#This is my meta post for this weekend

[lenaellsi]

“Crowley is still an angel deep down” “Crowley is more of an angel than any of the archangels” “Crowley was only cast out because he needed to play his part in Armageddon, he's not a real demon” “Aziraphale wants to rebuild Heaven to be more like Crowley because he’s what an angel should be” no. Stop it. This is exactly where Aziraphale went wrong.

Crowley is 100% a demon. He's not actually a bit of an angel, and he's not cosmically better than any of the other demons we see in the series. He's much less vicious than most of them, yeah, but he's also much less vicious than most of the angels, because how “nice” a celestial being is has nothing to do with which side they're technically on. Crowley's kindness comes from him doing his best to help people despite the hurt he's suffered himself, not any sort of inherent residual or earned holiness. He was cast out just like the rest of the demons, and that's an important part of his history that shouldn't be minimized, excused, or, critically, 'corrected.'

Being angelic is not a positive or negative trait in the Good Omens universe. It's a species descriptor. Saying that Crowley is still an angel deep down because he helps people is an in-character thing for Aziraphale to think, certainly--Job and the final fifteen showed that in the worst possible way--but it's not something Crowley would ever react well to, and it's the main source of conflict in the entire "appoint you to be an angel" fiasco.

We know that Aziraphale thinks Crowley's fall was an injustice, but why? Well, because Crowley is actually Good, which means his fall was a mistake, or a test, or a regrettable error in judgment, or…something. Ineffable. Etc. The point is, he’s special, much better than those other demons, and if they can fix him and make him an angel again, everything will be fine! (So once Job's trials are over, everything will be restored to him? Praise be!) Aziraphale has to believe that Crowley's better traits come from traces of the angel he used to know and not the demon he's known for 6,000 years, because that’s how he can rationalize his incorrect view of Heaven as The Source Of Truth And Light And Good with his complicated feelings about Crowley's fall.

But Crowley's fall was not an injustice because he's actually a Good Person who didn't deserve it. Crowley's fall was an injustice because the entire system of dividing people into Good (obedient) and Bad (rebellious) is bullshit. Crowley is not an unfortunate exception to God's benevolence, he is a particularly sympathetic example of God's cruelty.

And really, Crowley doesn't behave at all like an angel, especially when he's at his best. All of the things that he's done that we as the audience consider Good are things that Heaven has directly opposed. (See: saving the goats and children in defiance of God in S2E2, convincing Aziraphale to give money to Elspeth despite Heaven's views on the "virtues of poverty" in S2E3, speaking out against the flood and the crucifixion in S1E3, tempting Aziraphale to enjoy earthly pleasures because he thinks they'll make him happy, stopping Armageddon.)

Heaven as an institution has never been about helping humanity. And that's not an issue of leadership, as Aziraphale seems to think--it's by design. Aziraphale's first official act as an angel toward humanity was to literally throw them to the lions. Giving them the sword wasn't him acting like an angel, it was just him being himself. Heaven doesn't care about humans. It's not supposed to. It's supposed to win the war against Hell, with humans as chess pieces at best and collateral damage at worst.

Yes, it's easier to think that there are forces that are supposed to be fundamentally good. It's easier to think that Aziraphale is going to show those mean archangels and the Metatron what’s coming to them and reform Heaven into what it "should" be, and that God is actually super chill and watching all of this while shipping ineffable husbands and cheering for them the whole way. And of course it's easier to take Crowley, who Aziraphale (and the audience) adores, and say that he deserves to be on the Good team much more than all those angels and demons that we don’t like. But that's not how it works. People are more complicated than that, even celestial beings.

Crowley is a demon, and the tragedy of his character is not that he's secretly a good guy who is being forced to be evil; the tragedy is that he's lived his whole life stuck between two institutional forces that are both equally hostile to the love he feels for the universe and the beings in it. There are no good and bad guys. There are no "right people." Every angel, demon, and human is capable of hurting or helping others based on their choices. That is, in fact, the entire fucking point.

[utilitycaster]

Unsurprisingly I am very much against the "the curtains are just blue" mentality, but, moderation in all things; I think people can get way too hung up on one minor symbolic detail that is never explored elsewhere in the text or given more solid form. Are these characters a battle couple or are they just fighting in the same frame? Are the curtains being blue reflecting the themes of water and change and freedom, or was that a totally different work you imprinted on five years ago and in this story it's about the cold rigidity of ice? Is this subtext consistent, with a throughline throughout the story, or are you clinging to a single line amid twenty others that make a very different point?

