#stupid analysis

[moonydasaltychild]

This just something that I randomly thought about and could possibly be wrong about but

How long was Garmadon left alone after being bitten by the devourer?

We all know how the story goes Wu and Garmadon are playing with katanas(as any child should be) and Wu’s goes over the wall they knew the FSM would get upset(which sounds weird considering they’re kids and he shouldn’t let kids play with katanas but anyways) Garmadon tells Wu to get it Wu says no so Garmadon goes out to get it and gets bit now that brings me to my question on how long was he out?

Obviously he found the katana easily and got bit just when he reached for it and fell unconscious pretty quickly we know that much but how long was he there? I went to rewatch that scene and it’s when Wu says “When my father found him” which to me sounds like Garmadon was out there for some time considering Wu said when, yes I’m beginning to sound insane, though I don’t want to push it and say he’s been out there for like hours but maybe somehow Wu just didn’t say anything and just waited for Garmadon to jump back with the katana but eventually he was taking way longer than he should but did he tell the FSM? Remember he said he would be upset if hearing the katana went missing so he probably didn’t and just kept waiting to the point that the FSM had to notice something was wrong cause they were all outside and he wasn’t paying attention but surely the noise of the two playing would be noticeably especially when it just stops and turns to silence.

Now it could be either the FSM noticed the silence immediately or it also took him a while to realize it had gone quiet since he was busy with the weapons of spinjitzu or another possibility is that Wu tried calling out to Garmadon but didn’t want to catch his fathers attention and maybe whispered his name before getting a little louder which then caught FSM’s attention but whichever one it was when he did look up the very first thing he’ll notice is that Wu is the only one there so he’s ask Wu where’s Garmadon he’d tell the truth and then at last he finds Garmadon knocked out with the bite. My conclusion is Garmadon was probably out there for like some minutes at best or this just me sounding psychotic an hour but I digress and keep it the minimum of minutes, does this matter? No not really because this was just a random shower thought I decided to make public for no reason so hope you enjoyed me making no sense and just rambling

[spicyveggiesub]

An analysis of official translations from JP into EN, KR, TW for two difficult to translate Siegfeld JHS Starira comics

as it says on the title, focusing on comparing and contrasting. long post, unsolicited term documentation, etc we have fun

^ just me being silly

#1: Minku hanging from a horizontal bar saying something silly while Shiro watches

for comparison's sake tried to be as literal as i could. honestly the differences between the onomatopoeia for minku dangling and what adjective shiro uses are incredibly negligible, but i tried to exaggerate how the nuances feel to me. might be wrong. doesn't matter

JP

Shiro: A strange creature... *dangle* Minku: "Frau Pl-hanging around-tin"... Just kidding✩

the meat of the joke that makes it hard to translate is minku is going puraaaaan = onomatopoeia for dangling idly, and this gets put into Frau Platin (puratin) in the middle to make Frau Purāntin. doesn't work well for puns in other languages (i do love the tl by TsuNaMy_WaVe that says Frauplatin-side down don't think i could come up w something better)

EN

Shiro: What a strange kid... *swing* Minku: "Frau Planking" Heh heh✩

girl you are not planking but all the more power to you. redefine what it means to plank in 2022. I think someone on the en localization team was like "shiro can't call minku a creature bc someone might get offended" and like 😭 ok i guess but this is creacher erasure

KR

Shiro: A fascinating creature... *dangle* Minku: This right here is "Frau Platin~" Heheh✩

disappointed with this one they gave up on any sort of insertion. minku's barely even making a joke in this one so in some ways it makes her even stranger bc she's just saying things. you're frau platin bc you're hanging from a bar?

