#OVERLAPPING LINES KILLED ME DEAD Y'ALL

[amoremagnificentbastard]

Larian knew exactly what they were doing when they created Elminster's Library in Sharess' Caress. PLEASE. Overlapping Lines is an in-universe REAL-PERSON ZINE, for Pete's sake!

[whoareyoueventhough]

hey y'all are we ready for me to be normal about Nerdy Prudes Must Die? Are we ready?

(oh and before you tell me I'm over analyzing, that's the point. I have no clue if these are all intentional or "reading to much into it," but I enjoy reading into it a LOT so if that's too much for you, you don't have to read this)

Hahaha I tricked you!!! I'm not normal actually

so the opening number, high school is killing me, is one of my top songs in the whole show. It opens with a riff very similar to Richie's "I'm not a loser," his last sung words. This whole thing has an emphasis on last words so get ready for that. Anyway, we hear a nod to his last words and then we see his corpse/ghost, and we know he's dead because he tells us: "I'm dead. The blood is all but draining from my head. The nightmare started there, but now has spread. My pulse is certainly droppin', and my life is hangin' on by a thread." So we're gonna take this line by line!

"the blood is all but draining from my head" interesting line, as neither of the police officers spoke about a head injury (other than drowning.)

"the nightmare started there, but now has spread" partnered with the previous line, this foreshadows Max pretty well. The nightmare started with his death (blood draining, there was a lot more blood in his death than Richie's) before spreading (Max comes back, killing people. (spreading death? Like it started with his death and spreads.))

"My pulse is certainly dropping, and my life is hanging on my a thread." I'm dead/my life is hanging on? Sounds like you were dead but now you aren't quite. That's familiar.

Ruth enters! Overlapping with "thread" her first line is "I'm scared," which very obviously ties in with her anxiety and stage fright, however, it also contrasts with Richie's first line "I'm dead," saying she's not dead yet, but she's scared she will be, letting the audience know that the students are aware and terrified of the killer. It also adds a false sense of security for the Ruth fans.

"someone comes for me, I'm unprepared" someone comes for HER specifically, implying she's a target for a reason. She's unprepared, she didn't expect to be a target.

"the wait has got me sweatin', cant cut through all the tension" this line goes up with no resolution, unlike the other lines thus far, emphasizing the feeling of terrifying wait, the inevitable (heh) end to her life.

*"it's hell on earth you know" any line said by the ensemble has a double meaning. There are a few exceptions but this is a good rule of thumb. Here it's "waiting for the killer to find me is hell/high school is hell," a fun little joke that twists your expectations the first time through.

"I'm tweetin all about it" the first hint to the audience that the song is about to get a lot less dark.

"I take it blow by blow, but I'd never scream or shout it-" blow by blow, death by death, missing person by missing person. The hatchetfield high students have to take it all, because there isn't anything they can do about it. They just gotta keep going. I think screaming and shouting may be a reference to Grace telling everyone to remain quiet about the incident instead of telling the cops it was an accident, but that one is definitely a stretch.

"passing period is over, find your seats" the easy part of life (pre Maxs death) is over, find your place in the world.

ok that was the first chunk of lyrics, how are we feeling? Good? Good! This is the intermission of this wall of text, go drink some water

"high school is killing me, got me all out of rhythm and my melody" the obvious double meaning here, I fuckin hate high school/ someone is literally killing me in this high school. Also fourth wall break, it's a musical!

"it's not cool, it's a fallacy. It's a cruel and unusual brutality" 'not cool' is referencing that only nerds get killed, but it's a fallacy because everyone is a nerd in his eyes. It's a cruel and unusual way of killing, swirlies and wedgies and a fuck ton of puns.

*"and I can survive it for only so long" I just really like this line, the harmonies are so cool. Anyway, I can only survive so long before I drop out/ I can only survive so long before he gets me. A good callback to Ruth's wait and tension.

"High school is killing me" we aren't going to talk about repeat lines like this one unless they're in a new context.

"I'm so fuckin dead" figuratively/literally. This is also a great callback to Richie's first line, faking out so we might reconsider if he's actually dead.

I have literally nothing to say about Stephanie's verse/ dialogue. It moves the plot and establishes her personality.

"There's nowhere to turn, for the class of twenty twenty one" they can't turn to the cops without confessing to manslaughter. Also it was originally 2026 but got changed, but I don't know why.

"got me all out of rhythm and my melody (my melody, my melody)" despite the addition of lines, the melody stays the same. However, you could say the rhythm has changed because there are more beats.

