#oh i didn't draw them right. so i like to encourage other's interpretations of those characters

[eyrri]

drawing character reference sheet for other people to use: “just do whatever you like, even the colors or markings don’t have to be exact!”

making character reference sheets for my own personal use: “If I don’t get the shapes and proportions right i will die”

[cheshire-castle-library]

Happy Tuesday Ask-A-Thon! Thank you for following us (@ask-a-thon) from the previous blog. Now, on to your questions! [What are some of your favorite themes to write? Is this different from what you read? What about tropes?]

Hello!! Thank you so much for putting this together!

I love writing about personal agency! Its something that I draw from personal experience, and I think is an idea that's important to share. It's the growth from thinking you have to be something or your circumstances made you something, to choosing who you want to be and fighting for it tooth and nail.

In my current manuscript, the MC has lived a life of duty split between his family and the secret space government mostly because he thought he had to - because others implied he had to. But over the course of dealing with the plot, he's eventually going to realize how much garbage that was, and how it robbed him of understanding who he was since he was always trying to be what he interpreted that other people wanted him to be. His growth is finally done when he decides exactly what he wants and moves mountains to get it.

Honestly I think this does show up in a lot of the things I read. I was a huge Percy Jackson kid/young adult, and when teen-kid demigod Percy held the Gods themselves accountable for their negligence - when he chose what really mattered to him at the end of the original series - I think it left an impact on me. And even in more recent things I've read, like The Witcher, I can tell that Geralt is heading towards a "stop living for your duty, live life, or else the eons are going to grind you to dust" kind of direction. (Or at least I hope that's the case, Geralt is so fucking tired please let the man know peace.) This Is How You Lose The Time War was also deeply embroiled in this idea, but that's all I'll say because I really want people to experience the all-consuming brainworms the way they were intended.

"Agency" is one of the secret ever-present rules of life, i think: that the baggage that holds us into some kind of mold or shape isn't real, that it's just the blinders someone put on us either because they had the blinders put on them, or because they can't stand to see someone live better than them - even though sometimes that someone is ourselves.

It took me way too long and way too much pain to learn it, and it took so many different exposures to finally think "Oh yeah, maybe Gerard Way My Chemical Romance was right... maybe I am living as the 'victim of a victim's life', maybe I can just choose to stop letting my situation define my self-worth." And it definitely wasn't that easy to implement, it took conscious thought and years of work -but the point is that the more ways people can be exposed to this idea the better! And so I'm determined to be one of those avenues of exposure.

It's, right now, the thing that drives me to write the most. I think all my stories come down to "learning to make active choice and square up to the consequences", and there's a ton of ways to do that so I'm not worried I'm writing the same thing over and over again. But I'll never stop encouraging people to try to own their lives, no matter how hard or how badly your choices turn out. The important part was that it was your choice, for your reasons, and you can choose again if things didn't go the right way the first time; because that's when you become unshakable. That's when you're life is truly yours.

[lokiondisneyplus]

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Loki episode 5.

The penultimate episode of Loki introduced several new variations on its titular mischief-maker — including Jack Veal's Kid Loki, Deobia Oparei's Boastful Loki, and Tom Hiddleston's ill-fated President Loki. But of all these new faces, perhaps the most memorable was Richard E. Grant's aptly-named Classic Loki — an older, world-weary version of the Asgardian god we know and love.

Decked out in the familiar green-and-yellow suit from the comics, Grant's Loki is older and perhaps a bit wiser than his younger counterparts. Years of isolation have left him disillusioned and lonely, missing his brother Thor, but that spark of mischief is still buried deep underneath — and he ultimately sacrifices himself to help Loki (Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) escape the Void.

It's a delightful showcase for the 64-year-old Grant, who says he's thrilled to be able to carve out his own chaotic corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ahead of the series finale this week, EW caught up with Grant to break down his big sacrifice — as well as his newfound friendship with Owen Wilson and his pitch for a Loki spin-off series.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: To start, I have to ask about your costar: How was working with Alligator Loki?

RICHARD E. GRANT: Alligator Loki was fantastic because in reality, he was three stuffed sofa cushions that had been sewn roughly together to react to. [Laughs] The fact that I was the only person that could understand what he was saying was just fantastic. I think it's the perfect segue into having Classic Old Loki and Alligator Loki as a sub-series to go to next.

So it's safe to say that you would be willing to reprise this character down the line?

