#and idk i guess i kind of assumed it was an act? some part of her brain was left over from conversion

[decepti-thots]

What I can't get my head around is, why didn't Dominus Ambus tell Rewind that he was secretly a turbofox? Like, that's your conjunx, presumably the person you trust most in the whole universe, and you won't even share your secret with him? IDK if you've already done an analysis post on this but if you haven't I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Okay, so. Putting aside any non-diagetic explanations entirely for a moment (that is, my suspicion that the concept was conceived of some way into the comic's run and just proved a really good way to explain Rewind not recognising the Pet once it was settled on)… in-universe explanations, let's go.

Something I do wanna point out here is a thing I rarely see mentioned: in my opinion, Minimus does not act as though Rewind doesn't know. I think he expects that Rewind does, which is honestly sort of wild? In DotL, Minimus isn't like 'oh shit, now you know I guess' when he's making remarks about Dominus being even more insecure about his height than Minimus is (irreducible style), or whatever. I… guess you could argue he thinks Rewind has inferred it logically (Minimus has revealed he was wearing an armour > Minimus and Dominus are spark twins > therefore…) but tbh, he's just. SO casual about it. I absolutely feel like Minimus assumed Dominus had told Rewind! Which. THEY WERE MARRIED LMAO. IT'S A REASONABLE… ASSUMPTION……..

Which definitely suggests there's no reason externally that is all that compelling for Dominus to not have done so. If there was, presumably Minimus would have anticipated it! Realistically, if Dominus couldn't trust Rewind to keep it secret for the sake of public access and ease, why the hell were they married. (Anyway, Rewind is in a far more precarious situation than Dominus is, when they meet; Rewind isn't able to hide and is formally subject to being classified as 'disposable'. I mean!) That's definitely not compelling.

Personally I think the easiest way to reconcile it is to think that Dominus had a personal hangup around his alt, and genuinely wanted people not to know this about him- because he himself was personally ashamed of it, no matter how much effort he put into public work that seems to contradict that. This actually reconciles something else, I think. Why would the sentience test Dominus seemingly designed in part or full be so biased against beastformers? He is one! What! But if that's something he was unable to get over the way he e.g. was able to overcome prejudice of the kind Rewind was facing, it perhaps makes sense to think of it as a kind of 'harder when it's personal' thing. Right? Internal feelings of self-loathing are sometimes paradoxically the more difficult kind to unlearn, compared to changing how you think about other people. Hell, maybe Dominus convinced himself wearing an armour 24/7 meant he wasn't one any more. Maybe he didn't tell Rewind because as far as he was concerned, that was no longer true.

I think this would potentially be interesting in terms of adding actual characterization to Dominus against which you can a) effectively compare and contrast Minimus (since a looot of what we know about Dominus is more or less 'he was made in a lab to induce an inferority complex in Minimus', lmao) and b) open up avenues to question the very idealized view Rewind has of their marriage that don't necessarily require leaning into the trope of 'he was an Evil Liar All Along on purpose!!!', which adds a lot of interesting stuff to that element of Rewind's arc that I'm sad canon never really managed to deliver completely, IMO.

I have actually thought about Dominus in relation to both Minimus and Rewind a LOOOOOT haha. He's such a cipher in the comic; a huge motivating character for two otherwise-unconnected leads AND a cornerstone of our introduction to the Functionist Universe… and yet a character we know very little about the thought processes or feelings of. He's like a void of a character you can reconstruct by looking at what surrounds him. It's very fun to me.

[cable-salamdr]

Alright, y’all already know. It’s time for a teaser breakdown.

Before I start, I will say that I will at times deviate from the chronological timeline of the actual teaser in order to accentuate or explain my point, or just because the images correlate to each other. Spoilers ahead, obviously. And just be aware that this is probably going to be a massive read (future cable who just finished writing: it is.).

(Also, here’s the link to my previous analysis post on the IMBD pictures because I cite it a lot, in case someone hasn’t seen that one yet)

So, let’s crack in, shall we?

Right off the bat, what I noticed immediately: This is a different punch than we’ve seen in the other Lloyd vision where Beatrix punches him (right). The lighting and background are different. Maybe this could be an indication that Beatrix is close to coming back? Either way, that sure is a way to start a teaser (I will be addressing the other part of that vision later)

Yay! Roby! By that selfie stick bit I am PRAYING that he *actually* has the personality that he does in that set promo video, because it now seems ever more like that. Also, hey! That’s one of the Explorer’s Club members! I’m assuming that he managed to find work in this Temple City after the Merge (good for him honestly tho he doesn’t look too thrilled)

Okay, this. We’ve already had this image as per the IMDB thing and we already assumed that it was Roby welcoming the ninja into the temple city, and through that I am going to assume that that image comes right after this one:

Which implies what I had already kind of guessed, and it’s that the ninja will have difficulty getting into the Temple City/ there will be some force trying to stop them. I actually first assumed this was the Imperium Hunters, but it seems like those are actually the Temple Guards.

Now, as per what I thought before and what I see here, I’m going to assume that this is a challenge already. In a sec I’ll talk about all the different kinds of challenges we see, because I think they’re quite interesting in of themselves, but because of that giant screen we see projecting the ninja (Lloyd and Nya) on Jiro behind Roby, this basically confirms to me that these Temple Guards aren’t there because they want to particularity stop the ninja from entering, but that they are just a sort of obstacle that any potential participant has to overcome in order to get into the city.

So, yay, the lizards aren’t being hurt just for the sake of it! How nice.

Then we’ve got this and. Uhm. Well first off what the fuck

But now to actually be serious, other people have already been saying this, and it’s the idea that the person sitting down (in what looks like almost a throne? Idk) is Nokt, and he’s sort of… half and half between the two worlds, which could bring about all sorts of things.

Edit: I have been made aware that this, in fact, probably isn’t Nokt (neither his body nor soul)

So what do I think this is? I have no fucking clue. I could say that this was my idea about Jordana getting mildly possessed by another FF that may have gotten out (because the way she acted at the end of p1), and honestly that seems to be the most plausible answer right now. Either way, to me, it looks like the other FF are either praying/ casting, or perhaps having some sort of meeting together? No matter what, it looks ominous as fuck, and something Kai and Bonzle (who we see walk up behind Kai) should probably not be walking into for their own safety.

*THIS* I find a very curious screenshot. Because yay Lloyd in his master robe HEWLL YEARH but also. He didn’t wear that before. In that IMBD picture we see him on the screen, and he is in fact wearing the green tournament suit.

I think what this implies is that THIS is actually for the The Feast episode, wherein I think they gave this sort of formal robe to Lloyd as a way to… I guess make him stand out as the leader of the group? Not to mention that they seem to be coming from a building and going into a new building and looking at something rather grand, which I can thus only assume is a big dining hall. I know people are saying that Arin looks too happy for it to be an episode farther in, but I honestly think it could be a facade. The fact that he’s holding open the door could imply that he feels the need to do something useful, at least.

However, the fact that Lloyd is wearing his robe also makes me think of another clip that we see:

I am going to say that I’m directly assuming these two things happen within the same episode. I haven’t seen anyone talk about how Lloyd is wearing the same outfit, and I think that’s with the assumption that he’s wearing this for the entire tournament which, as said, I don’t think is true.

What everyone IS talking about tho is the cloaked figure. Which, yk, is a cloaked figure. Of course I want to know who it is, but I have attempted my best at cross referencing any of the villain’s suits, and none of them match (A further post about that here). Which brings me to…

Something that I find very curious is that we don’t see any of Ras’ crew, except for Cinder. He’s the only elemental master they’ve got, and we don’t know whether Jay is *actually* gonna be there at all now, considering we didn’t see him whatsoever. Could this cloaked figure be Jay? Sure. But the suit doesn’t match up, either. Which made me realize that we don’t see any of the other fighters at all, really, which is… interesting, to say the least. Perhaps they’re just waiting to reveal what kinds of others powers there will be present at the tournament.

And since I was already talking about Cinder, let’s look at these screenshots, shall we?

What I get from the first one is that HORRAH Wyld vs Cinder rematch!! (Which means we can’t fully trust those fighting promo cards from a while ago because the fights don’t seem to completely match up). What else I get from it is that Shatterspin is allowed in the tournament, and by extension Rising Dragon! Which means that this is likely a tournament with rules similar to the Tournament of Elements, where the rules were basically that you could do whatever you wanted.

