#IT WASNT EVEN THAT BAD???

[gallonwghost]

That one time my friend saw my sketch book and immediately tried calling the suicide hotline on me

[ambrosesystem]

kinda said smth yesterday at school and this girls jaw dropped dude

[reds-skull]

Both me and price looking at that pic of them sleeping: do it for them...

(This was supposed to be like. 2 panels rip)

[saudrag]

homelander almost crying because a bunch of random politicians called him dumb is top-1 scene of the episode. y’all, he was not created to be the smartest person alive. he’s just a pretty boy and that should be enough

[edlucavalden]

Sleeping all day.. hey, we all have our bad days.. don't we?

[lemon-wedges]

Behold thou art fair, my beloved, behold thou art fair..let me see thy face, let me hear thy voice. For thy voice is harmonious and thy face enchanting, thou has ravished my heart...thy lips drop as the honeycomb....thy palate a heady wine that goes straight to my love and flows over my lips and teeth....

Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose

--

Monk x Shinto Priest Au

[mochasucculent]

I'm rewatching Arcane, and after my third time seeing season 1 I had a hot new reading on Viktor's scenes in episodes 6, 7, and 8.

Like a lot of other people, I felt it was weird and unsavory that Viktor - very close to death with a disease that affects his lungs - suddenly starts experimenting on his disabled leg. Those two things have nothing in common, save for the fact that the cause of both might have been the toxic fumes of the undercity, which could have resulted in Viktor being born disabled if his parents were also subject to those conditions.

So why does Viktor try to "fix" his leg when his main goal is to utilize the Hexcore to prolong and improve living conditions before he's gone?

Viktor in acts 2 and 3 is motivated to save himself long enough to make a difference in the world. Even though Hextech is revolutionary for Piltover, it hasn't reached who Viktor wanted to help this whole time, the disenfranchised in the undercity. In his mind, he hasn't done enough to change the world for the better, and he will be gone before he has the chance to do so.

After realizing the Hexcore responded to organic matter when it absorbed Viktor's blood, he experiments with plants, only to find that they wither and die soon after the Hexcore makes them grow.

This causes him to visit Singed once again for anything that could help him figure out how to use the Hexcore for magic that could save lives, one last shot at accomplishing his dreams.

Viktor parted ways with with him as a child upon seeing that Singed was willing to hurt Rio, his salamander test subject, in order to prolong her life. Viktor didn't understand that cost before, but he does now, being in the same position as Singed and Rio simultaneously, both the scientist trying to make a breakthrough and the subject he needs to save in order to do so.

Like Rio, Viktor is not his own end goal to his scientific pursuits. Singed is trying to save his daughter, Viktor is trying to help his people. He's his own means to an end, and is now willing to pay the cost of getting there.

Singed gives Viktor a variant of Shimmer to experiment with, the idea being that it will stabilize an organism while the Hexcore's magic affects it, hopefully allowing it to survive through the aggressive and sudden healing process.

Viktor injects the Shimmer into his leg, as well as carving runes into both his brace and thigh to channel the magic towards there before he offers the Hexcore his blood. It does Something to his leg which we don't see till the following episode.

The new reading I have of this scene is that the reason Viktor chose his leg specifically is not because he was trying to "fix" it, but because:

-He's not willing to put others' lives at risk and knows he's not long for this world, so the only test subject he's willing to use is himself

-He knows the organic matter he tests the Hexcore on might die

-Viktor's leg is a part of his body he's willing to lose if things go wrong and it rejects the transmutation (he also knows that he could just fully die then and there too and is willing to take that risk)

Obviously, the scenes involving Viktor's experimentation center his physical disabilities (shots of his back brace, the focus on his leg) and equate them with the disease that is literally killing him. The narrative lens shows us that Viktor "curing" himself begins with his disability, which sucks.

So while the boat scene undoubtedly is written to be "triumphant" because Viktor's leg is no longer disabled (shown by him dropping his crutch, the swelling music, the parallel to the scene where a child Viktor can't keep up with his toy boat), a different reading is that it's another experiment to him.