If I had a muscle suit, most certainly. I was denied that. I saw the costume design, and I was very familiar with Jack Kirby's original illustrations from the '60s, so I thought, "Ah, this guy's got muscles!" As I had been born without any, I was finally going to get in a muscle suit. I got to Atlanta [to begin filming], and they said, "There's no muscle suit! You're just wearing this!" I said, "But I look like Kermit the Frog!" They said, "Nope, you're not having a muscle suit." So I was very, very upset about that. [Laughs] Short-changed!

I was going to ask about your first impression when you first put on the costume!

That's what I asked: Where are the muscles? Where are the Stallone/Schwarzeneggers here? Because they're missing! This is what people will expect! This was in the costume drawing, and they're not here, and I don't have them! I was very upset.

When they first asked you to join the show, what was that initial pitch like?

I had known Tom Hiddleston socially for some years, and we'd always joked that we could feasibly play father and son because of our vague physical similarities and hairlines, certainly. So when I got this offer at the beginning of last year, before COVID, I thought, "Alright, this is that moment that I had hoped would come at some point." I thought I would play his father, but I'm playing a variant of him. So that's how that came about. I was thrilled.

Tom has been playing his version of Loki for a decade now. Did you get any guidance from him, or have any conversations with him that you found particularly helpful?

He is a walking Loki-pedia, so he was very, very informative about the whole etymology and the history of the Norse gods and Loki. He's also brilliant at imitating people. He goes on chat shows and imitates famous actors absolutely to the letter. I don't have that talent. So when I read the script of episode 5 that I was offered, I saw that [this older version of Loki] described himself in his backstory of being the god of outcasts — rather than the god of mischief, which is so absolutely embedded in Tom's interpretation of the role. So I thought, well, [if he's] the god of outcasts and is somebody who's been isolated for years and living on these planets and is willing to betray himself by going back and being arrested by the TVA and making the ultimate sacrifice, offering himself up to Asgard, I thought, well, this is somebody who is more in the twilight zone of his life, as am I. As opposed to a young man, who's full of mischief still.

So, I thought that was a way into interpreting this character, rather than trying to do — and something I couldn't possibly succeed at doing — a pale imitation of Tom Hiddleston.

I'd imagine that would be tricky, but it would also be a fun challenge: You're basically sharing scenes with all these different versions of the same character.

Exactly right. And I love the fact that he was the one person who could communicate with the alligator. I love that.

So would you now consider yourself fluent in alligator?

Indeed. I am the Doctor Dolittle of the Marvel universe when it comes to speaking to alligators. I speak alligator fluently. Put that in the contract of when I'm doing a series as Classic Old Loki, with muscles and the alligator. It'll have subtitles, so the audience can hear what the alligator is saying, and everyone else is saying, "What is he saying? What is he talking about?" That'll be the way.

I also wanted to ask about your big finale, where we see your Loki conjure Asgard. What do you remember most about filming that final moment?

Huge wind machines, blue screen in every direction, and following a camera on a crane that was maneuvering around the ceiling of the studio, and then swooping down. I was having to shout at it, and then finally laugh in the face of my own immolation. So it was a great thing to do, with these huge air turbine wind machines that were blowing four tons of air at me from every direction. It was exhilarating.

Did you have any practical elements around you at all, or did you have to imagine and conjure it all yourself?

Most of it you had to imagine. The actual landscape that you walked on was real grass and this sort of rocky landscape, but all the other elements — all the ships and all that stuff — was put in afterwards. We didn't see any of that.

The Loki palace that looked like a sort of bowling alley, that was all for real. Everything that you see in that scene was actually built and practical.

Was it chaotic to film in the bowling alley with all those different versions of Loki, bickering and bantering?

Because there was so much action involved, it was paint-dryingly slow, because action takes much longer to do than five pages of dialogue. I prefer talking, as I'm not exactly an action man, as you can see. [Laughs]

Was there anything about joining the Marvel universe that you weren't expecting or that really surprised you?

I didn't expect to find true love with Owen Wilson. We're having a surrogate baby together in October.

Oh, congratulations!

He was just so hilarious to work with. He's just one of the greatest characters I've ever met. He is so open and curious and amenable, with this sort of dry sense of humor. There seemed to be no divide between Owen Wilson acting his part and then just being Owen Wilson. I don't know if he was scamming me, but he was an absolute delight. I loved him.

Was there a particularly memorable day on set with him?

Yes, when we conceived our twins. [Laughs] No, my daughter encouraged me to post this thing on Twitter and Instagram, where he said, "Richard, I'm going to give you some acting advice. Put your camera on." I said, "Yes, okay!" I owe him for that because it got like 640,000 views already in a few days, which on my Instagram feed is off the chart. It's nothing for Beyoncé, but for mine, I'm pretty gobsmacked.

