#pip meta

[boom-fanfic-a-latta]

Okay so, I was going through the old "Psychonauts in Paris" posts, and something just hit me: Remember how much the Milkman Conspiracy was memed in the real world?

Consider that, by the time the "Prequel Games" were released in the Pip Meta universe, the Milkman Conspiracy would've been referenced in the show several times.

The SECOND Boyd mentions the Milkman in his ramblings, he'd have the fandom's full attention.

YES :O

[artist-issues]

A little late, but reading your take on Enchanted made me remember how much I love that movie. What are your thoughts on the rest of it? Like say, what do the Prince and Nancy represent? What about the villains? I’m curious how they fit into the allegory

Prince Edward is just like Giselle in the sense that he does what people accuse Disney Princes of doing, and it's funny--but it's rewarded by the narrative, because it's actually a good thing.

People think a Disney Prince is just some dumb hunk with no personality, because he's "just there to be the obligatory love interest so the girl can't save herself." But that's a twisted, hollow way to look at it.

Prince Edward is

Active -- he actually does something, not just in his spare time but when faced with a problem or a dilemma. Doesn't matter if it's troll-hunting or braving a strange world to rescue his bride or turning on a dime to fight his own step-mother when she turns out to be evil. He actually acts.

Keeps His Commitments -- When Prince Eric commits to Ariel he commits; jumps in the water to fight a sea-goddess single-handedly. When Prince Charming says he'll give his heart to Snow White but then she disappears, he won't rest till he's found her. When Prince Edward's fiancée disappears, he won't stop searching for her, either.

Genuinely Cares About the Princess -- People act like Princes in Disney movies are just obligatory--they don't actually care about the girl, there's no real tension or getting to know each other or whatever. That's such bull, obviously. In fairy tales, you cram a lot of nuance into a little scene. The Prince meets Snow White singing at a well and promises his heart to her; but it's after he hears her singing about her heart's fondest desires, after he observes that she's surrounded by doves that aren't afraid of her, after he notices she's just a scullery maid; and he still chooses her. Disney appeased everybody by adding in more rom-com moments with later Princes, like Aladdin and the Beast, but truthfully, Princes do what Princesses do; they know what virtues they're looking for in a good soulmate, so they don't need much to recognize it when it crosses their paths. Then they commit. Edward is willing to go on a date with Giselle. When she grows, he's confused, but he'll go with her. She doesn't sing with him anymore but that doesn't mean he ditches her. When she's cursed and be can't wake her he's 100% onboard with Robert doing it--because it doesn't have to be him, he just cares about her.

Has Just As Much Faith As the Princess -- One of the things Princes and Princesses use as the litmus test of whether or not they're soulmates in Disney movies is if they're both believers in the same Idea. Ariel and Eric are the perfect example. They both believe in something that everyone around them thinks is totally crazy. Eric believes in the fated, Right Girl. Ariel believes the Surface World can be worth loving. Those two things get united when they meet each other. Prince Edward longs to find the woman who's his other half, a companion who fits into his heart and makes his life more than just one quest after the other. (And he's so sweet about it.) He's very romantic. Giselle's been dreaming of her true companion, too. They have that in common, that faith that somebody right for them is out there. It just...so happens that that person isn't each other. But they're not wrong that someone is out there, which is why he is rewarded by winding up with Nancy.

Anyway. If Giselle is the Disney movie, so is Prince Edward.

And yeah, he's not quick on the uptake, he's super confident that everything he's doing is right, and he's definitely convinced that Nathaniel actually likes him. But that is okay. Because Edward is uncomplicated. He knows that what he's setting out to do is Right, so what bothers him is never "people here are mean" or "I'm not the hero in this world." Did you notice that? He's never bothered when he finds out he's not the hero. He's only bothered when the idea that Good won't win is threatened.

He's the first one to turn and look at Robert and go "unless...!" excitedly when he realizes his own kiss isn't working. No trace of bitterness. No suspicion. Just eager to solve the problem.

That's why he's great. His confidence came from being the champion of Goodness. Doing the right thing. He doesn't care if he's not the one who wins. He just cares that it's someone Good who's winning.

Then you have Nancy, who is the first of the "normal" people from our world to really give in to the idea of "True Love's Kiss" being a viable solution, right on the spot. Meaning there was space in her brain to believe in it.

I guess if I had to try to distill it, I'd say Nancy is just the reverse-Giselle. In the allegory (it's not all one-to-one) I would say...if Giselle (and to a lesser extent, Edward) is the Disney movie, and Robert is the skeptic, Nancy is us. She's not quite Giselle, not quite Robert...she's someone who wants to believe that the Disney Philosophy is true, but the problem is, nobody in our world believes it or acts like it.

She's looking for a fairy tale but she's stuck in our world. The moments where she's happy with Robert are moments when he's doing something an open-hearted, genuine, selfless and chivalrous Disney Prince would do. The kind of guy who knows who he is and knows what's Good and values Love, so he isn't ashamed or insecure to come right out and declare it.

Gentleness is power, under control. A man in love should have no fear of vulnerability, which again, takes faith—because love isn't about you. It's selfless. Why worry about how telling a girl you love her will make you look, will make you feel? So what if she rejects you; you thought she was worth loving, you gave her that enormous compliment--so what if she doesn't return it? You know who you are. You didn't need her validation--that was never the point of the love-declaration--it was for her. You kindly gave her the world's best compliment, good job, now on to other worthy things. It would've been great if she wanted the same outcome of that love as you did, but she didn't, and that's great too, because it was never that much about you. So you don't have to be hurt, angry, embarrassed, jealous, or any of the anti-love things we associate with bogus unrequited "love."

But in our world, men don't act like that anymore. Because it's all about you. Can't tell the girl how you feel because she might hurt you. How would you be hurt? By finding out she doesn't feel the way you would prefer her to feel about you, by mocking what you've deemed precious, etc. It's all about you, you, you, fear fear fear, etc.

Still, you can tell Nancy thinks she got as close as she could to the fairy-tale guy with Robert because in her first scene, when she finds Robert and Giselle together, she goes on that rant about how she thought he was "sensitive" and "protecting Morgan." Those are the traits she's attracted to; the idea that he wasn't protecting himself, he was protecting his daughter--the idea that he was careful with emotions for other people's sake, not his own--that he cared about emotions at all.

But that's not what it was, it was self-protection, over-planning. Still, the second he's willing to send her flowers or make any kind of heart-on-his sleeve, straightforward gesture of affection, she is SO ready to believe in him again.

She's the grown up who wants to find the Disney fairy tale in "real life" and she's doing the best she can with what she can find. Kinda like a lot of us who grew up on Disney and didn't want to accept the derisive cynical mocking of Disney as we got older, but what could we do?

But good news! It's real! The Good, the Beautiful, the True, exists, and it comes for her.

Then you've got Narissa, the villainess.

She's interesting because she's totally the opposite of everything the movie says is Good. Giselle and Edward wear their hearts on their sleeves—Narissa manipulates people's fondest desires for her own gain. Robert needs to learn to have faith—Narissa believes everybody is out to take what's hers.

Edward gives the gift of love freely, first to Giselle, then, unshaken when she doesn't give him the same, to Nancy—Narissa takes the adoration of people like Nathaniel and treats them like garbage in return.

