#I guess this is a baby meta?

[metamatronic]

i love the idea of william actually being pretty decent at an american accent, but that, on occasion, he pronounces a word the british way with just. an american accent on top of it. i.e. matching the accent but still saying the syllables “mo-bye-uhl” instead of “mo-bull” for mobile.

[xf-cases-solved]

i am aware that this is likely not a new take at all, and i'm not like, claiming it as mine, but i never had the chance to have this opinion (or hear other ppl have this opinion) on a public forum before, so i just want to take this opportunity to say to another person, possibly for the first time with the exception of mb my mother, who is no longer here to agree with me, that "existence" came out when i was 8 years old, i watched it live, and literally the day i watched it i remember thinking to myself "why did they have a boy named william? they should have had a girl named samantha. OF COURSE they should have had a girl named samantha," like it felt so obvious to me

and tho i couldn't rly articulate it this clearly at the time, my little muddy 8 year old thought process was that the entire story of the xfiles starts with samantha, right? mulder has his beliefs bc samantha was taken; he says so in the very first episode. the whole reason he even thinks aliens are real to begin with is bc of samantha. the person he spent his whole life searching for was samantha. he MET SCULLY bc of samantha. samantha is the thread that ties the whole story together, so then how beautiful--how narratively perfect--would it have been to tie THEIR story--their love story (bc xfiles is, at the end of the day, a love story, fight me) up with a bow, where the beginning starts with samantha getting lost, and then ends with samantha there in their arms, finally found, just in a different iteration. (instead of naming the baby after mulder's dad who he doesn't even like? or scully's dad. or scully's brother. or mulder's middle name, which is after his father ik, but still, why are there so many fucking williams??)

like, imagine it. rly sit there and take a moment to imagine how the end scene in "existence" would have gone if mulder had said, "what are you going to name her," and scully had said, "samantha"

not only does it get the "ding ding ding, you're the dad!" point across, but how fucking Touched would mulder have been to have the woman he loves--the PERSON he loves--more than anything on earth honor the sister who took up so much of his soul for so long? who always will take up part of his soul, just in a healthier way. it would be scully saying, "we know she's gone from this world now, but she's not gone from our hearts" emphasis on OUR hearts, bc mulder's pain is scully's pain; mulder's quests are scully's quests. she never met her sister-in-law (they're married, fight me), and will never have the chance, but by naming their child after her, she would be saying, "i love her anyway. i love her because you love her, and because anyone you love deserves my love as well, bc we are intertwined at our core. our fundamental values, our suffering, our joy, it is felt in us both concurrently, bc i am your person, and you are mine, and together we made a whole other person who is a literal representation of our combined selves, and we are going to call her SAMANTHA, bc that little girl you watched get stolen from you however many decades ago has been the pillar that has kept us going as a team for the last eight years"

or maybe it would have been even simpler than that. maybe she would just be saying, "your sister is IMPORTANT, mulder, even in death, and her memory isn't held only by you. it is unrelenting, and preserved forever in our child"

i wanted that scene. i wanted to feel the heaviness of mulder's grief mixed with his elation and gratitude and love. i appreciate william for who he was in the scheme of things, but that moment in the bedroom, with their baby between them, shouldn't have been lessened for me bc they chose a name that made me pause and go "his dad was named william? oh yeah! forgot about that guy, it's been a few YEARS since we saw much of him, and what we did see of him wasn't like... awesome. but sure, name your baby that ig, if you must"

that scene should have hit so much harder, and if that baby had been a samantha? it could have hit like nothing ever has, and for all the mishaps that show took after that (and there were MANY), i think the thing i will always have the most resentment for is the fact that i felt robbed of something that would have meant so much to me as a viewer who had followed their journey from the start (or, well, almost start. i was born the year it came out, so i didn't start watching until 1998, when my brain came online, but i'd seen the past stuff at least)

