#I understand him on a metaphysical level

[hannigramislife]

JUST IN CASE YOU MOTHERFUCKERS DIDN'T BELIEVE ME ABOUT CALLING THIS!!

*pats mic*

*clears throat*

Me: Absolutely never, ever doubt me. Like ever. I am absolute, I am the chosen prophet, I am the bearer of truth. Heavy burden it may be, but somebody's gotta be right every single time. It's exhausting, really, to be burdened with such divine sight, but alas, I prevail...

I'm such a genius, wow.

[grungothe2st]

Me 🤝 Jimmy McGill

[orcelito]

ok not really an analysis post but i cant get over these pages (from trigun chapter 10)

vash just looks so happy & peaceful basking in the atmosphere of the geo-plant. & considering this happens after we see him call the plant on the sand steamer "sister" & we get that shot of him with the wings, we as readers are supposed to know that this is more than just a normal dude enjoying nature

he reaches down, touches the grass, and says with complete certainty that this is a geo-plant, just like from his memories on the ship. it makes me wonder whether he can sense the plant in the vicinity & that's the source of his certainty here.

either way, he's so happy just being here, experiencing the atmosphere of the geo-plant. probably feels like home to him.

[nightingale-prompts]

Is it mine?-DCxDP prompt

Tim and Danny currently have a very casual relationship. Its not exactly talked about since it can be really hard to explain the esoteric part of it. It is mostly because they have an odd sex life. It is purely emotional. No seriously. One of the drawbacks of being with Danny is that he's not a human but an ancient. That means too much touching can overwhelm and fry a human's brain. So their relationship was purely on a metaphysical level that was based on Tim's need to understand that Danny was and Danny's desire for contact.

Danny decided to join the Justice League at some point and use a physical body again.

Things kind of got out of hand after that. Tim and Danny finally consummated their relationship.

But then things between them got awkward after that. The part about making things official just never came up.

Then Danny told him that he was leaving to take care of some things in his realm.

Two months later they see each other again but this time Danny was holding a baby. His daughter, Elle.

Elle looked a lot like Tim and well Danny of course. Tim immediately assumed that through Danny's freaky ghost biology and them having physical sex caused him to get Danny pregnant some how.

Tim didn't actually ask Danny to confirm this and Danny just assumed they weren't in the sort of relationship that required him to tell Tim what happened.

Tim's first instinct was to never tell anyone what happened and pretend he did nothing wrong as always but recently he's had a talk with his family and they agreed to be more open. Tim didn't actually want to be open but if word got around and they didn't hear it from him he'd hear the end of it.

So with his tail between his legs, he awkwardly told Bruce that he not only knocked Phantom up but they had a daughter.

Bruce took it well. Mostly. I mean Tim was an adult now and he was going to have adult relationships but he would have rather been given more of a heads up. Though he'd be a hypocrite to judge. Having a grandchild now did improve his mood though.

Jason however was going to strangle Tim for this. Mostly because this would get in the way of him asking Jazz out now that his irresponsible brother had a baby with her brother.

Dick had alot of mixed feelings. His little brother had a baby before him, and he should be distraught that Tim's life will be deeply affected. But on the other hand, he had a niece. And he really liked the idea of a niece.

Damian just slammed the door of Tim. So there is no clear answer on how he feels.

And Danny. He was unaware of what was going on. He had spent the last few months with Clockwork working on reconstituting Elle's body and keeping her soul ready for transfer into a new vessel. It was agreed that she'd rather be reborn into a new body that wasn't partially related to Vlad and wasn't just a clone.

I took alot of work but she was finally ready after months without sleep from Danny.

As soon as he got back he kind of just passed out after asking Tim to hold her.

[avelera]

Okay so I recently got low-key obsessed with Jayvik and I’ve been liking your posts about them (top tier analysis btw). Anyway I’m curious about your opinions on a couple of things:

If Jayce’s love language is physical touch, what do you think Viktor’s love language is?

What do you think the Anomaly actually is? My headcanon is that it’s caused by all the paradoxes/timelines that Mad Wizard Viktor keeps making, but idk why it would only be under the Hexgates.

Hmm, when taking into account that the love languages thing is basically horoscopes for real people, but they may have informed how the characters were written, I'd say:

1 ) I completely agree that Jayce's love language is physical touch. That much is obvious.

Viktor's love language is Quality Time - that would explain why he starts getting irritated and hurt with Jayce near the end of S1 and why he's so moved and touched by them solving equations and spending time together pre-time skip. Actually, so much of Viktor's attitude towards Jayce is explained by him seeing Quality Time as a love language it's actually making me a bit dizzy, I need to think about this a lot more because I think this might have cracked something for me...

2 ) Hoooo boy, I actually have an answer for what the Anomaly is in my mind, but it's a lot less character driven and a more metaphysics driven because I was feral about Arcane S1 before I had anyone else to talk to about it online and I've spent a lot of time thinking about Hextech and Shimmer. OK, here goes:

Hextech is an axiomatic (lawful) channeling of forces of nature, namely magic. However, magic to stay pure and reliable requires an anarchic (chaotic) AND the axiomatic (lawful) balancing act for each use of its power if it's to stay "pure" and reliable. Otherwise, you invite chaos in. Namely, the Anomaly.

In addition, every use of magic/the Arcane puts off a certain amount of "car exhaust" for every use, this allows it from a Doylist perspective to be a climate change metaphor but it does go deeper than that and follows its own magical rules. If you look closely, overuse of Hextech always puts off smoke. Early uses don't do so as much, though. In my opinion, each puff of that "smoke" adds to a potential Anomaly.

Now if you're good at magic, and skilled with it, say if you're good mage, as seen with The Mage / Viktor in 1.02, you make a point of scooping up up all the exhaust from any use of rune magic and pouring it back into the spell.

Look at how the mage scoops up all the exhaust coming out of the spell here and weaves it back into the spell!

Hextech doesn't bother to do that! Because Jayce doesn't fundamentally understand that advanced level of magic! He just keeps calling on its energy without dealing with the output of smoke/chaos/Anomaly fumes so it's just hanging in the air.

By the way, all the smoke in Arcane is hand animated so to my eyes, all smoke actually matters. I'm actually a little bummed that S2 didn't go deeper into explaining the smoke that comes off of some uses of the Arcane but not others but I'm assuming they'll delve more into in future shows because The Arcane Is Awake Now, thanks to my brilliant science boy dipshits.

The cleanest, clearest use of Hextech we ever see is the first time the science boys use it to float:

I draw a few conclusions from this:

1 ) The first hit is always free - first time you use magic, magic is happy to help you out! It will do the thing you ask! No consequences!

2 ) Magic gets more and more angry the more times you use it. Actually, by the time we get to Vi using the Atlas Gauntlets repeatedly in S2, there's a little puff of smoke every. time. she uses. them.

3 ) Magic requires some balance. Breaking a window before it let the boys float? Cool, that's balance. But if you just have it doing the same constructive motion over and over, like sending out airships, but you don't let it break some things too? It gets annoyed.

4 ) If it doesn't get applied in a balanced way, magic/the Arcane gets mad. Ekko compared the Arcane's frustration to a sigh. That smoke? Is the sigh. Again, first time you use Hextech, magic which is at least semi-sentient, is MORE than happy to help! The more you keep demanding repeated axiomatic actions, the more it sighs in anger.

Then we get to the crux of your question: what is the Anomaly?

The Anomaly built up at the base of a tower stuffed full with polished, axiomatic, reinforced Hexgems that do one constructive task over and over and over again all day, every day: safely send ships from one place to another.

The Anomaly builds up from the frustration of not allowing magic to be free. Jayce is an axiomatic thinker, he sees magic as a tool, not as a force of nature, so he's been channeling it super precisely and not scooping up all that extra exhaust and channeling it back into the magic and that means it builds up this... pearl of an Anomaly which is all this wild magic with tons of chaotic potential that can do basically anything, including time and dimensional travel but it's gonna be super weird about it.

Soooo... thanks for giving me the chance to yell about Hextech, hope that was sort of what you had in mind!

[throwsahammer]

Okay, wait, this "Blood Atonement" thing is the belief that... If I understand it correctly, Christ's sacrifice did not fully eliminate the need for sacrifice to atone for sin, and certain sins required the blood sacrifice (Voluntary or otherwise) of the sinner to achieve salvation?

As an atheist with protestant roots this strikes me as shockingly heretical in its departure from ordinary Christian doctrine.

I'm not sure I entirely have a question other than "Am I understanding correctly" and I guess "What the heck?"

It's a bit more complicated than that, but you've got the basic idea.

There are two foundational concepts that you need to understand in order to fit blood atonement into Mormonism properly, and those are Perdition and Having Your Calling and Election Made Sure (I'm going to abbreviate the second one).

Perdition is the condition of being sentenced to outer darkness, which sounds pretty straightforward. It's basically just the standard protestant idea of hell. However, unlike protestantism's concept of Jesus's atonement being infinite in the sense that it's open for anyone to opt into, Mormonism believes that the atonement is infinite in that it guarantees salvation for everyone regardless of personal decision. The whole concept of a tiered heaven can, therefore, be based entirely on personal merit and the completion of specific ordinances, as it's ostensibly built around the idea of growing into the sort of person who would actually be comfortable living there, and not about whether or not Jesus paid the price of admission for that specific individual.

This creates a real-world problem, though: the threat of damnation is an indispensable tool in the arsenal of a religious leader who wants to coerce people into taking certain actions, and Joseph Smith is at this point in history desperately in need of a stick with which to threaten people into compliance. So he develops a new kind of threat based on the figure of Cain. The basic idea of perdition is that there are certain acts that alter their perpetrators on a metaphysical level to the point where they can't exist within god's presence even a little bit, and will not be able to live in any kingdom of glory post resurrection. (There's a whole tangent about mormon cosmology I'm not going into here, but the short version is that the kingdoms of glory operate via divine Reaganomics, and terrestrial and telestial glory are the result of god's celestial glory trickling down).

So, the two sins that damn one's soul and body to perdition are "the shedding of innocent blood" and "denying the holy ghost." The first one is mostly employed rhetorically as a point of comparison and serves to underscore how serious the second one is. What exactly constituted a sufficient degree of apostasy to qualify as perdition-worthy was left intentionally vague by Joseph in order to enable him to threaten people from a position of unquestionable authority. It's all pretty standard new religious movement stuff so far.

But now you run into a different problem: if murder is a potentially soul-threatening act, then you're going to need to waste time manufacturing a spiritual casus belli against anyone you need removed, and nobody who is trying to build a kingdom for themselves has time for that. Enter the second piece of the puzzle: HYCaEMS. Eventually known as the Second Anointing, HYaCEMS is the ultimate theological get-out-of-jail-free card, where the prophet guarantees you a spot in the celestial kingdom, and from that moment onward there's nothing you can do to disqualify yourself from it.

So now Joseph Smith has invented everything he needs to build his empire: a message of universal salvation to appeal to the masses that directly addresses the contemporary debates of protestantism, the ability to leverage the ultimate threat against any man who questions his leadership or any young girl who doesn't want to sleep with him, and the ability to offer the ultimate reward to his inner circle in exchange for their cooperation in carrying out his dirty work. He gets shot to death before he can do very much with any of this.

