#There are also a lot of similarities between him and Mary I that I absolutely inhale

[austin-friars]

Yes! Like back then, they clearly didn't really know what Autism was, or any form of like, disorder or disability. I think that Cramner himself was a ball of anxiety, and he seems nervous, regardless of what media you look at for him. For instance, both Tudors and Wolf Hall tend to portray a Cramner that is clearly nervous, Tudors moreso. From both the books and the show, Wolf Hall Cramner is a nervous wreck but he also is a bit more firm when it comes to certain things - except when it comes to sticking his neck out for his reformer allies. There are a lot of historical figures that I believe may have had certain mental/intellectual disorders or disabilities. I know everyone during the Tudor era probably had some form of PTSD, but it's interesting seeing how people acted through documents, and accounts from others, and then, being in the 21st century and being able to 'diagnose' what people were going through. Like, some time ago, a mutual and I were talking about how we believed Edgar Allen Poe to be autistic because of some of his mannerisms (and if you haven't seen Pale Blue Eye, you should...because he is basically on brand autistic there). I also tend to speculate that Thomas Cromwell is on the spectrum, but also that, heavy depression, PTSD or trauma is hereditary for the Cromwells because his great - great nephew (?) suffers from depression. ANYWAY, yes I love these figures.

And ooh! Thanks for letting me know! If I have time I'll check it out!

Stephen, along with Mary I is one of my favorite historical figures so I'm always speculating things about him from his illegitimate status to just, rise to power. One of my favorite things about the Tudor era is seeing people with nothing, or seeing people who are low status, rise to something. We're always rightfully talking about Thomas Cromwell, but we literally have people like Gardiner as well who started off as an illegimate child who was brushed away into Holy Orders persumably against his will - because that's what happened to bastards back then, but then at the end of his life, became Lord Chancellor of one of the most powerful nations. I love that about him. I've actually written/am in the process of writing a few short stories for him myself, or at the very least, i've based a few of my original characters off of his counterpart (and others, like Cromwell, because they are lovers to me) and am currently working on a historical fiction focusing on him and Mary. My plan is to one day publish them, I'm very *close* to getting one at least, ready for publishing but I'm having so much fun with these short stories. He is probably one of my biggest, if not my biggest writing muse at this point. He's a character I just genuinely enjoy; I love underdogs, people who come from nothing and rise to something. And people who have a bit of bite to them because you know, he worked his ass off. But he's a character who tends to be overly vilified and I like looking at him and writing him in a more kinder, nuanced light.

I like the historical possibility that Archbishop Cranmer could've been autistic.

[ace-sher-bi-john]

While I absolutely love both BBC Sherlock and Sherlock & Co, Sherlock & Co definitely depicts a more healthy relationship between Sherlock and John.

For starters, on BBC Sherlock, Sherlock and John are both co-dependent on each other. John was implied to be suicidal before he met Sherlock. Sherlock relapses without John by his side. Even with Mary to substitute the void in his heart and help him find purpose again, John would never move on from Sherlock. If anything happened to John, it wouldn't end well for anyone, especially Sherlock.

On Sherlock & Co, one of John's only problems after returning home from Ukraine was that he couldn't afford a flat on his own. He seemed to be very excited about life, going on dates, couldn't wait to start his podcast. He was genuinely happy to see Mike.

Sherlock could easily manage on his own without John. He doesn't need to be reminded to eat, he doesn't need an assistant for cases, he doesn't need someone to take care of him. His only problem is that he needs a flatmate.

Although John and Sherlock both need each other to afford rent, they don't need each other for anything else. They want each other's company, they don't need it. They aren't two halves of a whole, they are two wholes coming together. That's how it should be with all healthy relationships, platonic, romantic, queerplatonic, or otherwise.

It also helps a lot that Sherlock isn't a complete jerk on Sherlock & Co. He genuinely treats John and everyone else with a kindness that while I believe BBC Sherlock is capable of it, he rarely showed it. When John's PTSD is triggered, Sherlock asks John if he'd rather sit out that case. He then asks John if he wants to hold hands and discuss his feelings. In part one of the Blue Carbuncle, Sherlock complimented, actually complimented John. That kind of scene just never happened on BBC Sherlock. John was doing his "That was fantastic! You're amazing!" and Sherlock said, "You flatter me, Watson. But you did awesome too! You should have seen the way you did that! It was brilliant!"

John seems like a much more well rounded happy person in general. Just listen to any of his viewer discretion warnings. "Greetings you handsome devil! This episode will contain a bit of the old swearing, a bit of violence, some drug use. Oh and a bit of duck poo!" I hate to make this comparison, due to how much it will sound like an insult. But he acts like the quirky Disney Princess personality that every Disney Princess from the 2010s has and I mean that in the best possible way. It's my favorite thing about him. He's so adorable.

In the Blue Carbuncle, John has a moment similar to ones that you've seen many times before on BBC Sherlock. John has plans that mean he won't be able to help with the case. He is going to Berlin to spend Christmas with his old army friends. It's going to be his first boys' trip in years. But then he gets so sucked into the case that he's almost late for his plane and decides to just stay with Sherlock anyway because the case is just so fascinating he can't leave. On BBC Sherlock, John has abandoned his plans, his job, his girlfriends, for a case because he couldn't stand to be without Sherlock for so long. Also because Sherlock would often crash is dates, ruin his relationships, just so that John could assist him on cases. On Sherlock & Co, Sherlock was happy for John that he was going out with friends, even though it would mean spending the holidays alone. And Sherlock LOVES Christmas, so it's sad to think that he would have to spend it alone.

Where BBC Sherlock would manipulate or guilt John into staying, Sherlock & Co Sherlock let John go and was genuinely fine with going it alone for a week or two, even if it meant being all alone on Christmas.

I love BBC Sherlock, toxic co-dependent relationships and all, and I always will. But Sherlock & Co gives a little something different and I am happy that my boys are happier.

SH: *laughing* What's so funny Watson? JW: *laughing* It's just hearing you say "bell end" SH: Lovely and jubbly

[hard--headed--woman]

For this 2nd day of Pride Month I decided to talk about a woman I mentionned yesterday in the post about Renée Vivien (that you should absolutely read by the way, Renée Vivien is amazing) :

Natalie Clifford Barney !

I talked about her to say that she's had a love story with Renée Vivien, but that's not the only thing she's done.

Natalie was born in 1876 in the United States and died in 1972 in Paris, at the age of 95. Writer and poet, she was the first woman to use the word "lesbian" in her writings (in this case a collection of poems, published in 1899), instead of the word "tribade" (it's another word for lesbian in french) or simply "homosexual". The word lesbian back then was even more taboo than it is today, so you can imagine how important this fact was (and still is).

She was also famous for the parties she organised: she held a literary salon which she wanted to turn into the "new Mytilene". She invited the female artists, writers and intellectuals of her time, in response to the all-male Académie Française, and they all spent whole afternoons and evenings in the flat of the wealthy American.

Natalie never tried to hide her homosexuality. As she said in a sentence that quickly became her most famous one,

"Why would anyone blame me for being a lesbian ?"

(Yes, that's her with Renée Vivien)

Natalie's mother (a renowned artist) and her tutor awakened her interest in the French language at an early age, and when she was a little older, she was sent to a school in France; thanks to this, she spoke French fluently and without an accent, and developed a soft spot for this country.

Natalie was 12 when she realized she was a lesbian, and decided right away to "live in the open, without hiding from anyone".

Hee first known relationship was with Liane de Pougy, a famous dancer of the time (whom she cheated on with many women). Natalie wrote about this love story in her collection Quelques portraits, sonnets de femmes. ("Some portraits, sonnets of women"). Liane wrote about it in her novel "Idylle sapphique", which so fascinated the French public that it had to be reprinted sixty times in the same year, with people torn between admiration and scandal. The two women eventually parted ways, however, due to Natalie's infidelities and Liane's "debauched lifestyle" (in Natalie's words).

As I said, this book caused a huge scandal. Natalie was forced to return to the United States, where her father burned all her writings he could find, and tried to marry her off. However, she categorically refused to obey him, and faced with her stubbornness, her father gave up, and Natalie returned to Paris, where she had a lot of lovers. Among these lovers, there's Renée Vivien (probably the most important, since Natalie never accepted their breakup and tried to get Renée back until Renée died at 32) Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Colette, Emma Calvé, Olive Custance, Henriette Roggers and many others.

In 1902, on the death of her father, Natalie Clifford Barney inherited a large fortune and was able to rent a house in Neuilly-sur-Seine, where she gave parties that became the talk of the town.

In 1910, she moved into a house at 20 rue Jacob ; for nearly sixty years, this house was the setting for her famous "Fridays", one of the last influential literary salons. A LOT of famous people went there. Like really. The complete list is on Wikipedia if you're curious, and here's a screenshot with some examples :

Marie Skłodowska-Curie went there. Albert Einstein went there. Apollinaire and Proust went there. Oscar Wilde went there. That's cazy to me!

She's had other lovers, like Elisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre, but her greatest love story was with the painter Romaine Brooks, with whom she had a relationship similar to that of a married couple from 1914 to the end of her life. Of course, this didn't stop her from cheating on Romaine with other women: Natalie was known for her infidelities, believing that polygamy was necessary for a couple's survival, although she claimed that this didn't stop her from being deeply in love with Romaine. She cheated on her for example with Oscar Wilde's niece Dolly, and Nadine Huong, whose story I'll tell one day because it's so interesting!

She spent the years of the Second World War in Italy, and later returned to France to find her second home, which she shared with Romaine Brooks, destroyed. In 1949, she reopened her salon (which started to welcome more and more famous actors and actresses on top on everyone else).

Nothing much happened for the rest of his life. She never left Romaine Brooks (despite continuing to have affairs with a host of other women) and died in Paris in 1972, aged 95.

Natalie Clifford Barney's work and life were very important not only for culture itself, but also for the lesbian community. She made a major contribution to lesbian visibility, opened many minds, helped normalize (even if we still have a long way to go) homosexuality and, above all, helped many lesbian women accept themselves, understand that they were not alone and live the life they deserved.

The influence of her works and her salon on culture, literature, cinema, theater and even science is immense and deserves to be recognized. We should be talking about her much more than we are!

Here's some of her poems with an english translation :

And she's written loads of other stuff that I really recommend you read! She was an interesting woman who wrote interesting things. Look her up on Google and read her writings and her life!

Anyway, that's it! Sorry for posting so late, and see you tomorrow for the 3rd lesbian pride post 🏳️‍🌈

[heavenlymorals]

Sadie and Arthur and the Affects of Gender Roles in 1899 America

(warning: there is sexism and sexist ideas in this analysis because I refuse to sugarcoat the time period that RDR2 takes place in. Arthur is a product of his time and though it isn't shoved in your face, it's still there. Understanding the gender dynamics of this time period makes the characters much more understandable, nuanced, likeable, and better, if I'm being frank.)

I don't ship Sadie and Arthur, at all, it makes no sense to me besides two people liking the characters and thus putting them together. I like them as friends but that's about it.

And let's be so real for a second- even if they do get together for whatever reason, they absolutely wouldn't be compatible as partners because its been shown time and time again that Arthur believes in gender roles and gets visibly annoyed or angry when a woman takes up a man's role when a man is there or when a woman does something he thinks is unladylike in their line of work (just listen to his antagonization of Abigail (for her past as a prostitute, usually), Sadie, Karen, prostitutes, and female performers, all women who take on unconventional roles in their life(also pay attention to certain mission dialogues, and cutscene body language)).

Sadie proves herself as capable, and Arthur works with her, but he makes quips about her behavior or subtly judges her or makes fun of her("Oh, I'm sorry princess. Was there an insufficient feather in your pillow?" "You got a pair of pants and all of a sudden you think you're Landon Ricketts?" "You want to ruuuunnnn with the men?" "Few more like her and there wouldn't be much of a world left." "That ain't what you mean- I can still fight!" Or him being visibly annoyed when she doesn't take his hand to enter the boat and other similar things like that)

Arthur believes that a man should be the one doing the work that revolves around such physical exertion and if he isn't the one doing those things for a woman, he feels as if he is failing in his role as a protector and provider, which then provokes annoyance or in some cases, even anger. Sadie doesn't care about this obviously, and Jake Adler didn't either, hence why they worked so well together as a couple.

