#Idk them but from what I've seen if his posts they seem very young and we'll... Inexperienced

[fishedeyelenz]

when there's an artist you admire and you like they're OCs of but they suddenly start to develop it into a show and you have a sinking feeling that it won't go over well

[demilypyro]

There's a thought/theory/whatever I've long had about a specific pair of episodes from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ever since I was a teen, and I'm putting this post out there to see if anybody else had the same thought.

I think Julian Bashir from Deep Space Nine, especially his plotline about having been genetically altered at a young age, is a commentary on neurodivergency.

Bashir is characterized as being highly intelligent, albeit lacking in social insight. He excels in academic matters but frequently finds himself floundering around women, being led by the nose by more charismatic people, and not picking up what other people are putting down. This alone would make him the average stereotypical TV depiction of an autistic person, but what I want to focus on is the episode that provides a canonical reason for these traits: the season 5 episode Doctor Bashir, I Presume.

In this episode it's revealed, or retconned really, that Bashir owes his intelligence to genetic tempering. Bashir originally suffered from a learning disability. He was not as intelligent as other children his age, falling far behind his peers, and his parents resorted to illegally altering his genes to "cure" that disability. As a result he instead became exceedingly intelligent. In essence, it took away a symptom that made his life more difficult, and traded it for one that made him more functional.

That episode on its own isn't a super strong nod towards autism. Though it does establish that Bashir is at least neurodivergent, it's more a discussion on eugenics and the theoretical ethics of removing disabilities through genetics. What I really want to focus on is the sort-of-sequel to this episode, and the only other episode that really focuses on these themes: the season 6 episode "Statistical Probabilities." In this episode, Bashir sets out to help other people who underwent genetic alteration, but for whom the treatments didn't go as well. The people he meets all display symptoms of one neurodivergency or another. One of them is very hyperactive and lacks empathy, another is very childlike despite being an old man, and another is entirely unresponsive.

For me, as someone who grew up in special education, I couldn't help but recognize some of the people I knew. To me, the metaphor was clear: "genetic alteration" was really just sci-fi talk for neurodivergency. Julian was the savant, the high-functioning autistic person who successfully integrated into society, because his neurodivergency gave him intelligence and insight that made him useful. And the others weren't as lucky, struggling to lead normal lives because their symptoms impeded their ability to function by themselves.

Bashir spends the episode trying to prove that the other genetically altered people have something to offer society, that there is a place for them. It felt very on the nose to me. But no one I've seen talk about this pair of episodes ever seemed to have taken from them what I took from them. I can't find anyone else online who interpreted the episodes the same way. Maybe my perspective is very particular, as someone who spent so much time in special education growing up, and who has personally struggled with finding a place where I can offer something to others. But idk. Am I seeing allegories that aren't there? What do yall think?

[clemelntine]

Heart killers ep 4 uncohesive stray thought

With to many screenshots cuz I keep taking more

A better view of what is now confirmed to be a cross with a cross necklace on it. He hasn't shown to be religious in any way. It could just be storytelling purposes or he's into shit like that (sexually)

Why tf does he sleep on a mattress in what seems to be the middle of a living room

I don't want to be rude to Style or his dad but Style is on of the most obviously queer men I've seen in a while. But also nice to see an openly gay character with (realistically) supportive dad

What's with the matching emblem on their shirt? Like I get their friends but why this episode? Could have been foreshadowing for them ending up in the same situation in the end. But also Fadel destroying this shirt might indicate that Styles relationship with Fadel will get in the way of his friendship with Kant (or the other way around)

It's very difficult to make laying on your back not look akward. Dunk can't do it.

A little side plot for the boys, very fun

Omg its Paul!!

I really hope that Babe and Knot will have more stuff, I'm really curious what their acting is like and I think two innocent young characters wrapped up into the older fours world of lies could be a really interesting story, and motivated for the four to be/do better. Also maybe a lil father/brother figure time for the four. I'm a lil sappy, what about it

Yeah hes selfish but has okay morals we get it

Said the two decieving criminals to eachother. Hopping that ig is foreshadowing of some sorts for them saving each other near/in the end.

Okayy, our first official boyfriends

Interesting, in contrast with the scene of Fadel taking the pin of Style

Oh its his 10 things i hate about you poem. Although he only said i dont like 7 times (catherine said it 10, fadel did list 10 things, if you count the things he said after 'and' as separate). Also i guess "i dont like that i miss you" is his "i hate that i dont hate you"? Or maybe it is unfinished and well get a more fleshed out confession scene when they both like each other

I haven't felt this way since the bad buddy rooftop kiss.

Oh don't make me cry

Oh, Style with his hand in Fadels pants. An interesting development, might have to ad that on to my post about the other nc scenes weve seen from them.[god am i really gonna dedicafe my blog to joongdunk sex scenes]

Why does he have soap dispensers attached to his shower wall

Ah cmon , i was in my feelings dont drag me back to the reality of lies like this.

Look at how cute they are. Look at the potential. They better get this heartbreak over quickly so we can get to healing and being happy.

Khaola

Oh god, they were not even that young when their parents died.

No, I think it was lilly actually. This is going to negatively impact this shit so much.

Cmon Style, you were my only kinda earnest character left.

Both physically and morally (engaging woth Fadel, lying to him, is something he didn't want to do.Going further than he intended to)

Wait is this the person from Kants previous marraige? Thailand has legalized gay marriage for less then a year and were already doing divorces.

How tf does he know

Ok kinda cool tattoo. Blacking that out will actually low key look really ugly. Just a dark blob behind his ear

Wait he has a different gay (rainbow) necklace now. It's bigger

Bison is starring to doubt Kant more while Fadel is staring to trust Style more.

Favorite scene:

FadelStyle in the woods ofcourse

Big brother Kant was also very cute tho

Also if anyone is wondering I took 87 (successful) screenshots this episode

And idk if anybody actually follows my blog and updates about heartkiller. But I'm gonna have to take a break next week cuz I have exams :( . After that I will have more time to watch different bl tho.

[halliescomut]

The Boy Next World Official Trailer

Official trailer is out. I'm very excited to see where things go. It's clear some changes were made from the novel, which is exciting, because that gives an opportunity to kind of experience it with new eyes.

Official release is January 5th on MMY's YouTube as well as uncut on iQiYi.

I'm going to talk about novel to series changes that seem to be happening, so HEAVY spoilers below.

I'm going to assume if you're here, you at least watched the trailer all the way through, and I'm VERY intrigued at the choice of twist. I've seen comparisons to Two World and Vice Versa, but I didn't finish Vice Versa, so I can't speak for that in particular. To be honest, my first thought was A Christmas Carol, which is probably a little bit because of the time of year. Either way if we're doing a switch into the parallel worlds or alternate futures actually being real, I like that change SO MUCH.

The twist in the novel was so wildly problematic, to a degree where it certainly wouldn't get a pass in this day and age. And TBNW is one of Mame's older novels, so updating it for what fan/societal expectations are today is a really smart move on her part. I do wonder if she'll be updating the novel once the series is done, since she is changing a major plot point.

I'm going to talk about some other points in the novel, but I don't want to kind of repeat myself with explanations, so go check out this post where I kind of run through the things I hope to see in the series: link

To start, we see from the cast list that Ozone (or Zone) is present, being played by "Vino" Chavid Pevec. I was concerned that this character might get cut from the story, as with "colder" characters, I think having a sibling helps to give a human side to them, especially as a love interest is just getting to know them. We don't see much in the way of the side story that revolves around Cir and Zone's family, which while not a massive part of the novel, does speak to some of his motivations there, but with the changes being made, maybe it's not necessary. IDK. In the end, I can't really determine if it's a good move or not until we series the series and what was actually included.

I did make a point though that if they chose to include Cir's history and abuse at the hands of his mother I would hope they go for discussion only, versus casting a young actor to portray it, so if they've kind of removed that story, I don't think I'll be disappointed.

Wim and Jin are clearly present and we see confirmation that they will be the second couple for the series. I'm not sure how much of their characters will stay the same as the novel, as Phu and his friend group are a bit eccentric and silly, and I kinda hope we don't lose that. Going off the costuming for Jin it doesn't seem like it, so I'm hopeful.

