#SU was also 100% a victim of this. Just not in the same way.

[ask-artsy-oncie]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Disney TVA isn't a good avenue for story-based shows because it doesn't care about good storytelling. Telling a quality story isn't the network's goal, so they clash with this genre of show way more often than not.

Like, there's a reason why episodic, slice-of-life shows tend to last so long on their channels and also usually exist with much less controversy - when you're working with the smallest snippets of story that executives can demand you drop if they're not "safe" or "consistent with the brand", all without really impacting an over-arching plot, you gain a lot more staying power than a show where leaking a single episode, or "accidentally" airing episodes out of order, or rushing the ending due to sudden cancelation can actually ruin the viewing experience.

When you get a company that offers you a "choice" between a season 3 or a movie, a company that carelessly leaks information, a company that cancels you when you need more screen time to wrap up certain plot points properly, you suffocate your showrunner and your crew when they're just trying to make it all work. Gravity Falls, Ducktales, Amphibia, and The Owl House were ALL victims of this network's shitty practices (Star VS was its own can of worms, that I don't feel escaped these practices but also had other problems that affected it more, especially since it very miraculously got more screen time than any of the other shows mentioned) and their stories suffered for it at various points of the shows' airing.

I have said this - SO MANY TIMES to the Ducktales fandom specifically lol - but when you decide to engage with a story-based DTVA series, you're very, VERY likely going to have to meter your expectations just solely due to it being produced by Disney. Because Disney has now a long history of mistreating and mishandling its story-based shows. Now that The Owl House has ended and people are talking about this again, I want to spread that reminder around, again:

It's okay to criticize these shows and their ability to tell a story properly, but PLEASE try to understand the context and working conditions the crew was under when they were making it, when you're drafting your criticism. A lot, and I mean a LOT, of the problems people complain about the most (and often blame the crew for) are issues that none of them had control over, or were simply doing their best to work around whenever Disney steps in to fuck things up. If you're going to engage with public criticism, or, more worryingly, engage with the crew on social media, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to understand how the behind-the-scenes of the show operated.

It just genuinely boggles my mind sometimes - we live in an era where people working in the Television Animation Industry have more of a voice than they EVER had, to detail the issues and constraints networks have dealt to them. Social media has allowed so much mistreatment and mishandling of crews and shows to come to light. And yet!!! So many people are given this avenue of understanding!! And they don't!!!!! Listen!!!!!!! And instead they use it to yell at showrunners and crewmembers.

I'm begging y'alls to at least develop some pattern recognition with this godforsaken network. Please do that at least.

[textualviolence]

Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao's Lovers Fuckability ranking

Level minus zero: Lan Xichen. Does not have even a shred of a fatherly relationship to JGY. Treats him like an equal. Is kind to him. Respects him as a person and genuinely likes who he is. Probably inspires JGY to become celibate so they can be chaste together. Some erotic tension if they don't fuck, brushes of hands, purity and chastity causing a rising of tension etc. But there's no way they can have actual sex outside of maybe the hiding from the Wen context. I bet they write poems to each other though. That's very nice. 2/10

Level 1: Nie Mingjue pre-Meng Yao's dismissal. Is technically probably Meng Yao's first dubious fatherbosslover figure. I do imagine he had a certain degree of guilt about it which isn't hot for anyone being victimized by an older authority figure. Definitely probably a lot of the sex they had and especially the kind they didn't have hinged on the fact that Meng Yao looks exactly like Nie Huaisang. I think if NMJ had been willing to cross that line and actually made Meng Yao kinda sorta pretend to be his little brother he would be further up the ranking, alas. The most morally dubious it gets is that Meng Yao is his servant and social inferior and probably aged around 15. However the incredibly high amount of approval he probably dished out regularly and easily alongside sex and orders did prepare the grounds for Meng Yao to then crave that kind of validation all the time and go to ridiculous lengths for it. 4/10

Level 2: Wen Ruohan. Will groom Meng Yao without subjecting him to his weird morality complex. WRH is just a bad guy and doesn't care. Also will favor Meng Yao over his actual blood children, partly as a manipulation tactic and also because his children kind of suck. Definitely loves to play people against each other and will use the trading of sexual favors as a political tool. Actually old enough to be his dad and is also in the same social position as his dad, currently beating his dad in a war, and acting as his dad dangling promises of legitimization in between throne room handjobs and prisoner torture sessions. Can humiliate both NMJ and JGS. Honestly the ideal situation. Too ideal? It's just too straightforward. Give yourself over to me body and soul and do my evil bidding and in exchange i'll give you all the validation you crave. That's so reliable that its suspicious and kind of a turn off. Where's the excitement and rollercoaster of unpredictable reward/punishment? 6/10

Level 5: Nie Mingjue post-Meng Yao's dismissal: No more little brother issue now it's all about how NMJ just wants to kill him at all cost and will risk political disaster in order to do so. NMJ who used to shower him with affection and validation, telling him all the time that he was proud of him and what a good job he was doing as a deputy, now wants him dead. The dick must be incredible. They probably don't have sex often & its never not violent & dangerous, but the high of it lasts for days. It doesn't lessen the rage in the long term but it evacuates it in the short term & where before the sex was coexisting with the validation now the sex IS the validation. Which makes it hot no matter how unvalidating its actually meant to be. Half those bruises he's hiding under his sleeves aren't from Madam Jin let me tell you. Plus he's writing poems to Lan Xichen and strongly considering the benefits of a chaste existence in between. The guilt and hypocrisy and having to lie to Lan Xichen's concerned and loving face when he sees the bruises is only making it more intense. 9/10

Level 7: Mo Xuanyu: He gets to become his dad(s) and take advantage of the willingness and admiration of a beautiful youth who would do anything for him. On top of that they're related. It's 100% reenactment power reversal fantasy combined with the horror of his marriage to Qin Su finding a concrete twisted sexual outlet. This time he fucked a half-sibling on purpose!!! And then he can dismiss him for sexual impropriety the second he comes to his senses and be rid of the sin forever which was half of the need. And then he can feel even more like his dad. 8/10

Level 10: Jin Guangshan: What more can I say. He slaps with one hand and caresses with another. Literally makes Jin Guangyao do the most secret taboo vile political tasks he can't offload onto anyone else and then refuses to touch him because of it until Meng Yao performs some kind of cleansing action, for which he is briefly rewarded with mild approval and even certain shows of affection, but never outside of the bedroom. Keeps a large retinue of whores and plays them off against each other, includes Meng Yao in the games to make sure he feels like one of them. No way to ever feel too comfortable in the certainty he has his father's anything because any shred of positive interaction is extremely hard-earned, unless he shows sign of wanting to leave or waver in his loyalties, in which case his father WILL pull him back with more love and care than he's ever shown which will feel like a drug. I bet he had more than one fight with NMJ over the issue of which groomer his son was to listen to and he won everytime. One show of possessiveness equivalent to 10'000 hours of basic respect in Meng Yao's heart. 10/10

[weaselbeaselpants]

Making my own post and not linking OP because, genuinely I don't want them to get harassment for this

It's to the person who made this post

Full disclosure, for the UMPEENTH time: I don't give a rats ass about what Lily thinks about fictional characters. I used to. Then I met/knew/still know genuinely nice and critical people who hold the opinions Lily has but aren't Lily. I have friends who hate Steven Universe for justifiable reasons, same with SPOP. I personally dislike a lot of Friendship is Magic decisions and so do my mutuals like me. That's not the problem. Perhaps the reason people know OF Lily Orchard is through her -bad- media analysis, but it's not why people come away hating her, and it's DEFINITELY not the reason people are listening to the testimony of her victims and being rightfully horrified.

People talked of and about Lily Orchard for the same reason sane people clown on Mr. Enter; she's toxic and abusive. She's a bully and her 'idgaf' attitude is bad for fandoming and for critical culture. There's 'problematic' like critikal or breadtubers and then there is "lol fuck the haters who all want to r@pe me anyway, they're all n*zis anyway including the bipoc folks who I'm sure aren't real bipoc anyway. Now I'm going to police how other people take back slurs and how 'queer' is inherently offensive. I'm the REAL VOICE OF JUSTICE."

I called Lily the worst of "anti" fandom rhetoric because I mean it. She is a 'social-justice warrior' in the meanest ugliest sense of that word -ugly enough that basically everyone who's been called that by actual chuds will describe her as one. She talks over other people doing social justice, polices how other people use it, and only really cares about how it affects her. Frequently when people leave her fandom it's because Lily and her crew very cruelly shooed them away for not fitting Lily's exact interests and opinions 100%. Frankly I kind of hate that her attitude is labeled as 'radical' or 'anarchonistic' because she's 'unapologetic'. No. Real anarchists are people like decolonizetheleft or heritageposts --those two are both very blunt and quick to bite back if you throw them bullshit, but they also are not vitriolic and know that people are complex even when they post stuff other people wouldn't. Lily's not even a good call-out machine. She's nothing on HBomberGuy or D'Angelo Wallace or Shanespear. I'm still mad at her, not for SU, but how she responded to other critics of SU who told her not to joke about Rebecca Sugar being a fascist. She told them, some of them Jewish people, that they're just butthurt at her ripping and not her trying to talk over other people. I'm still mad at her for siding with a n*zi until she realized that looked bad for her and her cruelty towards other lgbtq people over how they use the word "queer".

She's been doing this for YEARS. She dropped in on old brony discourse this exact same way and it fucking sucked because, you know, people in fandom or the show itself DID do shitty things. We needed genuine help weeding out the bad actors around us; it sucked that one of said bad actors was trying to speak for us. Now imagine this but amplified to a woman with some native heritage trying to talk down how other people see and talk about THEIR cultures. It's always been a massive headache.

Britt has also been around for years though and so has all the evidence and trails left of Stockholm before Lily decided to redact it completely. Lily absolutely wrote that. She absolutely wrote cp. I was there for back when she still proudly referenced it.

"Why don't you move on and stop obsessing?"

Believe me I'd LIKE to. It's that extra element of worrying behavior that goes beyond annoyance with a youtuber like Lindsay Ellis or Quinton Reviews that has kept me always watching from the sidelines. If I be an "anti" (frankly, every proshipper I've ever met who's seen the receipts from Stockholm has the same take as me, so idk) for having 0 tolerance fictional material of children than it would be hypocritical not to hold 'one of my own' up to those standards especially when she DOESN'T own up to writing it when I know for a fact she did.

Fuck lousy chudheads and Vaushsluts and general KFcreeps who think any of this is funny and 'just lolcow behavior' and misgender Lily while they do it. Fuck transphobes.

Transphobes, chuds and ''stalkers'' are not the people ILoveKimPossibleALot brought into her video. Op, I genuinely hope you get away from Lily's influence. You deserve better. For now though I'm putting you and anyone else who unironically stans Lily on block. I am done hearing anymore excuses for this woman's character. I can't hear that anymore than I can't hear actual bigots use Lily to besmerch others -other trans folks, other liberals, other disabled people like me. I'm done.

