#which is why the ending of S2 is such a betrayal because will's not only betrayed by hannibal but he did betray him because he couldn't

[ahhale-werewolves]

my own personal little headcanon that just makes me giggle and kick my feet is that in S3b when Will asks if Hannibal is in love with him to Bedelia, he 100% always knew this man’s been in love with him. he just wanted to be a shit and make bedelia say it.

[niobiumao3]

I've been thinking about the whole Crosshair and CX-2 situation, and I am beginning to wonder if, should CX-2 prove to be Tech, Crosshair didn't, in fact, know.

In an interview before the premiere, Michelle Ang mentioned Crosshair getting to see forgiveness and real love in the face of a great betrayal. Now, Crosshair's great betrayals are long past. So, is this some NEW betrayal? Is it someone ELSE betraying and being forgiven? CX-Tech fits the later very neatly, however, there might be another option: that Crosshair DOES know CX-2 is Tech, and has been not telling everyone because he blames himself for it happening and is sure they'll all turn him out the second they discover it (Omega included).

I'm of two minds here.

Crosshair didn't know, because Tech was put straight into conversion from medical care, and so Crosshair never saw him.

Crosshair DOES know, and feels black-hole sized guilt about it to the point where he can't bring himself to tell anyone.

In the #2 bucket goes a few things:

We see, repeatedly, that Crosshair isn't saying everything about Tantiss. This is as true for Hunter (the person always mentioning this) as it is for us, as our POV on Tantiss was almost exclusively Omega. Hunter knows Crosshair hasn't told them everything, and isn't going to push him except in specific instances where it really woulda been nice to know.

We do know that the CX conditioning is bad. Like, really bad, bad enough that wiping out your identity--not just the chip but like, you, yourself--is part of it. Or, so Crosshair says (and Tech in S2), though of course the truth of that might be more complex. This is reason enough for him to not talk about things. Except...

When Rex and Howzer explain they have a CX in custody Crosshair is immediately spooked. Then he's even MORE upset when he sees who it is. Or is it because of who it isn't?

If he knew CX-2 was Tech, and sees CX-1, he knows there is only one other CX they're sending after them, and the absolute last thing he would want is for them to have to kill Tech to get away. Or worse, kill the person who used to be Tech and can't be reclaimed (from his POV). Either way, from his POV, it is all bad news that CX-2 is inbound.

And as much as I feel Cross just isn't a hand to hand badass, at the end of his one on one with CX-2, he is clearly giving up. Everything CX-2 is saying is battering him emotionally and dousing the fight in him. Which makes a lot of sense, if he knows it's Tech.

For #1, well, the explanation is much simpler: we, and Omega and Crosshair, never see Tech in CX conditioning because he was in a bacta tank for part of it and then into a pod for the rest. He might have even converted quickly if we're to assume he had amnesia from the fall. (I suspect, should he prove to be CX-2, we won't get an explanation for this.) This actually would give Omega AND Crosshair some severe guilt, realizing when they escaped they left Tech on Tantiss in Hemlock's not-so-stellar care. It makes sense Crosshair would never want to go back--the conditioning sounds pretty awful. But then his reaction to CX-1 is a little less clear; we know there aren't very many CXes at this point, so why is THIS one such a concern to him? He just appears to be a reg. And CX-1's use of 'brother' is also very pointed. Which would make sense if CX-2 is Tech, who would have referred to Crosshair as his brother...

Anyways. We'll see if this pans out. I'd considered this might be the case even as I was like 'are we really doing that', and while I'm not a fan of this plot in the overall, like a cat being dragged outside on a harness for some enrichment I can grudgingly accept it. Mostly.

[judasalicent]

my predictions for aegon ii's death in hotd. spoilers for f&b obviously.

i believe that aegon is going to kill himself, and i think alicent's role in his death will be indirect (i.e., she is not the one who comes up with the idea of poisoning him).

why does aegon want to die? as of right now, i believe aegon's s3 plot will revolve around his time hidden on dragonstone and getting acquainted with the smallfolk, learning to live freely outside the chains of duty. aegon's fun comes to an end when sunfyre arrives on the island, and aegon is called back to duty. additionally, aegon will at some point learn of his mother's betrayal, exacerbating his sense of worthlessness. aegon became king because alicent said so, he fought in this war because alicent said so, he's been broken and burned because alicent said so. and then he wins his crown back only to discover that alicent is in love with rhaenyra and never wanted him to be king, and aegon will think all he's lost was for nothing. ultimately, he will see an escape from duty in death.

what will be the role of larys in aegon's death? to begin, let's talk about aegon's death in f&b. i believe that larys's role in the fall of dragonstone/riots of king's landing/the moon of the three kings will be greatly simplified. with such a low episode count, i imagine s4 will skip most of aegon's reign. to streamline this plot, i believe larys will support aegon throughout the entirety of the story. in f&b, larys and orwyle are implicated in aegon’s death, orwyle providing the poison and larys orchestrating. simultaneously, s2 establishes that orwyle and larys care for aegon. accordingly, i think these two will accede to aegon's plea to die out of a sense of mercy.

how will alicent be involved in aegon's death? when aegon finally decides it's time to die, he will ask to go to the sept with alicent, carrying the poisoned wine with him. in f&b, it is said that aegon is often ashamed of himself and his desires during his reign, which would possibly give him the idea to go to the sept to be "forgiven," in the eyes of the gods, but really, in this eyes of his mother. f&b further supports this theory of seeking forgiveness with this quotation from eustace "perhaps he sensed his end was near I…] and wished to pray for forgiveness for his sins." basically, aegon wants to be with his mother in the sept, referencing alicent's "i find this is a way to be with my mother," in 1x02 and aegon's "i want my mother," in 1x09. also, aegon as king is "born" in the sept in 1×09 (imagery is very explicit), and it would make sense for him want to seek out alicent there while he dies.

so, in the litter on the way to the sept, aegon will have alicent help him take a sip of the poisoned wine, meaning that alicent indirectly kills aegon. the poison will act quicker than what aegon expected, and he will die before reaching the sept to be "forgiven."

simultaneously, aegon's death will obviously be relevant to alicent. alicent will witness the death of her last living child, totally free from duty, the final link in the chain broken. i do not believe that alicent will want to kill aegon. it is one thing to sacrifice him before the war has really begun, but it another thing to murder your ailing son after the bloodiest parts of the conflict have passed. yes, alicent will resent aegon for killing rhaenyra, but the worst thing she can do to him to get that idea across is not to kill him, but to keep him alive and constantly remind him that she loved rhaenyra more than him.

[strikersexhaver]

Feathers. 🔪🕊️

——

Striker ends up in a similar position as someone he despises.

(A/N) this is also based on a OC/Striker fanfic I wish to make eventually i also haven’t seen anyone do this?

SPOILERS FOR OOPS (S2 E6) WATCH THAT BEFORE READING!!

...

Pairing: Striker x Half Goetia! Half Imp! Reader

Genre: Angst

Content Warning?: Argument, Striker’s an ass this time,

After a long, shit, god-awful day, the only thing the serpentine imp hybrid man wanted was to watch his movies and snooze up to a lover’s embrace.

However, he got the polar opposite.

It’s almost comedic (or maybe even karma) for how badly it went.

To deal with people who sucked up to blue-bloods was a pain and to lose to them? Even more so, he also had received burns from a explosion’s fire, it may turn into scars- but he had to think about the present issue of the burns now.

You took care of him when he got home as well, you wrapped up his wounds, burns or not. He needed to rest… So now he was resting against your thigh, his shoulders relaxed and body stopped tensing up as soon as he was able to bask in the homey-comfort feeling. A feeling anyone could happily indulge in at times…

Striker watched as your tail move back and fourth like a dog’s tail in glee. It was adorable he thought, passing it off until it brewed. He then realized why was your tail so- feathery?

It never was like that before he recalled.

He grabbed a hold of it gently, you chuckled at the odd sensation not seeing his expression and assuming he was playing around.

“…What is it hun?” You asked, your voice tensing as he stared in silence.

He held your tail right by the tip of it, then showed it back to you. The feathers on your tail being the crime in his eyes.

“The fuck is this?” He angrily scowled, his eyebrows furrowed and his tail rattling like a snakes.

“I-… I can explain-“ you began, “i-it was for a costume.” You tried to lie, which did not go over too well with him. The nerves in your voice and the pounding of your heart intensified as you even continued.

It made Striker’s blood boil, he could see right through your lie clear as day. As an assassin he has had to charm his way through many, and see through falsehoods many times.

As for you, you were one of the people he thought he never had to.

“Quit lyin’- what are you? What the fuck is this!” He snarled, teeth barred.

You looked for words to say as you pulled your tail from his grasp. He winced as he got up, panting as his body was spent from fighting and now healing. You tried reaching out for him to help him out but all he did was back away from the touch, a feeling of betrayal and being lied to clouded his vision.

A stinging sensation was felt in your heart as he refused your touch, it took so long for him to even let you, even more so to lean into it.

But it seems it’s impossible to imagine it happening again.

You only never told anyone the Goetia side of you because you could never fit in with either crowd with both of you, only half of you.

The lower-class entirely, mostly imps, or hellhounds would dislike you for being Goetia. Then Goetia would never even dare to look at you because of your ‘lesser blood’ they called it. You never had a place, and so… You kept it to yourself.

“I- I wanted to tell you- for so long but-“ you started but he cut you off, “but what?” He hissed.

“You never told me! That I’ve been snoozin’ with a damn half-blueblood this entire damn fuckin’ time!”

“It’s not like that, I don’t even have contacts with my parents! You know this!” You exclaimed trying to have him hear you. You heard him, clearly, the strain and dryness of his voice was present.

“Nah- you didn’t even fuckin’ tell me either?! Ya’ kno’ the shit I’ve done for ya? The bleedin’ the killin’? Nun’ of it?” His tail accidentally knocked down a framed photo of the two of you making a loud clunking noise.

The two of you paused as you looked at what he knocked down, mutually both of you felt sadness but with different feelings.

You felt anxiety creaking up your spine, and he felt anger, betrayal, all over his blackened soul.

“Striker, please-“ he looked up at you as you spoke, “I don’t- I don’t belong anywhere because of this- it’s not that, I don’t trust you- I’m scared you’ll go.”

Striker’s breath hitched, his heartbeat slowing… You could see he was starting to think but he avoided eye contact with you.

“Please- let’s, let’s talk about this-“ you tried reaching out for him, again, hoping for a different result only for him to do the same once again.

He backed away, shaking his head as he winced, starting to painfully walk away.

“…Is that it? Are you really going to fucking leave!? Just like that?! Just because of what I am?” You sniffled, tears began to swell. Sadness and fury poured into those tears.

He paused, he perked up as he listened to your words.

“After everything we’ve been through together? I thought I was your ride or die! The one person I could go to about- fucking anything, we’ve killed together, I’ve killed for you and you for me! And this is what you want to leave me over?!”

He blinked. “… Ride or die’s ain’t supposed to hide shit from each other-“

“You fucking hide from me, constantly, where the fuck where you today? Huh? Messing with royals who might come after you!”

He huffed, his pride refused to admit his wrongdoing, but his body language spoke it. His tail hanged low as well as his neck and shoulders.

“I know what I’m doin’, I’ve been doin’ this shit long before I had ya’!” He turned back to you.

“But now you do, you wanna risk it all? All of it?” You gritted your teeth, your body tensing up with your fists clenching.

“Risk your life for pride? And now- us? Because of something you should understand I cannot control.. You’re a hybrid just like me, you should understand!”

“I don’t need to understand shit, because I’m above all this- I’m above-“

“Us? You’re above us? That’s what you’re trying to say?” You put hands upon your hips, your eyebrows furrowed and tears began to fall, down your face, and even dripping onto your shirt.

He scowled. “Ya’- I fuckin’ am! Because I ain’t gonna be coddled by a half-ling blue blood-!” He perked up angrily once more, “talking to me as if you’re my fuckin’ ma? Hah! Fuck no! I ain’t!”

Striker stormed out leaving you stunned.

The words he spoke stabbed your heart like a thousand daggers in the back.

It broke you down, brought you on your knees to only cry. You turned to the photo that was knocked down, and sobbed relentlessly.

All over a damn feather.

—-

Striker on the other hand, realized he’s just like the person he was spiting for so long… If he was better than him, this wouldn’t have happened.

He wouldn’t have brought down the one person who pulled him up.

The one person he wanted to marry.

[arhapsodyofwords]

About the "two" Claudias

I was watching a yt video where the creator was asking questions about plot holes in season 2 of Interview With the Vampire. One of the "plot holes" in question being Claudia's inconsistent characterization between seasons 1 and 2 (having nothing to do with the actress change, but instead inconsistencies in the writing). The major difference being that Claudia was a ruthless and conniving vampire at the end of season 1, but cowed and vulnerable in season 2.

I don't completely agree with the premise that Claudia's characterization is inconsistent, I think a lot of the changes were natural responses to the trauma she experienced at the end of the first season, as well as the trauma she endured in Europe during the war. I don't deny that the difference can be a little jarring especially when binge-watching the show, and it got me started down the path of trying to figure out why she changed like this. (This is all just my interpretation by the way!)