"A cesspool, faux democracy. It's one hell of a normal abnormality" faux democracy is acting like you actually like Max Jägerman. Hell is foreshadowing his destruction, and a normal (Max bullying nerds) abnormality (he's dead and they're dead)

"I'm so fuckin dead" repeated in the background, emphasizing this line more than Richie saying it at the start of the show

ok here's my favourite part to scream about here we go. This is all speculation I don't know if there's any meat to it but I like to think

"8 o'clock bell ring place my head on my desk" eight: Grace, Peter, Steph, Richie, Ruth, Max, Officer Shapiro, and Mr Lauter. The people involved, who know about the ghost.

"12 o'clock Girl Scout, can't I just get my rest?" Our lovely Girl Scout Grace, the one who came up with the plan and the one who got them in to the Waylon place to begin with. And because she got into the Waylon place, Maxs soul cannot be at rest.

*"3 o'clock countdown, everyday lockdown, classroom arrest! Is god the one giving the test?" My school day ended at three o'clock when I was at school, so I found myself counting down until three pretty often. I feel like a lot of people interpret the "countdown" in this line as a three two one, starting with three, but I think it's a five four three. Three numbers, ending with three. Five nerds, three survivors.

"CHEATERS!!" I just wanted to say that Grace is my favourite and I love her thats all :)

"It's got me all out of rhythm and my melody (my melody, my melody)" this time the melody changes! Wow!

"It's not cool it's a tragedy, I've been thrown to the wolves of this community (*howling*)" Max, people don't think you're cool because you kill people. It's a tragedy. Anyway the fact that the students are howling means they ARE the wolves, everyone thinks that everyone else is out to get them, and the closer they are to Jägerman the truer that sentiment is.

"and I'll still despise it, when I am gone" gone as in graduated/ gone as in dead

"Fuck you biology" the biology that lets you feel pain? The biology that mean you will inevitably die?

*"grace just be cool" "never!" Are your beans not cool, Ms Chastity? Also did I mention I love her

"high school will murder me" getting heavier on the darker implications (you better have been thinking about the implications)...

"Yeah!" ...but lightening it up with a classic "everybody pose" ending! This musical definitely won't take any turns towards horror, look at it! Everybody is posing and saying yeah in unison!

If you read this whole thing please please please reblog it and put something in the tags, I'm obsessed with this musical and would be so happy to know someone read my analysis.

oh and any line with an (*) before it just means I really like that line :)

[who-talks-first]

Okay I'm having trouble finding everyone's posts from Friday. But I just watched chapter 9 and I have some thoughts.

Opening the episode with Din saying he doesn't gamble then ending it with him making a massive gamble was interesting. Although I genuinely don't think he ever does anything he doesn't believe he can do.

The fights in this episode are amazing. Just stunning:

The fight at the arena. The Child ducking when he sees the Birds activate. "I'm not." Really. Din, stop being so goddamn fucking hot, I'm trying to watch the damn show! The whole dangling the gangster part. "You won't die by my hand." (one of the best parts of the character Din Djarin is he is both viciously ruthless and honorable to a fault. I love it!)

The fighting at the end. Both men flying in sync to kill the beast. The Raiders and townsfolk grudgingly working together. But it would have worked better just leaving the loaded bantha in the valley, luring the best out, and detonating it. Fewer civilian deaths but what do I know, I wasn't raised in the fighting corps. And god at the end when Din soars out of the monster's mouth! I that was how the episode would end as soon as I saw the explosives. But still so fucking cool! Is there a name for that trope? I call it the Hercules.

Can we talk for a second about how Din looks in this ep? The strides, the poses and posture. He exudes so much bde that it physically hurts me. Clearly a lot of that is Mandalorian in nature, if those images of Boba Fett from the comics tell us anything (Fett sitting spread in his ship and Din doing it on the wagon at Sorgan have p much the same energy). Just looking fine as hell through the whole thing, even covered in deadly dragon stomach acid.

And can we talk about how much he says this episode? He explains the Tuskens' behavior, translates, plans, barters, smooches doggies, etc. He talks a lot. And I think that's interesting. Din has this reputation as being awkward in social situations and quiet. And like, it's one thing feeling shy around the beautiful widow who's hitting on you. But he says what he means clearly and more or less concisely, including some one-liners and sarcasm. I think he could be described as "laconic" (my character does describe him as such in the thing I'm writing), which means they use as few words as possible to get their point across. Din has no hesitation in speaking, he just prefers to only speak when he has something to say, if that makes sense.

So happy to see Aunt Peli! And Din being like "eh let them work" That's what we call growth.

The casting. I nearly lost my shit when Timothy Olyphant was under the helmet, looking like a whole ass meal. Like that is the most flattering haircut and beard combo I've ever seen on him. Don't @me but he could get it. And poor typecast Leguizamo. Still great tho. He was fun little asshole.