TW

Shiro: An unimaginable creature... *sway~* Minku: "Frau Horizontal Bar Platin"... Just making a joke✩

so the tw translation of "frau platin" puts the platin part first and frau part after: 白金皇君 bai jin huang jun = platinum emperor mr./sir/etc they put horizontal bar after the platinum and before the Emperor +title part so it's like. the emperor of platinum and ALSO the horizontal bar ?? 😭 funny way to reverse translate this translation while screwing it up even more would be "Frau Platin-um Bar" or something

#2: Stella failing at tsukkomi

JP

Stella: I want to say "nandeyanen" (why the hell), so say something boke-like! Shiro: Isn't saying that more boke-like? Ryoko: Ahaha...

this joke is about stella not knowing much about manzai bc she's not from japan and wanting to be the tsukkomi sooo bad even though she's fundamentally NOT. not enough space to pack this info in a tl without confusing people who don't know anything about manzai—you would at least have to have some sort of t/n about What this is about like "Stella is trying Japanese manzai comedy" and i doubt they wanted to commit to that.

(alt bc i love to verbify: Stella: I want to say "nandeyanen" (why the hell), so try boke-ing for me! Shiro: Aren't you the one boke-ing by saying that? Ryoko: Ahaha...)

EN

Stella: Try and say something stupid so that I can be surprised! Shiro: You're already doing it... Ryoko: Hah hah...

surprised ... perhaps not intentional but it really captures stella's innocence because WTF ARE YOU SAYING = surprised sure is a way to put it.

KR

Stella: I want to cut you off, so say something goofy! Shiro: That's the goofiest thing one could say, though? Ryoko: Ahaha...

first of all love how in this one shiro accuses her of saying the goofiest thing ever. second thing: rabbit hole time, sorry.

so what was used in place of "saying nandeyanen" is 딴죽 걸다 (ddanjuk geolda). the etymology is 딴 (ddan) from 다른 (dareun) meaning different, and 족 (jok, from 足) meaning foot which became 죽 (juk). 딴죽 (ddanjuk) is a move in ssireum and taekkyeon where one person kicks their opponent's calf and trips them so they fall.

from this, the phrase eventually came to generally mean interfering with something. in 1998, the online newspaper called 딴지일보 (Ddanzi Ilbo) was founded and through this website the term 딴지 (ddanji), which was a non-standard variant of ddanjuk, eventually became the more popular term. they were (and are sometimes still) used interchangeably, but afaik ddanji is way more common.

in 2014, ddanji was officially acknowledged as a standard term with a slightly different meaning from ddanjuk. when ddanji is used, it means to actively get in the way of something, and when ddanjuk is used, it means to do/say something different from what was originally planned (ie changing plans, backing out, breaking a promise).

however, it's still kind of used interchangeably and some people may still think that only ddanjuk is the "correct" term; on the namuwiki page for ddanjuk (where ddanji just gets a cursory mention) it says it is often used when translating "tsukkomi" (verb) from japanese, but i would argue that ddanji is probably the more accurate and common translation, at least now.

TW

Stella: I want to complain and say "what the hell~", so how about you play stupid for a sec! Shiro: Aren't you already playing stupid? Ryoko: Haha...

less intensive rabbit hole: "what the hell" in chinese here is 什么鬼 (shen me gui) which literally means what kind of [ghost/monster/etc=strange] is that?? it's originally from southern chinese dialect, where the standard versions would be 搞(的)什么鬼 (gao (de) shen me gui, what strange thing are you doing) or 什么鬼东西 (shen me gui dong xi, what strange thing is that).

a term used as a retort, it became very popular after being used in the online show Baozou Big News Events and is now widely used for expressing curiosity as well

by the way, Ddanzi Ilbo and Baozou Big News Events are both like, web content that do/did a lot of political/news satire isn't that such a funny coincidence? i'll conclude by saying my funy slang ver at the top is unfortunately too recent and too not political satire media influenced to hang out with those 2 but alas.

[antaresr]

[comradekatara]

I love when azula calls herself the earth king’s humble servant while pretending to be a kyoshi warrior because suki would literally never say that (not even to avatar kyoshi herself), that line is ALL azula. that line, specifically, is not an attempt at impersonation or a performance, besides the fact of whom it’s directed towards. no, it actually reveals exactly how she sees herself, her role in the world, her relationship to ozai. despite her pomp and grandiosity, servitude best defines her role. and not just humility, but negation of the self entirely. suki would never present herself in this way, but how is azula to know that, when her entire life has been defined by her obedience and undying loyalty to the ultimate patriarch. his humble servant.