And for the second one. Good lord, I don’t even know. It just scares me, that’s all.

No, but, fr, what is happening. Why does he suddenly have Wyld’s power. Someone said this could be also like in the TOE, but instead of the loser’s element going to one person they go to the winner, which, yk, isn’t terrifying at all. You know what else isn’t terrifying at all? This bit:

I have much thoughts about this image, but I’m just gonna say what my first thought was, and it’s that this is Wyld accidentally setting something on fire, and then not being able to control it. Maybe even IN the Cinder fight. Maybe this is someone else causing it and Wyld gets blamed.

Either way, what I think is going to happen here is exactly that: WF gets blamed, and she will have to show that she’s grown as a person and wouldn’t just set things on fire anymore without reason, that she can help. Whether that works, or whether other people even believe her, is yet to be seen, I suppose.

(On a lighter note, I fucking love the little face of the flame on her back. The second letter seems to be a F, and the first one perhaps an R? I’m not quite sure. Anyways, it’s adorable.)

And speaking of adorable things:

GEO. HE’S HERE!!! He’s here and he’s cheering and I am going to selfishly believe that he’s cheering on Cole because GAH I need Geode to become real by the end of this season. God I hope no one at that Tournament is racist to Geo I would punch my screen

Ahem. Anyways. I guess what we can get from this is that those outfits seem to be spectator outfits rather than what the participants wear! And what we can get from that is that Geo will sadly probably not participate in the tournament. To be fair, it seems like only trained fighters will be attending, and despite Geo being able to kick ass, I don’t think he would be particularity good at it against people who have been training for who knows how long.

This also might imply he left the finder kids at the monastery in Mr. Frohicky’s care— which, yk, still leaves the question of how he gets to this tournament in the first place, as we do not see him in any of the screenshots where the ninja are still outside Temply City.

What I also realised from this is that we don’t see Euphrasia anywhere in this trailer. I’m still holding onto hope, so we’ll wait and see.

Then we’ve got all the Sora centric bits (which there seem to a lot of, which kinda tells me that she’s gonna be a focus and YES this will cause issues for Arin no one can convince me otherwise)

Anyways, as I said before, these images demonstrate to me what kind of challenges there will actually be within this tournament: Not just fights, but also what looks like a parkour and a race! Oh what joys. The first one actually kind makes me think that this is a challenge about ingenuity (due to that pole Sora is holding), but I might be reaching with that.

I didn’t get a screenshot of that lil Cole we see in that third clip as well, but I think that means we can safely assume that they're driving that combo vehicle we already have a set of, for which Cole gets the white and orange wedding suit! (Why? I don’t know. In my heart I'm choosing to believe everyone gets a similar outfit to that one.)

And that fuckass little dragon? I've got no idea. It kinda reminds me of Vania's dragon, Chompy, but also of those little Source Dragons Lloyd saw floating around his head right before he had the Master Dragon vision. Idk, it confuses me, so I'm choosing to ignore it lmao

And now the screenshots that I’ve been wanting to hold off on the longest… ho boy. Okay, there’s a lot here.

First off: This is before the tournament, and the next two images that I will be looking at are also before the tournament (the one with Lloyd falling), due to the fact that they are wearing their normal suits.

Second: The Matriarch. In the Kingdom of Madness area. As many people have already been guessing, this is likely where she thought to settle next after getting forced out of their previous home. But also, she looks… bigger? Idk maybe that’s just me. I also keep thinking that it’s the Energy, the Source Dragon that was imprisoned, or that it kinda looks like a bigger Zanth, but I’m probably wrong with that, as that doesn’t make much sense.

Either way, the kids seem to have to help her with something. And, to me, she almost seems… hurt? Like she didn’t call them there to chat or catch up with Riyu, but that she desperately needs help, perhaps something about her horde. Anyways, it concerns me deeply, especially with the next image in mind, which I cannot imagine being before that first one.

Other’s have been saying it and we all know it: that in the background looks like an Administration computer. The problem is that… it’s not the usual color (which was I think green? Berate me if I’m wrong)

So, what do I think happened here? I think the pictures directly correlate. I think what’s gonna be happening here is that the Matriarch wanted to move to this place within the Kingdom of Madness, the Administration was notified of the wrong kind of dragon activity, and is then trying to get them back out, most likely by capturing and deporting them, but maybe also something worse— who knows at this point. Somehow, the Matriarch got hurt, that’s for sure. Maybe she fought them, who knows. What I think will then happen is that either the kids attempt to find where they took the dragons, or they, too, will be captured and brought back.

What happens after this is entirely illusive to me. Of course they could be seeing Jay in that second screenshot, but somehow I doubt it (if this prediction comes true I’m gonna lose my fucking marbles). Either way they are seeing something that’s not normal, which has got to be something extreme, considering Arin has been in that place and has most likely told Sora about it. Maybe they just set off an alarm and that’s why it’s blaring red? Who knows. I sure don’t.

And these screencaps are just as a mystery (as said, these are very likely pre-Tournament, as Lloyd is still in his climber suit)

But what I haven’t seen a lot of people say yet is that we do know who that dragon is, as it appears to be Heatwave (you can see his face in that split second, in the first screenshot). It looks to me as if Lloyd was either deliberately jumping to one place and Heatwave caught him as to prevent that (for whatever reason?), or Lloyd somehow ended up in this falling situation, and HW is saving him (for whatever reason???). Either explanation scares me.

And last, but oh my god definitely not least, we have this clip of Motion. She is so gorgeous I don’t know what to say.

So I’ll just repeat what others have been saying, which is that this is likely in the first episode and the way that the ninja actually get their invitation.

Also I lied I do have smth to say: I feel like this could correlate to that one part at the beginning with Lloyd’s nightmare, where he also sees Motion. Perhaps Lloyd will be convinced that following this invitation will be a bad thing, since he saw it in relation to the other bad things (such as Beatrix punching him for a second time), but the others will convince him, for better or for worse.

Either way, this means that the invitation is personal. We can assume that this will not be some sort of trick by others, but that this is really Motion, inviting them to the tournament, as she was also one of the SDs that was up for helping Lloyd. This makes me ever more so believe that whatever the prize of the Tournament is could potentially result in Kai’s return.

Anyways, that’s all from me. I hope this ramble wasn’t too unorganised, I’ve been writing this for………..an hour. I am normal about this show I swear.

[jupiter049]

Last minute theory about how they will defeat Sutekh

Sutekh is very much unbeatable. Stronger than both The Toymaker and Maestro with no real weakness and is in possession of The Tardis.

There's only one entity which we have actually assume has the potential to stop Sutekh, and that is her.

An incarnation of Susan Twist, who as we know now is an extension of Sutekh was completely scared off by her.

Furthermore, as Kate states, the appearance of the woman suspended the timeline across Ruby's own event. While this line is vague, I think very much everybody agrees it means that in some way the appearance of the woman made aliens and magical creatures around disappear as seeing how it happened with The Doctor himself.

Seeing as Sutekh literally never manages to emerge again, I don't think there's anything else left to assume than that the woman just banished him (either when The Doctor stepped on the circle or when it scared off Susan).

There's some counter arguments you could make but the fact it can even be interpreted at all that the woman actually banished Sutekh gives it some huge weight (remember, there's literally nothing The Doctor has that can stop Sutekh, genuinely 0 things. She has huge weight because literally nothing else in this season does).

Plus, as we saw at the end of '73 Yards' the woman rewinds time to before all terrible things happened. Judging from the trailers, earth and a big chunk of the universe will be destroyed, meaning they will inevitable have to find an excuse as to why all of that is undone and the woman can literally act as a reset button.

One thing is that the episode's synopsis and the marketing do state that a "kind woman" will be the key to defeat Sutekh.

This woman will probably have some knowledge about the mysterious woman. Maybe she helps to recreate the circle, or has some other object with a similar power, or maybe gives The Doctor and Ruby the knowledge to manifest her some other way, etc.

My guess is that whatever happens. My idea is that in the end Ruby will manifest the woman by remembering the alternate '73 Yards' timeline. Sounds insane, but like, think about it.

Maestro (who is part of the pantheon, with their episode clearly working as a prelude to this finale) was defeated by John Lennon and Paul McCartney playing music despite that no music existed on earth. Even when changing the timeline, music and the memory of it still existed inside them, and we do know Ruby somewhat remembers the '73 Yards' timeline.