I love when this show doubles down on the western themes:

Vanth's name, accent, role, and general appearance all line up with a small town wild west sheriff. Just showing up and saving the town, so they're like, you're the Lone Ranger now! Olyphant has played western roles before, including voicing The Spirit of the West (an avatar of the legends and ideals of the wild west modeled on Clint Eastwood's western characters) in the animated film Rango (a lot of the Mandalorian's aesthetic comes from Eastwood's movies).

The Mandalorian theme but softly strummed on a Spanish (nylon string) guitar is very evocative of a border town.

The tuskens represent an Indian tribe. The abandoned mining town. The mysterious stranger who comes to town and saves it. Vanth and Din nearly have a quickdraw shootout! The child is hiding in a spittoon for chrissakes!

It really echoes the 7 Samurai theme of chapter 4. I know it's an overlapping, repeating theme in western film. I guess I was surprised to see it again so quickly.

I don't know how I feel about Din speaking Tusken. Signing was one thing. But I just giggled uncomfortably the whole time feeling it was kinda silly (and I had assumed the reason he signed was because humans couldn't speak Tusken). Was that our big hero, heartthrob, and favorite actor Mr. Pascal sitting in the studio making those noises? Rrrhehh rheh rrhehh! I dunno I'm just. Reeling.

Isn't interesting that Din would annihilate the entire populace of Jawas without batting an eye, but he would do almost anything to protect the Sand People? I know there's something to that, about marginalized/eugenicized groups versus like colonialism and whatever vulture like construct you would attribute to the Jawas. But I'm not smart enough to articulate it.

Okay, so the obvious: Boba Fett. Really shocked to see his armor on someone else. I'd already seen the casting of Morrison, so I wasn't like, "is he dead?" and I knew right away this hick didn't take it off him. I wonder if the Jawas stunned him and removed it. Either way, there's going to be hell to pay. I can't wait to see Din and Boba interact; I wonder how they'll respond to each other. And even though Fett should be in his early 40s (I think) he really looks like hell. I mean, I know he's seen some shit. But I wonder what's been up with him in the last decade or so.

Some stuff I thought I noticed, but I need y'all to help me confirm:

Was that Anakin's podracer engine?

Was that C-3PO graffitied on the wall in the dirty city?

Were we supposed to recognize R5?

There's a couple others but I forgot em. I gotta watch it again.

Some questions:

What was the spherical thing the Tusken Raiders recovered from the beast's remains? The scene mirrored the Jawas and the mudhorn's TSUGA! Tsuga tsuga! Tsuuuga! But that didn't look like an egg. If I didn't know better I would swear it was a pearl. (which almost makes sense if you take into account that this guy eats dirt for a living and could have an organ or extra stomach in there like those gross hard balls they used to pull out of ox bellies) Or was it mentioned earlier and I didn't catch it? There was a lot going on.

What are the sand doggies? They're so cute! And that totally establishes our mans as a dog person. Writers, start your fics!

I'm a bit confused about the town's history. How have the people survived for so long with the beast there? Was it the Krayt dragon that wiped it literally off the map? How does the slaving mining guild fit in there?

It really looks in chapter 4 that those krill are native (it's not explicitly stated tho). If no one even knows where Sorgan is and it doesn't have a big export economy, how do these people in the middle of buttfuck nowhere have spotchka?

On that note, how did that city gangster hear about Fett/Vanth? I mean, I dig that he's a collector of beskar'gam, but like, that's still way out there.

The jingling spurs sound in chapter 5 is deliberately obvious when that mysterious figure comes upon Fennec Shand. Can we assume that's Cobb Vanth there? Because clearly, Fett has been without his armor for a while. If it was Vanth, what did he do with her? I don't believe for a second that she's dead. He's not a bounty hunter and he wouldn't have any idea she was valuable since the Guild had abandoned Tatooine. Barter for help/transportation /goods/labor /etc? Also, if it was Vanth, did he witness the whole thing? If so, he knows who Din is. Maybe knows Toro. I dunno. Lots of thoughts. Did he just stumble upon her while traveling back to his village? I forgot the name already lol Mos Pelegrino?

Okay it's nearly 4 am. I genuinely can't remember if I had anything else to say. Please continue to tag your spoilers cuz I will again not get to view the episode until after y'all do next week. But until then, please come yell at me about our favorite show and space boyfriend. I like crazy theories too.

Love y'all. 😘😘😘

[captain-yeet]

Unlikely Ally (Volturi x Child of the Moon!Reader)

Summary: Vampires are facing a new threat - ghoulish supernatural beings have just started to appear in the world and vampires are being killed in cold blood. History books say that only a werewolf can truly put them to rest but the Volturi slaughtered them all. Or so they thought.

Warnings: violence, mild swearing.

