#the narrative? perhaps doomed

[crimsonicarus]

Laurie how do u feel about the Max to Mercedes rumors, oh great Gax overlord 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Ngl, every headline I've seen feels like a fever dream. I would love to have these two as a line up, both for their potential as drivers and cause it would be fucking hilarious (the content we could get it's my Roman empire) but I honestly don't think of it as a possible out come, I would also rather have Jos Verstappen as far from the Merc garage as possible.

And even as a gax enjoyer, in this particular scenario I still prefer that Merc seat going to Alex (I'm rooting for him so hard, also if that Williams seat is free, maybe Fred can get there)

The idea is very entertaining, when I heard of it first I fell to my knees, but that's all it is for me, an idea.

[imminent-danger-came]

While I do like the Eldritch MK theory, someone suggested that instead of being the reincarnation of a past enemy, MK is instead a sacrificial lamb for an enemy to come back (with him being referred to as harbinger).

Which raises a whole other question of who he is meant to be a sacrifice for.

Baby MK overall gives off the kind of vibes where he was created to be destroyed, doesn't he? I mean, why else create a "simple creature, with no past, no family, and no name". If something was just born (from a stone or not) of course it doesn't have any of those things—why specify it? You would only specify a detail like that if it was significant to why MK was created in the first place.

Which, this thought is not exclusive to Eldritch Abomination MK or to Harbinger MK, overall that feels like the implication. MK was made to be sacrificed in one way or another, whether that's to stop a past enemy, a returning one, or some other thing.

So, with MK being a sacrifice to chaos, I'm wondering why he would be given so much power. *throws dart at my idea board* Maybe he was made as some sort of ticking time bomb, created to destroy himself plus whatever threat he was meant to be a sacrifice for. *throws another dart* Or, perhaps he was created to be able to go toe to toe with whatever ends up being the embodiment of chaos!

Just to throw another dart at the wall: maybe MK was made as a counter measure to chaos itself! "There's a reason you were at the center of all these stories", that reason being to maintain balance and prevent the end of the world (of which he's done like, 4 times over now). "You don't use a weapon...you ARE a weapon!" aka MK is the ultimate weapon against literally any big bad.

Of course I'm partial to my own theory, but this is definitely a neat idea!

[definitely-a-human-being]

Conflicted because on hand I really like the trope of "fate is a lie, our choices are what creates the world" but on the other "It was always inevitable, that's just how it was written" is such a wonderfully angsty trope I can't help but love it. What am I supposed to choose.

[rahleeyah]

They have an opportunity to shoot Liv for real but you know they will not take it and her indestructible plot armor at this point lends credence to the idea that she is cursed

[whalesfall]

wish interactive fiction would become the hip new popular medium rather than being a fairly niche nerd thing, because the kinds of faux-academic mini essays from the most insufferable people in the world about the different implications of the narrative and such and such and restriction / illusion of choice within your own story that you are told you create would slap, I think

[pochapal]

getting a bad grade in gender identity because i value self expression infinitely less than i value human connections

[woozapooza]

While I'm on the subject of me not understanding claims about the interplay between art and audience that other people seem to find self-evident: there are a lot of posts about metatextual storytelling on here that everyone seems to find extraordinarily profound and moving but that mean very little to me, and I can only conclude that other people are capable of collapsing the distinction between fiction and reality in a way that I simply cannot. I want to make a longer post about this later because it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately, but for now, here's a very straightforward example from an addition to a post about hypothetically breaking the fourth wall in the final scene of Hamlet:

I'm not criticizing or mocking this comment (far from it), I just can't wrap my head around it. Of course there's a difference between me and the Danish courtiers! They showed up to watch some actual people fight each other. I showed up to watch a scripted, rehearsed play. In the courtiers' reality, Hamlet is an actual guy who died. In my reality, "Hamlet" is an actor who in a minute is going to stand up to take a bow, then maybe receive some flowers if he has friends or family attending the show, then go home and rest up for tomorrow's performance. Obviously the author of that comment knows this, obviously the people reblogging the post know this, but they all seem to find something meaningful in the equivalence between the in-universe audience and the real-world audience nonetheless, and I'm trying so hard to understand what that is, but I literally can't. Can anyone explain it to me? Am I simply missing the part of my brain that's supposed to handle this stuff? It's fine if that's the case, I'm perfectly capable of appreciating art in my own way, I'd just like to know.

