisuke who remains relatively the same person, Mayuri’s feelings further evolve as he raises Nemu, and as poorly as he mistreats Nemu at times his feelings towards her clearly change into affection for her.

And in this regard, Mayuri believes he’s surpassed Urahara, because unlike the Hogyoku which was incomplete and had no identity, Nemu grew up into a person and grew up further into someone capable of evolving on her own. 

So, for all Mayuri may seem ruthless and amoral in regards to Urahara he’s also capable of seeing Nemu as her own person in a way Urahara probably never could. 

Anyway, I hope that answers your question. Urahara is one of my favorite bleach characters so I love to talk about him with a little more depth than usual, because a lot of his characterization is hidden in the subtext much like how Urahara himself is quite a two faced person. 

[utilitycaster]

Top 10 (or five or however many you wanna do) hopes/dreams/things-you-wanna-see happen during the two shot? What do you want the most. Also for a bonus point however many things you’d hate to see, or like things the fandom wants that you’d disagree with (coughs in inexplicable fjorjester hate)

So, on some level, it's like. It's Mighty Nein. They are dealing with Uk'otoa. I don't really think they can go wrong, per se. With that said, here's the stuff I'd like to see:

Sabian. Travis always excels at providing a certain weight to his character backstories and in having people who are both immensely important and also largely unseen (Vandran; the Claret Orders/Oltgar/Chet's past lovers; Wrayne Agrupnin; Kevdak felt this way prior to him showing up) so it's like. Let us see Sabian, he's at the center of Fjord's backstory, we narrowly missed him bc the Nein decided to go mad hard on Avantika right away and then it made sense to part ways post-Aeor (this is valid of them but still) and he's DEFINITELY caught up in this.

I will be happy if they reseal Uk'otoa, but I will be ECSTATIC if they just fucking kill him. Fuck off, snea snake.

Similarly, I'd like to see Caduceus and Essek cameos. We know Cad's not coming (and why would he, tbh, he's got a garden and he does not have any love for the sea and [long derailing meta about Cad and Fjord's friendship redacted]). I highly doubt Essek is joining them for the full two-shot either for mechanical and narrative reasons. However, a brief send-off scene or a Sending to those guys would be a nice touch.

TBH on that note I'd love for it to open with a like, call to action with scenes from each of the groups, so like, Jester, with Fjord and Kingsley, calling up Beau and Yasha; Caleb (and possibly Essek); Veth; and Caduceus, and each of them getting a scene of what they're currently up to and then joining everyone on the ship, or not, as the case may be. (Cad: I'm well! Absolutely not! But if any of you die and it's not Caleb tell him you can teleport here for resurrection or burial, whatever.)

Veth has 6 first level wizard spells now (possibly more if they leveled up further?) and I want her to go fucking wild.

Taliesin gets carte blanche - even when I don't vibe with his characters (which has only happened once) I trust his builds will be at minimum interesting - so I would love to see something absolutely bananas for Kingsley.

I want Marius LePual to finally kill something. Like, a small thing, like a sea spawn dude.

Fjord was considering getting a tattoo, vaguely, from Orly, and he's had the time, and I think that would be very fun. I feel like dexterity is the obvious choice but who knows. Maybe he picks cold resistance.

torn tbh between "somehow, Avantika returned" for comedy and making Vandran very unhappy, and the fact that her zombie death was a significant moment and the moment of the Star Razor's exultation.

My ridiculous long-shot wish is a Beauyasha engagement thus setting up another one shot set at their wedding. This offers an opportunity for Caduceus and Essek content that would make more sense than in this two-shot, it would be very fun, and probably Isharnai interrupts it.

Things I don't want to see are under a cut so that people who want to be in a pure state of bliss can continue. Rock on; as established, I am, as Brian Murphy once said of himself, made almost entirely of salt, but I admire those who are not.