Someone commented that maybe Claudia was inconsistent because memories are inconsistent, and I like this idea. I think Louis' memories of Claudia while narrating the planning and death of Lestat could have been influenced by Louis' feelings about the whole situation. Louis deeply loved Claudia, but I do think that he had some resentments towards her specifically because of Lestat's "murder," resentments that he pushed deep down. The feelings did bubble up though; like when he put his hands on her for the first and only time when she tried burning Lestat's body, or when he had Dreamstat call Claudia a mistake. Even when he yells at her about choosing the coven over him, a blow he would've felt after following Claudia to Europe and then realizing he wasn't companion enough for her ("sit in your choices, sister!" projection much?). I'm not trying to take Claudia's rapaciousness (in a good way) away from her, but it's possible that Louis described her being as predatory as he did because of this subconscious resentment.

Mostly though, I think that Claudia is depressed and lost in season 2 because she started to realize that Lestat was probably right. Claudia and Louis spent miserable years during the war not being able to find any other vampires except for Daciana, who immediately immolated herself, leaving Claudia devastated. When Lestat told Claudia and Louis about Magnus throwing himself into the fire, Claudia refused to believe him (s1, ep6). Watching Daciana do the same thing probably had Claudia remembering what Lestat said; if he wasn't lying about Magnus then maybe he wasn't lying about European vampires rejecting her.

She was happy when she found the coven in Paris, but then was immediately hurt by them too, literally the moment she joined them. Making her play a child night after night, being referred to as a bird. Possibly recalling what Lestat said about the European vampires viciousness? Lestat: "If you find them [other vampires], which you won't, they would shred you to strips, because you are built like a bird..." (s1, ep5) Santiago: "You'll be their little birdy for the next 50 years." (s2, ep3)

Lestat was correct about Europe and it's vampires and I think this shook her.

Claudia was also very hurt and angry at Louis too. Louis chose Lestat over her again, because by not burning Lestat's body, Louis left open the possibility that Lestat could take his revenge on her. She was stuck in Europe with the man who betrayed her and she had no choice but to stay with him because she still loved him, she just knew that he would never put her first. I think that Claudia also picked up on Louis' resentment towards her, at least in his extreme grief for Lestat, and this would have made her feel terrible. This is why she was so desperate to join and stay in the coven despite their abuse.

In short, Claudia's confidence was completely destroyed by Louis' betrayal, her inability to find community for a decade after leaving New Orleans, and by realizing that her evil Dad was kind of right.

(and this is why finding Madeleine was the best thing that happened to Claudia but well...)

[artemx746]

(Just copying this from my frustrated-with-the-pjo-fandom induced ramblings on the ta server + al lot more more shit than I expected to write)

I think the main pjo fandom has such a misunderstanding of why Alison might be bad for the show

It's not because she's a new character, I honestly think a new character could be good for the show, but it's because the pjo show team has already shown a fundamental misunderstanding of what pjato should be at its core (that being disability). Alison will most likely only prove what we already knew: that being the show not actually knowing what to do with pjo

Gonna be straight up here, I don't think any of these arguments against Alison are really about the fact she's a new character, season one had plenty of changes that a lot of people were fine with despite them not really making sense (why was Annabeth there for Luke's betrayal). They're because she's a new ta character and that'll either lead to the fandom confronting the fact that they've had a bias against the ta characters for literally no reason (Percy destroyed a bridge and blew up a boat, chb also had child soldiers) or their deep rooted sexism against barely morally gray women without stripping them of their agency.* The only fear I kinda get is that Alison will end up replacing one of the ta characters but unless you're a diehard Kelli fan I don't think there's really much to worry about, I'm not saying she'll replace Kelli as a Luke love interest but rather an 'evil bossy woman' type so they don't need to animate Kelli's hair.

The only thing I'm worried about is the lack of disability. I've rambled about this before on the ta server** but Alison is most likely going to be a child of a minor god, and while I do want more minor god kids, the minor god's kids represent a very important part of the disability metaphor, that being disability hierarchies specifically being detrimental against people with physical disabilities and people with stigmatised mental illnesses (npd bpd schizophrenia etc) . Alison has an open casting, and while that would usually be fine for any other character I doubt they'll cast someone with a physical disability and I highly doubt they'll cast someone with a stigmatised mental illness. So you either have: an abled bodied person acting like they have a disability OR a ruined metaphor and Ethan's eye was lost for nothing.

Ta server ramblings under the cut

*Me: considering how this fandom treats women I do not wanna see them if Alison is in the book. They can't handle Silena without stripping her down to "UwU poor manipulated girl" I do not wanna see them with Alison

making it out that Silena was just in love with Luke and he manipulated her is a) reaffirming the sexist stuff about aphrodite kids and b) robs Silena of her agency to make decisions that she ends up regretting

**Me: Honestly hate when people act like it was just Percy who got the minor gods cabins, buddy did the metaphor go over your That Much. The reason it had to be Percy was because he represents people who already have resources speaking out for those who don’t because they’re more respected. That applies to both Percy and Luke. Percy was not the reason for it it was Ethan,

There is a Reason why Ethan was the first named demigod child of a minor god and he had a physical disability, it has a mythic reason like all of the others but it is still a disability. Ethan represents the metaphor in the minor god demis, that being hierarchies in disabled communities

(this is another reason why I'm scared for Alison in s2 because she's probably going to be a child of a minor god)

what I'm really worried about is they either: make Alison physically disabled and kill her off (killing off all* your physically disabled characters rick how fun)

OR

make her able bodied and the metaphor is lost unless they explicitly say she has another stigmatised mental disability which they will not

*I don't count the kid from toa since he's a background character mentoned once and hephaestus was pretty much disabled in the myths so not rick's

okay end of ramblings jesus christ

[misstrashchan]

When it comes to predicting what happens with Carpenter and Faulkner in the last episode, I can't help but think back to S2 with Carpenter and the homesick corpse.

Carpenter's final talk with the homesick corpse is much more relevant to her character than I think people give credit for

The homesick corpse died because someone in the parish of tide and flesh, a sibling, turned on him, and he was hunted down, just like Faulkner turning on Carpenter and how she's been hunted by the people of the faith she once belonged to.

HOMESICK CORPSE:

I never learnt who turned me in. I knew it must have been a sibling of the faith, one of the families I had most frequently visited or one of the hidden pilgrims who offered food and shelter along the roadside. Someone who would have known who I was and where I was going next.

I spent many of my final days turning the names over in my head, trying to guess - who might I have offended, who might have wished me dead, amongst my friends along the road?

In the end, I stopped wondering. I wished to die with love in my heart: not doubt, not enmity.

Carpenter was reeling from Faulkner's betrayal and turning it over in her head, why did he do it, how could he, hating him, loving him. Also the dying in enmity bit. Emnity means to oppose or be hostile, to die in emnity is to die spitefully in opposition of something or someone in your final moments. Paige's god is defined by dying to spite and oppose their oppresors. Faulkner's schism of the Trawler-Man is defining themselves by their struggle against those same oppresors and those in higher power with more authority, including those in their own faith like the inner council of the high katabasian, hence why he snapped at the idea of their god being legalised and killed Mason.

Silence. CARPENTER digs.

CARPENTER:

(More roughly)

What do you regret?

THE HOMESICK CORPSE:

That I did not speak my love out loud often enough.

I had so much love in my life - it was offered to me as freely as rain. 

I felt it so deeply, but I did not speak of it. I knew it only through ritual, through shared meals and the chanting of crowds, through the oration of new words to old friends and the applause that followed.

I should have told them all how much I loved them.

CARPENTER chokes, a little, because she recognises the sentiment.

Then there's Carpenter and the Cairn Maiden, and the homesick corpse, speaking to her of dying with love in their heart instead of emnity. If Carpenter does die this season, I think that will be what's in her heart in her final moments. Though, I think it's much more likely Faulkner will die, who instead of sacrificing his siblings to the Trawler-Man or killing them for his own sake, he'll sacrifice himself to protect Carpenter from the remaining Parish of Tide and Flesh's wrath.

Speaking your love aloud more often and struggling because you only know how to do so through ritual clearly resonates with Carpenter, her faith in the trawlerman was how she stayed connected to her loved ones, even after they died, and that's why she decides to go back and tell Faulkner, her brother, that she loves him in the S2 finale. She never gets the chance to, but despite everything done against her, I think the love is still there. What Faulkner did to her wouldn't hurt so much if it wasn't. And still she hasn't spoken of that love aloud, at least not to him.

The Cairn Maiden also speaks to Paige of how they will bury the beasts (the gods that starve and die) with more comfort and kindness than they deserve, which I think will be what Carpenter does for Faulkner if he does die, whether that's him dying to protect Carpenter, or her putting him out of his misery, or him committing suicide. She'll bury him with more comfort and kindness than he deserves.

CARPENTER picks up the withered body and lays it down in the dirt.

Then she shovels the earth over it, in silence.

As she shovels, she begins to pray. It’s different, this time - the words come jolting out of her, they come strong and hard and she feels their weight.

She chokes, and she sobs, but she keeps on speaking them all the same.

CARPENTER:

This is the place. 

This has always been the place.

You were always walking towards this moment.

There’s nothing left to hold on to.

There’s nowhere left to go.

There’s no need to worry any more.

Her voice breaks on the final line

She breathes hard, struggling not to sob.

There is also that one hopeful part of me that wants to believe Faulkner would want so badly for Carpenter to kill him, to offer up his life to her for atonement, and her to be furious at the very idea that he thinks he can escape the weight of what he's done by dying, by putting that blood on her hands. For her to convince him to live with what he's done and move forward instead. Which personally I think would end up tying into the theme of finding the opposite of a sacrifice, of trying to break the cycle, but, *shrugs* who knows what could happen?

Ultimately whatever way it ends for them the one thing I am certain of is that I will be a crying mess on the floor.

[butterflydm]

wot deeper dive 2x8: what was meant to be

So excited to take a scene-by-scene look at this epic episode. This post will be dealing only with show spoilers and there will be another post later on that includes spoilers from the books.

I really loved season one, but season two has been richer, deeper, and so emotionally powerful. Have loved it so much. Posts that I'm planning to do in the next few weeks: I want to do a post covering each main character's s2 journey, I'm gonna do some speculation for s3, and I've got some posts planned on the imprisonment/control themes and the 'alone-vulnerable; together-shieldwall' theme that was so beautifully realized in the finale, and more.

But that's for the future.

For now, let's get into the show-only deep dive!

I don't think I really talked about the opening scene in my previous posts about the episode, but I really enjoyed it! I hope that future seasons continue the theme of having the final cold-open of the season be something from the Age of Legends.

2. What they did with showing the close relationship with Lews Therin and Ishamael really plays well with how Ishamael feels a kinship with Mat and thus believes that Mat is vulnerable to the same kind of philosophy and influences that Ishamael fell victim to -- he sees that Rand and Mat are close in the ways that he was close with Lews Therin, and thus believes that Mat being Rand's downfall is what is most likely to tip Rand over to the dark (alongside Egwene, who is our modern-age Lanfear counterpart imo). I really love what they've done with this relationship and with how Ishamael essentially tricked himself into believing that he understood Mat when he was really projecting himself onto Mat, just as he's been projecting Lews Therin onto Rand.

And we get the symmetry of Ishamael asking for death here and being denied, and then Rand killing him at the end of the episode, like he wanted.

3. We get confirmation here that LTT sealed the rest of the Forsaken first and Ishamael is last. This is where we get another name drop: Sammael. So the names that we have for sure are: Moghedien, Graendal, and Sammael (plus Ishamael and Lanfear, of course).

4. It looks like the other Aes Sedai here are all men, which ties us into the discussion/argument that Lews and Latra were having in the 1x8 cold open.

5. "They say this seal is so strong, not even I could break it." And while the seals do appear to be weakened by this modern point in time, we saw the effort that Ishamael went to in 2x4 to break out Lanfear. He did that six more times in this episode before he went to confront Rand. He was worn out, y'all.

I do think it's interesting the ways that Ishamael's nihilism interacts with his behavior with Rand. Once he realizes that Rand is here, he knows that his plan for turning Rand to the Shadow has essentially failed. Because Rand's friends have come to help him, and because of Lanfear's betrayal, Ishamael knows that it's over. And part of him is grateful when Rand kills him, and relieved. He doesn't really believe that he's going to reach Rand on that tower and turn him to the Dark -- that's why he sets two back-up plans into motion: a) releasing the Forsaken and b) trying to get Rand gentled.

6. Lews Therin's resigned apologies to Ishamael here for trapping him into a Fate Worse Than Death vs Mat's frantic apologies to Rand after he accidentally stabs him with the dagger from Shadar Logoth -- Lews Therin has been forced into this because of Ishamael's choices, while Mat was tricked into hurting Rand (both here and back in 2x6, when he 'abandons' Rand).

And I love the pan-up and the reveal that the "Eye of the World" was the place where Rand and Moiraine were tricked to go in 1x8 to free Ishamael from his seal.

7. I missed the credits! Though I absolutely understand the team prioritizing getting a little more screen time in each episode, since they were forced to choose. The golden threads bursting out when Josha's name appears always give me chills.

8. Our episode proper starts with the Whitecloaks planning their attack on Falme. The way that the Whitecloaks get introduced with that fade-in from light is very intriguing. I'm not a military expert but Bornhald's strategy sounds pretty solid to me: non-military expert, lol. We can see that they're hiding in the jungle for now, and they plan to make the assault as quick as possible because they have to take out the 'witches' first or any assault is doomed.

The Whitecloaks estimate there are 28 damane with the Seanchan at this time.

I really like how we see the Whitecloaks' ranks shown by how their armor is designed. The costume design on this show has been so striking, this season even more than s1. There's an almost stained-glass quality to the bands on the armor, which helps enhance that 'church/inquisition' vibe that we are going to also get with the children swinging incense.

