#Good analysis

[bluecatwriter]

Hang on - "bit of ribbon that was around my neck" - part of the wedding and the wedding present is her baring her throat to him

Mina takes off the (blue) ribbon around her neck to bind up the symbol of their love and trust, while simultaneously Lucy puts on the (black) ribbon around her neck to hide her bite marks from her lover under a symbol of his affection/ownership (the diamond buckle).

Lucy's throat is locked up tight and is being violated anyway. Mina's is unbound upon her wedding. (Sexual liberator whomst?)

Both ribbons secure and hide evidence of vampirism (the bites / the diary)

WHAT

HOW HAD I NEVER NOTICED THIS BEFORE

*GNAWING ON THIS*

[gliyerabaa]

Obviously we all know Frex sucks, but I actually don’t think any of the trio have particularly healthy relationships with their parents?

Elphaba has most likely been encouraged to be invisible her entire life. Basically every line Frexspar says to her is him telling her to shut up and stay out of the way (‘Try not to talk so much’, ‘Stop making a spectacle of yourself’)— even him wanting her taken away as a baby. I get the impression Elphaba spent any time she wasn’t actively doing something for him or Nessarose shut up in her room; he wants her on call for when they need her (and wants to keep her from embarrassing him in public) so she’s kept at home, but she’s strongly encouraged to remain out of sight.

Sharing a room for Elphaba is actually a huge adjustment because for years her room has been the space where she spent all her free time. She’s used to being disliked but she’s always had somewhere she could hide from it, except now there’s Glinda and that loathing is in her refuge and she has nowhere else to go.

Glinda puts on a very good show of being close with her parents (‘dearest darlingest’ and all that), but looking back on it they really don’t know a thing about her. They’re impressive high society people living their impressive high society lives, and part of that is having the perfect little socialite daughter to impress all their friends with her achievements. Her relationship with them is a performance, because it’s always been their staff actually raising her. As staff members moved on or were let go or changed positions throughout her childhood she got very used to people she loved moving on and leaving her behind.

Shiz is the first time in her life Glinda feels like she has something like a stable family. There’s no society politics with Elphaba, and she’s the first person Glinda has ever been able to love (in a non-performative way) who isn’t in danger of suddenly having to go away. Then there’s Fiyero and he’s kind and fun and as much as she’s playing her part by falling for the perfect guy, it slowly starts to feel less false over time when she realises she genuinely cares about him and the quiet moments they have alone, as much as the show they can put on at the Ozdust.

It shatters her when all at once Elphaba leaves her like people always have, and her and Fiyero are forced into the spotlight and their whole relationship is suddenly just fodder for the press.

Fiyero comes from a big family, and they care about him as much as they can, but he’s not the crown Prince, and he’s not quite the baby of the family. Anything new he tries it seems like one of his older siblings has already done better, and being compared to them constantly really chips away at him, until he decides it’s safer not to try. He gives up on trying to make them proud, and just starts trying to play the role people expect of him, because at least if he’s a scandal his family are paying attention to him, right?

He opens up at Shiz, and he plays his part with Glinda, but it’s Elphaba that gets to him. They rescue the lion cub, and she knows that they’ll never get any recognition for it. No one will ever know, or be proud of her for doing that, but she did it because it was right and because she cares and because that’s who she is. After that he starts trying at things again, because even if it’ll never mean anything to anyone else, he desperately wants to know what it’s like to be himself again.

omg i completely forgot about this ask I'm so sorry!!

........ tbh I don't even have any response or commentary or anything-- this is such a good characterization and I absolutely love these ideas. Glinda and Fiyero's family lives don't get explored nearly enough, and I'm happy to hear analysis of the ideas :)

thank you for this, and apologies for taking so long to share it

[evilhorse]

Only you could find that sweet spot between caring and utterly paranoid.