Word count: 2.5k words

This was a request I got and I wanted to put my own spin on it to make it more my own thing. Hope y'all enjoy this little thriller-drama-thingy

In all his immortal years, Aro had never seen these strange, ghastly creatures before. It was like they just raised from nowhere but after fetching some lower-level guards and placing them under the command of Alec, some fruitful information was harvested.

The creatures had been spotted throughout history a small handful of times - most books called them ghouls, demonic creatures that feasted on flesh, both dead and alive. The idea of a vampire being destroyed in such a way would have made Aro and his coven laugh if they hadn't witnessed one of their own be eaten by these creatures. Sent out on a mission and with no word of their return, Demetri and Felix had been sent out to discover their coven mate Afton being slowly eaten alive by a ghoul. They managed to scare it off but it was far too late.

Hunched over a stockpile of papers and books, Aro held up an open book in his hand to his fellow Volturi leaders. "I found something."

Caius flitted to his side at once, scowling at the book in Aro's hand. "Anything of use?"

A humourless chuckle left Aro's lips. "There is a way to kill these foul beasts... you won't like it."

"Brother we have no time for personal grievances," Caius sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Say it."

"Children of the Moon," he replied almost airily, looking from Caius to Marcus who was sat in a chair with a pile of books at his feet. "Turns out your old enemies were the most effective weaponry against these creatures."

Caius balked. "You have... this is a mistake."

"It's written in a bloody history book Caius," Marcus groaned. "I had a feeling your execution order would come back one day to spite us."

"It isn't specifically the claws or fangs that are effective but rather the saliva and bacteria," Aro continued, ignoring the bickering. "It has certain properties that act as a poison to them. The only thing is, we eradicated their kind."

Sitting down in a nearby chair, Caius looked as if he wanted to throw up. "So we're doomed."

At that moment, a knock sounded on the masters' study door. Calling out, the receptionist entered, heels clacking against the stone floor which only added to Caius's growing nerves. "Masters, you have a visitor requesting an urgent meeting with you."

"Thank you, dear Gianna, who might it be?"

"Alice Cullen, master. She says she has news on 'someone who can help', whatever that means."

Aro raised from his desk abruptly, startling the poor receptionist. "Then let's not keep her waiting. Brothers, come. Gianna, send word to all the higher guard to be present in the meeting hall immediately."

Alice Cullen sure knew when to appear at the most opportune times. She had come to inform them of two visions she had - the first had vampire and human bodies splayed bloody and cracked about the streets of Volterra, the ghoulish creatures moving in on Marcus and Demetri, the only survivors about to face their doom. Aro pressed her if she could see more beyond that first initial vision, and sure enough, she did.

Alice may have her rightful reservations about the Volturi, but this problem was bigger than all of them. Keeping her hand in Aro's as he watched her visions play in his own mind's eye, he watched the second vision replay.

A human's face appeared, the vision pulling back to see them now standing with Marcus and Demetri. Their eyes then shifted to a sickly yellow-ish colour, along with their facial features, becoming more animalistic, a nose and mouth became a snarling snout like that of a wolf.

There was a werewolf, still living and breathing right now in this world. And the Volturi needed them.

They needed you.

No time was wasted in the search to find you. Sitting cross-legged in a chair in your small cozy little home out in the woodland outskirts of town, your mind drifted off when you heard the approach of a car in your driveway, causing you to frown. Standing up and striding over to the window you peeked at who your surprise guests could be.

Exiting a black SUV were three people; a young man who looked as if he were just a teenager and two older men, both tall but one was lean whereas the other was more built. Their pale skin caught your eye as it glinted faintly in the sunlight.

Vampires. Absolutely fantastic.

You'd met a few vampires over the years - luckily not too many of those encounters ended in a fight but of course, there were a few that wanted to screw with "the strange smelly human.” It never ended well when things went south, and you’d acquired a few scars from venom poisoning. Most of your scars covered your arms, creating their own faintly glimmering sleeve of patterns from bites crisscrossing and overlapping each other. Some were on your shoulders and you had a real nasty scar on your neck. All of them burned when you first got them; werewolf blood didn’t mix well with vampire venom, it wasn’t enough to kill you but it did hurt like a bitch.

Sighing, you gathered up your mettle and opened the door to your home, leaning against the doorframe, watching them approach with careful eyes.

As they approached, you couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at the apparent look of disgust on their face as they breathed in the scent of you. You’d asked a friendly vampire once what you smelt like and they had grinned and said, “Like a wet, stinky dog.”

 “I’m sorry, should I have put on some deodorant before you came?” you called out to them, grinning as their noses wrinkled in disgust.

 “That might have been polite,” the leaner vampire replied smoothly through his teeth. 