[tenderseams]

and [ dying breath ], naturally

There is a chill in the air. It nips at her skin and burns in her lungs. Far above, the sky drifts dark and drowsy. She stands still as the moon retreats behind a thick curtain of clouds. It returns after a moment of deliberation, peers down at her in dread and anticipation. The trees rustle. A car rumbles in the distance. She looks down at the pool of silver at her feet and hides her hands in the pockets of her coat.

Knows he’s there before he steps out of the shadows.

Silence settles between them. His smile is as kind as light glancing off a blade. It’s more of a snarl, she thinks – lips pulled back, teeth bared: an animal that can’t decide whether it’s predator or prey. The thought comes to her from a great distance. Out of sight, her fingers curl, twitch.

"This is a surprise." A note of something old and festering breaks through her studious calm. Exhaustion deepens the shadows beneath her eyes, but she knows better than to turn her back on him and that feverish brightness in his eyes. Despite everything – and the memories, ah, they twinge like splinter-riddled fingertips – her heart does not deviate from its steady, solemn thrum.

She looks at him, and for a moment her eyes focus and she sees a boy, a man, and a corpse, and it’s a cut so precise, so quick and to the bone, and –

He laughs. It’s a loud, ringing sound that spills out of him in the same way a head wound refuses to stop bleeding.

Idiots. The both of you.

"Why are you here?"

It's not the right thing to say. It doesn't matter, not anymore. Something tells her she won’t see him again. She’s almost relieved.

[fellhellion]

Literally gnawing on that one bit of emotional honesty from Miguel where he hears Gwen helplessly say she has no idea how to fix this - and that’s what shakes him - giving that wry reply about her joining the club

[davidjenkins]

jacob elordi just has the prettiness of someone who’s gonna die young in a fatal accident

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

Wait Lu I feel like I should tell you the story of Jimmy my best friend Jimmy in the silly little Superman cartoon I watched cause see he’s Clark’s best friend right and he and Clark and Lois are a Team right but then Clark and Lois start getting swept up in the Falling in Love thing and other stuff and Jimmy keeps getting left behind and a senior reporter basically tells him yeah see you aren’t essential to them they’re moving on they don’t need you and then they forget the camping trip he was excited about and I just about burst into tears over that all cause. Bruh. BUT THEN this limited run cartoon STOPS and take a WHOLE EPISODE right after that to go ACTUALLY Lois and Clark missed it cause drama and they aren’t hanging out together anymore and the ONLY thing that’s gonna be glue for their relationship the common factor rn is they both love Jimmy and not only do they need him they’re not themselves without him even if they didn’t see that AND guess what he’s gonna get validation about his alien theories everyone’s been laughing at too he’s gonna get kidnapped and adopted by really cool aliens so THERE and idk you may have already seen me going insane about this earlier but !!!!!!!!!!! You get it!!!!!!!! They forgot but the truth was he had an essential necessary place there and the narrative was so right and good for not letting us the audience or the characters overlook it! That was a long story but I felt you should know!!!!

oh. oh. I'm Jimmy. I'm the Jimmy. and you all are the very cool aliens?? maybe I'm actually necessary?? 🥺

[bronzebtch]

❝ i remember first arriving here years ago — ❞ against the rocky side of king's landing, the sea beats violently. rhea has the vale's blood in her, and thus, she has never quite been a good reader of the shore : never could she anticipate whether one should expect a storm coming, or it was simply the water misbehaving simply by gazing your eyes towards the never-ending sea. no. her stares are more accustomed to the shadow-quick pattern of a game in the forest as she hunts, the flock of birds filling the sky at the sight of danger.

that, she knows like the back of her hand. the sea ... ? the sea was as treacherous and unknown to her as the back of a dragon, regardless of the union that was oh-so-promising. where is her husband ? she does not know. she did not come here for him. only for the queen who has passed, and the princess' investiture as viserys' named heir. to swear fealty to her, as decreed by her lord father, the king.

