#IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE HERE

[infernal-lamb]

Searching your eyes for the saint is an act of futility

something that's just been on my mind recently!

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

Liam was a boy, and then a man, who suffered so much trauma and pain. He was bullied as a child and then lived a nightmare that I think none of us can really imagine of having that triggering experience replicated on a literally global public scale. He became a man who inflicted trauma on others. He was an addict who was unable to find a way out of that disease, and now never will, but who was open and vulnerable about his struggles. He was an incredibly talented musician and artist and an absolutely integral part of one of the most important bands of a generation; his voice and songwriting and skill in the studio shaped every aspect of what One Direction became at their best. He loved that band and being a part of that experience with his whole being and would never have stopped celebrating what they meant to us and to the world. He had problems and did bad things; that doesn't mean he was a bad person who didn't deserve to be loved and helped to heal- everyone deserves that- and the fact that that's not something that can ever happen now is devastating. I was very distressed by many of his actions; and I cared deeply about this man I didn't know and wished for better for him than this outcome.

I'm so deeply, deeply SAD tonight. I'm sad for Liam, who will never now have the chance to look back on this hard time and reflect on how far he's come, and for Liam's family, for his parents and his sisters who loved and supported him so much, and for everyone in the 1D band family and circles. And I'm sad for us. It feels like nothing will ever be quite the same, and that's hard and sad and shocking. It's a special kind of doubled grief, to mourn the loss of the person, and also of what he meant to us in this strange world of parasocial fanning, for the real him and also for the version of him that we made up and attached so much meaning to and for the escape that brought us. For him, and also for the easy uncomplicated joy of listening to those beautiful songs from happier times, which might never feel the same again. For the other boys, who we love so much and wish we could shield from suffering and loss and pain. For our fellow fans, who we also worry about the impact of this on. Everything about this is terrible, and I am sending so much love out to all of you. We are not alone, and it's okay to feel complicated emotions and it's okay to mourn and it's okay to care about how it effects you and your life, whatever you're feeling- it's okay. We are here with you. We are 1D family.

[tabooiart]

i havent seen enough commotion for curt mega as tinky. i see him in that role and i think to myself yes that is where he should be that is what he should be doing

[aroaceleovaldez]

I was reading a post about CoTG and I realized: Rick has seemingly started to write every character pairing with the exact same dynamic, and he's not good at writing that dynamic and it doesn't make sense for 90% of the characters he writes it for.

It's that very specific dynamic of one half of the pair who is almost aggressive to the other party - "teasing" them constantly/insulting them, affectionately punching/judo flipping/maiming/etc, seemingly almost always exasperated with the other - and said other party usually just accepts this treatment or blanketly views it fondly, and may generally be framed as more incompetent than their partner and a little bit of a doormat (particularly relating to being insulted/teased/etc by their partner).

We start seeing this dynamic in HoO with Percy and Annabeth, as a sort of semi-inconsistent twist on their rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic from the first series. Then the dynamic pattern develops further with Leo and Calypso. Then Magnus and Alex. Then Nico and Will, particularly in TSATS. And now in CoTG, it's Percy and Annabeth again but even more in this direction.

I know people have talked about Nico and Will's relationship over the series rapidly being shoehorned into Percabeth Two™, and it's extremely apparent in TSATS that Rick's doing it on purpose (including directly quoting Percabeth scenes but minorly tweaking them to be Solangelo). But recognizing it as an overarching trend in Rick's later books honestly reminds me a lot of how Rick started trying to apply the "Percy Formula" so-to-speak to nearly every protagonist in HoO (and then try to replicate similar character archetypes with Magnus and Apollo's narrations - moreso Magnus in being jaded and sarcastic, very much trying to be first series Percy. He only sounds unique because Rick failed at making him Percy 2. Apollo is more akin to later-series Percy characterization of being goofy and incompetent. Apollo [and Zeus] even got retconned to give Apollo a more similar backstory to Percy's). Rick seems to have decided that he thinks the audience wants this specific dynamic but 10 times over, except he's not good at writing it the first time because it's a bastardization of the time he did a different thing okay.

