#well it does parallel it?? like literal opposites??

[lzrusrising]

how is deancas not canon when it perfectly parallels samruby in s4

[videogamelover99]

OKAY BUT LISTEN. LISTEN. I WANNA BREAK DOWN SOME OF THE PANELS FROM THIS SCENE CAUSE UH. This is like a powerpoint of the audience realizing the Sheep are not Chuuya's friends.

First off, baby? Baby. Also Chuuya's body language in the art is so, like, embarassed/self-conscious teen, except instead of the problem being hanging out with the wrong people in high school its...Mafia-level stakes. Anyway, Chuuya curling up while hiding from his "friends" immediately gives you a sense he is not the one in control.

Dazai-like expression who? Chuuya is putting on a mask so eerily similar...it gives us some great parallels.

Chuuya unnecessarily apologizing to Shirase? Yeah. Straight from the book.

Insane over Shirase's solid B+ gaslighting. I don't remember if these lines are from the book, but Shirase implying Chuuya's the one "acting like a tyrant" when he literally didn't do anything?? Except ask politely for favors? Throughout the whole conversation he's been the polar opposite. But hey, maybe Shirase's just projecting.

Haha, "somehow".

Nothing to add here except Shirase's body language in this is SO much better than the anime. In the anime he just acted mad and kinda hot-headed. Here he's smiling, acting friendly, giving off those "ofc I'm on your side Chuuya but you make it so hard for these made-up reasons" vibes. Shirase is opportunistic, manipulative, he believes he has control over Chuuya, and therefore his ability.

Of course, Dazai can tell immediately what Shirase is doing. That Shirase has more power over Chuuya than Chuuya does over any of the Sheep (which is once again reinforced by the body language. Shirase's arm over Chuuya's shoulders, swamping him. Being physically taller than Chuuya. Chuuya just kind of standing there, passively.

Also despite what Shirase seems to believe, he and the other Sheep are not one bit smarter than Chuuya. They're eagerly celebrating their victory when Chuuya can clearly tell this is some sort of plan on Dazai's part.

Dazai destroying any leverage they had over Chuuya and yet knowing there's some reason Chuuya is doing this anyway. Offering him a choice.

As I've said before (and it's more obvious than ever in the manga) Shirase's using it to gain Mafia territory by getting some of their members captured. I've stated this before, and we do get a confirmation:

The "self defense rule" is something Chuuya explicitly created. To not strike unless provoked. I have a lot of thoughts on this and why but that's not for this post.

And we have!! Dazai getting pissed off on Chuuya's behalf!! He's scary.

(Spoiler alert: they are not his friends.)

Ahhhh

Ahhhhhhhh

Guys I love this chapter. Because on one hand, Shirase, like the rest of the Sheep, have very legitimate fears. They're literally a bunch of kids that used to be preyed on by other organizations, and if Chuuya is not guaranteed to protect them, then...well...they're in horrible danger, really.

The problem is that Chuuya is ready to protect them. But they don't trust him, and it seems they never have. The whole thing is built on Shirase (and probably the others) holding some kind of emotional and social power over Chuuya, therefore guaranteeing their safety. But when that's not longer the case, well, they don't trust Chuuya to protect them. I'm curious how the manga is going to adapt Dazai's whole "meat" story later on because the issue isn't a selfish conflict of interest. The issue is trust, and the lack of it between Chuuya and the rest of the Sheep.

It's like the Sheep built their gang on high school clique rules, and didn't realize Chuuya's not just operating out of a sense of obligation and need to belong, but genuine care. Anyway, that's all I have to say. The art is beautiful.

[ghouly-boiiiii]

Does Max give anyone else major twist villain vibes???

Okay I haven't talked about Max much yet, but I think it's kinda wild to see people talking about him like he's just this sweet innocent cinnamon roll when my read on his character was the COMPLETE opposite.

I mean yes, he does seem very sweet. He's very soft spoken. Naive in a way like Lucy, but not as much. Kinda vulnerable. Got a killer smile. And some of the moments with him and Lucy are super cute and adorable. But damn if he doesn't have a DARK side!

Like I've heard people say that Max is stupid or that Aaron Moten's acting is bad, but hell no. Aaron Moten sold me on his acting during the interrogation scene. Max was scared shitless and I FELT that. I think Max was meant to be played as a character who lacks understanding about certain things and seems disconnected from people due to both being brought up in basically a cult and having an inherent lack of empathy.

You think about the fact that he admitted he wanted Dane to get hurt, someone who's supposed to be his best friend. How he coldly sat there and watched Titus die. And before that stood there and watched him get mauled by a bear, almost like he was fascinated by it and wanted to see what was gonna happen. The fact that he tried to kill Thaddeus the moment he became a threat, even though the two of them had appeared to have bonded and developed a genuine friendship. And let's not forget he was willing to let all of Vault 4 get plunged into darkness just so he could keep playing with his power armor.

Max wants to be a knight, he wants to be a hero. And I think he tells himself he wants it for the right reasons, but I think what he REALLY wants is power and recognition. Which is really what every (okay maybe not every, but a lot) good villain wants, right? Because at the end of the day Max wants what Max wants. He's selfish, even though he doesn't think he is.

And sure, he's nice to Lucy. And he went balls to the wall to save her when he thought Vault 4 was gonna execute her. But she's a pretty girl who helped him and offered him a safe home. When she gave him the proposition that if she helped him bring back the head, he would have the Brotherhood lend her some knights to save her dad, he KNEW he couldn't make that promise. But he made the deal anyway. So he doesn't REALLY care about her or what she wants.

And that blank stare he gets when he gets mad? ACTUALLY terrifying. The guy's got serious psychopath vibes. Literal anti-social personality disorder, if you ask me. In fact the first thing I thought about when Max let Titus die is this kids going to end up going to the dark side lol.

And I think that would work really well thematically if they plan on giving The Ghoul a redemption arc beside it. There are so many parallels between Lucy and The Ghoul, and they have such a strong connection to the beginning when the bombs dropped. I get that Max is there to represent the Brotherhood and he's from Shady Sands, the town Hank destroyed, but it felt weird that he didn't seem to be AS important in the grand scheme of things compared to Cooper and Lucy.

But if Max turned out to be a badass twist villain to thematically contrast Cooper's redemption arc, while Lucy remains steadfast to her commitment to goodness and the golden rule I feel like that would really round it out. It would make sense if you consider a lot of people have pointed out that Lucy, Cooper and Max all seem to represent different play styles and different moral alignments. And I think it'd be pretty crazy if the writers of the show set out to make it seem like Ghoul is a bad guy and Max is a good guy, but then it ended up being the opposite.

I mean, there are definitely hints all over the show that The Ghoul isn't as bad as he may seem. And Max has already done some pretty messed up stuff, so I'd say the possibility is totally there, and I'd be here for it!

Who's with me???

[vidavalor]

The kiss, the Book of Life and the fly...

I've not seen anyone talk about this in this way so here's a fun theory of sorts for you... one that might make the kiss hurt less, even?!?!

More under the big cutty thing...

So the threat of erasure from The Book of Life looms large, right? The Metatron's plan honestly looks like he was delaying Michael's Book of Life erasure plan for Aziraphale until he could lure Aziraphale away from Crowley and up to Heaven, which makes sense because Crowley is powerful and can raise the dead and all that, yes? Ok, so, because Aziraphale is in some major, major trouble here... let's presume this happens. Let's presume that all the foreshadowing of Aziraphale winding up getting some of Gabriel's plot from their paralleling happens and Aziraphale is stripped of memories and erased from existence. Slight problem here being...

...Good Omens largely cannot exist without Aziraphale and obviously Aziraphale is going to have to come back, correct? So how does he? Well, how did Gabriel? If you say "the fly", you are obviously correct but look a little deeper at what the fly actually *is*... it's literally *Beezelbub*.

It's not some random fly-- it's part of Beez's body/essence/whatever you want to call what demons have. Beez literally gives Gabriel their body and Gabriel chooses to hide his whole self there-- chooses the fly to keep himself safe and to stay with/get to be with Beez on some level, no matter what happened to him. Gabriel got to make conscious choices about all of this because he had a plan and got to try to enact one out. Aziraphale does not.