9. "But we have something they don't."

haha, you don't know how long it took me to realize that Bornhald was implying "we have the Light on our side". Which, funnily enough, the Seanchan ALSO believe! Both sides believe that they are the ones fighting in the name of the Light, not suspecting that here comes Rand al'Thor with the steel chair (of the Light).

But I really love how drenched this episode is in light, after a season that has been very dark (emotionally and frequently literally).

10. "The Watchers on the Waves called for help, letters to every queen, every king in the world, to the Amyrlin Seat herself, begging, but no one came."

This 100% explains the reaction of the people of Falme at the end of the episode, imo. They have been begging for help and no one has come, so they gave up hope and are just doing their best to survive each day. And then the Seanchan are driven out in a matter of hours and they see that huge-ass dragon on the tower (and this version of the story does have people knowing what a dragon looks like -- the book that Rand looks at in season one with the Karaethon Cycle has a dragon sketch in the pages (at 17:38 in episode 1x5 -- there is SO MUCH subtle lore in 1x5, y'all) -- so they know what it means when they see the dragon on the tower). They know exactly who saved them from their recent oppression.

It also ties into a theme from the books, where the different nations are so wrapped up in their own problems that they don't see the big looming apocalypse that is coming for everyone. Everyone was so busy with their own problems that they ignored the messages from Falme.

11. "These strangers are slavers and murderers. We fight them because we must."

Where's that "Heartbreaking: the worse person you know just made a great point" meme? lol. honestly, that's something that the show has been doing really well! Even people who are doing terrible things are not 100% terrible and are capable of making genuinely good arguments. And they believe in themselves and their cause. The Whitecloaks and the Seanchan are both scarier when we are seeing the True Believers in the cause.

12. And Dain brings up the prophecy here that "in Falme's greatest moment of need, the Dragon will return to us" which really gives me "King Arthur" vibes (which is fitting! one of the cool themes in the book is heroic archetypes and how the wheel turns myth into legend, and we also see the Heroes of the Horn bringing that theme into the show in the major way in this episode). So, once again, the people of Falme are going to know exactly who to credit for their big rescue and seem pretty primed to become strong supporters of the Dragon Reborn, given the information that we've gotten about the city.

Bornhald dismisses prophecy in general as "the lies of long-dead witches" and we intercut into Lanfear leading Rand & co through the Ways, which is a beautiful transition. That was excellent.

13. A lot of characters have mentioned the Falme prophecy but I don't think anyone has mentioned it to Rand, specifically. He's not coming to Falme to fulfill prophecy -- he's coming to try to save Egwene. Much like Mat's reaction to Rand was very much colored by how he abandoned Rand at the Waygate, Rand's reactions with Egwene are colored by how he abandoned her at the end of s1. We know why Rand made that choice, of course, but now he's seeing the unintended consequences of that choice.

14. Lanfear's full plan gets revealed over the course of this episode, not in a super in-your-face way, but clear enough to put all the pieces together of exactly how long she's been planning to screw over Ishamael and the rest of the Forsaken (... since the moment she woke up and learned that LTT's new incarnation was around). Some of the details of this plan go into spoilers, so I'll put it in the later post but, in brief: she's manipulated various pieces on the board to use Ishamael's own plans against him -- trapping Egwene and Nynaeve in Falme was an Ishy plan, but Lanfear was able to use Egwene's presence in Falme as a way to get Rand motivated to want to go there to rescue her and, incidentally, fulfill a teeny-tiny prophecy. After Rand killed Ishamael and was proclaimed the Dragon, she was planning to have Doman dump the rest of the Forsaken in the ocean and then she would have plenty of time to manipulate seduce her dearest Lews Therin Rand into loving her again.

And it almost worked! Well, I don't think seducing Rand a second time would have gone as well as she was hoping, but most of the plan really worked out for her.

15. It looks like the show just revealed here that Lanfear also has the Talent of being able to see fellow channelers even when they aren't embracing the Source. ("I can see it in you.")

I love Lan protectively trying to step in front of Moiraine even though he has zero chance against Lanfear. It's giving real "bless him, he tries" vibes.

Lanfear just yeeting them out onto the beach cracks me up.

It also was really great in terms of how it set Moiraine up not as one of the main players fighting in the battle, but as support from the side, smoothing the way. When Rand and the rest of them come down from the tower and are greeted by the grateful people of Falme, none of those people will know that Moiraine and Lan had anything to do with Rand's success. It feels like such a natural progression of her role -- in s1, she was the driving force that led them all to the Eye of the World... and that ended up being a massive screw-up. This time, they all find their own ways to Falme, and none of our main six young heroes are there because they're planning on fulfilling prophecy or fighting the Last Battle. They're there to save one of their own (first Egwene, and then Rand). "Think not of glory but of salvation". They didn't quote it, but the thought is there in the action of what happened in the episode.

16. "How can you think I'd ever trust you again?"

"I'm the only one who actually cares about you, Rand. Everyone else -- Ishamael, Moiraine -- they just care about what you can do."

Lanfear attempting to use her manipulating wiles on Rand. Of course, at the end of the episode, he's going to get a big reminder that she's incredibly wrong and there are a bunch of people who care about him for who he is, but even in this moment, he doesn't look like he's falling for it. And Rand didn't walk away from his friends at the end of s1 because he believed that they didn't care about him. He walked away from them because he believed that he was dangerous to them.

(and she tried to use this tactic on Rand in 2x6 as well, but she failed there too, though she may believe that she succeeded, because Rand does still extend trust to Moiraine in 2x7 when she asks him why he was leaving Cairhien and he tells her everything that he knows/believes, including very much implying that he thinks Lanfear wants to kill him after he's been proclaimed Dragon)

Lanfear lost Rand's trust when he found out who she really was and that she had been manipulating him for months. And I think she's massively underestimating what she would need to do in order to earn any of that trust back.

17. After the Maidens warn Perrin that they are getting Bad Vibes and are pretty sure that today is going to be filled with people getting killed, Perrin asks Hopper to stay behind, trying to keep him safe. Oh, Perrin, that never works. And Hopper has just as much right to be in the fight as you do.

18. Lanfear accidentally screws over her own plan because she can't bring herself not to gloat before her future husband Rand kills Ishamael. This is the big moment when we see how much Ishamael and Lanfear's plans are diverging from each other (and Ishamael sees it too). Ishamael had been planning to play the long game with Rand, keep him away from Falme until he was ready to be turned to the Shadow. Now Lanfear has jumped the gun and brought Rand at a time when Ishamael only has two of Rand's friends in hand (Egwene and Mat) and even those two have not been broken yet. He's not ready for Rand to be here! There's still so much work to be done!

19. After this conversation, Ishamael is aware that he's potentially fighting a losing battle. But he doesn't give up -- he sends in Fain to try to accelerate Mat's corruption; he prepares Suroth for the possibility of gentling Rand. He won't give up without a fight.

Ishamael does sound so intense when he talks about how Rand isn't going to "choose us".

20. ...is Lanfear wearing a dragon earcuff? I think she might be wearing a dragon earcuff/earring. That is not subtle.

I like that it seems like Lanfear believes that she's tricked Ishamael, at least in part, just like she believed that she'd tricked Rand a lot more successfully than she had (since he was very much still lumping her together with Ishamael when talking to Mat and Moiraine).

21. ...I don't ever really have much to say about the fighty-fight part of battles. The image of the Whitecloaks galloping out of the incense/fog was pretty cool.

22. Nynaeve really does have a very rough go of it in this episode. While she does manage to help, that help is in the realm of "get Elayne to the tower so that Elayne can do something". And while I understand the frustration from her fans... her block needs to actually be a problem for us to understand why she wants to get rid of it. This episode made her block a problem, one that she wasn't able to overcome at the last second when it was desperately needed. Much like Mat's low ebb this season was intentional so that we could get the amazing high of the Horn scene, Nynaeve is entering a low ebb. At the beginning of the season, she was showered in praise and special attention that she didn't want. Now she wants the power that had earned her all that praise and she can't reach it (this is similar to how Rand's lack of training needs to actually be a problem so that we understand why he needs to get some training).

23. Oof, it's hard to watch Renna with Egwene. We do get clarification that the dark facepaint is for going into battle.

Renna cutting off Egwene's braid... much like the tree she forced Egwene to burn down, she's trying to attack something that she knows brings Egwene comfort.

Egwene's eyes when she's feeling at her shorn braid. Baby!

24. I've been finding it interesting to think about What's Up with Padan Fain. So far this season, he's stayed within Ishamael's orders (to our knowledge) but when Ishamael orders him to give the dagger to Mat, we hear the whispers of it calling to him. Once Ishamael is dead, does that free Fain to follow the call of the dagger? Because when Mat was under the influence of the dagger, he still was not a fan of the Shadow. Different kinds of evil. The evil of Shadar Logoth scared the Trollocs enough that they weren't willing to chase our people into the city. I will keep an eye on future developments!

25. Poor Mat has been having a Fucking Time of it. First, he has to watch Rand leave, knowing that he's apparently fated to kill his best friend with an evil dagger. Then he gets hit on the head and wakes up across the continent? With a scary lady who insults him? Then ol' flame-eyes is here and his eyes aren't flame anymore and Mat is just so exhausted and tired and he takes this tea that gets REAL trippy and depressing and tells him that he's destined to be awful forever. And then he's locked up alone in a room. And then... Padan Fain shows up???? With the dagger from Shadar Logoth?????

The one Mat is destined to kill Rand with?

Like... he has been having a time of it.

26. Oof, hard to watch Nynaeve torturing Seta. I understand why Elayne needs to keep looking away. Nynaeve wants so badly to find Egwene and save her. We actually get a lot of ruthlessness from the ladies in this episode -- Nynaeve with Seta; Egwene and Renna; and Moiraine's willingness to "kill a thousand innocents if there's even a chance [Rand] will live". But I think the show did a good job of showing you why each of these characters is driven to be so ruthless at this moment in time.

27. Rand confirms with his own eyes that Egwene is here in Falme, as he sees her and the other damane being led out of the kennels. And he sees the gag in her mouth -- I wonder if part of the reason for that part of the costuming was to make it easy for Rand to see from far away part of the indignities that are being forced on Egwene (obviously, he also saw what horrible conditions she was enduring in her cell back when Lanfear showed him Egwene, but now he knows for certain that what Lanfear was showing him was true).

28. Mat and Fain's conversation with Fain here is interesting because I think Mat is figuring it out -- so many people keep telling him over and over that he's destined to do the stupid thing; that he's worthless; that he's going to be like his dad; that he abandons his friends. Padan Fain is saying the exact same thing that Liandrin was saying (you abandoned your friends for the dagger). Having his old peddler from back home showing up to say the same things that the Aes Sedai who had kept him captive for months had said... that's kinda suspicious, bro. That kinda seems like someone else is supplying the script, bro. Because Mat is not in the same kind of despair here when he's listening to Fain as he was when he was listening to Liandrin. He's paying attention to who the messenger is (and who sent the messenger), not just the message itself.

The first time through watching this scene, it can feel like Mat is trying to convince himself when he smiles at Fain and tells him that he's not going to touch the dagger. But... he doesn't touch it. Instead, he inspects the room and comes up with a plan to escape that doesn't involve touching the dagger. It wasn't just bravado, when he was talking to Fain. He meant it. All these people, they keep telling Mat that they know him better than he knows himself. That they are the ones who really know his inner darkness. That they can guess what he's going to do next.

And Mat... he decides right here, I think, that he is going to prove them wrong. Maybe he WAS always terrible in his past lives? Well, then he'll fucking do better in this one. He makes the decision to do better BEFORE he learns that his past lives weren't rotten, and I think that's so important.

29. Moiraine and Lan's scene here is very sweet. I think this was a really sweet capstone to Lan's journey through the season and an affirmation of Moiraine trusting and allowing Lan and Rand to help her at the end of the last episode. Though the main culmination of the "alone we are vulnerable, together we are a shieldwall" comes in the fight against Ishamael, Moiraine has been very much a parallel with Rand this season in how she's been pushing people away so that she can face the danger alone, so her literally allowing Lan to share in her burden is a lovely little illustration of that same point. Plus the weaves and music here are just gorgeous. I really do love the intimacy here, between a man and woman who are fundamentally connected but not in a sexual or romantic way.

Meanwhile, Lan's journey goes back to a similar point as Mat's, I think, in that he accepts the idea that Moiraine views him as inferior and says he wants to help her anyway, before he gets rewarded with learning that she sees him not as an equal but as better than her. "Okay, what if this horrible thing, this thing that I don't want to believe could be true... what if it IS true and then I keep on doing the right thing anyway?"

Though I've never had the issue with Lan's storyline that I feel like I've seen some other book readers have. The only time his story felt 'slow' to me was through my first watch of 2x4 and even that changed when I did my rewatch and saw how much we were getting told about Alanna & her Warders and how it was leading up to Alanna getting folded into all the big plans. But, yeah, my main interest in Lan was never how many enemies he could kill per minute and the show has made him a much more interesting character to me than the books did.

30. I suspect all this 'getting the Horn' stuff might have been expanded on if we'd gotten ten episodes but there's enough information there to make it clear that Lanfear (as 'Selene') gave them the Horn so that her future devoted husband Rand would get his special toy before he fought Ishamael. Heists can be fun but we did get the info a couple of episodes ago that the Horn was barely being guarded, so that also tracks with it being easy for a 'slave' and a 'guard' to be able to sneak in and grab it.

...the Seanchan uniform actually looks really hot on Ingtar.