And Rick also seems aware of that too! Because he retconned Calypso and Leo at the end of TOA, probably because he realized how absolutely awful it was reading when they were written with that dynamic of Calypso just functionally hating Leo and constantly being aggressive towards him! The only time Rick's actually made the dynamic even semi-successful was with Magnus and Alex, because it actually fits within their characters, their dynamics with each other, and their environment. Alex beheading Magnus on the regular works out fine because there are no repercussions to that in Valhalla, Magnus will be fine, so it does genuinely come off as humorous. And Alex has been effectively established to be abrasive at times but have her genuine feelings shine through regularly, and that meshes well with Magnus' jaded-and-aloof-but-quietly-very-empathetic character. And Magnus has been established to, yes, not be great at combat, particularly compared to Alex. They are the only time that flavor of dynamic in that form was effective and cohesive.

Percabeth is no longer rivals-to-friends-to-lovers badasses on equal levels with shaky pasts who finally found some form of permanence with one another. Now it's super smart doting and affectionately aggressive girlfriend and her silly goofy 50%-of-the-time incompetent boyfriend who she judo flips/pushes off cliffs/etc - but affectionately~! Solangelo is trying to riff off of the early series "Poseidon & Athena are enemies" dynamic that Percabeth had but with Apollo & Hades being "opposites" but learning to accept each other, except it ends up with Will just coming off as a huge asshole and Nico being retconned to a complete doormat about it - when prior to that those characterizations would be completely contrary to their established characters (even just from TOA!). Calypso in HoO gets retconned from her PJO characterization to being snooty and aggressive, and Leo's false persona gets merged into his just normal personality except he just also becomes a doormat but more goofy than Nico with occasional haha-dark/depression-humor! Which Nico also got. Which was also a bastardized Percy trait that got redistributed.

It's exhausting. Rick write more than one relationship dynamic you can do it I promise

[starstruckodysseys]

can you imagine being thirteen and having the world at your fingertips. everyone loves you - why shouldn’t they? you’re the epitome of a good girl, the ideal, the popular cheerleader type who gets The Guy. you giggle and you flirt with the football players and you have sleepovers with your friends (who don’t really feel like your friends but you’re all popular so you have to like each other, right?). you do your makeup and you bat your eyelashes and everything is perfect.

and then you start growing horns. you start looking like the devil - and you might as well be, the way everyone turns on you, starts looking at you as if you’re a freak, a monster. and, well, if everyone’s going to treat you as such, you might as well play the part, right?

so you rebel against your parents (if they’re not lying about that, too). you go out and you buy a bass guitar and you pluck at the strings until your fingers bleed. it’s better than listening to the arguments downstairs. you transform into people you’re not to pretend you could really be someone instead of the shell you are now. you flirt with guys twice your age to pretend you still have it in you, even if it feels hollow. you grin and you bear it but it’s hollow, in the end.

if you can’t be perfection anymore, why bother being anything?

(and then you meet the most wonderful people in your life. and they accept you as you are and don’t ask you to change. but you find yourself changing anyway, because they make you feel like you can be something. like maybe it’s worth it again. and you finally get The Girl. and maybe life isn’t perfection anymore, but maybe perfection is overrated, anyway.)

[cherrywhite]

"What's the opposite of a sacrifice?" The Silt Verses asks. A gift, is the audience's knee-jerk reaction. It has to be a gift, right? But no, perhaps that's too simple, isn't it? It can't be that easy. Neither Paige or Carpenter got the answer, so it has to be something more complex, right? Maybe...something reclaimed? Preserving in the face of sacrifice? Maybe the answer is something loftier? And episodes later, we finally get the answer and it's...

A gift. Of course it's a gift. How could it be anything else? A joy with no conditions. 

And I think this brilliantly shows how unthinkable a life without sacrifice is, in the world of The Silt Verses. Sacrifice is so ingrained into the society they've built that an opposite is entirely unthinkable. Paige didn't get it. Carpenter dismissed the question entirely. And ya, they were both taken off guard by the question, never really gave it serious consideration you could argue. But even we as the audience began to turn ourselves inside out, trying to find an answer to the riddle that would fit for the world of The Silt Verses. You've won, because they can't get away from you, says Val, they’ve never once seen the light beyond the light you made for them. There's no getting better for any of us. That answer, something that was right in front of us this whole time, seemed as if it was too easy, too simple. Outside of the parameters of the complicated world these characters must live in.

