#Which sounds contradictory given my post about it but yeah like I said I basically just wanted to explain myself and kinda

[paperhats-and-evil-schemes]

Oh my gosh, you're okay!!!!! In the physical sense, I mean... I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, Mark. </3 I'm sending you all my well wishes! And while I'm sure I and many others would be thrilled to see the Villainous content you're working on, please NEVER feel guilty about putting your mental health first!!! I can't speak for others, but I know I'll always be around to yell at you about any content you may post, regardless of how long it takes, but also will never judge or be upset with you if you end up not feeling able to post new stuff! And always remember that people are here for you if you ever need to vent or cry or anything of that sort, seriously, never forget that you're very, very loved!!!

-The nosy anon (if you remember me :'3)

Thank you both. ♥ (And of course I remember you! ♥♥♥)

While I appreciate the offer, I'm not much one for online venting, I mostly just wanted to explain why I was gone and where my mental state currently stands in regards to Villainous because of what happened. I do have people I can talk to about it in person, a therapist included, so please try not to worry about me in that regard! I’m in a good support system.

Happy to know you’d still be interested in whatever Villainous trash I unearth from my messy brain, heh. I likely won’t have any fic stuff done for a while, as writing tends to take a bit more mental energy than I have to spare most days, but I’ve been picking away at some scenes, at least? Might have some drawings to show at some point later, still kind of fiddling away at things with great uncertainty, idk yet

[kob131]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v4DrL_pO-o

So apparently Volume 3 ruined RWBY...

Personally I would have said Voluymes 1 and 2 since they’re the most painful to get through to actually get into the series. But that’s actually the least of this video’s issues.

1. His points about Volume 4+’s character focuses...don’t make sense.

No seriously, this isn’t me being fallicious and hyperbolic aside from the point about Ren and Nora (And even that has issues.)

He complains that we already know everything about Weiss and her family...but all we really know is Jacques is greedy, is abusive and Winter escaped. We don’t actually see what Jacques is like and what kind of personality she has nor what Weiss is like around her father. Things like Jacques using specific words to get what he wants (subtly pressuring Weiss to get him good PR ad dance around his shitty business practices) and Weiss’ attitude around her father being so meek and emotional helps flesh out her character and creates a stronger bond with the audience. So yeah, we didn’t actually know everything.

...Which is confusing because a latter point about him trying to justify saying Weiss wasn’t set up to have an arc in this Volume by saying, and I quote, “Weiss was taken home by her father but we didn’t know what that means” despite any knowledge of her family would indicate she’d have to deal with her father’s oppression. So in the same video, we’re suppose to simultaneously know everything about Weiss and her family...and know nothing about her family because that would indicate what was gonna happen with Weiss post Volume 3.

... Do I even need to point out how contradictory this is?

This isn’t an isolated incident in the video either. His point about Blake boils down to “The fandom assumed she was going after the WF but she instead ran to her family for no reason, a family we never thought she had.” Issue here is that: he’s judging this not by what the show does but what the FANDOM does. And the fandom is notorious for having crackpot theories (see: any Jaune theory) and he never mentions anything about what the show was doing.

Or what about what he said in regards to Yang ‘effectively getting over her PTSD in Episode 4...because she put on her replacement arm, despite the fact that the show indicated that was only a ‘first step’ deal (with how Taiyang said ‘Now let’s begin’, or how Yang was previously portrayed as avoiding her issues nut dealing with them.) So...why would he think that?

Then we have how he says that Nora and Ren got character development ‘just because’, ignoring how the Volume was dealing with loss and coping from loss so having a small representation of that conflict (like say, a tramuatic past?) would be perfectly fitting, especially since they got focus early into Volume 4.

All of this...somehow fits into the overall idea that Volume 4 isn’t a continuation of Volume 3...even though it relies on a very specific mindset, interpretation and acknowledgement of events. This isn’t even talking about how he glosses over Jaune’s angst over Pyrrha, Ruby’s subtle sadness and the culmination of that in the Kuroyuri episode.

... Yeah I don’t get it either. This is either immensely lazy on his part to not do any research or immensely dishonest by just pandering to what his established audience wants to hear. Because this is a giant mistake beyond simple incompetence.