[yea-baiyi]

i keep thinking about the odyssey i am THINKING about wei wuxian as odysseus. you were dead. its been years since you’ve seen your family. the child you left behind is almost a man. you wear a face they don’t recognise, you sneak in through the back door. the dog gives your identity away. the world knows it’s you when you draw your weapon. the person you love recognises you by the original symbol of your love—a secret that no one else in the world knows about, still, because they kept it safe for all these years. you get the chance to go back and despite everything, you found home waiting for you; he kept your place and raised your son and he was still there waiting for you when you got back. tell me o muse, about a complicated man i am extremely not okay

[lizardkingeliot]

I guess I’ll see you all in... just under six hours 💀

[2hoothoots]

i was having a chuckle to myself last night about Gristol, and how his plans are basically:

Restore Ford Cruller's memory

Find Maligula

???

Profit

but then... of course they are, right? this is Gristol we're talking about. Fatherland Follies drives home again and again that he's still operating on a child's logic, a warped and reductive version of the world that he never bothered to grow out of. both of his memory vaults center on the images of his childhood, this idealized version of the past that he clings to no matter what. and that's still how he remembers Maligula, too - as this saviour figure, who rushes in to help him when he's in trouble.

[ID: Two slides from Gristol's memory vault, Glory to Grulovia! Left: Gristol clings to Maligula's back as she summons waves to sweep away his assailants. Right: Gristol and Maligula waving from a balcony as the people cheer. Gzar Theodore brandishes a dagger in the background.]

like so much else, Maligula represents a return to this idyllic childhood - to the peace and simplicity of his youth, when he was free from worries and responsibilities. in his mind, he doesn't need to make any further plans - once Maligula's back, everything will go back to normal. Maligula will make everything better.

...is what i thought, but then i remembered this line:

[Screenshot source. ID: Gristol, in Truman's body, bows on his hands and knees in front of the newly-awaked Maligula. The caption reads: "Yes, High Priestess! I am here to correct the mistakes made by my father!"]

and that's kind of interesting, right?

to be clear: this happens directly after Maligula sees Helmut-in-Gristol's-body, and recognises him. her line before this is:

"Little Gzesaravich! Have you come to pay for your father's sins?"

my first thought was that Gristol hadn't expected to still be in Truman's body by the time he managed to find Maligula, and this was him trying to placate her and buy some time until he could explain the situation. but watching the cutscene back, that's clearly not what's happening here. Gristol is answering as himself, and his response of throwing himself to his knees before her is, as far as i can tell, genuine.

so what is going on here?

in Fatherland Follies, there's this line in the ride narration that stuck out to me:

"Why didn't the Gzar help Maligula in her time of need? No one knows, but historians agree - it is Gzar Theodore's biggest failure."

other lines mention Gzar Theodore's "mistake", and it's wording Gristol himself echoes in the screencap above. evidently, he believes that his father abandoned Maligula, leaving her to her fate at the hands of the Psychonauts, and it was that mistake that lead to them being driven out of the country - that mistake which he seeks to correct. maybe he even feels like he has a debt to repay to her for his family turning their backs on her all those years ago.

the 'High Priestess' thing, though - that's kinda weird, and threw me for a loop the first time i played the game. it took me until my second playthrough to connect the dots, and remember how the room in the Lady Luctopus - Gristol's room - was full of Delugionist scribblings and symbols.

[Screenshot source. ID: left, the walls of the hidden backroom in Gristol's hotel suite, covered in scrawlings of eyeballs and Maligula's name. Right, the pinboard from the hidden backroom. On its surface are photographs and newspaper clippings connected by pieces of string.]

i mean, look at this stuff! he had a whole conspiracy board and everything!

we learn very little about the Delugionists and their beliefs as a whole during the game, but i think drawing the connection here suggests two important things. one: that Gristol was in deep with this stuff. i don't know how he linked up with them - maybe via old family connections, or just good old-fashioned digging (we know he's skilled at worming his way into peoples' good graces, after all) - but it seems likely that he's begun to internalise their ideas, maybe even warping his own memories of events. and two: the Delugionists themselves are, if you'll pardon the pun, pretty far off the deep end.

like... i understand why PN2 didn't go heavy on the "mass-murderer cult worship" aspect of things, in the end, but man this is such a tantalising glimpse into the wider mythos around Maligula. Gristol is proud and haughty and thinks himself above everyone else; the fact that his first reaction seeing Maligula is to throw himself to the ground at her feet says so much about the way he's come to see her. he's not just trying to bring back Maligula, his childhood bodyguard. he's trying to bring back Maligula, the High Priestess of the deluge, the semi-mythical figure whose supporters believe even death couldn't stop. he doesn't even flinch at the way she confronts him, and maybe it's because he's bought in so completely to this deified figurehead, this idea of Maligula; more a living force of nature than a person. and it all comes back to the same place: an abdication of responsibility, not just to the person who protected him when he was little but to this avatar of floods and destruction. Maligula will make everything better.

i'd write more about my thoughts on the Delugionists but that'd be taking a hard turn into speculation, and this is already kind of long and rambling so i'd better end it here. but what an unexpected and evocative line, right? it's some of the only stuff we have to go off of regarding the Delugionists as a whole, but i think it does such a good job of hinting at the wider story - at teasing another layer to the mythos surrounding Maligula, one whose ripples we see throughout the game but which never quite breaches the surface.

