#notw spoilers

[maluspumilaa]

i am having feelings about imogen’s ruidus murder time moment(s) actually guys

[my-fancy-hat]

I think people are taking the panic barganing too literally but the subtext of a potential SA trauma from Denji wouldn't be out-of-pocket considering his abusive relationship with the yakuzas and his father evoking in this repulsion toward men/misandry. The thing is, Denji doesn't like Yoshida at all, he finds him annoying and an asshole, but if it comes to Nayuta, he's "willing to have gay sex" if it secures her safety. Guys, I think it's an example, an hyperbole of that statement: he is capable of doing anything for his loved ones, to the point to do the thing he idolizes and respects the most (sex) with another man. Since he couldn't do much to protect Aki and Power in the past, his dignity, integrity, desires and preferences aren't important to him anymore. That's heartbreaking.

[thedrowsydoormouse]

So I’ve been doing a little bit of thinkin’ after the two new episodes of Who about Susan Twist and I had a lightbulb moment I haven’t really seen anyone else talking about just yet.

Spoilers ahead for Wild Blue Yonder, Church on Ruby Road, Space Babies, and the Devil’s Chord. Ok, onto the theory!

We all know Susan Twist is going to be more than just an Easter Egg, but I think everyone is taking the actress’s name too literally. She’s not playing Susan.

She’s The One Who Waits.

She’s there. Always in the background. On the periphery. Watching. Waiting. Because everything leads back to her.

And the first time we see her is in the scene that has the first major world shift in the episode that set up this entire plotline about invoking superstition at the edge of the universe and letting something through.

And who do we encounter pretty much immediately after? The embodyment of Play (Toymaker). And then a little later in we meet the embodyment of Music (Maestro).

Which raises the next part of my theory: What is The One Who Waits the embodyment of?

Death

Death just sits, and waits, and watches, biding their time because everything has its time and Death comes for everything in the end.

And every time we’ve seen her, things start going really wrong. In WBY, she was one of the last people we saw before the Tardis landed on the spaceship, Donna almost died, and the Doctor almost let a NotWe loose on the universe. In Ruby Road, she’s watching Ruby and her friends perform the same night they nearly get crushed by the giant snowman head. She was one of the crew in Space Babies who were forced to leave the station and abandon all those babies to die. And in Devil’s Chord she was in the cafeteria when Paul and John are talking to the Doctor and Ruby about music before getting angry and leaving which, had the Doctor not intervened, would’ve lead to literal nuclear winter.

I feel like too many people are focusing on just the previous lore from the past 60 years which, for any other context makes sense. But this isn’t your granny’s Doctor Who anymore. The tone shift started in WBY means we need to think outside the Blue Box (that’s bigger on the inside) to figure it all out and for once, I think being into SuperWhoLock may have finally paid off! The NotWes are shapeshifters. The Bogeyman was basically a thought form (tulpa). The literal baby eating, musical goblins. The Toymaker and Maestro are both functionally gods. And which god waits patiently in the background?

Death.

It’s not a perfect 1 to 1 with Supernatural but if you find the midpoint between the two everything starts to click into place.

The final Big Bad of the season is The One Who Waits which is Death and not even the Doctor can fully cheat death, they can just keep running. So in the end the Doctor doesn’t actually defeat Death. He just traps them or delays them enough to get away so he can just keep running.

(Also Mrs. Flood is just a normal human who’s past was changed by the Doctor. In the start of the episode, before the Doctor properly meets Ruby (I don’t count the encounter at the club) she has no clue what the Tardis is. But as soon as the thing happens on the roof her past changed to include an encounter with the Doctor when she was younger (I think it’s going to be the episode with the slug things we’ve seen in the trailers because there’s a girl with blonde bangs in a season where coincidence is the driving force behind everything so it has to mean something) which is why her entire personality shifts by the end and she becomes nicer and suddenly knows about the Tardis and knows that Ruby has to go with the Doctor. She’s not Susan or Ruby’s mom. She’s just someone they save along the way.) 

[logarithmicpanda]

The Narrow Road Between Desires VS The Lightning Tree

I reread both simultaneously to be able to have a more objective opinion on them.

TL;DR the new version of the story adds, on top of the illustrations, several additional scenes and some very welcome revisions. It is a kinder, queerer, and more magical version of the same story. For me it is definitely worth the read!

Spoilers below:

First let's crunch the raw numbers. Based on the audiobook version TLT has an estimated 27,807 words and TNRBD is at 71,760 words, so almost three times at long. The sections in TLT are arranged a bit differently than in TNRBD but I will use them to do a more detailed breakdown below:

TLT:

Morning: The Narrow Road (29p)

TNRBD:

Dawn: Artistry (6p) Morning: Embril (18p) Mid morning: The Narrow Road (40p) Mid-day: Birds (8p)

Total: 72 pages

The same events are covered, but TNRBD expends on Bast and Kote's characterization. I think the story takes place before NOTW btw, because Bast looks intrigued when Kostrel jokingly tells him to write a book if he knows so much. I think that was was made Bast try to have Kote write his memoirs himself, a while before Chronicler ever sets foot in the Waystone Inn.