Not Arthur though. To put it quite simply, he prefers and is compatible with women who believe in the same gender roles as he does (Mary Gillis, Abigail Roberts, etc.).

This doesn't mean he dislikes Sadie, because it's quite obvious that he is fond of her, but given the intimacy of a relationship, Sadie would get fed up with him trying to be the ONLY provider and protector, and him getting fed up with her by encroaching on what he sees as his duties and responsibilities. He works with her in the way that he does because he has to and he respects that.

Some people may disagree with me on this analysis and that's fine, but to me, it feels like the most realistic outcome if they did become romantic partners. Another reason why I say this is because my mother comes from a culture that still operates a lot like 1899 America and I've seen this dynamic between men and women so many times that it's ridiculous- men who will accept working with a woman in more traditionally masculine roles and prefer partners who are more traditionally feminine.

[sunflowersoap]

back on my bullshit once again. thinks about how the headspace gangs reaction to starting to forget basil can probably tell you a lot about them.

for example, aubrey being EXTREMELY protective over that flower crown. her absolute rage at kel for kicking it off. her thinking "it used to belong to someone, we should return it." very similar to "how DARE basil ruin all our photos! they used to belong to all of us, and he throws us all out like we were nothing! he doesn't even care! he turned his back on all of us! on mari! she used to be here! she used to be a part of our lives! you think just because she isn't here you can just throw everything away? why don't you care? why don't you CARE?!"

her attachment to objects makes me think she values gift giving as a love language. this thing was so important to them, so I'll give it back. I'll give them this to show I care. this thing is special. it's not just an object to her, it's a physical display of their affection. so losing that object feels like losing the last bit of that love.

her being so intent on returning that flower crown even if it's broken and damaged. because someone loved it, so it must be special. her extreme protectiveness was still there, but now it was in a more destructive way. she's so protective of mari and her memory that she assumes the worst of everyone, because everyone pulling away and abandoning her or acting like everything was okay didn't just feel like a betrayal to her. she felt like they were betraying mari. that's why it pissed her off so bad when kel said think of how mari would feel. because oh, NOW you want to think of how mari would feel? NOW??

kel remembering the pictures also sticks out to me. he remembers basils words, even if his memories are so foggy. he has an attachment to those memories. this can also possibly tell us something about him. he doesn't hold on to objects as much as aubrey does, but those memories are everything to him. he listens, he holds all those moments so close to him. even when he's forgetting basil, he remembers all those little quirks he loves. he listened intently to basil, he cherished every single moment. he remembers his favorite things and why he does things and little details about him. even if he's forgetting the fact basil takes pictures, he remembers that they have pictures and WHY they were taken. his focus isn't really on the photo album in the real world. it's on the fact basil is sad and aubrey is so much different. his attachment isn't about the object. it's about the fact it means a lot to BASIL. that's why he wants it back. it makes basil happy. he doesn't understand why aubrey would do it, because his attachment was never to the album. it was "this makes basil happy and brings him joy. he loves this thing. he loves talking about it." so he memorized all his rambling about it. he isn't as attached to the album itself as aubrey is. it wasn't about the photos to kel, it was about spending time with basil. so to him, aubrey's anger seems irrational. it's honestly kinda like different love languages. hers is gift giving, his is quality time. so it doesn't make sense to him. it's basils thing. why would she steal it? it's his passion.

hero, if I'm recalling correctly, doesn't really need to be reminded of basil at the last resort. even while he's forgetting him more and more, he's keeping the group on task. he's bringing up the worry about forgetting things about basil. he looks out for basil. he's trying to keep the group positive. that's what he's trying to do. looking out for basil even when everything's becoming a blur. protecting him even when he isn't there. that's how you see heros love for basil manifest. protecting him. he jumps in to save basil with no hesitation. he tries to solve the fight between aubrey and basil. he looks out for basils health and safety. even if he doesn't know much about basil anymore, even if he's changing, he looks out for him. no matter how difficult it is, he protects him. because if basil can't protect himself, he'll do it. because basils his best friend and he loves him and he needs someone who looks out for him. if basil can't protect himself, he'll help as much as he can. even when he can barely remember him, he remembers he needs his help and THATS enough to keep going.

sunny? simple. he knows basil so fucking well. he knows basil talked to him about things he never talked to about anything else. he's terrified about something happening to basil, enough to have so many rooms of him dying horribly as worst fears. he feels like he can't save their relationship so he runs from it. he knows all of basils worst fears. he knows how trusting basil was of him. he knows how much basil cared about "who he thought he was" (despite what his mental illness makes him think, it's who he IS. not what he thinks he is.) he knows basil like the back of his own hand. he knows his worst traits, he knows his worst fears, he knows his pains and his insecurities and his guilt and his grief. THATS how sunny expresses care and his love language. knowing someone to that degree and listening.

I don't really know where I'm going with this. I just think this game and the way different characters show love is very interesting.

[nthspecialll]

Arthur's first chance at fatherhood

Jamie and Arthur's relationship means so much to me because even though Arthur is not his father, he still was more of a father than his actual father in many ways and Jamie was most likely also Arthur's first chance at fatherhood.

Mary and Arthur met when they were teens, and when they dated it was pretty clear that Arthur took a fondness to Jamie and took the time not only to be around Mary but also to teach Jamie to ride and who knows what else. This could not have been an easy thing seeing as they would have had to meet someplace where Jamie and Mary's actual father would not find them.

The mission with Jamie will never not be one of my favorites because it shows just how fond Arthur is of him. Not only does he say that Mary should let the boy live his life as he pleases and not how he is meant to but also because of the absolute fright you can see in Arthur's eyes when Jamie threatens to kill himself. He is once again seeing "his son" balance the fine line of life and death.

Also in a time when suicide was seen as a sin, Arthur handles it really well, he doesn't taunt Jamie or talk down to him or anything similar, he treats Jamie kindly and you can also immediately hear the change in music to one of the most calm and comfortable that there is to be found in the entire game.

The two's whole dynamic is also so special to me because you can really feel the dynamic between them, how peaceful and natural it is. I personally often feel with a lot of other smaller characters that Arthur takes a backseat in the conversations and only answers shortly and often quite minimally, but with Jamie he talks a lot, offers advice and tries to help Jamie find out what he wants.

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Helloooo i have a lot of thoughts on Furiosa and i liked your "alternate ending" a lot a lot. But here's some thoughts on Pretorian Jack I wanted to share.

Thing is: he's Discount Max and that's bothering me.

First, his role as a 'mentor' to Furiosa: ok, we know she turns out a brooding, badass and stoic adult, but that's because she mimics her brooding, badass and stoic mentor Jack, right? Copies his style, like she does his clothing. Except she is ALREADY badass and stoic at the start of the movie! So there's no progression there, he didn't influence her personality, they are just in sync from the start because they are pretty much the same type of character. And it feels copy-pasted from Fury Road because, again, he's Discount Max, down to the actor's age and general look!

Instead, we could have had a much more unique and different type of character, both in looks and personality. A gangly chatterbox, or a squat fat guy who permanently sings to himself. Maybe finally a POC in these very white movies. And he's still a ruthless badass, just ... not a stoic one. I know Miller hates dialogue, but I enjoy the idea of a guy who is always a source of noise, be it expressive, meaningless chatter or singing, and his mute, fierce teen sidekick. They could have bonded about him getting her to smile or laugh, instead of them bonding by giving each other brooding looks. She could finally have answered his knock-knock joke in their last interaction or something! Sang along to his annoying ditzy at long last. Just, something unique and most of all distinct from the type of relationship she has with Max in Fury Road.

Also, he could have been the one to name her! It felt so weird to me that Furiosa is her given name when her mother is called, of all things, "Mary". 'Ok i'll name my cute babygirl uhhh... Furiosa'. That could have been a part of her story - she refuses to give anyone she encounters her name, she's "the girl", "the pet", until she meets Jack and he gives her a nickname she enjoys and she finally reclaims it when she is brought back to the Citadel. A war name which makes her a part of wasteland culture, not her given one from the Green Place that she keeps as secret as the peach stone.

Ah well. Gonna do some Pretorian Jack fancasts in my head

Okay I probably won't hit every point you brought up but YES, I absolutely feel you on Jack being Discount Max. But I don't think it's because they copy-pasted from Fury Road. I think it's because they tried to do that but failed.

The Max Max movies have a lot of repeated motifs and images, so I wouldn't necessarily have minded young Furiosa having a Max-like figure in her past, even someone similar enough that he's a visual and emotional echo to Fury Road Max Rockatansky. The series does stuff like that a lot.

The problem is that Jack as a character, and her relationship to him, both aren't developed enough for us to really care about them. I really needed to see some intermediate steps in their relationship, in between him offering her a place on his crew and the point where they're willing to risk their lives for one another. It wasn't so much that I needed a training montage that shows her becoming more competent at road war as I needed a teamwork montage that shows them coming to trust each other and work well together. Or something equivalent.

In Fury Road, Max and Furiosa go from trying to kill each other to being willing to die for each other SO seamlessly that it seems sudden, but actually if you break it down, every beat of them cautiously extending more trust to one another is carefully laid out. (There's a fantastic breakdown here about how Furiosa gets Max on her side over the span of just a single sequence of the movie.) And each time the trust is reciprocated and not betrayed, they get a little closer to each other. This is all done with hardly any dialogue. It's done in the language they're both fluent in, which is action. And it takes the entire movie for this relationship to develop to the point where Max is giving Furiosa his blood at the end.

I really needed that from Furiosa and Jack. And I needed it even more in their case because...Max and Furiosa are equals from the word go. Furiosa is in the more powerful position at the beginning, but once they're both fugitives in the Wasteland they are very much in the same boat war rig. And they are shown consistently to be equals in strength and skill at violence. They are also in the Wasteland, where the only thing that counts as power is your ability to survive and physically defend yourself, your resources, and those you care about.

But Jack and Furiosa's story happens within the power structure of the Citadel, a hierarchical society built on violent misogyny and full of interpersonal power dynamics that are ripe for abuse. And while Jack turns out to be a Good Dude, he is a man and he's her superior in rank. In that environment I really really really need to see not just Furiosa earning Jack's respect as a road warrior, but why the hell Furiosa would trust Jack.

(This is connected to my whole complaint about how after hiding her gender for YEARS, Furiosa being the only woman, surrounded by men, in a society literally built on sexual violence, just becomes...not an issue at all once she's part of Jack's crew. Like I didn't need to see anything bad happen to her, but not acknowledging it as a potential risk or fear the characters have in this specific environment feels weird.)

Because look. If a guy with power in a violent system finds out you have been hiding the fact that you're a woman in an all-male environment, and the next thing he does is offer to ~ take you under his wing ~...well, I would be extremely fucking suspicious of that!!! I would not trust that guy at all!!! Because I think the default assumption both by Furiosa and by anyone else at the Citadel would be that there is going to be some quid pro quo expected for this mentorship, and the protection that being Jack's protege provides. So Jack would have to prove that he is Not That Guy before Furiosa would even begin to trust him as a mentor and ally, let alone a close friend or possible romantic/sexual partner.

If you don't have those pieces of their story, then their trust and emotional intimacy (and romantic intimacy, if you read it that way) doesn't feel earned. It seems like they wanted the feeling of the battle-couple, drift-compatible, could-be-platonic-or-romantic-but-it's-definitely-some-kind-of-love Max & Furiosa relationship, but they didn't provide enough space in the narrative for all the character/relationship beats that would sell it.

I wanna address one other thing you brought up in passing, which is racial diversity in the Mad Max movies. The lead actors have not been entirely white (put some respect on Auntie Entity's name) but they've certainly followed the pattern in the Anglophone film world of being disproportionately white. That's not surprising at all, given that every Mad Max movies past the first one has been financed by an American movie studio. A big-budget action film like a Mad Max installment has to have what Hollywood considers "marketable" lead actors attached to it to get financed, and those people are overwhelmingly white.

But I also think there is more racial diversity in the Mad Max universe than some people think; it's just not as immediately readable by a North American or European audience. I remember there being discussion of this when Fury Road came out, in which it was clear that people were reading Megan Gale (who plays Valkyrie and is Māori) and Courtney Eaton (who plays Cheedo and is of mixed English, Chinese and Māori descent) as white women when they are not. (There's a really interesting discussion about that here.) And while it's not immediately obvious with the war boys in Fury Road because, y'know, they literally paint themselves white, if you look closely it's clear they are not all white guys.

