#and it's a sign of being a good writer imo

[l-in-the-light]

So I heard Oda wanted to make Law a villain originally... this is probably how it went:

Oda (probably in One piece magazine or in interview): I planned Law as a villain, but this rascal ruined my plans.

Law: You wanted to pick my fights for me? There's no way I would let you order me around!

Oda: But! I had a full plot ready and you destroyed it. You destroyed it all!

Law: Deal with it. It's not my problem.

Oda: Urgh. Fine, if you destroyed my plot, then I will make you suffer for it. Every. Single. Arc.

Law: I have seen hell before anyway, bring it on.

Oda: Oh it won't be me. All I have to do is to make sure Luffy sticks with you like glue and makes you look like a pathetic fool.

Law: ...

Law: please don't-

Oda: TOO LATE. SUFFER!! SUFFER TILL THE DAY YOU DIE!!

[themuseofbaroque]

astro obvs. & notes #1 - general

author’s note - this is for entertainment purposes only, none of this is fact. these are simply my own opinions!

- neptune 1H 🤝 pisces rising, noticing their eyes first. the water influence to these placements adds something that draws you in like a current, no pun intended. i used to work with a pisces rising, and she literally looked like a pretty fish (lmfao) big, shiny eyes. either of these placements can find it incredibly easy to appear sensual or seductive.

- speaking of water placements! i’ve also noticed pisces placements tend to take a lot of pictures around water. beaches, hot tubs, rivers.

- this can also be said for air signs (esp. libra) but with things they enjoy! i’m always seeing personal interest posts from libras, aquarians and geminis. music, video games, political causes, shows they’re watching, food, celebrities, etc. anything they like, they post. anything.

- i’ve never laughed harder than when i’m with people who have heavy gemini, capricorn, sagittarius and leo placements

- in my personal opinion and experience, capricorn risings are what people think scorpio rising is. i’ve only met one scorpio rising irl (that i know of) and she did not fit martian/plutonian ruling at all. celebrity examples ⬇️

kim hongjoong of ateez. the intimidation factor, the style, sex appeal, the interest in piercings/tattoos. he’s a capricorn rising, with his chart ruler, saturn, in the sign of aries so we see a lot of red/martian influence from him as well.

megan fox. she’s been a little fuckin weird ever since she dated mgk (that man makes me physically ill to look at much less read about) but! she had her bad bitch moments! being known primarily for her sex appeal + starring in jennifer’s body (a gothic treasure btw) i feel is very scorpio coded however she herself is a capricorn rising, with a sagittarius saturn in the 11h, more fire influence from her as well just like with hongjoong.

joan jett. THEE female guitarist of the 80s. her whole career was surrounded by sex, scandals, drugs, all the darker themes of rock n roll in general. she’s another fire ruled capricorn rising and a sagittarius saturn in the 11h like megan. her style and even her personality has an edge to it, much more fitting for scorpio/plutonian stereotypes rather the capricorn ones. imo.

- actors who’ve done major/recognizable roles in horror usually have a capricorn neptune. neptune is imagination and capricorn is ruled by the devil card in tarot. combine the two and you have quite literally = dark imagination. celebrity examples ⬇️

mia goth staring in the X series as the main face of the trilogy

bill skarsgard being the main face of the IT remake as pennywise

evan peters as tate langdon in AHS, he also played jeffery dahmer recently for netflix.

- capricorn actually shows up quite a bit in the horror genre, esp. gore and paranormal. both actors and writers.

- sagittarius too, oddly enough. a lot of well known faces of horror have major sagittarius placements/stelliums/jupiter dominance.

- underdeveloped cancer placements are more manipulative and two faced than geminis. i see so much gem slander on here, and don’t get me wrong, i love both cancer and gemini placements! however i’ve met and befriended quite a few of both, and cancers by far have been the common denominator in issues around them more than once. stirring the pot then turning around and playing the victim when people are frustrated, lying, playing both sides to better their own situation, and even playing people against each other. i’ve never seen such hateful behaviors from the geminis i know irl.

- aries men are much shyer compared to the women

- taurus women i’ve met irl get pregnant very easily. venus? good coochie? idk

- grand trines are some of the most beautiful people i’ve ever seen (a grand trine is when someone’s big 3, so sun/moon/rising, are in the same element but in all 3 different signs. ex: virgo sun, taurus moon, capricorn rising)

- queer individuals with pisces placements can pass as straight pretty easily if they wanted to. most of them are chameleons

- aries risings i’m so sorry for the household you had growing up. i see martian childhoods usually being the ones who dealt with screaming matches, toxic parents, poverty and underlying issues with siblings that last into adulthood

- i’m not surprised at all when libra placements tell me they’re in college for a general studies degree because they can’t figure out what they wanna do yet

- a lot of fan favorite female characters in video games are canonically cancers

- if you think your rising sign doesn’t suit you very well, try looking at whatever planet correlates with your gender identity. masculine: sun and mars, feminine: venus and moon. the houses and signs of these should help you out a little bit

- libra placements absolutely get favoritism at least once in their life, jobs/family dynamics especially

- sagittarius women usually have rough love lives, at least in the beginning. a lot of them try to save and help partners who don’t deserve it and they get hurt badly in the process. same goes with pisces women

- virgo venus is not that bad of a placement as stereotypes make it out to be. clean freaks? yes. perfectionists? usually, yes. loyal? yes. remember the small things? yes. romantic? no. at least not in a cheesy way. sensual? yes.