[sweetandglovelyart]

Knightfall in Dream Land - Page 14

Meta lands a hit on Whispy and dodges some air bullets as his friends cheer him on.

[blackjackkent]

OK, I was about to get really worried cos I took a long rest after talking with Ravengard and nothing happened - but then I went to do a SECOND long rest... and Wyll got the Exclamation Mark of Romance over his head!

Here we go!

-----

(A/N: So - I've sat down and looked at this scene and then spent the last two days percolating on exactly what the hell I wanted to do with it in this liveblog. And apologies for the extensive meta ramble before the actual scene, but I'm going to detail my thoughts a little here before making a full attempt at it, because I feel like this kind of needs Context.

I was a little bit worried that Wyll's Act 3 romantic scene would end up being tonally dissonant with the way I've developed Rakha's story/character, and the truth is it kind of is.

Unlike my discussions about the writing around Wyll's questline itself, this is NOT a criticism of Larian. The scene's very cute! Super romantic and sweet, and for any character in a remotely normal relationship with him, this would be the climax of his impeccable Disney Prince vibes and the beginning of a beautiful life together.

But Rakha is, to put it mildly, strange, and fairly unromantic. And the way I've ended up evolving her story is (understandably) not a way that the game has really accounted for. Her story particularly in Act 3 has become about her slowly discovering her identity and how to live as herself rather than just being driven by the murder urge, and frankly there's still a lot she has to figure out.

And as I've discussed here, the more I've written her, the more I've come to feel that the ideal thematic ending for Rakha is for her and Wyll to go their separate ways. There's a lot of reasons for this but the TLDR is that they love each other and have been each other's rock through this whole ordeal, but Rakha needs time to learn to stand on her own and find her peace, and Wyll needs to go chase his destiny in Avernus and also needs a relationship that gives him a better balance of supporting and being supported.

(@astreamofstars asked me the other day when I was pondering on all this whether I think it would have been better for Rakha to have done a different romance. And that was an interesting question to think about, but ultimately I don't think it would, at all. Wyll was exactly what Rakha needed in the early acts of the game; he was kind and patient and saw the light in her, and I truly think she would not have become who she is now without him.

But she's starting to get her feet under her now and needs time to actually figure out who she is properly. This isn't meant to be a tragedy - just a reflection that sometimes people are right for each other for a while, but not forever.)

I'm hoping that the game does give us this as an option after the brain fight. I know that with Karlach's romance, at least, you don't have to stay together; there were options like sending her to Avernus with Wyll without going yourself. But whether or not it's an option at the end of the game, you certainly aren't given much option for nuance in this scene, where our choices are

a) excitedly commit to love him forever and sleep together b) excitedly commit to love him forever without sleeping together ("not yet") c) shut him down completely (upsetting) d) persuasion-check for sleeping together without the forever commitment

Of these four options, a and c both feel... not great. Rakha still loves him and she's not (at the moment) looking to break up with him, so c) is off the table, and a) feels like a dick move and a disservice to Wyll's story given that we know where it's headed.

I was originally thinking about b), since Rakha has been starting to feel somewhere on the ace spectrum to me and physical relations are not top-of-mind for her most of the time even with Wyll, but that really runs into the same problem as a).

Which leaves d). d) is interesting, because it makes this scene something of a mirror of Rakha's Act 1 no-strings-attached night together with Lae'zel. That moment was one of Rakha's first real moments of connection with another person; it was a gesture of trust before she really felt she deserved it, and I think probably opened the way for a lot of the growth that came later.

In counterpoint, I think this moment with Wyll is, for Rakha, much more bittersweet and melancholy than the writers perhaps intended. I think this is where she fully realizes for the first time that she can't give him forever.)

-----

Often when Wyll and Rakha sit together at the end of the night, Rakha takes the time to think, to ponder over things that have confused or bothered her. Wyll has always been kind to her in these moments, explaining, answering questions, or simply listening while she works out the perplexing thoughts in her battered and broken mind.

Tonight, though... Wyll is the one who seems pensive. In the wake of the tense and chaotic reunion with his father, he stands at the edge of the Chionthar, looking out at the water, and Rakha watches him, trying to read what is going on in his mind.