❝ — i feel as estranged then as i do now, i shall admit. ❞

@doloridis / unhinged mini para starter call

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also to go "wow this is just like in pentiment" about absolutely anything and/or "wow this is just like iphigenia crash land falls on the neon shell that was once her heart (a rave fable)" about absolutely anything further:

the Narratives within crash land falls where like, in the end iphigenia being Given the story of both "this is going to happen anyways" and "so why don't you see it as a noble sacrifice to accept." the situation happening to Create a story that she was killed, so her father must be tragic, and sympathetic. that iphigenia does take on that Narrative of taking on the Noble Willing Sacrifice, and it kills her, but she also would have been killed anyways, as everyone also knows. that we even get a bit of pentimentesque [other characters observe & assess things] like, the fresa girls as a chorus, and one at the end like yeah She Was No Saint, i saw everything, but being cut off by The News that's like yeah looks like iphigenia was killed, that seguing into her father saying yeah she was killed, god's will was done, She's A Saint now. seguing to the emcee who introduced the play, but that superceded by achilles, and that superceded with iphigenia's extasis monologue as the end of the play. that whether iphigenia's a saint or not, she dies. that [the whole play] tells us as much, like, this isn't a What If kind of retelling where she escapes her fate, this is a retelling examining itself like, she Will die because the story's preset, so what to do with this as the story that has to take her there, what to do with this as iphigenia who has to go there

that iphigenia takes on another narrative in addition to the one offered by like, violeta as guide and oracle telling her she has to die (As A Noble Sacrifice), that again (as per iphigenia in aulis being like uh hey daughter. let's go to aulis so you can uh marry achilles (it is to be sacrificed)) achilles is this bait, but it's only in the ending that there's any Story about being with achilles, and when iphigenia goes to the mercenary soldier who she knows will kill her, she's the one telling him what to tell her about where she's going and why, i want you to tell me achilles is waiting for me....and she still dies, because This Is The Story. as also applied to the reality, iphigenia as another dead and missing girl following & preceding many; any disappeared deaths when consumed as disposable & replaceable, not given part of any narrative about it. while also iphigenia only gets a chorus of fresa girls from there being crosses put on the factory wall with their names, with one girl even remarking like hey they spelled my name right for once. but at the same time they're also like, both mere Apparitions but also like standins for people who are simply alive. real [shades]esque kind of, i suppose, but like they're not Sanctified for dying either, they'll comment on iphigenia but not with any like, divine knowledge, just as this out of place rich girl. whether iphigenia's A Saint or Not A Saint, she's still dead either way. she wants to be a fresa girl, they maybe want to be her, but everyone's doomed anyways thanks to way larger forces and the Stories that have been told and will be told again

but there's also the moment right before the final section wherein, before she's having to say what she wants within the bounds of [she has to die], there's achilles asking "you still want me" and iphigenia answering with "i want everything" and her vision for, like, getting to be alive actually, i'm on the gulf where the sea is gray, and no one wants a piece of me....the whole inciting event here where iphigenia wants to evade her fate however she can, exiting the bounds of her life, the physical bounds and the family unit and walking away from the rank of status / class / wealth, trying for [have her body for herself] and what the body wants, the sensuous indulgences of (a rave fable), let's hear some more about the roman state like "we don't like the examination and challenge and upending of class and convention in a bacchanalia, so only do the official versions we permit;" the Threat of people's desires for themselves, when that's going to be counter to those in power who'd want these people to be resources at their disposal; the burden on the disempowered to suffer [the only way out is through] with the Additional pain & loss that has to be taken on in pursuit of their autonomy, while also of course suffering for the autonomy they lack, that restricted and controlled and mitigated versions of what you might want are deigned to be provided or permitted so that you have Something, but that everyone's actual undeniable personhood will always be spilling past those bounds, the potential power of transgressive pleasure when one's wellbeing and autonomous choices are counter to the power structures that have to constantly try to suppress and preclude this. achilles just as bait, doomed to die like iphigenia is also still doomed, sex was never going to save everyone and the [recognizing connection as these two parallel people / We're The Same] with your lover here is not going to save everyone but it still makes more things possible for them both; iphigenia does know what she wants, and gets some of it because she wants it, same with achilles in turn, while it can't save anyone from their fates still. but it can mean something even if it doesn't transcend, like even a fleeting night of insignificant dancing that doesn't change anything can mean something, and we all die, but that doesn't mean it's Nothing to be killed any more than it's Nothing to have your desires or choices one way or another to be wrung out of your life before you are