- lilith aspects to any of the big 3 is a bad bitch placement. honorable mention is venus/lilith aspects as well

- air signs like spicy food just as much as fire signs

- a lot of rappers have heavy mercurial placements (virgo and gemini) (3h and 6h)

- mc aspecting venus in anyway is usually the person who fools around with coworkers/may even cheat on a partner with someone they work with. most people with this placement have definitely had a partner at one point or another worried about someone they work with. may be the type to have a “work wife”/“work husband”

- 6h chiron is the person who’s life has been majorly impacted by their own or someone else’s health. disabilities, chronic illnesses, stds, limb amputation, skin grafts, etc.

- aries moon and mercury combo = bad potty mouth, cursing is an almost unbreakable habit

- speaking of aries! aries and aquarius placements together in any of these ➡️ moon, venus, mars, lilith, pluto ➡️ usually have a tendency to jump around from partner to partner very quickly, including falling back into exes. their thoughts and opinions on people and things change SO quickly that they usually are the kind of people who have rosters (unintentionally). they are upfront, they don’t lie or drag anyone along but they do seem to be restless when it comes to romance. even if they don’t physically date a lot, they may often THINK of it, their minds going a million miles a minute

- geminis do not get the rep they deserve for being freaks. not only does the sign traditionally rule the throat/lungs/hands/nervous system, (choking, breath play, hickies, hand fetish/fingering, blindfolding and sub/dom dynamics) but it’s also ruled by the lovers card in tarot 👁️👁️

- fixed signs 🤝 tattoos

- sagittarius/capricorn/pisces/libra placements usually have issues with religion/spirituality growing up. either they were forced into one as kids and they have an unhealthy relationship with their god now as an adult or they simply struggle to find something that feels true to them. this is just my experience but every single friend i’ve had who’s left the christian church, had an interest in paganism/buddhism, joined the satanic temple, grew up as strict catholics, etc, have had these placements. religion is a revolving door for them and it’s a common subject of struggle in their life

- women with pisces placements tend fall into unhealthy relationships very easily, especially if they’re heterosexual and dating men. they fall in love with the idea of love before the actual person presenting it. they are bossed around very easy and usually don’t like confrontation. honorable mentions for this as well: pisces stellium, cancer stellium/mercury/saturn, 7h saturn

- cheesy hallmark movies make me think of taurus/libra venus placements, 7h venus as well

- 5h cancer/moon/venus, cancer rising/moon dom, 5h/8h synastry aspects please be wary of accidental pregnancies! wrap it before you tap it cause y’all extra fertile 💀

- most well known streamers/youtubers have 10h stelliums, including their venus. a lot of them will end up dating another social media presence/someone who shares a platform/job with them

yay first post! pardon any spelling errors i’m proof reading this half asleep ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ

[sixflame438]

Again and Again

Synopsis - Its your first fansign event and you receive unwanted comments. Your girlfriend comforts you backstage but then your members catch you in a moment.

Pairing - Hong Eunchae x 6th lsfm!reader

Tags - Angst, fluff, rude “fans”, secret and established relationship, kinda iffy tbh, possible errors, kissing, a lil bit of swearing at the end

A/N - [Request] Lowkey Eunchae oppa agenda, lets pretend lsfm didnt have any fansign events before antifragile era mk? There is a prequel fic that happens before the events of this one, its short and more fluffier than this one imo [Part 1]

Wordcount - 2890

You loved being an idol. You loved singing, you loved dancing, you loved making people happy through what you did and you most definitely loved meeting you fans. But not this. This was not what you signed up for. Youd guess it was probably the 6th person thats done this today.

Each time was the same. They would get to the seat in front of yours , give you a judgy look filled with disgust and proceed to berate you and tell you how worthless you are compared to your members and that the group would be better off without you. And of course, that hurt. The first 2 times were easy to brush off but with it happening again and again? Well, you were only so strong.

Some would do it quietly as to not draw attention to themselves but some didnt even care enough to do so, yelling like dads with beers by the bbq. Security would come drag them away but this didnt matter much as you were last on the table, theyd have to leave anyway.

As the timer rang for the next rotation, you subtly called over your manager, signalling for a timeout. Luckily she was a sweet kind lady who quickly noticed the tears pooling in your eyes. With the nod of approval you silently got up and left for your break room, not wanting anyone to notice your discomfort or waterworks. As intended nobody did, except for one.

It was funny, you and her were on the opposite ends of the table. How she managed to notice and kazuha (who was next to you but didnt realise until you were gone) wouldve baffled you but you were too in your head to care.

Muffled noises were all you could hear as the world around you became muted. You could barely make out the event coordinator telling your group to have an impromptu photo session with the fans and the same fans screaming in excitement.

Being an idol was all you had ever wanted. You loved singing, you loved dancing and debuting in Le Sserafim was a dream come true. You were confident in your abilities and knew you always tried putting your all into every performance. But was it enough? What if the haters were right?

You were well aware of the comments circulating the internet, it was hard not to notice them. And although you didnt want to believe it, you could see why people thought what they did. Like just look at your groups lineup.

Huh Yunjin, a professionally trained opera singer and amazing song writer and producer as shown when “Raise Y_our Glass” was released to celebrate your groups 100th day and Kazuha Nakamura, a professional ballet dancer of 15 years before joining the group, who even trained at a national ballet academy.

