#47gaslamps

[novelmonger]

Character ask for Minerva McGonagall, Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Molly Weasley, Albus Dumbledore and... Mundungus Fletcher, why not

From this ask game

Oh boy, HP characters!

Go grocery shopping with - Molly! I'd love to help her do her shopping for her enormous family, and I bet you anything she would help me find good deals on what I need, with some excellent life advice thrown in too. And she would just be such warm, homey company, as if I were shopping with my mom.

Have lunch with - I think Professor Lupin would be a great person to have lunch with. Lupin knows how to make you feel comfortable and seen, and he's great at listening. The conversation would be so interesting; he could tell me all about interesting magical creatures or useful little spells. I don't know if he'd feel comfortable discussing this or not, but I would also love to hear more about his experiences as a werewolf, and what his daily life is like. Maybe he could tell some stories about good times with the other Marauders. Maybe I'd ask him how he and Tonks met. All in all, I think lunch with him would just be warm and cozy. Hopefully we could schedule it during a good phase of the moon.

Have coffee with - Sirius Black! No, not as a date. I have no idea what we'd talk about, but it would just be really cool to meet him. I've always felt drawn to his protective uncle/older brother vibes, and if somehow in this hypothetical scenario I were friends with Harry, I think we'd be comfortable with each other. Maybe we'd break the ice by talking about him first. Maybe, in the end, we'd just sit in silence, but that would be okay too.

Go thrift shopping with - Okay...to be completely honest, I don't think I'd want to go anywhere with Mundungus Fletcher, but this is as good an option as any, I guess. He probably knows all the best places and how to get great deals from the back rooms where most people wouldn't be allowed. The only trouble would be getting him out of the place without shoplifting anything of value.

Explore a museum/art gallery/aquarium with - Originally, I was going to pick Lupin for this one. While I do think he'd be a good pick, it would also be interesting to go on a field trip, of sorts, with Moody. I'm not sure exactly what kind of museum we'd go to - do wizards have museums? Maybe it would be a history museum of some kind, and Moody would be able to tell me about all the secret magical side of historical events I thought I knew all about. It would be kind of scary to be around someone like Moody, what with his eye swiveling all over the place, and he'd probably keep me on my toes with his gruff manners and occasional cries of "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" But I bet I'd learn a lot.

Go the library/bookstore with - Professor McGonagall would be an excellent companion to the bookstore. I would be very intimidated by her, but I bet she could give great reading recommendations. She'd probably also accompany that with mini-lectures on anything touching upon her field of study, but like...that would be super interesting too!

Have as a plus-one at a wedding - Okay...I doubt this would be most people's choice...but I can't escape the thought of accompanying Professor Dumbledore to a wedding. For one thing, there wouldn't be the slightest worry about anyone taking anything the wrong way or unrealistic expectations or anything - it would be like going to a wedding with my grandpa. Also, Dumbledore is just so funny and unpredictable and witty and knowledgeable about so many things! It would be so fun to sit at a table with him during the reception and just listen to his conversation, or share little jokes with him. Also, we know that he likes to dance, and I could definitely see him coaxing me out onto the dance floor to dance some silly, improvised dance or teach me some incredibly outdated ballroom dance from his youth or something.

[tiger-moran]

47gaslamps: A man who wears an opera hat may not BE posh, but at the very least he would clearly like to be PERCEIVED as such

I actually think it's the opposite really. I mean yes there may be times when he wants to be perceived as such but I think that is he wants to for a very specific reason (because it's a job or something, or maybe he just wants to go see some opera without people staring at him and then trying to chuck him out for being 'wrongly attired'), it isn't that he would like to be perceived that way, he just needs to be perceived that way to carry out a particular task. But in terms of his family Sebastian Moran is pretty 'posh'. Even if he's of Irish descent in a time and place which didn't really treat Irish people well, there were still Irish people or those of Irish descent in English 'high society' and he was born in London to what would appear to be a 'decent' family with a respected patriarch and he had the typical upper class education at Eton, then Oxford. But I am sure he doesn't want to be perceived that way - he's turned against society and I think that definitely includes turning against his father; he's been rejected by and has thus in turn rejected most of his family (and I think the only ones he did care or could have cared about, his mother, his sister, are dead). He also likely as a child experienced some pretty awful abuse in the form of 'fagging' and bullying and corporal punishment in the 'posh' school he was forced to go to. He got forced to 'retire' from the army too. So I don't think he sees any of that as really him. All that the 'posh' society did was mistreat and reject him. The real him is someone who talks with a 'common' accent and swears and uses colloquialisms and can be provoked into fights (definitely not abiding by the Queensberry rules) and does all the things he is not 'supposed' to do and I think the more he got censured (by his father or tutors/teachers or whoever) for doing these the more he did them and the more firmly they got cemented in him as his real character or personality. He may very likely genuinely like opera but the opera hat, like the 'posh' accent, is a disguise, camouflage, or part of a uniform, something to put on when he's playing a role and blending himself in so he can pass unnoticed or pass as someone who almost everyone else will underestimate.