[gunlord500]

Kinda random, but reposting my Twitter thread about how despite their loudly proclaimed superiority, conservatives haven't made as much of a splash in culture and the arts as they say they should. Check out an except from this essay a righty wrote on his blog, concerning the literary influences of the old Dungeons and Dragons games:

I was reading this essay by a righty extolling, as they usually do, the virtues of Old Books, especially those written before everything went "woke," in this case being the guys who inspired Gygax in making AD&D-Vance, Howard (conan), etc. (2/14)

This isn't uncommon on the right, obviously, but what really interests me is his attitude to the Old Books, which reflects something often seen on the right, and which, in my view, is a reason they tend to undermine themselves in the arts. (3/14)

Look at how he talks about classic 80s D&D authors who nevertheless weren't the 60s-70s inspiration for the game themselves: Weis and Hickman were just imitations of the "Platonic Form" of Vance. (4/14)

It's very common theme in right-wing thought: That there was some Golden Age in the past, or in this case some Ideal, and everything since then/farther than that is just a decline and the best we can hope for is just imitation (5/14)

Now, right-wingers like this guy always make a show about how they're making fiction/art that Sticks It to the Libs by consciously imitating the Glory Days of the 80s, or even before that, the mid-century pulps, before Woke. (6/14)

Here's the thing, though: Their very worldview gives their prospective customers a perfect reason not to actually buy anything they make, for the reasons laid out, or at least alluded to, in the guy's post I screenshotted. (7/14).

The old greats--Howard, Vance, etc.--were closer to the Great Story than we are? And even non-woke masters like the Dragonlance authors were just shadows of Vance? So why should we believe you, o rightwing author, are any closer to greatness? (8/14)

Yeah, you don't know what you're missing out on if you've only had reheated dinners. But the right-wing artist, by his own admission, isn't providing anything but a reheated dinner-the real good meals were and are the original Vance, Howard, etc. (9/14)

So in that case...why should I ever buy anything from this guy, or Vox Day, or Castalia house, or any of the rest of them? I can get the original Good Old Books, rather than just imitations, much cheaper (and in many cases free) (10/14)

"Woke" authors nowadays, on the other hand...you can say they're unskilled, you can say they're completely callow in their lack of knowledge and appreciation of the past, you can say they're nothing compared to the greats, but...(11/14)

You have to admit they're much better at marketing than their adversaries, the 'traditional' righties. They can at least make the case they're making something new, even if it sucks or even if it actually is just a crappy imitation (12/14),

And thus, the people listening to them will be motivated to actually go out and buy their work, whereas a conservative writer's fans will just go back to the Good Stuff of Vance and Howard rather than shell out for an imitator. (13/14)

You do not have to be a genius to figure out that the lefty's approach will lead to more sales and thus more reach in the culture over the long term. 14/14 (END)

[linktoo-doodles]

resurrection is sort of romantic, isnt it

[shyjusticewarrior]

[mental-mona]

Excerpts:

The Gaza war is better understood as a conflict between two competing nationalist projects than as a case of settler colonialism. There are a number of inconvenient historical truths that complicate the “settler colonialism” narrative.

***

Another problem with the settler colonialism narrative is that it treats each side as a monolithic actor, playing the role of colonizer and victim, respectively. In reality there is a diversity of ideas and interests in both the Israeli and Palestinian camps.

The tragedy of the past 30 years is that moderates on both sides, interested in making a genuine peace, have been repeatedly outflanked by radicals screaming that compromise means betrayal.

***

But peace will only be possible if we recognize that there are legitimate grievances on both sides. It is not a struggle between right and wrong, between good and evil, though partisans often frame it in those terms.

***

Students and faculty on American universities should be working together to help forge a solution, and not using the conflict to open a new front in the culture wars and to score points against their political opponents in the US.

[imagopersonal]

Aziraphale was about to confess too before Metatron and his coffee came into the bookshop;

Okay, hear me out. In 2x02, when they’re talking about “how people fall in love”, Crowley talks about sudden rainstorms,

which is an obvious reference to how he fell in love, about 6000 years earlier (poor demon thinks everyone falls in love the way he did)

Aziraphale doesn’t get it and answers “seems a bit unlikely”. He didn’t connect the dots, he doesn’t think Crowley loves him that way. All he knows about falling in love is what he read in books. Of course he fell in love with Crowley too, but I’m pretty sure he did in ‘41 when Crowley saved his books from a bomb, and that’s a bit hard to recreate, so… balls.

