#winter analyzes

[winter-sol]

Spoilers for Lesson 11!

About Solomon, MC and their relationship with demons.

There's this pretty interesting thing I noticed about Solomon's perspective compared to MC's when it comes to their vision towards demons.

Solomon made clear he sees demons and angels as creatures that underestimate humans and won't ever treat us as equals. I don't actually blame him for this, as he is not even wrong. We've seen them call us "mere humans" or belittle us for being humans in both games. So his approach to demons is mostly from a utilitarian and confrontational point of view.

He needs to prove humans can be equal or surprass them, and for that, he's willing to do anything. He's willing to use demons, become more powerful and defend humanity above anything else. He was even teaching MC his way of dealing with demons, as in "leveling the playing field" to face them because "When it comes down to it, that's what negotiating with demons is all about, really".

He then proceeds to talk about how he plans on changing that, and to almost manipulating us into making a promise about siding with humanity no matter what. That, in a place that probably binds us to said promise or something like that. It was... shady, but if anything I got even more intrigued about his intentions. (as a Solomon enjoyer, I'm living for how his character keeps getting more complex).

Then we have MC.

See, I'm really curious about how this game will deliver its promise about making choices matter because if there's an intereting branch in this game, it's probably about MC either siding with humanity/Solomon, or the demons they love so much.

No matter what we choose in L11, MC will end up handing out the grimoire out of their own will, and making a promise on either protecting them or letting them find joy. And I think that speaks loud about MC's vision on demons and how it's opposing to Solomon.

MC refuses to see demons as potential enemies, and their approach is not confrontational like Solomon's. It's from love and understanding.

MC was able to do something Solomon could never, and that is making a pact with the Seven Rulers of Hell, and actually gaining their trust for these powerful demons to be willing to obey them on their own will (even if, magically speaking, they are being forced). And the main difference is, MC didn't achieve it through becoming the most powerful sorcerer or taking advantage of them, like Solomon did with Asmo.

At the end of the day, the seven brothers chose to have a pact with MC, and keep choosing MC no matter what.

Solomon and MC have opposing views. They've been working as a team, but they will inevitably collide.

So, what will happen next? I'm waiting for next lesson! But for now I'd like to wonder.

I'm not sure if MC will have to deliberately choose to side with either party, since I believe MC wouldn't purposefully betray the demons because they're too important for them and already proved they're on their side. Also, I don't think MC would like to turn against Solomon, as they still trust him and need his guiding. But how long will it last?

I want to believe our choices regarding our relationship and trust in Solomon will affect the plot.

If MC is too passive and diplomatic, Solomon could end up having his way, whatever that is, since his intentions are one of the biggest mysteries of Nightbringer. I'm not necessarily trying to frame Solomon as a villain or antagonist, that still remains uncertain. But I think we can all agree he has a very important role, and that role is highly related to his ambiguous morals and actions.

If MC is too reckless, they might end up messing up with the timeline, their relationships and the demons themselves or even Solomon and humanity. (does anyone else want bad endings??)

I wonder if MC's trust in Solomon, and vice versa, will eventually break, or they'll find a way to work it out. He already seemed dissapointed at us handing out the grimoire instead of using it, as if we're already proving we don't have the same intentions he has regarding humanity and demons.

What kind of decisions should MC make in order to keep a balance between humans and demons without betraying either side?

Does MC actually care about balance, harmony and humanity's well being? Or will they only act based on their feelings, wherever that takes them?

I love Obey Me's MC, I think they hold great potential, but they've been relying on others' help a lot. It makes sense, since they've been just learning about this world and building their own way to grow and become more powerful. But I'd like to see them deciding and facing bigger consequences for their actions. And I'm dying to see how this plays out ;)

As always, I'm open to talk more about this :) Bai-bai.

[sorrinslays]

This might be a bit of a "hot take" (if you can even call it that) but I don't think Winter King was evil. At least not in the way I've seen the fandom sometimes describe him as.

Let me explain, I don't think Winter King is evil in the "I'm gonna give the insanity curse to someone else mwahahahaha!" but in the "I'm so desperate to get my sanity back that I'm ready to sacrifice anything and everything, even the sanity of others".

I think he was desperate to get rid of the curse by any means necessary, to remain in control of himself and his actions. He needed to be himself. He couldn't be Ice King so he tried everything to be himself. I don't think his first thought was giving the curse to someone else, I'm sure he tried to find other, more humane, ways to get rid of it until he couldn't deny that transferring the curse to someone is the only way.