The one of the bigger overarching points in the story is Phu actually dealing with his grief over his father passing, and we don't see much in the trailer for me to know if that's included in the series, but some of the story points in the novel really added depth to Phu's character, so I do think it would be a shame to minimize it or cut it altogether. One thing it does look like they've kept, which I'm very certain will break my heart, is Phu falling for Cir, and coming to terms with the fact that he's 'stolen' alternate world Phu's love and pushing for Cir to try and get back. In the novel, we see Phu as quite silly and a bit full of bravado, but he's also quite soft. His understanding of how much he's come to love Cir in such as short time and then considering how much more alternate world Phu would have loved him, considering they had years together is so beautiful and so sad, and handled with what I'll admit is a surprising level of subtlety that we don't often see from Mame. It's an all-around very complex situation with a lot of complex emotions, and I think it gives an opportunity for Noeul specifically to really show some range in the role.

I will say though, watching the trailer, I'm struck by the beauty of some of the shots. Like truly beautiful, so I definitely want to mention the director Mame is working with here, Thanpisit Jiradechakul. I know a lot of ppl assume that Mame directs all of her shows, and while she is heavily involved, I would say works as a co-director, she's only solo-directed Wedding Plan, and I'll be honest, you can tell the difference. I did try and look to see what other projects Thanpisit has worked on, and it looks like this is his first series. He's got commercials and some other smaller projects on his vimeo, but nothing of this scale. He is the credited editor and director for the Love in the Air music video though, so he has history with Mame, Boss, and Noeul.

Also, since I feel like it must be mentioned, yes of course the chemistry between Boss and Noeul is chemistry-ing... no one is surprised.

[beifong-brainrot]

Suyin wasn't "coerced" to commit a crime, neither did she want to take herself out of the situation. She wanted to get her friends out of paying for their crimes because she's spoiled and entitled.

She didn't "have" to travel the world, she was sent to family members to take her away from a criminal and endangering environment, and she decided to escape because she's too much of a pick me girl to stay with the so called family "that didn't show her affection". To be honest, you speak of her as some kind of adult avatar-styled Rapunzel, instead of a teenager who deserved to be reprimanded.

She did turn her life around, and kudos to the creators for showing that. No one can say that her story and background is boring by any chance.

She, however, is not the most likeable character out there to a big part of the fandom, but I seriously doubt someone is taking it as seriously as you seem to do. Just chill.

Istg this happens almost everytime I post something mildly touching on the fact that Suyin deserves compassion too. Though you may be the same anon who blew up my inbox a while back so it might just be you.

I've always found the disdain we have for "troubled teens" upsetting because usually, when a teenager "acts out", there's more of a reason behind it that just "ooh they're spoilt or entitled".

[Trigger warning for self harm and suicidal ideation mentions]

Like, I was a very difficult teen back in the day. I argued with my parents, even got into physical altercations, skipped school, ran away from home at night. I was also going through a severe depression, dealing with a shitton of childhood trauma, cutting on the regular and making multiple attempts on my life. Hell, if my parents had brushed me off as "a kid who needs to be disciplined" I probably would've killed myself at 14. It doesn't excuse me for punching my dad in the stomach when he was just trying to stop me from running away into the night but it doesn't mean I didn't deserve help.

[End of Trigger Warning]

These two things can be correct at the same time. Suyin can have done a shitty thing that deserves reprimand and that she needs help that she seemingly had to find on her own. But like, guess which of these two is almost exclusively focused on.

And I mean, it's totally not like the Avatar fandom has a habit of expressing extreme hate towards young girls (especially young girls of colour) making sub optimal choices or just beind "annoying". I've just never seen that before.

Suyin grew up with Toph, who Lin herself has described like this:

Suyin : No, no. My children are a blessing. Lin: Yeah, mom used to say that too, but she never meant it.

Which btw, still an incredibly hillarious thing to say in front of Suyin's children: "Hi kids I'm your aunt Lin and your mother is lying about loving you"

While Suyin has, as a child, expressed doubt that Toph would even care that she's skipping school. And as an adult, she has described her childhood with Lin as "competing for their mother's affection" and still has doubts whether or not her mother is happy with how either of them turned out.

Hell, even though Su and Toph have been said to have made up, Toph still maintains a heavy layer of distance between them, seemingly dissappearing for years at a time!

It's honestly sad how Suyin hugs Toph and puts up statues of her everywhere in Zaofu and yet Toph still just fucked off to the swamp when Opal was probably less then ten and did not contact them.

I mean, sounds like there's not a lot of motherly affection going on there, dude. Idk what to tell ya. We know there were no fathers around either.

And Lin was also a victim of this environment, so I don't really want this to come off as me blaming her for the way she acted towards Su. But Lin is hardly what I would call affectionate.

So of course Suyin would put so much stock in her relationships outside the house. And her friends happened to be fucking criminals fucking hell. And of course Lin, being a kid too did not know how to approach this situation properly, so she inadvertently just pushed Suyin closer to them by insulting them and making her feel defensive.

Because that's what all fucking teens do. The internalise things, they rely on their peers to form their perception of things and they want to be independent. So when someone, especially someone who isn't a parent tries to control them, guess how they'll react? They dig their heels in. Especially a teen like Suyin who has virtually no reason to listen to her older sister other than a vague "I know better than you" type of vibe which really pisses teens off. That's like the time when talking down to them is the worst thing to do.

And fuck off with saying getting arrested and screamed at by your sister in the middle of the road isn't a stressful situation that you wolud wanna get out of. Lin punched a car so hard it dented! (Especially that Lin has already been confirmed to use her status as a police officer against people she has a vendetta against, like when SHE TRIED TO THROW PEMA IN JAIL FOR STEALING HER MANS like how tf did we brush over that)

What I always find interesting in this scene is the front that Su puts on in front of Lin, which slips up a few times, particularly when Lin can't see her expression. Because Suyin is, of course being a fucking brat and taunting Lin, but you can clearly see that she's stressed out.

Suyin also describing the reason she helped her friends as a getaway driver is something I find interesting:

Suyin: I didn't steal anything. I just drove the car. I owed my friends a favor. It's not a big deal.

Of course she's scared and minimising her involvement but the usage of "owing her friends" could very easily imply her not exactly being too hyped about this, as well as her insistence on not stealing anything.

Because the thing about Suyin is that, especially in the flashbacks, we see her only in Lin's PoV. We don't see her relationship with her friends, what led up to the robbery, anything. Which makes sense, because the flashbacks are supposed to be Lin's. But that means we're viewing Su with the inherent bias of Lin, who clearly has an agenda against Su.

Lin clearly blames Suyin for Toph leaving policework, despite us later seeing how burnt out and cynical Toph was about being a cop. Its more likely that Su's arrest was a wake-up call for Toph, but she left due to the buildup of stress and disillusionment and Lin, who has been idolising her mother and her mother's career blamed it on Suyin in her head.

Hell, even they made up, Lin still immediately pivots to accusing Suyin of being involved in the Red Lotus' attack. Despite the attack placing Suyin's life, the lives of her sons and the lives of her guards at risk and Suyin going out of her way to thwart it.

And Suyin's life is just a fucking mess after this point like: betrayal by close friend, daughter kidnapped by terrorists, anarchy in the kingdom, leaders of 2 foreign governments trying to pressure her into subjugating the people in the name of a monarch she doesn't support, betrayal part 2; child boogaloo, the country she lives in being declared a dictatorship, city under literal siege, threat of attack in 24 hours, the fucking Avatar doing fuck all to help, a desperate attempt at assassinating the leader, getting caught and placed in questionably humane restraints, having to watch her daughter be forced to flee, PUBKIC HUMILIATION, the arrest of her non combative son and husbandd, INHUMANE JAIL CELL...

Do I need to go on? Like the moment the Krew came to her gouse her life just started to fucking fall apart its actually kinda hillarious.

And calling Suyin a "pick me" is just... unfounded? Who's she trying to get picked by? Her mom who doesn't love her? Girlie just wanted a family she literally said so in the show, put your listening ears on, babes.

I understand that Suyin isn't the most likeable character to people. I can understand why they dislike her. She can be annoying, hypocritical, rash, the poor structuring of the episodes around her and Lin makes it so she gets unearned favour from the writers etc. People who like Lin and Kuvira, two extremely popular characters in the fandom have an easy villain in their faves' lives if they just tweak Suyin a bit.