I remember discussions about "wouldn't it have been amazing if Furiosa was played by an Indigenous actress" when Fury Road came out. And yes, that would have been incredible! (Although very unlikely for the Hollywood reasons I mentioned above.) But in FMMS, Furiosa's mother is played by an Indigenous actress, Charlee Fraser. And yeah, Furiosa is still played by Anya Taylor-Joy, which I think it's perfectly valid to have a critique of, but that doesn't erase the significance of Charlee Fraser in that role. And my impression is that with FMMS being shot in Australia, they did make an effort to cast more Indigenous actors in supporting and background roles. I think sometimes this racial landscape is just...not as easily parsed by an international audience (I owe a lot of thanks to my antipodean friends for pointing out things that weren't always obvious to me!) but it's still significant within the context of racism and colonialism in Australia and Polynesia. Even Furiosa's mom's name being "Mary," theeee absolutely most generic Christianized name, is something I think you could argue is significant.

Also, FWIW, I love "Furiosa" being Furiosa's birth name. That feels like a significant part of her identity from the Green Place. Because the Green Place is part of the Wasteland. One of the things I love about the Vuvalini we meet in Fury Road is that they are a bunch of grandmas who are just as ruthless and willing to defend their community with violence as anyone else we meet. That is a really crucial worldbuilding detail imo, that even in the idealized Green Place Furiosa remembers from her childhood, you still had to be ready to snap someone in the medulla. So yeah I think if that's the world you live in you would absolutely be naming your kids things like Valkyrie and Furiosa.

[08melancholie]

Dutch Van der Linde and Micah Bell.

a slightly long look into their similarities :3

Posted about this on my tiktok and I still can never stop thinking about it… How Micah and Dutch are practically on the same level of 'evil' and that the only thing that separates them is the fact that Micah doesn't care enough to try and paint himself a good person, whereas Dutch does.

Dutch is presented as a 'charismatic leader', every sacrifice he makes is for the good of the gang — for his family. But, some of the things he does? Were they really a necessity? I'd argue not. He becomes more knowingly brutal by the last few chapters — which doesn't go unnoticed by the gang members either, like how they stare at him when he drowns Bronte, for example; they're all shocked he'd do that. It's unexpected and frankly, it's not what they do. That's also an example of his subtle brutality for me; why not just shoot him? How they normally would? I don't think that his rage and ruthless killing of Bronte was purely because he held onto Jack awhile, or that he tricked him with that robbery that went south; there's definitely something else that triggered the reaction.

Now, Micah is downright horrible — no sugarcoating it. He antagonizes everyone, kills ruthlessly and risks other people's lives. He abused the camp dog and other members like Reverend Swanson. He put Arthur — and himself at that — in danger all over his guns; when he could easily buy some new ones or get them after the news of his jailbreak die down. He's a villain, yes, a fairly good one. It's extremely hard to actually like him; as in his personality. As a character however, he is one of my absolute favorites in history of gaming antagonists. I hate him to my core, yes; but I will never deny how well he was written, how easily distasteful he is. But truthfully? He's simply an example of what a true gunslinger was like, back in the day.

wow im rambling abt Micah who would have thought..

I think that Rockstar has made Dutch just as perfect. Because, let's look at how many people who say they hate Micah and everything he does, — or stands for, etc. — also like Dutch. It'll be an extremely high amount, which is exactly what I feel like Rockstar wanted. They made Micah an easily hated villain, whereas Dutch was a easily liked villain. The Dutch charm; you see, it didn't exist in-game only. It charmed and manipulated you, the player just as much. I love Dutch myself, and hell, the charisma worked on me as well. I'm practically swoon over this 44-year-old bastard, honestly. That just simply furthermore proves my point of his personality and how he displays himself out to the world.

Now, Dutch likes to dismiss and manipulate.

We know this all too well, I reckon. His manipulation tactics start in chapter two, very early. There's a possible interaction between Arthur and Dutch where Dutch says something along the lines of, "I reckon you'll betray me in the end, Arthur" which he then repeats at least twenty times to him throughout the game; as we know. That is his manipulation tactic — you'll betray me. By the end of the last chapter we heard him say such things as "You don't trust me", "You'll betray me", "You've lost faith in me" and so on. But, I think it's very important that he's not asking. He's stating. He does ask a few times if they've lost faith and all that, but these here are statements. It feels a lot more manipulative to state these things in a way, for me at least, than the way he'd ask if they lost faith and trust in him. Dutch's dismissing attitude; things like shooing people away when they bring something up — like drowning Bronte ruthlessly or Molly bringing up him flirting with Mary-Beth — and then repeating one of his manipulative statements from above; they connect. He doesn't seem to like being approached and told off for something he's doing wrong.

Extra — Dutch is also very easily a narcissist, I feel like. I saw someone mention this and I definitely agree with it, but I struggle to really explain it so I don't mention it much when talking about him. I can try to find someone else's tiktok on it that I saw if anyone is interested :)

Now, Micah is also a manipulator. He influences some — but not all — of Dutch's bad choices and actions. I think it's funny how it all comes full circle with Dutch manipulating everyone around him except for Micah, just for Micah to do the same to him. It's something I think about a lot as well. Something about him I just have to mention, is that it's possible you don't hate him. Do you know what you do hate? The fact he killed Arthur.

Arthur will always be a fan favorite, we know this. He's an amazing character and I'd like to think we all got WAY too attached to him when playing RDR2; myself included. I bawled when he died, as a lot of you have as well. I hated Micah in that moment more than ever, how he waited for Arthur to get weak and still struggled with killing him, waiting and waiting until Arthur was a sick, coughing mess to strike. But after that, and after replaying the game, I didn't actually mind it so much. Micah did what he "had" to get the Blackwater money for himself, playing the waiting game with Arthur to easily get rid of him and any opposing opinion he shared with Dutch when Micah would propose an idea or plan. With Arthur gone, Micah was now Dutch's only influence; and Dutch needed that. Dutch needed someone to pamper to him like Micah always has, and with nobody to protest against it now, Micah had Dutch around his finger. And in the end, he really did almost get the money, if it weren't for Sadie, John and Charles finding them, and for Dutch having a moment of realisation right then and there.

Rambling again... The point there was that you don't hate Micah more than you should hate Dutch; you hate the fact he killed Arthur, the character you loved, that you played countless hours with. Arthur would have died, it was inevitable. Especially with his TB, who knows how little time he had left? Micah just.. finished him off. Gave him a more painful death, so to say. To prove my point even further; Dutch contributed to Arthur's death, stopping him from reaching the gun (high honor, go with John ending) and so giving Micah the chance to live — and work with him again. I think that if Micah presented himself like Dutch does; excuses, dressing proper and looking his best, putting on this façade that Dutch does, you would not complain. Hell, you would probably like him. But sadly we can't test that as Micah's reputation is set in stone as one of the most horrible, cruel, awful antagonists in gaming history. And hey — he wears the badge of honor, from what we know.

To sum it up, Micah and Dutch are both horrible, evil men and you've probably been manipulated by the silver tongue, lavish clothes and maybe even cheap cologne..

sorry if this was a little messy, i'm very sleep deprived and i just let my fingers work my keyboard in the darkness of my room 😇 if you went through all of this, thank you sm for reading !! i wasn't lying abt loving to yammer a lot🙏 ill do more if anyones interested in it..

[musicalcastingideas]

Dropout Does Nerdy Prudes Must Die

I am a massive Dropout and Team Starkid fan (if the latter isn't obvious enough from looking at my reblogs) and I feel like there's a lot of overlap between the fandoms. My criteria for being considered a "Dropout Person" is anyone who has appeared on a Dropout show at least once, excluding guest appearances (so for example, Monet X Change counts because she's been on one season of D20 and an episode of Um, Actually, but Laganja Estranja doesn't count because she was only a guest on one of the Legally Not Survivor episode of Game Changer)

I will be trying to factor in voice types where I can, but there will be some instances where I just assume the person can sing the part, because I don't know if the person can sing or not. Also, I will be casting each of the individual parts, I know the actors in the OG cast play multiple parts, but there are so many talented people in the Dropout roster that I can cast each part individually.

Please enjoy. Also spoilers for Nerdy Prudes Must Die, I don't think I can talk about this without them. And also for Dimension 20's A Court of Fey and Flowers.

Max Jagerman: Grant O'Brien

I'll be honest, my main motivation for this one is that Grant looks a bit like Will Branner. He does play the heel really well, and I think he would do a great job playing Max, especially his more Freddy Kruger-esque quipping when he's dead.

Also, this is pretty niche, but in an old College Humour year-end video, where they all pick their favourite skits of the year (I think it was like 2018 or 2019?), Grant talks about how he thought it was really funny that in the Jocks and Nerds Both Think They're The Underdogs sketch, he was the closest thing the College Humour cast had to a jock, and this feels pretty similar to that.

Grace Chastity: Anna Garcia

She has a very unhinged "I am short and I will make that everyone else's problem" energy about her that you really need to play Grace. I think she would also do great with the physical comedy needed for the part.

Peter Spankoffski: Omar Najam

Awkward, nerdy guy who falls in love with the baddest bitch in the cast and would die for her. Am I describing Peter Spankoffski or Prince Andhera from A Court of Fey and Flowers? Also I want to hear Omar sing Cool as I Think I Am.

(This is a joke, love Binx but clearly Delloso De La Rue is the baddest bitch in A Court of Fey and Flowers)

Stephanie Lauter: Surena Marie

I don't have a real explanation for this one, this is vibes.

Richie Lipschitz: Ross Bryant

Watching Ross work his way through all the possible nerdy white guy rap options in Game Changer Karaoke cemented for him that he needs to play one of the nerds.

Ruth Flemming: Izzy Roland

A part that requires the performer to be deranged and horny? Call Izzy Roland!

Solomon Lauter: Brennan Lee Mulligan

Any Dimension 20 (or Critical Role: Exandria Unlimited) fan knows, Brennan is amazing at playing callous, cruel and manipulative characters, so Solomon Lauter is right in his wheelhouse.

Wiggly: Josh Ruben

Josh is so good at voices and playing weird characters, I would love to see his take on Wiggly.

Blinky: Erika Ishii

Erika Ishii is absolutely unhinged, I had to cast them as one of the Lords in Black. They could honestly be any one of them, but I picked Blinky because the voice Lauren Lopez does reminds me of Erika.

Nibbly: Lisa Gilroy

This one is also just vibes, but the vibes are correct.

Tinky: Zac Oyama

I am the head of the Zac Oyama As Weird Little Guys fan club, and what is Tinky if not a weird little guy? (who is also a chaotic evil eldritch being)

Pokey: Mike Trapp

I mainly just went off the vibes of the "What do you want Steph?" line, I think Mike would do well.

Detective Shapiro/Female Reporter in Hatchet town: Rashawn Nadine Scott

This is the only one I'm casting two parts, because they're both relatively small (and also I fully forgot that Bryce was not playing Detective Shapiro in Hatchet town until I checked the Genius page lol). Anyway, I think Rashawn would do great at acting as Detective Shapiro, but the main motivation behind this choice is that I want to hear her sing Bryce's part in Hatchet town. She would murder it as hard as Max murders nerdy prudes.

Officer Bailey: Jacob Wysoki

You need someone to chew scenery and throw props? Call Jacob Wysoki, he'll eat it up and go back for seconds

Brenda and Stacy: Jujubee and Monet X Change

I want to see them do the Go Go Nighthawks cheer, I think it would be amazing.

Jason and Kyle: Zeke Nicholson and Ify Nwadiwe

They both seem like the kind of guys to give butt slaps (consensually of course).

Mark and Karen Chastity: Zach Reino and Jess McKenna

They both have Awkward White Parent energy, and I think they would be very funny in this part.

Miss Tessburger: Vic Michaelis

Watching them play Vic Michaelis in Very Important People makes me think they would be great as the haughty assistant.

Miss Mulberry: Katie Marovitch

Katie just has "That nice teacher who lets students eat lunch in her classroom" energy.

Dan Reynolds: Lou Wilson

You need an icon to play an icon.

Emma and Paul : Emily Axford and Brian "Murph" Murphy

Dropout's iconic married couple to play Hatchetfield's iconic couple.