So now the stage is all set for Brigham Young to build upon the foundation his successor built. He expands Smith's nascent ideas into a fleshed-out universe. The curse of Cain is developed into mormon doctrinal racism, the law of consecration is developed into Deseret's United Order, and Joseph's early concepts of exaltation are developed into the ever-expanding hierarchy of gods.

In case you haven't figured out by now, Mormonism is built on a foundation of nitpicking specific semantic details and then extrapolating entire theological concepts from there. Blood atonement is primarily the result of Brigham Young doing exactly this with how blood is talked about in the scriptures alongside the use of the phrase "flesh and bone" instead of "flesh and blood" in specific contexts. Joseph Smith (and other contemporary religious figures, most notably those who would go on to form the Jehovah's Witnesses) had spoken quite a bit about blood and the symbolic and spiritual importance thereof, but Mormonism's unique contribution to the conversation was the idea that blood was mortality. Adam and Eve did not have blood until the fall, and Jesus didn't have blood after his resurrection. Blood contained both the curse of physical death and was also a metaphorical vessel for the soul, containing the sins of man, and therefore also carrying the curse of spiritual death. The most important moment of Jesus's life, according to Mormonism, was when he prayed in Gethsemane, as that's when he physically took the universe's sins onto himself and literally bled from every pore out onto the earth, as that's when he conquered spiritual death.

Still with me? Good. Now is where I need to talk about how mormon cosmology is built around the idea that planets, stars, the sun, and other heavenly bodies are living beings. Not in a metaphorical way but in a more literal sense. Stars and planets (including the sun) are essentially divine beings, home to beings that correspond to their degree of glory. This is important because Earth was also affected by the fall and became mortal and required all of the same saving ordinances as a human would. The flood of Noah was the earth's baptism (which means that according to this worldview, the entire earth was fully submerged under water), and the eventual fiery apocalypse of the world's end will be its confirmation, or baptism by fire. The earth's equivalent of the mormon Sacrament, then, was when it literally drank the blood (in Gethsemane) and ate the flesh (in the tomb) of Jesus. This act cleansed the earth itself of sin.

Ok, so now we finally get to talk about blood atonement in context. According to this whole paradigm, anyone who commits an act of perdition will have their very blood cursed and cut off from the presence of god. When they are resurrected to face final judgment, their sins will remain locked inside their now immortal bodies and prevent them from dwelling in any kingdom of glory (this point is not much elaborated on, and it's unclear whether bodies of sons of perdition have blood or are just metaphysically bound to it somehow).

When Cain slew Abel, Abel's innocent blood soaked the earth, and that blood cried out for justice, but Cain was cursed with perdition, so his blood could never be shed, and it wasn't until Jesus soaked the earth with his blood that Abel's blood's need for justice was fulfilled. The earth, having absorbed divine blood capable of paying the price of justice for innocent blood, can therefore act as an intermediary for this sort of thing.

But doesn't that undermine the whole "infinite atonement" thing? Well, yes, but not anymore than the necessity of any other ordinance within Mormonism does within the same framework. Jesus was baptized, and anyone who wants to access the specific covenants locked behind baptism needs to be baptized. Jesus, while not a murderer, took those sins upon himself and shed his blood, so any murderer who wants to access the redemption must also do so. Shedding your blood upon the ground becomes a sort of conditional ordinance that's only necessary if you've committed the otherwise unforgivable sin of murder.

Now you'll notice that we're only talking about murder here and not apostasy. That's because, crucially, those are the same thing as far as Mormonism is concerned, as you're spiritually killing someone (yourself and potentially your family as well). Brigham Young prescribed "death on the spot" for mormons who engaged in the apostate act of miscegenation, for example.

Now, I want to stress that it's extremely unclear how many people, if any, were actually blood atoned for apostasy, how many people, if any, were executed in ways that did not shed their blood because they were deemed "apostate," and how widespread or accepted any of this doctrine was beyond church leadership. I also want to make it clear that there is no credible evidence that suggests that either the doctrine or practice of blood atonement is taught or practiced by any branches of Mormonism beyond certain fundamentalist sects such as the FLDS under the leadership of Warren Jeffs, or isolated incidents such as the Lafferty Brother murders.

The mainstream LDS church has quietly de-emphasized or de-canonized almost all of these teachings, including many of the foundational elements. You can occasionally find church officials expressing some or even all of these beliefs in unofficial settings, but the most recent examples are the likes of Cleon Skousen, Hugh Nibley, Bruce McConkie, and Joseph Fielding Smith, all of which are decades ago at this point, and virtually all of which are inaccessible via official church records.

So there you go. I feel obligated to note that much of the connective tissue of this post comes from personal experience and decades of reading various official and semi-official writings on the topic and that I don't have a list of sources handy. Go read Under the Banner of Heaven (or watch the Hulu series) if you want a broader, better-sourced look at the history of violence within Mormonism (though note that Krakauer does dabble in conjecture, especially in the Hulu adaptation).

[neversetyoufree]

I've been thinking lately about Vanitas and Noé's first "what is salvation" fight at the bal masqué and what it means about their individual definitions of the concept, and I've realized something about Vanitas.

Noé's definition of salvation is the obvious one. It feels natural. To save someone is to keep them from dying. But in a way, his understanding of salvation is also almost selfish. Noé's foundational trauma is the constant loss of his loved ones. He is the eternal sole survivor. So of course he wants to keep people alive—he wants to "save" the people he cares about in the way that keeps them by his side this time.

It's not wrong to want that, of course. I don't mean "selfish" as a condemnation. It's just that the definition of salvation that Noé starts the series with is inarguably the one that best serves his own happiness.

And it's the same with Vanitas.

When Vanitas kills the little girl Catherine by restoring her true name, he tells Noé he doesn't know what salvation is. He might be lying there, or he might be telling the truth in that he's never put his definition of salvation into words or acknowledged it on a conscious level. Either way, though, I do think he has a definition of salvation somewhere in his mind, and it's a very personal one.

Vanitas sees salvation as the preservation or restoration of one's true self. You're saved so long as you can preserve your essential self, uncorrupted by outside forces. Even if the price of that selfness is death.

While Noé's foundational trauma that informs his worldview is the loss of his loved ones, one of Vanitas's foundational traumas is the loss of his bodily autonomy. Through Moreau's experiments and Luna's mark/bite, he has been transformed into something no longer fully human, and he hates it. From the moment Luna told him he was dying, he said he wanted to die as himself rather than live as their kin, and he has been denied that opportunity.

Nothing is more important for Vanitas than being able to dictate the destiny of his own body, and malnomen are the ultimate corruption of bodily autonomy and selfness. Altering one's true name warps not only their physical body, but their very being on a metaphysical level. The curse takes everything a vampire is and changes it, and doing that to an unwilling victim is the ultimate horror for Vanitas.

Given that context, of course Vanitas thinks that killing a child to restore her true name counts as saving her. He's restoring her essential self and un-corrupting her body and being, and even if her self is only returned for an instant before she dies, it's preferable to living on as something warped by an outside force.

Vanitas absolutely starts the series with a definition of salvation, and like Noé, it's the one that best serves his own happiness. He wants to be saved. He wants to be returned to his human self, and failing that (since he knows it's impossible), he wants to wipe out all traces of the force that changed him and then die without going any further down the path of inhumanity.

Vanitas might not be able to admit that definition out loud (or even to himself directly), but it's there, and it guides him early in the series as much as Noé's own definition of salvation guides him in turn.

[sugar-grigri]

How can war love ?

*public apology, gun to my head* I won't trust Fujimoto so much anymore I get it *keeps gun to her head* this is surely the worst chapter but I can't afford to shirk my duty to analyze in the face of adversity so here I am

At least let the analysis be more succinct than usual

I had to find a meaning to this chapter, I had to, because even if I, like 90% of fans, put my phone down after holding my head in my hands, I can't have analyzed Fujimoto up to this point to decide now that he should go fuck himself

So I'm here to interpret a masturbation scene, Fujimoto must be as weird and desperate an audience as he is.

So what is the meaning that I perceived in it, we'll proceed by list so as not to enumerate

1. This chapter confirms a cycle of violence and I hope Fujimoto wrote it as a depressing chapter and not just a subversive one just to titillate JUMP's limits. Cycle of violence in which Denji is trapped. Sex is something he puts a lot of hope into. It's the last need he hasn't yet fulfilled, so he throws himself through it. Not only does Denji suffer even when he wants to escape it. But above all, done in these horrible conditions, the thing having been accomplished, Denji will remain unsatisfied and will understand that unhappiness is in his bones and cannot be solved by sleeping with someone. It's the worst tragedy that could happen to him.

2. It's the worst tragedy for Asa too. She finds sex repulsive and experiences it under the worst conditions, which has the effect of deepening her fears. Asa may also be seeking intimacy with someone, but just as this moment convinces the teenager to stay away from others, this ordeal reinforces Denji's depression.

But I think everyone understands that, because everyone's depressed. What's interesting (sighs) is that this chapter shows how Yoru bound with someone. Just as war would.

There are no winners in a war, both sides suffer losses. And that's exactly what Yoru did twice. A first kiss, Asa had lost her memory to Nayuta and Denji had promised never to see her again. This chapter is yet another ordeal for Asa and Denji.

This leads to a more demanding conclusion, which also has an impact on Nayuta.

The Knights of the Apocalypse cannot physiologically, metaphysically love.

The only relationship they can establish is through each other's suffering.

It's a tragedy for them too.

A tragedy on every level.

[fadelbison]

i don't really follow gmm couples closely but i thought firstkhao was one of gmm's biggest, what do you mean they're not that popular in thailand 😭😭

asdfghjkjhgf okay??? soo all this started because I was at my LAST straw when I saw a fan complaining that gmm prejudiced against first and he needs more work on twt (he already works *SO* much) and after having to see a series of gmm crits that were basically [insert false causalities/ metaphysically impossible demands] I lost my mind a little. [but actually its because im already pretty cuckoo bananas but I digress]

Then @fromthedepthsandbeyond brought to my attention this estimate (are you the op?) of events and brand sponsorships from last year where it shows that FirstKhao as a CP are in fact extremely popular but not at all popular as solo artists. And unfortunately I think this is just reality - they work really well together but I was actually both their 'solo' fans before they paired up. More khaotung than First and they are unfortunately just a little too kooky for mainstream popularity. I genuinely think Joong is trying to help Khaotung with roping him into TikTok dances and constantly promoting him on his own channel and IG broadcast because boy do First and Khaotung do nothing mainstream on IG. its only happy birthdays, promo work, promo cp, promo each other and khaotung's blurry artsy fuckboi photos. What can I say, that's what I like, that's what the people who like them like. I hope they don't change (but I know they're trying to). I would say, that actually they are quite popular given how far they veer from traditional masculinity...like they're pretty queer? Gun's numbers are exactly the same as them. Like I don't think GMM can do anything about that. I genuinely don't think GMM can do anything about the next bit either (at least in regards to FK they are very much fucking up other things)

What I was a little surprised by perhaps was this report by another fan who went to their building this summer (2024) and FK just had a mural on the second floor basement. I know that at some point they had some type of pillar on the ground level. Now, the events numbers are outdated and I follow them on socmed fairly close - they might not be getting sponsorships but they're not jobless. even at the times they're quiet or disappear when they resurface it turns out that they were series prepping or in workshops.

