#a discovery of witches meta

[greatrunner]

I can't take A Discovery of Witches seriously. The moment this dweeb really said, "I'm craving her" to his dudepal after smelling her jacket and looking like he caught a whiff of the worse fart ever in the previous episode... I fucking lost it.

And don't get me started on the 'ol Beige Comercial Curls getting thrown in jail and screaming, "You told me to crave him!" at her jailer.

Bitch, you sound goofy.

[youryurigoddess]

Aziraphale’s secret investigation and overlooked Clues

Remember this frame from Good Omens S02E06? Apparently Aziraphale had been using the empty carton box brought by Jim to store things in. It became a new home to at least two out of three “Lost Quartos” — the supposedly lost Shakespeare plays briefly but hilariously mentioned in the Good Omens book — as well as a very mysterious legal document.

Thought probably half of the Good Omens analysts here, including the ever so wonderful @fuckyeahgoodomens, who managed to find some information about the deceased John Gibson from New Cumnock (1855 - 1905).

Unfortunately the most interesting thing about this early 20th century provincial postmaster was his youngest child James (1894 - 1973), a quite famous stage (West End!) and film actor immortalized on screen in The Master of Ballantrae (1962), Witch Wood (1964) and Kidnapped (1963).

After that particular discovery the fandom-wide search seemingly led nowhere and the topic died a premature death.

And I almost figured it out seven months ago.

“But Yuri, you’re so clever. How can somebody as clever as you be so stupid?”, you probably want to shout across a busy London street at this point. Well, let me tell you. Much like Aziraphale, I'm blindingly intelligent for about thirty seconds a day. I do not get to choose which seconds and they are not consecutive.

Only tonight the stars have aligned in an ineffable way.

For those of you who don’t follow this account, some time ago I’ve realized that John Gibson isn’t the only testator whose estate was being investigated by Aziraphale right before The Whickber Street Traders and Shopkeepers Association monthly meeting.

If you watch S2 finale closely enough, you should notice that Crowley not only stress cleans Aziraphale’s bookshop — he also goes through the books and papers on his desk between the last three angels leaving the bookshop and Maggie and Nina’s intervention. A seemingly permanent arrangement of the props post-shooting, visible in detail both on Radio Times tour and SFX magazine photo shoot, sheds even more light on this detail.

The close-ups published after S2 release are legible enough to refer us to a much more prominent historical figure, Josiah Wedgwood (1730 – 1795) — an English potter, entrepreneur and abolitionist. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the industrialisation of the manufacture of European pottery.

Long story short, I transcribed the handwritten pages abandoned on Aziraphale’s desk, found out the source and the full text of what could be identified as Wedgwood’s last will and testament, took a walk to visit his Soho workshop, and proceeded to write a lengthy meta analysis about it.

I was today’s years old when I realized that there’s something else connecting those two dead British men.

The Scottish Post Office Directory of 1903 recorded John Gibson from New Cumnock as a “stationer and china dealer” (above) operating from the shop located in the town’s post office building.

Indeed, a close look at his post office shop window in the Henderson Building (below, bottom left) reveals an artful display of fine china and pottery next to postcards printed by Gibson.

There are multiple ways to connect this surprising link with possible S3 plot points, obviously, but it’s getting late, so let’s just name the two most important ones.

You’ve probably heard of the Holy Grail, maybe from Monty Python or Good Omens S01E03 1941 flashback. Depending on the version of the story, if can be a cup, a chalice, a bowl, or a saucer — but almost always a dish or a vessel connected personally, physically and metaphysically to Jesus (unless you’re partial to Wolfram von Eschenbach’s idea that the Grail was a stone, the sanctuary of the neutral angels who took neither side during Lucifer's rebellion).

A slightly more obscure dish related to the Son of God appears in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation as a vital part of His Second Coming. The Seven Bowls (or cups, or vials) of God’s Wrath are supposed to be poured out on the wicked and the followers of the Antichrist by seven angels:

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.

The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!”

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.

The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.  (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

[ecoterrorist-katara]

I really liked your meta about bloodbending, this is a big ask but how do you think that the whole bloodbending storyline could/should be rewritten? It’s clear that the writers are using bloodbending as a metaphor for slavery but it rarely comes across that way, and poor Hama was failed spectacularly by the writing

hello anon! thank you for this fabulous question & hope you don't mind that it took me ages to get to it.