So here's the thing. Do I care, particularly, about the opinions of people who keep calling for two characters who have been dating for like four months and have never once been stated to be married, to get divorced? Do I care, particularly, about the opinions of people whose social skills are so utterly lacking that they genuinely think that the way to achieving closure for unrequited feelings for one of your closest friends, who is dating another one of your closest friends, when you are also either in a relationship, or at least involved in Serious Wizard Flirting, is to confess this love to them, instead of quietly moving on? Like, realistically, it goes like this:

Do I care, particularly, about the opinions of people, who I believe with unshakeable certainty, would 100% be the biggest Fjord stans of all time if he were played exactly the same, beat for beat, word for word, except by either Marisha or Liam (depending on their personal preference), instead of by Travis?

The answer is, of course, yes. I do. The devil on my shoulder constantly whispers to me "but M, someone is WRONG on the INTERNET." Fortunately, the angel on my shoulder has a boombox blasting "Welcome to Wildemount" at top volume and is doing a pretty good job of drowning it out right now.

Anyway, is it Thursday yet?

[grey-gazania]

13, 15, 24? 💖

@polutrope || asks to spread love

13: Recommend a fic (can be your own!) that features something you wish was written about more

I'm going to recommend my story The Hearts of the Eldar (which I know you've already read, and I greatly appreciated your kind comment!), which focuses on an everyday Fëanorian follower during the Third Kinslaying, and was inspired by the following quote:

"For the sons of Fëanor that yet lived came down suddenly upon the exiles of Gondolin and the remnant of Doriath, and destroyed them. In that battle some of their people stood aside, and some few rebelled and were slain upon the other part aiding Elwing against their own lords (for such was the sorrow and confusion in the hearts of the Eldar in those days)."

I really haven't seen much fanfiction or meta discussing the fact that some of the Fëanorian followers turned on their leaders at Sirion. These people had fought in Doriath, but attacking Elwing and Eärendil's settlement was just a bridge to far for them, and at least a few of them had the spine left to actually do something about that. That's fascinating! Why don't we talk about that more?!

15: A topic you never get tired of discussing

Círdan. I adore him. He's probably the wisest, most competent ruler of any of the Elven realms in Middle-earth, and doubly so for the First Age in particular. So much tragedy could have been averted if people had just listened to his advice! And of course he has his own personal tragedies -- being sundered from his kin, being commanded to wait to come to Valinor until the last ship sails, the destruction of the Falas, the death of Thingol, the Third Kinslaying, and the death of Gil-galad among them. I just desperately want him to have some happiness in his life.

24: Give kudos to someone who was especially welcoming when you first got involved in the fandom

Really the whole (dearly missed!) Lizard Council, but I want to highlight @lucifers-cuvette in particular. Pandë was one of my earliest fandom friends and has offered me so much advice and insight over the years -- not to mention lots of laughter! She's ten times the writer I'll ever be, but she's always been willing to take time out of her day to give me pointers on my own fanfiction.

You can find Pandë's stories on the Silmarillion Writers' Guild and on AO3. She integrates real-world science and the magic of Middle-earth in inspired ways, and her iteration of the Celebrimbor-Annatar relationship is probably my favorite of all time.

[janiedean]

Wait you think Jon will be on the IT (not that it matters since the series will never finish) but King Bran was a plot point D and D were directly told by GRRM lol. I don't like it and think it's stupid but that was always GRRM's endgame.

I think that but like the two things aren't mutually exclusive X°D like yeah... king bran is a plot point... because he's king in the north XD okay quick summary:

first of all lemme link you my at length reasoning wrt bran being the in series deconstruction of the arthurian fisher king figure which is half of the explanation;

now, after we have that out of the way, tldr: I think bran was obviously and without a doubt stated as next king in the north which like.. the north has technically seceded so unless whoever comes up on top next is a kingdom unionist the north is gonna stay seceded which btw also happened in the show, except that they put sansa as qitn when she had no business being there but like.... yeah the north is gonna stay separated so it has to have a ruler and diff. from sansa bran has all the book lore to back up his kingship (esp. if rickon survives and can give him heirs in case he ends up unable to have any)