Hard Cuts:

Ify Nwadiwe as Max Jagerman:

He would have slayed the acting, but I assume based on his speaking voice that he's a baritone on the lower end of the range. However, if I am wrong about this and he could sing the tenor part, please treat him and Grant as tied for the part in my eyes.

Ross Bryant as Solomon Lauter

Vic Michaelis as Detective Shapiro

Erika Ishii as Ruth Flemming

Tao Yang as Peter Spankoffski

Jess Ross as Karen Chastity

Jacob Wysoki as Max Jagerman

Wayne Brady as Dan Reynolds

Aabria Iyengar as one of the Lords in Black

Anna Garcia as Blinky

Brennan Lee Mulligan as Wiggly

Lisa Gilroy as Grace Chastity

Grant O'Brien as Solomon Lauter

[kandicon]

Actually I really wanna write a role reversal gerrymichael au and let me be so, so transparent when I say it is literally just bc I wanna fantasize about the tall, gangly blond man beating monsters to death

Everyone else has the same roles. Mary Keay is still Mary Keay in all her abusive and obsessive glory; Gertrude is still the Archivist.

Vaguely spiral aligned Michael who Does Not Like It. Pretends his connection is a hell of a lot looser than it is.

The only benefit (that Michael thinks of the Spiral) is how he can move around the Institute with relatively little interference and watch, after all, it is hard to behold something that is both nothing and everything and never was all at the same time.

Gerry ran away from home really young and actually succeeded. Spent a few years fucking around and learning what kind of benches are best to sleep on before applying to the Magnus Institute because that's what his dad did. He lied to hell and back on the application, but was hired quickly because of how thoroughly touched by the entities he was (thanks Mary) and Gertrude was running low on assistants. Gerry also felt completely justified in faking stuff and that he was perfectly qualified bc he grew up in a bookshop and how much different could it be (very different, as it turns out).

They first meet each other when Michael is prowling through artefact storage like it was a shopping mall, and pocketing everything he saw that didn't immediately mesmerize him. He was nervous and jumpy as all hell, even though this was not the first time he's done something similar and he's fairly certain Gertrude doesn't care, so when Gerry first spotted him from behind, he was immediately suspicious even before he saw Michael try to shove a lamp into his jacket pocket. This led to an altercation that eventually led to the lamp being accidentally turned on, Michael smashing it to pieces with a hammer Gerry had not realized Michael had, and Gerry suddenly being a lot more consciously aware of the supernatural than he was.

Gerry's mother was still obsessive over Lighteners, and she didn't make an effort to hide what she did, but she didn't actively try to educate Gerry on anything to do with the Fears. So he is fairly knowledgeable on the supernatural, but he doesn't know anything concrete about the Fears themselves and their categorization. The role of a stand by sacrifice instead of an errand boy and heir.

Michael still trusts Gertrude, but this time he knows he shouldn't and hates himself for it. Gerry wants to trust Gertrude, and she does hide him from anything Fears related and behaves around him like she did Michael in cannon, but he just feels something off about her and doesn't like it. She's just a bit too much like his mother for him to let his guard down.

Michael gets referred to by "it/its" pronouns once by Gerry as a teasing joke before Gerry fully knows what he is and is absolutely terrified by how happy the pronouns make his feel. (He thinks, maybe, that the Michael of his childhood liked something similar, too, but everything too far back is all twisted and he doesn't know what has been touched by the Spiral and what hasn't, so he doesn't trust any of it). He/it Michael ftw

At one point Michael just started putting black lipstick on himself because some of Gerry's always stuck to him when they kissed anyways n this gave them plausible deniability. Michael will never admit to the little spiral thrill it gives him when people do a double take upon seeing his face, the black lipstick contrasting literally everything else about his style.

Gabriel attempted to track Michael down exactly once, a few years before he joined the institute. He had heard about Michael's unsavory... Hobby... (<- reckless destruction of artefacts and throwing himself at all monsters and avatars he sees with a murderous rage regardless of their affiliation) but spiral avatars capable of holding a conversation are so few and far between and the Great Twisting was almost prepared, so he thought a meeting would be worth it. He showed up at a cafe Michael frequented one day expecting lovely, but tense, conversation, only to promptly lit on fire (mostly) in the back alley behind the cafe after he introduced himself. Gabriel survived, but some of his clay body still hardens unexpectedly or shows signs of firing from time to time.

Occasionally Michael's eyes will change colors and shapes, so he likes to put contacts in (he used to just use tinted glasses, but after one time of Gerry getting lost in his eyes in the far too literal, not at all romantic, sense, he decided to invest in smth a bit harder to take off and forget about). Unfortunately, this sometimes means other, very much not his original eyes will pop up around his body and in his hair as protest when he puts them in. It's not very fun to have to chase off eyes at 6am, but he does it regardless and complains the whole time about how he shouldn't have to deal with eyes when he very clearly isn't of The Eye.

Gerry: Oh hey you were running pretty late. I was starting to get worried.

Michael, not about to admit he spent an extra thirty minutes to get ready yelling and brandishing a lighter at a door that was following him around like a lost puppy: Ummmmmm I forgot my wallet. :((

[historicallyaccuratecheese]

So uh...that thing I said about my tma hyperfixation slipping recently? Well, I wasn't lying, but...holy shit, if it didn't come back quicker than I expected! As I'm sure many of you are aware, they recently announced a live performance happening in London surrounding Hill Top Road, and...I am so ridiculously excited for it. Now that I've booked my tickets, I am wholeheartedly back on the listening train and set on finishing it before October 30th next year.

As I have said in current my pinned post, I don't think I'll be continuing to write down all of my thoughts for every episode, both because I don't have the time or energy, and because I want to start using this blog for pleasure more and just post about whatever thing's on my mind. That being said, I finally got back into the podcast with MAG 87 (a bit of a weird new start, I know, but...whatever), and...I definitely have some things to say about it! So uh...yeah, read beneath the cut if you want to hear a bit of that! :)

But first, I'd just like to give some brief thoughts on MAG 85 and 86. Unfortunately it's been quite a while since I last listened to them, and I don't really have much motivation to go back and re-listen, since I'd like to keep things moving forward, so...a lot of my hyper-specific thoughts have evaded me. That being said...I thoroughly enjoyed both of them!

MAG 85...despite being extremely frustrating to form any coherent thoughts about, was an absolutely stellar episode! And I mean...being confusing is kind of the point so I can't complain that much. Like, it is entirely impossible for me to decipher this one, I can't tell if it means fuck all or is the most important thing ever, but...whatever, it was good! It's no secret at this point that I really like all of the stuff surrounding The Spiral (particularly a certain distorted door man...), so this was obviously a great time for me and was stellarly written. I did find quite a bit of intrigue in the post-statement though, namely Georgie....I mean, bless her heart, but holy shit she needs to re-think her dating life, and also what is seemingly the reveal of the name of one of Gertrude's late assistants. ...Eric Delano. At first I didn't think much of this name reveal, I mean, I assumed we'd learn more about him later, but the intial reveal doesn't tell us much. However...for reasons I'll explain later, I recently reffered back to the transcript for MAG 62, and...wouldn't you know it, Mary mentioned an Eric back there, one that both she and Gertrude are familiar with. I have no idea what his connection to the former could be if there really was one at all, but uh...based on the context he's brought up in, I'm guessing that his death had something to do with whichever one of ✨the horrors✨ he was devoted to (likely The Eye if he was indeed an archival assistant, but...then again Gertrude's alliegance to it as The Archivist can still be questioned so I'm not saying anything conclusive for the time being), and the "what's left of him" remark means his death was...probably a bit of a slow build. Anyways...all very interesting.

Now, as for MAG 86...holy fucking shit. As far as I can tell this one if quite infamous among the fandom, and...yeah, I can certainly sympathize! I really don't think I have much more to say about the statement that hasn't already been said, but just...wow. It's another example of a statement that doesn't really seem connected to the overarching plot, (I mean...there are some similarities between the monster in this episode and Maxwell Rayner, but I feel like I'm supposed to read into that more than the two almost certainly being extensions/servants of the same darkness power, plus if we assume that the Rayner body swapping theory is true, and that he only does so when the current one is starting to get really old, and specifically targets children for hosts, then like...why is he possessing an adult? Why was he outside of a body for so long? This is a really long section inside parentheses holy shit.) but it is just...so incredibly memorable and terrifying. The way that throughout the entire episode, it builds up its concept of a monster that is one with the darkness of night itself and only encroaches towards when you aren't conciously hiding from it underneath a blanket, but then at the very last minute completely subverts this idea by revealing that its patterns were just a farce meant to lure Benjamin into a false sense of security...it's genuinely haunting. And of course "The blanket never did anything" is a quote for the ages, like...just wow. (Also the way it left a noticeable stain on him reminded me of Void from Hollow Knight but that's off-topic).

Otherwise though, this episode had a lot of great non-statement content! While I am...still absolutely terrified by the prospect of Melanie working at the institute now, along with her blatant naivete and denial (although granted I'm thankful that she's much more open to investigating what the hell is happening than Season 1 Jon was), I really liked her reading the statement here. Lydia Nicholas does a great job making her read sound different from the statements Melanie gave herself, I mean...she genuinely sounds horrified by the end which like...same girl. I also love how she says "marker" at the beginning and end, it's such a small but charming detail that highlights how she's still used to her old way of looking into and documenting the paranormal really well. Also, somewhat off-topic but...WHY THE HELL DOES ROBIN PATTON SOUND SO MUCH LIKE GEORGIE'S SHITTY DATE?! Like...I was so prepared to learn that Georgie got mauled by a shadow monster upon listening to MAG 87 but...nope! Genuinely...what was up with that? Uh...regardless, we also have Tim who...I found to be VERY interesting in this episode. Firstly...the line "Who am I even sad for?" was just...an absolute gut punch. It's no secret that anything regarding the inherent tragedy of Sasha's character is enough to make me cry, but like...despite my occasional frustrations with him, it's stuff like this that makes me feel like...just, Tim Stoker, they could never make me hate you. But outside of that...something is absolutely up with him.

I just...find it so weird that he seems to almost instantly recognize what happened when Melanie starts talking about the two Sashas, like...how is it that HE seems so understanding of what's going on when she, the only person other than Elias who was able to see through the facade, really isn't? I mean, sure, there have been a few statements about The NotThem before, but only one of them actually had the archival assistants involved in any follow-up, and I mean...Tim is like the office diva who's just here for shits and giggles! ...That's an overexxageration, I'm sure he had his reasons for joining the institute that'll be revealed in the future, I'm just saying he's absolutely the most lax person here, albeit the way in which he's lax has changed over time. But like, why does he, of all people, remember this singular statement that he looked into over a year ago at this point in the timeline? I mean, I guess he did take a bit of an interest in the table when it was delivered to the institute, and was also the one to tell Jon about the delivery, but...Jon himself didn't even clock that the table and The NotThem were inherently connected to one another until after reading Lawrence Moore's statement and hearing about how Adelard Dekker bound the thing, so why should I expect Tim to be any better? Just...what is the deal here? On top of that, I found it really interesting how he just...stopped reading the statement and went on a rant at the beginning. As far as we can tell, statements seem to...draw people into them in a less than normal way, likely explaining why they portray the person who gave it while reading out loud, and why they seem so shocked and breathless when they stop (except for Jon but granted he's been doing this for a while whereas Martin and Melanie are new to this). The only other exceptions to this are Elias, who's method of reading "Alice Tonner's Statement" were...unique to say the least (and is also a practically confirmed to be claimed by The Eye like Jon while the archival assistants might just be touched so...there's also that), and Gertrude, who is...admittedly a bit of a mystery, but if we go with the assumption that as The Archivist she was also claimed by The Eye like Jon and probably all before her, and take some of her, um...fiery machinations into account, then...yeah, I feel confident in saying there was probably a bit of resistance to all of this spooky archive shit on her part.