That’s his idea, you make two people dance together and they magically fall in love, which is so in-character I want to scream. Now let’s get to 2x05. We know Aziraphale always tried to avoid organizing those meetings, but he’s suddenly so excited about it he is WILLING TO GIVE AWAY HIS BOOKS. Why would he do something like that? There’s no way it’s actually to make Maggie and Nina fall in love. At that point, Muriel doesn’t even care anymore about it, they all know the truth about the miracle is about to be revealed, so there’s no point in being so persistent about Maggie and Nina’s relationship. He’s an angel; of course he cares about humans being happy, but I don’t think he cares so much about two semi-strangers’ love life that he’s willing to give away BOOKS for the off chance that the Jane Austen method will actually work on two humans he knows nothing about. So, my conclusion is, he’s organizing that night for him and Crowley. They are the ones that he hopes realize they’re deeply in love with each other, and that is something worth giving away books for. Which explains why he’s so excited but also a bit scared when he asks Crowley to dance with him.

It explains why he ignores the fact that Crowley is trying to tell him that something important and dangerous is about to happen, just so they can have a little dance. It also explains this reaction when he sees Gabriel and Beelzebub being in love with each other

and the way he looks at Crowley while they’re talking about them.

I mean, I know he always stares lovingly at him, but not like that, right? That’s a face that screams “I’m so going to tell you I love you when all this is over”.

So, my point is:

Fuck Metatron.

That’s my point.

Imago

[my-heart-of-heart]

So normal about Jon being like I don’t remember what you looked like but the man who let you die is going to suffer for what he did to you. If only Sasha coulda seen that.

So normal about Jon being like you died hating me and wanting me dead but I’m still gonna make sure this man knows I’m ending him in your name. Sure wish Tim coulda seen that.

So normal about the fact that everyone believed Jon was losing his humanity but no one got to see the ways his love and compassion for the people he lost or who hurt him drove him to that final moment.

So normal about the fact that even after everything Jonah’s done to Jon, the only person he never thinks to get justice for is himself.

[biceratops7]

Dang it guys

we only ever talked about HALF of why these scenes were a big deal, like I just realized this today and my heart is going insane.

It’s not just that Crowley’s pissed at Gabriel for treating who he thinks as Aziraphale this way, the last thing he says to the people about to kill him is a benign and peaceful wish to see them again.

And like- this is Crowley trying to replicate Aziraphale to a T. So he legitimately just sees him as this endless well of compassion, someone who is always warm and accepting. It’s not just their friendship throughout the years, he remembers Aziraphale’s kindness on the Eastern Gate. When the angel had absolutely no reason to trust this random demon who just slithered up next to him. Crowley knows that he’s loved. Maybe not like that quite yet (although he’d be very wrong), but he knows that around his friend he’s always welcome and safe.

And Aziraphale?

Well he just thinks Crowley’s the coolest fucker alive, like he is laying it in THICK and enjoying every second. Listen to that charisma, look at that smirk. These are traits that are typically only appreciated in the context of how good it makes Crowley at tempting, a job he hates. But Aziraphale doesn’t see someone manipulative or regard this persona as signs of his “demonic nature”, he just sees Crowley. Someone charming, fun loving, and cute.

This is when we get to know precisely why they love each other, what exactly they see in the other.

edit: this is now my most popular post, good work team, lol

[crowleys-hips]

ok i know everyone's analyzed the shit out of the Job minisode. but i think everyone has overlooked this Very Important detail, and it's this:

do you see it?

golden kermit collar

thank you for listening

[inafever]

Oh my god I've been so stupid

GIVE ME COFFEE OR GIVE ME DEATH

It was an outright goddamn death threat

You either take the coffee, or take the death

Metatron you nasty little piece of shit

[swedenis-h]

Aww… anyway! (X)