But that doesn't mean I'm obligated to dislike her too or that I'm not allowed to post about her in a way that doesn't allign with the fandom's narrative of her. You're not obligated to read it, hun, you can block the #pro suyin beifong tag if it makes you that upset to see me

I want to appreciate parts of Suyin which aren't highlighted by the fandom and I'm allowed to do that. Just because it doesn't fit with your clearly overtly negative opion of the character well, tough luck. And hey, I gladly take the opportunity to talk about Suyin, but I've also made a ridiculous amount of posts around har and have probably addressed almost every single fandom complaint of her at some point so I'm starting to get a little tired of repeating myself lol.

And I'll be the first to admit, my own teenage years probably heavily affect how compassionate I am towards Suyin, particularly in her younger years. But I know how much people hate "troubled teens", how little compassion thet are given.

The narrative that if a misbehaving teenager just gets deisciplined and reprimanded enough they'll stop being "spoilt and entitled" or acting out is wrong and harmful. It hurts tons of teenagers by not getting them the help they need and it would've fucking killed me.

Also hun, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I tend to use hyperbole a lot. I'm a dramatic bitch. Like did you also think I was serious when I said I'd shoot myself if I saw another ad for Amazon's shit lotr wannabe show?

Tbh everytime I get an ask like this I vaguely consider doubling down and commiting to the bit of being the fandom's "Lin Beifong hater". Though I feel like a lot of people wouldn't realise its a bit and think I actually hate her for real lol.

[everything-is-as-it-was]

Jems found in an old Phil video

So I watched "My mum is a lobster" because I'm going through all of his videos chronologically, right, and I was like- you know what? I'm going to scroll down the comments. There's over 2,000, which isn't as much as others so why the hell not?

And GUYS. The way I could literally see the internet changing from 2024 to 2008 was FASCINATING. Genuinely the coolest thing I've seen all week. The content of the comments was one thing: from people commenting about how young Phil is, how this was just under a year from when he met Dan, to people in 2016 going on about... whatever they were talking about in 2016 yk

But then when you get down to the bottom do you see the real good stuff. There's no replies, since Youtube was structured differently I guess, and a lot of the comments don't make sense I think because they were replying to other comments- but I digress.

The use of :D, lolz, the two carats (^^), the xD, the :S, all relics at this point tbh. Obv some people use them still but see their abundance!

See here again - allll the ellipses, much more than we usually see today, =D, ;[ - man ppl were way more creative back then huh

Just the way people spoke on the internet - obviosuly, again, I'm making generalizations. There are still people who speak like this, of course. But the "random xD" comments really hitting full force

Just laughing here at the last comment concerned about Phil's inbox being bombarded... if only they knew a couple years later lmao

@vampirechibiofreno wanted to be a surgeon mouse for Halloween in '09 I wonder if they ever did

I saw a lot more of people just sharing little inconsequential things about their lives here, too. Seems like in YT comments these days ppl are vying for the funniest comment, whereas people here didn't give af they just wanted Phil to know they had the same shirt

I can just imagine young Phil reading the first post and it motivating him, idk. Just the fact that back then people still said "wow, you're funny, keep it up!" Whereas if someone said that now we'd all be like "uh, we been knew? Where ya been?"

Just some more examples of comments with very '08 energy to them lmao they make me smile

And HERE are some Phil comments!

Again, I'm sure he's responding to people here but since YT has changed so much the original posts were jumbled around. It was so weird to see a comment of his with only one or two likes- felt like I found a rare penny or something lmao

Anywho SORRY for the long post! I just thought this was all absolutely fascinating :)

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Idk if this is interesting but since you brought up the French versions tu/vous situation: in German ganondorf straight up uses the royal "you" for rauru where you refer to a person with the plural pronoun and calls him your majesty and such, while rauru also uses the informal you (du) and his first name for him. Which kinda had me shocked, because in fantasy media kings usually refer to each other with the royal you! It definitely felt disrespectful. But also in the German version ganondorf says, roughly translated: "we ask to be allowed to return (to our place) under the umbrella of the kingdom hyrule, if you'd allow us this grace." So here it's implied the gerudo used to be a vessel state and freed themselves, and STILL he gives them "repeated invitations "??? It's soo off-putting

Hey, thanks for the ask and the absolutely wild input!!

So I did a post a billion years ago detailing my feelings about the french translation of the Show of Fealty scene, its tl;dr being: it's wild they decided to go for the the tu/vous distinction because it just adds 26 layers of subtext to the entire exchange --and I don't know how this works in german, but using "tu" on a fellow adult during a show of power definitively has racist history if the context does apply (and here it's pretty hard not to see colonialist accents to the whole situation).

But it's absolutely buckwild that they gave the gerudos this notion of previously being a vassal state? but like when???? when did it happen, was it all... extremely recent history? like did Zelda just dropped at the end of some sort of unification war, where Ganondorf became a hero of his people for..... very concerning reasons? Like did they need a hero *in that context*?

(cue I need a hero etc my brain will now be haunted for the next day or so)

Like... I don't know I'm sorry if I go a bit insane, but I feel like the implication is either that Hyrule was founded in 10-15 years, given Sonia still looks pretty damn young, mid-thirties at most; or that Rauru/Mineru were trying to handle everything for far longer, and Sonia was a late addition to the picture? And so, in that time, they managed to convince everyone to do a kingdom about it --and that would mean the gerudos had time to either join first/be conquered first, and then revolt, and then join again? Like was Ganondorf forced to submit a first time as a younger king, and then return later with a Molduga army, zero-ing in on the Secret Stones, and then going all Demon King???

Yeah, from what I've seen from literal translations, that seems to be a german exclusive (unless I'm mistaken? let me know!) But it's pretty wild how such small changes in translation literally change the game's fabric and the story it tells.

[dragonz-r-kewl]

Hello there, fellow Farsight enjoyer. I have enjoyed your characterization and ideas about Farsight, and if it does not inconvenience you too much, could you tell me a little about what you think her and Mastermind's relationship was like? I personally agree with the fact that they were close, and I agree with how they both had respect for each other's knowledge and intelligence and academics in the other fanfictions. Yet, there's a lot that puzzles me with their relationship, like how Mastermind claimed correctly for years that Starflight was his, yet Farsight refused to say it in Prisoners, and then 2 years later they're seen standing next to each other in the prologue of Moon Rising. From some speculation (piecing together mentioned events from The Dark Secret, Prisoners, and Moon Rising), I have figured out that Mastermind and Farsight must have had some sort of interaction in 5004 A.S. to conceive Starflight, but she's noticeably absent from Prisoners when Fierceteeth is 7 in 5010 A.S., and then she's already dead for a few years by 5011 A.S. That means that they would have known each other for a few years in that timeframe. What do you think the course of their relationship was like? You mentioned that it was going downhill for a while, and I'd like to hear your take on it. Thank you for also receiving my speculation. It's very nice that you and I both are Farsight enjoyers on here.

Hi and sorry it took me so long to respond! I've been a bit creatively bankrupt lately and had to sum up the energy to digitally infodump. (and then it took me like a month or five because i took so long that i kept psyching myself out :p) But! I have Thoughts about this!! Even if it's been like a month or more since I've posted to this damn website!

I've never actually thought about it in terms of a timeline before, considering I do most of my thinking in pre-canon limbo and applying like. A human-ish timeframe to things. Still, the canon course of events wouldn't disrupt my idea of them too much- if anything, it brings a lot more structure to it.

I do think they would've been acquaintances since, I don't know, the dragon equivalent of high school aged?? Farsight would've been the bubbly, friendly type who likes to talk with everybody, while Mastermind appreciated companionship but had other priorities at the time. They would drift apart for a while in their young adulthood, persuing different things after their lives were shuffled around by the volcano having a flare-up.

Then again, this has taken several months for me to write, and I've warmed up to the idea of them not knowing eachother aside from maybe one or two meetings

A few years later, though, by the time Fierceteeth exists (so around 2003 A.S. with a few months' allowance either way), due to more nebulously defined happenstance, Farsight and Mastermind end up running into each other again and getting to know eachother much more closely.

