#idk this was a VERY random thought I was actually thinking about the conflict between Lyney and Traveler lol

[thormanick]

Ok so I was thinking about some stuff and in the end stumbled upon the question “but why does Traveler care about gnosis being taken away so much though???”

And while I think they care mostly bc of the stuff they know (that gnosis is the basis of archons’ powers, and taking it away can put a nation potentially at risk) + Venti&Signora moment,

I think there’s a tiiiiiiny tiny bit more to it, specifically that I now have a newly acquired headcanon that Traveler projects their trauma on the gods a little bit (their own powers were sealed/taken away from them against their will and they don’t want others to go through it)

[alaynestcnes]

Thanks for the answer and the links, but I have already seen and even read some of it. I am now even more convinced that Kit and Sophie’s chemistry did a trick on you guys and made you assume there is something there, otherwise you’d be crushed by post s8 grief. You were asking yourself, “it all had to be for a reason, right?” when the ship crashed and burnt in the show, so to save yourself from disappointment you had to create an intricate version of got where they could be together. This version is not in George’s books, unfortunately.

I feel like you’re projecting. Most Jonsa’s really didn’t find the show ending that disappointing from a shipping perspective…but I know one group of people who took it like a bullet to the head. Just saying.

Anyway, let me guess, your idea for GRRM’s intended ending is Targ restoration with Jon on the IT and Sansa married to Tyrion or Sandor or some other random man as Lady of the Eyrie or Riverrun or some other location that gets her out of the way and has no connection to her broader arc. A flat, boring ending for everyone that complies with none of the broader themes of ASOIAF.

Like idk what version of ASOIAF you have been reading but book Jonsa is exactly everything GRRM has ever been about. It’s ‘the heart in conflict with itself’, it centres Jon’s struggles with belonging as a Stark, Sansa coming full circle confronting social prejudices and her old desires, it fulfils the individual desires they held at the start of AGOT in an unpredictable way (which I believe is GRRM’s intent with all the main charas), it fulfils the themes of King/Queenship and rebuilding Winterfell that both Jon and Sansa share, it takes two ‘good’ characters and puts them in a very morally grey situation that tests all their ingrained ideologies, and it concludes the almost perfect symmetry of their stories. It makes sense politically in canon and thematically in the narrative. It’s an almost fairytale that is just twisted enough to be unthinkable to most readers. In short, it has GRRM written all over it.

I know you antis love to believe Jonsa’s popped into existence from the big bang that was the Kit/Sophie chemistry and we just exist in our little silo, oblivious to the rest of the fandom. Sadly (for you), this isn’t the case. Kit and Sophie are cute and all but let’s be fr, you and I would not be here debating Jonsa over five years later if either of us thought that random chemistry between two actors was all there was to it. The clues in the books had people discussing Jonsa wayyy before Kit and Sophie ever shared a scene. Personally, I like to think I’ve read a wide range of theories coming from all different angles. Jonsa is not my defining, limited interest in ASOIAF (shocking, I know). I’m just as keen to know what happens to everyone else, or what other potential ends for Jon and Sansa other people foresee. The endless amount of ways people have pieced together the puzzle GRRM has given us is one of my fave things about this fandom. It’s just a result of that broader reading that I’ve found that, personally, no other ending for Jon and Sansa actually works as well as the potential endings I’ve seen from Jonsas.

The foreshadowing of ruling Winterfell and parenthood/marriage is so dominate in both their stories, yet most people will dismiss these themes in either Jon or Sansa’s stories in order to make an ending for one work. Without Jonsa, the conclusion is that only one can have that foreshadowing satisfyingly fulfilled, and for the other that same foreshadowing is just pointless and not to be discussed. I don’t know why it’s so frowned upon to say, wait, what if there was a way for them both to fulfil that foreshadowing and reach the natural satisfying conclusion both their stories individually demand? But no, of course not, they’re siblings and that would be icky. But hold on! What if there was a secret that had been harboured for years that just might make it possible? Well, wouldn’t that be creative, well-thought out and unprecedented storytelling…but nooo you’re right, GRRM would never play around with yucky things like pseudo incest. That version is not in George’s books, unfortunately 🤡

[michelleelizabethtanner]

Random GG question for you!! If season 3 hadn’t been cut short, what do you think the ending would have been? I know they basically just continued with the storyline in S4, but I still can’t help but feel cheated of those 5 eps!

Feels like they could have wrapped up hitman, maybe SS, then maybe Rio gets arrested at end of S3? But would they have done the whole Rio get arrested fakeout for a finale when they already did it S1??

UGH just feels like if they were able to wrap up more of those storylines in S3, we could have had more interesting Beth/Rio/nick content across S4. BUT probably wishful thinking lol

Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts!

Anon! Hi! Idk what the standard turnaround is on asks here to be considered peak etiquette. I’m on vacation from work this week so naturally I’ve been ridiculously busy. 😂😂 But I’ve been thinking about this question.

I do think s3 had some whiplash moments. Like this one. Where it didn’t make much sense for why exactly Rio was behaving the way he was. But I do think that the general gist of 4.04 would have been how s3 wrapped. It had the shooting of someone (Fitz), which is how every season appears to have been planned to wrap up. And there seems to be a pretty clear delineation between Rio’s emotions pre and post Fitz execution that I think fit a little better into a natural progression leading to forgiveness.

I’ll be honest, it does hurt my brain sometimes to try and think of why the story did what it did. I don’t hate the hitman plot. I think it’s a really good way to illustrate Beth’s inner conflict. It does ask the viewer to constantly read between the lines, and the moments of emotional honesty (even when she’s being dishonest) are lost in the peripheral nonsense. That’s actually the problem with this show, now that I’m rambling about it. The peripheral nonsense. The general trajectory of how Beth grows into herself, how Rio comes to terms with his weakness, how Brio decide to slowly choose each other… That’s all fine. It could have used a little more blatant telling. A little more consistency. But ultimately… okay. But the peripheral nonsense, the time waste, the hours focused on things no one cared about and that which ultimately didn’t progress the story – all that is what bogged it down and made it feel so unsatisfying. S4, after 4.08, is basically useless filler. Too slow and too uninteresting in how it moved the primary story.

And listen, I also wanna add that it isn’t just the Brio investment that makes me say this. I’m all for quality meaningful character development for everyone. But how exactly does trash boyfriend progress Annie? If anything, he illustrates how stagnant she is in her awful life choices. How does bike gang progress Dean? Again, it just highlights the same ol’ character flaws he had from the start. I did very much enjoy the way Stan became much more honest in his resentment of Beth. I always viewed him as not loving the Bolands, and especially not Beth. So his and Ruby’s arc, to me, was pretty well paced and one of the few interesting peripheral storylines in the show. But overall, so much of the magic of seasons 1 and 2 got lost in the subsequent seasons because the peripheral writing became too rambly and lacking direction. Kinda like this post hahahaha!!

What would you have liked to have seen as a season 3 finale?

[the-hype-on-tv]

imma list all my superman//clark kent headcanons just bcuz (feel free to add yours)

he loves oriental food, especially Japanese. he probably has bentos with gohan and ramen for lunch on most days.

his eyes are so friggin blue and bright (and i mean, like, this shade of blue but shiny), that's what his glass's lenses are hiding mostly

we love a clark that gets flustered easily. superman might hide it better, but he blushes easily when people compliment him and would probably be deadpan when someone flirted with him for the first time

he probably mumbles a lot as clark kent as to "hide" the superman voice, possibly makes it sound less deep and assertive, which also connects to the next point

it's straight up canon that superman has "super-ventriloquism" and can project his voice very far and even change it. some people say that's just one of his powers, but I'd like to think clark just was a theatre kid at some point and kept what he learned

I don't think he has lungs. this is random and i have no proof of it, but he doesn't breathe like we do most of the time, so it's clear he stores air somehow else.

i can imagine young clark feeling conflicted in his puberty after the knowledge he can see through people's clothes. like, one day he's staring at his crush and imagines how it'd be if things got steamy between them and then he accidentally sees through and starts panicking, covering his eyes in shame and running away.

he has merch of all the justice league members aka his friends, but got his own because when others visited his apartment he would have to explain why he didn't like superman

the first time he saw someone with a broken bone or some internal injury he probably didn't understand there was something wrong cuz it's not like he goes around scanning healthy people. so he either learned with time and experience how an injured inside looks like, or he had to take nursing lessons. possibly from alfred.