[halcyonfawn]

okay. i was confused during this one scene because i felt like the background music was way too familiar for me.

and then it hit me. i've watched season 9 god knows how many times.

so...

WHY DID THEY PUT "FACE THE RAVEN" FROM SERIES 9 IN HERE? is it important? should i start theorising? somebody hold me, i might do something crazy-

edit: there was no one to hold me in contain so i wrote a huge post about this moment.

[blueteller]

Cale is such a Weirdo (I Love Him)

I came to the very reasonable conclusion that Cale Henituse is the weirdest person you could ever imagine.

And I do mean that in the best way.

Basically any question about his character can be answered with: "Well yes, but actually no... except kinda sorta yes...? But maybe no..."

Try it. See for yourself.

[exaltior-a]

Personally the amount of people who are either "Jake is a stupid himbo" or "Jake is actively malicious" blow my mind. No, Jake isn't stupid, and he's not evil. He's a sixteen year old who is implied to have a mental disability and/or brain damage (it's not exactly clear, Caliborn claims they have the same developmental disorder and Dirk iirc worries that Jake hit his head too much, I guess you can take either with a grain of salt but I digress), and has not had meaningful real life interactions with other human beings in years. He is in the wrong for his actions, but it feels. Purposefully ignorant to claim he's just stupid or just evil for them.

He's socially stunted. He wants to emulate heroes in movies but lacks self esteem and experience. If the alpha kids had enough time to be more fleshed out (and let's be real, if Hussie cared about Jake) this might have been explored more thoroughly. He'd never had the opportunity to learn how to cope with a relationship, how to communicate his needs, or understand that he can't control how other people perceive him like he can through a computer screen.

He doesn't know healthy boundaries because he's never had to use them, and this goes both ways (allowing his friends to sexualise him and treat him like an object, as well as constantly complaining about his relationship with Dirk to Jane) Like yeah he does run away instead of communicating with Dirk and yeah he does dump all his problems on Jane. I love Jane, but one of her problems is her bottling up her feelings and people pleasing until everything blows up. She should have told him off much sooner, and while he was being a dick, it was partly because she allowed him to feel like it was okay to do, since she never told him it wasn't after the first few times or when she was starting to get aggravated.

His problems with Dirk are a little more complicated because we're never actually shown their relationship or how it broke down, but from what we can gather, Jake felt overwhelmed by Dirk's intensity and decided to ignore him rather than tell him try and avoid confrontation but leading to Dirk being frustrated and breaking up with him. Dirk claims he feels like he bullied Jake into a relationship, and though I personally think that's him making it seem worse than it was, it does mean that Dirk probably was trying to go too fast. I've best heard it is Jake being an introvert pretending to be an extrovert.

This is not to say I don't think people can't dislike or even hate Jake, but it's like. Idk. Misinterpreting a character and disliking that version of them is a little redundant to me.

[communistkenobi]

I’m not a fanfiction rights warrior or anything but the discourse about how it’s actively making published literature worse is so stupid. if fanfiction is having a negative effect on the quality of published fiction, that impact is vastly outpaced by the economic reasons for why mass amounts of low quality garbage is being pumped into the fiction market. certain conventions of fanfiction (namely the use of trope and character tags) are being adopted by the industry not because fanfiction has some hegemonic influence on said industry but because those things are easily adaptable for search engine optimisation and marketing purposes. like what explanation sounds more plausible: fiction is being increasingly tailored to fit into various narrow category tags (“gay enemies to lovers slowburn coffee shop romance,” etc) because the consumer market has seen a rapid sea change in the past 5-10 years and now audiences all want to read what is essentially OC fanfiction that they also pay for, or because formulating books in that way makes keyword search optimisation on google and amazon way easier to market low-effort schlock to people? this is not a new phenomenon and blaming end-users for the state of the industry is basic cart-before-horse reasoning. you can dislike fanfiction and find the people obsessed with it annoying, but the relatively niche space those people occupy online is not structurally responsible for books being more shitty than usual lately

[clingyduoapologist]

The thing about c!tommy that’s so insane to me is that, well, he isn’t especially brave? Like he is never opposed to just running from a fight, he will scream and cry and plead and sob if tubbo pulls out an axe for like half a second. He is really not a paragon in any sense of the word.