More specifically, I have this notion that maybe Farsight's job was to be a scribe or a typist/stenographer (depending on how much technology dragons would have-- Tui seems to add technology to her world based on what *feels* old-timey, making it ambiguous if it's medieval or post-renaissance or another thing entirely. I find it funny to call it The Calculus Problem, based on how they seemingly have invented calculus but not gunpowder-- in a warring, fire-breathing species no less!) , and they would have met again when Mastermind began to work under Battlewinner directly and would be made to start attending the meetings. (you know what I mean by the meetings, right? idk i haven't read the dark secret in... a while...)

Anyways, the start of their relationship happens very quickly and out of nowhere and all at once. Depending on where in the year the brightest night is (it's never directly exposited iirc) it might be over the course of a bit over a year or less than it. Why it happened so quickly, I have a few ideas as to that also.

Mainly, they were both lonely and their home was slowly being destroyed. Farsight had whoever Fierceteeth's father was die on her, her friend(?) Secretkeeper is often busy with her life in high places, and it's unknown how much else she has going for her. Mastermind, meanwhile, is pretty much an outsider within their society (source: he hides in a room all day and people don't seem to like him) Companionship, at this point, seems very desirable, and so they quickly end up romantically entangled.

Aaaand then Starflight happens, and the weirdness/canon mystery regarding this relationship becomes impossible to ignore.

My thoughts on the situation go like this:

Farsight knows Mastermind is Starflight's father, and so does Mastermind. They both know that the other knows, and are perfectly open about it... to each other.

For a time, they just don't tell anyone else about their relationship, let alone the egg's parentage because of... social reasons I guess? Lots of which relate to the prophecy and stuff.

There are a few reasons I've come up with, but personally, I've landed on the following for now:

Harsh but plausible; (almost) no one likes Mastermind, and he's still there just because they need a science guy and he's the one ensuring they still have a water supply. However, based on what we have seen of him, he is unemphatic, far from personable, and difficult to work with. He's unpopular, essentially, and somehow high up in the pecking order despite that, and Farsight knows she'll have enough dragons in her face to begin with just having an egg that lines up with the prophecy in the first place. She wants to keep their relationship- especially after the egg- under wraps, and Mastermind agrees for her sake. After she dies (or just after things cool down- more about this later) Mastermind is more willing to mention it occasionally, but anybody who pays attention doesn't really believe him.

Or maybe they were normal about it and Morrowseer is out of touch and dragons just don't believe anything Mastermind says sometimes because. The mastermindl

Regardless, they grow closer at a fairly steady rate, and they get along well! Things are stable and sane, except for the looming anxiety of Starflight's egg being taken because they should know that, really-

There are two (wow, only two for once?) possibilities with Starflight here; either his being a prophecy egg was deliberate, or coincidental. Based on Farsight's feelings about him, at least, I tend to fall in the latter camp.

Logically, if an egg's hatching can be accurately predicted to the day, apparently, they probably knew from very early on that Starflight would hatch around the brightest night at the very least. Mastermind knows this, and logically, Farsight should too- but based on her behaviour in Winglets, it seems like she hasn't fully processed or come to terms with it, even though she definitely *knows*. At the very least she wants to pretend like she'll get to spend all that time with it and raise it as long as she can.

And then the egg is taken.

And Farsight doesn't take it well.

In Winglets, Fierceteeth menitons her "moping" and it being "so annoying". Based on how scared Fierceteeth seems to be of emotions, I generally take this as meaning it was bad. Fierceteeth essentially lost her mother all the way back then-- Farsight was grief-stricken, depressed, and inconsolable. They were both unable to handle the situation and it ruined their relationship for good.

However, as much as I would love to go on and on about Fierceteeth and Farsight and the tragedy of it all and how it's nobody's fault and it's everybody's fault and it's Morrowseer's fault in a way but he's a jackass and it doesn't count because everything is his fault BUT that's another infodump for another day, I want to post this within this century, and the main point of this is Farsight and Mastermind.

So, Mastermind.

OH GOD MASTERMIND I NEVER KNOW WHERE TO START--

I do think Mastermind would care about Starflight, and earnestly, too! (He strikes me as a very earnest character, just a weird, morally dubious one.) He's just not very emotionally literate and has a hard time caring.

Where Farsight so instantly and completely loves, Mastermind is a lot more reserved. He's slower to care about things, slower to get attached, more easily put off-- he's not friendly.

So he doesn't care horiffically much about the egg at first, not any more than an extension of Farsight and his relationship with her. Sure, he hopes it goes well, if only so Farsight-whom he already has grown to love-is happy and well.

However, seeing it taken, seeing it somewhere where he is unable to see it, and seeing Farsight so utterly distraught, it gets him to start caring. He wants her to not be so consumed by grief. He begins to miss that egg too, and in this shared understanding, he wants nothing more than to comfort her.

One problem: he's bad at that!

Again, he's not emotionally literate, he's not the most empathetic, and he only has some vague idea of how to comfort someone. It only works some pittance of the time because Farsight, always caring, bleeding heart, actually got to know him Farsight, can tell he's trying to comfort her and appreciates it.

Their only relief from the situation is the fact that the other understands. It's a weird place to be, and it's hard to get empathy for: their dragonet has been taken from them before it hatched, presumably to a place where it will be happy and alive, but it was still TAKEN, and there wasn't much say for them to have in it. Considering the conditions on the island, they might die before their child can come back home, and even then they'll have missed its entire childhood. Any sense of grief or loss could very easily be tainted by guilt, because their dragonet was alive-- so many others weren't.

Regardless, they are stuck together, even with feelings and lives and pursuits that are all falling apart and collapsing and becoming so dysfunctional, because the other is the only one that really understands. It's probably not the greatest thing, but there's not really anywhere else to go. The only way out of it, really, is for someone to die.

And then Farsight goes ahead and does die! Effectively, it's the end of the relationship, and it has some very interesting implications on Mastermind's behaviour's afterwards.

I've seen the idea shared before (i think i was spectating the fandom wiki forums, of all places) that Farsight was Mastermind's moral compass or something like that, able to stop him before he went to before. I don't quite hold that so literally, but it's totally understandable that, with that one stable pillar in his life gone, Mastermind would be a good deal less well adjusted.

I'd imagine Farsight's death would give him a bit of a mortality crisis of sorts, realizing that she died on the dying island, too weak from stress and starvation to hold up a fight, before ever getting to meet the child she cared so much about. And suddenly, despite the growing despair and workload and apathy, Mastermind cares very much about his work, maybe too much, because he doesn't want to die there like she did.

I've always imagined Morrowseer as Mastermind's supervisor--well, he's in charge of a lot of people, but not quite so directly--and using that kind of rhetoric, of not wanting him or his tribe to die on the island, to try and push Mastermind into duties he was reluctant to do. After that, it really begins to work.

And, when they need an experiment that may very well secure their future, but is messy and unsafe and underfunded and needs more than one researcher and just in a way he hasn't been raised and taught to be able to place gross, he's willing to agree. He just wants to live long enough to see a way out of there, and if he can help make one, that increases the odds for him, and reduces the number of dragons that have to die like her.

And, hey, he gets his wish.

In my opinion, Farsight's shadow looms heavy over the RainWing experiments. She weighs so heavily, suffocatingly heavy, over nearly every damn interaction Starflight has with his surviving family.

The scene where he first meets Starflight hurts. He's just so happy, and proud, and just has this sudden turn in mood... to me, from my brainrotted headcannon haze, it feels like the first reason he's had to light up so much and so genuinely in AGES. (I've seen the opinon where he's just happy to have someone to sit around and make him feel better about himself, but I've never really read him as sinister in that way, just emotionally stilted in one way or another.) It's the closest he's gotten to seeing Farsight in ages. The only moment of apathy we get from him around Starflight is when he gets to the desperate, dead-end, most uncomfortable part of his WORK--

The exact thing that turns Starflight away from him. He doesn't even really notice.

Because integrity and good moral standing died like everything else in this place. Where all the dragonets were slowly killed in one sense with the "nightwing superiority" rhetoric they were taught for generations, and far more literally as the environment crumbled around them. Where Mastermind and Farsight's relationship died slowly, too. It was a place where everything not already rotten was going, going, gone.