he can be a cat person. i know he usually has dogs, like krypto, but the fact he takes the time to rescue kitties stuck in trees when he could be idk preventing an upcoming accident or smth shows he really cares about animals too. actually, he did try to become a veterinarian before journalism, but dropped out when he realized he'd have to see the poor things suffer on a daily basis

he never went to the beach. as a vacation, not as superman. and when he finally did, he didn't really find it as fun as he thought it would

he probably doesn't own any sneakers. by choice, really. i have no idea what he would wear on a sporty outing, but I'm guessing he'd either go with his social shoes or farm boots. literally no in-between.

he probably doesn't use earphones//headphones when listening to something on his cellphone or laptop. I'm sorry, clark can be a boomer too

probably know how to crochet or knit for absolutely no reason. he was bored one day and learned it

actually, complementing the last one, i think he has a lot of useless hobbies. his kryptonian brain probably processes everything faster, including boredom, so if he's chilling in his room at the middle of the night and has nothing to do, he'll superspeed a sweater into existence and idk do some origami birds and organize his rock collection, because he probably has a rock collection

anger issues. fanon usually forgets about this, but clark has a LOT of anger management issues. he punches his parents' house, a random tree, his sink, his eyes go red and while he can hold it for a while, he needs to do something to calm him down. probably one of his 10040297 hobies

i do not care WHAT proof you have, neither clark NOR superman cuss. not even if he's repeating a quote or singing a song. he'll just say "gosh darn it" or "great scott" (i still don't know who scott is) or "heck" or "flipping". if his anger is too big, he'll just get physical instead, but he'd never cuss lmao

he doesn't have a driver's license. he could get one if he tried, but he's pretty sure he'd either wreck his car with his hands or join in some traffic fight or get deaf with all the horns

I'm still not over the theatre kid thing-- he'd probably be in chess club as well and possibly, possibly play d&d with his friends. he probably was obsessed about it when it first came out.

he probably doesn't know many songs by heart, except for the ones his friends like.

you cannot convince me this man doesn't know how to play an acoustic guitar. I'm not being stereotypical with the country boy theme, i swear, but clark just looks like he's one of those friends who would take a guitar to a party or camp with his friends and hit some notes. again, from songs they know

[girljpg]

i warched good omens season 2

i have a lot to say that doesn't really amount to anything so i'm gonna start typing at random

i liked the romantic vibe of the season and all the cute flashbacks. the dialogue between the leads was appropriately trusting and sweet. they really leaned into showing how they rely on each other. i also like that the conflict was pretty small in scale compared to season 1. it's not armageddon, but there were still some stakes if you include all the humans that almost died. although.... heaven and hell seem to know exactly where crowley and aziraphale are... yes, they fooled them at the end of s1, but wouldn't they idk. try other means? why didn't they get their names erased from the book of life earlier if that was something higher up angels could do? whatever

i like that there were real actual gay characters (lesbians even! who looked like real people!) even though I was worried they were getting together too fast, the reveal towards the end that they were going to move slow felt realistic. but them having to talk crowley into confessing his feelings felt ripped straight from a fanfiction. the lesbians comparing themselves to aziraphale and crowley was a bit on the nose. many moments did in fact feel like fanfiction. the dancing together, the "I need you!", the "We can just be us." all of that was cute and probably something i would've written idk could you do any better??? i am not immune to fluff. but also, that's a grown man. does it not take agency away from the character to have his relationship explained to him? and then they had the gall to not even show us this conversation. ideally he would've come to a conclusion about his feelings on his own-- perhaps after seeing gabe and beez fuck off to alpha centauri and going huh. i guess you can just do that. or even just through way of flashback-- oh no wait. all of the flashbacks were from aziraphale's point of view for some reason. why didn't azi get any realizations? you know michael sheen would've ate

the "i was wrong dance" well here's the thing i did clap

I thought the set of the street in london with all the little shops looked nice although there were always so so many extras walking around. is london really that crowded?

i thought they kind of wasted muriel's character. she seems to disappear for a long time before the plot calls for her to conveniently be there. i know she's meant to be a bit dim but surely she noticed 70 demons walking down the street.... ALSO i thought the book crowley handed her was going to be good omens but it. was not

looooved shax loved new beelzebub. who else. idk everyone was really giving it their all. megatron showed up for all of two episodes i think but was pivotal for the ending. what are you doing neil. gabriel is also doing. things. they wasted jon hamm as well by making him a frustrating himbo. one of the only scenes i liked with him was crowley yelling at him for trying to kill aziraphale in s1 and then trying to jump out a window and then calling crowley nice. but that whole bit felt more like a crowley scene than a gabe scene. he does get a mug with his name on it tho and hypocritically falls in love with the fly lady so all is forgiven.

i'm gonna be real with you all.. the way they filmed the kiss felt awkward. the way the camera swings around and crowley grabs him felt very....... rehearsed? a little unnatural, i think. the way crowley LUNGES. idk i need to rewatch the last ten minutes again. and it went on so long. we got like three of four angles on it like whoah. but the reaction face we got out of michael sheen. mamma mia

"I forgive you." asdejgkasdgahdgdfs when i say i paused the ep for extended laughter lmfaoooooo. clutching a wine bottle to my chest and cheering. this fucken guy. babygirl is distraught for all of about ten seconds before it's time to start the new job. i did start yelling at my screen after that point. he had no right to look crowley dead in the eye across the street and not run back to him. COWARRD. i understand why he did it but COWARD. why, after sooo long, would you think crowley would jump for joy to be an angel again... i watched all eight minutes of the credits certain that there was going to be more but nope. catch ya next time for the second coming (of jesus?? <- does not know things about the bible)

so i was pretty satisfied with that watch. i wish the season was longer than 6 episodes but tbh they had to make this story from nothing and it shows in the romcom hijinks and threadbare mystery. but it was fun and went by quickly. then i check on the fandom and they're, get this, upset for some reason about this ending. there's no pleasing some fans i guess. good job neil you've pissed off the people who wanted them to kiss AND the people who didn't want them to kiss, bravo! hopefully in a month or so everyone will cool down about it. and if not well. plenty of fanfic fodder until season 3. not that i read good omens fanfic, but it'll be there. just be happy there was a kiss alright!!!!!!?!!!1

(i just know we're going to get a flood of people calling aziraphale a big meanie and crowley a poor little scrimbly blimbo meow meow who got rejected. booooo stop that right now)

[yuridovewing]

12, 21, 23, and 25?

12. The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

I don't think I need to say this to you cause I've blabbed about it for a while but Heathertail!! I've always been pretty fond of her, she's a very interesting character and I don't think people give her nearly enough credit for what we've seen of her when you remove her from the Heatherbreeze ship. I think her friendship with Lionpaw before All That Happened was really sweet and I thought it was nice to see an example of a forbidden relationship that was just... two children with a crush on each other that quickly realized it wouldn't work out. But she's also a person who, while she holds personal grudges (for justified reasons imo but-) she will still break the rules for that person to do the right thing. Like, it was against the law to give Lionblaze their medicine, and she justifiably hates this guy and makes sure to point that out... but she's not going to let cats get hurt if she can avoid it. And I haven't read Crowfeather's Trial but that combined with how she acts around Breezepelt is... idk it's interesting! Especially now that she's retconned to be Onestar's kid (which I have conflicting feelings on but yknow still it's interesting)

There's also Dovewing but I feel like more and more people are coming around to her. Thank you Moonkitti. Another I can think of is Onestar, or at least pre AVoS Onestar (which honestly I'm disregarding in my brain cause like... god he was just SUCH a random choice for Darktail's father that I'm halfway convinced that they changed their minds on who it was in between The Apprentice's Quest and Thunder and Shadow) I like a character who gets negative development actually. He starts off as perfectly pleasant and a nice friend for Fireheart in WindClan, but forced leadership and an assassination attempt twisted him to become more bitter and cut Firestar off. And that's just the surface, there's an undercurrent in Winds of Change that Onewhisker is a doormat who is actually being told what to do by Firestar- like it's not something Firestar is deliberately and knowingly exploiting or anything, but what Firestar says, Onewhisker will do because "Well, I DO owe it to him, and it wouldn't KILL me". So seeing his experiences yank him out of that mindset and into someone who becomes more conservative, backfiring on Tallstar cause he changed his deputy in the worst way possible, is actually really compelling to me. I wish they did more with it tbh.

