#no spoilers.....i wrote this yesterday rewatching episode 7

[allyriadayne]

it's so crazy how this is the first time louis live editing of his story is so blatant. daniel found and inconsistency and unraveled the whole thing. putting words in claudia's mouth, making her hesitate, almost saying what louis could never do, that she loved lestat

this aided by louis or armand cutting the pages out of her diary so louis can tell a neater story. what happened to claudia out there with killer? if louis is implying bruce raped her why not let HER tell the story anyway? or just plain don't imply anything in the first place. daniel saying in this episode that claudia seemed like she hated louis' guts and he couldn't abide that, just like he couldn't when she left too and wouldn't listen to him calling her in one of the s2 promo videos, daniel again mentions claudia was hating paris and it's implied louis didn't. i wonder if there are cut pages there too relating to armand or a more acute and specific unhappiness with louis that drives her to seek madeleine.

it's like in louis' mind claudia's troubles and unhappiness are all related to lestat, just like his. so they leave, louis "choses" her. but claudia is not happy because it wasn't all lestat, it was louis, it was her birth, it's her. louis can't find love again when she's unhappy. so he will try to tell a story where nothing went wrong and she was happy and he was happy and in love and where he didn't find guilty as he left her behind for armand. and that's not getting into the weird dynamic where he says claudia "let" him explore and find himself in paris!!

anyway it's a good sign in s2 louis seems to be more aware of claudia as a person rather than as words in a diary and that he's trying (?) to give back the pages and her missing life for a let's say....objective retelling of her story too

it's just UGH. the editing of claudia's life drives me so crazy sometimes. i mean, there is always going to be a subjective retelling of anyone featured in louis' narration, that is memory, how we perceive others is never how they perceive themselves or how they just are but there's a double editing in claudia because you've got louis and you've got her OWN diary, part of her self, that louis (or/and armand) ALSO cuts and pastes as he sees fit because he wants to "protect" her from.....WHAT? a fictional exploitation of her character that he is giving himself anyway by telling the story anyway? just hide the diaries. he wants to tell the truth. but only in his way. what does claudia has that louis finds so unpalatable? so miserable? a mirror of his own unhappiness etched in a little girl's face?

and i mean, it's not only that this is done, it's that claudia from the beginning is a character that is robbed of her agency. she's a child with a death mother, she should die, but then is stolen for louis to make a daughter out of her, so she becomes an eternal child. and it's worse when claudia is made to be 14 and in the cusp of womanhood! it's crueler! a 5 yo claudia doesn't know what it is to be a person, but 14 yo claudia does but never will. the point of her character is that she's constantly desperately seeking agency and freedomm to be able to make decisions on her own. and she never will, not even after death because louis is still part of her cage and decides how she will be, like her mean aunt did in life and lestat and louis did in her undead one

[porgthespacepenguin]

Potential foreshadowing for S3?

More galaxy brain time! Spoilers under the cut for episode 7.

So yesterday, I speculated that we may be heading for Q sacrificing himself at the end of the season, with Picard and co trying to save/bring him back in season 3 (read more here).

And today, as I was rewatching the episode, something struck me.

When Picard is telling the fairy tale story about the Queen, there's a fairly prominent shot of a painted galaxy:

Immediately, this made me think of Q, but then the story went on and I forgot about it. Except, there's clearly much more to it than I initially thought.

(EDIT: See the sun in the middle of the galaxy? @celestialwarzone wrote an excellent meta on its symbolism.)

So Picard's mom is telling a story about an evil Sorcerer, bent on destroying everyone, until suddenly:

Remind you of anyone, yet? But wait, it gets better.

Game? Trials? Oh my.

LESSONS?! But wait, now we come to the best part. (Also, bit chilling that this may be foreshadowing Q removing himself from the checkerboard of existence. Huho.)

Even on my first watch, this screamed Q. But what I didn't know then, is that the show would actually spell it out for us later. Behold:

See what I mean? The teacher is Q.

Now, of course, we also know that nothing in Picard's story was as it seemed. It's all mirrors and shadows. His mom was not a queen, and his dad was not a monster.