jon will be on the it to end the entire dynasty the way it was created by aegon i which I think is a great bookmark because targ empire being ended by stark/targaryen bastard descendent who makes all the kingdoms independent and does it without changing his name bc I'mma eat my hat if when he gets the throne he's not jon snow first of his name? that's a good bookend/parallel;

now, lemme see if I find that damned jon meta so I don't have to redo it, why jon is the chosen one deconstruction there we go plus this isn't specifically that but why jon is AA and there's no way he's not so I don't have to redo it too;

so: whatever the fuck happens, jon is also atm the best throne candidate because robb legitimized him and howland reed has the document to testify it (in book canon) and howland reed knows he's r+l and the moment it's out someone is gonna legitimize that claim too because it's just too convenient for everyone involved except for dany and I'm still of the idea that dany/aegon vi/cersei are the current dance with dragons parallels so the moment she comes out on top or whatever but has gone through her shit already with aegon and turns out someone else has a better claim and zombies are coming... like again idt dany actually wants the throne anyway and jon has a better claim bc male son of firstborn male son of last targ king so he automatically passes in front of last female daughter of last targ king and at that point if she decides to go back to khaleesing in essos literally no one is gonna want that job

so imvho: jon gets the iron trap, jon dismantles the seven kingdoms and all of them get into fantasy reinassance as separated kingdoms and he undoes the og targ empire, he fixes everything that has to be fixed while being absolutely unhappy and hating every single thing about the job, gives bran the north after bran is back from beyond the wall and then he gets his show ending ie he gives the throne to someone else after he fixes everything and most of all redoes the small council the way it was more or less in the show (I mean at the end of the show the small council was all made up of previously marginalized ppl which imvho was the most grrm thing that stood out so I don't doubt that jon does the same) and then fucks off beyond the wall by his own choice because the only time in his life he actually was happy was with the wildlings which checks out with his show ending

tldr: dnd also said killing shireen that way was smth grrm told them and there is literally no physical way stannis can be behind shireen being burned alive and they used that to justify their stannis character assassination so if grrm told them bran was kitn and they decided it was as good as sansa taking his place and him taking jon's when they also took AA away from jon because they wanted ppl to be shocked and not even maisie williams thought arya being AA made a lick of sense and they had written everything leading up to jon being it... sorry but I'mma not taking 'dnd says grrm told them' face value when dnd heard what grrm said and 90% of the time most likely changed the entire context X°D

[orhelponefaintingrobin]

Musings on Bumbleby

Big RWBY Spoilers under the cut, big enough that I'm putting a full spoiler cut here.

They actually did it.

I didn't expect this to, like, mean something to me. I expected it to happen, I expected it to be something I was glad to see, but I didn't expect to feel like this about it. And I certainly didn't expect to tear up over it.

The thing is, go back to a few years back, pre-Volume 3, I was not a fandom person. In fact, I was always a bit dismissive about fandom. Now, was some of that the reality that the only person I knew involved in fan stuff was into Dan & Phil RPF and was that my introduction to the concept of fanfiction, yes. But I entirely lacked nuance and dismissed basically the concept of being that into something, and was at a lot of times very shitty about the concept.

And then, just at the end of Volume 2, I started watching RWBY on the recommendation of a friend, enjoyed it a lot, and, having started to dip my toes into Tumblr anyway, had a glance through the tags. Eventually, I came to the first Bumbleby content I found, and for some reason it all started making sense. I saw it, in a way I hadn't really before, and more, I actually got invested in it. I enjoyed seeing fanart of them, I enjoyed reading meta about it, I cared. It was the first time I understood shipping especially, but really fan content in general.

It was weird, though. Why was this the one. I definitely had some... shame is perhaps the wrong word, but I definitely thought it was wrong in some way, being someone who at that point still identified as male and getting this into a wlw ship. It felt like I was engaging with something I didn't have a right to, I worried about fetishising wlw relationships, all of that. But I did care. I cared a lot. I cared enough that the most emotionally resonant and shocking part of V3 was Yang losing her arm and Blake's reaction to that, I cared when they reunited in V5, I cared. Whether I had a right to or not.