"It's funny," he says abruptly, rather like Rakha coming out of a pensive daze with a thought to share. "As the Blade, I've faced untold brutes and beasts." He lifts his eyes to Rakha's, meeting her gaze intently. "Together we've seen illithid horrors most souls could merely fathom."

He returns his eyes to the water again, and his jaw works with sudden restrained emotion. "I've lived at the mercy of fiends - a devil's plaything trying to write the Coast's wrongs. But I've only now come to see who my true enemy's been."

Rakha listens quietly. She can sense he's leading up to something, and that he wants her to speak in response - but she doesn't know entirely what he means. They have too many enemies to count; which one does he consider the true one?

"The archdevil Zariel?" she hazards, thinking about his new intended purpose as the Blade of Avernus.

Wyll laughs softly. "So you'd think," he murmurs. "But the right answer is much simpler than that. Time."

He waits, letting Rakha process this. After a moment she nods, but tilts her head at him curiously, inviting him to go on.

"Time is so godsdamned greedy," he says softly. "It can never give, only take. It builds mountains and deserts, only to tear them asunder. It fells armies, it conquers kings, queens... even gods."

She watches as he paces along the waterfront. What has prompted this, she wonders? The arrival of his father, perhaps - or perhaps the realization that in the end Wyll has surpassed him, to become a better man. Or perhaps simply that the time before their final battle is running out, the hours ticking away before they must face down the elder brain or die trying.

He swallows, coming to a halt and clenching his fists at his sides. "We blink, and we're gone..." he murmurs. "And our hopes... our memories..." His eyes are on Rakha's again, intent and warm. "...our heart-bonds are gone with us."

His smile softens, and he extends a hand towards her, palm up. "Lucky for us," he says gently, "I've found a way to stop time... if just for a moment. Come... let me show you."

Rakha looks at him silently for a moment. She remembers their dance in the shadowlands - how he held his hand out to her at one of her darkest moments. How he has always found ways to remind her of the light in her when all seemed dark. She suspects perhaps it is him who needs that reminder in himself now, in the wake of Ansur's death and the dark look that his father gave him, the look that it took all of Wyll's worst memories to dislodge.

Smile and take Wyll's hand.

She takes his hand, grips it tightly. She can feel his pulse thumping under her fingertips as he draws her away from the camp, down the bank of the river.

-----

They walk in companionable silence for some time, until they reach an enormous oak tree, its huge trunk twisted and gnarled, its branches spreading wide above them. The smell of greenery and moonlit water fills the air, and Rakha feels the quiet soak into her bones, into her heart.

"The Wilden Oak," Wyll murmurs, tilting his head to look up into the branches. "Legend has it it's stood since the Age of Dawn."

"I used to come here and climb it when father's eye was turned elsewhere." He walks forward, resting his hand against the trunk of the tree. "Daydream of the stories it might tell, if I listened close enough."

She can see him relaxing, some of the tension going out of him. A smile touches his face, more boyish and happy than she has mostly had occasion to see from him. He seems to be looking past the tree now, into the stories of adventure it conjured. "The dragon lords sparking the skies above it... the moon elves first plucking the strings of the Weave..."

He turns to face her, watching her eyes.

"Standing here," he says softly, "I feel like I can see into forever."

It is in moments like this that Rakha feels least worthy of Wyll. She knows what he wants - an echoing of his dramatic, poetic words and the implications behind them, the deep emotion. But she is no good at articulating her feelings, deep as they might be. She is no good at poetry, at speeches.

"I'm not sure I can see into forever," she admits quietly. "But it's a nice view."

He chuckles softly. "My favorite in all of the Coast. All of Faerun, even. Not even the Sea of Stars could rival its magnificence." He watches her face for another moment in silence, then nods, lifting a hand to brush his fingertips against her cheek. "Nor could it rival yours."

Rakha has no idea what to say in response to this - but luckily Wyll doesn't seem to be expecting a response. He's already moving again, kneeling down and picking up a small acorn nestled in the grass.

"My mother always said the Wilden Oak's acorns held just a touch of wishing magic," he murmurs. "If that be so... then may my greatest wish come true tonight."

She watches as he lifts his hand to her, with the acorn still clutched in it. "I love you," he says, looking up to meet her eyes. "Will you be mine - today, and tomorrow, and reaching into eternity?"

(A/N: I'm legitimately upset bc this is so fucking romantic and Rakha has NO idea what to do with it at all. :( I'm sorry, Wyll.)

Rakha stares at him, her heart suddenly pounding too loud in her ears.

Today, tomorrow, and reaching into eternity. She has trouble picturing eternity. As far as she is concerned, her life began when the pod spat her onto the floor of the nautiloid, and it is hard for her to picture that life will continue beyond the defeat of the brain. She is not sure she knows what it looks like.