21. Part of canon you think is overhyped

Disclaimer that this bars anything Arc 6 and up cause I haven't read that far.

Mmm tbh... not totally sure what to point at specifically? Cause like, there's a lot I could point to cause like... tbh I think we all collectively remember a lot of WC scenes to be so much cooler than they actually were cause of all the MAPs.

Is it cheating to say most of DOTC? I actually do think the first three books are solid, at least from what I remember of them. But the entire arc is held up as a must read. Which is pretty sad cause I don't see people talk about... actual plot points in DotC all that often. Which I feel is pretty telling.

23. Ship you've unwillingly come around to

Hmmm another hard one cause I don't really have a ton of ships. Or any that I've been "unwilling" on...

I guess Heatherbreeze? I mildly enjoy it in concept but I don't really like how people just reduce Heathertail to "Breezepelt's happy ending". idk.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Oh anytime the fandom complains about characters besides the protagonists being angry at said protagonists for understandable reasons, to the point of calling those characters stupid idiots even when it's literally "the protagonist got this person's friend killed". Like when people literally portrayed ShadowClan in Night Whispers as petty and mean and dumb for.... being mad at Lionblaze for literally murdering their deputy. And saying Russetfur deserved to die anyways cause she was old and fighting Firestar (who led an attack on her camp btw). Or when Dawnpelt was called an overreacting insane bitch when she blamed Jayfeather for Flametail's death (despite Flametail doing the same thing and worse cause he tried to kill Jayfeather in return but yknow. It's only bad if girls do it) Like... yes she was wrong to do that especially when Jayfeather was innocent and he was totally justified to just save himself in the end. but she was grieving and grief can be messy. Y'know? Also when people got mad at Tigerheart when he threatened Ivypool when the Dark Forest tried to make her attack Flametail's spirit. Yes Ivypool was being manipulated but he's allowed to be pissed in the moment dude!

[staceymcgillicuddy]

5, 7, 16 for the couple questions!

5. How do they sleep?

I did five here, but I will add that I think after sex, Eddie wants to cuddle for like forty-five minutes and Chrissy is immediately like "I HAVE TO PEE RIGHT NOW" and she always, always, always puts on a t-shirt or something to go and do that, and he is a huffy baby about it, even though he really likes that it's usually his shirt that she chooses to wear.

7. What's their most and least favorite thing about each other?

Specifically for Soul Eddie and Chrissy, because they're the ones I know the best right now.

Eddie's favorite thing about Chrissy is the way her brain works, and how he has no idea what happens between a thought forming in her brain to when it comes out her mouth, but he is faaaascinated by the journey and will spend his life figuring it out. His least favorite thing is the food waste, full stop, because he is never going to get over his food insecurity issues fully and while he gets that her shit with food is very different from his, it will always bug him, even if he doesn't vocalize that.

Chrissy's favorite thing about Eddie is how unconventionally smart he is. She loves that he just knows random shit about shit, and goes down research rabbit holes, and just genuinely likes learning about the stuff that interests him. Her least favorite thing is like... (and this doesn't come up in the story much, I'll be honest, but I can see it being a fight in the future)... the line between protective and overprotective, and that sometimes he falls on the wrong side of it? Like, he never tells her what she can't do, but sometimes he can be a little smothering. Which makes sense, considering how they hooked up, and how much he's helped her along the way, but as she becomes more and more sure of herself (getting that soul known again, as it were), she can feel a bit stifled by that level of attention. I think there was a bit of that manifesting in the scene in New York at the bar, actually.

16. How do they react when the other is upset? How do they try to help?

Also for Soul specifically, but can probably apply to most iterations of them in my head.

Eddie goes into that hyper-aware "what do I need to do to fix this" mode. He's like a Terminator except instead of killing John Connor his mission is to remove whatever's making her unhappy, whether that's her own mental shit, her mother, Jason, or idk, she tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. If he needs to make her laugh, he'll make her laugh. If he needs to hold her, he'll hold her. If he needs to let her punch a wall, she can punch a wall. He is just immediately in "fix it fix it fix it" mode.

Chrissy is interesting, because we haven't really seen her dealing with an upset Eddie, since Eddie's pretty chilled out and self-actualized in Soul. Not to say he doesn't have issues, but he's really good at not letting her see the complexity of his frustrations with work, or his future, or whatever. So, without giving any spoilers away, I want to say that Chrissy's probably a lot less "fix it fix it fix it" and more "I don't like conflict and I have a bit of a trauma response to it and I'm sorry you're upset, buddy, but I'm going to walk away until you calm down" if Eddie's angry (not necessarily with her, but with the world). If he's like, actually hurt/emotionally wounded, I think she's probably pretty quiet, but very into physical touch, holding him, just being physically present with him, even if she's not always 100% sure what the solution is.

Overall, though, I think they're both pretty emotionally attuned to the other, so even if the responses weren't perfect right out of the gate, they'd level-set and figure out where they needed to be pretty quickly!

Couples Questions

[kradogsrats]

Hello, I had a question for you about the Katolis army.. do you think it is meant to be a standing army? If Opeli says they could take on all the other human kingdoms (and Aanya was worried about losing a million?) that would be a very large army to maintain on a permanent basis? But they seem to just.. be there.. ready to go.. and food, housing, equipment - this would be super expensive, especially if there’s been ten years of relative peace? I don’t really understand why they would have it set it up this way.. surely magma Titan could have been averted if some of these soldiers were farming…

OKAY SO uh ha ha well I am not actually a historian, much less a military historian, but I will do my best to convey my largely-unsupported thoughts

Basically, this would be a much, much easier question to answer if we didn't have Queen Aanya's line about a million men and women being sent to war against Xadia. That's just like... a staggering number of people, even if she's referring to the combined total forces of the Pentarchy and not solely Duren's contribution or the expected casualties.

If we take the size and population of Xadia according to the old reddit post that put it at roughly the size of Mongolia and 40 million, just so we have some kind of ballpark numbers to attach to this, a force of one million from the 20 million humans would be 50 people per 1000 being in the military.

Like, just grabbing some random numbers from the internet, around 200 CE the Roman military was about 450,000 strong for a population of something like 70 million. Only men could enlist, so we’ll knock that population number down to 35 million, which puts us at only 12 men per 1000 being in the military. Just for fun, if we estimate 20% of the Roman population as citizens (free men, essentially) and eligible to be legionaries (rather than auxiliaries), we still get a comparable 13 citizens per 1000 in the military.

(Side note: here in the modern world, only North Korea has an estimated 50 people per 1000 in active military duty. Israel, with compulsive military service, has about 33 per 1000. Just to give a bit more insight into those proportions.)

So we’re already looking at an army more than twice the size and composed of  quadruple the percentage of the populace as Rome, literally notable for it's crazy huge standing army and the society-wide logistics that went into supporting it. Flash forward to a more medieval conflict like the Hundred Years' War, where you get numbers like the Battle of Agincourt having somewhere around 6,000-9,000 English defeating probably 14,000-15,000 French. (For reference, France had a population of about 14 million at the time.) That French number varies depending on whether you're counting an armed, armored military servant to a knight as a combatant, which the 14-15k estimate does not but like... idk, man. Including those dudes, it's more like 24,000... but even if you imagined each of the five kingdoms of the Pentarchy fielding an army that size, you wouldn't even break 100,000.

Now Aanya, bright, forward-thinking young queen that she is, is probably actually estimating based on the assumption of a campaign against Xadia being potentially years-long (if she’s not being entirely figurative). I'm way too lazy to pore over battles of the Hundred Years' War, but we can look at something like the Crusades, instead: the notably "successful" (in that it captured Jerusalem and established a kingdom there, after which everyone went home because their pilgrimage was complete) First Crusade was fought over three years with total crusader forces of 160,000-180,000. The significantly less successful Second and Third Crusade (and we're ignoring like four unnumbered ones in-between) were four years with 35,000-ish and three years at 36,000-74,000 (yeah that's a big estimate range, blame Wikipedia).

