#which is extremely on brand for me. for anyone who has read that

[vinelark]

what’s ur fav book?

this is wild because this ask is how i realized i don't actually have one? i have a bunch of books i love and reread depending on my mood but no One True Favorite.

in the spirit of answering the ask i'll say Good Omens, because i carried a battered copy around with me for half of college so it was a favorite for at least one era of my life.

[this-is-a-name-dont-worry]

things that seemed reoccurring this update:

- Meat

- peas

- jelly

- Hibernation

- Eddie's absence

- Acting out a script (Sally mumbling asking if it's her cue and Howdy changing the script of the narrator in Homewarming storybook, characters general interactions with the narrator, different moments in the video, like the Sally and Frank ad break or the song a barely silent night, where the two literally fight over who get to sing, Sally mentions she wrote the lyrics, and Frank says she already has a song. yeah all of these are easy to see as meta goofs in the original material, but it's the fact there's so much of it this update) (of course all this wrap up with the end of the video where Eddie and Frank are obviously acting off script)

- Being alone (Eddie not having any news of anyone and not even seeing anyone outside (which is interesting as the story says that Sally was up in a tree near his home and saw him fret over having nothing to do), Wally saying it's so quiet during Homewarming and it's just he and Home for a while (potentially the show putting out a christmas special and then being on break? can a show do that?), and in the normal website material, the end of "An ode to hibernation", Frank saying "Where all that's left is me", the "me" being a "...me?")

- Welcome Home being used to sell stuff (cigarettes, medicine, eggnog, cereals, and the cookbook lists ingredients that are a specific brand)

(I'm putting under read more my rambling thoughts so you can just reblog the list without having to see them)

so I can't really make sense yet of all the food stuff. Maybe there are cultural elements/expressions I don't know that explains it? But I still find it very interesting how fucking unhinged that cookbook is yet the commercial and the website treat it normally. The cookbook is overall extremely interesting, because some of the recipes seem to actually be written by the characters; Barnaby who only presents you weird hot dog dressings with pictures but no recipe (and all jokes), Frank who lists not just the ingredients but also the material, and overexplain each steps (at least overexplain compared to the other recipes. it's actually interesting to know why you do x or y), and Julie who turns her recipe into a game at the end, and felt a bit harder to follow? anyway.

The cookbook, the Homewarming tradition of hanging a ham in the tree, Santy Claus being said sometimes instead of Santa, the ham for Santa? Once again, the christmas commercials being so casual about some of the weird stuff it says and presents? This almost feels like an alien who only has a blurry grasp of Christmas and what humans enjoy made the cookbook and the live commercial.

Sometimes, Welcome Home feels like it never actually aired and produced things, but we're making it retroactively exist. Something is making it exist. Like a retcon of the universe, "What do you mean you never heard of Welcome Home? No, of course it always existed and was very popular, look at all this old material we find!"

So maybe whatever is making it exist doesn't fully get humans and accidentally creates things that are weird to prove its existence. Like a cookbook that tells you a single pea in a buttered plate is a classic meal, or that of course you give Santa ham on Homewarming! (tbh almost getting an AI weirdness feel)

But in total contrary, in its story, Welcome Home also feels like it always existed, but got somehow completely wiped from people's mind, as something caused its sudden stop, and its characters gained consciousness of what they are and their world. As an existential dread fell on them one after the other, slowly realizing something isn't right. As Eddie felt anxiety and nervousness over no one being there or contacting him, to then having the story acts lightheartedly about it, the narrator saying things have been solved but he doesn't feel it, and suddenly Home is staring at him.

Both "It never existed but the universe is being retcon into it existing" and "it existed but something terrible happened that erased it from peoples mind" seem plausible. If two theories contradict each other, that means there's a third one that needs to be found.

Maybe it existed. Maybe it truly was popular, but something corrupted it, leading to its disappearance. A disappearance so big it stopped to exist. And now the thing that corrupted it is trying to crawl back, make it exist again, but it's making it come back completely off.

Anyway.

Also, I think the show may have been on hold during the Holiday season, "hibernating", and the character who got some self awareness realized that something was off. They're alone because there's nothing new, so no one is there bringing life to the neighborhood.

[m1ssunderstanding]

Get Back Rewatch 55 Years On: Days Eleven and Twelve

The Different Beatle Arrivals outside apple are interesting to me. 

Ringo: arrives first, in the passenger’s seat, has a chummy remark for his driver, a cheeky grin for the camera, and a kind nod for the scruffs. 

John and Yoko: arrive second, in the back of their on-brand, white thing, with no acknowledgement of anyone (and Yoko accidentally goes for the front door then changes directions when she sees John going around the side)

George: drives himself, glances over his shoulder, locks his car door, and goes in. Again, no acknowledgement. 

Paul: walks, studiously ignores the camera, bestows a condescending nod at the scruffs. (shouldn’t be sexy. Is. what else is new?)

Everything the scruffs said was perfection. Where are their parents? Who is taking care of them? Do they not go to school?

So glad for the boys that they took a day to hide from the cameras. I hope they all traded meaningful items of clothing and meditated and circle jerked and told each other how brilliant they were. (Oh gosh. Can you all imagine a circle-jerk plus yoko? Her and Paul furiously compete over who can hold John's eye contact?)

Short queens making the beatles look like child-labor supporters. 

Look at that cute little impish grin. What do we think? Did George and John actually have a punch-up? George Martin went out of his way on at least two occasions to say that they did, in fact, come to blows. But I didn’t see any evidence on John the next day, and they both seem extremely comfortable joke-fighting here, where I don’t think they would if they’d real-fought a week or so ago. I don’t know, I think it’s very up for debate. But if they did, I actually think it would be a testament to the importance of the John and George dynamic. We always say how it shows how much John must’ve cared about Paul to sprint down the road and jump his fence over a missed recording session. What would it say about how much John must’ve cared about George if he punched him when he said he’d quit?

Either way, their *meaningful* rendition of “You are my sunshine” is heart-melting.

Yoko, the og sad beige mom.

Add juggling to Ringo’s talents in his cabaret/circus act with Paul.

Every old man obsessed with “tough, acerbic Lennon” needs to have “My rock and roll finger is bleeding, my rock and roll finger is hurt” played on a loop in their heads every time they open their mouths until they shut up. 

Paul, why are you literally strong-arming Glyn into the studio? This man does not know how to touch another person.    

Maybe they kept Magic Alex around just for laughs? It’s good to hear anyway, that they are fully aware they’re being conned. 

The way George and Paul just in sync jump into their old choreography. 

The way they could really have just gone off and done their own things while Glyn finishes setting up. But the idea just doesn’t occur to them. Why would they want to be anywhere else, doing anything else, with anyone else? 

I feel like John right now because I’m like enjoying Paul’s sexy drumming face and then the camera switches and I’m like Oh Yoko you’re so pretty. And is this another *meaningful* cover? I’m going to have to make a list of all these and go through after I’m done with this and see which ones I think actually have a double meaning. “My baby left me” by Crudup. My main evidence here being Yoko’s Jim Halpert expression as John’s singing this at Paul.