Aziraphale has been fooled into going to Heaven believing that The Metatron wants him to get to work as the new archangel but, in reality, the plan is to restart armageddon and end all life on earth. It's time for war and Aziraphale is probably inevitably going to get Book of Life'd at some point. They keep foreshadowing it and they also have parallels to it with Crowley unable to remember much pre-Fall, Aziraphale's discorporation and the Madame Tracy plot in S1, and other moments. So if Aziraphale gets erased from existence from being taken out of The Book of Life, he somehow has to *still in exist in some way*, theoretically, to be brought back... which would seem to not make sense as he was just erased, yes?

It cannot be as simple as Crowley snapping Mr. Brown of Brown's World of Carpets back into existence. Mr. Brown was a human who existed and was killed. Crowley brought him back to life. But an angel erased from The Book of Life is then a being who never existed, right? It's not resurrection; it'd be creation, which might be the one thing Crowley cannot do because you could argue only God could. So *some part of Aziraphale must still exist* for Crowley to use to bring him back, right? There has to be an Ineffable Husbands version of Beez's fly... and there is. We've already seen it.

Just like how the fly was Beez, Aziraphale remains alive within Crowley... but how? When?

Crowley's never offered that to Aziraphale, has he?

Oh, hasn't he just, though?

For the record, I'm not saying that Crowley is suddenly going to have a Madame Tracy plot where he's like possessed by Aziraphale lol. I *am* saying that Madame Tracy as a vessel for Aziraphale's essence, Beez's fly, and the S1 Crowley and Aziraphale body swap... all of these things together foreshadow how Aziraphale survives erasure from existence. Plus, this hilarious bit below from S1 that'll seem even funnier in retrospect...

...as here is Aziraphale in S1, in a state of semi-non-existence, in search of a body to live in long enough to try to stop the end of the world and he says to Crowley...

An angel and a demon... probably explode. Except... it's the opposite... and S2 illustrates that. In S2, they perform a miracle together and they do have immense power but it doesn't cause destruction. It protects Gabriel. At the end of the season, they kiss-- a paralleling of sorts to the shared miracle but also to other aspects of shared form. It's not possession, like Aziraphale and Madame Tracy (and like Adam's eventual separation of them/reviving of Aziraphale) and it's not the body swap at the end of S1 and it's not even quite as much yet of a sexual metaphor as 'you can find all of Gabriel's essence-- hook, line and sinker-- in a literal part of Beezelbub'... but all of those things foreshadow and suggest that Aziraphale might actually survive his trip up to Heaven because of the kiss that's literally breaking us all in pieces right now.

Because of Crowley loving him, really.

I'm not saying that Crowley intentionally set out to do this but even unintentionally, he could have opened a kind of container for Aziraphale equivalent to Beez's fly, which would then mean that Aziraphale is alive in S3... in the memories and essence of the being he loves and who loves him. Aziraphale cannot be fully erased by Heaven permanently because he's quite literally *a part of* Crowley now.

It was just (again) like Agnes said-- they were playing with fire and would need to choose their faces wisely.

[general-cyno]

Something that fascinates me about Zolu is how the relationship is full of opposites (pirate and pirate hunter, god and demon, two kings in their own right) and at the same time is clearly about complements (sun and moon, captain and first mate, king and knight, devotion and faith). I really feel that Zoro walks a fine line in which he can be an equal for Luffy (starting from their similarities in things as simple as their lack of orientation, the indomitable will that the two have that separates them from the rest) while still being his second, his right hand, one of his wings and, in my opinion, the cornerstone of his crew. It's a relationship that could be of rivals or equals or enemies or lovers or best friends or...

I don't have much to add bc you laid it out perfectly but YESSS! their relationship is just so good from all the different angles you can view it from, and the multiple layers it has despite how simple or effortless they make it seem when interacting with one another. I'd also say though it's perhaps a little contradictory? that zoro and luffy understanding and complementing each other as much as they do (despite some of the thematic opposites they have as well) is exactly what allows zoro to stand as his second and find purpose in following/tying his own dream and goals to luffy's instead of just striking out of his own, just like it allows luffy to trust and rely on him the crazy way he does in turn.

tbh when it comes to these two I don't really think them being equals or not has to do with strength. ultimately, luffy will always be as strong as the plot needs him to be and stronger than his crewmates and fellow captains in the kind of raw fighting power he excels at against the enemies he faces. any other weaknesses or shortcomings he may have or whatever battles he can't fight bc he's focusing on the local biggest bad - that's what the straw hats and the allies he's made along the way are for.

BUT. for example, the one person who's absorbed luffy's pain and exhaustion in the most literal and physical way possible, all while protecting the entire crew but especially luffy himself as well, is zoro. and the most recent chapters have only highlighted how special this is, from kuma's pov, even though it's been years (within the story and irl) since it happened.

roger and rayleigh are also a good point of comparison imo. ray's basically known as a legend second only to roger himself and he was still very much his partner, no matter if roger was technically stronger. now, for crew dynamics reasons I don't think zoro and luffy will directly call each other the same but there's very obvious parallels between these four so there's that too.

[pralinesims]

is it bad that I wanna put luca and vale on the spot (microphone) 😁 I wanna know 50, 37 and 12 & 13 💗

THANK YOU FOR SENDING MWAH <333 They have to put up with it for once lmao, as they do deserve some spotlight 🎤

50. Is there anything that scares them about their friendship/relationship?

For Vale esp a lot tbh, but the biggest factor probably is that he has trust issues enough for more than 10 lifetimes, which is not ideal while considering the fact that Luca's friend circle is pretty large. So his mind runs through fears of getting replaced or forgotten quite regularly, which is a feeling he still can't shake off, even years into their friendship.

Luca, though while being a much more trusting person in general, sometimes wonders if Vale would cut him off out of the blue, which is a very valid thought because this event literally already has happened once. Just that his main fear is that next time their friendship wouldn't be salvagable.

37. How did they become friends?

Both met each other a short while after Luca had to transfer schools, due to his dad switching work places and the resulting move. They didn't go to the same class, but parallel classes instead, so they didn't meet immediately. The actual first meet happened when both sneaked off for a smoke during lunch break.

Of course Luca was the first one to initiate conversation, as he possesses this introvert radar (iykyk) that literally almost every extrovert has lmao. Anyways, shortly summarized, they felt a connection rather fast, mainly because both of them were rebellious outcasts, had pretty similar interests + most of their opposite qualities complimented each other well. The more they started hanging out and spending time with each other, their bond got deeper and deeper.

Also, in Vale's case it much helped him that despite Luca being such a social butterfly, he is in a not so obnoxious way, which is one of the reasons that kinda intrigued Vale, as he usually does not feel the need to get closer to people that have a very social nature.

12. What would they say each other’s worst quality is?

Vale would most likely consider Luca's impulsivity to be his worst quality. While on one hand, he mostly appreciates this very fact about him a lot, it also has led to some negative consequences which he would've wished for Luca to not happen or having to go through.

For Luca, the fact that Vale relies too much on lying through many aspects of his life. While his ability to lie without effort often helped them out during dire situations, he dislikes that he also carries this on during other things just to shield himself off, for example his emotional issues, private problems in life, et cetera...

13. What would they say each other’s best quality is?

There's lots of qualities that Vale considers to be good about Luca, but his resilience is something he admires extremely. No matter how many rocks life has thrown against Luca, he always keeps on going on and finds ways to continue, even if he'd rather would not want to and giving up was easier. Hell, he's even the one that apologizes first for arguments, even if Vale was the one who initially fucked up.

Luca above all very much cherishes about Vale that he is a ride-or-die companion, no matter what ever happened, like that he has never spread his entrusted secrets, ratted him out for personal gains if he could've, him being there for Luca when he needed to be bailed out, and many more situations which require intrinsic and unexplained trust.

[raayllum]

So. This scene. A few things:

Love the way it's almost a parallel to Viren and Callum's dark magic dreams in terms of the spotlight effect and of course potential light/dark symbolism. And of course that score tugs right on the heartstrings

Rayla is a character who places a lot of emphasis on memory in her dialogue and action, partially because memory is the biggest source and antithesis of grief, something she's experienced a lot of in various ways (and often as the sole carrier of her family's grief). Her blades are all she has to remember Runaan and Ethari by (no pictures or other people who knew them as she did, unlike Callum, Ezran, and Soren with their loved ones) as she says in 4x08; she had to remember her parents throughout most of her childhood and now her other set of parents as well, as she spent 2+ years believing she'd never see any of them again; her vow to always remember and carry Callum with her in Dear Callum; and last but not least her "Just remember me, okay?" to him in 3x08 as a parting request, particularly reinforced since the Silvergrove literally erased her. Rayla is a character who greatly struggles to actually put down anything she carries with her, emotionally. So it's heartbreaking but unsurprising that memory is a focus here as well.