So then, what's the deal with Tim? I mean, I once proposed the idea that "statement begins" is a sort of paranormal trigger phrase that draws people into the statements as an explanation for why Gertrude, a character who doesn't say that, seems so unfazed while and after reading a statement, but...this episode actually deconfirms that notion, because Melanie doesn't say it and still comes out uneasy. So...Tim not saying "statement begins" probably means very little. I mean...I guess it also felt like Melanie was getting drawn in over time so...maybe the fact that Tim didn't even start the actual story has something to do with it? Well like...my point is, this and the instant understanding of what happened to Sasha is enough to make me feel mighty suspicious of Tim. Like, I don't think he's some evil villain or anything but...I mean to say that he's shifted from "just some guy who got stuck in this whole mess" to "someone who might very well have a much bigger stake in the lore and narrative than I initially thought". And like...I know Season 2 Jon was an insane bastard who was not to be trusted but honestly...I also kind of think it's weird Tim came to the institute despite there being no history in paranormal studies on his record. So...what do I think's going on with him? Well...I think he very well might have some sort of connection to The Stranger. I don't get the sense that he's actually working for it or is in on The Unknowing or something, because even thought deceit and false appearances is kind of The Stranger's thing from what I can garner...Tim seems pretty genuine in his confusion. If not, then "Who am I even sad for?" would have significantly less weight to it. But...I just wonder if maybe he's been touched by it beyond just being decieved by The NotThem, and...maybe that has something to do with his past. It would explain why he recognized what was going on with Sasha after hearing Melanie's account (I am...very tempted to say that he lost someone to The NotThem before, but...I don't know how you'd expand on that given that the thing is currently rotting in an underground ditch. Sure, it's not actually dead and could theoretically bust out at any moment, but...eh...we'll see), and mabe also why he was able to seemingly tear himself away from the statement, since The Eye and The Stranger seem to be VERY naturally opposed, maybe more than they are to any other one of ✨the horrors✨, except for MAYBE the darkness because The Divine Host's insignia is literally a closed eye. Ultimately...these are just two relatively small details and I'm making a lot of assumptions based on them, but...I really feel like something interesting is about to happen with Tim. I mean, I really hope so, I've said before that I badly want to see more about his character get revealed so that I can form a more clear opinion on him, but...I'll just have to wait and see.

And then finally, something that really surprised me...Melanie and Jon meeting up! This was a delighful surprise, not only because I love their interactions with one another, but also because...it's really interesting plot-wise. Firstly, we got some more information on Melanie getting "sort of shot" (it's been months and I still have not stopped thinking about that). Apparently she was shot in the leg...by a ghost. Oh...homegirl is so haunted by one of ✨the horrors✨ and it is not even funny anymore. I don't really have much to say about this reveal, other than that...I'm very intrigued by it and hope she makes another statement of her own soon. Because uh...that sounds important. Anyways, I think the most interesting thing here is the deal made between the two of them. Melanie helping Jon out with gathering additional resources is very intriguing...kind of, I mean, I'm writing this post-MAG 87 so I already have a decent idea of what her doing this for him might do...and given the context I kind of hope she doesn't help him with what he's trying to do because I prefer my archivist raw and not cooked but...we'll get to that. But uh...otherwise, I am EXTREMELY interested by the fact that Jon has...supposedly told Melanie everything. Like...I desperately need to listen to MAG 88 right after I post this just so that I can hopefully see the fallout of that conversation at the institute. Like...will they learn about Sasha, Leitner, Elias, Gertrude, ✨THE FUCKING HORRORS✨?! Just...how do you reveal all of that to the new girl at the institue when meeting up at a café, and better yet, how do you expect her to share all of that information with her new coworkers she barely knows at a place where they are constantly being watched by a guy who probably doesn't want them knowing that?! And like...how the hell do you "start with Sasha?" Like, I have genuinely tried imagining that conversation between Jon and Melanie in my head multiple times (i swear I am a normal person), and...I just cannot make that work. Like Melanie, I'm sorry, but Magnus Institute Lore 101 requires that you start with the worm lady, okay? Just...wow...how is that going to go down? Anyways...those are my main thoughts on MAG 86! ....Yeah, the disparity in stuff to say between this and MAG 85 is kind of laughable. I swear I like it, I just...cannot write anything coherent about it. Regardless...onto the main event!

But before that....just one little thing I recently realized regarding the episode "Hide and Seek" namely its title. Not only does it refer to The NotThem chasing Jon, but...I just realized that The Stranger "hides" and The Eye "seeks", but in this episode, the seeker is a manifestation of The Stranger and the hider is a man claimed by The Eye. ...God damn that is really clever.

So...MAG 87. ...I would say I was surprised that definitely not Elias Bouchard managed to find out where Jon was hiding Gertrude's tapes but...I'm not. Because. Come on. Man...I just realized how unfortunate it is that right after Basira gave him that gold mine of information, he was forced to leave all of that knowledge behind. ...Yikes. Anyways, uh...I guess I should start with the statement here! Let's get the obvious out of the way. Sebastian Skinner you will always be famous. Put this man right next to Joshua Gillespie and Karolina Górka and let them form the most powerful polycule in human history because OH MY GOD I LOVE HIM. King and patron saint to all neurodivergents across the globe, he deserves all the riches he could ever desire. Yeah...despite all of the genuinely unnerving imagery and lore revelations in this episode, I have to say that Sebastian alone makes this one of the funniest episodes in the show by far. The man is LITERALLY asked to unclog human flesh from a sewage pipe in a creepy building in the woods by a very creepy woman who offers to FLENSE him...and he is just completely unfazed by and oblivious to the whole situation. I just...I can't get over that. In fact, he is so unbothered by it that Megan is GENUINELY APPALLED by it, but also so ammused that she calls over a servant of a completely different member of ✨the horrors✨ to LAUGH ABOUT IT, and then calls him back, not even to neccessarily kill him, but just to rub it in his face how actually scary things are. Just...absolute comedy gold, I love it. I will remember this man always, and it is actually kind of heartbreaking that he did not survive in the end if Gertrude's comments are anything to go off of (also yes hi Gertrude I missed you :D).

Outside of that though...yikes was this a freaky one. I mean, really only the second half if I'm being honest, the first part was still hilarious. Just like...so much disturbing imagery. The way he describes "Megan" burying her plastic hands into his skin, how Jude Perry just cruelly laughs as he cries out for help, and then a workshop filled with a bunch more of the sentient mannequins from MAG 83 skinning a bunch of severed heads, it's just...ugh! Same goes for Megan's face slipping away and Jude burning his shoulder right as it seemed like she was going to let him get away, just...yeah, very disturbing statement. Overall I really liked it, good mix of comedy and horror that builds the plot surrounding The Stranger, The Unknowing, and...surprisingly The Lightless Flame up really well. And speaking of which...

The best part of this episode for me is definitely all of the new information it gives us and the way it pushes the plot forward, both in the statement and the comments made by Gertrude and Jon. In general, I feel like Season 3 has done a great job at pushing the plot forward so far, even if it's felt a bit slow for me due to my hiatus. Firstly, I'd like to discuss what we learned about The Unknowing, because...wow. Now, Jon says that he believes The Unknowing is a "ritual" and...yeah, there probably is some truth to that. Now, I do still think that the destruction of The Magnus Institute probably plays into The Unknowing, both for reasons that I've discussed before, none of which have been debunked here as far as I'm concerned, but also because this episode confirms that while The Stranger is definitely the one leading the operation, other members of ✨the horrors✨ have the potential to get involved as well, namely what we now know is called "The Devastation". Amazing name by the way, I especially appreciate its existence because it was getting annoying having to differentiate between "Lightless Flame" as in the power and "Lightless Flame" as in the cult. Now, I know that Gertrude kind of suggests it is possible that Jude Perry (who uh...yeah! Really cool to get a new named freaky person here!) was just here for shits and giggles, and I mean...to an extent she probably was given Sebastian being a guy that exists, but let's assume that she actually is working with agents of The Stranger on The Unknowing. Now, as far as I can discern, there...really doesn't seem to be much that would make The Stranger and The Devastation natural allies when you look at things through a thematic lense. Like, compare this to The Vast, the isolation power and the darkness power, all of whom are allied via Daedalus, and you have clear thematic correlation. The Lukases, Fairchilds and Divine Host are working together because of the loneliness, size and darkness of space. Meanwhile, The Stranger and The Devastation don't have much in common...except for a common enemy. ...Or rather, seperate enemies that are allied with one another. Yeah so...The Stranger hates The Eye and The Devastation hates The Spider, and it does seem like The Eye and The Spider are allied in a number of places. Now, according to Gertrude, The Lightless Flame had...plans of their own that recently "went up in flames" (she actually said that by the way, I never thought I would hear her tell a joke), likely due to the loss of Agnes as we can tell she was definitely important to her given all of her "destiny" talk. Er, on that note, I guess I should mention that it's entirey possible that Jude Perry is the only member of The Lightless Flame allied with The Stranger, since all of the other named ones (Agnes, Diego and Arthur) are....very very dead, while she is implied to still be out there. Regardless, this makes me think that her and/or The Lightless Flame's involvement with The Unknowing could be a sort of...next best option. Like, maybe their plans involved getting rid of The Spider, but since Agnes' death has left them in disarray, their siding with the member of ✨the horrors✨ who seeks to take down The Spider's bestie. And...the best way to do that is probably through wrecking the institute. So uh...yeah, I definitely think that The Unknowing will involve destroying the institute, but...I have reason to suspect there's more too it than just that.

My reason is...well, Gertrude was actively trying to stop it. We know that she and Leitner tried to burn down the institute, or at least the archives, right before her death, so if The Unknowing only sought to do the same thing as her...why would she try to stop it? There has to be something else it seeks to achieve, and we have...at least an inkling of an idea of what that might be now. But um...on the note of Gertrude wanting to stop it, there's that! We now know for certain that Gertrude was not just fighting against The Eye from within the institute, but also The Stranger as well...which makes me think she was probably fighting against all of ✨the horrors✨, if the fact she was against two immortal enemies is anything to go off of. I also think this episode debunks the idea that she was secretly a servant of The Devastation due to her tendency to burn and explode, both because of what I just said but also because she talks about Jude Perry and The Lightless Flame in a way that makes her seem...on a different side from them. But like....that doesn't make her whole character any less bewildering to me! Hell, I think this makes her MORE bewildering! Not only do I not understand how she was able to even attempt doing so much damage to The Eye when she, as The Archivist, was presumably claimed by it, but like...how the hell was she going agaisnt EVEN MORE?! How is she just..able to fight against every side in this war between eldritch abominations, especially when her only known allies were three assistants who all died horribly, and an old librarian who while definitely powerful, is implied to have met her relatively late into her life? Even Michael, a character whose only discernable goals are to cause chaos, look hot while doing it and sit back and watch the world burn is at least aligned with The Spiral (albeit seemingly more by nature than by choice or experience). And like...better yet, WHY?! What motivated her to join The Magnus Institute and start fighting all of these things? My best guess is that she, like Jon, was motivated to join due to prior interest in the paranormal, and only learned that the institute was just as paranormal as everything it's been studying later on. The only discernable difference is that while Jon came in search of knowledge, I think she might have come in search of blood, but like...that's not a lot! Just...god. "Interesting" does not do this character justice. I love this arsonist grandma so dearly but like...I need her secrets now. And the funny thing is, I'm not even done talking about her yet! But...for now, back to The Unknowing.

