#staggering death

[sthilarions]

On the one hand yes making Charles relive his trauma was a dick move and also she was an antagonist for nearly the whole season, but I don’t think we give the Night Nurse enough credit for going “no hard feelings about beating the heck out of me and feeding me to a giant fish”

I mean, she was fine, yes. But a) Charles didn’t mean for her to be, that was fully a murder attempt and more importantly b) her being fine wasn’t a foregone conclusion even from her point of view. As far as I can tell if Kashi hadn’t happened to be there she would have spent the next few hundred years stuck in the belly of a fish, which is fucked up, tbh.

But she gets out and finds them and is basically just like “no worries about the fish thing, let’s get you on to Heaven, spit spot” and then when she realizes things are hinky and not going as planned she does Charles a FAVOR. And not a small one! One that could probably get her in a lot of trouble! One that puts her and her life’s work in danger! Because Charles asked her to and Charles looks very polite! When her only previous interaction with him was him attempting her premeditated murder!

Like. It’s no wonder Charles immediately assigns her a semi-affectionate nickname even though by all rights he should want to murder her again for trying to take Edwin to Hell. She’s possibly the first authority figure that not only wants the best for him, he actively and deliberately harmed her and she STILL wants the best for him.

[ekleiipsis]

despite it never explicitly being said i’ve never assumed anything but jason’s destination being wayne manor when we see him limping on the road, immediately after digging out of his grave. he screams for batman as he bangs on the wood of his casket. he’s crying. when an animal is scared, it goes home. he walks 12 and 1/2 miles. approximately 3 hours, maybe even more taking in to consideration his injuries. the paramedic tells derek brantley and his girlfriend that if they had gotten there minutes later, jason would’ve been dead. jason nearly dies trying to get home. derek and his girlfriend deny him his homecoming, but in the same process they also save his life

[yridenergyridenergy]

Does it really count as an anti-interaction if, sure, they're back to back, but that they ended up unknowingly moving the same way?

[spectraling]

Just watched the latest episode of Severance and I cannot stress this enough but if you love this show you need to watch 1899

[gingermintpepper]

I have finished the book. It was not a very good book at all. My preliminary thoughts are as follows:

Prose is the best part about it but also one of the worst. Evocative and lovely language was used for what I can only describe as manipulating the reader. In a different book by a different writer, perhaps that would be the mark of a good unreliable narrator but this is not that kind of book and the writer, I fear, is not clever enough for that kind of narrative.

The characters - I do not think of them. Trapped as we are in Alcestis' head, she is a passive, dull thing who I do not know any better at the end of the book than I did at the start. I couldn't distinguish where her voice ended and where the author's began and it is through that haziness that all other characters are observed. Admetus is an objectively phenomenal husband but his kindness and regard is made bitter because he loves Apollo not her. Apollo is no more than a ghost haunting them both. Hippothoe and Phylomache exist as images of what Alcestis could be - a woman who dies of illness or children - and Heracles is awkward and small, quiet and passive in the way everything is in this book. Persephone and Hades are perhaps the only characters of some interest in here, but Persephone is a volatile mess of power masquerading as empowerment while Hades, like all the men in this book really, is small and passive and really only becomes worth something when out of Persephone's massive shadow.

The romance - What romance? There is no romance in this book. Alcestis imagines that what occurs between Admetus and Apollo is a romance but we do not get to see that story. The obvious regard and kindness Admetus holds for Alcestis would be romance in any other book - but in this it is described with so much apathy and loathing so as to make Admetus' actions seem unremarkable and lacking. As for Persephone and Alcestis; Alcestis wants nothing to do with her until Persephone forces her. She assaults her, like Hades assaulted her, while speaking the words of that tale into Alcestis' flesh while Alcestis rejects her and somehow this becomes the catalyst of their 'love'. There is no romance in this book.

The queer themes - I am not sure how one makes a story so easily given to a queer imagining biphobic, lesbophobic and not poly but it sure did that. Alcestis' ideas about love and sexuality and how it might possibly have different forms and fashions is unchanged from start to finish and homosexuality, for all that it is what she blames her ruined marriage on, is never explored past a few fleeting, derogatory descriptions and quickly brushed over allusions.

The Apollo Thing - Listen to me so carefully. Apollo is only in a single scene of this book. One single scene and it is the wedding scene where Admetus calls upon him to save them from the poisonouse snakes. Every other mention of him in this book is in passing, an offhanded mention of a person praying to a god, or with the underlying scorn and anger of a wife thinking of her husband's mistress. Apollo is not even there when Alcestis dies. He wasn't even responsible for Heracles eventually going down to the Underworld to retrieve her. If the author could've erased him from the wedding scene too, I'm sure she would've invented a way to do it. Apollo has no relationship with Alcestis, we do not get to see the nature of his relationship with Admetus and every other opportunity which existed to show him on their side was neatly and entirely erased. Thanatos, naturally, is completely absent from this novel.

In short, this was entirely unpleasant from essentially start to finish. I was very excited when I started this book and saw the quality of the prose and also the ambivalent character sketched of its gods but things went so rapidly and extremely downhill that I am left wondering how it was possibly flubbed that badly.

Regarding this book's feminism, I will dedicate a separate post to that entirely. To this book's credit, it did not have the superficial girlboss feminism that many of its contemporaries tend to champion but to its complete and utter detriment, the feminism it champions is perhaps the most insidious kind. The sort that excludes the disenfranchised, the impoverished and the normal woman. This book's feminism is for the privileged and the powerful and it is a deeply upsetting thing.

Lastly, I would like to thank @superkooku , @konu-d and @waterlinkedgirl for cheering me on through this absolute torment. I would not have finished this without them. Take that as you will.