And then we get to the crux of it, which is just like all three of the parents that stand before her, Rayla has always put the world above her own needs and her own family, just as they put their missions and duty ultimately above her. It also nicely sets up the contrast between her and Callum in 5x04 as his response is the opposite to hers, as well as showing that Callum and Ezran are also her Family (and have been for quite some time). And I do also think that the memory of Rayla's parents here is what's helping guide her to her own conclusion to not spend any more time on the coins (and she does a very good job at masking her pain/grief about this season, much better than she had in previous seasons) because she knows, or believes, this is what they would do in her scenario. To prioritize the good of the world over their loved ones at the cost of great personal suffering. Speaking of costs...

The "at any cost" is a great motif callback to Rayla's repeated insistence on price paying ("But I'm ready to pay that price" in 1x06 / "But if I'll die, I'll just be paying the price they should've paid a long time ago" in 3x08) as well as her statement in 3x09:

Callum: We have one objective today: protect the Dragon Prince. Rayla: At any cost.

The fact it's about her literally coined parents is just a bonus, as well as the potential set up later of Rayla saying they have to stop Aaravos, at any cost, while holding an assassin's bow... (but that's for when the possession plotline comes back around I suppose).

Last but not least, the relative warmth of the vision sequence is taken away, as the apparition of her parents and their warm smiles fade, and Rayla is left alone holding the bow, but brokered by new resolve. And then immediately arrested seconds after she finishes crying. Poor girl can't catch a break

[allyriadayne]

yeah i'm gonna need a full breakdown of the deleted rhaenyra and jace scene

LET'S GO THEN

there are SO many things i want to say about it. it's literally been my white whale since it was announced as a cut scene. i was hopping one of the scenes op talked about with jace was that i'm sooo happy it was. my main reasons were that 1) it's a jace/rhaenyra scene and those are always juicy and 2) jacegon reasons. i'll be using text from the original post here btw.

under the cut for more jace, rhaenyra, jace AND rhaenyra and some jace and aegon <3

"Daemon fights like an unrelenting tempest with little regard for his well-being [...] Daemon hungers for war, and he'll have it one way or another"

I love that the scene begins with daemon fighting other knights and in a sort of frenzy. he's obviously expressing his grief over viserys and visenya both, and how angry he is about the situation. i think it's such a great contrast with how rhaenyra and jace are presented in comparison. jace finds rhaenyra in "deep contemplation" as she watches over daemon. it's such a great element in their dynamic because as much as rhaenyra doesn't want war, she's as angry and as grief-stricken as daemon, but cannot express herself in the same way for fear of losing her image in front of the other lords. daemon has always been her outspoken twin, he's her sword and shield and like a dragon he's expressing what she cannot. it really is so good how they represent one half of a whole. delicious.

then jace comes to her and says

"Daemon wants to fight for us."

SO interesting that earlier in the episode we have jace and daemon in explicit opposition. daemon wants to act, jace is heeding rhaenyra's orders of not doing anything except by her command. daemon obviously doesn't respect him because he's a man who respects actions and jace is still a boy without experience neither political or in a war. i'm in the camp that while jace also doesn't respect daemon nor wants or likes him as a stepfather/father figure, he accepts him as part of the family and implicitly feels safe in his presence. he is his siblings' father, the man who raised (loosely! daemon is still daemon <3) joffrey when harwin and laenor died. he's known him for six years and seen him every day.

this scene is also after daemon threatens the KG in front of jace with caraxes so i think a minimum of respect for daemon's war knowledge made jace trust the he would do anything for rhaenyra and her children. /he wants to fight for us/.

"I wonder. Will you?"

"will you?" SO delicious because while jace will heed her commands to stop daemon from plotting, he does NOT agree with her approach! very very interesting. makes sense when he says "send us" when all rhaenyra wants is to keep her children safe. obviously direct parallel to ep 2:

"I will always fight for my family... but this is not as simple as one of the other"

rhaenyra is understandably reticent to enter war full on. her first experience with it has her losing a baby. and added to this is that just /the day before/ she's spent and more or less amenable afternoon with both family. it's not easy when it's not what viserys would want and what could possibly be his last wish.

it's also about alicent of course. it's not easy to give the order to kill or imprison the woman you considered your best friend and who probably is one of the few people with whom rhaenyra had a deep relationship in her life.

"It could not be simpler. If you accept Aegon's terms, you will forfeit my life. And Luke's and Joff's."

another crash between them! as much as they are a lot alike, they butts head more often than not, esp when jace doesn't agree how rhaenyra is handling an issue like harwin's funeral and now the war. but in all this, he still supports and respects her because he very pointedly questions her in private, both in driftmark and in here. when he was younger, he could've confronted her in public out in the yard, but to me jace learned very early or assumed to himself that he could be (and is!) her mother's most steadfast ally as her heir and young prince and that meant playing the politics game, and in this case to question her in private rather than in public where he could undermine her.

it also comes from the very public humiliation the kids, and jace as the eldest and most cognizant of the situation, have faced by their peers. he knows the power of rumors and whispering, what it does first hand and would not and does not want rhaenyra to face them too, or at least not from something he could've avoided. in this scene he is acting like one of her loyal lords, advising her to take one way or the other. acting like the prince he is.

it is also very interesting that he mention's "aegon's terms" when it's very obvious the terms came from alicent, maybe he doesn't know the full extend of the conversation on the bridge. in any case, it's clear aegon's on his mind. in early 2023 all we knew of the scene was that jace said "we shouldn't trust the usurper". jace wants to know what is to be done about him because he knows how aegon is, how long aegon holds grudges and his negative attitude (indifferent more like) to renew their old bonds (ouch!). esp after last night's dinner where aegon couldn't wait to bother him and join aemond in the antagonism to jace's immense dislike.

he thinks that if aegon had the chance he would kill them because they represent a risk to him claim. i personally don't think aegon would, but it's a real risk that jace is aware and that rhaenyra doesn't seen to grasp.

"Rhaenyra looks at him quizzically." "If you do not claim the throne, we will be taken hostage, or sent to the wall, or put to the sword. I do not know which fate will await us, but I do know they will call us "bastards" first."

the first line kills me because out of context it makes rhaenyra look naive but i think it does make sense for the rhaenyra we see in the bridge. what i said earlier, she's still reeling from the alicent from the diner /the night before/. the alicent that proclaimed her a good queen and begged her to stay with her. it's difficult! but i think it shows very well how complicated her feelings are in this.

this is also the point were jace and rhaenyra start having two different conversations: rhaenyra is still absent, "deep in contemplation", while jace is pushing and pushing. he wants answers, he wants to act! he doesn't care about alicent the queen who always sneered at him and called for luke's eye, he wants to ask about the boy from his childhood (girl, the parallels) who betrayed him so many times. and he's right! i think he's trying to soften the blow, this is the second time he's said he and his velaryon brothers will forfeit their life if they lose, if rhaenyra fails to act. this talk is also driven by self preservation and it's why he's siding with daemon this time. it kills me that rhaenyra has comforted luke all ep 10 but because jace is presenting himself as an equal in this conversation, not as her son, he doesn't get any kind of comfort. he's clearly thinking of death. and he's sixteen. and his mother doesn't know how to comfort him.

in this case, it's jace wanting rhaenyra to see him beyond of what he presents. beyond the perfect prince who's pushed through earth-shattering revelations about his identity. he wants her to see him and answer for once.

"but I do know they will call us "bastards" first". this jace knows with certainty. they might kill him or they might sent him to the wall, but they will call him a bastard as they do it. this is one of jace's touchiest points and weaknesses. every time he's called that he's flipped, due to under processed anger issues (hii harwin) and the repression he's going through to Just Not Think About It. i think it took a lot from jace to say this to rhaenyra's face. the first time it's when he confronts rhaenyra after harwin leaves and you see it's something he has thought about for some time

and later when they are in driftmark where the passions are high

note that he doesn't yell the word. he whispers it to her. he knows the power of it and how angry rhaenyra would become, it's a key word there. and one here too. in the cut scene he's trying to get... let's say a rise out of rhaenyra. to make her understand what will mean for them to get captured. to me it's so visceral because i don't think jace had ever consciously said or thought himself in such after driftmark and after aegon's betrayal. and i don't think that is how he framed it for luke when he told him about their parentage either. even in the audition for child luke, jace's lines frame the issue differently: "I think he thinks we don't belong here [...] we don't look like Targaryens. You must have noticed".