But that is what he wants - what, perhaps, he has always wanted. A promise of forever. I still keep faith in the old tales of love, the once-upon-a-times and the happily-ever-afters, he told her once, the night they first kissed. I'd like to do this the proper way - the way of the old romances sung by the bards.

That's what he wants, and she wants to give it to him, to tell him what he wants to hear, to make him happy. She loves him; he has been the sturdy pillar around which she has built her fractured life. He helped her see the light in her that eventually allowed her to throw off Bhaal's control and the voice of the beast in her head. She wants him to have everything that he desires and deserves.

But she doesn't know how to give it to him. She's not sure that she can. How can she promise eternity, when she barely knows who she is? She realizes that the idea fills her with a strange sort of anxiety, verging on panic; everything about her has changed in the last few weeks, even the small amount she had come to understand, and she does not know how to ensure that the person pledging herself to him now is the same person that he would have in a month, a year, a decade.

And it shouldn't be, anyway. The certainty behind that thought slides like a dagger into her heart. She shouldn't be with him forever. He deserves so much better; he deserves to find a love who does not bear the weight of a thousand murders, who knows how to exist comfortably in their body and hold him close and whisper soft words to match his.

He has saved her, and she loves him. And for the first time she realizes that means she has to let him go. Not yet, perhaps - not while they still have a battle to fight together; she needs him to get through the ordeals that are coming, and she thinks, hopes, that he needs her too. But there is no eternity that she can offer, no matter how much she wishes she could.

And looking down at him, meeting his eyes, she realizes something else - he knows it too.

If these acorns are supposed to hold some magic in the service of wishes, perhaps he hoped for some miracle, that everything would become clear for them in this moment and a long certain path laid out ahead beyond the brain and into the future. Perhaps he wondered if she saw something that he didn't, some way that his love for her could coexist with what he truly needs.

But they both know the truth. His love for her and hers for him are both very real. And they aren't enough.

Rakha swallows and crouches down in front of him, her eyes never leaving his. She reaches out and his eyes brighten for a moment; she feels a flicker of magic snap through the Weave around her hands as her fingers draw near the acorn. Then she closes her hands around his so that the acorn is hidden in his palm.

[PERSUASION] "I can't give you forever, Wyll," she says, slowly, haltingly, resisting the urge to look away from his gaze. "But I can give you tonight."

It is like he said before, after all. Time is their enemy. It takes and it takes and it refuses to slow down. But tonight, perhaps they can find a way to make it stop, just for a little while.

His eyes drop from hers. He looks down at the acorn in his hand and then, slowly and deliberately, tosses it aside. She can see the grief in his eyes - but she can see the understanding, too, because even now he knows her better than anyone else.

"Ours is such a beautiful story, and this isn't the ending I wanted to write,"(*) he says quietly, and the pathos in his voice makes her heart twist and ache. "But..."

He smiles sadly and lifts his eyes to hers again, then reaches to cup her cheek with his palm. His touch is warm in the chill evening air. "Tonight, then," he says softly. "Be with me tonight. I'd sooner know one unforgettable night than a lifetime of 'what ifs'."(**)

She leans her head slowly and deliberately against his hand, with the sincerity and gravity of someone making a religious offering. Wyll is one of the only people she has ever felt comfortable to have touching her - not even just because she loves him, but because she trusts him. Physical contact, physical closeness, physical love... none of it is something that comes to her naturally; it is a deliberate choice, founded on that trust above all other things.

She knows a single night isn't truly what he wants... but it is what she can give. And as he leans forward to kiss her, she fists her hands into the front of his shirt and feels him cling to her just as tightly.

They fall into the grass, his weight pressing into her. With Lae'zel, so many months ago, this act was a battle, a fight for supremacy, but with Wyll it is a dance, a give and take. She feels how he responds to her movements and she to his, and her heart clenches in her chest, because she can see just the edge of that eternity he describes, loving him and being loved by him and seeking nothing else.

It is only tonight. But as she loses herself in his touch, she allows herself to imagine, just for a little while, that she could give him forever.

-----

(*) In-game, this line did not play; Wyll's dialogue picked up with the next line ("But..." etc, which I also modified). The line as I've written here is from a different version of this decision where it qualifies as a breakup option mechanically, but I like this text in the context of how I'm framing this conversation in Rakha's story specifically.

(*) In-game line is "But... I can't resist you. I'd sooner know one unforgettable night than a lifetime of 'what ifs'." I took some artistic license to modify this slightly; I don't think Rakha was specifically asking for sex so much as just saying they still have a little time together, and I like the idea of Wyll having a little more agency in this scenario.

