#some words remain

[kaxtwenty]

Y’know, considering all the mass-adoption and assimilation Mandalore has done, Mando’a probably has some of the craziest differences between regional dialects.

You will NEVER be able to convince me that clan Wren and clan Vizsla speak the same Mando’a. They probably have an easier time communicating with each other in Basic than their native language.

Just an absolute clusterfuck of a language, the Romans would pity them.

[bigothteddies]

the kind of freak that pauses at the front door while I’m picking them up for our first date and goes “I feel like I’m forgetting something..” only to brighten up and say “Oh! Duh!” before sliding their panties down their legs out from underneath their skirt, kicking them off from around their ankles, pressing them balled into my hand, and skipping off happily to my car for our date while I stare dumbfounded after them

[thepersonperson]

I can’t believe we got an infodump on simple domains AGAIN over a Sukuna backstory.

More complaining under the cut.

Usually I am one to give Gege the benefit of the doubt and will read heavily into what little information we are given. But I can't defend this chapter themes or character wise.

Even if this turns out to be a fakeout, going in painstaking detail over a show-not-tell battle in a way that lacks characterization and heartfelt emotion sucks to read. Even if the new shadow style and simple domain debacle goes somewhere, having it the main focus after an extremely traumatic battle instead of characters processing their emotions sucks to read. Even if Gojo is alive and that's why they're this chipper, everyone ignoring his sacrifice and efforts along with Choso's sucks to read.

I'm happy Yuta and Higuruma are alive but why was their revival off-screened? Yuta was so defensive over Gojo and everyone treating him like an object just 8 chapters ago. What happened to that? Why is everyone treating this battle like it was no big deal? (Also why the fudge did Kusakabe tell Yuji, a 15 year old, to his face he should've been killed while disparaging Gojo for protecting the life of a child???)

After the Shibuya Incident, there was a whole segment dedicated to how this affected the average person. The Culling Games ended and there are still bloodthirsty freaks running around. What happened to them? Is Angel hunting them down and that's why Hana is missing? Infodumping on anything except the battle would've been better.

I doubt we'll get any more info on Sukuna, Kenjaku, and Tengen at this point. We'll be lucky if there's a funeral for even Geto's body. Shoko was absent this entire chapter which makes me thing she's still trying to save Gojo or she's preparing their bodies for a funeral.

Anyways. This is the worst JJK chapter for me hands down. My hopes for the final 2 are mostly dashed. Crunch and poor working conditions really do ruin art my goodness.

[zylphiacrowley]

A Master at His Craft

<previous - next>

[sysig]

Utterly Defeated (Patreon)

[reality-detective]

You're not in this all alone.

Please, do not get discouraged by time.

There is a final point to all of it.

Stay the course. 🤔

[frankenfossil]

Oh! I nearly forgot, but can I ask the significance of this panel?

It comes directly after Dee explains that he can’t come and see her from the future whenever he wants. (Which is one of my favorite moments where Dee’s true eldritch horror leaks in to the story), so I assume it’s… sort of a metaphor? How Emily finds herself at the foot of something she realizes is much, much bigger than she contemplated before?

(Also, I just wanted to compliment you for this panel)

(The first time I saw it, I imagined Dee was showing her this on purpose, time traveling from sometime the same day to really show her what it would be like. An object lesson.

The second time I saw it, I started to wonder

Because Dee himself doesn’t really look aware of what is going on behind him.

And maybe, just maybe, this one moment in time has become the only moment that Dee allows himself to come back to to see Emily, the one moment where he can get lost in the crowd with every other time he came back to look. The one moment where he’s explaining why he can’t come back.

Just… Makes me sad, and I wanted to say thank you for that too, because I love these characters and the story they tell, the sweet and bitter.)

Oh!!!

(Quick test of my ability to find which chapter stuff happens in)

I love your reading of that Uluru panel!! I think I probably didn’t intend anything that deep with it; these time skip montage style chapters are pretty choppy and I’m usually trying to figure out a way to touch on all these brief scenes or moments that I don’t want to spend a whole chapter on for whatever reason, and arrange them in a way where the cuts aren’t too hideously abrupt. For visual reasons I try to contrast different locations and not put 2 dialogue heavy moments directly next to each other. Mood wise, I don’t really want to cut from something serious and angsty to something that’s a complete backflip on that. I also sometimes just feel like drawing a nice landscape and hope it achieves my aims on these fronts haha.