AND YET PROTECTION AND FIGHTING IS LITERALLY ONE OF THE WAYS THAT HE SHOWS AFFECTION like if there is a mob hitting you and ctommy loves you that mob is going to die. If you want to hurt his friends he will bite you and claw your throat out. He is not a brave boy but he is a loving boy and I can gonna be sick

[gothic-soda]

> Becomes a Champion

> Is the only one without magic or a special glowy sword

> Just a guy that flies good and shoots bomb arrows

> First interaction with the main character is challenging him to a duel in a place he cannot reach

> Dies

> Calls the guy who defeated his killer lucky

> Girlies on tumblr decide to ship them, is one of the most popular ships in the fandom

> Becomes simultaneously one of the most loved and most hated characters in the Zelda franchise

> Still has a group of loyal fans despite the last game he was even in being released over 3 years ago

> Refuses to elaborate

> Leaves

[sevensoulmates]

So you admit it, Tim? You purposely made Buck rehash the same dynamic he had with Eddie in his first episode with Tommy. Tommy, the man that kissed Buck at the end of this episode and helped Buck realize he was attracted to him the whole time. You're telling me that you did this on purpose only this time the queerness of it is textual and specifically meant to make the long-term audience remember when Buck acted like this with Eddie.

And we're not supposed to come to the conclusion that Buck was attracted to Eddie the first time they met and every day since then?

Timothy, idk who you think you're fooling but it certainly ain't me.

Source

[spicyveggiesub]

some thoughts on the official subs for the revue starlight movie (woooo!!!!!!!!) (wrt my own)

overall: IT WAS GOOD. there were some questionable things but it was good. i do think a lot of it was better than mine (i mean i would hope so bc they are paid and qualified to do this and i am not) this is a very lighthearted post about small inconsistencies and things i just burned into my brain

first of all i was like. actively trying not to fixate on the translations so I didn't really look too closely at the lyrics, but i will say some of them blended together lines that in my opinion were not meant to be connected and so it distorted the meaning (what i understood it as at least), it was only in like 3 or 4 cases though i think (i honestly cant remember which) and there were many lines i liked more than my own (i cannot remember) some were also exactly or almost exactly the same

aside from lyrics:

on the train when they listed the starira schools. it was like:

Seisho Music Academy

Siegfeld

Rinmeikan

Frontier School of Arts

i died laughing at this. i wonder if like. whoever was doing this is a frontier fan and was like Oh yeah i for sure know it's Frontier School of Arts but im not sure about siegfeld or rmk im gonna check and get back to that and then they just didn't. it's just so funny. It's like they said you know the rest anyways just fill it in with your brain. i'm like so glad they did this genuinely

For some reason they kept putting seisho as Seisho Music School in dialogue. this was baffling because at one point (the first time i noticed, maybe the first time it happened) Karen was reading the letter she wrote to hikari and her application info books were on screen and it said in big letters SEISHO MUSIC ACADEMY on the seisho book and then below it it said Seisho Music School in the dialogue. i noticed this more after this.. i don't really get why they did that. nbd, my friend didnt even notice it at all, but funny

also they put Actress Training Class, which is like, a combination of starira's Actor Training Department and the text in the movie that says Stage Actress Class? kind of hilarious... we have three official translations for this now

the official revue names are

Annihilation Revue

Resentment Revue

Co-star Revue

Hunting Revue

Soul Revue

The Last Line

ngl this whole __ Revue thing is kind of growing on me. i like it. co-star is just wrong because 競 means to compete they just. kind of fully got that wrong and i hope it is right for the starira card(s?) 😭 also they put Super Star Spectacle as Superstar Spectacle which is fair but there is a space between super and star in the katakana and Super Star Spectacle is the spotify title

they misheard Masai as Sasai due to overlapping audio w the background conversation about a new cyclorama. this made me go ??????? because. did they not have a script?? or was it just a mistake from not checking the script... or did they just not have a script???