[darling-wendy]

rei and miri's physicality: a chronological analysis (part 1)

Time to go into one of the meta topics that has been buzzing in my head for a while now. It's about how Miri and Rei interact with respect to physical contact, and how I am smitten by the way he's so gentle with her and lets her take liberties with him. This is gonna be long and image-heavy [NB now has descriptions]. I have to split it into two parts because of the image limit.

Episode 2! This is the first time that Miri and Rei have physical contact with each other, and it's Kazuki pawning her off to Rei so he can make breakfast without her running underfoot.

As I went to get these screencaps, I noticed that Rei's hands automatically come up to hold her even though he's clearly kind of sceptical about the arrangement at this point. (Lol at Kazuki backing away as though he's afraid Miri is radioactive).

Episode 3! And here begins a running gag about Miri's favourite way to wake up Rei lmao.

I'm curious as to why Rei was sleeping on the sofa to begin with, when that's where they put Miri until she gets her own room in episode 4, and Miri didn't know Rei slept in the bathroom until later on.

Miri goes looking for Rei after Kazuki turns down her request to sleep with him. She finds Rei sleeping in the bathtub as per usual for him and eagerly clambers into the tub so she can sleep with him. Going by the setup of Misaki's apartment in episode 11, she's probably used to sleeping with her mother.

Despite his resting bitch face and reserved demeanour, Miri is already super comfortable with him. She's plopped on his chest, pawing at his face, and goading him to smile. And Rei is very accommodating of her whims. He later tells her to stop kicking the back of his seat in the car, but doesn't tell her to stop pawing at his face. Around this time in the story, Kazuki complained about her climbing into his lap when he was trying to eat, but Rei just....lets this happen lol.

There's a cut out and it fades back into her asleep in the tub, wrapped in Rei's blanket as he looks down at her from outside it. The implication seems to be that she just tired herself out pawing at Rei and then he relinquished his sleeping spot, probably to go out on the sofa.

Such a significant moment. I had already realised that this was the first time that Rei had addressed Miri by name, but it was only while I was drafting this post that it hit me that this was also the first time he had willingly and consciously initiated physical contact with her. I also think it's significant that he repeats the 'Let's go home, Miri' line after she's jumped into his arms. It's him fully committing to the sentiment.

It's sweet how after he has made his 'I'm her papa' resolve, he doesn't seem to put her down again until they meet back up with Kazuki.

Episode 4!

It's so adorable how Miri loves climbing on Rei and how he just let's her despite him not being a tactile person.

Him keeping Miri on his lap after they both woke up from their nap is so precious.

Tsundere Rei lol. Even though he acted very put upon to be there, he was clearly paying attention and even anticipated the high five coming before Kazuki did.

I think this is the only instance of her hugging both their legs at once and I love it. I love it! It's so dear to me. I love this family 😭

Episode 5!

Rei's expression here is golden. Miri, like most small children, is very adorable. But, also like most small children, she can be very annoying lol.

We get another instance of her preferred method of waking up Rei--jumping on him--band she even shakes him for good measure, but he's simply too tired to react.

This is also a good point to note the difference between him sensing something and waking up before she even flipped the lights in episode 3 and the way he's now so comfortable with her presence here that can even sleep through her deliberately trying to wake him.

I wish I had a gif because screenshots do not do justice to the softness with which Rei picks up and gazes at Miri while she's asleep. He's 1000% having a 'that's my baby girl; I'm her dad' moment.

And just look at his expression after Kyu reveals he knows what the deal is. He's nervous about what Kyu will do, and there's also so much 'don't take her away from me' energy coming off him. I see in him shades of the Rei who will tell Kazuki that he wants to keep taking care of her after her mother is killed.

And that's part one! Part two is here.

[oplishin]

anyway anyway anyway. thinking about how one of the defining mantras of seth's character since 2021, but especially during his title reign is "i am nothing like roman reigns." and also remembering that he first dyed his hair way back in fcw because he wanted to look less like guys like roman. and also thinking about the fact that he's a character that's forever wanted to be his own man, whether it be when he was young and hungry and desperate to make an impact on the main roster at any cost, or when he was fighting off the spectre of hunter, or when he had a new title he had to mold and create in his own image. and through it all, roman was always a step above him.

and despite it all, despite needing to stand out, needing to be something of his own, bringing out his shield gear in 2022/2024 to confirm that final separation (while also reaffirming the unbreakable connection!!). he still has no idea who he is.

he found a selfless cause in wm 40. he found something bigger than himself. and even if it was about roman, it was about ending roman. and he thought it would say something fundamental about him, about who he was, about his identity. but it wasn't enough. and life kept going. and now he's back here. and it's still him and roman. forever and ever and ever and ever and ev

[heliza24]

just had a premonition of how ableist/sanist people are gonna be about Nicki when season 3 comes out and I am already bracing for it.

like I think the way the book treats Nicki and what to me reads as his very clear mental illness/depression/ptsd is already *not great* but I can just see the way fandom and ship wars are going to spin it into Nicki being "not worthy" of Lestat because Nicki struggles and lashes out at Lestat instead of being perfectly loving towards Lestat the whole time.

