#and i keep harping on this

[bubblegum-blackwood]

No but I actually hate so much that Xander called off the wedding because it’s the cruellest perpetuation of fear and a big middle finger to the hope that things can get better. Think - Anya’s spent years seeing nothing but the worst side of love, then Xander comes along to make her believe in its goodness again, only for him to break her heart on her literal wedding day. Cementing the idea for her that love is always doomed to end in heartbreak. And he’s too scared of ending up like his parents that he won’t let himself try to commit. He lets his own trauma get in the way of letting himself have a happy, fulfilling romantic life, and in doing so breaks the heart of the girl who just finally learned to believe in love again after hundreds of years. I’m so angry that they went that route with it, I kind of expected the wedding to get called off somehow but I was so rooting for them. Anya grew on me so much and I was excited to see her happy with Xander. And the writers had to ruin it. Thematically, it just sucks.

[cuntylestat]

armand: actually, i Wanted lestat to tear my entire life apart, he was basically just doing what i wanted him to do. and i reacted very rationally and normally. i didn't kill anybody, they killed themselves because they just couldn't handle it. i'm built different though, i was totally fine

me:

[essektheylyss]

Because I'm going to be thinking about this forever, I do want to talk about how Caleb speaks, because I think there's something to be said for how his protectiveness (in general) actually presents itself.

Caleb uses epithets and allusions a lot. He refers to Nott as "my goblin friend," to Jester as "my blue friend," to Yasha as "my barbarian friend." Yussa is at one point "our wizard friend," and Essek is "my Kryn friend," in the two-shot.

He is also, notably, paranoid about being surveiled. He wears the amulet of nondetection for most of the campaign, and it's not unwarranted, given that Trent locates him and nearly burns down the Blooming Grove the moment he's able to get a lock on them. Trent in fact has been shown to use any and all information he can get ahold of about or from Caleb against him, to a truly extreme level. His seemingly single-minded goal is expressed to be to ensure that not a single aspect of Caleb's life and loved ones is safe at any moment, to perpetuate the threat of harm from any direction in order to essentially control and monopolize Caleb's every thought.

In Echoes of the Solstice, Caleb does suggest that he is not concerned with Trent being able to surveil him any longer, but Trent is not the only threat, and, timey-wimey plot nonsense aside, the Hells' inability to scry on him since then suggests that he is likely wearing an amulet at least by that point in the timeline.

The extent of Trent's focus on him and his ensuing paranoia is extreme, and even beyond when he may no longer feel that Trent is a threat to him, he seems unwilling to allow him to pose a threat to others, and people he cares about in particular.

Within that context, it's not difficult to read his use of epithets, particularly in referring to people who are not currently present (rather than using their name aloud), as a form of protection. Some of his manner of speaking implicitly or explicitly presumes that he is being surveiled, even outside of the context of protectiveness; after Vess Derogna's death, he frequently refers to Lucian only by epithets, most often, "our old friend," and at one point establishes "Lady D," (to Jester's glee) as a code name for Vess Derogna for the specific purposes of countersurveilance.

This method of protection, I would imagine, goes double for Essek; not only does Caleb have the habit of worrying over those who would use his loved ones against him, which is of course borne out in Echoes of the Solstice, but he also must consider that Essek has his own enemies, and a stray mention of his name in the wrong company or setting could get his partner killed. It seems even in that gifset, when Caleb says, "I am worried for Essek," after the encounter with Trent at Vergessen, that he first considers obfuscating, stumbling over allusory phrasing before acknowledging that Trent already has the information he needs, and at that point Trent is their only real concern about who might care, given Lucien is far too focused on reaching the Astral Sea to worry about hostages.

When Caleb answers Jester's, "And he's going to hurt Essek," with a silence and an oblique reply, it feels most to me like a further measure of protection, knowing that knowledge is power that can be used against him and his loved ones, and silence is the weapon he has against it.