anyway! that's all to say, 8 year old me was salty as hell about that, and ykno what? she was RIGHT and should have been able to say it. but, again, 2001, 8 years old, not old enough to participate in fandom, so that thought has just festered and rotted away in my brain like a piece of old, putrid meat. but! finally i can give my 8 year old self some catharsis by letting her bitch and bitch and bitch to her heart's content about how "existence" should have been the series finale, and how that baby should have been a girl named samantha, and how i climbed onto that hill 23 years ago, and how i will die there with my heels dug down deep

ty, internet, for coming to my extremely overdue tedtalk. somewhere in the past there is a small child (who definitely shouldn't have been allowed to watch xfiles as young as she did, but what can you do?) finally has a weight off of her chest. it's just a tv show, and in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter, but also, it's a tv show that i grew up with in my formative and unfortunately very traumatic years, and it genuinely feels like a loved one who has always been there to comfort me, and so yeah, it doesn't "matter," but the truth is, it Matters so incredibly much

that's all

-diz

[helly-ena]

can we please talk about noelene without joking about how she should abort her baby and/or leave her husband? because it’s made very clear throughout the show that these are her choices. there is something incredibly triumphant about her making it as EP as a part-time working mother in the finale (a position she arrived at because she advocated for herself), and it is constantly undercut by rhetorics that undermine her own choices. like hey guys that is lowkey misogynistic too.

for instance, she CHOSE to legally and professionally change her name to her husband’s. like i have no doubt the main reason she did it is because there was social pressure/expectation for her to do so, but maybe she also did it because of the benefits a white-sounding last name would give her? the entire point of the newsreader is to recognise these humans as socially and historically situated beings. she is not a powerless victim waiting to be rescued by your ideas of what a woman should be. she is making the best choices she can as a korean woman of her time and that’s all any of us can do.

[gferamos]

Bringing this little concept bacc :)

Maybe I have grown a little attached to the dark matter trio teehee

OH AND if I had to sum their whole dynamic in one comic it would be:

[xxplastic-cubexx]

kinda cryin at learnin my cats favorite toy was a lil captain america but also that dhe got his eyes ripped out

[shellem15]

Was scrolling through the Ludinus tag because I enjoy seeing critters drag his bony ass, and suddenly had some thoughts about ludi and the gods. Keeping the narrative roles of gods and myths in mind, I want to talk about the gods' role in Exandria on a metatextual level, and how it ties into why Ludinus is a big stupid idiot (to put it in simple terms).

So, some preface: in real life religion and mythologies, gods aren't real people (shocker, I know). But the things they represent are real; gods and myths are just ways of explaining real world phenomena. This is why their characterization can be really whack. Zeus, for example, is a dick because in real life, kings are dicks. Artemis is both a protecter of hunters and their killer because, in ancient greece, when you went out into the woods to hunt, either you came back alive or you didn't. You can't analyze the gods as real people because they're not people-- they're concepts. You always have to keep these narrative roles and the historical context in mind when reading these myths. You can't judge them by our modern morals and values, because for one these myths are from ancient times, and also because the characters in these myths aren't humans that follow human moral codes or ethics.

So, in Exandria, the gods are real. And from what we've seen so far, they exist in a weird sort of space. They are both people, and concepts; mortal-like but also not. When analyzing the gods as concepts and roles in a narrative, it's pretty clear that the gods act in ways that align with their domains. The Everlight is merciful because she represents the concept of redemption; Asmodeus is hateful and cruel because he represents tyranny and domination; the Wildmother is both nurturing and brutal because nature is both of these things. You can't remove their actions from their domains, it is an intrinsic part of themselves.

Additionally, the actions they take represent certain themes. The Changebringer defeated Asmodeus in the calamity because freedom is the only way to beat tyranny. Same with the Everlight and the Dawnfather being the ones to strike down the Crawling King (with help from the Moonweaver and the All-Father), because these two gods represent hope, which defeats despair and suffering (I know despair isn't technically Torog's domain but it fits with the rest of his character so I'm gonna throw it in there.) The Raven Queen's ascension is representative of the Age of Arcanum as a whole, of the dominance of wizards over the world. The actions of the gods cannot be separated from their domains, and they cannot be separated from the general narratives seen in Exandria.

