#again the casting is perfect

[heartstopperthoughts]

[spotaus]

Eyy, King Reaper and his beloved Mage Geno designs <3

[runninguplenorahills]

Actually the moment Gaten Matarazzo confirmed that Mike is in love with Will

I will never get over this lmaoo

[suuho]

"Wait for me in the woods, dear Gav. I love you."

GAVIN CREEL as Cinderella's Prince & JASON FORBACH as Rapunzel's Prince in INTO THE WOODS

[mmelolabelle]

I cannot believe people were so pissy about Assad’s casting as Armand, look at him —

The man looks like every homo-repressed renaissance painter’s wet dream - like 10/10 would paint him as Jesus or several angels into as many frescoes as possible.

[thevalleyisjolly]

Thinking about how many of the main characters in Andor Season 1 are, from their perspective, living in different stories and genres. Syril is the classic disgraced detective obsessing over the failure of his last case. Dedra is the brilliant lone career woman in a high-pressure male-dominated workplace. Skeen, Nemik, Taramyn, Gorn are the unlikely band of misfits attempting to pull off the heist of the century; Vel and Cinta are embroiled in espionage intrigue with Luthen. Mon Mothma's deep in the midst of a political thriller, complete with the trope of a troubled home life. Kino and all the prisoners of Narkina 5 are caught up in a grim prison drama.

Part of the brilliance of the show is that it embraces each of these characters as the protagonist of their own narratives. Dedra is very clearly an antagonist to most of the other characters, but in her interactions with her colleagues and Syril, you can sympathize with how she is dismissed and put down and harassed. Syril's scenes wouldn't be out of place in a detective show - the lone officer, demoted from his position, waking up every morning to a depressing house and a mindnumbing job yet continuing to pursue his self-identified duty with a relentless sense of righteousness and persecution. Mon Mothma's story tangentially intersects with Cassian's, but both enriches and is enriched by the contrast in perspective - the broader context of galaxy-wide politics with the immediate realities that people live with, including for Mon herself through the impact on her family life.

And then we come back to Ferrix. Maarva, Bix, Brasso, Bee, Wilmon, the Daughters, the Time Grappler, the whole community. Where the season starts and where the season ends, with a call to fight the Empire and a community that answers. A community full of different people with different motivations and methods and views and yet maybe that's the point of the whole story. Even though on an individual level, characters might seem like they're in different stories or genres, facing their own challenges and seeking their own goals, everything occurs under the context of Imperial fascism. No one can escape it, no matter what story they think they're in or how big or small their role in it.

Syril and Dedra aren't just lone agents dismissed by their superiors, they're people embracing a fascist system and doing everything they can to uphold it despite how they themselves have been treated by that system. The Aldhani team, Mon Mothma, Luthen, their enemies aren't really the garrison at the dam or the ISB's surveillance or the endless rebel infighting; they're only the immediate faces of the Empire's oppression and division. The Narkina 5 prisoners aren't just trying to live. If all they wanted was to stay alive, they could have continued working until they died. It's the Empire who is responsible for how they're being treated, and they'd rather die trying to take them down.

The uprising on Rix Road brings it all home. After all the places that the season has taken us, all the challenges and arcs that these characters have faced, it comes back full circle to where we started - with ordinary people living under fascist rule. Some work with it, some against it, most try to keep their heads down and survive it. All alone in their personal stories and obstacles...except they aren't, not really. The Empire's rot is in all their lives. There is no escaping the reach of fascism, no matter what kind of life they try to lead or what decisions they make. Individualism won't save anyone - in fact, it's what the Empire wants. For everyone to feel alone, either singular and insignificant against an insurmountable force or otherwise striving endlessly to be the exception above the masses, the heroic underdog who overcomes massive obstacles (and everyone else) to save the day and get what they want.

Ferrix wakes up and in doing so they wake everyone up. None of them exist alone. Everyone is part of this, whether they are for or against the Empire. And when all these people and their stories come together, meeting, clashing, struggling, harmonizing... that's when a revolution starts coming into its own.

[meirimerens]

the pathologic Kin is largely fictionalized with a created language that takes from multiple sources to be its own, a cosmogony & spirituality that does not correlate to the faiths (mostly Tengrist & Buddhist) practiced by the peoples it takes inspirations from, has customs, mores and roles invented for the purposes of the game, and even just a style of dress that does not resemble any of these peoples', but it is fascinating looking into specifically to me the sigils and see where they come from... watch this:

P2 Layers glyphs take from the mongolian script:

while the in-game words for Blood, Bones and Nerves are mongolian directly, it is interesting to note that their glyphs do not have a phonetic affiliation to the words (ex. the "Yas" layer of Bones having for glyph the equivalent of the letter F, the "Medrel" layer of Nerves having a glyph the equivalent of the letter È,...)

the leatherworks on the Kayura models', with their uses of angles and extending lines, remind me of the Phags Pa Script (used for Tibetan, Mongolian, Chineses, Uyghur language, and others)

some of the sigils also look either in part or fully inspired by Phags Pa script letters...

some look closer to the mongolian or vagindra (buryat) script

looking at the Herb Brides & their concept art, we can see bodypainting that looks like vertical buryat or mongolian script (oh hi (crossed out: Mark) Phags Pa script):

shaped and reshaped...

[wishfulsketching]

My feel good/nostalgia/always cheers me up show is, of all the shows in the world, The Invisible Man 2000-2002. I-MAN.