TL;DR: I think making Hama into a serial killer/abductor was a terrible narrative choice. If it were up to me, Katara would have a (child-friendly) ethics discussion about bloodbending with Hama, who then joins them on the Day of the Black Sun. After the war, bloodbending becomes a lynchpin issue when the North attempts to colonize the South, but Hama and Yugoda find healing uses for bloodbending in the kerfuffle.

But first, my "ATLA bungled colonialism themes" soapbox: to me, bloodbending is a metaphor on two levels. The storyline about how Southern Waterbenders are captured and then transported to the FN certainly seems to reference the Transatlantic Slave Trade, like you said, though without the labour exploitation aspect; the storyline about Hama and bloodbending feels like an allegory for guerrilla resistance in general. Imo the narrative kind of cheapened these potential real-world connections by making The Puppetmaster a spooky Halloween special with a dash of “an eye for an eye” parable. The narrative's treatment of bloodbending, and Hama, feels like an unintentional reflection of “unacceptable” colonial resistance and "dark" knowledge of the colonized (fearmongering around Vodou etc). A common colonial narrative is that the colonized are sinister and underhanded for engaging in things like guerrilla warfare, which is either too violent or too cowardly depending on what’s more convenient for the colonizers’ narrative at a specific point in time. I think ATLA’s approach to bloodbending reflects this general sentiment, especially since Hama is drawn as this creepy Hansel & Gretel-style witch, a keeper of a sinister / untrustworthy / threatening type of knowledge. I also really don't like the part of the story where Hama became a serial abductor out of this indiscriminate thirst for revenge. While it's possible in real life for a colonized, incarcerated person to make those decisions, and good fiction can explore that effectively, a children's show is not the place. ATLA's target audience and general tone couldn't handle all the complexities around that, so they turned Hama into a cartoon witchy villain. Groundbreaking.

Anyway, I think the start of The Puppetmaster is actually very promising. Hama's story, and the children's discovery of her SWT roots, was touching. Katara's growing sense of unease at discovering the "darker" uses of waterbending (taking water out of flowers) is interesting. Katara is the perfect character to explore the intricacies of "how far is too far in colonial resistance." Because she's not a pacifist, like Aang, but she's also not a total pragmatist, like Sokka or Suki, and she cares about the fates of random people more than Toph. She's angry and compassionate in equal amounts.

I would love a conversation between Hama and Katara about bloodbending -- not in the dead of night while Katara has to protect her friends, but where Hama talks about the genuine hopelessness she felt in the Fire Nation prison. And Katara could talk about why she thinks bloodbending is wrong -- taking away someone's agency -- and Hama can ask Katara what she would've done in that scenario; maybe she can point out that she could have made the FN guards kill each other, but she only made them open her cell door, so it was the least violent escape she could have done; and I think, framed that way, Katara would have started to see bloodbending not through a lens of fear and disgust, but sheer pragmatism, and realize that all bending can be good or bad.

During the war, I think Katara and Sokka could convince Hama to join them on the Day of the Black Sun: Hama, for the first time in decades, has hope, and she gets to see some of the people who used to be just little kids when she was kidnapped from her home.

After the war, bloodbending would become a hot button issue in North-South relations. I could easily see the Northern waterbenders being horrified at bloodbending, in the same way Medieval Europe & puritan America have been horrified by witchcraft and other feminine-coded knowledge. I could envision the Northerners using bloodbending as justification for why women shouldn't be allowed to waterbend, and justification for why the South is backwards and therefore needs the North's influence (which would also tie nicely into the North and South comic). While Katara is busy with the political BS, Hama is swapping notes with Yugoda the healing master, and then they would eventually arrive at the conclusion that bloodbending could be used to heal.

(I can't take credit for the "Northerners horrified at bloodbending" idea, btw -- colourwhirled's Southern Lights has a storyline around it.)

Anyway, Hama deserved so much better. I like seeing her in AUs where she never had that stupid "kidnapping FN civilians" plot, like the aforementioned Southern Lights, or Lykegenia's The Things We Hide (which I read earlier this year and loved!). Hama and Jet's storylines are why I don’t trust ATLA’s politics, nor the politics of its creators. As much as I love Zuko and find his redemption arc to be an incredible story of a conscientious objector in the heart of the empire, Hama and Jet should have also gotten their redemptions too.