the sign when hikari appears says Stage Right Entrance. i put it as Lower Stage Entrance and that was once again me fucking up i have no excuse for this. i actually realized i messed that up a few days before watching this, i will update it in the files in a day or two. i am aware i look like an idiot

they translated 腐れ縁 in futaba's revue intro as inseparable (bond, or something), this made me go D: and doubt mine (rotten relationship). 腐れ縁 is basically like inseparable but negative, like you're stuck together even though you don't want to be. so i guess i was leaning more to the negative (and more literal) side, for better or for worse. i think it has some sort of weight in the context of futakao's relationship though since inseparable can be positive by itself.

give a hero trials, give a saint temptations, give me a devil, GIVE ME YOU. slay. (i dont remember if its singular or plural for the first 2 dont quote me on that)

ah this is one. Pierce through me, with your brilliance. to be honest i was like, a little bit unsure of if hikari really meant through HER, i had intuited that but didn't like. I didn't want to commit to it i was scared... i might change this in the files.

the Claudine Saijo... Beautiful you are. was imo kind of unnecessary....... i get it is supposed to be like archaic speech but you can just say You are beautiful but its not a big deal

at the beginning, i wasn't a huge fan of... This is a stage(/play? cant remember) for goodbye. this kind of sounds awkward to me... also the giraffe then said something like Starlight is a tragedy of inevitable goodbye. i am just not a huge fan of the use of goodbye here...

they missed AIJO KAWAN 😭 its ok so did I.

rip nana's Thou Shalt Not Die by Yosano Akiko reference 😭

nana: I made her cry / junna: I made you cry i wish they made junna say I made her cry so it would be a 1:1 mirror and also bc Nana isn't within earshot of junna when she says this..

New National First Theater Troupe (starira) -> New National Opera Company

Anemone Troupe -> Anemone Theater Troupe

The Distant El Dorado -> El Dorado, Far Away (why not Far Away El Dorado..), Beyond the Blue Skies -> Sky singular (just a stylistic thing i guess)

i will edit this post if i think of something else that isn't completely and utterly trivial. i can think of a lot of lines that were nearly or fully Exactly the same as mine but I don't want to bore you with that.

anyway it was fun 🎉 love the three starira schools Siegfeld, Rinmeikan, and Frontier School of Arts

[relaxxattack]

me attempting to make a post about literally any “theme” or “meaning” in homestuck

[notthecommercialism]

Funniest line in the show methinks

He definitely got what’s coming to him!

*proceeds to get pelted by boiling hot lava and stuffed into a robot suit*

[halcyonfawn]

the meaning behind "face the raven" theme in "wild blue yonder" and more

a continuation of this post. i need to talk about this otherwise i'll explode.

some people have also said that this theme is playing in "last christmas" and "hell bent" (thank you for pointing that out, i'm going to die) which makes it all even worse (better). therefore, this post is, more or less, destined to turn into capaldi's era brainrot. but not all of it, i promise.

you've been warned.

first of all, allow me to refresh your memory. let's look into the context of the scenes where we heard this music theme before.

"last christmas"

according to series 8 official soundtrack, this theme is a part of "every christmas is last christmas" and is heard quite clearly two times. they're both important scenes for the doctor and clara.

too late.

a moment full of regrets and nostalgia. the doctor thinking he's lost clara again, wishing he would have come back sooner. clara reminicing her life without the doctor in it.

"so no one matched up to danny, eh?" "there was one other man, but that would never have worked out." "why not?" "he was impossible."

it is (heavily) implied that "one other man" is the doctor. does the doctor himself realise that she's talking about him? open for interpretation. but what this small exchange truly does is showing a game of saying something without actually saying it.

"can you really see no difference in me?" "clara oswald, you will never look any different to me."

yet another way of dancing around words. there's something special and touching about this last line. it is sort of a confession of unconditional love. but the word itself - love - is never spoken out loud.

then again, twelfth might be face blind.

second chances.

now, this scene is a complete opposite of the one mentioned above. it's full of hope, anticipation, happiness. a beginning of a new arc. he is given a second chance and he takes it. the doctor asks clara to run away with him once again. and she says "yes" without hesitation, takes his hand, kisses him on the cheek.

conclusion? these two scenes are focused entirely on the doctor and clara's relationship. it is there to show their strong connection, how much they mean to one another. utter devastation at the thought of their time ending and the absolute joy of reuniting after being separated. a chance at a happy ending. which also makes the music that plays on the background their theme.

