#in fairness : they are both perfect.

[choccy-milky]

modern AU seb and clora's first interaction 📘📗 (and by modern AU i actually mean super trope-filled high school romance set in the 80's/90's LOL)

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

"Nana know you're here?"

Leverage Redemption S01E02 The Panamanian Monkey Job.

Bonus Eliot reactions:

[seaweedstarshine]

Thinking about the convolution of Eleventh Doctor's expressions of love for River Song in Season 7B. He does not trust Clara. He is utterly (wrongly) convinced that he and Clara are playing a grand manipulative game together. “What are you, eh?! A trick? A trap?!!”

So naturally, the last thing he should do in this game is to clue his opponent in on something that could be used to hurt him. Something like River, so painfully near the end of their time together, whose data ghost he can always see, who “it would hurt too much” to acknowledge. He can't let Clara know of the loss which constantly floods his senses; (“You are always here to me. And I always listen, and I can always see you,” he professes, once Clara has vanished into his timestream).

And yet. River fills his every moment (irregardless of any sneaking out for dates with increasingly-young Rivers while Clara is asleep like he did while the Ponds slept, which would explain his absence when the TARDIS is hiding Clara's bedroom). Even though it's not strategic, he can’t help but tell Clara about her. The best defense he can manage is to phrase it as if River isn’t as important to him as she is. Not only is avoiding her first name in his grief; he's also completely avoiding pronouns; which seems extreme given that he's still mentioning her as often as: “Oh yeah, of course he has! Professor Song! Sorry, it's just I never realized you were a woman.”

Leave out the emotion — leave out the details — don't show the cracks in the armor — play the part — win the game.

“Well, there's no point now. We're about to die. JUST TELL ME WHO YOU ARE.”

[wonder-worker]

"Among their complaints [in 1460, the Yorkists] specifically blamed the earls of Wiltshire and Shrewsbury and Viscount Beaumont for ‘stirring’ the king [Henry VI] to hold a parliament at Coventry that would attaint them and for keeping them from the king’s presence and likely mercy, asserting that this was done against [the king's] will. To this they added the charge that these evil counselors were also tyrannizing other true men* without the king’s knowledge. Such claims of malfeasance obliquely raised the question of Henry’s fitness as a king, for how could he be deemed competent if such things happened without his knowledge and against his wishes? They also tied in rumors circulating somewhat earlier in the southern counties and likely to have originated in Calais that Henry was really ‘good and gracious Lord to the [Yorkists] since, it was alleged, he had not known of or assented to their attainders. On 11 June the king was compelled to issue a proclamation stating that they were indeed traitors and that assertions to the contrary were to be ignored." - Helen Maurer, "Margaret of Anjou: "Queenship and Power in Late Medieval England"

Three things that we can surmise from this:

We know where the "Henry was an innocent helpless king being controlled and manipulated by his Evil™ advisors" rhetoric came from**.

The Yorkists were deliberately trying to downplay Henry VI's actual role and involvement in politics and the Wars of the Roses. They cast him as a "statue of a king", blamed all royal policies and decisions on others*** (claiming that Henry wasn't even aware of them), and framed themselves as righteous and misunderstood counselors who remained loyal to the crown. We should keep this in mind when we look at chronicles' comments of Henry's alleged passivity and the so-called "role reversal" between him and Queen Margaret.

Henry VI's actual agency and involvement is nevertheless proven by his own actions. We know what he thought of the Yorkists, and we know he took the effort to publicly counter their claims through a proclamation of his own. That speaks louder than the politically motivated narrative of his enemies, don't you think?

*There was some truth to these criticisms. For example, Wiltshire (ie: one of the men named in the pamphlet) was reportedly involved in a horrible situation in June which included hangings and imprisonments for tax resistance in Newbury. The best propagandists always contain a degree of truth, etc. **I've seen some theories on why Margaret of Anjou wasn't mentioned in these pamphlets alongside the others even though she was clearly being vilified during that time as well, and honestly, I think those speculations are mostly unnecessary. Margaret was absent because it was regarded as very unseemly to target queens in such an officially public manner. We see a similar situation a decade later: Elizabeth Woodville was vilified and her whole family - popularly and administratively known as "the queen's kin" - was disparaged in Warwick and Clarence's pamphlets. This would have inevitably associated her with their official complaints far more than Margaret had been, but she was also not directly mentioned. It was simply not considered appropriate. ***This narrative was begun by the Duke of York & Warwick and was - demonstrably - already widespread by the end of 1460. When Edward IV came to power, there seems to have been a slight shift in how he spoke of Henry (he referred to Henry as their "great enemy and adversary"; his envoys were clearly willing to acknowledge Henry's role in Lancastrian resistance to Yorkist rule; etc), but he nevertheless continued the former narrative for the most part. I think this was because 1) it was already well-established and widespread by his father, and 2) downplaying Henry's authority would have served to emphasize Edward's own kingship, which was probably advantageous for a usurper whose deposed rival was still alive and out of reach. In some sense, the Lancastrians did the same thing with their own propaganda across the 1460s, which was clearly not as effective in terms of garnering support and is too long to get into right now, but was still very relevant when it came to emphasizing their own right to the throne while disparaging the Yorkists' claim.