[beebopboom]

The Meta Underground

A Guide to Navigating what has been my brainrot posting about Good Omens

I apologize in advance for how long a lot of these are

feel free to message and asks are always open!!

non good omens related blog -> @boppinbee

Meta Series

The Bookshop

A Bookshop in Soho Eden - the bookshop is set up like a garden, hidden Tree of Life, rivers of time, and is the whole of Whickber St Eden?

The Book of Life to The Second Coming Pipeline - a couple of theories about the book of life, the rings, the fly, bookshop, and coffee

The Second…….Ball? - Gabriel’s arrival really did trigger the Second Coming - at least a version of it

The Title Sequence

Background Shenanigans - hints in the background of s1’s TS that lead to s2’s and what that might mean for our story.

Timeline Theory - those walkways are timelines

Heaven’s Timeline - a more in-depth look at how the walkways are Heaven’s planned timeline

Three Final Acts -the three magic tricks we see in the title sequence and what they might be in the show

Not the Magic Trick we see - initial findings for Three Final Acts

Mystery symbol - the ongoing search for a mystery symbol

The Metatron

The Angel Behind the Curtain - some wizard of oz parallels - we are just warming up people

Always an Angel, Never a Man - let’s dive into who he is in scripture shall we?

Am I a Good Angel? Am I a Mad Angel? - some similarities between him and the figure head of the devil

A Kind of Magic - numerology, tarot cards, and is he cosplaying?

Words of a Wise Angel - an actual look into his actions in the show and some of his funny word meanings

Agnes Nutter

The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter - a list of all her prophecies and images I could find from her book

Messages from Above - is she a witch? is she a prophet? how about both? let’s look into how she is getting her prophecies

Refined by Fire

(unfinished)

Clothing

there will be more here eventually and has to be updated

Clothing within Ranks -Angel Clothes and what the colors mean in show!universe

Aziraphale’s tartan - how lighting seems to effect his bow tie

Theories

Greasy Johnson: A Red Herring? - season three speculation about how the baby swap included Jesus as well, Hello Warlock

Unexpected Help - Saraqael was the one who opened the gateway in the bookshop

Nuns Night Out - what are those nuns doing at the theatre?

A Case of Missing Weaponry - ever wondered where Michael’s spear is? boy do i have a crackpot theory for you.

Meta Groups

Aziraphale

Aziraphale’s Flaming Sword - the human history behind his sword

The Halo was the Cause - why the Halo was the reason the Metatron showed up

An early journey of questioning - it really doesn’t take him long

Aziraphale’s Protection - how he protects Crowley

Aziraphale’s unintentional? placement - Aziraphale standing to the left of Gabriel in Job

A lying Angel - lying to protect his love

Choosing Death- choosing death doesn’t work maybe it’s time for something else

Don’t try to be God - why Aziraphale got nervous in Before the Beginning

Crowley

Crowley’s Fall - he really didn’t mean to Fall

Anthony J Crowley - a self discovery through his name

Defensive Crowley - acknowledging the consequences of the arrangement

Crowley losing the bookshop - and he’s the only one to have

Crowley giving up Alpha Centauri - he gave away their safe space

Stars to Plants - she just wants to watch her creations grow ok

Crowley’s Ringtone - not quite a normal phone sound

It’s always too Late

The Ineffables

The apology routine - maybe there is more to it than the dance

They love humanity - just in different ways

A duet - it’s not a want but a need

Nothing - their versions of nothing

Power dynamic - “second in command” ok wow that hurt

Paranoia and Isolation - how the pandemic may have affected them

Difference of Perspective - how the audience vs characters view A&C

Timeline

The Flood changed it all - it really fucked them up

Future Minisode time slots - the gaps in time for possible future minisodes

Heaven

1827 Second Coming? -crowley and aziraphale unintentionally fucking things up

Metatron future manipulation - something he is going to “let” Aziraphale do in s3

Angel confrontation tactic - they really like trapping Aziraphale into conversations huh?

Wildcard

Dirty Donkey Lift - just questioning why the hell it is there

Cut dream sequence - whose is it?

