#ON THE EPISODE TITLE CARD NO LESS

[syncogon]

rewatching ep 1 after LCLA finale. I BET THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE SOOOO FUNNY

[gentsma]

An Incomplete List of 2024 Additions to the Merriam-Webster

bingo card noun … 2 slang : a list of possible, expected, or likely scenarios — usually used in the phrase on one's bingo card

bussin’ adjective, African American English slang : extremely good : excellent; especially : delicious, tasty

chef’s kiss noun : a gesture of satisfaction or approval made by kissing the fingertips of one hand and then spreading the fingers with an outward motion — often used interjectionally

cold open noun : a scene of a film or television episode that precedes the title sequence or opening credits and that typically takes place in medias res

cromulent adjective, informal + humorous : acceptable, satisfactory

doggo noun, slang : dog

doomscroll verb : to spend excessive time online scrolling (see scroll entry 2) through news or other content that makes one feel sad, anxious, angry, etc.

edgelord noun, slang : someone who makes wildly dark and exaggerated statements (as on an internet forum) with the intent of shocking others

jorts plural noun : shorts made of denim or jean : jean shorts

nerf verb 1 informal : to reduce the effectiveness of (something, such as a character, attribute, or weapon) in a video game; broadly : to make (something) less useful or effective 2 informal : to lightly bump (another car) in an automobile race

padawan noun, informal : a young person especially when regarded as naïve, inexperienced, etc.

rage quit verb : to suddenly stop participating or engaging in (something) in a fit of anger and frustration : to quit (something) in anger

rizz noun, slang : romantic appeal or charm

simp verb, informal : to show excessive devotion to or longing for someone or something

smashburger noun 1 : a hamburger patty that is pressed thin onto a heated pan or griddle at the start of cooking; also : a patty (as of beans or ground turkey) prepared similarly 2 : a sandwich featuring one or more such patties

[danieyells]

Upcoming card!!

I'm surprised to see this one so soon. I thought surely we'd wait for the reveal but they kept it [mostly?] hidden, which is fair. . .anyway Onsen Romeo!! Unit stats under the cut at the end 👍🏾

His foot seems to end oddly on the character card doesn't it? Maybe it's only his foot, not his leg, that's prosthetic? Or it's covered with something to make it less obvious. . . .

Character Card: Fragrant Plum(「凛と咲く風待草の如く」  "Like An Elegantly Blooming Plum Blossom") Skill: Skincare(「美肌効果」  "Skin Beautifying Effects") Fully Awakened Skill: Detox Retreat(「デトックス旅行」  "A Trip To Detox") Warding Card: Basking In Quietude(「静けさに浸る」  "Soaking In Stillneas")

Cosmic bonds! As always I don't know what units are in which, sorry! But usually some of the recent ones are together in some combination.

Resilient Hearts (「心の強さが最大の武器」 "Strong Hearts Are The Greatest Weapon")

With You Always (「それでも、傍にいるから」 "Nevertheless, By Your Side")

The usual applies!

Gacha is gambling and banners rerun every few months at the latest! Don't spend anything you can't afford to spend, keep an eye on how much you've spent, and seek help if you feel like you're spending out of control! The unit will come back so there's no need to go crazy trying to get it!

Take my Japanese translations with a grain of salt because my Japanese is still bad!

Take care of your skin! Or don't, I'm not a cop, but Romeo will yell at you if you don't.

I also have the next episode's chapter titles, but not the title for the episode after that. . .it's making me paranoid that they put the Mortkranken stuff in to throw me off, or maybe I misunderstood and the Mortkranken stuff is for an apperance this coming episode, not the next one. . .?

Unit stats under the cut like before!

[agatharkn3ss]

Lilia's premonitions theory (contains spoilers)

Well, my brain has been in overdrive and I love puzzles so... "buckle up!"

If it's too long for you - you can jump straight into the last section titled "How does it all fit"... I really think there could be something there.

OTHER THEORIES

There have been many theories about Lilia's powers and her moments of visions. Some think it's just some loose wiring on most part, some think it's past traumatic events catching up with her, some think they are predictions of the future, some even went as far as suggesting that Lilia (loosely) predicts the last words of the next person who's going to die (based on the fact she said "Get off me!" in ep.2 and we hear Sharon shout "Don't touch me!" in ep.3). But we keep seeing more and more of Lilia's blips in ep.4, they make less sense to any of the above theories, so personally I am not sold on any of them.

There is also a possibility that her premonitions could just be linked to the events that follow - but the words aren't accurate because Lilia can't quite see the "full picture". So her screaming in her shop could be linked to Teen's reaction when Salem Seven attacked in that same episode. Or when she says "Alice, don't", we see Agatha pleading "Don't" with Rio.

BUT then I saw people discussing that maybe these are actually "misplaced" moments in time - from the future AND the past. And that they will make sense if they were said in the correct moment, but somehow got lost and sent to a different time. For example - when Lilia talks about the vampire by the campfire "You know, we really kind of hated each other in the beginning, but now..." then zones out. We could assume she's still talking about the vampire, but this pause could actually be easily filled with "I love you guys!" from the "botox" scene in ep.3, because she was actually touched by their campfire stories. Or when she shouts "Get off me" in ep.2, it could be taken right out of the ep.4 scene where she's burning on the floor, shouting "Get it off me!".

WHAT WE KNOW

All those theories got me mighty intrigued, so of course I made a list of all of Lilia's apparent 'blips' and tried to make sense of it! I believe there are two types of Lilia's visions - one where she has "wrong messages" and one where she exclaims names of tarot cards.

The tarot cards she mentioned so far:

Three of Pentacles - right after she wrote the coven names down

High Priestess - when she meets Jen at Agatha's house

Three of Swords - as Jen is trying to heal Teen

The "blips" are:

shouting and flailing her hands - when Agatha and Teen ask her to join the coven in ep.2

writing the coven names (same scene as above) - this is the only premonition where we see burst of power - the electricity flicker around her, the water boils and it all seems really intense.

shouting "Get off me!" and looking like she was pushing someone away - just before the witches begin summoning the Road

"I love you guys" - when Jen questions Sharon about her poison symptoms in ep.3

"Try to save Agatha" - when she and Agatha are searching for potion ingredients

"Which is it, am I wispy or am i kooky?" - when talking to Alice about her mum during the trial in ep.4

"Alice! Alice don't" - shortly after the one above

Zones out - during the campfire scene when she talks about the vampire scar

We also know that her Air trial will be all about tarot (confirmed by Patti herself) and the promos show Lilia in some sort of princess dress and tiara, Agatha as the green Wicked Witch of the West and Jen looking like the Evil Queen from Snow White but in the old hag form. This makes me think in her trial she will have to confront all those stereotypes about witches that she always said she hated so much. She will likely have to do a tarot reading too. There is also a room with ceiling full of swords that could fall down on them. And finally, in that same room there is a brief shot with her and Salem Seven, flowing mid-air.

One promo also shows one of Salem Seven (Vertigo) opening her mouth to release a swarm of cicadas (her spirit animal).

We know the witches slowly regain their powers once they passed their trial.

There is also this thing about Alice (I will need to make a separate post to explain this) - where my prediction is that in ep.5 she will try to protect the coven by attacking Agatha while she's in her "possessed" form. Unfortunately, Agatha will (willingly or not) completely syphon her powers and Alice will die.

HOW DOES IT ALL FIT?

Well. I think we will potentially get some answers during or after Lilia's trial, once she starts regaining her powers. I think Lilia will try to send a message to the witches in the past, but she will still be struggling with getting the times right.

I could almost see a scene where she sits at her crystal ball or does a tarot reading and talks, not realising that EVERYTHING she says is "sent out" without any filter.

Something like...

.........

Lilia is in a room with other witches, it is a high pressure situation because the Salem Seven are chasing them. Her task is to send the names of the witches to her past self so that Agatha can form her coven - they realised that without the list, they would've never gotten there. Maybe their existence or memory depends on it.