Actually this does raise the interesting point that this is another reason maybe why Moran does resonate with a lot of trans people? Because even if he's not transgender, he's born as one thing but he doesn't see that as real, he doesn't see that as his authentic self; the real him is someone else entirely, someone he's made himself into and someone who is only truly accepted by a select few (like Moriarty).

[windmilltothestars]

Thanks for the tag, friend!! <3 <3 <3

Last song: It was probably just the last hymn we sang in church today, unless the theme song to the Wire counts

Favourite colour: Indigo!!

Currently watching: The Wire, Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V, M*A*S*H, Mr. Sunshine, re-watching bits and pieces of Teen Wolf

Spicy/Savoury/Sweet: I can be in either a sweet or salty mood. My brain rebels against the word "savoury" somehow, the same way it does with "duvet" XD

Relationship status: Oh my gosh I am so single, I would have no idea how to deal with the potential for romance . . .

Current obsession: With great blushing for its MTV trashiness, Teen Wolf is fighting to dominate my heart. Also a dumb little idle cat game on my phone, Anne of Green Gables in little bursts, and my ideas for fan fic from Docor Who to Teen Wolf to Les Mis to Tolkien, if I can finally do anything with them . . . No-pressure tagging: @magnetocerebro, @dog-of-ulthar, @dwarven-beard-spores, @einsamewache, @crystalandrock, @axonsandsynapses, @47gaslamps, @marietheran, @warrioreowynofrohan - participate in the chain if you feel so inclined! <3

9 people I'd like to know better

thank you for the tag @backgroundagent3!!

Last Song: true story by ariana grande

Favourite colour: pink

Currently watching: grey's anatomy, brooklyn 99, rewatching gilmore girls (as always)

Spicy/Savoury/Sweet: sweet

Relationship status: single

Current obsession: bridgerton, gilmore girls, elain and elriel

no pressure tagging: @heartandflowerball @theskittlemuffin @daydreaming-optimist @lovedust4starlust @galwithalibrarycard @wowthatsextra @thstarsofsilver @kanerallels and @burning-daylight <3

[artic-willow]

For some reason I can't read your DM. What's up?

Oh, it's because Tumblr is give me problems with messages people. So for now I can't message no one util Tumblr resolve the problem

Hopefully soon.

[brawltogethernow]

I'm a Death Note blog. Needless to say, I'm fine with the diversity in Death Note's portrayal of genius. Human vagaries ought to ruffle the smoothly-laid plans a bit more, but it does happen, especially in the second arc. (And incorporating hotel stationery into it makes me unreasonably giddy.) However, the collected works of Orson Scott Card really grind my gears in this respect and if you've got an essay on that, I'd love to hear it.

(x) I love your energy and genuinely I wish I had read so much as a single chapter of Card so I could reward your attempt to throw me a different body of work like raw meat yote to a degenerate emperor’s vicious captive hyena. I want to maim something for sport for you.

[mikami]

Does Misa's demonstration of the limits of her eyes suggest that a medical mask would protect you from Kira, or not?

Misa’s drawings don’t really specify this in any satisfying way, but the rules are luckily a bit more descriptive:

In order to see the names and life spans of humans by using the eye power of the god of death, the owner must look at more than half of that person's face. When looking from top to bottom, he must look at least from the head to the nose. If he looks at only the eyes and under, he will not be able to see the person's name and life span. Also, even though some parts of the face, for example the eyes, nose or mouth are hidden, if he can basically see the whole face, he will be able to see the person's name and life span. It is still not clear how much exposure is needed to tell a person's name and life span, as this needs to be verified.

Which basically means that if you wear a medical mask as it is meant to be worn (covering both mouth and nose), you would not have your name visible.

If that isn’t a plea for proper mask wearing, I don’t know what is.

[faithful-grigori]

47gaslamps said: “#Welcome to the madness! :D”

red-umbrella-811 said: “%They’re short stories you can just start now and catch the rest of them next year”

jabbage said: “#We're also going to do the novels next year so you're definitely not too late”

Why the fuck didn't I know of the Letters From Watson series that is sending out emails like Dracula daily, oh my god

[13eyond13]

Your last ask got me thinking: why do character-meme headcanons tend to assume Yotsuba Arc conditions? Because that is definitely a thing.