How to get Paul to stop messing with your shit. A demonstration by Ringo Starr. 

John is Not having Paul reading their bad press for the cameras.

And today, it’s John that needs a little Ringofection. I wonder if it had anything to do with “Aaaaall I want is youuuuuuuuu. Everything has got to be the way you want it toooooooooo.”

George looking at Ringo’s jumping jacks. I agree. 

“Richard Rogers has got nothing on this boy. . . . Ah, sometimes, John, I don’t know.” “I just make it up as I go along.” “Oh, is that how you do it?” Again. He’s being silly, but he really does think you’re the smartest boy in the whole wide world, John. I hope you know that. (he definitely does not know that.)  

ICONIC. One of my favorite moments of the whole series. Not a glance at each other. Perfectly synchronized.

Any particular significance with Dicky Murdock that anyone knows about?  

Another favorite moment. The absolute marshmallow softness. Oh to have footage of Paul teaching John guitar chords on one of their childhood beds.

Not going to say it again, but boy am I thinking it.

Someone needs to make a compilation of all the times someone’s been caught giving John and Paul a WTF look. 

[enden-k]

Hi!! You're free to ignore this if it doesn't interest you ofc but I wanted to talk a bit about the "Aventurine racism" thing. It's mostly people not reading things right and misinterpreting things (as always.)

Aventurine is said to be Sigonian, a race known for being untrustworthy. Now, "Sigonian" is not a reference to any real place or community, in any language. It's entirely made up and exists only within the honkai universe. The reason people started speculating that he is Romani is because he calls himself "Avgin", which the game translates as "honey", and "Avgin" is indeed the romani word for "honey". This, of course, doesn't prove he's Romani or based on any Romani culture at all, but people took it and ran with it.

Ratio called him "Sigonian thrall" and, since Romani people have suffered a lot with slavery, people started freaking out. The thing is, Aventurine is a slave, but it has nothing to do with any Romani inspiration or traits he might have. Aventurine is a slave because he works for the IPC, and a good majority of IPC workers are enslaved to the IPC. He's not even the first character to be shown to have a branding mark. Topaz, who I didn't see anyone complaining about, is also enslaved to the IPC and has the same marking on her neck.

It should also be noted that although both Sparkle and Ratio were racist towards Aventurine, the "race" being discriminated against is entirely fictional and not meant to represent any real ethnicity or culture. We should keep in mind that the story is set in a magical universe, and we have nearly no information on Sigonians or Sigonia-IV.

Personally - and this is just my own theory/interpretation - I don't think Ratio was being racist at all. Judging by how the IPC operates, Sigonia-IV has most likely been destroyed or suffered a great disaster, so his claim of Aventurine being a "Sigonian thrall" could've been just a mention to how he has nowhere to run from the IPC, since his home world is gone. Also, Sparkle is just mean, and not really a trustworthy source of information - her comment on Sigonians being notoriously untrustworthy could be her own personal opinion rather than fact (of course, we don't have enough information on this to claim that it's just her opinion, nor that it isn't.).

Sorry for the long ask! I also have more to say about the possibility of Aventurine being romani if it interests you, based on him being a Su expy.

thanks for explaining this further, i dont really have anything add to it other that i share your interpretation there but i think its interesting for the others to see as well (this entire topic is tiring me out but mostly bc of some ppl taking it to extremes or making stuff up to prove their points. thanks for taking the time to write and explain all this!!)

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

hiya sex witch! i'm (afab) on the birth control pill and my bf (amab) has been also not finishing inside me when we have sex, as an extra precaution. i know neither of these are foolproof but this is how we've agreed to minimize the risk of me getting pregnant. however, i know he wants to finish inside of me really badly, and i am wondering how to best minimize the risk. i've been looking into getting a hormonal implant or using internal condoms? (condoms are off the table at the moment since they prevent my partner from reaching orgasm - and i know some people will say he's lying but i do believe him, we've tried). do you know if these methods would increase or decrease my risk of getting pregnant? and do you know why the only FDA approved internal condom is prescription-only, and if other more easily attainable ones are dangerous? thank you so much, your blog has been super helpful over the past few years for me!

hi anon,

awesome questions! thank you for your curiosity!

birth control is always more effective when you use more than one method. (note: this does not include using an external condom with an internal condom; don't do that. they'll chafe against each other and both become less effective.) if external condoms for your partner are off the table, using internal condoms with another type of birth control would be a really smart alternative.

implants and IUDs are a great option for this particular situation, since they have the highest success rate of any birth control currently available (short of sterilization or abstinence). there's no such thing as birth control that's 100% effective, but IUDs and implants are usually a pretty reliable 99. used in tandem with any type of condom, your odds of unwanted pregnancy are going to be extremely low.

okay, so, why are FC2 internal condoms so hard to get ahold of if they're so great? the extremely short version is that several years ago the company that manufactures them decided to pull the condoms from pharmacies and make them prescription-only with the justification that the Affordable Care Act would make prescription condoms cheaper for anyone with insurance, as well as expressing hope that doctors prescribing internal condoms would raise awareness of the product. FC2 does make it somewhat simple to get a prescription through their own website in theory, albeit with a consultation fee and, currently, a notification that you might be boned if you're insured through Medicaid, which I'm sure is great for expanding the accessibility of their product.

it should be noted that local health centers and LGBT resources centers are more than willing to give internal condoms out without a prescription; I know my local HIV testing site was more than happy to give out their stock of internal condoms to anyone who wanted them until they ran out. if any cis, straight person reading this is interested in pursuing this route but feels weird about potentially accessing an LGBT center when you're not part of the community: trust me, we want y'all to have safer sex, too. please, anyone and everyone, call around and check with your local resources to see if they can help you out.

as for internal condoms manufactured by other brands, I'm afraid I can't attest to their quality. I'm not saying they aren't safe, only that they haven't been subjected to FDA regulations and I lack enough information to make an informed recommendation for or against. internal condoms as a whole are still really under-researched; even in the case of FC2 condoms, for instance, there's still a real lack of data regarding their effectiveness in preventing the transmission of STIs. if you're passionate about exploring this route, I strongly recommend doing as much of your own research as possible to make the most informed decision possible to decide if other brands are the right pick for you.