31. Perrin finds out here that Egwene is in Falme, and he instantly pivots to that information -- Egwene has been captured by the Seanchan; we have to help Egwene. We know that Perrin has been worried that all of them being isolated away from each other makes them vulnerable and here is proof! Obviously, if Egwene is here, then she has to be the priority over the Horn.

"The Horn of Valere summons the dead heroes of the past. It's the key to the Dragon winning the Last Battle."

Yeah, the show was very clear about what the Horn does. Even if you miss Ingtar's line on an initial watch, a rewatch would instantly clear it up (especially with the knowledge of what it does when Mat uses it). The fascinating thing is that Ingtar NEVER SAYS that the Dragon needs to use it, but that's clearly what Perrin assumes (and a lot of show-only reactors assumed it too, and were surprised by Mat being able to use it).

I like Loial's little speech. He shames Ingtar right out of his determination to leave the city with the Horn.

32. The way that Renna and Egwene's power struggle comes to a head in this episode was really effective I think.

We see Egwene not being able to bring herself to attack until she sees the Whitecloaks, and she takes care to place her fireball where it will only hit Whitecloaks and not any cilivians.

33. I have to admit, the view that certain book fans have that Rand did nothing in this episode are baffling (Nynaeve didn't do 'nothing' either, but both she and Rand ARE going to, I'm sure, seek ways in the new season to do more because they were both clearly frustrated by being 'blocked' from what they wanted to do). Rand did less than he wanted to do, because he got shielded -- motivation for him to want to search out some training next season, because there were several moments this season when his lack of training has been pointed out! -- but in both the Turak scene and the Ishamael scene, Rand ends the fight almost effortlessly (once he's free to do so, in the Ishy scene).

Turak and his guards stood literally no chance against Rand -- he raised his chin and looked, and over a dozen people died (but only the ones with weapons, not the Voice who wasn't a threat). I'm sorry, that is power. The idea that Rand indulging in a sword fight would have shown more power than what he actually did is ridiculous. He would have been a cat playing with a mouse instead of just killing it (and every show-only reactor that I've watched so far has had a BIG reaction to Rand doing this).

We've been shown throughout this season with the Forsaken that the less effort channeling takes and the more casual that you are with it, the more powerful you are. And that's exactly what Rand shows in this scene. Not only does he create and send the projectiles, they are precisely aimed to only target combatants.

Which means that Rand gets to see another aspect of Seanchan culture here -- the main slaves of a High Lord kills themselves when their lord dies. It really does show how deeply the brainwashing goes in Seanchan culture. And you can see that Rand is disturbed by the violence that he just did, but he has to move on, so he does.

34. I really do love how Josha embodies the physicality of Rand's channeling. He does move to channel but it feels very natural, like an extension of himself. It was that way in s1 as well. Rand channeling just... idk it hits different for me than any of the other channelers we've seen, as beautiful as the weaves can be.

35. "The Forsaken fought amongst themselves as much as they fought the Dragon," feels like a very important note for s3 -- the six Forsaken that Ishamael released are not going to be going after Rand together. Just as Lanfear ended up undermining Ishamael's plans, with the goal of killing him, getting rid of the other Forsaken, and living happily ever after with Lews Therin Rand, the other Forsaken will each have their own agenda too. So it's not complete doom and despair that they've all been released.

36. So even as Lanfear is making plans to dump the rest of the 'Chosen' in the ocean, Ishamael is busy at work releasing each of them, one by one. We learn here that Lanfear has been manipulating events in Moiraine's storyline from the very beginning of the season.

Ishamael brushing the dust of the remaining seals from his hands as he talks to Suroth: a+, lol. But to make matters even worse for him, he learns here that Turak is dead and the Horn has been stolen. And everything was looking so rosy for him before Lanfear showed up!

Ishamael's "shit, Lanfear betrayed us" back-up plans:

step 1: free the rest of the Chosen

step 2: get Rand shielded ASAP

step 3: Maybe seeing Mat and Egwene in dire straits will be enough to turn Rand to the Shadow? (it's confirmed here that Ishamael made sure to have Egwene ordered to the tower where "the whole city can see her")

*fails*

step 4: okay, we'll gentle him and then work on breaking him once he's less dangerous

*fails*

step 5: maybe I just kill him?

*fails*

step 6: well, guess I'll die. At least I screwed over Lanfear on my way out. The rest of the Forsaken will have to handle things from now on.

37. I love Mat working out a way to use the dagger without touching it. Also it kinda cracks me up that he ties the dangerous thing to a bedpost because... um... Lanfear tied Rand to a... I think that's maybe only funny to me. lol

We see here that Mat understands how the dagger works, probably a lot better than Ishamael did or Fain does. It nearly killed him last season! He's aware of how dangerous it is... but also how useful it can potentially be at the moment.

And I love that Rand's stubborn 'ACTUALLY, Mat is amazing and one of the best people who has ever lived, so jot that down' attitude from 1x7 gets proven correct here. Rand knew Mat better than anyone else, from what we saw at various points in s1, and now his certainty that Mat Is Good, Actually gets to be proven (including, very importantly, Mat himself... until the Accidental Stabbening gives Mat a brand-new guilt complex).

38. We can see here that the fireballs coming down from the damane in the tower are hitting ordinary citizens as well as the Whitecloaks -- not everyone is being as careful as Egwene.

She sees it too -- that's what makes her spit out her gag and refuse to help anymore. And this moment (among some others) really sells why this addition to the costuming works because Egwene actively and literally reclaims her voice here.

And the Whitecloaks attack on the tower work, killing many of the damane and sul'dam at the top of the tower.

39. While earlier, we saw that some of the Whitecloaks were helping pull civilians out of the way, once again, not everyone on their side is being that careful -- the Whitecloak archers shoot Seta, dressed as a damane, but they also shoot Elayne, dressed as an ordinary citizen. Both the Seanchan and the Whitecloaks are causing innocent people to get caught in between them and die.

And I do think it's clear here that Nynaeve is overwhelmed and scared, not angry. That's why she isn't able to reach the power. Her block is now officially a problem for her, one that she has a very good reason to try to get it fixed next season. This is a similar lesson to what they've been showing us in Rand's storyline: raw power isn't enough. You also need control, or other people will be able to control you.

40. And that ties into what Egwene does too -- both Mat and Egwene think outside the box in order to find clever solutions to their problems in this episode and not be limited to what their captors thinks they're capable of. They both choose an unlisted option.

She seizes control over herself and her situation, because she understands her power now. Egwene, Mat, and Moiraine all reclaim themselves after having gone through a long, rough period of being put in a situation where they feel inadequate and broken down.

And Egwene figured it out by being clever and putting together the information. We also get more confirmation here that only channelers can see weaves.

41. Reunions! Mat and Perrin's reunion here is very sweet. It's also much more straightforward than the more complex and fraught (though just as sweet) relationship between Mat and Rand. Perrin and Mat share a good long hug! Mat holds his shoulder for a moment! But when the hugging is gone, they pull away from each other and don't constantly stay all over each other like Rand and Mat were in their initial reunion scene in 2x6 (or like Rand and Mat will do in their upcoming scene, post-stabbening). So I love that we see that Mat and Perrin are very good friends and they love each other and... and it's not quite the same as Mat's friendship with Rand.

42. Poor Egwene really is so burnt out, emotionally, by her experiences and so traumatized, and we can really see how exhausted she is by everything that happened. She needs some real processing time.

I'm glad that we got Rand's apology to Egwene here, even if I think she's maybe only half-processing it at the moment.

43. I love how quickly Mat gives out the info of "Rand is alive, he's here, he's headed to help Egwene" to Perrin here. And that he takes another dig at Rand's hair, lol. When Rand regrows his hair, Mat gets the credit for it, lol. I also miss Rand's curls, Mat! You are not alone!

44. Ishamael is talking here like he's knows that it's over. He does not expect his appeal to Rand here to work -- like he told Lanfear, it's too soon. Egwene isn't broken. Mat isn't broken. He doesn't even HAVE Nynaeve or Perrin in hand. "Maybe next time it'll be different," Ishamael says, because he already knows that his primary goal of turning the Dragon to the Dark has failed.

I love the echoes of this scene to the one from the cold-open.

45. "You're his only hope" vs "betrayer of hope". I talked about this in one of my earlier posts I think, but the contrast still hits me hard.

Here we have Ishamael, blaming Lews Therin for his fall to the dark (and the stories say that it was LTT's 'fault' that Lanfear turned to), but it wasn't LTT's fault. It was Ishamael's choice. And it's Mat's choices that make him different from Ishamael.

But, yeah, this is another of those things that just gets extra weight to Mat and Rand's friendship vs Mat and Perrin's or Rand and Perrin's.

46. Dain and Perrin meet on the battlefield and get to fight back-to-back for a moment. I think everything with Perrin & the Whitecloaks & Hopper is well-done, but it's tough to talk about. Hopper does get a lovely send-off, as he see him leaping the way that he did when he told Perrin his name. Also, the tension between Dain and Perrin the next time they see each other (narratively, they have to see each other again, with all this set-up) is going to be fantastic.

Hopper's last sending to Perrin is so beautiful. And it's so easy to understand Perrin's rage here, just as it was easy to understand Egwene's need to kill Renna.

47. I like how Elayne (in agony!) is doing her best to help Nynaeve get to a place where she can help Elayne. She really takes charge of the situation and is able to bring a level of calm to it, even when she's under significant distress herself.

Nynaeve is trying so hard to channel here and she can't even embrace the Source. I do think that her 'block' probably got some reinforcement when her most recent use of the Power directly led to Ryma's capture.

(speaking of Ryma, since we don't see her in the tower or on the ships, it's entirely possible that, as a brand-new damane, she was still in the kennels and can get freed after the battle here is done; I would like that for her very much and - if they do decide to have the Wondergirls go back to the White Tower, Ryma could be the one to take them there, as she delivers the news about the Seanchan. That's one of the few reasons that I can see for the Wondergirls to think it will be safe for them to go back to Tar Valon, after they hear Moiraine's news, tbh)

But, yeah, I'm glad that Nynaeve can't just Bruce Banner "I'm always angry" at her problems. That her block is now something that is causing her distress in times when she desperately needs to be able to channel.

48. Mat blowing the Horn is such a beautiful moment. Time slowing and the music changing and the effects of how the Heroes appear. This is a moment of intense despair for everyone and Mat blowing the Horn here turns everything around. I think they did a really good job in making this the turning point of the episode. Mat blowing the Horn did bring back the hope of winning. It didn't win the battle, but it gave back hope. Instead of Mat being ~just like~ Ishamael, he is instead Ishamael's opposite. Instead of betraying hope, he creates it.

And it's such a joyous moment. Mat gets to have his self-worth affirmed by an outside source, gets to feel connected to something bigger than himself, after feeling alone for most of the season. It's really beautiful.

Just... gorgeous. And when Mat remembers and is able to get that validation that he is not destined to be a 'damn prick', just like his father, that he isn't rotten to his core... witnessing him going through that moment is so lovely. Cannot say enough good things about it, A+ television.

49. We also see that, after Mat says that he 'remembers', that he's handling his weapon differently, more familiarly, and he can now speak the Old Tongue. So we can see the impact that remembering his past lives has on him.

And, of course, we see here that Uno is one of the Heroes of the Horn! It's a nice hint to viewers who maybe weren't listening to Ingtar earlier that the Horn brings back the dead. Because we definitely all saw Uno die.

50. And, of course, being magically-fast ghost warriors, the Heroes absolutely can make sure that they only target active combatants and that no civilians get caught in the cross-fire.

Uno saving Perrin. <3 And then lending him a magic shield! Useful! I'm guessing it probably also fades away after the Heroes do.

And once the arrow is out of Elayne's leg, everyone is on their way to the tower.

51. Rand is able to push himself to his feet, despite the effects of the shield on him, and tell Ishamael, point-blank, "I will never serve him. In a thousand lives, I never have. I'm sure of it."

Ishamael knows that his main plan is a bust. It's only back-up plans and failsafes from here on out.

52. Mat's throw is a really good throw! Unfortunately, Ishamael is a trickster too, and it goes right through the illusion of him. This moment is incredibly traumatizing for Mat who only literally just now regained his sense of self-worth -- while we are going to end up with our heroes triumphing over Ishamael and the Seanchan and saving Falme... they all end up damaged and traumatized by it.

Mat just clutching onto Rand here in the wake of accidentally stabbing him. Oh, wow, it really gets to me. And Rand's anger is 100% (and very appropriately and accurately) focused on Ishamael.

And Ishamael is so distracted by this moment that he doesn't realize that Egwene has gotten up from where he threw her.

53. I love how delicate Elayne's healing weave is. And the wound left behind looks very nasty. And Rand getting healed by Elayne and then seeing the sun shining in her hair. What a way to be introduced to someone for the first time! They save your life like that and are literally wreathed in sunlight.

54. Moiraine and Lan getting on the same (ruthless) page when it comes to supporting Rand/the Dragon. And we get to really see Lan let loose with his fighting as Moiraine lets loose with her channeling.

55. I was honestly a little nervous about the idea of them actually doing a sky battle because I could not possibly picture how that would not be cheesy. I trusted the show's team but... I was nervous. What the show did was not at all cheesy. It was heartfelt and epic, but not cheesy.

I love how everyone works together to make it work. The team did such a good job of playing out this theme of having the characters be isolated and showing how that made them vulnerable, and then rewarding us with this beautiful coming together. They can be there for each other and protect each other.