I think also here I was trying to move from that final sentence, “The present is more than enough”, to demonstrating them appreciating having that present together - being able to go do cool and enriching stuff, something not completely mundane but not completely fantastical either. (I mean... sightseeing within your own country is extremely normal, but going to Uluru from Melbourne... not a convenient day trip, since it’s 2000km; 25 hour solid driving, or you can fly in a few hours but I think you have to go via Sydney, so that makes it take at least twice as long I guess. Not that it's specified how long they're there for. I haven’t been myself but I’d love to one day...)

So, yeah!! More of a mechanical/compositional rationale than an intentional metaphor, but I think your reading makes complete sense and actually improves the page! (Sometimes I do intend visual metaphors... but sometimes they’re just happy accidents.)

And thanks for the compliment re the crowd of Dees!! I also love the moments I can lean into his eldritch qualities... they’re sadly few and far between but maybe that helps them be more surprising?? Definitely your first reading was what I intended, that he zigzagged back pretty quickly, probably even from within the conversation, but there is an inherent ambiguity to Dee’s time travelling where unless I take pains to spell it out, there really is no way to know when he’s come from. Even if he can be assumed to be taking every interaction chronologically, there’s no knowing how much time has passed for him between each visit. I don’t even know how to estimate how long his experience of time is, when he’s zigzagging back so densely all the time; even the number of living things on Earth any moment is an incomprehensibly mind-boggling number. That eldritch horror again!

Truth be told I hadn’t thought of him coming back to this moment and blending in with the crowd for the rest of the future ;_; but that’s so real... he could well be, the sad sack...

I had a different sillier thought from slightly misreading your question on first pass, which is that maybe he doesn’t originally know what’s going on behind him, but then later on as he’s just going about his business he goes “oh I know exactly how to punctuate that thing I said earlier!!!” and then does it as an afterthought. Oh to have the ability to add the things you wish you’d said to an earlier conversation 😂

[nevesmose]

Fic ideas: Sevatar's first week as First Captain, where he realizes how many cats he has to herd as part of his new position? Konrad and Mortarion being awful bffs together? Horus and his scrungly new goth brother? Kyroptera joint venting session?

Last Chance on 8th Street

So in a perhaps too literal interpretation I combined "Sevatar's first week herding cats" with "Horus and his scrungly goth brother" and this was where things ended up. Trying to go for a kind of The Iron Giant "stereotypical 1950s USA that never really existed" vibe I think?

Somewhere in the idealised American past, a no-good street punk is sentenced to community service.

He's just so bald, Sevatar thought unkindly as he looked at the back of Police Chief Horus Lupercal's head. So goddamn bald.

It definitely wasn't the first time he had been in the back of a police car, but it was the first time he'd done it without his hands cuffed behind his back.

"You should consider yourself very fortunate to get away with community service after what you did," Horus said, staring daggers at him in the rear-view mirror. "But my father the mayor has decided to try out a new rehabilitation policy on you instead."

That explained the personal chauffeur treatment, Sevatar supposed, grimacing at yet another mention of my father the mayor. If they ever made a talking Horus Lupercal doll, that's what it would say every time you pulled its string.

"Gee whiz, Chief," Sevatar said insincerely. "All this fuss over a little jaywalking?"

"Jaywalking," Horus repeated flatly.

"Yeah, jaywalking. I jaywalked all the way across town at three in the morning to a nice suburban house and then I jaydrove off in their Cadillac. I pulled some jaydonuts in it and then I jayburned it." He shrugged expressively. "But it started with jaywalking."

Horus didn't reply as they halted next to a low, nondescript building with a sign saying 8th STREET MUNICIPAL CAT SHELTER.

"Here we are," he announced. "Your community service. Get out. It's time you met my brother."