With all this talk about how memory is time, how The Memory Tardis will obviously be manifested through the time window, changing memories changing reality, and with how much inspiration Russel is clearly taking from series 5. It feels very fitting that Ruby remembering the timeline brings back the woman from an erased timeline, just like Amy Pond did with The Doctor back in 'The Big Bang'.

Or maybe the kind woman just has an anti-sutekh repellent and that's enough to kill him idk.

[harrywavycurly]

Your post about the brother gc made my mind wonder about having all the Eddie’s in a gc that you could text and ask about boy problems 😂

Hiii lovey!! Idk why instead of a group chat my mind went “what if there was a 1-800 number for you to call for advice from the Eddies??���🙈 it would be like this:

“Thank you for calling the Life Advice Network this is Steve speaking how may I help you?” “Uhm…I just need to know if the guy I’m interested in is…also interested in me…” “Ah got it let me transfer you to Husband Eddie he is our go too guy when it comes to deciphering men’s intentions..one moment.” “Hi this is Husband Eddie Munson how can I be of service to you today?” “Hey Eddie uhm…the guy I’m interested in is kinda being weird lately and I’m not sure if-” “Describe weird.” “Oh uh he ended our text conversation by just saying later…when normally he says like bye gorgeous or something along those lines.” “Later? He said later as a form of goodbye?” “Yes…why did you just sigh? Is that…is that not a good sign?” “I’m gonna be honest with you sweetheart I think he’s no longer interested….have you hung out with him recently?” “Not this week he’s been really busy…” “right…yeah…I would just move on before you really get your feelings hurt.” “Okay…thanks Eddie.” “Anytime…oh you’re gonna be asked how this call was and if you don’t mind leaving me a good review that would be great but if not it’s fine…enjoy the rest of your day and don’t let this get you down there’s plenty of other dudes out there.” “Thank you I appreciate that.”

“You’ve reached the one and only Bestfriend Eddie how can I help you?” “Hey is it weird if your guy friend all of a sudden starts holding your hand and opening doors for you?” “Holding your hand? Dudes only hold hands with someone they like….unless you need help and our hand will make it to where you won’t like die or something but yeah that’s fucking weird.” “You think he likes me?” “I wouldn’t want you to assume he has feelings for you just because he’s holding your hand and opening doors but if he starts offering you rides everywhere and buying you shit then yeah he probably has feelings.” “He’s bought me lunch three times this week…” “oh yeah then he’s for sure got some feelings brewing and I’d say just ask him straight up if he’s into you or not.” “Really? That won’t freak him out?” “Only one way to find out…” “if he laughs at me I’m calling back and telling you how horrible you are at giving advice.” “Trust me you’ll only be calling back to tell me I was right.” “Whatever…that’s for the advice.” “Anytime.”

“Hello this is Vampire Eddie-” “did you just say Vampire?” “Yes…you got transferred to me because you’re having issues accepting the kind of respect and love you deserve is that right?” “I just don’t think I need to be treated this-” “You deserve to be treated as if you hung the moon and all the stars because to your significant other that’s exactly what you did for them.” “Oh…really?” “Yes…I know it’s hard to feel as though you deserve to be treated like a queen because for the most part you’ve let yourself get used to the subpar treatment from men because that’s all you thought you could get therefore making you think that’s also what you deserve but it’s not.” “Oh wow…okay so it’s not weird that he always wants to be around and is just…super nice and attentive?” “Weird? No it’s not weird…it’s how every man who wants to pursue you should be acting.” “He brought me flowers the other day because they reminded him of me with how pretty they are…” “and how did that make you feel?” “Like he’s too good for me…but I also really liked it.” “He’s not too good for you get that notion out of your head he’s just a gentlemen and you’re used to pardon my langue but you’re used to fuck boys.” “I guess that’s true…so I should keep him around then?” “If he makes you happy then yes.” “Okay…thank you Vampire Eddie this has been really interesting.” “You’re welcome…I’m here if you need me but I think you’ve got it figured out now.” “Have a good day.” “You as well.”

[velvetvexations]

Just read that t4t masc4fem (?) kind of article everyone is speaking of, and sure... Being a trans man in the nonbinary lesbian kind of way myself, I kind of understand gnc or queer transfem ppl feeling repulsed since it just feels like too much gender roles...

I can't deal with cis nor trans men who'd approach me like this, not because I see it as predatory but because it's just not my cup of tea. It's not hurting me to get flowers. Or if a femme person is interested in a way that expects an overtly 'manly' role of me etc., again I am not harmed by them expressing such interest.

Initiation isn't coercion, it's where you can either give or not give consent. That's how people find people to date or flirt with. No shit.

Also... There are trans people into those dynamics described in the article. Trans people who wish they could just go on a kind of a stereotypical straight people date. Even a bit old-fashioned flowers and stuff. I think people forget how magical that can be to trans people who, by default, are not expected to be able to experience it.

I'll respect trans folk who find this type of thing gender-affirming. I've seen t4t straight or masc/fem couples like these, as well as butch/femme lesbian couples like this. This is normal trans and/or queer people stuff.

The way people read into the article as inherently rapey or predatory or incelish seem wild to me. Have they ever read anything written by an actual incel...? Because I'll tell you. Incels describe everything a woman says as manipulation. Incels view every interaction with women as a power game. Incels encourage deception, emotional abuse, manipulation and coercion.

None of the above is implied in the article. It's cheesily written for sure, but says something about society how cishets can have their cheesy romantic straight people things but when trans people do, it's gross and bad...?

Trans people are... * checks notes * attracted to or interested in relationships with literally ANYONE and are inherently seen as predators. That's fucked up. I feel like this could even be internalized shame in some of these transfems esp. if terfs have demonized transfem lesbians a lot so it's like. Seeing a trans guy into fem people be masculine and cheesily romantic feels like a taboo, I guess? Could that be it?

Ughh. Also. The part about "exploring sexuality unconventionally" or whatever, being equated to cis guys' tgirl fetishes... Like. People commenting this stuff do not know anything about trans men's sexualities or complex relationships to our bodies. To me that immediately read as;

"Another trans person will understand that the sexual roles or acts we may prefer may not be stereotypical to what people automatically assume about our anatomies."

Allocishet people have an infamously poor grasp of the idea. Trans people on the other hand... May be a liiiiittle better about taking dysphoria to account and not reducing people to specific sexual roles based on their anatomy.

Also they really have decided to view trans men as these hypersexual predatory monsters who can't even be attracted to someone without being a fucking predator. Idk that hurts to read. I wonder if it's again some internalized stuff from how TERFs predatorjacket and shame transfeminine people's sexualities. So they feel instinctively angry, because of shame, when seeing anoter trans person be a sexual being.

Also I wish more people understood not everything other people are into sexually or romantically is about them, nor has to be their cup of tea.

Yeah, it is like, at worst kinna retrograde humor but even on that level it's...not a big deal, and the outrage is especially galling because this is right in the midst of egg drama where it is vitally important we still be allowed to stereotype trans girls.

I wish I had more to add to what you've said here anon but you really laid it out.

[brookstolemybrand]

I already talked about Sabo being kind of a parallel protagonist to Luffy, but Koby is in some ways maybe even more so (especially since he was introduced literally in chapter 2)

Sabo is Luffy's dad's protégé

Koby is Luffy's grandpa's protégé

(Sidenote: Luffy kinda took Ace's place as Shanks' and Rayleigh's protégé, arguably; I mean it would have made a lot of sense for former Roger pirates to act as mentor figures for Roger's son, wouldn't it? In a different story that put more importance to bloodlines, Ace would have been destined to be the next King of the Pirates for sure. Ace is kind of a decoy protagonist)

With Koby it's even more obvious when you look at the known SWORD members and how many of them have some kind of legacy position, or at least we can assume so even if we don't know for certain (like with Hibari suspiciously sharing Akainu's dialect). In theory, Garp's grandson would fit into SWORD perfectly.