Or something like that. The best part about their relationship is the room for interpretation, I guess.

So yeah! Mastermind x Farsight! And to think this all happened so quickly, too... They never really had a chance, but they really did end up loving eachother.

I am SO SO SO SORRY this took so long, I've just been stuck in an exhausted dysfunctional funk for months. I can't tell when this ask was even sent anymore--October I think?-- and i am very sorry. I'm getting back into the groove, though, and more than happy to exhange ideas about Farsight and related subject matter in the future.Obsessing over fictional characters that appear twice is something I'm always willing to indulge in. I promise it won't take as long lolll

Anyways, my fellow Farsight enjoyer, it has been very fulfilling to get this all out in text, and I'm very curious to see what you think! I am not proofreading this so if something makes absolutely no sense, sorry about that too.

So yeah! Thanks for the ask, I appreciate it loads :]

[captainnait]

Go ahead, infodump about Bob from Headrush. No one is stopping you

3:11 pm, 5/20/2024

You will not believe how big of a smile I got when I first saw this ask 😭😭 Like I'm genuinely so happy to talk about him, thank you,,,

Anyway, you don't need to ask me twice 💥

(Yeah, a lot of rambling under the cut, hehe)

— One of my favorite canon facts about Bob is that he REALLY hates emoticons. He mentions it two times: one time in a question, where he refuses to read out loud the category name, that is just an emoticon, and instead just calls it "that. . . thing" or smth, and the other time is in the "Don't be afraid to express your emoticons" Headrush category, where he just straight up tells players to be cautious of people who use emoticons 😭

Either he had a terrible experience with someone who used emoticons. . . Or his old man brain just doesn't understand them. Or both idk.

— I don't know if it's just an Andy Poland thing or not (it's probably is, but still—), but I just really like the way he can change up his voices so quickly. My man can literally go from "uwu im so silly" type of voice to LITERALLY the most brutal and manliest voice imaginable in just a span of a few seconds, and I think that's INCREDIBLE.

If we talk about Bob specifically though, I really like how silly his voice sounds at the end of the round, when he says "bye-bye" or other similar to that lines. It just makes me giggle, okay,,

— I don't remember the full context behind this image and the question it is from, but. Yeah. Huh.

[For some reason Tumblr just doesn't let me put this image in, but it just a screenshot of the game with red words written on the screen, saying "Bob has a "thing" for Barney"]

It's also pretty funny, since a few rounds later I got another Barney question ("Even Purple Dinosaurs Have to Die... Someday"), and Bob didn't sound really amused by it lol

— There are a lot of lines in the game, where Bob jokes/admits that he feels pretty lonely and/or isolated, which is very interesting, considering that he doesn't seem as a very introverted person or someone who doesn't go outside much.

I don't have any specific speculations on why he is like that, but I think (headcanon, I guess) that it's something that he grow up feeling like and, perhaps, still haven't grown out of it.

— In "None of the Smoke & All of the Cancer", Bob says that he finds smoking to be "sexy". It isn't very clear whether if he meant it as a joke or not, so. Eh.

— A lot of people said it way before me, but. . . This man has major dog vibes. Like, I can't pin down specific things that make me think like that. It's— It's just the overall vibe I get from him lol

— I'm pretty sure I've seen someone already make a post about it (I'm not sure though), buuuut it's pretty fascinating to me how little sexual interest Bob shows in women (compare to other hosts in the series, at least) and how little he cares for "mushy" stuff in general, valuing friendship/platonic bonds a lot more.

This probably could stem from what type of game Headrush is, since it's aimed for a younger audience - teens, who probably don't really care about love in that young age. But yeah, just an interesting thing to thinking about while in a shower.

— His relationship with Old Man is pretty weird, because he both shows extreme violence and, yet, somehow, some type of respect towards him? Like, there are moments were he shouts, yells and doesn't mind kicking Old Man for his annoying shenanigans, maybe even having a way easier time with it than other hosts. But then there are a few rare moments, where he actually doesn't mind Old Man at all and would even listen to his stories with a genuine interest.

Of course it's not something completely new to the series, but it is also makes me fairly curious, since I feel like this is the game where we get to see a lot of Old Man's personality and how he influences those around him (in the case of this game (99% of it) - Bob lol)

. . . That's it, ig. For now, i feel satisfied)

I also would really like ranting about Milan and his weirdly homoerotic relationship with Bob, buuut I need to get all the TTwM clips first, so. Yeah. That'll have to wait 💥

[hikennosabo]

#tristampparty day 8, episode 8: our home

okay i was very busy (read: distracted) today so i'm posting this late but LET'S GOOOO

let's start out with some psychic damage targeting me personally 👍 my heart hurts so much already

thinking about how both young vash and nai relate to food... they have opposite needs, but it must be an isolating experience for both of them. nai is different from vash and rem, vash is different from nai and other plants... they're both in between humans and plants without really belonging to either.

nai specifically, though... he doesn't seem happy that rem made him food, but it might be equally isolating if he was the only one who didn't get served food... so it's awkward either way. rem did the best she could.

what if i died right now

the geranium on the table... is it... i wonder... if rem put it there for tesla...

LOOK AT HIM HES SO HAPPY AND HE LOVES HIS MOM SO MUCH :((((((((

i don't know what it is but something about the footprints is getting to me, man. the way that nai's go on ahead of vash...

is it the composition maybe. nai's footprints leading down to the bottom of the frame... down... fallen angel... etc etc am i just making things up- no i'm right. i'm right.

brad is the one who noticed vash... even though he acted pretty hostile to him for a while after... he's the one who saved him... i wonder if that's some of the reason for his hostility? like if vash did turn out to be dangerous brad would have been the one responsible... idk

also brad is voiced by junichi suwabe my beloved

this has gotta be an orange original, right? we never learn how plants are made in the manga...

"sinners"... i've heard that word before... wait a sec...

here!! the EoM broadcast right at the start of episode 5!! what does it mean...

why would scientists call themselves Sinners, as like a formal(?) group name(??) is it because they know they're playing god by studying plants? i wonder about the radio program, too. here it could simply be referring to humanity as a whole, but then why the capital S? conrad is the one who ties this all together... the "team leader," huh...

"plant research," huh...

(insert "she should've been at the club" joke here)

much to think about. lying about nai being dead yes but. not the only thing he's keeping from them. "just one" more independent?

brad is so mean sometimes, lol... tbh i think they really nailed his personality. his role in the story and his relationship with vash are both very different than in the manga but he's still recognizably brad, and i think that's cool. it shows orange really understands the core of his character.

it's probably natural that this is the first question she asks, but it's also kind of mean... not on purpose ofc, but it probably hurts a lot for him to be asked that, especially now...

also vash isn't eating again. his unhealthy relationship with food... not eating as a form of self-harm... when we got reminded just at the beginning of this episode that it's something he needs to do. i remember reading a meta post a while back about his relationship with food but idk if i have it in me to try and find it right now...

once again glad i can watch this in hd so i can notice that vash covers his ears when luida says this hahahahahaha (<- in pain)

we see the one on the left the most so we need to look at the other family photos for a second. they're so cute what the heck... rem's big smile in the bottom right one... and i see both vash and nai are right-handed... *jots that down*

wasn't there a theory post about vash's number tally on the walls. i don't remember what it said.

she asked "who did this" so she knew it wasn't something like a computer error. Did She Know.

ohhh sister i'm so sorry but no they will not be

this is such a blink-and-you-miss-it, but brad shielding vash from this guy is really sweet. because as we've seen the other residents of the ship haven't exactly been nice to vash. brad's been mean too but he's just... a tsundere, really.

sorry this post lacks substance, there is probably a lot more to say but my brain just isn't working at full capacity and i need to go to bed

mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah. up until now the only clear, non-obstructed shots of nai's face were from when he was a little kid. he's still young here, and the shot itself is pretty dark, but here he is... the boy...

next episode is going to kill me dead! goodnight

[dballzposting]

okay so you said you haven't finished GT? but i have to know if you've seen the GT OVA. bc it takes place like 100 years later, and Pan is there. and unless Gohan had another kid, we KNOW she was in a relationship and had a kid. This is a fact.

there are NO photos of this person, or of her kid, or of her grandkid. None in the house. she does not bring them up at ALL.

which honestly is just very in character for her to me? She is one who focuses on what she has. on her future. like she'll acknowledge the past (which she does in the special) but she doesn't live in it.

im sorry you've literally never talked about Pan before on this blog but I've been thinking about it recently. in her introduction in GT, she wants a boyfriend, but it seems more like a status symbol for her than a romantic desire. But she occasionally talks about people who are together in a way that implies it's Very Important to her, which combined leads me to think she cares about it in the context of 'people who are romantic should care for each other' i.e. it's less about the romantic aspect than it is about the bond. because she comes from a HEAVILY family-oriented family.

idk where im going with this my brain turned off. but pan never talks about her husband or wife. and it made me think too hard. do you think it was too painful and she hid it all away? she outlived everyone. even her grandkid. do you think she gave so much of her heart that she had to hide it to cope?

