#aka one of the least problematic ones

[shinedoitsulikeabright]

Ares, my beloved!!!

.............

piggyback ride w thunder daddy

Here's zeus back when he had short hair/clouds(?) With todler Ares

[requiemforthestars]

Being back in the Dragon Age fandom has awakened something long asleep within me, which is a seething deep, feral hatred and disgust for Cullen and dismay at the way everyone in the fandom is head over heels for him. Literally it's as fresh as it was on the first day. Truly, things you feel at 15 years old do not wane.

[alexistalkscomics]

Why Is The Jewish “Representation” In Agatha All Along So Problematic???

When it was first confirmed that Joe Locke was going to have a role in Agatha All Along, most fans quickly came to the conclusion that he would be portraying Billy Kaplan AKA Wiccan which unfortunately ended up being correct.

The problem with that casting you ask?

Joe Locke isn’t Jewish and he is playing one of Marvel’s most prominent Jewish characters. Whilst many goyim (non-Jewish people) often inaccurately perceive Jewishness to solely be a religious identity which is a massive oversimplification of what it means to be a Jew, Jewish people are actually an ethnoreligious community which means that we’re our own distinct ethnic group and culture that have a traditional religion that is intrinsically tied to our identity and culture regardless of individual Jewish people’s levels of observance.

And because we are an ethnoreligious group, that makes the casting of Joe Locke, who is not ethnically or religiously Jewish, inherently problematic to say the least, especially when placed into the wider context of Jewish representation in the MCU.

Marvel Studios has previously been criticised for the way that it’s approached adaptations of Jewish characters for the MCU with the two main examples being casting Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, who is Romani and Jewish in the comics, and Oscar Isaac as the Ashkenazi Jewish Marc Spector in the Moon Knight streaming series and in both cases, the heritage of the characters were either downplayed or just outright erased. So for anyone who understands the issue, it should be clear that the MCU has a poor track record when it comes to representing Jewish characters and that Agatha All Along’s adaptation of Billy Maximoff/Kaplan is just another addition to the list of disrespectful adaptations of Jewish characters.

What is the specific problem with how Billy has been adapted in the MCU?

Well, in order to answer that question, the answer has to effectively be split into two parts:

In the most recent episode of Agatha All Along, we finally learn the backstory of Billy (who had previously only been referred as “Teen” due to a spell that prevented his identity from being found out) and as part of that, we are shown a flashback to the day of Billy KAPLAN’s (the capitalisation will make sense in a bit), Bar Mitzvah, a sacred Jewish ritual that marks the transition into adulthood and the responsibilities that comes with being a Jewish adult. In this flashback, Billy (who if you’ve payed attention, is being played by a non-Jew) is shown wearing traditional religious garments and handling what is potentially an actual Torah scroll.

Within Judaism and Jewish culture in general, handling a Torah and then reading from it is seen as both a great honour and responsibility for any Jew who is called for an Aliyah so seeing a non-Jewish actor who has no experience as a Jewish person and in interviews, has mocked fans who criticised his role in the show, wearing my culture and religion as a costume to advance his career just felt wrong to me. I love Marvel and I take great pride in superhero comics being an art form that was created by Jewish immigrants so seeing one of the biggest franchises in history cast a non-Jewish actor to appropriate Jewish culture just felt disgusting to me. At least with Moon Knight, all we got was the smallest references to his Jewish heritage rather than being subjected to seeing the christian Oscar Isaac partake in sacred closed rituals.

And now, moving onto the second part of the answer to the above question, after we see Billy reading from the Torah and are then shown the party following the ceremony, we learn that the flashback takes place concurrently with the final episode of WandaVision. Because of that, the party has to end early so that guest can evacuate and soon, Billy and his parents are in a car accident where Billy dies…

…until his body is quickly revived after the soul of Wanda and Vision’s artificially constructed son, Billy MAXIMOFF possesses and takes control of Billy Kaplan’s body whilst erasing everything that made Billy Kaplan who he was. The reason why this is especially problematic is because of the great importance of the soul within Judiaism. According to Jewish laws, one of the most important things that distinguishes Jewish people from goyim is a Jewish soul and in Agatha All Along, one of the main protagonist who is an adaption of a Jewish character who was created by a Jewish writer is reimagined as a non-Jewish soul that hijacks the corpse of a Jewish teenager to use as a meat puppet. It becomes even worse when later on in the episode, “Billy” is shown rejecting his identity as Billy Kaplan which effectively takes the undertones of ethnic erasure and cultural appropriation of Joe Locke’s casting and makes it an essential part of the characterisation for this incarnation of Billy.

In Conclusion?

In the Marvel Comics, Billy Kaplan is a proud queer Jewish man who was partially based on the lived experiences of his creator who is also a gay Jewish man. Becuase of that, he holds a special place in the hearts of many fans who see a piece of ourselves in him and we deserved to see the really Billy Kaplan be brought to life in a way that would honour the source material that we love and introduce mainstream audiences to a really cool and fascinating Jewish superhero who can open up so many possibilities for the more supernatural side of the Marvel Universe to be explored in further MCU instalments.

But instead, we got the bare minimum of Jewish representation followed by the complete erasure of that “representation” with the ultimate end product being a show riddled with the underlying rot of antisemitism.

[artbyblastweave]

ask game; Victoria Dallon, aka Glory Girl aka Antares

I've always thought that Victoria's first appearance is quite the bit of deft needle-threading.

The thing about Interlude 2 is that Vicky is our first example of one of this setting's established heroes actively fighting crime- not just swooping in to vulture up the accomplishments of an up-and-comer- and a therefore a major goal of the sequence is to ensure that the audience comes away structurally unnerved by what counts as business as usual for the heroes, set the stage for the hurricane of ass-covering to come. So we have a sequence where she lords her power over a baseline criminal who has no realistic chance to fight back or get away, where she cripples and nearly kills him in a display of excessive force, where she uses her connections to other capes to duck out on the consequences of her excess once she realizes that she's crossed certain moral and optical Rubicons. All of this is gross, all of this speaks to an alarmingly cavalier attitude amongst even the most ostensibly accountable heroes. And from a protagonistic perspective, all of this serves to soften the blow of Taylor's actions at the bank in act three, because we're predisposed to see Vicky as an arrogant, overprivileged loose cannon who'd actually have a significantly higher body count than all of the Undersiders put together if not for the cushion afforded to her by her status as a superhero. A golden child up against the already put-upon underdog.

But. She also does all of that to a Neo-Nazi, who was fresh off committing a hate crime. I mean, if this was violence against a purse-snatcher, a drug-dealer- It would be very, very easy to block this sequence in a way that would set her up as a villain and nothing else for the rest of the work. In The Boys, for example, Homelander debuts by incinerating one bank robber's hand and throwing another a thousand feet into the air to land hard on a parked car, and the dissonance between that casual brutality and his chumminess with the onlookers is the thematic backbone for... basically the entire show, because he was in such total control of the situation that the only reason to do it that way is that he fundamentally doesn't care. In Super Crooks, it's made abundantly clear that the superheroes trying to arrest the titular supervillains are significantly more destructive to the city than the villains are, because their institutional backing removes any incentive to do anything but pursue the flashiest arrests possible for the sake of ratings. But Glory Girl? She's a sixteen year old putting her money where her mouth is on the unconsidered-dilettante suburban-left-ish tumblrite rallying cry of punching a Nazi. She's living out a near-boilerplate superheroic fantasy of righteous violence against an uncomplicatedly righteous target- likely a fantasy entertained at least once by the median cape fan, if we're being honest- and then, in the aftermath, blood on her hands and on the pavement, staring down the full weight of the prospect of actually having killed a person in an unconsidered spate of rage, is very much a panicked teenager about it, scrambling for a way to walk it back.

Which, independent of the specifics of whether this particular asshole had it coming, is the problematic element of this that generalizes- that superheroism in this world is a system that puts the social license to use concrete-shattering power in the hands of a kid with the judgement and attitude of someone scheming up ways to dodge curfew. She's done this before, she's gonna keep doing this, she's gonna keep being two-faced about it with her public-facing golden-girl image. But she wasn't wrong to be angry. And the fact that this is the kind of thing she gets angry about is hard to separate from later beats where she tries to do right by people, hard to separate from her willingness to put herself on the line against Endbringers and the Slaughterhouse 9. It's a bad situation, a horrible system that's guaranteed to incentivize bad behavior, they shouldn't be assigning any of this shit to a 17-year-old. But later on, when things go south for her, the seeds are planted so that she can retain audience sympathy in a way that she likely wouldn't be able to if this story was a banal hatswap, with unfairly maligned "villains" who do no real wrong against supervillains who happen to call themselves superheroes.