So Lilia starts a tarot reading and begins "tuning in" to her memories, saying the names of the revealed cards out loud - "High Priestess" (she says it in a surprise voice as her vision suddenly flickers to the moment of meeting Jen), "Three of Swords" etc. Maybe one of other witches in the room starts antagonising her kookiness, so that she would just hurry up, because this is not working and Salem Seven are close. So Lilia responds in annoyance "Which is it, am I wispy or am I kooky?!" But then she realises she is standing in front of Alice from the fire trial (in spirit anyway, Lilia is still physically in the scary room). She exclaims in relief "Alice!" and realises this is also her chance to warn Alice so that she doesn't die. She begins saying "Alice, don't try to save Agatha!", but mid way through, her spirit gets transported to the first trial, searching for potion ingredients. So Alice only hears "Alice don't..." and Agatha hears "...try to save Agatha". At some point Lilia is transported to sitting in front of the campfire, reminiscing their stories. This is a fond memory so she starts saying "You know, we really kind of hated each other in the beginning, but now.." and before she can finish, she gets transported back to the "Huge tiny lies" house "...I love you guys".

Maybe at some point Salem Seven break their way into the tarot room and one of them attacks Lilia. She screams "Get off me!" and pushes them away (while her spirit is transported to the moment before they opened the Road). Vertigo releases her cicadas, flying around Lilia's head. She flails her hands and screams, while her spirit is inside her shop where Agatha and Teen just approach her. She realises she's close, focuses all her energy and channels her spirit to write the list of names herself. It takes enormous effort to stay focused on that one moment, hence the energy around her is bursting. She either doesn't have enough time to finish writing Rio's name or feels cheeky and draws a black heart instead. She finishes by revealing and naming the last tarot card: "Three of Pentacles". She completes the task, the End!

....

So..... What does everyone think?!!!!!!

[ink-ghoul]

You seem to be the Knower of life series lore so I am sending this question to you.

What is Cleo’s symbol in the victors rhyme?

I’m pretty sure that it’s been more it less decided that Grian is the sun, Scott is the stars, Pearl is the moon, Martyn is mars (or a comet, it varies), and Scar is the earth, but what about Cleo? I’ve seen her called the fool but I have no clue if that’s actually her title or if she even has one.

Thank you, and have a nice day!

Pluto!

That's the most popular symbolism I've seen thrown around, for many reasons.

In Greek mythology Pluto corresponding god is Hades, god of the dead and ruler of the underworld, very fitting for Cleo's zombie persona

Pluto discussion on whether it should be considered a planet or not, matches the discussion if Real Life should be considered "official"

It also represents changes and transformation, Real Life gimmick was very different than everything seen before

People also like "The Fool" for her card symbolism because Real Life was an April fools special episode

As a last note, you can have your own headcanons and you don't need to follow what the majority of people thinks, at the end these are just headcanons we come with to have fun!

[faeruy]

Agatha All Along - Episode 6 "Familiar By Thy Side"

The Tower Reversed - Our first explicit mention of a Reverse reading, this one's triggered as Lilia reads Billy Kaplan's palm during his Bar Mitzvah. As I've said in past tarot posts, I'm an amateur, so I could be misinterpreting/missing things in my analysis. I do my best.

LET'S F'ING GO.

So starting with the obvious. The Tower is a notoriously scary card, and Reversed readings are often thought to be more negative, but it's not true in this case. The Tower Reversed is mostly about a personal transformation, a HUGE one. Like the upright reading, upheaval and change is a huge part of it, but Reverse is mostly internal. Billy Kaplan is about to become something more; he becomes Billy Maximoff. The upheaval in his life is so great, he doesn't really know WHO he is. Tower Reversed can also indicate an existential crisis, which is Billy in spades.

The thing about ANY reading of the Tower, is that the change is inevitable. There will be upheaval, whether one likes it or not, but the Reversed reading suggests that disaster can be avoided. In this case, Billy Kaplan is going to die in a car crash, Billy Maximoff is going to be unmade, but true disaster is avoided when the two events happen simultaneously. Neither of them is truly gone-gone. There's a reason both Billy Kaplan and Billy Maximoff are names protected by the sigil.

The thing that's clear to me is while Lilia was spooked by what she read in his palm at first, the Tower Reversed (and whatever else his palm said) was enough to tell her that he was going to survive in some fashion and would need protection from people like her. (Or Agatha, or Wanda even; who knows?) I hope we get to see what she sees when we get to her trial.

The thing I also want to talk about, is why she specified Reversed, when Upright could just as easily applied to the situation at hand. After all, Billy Kaplan didn't cause the car accident that killed him, Wanda was the one who undid the spell that had brought Billy Maximoff into existence in the first place. So one could definitely argue that those fall under more of an Upright reading; destruction, chaos, upheaval. Especially given Wanda's magic was explicitly labeled as Chaos Magic. I think its because the writers of the show are trying to tell us something; that the death and destruction that make up HOW Billy came to be is far less important than WHO he is; which is simply a boy becoming a man, and trying to figure out who he is and what he wants in the world. The whole Billy Kaplan/Billy Maximoff thing is a metaphor for a coming-of-age, and calling out the Tower Reversed is as much of a tell as setting the whole thing the day of his Bar Mitzvah.

One last note; I'm so pleased that The Tower came into play again, after it showed up in a promo poster which has Lilia holding the card Upright. My guess is that it's there to indicate a couple of things; 1)Lilia's the Divination Witch (and Tarot's a big part of that), 2)We can expect some form of chaos and destruction, 3)Definitely a nod to the fake "Coven of Chaos" Title. But I think the poster was a nod to the usage in episode 6, and the connection Lilia has to Billy, only with a slight misdirect by having it Upright instead of Reversed. And while I think that probably has more to do with readability and clarity than anything else, I wonder if some of that was to throw people off the track. IMO Tower Upright invites a pretty shallow, general take when thrown onto something like a Marvel promo poster. Tower Reversed, because it indicates that someone making these posters knows more than the bare minimum about Tarot and is using it to plant clues about the show, invites a LOT more speculation.

This post went a lot longer than I thought, but I hope you all enjoyed it, and if you want to check out my analysis of the Tarot cards from past episodes:

Episodes 1-3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 7 part 1

[lyquynhnhu]

A Tale of Perishing - analysis (part 1)

Just watched episode 4 of Zenshu and it was hilarious. To be honest, it’s since episode 2 that I’m curious about the original movie plot.

What we know is that “A Tale of Perishing” was an original anime in movie format. Just from the title it’s is expected to be very dramatic. Natsuko stated that the plot was depressing, the type of angst for angst sake.

Natsuko gets reincarnated at the start of the movie. At this point 8/9 country of that world have already perished. Only 1 city survived, the Last City.

The movie probably just introduced the hero party and soon after the enemy army attacked, like it happened in episode 1. Then Unio sacrificed himself to annihilate the enemies. This means that Unio just died before getting to know his character. However, from the bit of the movie that Natsuko watched on her computer, he was alive. Maybe Unio appears only in flashbacks.

Before Unio funeral, there is the voids attack from the sky. And somehow, Luke, who was devastated by the death of his best friend, somehow managed to defeat them. However, in episode 2, QJ stated that Luke has 3% of possibility to win. Like, in the movie he was mentally unstable but manages to win, while in the anime he was physically and mentally alright and still struggle? My theory is that Luke is able to trigger some special power under dire situation. But since Natsuko resolved it all, the condition to awake such power are not met.

So, after this attack, the city has time to held Unio funeral. There, Luke meets and fall in love with Destiny. We know that Destiny would died, but I think that happened further in the movie. In fact, I think that others of the Nine Soldiers died before she did. After every loss, Destiny stay with Luke to comfort him and give him courage (while also attracting problems). The Memmeln cult stuff probably happened in the middle of the movie. Destiny is probably the last one to die and Luke completely broke.