And of course Garp very much intended this to be Luffy. It's not even subtle that Koby is the replacement grandson lmao

(Say what you want about Dragon's (lack of) parenting, he definitely didn't put any pressure on Luffy. So with Sabo it's not really the same, it's not like Luffy refused to follow in his father's footsteps; he didn't even know he had a father, much less what those footsteps were. But the parallels are still there)

But yeah, I think their personal connections to Luffy, as well as the way they're set up in positions that Luffy plausibly might have had in some alternate timelines, makes them Luffy's counterparts in the Navy and in the Revolutionary Army. Which allows them to function as pseudo-protagonists for the audience when Luffy isn't present and to take on plotlines that would otherwise feel like they should be handled by the main characters (like taking on the Blackbeard Pirates and the Celestial Dragons respectively)

Narratively speaking, as the plot gets bigger, you kinda need these secondary protagonists to carry the parts of the story that Luffy can't be there for

The three of them also represent different shounen protagonist archetypes:

I kinda struggled to phrase this myself (and honestly I just have a very limited reference pool for shounen anime) so I googled it and I'm stealing the terms from this post

Basically Luffy is the "Idiot Hero", Koby is the "Boy Wonder" and Sabo... well actually I think Ace is the "Punk Martyr" (he took the martyr part a bit too seriously rip), and Sabo is the secret fourth thing: the Cool Competent Guy (even though Sabo is also a punk, he just hides it better)

Luffy is a Goku, Koby is a Deku, and Sabo is... idk I guess he would be a Lelouch (look, I'm talking about character TYPES, not saying they're the same kind of person)

... Well actually Sabo is more of an Enjolras, but Les Mis is not a shounen manga—

SIKE, IT IS, I'M COUNTING IT

(That's a really good adaptation of Les Mis btw, I could gush endlessly about Takahiro Arai and how well he understood not only the core of the story but also how to adapt it into a visual medium, really leaning into the vivid metaphorical imagery in Hugo's narration and then adding to it his own, it's SO GOOD)

(To immediately nitpick myself: Sabo is more like an amalgamation of all the Amis de l'ABC but it's easier to say Enjolras for short. Also yes I know Enjolras isn't the protagonist, but he has protagonist energy)

Anyway... what was I saying?

Right, I was gonna talk about the hero thing, because heroism is actually a big theme in One Piece:

Luffy doesn't want to be a hero, BUT KOBY DOES. He might be sheepish about calling himself one, but it was his dream, and by all conventional standards he accomplished it: he's now a Navy Hero

Sabo is more of a reluctant hero; he wanted to be a pirate like Luffy but chose to become a revolutionary instead. He's fully committed to that role though, even willing to accept the title of regicide if it helps the cause (this btw also makes him similar to another character in Les Mis, the Conventionist who... okay fine I'll stop)

As a marine and a revolutionary, Koby and Sabo are on the opposite sides of the whole "hero" thing. Although well, neither of them are extremists so at the same time they're not that opposite either, more like just each others' counterparts on opposing sides, but still

It makes sense that Koby, whose ambition was to become a hero, would gravitate to the conventional and widely accepted form of heroism: military heroism. Meanwhile Sabo, the reluctant hero, was driven to become one exactly because those socially accepted forms of heroism in reality exist to maintain an unjust system and there need to be people who step up to oppose that system, it's heroism out of necessity

You could also say that Koby becomes a part of the system because he wants to be a hero, Sabo becomes a hero because he wants to escape the system...

(Sidenote: I actually have a hunch that Dragon is probably more like Koby in terms of personality and ambitions, he's just a Koby who became disillusioned after learning the truth about the navy. That's the vibe I get anyway)

Either way, both of them are a good contrast to Luffy, who insists that he's not a hero and who chooses to just follow his selfish whims, which is why he's the pirate, he picks the least "heroic" career option. And that's why he's the protagonist, because this is a pirate manga

That said, as it turns out, his selfish whims are pretty heroic anyway, and he ends up being the one who has the most freedom to do exactly what needs to be done, BECAUSE he's not a hero

(Is that extremely dangerous? Sure. Could it end really badly? Yes. But Luffy isn't supposed to be a role model, he's literally a pirate)

But it still helps the narrative to also have heroic characters who aren't only motivated to help people who give them food lol

(I kid, but ykwim)

It helps that there are heroes even if the protagonist isn't one, because otherwise the audience might start wanting the protagonist to become the hero

And then it wouldn't be a pirate adventure story anymore, it would become a hero narrative

....

.... I know I should end the post here but you have no idea how much I'm holding back a rant rn about the marines and how much they suck and why I find Koby so frustrating as a character... That's another post tho

[the-au-collector]

So I just watched the new Missing Link cutscenes (here's the video I watched if anyone wants to see them too) and I am having Thoughts so let's dump them here shall we?

Player is just... confused. They just seem so confused in every scene they're in and I love it

I really want to talk about the Baroque Society. It seems like Square is going for a sort of "underdogs" vibe for them. They're small, they're tight-knit (?), they're clearly looked down upon by the higher ups (those scientists did not seem happy that they needed to be called to action).

I'm having mixed feelings about Neptune (also I'm assuming Nept is short for Neptune). On one hand, I love him so much. On the other hand, he seems just a little shady. What are his motives? I'm reluctant to believe any higher ups in this world have good intentions. Idk, I'm keeping an eye on him for now. That said, I love every scene he's in he's probably my favorite so far.

Freya's Japanese voice is kind of annoying to me, but otherwise she seems fine. She's the one giving all the information, but I do like the billboard she's by. I know Nomura said she's not related to Ephemer (which I still think she is), but I could (also) see her being related to the other silver-haired characters we know, like Riku or Hermod and Baldr maybe?

"You took in another one, didn't you?" Freya said that in the scene where Player joins the Baroque Society. "Another one?" Did Neptune pick up Brain too? Honestly I think it would be a complete mind fuck for Brain if Neptune did because now we have 5 kids running their own show, probably about to cause some big chaos...

On first watch it seems like these Societies act like guilds rather than unions, but when rewatching the scenes I realize the scientists say "the founters' societies" so maybe they're more like Unions than I initially thought. Also interesting they said founders, not founder. Regardless, this begs the question of why the Baroque Society is so small and shabby?

I'm loving the theory that Lea is descended from Remus but I'm really worried about why Remus didn't reappear. We can't get tragic siblings this soon can we?

Society Legal Investigations Committee... wonder what that is

Player is so confused but so happy to be part of the Baroque Society

I don't really have much to say about the scientists themselves, but the fact that we keep cutting to them makes me believe they're going to be very important.

The silver haired strangers... Ephemer's descendants perhaps? I'm guessing since they're very shady that they planted the dark thing Nept got from the guards into the Guards' minds... yeah we're going to have some interesting things going on in this game.

That's all I can think of for now but the gears in my brain are turning so hard, and I have some theories, especially about Remus. I'll spare you the theorizing until I get my thoughts in order though

[lousirs]

this is a dump about the uglydolls movie novel 💋💋💋

Alrighty I'm basically a regular here SO LETS GET TO IT

lodoeheie so I just got the movie novel of uglydolls because i need to fill my hunger for uglydolls content and THERE R SO MANY LITTLE DETAILS AND DIFFERENCES IN THE BOOK???!!???

ok so Lou's monologue in the pipes are completely different and they kind of point out details about Lou like his loafers being expensive and allat

BUT IM NOT TALING ABOTU TAGT

there's this one part in the book where they are about to reveal Ox after the all dolled up scene and instead of Ox, Nolan was behind Lou???? I think it was just supposed to show how awkward Nolan is idk 💀💀

ALSO for some reason I feel like EVERUTIME Nolan made an appearance they always described him as "the handsome doll" and I find that so so silly but I love it

oh YEYEHA it's implied in the book that the dolls wear their own clothes when they aren't doing training which was not the case in the movie (probably due to animation complications)

in the gauntlet scene, in the book, it was Mandy who kinda taunted Lou to participate in the gauntlet rather than him deciding to buy himself. Also it made me think why he even decided to join it in both medias when he knew he'd fail but my friend and I just established that at that point he was probably already batshit crazy and had nothing to lose

the whole Ox flashback part was longer and had more details to it. So both Lou and Ox went for the gauntlet together and completed it but it showed that they failed and everyone thought it was Ox that caused them to fail when it was really Lou (kind of sad that Lou probably knew it was himself and had to put the blame on Ox)

it was also mentioned that both Lou and Nolan have somewhat of a muscular build so time to make some new head cannons

IM SO SORRY THAT THESE POINTS WERE ALL OVER THE PLACE AND THERE'S TYPOS EVERYWHERE

I just found thrse so interesting I'm so sorry

the book is pretty good imo (probably biased) and there's more stuff than what I put here so DEFINITELY go read it for yourself

why hello, we meet again... time for more rambling xD STRAP IN EVERYONE!

yes!! i've known about the novel for a hot minute. i haven't bought or read it (...yet) but i remember seeing silentreadersmatter (i believe?) post about it on wattpad... so shoutout to them lol. anywho time to respond to each thing mentioned in order (just about)...