Hmm, I think maybe because that's the part of the story that slows down the grueling plot the most and shows a different side of the main characters than we saw from them before, and in the closest proximity to each other. L starts moping and acting less motivated and showing very shady tactics for crime-solving during this arc. Light and Misa lose their Kira memories and Light in particular changes drastically to a mature and empathetic person who strongly disagrees with manipulating others to get what he wants. The task force struggles to choose between their commitment to the Kira case and L and their home lives, which shows where their priorities lie and where their allegiances are strongest or weakest. Anyone interested in the emotional states and relationships between these characters is bound to want to see them explored more in circumstances like these, I think. And it's much harder to get them all together in a daily living situation in canon otherwise because of the nature of the Kira case and how secretive L normally is.

[secretshinigami]

Artist: @bluelyath For: @47gaslamps Prompt: “Naomi kicking Light’s butt after he attempts to use force” Artist’s notes: I had been wanting to draw this for a while now and just needed an excuse. This was the perfect excuse. I hope you like it!

[moro-nokimi]

47gaslamps replied to your post:

(Source for this take: Indian saying they are culturally close to Japan because “Asian.” And therefore your argument is invalid and never mind exactly why. That is just not an honest .)

what got me was them talking smack about white ppl taking in manga/anime and how we wouldn’t understand it bc of our whiteness..... when that wasn’t what the debate was about.

like, white westerners’ points of view are always going to be limited because of those factors of being white and western but when we’re talking characterization i feel that we have a fair shot at understanding it fairly well? we miss some cultural stuff like how jp couples don’t show affection in public or even how jp pizza toppings differ from american toppings ofc, bc those are different cultural/racial contexts.

but if i’m saying “hey, i don’t really think that’s him letting go of his ego” and they go in a circular argument and i point out shit that directly disproves it (i didn’t have the page numbers/chapters on me because i haven’t memorized the entirety of the manga.... yet - but i did still quote characters) and they cite my western whiteness as a mark against me i can’t say as i understand it

[47gaslamps]

Dr. Van Helsing's activities this Guy Fawkes Day:

Successfully erecting a barrier against incorporeal assailants...

Confirming the continued loyalty of his most valuable ally, which had been in doubt...

Pressing onward to the very enemy stronghold...

Putting paid to the enemy's most powerful lieutenants...

Cutting off the enemy himself at the knees...

In sum, giving Tumblr user 47gaslamps an unusually happy holiday.

[kiranatrix]

Perhaps you might remember my prior post about the potential significance of the white roses (and specifically, the number of them [47]) in this illustration (below, left) by Obata of L I posted a couple weeks ago. I concluded that Obata was making a reference to the legend of the 47 Ronin, L’s successors, and tying in the symbolic meaning of white roses in Hanakatoba (the language of flowers).

So I decided to also count the white roses in this illustration of L (above photo, right) and got 74. At first I was a little bummed— the number was not the same as the other picture so maybe I was talking out my ass about my theory. But...a little more thought and it hit me like a piano on my head. A few more pianos followed.

First, it’s an inversion of the numbers 7 and 4. The first picture, an illustration used on L’s true name card in How to Read, had 47 roses. This one has 74. The number 7 (七) is a lucky number in Japan, and in Buddhism in particular, while 4 is highly unlucky (四, sounds like death 死 ‘shi’). This could represent a shift in L’s luck, his loss to Kira and death.

It’s also goroawase (語呂合わせ). This is common form of Japanese wordplay where words that sound the same (homophones) are associated with a given series of letters, numbers or symbols, to give new meaning and express a superstition about certain letters or numbers. The number 74 (七十四) can be read separately as "nana-shi", and “nanashi" (名無�� ) means "secret/stealthy” or “nameless.” The first meaning is similar symbolism as white roses in Hanakatoba (i.e. silence) The second seems specific to L, as one of his major secrets was his true name. Also note that the second character in nanashi is 無 — Mu. The end of Death Note said that all humans go to Mu (nothingness) when they died. Mu also has specific relevance to Buddhism, and Ohba was influenced by Buddhism and gave Death Note 108 chapters for this reason as it is a sacred number. The Japa Mala has 108 beads, 108 is the number of human feelings/emotions, and a famous sutra has Buddha being asked 108 questions...and so on.

The final kicker that it wasn’t a coincidence is that the 74th radical in Japanese kanji is... 月. This is the word for moon, and it is also Light’s first name (夜神月 : ya gami raito).

Edit!: @47gaslamps noted that L’s inverted position might be symbolic of the Page of Swords reversed in tarot. The general meaning of this card and position is bad news. It refers to a person who can be manipulative, cynical and sarcastic and may consider themselves superior to others and that the rules don’t apply to them.

[tiger-moran]

47gaslamps:

I really thought that was just a Tumblr joke because you liked the character dynamics. As to the essay... I can see the criticisms; I just don't know how you can work it into a defense of the Moriarty Crime Ring.

It was sort of half serious and half a joke I guess.

This isn’t just about ‘why they’re not really the villains’, I’ve written about all kinds of stuff - biographical stuff and character analysis, Moriarty and Death symbolism, his connection with other characters, real life influences, how Moriarty compares to Holmes and to other canonical villains, etc etc.