I also think Pip is important, and it's important that Narissa is defeated by him.

She's brought down by the tiny chipmunk who's been treated with true kindness and friendship by the Princess. The chipmunk who can talk and understand what's going on and be useful, even in a world where people like Robert think there's no such thing. Pip is the unlikely "something wonderful will happen" in our world that Robert didn't believe in. He's the little, fairy tale element that nobody could plan for or calculate or control, coming in to save the day.

How very Disney of him. Ya'll get off of Wish. Disney's tribute to 100 years of fairy tale animation? It has nothing on Enchanted.

[purkinje-effect]

Thinking again how it would feel infinitely more realistic if any given installment of Fallout included multiple Pip-Boy models. Like, 2000, 2000-VI, 3000, 3000-IV, etc etc. Why is there only one model type visible in a given installment? Design simplicity? Surely, like how some people have the newest iPhone, and others still have their fifteen year old Razr, different models could've gotten scavenged. One area ever only getting a single model distributed feels... so unrealistic in a hyper-capitalist setting.

More NPCs should also have one. I know they're supposed to be incredibly rare (and potentially difficult to refurb/restore) but that doesn't mean it's prohibitively impossible for a non-Vault Dweller to have one. Esp. when NPCs on multiple occasions will insinuate you must've killed someone for the one you're currently wearing, or at the very least, someone died for you to get it.

I really wish we could see someone with a jury-rigged refurb Pip-Boy that's held together with bubblegum and spite. Someone whose Pip-Boy only works if it's plugged into a terminal. People with a newer or older model than the one your character's been given at the beginning. Being offered more chances than just the Pimp-Boy to change which one you've got.

It's kind of disappointing that 76 doesn't have Pip-Boy skins that make them look like other models, or even plans that let you craft other models that you can skin. (My line of thinking with this is many things--e.g. the Secret Service Underarmor, Binoculars, Jetpacks, etc.--come in multiple colors/patterns, but instead of recoloring the base one, you craft a new one. The ATX recolors for the Ranger Outfit feels pertinent precedent too somehow, but I can't put a finger on it.)

Anyway. More Pip-Boy variation within a single game setting pls.

[chaoticreivingu]

Compare & Contrast: Pip Pirrup & Butters Stotch

There’s a story that’s been spread around the South Park fandom for a very long time, in which it’s argued that due to Pip’s unpopularity among the audience and creators alike, Butters replaced Pip and his role in the show. But did he really take over his role or is this just one fanon game of telephone?

Pip’s role, ever since the beginning of the show, was to be severely abused and hated by everyone, adults and strangers alike. He’s well-spoken and emotionally mature for his age, but at the same time too awkward to even be seen in public with, and whenever he speaks his “punchable” personality is enough to cause a scene. His submissiveness and passive ways aren’t seen as endearing, and seemingly every aspect of him, from his mismatched clothes to his voice was designed to induce a cringeworthy reaction from the cast. His only usefulness is that everybody can take his anger out on him however they want with no consequences at all. No adult cares about him and he’s an orphan, so he can’t snitch to anyone.

Butters on the other hand, isn’t universally hated. Sure he’s seen as lame by the rest, but Kyle likes him enough to invite him to Casa Bonita and even in Awesome-O Cartman was the only one dead set on pranking him.

That’s not to say he’s not bullied at all during this era, he did start out as a Melvin at first and does get picked on a lot in seasons 3-7, but he’s not as low on the social ladder as Pip is, since he practically has his own level at the bottom of the barrel.

An example of this is in Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub, where Stan, Dougie and Butters all visibly interact with the media and police in some way, but Pip is delegated to doing behind the scenes work, once again highlighting how much of a stigma everyone has around him, that even around others like himself, it’s best to not have him talk or else the plan might backfire from the possible awkwardness that might ensue.

Even if he was called a “Melvin” by Stan, it’s clear that his bullying is never as severe as Pip’s. While Pip’s abuse relies on social isolation, physical beatings, humiliation and life risking situations, Butters’ bullying is more about manipulating, drifting, pranking and taking advantage of his gullibility to make him go along with a plan, even if he’s initially cautious about it.

To put it into perspective, the first time Butters bled was 5 seasons after his debut. The first time Pip bled was in his first appearance.

These scenes almost serve as parallels to each other to highlight how different these two are in terms of their roles, personality and how the rest view them.

In the former, the main 4 convince Pip to go down the slide, he cracks his head open and bleeds profusely. They proceed to laugh at him and even tell him to do it again to get hurt more for their entertainment while Pip runs to the nurse’s office.

In the latter, Butters convinces the main 4 to play with him, Kenny accidentally throws a ninja star into his eye and he bleeds profusely. They instantly stop their playtime to check on Butters’ wellbeing while Butters pleads to go to the hospital.

It’s clear from this how unaccustomed Butters is to such an injury and how much the main 4 value Butters as a person and friend, even if they don’t want to admit it. On the flipside it’s evident that Pip is seen as nothing more than entertainment for the boys and how much he’s used to being treated this way since he barely reacts to the injury.

Other scenes that serve to differentiate the two is in Hooked on Monkey Phonics and Cartman’s Silly Hate Crime. Both Butters and Pip are featured in the episodes, and in the latter act like a matching set but react differently, like at the thought of the boys losing the match against the girls(Butters’ focuses on losing to women while Pip’s is a more general statement).

In both episodes Pip is given the usual physical abuse treatment even when he imitates the others to fit in or tries standing up for himself, while Butters isn’t mocked at all and is more antagonistic, strapping Mark to a bench and calling Clyde the second fattest kid. Unlike Pip, Butters rotates from being bullied to doing the bullying since that’s how South Park Elementary School’s society functions.

For the last scene to compare and contrast, in Professor Chaos Butters and Pip are both featured and devalued by the boys.

Butters’ scene is set in the privacy of Cartman’s room, nobody else is there except for the Stan,Kyle, Cartman and Butters. The Scamps fire Butters for being too lame, but still apologize for things going this way as Butters sadly leaves, with the punchline being his outlandish reaction afterwards.

Pip’s scene is set publicly, in Denver no less. While it already starts awkwardly by Pip clapping instead of cheering like the rest, it’s when he asks for tea at a baseball game that all eyes lock on to him in anger or shock. After Pip doubles down asking for crumpets Cartman angrily tells him to go away with some people still looking at him, while he leaves in confusion at what he did wrong. Coincidentally, immediately after Pip leaves, Butters shows up to hijack the game.

In all these examples, Butters and Pip both act and react in separate ways and even in bullying scenes the punchlines aren’t the same. By late season 8 Butters starts to grow more and more to the point that by season 14 the nerdiness is just a quirk that’s slowly fading, while Pip gets his last appearance by being Barbra Streisand’s punching bag and dying in the process.

So if Pip is superficially similar but inwardly different than Butters, why did Trey and Matt stop using him? Simple, they just got bored of him like they did with Dr. Mephesto and Mrs. Crabtree.

In the creator commentary for Two Guys Naked in a Hot tub they say they enjoy writing Butters more but that’s understandable, one is an original character they created while the other is a direct parody that’s more creatively limited, not due to being “empty” but his lack of parents and inability to make fun of others limit a lot of potential that could be done in later South Park episodes that focus more on the parents or aren’t afraid of making characters mean spirited for the sake of the plot.