In my opinion, he wasn't an "evil" version of Simon, I think he was a more selfish version of Simon. He put himself above others. He saw his actions as justifiable and after he experienced the relief of getting rid of the curse for even a minute he wanted more, which is why he kept on transferring it to Princess Bubblegum/Candy Queen.

In conclusion, I think that chalking Winter King up to an evil villain takes a lot of his complexity away as a character. I don't think any version of Simon could be evil, if I'm being honest. Plus Winter King didn't give me evil vibes either, at least not "sinister evil" vibes. Was what he did still terrible? Obsoletely. Did he have it coming? Yeah. Was he evil evil though? No, he was desperate.

[skoulsons]

you know what I find so. vomitingly insane.

these two moments. this moment (which I don’t think I ever analyzed or posted WHOOPS maybe some day). this whole snippet of Joel taking his coat off and Ellie’s hand lingering on his arm and the way she looks at him. How she stares at him in this fashion of unbelief and thankfulness and love. She put a knife in his hands and told her to kill anyone who made it down there. He did. She told him to wake up. He did. And he found her just when she needed him. She’s not expecting it because he’s supposed to be in that basement, but he’s here.

And she takes him in as fully as she can. Staring at him, the whole time. Never blinking, not once. Her hand stays on his arm til he shuffles his coat off, afraid he’ll somehow disappear if she cannot immediately feel him under her fingertips. She watches him, the ghost of a smile on her lips because he’s there. He’s alive and he’s found her. Her comforting presence is right in front of her, alive and breathing. Her adrenaline still pumping from what transpired in that restaurant. Her eyes have a glimmer of light and love in them watching him.

And he watches her just as intently, studying what exactly she looks like. Never blinking, scanning her face of the blood and and her sweater, a mix of confusion, anger, and concern. How much has he missed? What happened? Why does she have blood on her face? Why did she cling to me in such a way? Why is she crying so hard? There’s so many questions, but they don’t have the time to talk. Joel knows she can’t, and he doesn’t push. He simply gives her the clothes off his back to keep her warm.

And then this.

Her expression, mainly. Void of… anything. She’s exhausted. She’s traumatized. She’s processing, or trying to. She is fighting for her life. Her mind is running rampant of everything, trying to catch up with the last few weeks.

And I think what goes along with that is that she’s with Joel now. She can finally, finally, let herself feel. She can stop fighting for her life for a second.

She’s not just near him or walking next to him. She’s held against him. The man she’s found plenty of protection and care in from a distance up until this point is holding her against his side, helping her walk. He’s wrapped her up in his coat and is trying to pull it around her more. His head is against hers, no indication of letting her go. His warmth and heartbeat and breath are right beside her, letting her know he’s there. That she’s safe now.

And she lets it all happen. She really can’t protest or make an effort to try anything else because she’s exhausted. She’s so tired and she’s hurt and confused and broken.

And that all catches up to her now. But it catches up to her in the safety of his hold. Bundled up in the warmth of his coat and held in the unparalleled safety of his embrace. She is able to feel, now, because he’s there.

[g4rdensofb4bylon]

i finally got the secret history and i was scanning through it and can someone pls tell me why is each chapter like at least 50 pages??? im one of those ppl that can read ten chapters 5pages each in an hour but will be fighting one 50 pages long chapter for like a week😭😭

[diaryofamadsunwukongfan]

I spent way too much time on this

[barnbridges]

References in the Secret History to facts from the opening paragraph of We Have Always Lived in the Castle:

Mary Katherine is the name given in the Epilogue to Bunny Corcoran's posthumous child, the child of Brady Corcoran and Marion. Like Merricat Blackwood, Bunny Corcoran II is indicated to not go by said name. Half of the name finds itself linked to Katherine Corcoran, who in the 2nd book of TSH finds herself a both literal and metaphorical source of poison for other characters;

The listed age of eighteen for Merricat is controversial at best, an unreliable narration at worst. It correlates with Bunny Corcoran's age discrepancy as both the oldest member of the Greek class and (allegedly) its most immature one;

Merricat's dislike of dogs, noise and showers are shared with Henry Winter's. Like Henry, Merricat often finds herself dirty in the creation of rituals to avoid bad spirits, or in the pursuit of poison, and such thinks it a disturbance to fully rid herself of elements in the ritual. Also, can be linked to Charles Macaulay's disheveled state in the 2nd book, as Merricat can likewise refuse to brush her hair and change her clothes when upset;

Charles Macaulay is the only character to have a sister, who'se name also begins with C. Constance Blackwood is not Camilla Macaulay, however;