Hi i dont know what OVA stands for. ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE MOIVE? A Hero's Legacy? Yeah I've never seen it.

Why is she so old?

The creators probably just didn't want to go too far out on any limbs and start designing her a spouse or a child so maybe thats why ... But I like your version better

I actually have totally posted about Pan before. Last spring I was thinking about her quite a bit actually .. The only major thouhgt that ever came to fruition as I recall was an exceedingly long post about her that even I have not reread since. I will fetch it

Found it

She's so real for prioritizing that bond ... I always felt like she wanted a BF at the beginning of GT becasue A.) she is a maturing girl .. allow her to follow her nature ..... And B.) Becasue she's trying to seem more grown (another thing that kids her age tend to do and it makes sense that we see her do it a lot becasue her parents seem very strict in GT, she is just DESPERATE for her freedom and the power to be responsible for herself!) But yeah she's a kid venturing out into the world, her wanting a BF at that young age does not contradict at all with the idea that she may end up someone without romance but with a priority for interpersonal bonds.

HER GRANDKID DIED IN THAT MOVIE ? I don't believe you. Also that's too sad to think that she is all emotionally-armored and is holding unto the pain. I want to believe that she has the grace to let it go...

This is so fucked up.

Here's a screenshot of Pan she's so quirky <3

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Hawaiian Symbolism, Morgan, TWD Food Videos, and Emily Being in Savannah

More symbolism and SM convos:

@galadrieljones:

Norman did post something the other day, two young actors who are clearly involved in the spin-off, as they were dressed in like ragged apocalypse clothes. One of them was playing and singing Wonderwall by Oasis on a ukulele and looked a little like that actor.

@wdway:

Ummm, Daryl saw a ukulele in the subway tunnel in Acheron Part 2.

@galadrieljones:

Okay just so much TWD stuff on insta today. They’ve been making these cute little promotional videos by AMC that have humorous themes. Todays was “famous food from the walking dead.” Lots of funny things like Dwight’s club sandwich, Carol’s cookies, Jerry’s cobbler, Negan’s spaghetti, etc. Also featured are Daryl’s snake jerky, with Beth yet again featured saying the line (“Enjoy you snake jerky…”) and also featured was White Trash Brunch from Alone. So much Beth love.

She is the only character to be shown in two different famous food scenes !

True!! The Hawaii reference. Dales RV is like full of Hawaii references, too. Hmm.

Also the Hawaiian dancer on the dash of Isobel’s helicopter? Am I remembering that right?

Or no, the van, the MRAP, has a Hawaiian dancer on the dash.

@wdway:

The hula dancer and also with a ukulele there was a sign saying aloha.

@galadrieljones:

Something important here for sure. Definitely a link to the CRM.

@wdway:

Tarah, what things in Dale's RV that were Hawaiian references?

@galadrieljones:

Trying to find my screenshots!

What Lies Ahead

@wdway

Am I correct in what you said about the food that there were two favorite food clips from Daryl both included Beth?

@galadrieljones:

Yes you are! Snake jerky and white trash brunch.

Here’s a link to the reel! Idk if you can watch without an acct but you can try https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoIom-RPdbp/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

@wdway:

I never noticed. I love that they're all Beth colors.

Thanks for the link I was able to watch. That's so cool. It's as if they want us to associate Daryl with Beth.

@galadrieljones:

Right I was trying to think of other Daryl foods. The peanut butter in Dwight’s room at the sanctuary came to mind. Ofc that’s a callback to white trash brunch.

@wdway:

Definitely or a reminder again of Beth since she's the one in Alone that took the peanut butter.

@galadrieljones:

It’s so devastating. Hearts Still Beating is such a major moment of descent for Daryl. How they corrupt the peanut butter, a Beth symbol, to show how he doesn’t enjoy it. He’s just like shoving it in his mouth for survival. He then kills that guy in cold blood. Peanut butter is also a Morgan thing. Why is he so connected to Beth??

@wdway:

Morgan is definitely connected to Beth. I've always thought he found her when she was left in the car after Grady. But that's a very long ramble that's been rambled many times, haha.

@galadrieljones:

That would definitely be cool. I also feel it means he could see her first, recognize her. Morgan is often seen around arrows and traffic signs. I know I’m a broken record but I see him as a navigator. Like someone to follow closely. He knows the way. I read some of the old theories about how he had gurneys at his hideout.

That maybe he knew about Grady or had heard something about it. Like maybe he and Dwayne were trying to get there. Maybe he was near Atlanta when he found her. Afterward he ended up at Terminus, followed the carvings to the church. I can’t remember if there’s any indication as to where Eastman lives. The woods between Macon and Atlanta seem endless.

It’s always been interesting to me that he encounters Daryl first when he gets to Virginia.

Oh and per Morgan’s arrows, twice they are specifically yellow. There are arrows with yellow fletching in Clear and a big yellow arrow in Eastman’s house. He’s also seen in front of yellow traffic arrows in Good Out Here, the episode of Fear where Nick Clark dies. It’s maybe a yellow brick road reference. But I think it also is meant to conjure out memories of Beth, who wore yellow. Daryl is also seen with the arrows with yellow fletching. They’re at his house in Alexandria near his work bench.

Sorry I said twice above but it’s really three times lol.

@wdway:

It's funny that you see Morgan as a Navigator. I have always thought of him as a prophet which is very similar if you think about it. I just have always felt that there's too many hints around Morgan that relate to Beth that there has to be some type of connection.

I was just thinking the other night with the announcement that this is the last season of Fear and how this is also the first season that they filmed in Savannah, Georgia and how we saw that posting of Beth excuse me Emily taken in Savannah. She said she was in Savannah at a wedding. In the picture she was wearing the same top that she wore on TTD the first time of the two times that she was a guest for s11. We know how she loves to tell us exactly where she is. Unless she doesn't want us to know where she is. I guess all these little things laid up to I really am looking forward to Fear and what it might reveal.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Same! It would be SOO cool if she showed up in Fear. EVERYone would then tune into the Daryl spin-off bc we would know she was alive but also would know that Daryl doesn’t. That would be awesome!

@galadrieljones:

I also love Morgan as a prophet. With all his breaking the fourth wall instances, he’s like a prophet to tptb. Through a Biblical lens I see him as the prophet Jonah, the original Christ archetype who tried to avoid his responsibilities and ended up being caught in a storm and swallowed by a whale.

Also I agree with you both about Fear. I almost feel it would be too good to be true if she showed up there.

But like I can’t forget how she was in Savannah. And she was wearing that sweater. I remember too it was weird because she posted herself in Savannah, then like a week later she posted herself in a cute dress for her hallmark movie promo tour.

She mentioned specifically she got the dress in Savannah where she had been for a wedding. It just felt weird like that maybe someone had said something, like be careful ppl will pick up on the fact you were in Savannah. And so she felt the need to say why she was there. She never said why she was in Montreal for example. She posts herself in a lot of locations with no explanation. So why Savannah?

@wdway:

I have had the exact same thoughts about Emily mentioning Savannah. It just seem so purposeful of a explanation of why she was where she was when normally she might state where she is without an explanation as you mentioned about her being in Montreal. It almost felt like it was over thought about. How people might realize that she was in Savannah at the same time as Fear was filming and think it was a bit of a coincidence.