As a bonus, here's some minor details that are worth mentioning:

While they’re both blond, geeky and voiced by Matt Stone, Pip and Butters’ jackets are dark red and turquoise respectively, which are direct opposites on the color wheel.

Their hairstyles also indicate their different personality traits as Pip’s long and straight hair emphasizes his lameness and softness compared to the rest while Butters’ short and spiky hair indicates he has more of a backbone compared to his fellow Melvin.

Finally, while(in earlier seasons) Butters’ accent is stereotypically southern and his speech is drawn out, Pip’s accent is stereotypically British and his speech is concise.

[flints-black-spot]

I've recently seen a few people talking about media literacy in relation to Flint's sexuality and labels and figured I'd throw in my two cents on the discourse that seems to pop up every few months.

Because, I honestly think it does a disservice to Black Sails as a whole to focus on "gay vs. bi Flint" because like... does it matter? if Flint only has attraction to men, that doesn't change the fact that he's canonically, willingly, had sex with women (namely Miranda). But, on the other end of the spectrum, it's just as important to recognize how, societally and culturally, gender is a construct, which will inherently mean that sexuality is fluid! Flint can be a gay man with some level of attraction to women (hell, the majority of the fandom agrees that Anne is a lesbian, yet she's clearly in love and has sexual attraction to Jack, and that doesn't take away from her lesbianism!), and that attraction doesn't make him any less of a gay man! Or he could be bisexual, and that doesn't take away anything from the overarching narrative of his queer relationship with Thomas! The focus on a single 'correct' interpretation of his sexuality, in my mind, takes away from what the show is really trying to say about sexuality, which isn't the "this way" or "that way" to be queer, but the overarching connection that struggle and strife can bring to a community. (For a similar issue, see James Baldwin's response to critics arguing whether the main character from his novel Giovanni's Room is gay or bisexual, his response is incredible.)

And, on the other hand, it's also not entirely accurate or even fair to try and ascribe modern labels and perceptions of queerness to a character that existed long before those terms were even coined? In Flint's time, homosexuality was something a person did, not who a person was. While, yes, his queerness is inherent to his journey as a character, and he very clearly views it as a part of his identity, it's also very much worth noting that two things (homosexual love and desire, and heterosexual love and desire) can coexist, and not either way take away from his narrative as a whole.

Finally, then, there's the common thread of 'media literacy' in determining Flint's label (which, again, I honestly think is just a non-issue because it has such little impact on anything in meta discussions?). To present an opinion like "Flint is gay" is an example of an interpretation, one which can and should exist among others! To have a single, 'correct' interpretation of a piece of media, especially one like Black Sails, is an inherently flawed idea, because every interpretation should have its own merit on its own. Flint can be both bi and gay, and both arguments have perfectly equal weight, but in the end, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of Black Sails meta. Either way, Flint is queer, and that queerness was a defining feature of his character for the rest of the show. To assign such importance to "gay or bi" just feels unimportant.

[raayllum]

I've been thinking about the two-headed snake from the beginning of the show, and the Law of Chekhov's Gun is telling me that it's going to be coming back and causing problems sooner or later. Thought/theories?

The soul switching spell is definitely one of the most interesting plot and thematic elements the show has introduced and it looms over most of the fandom's thoughts regularly, I think. So let's go over it:

Plot

Obviously the biggest question here is "did Viren use the soul fang serpent to successfully switch Harrow's soul with Pip?", which people have speculated for years with about the same information (s1-s2) until s5 recently kicked things up a notch in terms of like having something new to turn over. @kradogsrats has a great meta here in regards to what exactly we can glean from 5x02 and how it may re-contextualize what we already 'know'. I highly recommend giving it a read.

That said, two things are true to me regarding the "is Harrow in Pip" theory:

Something happened in that room

Harrow is not going to come back

With these in mind, it's important to note that we know that TDP develops its seasons in batches simultaneously. The team didn't go from s1 to s2 to s3, but instead developed all three around the same time. Obviously production and some stuff was going around in order, but the only decisions that have been noted as changing was 1) Callum and Rayla were decided upon being a couple when storyboarding 2x04 as it wasn't originally in the cards and 2) Ezran going back to Katolis at the end of S2 was a surprise.

I make note of this because season two is absolutely the last point in show where you could angle things so that a Harrow who survived in Pip could come back and it wouldn't be Fucking Weird, basically. This is for two reasons:

1) We spend a good chunk of the season worrying about what the boys will do when they find out and actively mourning Harrow, with only one episode (2x07) not touching on it at all. That is a lot of time to spend on a character death you're going to ultimately undo. Conversely, we get less episodes dedicated to Rayla's relationship with her parents (1x05, 3x03, 3x08) in the first arc because it is widely implied that she's going to get them back; no point seeing her heavily mourn them when that's going to get reneged.

2) Harrow coming back wouldn't have much of a plot or character standpoint on the bulk of the trio — Callum largely received his dad/family related closure back in S2 and it'd let Runaan off the hook, so his and Rayla's relationship would be easier, not harder — but it'd nuke Ezran from both an emotional and a plot standpoint. His main arc is intrinsic to being royalty of a prince-turned-king, pushing him to make more decisions and figure out how to manage the difficult road to peace.

If Harrow comes back, he'd either stay on as an advisor (but that'd still kinda take weight off Ezran's shoulders that's currently there and arguably should be) or step away, leaving his young son to shoulder it alone. The first lessens Ezran's emotional poignancy within the theme(s)/show, and the second makes Harrow like, a bad father in ways he absolutely never was in life.

As pointed out in Krads' meta, Viren is likewise surprised when he sees Harrow alive and well in his 5x02 dream, and we get this exchange:

While we could read Harrow's initial "Surprised to see me" (because if the show points something out in dialogue, they really want you to Know) as "surprised to see me [out of the bird]" the show itself quickly does away with that reading. Viren is surprised that Harrow's survived, period. That doesn't bode well for "Viren is 110% sure that he, himself, put Harrow 100% into that damn bird". But like I said, something had to have happened, and Viren's behaviour with Pip is real fucking weird otherwise if he didn't at least try for something.

[ Side note: I also think it's worth noting what, exactly, is happening in the initial stages of Viren's dream with Harrow. This is decidedly not real Harrow, but the Harrow Viren wished for: someone who would not only forgive him, but embrace his dark magic use (aka him) rather than reject it. Not only is Harrow here alive because of Viren, but this Harrow loves Viren for what he did, and accepts Viren's act of devotion not only as one of family, but reciprocates it: "You're not just a servant. You're my family. You're a brother."

And Viren, for his part, is giving the reasonings behind Harrow's refusal ("I was frightened" / "They were coming to kill you") on both ends, without actually addressing the dark magic elephant sized rift in the room, still citing that it was about circumstance rather than principle or perspective. Moving on. ]

Remember how I said S2 was the last possible point things could've been shifted to accommodate a "Harrow comes back in full" plotline (most likely)? Yeah, well the other side of that is that S2 is the last time the show could've accommodated a retcon of "Viren didn't do anything to Harrow, actually, at all" the way that fans have often implied, and it's largely because of this otherwise very unnecessary scene all the way in 2x09 (in which other changes, like Ezran turning to go home, and Rayllum's romantic route, had been more than well decided):

This to me is the singular biggest sign that something did happen, and it's something we will uncover in the future, because otherwise, there is literally No Reason to not have Pip in Katolis upon Ezran's return. If the writing team truly intended to fully nullify Viren and 'retcon' the Harrow-bird situation, keeping Pip in Katolis and having him interact visibly and non-life alteringly with Ezran was the way to do it. But Pip has been MIA since 2x09 and has not interacted with anyone other than Viren since 1x04, and so it remains a Mystery that, likewise, the 5x02 Harrow dream went to completely unnecessary stakes to remind you of Pip's existence in the first place.