Viktor is stress testing the organic matter he infused with magic, and the scene is triumphant because he's realized his leg isn't deteriorating or weakening - it holds up. The mutation of the magic in his leg survived. It's a sign that maybe he can use the Hexcore on the rest of his body, keep himself alive long enough to do what he's always wanted to do: leave a legacy that changes the world for the better.

To me that's a much more in-character perspective for Viktor in these scenes than what is being said narratively through directing, framing, music, etc. Previously, Viktor had never expressed distaste for his disability as an adult, only commenting on it as a part of why he was isolated socially from Piltover. To me, him testing the Hexcore on his leg is merely an indifference to its current state, rather than a preference to have it changed. I don't even necessarily think it'd be a bad thing if Viktor did outright say "I would like to not be disabled", because I'm sure many other disabled people feel that way from time to time, but season 1 really does a poor job of pushing that framing of "curing" disability onto a character that did not express those perspectives himself at this point.

It gives off a big ol' "aw, poor Viktor, not only is he dying because of the political landscape that leaves disenfranchised people to suffer preventable diseases, but he's got a disabled leg too!" One of those things is much more problematic than the other lol.

Season 2 definitely hurtles Viktor very quickly into the Machine Herald perspective in which he thinks humans must evolve past ANY limitations of their original bodies, but to me season 1 Viktor just doesn't feel that way about himself. His primary concern has always been rooted in how to improve the lives of his people permanently, and it's only when he's actively dying that his secondary goal is to live long enough to see that happen.

It's something he drops completely after his experimentation results in Sky's death. He's immediately spiteful of the Hexcore and tries to destroy it - and himself.

Viktor now accepts that he will die before he's able to change the world the way he wanted, and hides the fact that he fucked with his body from everyone as he awaits his demise. "Fixing" his leg is not something he celebrates in and of itself, it's now only a reminder that the pursuit of his dream resulted in someone else's death.

The narrative does well in season 2 to frame Viktor's Glorious Evolution as a Bad Thing at least, and Jayce's speech at the end about Viktor never being broken is extremely valuable and important, but it's just weird to see him say this:

Cause to me now, that ain't what Viktor was trying to do at all! The writers may have retconned that to be the case, which is fine, whatever, but season 1 in isolation does not support that idea to me after this rewatch.

Overall, I think Arcane can have confusing directing sometimes that focuses on evoking feelings and themes rather than the richness of its characters, their dynamics, and the world they inhabit - to the detriment of all the above. In season 2, this resulted in a lot of scenes that felt emotionally unearned or muddy to me, like pretty much everything with Jinx, Vi, and Vander together rip.

It's for this same reason that I think it took me so long to really come to this reading of Viktor's season 1 scenes, because the directing bias REALLY wants to make you feel sorrow and hope alongside Viktor, even though it means he'll seem to randomly start equating his disabled leg to his illness. It just felt like a weird disparity to me until I watched these episodes again and was like "wait" lol.

Anyway peace and love on planet Earth I cannot stop thinking about Viktor Arcane

[flesh-and-fangs]

Y'all, I hate to say it, but no, Nandermo did not "go canon", in an "alternate universe" or through "implications" or otherwise. They were making fun of us. That was the point of all the little nudges and open questions that were quickly squashed. That was the point of the hypnosis ending. The point of that hypnosis was quite literally "Here, let's give the perfect fake wish-fulfillment ending to parts of our fanbase" (which is why there were three. They're fake. That's the point. The point is that they are supposed to be fantasies to appeal to people's hopes for the show).

Having Nandor and Guillermo as a classic sitcom couple set to a laugh track in a universe where none of the other characters exist was a jab at shippers who wanted Nandermo to be canon and cared more about that than the other characters or the premise of the show. They were making fun of "and they lived happily ever after" type fanwork. They were making fun of people who, in their eyes, ignored the irreverence and violence and black comedy of the show in order to make fluffy slash content. They were explicitly saying: "This is how we see you, and this is how we see what you want from this show, and we are telling you that it won't happen and we in fact have contempt for the very concept."