lou with loafers!!: i always assumed he wore some sort of fancy shoewear... so it's nifty that they added clarification i guess xD

awkward nolan: awkward nolan is the superior nolan (in my opinion. i'm sorry lads)... i see nolan be depicted as a 'uwu soft boy bottom" most of the time... but i always thought he was just a awkward doll. like, an anxious mess that is trying his best but fumbles constantly. he's a ball of anxiety, and i love him. ANYWAYS

buff nolan real??: GOSH, I AM SO GLAD SOMEONE NOTICED THE MUSCULAR NOLAN THING. i always imagined nolan to be taller than the other dolls (he isn't really in the film but i always headcanoned it so because his uniform is smaller as if he was too big for it) but once i saw him be called "handsome" and "tall" and "muscular" in the novel, i flipped. the little baby boy is actually a BIG BUFF BABY. i have a doodle of this from a few months ago heheh... (thank you for giving me an excuse to show it because it's been lingering in my files for a while LMAO)

^^^ lou is just trying to act evil and devious but he got this tall, handsome muscular doll getting in his way xD

ohhh but i can just imagine instead of the robot dog taking lou to the washer, nolan personally picks him up and drags him there. now THAT'S a moment i want to see.

fashion: oh, i didn't know about the clothes thing! DAMNIT i want to see them all in casual clothing, so i know what kind of styles they wear!! i mean, there's a concept art with lou in a white jumper with a golden 'L' on it... but that's all.

i have my headcanons for what they wear, but it would be cool to see... especially since most other dolls normally do have numerous outfits for the kids to dress them up in.

gauntlet: yeah, lou kinda lost the plot around that point. i would take a guess that he was probably unnerved by just basically killing two dolls, one that he knew (possibly for a while) and one that was close to his old friend, so when he saw mandy still alive he was like "well sh*t." and then came the downward spiral of him trying to sabotage the others, before inevitably sabotaging himself. ...but i think the book's version of mandy getting the crowds to peer pressure lou to joining the gauntlet made more sense (lou's reputation would be at stake and his reputation is basically all he has) than him joining anyways in the film. i guess they tried to make it make more sense with the whole "I don't even have to win. I just need to make sure you lose." but ehh... eh....

ox's tragic anime backstory: yes!! they should've done this version in the film honestly. perhaps they could've even shown lou's regret for lying to basically his only friend. ...oh wait, i forgot. lou's meant to be a 100% evil villain who kicks babies. anyways, again i feel that the novel made more sense than the canon we got in film. i guess in the film ox got recycled because he was causing others to fail by accident? but the novel's version is much more interesting.

if i remember correctly (and if i don't, count this as a rewritten version lol) the assistant robots took ox away after he 'failed' in the novel. i can imagine a scene where we are in ox's perspective, being forcefully dragged away to the pipes whilst lou looks at him, dread and sadness written across his face, yet he doesn't try to stop the robots. he just stands there, biting back his guilt. ohh... if only...

STRONG BOYS!!: heheheheh strong nolan and lou... would be funny if nolan didn't appear strong, but is actually stronger than lou. but then again, how can you tell if the doll is strong? they all look like same. lou says his arms are bumped or whatever in ugly truth but WHERE? WHERE'S THE BUMPED ARMS LOU??

anywho, thank you for the novella lore dump! for anyone who is interested, go check out the novel as well. it's pretty interesting if you are deep into doll purgatory. (also it's mentioned that ox used to wear a fedora from what i remember)(THAT IS TERRIBLE. I LOVE IT)

[loreoftheforgotten]

How i think the batfamily acts after getting their wisdom teeth removed

written by someone who’s had to have both their top and bottom wisdom teeth removed at two different times because the world hates me and wanted me to go through it twice i guess

okay so first of all bruce, this man has an insane tolerance for pain and tbh i think the only person able to get him to listen to this doctors instructions is alfred. and it’s not like he’s ignoring the instructions on purpose, he just isn’t really aware of how much pain he’s in because of his pain tolerance so he pretty much assumes he’s just healed faster than normal (also he doesn’t swell much for some reason so again, he just kinda assumes he’s fine)

next up, dick! tbh i feel like he’d legitimately have a bad time with it. idk why but i just think he would. he’d get super swollen and sore, and probably wouldn’t be able to talk for a few days without some kind of pain. although he absolutely would take advantage of everyone doting on him to get whatever he wants. it helps that he looks like a chipmunk for like a week after getting his wisdom teeth removed and the pictures make great blackmail material

and cass! cass and barbara come home one day with cass looking super swollen. everyone’s super worried bc wtf!!?? turns out she asked barbara to take her to get her wisdom teeth removed bc they were causing her some pain. that’s basically it, she’s a bit swollen for a bit and in some pain, but otherwise she heals fine. she does sorta take advantage of everyone looking after her, but honestly she just kinda chills in her room to recuperate while she reads and catches up on some shows she’s been wanting to watch.

now jason. okay listen, hear me out. he originally gets both his top and bottom wisdom teeth removed after being taken in by bruce. his experience is sorta average tbh, maybe a bit slow on the healing part of it bc of his already recovering health from being a street kid. but after he comes back from the dead and gets chucked into the lazarus pit he starts getting some pain in his mouth. turns out the lazarus pit regenerated his wisdom teeth. so basically jason has to get them taken out twice and no one will let him live it down

next on the list is tim. tim probably gets his taken out after he looses his spleen so someone sticks with him 24/7 just to make sure he’s healing properly and shit. it probably takes him a bit longer to heal and i feel like he would have a bit more pain than average but otherwise he heals perfectly fine. he probably tries to stay at drake manor at first, but dick convinces him to stay at wayne manor so that they can keep an eye on him.

okay now steph! she’s the only person in the batfamily that doesn’t need to get both her top and bottom removed. she just needs to get her top wisdom teeth removed and everyone hates her for it because they all had to do all four. like dick, she totally takes advantage of everyone doting on her while she heals. she spends most of her time at wayne manor just sprawled out on one of the couches and makes bruce buy her the best ice cream money can buy.

okay now for damian. he straight up doesn’t need to get his wisdom teeth removed. like they aren’t a problem at all and he brags about it constantly. although, jason ends up punching damian in the face when jason got his removed for the second time and damian made fun of him for it. he spends the next few days moping on the couch with an ice pack pressed up against his swollen cheek while jason sends him shit eating grins.

and finally duke. my younger sister had to get her wisdom teeth removed before getting her braces on bc she had to do another surgery on some other teeth and they figured they’d just do it all at once to get it over with and i feel like duke would be the same. so like he’d get his wisdom teeth removed at like 13/14 and just have an average time healing. when the other batfamily members ask him about his wisdom teeth he just shrugs and goes “i got them removed years ago” which makes the rest of them upset because they like having blackmail material of how swollen people get after getting their wisdom teeth removed and they can’t do that with duke now

[stormblessed95]

Of the many things that bother me about fansites, the main one is probably that the boys don't get to approve which photos of them are published or used for merchandise when it's not official content. The second thing is that we see how they get mobbed at airports and how much pressure they're under to act friendly and smile for photos no matter how they feel. Especially since big hit has asked fans not to show up at airports and the only reason we know when they're traveling is because the information gets leaked without their consent.

When I saw people supporting black n white I assumed that she at least followed the rules about not going to the airport and not sneaking cameras into concerts, but I've seen both types of photos from her. So I was wondering if you could explain why jikookers seem so okay with her and not other fansites?

So I'll post this ask, with the very clear statement at the beginning that I'm not opening this up for debate. Because this is one of those topics of debate that continuously circle around constantly and it's exhausting and repeating myself is something im trying to do less over here this year. My essay of an answer starts here...

Okay, so I'm pretty sure that this came from you seeing this reblog post below. But I'm curious if you actually read it. Because I'm pretty sure it answers your question. Along with the post I LINKED in my reblog because that goes into the culture of fansites in kpop even more.

But then if we want to talk about it more... we can I guess. Since you asked nicely. Fansites in kpop can kind of be linked to the equivalent of concert photographers in the US. If you know what those are/are more familiar with the concert scene in the US. Idk where you are from though. Concert photographers are in general pretty respected and hyped up in the US, even at times have their photos from the concert purchased by the artists themselves. They aren't employed by the stadium, by the artist or the artists companies though usually. They aren't shunned by fans or banned from the concerts. And they share the photos they take online and even sell them, no issues. It's basically the same thing.

