#This one is very speculative I'll admit

[year2000electronics]

Bill & Ford & A Book, Oh My!

DISCLAIMER: The Book of Bill has Bill Cipher serving as an unreliable narrator. If we go out trying to say something is "definitively a truth" or "definitively a lie", we're going to keep arguing about it until the heat death of the universe. This is just my own personal interpretation of the source material. If you don't agree, that's fine! Also TBOB spoilers abound.

So it's no secret that interest in the dynamic Bill & Ford have (enemies, platonic, romantic, formerly romantic, whichever way) has really skyrocketed since TBOB's release. Of course, there are the 'easy' culprits to point towards, with Mabel referring to Bill as 'being like a needy ex', and the whole O'Sadley's fiasco (Him literally crying over losing Ford and going "one Sixer, please"? Messy. Messy behavior. Still, I think it goes so much deeper than that.

Bill, being the unpredictable chaos entity that he is, also serves as the main antagonist for a show about family and having close bonds with each other. We don't really need to look into his inner psyche that much, because that's just not what he needed to be doing at that point in the cartoon. He's meant to be a way to divide the Pines, really. And a silly little guy. A silly little obstacle. So, naturally, when it came to Bill's arguably "closest" relationship to someone in the show (Ford), it was very easy to interpret it as Ford being tricked by a completely apathetic Bill, who was just using him as a rung on the ladder. And I do want to stress that Ford and Bill's physical actions remain fairly consistent throughout interpretations, and focusing on the fact that Bill badly hurt Ford is important, so if that's how you still see it, then fine by me! No harm no foul!

But I think the relationship, their story, their tragedy just becomes so much more interesting with the lens The Book of Bill has presented. We’re finally able to see Bill’s perspective as a “protagonist” of sorts in a medium where he’s not just something to defeat- and that’s something we’ve never gotten before, so it’s shedding light on an area we didn’t know about for sure! Again, Bill is lying to the character of "the reader", so we can't trust it as a completely unbiased source. But we can speculate on where the "truth" is between these lies.

First of all, Bill's backstory was that he destroyed his home dimension- we knew that already. But now, with the extra content we have about it, we see something interesting- that Bill's backstory mirrors Ford's to an uncanny degree.

Both of them champion their intelligence, although they highlight how it set them apart from others, as well as highlighting their own 'rare mutation/birth defect'.

Again, with this self-isolation already spurred on from their "weirdness", but also as a little aside, I would also like to highlight that Bill being 'ready to be one', looking up at the stars, striving to 'reach' them, is a shared motif he has with Ford, who is also associated with space, the stars, and reaching them.

Bill's 'trying-really-quick-to-convince-Ford' fantasy sequence even has him in a field of stars as a sort of "ultimate wish fulfilment". Remember, this is Bill showing Ford something he thinks would win Ford over, at least a little.

(And I'll take a quick time out for this train of thought to point out- hey! Bill admits he sought out most of his other victims, but Ford summoned him, and it took him by surprise! That adds a fun little layer of complexity to everything, don't you think? Another little layer of humanity for this whole mess- Bill didn't expertly seek out the 'perfect victim' or anything, it was just... luck. Some twist of fate.)

Anyways.

Obviously, the intro page to the 'Sixer' section has a ton of red flags galore (I mean, poor guy's literally depicted as a hapless puppet. C'mon, Bill. Not to mention the "OH BOY HE'S ALREADY SO ISOLATED, IT'S PERFECT" thing.). This guy is kind of a terrible companion no matter how you slice it. He's terrible to everyone close to him, because he's a deeply traumatized character who refuses to heal. BUT, the wording here is kinda deliciously intriguing to me. All of humanity is Bill's puppets, his future victims, but to me, it's clear that he holds a fondness for Ford. From "This is what a partner looks like", to "Me and Sixer could be the perfect team", to "He had what I always wanted- fingers" (drawn to his strangeness, maybe?), "He was destined for so much more", "I looked at his futures and giggled", and most stand-out to me, "Society calls these people freaks, I call them Henchmaniacs!"

Going back to the pre-Book of Bill era I was talking about, Bill's offers for Ford to join him were always in a sort of murky territory for interpretation. The first offer could definitely be read as mocking, with the line "WITH THAT SIX-FINGERED HAND, YOU'D FIT RIGHT IN WITH MY FREAKS!" in particular making it seem like Bill was only saying that to rub Ford's strangeness in his face, and the second offer to join Bill being under a new circumstance- that now Bill is desperate and believes Ford is the only one who can help him. But the Book of Bill mentions the idea of Ford becoming a Henchmaniac more than once, and also has Bill upset at losing Ford and claiming "he'll be back", as well as Bill seeming to use "freak" more like a badge of honour, and having previously complimented Ford's six fingers (In the Sixer intro page, he highlights Ford's fingers as a quality he likes, and in the pages about bodies, he states that "humans should have more fingers". To me, that first offer reads more now like Bill being genuine about finding Ford a place among his misfits. ...Although, the moment Ford says no, he does zap him into a statue. So. Y'know. He's still got issues.

(Yeah, again, red flag city. "Just hazing"? Bill, none of what you were doing over there was okay! You might have suppressed everything traumatic that happened to you, but that doesn't mean you can go around traumatizing everyone! Good lord.)

Bill has already been imply to like other characters because they remind him of himself. Pointing towards a connection with a character Bill DOESN'T have a weird undefinable ex-partner thing with... Mabel! Alex has says in multiple official media and interviews that Bill sees a lot of himself in Mabel, and essentially, that he thought Mabeland was the perfect prison because if HE liked all that awesome, uncontrolled chaos over any family or friends, why wouldn't SHE? And we see that again in TBOB. So basically, what I'm saying is that we have two characters to back up the fact that Bill seems gravitated towards humans or other living beings that he views as being 'like him'- beings he can relate to! So, y'know, what does that say about Bill and Ford?

There's also Bill's plans for the reader and "Weirdmageddon 2.0", where he portrays the reader as getting to, like, perch on his arm like a little bird and get their own little crown? And specifically calls out Ford for not going through with things?? Okay, Bill??

AND Ford not only being the only human mentioned on the list of people he "definitely doesn't miss so stop asking", but also having his own category? Alright, man.

Of course, another point to the 'Hey, maybe Bill can actually feel emotions towards humans besides complete and total apathy' club is this page here, which has ALSO been hotly debated! Certainly, we know he's telling the truth about his home dimension being destroyed, and we know that he's lying about the 'monster', but some interpret this scene as Bill not being remorseful at all and playing his reaction up to earn Ford's sympathy. And me, personally, I dunno if I agree. I feel like the specific inclusion of Bill "looking distant, more distant than I'd ever seen him" (Mirroring the fact that he keeps blacking out when thinking about all his large-scale massacres) and him "laughing joylessly", I think this sequence is meant to tell us that Bill actually is being vulnerable with Ford here, it's just hidden under layers and layers of deceit, whether towards himself or Ford or both.

And finally for my Book of Bill collection stuff, there's the stuff that could be read as more romantic in nature. In the 'love' section, Bill claims he doesn't love anyone, but, like-

Come on. You can disagree with me that it's Ford, but he does have exes. And he's clearly not over them. Shrimpy little liar. And then there's the fact that a lot of his hokey 'advice' is stuff he ends up directly doing to Ford.

These rats.

The Love Cage.

The Book of Bill really outlined all that in bold, but in my opinion, it was never an entirely new revelation! Bill seems to hold a preference for Ford over other humans in the show. He shows up in Ford's dreams just to say hi, tease him, and gloat (Mabelcorn) unlike the other two dream appearances he's made (Dreamscaperers, Sock Opera) which were exclusively for business purposes. Unlike every other character that gets exclusively one nickname for their zodiac sign, Ford gets multiple (Fordsy, IQ, Sixer, smart guy, brainiac, the list goes on). Bill asks Ford to join him TWICE, whereas anyone else who tries gets their face rearranged, put in a cage and made to dance, frozen in stone, etc etc. And finally, I think, the most emblematic of Bill's weird, specific relationship with Ford, is that whereas everybody else gets turned into stone, Ford got turned into gold.

Which kinda sums up their whole thing up pretty well? Bill gave him special treatment by turning him into a golden statue (similar to yellow ha ha), always holding him close, but, like... Dude. You still kidnapped a man and turned him into a statue and then threatened to kill his niece and nephew. I don't think it will change his opinion on you if he's the Most Pampered Hostage, Actually. I just don't think that we need to explore the relationships between characters as simply "Well, this character hurt the other one, so we shouldn't really think about why or what they feel personally, because what they did was bad, so there".

Bill & Ford interest me because they're a tragedy in motion. We can see that Bill and Ford mirror each other in a multitude of ways, and we can see that they both do have positive feelings towards each other at the time they meet, and we see that Bill very desperately wants Ford to be just like him in the unhealthy ways; the ways that make Bill destroy entire universes and compartmentalize it all, because maybe then, he can finally have the companionship he so deeply aches for. Bill and Ford both had tough, lonely upbringings, but Ford moved on from that "I don't need you" mentality. That's what saved him. Bill didn't, and that's what got him where he was in the end. I feel like that's just so much more interesting than Bill just being a flat entity that makes abuse Happen to Ford, just as another Event in his life. I mean, isn't it just SO much more interesting that Ford humanizes Bill, in a way? That Ford makes him- in Bill's own words- "sentimental"? That a chaotic dream demon has regrets and loves and favourites and connections? It's the same thing with Fiddleford & Ford, although, obviously, to a MUCH lesser extent than Bill & Ford. But you get what I mean, right? You know that Fiddleford and Ford are going to undo each other in the end, and the path to that downfall is... it's telling a story! I like the story of it all! I think that's what I've been invested in and intrigued by all these years- the story, the tragedy of Bill and Ford. No matter what form it takes.

(Plus, as tumblr user fordtato pointed out in their own essay (not tagging because this post is messy enough as is oh god), hey, Ford now has two incredibly queer-coded narratives, with one of them being about how he recovered and was able to heal from an abusive relationship. And, well, I think that's just neat.)

Anyways, that's the end of the post. Thanks for reading this long!

[ven0moir]

So, Bychance is on my radar and ... I think it'll actually happen.

Disclaimer, I realize this is me going full unhinged mode and some of this might be because I'm so bored lately but the more I think about where we left Will off in S4, the more I think Will might actually take a chance ( lmao? ) to be with someone new, even if deep down he knows it's not in his best interests--it'll be more a coping mechanism, an attempt to move on from Mike, and without realizing he might be repeating the pattern of his parent's relationship due to trauma.

This will ultimately result in growth for him, of course, and the breaking of these cycles. Will Byers will be free in the end, but the road there won't be easy.

So here we go--by the leaks of Holly being taken, and the outfits they are wearing, we can infer S5 Byler will mirror S1 Jancy.

Yeah. And how did Nancy start S1?

Having a one-time, two-time secretive thing with a jock ( bully ) that left a note in her locker at the start of the season.

Something something bullies leaving a note in Will's locker at the start of the season.

Something something a bully leaving a note at the start of S5 in Will's locker with a place and time to meet.

And what is one of the most noticeable things that Stancy and Mileven have in common?

Yeah, they start seemingly very passionate, only to fall apart later. Add Bychance to that mix.

Now, about the place and time where Chance and Will likely secretly meet. At first I thought it would be Benny's Burger.

Benny's Burger, which also foreshadows Mike telling Eleven something about her Benny Burger's t-shirt in EP9. It is also established in these screenshots that Benny's Burger is a place commonly used for people to hang out, likely teenagers, to engage in illegal things like drinking ( and probably more, the 69 poster above Lucas' head notwithstanding )

We also have the whole 'WE ❤️ TIGERS' posters, and Christmas Lights which we have come to associate with Will, as it has been established that this is Will's favorite holiday as well.

However, Chance and Will would have to be extra careful not to get caught, so chances are they'll go for places that aren't frequented ...

Now, the main question is, why Chance? And I'll admit this is all oh so fairly loose and likely a reach, but if we are to believe Will is going to have a secret thing with a bully, then out of all of the ones introduced in S4, Chance is the one that I'd dare to say we can connect Will with through symbolism, albeit vague.

The first time we see Chance, we see the poster 'Defeat The Falcons' closer to him than anyone else on the team even though he was on the bench.

Now, correct me if Im wrong, but if there is an association with Mike and falcons, then it could hint at Mike having lost to chance this season. Foreshadowing he loses to a literal Chance next season? Since Chance didn't come out the bench this season. Yikes. Good luck, Mike. You're gonna need it.

We also notice he's sporting the number 22 in his shirt ( which considering the attention brought to t-shirts this season, I'd say this means something, especially bc 22 is Will's birthday and it is also speculated to be the date of the Creel Murders -- Chance and Will meeting at the Creel House oh god ... ).

Speaking of 22, this scene is interconnected with Will in California through music--it does have a similar context in which both Lucas and Will feel abandoned by their friends. But we also see what you could argue is an extra that is supposed to remind us of Chance behind Will wearing a shirt ( again with the shirts ) that says 'I love contact sports'

Moments before, we *just* saw Chance next to Lucas, in the same spot we see Mike as well--as if the two are being compared. ( Tiger vs Falcon? )

We know Will is associated with tigers, but we can also infer that he loves tigers, which connects him to the 'WE ❤️ YOU TIGERS' poster in Benny's Burgers.

This is as far as I have gone in my analysis, but I might rewatch S1 and S3 at one point to follow along the narrative patterns and see if I can uncover more.

My guess right now is if Bychance is established early on, then it might go for about a couple episodes before it inevitably crashes and burns--with Will being the one to end things, and then Byler happens at the end in a way that pays off.

[sqgeism]

i saw the event and came RUNNING

anaxa x reader with summertime sadness by lana del rey?

𐙚 𓏵𓏵𓏵 𐙚 got my bad baby by my heavenly side | anaxagoras x gender neutral reader

💌 — ; i know if i go, i'll die happy tonight ! with a lover as brilliant as he, how could anaxa ever ask for more? you're his light as he navigates the darkness in pursuit of higher wisdom.

love mail — jhh idek what i did w this ! thank u for the first request from the event ! :D cute song omg!! this is a professor x professor where u and anaxa r married i hope u like it anon >_> ♡ art credits : opalesaint on twt

genius and madness get along, as they say. to paint a picture; you were an engineering professor, a world-renowned inventor with machines that could change the world. and anaxagoras was a... professor with a reputation, to describe it politely. you knew of him through your fourth period students who let out sighs of relief when they entered your class. apparently their third period—soul physics—had an insane professor that chased them down with a gun for being late. on that note, it's become your favorite thing to tell people that your students' insane stories of anaxa had been the first impression of your future husband.

for the actual first meeting, you had become rather intrigued with this mysterious anaxagoras. you've seen each other in the faculty, no doubt, but you can't recall ever sparking a conversation with such an interesting individual. so you sought him out, choosing one of the science labs that you were told he frequented.

only to see him on the floor, coughing out what you now understood as some kind of alchemy potion. anaxa told you later on in your relationship that he believed it could help him see things that weren't there, hidden hieroglyphs, spirits, all of that sort. only for it to prove to be ineffective, and burned his lungs with each breath he took.

you took him to the clinic, had a nurse care for him, and your relationship continued from there onward.

the students began to speculate when they noticed you two beginning to interact, of course they would. you both taught them to question everything and anything, but they were picking up on things that you two seemed to be clueless about. as an example, anaxa had assigned his class to study on a paper that you wrote. in fact, he himself had made a summary video of the entire thing JUST so his students would understand your brilliant ideas and insights. on your end, you would mention some of anaxa's teachings on soul physics and alchemy as well as minor references to his own beliefs.

it was unintentionally letting the other person slip into their most important thing, their specialty fields. the thing they've spent years devoting their mind and body to study. and you and anaxa just let each other into that very special aspect without notice.

what should have been the first sign was when you caught anaxa borrowing a book from the library that seemed to be from your field, all the way down to the specific sciences that go into your inventions, parts and gears, and books you've mentioned to him before. what should have been the second sign was the fact that you started bringing in anaxa to your classes as a guest lecturer. he had taken such great interest in your field that he was recognized to be knowledgeable enough to substitute for you during absences. the students remarked that he taught with great passion, as if he was in love with the subject just as much as you were.

half of the truth. he loved to teach it, but he also loved the teacher. he'd grown fond of you, and he was enough of a man to be able to admit that to himself. and how should a scholar confess their undying affection to another?

that's right, through the acknowledgement section of his recent findings on alchemy. in his study of how alchemy can be used to further advance technology—it reads;

"Anaxagoras would like to thank (name) for their life changing support throughout his writing of his thesis. (name), if you would allow me, let me be yours and let's explore the truth of the world together?"

those words were in the final submission of the printed paper, and you gave a free copy to all of your students of that year. and in the next three years, you gave it once again to your new batch for a study assignment, only now with a ring and the biggest smile whenever a curious student points out the acknowledgement.

now the academy has become a museum of memories, every hall and room has a loving tie back to your relationship. longing stares and late nights reading each others work—becomes loving gazes and early mornings in bed with each other. in a turn of events, the formula of his life had changed with a new variable, a very loving, beautiful, and gorgeous variable. his significant other, his passion, his (name). in every aspect of the word; he had won in both the field of academics and romance.