[cqlfeels]

Do you think Xichen's speech "you can't judge people by black or white" is his natural lifestyle or the meeting with A-Yao encouraged him to follow this metaphor? after all we have that philosophical conversation between the Lan brothers in episode 21, after he was saved by Meng Yao and maybe that's not a coincidence, as Meng Yao must have told him why he left the sect Nie from what we understand in episode 23. So Xichen may have thought that it wasn't fair to judge Meng Yao by black or white just as Wangji didn't have to judge Wei Wuxian.

I believe that Xichen has always had an open mind and less rigid than wangji but choosing to trust and see the reasons in A-Yao, despite everything, it may have influenced that philosophical conversation. Which is funny because following Xichen's advice could be wise or fool depending on points of view, but it was a dialogue full of meaning that explains the feelings of both the Lan Brothers for people who are frowned upon by society.

Since you love XiYao and parallels, what do think about it?

To be extra clear: I'm talking about CQL here. MDZS might be different, though I'm not 100% sure it would.

Under a cut because this got slightly too long.

I think LXC is from the start much more prone to considering shades of gray than LWJ. You cannot be raised from birth to be a sect leader and be unaware that politics require compromise, or at the very least looking the other way if you don't want to start a fight with every fellow sect leader you meet. LXC has to be aware that strict morality isn't feasible - not even NMJ, who isn't nearly as diplomatic as LXC, can escape that, and if you pay attention, he does compromise when he thinks compromises are worth it.

But I still think LXC would have a few tenets that he would find very hard to not uphold. And the thing is, being ready to die for his sect is probably up there among the most important. "Self-sacrifice in the name of leadership" is probably how LXC rationalizes all those compromises in the first place!! He must do what is best for his sect, no matter what.

So I think having to run away and leave his sect to die must really mess him up. Like, yes, logically, it makes sense. But how to make emotional sense of this? At what point do "necessary compromises" become "convenient lies"? Did he really do the right thing, or did he put pragmatism so far above morality that he's thinking like a sketchy politician rather than like a Lan? This isn't an easy line to draw, and it's much harder when you're trying to deal with like ten different traumatic situations at once.

I don't know that LXC ever discussed this with JGY, but I think it must have been on his mind the whole time they were on the run. (Not that I fully understand how this arc plays out in CQL, but oh well. Handwave.) There has to have been a lot of soul-searching between the last time the Jades had seen each other and the time when they have this conversation. In a way, I think LXC speedruns LWJ's arc (in part because he was already more inclined to come to the conclusions LWJ will eventually come to.)

I do like the idea of JGY paralleling WWX, but with a caveat - I don't think WWX can be held responsible for the lessons LWJ learns, and therefore neither can JGY. (Not that you're saying they are, anon! This is just a common take I see and is a pet peeve of mine!) They are an important factor in a myriad of factors, and ultimately, they are so important because they seem to have mastered concepts the Jades are already trying to work out in their minds. Now, this is a false impression, actually - both JGY and WWX swing so far into gray that they could use with a little bit of "No, this is always Bad even if I could make a strong logical case for why it's a good idea." (Though..... These are the JGY and WWX that live inside my mind, who are a little more like their novel versions than it's probably fair to interpret them as being if we're strictly sticking to drama canon.)

This post is a mess.

ANYWAY. What I was trying to get to is that I think for sure, JGY played a part in LXC becoming even more comfortable with shades of gray. I tend to interpret xiyao as having a lot unspoken between them, so I don't imagining them having a heart-to-heart where JGY explains Everything and LXC Changes, but I do tend to think living on the run requires them both to be comfortable with less than morally upstanding things (at the very least, they have to lie, don't they? LXC can't go around calling himself the name on every wanted poster. And I personally doubt lying would be the only questionable thing they'd have to do), and while it must be hard for LXC to have compassion for himself for having been put in an impossible situation, I think it's easier for him to sort of... project? JGY is not wrong to do what must be done. Perhaps morality is too complicated for answers - easy or complex answers.

Because remember, the thing LXC says is that he no longer thinks you can find an answer to the morality puzzle, not even if you study every book. You have to judge things on a case-by-case basis, because you simply cannot account for the complexity of life otherwise. I think that, more than black vs white is the key thing to take away from LXC's conversation with LWJ. Black and white is something LWJ struggles much more than LXC, I think, and the thing LXC himself had to learn is to forgive himself if he doesn't have all the answers. Just... He's doing his best to be good and that's all anyone can do. There isn't a test where he'll be graded on whether the tradeoffs he makes are objectively Better than tradeoffs other people make. It's less about learning nuance, I think, and more about letting go of any certainty he might've had. Not that he lets go of morality itself, but he can no longer default to knowing ahead of time what is right - he has to judge as well as he can from moment to moment. And I do think JGY sees thing similarly, it's just that ultimately, they judge things rather differently, and I think part of the tragedy of xiyao is that they both think they're on the same wavelength - they have good reason to think that they are - but they... aren't.