"Oh yeah?" Sevatar left the car, scowling, and adjusted his leather jacket with an air of immense self-importance. "And which brother would that be exactly? Because it feels like there's about a hundred of you. Which reminds me," he added nastily, "give my sympathies to Mrs Mayor."

"A real comedian, aren't you?" Horus replied. "Let me put it this way. He's not one of the ones my father the mayor allows to be seen in public."

"Oh shit, is it the crazy one? The one the Army did all those psychic UFO mind control experiments on?"

"Is that what they say about him?" Horus asked innocently. He shouldered open the main door of the building and led Sevatar into a small, dimly-lit reception area empty except for a few metal folding chairs, a desk with a disconnected rotary phone on it, and a poster of a cat on one wall.

"He must be out in the yard," Horus said, gesturing to a door leading to the rear of the building. "And just remember," he continued, turning to point a finger at Sevatar, "when you fail at this, which you will because you're nothing but a worthless punk, I will be here to arrest you personally. Have fun."

With that he left, either ignoring or not hearing Sevatar's response. Sevatar shrugged, lit up a cigarette and headed out into the yard behind the building.

Whatever he'd expected, it wasn't this - an open, grass-covered space dotted with trees and what looked like a variety of homemade cat-sized climbing frames, scratching posts and houses.

And above all, what looked like thousands of cats, everywhere he looked. The most cats he'd ever seen. Like in that horror movie about birds, but... with cats. For some reason every single one of them was some variety of black, grey or white in colour.

Sitting cross-legged in the centre of the yard, surrounded by his own personal clowder, was Konrad Curze, the crazy one of the Mayor's sons.

He was tall, tall enough that you could see it even sitting down, and far thinner than any healthy person should be. He wore grey jeans and a black turtleneck sweater which, combined with his long black hair and intense dark eyes, made him look like a kind of depressed, disappointed beatnik.

The cat hair all over his clothes didn't help.

"Those things will kill you," Curze said, looking over at Sevatar. His voice was raspy, like he'd either used it far too much or far too little.

"What, the cats?"

He shook his head and gently pushed a tuxedo cat with a peculiar marking on its forehead off his lap so he could stand up and walk over to Sevatar. "Cigarettes. Cats will just eat you after you die."

He had to be seven feet tall at least. Sevatar, who fell back on humour at times of uncertainty, found himself compelled to make some kind of remark.

"What's the weather like up there, Legs?"

"Bright and breezy," Curze replied in the same whispery tone. "You must be Jago Sevatarion, here to serve the community."

"It's Sevatar. And yeah, I guess so. Didn't think it would be a community of cats though."

"Cats are vital to the community," Curze replied. "While their actions in keeping down pest populations may seem brutal, or even downright sadistic, their overall contribution is very positive to society."

"Right. But what about, like... endangered birds? Don't they hunt them too?"

"That's utterly irrelevant to me, Sevatar. I just like cats."

They walked together around the yard, with Curze describing in great detail the various duties involved in running the shelter and Sevatar mostly trying not to step on any of the residents.

Eventually his curiosity got the better of him. "You know, they say you're crazy," he ventured at a stopping point in Curze's feline monologue while he was being shown the special-care area.

"They're right," Curze answered bluntly. "Now, Malcharion here is very old and needs his food mushed up with some water."

"Okay. But you don't seem too crazy right now."

Curze paused and looked at him. "I have good days and bad days," he said. "Today is a good day. Do not under any circumstances let Gendor near any of the other cats' food," he added, pointing at a malevolent-looking grey tabby. "He is entirely untrustworthy."

In the end they agreed that Sevatar would be back at nine the next morning, but when the next morning came he woke up at half past eight with no possible way to get to 8th Street on time.

So he gave up and just kind of wandered around, smoking and making vague plans to skip town. That was something people did, after all. Just vanishing one day.

His thoughts were interrupted by a blurry black shape looming up in his peripherial vision. It quickly resolved itself into Konrad Curze and his cat-hair-covered turtleneck who grabbed him forcefully.

"You should be at the cat shelter," Curze rasped, somehow making the phrase into the most terrifying threat Sevatar had ever heard. The taller man had him pinned up against the wall, just about lifting him off his feet through sheer wiry strength, but then he suddenly drew back.