"face the raven"

"every christmas is last christmas" is now turned into "face the raven" and is asocciated with clara's death. it also makes the previous name even more heartwrenching since last christmas was literally clara and doctor's last hurrah. we can hear this piece of music appear in two scenes as well.

clara's monologue about facing the raven.

"if danny pink can do it so can i. die right. die like i mean it, face the raven. maybe this is what i wanted. maybe this is it. maybe this is why i kept running. maybe this is why i kept taking all those stupid risks, kept pushing it."

she's accepting her fate and aknowleges her recklesness all the way throught the season 9. it was meant to be. there wasn't enough space for two doctors in the tardis.

"i let you get reckless" "why? why shouldn't i be reckless? you're reckless all the bloody time! why can't i be like you?" "clara, there's nothing special about me. i'm nothing but less breakable than you. i should've taken care of you."

this scene is also about how a human life can be so very short compared to the time lord's and how easily it can end. it's fragile. and it's the doctor's curse: bearing the pain of losing his loved ones.

clara meeting her fate.

as she approaches the raven, ever so brave, the doctor watches her. he hears clara scream, then witness her collapsing onto the ground. it is extremely painful, but this is, i repeat, the doctor's curse: watching his companions leave. there's no use in running away from that pain, it haunts him every step of the way.

"hell bent"

next time, "face the raven" theme can be heard during the memory wipe sequence. there is no name given for the background music in this particular moment, but it's quite obvious it represents loss and... letting go?

the doctor is about to make clara forget their time together (does that ring a bell, anyone?).

it is worth pointing out that the music becomes the loudest at the exact moment the doctor says:

"look how far i went for fear of losing you. this has to stop. one of us has to go."

it is the culmination of their relationship. companions that push each other to extremes. together they might destroy the whole universe in order to keep each other safe. there's no other way but to separate. they've formed such a strong connection than one is ought to forget the other.

even though at first the doctor is determined to wipe clara's memories, he then admits she is right: it is unfair to take away all that wonderful time they had from her. so he gives her a choice. or, more like, an offer to play a russian roulette. it's either you or me. i'm not going to press that button. we will do this together.

to summarise: all of these moments featured a strong connection between clara and the doctor. it also tells us a story about how hard it is to lose someone you care about deeply, especially for the doctor.

how is it all connected to the doctor and donna?

memory wipe

the doctor has to make donna and clara forget about him in order to keep them safe. expect that he doesn't give donna a choice, wiping her memory almost instantly, without saying a proper goodbye to her. obviously, he didn't have enough time to think of a better way to solve the problem since donna wouldn't have lasted long. however, it is still a decision he regrets making.

from "the star beast":

"i'm so glad you're back, donna. it killed me, it killed me, it killed me."

if we take a look at clara's situation, it's a bit different. i've already mentioned it above: at first, the doctor wants to do the same thing to clara that he did to donna. make her forget. expect, this time he is confronted for doing so (even threatened, at some point).

"these have been the best years of my life and they're mine."

i think this line triggers something in the doctor. because this is when he realises that this is not the right thing to do. not exactly. he'd already done it once and he regretted it. so this time, he offers a slightly different solution. someone still has to forget, but they'll press that button together. it's a mutual choice.

now, i know it's not entirely related to the dialogue in "wild blue yonder", but i think it's worth mentioning that donna and clara's stories are somewhat similar. i'm sure it's been said before, but it's still important.

donna's story was incomplete because she wasn't given a choice. now, that she remembers, 14th doctor makes sure their time together is worth-while. a second chance just like in "last christams".

too alike

another similarity between these two stories is that clara and donna are not entirely humans. not anymore.

donna's half timelord. even though her head is still not big enough to fit all the doctor's memories, she still has a part of the doctor in her.

clara's frozen in time, that makes her practically immortal. she risks her life, she reverses the polarity of the neuroblock, she gets her own tardis, she's even reffered to as "clara who" at the end of "hell bent". she has become the doctor in a sense.

but there can only be one doctor. so where's the story heading to at this point, i wonder? but we'll come back to this question later.