In fact, it was all upside down: his mom left him to essentially die in a basement, and his dad (who Q mirrors, more here) was trying to protect him.

And Q isn't an evil sorcerer intent on destroying everyone. It's actually the opposite. He's trying to save everyone, but I'm afraid it'll cost him his life.

Anyway, this is of course only speculation, but my curiosity is well and truly piqued. Let me know your thoughts!

[gottaenjoythelittlethingzz]

@mastery-in-procrastination, who is busy doing some awesome things for the community, was kind enough to send me this ask: “How long have you been working on "The Reaper's Only Daughter"?” Tumblr ate the ask, but I was able to save my answer! I may have gone a little over broad in my explanation. Thanks for the question, now sit back and experience the journey. 

Ah yes. My origin story. I remember it like it was yesterday. Allow me to take you back, to before the beginning...

2018! For me it was the year of television (as ‘17 had been the year of the movie). I vividly remember searching for shows on IMDB to compile a sort of list in January. Some well-known, some old hat, but two in particular stuck out to me. Two my mother specifically enjoyed and had for many years. Sons of Anarchy and Shameless. I was finally at the age to where I could start enjoying these shows and so they were added to my list to be watched later. I remember reading the description of SOA and looking through pictures of tough guys on motorcycles. I knew I had to watch it!

Fast forward to May 15th. I was nearing the end of my high school/senior year. I believe I had taken all of my finals at this time and just had a few meaningless things left to turn in for one or two classes. I had just finished The Punisher (thank the godz) and was ready to start the next series. It was again between SOA and Shameless and I have never made a better or more damaging decision in my entire life than when I hit play on the pilot episode of SOA at 7 am as I was getting ready for school that Tuesday morning. Mind you, my school was a dead zone as far as internet goes, but the media godz were shinning down on me that week. I chased the signal every single day.

For the next 6 days, it was all I thought about, all I watched, all I wanted to talk about! I watched 92 episodes, roughly 70 hours of content in 6 days. Though my mother has seen it many times (as it is also her favorite series with her favorite actor(s) in it) I retold her the stories (nearly every episode, or several at a time) as I watched them. She was the first person to see me “live react” to a show in text or otherwise. She enjoyed it because she hasn’t had anyone to talk to about the show in what is now nearly 5 years and she liked hearing my takes on things. 

I stopped talking to friends, I stopped eating (not really so extreme, but I mean...), and on the last 3 nights I hardly slept. I watched it absolutely everywhere! That Friday I skipped school. I reasoned I wasn’t doing work anyway and it wasn’t going to hold me back. If my memory serves me correctly, I watched the finale of S3 through S4 and maybe a little more on either side (but for certain these 14 episodes, technically my favorite in the series) in one straight sitting. In truth, nothing was going to be able to hold me back from this show. I was hard pressed to leave my room, much less my house which made work Saturday difficult. I told my coworkers I was watching it as I jumped up and down waiting to go home (business was slow you see) and I actually left early. I have a bad habit of watching things while driving (don’t do it kids! Listen to your mother!) and actually watched an episode on the way home. 

I ended up pulling an all-nighter on Saturday trying to finish it as I had more plans Sunday. Well, it didn’t work. I fell asleep around 4 am with 4 or 5 episodes to go. I watched a few episodes to and from where I was going in the car, but on Sunday night May 20th, 2018, I watched the final two episodes of the series back to back and a weight had been lifted off my shoulders (it also left a hole in my heart, quite literally). I was no longer susceptible to spoilers and I knew the “secret”. What’s more, I completely, 100% agreed with the creator’s decision as to how and when he ended the show. 

SOA was the first show that ever captivated my attention in such a way. I was never bored, not for a minute. I wouldn’t call many of the episodes fillers even now that I’ve watched each a couple of times (too many to count, for research purposes, I assure you.) And it is one of the most consistent as far as new ideas and character development/design I have ever seen. What's more is I absolutely adore the main cast and characters alike. It honestly took over my life and has changed it for the better. So much so, that it was still all I thought about for several weeks after I finished it. To the point where I had to watch it again top to bottom, though it took me about 2 weeks while sleeping that time. I’ve never watched a show like that, before or since, no matter how much I like a series.