"You weigh hardly anything, Sevatar," he said. "When did you last eat?"

Sevatar told him, and that was how the man who up until that point had seemed intent on killing him insisted on going to the nearest diner instead.

Curze sat opposite him in their booth with a cup of coffee while Sevatar, who had taken the statement to get whatever you want well and truly to heart, was working his way through a cheeseburger, fries, soda, milkshake and a sundae the size of a toddler.

"Today hasn't been a good day," Curze said, as if that explained everything. "I'm given to understand that for you it's this or prison. Is that right?"

Sevatar shrugged. "And, so what if it is?"

Curze thought for a moment, clasping his long fingers around his coffee cup.

"It's very much the same for me," he said eventually. "If I fail at this I'll be of no use at all to my father the Mayor, as Horus so endearingly puts it."

"Is that so?" Sevatar said, or at least intended to say, around a mouthful of burger. It came out as more of a generic inquisitive sound which didn't seem to bother Curze.

"The next step from there would be a long stay at an institution somewhere very far away and, I think, an eventful appointment with a lobotomist. It would be as if I never existed at all."

"That's rough," Sevatar said, not entirely unkindly.

Curze gave a rueful smile. "That's my father," he replied. "He's done it before with his little disappointments. Did you know there used to be twenty of us?"

"No," Sevatar replied, "I didn't know that."

On impulse, he wiped the fry grease off on his white T-shirt and then held out his hand to Curze.

"I'll make you a deal," he said. "Let's help each other to stay out of institutions as long as we can. Just don't try to kill me again."

They shook hands and started discussing how to herd cats.

[wolfnesta]

I’ve always entertained the idea of Nesta going full on evil because she already has a compelling backstory that makes a villain relatable, understandable, these things could push her to extremes to fight for change but not without questionable choices, I mean, she has the cold, unflinching, cunning attitude down, bonus sexy points. She fights for humans, fights for women. But why not make her evil in the process.

And then there’s Feyre with her own backstory but she has that innate compassion, both are fighting for change, have a common enemy, but Feyre has lost faith in Nesta, wants to see her nurturing future come to fruition without burning everything to the ground.

Hmmm I’m just compelled

[mastersoftheair]

"Masters of the Air details. Part 6-Bombsight and bombing.

"[...] I was brought in to Masters of the Air to teach actors how to look like they knew what they were doing, and the bombardier work would certainly be important to the series.

"[...] The Norden bombsight was being developed in the 1920’s by Carl Lucas Norden, a Swiss engineer, who worked for the US Navy. He developed this sight (eventually the Mark 15 series for the Navy and the M series for the Army) and the autopilot system that goes along with it. The autopilot was needed as it could fly the aircraft more precisely on the bomb run than the pilot could. Just don’t tell the pilot this!

"The Mk 15 Norden sight was a beautiful hand-built and fit device with an analog computer that would calculate the point in space at which to drop the bombs. The Bombardier would input information to the sight in the form of altitude, air speed and the ballistics of the bomb. On the bomb run he would pick up the target with the crosshairs in the optics and engage a motor drive that would keep the crosshairs synchronized on the target during the approach. On the run he would also make fine adjustments to be sure the crosshair stayed on the target for range and drift. When the sighting angle reached the predetermined dropping angle the sight sent an electrical signal to the intervalometer that would drop the selected bombs at the specified interval.

"The mission order would define what bombs were to be used and what the nose and tail fuses were to be used and their delay settings, if any. The order would also specify the aiming point and the interval to be set in to the intervalometer. This would space the bombs across the ground as desired. Maybe you wanted the bombs dropped quickly, right next to each other, to try and put a hole in the roof of the hardened sub pens. Or maybe you wanted to walk them down a long runway. The intervalometer would be set for your ground speed and how many feet apart you wanted the bombs to hit on the ground.

"If you wanted to drop a string of bombs all down a line, like a runway or a front line, then you would want the center bomb of the stick to hit in the middle so you would adjust the trail plate on the bombsight the right amount to drop the first bomb early and have the center bomb right in the middle. This center bomb spot would be the mean point of impact or MPI.