[dandyshucks]

realizing i wanted to ask - how did u first fall in love w/ guzma (irl) ? :o (@dmclr)

ougghh (/happy) Clara you always ask such good questions omg 🫶

umm... okay so. i should give a general "abuse CW" label i guess fjfkdl but I'll keep it vague and to a minimum of mention! also putting it below the cut because I RAMBLED SO MUCH, SORRY IN ADVANCE

tumblr kind of went crazy for the guy when the anime finally introduced him in 2019 (it took SO long to get to him, over 100 episodes in the su/mo arc 😭) and at first i didnt think much of him rly, but then somehow eventually (a few months later) i found out through osmosis that he's got trauma going on and my ears kind of perked up a bit LOL

(underwater just to set it apart from the rest of the post so it doesnt blend in and get confusing fndkdl) screenshot of the post i rbed where i first mentioned liking him fdsjkl

around the same time, i was having some realizations about my own experiences with childhood and family etc, and there was some other stuff going on in my life (also. the plague started so uh. that too.) that was just kind of culminating in like. A Lot of stress and fear and stuff. so seeing this character who has experienced somewhat similar things was ... comforting in a way? shared experience or something, idk. plus I've always been a sucker for misfit archetype characters, especially if they make a little family out of other misfits :')

another big part of the intrigue (because my crushes always start with a sort of 👀 phase fdsjkl, I have to think somebody is interesting in some way and want to find out More about them, and then feelings develop from there) for me was just the fact that he was Angry. like... the way I've personally learned to deal w abuse has been to always be meek and fawn. so seeing someone who went in the opposite direction, to become angry and strong and defiant instead, was SO fascinating to me and I was very curious to learn more about him.

so I looked into him more, loved what i found, related to him a bit, accidentally by some random occurrence stumbled upon some bf audios of him somehow??, wished he were real so we could hang out, thought about how I'd act around him and started to feel a little flustered about it ... it's all downhill from there once u reach that point smh 😔😔 (/silly)

for a long time i didn't really fully step into s.elfship territory w him - i dabbled a little but he wasnt The Focus™ in my brain yet. also we (as a system) have had a host change since then, so there was a previous juno that was not Me (even though we kept the same main name between us two parts), and they didn't like the guy as much as Current Me does djfkdl - theres also some ... relatively significant personality differences between the two versions of Juno, so I think Juno2.0 (me) meshes with him a lot better now than Juno1.0 did in 2020/2021

and then last year, i found and joined the s.elfship community and um. I absolutely did not mean for him to become The Main Guy and never would've guessed he would be, but... well,, we dont always plan things i suppose, feelings just happen 😭

anyways. it maybe seems kind of messed up but his ~tragic backstory~ is what drew me in initially bc it helped me feel less alone and scared when i was Going Through some pretty major shit lol. and then after that, i just kind of took the character base that pkmn had in place and ran with it to build on it and sort of make my own version of him that I could be friends with and eventually fell in love with ^^;;

TL;DR it was a mix of timing, similar history of abuse, intrigue bc of our opposite reactions to the abuse, and um... the way he is like,, strong and builds a safe place for other young ppl who feel unsafe or not accepted in general society fdsjkl

i get embarrassed talking abt it bc ppl seem to really hate it when abuse victims are weak in any way and need help, but ... i do really like that he is strong in some ways and would be able to give me a sort of safe place to let my guard down and receive help and care (as shown by the way he provides a safe place for the grunts, all the misfits and outcasts of Alola) ^^;;;; honestly kind of a Big part of it for me (and for pretty much all my s.elfship dynamics) is that he is able to protect me and care for me, because I have not like. experienced that ever. at least not properly. when your parents are the ones being abusive, you not only do not experience protection and care but you're also being actively hurt in some way by the people who are supposed to keep you safe. so to be freely given care and safety is kind of crazyyyy to me LOL, that is something i like a lot about him :')

OKAY RAMBLE OVER. i really tried to keep this as short as i could but,, brevity is not a strength of mine (esp when it comes to him) LOL. THANK YOU for the question !!! its fun to look back at how it all happened tbh :]

[chevelleneech]

Thoughts for 7x08-8x01

(This is basically just a rambling of thoughts. Read if you want, message me if you want to expand or discuss any part of it, but leave me alone if you’re just going to bitch.)

I have no idea what to expect tomorrow!

Tbh, I hope there’s serious scenes between Amir and Bobby, and I hope Amir isn’t like the kid from s2. I’d actually really enjoy it being a hostage situation, but with Bobby eventually talking him down while at the same time unfortunately walking himself back into a darker mindset.

Because I can’t imagine meeting someone whom you physically altered in a horrible accident, wherein you also killed people, wouldn’t trigger something. And knowing how su*c*dal Bobby was in the first two seasons, Amir being one of Bobby’s victims would be seriously hard on his growth. So it would be interesting to me to see Bobby forgive Amir for whatever he may do, because he is back to feeling like he got more time and happiness than he deserved anyway.

I don’t want Bobby to die, mind you, but ending the season with him seriously injured would be the first one I think we’ve had where we have to wait a seasonal hiatus to find out if the character survives. Tim said he doesn’t want to kill anyone off, but that doesn’t mean the actors can’t choose to leave. If not an injury though, I think ending the season with both Bobby and Amir trapped in a fire would also work.

(This just made me think of how I would have restructured a lot of this season. Maybe I’ll make a post about not?)

Anyway, yeah I’m really intrigued to see how Bobby’s storyline will wrap up the season, because I was feeling like he and Athena got away a little too easy from the cruise ship arc. A lot of this season has felt one and done, with no lasting emotional turmoil. Eddie is gearing up to take some damage, but Bobby already said he essentially overstayed his welcome when he was willing to hold Athena up so she wouldn’t drown. Having that feeling circle back around after being confronted with someone he almost killed? Yes, good.

Circling back to Eddie, I would like to see him fall apart, but I also think I’m in the minority here who isn’t sure it needs to be horrible. I think for as uncertain of himself as Eddie clearly is, he is also self-aware because he has to be for Chris. So what would be most interesting to me, is seeing him lose Chris. Not custody wise, but trust wise.

I think Chris is at an age (12-14) where kids start to see their parents as people, and him finding out Eddie is cheating on his already relatively new girlfriend whom Chris likes, with a woman who either looks like his dead mother or who his dad is convinced looks like her, would be such a great way to integrate Chris into the back portion of the season while also allowing him to grow up as well.

Gavin is the only kid on the show who doesn’t get mature storylines, and while I understand his contract might be different or his health may prevent him from being on set as often, I do think they can give him bigger pieces to play with now. So for me, seeing Chris tell Eddie he doesn’t like who he has become, would be fantastic. It would also tie perfectly into Eddie feeling isolated from his friends and family. Not to mention, if Chris is the one who calls his grandparents to ask for help for Eddie, Eddie is 100% going to think they came to take him away, and lash out more.

So I don’t want Eddie to completely break the way he did before, but having to realize his mistakes and excuses don’t affect just him, would be a good story. And it still leaves room for him potentially discovering feelings or a lack thereof for women in a way he never allowed himself to confront.

With Buck… my mind is blank. I’ve said before I think they wrapped up his coming out arc way too fast, so now he is one of the only lead characters not doing anything. I want more for Athena, but I feel like she could end up part of Bobby’s storyline. Hen and Karen are settling in with Mara, and I honestly think that’s the most consistent plots this season. I am tired of that being like their entire journey, however. They’ve been wanting a second child for like six seasons. Tim needs to let them keep Mara and move on to something that brings Karen further into the fold as a series main.

Back to Buck! Idk. I think we should have seen him single this season or at least be friends with Tommy as they built up to their relationship. Even if it’s meant to be fleeting, some form of a foundation would’ve been nice. I already said I think the jealousy arc was pointless and didn’t do the job it was meant to, if we’re speaking specifically on BuckTommy. As the ship itself is sailing solely on the fact that two men kissed. Because again, Buck has done nothing this season except realize he’s bisexual and tell people, which took two episodes out of ten. Now he’s just around, and kisses Tommy when they need a reason for Tommy to be on screen.

Thus far, nothing about this character development took its time. Nothing about his budding relationship unfolded as we got to know Tommy or what Buck is actually feeling about being queer and being out. Maybe that’ll come within the next two episodes, but I doubt it. And if BuckTommy are still together at season end, s8 will start with them having more development than what they ended with. Unless the season itself picks up at the same spot due to a cliffhanger.

So I guess what I want for Buck is for him to talk to Tommy. For them to end up in an emergency together or for Tommy to be there to pick up the pieces if something happens to Bobby or Eddie, and Buck breaks down about it. I want a reason for why Tommy was kept around, basically. Because he and Buck being acquaintances who kissed did not require this much screen time for Tommy.

Idk. I feel like Tim and company were so afraid of doing the coming out wrong, they ended up doing it poorly. An immediate potential boyfriend for a character they’re tired of writing revolving relationships for, doesn’t make sense. As shown by the lack of development since episode 4.

We didn’t see them realize they were attracted to each other in 7x04. They didn’t even try to become friends in 7x05 as they worked out a date. Tommy didn’t stick around for 7x06 (because that episode was about Madney), and Tommy wasn’t in 7x07 at all. Not even mentioned, I don’t think. So there is factually nothing happening between Buck and Tommy, which I would like to see fixed this season. Unless the plan is for them to not become official, and he’s only here for a short while.

Bringing me to Buddie, which… I have many thoughts, and most of them are pessimistic, lol. Not because I don’t think they’d work in canon, but in the real world I don’t think ABC and Tim are willing to commit for real. Buddie is great for PR sake, but one queer white boy (even a white Latino one!) is enough for them. Which could also explain why Tommy is around for lip service but has no plot, tbh.

So yeah, I don’t know what to anticipate here. If I go with what I hope to see going on with Eddie, then an intervention sort of scenario would probably work best. Maybe Buck is there as a buffer between Eddie and his family or Eddie and whoever potentially confronts him, but when Eddie calls on him to defend him, he can’t because he’s also concerned. Then maybe they go off separately and argue about that which leads to unsaid feelings coming out in the wash? I truly don’t know, but that’s as far as I can see it going if they choose to address it.

If there is no feelings revelations by 7x10 though, then I don’t see it ever happening. I think Tim and the writers are backed into a corner here, and have said over and over the only way I think it can be fixed is by addressing it or calling it quits off screen. And me personally, I’ll take not bringing it up at all in canon this season as them calling it quits, because where else is there for Buddie to go?

Both characters have reached what I would consider pivotal points in their journeys. It’s s7 and whether or not ABC knows they want to take it to 10, s8 has to be something new. I don’t want to go into it wondering: Have Henren finally rounded out their family? Will Eddie find The One? Will Buck find The One? What does this or that Buddie scene mean? Is Athena truly a good or bad cop?

I want to see Athena either forced to retire, put on the stand, or choosing to move up in rank. I want Karen to get a job offer she can’t refuse and the Wilson’s spend at least half the season contemplating moving out of LA. I want Eddie to be single. I want Buck to either be single or develop his current situationship into something lasting. And IF Buck and/or Eddie do have an “Oh” moment in the s7 finale, I want s8 to put in the work to prove it’s been them this whole time but neither realized it.

No more back and forth. No more repetitive storylines. Break the 118 up. Say goodbye to a beloved characters in someway other than death. Move somebody up a rank. Demote or fire somebody. Introduce a new class of probies. Something! Just, be as great as the show has been in the past.

Okay, post over.

[leefi]

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere Readthrough | Part 4: 34-64

Part 1: 1-14 | Part 2: 14-22 | Part 3: 22-34 | Part 4: 34-64 | Part 5: 64-80 | Part 6: 81-90 | Part 7: 90-100 | Part 8: 100-127 (caught up here)

When I had been young, I hadn't understood happiness, when older people spoke of it. I'd spent so much time under some manner of stress or in some kind of pain, and without the support someone at my age - and in my circumstances - really needed, that I could only conceive of it as the inverse of the context I was experiencing. As an idyllic world in which strife, misfortune, and even boredom just didn't exist, and I could do the things I liked all the time. Where the default emotion I felt would be joy, no matter what. But I'd been mistaken. I'd come to understand, in the years since that day the beach, that happiness isn't joy at all. It isn't even peace; the absence of suffering. What happiness is, is strength. The strength to do the things you don't like, but still be content.

utsushikome my sopping wet cat... she is so sad and miserable...

oh my GAWDDDDDDD FANG IS SO CUTEEEEEEE I LOVE THEMMMM!!! 💞💞💞💞💞💞💞

Su’s encounter with the beaked creature felt like a similar vibe to a prosognostic event? as if seeing that “swapped” her or hijacked her conscience…not saying it IS a prosognostic event because it obviously wasn’t human and she didn’t get injured but like…the vibe was there

Ezekiel’s tragic backstory is that he was hit and run over by every minority prior to the events of the story

Fang casting nonverbally after the gunshot impressed Su. It impressed me too they’re so smart. But it also makes me wonder if they could have obfuscated something? Not having the certain component down needed to detect the smoke from the gun was convenient too, but the others just brushed over it. This isn't to say I think they're guilty of Bardiya's murder, or anything that's happened so far. But then why would they potentially do that? My answer is: for fun :)

I don’t think I fully understand what happened with Lilith…the soul transplanted into her overrode/mixed with her own? So she’s similar to Susu? That’s what she meant by them all being murderers?