So there's a few more details regarding it I want to point out. Firstly, it seems almost confirmed that while The Anglerfish and its minions, Breekon and Hope, Jude Perry and at least for a time, The NotThem, are all actively involved in The Unknowing, The Other Circus is the main organizer of the event, which makes sense as it does seem to be The Stranger's equivalent to the groups like The Lightless Flame and The Divine Host. (Mentioning that, I...kind of wonder if The Divine Host is involved here as well? I mean, not only are they seemingly aligned against The Eye, not only do they share some thematic similarities with agents of The Stranger, but...they've also been planning something for a while. There's Natalie Ennis' mention of a plan "three-hundred years in the making", which just so happened to have a part of it enacted...presumably not long before Gertrude's death. ...We'll get to the timeline shenanigans in a second. But uh...they also recently had their plans sold out to Section 31 by...who is most likely Elias, a guy who has expressed his desire to stop The Unkowing, albeit somewhat nonchalantly. Regardless, uh...we know that The Other Circus is in charge of this whole thing, but namely...somewhat by the name of "Orsinov". But...seemingly not Gregor Orsinov, the ringmaster from MAG 44, as Gertrude refers to this Orsinov with a "her" pronoun. Assuming that this is not a continuity error, then this likely means whoever is running The Other Circus is not the same person as Gregor, but rather a relative, spouse or even child. ...Preferabbly not that last one as I do not like the image of someone who is unlikely to be a normal earthling procreating. Alternatively, uh...congrats on the transition I guess? I know that sounds like a joke, but...it is worth noting that considering The Stranger is like...the shapeshifting one, a change in gender is not impossible here. Ultimately I'm fine if they go down that route, I just...don't hope they would frame that change in gender as an inherently scary thing? But...eh, I have faith in Jonny not to do that. Either way, there's some interesting directions they could take this in. Gertrude also mentions that Orsinov has...a world they wish to bring about. ...THAT doesn't sound good at all. I think this is pretty definitive proof that there's more to The Unknowing than I initially thought, and that it has much larger implications than just the destruction of the institute. I also assume this would be where the "ritual" aspect Jon alludes to would come into play, although I don't really know how to interpret that dialogue at the moment. Other than that...well, we know that all of that skin will somehow play into The Unknowing, and that there will also be "dancers" there who are wearing that skin. I assume these dancers are probably the various sentient(?) mannequins that agents of The Stranger have been producing, as "Megan" does seem to be wearing skin herself. This...also might explain what the deal with Sarah Baldwin and Daniel Rawlings is. I've thought since MAG 54 that the original humans who stumbled into Old Fishmarket Close were skinned by The Anglerfish, and that skin was given to monsters who serve it. Now it seems very likely that The Anglerfish's victims are actually "dancers" in their own right, so that's cool! I mean, it's terrifying, but it's cool! Uh...The Unknowing is seemingly fast approaching, which...yeah, definitely makes sense, I would be surprised if it didn't at least attempt to succeed this season honestly. And finally...this isn't from Gertrude's comments, but I didn't know where else to put it, but uh...we know that The Stranger also goes by the name "I Do Not Know You". ...I just thought that was neat.

Now, there's one last aspect of Gertrude's presence in this episode that I would like to discuss, that being...the timeline of her death. Unfortunately, my only real flaw with this episode is that it has quite a few, not plot-collapsing at all, but still pretty frustrating continuity errors that muddle the timeline a bit. ...Or does it? Because upon further thinking, I actually realized, what might seem like an impossible timeline...could actually be a clue. ...Yes, I am fully aware I probably sound a little crazy just by saying that. But first of all...well yeah I am crazy, we've established this before. But secondly, if it does turn out that these are just continuity errors...honestly like...whatever. I would prefer it if they weren't but I won't be super upset if Jonny made some minor mistakes, especially since he otherwise does a remarkably good job at keeping track of a timeline that is often not delivered to us in a chronological order. Now, there is one detail that I really can't rationalize being anything other than a mistake, and that is Jon saying that this tape was recorded a year or so before Gertrude's death. That is just...blatantly not true, as this statement was recorded in April of 2015, and Jon had been The Archivist for a quite a while by that point. Ultimately though, this doesn't really matter, especially since MAG 33 kind of established than any continuity error said by Jon regarding a statement can be explained by him being a little bit dumb on occasion. And by a little bit dumb I mean he smashed the table I'M STILL NOT OVER IT I KNOW YOU HAVE CHILDHOOD TRAUMA ABOUT SPIDERS BUT SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK?! But otherwise...well, it's a bit complicated. This isn't the first time that we've gotten conflicting statements regarding Gertrude's death. In MAG 25, we're told that she died in May 2015 on the same day screams were heard from Hither Green Chapel, but in MAG 40, Elias tells her she died, or...at least went missing, in March. This means that this statement could either take place a month before...or a month after she died, and...I actually think either one could work. Stay with me. Let's start with the easiest assumption, that being that she died in May.

If this is the case...well, there's really not much to say. This statement was recorded a month before she died, end of story. As for Elias, well...he was the man who killed her, and we can say without a shadow of a doubt that he lied in the statement he gave after the Prentiss incident. The only problem is...I don't know why he would lie about the date of her death specifically as that seems kind of disadvantageous, but...I can just chock that up to him being a silly guy who does what he wants. Alternatively, you could assume that Gertrude went MISSING in March, but actually died in May, but...that wouldn't really explain the blood in the archives (although it's entirely possible that detail was another lie), and on top of that, wouldn't explain why Jon had her date of death recorded as being in May when she was only confirmed dead when Martin found her body in the tunnels in July of 2016. So...yeah, it's not perfect, but there are workarounds to this line of thinking. But...what if we take an alternative line of thinking, one that is less likely but a bit more fun? What if we assume that this statement was recorded a month...BEFORE she died?

You see, I've just been thinking...there has to be...SOMETHING more to Gertrude's death, right? Like, sure, it made sense for the whodunnit mystery to be concluded in Season 2, but like...her death is such an important catalyst in the story, and I find it way too hard to believe that it's as simple as "Elias shot her because she was trying to burn down the archives". (Oh uh...and this doesn't really connect to what I about to put forward, but I have to wonder...why did it take Elias so long to kill her? Like, she was working against The Eye at least since the late nineties, and he should've known about this because...well, you know. Unless gaining all-knowing powers from his patron took over 20 years, but like...I find that unlikely. ...Why did he wait?) I just...feel like there's more too it. And uh...you know how I mentioned I went back to the transcript for MAG 62? Yeah...you might see where I'm going with this. I went back there because in this episode, Jon mentions the page of the skin book that Gertrude got from Mary. Now, he very quickly disregards this as being at all connected to The Stranger (while also commenting on how confusing this all is, which....you and me both buddy), and I have to agree with this. While I am implored to raise an eyebrow at how all of the human heads that were being harvested for skin in the workshop here were hung on the same stuff used for Mary's book, we know that the book connects to a seperate member of ✨the horrors✨ called "The End", and while ✨the horrors✨ do collaborate with one another, we've never seen a Leitner that's connected to more than one of them, the same principle applying to artifacts and claimed people. But...I don't think the book being mentioned here has to be a throwaway line. If you recall MAG 62, Mary gave Gertrude a page of her book. Now, the page already had writing on it, seemingly implying that someone's spirit had already been bound to it. But...then I remembered that Mary seemingly bound herself to the book...and that's when I had an idea. For a long time, I've wondered how Mary could've possibly done what she did, but then I realized...is it possible that she removed chunks of her skin before dying, did all the spooky writing and incantations, and THEN overdosed on painkillers, which ultimately resulted in her being bound to the book? Because if that's the case...what if the same happened with Gertrude? Because like...Gertrude is shown to be familiar with the smell of burning skin in MAG 62, so like...what if she had pieces of her skin removed at some point, and then Mary used those pieces to create the page that she would then give her later on? Then, if we assume Elias killed her in March, this resulted in Gertrude being bound to the page as a ghost, therefore explaining how this statement was recorded after her death? This would also explain her mysterious remarks about needing to recover and being unable to stand, because she would be adjusting to a new state of being! (Side note, can I just say that I thought Gertrude sounded like...noticeably more aged here? I don't know if that's just a result of me not having tuned in for a while but if it isn't...great job Sue Sims, you really sold it well :). ) Now...all of that said, how likely is this?

Honestly not very, this is kind of crack. Plus, there are a number of very easy alternate explanations to these mysteries. The remark about burning skin could come from an earlier encounter with The Stranger or The Devestation, and honestly...it is entirely possible that Mary got help from Gerard when being bound to the book, because not only was he suspected of killing her, indicating he might have been at the scene, but all of the statements where he seems to be on bad terms with her take place after her death in 2008, so...yeah. It's very likely that the death in May thing is the case, or that...all of this is just one big jumble of continuity errors, which is honestly fine! But...eh, I like this idea quite a lot. Alternatively, I could argue that she's a ghost similar to the Archivist seen in MAG 53 but...that's pure speculation. Well, whatever the case, I just hope that there's a bit more to Gertrude's death and the circumstances surrounding it then what we've been given so far, because...I think there's a lot of untapped potential there.

Well...to wrap all of this up, I'd like to discuss some of the stuff Jon said. Firstly, he mentioned how weird it is that Gertrude was recording tapes all the way up until she died, along with how strange it is that only a small handful of statements were actually transferred, at least...as far as we're aware. I...honestly have to agree with this, but I think I have a decent enough idea as to what the deal is here, but it's not perfect. For a good while now, I've assumed that Gertrude intentionally kept the statements "disorganized", so that her successor would get all of the information they need as quickly as possible, and I think a similar thing might be going on with the tapes. All of them cover pretty important stuff, MAG 53 giving insight into The Eye and the institute, MAG 62 showing us some pretty important events, MAG 44 and 87 both tie back to The Stranger and The Unknowing, and MAG 77...uh...well look, there's probably no way she could've known that The NotThem would infiltrate the institute, especially all those years ago, but the tape does give us a clue to the existence of a statement from the ever-mysterious Adelard Dekker, and given how that statement has gone missing for unknown reasons...I think it's probably pretty important? Granted this theory isn't perfect, I mean, why would she be recording a statement that gives information regarding The Other Circus when she says in this very episode that she's surprised The Unknowing is something...like...actually worth worrying about in the present? And why would all of these tapes be buried alongside her in the tunnels...unless Elias put them there...which...ok that actually checks out. Anyways, this line of thinking isn't perfect but...I think something along these lines makes sense. The second point of intrigue to me is uh...Jon's plans. Which...oh boy.

*DRUMROLL PLEASE*....

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS, HORRORS AND MICHAELS, GIVE IT UP FOR ANOTHER ROUND OF "NEW PLOT POINTS IN THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES THAT ARE REALLY EXCITING FROM A STORY PERSEPCTIVE BUT TERRIFYING WHEN YOU CONSIDER HOW MUCH IT'S GOING TO SUCK FOR ONE OR MORE OF THE CHARACTERS!!!" 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

So...Jon...ever-knowledgable and sane...has decided that it's a great idea to try and track down Jude Perry. You know, that lady who sets people on fire? I just...look, Melanie, if you know what's good for you, which I know yo-...actually nevermind you went to India fully aware that you might get murdered by ghosts, which you almost did, so...no. But if you have gained the ability to know what's good for you, which I hope you do, then you will NOT help the smelly man track down the professional arsonist. Like...dude?! Hello?! Like, I know the situation is dire, I know The Unknowing is a rapidly approaching threat, and I know that after BPM and the flashbacks to your childhood trauma you've accepted that there's really no way out of this mess, but like...damn, this is not a good idea! Not even Season 2 Jon would do this! Don't get me wrong...I think this is super exciting, not only because I have a particular bias towards the stuff involving The Lightless Flame (...mostly Agnes but shhhhhh), but because...this is EXACTLY what I wanted Season 3 to do. Finally getting out there in the world and actively trying to find all of the shit from the statements. It is...extremely dangerous and terrifying, but...also very exciting. I don't want to get my hopes up too high, after all it is entirely possible that Jude Perry has moved far out of Havering, or has even died at this point, but...man, if we could actually HEAR a member of The Lightless Flame speak...I might actually lose my god damn mind. Well...I'll just have to wait and see.

And finally, the ending of this episode. ...Yeah, that's genuinely terrifying! Hearing the calliope music slowly creep in, and then getting Jon's genuinely horrified reaction...it's so unlike what I'm used to so far, it comes at such an unexpected moment...and my jaw was genuinely left wide-open at it. That's uh...that's not good. Jon...I think you have a bit more to worry about than just police now. Oh, and just because I haven't really mentioned it, um...yeah I absolutely adore Georgie! She kind of has a very similar appeal to that of Basira for me, being a really down to earth and real-feeling character in a world filled with people who, while I absolutely adore them, are objectively freaks of nature. And while I do still think I like Basira a tad bit more, if only because I just feel like I know her better, I actually think Georgie is a better example of this trait! She's just a really friendly and supportive friend to Jon who has...unfortunately gotten a bit wrapped up in this mess, and...yeah, what can I say, I find her very endearing and hope to learn more about her and her past with Jon. I will say, I do find it a tad bit frustrating that Jon is pushing her away and refusing to get help from her, especially when he kind of resolved to stop doing that at the beginning of the season, and ESPECIALLY because she is the exact kind of person he needs at the moment, but granted, I get the sense he's doing this more out of care for her than suspiscion or malice, and I mean...yeah, I'd also be hesitant to tell her...all of that. And also...holy shit the statements really ARE an addiction allegory! Jesus Christ...Jon, what the hell is going on with you right now?