"but what really happened?"

before i say anything, it is obvious that the doctor's silence before and after he says "a lot" is him reminicing all that'd happened to him during the 11th, 12th and 13th reincarnations. all of the loss and pain he went through.

but why "face the raven" theme of all things? it could be a general theme of grief/nostalgia/painful memories, nothing else implied.

but please let me be delusional for a bit longer!

just as that scene in "hell bent" brought the doctor back to the moment he made donna forget him, could it be that bringing back his best friend's memories in a whole universe that "he absolutely loves", also reminded him of another important person in his life with similar story? just like "hell bent" mirrored "the journey's end", "wild blue younder" gave us a reference to "hell bent".

this is where we get back to the question about the current story direction.

foreshadowing?

donna's story is not over. and there are a lot of possibilities how it can end.

say, there is a connection to clara's story here, i wonder if that's where the plot's heading. in one of the trailers, the doctor does say "i'm not sure if i can save you this time" to donna. and it worries me. then again, maybe they're just tricking us into thinking something bad will happen (oh the drama).

i'd say it's unlikely donna's going to die because that would be absolutely devastating after just bringing her back. at the very least, the ending wouldn't be completely "happily ever after". perhaps, sacrifices will be made in order to prevent something truly horrible from happening.

why did this face come back?

in "the girl who died" twelfth doctor finally realises why he got his face. it is a call-back to "the fires of pompei" (don't even get me started on its being the episode with 10th and donna).

the message the doctor was giving to himself turned out to be:

"i'm the doctor and i save people!"

but what is 14th trying to tell himself?

i think it's about donna and more.

he's fixing his mistake of erasing her memories and depriving her of the right to remember amazing things that'd happened to her.

it's a reminder to actually tell people how much they mean to him. as we can see, 14th's more open with his feelings and constantly shows signs of affection towards his loved ones, even breaking the "never say i love you" rule.

it's about being honest and open with people because they deserve to hear it from him and he deserves to hear it back. because "things happen and then it's too late".

again, take 12th doctor, for instance. he constantly represses his feelings. but in my humble opinion, the reason why he's changed by season 10 was clara. she pulled him out of the dark place. and even though her death almost threw him back to that state again, he is still a better man by season 10.

but there were things left unsaid. love and care were always there but it was never said out loud. kind of the same thing happened with 13th.

i strongly believe that donna is that person for 14th. they're best friends who love each other deeply. and after the doctor lost her and got a second chance to fix everything, he does, he's being affectione. he's finally open with his feelings.

conslusion: why did you make us read all fo this?

to answer the question in the title: it's all tied with how memories are important and priceless, fixing past mistakes, moving on and learning to treasure every moment with people you care about like it's your last.

it can also be a foreshadowing for something terrible, but i choose to hope for the better.

��── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

aaaand that is the end of my doctor who rant. thank you for getting this far, if you did!

my feelings about all of this can be described with this one meme:

[thranduel]

i need people to actually stop and think logically when it comes to fictional characters. more specifically, when it comes to astarion.

it’s frustrating when people only talk about him in a sexual way and reduce him to “the hot sexy flirty vampire” or “the bear guy” (he was used as an EXAMPLE in a livestream, it’s not even canon in his lore) and view him as someone who “loves flirting and sleeping with people” when he does NOT. he canonically has sexual trauma, was forced to use his body to seduce people, got punished whenever he didn’t listen and is STILL suffering from ptsd after years of abuse and torture (already kinda spoke about this here).

it’s also frustrating when people hate on him and reduce him to “horrible evil heartless cruel annoying bastard” and act like you’re a shitty person if you like his character and must automatically agree with everything he’s done when you absolutely don’t?? he’s a FICTIONAL CHARACTER IN A FANTASY GAME, you can enjoy the complexity of his character and appreciate his character development while also acknowledging his flaws and not approve of every single thing he has ever done.