[presiding]

i wanna hear your recommendations!

a list with some stuff i like + a request for you to share yours :)

as a godless queer who spawned on earth randomly one time, my only holiday-season tradition is charity + passionately enjoying things. in lieu of passing my followers & mutuals $100 cash, have a random variety of things you might like to try - i know we're an international bunch so your mileage may vary on what you can access. in the spirit of giving i am hoping for some recs 🎁♥

disclaimer these are just things i like i am not paid. would be great. but.

yo ho ho if you read comics & manga but always found it to be a pain in the ass to source online, here's the aggregator app of your dreams: tachiyomiJ2K. real. not clickbait. android only tho. the extensions mangacute, mangadex, allanime, and mangareader, are good places to start. as a creator, i'm always iffy about recommending this kind of thing because i'd much prefer you went out and brought the things you're reading, however i'm not under any illusions about which era we're in, media-wise and economy-wise

gemma! - webcomic what if corvo was a woman and young emily was a dragon and they went on adventures in a fun fantasy/adventure way that is Extremely Gender. pictured: gender. god i want to be her > is this the greatest webcomic of all time? no. is it that sweet spot between 'mindless fun' and 'good'? yes. you get me

laksa noodles the more intl friends i have the more i realise that laksa isn't common everywhere. don't let that stop you from trying it. ultimate comfort food. hearty noodly soupy goodness. worth seeking out fr

ways of seeing - mini-documentary so profoundly changed the way i think that i had been wanting to revisit it and so was delighted to find its all on youtube. if you're an artist or want to improve your ability to critically think about what you're seeing in media, this is a must-see. link or embedded>

FUCKING GOOD AND CHEAP GREEN TEA price comment won't apply to everyone this site offers great prices for high quality tea direct from the farm. been buying from here for years and its always amazing - i love the houjicha/roast green tea, and if you like green tea but always wish it was stronger without sacrificing taste or becoming bitter, i recommend genmaicha matcha-iri, which uses matcha to intensify the flavour. yum

incense body powder being a perfume nerd who is prone to migraines sucks. if you like spices and good incense - not the $2 kind that you use to hide cigs from your parents but rather the kind that smells like wandering into a forest temple - you'll love incense body powder. it lasts well and i'd most compare it to a softer, more gourmand comme des garçons Incense series 3 kyoto. shoyeido is the easiest to source as far as i can tell, but other brands make it too. USD$11 - cheaper than even cheap perfumes tbh - the bag will last you years. if you try this please tell me i'd love to know what you think!

anyway!! i wanna hear your recs if you have any! can be any type of thing that has recently improved your mood or changed your life or you think someone else might like?

anyone reading can go for it, consider this a carte blanche for recommendations. gonna tag a few people - you don't have to of course thank you love you <;3 @lapinneok @dangerousdan-dan @arosebyothernames @headcrabrave @corvidad @neznoodles @retired-crow @corpseprince @i-really-hate-creating-usernames @geminison @fakeshibe @skemford @loveofdetail + please feel welcome if not tagged! edit OH @nekon-ron i tried to tag your old URL. ha

[utilitycaster]

i am deeply intrigued by and invested in a certified utilitycaster brand roast of rupi kaur

So here is the thing: I don't think she deserves a full roast, and also I have not read much of it, certainly not recently, so it wouldn't be terribly informed.

What it ultimately comes down to is that she got published, at age 22, because she was popular on Instagram, and the vast, vast majority of people at age 22 write extremely annoying poetry (source: I took two semesters of poetry writing senior year of college). If she hadn't been writing poems that were, fundamentally, mediocre but not egregiously bad in the unbelievably narrow sliver of time when publishing companies were looking for anyone with a big Twitter or Instagram or YouTube following and passing out book deals she would have not become known for this; she just would have moved on with her life as "girl who wrote some blah poetry in her early 20s".

I mostly use her as a touchstone for a particular style though that is deeply influenced by like, 2014-ish social media vibes: that all lower-case, heavy on aesthetic imagery, simple language, and weird enjambment choices which again isn't bad but it's very derivative, and tired, and at this point in time reads to me as "this person has not found their own voice and is also not terribly creative."

In the tags I just had specifically the jibe is more about how an overly poetic style in prose meta-writing is often, though not always, an indicator you're going to read some overwrought nonsense. I think there's a place for more purple prose - truly, I do - but in actual poetry I lean more towards a plainer, prose-like style and so when someone goes really hard on a poetic flowery style in prose and specifically in meta or fandom predictions it tends to lose me because this is simply not a good writing style for making an argument. (It also usually loses me in fic unless you're really good because the thing about writing fairly plainly and directly is that if you aren't a great writer it still comes out okay, whereas if you're not a good writer and you start throwing what my sister refers to as "wickety-wack" into it, it highlights every weakness).

Back to sort of roasting though: I do think that Rupi Kaur got praised for being straightforward when that's not unique and plenty of poets did it better, of which Langston Hughes was just one example. One of my favorite poems, which was read at my friends' wedding, is Frank O'Hara's "Having a Coke with You" and it's very conversational and straightforward. Like, the most damning thing I can really say about Rupi Kaur is that she doesn't do or say anything new nor impressive.

[unhinged-jackles]

Dearest mutual. I know nothing of formula 1. Why are the ferrari and red bull brands fighting???

oh frosty i am so so so glad you asked bc now i get to be insane.

(this got super long so I essentially have an essay below the cut. if you're curious about formula 1, give it a read!)

Ok so first let me get into a few key people in this. Lewis Hamilton is a 7 time F1 World Drivers Champion and he has the most race wins of anyone in F1 history. He is regarded as one the best if not THE best F1 driver of all time. He has been on the Mercedes team since 2013 and has won 6 of his WDCs with them.

However, in 2021, he lost the championship to Max Verstappen of team Red Bull in a controversial final race in Abu Dhabi. Max Verstappen has been the WDC since 2021, winning in both the the 2022 and 2023 season. His 2023 season broke records I believe, winning 19 out of 22 races. Not only is Verstappen an incredible driver, just a real force to be reckoned with on the race track, but Red Bull's F1 cars are just fucking insane, especially in 2022 and 2023 because of new regulations leading to a new designs. It literally sounds like a fucking rocket and he wins by large margins.

On the other hand, the Mercedes cars that dominate from 2013 to 2020 took a huge dip in 2022 due to the new designs because of new regulations, and Hamilton has been very vocal about these cars not being up to par. Hamilton has always been very loyal to Mercedes, so it came as an extreme shock when it was announced on Feb 1st that he would be moving to team Ferrari in the 2025 season. Like imagine if when Zayn left 1D he went to 5SOS. Or if a member of Stray Kids joined BTS. Idk what else to compare it to but it was fucking insane, which is why I got into F1 because I was like "ok idk what's going on but I do want to know." However, with Hamilton moving to Ferrari in 2025, this means that Carlos Sainz is essentially fired from Ferrari (also I should have mentioned this before, there are 10 F1 teams and each team has two drivers). Charles Leclerc is Ferrari's favorite, I've seen him being referenced as the 'Prince of Ferrari' by fans. So it came as no surprise that soon after Hamilton announced he's joined Ferrari in 2025, Sainz issued a statement that he and Ferrari would be parting ways at the end of 2024.

So now the definite line up for Ferrari in 2025 is Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen is also staying with Red Bull but the future of Sergio "Checo" Perez is uncertain. His contract is up at the end of 2024 and there have been rumors that he might be replaced.

Carlos Sainz has not signed with another team for 2025, at least not publicaly, so there is a lot of speculation on where he may go next. He is the only driver not from Red Bull who won a Grand Prix in 2023. Verstappen won 19, Perez won 2, and Sainz won 1. While everybody else I mentioned in this post did have a higher standing in the final rankings of the 2023 season, Sainz did get a trophy, and that's a result that matters.