If those two werent already cool enough you also had Kim Chaewon and Sakura Miyawaki in your group too, both beloved and popular members of the former popular girl group Iz*one. Not to mention how Sakura was basically Japans sweetheart, everyone and their parents knew about her. Your members had past merits and achievements with proof to show for but you? You were just you.

You who debuted in only 18 months. But was that enough? You were good at dancing and singing, had a stunning face card and had great charisma but it all felt like an understatement when compared to your groupmates.

You would be a liar if you said that was everyone in your group though as in through your assigned break room walked the final member. Your favourite person in the whole wide world, the groups adorable maknae or lesser known as your beloved girlfriend.

You and Eunchae met as trainees under the same label. Being more reserved and barely speaking unless prompted made it hard to make any friends but what started as small nods of acknowledgement and morning greetings turned into quiet conversations during breaks.

Obviously Eunchae was the one to come up to you first and if you had to pick someone to talk to in amongst the group of strangers you were training with, you’d always pick her. Even before she came up to you, it was apparent that everyone wanted to befriend her.

Her cheerful sunshine demeanour naturally drew you in and it definitely helped that she was easy to talk to. Slowly over time your friendship grew and so did you. The two of you were inseparable and there was never a moment apart, everything was done together and it was just the way you liked it.

Every monthly evaluation, every critique, every failure. She helped you through your time as a trainee, constantly helping you use the feedback you received to improve on your skills. And of course you were there for Eunchae too, never failing to cheer her up after a hard day of training.

To anyone else you were just besties as the clinginess could easily be excused to how touchy Eunchae was with any and everyone. Wrong, but theyd never know that.

You genuinely believed that if it werent for Eunchaes radiant positivity, you would’ve never gotten through being a trainee and you wouldve never debuted together.

“Hey baby” she said cautiously as she approached, careful not to scare or overwhelm you any more.

You were curled up on the couch, arms around your legs, knees up to your face. Shaking and bawling with tears.

“Whats wrong sweetheart?” The only response was more crying.

Eunchae could feel her heart chipping away with every shake and choked out sob you let out. She had an idea about what had led you to this moment, she had seen the comments too.

They were nasty, downright diabolical things someone should never say to anyone. It was cruel, harmful and completely wrong. How people thought they could say things like this and have them backed up was something Eunchae would never understand.

“There were people hic calling me names and hic saying things about me and hic saying I dont belong in the group” you choked out painfully between each point. Eunchae couldn’t believe it. To post hateful comments online was one thing but to tell them to the idol herself? The audacity some people had.

The worst part was this was happening to you and only you. Maybe her other members had a few issues too but Eunchae had none. Everything was smooth sailing and perfect from her perspective so to know that you werent having the same crushed her.

“Theyre also saying that im worthless hic and that the groups better off hic without someone like me and hic and-“ You couldn’t even continue. The tears were blurring your vision and it was getting hard to speak so you just gave up trying. Exactly like the netizens wanted.

Eunchae had heard enough. Clearly there was more to be said but she didn’t want to know. You didnt deserve any of the atrocious comments. You didn’t deserve the threats and insults. And someone as sweet and kind as you didnt deserve the hate. It was unjustified.

You had long since dropped your legs when you started explaining and Eunchae took that opportunity to climb onto your lap, sitting up nice and close. Cradling your face with her hands, Eunchae used her thumbs to wipe away the running tears, drawing your attention away from your shoes and up to her face.

“Hey baby listen to me alright? The comments? Theyre wrong. All completely lies made up because theyre mad. Mad youre better than them in so many ways.”

“They cant help but be envious of you because well look at you. Youre talented, hardworking and absolutely jaw droppingly gorgeous. Are they the ones that preform on stage in front of thousands? No. Thats you. Do those scummy douchebags have thousands of fans worldwide supporting them? No. Thats you. And yes it is a group effort but you are playing your part. “

“You aren’t worthless or ugly or better off like they claim, youre more than they will ever be and you’ve already achieved more than they have. Plus who are they to say anything about you? Theyre probably lazy, unhygienic, haters who are single asf and have no bitches.”

“Dont ever let someone as unrelevant as that say anything about you alright? They know nothing about the effort you put into this and trust me, youre beautiful and funny girlfriend, when I say that you are just so amazing. No one can ever compare and im really proud to call you mine.”

“Sure maybe our unnies have already done things before that doesn’t mean we aren’t capable of doing those things too. Its my first time debuting too and this is the start of our journey, theres plenty of time to prove ourselves. If you ever feel lost again, remember that you’ve got me okay? And the unnies. And piona. There will always be people supporting you no matter what.”

“Chae…”

“Hush my baby its okay ive got you” she says as she wraps herself around you, running her hand through your hair to soothe and calm you down.

It was funny how different the roles were in your relationship. Even though you were older it was always as if Eunchae was your unnie instead, always caring and trying to take care of you. Of course you did the same for her too but she became a different person when it was just you two alone.

Despite internet thoughts Eunchae was quite mature, often sounding like Chaewon or Sakura at times. You guess its probably due to how close everyone was and how theyre the parental figures of the group. If Eunchae was the groups maknae, you were hers.

“Lets dry off the tears now yeah? They cover your eyes too much and i like them best when youre happy. You’re beautiful you know that?”

You did know, she told you almost everyday. But that didnt stop your heart from fluttering any differently. The warmth from your closeness and the comforting words had you smiling like a lovesick fool. Absolutely smitten or just stupid in love if you will.