Getting into some much... vaguer... numbers, military casualties of the Hundred Years' War (including wartime disease, starvation, etc.) are estimated at 2.3 million-3.3 million. Over the course of *checks watch* 116 years of on-and-off fighting. You just couldn't kill people all that efficiently, back then. Now, granted, a war with Xadia would have a) magic, and b) FUCKING DRAGONS, but... Opeli estimates the casualties of an immediate war between Katolis and the Neolandia/Evenere/Del Bar forces to have an upper end of “tens of thousands,” which really, really suggests that we are not talking about a combined million people, even if Duren was included.

ANYWAY that was a lot of fuzzy math to kick this off, so let's talk about Katolis and realistic-ish possibilities for its military.

First of all, a standing military is not really unheard of even in the actual real-world medieval Europe, it just looked a bit different. Professional soldiers did exist, perpetually equipped and ready to fight, and they made up a large portion of most military campaigns. However, they were broadly dispersed among the nobility, so if you wanted to have a war, you had to wait for everyone to show up. Because of the nature of the feudal society, you kind of had a trickle-down (trickle-up?) standing military--the king could call on his vassals to fight, who would call on their vassals, etc. etc. down the chain until you had an acceptable force of dudes who came with their own armor and could kill each other with a decent amount of skill. (There were also non-professional peasant militia infantry forces, but generally they were not worth the logistical burden of fielding them.)

You also could have mercenary forces, which fell in and out of favor over the medieval-renaissance eras. On the one hand, you then didn't have to be paying the salaries of a whole-ass army during peacetime, but on the other hand... once you stop paying the mercenaries, nothing stops them from getting frisky with all your nice, safe cities to take a bit extra off the top, because they know you don't have an army to stop them. It was found to be more cost-effective to just have your own dudes with some degree of loyalty to king and country, and then pay them on the regular.

But right, Katolis. With the slant that this is a faux-medieval setting with heavy emphasis on the faux, because everyone is wildly over-fed, over-healthy, over-cleaned, and over-educated, I'm willing to fudge things like period-accurate agriculture techniques to allow for feeding a decent-sized group of people being paid to stand around and train for war. Maybe wandering dark mage hedge wizards routinely zing up everyone's fields, or they're all using fertilizer from fancy Xadian livestock with Earth primal poop. Whatever. At some point (which to be fair is probably post-industrial), having more people working the land doesn't actually produce any more. Same kind of deal for housing, we’re just gonna assume much more advanced understanding of and techniques for sanitation and waste removal than would be “realistic,” which removes a lot of the problems with having a bunch of people all living close together. Because let’s be real, none of us really want to think about how much literal shit is just sitting around in the open at any given moment or running into the water supply to give everyone dysentery. (I’m pretty sure it’s only in the post-antibiotics era that you stop having at least as many of your casualties be from disease as from battle.) I personally haven’t decided whether I think the setting has running water and sewage systems for the sake of my own fic purposes, but I kind of lean toward “yes,” because it’s the kind of thing that honestly isn’t that far out of place with all the other modernized incongruities going on. My main problem is how you run indoor pipes through a stone castle, but I also don’t know anything about plumbing.

Katolis also shares the vast majority of the border with Xadia, and controls the Breach--the one place you can march an army through from either side. It makes sense that they have an entire subsection of their military (the Standing Battalion) devoted to guarding that one point, but I would definitely expect there to be at least small fortified outposts along the entire border. I mean, dragons can fly. The only other kingdom that shares any part of the Xadian border is Duren, and it's a pretty small slice north of the Breach. So since Katolis is everyone's primary defense against the persistent threat of Xadia, I would bet they regularly collect some kind of support from the other kingdoms that goes toward maintaining the forces necessary to keep up that security. Whether that's food, other war materiel, straight-up money (it can be exchanged for goods or services), whatever. In a sense, Katolis is acting as a mercenary army for the rest of the Pentarchy. (Though they also have a non-mercenary stake in not fucking around, since Katolis is also the most threatened by Xadia due to proximity.)

We also see that towns in Katolis seem to have fortifications and military presence based on proximity to the border, so in addition to general border surveillance/security, you'd also have forces dispersed for that. It's likely that even the more interior towns have small forces of military ("guards") for general security and law enforcement, since there doesn't really seem to be anything else filling that role. So my general assumption would be that there are some large concentrations of military forces in places like Katolis City, and/or maybe there's some other military-centric location for large-scale training and mustering that isn't on the map or mentioned anywhere, and then you've got a spread-out force across the other population centers, maintaining the security of the major roads, keeping an eye on the borders shared with the other kingdoms, etc.

An alternative could be having a complex rotation of reserve forces in effect, where Katolis has the capacity to muster a large number of troops but only a portion of them are on active duty at any time and the rest go home and maintain the general labor force. That does make things a little more complicated in the “making sure everyone is actually armed when you call them up for war” area and having to suddenly increase your supply logistics by however many times over, but it’s something you can at least plan for. I would assume that in addition to the higher level of discipline and training the Katolian army has (according to Opeli), it also has a more coordinated and robust supply infrastructure. Like I’m sure it’s there somewhere in the force Viren marches with. Way at the back. Out of sight.

We’ll leave what exactly Viren’s plan for an extended campaign in Xadia beyond “reach the Storm Spire, eat the dragon prince” was as an exercise for a later time. Like good lord, dude, if Aaravos hadn’t thrown the Sunfire elves as a whole into complete disarray as a casual side effect of chowing down on the Sunforge, was he like... going to lay siege to Lux Aurea? Did he imagine that once the dragon throne was empty everyone would just capitulate?

Basically I do think it’s possible if you fudge a lot of setting stuff that is honestly already fudged, so I’m willing to allow it. However I will remain almost as salty about the “million” thing as I do about Star Wars claiming that a three-year, galactic-scale war was fought by fewer than half as many soldiers as the US alone served in WWII.

[stormyoceans]

mon, i’ve been wanting to text you since friday night, as soon as i finished ep9 but i’ve been so incredibly overcome with emotion, i just have not had the courage to process everything and put what i feel into words.

i have been bawling since the very start of the ep, mon. right from the night-&-day conflict-cause reveal, to the first time day realises he’s losing sight, to the intimate scene, to (of course) the final scene, i have literally been in tears, unable to process any of my feelings. hell, i couldn’t even watch the full ep from between my tears, but i’m too scared to go back and watch so soon. there are so many things i felt, so many thoughts i had that i wanted to share with you but i’m just so overwhelmed even as yet, and i just want you to know, that if ever my thoughts become a little bit more clear and my feelings a bit less overwhelming, you will definitely be the first to hear all i want to say (sorry to be a bother but you’re like one of the few people i can share the utter happiness that this show is for me and i really want to discuss ALL ABOUT IT with you, and get all your thoughts!! but i get so overwhelmed and am so random with being active on this app, ughh it’s so hard 😭😭😭😭😭)

i just wanted to share this one thought with you that i had while watching the ep though, because i know you’d appreciate it so damn much. this series feels like such a beautiful gift to all us fans from jimmysea and p’aof, mon. like the heart that has gone into this project and the sheer beauty that everyone involved has created feels like the best present one could ever ask for (🥹). truly, i have no words other than the fact that i have never, ever experienced anything like this ever before and i am truly so, so overcome with a myriad of emotions, half of which i can’t even name.