.....the tl;dr is that I agree with you, basically. I don't know why I'm rambling, sorry

[tedturneriscrazy]

🎶Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Hooty's Door🎵

I wonder if anything will happen in this episode.🙂

(I say as if I didn't watch the episode twice before going to bed and writing this post)

I don't think I'll ever not be amused by the way Hooty just...does things with his face

Seems like he found a thesaurus at some point

Okay so it's canonically spelled "Hootsifer," good to know

Also, this is really all we get of Lilith, huh?

His little hoot/coo at Lilith's letter❤❤❤

To borrow a meme format: If I had a nickel for every time Alex Hirsch was involved in a show where one of the characters was experiencing pubescent voice cracks, I'd have two nickels, which isn't very much but it's weird that it happened twice

Eda's face🤣

As much as this bit is played for laughs, Eda's clearly still shaken by what happened last episode

Jeez, Luz, priorities /j

Pictured: Hooty

The way King talks about being pelleted implies this is something Hooty does on the regular

Hooty's plan to help King is literally a Buzzfeed quiz? Okay then

Betcha never expected lore from Hooty, eh?

"DO NOT INTERRUPT"

Officially a "type of worm"

The dance being a grievous insult wasn't exactly from nowhere, but still funny nonetheless

WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THE FUCKING COCCOON

Tiny Nose playing Switch definitely seems to be drawing from Dana's real life experiences

Wait, Hooty and Tiny Nose are friends?

Well shit, turns out she could use magic this whole time. Guess her going Super Saiyan wasn't just the power glyph.

I am extremely skeptical of your medical credentials, TN

I have so many questions about the methodology they used for the blood test(s)

I think Hooty may have misinterpreted what King was looking for

I'm still amazed at how King has had, and continues to have, moments in the show with some of the greatest emotional weight

Ooh, sound powers!

"IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A CRUMBLE!!!"

It just occurred to me that that segment consisted mostly of Alex Hirsch talking to himself

Hello not-at-all obvious setup

Today I learned that Hooty is the baker of the house. Maybe he'd critique Amity's fairy pie.

Aaaaand there's the sleep inducing

Oh shit

In hindsight the Owl Beast being part of a dream sequence is rather obvious

Wow, Eda, tell us how you really feel about the Owl Beast

Oh we're just gonna ride aboard the Trauma Express today, huh?

Oh, I guess Lilith did make an appearance, after all

Damn, Gwen, not even looking

Oh shit dad issues

Sandy Cohen?! (To anyone who gets that reference, hi. How are your 30s treating you?)

Well, I know who Peter Gallagher voices now, anyway

Oh dear...

(Also, bright flashing lights triggering the curse? There's an epilepsy allegory in here somwhere)

Blood and eye injury? Gotta stretch that Y7 rating

Now we have some context for that look on Eda's face when Lilith mentioned their dad: good old fashioned guilt!

I desparately want to make a "Dude, you're getting a Dell!" joke, but I'm better than that

New memory! Raine!

Oh no...

I get the feeling I'll hate this part, too

They were exes!😢 Guess the fandom called that one

The reasoning for them being exes is understandable, all too real, and goddamn heartbreaking

That said, the fact they never stopped loving each other🥺😢😭

I do hope we can see Raine again under less...traumatic circumstances. Maybe that wedding that was mentioned?

Oh shit, are we getting into the Owl Beast's memories?!?! What a tweest!

Bet nobody expected Cloaked Moonface to show up in the frickin Hooty episode

(Also, holy shit I briefly forgot this was the Hooty episode)

Who is this mysterious cloaked figure? And why are they so tall and long?

So the curse was a sealed beast this whole time. Damn.

And it was just picked up as beach junk to sell as a trinket. So much for it being connected to Belos. (Not that people will stop trying to do so)

Who had "experiencing sympathy for the Owl Beast" on their Bingo cards for this episode? Yeah, me neither.

And here we have the necessary Eda coming to terms with her curse segment. More accurately, Eda and the curse coming to terms with each other.

Goddamnit why does it have to be cute

"It's like sandpaper" IT'S LIKE A CAT I FUCKING CAN'T

Insert Steamed Hams reference here to kill the mood

New transformation!

Oh no she's hot!

No, Hooty, you made it surprisingly much, much better!