2025 is going to be an incredible season to see the fight between Hamilton and Verstappen. Hamilton signing with Ferrari after finished 12 years with Mercedes shows he's really doing whatever is takes to get that 8th WDC, because that would make him the F1 driver with the most world championships of all time. Verstappen is a favorite to be the 2024 Champion, so he will probably be defending the title.

Now let's say that Perez doesn't renew his contract and Sainz has a good season this year. There is a non-zero chance that he could sign with Red Bull. Sainz was in their F1 academy, and he was beat out for the Red Bull F1 seat by Verstappen at the beginning of their F1 careers. I would literally do anything to see real hard racing between Carlos Sainz for Red Bull and Charles Leclerc for Ferrari, because frankly Ferrari keeps prioritizing Leclerc over Sainz, even if Sainz has a better pace. So to have the the 2025 lineup for Red Bull be Max Verstappen AND Carlos Sainz, while the fucking FERRARI team is Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc would be so insanely awesome.

If you read this far, thank you for coming to my ted talk 💋

[monstersdownthepath]

Some cool First World locales

First World: Realm of the Fey came out in 2016, and yet every time I read over it I discover something new. A new bit of lore, a new strange thread to follow, a new bizarre bit of terrain, some new monster or deity to follow up on... But the one gift that keeps giving is the Gazetteer, going on for over 15 pages and listing strange locations YOU, yes YOU, the DM, can send your players to! Be it a fey portal, the whims of the Eldest, a questline taking them into the First World, or some other plot contrivance, there’s over 60 different vacation spots with varying levels of dangerous, curious, or downright weird for DMs to expand on and send players into!

Hopefully this post will motivate at least a few of you to pick it up, if for nothing else than the Gazetteer, which has lore you can’t find in the Archives of Nethys or the PF wiki! It’d be rude of me not to share at least a few favorites from among them under the cut below!

The Canyon of Faces: One of the most alarming locations in the book, the Canyon is a seemingly infinitely-deep cut into the earth filled with uncountable stone heads, each of them perfectly rendered and resistant to damage. Rumors abound about what happens when you find your own face, or someone else’s face; no one can seem to keep the story straight about if finding your own face gives you infinite power or slays you instantly, just as no one can say what sort of power (if any) you gain over someone else if you find their face in the cavern... or if these heads hold any power at all, and aren’t simply the trophies or creations of some grim collector or sculptor no one’s ever seen. And yet, finding one specific head among many is an exercise in tedium and futility, as no matter how far down one digs, there’s just more of these strange busts, which basically makes the quest of finding a specific face impossible. Perhaps that’s why there’s so many rumors about what happens if you find your face; because no one has.

The Chittering Tabernacle: Nestled in the amusingly named Plain of Leaping Stones (which, true to its name, is filled with rocks that just love launching themselves unexpectedly into the air), this tabernacle is staffed exclusively by a unique brand of arachnoid Fey called Chkchks (do NOT call them ‘nurse spiders’). The chkchks utilize healing spittle, silk casts, stitches made from their own coarse hairs, and the occasional spell to provide the utmost of care to all their patients, healing injuries, curing sicknesses, breaking curses, and even restoring life to any dead brought into their doors, regardless of the patient’s species, allegiance, or alignment. While in most cases this would be extremely suspicious, the chkchks operate are truly and purely altruistic and don’t even demand payment, though they gently offer the exchange of favors, talents, time, or the completion of specific questlines to anyone who wishes to pay anyway.

The only overtly sinister thing the spidery caretakers do is draw a small amount of blood from every patient that comes in, regardless of the patient’s treatment needs, taking this sample to the “Sagechoir” at the Tabernacle’s center for analysis. They do this because they believe in a prophesied messiah called the Deathender who will rid all worlds of all suffering when she is found, and they believe she will first come to them as a patient and that her blood sample will reveal her. Whether or not the Deathender--or her supposed promise to alleviate all cosmic suffering--is real and not a ruse by some other force isn’t said.

Earis Highlands: In opposition to the above, the blistered, naked, rat-like Earis Fey that populate these brush-filled lands are also called Fever-Drinkers. They extract high tolls from those who come to them to be alleviated of their illness, which the rat-fey do by physically sucking the illness from their bodies... and anyone else with the money to pay can buy the diseases themselves (typically by having the Earis containing it regurgitate it onto another target) for their own use, whatever that may be.

Dusking Hills: This one’s amusing to me for the simple fact that darkness itself is somehow farmed, bottled, and sold here for export to other areas of the First World. There’s also the significantly more worrying is the Gloaming Caves, giant crystalline mines where blackened crystals encase armored figures of dozens of different races for an unknown reason.

Endless Siege: This one’s fun, if only because of the potential to run it as an adventure again and again and again. There is a desolated stretch of the First World filled with mud, trenches, corpses, and abandoned siege weapons, at the center of which is a squat, ugly castle, which acts as the prize. The owners of the castle are the family of Boralas, a coalition of extremely powerful and sadistic soul-eating fey known as Vilderavn, and each one wants the castle for themselves and are willing to do whatever they need to in order to take it, even going so far as to conscript hapless souls from across the Great Beyond... like a party of player characters.

Why? For fun! The war itself is the point, and the castle itself is simply the objective they’ve collectively agreed upon. The Boralas family instead uses the constant battle as entertainment, to better their own tactical acumen and understanding of war, to find new creative ways to conquer or hold onto the castle... and to feed upon the souls of all the soldiers who fail them.

Harvester’s Deep: This one gigantic lake is enthralling for a specific reason. It has nothing to do with the titanic shrimp and nautili that dwell within the deep waters of the lake and everything to do with the mysterious Harvester from which it draws its name, a creature without any form of description, lore, or even a CR attached to it. It’s stated only to rise once every 20 years and go on a cataclysmic rampage which the citizens of the various surrounding towns either flee or hide to survive.

Palenhyr: When the gods abandoned the First World, many fey were hurt by the loss. Palenhyr is the result of this pain; a grand city of temples, altars, churches, tabernacles, and tombs all devoted to thousands upon thousands of gods (some real, most not) with followings everywhere from a single maniac to an entire organization. Faith of all flavor is welcome and available and niche religions abound, with all the mad drama such a thing could create. Notably, there is enough divine power flowing into Palenhyr that it’s a force people can feel, and the ruling council of the city is said to secretly be constructing a massive ritual to use this energy to pull a god from the Material back into the First World... perhaps even multiple.

The Moon Ladder: Constructed by First World Gnomes, this enormous machine for years projected a bridge of light into the heavens of the fey realm, allowing gnomish explorers to visit the many moons and planets circling overhead in the distance. Recently, however, the bridge has been shut off, the ladder and the research stations becoming closed off and restricted to any outsiders, and the researchers themselves recluses who rarely ever leave the lab. There’s whispers that something came back down the light bridge that’s caused the gnomes to turn from explorers into defenders, either studying the something or preventing it from getting out, but what that something could be is left unsaid.