I don't know what to say, they're very queer coded, they take challenging jobs and are involved in projects and with creators that are invested in making some unique art which is rare at gmmtv something that everyone here loves to incessantly yell about (for good reason at times).

I don't know how to say this so that it doesn't sound totally insane but to be more popular they have to act straighter???? They actually have to look like they want to fuck a woman, like at least that they think about it instead of just each other. Like they tried so hard to make First's character straight in blacklist -A VALIANT attempt one would say and he still ended up having more chemistry with Drake and the 4 seconds he spent with khaotung on screen 😭 JoongDunk and PondPhuwin are just not like that??? I follow Joong and Pond on IG too and they are in fact able to breathe without their respective pair present. They are so so so so in love when together, bring each other up quite a bit when they're solo but they're not living inside the other's pocket if that makes sense? Sorry I ranted so long??? and for what?? but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want Firstkhao to be popular but I also don't want them to change at the cost of mainstream popularity (though I understand why they're trying) - they are so worryingly codependent and wonderfully weird 🤧🤧🤧🤧

[crimson-and-clover-1717]

The first time I saw Stede held at gunpoint by Chauncey, I believed it might be a night terror. They’re repeating the Nigel guilt-ghost motif, I thought. Or even his fever-induced nightmares. This is what Stede does. Big emotions writ large shouting the worst parts of his self-loathing. The words Chauncey says is probably the exact noise playing in Stede’s head. In fact he ‘completely agree[s]’. The repeated death-injury to the eye, and Stede’s subsequent amnesic journey home, barefoot in underclothes, just seemed to play out perfectly as a full-blown, hallucinatory panic-attack.

And then I realised the consensus was this event likely occurs, it truly happens within the narrative. Stede also remembers both Badminton brothers alongside the line ‘I’ve been the cause of death.’

Fast forward to 204, and Stede doesn’t mention the event to Ed during the couch scene. I’ve said before it wasn’t the right time to say ‘…but, Chauncey’. However, it did happen, didn’t it? And Stede does need to tell Ed eventually. Because then it might mitigate some of Stede’s responsibility… right?

Well, I’m not sure we’re looking at it from the best angle.

Chauncey arriving at the barracks to kill Stede is likely meant to be understood as real within the fictional setting of the show. But this is a magical realist world, and Chauncey’s turning up did not occur in the same way as it would in our reality. There is a different significance and meaning.

I think two seemingly-contrary things can exist here: Chauncey really did show up of his own choice, and Stede is somewhat responsible for his showing up, because this could be read as a metaphysical event. Stede partly manifests Chauncey. The show often uses mirrors as a way of exploring identity, and Stede is right in the middle of an identity crisis. Chauncey is an accurate reflection of Stede’s internal chaos, a judgmental dark angel on his shoulder. And until Stede is able to go back to Bridgetown, and deal with the guilt and mess of leaving his family, Badminton brothers, cousins, and half-uncles are going to keep showing up, insulting Stede at the deepest level, then Darwining themselves in front of him.

The lesson here, I think, is we help create our own reality: if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. Stede needs to change his internal narrative to free himself from this twisted pattern.

It’s not that Stede deserves the bullying of the Badminton brothers; he absolutely doesn’t. But his state of mind lays the groundwork for the external manifestation of his thoughts within this universe. Chauncey is the personification of Stede’s self-loathing, and Stede co-creates the situation, somehow drawing Chauncey (and Nigel) towards him. As a character within a fictional world we are being asked to watch Stede’s transformation after this event, and one of those changes is his breaking this particular cycle.

That is why I’m not too bothered if Stede ever tells Ed about Chauncey. Like someone once said similarly of god, if Chauncey didn’t exist, it might be necessary for Stede to invent him. Chauncey’s intervention gives Stede a sort of permission to act as he does. There is no mitigation for Stede here. He has to own it, no matter how distorted his thinking at the time; and he does just that to Ed later without resorting to sackcloth and ashes.

The complexity of what happens that night might well be outside of physical reality. It’s Ed returning from the gravy basket largely unscathed. Or Buttons becoming a bird. It isn’t easy to understand fully because the laws that govern our reality are suspended here. But our role as viewers isn’t to reach a definitive conclusion or worry ourselves in circles over narrative gaps. It’s to consider what the Chauncey event triggers and then leads to.

This is Stede’s rock-bottom. From here on in, we see character growth in which Stede overcomes a good portion of the self-loathing lurking within his soul, replacing it with a kinder internal narrative, and helping him in turn to love and be loved. And Stede has also hopefully exorcised the possibility of any future Badminton visitations.

Stede returns, and he returns a better man than he left because he did much of the internal work he needed to do.

He changes his stars - and Ed’s. That’s all that matters.

[inkbomber]

meta narrative is my mental illness

thoughts about robotnik under the cut, as always my tumblr posts are far less polished than my fic, sorry

i'll say it: i think movie robotnik is a fundamentally different entity than game robotnik. different pasts, different paths. i think goofy, theatrical evil is fun, but it also requires a level of self-awareness in our world that it does not in a game. and i do consider movieverse to be real-world-adjacent.

every part of jimbotnik is a creature that enjoys the performance of evil more than its implimentation. and why wouldn't he? that's a character that has suffered real tragedies at the hands of cruel systems for 50 years. we've all seen what real evil in our world looks like. and it's worlds closer to whatever movieverse gerald has going on, it's callous and cruel in the pursuit of its own hateful goals.

the scu is a world that values and rewards kindness and love on an actual metaphysical level. it is a nicer world to live in than ours, even with "diabolical evil" running amuck. he doesn't evoke the same hatred in our world because we've seen worse. countless times. he's a villlain that knows he's evil, that requires a moral code to be in place. he's a guy with a 300 iq and a "tunes of anarchy" playlist, do you really think he doesn't understand the actual political implications? he's got fucking moral ocd, lmao

this isnt a guy shoving squirrels into drones to power them, this is a guy Walters—who presumably has his own morals and ideals—feels comfortable sending after terrorists in their own backyard.

there's an implication that "all civilized planets"[paraphrasing from memory] travel via ring, well why doesn't earth have that tech yet? robotnik's designs and tech outstrip tails' tech in most ways and we haven't got it.

so i don't think humans are capable of directly wielding that power. consequentially, i think that connecting to the universe in that way forces you to have a level of sympathy for others that game eggman is incapable of feeling.

i really do think movie robotnik's time as a "god" fucks his ability to be truly evil all the way up. if the [kind] universe allows you to wield that power it doesn't come without side effects or reason.

i think, and this is connected to my thoughts about chaos energy, that he was a deuteragonist even in movie 1. i think he is humanity's single home-grown chaos user. i think a world where jim carrey gets to break the fourth wall is a world that relies on narrative for power. and i think a man who is purposefully, theatrically villainous is closer to being a hero than any of our politicians ever could be.

self-image, isolation, narrative, control. storytelling as a ritual practice. characters as minor gods. love as a catalyst for change. eggman didn't have a daughter until he had sage, and now his fatherhood is fundamental. robotnik didn't have a lover until he had stone, and now he is inherently lovable.

now for the fun stuff:

jimbotnik doesn't dislike tom, or sonic, or anyone quick enough on their feet to banter with him. the look on his face when tom says "you wanna tell me why you think i'm dumb enough to let you just walk inside my house?" is one of pleased surprise. does he like being told no? obviously not. but the fact that these people don't make his life easy in a way that's fun? effervescent. he loves to monologue, and these people just keep giving him material.

he's a goofy villain who's been waiting for his protagonist to come along. he's part of a set, do not separate.

[woodohwanedandproud]

Mr Plankton

So. As I've mentioned before, the thoughts are thoughting ... a lot ... in a lot of ways, and so I need to get them out?

(This turned out even longer than I thought it would - and I tried to limit myself? Also, I don't want to spoil anyone, so it's all under a cut...)

There's so much to unpack but let's start of course by the expected gushing about our man, right :)

First, (not) to be obviously shallow, Mr. Plankton is just a giant Do Hwan praise party and I'm so thankful for it - every shot of him is just so brainstopping breathtaking *beautiful*. You bet he definitely always knows what he's doing and he's definitely always doing it so very well, duh; but the lightning and filming here are REALLY complementing (and complimenting!) - not even mentioning the unexpected level of fan service everywhere - but he sure works hard for that glorious body of his so the least I can do is take notice in thanks, right? (I had to wonder at some point if they had been yet again 'erasing' some of it like in Joseon Attorney - lol, the trouble of being too much of a hunk - him only, I swear; but i've been told that it's not the case - he stopped working out for a while while filming (thanks @pashminabitch). To be honest though, even when he is *like that*, apparently my eyes are still magnetically drawn to HIS FACE - I hadn't even noticed his birthmark (now i love it) until it was pointed out (thanks @mrwoodohwan): can you believe how RIDICULOUS I am for this man? Also, I have now A THING for HIS HANDS: massive !!! (On a side note: I'm collecting his body parts one by one apparently lol - besides the obvious all over glory of his face and build that no one can fail to notice right away of course, I got obsessed over his thighs in Bloodhounds (those low scrunchy moves!!), and now i truly noticed his hands?) But honestly? How did I not notice how massive his hands are before? Especially as Yeong's trembling hand has been the definitive jaw-dropping smacking nail in my since irreversible never to go away adoration of his TALENT? (You know: that singular 'oh you' acting moment when you understand you're now irrevocably A FAN of someone's acting - and have to hunt down all their work and, and, and...)