© sqgeism or wtv (^_^;)

[marsupials-of-mars]

I have a theory. It's a lot of speculation, but an interesting thought:

Euclidea was a hivemind. Or, at least part of it.

This is my main "evidence." The line "One of the few conciousnesses" and referring to the lonely humans as "you" somewhat implies that he himself is or was part of a hivemind consciousness. Like, for example, a fungal spore network.

With what we know of Euclidea (strict adherence to rules, valuing uniformity, fearing non-uniformity), it wouldn't be a surprise.

What constitutes as a "hivemind" here is vague, and if it is the case with Euclidea, it doesn't mean that all of the Euclideans were the same person with the same shared knowledge.

It may be more of an extrasensory connectedness, uniform patterns of thought, a general understanding of what others are experiencing/feeling, physically or mentally. This aligns with some of Bills powers: reading minds, possessing multiple corpses all using his own voice, seeing through many eyes (not necessarily simultaneously, but as "peepholes")

If we follow this idea, it makes the Euclideans seem less like fascists and more like people looking out for their community. So averse to a reality-breaking mutation because it posed a threat to the minds of anyone connected to bill.

Maybe, rather than forcing baby bill to be medicated just to make him normal, his parents were doing what they thought was best not just for their child, but for their people.

(^ I'll admit some of these screenshots are more "thematic" than "evidence")

Maybe it was so easy for Bill to destroy his whole dimension much by accident because all he had to do was stop taking his meds, and let this mutation which nobody else was physiologically able to handle into the minds of those people.

He felt so stifled that he made the conscious decision to endanger people; it wasn't fully an accident, nor was it fully violent in intent. But his choices directly resulted in the massacre.

All this to say, this concept is mostly just more fuel for angst. Bill not only destroyed friends and family, but pieces of himself. His blue flames and red anger aren't just influences or genetics from his parents, because his parents weren't just parents; They were pieces of himself.

He was alone in the universe, but it was worse than that. He was alone, truly alone with his thoughts, without knowing how to even process what "his" thoughts were, or what "alone" really meant.

He blacks out when he recalls the day he tried to fuse everyone into his own individual perspective, because the memories missing are the memories of countless dying people.

He's an idea. Not a soul, not a conciousness, because the soul was shared among his whole race of people.

Maybe this could be why he's so desperate for attention, belonging, friends, and family: He's desperately trying to fill in the gaps of his own consciousness.

And, it could explain why he's so, so very bad at it: Because he can't conceptualize the desires of individuals. They should all want what he wants, think like he does, that's how it's supposed to be when you love someone!

Your family is an extension of yourself, so why wouldn't they want to make you happy? If you're happy, everyone is happy!

He's a handful of selfish thoughts that persisted after the soul they belonged to was destroyed.

Now don't come at me with your conspiracy pants on and tell me how little evidence I have and how unsubstantiated and speculative all this is, I KNOOOWW but I'm having fun and playiiingg!!

[elumish]

Do you have any suggestions for accessible writing workshops?

Sorry, this has been living in my inbox for a while.

I'm not sure what your focus is for accessibility (cost, accessibility from a disability standpoint, percent of applicants admitted), but I'll do my best.

I have direct experience with two writing workshops, so I'll talk about those first.

Alpha Young Writer's Workshop: This is an in-person short story writing workshop in Pittsburgh for teens (aged 14-19) focusing on sci fi, fantasy, and horror. They don't require that you're American, they have some scholarship opportunities, and they are committed to meeting accessibility needs. However, they only accept 20 students per year, and there is an age limitation, so from that standpoint it's not a particularly accessible program. I went in 2010 and so can't really speak to how it's run now, but I built a tremendous network from it of alumni across different years, including some of my closest friends.

Futurescapes Writers' Workshop: There are a set of writing workshops, all of which are separate applications and separate requirements. For the ones that I took part in, you submitted an excerpt, a summary, and a query, and you were split into small groups to review each others' work and get feedback from authors, agents, or editors. I found it most useful from the standpoint of hearing how to tailor my work for the querying process but did not find most of the feedback I got from other students particularly useful. It was decently expensive, though there are scholarships. It is run virtually and they run two times a day, which makes it more accessible for people across time zones. I'm not sure how selective it is, but there is an application process.

Other writing workshops I don't have direct experience with:

Clarion Workshop: A full-time, six week residency program at UC San Diego for sci fi and fantasy short story writing. From what I've heard, very selective--they only take 18 students. The cost is $6,000, though there are scholarships.

Clarion West: A full-time, six week residency or online program in Seattle for speculative fiction short story writing. Also very selective. It is $3,200, and there are scholarships available. There seems to be some more flexibility about residency than with Clarion.

Depending on what you're looking for (genre, length of program, online vs in-person) I recommend spending some time doing some research and finding what fits best for you. I am most familiar with the more well-known speculative fiction ones because that's the world that I live in, but there are a ton, and what works for one person won't work for another.

[pretty-sparkle-bomb]

I've been thinking about anonymous love notes from reader to kirishima and his literal stone-set determination to find out who they're from just to find out it just happens to be his crush as he accidentally catches her placing the latest one 😓🙏 (kirishima needs more love)

GUYS WHEN I TELL YOU THAT I USED TO DO THIS TO MY FIRST CRUSH EVER (i was in 7th grade) AND I GOT FLAT OUT REJECTED BY HIM (I ended up crying to my brothers who wanted to beat the shit out of him) AND THEN IT TURNS OUT HE WAS SECRETLY DATING ANOTHER GIRL😭😭😭

Too much rambling? I'll stop😔 Onwards to the story

There it was again. Another note. Kaminari slung an arm around Kirishima's shoulders and whistled lowly. "Damn, you're lucky. I wish a girl would leave notes in my locker like that."

Kirishima chuckled, opening the neatly folded piece of paper.

"Your smile is my favourite thing. You have no idea how fast my heart races when I see you."

"Yeah, but I wish they would just come up to me and speak. They seriously have no competition; I'm rooting for them even." Kirishima whined, folding it and placing it into his pocket. That one had to go into the almost full jar he has at home.

It had been weeks since he started receiving letters. One in his bag, another in his notebook, on his chair, atop his desk, in his shoe locker. Whoever it was, they were smart, he'd give them that. They always found a new place to put the note every time.

It had been weeks since this started. First, one in his bag. Then his notebook, his chair, his desk, his shoe locker. Whoever it was, they were clever, he had to admit. Each time, they found a new place to hide the notes, always keeping him on his toes.

"You're rooting for them until you see who's at the end of the hall~" Kaminari teased, his voice dripping with amusement.

Kirishima barely had time to register his words before turning his gaze in the direction Kaminari gestured. And there you were.

The girl he'd been crushing on ever since he met you.

His heart stumbled in his chest. You were kind and funny and smart. He absolutely adored you. But there was no way you—

No. Not possible. Right?

Kirishima shook his head, dismissing the thought as quickly as it came. He needed to focus. He needed to figure out who this mystery admirer was. He was determined. Like, stone-set determined. He'd made it his personal mission.

He made sure to swear Kaminari to secrecy. No one could know who this person was, or about their plan to catch the girl in the act.

It started off simple. Whenever Kirishima was walking or doing something in a public space, Kaminari would look around at every girl, just to see if one of them would sneak a glance at Kirishima. But that failed terribly...

New plan!

"In a sea of people, my eyes always search for you."

"Aww but ewh. Whoever this is, they sure are corny... you like that don't you?" Kaminari deadpanned. Kirishima just sighed airily. "Man c'mon, you gotta try harder. Look for her."

"How about we try stalking the usual places that the notes turn up?" Kaminari presented but Kirishima shook his head, no. "If we do that then they'll realise and get scared and then no more secret admirer."

"Gee, you're really thinking this out huh?"

Their attempts were endless and ridiculous. At one point, Kaminari even suggested leaving a note back as bait, but Kirishima refused, saying it felt wrong to trick them. They tried analyzing handwriting samples from the girls in class, but none were a perfect match. They even got Mina involved—who was very enthusiastic about the investigation—but all it led to were wild speculations and no concrete answers.

Despite their failures, Kirishima remained determined. "I'll figure this out, man. Just watch."

Kaminari just snickered. "At this point, I'm pretty sure they could leave a note right in front of you, and you still wouldn’t figure it out."

Kirishima scoffed. "Like that would happen."

It happened after training.

Kirishima had finished early and decided to return to the classroom to grab a forgotten notebook and his water bottle. The hallways were mostly empty, save for a few students lingering near their lockers. He walked in, running a towel through his damp hair, when he saw it.

You.

By his desk.

With a small, neatly folded paper in your hand.

He froze, heart stuttering in his chest as you glanced around cautiously before slipping the note under his water bottle. It took a second for his brain to catch up.

You.

It was you.

His crush. The girl he'd been head over heels for this whole time.

You were the one leaving the notes.

Something in him flipped—a mixture of surprise, excitement, and something impossibly warm that spread through his chest like wildfire.

Without thinking, he took a step forward, and before he could stop himself, words tumbled out of his mouth. "So it was you this whole time?"

You jolted, whipping around so fast that you nearly knocked over his water bottle. Your eyes widened, panic flashing across your face as your hands shot up in defense. "I—uh—what? No? Definitely not?" you blurted, clearly not convincing anyone.

Kirishima just grinned. A big, toothy, unbelievably happy grin.

You groaned, slapping a hand over your face. "I take it back. I am running away now."

"No, wait!" He stepped forward before you could bolt, reaching out instinctively. "Don't run. I—this is actually kinda awesome."

You peeked at him through your fingers. "It is?"

"Yeah! I mean, I love these notes. They make my day every time. And knowing they're from you?" He let out a breathless chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. "That's even better."

Your cheeks burned as you shifted on your feet. "So... you don't think it's weird?"

"What? No way! I think it's pretty manly- er... womanly." He shot you a lopsided grin. "But, uh... maybe next time, you could just tell me all this in person? 'Cause, like, I've kinda been really into you for a while now."

Your breath hitched. "Wait, what?"

Kirishima laughed, his face going a little red himself. "Yeah. Surprise?"

For a moment, you just stared at him, completely speechless. Then, slowly, a small smile tugged at your lips. "Well... that does make things easier."

He beamed. "Guess so."

You laughed softly, eyes playful. "Guess I won't have to sneak around leaving notes anymore, huh?"

"Not unless you want to," Kirishima teased, leaning slightly closer. "I wouldn't mind waking up to more sweet words about my smile."

You rolled your eyes but grinned, nudging his arm playfully. "You're such a dork."

"Yeah, but now I'm your dork."

[nanabansama]

Birthday Headcanons!

I recently answered an ask about birthdays, and I wanted to offer some of my headcanons in addition to that. This is all just speculation, so feel free to come up with your own ideas instead!

Nene

I am very firmly of the belief that she is still fifteen years old as of the recent chapter (124). One thing I will say about Nene is she looks kind of young to me? So it wouldn't surprise me if she had a winter birthday. But I'm very torn on which year she was born... on the one hand I really like her having a birthday in February. Another female protagonist of AidaIro's, Neige, was born in February. Nene's name written in goroawase (japanese number puns) is also 22, so a birthday like 2/2/2000 feels very good to me... on the other hand, I really like her having the year of the rabbit as her zodiac. She's dressed up as a rabbit a few times, including for a New Year's celebration art:

But obviously this doesn't mean anything... Aoi could not be a snake, and Hanako is definitely a sheep despite dressing as a dragon in a different new year's artwork... and you've gotta admit that a rabbit just Feels more Nene than a dragon, right? (And sheeps and rabbits make for perfect couples, if you didn't know...)

That said, it's hard to choose a month and day in 1999 that feel right to me for her birthday... given the Yugi twins were born on "Good Twins Day" (11/25), a Japanese micro holiday, I get the feeling AidaIro wouldn't be able to pass up another good joke or pun for our heroine's birthday...

There are some fun holidays that could fit her. Here's a list:

Mermaid Day (June 30)

Strawberry Day (January 5)

Sengiri Daikon Day (February 17)

Goldfish Day/Girls' Day (March 3)

... But as you can see, none of these fit my requirements for what I want her birthday to be. :'( I'd really be happy with anything as long as it hasn't happened yet though!

For now, I guess I'll just give her a birthday like December 2, 1999... which is also really close to Amane's birthday, funnily enough.

Mitsuba

Since this guy is associated with the number three so much, I really struggle to imagine he wouldn't have a 3 in his birthdate somewhere... an obvious answer is March 28, which true fans will know is a fanmade micro holiday to celebrate the man himself because 328 is goroawase for Mitsuba. While it's unclear exactly what lead AidaIro to give the twins 11/25 as a birthday, many fans celebrated "Yugi Day" on the 25th of the month before the birthday reveal (because 25 is goroawase for twins) and so it would be a nice nod to the community and also just a good pun in general.

One thing that is interesting about Mitsuba is we kind of know his death date? It was in December of 2014. Anyway, depending on his birthday, he could have died at either 13 or 14. Definitely something worth considering, but as of right now, I don't think we know the age he died at. Mitsuba is kind of little though, I guess? So I wouldn't be surprised if he died at thirteen... (that would also place him at the same age as Tsukasa when he died!)

Anyway, I don't really have any other good micro holidays for Mitsuba, but I would bet good money that there is a 3 somewhere in his birthdate. ☘️

Mitsuba's Mom

You know what's better than having a funny birthdate? Having a funny deathdate! (Sorry, not to make this entirely about her dead son or anything, but we quite literally are calling her Mitsuba's Mom instead of her actual name, so...)

Anyway, in case you forgot, he died on her birthday.

Unfortunately, I can't really find a good micro holiday for this...so I will have to rely on another crutch.

The day that Tsukasa sacrificed himself was an "unlucky day". To keep this brief, there is a superstition that some days are luckier than others in Japan. There are six different types of days which each hold different types of luck... So basically, I want to find another unlucky day in December 2014 for her birthday!

Since it repeats roughly every six days, we have a few options. We're specifically looking for days marked with 仏滅.

Out of these options... well, I personally like December 4? Eh, I dunno. I really wish there was an inauspicious date with a 3 in it, but we have to deal with the cards we're dealt...

Kou

Since Kou greatly resembles his ancestor, Yorimitsu, and was likely named after him, I really like the idea that his birthday is also linked to him.

Unfortunately we have no exact birthdate for Yorimitsu, but we do have his death date, which was August 28 (or July 19 in the old calendar.)

I don't hate either of these birthdays for him! Sadly this would mean that we already passed his birthday, but Kou just screams "summer baby" to me, you know? Sweet sunshine child, etc...