Phasetree: A simple one: A massive tree is there every day, which the fey in the surrounding town in its roots climb up to harvest its fruits, leaves, lumber, and the various beasts that nest among branches as wide as roads. Every night, they have to climb back down as quickly as possible because the tree vanishes entirely. Where it goes, no one knows, but every time it reappears it’s changed somewhat; new branches, new fruits, new monsters twisted within its branches, new rune marks along its trunk, and sometimes it even brings a blast of weather from... wherever it travels, sending snow or rain or wind in every direction. No one who’s ever been caught on the tree when it disappears has ever been seen again, and no divination can reach them.

The Thrice-Tenth Kingdom: Baba Yaga came to the First World once. This is the kingdom she built by doing little more than telling the First World what she wanted, and it bent and folded itself in whatever direction she ordered to please her. She rarely visits and never stays, leaving her minions to hold it for her instead.

Vestige: The one I saved for last because it’s the one I like the most. Fey don’t die like most creatures, so the town of Vestige allows fey to experience what it’s like in varying ways; sometimes they hold mock funerals, sometimes they bury themselves alive, sometimes they record their names and deeds on headstones and place them in the city’s endless graveyard, and sometimes they go as far as to inflict terrible injuries on themselves to “get into character.” Fey study death alongside necromancers of every stripe, recording their research and discoveries in vast libraries for future perusal... and despite the oddness and pageantry of the town, it’s no less dangerous for mortals who catch the attention of the fey. They’re enamored with the idea of death and dying, and captured mortals are often subjected to hideous but coldly academic practices to help the fey understand the phenomenon.

ok there’s still a lot of really good ones but i’m restraining myself. please allow the names Plain of Doors, Stasi the City of Vaults, Tubehollow, the Riddle Sphere, Watchers on the Shore, Spindlewood, and the Sea Without a Shore sink into your brain. also pick up the book itself, it’s good stuff.

[crazysodomite]

i see a ton of issues with 'creativity' in art online spaces on social media... not just the 'adoptables' community or whatever but it's REALLY bad in there. and i think i know why... man it's hard to structure my thoughts...

'originality' is actually extremely narrow in art spaces specifically on social media. people get extremely fixated on having an 'original art style' but at the same time all art is being funneled into 1 specific way of making it. and when someone DOES go outside of the norm it becomes their 'thing'. their 'brand'. read: what sells their art/gets them popular.

a few examples: so many posts on the internet complaining about hating drawing lineart, having to redo the line 100 times, etc.

lineart is immediately suggested for beginners and most art is based on lineart first, which makes some people hate art. and they end up thinking doing it any other way is 'wrong' or 'too difficult'. beginners feel like they must make their art like this. sketch > lineart > color fill > shading > detail. when in reality you really don't have to do any of this at all. your art can truly be anything and anything that you hate about creating art can just be removed from the process. am i making any sense? i think i went through this process too. i started out doing lineart and i fucking hated it. i couldn't initially realize that painting is the easiest and most fun way for me to do art. because most art advice on social media (how most people nowadays try to learn i think) is aimed at this specific way to do it.

we aren't giving advice on how to explore art and creativity but only how to make your art most appealing...

same thing with smaller stuff like not being able to do the second eye in art. you don't even HAVE to make your art symmetrical. you can obviously desire that result but i feel like some people aren't even considering the possibility. and this isn't just because people are just lacking in creativity. if your art is 'too weird' and 'not pretty' 'outside of the norm' you will get bullied and made fun of viciously. your art can only venture outside the norm if it's still appealing. and most people aren't up to taking that risk because a few horrible words about a persons art can end their desire to do it completely!!! am i making any sense. when you venture and see art outside of what's popular on social media it's like your eyes are wide open...

and then, when someone does venture out of the norm in a creative and appealing way, it suddenly becomes 'their brand' and if someone creates something remotely similar to it, it's considered 'plagiarism' and drama and harassment follows. it's MY THING to draw this in that way. you can't get inspired by it. it's MY BRAND.

so we come to the conclusion of people trying to claim ideas as their own only and try to make profit out of it. and attack anyone who threatens 'their thing'. the endless battles over adoptable markings and palettes. the 'style theft'.

the 'my artstyle is so inconsistent'. it's okay to want to feel like your art is truly your own but the reality often is that. 'i need a concrete style so people expect this one specific thing from me and will pay for it' which obviously there's no blame in people trying to make money but the way it affects artists is just horrible.

the 'artist branding' thing is really fucking bad in adoptable spaces. if you're an 'in demand' artist a lot of attention is paid to your art not because people really enjoy it but because it has trade value. and even really gorgeous designs from people are looked over and devalued because they're not a high trade value artist...

im tired of trying to make my art appealing and popular instead of what i like to do. and im also tired of people not being able to appreciate art outside of it's most appealing form and calling ANYTHING outside what appeals to them bad or boring or whatever the fuck. i can really say more but i have trouble structuring my thoughts...

Mommy needs cigarettes 🚬 i just ranted on facebook.

[sideblogdotjpeg]

hello unfortunately i thought even more about sol + swag as an analogy for being asian and it is . making me unwell. i am putting it under the cut for the main reason that it is stupid beyond belief

OK. so. hear me out .

STUPID REASONS WHY SOL IS ASIAN:

(and hint: this is all me projecting 100%)

1) moist frog who immediately turns off when it gets too cold. SOUTHEASTASIAN BOY AS FUCK (to me). guy who thinks thirty degrees celsius is pleasant temperature. guy who thinks that anything below 25C is sweater weather. guy who is soo sweaty and moist all the time (the humidity) and that is not only a natural state, but a preferrable state. 20 degrees is too cold. anything below 0 is actually not functional.

anyway. sol bufo. keepin it warm and gross. if its too cold and dry he immediately hibernates. king

2) idk if anyone reading this has seen shaolin soccer. but sol bufo. could clump shaolin soccer. essentially what im saying is sol bufo is like a buff asian jock. which is kinda goofy and goodnatured and loud and also very obnoxious. i cannot articulate this very well. but. what can i say except a human version of sol bufo was delivered to me in a dream and it was every buff chinese classmate ive ever met.

3) (you will notice the reasons get progressively more stupid and more deeply specific)

sol bufo would love milo. omg. like. chocolate drink in a juice box container that is branded as a sports/energy drink and also green. also the guy on the front of the packet milo. sol bufo coded. tbh

anyway. milo isnt strictly southeast asian..? but. yes it is actually.