"When I arrived on set at MoTA they had several nose sections with varying amounts of the bombardier’s equipment and controls. They had one real Norden sight head called the hero sight in the hero fuselage. The hero label was attached to the best props where special or close up filming with lead actors might take place.

"The stabilizer is the lower half of the bombsight and contains the yaw gyro for the autopilot. The bombsight head sits on the stabilizer and pivots to keep pointed at the target.

"The hero sight was sitting on a prop stabilizer, and it needed more accessories and work to look as good as the real sight head. I asked if they had a better stabilizer around and they thought so, but where it was seemed to be uncertain. It was eventually located and cleaned up for mounting in the hero nose. It was still missing some items namely the directional panel and an Automatic Bombing Computer or ABC. The ABC was used on the bomb run so they could perform evasive maneuvers and not have to do the run and drift calculations again. I was told that a Norden Bombsight expert in the UK said that they didn’t use the ABC early in the war, if at all. I had to differ with that opinion as it was most certainly used throughout the early war and almost all the way through. Its use dropped off later in the war if anything.

"The ABC is quite visible on top of the stabilizer so I thought the hero sight should have the ABC not only for authenticity but for eye candy too. I asked my daughter, Sydney, to send out the directional panel and ABC set from our museum’s bombsight back home in California.

"[...] Like with the pilots and their own preference for hand positions on the throttles, the bombardiers were given the options of the two different hand configurations bombardiers often used to adjust the sight on the run. The more uncomfortable two-handed method or the single hand. Which eye to use while looking through the eyepiece was also their own decision as this would have been a preference item as well.

"We also taught them how to look over the sight to pick up the target then transition down to the eye piece and to uncage and adjust the gyro for leveling the optics in case this might be of interest to the directors. We went over the control sequence for the bomb bay doors, bomb select and intervalometer adjustments and the bomb run itself.

"[...] The standard procedure for the bomb run was developed early on by the 8th AF which was to navigate to a point where the bomb run would begin. This was called the Initial Point or IP. From the IP it was either a straight line into the target, or evasive maneuvers along this line to the target.

"At the IP, the bombardier would open the bomb bay doors. This would change the drag and the airspeed accordingly. It was up to the pilot to adjust power to maintaining a specific airspeed and altitude which was critical to accurate bombing. The pilot would also re-trim the aircraft so it would fly hands off at which point he would engage the servos of the autopilot and turn control of the aircraft over to the bombardier. The Bombardier would fly the aircraft through the bombsight and its connection to the autopilot.

"The main bombardier actor, Elliot Warren, portrayed James R. Douglass. Elliot was a quick learn and did a great job. He was a pleasure to work with and I really enjoyed his scenes.

"[...]Props made several Norden sights. Rubber ones and some with more detail. One was set up with squibs to detonate when the sight was shot by the actor with his 45 cal M1911 pistol. They were wired and the squibs went off with the sound of the pistol. It looked pretty good on camera.

"It was AAF policy to try and destroy the bombsight so it would not fall in to enemy hands. Some of the manuals actually discuss what should be done to destroy it. I would hope that the large gyro in the sight head was not spinning at its normal 25,000 RPM when the bullet hit the 2-pound rotor, as I would imagine that it would come apart and potentially send shrapnel back at the guy holding the gun!

"The lighting folks would control the instruments and lights throughout the fuselages, like the bomb bay door open light on the bombardier’s panel. We put in a lag between the bomb door handle operation and the door open light coming on. Not an accurate lag as we obviously will not be filming for the actual 20 seconds or so needed to open the electric bomb bay doors. It was a delight to work with the lighting crew and they did magical work especially with the custom made instrumentation.

"[...] Here is a full-on rant about the Norden so you might want to skip out!

"Keep in mind that this is my own opinion. An American who is discussing the Norden sight. Your mileage may vary.

"Recently there has been, what I call a ‘revisionist historians’ view of the Norden Bombsight. In short, this modern interpretation, pretty much lead by Malcolm Gladwell’s TED Talk on YouTube and his book Bomber Mafia, calls in to question the usefulness of the Norden. Basically, saying it was not effective and some of his followers have even been using the term ‘useless’ recently.