Anyway, I'm admittedly not that well-versed in western zodiac, so I've been kind of avoiding it, but Kou likes lions and Leo season is July 23 to August 22 so if not the above dates I think something within that timeframe works for him. 🦁

---

So that's it! Maybe in the future I'll make up more headcanons, but for now, I can't really think of any other character birthdays that I have a strong opinion on. I would be very interested to hear your own headcanons, though, especially if you have a good reason for them! And here's hoping AidaIro actually reveal them in the future. ^^;

[sippy--sippy]

innocent (hinata shoyo x reader)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~🍊~🍊~🍊~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

summary: hinata shoyo's fans assume he's as pure and innocent as they come. you learn that he's anything but cw: smut, oral sex (f receiving) word count: 2,089 A/N: !!MINORS DNI!! i couldn't help myself. i'm the biggest hinata shoyo truther and timeskip!shoyo is NOT INNOCENT. i'll die on this hill

-

You found it very hard to believe that Hinata Shoyo had been an innocent, shrimpy little boy during his high school days.

A cheerful, hyperactive, mildly anxious ball of energy that couldn’t talk to a cute girl without blushing wildly and overheating (if the stories Kageyama told you were true).

Shoyo’s hoard of devoted (and possibly deranged) fans speculated that even after the several years between his debut as a wildly talented 1st year in high school and his current status as a world-class athlete, he was still as wholesome and pure minded as a newborn lamb.

You could see how they’d think that based on his public image. During any interview, fan meet-up or casual meeting on the street that was caught on camera, Shoyo was the sweetest, most genuine person one could ever meet. Always listening intently to whoever was speaking to him, happily engaging in conversation, smiling so brightly and giving out warm hugs to any person who asked. 

Indeed, he was the poster boy of sunshine incarnate. 

So who would’ve guessed that Shoyo wasn’t wickedly skilled at only volleyball. 

He did move out of the country for a couple years after all; finding himself rather lonely in a country where he barely knew the language and knew only a handful of people. As an early twenty-something year old, he wasn’t afraid to admit to his closest friends years down the road that he had urges that he himself couldn’t quite satisfy to a full degree while he was in Brazil. 

So he had to find occasional company elsewhere, which is where he learned a great deal about the art of pleasure.

When Shoyo came back to Japan, met you, took you out on a couple dates and finally took your relationship to the next level, imagine your surprise when Shoyo- sweet, bubbly, sinless, PR angel Shoyo- made you feel things that no partner before him had.

No, Shoyo was not innocent.

Not at all.

~

“Come on baby- gimme one more.” Shoyo hummed.

His voice was rough, muffled slightly by the flesh of your thighs that were currently situated tightly against his head..

The sounds you were making from his constant licking and sucking and the sounds he made doing so were obscene. You’d lost count of how many times he’d made you cum already, skilled fingers and tongue blurring your vision. 

You were loosely propped up against the headboard of his bed, one hand gripping the sheets underneath you while the other was twisted in Shoyo’s sun bleached orange hair, trying to pull his face closer to your quivering body, as if he hadn’t already been near suffocating himself in your essence for the past hour. He hadn’t even bothered taking his boxers off, focused fully on you.

Shoyo was laid at your feet, arms twined under your thighs and locked tightly together over your lower stomach to keep you in place as he devoured you. Your hips desperately tried to move- to get more friction where you most needed it- but he refused, tightening his hold any time he felt you shift. The only friction you got was the occasional bump of his freckled nose against your clit. He, on the other hand, shamelessly thrust his own clothed hips into a pillow he’d crammed underneath himself.

You were so unbelievably overstimulated from his constant ministrations that there were tears in your eyes. Never in a million years did you expect your night to end up like this.

If you were being honest, you suspected Shoyo was a virgin going into the relationship. You weren’t a diehard fan of his, but you had seen his interviews and saw the posts his obsessed fans regularly made- assuming lots of things about him based on any tidbit of information they could get their grubby little fingers on. Their view of him had inadvertently skewed your own view, so you simply assumed his fans knew more and that he was indeed as innocent as they say. 

So when he brought you back to his place and feverishly kissed you as soon as his condo door had closed, warm palms sliding under the hem of your shirt to press into the skin there, all thoughts of him being a virgin flew out the window. 

The way he confidently shimmied all of your clothes off without breaking the kiss, save for the few milliseconds it took for your shirt to slide off your head. 

The way he smiled so gently at you as he kissed his way down your body, silently watching for any hesitance from you as he slotted himself between your thighs. 

The way he pushed your thighs apart to get a better look at you, gazing hungrily in unabashed awe. 

No. No novice could make you squirm quite like this. You’d have to thank the person who taught him the ways of the bedroom in Brazil.

The light brush of teeth against your clit shot white hot electricity up your spine, and your back arched as much as it could in Shoyo’s hold, a loud whine escaping you. The pads of his fingers pressed firmly into your stomach, nails just barely leaving indents on your skin.

“Please Sho- I can’t-“

Shoyo shushed you, the burst of cold air against your heated core had your fingers tightening in his hair. His continued attack with his mouth had your heels digging into his back for some leverage. Saliva mixed with the liquid drooling from your cunt had his tongue gliding effortlessly around and inside of you with zero friction. You were positive you’d never been this wet for anyone before. Your thighs trembled against his head as he worked, exhausted from the past hour of constant stimulation.

Just as you were starting to build up to another high, he lifted his head from your legs to gaze at you with half-lidded eyes, honey colored irises drinking in the sight. You clenched around nothing, both from the loss of his tongue and from the sight of your slick glistening on Shoyo’s lips. 

Your heart skipped a beat as he gave you a shining smile. How could one man look so cute and alluring at the same time? 

“You look so beautiful. Are you sure you can handle one more? ‘Cuz I can stop if I need to.”

Your hesitance at going one more round vanished instantly at his genuine inquiry. You didn’t doubt that Shoyo would stop if you asked and at this point, you didn’t really want this night to end- even if that meant him bringing you to the edge a hundred times more. Shoyo could sweet talk you into jumping off a cliff, that you were certain. 

“N-No, I can do it. One more, please Shoyo.”

Shoyo grinned up at you with those pearly whites of his. His hair was feathered in every direction from your fingers, cheeks flushed and chest heaving. He had been buried in you for quite a while after all, oxygen probably being sparse while your face is pressed so firmly against another person. Not being able to help yourself, you brushed a finger over his chin, gathering up as much liquid as you could before sucking the finger into your mouth. 

He watched as you twirled your tongue around the digit, lapping up every last drop. You saw his hips grind down into the pillow underneath him with a newfound intensity. Shaking off whatever fog had momentarily clouded his mind, he gave you one last look before diving in again, somehow even more feverish than he had been all night.

It took everything in you to resist crushing him between your thighs on accident, muscles in your entire lower half locking at the pleasure. You focused on putting all of that tension into your heels that dug into his back instead. Shoyo hummed in pleasure at the dull pain from your feet and dug his face deeper into your cunt, tongue gliding through your folds to gather up every drop of your slick that he could.

Eyes squeezed shut, you brought both hands to his head to gather his orange strands into your grip as you felt the faint dull of your climax coming back on, moaning shakily.

“Sho, I’m-“ you whimpered as his mouth was suddenly replaced with his lithe fingers, digits pausing their dive into you only momentarily to gather up some of your essence before pushing deep inside.

Since his fingers were now working into you instead of keeping your hips in place, you were able to rock in time with the thrust of Shoyo’s fingers. You could feel the calloused pads of his middle and pointer finger as they curled up against your inner walls, rubbing the gummy tissue there. His thumb descended to press firmly into your clit, rubbing in small circles. 

With his mouth now free, he used his free hand to hold one of your thighs open so he could press his lips into the flesh there, hot and humid breath fanning your skin. From his new vantage point, Shoyo watched with wonder as you arched your back, head pressed firmly against the headboard as you neared your peak. 

Shoyo could tell you were getting close, your walls clenching as tightly as they could around his fingers and your thigh quaking in his grasp. Grinding his hips into the pillow underneath him, he watched your expression as he slipped his ring finger in to join the other two and sunk his teeth into the meat of your thigh. Your eyes rolled back into your skull at the fullness, blubbering unintelligibly as you finally neared orgasm for the umpteenth time that night.

Shoyo basked in the feeling of your cunt sucking him in as you came, lapping at the indent he made with his teeth as you rode your high. He continued to curl and scissor his fingers until he felt you beginning to relax, legs slowly easing and falling to the sheets below. 

Both breathing heavily, Shoyo worked up the will to pull his fingers away and brought his head to rest on your stomach. It took a while for your vision to clear and stop seeing stars, but once it did you started to gently comb your fingers through his hair to try to make up for the harsh pulling.

“How’d I do?” Shoyo asked, turning his head to prop his chin up on your stomach, looking at you with sparkling eyes.

You huffed a laugh and wiped a droplet of spit from his chin. “How’d you do? Well….. it was alright. 6 out of 10 I guess?”

Shoyo’s smile dropped and he propped himself up on his elbows. “6?! What could I have done better-“

You laughed and shushed him with a finger. “I’m kidding, Sho. It was amazing. You’re amazing. Now c’mere you goof.”

Shoyo happily obliged, crawling up to rest on top of you. Enjoying the heavy weight of him, you hugged him tightly, kissing his forehead in thanks as he peppered kisses all over your neck. While he did, you noticed the pillow down at the end of the bed that had a very visible wet stain on it and frowned, suddenly overridden with guilt. Here you were, basking in post-orgasmic bliss while Shoyo was left rutting into a pillow all night.

Using all of your strength (which was minuscule compared to his), you flipped him onto his back so you knelt over him. He looked up at you with those soft, brown eyes and gave you a goofy grin. In the soft lamp light, you admired the spattering of freckles on his cheeks.

“Did you get to cum at all, Sho?”

Shoyo suddenly looked sheepish, trailing his fingers over your thighs and looking at the light in the ceiling. “Well…. no- but I don’t mind! Tonight was all about you, and- hm!”

He abruptly stopped talking as you splayed your hands over his stomach. Slowly, you ran your hand over the muscles of his abdomen, dipped your fingers into the curve of his hip bones, then slipped the digits into his boxers. He was rock-hard in your hand and you could feel how wet his boxers were from the pre that had probably been drooling out of him all night as he humped the pillow. 

You drug a featherlight finger up the underside of his dick, along a vein that you could feel there. His cock twitched in your hold. “I think it’s my turn to return the favor.”

[utilitycaster]

Bells Hells Level Up: Level 14

FUCK IT WE'RE DOING IT LIVE (I forgot to prep this well in advance like a press release as I am wont to do). Gonna be short, sweet, and as always if there are any factual errors let me know! If I simply did not list every single possible feat, spell, or other choice, that is because I did not wish to spend my wild and precious life doing that.

Chetney: With a 13th level in Blood Hunter he gets Brand of Tethering, which is GREAT for making people (Ludinus) not be able to leave. He can also use Blood Maledict 3 times per rest now. Looking ahead: I'm assuming he's sticking with Blood Hunter (or Blood Nutter as the case may be); at L14 he gets advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened, and a new crimson rite. He has flame and frozen, and L14 unlocks necrotic, psychic, and thunder options. Their enemies are often immune to psychic but honestly he can just use fire so. Live your best life, Chet.

Laudna: I support waiting to see how the ritual goes! If she levels in Warlock she gets an ASI/Feat (War caster wouldn't hurt; bumping up INT or WIS wouldn't either though my vote, as always, is for INT), another known spell, and continues her quest as Cantrips Georg. If she levels in Sorcerer she also gets another cantrip, as well as another known spell, and I think she should get a 3rd metamagic option but she seems to already have three? Anyway my vote is for Careful Spell. I'll hold off on further speculation until said ritual has completed.

Dorian: Two more spells! Magical secrets, ie, whatever the fuck he wants (true to my name my vote is spending at least one on Counterspell, but go nuts on the other) He also no longer has to burn his inspiration dice on flourishes, though he only gets a d6 rather than his full d10. Looking ahead: He gets 8th level spells of which Mind Blank might be wise given this campaign; he also gets a d12 inspiration die.

Braius is already level 14, thank you Braius.

Fearne: Ok I respect the ASI push but Transport via Plants would be real clutch sometime soon. With that said Dorian or Imogen could take Teleport or they can just hang out with Essek for a while longer. Anyway, as an Arcane Trickster she gets an ASI and another L1 spell; she's been keeping it utility-focused which is smart because her INT score is not high. The ASI move, in my opinion, is bump up INT and CON by one, but she could also benefit from War caster. Looking ahead: As said, take L11 Druid, get 6th level spells, profit.

Imogen: Revelation in Flesh is upon us; I assume it will be electricity themed rather than the traditional Aberrant Mind option which appears to be "cursed axolotl"-themed. This means she can use sorcery points to make herself fly OR swim/breathe water OR see invisible creatures OR squeeze out of tight situations. Looking ahead: 8th level spells next level! Incendiary Cloud seems to be on-brand but Power Word Stun OR Sunburst (miss you Ayden) are both pretty fantastic.

Orym: Fighters get a zillion ASIs, as always; Sentinel might be fun but he could also bump his CON to 16 (if he does this...I must admit I'm warming on the idea of Orym Paladin and wouldn't scoff at a CHA 13 bump either), achieve Chetney-like intellect with an INT bump, or take any number of feats. I am pretty boring with feats honestly so I'm excited to see what Liam picks but I have no good ideas. Looking ahead: At L15, he gets two more maneuvers, which I will definitely look up before they hit L15; he also gets a free superiority die if they roll initiative while he is fully tapped. Fighters: they are unstoppable.

Ashton: It's a path feature! I have no idea what the fuck will be up with that but I'm looking forward to finding out, which, coincidentally, will give us the full picture of Path of Fundamental Chaos! Looking ahead: They get persistent rage at L15, which will make them even harder to knock out, a thing that is already very difficult to do.

[butterflydm]

Wheel of Time 3x05 Deep Dive (show spoilers)

Spoilers through 3x05 of the show, plus spoilers for the trailer for 3x06 and some light speculation.

One thing that came to me that this episode is actually about a classic issue from the novels as well -- it's about the dangers of not communicating important information.

Something that I didn't realize during my original watch is that Moiraine seems to really be avoiding Rand this entire episode. She's basically doing anything except talking with Rand, maybe because she needs to settle things in her mind first? It is unfortunate, because if she'd talked to him, and been open and honest with him about things relating to Lanfear, maybe she could have spared Egwene the pain that she walked into at the end.

And that gets echoed in several other threads as well -- Rand and Egwene are both holding important pieces of the puzzle that, if they combined them, would untangle them both from their emotional mess -- Rand would be able to explain why Lanfear might be stalking Egwene and Egwene could show Rand that Lanfear isn't the sweet damsel that she's pretending to be when she's with him. But they aren't talking to each other, because they are an extremely conflict-averse couple and always have been, from the very beginning, when Egwene avoided talking to Rand about her ceremony and Nynaeve's offer to teach her to become a Wisdom and then Rand used sex to try to deflect from Egwene starting that uncomfortable conversation later on. If they think a conversation might cause conflict, they both work to try to avoid it as long as possible.

We know from 3x01 that Rand and Egwene spent a month sleeping in the same bed on the ship to Tar Valon without ever talking about the status of their relationship or any related issues, and they have continued that trend with a vengeance so far, all the way up until everything cracks open (I'm assuming that it'll all crack open in 3x06, anyway).

We learn in 1x07 that the pattern of their fights is -- Rand goes to Egwene afterwards, he apologizes* and they engage in make-up sex. It doesn't sound like they've ever had a habit of actually talking out their differences. But because their previous lives were low-stress and low-tension, they were able to rub along just fine. But the second a major bump appeared in the road (Nynaeve's apprenticeship offer), Egwene avoids the uncomfortable conversation as long as possible and then Rand deflects with sex to try to keep it at bay as well. They have never had good conflict-resolution skills in their relationship; it's all avoidance and sex.

(*if one party is ALWAYS the one who apologizes, then you are not resolving your differences, you're just delaying them by pretending that there's no conflict)

We see a similar issue happening with Moiraine and Siuan, in that both Moiraine and Siuan avoid explaining just how badly things are going, because (after their semi-breakup) they are both needing to present the image of being able to handle their side of the agreement -- Moiraine is in charge of the Dragon; Siuan is in charge of the Tower. When the truth is that both of them have had events spiral wildly out of their control. But they can't admit it to each other.