“Yeah i do. Thanks pumpkin I really appreciate it” you say with a small smile. It wasnt as bright as it could be but it was a start.

Eunchae just nods with content, as if her life’s purpose had been fulfilled and she could now rest peacefully. Like a true oppa gentlemen she gracefully picks up your hand and delicately places a kiss on the back. Then your wrist, shoulder, cheek and awaiting lips.

They were feather light touches with that lingering tickly effect making you squirm a little.

“Chae stop kissing me” you whine with a pout but still giggling as you try to stop her from kissing you while you were still a mess.

“I cant help it, seeing you smile like that makes it hard not to” she says with a childish grin.

You cant help but giggle to yourself again. It was so innocent, so adorable and absolutely what you fell for in the first place.

Eunchae hooks her arms around your neck as she leans in again for a longer kiss, this time with more appreciation and pure admiration.

Hands holding Eunchae steady, you smile into the kiss, going with the motions. You would always love your girlfriend for everything she did. You loved her then, you love her now and there was nothing stopping you from loving her in the future either.

Your dreaming is cut short though when you hear a loud, high pitched shriek coming from across the room.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK”

Startled you look towards the now open door and the 4 figures standing in the entrance.

“YUNJIN”

“Youre gonna give us away idiot”

“Crap sorry”

“Too late dumbass”

You stared back at your members with wide eyes. Shocked was an understatement. How much did they see? In a hurry you tried to lift your girlfriend off your lap but she wouldnt budge, gripping onto you tighter like a koala. Eunchae wasnt phased. She didnt care you got caught, it was about time anyway.

“Hi Unnies” Eunchae says casually as if they didnt just walk in on something important.

“Care to tell us whats going on” your leader asks accusingly with raised eyebrows.

“Shitty people said some even more fucked up things to yn, so im cheering her up”

“Hong Eunchae language” Chaewon scolded angrily, clearly upset over something. Either that being the youngest swearing or the discovery that the second youngest was receiving hate comments.

“I dont care. They cant just go and make my Yn sad like that. She deserves nothing but happiness” the maknae replies resolute in her words.

“My yn?”

“How long?”

“Over a year” you say meekly, finally choosing to join the conversation

“WHATTTTTTT”

“WAIT THATS SO CUTE”

The simultaneous loud responses overwhelm you a little as you wince further into your seat.

“Are you guys not mad?”

“No why would we be?”

“I am, very.” Yunjin says with a faux stern face.

“Oh” is all you say as your heart drops, tensing and panicking on the inside.

“Oh no no im not actually mad im kidding”

Relief washes through as you let out a held gasp of air, head falling back onto the couch. Maybe if you hadnt had a meltdown just before you wouldve called her out on her tomfoolery.

“Why didnt you tell us earlier?” Questions the ballerina, her head tilting sideways as she always did when she was confused.

Sensing that you werent going to respond Eucnahe quickly chimed in. “Uhm we dont really have a good reason to be fair but we didnt know if you guys wouldve been okay with it and we just never got around to saying anything”

You could see some nods coming from the group but knowing your group you were bound to get pounced with more questions later.

“Unacceptable so you guys have been secretly dating this entire time and weve known nothing. Im being lied to by my own children” cries the group producer, her head now laying on kazuhas shoulder pretending to weep and cry.

“Yunjin unnie youre so dramatic”

Sakura, ever the timely person and mother of the group quickly draws attention to the matter at hand. “This has been quite the discovery but breaks ending in 5 mins we should probably go back out soon. You can all talk about it later”

“Dammit man. Urgh whatever when the singing is over i want answers and every detail you hear me?” Yunjin asserts pointing at you and Eunchae on the couch as she walks out.

Each member leaves the room and its when you hear them talking outside that you realise Chaewon didnt say much about you and Eunchae. Now you were back to being worried, mentally preparing yourself for an explosive outburst later when you got back to the dorms. Breaking you from your thoughts, Kazuha pokes her head around the door.

“You guys are really cute btw” she says with her signature smile, exuding calm and warmth before she went back on her way to the stage. Such a precious soul.

The comment helps to ease your worry but before you can keep thinking about it Eunchae places another kiss on lips.

“Hey dont worry about it, its just the members. They love us just the same with or without relationship.”

“Lets show the haters that no matter how much they talk it wont matter because which group are you in?”

You chuckle to yourself knowing whats coming before replying back to Eunchae like she was an army general.

“Le Sserafim!”

“And what are you?”

“An idiot sandwich!”

“No youre not! What are you?”

“Im fearless!”

“Haha thats my girl.” Eunchae replies as she gives your shoulder a nudge. Her bubbly personality (the one shown on screen) taking its place to lighten the mood.

“Can you give me a minute?”

Your girlfriend nods, removing herself from your lap and leaving to go wait by the door.

You use the time to collect yourself, quickly brushing your hair with your hands and touching up your make up with the supplies left from earlier. Taking one last glance at your reflection you leave, content with the way you were. You weren’t going to let a few bad comments get in the way of what could be an amazing day.

“Ready to go?”

“Yeah lets go” You reply with a smile, as you link your arm with Eunchaes, walking down the hallway going towards the stage.

Its not possible to have everyone like you and you knew that. Not everyone was going to have the overwhelming support someone like Chaewon and Sakura had and there was always going to be fan favourites like Eunchae.

But you were content and grateful for what you had. A group of fantastic members, a supportive family, tons of loving fans (the true ot6 supporters) and of course your wonderful girlfriend.