It’s unclear if the movie ended with Luke saving the world or the enemies winning. It’s probably the former, but it’s not totally an happy ending since almost all the cast have died.

Anyway, since it was an anime movie, the duration is limited and many parts got cut. For example, Natsuko know nothing about the choir and had no idea why Memmeln transformed in the Great Void.

As for Memmeln, she lived more than 200 years always in battlefield. But the void are supposed to have appears not many years ago. On the official site, it’s written that Luke and Memmeln come from different countries before the country falls. Since Memmeln lives long, maybe her country fell century ago while Luke’s fell when he was a child.

Memmeln says that she joined the cult recently. She realizes for a long time that her life is hard, but doesn’t consider taking her own life maybe because of her responsibility as a hero. The Nine Soldiers seems to have been chosen by a prophecy. Unio said that Luke was destined to be become the legend hero the day he was born. Memmeln doesn’t choose to be a hero, but she cares for the world and the people. If she died, void would continue to attack and the people would suffer more with one less hero protecting them. With the cult, she found people who think like her. By awaking the Great Void, Memmeln believe that the world would end peacefully and equally ending everyone suffering. Her decision is quite selfish and drastic, but her decision comes from her particular circumstances.

The cult doesn’t control the void attacks, they just want them to get the last Soul Future. Memmeln doesn’t want to create panic, that’s why transforming into the Great Void and attack Luke was her last card. But she regret it. In the anime she detransformed back because she was having second thoughts, while in the original movie she is easily defeated by Luke. Probably she didn’t even try to fight seriously.

In the movie, all her motives are cut. Nor Luke nor the audience understand this twist of the plot. No wonder the movie was rated bad. I’m quite convinced that the movie condensed the story too much. Like, there are 9 heroes, but they died without getting development. It’s already difficult to develop everyone with 12 episodes (I think Zenshu have only 12 episode, wish it had more), and the movie was 2 hours long.

I think from episode 5 to 9 the anime will introduce the remaining 5 heroes. In the preview we see the dragon who was also in the opening. Usually, in the opening should appear all the characters or at least the silhouettes. But the dragon is the only one that appears.

I really wished this anime has 2 cours.

[xmads-omensx]

Noah meeting you and slowly learning that you're a huge history/archeology/paleontology nerd. He noticed you would drop random facts or correct facts (especially while watching your favorite movie; Jurassic Park). Falling for you a little bit more everyday when he finds out you are way smarter than you look (dumb blonde jokes inserted here haha) and he loves that your house is basically a museum.

Word Count: 1,470

Pairing: Noah Sebastian X Reader

Content Warnings: swearing, very vague mentions and description of a mummified person, questions surrounding morality of museums

Tags: @collisionofyourkissmakesitsohard @lacy1986 @collidewiththesav @kenjipepsi1 @follow-me-down-to-wonderland @alwaysfightforwhoyouare @chey-h @tosoundlessdarkistare @thisbicc @fadingangelwisp

ANON YOU GET ME! Not to pick favourites right now, but this is literally my fave request ever!! I'm such a literature and history nerd. SMOOCHES TO YOU ANON

(and yes I did put some of my uni museum assignment ideas here but we shall move bc it is still HEAVYYY on my mind rn)

As a self-proclaimed nerd, it was easy to be misjudged.

Typically, nerds were associated with comic books, maths, science and the like, which I most definitely was into don’t get me wrong, but I was a different kind of nerd.

The kind that finds true joy by learning heaps of useless information about dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. The kind that knows just a little too much about the Berlin Wall. The kind that you really want on your pub quiz team for the history round.

That kind of nerd.

Dating came with its challenges, since I had to physically refrain from correcting my dates on their incorrect factual knowledge, which I had discovered didn’t exactly go down too well the hard way.

Meeting Noah was an absolute blessing. He was a nerd too, not quite the same kind as me, but a nerd none the less, and I loved him for it.

Despite this, Noah never knew how into history I really was.

I had told him about my interest in anime and sci-fi movies, which he had really taken to, but my history obsession never really came up.

Our dates and hangouts had regularly consisted of watching movies or some episodes of an anime, but nothing that had particularly made my heart leap with joy and my brain whirl with interest.

Until our five month anniversary.

Obviously, that isn’t a long time and we didn’t do anything crazy to celebrate, but Noah still went above and beyond with preparations.

He had laid out blankets over his bed, with trays full of Chinese food and snacks, with my favourite soft drinks on his bedside table.

It was quite beautiful to be honest.

The dimly lit room was cozy, with the fairy lights that I had bought him hanging down from above his wardrobe, and his LEDs illuminating the room in a soft orange glow.

His TV was displayed on his wall in front of his bed, further illuminating the room with the familiar image of the Jurassic Park title card.

Noah had never seen it before, and had made it his personal mission to watch them, seeing as it was my favourite movie franchise.

“I thought that we should watch something you like this time, instead of always watching what I want.” He said, breaking the silence with his soft voice.

“Sound like a good plan.” I replied, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek. Noah had to lean down to meet me halfway so that my lips would actually connect with his cheek.

We snuggled down on his bed, with my head buried in his warm chest. The beating of his heart relaxing me as I was absorbed into the movie.

However, the peace didn’t last long.

“Fucking stupid.” I muttered when the scene depicting John Hammond explaining how the park was created to his guests.

“What?” Noah laughed.

“It’s stupid! This whole mosquito bullshit!” I exclaimed.

Noah paused the movie in order to let me explain my grievance with the scene.

“How is it bullshit? Baby it’s not real.” He said with a slight laugh.

“Well obviously Noah! But they could have at least made it more plausible, because then it would be a better movie!” I said, throwing my hands up in frustration.

“How is this inaccurate baby?” Noah asked, slightly intrigued by where I was going with this.

“The mosquito. Only female mosquitos bit animals, and there is no way in hell that they had the means, time or budget to spend all of that time identifying the gender of the mosquito, which they portray as male. And, there is no way to guarantee that that particular mosquito did, in fact, bite a dinosaur!” I was out of breath by the time I had finished ranting to Noah.

He simply chuckled, before pulling me back into his chest and pressing play on the movie, letting me rant about all of the inaccuracies as we went, which there are a lot of.

By the end of the movie, I had fallen asleep listening to Noah’s soothing heartbeat, whilst Noah sat and thought about all of the new and completely useless information he had gained throughout the movie.

He kissed the top of my head before snuggling into my body and drifting off to sleep.

The next time I had overshared far too many facts was when Noah invited me out on a group trip to the museum.

He had planned to go with his group of friends since they had a new samurai section that they all wanted to go and visit, whilst he also saw this as the perfect opportunity for me to meet his friends.

We all met up at a nearby coffee shop and hit it off like a house on fire.

Folio and Matt rapidly became my partners in crime as we walked behind Noah, making small jokes about him and giggling, making him turn around and look at us funny before walking away.

The museum was huge. Tall marble pillars stood strong outside the entrance, giving off an ancient Greek look.

Inside, the high ceilings held skylights which illuminated the entire building in a bright, warm glow, perfectly highlighting each of the exhibits.

The guys made a beeline for the samurai section, whilst I took my time looking at various artefacts from across the world, sprouting off additional facts that weren’t on the little information stands next to them, which had clearly impressed Folio as he whispered to Noah, “She’s a lot smarter than she looks.” And “I wish I was as smart as her.” Which mad made me laugh.

I never felt as though I was particularly smart, I just knew a lot of facts about a lot of things. But I guess that is more or less the definition of smart.

“Hey babe.” Noah called out, “The museum kind of reminds me of your place.”

“How come?” I asked, slightly confused by what he meant by this.

“All of this old stuff. It doesn’t all look important, but it is important. I don’t think that makes any sense.” He rambled.

“I collect a lot of stuff, if that’s what you’re getting at. I like to collect old things.” I laughed.

“Yeah, that’s what I was trying to say.” He laughed, pulling me underneath his arm and placing a kiss on my head.

I always had mixed feelings on museums.