[sesamenom]

they insisted on playing their own wedding music

and a gold haired version, because of the love songs

[ominous-horse-noises]

main takeaway from certain fan reactions to the finale is this:

the final scene with ankarna was so meaningful to the bad kids' arcs and how they made peace with being wronged by people they loved, and if all you can focus on is that the rat grinders didn't get much screentime, then you don't love dimension20 and you don't love this world: you want to be playing your own hs themed dnd campaign and you're mad the oc versions of the rat grinders you made up in your head acted ooc. these are not your characters and this is not their story.

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

So, NewMoon is Nexus and OldMoon is back.

Combined, this puts the largest "death flag" on NewMoon right now. Which sucks.

(I will be using Nexus and Newmoon interchangeably to refer to him. Like pre-villian and post-villian.)

I love OldMoon, I'm happy he's back... But like...

What is this non-reaction from Sun?? It's so boring. There's so much to yell and call him out for. I hope that comes later.

But the mundaneness in which he's brought back is just so underwhelming just like "ha he doesn't remember anything for the past year. Funny."

Not to mention OldMoon isn't given the full context of Why NewMoon "went crazy" and everyone is just writing him off like that???

Just..

I don't know man.

The entire show is gaslighting us into believing NewMoon was toxic.

But think of before all this.

LOOK AT THE OLD EPISODES.

I watched them.

I watched the entire years worth of content. He is not toxic.

The only remotely Toxic thing he did was yell at people when he got angry in high intense situations, which he apologized for nearly instantly after he calmed down.

And if somebody says "he hung out with Solar more..."

Like what??? Your siblings arent allowed to have friends? If Sun died NewMoon still would have become Nexus. Solar would spiral with him. Cus sure as hell Solar would feel horrendously guilty if another Sun died in his place.

Hanging out with your friends over your siblings is not toxic behavior no matter how many times you spin it.

Newmoon's only crimes before he went in his villian arc are that he was prone to anger and yelling, and he liked hanging out with someone who had similar interests to him.

But he genuinely cared so much, and that care became a poison due to the unappreciation. Which shows in the lack of acknowledgement of Newmoon's good actions throughout the year of his life.

He did everything to help his family. And it's like everyone forgot what a caring individual he was actually. It's so strange. Everyone just says "oh yeah he went crazy" but no one is looking at the perfect storm of steps it took to get there.

NewMoon bought Sun a house, cured several types of cancer, built Earth a body, Gave Lunar a bodyguard, gave Solar and Sun the most expensive luxury gifts at Christmas.

He also helped Sun with his Bloodmoon hallucinations. He was there for him and always regarded Suns input on things. I can not say the same for Sun.

He cared and loved so much. To see the show just turn it around and villain him and act like he didn't love his family for a year and wasn't the sweetest person to them?????

It hurts.

And I am tired of pretending like NewMoon wasn't a good person or brother in the first place.

Because he was.

[daeneryseastar]

rhaenyra is as much of a girl’s girl as the society she lives in allows her to be.

book wise she has multiple ladies in waiting (not just alicent, which is a grave oversight in the show), one of which is said to have gouged out her own eyes at the sight of rhaenyra’s murder. that doesn’t sound like someone who isn’t capable of inspiring loyalty from the women around them. rhaenys fully and wholeheartedly supported rhaenyra and her cause, even dying in her attempts to make her the first queen regnant of the seven kingdoms. laena betrothed her daughters to rhaenyra’s sons, ensuring that her blood sat both the iron throne and the driftwood throne, all while being a pretty difficult backing to break due to the wealth and naval power of the velaryons (all of this in spite of the bastardy rumors surrounding jace and luke). the agreement also puts forward how politically astute rhaenyra is, and how she didn’t just rely on her father’s word to put her on the throne. she made alliances using her sons hand in marriage; borros baratheon might not have declared for aegon had a proposal taken place the night luke brought rhaenyra’s terms. baela was only held back from partaking in the many battles because of her dragon’s size, otherwise she would have been right beside her betrothed fighting for rhaenyra. there’s even a chance that rhaena would have joined had she had a rideable dragon of her own. she had mysaria, a former sex worker, as her mistress of whisperers, a very esteemed position on her small council. the cases of rosby and stokeworth have no bearing on this, because they were never named as heirs (along with being literal children during a war time) which is what rhaenyra was using as the basis for her rulership. jeyne arryn knew her own position as lady of the eyrie would be challenged (again) if aegon stepped over rhaenyra and subsequently supported her cause. important women like alysanne blackwood and sabitha frey were key players in cregan’s army.