Crossing your arms, you pushed your self off the doorframe and walked towards the vampires until you were directly in front of them. The boy balked, overwhelmed with your scent. “What’s the matter, kiddo? Not a fan of dogs?”

He simply glared at you bitterly, lips pressed in a thin line.

Taking the lead, you addressed his companions. “Who are you and why are you here?”

 “You’ve managed to keep yourself hidden from the Volturi well enough,” the larger one commented, ignoring your question. “How do you do it despite apparently not keeping your mouth shut about it?”

 “Not many of your kind who question what I am are capable of speaking after they find out,” you stated flatly, eyes narrowing.

His jaw clenched and he turned his head away from you, exhaling through his nose.

 “We aren’t here to hurt you, or cause trouble,” the leaner one cut in, the voice of diplomacy. “Hear us out.”

You considered your options. If they wanted a fight you were greatly outnumbered, more so by skill than the number of vampires. The larger vampire not only had his eight and muscle mass on his side but he had a vibe about him; like if you picked a fight, he’d know exactly what he was doing. Both he and the lean vampire looked like they’d be skilled in a fight. The boy, you weren’t sure of. If anything, you’d wager that the older ones did the fighting for him.

 “Fine,” you conceded, waving a hand towards your home. “Come inside and we’ll talk. No funny business and you walk in front of me.”

All three of them nodded curtly and led the way into your home.

You learned their names; Demetri, Alec, and Felix. It was Demetri who explained the situation - their leaders had thought your kind extinct, but now they needed a werewolf to counter these new ghouls who had popped up in the world.

 “I’m just one wolf, you realize that right?” you pointed out, a hand pressed against your forehead. “Even if I’m effective against these creatures there’s not enough manpower to take them all down. What are you going to do, jet-set me across the word and airdrop me into every nook and cranny where these things live?”

Felix sighed. “Luckily they’ve only been appearing in Italy, so far. But, we have taken that into consideration. You’re truly the only one? No family members are Children of the Moon?”

“Children of the Moon,” you chuckled darkly, “god that’s such an old term. I prefer werewolf or lycan personally - less of a mouthful.” Looking up from your hunched position on the couch, you locked eyes with the large vampire. “No, it skipped a few generations in my family. The last wolf was my great-grandmother.”

 “But will you help?” Alec pressed the issue. He was in the corner of the room, pinching the bridge of his nose like he had a bad migraine. “We have little choice but to come to one of you for help. And you’re the only one that can permanently kill one of these things.”

 “I’m aware. You’ve told me so.”

 “Do you not care?” he snapped, ignoring Demetri’s warning hiss from the couch. “We’re at our wits end here. Either you help us, or-”

In a flash, your emotions got the better of you and you were no longer sitting but standing upright, baring your teeth. Your eyes turned to the signature eery yellow of a werewolf. “Or what, dickhead? You’ll kill me, I guess is the answer?”

Demetri came in between the hostile space, hands raised like he was approaching a wild animal. “Let’s keep our cool, everyone.”

 “You won’t kill me,” you said cooly, eyes still glowing menacingly. “You need me. If you kill me, then traveling all the way here was pointless. This conversation is pointless and you know it.”

Alec huffed and looked away. Huh, argument won.

Demetri lowered his hands. “So, will you come?”

You looked at him, then Felix and Alec, then back to Demetri. “On one condition; after this is all done and we live, leave me alone.”

Felix let out a short laugh. “I think those terms are fair, don’t you?” he looked to Demetri with an amused smirk.

The more diplomatic vampire nodded and held out his hand to you.

A peace offering. But more than that, a gesture to seal the deal.

You shook his hand, keeping eye contact, the glow fading from your eyes as he gazed back calmly with his red ones. “Let’s not waste any time. You might wanna travel with the windows down.”

Within 24 hours of entering Volterra and meeting the elders of the vampire coven, screams filled the city as the ghoul slunk their way into the premises. Alice Cullen’s vision was mirrored perfectly; human bodies were splayed in grotesque manners across the town. It appeared that the masquerade of living under the radar of human was long broken. Now was the time to fight.

 “Ready?” Felix asked you, a keen look in his eyes. He nodded to Demetri and Marcus, who had joined his side. Each of the leaders was paired off with high-level guards for protection.

 “Born ready,” you replied breathlessly, deeply inhaling, the smell of blood and decay heavy in the air around you. Shrugging out of your jacket, you gave a sheepish smile to your vampire brothers-in-arms. “Ever seen a werewolf shift?” When they shook their heads warily, you rubbed the back of your neck awkwardly. “Well, you’re about to.”

Letting the beast take over was second nature to you. When you first shifted it always hurt Limbs cracking and growing longer, you hunched over to the ground as you shifted into a more beastly form. Felix and Demetri, along with Marcus and a few low ranked guards watched in fascination and horror as fur sprouted across your body and your face took on more wolfish features.