And on Rand's side of things, in addition to not being able to tell Egwene about Selene/Lanfear; it doesn't look like he's talked to Moiraine about Mierin Sedai and his emotional reactions to Lanfear as a result of 'meeting' Mierin. If he had, then perhaps Moiraine would have revealed to him the 3x01 deal, and let him know that Lanfear actively attacked him and his friends fairly recently.

So, yeah. Lack of communication. I'll see if the other plot threads touch on that as well or if it's mainly an Egwene-Rand-Moiraine-Siuan thing.

The scene with Moiraine struggling to control the sa'angreal is very beautiful. It's clear that it's letting her draw too much of the One Power and is overwhelming her. She does seem to feel a need to master it -- maybe because of something that she experienced in the rings. We only got to see a small fraction of what she witnessed, after all.

I am curious about what narrow path she is going to be trying to take in the near future.

Lan saves her from burning out, pretty sure, and we see the destruction that she has (inadvertently?) caused as a result of her uncontrolled channeling. And we're reminded that channeling more of the One Power than you can handle causes a sort of euphoric hunger to draw more (like how Amalisa felt when she was linked to Nynaeve and Egwene and drew too much, killing herself and the other women). Lan tries to get Moiraine to open up to him about what happened in the rings, but she's not ready.

"I cannot teach someone unwilling to learn."

Aviendha drawing the negative attention of her Wise Ones by first echoing the Shaido's rejection of Rand - he's not one of us; and then trying to escape from any blame when they point out to her that she had the opportunity to teach Rand more about their culture and failed to make an impact, so is it really his fault that he doesn't know enough?

(which reminds me of Rand telling the Maidens, and especially Aviendha, that all they do is glare at him and roll their eyes. Aviendha had a month on a ship with Rand but spent all her time teaching Aiel culture to Elayne instead of to her potential Car'a'carn - she did not lack opportunity to teach Rand, she chose not to do it... because she was running away from her duty)

And from the PoV of the Wise Ones -- Rand has shown himself to be willing to follow their customs and laws as soon as he is made aware of what is expected of him, contrary to what Aviendha claims here. He presents himself the way that Aviendha presented herself, he respected their ways and made it through the columns and has the appropriate marks. He knows more about Aiel history than Aviendha currently does. He is the Car'a'carn and Aviendha is showing foolish stubbornness by trying to pretend that it matters that Rand doesn't 'act Aiel enough' when it is literally part of the prophecy that he will not be raised "by the blood".

And so, in order for her to learn wisdom, they instruct her to teach Rand from the moment he wakes up until he goes to his blankets at night (she is going to do this in the brattiest way possible, which is probably not going to be earning her any 'wisdom' points in the Wise Ones' eyes).

Cold Rocks Hold is pretty. <3

We learn some more about Aiel culture -- Rhuarc must ask permission to come under Lian's roof, even though she's his wife. We get properly introduced to an Aiel polyamorous marriage here, with Lian kissing both Rhuarc and Bair in greeting (and we've seen Rhuarc call Bair "shade of my heart" previously), and Rhuarc introducing them both as his wives.

And we learn that some Aiel familial terms are not the same as wetlander terms, as Rhuarc introduces us to his "greatdaughter" Alsera. Who immediately goes to Rand, and the two of them have such an adorable introduction, where she asks him if he's the Car'a'carn, he confirms it by showing her his tattoos, and he playfully chases her into the Hold (with more children joining after).

And we can see how everyone waits for the ceremony to be complete, even though Alsera is clearly itching to give Rhuarc a hug.

I really love that Rand seems willing to embrace the Aiel as a potential source of family here. And I think that Rand really needed those endearing moments with Rhuarc's greatdaughter to place on the balancing scale against the mess with Lanfear.

Bair continuing her campaign to separate Rand and Egwene by directly telling Egwene, "The time for watching [Rand] is through, Egwene Sedai." Third episode in a row where she's been trying to gently pull them apart, bless her.

So! Bair's motives in trying to separate Rand and Egwene. I talked after the last episode about how I think part of it is that she didn't see Egwene when she and the others dreamed about Rand coming to Rhuidean. I think she also is inclined to try to separate them simply because (she thinks) Egwene is an Aes Sedai. Rand spending time with the children of the Hold, or learning about Aiel culture from Aviendha, is greatly preferable to him staying bound to an Aes Sedai, who may not share the Aiel's priorities.

Hmm, yeah, it sounds like Moiraine overheard Bair telling Egwene "We're going to walk the Dream. Will you join us?" but that happened after Rand had already left with Alsera. So I am not certain if Rand knows about the dreamwalking stuff. I guess we'll find out for sure in 3x06.

Over into Siuan's plotline. I think that she's reading one of Moiraine's old letters (we know that Moiraine was writing regularly, back when she was pretending that the Dragon Reborn was learning how to channel from Logain, and there are probably many older letters as well, from before she found Rand).

Elaida is actually a very clear communicator here. Maybe, uh, too clear. She definitely doesn't suffer from the communication breakdown that Siuan-Moiraine-Rand-Egwene are going through in this episode.

What we get with Elaida and Siuan here is political intrigue, with the fate of the world on the table as stakes. Let us, for the moment, assume that Elaida is absolutely on the level (the end of the episode does imply she's probably not a Darkfriend) - she is doing everything that she does because she genuinely believes that her way of handling the Dragon Reborn, that Tower Law, is the correct way. That Siuan has corrupted the Amyrlin Seat because [insert class-based claims here], etc.

Siuan, on the other hand, has to play her cards very carefully, because if her full hand were revealed -- that she has been conspiring with Moiraine for years, that she became Amyrlin for the express purpose of subverting Tower Law -- the people that she leads would turn on her.

Siuan's purpose... has failed.

Alanna also attests to this later in the episode -- she believes that the Green Ajah has failed as well. The Black Ajah is ready for the Last Battle. The White Tower is not. The Green Ajah is not. They are already running behind. Siuan doesn't know how many Black Ajah might remain in the Tower. She doesn't know who she can trust. She knows that there are so many more members of the Black Ajah than she had guessed -- but how many? Who?

She doesn't know. Her hounds have been loosed. Does she know where they've gone?

Siuan's exact words: where is Elayne? "She's on a journey of my choosing. Well protected. I've already let Queen Morgase know."

...yeah, none of that actually says that Siuan knows where Elayne is -- Mat has gone with them, which Siuan may count as adequate protection, given that she's taken the measure of him, plus Elayne can channel and Nynaeve... well, maybe she can channel too if the right circumstances come up.

It actually seems more likely to me that Min gave Siuan the head's up vs Nynaeve or Elayne doing it (and Min didn't know what their destination was going to be, so she couldn't have informed Siuan about that).

"People don't change. Mother, you may have fooled many but I know what you are. River trash."

To touch on Elaida and classism -- it does imply that it's possible that Nynaeve's old Wisdom wasn't trying to save face but was telling the truth about being turned away from the White Tower for being a poor country kid, because it seems clear that if Elaida had been in charge when Siuan had arrived, she would have turned Siuan away as a novice. She has a deep disrespect for Siuan as a person that all the 'Mother's in the world can't hide.

So Elaida lays bare that it's not communication that's at issue between our heroes and their antagonists -- there's also the issue of the antagonists holding genuinely bigoted views, and that knowing the truth about what our heroes are doing would not help in fixing the problems between them.

We come back to this with the Dain Bornhold storyline. The fact that Perrin is willing to work with "witches" means that he and Dain could never come to terms as long as Dain holds to his current views even if Dain is able to understand why Perrin killed his father, because Dain has been prejudiced against Aes Sedai since he was a child (presumably, he was once one of those young boys in the Whitecloak camps, as his father was a big league Whitecloak). Communication cannot save you against genuine bigotry and/or hatred, and we see that at play in all four major storylines:

Elaida vs 'lower-class' Siuan

Dain vs 'witches' and anyone who supports them

Liandrin, who has taken her (understandable) trauma over what was done to her and extended her feelings towards all men

Couladin & the Shiado, who reject Rand as the Car'a'carn because he wasn't raised Aiel (relatively minor note in this storyline so far, but it has been shown and mentioned)

So diving into Siuan's suspicions about Elaida being a Darkfriend, and the plot that the group schemes to work out the truth. We learn a lot here -- it does seem like Adelas is perhaps slowly recovering herself, with a lot of help from her sister, and that she is very much herself at heart, just trapped and hurt by whatever damage Nyomi did to her mind.

It also illustrates to us something of the condition that the poor child-bride in Tanchico is potentially in -- she was taken out of one horror and placed into a different horror. Is Liandrin taking care of that girl or did she abandon the girl once her conscience was salved by having Nyomi wipe her memories?

Verin has figured out that Liandrin was able to connect four "hearts" of the Black Ajah -- their groups of three sisters who work together. So, twelve sisters total, only eleven of which actually attacked, which means that one of Liandrin's Black Ajah sisters is still unknown to them.

Now, my personal suspicion is that Liandrin was able to do this because she's acting on Lanfear's behalf, and that Lanfear is the one who wants the collar-and-bracelet... you know, just as a little extra insurance in case her do-over LTT doesn't fall into line the way that she wants him to. This has not been confirmed in the show and it's possible that when we see Liandrin and Lanfear meet up next episode we'll learn that Lanfear had nothing to do with Liandrin's plans to cage the Dragon... but my current theory is that Lanfear is the mastermind behind that plan.

"We cannot mistake suspicion for certainty," Verin warns Leane and Siuan, when it seems like they're becoming way too sure that Elaida definitely has to be a Darkfriend. And so they make plans to lay bait in front of Elaida -- let her know about the Black Ajah Sisters being held in the 13th Depository and then see if she goes to either rescue them or silence them on behalf of the Shadow.

Maksim and Alanna are at odds over the course of this episode, culminating in their big blow-out and then him coming back at the end. Their two different ways of grieving Ihvon and dealing with what happened in 3x01 coming to a head.

This is another example of miscommunication and assumptions hurting people who care about each other, I think. They needed to have that blow-out fight towards the end of the episode so that they could understand where the other person was coming from, but they took the hard way of getting there.

Maksim's grief is... personal. He wants revenge for Ihvon's death. He doesn't understand why Alanna isn't drowning in grief the same way that he is.

Alanna's grief, otoh, is also wrapped up in her sense of failure. She was so incredibly smug in 3x01, before the fight went down. She was proud of herself. They were going to reveal and capture a Black Ajah Sister, still her, and then use her to root out all the rest of the Black Ajah, who Alanna was probably assuming were mostly Red Sisters.

And then... four SITTERS of varying Ajahs all broke ranks and joined Liandrin.

A Green Sister that she knew and trusted (by how Maksim reacted to seeing Jeaine) almost killed her Warders.

Ihvon died.

Because she wasn't ready.

Because she isn't enough and Maksim isn't enough and Ihvon wasn't enough.

There's a line that Alanna says in s2 about how people don't know what they'll be willing to do until they're pushed. And the world is pushing Alanna right now. It's pushing her hard.

What Maksim and Alanna go through in this episode gets us to that place where she admits where her head is at (that she came to the Two Rivers to try to create an army to fight the Shadow, because she feels like the White Tower and the Green Ajah have failed - so you might say that Alanna booking it out of town after the 3x01 cold open was her vote of 'no confidence' in Siuan's leadership) and to get Maksim to move out of his personal grief enough to understand the bigger picture at stake and re-dedicate himself to Alanna and her cause.

Alanna is another of those characters like Liandrin or Lanfear, where it feels like the show has really given her depth that she didn't get in the books.

Alanna and Maksim trying an approximation of their old banter but not being able to actually get any true joy out of it really breaks my heart.

Faile arrives with news that Whitecloak reinforcements are closing in -- Perrin needs to move now if he wants to save the Cauthons before they arrive.

Back when Perrin first talked about rescuing the Cauthons (in 3x03), he mentioned that he wanted to do it with no one getting hurt. And then we got the flashbacks in Rhuidean, where we saw Lewin and his friends express that same hope just before they went off and changed the course of the Aiel's culture forever.

And much like with Lewin and his friends, Perrin & co saved the girls, but they did engage in violence and also had a casualty on their own side (Charlin in the flashback, and Natti Cauthon here) and, additionally, the promise of more violence to come in the future, because violence is a cycle. Engaging in the cycle of violence creates more violence and yet... refusing to engage in the cycle means allowing innocent victims to be hurt.

That's the trap that the Aiel were caught in during their cultural slide from "true" Aiel to the present-day Aiel. And it's the trap that Perrin is caught in now. Lewin decided that he was willing to pay the price of violence in order to protect himself and the people that he cares about; this was not something that his family could accept. And now, the present-day Aiel consider refusing to defend yourself to be one of the highest forms of dishonor ("the only thing less honorable than defending yourself is killing those who refuse to defend themselves").

Aviendha and Rand's (somewhat unwilling) cultural exchange here is a lot of fun to watch. <3

We get more information on the Aiel here (and on Aviendha's viewpoint on the night she shared with Elayne, just as we will get Elayne's viewpoint on it later in the episode) -- Aviendha feels like having only two people in a relationship is "a lot to ask of one person" and says that she pities Egwene for being Rand's solo lover (probably assuming that Rand is high-maintenance because Aviendha is really good at making assumptions up about Rand). We also learn that Aiel eat with their right hands and sit on cushions during meals.

It is a change from the books for Rhuarc, Lian, and Bair to be so openly affectionate with each other in public, but this is a change that has really already been shown to us in having Aviendha be more open to flirting and then sleeping with someone within the span of a month, and how Chiad and Bain are constantly trolling for new participants in Maidens' Kiss. In general, all of the reserved characters in the books are a bit more open in the show, probably because it's just easier to have characters play off each other when they're being allowed to show affection to each other and because the shows don't have the benefit of internal narration.

This scene does show us that, from Aviendha's perspective, she feels like being someone's only lover is a lot of work, and she would want to share that with at least one other person (we've only see throuples so far in the show, but I will leave the door open here for more complex polycule shapes). So it's possible that if she and Elayne do meet again in the future, they will need to talk about their differing expectations for potentially continuing their relationship (though it's also possible that Elayne has already been told this, during their cultural exchange moments on the ship).

Something I find interesting to think about is how long the Aiel have had this belief and this tradition in polyamorous marriage, because it seems firmly ingrained in their culture. Is it a result of the sharp population bottlenecks that the Aiel went through over the course of their history, or is this something that was passed down (likely in transformed form) from the very first Aiel that we saw in the show (Charn's generation)?

I do also want to note that though Aviendha and Rand are low-key antagonistic here, Rand does take Aviendha's note about which hand to eat with, and implements it (which probably annoys Aviendha more, because it shows her that her snide comment to the Wise Ones earlier was a big assumption on her part that doesn't actually have a basis in Rand's character).

We get another thoroughly adorable interaction between Alsera and Rand (her delivery of "I grew the squash, Rand al'Thor" is so so cute/ She is so proud of herself! And Rand is so sweet and sincere in his reaction to her). <3 And Aviendha's face of 'ugh why does he have to be good with kids? I much prefer it when I can just dislike him based on my prejudged notions of him' is hilarious. Aviendha is the much softer version of the other antagonistic relationships we see this episode, the comedy version instead of the more serious and dramatic versions that we get in Siuan vs Elaida or Perrin vs Dain.

So, we have three 'pairings' who are kind of eating together at this meal -- Rhuarc and Lian; Rand and Aviendha; and Lan and Melindhra. Alsera is there to be cute; while Moiraine is melancholy. She still hasn't talked to anyone about her experience in the rings.

Lan and Melindhra is interesting because it's a reflection & inverse of Rand and Aviendha. In both cases, we have someone who is of a people but not of their culture; and we have them introduced to someone who knows that culture and can teach it to them. Aviendha is an unwilling teacher to Rand, assigned to teach him in the hopes that doing so will teach her how to be wise. Melindhra is an eager teacher to Lan, in both Aiel and Malkieri culture.