You loved Eunchae and it was apparent why everyone loved Eunchae so much too. You were 1 of millions but it was you she chose. And you knew, at the bottom of your heart, that even if no one did, shed always choose you. Again and again.

[paused-waterfall]

Little Details of Feather Preening

I love reading fics in which a character with feathers gets help preening them from another character. I think part of it is because it explores the alienness of the winged/feathered character in a grounded, tactile way, while also exploring the dynamic between two characters. It's worldbuilding and character development all rolled into one! But another huge reason why I like it is just cause my parakeet sometimes lets me help with her feathers, and it's the best experience ever omfg.

I figured, for the sake of fic writers who don't have access to the cutest most patient bird in the world (and for me, who feels like rambling) I'd vomit out a ton of little details of what it's like to help a bird preen, and how it might translate to characters with both human and bird features:

(Note, this isn't exactly researched. My sample size is literally one bird and some casual reading about other species (sounds like crow feathers work similarly to parakeets, for instance: https://urbannature.blog/2022/09/23/the-unbearable-itchiness-of-moulting/). Please take this as an account of what preening a bird is like, and not as advice for things to do to a real bird.)

The exact term for preening something other than oneself is "allopreening". It's a social behavior and not all species do it. But if you're writing about a bird-human hybrid, ehhh humans have grooming instincts to add to the mix, so IMO the species of bird shouldn't hold you back!

Allopreening is most needed on areas the bird can't access themself. Wings and tails are mostly accessible-- the long feathers can be gently bent into reach. The back of the head/neck is the most prime location for allopreening. A humanoid trying to preen on their own would probably try to use a mirror to see what they're doing, and seriously tire out their arms reaching back there to do such finicky work.

Birds are pretty good at spinning their heads to see and work on anything below their necks, but an avian-ish character without that range of motion might need more help on the base of their wings, shoulders, and back.

My bird gets pissed when I so much as touch any feathers that are critical to flight (the longest wing and tail feathers). Care for those feathers is super important, and trusting someone else with that task would be a huge deal!

To request a preening, my bird angles her head at me, shakes it, and gently poofs up her feathers. If it's going well, she'll stay poofed up and maybe close her eyes.

A completed preening session always ends with feathers being shaken out.

Molting!

Often, the first sign of an impending molt is a fluffy down feather floating in the air. These feathers will cling to anything they touch.

The start of molting involves a lot of old feathers falling out, and some chill allopreening can be involved in this. Just lightly ruffling their feathers can help dislodge ones that are ready to go.

After getting rid of the old feathers, pin feathers start to grow in. They start out covered in a waxy sheath and with a blood supply running through them. While the blood supply is there, these are also called blood feathers, and damaging them can cause a lot of bleeding.

Pin/blood feathers are very sensitive. A wrong move can cause them to poke into the skin. Add this to the general vulnerability of not being at peak flight ability and the body's exhaustion at having to produce the feathers, and you've got an irritable and skittish bird. This is all a whole lot like a feathery version of a period.

Allopreening pin feathers is a lot more delicate than helping dislodge old ones. There's a careful art involved in telling which ones are ready to have their sheaths removed. Learning this art as a non-feather-haver involved, for me, a lot of sudden nipping from an unsatisfied customer. These days, I can tell I'm working on the wrong feather if my bird tenses up or glares at me.

Removing the sheath from a feather is SO SATISFYING. You take a dull-colored, irritating pin, and gently unwrap it to reveal a soft, beautiful new feather. Any time I see my bird all disheveled by pin feathers, it takes serious willpower to resist pestering her to let me fix them.

Non-molt preening!

Fully grown feathers also need daily upkeep

Birds secrete oils that they spread over their feathers with their beaks. A bird-person or their allopreening partner might choose to work other oils into the feathers, similar to how we use skincare products.

Feathers lost outside of the molting cycle can start regrowing immediately. However, a partially damaged feather will not regrow until it is removed or falls out during a molt.

Clipped wings are essentially damaged feathers-- an intelligent bird-person might be inclined to rip these out so that new, full feathers will be faster to grow... but, that would mean going without the partial feathers, and the gliding/slight lift they allow. That's a pretty big risk!

Hope someone gets some use out of this :) Happy bird-fic'ing!

[atopvisenyashill]

What are your thoughts on GRRM’s new notablog post on HOTD S2?

omg i'm sorry so i did not get notified that i had a few new asks, i didn't even see this until i logged in on desktop. tumblr eat shit smh.

ANYWAYS.

I actually agree with Xiran Jay Zhao, here, where they said this was a warning shot. It feels like a warning shot. Like a "hey I'm being nitpicky and pedantic now but if you think I won't go scroched earth you got another thing coming." I've seen so much "this is unprofessional" "this is annoying" "why is he complaining" and I think it is not only mind boggling to side with a corporation and the idiots running these shows (and we know I mostly like Condal and Hess, but come on Condal was the mastermind of Sansa Bolton why are we defending him right now!!), I think everyone is blowing his comments wildly out of proportion. He didn't take a dig at anyone but the writer's room and more specifically Ryan Condal, who he has had a working relationship with for well over a decade. He didn't shittalk any casting, he didn't shittalk any specific writers or directors except one of the main showrunners, he compliments the special effects, he has consistently had (and imo is careful) nothing but praise for the actors, even minor roles like Blood & Cheese. This was an incredibly milqtoast "please remember that every change has huge affects on the narrative later" critique and the people handwringing over his behavior are absolute losers, I'm sorry.