"Alicent gave her word that you would be treated kindly."

they are NOT having the same conversation!

"The word of an usurper means little and less."

either aegon or alicent, jace doesn't trust their word. the king and queen are one power in paper, but i bet jace is thinking about this too

his words means little and less to jace, he who was a victim and at the same time someone who enabled most of aegon's bullying behaviors. he knows him best. but jace also knows that aegon wouldn't bother with lies either. he was trying to unite the family during dinner, but time has shown him he shouldn't have bothered to carve himself to be someone aegon liked anymore. from the same audition video jace says: "so let us be good sons and please those who love us so they may forget what we lack". aegon will never forget! and even if jace or aegon want to break from this, they must play their part because they are too far along.

"In the yard below, Daemon can be heard SHOUTING for a fallen knight to get up and to come at him again. He prowls the fighting ground like a tiger protecting his den. He calls them out, taunting them -- a cruel avenger."

once again daemon as the externalization of their anger! "like a tiger protecting his den"!

"Jace and Rhaenyra reach stalemate; the conversation ends in silence."

my favorite part! this conversation could've never reached anywhere with these too. the issue is too thorny and they are too alike to want to see the other completely. jace is too angry and rhaenyra is too detached.

all in all, i wish they had kept the scene. it furthers rhaenyra and jace's relationship and gives a little bit more of characterization to jace and his relationship with aegon. loved seeing jace oppose rhaenyra and at the same time support her and take the lead when it's needed.

thanks for asking!

gifs mine, screencaps mine. script from the link above.

[comradekatara]

I definately see your point in regards to the politics of The Promise and the Korra side of things at large. On another topic, though, how could Mako have been improved upon as a character because I always thought he was the least interesting character in all of the Avatar universe? Maybe instead of just making him a bookkeeper make him a full on former Triad member?

awww no i kind of love mako tbh. my bland little saltine cracker. i think we need to make room in our hearts for more dull autistic utterly swagless men whose idea of a good time is simply doing the daily crossword while eating plain cornflakes (no milk). but real talk mako’s character definitely had room for improvement. not because he’s boring, but because all the actually interesting aspects of his character were largely relegated to subtext, and he was instead given boring ass subplots like “stupid love triangle,” “being a cop,” “having to babysit an annoying twink,” etc. so it’s not that his backstory needs improvement, but rather that if those largely subtextual elements of his character were actually teased out and explored in meaningful ways, he would’ve been much more interesting to watch, because his purpose in the story would actually have some fucking thematic depth.

in a better show, mako’s backstory, arc, and general narrative presence would’ve served to illustrate how the neoliberal economy of republic city detrimentally affects the socioeconomically disadvantaged. in the ba sing se arc, bolin sees the lower ring and is like “eww gross POVERTY!!!! no wonder dad left.” like my guy you were living on the street as a child forced to exploit your labor for gutter scraps. why is poverty all of a sudden an issue to you (you can claim he’s just in deep denial and/or quite literally an idiot, but still. lmfao). in a superior show, mako and bolin’s presence would implicitly prompt the viewer to ask, why does the presence of a nuclear family structure necessitate security, and why does its absence collapse any sort of social safety net? why were mako and bolin forced to live on the streets once they were orphaned? how does living in abject poverty in one’s formative years psychologically affect their relationship to wealth, power, security, and success? (mako and bolin only tangentially cover some of these questions in their arcs, most notably in mako’s decision to date asami over korra, and in bolin’s obtuse quest for fame.) furthermore, what parallels versus juxtapositions can be drawn from asami’s own complex experiences navigating wealth, paternal abuse, and systems of control as they directly pertain to the beneficiaries of these capitalist structures? in what ways can asami and mako&bolin bridge these gaps across opposite ends of the class hierarchy, and in what ways are these chasms fundamentally untraversable?

i feel like the main failing of lok was that it actually presented some really interesting concepts, but it seemed like most of it was purely by accident and the show had no actual interest in focalizing or even addressing the compelling subtext hidden between bland and/or frustrating scenes oversaturated with obnoxious characters. like mako and asami are ostensibly main characters, but we never actually get satisfying meat to chew on regarding their inner lives and characters arcs, despite them being two of the most compelling characters in the show just based off of premise and lingering subtextual allusions to more interesting themes than were actually addressed in the show itself. so like asami, who i adore mostly for what remains unspoken (her abusive relationship to her father, her ethical contentions with her own capital, her latent homoerotic feelings for korra, etc.), mako is also compelling me for reasons largely unaddressed outside of the occasional “oh well you’re traumatized from all that time you spent taking care of your brother who is only somewhat younger than you as a small child and selling yourself to criminal organizations to have enough to eat week by week, which probably informs your decisions somewhat now that you are technically an adult (he’s like. 18???? also???) so that’s cool i guess. but also what the fuck you’re so sick and twisted for being attracted to two gorgeous powerful women at the same time, you should go to JAIL!!!!!” and then they do. actually send him to jail. -_-

[hauntedpearl]

pyromaniac dean au always on my damn mind bc i saw this post by @autisticandroids and my brain went hmmm what if Lisa and Ben were in the pyromaniac au. and like yes okay technically i thought we were doing like a s1 thing but also this is an au so who cares no rules.

anyway. what if in between John dying and Jess murder there was like this small period of time when dean did kind of stop setting people and things on fire, but like it didn't stick and also Lisa and Ben were involved probably possibly. like v close to canon parallel. i am still thinking about why he would stop the arson, even temporarily. but I think he should. I think cas should also have started stalking him at this point!!! this is p much fully reassembling the fic events but also MMM IT'S GETTING MORE FUN I THINK!

thinking out loud again. and like with Ben it was a) dean going insane about protecting ben from hunting to the point that he is john-like with him for the opposite reasons — normal parental overcorrection in people I think tbh w you. and b) he did inadvertently cause whatever harm befell those two and then he had to, like, functionally murder them and then he just kept going like that.

w my arsonist dean, it really is just all about control and trying to ground yourself in some version of reality when you're coming unmoored. he has an obsession with fire from a young age and sets controlled fires bc he's fucked up about fire and what not having control over it can do. he becomes a firefighter bc in his head that is also a way to control it. he starts committing crimes when his father dies bc that is a trauma that kind of sends him reeling ala empty spaces dean and like doing this thing where he's orchestrating the lives of these people is doing sth to him I think. he's projecting on everyone and he's saving himself but it's like never enough.

so the only reason he would have to stop arson would be if he was able to, like, exercise that control over his life in some way. a stable relationship dynamic is good, a ritual is good, a kind of mindless droning on of life where everything is exactly as he expects it to be is good, it's grounding. I think ultimately it doesn't work bc it's not good for the other people in the situation. like!!! obviously!!! also it's just not sustainable. it's impossible to truly control every aspect of your life and dean cannot handle the slightest bit of deviation from his Plan™. like so I think the break can be slow bc he starts freaking out over small things like someone not turning off a light or not locking a door or something like that. but it's all a v mild reaction all things considered and within the realm of acceptable. but also I think Lisa is On Edge bc she's not an idiot.

thinking about what would push dean over the edge when he's in this domestic farce of a situation. like I thought about maybe ben getting into his office or something — places, things, he's designated as Personal and like Don't Fucking Touch It. and it's like bc he's in such a precarious state of mind, he's like twigs and duct tape yk? so perhaps he blows up at the kid. and it's like literally nothing. it could just be a really cool looking zeppo or whatever that's on his desk and Ben takes it bc he just wants to show off to his friends or sneak out and smoke a cigarette like a normal 12 y/o. anyway he blows up at the kid and maybe Lisa is like nope. get out. that's it. line crossed.

or maybe he does have a come to Jesus moment almost immediately and they Talk About It as a family and he's like trying to make amends or whatever. either way. glass is cracked now.

idk how but I think it would be fun if there was another fire now in this house (lolololol IM SORRY i just think everything dean touches should be on fire bc of him I think the universe can affirm that to him over and over let him hurt everyone he loves and then go crazy like!!!) and like smoke inhalation CAN cause a coma!! (well like it's cyanide and/or CO poisoning technically but yk.) so maybe ben does go into a coma. maybe dean and lisa look at each other and Lisa like lowkey knows he's doing fucked up shit but she's also like I am not killing myself and my son over this get out like i don't wanna see you I don't wanna hear from you go get your head on straight somewhere and if you think you can handle being normal then maybe we can talk but no get out.

and dean leaves bc he also senses that she senses that sth is v wrong with him and about him, and he realises that he's really just gotta find some way to fix his fucking life and he tries to change so he tries to go find sam and then he kills Jess (still not sure if the fire is on purpose or an accident!) and becomes full crazy i think.

ps: just like as a random possible addition to this already convoluted au, cas being the one to somehow laterally be involved in causing the fire and also the rescue w lisa ben (for canon parallels also bc i just think he's so funny in this fic like why isnhe doing this??? no reason he's just a freak and he's obsessed.)

pps: honestly in the state that he is!!! jess' fire can fully not be his fault, but he still is around and Fails To Save Her and sam could just end up putting the pieces together for other stuff and he connects the right dots but like his main dot is not connected to all that!! but bc he's also obsessive and crazy he's like IM GONNA KILL YOUUU

anyway. ANYWAYY.