[asleep-kat]

Ships/duo names in LMK

Sooooo, there's alot of ship/duo names in lmk. So i thought, hey maybe i should compile all of them into one post! Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Haha anyways, just some things to note : most ships/duo names will have two or more names due to it being somewhat obscure ( and sometimes kinda problematic, but i'm adding it either way ). And i might've also missed some, so if you know another obscure ship or whatever, lmk in the tags or comments ^^

Most popular name used in this color

Least popular is still in black text

If there is no yellow text, then that means that either all of them are widely used or that i am not sure which one is more popular yet

----

Sunburst duo - Monkey king & MK

Soysauce duo - Macaque & MK

Fallenstar duo - Macaque & Monkey MK

Stonefruit trio - Macaque & Monkey king & MK

Goldendragon/meik/JadeMonkey/Carambola/Starfruit - Mei/MK

Jackfruit/M&M/Starburst duo - Mei & MK

Dragonfruit/Wasabi/Peppermint/Dragonfire - Mei/Red son

Traffic light trio - Mei & Red son & MK

Disco Light Squad - MK & Mei & Redson & Nezha

Chimera/Bell Pepper Crew - Mei/Red son/MK

Wasabi Duo - Mei & Monkey king

DarkHorse Duo - Mei & Macaque

Shadowpeach - Monkey king/Macaque

Pastdowpeach/past shadowpeach - past Monkey king/past Macaque ( this is basically just shadowpeach but is, ofcourse, in the past )

frostbite - Possessed Monkey king/Macaque

Sundial/eclipse duo - Macaque & Monkey king

Hot topic duo/charcoal duo - Redson & Macaque

Freenoodles/Jiaozi/Cookbook - Tang/Pigsy

Spicynoodles - MK/Redson

List of MK & Redson names can be found here

Flame twins - Mei & Redson

Inferno duo - Nezha & Redson

Royalty duo - Nezha & Monkey King

Lotuspeach - Nezha/Monkey king

Tintedlotus duo - Nezha & Macaque

Sunmoonlotus - Nezha/Monkey king/Macaque

Sunset trio - Nezha & Monkey King & Macaque

Evening stone squad - Nezha & Monkey King & Macaque & MK

Lotusmoon - Nezha/Chang'e

Lotusnoodles - Nezha/MK

Red ribbons duo - Nezha & MK

Flaminglotus - Nezha/Redson

Silverlotus - Nezha/Yin

Waterlily duo - Nezha & Sandy

Pinkpuppy/Mountainfire - Erlang & Nezha

Shadowhound - Erlang/Macaque

Heavenlypeaches ( or Jiankong in jttw ) - Erlang/Monkey king

Heavenlybeast - Erlang/Monkey king/Macaque

Chowchow - Erlang/Azure lion

HuntingHawk - Erlang/Peng

Violetskies - Erlang/Peng/Macaque

Heavenlytusk - Erlang/Yellowtusk

Moongaze - Erlang/Chang'e

Royalduties - Erlang/Ao Guang

Floodstudies - Erlang/Tang

Wildboar - Erlang/Pigsy

Lapdog/Presidental Election - Erlang/Not Mayor

CelestialSilk - Erlang/Spider queen

Monkie kids - MK & Mei & Pigsy & Tang & Sandy ( sometimes Monkey king, Macaque, Nezha, and Red son is included too )

Breakfastshipping - Pigsy/Tang/Monkey king/Macaque ( aka all of MK's dads ) ( sometimes Sandy is included too )

MKdadshipping - Pigsy/Tang/Monkey king

Sandwich shipping/FishBallNoodles - Sandy/Pigsy/Tang

Sandwich trio - Sandy & Pigsy & Tang

The demon bull family - Demon bull king & Princess iron fan & Red son ( maybe even the bull clones too? Idk )

The brotherhood - Monkey king & Macaque & Azure lion & Peng & Yellowtusk

The pilgrims/great companions - Tang Sanzang & Monkey king & Ao Lie & Zhu Baije & Sha Wujing

Falseidle duo/Jadecicada - Ao Lie & Tang Sanzang

Sunshower - Monkey king & Sha Wujing

FreePeachBuns - Tang/Monkey King/Pigsy

Freepeaches/suntang/peachtea/Tangypeaches/Goldenpeach/Goldenpages/Peachbug/Stinkbug/Sepiapages/Immortalscribe/Peachyquill - Tang/Monkey king

Suntang/Tripsun/Tripisun/Goldenpeach - Monkey king/Tang Sanzang (Tripitaka) ( Both Suntang and Goldenpeach is used for Tripitaka/Wukong and Tang/Wukong )

Inkypages/hibiscus tea/tintedLenses - Macaque/Tang

FruityTea/FreeFruits/FruityLenses/Mixedberries/Mixedtea - Macaque/Monkey King/Tang

WhiskerMisters - Ao lie & Azure lion

Stableboys/Dragonpeach - Ao lie/Monkey king

Clumsyshadow/moonydragon - Macaque/Ao lie

Goldrush duo - Golden tusk & Monkey king

celestialsteeds (duo) - Golden tusk & Azure lion

gajasimha shipping - Golden tusk/Azure lion

Eclipsemane/BlueEclipse - Monkey king/Azure lion/Macaque

Lionpeach/goldenlion/sunstone/Fuzzypeaches/TamarinShipping/MalachitesunShipping - Azure lion/Monkey king

BlueMoon/Kalaharishipping - Macaque/Azure lion

Barbeque Shipping/Bullion - Demon bull king/Azure lion

Moonpaw - Chang'e/Azure lion

Saberscales duo - Mei & Azure lion

Memoryscroll - Not Mayor/Azure lion

Inkyfeathers/Fuzzyfeathers/Goldengriffin/griffinshipping - Peng/Azure lion

Blackquill/ShadowWings - Macaque/Peng

Phoenixfree/Phoenixtea - Tang/Peng

FlyingPigs - Pigsy/Peng

Moonmonkey/Moonstoneshipping/Peachcake - Chang'e/Monkey king

BlackBunny/blackberry/shadowmoon/shadowbunny/DoubleMoon/NewMoon - Chang'e/Macaque

FruitCake/reflectionshipping - Monkey King/Macaque/Chang'e

Moonduo/Mooncake duo - Chang'e & Macaque

Peachcakeduo - Chang'e & Monkey king

Sugarplum/StormOcean/Lunar tides/Mangotea/Hurricaneshipping/Shadowwave - Sandy/Macaque

Seamonkey/Bluemonkey - Sandy/Monkey king

Silktea - Sandy/Huntsman

SeaPig/Seasalt - Sandy/Pigsy

Jasminetea/Bluetea - Sandy/Tang

Monkfish duo - Sandy & Tang

Dandylion/sealion - Sandy/Azure lion

Matcha duo - Sandy & Mei

Sleepover trio - Sandy & Mei & MK

RoyalArachnid/Ladybug/ScorpionSpider - Spider queen/Scorpion queen

ShadowVenom/Blackwidow - Macaque/Spider Queen

VenomPeach/Royalty/PoisonPeach - Monkey king/Spider Queen

DragonVenom - Mei/Spider Queen

Silkdragon - Ao lie/Spider Queen

Nightshade/IronSpider - Spider Queen/Princess iron fan

Venombunny/spidermoon/venombunnie - Chang'e/Spider Queen

Sleepbug/moonbuggy - Chang'e/Scorpion Queen

IntellectualSting - Tang/Scorpion Queen

Peachbun - Pigsy/Monkey king

Inkynoodles/SmokedBacon/Squidink/SquidInkNoodle - Macaque/Pigsy

RoastedCake/BaconMoonpie/PinkMoon/Baconpancakes/moonpie - Pigsy/Chang’e

Ironbull/Irondumpling - Princess iron fan/Demon bull king

BBQ - Pigsy/Demon bull king

BullMonkey/Sweetbeef - Demon bull king/Monkey king

Ironpeach - Princess iron fan/Monkey king

IronDragon - Mei/Princess iron fan

BlackFire - Macaque/Red son

Spicypeach - Red son/monkey king

bloodymoon - Red son/Chang'e

Firewall/fireant - Red son/Syntax

Techsupport - Red son & Syntax

Cyberhunt - Huntsman/Syntax

ShadowCoding - Macaque/Syntax

MonkieTech - MK/Syntax

Silkymoon - Huntsman/Macaque

Silkpeach/Sunset(shipping)/Webbedpeach - Huntsman/Monkey king

SunsetShipping - Huntsman/Macaque/Monkey King

Dragonsilk - Huntsman/Mei's dad

GiantPeach - Monkey king/Goliath (strong spider)

Giantshipping - Sandy/Goliath

Sweetpotatonoodles - Tang/Goliath

SpiderDragon/KomodoDragon - Mei/Goliath

SpinDragon - Mei/Spindrax

Toxicinsanity/Toxicsanity/Ghostspider - Not Mayor/Syntax

Shadowpuppet/Paranormal - Macaque/Not Mayor

Ghostpepper - Red son/Not Mayor

Mysticbones - Monkey King/Not Mayor

Ghostscholar - Tang/Not Mayor

Blizzard Duo - MK & LBD

White void duo - Azure lion & LBD

Skullkey - LBD/Not Mayor

RottenPlums - Macaque/LBD

Rottenpeach/PeachDrupe - LBD/Monkey king

Stardust/moondust/MilkyWay - LBD/Chang'e

Rottenfruits - Monkey king/LBD/Macaque

Spiderspirit - Huntsman/LBD

PeachyNoodles - MK/Monkey King

PlumsyNoodles/ShadowNoodles - MK/Macaque

FruityNoodles - MK/Macaque/Monkey King

Orangemint - Mk & Little girl ( Bai he )

Shadowsuccessor/raspberry duo - Macaque & Little girl ( Bai he )

Junebug duo - Tang & Mei

Darksoynoodles - ink MK/MK

Doodleduo/Chaos duo - ink MK & MK

Inkyflames (shipping) - ink MK/Samadhi Mei

Scoville trio - Ink MK/samadhi fire Mei/Redson

Blackpepper - Ink MK/Redson

Mosaic trio/Mirage trio/Abstract trio - Ink MK & MK & Reflection MK

SpecialDelivery/DoublePackage/DoubleWrap - MK & Delivery clone

MetallicGold/GoldenHues - MK & Artist clone

starvingartist - MK/Artist clone

GoldenBirthday/FunkyMonkey - MK & Porty clone

Partyanimal - MK/Porty clone

DecorativeDelivery/ArtisticMotivation/AutoPainting - Delivery clone & Artist clone

Partyfavor - Artist clone & Porty clone

Graffiti(shipping) - Artist clone/Porty clone

PizzaParty/SurpriseParty/CarStereo/CarRadio/DeliveryDisco -Delivery clone & Porty clone