Sure, they were cool to look around and see all of the different artefacts and displays, but something in my gut told me that it was wrong.

Was it okay that museums were taking all of these different things that don’t belong to them?

It was the archaeology exhibit that solidified my stance on the issue.

Right in the middle of the room sat a sarcophagus. An open sarcophagus at that. And inside this sarcophagus laid a mummified person. To the museum’s credit, they were covered enough to keep them decent, but the whole display boiled my blood.

Noah noticed my change in demeanour quite rapidly.

“You doing okay, bub?” He asked, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

“I hate this.” I said simply. “She doesn’t even get a say in this. They’re using her like she’s an object.” I sighed, gesturing defeatedly at the display.

“Do you want to go and look at something else.” Noah asked quietly.

I wasn’t sure, so I just shrugged.

“That’s so fucked up.” Nicholas said, looking at the display.

“It’s not fair.” I said, loud enough for the others to hear. “If they’re displaying her like this for education, then it’s pointless because she isn’t teaching us anything that we don’t already know. Besides, it’s inaccurate. They’ve taken away the amulets she would have been buried with that she would have needed to get to the afterlife. These canopic jars are replicas, so they don’t even have the real thing. It’s a piss poor attempt at bringing the past to the present.” I ranted.

The guys fell silent before Jolly began to speak.

“Museums suck balls.” He said simply.

“Fuck yeah they do!” I exclaimed, making the rest of the guys laugh before suggesting we got get some food instead.

The rest of the day was spent with the guys quizzing me on random questions that popped into their heads.

It was nice feeling this close to people that I had only just met, who were impressed by my stupidly vast knowledge of history.

“Why history?” Noah asked. “Like, surely there are cooler subjects out there, like… biology or something.”

“Hey!” I exclaimed. “History is cool, dumbass!”

The guys all burst into laughter at the look of pure shock that had crossed his handsome features.

Being a history nerd was rapidly becoming one of the best decisions that I had ever made.

[johannesviii]

Parallels, foreshadowing and narrative echoes in Infinity Train Book 3 episode 1 "The Musical Car" [1/2]

I can pinpoint the moment I rewatched that episode as the one when my obsession with this show went completely off the rails pun intended in early March 2024. I haven't been normal about it since then even though we're currently in November. Of course almost every series ever made uses parallels and foreshadowing in some capacity, it's just that Infinity Train episodes are about ten minutes long and there's an amazing amount of foreshadowing, parallels and other narrative echoes packed in those first ten minutes and it drives me nuts

I'm not going to explain most of these things. Some of them are incredibly obvious, some aren't. I'm just listing them so we can scream about them together and hopefully I'll feel less insane afterwards

Also I had to make two posts cause I hit the new image limit. Kill me

Let's go

A familiar place becoming hostile and unfamiliar

The first time we see Grace in this Book, she's basically reenacting something she wanted to do as a kid, except now she's the one in control

I also can't help but notice there's three different versions of Hazel from three different angles when Grace is questioning her own decisions in her tape and her mind is basically using Hazel as a mouthpiece for that. When I look at you I see me

Dance lessons foreshadowing

The first time we see Simon in this Book, he's painting a miniature, and it's part of a series of parallels which makes me ESPECIALLY insane. Something about him seeing himself as a little soldier, then treating Grace as if she was one of his miniatures later on. Bear with me for SIX FUCKING GIFS here cause it's a whole extended metaphor which keeps reappearing through the entirety of Book 3 and I've never seen anyone talk about that specific one. Maybe it deserved its own post. Too late now

He clearly loves to collect stuff. I wonder who he got that from, uh

Cool radar design. I wonder where we saw that kind of round, clockpunk-adjacent type of tech before

So there's two halves of one mask, one half is golden and represents comedy and it's on the right, one is the mask of tragedy and it's on the left. Cool, cool, nothing to see here

Grace learned from the best

Not bad, Simon. YEAH UH, SO, ABOUT THAT-

"I was ten"

"never trust an adult!" being weaponised later on

Only one half of the mask survived - the right side, now a tragedy mask and placed on the left side of the screen. Wow I wonder if this foreshadows anything about how this story will end, uh

All of this happens before the title card even appears on screen and I already hit image limit. I'm fine! I'm fine

Here's part 2

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

I Feel More Bad For Doflamingo And His Family Being Persecuted By Vengeful Commoners Than Stolas Losing Everything Because His Own Stupid Actions And Getting Mistreated Because Of It

You know One Piece did this concept better than freaking Helluva Boss did which is a former noble stripped of his title, lives amongst commoners, and then has them hate them. The difference is that Doflamingo's father willing did it because he felt that his people the Celestial Dragons should be considered just as human as anyone else. However, he underestimated how hated the Celestial Dragons were among normal people which resulted in them retaliating against him and his family despite all of them (except Doflamingo being decent). Stolas on the other hand it's a double standard punishment for him taking the fall for Blitzo being on trial. Also in contrast with Doflamingo and his family getting persecuted it feels cathartic because despite trying to make it seem he doesn't deserve it he really did.

The difference between Stolas and Doflamingo is that the latter is not treated as automatically sympathetic because of his backstory but it's to understand what molded him into what he is currently. However, Stolas like so much of the narrative does tries to baby him for what has happened to him because he's the creator's pet. Although when you peel off the so-called sympathy card, you realize that Stolas is not so different from Doflamingo from being a pos classist. He still acts like a snooty pos even while he's being pampered by Blitzo, which is not so different from Doffy acting still Celestial Dragon like even after that's been totally stripped from him. However, the series constantly calls out Doflamingo for his monstrous actions while Stolas is treated like an uwu softboy. Also I totally could see Doflamingo making fun of Stolas for being a loser who squandered his status for a commoner. He would even bash him for what he put his daughter through because it would remind him of what happened to him and his father which is making impulsive decisions that negatively impactful them.

Also Doflamingo is never treated as an exception among his own because his family were that but not himself. The series goes out to show that he's grown accustomed to commoner life, but he still at heart wants to be a Celestial Dragon again and all the privileges that come with it. It even acknowledges how toxic his relationship with his found family is because he forces them to basically give up their lives for him. Stolas on the other hand you constantly have Blitzo and the others go out accommodate him but he still acts like a snooty pos who thinks he's better than this. And yet the show will make you think he's better than the other nobles and even tried to shame Blitzo previously for pointing out how classist he really is. The Sinmas episode actually shoots itself with that notion by showing that Blitzo was right and he does look down on commoner life with no self-awareness.

In One Piece, they actually tackled the angle of how class mistreatment can lead to resentment better than Helluva Boss. For one thing, the commoners were taking revenge against the Donquixote family had legit beef with the dragons which is they regularly abused and mistreated them for centuries. Many of them had lost family members due to them or were forced to pay tribute and caused famine. For Helluva Boss, the classism is paid lip service but it's obvious it's all that lip service because she continually makes exceptions for her favorites to be seen as the token good ones even if they enable the system. Or in the case of Stolas, they pretend he's the exception and then try to demonize anyone who rightfully targets him. With the Donquixote family, it feels less like justice but tragedy because except for Doffy everyone was decent and it teaches a subtle lesson about the cycle of revenge. However, with Stolas and the common imps it's just "meh" feeling because due to how hard the narrative tries to make Stolas you end up laughing at his misfortune instead of thinking it's not deserved. And again it's just an excuse to have him be babied by the object of his affection like a bad fluff fanfiction. It's not really about the focus of classism but how to make Stolas look superficially better.

Heck, with it what Doflamingo went through is much worse than Stolas ever has had to experience right now. This guy went from the top of the world to being no better than a vagabond. For two freaking years, he and his family were on the run from angry commoners. That's two years. He still has nightmares of that even as an adult. His own mother died because of the shitty circumstances they were in. Compare this with Stolas being coddled by IMP the moment he was hissed and thrown food at. At least he could live at an apartment with them, while taking up the only space that Blitzo previously had. Doffy did manage to find his crew who enabled his old tendencies but that took again two years to happen. Stolas instantly got his support team the minute he was thrown out and again it's not enough for him because he still complains. So, Stolas is pussy because Doflamingo would say he doesn't know anything about what true loss is.