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

Listening to "If I Loved You" and holy shit it just hit me that Pete and Steph and Max and Grace are really good reflections of each other. There's the similarities, like-

Max and Steph are the two popular kids in the dynamic, both pursue the nerds rather than the reverse.

Pete and Grace are both hesitant in pursuing that relationship, one out of fear, one out of conviction.

Both Max and Steph use their social power to (attempt to) protect their nerd. Max knocks Kyle out for insulting Grace, and Steph being willing to stand up for Pete makes him a peer in the eyes of the other popular kids. (Max excluded)

Both couples having sexual feelings for each other plays a major role in their respective stories (Abstinence Camp for Steph/Pete, NPMD for Grace/Max)

But what I think is most interesting is the differences. For instance-

Pete spends a lot of time considering his potential friendship/relationship with Steph, analyzing his own self-perception ("am I cooler than I think I am?") And considering how Steph thinks about herself ("She's smarter than she thinks she is"). On the other hand, Grace doesn't think about Max in any real way beyond her own fantasy. Max does seem romantically interested in her, but Grace fantasizes about having a no-strings-attached physical relationship ("I won't care about you!") As a side note, it's very interesting to me that the line "a one-way ticket power trip" seems to be referring to Grace, not Max. She doesn't want a relationship, she wants to feel powerful, which is very different.

Grace and Max are... Caustic. A lot would have to change in order for their dynamic to be healthy. Their relationship is very new and immature and self-serving. Grace thinks of Max as a means to an end, and Max is pushy and disrespectful of her obvious boundaries.

Steph and Pete are the complete opposite. Even when they're trying to be mean to each other their words are still rooted in a deep care for the other's well-being. "If I loved you like you should be loved" is literally them trying to say "I don't like you!" but accidentally adding "At least not in the way you are deserving of because you are important to me and I only want the best for you! AAGGH!!!"

"Loved you like I'm capable of" can be directly translated to "if I liked you in that way you would KNOW because my heart would be SO FULL and I would show you EVERY DAY how MUCH you MEAN TO ME!! But I DON'T! So THERE!"

Even when Steph and Pete are actively trying to antagonize each other, their actions and words can all be drawn back to the fact that, romantic or not, they really, really care about each other, and that's the bedrock of their relationship. God I love these two

I'm just such a sucker for narrative parallels you guys

[riddlerosehearts]

idia/vil is such a sweet and interesting ship to me and does not deserve to be a rarepair i'm serious. this might end up a bit incoherent and disorganized because i'm not great with words, but listen. the thing is that while on a surface level idia shroud and vil schoenheit--a nerdy shut-in with anxiety who likes to game all day and a mega famous celebrity who's strict about self-improvement--might seem completely incompatible, their actual interactions show us that that just isn't true!!

like, for example idia's starsending robes vignette is a big one!! the way that vil sees idia trying to hide when he's supposed to be at the ceremony, and idia says he's terrified that people will make fun of him, that he's not like vil and can't just go out and not care what anyone think the way he does. and then vil... tells him he's wrong, that it's the opposite, that he cares so much what other people think but has enough of a grip on himself that he can ignore it and appear confidently in public. the way vil admits to idia that they are so much more alike that he thinks.

also, the way that (in this fan translation at least, as well as in other TLs i've seen--the localization translates it to have the complete opposite meaning, for whatever reason) idia then says "so in other words, you've got to level up your ignore skill", and instead of getting annoyed at him for translating his advice into video game terms vil just says "isn't that obvious?". he's going out of his way to try and give idia genuine advice and is willing to speak his language to get him to understand it. he even does a similar thing later on in book 6, when he tells idia that it's worth taking chances because after all, the star rogue protagonist took his chances and went from zero to a hero.

and on that note, book 6 is so good for them. book 6 has idia get all excited and carried away while infodumping about star rogue, only to abruptly lose his enthusiasm and start talking quietly and stuttering. and who is it that tells him he shouldn't act so embarrassed and that they weren't judging him? it's none other than vil. vil who also shows an interest in gaming, much to the surprise of idia who believed, in his own words, that a "sparkly, gorgeous supermodel" like vil couldn't possibly like any of the same things as him! but no, vil wanted to try out the games they had and vil expressed a desire for idia to talk about his passions without fear of being judged. vil enjoyed playing star rogue and he was glad to discuss the movie adaptation with idia and ortho.

it's also vil who, when idia expresses his disappointment at the star rogue sequel being canceled and his wish for the original team to get back together and create a sequel that would be made with passion behind it, is the only one to genuinely understand where he's coming from (as opposed to jamil who's like "is it really that complicated?" and leona who suggests that he just throw money at the creators). vil is the one who encourages him to take a chance at doing what he can to make that wish a reality, to let the original team know that there's a passionate and loyal fanbase waiting for a sequel, and tells him that he just generally shouldn't give up on changing his future and achieving his dreams before he's even tried. of course ortho heard this advice too and took it very much the wrong way, but vil showed a surprising amount of understanding and support for idia and i feel like it was exactly the kind of thing he needed to hear.

also. remember the scene in disney's hercules where hercules temporarily gives up his godhood and his youth by diving into the underworld to save megara? because vil literally did the same thing to save idia. yeah, he may say he only did it for plot reasons, but like come on, how am i supposed to just not ship them after they parallel one of my favorite disney couples like that? vil is a world famous actor and model who was terrified of aging, and he still took such an insane risk!! i'm sure idia would have a crush on him after that.

i'm trying to wrap this up now because it's already too long but also idia has actually been said to have great fashion sense as his online persona and shown to enjoy cosplay and dressing up on occasion (for example, he went all out on his pumpkin knight costume and this hasn't made it to EN yet but he liked wearing the masquerade outfit). vil had pretty high praise for his design sense when he saw ortho's burst gear. and vil gets along incredibly well with ortho and is in the film club with him post-book 6, which is something i imagine idia would appreciate a lot. the contrast between them and the things they unexpectedly have in common are just so neat to me.

so, in conclusion,

i love them and i think they should be boyfriends

[thepixelelf]

and the universe said,

01 "you are not alone"

genres/tags: soulmate au, idol au, comedy, romance, dumbassery chapter warnings: language, mentions of a non-fatal car collision relationship(s): ot13 x reader

When soulmates are suddenly thrust upon the world, you are one in a million who wishes they weren't -- and that's before you meet the person (people?!) making your life much harder than it needs to be. And before someone asks you to sign an NDA.

series masterlist

chapter one (2.2k) ⭒ next

Choi Seungcheol, as humble as he is and as modest as he always tries to be, knows that he’s famous.

Sure, he rapped that they started from nothing — two pyeong — and that they built a company from a basement suite up. Sure, he whispered that no one does it like they do. Sure, he beckoned wannabes to trail after his success. But he knows that his success, their success comes from being part of a group that helps each other stand tall, members that love each other, a family (in so few words) that worked their collective asses off to get where they are today. It wasn’t always easy. There were mountainous bumps along the way, and bumps that still rock Seungcheol’s world even now.

He can feel the headache coming on already.

@/seokshinedk: seventeen are made for each other!! literally chosen by the universe your faves could never 💅

The boys sit, gathered in the conference room with nervous eyes and bouncing legs, a buzzing energy in the air around each of them that all have yet to address. A couple staff members are discussing, hushed but urgent, among themselves near the opposite end of the table from Seungcheol, who’s scrolling the forums against his better judgement.