Literally everything so far seems to implicate Theo/Linos but that seems wayyy too obvious. All the way down to the fact that Theo chan was walking around with the first two victims (Nef and Bardiya). But the insurmountable amount of evidence that points towards him kind of convinces me it *isn't* him. His father is potentially more culpable, but his infuriating refusal to be straightforward about anything also seems to be a ruse for something else entirely, not the murders themselves. And even if Linos is the murderer, he needs accomplices. He couldn’t have lugged Nef up there himself.

Honestly Theo kind of feels like an instrument. I don’t think he’s guilty at all but maybe his hand is being forced. Could that be what he wanted to talk to Su about for dinner? She was the only one he could trust with that kind of information because of their relationship and her mutual connection to the order?

Or maybe he just wanted to gossip after dinner. teehee

Hmmm the new serpent depicted on the mural has dark brown eyes like Bardiya's corpse. Was Bardiya's eye color described before? Did I think he had blue eyes? Also worth nothing that Theo chan volunteered to go into the kitchen first, then Bardiya followed. Not vice-versa.

I feel like somebody smarter than me should be keeping track of who uses “god” and who uses “gods”

Think about it. Right now, there's no way to verify that a 'rest of the world' even exists. We cannot interact with it in any capacity, and the same is true in reverse. All that anchors us to it are the concepts of 'we are from that place' and 'it is possible to return to it', which exist purely within the realm of our own minds."

Ran rubbed her brow. "The last thing I wanted for this conversation was for it to get into philosophy." She crossed her arms half-way. "Doesn't this fall apart when you consider that the logic bridges were connecting us to the real world just fine, until a few hours ago?"

"A logic bridge is a device that feeds information to the brain," [Balthazar] said. "Nothing more than that. There's no assurance that what it's showing you is based on reality beyond your article of faith in how the system works."

Awwwuu?

Ok but Lilith had been using her logic bridge nonstop…also the terrorist attack

An isolate world…Would be a lot easier to bend time in terms of wacky physics science if they’re somewhere sequestered from the rest of reality. We can’t even really confirm if they’re actually at the bottom of the ocean on that specific plane, just take other peoples’ words for it. Maybe they are orbiting a black hole (i like black holes :))

Ughhhh I feel like there’s a political motive at work and a separate religious one. I can’t imagine there being a singular culprit. It feels like there are multiple bad actors, and some are following a plan, while others are taking advantage of the environment and acting opportunistically.

"I've spent a lot of time dwelling on the subject for the past couple of days, and I think it's because I'm being punished."

"Punished?" I asked. "For what?"

"I'm not sure, exactly. I think it's because I believed it was possible for people to be saved by love, and that led me to overstep myself."

bal is so so so so similar to luka its actually physically paining me to read. youre so much like my specialest boy in the whole worldddd please don’t be evil

Confirmed Bal knows about the loops but that doesn’t really explain one specific part of his demeanor…could also potentially be someone Shiko knows from childhood? But then, wouldn't Ran know him too...? And didn't Su take all of Shiko's memories? Hmmm. Weird that she has a reaction to him every time, that annoyance. Why does he (and presumably, previously her) have loop memories, but no one else does? Could it be that anyone else in the group remembers what’s going on too?

Zeno speaks to Su as if she should be in on something. I wonder if she’s got the same thing going on with her as Bal (in his frame of reference)

I wonder if Bal could actually be a distant relative of Shiko…he’s related to a friend of Zeno’s who passed recently. And Su treats him like an annoying cousin she can’t stand, so that would check out too.

Can I say something weird. I think someone(s) absorbed souls (not necessarily Shiko/Su's though I considered it! Seemed too obvious though — maybe for Nef’s murder tho?) are overriding and killing or suiciding. That seems so copout for a murder mystery story though. It’d be super unsatisfying and I don't think Lurina would actually do something like that. But Bardiya’s death made me think 1) something was on the other side of the wall and held his face there or 2) it was a fight for control of his body which led to a suicide. I don't have anything to base this off of beyond Su's own experience with losing consciousness/memory though

The possession reveal with su and ran was absolutely insane. at this point i really do see su fully as a victim of circumstance. clearly the su we know now is inhabiting utsushikome of fusai/shiko, but who was su before the consciousness transfer? what’s their name?

young!ran is so cruel to new su…but clearly at this point (10 years later? 20?) shes developed a begrudging attachment to this new su. But they’re still going through with this mission. what a sad and terrifying position for them both to be in…

Also worth noting that shiko was clearly better off than su (“it’s a name befitting aristocracy”/something about her agreeing to the procedure because she wouldn’t need to use credits for something iirc)

Going back to Bal im inclined to believe what he said about Ophelia and Linos probably being trustworthy. Ophelia’s religious beliefs makes her motive too clear and Linos just feels like the biggest red herring. Also got a laugh over him saying Ran was the only person not misrepresenting herself in some way.

If nobody is left alive at the end of these loops, who is the one triggering the loop back? Could imply it’s a (super)natural phenomena? What about that machine downstairs that de-aged Anna? Could it be causing the loop? But what would’ve triggered it? 🤔💭Gay sex

One more thing re: a detail when they were in Bardiya's room. Ophelia's clock was the only one working, while everyone else's had been stopped. This obviously directly implicates Bal, but also seems too obvious? As if someone was trying to frame him, or it was actually him, and he had another reason for turning the clocks. Could even have been Ophelia herself in an attempt to frame Bal, but there’s been nothing to connect her to any of the murdered so far beyond a potentially religious motive.

oh i never acknowledged the boys' group never boarding reveal but like. i felt like there isn't really much to say. you just kind of read that and go ok. great. we don't have time to unpack all that right now

My bonkers off the wall assumption (it truly is stupid but i need to think out loud for a second) is that the boys have already been replaced/body snatched by members of the order or a nefarious other party (Theo exempt bc of Linos?). Theo compromises them, Bardiya’s bodysnatcher follows him in to kill him, there’s a fight for control of the body and Bardiya briefly wins and commits suicide before he can lose control again. Or Bard is never in control, and Theo is forced to kill him in self defense…but then he would’ve said something????

Bardiya’s room was uncharacteristically dirty, Seth is covered in dirt when they see him for some reason, he and Ezekiel are in cahoots about something, but there’s no other indication that the boys have been acting strangely. Then again, Su had successfully managed to begin impersonating Shiko almost immediately - well enough to fool her family, but not Ran’s discerning eye. But the class is close…I feel like someone would have picked something weird up.

Interesting to me, again, Bal’s comment about everyone but Ran misrepresenting themselves in some way, when she’s also the one who seems to have gone through the least amount of distinction treatment…(not saying it’s related at all, just an interesting parallel to me)

TL;DR: No, I don’t actually think the boys were bodysnatched or that Bard’s death was a suicide/Theo was forced to act…my theory right now was there was something inhuman on the other side of the barrier that was able to hold his head there when it went down and back up.

I guess the point I was trying to make with Bard is if we can really trust that everyone is who they claim to be? Is Su as special of a case as she thinks?

[masquayla-the-splendid]

Gdhdhe I've been in the fandom since like April 2015. I did not have a favorite until SL, and it has not changed lol. I am loyal. To that clown bot.

My interpretation of him is like a mirror maze at this point. I can see them multiple ways, but my favorites are ones that realize them as an individual. (It's def the SU thing, because seasons 2/3 were airing around the same time as SL/6 lmao) He has a very unique design and motive that deserve it's own character.(and voice)

We could've really used a game that exlpores them more, but Angst Phase Baby and Funtime Freddy 2.0 fumbled the chance of that happening. :[

My memory is spotty on some specifics of the fandom at that point, but the confusion in recent times I can attribute to too much differing information from too many people about a character with sparse details. I'll have to read what these comments are about but oh man the concept of remnant and Molten MCI made it way more complicated than it needed to be. That and Shatter Victim, for example. There was no chance we would've pulled that in 2016, so it probably ain't it. Do I like the concept outside of a fnaf context? Yes. Any theory I personally disagree with, I see merit in another story.

I wouldn't use Scott's beliefs that weren't meant to reach public view as 100% reliable, regarding the characters. Bonnie is a boy and uses a girl's name, Toy Freddy and Toy Bonnie wear makeup and have lashes, which sparked a tiny gender debate for Bonnie specifically, but Mangle's gender was a much hotter topic. We got an answer of "yes" sometime in 2015, because trolling, but her pronouns have always flip flopped between "he" and "she" (FunFoxy as well.) Best case scenario, he's just not very well knowledged about the things he donates to, rather than it coming from a place of malice. In the Flesh exists, and he states his regret by the new interview. (Clearly because of the contents, and not the main message of "don't be mad that chicks don't want you if you're disrespectful" that went over many heads.) He may be a Texan Rep middle aged man, but he ain't the spitting image of one. Though I understand the concern.

He also said the designs for his creatures just sorta come to him. I wouldn't be surprised if "he" was just the first thing that came to mind either. (It also doesn't help that in none of the interviews, scott or steel wool, do they ever talk about Ennard and throw in a pronoun.)

Day 73

Ennard from Fnaf: Sister Location

Y'know, it's a good thing the animatronics are robots. Because if this guy(s) was human they'd be horrifying. Whether it'd be easier or harder to assume they're their own person is up for debate though. It's almost impressive how a lot of people misunderstood what Ennard is(a messed up fusion of the SL animatronics in order to fit them all into one body), though I assume Pizza Simulator's teasers made it a bit clearer. Really, the only unclear thing is how big they are. I assume they're around human-sized, but trying to apply logic to this series is a good way to get a headache, so it's 50/50

As for who they're a variation of: they're a direct variation of Baby, Funtime Freddy, presumably BonBon, Ballora, and Funtime Foxy, while also being an indirect variation of Freddy, Foxy, Mangle, and maybe Bonnie

Also why did(does?) everyone portray this skin stealer as a dude? They're multiple robots together, a mostly even split of genders, and led by Baby, who's a girl. Even UCN is guilty of this

[whiteqnn]

PURE [2] - Corpse Husband x Fem! Reader

Pairing: Corpse Husband x Fem!Reader

A/N:  443 notes?! THIS IS INSANE! Thank you guys so much for all the love under the first part of this, I was so shocked to see how many people enjoyed this story! I hope this one will be just as fun for you as the first one ^^

part 1

part 3 

part 4 

part 5

PURE [2]

Corpse stared at the red screen with the word IMPOSTOR written in the middle, his eyes widened, a small smile tugging at his lips. 

“No way” he murmured into his microphone, no longer holding himself from breaking into laughter. “Do you guys see this? I wish I could see Y/N’s reaction.”

It took his audience just a second to respond, his chat being flooded with lots of comments about the said girl. 

“SHES SHOOK” he managed to read one from the hundreds of comments, once again bursting into laughter. “Yeah, I can imagine.”

He decided to follow Lily for a while to make himself less suspicious. He probably didn’t need to do that this time, since the others usually suspected him when he was innocent. Ironically, each time he was the impostor, they seemed completely blind to every murder he committed. 

They were both doing their tasks in O2 when the first body was reported. 

“Woah, Y/N is fast” he mumbled, before unmuting himself. 

“Okay,” Lily began speaking first “Corpse is 100% innocent, we were together this whole round, doing our tasks in O2. That’s all I have.”

“Yeah I saw you guys in there,” Felix said. “Where’s the body Sykkuno?”

“Um, so first of all I can also vouch for Dave and Y/N, we were hanging out all this time. So in the beginning, we were all in the upper engine, protecting each other like good friends that we are, and then we headed towards the medbay. And that’s where it gets interesting because I’m pretty sure I saw Poki leave medbay and run to the cafeteria.”

“You really think I would kill my best friend in the first round?”

“Yeah well, some people do” Sean scoffed, clearly referring to the last game when he was murdered by Felix. “Besides, I saw you guys when I was leaving Security so it looks like you were with her the entire round.”

“Wha- Okay, let me defend myself. I would never kill her if I was the impostor, which I’m not because she’d literally come barging into my room to murder me. She’d kill me for killing her first.”

Toast, who seemingly still held grudge against Corpse’s fellow impostor, decided to call Y/N out “Y’know, we all played with Rae before, so we all know how furious she gets after being killed first... but there’s one person who doesn’t know that.”