[curio-queries]

I think AYS definitely found its flow post-US trips. Compared to the later trips, you can tell their time in the US really was more spur of the moment, less thought out. I think that's probably why the editing and filming were better in the other places and they had product placement. I wonder if they originally had something else in mind for the content, such as making it just a bangtan bomb kind of like some of the solo adventures we got during chapter 2 (like jungkook's camping vlog), but then they decided to do more trips or pitched it to Disney or something so they put more money and effort into it.

About the behind the scenes content, I do think whatever was kept out of the main episodes was primarily for pacing reasons (despite the fact that I don't think the pacing was super great until Sapporo) and/or some content that was kept for the purpose of making money off the behind the scenes package. Weirdly I don't think bts cares at all about 4th wall breaks. I saw another blog complain about this a while ago, about being able to see staff in the background and ruining the vibe of AYS or messing up the illusion from a production standpoint, but I think bts themselves never try to put up that 4th wall. Obviously the content is supposed to stay focused on them, but the boys have never had a problem talking to their staff on the other side of the camera even during things like run episodes and even in AYS, the last night Sapporo, jikook are sitting around the table drinking and talking with their staff. Beyond what takes focus off the members or respecting that staff aren't public figures, I don't think the members ever care to create that illusion that they aren't filming something or surrounded by staff. I remember reading parts of bts' book and jungkook talks about jikook's trip to japan in 2017 and mentions how the company was worried about their safety if they went and when they arrived in japan, staff was already waiting for them. Even in a private trip that was meant just for the two of them, because of who they are staff were involved and they don't try to hide that.

Also side tangent, but their book was more interesting than I was expecting based on how I'd seen people talk about. A lot of it is summarization of events with bts' thoughts thrown in throughout, but there were some interesting tidbits I didn't know. Like jimin listening to Army sing-along of Young Forever and that's basically what made him come out of a dark place regarding the band's future and contract renewal tensions. Reminded me of Wembley when he cried and said that song had helped him a lot. Also the book and reading things as a timeline really emphasized how much jikook helped each other through that dark period from 2017-2019: the japan trip when they needed to get away from everything, then jimin showing up at a bar for jungkook and them both crying together (the crying together seems to be a theme for them LOL).

Anyway, back to AYS. For the title cards, we can see in Sapporo that they already edited most of the US trip, so the title cards were probably an idea they thought would be good when editing that, but then they didn't really fit as much in the editing of the other trips. Like the Sapporo vibes are just different from jimin's silly little title card recordings.

I really hope we get more AYS when they come out of MS. I expect group activities will be back in full swing, but since they seem to really enjoy traveling together, I think it'd be nice if we got to have future seasons. Its obviously still work, but I do think its on the more enjoyable end of work for them. I want to see them in Montana, US on a ranch riding horses, or in Venice, IT doing a romantic gondola ride, in the Australian outback where jungkook can finally fight a kangaroo.

Hi anon,

You definitely hit on many of the points we'd been discussing here through these posts so it's nice to see I'm not the only one with some of these thoughts.

After seeing the I Am Still documentary though, it's do feel more confident saying that this team's production engine likely gives very little control to their distribution partners. Again, I still need to do an album watchthrough of most of the Disney documentaries but for now, I'd wager that Hybe fully completes their product and then only sells it for distribution. Maybe there's some back-and-forth if there could possibly be any content censorship for brand cohesion but BTS content as a whole is already very low-risk on that front. I'd even go so far to say that the product placement sponsors had more of an impact on the actual end result of the content than Disney did. But that's purely supposition on my part.

Regarding the 4th wall breaks, I don't think i worded my viewpoint very well previously and I don't think i have much better to say here but I'll try. While I agree that BTS's content isn't trying to shy away from the fact that they have staff around them, I do think there are very specific methodologies behind how they've approached it in the past and likely will continue to.

Take Run BTS for example, at the beginning, they attempted to rely for more in on-screen graphics and having the members themselves deliver the necessary exposition. But...I've said this before and I'll say it again, their production actually really sucks at delivering content that needs to be informative. In my opinion, they realized they weren't doing a great job of this and it was a lot more effort to try to mask, when the episodes that they left in a disembodied staff member explaining didn't have any noticeable drop so they decided to just go with including it.

I know i haven't really talked much here about the Run Jin episodes (as I'm likely going to do review posts as well once I'm done with Run BTS) but one of the main things I've been keeping my eye on is how they're compensating for there only being one member. It's seemingly to fall into relying on guest cast and the staff to give Jin the necessary foil, sometimes successfully and other times less-so.

Anyway, back to AYS, it seems to me like they were absolutely still trying to find the line of staff inclusion. Honestly, I wonder if there was a version of the edit where them watching the first cut of episode 1 would have been only included in the bonus content. Without it though, that episode woukd have been much shorter so I think they kept it in the main release purely for time. It fits so well with the overall tone though and I'm so glad they included it.

Again, wondering about the future. I'm sure they will try to revive this show again after military service and I genuinely hope they try to stick to the format of several mini-trips compiled into one 'season'. It will take a skillful team to be sure there's cohesion though. These episodes worked because there is the overarching tjmeline of their solo projects as they prepare for their service that ties the little trips together. I still think my idea of scheduling trips while they're on tour could work but again only if the tour schedule is a little more relaxed than it has been in the past.

It's all theoretical at this point! I would love to see our guys traveling around to some of the less-dazzling destinations as well. I am from a very rural area in the western US and could not even comprehend what it woukd be like for BTS to even be aware of some of those places, let alone actually visit. That was some of the charm of the USA section. They were out in the middle of nowhere seeing just a little bit of Americana. (But I also completely agree with you and want to see a JK / Kangaroo moment as well!)

I'm remembering now another point that I'd wanted to delve into a little more with AYS, which was how they balanced luxury vs the simple life for this show. It's definitely something I noticed shifting over the episodes and I think that had more to do with those sponsorships as well as wanting to give JM and JK some comfortable experiences prior to their enlistment.

Sorry, i went on quite the tangent anon. If I didn't respond to any of the points that you'd like to further discuss, please point them out in another note. I've already rambled far too much for this one!

[rose-reveries]

PJO Episode 6 (spoilers)

The good

1. Ok, I do agree that having 4 pearls instead of 3 makes more sense I guess. Because then they have hope that they’ll actually be bringing Sally back.

2. This was a fun episode, but definitely the farthest from the source material.

3. The “Clarissa is the lightning thief” fake out is NICE. Like sure?? I’m down for it (don’t think there was enough about that tho. Like if we had a hellhound scene in ep 2, we would know someone in camp was the traitor but alas)

The bad

1. Why change it to after the solstice instead of the day before? I like the stakes better when they’ve wasted 5 days in the hotel and have 24 hours to fix everything. We’ve learned the gods are assholes. If they missed the deadline, why tf would Zeus care what they have to say after that deadline. His pride is still gonna be too fucking hurt and he’ll start a war over his broken ego anyway. I don’t know, just not a fan, personally.

2. I’m getting kind of tired of the trio knowing exactly what is happening at all times. There was no whimsy and fun in the casino. There was no Percy slowly figuring out something was wrong. In fact, we don’t even really learn that people in the casino don’t age and everyone there are from different decades. Just not a fan of the trio knowing everything all the time. Like they are 12 year old kids. Let them play for a little bit PLEASE. The plastic credit cards, the sims city game, the deer hunting people game, the nice big hotel room, etc etc.

Edit: 3. WAIT WHY THE RANDOM SATYR??? LIKE JUST TO DRAW GROVER AWAY?? Really?? I don’t know, whole thing could’ve been done better. There is no fun in this episode, only s e r i o u s business.

???