2. He says Volume 4 is considered a soft reboot. ... I dunno why.

A soft reboot effectively means a continuation of the original continuity but with alterations to established formula that makes it effectively a different entity.

Now some of what I said does fit here with the traveling aspect, the new animation and so on as Adel says...but the thing is, when you compare this to other soft reboots it...doesn’t feel right.

Unlike stuff like Pokemon Black and White, X-Men First Class and JoJo part 4+ (depends on your view of a soft reboot): Volumes 4+ have a heavy connection to Volumes 1-3 while the other examples only have tangential connections. You don’t need to know much beyond basics for soft reboots. With RWBY Volume4+, you NEED to know the specifics of Volume 1-3. And that one aspect of having a tangential connection instead of a very solid one is what defines a soft reboot as a reboot. WIthout that it’s just...changes in a show.

I don’t know why he would characterize Volumes 4+ as a soft reboot with such aspects when you still need to know everything about Volumes 1-3. Aside from massive incomptence or banking on the stigma soft reboots have.

3. Volume 4 is not rebooted nor is it filler.

I’m not even gonna bother being in depth here.

You wouldn’t care about Ruby and co. making it to Mistral if you didn’t know the specifics of Volume 4.

You wouldn’t care about Weiss being captured or reuniting with the rest of her team without Volume 4.

You wouldn’t know a damn thing about why Yang gives a shit about Raven or why she’s acting so differently without Volumes 1-4

You wouldn’t care about Cinder or understand how she got here if not for Volume 4.

Oscar....makes no sense without Volume 4.

This is just a stupid point through and through. This can’t even be covered by incomptence or laziness because the average RWBY fan could tell you this. I can only assume Adel is playing to his audience’s biases at this point, the same way CNN and Fox News do for their audiences: fend them what they want to hear, reality be damned.

4. God damn it, it’s the same point as before!

Yeah, he claims Volume 6 is SOMEHOW still a continuation/soft reboot of Volume 3. Ignoring how you need to know about the Relic, Illa, Sun, Raven and Yang, Ruby’s Silver eyes and Weiss’ past to understand this series which requires literally every other Volume made.

The Salem and Ozpin thing alongside a giant Grimm and Silver eyes are not enough to constitute being a ripoff/continuation/soft reboot of Volume 3. They’re just questions being answered or fleshing out aspects of what was introduced before (which doesn’t HAPPEN in soft reboots). Having somewhat similar ideas,

This gets even dumber when you consider what he says about the Ozpin and Salem thing. He says it’s a rehash of the Maidens that was rehashed with the Brother’s Myth. Here’s the thing:

Ozpin and Salem’s backstory is DIRECTLY related to those two stories. You can’t rehash something when it is a CONTINUATION. To rehash something it needs to be treated as completely new BY DEFINITION ( put (old ideas or material) into a new form without significant change or improvement. ) Same goes for the Maiden story and the Brothers: the Maidens were a fable about four women helping an old man who gave them powers and the Brothers is about two gods and how they created Remnant. They’re too different to be a rehash of the other. None of thus fits the requirements for a rehash because it’s either not a new form but rather an old form given more context (Ozpin and Salem) or barely connect because ‘magic’ (The Brothers).

He just keeps digging his hole deeper and deeper, leaving me less room to give any benefit of the doubt. I am a guy who knows what reusing an idea is, my favorite anime studio (Trigger) has been reusing the same central idea (story of defiance and determination being defied usually using transformations and coming of age stories) since 1988 as Gainax. But this? This is not a rehash. Just a simple expansion with the occasional reuse of an idea (the giant Grimm)

5. If it is a soft reboot/rip off/rehash... Then Volume 3 did not start this.

His main points about Volumes 4-6 being rehashes are finally focused on the climax with it effectively being ‘giant climatic confrontation between bad guys and good guys, usually involving Adam/the WF and Grimm.”

Sound familiar?

It should, I JUST described the climaxes of Volume 1 and 2 combined. More so Volume 2 but elements of the big climatic showdown between bad guys and the WF being used as set up started with Torchwick and the WF in Black and White. Yeah, there are differences in the climaxes (with Torchwick and the WF not having Adam and the Breach not having the bad guys work directly against the good guys in the finale) but the same can be said of Volumes 4+ so it clearly doesn’t matter to Adel.