Something up with fours? - discussing some fours in the show

Angels don’t dance - and they don’t ask for forgiveness

Freemasons lodge - duality of the Resurrectionist

No Garden? No God - they left the garden

Maggie’s Ugrency - picking apart her misspelling

Questioning the Coffee Shop - only two beings do it - Crowley and the Metatron

Slamming of the books - Jim says some interesting things when slamming two books together and what it could mean

If Gabriel can leave Heaven and be with Beelzebub, why can’t Aziraphale do the same with Crowley - more of a ramble than anything else

The Wicked Bible - the second printing error

ASAP - further look at the many asap’s around the coffee shop and how it plays into the final fifteen

Memory Returns - a (currently) three way visual parallel of when memories are returned

Acrostic Clues

fuck I have to reorganize this again

[justareallyverychillperson]

Assuming Rio is Death: what it means

It explains what happened to Nicholas Scratch; Agatha performed some type of spell to get the Darkhold, he tried to stop her (because she was hurting people presumably) and got caught in the blast. Rio/Death represented an escape for a young Agatha, from the oppressive rules of her coven; she was corrupted into practicing dark magic since she was naturally ambitious and it is this discovery, that a member of the coven was *ehem* consorting with Death itself, which leads to the execution. Agatha walked the Road to impress her, hence why the death of her son was a betrayal- Rio didn't want to let her son die, but those are the rules of the Road...not all witches necessarily make it to the end ^^

I don't think Agatha can be blamed though~ after all, love is love <3

As for the "you were born evil" part, while in a meta sense it 💯 refers to Agatha's 🏳️‍🌈💅🏻 traits; within the plot it suggests her ambition and natural talent at magic was seen early on, along with impulsive behavior and defiance that set her apart from her coven. Evil in a pure 1600s sense of the word uwu

Yeah, losing your son to Death because you thought she was hot and wanted to impress her is tots more embarrassing than "I sacrificed him in cold blood for a book" ; ) 🥹❤️

[stewardofningishzida]

Masterlist

Started: 6/19/2023

This masterlist is a monster, ye hath been warned.

Doctor Strange Meta-Fic 1

Chapter 1: First Meeting

Chapter 2: Discovery

Chapter 3: The Calvary

Chapter 4: Hello!

Chapter 5: A Sweet Introduction

Chapter 6: Tension

Chapter 7: The Research Begins

Chapter 8: Trial and Error

Chapter 9: Back to School

Chapter 10: Into the Abyss

Chapter 11: Back to Basics

Chapter 12: Double Double

Chapter 13: On Jewelry and Eyes

Chapter 14: Weathered

Doctor Strange Meta-Fic Sequel

Chapter 1: Lingering Fragments

Chapter 2: Catching up

Chapter 3: Chaos

Chapter 4: Old Friends, New Friends

Chapter 5: A Learning Experience

Chapter 6: On Novices and Damage Control

Chapter 7: Fury

Chapter 8: Tibetan Witch Project

Chapter 9: Silly Witch…

Chapter 10: Trix is for Avengers!

Chapter 11: Recovery Daze

Chapter 12: Dormammu

Chapter 13: We’ve Come to Bargain!

Chapter 14: On Moving Day and Shapeshifting

Chapter 15: Who Broke It?

Chapter 16: The Trials

Chapter 17: Catch-Up, Make-Out

Chapter 18: Grim Grinning Ghosts

Chapter 19: Missions Possible

Chapter 20: An Alien in New York

Chapter 21: A Covert Ring

Chapter 22: A Strange Debacle

Real-Life Scary Stories

Real-Life Scary Story 1:  The Trail

Real-Life Scary Story 2:  Queen Mary

Real-Life Scary Story 3:  SCUBA

Bonus Real-Life Scary Story: Strong Currents

Real-Life Scary Story 4:  Mountain Drive

Second Bonus Story: Tanks!

Real-Life Scary Story 5: Morning Commute

Real-Life Scary Story 6:  Hanging Around

Real-Life Scary Story 7:  Dangerous Equipment 

Real-Life Scary Story 8:  Gas Leak

Two for One Real-Life Scary Stories (9 and 10):  Road Rash

Real-Life Scary Story 11: Ether

Real-Life Scary Story 12: Packing Up

Real-Life Scary Story 13: Birth

Real-Life Scary Story 14:  Barbecue

Real-Life Scary Story 15: Arachnophobia

Real-Life Scary/Crazy Story: Jezebel

Real-Life Crazy Stories

Real-Life Crazy Story 1:  Goat Rodeo

Real-Life Crazy Story 2:  Sailing

Real-Life Crazy Story 3:  Green Cloud Means NO

Real-Life Crazy Story 4:  Safety Last

Real-Life Crazy Story 5:  How Could It Bee?

In Memoriam

In Memoriam: E.M.