It's like someone loudly saying "don't look, don't look" which only makes you look more closely. The other coincidence was in the picture she is wearing the TTD sweater. I don't remember anyone mentioning that she had worn it in many pictures from other locations. Just a lot of litte odd things that makes a person wonder.

Speaking of wondering has there been any more mention of Montreal and what she was working on?

@galadrieljones:

Agreed!! Also per Montreal, there’s been no mention specifically. However she has a new hallmark movie coming out, and I am wondering if that was it.

[daylander1000]

I don’t want to say that I disagree with the last anon (I don’t, i want that fluff too 😭) but I think what’s happening is very much in line with what we’ve seen of their relationship before in your fic. As kids, they kind of always verbally kept each other at arms’ length and even at such young ages (which wow. absolutely wild how the world had hurt them so young that walls started coming up at 8 and 9 years old) It’s understandable that at 16-18 they wouldn’t be the most talkative in that regards. I think Aemond’s POV (which their first meeting mostly was in) shows just how deeply insecure he really is, and how he truly held onto Rhaena as the only thing he could’ve ever really relied on to make him feel okay, while Rhaena, while I won’t say she’s completely moved on or anything, has understood and accepted change. To me, they seem like that whole “If I loved you less, i might be able to talk about it more.” or saving all the reverent stares and lovesick smiles for when the other looks away IDK sorry for rambling i just have so many thots

Lolol, no need to apologize. We all want the fluff. Sometimes I'm sitting writing and reminding myself "Hey, come on, keep this fun."

For me, it's not that she's moved on from their friendship but she's moved on from the idea of looking to Aemond (and his mum) to "rescue" her because she's at a point where she fully appreciates the danger and risk of being on the wrong side of her father.

While Aemond was studying the sword, she was getting a 7(?)-year post grad certificate in Daemyra Behavioral Psychology. She's seen firsthand how her mother, Harwin and Laenor's entire lives are disregarded and she doesn't want to be added to the jetsam/flotsam.

Aemond's still someone with a mother, a Criston, a grandfather, a granny dragon, older siblings in line to be the next king and queen... He was hurt and he's aware that he's on the expendable end of the Targ spectrum, but he's still protected in an enmeshed, 'circle the wagons' sort of way.

Rhaena's living the opposite of that enmeshed family dynamic. Estranged sister, dead mother, father was bad to begin with, worse now that he has his dream family, her grandfather is a Luke Stan, so she's in "Sinnerman, where you gonna run to?" mode.

Running to Aemond's wagon circle isn't a great idea cause that's not safe at all. Asking him to leave his wagon circle to ride out for her is 1,000% riskier. Hell, she's not even sure how circling the wagons are supposed to work because she's never had it done for her. She's seeing them do it around Luke tho, positioning hers and Baela's wagons to take the hits, so she's kind of like "fuck wagons in general. I'm going independent."

But of course to Aemond, that's like "Did she just totally reject the safest, most well organized wagon circle in all of Westeros? Is it because of that one single time I weak-linked it? Wtf do I do with this second wagon with your name on it? Sell it, like some kind of wagon-salesman to a pilgrim doing last minute wagon shopping???"

(he's left it a little late in the war game to start making allies and planning a power marriage with another family)

I mean, in the past and at this point, it's more of a proposal for her safety rather than a sign of any undying love, lol. And she's saying, "I'd rather take my chances with a non-prince who doesn't have a dragon who I've never even met before than you" so there's no way not to take that personally when he's out there training with Criston to work past his disability and make something of himself every way he knows how. That's worse than "I don't want to marry you." That's "you're incompetent/you're gonna get me killed/I don't trust you with my life or anything at all."

I actually had a happy reunion chapter written and drafted on AO3 just ready to be published. Real Swan Princess like, but I rewrote the entire thing to add some friction because they were hardly on the same page as children so it made sense for the gap to widen a bit.

Wasted time, but yeah.

I felt this version was a touch on the cruel side but I truly didn't mean it to be. Just wanted to emphasize that she's lost some of that easy friendliness and ability to communicate with people properly after getting out of her Shawshank sentence.

[eleasis20]

yeah Bhaal knew he was gonna die and had the spawn to fuel his resurrection (his actual resurrection happened for different reasons but never mind). There was a post here on tumblr about how Charname's age is fuxed especially if they're not human. And also both Siege of Dragonspear and Throne of Bhaal muddy the details about the temple where you were born and about your mother's exact situation, respesctively. I was *trying* to find the original post about it in the various BG tags but now I can't freaking find it! (going through the tags is how I browse tumblr anyway) All I can find now is someone who played the first two and them trying to figure out Charname's age resulted in that conspiracy whiteboard meme. Maybe the post was removed.

I think 20 is a pretty ok age for any race tbh? like, sorry if this is me being new and ignorant, but using this guide i found on reddit

every possible race is an adult as of their 20th birthday. the only issue that can be made from this is the Elves, but even they get a pass because they're adults at 20 too, their society just doesn't like to treat them that way until they're 100. But if an Elf is raised outside of that society, that expectation falls away. The best example of that is Astarion from 3, who was allowed to be a Magistrate in Baldur's Gate at 39 because Baldur's Gate is not an Elven society.

Your Charname is supposed to be a very young adult, kind of sheltered and out of their depth, but still an adult - Jaheira says as much - so even if you're an elf that description should still fit.

but I can understand there being issues around Charname's birth situation since it's not v clear (I'm at like the last chapter of 1 now & have fully read Gorion's letter). How and why Gorion and the Harpers knew what was happening, as well as how your mom died, and how long you'd been living there all seem very vague. Sarevok's timeline with his mom is worse I think.

How so many Bhaalspawn evaded being murdered is the biggest mystery to me since it's phrased like you were about to be killed by your own mom as a newborn, yet almost every other Bhaalspawn seems to have escaped this ritual murder as well.

That & the dream you have about arriving in Candlekeep. I thought you were a baby when you moved there but if you were old enough to be left outside while Gorion was inside negotiating a place to stay then I guess you were at least like 5? probably more like 8? So you were raised while Gorion travelled around. After all that dialogue about how Gorion wanted to make your childhood as normal as possible, he apparently didn't settle with you until you were old enough to have a semblance of independance.

+ Imoen also didn't turn up until you were like 10 bc her bio says she arrived 10 years after you (and i doubt it was talking about age, as she'd be 10 during the 1st game and 11 during the 2nd if that was true).

idk there's a lot about your childhood that's muddied but i think the age itself is ok for what they were trying to do?

I guess if they wanted to be a little more realistic they could've dated it so that you were born in 1358 instead so that Bhaal conceived all his kids while he was mortal and in impending danger from being mortal (aka a more realistic reasoning for him to predict his death than apparent random clairvoyance). But then that would limit all of the Bhaalspawn to 1 age & also limit how many there were bc Bhaal may be a man but he'd have to be a busy man to concieve that many kids with that many women of that many different races & locations.

Honestly The Dark Urge is worse off as they were supposedly "born" of Bhaal's flesh some time around 1462, but Bhaal isn't resurrected until 1482 so, uh, how'd that get there?

but i feel your pain on losing that tumblr post. I've done that so many times lmaooo

edit: seen ur second ask, answer incoming!

[starlit-mansion]

okokok. i am not entirely sure i have ever seen you talk about this and how dividing the books all are is fascinating to me so... what's the opinion on the novel trilogy, or even frights/tales if you're willing to touch that w/ a ten foot pole --scrappedbaby

I feel like this is a pretty controversial take but I think the Silver Eyes itself is… fine. Okay, I tried to actually read it once and I couldn't get more than a couple pages in, because it read like when someone posts their homework assignment that was secretly fanfiction on fanfiction dot net. I have a little bit of a soft spot for the graphic novel, actually, due to it being bad in an interesting way rather than blandly decent like the other 2, which I've only flipped through. (Also the shitty saturated coloring fucked over the inks. Setting aside any opinions of the artist as a person, i think her style has character and added something to the series that is still present in other parts I like much better, like the glamrock concepts. And the muted test pages that someone scrounged up from a trade show copy or whatever would have probably done wonders for the atmosphere.)