Is Melindhra flirting with Lan? It is so hard to tell. Lan isn't open to it even if she is -- he didn't have any real interest in following Melindhra out of the tent in 3x03 until he saw the tattoo on her back -- but Melindhra might be. It's clear that she knew who Lan was on sight, and she's explicitly told him that she would throw away everything that she's built among the Aiel if he decided to take up his crown and call for him people to follow him to the Blight to reclaim Malkier.

How much older than Lan is Melindhra? Again, hard to say. We know that she was a 'child' when Malkier fell, while Lan was 'a baby' who remembers nothing of his people. There's a lot about Melindhra that is still a mystery. Her memories of Malkier later are fairly vague, which fits with a child (maybe she was around Alsera's age when Malkier fell).

Moiraine gets up to leave -- Lan almost joins her but she tells him to stay; and Rand notes her departure but doesn't attempt to join her. Though Moiraine and Rand both went through transformative journeys in the last episode, they have not talked about it with each other. If they had... well, Rand's conversation with Lanfear later on in the episode might have gone very differently.

We get Egwene's first lesson with the Wise Ones. And I am definitely personally still trying to figure out the rules of show!TAR, so I will do my best to also attend to the lesson.

Bair tells Egwene that she must "listen, remember, and do as you are told. Above all, you must not enter Tel'aran'rhiod again. Until Melaine or I says you may." Egwene agrees to their terms.

Now the question I have is -- does Egwene believe that she is still abiding by their terms when she helps Moiraine later on in the episode? She does kinda loophole her way around things by only directly entering other people's dreams rather than being in TAR itself, but is that following the spirit of the Wise Ones' instructions and the promise that they asked of her? A promise that she freely agreed to.

What we learn about how TAR works:

anyone can 'touch' TAR but very few can 'truly enter it' - what we are shown in a little bit is that those who 'touch' TAR appear as somewhat ghostly apparitions to Egwene's eyes.

It is not related to the One Power -- Melaine cannot channel but is still an able Dreamwalker (and she and Bair are the only Dreamwalkers among the Taardad).

Entering the dream world is risky. Death in TAR also means death in the real world.

Your thoughts can affect your appearance in TAR, so you must control your thoughts in order to control yourself and your surroundings.

You can set up an outside sound to 'trigger' yourself back to wakefulness. It appears that this works whether or not you're a dreamwalker. as Egwene will also tell this to Moiraine at the end of the episode.

Falling asleep in WoT!verse is so much easier than it sometimes is IRL, lol

Not all dreams take place in TAR, but the Forsaken can stalk people inside their own dreams (this explains why Rand stabbing himself in his own dream back in 1x08 didn't kill or hurt him in the real world, but it would have, if it had happened in TAR). We actually don't know if Rand has ever been in TAR or if it's only ever been the Forsaken going into Rand's own dreamscape.

"You have power over your own dreams. If you want her out, just believe she's out" - is this only true for Dreamwalkers or would this protection work for other people as well? If someone tells Rand that he has the power to keep Lanfear out of his dreams, would he be able to enforce that, or does he need to be a dreamwalker to be able to keep her out? Because that could make a huge difference in how the rest of the season plays out.

The second that Egwene is told that she can just think herself somewhere else, she immediately does it, and she wanders around the TAR version of Tar Valon for a while, before she's found by Lanfear, who sets to torturing Egwene (as herself this time -- the first time that Egwene has seen Lanfear's face, and she doesn't know who this woman is, but is able to piece together that this is also her tormentor from her own dreams). The brass pin drops and Egwene wakes, and Bair and Melaine tell her that she's being stalked by one of the "Shadowsouled" aka one of the Forsaken.

Does Egwene tell Rand about this, given that he's the Forsaken's main target?

No, of course not. Rand and Egwene don't talk about important things basically ever, why would you even think to ask? Egwene views herself as Rand's Protector, so likely views this as something that she needs to solve on her own, without involving him and putting him into additional danger.

From Lanfear's perspective, I think Egwene just made the game interesting by showing that she can enter TAR. Before now, Egwene was the annoying "doe-eyed cow" that Rand insisted on playing boyfriend-girlfriend with, but Lanfear didn't really think of her as a threat (imo). But now she's shown some actual ability and power, which makes Lanfear take her seriously enough to set up her little power-play later in the episode.

We dive more into Elaida's politicking -- Siuan warned her that if she's going to call a vote in the Hall, she better have the votes in hand, and now Elaida is at work doing just that. She's talking with one of the White Ajah Sitters, Alviarin, and getting her temperature on potentially voting against Siuan as the logical choice when it comes to the issue of the Dragon.

Then she spots Adelas, on her own outside her rooms with 'just' an Accepted (and we get the additional information here that Elaida is very much an asshole to everyone that she sees as 'beneath' her, including the novices and Accepted).

I like that Adelas is able to help with the plan (is the key to the plan, even!), even with the injuries to her mind, and Verin's certainty that her sister will be able to help. That relationship has been really emotional for me this season, even though we've only had it in tiny doses.

So, Elaida (if we are assuming that she's not a Darkfriend) must genuinely believe that Verin "needs" her in order for her to say it here -- but Elaida is clearly very good at rationalizing her desires to herself (most Aes Sedai are), so she may just mean it in the sense that she believes all the Aes Sedai here need Elaida to 'save' them from Siuan 'destroying the Tower from within'. Difficult to say.

Mat getting exhausted by dealing with Nynaeve's constant barfing and Elayne's constant cramming for what they might need to know about Tanchico is very understandable when we learn that he's been dealing with this for fourteen days. I love so much that we got an episode with them on the Sea Folk ship! This entire section was lovely and had both touching and melancholy moments while still maintaining an overall upbeat atmosphere.

Things we learn about Tanchico:

It is spread over three hills in Tanchico Bay.

The rich people live at the tops of the hills.

Thievery is fairly common and even the wealthy are not particularly stable in that wealth.

Mat and Elayne snipe at each other, while poor Nynaeve wishes for death. Any differences that Mat and Elayne might have had have definitely been exacerbated by being forced to travel in extremely close quarters for the past two weeks. With the smell of vomit in the background, too, because of Nynaeve. Mat snipes at Elayne for being a spoiled princess and she snipes at him for drinking too much and being stuck in his own head (re: the Old Tongue).

So they are definitely starting out in a rough patch! I am really interested to see how/if this dynamic evolves in the next couple of episodes, or if Mat's screen time will focus more on his established friendships with Nynaeve and Min.

Instead of focusing on understanding Tanchico itself as the way to locate Liandrin, Nynaeve feels like they need to focus on centering what they know about Liandrin and using that instead, but Elayne wonders how much of what they knew about Liandrin was a lie.

Mat is so tired of being stuck below decks, so when Elayne accidentally gives him an excuse (she notes that they appear to be traveling at an 'impossibly' quick rate), he takes it, bolting for the upper decks, thus triggering both him spotting Min and Elayne and Nynaeve beginning their journey of learning about Windfinders being able to channel.

The Sailmistress (Coine din Jubai Wild Winds, per the credits) is angry at them at first but then sees how poorly Nynaeve is handling the travel and gives her some advice on feeling less sea-sick, which does seem to help her, and Coine takes pity on them and gives them permission to stay on the deck.

Min was trying to stay incognito during this trip (so must have been very relieved when she learned that Mat's group was restricted to their room) but now Mat has caught up with her and is relieved to be around neither vomiting nor lectures.

Back in the Two Rivers plotline, we set up that the reinforcements are arriving 'tomorrow', so Perrin really does just have tonight to save the girls. We briefly meet Child Byar -- I'm going to try to see if it looks like he died at the end of the episode or survived.

And then we see Dain trying to do the same thing he did with Aviendha in s2 -- sure, he's locking her up and he's willing to kill her if she tries to escape, but he gives her water while she's a prisoner! This lets him feel like he's a better man than Valda, even though he's helping enable the system that upholds men like Valda. And this is a very true thing that we see in our own world -- Dain thinks of himself as righteous because he isn't 'as extreme' as Valda but... of course we learn in this very scene that the line is much thinner than Dain pretends that it is. When he catches Natti trying to escape, he uses physical violence against her (she is in a cage, you asshole).

When one of the girls channels to protect her mom and then Natti confesses to it (lying to protect one or both of her daughters), he hands Natti over to Valda for him to torture and to murder because as soon as she's a 'witch', she is no longer a person to Dain.

I really like how complex they made Natti in the show. She was lost her own rage and grief when we first met her, and was an awful mother. Then the horrible events of Bel Tine shook her up (and the surrogate parent that the girls had in Mat left, so Natti & Abell didn't have anyone else who could take care of the girls for them) and she took responsibility.

And now, she acts to protect her daughters even at the cost of her own life (which was the same sort of behavior that we saw from Mat in 1x01), yet the damage that she caused her kids (especially Mat, who was hardcore parentified) hasn't been overlooked by the show either -- even in Mat's dreams, he can't quite fully take on the praise that he longs to get from his mom, and deflects away to the safer topic of one of his friends.

Perrin tries to keep Faile out of the rescue, but she's not having it (and good thing; she definitely saves Perrin's life down there) and insists on going with him, and Bain & Chiad back her up. Loial will be waiting with their escape, and Alanna insists that she provide some covering fog for them so that they can sneak in effectively, which deeply upsets Maksim, who thought she would be staying back with Loial where it's safer.

As soon as they're away from the others, Maksim sounds like he's on the verge of crying during their entire conversation/argument, while Alanna tries to stay stoic until she finally unleashes her anger (at herself and all of them for not being ready).

Alanna isn't willing to put her trust into Siuan (politics) or Moiraine (prophecies). Facing off against the Black Ajah convinced her that what they need is firepower. And she has had some recent evidence that there is an untapped powderkeg in the Two Rivers, and she means to find a way to use it against the Dark One.

We don't see the scene where she asks, but Bair is clearly continuing her "please break up" campaign for Randgwene, as she has requested that Egwene come sleep with the Wise Ones to continue her training.

The scene between Rand and Egwene is... awkward. Egwene doesn't mention being stalked by one of the Forsaken in her dreams; Rand maintains his silence about being stalked by one of the Forsaken in his dreams. They are continuing Not To Talk about anything important, just as Rand confessed to Mat & Perrin was the case back in 3x01.

I do feel like the show put Rand into such a Catch-22 with Egwene, where he is damned no matter what. It's clear that both of them are in the relationship for the wrong reasons and that the life and passion is gone, yet they muddle along -- Egwene because she feels an obligation to protect Rand (because she feels like she failed him at the end of s1) and because of her PTSD (we've seen that she clings to her relationship with Rand when she feels unsafe); and Rand because of his overwhelming guilt over falling in love with someone else while Egwene was suffering - he thought that faking his death would mean that she could move on and be happy, and discovered that he was wrong in a very awful way.

There's no situation where Rand feels like he can break up with Egwene, no matter how dead the spark is between them. It has to come from her. And yet she also probably felt like she can't break up with Rand either, because she has to be there to protect him and watch him and if she breaks up with him, then he might back away from her (because the last time she broke up with him, he wanted distance afterwards).

But in 3x01, it was Rand who suggested that Egwene was going to stay behind in the White Tower with Nynaeve and Mat -- I suspect he was trying for a soft breakup, and Egwene pretty firmly rejected the idea of her not staying by his side. And again in this episode, when Egwene floats the idea of her staying with him instead of going with the Wise Ones, he's quick to tell her that she should absolutely go sleep with the Wise Ones instead of him and I'm not even sure he knows exactly what the Wise Ones are teaching her.

Rand has picked up what Bair put down about him and Egwene needing to be on different paths, but he still can't take that final step of opening up the floor to an official breakup -- likely because of how guilty he feels over faking his death and then essentially abandoning Egwene to be kidnapped and sold to the Seanchan on Ishamael's orders (from Rand's PoV).

And I was talking about this with @markantonys but one of the things we noted is that it really feels like the Randgwene relationship is there pretty much entirely 'for' Egwene at this point, while Rand's s3 storyline feels like it would have been basically identical so far if Randgwene got lifted out entirely -- his conflict over having feelings for one of the Forsaken would still be there; his conflict over his identity as being Aiel by blood but Two Rivers by the raising would still be there; his conflict over his destiny as the Dragon Reborn would still be there.

It's Egwene who is being driven by the Randgwene romance - Rand is the reason she goes through the Arches, Rand is the reason she goes to the Aiel Waste, (losing) Rand was even the reason she was pushing herself so hard at the White Tower back in s2. And I just really want Egwene's story to be driven by her own wants and needs, and for her to define herself by who she is, as opposed to being Rand's Protector. Because we know that when Egwene didn't feel the need to protect Rand, when Egwene was pre-trauma... she was okay with the idea of being done with her relationship with Rand and moving on to being Nynaeve's apprentice instead.

Which is exactly the kind of thing that Bair has been trying to push ever since she and Egwene had their first solo conversations -- that Egwene needed to take her own journey, that she needs to understand herself, that her path is not aligned with Rand's, that the time for watching Rand is over -- but Egwene keeps going back to the same patterns over and over again.

Hopefully, their upcoming conversation in 3x06 is worth all the build-up and really shakes up this dynamic because the Randgwene relationship has been the weakest and yet the most persistent part of S3 for me so far, the only part that has felt like it detracts more than it adds to the characters, and I would like not to feel that way about a relationship that has been so highlighted.

But the whole way this conversation is framed -- Rand enters the tent and audibly sighs, before he notices that Egwene is packing up her things. He mentions that they "haven't had a moment alone since Rhuidean" (since they've been traveling the last two weeks, presumably, and this night in Cold Rocks Hold would have been their first time actually being 'together alone' in the same room since the night in the Tar Valon inn where his mirror images tried to murder her) and yet when Egwene offers to stay, he tells her that she should go be with the Wise Ones.

It's funny how both the Randgwene kiss and the Randfear kiss are very hesitant on Rand's part, but for almost completely opposite reasons. Here, Randgwene are continuing to avoid actually communicating with each other, while the Randfear kiss is Rand finally believing that Lanfear is still the person that he fell in love with in s2 -- that her heart is Selene | Mierin, and that she wants to stop being Lanfear by breaking her Dark Oaths and helping kill the Dark One.

And as soon as Egwene leaves, we see the weight of what he's going through (all the things that he isn't telling Egwene about) immediately weighing Rand down.

Moiraine sits and ponders her orb some more, when Lan comes to talk with her, and it's a good talk. But it really does feel like her experience in the rings has shaken Moiraine in a way that she doesn't know how to process -- she's learned that she won't be at the Last Battle and she's trying to figure out how to live with knowing that she isn't going to get to see the great work of her life actually come to fruition. She's going to need to trust Rand to follow through on it without her. Lan gives her companionship and comfort and some time just sitting with her and being her best friend.

Just as Moiraine is thinking about coming to terms with the possibility of her death being fated, we get a scene where Mat comes face to face with that potential knowledge as well -- he wakes to find Min feverishly drawing her viewing of him hanging, because she is trying to work out how to stop it. Which... that is exactly the warning that Bair gave back in 3x04 - about the trap that knowing too much about the future can make people fall into. So I wonder if Min's attempts to stop her viewing might end up leading to it happening?

We will see!

"It's lucky for us that your visions don't really come true, do they?"

I was so puzzled after the first three episodes, when Mat didn't bring up Min's viewing about Rand at all, when that was the centerpiece of his emotional arc in s2, so I was really glad to get this conversation and to hear where Mat's head is at -- he does remember the viewing, but he also remembers how, yes, he was terrified that he'd killed Rand but then Rand didn't die. So that means that Min's visions are flawed, which meant that he could focus more on the whole 'sold me out to the Forsaken' thing.

But we also see when he turns away that he is worried about her viewing -- probably because it echoes some of what he saw in Ishamael's "you're a horrible person" tea that he drank back in s2. We says here that he wouldn't kill himself but then we see him react to seeing that people get hanged for crimes in Tanchico, so that will probably up his worry factor in the upcoming episodes.

Both Rand and Mat having those moments of 'breaking' a bit when no one is looking at them -- they need their friendship so much! I really do miss getting to have Rand and Mat interact. I know that after two seasons of them getting to have some great duo scenes together, that it makes sense to spread their interactions around to other cast members too, but I just really miss them together!