WELL FIRST OF ALL YOU’RE NEVER A BOTHER AND YOUR MESSAGES ALWAYS PUT A SMILE ON MY FACE AND MAKE ME INCREDIBLY HAPPY SO JOKES ON YOU SAM!!!!!!!!!!! YOU’RE ACTUALLY STUCK WITH ME NOW AND I WILL BE SITTING HERE PATIENTLY WAITING FOR YOUR THOUGHTS ON LAST TWILIGHT WHENEVER YOU’RE READY TO SHARE THEM

take all the time you need tho, i definitely understand feeling overwhelmed by this show and not being able to write down everything you want to say. and idk if im the only one experiencing this, but these past couple of months since last twilight started have been so surreal to me like. i haven’t even begun to process 13% of the things that happened in episode 9 or any past episode really and it’s already time for episode 10 tomorrow. we’ve waited for this show for a whole year and in two more weeks it’s already gonna be over and yet somehow im still stuck on the very first episode with so many things to say and so many emotions to deal with and so many thoughts i want to share with you all but it seems too late now except it’s not!!!!!! we’re still here talking about vice versa after almost two years, we’re gonna be here talking about last twilight long after it ends!!!!!!

and to me this does feel like a show that you need to let sink in and settle a little before you can fully appreciate it, not because it’s overly complicated or controversial, but because it strikes something so deep into your soul that you need to watch it multiple times to unravel all its beauty. the feelings you get when you experience something for the first time can’t ever be repeated, but there is new understanding to be found in all the times after it. like you said, even just by watching episode 9 you can tell that there’s so much love and so much care that went into this show, and then you watch the bts videos and you see how hard everyone worked to make this happen, how the entire crew climbed that quite literal mountain just to deliver something special to us

i think that’s why despite all of my fears and worries about the ending that i can’t quite shake off, im also trying really hard to have faith in everyone involved in the show, because it’s a product of love and i will always be so deeply grateful to them for gifting it to the world

[teabookgremlin]

hello friends here are my official thoughts on yellowjackets 02x02 brought to you by my four pages of notes from last night (spoilers below cut)

ok so breaking this up by starting with what i didn’t like. this is the first episode of yellowjackets where i really had moments where i was pretty unhappy with some choices so i wanna talk about those, why i didn’t like them, and how i wish it had gone

- very upset that jackie said the thing about shauna wishing she was her. like i feel like that is not the direction things were going in! we all know how homoerotic everything between them is and especially given the bit last episode where adult shauna told jeff about her fantasies of him with someone else (jackie). i am holding out hope for ghost jackie coming back and getting the love confession out of her so fingers crossed

- not thrilled with how the taissa confronting shauna about jackie bit went. i think that the makeup being the thing that pushed her over the edge was weird. i think they should’ve gone with what a lot of us were predicting where tai caught shauna kissing and/or eating the corpse and that being what made her be like ok we gotta get rid of this body. i just wanted more fucked up corpse stuff, ya know?

- did not like the random concern for the baby from tai, like idk i just feel like none of them are really focused on it rn and it just wasn’t necessary like she was concerned enough for shauna as a friend

- i didn’t love that there was more focus on travis looking for javi, idk i feel like that time would have been better used otherwise but i’m glad he now has fake closure at least so he stops being so obsessed with finding javi

- the nat/travis sex scene with lottie just there was just ugh. idk i wish the lottie/travis thing wasn’t going so in depth, wish they had chosen one of the other girls to be that figure but i mean watching travis’ descent into lottie’s shit is interesting

- i really wish they had put off the group cannibalism for at least one more episode. i’m bummed that shauna wasn’t the only one to eat jackie and i think some of the others just logically aren’t at the cannibalism point yet? like yes they were kind of trancelike but still idk it felt a little like they just wanted to get it in there so people would stop asking when it was happening

now onto what i liked/just general liveblog style thoughts (which there will probably be more of)

- gotta say the makeup scene was great (should’ve ended in a kiss tho) and i loved jackie encouraging shauna to eat her, the guilt of it in shauna, wish she actually had made the leap though

- ok taivan time! my favorite people to talk about lets go. van chasing after tai when she sleepwalked was great, i wonder if the pit she walked to was The Pit as in Pit Girl Pit but that’s a question for another time. when they get back to the cabin, van suggesting tai get help from lottie was really sweet although van being into lottie’s shit is obviously sowing the seeds of conflict between them. finally the little head kiss and the “i can feel your heartbeat” was so soft i love these girls with my whole being

- liked the snippets of the misty/crystal loser girl friendship in the background cannot wait to see more of them

- adult tai is going through it, i was excited to see the mirror thing start interested to see where the kind of “mirror self” thing goes

- lottie spying on nat since travis died is creepy but also great for the lottienat agenda and her going you’re welcome i think misty and lottie should work together on the keep nat from being self destructive project

- shauna being my poor pathetic little meow meow in the scene where tai calls her out teehee, wish she had put up more of a fight about cremating jackie like just lay on top of her or something girl be crazy just do it

- “so you lied to the cops to be feminist?” this is the season of callie being iconic i feel so bad for her though

- tai hallucinating sammy being at her place was SO interesting i really liked it

- travis going to lottie about the wilderness coming back to haunt him. i wanna know what’s up with that/if the wilderness is haunting the rest of the survivors similarly

- GHOST LAURA LEE THIS IS NOT A DRILL hope we see her again at some point <3

- i do wonder if lottie had more of a hand in travis’ death than she told nat but i do believe her honestly

- mari keeping up her being a cunt and making soup we love to see it!

- i LOVED shauna’s pre lighting jackie on fire speech: “i don’t even know where you end and i begin” YES and her ending it with saying she loves her when jackie’s last thoughts were being loved by shauna i need to lay down. also so appropriate that shauna was the one to light jackie, no one else could’ve done it

- tai and simone’s car crash, i feel like tai is probably gonna put blame on herself bc it was her fault and likely that and the conversation with simone in the car will be what leads to her seeking out van

- alright cannibalism time babey lets go

- “she wants us to”

- i adored the cutting between the like imagined feast and the cannibalism that was super well done and just overall a fantastic scene that will stick with me. also the girls all looked so hot in the feast scene so i am gay about it

- do wish there was more of the cannibalism shown but overall just incredible way to start things off

- also shauna would’ve eaten all of jackie even if the others were like ew no wtf lets be real

- poor coach

[uighean]

1, 13, 24, 25, 26? :3 <3

Who is your favourite historical person?

hmmm idk if I have like. a favourite person? there are people I find interesting, but I don't necessarily think about particular named individuals, more the hypothetical people who could have been out there doing and thinking and owning different things, if that makes sense

13. [share some random historical trivia!]

(every time I answer this one all the historical trivia I've ever heard flies out of my head & all I know is jacobitism so)

one of the interesting things about jacobitism imo is that it gets painted as regressive and backwards, through a combination of hanoverian propaganda at the time (drawing on things like the stuarts' belief in the divine right of kings) and later romanticism (equating jacobitism with the last vestiges of a vanished golden age, generally in exclusively highland terms, with this idea that physical travel to the highlands is kind of like travelling back in time - this is an idea that I'd hesitate to call colonial, specifically, but it's definitely borne of the same hierarchical way of thinking about people and places that encourages and is encouraged by true colonialism). so you get this idea that jacobitism is anti-modern, it's clinging on to the past, it's almost primitive. the poor feudal clans against the modernised english army, etc etc. by the 1800s it sits right at the junction of people's enthusiasm for the modern era of 'rationalism' and nostalgia for a 'simpler' past

but then if you look at the way jacobite political and social discourse was actually being disseminated in a lot of circles, it's very explicitly of its era!! and one of my favourite examples of this is jacobite glassware. which is such a classic piece of jacobite material culture, in a lot of ways. I'd even hazard a guess to say that it's the most-studied category of jacobite material culture. and it's absolutely modern, for its time. the intricate designs on jacobite glasses, and so the symbolism that goes along with them, wouldn't have been possible without wheel-turned glass engraving. which was quite new at the time!! so it's this interesting little snapshot of jacobitism very much existing in the present and functioning in the society of its time, rather than just being a throwback

24. Who do you consider to be one of the most underrated historical figures?

ok we're going full on australian from here on out ig

but again a little while ago I listened to the queer as fact episode on andrew george scott/captain moonlite, who was a queer bushranger. and I thought he was a super interesting person in general, in terms of his. determination to speak out on social reform ig? like airing the problems with the prison system and stuff. even when society and the authorities really didn't want to hear it. but also the podcast made a really good point about how bushrangers are such key figures in constructions of australian identity and masculinity, and to have a queer figure in amongst that really complicates those ideas

25. Who is the most overrated historical figure, in your opinion?

in principle I want to say that I can't really think of anyone, in part because like I said I don't think a whole lot about historical figures, but also because I think it's always valuable to look at people from different angles

that being said. captain cook. @ australia I promise we can live without 454397685 statues of him I promise

26. Who do you think is a forgotten hero we should know about and admire?

I watched the australian wars a couple weeks ago (if you're in australia/have access please go check it out, it's absolutely harrowing but it's so important and so good), which is basically a documentary about early colonial-era conflicts between australian indigenous people and european colonisers, and how those wars have been overwritten and ignored ever since. and I was really struck by how. we have a bunch of places now named after prominent indigenous people from that time, like bennelong and barangaroo. but still I knew so little about their actual lives. which is an absolute travesty. we should be taught about the indigenous people who fought for their land rather than them just being props to the european people arriving.

history asks!