Well uh...yeah, that's all I really have to say! I was definitely surprised by how much I managed to write here, and I'm very happy that my tma fixation has seemingly circled back around earlier than I expected! I hope you enjoyed reading this and that this new kind of format worked well, this was certainly much less of an investment of time and energy for me at least, and I had a good time with it! Like I said, I'm not going to be dead set on writing about every detail of every statement anymore, and lengths of posts I do write will probably vary either do to time or how much I even have to say, but...this should be a decent example of the kind of format I'm going for! Anyways, I'm...probably not going to listen to MAG 88 just yet because it's late, so I'll save that for tomorrow morning! Anyways, it's nice to be back on tma, and thank you very much for reading all this! :)

[the-dalseum-duet]

starlight revival arc?

BRINGING BACK STARLIGHT. BRINGIN THAT SHIT BACK BC I’M TIRED OF DALSEUM I’M SAILING AWAY BYE GUYS

um. because I think you would enjoy this somewhat tag @svwhssftr

I feel lowkey bad just tagging you in random shit but sometimes I forget. it’s okay for friends to talk to each other actually. it’s okay to like things and share them. it took me seventeen and a half whole years to realize that I think. cringe is dead. and you can literally just ignore this too that’s also a possibility bc I jus ignored your call bc I’m absolutely exhausted and I do not want any actual human interaction for the next week. I don’t want to return to school tmrw but I must. Sigh. Anyway NEW LORE YAY!

Starlight is one of my favorite projects I’ve ever worked on. probably second to reflections and closely followed by Seong and Adam’s dynamic in the original sv (nope I will never ever be over them ever. he was everything she never was to him and By God HE KNEW IT) but the aesthetics are All Over The Place. The plot is actually cohesive (if I trim some shit down) which is rare for me now. Nowadays I just slap shit down and say “there’s a plot underneath all of this unnecessary symbolism and descriptions of gaudy outfits I prommy!!” but NO MORE! NO MORE OF THAT

so we’re making the whole thing cohesive and changing the god-awful character names tonight

Let’s start with our main character, now named Indy

this name choice is still… idk. I’m torn between Indy and Robin… but I used to have a character named Robin so I’m not sure. though I feel like Robin is an objectively better name (coming from the bitch who names half of her characters after birds though) but I like Indy a lot in the sense of the story overall.

bc her original name was Azure (which is fine but I hate it… debating keeping it) but she was nicknamed Spade because of a spade-shaped birthmark on her shoulder.  Keeping with the blue theme, I think her full name should be Indigo but she goes by Indy, and her husband (who is so goated we get to him later though) nicknames her Ace because of her birthmark.

ok onto the plot stuff we don’t gaf abt this bitch’s name

The world of Starlight has an actual magic system. Crazy stuff! I created a decent magic system that doesn’t involve stupid blood rituals and “just because this character is this character xyz can happen.” (coughcoughRONNIEcoughcough) It goes a little something like this

Humans can be one of three things- cursed, charmed, or neither. Curses and charms are extremely similar, and they’re fairly common. I’d say 50% of the population has one of the two, with 75% of that 50% being “charmed.” Charms and curses are magical powers that a person can be born with at random. They’re often an omen for the personality of the charm/curse-holder, kind of like a zodiac. The only real difference is that curses physically harm the user when used. 

There are four levels of charms/curses. 

Level 1- Basically party tricks. They barely drain any energy from the user and can’t be used to cause major harm. Elio’s charm “light” falls under this category

Level 2- Majority of curses/charms are level 2. They take quite a bit of energy to perform, and they could do some potential damage. Can be very useful if harbored correctly. Archie’s charm “flora,” and Mari’s curse “ink” both fall under this category. 

Level 3- Very risky and hazardous to use. Or ridiculously OP in the opposite direction. They drain enough energy from the user to knock them out for a few hours. Thorn’s curse “flame” and Rose’s charm “heal” fall under this category. 

Level 4- By far the rarest type of curse/charm. This can change the trajectory of lives, and they can only be used a handful of times throughout the holder’s lifetime. Using it only once will sometimes cause death. Indy’s charm “starlight” and Hope’s charm “amore” fall under this category. 

Charms and curses are signified by colored eyes. For example, Elio’s eyes are golden, Thorn’s are red, Hope’s are pink, etc. They’re not insanely noticeable. Just like… tinted. 

Indy lives on an unnamed continent separate from anything else I’ve written. Their stories are kind of like folklore in the grand Lore universe. It’s separated into three currently unnamed parts- the north, which has a culture similar to Western Europe (France, Italy, Germany, etc.) and the south, which has lots of South and Latin-American influences, mainly Mexican. To the East is another kingdom full of mountains based on Northern Africa and Southeast Asian countries like Nepal and Libya. Indy is from a town near the border of the north and south regions, where the overall culture is similar to the 1980’s in style, trends, etc. Except racism and homophobia aren’t really a thing I feel like I get pretty deep into that in Dalseum already. 

Indy Simon, whose family is mainly from the northern region, is dating her girlfriend Marigold Martinez, aka Mari, whose family is mainly from the southern region. They’re probably around 14-15 years old. Little baby high school sapphics. They get along really well. They love each other as much as two fifteen year olds can. They go on adventures through the woods and such. Average girlfriend things. 

Until Indy accidentally activates her charm in a dream/vision-type-thing. Her charm physically shifts the position of the stars, which is essentially time travel because the rest of the earth shifts along with it. She sees her death at the hands of Marigold, shot in the heart on a balcony.

But young Indy is quite observant and crafty. She notices the patch on the chest of Mari’s coat is the seal of the southern region, and she notices the woman beside her corpse— her mother— is wearing one with the northern region’s seal. She overhears someone by Mari say “if the war wasn’t over, it’s sure as hell over now”

She wakes up in pure panic because WHAT THE FUCK?? WHAT THE FUCK 

and what does she do next?? I know. But you don’t. I need to sleep. Tune in next time ig 

[tarisilmarwen]

Ahsoka "Shadow Warrior" Liveblog

*biting nails*

Okay first off, really? That's the title we're going with? Lol Filoni. Okay.

Open on Seatos, okay.

You know it just occurred to me? The long lingering shots we're so fond of, and the deliberately relaxed pacing are very animesque.

Theatrical serious anime, I mean.

In particular I'm thinking of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which liked to diverge from the plot to just kind of wander through shots of the environment, for atmosphere purposes I guess.

Wonder if that or something similar was an influence on Filoni's directing style.

The woods also look very ethereal.

Hi Hera!

Frick Jacen is still so precious. I love him. So much.

!!!

Oh! Oh this music cue right here reminds me a lot of a specific part of "Sabine Sees Ezra".

HUYANG IS SAD, NOOOOOOOO.

God, how much death has Huyang already seen? How many Jedi has Huyang had to say goodbye to?

He misses the Order so much. *sobs*

Friiiiiiiiiiiiick the World Between Worlds looks so GOOD in live action.

Rosario finally channeling a bit of Rebels!Ahsoka here.

"Tell me what's going on." Well Ahsoka I think the Force is personally whacking you over the head with the Vision Stick to make you get over yourself.

Oooh Ahsoka flinched when Anakin ignited his saber.

Leia mention! Eeee!

Jacen is totally Force Sensitive, of course. Can hear the lightsabers, either the lingering echos from the fight, OR, he can hear into Ahsoka's vision.

KANAN NAMEDROP.

WEEEEEP.

Anakin being super extra of course.

HO JEEZ.

HE SLICED THE PATHWAY.

Yeah, so with this transition this is definitely a Force Vision, not the actual World Between Worlds. This is almost exactly like the transitions in Ezra's visions in the Jedi Temple on Lothal.

BABY 'SOKA!

BAAAAABBYYYYY 'SOOOOOOOKKAAAAAA.

Is this one long TCW reference?

I feel like it's gotta be.

"We lost so many." Yeeeeeah, that'll happen in a war. It sucks.

Ohhhhhhhh I am going to have to reblog ALL THE META about these scenes, aren't I?

I just know TCW fans have got a million thoughts centerfuging in their brains right now about Anakin, about his relationship with Ahsoka, about the long shadow he cast over her formative development.

FRICK THAT SHOT OF ANAKIN CALMLY WALKING AHEAD INTO THE HAZE.

"THE HERO WITH NO FEAR".

AND THE FLASH SHOT TO VADER.

Outside the vision and the X-wings are sweeping, looking for...? Ahsoka I guess. Because that's what they're going to find, eventually.

"Normally no." LOL HUYANG KNOWS FORCE SHENANIGANS BE AT PLAY.

Also Hera, come on, you saw Ezra phase through a solid rock wall, people can absolutely disappear into thin air.

Chopper being a grouchy sassmaster as per usual lol.

SEIGE OF MANDALORE SIEGE OF MANDALORE SIEGE OF MANDALORE.

"Within you will be everything I am." THAT IS NOT REASSURING ANAKIN.

Oh yeah, yep, I'm not going to be capable of being normal about this, I need ALLLLLLLL the meta from dedicated Anakin girlies on this one.

Frick, his eyes went yellow.

Hayden is making this look effortless, amazing.

OHHHHHHHH OH AHSOKA'S EYES FLASHED EYLLOW JUST BRIEFLY OHHHHHH WOW.

SHE PASSED THE TEST.

Ohhhhhhh and the pathways are dissolving, something Force Weird be about to happen.

We're exiting the vision lol.

Jacen: *smiles*

Me: HE'S SO PRECIOUS IMMA DIE.

Oh yeah no, this episode was VERY heavily styled after some theatrical anime director, I will bet money on it.

Frick, Jacen playing with Chopper is the cutest shit ever.

WHITE ROBES WHITE ROBES THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Yeah no, the height discrepancy between Rosario and Mary still bugs me.

Hello Rosario can emote, lol.

PURRGIL!

:(((((

~We're gonna follow the purrgil, we're gonna follow the purrgil.~

"That'll do." ARE WE GONNA RIDE SOME PURRGIL? LOL.

Teva is carrying this scene lolol.

"Okay. But you're not gonna believe me."

"How the whales took Ezra and the bad guys far far away." SOBBING, BLUBBERING, NO NOTES, CAN'T TALK.

Well this part is definitely Miyezakian.

Ahsoka looks so much happier and more content. *sobs*

Lol the "HO BOY" look on that Rebel commander's face.

Aw man, this is the kind of wonder and disbelief and awe that Lothal must have had in the finale.

Living legends. Like magic. Come to save them.

FRIIIIIIIIICK.

I HAVE NO NOTES.

I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY.

HELLO YES, THIS IS THE FORM THAT I WAS WAITING FOR. THE DEPTH OF EMOTIONAL RESONANCE. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF WHO THIS CHARACTER IS, WHAT COMPLEXES SHE'S WORKING THROUGH, HOW SHE'S GOING TO RECONCILE HER IDENTITY AS VADER'S APPRENTICE AND MOVE FORWARD, FORGIVE HERSELF FOR THE GUILT.

I AM ROLLING IN THE DEPTHS OF IT.

ALSO, SPACE MARINERS, SPACE MARINERS, SPACE MARINERS.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

[polar-artist]

LORE/BACKSTORY FOR MY CHARACTER, ALIZA MARIE ELLISON!

TW/CW: Abuse, drunkness, parents fighting, blood, throwing objects at others, harm of children/minors, death of parent, etc?

[⚠️Keep in mind I will NOT censor stuff unless I feel it is absolutely necessary!⚠️]

(Basically just read at your own intrest, do not force yourself to read if you feel you can't handle it!)

BACKSTORY STARTS HERE:

(this is lore for how they got that huge scar across their eye btw!!!)

reference for said scar:

(not sure how to really start this, so here-)

Their dad only became an alcoholic/alcohol drinker after their birth. At first it was normal, like a drink or so every couple days. But then it became more and more of an issue.

Like, 2 drinks a night. He started getting drunk a lot. During the beginning he was never violent, maybe a little argumentative but never abusive (yet). Alizas mother starts noticing this difference in her husband, and asks him about it, and makes sure he is alright, cause duh thats her husband and she is his wife, of course she is gonna be worried.

Alizas father (Named Jason) takes this as... idk the word, but not well. Jason essentially tells Marie (pronounced Mar-e, this is alizas mother btw (this is also where alizas middle name comes from, aliza Marie ellison)) to fuck off and mind her own business about everything. Marie doesn't like his reaction to her concern, and so the fighting begins. They start off bickering over small things, like accidentally leaving the stove on for 2 minutes longer then necessary, or breaking the washing machine.