Also me getting kind of salty with the Sherlock Holmes fandom and how that has treated the characters and the relationship over the years

[v-pasiphae-v]

Watched @47gaslamps awesome vid and inspo struck me with full force. A Misa-centered AMV had been in my mind for some time but hadn't found a suitable song for her. I’ve tried to approach her unhealthy dependence on Light and their relationship. Even if it's Misa's POV, you can't talk about her without bringing Light into the equation too, he's such an attention whore xD Youtube's a bitch and has blocked it almost everywhere (/@&%$€*!!), but people in USA and Mexico should be able to watch it (in HQ configuration plz, it’s 1080p).

If you liked it, tell me what you think, please.

[pennyl4n3]

Thank you @jakelogic 🥺💞 I could tag every single person I'm following here.

@robbybarnes @duskwoodddd @duskwood-legacies @duskwoodamateurdetective @duskwoodfanfic @duskwoodfun01040 @duskwoodfuns @duskwoodfanpage @lady-duskwood @layanasstories @digital-corruption @yuvon-augold79 @hacked-by-jake @hacked-by-nymos @hackerqueen @one-and-only-po @zusy-hunter @booklover-01040 @marjoon @marsinduskwood @mirajane01040 @neptunee @nym0sgirl @nzvh @47gaslamps @duskwoodraven @saddah-mo @archangel-of-the-abyss @justubi @fuckingangelsavage @padmesgreene @phenom-stark @benhardygalileo @burnmuffin @escapethewonderland @ephemeral-sorrow @geocait0815 @humblechumbble @i-desire-jake @jakeforever @jakey-girl01040 @zmayadw @muslimintp-1999-girl @mysticpetals @oceanicpebble @procrastinatingrobin @roseduskwood @athelonewolfuniverse @tooharuart

I reached the maximum limit for mentions, sorry! 😅

A big hug to you mutuals 💜

I'm proud of you

[mikami]

While we're on anime versus manga, what do you think of Light's comparative deaths? I cannot for the life of me decide which of them ought to be the definitive version.

Unsurprisingly, I prefer the manga death by a long shot, haha.

The anime death is very pretty and I do get really emotional every time I watch Light run for his life, but ultimately I think it trades substance for aesthetics.

On the solely logistic level, it’s pretty hard for me to believe that Light (who gets shot more in the anime than the manga) can actually run a marathon in his state - and somehow shake the four uninjured men pursuing him. This is, of course, very petty, and irl logic can often be set aside for the sake of story.

On a story level, I just think the anime’s actual death is fairly… unimpressive?

It’s just unremarkable on every level to me. Light doesn’t actually know he’s dying (he has no awareness of Ryuk being his killer) and he gets to pass away more peacefully and slowly than any other person who’s ever had a heart attack on this show. He just… fades out. It looks pretty but as a character moment, it’s not really memorable. The most exciting thing going on is him hallucinating L, but that opens a whole other can of worms.

Light sees L and that’s specifically when he starts closing his eyes. The anime here mirrors L’s anime death by giving Light, too, a degree of acceptance for his defeat. The anime emphasizes “L vs Light” much more heavily than the manga and turns it into the core of the story. If that’s your cup of tea, I see how that makes the anime ending more appealing. For me it kind of cheapens down both characters to view them as these fated enemies destined to consume one another… Like that’s such a cookie cutter nemesis plotline that happens in media really commonly. And like, it can be good? But trading a less generic plotline from the manga for a very common one in the anime feels like a downgrade.

Light’s manga death meanwhile is probably in my top three of favourite scenes for how much it stands out with how ugly it allows his death to be. I cannot think of another anime or manga that portrays the death of its protagonist this raw and completely unaesthetically. Light’s death is horrid. That’s why it’s amazing.

We get to see our composed and manipulative main character reduced to the most primal fear and panic of wanting to keep on living. There is no acceptance here, there is only the absolute certainty of death and the sheer horror it evokes. Even if you’ve never seen Light as sympathetic, I think it is hard to watch him beg for his life and not feel for this most basic of desires - to stay alive.

It’s raw, it’s ugly, it’s utterly karmic to have Light experience this same moment of certain death that he’s put so many people through… and it’s honest in its portrayal. There are no aesthetics. Even Light’s corpse looks ugly and undignified. This moment confronts with mortality head-on.

The scene also ties up the relationship that actually started the plot: Light & Ryuk. More heavily so by actually keeping in the scene that confirms there is neither heaven nor hell. The anime keeps it as a rule-card but most of the viewers never read it. They think Light gets to become a shinigami or all other kinds of nice and hopeful things. On every level, the anime plays it safe.

And I guess that sums up my feelings about the anime generally: it takes unique concepts and replaces them with more marketable common tropes, consistently.