“Y/N/N?” Sean’s voice blared through their headphones “As much as I know how hard it would be for her to make the first kill, I can actually see that happening.”

“What?! Sykkuno vouched for me literally seconds ago, where the heck did you get that from Toast?” she asked in utter shock. Corpse glanced at his chat and leaned towards his mic, making sure that he was muted in the game.

“Y’know guys, if I didn’t know she’s the impostor, I’d believe in her every word. I mean, she’s so innocent, just listen to her.” he said with a smile, not expecting in the slightest how his audience will react. 

“Aww, he goes soft for her ^^” 

“The duo we need but don’t deserve”

“Y/N FOR THE BRIDE”

“What?” he almost stuttered, quickly going through the growing number of such comments. “I mean-”

“Ooh, someone’s getting angry. Where the heck? That’s aggressive, Y/N” Felix’s amused voice brought him back to reality, and even though Corpse didn’t use a webcam, he still tried to hide his pink-tinted cheeks in the material of his hoodie.

“It was not me! I swear! I was doing my tasks all this time, making sure that no one murders Sykkuno or Dave!” 

“You’re pretty defensive for someone who claims to be innocent,” Toast said with a smirk hiding in his voice. 

“Give her a break guys, she was literally with us all this time. I’m sure we would’ve noticed if she killed somebody” Dave stood up for her, but it seemed like all the attention was directed from Poki to Y/N. 

“Well maybe the other impostor is either you or Sykkuno and you’re just trying to clear each other?”

“Um, if there were two impostors among the three of us, the third person would have to be a crewmate. I mean, it would be impossible for them to kill somebody without a crewmate seeing it.” Sykkuno pointed out, much to Corpses’ relief. 

“I knew Sykkuno would vouch for her” he told his chat, before unmuting himself to defend Y/N as well “Haven’t we already established that Poki is sus as well? She was last seen near the body and has no alibi.” 

“I didn’t do it. The only person that could vouch for me is dead, we were with each other the entire round. I leave her for a few seconds and somebody kills her, but it wasn’t me.” 

“I don’t think she’s lying guys, I mean, if she killed Rae she’d probably be dead already” Felix chuckled “Let’s just skip this round, we don’t have enough evidence.”

“Alright, but Y/N,” Toast said, as everyone pressed the skip button “I have my eyes on you.”

Corpse could hear her sigh before everyone muted their mics. 

“We’ve gotta get rid of Toast guys, he’s too suspicious. I don’t want him accusing my partner in crime, even though he’s right” he chuckled under his breath, following Toast’s character into Admin. “Alright, Felix is with us as well, good. If I just pretend I’m doing card swipe, they’re gonna both vouch for me since everyone knows I’m great at this task.” he shook his head with a deep laugh escaping his throat. 

He could see the other two astronauts running around admin, before they both decided to leave, which gave Corpse a perfect opportunity to frame Toast. He killed the lights and chased his victim who, much to his joy, was now completely alone in comms. 

“Hi, Felix. Bye, Felix.” Corpse snapped his neck before speeding out of the room and venting into Navigation.

That’s when someone fixed the lights. And Corpse jumped out of the vent, only to come face to face with none other than Toast. 

“SHIT” he laughed in panic, seeing that he couldn’t use the kill function yet. “Shit, he must’ve seen me.”

And indeed, it took Toast just a split of second to run out of the room and speed towards the emergency button, Corpse hot on his tail, even though he knew he wouldn’t avoid getting ejected. 

“I’m busted guys, there’s no way they’re gonna believe me” he told his audience, watching as Toast’s character approached the button. However, Corpse wasn’t sure if he was just seeing things, but he thought that he saw an outline of another character appear out of nowhere just mere seconds before Toast called the meeting...

“YES” he almost screamed, at the same time laughing hysterically, when he saw the red cross decorating Toast’s name. 

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!” Sean yelled, similarly to every other player that remained alive. “HOW DID THAT HAPPENED?!”

“Oh my God.”

“But- I don’t get it. What just happened?” Y/N’s soft voice sounded out, making Corpse laugh even more. 

“Someone killed Toast the moment he called the meeting.” Sykkuno explained, barely holding himself from laughing.

“Is that even possible?” she asked confused, her voice sounding so innocent and sweet that the other impostor couldn’t stop himself from grinning.

“Oh my god, she’s just- I can’t.” he chuckled deeply “She’s too precious guys, I swear I’m gonna do everything to keep her alive.”

“Yeah, that’s some big brain move. And since Toast is dead, there’s only one person with balls who could do it” Sean said, clearly very sure of his next words.

“CORPSE!” Lily chirped into her microphone, her voice soon being followed by others who eagerly agreed with her. 

“Okay, I admit I saw them in admin where I was doing the card swipe, but then they both left and I haven’t seen them anymore.”

“Were you in admin this whole time?” Poki asked. 

“Um- yeah, pretty much. I tried to beat my own record in failing a card swipe.” he replied, making everyone laugh. He thought of it as a good cover, unless someone entered the admin after he left... 

“Sykkuno where are you?” Poki directed her next question to the lime astronaut.

“Why am I accused again?” he asked confused “I was with Sean in medbay, I think Y/N joined us for a moment to do the scan, then she left, and then Toast called the meeting.”

“So maybe it’s her?” Dave commented “I mean, medbay is right next to the cafeteria, so she had quite an easy access to the emergency button.”

“Yeah, that would actually make sense” Lily added.

“Oh no, they’re gonna vote her off...” Corpse mumbled under his breath, deciding that he had to intervene. She just saved his ass, he couldn’t possibly just watch her get ejected because of that. 

“Guys, I didn’t even know it was possible to kill someone this way. Trust me, I played only a few times and Jack made sure not to reveal any of his big brain moves.” she scoffed at the last part, making Jack let out a loud laugh.

“How can we be sure you’re not just acting all innocent? I mean, you exposed Felix last game, being one of the last people to stay alive.”

“Y/N was with me when Toast called the meeting, she is innocent” Corpse decided to finally speak up. The silence settled among other players. “She found me in admin and made sure nobody killed me when I failed the fucking card swipe.”

“Why are you saying this just now, Corpse?”

“Cause he’s fallen for her god damn trap! I told you!” Sean argued.

“What trap?” Y/N asked confused.

“I mean, who wouldn’t? It’s like listening to an angel” Corpse said, before he could stop himself. Everyone on the call went wild, just like his chat did... He didn’t know why he said that, it just slipped before he really thought about it.

“Corpse, you do realize you’re simping only makes you even more suspicious?” Poki asked with a laugh, and Corpse felt the blush rising up his cheeks. Even more, when Y/N completely ignored this comment, deciding to suddenly stay quiet...

Did he make her uncomfortable with such comments?

“Seriously though, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t her. We watched each other’s back, so I’m also clean.” 

“As much as I hate to do it, I have to agree with Corpse on this one” Sean suddenly said. “That she’s innocent, I mean. I’m sure Corpse just follows her around like a lost puppy and I didn’t see the two of them, but I doubt Y/N knew it’s possible to kill somebody like that. No offense kiddo.”

“See? Guys, it wasn’t me!” she exclaimed. 

“Wait, why do you hate to agree with me?” Corpse asked in confusion.

“CAUSE YOU’RE KINDA SUS CORPSE” 

“What? I just told you my alibi, weren’t you listening Jack?”

“We have twenty seconds left” Lily reminded, cause everyone seemed to forget about the voting time. “We don’t skip at 7, right?”

“Alright, I’m voting Corpse, I still think he’s sus even though I agreed with him.” Sean announced, much to Y/N’s dismay. She quickly objected, trying to defend her fellow impostor:

“It’s NOT him, I watched him fail that dang card swipe!”

“DANG?! NO NEED TO BE SO OFFENSIVE YOUNG LADY” 

“I’m also voting Corpse, he must be one of them.” Lily agreed with Jack.

“Sykkuno, I hope you’re not doing what I think you’re doing” Y/N asked the lime astronaut, who was silent for the past few minutes.

“I um- I don’t know, they kinda have a point Y/N...”

“Sykkuno, listen to me.” she lowered her voice, trying to convince him “Corpse is not the impostor. You know you can trust me, right?”

“...”

“SYKKUNO GOD DAMN IT, DON’T LISTEN TO HER!”

“Sorry guys...”

Corpse burst out laughing, seeing that out of seven remaining players, five of them decided to skip. 

“She’s too good” he chuckled, quickly running up Y/N’s character when they started the next round. He circled her white astronaut, and she seemed to get his message because she eagerly followed him into Electrical to fake the tasks and wait for someone to show up. 

Soon enough two figures waltzed into the room, only to be simultaneously decapitated by the two impostors, who then swiftly vented into medbay and locked the door to their crime scene. 

“That was smooth” Corpse smiled, happily running around Y/N’s character. “I love being impostors with Y/N, it’s so much fun. The best thing is that no one besides Toast really suspects her of doing something wrong.”

Corpse figured Y/N sabotaged the oxygen because the next thing he saw was Lily running past medbay to stop it from depleting. 

“Ladies first, Y/N” he mumbled, and even though she couldn’t hear him, her small character sped up and left the medbay, chasing after Lily. He waited a few seconds, before bursting out laughing.

Victory. 

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Sean yelled in shock “Y/N?! EXPLAIN YOURSELF RIGHT NOW”

“Y/N HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!”

“That was... I would never guess it was you!” 

“I’m sorry guys, I really didn’t want to kill any of you” she laughed apologetically, but Corpse could sense she was smiling “I just had no other choice...”

“Yeah, I’m sure you killed us by accident” Toast’s voice blared out, followed by loud laughter.

“What was that again? I didn’t even know you could kill someone this way?” Felix mocked in a high pitched voice, making them laugh hysterically. Corpse also found himself unable to catch a breath between his giggles.

“I told you guys they’d fuck us up.” Rae spoke up “But I was actually glad Y/N killed me first, watching her kill Toast was so much fun.”

“Ha ha, thanks, Rae!” Toast exclaimed ironically.

“Y/N and Corpse are just complete serial killers, I don’t know how else to comment that” Felix chuckled. 

“Well...” Corpse mumbled, unmuting his microphone “I can’t disagree. She’s a perfect partner in crime.”

“NOT AGAIN WITH SIMPING CORPSE” he heard Sean’s response, and once again felt awkward when his all his friends laughed at him, and Y/N remained quiet. 

That was, however, until her soft voice effectively quietened everyone. 

“It was.. an honor to murder my friends with you.” 

Corpse never thought his face could hurt from smiling so much...

“Alright, who’s up for another game?” Felix asked after a few moments, and received a chorus of me’s from almost everyone. 

“Unfortunately I have to go now, but it was so fun playing with you guys!” Y/N said, making everyone (Corpse included) object rather loudly:

“One more round, please? I want to see you kill someone again!”

“C’mon kid, what else do you have to do?”

“Stay with us Y/N, I need someone to protect me!” 

“I’m sorry but I’m really tired. I’m sure I’d just fall asleep on my desk and Toast would come up behind my back to murder me.”

“Well, that was actually my plan...” the man in question replied with a chuckle.

“You sure you don’t wanna stay?” Corpse finally asked “Killing won’t be the same without you...”

“I know, and I’m sorry... But I was working the whole day and my eyes just hurt and I feel like I’m gonna faint” she replied. 

“Alright, but just so you know, we’re playing again later this week, and I better see you entering the lobby on time” Felix said, trying to sound threatening, but failing at it. Y/N giggled to herself, the sound making Corpse smile almost unknowingly. 

“I wouldn’t dare to miss a chance to murder my new friends!” 

“Oh my god, she’s too adorable!” 

Everyone said their goodbyes and soon Y/N left the call, her small astronaut disappearing from the lobby, much to Corpse’s disappointment. He wished she’d stay a little longer, playing with her was something he found incredibly fun and quite relaxing if he was completely honest. Or maybe aside from playing itself, listening to her voice was what kept bringing a smile to his face every time she spoke up. 

“Guys, I think I’m also gonna call it a day, it was really fun.”

“What? It’s not even been over an hour!” Rae protested. 