And I'm confused about anyone feeling like this takes away from Rand because... they all contribute so that Rand can strike the final blow -- because Rand is the only one who could have done that part. Moiraine freed Rand from his shield and Elayne healed him, Egwene and Perrin were able to block Ishamael's attacks, but Rand absorbed Ishamael's attacks into his own weave to strengthen it, and then he wove the One Power directly into his sword and we can see the results -- instead of getting back up again, Ishamael crumbled to dust.

Ishamael himself was aware that he had lost as soon as Rand was unshielded, imo. He makes another attack after that, but it's clear that he knows that he lost. There's a reason that Ishamael's first big move in the scene with Rand is to get him shielded by the damane. That's the only way he even has a chance in this fight and he knows it. Egwene isn't able to go on the offense against, Ishamael in any way and we can see what a toll it's taking on her to hold up her shield against him - holes develop in her shield before Perrin shows up.

Minor Cauthor note: I love how after Rand gets rocked by being unshielded and he realizes that Mat got pulled away from Mat, he grabs Mat's hand again. Cute, even in the middle of a pitched battle.

56. Our poor traumatized babies! Let's count up the trauma:

a. Rand felt shielded and helpless for much of the fight and now has a wound in his side that Elayne wasn't quite able to heal. He's also very aware that his lack of training is causing big problems. And he's got a heron brand on his hand now.

b. Egwene is deeply traumatized from her time as a slave.

c. Nynaeve spent this entire battle feeling helpless and her only contribution was bringing Elayne here so that Elayne could heal Rand. Nynaeve may even blame herself for the state Rand's wound has been left in, wondering if she could have healed him fully if she'd had access to the Power.

d. Perrin just lost his new wolf BFF in a traumatic way.

e. Mat stabbed his best friend with an evil dagger (after spending months being psychologically tortured).

f. Elayne has a pretty nasty leg injury. Also, she has to be the most confused person here, by a mile. She likely knows about the prophecies and the Dragon Reborn as general concepts but had absolutely no clue that she was accidentally stumbling into the middle of them. She's gonna have so many questions.

57. But this whole section really is beautiful. Just... I love the fire-illusion dragon so much. Moiraine is always So Extra, all the time.

58. This is the first time any of them have seen Rand channel! Even though they can't see the weaves, they can see Rand walking through Ishamael's attacks without flinching, they can see his sword glowing red, and Ishamael turning to dust. And they heard Ishamael call him "Lews", probably.

It's also another incredibly intimate stabbing, though in a different way than Mat 'stabbing' Rand was. He looks directly into Ishamael's eyes the entire time and, afterwards, he stays focused on Ishamael until he's turned to dust.

59. Yeah, Falme looks pretty all-in on the Dragon Reborn. He saved them from the Seanchan and (given what the dude in Atuan's Mill said) he also saved them from the Whitecloaks. At their greatest hour of need, the Dragon really did come to save them. We also get the confirmation here that these Aiel Maidens, at least, believe that Rand is the Car'a'carn that they've been searching for.

60. At this point in time, Lanfear is feeling pretty damn happy with herself. Step one of her plan was a complete success! Ishamael has been taken care of. Lews Therin Rand has been publicly proclaimed the Dragon! Her happy ending is within her grasp!

Then, as Lanfear is basking in her victory... she discovers that Ishamael took action when he realized she was betraying him. We meet "softly, softly from the shadows" Moghedien and see her stand toe-to-toe with Lanfear. All of the Forsaken are now loose.

Love the vibe they've given to Moghedien.

We can see here that those conflicts that Moiraine talked about between the Forsaken are clear and present. Lanfear and Moghedien are definitely not on the same page when it comes with how to deal with the Dragon.

Moghedien says that "him" and "all five of them" are now the other Forsaken's business and that Lanfear is to stay away from Rand in particular.

And she vanishes before Lanfear is set free and our last words of the season are Lanfear saying, "Light help you, Rand al'Thor."

Interesting in two ways! Acknowledgement of him as Rand, not Lews Therin, and calling upon the Light to aid him. I feel like it does a good job of setting up some very clear issues for the next season.

Hope we have a shorter wait this time!

[sepublic]

With this analysis of Luz having Belos, and King having the Collector, it does feel as if Eda herself is technically missing her own personal antagonist; Though tbf, she does parallel/foil Belos in a lot of ways too. So it could simply be interchangeable, esp when we have Luz and the Collector; But a part of me wonders if there would've been a third villain, for Eda?

Like, maybe the Archivists; They're out there, and their relationship with the Collector can be comparable to Eda and King's. It's just that Eda lied to King and was at times a neglectful parent, but nevertheless came around... And since I believe it was an Archivist and not the Collector who turned the Owl Beast into a scroll, there's a very personal connection for Eda there, given how much the curse really shaped her life and made her self-doubt in a way even the coven system didn't (Though you could argue she only got cursed because of Belos' cutthroat system pitting Lilith against her).

Maybe the Archivists would've recognized their magic on Eda, would've recognized the Owl Beast especially and we'd get more lore on it; Not that the Archivists needed it to be special to 'preserve' it, per their stated MO. Given the Owl Beast's reaction to the Collector, imagine how it would've responded to the actual Archivist who transformed it? And we could've gotten more collaboration between Eda and the Owl Beast, more understanding as the latter became more active as a character...

Who knows, maybe the six-legged form we see in the finale is a super-harpy form that the two could've achieved against the Archivists; Or the 'Owl Deity' mural within the Owl House's living room.

I also wonder if Eda's antagonist is Lilith; After all, we've seen in the storyboards that she was originally going to be much more antagonistic and mean-spirited. I wonder why the writers changed this. I suspect it's to make the twist of Lilith cursing Eda actually impactful, since a Lilith who clearly cares and is struggling to have it both ways feels like a genuine betrayal to Eda and the audience, as does her dangling Luz over a cliff (Which in the storyboards, happens but isn't as huge of a deal).

So Lilith is an occasional antagonist and rival, but never a malicious threat and even someone who teams up; Which makes the revelation and her crossing a line hit extra-hard. So she's basically a twist villain, revealed as the 'mastermind' behind the curse that Eda struggles with in S1, with S1 having the most emphasis on the curse as a conflict for the protagonists to navigate; And Lilith sharing that curse is the resolution, as it's no longer an active problem threatening Eda's existence. There's still more (like the aforementioned Owl Beast) to address in S2, but the curse itself is not worsening anymore.

With all that in mind, I guess this makes Lilith technically the villain of S1? Since Belos only really takes initiative in the last two episodes. She's more recurring, and her being less antagonistic kind of works with S1 being much more light-hearted. I've already suggested before that each season corresponds to one of our main trio; S1 for Eda, S2 for King, and S3 for Luz. Belos definitely plays a bigger role in S2 while the Collector is more S3, so it's not exactly one-to-one...

Still, we can see the progression as the villains get more powerful; But in the end, Lilith and the Collector were both manipulated by Belos, and are won over in the end. Lilith gets the most screen time as an ally due to when she turns around, and thus her time as a protagonist overshadows her time as an antagonist.

I also have to wonder if Eda isn't meant to have her own villain? Eda is unlike Luz and King in that she's already a full-grown adult who's seen and learned plenty; She's got more to learn as we see. But she's more certain of her place in life, whereas Luz and King are going through their coming-of-age, and thus they have their personal antagonists to represent that big character conflict.

For Eda, it's more confronting herself; Or maybe the Owl Beast is that antagonist, since she does blame it for ruining her life and all that. Maybe it's Raine and Gwen and Dell and Lilith; Less in an "Antagonist" sense, and more as people Eda needs to make resolution with, that she's in conflict with.

And as an adult, that conflict is less overt and more quiet, internally painful, and really about just talking things out. By contrast, Luz still had her Gildersnake moment coming up, set up in THE very first scene of the show, and King had his arc renouncing his destroyer status to be more mature with the concept of power.

Maybe it's because Eda's not one who operates on fantasy like Luz and King do, either; In the second episode, Eda delivers the lesson about 'being special' which tell us a bunch. It suggests she's already been there and done that, she's the mentor. Her antagonist is less of an overt face per adulthood, but maybe it represents how she's done most of her growth.

So Eda's arc isn't about her relationship with fantasy; King's is abandoning his in favor of a quieter, sustainable reality; Luz has a nuanced dynamic with her fiction (due to it being less inherently destructive than King's), where she healthily distinguishes when and when not to embrace it.

It could be that since Dana originally held hopes for a prequel series involving teen Eda, that we would've gotten a more overt antagonist for her that way; Maybe Principal Faust! With his rantings on kids as evil, being an insincere teacher while Eda becomes a genuine one and even a dean! And that conflict’s resolution leads to Bump taking his place. And/or it's Terra Snapdragon. Hell what if it was the previous Golden Guard, and Darius not yet realizing what his mentor did wrong (even if his mentor realized but never vocalized it to a kid who could get in trouble) contributed to him no longer being friends with Eda; Because she defeated the Golden Guard.

(This reminds me of my speculation on Eda and the Golden Guard, before we learned Hunter's name, being parallels and having connections. They're not exactly parallels... Well maybe in some ways they are with their lacking magic... But they definitely have that lost-to-time familial connection.)

I did notice that in S3, Eda didn't have as much focus compared to Luz and King; Again, for the reasons I listed above about her having done most of her arc already, and what she had left had already been resolved. So it makes sense to focus on Luz and King, who are still struggling. But also again; If we got that prequel series, we would've gotten a bunch of solo Eda development and screen time, but without any Luz and King alas.

So when evaluating all these factors, maybe Dana and the writers chose to focus on Luz and King, and let Eda take the backseat for this reason; They'd still have a whole show for Eda, or at least a mini-series, afterwards. But this was the last we'd see of Luz and King, so I think that priority worked. Even if we evidently aren't getting that prequel series, if Dana's acceptance of this is any indication... Plus, again: S3 being short means they can only fit in so much, meaning Eda could only get so much too; Esp with the set-up of Luz needing to make her way back to Eda and King, which means they only have 2/3 of S3 where they can appear.

[mileenaxyz]

*Spoilers ahead*

I was going to rant about how Season 3 of Industry wasn't Industrying for me. I was going to bitch about the infamous "Season 3 Slump" some shows tend to suffer from. I was going to compare it to The Bear and complain that just like I hadn't gotten enough of Sydney Adamu in S3, I wasn't getting enough of Harper Stern in S3.

I was going to ask if Harper was being phased out in favor of Yasmin and Robert, and I was going to point out that as fond as I am both of those characters, neither one is "enough" to lead this show alongside Eric the way Harper is.

I was also going to call Kit Harington's casting publicity casting and point out that anybody could've been played Henry Muck, because I don't feel like Kit did anything special acting wise.

I was going to do all of that and then...last night's episode dropped.

Y'ALL. Since the end of S2 I've been waiting for Harper to rain fire and blood on PierPoint. I wanted to see how she'd do it and how long she'd draw out the pain and agony. When she started the fund with Petra and became a client of Pierpoint's (and demanded first class service from Eric), I was like, "That's cute and all...but it's not fire and blood."

And then seeing her scheme with Kenny, Daria and the Scottish brunette whose name I can never remember, my jaw fell on the floor. I started screaming, "There's my Harper! THERE'S my fucking Harper Stern." And watching Eric blow up....

Speaking of Eric, I had no complaints about him this season. Both Ken Leung and the writers did some excellent work; I just felt I needed to see more interactions with Harper (I've dubbed their father/daughter ship Harpsichord). But depriving us worked, because he's been avoiding her all season when she clearly wants his attention, and when he finally confronted her in her office, it was AMAZING! I was soooooo happy when he finally addressed the daddy elephant in the room and she finally pointed out her "monstrous" tendencies stem from him, and PierPoint by and large. Because when we first met Harper, she was too afraid to even pick up the phone.

Eric dragged her kicking and screaming from her shell, tutored her, molded her, and taught her the art of betrayal. He made her a monster and now he's mad...that she's a monster?

And after that, Yasmin's storyline FINALLY paid off, and it was eye-opening.

You have to understand something about me; I'm asexual, so I miss a lot of cues and when it comes to sex on TV, I typically fast forward through that shit because I don't care. I don't think it contributes to the story but this time, it actually did. I now understand why Yasmin feels the impulse to get sexually involved with damn near everybody. Since S1, I found it annoying and thought it was just some dumb thing the writers were throwing in (because so many shows do that shit), but this time, it had an actual point. Yasmin's father weaponized his wealth and status so he could fuck anything with a pulse, so is it any surprise she learned to do the same?

In fact, I think the only reason she blew up at Eric at the restaurant was that she didn't find him attractive. If she did, they would've ended up in that bathroom together. Because wealth and status (and pale skin privilege) taught Yasmin that she can behave in this manner with no consequences (Harper obviously cannot).

Which brings us to the seasonal Harper/Yasmin confrontation. A part of me wants them to be friends, another part a couple, and yet another part thinks they need to permanently split up. Such is the reality of life, and a testament to the writers. Yeah, yeah...Harper's a "monster", but I don't think Yasmin is a "talentless and useless and a fucking whore." Yasmin speaks seven languages, is a deft manipulator, and simply needs to learn that screwing your coworkers, clients, and boss is unprofessional and extremely tacky.

And Harper, honey, sweetie, boo...let that man go. Your little crush should've wrapped up in S1 the minute he chose the spicy white girl who treats him like dirt. I get that Robert's an adorable sweetheart and all, but you're not his preference and you need to get over him. Matter of fact, you've been making bank for a while now - why are you still living with these people?