"Just keep a few thoughts of this rant in mind.

"The bomb sighting systems we had going into WWII were based on technology left over from WWI. They were simple sights with wires to sight down. They were meant for aircraft speeds and altitudes from WWI. Now skip ahead to the new bombers flying two to three times as fast and at altitudes up to 30,000 feet instead of 3000 feet.

"An all-new system was needed to solve this new complex bombing problem. Sperry was working on it and Norden, who had left employment at Sperry, started his own effort.

"The Sperry and Norden sights were the leaders of synchronous sights going in to WWII. They both were good sights which were constantly being improved. They had each also developed a highly advanced autopilot that the bombardier used to fly the aircraft on the bomb run.

"These were visual sights, so it was necessary to see the target in order to be effective. Not so easy in Europe all year long. Radar and other methods were coming online to help with all weather bombing but there were many limitations in play.

"Results would certainly vary from target to target, and it was a brand new technology made up of gyros to keep the optics level, a mechanical computer to make the calculations, motors to drive the optics. Lots of parts needed to be able to work at 200 degrees F to 50 below, not to mention the complex autopilot system.

"So, my main question is: If this new technology was so bad then what exactly was it that brought the German war effort to its knees?

"The RAF was going after cities and targets at night and the AAF was trying to hit specific strategic targets like submarine production, aircraft and weapons plants, fuel and machine parts to make the weapons work. The very things the Germans needed to wage war.

"What brought this production essentially to a halt?

"I submit that it was the bombing campaign.

"If it was the bombing campaign, then it was likely the Norden and Sperry sights that made it possible. Mostly the Norden as it was chosen as the primary system and the Sperry S-1 sight was discontinued.

"The invasion of fortress Europe was certainly needed to push the Germans all the way back to Berlin, but I would also submit that these efforts were made easier by the results of the bombing campaign.

"There were certainly mistakes and errors all throughout this campaign as there was a massive learning curve in doing something that had never been accomplished on such a scale before. How to amass hundreds to a thousand plus bombers to rally together to attack a target effectively and then get home. The attrition was unbelievably steep in the early years as so beautifully depicted in Master’s.

"Just how do you get back in that bomber the next day and face near certain death once again like they did. Again, as seen in Master’s. Just a few of the wonderful aspects of this series and the history behind it.

"Having a PR campaign about the weapon that would help win the war, like Harold T. Barth created for Norden, was not such a bad thing. If it rallied the troops and home front to keep up morale, then I think it was a good thing. Just open any wartime magazine and look at the full page ads all throughout. Each ad promoting the companies contribution to winning the war effort. BF Goodrich with their new Rivnut or Seeger Refrigerator building bomb racks and feed chutes for the 50's. It was a nationwide industrial and personal team effort to wage this war against the Axis. Norden was one of them.

"Barth said that the sight could hit a pickle barrel from 20,000 feet. When the press asked if this was true Norden replied ‘sure if you tell me which pickle you want me to hit’. Some folks nowadays are taking this literally and complaining that it really couldn’t hit a specific pickle. No kidding. Say it isn’t so. Those bastards!

"To Mr. Gladwell and his followers, I'll ask again: What was it, in your mind, that allowed all of those bombs to take out the German AND the Japanese war efforts? If it wasn’t Sperry’s S-1 and Norden’s M series bombsights, then just exactly what was it?

"Rant over. Flak vest, with crotch protector, and helmet, on."

[mirai-desu]

I agree with this article 💯, as Rachael New et al. are now undermining the entire premise of the show, and I want to highlight and comment on a few parts of this excellent take:

We're losing a central character whose emotional journey we were invested in and a vital piece of the primary reason we were told to watch Miss Scarlet & The Duke in the first place. Whether you want William and Eliza together romantically or not, the show was always predicated on and grounded in their relationship, and to pretend otherwise is to deny the original premise behind its very existence.