[foxyverserambles]

Trying to think abt the relationship between Ori and Lycorine and Elly and Lycorine.

It's really hard for Ori to dislike people with the only recorded case being minimal distaste because said person got in the way of her time w her at the time crush (Only recorded case of Oriana not encouraging someone to call her Ori)

I think Lycorine would like Oriana's "rustic charm" but would be put off by her preference for violence. Even just the fact that Ori is a falcon therefore likes hunting and might eat raw meat would probably be like Eek????? for Lycorine.

Ori will definitely be intrigued by a dragon, the only reason she hasn't raided Another Dragon is because they're often in company of someone she prefers not to interact with. If I go with Lycorine's element being gem-metal related, I can see Ori being very interested.

Earlier I said smth abt Lycorine asking people for favors but I can imagine Ori playing Lycorine by showering her with praise and getting Lycorine to do things for her instead. She does have a track record of playing along people's fixations to remain on their good side. (Pinyan and Cyrus come to mind)

A bit of an impromptu Ori analysis but I feel the more she's willing to oppose someone's pov, the more she actually trusts that person. While she doesn't exactly oppose Tzeq's way of thinking, she does give his point of view far more thought than just 'haha yeah bestie you're soooooooooo right'. I guess???? It's better put to admit she's more than a bit condescending and doesn't consider most people's thoughts to be relevant hafkjdshfkasf

In other words, I think their relationship would be a neutral-positive one. Ori can get away with a lot by being cute and Lycorine can get away with a lot by Being Rich. There's not much room for conflict beyond Lycorine being a pacifist and Ori being well Ori. Like, Ori's fine with pacifism she just likes fighting. Even then, since this Ori's a lot more under control because of actively considering her healer boyfriend's feelings, I can't see them clashing often if at all.

For Elly I feel it's a bit more complicated. Elly will also play with people's ideas for her own benefit but she's much more malicious about it? Idk if that's a way of putting it. She's very nosy, Ori praises to keep people positive, Elly praises to get more information. I feel Lycorine might fall for this a couple of times and eventually grow wary of the wolf.

Lycorine would probably initially love Elly's even greater "rustic charm" like that's just a country girl with a lute dude what's not to love? Probably like her even MORE when they can engage in cute girl's talk then accidentally give out her entire backstory to a random stranger like oh.

Elly's not the type to actively hold blackmail over someone but like... she might do it... implicitly? Probably with passive and vague comments and smiles. It's not that she'd actually give away someone's information, she kinda just likes teasing lol.

Lycorine treating Elly extra nice so Elly won't spill out her entire backstory while Elly has no intention of doing this she just finds her princess friend funny.

[chynandri]

Ffxiv was under maintenance so it actually made me progress more in Witcher 3. Really long rambling on character thoughts n impressions

I’ve always thought Geralt was like oddly endearing but I think this game even entertains the idea of him having………. Gap moe if you will. Very randomly he will even be CUTE. I vibe with the humour overall in these games

After all, he’s basically a cat boy which guarantees some silliness.

And perhaps it’s because this time he’s around his girl besties more often, he does come across as even. A bit whiny around them LMAO???? Or even around anyone. Tired of living. But how many times does geralt gotta complain and Triss/Yenn have to be like ‘just shut up and do what u gotta do’ lol

I think so far it’s done a great job of showing us many sides of Geralt. The cute, emotional, Just Some Old Guy elements. I love how soft and relaxed and talkative he gets around Triss and Yenn. I also hate him for this stupid love triangle bc they’re both wonderful women

Ever since I was a teenager tho I loved how beautiful Yenn was so im still loyal to her lol. (But this game made me like Triss a lot more than before gotta say). Revisiting the Yenn vs Triss discourse of ages past, and confronting how Yenn really is… well honestly it’s created a lot of conflict in me. Her brashness DOES make ME uncomfortable.

I also really like the married couple dynamic Geralt/Yenn have. They have a different sort of intimacy and familiarity with each other (sometimes very goofy). I just love that they know everything about each other. And I like that Geralt can be the more patient one compared to her. I know that you can object to her like… attitude that she’s entitled to do whatever she wants, but at the same time - she always has a strong purpose for it even if the way she goes about it is uncomfortable. So I kinda see the disagreements you can make Geralt & Yenn have as just. Marriage spats LOL. Because the next moment they’re all over each other again, and Geralt just complains too much BRO JUST LET HER READ UR MIND LMAO.

Also I’m kind of obsessed with the way Geralt swoons over her despite her extending and retracting her affection 🧍and I can feel Yenn similarly cannot help but be into him. THE HOPELESSNESS (induced by the last wish? Idk I know that’s like choice based too I think) IS DELICIOUS

BUT… they really made a strong case for Triss/Geralt because of how extremely adorable they are. They feel really youthful I guess. I love that they’re like the best friends kind of love. Which makes me kinda lean into them just being best friends. But they’re so cute. It actually really made me feel torn between the girlies.

And generally, I think so far this game is really good at making me actually think a lot about the social consequences of my choices. They really play into the players emotional kneejerk reactions (the amount of times they give you the option to let Geralt get mad at a rando talking shit about his friends/girl best friends. Me as the player yeah ofc I’m annoyed too - but it’s just not useful to blow up at some random rude guy) and I just think it’s really clever.

And I think… generally… they really pumped Feminism and Loving Women into this game. The misogyny was REAL back then LMAO 💀 it definitely reflects the shifting social dynamics and expectations in video games of the time it released. And LGBT people are real (and not a joke) as well which is crazy

well I think the writing around all this holds up alright to this day so far. They somehow made Geralt’s reaction to it all a perfect representation of an old straight cis guy who’s encountering Concepts Outside of Normative Society for the first time but he’s like chill about it. What a funny, funny game it really has it all

[higheldertala]

wild blue yonder commentary

okay im done being dramatic about this episode, it was fine i guess

the isaac newton scene was very random. sure the joke was funny but does the scene have a point? idk, does it matter if there’s a point, is it fine just being a joke? im over thinking this

‘he’s got a time machine which means he can blame me for all eternity’ 😂

‘isaac newton that you above all others can appreciate the gravity of the situation’ theyre so unserious 😂 i love them

‘is it knackered?’ i love how british that was

i love how we got rid of the sonic for the episode! 🎉🎉🎉 slay

the green screen is very noticeable unfortunately

doctor companion arguing!! we love to see actual conflict again

hand kiss!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰 this is my roman empire. there’s something so tender about it, i love it so much. can david tennant kiss my hand like that?

‘once spent three years in orbit’ is this a reference to something? bc nothing is coming to mind

i didn’t say this out loud so you’ll just have to trust me but i called it that donna named the robot jimbo

‘can you still hear me? no.’ i love their banter. no other doctor companion duo banters like they do

‘it’s okay, im here, i’ve got you’ 🥺🥺🥺 i love how doctor actually cares about his companions (side eyes a certain era)

when the ‘non-things’ have the warped body parts i don’t see this is as body horror more just goofy to me. not that dw can’t be goofy i suppose

but it’s good to know they used at least some practical effects rather than just wholly cgi

the bit where both doctor and donna go into different rooms is clever directing, definitely keeps the audience guessing who’s who

i don’t like the idea that donna saw the past ‘15 years’ of the doctor. as it would implies there’s a constant link between them as the doctordonna which just seems unnecessary to me. and if she just forgets it anyway what’s the point?

not sure how i feel about rtd referencing the timeless child and flux arcs. (from a writing perspective) the emotional impact should really have been 13’s and not 14’s and so in a way feels unearned. anytime this gets mentioned by russell really just highlights how chibnall never addressed/ emotionally completed these arcs. i feel like rtd should focus on 14’s arc escpecially since we only have a few episodes with them. it shouldn’t be rtd’s responsibility to mop up the mess from the chibnall era and i wouldn’t hold it against him for not bringing it up again. i suppose russell has more fondness for his friend’s work than i do lol

but from an in universe perspective it’s a good emotional scene for the doctor i guess

‘it destroy half the universe because of me’ so the universe WAS destroyed and not repaired from the flux? i don’t want to do this discourse again 😭 please russell don’t make me think about flux again, haven’t we suffered enough?