Henry and Merricat share a passion for Mushrooms, especially deathcaps. It's unclear (but deeply implied) that Merricat used them to poison her bothersome cousin Charles Blackwood, just as Henry (likely) attempted it with his friend Charles Macaulay;

Richard Plantagenet, the specific hyperfixation of Merricat's is never mentioned openly in TSH, but Henry is passionate enough about the War of the Roses to reference it at least twice in the book. It also is not very thinly veiled that Richard Papen is the Richard of York to Henry's Shakespearean Henry VI of the popularly called Henriad. Both TSH and Castle can be certainly said to derive from the Henriad, but this is not about Shakespeare, yet;

Tartt's orphans are Charles and Camilla Macaulay, however, the concept of a dead or dysfunctional family can apply to every single one of the students (with the striking exception of Bunny Corcoran, whose family, while full ━ is dysfunctional), with Francis Abernathy's deadbeat father and problematic mother to Henry or Richard's estranged parents. None of them poisoned their parents however, as far as Richard told us at least.

[scoobydoodean]

I have other commentary on this moment from 1.02 (along with some other moments) but the part I want to talk about right now is why Sam makes this presumption when it literally makes no sense. Dean has no idea what Haley even looks like at this point, but the thing Sam automatically jumps to is "Dean is horny", which is oddly connected to this recent post about how the narrative treats Dean, but it literally just makes no damn sense without missing context.

Besides the whole "Sam is just grieving super hard in this episode and is antsy to find John so he is not wanting to take the time to investigate carefully and the fact that Dean is not as antsy as him is upsetting him so he is lashing out a little" explanation, the fact that Sam jumps to Dean cruising for a hookup with someone he's never even laid eyes on also makes me wonder about if Dean went through like a really hardcore hook up phase shortly before Sam left for Stanford and was just totally wild. Because yeah everyone talks about Dean being super into hook ups, but he really does not hook up that much with chicks in season 1. He flirts a lot and makes comments, but we know for sure (from my memory) he hooked up with Cassie in "Route 666", and then in "Shadow" he is implied to have exchanged sexual favors with a cop to get information. And that also makes me wonder if Dean using his body to get information became very common at one point shortly before Sam left, and that for Dean, this was partly an outlet for a lot of negative emotion and partly an expression of how he felt commodified, and Sam is just stuck in that era of Dean's life because he hasn't really known him for the last 4 years.

[despairforme]

It was finally spring. The sun warm enough so that he could feel it on his skin when he held up his palm to the light. Urban birds singing as they gathered trash to make their nests. What a cliche. Another box of cliches that he was ticking was feeling better. Yeah, with warmer weather and the prospects of the world turning green, Nnoitra's mood wasn't as gloomy as it was during the winter months, when it was at its worst. However, this spring, he had a new feeling. Lingering. Tugging at him. He wasn't accustomed to having this feeling, so it had taken him a while to realize what it was. When he DID manage to understand what he was feeling, his very first instinct was ( as per usual ) to tell himself FUCK NO. What he was feeling was pathetic. He should just pull himself together. That's what he always told himself, and it never - ever worked. It might work temporarily, or on the surface. But deep down? It didn't work. So, what was he feeling? He was feeling lonely.

He had friends. Several of them, actually. He was more social now than he'd been for years. He even went to the gym, where he could have friendly-ish talks with others. So WHY was he feeling lonely? Maybe lonely wasn't even the right word. More... Isolated. Like there was an invisible barrier between him and everyone else. It was lame to call himself different, like he was some edgy emo teenager. But - what if he was different? It seemed to him that everyone else moved through their lives with a promise that things would end well. It wasn't like everyone around him were happy or whatever, but - happiness was in the cards for them. Nnoitra's deck didn't have that. And that... That made him feel really alone.

There was no solution to this problem. He knew he just needed to stop being a little bitch about it, and accept his situation. He couldn't talk to anyone about it. Not like that would've helped anyway. But he really, REALLY wished he could stop feeling like this. He didn't want to be alone.

[mainfaggot]

guys i think I found something that makes me want to kill myself LESS oh my god

[widowshill]

it's my burden specifically to grow attached to moments with camera issues

[scattered-winter]

listening to the across the spiderverse soundtrack rn. might have a music analysis coming soon if i can still form coherent thoughts by then

[winter-sol]

New hints (and questions) about Nightbringer

Finally! We have some clues about NB, I'm so excited! We finally have an idea of what to expect. Yet I still have so many doubts. But that's only natural, we're still missing on so much information ;; I simply want to share my thoughts about Nightbringer at the moment.