“Yeah, I um.. I know but-”

“Don’t push him guys, he can’t play without his partner in crime” Toast’s teasing voice made everyone burst out laughing, and Corpse just shook his head, glad that nobody could see how red his face became.

“Fuck you guys, okay?” he chuckled into the mic, before finally saying his goodbyes and leaving as well. He thanked his viewers for watching and promised to stay longer next time, before closing the discord. 

He sat for a moment in his chair, staring at the black screen, a smile slowly widening on his lips. It was one of the best games he had ever played in Among Us, and he couldn’t wait to be Impostor with Y/N again. 

“Perfect partner in crime... I’m such an idiot” he mumbled under his breath and felt himself blush, shaking his head at how awkward that must’ve sounded. He pulled his phone out and checked his Twitter, only for his eyes to widen once he saw the top trending hashtags. 

#Y/NxCorpse

#Y/NfortheBride

#PerfectPartnerInCrime

“Oh my God...” Corpse yelped, covering his eyes with his hand as if it would make all those tweets disappear. “Why am I the way I am?” 

He considered texting her, trying to maybe make things less awkward than they already were, but decided against it. He feared he’d make even more of an idiot out of himself... 

Convinced that all those comments about simping and now those hashtags made her uncomfortable, it didn’t even cross his mind that Y/N might be looking at them at the exact same moment, with adorable blush tinting her cheeks, and her lips turning into a small, shy smile...  

A/N: I think about writing 3rd part... 

[kisilinramblings]

Just a little analysis of the Ephemeral trailer while taking into account what we know through the summary.

First off, we see Adrien in the car with Gabriel. Adrien feels resigned by something his father said or asked him to do for the press conference of the Gabriel brand he is attending. Alone. Also, the “100″ on the banners outside the building indicate the brand is commemorating an important milestone. 

Ladybug and Su Han are meeting and Ladybug doesn’t seem to thrill about whatever they are discussing. From the summary, we know it is related to the secret identities and how it is important Ladybug should know about who Chat Noir is since she is the Guardian and that she cannot have Miraculous out without knowing their Holder.

For an unknown reason, Adrien enters his father’s office which is empty. Adrien is drawn to his mother’s portrait and upon further and close investigation, finds the hidden mechanism that activate the secret elevator.

Thus discovering an important secret his father was keeping away from him. Another important detail is that Plagg is missing from the shots. There is easily 2-3 shots I consider he should be visible but isn’t. Was he left behind? 

The re-enactement of the umbrella scene. But the lightning effect bugs me. It feels ominous like a lightning from an horror scene. Plus, we only see LB’s reaction before the lightning hit. What if this isn’t her knowing but her being triggered into thinking Chat Noir might be Adrien? So it is the opposite of Chat Blanc. What if Ladybug find out first who Chat Noir is? 

At this point, we understand the scenes shown in the trailer aren’t in chronological order. Because from the summary, this battle is early in the episode since it leads Su Han to talk to Ladybug about the secret identities. But like the summary said, Ladybug had to call all the other heroes to defeat one supervillain because Chat Noir is not showing up (because Adrien is stuck in a press conference and he cannot leave). 

Ladybug and Chat Noir come out of the sewers. Which is usually an hiding place. They don’t seem to understand what is going on. We see several akumatized supervillains being active at the same time. Does it mean Catalyst and Scarlet Moth are back? 

Astro Cat and Cosmo Bug official transformation sequence plus them in action. Not much to say here.

Random shot in which we don’t know what is happening. However, this is not a light explosion but rather something gathering energy for whatever reasons.

The trailer ends with a distressed Ladybug (texting for help maybe?) before she detransformed in front on Shadow Moth weilding the Black Cat Miraculous (he has a tail and ears and his suit is now black, so we can assume it is the real deal) along with Ephemeral, the akumatized villain (or victim) of this episode.

Did LB run out of time or was it Ephemeral’s power? Either way, it looks like she fell into an ambush.

Also, here’s a few points I wanna bring before ending. 

The trailer doesn’t tell us if Adrien knew either of Ladybug nor Shadow Moth’s secret identity before being akumatized into Ephemeral. 

At any case, we know thanks to the Chat Blanc timeline, Adrien discovering the truth about his mother will lead him to have an huge emotional breakdown. He will be confused and angry at his father. 

We saw that Gabriel was unwilling to akumatize Adrien unless he knows Adrien is Chat Noir. But what if this emotional outburst concern the secret Gabriel was hiding from his son? 

We don’t know if it was intended that Adrien finds out the truth about his mother. But there is one thing we know about Gabriel is that he doesn’t like losing the control of a situation, so his solution is always to try and take back the control. Especially if Adrien discovering the truth is jeopardazing Gabriel’s plans and efforts.

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 4 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Glamour

You can call it however you want: kid's show logic, superhero disguise logic, magical girl show logic, cartoon laws, suspension of disbelief, etc. But the fact that nobody recognises Marinette, Adrien and others when they are suited up IS NOT BAD WRITING. It's one of the main laws of this genre. That's not because characters are stupid, okay? So, being frustrated that everyone in the show acts stupid about this "wearing a mask that covers only eyes" trope is strange. This criticism is not valid or fair.

But, this trope has to make sense in-universe as a worldbuilding and narrative element.

Miraculous doesn't give us much direct information on how glamour works. And in this case, I think we need both SHOW and TELL. Because if you don't establish the glamour rules clearly, you are going to run into problems and create unfortunate implications with your storytelling choices.

Appearance

Miraculous obviously gives our heroes magical glamour. In "Lady WiFi" we find out that masks can't be taken off. It's magic. No other explanation is needed.

Miraculous can slightly change the appearance of users (eyes, face shape, height and hairstyles). People can identify and notice the hairstyles of heroes (numerous Ladybug wigs, statue in Copycat). Jagged Stone points out the change of hair when he mistakes Chloe for Ladybug ("Antibug"). But it's just a costume. There is no magic that prevents Jagged from understanding that Chloe isn't Ladybug. So, how does it work? But it's forgivable because it's cartoon logic. Suspension of disbelief works here, I suppose. I won't judge this too harshly.

Glamour also obviously prevents people from making a connection that Marinette and Ladybug have identical hairstyles. So people know that Ladybug wears her hair in pigtails, but magic does not allow them to notice similarities.

Another important question. Does glamour work on Kwamis? Can they see who is behind the mask?

New York Special makes it clear that magic does not affect robots and they can see through glamour. Does that mean that Markov, AI built by Max, knows the identities of Ladybug and Chat Noir? And it's never addressed.

Plagg in "Frightningale" says that holders can subconsciously choose their superhero appearance. This is actually pretty interesting and I like this idea a lot. Except the show is not consistent with this. The transformation of Master Fu looks identical to Nathalie's. And we have seen how different from each other Ladybug and Black Cat holders looked in the past. At the same time, Master Fu and Nino have different takes on Turtle superhero suit.

Age Glamour

Does age glamour exist? Do people see Ladybug, Chat Noir and other heroes as adults even when they look like teenagers to the audience (their height and build are smaller even when they are transformed)? Is that why no one ever questions the fact that children nearly die on a daily basis?

I mentioned unfortunate implications earlier. Well, this is where they come into play. Let's talk about "Copycat". A lot of people discussed it before me, so I won't bore you with details.

When I watched "Copycat" for the first time Theo's crush on Ladybug didn't bother me, because I thought that he sees Ladybug as his peer, a girl who is about 20-23 years old. Theo is an artist, his character design is that of an adult. He has his own studio, its appearance indicates that he did serious commissions in the past. The guy has no idea that Ladybug is like 13.

But then we get "Heroes' Day" and "Ladybug". And Hawkmoth calls them "kids", which means that there is no age glamour. Others see Ladybug and Chat Noir as teenagers. Perhaps, other Miraculous users aren't affected by age glamour. Therefore regular people see all heroes as adults but other heroes are able to guess their age more or less correctly. But you must spell this thing out because the audience can interpret "Copycat" differently. If there is no age glamour, then Theo is crushing on a teenage girl and he is fully aware of this fact. And this doesn't look good for your show.

The "No Age Glamour" theory is further confirmed in "Sapotis" where Alya just straight up analyses voice recordings and says that Ladybug is a girl their age. If glamour exists then it should also cover technology. Kwami can't be photographed. Face and voice recognition software shouldn't be able to analyse transformed superheroes and detect their identities in any way.

Besides, after "Sapotis" Alya should definitely be sure that Ladybug is not 5000 years old (also not an adult), especially after she wore Miraculous herself and was one door away from detransformed Ladybug.

SEASON 4 UPDATE! There's no age glamour after all.

In "Furious Fu" Su Han calls Chat Noir a child without knowing his identity. It means that everyone knows their superheroes are teenagers. "Copycat" can't be saved from that, uh, subtext anymore. No one questions the danger of their job or the balance of their lives outside of the mask. No one doubts their competence after "Origins" ever again. No one becomes annoyed after being bossed around by two teenagers in spandex. You had many opportunities to drop these details into the narrative. Someone could have been akumatized over this (I will not be ordered around by some magical kids!).

I don't know why writers decided not to use at least this idea and slightly adjust "Copycat" if they got rid of the age glamour completely. It can be explained as kid's show logic, but unfortunately, I'm reluctant to do it. If many characters sympathise with akuma victims on-screen, why not with the teenage superheroes who must fight them?

New York Special had this weird focus on collateral damage out of nowhere (the damage done by sentimonster Robostus) and yet it has 0 effect on the main story. No one in Paris is pissed that their 2 teenage protectors weren't there.

Ironically, "Furious Fu" and that one remark made by Su Han also created unfortunate implications for other moments in the show. Just hear me out. Apparently, Jagged Stone wrote a "thank you" song for Ladybug knowing that she is 13-15 year old child back in "Pixelator". Fandom is more than happy to roast Lila for lying about saving Jagged Stone's cat and him writing her a "thank you" song. Fandom claims that Lila's tale could harm Jagged's reputation, when he wrote a song for teenage Ladybug several weeks prior. Meanwhile, in-universe this lie is 100% believable.

If we put on "realism glasses", then both this whole song situation and Theo's crush in "Copycat" have uncomfortable implications. However, the show's canon can't be viewed and criticised through "realism glasses". I admit that bits and pieces of my criticisms are affected by these "glasses", but, ultimately, I'm trying to be fair and concentrate only on things that can't be justified by "cartoon logic and worldbuilding".

Could the existence of age glamour solve this problem of unfortunate implications and other concerns mentioned above? YES. Is it better for the narrative? YES. Is essential for the story? NOT QUITE. Could the absence of age glamour be called an irredeemable storytelling flaw? NO.

Disclaimer: On a side note, only older audience can notice these implications. Children, the target audience, most likely won't understand this subtext simply because they don't have enough experience. So, perhaps, this criticism is unfair, because these moments only look weird to me as an adult. It's like an adult joke in a cartoon that you don't get until you reach a certain age.

There's nothing technically wrong with adult writing a "thank you" song for a teenager. It's just an expression of gratitude. However, unfortunately, we live in a world, where adults normally wouldn't write songs for teens to express gratitude only. In real life similar actions would imply pedophilia and would be actively scorned by the public. No one would risk their reputation like that even if their intentions were genuinely pure and sincere. But this show can't be viewed through "realism glasses", because it's a cartoon and in certain cases we as the audience must use suspension of disbelief and pretend that certain things are possible for plot to happen.

Su Han also wants to give Ladybug and Black Cat to adults. Why didn't Master Fu do this then? Writers don't give us any explanation. Throughout the show we never question this up until the moment it's revealed that adults don't have time-limited powers. Then comes "Furious Fu". Story suddenly becomes self-aware here. Because apparently nothing prevented Fu from giving the most powerful Miraculous to adults who won't have time limit and will be more effective against Hawkmoth (see part 3 for more details).

I have a very good example of Age Glamour done right. It works in the story. There is no confusion or unfortunate implications. There is like one plothole connected to the glamour (it's been years and I still can't forgive them for Cornelia and Caleb) but otherwise, it's a pretty solid example of both show and tell. Clearly, writers wanted to avoid uncomfortable implications which are present in "Copycat". I am talking about W.I.T.C.H. comic books and animated series.