So now YES let's talk about HIS ACTING. Because, as usual, I will never shut up about HIS ACTING. He truly is AN ACTOR WHO ACTS, right - his physique is just a bonus: it might hook you indeed, but what reels you in and pin you forever in his orbit is HIS TALENT - his mindblowing ability to express any and every human emotion and to make you FEEL. Just LOOK AT HIM ! And LISTEN TO HIM (and yes, his voice, too, grrr) ! The range - THE RANGE - yes yes thank you more more - AND HE'S SO GOOD HERE. He's really put his whole everything into Hae Jo and WOW does it show ! I so hope this opens even more doors for him; he's just so *entirely* talented. Give him all the parts - especially good ones (and if possible more of those multi layered voluntarily misread heartbreaking gem of a MESS of a character - because he DOES truly EXCEL at fleshing them out !! His Nam Seon Ho !! And yes now his Hae Jo!!) - please pretty please ! HE CAN DELIVER; ANYTHING - HE CAN ! From silly funny to soulshattering, from introvert to extravert, from raging to loving, from physical to metaphysical, from whatever to whatever ! He's just always SO plainly expressive, even when only through subtle micro expressions. He always acts with EVERYTHING he is and has; and it always hits you downright KO. THE FEELS ! THE FEELS ! (On a side note, he's truly and entirely ALWAYS DEVASTATINGLY EXPRESSIVE - no matter what the intended expression is, he just NAILS everything all the time, of course - but I'm starting to think that *his acting signature* as far as *I* am concerned might be HIS SMILES. I mean, I won't ever shut up of course about HIS (thousand ways of) CRYING(S), nor about literally anything about the ever perfection of any of his acting choices that never fail to punch me right in the feels (from comedy to physique work to heartbreak), but... he has such a wide wild array of smiles, from blinding sunshine to obliterating sadness to incendiary promise of doom to irresistible positive confidence to all encompassing glowing inner peace to... EVERYTHING - he really can express anything and everything just with one smile (because he doesn't just smile with his mouth but with his whole face and even his whole body; and it always feels entirely natural) - he smiles when he's happy, he smiles when he's sad, he smiles when he's in pain, he smiles when he's angry, he smiles when he's flirty, he smiles when he's threatening, he smiles when he's dying (!!!), he smiles when - HE SMILES. And as if that wasn't enough: all his characters have like their own brand of special smiles too... (In order of appearance in my life: Yeong's smiles are not Eun Seob's are not Seon Ho's are not Han Soo's are not Gun Woo's are not Min Joon's are not Hae Jo's (I'm still working on his older roles - I stumbled upon HIM mid 2022). But yeah... How does he even do that? I am IN AWE, I swear ! He has a thousand ways to cry too (even without tears imo by the way), but his smiles just always feel particularly *unique* to each of his character, to me. And allow me to mention too while I'm busy his overall INSANE eyebrows work. And well, once more (and forever): HIS HANDS (meaning the way he uses them to show what's going on inside this time - I won't repeat myself and mention Yeong's trembling hand, but Seon Ho's hands at his first kill? Hae Jo's hands during the hospital revelation?) But yeah... just EVERYTHING - everything he does is just LETHAL GOOD level anyway...) But to come back strictly to Hae Jo: he is a hell of a character; and Do Hwan truly succeeded in impersonating him. The layers! The unfiltering! (even when there are filters - Hae Jo IS filtering A LOT, don't get me wrong; but compared to several of his characters who tend to want/need to try to bottle up EVERYTHING (and again, THE TALENT, then - to let you see not only the wished perception but also what's hidden under it anyway), Hae Jo is almost (at least sometimes) an open book - and what a feast it is to see Do Hwan free to have a blast with it when those moments come!) It's even one of my favourites of his roles now :)

On to the show?

First, I'm so thankful it delivered what the first scene promised. I was ready to hurt from the premise, and so I wanted to hurt; and hurt badly. But I was still half expecting the show to pull some unrealistic magical recovery - even at the end of the last ep. I was so relieved and satisfied when the end credits started to roll and it hadn't - a total wreck of course, but a good wreck. I can't believe it's labelled a rom-com (and again i'm SO happy it ISN'T). Not only because of THE MASSIVE HURT, but also because even though the romance aspect is definitely present, to me it's not really what the show is about - it's SO MUCH MORE, and again, I'm glad Do Hwan got the opportunity to be this kind of not exactly (but in some ways yes) antimodel but always so much more LAYERED character than the 'standard' romcom part. I wish he could have gotten his teeth even more into the horrendous sadness and wrench our hearts even more (I don't even mean by crying - no matter how gutwrenching WELL he always does that too - but he's actually SO good he can be gutwrenching even just simply staring into nothing or whatever, right); but the show kept too upbeat in general for it and I understand why - and it really works (also, in a way, it makes it HIT even more when the show DOES get in this direction, so it's not even really a complaint!)

Then, I LOVED the traumas, the issues, the unreliable self narrator thing, the lack of communication / miscommunication thing(s), the lack of understanding from lack of information not only between characters but also for us, because we don't have yet the whole perspective and pick up rocks of hints underway, the hurt, the lost families and the found families and the self-chosen families and so many LAYERS relationwise between the characters. Love works downwards - and that can be true (it is for me, because I had/have wonderful parents/grandparents; and they are the ones who taught me love, indeed, from day one). But love also works upwards and sideways, of course, and even if Hae Jo doesn't (want to) see it for a long time, we as viewers get to see it and so plainly :) It is in the end a truly HUMAN show, about real people, with their qualities AND THEIR FLAWS, with their best and their worst. We're made of greys. It feels REAL. I watch shows to FEEL - and Mr. Plankton definitely served.

The show always balances between fun and serious, and yes of course i did laugh, and a lot actually, but to me the show truly wins when the fells take the upper hand. The show imo was at its best when it toed the line between silly and heartbreaking. The potato girl and the mushroom guy. We come out of the same freezer. John Na's hand blocking Eo Heung's view while he cries. The escape from the hospital because Hae Jo doesn't want to die under a *$!%&!$ ceiling. That damn four leaves clover.

What I didn't really adhere to though was the 'gang chase threat/comedy' arc. It adds imo nothing to the plot - the bad guys could (and should?) have gone chasing after the woman and the money, instead of behind Hae Jo's sorry ass?? And most parts of it felt to me either unrealistic or too obviously made to be weirdly funny - and I was like, whatever, I buy it if you say I must buy it - but why?? (even though not gonna lie all the inhabited island moments WERE meaningful and I LOVED any minute of those - but, even without any involvement from the gang, Jae Mi could still have fallen or whatever and hurt herself just as badly while being saved by the shoe instead of taking a mess wound, and it could have still been 'on Hae Jo's conscience' by accident (falling bad and impaling herself on something or whatever while she was running away from him after he (mentally) pushed her away?) I can't help but wish they would have done something else with all that screen time. *SIGH* (On the other hand, if you cast Do Hwan why not use his amazing sportive/fighting skills, I guess, of course (he CAN do anything, truly), but that whole arc just felt 'cheap' to me?)

About Hae Jo's quest: I was expecting for him to find his sperm donor had died long ago. I love what the show came up with even more. Especially as you can see it two ways - and both are awesome. If number 2 is his father it's maddening and painful because let's be honest he's a total jerk, yet he lives while... yep; if number 2 isn't and Hae Jo abandons the quest because he's realized there is no quest necessary to start with because the father he needs closure with is, well, his father, i just really love that take - growth AND heartbreak, right, AAAHHHHHHH ! (And when Hae Jo finally gets back 'home' and tries to tell himself it's now allright even as he realizes that this isn't home anymore because it's over a decade too late? - as his bed doesn't feel comfortable anymore no matter how much he tries to shift? You can reconcile with the child you were, but you can't ever go back home after leaving as he did? AAAHHHHHH ! And then Jae Mi comes to kidnap him back AAAHHHH again, gold reversal)

I have mixed feelings over Jae Mi, because on the one hand she has a lot of luggage, and I respect that. But I still think she is on the whole quite selfish generally - and I get where it comes from and I don't really blame her, but looking forward and looking TO OTHERS instead of always backwards and inwards might help, you know? I also don't think she was actually in love with Eo Heung - more like she was searching for warmth and security (and does he provide indeed !, so totally understandable ! ; but I can't help but feel their relation would have been unbalanced) so I can't judge Hae Jo too hard for coming in between. Jae Mi definitely has her moments though indeed - my favourite being her confessing that she walked away at that time because she wanted him to stop her - there's guts in that admission, chapeau (their break-up was so miscommunication/not interpreting the signals right on both sides I'm like why did you two idiots did this to yourselves, you were so cute and so obviously head over heels (and still are) - but that's real, actually, and that's why it hits, every time, no matter how many times we get back to that moment- AAAHHHH) And the noise bite - go girl, I agree !

But Hae Jo and Jae Mi? I BELIEVED in their love. I really did. They sold it 1000%. All the time. In the flashbacks. In the present. I BELIEVED. and I FELT. Do I feel that Hae Jo loves her more than she loves him, yes - because she is imo more self-centered and less giving than he is (explainable from her past; and it's good to see her at least START to grow as time goes by). But she loves him - truly and obviously. And she makes him happy - she does. Not all relation are 50/50 on the lifting, but as long as both are actually willing to lift at least some, right... They still honestly feel like true *partners* to me - both doing things FOR the other, and proactively; both to each other depending on the moment a wall they can lean on, a hug they can find comfort in, and a hand pulling them forward when needed; both willing to go in the same direction - and to go there together (no matter how shortly - PAIN !!!!)

I love Eo Heung too (honestly, he is the kindest sweetest ever), but his love for Jae Mi to me feels more selfless and caring, father like, than partner like, though; so I wasn't rooting for him in his Jae Mi debacle. Also there were moments I couldn't help but feel he was a bit over stereotyped - especially in a show where all other characters are imo really fleshed out (not including the mob gang only there imo for (unnecessary) comic relief indeed). I'm really glad he seems to be at a good place by the end, I wish him the best :) And his growing caring/understanding of Hae Jo :)

John Na is a surprise gem (and could have been used more as (necessary) comic relief than the gang imo). So very few lines yet so ever present - and always so ON POINT. Also, I have his whole background headcanonned :) And when he gets 'adopted' at the end (my heart!)

And Kkari is such a cutie :)

The music is honestly good overall. And yes : The Town! But California Dreaming? It just fits. My jaw dropped and my chest tightened the first time it came up at the end of ep1 and recognition hits. JUST SO PERFECT. The catchy yet melancholic tune. The longing sadness and the hope. The need/missing to belong. The oldie so 'memories calling' vibe. Thanks to the one who made that choice because WOW DOES IT WORK !!!

Lastly, I hesitated before mentioning those last bits because I can't even believe this is what I come up with at the end of the day, and I don't want to upset anyone or whatever - but it IS what I feel?

Kdrama's imo are particularly good at being profondly honest and uncaring about polishing anything in any way. There is no glazing over, being about character's agendas nor over possibly hard historical facts (brutal honesty instead of covering up in misplaced cultural heritage shame - and that's imo the best way indeed to deal with problematic past). (So even when I'm SICK I'm somehow on some level still like in awe because wow yes they dared? Am I looking at Vincenzo? I am looking at Vincenzo - even if I am never going to watch Vincenzo ever again.) But yeah, to me, kdrama's are simply human, basically, and there's sometimes even BRAVERY in the way they sometimes dare to go where others just... don't and won't ever.

And here? It's like they took on purpose so many cringe tropes and turned them into something real and true and beautiful anyway? I was surprised by the way my thoughts and feelings over the characters evolved ep by ep - it was like being repeatedly slapped in the face and forced to reconsider carved into marble stuff even if I didn't even want to?