Discodragon - Porty clone/Mei

PaintedDragon - Artist clone/Mei

Mixtape/Glowstick/Firebeats - Porty clone/Red son

Firealpaca- Redson/artist clone

Hot wheels- Redson/delivery clone

Hot heels/customer service/Redshoe - Redson/shoe store employee

Locket shipping/Icytop - Not Mayor/Shoe Store Employee

Hovershoes - Hoverboard guy/Shoe Store Employee

Snapdragon - Demon accountant/Dragon stylist

GoldenPork - Pigsy/Jin

SilverPork - Pigsy/Yin

FastFood - Pigsy/Jin/Yin

Fizzyshipping/sunkist - MK/Jin

Slushieshipping - Mei/Yin

Butterflypeanoodles - Pigsy/Tang/Sandy/Yin

Shadowbubbles - Monkey king/Goldfish demon

Wetfruits - Macaque/Goldfish demon

Peachbite/sunkissed/poisonpeach - Monkey king/Xiangliu

Milky way/JadeRabbit/Dragonbubble/Mooncakedragon/moondragon - Chang'e/Mei

Celestial king - Monkey king/Kui mulang

starrymoon - Macaque/Kui mulang

Souldragon (shipping)/WolfDragon - Kui mulang/Ao lie

Jadewolf duo - Kui mulang & Ao lie

ShadowSerpent - Macaque/Xiangliu

Eclipse twins - Rumble & Savage ( Macaque's clones )

Megalopeach - Sun Wukong/sans undertale ( true, canon, and real and i'm not ashamed that i've made art of it before )

Rosegold duo - Mk & Steven universe ( hi )

( Thanks gh0st-t0wn3, Lmkthings-ela, Anon, my oomf goldendragonleaf, Anxious-anon-time, and tsatsked for helping me with most of these ^^ )

[absolutebl]

hi!!! do you have favorite bl movies (maybe with happy endings too)?👀❤️

Top 10 BL Movies

(as of end of 2024, in no particular order)

My personal favorites will always have HEAs (or at least HFN). I don't love ambiguous endings and I hate sad ones. I'm going to include the Korean stuff that has been recut as movies, because I can.

1 Seven Days

Japan 2015

AKA Seven Days: Monday-Thursday AND Seven Days: Friday-Sunday

This is a cheat as it's 2 movies, but that's still less run time than your bog standard marvel tent pole these days, so it counts.

One of the best live action yaois ever made, with perfectly structured angst, fantastic characters and acting, and no problematic tropes. The leads have excellent chemistry although it’s low heat there’s still some really cute mutual kisses.

2 Can I Buy Your Love From A Vending Machine

AKA Sono Koi, Jihanki de Kaemasu ka? AKA Vending Machine Sabi Koi

Japan 2023

This movie is utterly adorable, impossibly awkward, and kinda old fashioned. About a cute nerdy little office worker (he's out!) who has a big'ol crush on the tall hulking vending machine guy. They fall in love. And that’s it. And it’s charming. There’s some first name eroticism (because Japan) and there's emphasis on communication (so not Japan) which turns this into an organically loving and talkative relationship. There’s a bit of an age gap and our office cutie may or may not have a muscles fetish (the hot bod, not the shellfish) because (if I’ve told you once I’ve told you 1 million times) Japan always goes kinky. And you know what, I loved it.

3 Restart After Come Back Home

AKA Risutato wa tadaima no ato de

Japan 2020

Atmospheric study in rural Japan meets complex family dynamics built on a romance framework of city boy meets country boy, grumpy/sunshine. It’s beautiful and icy sweet. Slow moving in places but ultimately worth the patience, low heat, low angst, and stunning.

4 His

Japan 2020

His is about being a grown adult and still struggling with coming out. It addresses the consequences choosing a life disingenuous to identity. Nagisa turns up on Shun’s doorstep with his precocious daughter in tow. This is a touch confusing to Shun since they were each others first love and Nagisa broke his heart. Shun has retreated from society, rejecting the world before it can reject him because without Nagisa he never had a reason to fight. Nagisa went the opposite, pretending to be something he was not, ending up with a daughter he adores and a wife who hates him. This movie is beautiful and the setting is unique and interesting but I'm not wild about the ending, it's HFN (happy for now). Honestly, I think I mostly liked this because I have a mad crush on Miyazawa Hio (Shun).

5 After Sundown

AKA Saengrawi

Thailand 2023

It's from Mandee and horror (neither really my thing), yet I liked it. It's oddly sweet and wholesome, for a ghost story. Phloeng and Rawee enter into an arranged marriage for confusing prophetic reasons. Twists of fate demand that they solve the mystery of a past that is haunting Phloeng's family and harming Rawee. Honestly, it makes no actual sense, but it's kinda historical, and very pretty, so I enjoyed it more than I should.

Korean BL that aired as shows but are cut together as movies & great

In some of these cases the movies are better than the originals, in some they are exactly the same.

6 Color Rush

2021

A unique paranormal twist elevates this classic high school drama into a pitch-perfect allegory for the queer coming out experience and one of the best BLs of all time (I will fight you on this).

7 Semantic Error

2022

The ultimate enemies to lovers, also the prettiest. Sexy older boy discovers pouty younger boy has outed him as a slacker, starts out bullying him, accidentally falls madly in love instead. Korea hits it entirely out of the Parks by doing a university BL with everything we expect from BL just done exactly right. Korea's signature quality executed perfectly with added bonus good story, great pacing, stunning visuals, and fantastic chemistry. You cannot ask for more from a BL, let alone a KBL.

8 To My Star

2021

Hwang Da Seul directing this show about a neurotic actor (actual puppy) who takes refuge with a grumpy chef resulting in sparks, cooking lessons, and LOVE! It’s is a touch quirky to get into, but utterly charming once it hits its stride. This is the ultimate grumpy/sunshine pairing plus the most appealing light-filled kitchen of our dreams. I adore this show so much. Limited use of BL tropes makes this feel more of a sweet contemporary gay romance between an actor plagued by scandal and the chef who accidentally adopts him, but the gentleness will appeal to fans of the BL genre.

9 Long Time No See

2017

This originally aired as a series but I have only ever seen it as a movie. So I'm counting it.

Catfishing assassins on either side of a turf war fall in love not knowing they are on opposite sides. Or do they? Suspenseful plot, good fight sequences, mature characters, hot sexitimes, and even hotter beating the shit out of each other and kissing while covered in blood (this came from KOREA?), plus an HEA. One of the greatest hidden gems of the BL genre.

10 Wish You: Your Melody in My Heart

2020

Set in the music industry featuring a talented singer and the pianist who falls in love with him (and his music), this is subtle and achingly adorable. High production, low heat, short run, very tame, and Korea, so all the pretty. Slow burn and lots of pining.

(source)

[r-2-peepoo]

How I think the first joint Kenobi-Fett holiday season would go (aka Life Day with the Disaster Lineage):

Luke & Leia: Wreaking destruction after having eaten more sugar in one morning than they’ve consumed in their entire lives.

Anakin and Padmé: Already drunk (it’s 10am)

Dooku: Is the out-of-touch grandparent with moderately problematic political views

Ahsoka: Is the socially aware, somewhat argumentative teenager who ends up getting into a fight with her granddad over politics at dinner, obviously with backup from Padmé. Anakin attempts to play Devil’s advocate so she throws food at his head.

Rex: Is already there for some reason. No one let him in, he just appeared next to Ahsoka. Has matching ugly sweaters with her (very important).

Qui Gon: The weed uncle. Very stoned. Has been stoned for the entire month and will continue to be stoned well into the New Year. Attempts to help Obi Wan in the kitchen. Is maybe the least helpful person of all time.

Yoda: The chill great grandparent. Older than time. Possibly alive when the wheel was invented. Is perfectly happy to sit in an armchair for the entire day. If anyone tries to move him or disturb him, he says something cryptic and nonsensical so everyone assumes he is senile but it’s all a cleverly constructed ruse to get everyone to leave him alone.

Obi Wan: In the kitchen, attempting to cook everything by himself after telling Padmé and Anakin to stay out because they deserve to relax after looking after the twins all year. Periodically goes into the cellar to cry in thirty second bursts before coming back out and trying to get everything together again. Visibly overwhelmed. Insists he is fine. He is not. He barely knows how to boil an egg and now he’s trying to cook for two families.

Cody: Arrives before the rest of his family to warn Obi Wan about the impending chaos his siblings are sure to bring. Sees the mess and snaps into big brother mode. Mobilises his army of siblings to help Obi Wan and has everything done within an hour.

[dalishious]

May I ask why you’re a mass effect hater but a dragon age lover? To me the seem pretty similar as games, so if you like one you’d probably like the other (unless you don’t like sci fi ig) and ME imo is a lot less problematic than DA

My biggest personal issues with Mass Effect:

I have a hard time giving a single shit about Shepard as a protagonist

I have a hard time giving a single shit about half the squad members (and I downright hate some, like Garrus)

The Alliance fucking sucks; the one and only nice thing I can say about it is at least it's not Cerberus AKA the Space Manifest Destiny Corp, which sucks even worse

I hate the "humans are so special" narrative, especially considering how boring they are in comparison to literally every single alien species introduced

I hate the colonial glorification

I hate the military focus and glorification

I hate the misogyny, racism, etc.

I find the gameplay itself super difficult, even on easy mode

I have personal gripe with how god awful the UI in every Mass Effect game is, with Andromeda easily being the worst; I can't even fucking read that shitty shit text

Also, ME has just as many problems as DA. A lot of them being the same, actually.

[miss-goggles]

Finally done with my second to last Owl House character charm!

This one is for Emperor Belos/Phillip Wittebane, aka my most problematic of faves. What can I say, I love a horrible manipulative bastard! He's just such a fascinating character, I could write about him forever.

Of course I wanted to feature both versions of his mask while showcasing the monster he is underneath both of them. Naturally The Knife and his journal also needed featuring, and I thought the little shadow puppets of Phillip and his brother help get the story across. We'll see how well those actually read when this prints as an acrylic charm...

Waffles design should hopefully be coming soon! I'm running pretty behind due to life stuff but I'm doing my best to at least have these done by the holidays, aaaa!

[majaloveschris]

it’s interesting, back when all this hoopla began, some blogs were convinced this was all genuine because of two reasons: 1) CE didn’t need to do PR to get more attention because he was already famous. 2) the attention was negative and did not help him and why would he go through all this for negative publicity?