Moreover, you simply do not have a main character who can Talk to Animals (a power that outside his connection with Zym has not been incredibly plot relevant in ways that couldn't otherwise be achieved since like... 1x08-1x09 itself) and then Remove an animal he could talk to unless you decidedly Do Not (or cannot) have that conversation happen yet.

Which reaffirms what I said earlier: we can be 100% sure that something happened, and we can be at least 95% sure that Harrow is not being fully brought back in order to not lose narrative weight to Viren and Runaan's responsibility in his death and in Ezran's series' long arc.

So what did happen?

One possible answer (that I've posited, of course there are many) is that Harrow's soul got split in two.

We've seen people be separated from what would let them 'go on' before (Sarai's last breath yelling no as her spear sinks into Avizandum's chest; the Moonshadow assassin troupe in TTM). This would allow for a part of Harrow to exist in his own body (since there's a hot second between the spell being over and when Runaan's binding falls, though that might just be linked to bodies > souls, but the Lotus flowers are clearly linked to souls, so...?) and for part to exist in Pip. Pip could offer a solace and goodbye, that part of Harrow ultimately needs to be freed (literally) and left to be at peace, which could be effective and tie in both Ezran and Callum's emotional needs about their father.

Of course, this is all speculation. Harrow could be brought back as an advisor after everything, helping but not telling Ezran how to rule because the new generation should pave the way; something else could've been put into Pip entirely that we just don't have the Star or Deep magic context for.

Thematically and symbolically though, I think a lot of the actual concept of "switch souls with somebody else" > actual Pip-Harrow plot line has been brought back somewhat in full already, so let's talk about it.

Theme / Symbolism

The switching spell is, textually, a warped collision of Callum and Claudia's brains, and we see it repeatedly echo throughout both their arcs from S1-S5:

Some of this is quick-paced and obvious, such as when Callum literally switches places later just this episode and says he's Ezran, preparing to die in Ezran's place. (This is one of the reasons Callum, Claudia, and Viren circle each other so closely in the series; not only are they our three primary mages; Viren and Harrow's rift happens indirectly on Viren's end, after all, because of Callum and Claudia's collision here.)

Some of this is more of a slowburn — Claudia, collapsing on the floor and clearly having done a number on herself to spare her brother; Rayla with Callum's scarf to make Sol Regem chase her instead; Callum, taking Finnegrin's deal that was originally to set himself free in hopes he'll let Rayla go — or taken onto the shoulders of other characters (Ezran and Viren's literal king exchange in 3x04) simply because the idea of Exchange is so intrinsic to the series and to dark magic use in particular. Sometimes transactional, sometimes selfless, occasionally necessary in the eye of the beholder.

However, in a more literal sense, it sets up the series' long association of dark magic with snakes, and all that comes with it (poison, losing your soul, knowledge, chains, etc):

When Callum does dark magic, he's crushing a snake's rattle tail, a literal warning sign. Claudia for the entire first arc has a literal (snake) chain on her wrist that she uses for dark magic. The fact that the series routinely uses Christian symbolism for its villains (Aaravos eating an apple, Viren dying and being resurrected, sacrificing your "only beloved son" etc etc) only heightens this more negative association.

We also get mentions from the Book 2 novelization that the true sight serum Viren uses to try to see the mirror is 1) inherited from Kpp'Ar, which never bodes well and 2) made from the venom of eyeless vipers under moonless nights by the Oracles of Ophidia, just to double down on the "snake shit obscures your sight with dark magic and madness" angle.

But at the end of the day, thus far, snakes are just a symbol.

The more interesting way the soul-switching spell has come full circle though, already, through the possession plotline. Case in point:

Aaravos sets up his pawns to suffer and take the fall for him in the past (Ziard) and present (Claudia). He's hidden within Viren's body before (3x07 siege of Lux Aurea). He takes this to be a more literal, threatening embodiment through his possession of Callum. His soul and will overtakes Callum's body. Callum asks to die so Aaravos can't use him; in this lens, Callum will be dying for not just Aaravos' mistakes, but Aaravos' choices. Aaravos will 'hide' inside Callum's body and enact his will through it, and it'll lead to bloodshed either of Callum or of Rayla (or both) inevitably while Aaravos, in S6, will presumably get off scot free. (To be clear, Callum's not going to die, but this is the idea/risk of the concept and one of the reasons why it's so terrible.)

Which makes sense, honestly. The soul switch spell is the first real dark magic spell we get to see the context for, as Ziard's 1x01 spell takes time (3x01) as well as the moral reservations against. It just makes sense that Aaravos, the 'originator' of dark magic for lack of a better understanding, would then take said spell to its natural conclusion in which case even the consent of the vessel isn't just violated, but completely terminated and disregarded. Because, y'know — dark magic is awful, and it always has been.

[mrsmarymorstan]

Been called up for my PIP review and I'm now so constantly anxious it's like I'm in physical pain. But there is no solution to this issue I've just got to sit down and do the thing and pray they still think I'm disabled even as they move the goalposts....

[gaylos-lobos]

there is so much symbolism in the grimwalkers being craved out of wood, the same way Caleb craved out a wooden mask for Pip when he was younger. the fact that he craves Caleb standins out of it, that Caleb craved Pip into the person he would become eventually. the way he always tries again with the grimwalkers.

cause if it worked with him then why shouldn’t it work with Caleb?

[mindibindi]

2023 Tumblr Top 10 🎆🥳🎉

1. 1,718 notes - Nov 27 2023

Everyone is assuming Rose Noble named herself that because the Ten part of her, inherited by the metacrisis, loved Rose so damn...

2. 923 notes - Jun 8 2023

3. 768 notes - Feb 28 2023

4. 730 notes - Feb 28 2023

5. 691 notes - Feb 22 2023

6. 677 notes - Nov 8 2023

7. 595 notes - Jan 10 2023

8. 549 notes - Jul 5 2023

9. 545 notes - May 15 2023

10. 511 notes - Feb 13 2023

Created by TumblrTop10

[w4stelanders]

So I'm talking to Julian about Norm ( surprise ) &. I'm thinking about the jobs he worked. In the Vaults there is the Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test or the G.O.A.T. where 16 year old Vault dwellers are given their career. We only know of three jobs that Norm's had in the past almost decade : janitorial , kitchen duty , &. computer &. information maintenance. The last is of course his most recent , which begs the question of what job did Norm get on his G.O.A.T. &. how ?

The only ones listed imply he either got janitorial or kitchen duty. Not that these jobs aren't important but of course Norm wouldn't be enthused by them. I'm sure there's been at least one or two more , especially with Hank giving him jobs when he doesn't show enthusiasm for the ones he's had. I don't think he's ever done a particularly bad job he just didn't like doing them. And he hates that he's been given a computer based job on the basis he's expected to like it. Making him do something he would otherwise love because You Have To Make Your Interests Profitable was never going to fix his issues it was only going to make them worse.