show wise she is shown in the season two trailer to be taking advice from rhaenys and allowing her to be a part of the war efforts. baela and rhaena are explicitly included on her war council, with rhaena as her cupbearer. moondancer is no longer a hardly rideable dragon and baela seems to be taking direct part in the war. rhaenyra is already shown in a set picture to be communicating with mysaria (whether that’s discussing blood and cheese, the aftermath of it, or something entirely different remains to be seen). these are not the acts of someone who hated other women, and using her falling out with alicent and the resulting enmity between them (that is almost completely one-sided due to the difference in power dynamics) as an excuse to otherwise is worse than strange, considering alicent’s canonical goal was to seat her son, a known violent misogynist, on the throne over a woman who was the named heir to the king.

the green’s entire ideological standpoint is that women cannot rule, ever, for it would make the main members of the green’s powerless, and any other lord or heir’s claim would be up for debate if they have an elder sister. if the iron throne had truly been aegon’s by right alicent, otto, and criston would not have left viserys’ body to rot for days AND they would have had the backing of most of the houses. if alicent had cared more for her children’s wellbeing she would have convened a great council before the war began or considered any other effort that would not lead to her children fighting on dragonback. rhaenyra’s (peaceful) ascension would have at least started the necessary changes needed to grant women more authority and (!) autonomy in the seven kingdoms. queen consorts had significantly less influence after her murder, along with the targaryen’s losing their ability to hatch dragons. rhaenyra does not need to be a feminist for her cause to be inherently feminist by proxy.

rhaenyra was not a feminist, but she did have great love for other women. it’s disingenuous at best and downright insulting at worst to try to paint her as anything else. she inspired loyalty even after her murder. if the black’s cause had truly relied on putting rhaenyra on the throne, her armies would have disbanded once she was dead. instead corlys and larys poisoned aegon, with rhaenyra’s son being placed on the throne afterwards. it was ultimately about bloodlines in the end. jaehaera suffered the unfortunate consequences of an ambitious hand because of her status as aegon’s daughter. it plays directly into how alicent outlived her entire family, besides jaehaera, and went mad with grief, learning to hate the color green. how greed and the allure of power can and will corrupt those who choose to make that a priority in their lives, and how the innocent will usually pay the price for those sins.

[casscainmainly]

there's a good couple things about popular fanon that I really hate but the things that always sticks out to me is what they choose to keep from canon for instance, morrisions Talia Al Ghul, some fanon only fans who very proudly say they've never read a comic sure do love to bring up how Talia was portrayed in Morrisions batman run like they've actually even read it

God this is so real. Evil Talia enduring for so long is a testament to how most fanon demonises characters of colour to prop up White favs. Evil Talia exists to prop up Good Dad Bruce, and canon is a convenient excuse to justify that. (This is an issue for canon fans, too; there are some very ungenerous interpretations of characters based on 1 badly written moment or run).

But yeah for most popular fanon 'canon', it's either villainising a POC or victimizing a White boy. Fanon's love of Red Robin 2009 is a good example of this - it's the ultimate White boy victim/evil POC story. Of course it's not, because anyone who reads it knows that neither Tim or Damian are written as unilaterally right or wrong, but that nuance is lost in vague Tumblr posts and out-of-context screenshots.

Everyone picks and chooses canon, that's inevitable given the medium. But where most canon fans pick and choose based on characters they love, fanon seems to choose canon based on who they don't like/who to exclude. So you have Damian cutting Tim's line, the weird endurance of cop!Dick/the 'Tim and Arkham' thing, evil Talia, Cass being in HK... all of this canon centers on removing or villainising characters of colour.