While I agree to an extent that the attention with this relationship brought a lot of negativity to him and his family/friends (and obviously, hers too) - I maintain the belief that it wasn’t about the who he married, it’s about him having a partner and settling down and being married. To lots of people, this shows stability and being able to commit. It finally aligns with his “wants to settle and have a family” narrative. The GP will look at recent posts or movies of his and go oh yeah he got married (if they even bothered to remember that) and move on with their lives. His fans are the only ones currently bothered by all this because they hate the partner he’s with. But to me, they achieved their goal and now no matter what happens, at least he was married once and he’s seen with a ring - check and mate.

I kindly remind people that this is Hollywood. Public image and persona still is extremely important, and celebs always do things for reasons and most often, there is a bigger picture to unveil later on.

That being said, look at Taylor and Travis. She definitely is famous enough and imho, she did not need the publicity of a more public relationship. Some people said she quickly pivoted to Travis after her last guy Matt something was revealed to be problematic (I forgot why) and her PR team was quick to pull her out.

I don’t know if I agree with that. If it was as simple as erasing the controversy of a bad partner, she could be seen with Travis but not to the extent she has been. They got the NFL - aka one of the biggest money empires in the American sports and entertainment industry - involved. If you are not an American you may not understand how big NFL football and the Super Bowl is here in the states. But the levels they went to make Taylor and Travis a thing is interesting,

That’s why I think Chris very much needed the PR. I think it’s the woman choice that caused this ordeal to fall apart at the seams. Because I imagine a different situation:

Let’s say, he got paired with someone like an Ana de Armas or even Dakota Johnson (if either were single) - look at how the public reacted to Dakota and Chris at Central Park. Look at how the fans reacted.

It was mostly positive and people were surprised, including his own fans. Surprised that he looks good with her and physically they fit better together. Now the idea of them playing love interests isn’t so dire as people once thought.

The perception here is totally different. If he did scare videos with someone like Ana, did an IG montage, I don’t think the reaction would have been negative at all.

Him posting a pumpkin pic, or him doing restaurant tours with a different more favorable woman would have been completely different. If he showed up to VF after party with any of his ex gfs - and took a pic in the same red suit - I still think the reaction would have been less negative from his fans.

It could still be cringe to some but I highly doubt it would be at this level of animosity.

if the partner was different, I think you’d be seeing a much different result for both of them today. His partner, if she was also an up and coming actress but received better by his fans and the GP, could have seen herself get further in her career simply due to followers and visibility. If she was a different person with a different attitude towards work and promotion, she may be reaping more benefits today.

I think you have similar thoughts to me, maja, that this situation was unfortunately a failure due to the choice of pairing. If AB had gotten a different man, maybe even if she had stayed with Lucas B, you may be seeing a different result for her too. Her/his fanbases didn’t seem to hate them together as much, and also they did look pretty good together considering.

I wonder, would we still be seeing her post a ridiculous homemade shower video to distract from her friends problematic tweets? Would we still be seeing her pretend she’s never online and hiding away for months at a time? Would we still see her try so desperately to prove a point if she had simply ended up with someone else?

Yeah, I definitely see what you are saying. I don't think she was the first choice, in my opinion, especially because of the age gap. He's always been dating women who are close to his age, so choosing her for this whole "marriage" thing is interesting. Maybe choosing a younger partner was on purpose, and they were looking for someone who isn't that close to his age to attract a new demographic. I mean, a lot of younger women now think they might've a chance with him and thirst even harder, so who knows? I think people outside of the fandom only have problems with the age gap part, but unfortunately people are used to this, especially in HW, and 24 and 40 isn't even that bad, considering people like Leo (who is older) notoriously date younger women, and for him this is the first time. That we know of, of course. 

As you and I said, they should've chosen someone else, someone who hasn't done, said, or posted questionable things. The same goes for her friends. The most problematic part is her and her friends' personalities. I think most people would've moved on from the age gap thing; after all, they both are adults, even if 24 is a bit young for 40 in my opinion. And maybe if they were truly looking happy or in love, that could've made everything a bit better too. However, the fact they both look as if they don't want to be around each other helped at least him a lot. But they look relativly cute together with Lucas; it seemed like at least they liked each other. 

At the same time, I still think he and his team didn't know about the tweets, because I truly believe if they did, they wouldn't choose her.

I think his team failed this test, and this was a huge lesson for him too. 

[zelda-cooper]

Character Ideias - Darkwing Duck (aka Drake Mallard)

This blog is for Darkwing Duck writers who plan to write a fanfic, comic or anything that directly or indirectly involves the character Bushroot. The ideas may not be for everyone and everyone has their own different vision of the character, but this blog is for those who are experiencing writer's block or any other creative issues. I hope you understand and, if you use any of these ideas, please give me credit. Thank you for understanding.

Yeah, I know... It took a while but it's here... Sorry for the delay, it's just that my hyperfocus on Loonatics is back and it really messes with my reasoning...

"Excuse me, let me introduce myself..." •pushes me away• "HELLO, MY DEAR FANS!!! I, the great Darkwing Duck, managed to convince you to finally write a blog about me! You lucky ones, hearing only things about me! HAHAHAHAH!"

Sure, sure... Is the speech over? I have to get back to the blog, I'm completely out of patience today...

"Yeah yeah yeah... You know, guys? She lost the first version of the blog because of Tumblr's problem... And probably incompetence..."

I HEAR THAT YOU S-

"Anyway, keep the blog!"

Character's Past

This part is one of the ones that I think won't be that much of a problem regarding the origin of "how Drake became a superhero", because there are a lot of origins that he told in the original series... Even though I think that the ones he told in the episode "The Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck" are all lies and one of the only reliable ones is from "Clash Reunion".

"Wait a minute, are you calling me a liar?!"

I'm not calling... I'm sure...

"HEY HEY HEY!!! REPEAT IF YOU HAVE THE COURAGE!!!"

The fact is... Darkwing Duck's origin does have a basis and foundation, you can choose whether he incorporated the persona as a child or at the end of college in his fight against Megavolt. Now, when we talk about the Reboot... We have a small problem... We do know how he became Darkwing Duck in Ducktales 2017, the hero was his idol since childhood and he became an actor for that, then after the event with Jim Starling, he decided to incorporate the heroic persona into his life. So far, so good... But Drake's family was never exactly shown. And, I know, his ancestors were shown, but I mean HIS PARENTS. In this one, it really is a very free path for interpretation, however, I have some suggestions.

- Orphan

There's no way to escape that much, especially because Darkwing is inspired by Batman, and we already know what happened to Bruce... I'm not saying it should be the same, but at least have something similar.

- Toxic or problematic family

This is another factor that could be interesting and, if you want to consider the original version of the series that Negaduck is an alternate version of Darkwing Duck, it's a good starting point. I've seen some people use this and, honestly, it's valid. It could be one of the factors for Drake to actually be overprotective of Gosalyn and, at times, be a jerk to her (example: "Slime Okay, You're Okay").

- Normal family, but...

Now a more interesting one... We can consider that Drake did have a normal childhood, his parents were present and stuff. However... Why doesn't he talk about his parents? And why did he never introduce them to Gosalyn? Maybe he had a fight with them? Did he cause an accident that made him distance himself from his family? You can interpret this part however you want, whether it was Drake's fault or not, but considering his difficult personality... Maybe it was his fault... Speaking of guilt...

The Problems of a Problematic Personality

Now the fun begins... We all know that Drake is not exactly the nicest person in the world... In fact, he has a lot of problems... Whether it's his ego, his character, his relationships, his self-esteem, probably traumas he suffered... But let's start slowly... What are the consequences of Drake's personality? Let's start with his relationships...

- Complicated Relationships

I want to start with this factor because Drake definitely has problems here... First, we have Megavolt/Elmo, who, I know, was never mentioned in the original series, but in many headcanons people say that they were childhood friends. And, yes, it's cute and even cool to think that... But have you seen what Drake's CURRENT friendship with Launchpad is like? They are indeed good friends, but there were many times when Drake treated Launchpad badly, like in "Jailbird" and "Quack of Ages". If he treats LP badly, imagine Elmo, who at that time was also a person with no self-esteem and who was constantly bullied. We already know that Drake sometimes tends to be a coward (not like Bushroot, but he values his life a lot), so he probably didn't protect Elmo. Speaking of friendships... Now, if we take it to a romantic level, it doesn't improve the situation one bit... I've already written a blog about how Drake and Morgana's relationship is too problematic, so I won't repeat it... Now, regarding the Gosalyn issue... Even though he's a good father in certain aspects, he's also not... Whether it's because he's a jerk to her or because he's too overprotective... So, yeah... Their relationships aren't good... Worse than that, is the issue of his hero life.

- Failed Heroic Life

Okay... Where to start? Maybe the fact that he's mostly lazy and not very competent? Sorry, guys... But you have to agree that Drake is really very incompetent! He may have good intentions sometimes and even do the job right sometimes, but most of the time he only cares about fame and is driven by it, sometimes also driven by anger when someone underestimates him. So you can get an idea... Even as a VILLAIN, even if as a disguise, he is incompetent in and of himself, because instead of committing crimes, he ends up solving them unintentionally. Again, there are times when he does manage to do the hero's job right, but in the original series that's not the case. And I know it's a comedy series, but still, his deeds aren't exactly good...

- Psychological Effects

In addition to work relationships and personal relationships in general, there is another factor here... Drake has extremely low self-esteem and this causes the chain reaction that is the egocentric and temperamental personality that makes him problematic. But have you ever stopped to think about how this also affects him mentally? Let's be honest, the life of a hero probably causes Drake a lot of trauma, whether it be stress, burnout, relationship problems and, mainly, a feeling of failure. Drake Mallard, as a civilian, is a mediocre person (in the sense of being a totally average person with nothing special), but when he is Darkwing Duck, he manages to have the self-esteem he always wanted. And therein lies the problem... Staying comfortable in a fantasy, in a persona, is not good... Keeping the mask of confidence when your inner self does not have it and embracing arrogance has a big impact. You end up hurting yourself and the others around you and end up pushing them away, making you feel alone. And, as we can see, Drake does not exactly do well alone...