Which begs the question: why wouldn’t he see this? Either he never thought of it (unlikely)...or he’d need to shit on Volumes 1 and 2 and that wouldn’t go over as well.

Overall, this whole thing reeks of dishonesty. Elements are either misinterpreted or removed altogether, vague paralells are drawn and called deliberate, basic mistakes in understanding storytelling are made, things are inconsistent as hell ect. It just feels like I’m watching CNN or Fox News tell me all about how the other is shit because they say so: no substance, no evidence, not even effort. Just dishonesty.

[your-dietician]

How do I give up my struggle with anxiety?

New Post has been published on https://depression-md.com/how-do-i-give-up-my-struggle-with-anxiety/

How do I give up my struggle with anxiety?

Hi everybody,

I just want to be clear before I start that I appreciate this is a comment section on a post on Paul David’s blog, not my own personal blog to seek constant reassurance or to share my own experience. However, this place has so many wonderful, helpful people and I feel the need to ramble (and I do think this will seem like a rambling post) and I can’t think of anywhere better to do it. Apologies for how long this post will be – please don’t feel obliged to read it if you don’t want to. However, I hope that some of what I say might help others, and I’ll admit that I also hope somebody might have something reassuring to say to me because I’m still stuck at that stage.

So, if you were to scroll up ever so slightly, you’ll find a fairly distressed-sounding post from myself only a few days ago. This post didn’t illicit a response from anybody, which is fine. But first and foremost, I just want to let anyone who read it know that things have been better since that post. Paul has spoken often about waking up in the morning scanning how you feel as soon as you find consciousness. Well, I always wake up in an absolute state in the mornings: tired; deeply anxious; emotionally flat and quite frightened. This feeling usually backs right off once I haul my body out of bed, but sometimes it gets the better of me and I end up doing things like that previous post of mine. But here comes my first important realisation – it’s okay! I realise I don’t need to try and wake up peacefully. I don’t need to allow my feelings to demoralise me on waking. It’s okay to feel grotty. But by the same token, I also DON’T NEED TO give myself a hard time if my first thought is ‘ugh… still there’. Essentially, I’m saying that those mornings feelings are harmless, but the negative thoughts I attach to them are not something I have to force myself not to think. Whilst it’s key to stop caring about how you feel to move away from frustration surrounding anxiety, if I’m frustrated in the morning, it’s fine. I can take my frustration with me when I get up – it’s really just anxiety.

I’ve also been fretting a lot about the fact I’m on medication and having CBT. I would compare to feeling like I’m ineligible for membership of a club, by which I mean I can’t follow what Paul David teaches because I’m doing things to feel better instead of just accepting. But then I had another realisation. While I completely agree with Paul’s teachings and believe it is the road to recovery, I need to stop worrying about the fact I’m taking pills and… you guessed it… accept it. The reason people often don’t move forward with pills is that they’re actively trying to force themselves better by taking them. Well, I already know that patience, understanding and acceptance are the way through this. So why beat myself up over the pills? I need to accept that, at this point in time, I’m taking medication. Pills don’t have to be a barrier to recovery if I employ the right attitude, which basically means not seeing them as a magic fix and then collapsing in despair when they don’t fix me. It’s the same with the CBT. If I go to a session and feel relaxed and find talking to my counsellor cathartic, why worry about it? If I see him as some kind of sorcerer who’s going to magic my anxiety away, I will struggle. It will be a barrier. However, if I treat it as an appointment I have to keep, stop linking it directly to my anxiety and just see it as a chance to offload some stress and enjoy an hour’s relaxation, it can have a place in my life, and indeed in my recovery. What I’m trying to say is that, yes, pills and therapy can get in the way and I see how they can do that, but with the right attitude, they don’t have to.