[apoapsis]

part 3 of this series the issues of overindulgence while sharing a body

[geneticasset]

936′s transition into pip is very interesting to me because she identifies most closely with who and what she was when she was working for manticore. she took pride in her work, in the things she can do, in her achievements and successes and she genuinely believed in what she was doing. when manticore falls she takes on the name pip like it’s another alias. a mask, a performance in order to exist under the radar but slowly she’s forced to come to terms with the fact that any control and autonomy that she thought she had when she worked with manticore was a lie. she has to realize and accept that she has been a victim her entire life, that nothing she done was by her own choice, and that is the biggest hurtle for her: admitting to herself that she was a victim.

but once she realizes this, once she accepts this, she fully transitions into “ pip ”, it’s not a performance. it’s her. without manticore’s influence, she becomes her own person and here is where she is able to make the leap that nothing she done while working for manticore was her choice. she was a tool, a weapon, that manticore pointed and shot. pip doesn’t experience the guilt, remorse, and responsibility that a lot of her fellow transgenics experience because she doesn’t take sole accountability for the things she done as manticore’s killer.

if she were to come face-to-face with someone who’s life was ruined because of what she did, she wouldn’t be offended if she was blamed for it, but she also wouldn’t feel upset or guilty for it either. she’d accept the blame, shoulder the anger and the hurt but she would tell them point blank that the people truly responsible are gone.

[archive-double-knots]

Undine: so...

Thomasin: you also ended up in what felt like a fantasy world but then someone you thought you could trust turned out to be an evil ruler dead set on invading and possibly destroying your home world?

Undine: ....And then he brainwashed and manipulated you into becoming his living puppet and unknowingly helped his plans? Also used some underhand means to ensure that you both lived far longer than you ought to have?

Thomasin: Then he died and now you have to figure out how to go on with life?

Undine: Oh. no....mine didn't die, he's currently serving a life-long sentence though for his crimes, mostly farming actually, and he stood up for himself 'cause he was also being manipulated by a larger force at play, and-

Thomasin: I'm gonna stop you right there, 'cause I might throw a punch or two otherwise. Your dude sounds way better than mine. Mine got turned to goo and curbstomped.

Undine: ....I don't know what that is, and I'm afraid to ask.

[chaoticreivingu]

tell me your pip headcanons and/or clyde :3333

Why not both?

For Pip:

Sexuality Headcanon: Gay, no doubt about it. Idk where else to put this but an interesting tidbit is that in the 19th century left-handedness was a sign of homosexuality, and Pip uses his left hand as his dominant hand a lot in the show, so make of it what you will.

Gender Headcanon: Cis, never really thought about it tbh.

A ship I have with said character: Bip, my soon-to-be 9 year old OTP, aka Butters x Pip. I have a lot to say about this ship but I'll make it brief. This ship,while seemingly saccharine on the outside, is extremely bittersweet not only in a meta context(Butters indirectly killed him not only in a meta sense, but also in being the first one to draw attention to Tom Cruise in 200), but in-universe as well, in the sense that even if they get beat up,insulted or abused, they still have each other, but how long until Butters realizes he wouldn't be getting so much mistreatment if he wasn't dating Pip in the first place?How long until Pip lets Butters take his repressed anger out on him because "there's no other way", or maybe he'd let him do anything because he's that desperate for attention, any kind of it?There's just a lot of things you can do with it and you could nurture it into a good ending against all odds or a gritty grimdark ending. Also it'd be funny to see Butters' parents react to seeing him date a more passive version of him.

Besides Bip though,Cartip aka Cartman x Pip is just a very entertaining ship for me, purely because their scenes together have a lot of dom/sub tension to them and also for its comedic value.

A BROTP I have with said character: Pip and Dougie are a good pair and it'd be fun to see what interests they could have in common, but it's super weird that they didn't interact once in Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub, though that's probably because Dougie's kind of a third wheel in that episode. Pip and Stan might be very unlikely and Stan wouldn't want it for the life of him but I can see it as a one-sided thing.

A NOTP I have with said character: I really don't have one I think?

A random headcanon: His parents were killed in a home invasion by a frenchman, which is why anything french related is a trigger and why he hates french people so much, to him they took away his one chance at having a decent life, though he doesn't remember that his own parents hated him too.Also it'd be super funny if he was a Barbra Streisand fan so yeah.

General Opinion over said character: Pip's tied with Butters(my opinion on him is pretty complicated though) and Dogpoo as my favorite characters, so there's a lot to unpack here. He's a repressed Victiorian orphan child put into an uninhibited 90s setting, someone whose purpose is to be really cringe and annoying,but on the other hand the cringiness is what makes the gimmick with him funny, how deep can the cringe go and how much will his abuse escalate, and what does he truly think about it?(tbh this entire gimmick with him would most likely culminate in death so that was pretty obvious in hindsight)At the same time there's a sense of pity or worriedness about him as well,and it's really nice when he actually has friends who like him back in Butters and Dougie. In terms of his death it's so inconsequential and blink and you'll miss it that I normally don't think about it much when analyzing him, but ig it's interesting to think about where he'd go after dying?(the obvious fanon answer would be Hell, but Heaven was recruiting more people in season 9, but also his death was unnatural so maybe Limbo?)

Now onto Clyde:

Sexuality Headcanon: I'd say Bi but knowing Clyde he'd label himself as Questioning or Heteroflexible for a very long time.

Gender Headcanon: I view him as cis though maybe he'd question his gender identity too?I could see that but can't pinpoint exactly what he'd question himself as, maybe agender idk.

A ship I have with said character: Cryde, I'm really a sucker for "doppleganger" ships so this one fits the bill, but also if you look deeper into it you'd see that amidst the superficial similarities they have a lot of differences too. Also I really just love the bro vibe they'd give even after they'd start dating, they seem like they'd just be super chill together and wouldn't have many worries about big arguments. I think both of them could also benefit from one another?Clyde would let his insecurities go after he sees that Craig has no problem with how he actually is, and Craig'd probably like being with someone who doesn't mind being mundane.

A BROTP I have with said character: Cryde again, for the bro energy that I mentioned above, but also Twyde, they can be conspiracy bros together and talk about how the government wants to control everyone, though Tweek would be on the more supernatural side(like the Underpants Gnomes) while Clyde would go for the more sci-fi side(he didn't believe in supernatural zombies existing but had no problems believing Covid and QAnon conspiracies).

A NOTP I have with said character: Nobody really, at this point idk if I have NOTPs anymore lol, but Tyde when used just for the "Pair the Spades" trope maybe?But that's just how I feel about people doing Pair the Spades in fics in general.

A random headcanon: Even though Clyde is a naturally emotional person, his mom's strictness over rules made him supress said emotions and indirectly made him ashamed of being emotional and not the Cool Popular Guy he wanted to be(that and probably toxic masculinity in general). Because of this, he idolizes Craig, especially his attitude and coolness, and he's his ideal on what the Cool Popular Guy should be, so even though he had his own brand of deadpan and snark before, he started to imitate Craig's mannerisms more in an effort to seem cooler.