Eh, I... I think Drake is not well mentally... So let's try to talk about a lighter topic...:'3

Character Development

The character development in the original series is a bit messy, but it's easy to draw a line under it. An arrogant and lonely person who, with the help of people in his life, ends up changing and, even with adversity and internal problems, ends up becoming a better person and a better hero. It's a very basic line of reasoning and a "cliché" character development, but it's effective when done correctly. So, I'll just give you a few tips to help you with your writing.

- Work on the character's psychology

This may require some psychology study, but it's not that complex... Basically, you'll end up acting like a therapist/psychologist for the character. What are his fears? Why does he act the way he does? Why is it difficult for him to change? Use some base episodes if you can; the more you study more about the character's psyche, the more capable you'll feel about writing about him.

- Parallels of the hero and his villains

Again, this may require some in-depth analysis, but like Batman's villains, Darkwing's villains (depending on whether you're going to rewrite them or not) end up having small parallels to Drake. To give you some basic examples... Quackerjack could be a representation of Drake's "mask", how he performs his actions as a hero just as Quackerjack performs his actions as a villain. Bushroot could represent Drake's insecurities and his fear of being alone. Liquidator could represent how his ego and hunger for fame can lead him to be a despicable person. And Megavolt represents Drake's demons from the past, how his personality affects others and turns them into enemies or just hurts them. It's up to your interpretation.

- How Relationships Affect Drake

I've already said how much he affects people, but what about the other side of the coin? We know how much being Gosalyn's father affected him in a positive way, he started to care and have a more noble cause for himself. Lauchpad was a friend for him to vent and talk about his problems. Morgana, in my view, would end up becoming a safe place for Drake to be himself. Now, as for the Justice Ducks... You can interpret that however you want... But, in general, it would make Drake start to have a greater sense of leadership and more responsibility. However, there is one last topic that... This one, although optional, is one of the most interesting to explore...

The Trinity of Alternate Darkwing Duck Versions

This topic, as I said, is completely optional, but if you want to play with multiverse or alternate versions, I have some comments about that... Again, I'm going to play with Undertale's routes.

- Dictator's Route

Let's start with Darkwarrior Duck's route, who is a character that I find, honestly, very interesting... He's still Drake, but at the same time, he's not him anymore... And all because he lost Gosalyn... He lost the person who made him see beyond his greed for fame. But now... She's no longer by his side... You can say that she died (because alternative futures are something that's complicated to work with and, honestly, I don't have the patience to work with time travel) or something else, but the loss of Gosalyn will result in him becoming a dictator who probably killed ALL of his villains and has a completely distorted view of "justice".

- Negative Route

This is his route based on the Negaverse. You can consider Negaduck to be like the original and he's an alternate version of Drake. But if you take into account the 2017 version, you can play with the concept... You can make Jim a good person in the Negaverse and Drake a bad person here. I'm not saying to turn Jim into "Darkwing Duck", no... But making Drake a villain is an interesting idea in the Negaverse, regardless of whether this universe will have a "Darkwing Duck" or it will be just the Friendly Four who stop him. There are thousands of reasons you can give to make Drake become "Negaduck" here, it's just up to you to choose.

- Archer's Route

To finish the trinity, I wanted to talk about an alternative version that only appeared in the comics: Quiverwing Duck. This version of Drake also lost Gosalyn, but also... We didn't see the "Launchpad" version here at any point, so... It could be that he didn't just ask for Gosalyn, he could also have lost Launchpad. We can consider that this Drake lost his support network for some reason, but unlike Darkwarrior, he remained at least sane. He kept his true sense of justice... However, he is still lonely... In this version, you can explore Quiverwing Duck's loneliness and how much this trauma of losing his loved ones affected him.

Reference Suggestions

As a side topic, I will recommend some characters that might be interesting to use in writing your version of Drake Mallard/Darkwing Duck.

- Batman from DC Comics

It's the most obvious choice, since it's inspired by Batman (in part), and it could also be interesting to explore the psychological side of the character.

- Caitlyn from Arcane (Spoilers Alert)

One of the most recent, let's say... Although her arc was "weak" in the end, she's still a good choice. Whether it's to show Drake's inexperienced side at the beginning or his downfall when he becomes a dictator.

- Blitzø from Helluva Boss

A character who struggles with his relationships and has a toxic personality, who is struggling with this side of himself and has to face the demons of his past. Could it be more perfect for Drake? -w-

- Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz from Steven Universe

One of the most complex characters in fiction, one that you can either love or hate, but it is the perfect representation of a problematic person who also has to fight against these problems and who hurts people without even realizing it. It is really essential to work on this side of Drake and his constant struggle, also the side of him being "truly neutral".

- Azula from Avatar The Last Airbending

A recommendation that is unusual, but can be a good basis, whether for the version of Drake as Darkwarrior Duck or him as "Negaduck", his decline into insanity.

Conclusion

So, are you happy now?

"Of course! Worthy of me!"

Do you want to finish it for me? I really need it...

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... Just this once..."

Well, my dear fans! Thank you for your patience in waiting for my wonderful blog to arrive! It had to be rebuilt from scratch due to some technical issues, but now everything is fine. Again, thank you for coming this far and leave in the comments any suggestions, opinions, compliments for me and other things. Now I have to go, the villains of Saint Canarian don't rest day or night! Goodbye and, don't forget... Stay Dangerous!

[sunflowerofchaos]

Okay enough time has passed for me to throw my two cents into the Bridgerton discourse. Many are displeased with the season and part 2 specifically. I have been trying to piece together what my issues were with it and I hope that someone can find this and maybe find something that clicks as to why the season may have been disappointing.

I am a big polin stan. In fact I started watching for and because of them. Totally believed in the supremacy of their story because of their adorable friendship and the long build up ever since the pilot.

I loved part one. That will be controversial but I truly did. Was the pacing a bit off? Yes it was!

But did it give us the romcom atmosphere, the yearning, the love? Yes definitely! I'll even argue that part one, the going from "friendship to love" is done more beautifully in the show than in the book. People said one kiss is all it takes for Colin but that's really not true in the show. If you take account of the history we have because of season 1 and 2 it doesn't feel that way.

And the funny thing is that despite part one having a bunch of side plots, it worked. It was walking on the edge of being too much but it didn't cross the line.

Not yet anyways... so here are my 6 big errors of part 2

Like everyone I was way too hyped after the carriage scene, which leads to..

Error number 1: The break after the carriage scene set the bar too high. The long break filled with press and interviews further hyping up part 2 after that high consequently did damage to the reception of part 2. I believe that almost anything after the carriage would appear as a let down due to the wait. That's kind of unfair to the show I know, but it also makes sense as we, the audience would have abnormally high expectations that are difficult to please.

Part 2 is flawed and there is no arguing that. The beginning of it felt like a let down due to the split right after the carriage scene aka the climax of part 1 (pun intended) but fine objectively speaking episode 5 and 6 are nice. But then comes error number 2, the fact that we have 2 episodes where their love is clouded by the secret of lady whistledown. I feel like that was problematic to the pacing of part 2 (which is a problem in itself). The tension in episode 5 was necessary but also so much. So much that Colin literally questions her feelings. Then episode 6 instead of lifting that cloud sooner, continues to sour the polin scenes until the very end of the episode. The reveal should have been earlier in episode 6, so they have time to properly heal and be happy. (Seperate errors that I will adress)

Error number 3 is how the wedding fell under the dark cloud of the angst. I was wishing it would be the happy wedding of bridgerton and it was happier than Daphne's or Anthony's (not that we saw the real one) but the queen disrupting the wedding felt like another punch. One more time we were close to seeing their happiness but couldn't. (Something we barely get to see at all)

Then error number 4 (my personal enemy). The pacing of the conflict and healing. The way Colin was hurting was amazingly portrayed by Luke and I even understand how Colin wanted to hurt Pen with the entrapment comment and unlike many I won't hate him for it at all. But one thing where the writing really failed me is how polin shared a number of scenes that could've had a bigger role in their healing but ultimately didn't. I will list the scenes and how EVERYTIME we think they are a step closer to healing, they go back to square one and how that effects the scene where they eventually do "heal".

Exhibit A: The modiste scene. Beautiful confrontation and it really set up the possibility of them talking through it more but then it ends abruptly with Colin shutting down (however I'm inclined to give this one some saving grace because at least they talk)

Exhibit B: The wedding. Colin once again gives us hope that perhaps they're closer to making up but when Colin walked away with Pen and they had a second confrontation where she states that she is lady whistledown, I expected Colin to at least accept that statement and not revert back to being in denial about it afterwards and shutting down again. This could've been the scene where Colin starts to accept them as one. (Not to take away from the letters scene but it would have been a great foundation for it)

Exhibit C: The bedroom scene. Ah my personal nominee. This scene could've been so much more and no I don't mean a sexy scene. This scene could've been thee scene where they talk. It would've felt more powerful to have the talk that they have in Bridgerton house in their bedroom instead. I can't stress how it would've fit perfectly and been book compliant. If they had utilized this scene better, then polin being at Fran's wedding the next day would've have felt more emotional and helped convince us of them gradually solving the conflict. Netflix, that wouldn't even take from your running time. Pen could've confronted him there as she did in the book. Colin could've faced his jealousy right then and there instead of having Cressida point it out for him and still not facing it.

Exhibit D: Bridgerton house. Yes they do talk here and you can see that scene as the one where they settle things prior to the ball, BUT one it is too close to the end and it feels cut short which frankly doesn't seem enough for the viewers to believe that they now have joined hands. This scene was personally not enough for me. I think if you expand the conversation it would be much better or again if you put this dialogue in the bedroom scene it would have been powerful and helped the pacing as the bedroom scene was in the first half of the finale and this one way too close to the ball.