The order in which Bast does his turns around the tree changes, the breaking way first, then the making way. I'm not sure yet how I interpret that lol.

One of the boys is changed to a girl, and the first secret she gives about a man sleeping with someone who is not his wife implies that it might be an open relationship in this version (everyone knows, including the wife).

A girl named Gretta in TLT is now Grett, and explicitly referred to using they/them.

New divination system introduced, with things called Embrils that Bast uses kinda like runes, to do tosses

Instead of a shepherdess, Bast charms a shepherd (Bi!Bast for the win) who very cutely embroiders stuff on Bast's pants while mending them

The bargain with Kostrel is more complex, touches on Fae magic and debts, and Bast gets tricked into accepting the gift of a penance coin...

When Kostrel asks Bast to describe Emberlee's breast to him, Bast says he will only do it if she gives her permission

When Bast takes his bath, both men and women are watching (in both versions, he very well knows they are there)

---

TLT:

Afternoon: Birds and Bees (32p)

TNRBD:

Mid-day: Birds (continued, 16p) Noon: Obligation (17p) Afternoon: Still (33p) Moonrise: Sweetness (11p) Evening: riddles (7p)

Total: 84 pages

I had forgotten, but TLT already had bits of queerness, namely the little girl who saw "mama kiss the maid", and when Bast goes watch Emberlee bathe, it is strongly implied she was among the women watching him earlier. In TNRBD, that is expended upon.

When the little girl wants to know if her kitten is a boy or a girl, there's this quote that I really liked: Bast would rather tell the bigger truth than the smaller one anyway. "Bows and dresses don't matter much," he said. "She decided she's a girl, so she's a girl."

The girl is also smarter in this version

Rike has a hold on Bast because of the penance coin, so there's a bit of additional plot around that

Rike's sister is named earlier instead of being an afterthought

Bast does some magic on Rike to get rid of his obligation

The description of the still is longer, and the alcohol has a different flavor (no opinion on that but some people might theorize about it lol)

There's a second Embril throw, and Kostrel admits Emberlee told him where she bathed expressly so Bast could find her

Bast, Emberlee, Kholi and Dax (the shepherd) seem to be a polycule and everyone knows haha

Grett is mentioned again, along with "harthan tea" which I assume is fantasy HRT xD

---

TLT:

Evening: Lessons (17p)

TNRBD:

Sunset: lies (17p) Twilight: carrots (1p) Night: demons (15p) Midnight: lessons (11p)

Total: 44 pages

The conclusion to the story has a long additional scene and a few more changes

Instead of Martin punching a tinker because he was assaulting a young girl, he punches the tinker because he had pushed down Old Cob

A scene where Rike washes his face and Bast notices the bruises he has from his father beating him have been moved later in TNRBD

There's a prediction from the Embrils that gets realized here, and the way the narration speaks of Bast and his desires impacting the world feel very reminiscent of TSROST, I wonder if Auri is using Grammarie? Is it just another name for Shaping?

Longer description that empathizes that Bast beat the shit out of Rike's father

There's an entirely new scene of Bast talking to Rike and helping him heal from his terror of becoming an abuser like his dad

I particularly liked that last bit, the story was always a commentary on the cycle of abuse, but this version makes it clear it can be broken. Overall, as I said in the intro, TNRBD is a lot kinder as a story. And meaner towards abusive fathers which is always a plus for me lmao. Bast is made very explicitly queer, as are some of the side characters, and the women are better treated as a whole, with more emphasis on consent. I have to say, in both versions Bast offers to take Kote to where Emberlee bathes, and there's no mention of her agreeing to that, so eh.

But I really appreciate the changes that have been made, and the extra magic. Plus the illustrations are lovely as the moon. I'm even more excited about Doors of Stone now (who knew it was possible lol) because I feel like Pat has grown a lot as a writer since WMF :D

[bamf-jaskier]

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The Lake House

Nightmare of the Wolf, 2021

[ajaxskingdom]

I'm care them so fucking dearly, dude

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

that scene at the end of nightmare of the wolf where vesemir takes illyana to the lake..... what if a future season of netflix witcher parallels that by having geralt take a mortally wounded jaskier to the seaside so they could live out his dream of the two of them being at the coast....... even if it's the last thing he ever lives out :')

[demigoddessqueens]

Does it ever drive you crazy

Just how fast the night changes?

[skaldingrayne]

Yo! Kaer Morhen's fanon hot springs now CONFIRMED canon!

Who's joining me for a soak?

Just gotta find one that's not already in use...

@continentcakeshop

[graciegra]

Vesemir kissing 70yo Illyana is peak immortal romance

[srapsodia]

“Make ‘em somethin’ more”

Thinking about purpose, costs, and internalizing harmful lessons.

[jlyarts]

[raedas]

*hands you extreme angst in the form of a raeda fic* have fun with this one beloveds !!! written for dev on owlfight :]

[zagubionywilk]

i’m validated in the fact that baby geralt had freckles thank you and goodnight 

[twelvemagpies]

well that was certainly a film, wasn't it

cannae wait to ruthlessly cherry-pick it for vague details to wrangle into my own canon pie

[bamf-jaskier]

Introducting Luka, The Witcher’s First Gay Character

Love Wins 🌈 ✌️