These overarching narratives can also be seen in the actions of mortals, too. The Age of Arcanum fell because of hubris. Because mortals thought they could best the gods and the world itself and it backfired on them. It's those rich guys who tried to go to the Titanic and their submarine got imploded by the water pressure. If you fuck around, you're gonna eventually find out. You can't beat the world you live in.

This detail of besting the gods is one I want to focus on with Ludinus. His whole thing is killing the gods to get revenge and "free" Exandria. But how is killing the gods freeing Exandria? The gods are Exandria. Even if they can't physically manifest avatars, they're still a part of it. The gods, being concepts, are written into the fabric of Exandria itself; you can't separate them from the world because they are the world and the world is them.

This fact is why the complete banishment of the Betrayer Gods didn't work; they are a fundamental part of Exandria and how it functions. Their return was, narratively, inevitable, because you can't remove concepts like violence or tyranny or betrayal from the world; they are here to stay, whether you like them or not. That doesn't mean you can't minimize their impact, just that you can't remove them entirely.

This is also why the Matron's ritual did work. When she killed the god of death, she wasn't destroying the concept of death itself, just putting it under new management. The same with Vecna ascending and becoming the god of secrets-- he took over an already existing domain. No fundamental concepts were created or destroyed, it's just that the faces that represented them changed.

Ludinus, in his denial of the gods, is denying the world itself. Both the good and the bad parts of it. He thinks he can remove the gods but keep Exandria mostly intact, but that's not how that works. He's so caught up in his trauma and revenge that he misses the bigger picture. In forsaking the gods, he forsakes the world. In killing the gods, he would be killing Exandria as we know it. (And that's why he's a big dumb idiot).

[oaksapling]

Nikita 'Nicky' Jackson

Rory's succubus best friend who acts more like their spoiled little sister most of the time. She dabbles in a bit of everything but makes most of her money working at the diner and variety streaming. She's a Widow/Ana main with bad attitude.

[rhiaarrow]

Babies, sweet eggy babies who have woken up and hung out together on the Ghostie Streams, please know that you can do that for Bad as well :')

(once he's not screwed up in the head from reincarnating ofc)

We've seen so many eggs spending time together and interacting that would never usually get to hang out because their parents' stream schedules just do not line up with each other at all.

Once qBad has been thoroughly reincarnated, whether that takes a few weeks or a month, there is no doubt in my mind that he won't go back to being island babysitter.

ccBad loves those eggs too damn much not to hang out with as many of them as he can possibly can and bend to their every whim. They have him wrapped around their pinky fingers and some of them take full advantage of that.

[Thinking back to Dapper's hundreds of 'you love me right :3' signs before asking to do smth ridiculous. Richas trying to act cute to get smth out of Pomme to then go 'damn, that always works on tio, I just act sweet and he folds'. Pepito's 'you know I love you mucho mucho right tio' sign right before asking for Bad to buy him a backpack. Pomme's 'Don't you love me? :3' sign as she forced him to wear another dress. Just for a few examples]

He's the only player who I can confidently say would happily babysit all 11 of them at the same time if he has to with no incentive needed. Other players would watch them if it was a matter of their survival, but Bad? He'd just do it because they're the eggs and he loves them.

So once it fits with his character, I don't doubt that we'll get BabysitterBoyHalo back even if it takes a little while, he can't deny his natural instincts forever!

And I just pray that some of these eggy duos or trios or quads or whatever groups of 5 and 6 are called keep hanging out together once we're no longer Ghosties POV because these interactions have been amazing and I want to see more :3

[justmenoworries]

This is gonna sound beyond weird, and it's gonna be egg on my face if the show doesn't go in the direction that I think it will with Vox but...

Is it just me or are there several paralells between Vox and Angel?