Stretching taller than even Felix at 6′7 as you stood on your hind legs, you let out a haunting roar and sprung into action.

“Well shit, would you look at that?” Felix whispered, a shocked expression on his face. Not often did he come across someone - or something - taller than himself.

 “Feeling a little threatened, my friend?” Demetri teased, earning a growl from Felix.

It was a long, weary battle. Many lower guards fell to the ghouls and even Felix was nearly taken out by a few who had dog-piled on top of him, pinning him to the ground. As soon as you saw your hulking companion fall you ran on all fours and leaped at the ghouls, ripping them off Felix in one fell swoop with a giant clawed hand.

 “Find Demetri and Marcus!” he barked at you, holding his side. A sickly ooze was dripping through his clothes.

 “You’re hurt!” You grabbed him and assessed the damage. The cut left a disgusting mess but it wasn’t deep enough to penetrate his granite skin; he’ll live.

He placed a hand on your shoulder and firmly pushed you back. “I’ll be fine, but you must go! Find them, I have no clue who’s survived and who’s dead.”

 “Okay,” you replied, “but not alone. We can’t afford to split up now.”

He mulled over your suggestion for a second. “Very well. Then let’s go!”

It was as Alice Cullen saw in her vision. Demetri crouched defensively in front of Marcus, surrounded by ghouls. Demetri’s hand was hanging on by a thread. Just when one leaped in for the kill, a wolf and a vampire intervened, your jaws securing the killing blow. Felix used his enhanced strength to throw the other ghouls aside as you tore into each of them, one by one but quickly and effectively.

The vision and the books were correct after all; they did need you and if you hadn’t agreed, it would have been a bloodbath. Many had fallen to the ghouls but by what seemed like dumb luck many of the core members of the Volturi lived. The cleanup was a hell of a job and the Volturi had to do it quickly before authorities came. In the meantime, you were escorted to the outskirts of Volterra by Demetri, Felix, and Marcus.

 “I have to admit, I’m very, very grateful that you agreed to come,” Demetri chuckled, letting free the tension from the battle. He held a firm grip on his wrist as he walked leisurely with you.

 “As we all are,” Marcus echoed Demetri’s statement. It was the first time the elder vampire had spoken to you directly. “You have my thanks.”

 You nodded to the older vampire. “I’m glad I could help. Hopefully, that’s the last of them.”

 “You fought well,” Felix complimented. “It’s not every day I get a chance to fight alongside a werewolf.”

You chuckled, grinning at the large vampire. “Same to you, you fought well.”

 “Years of experience,” he added with a wink.

As promised, they let you go peacefully. If the trouble with ghouls ever arose again you promised to return and help them once more but for the meantime, it was back home to your cozy little house in the woods. Life as a werewolf was a solitary one, now, however, you left Italy with the knowledge that the supernatural world was a little bit safer and you a couple of unlikely friends in a dire situation.

I’m glad I came and helped, you thought to yourself, content with the end resolution to this trouble. But now, I really need a nap. And a hot shower.

[ckret2]

King Ghidorah?

I got two of these asks lmao. I choose to believe it's two people who wanna know how I feel about Ghidorah rather than tumblr screwing up.

How I feel about this character

Listen, there's nothing cooler than a three-headed lightning*-breathing dragon from outer space. You've got the objectively best mythological creature ever—the dragon, which is the best because it's a lizard and/or snake, and also flies—and, on top of that, it's an ALIEN, and then you triple that. Best character concept. 10/10.

*Gravity beam shmavity beam. I know lightning when I see it.

And then, on top of that, they've got this wildly underexplored capacity for pure, undiluted angst, the likes of which most people would never think of applying to a character concept that seems tailor-made to be airbrushed on the side of a van—but there it is anyway. They might be pets that were deliberately abandoned in order to mutate them into monsters. Or they might be one-time would-be alien conquerors who were then conquered and mind-controlled by every wave of would-be alien conquerors to come since. Or they might just be the only aliens alone on a world where even the monsters have other monsters to hang out with. And there's nothing I love more than taking characters whose entire character concept is an answer to the question "what would be really really cool?" and then slathering them in emotional depth.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I came out of KOTM, looked at what fandom was doing with Ghidorah, went "mmm I'm not sure about this sticking-them-with-Rodan thing," and it took y'all all of five minutes to suck me into Rodorah anyway.

I'm determined to drag more folks into Ghidorah/Gigan with me, they have such wonderful potential to be horrid world-flattening alien sadists together, and also empathize over being extremely physically modified and mind-controlled.