Not all fanon fans are like this, a lot of them genuinely love these characters. But if your love of a White character is predicated on tearing down a character of colour, especially when you've never taken the time to understand anything about them, that's when it stops being harmless fun.

[periprose]

sydney is too young for carmy. its grooming tbh very weird of carm to look at syd that way when she's his mentee and looks up to him. disgusting that creeps like u ship it

We don't have a canon age for Sydney or Carmy so I'm going off their actors' ages.

A four year difference is too much for you?? Lol. This isn't grooming and realistically most relationships can have this dynamic. Anon I invite you to the real world where rarely you will find people who date are on the exact same level (please don't come at me with this "power imbalance" shit too lol)

Also if you think I'm a creep I don't really care. Being an adult means I can do what I want without caring about randoms on the internet think of me.

A lot of you also use purity culture/false virtuosity to bully people, too; don't think I don't notice how you're subtly trying to equate this to actual pedophilia. Genuinely, you do a disservice to actual issues when you pull this shit.

[funishment-time]

i have sometimes been called a ride-or-die for Kodaka Works in a Derogatory Way and i get it because i kind of am, but let it be known i will probably not pick up The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- unless it turns out to be a secret DR game, obnoxiously fun, or Brilliantly Written or something, because those designs are, uh

[visualtaehyun]

Names, particles, aliens and ghosts, oh my!

Disclaimer: not a native Thai speaker, still learning 🙏

Ongsa & Alpha

Last week's episode started with the trio talking about the sisters' names:

Nunnapat Ampornsopon /Nan-na-phat Am-phaawn-soh-phohn/ Matthayom 4, class 6 (=10th grade) English

While we see this, Tin tells us Alpha's name too:

Napatsanun Ampornsopon นภัสนันท์ อัมพรโสภณ /Na-phat-sa-nan Am-phaawn-soh-phohn/

Her and Ongsa's first names have the exact same two words in them, just switcheroo'd:

นันท์ /nan/ = joy, happiness;

นภัส /na phat/ = sky, heaven

-> Quick pronunciation lesson: The final consonant in นภัส /na phat/ is called ส เสือ /saw seuua/ (= lit. S like the word for tiger) but in final position it's pronounced as a /t/. In Alpha's name, that same letter gets reduplicated to better link นภัส /na phat/ and นันท์ /nan/ so we get Napat-sa-nun!

Their last name Ampornsopon contains:

อัมพร /am phaawn/ = sky;

โสภณ /soh phohn/ = beautiful

Aylin

Her club application form was only shown in a Next Break preview last week, not the actual scene, but I wanted to take a look at it anyway:

Application to join the Astronomy Club Name: Aylin Kueaahree Grade: Matthayom 4, class 1 (=10th grade) Hobbies: Communicating with aliens Goal in joining the club: Searching for a friend/friends

Aylin is her first name, her last name is เกื้ออารีย์ /geuua aa ree/:

เกื้อ /geuua/ = to aid, do a favor, assist, lend a hand;

อารีย์ /ah ree/ = kind, generous

We saw her name properly this week, too, in the document she hilariously designed, wrote up, and filled out by hand:

Permit for spending the night at S-TAR school Subject: Asking for permission to stay the night at school for the duration of 1 night To: Counselling homeroom teacher I, (young Mr./young Miss/Mr./Miss) Aylin Keuaahree, ID number 406123, student of Matthayom 4/1, need to stay over at school ... on the date of the 24th of the month of August in the year of 2566 (2023) from 20.00 o'clock until 06.00 o'clock. Please kindly take it into consideration. Respectfully yours Aylin Keuaahree (Miss Aylin Keuaahree) Student

I've mentioned before that the subs are a bit too generous and don't quite show how much Aylin limits her speech to the minimum she needs to get her point across. One thing that consistently gets subbed is how she differentiates between aliens and humans. But not every instance of human is the same. She does seem to differentiate between general observations about human behavior and specific humans she talks to, now even addressing them appropriately (albeit with the 'human' descriptor).