If you are not familiar with it, I'll give you a brief explanation. The story follows 5 girls, the Guardians of Kandrakar who are chosen to protect their world and parallel ones from evil. They receive magical powers from the amulet known as the Heart of Kandrakar. Their powers are based on elements: fire, water, earth, air and energy. Our main characters are about 13-15 years old. In the animated series they are younger and they attend middle school, making them 12-14 years old. But the transformation makes them look 18-20. They look like young women to each other and to other people. At the same time, people can recognise them, their looks and voice don't change. Most people don't know that they are really teenagers when they are not transformed and these people don't know that magic can make them look older. That's why everyone treats Guardians like adults when they are transformed. Comics establish this fact in the very beginning. In first issues characters state that they look older, we are also shown this multiple times.

In fact, one of the first side plots revolves around the fact that Irma uses her powers to sneak into the disco club to meet up with her crush. Irma is 13 at the beginning of the series, she is a high school freshman. Her crush, Andrew Hornby is a senior guy 17-18 years old. Irma has liked him for a long time and wants to impress him, so she decides to be clever about this. She transforms into her Guardian form of the 18-year-old girl, hides her wings, sneaks out to the club after her parents are asleep without any problem, and meets Andrew, who obviously doesn't recognise Irma in this girl who looks about his age. Smitten Andrew offers her a ride and 13-year-old Irma doesn't understand the implication of that offer, so she accepts. And, obviously, he decides that she is interested in more than just a ride home, since she agreed, and the comic implies that he fully intended for them to have sex in the backseat of his car. But Irma understands the implication only when Andrew tries to kiss her. She panics and turns him into a frog. And she actually pulls this "I need to look mature" trick more than once over the course of the series.

It's not the only situation where this age difference is handled well and makes sense. People who know the main characters in everyday life remark on their older appearance during transformation. Sometimes people flirt with Guardians when they are transformed. In one of the side-novels centred around Cornelia, she is worried that the prince of the realm they helped to save from famine would try to marry her. That never happens, but Cornelia actually brainstorms with her friends about how to tell the prince that she is really 15.

There are many other plot points where this happens, but I think that you got the idea. I really like how "Age Glamour" was handled in W.I.T.C.H.

How do we fix this? Create the situations where people offhandedly mention "Age Glamour" in the presence of Marinette or Adrien, use Kwami for this.

"Don't worry, dear. Chat Noir and Ladybug are adults, who know what they are doing. I am sure that they will handle this. "

Theo could say: "Oh, I wonder which university Ladybug goes to?"

"So, does that mean that other people see us as grown-ups, Tikki?"

A few words and boom, problem solved. Then allow the "show don't tell" rule do the rest.

[the-a-j-universe]

Same anon who asked about bratty abused victims. Does that include or exclude Rose/Pink? Kind of asking because I was wondering if she could have and should have convinced the diamonds to stop the colonization and because she's not exactly the normal bratty abuse victim due to her actions pretty much hurting everybody and I kind of got the impression the diamonds were in the right for how they were treating her and that she should have listened to them.

I think there had to be a way that she could have, but that's an opinion based on how I've filled the blanks in their relationship, since we didn't see nearly enough of it thanks to the refusal of the crew to ever do anything outside of Steven's perspective.

The Diamonds were absolutely not in the right. At all. I wanna be clear about that. Even destroying ecosystems that don't include sapient life is abhorrent. So it doesn't really matter what they think about Rose's ability to do that. It's wrong so they're wrong.

But they were right about her not being ready to do what they did. 100 percent. Or else she woulda actually done it. That's one of the best things about SU: even with the rushed ending and the missing viewpoints, Rose's situation is that layered.

My issue with her as a person (as a character she's amazing, I wanna be clear) is that I think she was too afraid to just tell the others that she WANTED to save the Earth. She tried to convince them of its other values and she tried to convince them that it was more trouble than it was worse by creating the Rose Quartz persona, but she seemingly never just sat them down and explained her feelings to them. We will never know whether, if she had just done that and faced their disappointment, things woulda been better.

She also died to make Steven without anyone (who was willing to say so) knowing who she actually was and how much baggage he would have to deal with, which is a great commentary on how even loving parents can pass their abuse onto their kids, but is a really shitty thing to do to somebody.

Hope that answers your question.

(I honestly thought this was gonna be about Chloe in ML lol)

[dean-and-sam-says]

Supernatural family plays “Among Us”

Everyone sits in the library to play- Sam has triple checked the strength of their wifi (with Charlie’s help) to make sure that none of them will be losing connection any time soon, and since there’s enough of them- they play in a private server. They also stick to the Skeldmap.

Dean is Blue, Sam is Cyan, Castiel is Yellow, Mary is Pink, Charlie is Orange, Crowley (who plays begrudgingly but is 100% into it and won’t admit it) is Black, Jack is White, Rowena is Purple, Claire is Green, and Chuck (who wasn’t invited but insists on playing so they let him anyway since they need 10) is Red. (Also why aren’t there more colors on tumblr mobile smh)

They don’t use the chat box in voting because they’re all in the same room so there’s kinda no need.

Jack, Claire, and Dean call literally everyone “sus” whether they are or not, they’re just way to suspicious of everyone else.

Sam is always the first to finish his tasks. He’s also okay with being the first one everyone kills because being a ghost is more efficient since you can go through the walls. Dean never finishes his tasks because he’s too busy trying to figure out who the impostor is stating “you’ll thank me later when we win” and never ends up figuring it out first.

Rowena has the bests arguments and could convince anyone she’s not the impostor, even if she was, and makes convincing cases that someone else is. She’s never caught ever.

Charlie and Mary are the worst imposters because they’ll either accidentally vent in front of someone else and can’t catch up to kill the witness or end up being seen killing someone else. Dean often teases Mary because she’s “a badass hunter but can’t make decent kills in a video game”. Mary argues that they’re two very different things. Charlie usually gets carried away trying to be really sneaky, but has won a few games by sabotaging the o2.

Castiel has accidentally thrown a few games because, next to Sam, he’s one of the first to be killed and will get offended that he was killed so he’ll verbally accuse whoever did it- giving away the whole game. He’s also definitely said “how do I vent like dean just did”.

Dean is actually a pretty good impostor, he makes kills in drive by fashion and lets someone else report it.

Crowley self reports 80% of the time, he’s also a pretty good impostor. He mostly lies in wait in the vents by electrical.

Jack and Claire team up even though no one is supposed to talk to communicate outside of voting. Jack also caught Claire as the imposter but instead of ratting her out he helped her kill everyone else. They had been sitting next to each other at the time and Sam had to split them up after figuring out that’s what they were doing.

Chuck has only been impostor once, and is usually voted off quick since he can’t ever come up with a good alibi even if he’s innocent. He almost won the round where he was impostor but accidentally vented in front of Castiel and Mary, he was able to kill Cas but Mary called the emergency meeting.

They literally all say “where” one after the other, except the actual adults (ie Rowena, Crowley, and Mary) despite being in the same room.

The most epic chase was when Sam was impostor. He accidentally vented in the lower engine but everyone came from the hall above so he ran and of course everyone followed. Knowing he was caught, he stopped in storage and turned around and murdered someone at random, which ended up being Dean, as a final act of chaos before being voted off.

Charlie likes to hide in comms in the upper left hand corner and then kill whoever comes in.

They tried to play a different map once but got horribly lost, except dean who took advantage when he was the impostor and killed everyone.

Dean, Crowley, and Chuck favor the light sabotage. Sam, Mary, Jack, and Castiel favor the o2 sabotage. Charlie and Rowena favor the reactor sabotage. Claire hardly ever uses the sabotages and usually ends up just relying on killing everyone.

Longest impostor streak was three rounds in a row and it’s held by Castiel. No one suspected him a single one of those rounds.

Also Castiel is that one that gets away with it by not talking and just keeping to himself. He’s lowkey proud of that.

Crowley picks on Dean and convinces everyone else that Dean is the impostor, even though he hardly ever actually is. Everyone votes Crowley next but he’s hardly ever the impostor either- he just does it to mess with Dean.

Sam gets a guilty pleasure out of haunting whoever killed him. He usually starts the “ghost cult”. Provided he’s done with his tasks of course.

Claire started a “f in the chat” for Castiel the first time he was a victim.

They arrange weekly “Among Us” game nights on Fridays.

Dean has said “that guy is sus” on more than one occasion when working a case.

Jack decided everyone should were tee-shirts that matches with their preferred colors. Dean and Sam and Castiel made sure that happened.

Update!! I forgot hats!!

Dean wears the cowboy hat until he finds the sheriff hat- he says it helps him figure out who the impostor is (it doesn’t)

Sam has the angel halo - he likes to say it proves his innocence so he can just finish his damn tasks before he gets killed

Castiel doesn’t use hats but one time dean got on his phone and changed it to the party hat. Cas hasn’t changed it back

Mary has the mini crew mate and the matching pet bc most people associate those as “children” and she has two kids :”) hush she thinks it’s cute so leave it alone

Jack used the cowboy hat until the Halloween update and now he uses the pirate hat

Charlie loves the plant one and the knight one oh and the fedora one

Rowena didn’t use a hat (except the flower one) until the Halloween update and now she uses the witch hat.

Crowley likes the fedora- plus it matches the black color well- fancy too. He’s also prone to uses the horns.

Claire goes for the knight hat. That one and the plague doctor ones are her favorites. Also the cherry is a classic too.

Chuck often uses the flamingo bc he finds it freaking hilarious for some unknown reason.

[introvertguide]

Influential Directors of the Silent Film Era

Upon hearing that I am a fan of silent era film, people will ask if I have a favorite actor or movie from the time period. However, when I am asked about my favorites from other fans of silent film, it tends to involve my favorite director. This is because silent film actors had to over gesticulate and performed in an unrealistic way and could not use their tone or words to convey emotion. The directors also did not have a way to review as they shot and would have to use editing skills and strategic cover shots to make sure that everything was done properly and come out the way they imagined it. It was up to the director to be creative and they were forced to be innovative and create ways to convey their vision. Luckily for many average or poor directors of the time, audiences were easily impressed. However, today's more demanding and sophisticated audiences can look back at some of the genius behind the films of silent era Hollywood.

Alice Guy-Blache: Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913) and The Fairy of the Cabbages (1896)

Art director of the film studio The Solax Company, the largest pre-Hollywood movie studio, and camera operator for the France based Gaumont Studio headed up by Louis Lemiere, this woman was a director before any kind of gender expectations were even established. She was a pioneer of the use of audio recordings in conjunction with images and the first filmmaker to systematically develop narrative filming. Guy-Blanche didn't just record an image but used editing and juxtaposition to reveal a story behind the moving pictures. In 1914, when Hollywood studios hired almost exclusively upper class white men as directors, she famously said that there was nothing involved in the staging of a movie that a woman could not do just as easily as a man.

Charlie Chaplin: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1923), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940)

It is unfortunate that many people today think of Chaplin as silly or for screwball comedy when, in fact, he was a great satirist of the time. He created his comedy through the eyes of the lower economic class that suffered indignities over which they had no control. He traversed the world as his "Tramp" character who found his fortune by being amiable and lucky. The idea that a good attitude and a turn of luck could result in happiness was all that many Americans had during the World Wars and the Great Depression. He played the part of the sad clown and he was eventually kicked out of the country for poking fun at American society. Today he is beloved for his work, but he was more infamous than famous during a large part of his life.

Buster Keaton: Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), and The Cameraman (1928).

That man that performed the most dangerous of stunts with a deadpan expression, Buster Keaton was a great actor, athlete, stuntman, writer, producer, and director. It is amazing that you could get so much emotion out of a silent actor who does not emote, but Keaton managed to do it. He was also never afraid to go big, often putting his own well being at risk to capture a good shot. Not as well known for his cinematography or editing as many of the other directors of the time, he instead captured performances that were amazing no matter how they were filmed. Famous stunts include the side of a house falling down around him, standing on the front of a moving train, sitting on the side rail of a moving train, and grabbing on to a speeding car with one hand to hitch a ride. If you like films by Jackie Chan, know that he models his films after the work of Buster Keaton: high action and high comedy.