Fansites are, for the most part, a very normal, expected and intricate part of kpop culture. Most of the boys often recongize, smile, wave and bow at their fansites (and no, not just at places where they are forced to act like they are okay with it when they aren't, like airports, but at concerts and award shows or going back further in time, fansigns and ISAC events). Or they will move to let the fansite get the best shot of the members they are a fansite for. Compared to when it's a known problematic fansite who are more stalker then fansite, they don't do that and there are even videos/photos of them looking uncomfortable when recognizing that fansite, rather than smiling for them. Like Headliner, for example, A JK "fansite" where we have examples of him looking displeased in her direction and an example of Jimin standing in front of JK in her line of sight, "ruining" the shot and looking right at her, hands on hips.

And because I mentioned above airports, like you did. Let's talk about that too. Because I DO have a post up here reeming people out for showing up to and crowding the boys at airports. It's horribly disrespectful and not okay. Fansites (like BnW and other respectful ones) aren't generally the people you see shoving their phones in the guys faces, they tend to hang back with the media mostly and not get so far up their asses, invading personal space. And media is tipped off when the guys are traveling so they can go and report on it. Its FANS who invade privacy to show up that's a problem, not necessarily the media or fansites, which is expected as an idol. Do I LIKE they are expected to be photographed to hell and back when leaving and entering Korea? Not really, but it's also not the same thing as invading their privacy either. Following them into the airport and onto the plane or to their destination to take photos of them on the plane, at the waiting areas or getting off the plane? Yeah, that's an invasion of privacy and then upgrades you (general you) to stalker. And here is my post about how you shouldn't go to the airport when BTS is traveling. Again, please actually read my posts I link to you.

As for the consent about the boys aproving photos/videos argument, I then have to ask are you against everyone who livestreams the concert on their phones for ARMYs who aren't there to tune in? Or all the people who put the photos up they take at concerts or other events up onto the timeline? Or because it's not a fansite photo, just a watermarked photo from some random fan account, that's then okay? I don't know you, so idk how you personally interact with everything like above, but it's food for thought. It's also something to consider to make sure if you ARE so against fansites, that you aren't liking, retreating, saving, etc photos of any of the members that come from fansites. (The jikook photo above comes from a Jimin fansite btw) Because I'm pretty sure Almost every ARMY has, intentionally or otherwise. Because MOST concert/event photos end up coming from fansigns. And the boys KNOW that and are okay with it. And the company isn't struggling anymore. If they didn't want people "filling in the gaps" of available photos, they could hire more themselves and release more too.

To address your comments about them selling or distributing merch with their photos of the boys that the boys didn't get to pre-approve. That's fair. And it's also your choice to support that or not. Personally, I probably won't buy fansite photobooks, I'd rather spend my money on what I know will go towards the boys pocket directly, or at least towards them. Such as their official photobooks, albums, DVD packages, etc. But all the photos the fansites sell, they also normally just release for free too online. At least that I've seen. And then all those photos they have, they will sometimes hold events for people to buy them as merch. But that's a customer choice for sure. And it's 100% valid to not like that and not spend your money there. BlacknWhite for example, held her own little merch photo exhibition thing last year. Idk what to call it, but I posted here so it did happen for sure. Bighit hosts these same similar types of exhibitions at the end of various eras/concerts you can also purchase from more officially too.

But also again, all idols know about fansites and often start recognizing the ones that are there for them and don't mind them (as long as they aren't crossing privacy boundaries, which I will touch on later here too). For some examples, here you've got Jimin being playful and silly with his fansite here when he saw them...

Changing to make sure the fansites could get better photos during the fansign....

Using/wearing and loving gifts given to them and sent by their fansigns

He still has these focal speakers in his studio. Which was a gift from a fansite way back when

Jikook engaging with BlacknWhite when she is there taking their photos.... AND you'll see in my reblog (first linked post) the post I shared in there, Jimin seeing, acknowledging and moving out of the way for a Hobi fansite so they can get a better shot of him too

Tae had a photo from his fansite blown up and hung on his dorm wall.

Hobi shared a photo taken by his fansite on his Instagram too

Plus, Jimins family (idk about the others, Jimins is just more in the public eye because of his dad's Cafe) had fansite photos of Jimin and BTS hanging on their cafe walls. Jimins dad recently gave a fansite photo to a visiting dignitary that he got framed.

JK blushing over seeing his first ever fansite back during their debut.

The reason Fansites will sometimes get kicked out of concerts is because they are blacklisted (which most are not) for various reasons but mostly due to proven stalking or for misconduct during a concert (which again. Doesn't happen as often as stan twt will lead you to believe.) Bighit baned all photography, so it's not even necessarily about fansites, it's about Hybe wanting to bottle and sell the air the guys breathe because they know ARMY would buy it. Lol they are a corporate company and are focused on the bottom line more than alot of fans like to think at times I believe. A lot of the hate towards fansites comes from people who don't really understand idol culture at times and almost always exlculsively from I- armys. I don't see K army fans complaining about fansites. I see BTS members complaining about media, fans and fansites following them to places like, the mall, or on the private schedules, and overcrowding them. But never about fansites being in events, concerts, or airports from afar. In fact, from the ones who aren't problems, I see the opposite from the members. Jikookers like BnW because she is a jikook fansite and focuses on getting photos of them together and seperate, so it's like a one stop party. Lol other JK and JM fansites will share photos of jikook together when they are glued at the hip (which is often) along with when they with other members too, which is also nice and you'll see plently of people sharing those with no problems either. Again, as long as they aren't problematic accounts.

Fansites who take photos of the guys on private schedules? No. Who get on planes the boys are on? No. Who shit talk the boys and use them only for the cash flow their photos bring them? No. Who stalk them and show up places they shouldn't be and turn into sasaengs and doing anything for a quick buck? No. Fansites who crowd into the boys personal space for the perfect photo or are rude to them/others? No. Fansites who don't take no for an answer? No. But that's a small portion of fansites. Not all of them. Not even close to all of them. And alot of this hate towards fansites comes off more performative for most armys then anything else. Plus saying all fansites are bad is kinda like saying all ARMYs are 15 year old girls who bully people online because a small faction are and that's what people latch onto in an effort to continue to perpetuate hate towards the fandom and BTS themselves through their fans. Not the same exactly, but similar enough I'll make the comparison.

Your opinions are your own and are very valid. I'm not trying to change your mind about liking fansites. I don't love them necessarily either because I would HATE the constant flashing lights everywhere I went ever if I was them. But I also understand the nuance here and the difference between the hysteria stan spaces have made the fansite issues sound and what they actually are and how long they've been around for. Again, your choice over how you engage with them and how you feel about them. And all choices around that are valid. In my opinion. As long as you aren't supporting antis disguised as fansites, I don't see a problem with them in general. For me personally.

Hope that helped answer your question anon. Thank you for asking it respectfully.

[synesindri]

how do you think lucifer knew about pop culture and such? like even in season 5 when he was the original version of himself the writers hadn’t ruined yet, he uses a lot of slang and modern idioms. and i guess we could just say bad writing lol but what’s your opinion?

hiii hi lucifer's s5 pop culture references are one of my favorite dialogue writing choices of the show tbh! the tl;dr is that i think lucifer did a lot of digging around in nick's mind while he was hanging out in nick's body, but i'll like, show my work and stuff also lol

so, in 5.01, before lucifer has a physical vessel and is appearing in nick's dreams, there are no pop culture references in sarah!lucifer's speech, and very little slang. the same is true when lucifer speaks to azazel through the sacrificed nun in the flashback in 4.22.