[vv-ispy]

also also I know everyone likes to talk about how good of an archon Venti is because he left mondstadt to do its own thing and hey look Zhongli's doing the same now with his retirement but I also like how the story shows it isn't without flaws, with so much freedom in the city it's all too easy to take control with power, Mondstadt's people may be free but they also don't have a god to actually uphold the ideal they stand for and how personal freedoms conflict, discrimination(eg. against Eula and her clan) is allowed because the people are free to do whatever they want, the fatui really wormed their way into mondstadt during the webtoon + nearly did with Davalin bc the people of mondstadt do whatever they want so Jean is overworked and the knights are ineffective(according to Diluc), and how mondstadt might have been the least free place for the common people during the Lawrences rule despite being the region governed by the archon of freedom

Zhongli at least first tested his people were ready before retiring, Venti kinda acended, organized a bunch of celebrations for his people, then left them to have fun with their newfound freedom only interveining when things get really bad

[dangoulains-devotion]

on this late night i am thinking incredibly hard about how, when faced with a choice between preventing a new friend from harm + clearing up a misunderstanding and choosing the path that would potentially find him a cure for his catatonic friend, zack recalled marlene's words of saying that aerith liked cloud, and of course she did, because he (zack) wasn't there. hadn't been there for a long time

and after recalling these words and grasping at the ribbon tied around his hand, zack ultimately decides that by taking the right-hand path he can, with some luck, fulfill two of his own desires - 1) potentially seeing his friend cloud healed and healthily awake again, and 2) making sure that aerith will be able to be happy when she wakes if he succeeds the first part. he has not and will not let go of his adoration and love for her, but if cloud is seemingly what makes her happy in this bizarre world he's found himself in, he'll choose that option in a heartbeat, because her happiness means the world to him even if it means accepting that he's not the focus of it anymore. he just loves her so much . oh i'm in pain. zack fair the man that you are

[nero-neptune]

i think election 2024 articles that say stuff like "should gretchen whitmer or kamala harris or gavin newsom should replace biden?" really, Really underestimate the number of americans who 1) hate women and 2) hate californians.

and if i could hazard a 3rd point- democrats are picky eaters. republicans can fucking despise a candidate to hell and back, want them dead for personal reasons, think they're dumber than a bag of rocks, know Full well they're in a steep cognitive decline, and Still vote for them bc they want democrats (and the people who vote for them) to suffer by any means necessary and it's witnessing that suffering that fuels them until the next round of voting. also god said so. democrats want candidates to pass some arbitrary, unrealisitc vibe check, and even then they could barely vote in lockstep if you paid them.

i'd say this happens every 4 years, but given the amount of democrat voters that don't even show up for the little local elections in-between while republican voters do damn near Every Single Time, well. and then you wonder why we're here.

[dylanconrique]

i feel like if any one person had the privilege of knowing about chenfords secret relationship it no doubt would have been jackson. i mean, there’s honestly no hiding it from him, not with the way lucy comes home smiling like a lovesick puppy after every date she has with tim.

[zellkabellk]

I finally beat Shadow of the Erdtree's final boss.... it was hard but going slowly day by day helped learn most of the patterns (and survive the ones I still didn't get completely) ;;;;;;;; TIS DONE

[minakoaiinos]

ALSO adding on to my last post I have seen a bunch of people around all social media say things about the state of shoujo anime in recent years all along the lines of saying there are less shoujo anime bc women's perspectives and stories are viewed as less profitable than shounen and that's probably not untrue in terms of executive's reasoning but also every time there is a shoujo anime made literally all I ever see people talk about are the guy romantic partners and if anyone says anything about liking the woman main character it's always through the filter of saying things like aww the guy loves her so much and it's like. The girls on the shows aren't talking to each other about anything but men the audience isn't talking about anything but men etc. You want women's perspectives. But the only perspective you want is to only keep talking about liking men.