If you are interested in the tale of Admetus and Alcestis or just want to read a retelling, I urge you to just read @reawakened-revenant (CiCiRose on ao3)'s God of the Golden Bow series. It is captivating, enthralling, impeccably researched and so utterly submersed in passion, love and care that it is breathtaking to read. It is a personal favourite of mine and the standard to which I hold all other Admetus and Alcestis retellings.

With all that done, I am going to stare at a wall and contemplate the horrors now. ✌🏾

[fantaorange]

it is december u know what that means ? thats right its time to start posting huevember art. yup. november drawing challenge. in december! (to be fair i started these in november ... im just not good at montly challenges so i decided to just let it be whenever i want... and i only just now got brave enought to post)

[noppythinkr]

pocket (stagger) / the grey (TDOPOM) nowhere to go (TDOPOM) / flicker (zig)

[gnomebud]

if you are using the fucking supernatural meme to try and make a popular post about the ceasefire in gaza something is deeply wrong with you

[applecherry108]

I still haven’t emotionally recovered from a fan theory I saw last night that had a lot of supporting evidence that Sanji will die by the end of One Piece. 🥲 And I’m sitting here trying to rationalize every way he could “die” but get better, but all I know for certain is, if it happens, Zoro’s finally going to say his name. Not in a shipping way, I just know in my heart that Oda’s the kind of writer to save that shit for a powerful moment. Now do I hope a name drop will pull Sanji out of a germa spiral? Absolutely. Do I actually think it’ll just be Zoro apologizing to him as he fulfills their death pact? 🙃

[dryadalismagicae]

So, this post is a little personal, but its important to me. So almost twenty years ago my sister spent a lot of time in the Childrens Hospital in Birmingham just after she was born. She had a lot of problems and the entire time was abysmal because my mothers partner at the time was horrendously abusive - - long story short, my sister passed away after three months of life but we always remembered the Hospital and the staff being so overwhelmingly wonderful regardless of how abysmally difficult the time was. So this year we've decided to do their sponsored walk. It's 4km and in May- - and we're trying to raise a little bit of money for the hospital - - this year, the funds are going towards the bereavement team; so you can see why we want to do it. Our donation link is here if anyone is interested. We're really hoping to fundraise around £100 so if anyone has a spare pound or dollar, or euro- I'm absolutely certain the charity will have it well spent on those that need support through undeniably difficult times. <3

[feelingtheaster99]

The comical faces that Mike Trapp is able to make are amazing and also so on-vibe for this season

[connanro]

been reading the orv novel with great studiousness and dedication but i'm struggling with the paradise arc because it makes me SO SAD that the mom they met in the subway dies and leaves her daughter all alone

[frogs-in3-hills]

keiichi was just handed the best alibi he could possibly ask for and yet he’s trying to dismantle it with “logic” and “reason” simply because it’s deeply disturbing and physically impossible……. 🙄 is he stupid

[illmoraineakoi]

Just recently beat the Hollow Knight ending again, and noticed something I hadn't before.

During the final part where Ghost/The Knight is absorbing the Infection from the Hollow Knight, there's a split second where the image of the Radiance can be seen in the orangey fog stuff.

That's not what I noticed. That's normal and obvious, if you know to look for it.

What I never realized before was that, when that happens, the Hollow Knight's sprite vanishes.

She pops them.

They die, on screen.

Usually, the little Radiance burst and the Infection smog hides most of the Knight's sprite, so it's hard to notice even when you watching for the Radiance, but I guess sometimes where the Hollow Knight collapses (and possibly where Ghost stands?) can make it a little easier to still see them when they die.

I mean, I knew they died in the quick ending, obviously, I just hadn't realized that that moment was it. I thought it happened in-between the fight and the final cutscene, in a very heavily implied sorta way.

But no, they just straight up pop when Ghost is absorbing the Radiance from them.

And a scream plays when it happens, so you can also wonder if that was the Radiance screaming in frustration as being reabsorbed by a stronger Vessel, or if it was Hollow's death cry. Fun!

Every detail of the Hollow Knight fight is so awfully depressing, I hate it.

[bucket-hat-benjamin]

God the us elections are over and I literally bedridden with how sick it made me (that + exams lmao). I haven’t live in the US for so long, it’s not even my country. I’m stress writing a report on project 2025 for a friend to deal w the anxiety, and she’s writing one for me on Agenda 47.

Help each other in these trying times please

[croziers-compass]

There will be nothing in this world that can change my mind that the most attractive thing that Francis Crozier does in the series is not become sober by quitting cold turkey but by being the last man standing as he pulls his own doom out from the throat of a great beast that is known to do nothing but devour mercilessly. It is the literal end of his line. All is left is him and the thing that has hunted him and the crew relentlessly. He is starved. He is dehydrated. He is suffering from a slew of other ailments let alone surely injury to his back. He is running off of fumes alone. But in some of the beliefs of the tupilaq, it could only be defeated if the individual of whom it was sent to devour overpowered it. And I think about this a lot. How Francis Crozier had nothing else to give but his own strength of spirit. Something that theoretically cannot be killed by usual mortal means. Wounded. Yes. But not killed. The last man standing, pulling against the the others he was chained to was very much so, to me, the strongest will and testimony to live and to not go down. Against all suffering odds, he overpowered Tuunbaq. Albeit weakened and also poisoned most likely. But that only put them on equal terms. The raw and unbridled force of the cold inhospitable wasteland. The thing that devours souls. With sheer raw stubborn will, alone, now on equal footing with this great and horrific thing, he overpowers it. And lives.