4) the whole monk class is extremely steeped in asian 'aesthetics' anyway. i mean. ki. so whatever i can claim this monk for me thats my right

NONSTUPID BUT STILL KIND OF SILLY REASONS:

and this is also me projecting 100%. obviously all delusion. so i guess see this as a for-fun reading of the sol/swag storyline through the lens of a very specific of asianness

okay so. swag right. his journey is about leaving his home where he was comfortable and safe but also very confined. mothership lures him to ezry w the promise of opportunity & seeing the world, making something of himself. he ends up being exploited for his body and skills. and he runs away, but his blood still oils up the mothership cogs.

so anyway. i think its pretty clear how that cld map onto like . an immigrant experience? leaving home because of the need to find urself, but simultaneously, the threat of exploitation at the hands of ppl who see you as a potential profit to be mined. this is the first part

the part that is more crazy to me is his experience in irondeep. like, when he left moonstone he left his entire community. now hes alone ... and he cant go back. (he is stranded physically, emotionally). and at this low point, of true and utter loneliness and purposelessness, comes along bronzebeard industries. they offer him a job - but more importantly, they offer him connections.

like. thinking about how were introduced to swag. its not at his job, its his downtime, its when hes hanging out with his coworkers, when hes surrounded by 'friends'. w people who think hes cool, and the people who think hes a "sucker".

idk! but i think this also relates rlly strongly to a common experience of being international? like. when you know you are permenantly lost from home. what you want more than anything is to feel the same community and sense of belonging you used to have. and it is very easy for that desire to ge manipulated. (like - im just gonna mention the one specific instance that ive seen. which is like. international students on college campuses getting targeted a lot by christian groups. because they know those people are lonely and want a feeling of shared tradition and practice. anyway. this is one specific example but also this is literally what happens to lyddie and sister rosaline :-| )

anyway so in summary: swags story of hope/idealism, exploitation, and loneliness leading him to be a very good pawn. i think that is something that could potentially be read as the experiences of ppl dislocated internationally from their home. and im saying its asian because I Want To.

... and sol! okay. i think very simply: sol is super white-washed. total banana. and thats part of his character. he is a moonstone bullywug who never knew his own home, and still, has never even seen moonstone with his own eyes. he does not know his own history. (and kinda tangent, the place where he spends the majority of his life is in launchpad, a sanitized corporate version of reality. and i mean, the whole 'boy wizard and frog pal' is very clearly alluding to harry potter. like. its white.) but ignoring that, the essence of his character is like. this is a guy who does not know where he came from

and currently? a large part of his arc is about trying to unravel his identity by figuring out where (who) he came from. swag daniels is his one link to a community hes just now found out he has. that is a part of why hes trying so hard to save swag. swag is his family - specifically the parts about family you cant choose. that is hard, complicated and how you understand where the parts of yourself track back to.

like. i think a lot about how the pivotal moments of connection between swag and sol are all about swag... showing sol what moonstone is like. in a dream, he lets sol experience what that place is like. that place is a muggy swamp. idk. swag is taking sol back home. that fucks me up a lot

... anyway digression aside. i think one of the most painful things gg on rn w sols arc rn is. how its looking right now. sol is going to lose swag. sol is going to have to come to terms w losing swag. sol for the first time, yearns to know who he is and who he came from. but by the time he went looking it was too late. his time is up. that moment of connection was brief and gone. there are so many questions about their history that sol will never know now

so obviously this kind of dips a bit into metaphor at the end. swag represents connection to cultural history and heritage and identity. and in that lens, it reads to ME as a story abt being asian and disconnected from ur roots. but anyway. even without that lens i think sols story is still v much abt cultural estrangement

(i also have a very loose and unformed thought: which is that sols journey from wanting to stand out/be special to wanting to find a place of belonging. is ALSO INCREDIBLY RESONANT to the experience of being whitewashed asian... ESPECIALLY for ppl who do come from asia. and how that also relates to the tragedy of wanting to understand ur roots when its already too late. but . i dont rlly know if that is a common experience so. itll be noodling in my head for now)

anyway. my essay. and yes this is all make believe in my head . TLDR: i think swags an immigrant sols a banana and i am fucking insane thanks everyone

also if u read this all and want to know what part of this long ramble actly answers the question of why i think theyre asian. well. you know what.

[chaos0pikachu]

Hi chaos,

I don't know if you've heard of the Ohm-Nanon fans going to Nanon's concert wearing Ohm masks but it happened? (I don't know how to end that sentence.) (Sorry, English isn't my first language.)

You have written about parasocial relationships so I wanted to ask why are people still involved in Ohm-Nanon? Bad Buddy ended so long ago and they are still doing all this. What makes Ohm-Nanon so special? We haven't see such huge bad behaviour from other pair brands.

Please never ever apologize for how you sound in English which is a dumb broken language anyway lol fr you're English is great

anyways um, what in the fucking purge?? lmao sorry the masks thing is just taking me out I'm imagining it and the image in my head is giving kdrama to the max with the discord music and everything lmaoooo

I had not heard of that b/c I don't follow actors like that at all this is very much Brand New Information.gif for me whew wow

Soft disclaimer here I am not an expert behavioral science or anything related so like, anything I say in regards to this is based only on what I've read, can link to from experts in the field, and speculation.

I don't think OhmNanon are necessarily "special" tbh like this behavior is extreme but I wouldn't call it "new".

In western fandom you had or still have fans behaving like this we just call them "tinhats".

Like, take Larries for instance, Louis just spoke about it in an interview that nothing he can say will deter the conspiracies theorists so he's kinda stuck. This article from VOX is old (2016) but it features a pretty clear cut timeline of the theories, and obsession tinhats have with Larry. Even before Larry there was J2 (Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki from Supernatural):

I want to note that One Direction stopped being an active band in 2016, almost 8 years ago. And neither Harry nor Louis have been spotted like, hanging out~~ in public for almost that entire time. Meanwhile Jared and Jensen have been been married to their wives since 2010, almost 15 years.

To play fair, Caitríona Mary Balfe (best known for Outlander) is also at the root of a tinhat conspiracy with her costar Sam Heughan. Caitriona has been married since 2019.

Western fandom likes to pretend this environment of fan entitlement, and obsessing over costars relationships is an East Asian entertainment only thing. I thoroughly disagree, and I'm sure the people involved in these various tinhat conspiracies, many who have been thoroughly and ruthlessly harassed along with their spouses, family, friends, and anyone else caught in the crossfire would also disagree.

For me the only arguable difference between like MewGulf and Larry is MewGulf played up skinship as a means of capital and for work, while Louis and Harry were just two dudes in a band.

[I even watched the old school MewGulf videos of them during Peak Fanservice Era and I gotta say it's all so obviously hilarious fake and played up I would have never taken them seriously as a true blue couple. They reminded me more of Adam Lambert making out with his bassist during his FYE tour (Tommy, who from what I remember is straight but idk 100%) for the fun and rock n roll of it all.]

I'm getting off track, I don't think OhmNanon are "special" by-the-by because I've seen this entitled and obsessive behavior with other tinhat ships. The length of time doesn't really matter, what matters is sunk cost fallacy:

"the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial."

Fans have invested time, love, and literal money into Ohm and Nanon, therefore giving them up - and thus giving up the "community" they've build with other Ohm and Nanon fans - is unthinkable and painful.

Combine that with general fan entitlement towards public figures, the para-sociality of believe you, individually, know what's "best" for this person - aka this STRANGER - and there's a belief that you can change or force an outcome that suits your needs and wants.

There's a lot of dehumanization involved in fan entitlement, ppl stop viewing public figures - especially actors and musicians - as products rather than people. And with a product if you leave a bad review, and enough bad reviews the company will fix and change the product.