In Memoriam: E.G.

In Memoriam:  C.L.

In Memoriam: N.K.

In Memoriam:  U.E.

In Memoriam:  N.L.

In Memoriam: V.H.

In Memoriam: J.H. and A.H.

In Memoriam:  M.E.

In Memoriam: M.X.

Real-Life Funny Stories

Funny Story:  I Like Trains

Real-Life Funny Story:  HONK

Real-Life Funny Story 2:  Let Them Wear Cake

Real-Life Funny Story 3:  Mind Your Manners

Real-Life Funny Story 4:  Feeling Flushed

Real-Life Funny Story 5: Christmas Crafts

Real-Life Funny Story 6: All’s Fair in Louvre

Misc.

General Weirdness

More Memories (Dear God, Why?)

Yet Another Bonus Story

Some Reflections

Me vs. Death

Thanksgiving 

On the Holiday Season

Remembering 

Heartwarming Stories

Heartwarming Story 1:  Bathtub Surprise!

[chaosmultiverse]

Kyubey from PMMM is really interesting to me as like a individual character

he has seemingly the ablity to transmute any potential someone has into this raw energy that transforms a person and then at the final form of transformation Kyubey is able to digest this pure engery and somehow that carries into transferring that energy into his universe as a whole to put off the death of the universe at the hand of entropy

And then there's the fact that his whole species is a hivemind, which I think on a meta level is to help explain why Kyubey doesn't use his transmution powers on one of his kind, who inherently to the ablity of semi-unlimited wish granting have unlimited potential. I suspect Kyubey had likely imposed the anti-emotion & individual stuff which gets rid of members of the species that experience either before the discovery of entropy or at least before he came up with plan magical girl

I also suspect he could make a member of the huvemind a "magical girl" but hasn't due to the Witch stage, either there is the potential issue of ghat driving the whole hivemind to madness or due to the lack of emotions it is impossible for his species (at this point) to reach the witch stage which is necessary for digesting yhe energy

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Yuval Noah Harari’s new book is ‘NEXUS: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI.’

The Diary of a CEO with Steve Bartlett

September 5, 2024

Can humanity handle AI or will it be our downfall? Yuval Noah Harari looks back at history to guide us through this uncertain journey ahead.

Yuval Noah Harari is a best-selling author, public intellectual and Professor of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of multi-million bestseller books such as, ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’ and ‘Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow’. 

In this conversation, Yuval and Steven discuss topics such as, how AI is disconnecting people, the best way to control fake news, how institutions drive trust, and how Trump could change democracy. 

(00:00) Intro (02:31) Will Humans Continue To Rule The World? (06:48) Why AI Is The Biggest Game-Changer In History (10:34) Is AI Just Information Or Something More? (16:53) Can AI Manipulate Our Bank Accounts And Political Views? (21:42) How AI Will Affect Human Intimacy (23:44) Will AI Replace Teachers? (25:09) Why Online Information Is Junk (28:42) How Politicians Use Fear To Manipulate Us (31:52) Should There Be A Free Speech Movement (39:38) How Algorithms Are Shaping Global Politics And Increasing Fear (45:30) The Impact Of The US Election On Global Politics (48:48) What Trump Could Do To US Democracy (50:29) Can We Trust What We See On Social Media And The News? (55:37) Will AI Eventually Run Governments? (00:58:32) What Jobs Will AI Leave For Humans? (01:02:01) Which Jobs Will Be Automated By AI? (01:05:33) Is AI Conscious? (01:07:19) AI, Robots, And The Future Of Consciousness (01:10:01) Are We Living In A Simulation? (01:13:09) How Algorithms Control Our Lives (01:16:21) Understanding The AI Alignment Problem (01:21:13) The Relationship Between AI And Corporate Interests (01:25:04) The Growing Threat Of Totalitarian Governments (01:33:08) How The Algorithm Knows It's Fake News (01:38:01) Is Yuval Tempted To Log Off? (01:41:52) Will Humans Become Two Species? (01:44:00) What's The Solution To The Negatives Of AI? (01:49:17) The Last Guest Question

________________________

“Masterful and provocative.”—Mustafa Suleyman

For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive?

Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.   Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Unholy Alliance A bizarre marriage is now under way in the shadows of American politics. The coy but ambitious bride is the Christian Right. The mysterious bridegroom is the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, an international cult with apparently unlimited means and a well-developed taste for power. This peculiar alliance is blessed with Moonie money and fired by anticommunist zeal. Witnesses to the wedding may well wonder, however, what this unholy union holds for American politics. LINK

[adagnitios]

𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓 !

ind.  sel.  priv.  miriam shephard  from  all souls / a discovery of witches .  established  in  october  2018,  as  written  by  val .     (  she  /  her  ,  29  ,  gmt+1   )  

𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂  𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒  :   rules  ›  about  ›  verses  ›  meta 

𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑  𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒  :   aesthetic  ›  memes  ›  starter  call

𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑  𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐒  :   @scavengered  ( main )  ›  @detpowell  ›  @taylorphoebe  ›  @efthonia  ( multi - low ,  low  active )

[thewhyldeone]

Which fall of Carthage?

“During the harvest a comet blazed over the vineyards. It had been visible through astronomers’ telescopes for months, but in October it was so bright you could almost read by its light. The workers saw it as a sign that the grapes we blessed.”

“Was this 1986? Was it Halley’s comet?”

Matthew shook his head. “No. It was 1811.” I stared in astonishment at the almost two-hundred-year-old wine in my glass, fearing it might evaporate before my eyes. “Halley’s comet came in 1759 and 1835.” He pronounced the name “Hawley.”

[later]

He’d drunk chocolate in Paris in 1615 and received a building permit from Henry VIII in 1536 - of course he was buying wine in 1811. And there was the ancient looking ampulla he was wearing around his neck, the cord visible at his throat.

“Matthew,” I said slowly, watching him for any early warning signs of anger. “How old are you?”

His mouth hardened, but he kept his voice light. “I’m older than I look.’

“I know that,” I said, unable to curb my impatience.

“Why is my age important?”

“I’m a historian. If somebody tells me he remembers when chocolate was introduced into France or a comet passing overhead in 1811, it’s difficult not to be curious about the other events he might have lived through. You were alive in 1536 - I’ve been to the house you had built. Did you know Machiavelle? Live through the Black Plague? Attend the University of Paris when Abelard was teaching there?”

He remained silent. The hair on the back of my neck started to prickle.

“Your pilgrim’s badge tells me you were once in the Holy Land. Did you go on crusade? See Halley’s comet pass over Normandy in 1066?”

Still Nothing.

“Watch Charlemagne’s coronation? Survive the fall of Carthage? Help keep Attila from reaching Rome?”

Matthew held up his right index finger. “Which fall of Carthage?”

“You tell me!”

[later]

Matthew Clairmont was more than fifteen hundred years old.

- Chapter 12, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkenss (All Souls Trilogy)

-

I love this part of the book so much. The suspense, the flirting, its exactly as playful as the show portrays it.

He knows what he is doing, by giving up these bits of information to a historian.

 He’s drawing her in, in what I think, he thinks is the only way he knows how at this point. Going back to that chapter 3 bit about how she knows his long dead friends so well, which is what makes him angry. Because they are entirely foreign to each other as creature rules force them to be, at this point neither of them know what to do with the other, but as a students of science and history they have a shared knowledge to stand on and know each other through. 

Only another scientist/historian and a witch/vampire could understand Matthew and Diana as I think they want to be understood, as people, historians, scientists, poets, students and last as creatures. 

Other titles and charecteristics people foist upon them cause a cold distance and distraction from the core of who they really are. No one truly truly knows them. This brings the human and supernatural aspects of both their identities together so that they may be open and truthful to one another, they can be normal, not terrifying or all powerful or even illegal as a couple by the Congregation’s standards.

This interaction is simple and quite normal, a conversation. Nothing about it is supernatural, other than the fact that he lived through all those past events.

Thats what I love about this series and what makes it so different I think, they don’t fall in love with each other because one is a witch and the other is a vampire, though those aspects do become important to the foundations of their relationship as they grow together. 

They fall in love because of completely normal personality traits and the shared pool of historical and scientific knowledge. 

[qqueenofhades]

Oh, enemies-to-lovers professionally published romance novel written by a heterosexual white woman, why must you disappoint me in this way.

[kindlyones]

Some Baldwin thoughts for s3

(ADOW 3/Book of Life spoilers)

You all know I have a passionate crush on Trystan’s Baldwin and was obviously very nervous about the recast though there’s no point being mad or nasty about it. And I went into this wanting to love the New Baldwin who I called Blondwin before they made his hair gray for show.