Because they got permission to sleep on deck, they (and we) get to witness the gorgeous channeling by the ship's resident Windfinder (Jorin, per the credits). We learn that the Sea Folk deliberately have led the White Tower to believe that they are inherently weak in the One Power, too weak to become full sisters, as a way of protecting themselves from getting drafted into joining. Elayne can't quite understand why they don't want the training of the Tower but she is also very obviously enchanted by watching Jorin at work.

One of the great things about TSR (and this season) is that the world opens up to show us all of these ways of interacting with the One Power that isn't about going to the magic school and doing magic school things. You don't have to separate from your community in order to learn magic -- you can do it while still embedded in your community. Something that both Nynaeve and Elayne might find reassuring to think about.

Nynaeve also gets another lesson in potentially learning to access her Power -- Coine tells her to think of it as being like the sea. You can't control the sea, only the ways that you move with the sea.

Mat comes back to the room that he was previously sharing with Nynaeve and Elayne, with Min in tow. Elayne vaguely recalls her as a servant from the White Tower, and Mat quickly reveals that she was acting as the Amylin's spy. Then Nynaeve mentions that Min is the person that confirmed to Rand that he was the Dragon (which means that Rand told them about that), and Mat also reveals that Min had a viewing that Mat would kill Rand, which didn't come true.

"So I guess, in a way, that you're not good at any of your jobs." That cracked me up the first time I heard it and still cracks me up now.

But it means that everyone is basically on the same page, except that Nynaeve & Elayne don't know about Min's most recent viewing, and are probably assuming that she's there on Siuan's behalf, and they basically only allow her into the group on Mat's word that she can be trusted.

The Liandrin Grudge Squad has been released into Tanchico!

The next plotline to resolve is Siuan's set-up of Elaida, to try to figure out whether or not she's Black Ajah. From what we see in this episode, Elaida does not appear to be Black Ajah. But she does seem to be pretty hardcore -- she kills Amico as soon as she's sure that Amico isn't going to speak, and she makes it clear that she doesn't negotiate. A Gray Man shows up and kills Joiya before she can reveal the last member of Liandrin's hearts, and attacks Elaida. Siuan heals Elaida while Leane kills the Gray Man.

Elaida's main take-away from this encounter is "You led me here" aka that Siuan set her up.

Siuan's main take-away is "Maybe I misjuged [Elaida]" by assuming that she was Black Ajah simply because she's an asshole.

Our next plotline resolution is the Two Rivers plotline, with Perrin & co sneaking into the camp. They successfully make it to the girls and free them, but Natti isn't there, so Perrin assigns Bain & Chiad to get the girls out of the camp while he and Faile search for Natti.

We see that the Whitecloaks have been killing wolves and it is soon reveled to both us and Perrin that the Whitecloaks (Valda) killed Natti as well.

Fighty-fight stuff happens, with Faile putting up a very good showing against multiple Whitecloaks while Perrin struggles against Dain (who still feels very self-righteous even after handing over a woman to be burnt alive) until Faile comes to get Dain off him.

Alanna gets pincushioned by Whitecloaks before Maksim returns to re-affirm his commitment to her as a Warder. Together they kill about a dozen Whitecloaks, I think, but Alanna, Maksim, and Perrin all get injured.

One thing that this episode does exquisitely well is lay bare exactly how deliberately manipulative Lanfear is being, and how much she is feeding into what she can tell Rand wants her to be in order to win him over to her (again, I go back to my feeling that this is exactly what she did to 'win' Lews Therin in the first place). Now, I did not trust Lanfear's softness in 3x02 or 3x03 in her dreams with Rand, and I was 100% sure she was lying about Rand being the one to put them into the Cairhienin inn in 3x03, and I feel like this next encounter proves that, as when she enters a dream of his imagining (and it's not her grabbing him the second he falls asleep), he is alone on a mountain overlooking his home (the one that he's been told over and over isn't allowed to be his home anymore).

And we see how soft and vulnerable she is with Rand... and then how much she's twisting the knife and enjoying screwing with Egwene's head when we see Egwene's side of things. That is exactly what Selene was talking about when she said that she reflected the things back to her past lover that he wanted from her, and hid the rest of herself in darkness. She is doing the exact same thing with Rand.

Like Moghedien and Sammael said in 3x03, Lanfear is using her old playbook all over again, hoping it will work with a younger and more naive 'version' of LTT. She shows him the parts of herself that he will desire, and hides her cruelty away from him, where he can't see it.

"I see you come here a lot," Lanfear tells Rand here, which reveals to him (and the audience) that she's spying on his dreams even when she doesn't show herself to him.

Rand did fall for Selene -- for the woman that he thought Selene was. That's been the driving force of his guilt with Egwene, I believe. If his feelings for Selene hadn't been real, I think it would have been much easier for him to talk about it with Egwene.

But then he found out that Selene was a lie. That she was really Lanfear. And he has been struggling with that knowledge ever since. Lanfear made a mis-step in the episodes immediately afterwards, when she went hardcore dommy-mommy, which only made Rand feel that Selene had been a total lie. But Lanfear realized that she was hitting the wrong note with Rand, and she recalibrated. She's been playing sweet vulnerable Selene in his head for the last month, working on getting him to remember that version of her.

Even that wasn't enough -- we know this because he was resisting her urging him on towards Tear; that he was even telling Moiraine about Lanfear's visits to him in his dreams.

And then he saw Mierin. That's something that he could point to that couldn't be a manipulation from Lanfear. Mierin was something true. And it's something that he wants to be true, because her manipulations of him in s2 really did work to make him care deeply about her, and he wants that woman to be real.

He wishes that woman were real.

But she's not.

After her moment with Rand, Moiraine goes to Egwene, to see if Egwene can help her give a message to Siuan in her dreams, and after checking that it's important, Egwene agrees to help, and she takes Moiraine to see Siuan, who is waiting in a sun-drenched version of their fisherwoman's hut in Tear.

I am not entirely certain how much the show wants us to think of these shared dreams as actual dreams vs real-world conversations. I won't worry about that right now. We'll see what the next episode brings us.

First we have the Moiraine & Siuan conversation, where they talk about some things and avoid others.

"You cannot afford to fail again" is a line that the trailers heavily implied would be Moiraine speaking to Rand, but is actually her talking to Siuan.

What Moiraine tells Siuan -- you must get the Tower ready to follow the Dragon. The fate of the world depends on it. What you did to me hurt me deeply, even if I agree that I might have done something worse in the same circumstances. I don't think we'll have time in this life to fix things between us, but maybe in the next. I love you.

What she doesn't tell Siuan -- I will not make it to the Last Battle. I don't know when I'll die, but I fear it might be soon. I failed too. I found the Dragon, but I cannot control him or his actions.

What Siuan tells Moiraine -- I deeply regret some of what I've done, even if I didn't see any other choice at the time. Part of me wishes that we could have remained ignorant and happy, even if it had doomed the world.

What Siuan doesn't tell Moiraine -- how fragile things are at the Tower. That if she tries to push this agenda of theirs, everything might come crashing down around her head.

It is a lovely and emotional scene.

Then we have Egwene stepping through her friends' dreams and let's all be glad that Nynaeve wasn't dreaming of having sex with Lan and was instead having an innocent dream of her fake daughter, because that could have gotten really awkward really quickly.

It doesn't seem like Egwene's friends are aware that she's in their dreams, so presumably Rand isn't aware of her screaming in the last dream either (he doesn't react), and Lanfear is only aware because she's also trespassing in Rand's dream.

So Egwene gets some insight into what all of her friends and thinking and feeling -- Nynaeve is feeling wistful of that life that she and Lan never really had; Elayne is dreaming of freedom and embracing this beautiful new way of channeling that she just learned about and Aviendha being there with her; Mat dreams about a better life for his sisters, and for his mother to be proud of him; Perrin dreams about being a blacksmith, about Hopper, and about Faile being part of his simple life in the Two Rivers.

At first, Egwene thinks that Rand is dreaming about home, then she sees that he's dreaming about the woman that Egwene just realized earlier that day has been torturing her for the last month. Who is also one of the Forsaken. And who looks Egwene directly in the eyes and clearly knows that she's present.

And we have to wait until the next episode to get the fallout from Egwene's discovery.

[raayllum]

Aaravos' Master Plan, S7 Edition

Because I think like 90% of S7 went according to Aaravos' plan step by step, so let's talk about it.

But to talk about that, we have to talk about 6x08 briefly, first.

Attacking Katolis and Killing Viren

Initially, I had thought that destroying Katolis allowed Aaravos a few easy wins:

Viren dies, meaning he can't influence Claudia away from Aaravos

Aaravos needs Claudia in Katolis, because there's the staff with the quasar diamond and the prison just sitting there

He gets revenge on Katolis (thanks to the Orphan Queen)

He gets revenge on Sol Regem

That on its own is already impressive in a "two birds with one stone" approach. However, there is even more shit that the attack on Katolis allowed him to create / set into motion, such as:

If Viren is dead, then Claudia has an incentive to help Aaravos invert the Moon Nexus she would not have otherwise

Lets him leave the island there On Purpose, as he wants to converse with Ezran and trick him into getting the Nova Blade

Lets him attempt to manipulate / trick Callum into accepting the apple (being re-corrupted with dark magic)

Ensures that the Staff of Ziard remains in his possession, which is important for later

As we can see, then, Aaravos is routinely 5 steps ahead of everyone, including back in previous seasons (i.e. having Viren collect the Sun staff so he could corrupt the Sun Nexus, knowing he'd need it later to corrupt the sun). This is because Aaravos is most likely timeblind.

With that in mind, I want to talk about other aspects / choices Aaravos (or Claudia) made throughout the season through a "this was on purpose/planned" lens and speculate as to why. Let's go

Getting rid of Terry

Terry is pretty openly against Aaravos in late S6 / early S7, but he stays because Claudia stays, and he doesn't want to leave without her. That said, Terry tries multiple times to dissuade Claudia and Aaravos from engaging further with each other ("He isn't doing anything for love. He's doing it for revenge" / attempting to leave / "Why are you getting her hopes up?") even if it's unsuccessful.

Aaravos is very flippant and calm to any of Terry's concerns, if he answers them at all. He also seems to know, however, that they'll need Terry, considering Aaravos is the one who explains to Claudia why the map doesn't work anymore, and what a True Heart really is, which was previously unknown to Claudia. So Aaravos knows that Terry is needed for this first step.

AARAVOS: [Making a Moon primal stone] requires an exceedingly rare ingredient that be only be found at a place where unicorns once roamed, the Garden of Innocents. [...] Rare though it may be, young Terrestrius has what we need.

Once they get to the map and especially once they reach the Garden, however, Aaravos immediately starts setting up the dominoes to knock down. He convinces Claudia to lie to Terry, which probably would've been enough in some ways ("I knew he'd leave once he found out," she admits) but goes a step further. There's no real reason that Aaravos couldn't have gotten himself or Claudia to collect the feathers. He wanted an excuse for Terry to be complicit and have a reason to show him where the birds where so Aaravos could have his revelations (you were tricked about the birds and the feathers; Claudia and I lied to you about the garden; Claudia lied about the map and used you) as well as having Terry witness the killing and be unable to stop it.

This all leads to the loss of Terry's True Heart as well as his decision to leave. The initial takeaway I know I had was that Aaravos wants Terry to leave so that Claudia is more isolated and more reliant upon him. If Terry remains, he could possibly sway Claudia against certain actions, or at least make things more complicated. I don't think Aaravos is really worried about him ("I'll tell Claudia!" "It will change nothing. She loves me"), but the Startouch elf is nothing but elegant and efficient, and removing Terry from the equation is both of those things.

But does he really remove Terry from the equation?

Terry leaves Claudia and runs straight to King Ezran and co., revealing a multitude of important information that you'd think Aaravos would want under wraps... but clearly doesn't, so let's dig in.

Wanting everyone to know

In the beginning of 7x01, Aaravos seems to revel in having awareness and subsequent power that his enemies don't.

They don't know. The elves and dragons, all the arrogant fools blinded by the searing light of their own self-righteousness. They stand all, and they will fall hard.

This likewise makes sense. The less people know about him, the fewer people will be trying to stop him or get in his way. Aaravos even travels in disguise in his human form (rather than any other elf's) to avoid attracting attention and remains in said form until post-Moon Nexus inversion.

The only time he really uses this disguise, however, is to try and trick Callum into accepting the apple in 7x01 (more on Callum later). In sending Terry to Ezran, he makes this disguise then moot post-7x04, and doesn't seem surprised exactly at the Archdragons' arrival in 7x08 or 7x09. He asks the Stars if they're watching, likely hoping they are or will.

Aaravos is very careful about when or how he relays information, and what pieces of information, at any given time. While I think he wanted to be able to travel and make his Moon primal stone in peace, past that point I don't think he really cared about keeping his release a secret. This is for 2 reasons:

Once people know he's out, they have to respond to it, and it makes them desperate

Desperate people are easier to manipulate

By sending Terry to Ezran, he made the young king desperate. Terry can inform Ezran about 1) Aaravos being huge so they can prepare, 2) Aaravos' placement at the island in Katolis, and 3) Ezran waiting there for Aaravos at the Valley of the Graves.

Again, you'd think this is the opposite of what Aaravos would want. He just had one vessel destroyed by being shot in the throat, and now his other much larger more important one is immediately attacked. But Aaravos is playing the long game with Ezran in particular, so let's dive in.

Ezran

Recently, I'd speculated on what treachery Aaravos had committed that would make the Archdragons want to imprison him. While they'd clearly discovered that Aaravos had created dark magic (4x03 confirms they'd found out the Staff of Ziard was actually his), it didn't feel like enough. What seems to make the most sense, therefore, is that after the Mage Wars (under Aaravos' influence) drained magic from the West, he was preparing to encourage humanity to stage an attack on Xadia for its magic, the eastern half already weakened by the Archdragon infighting and succession crises / Aditi's disappearance (which while the archdragons don't know he's responsible for, we do). Put a pin in this, because "Humans wage war on a weakened Xadia" is something we've already seen play out (S3) and something we're going to return to, speculation wise.

For now, as we've touched on:

Aaravos wanted Terry to tell Ezran about the island. He wanted Ezran to be there, and Aaravos let himself be chained down (as demonstrated when he easily stands back up). Aaravos wanted to have the day to speak with Ezran and keep him there in the Valley of the Graves, because Aaravos knew that the Nova Blade was there, and Aaravos wanted Ezran to have the Nova Blade. Aanya even spells this out for us:

EZRAN: Destiny works in mysterious ways. The Nova Blade came to my ancestor, only to be lost for generations until we needed it. AANYA: Ezran, I have never been one to hesitate. I've fired arrows from my bow that have reached their target before I even had time to complete the thought. But something about this doesn't feel right. EZRAN: I have to do this. I have to kill Aaravos. AANYA: What if he wanted you to find the Nova Blade? He hid it in a riddle so you would think it was your idea, but he led you there. Ezran, what if this is a trap? EZRAN: It might be, but I'm going to face him.

So Aaravos layers two manipulations of Ezran in 7x07. The first is to join him against the elves and dragons, which Ezran steadfastly rejects without much trouble, even when Aaravos frames it as joining him and Callum as well. The second manipulation layer, which Aaravos uses Callum as a hinge to get Ezran to turn upon ("if I can't do anything to help, Callum will do something terrible"). He gets Ezran to take up the Nova Blade, even though Ez himself acknowledges that it might be a trick.

Which begs the question, then: why does Aaravos want Ezran to have the Nova Blade, really?

Think of it this way: you're Aaravos. There are only two things that can destroy your mortal form. One of them is an Archdragon's bite. Over the course of a month, you manage to kill 4/5 remaining archdragons, leaving just one (1) singular threat to your existence behind for the next time you take mortal form. So why on earth would you point someone to the one other thing that could potentially take you out?