[psalmsofpsychosis]

So long story short but not really, in The Batman (2022) Riddler talks to Brucebro, tells him how they carried all their plans together, that he couldn't have done it without Batman, and he portrays them as equals, connected in idealogy (need for foundational societal change) and in execution (swift, maticulous, subtle and strategic approach), both of them orphans, both intellectuals, both being free and true with their masks. He draws the connections and correlations between them, and here is the thing; it's incredibly easy to fall into projection once you establish enough similarity and points of sameness between yourself and another person. Riddler projects his own affinity on Batman, imagining Batman feels the same sense of resolute alignment and comradeship with him that he does with Batman. Bruce does see the way he quite predictably played into Riddler's schemes and became an unwilling part of his narrative, and he doesn't like it one bit. He immediately tries to separate himself and defy the sense of relatedness he feels with the Riddler; he can't accept that he feels horrible for wearing a mask, that he feels ashamed of letting the persona of Batman free him from his limitations and take his shame and guilt away— so he attacks Riddler with his very own set of surprising projections. Riddler paints for him how alike they are and Batman tells him, "you're out of your goddamn mind. it's all in your head, you're sick, you're twisted. You think you'll be remembered? you're a pathetic psychopath, begging for attention. You're gonna die alone in Arkham. A nobody."

and this— is really everything Bruce feels about himself. Which is to say, auchie. :( prescribing a sleep serotonin seaside vacation serum straight to artery for Bruceboy.

[yujeong]

Hello. I'm back with my Macau bullshit. This time: the difference between his relationship with Pete and his relationship with Porsche (because if I don't scream about Pete and Porsche and the parallels between them, I can't function as a human being apparently.) Ok so, first things first. I am aware that I may be comparing apples and oranges here. Besides the fact that they're both bodyguards of the main family and very close to Kinn, there's not really anything else tying them together in regards to their relationship with Macau. But here's the thing. That's what I care about. What circumstances make Macau act like the devilish little gremlin that he is VS the compliant and polite son of the minor family. And my boys are perfect for the job. (The post will be split into 2 parts because I guess I had a LOT to say about Porsche and Macau so, Pete and Macau will be explored in another one)

Ok. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we did NOT get enough Macau in the show. He had like, what, 5 scenes total? HOWEVER, the scenes we got were spectacular for a gazillion reasons but I'll choose to focus on a specific aspect of them for this post: Most, if not all of his scenes, were either from Porsche's or Pete's POV. And that's giving us a lot. Let's start with Porsche. He - and the audience, remember, most of this show is through Porsche's POV so that's important - meets Macau like he actually is; a typical teenager. He's moody, rude and doesn't want to deal with Porsche's bullshit. (Although, one could argue he was extra antsy because they were at the main family's house, which I choose to believe due to how the minor family is treated by their relatives.) Their first scene, accompanied by the scene in which he goes to Gun and calls Porsche out in front of everyone is Macau being sincere. It actually is him, and it's tragic as well as amazing how he's never himself again in front of Porsche for the rest of the show. Because the next time we see Macau with Porsche, it's in ep 7, when Vegas has his plans with Porsche to execute and Macau has to follow along. BUT, Porsche gets to have a glimpse of the real Macau in this exchange:

(Vegas' smile is KILLING me OMG, he loves his brother SO MUCH, I'M CHEWING GLASS AS WE SPEAK-) Porsche never gets to see Macau's actual face in this (maybe a glimpse from above but with difficulty) but his voice betrays his happiness at seeing his brother and from the answer he gives. Aaaall of that fades away when the bodyguards sit down. Macau turns quiet and polite, keeping appearances because they have guests, and we have him welcoming all of them, and Porsche, like this:

The show knows we the audience - and Porsche - remember what has happened between the two, so Macau saying "Hello" to Porsche carries significance here. GOD, I wish I could make gifs because, after that, after the camera stops focusing on Macau's face, you get him blurred in the background and the boy is SO uncomfortable by what's happening. His eyes dart left and right, mostly at Pete and Arm's direction - he fucking HEARS Arm's comment about "no surprise that the heirs of this family turn out like this" and he SIGHS and looks downward and he STARES at Vegas' direction when he spews his bullshit about how the minor family treats their bodyguards. My boy is PRESENT in the discussion and he hates every second of it. Isn't it spectacular then, how the next scene between him and Porsche, is the one in which Macau apologizes? I love the fact that he calls him Phi. It's so good, because in my eyes Porsche doesn't even deserve it. He never apologized for what he did to Macau. He did, to Vegas, but not to Macau himself. So, the respect Macau shows to him is so fake I could cry from laughter.