Cecil B. Demille: The Cheat (1915), Male and Female (1919), and The Ten Commandments (1923)

Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry, Demille was the first director to make a real box office hit. He is likely best known for making The Ten Commandments in 1923 and then remaking it again in 1956. If not that, he was also known for his scandalous dramas that depicted women in the nude. This was pre-Code silent film so the rules about what could be shown had not been established. Demille made 30 large production successful films in the silent era and was the most famous director of the time which gave him a lot of freedom. His trademarks were Roman orgies, battles with large wild animals, and large bath scenes. His films are not what most modern film watchers think of when they are considering silent films. That famous quote from the movie Sunset Boulevard in 1950 in which the fading silent actress says "All right, Mr. Demille. I'm ready for my close-up," is referring to this director.

D.W. Griffith: Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916)

Griffith started making films in 1908 and put out just about everything that he recorded. He made 482 films between 1908 and 1914, although most of these were shorts. His most famous film today is absolutely Birth of a Nation and it is one of the most outlandishly racist films of the time. The depiction of black Americans as evil and the Klu Klux Klan as heroes who are protecting the nation didn't even really go over well at that time. Some believe that his follow up the next year called Intolerance was an apology, but the film actually addresses religious and class intolerance and avoids the topic of racism. At the time, Griffith films were known for the massive sets and casts of thousands of extras, but today he is known for his racist social commentary.

Sergei Eisenstein: Battleship Potemkin (1925)

This eccentric Russian director was a pioneer of film theory and the use of montage to show the passage of time. His reputation at the time would probably be similar to Tim Burton or maybe David Lynch. He had a very specific strange style that made his films different from any others. The film Battleship Potemkin is considered to be one of the best movies of all time as rated by Sight and Sound, and generally considered as a great experimental film that found fame in Hollywood as well as Russia.

F.W. Murnau: Nosferatu (1922), Faust (1926), and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

I think that most people would know the bald-headed long-nailed vampire Nosferatu that was a silent era phenomena. It was so iconic that the German film studio that produced the movie was sued by the estate of Bram Stoker and had to close. Faust was his last big budget German film and has an iconic shot of the demon Mephisto raining plague down on a town that was the inspiration for the Demon Mountain in Fantasia (1940). Also, Sunrise is considered one of the best movies of all time by the AFI and by Sight and Sound as well as my favorite silent film. Fun facts: 1) more of Murnau's films have been lost then are still watchable and 2) he died in a car wreck at only 40 when he hired a car to drive up the California coast and the driver was only 14.

Erich von Stroheim: Greed (1924)

Maker of very strange German Expressionist films, Stroheim films are often listed as Horror or Mystery even though he considered himself a dramatic film maker. His most famous movie Greed was supposed to be amazing with an 8 hour run time but it was cut drastically to the point that it makes no sense and was both critically and publicly panned when an extremely abridged version was released in the U.S. Over half the film was lost and a complete version no longer exists. Besides this film, Stroheim was even better known for being the butler in the film Sunset Boulevard as a former director who retired to be with an aging silent film star. He also made a movie called Between Two Women (1937) that told the story of a female burn victim that was inspired by the story of his wife being burned in an explosion in a shop on the actual Sunset Boulevard.

Victor Fleming: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone With the Wind (1939)

Although not known for his silent films, Fleming did get his start during the silent era. He was a cinematographer for D.W. Griffith and then Fleming directed his first film in 1919. Most of his silent films were swashbuckling action movies with Douglas Fairbanks or formulaic westerns. He is the only director to have two films on the AFI top 10 and they happened to have come out the same year.

Hal Roach: Lonesome Luke films starring Harold Lloyd, Our Gang shorts, Laurel and Hardy shorts, and Of Mice and Men (1939)

It is not really fair to put Hal Roach in the silent era directors because he was influential at the time but he had a 75 year career. He was a producer and film studio head and even had a studio named after himself. His biggest contribution to the silent era was his production of Harold Lloyd short comedies and he continued to produce films in the early talkies including Laurel and Hardy shorts, Our Gang shorts, and Wil Rogers films. Roach was the inspiration for the film Sullivan's Travels, in which a famous director who only did frivolous comedies goes out into the world to find inspiration to find a serious drama. Roach did direct a single serious drama, Of Mice and Men, but it came out in 1939 and was buried underneath the works of Victor Fleming. The wealthy cigar smoking studio head that many people think of when they picture a film studio suit is based on this guy. The man would not quit and stayed in the business into his 90s and lived to the ripe old age of 100.

[snowgloberoundandround]

This trend of telling people to “wear a d*mn mask” or calling people selfish for choosing not wearing a mask in public needs to stop. It is a callously cruel thing to say, and extremely damaging to hear every single day. People have their reasons for not wearing a mask, just as much as you have your reasons for wearing yours.

Here are just a few reasons people don’t wear a mask:

Assorted medical reasons - most places are making exceptions for medical reasons in the fine print, but most medical reasons a stranger on the street won’t be able to see, they’ll just see the lack of a mask. People with legitimate medical exceptions are harassed every day by people, both strangers and employees, who assume they are just being apathetic and flippant. They are berated by social media’s inflammatory hashtags and posts that demand you wear a mask. It’s not okay to assume why someone is not wearing a mask, it’s not okay to judge someone for not wearing a mask, and it’s not legal to ask what the medical condition is. You’re not a doctor, you’re not their doctor.

Asthma/respiratory fatigue - for oxygenation we measure what is called your Sp02 levels. A normal, resting level should be in the 98-100 range. Under anesthesia if it gets in the low 90’s we’re mildly concerned and trying to restore it, we never want to see it in the 80’s. Some studies with the masks have shown Sp02 levels in healthy, fit individuals wearing masks while walking briskly for several minutes dropping into the 70’s. That’s very, very bad. One of my friends has bad asthma, she wore her mask for a quick 5-minute trip into the store yesterday. It took her TWO HOURS to recover. If you have a pre-existing respiratory condition, wearing a mask can be extremely harmful. You shouldn’t have to be told you’re a bad person because someone doesn’t get that you’re just trying to breathe.

Skin conditions - Masks trap moisture close to your face. If you have severe acne, eczema, psoriasis, are prone to infection, etc. having a mask on your face repeatedly for long periods of time can result in bad infections and be a painful irritant. Along with all the other points on this thread, employers also have little care for the health and well-being of their employees in this regard, especially corporate employers, who rather cover their risk of being sued rather than allow their employees to not wear a mask for the sake of their health. There have also been cases of young and healthy individuals getting lung infections from wearing a mask 40+ hours a week. Constantly breathing in moisture and carbon dioxide was not something that the human body was meant to do.

Anxiety/panic attacks - I have anxiety, and most the time I can handle it. But I’ve had anxiety about going to the store by myself LONG before this all started, so if I have the mask on for more than five minutes at the store I start feeling like I can’t breathe well. And my anxiety isn’t anywhere near as bad as some. We’ve had to call 911 for my mom at least half a dozen times in the span of my life, and those are just the really bad panic attacks, not all the little after shocks. Now think about if you’re having an anxiety attack, and had to take your mask off, and it’s not that severe but you’re teetering on the edge, and some rando comes by and says “HEY PUT A MASK ON” or “It’s not doing anything if it’s not on your face.” Imagine how much worse that makes it because you’re already struggling to keep it together and now you’re met with confrontation.

Physical/sexual abuse victims - imagine having to live through someone trying to actually suffocate you, and then you’re told you have to wear a mask at all times. All you feel is that hand over your face, all you feel is the inability to escape, being constricted and restrained. THEN imagine everyone telling you you’re being selfish for not wearing a mask, simply because they don’t know what horrors you’ve been through. Further more, the governor of my state said anxiety is not a good enough excuse not to wear a mask, so you’re branded a criminal for not wanting to relive the worst moment of your life in memory.

PTSD - this is basically the same principle as the two afore mentioned, as PTSD comes in many shapes and sizes. However it bears stating the lasting emotional trauma masks will have on many children in schools. For a nervous little third grader, telling her for eight hours a day she can’t sit with her friends, can’t play with them on the playground, can’t interact with anyone, has to be screened every day, and in some schools are required to stay in little solitary cubicles... that ABSOLUTELY can give a child PTSD while also inhibiting their development.

Autism - some autistic people have severe texture adversities. For any child having a mask over their face is a difficult thing to tolerate, but especially for an autistic child who can only tolerate a select few materials when it comes to normal clothes. This is a good post that goes into more detail on how the current hostility toward anyone who doesn’t where a mask promotes an ableist outlook

In protest - Because they believe that the deaths and emotional trauma from mask culture is more detrimental than the initial virus, such depression, the medical treatment that was denied and people died from because it was not deemed “essential”, the families that go hungry because of jobs lost, the resulting crime and lawlessness that hurts people, the panic/anxiety and emotional scarring it will have on children in schools, etc. Many people will call it selfish to not wear a mask out of protest, but in reality it is BECAUSE you care about people that you protest by not wearing a mask. If you believe it is doing more harm than good for the population as a whole, the most selfless thing you can do is risk being ridiculed and punished for standing up.

Science and statistics - Many people simply believe that the science doesn’t prove that masks are unequivocally beneficial and that the statistics don’t validate their efficacy. The ideology has become “the masks are better than nothing” but as the above points listed have countered, sometimes a mask is WORSE than nothing. Furthermore, instituting mandatory masks on the basis of it may or may not help is extremely poor leadership. You don’t collapse a society, cause lasting economic and emotional crisis for something you don’t know for certain if it will work. You don’t create laws on a maybe. That is a detrimental way of thinking because it is destroying our society, producing casualties of all kinds, for something you don’t even know if it really helps. People have lost their lives, their food, their jobs, their businesses they built from the ground up because of the astronomical fines and closures if they do not enforce masks that may or may not be effective. Masks are not necessarily a “temporary inconvenience”, there are lasting effects. Most people who don’t wear masks, don’t do so because they are short-sighted and selfish, but they do so because they believe it is in the best interest of everyone to make masks optional, because of their great care for others and how it impacts everyone involved.

But the bottom line is this:

The simple reason that I believe it’s better for my health not to wear a mask is reason enough to not have to wear one. I have the right to decide what is best for my health and act accordingly, and I should not be attacked for that.

[useless-catalanfacts]

Why is Pablo Hasel justifying and praising terrosist groups??

I’m not sure if you’re asking why Pablo Hasél is accused of praising terrorist groups or why he said what he said. So I’ll answer both things lol.

He got sentenced to jail because of different verses from his rap songs and some tweets. To be precise, the judges have considered that he published 64 tweets that were either against the Spanish monarchy (yes, “offense against the Crown” is a crime in Spain) or praising the armed organisations GRAPO and ETA. These are the tweets that caused more scandal:

“Los parásitos de los Borbones siguen de trapis con los decapitadores de los homosexuales”: “the Bourbon parasites are still doing business with the ones who decapitate homosexuals”

This is a reference to the fact that the Bourbon family (the dynasty of the Spanish monarchy) are, in fact, doing business and being friends with the monarchy of Saudi Arabia, where human rights are not respected at all.

It is a fact that Saudi Arabia condemns homosexuality as a crime: gay people caught for the first time are flogged or jailed and if the “offense” is repeated they are sentenced to death penalty (source). It’s also a fact that King Juan Carlos I has had a long friendship and business relation with the Al Saud dynasty. In 1979, the Saudi monarchy gave Juan Carlos I a yacht as a gift (which he accepted and used for his holidays for years), when the king Fahd of Saudi Arabia died in 2005 the president of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (from the PSOE party) declared a national day of mourning for the Saudi king as was suggested to him by the Spanish monarchy, in 2008 king Juan Carlos I received 100 million euros from Saudi Arabia, in 2007 Juan Carlos gave Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (brother of the current king of Saudi Arabia) the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece (the highest chivalry honour that the King of Spain can give), in 2011 Juan Carlos intervened to the king of Saudi Arabia to get the contract of the high velocity train to Mecca (which is valued in 7,000 million dollars) assigned to a Spanish business, in 2019 the Panama papers revealed an offshore foundation that the Saudi monarchy had used to give the Spanish monarchy 100 million euros... Just a few examples that prove this relation. (Source). And now Juan Carlos I is living in the United Arab Emirates, another country with harsh punishments for homosexuality (among other human rights violations).