While I'm intrigued, theoretically, by the potential of Godzilla/Ghidorah, I've yet to see anyone do it in a way that hits precisely what I'm looking for. ... Or, for that matter, even vaguely what I'm looking for. So I'll hold onto that one and maybe someday someone will make it Just Right.

I also ship the heads with each other due to the fact that Wouldn't That Be Messed Up. What if one head likes another but the other doesn't return the feelings. They've just gotta live with that knowledge and they can't get away from each other. What if you had a crush on someone and a mad scientist saw it and went "ah, these ones are compatible!" and stitched you together and you were stuck like that for the next million years. That's messed up right. That's super messed up.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

It's on my ship list, but Ghidorah & Gigan is also my top platonic pair for Ghidorah, for the same reasons.

But going with someone who isn't on the list! Okay quick partial movie summary for those of y'all that haven't seen 1991 Godzilla vs King Ghidorah: in Heisei, King Ghidorah is made by time-traveling humans from the future, including one named Emmy Kano who explains that dorats are genetically engineered pets with empathic abilities, and interacts with them the most before abandoning them in the past to be nuked into King Ghidorah. They fight Godzilla, Godzilla rips off Ichi and kills them, Emmy goes into the future to get their corpse a cyborg resurrection with a new middle head, and goes back to the past with Mecha King Ghidorah while serving as Mecha Ichi's pilot and commanding them as a whole. They die again defeating Godzilla but Emmy survives and goes home.

ALL THAT TO SAY: it's never stated, but I like to headcanon that the dorats were Emmy's pets—or at least that she was in charge of taking care of them until they could be mutated and they FELT like they were her pets; that they were broken-hearted when she abandoned them in the past; that they could sense Emmy nearby due to their Unexplained Empath Powers the first time they fought Godzilla; and that when they were brought back from the dead to find Their Owner Was Back and fighting alongside them they were overjoyed to see her again and do anything she wanted.

So, Emmy & Ghidorah, because the idea of these sweet tiny pets being turned into a big terrifying monster but at heart remaining sweet tiny pets around their owner enchants me. I do plan on writing a substitute-Emmy into my KOTM Ghidorah's backstory.

My unpopular opinion about this character

"hey didn't you sorta talk about this yesterday" yeah because while trying to answer this question i got distracted by an overlapping topic and had to go make a post about it in order to stop thinking about it

This is sort of an overall one about KOTM, but vaguely sticking to the parts of it applicable to Ghidorah:

So we've got all these titans that have been alive for like, five minutes. Ghidorah's been awake probably a sum total of four hours. Until now nobody even knew that he was from a different planet, so I mean, Monarch's got less than zero information on him. The only three things he's been observed doing so far are 1) trying to kick Godzilla's ass, 2) successfully kicking Rodan's ass, and 3) yelling so loud a dozen plus other titans wake up.

And then this dude whose defining character traits are "hating Godzilla and other titans in spite of the mounds of scientific evidence that they're great for the environment" and "deciding that he knows everything better than the actual experts in the room who have dedicated their lives to these subjects and pigheadedly shouting over them with his own just-walked-in-the-room ideas," he looks at this situation and "oh, this Ghidorah, he's definitely a rival alpha to Godzilla," he says, as if the "alpha dog" theory hasn't been thoroughly and painfully debunked in the very wolves he studies, and as if it makes sense for seventeen-odd different species who might never have been awake and alive during the same era until now to not only have identical alpha-based social hierarchies but also share a social hierarchy across species and predator/prey lines, and as if it makes sense for an alien animal who didn't evolve on Earth to have anything in common with the local animals, including an understanding of and agreement with their local hierarchical structures...

And we're just... as a fandom, we're really just collectively accepting everything Man Who Became A Drunk And Abandoned His Family Because He Doesn't Know How To Express Any Emotion But Anger says about this hyper-masculine social structure that he's projected onto these wildly inhuman species? As if what he says is the gospel truth? Everything that gets said about alphas and kings, we're just assuming that the titans—who again, are not human, and may have never communicated with humans—have the exact same mental constructs about "alpha dog" theory and monarchy that humans do? We're assuming animals have concepts of kingship identical to ours? We're assuming that the theories that these humans tossed out within the first few hours of seeing most of these species move for the first time are 100% correct, even though in real life we'd been observing wolves for literal millennia before we came up with "alpha dog" theory and then within a century figured out it was totally wrong? Really? That's what we're going with? Not questioning whether anything about the humans' assumptions might have been wrong?

Okay.

So anyway my interpretation of Ghidorah is a hypnotic siren who doesn't know or care about Earth leadership, solely wants to destroy Earth for funsies, and only has a rivalry with Godzilla because Godzilla doesn't want the planet that he is living on to be destroyed and happens to be the sole dude tough enough to beat Ghidorah up.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Mecha King Ghidorah Mecha King Ghidorah Mecha King Ghidorah.