And beyond the fact that he didn't make any huge digs, I think this conversation also wildly ignores the way authors have no control over their own characters once they sign the rights over. They can be completely bamboozled by changes and they have no recourse to go "what the hell are you doing." And yet, signing your book's rights away (even if the production sits in developmental hell for decades) is usually what nets these author's the most money - GRRM surely makes a shitton off his books, but most authors get paid absolutely nothing even when they're wildly popular because of how book deals work now. Take, again, Xiran for example - Iron Widow was a huge runaway hit, a good and fresh take on this new boom of culturally based sff. And yet Xiran has talked about how they immediately set to work writing a middle grade novel because they desperately needed the money because they got paid 16k over two years for their runaway hit that made their publishers significantly more than 16k. I think George is not only mad for authors with less control than he has but also, obviously, for himself - I've said time and again, but I do think Dark Daenerys is where we are headed, and the fact that they completely botched showing it has got to smart. And if the ending for Dany is anything other than Jon killing her, that has got to smart too. So he watched these people fuck up his original series and push him completely out of that writer's room as they made more and more changes, and now he's watching s2 of HOTD and seeing some changes and getting some real bad vibes. It's not doomerism to think s3 is going to go massively off the rails when we have seasons 6-8 of the main show to show us just how off the rails it can go!

So anyways, that part of my rant over (and please believe me when I say I checked myself here because I could rant for hours about how it's genuinely so upsetting to see people call him unprofessional over this when not only did he write the fucking series, but he's lived in this series for three decades!!!!! this is his whole life, this is his legacy, of course he's feeling some type of way about how it's handled jesus christ on a cracker, there's people who have said worse about their mediocre nyt pushed bestsellers getting adapted badly!), when it comes to the actual meat of his post....I'm sorry idk how anyone is annoyed by this post because it was hilarious to me. He spent a whole blog post whinging about how Dead Baby #4 and Kingsguard Man #12 are gonna get cut out of the show. I think he framed it in that goofy way on purpose to hide how annoyed he is but you can see where the real annoyance lies - the changes to Helaena, losing one of his grisly death scenes, and being willfully mislead about potential changes to the plot. I think a lot of people missed those points but EYE am not a goofy ass like those people and I can guarantee you that Condal and HBO got the point too.

Of course, I do think he is also irked about Maelor and Ser Rickard's scenes being cut out. He wrote a long ass, highly meticulous, near unadaptable work, and I think when he handed the IP over he assumed he was giving it to people who would rise to the challenge and only make cuts when absolutely necessary. And that just clearly hasn't happened. Incredibly important characters get cut, main characters get their plots wildly changed for no reason, and people get personality transplants on a near constant basis for no other reason than D&D and Condal thought it would look cooler. I think if there was more dedication to keeping him in the loop and keeping true to the story, he wouldn't have bitched so much. But Hess is on record saying she doesn't feel loyal to the story and at a certain point, you reach your breaking point there and I think he has finally reached his. AND GOOD FOR HIM. LET THAT OLD MAN GO APESHIT THEY'VE COMPLETLEY FUCKED HIS WORLD UP!!!

[lurkingshan]

New as a director/writer has always been hit or miss (mostly miss) for me. In terms of Gmmtv directors, I personally like Jojo the best. His shows have a unique style, vision and clear queer voice that I like. Of course I haven’t loved all his narrative choices but he always has something to say and pulls excellent performances out of actors (which is usually the sign of good acting coach or director, sometimes both)

Aof also goes without saying as one of the best directors that Gmmtv has to offer. (IMO)

All of that considered, seeing that we are talking about Gmmtv being the biggest company, their current line up of bl shows still seem so safe to me. You would think with all that money coming in they can afford to hire new directors and writers and take more risks once in awhile. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I don't think there's a single Thai bl director who doesn't have some big whiffs on their record. New has made a lot of stuff I don't like, but also several classics like Make it Right, Until We Meet Again, and My Only 12%. Jojo and Aof have made some of my all-time favorite Thai shows including Gay OK Bangkok, The Warp Effect, and Bad Buddy, but they also burned me deeply on Only Friends and Last Twilight. I used to think Golf had really interesting ideas, but having seen more of their work and learned more about the source material for The Eclipse, I am not so confident about their shows anymore. Still, these are important queer creators in the Thai bl space and I will always pay attention to what they're doing.

But yes, I do think as @twig-tea laid out in her post, there is a worrying trend toward churning out ship content rather than creating compelling stories. GMMTV is a large media company and their goal is profit, full stop. They have learned that fans will eat up their shows regardless of quality of story as long as there are popular branded pairs in the mix, so what motivation do they really have to drive for higher quality storytelling? If they can produce 16 hours of branded pair fluff with no coherent story arc, put it behind a paywall on a niche streaming service, and still have it be one of the most popular shows of the year, why do they need to strive for more?

I will continue to show up for the handful of shows in their line-up each year that actually have something to say, in the hopes that they won't stop making them entirely. It's really all we can do as individual consumers to communicate that we still want good queer stories.

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

When answering asks I mentioned several times that while I agree that Aegon's character arc is the best one this season (among the Greens and overall), I still don't like it. No one really asked but I decided to put it out there anyway - because he is my second favourite character of the book/show combo.

