I do not know if I like the label “identity arc” either when it concerns Jaime. Or at least how a lot of people define it in context of his arc, and how it is used in the whole ‘redemption’ discourse. One of the most integral aspects of Jaime’s story is the fact that he is so viscerally aware of certain aspects of who he is deep down. All of his chapters are labelled with his name. It is never Kingslayer or GHTJ. “Jaime. My name’s Jaime” is as clear of a declaration as one could get. Even if he does some self deluding, even if he represses his subconscious, his facade of cynicism enabling his behavior so he does not crumble under the weight of his self-concept, and even if he often plays into a fabricated persona. He is aware of who and what he is, specifically what he turned into. That is the problem. He knows who he is/was, and he hates it. Not just because how it is perceived by other people, but also because of how he perceives himself. I never understood this opinion that he has no guilt, there are so many instances of shame and self-hatred, and he is faced with a lot of his guilt in dreams (the subconscious communicating with the conscious). Not to mention his passive suicidal ideation. His arc is about redefining and transforming Jaime, and finally confronting Jaime, not necessarily about just realizing what Jaime was at his lowest. He knows he is a boy that dreamed of becoming Arthur Dayne but turned into the Smiling Knight instead. His arc did not end with him discovering this. It becomes an arc about the weighting of his values. It is about making choices and agency. The exploration of identity and redemption work hand in hand they are not diametrically opposing concepts at all here. He is who he is, and that means he is the one that can make choices to change. “…but the rest Jaime Lannister would need to write for himself. He could write whatever he chose, henceforth. Whatever he chose . . .”
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a lolcow is obviously a bad and harmful thing but studying weird people online is a wonderful and soul enriching experience. but if u treat the fun of it as a product and engage with them to get more of this product, if youre "milking" the "lolcow", youre fucked. youre going down the path of darkness. it needs to be aetherial and loose. the better alternative is looking at lolbirds instead which is quite beautiful cuz, like birdwatching, its a process where u do not enact power and force over ur subject to make it show u what u want, you just let them naturally come by and show off their plumage (10000 near identically composed deviantart illustrations of different kids show character crying while getting knead into dough and baked[this happened in a single episode of a show the artist saw when they were 4]) and then u maybe show some of ur favorite feathers of theirs to your close group of friends and then let them pass on with the wind and u keep them as a sweet memory ❤
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btw, the violinist in tmp 4? he's probably james smithson, of "founder of the smithsonian institute" fame
so what do we know about our violinist? he grew up in alnwick abbey, he was illegitimate and had legitimate full siblings, a father "certain of his celestial significance", and he has a nephew to whom he leaves his violin
and smithson? well, his father restored alnwick abbey in the 1750s, which was in ruins up until then. smithson was the only illegitimate child of any of the dukes there in the 1700s, which is when the statement is set
smithson also left his estate to his nephew after his death, with the condition that his fortune would establish the smithsonian institute if his nephew died without any children.
here's a point of divergence, however. in our timeline, smithson was a chemist and mineralogist. in tmagp's timeline, he was a violinist. however, as u/New_Helicopter836 pointed out to me on reddit, when smithson's body was disinterred by andrew graham bell, his right little finger was such that it suggests he played "the harpsichord, the piano, or a stringed instrument such as a violin"
looking at smithson's life, he left for university in 1782, so it's likely that tmagp 4 is set around the same time. it might be a bit earlier since the royal court orchestra moved from mannheim to munich in 1778 (putting smithson at about 13), it might be another point of divergence, or smithson is describing it this way to call back to its earlier significance. i'm not sure, but it's weird either way.
all that said, i'm not terribly sure why smithson describes his father (sir hugh smithson/percy, duke of northumberland) as "certain of his celestial significance", especially when the only other time he says celestial is to describe the violin's music. the user i mentioned before found that sir hugh, a major patron of architectural projects, had an observatory built, but i find smithson's language too specific. is his father an avatar too? mannheim is only a bit north of schwartzwald, after all, and this is about thirty years before tmag 23 where albrecht writes to jonah magnus.
let's look a little at smithson's bequest to found the smithsonian institute in the first place. smithson asked for it to be "an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men". the magnus institute, notably, is described in the arg as a place of education, and it was founded in 1818. although smithson died in 1829 and his nephew in 1835, the original smithsonian (the columbian institute) was granted a charter by the us government in 1818.
the letter is strangely absent of any names for the violinist or his family, and i can't help but wonder if this is why. and if it is because this is smithson - is this related to why the magnus institute exists instead of the magnus archives? the smithsonian, before it was renamed, was originally granted a charter by the us govt in 1818 - the same year that the magnus institute was founded in tmagp.
this is set 30 years before we know anything of jonah magnus, at least in tmag, so is it possible that he persuaded smithson to fund his educational institute focusing on the supernatural? the changed course of smithson's life from scientist to supernatural violinist would certainly be conducive for that, not least to mention the strange absence of his fortune from his letter to his nephew.
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Cal may have started off shy, but Obi-wan was pretty sure that was purely based on walking in to find his thesis advisor face down on his desk.
short panel strip for @shortcuts-make-long-delays's cwrb fic 'sourdough: flour, water, and starting over' which, as well as being a hilariously clever and super adorable codywan piece, has this mentorship scene between Cal & Obi-Wan that made me positively melt.
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and now a silly one. someone's probably done this before
[ID: A redraw of the "oh Ariana we're really in it now" meme with Demyx. The colors are flat and the background is in light blues. Demyx's shown from the hip up, leading slightly forward into utada hikaru's sanctuary cover shown as a poster. on the bottom reads "oh, Utada, we're really in it now." /End ID.]
(extra under the cut)
[ID: same image as above except that instead of Utada Hikaru, it's Hatsune Miku. /End ID.]
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