She might have a problem pushing people away and holding onto guilt, but Eda always knows that she looks damn good

Oh right, Luz having girl problems. Fuck, so much is happening in this episode!

"Cotton-candy-haired Goddess" LUZ! 🤣

Attuned to other people's emotions = being a fucking creeper

Oh Luz, what happened to you back home?

Also, 99.999% certain Amity would love your cheesiness

That's...rather morbid, Hooty

So much lore development, including the fact the Owl House has a basement

Classic inanimate object silhouette fakeout gag. Subversion in 3...2...1...

There it is!

I can't imagine being pelleted is a fun experience.

Honestly I have so many questions about how Hooty got Amity there in the first place, but I'm not so sure I actually want to know the answers to any of them...

Cue much panicking

Wow, I'm really getting some Into the Bunker flashbacks

Oh this is gonna be amazing isn't it

I commend Luz for not actually dropping dead of embarrassment

Seriously, how can Hooty set all this up so fast yet not hold a pen?!?!?!

Poor Luz, she thinks this is destroying her chances

Meanwhile Amity is just "Oh, Titan, is this actually happening?!"

The way she's fixing her hair!❤

Goddamnit Luz let this play out, she's so clearly into this!

"Again?!" Okay who do I have to kill?

Luz is luzing it

Nooooooo....

JUST TALK FOR FUCK'S SAKE (aka how like 95% of issues in literally any plot could be solved)

Noooo Amity's so heartbroken right now💔

This isn't what either of them wanted!

To be fair, Hooty, Luz had a part in this too. Not that she can be blamed entirely. Poor thing clearly had some awful experiences back home...

Now Hooty is McFucking losing it

Why did I think he was gonna say "Looks like I'm gonna have to JUMP!" I think I've watched too much Homestar Runner (jk there's no such thing)

Those pulsating organs are still gross

Eda swooping in to save her son (No, really, he actually is now)

I'll say things get weird when Hooty gets upset!

Yes, King! Save them with your voice powers!

Damn that is some romantic lighting, and Luz is enjoying the eye candy (cotton candy, if you will)

Luz's reaction to Harpy!Eda is the family-friendly summation of how the fandom has reacted.

Hooty really just tearing up the landscape in remorse

Mother-daughter moment about love life!

I appreciate not just Eda's encouragement but her actually asking Luz what she wanted

God, Eda is best mom

Also, OH FUCK IS THIS HAPPENING?!

OH SHIT

THESE ADORABLY AWKWARD NERDS❤💜💙

"I'm not as cool as you think" could be interpreted as self-deprecating, but here it seems...oddly reassuring?

The way Luz eloquently says how she wants Amity in her future...beautiful❤

Luz making some good faces

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

YOU CUTE DORKS I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

THERE IT IS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

LOOK HOW HAPPY SHE IS

WE WERE LOSING OUR SHIT OVER A PECK ON THE CHEEK THREE WEEKS AGO AND NOW LOOK WHERE WE ARE HOLY FUCK

Awkwardness is still there, but that's to be expected

BET Y'ALL DIDN'T EXPECT THAT TRAILER SHOT TO BE IN THE HOOTY EPISODE HUH

THE WAY LUZ RUBS AMITY'S HAND😭😭😭😭😭

(And yeah, it's gonna still be scary, but only because it promises to be so wonderful)

Let's give it up for Hootsifer, goddamn!

Let'a also appreciate just how fucking funny it is that Lumity becomes official in the Hooty episode

Fus ro WEH!

Hooty actually saying "Luz's new GF" out loud...

In just about any other show the love interests getting together would be a climax/culmination of the entire plot. Here? It's actually used to advance the plot, and that is brilliant!

Dana Terrace and the crew really just knocking it out of the park again and again, huh

"They're adorable, and deserve all the happiness!" Well said, Hootsifer. Well said.

Probably for the best they had Hooty promise that. As much as what happened/progressed, there was a lot of property damage.

OH SHIT ONCE AGAIN

King's dad/relative! And he's voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson!

GODDAMNIT HOOTY

Wow. Just...wow. This episode.

King has voice powers! Harpy!Eda! Lumity are girlfriends for real!!!!

How do you pack so much into a single episode?! And so expertly?!

I had my suspicions before, but this confirms it: The Owl House is the greatest show of all time.

And we have two episodes left until the hiatus! And 11 episodes in the season after that! What are we in for?!?!?!

I, for one, can't wait to find out!

[celticcrossanon]

BRF Reading - 21st of May 2021

This is speculation only

Cards drawn 21st of May 2021

Question: How does Harry feel about the report on the Martin Bashir investigation?

Interpretation: He believes he is right in everything he has said about the media with respect to his mother, himself, and his wife.