I more than recommend it.

[anotherfanaccount]

That was perfect. Everything. They can make a sequel because they have a perfect setup for it. But it's okay if they don't too.

The end credits were so perfect too. All those characters made the drama and it's only right to credit them all.

The satisfaction when a drama starts and ends on a brilliant note. 10/10. No notes. Everything was so perfect.

Writer🫡

It's her first drama. It's her FIRST DRAMA. I'm so waiting for her next ones.

[sparring-spirals]

OK. WAIT. blackforager, arasha lalani, and courtney miller all on s2 of smartypants society is WILD actually, everyone is in for a treat.

[deathon1leg]

finn and noah both saying they think will’s storyline ends perfectly… <3

first pic from finn’s interview with indiewire, second from noah’s interview with forbes

[himblebo]

What’s wrong babe? You’re thinking about Glinda’s face before she is handed the torch to light the funeral effigy of her friend? Her best friend who was fundamental to the woman she has become? The woman that she abandoned at the most pivotal moment of their lives in an act of cowardice that she has spent the rest of her life running from? Her best friend that, through her own lack of action when it counted most, is widely believed to have deserved her murder?

[hrtstcppr]

THIS IS FOR YOU. I FOUND HIM AT A CHARITY SHOP AND HE JUST HAD YOUR ENERGY I FIGURED HE BELONGED WITH YOU. ALSO IT MADE ME SAD SEEING HIM SITTING THERE ON A SHELF ON HIS OWN— OKAY WELL BYE EVERYONE HAVE A FUN TIME!

[yandere-daydreams]

gojo is everywhere but jjk 😔 that being said I need this new guy in a way that is concerning in general. THE ORANGE EYES. they GOTTA make a card for him

ahhh i'm like mostly sure that he'll get a card when the event re-runs next year since they've been doing that pretty consistently (which means we'll see him in about,,, four more years on english servers,,, rip </3), but a nightmare before christmas event is a pretty big deal, so there is a tiny chance they might release his card as one of the usually SSRs. right now i'm mostly focusing on who the three expected SSRs are going to be and more importantly, who would be the funniest in this particular situation.

[queer-reader-07]

not to be a book bitch on main but i still wish more of the good omens fandom would read the book

[kineticallyanywhere]

Matt "I can and will remind everyone that Link is REALLY wierd about Normal with like no real explination at this point" Arnold out here like "let me see if I can underminine my entire point in this character arc defining interaction" and I unironically love him for it Link is SUCH a messy b word rn

(this turned into a long response, let's talk Fascinating Character Flaws!)

I dont think it's so much that he's weird about Normal, if I'm understanding what you mean by 'weird', especially in this episode. I feel like it circles back to what I keep thinking about, which is his newest teen fact. the one where he-- does this count as poisoning? he made other children ill in a fit of jealousy for anyone having any time with his dads.

listen, I've had many homeschooled friends. At one point in college I was the "actually went to public school" member of the friend group. People can go in and out of homeschooling and be... not whatever the heck Link has going on. I was excited for him when that fact started, like, "oh he was part of a cohort!" until uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!

(the following are thoughts that I'm still developing in my head as I type and probably after I post)

whether it's due to the overprotective parenting or just Link's nature or a Symptom of a Condition (op has their own Condition but is not a psychologist) Link's got an issue with like. not getting what he wants? not usually in super obvious ways, it's not spelled out, he doesn't throw tantrums or anything. unless you count the thing at Normal about Normal not wanting to do "cool plans." and most of the time he doesn't want anything complicated, his wants have been pretty straight forward and in line with what anyone would want in these circumstances. he wants people to not die is the big major one, he wants to not feel betrayed again, he wants his friends to stop fighting, he wants to get this over with NOW. and he's been going through so much of not getting what he wants (COMPLETELY REASONABLE THINGS TO WANT, IN THIS CASE. TRAUMATIC THINGS TO NOT GET) that he seems to not know what he wants at all anymore.

like, his understanding of the world has been rocked so bad that he's pretty sure all those things I just listed just aren't things he can have. in the past whenever he needled his parents or acted out or did certain things he'd get what he wanted. not to say that he's spoiled but uh... okay yeah I am saying that a bit. but mostly in the ways that it keeps him from developing the coping mechanisms for when you ask something from life and it punches you in the teeth instead.

So in a world where he doesn't know how to get what he wants and maybe he isn't sure what he even can want, he's kinda just shutting down internally. In the mean time, he may as well make sure his friends get what they want, and then maybe at some point he'll want something again. so, in a way, what he wants is to feel and want something, so that "wants what he wants" part of him snapped out again at Normal with "well at least you're feeling something." in other words, "you have the thing that I want right now, and I'm gonna sound pretty bitter about not having it myself" which is an effed up thing to say when that thing he's having is a mental breakdown.

Link. Buddy. Bud. Kiddo. Pal. you need Help.

tl;dr and conclusion: imo for their mental health the party should split into Link & Taylor and Scary & Normal again for an episode or two. Norm and Scary for hopefully obvious reasons; and Link and Taylor because while Taylor is unquestionably a rich kid spoiled for material goods who is very good at wanting things, he is also a kid who's mom knows how to say "No. Absolutely Not. Give me the knife right now I don't care what seppuku is" and who's dad left an emotional void for over a decade that he is clearly adept in coping with and he could give Link some pointers.

also because it would be a cool callback and parallel to early episodes to do those pairs again. see how they've changed and stuff