TLDR: Trystan is still my favorite TV Baldwin. I can’t knock Peter’s interpretation of Baldwin though. He read the assignment and was pretty true to Book Baldwin and that was the job.

Book Baldwin is cold and unreadable. Deb tells us in World of All Souls there’s a lot going on behind the scenes and is often described by other characters as sly and cunning. He represents the establishment and Philippe’s (flawed) legacy and for most of the series is presented as an antagonist to BishMont and Co. In the end of BoL, he really comes through, and it’s clearer he was always acting in what he believed to be the family’s best interests and is capable of change. It is hard to read anything about his personal beliefs beyond protecting his father’s legacy though Deb drops some nuggets here and there. He is described as having a temper, but we only see it once in all 4 books in the sheet ripping scene at the beginning of BoL. It is not appropriate to come into your relative’s room and rip the sheets off them when they are naked and if I could scoop Baldwin out of the page I would tell him he was very naughty to do that BUT the fanfic writer in me tries to get in his head and see every scene from his perspective and I believe he was SO SHOCKED by the blood vow it sort of reset him to his base code (as we see happen with Matthew sometimes, when vampires get emotional they are more likely to seem out of time and express viewpoints more in line from the time they were born) and Romans had very different ideas about nudity, sex, and privacy esp. in the legion where they lived communally. Later in the library he is pretty vicious, but still not shouting. Deb describes Baldwin as being similar to Philippe, but not nearly as charming, and he saves his charm for women.

So Peter met this pretty well. He does shout a bit and was the first to attack Matthew in the chapel and was in this way more expressive than book Baldwin, but Trystan’s Baldwin was even more so. I love that he was wearing a pink tie in that scene. He was dressed for a christening even though he was there for business. He spent most of the season very reserved and I’m sad they wrote out most the scenes where he gets to appear more dynamic and the only scene we catch him with his guard down. It makes him a flatter character but without those scenes there’s not much to work with. The “I believe they are babies” line is my favorite. We did get to see more of the Congregation politics and it was weird to see him appear so cowed by Gerbert and needing Domenico to help him. I hope this was Baldwin just pretending like Gerbert had the upper hand because he would never. I did enjoy that they highlighted more that in vampire politics, it is Baldwin that bears the responsibility for Jack’s crimes and Baldwin low key remind everyone in the Congregation that Matthew having his own scion means Matthew is retroactively responsible for any crimes committed by members of his scion in the past. This is a big change in what changes Baldwin’s mind in the books where it was Matthew’s self control and potentially needing to use him as a weapon.

Trystan brought us a more expressive Baldwin. He was more physical in both his face and movements and moved around more. Peter’s Baldwin was more upper class and stereotypical English gentry emotionless stiff upper lip, which isn’t off book, but I preferred Trystan’s cheekier Baldwin who was more of a tired old soldier at times.

The last thing I want to point out is that in the only BTS clips I’ve seen, the wardrobe department explains a sort of color coding for the factions where Diana is represented by blues, vampires are represented by dark reds, and Matthew goes from wearing blacks/greys to blues to match Diana and Ysabeau from burgundy to blues. They give Diana a sky blue color to wear often and look who is spotted wearing a sky blue sweater in the last scene making goochie goo faces? Baldwin. I could say something about the pink tie meaning he was on his way from the vampire faction to the BishMont faction but I think it was more daytime church attire and also in S1 he wears both red and blue ties. In S2 he wears the all black suit that gives me tingles.

[begins-with-an-absence-of-desire]

A conversation with @rambosaysso about Matthew and Baldwin and their relationship here is my take.

Matthew will as much as he can, avoid all contact with Baldwin on a daily basis because Baldwin stresses him out and he needs his blood rage under control at all times.

The only times Matthew buckles and obeys Baldwin without question is when it’s something important. After Philippe died he allowed Baldwin to treat him however he wished and obeyed his orders for one very simple heartbreaking reason:

Ysabeau.

Matthew will not defy Baldwin because Baldwin may turn his rage to Ysabeau and force her out of Sept Tours. Matthew loves his mother too much to allow any harm to come to her no matter what Baldwin does to him. He will always obey and always comply.

Matthew allows the bullying so that those he loves are protected.