@/mingyubies: carat always knew svt are soulmates 😊 this just confirms it

It started with two girls in eastern Canada. Something as simple as a car collision made global news, all for one simple reason. The girl driving said a small, red heart appeared on her inner wrist like a tattoo, and before she could even try to understand what it was or where it came from, an invisible force attempted to pull her out the driver’s side window. She was held down by her seatbelt, but the confusion had caused her to drive across a solid yellow line and almost hit a girl on the sidewalk.

Who didn’t try to jump out of the way, because she was too entranced by the red heart that had suddenly appeared on her wrist.

They fell in love by the time the police arrived. Within a month, their engagement reached the news.

The western world was quick to bring up the word “soulmates”.

Seungcheol remembers that day — a Tuesday — because he’d woken up with five solid lines, about three centimetres long, parallel to each other and equally spaced apart, on the flat of his right hand. It laid just atop where his thumb connected to the rest of his hand. He’d freaked out and scrambled his way into the living room to find Joshua and Minghao already awake, wide-eyed and just as frazzled as he felt, the same marks on their hands. A quick text to the group chat confirmed that the others (well, the ones that were up) had the marks too, and Seungcheol had to believe it wasn’t some prank. It wasn’t funny, if it was.

At first, the staff hadn’t believed any of them when they went to work that day. As the leader, Seungcheol was reprimanded for letting everyone get matching tattoos without the company’s permission. One of their managers had tried to defend the boys, saying at least the tattoos weren’t anything graphic or could be interpreted as such. But when he’d turned to Seungcheol with a confused expression, asking “What’s the tattoo supposed to be, anyway?” Seungcheol could only shrug.

That certainly didn’t help their case.

They’d been told to go home for the day, to repent, or something stupid like that, and it was only when word of soulmates reached the company that they asked if the tattoos were really tattoos.

By then, cases were popping up all around the world — people with matching or similar or connected marks appearing on their skin, leading them to people they ended up loving. There’d been a handful of cases with three people sharing the same mark, and one case of a group of four. Just under two hundred pairs came forward in the US alone.

Thirteen… even Seungcheol, with as much love as he has for his members, his brothers, felt like that was a lot.

The staff had their doubts, too. Each of the boys got sat down, asked how they were and if they felt any different. Seungcheol doesn’t know how the rest of them answered, but he told the staff honestly;

He didn’t feel any different. The only change was the five black lines on his hand, and the fact that he felt like he was missing something. Like all the reading he’d done up on the newfound “soulmate phenomenon” still wasn’t telling him everything he wanted— needed to know.

Whatever the other boys told the staff, they ended up proposing to pass the marks off as regular old tattoos.

The idea was shot down as soon as it flew up.

Maybe they could pass off their marks as some sort of friendship tattoo — if only their marks didn’t move.

Even the boys had no idea what their marks were, or what they meant, until a meeting with the staff, where they asked if, instead of painstakingly covering the marks with caked-on foundation, the members could just say they decided to cement their brotherhood in something a little more permanent than a ring. One of the stylists was going over possible meanings they could give the five lines when Seokmin practically leaped up out of his seat, yelling out.

“HOLY SHIT,” he went. “HOLY SHIT GUYS.”

He shoved his hand in Jihoon’s face, who recoiled in annoyance and swatted Seokmin’s hand away, but in that time, several of the others, Seungcheol included, figured out what Seokmin meant.

Seungcheol gawked, wide-eyed and slack-jawed at his hand, where his mark was… playing.

No noise came out, but notes, unmistakable with their stems and flags and heads and bars, moved across the lines they all realized in that moment made up a staff, dancing from right to left in a steady rhythm. They disappeared as soon as they ran off the bars. A commotion erupted in the meeting room, and the staff were helpless but to watch as the boys scrambled to each other, staring at their own marks and each other’s, coming to the conclusion that all of them were exactly the same. Each showed the same notes at the same pace.

It was a marvel. It was magic.

It was undeniable that their marks were a prime example of the soulmate phenomenon, and their boss decided, fine, it might actually be good publicity for the group to be “the first and only kpop act made up completely of soulmates”.

And it was.

@/eissasuperstar no wonder they are always so synchronized!! they’re soulmates!!

Seungcheol has to scoff. They’re synchronized because they stay in the studio until five in the morning. They’re synchronized because they’ve been practising their asses off since debut. They’re synchronized because they put in the work, put in the hours. It’s about drive, it’s about power…

It’s not because the tattoos on their hands just so happen to be magic.

After confirming that, yes, the marks they all have appeared the same day as the rest of the soulmates in the world, Seventeen blew up. More than any comeback or song or award or interview or photoshoot ever did for them. Pledis seems eager to ride the wave of news fodder while it lasts, to release a surprise comeback or something, which is what Seungcheol thought this emergency meeting was going to be about.

“Please pay attention, Seungcheol,” Shin Yejung, one of the PR representatives and the person who's been on top of this whole situation from the start, asks, making Seungcheol look up from his phone to find the entire room watching him.

Sheepishly, he puts his phone face-down on the table and nods to show he’s listening.

Yejung sighs, then addresses the group again. “A lot of news outlets are saying that platonic soulmates can also be a result of the phenomenon, but…”

She trails off, and Vernon raises a brow. “But?”

“Most of them cite you guys as an example.” Yejung doesn’t like what she just said. She grimaces like the words taste bitter in her mouth.

“But they’re not wrong,” Joshua speaks up. “I mean, look at us.” Limply, he raises both arms to gesture at the group. “We’re not madly in love with each other like all those couples on tv.”

“Ouch, hyung,” Chan says, if only to lighten the mood.

It doesn’t work.

“What is this all about?” Seungcheol finally asks what everyone’s thinking. He sees all the boys turn to Yejung with expectant faces, except Jeonghan, who regards her with a blank expression. She returns his gaze for half a second, so fast that Seungcheol almost misses it.

She takes a deep breath. “There’s no certain way to tell right now if there isn’t such a thing as platonic soulmates, but I don’t know if that’s… well, your case.”

Mingyu, interest piqued, sits up straighter in his chair. “What do you mean?”

“From what we can tell, none of you feel the pull,” one of the managers says. Myungjun was mostly quiet while Yejung spoke, but now he makes eye contact with Seungcheol.

“The pull?”

“It’s what they’re calling the connection between soulmates,” Yejung answers. “Apparently, once soulmates meet, there’s this… pull. I don’t really know how it works, or what it supposedly feels like, but they say it’s, um— irresistible.”

Myungjun waves a hand at the group. “You guys don’t have that.”

“Maybe platonic soulmates just don’t get the pull,” Wonwoo reasons. “And that’s what makes it platonic.”

“Sure.” Yejung nods, but her doubtful frown betrays the action. “It’s just; I’ve been doing some research on marks—”

“We all have,” Minghao interrupts.

“Music related marks, specifically.” Yejung silently bows her head at Minghao to apologize for continuing over him, even though he’s the one who cut into what she was saying. She seems extra jittery today, for some reason. “The notes show up at random, right?”

Some of the boys share looks before they all nod.

“And they never last that long— about a song’s worth at most, but usually snippets rather than full songs. Right?” Yejung seems to already know the answers, but the boys nod along anyway. “And you’ve never found a correlation? To anything you’re listening to? Or something any of you are singing?”

Jihoon mutters, “It’s a lot of Day6.”

More than a few heads turn his way, and he sinks in his seat, shy under the scrutinizing gazes of his members.

“You can read the music?” Seungkwan interrogates. “How the hell— the notes move by so fast.”

Jihoon just shrugs, looking at Yejung and silently pleading with his eyes for her to continue so he doesn’t have to explain himself.

“Anyway,” she saves him. “Jeonghan came to us with a possibility we hadn’t considered before, which is why I did this research in the first place.”

All eyes turn to Jeonghan, who doesn’t react in the slightest, calm gaze still locked on Yejung.

She considers her words, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “I video-called a couple who had the staff as their mark, like you guys. Their notes appeared when the other sang.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Shin Yejung doesn’t often interact directly with Seventeen for her job, but this isn’t the first time she’s been toe-to-toe with Choi Seungcheol, the guy who famously said he cares more about his members than the company. She’s a strong woman who, in many ways, worked just as hard as the boys to get where she is today. She can hold her own. Right now, though, under Seungcheol’s hard gaze, she seems to waver.

Once more, she meets Jeonghan’s eyes, who nods silently as if to encourage her to say what she needs to.

“Jeonghan— I… We—” She waves a weak arm over towards the staff side of the table. “—think you might have a soulmate.”