Card One: The Six of Cups. This is a card of nostalgia, of looking back on the past (especially childhood) and remembering it with fondness. Harry is looking back on his past with Princess Diana, and his child-self memories of her, and he has decided that the report confirms that his mother is exactly as his child-self remembers her. Nostalgia causes us to wear rose coloured glasses, and when he thinks of his mother Harry's glasses are firmly in place. He sees her as a young child views their mother - all-important, all loving, beautiful, and so on - and he has no desire to take off those glasses and view her as an adult. To his mind, the report simply confirms that his vision of his mother is the 'correct' one and anyone who sees her in any other way (e.g. as a flawed human being) is wrong.

Card Two: The Hanged Man. This is a card of waiting, of not being able to take action. I do feel that Harry has been frustrated in his agenda of blaming the media for everything, and he is going to grab onto the report and use it as a weapon against the media as finally he has something he can use to take action against them, but that is not the main energy I get from this card.

The Hanged Man is the card of Neptune, the ruling planet of Pisces and the natural ruler of the 12th house in astrology, and some of the many things that Neptune represents are illusions, delusions, fantasies, seeing things through rose-coloured glasses, being swept along on a tide of emotions and taking action based on those emotions (with no rational thought at all involved in the process), playing the martyr, saviour complex, victim complex, enabling others, co-dependent relationships, drugs, alcohol - this is all sounding very familiar, isn't it?

Coming after the Six of Cups this card confirms that rose-coloured vision of Diana that Harry had as a child is the one he still carried and it is here to stay. Harry does not want to subject his thoughts and feelings to rational analysis. He would rather drift along on a tide of emotion, positioning himself as both the eternal victim and the saviour of his mother and his wife and child, being co-dependent on his wife and having her enable all his delusions about his mother. Every one else has to enable them as well, otherwise they are the cruel hard world persecuting his poor little martyr self and he is so brave for enduring the persecution and then escaping from them.

The report will be seen and used from this perspective. Harry does not want to deal with facts, instead he is after ideas and illusions that will feed his fantasies about his mother, his childhood, and his current and past actions.

Card Three: The Four of Cups. More Cups, the suit of emotions. There is no rational thought (Swords) or practicality/reality (Pentacles) in this spread, it is all emotions (Cups) and creative imagination/PR (Wands).

The Four of Cups is the card of emotional dissatisfaction, and in this deck it is also a card of gossip. Here it comes across as dissatisfaction. Someone is not happy because people aren't talking about them. They want to be talked about, they want to be compared to Princess Diana, and they want to use the report to stir up dissatisfaction and gossip. I don't feel this is Harry but rather the person shown by the next card, the King of Wands (Meghan)..

Harry's dissatisfaction is not with the report, but rather that people will use the report to move away from his idealised version of Princess Diana. I have already seen reports of people saying that William's response to the report is 'gaslighting' (which is complete nonsense), but that is the sort of energy this card is giving me - attacking responses to the report that threaten an idealised and cherished image of Princess Diana. It will all be done via gossip, and it will be done by people who, like Harry, have a vested interest in the 'Saint' Diana image. Harry may fuel this gossip with his remarks in any future interviews or appearances.

Card Four: The King of Wands. This is the card of a fire-sign person, particularly a Leo, and here it represents Meghan. Looking at the cards either side of her shows what she is doing. She is encouraging people to express dissatisfaction with and stir up gossip about the report (the Four of Cups), and she is doing this to create conflict (the Five of Wands). Wands can be the suit of PR, and Meghan is quick to see the PR possibilities of the report and to use them to her advantage. As the report is about Princess Diana and this card is about Meghan and PR, the suggestion is that Meghan will use this report to support any parallels drawn between herself and Princess Diana (we were both hounded by the media! The media wants to kill us both! etc and so on).

Card Five: The Five of Wands. This is a card of conflict and PR. Here it says that Harry and Meghan will use the report to stir up conflict using PR, and this conflict will be against their PR enemies, the UK media and the BRF. Any attempt to use the report to create a more truthful version of events will be shot down in favour of the idealised 'Saint' Diana image that both of them are promoting (for different reasons). Meghan will also use the report to draw parallels between how Diana was treated and how she was treated by the UK press (the truth will be optional in these comparisons, as always).

Underlying Energy One: The Hierophant. This is the card of institutions, and here it represents the BRF. Harry is thinking of the report in terms of the BRF, not in a 'oh my goodness look how the lies hurt everyone' kind of way as his brother is, but in a 'Ha! I was right! You didn't protect my mother and got her killed' kind of way, as shown in the cards above. He will use this report as part of his attack upon the BRF in the name of his mother, 'Saint' Diana.