At the moment, I’m still stuck in the anxiety spiral. I’ve made progress in that I feel far less ill. However, I still feel frightened, weary and spaced out. I still emotionally flat. I think it was Belgian who told me that I can see the difference between knowing something in my head and believing it deep deep down. Well, I can honestly say that I completely buy into what Paul says – he’s right, I’m certain of it. But I haven’t achieved real acceptance. Deep deep down, I’m still scared and still struggling. I’ve certainly come a long way with the physical symptoms. It’s amazing how losing your fear of them really does take away their edge. They’re paper tigers. But what I haven’t lost my fear of yet, what I’m not able to accept, is depersonalisation and derealisation, and the emotional flatness and scary thoughts that come with it. I’m terrified of psychosis and haven’t been able to accept that the thought is there in my head. I don’t think it helped when a mental health professional at the hospital said: “there’s no psychosis yet”. That ‘yet’ set me back a long way. Now all I can think is that I’m at risk of it, and I carry thought around with me a lot. Hopefully, I’ll be able to come to terms with that thought in time, but it’s very hard.

Another thing that bothers me is that I wrongly thought this all started with my first panic attack in January. I had one at work and didn’t know what it was and it led me into this spiral. However, I now realise I’ve been having panic attacks for years. Mild ones, yes, but they’ve been going on for years. What worries me is that I never feared them. I actually enjoyed them. I’d get a rush of adrenaline, a moment of derealisation and flashing images in my head, and then my heart would pound and I’d start to sweat. I liked it! It was disconcerting, and I thought they might be seizures, but now I know exactly what they are. What bothers me is that I never feared these sensations, so why do they keep coming? I genuinely never fed them fear (except for the first one or two), and yet they kept coming. That makes me think I’ll have to put up with it forever, which isn’t terrible in itself given that I used to like them, but they now cause my anxiety to spike.

I also realise I’ve had anxiety for years – possibly from the moment I was conceived. It doesn’t matter what the cause is, but I can see it now. So many things make sense. I’ve had blurred vision since a stressful time at work two years ago. I’m 31 and thought it was the result of staring at computer screens so much, but several opticians said my eyesight was very strong. The blurriness was anxiety! I’ve had eye floaters for years – anxiety! I’ve been awkward and frightened of social occasions – social anxiety! It’s all been there, building to this.

So, given all the fear I still have, what has Paul David, Anxiety No More and people here done for me over the past couple of months? Well, more than any doctor. More than any therapist. More than any mental health professional. Every doctor I’ve seen has only been trying to help me, but they just don’t understand anxiety and depersonalisation. They really don’t. It’s so common and so poorly understood. It’s no wonder people end up on internet forums, making themselves worse in the process. I believe the medical profession needs to reach out to sufferers and ex-sufferers in a big way – certainly more than they do. They could do worse than seek out Paul David. It was Paul who nipped by developing agoraphobia in the bud. It was Paul who got me out of bed. It was Paul who helped me trust my wobbly limbs. It was Paul who told me why I was trembling. It was Paul who told me why I felt sick. It was Paul who told me what that awful feeling of dread actually was. It was Paul who told me why I’d lost my emotions and the world seemed like a dream. It was Paul who told me I could have the life I wanted. That is what got me back to work. That is what stopped me cancelling a trip to Iceland. Oh god, it was hard at times, but I still managed to enjoy it. I have this feeling that should I recover, I’ll back and think ‘if I could have that trip again, I’d not want to do it without the anxiety’. How weird is that? What I’m saying is that, although I’m mired in the condition, Paul David, Anxiety No More and you guys got me back on my feet. Yeah, maybe I’m doing things wrong, maybe I haven’t accepted things yet, maybe I’m still chasing recovery, but, in a contradictory way, I’m starting to accept that I will think of recovery! I’m allowed any thought! It’s that simple.

I live in west London but I’m currently at my mum and dad’s place on Merseyside where I grew up. My dad’s been playing bass since the ’60s and last night I went to a pub open-mic night with the pair of them to watch him play. I’ve always felt awkward when I go. I think I come across as a bit off with my parents’ musician friends. I also never know where to look because everyone is a stranger to me except for my parents. When the music’s playing, you can’t really make conversation with people, so I just feel plain awkward. Last night, I took a bag of anxiety with me. It was horrible. Something was screaming at me to leave. But I didn’t leave. I stayed till 2 am. I didn’t even drink because of the anti-depressants. I sat there, probably seeming weird to people (though let’s face it, in reality, I probably didn’t) and I felt grotty, but I loved seeing my dad doing the thing he loves. Incidentally, it was nice to feel that. What I realised was that I was being lied to by my anxiety. “Michael, you need to get out of here”. “No, I don’t”. “You’ve been here hours now, can’t we just get out?” “Yes, but we’re not going to. Up yours, anxiety”.