I've got so many thoughts/feels for so many characters it's like i'm perpetually rotating them in my head like in a microwave :)

Imo, Hae Jo isn't the typical 'thinking he is entitled' asshole who can't take no for an answer he seems to be at the beginning. He came to the kidnapping plot because he has just come to play the part for that woman in the beginning, and he is doing it in fact because he believes it's in Jae Mi's best interest after having witnessed her emotional display at the hospital. Does he do it for himself too - because he needs her to face what's ahead; because he wants a last ray of sunshine in his life; yes - of course, indeed. But I do believe he would never have even come to the idea and even less actually come for Jae Mi if he had stumbled upon Jae Mi and Eo Heung walking down the streets happy together. And if she had gone back to Eo Heung he would have let her be. Also, by taking the blame on him that way, he ensures that she stays in fact spotless - and so if she truly wants to leave and go back, no one will be able to blame her for anything. The kidnapping is really, in that very specific case, a caring gesture, in fact. And even as he chases her; he never pushes. And no matter what she says (and does she say hurtful things - telling someone you wish for him to die is like the rudest of rudest thing to say no matter what - I get that it's intended because we know he is actually dying so we're slapped in the face anytime she shouts something like this out, but still, girl, that's just not how anyone is supposed to talk to anyone no matter what, and no matter what you have been through - also: when someone is fainting around it is generally NOT a good sign, i understand she wanted to be in denial (i guess), but still, it took her so long to actually *worry*?) she clings to him, and right from the beginning - she's clutching at him for dear life even when she's cursing him in that field right from the beginning, and she really isn't willing in fact to go away - when she could, let's be real. Her fighting him is more about fighting herself than anything, and she is actually and actively playing along. And when Hae Jo realizes he actually has won her back and kind of realizes then what he will put her through and tries to push her away again and that she says that this time she'll stay ? AAAHH !! Anyway, even when he does the most seemingly awful hurtful things - like dumping her at her mother's house - he's in fact not being awful (it was a gift to start with because she has always wanted to know about her birth(day etc); and he had thought Eo Heung would get to her (because he knows he cannot take care of her for long himself anyway) - and then Eo Heung comes to him; bless!) I'm not saying he's always right. And even less a model of perfection we should aspire to or long to neither be nor meet. He's a MESS. But in the end, aren't we all? At least, in his sometimes tangled seemingly wrong ways, he tries to do right?

And Bong Suk? I'm a mom, okay - A MOM. Who needs perfume? I was already like huh? BUT He's going to be my son or my lover? - those two words just shouldn't ever EVER be in the same sentence, I'm sure they heard me shout at my TV from the other side of town. Cringest of the cringest to me - so much more than the kidnapping bit which I could contextualize in that precise context. And guess what. I firmly believe now that she truly WAS Hae Jo's jackpot - and the one who loved him THE BEST out of everyone. And I'm like: how did THAT happen? But she was truly here, always, FOR him, no matter what. She took him in whenever necessary, she let him go whenever he wanted/needed to go, and she even pushed him whenever she had to - whenever it was in HIS best interest; all the while never demanding anything for any of it. she is THE ONE he knows he can come to - always; and for anything. she is the one he always willingly opens to, and the one he willingly *breaks* to (and *chooses* to break to - when Jae Mi holds him he has already started falling apart / when Bong Suk confronts him he could still have escaped the room). AND I LOVE HER FOR IT. (Do I even believe she might be the one he gave his virginity to; because she was safe and he wanted to build confidence or whatever - and not because there ever was anything romantic between the two of them - and she went along FOR HIM even knowing it would probably end up hurting her more than she would want (There is just too much nonchanlance and open ease and familiarity about the way he walks around her place and gets in her bed practically naked for no physical history at all between them - even if nothing more than just laying next to each other happens anymore and for years imo - but their skins still do find comfort in touching each other, obviously (also, you bet he is an ass and he does enjoy making her flustered whenever he needs a distraction from his troubles or/and self boost by teasing her even as they both know it won't go actually anywhere further than teasing, and she just lets him do it because she knows it's his way of asking for a hug or somehing and she can't ever be mad at him anyway to begin with) - and I'm not only okay with it but even grateful? Coming from where I started? Again: how did that happen?) Just to be clear in case it isn't, I do not ship them - at all. They are NOT partners, at all. There is definitely a caretaker and a caretakee, no partner balance. But it's not at all like she's his Mom or whatever - he had a Mom and she's dead. It's just, they have their own thing, and it works - it really works; but only because it is them.

(And don't hit me; I hit myself hard enough already?)

Finally, I get it's a show so I shouldn't take it that seriously, but I can't help but feel that 1) they shouldn't have had Hae Jo drive around so much himself, knowing he had a ticking bomb in his head - it is not safe for others - so that blatant lack of care feels way more cringe to me than the kidnapping that sort of isn't. 2) please, do not make Do Hwan smoke. Not only because I care about his lungs, but because I care about everyone's lungs in general and him smoking is like an advert for it because, yes, he makes it look sexy (but then, he makes everything look sexy, right, so it's not his fault, lol) - and smoking just isn't sexy (and it stinks!). 3) use salads intead of fish for silly fights. don't waste any food, generally; but if you have to then at least use not living food for it? (Am I petty? I am. Still... A minimum of respect for what dies so you can eat?)

So.

Do I believe story-wise Mr. Plankton could have been even *better*. Yes. Are the parts I didn't like much still in fact working as intended. Yes. And am I forever carrying all of them and especially Hae Jo in my heart anyway. YES !!

So. FAIR WARNING: I will reblog Mr. Plankton EVERYTHING !!!

(And now, on to a rewatch? (skipping the gang bits))

@mctna2019 : thank you so much for pointing out the reason Jae-mi was kidnapped by him. this is what I thought from the beginning. in his own way, he wanted to make her happy before his death. not to take Jae-mi for himself, but to show her a more correct way, and this led to both Eo-houng and Jae-mi finding their way. it was so beautiful.

=> YOU ARE SO RIGHT AND I LOVE HOW YOU PUT HIS !!! HUGS:)

Last addition:

I'm truly not here to fight with anyone and I simply won't. If Do Hwan's fantastic job doesn't convince you of Hae Jo's actual (also) selfless love for Jae Mi then nothing will anyway I guess. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm forever a proud member of the Hae Jo's defense squad !! Hoist the colours !! Let's raise our flag !!

(Also, prayer circle starting now about Do Hwan getting so many more rich roles to play in the future!!)

[lesbianmothman3000]

Are you kidding me. This is the most autistic man I have ever heard of. I understand him on a spiritual and metaphysical level. God

[kenomacreature]

THE MAGIC CIRCLE, or "WTF is Darkness, anyway?"

Part Three

A comprehensive, themes-first take on what Deltarune is "really about"

The Gaster of it all

The foremost trouble with Gaster is that there just isn’t very much to work with. We know so little about the guy that we couldn’t even figure out if a certain Valentine’s Day letter was or wasn’t from him. And since we know such little concrete information about Gaster, some might argue that trying to conjecture one’s way towards grand conclusions about him is a fool’s errand. Luckily (or unluckily) for you, dear reader, a fool is exactly what I am.

All joking aside, I do actually want to try my best to be cautious in this section. Since Gaster is someone who exists just as much outside the text as he does within it, any theory involving him risks mixing evidence with unsubstantiated fanon interpretations. For this reason, I will try to specifically list every premise that I need to come to my conclusion, so we can be on the lookout, together, for any pesky leaps in logic. Make up your own mind on whether these are all within the bounds of reason, or whether there’s something here that you can’t accept or find implausible. 

Premise 1: We can use information about Gaster in Undertale to inform our understanding of Gaster in Deltarune. Given that every known character that exists across both Undertale and Deltarune share not only similar personalities but also broadly similar circumstances, it seems like a safe assumption that the same applies to Gaster.

Premise 2: The information the Gaster followers give us can be trusted. This is to say that Gaster was the former royal scientist, that he was shattered across time and space, and that he exists at some higher level where he can “listen in” or watch during gameplay despite not physically being present. If we don’t trust the information of the Gaster followers, there's barely any discussion to be had, as these are some of the only sources of information we have about him. We don’t have any reason to distrust their claims, so they can be taken on faith for now.

Premise 3: Entry 17 was written by Gaster. The room displaying Entry 17 is literally named room_gaster in the files of the game.

Premise 4: The subject of Entry 17 is the substance of Darkness, as seen in Deltarune. Gaster literally refers to the subject of his experimentation as “Darkness”.  

Premise 5: Gaster is the mysterious person talking to us during the opening of Deltarune. There are numerous allusions to Gaster during this opening scene, such as the track which plays during it being titled ANOTHER HIM, a reference to an Undertale file tied to Gaster. The person speaking also shares Gaster’s exact manner of speech and verbal tics, minus the Wingdings font.

Premise 6: Deltarune Gaster exists in a similar state to his Undertale counterpart. The Gaster who speaks with us in Deltarune is a disembodied voice who is somehow able to communicate with us, the player, and seems to exist diegetically as part of the menus. A reasonable explanation for this would be him also being shattered across time and space and occupying a higher plane of "reality".  

Premise 7: Gaster’s experimenting with Darkness is what led to him being shattered across time and space and existing in this higher state. What else could the relevance of Entry 17 possibly be? The fact that you need to manipulate time and space to even access the room displaying it seems to point clearly towards this conclusion. As discussed earlier, Dark Worlds seem to behave strangely when it comes to time and space as well.

Premise 8: Darkness is a metaphysical substance that somehow dictates the nature of Undertale and Deltarune's worlds. If Darkness caused Gaster to become a disembodied being able to exist within the menus and code of the game, then this must surely mean that Darkness is tied to the very fabric of reality that makes up the worlds of Undertale and Deltarune.

With all of our premises established, I can now make what might, devoid of context, seem like an insane claim, but which follows quite naturally from the premises outlined here.

Conclusion: The Light World is actually a Dark World

Okay, what does that even mean?

Well, think about how in Chapter 2, Queen planned on making a Dark World inside a Dark World. What if she’s already inside a Dark World inside a Dark World? If sufficient manipulation of Darkness can shatter one’s embodiment in time and space, placing oneself on a higher or deeper plane of reality, then what that seems to point to is that Darkness simply is the substance that makes up the reality of Deltarune and Undertale. And if that’s the case, it means that the Light World is essentially just a very big Dark World.

The beauty of this hypothesis is that it makes perfect sense thematically. Deltarune and Undertale are fictional worlds where, like in the Dark Worlds, certain characters are aware of their own nature as fictional beings – characters like Gaster. And really, Gaster is exactly like the secret bosses in that he’s not free even in his own confrontation with his lack of freedom. Like how the Will of the Fountain guided Jevil and Spamton towards their reckoning with their nature as Darkners, the Will of Toby Fox guided Gaster towards a reckoning with his own nature as a fictional character. This is why Gaster, and possibly Dess, exist diegetically within the code of the game. Here in our world, the code is what forms the existence of Deltarune (the program). But once you immerse yourself in Deltarune (the fictional world), crossing its Fountain (so to speak) via your suspension of disbelief, the code becomes representative of something else – the “Depths”, a deeper layer within the cosmological fabric of Darkness.

Armed with a basic understanding of Deltarune’s cosmology, we are prepared to tackle the question of who and what the Angel is.

The Angel is in their Heaven, all is right with the world

Let me pose you a question. If Darkness represents fiction, what does Light represent? Because Light is an established concept in Deltarune. It’s not mentioned quite as much as Darkness, but it’s right there in the name of the “Light World” and “Lightners”. Darkners talk about the light inside Kris’s soul, which also makes an appearance in the lyrics of Don’t Forget.

So, what is Light? Well, if you’re on board with the conclusion that Darkness represents fiction, I think there is no choice but to accept that Light, as its opposite, represents reality. Or, at least reality in relation to fiction.