The silence that follows is awkward and painful, until Soonyoung, who — against his character — hasn’t said a single word yet, raises his hand and goes, “You… you mean…”

“Someone out there is connected to each of you, and whenever they sing, it appears on your marks.”

Seungcheol feels the shift in the room. The nervous energy that was buzzing lowly before is now at a quiet but undeniably present hum. Some of the boys share looks, some of them stare at their hands, or their laps. Some are still gawking at Yejung for that bomb she just dropped. It’s like someone flipped the switch. They’d all been talking in the dark until now. Seungcheol watches Jeonghan lean back in his chair with a satisfied grin, arms crossed, and he swears he hears someone whisper, “Soulmate…” under their breath.

Wait. Wait! This is all too much all too fast. He needs to understand the situation in order to handle it. He needs to reign in his friends before they manage to do something astronomically stupid. He needs to—

Chan stands up, and the sound of the chair scraping across the floor is deafening.

“Sit down,” Myungjun says, monotone as ever.

Next to Seungcheol, someone’s leg starts bouncing like it’s attached to a motor engine. Or, wait, is that his leg?

“We need to talk about what this means for Seventeen.”

But Seungcheol can already see the awestruck, elated look shared between Mingyu and Seokmin. He can already see Vernon on his phone, googling how to find your soulmate. He can already see the flaming red tint of Jihoon’s ears.

Oh.

Oh no.

chapter one (2.2k) ⭒ next

updates for and the universe said, are not on a schedule. there is no taglist. thank you for reading!

[tippenfunkaport]

Bow's Character Arc

There was a discussion on Twitter from people who were confused about Bow’s character arc and whether he had one (he very much does, and it’s actually one of the clearest / most spelled out in the entire show!). To help anyone experiencing that confusion and because it’s never a bad idea to understand how character arcs work if you want to be a writer/storyteller, I might as well break Bow’s character arc down for anyone who might find it helpful.

Buckle in, it's nerd time!

At the most basic, a character arc is a change (usually growth) a character goes through over the course of a story. Usually good (positive change arc) but sometimes bad (negative change arc). It’s very often a reversal aka the character is often in the exact opposite state by the end of the story than how they start it out. It can be trickier to follow in an ensemble story like SPOP because there are a lot of characters with parallel story lines going on and multiple arcs colliding in different ways, but She-Ra does a really good job of giving each of the four leads arcs (with Catradora as the main leads, Glimbow as the secondary) near equal time.

Yes, including Bow.

What I think throws people about Bow’s arc is it’s based on hypocrisy.

Meaning…

He encourages his friends to talk it out and share their feelings… while hiding his own feelings from his dads and repressing his frustrations with having to be the middle man between Adora and Glimmer (Season 4)

He declares that average people (such as the kitchen staff at Dryl) don’t need the princesses and are just as capable of fighting the Horde themselves… while he believes himself and his abilities inferior to Princess Entrapta’s

He reminds the others (esp Adora) about the need to accept help… while refusing any help for himself (think about “Don't worry about me. I'm the one who worries about you. Can we go back to that? Please?” in Pulse through to that moment when he agrees to let Glimmer take him to check on his dads in Return to the Fright Zone and literally leans on her)

I think a funny way to sum up his character issue is: Not me, though.

This arc progresses across all five season as he gradually changes. He starts the series out repressing his feelings from both his family and friends while doubting his abilities and refusing to ask for help (he IS Adora’s mirror, after all!). Over the course of the series he learns to express his feelings instead of bottling them up (The Beacon > Reunion > really all of Season 4 but it comes to head starting with Boys Night Out through Beast Island > Stranded), gains more confidence in his tech skills (The Frozen Forest > Signals > Flutterina > Mer-Mysteries > Corridors), and starts to learn to ask for help (The Beacon > Pulse > Return to the Fright Zone).

Which of course all culminates in The Heart Parts 1 and 2 where he finally wraps up all threads at once by

a) asking Scorpia to trust him (putting faith in someone else to help)

b) completing Entrapta’s program to unchip everyone (proving he IS as good a scientist as she is)

c) giving the speech to everyone on Etheria rousing the common people to fight Prime (average people can make a difference… which he now fully believes that includes him).

And while you can make the argument that confessing to Glimmer is part of his arc to share his feelings, the fact is that he completes a full character arc without ever behind reduced to just someone’s love interest because none of his character growth is tied to his romantic relationship at all (which was what the original tweet claimed). It's all his inner journey to have faith in himself and his abilities and how they relate to his friends and loved ones.

And thus the guy who starts the series as “only one around here who’s not a princess” with doubt in his tech abilities ends the series as confident Tech Master and future King of the regular people he sought to inspire, which is about as textbook a reversal as you can get.

Does it come out of nowhere?

His character arc progresses and takes significant focus in the following episodes….

S1:E6 System Failure

S1:E10 The Beacon

S2:E1 The Frozen Forest

S2:E3 Signals

S2:E7 Reunion

S4:E3 Flutterina

S4:E4 Pulse

S4:E7 Mer-Mysteries

S4:E8 Boys Night Out

S4:E10 Fractures

S4:E11 Beast Island

S5:E3 Corridors

S5:E4 Stranded

S5:E9 An Ill Wind

S5:E10 Return to the Fright Zone

S5:E12 Heart Part 1

S5:E13 Heart Part 2

That’s 17 episodes out of 52 which means his character development gets approximately 32% of the focus of the entire show… which for an ensemble cast like this where he’s one of four leads is just about dead on as it's over a quarter of the episodes.

That's a significant chunk of screentime with multiple episodes devoted specifically to his character journey.

Is his journey as flashy and action sequence-y as what Adora, Catra and Glimmer get? No, but it's a) a show marketed to girls so it makes sense they get the more cinematic scenes and b) his arc is more emotional and thus didn't need to hinge on big action like theirs did. Though considering the culmination of his arc is him as a 100 foot tall hologram speaking to the entire planet, I personally feel like that was pretty hard to miss.

If you look at all of this and still want to say that Bow did nothing or had no character arc, I think the thing to ask yourself is: why is it so important to you to discount the accomplishments and character growth of this character specifically?

In conclusion, this is the face Bow makes when he spent five season growing, changing and kicking butt as Tech Master and Voice of Reason and you say he did "literally nothing"...

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Been a while since we did this: It’s midnight and I’m thinking about six of crows, so let’s chat. I’m currently thinking about the experiences of Wylan and Inej echoing each other on opposite ends of the spectrum of cruelty created by the environment in Ketterdam, because ultimately it’s a system that favours no-one but the men who created it. Even though Inej is a foreign immigrant brought to the country against her will and Wylan was born to one of the richest families in the country, they both suffer greatly at its hands - arguably even in similar ways.

*Spoilers ahead!!!!*

Ok so this particular thought occurred to me a little while ago, and it was first sparked by the conversation Van Eck has with Inej at the beginning of Crooked Kingdom when holding her captive. He tells her he is not “a brute” but has simply “employed the methods you are most accustomed to - threats, violence” and her immediate response is “He sounded like Tante Heleen”. She goes on to remember Heleen’s words saying “Why do you make me do these things? You bring these punishments on yourself, girl”. So of course there’s this immediate link between them, and I would argue that the parallels are perpetuated throughout the novel as well. Quickly want to add as well that it’s really interesting to see Tante Heleen call her “girl”, because although this denies Inej identity and aligns greatly with the way she sobs at hearing her own name said aloud for the first time in a year when she meets Kaz, it doesn’t come across as immediately dehumanising in the way that other epithets used against her, like “little Lynx”, do. But interestingly enough, I actually think that it still is a dehumanising word when it comes from Heleen - because she does not see “her girls” as human. First of all, whenever the children at the Menagerie are referred to as “girls” it’s always in an entirely possessive manner - “your girl will he returned to you” “where is my girl?” “That is not my girl” (these are literally all from one scene, and there are way more throughout the books) - but the idea is only intensified by Inej’s own sentence: “not really people, not even really girls.”. As if “girls” and “people” are two separate entities. As if “girls” are not human. This is the language and the attitude that she was surrounded by at the Menagerie and is still surrounded by in the city, and what was forced upon her throughout her experiences in the country. But you know what else might be a genuinely horrifying little detail of this????? Inej may have actually taught herself that the words “people” and “girls” are not synonymous. Because when Inej was brought to Kerch she wasn’t fluent in the language, she spoke some of it and quickly learnt the rest through circumstance, so if this was the way she heard Kerch people use the word “girl” this is how she would internalise the definition of it. I hope this makes sense I’m not sure if I’m relating my thoughts very clearly, it’s kind of like how Matthias was forced to learn Kerch because he was in a Kerch prison so he doesn’t know words that would easily come to him in Fjerdan, like the snow goggles, but instead of simply having gaps Inej has actually learnt a false grammar system that defines “girl” as a dehumanising term because it means someone who is less than or someone who is property. Anyway, that was quite a tangent so let’s keep going.