‘donna is that you? all those years. i missed you’ 🥺🥺🥺 so cruel for the doctor to be baited by the non-thing as he so desperately wants that comfort from donna 🥺

i fear the ‘who’s who’ gimmick gets a tad repetitive

‘i look quite good’ war flashbacks to moffat selfcest jokes 😭🤮

i appreciate the comedy of the revolving door with the doctor and donna thinking they’re safe for it to immediately rotate back around

i fear this has very chibnall-esque the doctor just tells us the solution rather than the audience being shown :/

i don’t understand why slowness confuses the ‘non things’ but sure

you always look goofy running on a green screen im sorry

i’ve never heard the wild blue yonder song before so the tardis appearing all ethereal playing it is so random to me

catherine tate always brings out her best acting for doctor who

i never believed she was gonna be left there and die though, i don’t know why people thought this?? was it just a stressful episode for people?

hug!! 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

there’s nothing better than the doctor kissing donna on the head. this is how i always want the doctor to be 🥹🥹🥹

WILF!!!!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 it’s so lovely to see him and the dedication to bernard cribbins at the end

‘now i feel better, now nothing is wrong, nothing in the whole wide world’ 😭😭😭

the heavy breathing in the end theme tune is awful, who added this in? 😭😭😭 i beg they get rid of this for ncuti’s era.

concluding thoughts: upon a rewatch, the episode is fine, but i don’t think it’s anything groundbreaking. why they made a big deal of keeping this episode secret is puzzling. perhaps intentional marketing to cause hype/ speculation? i think it would work better if this was just a standard episode in the middle of a season but i don’t really understand how this fits in with the anniversary celebrations. as always the doctor and donna are great and i love their dynamic, with all the emotional beats and banter. i enjoyed the star beast more, perhaps it had more of a novelty to david tennant as the doctor and donna returning and the star beast works as a somewhat call back to the franchise. maybe the horror aspect didn’t land for me like it did for other people. i wouldn’t say it was bad overall but rather just okay it’s get 6/10. and maybe for an anniversary special i wanted something with a bit more oomph. and yes maybe i would be partial to a bit of fan servicey cameos i won’t deny it, but i recognise im not entitled to as a fan so we’ll take the L. i hope the giggle will deliver on the oomph but we shall see.

[coffeecat22]

While Farah was always my favorite character by far, I was also very interested in the golden trio, Rosalind and Andreas as well. Their past, their personalities, the relationships between all of them (and between Sky and his 2 dads) were fascinating to me.

Season 2 didn't really deliver on those fronts; I never let myself forget that the adults were not the focus of the show but I'd say they still had a fair amount of screentime in s1, and what we got of them was very good. S2 was focused on the teens a lot more than s1 imo and it's a pity because the older characters had a lot of potential. Maybe they didn't have enough time to explore them while trying to tell the story, after all 7 episodes isn't much, but I'm still sad about it.

Random thoughts and takeaways after just finishing the season:

Ben: I expected him to do Rosalind's bidding for the sake of his kids but something about the way he alerted her of Saul being at the school felt weird to me. IIRC Roz didn't know that Saul was there at all, could he have gotten in and out without her knowing if it wasn't for Ben? Did Ben help Saul get inside the school just to turn him over to Roz? It felt more like a betrayal than a situation where Ben had no choice but it also seemed like Saul understood 🤷🏻‍♀️ and then Ben left, even though it meant leaving Terra behind with a headmistress he'd been trying to protect her from.

Andreas: he was as much of an asshole as I thought he'd be lol. Dissapointed we didn't see a confrontation between him and Saul. I saw people theorizing Sky would kill his dad in s2, maybe in a fit of rage, maybe to protect Silva, maybe because mind control was involved... they were right for the most part 😂 I didn't feel like much happened between Andreas and Sky before they killed Andreas off. Sky said a couple of times that he was getting somewhere with his dad but all I saw was a proud look ONCE and that was it. Andreas definitely cared for Beatrix, but he seemed to have no interest in Sky. I think he knew the people of Aster Dell were BW but maybe he thought it wouldn't make a difference if he told Saul because he'd still try to stop Roz. Was Bea really from AD? Or did Andreas lie to her about it?

Rosalind: so she was a total zealot trying to start a war with the BW by stealing the Dragon Flame and destroying AD. I liked this Rosalind more than s1 Roz, idk if it was the writing or the actress but it worked better for me. The scene in front of Andreas' grave was interesting and at first I thought she really cared for him but by the end of the scene I had the impression she cared in the way she would for a possesion, something that was of use to her. And was obviously sorry when she lost it before she was done with it, which is how she feels about Bloom. It was a shock to see her die so soon, but I loved that Luna used her death to justify going to war and getting people to agree with it. There's probably more to say about her but after 7 hours of staring at a screen, is all I can remember now

Saul: funnily enough this is how the show disappointed me the most I think? He just didn't feel like an actual character to me. He's the only one of the adults who is still alive and around at the end but he feels almost 2dimensional. He wasn't allowed to react to anything or it felt a bit superficial. I was laughing by the end of the season: 1) no resolution with Andreas, 2) loved the conflict with Sky but it was kind of forgotten after Andreas' death (it would've been nice to see the immediate aftermath of that for Saul and Sky) and the one scene where they discuss it Saul says some things that sounded weird, but I can't explain why, 3) Saul and Farah seemed close in s1 and yet if you told me that s2 Saul didn't know her I'd have believed it. It was hilarious to see that Saul never asked about her, probably thought she was actually on the run, didn't seem slightly concerned that Sebastian might be telling the truth about her death, etc. I love silrah no matter the nature of their relationship so maybe I'm biased? it seems Bloom told him she saw Farah again, yet it didn't seem to affect him at all. He seems unaffected after losing both Andreas and Farah. I guess it was weird to see him like that all season, almost like he was going through the motions.

Farah: I was fully prepared for anything the writers decided to do with her, so I'm not surprised. I thought I might feel sad but it actually felt like a hole opened up in my chest and sucked in all emotions. So I guess it's a good thing in a way but it also feels empty. The way she died just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, it was really stupid. While I agree that the rules of life and death can't be broken at all or at least not without consequences, this show is not known for making sensible choices in terms of storytelling, but they had to pick this hill to die on 🙄 I'd have happily waited until s3 to bring her back if it meant she could stay but whatever. There's also the possibility that Eve couldn't or didn't want to come back.

I'm kind of mad that they gave us these characters and then took them away like this but I've always enjoyed fanfic and fan theories more than the show itself anyway. This is what I get for getting attached to the adult (side) characters on a show about teenagers 🤦🏻‍♀️

[sunder-soul]

PROMPT 1: Hellooooooo! First off ur writing goes off, second off listen to this idea that i truly think u can bring to life... reader n tom r in a relationship and someone tried to slip tom to love potion but ofc he doesn't fall for it and his gf is like ??? and then they rub their relationship in her face LOL. anyways no worried just thought this would slap! Admire u n ur work!!

PROMPT 2: hey i love your the last of your rules series and everything else you’ve written. i’m not very creative so idk what exactly i’m looking for plot wise i just trust you since everything you’ve written is good but i was wondering if maybe you could write a tom x ravenclaw reader please. the ravenclaw reader tends to be more emotionally reserved and isn’t big on physical affection and maybe tom finds that interesting in a way? idk this idea might suck but felt like asking anyways...

Decided to combine these two because I could see them working really well together… :D

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

Retribution

Summary: After somebody tries to slip Tom a love potion to break up him and Ravenclaw Reader’s relationship, they get a little bit theatrical in response...

Wordcount: 1.8k

Content warning: none.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

“Good morning,” says Tom evenly, lifting a wide-brimmed cup to his lips and taking an even sip as he looks at you.

“Is it?” you say dryly, sitting down opposite him at the Slytherin table and pulling out the new Magical Theory textbook. “Have you looked over this yet?”

“I have,” Tom replies with a very small smile. “Not to your liking?”

“Sophus writes like it’s still the seventeenth century,” you say with a shake of your head, “which isn’t surprising considering I don’t think he included a single reference from the last two hundred years… I mean honestly –” you wave at the title on the front of the book, “– ‘Corpus Magikus?’ Even the title makes it sound ancient.”