anyways, the stories. the Looking and Presenting here. achilles and iphigenia first encountering each other as images put together and presented by someone else for their own purposes. the presence of what's seen through film/camera/recording versus in person; the potential power relations and even violence in framing, presenting, and the intended looking and assessing. repeated language about eyes/looks that burn, while also that connection between iphigenia and achilles, and their finding the least room in what they do have of their lives for more of their own wants and selves and something genuine and not predetermined, is also connected to eyes and looking and being seen and light and burning. while they're also connected to the protection and possibility of night and darkness, getting to exist and be Without being lit up or seen; that with the power that's still in play, it's never like, well then you should have nothing / no reason to hide; the penultimate moment in the play with achilles being one that's in person and fades into darkness, rather than coming in from the light of a projection / video onscreen as the introduction....iphigenia needing to be guided through a crossroads to even get to achilles in person; violeta giving the Advice and Story and Tradition to pray to eleggua, as iphigenia does before getting to encounter achilles for real, who also doesn't get to break out of a role or a fate in full in any way, but their tragedies are like, pointing towards [autonomy, imagine it] in both the ways they manage to find a little bit of it for themselves, in no small part for simply recognizing each other as in the same boat here, and in the ways they still don't have it and still can't get it

and anyways it's also inevitably saying like, telling a story?? this Play is a told story!! looking? assessing? interpreting? you're doing that in the course of experiencing it! and it's really so fucking true.

[buildaballroom]

NIGHT VALE RENAISSANCE? COUNT ME IN BESTIES

[zhabk4]

just finished watching marineford one piece . hello everyone

[jacksintention]

I can't with the previous post. It's just so good applied to Levi, Lacie, Oswald and even Jack.

Levi has his hands tied by the Baskerville system that is a sort of scam by the Jurors‚ like every Glen. But he says "let's just create a change" and gives a will to the Core. And he does so with the full intention of changing the narrative, if just to avoid the boredom of spending eternity watching the same thing happen over and over again from a sit in someone else's mind.

Lacie goes along with it because of her desire to ease the Core's loneliness, but in her idea of the children of misfortune being a consequence of this loneliness and her feelings of doubt or reservations, perhaps, revealed even before the tree scene in the scene in which she talks about this with Oswald, we could interpret this as her desire to end the existence of the children of misfortune and thus the cycle.

Jack plays into this in his attempt to take the "real" world to the "Abyss" world, but when he most consciously twists the narrative the Jurors had settled was when he intently made the decision to take the power from the Baskervilles. And I do think it has to do with ending the very system that doomed Lacie and Oswald and he deemed cruel and like torture, but mainly it is so that no one would interfere with him in the future.

Oswald tries to destroy the new narrative Jack has or is creating first by trying to stop him, but later on by trying to stop Levi's schemes before everything happened, resettling the narrative he was controlled and doomed by, serving still as their tool. And then he literally faces the truth, in the most explicitly way no one ever has been told this in that "real" world before, and threatens to kill the instigators of that narrative. And then just renounces, in a lack of action that is him at his most active ("not with a bang but a whimper", how fitting is that?!!!).

Ultimately there is a middle ground but the narrative is changed for good. For better or worse. With uncertain future consequences. But it is changed, and it feels kinder. And as a thank you the source of every narrative, the ink and paper of the narrative, lulls someone who shouldn't have existed but changed the world to sleep by telling him a different story. Because that's it. They're stories, and Oz deserved to go with a kinder one, because the ink and paper of the narrative loves him. And it's so interesting how that works metanarratively too. The author tells the story, but the author tells the reader a story about the stroy telling a softer version of the story, so that the reader too will get it alongside Oz. That works on several levels and it's so so interesting.