When I think about Aegon in season 2, this bit from the trailer comes to mind:

If we are to take Aegon more or less as a separate character (which is not so easy as no character can/should exist in a vacuum), his storyline has been quite decent (the effort to be a good ruler despite the lack of actual preparation, the obvious love and care towards Jaehaerys and heart-wrenching reaction to his murder, the failed attempt to prove himself at Rook's Rest - and now the signs pointing to him becoming a new man after what happened, more cunning and harsh). Besides, Tom has been given quite a few really good moments where he could show, truly and without being restrained, just how talented he is (it was the least HotD owed him after the treatment he got because of the shitty writing for the previous season). And even with that, I am still far from being convinced that the writers won't fumble it all in season 3 (just look what they did to Aemond this season after him getting IMO the most compelling and consistent beginning of the character arc in season 1).

But if we look at Aegon in connection with other characters? I am not merely disappointed, I am fucking furious, actually.

He's the character who suffered the most this season (feels like suffering takes up 90% of his screentime) - and this is understandable given what he's been going through. But how does the show present us this suffering? More precisely, who is presented as being responsible for it?

The first big blow dealt to Aegon was the murder of Jaehaerys. And which characters are actually shown to be the cause of Aegon's anguish?

Not Rhaenyra - she was as clueless as poor murdered boy himself. Not Mysaria - her opressed self "just provided the names" to Daemon. Daemon is the closest to it, but even here we were treated to this "ambiguity" bullshit about him supposedly not giving clear instructions to Blood and Cheese - and apparently he deeply regrets his actions. Boo-hoo, poor baby (I am not even a Daemon hater, actually, but the "he is just a tormented soul" thing he has going on this season has gone too far). The audience can't even properly hate the murderers themselves because of the shallow and cartoonish way the whole event was handled on screen.

But we get to see how Otto turns the horrible murder of an innocent child into a propo show - and Alicent sides with him (both are shown to disregard Aegon's feelings on the matter). Criston is presented as the one who neglected his duties and in doing so facilitated the heir's murder (and later he tries to shift the blame to Arryk which eventually gets the latter killed while fighting his own twin brother). Aemond doesn't gaf about his nephew's death (or the way it affected anyone in his family, specifically Aegon) for which he is partially to blame. And later Aegon gets a parting gift from Otto in the form of "you are a useless piece of junk - and a naive one for even daring to believe otherwise" - and Alicent's inability to console him when he needs it most.

Things only get worse from here. The Blacks are doing their thing on Dragostone (in Daemon's case - at Harrenhal) while Aegon keeps being abused, neglected and terrorized by those closest to him. His council members (including his mother and brother) do not respect him, Alicent flat out tells him he is useless in the most hurtful way possible (comparing him to Viserys who, as Aegon learned, didn't deem him worthy either after all). Oh, and by the way Viserys' neglect towards his children - Aegon in particular, in this case - is now completely taken out of the equation. Instead Viserys is presented as almost a godlike figure, someone to be worshipped and as infallible as the Pope.

And then, as the cherry on top of the cake, Aegon and his beloved dragon get horribly injured, almost killed by Aemond who Aegon trusted despite everything (Rhaenys' part in Aegon being hurt is minimal). And even after that Aemond proceeds to torment his bedridden brother, physically and mentally (I am aware there are supposed layers to it but I really doubt a lot of viewers gave that scene a second thought), so the former could remain in power; Alicent experiences remorse in all the wrong moments (and then proceeds to tell Gwayne how she is disappointed in both of the sons she actually knows and seems to redirect her hopes towards the one she doesn't). The only person who actually seems to care about Aegon is, surprise, Larys Strong, a reigning Kinslayer Supreme who actually murdered his father and elder brother while playing the game of thrones (and there is a BIG question whether Larys would give a single fuck about Aegon and his condition if he had been granted promotion by Aemond). While it's nice that the indisposed king has at least someone on his side, it's really fucked up that out of everyone else around him it had to be precisely Larys, whose loyalty is very much conditional.

To sum it all up, the writers gave Aegon an extreme amount of suffering (in accordance with his story in F&B and even more), clearly aiming to make the audience pity him as much as possible - and in a dirty and lazy writing move weaponized this pity against other TG characters (it's not clear for now whether it worked to the degree they expected for GA - but for the fandom it certainly did). Meanwhile TB is whitewashed once again. Now it's understandable where all this "they all hate each other" promo jokes (that turned out not to be jokes after all) made by TB actors came from.

In conclusion, I despise the way Aegon's suffering is being used in the narrative, and it takes a really big chunk out of the positive feelings I have about Aegon's arc in general. The F&B Greens, while being flawed individuals and not the most well-functioning family, were loyal to and cared for each other. HotD destroyed the majority of inter-Green relationships, and I am really, REALLY not here for it.

[imnotevenusin]

Explaining some placements in my Natal Chart

1. Taurus Mars: Honestly, I am kinda slow to taking action on most things. Usually, I don’t get that defensive, and I’m more comfortable with letting things slide; I don’t have enough energy for confrontation sometimes.

- squaring Neptune: Mars square Neptune is my worst aspect imo. This placement makes it hard for me to feel motivated; daydreaming is my go to, but I’m “working” on trying to knock down my goals in a realistic manner. I think this also makes my actions misconstrued by others - I always got in trouble and perceived as suspicious by others.

2. Mercury in Leo 11°: My laugh is contagious. A Leo Mercury gets attention from the way they communicate or laugh.

- opposing Neptune: Fucking terrible. All my words come out so wrong and jumbled together. An unhealthy amount of daydreaming too. I’ve always been a creative writer tho.