the pop culture references start after lucifer has taken nick as a vessel and has full access to everything in nick's mind and body, not just whatever can be accessed through dreams. he also starts moving more casually and fluidly, with little gestural quirks that imo have a similar effect to the pop culture references: communicating with humans in human-oriented ways that humans will easily understand and that will make him more relatable to them (not necessarily more likable, but maybe less alien, at least)

so, i think the pop culture refs are picked up from his vessels' memories and thoughts! he got in there, he got total, internal access to nick's memories and his body's habits and his speech patterns and stuff, and starting using those materials in his own communication styles. and then maybe also picked some up through exposure once he had the basics down, after he'd been out of the cage for a while

speculatively, i'd guess this was part of why nick was appealing to lucifer as a vessel: from what we see of nick, we know that what he wears looks like he has a job that has him in work boots (so, probably not white collar, and probably therefore has a vernacular more similar to sam and dean's than someone who would be spending his days in a corporate office, for example) and has pretty standard spn-core ways of speaking. having nick as a vessel puts lucifer more in sam's world visually, in speech, and in movement style more than other possible vessels would. he probably knows a lot of the same pop culture sam does, and he probably talks the way people sam is comfortable and familiar with talk — so, if lucifer learns to talk like a human from nick, lucifer also will come across as a familiar, relatable type of person to sam (didn't work too well but like, A for effort). idk if lucifer would have known enough about human class structures etc to be able to identify nick as the right kind of human to learn human culture from in order to talk to sam, so disregard if that seems too circular...but imo it's smart from the writers/costumers/etc, even if it didn't factor into lucifer's choice at all

(all of this makes different angels' characterization really interesting, i think, because some of them do a lot of human-ifying of themselves like this, while others don't. does castiel not do it much for the sake of jimmy's mind/memory privacy, or because he just doesn't care very much about seeming human? what's up with uriel and michael using pop culture referneces but not much human body language? like i know it's largely inconsistency in writing and acting choices for different characters but just assuming it's actually character-based reasons, i love it. and imo it implies that lucifer is very curious about humanity, even though he wants to get rid of them, and is good with rhetoric in that he understands the value of speaking to people in a way that feels familiar (he sucks at rhetoric in some other ways lol, but he was doing a good job on that, at least))

[ca-suffit]

The whole thing with the shirt gives me mixed feelings, because I do think it's nice to separate Jacob's projects from one another, and Louis from Lestat and even his work from himself as a person etc. Sometimes they're kind of mixed together, yes, I don't think we should avoid that at all costs because they're still some parts of his life, but it just doesn't have to be the whole time. I tried to read as much about it as I could on social media to see what was going on and the fans said nobody brought IWTV-related stuff up, that everyone enjoyed his music alone (I do doubt people would buy tickets and go to his concert just to give him a Lestat shirt). But they wanted to give him something since he missed Comic Con (and they released a teaser about season 3, that happens to center Lestat) and loves it so much. And well, he laughed, so either he enjoyed it or hid it well. I don't know since I'm not in his mind... I don't know if he got other gifts, I'm assuming he must have since he took pictures and even stopped to talk to a lot of fans and they usually bring fanart, fan books and stuff like that. And some of those people came from other continents so they only had that chance. In those cases, I don't think it's bad to give something that is related to IWTV or even another acting job, like GOT? If it is probably the best fanart the person has ever made and it took them a long time to master and the only opportunity they have is a concert, I think that's understandable. And sometimes stuff happen by accident too, like the day before SDCC when a fan met Sam, Assad and Delainey by accident and gave Sam a loustat fanart, from what I gathered he didn't have anything for Delainey and Assad, but he wasn't planning or expecting it... Maybe if he knew, he would have brought some? And there were people bringing stuff for Jacob and asking Sam to give it to him as well... It can get kind of complicated. I do believe that if you're able to go to events and meet them regularly, you should separate. When it's about IWTV, you talk and give gifts about IWTV, when it's about music, then give RR-related presents, if you're meeting Jacob, Sam, Assad and Delainey at different times but on dates that are kind of close, then you hand them yourself your gifts and don't ask other people for it... But if it is an "I only have this one chance and it will never happen again", I believe they would understand and wouldn't mind it. I also don't know how much of what they get are about their characters as individuals and what's about the dynamics (loustat, loumand, armandiel, Louis/Lestat + Claudia etc). IF everything he gets is just loustat and Sam gets Lestat alone or a good balance of Lestat individually, loustat, lesmand, the family etc, then people really need to get their shit together. But if it's balanced for all of them, then I don't see the problem. If you only care about one ship and hate the others, then at least you should make stuff about that ship and the characters alone because they're not just a package. But you could give it a try because it can end up being fun and I'm sure them getting new types of gifts would be even more memorable than getting a good gift but that is still about stuff. I bet if somebody draws Louis, Paul and Grace, Jacob would probably remember and even mention it on an interview, because I'm assuming he doesn't get pre-vampirism Louis content that often. So here are some ideas for people! Anyway, I don't really know how things work here yet. But I guess I'll gradually find out. And also, in future moments, like, if one day they do a season focusing on The Vampire Armand and idk, Sam is in Australia promoting The Newsreader, would people go to him with an Armand shirt or a Lestat one? Anyway, I don't have a clear answer and if I don't, I give the benefit of the doubt. But, still, there are a lot of things that people could think about.

"And also, in future moments, like, if one day they do a season focusing on The Vampire Armand and idk, Sam is in Australia promoting The Newsreader, would people go to him with an Armand shirt or a Lestat one?"

I think this sentence in particular says a lot that ppl should think about v hard tbh.

also someone else from the RR gig posted some stories about the experience that's just been posted earlier if u didn't see it!

thank u for ur comments<3

[hearthvkoo]

Hi!! So I have a question. So many comments under taekook videos will be mad at us seeing them as a couple. As usual. And they often will say that taekook have said they see each other as brothers. Has this actually happened? I've been a taekook since 2017 and can't recall them ever saying that about each other individually. It's such an annoying argument. I'm guessing people saw taekook call the whole group their brothers, they assume that means it 100% means that each other are included in that? Idk it seems like a weak argument because what are taekook gonna say? "These guys are like my brothers except my boyfriend Jungkook/Taehyung." Like obviously they are just going to group them all together. Idk I always want to argue back to those commenter to prove them wrong but never know how to word it lol

Hii anon!

I honestly don't have a memory of the two of them calling each other brothers, I think it's a narrative that goes around quite a bit in the fandom (I've been part of it since 2019) that they want to label everything about them as "brothers". There are many official contents where they describe each other with different names such as "hyung", "my safe place" "Jk's", and even, if we want to add, the phrase "when you said you loved me and a accept my love" written by Jungkook on taehyung's Winter package. A very brothers thing obviously ...

It's true that also they are brothers because bts are a family, but that doesn't mean they act like brothers in their private life or in what they want to show us (and we see it last year).

You're right, it's a weak argument because people tend to deny even what they've always had in front of their eyes. I believe that very often some are in a denial phase, just yesterday I saw a twt big account post a tweet referring to the "hello Kitty plushie" issue and immediately rushed to write "no shipping under the comment" when for the photos of travel show did quite the opposite.

they fear what could probably be real, I think that in the end they know it too when they write that kind of comments

Have a good day anon!

[missr3n3]

kind of a random crossing of fandom streams, but this stems from my headcanon/theory that adam's Weird Alternate Brain works like the skills in disco elysium. full theory under the cut bc its a long boi

this is building off wendi’s theory about how adam ended up the way he is; that him, human boy adam, preacher, and the nun that became preacher are all rattling around in his weird brain. however, i don’t picture this as literal voices he hears in his head from a bunch of different people. rather, i imagine them all being a part of adam’s internal monologue, but coloring parts of that monologue with their different personalities and pushing him towards making certain decisions. again, like the skills in disco elysium. i did five pictures because i think there’s around five iterations/identities the alternate that we now call adam has gone through.

there’s the alternate’s basic form, and his connection to the alternate hivemind. i think this is adam’s equivalent to a human’s lizard brain. it’s the part of him that shapes his knee-jerk reaction to things and makes him act aggressively when he feels backed into a corner. i don’t think this part of his personality was prominent growing up as adam but given the way the alternate invasion has been ramping up, i think the stress from that and running from the fbi has this part of him acting up a lot more.

then there’s the nun that preacher takes the place of. I think she comes through in adam’s desire to maintain his connection to humanity rather than the alternates, thus inadvertently helping “the shepherd” (whatever that turns out to be). bro has been fumbling his skill checks in this area so hard ever since Jonah died smh.