As for the story of TSE itself… Idk, I think it's kind of funny that it's Stephen King's IT for fourth graders. Also, because it's aimed at that demographic, they had to conjure a young protagonist from somewhere, and I think the concept is pretty solid, and Charlie's a good character, and I'm also fond of what a little freak Dave-era William is. That's really my favorite concept of the villain motivation in the series, actually: creating this twisted little dollhouse to go sit in and pretend to be a robot. The immortality/mad science/lich/trancendance from the flesh thing is… it's fine. I made my peace with it. But it's a little too Herbert West for my tastes. (Also like… this is why I like Glitchtrap. He's kind of doing the same thing, making is little diorama and reliving his glory days.) All in all, for what it is, a solid 7/10, imo.

As for the rest of the trilogy……. ah, it's not for me. Like I said, I've flipped through the graphic novels a bit, and own them secondhand as curiosity pieces/weird little relics, but it seems like it gets up its own ass to cater to people who like lore (a separate but related demographic as people who like the horror part of the games, in my 100% honest opinion). I hear about the illusion disks and I am austin walker's iconic "do you ever see a take so bad you immediately have to go to sleep?' tweet.

As for Fazbear Frights: I'm not gonna lie, i think it's pretty good. I feel so fondly about the ghostwritten chapterbooks of my youth (I was a Babysitter's Club and Animorphs girlie, and weirdly… not an inaccurate cross-section for Fazbear's Frights), and I think it's perfectly fine to play around in the universe and create a bunch of AUs and related concepts. Is there criticism to be had of the stories themselves? SURE. They're very weak on diversity, QUITE fatphobic at times, and some of them are unnecessarily ghoulish, though there's only so much disgust I can muster for undeserved child death in the child death series… NONE of them deserve it, even the ones that are mean to their siblings or too vain or whatever, and the fact that it's equally likely for any given story to end in brutal death or "wow I really learned my lesson!" is actually pretty fun. Reminds me of Goosebumps a bit (though I was never a huge fan. Too easily creeped. That was my brother's preferred ghostwritten series though, so I sampled here and there. I also somehow had my hands on a novelization of one of the Tales from the Crypt movies too, and that made a big impression).

I don't love that FF takes every fan theory and milks it, and I'm sure the process for actual production has some ethical problems based on everything I know about the industry. But I do firmly believe that a little body horror is good for the youths, and just making it a multiverse rather than sticking to any one canonical thread lets you have your animatronic rabbit and wear it too, as it were. I also kind of like the lower middle class vibe that the series has… There's very frequently a sense of economic desperation and cheap escapism that resonates so well with the games, and reminds me of how going to Chuck E Cheese truly was the marquee birthday activity of my youth (though I liked the arcade more than the animatronics as a wee millenial).

Part of my fondness for FF is just that I had 2 months during late quarantine where I would buy a copy of the next one I hadn't read while I was doing my weekly grocery/target run and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE OUTSIDE OF MY HOME, and I would read these very unchallenging short stories and be like "I liked that one! …I did NOT care for that one" and it was a little pumpkin full of meat to chew on in my cage. I stopped it pretty abruptly when the proof of Scott's Republican political donations came out (I mostly do not buy any new fnaf items now, though I have ended up doing it here and there, and I mostly class it on the scale of like, buying Overwatch microtransactions even though activision blizzard is a shitty abusive company or smth. Not a moral good, but not on a "funding a person actively involved in politically crushing trans people" level of problematic).

As for the stories themselves, I liked Into The Pit (it really reads like a reused movie script, but in a good way), Count The Ways (a friend of mine, iirc, did NOT like the two non-title stories in vol 1, but I have a soft spot for Funtime Freddy's villain era in that one, and Millie's safe and self-inflicted teenage self pity reads as an affectionate self-callout to me), Out of Stock (this one's just so CLASSIC kiddie horror and also a really good use of an otherwise forgettable part of canon), Room for One More (another good use of forgettable parts of canon, i think the series really shines when it clicks into stuff like that), Coming Home (the jewel of the series, and gets me in the Sixth Sense nostalgia too), Bunny Call (mostly forgettable obvious moral lesson story with a surprising twist of poignency in the middle and an iconic antagonist), The Man in Room 1280 (I wish this was better utilized in the game series, it feels like Security Breach juked around this concept for a much worse and dumber version, and also Andrew is my special little bastard child), and The Real Jake (a sweet, if maybe a bit maudlin, exporation of the deeper concepts in the lore that is solidly a cut above the average FF story, and i like the stitchwraith parts of the books too).

There's none that I have a huge hate-on for, though I thought 1:35 am in particular was VERY bad (I skimmed the last half). While it's notorious, to me, In The Flesh is just dorky, particularly fatphobic and I don't know how everyone is getting MatPat from it. Mat's persona is kind of smug, but not cruel and hateful towards women or a shitty friend (if anything, his peers speak SO warmly of him that makes me give him more credit than he deserves as a cc), and you'd think a real hit piece on him would involve... a theory. A G A M E theory. Okay, I did it the legally required time.

I stopped at Book #6 and i'm not sure if i'll ever go back. I just got a library card so maybe I'll get around to it the next time i'm sucked into the franchise, but for the most part, I'm dormant except for things I really adore about the series (Springtrap, the Funtimes, Afton Family Drama in general, nostalgia for the first few games, etc), so I can't muster up too many more opinions on middle reader books as a 34-year-old. Tales has no appeal to me even as a future "maybe if the fixation hits hard" option, because a bunch of satellite stories around a setting that couldn't muster a third act in the tentpole game is just. Sad.

[bitchfitch]

Tbh on the watsonian level I kinda think it might be more than just a politcing thing. Im chewing on it while i wind down for the night and to me at least the three of them as a throuple feels a lot better than just sidlink now. Like I love me some angst, but this version of Link has never felt to me like someone who would stay put very long or like someone who could come back quickly when he does eventually need to just Go. and Sidon sorta deserves better than that even if that wildness is something he admires and loves in Link.

Sidon and Yona Vibe well and the whole childhood friends getting to be in love and eventually marry as adults after actual decades of growing up in this long distance friendship feels Good, can you Imagine the pining? I need to spend more time with Yona to continue getting a feel for her personality and Whole deal and like what she'd get out of an arrangement like this. But from what I've seen of her so far, she really doesn't seem like someone who would be ultra fussed about her guy having a little something on the side with his 'closest companion'.

I do have some anxieties that are far more doyalist in nature but those are like. Idk. It makes sense for a prince character to end up engaged in a sequel, but I've seen so many showrunners and creative teams behind projects i enjoy give previously single characters opposite sex partners purely bc the character in question was too popular amongst the queer community or were too commonly shipped in same sex pairings to not be like a Little sus about this.

I guess my tldr is that i feel Yona really balances things out and makes something good better. but her existence within this work feels a Little icky especially when the developers spent so much time in the last game establishing just how single Sidon was. Like i love him, but Sidon was very obviously written to appeal to women in that kinda misogynistic corporate way where the thinking is that Obviously the only reason a Girl or young woman would care about a video game is if there's a man she can crush on and, for lack of a better term, ship herself with in it.

Its probably even why he was written to be so affectionate towards Link, the vessel these suits were expecting the women to wholly project onto. Its a form of fanservice people don't tend to recognize As fanservice because it's so disconnected from the reality of how people are going to interact with this world. Maybe if Link was just a blank slate character you could customize at the start of the game it wouldve been more obvious and actually worked. but he's not. he's Link. the characters in this story interact with him and not his puppeteer. Sidon being ultra smiley with Link even when he's not smiling outside of their conversation animations, extremely friendly towards him, and telling the player how much he wants Link to visit him more often doesn't read as crush material for 15 to 25 year old women. it reads as deeply homosexual.

Those kinds of characters basically never get cannon love interests because it defeats the point and destroys the 'illusion' that would let the ~silly girls~ who only care about boys and Romance in a story self ship with them.

So in that context with the knowledge of how Insanely popular Sidon is with gay men, and fanfic writers... Yona's existence within the narrative Feels Weird and kind Rough and Bad even if i like her as a character and think she works well even in the context of the broader fanon surrounding Sidon and Link.

this post got away from me. you can tell from the tldr where i meant it to end. but Yeah. Watsonian good, Doyalist is suspect.

MOTHER FUCKER SPOTTED T POSING. GAY SHIT IM GOING TO HAVE TO BANISH THE CHILD FOR TO ENSUE.