I know I’m doing things wrong. I have mantras (‘anxiety is a lie’, ‘DP is harmless’, ‘you’re not going mad’ are prime examples). I have safety behaviours. I was given a load of Diazepam by my GP and although I pretty much never take it, I do tend to carry it around with me ‘just in case’. And chief among them, I frequent this site – reading Paul’s blogs, success stories, reassuring comments. I read Paul’s stuff about DP over and over and over again. I know that all this needs to stop. But instead of worrying about it, I realise I need to stop giving myself a hard time. I need to accept that, right now, there’s a Diazepam in my wallet, notice that I never take it, and then carry on. I need to accept that I find myself on this site and that, if I keep believing in what it teaches, I’ll not need it as much. One of the few doctors to genuinely help me was actually a nurse practitioner. I was in a dreadful state and I told her how I was worried that the pills and CBT were just crutches and might be making me worse and she pointed out that I’d probably find a bit more peace if I stopped beating myself up for needing crutches. She agreed that crutches can’t fix me long term, but I was in such a state that I needed to give myself a break. She was right.

So… I can’t promise that I won’t be back on here looking for help. I realise that I’m not properly putting everything down to anxiety and am still separating symptoms out. I realise I’m not fully accepting and that I’m still engaged in safety behaviours, still riven with fear and still doing things to feel better. But I also ACCEPT all of that. I can’t change all my habits on the spot – Paul says the same thing. Anxiety is going to go round and round in my head and I’m going to stay focused on how I feel. That’s what my mind wants to do. I’m not in that fight. I’m laying down my weapons. My mind can do as it chooses. And as I take the pressure off, and start to see anxiety for what it is, the fear will hopefully begin to slip away, the way it already has done over some of my symptoms.

I’m living now. I’m tired of doctors’ waiting rooms. I’m tired of thinking I can’t do stuff. So how am I living? Well, I’m saying yes to things. I’m meeting friends. I’m going to work. I’m getting out of the house. I’m running. I’m looking forward to my train journey back to London on Monday (first class!). I’m planning my next trip (I’m thinking Morocco). I’m considering some volunteering. I’m taking trips to Bedfont in west London to watch planes landing at Heathrow. I’m getting back into reading (not self-help books!). I’m getting my blog back on the road. I’m going to watch my sister and niece horse riding tomorrow. I’m watching football. I’m considering getting involved in local politics. And you know what? I’m not doing ANY of it to feel better. Anxiety has taught me something. Not only can I do the things I always enjoyed, I can also add new things to my life.

I want to leave you with something really positive that happened to me. Earlier this week, a friend wanted to meet for lunch, which is not unusual. I wasn’t in work that day, so I was up for it. I was quite surprised when he told me that he needed to talk about something. Naturally, I was worried about him. I’ve known him for three years, but I never knew how much of a thinker and ruminator he was. He’d had a hangover and, days later, his headache was still there and he was thinking deeply about it all day and thought he was developing anxiety. Of course, I’m no expert and advised him to see a doctor about any persistent headache. But I told him, that as far as I was concerned, he was overthinking himself into pain. He didn’t ‘have anxiety’, he was anxious. I told him that the fact he keeps thinking something awful is happening in his head doesn’t mean that it is. He just needed to stop seeing his thoughts as truth. I didn’t tell him to fight the thought, just to… here it is… accept it. Anyway, I got a lovely message of thanks from him today telling me that he’s fine now and his head is back to normal. I never for a second thought he was in the same position as me or anyone of us on here who is suffering, but he did need help. Thanks to anxiety, I was able to offer it. Who knows? He may have issues in the future. But I think he’ll be okay.

So… if you’ve read all this, thank you so much. If you’ve anything to say on my fears, especially the fear of psychosis, I’d love to hear it. On the other hand, if you think I’ve said anything that you disagree with, feel free to say. I’m just trying to navigate my way to the place where I am truly accepting all of this and it’s not hindering my life. If others can do it, why not me? Why not you?