Deltarune seems to operate on a certain hierarchy of command. There are Darkners, who, as Ralsei is eager to remind us, are subservient to Lightners. But Lightners themselves seem to be subservient to an even higher force, one that shines more radiantly… A figure that is, funnily enough, shrouded in darkness. Their Heaven is only briefly mentioned at the end of Ralsei’s prophecy. They’re worshipped as a monotheistic God in the organized religion of Light World’s Hometown. And Spamton yearns to confront them, hoping it will allow him to cut his strings. In fact, Spamton seems to think they’re already present and addresses them directly in dialogue, asking if they’re watching.

This hierarchy of command maps out perfectly to the metatextual layers of Deltarune. Darkners are fictional beings within the fictional world of Deltarune and so occupy the lowest level of this hierarchy, worshipping their creators, the Lightners. Notice that “Lightners” is plural – Darkners don’t just worship the individual creator of their Fountain, they worship Lightners in general because it’s only through them, collectively, that they can exist. And who are the creators of the Lightners? Well, it’s us, right? We’re the beings one rung up the ladder. We’re the ones who “give their existence meaning”. Granted, Lightners worship an individual being, the Angel, instead of a category of beings. I think this is fairly easy to explain, though.

The world of Deltarune is made in service of the player. It is for the player’s sake that the game is designed as it is. Even if Toby Fox operates in a sort of demiurgic role of actually having to construct the game and the narrative for us, it is ultimately we who are the God of this world. We, the player, are the Angel.

I can already hear the question forming in your mind: “But what about Noelle? Isn’t she the Angel?” I mean, she does literally compare herself to one. And an Addison calls her one. And Spamton calls her one. And she's associated with snow angels. And the doll her and Dess create looks like an angel. And her Dark World attire is very angelic too. Is there any possible explanation for this other than Noelle being the Angel?

Noelle is certainly associated with angelic imagery and language, as all the examples above indicate. But take note that whenever she’s associated with angels, it’s in the lower case, referring to angels abstractly. Not once is she directly associated with the capital-A Angel. What seems clear to me is that Noelle is a special Lightner, with a special connection to the Angel, which is to say a special connection with us. This is made clear in the Weird Route, where we can use Noelle to “break” the game, bypass certain restrictions, disregard what’s “supposed” to happen and forge a new path, in a twisted reflection of Noelle’s own interest in video game glitches and creepypastas.

But really, when you think about it, Noelle being the actual Angel is kind of an incoherent notion in the first place. Even beyond the thematic significance of Light, we know what the Angel is, broadly speaking. It is a watchful deity existing above the Lightners and Darkners – this much is clear from how both Lightners refer to them, and from how Darkners like Spamton do. There is simply no explanation for how Spamton could be referring to Noelle when he talks about the Angel.

If you’re already convinced that she’s the Angel, this dialogue might mislead you into thinking Spamton is referring to Noelle. But on further inspection it’s quite obvious from context that Spamton is referring to the one who’s actually looking for the ring – us, the player. Immediately proceeding this dialogue, he asks us (the player - or Kris, who we're controlling) to pay for the ring. It plainly does not make sense for the dialogue to be addressed to Noelle.

Likewise, you’d have to jump through a lot of hoops to interpret this as anything other than Spamton directly addressing the Angel’s Heaven, which he believes is observing his current actions (as opposed to many Noelle Angel theories which speculate that the Angel's Heaven will be not a literal, but abstract concept corresponding to a future Dark World, or even the Roaring itself, at any rate caused by Noelle). But this naturally leads us to the question of what exactly the Angel’s Heaven is.

From what Spamton says, and from its description in the prophecy, it seems that the Angel’s Heaven refers to an actual, tangible location or plane of existence. Given that, I think it makes intuitive sense that the Angel’s Heaven is simply our world – the world above the Light World, the Even Lighter World so to speak, the home of angels and divine light. This is how Heaven can be “watching”, as Spamton says.

Banishing the Angel’s Heaven – the goal of the prophecy – would thus mean, well, sealing away the real world and severing the connection that was established at the beginning of the game, which is just a more complicated way of saying that it refers to ending the game. As explained earlier, Deltarune is itself a sort of Dark Fountain, a constructed world filled with characters prepackaged in certain contexts that we’re meant to enjoy and bring meaning and resolution to. The primary difference seems to be that within the story of Deltarune, this “Fountain” (if you will) was opened from the inside, by none other than Gaster, our gracious host, and must thus be banished from the inside as well, by the Delta Warriors of Legend.

I believe that this is the ending that Toby has teased, the conclusion that he dreamed of nearly 14 years ago. As the boundaries between the player and the game gradually break down, so will the boundaries between the Light and Dark Worlds within the game's diegesis, culminating in the Roaring, which I fully expect to be represented through overt meta-awareness and glitch aesthetics, similar to Undertale’s endings. What else would an apocalypse look like within the metaphysics of a video game program, after all, but a fatal exception error? The Roaring is the edge of the shadow, where reality and dream meet. And to bring an end to the Roaring, that connection must be severed.

In conclusion…

Deltarune’s narrative, like Undertale before it, is highly concentrated on a metatextual exploration of fiction and the impact it can have on people’s lives. The crucial difference is that where this was mostly relegated to subtext in Undertale, Deltarune is overtly grappling with these ideas through its plot. Not only with the metaphorically loaded nature of the Dark Worlds which serve as the backdrops to the adventures of our characters, but also with the player character themselves, their outright awareness and rejection of the player controlling them, and the ways in which those complicated feelings manifest in the Dark Worlds generated from their Will.

In this way, Deltarune is not only interested in exploring the impact of fiction on the lives of its creators but also the impact of reality on fictional constructs, which in turn reflects our own real world struggles to make sense of our place in an incomprehensible world which may or may not be created by a higher being.

A proper understanding of the thematic preoccupations of a text can open up new avenues of speculation and focus one’s sight on the things that truly matter the most. In this essay, I offered answers to some of the most pressing questions in the community, such as the identity of the Knight, the mechanics of Dark Worlds, the nature of the Secret Bosses, the identity of the Angel, and the significance of their Heaven, but I think more important than any answers to those mysteries in themselves is how they connect and tie into the central themes of the narrative.

By no means do I expect all of my conclusions to be completely correct, having less than a third of the full game to work with, but I do at least think they’re in line with the established themes it's been exploring, and well supported by the textual evidence we’ve been provided with so far. I’m eager to hear my ideas picked apart and criticized, and even more eager to get my hands on Chapter 3 and 4 – even if it ends up invalidating every conclusion I put forth here. Ultimately our theories should not exist for the sake of establishing or perpetuating arbitrary divisions, or to further our own profile as independent theorists, but to attain a better understanding of the narrative we’re being presented with. To that end, I can only hope I was successful.

[hyog-blog]

Fangs of Fortune (ep. 13 - ep. 17)

I had to binge quite a few episodes, otherwise I'd be dreaming of demons and lots of beautiful people crying in the snow (which, I probably will anyway D:)

We went from a relatively happy family outing slightly tainted with betrayal and misunderstandings to the depths of psychological hell and eternal self-loathing. The level of inner and outer torment has reached critical levels and I'm guessing it will only peak in the upcoming episodes, now that the secret is out and everyone knows why exactly Zhu Yan was and still is so intent on dying from Zhuo Yichen's hands (well, and dying in general). What kind of sins he had unwillingly committed.

This is ingenious, really. Ethically complex. Psychologically distorted. Heavily PTSD'ed on all sides. It seems the recipe for making everyone suffer unimaginable sufferings is to put the Big Bad Murderous Darkness into the most caring, attentive, gorgeous demon being, let him lose control over the aforementioned Murderous Darkness once in a while, then make him fall into the abyss of self-blaming and self-loathing, and then make him try to end his life by the hands of the people he has wronged and cares about. I mean wow-wow-wow, just writing it down conceptually is heavy, the way everyone played their roles was BEYOND, just beyond. Totally and fully believable.

It's like the worst case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but on a grander metaphysical scale. And it can't be solved just by one Great Demon dying - because such is the order of things that another being like that will be born, to bear the same fate. It's an interesting concept to put as one of the main motifs of the whole drama - the evil of the world and all the people that just exists by itself as a force, and one single person/vessel that has to curb it and sometimes channel it, without having any choice whatsoever. Or maybe there is? Now I'm wondering if Zhu Yan's idea about stopping the cycle of such vessels being born again and again is doable at all. In that kind of world where fate rules everything and everyone, and the options are quite limited, actually.

But I love how it's also always about the choice. It was Qing Geng's choice to stay with Fei willingly and get sealed together. And then, later, it was once again her free choice to stay in a dream and never leave the place. A-Heng didn't have a choice but to kill when he became a puppet, and Pei Sijing seemingly didn't have a choice when she killed him (but that still WAS her choice). Zhu Yan didn't have a choice when he lost control over the malicious energy, but he did have it afterward - what to do, how to live, or not live. How to punish himself severely inside out. So much of it is fate, destiny, guilt, unimaginable suffering. But even Zhuo Yichen makes his choice - despite his own pain and loss, he chooses not to kill Zhu Yan because that won't really solve anything or make anyone happy (while alive he could still do some good for the people who suffered because of him). I love how the show explores this topic of free will despite everything happening around the characters that's out of their control.

We still don't know what those Chongwu guys want, but Li Lun seems to be bearing quite a grudge towards his ex former bff. I mean, he was so emo before Zhu Yan took him out to see the mortal world and didn't want anything to do with it at first. I wonder what happened between the two of them. Well, he later wanted to get free (which is understandable), but merging the mortal and demon worlds is never a good idea, nope, so I see why the Goddess would imprison him.

I'm wondering how Zhao Yuanzhou is functioning at all with that level of grief he's carrying around. Like getting up, walking, talking, even smiling sometimes. Those must be some hardcore demonic superpowers, because someone else would have been crushed completely and totally by the amount of pain (but then again, he approached Zhuo Yichen and the rest of them only to make his deathwish come true, so that could have been his fuel before).

And after everything, the show managed to joke about cutting sleeves XD nearly making Yinglei quite literally cut his sleeve for baby Bai Jiu. That the show would even go there is risky enough, but this - my jaw slightly dropped))) And between two sweetest brotherly brothers, ahah)))

It's been quite a trip, I will need to digest this whole sequence of events. I still can't get over the scenes and dialogues when Zhu Yan was prepping Zhuo Yichen to kill or subdue him. And what about that ability to be immune to his demonic word spells? I wonder how it works and what he had to do for it to work. Also, the scene with the scars on Zhu Yan's back... Heartbreak all over, everyone is crying, hating but not fully totally, probably loving as well, but not forgiving. It's COMPLEX, uh.