[allyriadayne]

curious why you like jace so much?

i like him because of his contradictions. he's supposed to be rhaenyra's perfect son, her perfect heir and the first step in rhaenyra's ascension, instead he's everything but. he can't ever be rhaenyra's perfect heir and son because of his parentage, something he had no control over and no matter how much he tries he will never overcome it. doesn't matter how much rhaenyra says to him that he is a targaryen, that's all that matters. and jace knows this!!! so making him be painfully self-aware of his shortcomings and his overcompensation and repression make for an interesting character.

he's also angry all the time, moody, he has repressed every emotion that could make him seem less in the eyes of his family and court so when the pot inevitably boils over, it's so explosive. finding out that his life was a lie at such young age and that he was never going to be enough made him overly independent and anxious and annoying to build himself and his family(!) to be the best and in the process, protect them so they will never feel the way he feels.

i find characters who try and try so interesting and i'm not going to say i'm a tragedy enjoyer because i'm too much of a coward to fully embrace it, but the fact it doesn't even matter at the end that jace was such perfect diplomat and commander, good brother, the best heir and prince because he died unceremoniously trying (ha!) to save his little brother. it was never going to be enough. something about futility and the will to transform the world you want to live in etc.

thanks for the question

[freakinflipflop]

I think one of the things that stands out the most to me about botw/totk, that I feel most compelled by when I see it in fanworks, is the joy in exploration and the freedom in spite of a looming final goal.

In botw especially it felt BIG bc the only Link you've ever known is the silly lil guy who grins goofily in selfies and responds to questions with big body gestures/silly responses. You get used to running around and finding koroks and helping people and taming horses. And then you find out how Link was before the Calamity, where the goal was so overwhelming that he shut himself off entirely to be the perfect knight. And now the Link you're playing feels even more special bc he STILL has that weight but he's still able to find joy

And then in totk you get more of the same behavior. Goofin around, helping people, being extremely competent but still taking the time to be kind. Making stupid fun contraptions. Joining the Yiga for shits and giggles. Like.

Idk it just means so much to me that Link got a chance to redefine himself and did. Without even knowing he was redefining himself. Even when the first thing he learns is about the massive weight of the task ahead of him, he's still smiling.

Botw/totk don't seem like monumental tasks, despite Link carrying the literal weight of the world. Yes that weight is still heavy. Yes that is still the end goal. But there is room along the way to explore and help people and make friends and eat good food. There is space for Link to be a PERSON while still having a goal. Augh

[akkivee]

it varies in thickness, but kuukou tends to be drawn with a plush bottom lip and i think it’s cute lol

[whenthedeeppurplefalls]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship between Tanya and Will, and. Maybe I contextualized it all wrong. Maybe their “romance” is the only breath of air these two characters get. Maybe it’s the only moment of solace in a lifetime of misery/general unhappiness. Maybe judging it as a morally incorrect relationship is wrong. After all, it was the first time William had been allowed to choose something for *himself,* and he chose her. And maybe it wasn’t the best choice, and maybe if he’d been given more ability to choose for himself throughout his life, he wouldn’t have chosen her, and maybe their relationship wasn’t healthy, but it was a moment where he felt like he was happy, or as close to it as he possibly could be, and maybe that’s what matters?

I’ve been listening to the song “Francis Forever” and it gives me the weirdest idea of an au where years down the road, William (who is no longer possessed) who has been acquitted or at least not found guilty for Tanya’s death despite KNOWING the circumstances of what happened to her, kind of thinks of Tanya with this sweet reverence. Maybe it wasn’t love, but they were young and exploring and figuring themselves out, and she meant so much to him.

Like specifically the line “On sunny days I go out walking/I end up on a tree lined street/I look up at the gaps of sunlight/I miss you more than anything” it makes me imagine this au version of Will just sadly reminiscing on what they had when they were both young…

[pardonmydelays]

folklore or evermore?

that is such a good question!

so they are both in my, let's say, top 5, but i think i have to say evermore - if you think about it, i am much more crazy about those songs (champagne problems, willow, gold rush, happiness, ivy, coney island, right where you left me, tis the damn season, I WANNA SCREAM), the whole vibe of the album (i'm a winter girlie) & also i know bel probably chose folklore & we are sisters (just like folklore & evermore) so i just have to go with evermore.

[paverics]

me trying to convince people to watch something for the wlw storyline:

them: is it happy? or is one of them going to die at the end?

me: oh 100% one of them will die. it’ll be an absolute miracle if they both survive the season actually, let alone get a happy ending, but….