These small arguments do not last long, as they soon start over the smallest things. And eventually, Jason and Marie's children, Maci (18F right now) and Aliza (7F right now) start getting involved in these arguments, usually as the victim. (Because of Maci's age she sometimes fights back, but Aliza doesn't because they are 7.)

(ALSO! the reason why Marie doesn't just divorce Jason is because she is very financially dependent on him, and even if she decided to leave there was no one else she could go to because she doesn't have any siblings, and her parents have already passed away (orphan?))

Anyways, Jason starts becoming physically abusive. It starts out small, like a little push, or shove, or flick. Sometimes even slamming his fists down on tables or walls (yes, if constantly done, and if its done to intimate the other, that IS abuse!!!). He tries not to get Aliza involved (due to how young they are), but because they are incredibly similar in appearance to their mother, and due to Jason typically being drunk or at least tipsy when abusing them, sometimes he genuinely can't tell the difference between them.

Jason starts hitting and punching during breakfast, lunch, dinner, he is basically always drunk. He has to start taking several days at a time off of work due to how much of an alcoholic he has become (and because the job he works requires sober people he almost gets fired several times!) Marie has to use makeup to cover up her scars and bruises, but sometimes that isn't even enough to cover them.

Marie has to start making all sorts of excuses as to why she is always injured, like she tripped on her cat down the stairs and it scratched and bruised her, or she was playing around a bit too rough with Aliza and got hurt. She is also a very crafty person, so she uses that as excuses as well, such as she accidentally cut her hand while making something, or her sewing machine fell on her.

Finally. The biggest argument of them all.

Jason is so drunk he doesn't know his, or any of his family members names. Marie has also had a drink or two, but she gets drunk a lot less easy as Jason so she is simply tipsy. Maci is out working (she is a 911 operator WHICH I WILL GET INTO LATER), and Aliza is sat alone at the end of the table, crying silently. Jason has started to hit and yell at them more often, however they try not to because of favoritism (when aliza was born, maci sorta became obsolete to him, so he always like them better.)

Jason and Marie are fighting, yelling, and just generally pissed at each other. They would rather the other be DEAD.

Eventually, the fighting gets so bad that Marie tells Aliza to go to their room, and not come down until it is safe.

Little did Aliza know, that would be the last time they ever speak to their mother. (ALSO, KEEP IN MIND ALIZA IS 7 YEARS OLD DURING THIS.)

15 minutes go by. Aliza is sat in their room, back to the door, sobbing. The arguing is so loud they can hear it from upstairs. There is a loud crash and crack, then... nothing. Silence.

They wait.

[30 minutes later]

They haven't heard a word since the crashing sound.

They decide its safe enough to walk downstairs.

They thought, hey maybe their mom/dad just took a walk to cool off? It happens a lot, why not today, you know?

Plus due to their dads favoritism, they should hypothetically be safe-

CRASH.

Aliza is down on the floor.

They see their dad standing over them, looking the most angry he has ever been.

Aliza feels a drip from their left eye...

BLOOD.

Alizas dad picks up another wine glass, and throws it at them. They pass out.

[An unspecified amount of time later.]

They feel... like they are laying in a puddle.

They look over.

Blood.

Lots of it.

But... they only got his twice...?

There is no way that they lost enough blood for them to be laying in a puddle of it...?

They look over more.

Their mom is lying there, motionless and pale.

No... no it can't be... please don't let it be...

It is.

Jason had killed Marie, and attempted to murder Aliza with them.

With all the strength they have left, they try and call 911.

They pick up before the first ring of the phone.

Trying to stay conscious for long enough to tell them the important details, they speak.

"H-hello. My n-name is Aliza El-Ellison."

The 911 operator responds, sounding confused.

A familiar voice answers.

"Aliza? Shouldn't you be in bed right now..?"

A- "M-Maci? Is that you...?

M- "Aliza. What's wrong. What happened...?"

A- "Its dad.... he... oh my god... Mom. She's... Shes... oh god..."

M- "Aliza.. please, I need you to tell me what happened... I can't help you otherwise..."

A- "Dad... mom.... I... He got really drunk and... I think he killed her.. oh no... Maci please... i..."

M- "I... oh god... I'll send someone over as soon as possible... Are you hurt...?"

A- "Y-yeah.. He threw something at me... My eye hurts now... Everything's blurry.. I can't really see... Please come quick... I..."

M- "Aliza, in case I can't say it later, I want you to know I love you..."

A- "I love you too, Maci.."

{END OF CALL.}

(Also, Jason walked away from their house as SOON as Aliza went unconscious. No one knew where he was for a while.)

Anyways, Aliza and their mother got rushed to the hospital. Marie did not make it, (as she was stabbed several times, which was the cause of the blood puddle) but Aliza did.

After being able to safely exit the hospital, it was advised that Aliza starts therapy IMMEDIATELY, due to being so young and witnessing/being apart of an event as traumatic as that.

Jason managed to get away with very minor issues, due to being an upper (?) class white male and being able to pay his way out of jail time.

Marie had a funeral a month later, and Jason was the only family member not present at it.

Maci quits her job as a 911 operator because of that call, (and no one blames her, that was traumatic as hell!) and instead works to find a job somewhere else where she can help people.

Aliza and their therapist do not quite see eye-to-eye on everything, and because of aliza being so young they can't exactly remember a lot of exact details of the event.

Because of this, their therapist prescribes that they are going to be of no help to Aliza...

And because of that, and the courts ruling saying that Aliza must be placed somewhere safe, and where they can get begin getting better...

They get placed in an asylum.

More specifically, the Elysian Asylum.

The exact one that their dad owns.

[finethingswellworn]

So my two favorite shows are being discussed in conjunction with each other and now I'm trying to figure out why the ending to Good Omens 2 has left me significantly more distraught than Our Flag Means Death.

They ended in similar places, after all. And Our Flag went much, much darker with it's main character's breakdown. (Lucius going over the side and the toe scene, anyone?) So... why did Good Omens completely wreck me, then?

Both shows have comedic and dramatic elements. Both end on a somber note, with our beloved leads separated and pining. Both shows have a critical lack of communication and a tragic misunderstanding between the two partners where one (or both) assume what the other wants or is feeling, directly leading to their falling out.

Well, I think it's because the conflict between Aziraphale and Crowley is so much deeper and more irrevocable than that of Stede and Ed. Or it feels that way.

Stede doesn't fully realized his love for Ed, not until he's separated from him, until Mary describes what it's like. And then he finally gets it. Immediately he comes up with a scheme to get himself declared dead so that by the end of the season, we, the audience, as well as Stede know that there's no more ties to his old life keeping him. He's free to pursue Ed and win his love and trust back again. I've written on here a lot about the complications they're going to have settling into their life together. It's going to be a long, rocky road. I am ABSOLUTELY NOT trying to minimize that. It most certainly will be. And a painful one, too, more than likely.

But between Stede's realization of his newfound love and Ed's miserable tears at the end of ep10, the viewer knows that it's only a matter of time before Stede tracks Ed down and makes his true feelings known. And only a matter of time before Ed forgives him.

But the sting in the Good Omens finale isn't that our two main characters are or ever were unsure of how the other feels about them. It's clear to me that they've known at least since 1941, even if they've had ups and downs since then. The care, the devotion, the love is not really what's in question here and that makes it a million times more difficult to resolve because there's no easy assurances either of them can give to mend the breach. It's that they have reached an insurmountable impasse as to how they can be together.

Good Omens fans have said for a long, long time that Aziraphale and Crowley FEEL married. And i see their issues in season 2 as the culmination of many, many things left unsaid and unresolved for so long that they "inevitably end in a (metaphorical) divorce. It's the constant push/pull of tension lying just below the surface of their relationship that neither really want to face head on.

And it's so utterly gut-wrenching because we are essentially witnessing two beings who love each other more than anything else in the universe watch each other make choices that they believe will ruin them and their relationship and there's nothing either of them can do to change the other's mind. Seeing loved ones make terrible choices and being unable to stop them is one of the most painful fucking things in the universe. Knowing that they will be unhappy, knowing that they will suffer, knowing that if they would only reach out you would be right there to help them but also knowing that it's far, far too late to help now... knowing that they would refuse your help even if you confront them about the danger they are in... that's what that ending was.

And both Crowley and Aziraphale feel that way.

Of course, Aziraphale thinks Crowley has needlessly chosen to damn himself and their relationship and doomed himself to be unhappy for ever. And Aziraphale remembers how happy Crowley was as an angel. Why is he purposefully choosing unhappiness when it's wholly unnecessary? He's watching the love of his existence condemn himself a second time. It's devastating to him.

But Crowley knows the truth about heaven and the angels. He also knows just how unhappy Aziraphale will be in heaven. And he's helpless to stop him from going. He can't and won't force him to stay. He never has and never will. He waits. He always, always waits, watches from afar as the other angels mistreat his angel over and over and over. And he doesn't understand. He's so, so angry that Aziraphale would go back to them but there's nothing he can do. Not anymore.

How can you love someone so much and still misunderstand them so fundamentally after so very long? How can two beings want the exact same thing and still hurt each other? How can ideology and indoctrination so effectively manage to drive a wedge between two people who have one-hundred percent trust in each other? How is that possible?

Those are the questions Good Omens Season 2 asks.

And it doesn't give us any answers to these questions. Not yet. Because true love is not enough in this case. A confession from either party is not enough. Both characters knowing how they feel is not enough and accepting it is not enough.

So what would be enough? What could fix this? I honestly don’t know. 

That's why it hits so hard.

So, even though Good Omens will probably end with the Ineffables happily living together (I can't see it ending any other way,) there is a distinct lack of hope or optimism for the future in the season 2 ending that Our Flag somehow manages to retain.

[midnightstargazer]

I'm curious about💧&🌈 from the weather ask game

💧Rain - What's the most emotional scene you've ever written?

The scene from the last chapter of To the Dark Lord where Regulus drinks the potion in the cave.

It comes after an entire ~40K words of him growing increasingly disillusioned, struggling with a guilty conscience, and eventually snapping - but even at that point, he's still oddly naive, or maybe just not being entirely honest with himself. When he drinks the potion, he's confronted with the harsh reality of the horrible things he's done, all at once. And it really sort of breaks him, but also gives him a sort of clarity he didn't have before.

And then, when the Inferi are dragging him under, when he's just moments from dying, he realizes that's not what he wanted at all. In this interpretation, he went to the cave intending to die there - but as he's drowning, he regrets it, and wants so badly to live.

This is a canon compliant fic. He dies just after. 😭

I've written fics that involve Regulus drinking the potion multiple times since then. I've never gone this in depth with it, in terms of what the actual experience of drinking it would be like and trying to convey the emotions he's feeling. I don't think I could do it again, because it absolutely broke my heart to write.

🌈 Rainbow - What do you think makes your story unique / stand out?

I've written quite a few, but one thing I hope I've managed that applies to most of them is complex morality. The characters I write about the most are not straightforwardly good or bad people - I like morally gray characters, I like trying to see things from the POV of characters that aren't the heroes, I like redemption arcs, and I like situations that bring out a different side to someone than what you'd expect.

Just a few examples:

In I Hope You're Happy, Mary Macdonald chooses not to join the Order when her friends do. It's not a very heroic decision, is it? But on the other hand, she knows that she would be a liability and that "all my friends are doing it" isn't the right reason - there's a conversation between her and Peter Pettigrew where I tried to imply that maybe they're in a similar place, and maybe he would've done better to make the choice she did.

What Is Right and What Is Easy is Marietta-centric, also featuring a few of the Lightning Era Slytherins. None of them are good people, they all made stupid mistakes and did things that were selfish, cowardly, or even cruel. But they're also young adults trying to move on from the bad choices they made as teenagers.

In A Little Bird Told Me, Regulus was, until the end of the first war, a loyal Death Eater. But he's softened a lot since then, and when Voldemort comes back, his first priority is to protect his family - which by this point consists mainly of people who are better off without Voldemort. He's probably the most heroic version of Regulus I've ever written, but also the darkest - it gets really complicated, because at what point does doing the right thing in the present outweigh actions in the past that can never be undone?

I like writing stuff like this where the morality is not clear black-and-white, and the POV character is not necessarily a good person. And I think that's one of the things that stands out in a majority of my fics.

WIP Weather Ask Game