But people aren't products, and you can't force them to do what you want or be who you want them to be just because it upsets YOU individually.

So at the end of the day, what's gonna happen with Ohm and Nanon? Well, they'll probably just keeping doing what they do. Filming their individual shows, maybe one of them will do another BL - I think Ohm already has one in the works? - and try to move on with their lives. They're coworkers and from what I've seen seem fine being coworkers. I'm not interested in speculating what their relationship is, or was, publicly, they've said they're fine with each other so I'm very es lo que es about it.

For fans, well they're probably slowly taper off eventually with only a core group of "true believers" or whatever like some MewGulf, BrightWin and others have. As fans I think the only thing we can do is discourage the behavior, and be empathetic towards the people being harassed.

Now I'm gonna leave you with my favorite debunk of a tinhat post:

[icharchivist]

Icha help what is going on with hxh and its multiple endings, the tag is just confusing me even more, I feel like the whole classroom passed a note and I'm the only one who didn't read it, did Togashi play Who Wanna Be A Millionaire and lost because that's what I'm getting.

oh i'm so sorry i have to be the one to break this news to you

you rn:

so a couple of days ago Togashi was at an event in which he answered some questions from an interview and everything. In this interview, he was asked about the hxh's ending.

Here's what he replied.

the long story short is that he mentioned that he had 3 ending planned for hxh, all of which he calculates would be meet with different level of satisfaction from fans. His favorite ending is Ending C, but he feels like fans will dislike it the most.

However he also added that to give a picture of the possible endings, he's going to share Ending D, which is an ending he disregarded and would not make canon, but then he added "but if i die before i can finish hxh you can imagine this one to be canon"

Ending D is the cliché type of ending from shounen manga where you cut to Gon's daughter, Jin (get it, because Ging, Jin) who is fishing the god of the lake on Whale's Island for Grandma Mito and Noko, her mother (? a brand new character at least.) We learn her father, Gon, has left as an hunter and Jin wonders why her father is living this life, meanwhile "a figure" (probably Gon) is observing this scene from afar.

So as you can imagine, fans have been Losing It™ to say the least. News outlet has been saying THIS is the true hxh ending and now everyone is mad. Homophobic fans have been extremely eager to spam this ending to the replies of anyone talking about Killugon since because "actually Togashi planned on Gon to have a child" and all of that jazz. It's been a riot. On fire. People have been disappointed. Other heartbroken.

... because everyone is acting like it's going to be the actual ending.

While the interview was literally "here's the ending i disregarded but hey, if i die you can use this one in your head"

Like i said personally i think Togashi is trolling and making fun of the fans who are already burying him. It seems too cliché to be serious, and the fact it's not an ending that is considered makes me think it was never that serious to share to start with.

But fans gonna be fans and the fandom has been on fire ever since this interview came out.

And once people calmed down about this ending, people have been theorizing about the others three teased ending and what would Togashi means about "endings fans would find disappointing" and all of that. So that's where we're at right now.

so welcome to this dumpfire, enjoy your stay!

[darkscaleswriter]

⭐️⭐️ *Tosses stars at you for the ask game*

(ask for a director’s cut on any of my fics!)

!!! thank you for giving me the opportunity to ramble :D

SO for Write Our Names in the Wet Concrete, which I just updated a couple days ago so it's still very much on the mind, I have many many feelings about casey junior (as I'm sure anyone can tell lol I'm not subtle). specifically, I have many feelings about his relationship with his mom, bad future!cassandra jones.

I know there was some stuff from the rottmnt crew on the former bird site or something (?) about how cassandra died when casey was pretty young and he was mostly raised by future leo, but I personally do not subscribe to that. not for his backstory in wonitwc, at least. as much as i love dad leo, it's important to me that he's just as much a jones as he is a hamato, especially given that he uses the jones last name.

anyway, many thoughts about the wonitwc iteration of bad future!cassandra jones under the cut, bc i uh. definitely rambled haha ^.^

(also, important note: a lot of my characterization and backstory for cassandra is probably inspired - both consciously and not - by the mean teen fighting machines fic series by @radishhqueen, which is an absolutely incredible character exploration series for april and cassandra that made me fall in love with cassandra jones as a character. please go read it if you have a chance, it's SO good!!!)

so in wonitwc, after cassandra found casey as a baby and decided to raise him, she fully committed. it definitely wasn't an easy decision to take a step back from field work, but a baby is a 24/7 job, and the shift to handling the more organizational/admin side of the growing resistance (as mentioned in chapter 10) helped her feel less like she was costing the group by making others fight in her place. she never regretted that decision, but I think there were a few times she came close. maybe when a mission party would come back having lost someone because they didn't have enough eyes, maybe when a scout never returned after running into a trap that she knew she could've spotted.

as a parent, i think that cassandra was, honestly, not too different from what we see of her in the show lol. a bit more even-keeled with age, but still wholeheartedly committed to everything she put her mind to and not shy about it, which is why i find it extremely funny that casey somehow turned out a Good Kid (TM) who listens to authority (mostly) and respects his elders (unless theyre wrong). he's definitely got moments when his temper breaks, like when he yells at teen leo in the movie, but on the whole, his brand of feral is less… loud, i guess. not sure that's the best way to describe it but it's all my brain is coming up with right now haha.

part of casey's comparatively calmer personality can probably be attributed to the turtles and april, who also played large parts in raising him, but it's not like they're chill either. the final movie opening didn't get to really show this, but in the storyboards for a previous version of the movie's opening, it's shown that future leo has still retained a lot of teen leo's goofiness, though it's hard to say how much of that is performative. at any rate, i interpreted that as showing that the turtles were still themselves in the bad future, at least in some small part.

speaking of the turtles!! my general headcanon is that they and april informally adopt cassandra as family at some point in the future, and joke that she's a distant cousin since the hamato clan started as an offshoot of the foot clan. they get very emotional when cassandra decides to include "hamato" as part of casey junior's full name, which is a real whiplash moment from their reactions when she told them she was going to name him directly after herself lmao. anyway, casey junior grows up knowing that he's a part of the hamato clan, in name and spirit if not by blood.

cassandra was definitely grateful for the help raising casey junior, too. i don't think she ever really considered herself a single parent - raising casey was very much a team effort, even if she was his primary caregiver. cassandra is the only person that casey ever used a parental title for, though. i think she first started teaching casey to address the others by their titles out of ingrained tradition (foot clan was traditional in an oddly random assortment of ways lol) but then let him keep doing it bc it was funny. this does not help casey's Good Kid (TM) image haha.

cassandra's feelings on becoming a hamato, meanwhile, are initially mixed. on one hand, nothing brings people together like an external threat that's in the process of ending the world, so she's bonded a lot with the remaining members of the hamato clan in the apocalypse. on the other hand, she was still in the midst of finding herself after leaving the foot clan when the apocalypse hit, and the invasion triggered by her former cult definitely did not help with that. especially not when she had to put down the krang-infected foot brute and foot lieutenant. i debated taking that out, since it got darker than i expected, but it felt fitting for the tone of the chapter, so. sorry, cassandra :P

i think that cassandra's relationship with her sensei's was very much a "it didn't change anything, but it matters that the love was there" situation. they did terrible things, but they were her only family for a long time, and they cared about her. i don't think she ever fully reconciled with that. there's a reason she never really talked about them to casey junior, besides the fact that reminding people in the apocalypse that she was a former member of the clan that started said apocalypse by summoning the krang would've been a terrible idea.

but. there were times, especially when casey was little, that cassandra would catch herself wishing she could show him off to her senseis. the brute would let casey ride around on his shoulders while the lieutenant would teach him how to fold perfect origami. in another world, maybe those would've been casey junior's eccentric grandpas, visiting on alternate weekends to spoil him. fighting splinter for the position of "favorite grandparent," lol.

maybe something like that could happen far in the future of wonitwc, depending on how things go. we'll see!