Alas, life goes on, there were more shows to watch, and for the next month or so I turned to watching Shameless (another story entirely) and, though I didn’t want to, I stopped thinking about SOA for a time. That was, until I started thinking about moving to college. My mother had an SOA poster that use to be in her office that she gave to me to put in my apartment. I wake up every morning to see it hanging over my bed and I am reminded that I should be writing TROD. I went down to my college apartment about a week before term started. It was the first time I was technically on my own, though I have roommates, and you will never guess what I did during that week. Go ahead, guess. I did 2 things, actually.

I rewatched SOA, though this time I stopped on series 5 (and if you’ve seen it you may know why) and I “broke down” and created a Writeblr. I’ve always loved to write and actually was in the process of shelving what was originally meant to be my first novel length WIP (on the grounds that it did not have a plot to hold the characters together) that now hasn’t been updated in 6+ months. During this third rewatch an idea came to me. “What would it be like to be in this world?” More specifically, “What would it be like to be a woman in this world”?

This was apparently the right question to ask. The rest is history, swirling into a big black and crow feathered blur. I spent a few months creating Schuyler. I slowly stopped talking about the shelved WIP online and started answering questions for her instead. I figured if I was going to shelve 1 project I had better have another to replace it with, and so TROD was born! I nearly immediately had a character personality and a title when I started. The name Schuyler and her family lineage to link her to the canon story took more time. But while I was thinking of all the technical stuff I was also imagining all the fun scenes that would take place in this imaginary novel I was picturing.

I spent so much time thinking about it, specifically the first chapter which you have seen is now available to read on this blog, that the first time I sat down to write I wrote out 5,000 words flat. Many remained in what is currently “the final draft”. This had never happened to me before and I was inspired! I have been working on it ever since. As far as physically writing for it I have only been writing TROD for about 4 months. But in actuality, TROD has been a project a long time in the making. Nearly 9 months of thought and devotion to a Fandom nearly gone, but I’m here now to carry the torch!

9 months in and I have 6 moodboards, a chapter, and far too many tag games/posts to count. I have roughly 30k words written (continuously, obsessively tweaking the first 3 chapters) and another 2k or so of notes (outlines, dialogue lines, and ideas for scenes). This is actually the first story where I’m consulting a sort of outline (my own that I’m always adding to, but also the canon story) and it’s been my best writing experience to date!

This project is going to be long. Longer than anything I’ve ever dreamed of taking on before. I still have much to explore, plot kinks to work through, and many months, if not years, of work to go. But w/o SOA I would have never become so involved in media (as now I want to make it my career), met some of my favorite actors, created my Writeblr or been inspired to continue writing, and I certainly never would have entered into this inclusive community or met so many awesome writers!

*Whew. That was a lot. But SOA and my WIP TROD means a lot to me as you can see. Thanks so much for the ask. Feel free to stop by anytime! 

I’m also going to tag @themildestofwriters as I know you may be thinking about diving into this series yourself and I want to both warn you and wish you well if you choose to do so!

And @aspire2bu, as I believe I saw you post recently about how you first got into K-pop in the first place and I found it interesting. Hopefully you’ll find this interesting too!

[sharethisgemwithme]

“Legs from Here to Homeworld” instant reaction

TONIGHT: Right after "Reunited" aired, Joe Johnston posted on Tumblr a sketch that said "Psst, SDCC is in two weeks", so we all had an idea something was gonna happen. But I did not expect an entire episode to be aired. Shows what I know. Anyway, while the episode title was already known (I think from a French language episode list), I don't think an episode synopsis was out there. Well, the episode was shown at SDCC and was posted online yesterday, and I did not successfully avoid ALL spoilers, so I'm pretty sure we're jumping right into it. After having gone five seasons without ever using the name "White Diamond", are we about to actually meet her? At the very least, given the episode title, I think we're digging up Pink's ship from the desert and taking a road trip.