He finds him trying to get on Vegas' motorcycle and touches him and urges him to ride it. "I know you like motorcycles," he says, like that's a normal thing to know and not something Vegas told him to say because VEGAS is the one who knows.

I'm dying over here, truly. Macau is amazing and it hurts as much as it's funny, because Macau must be feeling so bad here imo. He's not an idiot, he knows Porsche was in the wrong and Vegas knows as well because LOOK AT HIS FUCKING FACE AS MACAU SAID THE THING:

This isn't a strict face, one that's like "that fucking kid, finally he learned how to apologize". This is a "the things I do for my plans to work" kind of face. Vegas used Macau here. And I'm convinced that he hated every second of witnessing this scene in front of him.

Also, I love how Macau is touchy with Porsche. Macau does show affection through touch, just like his brother does. It's evident by the hospital scene with Pete and the scene above with Vegas when they talked + the scene in ep 2, in which he stretched his arm in Vegas' direction. But, just like Vegas, he uses that in his advantage to get what he wants here. What Vegas wants from him to get, which is, Porsche's trust. And, if any audience member actually believed for even a second that Macau was sincere here, then comes this to show them that NOPE, the boy doesn't believe his words in the slightest:

It's easier to see in motion but Macau's shy grin as he sees Vegas in front of him, shows you everything you need to know about the sincerity of his words. And even if THAT wasn't enough, you have Vegas confirming your suspicions with his words:

Oh, Vegas, you scheming bastard. You wanted your plan to work so badly, you used even Macau for it. I wonder if that kept you up at night. This whole scene was so...Vegas coded? It felt like Macau adapted Vegas' methods of seduction with Porsche here, didn't it? Actual Macau would never do any of that and it's incredible how Porsche only saw that version of Macau after ep 2. It makes you wonder; what did Porsche see and hear from Macau during that one-month period before the show finale, a period of time in which Vegas was fighting for his life + Porsche had just gained Vegas' right as the heir of the minor family? How was Macau's behavior then? I really wish we got to know, because Macau showing his true self to Porsche again due to circumstance is very appealing to me. Porsche&Macau in general is a relationship dynamic I haven't seen people talk about at all, which is strange due to their canonical scenes. Oh well. Another excuse to write essay long posts on Tumblr, I guess.

[femmehysteria]

when buddy said you took away something i love so im gonna take something you love, he succeeded, no he didnt manage to kill debora but he did kill baby's hearing, he can no longer listen to music in the same way, there's nothing he can listen to to distract from his tinnitus, he can never hear the tape recording of his mothers voice and those are things that are very important to baby. but baby is not disconnected from everything he loves, he knows sign language because of his foster father, he can lip read, he can still enjoy the sound of his mothers voice through the vibrations of his cars speakers, and most importantly he can still drive

[greghatecrimes]

sometimes i contemplate throwing kid cameron at House in the baby ducks au, because. there is no way she was a normal child with a normal childhood. i want to observe cameron at every stage of her life under a microscope and just find out how she got to be like this. simultaneously the most put together and broken person you’ll ever see. she can hold it together to delude herself into being okay but she can’t hold it together when other people start looking deeper and picking her apart. she fascinates me. she really is such a parallel to wilson (there is something deeply wrong with them both). with house and thirteen, we have enough backstory for them that we can put together actual canon + inferences based on canon to make a pretty clear picture of Why They Are How They Are. With Wilson and Cameron it’s like. we have the tiniest scraps. Danny. Cameron’s husband. the rest is smoke and mirrors. I want more backstory so bad.

anyways i think two chaos kids is probably enough for house in baby ducks au but it bounces around in my brain space sometimes.