[billpottsismygf]

Episode 4 of Dead Boy Detectives (Lighthouse Leapers) doesn't quite reach the heights of last episode, but it was still good. I really appreciate the way this show is able to blend comedy and darkness. I love its oddball sense of humour and I often catch myself laughing out loud, particularly at Niko, and it never clashes with the dark storylines running alongside it, which takes a lot of skill.

I would be surprised if that's the last we see of the Night Nurse. Although Charles' defeat of her was brutal, or 'extreme' to quote Edwin, it was satisfying to see him get to fight back against someone hurting him, especially after seeing his father's abuse and his death at the hands of his "friends". I also want to know more about him stopping his friends from beating someone up.

This thought is slightly out of left field, but I find it interesting that seeing a male hero hitting a female character, even a villainous one, might have been impossible to include a while ago. It is a very unusual sight and people have pointed out before that usually, when a woman needs to be physically fought in an action scene, she is often only allowed to be hit by a female hero. While obviously I don't mean that it's actually fine to hit women, I do like that maybe we're moving beyond this reductive 'don't hit girls' narrative (combined with the 'it's fine and dandy for a woman to slap a man for comedy' one). Sometimes a woman is in a position of violent authority and is using that power to hurt a man (or boy, technically, in this case) and it's cathartic to see him get to retaliate.

Again, there's a rift forming between Edwin and Charles as they struggle to be honest with one another. Interestingly, they both seem able to talk to one of the others. Charles opens up to Crystal about his father and feeling angry, while Edwin (although still not saying much) seems able to be honest with Niko in a way he can't be with anyone else. Niko is perhaps becoming my second favourite character, and something about her brand of upfront quirkiness (read: autism) breaks through a lot of Edwin's defences. Their talk on the sea shore was my favourite part of the episode, with them watching scooby doo together at the end maybe a close second.

There have been hints since the beginning of Edwin maybe having feelings for Charles, and this is dealt with somewhat directly for the first time with the Cat King shapeshifting into him, and then that little lingering shot later that Edwin has to shake himself out of. I don't have much to say about it other than that I love that Edwin, who has even admitted now that he doesn't know whether he wants to kiss Monty, has enough love interests - none of whom are ideal in one way or another - to make his sexuality journey, much like this sentence, as confusing and complicated as possible.

Small things:

The washer woman is a cool concept well-executed.

I want to know more about Asha.

I love the Walrus man and am glad he seems to have his own running subplot.

Jenny's "love letters" are giving me huge creepy vibes, but I'm also intrigued.

I missed Esther this episode. Even when she only appears for 30 seconds, it really brightens the whole thing.

[qveerthe0ry]

Hi there!

Joel brought you into the fandom, but is he still your favorite? Have any other characters stolen your heart?

Ahhhh omg I love this question!!

It’s so hard to choose a favorite… They’re all so different and lovely in their own unique way… so I will say that it’s a three-way tie and give in-depth answers as to why 😂

Joel is definitely still a favorite. I am madly in love with the way he becomes so vulnerable, something he clearly promised himself he’d never be again. It’s so endearing and also heartbreaking, the way he tries so hard not to love Ellie because of the hurt that was caused by loving his own daughter, only to end up mass-murdering for her and comparing Ellie to Sarah at the end of the season. It’s so easy to fall in love with him, little by little, as you watch him open up in increments. From the reluctant worry over Ellie, to the way he stays up all night guarding her sleeping bag because she’s scared, to the FINALLY laughing at her jokes, to the ‘do you trust me?,’ the stables scene and ‘you deserve a choice,’ the way he tells her to leave him for dead, the babygirl scene that directly mirrors Sarah’s death scene, all the way to trying to cheer her up with Chef-Boyardee and Boggle and promises of guitar lessons and ‘it wasn’t time that did it.’ All of these little moments just made my heart grow so so big for this character. There is also something so sexy about a guy who is a tough nut to crack, only to find that his center is sweet and gooey and decadent. And then he’s also such a dilf and the GRAYS are just 😍

Second, and this one surprises me, is Frankie Morales. I will preface this by saying I am way more enamored by fanfic Frankie than the actual movie character. TF isn’t my favorite type of movie, and we get so little of Frankie in it, so I’m very self-aware of the fact that fics and fandom head-canons have overtaken my judgement. BUT. Because we get so little of him, it’s very easy to mold him into what we want, which is so fun when it comes to writing. We know canon Frankie is the most reserved of the bunch, and that he is a family man, and he’s very level-headed. But what flavor of reserved is he? Aloof, brooding, and dark? Love it. Shy, hesitant, and sad? Also love it. I love that the fandom has all agreed that he is the pussy eating king, a golden retriever boyfriend, and also fairly commonly bisexual/pansexual. Also, he is so CUTE. His little curls under his little hat, and his tiny little butt, and his patchy beard, and his puppy dog eyes. Textbook definition of boyishly handsome, which is so different from most Pedro characters’ looks.

Third is the disaster bisexual himself, Dieter Bravo. Listen. It took me like four times to finally watch The Bubble all the way through. What a nightmare. But I really do think Dieter is the shining star of that movie. He has a little bit of those Joel vibes. At the beginning he’s this cocky, Tony Stark-esque character, mysterious and full of himself. But he very quickly dissolved into this sad little guy on drugs, which is just a great brand honestly. I do have the same fanfic-tinted lenses for him as Frankie, but honestly this man is so unhinged that I’m pretty sure every Dieter fic I’ve ever read is in-character and could totally be canon. I love that he is so reckless but also such a sweetheart at the core, ie: crying over a baby goat and falling in love with a receptionists because she’s like the first person to actually treat him with kindness. Also as someone who’s non-binary/gender-fluid, I really dig the ‘I’ll sleep with anyone’ vibes. He seems like the most attainable Pedro character in that regard 😂

Honorable mentions because I’m insufferable: Din Djarin for kind of the same reason as Joel, but also being so fucking funny without even trying just because of The Way That He Is

and

Marcus Pike because I just love a good sweet angel boyfriend 😌

Thank you thank you thank you for this ask 🫶🏻💕💖🥰 I had fun coming up with my extremely convoluted answer lol