1. Why keep the episode title “We take a Zebra to Vegas” when there is no Zebra…? Not to mention there is no Percy talking to said Zebra. Neither of these points are too important and I can live without them. (I’m sure we’ll learn that Percy can talk to horses another time so it’s no big deal but still.)

2. I don’t know, this episode was fun, right? But like, it’s starting to feel less like TLT, and more like a parallel universe.

Week ?? Of me saying TLT is still the closest adaptation of Percy Jackson we’re ever gonna get and that’s funny. I’ve been pretty open-minded about the TV show and I like it as it’s own thing, but as an adaptation I think as it goes on I’m just starting to feel more meh about it. When our characters tell instead of show, they know everything, etc etc there’s no stakes, there’s no suspense, and it gets stale. It’s the same every episode…

[acaplaya-musings]

12 Days Of Christmas - Day 5

Title: Gingerbread Man Challenge - GEOFF vs LAYNE Day 5 - Cookies & holiday-themed contest Fandom: VoicePlay Warnings: N/A Word Count: ~2,000 words (see Author's note)

(Author's note: When I saw "cookies" and "holiday-themed contest" as potential prompts for the same day, of course my mind jumped to VoicePlay's cooking challenges! And I decided to write this one a little differently, in that basically I've written my own cooking challenge "episode" and done so in script format (informal script format, anyway), so the word count may be a little "deceptive", idk, but hope you still enjoy! (Also this definitely would not be a minute-long video, this would be like the extended edition for Patreon and also maybe Instagram))

(Geoff and Layne are in Geoff's home kitchen, both wearing aprons)

Layne: It's a VoicePlay cooking challenge!

Geoff (dramatically): To the DEATH.

Layne (cheerily): Christmas edition!

Geoff: We don't actually know what the death is this time. The others won't tell us!

Layne (overdramatically): Impaled with a candy cane!

Geoff: Who knows? Maybe!

(Cut to Eli, Cesar, and J, hanging out in Geoff's living room)

Eli: So we're doing a special baking challenge for the holiday season.

J: You say "we"...

Eli: *(chuckles)* Well Geoff and Layne are doing the baking, and we're just the judges.

Cesar: But it's not just a baking challenge, because first they gotta each make gingerbread men, and then they have to decorate them to look like us!

Eli: *(pointing between himself, Cesar, and J)* Just us three, anyway.

Cesar: Yeah they don't have to make themselves.

Eli: We figured it might be too easy to guess who made what cookies if they also made versions of themselves.

J: *(laughing)* Just look for the cookie with completely grey hair!

*(Eli and Cesar also laugh)*

(Cut to Geoff and Layne in the kitchen)

Layne: Start by mixing in all the dry ingredients.

Geoff: Are you using a store-bought spice mix in yours?

Layne: Yeah?

Geoff: I make my own spice blend. *(Looks at camera, speaking in a fancy/regal manner)* Specially Determined For Optimal Taste.

Layne: *(Smirking)* That's too much work, though!

Geoff: Baking is work! Might as well go the extra mile while you're at it!

(Camera turns to Layne, who's shaking his head at the camera)

Layne: Simple is better!

(Cut to Eli, J, and Cesar)

J: So how exactly did you convince them to do a baking challenge?

Eli: Well initially we were just gonna have it be a decorating challenge, more or less, with them just using ready-to-bake gingerbread dough and then decorating that-

Cesar (grinning): But I feel like if you told Geoff that he'd be supplied with store-bought dough, he'd just turn up to the filming day with his own homemade stuff instead.

Eli: *(laughs)* Layne probably would, too, if just to get an upper hand on Geoff.

(Cut to Geoff and Layne, who are now preparing their wet ingredients to be mixed)

Layne: I'm using golden syrup in mine.

Geoff (surprised): Golden syrup? Are you not using molasses?

Layne: The molasses flavour will come from the brown sugar!

Geoff: Well the molasses flavour in mine will come from the molasses! *(makes a "duh" expression to the camera)*

(Another cut, to Geoff and Layne still, but now they each have a dough formed, and are in the process of kneading)

Geoff: This only requires a little bit of kneading - you don't wanna overwork it or else the cookies are gonna become tough.

Layne: *(Comically puts a hand to his ear, grinning, as if paying extra attention to what Geoff's saying)*

Geoff: *(Notices and laughs)* No I'm just kidding! You actually should knead it a whole lot, and that's how it becomes extra pliable!

*(Geoff and Layne both laugh)*

(Quick cut)

Geoff: We're actually filming this part in the evening, so our dough is gonna go in the fridge and chill overnight

Layne: *(Covering his dough with plastic wrap)* It's gonna have a nice sleep in the fridge!

(Cut with a Spongebob transition card (audio included) saying "Many Hours Later". It's now the following morning and Geoff and Layne are taking their dough out of the fridge)

Layne: Good morning!

Geoff: Good morning!

Layne: Wait did you make two doughs?

Geoff: No, I just split the dough in half and then wrapped each before I put it in the fridge. Makes it easier to roll out.

Layne: Oh I thought that was just something you did after chilling the dough.

(Cut to Layne, coating his dough and work surface in flour, and about to start rolling out the dough)

Layne: Gotta make sure the dough isn't too sticky!

Geoff (off-screen): Are you making a mess in my kitchen?

Layne (grinning): Oh just wait till we get to the decorating part!

Geoff: Oh god, *(laughs)* what have I signed up for?

(Cut to Geoff)

Geoff: I'm rolling out my cookies in between two sheets of parchment paper-

Layne (off-screen): Work those muscles, Geoff!

Geoff: -which will also make it easier to transfer them onto the baking tray. *(Puts down rolling pin and peels off top layer of paper, then holds up gingerbread man cutter)*. I will however be putting a bit of flour on my cookie cutters, so the dough doesn't stick to them.

(Camera moves to Layne)

Layne: *(Fake dramatic gasp)* You mean you're not going the extra mile and cutting out your gingerbread men freehand with a knife? *(Barely hiding a teasing grin)*

(Camera moves back to Geoff)

Geoff (jokingly): No, I just make my own cookie cutters, like a normal person! *(laughs)*

(Cut to Layne)

Geoff (off-camera): Layne what are you doing?

Layne: *(Adding small pieces of extra dough to the heads of a couple of the gingerbread men cut-outs)* Well this is gonna be Gingerbread-Cesar *(referring to the gingerbread man with a mini-afro)* and this is gonna be Gingerbread-J *(referring to the gingerbread man with a flat-top)* so I'm giving them some hair!

Geoff: Yeah but now you're forced to use those two cookies for Cesar and J, instead of making a whole batch of cookies and just choosing the best three to work with!

Layne: How are you gonna do Cesar's hair though?

Geoff (in an "isn't it obvious?" tone of voice): Just decorate them on the serving plates? Like you could just pipe some of the icing coming off the top of the head and onto the plate, it'll be fine!

Layne (in a doubtful (yet light-hearted) tone): If you say so! *(Looks at the camera and points at himself while mouthing "I'm gonna win")*

(Cut to Eli, Cesar, and J in the living room)

Eli: Layne and Geoff aren't actually in the kitchen right now when we're filming this bit .

(Camera pans up and across to show a shot of the empty kitchen, before moving back to the trio)

J (spookily/dramatically): The magic of editiiiing!

Eli: The cookies have finished baking in the oven and they're currently cooling in the fridge.

Cesar: The kitchen honestly smells soooo good, like you folks watching this have no idea.

Eli: Geoff and Layne are waiting outside right now while we film this.

J (grinning): Yeah we kicked G out his own house! Like "nah this is our living room now!"

Eli: Once we're done talking, we're gonna go wait outside while Geoff and Layne come back in and start decorating.

Cesar: Should we tell the viewers now about the secret twist?

Eli: Well there's two secrets. The first is that Geoff and Layne don't know anything about the "death" punishment for the loser, and that won't be revealed until after we find out who won. The second secret is that the decorating part doesn't actually really matter that much.