[rat---king]

You ever join a fandom because it has like a very specific cross of your favorite tropes and interests, only to find 99% of the fandom is there because they're thirsty for one actor and that's it

[burberrycanary]

Favorite Season 1 Bishmont Moments [1/?]: Matthew’s Insecurities

You may not like what you see. —A Discovery of Witches 1.05

How Matthew responds to Diana’s care, acceptance and protective instincts is amazing. “I’ve never felt so protective over anyone,” he said back in Oxford, trying to understand his own feelings and meaning I’ve never loved anyone like this. Here, after letting himself be so vulnerable, he is met with this: Diana being intensely, violently protective over him, which means she must feel at least part of what he is feeling—maybe she really does love him back the way he loves her—and that? That is some heady, heady stuff for someone with Matthew’s doubts and fears.

[village-skeptic]

[It begins with obsession and knitwear; it begins with meta and fabrics; it begins with... the emotional semiotics of costuming. In this multi-part series, @burberrycanary and @village-skeptic exhaustively contextualize significant pieces of clothing from A Discovery of Witches.]

Diana's Peacock Blue Cardigan of Hasty Vampire Elopement (aka the Cardigan of Emotional Vulnerability)

[Part 1 of ?] This is the piece of knitwear that started it all—both our quippy titles for ADOW’s gorgeous costume pieces, and then our intense, often-giddy analysis of their significance within the story. Of course, it didn’t take us to this point in the story to realize how intentional the design team had been with the color palette for this show. We see saturated blues, crisp whites, and moody tones of gray and black time and again throughout ADOW, especially on our main characters. In fact, the very first glimpse that we get of Diana (even before we know that it is Diana) tells us that, this blue? This gorgeous shade of turquoise? This is Diana’s blue.

Nor did it take us this long to start drooling over all the gorgeous sweaters, shawls, scarves and coats this show sets before us. Diana’s cozy white fisherman’s sweater, her Aegean blue peacoat, her misty-grey turtleneck pullover? All noted; all applauded; all coveted.

(All eventually analyzed, too. Trust us. We’ll get there.)

But THIS sweater, man. This was the costuming choice that left us torn between sighing “that KISS!!!” and “that CARDIGAN!!!”

By this point in 1.05, our intrepid, impatient leads have (separately) spent some time sorting out their feelings. They’ve acknowledged that a romance between two individuals with vastly different lifespans will necessarily end in tragedy; they’ve meditated on the fact that any relationship between them would contravene a centuries-old pact and shatter a fragile peace between creatures....

...and they’ve decided that they’re all in anyway. Amor vincit omnia.

But they’ve got to make their intentions plain to each other first. Tell me, Diana demands, and Matthew obliges: from this moment, we will always be one.

This climactic scene gives us an equally swoony sweater: a super-soft peacock blue duster that floats behind Diana as she runs to the gatehouse to meet Matthew, and that swirls around her in the foreground as they embrace. Simultaneously snuggly and chic; comfortable and romantic - if you owned it, you’d be finding excuses to wear it all the time.

Diana’s got a lot of gorgeous knitwear at her disposal, so she doesn’t reach for it all the time. But she tends to be wearing it at the moments when she’s most emotionally vulnerable: in this first scene, as she goes to greet Matthew, having declared her feelings without fully knowing his heart.

In the scene directly following, in which she and Matthew wait to hear whether their relationship will cause Matthew’s mother to turn them both away.

In this pre-”bundling” conversation later that evening, as Diana learns the extent of her magic and grapples with the fear that her powers will make her a target for violence - as her parents’ power did.

And, then, one very unpleasant and eventful day later, as she sits on the couch at Sept-Tours and starts to process both the trauma from Satu’s attack and the threats from the Congregation that are yet to come.

The lovely thing about the Peacock Blue Cardigan of Hasty Vampire Elopement (and Emotional Vulnerability) is that every time Diana puts it on and prepares to get hurt...the blow never comes. Matthew not only tells her that he loves her; he makes a permanent commitment to her. Rather than kicking her son and his new wife out of her house, Ysabeau (yes, somewhat grimly) acknowledges their relationship and welcomes Diana as a daughter. In response to Diana’s fears about her power, Matthew reassures her that they’ll face whatever comes together - and then matches her emotional vulnerability with his own, as he shows her his scars. And once something terrible does happen, even sooner than either of them could have possibly expected, Matthew meets Diana’s blunt questions in the aftermath with honesty, loyalty, and respect.

A soft and comforting garment that gives us the emotional warm fuzzies too? We couldn’t possibly be bigger fans.