As always, my first watch is without pausing or rewinding. The episode isn't available on the website, only through the app, which has been being a bit laggy but hopefully there aren't any problems. The stopwatch starts as close to "We..." as possible. Since the episode hasn’t aired on TV yet, the rest is behind a cut.

Pre-0:00 - That said, we've been getting some crazy convoluted episode titles of late, like "A Single Pale Rose" and "Now We're Only Falling Apart" that aren't directly referenced in the episode themselves. 0:00 - I'm very glad that the thumbnail for this is just the group shot from the intro. No spoilers that way. 0:01 - "A sneak preview" and by that we mean the whole thing. 0:22 - Legs - Amber, Hilary and a new person, Tom? 0:32 - Lots of crying. 0:41 - Bismuth, you've got a lot to learn. Someone fill her in. 0:54 - Yeah, that Connie thing was a bit of a continuity error but we'll forgive it. 1:14 - She didn't know. 1:26 - A pretty loud "ahem" there from Pearl. 1:45 - That's a good enough explanation. Maybe Greg could help explain a bit more. 1:59 - Oh good, I'm sure there's a torturous method to get your memories. 2:16 - Oh hey, it's time to go meet Centi! 2:35 - Demonstrate it so we can see who she's supposed to be. 2:44 - "Help her"? What does "help" mean? 3:05 - Whoa. That... almost worked. 3:15 - I think this means we need a group effort. 3:24 - AND IF WE NEED A GROUP EFFORT, DO WE NEED ALL FOUR? 3:31 - NEW VOICE. And she's trapped in her last thoughts before the attack. 3:52 - NEPHRITE, AS WAS PREDICTED. 4:02 - And "Hessonite", as was predicted after "Save the Light". 4:19 - It's not Pink's fault that you tried to fucking kill everyone. 4:40 - THE FOUR OF US. 4:48 - BOOM. 4:52 - Oh man is she... 5:01 - She's above any sort of communication? 5:24 - What do you mean search? Steven, you dingus. 5:45 - WE GOT US A SHIP. 5:55 - That is a hell of a ship. 6:12 - "Diplomatic mission", I know Rebecca wrote something about Connie being diplomatic "like a Blue gem" 6:20 - I think Priyanka shares my thought about "that ship is a gigantic butt" 6:59 - Bismuth's got a bad feeling about this. 7:16 - She thinks this is a trap? 7:35 - Oh yeah, Lapis and Peridot have to reform still. 7:49 - That's gonna be another awkward reunion when Lapis realizes what's going on. 8:05 - So what was Blue's power before she was absurdly sad? 8:16 - oh my goodness, they showed its crotch 8:50 - so did we bring centi? how are we going to fix a gem if we don't bring her? 9:21 - luckily space travel doesn't take that long in this ship. 9:32 - homeworld is janked! 9:45 - by "a while", do you mean like fifty years 10:00 - riot! riot! 10:10 - another new pearl. 10:20 - somebody got sapphires to explain the situation. 10:42 - yikes. 10:52 - "NOW IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GET BACK TO WORK" 11:10 - Yup, that's not a good thing.

Immediate reaction: So the reason nobody's mentioned White is because she's even more over-the-top than Yellow and Blue. And she showed it right off the bat. No one gets to explain stuff to a supreme dictator. But seriously, gems, you need to explain things to Steven before desperation time! Lots of little lore ideas that got confirmed, like Centi being a Nephrite, and her boss being Hessonite. Lots to rewatch this episode for (like, to answer Priyanka's question, does Connie have a sword? The one she was using just got destroyed), and can't wait for the next one, which according to counting should be the "season finale".

Credit notes: The card with the cast is a little wonky. Patti LuPone's name is in a different font. Nephrite's VA is comedian Aparna Nancherla (which is misspelled in the credits as "Nancheria"). No specific credit for the cheering crowd of Aquamarines, Peridots, and... couldn't quite tell who the other gems were. Oh, yeah, and White Diamond. All those rumors about Christine Ebersole were TRUE, she is the voice of White Diamond. AND, if these credits are accurate, also the voice of White Pearl!