General Opinion over said character: Even though he's kinda inconsistent in the show, Clyde's a pretty interesting character to talk about and analyse on, I like him a lot though my interpretation of him is probably more of an Outsider Artist's view on things. For me, he's someone who is more middle of the road academically and socially, not that smart but not that dumb either, and even though he can be easily misled into a fall from grace and said downfalls might cloud his judgement until someone knocks him out of it, he's normally not ill-intentioned. However, he often lets his insecurities and self consciousness get the best of him, so he's at his best when dealing with said issues(Lice Capades is definitely my favorite Clyde episode).

[kradogsrats]

Schrödinger's King in the Bird Box

Time for a return to the single topic that most torments me in this entire franchise canon: is Harrow in the goddamn bird or not?

Except not really. I'm not going to go over the evidence again. I've done it before. Almost everyone has done it before. It has only gotten stronger. At the absolute minimum, an attempt was made to put Harrow in the bird. That's not really disputable. I admit it. It's over.

This is actually the second time that I've struggled with narrative cognitive dissonance regarding a real core factor of this show (like not "what's the deal with Archdragon reproduction," but something that is clearly supposed to be thought about with the intent that it will eventually make sense), and eventually managed to rotate it so hard in my mind that the way I wanted to see it slipped out of my grasp and I saw it the way it's actually intended. Ironically, I think I may have been thinking about the Ocean arcanum at the time.

Anyway, what previously always bothered me about this question was mainly two things:

It would have a devastating impact on Ezran's character development if Harrow reappeared during s1-s3, but the timeskip and arc of s4-s5 made it so it would also be deeply weird for him to reappear before the show ends.

If Harrow is in Pip's body, both Viren and Pip's subsequent behavior, as well as how Pip is treated by the narrative on a meta level, make absolutely no fucking sense.

But... if Viren doesn't know whether the spell was successful or not? If we are meant to not know whether the spell was successful or not, because it's not going to get resolved in the show itself?

If we accept that the earliest point with any chance of the hooks for this plot being set is late s7—because yes, Aaron Ehasz would do an exact beat-for-beat repeat of Zuko and his mom—that both puts Ezran far enough in his growth for it not to be threatened by the "real" king returning, and keeps Harrow out of the loop for long enough that it doesn't really make sense for him to do anything but step down from the throne in favor of Ezran, anyway. As for Viren and Pip's behavior, if the show isn't going to advance that plot much further during its runtime, there's no reason for us to be constantly reminded of it. The setup has been made, and they can just let it stew because it's not actually relevant.

That being said, Viren's behavior actually does make a lot of sense if "is Harrow in the goddamn bird or not" is a question that is also tormenting him. To that end, I'll be doing some digging here on the nature and context of the body-switching spell, Pip/Harrow's behavior post-swap, and what the hell is going on in the Harrow section of Viren's dark magic dream.

The Spell is Made Up (Unlike All Those Real Spells)

First of all, I think there's been some long-term incorrect assumptions made about the body-switching spell. It's not a known spell: this is Claudia and Viren essentially flying by the seat of their pants... but we rarely stop to think about how that contextualizes the rest of the discussion around it.

The initial plan is to find the assassins and ambush them before nightfall. As Soren points out and Viren himself confirms: if they fail, the assassins will be unstoppable under the full moon and Harrow is as good as dead. Claudia decides to put her mind to that problem, so naturally she stops to flirt with Callum in the library and gets the inspiration for the spell from something he says.

(Fun fact: none of that happens in the novelization. Zero amount.)

She brings the idea to Viren, and they develop the spell from there. It's not really clear if Claudia actually knows whether something like that would be possible, but Viren does know that transferring the essence of a person can be done—he's got a nice little coin collection that proves it.

As for the snake, there's no way Viren "acquired" a two-headed soulfang serpent because he has a book somewhere on how to use a rare, malformed specimen of a dangerous Xadian creature to switch people between bodies. He probably thought "that's weird, but could be useful," or maybe whoever sold it to him just had a great sales pitch. A non-trivial amount of success at dark magic is in having access to rarer and more powerful reagents than your competition.

Anyway, what this means is that Viren has absolutely no idea what success looks like for this spell, particularly when using it on subjects of different species. When he describes it to Harrow, he is 110% talking out of his ass. He sounds like he knows exactly what the spell will do and how, and I think a lot of us kind of fell for that. He needs to sound confident, because if he admitted that he doesn't know if it will even work, with a possible failure condition of "snake eats your soul," well... a) Harrow rightfully wouldn't go for it, and b) he'd look incompetent, which is the worst thing ever.

When he goes to Harrow's room, he casts the spell... but did it work? I think that whatever it did, it did it in a way that Viren can't tell whether it worked or not. Maybe both Harrow and Pip passed out. Maybe Viren just didn't want to hang around for the aftermath—in the novelization, when he exits the room and runs into Callum, his eyes are still black from spellcasting.

Activities of Dr. Pip Harrow, Ph.D.

Probably the thing that has always bothered me the most about the entire Harrow-Pip theory is that yes, literally everything in the lead-up and immediate aftermath of the assassination points to that being exactly what happened... and then the narrative lens of the show completely drops the rope. Pip doesn't even appear in the novelization until Viren's pre-coronation scene, which is funny given his looming presence over half the scenes with Harrow in the show.

Pip appears exactly twice after the assassination—once in s1 and once in s2—otherwise he goes completely ignored. He's not in the background of Viren's office, or the throne room, or Harrow's bedroom. No one ever mentions him ever again. Ezran never mentions him again, in the show or in any supplementary materials. You'd think the boy who can talk to animals might have some interest in his dead dad's beloved pet... but who knows, maybe Pip has always been an asshole and Ezran's actually like "thank goodness I never have to speak to that dude again."

Anyway, in all of Pip's appearances, he behaves like... a bird. A trained bird—Harrow can rely on him not just fucking off—but he doesn't demonstrate human-like intelligence the way Bait does. That being said, Bait is essentially a main-cast character (at least as much as, say, Corvus... maybe even Soren) while Pip is a plot device, and even then it takes until well into the first arc for Bait to show the kind of complex reasoning and initiative that separates him from an unusually smart dog. Pip's human is also a stressed-out king, rather than a rambunctious ten-year-old, so he's probably a bit more sedate overall. I would personally bet, given the way the show has progressed with regard to Xadian creatures, that Pip is as intelligent as Bait.

The point of that is: even if Harrow's consciousness is occupying Pip's body, he's not really doing anything with it. He's pissy, sure:

But is that Harrow's pissy-ness or Pip's? Even if Pip is only as intelligent as a trainable bird, that's plenty intelligent enough for both grieving/confusion that their human is gone and holding a grudge against obvious assholes. Viren cages him, but is that because he flipped out and got bite-y? And was it Harrow flipping out, or Pip? Or is he caged just because Viren's of the general attitude that animals belong in cages? Those who fail tests of love... We just don't know.