The way Lestat treats Nicki in the book honestly made me really angry. The way Lestat is so clearly repulsed by Nicki after he turns him into a vampire, solely because of the bitterness he senses in Nicki which is a direct result of the trauma and his mental illness. The way he rejects him as a vampire out of hand while he immediately falls in love with Gabrielle's vampirism. The way he kind of shrugs and goes "well yeah, Nicki can be pretty annoying so I get it" when he hears about Armand cutting off his hands. It's so ableist and dismissive, and truly the worst nightmare of anyone who has ever felt "too depressed/anxious/psychotic/etc" to be loved.

I trust the show to represent the complexities of this. I think the show has already done a good job of drawing a connection between Lestat's failings with Louis and his failings with Nicki, and I think it will also be easy to draw a line between Louis and Nicki's respective mental illnesses. We've also seen Lestat already acknowledge how wrong he was to leave Nicki with Armand, through acknowledging that he probably shouldn't have left Louis with him either. So I think the writing on the show will treat Nicki and Lestat's relationship with care and show the real tragedy of Nicki.

I do not, however, trust the fandom to get it. *Big sigh*

[chasing-chimeras]

what’s up with that map in 6x16?

has anyone done some sort of meta post about the world state in tw? i think we see a couple maps (a few town maps and one of where bh actually is in 6x6 but idk if the surrounding towns are real?) but the one that’s so strange to me is in 6x16 that shows the location of the other nemetons.

it’s weird bc it’s a normal map w all the countries (up to date at the time too bc it has south sudan) but then the oceans and lakes are just wild. i don’t have a screenshot but most of n+s america looks normal aside from a few extra lakes in the western us/sw canada. but then if you look at west asia, north+west+east africa, and central+east europe it’s like……there’s just lakes. so many fucking lakes and bays and rising sea levels but not bc most low lying areas are normal (netherlands, florida, etc). places that’re already hit hard by climate change like bangladesh seem fine but then mountainous areas like central turkey are just under wanter. and the lakes? i need someone to explain the lakes or at least make something up bc i can’t stop trying to figure out how they stuck this thing to the wall and no one thought it looked a little funky? idk man i gotta go to sleep

[randomfoggytiger]

Realizing I have three hefty projects to complete this weekend-- one so time sensitive that I have to both start it from scratch and finish it in 3 hours....

Send help.

[dduane]

Just so that people know...

Facebook/Meta's just-announced change in its fact-checking and moderation policies (which would, among other things, allow users to refer to LGBTQ+ people as "mentally ill"), and its sudden vanishing of trans- and nonbinary-friendly themes, has made it plain to me that some of the book-series-oriented spaces I've maintained over there for years are no longer safe places for users, especially younger ones, to be.

I have therefore begun deleting them.

The Middle Kingdoms page (being both the smallest and the one now potentially most dangerous to keep) was the first to go: I nuked it about ten minutes ago. (Naturally I checked it first to make sure nothing of any note was going on in there, and also naturally, I took a backup.)

The Young Wizards page will be the next to be deleted, probably tomorrow. The Ebooks Direct page there will also be deleted over the weekend. Neither of them was all that busy, ever: but that's not the point here. Meta is no longer a safe or appropriate place for them to be. (It doesn't hurt that many of FB's employees are furious about this policy change too... but their boss, I firmly believe, doesn't give a shit about that.)

The DD Facebook page may suffer the same fate. My personal "main" account...? I have a lot of older friends over there for whom FB is their lifeline and main digital platform. I'm going to have to think about how best to handle that. It may be that there will be no more public posting from me there: just DM'ing. ...And I'm still working out what makes the most sense to do about the Middle Kingdoms Instagram account, and my own personal one. Neither of them has been heavily trafficked, and I may nuke them too.

(sigh) All this comes as something of a wrench. But at the very least, as regards the part of my creative work that contains LGBTQ+ themes and characters, I refuse to leave any of it there. To do so would risk having its continued presence seen as support for the platform's boss (and, as @petermorwood remarks in passing, "would-be capo"), who's already busy genuflecting to the US government's incoming (mob-)boss's agenda.

So, as the man says,

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly..."

[alienzil]

Okay so I saw this post and you know the types of fics where adult Danny moves to Gotham and winds up emotionally adopting one or more of bat kids or accidentally coparenting with Bruce (with or without a relationship between them)? I had the thought, what if Danny parented the bat kids but he started doing it out of spite?