My initial thought was that maybe he just wanted Ezran to show up with it to tip the scales in his favour in 7x09. Ezran destroying his mortal form means he can't be trapped in the coin. Aaravos does smile after all, as soon as he sees Ezran is arriving, while Runaan is still lying in wait to kill Callum. Aaravos wasn't happy to see that Callum had enlisted Runaan, not Rayla (who the Startouch elf was convinced wouldn't be able to do it), to kill him, and that the coin plan subsequently had a better chance of working.

But what happens when Ezran arrives, imo, rules out that reading. Even with Runaan still at the ready, Aaravos emphasizes to Callum that the window is closing to imprison him, trying to goad him into dark magic... even though Callum was going to do dark magic regardless of Ezran's arrival, and had just made that plain. On the contrary, Ezran's arrival makes Callum hesitate, and Aaravos uses it as a threat ("or else the brave king will seal my fate, and set the world on fire") to make Callum start the coin plan faster. (And we'll circle back to Callum later, don't worry.) This is the opposite of what Aaravos should want, since the coin plan still presents a threat and if he's coined fast enough, Ez wouldn't reach him or could be talked down.

When Callum does start the coining spell, Aaravos smiles and makes no attempt to break out of it. And if Aaravos did want a backup plan of "I don't get imprisoned because my mortal form gets destroyed instead," he could've just... let one of the archdragons bite him, which is what ends up happening anyway. Ezran, specifically with the Nova Blade, did not need to happen to achieve any of the same outcomes, but Aaravos put a lot of time and effort (destroying Katolis, having Claudia release him there, the island, allowing himself to be chained down, telling Ezran the history) to make sure it did happen. So what gives?

It could be that Aaravos' plan was to have the main trio "sacrifice everything that they are" in order to break them. But Aaravos' plan of Callum's plan going wrong did hinge on Rayla not being able to do so, anyway, and if the Archdragons hadn't been there to bail them out, Ez destroying him with the Nova Blade would've led to all the main trio dying regardless. That'd be an effective way to get rid of 99% of the people trying to stop you, but again, not something that couldn't have happened by making sure the archdragons were too busy murdering you to protect anyone else. And if all the trio had died, as Callum would've in the coin plan or everyone in the Nova Blade plan, that means Aaravos can't use any of them further.

What I want to point to, therefore, on a speculative level is Aaravos' focus on putting weapons into Ezran's hands. The obvious is the Nova Blade which I'll elaborate even further on in a minute. The less obvious but bigger focus this season is on Project Ruby Fire. Ezran is motivated to start this project with Aanya explicitly because of Katolis' destruction, which Aaravos orchestrated. The weapons are being crafted in mind to be able to hurt/stand up to dragons (and Archdragons), who Aaravos hates, after Aaravos commandeered an Archdragon to burn Katolis to the ground.

And while the Archdragons' sacrifice is a huge component of why Ezran forgives Runaan ("they've given us a great gift, a chance to keep on living, keep trying to do better"), builds Evrkynd, and keeps working towards peace... Aaravos' imminent return gives Ezran a concrete reason to keep going with Project Ruby Fire to fight, if not dragons, then against a Startouch titan... who hates all the other Startouch titans.

And if it is just against the dragons, then it means the two biggest kingdoms with the two currently best armies in the Pentarchy (since all but Duren were pretty devastated by the Battle of the Storm Spire, and some of Katolis defected) are going to be heavily armed against Xadia's most powerful creatures ("I don't need five armies when I have one archdragon" / "all throughout history, dragons have had all the power") in the immediate aftermath of Xadia losing their most important protectors in the Archdragons.

Just like in the time of the Orphan Queen with the succession crisis, and just like in S3, Aaravos has created the perfect motivations and tools for humans to use to attack a Xadia that is incredibly weakened, a goal we have explicitly seen him chance once and likely more than once to begin with. Only this time, a non-mage king is the one playing perfectly into his hands while trying to do the opposite.

This makes me think that the Nova Blade could solve some similar purpose. Aaravos' likely endgame goal is to permanently kill the other First Elves. If the Nova Blade can kill a First Elf's mortal form as is, it stands to reason that perhaps if modified with dark magic or something else that it could kill a First Elf permanently, and be a powerful weapon of choice for Aaravos.

Speaking of weapons, let's talk about

The Staff, Again (or Corrupting Callum)

We touched briefly on the staff a little bit before. It's a thousand year old contingency brought to light, where Aaravos stole a staff from the Starscraper and a quasar diamond, putting the latter inside the former. This seems, as of S6, to be the reason behind the staff's insane amount of power, now rendered partially moot by the quasar diamond being used to give Aaravos a body... which indicates, given how rare and unique this property of quasar diamonds are, he knew well ahead of time it was likely he'd be imprisoned, perhaps not just when or by whom.

However, Aaravos' plans go further than that. The staff was critical in freeing Sir Sparklepuff from his homunculus and implied to be in the same spell that ended his life, with the blood of child ritual. It was used by Viren in spell that ended his own life, and used by Claudia to defend herself against Callum, rather than Aaravos just leaving her Sun staff untouched/unchanged. She uses it a few times throughout the season, once to invert the Moon Nexus, twice in her duel against Callum. And then she just... throws it away with a smile on her face.

This is especially odd at first glance given that TDP delays Claudia claiming the staff as hers until 7x06... and her throwing it away happens the immediate episode after. Odd, and on purpose. Part of this is because Claudia claiming the staff is more symbolic of her dynamics with Viren and with Aaravos than it is about it physically being hers (a longer meta on the Staff of Ziard, what it symbolizes, and Aaravos' plans here) but that this is the second time Aaravos' instructions to Claudia can readily refer to the individual we directly associate them with... and with Callum.

CLAUDIA: He said the being will guide you to the one who has answers. (4x01)

Sir Sparklepuff guides them to Rex Igneous, who has the map that leads to Rex Igneous. But the only reason Claudia and co. know that is because Callum figures it out, as he determines:

CALLUM: Having knowledge doesn't mean knowing knowledge. He possesses the knowledge of where Aaravos is trapped. Like... He has a map! REX IGNEOUS: Very clever, young human. CLAUDIA: Yeah, you always were a very clever human, weren't you, Callum?

only for 6x02/7x09 to indeed reveal that Callum's Key of Aaravos functions similarly, being something he has but not knows, and that it has a map to the location of Something in Elarion (probably its matching book, but who knows?). And 7x06 does the same thing again, with Aaravos telling Claudia that "there's another threat that must be removed" (paraphrasing because I'm lazy).

Claudia goes and kills Akiyu (and possibly destroys what the mage was working on), but it's not clear how long there was between that and Callum and Runaan arriving. What the scene indicates, though, is that Claudia got there, carried out her mission, and then waited for them to arrive. She then tries to kill Callum twice (the rock blow) and nearly sucks the breath out of his lungs, never directing anything actually at Runaan on purpose. (Until 7x09, wherein she takes him out of the picture, and not Callum, even though both or her former friend could've been taken and dragged off the tower.)

So the implicit orders seem to be either 1) kill Callum unless he'll do dark magic again and 2) leave the staff and once he has it, leave him open for it.

Another marker I want to loop back around to is Aaravos' disguise. Think about WHY it's there. Really think about it. Because in the 6 episodes it's there, it largely did not have to be. For the majority of those six episodes, Aaravos is with Terry and Claudia, who know it's him the whole time. This is true once Terry splits and goes to Soren and co., who all know the figure with Claudia at the Moon Nexus is Aaravos.

It is also more expensive to create a new character model and rig if you don't have to, hence why the elven disguises Aaravos considers are 2D, not fully 3D/rigged. It would've been cheaper to just use the Aaravos design but smaller that they already have. And we just established that in basically every scene he's walking around with the disguise is not one he needed to be disguised for, so why have it at all? There's the characterization reason, sure, that he prefers humans/humanity, but that could've also been achieved by Aaravos debating having a disguise, considering a 2D human one, before deciding to just be himself and save on rigging. So what gives?

The only plot relevant scene with the disguise in the whole season is Aaravos' attempted deception with Callum. His first attempt to corrupt the kid with dark magic again, through an apple (which talk about a loaded symbol for Knowledge, Freedom, and Corruption) not through compromise, but through blatant lying. However, this deception scene does indicate that Aaravos, very badly, wants Callum to be re-corrupted, and 7x09 affirms this as well, with the aforementioned goading Aaravos employs with Ez on his way and Runaan still in the game.

What I think this indicates, ultimately, is that Aaravos wants (or needs) a corrupted Callum and an actively pursuing weapons / wielder of the Nova Blade Ezran to survive past 7x09 in order for him to use them the next time they come around. For Callum, it'll be his reinstated corruption (with the possession plotline finally coming full circle so help me god) and Ezran's weapons / potential conflict with Zym, but more on that in a second.

That said: if like I'm positing his goal was to use the brothers — and for Ez to survive and create more weapons / humanity to invade Xadia — they'd have to exist in a world that's hospitable, which means that the sun couldn't be permanently corrupted, because all plant life and agriculture would wither away... then why even corrupt the sun and invert the Moon Nexus in the first place? Why fail in this manner?

Therefore, while I'm not going to claim that everything in 7x09 went 110% according to Aaravos' plan (he got his ass kicked, and the sun remained uncorrupted) because I don't think it truly did, I think the bulk of it was for 1 main reason:

They Fall Hard

Aaravos hates the Archdragons. He blames them for enforcing Cosmic Order (barring for some of them, the only things of their of is Domina keeping Finnegrin, another elf/Xadian, in line, and Rex Igneous seems to rarely come out of the ground) and if he didn't hate them along with Sol Regem before he was imprisoned, he definitely hates them afterwards.

He directly states so in 7x01, making it plain that elves (the Cosmic Council, seemingly) and the dragons (specifically the archdragons) are his most hated of the millennia:

The dragons and the elves, all the arrogant fools blinded by the light of their searing self-righteousness. They stand tall, and they will fall hard.

(This also ignores the fact that every time thus far Aaravos has been actually defeated or significantly delayed, it's been through humans, elves, and dragons working together, but I digress.)

And we know that Aaravos plans are going to well, plan, in 7x08 for the most part, as he reflects:

Now, this is familiar, isn't it? Hasn't this all happened before? Arrogant fools. Again and again you make the same mistakes.

Now, this makes sense. Last time, there was a (future) ruler of Katolis, a human mage, and the Archdragons working together to imprison him in a pearl. Callum tried to do the exact same thing, halted only when Aaravos had Akiyu taken out of the picture... but Callum and co.'s goal is still to imprison him, and that was the note he'd left off with Ezran as well ("Then I'll follow in her footsteps. You will be imprisoned again"). Ez's doesn't stick, because Aaravos uses his brother against him to manipulate Ezran into wanting to murder him, nor does Callum's since he turns to dark magic, so they're not quite repeating their mistakes, but it still would lead somewhat to their ruin. But I digress again.

With my previous points, I think Aaravos inverted the Moon Nexus for one main reason: to have creatures to keep his smaller, squishier enemies (humans and elves) busy, but mostly to bring Avizandum back to life. He gives the Moon primal staff to Ziard to do just that, and Avizandum is the one weaponized against the Archdragons on both a physical and emotional level. At its worst, having Avizandum meant the fight would be 2-3, and then becomes 2-on-2 once the Dragon King kills Rex Igneous. The fact that its particular torment for Zubeia is just the cherry on top.

(It is also Aaravos' downfall but again: we're getting there.)

The long winded Point I'm trying to make in this section (which I've touched on further in this meta) is that one of Aaravos' goals was to bring down the Archdragons. Potentially, this has been happening for centuries (starting with Sol Regem's mate, or perhaps Luna Tenebris) but at the very least it started with Sol Regem, so in about a month, Aaravos took out 4/5 remaining archdragons. This works twofold for him:

He wants revenge on all of them

It means they cannot destroy his mortal body, with the only remaining threats to it being Zym and the Nova Blade

He wanted to take out the Archdragons (more on that here)... and now he has.

While the trio could retry the old plan they employed in 7x08-7x09, Aaravos has already clarified, "I do not fall for the same tricks twice". The Archdragons spared/saved them, but now are out of the picture as far as both solutions and information wise. I don't know about you, but taking out like 4 different Major enemies/threats and leaving the world considerably weakened against you while also ensuring you're not locked away in another prison is one hell of a power move.

Now, only the Cosmic Council really remains on Aaravos' chopping block. So let's get into it.

Seven Years

I've wondered why about Aaravos many times, mostly in regards to why Aaravos has taken a 1,000+ years to put his plan into action. Presumably, he's wanted to invert the Moon Nexus and corrupt the Sun this whole time and has had the means (little bug pal) to corrupt the Sunforge also this whole time. So why wait? Why manipulate the Archdragons rather than just barrel on ahead?

We know it's extremely likely that Aaravos and the First Elves are timeblind, and we also know that First Elves can only come back to earth when their stars re-align (6x04). We also know that (storm) archdrgons only lay an egg once every thousand years (1x05). Aaravos waiting for a First Elf's stars to realign, or for Zym to be born, would make a lot of sense.

If Aaravos went into the final battle knowing that either he'd 100% accomplish his goals, or take out the archdragons but be set back 7 years, then he probably has a contingency plan or something in accordance with it taking more time, for someone as meticulous as he is.

I want to talk more about the arc 2 intros, revisited, in another post, but given the parallel framing thus far...

It seems that everything is still on track with Aaravos' plans with steady progress made, and haven't been ruined at all. I expect that once S8 / arc 3 comes out, we'll get to look back at S7 (specifically 7x07-7x09) with clearer eyes and see what new dominoes he was setting up to fall.

In the meantime, all we can do is wait, but I hope you enjoyed this meta nonetheless.

[goldenwilliamson]

more than friends | leah williamson

a/n: please send any recs you have my way! probably most comfortable writing for leah, lucy bronze, mapi leon, and some of the matildas. but feel free to send anything through and i'll see how i go x

pairing: leah williamson x reader

summary: reader and leah both play for arsenal and england. reader and leah get together after being friends for many years, but they decide to keep it a secret from their teammates. they don't do a very good job though.

word count: 1.2k

You and Leah had been teammates for several years now, playing together at Arsenal, and representing England together since you were just teenagers. It was a strictly platonic friendship as for most of this time you were both in relationships with other people. More recently though, since you were both single, you'd helped each other through your breakups, and had become closer than ever.

You didn't see it coming, but you started to feel yourself developing feelings for your old friend. At first you brushed it off, telling yourself that it was just platonic love. You loved hanging out with Leah, you always had. Upon some reflection though, you started to realise that your feelings were deeper than friendly affection. Every moment with Leah started to carry a new weight. You began to replay every conversation and every touch over and over in your head, dreaming that she would admit she was also harbouring hidden feelings for you.

One night while away on international duties you were rooming with Leah, as you had since you were in U17's together, and after a day of training and team dinner you had sat down on the end of Leah's bed. You decided it was time to tell her. With your heart in your throat, you tried to suppress your anxiety and mumbled your way through a romantic confession. She had laughed at first when you told her, then opened her arms.

"Come here," she told you.

As the two of you embraced she said, "You know, I've been meaning to tell you the same thing."

"Really?" You looked at her, not quite believing it.

"Yeah, but I was too bloody scared, I'm glad you're braver than I am," she said.

You two had spent the rest of the night talking about realising you had feelings for each other, and giggling about how you had both been so scared to act on it. The conversation was sealed with a kiss that made you both wonder what had taken you both so long to get to this point.

While you were ecstatic about having your feelings reciprocated, both of you were nervous to break the news to the girls that you played with. Within teams there is a very unique dynamic that everyone settles into, and you didn't want to do anything to disrupt that. Both of you were also very individual players, and you didn't want your relationship to become a defining part of your football. This was something you both agreed on, as you both felt your relationships with teammates in the past had influenced your play on the field more than you would have liked. Especially once people in the public knew about it.

So you and Leah decided that you would keep it between the two of you for the time being, until you were both 100% ready for it to become a public thing. However, the development in your relationship didn't fly under the radar in the way that you both had hoped it would.