Be kind to yourself. I intend to be kind to me from now on.

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[wackygoofball]

I know the show runners do a lot of shit that makes no sense whatsoever, but another j/c sex scene? After she blew up the Sept no less? That turns my fucking stomach! Haven't we suffered enough of this soap opera esque fan fictiony bullshit?

*sigh*

Okay, where to start…

First of all, I will send ahead that if you are hereby asking for someone to *bash* on the show, I am likely the wrong address to turn to because, despite the issues I also see (though I also see issues with the books��� because neither one is gospel to me), I remain a huge fan, I do not consider the show “soap opera esqe fan fictiony bullshit” or even just a derivate of what I quoted from you, and I am very excited about the remaining two seasons.

Like seriously, I can’t wait for the new season.

So if that is what you are asking for, I will not be able to deliver, and I won’t deliver.

There are other people who are more into discussing the fallacies of the show or who are more invested in discussions regarding show vs. books dichotomies in a, let’s say, competitive way. This, by all means, is fine with me, it’s valid criticism, and by saying so I don’t mean to imply that I am somehow *above* such talk. It’s just not what I am here for, it’s not my particular scope or perspective, and it’s nothing I feel huge motivation to discuss in that way in a greater context. There are others who are better addresses to turn to for such discussions - because they are more motivated and invested in talking about those matters, whereas I am not.

So yeah, if you are looking for that alone, sorry, that’s not my kind of jam.

If you need a classic talk-down wrt your potential anxieties about the upcoming season and how the narrative will be designed around Jaime’s, Brienne’s, and Cersei’s arcs, that is something I can however do. Which is not to say that I thus claim to dissolve any anxieties, I am just saying that this is something I can discuss in more detail, and feel more comfortable with negotiating.

So, it appears that you have been going through certain sites on reddit, I assume, and it appears that you have read yet again someone claiming to have huge spoilers he or she posted on that forum.

And it appears that you give weight to that, leading to your apparent upset.

Now, to begin - certain reddit forums are a landmine (reddit in general seems to be oftentimes… though of course, exceptions are possible), because any dumbnut can set up an account, register to the respective subreddits, and then post whatever shit comes to mind.

Especially so-claimed “spoilers” and “leaks” are currently tossed around like confetti for a parade.

Making that shit up is the easist thing on planet earth. You claim to have worked at set x or y. If you are halfway invested into fooling people into believing your bullshit, you will back it up by matching it with confirmed casting, location, etc. spoilers. If you are further smart enough, you will be halfway coherent and not constantly refute your own claims by making too many contradictory statements in a single post.

That already rules out min. half of the bullshit currently being tossed out as spoiler confetti.

The point is this: DO NOT just take whatever leaks or spoilers someone on reddit claims to have as gospel or as fact. That is the first way to reduce anxiety and one of the best ways to maintain general excitement about a show you seem invested enough in to even get that emotional about it that you are that upset about the mere possibility of the narrative going that way.

Nothing is easier than making up spoilers.

I cannot repeat that often enough.

People do it for fun. I constantly make up fake spoilers for funsies - privately, and hey, some sound coherent enough! People do it because it makes them feel superior/smart for successfully fooling others - even if that just means that they are being dicks about it. People do it because they have personal agendas, such as pushing their shippy ideas, to name but one. People do it because they want to bash. People do it because they have nothing else to do. People do it for the currency called ATTENTION. People die for five minutes of fame or some upvotes on reddit.

And some people are just assholes. Never underestimate people’s ability to be assholes.

That leads to a whole lot of confetti, some of which is soggy, some of which is faded, some of which is cheap quality paper, or some of which is just what you get from cleaning out your hole puncher from your desk at last.

That’s just not the kind of confetti you’d want for your parade, or at least, if you want to organize a parade, you want to do a background check on your confetti suppliers.

So, the bottom line of this confetti-filled post at this point of time is this: I can only keep advising people to approach ANY so-claimed leaks and spoilers on e.g. reddit with much more scrutiny than I oftentimes see some people apply when yet another package of confetti is dropped on the front steps. Check the sources, check for contradictions in the story - and you’ll likely be able to tell with little effort that already half of what is being written is bullshit.