This is the one part of the story that really works my nerve, but I can't really criticize it because it's real. Harper likes Robert; he's a good guy she has to see everyday at both work and home. The part of her that feels both inferior AND superior to Yasmin desperately wants to "win" him from the spicy white girl who treats him like dirt. That's real. It's as annoying as Yasmin's ill-advised sexcapades, but they're young, insecure women in a cutthroat world, and it's real.

*shrug*

[bluemoonscape]

While I'm on my Hannibal essay bullshit, here's a copy/paste (plus images) from a response I had to this post that I wanted to get out there in its own post regarding the symbolic differences between the stag and the stag man:

I interpret the main difference as one representing Will’s Becoming and the other representing Will slowly learning Hannibal’s darkness—and then his humanity.

The stag initially appears as a symbol for Will’s “madness” due to his encephalitis in Season 1, with the scene of the antlers on fire being the most obvious indicator to me as well as how he seems less in control of it in this season. He sees it wandering around and he’s afraid of it. He’s afraid of what he’s seeing and why. He’s unable to control its actions. It’s out of his hands.

But in Season 2, he gains control of it. In the dream he has of killing Hannibal, he uses the stag to achieve this end. When he’s in the head of Randall Tier, the stag is with him and once again, it kills on his command.

What was originally madness, a frenzied spiral into darkness with no say in where he landed, becomes more of what I view as a “controlled descent” in Season 2. He is fully aware of his actions. He often seems to excuse his darker actions and inclinations “I need to do this because ____” blank being any number of things such as his job, a “righteous” purpose, his seduction of Hannibal to catch him, or Hannibal’s own seduction of him and influence on him. I think that could be why the stag sometimes feels confused with a symbol of Hannibal. It’s Will, but he’s not telling himself that. He’s trying to convince himself it isn’t his nature. He HAS to do it. He doesn’t enjoy it. He needs to tell himself he doesn’t enjoy it.

As for stag man, Wendi darling, that’s been explained really well in recent posts, but to lay out my thoughts, it’s Will’s association for Hannibal moving forward and backward, the teacup shattering and then coming back together. He doesn’t see it until about the end of Season 1, during the scene where he confronts Hannibal and is shot in the shoulder by Jack:

Before then, it’s the stag. In the “did you just smell me?” scene, Will’s intuition is trying to tell him in his compromised mental state what Hannibal is. The stag statue is directly linked to him seeing the stag, and the stag is his own darkness steadily being stripped bare by Hannibal’s influence on him, which he doesn’t yet recognize. Only when he unravels the truth of Hannibal’s darkness does he see the stag man, and as mentioned, he doesn’t see it anymore after Mizumono. After Hannibal’s betrayal of Will in S1, Will convinces himself (understandably) that Hannibal doesn’t care about him. He’s using him. He was never his friend and all he wants from Will is a show, wind him up and watch him go. Mizumono proves him wrong on a fundamental, inescapable level. He wasn’t aware of the humanity and love Hannibal could possess until that moment, so his view of him as a monster shatters the moment he recognizes it. What I love about each season finale is how every final episode can represent a new crucial realization in Hannibal and Will’s relationship; S1 is Will realizing Hannibal’s darkness, S2 is Will finding Hannibal’s humanity again in the cruelest of circumstances, and S3 is him reconciling the two and letting himself accept both—letting himself accept Hannibal and himself as an extent.

This is largely open to interpretation, but those are my thoughts on the stag vs. the stag man and what they represent in the story. We watch the show from Will’s perspective, a notoriously unreliable narrator, so it makes sense that associations would get mixed up in his head, causing the viewer to become confused, too. That said, they are two distinct entities in the story and represent two distinct elements in the story: Will’s Becoming in relation to his bond with Hannibal and Hannibal’s darker traits juxtaposing his humanity, as viewed through Will’s eyes...

...hence why they can often be seen in direct opposition to one another, like the dream sequence in Shiizakana.

[mimicha-arts]

Date: 09/10/23 Hm. Some thoughts, details, mostly speculation about ep 10 + things discussed over the last two months, it might be a bit chaotic ~ Don't take it too seriously, feel free to discuss. A lot of thing are open-end speculations, as we don't have too much detail about the lore and Lu Guang.

Spoilers for s2!

Twins - who killed Chen Bin?

I won't dwell too long on the exposition about the twins' abilities -the fandom's collective mind was right, who has what powers, how important physical contact is, why Qian Jing actually wears gloves. Really satisfying thing - twins are really attached to the theme of the “present” and do not physically disappear. May we say that the situation with the photo and the phone is confirmed? That it was Li Tianchen both times (unless there are any time jumps that we are not aware of). The main question, given the unpredictable factor, depends on how spontaneous the plan was. I think the timing is pretty fast, but in pure theory, I understand how everything could happen in such a short moment. Chen Bin was taken in control as soon as his phone conversation with Qian Jin ended. The following time was just enough for Cheng Xiaoshi to come to Lu Guang's room and all the characters discussed the current situation (Now it’s clear why Chen Bin’s behavior was so strange and there was a misunderstanding), at the same time Xiao Ma drove Qian Jin and twins to the hospital.

Xiao Ma left, he was waiting on the roof in advance - Chen Bin (possessed) left the room, went to the roof and gave the phone to Xiao Ma.

So...... Xiao Ma left him alone, and we now "know" for sure that he was not directly involved in his death - the one who threw him off the roof was Li Tianchen... Perhaps not. Yeah, this was the trigger for Li Tianxi - so there is the problem one, even if Li Tianchen was planning something behind Qian Jin's back, he couldn't predict his sister's reaction and that this situation would get out of control. Personally, I kinda think  that this happened to her at exactly this moment,  because she and Chen Bin knew each other personally (If Qian Jin continued to keep in touch with Chen Bin all these years, there is such a chance. Perhaps Chen Bin wanted his child to be a girl also because of Li Tianxi... I'm speculating) But did Li Tianchen really manage to throw Chen Bin off on his own, or did he lose control earlier? Because I think it's the second option, and Xiao Ma returned to the roof - completing what Li Tianchen couldn't do. > I've got the aftermath covered for you.

As I think, in the end the twins didn't kill Chen Bin - Li Tianchen lost control before that happened (which also gives extra time considering the count was in minutes - because Li Tianchen had to be at the hospital in the shortest possible time to pick up the phone from Xiao Ma coming down the stairs). So the real killer was Xiao Ma.

Anything is possible, of course, we will see. Although I still have a question. Did Li Tianchen stop following Li Tianxi because it was his only opportunity to pick up the phone/contact Lu Guang? Or was the spontaneity of the moment not so spontaneous and he had not planned to run after her in the first place? I still don't quite understand Li Tianchen's actions regarding Lu Guang. There is a possibility, based on his sister’s mental abilities, that having possessed Qiao Ling, Li Tianchen already knew about the abilities of both Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang - the questions in s2s1 were nothing more than catching Cheng Xiaoshi in a lie.

It's kinda confusing, but in the end it turned out that Li Tianchen "framed" his sister, because of which Qian Jin does not suspect betrayal from Li Tianchen. I also think about the possibility that Li Tianchen, if he actually killed Zhuang Shuai, he originally knew (through his sister's abilities) the real circumstances between Chen Nan and Zhuang Shuai, and this is what may influence Li Tianchen's real attitude towards Qian Jin all these 7 years. Li Tianchen cares about his sister a lot - it's not just his words, voice, and my own faith in the complexity of his character. Because Li Tianxi ended up in a fairly safe place, in an abandoned area, but it was an old shop that still had groceries and, surprisingly, electricity.

She ran away without her old toy fox. I also think that this is the same toy from her childhood that was sewn up, given the condition of the fox. The only person who could find her and return her fox is Li Tianchen. There is still a lot to be revealed here.

The question remains. Where's the phone? I don’t think that Liu Xiao is in contact with Li Tianchen now, it seems that the promised meeting has not happened yet and Li Tianchen pursues purely his own goals. Obviously it needs to be a safe place, but probably still "visible" and accessible. Still a lot of speculations! Just a though. But what if? Inside the fox toy.

Li Tianxi's drawing - blue ability

The interesting thing is that Tianxi drew Lu Guang. Initially, this seems fine in the context of s1ep11, attack towards Lu Guang, but Qiao Ling or Cheng Xiaoshi were not drawn, and Lu Guang himself had red eyes. Such a thing should not have happened since the original plan in s1e11 was to hurt Lu Guang, not possess him. From the time Lu Guang was injured until Li Tianxi escaped, about 12/13 hours passed, most of which Lu Guang was unconscious, so I can't figure out where is a "window" for possessing. I don't know how to understand this part yet. Unless Li Tianxi simply used Lu Guang as an “example” and did not include any subtext.

Another thing: it is possible that the twins do not perceive the physical pain of the person they are possessing. There was a scene with Xiao Li, who explained that a person, purely technically, cannot strangle themself due to the physical reaction. But, again, I didn’t have that experience, sooo, idk.

In my understanding, Li Tianxi probably did not cry from physical pain, but rather from this entire terrified situation, from what her brother was doing and/or the thoughts of Lu Guang himself.

Since she uses her abilities with Lu Guang's photo to determine his condition, I also have one thought, since I am sure that we still don't know anything about Lu Guang's "real current blue abilities."

Considering that not only photographs have become key moments in the narrative, drawings also play this role, I think it’s time to mention one strange moment that is connected with Lu Guang. I still have a lot of questions about why Lu Guang, closing one eye, used his abilities not on the part with the photo, but on the back part, with the drawing. Was it an animation error, or… Technically, is it possible to use abilities on any images at all? Now that we know abilities aren't tied to photos, yes, in theory.

Anyway. We still don't know how much the "blue" ability can vary - but what if Lu Guang, much like Li Tianxi, can sense a person's "state" in the current, at least whether a person is alive or not, through a photo or image.

Because, well. Let's go back a little. The Doudou's case. Since s1 I've been wondering. Could Lu Guang have known in advance not details, but the simple fact that Doudou was still alive and the case would not lead to a dead end?

Considering Cheng Xiaoshi's mental state, their quarrel, the absolute unpredictability of what could happen to the child that day or later, how could he objectively propose this case without knowing that the child was alive, after these three years? I just find it interesting.

Innate ability - ability to take it away

I also think, we can confidently say, using the example of twins, that abilities must be innate + have a first activation trigger. Can they be activated separately, or must a trigger situation occur for both at the same time? So far it remains unanswered. Twins do not have the ability to take away abilities from others literally, and in fact, Tianchen's words simply meant that he wants, with the help of his sister, possess Cheng Xiaoshi and experience his abilities.

But. Who really knows about the possibility of taking away abilities? Lu, fucking, Guang. Of course, nothing is said directly, but I'm more than sure for now, based on his reaction and response.

Considering that he did not know about the existence of twins, does not suggest in s1 that the killer in theory could be a person with abilities, I will write a rather wild thought. This does not apply to some abstract carriers of abilities, I don't think Lu Guang has ever met other people like himself and Cheng Xiaoshi in the past - so his knowledge that the ability can be taken away - refers specifically to his personal experience and Cheng Xiaoshi. What if the ability to "take away" an ability is not an actual ability, but refers to the death of the ability's bearer?  In fact, to the death of Cheng Xiaoshi in the past.

So if Xiaoshi's death was the moment when Lu Guang "inherited" his abilities and was able to rewind time, could this be pretty interesting? We've never been shown their "overall color coding" as green, although the visual elements very often use green instead of yellow. Also, for Li Tianxi (blue) and Li Tianchen (red) we've seen the purple/magenta visuals a few times already.

Moreover, we already had an interesting implication that Cheng Xiaoshi himself received abilities only after meeting Lu Guang, at the same time (同時). Lu Guang was said to be the bearer of the ability (超能力者）, which somewhat… May imply that Lu Guang already had the ability when they first met in the current timeline. But, again, I'm not sure if it's reliable

I'm not ready to write the entire RGB/CMYK theory right now. I'll have to think about it carefully, but if the parallel realities/rewritten timeline theory will be finally confirmed, mark my words. Let's leave that for the next post, as well as the possible interpretation of his other already shown abilities related to cameras, recording information and sketches-like POV. Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that Lu Guang’s original color coding is not even yellow, but green, and Cheng Xiaoshi’s is blue.

I have a lot to say, but I think it's best to leave that for another post. Either their abilities were activated due to the power of love in the first place, lol.

Posters Besides Starry, starry night there are some interesting things, but I don't understand them too well. These are my guesses, my understanding is very shallow.

1. One of the poster with 海燕和黑色闪电 refers to the "The Song of the Stormy Petrel", written by Maxim Gorky. Up above the sea's grey flatland, wind is gathering the clouds. In between the sea and clouds proudly soaring the Petrel, reminiscent of black lightning. 2. 春深似海 - spring (love?) is like the ocean, is a chengyu from 兒女英雄傳 (The Gallant Maid), novel by Wen Kang. 3. 声色俱厉 is also a chengyu, stern in voice and countenance. You can check a part of 《語林》 here, what it refers to, I hesitate to take responsibility for conveying the meaning in context, but I found it VERY interesting. Correct me, if I'm wrong! The rest is too blurry for me, maybe I'll come back to it later. XƎTЯOVerthink I made a separate post about this, you can see it here, the episode with the theater/stage is extremely close in essence to what we see in XƎTЯOVerthink. I wonder if we will understand the whole context of the many dead Cheng Xiaoshi just in these two weeks :)

We have so many implications that nothing can be rewritten, and at the same time, time is already broken, and Xiaoshi is being challenged for the second time whether he is ready to rewrite everything just for Lu Guang. The level of this tension is SO noticeable it's terrifying.