J: *(laughs)* So Geoff and Layne think they're gonna be judged equally for both taste and presentation-

Eli: I mean maybe if I find it really hard to choose between the two just on taste, then I might use appearance as a deciding factor, but otherwise, yeah, we changed our minds from our initial idea.

Kathy (behind camera): And why didn't you tell them?

Cesar: Because I wanna see me in cookie form! And this way they're both gonna still put effort into it!

(Cut to Geoff and Layne back in the kitchen. Their baked and cooled cookies are in front of them on the countertop, along with piping bags, bowls of frosting (some coloured, some not), food colouring, a small variety of candy, and other things used for cookie decorating)

Geoff: And now it's decorating time!

Layne: *(Throws his hands up)* Hooray!

(Camera moves to focus on Geoff, already grabbing some icing)

Geoff: Do we have a time limit for how long we can spend on each cookie?

Kathy (behind camera): Only if I think you're taking too long.

(Camera moves to Layne)

Layne: *(Nodding emphatically to the camera while smirking)* Definitely time him!

(Cut to Geoff, who is spreading blue frosting over the legs of one of the cookies, to make jeans)

Layne (off-screen): I'm gonna give Gingerbread-Cesar a Santa outfit!

Geoff: *(Looks over)* Is that meant to be a Sexy Santa dress like from the Jingle Bell Rock video?

(Camera moves over to Layne and the cookie he's currently decorating. Most of the cookie's body is covered in red frosting, with a line of white icing along both the top and bottom of the 'dress')

Layne: Yeah, *(laughs)* he's gonna love it!

Geoff (off-screen): *(also laughs)* Honestly, he probably will!

(Cut to Geoff, currently using a piping bag)

Geoff: Decorating cookies is kinda like drawing on food... And I suck at drawing.

(Cut to Layne, now decorating a different cookie)

Layne: I'm gonna use two of these blue metallic sugar-ball things for Gingerbread-Eli's eyes.

Geoff (off-screen): They're called "cachous".

Layne: Gesundheit.

(Cut to Geoff)

Geoff: Almost... done...

Layne (off-screen): 10! 9! 8!

Geoff: Hey you don't get to do countdowns!

(Cut to Geoff and Layne placing metal cloches over their plates simultaneously)

Geoff & Layne (both at once): Done!

(Cut to Kathy, now standing with the two covered plates (Franchezca behind camera))

Kathy: Geoff and Layne will be waiting outside while their cookies get judged, so I'm gonna be the one to take the plates to the other guys.

(Cut to a shot of Kathy carrying the two plates over to the table where Cesar, Eli, and J are currently seated.)

*(Kathy sets the plates down in front of them and takes hold of the tops of both cloches.)*

Kathy: Okay, 1... 2... 3!

*(Kathy lifts up the cloches at the same time, and there are laughs and exclamations of "oh wow" and "oh my god", etc. from J, Eli, and Cesar.)*

Cesar: *(gasps in delight and picks up Layne's version of Gingerbread-Cesar)* Wait is this me in a Sexy Santa dress? Oh my gosh I love that. I almost don't wanna eat this one now!

J: Eat it second, then!

(Footage of J, Cesar, and Eli all trying the cookie versions of themselves from both plates)

(Cut to Geoff and Layne, standing in front of the table where Eli, J, and Cesar are seated)

Geoff: Have you made your decisions?

(Camera moves to face the judges)

Eli: *(Nods)* We have.

J: On the count of 3! One, two, three!

*(Cesar holds up a piece of paper that says 'A', while Eli and J hold up pieces of paper that say 'B')*

(Camera moves to Geoff and Layne)

Geoff: I won? *(excitedly)* I won!!! Yeah!!!

Layne: So I guess I'm dying then, somehow?

(Camera moves back to the judges)

Eli: The death for the loser of this challenge iiiiisss...

J: *(does a drumroll on the table with his hands)*

Cesar: Death! By! Cannibalism!

(The camera moves around and zooms in a little to focus on Geoff and Layne, who both look comically surprised, but also with a degree of intrigue).

[And then the 'script' for what would be the Patreon-exclusive "death", uploaded once the cooking challenge video went public on YouTube]

Eli: So we went out and bought some gingerbread dough, and we've been doing some baking of our own!

Franchezca: *(Walks into shot holding a plate with two gingerbread men on them. The cookies have been decorated to look like (or at least vaguely resemble) Geoff and Layne)*

Geoff: *(laughing)* Oh, no way!

Layne: *(also laughing)* Oh my god!

Cesar: So the 'death' is that the winner gets to eat the cookie version of the loser-

J: While the loser watches!

Geoff: Oh I love this death!

Layne: Of course you do; you're not the one dying!

*(Geoff picks up the Gingerbread-Layne cookie)*

Layne: I hope I taste delicious.

Geoff: *(breaks off one of Gingerbread-Layne's legs, and offers it to Kathy behind the camera, grinning)* You wanna bite Layne's ankle again, Kath?

Kathy (behind the camera): *(takes the leg and chuckles)* Hope this tastes better than the real thing!

Geoff: *(bites Gingerbread-Layne's head)* Definitely less carrot-y!

(Cut)

Geoff: *(Hands Gingerbread-Geoff to Layne)* Here, you can eat me if you want to.

Layne: Gladly!

(Cut to Geoff, Layne, Eli, J, and Cesar all gathered together at the table, smiling at the camera).

Cesar: Merry Christmas, Patrons!

Eli: Happy Hannukkah!

J: Happy holidays!

Geoff: Hope you get to eat lots of gingerbread cookies!

Layne: Bye!

.

[hiroexclamations]

Yes, Wild Life just ended. But, I am curious about what people are speculating next season is gonna behold! So, what do you think is going to go down if we get another season?

I’m gonna blab about my ideas now-

Something like “Every Life,” or “All Lives.” The premise is there is an aspect of (nearly) each life series so far.

Third life: it’s the third life premise! Obviously it’s gonna have elements of the original

Last life: randomized amount of lives! 2-6

Double life: soulmates! Ft. More Players

Limited life: boogyman! Yes I know it was introduced in last life, but so was life gifting and I use that later in the list

Secret life: gifting! Although it would be tough to negotiate between the soul binds

Real life: not in virtual reality! That’s way too much!!

Wild life: I got nothing… :P

Alternatively, spinning off that last one, “Origin Life,” or “Super Life.”

Y’all know the origin mod right? That (or the super powers from that wild card) but you only have three lives. (Nothing more nothing less, to keep it simple and around the regular<10 episodes)

Personally, im hoping for, “Second Life.” Which would just be Double Life 2; Electric Boogaloo

Follows the whole title-of-the-season-means-nothing theme

[whispering-radiance]

[Rc9gn OC] Goddess of Amber, creator of the Eye of Eternity |

Ladies, gentlemen and nonbinary folks, I’ve finally finished this introduction card for this gorgeous lady — Some of you might’ve already seen her on some of my drawings, but she didn’t have a proper introduction. As usual, you can read more in the section below : D

————————————————————————

Actually, the idea for this character popped to my head when I was rewatching some episodes, and I focused all my attention on the Eye of eternities. Like—woah! That’s a cool and important item, but … where did it come from? Like— it’s always “and the ninja had this magical stone and used it to do this and this” so he just had a powerful artifact in his back pocket? I didn’t question it 10 years ago, but now I have a power of imagination and ability to draw — So I played around with this concept

————————————————————————

As it’s written on the card, she’s the goddess of amber. Even though she’s one of the divine, she’s not really considered to be very powerful— and so she doesn’t really have lost of recognition anywhere.

As for her character— She has her own system and ways of doing things, she’s harsh and rarely accepts change. Things rarely catch her attention, only when something extraordinary happens, she will get interested.— And I get her, she’s old, very old— at some point you simply loose interest in the mundane, especially if you have seen it happen for thousands of years. Amber spends her days in solitude, away from noisy people and other gods — she prefers to focus all her energy on her craft rather than social interactions.