And Hayward will sit with Carpenter, the two enjoying each other's company despite the odds, and describe how stars provide light without asking for anything in return. He will go on the radio with Paige, neither of them able to decipher each other's words, the connection too flimsy, and be content with just the gift of getting to hear her voice. This is a world where the opposite of a sacrifice is unthinkable. And yet, it exists anyway. The answer exists in all these small moments. In Paige sitting down for breakfast with Carpenter and Faulkner. In Carpenter and Faulkner finally understanding each other, the two standing at the edge of a pier as their god's currents come to take them away. In Hayward and Paige giving characters like Elgin a second chance, her life previously forfeit as nothing more than a body for the government. In Gage asking their sister to go home together. In Shrue extending a hand out to Cross. Acantha, offering a warm seat and tea to Carpenter as she decides where to go next. Val, getting on the phone one last time, to ever so slightly shift the winds.

And I'm not sure what my point was here, I'll admit. But these are the moments of the podcast that will forever stay with me. All these moments of genuine love and warmth and everything in between. It can still end with love, can't it? asks Carpenter. And it can; and it does. It always could. And that's a gift in and of itself. 

[drenched-in-sunlight]

spy exes, their divorce rifle and forget-me-not 🌊

[theythemmer]

happy 15 years of the duo that moulded me into the being i am today, it’s been a wild 14 years of my life and i wouldn’t have it any other way. love yall

[rocketbirdie]

"long time no see..."

[chalkrub]

it's mendel!

[jhonny]

"stop talking like that boy you're ruining my tboy swag" - yami bakura, probably

or, when both bakuras are trans but only one of them has perfected the trans voice.

+ bonus thief king (as a treat)

[hotsoon-milk]

Slay the Princess spoilers under the cut because im diseased

I have such mixed feelings on the Slay the Princess Narrator.

As a character, I love him, He's such a tragic antagonist, warped by his own fear of death to the point that he literally tore the cycle of life apart, and in a twist of irony, he killed himself to make sure his plan would work, leaving nothing but Echoes of who He once was. His being is scattered across worlds in a vain attempt to rid the world of death, but he never stopped to consider if this was what was best for the world, never considered if everyone else would be content with a life of stagnation and devoid of the ability to change, He never considered that other people might not be as terrified of dying as He was. There's so many questions about him that might never be answered because the original "Him" is dead. All that's left are mere gusts in the wind, holding on to the embers of his plan and fated to be destroyed if The Long Quiet decides to awaken to his godhood. Even His Echoes are condemned to the same fate He tried so hard to erase.

But as a person, I fucking hate him he's such a whiny little bitch like SHUT UP bro you sound like that kid on the playground that would always change the rules of the game so they could never lose only to go "i dont wanna play anymore" when they lose anyway. Fucking grow up. 😭

[zukkaoru]

no but do you understand. kunikida being the one person who sees both dazai and chuuya as irrevocably human. dazai and chuuya each see the other as human but don't have the same faith in themselves. but kunikida. kunikida getting close with both of them, and finding the humanity in both of them. everyone else is so far away, so far below, everyone else sees the untouchable Double Black. everyone else sees the wake of their destruction, the craters left by chuuya's ability, the meticulous plans set up and executed by dazai, the infallible partnership that could level city blocks and take out entire organizations. everyone else sees them as gods, and dazai and chuuya see themselves as monsters, but kunikida--

kunikida sees them after the comedown. he sees dazai on his bad days, when he can't even drag himself out of bed, when it's more painful to hold himself back from jumping in the river than just letting the water fill his lungs. he sees chuuya post-corruption when everything hurts and dazai's touch is the only relief and he's vulnerable and willing to ask for help instead of just taking whatever it is he needs. he's seen them laugh at stupid jokes (both each other's and his own), he's seen them throw popcorn at each other during movie nights, he's seen them during the quiet moments when there's no performance, when they can just relax. he's seen chuuya without the hat and gloves, and he's seen dazai without the bandages. he's seen their pasts laid out on their skin in every scar. he's heard some of the stories and inferred others. he's seen them as Double Black too, of course - he saw the destruction caused after the dead apple incident and he's seen the darkness that lingers in dazai's eyes and he's seen chuuya come home with blood on his clothes and a grim expression on his face. but he's also seen chuuya half-asleep wearing a shirt that's too big for him and he's seen dazai light up at something as simple as kunikida making an extra cup of tea for him. he's seen the destruction caused in their wake, but he's also felt their hands on his skin, gentle, holding him like he's something precious. he's seen beneath the surface, and knows that they are neither gods nor monsters; they are just two humans who have never been told that is all they ever need to be.

[franky-y]

finally managed to finish this

[targarrus]

proti toku