Xiaoshi and his abilities I think his actual plan was pretty smart, even if it didn't work out well due to other circumstances - and we're getting into some very dangerous zone where "diving" almost borders on the topic of teleportation, so the use of abilities is more and more closer to the context of the present, not the past.

Personally, I think. that the photo (which Li Tianxi looks at) has nothing to do with this - this photo on the phone was needed specifically for Li Tianxi’s abilities. Considering Xiao Li's phone, they should have used a remote CCTV feed, so that they could create a "save point" and move it around. So, maybe it's not "diving", but like respawn on the same spot.

Technically, Cheng Xiaoshi's abilities are limited to diving into the past - but we don't know this for sure (and what opportunities does he have for “cheating”), since all the information we have comes from Lu Guang, and he's an unreliable narrator. As we remember from episode 2, Lu Guang himself could use his abilities to “view and track” in the present time. Not in the past.

The Tunnel When I did the analysis on Starry Starry Night, it was added that the tunnel scene, if this is the reference for OP, has an obvious feeling - to go on the path to a dream, where the end is ... the end of everything. And now we actually have a tunnel and rails as part of the narrative and the location, amazing.

Time is already dead. I already wrote that in s2 something strange happens with time. Dates are gone, years are gone. Even the twins' files never included a year of birth, although we can calculate it. The moment that made me think that everything was WRONG from the beginning was the Xu Shanshan phone from the previous series. There are no dates anywhere on the phone screens, but our timeline is the end October, maybe the beginning of November. Only her phone still has some dates. And the photos at the bottom are dated as "today", yesterday", and the previous ones… May(五月). And April(四月). Like. Xu Shanshan didn't take pictures for half a year? Doesn't sound right.

But apparently? Time is unimportant. At all.

Because. Everything literally vanished. Year? 0. Month? 0. Day of the week? 0. Hour? 0 Time is truly dead.

Thank you my dear @wrathyforest without you  I don't know if I could take this road ~ I'm pretty sure I'm wrong about a lot of things, so I just keep having fun and playing bingo. I just want to see how wrong I am about everything ~

[purpleserpents]

rhaenicent analysis (MAJOR S2 FINALE SPOILERS BELOW)

i'm seeing a lot of people unhappy with the fact that alicent confesses to rhaenyra that she took a lover after viserys died in their leaked scene in the season finale. like this tweet: why would alicent bring up cole to rhaenyra if the scene was about her rejecting being forced into motherhood? are the writers just humiliating her, further pointing out how much of a hypocrite she is?

well, no!

to understand this scene, you must understand why alicent held so steadfast to her virtue, especially in contrast to rhaenyra. it is very clearly laid out in the show that alicent did not want to marry viserys, and that she fulfilled her role as a wife out of duty to her father and her husband. rhaenyra still feels that alicent marrying her father is the ultimate betrayal, and she resents alicent immensely, even though alicent had no agency in the situation. rhaenyra herself avoids getting married for as long as she possibly can.

despite the fact that alicent marries first, has sex first, she never gives herself away; she never derives pleasure from her marriage. her feelings for rhaenyra are still intact, and if she cannot fully consummate her relationship with rhaenyra, she decides that she will never share that sexual pleasure and love with anyone at all. her sex scene with viserys is mechanical, it is duty, it is obligation. you could argue that it is rape (i would, she has no choice). the marriage locks her into the role of faithful wife, and this is horrible, but it means that the love and lust she felt for rhaenyra are untouched. she will never share that side of herself with anyone, because she cannot share it with rhaenyra. this video explores this idea really well.

so when rhaenyra does the exact opposite, flaunts her power to remain unmarried for as long as possible, acts indecent with daemon (a lot to unpack here but i will leave it at that for the sake of this post) and has sex with criston, alicent sees that rhaenyra has chosen to do the exact opposite of her! she is sharing that side of herself with other people, with men. she has not locked herself away. she has betrayed alicent ("you fucked daemon in a pleasure house" and all that ensues).

so in light of all of this, what does it mean for alicent to choose to sleep with criston years later? it means that alicent breaks after viserys dies, with a war looming, and she allows herself to feel sexual pleasure with the man that took rhaenyra's maidenhood, in rhaenyra's apartments which she now lives in. she wants to feel sexual pleasure, and she ends up doing it in this way that gets her the closest to rhaenyra that she can get. it is about rhaenyra, but it is also about rejecting rhaenyra and the hold she has on alicent's sexuality. it is a sick form of self harm for both her and criston as well, because they both resent rhaenyra for wanting others, for wanting a life that is not them. there are of course other interesting implications for criston's character, again i'm leaving those for others to explore.

so why would alicent bring her affair up to rhaenyra in the dragonstone scene? i think part of it is brutal honesty. she is laying herself bare for rhaenyra, sharing the vulnerable arc she's been through since the coronation with her enemy, because she has come to ask something of rhaenyra. here is the dialogue:

rhaenyra: why have you come here? alicent: because i lost my way, or rather it was taken from me. all those i put my faith in, my- my husband, my father, my lover, my son- rhaenyra: ooh, the incorruptible queen sullies herself with a lover. alicent: do not judge me for what you yourself have done.

rhaenyra is mad. she reverts to this childish quipping and mocking what alicent is saying to her. and alicent expects it, and points out that she's only done the same thing that rhaenyra has done three times over.

but i think the other reason alicent brings is this up is that she wants rhaenyra to know. despite the guilt and she shame that she feels, she wants rhaenyra to know. rhaenyra has prioritized her sexual desire time and time again, and this is alicent doing her own weak version of that, telling rhaenyra: "if you can choose others over me, so can i" (!!!)

leading up to this specific portion of dialogue, alicent is literally talking about the very dynamic i describe at the beginning of this post. she talks about how much she resented rhaenyra when they were younger for knowing what she wanted and skirting her duty, when alicent had no choice but to fulfill hers. in part, even as she surrenders, alicent is throwing this in rhaenyra's face, showing rhaenyra that she can be selfish and desecrate the love that they shared as children too, albeit in the most pathetic and rhaenyra-centered hook-up with criston cole.

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time. monday we watched ds9's "in purgatory's shadow" (ohio edition), "by inferno's light" (ohio edition), and "doctor bashir, i presume" (ohio edition), which did blow my tits clean off, and then last night we watched voy's "unity" and "darkling" (south carolina editions, sadly).

in purgatory's shadow (ds9) (ohio edition):

kira and odo's little moment at the beginning of this episode 🥺 he was soooo embarrassed to be caught attempting to try and learn how to snag a spouse but she didn't judge even a little. girl, break up with your stupid ass boyfriend. odo is right here

i really loved bashir pointing the phaser at garak when he figured garak was lying. i was like oh damn he knows him so well and i love when this twink has had enough and becomes a little evil BUT THEN IT LITERALLY WASN'T HIM! what an incredible plot twist. we literally had to pause the episode and work out the timelines to see how long we had been living with changeling bashir. it was sooo good and i wasn't expecting it at all. mwah

jadzia and worf are so good. her personality being settled into like, comic relief makes for such a good match to his whole straight man aura. obviously she taunts him with his klingon operas. please.

also lol "at the first sign of betrayal i will kill him" <3

i do NOT like whatever they are doing with garak and ziyal. first of all, he's gay. secondly, she is like at LEAST 20 years younger than him. i want to trust them but after jake dating all those older women i am so suspicious

the backpedaling they're doing on fun and friendly former facist dukat is insane. not to say i'm not enjoying it. also, i like when he threatened kira and she was like "pffft whatever" like what a blow to his fucking ego. get his ass

VERY cool to see martok again - totally unexpected

our last wonderful surprise of this ep was tain being garak's DAD- it makes so much sense and puts so much into perspective, and, hi, JULIAN WAS IN THE ROOM DURING THIS. garak could have asked him to leave and he would have. garak could have told tain he was there. but he didn't, because he wanted the moral support, and because he wanted julian to know something true about him. AUUUGHGHGH

like, we haven't had NEARLY enough garashir since s2, but this was SUCH a good moment, even though it feels like they're trying to backpedal on that too. what a series of plot twists for this ep 10/10

by inferno's light (ds9) (ohio edition):

dukat's betrayal here i like vaguely saw coming, but jesus christ lol. he is back to FULL villain status...such a change from his little fireworks show for sisko and jake

garak's claustrophobia <3 absolutely loooved this especially since julian had to go in and get him. bangs tankard on table MORE GARASHIR! there literally has NOT been enough. i would love to know more about tzenketh but i know they will never ever tell us but wow <3

i am SO tired of seeing worf lose fights this episode was fucking great. not only did he not lose any fights except under an extremely unfair circumstances he totally kicked ass even while injured. FINALLY. even that jem'hadar guy was like i can kill him but i can't defeat him so i give up. SOOOO true finally let's respect my boy worf. why don't you bitches call him a pussy NOW

anyway, the little moment worf and garak had at the end of this episode...mwah. put them on the fuck chart

extremely excited to see gowran in this episode. he and his freaky eyes are so special to me

"this station was built by cardassia" "that's funny i thought it was built by bajoran slave labor" I LOVE WHEN SISKO IS FUN AND FERAL.

also i know the circumstances were extenuating but i cannot BELIEVE julian just fucking murdered that jem'hadar <3

watching little fake julian run around was so distressing...i kept yelling when he came on screen because nobody KNEWWWW he even fooled US! what a cool twist, again

overall these two episodes were incredibly good even though the strong action-y episodes are usually not ds9's forte. absolutely baller content for everyone except ziyal. i will at least take comfort in the fact that garak looked very uncomfortable to be hugged

doctor bashir, i presume (ds9) (ohio edition):

AGAIN. THIS ONE BLEW MY TITS CLEAN OFF

i'm mad garak wasn't in it. AUGHGHGH

okay, my main beef with this one was pacing...i thought they resolved the problem extremely quickly after the cat was out of the bag, and it's because they spent so much time on the doctor and leeta and rom. which would have been a GREAT b-plot for any other episode, i LOVE leeta and rom and i was cheering for him the whole time, but even though the EMH (sorta) cameo was very welcome, i do not welcome it at the expense of time taken from one of the most pivotal episodes for julian bashir probably in this whole series, especially when i have the sneaking suspicion that it won't be brought up again

and i did LIKE the resolution of this episode, his parents paying for what they'd done, but it didn't feel like he got to sit with it for long enough, and it certainly felt like we skipped over a few pivotal moments - the scene where he found out his best friend knows could have been EXTREMELY meaty. is he afraid of judgement? is he angry? is he worried miles will be angry? etc. but we just kind of breezed right on by it. like, i loved the way miles sat and let him get it out of his system in a fun inverse of julian talking him down from suicide but we could have had SOOO much more

anyway side from that i love. I LOVE. holy shit

like, i can't even talk about the episode itself, just this entire concept. like, they did essentially kill their kid. they made him the way he is, a new kid, and then hated him for the way he is. SPOCK CORE. and then to find that out as a teenager...

like, you know he had to google "does being genetically enhanced make me a bad person" and then of course what google spits out is "did you know about khan noonien singh and would you like to?" and he was like Oh No

like, he went into MEDICINE. and i know he had other reasons and all but he went into MEDICINE because that's the most harmless you can possibly be. he's using all his ill-gotten brainpower to HEAL PEOPLE because his first reaction was to not want to be khan...2! you can enhance genetics but just like o'brien said that can't grow compassion, which is what makes julian who he is

I WISH GARAK HAD BEEN THERE.

anyway, i will continue to think about dr bashir for a very long time and he definitely just rose a couple of notches in my character ranking

unity (voy):

i actually liked this one a lot. i love borg eps and i'm fascinated by a post-borg life lived by these people

that said, this lady gave off SUCH evil vibes that even after the truth was revealed and she and chakotay fucked i kept waiting for her to stab him in the back. which only kind of happened i guess

also, :( that chakotay is out here running around on janeway. SAD

i did love the borg meld scene though. it was incredibly scary. and i was TWIRLING MY HAIR when he got possessed or whatever the fuck

it was also so fun that he spent half of this episode dazed and stumbling around because of his little head injury. excellent material overall

oh yeah and i KNEW that corpse was gonna wake back up. i think it's so terrifying that when you're borg, even if you die, you aren't done. you can be revived because nothing kills you, not even the vacuum of space. that is easily the most horrifying part of it all

i also really liked chakotay and janeway's moment at the end. like, she was distrustful the entire time and he was too trusting, as he tends to sometimes be, and then at the end she was like aw but they weren't so bad and he was like [thousand yard stare of guy who has fucked 2! women who later betrayed him and has now been radicalized against the borg]

like i'm not saying it wasn't 99% consensual with riley or seska but i AM saying that he was hopped up on the borg meld when he fucked riley and later riley was willing to use chakotay's body for her own means when push came to shove and i'm saying that seska knew full well the whole time it was happening that it was under completely false pretenses and she stole his dna without his consent to make a baby he also didn't consent to, even if it turned out she fucked up and got that kaxon baby instead. like, chakotay better be careful or he's gonna start fitting into captain kirk's niche

darkling (voy):

this one fucking sucked so bad

like, sure, yes, emh evil now. does he have to keep creepy-touching all the women

also, WHAT? we get ONE LINE about kes and neelix breaking up and he's not even IN this episode? why did they even break them up??? just because they wrre planning on having her leave soon????? absolutely baffling

i don't think evil emh was very compelling...i am glad he got to act or whatever, but i didn't even get the usual "battle of the selves" that we often wind up with when we do these kind of tropes. it was just...a malfunction, and eventually it was corrected

also, what a BAFFLING b-plot. if you measure each of kes's years (except the first, i suppose) as a decade in human beings, we can assume she's in her thirties now, so she just...breaks up with her boyfriend to smooch the hot alien guy she met a few days ago and then maybe wants to run off with him? in her THIRTIES?

i DID like the EMH quoting the oath at the end, but without any sort of battle of the selves or real emotional investment in what he did when he was evil, it feels kind of wasted on this episode. it's a fine concept, but the execution falls soooo flat

NEXT TIME: voy's "rise" and "favorite son."