The Hierophant is also the card of Taurus, and Charles Spencer, one of the main forces behind the report, is a sun sign Taurus.

Underlying Energy Two: The Chariot. The Chariot is the card of Cancer, the sun sign of Prince William and Camilla. Coming after the Hierophant card, which represents the BRF, this says that these two members of the family are the ones on Harry's mind with respect to the report. They may be singled out in any response that tries to preserve the idealised image of Princess Diana, the image that Prince Harry has taken as the truth.

Conclusion: Prince Harry is using the report as confirmation that his childish and idealised image of Princess Diana is the right one. He wants to keep the narrative around Princess Diana exactly as it is now, without any changes. Meghan will support him in this and she will use the report to her advantage in the PR conflict between the Sussexes and the UK media, and the Sussexes and the BRF. Prince William and/or Camilla may be singled out as targets in this attempt to keep the image of 'Saint' Diana alive.

Energy Reading: Harry is gleeful about the result of the investigation. It has (to him) confirmed and supported all his behaviour. He was right about the evil UK media killing his mother, so he is right that they want to kill his wife and child as well, he is right that they are all racist and attacking him for no reason, he was right to leave the UK and live in America because of the evil UK media and what they wrote about him, etc and so on. The apology he was sent has boosted his ego and his arrogance. He is thinking/feeling 'This is what all the media should do - apologise to me!'. The main emotion I am getting from him is pure glee and vindication.

[archive-creamycomet]

Sorry if this is annoying, but Tumblr didn't eat my ask? It was, I believe what you might do differently from your Magical Girl au if it were a straight Madoka AU.

٩(◕‿◕｡)۶ OH MAN PUT ON YOUR SEATBELTS KIDS, IT’S MADOKA MAGICA TIME.

So, the big question is of course who would be who. Which really seems obvious at first blush, but a lot of the different characters and their relationships with each other can be interpreted as a lot of the different Bokumachi characters. Specifically, Satoru can fit into a lot of roles. I’m going to start with the obvious and hopefully work the way down, showing how a lot of them could be SatoKayo, KenSato, SatoAiri and YashiSato depending on who you put where.

Satoru as Homura, Kayo as Madoka: This is probably the most obvious choice – and I’m happy to see that there’s even fanart of them filling this role! There’s a lot that works here; Satoru going back in time to keep Kayo safe, becoming more cold and jaded as a result of her death, becoming increasingly desperate. Being the only know who knows the truth and the danger they’re all in, but not being able to say anything. If we slot Yashiro into the Kyubey role this works surprisingly well. 

My only problem with this is that past the time traveler mechanic, I don’t feel like this fits them all too well. Specifically, I think if you look at the role that Madoka played in the original timeline – and where they ended up at the end – I would propose an alternative.

Kayo as Homura, Satoru as Madoka: Okay just hear me out though. We have to keep in mind exactly how they met – and in that original timeline, it was Madoka who was the bright and outgoing confident one, and Homura was shy, isolated, and hoping to disappear. Here’s the scene where they first met, for reference. Their relationship literally began because Madoka saved Homura. And Homura was only able to become that strong, confident person because Madoka was there for her in the beginning. (Well, and Mami, who I guess would be Kenya in this situation – which makes some scenes weird.) 

Plus, we have to consider the roles they play for each other at the end. Ultimately, Homura isn’t enough to stop Kyubey/Walpurgisnacht. It’s Madoka who has to sacrifice herself – to make “a world without me” – in order to accomplish that. She has to disappear, but in exchange, all of her friends are happy and safe. The antagonist – Kyubey/Yashiro – gets what they want (Satoru’s “death”/Madoka’s wish) – but it doesn’t give them the end result that they wanted.

Kenya as Homura, Satoru as Madoka: Frankly, you could make this argument for Satoru and Kenya as well, and it arguably works better. You can trade “Madoka saves Homura” for “Satoru inspires Kenya” pretty well. Frankly, this works best when you consider what happens after the series – Homura continuing to fight, wanting to protect the world that Madoka saw worth protecting. Hoping that they will see each other again, even though he knows it might not be possible. Hearing Satoru’s voice in his ear, whispering: “Good luck.”

We’re going to be coming back to MadoHomu later on, but for now I’m jumping to the other main ship – KyouSaya, and how that could also work for a bunch of relationships too. 

Satoru as Sayaka, Kenya as Kyouko: Hey, they’re both S’s and K’s. I didn’t notice that until now. Anyway, I think there’s a lot of ways that this could work – and I feel like the ways that Kenya is similar to Kyouko might take some explaining.