You'll see that every scene post reveal is following the same frustrating pattern of them brushing over the problem. You in turn get your hopes up for it to develop further into forgiveness, then voila Colin shuts down and goes back to square one. That was extremely frustrating for me as a viewer as it happened multiple times, especially since it seems ridiculous to leave the conflict in the air till the last 10 minutes when they have had several opportunities to solve it sooner. Colin's peace at the end comes too suddenly as those previous scenes don't see him gradually make peace with the matter but always shutting down and running. Those scenes could have been used to show the steps of him gradually getting over it, forgiving her and facing himself.

Error number 5. The side plots and overall pacing.. As I said part 1 walked the fine line but part 2 crossed it. What do you mean that we get more scenes of secondary characters than polin getting over their conflict and having some time to see their happiness. That messes with the pacing, making part 2 seem to want to cram up as much plot as possible. You have Francesca's love match, Benedict's exploration, Eloise's general conflict and dynamic with Cressida, Cressida's own story, Violet's arc, lady Danbury and her brother's conflict, the Mondrichs arc, the solicitor, queen etc...

This season was simply TOO ambitious for its own good. It tried to do too much. Suddenly it didn't feel like polin season but rather the season to set everything up for the next season and that really hurts as a polin fan.

Finally error number six which is by far the most famous error. The lack of happy polin. As I explained episode 5 and 6 while showed some happiness it didn't feel real because of the secret constantly hanging around. They were happy but you as a viewer might have felt more worried and had a more bittersweet feeling. Especially when you see Colin get more and more anxious and insecure during those episodes. Then episode 7 and 8 sees them miserable most of the time. That sucks even though it is necessary it still sucks. Sucks because after all that put together we don't get to see it pay off. 4 episodes of angst and they give you one scene that suddenly heals it, 10 seconds sexy scene and an epilogue scene where they suddenly have a baby. It is simply not enough to balance out the dark vibe of the entirety of part 2. That is why thousands of people are hanging onto the petition to release the deleted scenes. So we can finally see the pay off of the angst and can properly balance out the emotions that came with it and move on.

Not to mention the absolutely wasted confession of Colin Bridgerton.. when he said I love you at the end of episode 8 I was already thinking "with everything that you are, everything you have been and everything you hope to be????!!!" But then he didn't say it and I was confused as to why they would possibly not use THEE love confession??? Since that's Bridgertons thing??? Having incredible confessions... And it's not like it didn't fit in fact it would have fit so well. At this point if you squint you might imagine hearing luke continuing the line for God's sake. That remains a mystery that makes no sense to me.

So by now I don't think anyone got that far and I can't complain because I wrote this for me. To structure my thoughts and make peace with it. And so to sum up these errors: the split, the structure of episode 5/6, the wedding sadness, the way the conflict/healing was handled, the pacing with the side plots and the lack of happiness to counteract the angst. I will revisit part 1 happily and just stop after the mirror lol. I will look forward to seeing polin happy in 2 years I guess.. and I do believe that when season 4 comes out and they're happy and are hanging around we will accept season 3 way more and come to hopefully love it.

[eri-pl]

Silm reread 20: the Rains of Casaremírë (AKA: the Fall of Doriath)

Morgoth is not tired being evil. Or satisfied. Generally he won't chill out. Also, he hates Melian&Thingol especially (but this text is from the Grey Annals. the Annals of Aman put Turgon as "Morgoth's main problem"). So, he directs Húrin at them.

Hurin is suspicious of being freed (good thinking!), but what can he do? Nothing. He leaves. Also, he is let out with a sword, which is… making sure that nobody will trust him and everyone will assume he is a thrall. Also, Morgoth's minions respect him.

[Ugh, this must have been really weird for Húrin. The self-doubt. Am I a thrall unknowingly?]

He is not, but he is followed. So, Gondolin. Turgon is doubtful at Thorondor. He changes his mind but too late, Húrin leaves. Oh, and he curses this area. (Yes, I will bold each time someone curses)

Morwen dies, depression and despair, he blames everyone.

A reference to a "seer and harper from Brethil". So, Men do have seers. I mean, I knew they do because Adanel iirc… but this wasn't fully canon… also that one prophecy is stupid and I will keep complaining about it…

Also, a mention of "the days of the wrath of the Valar" reshaping the shores, so the War of Wrath was named after the Valar's wrath? Who weren't even there personally? Huh.

Húrin kills Mîm, at the gate of Nargothrond. Interesting. Also, it is said that it's public knowledge who betrayed Túrin, so — oh wait. No. He knows that from Morgoth, not from gossip. OK. So I still have no idea whether Túrin knew.

Thingollo is polite and respectful, but Húrin offends him and accuses him of causing Finrod's death (he's not completely wrong) and of mistreating his wife and daughter + throws at him the Casaremírë (Nauglamir).

Thingollo is still polite and takes the offense calmly and kindly. <3

Melian dispells Morgoth's magic on Húrin, and he apologizes.

And gives the necklace to Thingollo anyway. Which ends up being a bad idea. Also, it wasn't his to give. the dragon stole it from Orodreth, Mîm stole it again, and Húrin, whose son had owed money to Mîm (because of his promise of weregild. And yes, I think this makes it … not more evil as a choice, because Húrin did not know, but more impactful, more problematic metaphysically) killed Mîm and stole it again.

And Thingollo (who knew Finrod and tbh should feel a little guilty about his death) instead of starting to think "hmm, who should inherit after Finrod now?" takes it. Which may be a culture thing tbh. It is medieval-ish-something world. You don't disrespect gifts by giving them away, you just take them. Maybe. I'm not an expert.

Still, he could have at least talked to Húrin about "you know, Finrod's family…". BTW is there any left? Orodreth dead, Finduilas dead…. Gil-Galad if he is Orodreth's son. Galadriel! OK, so there was someone.

Húrin allegedly maybe threw himself in the sea. Anyway he is out of our scope, one way or another.

So… It comes into Thingollo's mind to join two problematic pieces of treasure (a dragon-tainted, stolen necklace and a Silmaril) into one. Also, the Silmaril grows precious to him—

OK, sidenote. The Silmarils are not evil, but clearly they are too much for almost everyone. People either grow obsessed or die quickly. But not all people. Earendil surely didn't. I guess it depends on personality (the obsession) and on fate-type (the dying).

So, he can not keep it in the deepest part of his treasury anymore— wait, what? You kept the gem in a cage too? Silmarils need proper enviroment, they need light and space and enrichment! Thingollo, you are as bad as a Silmaril owner as Feanáro!

OK, I already made a post on this.

The Dwarves. They too get super obsessed and want the stuff: both the necklace made by their ancestors and the Silmaril. But they keep it in secret.

They finish their work, it's beautiful, another sort-of-confirmation that the Silmaril's own light is white (it reflecting in gems into various colors make it even more beautiful. So. It doesn't have many colors on its own.)

The Dwarves finally talk to Thingol, but not honestly, he realizes that they want the gem, gets overwhelmed by emotions (I imagine Thingol having a switch in his brain: "be polite to Men" <-> "be polite to Dwarves" but he can't do both for some reason and switching it takes a long time) and he mocks them. He provokes them, they are greedy, everyone is emotionally disregulated and should go have some quiet time, they kill him and escape with the treasure.

We get an epitaph for Thingollo, canon confirmation that marrying Maiar is not a thing (except Thingol) and the last thing he looks at before death is the Silmaril.

I have a feeling that Námo will have some words to tell you, my guy. Not as many as to others, but still. Not great.

Anyway, Elves chase the Dwarves and kill most of them, the Dwarves tell a not-entirely-false-but-not-too-true-either story of what happenned to their kinsmen, they go to war.

Melian meditates, we get a flashback. She knows Doriath will soon fall, because the Girdle is now gone, because… ok, let's start this from the beginning.

So this is really cool but also pretty unique in terms of fantasy tropes. When Melian married Thingol, she accepted... ok, I need this in English.

For Melian was of the divine race of the Valar, [...] for love of Elwë Singollo she took upon herself the form of the Elder Children of Ilúvatar, and in that union she became bound by the chain and trammels of the flesh of Arda.

So the marriage is what's tying her to her material form (she had taken it at will back then but now, with Valinor being closed and all that I feeel like she normaly wouldn't be able to do it in ME, she was only able to be there embodied because the marriage to Thingol sort of anchored her)

In that form she bore to him Lúthien Tinúviel; and in that form she gained a power over the substance of Arda, and by the Girdle of Melian was Doriath defended through long ages from the evils without. But now Thingol lay dead, and his spirit had passed to the halls of Mandos; and with his death a change came also upon Melian.

So. Only the fact of being anchored to matter gave her the ability to keep the Girdle up. I know some Maiar can do things with matter anyway, but as I said, I suppose it's either a) because they're evil and/or b) because a Vala let them do it … in general, they are bound by something. And regardless of how the other Maiar do it, Melian lost the ability to keep the Girdle.

Thus it came to pass that her power was withdrawn in that time from the forests of Neldoreth and Region, and Esgalduin the enchanted river spoke with a different voice, and Doriath lay open to its enemies.

[Thank you, Reddit, for having all the quotes I need!]

Again, the "it came to pass" strongly suggests to me that it's not something she did, it's something that happenned to her as part of her nature.

Also, she removes herself, and goes to mourn in Lorien and is out of the story. (I'm sure they get back togetherwhen Thingol was reembodied — and that he was— and no matter how the canon feels about this I want them to have more children, who just live in Valinor in this slightly odd social position of "not a Maia but not fully not-a-Maia" and genrally have some happiness and low-stakes family drama)

The Dwarves invade, all Doriath is confused, Mablung dies protecting the Silmaril (still, he seems quite normal about it for someone who touched it twice).

Also "it's the saddest of all sad events of the Old Days" — seriously, Grey Annals? Again, for AoA it would be Tears Unnumbered. I should enjoy the diversity of opinions in the text. But I don't. It sounds like the authors are arguing with each other.