but before i continue, everyone should watch this scene. many people haven’t seen it because you have to pick very specific dialogue choices when astarion’s siblings approach you at camp. it’s brutal and heartbreaking but this is where he talks about what cazador did to him when he punished him for not listening to his orders. and yes, it’s bad. like really bad. this is just the first part, but the rest of it is more intense and it’s in the video:

“once - in the first decade of my slavery - i found a darling boy who i couldn’t bare to bring back to him. so i ran, instead of hurting that sweet man. after cazador caught me, the bastard sealed me, starving, inside a dusty tomb, all on my own, for an entire year”.

i wish people could actually just try to understand him and his backstory before reducing him to something he’s not. he’s not this one-dimensional “chaotic evil villain”. he’s not this “flirty sexy vampire red flag bad boy” he is SO much more than that. he is so complex and well-written and it’s so weird how people ignore it.

instead of constantly focusing on how he acts at the beginning of the game and saying “astarion is so mean and cruel what a horrible guy who doesn’t care about anyone but himself”, why can’t we talk about how he was forced into doing so many horrible things that he never wanted to do and how his master punished him every time he didn’t follow orders to the point where it utterly broke and destroyed him? he lost his freedom and bodily autonomy. he was forced to sleep with people and then lure them to tragic fates. imagine how sick, disgusted, guilty and horrible he felt all at once. it made him numb, empty, angry and scared even when he was far away from cazador, because that type of pain and trauma never leaves you. he was surrounded by cruelty for so many years that he responded with cruelty in many situations. he hated when people tried to be the hero or make false promises to save someone because no one ever saved him. no one even tried. he had no one and nothing. he was used to constant disappointment and loneliness. he was treated like an object rather than a person. of course he’s going to be bitter because of that. how can you seriously expect someone who only knew a world of cruelty to see sunshine and rainbows and be the sweetest person you’ve ever met? he’s upset, he’s angry, he’s hurt, he’s bitter. does that make every action of his okay? is it an excuse? absolutely not. and no one said that it is. his own life was being destroyed and he also destroyed others at the same time. it’s horrible. but everything cazador did to him explains why he became like that.

but the moment you actually start to treat him like a person, you can immediately see things start to change. that is literally the only thing he ever wanted. that’s why the scene you get after the drow interaction at moonrise is one of my absolute favourites. i know there’s a different version of that scene (if you don’t talk to the drow) where he instead admits he had a plan to seduce you but then fell for you, but the reason i prefer the drow one is because it feels really meaningful and important for his character in regards to consent and treating him like a person. like it’s just such an important conversation to have with him. obviously the other version is still really sweet when you think about the romantic aspect of your relationship and it’s nice to hear that he’s fallen in love and tells you that you deserve something real, because he’s never had those sort of feelings for anyone. it’s really beautiful. but i love how the drow version of the scene could actually work for both platonic and romantic relationships with him if that makes sense? it’s important to him because you made the decision to actually treat him like a person, defend him and allow him to make his OWN decisions (something he never had with cazador). he appreciated it so much that he decided to come up to you in the middle of the night and thank you, and then he felt comfortable enough to be vulnerable and open up to you.

at the start of act 3, you already start to see how much he’s changed. if you give an orphan child some food, he approves. when you first met him, he wouldn’t have. he probably would’ve felt bitter; angry to see someone stop for someone else when no one ever did for him. but because you showed him basic respect and kindness, he started to realise that there is good in this world and people do care. it’s not just evil and coldness and cruelty. he only believed there was because of how long he suffered with cazador. there is literally a scene where he tells you that no one has ever cared about him or been kind to him and that no one else has a heart like you. he starts to find safety and comfort in you. this is why it’s so beautiful to see how much he grows and changes and it also shows that he genuinely loves and cares for you too because he’s trying. he’s really trying. you are able to convince him that he can be better than cazador and he believes you after everything you’ve done to help him. it’s going to take a very long time for him to heal after everything he’s suffered, but the fact he has already started to try and be a better person is such a massive thing. obviously it doesn’t erase what he’s done in the past and it doesn’t automatically “fix” him, but the fact that he’s trying and he wants to be better tells you more than enough about him. i am so proud of his character development and growth and i really hope people start to understand him and appreciate him more.