(also fun fact, the name i gave the skill means shepherd in french, assuming google translate didn't lie to me)

i think preacher is the part of adam that tries to pull him back into the alternates' plans, since it knows the truth about himself and how the world works (alt!gabriel taking over religion etc.). this is why it keeps showing up when adam’s at a crossroad between choosing humanity or the alternates (at the torres’ house, jonah’s memorial etc), or when he's about to remember what he is.

and lastly there’s human boy adam and the adult alternate adam we see in the series. i think his human memories and consciousness that he got from little boy adam are what cause him to want friendships and relationships in the first place. based off the fact that he was watching stanley’s show and trying to make friends that way, I’m guessing the kid was really lonely and that desire for friends lingers on in his mind. i also think this part of him is more prominent than we realize, given how many human connections he’s formed that we know of (sarah, jonah, evelin, those other two dudes in his IM contacts, possibly even more that we haven’t seen.) of course he hasn’t done a good job at keeping these connections, but the fact that he had them at all still says something.

i think current adam has become fixated on investigating and documenting other alternates to try and understand what he’s become (not consciously, but subconsciously). now that he's lost touch with his history and doesn't seem to have a strong connection (if any connection) to the alternate hivement, he's probably looking for some kind of reasoning behind why his Brain is so Weird.

anyway, idk if this was coherent at all but this is basically what i'm thinking goes on in adam's head every time he tries to do anything, and thats why he's my cringefail fave <3

[disasterbijamietartt]

I’ll need a few days to really process the last episode, so don’t expect any meta until the weekend.

But I wanted to write a post about why I believe in the writers and why I think that … this sounds so arrogant and delusional, but that my predictions here* are roughly what will happen and queer folks can stay hopeful.

(*tl;dr: Essentially that Colin will be the inspiration for main characters to address their queerness, Ted Lasso spent two seasons straightbaiting its entire audience and this season will end queer as fuck)

When I started watching Ted Lasso I thought it would be a fun, but silly little sports comedy, but very soon it got obvious how the show featured heavier themes and that they didn’t follow the expected script. Like, when Rebecca tells Ted the truth, you’d normally get some drama and rising conflict – but we got instant forgiveness.

And it got soon obvious we’d get a love triangle with Jamie, Keeley and Roy and – as someone who knows how the script goes – my first assumption was, that Roy x Keeley will be endgame (which was sad, since I adored Jamie x Keeley from the beginning, but I digress).

But some of the things that usually put me off love triangles were missing: there was no prolonged unnecessary drama after Roy learned that Keeley hooked up with Jamie the night before, Jamie and Roy didn’t fight over who would “get” Keeley (even though Roy’s jealousy sure was one reason for the tension between him and Jamie, but it wasn’t the only one), Jamie didn’t try to actively win Keeley back throughout the second season, he didn’t try to sabotage their relationship, even though he still loved her. The rocky parts in Roy’s and Keeley’s relationship weren’t related to Jamie at all, on the contrary, Jamie kind of unintentionally fixed their problems.

So, when they diverge so much from the expected, should I really still assume they’ll end the show with the thing everyone expects to happen? (like, in classic romance structure, Roy and Keeley now had their third act break-up, that always happens before the happily ever after … but as Phil said in an interview, they’re situation is a lot more complex than you’ll usually get.)

So, anyway, Ted Lasso was playing with expectations from the beginning. You’d expect Ted x Rebecca and Roy x Keeley endgame cause that is how the classic narrative works but the show subverted classic structure in the first season. So why should we assume that they just stick to the classic script now?

Also the theme song:

“Yeah, might be all that you get,

Yeah, I guess this might well be it“

I always thought, for an optimistic show like Ted Lasso this was a kinda sober beginning. But if you look at this with a queer eye … Cishet people are so used to seeing their happy endings playing out, so that is what they’ll expect to get. Until the last couple years, queer people barely got any stories with happy endings, so you didn’t exactly grow up with the expectation you’ll get a happy ending.

So you just had to take what you got.

But on the other hand the song has this hopeful bit about trying and not giving up. And … okay, I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but, idk, it just feels like it would fit as the theme song for an ultimately hella queer show?

And there are a lot of allusions to “The Wizard of Oz”, starting with the title of the first episode, Ted being the “Man from Kansas” aka Dorothy – googling I found this post pointing out a lot parallels in the second season, so it is not just me being delusional again.

For context: The movie was released 1939. Between 1934 and 1968 due to the Hays Code people couldn’t be shown as being explicitly queer in movies in the US, so writers started to queercode characters to still indicate queerness. And there is of course queercoding in “The Wizard of Oz” just like Ted Lasso and the movie as a whole resonated a lot with queer audiences, making Judy Garland a Gay Icon (see here). 

Both the movie and L. Frank Baumans novels have a lot of queer subtext (like, there is even kind of a trans character in the novels?). "Friend of Dorothy” was a way gay men referred to each other at a time, where they couldn’t just openly ask about someone’s orientation.

Fun Fact: The movies title song “Over the Rainbow” soon became a queer anthem and people wondered whether it inspired the rainbow flag. But the creator, Gilbert Baker, said he was inspired by,

wait for it,

“She’s a Rainbow” by the Rolling Stones (see here).

Rings a bell?

The episode “Rainbow”?

Roy returning as a coach to Richmond?

Also: Jamie comparing the team to the Rolling Stones? Himself to Mick Jagger and Roy to Keith Richards, who both wrote the song?

And, looking at episode titles some more: The color "Lavender" is so queer it has it's own LGTBQ-section on Wikipedia. Also the bisexual pride flag, where the colours overlap to form lavender? There was probably some other reason I forgot that the episode where Jamie returned was called like the queerest color ever, but still …

WHAT A BUNCH OF CURIOUS COINCIDENCES!

Oh God, the more I look, the queerer everything gets! I think I could go on some more, but I need to get breakfast and then some work done.

[crescentpaws]

the character everyone gets wrong

a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

worst discord server and why

which ship fans are the most annoying?

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

worst part of canon

worst part of fanon

number of fandom-related words you've filtered

the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

worst blorboficiation

that one thing you see in fics all the time

that one thing you see in fanart all the time

you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

there should be more of this type of fic/art

it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

part of canon you found tedious or boring

part of canon you think is overhyped

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

ship you've unwillingly come around to

topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Answer all of em!!!!

(For KOTLC or any fandom that you really wanna do)

LMAO ok… if you insist ☝️ (dashes are for questions i’ve already answered)

1. -

2. still no comment on this one.

3. idk i can’t rlly remember any awful takes off the top of my head LMAO. haven’t even been here that long so

4. bold of you to assume i remember anyone i block

5. i don’t use rlly discord (wow these answers are so exciting)

6. sokeefe for SURE and i don’t think anyone can disagree with me on this

7. already answered but i need to say it again. KEEFE. maybe i’d like him a bit more if some people didn’t make literally EVERYTHING about him (also if people stopped commenting “this looks like keefe” on my art)

8. once again using this as an opportunity to spread my short haired fintan propaganda. that guy would not be able to maintain long hair. he’d accidentally burn it off or something. also dex is not a cinnamon roll. marella is bisexual, not a lesbian. king dimitar is irrelevant to me and the bit is sometimes annoying. alden is not abusive. fitz is not manipulative. keefe is not mature enough for a relationship with sophie. (+ princess purryfins is the size of a goldfish, not a full-sized cat! vertina is literally only a head, she does not have a body!)

9. -

10. sokeefe vs sophitz. like we’re not getting anywhere by arguing about this why don’t we all just take a deep breath and calm down a bit

actually i guess that’s more the fandom itself ummm idrk i hate how some of y’all demonize characters for the stupidest reasons (just being silly btw don’t take any of this too seriously)

11. -

12. -

13. dex honestly. tam too but personally i’ve seen it happen with dex wayyy more

14. i don’t read fics 😜👍 can’t ever find ones that sound interesting

15. people forgetting to draw the registry pendants 😢 guys give them back their pretty little necklaces

16. -

17. -

18. -

19. honestly no idea… i’ll get back to this one

20. again, the love triangle. also pretty much all of stellarlune LMAO. i swear most of that book was just them talking about stuff they were going to do instead of actually doing it 💀 also shannon was pushing the kenric / oralie agenda way too hard in that book tbh like guys kenric is dead literally nothing can come out of this. it’s irrelevant and i don’t care!!!

21. keefe 😊👍 again. does not deserve all that hype

22. fintan on the other hand….. also the peace summit scene is under appreciated it’s so funny (as well as every other fintan scene tbh)

23. gonna be so real back in 2019/2020 i was a hardcore believer of aroace fintan and i hated pretty much every fintan ship so. old me would be horrified to know what my current favorite ship is. (still basically hate every other fintan ship tho LMAO)

24. once again sokeefe vs sophitz lmao 💀 or honestly just fitz vs keefe. we do not need to be doing this guys.

25. “dex on the cover!” “dex needs more page time!” WRONG! we need more marella page time. we need another marella cover!! we need more fintan page time!!!!!!!!!