First, I'd like to mention the objective facts we know about the game:

We're our good old sheep MC.

We've travelled to the past, and we need to "reforge our bonds and pacts with the seven brothers"

Honestly, I'm happy the game is not just a prequel and we get to keep our MC. Still, time traveling is a choice. So, knowing this, what personally intrigues me the most are the questions that have arised from the possibilities when it comes to going to the past and meeting the demons there.

I'll try to point out my main questions and theorize a bit, but this is only with the little info we've been given.

We've travelled by Barbatos' magic, so at least he and Diavolo should know we're going to the past. Right?

Do the brothers know? The lines "Don't worry, you'll be fine. After all, we are..." and then "My love for you trascends time" (in Japanese, "No matter how many times we meet you, we'll fall in love with you") seem to be from the brothers POV. The first line gives me the impression they know what our mission is and are basically wishing us good luck and trusting in us, for us to... "save" them, maybe? There has to be a reason we're doing all of this.

About that, why are we doing this? Are we being sent with us knowing what's going on? Or we just wake up and surprise! You're in the past! (double isekai lmao) I hope it's some kind of "mission" we are well aware of.

How will time traveling be explained this time? (In case it will be explained because let's face it, we know OM is not the most rigorous when it comes to it, lol) The brothers will meet us in the past, so are we going to be presenting as ourselves? Or as some random human? You know, like we pretended to be a random angel in the Celestial Realm? After all is done, will they remember the events from the past? Will they know it was us? You know, as in sheep MC? Are their memories going to be "rewritten" and, once we're back, they'll know what happened and know MC loved them in the present and the past? I just... I just don't know. (But I kinda like the latter, it sounds romantic)

All of their lines in the webpage show some kind of emotion related to their fall, in their own way. But at least something that is common to all of them is pain. About each of them:

Lucifer seems to feel guilty or responsible for their fall; Mammon seems accepting of his (and their) fate, Leviathan seems terrified of his fate; Satan, being a new entity, is annoyed by his existence in this reality and his new brothers; Asmodeus is in denial; Beelzebub's one is intriguing, because it points to a secret more then his feelings regarding the fall, but I'd say there's something about the fall or the war he knows and feels guilty about hiding; and Belphegor is thinking about punishment and consequences of their actions, could it be indifference? or a quiet fear?

What kind of dynamics will we have with these recently turned demons? Are we going to have our beloved, dangerous interactions such as the ones we got on Halloween 2021? Or early lessons? (I really, really hope so)

But more than anything, regarding the reasons of our travelling... What happened that needs us to travel and bond with them in their past selves? Are they in some kind of danger? Did some kind of event trigger a reaction from them, becoming distant with us (ahhh yes, angst) and we need to unravel their past? I like the idea of MC getting to know their backstories and ending up with this idea of "I'll love him even after all he's done as a demon".

And that's why I like this concept of "My love for you trascends time" because it can be both ways. They'll love us no matter in what time or form we meet, but also they trust us to keep loving them even though it's a difficult, dangerous love.

And yes, the Japanese one is slightly different but I also like how that one is only directed from the demons to us. Even if it's in an alternative universe, the past, not knowing us, our bond and connection is so strong it's certain they'll fall in love with us.

...

Man, I'm getting the feels from this teaser. I can't wait to see what kind of angst, tragic backstories and dramatic romance we'll get to experience.

And by the way! On March 24th, the song from the opening will be released, "Devil's Way". From the unofficial lyrics I've seen, they do mention the little sheep and to not be afraid, so I wonder what kind of information we'll get from the full lyrics 🕺

Peace out.

[skoulsons]

thinking about the tear sitting at Ellie’s right eye

[schnees-and-schnugs]

Winter trying to show Whitley how to maneuver around with Glyphs and it end up being an endearing ice skating session lol

I actually have a hc that when winter trains whitley she actually finds that he takes on faster to using glyphs creatively than Weiss did, but physically he's pretty useless LOL.

But instead of trying to force him into a box that he doesn't fit in, she works on helping whitley with his own style more.

And yes they ice skate~~~

[juha-art]

genuinely everytime i get obsessed with something at this level its like a magic spell of get +8 hours to the day. like i literally can't tell you how im watching so much d20 but still doing everything else id normally do its chronomancy

[scorchedhearth]

you give me a lot of jason vibes but not like. the anger and murder part just the way you analyze media so deeply and have correct opinions about everything idk it's just very jason to me

keep stroking my ego pls <3

which character do i remind u of