What she crafts? Well, mainly enchanted amber. With it she’s able to capture almost everything— but I’m not talking only about organic things— many essences can be kept in such form— Feeling, music, memories, spirit— It helps her relive the moments even from hundreds of years ago.

She’s also found of making jewelry— In the picture she’s holding a string of amber that will eventually become a necklace like this:

(My grandma has this bad boy— I have many found memories of playing with it)

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Amber met First Ninja on accident— After he was defeated by Tengu, he was badly injured and casted down from its mountain — Luckily his agonizing tumble ended in Amber’s garden— At first she was annoyed with the intruder, but seeing how he somehow survived all the suffering, sparked some attention towards him.

She patched him up and listened to his stories — Probably the tails of the sorcerer and the threat he posed, stirred something inside her— If chaos destroyed the land, she would lose her peaceful life.

So she helped him recover, and even taught him a few new moves. After defeating the Tengu she decided that she wants to preserve peace across whole land — finally she has found a new calling in her life.

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- I’ve tried looking into it, but I didn’t really find anything about the symbolism of the carp in the series— Seeing how it’s always connected with the Eye of Eternities— I might as well make a silly connection, that Carp is her symbol — Also, let me add this stupid fun fact — The sea in my country (Poland 🗣️‼️‼️)is known for its amber — So fish equals sea and that reminds me of amber.

- She probably looked less elegant while traveling and fighting with the Ninja, but I haven’t designed that yet

- When I’m referring to “Gods” or “Heavenly” I don’t have any of my characters in mind — I usually think about Japanese pantheon

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There are three words that might need some clarification, so here it goes:

- 古樹の女神 (Koju no Megami) - It roughly translates to “Goddess of Ancient trees” Amber starts as a sap from a tree, and takes some sweet time to form into its solid gem form. So this title is quite fitting

- 樹液 (Jueki) - It literally means sap — It’s kind of a pet name for her? Or a name you’d call your sweetheart— To be honest it’s only used by some of her closest friends— Others call her Amber or just refer to her as Lady.

- Naginata - is a polearm and one of several varieties of traditionally made Japanese blades (Wikipedia)

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“You’re putting a lot of work into characters for a teen show from 10 years ago”

Yeah— but it’s nothing compared to what I did for Generator Rex — Making characters and stories helps me enjoy the show 3x more!!

[seravphs]

ੈ♡˳·˖✶ — DILUC x FEM READER

Diluc runs into a once-familiar face at a ball and has a crisis. 

wc — 1.4k

tags —  regency au, Diluc is the epitome of a repressed regency man trying to be proper but being violently turned on by the tiniest amount of skin, childhood playmates meet again four years later, hand flex™️, title from BNHA episode lol

Diluc hadn’t been prepared to ascend to the role of patriarch of the Ragnvindr dukedom at 16, but he had been good at hiding it. 

There were many things Diluc was good at hiding, and from many people, but his childhood friends couldn’t be included among them. Kaeya and Jean could always see right through him. This ability was not appreciated. Especially not when it was used to their advantage. 

“Please, Diluc,” Jean says, knowing she’s wearing him down. “You know my father’s on an expedition with Varka. Who else can I ask to sponsor Barbara’s debut as a debutante?” 

“Kaeya.” Diluc replies flatly. 

“I love Kaeya to death, but we both know he won’t do. His reputation is in tatters!” 

It was true. Kaeya was known as a bit of a lady killer. Not for the first time, Diluc cursed his brother’s less than discreet ways. 

“Please, Diluc. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.” 

He knew she wouldn’t and Barbara was a good child who deserved to have a debut, so Diluc begrudgingly found himself playing chaperone. At least Barbara seemed to be enjoying herself. She was one of the most popular young ladies at the ball, with scores of men nearly fighting for the chance to mark their names down on her dance card. 

Diluc himself was bored out of his mind. He took another sip of grape juice and realized belatedly that he had almost finished the entire bottle, as drinking to avoid conversation was all he had been doing for the past hour. 

He was just thinking that as unfortunate as it was, he was ready to tell Barbara to wrap things up so he could take her home when a scuffle broke out on the dance floor. Two boys seemed to be coming to blows over who got to take Barbara’s next dance, with the poor girl caught between them. 

Diluc shoved back his seat, but someone else got there first. The more he looked, the more she seemed familiar. 

The memory returns to him like the first sip of water after a drought.

He was a little shocked, to be honest. It had been, what, four years? If you were who he thought you were, it was a little past the usual time to be debuting. 

You had been Kaeya’s age, he remembered. 

Why was it so startling that you were older now? He had grown. Obviously, you would as well.

His heart doesn’t obey the cool rationality of the mind that got him through fatui ridden Snezhnaya. It strangles itself in his chest, marching to an unsteady beat as his feet carry him slowly over to where you have separated Barbara from the boys. 

They’re jeering at you, calling you a spinster, an old maid past her prime. 

“If you’re not careful,” Diluc says, “you’ll be the ones with no prospects while she’s bided her time for the right man. What lady wants a husband who flies into rages over such simple matters?” 

The Ragnvindr name carries the same weight it had when Diluc’s father was alive. He swallows hard. It’s always strange, watching people turn their eyes on him with the same respect they used to give his father. Crepus used to be the wise one breaking up petty arguments such as these, he and Kaeya the young and immature boys. 

Now everything was different. Diluc has to face the dawn. He was the head of the Ragnvindrs now, duty bound to uphold the legacy of his clan. 

“Diluc,” you stammer, a relic of a time when you had been children and manners were excusable. So you remember him, too.

Then, “Mr. Ragnvindr,” with the understanding now that things were different. That propriety was necessary. 

To hell with propriety. Diluc wanted to hear you stutter over the syllables of his name again. 

He doesn’t smile as he lets his gaze drift over you. He can’t. There’s too many emotions bubbling in his chest. He’s not sure what kind of expression he wants to make.

Your appearance inspires odd feelings in him, a mix of nostalgia, love, and sadness. He wants to touch your face, and feel the softness of your cheek cradled in his palm. He wants to see your eyes close as you lean into his touch. He wants to measure the tiny gap of skin between where your sleeves end and your wrists with his fingers.

Instead his hand flexes with a movement restrained. 

Finally, after allowing himself one final second to drink your appearance in, he says, “Please let me escort you home.” 

Barbara is unusually quiet on the carriage ride back. She darts quick glances between you and Diluc, which slightly unnerves you, even more so when she practically flies out of the carriage into Jean’s arms and starts whispering frantically. Jean nods and pats her back, waving goodbye as Diluc’s carriage trots off in the direction of your address. 

You still haven’t spoken more than a few words to each other since that first moment of recognition at the ball, but when you make to leave the carriage, Diluc grabs your wrist, his fingers curling in a delicate ring. He’s careful. He’s breaking custom.

“What is it, Mr. Ragnvindr?” You prompt after a moment of silence. 

Diluc looks caught in a trap. His heart is torn between longing and righteousness, wanting you and wanting what’s best for you (which is not him). 

Diluc is too much himself to be any good for you. He has long since sworn off marrying anyone, knowing that the Ragnvindr line would die with him. His father would have been disappointed. 

But he would be more disappointed in Diluc’s other activities, like vigilantism, so what’s one more sin to add to the list? Diluc wouldn’t take a wife just to leave her bed cold and empty. He couldn’t marry a woman so that she could wonder if he was out with someone else instead of having dinner with her. He can’t share this bloody and bruised life with anyone. 

He has long since made peace with this fact. 

Within his own estate, Diluc shuts the door behind him and leans his back against it. He slides down until he’s sitting with his back against the wall, head tipped back. He’s grateful all the servants have gone home but Adeline, who he knows is asleep in her room. 

Feeling like a creep, he lifts his hand to his nose and sniffs tentatively. If he concentrates, he can still gather the faint whiff of your perfume lingering where his skin had touched yours. 

Diluc could never be a good husband, but he dreams he could be for you. Silly, impossible dreams, but they get him to dawn.