But unlike other folks, I don't really want him to show up in Godzilla vs. Kong. I want that conflict to be the focus of the movie. Throw in MKG, and Godzilla and Kong's rivalry—whatever it's based on—has to get truncated to deal with this other threat, and MKG won't get a whole movie to shine as the primary villain. I'd like to save him for a future movie, where he can be billed as the primary threat rather than something that swoops in to interrupt someone else's movie.

[thoughtfulpaperback]

Game of thrones fandom...can y'all just get over it.

Now before someone comes for me I dont mean get over things you percieve as racist and/or sexist because I think for the most part it is unconsciously done but we still need to call it out. What I mean is we need to get over ourselves and stop attacking the writers for things that are kind of obvious or at least not so out of the realm of possibility. Just because you wanted it to be different doesnt mean it is bad writing.

Mad Dany- I like dany ok. But for years people have been saying that there is a possibility she would go crazy from the books alone. It isnt new. it isnt some crappy add on to the last season. Could they have made it more obvious? Yes, but at the same time no. The whole point of ASOIAF is that everyone is playing. Everyone has different interests. It doesnt matter if you are honorable, kind, or the "rightful" heir, at some point your interests are going to conflict with another players. You have to do shady thing to stay in power that of course arent going to seem shady to you because you are the hero of your story. But we literally have been following the starks, lannisters, and one Targaryen(until reveal in show) seperately. Emphasis on the seperate. Yes they have been overlapping with the starks and lannisters obviously in the beginning with the ned event and the war of the five kings. But we follow each starks characters individual journey and they are the heroes in thier stories. Now they are all together, so now we have to draw the lines who is the hero now because thier stories have finally converged in this point. It could have been done better if it was longer, if we had gotten more episodes or seasons, true. But we didnt. The sand snake stuff was bad writing. In that I can buy that the Dornish plot would not pan out, but like other than oberyn dorne and the sand snakes seemed unnecessary. Like they cut out stone heart but had to leave the sand snakes in? Like I on some level I know we needed to see Dorne and have Marcella die but like it wasnt interesting enough to feel like it was important other than to kill her off. So that is why I call it bad writing. Good writing to me means that the events make sense in the larger world and are interesting.

Missandei's death- y'all I am just as disappointed that they killed off one of the few important characters who happens to be a POC. At the same time, like I figured it would have to happen. Dany has to be pushed over the edge like her father was. Well she doesnt have to l, but like it was hinted that the mad king yes was crazy l, but like he wasnt born that way, he went mad due to paranoia and not getting what he wanted (speculation). So dany to become mad needs to feel angry, paranoid, afraid to lose it all, and at the same time has to have loses. All of her people are from essos so of course that means the POCs are on the chopping block which sucks hard. Worse than that though is that with casting being in thier power we should have had more POCs. Granted since everybody in general is on the chopping block (people have been being slaughtered (small folk and regular people not vying for the throne) so more POCs might just have meant seeing more POCs dead, but I mean they have diverged enough from the books that they could have given us something. Cast a POC as hot pie of something. I dont care I just wish they would have tried to give us something so we didnt have to just assume all these POCs are going to die in service to the plotline for our completely white main cast. So my take on this isnt that it is bad writing, but ya it unfortunately follows a pattern on television which disregards POC character.

Gendrya- what did y'all expect literally one of the scenes in the book is of the two fooling around (non sexual) while a song about a girl rejecting finery and wanting to be wild. I knew what to expect. Arya doesn't want to be a "Lady" that has never been her. To except his proposal, to ever accept being the wife of a noble lord would be so counter to everything she is. She could totally be his lover. The song in the book scene sets that up, but she isnt going to pull a sansa and want to run a house hold even if she is allowed to fight. Because it isnt about the fighting. It is about the freedom. Being free to do what you want and go wherever. Which you cannot as a noble person. Not bad writing, sucks but not bad.

Jaime and Brienne- Heartbreaking. Yes but not bad writing. Given Maggie the frogs prophecy, and Cersei's speech to ned (books) jaime going back to kings landing or even back to Cersei isnt out of character. I love the way D&D described jaime's relationship to Cersei as an addiction. Addicts can relapse, it doesnt matter how far they've come or how much they have changed or grown there is always a chance of falling back on these old behaviors. Jaime and Cersei have always been together, she brings out the worst in him. I believe, have always that he loves brienne or at least had feelings for her in the books, but as Cersei said to ned (books) her and jaime are tied together. She came out first and him not far behind.

Just my take but. I dont think any of this is bad writing but that doesnt mean it is the best. It could have been better. A lot better