“Did you have any criticisms about the actual content per chance?” Tom asks as he lifts his tea again – though it doesn’t quite hide the amused smile on his lips. “Or did you not manage to get past the articulation?”

You give him a look. “The articulation is just as important as the content.”

“I completely disagree,” he replies easily, his cup clinking as he rests it back on its saucer, “regardless of how it is written, his points are extremely sophisticated.”

“I’m not talking about the quality of his points, I’m talking about how well he makes them accessible,” you say at once, picking up a piece of toast and buttering it lightly, “he can have the best criticisms of Magical Theory in the world and no one will care if they can’t understand what he’s saying.”

Tom arches a brow and leans forward on the table, resting on his forearms. “You’re placing the responsibility of understanding an argument on the person presenting it, and not the person receiving it,” he says fluidly, “personally when I find something difficult to understand, I take it as an indicator that I need to return to the topic after better preparing myself.”

“That works fine as an individualistic perspective,” you reply at once, leaning forward to match him, “but a book isn’t written for an individual, is it? It’s written for an audience. A book like this is measured by how wide an audience it can reach, meaning the responsibility is half on him to write accessibly, and half on the audience to go away and fill the holes in our own understanding. That’s when information is dispersed most effectively.”

“Your priority is the dispersion of information as a whole and not the expansion of your personal field of knowledge, and that is the crux of our differing opinion,” Tom says, sitting up straighter and tilting his head calmly.

“I am very aware,” you say dryly, “but you shouldn’t dismiss the importance of charisma when it comes to spreading information. After all, academics aren’t exactly known to be the most charismatic people most of the time, so you end up with intelligent, useful tomes that are utterly incomprehensible to most people –” you nod at the text again, “whilst compelling idiotic drivel is widely consumed.”

The Daily Prophet lands with a thump on your breakfast plate as the delivery owl swoops away with a mournful hoot, and you share a pointed, very wry look with Tom.

Tom breathes a little laugh and laces his fingers around his cup. “So you’re not looking forward to Magical Theory, then.”

“I am,” you amend, frowning, “I just hope the class follows more like Waffling’s work than this.”

“Of course you like Waffling,” Tom smirks, lifting his cup, “he effectively writes in verse –”

Tom suddenly freezes, his brow furrowing lightly. You raise a brow at his sudden reaction. “What?”

He looks down at his tea, still frowning.

“Tom?” you prompt, bemused.

“Someone has attempted to drug me,” he says in complete seriousness, looking up at you.

You stare back, bewildered. “Is… is this more Tom humour?” you ask after a moment, “you seriously need more practice at making jokes, Tom, you really are terrible at it –”

“I’m not joking,” Tom interrupts crisply.

Your scrutiny drops to the cup in his hand. “How can you tell?”

“My tea smells like you.”

Your brows raise. “Excuse me?”

“My tea,” he repeats evenly, his dark eyes coming alight with a flicker of amusement as he leans closer, his cup still in one hand, “rather suddenly smells like you. I can only assume someone has managed to slip Amortentia into my cup sometime during this conversation.”

You blink at him. “Oh,” you say simply.

Tom’s lips curve into a more defined smirk at your expression.

“Well who’s trying to drug you then?” you ask quickly, looking away.

“An excellent question,” he says silkily, eyes still on you. “Their motive is hardly a mystery, so that should narrow it down.”

You roll your eyes and level him with a flat look. “Nothing could narrow it down less, Tom,” you drawl, “half the school is in love with you, and the other half is in denial about being in love with you.”

Tom arches a brow and looks very pleased with himself. “Should I drink it and we can find out?” he asks in amusement, lifting the cup.

You huff a laugh and take a bite of your toast. “Go on then, but don’t expect any sympathy from me when you’re pouring your heart out to some random stranger in front of the whole school a minute from now.”

His hand freezes with the rim of his cup an inch from his mouth, amusement faltering.

“That’s what I thought,” you smirk. “If you want to play it that way you’re going to have to be smarter than that.”

“Oh?” he asks, dark eyes narrowing. “And what would you suggest?”

“If someone drugged you during this conversation then they’re probably watching for your reaction,” you say casually around bites of your toast, “so just look out for someone who’s waiting for you to dramatically break up with me.”

“According to you, that would be the entire school,” Tom mutters, looking significantly more disgruntled than before.

A grin slowly builds on your face. “That was nearly a real joke, Tom,” you say ironically, “Merlin you’ve come so far…”

He shoots you a flat glare and you snicker. “Alright, sorry, I’ll stop – look, if I storm out of here looking upset and you act all conflicted and brooding for the rest of the day, whoever it was will probably try to come talk to you.”

“How theatrical,” Tom deadpans.

You shrug. “Do you want to know who drugged you or not?”

His eyes remain on yours for a moment, and then he lifts the tea to his lips. You watch him pretend to drink, your eyes lingering on the tea glistening on his lips as he lowers the cup.

“Don’t lick your lips,” you say quietly, not quite able to look away.

Tom’s other hand shifts slightly where it’s resting on the table between you, and the tea vanishes both from his lips and the cup. You give him another dry look. “Show off,” you accuse, smiling, “wandless and non-verbal, huh?”

“If you ask nicely, I’ll teach you how to do it,” he smirks.

You huff a laugh and slide Corpus Magikus back into your bag. “I should make my dramatic exit soon,” you say casually, finishing your toast and looking around the hall absently. “Perhaps we should have a fight first.”

“That would make it more convincing, yes,” he says delicately, still looking amused.

“What shall we fight about?"

Tom’s expression immediately cools and he leans in so close that you can see the patterns in his dark irises. “The content doesn’t matter,” he says smoothly, a glimmer in his eyes despite his utterly blank expression, “rather, the articulation.”

You hold his gaze for a second, fighting the urge to smile. You force yourself to stand suddenly, as if he’s said something of great offence. “I’ve never seen you so quickly converted to my opinion, Tom,” you say icily, leaning down to him over the table and hoping it looks like you’re angry.

“You made your argument very convincingly,” Tom says immediately, lifting his chin coolly.

“Actively demonstrating my point, I suppose,” you snap, standing straight. “I’m going to storm out now.”

“I’ll see you in class,” he says dismissively, pouring himself more tea.

You turn on your heel and leave, ignoring the curious eyes following you on your way out and not letting the smile break on your face until you’re well outside the Hall. Now all you have to do is wait.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

“Amelia Staghart,” Tom says in your ear before swiftly sitting down next to you in Potions that afternoon.

You raise a brow at him, watching as he arranges his Potions kit on the desk – Staghart is sitting a few desks behind you at that very moment and can most definitely see the both of you. “Are we no longer having a fight?”

“I grew tired of that pretence rather quickly,” Tom says curtly.

You smirk. “Did she talk to you?”

“Yes.” He looks decidedly irritated.

“A lot, huh.”

He shoots you a glare and you bite back another smile. “Are you going to report her then?” you ask, writing the date out on your parchment.

“No,” Tom says softly. You glance up curiously at his tone and find his dark eyes watching you write, before they flick up to yours. “I can think of a more pertinent retribution for her to endure,” he finishes quietly, not looking away.

“Retribution?” you echo, arching a brow with a slight smile. “And you accuse me of being theatrical.”

But Tom only leans closer and – to general astonishment – places a very gentle kiss on your cheek. His lips linger soft and warm on your skin for a moment as you’re frozen in place, staring at him as he slowly draws away an inch. His eyes roam your face as you blink in surprise, his lips curving into another humorous smile at your expression when there’s a sudden SMASH from behind you.

The entire class turns from where they’ve been staring wide-eyed at Tom’s display of affection to see Staghart’s inkwell knocked asunder on her desk, spreading black ink across the wood and dripping down to the floor, her eyes wide and her expression thunderstruck as she stares at you.

“Clean that up at once, Staghart!” Slughorn says disapprovingly as he strides into the room. “I certainly hope your clumsiness does not extend through today’s lesson – we’re brewing poisons today, class!”

Staghart goes red as the rest of the students titter and chatter, furiously glaring at the pool of ink dripping into her lap. 

You glance at Tom and share a silent look of amusement before the two of you simultaneously turn back to your notes, still smirking.