[voidpacifist]

potter-verse headcanons that I choose to view as canon bc fuck jkr <3

*I redid these bc james' lineage was pointed out to me in a previous comment and I don't wanna disregard it so I tweaked a few things to keep it true to the lore while also spiting the terf

this will be very long btw

starting with the marauders era (sorry this is basically an essay now)

adding onto that, I just would love to see his inner conflicts and hopes and ambitions and dialogue more flushed out, because I really don't think him being rejected by an old flame is at all cause enough for him to suddenly just hate children. even his rivalry and bullying with/from james doesn't feel like the push that comes to shove idk

severus snape is not an abusive man. in my opinion, the way that he's written makes him seem like a very cause to effect character without much complexity to him other than that he was in love with lily evans. in my mind, he's lily's closest friend and defender for most of their growing up together at hogwarts, especially after he begins unlearning blood purist ideologies. he tries to protect her from james potter, who's antagonistic of blood purists by nature, and also a massive troublemaker. thinking it will get lily hurt is what ultimately fuels his hatred of james (that and the fact that james is just kind of a dick to him the whole time they're at school together)

an earlier commenter pointed out to me that james' grandfather invented fleamont's hair potion, so the inheritance of that success would make james' family quite well off. and while he grows up with a very good home life and very loving parents, I imagine james also feels quite stifled sometimes, being that he's an only child with a lot of room in his house and a lot of legacy to carry. it's not like he has a complex about it, but he's sort of a steve harrington-esque kind of character. he's not a complete asshat, but he does experience a lot of growing pains and contentions to his worldview on multiple levels when he first becomes acquainted with lily and severus, and even when he first meets the other marauders. it adds a lot more interest than just making him the charming class clown, and james being desi adds another layer of complexity to him too. (I'm quite curious about how desi metaphysics are practiced, and how that would be a shift for him going from eleven years of his own household magic to hogwarts magic)

adding onto that, it's why he and sirius become such fast friends - sirius feels estranged from his own family, and james' only family are his parents and grandparents. they're closer than sirius and his own brother are. this does certainly make things strange and angsty when regulus takes an admiration to james that sirius notices, when sirius himself is constantly being compared to his more "ideal wizard archetype" younger brother his entire life

in fact, regulus' admiration of james starts as more of a scientific sort of reverence - he wants to understand how a pure blood can be so defiant of the ideas that suggest he's more worthy of practicing wizardry, let alone a pure blood who has come from so much. he learns quite a lot about james through sirius, and when he actually meets him for the first time, he's nothing like the troublemaker prince charming that everyone expects him to be. it's the first time reg experiences real endearment to someone who isn't in his own family, and even that kind of love is conditional at best (shout-out to walburga and orion black for their a-plus parenting)

it makes it that much more painful when he sees that james, while kinder and more considerate than he seemed at first, only thinks of him as sirius'-younger-brother-who-isn't-actually-that-terrible-perhaps; when he sees that james only has room in his heart for lily evans, who by black family standards isn't worthy to have any knowledge of the magical world, let alone belong in it. and he's trying to be better and to understand, but even the kindest blood purists are still blood purists, and it will take him years after this heartbreak to rectify that mindset - even as he's defying voldemort himself

lily grows up in scotland, and while her parents love her and petunia very much, they're constantly fighting. she and tuney often spend time together, and when lily's magical talents start to emerge, she at first asks her big sister, her protector, her closest friend, to keep this secret from their parents. so imagine the heartbreak when lily's owl comes in the mail, and instead of the magical announcement being a complication for their parents, the evans' are overjoyed. imagine the betrayal that petunia feels when, after years of borderline neglect to the both of them, lily leans into the praise and attention she's now receiving. and she tries to make it up to tuney - she even grows a flower in her own hand hoping to make peace with her only real role model in life, only to have it shut down by being called a freak. things only get worse as tuney is left at home with quarreling parents while lily gets the privilege of being away from all of it. the number of letters she sends to dumbledore begging to learn magic, then simply begging to see her little sister more than just during christmas, should be enough to convince the old man to have some leniency, but dumbledore doesn't

now let's talk about peter pettigrew. we all blame him for the downfall of james and lily that kicks off the tragedy of harry's childhood, which we should. but the why of it feels important to me, so personally, this is how I see his psyche playing a role: what if he grows up in a religious household? now I know how that sounds, but hear me out. peter grows up in a religious family because his parents carry some sort of shame surrounding their magical lineage. maybe it's because their squibs, maybe it's because of other trauma from being discovered by muggles, etc. regardless, he grows up discouraged from using his magic, but instead of suppressing it and developing an obscurus, he learns how to hide it. he practices his abilities in secret, until he's a very good liar with the worst case of people pleasing. so when his owl comes with his hogwarts letter, his parents are less than happy about it. he's sent to live with his aunt when he's not at school. in the meantime, he hides as much as he can about his family from the marauders. remus has his lycanthropy to worry about, and sirius already has an even rockier home life to begin with. so it's no wonder that peter latches onto james - ironically, james becomes a secret keeper of sorts for him. but peter is never close to him the way sirius is, or even remus. he's forgotten by his friends, disregarded by his parents, and written off as soft and submissive by his other peers and even the teachers. it makes him all the more suggestible when he's sought out by voldemort, who promises him a place of belonging, which is all that he's ever wanted since he was a child. he's hidden things from the people closest to him once before, so he can do it again, right?

until of course, voldemort actually physically manipulates him with an imperius curse. and all it takes is one curse for the dark lord to convince peter that his friends can never take him back, not when he's killed and maimed and cursed and destroyed lives as much as he has. "not when you're my most trusted servant, wormtail." in short, peter pettigrew is and always will be remembered as a coward. but before he was a coward, he was in pain. and voldemort used that pain to turn him against his only friends before his only friends could turn on him

speaking of other death eaters, let's talk about regulus again for a moment. in an audience-sparing plot, regulus lives. in an angst driven plot, regulus drowns. so for the sake of compromising realism for emotional lenience, let's say nobody actually knows what happens to him. there's all kinds of rumors about the missing black brother, but the truth is that regulus doesn't drown. he's badly hurt in his attempt to destroy the locket, because not only is that thing messing with him psychologically, it's also a pain in the ass to try and get rid of. brutally injured and looking for a place to hide, he enchants a supply cabinet in a muggle cafe to expand into his own flat, which looks to non-magic users like any old closet, even if they try to open it. kreacher is left the locket along with regulus' note, because he doesn't want to be found (great opportunity for him to make a sneaky little appearance in the first half of the deathly hallows though, when the golden trio are debriefing in a muggle cafe...)

remus grows up in a really good home, but like james, he feels a sort of isolation. not because of his class status but because of his condition. as his body begins to mature in his teenage years, his lycanthropy also "matures," taking a bigger and bigger toll on his body until by the time his third year starts at hogwarts (between growth spurts and growing pains and the intensity of his transitions), he can't walk without using a cane. he's pretty sickly as a child anyway to begin with, so more often than not, he spends a lot of time in his bed in the gryffindor common room. this means when a lot of the pranking and troublemaking is happening, he's either in the background unable to do much more than try and dissuade his friends, or he isn't there at all. it isn't until a little way into his fourth year that he begins actively participating in marauders shenanigans, including helping with the construction of the map. I imagine he and sirius both have feelings for one another during this time, but these feelings cannot or do not go acknowledged until the later years (like, year six or seven)

when it comes time to meet sirius' family, sirius has already been disowned by his birth parents and is extremely distant from his brother and cousins. all of course, except for his cousin andromeda, who reaches out to him after the news of his erasure from the family tree makes it to her. this is actually how remus meets tonks in my mind - because during the whole "meet the parents" thing, he meets ted, his wife, and their daughter nymphadora

that's all I've got for now from the marauders era but the golden trio era is a whole different ballgame (and probably way longer sorry in advance)

let's start with harry. petunia is not near as strict with him as vernon is, but they're both abusive to him in ways that are physical and psychological. dudley, of course, is given everything by his parents to the point of spoiling, while harry is forced to feed off of the leftovers. and while he definitely inherits his father's "fuck around and find out" personality, he's a lot less likely to fuck around with the dursleys. in fact, he's much more quiet until he gets to hogwarts and blossoms. I also think his scar is much more noticeable and does much more alteration to his face. because it's the aftermath of the killing curse, it makes him much more likely to die just from a physical standpoint than from simply a plot device standpoint. voldemort is obsessed with killing him, and incidentally, he's a very easy person to kill

however, this doesn't make harry a weak wizard by any means. his magic is incredibly powerful and he's incredibly cunning with it. it's why the hat finds it equally appropriate to sort him into slytherin, other than the obvious connection that he and voldemort share. but this does mean that other people's perceptions of him are that he is weaker. draco thinks he can easily manipulate him. ron underestimates his understanding of the wizarding world and how to defend himself. hermione even has her moments, though hers are more a concern for his well-being as a target of all sorts of evil wizardry. even still, it's a shock and a half to go from being consistently neglected and abused to being coddled and handled with kid gloves all the time. it's no wonder his "fuck around and find out" attitude we see in the books and films also comes to life due to the way he's being mistreated - whether that's with good or ill intent

ron is not only his first friend, but also the first person harry is formally introduced to. he's harry's gateway to what the wizarding world looks like outside of school. of course, molly weasley immediately decides this makes harry her son as well as ron, and it's nice for ron to have a brother his own age. but as the youngest son in a family of seven kids, with one of the honorary offspring being famous in the wizarding world, it's easy for him to get swept up in the idea that he's the afterthought of his friends and family. as a result, he tries emulating harry's attitude towards the world, but whereas harry's is built up by his upbringing and those around him, ron's is built up out of spite. it creates resentment when they're horcrux hunting together, because ron not only hates that harry is refusing to be taken care of - he also hates that nobody's taking care of him

it's why I think he and luna lovegood make an excellent pair. luna is an uncommonly kind person by nature, and we already know in the books that she takes a shine to ron. I wish we'd seen more of them in canon, so it's my personal philosophy that they should have been together instead of ron and hermione. luna really softens the resentment in ron, because she takes so much in stride that it sort of rubs off on him. and ron brings out something very protective and fiery in her. if she weren't a ravenclaw, she'd make an excellent gryffindor, though honestly she's such a multitudinous character already that she'd do swimmingly in almost any house, in my opinion

more on luna: she and hermione were actually quite close as first years, but grew apart because while luna was accepted for her neurodivergence, hermione was singled out. there's not much difference between the two of them other than the two factors that luna doesn't mask her traits, and is a pureblood. at the time that they're both eleven, I imagine eleven-year-old blood purist logic would muddy a friendship rather quickly, especially when you're trying to seek acceptance from your peers. this isn't to say that luna is a cruel person by any means - it's just that hermione has to work harder for her fitting-in-ness. naturally, being in different houses and different circles of peers along with all the other factors, they grow apart. four years after they've met, luna is simply "looney lovegood" to hermione

hermione's parents are very eager muggles to integrate hermione into the wizarding world. the two of them meet in college, when both take an interest in metaphysical studies and the history of witches and witchcraft. though it starts as a scientific fascination, hermione's father turns out to be a rather superstitious man in the first place. when their daughter receives her owl, both of them are overjoyed at the possibility of there being a world where their fascination with magic and the occult is real. the only reason they both go into dentistry (and together at the same office, no less) is because they're ridiculously in love with one another and want hermione to have a stable childhood

snape ends up being a very protective teacher over harry. the reason he hides it is because he knows dumbledore is on the hunt for power and control, however much the man tries to disguise it as working for the greater good. the headmaster simply believes harry is the perfect conduit to attain those things, and rather than view him as a threat, dumbledore views him as a tool. snape is desperate not to see harry become a pawn, the way he did, but he also sees so much of james in him that it's hard for him to reconcile any outward respect for him. this makes snape a very cold man for harry to cross (and he's already cold enough for several other reasons), but in my personal opinion, it does his character a disservice to make him outright abusive. he's dismissive and intense and extremely aloof, but never does he use it to punish harry himself. snape's only seen as a shifty, mean person by harry because of how similar he is to petunia and her dismissal of harry at home so by god do those trust issues jump out between these two. it's by no means a father + son dynamic, but it's certainly a begrudging guardian + clueless guardee dynamic, if that makes sense