I talked quite a lot about Wylan’s experience with abuse in my post about the similarities between him and Kaz so I won’t go into too much detail here (if you want to read that though it’s on my page, it’s called Kaz and Wylan’s Potential to Become Each Other, I can tag anyone who’d like to be tagged) but I want to mention the way Van Eck has conditioned his son to blame himself for everything he’s been through, rather than his father. Wylan actively blames himself, even after he discovers what his father did to Marya he says to Jesper “you don’t understand, it’s my fault” because he believes that Van Eck needed a convenient way of getting rid of her so he could remarry and have a child that he didn’t view as “defective”.

I want to talk about Inej during the bathroom scene in Crooked Kingdom, specifically focusing on the fact that this is really the moment she is most open about her trauma and reveals herself to be at her most vulnerable. Now I could talk for DAYS about the way she expresses herself in this scene in comparison to Kaz and why their vulnerabilities differ in different moments, but I’m trying to stay on track so maybe I’ll talk about that another time, the focus here is that in this moment when she is her most open with another character about what she went through she tells Kaz that “Tante Heleen wasn’t always cruel” and explains emotional abuse and manipulation that Heleen layered with her physical and financial abuse. It so importantly echoes Van Eck’s abuse of Wylan, because ultimately he was always an emotionally abusive and manipulative person. Discovering that Wylan couldn’t read at age 8 didn’t magically switch him from a loving husband and father to the monster we see in the duology, and it is implied that he was abusing Marya in some form prior to sending her away. But Wylan clings to the things that his father did that seem loving, at least on the surface, and blames himself for any problems in his parents marriage - “they argued a lot, sometimes about me. But I remember them laughing a lot too”. (The quote is along those lines sorry I don’t have my book on me right now). This quote always intrigued me because not only does Wylan label himself as the common denominator in any issues they had, he also quickly jumps in to add defence as if their relationship is never supposed to be touched upon or examined too closely. Wylan also says “My father trusts himself first, Alys only so far”, which is really interesting to me because it clearly implies that there is a limit to anything positive Van Eck shares with his supposed loved ones. I don’t think there’s supposed to be any implication that Van Eck is abusing Alys right now, but if you disagree please let me know if be interested to hear it, but I do think that we’re supposed to be aware that he would begin to do so further down the line.

Ok I won’t lie to you guys I’ve kind of lost track of my point, so I’m gonna leave this here for now and if I decide to add anything later then I’ll reblog to continue. If anyone would like to add anything please do, and thanks for reading!

[cathchicken]

Ok so after a bit of me actually taking time to think about the collectors situation this is my sort of realized opinion: (warning: it is very long)

As I saw someone else state, the collector was previously imprisoned for like hundreds of years on the isles. Probably not a nice memory to have. Although, it was pretty much only with you know who, so it’s not like he’s gotten sick of or holds a feeling to flee the entire demon realm itself. But I dont feel bad if he wants some space (haha)

Aside from his siblings, there wasn’t really a specified thing for him to dislike the stars in any way. If anything he felt more comfortable there. he probably misses it a little bit, given the starry aesthetic of the archives and stuff. NOW don’t take this as me saying he is better off there. If anything, I am still a little nervous about the whole situation. The ambiguity of “the stars”, while I like in a petty fashion, doesn’t give much confirmation on what he’s actually dealing with. It is something familiar at least, but we don’t even know if it’s literally space or just another realm (parallel to the demon realm or human realm). If I had to hope of anything though, that if they meet their siblings, he beats them to a pulp. Fuck them. I don’t think he’d get tricked by them again, since he’s clearly figured out their shit even before season 3. Overall, I wish they elaborated on the realm before having him just whizz off there at the end. It could be good or bad, but in the end we do sort of have a reason to feel “wait wtf come back” and “where are you going??” In a way.

NOW the other thing! That people who are angry about this situation are bringing up (and that I mainly agree with). Which is the whole “found family” message of the show, and also the “nobody argued” line. Now, thinking about it from the shoes of Luz/Eda: powerful being who sort of just brainwashed (? Idk what to call the puppet situation. Controlled..? Eh, you know what I mean) a shit ton of people and doesn’t seem to care about their well being. Face-value. BUT!! (Big but) They also see that this being is a child that genuinely does want normal things like love and truth, but doesn’t understand concepts like death and friendship. They see a kid that is really upset, but trying their best to make others perceive themselves as “approachable” and/or worthy of their time (oof). Overall, trying his very best. Luz specifically sees all of this, and even makes an effort to congratulate the Collector when he attempts to take what she said into heart. He IS perfectly capable of expressing himself in a healthy way, he really just needs a proper parental figure to help him out. (Stares aggressively at Camila until she burns up). He’s not “uncontrollable”, he’s just lived the past few years with a crusty old puritan and has essentially learned the exact opposite of what he’s trying to accomplish.

Then, we get to the scene where the “nobody argued” line hits. Oog. I can understand that they think he should take time to himself after all of… that. And they probably respect his choice to mature too. ALTHOUGH. Like, after everything I’ve previously pointed out… wouldn’t any of them be a t i n y bit concerned about him going off all alone again? His whole ordeal these years has him being afraid of being alone!! He is ofc welcomed to the owl house, and can return whenever he likes, but, just like us, we don’t know crap about the star realm. The only things they know is that out there, he has shit siblings that fucked him up. Wouldn’t at least some of them be concerned? I do have a feeling he is going to be fine (we “sort” of see him in the credits so he’s alive which is to be expected). But still, in that moment, it would be weird that “no one argued”. All I would have wanted was someone to say “but will you be ok alone?” And then saying “oh yeah! I like it there, I know how to get around/ I have people there that I am cool with 👍” and then that. Like a little thing… idk. I do like that idea that after a few days he comes back because he realizes “actually I am mentally 9 (and possibly autistic) I don’t know how to figure out social cues on my own.” Like again there could be star people who are cool and will fill that place, but that’s only speculation. This whole time they were building up the idea that he shouldn’t be alone and needs others to figure stuff out! Because he was with Luz, only for a little bit, he absorbed the idea that giving kindness, when it’s deserved, is a better way to make friends than forcing people. And because he was with Luz, he learned (the hard way) how scary and forever death really is. Then in that ending scene with him, he just… figures he will be cool without them for a bit, and they agree too. (?) rehghfjk. This wasn’t a totally terrible decision, but the ambiguity of it just!! Makes it reasonably to feel ok with. How long will he be gone at a time? Are there other people he will be with? We aren’t exactly given an answer. We get allusions, but that’s it.

I am at least glad that King, of all people, would tell them that he wishes the collector would come back soon. (Was that another way of them saying he would come back sooner than later? It’s not confirmed so idk) I like this because, well, King was essentially the person that the Collector was closest to. (Besides Belos but he was the exact opposite on the spectrum of cool people to hang out with) King, as a kid himself, would relate most to him. He says that himself in FTF. He is understandably pissed at the whole puppet thing, but he understands that “I should address this but also acknowledge he doesn’t know better to an extent”. King would want to treat the Collector as he would himself, and how he knows how important having a family, whether it is blood or found, is important to oneself. King wouldn’t be half the character he is nowadays if it wasn’t for Eda and Luz to accompany him. When he told the collector “I hope to see you again” that makes sense; he knows that the collector would benefit from having people like how he did, and it would be beneficial, regardless if the collector does get proper parental figures in the star realm, if he would see them often. And ofc, he would probably genuinely want to hang out with them as well. He was glad to be their friend, to an extent. He was never totally unhappy about his situation in FTF. Also, him giving the Collector Francois at the end was really cute. Just in case he needs a buddy until he gets there. As far as we know, the collector needs Francois more than King does. And I think King knows that.

Ok so I think that’s it for my thoughts. If I suddenly remember something I will add it in. I’m not saying that I’m right or wrong, this is just how I genuinely feel. Feel free to comment your own opinions!! I am open to have my mind changed. In the end, I guess I just want the best for my little blorbo. Can you blame me…??