There were whispers among your teammates, people noticing the lingering touches between you and Leah, and the way you looked at each other with such love and adoration every time one of you were speaking. You both were glowing, and the girls knew you too well. People online too had started speculating purely based on some brief interactions you guys had on the pitch.

It all came out one night when a handful of the Arsenal girls were around at Kim Little's house for some dinner and drinks. Leah found it hard to contain her loving touches, letting her hand rest on your leg when you guys were on the lounge, or rubbing circles into your back as you stood around the kitchen counter chatting.

Pizzas were spread out across the dining table for everyone to help themselves to. You grabbed two plates, making up one for yourself and one for Leah. She was speaking with Jen in the backyard when you carried it out to her.

"Here, Lee," you hand it to her and she took it from you with one hand, allowing her other hand to pull you into her side so she could kiss your forehead.

"Thanks baby," Leah said, your heart swelling at the unexpected display of affection.

Your eyes shoot to Jen's face, noting the smirk, and the realisation dawning upon her.

"Oh, are you two...?" Jen asked immediately, knowing what was going on.

You looked at Leah, shaking your head, knowing you couldn't keep it a secret any longer. She nods, and you nod, and you both look back at Jen.

"Yeah," You both say, affirming everyone's suspicions.

"God, Beth was trying to say that there was something going on, but I was saying nah nah, if there was they'd tell us," Jen said, scoffing.

"Bloody Beth, she knows us too well," you say a bit too loudly, alerting the girls inside the house to your conversation.

"You called?" Beth says.

"You knew about this," you says, motioning between you and Leah.

"Oh!" Beth says, seeming caught of guard, "So this is a thing then?"

Leah chuckles, unconsciously letting her arm snake around your waist, "Yeah mate."

"Oh my god," Beth exclaims, sheer joy spreading across her face, "My sweeties, I've been waiting for this."

"What have you been waiting for?" Steph asks, stepping into the conversation.

"Cats out of the bag then," you say, laughing.

"What are we talking about?" Kim calls from across the room.

"Okay, since everyone would like to know," Leah says, raising her voice to invite everyone into your conversation, "Y/N and I are together, we have been for a couple of months."

"Hey, I told you!" Steph says, turning back to point at Kim.

"You love birds were so obvious, why'd it take you so long to tell us?" Beth asks.

You and Leah both look at each other, suddenly unsure of how to answer that question. It all seems redundant now.

"We didn't want it to change anything," you explain.

"You worry worts, as if this would change a thing!" Beth tells you both.

"Thanks Bethany," Leah smiles.

"You guys are perfect for each other, we've all been saying it for ages," Steph says, making everyone laugh.

"It's true, you know," Kim adds in her two cents.

"Thanks guys, sorry we didn't tell you," you say.

"Don't be sorry, we're just happy for ya," Jen says, wrapping her arms around both you and Leah.

"Alright, alright, this is getting sappy. Why don't we sit down and eat," Leah suggests.

"Please," you agree, desperate to have the attention off of you.

The girls all agree too, and you move inside, finding seats on the lounge and on the floor as you dig into the pizza. As everyone is distracted by the food and the game on the telly, Leah leans into you.

"I'm glad we told them," she says.

"Me too," you say, and now that you can kiss Leah without any inhibitions, you do.

You can feel the room fall into silence as you do so before Jen says, "That'll take some getting used to."

"Better get used to it quick Jenny," Leah says, kissing you again, and then planting several kisses all over your face for good measure.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I see you are open to Ms Spade/Lilia prompts. I am seeing a lot of speculation that Ms Spade might have been a delinquent in her youth like her son Deuce. It would be funny if Ms Spade and Lilia got to talking and the topic turned to the crazy things they've done in their pasts. Who has the crazier story: delinquent Ms Spade or former General Vanrouge?

Referencing this unofficial blog event!

adklbaboiyfyegea It might be hard for me to write stories in headcanon form, so instead I ended up doing general headcanons for delinquent!Dylla and Lilia sharing their experiences with each other!

Curiouser and Curiouser...

Dylla is very shy with sharing about her delinquent days. She holds a lot of shame and guilt about that era of her life, especially since she blamed herself for being a poor influence and a bad mother to Deuce when he went down the wrong path. It's only when Lilia talks about his own past as a veteran that Dylla gains the confidence to let him in on her secret.

She's still not that proud to talk about her delinquency, but Lilia lends her the encouragement and the kind ear she needs to truly open up. When things get to be too much and the feelings overwhelm her, Lilia stays with her and holds her until Dylla has stopped sobbing. "There, there," he murmurs soothingly, a hand rubbing her back. "Let it all out. A good cry will set you straight."

With time and practice, Dylla becomes accustomed to sharing her stories. It's hard to believe that she was ever insecure about them to begin with, not when Lilia grants her so much strength.

She's surprised that Lilia fought in a war before--and not only that, was served as a general--because he's so tiny. (Huh, that's odd. Dylla doesn't remember there being a war or major conflicts in recent years. She wonders which war Lilia is talking about, but he doesn't elaborate.) But Lilia reassures her that it's the cutest ones you have to look out for.

He demonstrates a few of his moves from back in the day, each of which Lilia has lovingly granted an overly embellished (almost magical girl-esque) attack name. Moving with lighting fast swiftness, he very adorably chants, "Ora, ora, ora 🎵 Watch out, I'll kill you dead 💞 Take this! Lilia-chan's Super Special Axe-Grinding Roundhouse Kick~!"

He casually talks about all the people he killed--"My, I was quite the reckless roughneck in my youth. If only I could go back now and properly mourn their losses."--while squirting ketchup all over the omurice she made for him. Dylla awkwardly laughs, but only because she thinks he's making a dark joke. (Lilia was, in fact, not making a dark joke.)

One day, Lilia brings his magearm with him to show Dylla. He even encourages her to try swinging it around! ... Which she does, and nearly chops off some of his bangs in the process--but he took it in stride and came out of it unscathed.

Dylla was a self-described speed demon. She loved riding fast on her bike--a hobby Deuce also picked up--but seldom rides anymore. After all, she has to keep her driving safe and smooth, especially when she's on the job! "Oh? I would love to go out on a romantic ride with you someday," Lilia tells her. "Let's do it--and no holds barred, okay? I want to see how fast you can truly take me."

Her fashion used to be a lot more daring. Leather jackets, combat boots, bold animal prints. Now all that remains of that era is the roots and strands of her bleached her. "You should consider experimenting more!" Lilia suggests, fingering his own hair. "I used to have this much longer, up in a ponytail--and I regularly dye my streaks different colors."

Compared to him, Dylla thinks her stories are much tamer. Sure, she committed minor crimes (shop lifting, skipping school, drinking while underage, being a public disturbance, etc.), but the worst she ever did was get into fights with peers. "I think I was just lost," she admits to Lilia. "Lost and mad at the world for not guiding me." He takes her hands and looks at her tenderly, whispering, "... And I as well."

Lilia mentions that he used to have a crush on the person he was sworn to protect. "That story," he admits with a sad smile, "is one that ends in tragedy." Dylla's heart aches--not with jealousy, but for him and the pain he feels. She takes his hands--like he has done for her--and lets him know she's there for him too.

At the end of the day, both Lilia and Dylla understand that they're changed people, and they're so proud of each other for that. They have new lives, new children, new identities--and each other. They aren't lost or mad or alone anymore.

[chaggiehearts]

I'm gonna be brutally honest: I think it'd be far more satisfying to watch Lute redeeming herself than dying as a villain.

I know a large part of the fandom hates her (although thankfully most people here on Tumblr don't) and I'm not gonna act like I don't understand why. She's a sadistic genocidal woman who won't hesitate to hurt everyone that goes against her corrupted morality. Even outside the series, her words and beliefs might remind a lot of viewers of extremist Christians, and since a lot of us are LGBT we might be reminded of ugly things we've been told in the past (I'll admit that even though I don't interpret that scene as her being homophobic, the "Their love is vile and blasphemous" comment might hurt me if I watch that scene when I'm feeling too sensitive). Lute is clearly not a good person and the series doesn't try to hide this fact at all, specially given her fixation with hurting/mutilating/killing Vaggie. Even though she's my 3rd fave character, I admit that she kinda sucks as a person.

However, I think that all the arguments on why she's irredeemable fail to be convincing once you take something into account: Lute is the Vaggie that never left her Exorcist position.

Their characters are clearly parallels and meant to be narrative foils. Vaggie is what Lute could turn out to be if she admitted she's wrong. Vaggie is my favorite character but I can't deny that before her fall she was despicable too. We know that at the very least she killed 2,000 sinners (going by the "thousandS of Sinners" comment) and I highly doubt the actual amount is that low given the number of Sinners killed by Lute during last Extermination. My personal headcanon is that it's around 10,000-15,000, but we don't know, at least not yet. Vaggie WASN'T a good person, even if she had doubts from the very beginning (which we don't even know if it's true, let's be real here) she still did horrible things. She took part in the Exterminations and, according to Adam, she was one of the most efficient Exorcists (perhaps second only to Lute herself). This is why I adore the dynamic between them, because the mutual hatred comes from the rejection of certain ideals: Vaggie hates what she used to be in the past, which is represented by Lute, a perfect reflection of who she used to be, and Lute hates the idea that Exterminations might be wrong, that she might be wrong, that her entire worldview might be flawed, which is represented by Vaggie.

If Vaggie was able to redeem herself, if we can collectively agree that she regretted her actions and improved as a person, if we can understand that Hazbin's concept is that EVERYONE can be redeemed, even the worst villains, even the nastiest individuals, if we can see that the structure of the Exorcists greatly resembles a sect (I will analyze this better another day, but they're literally a patriarchal sect in which one has to adhere to all of their leader's beliefs and not doing so will result in abandonment, punishment and isolation from your entire circle), isn't it logical to think that Lute might reach the same conclusions as Vaggie one day? Why would Vaggie deserve compassion and forgiveness and a new life and not someone who's overall very similar to her? As I said before, yes, I do understand why people hate Lute more than Vaggie, specially given what she did to her, one of the protagonists, but they're not that different at all. The issue is that we've only seen evil Lute and good Vaggie so far, but the series might explore other aspects of their characters. Hazbin Hotel criticizes the black-and-white mentality of Heaven, Lute's very mentality that has led to what she is right now. Putting Vaggie in one end of a morality scale and Lute in the other is imho a flawed interpretation. They're both in a gray place, they're both complex people.

Lute is going to do horrible things in the future and, if I'm allowed to speculate, I heavily believe she's going to be worse than what Adam ever had the chance to be, way worse than Vaggie ever was. After losing Adam, revenge will probably make her go from evil to downright monster. And honestly, I want to see that fall, that corruption arc (does it count as a corruption arc when the character was already corrupted from the beginning?). I want Lute to metaphorically fall into the darkest pits of Hell. And you know what? I want her to get up after that, start a new life just like what Vaggie did. I think Lute searching for redemption would be a great test on Charlie's ideals, because she probably wouldn't be too enthusiastic about this idea (since her body language in Episode 8 clearly shows that she knows about what Lute did to Vaggie, her role in Vaggie's fall). I think something beautiful might come out of something like this happening. Charlie realizing that she doesn't have to personally empathize with someone to help them become a better person (and the whole concept of redemption being proven right because if someone like Lute can do it then literally anyone can), Lute seeing the error of her ways, growing and searching for the light she lost in the shadows and Vaggie empathizing with one of the residents in a deeper level. Even though Lute doesn't deserve Vaggie's forgiveness, I'd love to see Vaggie extending that forgiveness to her and seeing her past self in Lute, but this time not the merciless Exorcist Vaggie that she hates, but the hurt, lost and scared Vaggie that had just arrived in Hell after her worldview had been flipped entirely. If these two made amends, I think we would be able to see a very sweet new side of Vaggie, because even though she'd love to help Angel Dust, Husk, Cherri Bomb... She'll never fully get how they ended up down there. But she would get Lute, she'd understand how addictive bad actions can be for an Exorcist, the search for purpose and acknowledgement from Adam, the self-righteousness. If there's anyone in that hotel that would know what it's like to be an Exorcist that regrets her actions, that's Vaggie.

In the end, the only thing I'm sure of at the moment is that Lute's story is far from over. Things could go either way and redemption is a viable path for her. Who knows, maybe she'll do something so extremely evil in the future that I lose my faith in her ability to change after that, but for now I'm still holding onto that hope :)

[izzasecretredacted]

Homework for Those Who Have No Context for Drake's Public Execution

I've been an off and on fan of rap for a while, based on whether or not my hyperfixations takes me there. With the absolute blindsiding of the Kendrick/Drake beef breaking tumblr, I figured I go back and find some stuff I remembered hearing about in the past. I'll put them here as a brief history lesson, in case you want to know just what Kendrick is talking about and why everyone is rejoicing in the downfall of some popstar that you maybe heard at the supermarket or something...

btw, I'm not posting these in chronological order, but the order of how relevant I think they are and the order I think they're best absorbed.

This is an essay from about 2 years ago, and is the most indepth source that I'll post here. It talks a lot about Drake's place in Hip-Hop, and also goes into the idea of Drake as a culture-vulture.

This is a 3yo article that has a lot of "Fresh Hot Drama" vibes to it (might be a misread on my part tbf), but is a great secondary source of things that made people question whether Drake was a predator. None of it is completely definitive, but at least a handful of what's presented is very Yikes.

This is a very brief video that's a whopping 7 years old, but really only stopped being relevant this month (with the exception of a period in time about 2 years after this which will be clear later). It explains Drake's reputation as being untouchable whenever he finds himself in a rap beef, even when very real violence is involved. It also has some foreshadowing to present day. 4:06 in particular is really interesting in hindsight.

Lastly is the only diss track before now that really put a mark on Drake's reputation, even if it was a small one in the strictly long term. I'm posting a lyric video because the cover to the single is an old picture of Drake in the most blatant blackface imaginable (no, really, blackface is super fucked up in all forms, but this is ssuuuppppeeerrr fucked up) and I didn't want to lock this behind a content warning. The song mentions some of Drake's family (such as his parents, Sandi and Dennis), as well an extremely wild allegation that I guarantee you could not make up. You'll know what it is when it comes up in the song, it's why the song is called "The Story Of Adidon". Its also important to note that Drake admitted that that allegation is true... after a year.

I'm open to anyone else commenting on what I might've missed, but hopefully this should be enough that you can go through was is now an EP's worth of diss tracks from Kendrick and get a more full sense of what's happening around them.

[sonicboomrevisited]

I was too focused on analyzing everything it took a while for it to set in—

I'm obsessed with how Other Sonic manages to throw shade (hehe) at both Sonic and Shadow with the “I AM YOU” line.

For starters, wearing Shadow's face to say he IS Sonic, while an extremely clever choice for reasons I already went off about, also seems to be something said because it would specifically upset Shadow. Given what we know about him in this continuity, Real Shadow would probably find the comparison degrading. Ironically “pissing off Shadow” seems very in character for Sonic to do, evil copy or not.

Which is very interesting given my theory of how it seems Other Sonic says the things True Sonic refuses to admit seems to have merit. Entering Speculation Town here, but—

If we take that to be true, it would mean, that at least some part of True Sonic has considered the things Other Sonic is saying, even if just a little. Those same things, that felt SO In Character when said by Shadow that Sonic forgot he was not talking to the real thing. Implying that, as much as he thinks Shadow is a crazy, broody edgelord, Sonic may not be that different.

Ergo, Other Sonic managed to spit in both Sonic and Shadow's faces in just a couple of panels; partly because those two have such beef with each other that comparing them to the other would be quite insulting.

Maybe I am reaching but, it almost feels like Other Sonic has a sense of humor; a twisted one! But he has one . . .

— Defi

Ooohoohoo, fantastic analysis of the dialogue, Defi! Would you believe me if I told you there's STILL layers to be uncovered that I'm surprised nobody has picked up on? 🤭

I'll admit, page 9 was extremely difficult to write. Shadow's little speech went through several drafts. Qwerty can tell you I was extremely sensitive to how it needed to come across. But the "I AM you" line never changed! It makes me extremely happy to see that its intricacies are being noticed for its depth and importance!