Exactly this. "Miss Scarlet" might be considered more lead than him, but he was still a titular character, and we were invested in his journey as well as hers. Their bond is the foundation of the show. The teenage flashback episode in particular proves this to us--and proves William’s importance to the greater story. But even before that, it's been there all along:

And, honestly, the official description of Season 1 is blunt about what’s happening: “Eliza and The Duke strike up a mismatched, fiery relationship that will crackle and smolder with sexual tension as they team up to solve crime in the murkiest depths of 1880’s London.” So let’s say it as plainly as possible: No one planned to tune in to this new program simply because it promised a crime drama in period dress. The series’ hook, apparent from its first marketing materials, was this unique relationship at the show’s center. The real story of Miss Scarlet and the Duke has always been just that: Miss Scarlet and the Duke. 

While RN et al. can dig in their heels and claim that the story has always just been Eliza's, but we know better than that. Since Day 1, the promotion and the interviews all catered towards the UST. As time wore on, Stuart really began championing the romance in earnest, and it was a logical next step. He was not wrong to do so. What was actually happening on screen was heading that way, as part of a beautiful slow burn.

After literally years of dancing around the rarely mentioned but blatantly obvious feelings between them, this season finally pushed their relationship forward. We got a whole flashback episode dedicated to how they first met! There was a kiss! William said the L-word! The genuine forward relationship progress that so many fans had been waiting for was finally happening! [...] What makes this even more painful is that Season 4 finally felt like the show was moving forward, at last, at least where its central relationship was concerned. Yes, William left, but it was for a good reason: to give Eliza the space and opportunity to decide what she wanted from their relationship on her own terms. (That, as the kids say, is growth.) But if he was never coming back, why bother with most of Season 4?

While we know that in part we got some of the romantic moments in S4 due to Stuart's requests, but I think ultimately, RN's reluctance to move things forward with Wiliza is what put Stuart at odds with her, as she likely did not take too kindly to him suggesting his own input (even when he became an EP) and perhaps felt like he was telling her what to do with her own show. And her goal is to keep it stuck in a cynical pattern; one that William wanted to resolve, and one that Stuart had to remove himself from, because RN favors rinsing and repeating, versus actually diving deep into longer character arcs. That's how she think she can keep the "longevity" of her show, or so she thinks.

Because look, I love Eliza. But I realize it's really because of the potential of who she could be. William never returning prolongs her characterization being stuck. She was supposed to spend the year thinking about what changes she needs to make so they could be together. If he never returns, then what's the point? The catalyst for change is gone. William staying on the show should have actually forced her to grow, not kept her stuck. Removing William entirely reinforces the patterns versus ending the cycle. Especially if he is just replaced with a new love interest, who just flirts with Eliza to keep a "will they / won't they angle" that's never moved forward.

Any writer worth their salt would have Eliza grow in interim and have major development upon William return. But that would end the "put them together / pull them apart." Which is not what RN wants, hence why she refused to put them together. She thinks these patterns are what maintains the show vs spending time on actual storytelling. And this is also why I cannot believe the party line, and truly feel that we haven't gotten the whole truth on why Stuart's exiting.

Thinking about the scenes in the flashback episode of William and Henry, and how important they were, it makes me sad that apparently in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter to RN. And it's sad they keep trying to paint it that the two most important people to Eliza were “overshadowing” her all the time.

I fear is that this new retooled version will just ignore and erase the importance that William has had on her life. At least in the S4 finale we saw how his words still affected her, even when he wasn’t there, encouraging to reopen her own agency. But I can’t see them continuing that, when clearly they want to reboot the show without him.

I had been working on my post S4 fanfic before the news of Stuart's departure hit, and I looked back on how I was developing Eliza from where we left off and how I wrote William's return. When I was outlining it, I was thinking about how RN only just barely has touched the surface of Eliza's psyche. I wrote her as torn up about William leaving--and how he left not long after he almost died. Eliza should have grown from the trauma of almost losing him and we seemed to be on that path in the show, with her at his bedside, and having him recover in her home. We could have dived into how the lost of her mother at a young age affected her, and how Henry's death still was painful. At her father's funeral (which mind you, is in the very first episode) she talked about being alone, and William wiped her tears away. And now... Eliza has lost another person close to her. Literally, it's not William's existence stopping Eliza's development--it's RN's lack of talent, I'm afraid. And who knows, maybe that statement that she cannot be developed while he is around is just a cover to explain his exit, as it's clearly not an actual reason.