Dior and Nimloth mentioned, but that's all. On one hand, we were told that B&L never spoke to the living after their reembodiment. On the other, they do have a son and, it seems, a company. Who raised Dior? Like, who spoke with him?

Is it silent spooky B&L surrounded by a company of Elves who behave normally? Or do they live separately, in a distance and gave dior to be taught bu the Elves who live on this island, but separately from them? I can't imagine it.

Or is the "spoke to no one" thing just poetic exageration?

Hmm.. in chapter 20 only Beren is mentioned and it says "no mortal spoke to him" which may mean just Men. I'm not sure. Anyway this is weird and seems somwhat incoherent.

Anyway, the news spread quickly in the forest (how? Mycoryzal networks?) so Beren learns more or less what happenned and he and Dior go to the rescue (such is the wording in my book. So I guess they assumed there Dwarves were still attacking someone or intending to. Makes sense.) A big group of Green Elves joins them.

They ambush the Dwarves (Huh. Ambush. When Nargothrond did it, it was dishonorable... Huh. I think there is a lot in this story remaining from the older versions, back when the Dwarves were evil, or at least evil-ish and not deserving the full human Eruhini rights. Because technically they are not. Anyway. I do not like the inconsistent attitude about ambushes.) Also, the Ents help them. So i guess it is a good fight or at least Yavanna supports it (could you, please, respect your husband's children a bit more?), or at least the trees think Beren is cool.

This is weird. And seems off. And I will assume it is a part of text that Tolkien didn't fully update to the last version of his lore.

Beren killd Dwarf king (chieftain? whatever we call him), the king curses the whole Doriath treasure.

Aaaaand Beren looks at Feanor's gem with fascination. Here we go again. And washes it clean of blood in the river. (I considered adding a RoP gif here but let's not slabder Beren. still, bad vibe.)

At least he's got enough common sense to drown the rest of the treasure. But not this one. (A pity. Feanorians would fish it out, Deagol&Smeagol-style and be happy. Or something.)

He brings the Casaremírë+Silmaril to Lúthien, and she's so pretty in it. And amazing. And the land is fertile and full of light and looks like Valinor.

So…. why do they keep the Silmaril? For Beren, I think it's the standard "it's pretty, Luthien has suffered so much [chose mortal life and all that], she deserves it". Or maybe even "I deserve some beauty for all my pain", but i don't think he goes this low. It's just … slightly less than perfect attitude. "My loved ones deserve some beauty after all they suffered so I am going to give it to them". Also, why would he want to give it to Feanorians, who tried to kill him and threatened Thingol. (And fought a really bad battle but whatever)

No matter how much you love the Feanorians, please remember that this is a simple forest guy, ok, taught by the Sindar, but still. He probably knows nothing about the Oath, never met the Feanorians, has no idea of their mental state and their anguish, and not necessarily internalizes the whole "they are fighting Morgoth and dying on it" part.

Characters do have limited knowledge and did not read the book.

But… yes, I think him taking the jewel was not the best choice.

Lúthien? That's trickier. I think if she knew how much it means for the Feanorians, she would give it to them, because look how she told Beren to not kill Celegorm (or was that Curufin?). So either she knows that Silmaril+Feanorians = bad idea, for some reason (from Melian. Because foresight. But this would require Melian's foresight to change its opinion on the matter at some point, which we have no information about).

Maybe she just trusted that Beren knows what he's doing and didn't want to refuse his gift? And she had no idea how this looks for the Feanorians (remember, very likely nobody knows about the Oath, and it seems like the Feanorians told Thingol "it is ours" and "we will consider you our enemy" as their only reasons).

Melian advised Thingol to give the Silmaril back, but was Lúthien even present at this conversation? Or if she was, maybe her own foresight told her that this advice applied to Thingol then but not to her now?

Seriously, with how Lúthien is presented, I can't imagine her keeping the Silmaril if she believed that that Melian would advise against it or how much it means for the Feanorians. She seems to me a very compassionate person, and one who cares about her mothers opinions.

On the other hand, is Lúthien wearing the Silmaril such a bad thing? It came from Beren's not-great decision, but with how it's written, I don't think it's unilaterally bad. The Feanorians do not have a problem with it, or at least do not attack her (out of fear), the land is beautiful and sure this sounds egoistical, but maybe a brief moment of bliss was necessary? The Silmaril spent many years with Morgoth, then in Thingollo's treasury (why do they all keep them locked?!? i have thoughts about it. anyway) and is now sad. Yes, they do canonically have feelings. I don't think it's corrupted, but it is sad. Maybe it needs to recharge, before it will be able to become the star of hope.

I have no idea but I think like this year should contribute something positive. Otherwise the story feels odd and incoherent again. Or, at beast, feels like Tolkien … I'm not sure how to phrase it. Very slightly betrayed his story for a moment of nostalgia? The thing that the Valar did when they made Valinor. Settled for a known happiness of the past over … something? unknown?

OK, end of very speculatory ramblings, back to the reading.

And this is the moment when Dior decides to leave his parents. I think he wants to help the Elves in Doriath organize and rebuild. He is their king, after all. Still it's an interesting contrast: the island becomes a paradise and Dior leaves. I think it speaks well of him. He goes to work, putting duty above "mom pretty with shiny rock". And he restores Doriath successfully.

He gets the Silmaril, looks at it for a long time (unclear if this is bad looking or normal looking), mourns his parents, then puts on the necklace and becomes the most beautiful guy ever, even counting the Maiar. (dear authors of the Grey Annals, someone would lik a talk with you. He said his name is Mairon.)

Gossip starts… How is the gossip among Elves so effective and fast, with their numbers decreased by all the wars?

Anyway gossip, and the Feanorians. (+ a confirmation that no Elf would fight Lúthien). They send messangers to Dior, who does not answer. that's weird. What is his mental process at this point? Is Dior even socialized properly?

He could say "ok, but give me some time to mourn", or "no, you jerks, you attacked my parents and now dare to make demands" or many other things, but he does not answer. (Or is it: the Polish translation strikes again)

It must have been weird. Also: poor messangers. What a stressful job. :(

Instead of thinking "maybe we should wait till he grows up more" or "maybe we should talk to him in person", C&C get the bright idea of "let's kill them all as we told Thingollo we would do!"

And so they do.

And so they die.

Both sides lose (Doriath is destroyed with only a few survivors, but the Feanorians still have zero Silmarils, but now they have 3 dead brothers), so I guess Morgoth wins, but not really, because he doesn't get this Silmaril either and this will come to bite him later.

[yonemurishiroku]

Wondering the whole thing about loyalty being Percy's fatal flaw might actually be on a much more personal level rather than an encompassing "children of Poseidon"-trait.

This is to say that Percy's problem with unhealthy 'loyalty' could be a consequence of his upbringing. You see. The whole point is that Percy can be wary, yet once he deems someone an ally/ not-enemy, it's dangerously difficult for him to see them in a negative light. It's this sort of bipolar disorder but the categories are "Friend or Foe", each of which comes with a package of completely separate treatment. He put Luke in the Friend lot and he nearly died for that. He distrusted Nico but he didn't see him as an enemy and fell for the kid's trick still.

Revert back to his childhood. IIRC Percy had two parent figures growing up, i.e. Sally and Gabe. And here's a thing. They are basically two ends of the spectrum of Parenting. Gabe was an abusive, negligent, alcoholic, problematic stepfather whereas Sally was like a saint or something, who had sacrificed for him so much. So Percy had only experienced two types of attitude in his perspective-shaping phase: extremely loving and downright scornful.

This could thus limit his relationship categories, and later create a hole in his view of others' attitudes, I believe. His relationship table basically has only two columns, Friendly vs Not friendly. Percy puts people in those lots based on how they treat him, how they express themselves to him, how he sees them. But people are way more than just one facet. People can be many things at once, and so are the relationships. Percy's system is lacking, so he suffers from being twirled around in complicated, multilayer dynamics.

Imagine Percy, who only has two sets of acquaintances in his life, one of which gives him misery whilst the other fights for him, is thrown into a mess of two-faced lies and concealed intentions. He doesn't have the specialized code of reaction for that. There's no special section in his handbook dedicated to "People you need to beware of" or "These guys seem friendly, but better be safe than sorry". Once Percy has decided to put you in his mind as not an enemy - he would actively refuse to treat you as an enemy because that's not the way he does it.

And because Percy has so few 'Friends', you know, that he intrinsically, automatically puts you in the Friends column as long as he finds no hostility from you. Yeah, he has Sally, Grover, and Annabeth, but he also has Gabe and Nancy (?) and IIRC the bullies. He has always felt like he didn't fit in (no thanks to you, demigod-bonus ADHD and dyslexia). Percy has had to put too many in the unfavorable section that he, subconsciously or not, favors amicable acquaintanceships - that's why Luke got to him so effortlessly, just by treating him decently.

It's quite similar to the other category too. The best example I can come up with now is Bob/ Iapetus. Bob first made his entrance as Percy's enemy aka Iapetus, and later became harmless to him after getting his memories erased. You'd think Percy would rearrange the columns, but the fact is that Percy technically didn't even remember Bob, or Iapetus for that matter, after leaving him in Nico's care. If my theory is of any credit, I suppose Bob didn't make it into Percy's 'Friends' category, i.e. Percy hadn't considered him a friend. Bob landed in as a Foe and he stayed there in Percy's head - at least up until the Tartarus debacle.

So, like I said: a bipolar relationship classifying system.