Why do you think they kept baiting the ship until the literal last lines of the show? They were making fun of us. They were saying "Ha! You still thought this would happen? After years of us saying it won't, to your face? Idiots." It's a comedy show, and they were making shippers the butt of the joke. They've been doing it for seasons now.

This is literally what Supernatural did back in the day. And nobody said that they made Destiel canon when they had an in-universe/alternate-universe stage play where the actors "explore Destiel". Fans back then recognized that it was a joke at their expense. That's what this is. Same as what happened in BBC Sherlock that one time, where in-universe conspiracy theorists said that Sherlock was in love with Moriarty (a ship the creators deliberately baited, mind you, same as they have here), specifically for the purpose of laughing at and making fun of that theory.

I'm so sorry, guys. I know you wanted to hope. I know you wanted to believe that the things the writers said at that con weren't true, but they were. I know because I wanted to hope too, even when I knew full well it wouldn't happen. They've been plain about how they feel about the ship for years. They saw it as a joke, one that drew in viewers, but was objectionable at its core. And they've followed through on that by baiting and jabbing up until the very end.

[realbeefman]

imagine creating a show that consistently shows a group of very damaged people who struggle to fit in with “normal” society, the consistent message of which is that life is worth EVERYTHING, that pushing forward in the face of unspeakable horrors and against seemingly impossible fates is worth it BECAUSE life and love and peace are priceless. and then ending that show by saying “the problem was actually that these weirdo fuckups Exist. and actually they cosmically deserve to be murdered and never should have been allowed to experience joy and happiness and peace or to move forward because they are fundamentally Bad.” imagine.

[mrstellmeafuckingsecret]

do u think when mwpp get caught sirius turns into a dog and disappears into the nearest open door and peter turns into a rat and goes w him and remus is sad bc he's not animagus like to james haha guess just the two of us will get detention now and james is offended like wtf no youre getting it alone and turns into a stag and just glares at remus while remus is getting scolded for whatever mildly illegal thing the marauders did + sneaking a fucking deer into school

[anna-scribbles]

they should've been at the club(infertility treatment centers)

[evercelle]

2024 art summary! it sure has been a year

[strawbie-doodle]

havent drawn all of them in a WHILE ✸

[cvnt4him]

drawing a silly little version of myself in silly little shows because creating silly little fantasies and daydreaming about silly little characters is no longer enough to keep my silly little mind from exploding.

[fuji09]

Something I just realized, Deaton was the Hale emissary, he was around when Derek was younger, he had to have known about what happened with Paige. He had to have known why Derek's eyes glowed blue.

Something that irked me when watching and rewatching the show, Deaton had made a promise to Talia that if anything happened to her that he would help and look after Derek. But when Derek returns, and yes I know Derek had tied him up and punched him thinking he was the alpha, Deaton honestly didn't really help him.

When Derek was an alpha, Deaton constantly talked down to Derek and kept telling him how shitty of an alpha he was, instead of actually, ya know, helping the poor kid who had no idea how to be an alpha and was doing the best he could.

Then Deaton comes up with this plan and gets Scott to carry out how to kill Gerard, you can't tell me that wasn't the end goal, there is no way having mountain ash in your body and then getting the bite isn't supposed to kill you, and then he has Scott force Derek to bite Gerard. Deaton knows in the Hale family the bite is a gift. Deaton has to know the trauma Derek went through at only 15 years old with Paige, and yet Deaton still didn't even try to get Derek in on the plan! Which when it comes to the evil Argents, Derek would have done it willingly to defeat them. There was no need to take Derek's bodily autonomy away.

I know a lot of us hate that Scott forced Derek to bite Gerard, but after more rewatching and thinking, I realized that Deaton came up with this plan. Deaton chose to keep Derek in the dark about it. Deaton had Scott force Derek to bite Gerard. This is honestly more on Deaton, the adult, than it is Scott. Deaton was like a father figure to Scott and he trusted him completely and would do whatever was asked of him.

That's pretty fucked up for someone who promised the now dead alpha and mother of Derek, he would help and look after Derek. Deaton did Derek real dirty.

[girlboygilliontidestrider]

Rodds bf became a puffer fish that day.

(steb named the cat bernie btw )