[crimeronan]

Genuinely curious, when it comes to healing, at least in the sense of being less codependent etc (10+years from now AT LEAST), how would Luz and co even start? Not while the empire is in her hands for sure. So after? Trips to the HR alone? Separate rooms? Both might not want it.

i think a BIG part of healing will Have to involve having a more consciously structured support network than they have now. luz and hunter are both in the process of cobbling together a support network in darius, camila, eda, and raine, but they are also both Very anxious about letting anyone else see them vulnerable. for perfectly understandable reasons.

amity can also count as part of the support network, but she's more of a peer and partner than someone who Knows What They're Doing. ironically this means both luz and hunter have an easier time trusting her with their secrets. but she does Not know how best to help.

the support network thing is important because i think luz and hunter BOTH need people they can turn to who aren't the other. because if they try to spend time apart, and their only plan for combating fear/anxiety/panic is to muscle through it alone..... it's not gonna work. hunter needs someone who can talk him off the ceiling. luz needs someone who can reassure her that everything's okay.

(eda at one point point-blank asks raine if she should try to break luz & hunter up, and raine is like "i think that would be incredibly cruel and terrible for both of them, with how things are now." because it would.)

anyway, once luz and hunter 1) have family they trust implicitly and can rely upon and 2) are not dealing with constant terror, i think they can Probably manage to detangle themselves.

baby steps at first for sure, though. i think they'd have to reach a level of "can reliably spend a few hours apart without texting or panic spiraling" before they'd be planning solo human realm trips. hunter would need to be sure that luz isn't going to have godawful nightmares before they can sleep separately. etc

neither of them want to live a life fully separated from the other, though, that is true. it's hard for me to imagine them deciding to stop cohabitating and telling each other everything.

what they both DO want is the ability to be, like, functional without the other.

(or at least.... they want this for the other person, LOL. luz is currently like "i can survive being in constant hell forever if hunter is happy away from me <3" and hunter is like "i'd rather take a sword to the eye than let luz go on being This Anxious forever")

so. i do think they'll want to work for it! they just have to escape The Horrors first.

[snugsunresplendence]

Ever wondered why Aziraphale looked away after Crowleys "You Idiot. We could have been .. us."?

It's because he thinks Crowley doesn't listen to what he says, that he actually says the same thing about being an "us". Offering to go to heaven together, telling him that he needs him. It's the fucking same thing they want.

Still, everyone agrees that heaven is not the best place to be and the communication is an absolute disaster.

And Crowley is afraid (in response to the frustrating sigh) that Aziraphale could think he doesn't want him anymore so he kisses him. To proof that he still cares for him after all. And Crowley knows that Aziraphale will go to heaven to change it, he had 6000 years to get to know him.. so it's kind of an goodbye as well. That's why the kiss doesn't feel right. Both know it. Both want it. But it's not the right time.

So he waits next to his Bentley to show him that he will wait for his return. Waiting on Earth so Aziraphale knows where he is. Feeling unwell about what's to come and driving away to process everything that just happened.

But deep down, Crowley is an optimist.

[guruguruguruguru]

the longer i sit with it the more it really gets me how nobody ever really mentions obito and rin before obito's reveal in shippuden. kakashi vaguely mentions his old friends and i think other characters allude to the tragedy of kakashi's past but rin and obito themselves are lost to time. something about that is so fucking haunting and so gutting. you would think it would be a pretty big deal that two kids from the same class died within a year of each other, but the nine tails attack probably wiped so much clean that nobody could really carry the grief... still, when we see their class in flashbacks, we recognise almost everyone else, so... there's something really sad and hopeless about their absence...

there's a lot a LOT to say about it from a lot of different angles and i don't really feel like going into meta posting territory i just have big feelings about it you know? and to me i guess obito encapsulates a lot of the anger. for the people who get left behind and forgotten. and that can mean a lot of things