[here2bbtstrash]

as promised, here it is: The Big Life Update Post (aka m where the hell have u been and what the hell is going on with this blog)

TLDR: went thru it, came out better for it, i love y'all. and we're getting back into this writing thing as i have the time and capacity 🥳

2023 has been a bit of a whirlwind, to put it very mildly. while the first three months started off relatively smoothly, my saturn return began in the middle of march. only a few short weeks after that... well, i'd basically say everything went off the fucking rails.

content warning: drama talk incoming ft. extremely brief mentions of racism and racist hate mail (no specific details shared).

i haven't spoken on this yet since everything happened, and i want to be explicitly clear that i won't be speaking on it further after this post. but i just want you to understand where i've been at since april.

i will own it entirely and say: i fucked up. i put content in a story that i shouldn't have, that i had no business speaking on, and i think people were well within their right to call me out on it, one hundred percent. however, after i went offline at the end of april, my friends ended up learning that the person who initially stirred up all of the "tea", and submitted the first several anonymous posts about me to a hate blog, was actually someone i knew well and considered a friend.

this was someone whose stories i gladly beta'd, someone i consoled through multiple hard moments in their life, someone i actually even met in person. yep. this was also someone who had read the chapter of my story that featured the problematic content when it was released, and proceeded to send me paragraphs upon paragraphs of how much they enjoyed it, and the story as a whole. this is not to say that people can't change their minds on content after sitting with it, not at all. but to think that i had been through so much with this person, done so much to be there for them, and that they never once gave me any reason to think we were anything other than close friends. yet ultimately, they didn't feel they could come directly to me... or find quite literally any other way of dealing with the issue?

instead, they chose to send multiple messages about me to a hate blog, as well as hateful anons to several of my friends, thinking that we wouldn't know it was them (we did). not only that, but their actions encouraged an actual torrent of racist hate mail to be sent to all of my non-white friends who publicly chose to support me. ultimately, they ended up admitting all of this, and still, they never once apologized or showed even a single iota of remorsefulness or responsibility for the onslaught of vitriol they incited. (even though, you know, this whole thing was supposedly about how racism is bad.)

and this user is still on the platform, operating under a new blog name and pseudonym. so. that's fun. 💀

i don't say this to beat a dead horse, or to drum up sympathy, because i promise i don't want it. it's been long enough, i understand the mistakes i made, and i've done my part to take accountability for my actions. but i needed to start this post here to have you all understand where i was at the end of april - just in time for yoongi's tour 🤪 - in many ways, i felt like i had no friends, at least none that i could really trust. i felt unsure who might have been acting one way to my face, perhaps even praising me, but talking different about me behind my back. and it was beyond fucking nervewracking to think that i would be meeting so many friends IRL for the first time, quite literally days after what essentially felt like a public execution.

i wasn't doing well, to say the least.

and then... the funniest thing happened.

y'all showed the fuck up for me. in droves. in a way that i have quite literally never experienced in my lifetime and doubt i ever will again. even recounting it now is lowkey giving me chills. i received, literally, yes i counted, hundreds of DMs from the most incredibly kind people- on tumblr, on twitter, on discord, in AO3 comments. the vast majority of you wrote paragraphs: about what my stories have meant to you, about how you found my blog to be a safe space in the noise of the world, about how much you'd enjoyed our time together here. so many of you said something along the lines of "even if you never come back here again, please keep writing". honestly, for like a week straight all i could do was read my DMs and cry and cry and cry.

i didn't receive a single hateful DM. not one.

as if that alone isn't more blessings than i deserve in an entire lifetime, i also, you know. saw five shows of agust d on tour. (my credit card is still recovering.) spent two of the best nights of my life in pit getting a water bottle baptism and screaming myself hoarse. and met dozens of incredible moots, who held me when i cried, scream-laughed with me, and of course, drank plenty of booze with me.

at a time where i wondered to myself if i even had a single true friend in this fandom (or, like, in the world), you all showed me that i had so much more. that we had so much more-- we had a community. and i believe we still do. and i am more than ready to block out all the shit that doesn't matter and get back to having some fun around here.

in short: thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. if you sent me a sweet word, i promise you, i read it (and probably cried lmao). i wouldn't be doing any of this without you. i will never ever deserve all the love that you have shown me. but for as long as you'll have me, i'd love to have a fun stupid horny time in this little corner of the internet. as a part of our community. what a fucking gift it is. 🫶

phew. okay, so- that was april and may. it's november. what the fuck happened?

i knew i wanted to properly take time to get my head on straight before i found my way back to writing. what i wasn't expecting was to 1. fall in love, 2. get a new job, and 3. move myself and my cat approximately 800 miles across the country... but yeah, since the end of may, those 3 things are exactly what i've been doing!

i won't talk too much about my partner here, because our relationship is important enough to me that i want to keep it largely private, but my god. he is the most incredible human. i can't tell you how much of what i wrote out as silly little daydreams in my fanfiction has somehow manifested itself into this very real human being (like, it's kinda crazy lmao 🙈). i'm grateful for him every single day. and what makes it even more special is that we met for the first time in person while i was traveling for yoongi's tour - yep! he saw me going through so much upheaval, and fell for me all the same. just another thing i will never fully believe i deserve. but goddamn do i feel luckyyyyy 🥰

and in addition to my amazing partner (and in part because of him but honestly i had plans to move before i had even met this man it just happened to work out okay 🙄) i have also finally managed to do what i've been planning for the last year and a half, which is move my ass out of the southern suburbs where i'd been for nearly a decade, and to a ✨walkable city that actually has public transit✨ - what a fucking dream. i may have only been here 8 days, and i may not have much more to my name than my cat, my TV, and my mattress, but i swear to god, i've never been this happy in my entire life.

so yeah. exhale. like i said, it's been quite the year.

now i do want to end this with a small caveat, which is to say, i can't make a promise as to how much i can *be* here (particularly not compared to how terminally online i used to be lmao). i spent a lot of time online because i was unhappy and feeling very stuck with where i was in life, and i needed escapism, bad. now, i've finally gotten to a place where i'm excited to go out of my house and do things, but i still want to make intentional time for tumblr as a form of connection and community, and writing as a form of creative expression. these things are really important to me!!! i just ask that you give me some grace if i'm a little slow on the uptake. i promise i'm still here 🥰

and writing is gonna happen!!! i can't say much more than that, because tbh i haven't so much as opened a google doc since april, but i've been itching to get back to it. maybe.... we might start off....... with some........... drabble requests??? 👀 we'll see we'll see we'll see hehe.

in any case, i think that's more than enough for now 🤪 oh how i've missed babbling to you all, the gay people in my phone. i hope you're well, and if ya feel so inclined, i'd love it if you'd send me a comment or a DM on what you've been up to in the many months it's been since we've spoke! what's new in your life? what are we manifesting??

talk so so soon, eeeeee~ i'm so happy to be back~ love you babes!!! 🤍

[praazlwurm]

Giratina's Temple and the Celestica Ruins

aka Giratina/platinum clan theory is back (also sorry for using mspaint lmao)

So we all know about the Shrouded Ruins, yeah?

(This is the only spoiler warning for Pokemon Legends: Arceus you're gonna get)

Spooky. Ever-cloaked in mists and mystery, surrounded by black-stoned cairns like graves and home to the giant Odd Keystone that once (?) housed 108 souls. Very ghost-centric.

Well what if I told you it was a temple?

Greco-roman temples (and, problematic or otherwise the celestica are absolutely greco-roman coded) are constructed relatively uniformly, with an outer later of columns holding up the roof and an inner layer holding up an internal structure, providing additional support, ect.

We have a perfect in-game model to project from, too, in the Temple of Sinnoh (pre-explosion). You can see that some of the smaller columns are sometimes decorative - likely they held up torches or, in the case of the two nearest the 'altar,' offerings

So knowing that style and having the remaining structures we do see in-game, we can approximate a lay out of what the building may have looked like.

What makes this a temple, however, is more open to interpretation. My evidence to support that it is is actually the blue-tinged pedestals seen within the outline of the building - the place(s) of honor in any temple. Irl, the inner structure - the cella - was often fully-walled in, though sometimes this was constructed via wood and other materials that don't withstand time.

Now, ENORMOUS shout-out to pokemaniacchris and the incredible Crimson Mirelands Archeological Survey Project for a really detailed, in-character breakdown of the ruins structures throughout the mirelands. I can only assume the 'surveyors' hadn't reached Mt. Coronet yet in their explorations.

Pedestals like these (at least superficially similar) are found beneath dozens of statues around Mt. Coronet, including beneath Giratina, Palkia and Dialga in the Sacred Plaza area. Now, I know I'm supposed to be claiming that this is a temple to Giratina, but if we work on the assumption that the four pedestals corollate with Giratina, Palkia, Dialga, and Arceus, a new conclusion can, perhaps, be drawn:

That whoever built this temple saw all four of them on the same 'level' of power or -- and this is my hc taking over -- if the statues were placed in a certain orientation (see below) that they saw Arceus and Giratina on equal footing, with Dialga and Palkia one rank below.

And there is, imo, more evidence to support this disruption of the 'creation trio' into two pairs on equal footing, found in the Celestica Ruins! So, among the structures there are two notable, circular buildings that the Greeks also utilized, called tholoi (plural). Irl, tholoi were a mix of secular-use and small-scale temples, and seeing as these two are small (maybe 10ft across inside?) I would maintain the claim that they're small temples.

And they align/mirror each other just as the statues of Palkia and Dialga do.

This part becomes pure conjecture, but I like to think the smaller structures in the ruins might be other small-scale temples for the various mythicals, honoring each much as the Greeks honored a pantheon.

Lastly, the CMASP describes the "Gapejaw Bog Complex" as being potentially an entire agora all its own and I can't agree more. Such evidence would support the idea of there being two groups of Celestica (Note: Not the Clans.)

I actually found myself wondering if the mirelands weren't always quite so swampy, and instead flooded at some point in the past with the depressions around Gapejaw - left by housing foundations - filled in with swamp water.

At the end of the day, I think there's a lot of evidence that the Celestica revered Giratina as well as Arceus, Dialga and Palkia - at least early on. Something happened to cause this schism, and the Old Verses/Plate inscriptions point to an outburst of rage from Giratina -- though, in "pick a god (and pray)" I actually argue it was mispercieved on the part of the Celestica and this misperception is what caused Arceus to despair and withdraw.

Open to discussion!! fellow nerds please interact!!