1) มนุษย์ครูใจร้าย /ma noot khruu jai raai/ = [You] are mean, teacher human. 2) มันเป็นหนทางที่เอเลี่ยนจะได้เจอเพื่อนนะ /man bpen hon thaang thee alien ja dai juuhr pheuuan na/

มนุษย์ชอบถามแปลก ๆ /ma noot chaawp thaam bplaaek bplaaek/ = Humans like to ask weird questions.

1) มนุษย์พี่เคยบอกเอง ว่าเรื่องที่เชื่อไม่ใช่เรื่องที่ไร้สาระ /ma noot phi koei baawk ehng - waa reuuang thee cheuua mai chai reuuang thee rai saa ra/ = [You] said so [your]self, senior human - that what [I] believe in isn't nonsense. 2) ทำไมมนุษย์ชอบกลับคำพูด /tham mai ma noot chaawp glap kham phuut/ = Why do humans like to go back on their word?

Luna, Mawin, and Ton

Thanks again, Tin, for helpfully giving us all the names lol:

Luna Lalita Chanthaboriboon ลูน่า ลลิตา จันทบริบูรณ์ /Luu-naa La-lee-dtaa Jan-tha-baw-ree-buun/

Luna is her nickname, her first name Lalita ลลิตา means pretty, charming, lovely, and her last name จันทบริบูรณ์ contains:

จันท /jan tha/ from จันทร์ /jan/ = moon;

บริบูรณ์ /baw ree buun/ = complete, full, perfect, abundant

พี่เป็นดวงจันทร์ต่างหาก /phi bpen duuang jan dtaang haak/

Moving on to the boys-

Mawin Kow(a)charoen มาวิน โค้วเจริญ /Maa-win Khoh(-wa)-ja-reern/ -> the added 'wa' would be for the same ease-of-pronunciation reason I explained earlier with Alpha's name

Mawin isn't a Thai name but his last name โค้วเจริญ consists of:

โค้ว* likely from หมูโค้ว /moo khoh/? = a pork belly dish

เจริญ /ja reern/ = the same as Charoen's name, meaning to pray/chant, to prosper, to thrive

Edit, addition by @recentadultburnout:

Based on the usual pattern, the *โค้ว in the surname โค้วเจริญ is likely a Chinese surname that got incorporated into a Thai one. โค้ว is one of the top ten most used ones among Chinese surnames in Thailand. As for [his first name] มาวิน, while it was indeed not originally Thai, it did have a meaning—a borrowed word plus slang of sorts. A winner or to win.

Ton Thanakorn Khajornyoo ต้น ธนกร ขจรอยู่ /Dtohn Tha-na-gaawn Kha-jaawn-yuu/

His first name ธนกร /tha na gaawn/ = to create assets/capital; rich, wealthy

His nickname Ton ต้น might stem haha from the plant (ต้น)ขจร /(dtohn) kha jaawn/, a type of vine. ต้น /dtohn/ is a prefix used for plants but it can also mean leader, chief, leading, beginning, etc.

His last name ขจรอยู่ /kha jawn yuu/ = is spread/spreading, emanating, diffusing

An addendum about Ton

Last week, I wondered if maybe Ton was a closeted gay guy because of a handful of instances where AJ's delivery of the typically-female polite ending particles ค่ะ/คะ /kha/ sounded pretty sassy (and because he's Ongsa's ex aka the biggest lesbian under the sun lol). After episode three, I'm pretty sure he's just a huge flirt with everyone regardless of gender, he just adjusts his particle use (and also his height!) accordingly to sweet-talk them all:

1) ว่าไงครับสุดหล่อ /waa ngai khrap soot laaw/ -> ครับ /khrap/ = typically-male polite ending particle 2) แต่คุณแอลคะ /dtaae khun Al kha/ -> คะ /kha/ = typically-female polite ending particle

And since he finger-guns his way into the student council room, I think we all know now that he's bi

"Filth-eating spirit"

ใครจะไปล่าแสงกระสือกับพี่ต้นบ้างครับ /khrai ja bpai laa saaeng gra seuu gap phi Ton baang khrap/