And that means you can reward them with a well-researched downvote and toss the confetti where it belongs - the trash can!

Now, to turn more specifically to the spoilers I assume you have read that made you so upset - again, I can only just assume, so if you didn’t read those spoilers… ugh… good for you?

I am hereby taking from the fabulous people at the JBO who have already pointed out that we most likely deal with a free rider who wanted to jump on the Lads train (by which, by no means, I am signing up to Lads spoilers, I don’t trust any spoilers other than casting calls, location spoilers, and pictures until proven otherwise), and now mixes in his/her own fanfic-y versions of what is going to happen in the upcoming season. I don’t want to dig too deeply into those matters right now either, because I am not here to refute those self-proclaimed leakers.

Because I don’t see why I would have to refute them when all they delivered was basically simple as day CLAIMS that, in some cases at least, matched the spoilers we do have for certain at this point. Up until now, the only evidence that’s getting delivered, if it is delivered, is that it matches known spoilers, at which point you’d have to ask yourself if, maybe, just maybe, that is what the so-claimed leaker is building on and uses as means of validation, even if that is all information s/he holds and is making up the rest. Or the CLAIM is “hey, I have seen storyboards,” “hey, I worked at the set and risk my job by giving you people I don’t even know or remotely care about personally the spoilers you are craving,” “hey, I have a friend who has a friend who has an uncle who has a friend who is the brother’s of the brother’s spouse who is doing the catering for one of the sets for GoT and you will not believe what he overheard!”

So long it’s only just claims, anonymously set up on a fan forum, I do tend to approach it with so much caution and scrutiny that I can’t even tell you how important it is to bear that in mind.

Now, yet again more specifically to the scenario you point to:

I guess it could happen that they bang another time *shrugs*. It’s not that it’d particularly please me (lol, obviously), but if we bear in mind that the show has gone the way of delaying the fallout and rearrange timelines for specifically Jaime and Cersei, for reasons I understand and for reasons I don’t understand, then Jaime only covered some things of what would be the book equivalent of his Feast and Dance arcs, which means that they are still to come.

Which yet again means that the disentangling from his Feast and Dance arc may very well take place in season 7. That again points to a narrative set-up for the show (I am here really arguing show narrative only and not in comparison to the books) that starts at a potential point A (where the two still form a union), but ends at a point B which does not equal A (the fallout) and may already entail point C (choosing going North/meeting up with Brienne).

So, during the union phase, sex doesn’t seem outlandish to me - it’s not my favored option, but it’s nothing I can rule out because I lack information to refute that claim. It’d be yet another moment where we’d have to suffer through two actors doing their utter best to make any sex scene between them look anything but hot (you really have to give Lena and Nik credit for that, they make it so wonderfully mechanic that you just know it’s supposed to be just that :) ), but that’s… about it.

To the point you raise wrt the blowing up of the Sept - bear in mind that Cersei in the show is not as entirely incapable as book!Cersei, so she will most likely, if she is halfway smart, blame the Sand Snatches for blowing up the Sept. Cersei ordered for Tommen to be cremated without ceremony as it would have been required for a king, and for the ashes to be spread by the Sept. That means she can easily claim, even if Jaime will likely ask questions, that Jaime would be out of his mind to even assume that she’d blow up the Sept if Tommen was in it (which again, she can claim - and there is no reason for Jaime to *not* believe her, given the evidence he has available to him by the time). So, to him, it could be seeking comfort due to Tommen’s loss with Cersei, who remained unscathed, and sure, have sex with her. It’s not like that this wasn’t what they have been doing forever and ever.

But that doens’t cancel out the following things:

Jaime will not spend the whole season in KL. They’ll be together in KL… not for long, because he’s headed to Highgarden. We have shortened seasons. There is just so and so much time to spend on those matters.

The show potentially laid out the evidence and the one witness he needs to get all info available to get the truth.

As I have said in a previous post, there is the issue of Tommen’s crown. He took it off before doing the Fallout Boy, Cersei didn’t use it for her own coronation. Jaime may potentially find the crown to spread the doubt - because how comes that the crown is in the Red Keep still, if Tommen is supposed to have died in the Sept?