As it turns out, I had a right to the whole time. I wasn't some outsider looking in from outside of 'their' community. I'm not saying that Bumbleby helped me realise I was queer, or trans, or a lesbian, not on its own. But starting to engage with queer content in general certainly did, and it was this ship that started me on that path.

I'm a fan of letting artists tell the story they intend, I'm never going to get overly angry if a story doesn't go the way I think it 'should'. But god, I would have been so disappointed if this dynamic was all in my head. Obviously, those fears dulled over the years, it's been pretty certain that this is where Blake and Yang have been headed since at least V6.

But, after all these years, seeing these two finally reach this point, seeing all of it pay off, with no ambiguity, no interruptions, no metaphor... it sort of validates everything. I was right, and they are in love, and despite the fact that they are fictional characters I find myself so, so happy for both of them. And, at a point, I didn't think that was something I was capable of saying.

[meimi-haneoka]

We are coming to a close. The one thing that remains is if the Squid Clan is still going to interfere. They tried to transfer Sakura's power before. It would be a plot hole if they are not involved in some capacity in the climax.

Hmmm, I don't think such an important part of the Clear Card story will just disappear in thin air as if they never existed. Of course they're still going to be brought up, after all, the characters still have to save Akiho, and inevitably Sakura will come in contact with the truth. When she was absorbed momentarily into Akiho's inner book, she experienced on her own skin what Akiho herself went through. She saw the Squids. That was rewound by Kaito, but the body memory of it, the way it scarred her heart and how, thanks to her magic, she somehow was able to recognize "This was Akiho's past!! They did this to her!!" and subconsciously hugged her, tells me that somehow she might be able to recover memories of that.

However, however.

It all comes down to what are your expectations of the Squid's role into this story. Because if you think they're going to be the big villains that Sakura will fight by means of magical spells in a magic battle, then I think you're going to be disappointed. Because this is not what the Squids or the Association are there for. This is not their role into this story. (rant under the cut)

Speaking from a pure meta POV, I don't think there's enough room left to portray a full fledged magical confrontation between them and the others, without considering that it would be jarring to see such a thing in a work like CCS. It would shift the focus on them, taking it away from the real core of this arc: Kaito and Akiho's story, and how Sakura came in contact with them and learned something important.

I will borrow my own's words on Twitter:

"There is a reason if all the members of the Squid Clan and the Magic Association are "faceless". They're there to represent a concept: abusive families and adults exploiting children. Clamp are not interested in turning CCS into the next Harry Potter."

Magic lore, the magic clans and their shenanigans are certainly fun but those shouldn't distract us from the real essence of CCS: a story of connections, relationships and growth. Of how everyone does their best for someone else, for their loved ones. Sometimes making mistakes too. Cards and magic are just there to make the story more fun and intriguing.

With the Squids and the Association being representatives of a concept, it makes me think that the burden of "fighting them" shouldn't fall on Sakura's shoulders, or even on the shoulders of the abused kids (yes, I'm including Kaito too. Because he's been an abused kid too. Exploited and neglected, and that's why now we are where we are). And then, even if Sakura fights them, what she would need to do? Theirs is a deep rooted establishment. The problem wouldn't be eradicated unless she exterminates them all. Something, as I was saying, that would be out of place for CCS. Unfortunately, there will always be abusive people like that, in the world. Even in real life. Sometimes the damages they've done will leave scars that won't heal entirely. The real victory is when we can escape them, and create our own happiness away from them. You see where I'm getting at?

If the kids and Kaito manage to save Akiho, removing the book from her and nullifying the artifact condition she's in (saving her from the danger of seeing her soul implode), Akiho will very probably lose any worth or interest in the eyes of those bastards. She'll be able to live her life normally, without magic, as she should have since the beginning. This will also open Sakura's eyes in regards to her position as a magician. Magic is part of her, and she can have a life that's not ruled by her magic if so she desires, but she has to get to grips with the fact that other magicians might try to take advantage of it. Or worse. We'll see if/how they'll deal with that for the ending.