in fact, when snape realizes draco is also dealing with abuse in the home, he makes it a goal of his to do what he can to make sure their time in his class is as easy as possible. of course, true to severus snape fashion, he does this in such a way that it seems like he's going to single them out when in reality, he's only breeding an environment where draco and harry start having a tentative, mutual respect for one another. this is at first very confusing for hermione and ron, as well as draco's circle of friends. but these two are nothing if not stubborn, which means cycle breaking is what they're destined for

this paves the way for draco and hermione to be in each other's circles. mutually indifferent to one another at best. detestable to one another at worst. very much enemies to lovers, until hermione bests draco in a dueling practice and draco gains some respect for her. he learns that she is a very well schooled person when it comes to traditional witch traditions and rituals; that she recognizes the holidays that christmas and halloween are bastardizations of; that she does in fact "respect her betters," because she respects her magic as the sacred gift that it is. at that point, does it become allies to lovers. and when the second wizarding war rolls around, he does everything he can within his power to play the roll of double agent. snape becomes his mentor in that regard in more ways than one (he has to kill dumbledore and he has to outsmart voldemort, homeboy is stressing)

hey speaking of pairings, the only original pairing that I tend to keep the same within the golden trio is ginny and harry. it is the sole good pairing that jkr brought to the table. I still have a few notes on it — I just wish there was more development with them. I wish there was more canonical tension than "brother's famous best friend," because while ginny is a wonderful character on her own, she doesn't seem the type to be besotted by someone because of their fame. in fact, an enemies to lovers hinny would almost make more sense to me. they're both incredibly stubborn, it's a wonder they don't butt heads more during canon events, with the fact in mind that ginny is quite soft spoken around him. she's very do-no-harm-take-no-shit, and I wish we saw more of that in their interactions. in my head, their pipeline is as follows: younger sister figure -> academic rival/enemy -> allies during the order era -> confidants -> lovers. if this makes sense. I know it's similar to the canon pipeline for them but please I need tension I need depth I need conflict

I also have got to talk about cho because first of all, what the fuck kind of name is "cho chang" for the only visibly asian character in a franchise? said it once and I'll say it again: fuck jkr. she didn't put thought or depth into this character even one bit other than making her ditsy and boy-obsessed and I hate that shit! with all my heart! in fact, all of the POC women in this series she writes specifically to be obsessed with harry, and that makes my blood absolutely evaporate because they could be so much more than one dimensional figures. I digress

as I see it, "cho chang" isn't her real name at all. it's chao-xing zhang, and the first name means morning star. she hails from a family where her father is chinese and her mother is irish. if I had to give her a middle name, it would be siobhan. she grows up with strong roots in both her irish and chinese heritage, and she's the pride of her family, since she's the only child her parents are able to have. when she arrives at hogwarts, she is quite shy and reserved. but she's brilliant, so of course she's in ravenclaw. but it's in an atypical sense that she is brilliant, not in the I-come-fom-an-asian-family-so-I'm-clever kind of way (I think giving her the gift of clairvoyance would add a really good layer to her arc). she tries to fight off visions of harry potter dying, but she cannot shake them, so instead she vows to fight with him, especially after voldemort kills the first person to show her love and affection for who she is, not for the "cho chang" that her peers think she is. it's only natural for her to take a shine to harry when he's the one who saw cedric diggory murdered

while we're on the topic of horseshit naming, parvati and padma aren't called parvati and padma in my personal mindscape of the potter-verse. they're instead named drisana and salena, meaning "daughter of the sun" and "moon" respectively. not only are they fraternal twins, they also have entirely separate personalities and magical gifts. they're as different as the sun and moon are different, but they also both reflect each other's gifts quite well, just like how the full moon is an expression of both itself and the light of the sun. of course they're both enamored by the boy who lived and his best mate, and of course they say yes to them when they need dates for the yule ball. but to say either of them are actually in love with or interested in either of the boys isn't true by a long shot - salena much prefers her own company and drisana has been eyeing the pretty ravenclaw, chao-xing, for as long as she can remember (I also think they would take harry under their wing and help him reconnect with his desi culture because I can't imagine being raised by the dursleys gave him too much opportunity for that tbh)

now onto more world-buildy types of things

in fact, I'd say the only stereotypical twins at hogwarts are fred and george, and even then they only play into it for the bit. they think it's wildly funny to confuse anyone who doesn't know them well enough to tell them apart, which is a very small number of people (I mean come on, even their own mother doesn't always manage to tell them apart). one of them is probably just a little bit fruity, and the other one is either none the wiser or not the least bit surprised. they pretend like they're carefree people, but they both feel the pull of the war on their morale, even before the war truly sets in motion with the death of dumbledore. they don't have any older sibling figures present as far as we read until bill becomes part of the plot, but I like to think he and charlie are the ones they go to when they're needing someone to talk to about the state of the world. even then, they have to be careful about it in their correspondences.

and while I like to think that molly and arthur are all very present in the lives of their children, I also believe that arthur's work in the ministry keeps him quite busy, and molly can't always be there for each individual child without totally burning herself out. long story short, the weasleys are there for one another as much as they can be, but mainly as a whole. and of course, every weasley brother would level london for ginny if the need arose for it, since she gets little sister treatment (as she should, we love her for it)

it is in my humble opinion that each house has some elemental magic attached to it. some of these are more obvious, for instance, gryffindor would likely have many ties to fire magic, whereas with hufflepuff's patron being the badger, they'd have many ties to earth magic. ravenclaw and slytherin were a little bit harder for me to parse out, but a raven for me would signify air/weather magic while a reptilian, cold blooded patron would be symbolic to water. and while of course, any magical student can have a proclivity for any element of the four, many gryffindors will have a higher aptitude for fire magic. it's why (in my opinion) seamus finnegan is so talented with pyrotechnics in the first place - it's no accident that gryffindor is where he was sorted with that level of fire magic

so then, liv, how does that explain dumbledore's weird water orb and voldemort's fire serpent featured in the order of the phoenix film? actually that's a quite easy answer - remember how I said not every gryffindor has fire magic tendencies? this is actually referenced with neville longbottom's talent for herbology. if anything, he's more inclined to work with earth magic. we don't see a lot of deviating from house elements at all in canon, but aside from the main main characters, jkr also doesn't divulge much on it to begin with. even then, neville still has the inner fire of a gryffindor. and even though voldemort's raw magic takes the form of a serpent on fire, we see his former self most comfortable with the basilisk, who lives in the dank underbelly of the hogwarts plumbing. water snakes, anybody? dumbledore's is a little trickier to explain, but I do think in his conquest to be more powerful than voldemort, he also ended up mastering all four elements. he does certainly favor fire though, considering his animal companion is a phoenix, and his raw magic is displayed with fire in the half blood prince film during the sea cave scene

beyond the elements and patrons of each house, there's also astrology, runes, divination, etc. basically magic that isn't necessarily assigned to an element, but the elements can be present in each practice. for instance, astrology is a very planetary practice, and it relies on the position of the earth itself in relation to the stars and other celestial bodies (or vice versa). the moon oversees the tides (water), the sun provides warmth (fire) as well as nurtures greenery and living things (earth). all three interacting in different manners affects the weather (air). runes can be written or carved anywhere, but are best written either with something fluid like water and inked, or etched into a solid surface such as wood or stone. divination, particularly scrying, is best done with a reflective surface, however tea reading involves some herbology when it comes to making the tea itself. I digress, the point is, different aptitudes mean some students will have a higher proclivity for one practice than another outside of their "inner element" or which element works best with them (also jkr why didn't you include something for the crystal girlies?? for the fellas who love the pretty rocks???)

onto the topic we all love (said sarcastically) the most: wizard racism. rowling really thought she could paint a complex narrative about blood purity and the differences thereof when her own writing is inherently racist? miss me with that horseshit, anyway here's my personal take on the whole blood purity smorgasbord:

the only difference between muggleborns and regular old muggles is that some have the aptitude and skill for harnessing magic, and some don't. I don't actually know the science behind it. maybe the stars aligned just right. maybe it's a distant genetic thing. regardless, muggles have a very whimsical view of magic itself. we have our holidays like christmas and halloween and easter, and our cutesy packagings of the aesthetic for each holiday. but the holidays that they originate from, such as yule and samhain, have been celebrated by pagans and witches long before this christ-ifying of them, and even longer before making them palatable to a consumer culture. meaning it is real culture that has been taken and warped and accepted by society as normal, when it doesn't credit the original practicers in the first place

and considering the salem witch trials and other witch hunts (some of which are still happening in places around the globe, mind you), it's no wonder that, taking the canon of harry potter into consideration, purebloods (in this case, those from pagan families who have kept the practices for hundreds of generations and have only married within magical bloodlines) are at least mistrusting of muggleborns. does it excuse the blatant mistreatment and alienation of muggleborn witches and wizards? absolutely not. does it at least explain the disparity? yes it does

it gives salazar slytherins perspective of only allowing purebloods into his house an entirely new layer as to why. if only he didn't go about hatching an ancient bloodthirsty beast to hunt down the muggleborn students!

it does also add a very archaic level to slytherin house culture, though - they're not only the most cunning house (and most misunderstood), they're also the most observant of traditional paganism. dumbledore is so dead set on the belief that slytherin breeds evil wizards and witches, however, that his favoritism to his patron house (which happens to have the opposite mascot and element, mind you) creates an environment where slytherins are either feared or outright disrespected by the other houses. here's a hot take: dark and light magic can exist within the same space and still not have any moral attachment to them. crazy, innit

which means that not only is dumbledore a more "accepting" headmaster of muggleborns - they too, are a means to an end in this vendetta he has against tom riddle; a vendetta he's had against a child since he realized this child (who mind you, was already isolated as an orphan and a wizard growing up surrounded by muggles) was the heir of slytherin. and while yes, this made him a threat to the safety of muggleborn students, dumbledore also ensured the creation of the thing that which he vowed to overthrow. his mission in life as a wizard with great power and responsibility was a self fulfilling prophecy

(enough said about albus dumbledore. I hate that man. no wonder jkr paints him as such a hero figure in the series though like damn)

more world building! I think it should be canon that a modified obliviate spell exists so that trans witches and wizards can erase the memory of a dead name from the minds of anyone who isn't them. use this headcanon how you must, it may be the biggest fuck you to the author I could come up with <3

phew! that was a mouthful, but on that note, those are all my thoughts/headcanons/other things that I've conjured so far. some of them may be based off of headcanons I've already seen (like, we've all basically confirmed james is desi at this point), but I did wanna drive a little deeper into those existing ones as well as add thoughts of my own. I am planning on using most if not all of these to write my own rendition of the potter-verse canon, but feel free to use any of them you see in here! I'd love to invite more dialogue, particularly about more thoughtful name changes (like seriously if y'all have anymore suggestions on that front please send them to me, I don't want to be totally ignorant or off base so any feedback is super appreciated)