[sflow-er]

To August anon 2

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply! I don't know if you'll even see this as I've decided not to risk the backlash of putting it on the main tag, but I hope you do.

[Earlier posts: August anon 1, August anon 2]

I want to curate the discussion a bit now that you've shifted part of the focus on Sara. I don't share your position of liking both her and August for being 'morally dark' people, and I fear it may be a bit jarring to any Sara fans reading this. So I've decided to screenshot your message and put it under the cut instead of replying directly.

We disagree on some fundamental things when it comes to August's and especially Sara's characterisation, and I doubt we're going to reach consensus. But that's okay! I'm just going to explain some parts of my POV below, and then we can agree to disagree. There are also a few areas where we seem to be getting our wires crossed (e.g. what we mean by 'understanding' the consequences) so I want to clear those up.

Most of this rambling essay was written before the S3 trailer came out, so I'm not focusing much on the glimpses we see of them in the trailer. But I am still using the spoiler tags just to be safe.

CW: negative take on Sara (but the anon actually likes her); couple of suicide mentions

Okay so... I'm going to start by clarifying a couple of things:

Understanding vs. understanding

Infantilising vs. taking young age into account

When I talk about August and the consequences, I'm not saying he lacks the intellect or analytical thinking to know/predict them. I'm saying he lacks the empathy and relevant frames of reference to understand them. I think we're just using the word 'understand' to mean different things - maybe internalise, empathise or relate would be a better choice for what I mean by it?

To revisit my previous example, August as an incredibly privileged member of the elite cannot understand i.e. relate to Simon's experience as someone whose ability to make his own reputation and get by on his own merit has been permanently affected by the video. As a very confidently straight man, he also cannot relate to Wille's experience as someone whose non-straight sexuality, a deeply personal and private thing that he wasn't even done figuring out, has suddenly been exposed to the world and potentially even some homophobic hate.

I'm not saying this to infantilise, defend, or excuse August. I'm saying it because to me, it partly explains why it's so easy for him to dismiss the harm to Simon and see his betrayal of Wille as just a matter of loyalty - the only moral code he knows - instead of something that would've been wrong no matter who the victim was. It's a thought pattern that stems from his upbringing and worldview, and it would have to be dismantled for him to feel proper remorse. Which I think would probably take professional help at this point.

(I agree with you that August would be extremely prejudiced against Boris. A glimpse of him googling therapy providers or booking an appointment for after graduation might feel more realistic to me - but I guess it depends on what the writers want to do with him. We already saw very quick progress with Wille in S2 so it's safe to say they can take some liberties.)

I still believe that August will lose his social status in S3, likely towards the end. But it's fair that you don't, and the trailer is certainly edited to support your position. If he retains his status, then you may be right about him remaining the same old asshole! If he does lose it, then my original point about him likely not being resilient enough to cope with the consequences still stands. He is very much the kind of person to whom suicide is the "proud" way out compared to the shame of losing everything.

Now, the age thing.

Respectfully, I think you may be ascribing too much meaning to August and Sara being of age in S2 (note that Sara was still 17 when she made the deal with August in S1). Eighteen is the age of legal adulthood, yes, but it doesn't make them fully grown and mature adults in the (neuro)biological, psychological or social sense.

[This feels like a good point to say that I am not going to try to account for Sara's neurodivergence here. I definitely don't have the insight, so if anything I've written below is in any way inaccurate or offensive to persons with AuDHD, please let me know!!]

Firstly, it's important to note that that the human brain matures gradually and unevenly. The prefrontal cortex i.e. the 'reasoning centre' only matures in the mid-to-late 20s, while parts that handle things like right/wrong, risk/reward, and emotional responses (e.g. the amygdala) mature earlier. This can cause teens and young adults to struggle with things like impulse control, assessing the long-term consequences of their actions, understanding others' emotions, and rational decision-making in situations that trigger a strong emotional response. Reason can get overtaken by emotion on a chemical level; sometimes the young person can't even fully explain afterwards why they did something they rationally knew was wrong all along.

[I don't think August was in a particularly analytical state of mind when he decided to post the video. He was an intelligent but emotionally unstable and empathically challenged 18-year-old who felt like he had nothing left to lose and the only moral code he knew (i.e. loyalty) was obsolete. He was also still stewing in the emotional turmoil of his humiliation and likely stuck in a negative feedback loop. It feels very plausible to me that he could be in a very bad place for a pretty long time and still function enough to plan his revenge (more on the revenge part below).]

Secondly, both August and Sara have also had some pretty traumatic experiences (Sara's bullying, August's dad's suicide, the influence of both their dads while they were still in their lives). These may have impacted their emotional and psychological development in various ways and created some thought patterns. Not to play arm-chair psychologist, but I don't think it's a coincidence August's decision to post the video is related to his family estate and legacy, while Sara's decision to make a deal with August is related to the threat of being sent back to Marieberg.

[This feels particularly relevant for Sara, whose bullying was brutal and long-term enough for her to have to repeat a year. The negative attention on Simon after the video probably seemed less severe in comparison, and also like a 'first incident' (in fact, she might have even felt like Linda was applying a different standard to Simon's ordeal compared to hers by immediately wanting to take them both out of Hillerska).]

[I vehemently disagree with Sara's idea that the damage to Simon was already done and it wouldn't have made a difference whether he knew who was responsible, but I think it matters to some extent that she didn't know the history between Simon and August. To her, the video probably seemed like something that was mostly between August and Wille. That idea was likely reinforced by August consistently dismissing Simon's side of it - and also by Simon seemingly moving on with Marcus and no longer being the talk of the school after Christmas. This kind of rationalisation may have even made Sara feel better about pursuing a relationship with August in S2.]

[I also think Sara probably felt like she had the right to be selfish after everything she'd been through. Simon's support during her bullying wasn't conditional; she didn't feel like she "owed him" any sacrifices. It was clearly Simon's idea to follow Sara to Hillerska, and she may have even felt like he was hovering a bit (I doubt S1E1 was her first time saying she was fine now and he didn't have to be there). Then, Simon started to keep secrets and even see Micke for reasons Sara didn't know, altering the terms of their relationship, while Sara was finally daring to dream of things she'd been denied for so long. Friends, a better future, even romance. To her, it felt extremely unfair to have to give all that up and go back to a school that was a nightmare to her but not to Simon. Especially when her and Simon's lives weren't as intertwined anymore and she finally felt like she was gaining some agency in her own.]

Thirdly (circling back to the point about maturity), it's good to keep in mind that both August and Sara are still in the high-school phase of life. A phase when most people are a bit selfish, and their past and current dramas and dreams for the future are everything to them. They haven't really acquired much experience or long-term perspective yet. So I really don't think we can call them that much more mature in the social sense than, say, Wilhelm and Simon. They are still messy teens living their messy teen lives, shaped by their upbringing and limited life experience, all the while thinking they are basically grown adults.

So am I saying all this to infantilise August and Sara and excuse their actions? I'm sure it sounds that way; hence, not putting this on the main tag.

But the way I see it, to infantilise them would be to say they weren't responsible for their actions or didn't know what they're doing. They are responsible, and they do know. All the factors laid out above (and also in my previous August posts) explain their reasoning and actions to some extent, but they do not excuse them. The fact still remains that they both applied their best judgment and deliberately chose to do the thing that they knew was wrong.

You're right that they took time to consider their decisions in S1, although I don't think we can know for sure exactly how long August takes. The timeline is a mess at that point; he is still at the Palace wearing the same outfit when the others make their statement, and I doubt he could've been there overnight. But he does take several hours in any case, and although he isn't thinking rationally at that point, he still knows what he's doing is wrong. In fact, he does it with the sole intention of hurting others, which makes it all the more reprehensible.

I just want to caution against labelling him as some evil, fundamentally unfeeling mastermind. He's just a very selfish and immature young man with a very warped view of the world, who needs to see some consequences for his own sake as much as his victims'. I think part of the reason we saw him turn so soft with Sara in S2 was to underline that he is capable of empathy and caring; it's just a matter of unlocking those emotions. They haven't exactly been nurtured growing up, so he is only applying them to the people he deems "worthy", instead of all his fellow human beings. That selective empathy is another thing he seriously needs to work on, alongside the lack of accountability.

As for Sara, she takes several days to consider what to do about the video, which makes her betrayal of Simon more severe. But as explained above, it's so much more nuanced than her not caring about him. (Or indeed her being some poor victim who didn't know what she was doing and fell in love with The Devil! Don't get me wrong, August definitely let her believe she was guiding him in a better direction, which may have even pushed some Micke buttons in her subconscious and/or memories of Simon's insistence that everyone deserves a second chance... But she still made her own decisions and is responsible for them.)

It's easy to forget that we do in fact see Sara aware that her actions are wrong even before the end of S2. She looks conflicted/unsure when she and August make out in S1E6, cries when Simon earnestly proclaims "I like you when you are you" and "I'm trying to be your friend again because I need you" after she has just betrayed him, and again looks conflicted when the siblings talk about loving the "wrong person" in S2E5. She did some very selfish things and hid them for much too long, yes, but I believe her regret is genuine. It will take some skilful writing to make her and Simon reconcile in a way that makes sense, doesn't feel rushed or reduce her to an archetype, and doesn't just magic away her leftover feelings for August (as those will probably take some time to clear out). But I do have faith it can be done.

So I think that just about covers what I wanted to say. This isn't a comprehensive essay by any means, and I'm sure it won't go down well with everyone. I also don't expect it to change your mind about these characters, anon, and that's okay!

I mostly just wanted to push back on the notion that Sara and August being 18 means all their bad decisions are now on par with bad decisions taken by fully grown adults and their character development is now set in stone. I highly doubt the show will end with them both proudly standing behind their poor choices - I can certainly see August doing that if he doesn't see any repercussions, but not Sara.

In any case, thank you for taking the time to explain your point of view on these characters, and sorry again for taking so long to respond!

[solaroppositesyaoi]

Hold on ,,, i kinda fell out of the fandom a while ago

Is Tervo canon now?? Like... earnest canon? Not just in that limbo between homophobic jokes and queerbaiting but like... Actual committed, loving relationship that they're both working on and they don't just sometimes kiss for laughs?

Because in that case i might start watching again

(I fell off just before the christmas special)

OH BOY ANON YOU JUST ACTIVATED MY AUTISM

So the short answer is yes though not 100% and I understand if that’s not what you’re looking for but if you have time you can listen to me go off:

So they pretty much do everything except stare directly at the audience and announce that their in a relationship but the show pretty much tells us they’re in relationship

We’ll start with the Christmas Special since you stopped there.

There’s only one “tervo” scene where Terry reveals he’s been practicing punching for Korvo’s Christmas present and they share a kiss which is the best kiss we’ve gotten from them.

It’s very sweet

Now onto s3

I’m linking my own video if you want to watch the scenes yourself but don’t worry I’m gonna break into them: link to video

There’s a lot of little things through out the season the word “husband” is thrown around a lot, in episode 2 Terry refers to Korvo as babe a personal fave of mine. There’s also huge implications they’re having sex with each other which you know helps.

The main episodes with the biggest Tervo moments are episode 3 The Pupas Big Day and episode 8 The Cubic Lattice Crystallizer

The Pupa’s Big Day features jealous Korvo in the best possible way (this is my personally favorite episode in the series by the way)

I don’t want to ruin the episodes for you but Terry is buddy buddy with a new character and it drives Korvo crazy. In the end the episode ends with with this line:

Tervo for the soul

The Cubic Lattice Crystallizer starts well with this:

After the fam goes on vacation and a few shenanigans happens until Terry and Korvo end up a museum of betrayals which features an animatronic of Korvo getting banged by Chris the red goobler

This sets off Terry who shows quite a bit a jealousy from the situation I’m not going to show it cause of tumblr’s nsfw rules but the animatronic says something along the lines

“I’m coming harder than I do with Terry”

The final scene I want to talk about come from the season finale The Fog of Pupa. Ms. Frankie reveals the cunnilingus Korvo gave her in the s2 finale and Terry give him this look:

It’s just screams Terry’s pissed at Korvo for this but why would he be if they weren’t in a relationship??

Outside that we have the Halloween special where it’s revealed Korvo gave Terry bj coupons for Valentines Day

Cute

Also found this excerpt article with Mike McMahan (here’s a link for the entire article)

In the s4 preview (youtube link) Terry pretty much is the sole reason Korvo is British now because it made him horny, he also calls Korvo sweetie in the clip.

We also have a Valentines episode to look forward too which a lot of people are speculating a tervo wedding as “something big” is suppose to happen to two characters hmmm…..

So are they in a relationship? I like to think so but I’m also autistic and a little insane and I eat up all the scraps they give me. Maybe I’m delusional but i feel there’s a ton of evidence here. If you think this is just queerbait material I understand but I think it’s pretty clear they’re in love with each other. Either way I can't wait for s4 and more tervo content for me to tear into and analyze the death.

Anyway thanks for sticking with me here and I hope this answered your question!