If that sounds familiar to you, you either know your Thai ghosts or you've seen this or other movies like it:

Inhuman Kiss or แสงกระสือ /saaeng gra seuu/, starring Minnie Phantira, Oab Oabnithi and Great Sapol

A Krasue is a type of evil spirit that possesses women and, when going out to hunt, leaves the body behind to be a floating head with internal organs still attached. It's translated as 'filth-eating' because a Krasue is cursed to feed on blood, organs, carrion etc. Ton calls the mysterious green light แสงกระสือ /saaeng gra seuu/ (=light of a Krasue) because sightings of a Krasue usually report them looking like a floating red or green orb. In that regard, they're comparable to will-o'-the-wisps!

[oifaaa]

what do you mean your mother misspelled your name on your birth certificate how does that happen?????

So my name was meant to be Aoife my Dad picked it after reading a newspaper with an article about 2 conjoint twins that survived after separation (one was named Aoife the other other niamh) but he wasn't actually there when I was born as I have 2 older siblings that needed to be looked after so left to her own devices my mum spelt it Aoifa she claims she was very unwell after I was born but I've also seen my red book and my name is not spelt correctly (or even the same way twice) in that whole book

[ladyinthebluebox]

game: literally takes us a whooole different, more advanced part of the game world;

a g*mer Warden groupie: tHeRe aReN't EnOuGh ReCoGnIsEaBlE eLeMeNtS tHeRe; It DoEsN't LoOk LiKe DrAgOn AgE;

me looking at distinctively dwarven influenced architecture of the city which has super close ties to dwarves, pride demons, magic mirrors, fucking wolf statues staring me right into the face in (once again) distinctively looking elven ruins: yeah buddy. it really is unrecogniseable.

[gmaybe666]

made a poster to show off my comic about the cleric and paladin 🫶🏻 !!!!

am selling the copies online, inbox me or dm on here also and I can post it to you !

edit: the comic is £40 and the cost of packaging and shipping is + £10 so its actually £50 :-)

[moongothic]

Quick point to re: is Croc openly trans or not

So Ivankov's ability to change someone's biological sex is kind of a "myth" in the OP world, right? The way Bon-chan talked about Ivankov was with an aura of legend, how they had heard all these incredible things about Ivankov but couldn't even be entirely sure the person truly even existed until they got to meet face-to-face, because the stories told about Ivankov were just so incredible

Of course, between Iva-chan's imprisonment 6-5 years ago and the actual difficulty people would have genuinely finding them to begin with (being a Rev and travelling around the world sometimes and othertimes just hanging around in the Calm Belt on Momoiro Island), the word about their deeds would turn into Stuff of Legend as few would be able to actually verify it, see it for themselves and tell others all about it, but those stories had to start somewhere, right?

And we do have an interesting note here, as this prince mentioned his mother visiting Kamabakka Queendom 15 years ago (pre-timeskip)

Now one could think that hey, maybe this is where The Legends about Ivankov's miraculous abilities began, but think really about it for a moment; Why would some ruler of a kingdom go out of their way to travel to Kamabakka Queendom, ruled by a member for the Revolutionary Army (=potentially dangerous for a monarch), if they hadn't heard about Ivankov's ability from somewhere else first?

And that's where the timeline mention gets interesting. Because guess who was born just two years before this prince's mother made her brave journey to see Iva-chan?

I'm just saying, if Crocodile went missing for like 4-9 months and then came back fully transitioned out of nowhere, and Morgans made a huge god damn deal about it on the news, letting the whole world know about the Warlord magically having become a man, yeah, that would start some rumors about who what where and how this even happened. And needless to say, this could easily send a lot of people out to the seas to try to find the Miracle Worker who transed Crocodile's gender, including some monarchs who have the resources to both verify the legends but also actually make the journey to find Ivankov (Also, if the inciting incident that started the legends about Ivankov happened due to Crocodile like 17-19 years ago, that would add to that aura of myth Ivankov has around them, as it would've been a long ass time ago when the first rumors about Emporio Ivankov would've gotten out there)

[libra-cant-just-dance]

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