There is still Unella… potentially… hopefully not… I hope for her not… like… how do you explain that with “the Sand Snatches ordered my Frankengregor to do that!”? You know, Jaime can be ruthless, but torture is not his kind of jam. He took Riverrun without greater bloodshed, much in contrast to what Cersei did in KL in the meantime. That very difference was set up for the viewer already last season.

Cersei gets murdergasms, watching Frankengregor smash people’s heads, Jaime gets tentgasms and hairections the further he is away from KL, it’s just the way it goes.

And there is Olenna. Granted that Jaime goes to Highgarden and she tells him everything - because she knows everything, she is the witness it takes, after some doubt was spread in Jaime. She knows about Lancel (which is why the show *could* kill off Lancel without foregoing any means to have that info transmitted to Jaime, even though I would have loved to see that scene adapted on the show, because meeting with Lancel was just wonderful in the books and showed Jaime’s development and true character). She knows about Cersei being responsible for Margaery’s and Loras’ imprisonment. She knows everything. And she can very well send one last fuck-you to Cersei by bringing up her ally, Jaime, against her at last, now that he has an army to command, and turn away from her. What a nice *drops mic* moment for Olenna, right?

Well, and if we consider that stuff from Jaime’s Feast and Dance arcs are still to be covered, then the big corner stones are:

a) Golden Bitch Slap wrt Brienne, which may be adapted in different ways, if it is to be adated, but it can still happen;

b) Jaime burns Cersei’s letter - which is the equivalent to leaving her to her fate, something the show can still adapt even with the time changes, by simply having him leave her instead of refusing to champion for her as she asked in the letter, just because he leaves her for different reasons, perhaps, doesn’t mean this is not the general upshot the show is still aiming for;

c) Riding off with Brienne wrt a mission relating to Sansa/the North more generally.

Now…

I don’t see any opposition to those things still happening, if in different ways?

Like… even if there is such a sex scene, it poses no contradiction to that happening afterwards?

That would be point B where Jaime arrives at the end of season 7, potentially, and we’d then be at a point where the delay in Jaime’s arc is finally over and he hits the corner stones from his Feast and Dance arcs, accompanied by the personal developments that go along with it, i.e. becoming his own person, growing into the Lord Lannister role, realizing who he is in contrast to Cersei, realizing who he is and how that is parallel to folks such as Brienne, speaking of - there is also that romance arc still up to the game.

To close, I will just say something I keep telling myself when I find myself getting upset after reading another load of spoilers and leaks:

Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.

I know it sounds used-up and old and corny, but seriously. We still have until friggin’ July to think our heads sore and to theorize wildly. And that is FUN, it should be FUN.

And the confetti will keep raining on our parade.

But right now, a lot of us (I am not excluding myself from having that pattern way too often) get really upset about those chickens not yet hatched. And we already build up negative thoughts as means to “brace ourselves for the worst” and some of us already judge season 7 despite the fact that we have not yet seen it, based on previous experiences and some certain so-claimed spoilers and leaks on reddit.

I mean, you can do that, but I guess your enjoyment will suffer for it.

So… to really come to an end now…

The point is to try one’s best to stay calm, to look at the facts instead of who has the most upvoted or quantatively most spoilers or most outrageous stories, to bother to counter-check and look at any CLAIMS with scrunity, to bear in mind that there are way too many assholes out in this world, a lot of dumbnuts craving ATTENTION, that there is nothing easier than to claim something and to make up FAKE spoilers and leaks, and to really, really, really try (I know it’s hard, it is) to perhaps brace oneself for things one will not enjoy about the upcoming season, but not at the cost of one’s own enjoyment of the show. Which is to say that if you enjoy the show and you are afraid now, don’t try to build up negative expectations only just to build up negative expectations. That will likely leave you even more disappointed than it will to simply see whatever may potentailly happen that you do not approve of.

It’s a long way until July.

It’s a long way until we can all have fun at the parade.

So let’s try our best to purchase the good confetti for ourselves, and otherwise… just wait for the confetti that will be tossed out by the pros… instead of crying over faded, soggy, cheap wannabe-confetti.