A lot of us also, to circle back to assumptions about the spell, have tended to think of a body swap between Harrow and Pip resulting in Harrow flailing his arms around wildly and screeching... but again, we know literally nothing about this spell, nor do we actually know anything about Harrow's behavior after Viren leaves his room. Maybe his body sat catatonic on the bed until Runaan came in and shot him. Maybe Pip, being intelligent, was able to maintain the facade—once everyone's in the heat of battle, it would be hard to notice even significant deviations from normal behavior. Even if "Harrow" appeared to fight only halfheartedly, or give up entirely... well, he hasn't been the same since he lost Sarai. Maybe the spell only partially worked, and only half of his soul is inside Pip, with minimal or no influence over the bird body's behavior.

Viren does appear to take some precautions in case Harrow is alive inside Pip. The cage, for one... but he also has nearly all subsequent important conversations outside of his office. Like I said earlier, Pip's cage isn't rendered in the background of any scene, but since he escapes from Viren's office I'm assuming that's where he's been. Even if Pip was just out of frame in every scene in Viren's office post-assassination through end of s2, the only things he's seen are... Viren eating butterflies, and the conversation between Viren and Claudia about the mirror and her side mission to bring the egg back at all costs. He doesn't know about Soren's instructions to murder the boys. He knows about the mirror and Viren's obsession with it (which he could have known before), but he doesn't know about Aaravos. He may know that Viren stole his seal but only if Viren was stupid enough to stamp the letters with it in front of him (which... look, he could be). The only things he's really learned are that a) his sons are alive, and b) Viren lied to him and the egg is alive.

Now, realistically, if we were meant to hang on to the is-Harrow-in-the-bird plot thread because it's going to be significant within the scope of the show... I'd be expecting to see at least one cut to Pip glowering at some point during all these machinations. If it weren't for the mirror and Aaravos, I'd expect Viren to be yelling all his monologuing at Pip, too. But the show does none of that. Instead, the next time we see Pip, we see him peace-ing out of the show for at minimum the next three seasons, and possibly the remaining two, as well. If Harrow's in there... why? Did he go to find Callum and Ezran himself? It's not actually clear that he knows Ezran can understand animals, so it would be reasonable for him to think Viren is his only chance at ever not being a bird again. Maybe he thinks that chance is gone with Viren's arrest and would rather not spend the rest of his life in a cage. Maybe he really isn't in control of the body.

Back to Viren, though: since Pip refuses to demonstrate any behavior that could be taken as distinctly Harrow's, Viren actually has no idea at any point whether Harrow's in there or not. He doesn't know if Harrow lived. He doesn't know if he succeeded or failed. It's a constant reminder that he's almost, but not quite, in control. Almost, but not quite, good enough to achieve what he wants.

It probably drives him absolutely insane.

Did You Think You Were Somehow Getting Out of This Without Me Mentioning Kpp'Ar?

Just kidding, it's finally time to talk about Viren's dream. We've gone two entire seasons and a two-year timeskip without any mention of Harrow or Pip (though those maniacs dropped the fucking snake basket on us as an incidental but obvious prop early in s4), and then suddenly we get punched in the face by Viren's subconscious.

First, though, I do actually need to point something out in the scene with Kpp'Ar. Bear with me, I promise this is relevant.

Viren sealed Kpp'Ar's soul in a coin 12-ish years ago, and the coin has been sitting collecting dust in his secret dungeon for... some amount of that time. Now he opens the door and finds Kpp'Ar standing there, free—and I will note that I don't believe Viren actually knows how to free people from the coins, or whether it can even be done. His reaction is surprise, followed by suspicion and wariness:

When he encounters Harrow—dead—his reaction is horrified shock, which is fair since the last time he entered the room that way there was no surprise body chilling out waiting for him in it:

Then, when Harrow speaks to him, suddenly alive and unharmed, he drops straight into relief:

Some of this is undoubtedly due to the differences between Viren's relationship with Kpp'Ar and his relationship with Harrow. With Kpp'Ar, after that initial moment of confusion, he's absolutely determined to not show a single hint of ignorance or weakness—this is a trick, or a test, and a passing grade in "light verbal sparring with the mentor you're pretty sure you remember betraying" is a thing that is both normal to want and possible to achieve. For Harrow, who he wants so desperately to call him brother, who he walked into this very room ready to die for, before everything went horribly awry—he not only immediately and willingly goes to his knees, he literally prostrates himself.

... I'll give everyone a moment to get all the innuendo and suggestiveness out of their systems, because that's not the point. This time.

What is the point is that Viren's reaction to Harrow isn't disbelief, but relief. Hope. Kpp'Ar is supposed to be in a coin, and Viren immediately questions how he got out. Harrow is supposed to be dead but Viren doesn't give a second thought to how he's not. Fortunately, Harrow helpfully explains:

Fun fact: back in s1, we don't actually see Viren actually taking action against the assassins. We don't even see evidence that he re-entered the room at all—it's only Soren and Claudia who participate in Runaan's capture.

I haven't actually touched a lot on the complex shit going on for Viren, emotionally, throughout all of this—I mentioned it's was probably driving Viren insane over the course of the first two seasons, but let me elaborate. If Viren successfully switched Harrow and Pip, that means Harrow survived... but he expressed his feelings on the proposal in no uncertain terms, and there's a good chance he will literally never forgive Viren. I don't think Viren thought far enough ahead to consider how to get Harrow into a human body again, but I do think he's dragging his feet on it a little because if he can work things to his advantage—unite the Pentarchy against Xadia and follow through on the war Harrow was avoiding—he'll prove to Harrow that he was right all along. Any chance of that flies out the window with Pip at the end of s2.

If the body-switching spell failed, it means Viren essentially killed Harrow himself. That's the reality I think he grows more and more resigned to over the course of s1 and s2, when Pip remains unresponsive. He had no choice but to take the best chance at saving someone he loved—but this time, instead of saving Harrow, he murdered him.

In the dream, Harrow has not only survived, but credits Viren with his survival. He doesn't just dismiss Viren's show of remorse, but makes his own apology to Viren. He calls Viren brother. After an impossibly long nightmare, everything is okay. All is forgiven. Maybe there was nothing to forgive, in the first place. Maybe Viren was right all along.

Then it all turns sinister with the callback to the coin incantation, and we have a sharp return to reality:

The cinematography here treats Pip a lot more like how I would expect him to be treated in s1/s2 if we were meant to know he was actually Harrow. There's focus actually on him, instead of just other characters' reaction to him. He "speaks"—as I noted in another post—in raspy sounds very unlike his songbird chirps from s1. This is absolutely Harrow as Viren actually left him—even if he's not dead, he's in a warped prison of dark magic, a perverse mockery of himself.

Oh wait.

Harrow-who-is-both-human-and-alive was never an option, and what we've got now is mirror images of Harrow-the-dead-human and Harrow-the-live-bird, and they're going to do to Viren what he did to them.

Now, it's not that none of this makes sense if Viren knows for sure that Harrow is in the bird... but it makes a lot less sense and has less emotional resonance. If Viren knows Harrow survived as Pip, he'd be more likely to question Harrow's human form than his survival—the way he does with Kpp'Ar. He might be more guarded, expecting hostility—which, I will note, is what he gets when Pip enters the scene. Instead, because until now he believed that he actually killed Harrow in his attempt to save him, he's so relieved to see Harrow alive that for that one moment he loses all pride and is ready to beg for forgiveness at Harrow's feet.