First of all, Kyouko is someone who tried to help and failed, and this affects her a lot going forward. She decided to stop helping people, that doing so will always backfire on you and hurt you somehow. I think there are some parallels with Kenya here: he did everything right when he tried to help Kayo, and got nowhere with it, didn’t see any returns. So he let it be, trusting that things will work out the way they were supposed to – which, in the original timeline, led to Kayo’s death, and ultimately to Hiromi and Aya’s. Kyouko’s blind faith also led to that kind of end. 

We don’t know how Kenya reacted to the murders in the original timeline, but I think you can draw some similarities to their stories. And I think this gets cranked up to eleven when you throw in Satoru/Sayaka.

Sayaka wanted to be a hero of justice. She wanted to help people, save them. And Kyouko – although at first found it naive – began to really believe in what Sayaka was saying, by the end. She saw in Sayaka what she had wanted to do. And that’s what Kenya saw in Satoru: he asked “Who are you?” because Satoru was doing what he wasn’t, what he thought he couldn’t. And Kyouko begins to open up to Sayaka and care for her.

But meanwhile, Sayaka is becoming increasingly desperate and spiraling out of control. Kenya was the one who saw Satoru go around throwing rocks into houses and considering hurting Kayo’s mother – which I think you can draw some parallels to the train scene in Madoka Magica. You can swap out Sayaka talking to those men about their girlfriends to Satoru talking to Kayo’s mother about Kayo. (Besides, if we assume that Kyousuke is Kayo – the hurt one, the one who was falling apart that Satoru/Sayaka was desperate to save – then I think we can slot Hiromi for Hitomi and see it continue to work really well.)

Ultimately though, Kyouko/Kenya aren’t enough to stop Satoru/Sayaka from sinking into that dark water. I think you can take a lot of the lines from the Oktavia fight and apply it to Kenya wanting Satoru to come out of his coma.

“Can you hear me? Do you recognize my voice?”

“You said you wanted to be a hero, remember? Please, come back!”

“I know you’re mad. You can’t forgive anyone for what happened to you, I get it. But once you get over that, come back to us – okay?”

Holy shit let’s not even get into their character song, “And I’m Home.” It’s one of my go-to KenSato songs. (This English cover of the song is really top-tier, too.)

Satoru as Sayaka, Airi as Kyouko: This really comes from the idea that the closer that Sayaka becoming a witch parallels Satoru becoming his jaded, original timeline self. Specifically, I encourage you to look at the scene where Sayaka transforms and some of the lines she says. Specifically:

“I saved quite a few people, but in exchange, hatred and jealousy filled my heart.” – I think this echoes back to what Satoru saying about Revival, about how he saves people but it always backfires on him. Plus, during the Elsa Maria fight, Sayaka notes about how “if I do it like this, you don’t hurt at all” which is an interesting tie-in to Satoru’s own apathy.

Kyouko and Airi have some similarities: like how nobody believed their fathers when they spoke, how that really affected them going forward. But Kyouko wants to believe in Sayaka, and is the one who fights to get through to her when she falls into her darkest. Just like Airi holds a hand out to Satoru when he’s deemed a murderer, trying to “snip-snip” through his cocoon.

Jumping back to MadoHomu now…

Satoru as Madoka, Yashiro as Homura: Rebellion was a gift and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. But basically, I think Rebellion can be very easily be compared to YashiSato. 

Homura in Rebellion is living in a world without Madoka, and that causes her to fall further into despair and herself – becoming obsessed with seeing Madoka again. I think you can compare that very well to Yashiro waiting for Satoru to get out of his coma. And when she finally sees Madoka again – when Satoru finally wakes up, well.

This scene from Rebellion basically speaks for itself. 

Yashiro admitting that he’s “waited so long for this,” and then grabbing hold and not letting go. Even tearing Satoru apart, if it means that he gets to keep a part for himself. This entire exchange is just, so Yashiro-like: 

“It’s only natural that you don’t understand. Yes… no one in this world could possibly understand. This emotion is mine alone – it’s for Madoka alone!” 

“I told you, Madoka. I’ll never let you go again.”

And later, when Kyubey is trying to confront Homura about what it is that has infected her – something darker that curses, something that Sayaka had guessed was “Insatiability? Desire?!” – Homura confirms what it was. Love.

All of this to say, if I made something that’s a straight Madoka AU… hm. I don’t know which of these combinations I would go with. Probably some combination of KyouSaya/SatoKen, Rebellion!MadoHomu/Yashisato? Though I really like MadoHomu/SatoKayo too, so… aaaargh I don’t know! So many options!