Likewise with William, in addition to dealing with his feelings for Eliza, there's so much they could done with him leaving Scotland Yard and the trauma he survived. He didn't have to have PTSD, but he's already had a pretty traumatic life and survived so much (which again… why show all that in the flashback if they were ditching his character - Ben, not RN, wrote that episode so maybe that was a sign). But he held onto the identity of being part of the police, because of how he came get that job (i.e. Henry) and get off the street, and they could have explored what would it be like to shift away from that identity. There just was so much potential and so much richness that could have been written, for a man who came from nothing, but wanted to belong, and wanted to be loved. And maybe Stuart was just so very aware that the show was refusing it take it there. He took William as far he was allowed to, but not as far as the character could have gone, if written by the right people.

Frankly, both William and Eliza deserve better. Stuart deserves better, and we the Wiliza fans do as well. Ultimately, regardless of what (and at what point in time it) really went down between Stuart and RN, the series should have ended with S4, but with a happy conclusion. All signs pointed to William joining Eliza at her detective agency, but now we just have to imagine them there, working together as equals and in love.

[kinokoshoujoart]

the sos awl development team really looked at rock and said “even if we could fix him (we can’t) he would never agree to it, carry on king”

[moeblob]

Deacon loves two things: Ymber and digging himself a grave.

Fulj hates one thing: Deacon.

[violet-sumire]

Bad fanfic idea: Postcanon Endeavor and Rei patch things up between them better than expected, and Rei ends up with child again (accidentally this time).

Fuyumi is all happy and congratulatory, but is screaming on the inside.

Shouto is baffled to the highest degree, but he's just happy as long as his mom is happy.

Natsuo actually doesn't know, as he's ghosted his family after a bad encounter with Endeavor at Touya's (second, final) funeral.

[micechicken]

Eyes by Bastille

This is every use of the word "Eye" and variations in Bastille songs (and covers + Dan's solo work). I may be missing something but I tried my best.

It uses variations of the songs too, but not ALL of them cause that's just much lol. Ironically the song with a music video with a lot of eyes (Blame) doesn't have the word, but I used the picture of eyes from it lol. Naturally the easiest one to compile was Weight of Living Pt. I and the hardest was Starry Eyed with 12 😭

Here they are in order of apperence:

Poet 4x Family Ties 4x Haunt 1x Haunt (Dan's version) 1x Weight of Living Pt. I 8x The Draw 2x What Would you Do? 1x Skulls 1x Run for Trouble 1x Eight Hours 2x Pompeii 6x Irreverence 1x Starry Eyed 12x Bite Down 1x Thelma and Louise 4x Back to the Future 2x Give me the Future 1x Those Nights 2x Joy 1x Laura Palmer 1x Good Lesson 1x Basement 2x Drop it like it's Royal Mashup 1x Fake It 2x Good Grief 1x I don't want to miss a thing / It's the End of the world as we know it 3x Send Them Off! 1x Thinkin Ahead 1x Two Evils 1x Warmth 1x Would I Lie to You? 7x Falling 1x Forever Ever 1x Pompeii MMXXIII 6x Free 1x Love Don't Live Here 1x Requiem for Blue Jeans 1x Sweet Pompeii 3x Killing Me Softly with His Song 1x Beating Heart (Laura Palmer Demo) 1x Laura Palmer Simlish Version (Sims 3 Supernatural) 1x

[fudgecake-charlie]

We used to know each other back in like 2019-2020 back when the hermitblr server was a big thing (unsure if it still is— I only recently got back into hc after years) and I just wanna apologize for how I acted in my youth it was very embarrassing, I just stumbled across your profile and everything came back to me

I hope you've been doing well though 💜

it's been a weird few years but i'm still kicking! if it helps my memory of 2020 is pretty ass (for reasons unrelated to fandom/fandom discourse) so I. have forgotten and by extension forgiven too, whoever you are! I do hope you have a good day and a nice time getting back into hc though o7