So Pablo Hasél was just stating the facts in that sentence.

“El mafioso de mierda del Rey dando lecciones desde un palacio”: “the fucking mafioso King giving lessons from a palace”

Given the many cases of corruption that the king has been involved in, as well as his intervention in the economy (such as profiting from big businesses that had profited from Franco’s dictatorship) and pressure in politics, it’s not so crazy to call him (and his family clan) a mafioso. In fact, the French TV news literally called Juan Carlos I a “gangster” once.

As for the “giving lessons from a palace”, that’s what he does in his Christmas speech or any other time he addresses the citizens, as if we all had it so easy as living and owning multiple palaces with hundreds of maids and not having to work while getting all kinds of luxuries payed for with public money. Not just Juan Carlos, Felipe VI is the same (remember when he went to Cuba to give them lessons on democracy, but then pretended everything was perfect in the visit to Saudi Arabia?).

Once again, Pablo Hasél was not being far from the truth.

“Guardia Civil torturando o disparando a emigrantes”: “the Civil Guard [Spanish military police force] torturing or shooting migrants”

The Civil Guard literally shoots rubber bullets at migrants who are trying to get on Spanish soil in Ceuta (source). By shooting them rubber bullets, the migrant people fall back on the water, and many drown. The Civil Guard murders and tortures migrants. And everything that takes place inside CIEs (migrant detention centers) can also be called torture with no doubt.

Again, these are facts.

Those were posts on social media, he has also been sentenced because of the lyrics of his songs. Here are some sentences from his song “Juan Carlos el Bobón” (the title is a pun with the words "Borbón”-Bourbon- and “bobo”-stupid-).

“Me cago en la marca España explotadora y casposa”: “the exploiter and braggart brand Spain can go fuck itself”

That’s self-explanatory. A personal opinion you can agree or disagree with, but given the things we’ve mentioned in this post and so many more, it’s perfectly understandable that he would feel like this. And he should be free to say it.

“Si Froilán se disparó en el pie siendo menor de edad igual ahora que es mayor de edad va a disparar a toda la Familia Real”: “if Froilán shot himself in the foot when he was underage, maybe now that he’s an adult he’ll shoot the whole Royal Family”

For those who don’t know, Froilán is the son of Infanta Elena, and so the nephew of the current king Philip VI. This line is a reference to 2012, when he was shooting in one of his parents’ possessions and he accidentally shot himself in the foot. It was illegal for him to be shooting in the first place, because Spanish law prohibits kids under 14 years of age to hold firearms, but of course nothing happened to his parents for doing illegal things because they’re the royal family.

Unsurprisingly, this line is considered “offense to the Crown”. It’s not a threat from Hasél, it’s just wishful thinking that I’m sure many people share.

And lines from other songs by Pablo Hasél:

“Siempre hay algún indigente despierto con quien comentar que se debe matar a Aznar”: “there’s always some homeless person awake with whom to talk about the need to kill Aznar”

José María Aznar was president of Spain between 1996 and 2004 with the right-wing party Partido Popular (PP). He was a shit president, during his presidency the labour rights decreased and left thousands of workers with way less protection than before, he focused a lot of his work as president on making the economy more neoliberal and left thousands of workers with unfair salaries and harsh working conditions by allowing the owners to fire and decrease pay at will. He also gave support to the USA in the occupation of Iraq, even when the population had been protesting against it (I was only 4 or 5 years old at the time and even I remember one of the general strikes against it).

“¡Merece que explote el coche de Patxi López!”: “Patxi López’s car deserves to explode”

“¡Que alguien clave un piolet en la cabeza a José Bono!”: “Someone stab an axe on José Bono’s head!”

“No me da pena tu tiro en la nuca, 'pepero'. Me da pena el que muere en una patera. No me da pena tu tiro en la nuca, 'socialisto'. Me da pena el que muere en un andamio”: “I’m not feeling sorry for the shot in the back of your neck, pepero [member of the PP party]. I feel sorry for the ones who die in dinghy boats. I don’t feel sorry for the shot in the back of your neck, socialisto [member of the PSOE party]. I feel sorry for the ones who die in a scaffold”.

“Prefiero grapos que guapos”: “I prefer GRAPOs to handsomes” (a pun). GRAPO was a communist and anti-imperialism armed organisation.

“Mi hermano entra en la sede del PP gritando ¡Gora ETA! A mí no me venden el cuento de quiénes son los malos, sólo pienso en matarlos”: “My brother goes in the PP’s headquarters shouting ‘Gora ETA!’. They won’t sell me the tale of who are the bad guys, I’m only thinking of killing them”

“Es un error no escuchar lo que canto, como Terra Lliure dejando vivo a Losantos”: “It’s a mistake to not listen to what I sing, like when Terra Lliure left Losantos alive”. Terra Lliure was a short-lived communist organisation that wanted to fight for the independence of the Catalan Countries through armed struggle. Jiménez Losantos is a fascist radio host who tells all kinds of lies and manipulates information to spread right-wingism, hatred towards national minorities, homophobia, etc.

“Los Grapo eran defensa propia ante el imperialismo y su crimen”: “GRAPO were self-defense against imperialism and its crime”.

“Quienes manejan los hilos merecen mil kilos de amonal”: “those who pull the strings deserve 1000 kg of ammonal”

“Pienso en balas que nucas de jueces nazis alcancen”: “I think of the bullets that would reach the nazi judges’ back of the necks”

None of these sentences are serious threats / plans at the moment. On the contrary, when the politicians he mentions make policies that directly cause deaths (of migrant people at the borders, suicides in migrant detention centers, of workers in their workplace, of people whose heat and gas is cut off or who are evicted, of women murdered by their husbands because they didn’t have anywhere to go for help, etc), now those are real crimes, aren’t they?

Pablo Hasél has been very vocal about being a communist. So I’ll copy-paste Friedrich Engels’ definition of “social murder”. I don’t know what Pablo had in mind when writing those lyrics but I think this fragments helps understand where he’s coming from.

When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live — forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence — knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains. (Engels, The Condition of the Working-Class in England, 1845)

So we can agree or disagree with Pablo Hasél and what he says or his way of saying it, but that doesn’t mean he should be jailed because of it. And it’s incredibly hypocritical to consider saying (not doing, just saying!) that “there’s always some homeless person to talk about the need to kill Aznar with” is violence, but to ignore that Aznar’s involvement in the Iraq helped kill thousands of civilians (for a lie, because Iraq did NOT have weapons of mass destruction!) and caused the misery and indirectly the death of so many workers.

If your question was why did Pablo Hasél say these things, I think two of the sentences we said sum it up:

“I’m not feeling sorry for the shot in the back of your neck, pepero [member of the PP party]. I feel sorry for the ones who die in dinghy boats. I don’t feel sorry for the shot in the back of your neck, socialisto [member of the PSOE party]. I feel sorry for the ones who die in a scaffold” and “GRAPO were self-defense against imperialism and its crime”. Pablo Hasél was highlighting how the current situation we live in is already violence. Violence inflicted by capitalism, imperialism and hatred, so he would consider his words self-defense.

[janiedean]

i find it funny that all the arguments against sansan or sanrion is about the age gap being problematic and then people ship her with jaime who's OLDER THAN TYRION and i think also older than sandor OR they'll ship her with jon who she grew up considering a brother and is actually a cousin making it incestuous. oh and when the books start theon is like 18-19 years old while sansa is like 11 i think? but yes, tell me more about why your sansa ships are superior to sansan or sanrion LOL. oh also let's not forget the ~pure~ ship of sansaery where margaery basically pretends to be friends with sansa and acts nice for her own advantage which is easy to do since she's lonely in king's landing but drops her th emoment it gets convenient, not to mention pretty much framing her from joff's murder which like sure, sansa escaped cuz LF had it planned but if not she would've been killed then :) a very healthy dynamic indeed. they really don't want to admit that they only care to ship sansa with canonically hot guys and their real problem with sansan and sanrion is both sandor and tyrion are supposed to be ugly and physically quite the opposite of the prince charming she's looking for (but they are more prince-like in character) and ignore that her whole arc is learning to look beyond appearances and names and superficial stories.

I mean other than confirming you that jaime's older than sandor bc jaime has seven years on tyrion who's three-four years younger than sandor and sandor's like 29 in agot... he's older than both of them and I'd like to add willas tyrell to the list of people that are seen as better options.... and he's also older than both sandor and tyrion, I... can't disagree with anything here because like we don't even wanna touch my beef with sans*ery but it's for the same reasons as you said and at the end of it I also can't disagree with the last paragraph because that's... like... the point of the narrative like sansa is obv ending up with someone who doesn't look hot for standards but is actually good on the inside which both of them fit the standard for, and again while I think sandor's it for obv reasons if sanrion was endgame I wouldn't be complaining (ngl I was hoping lowkey for them to get the show bc it was obvious sansan wasn't gonna be a show thing so might as well have a 50/50 split even though I guess having the show wouldn't have been that great in retrospective BUT ANYWAY) yeah what you said about the whole arc and again like... sansa/jaime is top five most hated ships for me too bc it's doubly ignoring that sansa and jaime have LI that aren't standard attractive so I'm not even touching that but yeah like

sorry but when it comes to problematic ships again there is literally nothing in asoiaf that's not somehow problematic - again the most wholesome thing in there is sam/gilly and I reiterate gilly has a baby because her father raped her and her own mother was the same so................. like no one has any leg to stand on when it comes to MY SHIP IS WHOLESOME bc no ship in here is 100% wholesome or has characters who are themselves 100% wholesome so the fixation about how these two ships are specifically bad is suspicious like really really sus

also I'd like again to point out for the umpteenth time that while there are things that I really don't vibe with (and in this fandom esp I can't do incest ships) I don't go around judging ppl for being into unhealthy dynamics or being like EW IT'S INCEST BAD because honestly I have better to do with my life, but my problem is people going like AH MY SHIP IS MORALLY BETTER THAN YOURS when it's a badwrong/ish dynamic and trying to sanitize it - like own up to it no one is gonna judge in this damned fandom and if they do good luck being coherent and don't go at other people like 'ah yeah mine is better than yours because it's so much more wholesome' X°D

also like... again there's limits and limits - I can absolutely get why someone would not like sansan or sanrion because they do have problematic elements like if someone reads blackwater and feels uncomfortable ofc I'm not gonna tell them WELL YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT IT, if they blacklist sansan and they don't come at me telling me I'm a pervert then all good? but like to do the comparison I can't get over how in the show sansa told theon she'd do to him what ramsay did all over again after he didn't help her when she didn't even tell him WELL WE SHOULD RUN AWAY TOGETHER just help me run away because for me that is like... I can't ship it when the show narrative never asked sansa to be accountable, I won't ever go to a the*nsa shipper telling them EW HOW CAN YOU LIKE IT WHEN THAT IS A THING because... the way I can like sansan with its problematic elements or secondarily like sanrion with its problematic elements (nvm that the superior tyrion ship is tyrion/bronn anyway) they can like th*onsa with its problematic elements? but just don't go around harping at ppl because everyone has their limit to something and it can be glaringly obvious or not (I mean if I tell you that th*ramsay isnt my cup of tea anyone could understand why seeing the background, or idk for me brienne/hyle hunt is a way bigger nope than brienne/tormund ever could have been but a lot of ppl in jb fandom feel the contrary which is absolutely fine again I can't stand the idea of b. with someone who bet on taking her virginity because of personal reasons even if he realized he was wrong but for others the way they wrote brienne/tormund in the show was uncomfortable to that degree and so on) and as long as you behave like an adult... then who cares what you ship

meanwhile instead there's the... fixation on those two esp within the context you mentioned and honestly I'm kinda tired of the 'gross old dudes' rhetoric thrown at them when neither of them is old or gross and they both are abuse victims with trauma never mind the ableism in spades (that one more glaringly at tyrion for obvious reasons and on tumblr I wish it wasn't like......... 80% of the general fandom but people dismissing sandor's shitty coping methods as HE'S A VIOLENT DRUNK when like..... he's the only one who's actually not violent with her sansa and he has thirty years' worth of ptsd on him are also a peach) like... can you please realize the implications of what you're saying please and thank you