Like, Danny moves to Gotham and runs into Batman and Robin one night while out for a late night flight and drops down to the rooftop to say hi.

Bruce sees this 5'6" twink that looks like a stiff breeze could knock him over and is so obviously new in town and thinks Gotham is going to eat him alive, he needs to leave before he gets killed.

Batman: Looming menacingly and in his deepest scariest Batman voice, "Leave. Metas aren't allowed in Gotham."

Danny: Offend! Excuse?! Who does this guy think he is?! 😡 Danny was trying to be polite here! "First of all, I'm not a meta. Second of all, rude much?!"

Batman: Does scariest bat glare. "Leave." Swoops off into the night.

Robin (Damian): "My father is correct. You should leave the city for your own safety."

Danny sees this tiny vigilante child with fierce expression and a sword and is just like awww, so cute! 😍 Then he noticed Robin had a small cut on his arm and his inner gremlin activates. If the rude flying furry can't take care of his own kid properly, Danny will do it better!

He bandages up Damian's arm, gives him a cookie and teaches him a neat sword trick before sending him on his way with a hug telling him he needs his sleep.

Danny goes out of his way to run into the bat kids and be the absolute best dad.

He takes Nightwing flying and throws him in the air so Nightwing can do all the fanciest acrobatic tricks.

He tracks down Red Hood and starts a book club with him (Danny may or may not have used his connection with Ghost Writer to get ahold of some rare books).

He eats waffles with Spoiler and trys out weird topping combinations that make them both make faces and laugh.

He makes new gadgets for Red Robin but carefully breaks them just a little bit and takes them to the teen so they can fix them together (it's enrichment!). He always insists RR keep them as a reward.

He follows Signal around during the day invisibly, making faces and doing tricks only Signal can see (he made him laugh in front of the police at a crime scene twice!).

All of the kids get his attention and love and Danny smugly thinks how Batman must be absolutely seething about his kids bonding with Danny and Batman missing out on all of it.

Danny started it out of spite but he does wind up genuinely loving the bat kids.

Batman definetly hates it when the kids are bonding with Danny and is extremely jealous (sulky Batman brooding in his cave about it).

Bruce's repeated attempts to intimidate Danny into leaving Gotham don't work and him telling his kids to stay away from Danny had zero effect (the terrible children don't listen to him at all).

So Bruce starts spending more time with the kids to compete against Danny. The bat kids love it and (little gremlins that they are) use the two of them against each other constantly.

Bruce:"Sorry Tim, I can't make it to your photography exhibit this weekend, there's a meeting with the Justice League."

Tim:"Oh that's fine... I'll just ask Danny to come." 😏

Bruce: Narrows his eyes and grits his teeth, "Actually, the Justice League needs to have contingencies in place to manage without my input. This would be a good time to test their capabilities. I'll skip the meeting and come to your exhibit."

With both of them competing to spend more time with the kids it leads to the two of them spending time with each other to be around the kids more.

After Damian catches a terrible flu bug, Danny spends an entire weekend at the manor babying him. This is when Bruce finds out Danny has known their secret identities for months and tries to get mad about it but Alfred puts his foot down, raises a judgmental eyebrow in Bruce's direction that puts a stop to that nonsense and sets up Danny with his own room in the family wing.

Eventually, Danny gets to the point where he spends most of his nights at the manor and he and Bruce consult each other on all major household decisions.

The whole family is at the manor one morning including Danny. Bruce has a meeting at WE and he and Danny are absently discussing their plans for the day at the breakfast table.

Bruce: " The meeting should take most of the morning and then I have paperwork this afternoon and a scheduled walk through on one of the new engineering projects. I probably won't be done by the time school let's out. Can you pick up Damian today?"

Danny: "That shouldn't be a problem. Would you mind swinging by the bookstore on the way home and getting my preorder? Jay and I just finished rereading the first book and we were wanting to start the second tonight before you all go on patrol. I'd rather not try to make it to the bookstore in school rush hour traffic"

Bruce: "Sure."

Stephanie watches Danny reach out and absently straighten Bruce's tie as they both get up to leave. Bruce grabs Danny's coffee thermos and hands it to him while they walk out the door.

Stephanie: "Sooo, bets on how long until they realize they're basically married?"

[charcubed]

Oh hey, that’s my image from my tweet :D neat!

I made it for the @chuckwon meta, if anyone is maybe interested in that.

Also, here’s a reminder from Drake Rodger:

link

https://twitter.com/drfangirlphd/status/1631464109119008770?s=46&t=C_twoBlJmxDu2Nz9W99Q2A

oh god? i don't think i'm ready for next week......

WHAT THE FUCK

[sweetandglovelyart]

Me, too busy with grad school to participate, watching everyone else in the Kirby fandom participate in the OC tournament and art fight