Since legitimately none of this makes sense if Viren didn't at least attempt to put Harrow in the bird, we're left with Harrow maybe or maybe not alive, Viren having maybe or maybe not been the one to actually kill him (gonna be a fun one with the Runaan context), and a plotline that is definitely not going to be resolved in the remaining two seasons of the show. I'd be kind of surprised if they even did any more setup for it (like Callum/Ezran finding out it's a possibility, or even a hint drop like Runaan being all "it was fucking weird, he just sat there" or something) outside of future supplemental media.

Conclusion

Either Harrow is alive and in the bird, with the future intent being to do a spinoff story The Search-style, or we're in for a huge bummer of a "actually, it was Viren all along who killed Harrow, therefore Runaan is a good guy and we can all be one happy family" pile of absolute bullshit. Yes, they said Harrow's dead. Harrow's body is dead, we knew that all along. There's a note in the artbook that Viren was actually going to rip the shroud off at Harrow's funeral in order to publicly prove it's his body, because that is an extremely normal thing to do.

The show just treats it extremely weirdly because, even as the only person with any chance of knowing, Viren is in the same uncertain boat as the rest of us. (Actually more uncertain than the rest of us, since he's not genre-aware.) Also it's another chance to torment Viren emotionally, and they'd never pass that up.

Thanks for coming to my absolutely ridiculous TED Talk on this topic, I hope this screenshot now does as much psychic damage to you as it does to me:

[boinin]

Blue Lock: AO3 statistics and fanfiction meta

Blue Lock (Manga) has more than 13,000 works on AO3! 🎉 The corresponding figure for Blue Lock (Anime) is about 7,900 or so.

Just under 230 works are tagged exclusively as Blue Lock (Anime), while there are just under 5,500 works tagged exclusively as Blue Lock (Manga). As expected, around 7,700 works are tagged under both fandoms.

I'm procrastinating today, so here's a high level analysis of the Blue Lock works on the platform. Given the low number of Blue Lock (Anime) exclusive works, I excluded these and reviewed only works that included the Blue Lock (Manga) tag. I didn't exclude crossovers, due to the aforementioned dual-tagging.

Firstly, here's the lowdown on pairings:

On the left: Works tagged under Blue Lock (Manga), without any additional filtering. NagiReo, KaiSagi and RinSagi nab the top three pairing placements, with NagiReo comfortably leading.

On the right: Same fandom tag, but inputting the search term "otp: true" into the "Search within results" field. This returns works with no more than one pairings tagged (i.e. excluding any works that have two or more pairings tagged). This includes any fics with no pairings tagged, platonic (&) or romantic/sexual (/). This filter yields approx. 8,600 works.

This doesn't affect the top three most-tagged pairings, but it reshuffles the other parings more significantly. For example: we can see that 55% of BachIsagi-tagged works feature other pairings, and it drops a ranking. KuniGiri-tagged works fare similarly, and the split is even more pronounced for RyuSae and NagiSagi.

KaiNess jump from 9th most tagged pairing overall to 5th most tagged amongst fics that only tag one pairing—lapping Kunigiri, and potentially an indicator of a recent boom in works for this pairing. The controversial RinSae goes up one place in the rankings under this filter.

The two searches show that nine pairings remain on top, regardless of whether works tag them in tandem with other pairings or tag them as solo. However, Isagi Yoichi/Everyone falls out of the rankings when the otp: true is applied. This is logical, given this pairing is frequently tagged alongside other Isagi slash tags. Filtering this way reveals that RyuRin is the tenth most tagged pairing in single-pairing works.

More discussion on pairings, ratings and tags, plus a comparison to others sports animanga under the cut!

It's also possible to use "otp: false" to show only fics with multiple (2+) relationship tags, which yields about 4,500 works. The results of this search are below:

Here, BachiSagi just about pips KaiSagi to round out the top three—but if trends persist, the number of KaiSagi works will soon grow at a higher rate, leaving the top three ships in the manga fandom undisputed.

Meanwhile, KaiNess and RinSae drop from the top ten, displaced by Nagi&Reo and Rin&Sae (platonic pairing tags). Not too surprising for the latter—due to taboo, works featuring RinSae tend to be standalone.

With KaiNess, it's simply that the two platonic tags are used more often in multi-pairing works, which makes sense given the relative recency of Kaiser and Ness's introduction, and the fact that they're still manga-only characters. A related search revealed KaiNess would most likely be the eleventh most-tagged pairing in multi-pairing works (296), followed by Bachira&Isagi (platonic pairing).

What about ratings, and the most popular non-pairing tags?

On the left: results for all Blue Lock (Manga) fandom works.

In the middle: results for Blue Lock (Manga) fandom works filtered by "otp: true".

On the right: results for Blue Lock (Manga) fandom works filtered by"otp: false".

To reiterate, the search feature just reports the most frequently occurring tags. Even the most common tag, Fluff, features on only around 15% of works.

There's not too much divergence caused by filtering. One observation is that filtering by "otp: true" returns a higher ratio of explicit works—this is supported by the tags that appear in that respective top ten.

Overall, the most popular tags in Blue Lock works are Fluff, Angst, "No Blue Lock" and "Canon Divergent" AUs, and Established Relationship... not to mention, good ol' reliable buttsecs.

Although not a rigorous (read: percentage tested) exercise, I compared these results to the most frequently occurring tags in other sports animanga fandoms in AO3 with the following observations:

Free! works have higher incidences of Romance, Smut, PWP and Friendship tags than Blue Lock does 🏊‍♂️

Haikyuu!! didn't have any sex-adjacent tags in its top 10, but otherwise reported similar trends to Blue Lock. One exception is a notably high incidence of the "Friends to Lovers" tag 🏐

Yuri!!! on Ice has a frequently occurring fandom specific tag ("Character's Name Spelled as Viktor"), and in additions featured "A/B/O dynamics" among its top 10 most common tags. Otherwise, it most resembles Free! in tagging trends ⛸️

SK8 the Infinity meanwhile mirrors Haikyuu!! in terms of frequently occurring tags, although with more common incidences of "Anal Sex" and "Post Canon" 🛹

In short, nearly all sports animanga including Blue Lock report high incidences of the following tags:

Fluff (and/or) Angst

Established Relationship

Alternative Universe (various)

Hurt/Comfort.

This doesn't tell us a whole lot, given these are popular tags for nearly every fandom. However, they are trailed in popularity by the tags Getting Together, Romance, Smut, PWP, and Friends to Lovers. These are more indicative of the shipping culture in sports animanga, including the fact that character relationships in these fandoms are generally pre-established.

As for ratings, It's hard to make a judgement on whether Blue Lock (Manga) works lean more towards a universal or teen readership, or towards being more mature/explicit in nature. This is due to a high incidence of "Not rated" works. Works may be categorised as "Not rated" for any number of reasons: authors avoiding spoilers, authors relying on tags for identification, or authors not knowing how to categorise their own work, or even opting not to categorise an ongoing fic because they are yet to decide the direction of the work.

That said, filtering by "Not rated" alone didn't yield a higher incidence of explicit tags, like filtering by "otp: true" did. So there's limited evidence that "Not rated" fics trend towards mature or explicit content in excess of general trends. All the same, where in doubt, it's best to refer to a work's additional tags to assess its content, as the rating may not always make this clear.

A long read, catering to a niche audience (read: my nerdy ass) but if you've made it this far, I hope you found it of interest!