- conjunct Saturn: This one is annoying too. I do feel like my comments or opinions get ignored sometimes. And I gotta talk slowly to get the best sentences out. In general, Mercury-Saturn eventually makes you smart and well-educated; Saturn takes out what isn’t necessary and makes you think about something longer before you say it.

3. Aries Moon: I’ve definitely witnessed my Mom taking the leadership role in the household while growing up. She’s always wanted me to be more militant and confident. Even when I think something isn’t a big deal, she’ll take it very seriously. I’ve also heard of the Aries Moons having big foreheads-trend.

I think this is the most sensitive Moon sign, because the Moon is such a vulnerable planet and Aries feels everything so fast. Whenever I face emotional problems - or discomfort, I like to work out, or listen to loud music. Its like this weird energy rush.

3rd House Moon trine Mercury: Mind is racing constantly. I like to write out my feelings and thoughts to feel better. I can accurately analyze my emotional state. I’m a good student too—not so much with homework—and I can easily pay attention and participate in class.

-sextile Neptune: I can express my emotions through poetry and music. Neptune makes me a little more empathetic.

4. Libra MC: Throughout school, I’ve always been known for having nice outfits. My biggest aspirations involve artistic things: screenwriting & music.

5. Sun in Leo 29°/8H: Theres a lot of enjoyment in Astrology—which is also rules by the 8H—for me. In school, I had a list of everybody’s birthdays for some reason. I’m heavily interested in the subconscious mind and how it controls you—your behavior and how it affects the decisions you make. I’ve always been more interested in everything under the surface.

6. Saturn in Leo: I never really felt my Leo energy like that. I’m more reserved tbr. For some reason, I feel guilty and annoying for enjoying myself and simply being creative - even when it’s not bothering anybody.

7. Capricorn Rising: People usually tell me I look older than I am. I feel naturally awkward for some reason. Since the 1st House deals with the relationship we have with ourselves, it took me a while to get comfortable - Saturn rules Capricorn.

8. Chiron in the 1st House rX: Honestly, I never really put that much importance on my height, until other people started commenting on it. And there’s always unneeded comments on my appearance. Since its in Capricorn, I’ve had teeth problems growing up, and now I have braces.

9. Pluto in the 12th House rX: The 12th House is separated from everything and everybody. I’ve always been existential since an early age. There was always a fear of being separated from people. I do like to dig deep into my subconscious mind and figure myself out more; I’ve realized how powerful the subconscious mind was and why I was acting the way I was. Detaching from everything also seems to give me less burdens. Sleep Paralysis issues too.

10. Saturn in the 7H: Suckkkksssssss. Growing up, I was definitely the late-bloomer when it comes to relationships.

11. Uranus in the 2H sextile Ascendant: Definitely felt like an oddball growing up. I’m not the only person that listens to Rock, but I definitely got weird looks and reactions for enjoying it. I do get self-esteeem from being different, even if it alienates me. My appearance and interests surprises people.

12. Mars/Aries in the 4H: WWE matches in my household/family.

[mohgreal]

IMO the biggest sign of the shittiness of Miquella's writing is the fact that his actions between the Caelid War and Mohg's death are so inconsistent and unexplained that half of the "lore fandom" still believes he's a selfish power-hungry godhood seeker even though he explicitly has to abandon his fears and doubts to go on that path, his own mind describes godhood as eternal torment, Ymir and Trina both describe him as making a terrible sacrifice out of guilt, and he sounds absolutely terrified of his inevitable godhood in the final cutscene where he's kneeling in resignation (literally stuttering and baby-talking in Japanese and sounding like he's going to cry in the English voice acting). There are three entire characters who exist for the near sole purpose of saying "Miquella really doesn't want to do this but is resigned to having to to atone for his mother, making a noble but misguided sacrifice" and it still didn't drown out the obvious questions like "wait so what was the vow?", "what was the timeline and reasoning for Mohg's kidnapping, and was that his or Mohg's idea?", and "why didn't he tell his sister and her army anything and leave them to rot in a dead tree and blow themselves up?". One of the most popular interpretations is that he really really just wanted Radahn's bussy (probably because "Radahn is my consort" is literally all he says when he's actually on-screen).

Honestly people praising Miquella's writing in the DLC (especially anything having to do with Mohg and Radahn) feels like gaslighting. This is easily noticeable when you notice that the people praising its "brilliance" have completely contradictory ideas of what actually happened or what the story was trying to say. I've heard everything from "Miquella is tragically noble but misguided" to "Miquella is mentally handicapped" to "Miquella is a victim of fate who is cursed to fail no matter what he does" to "Miquella was an evil scheming mastermind whose nobility was a carefully crafted facade" to "Miquella is a dumb, impulsive, spoiled little brat and cautionary tale against nepo babies", and all of these are supposed to be Genius Writing[TM] despite all these directions being so underbaked that people can think his story is literally the opposite of any of the above…

it also killed the fan interpretation. i used to really really like the idea of it being a misunderstanding where mohg kidnaps miquella for his own dynasty and malenia attacks caelid thinking he stole miquella and you cant even argue that i just "wanted my own au to be canon" no. i just wanted it to make sense 🙏

also the "character existing for the sole purpose of X" in the case with the DLC being just to say something about miquella is so fucking dumb. i get fromsoftware never had very in depth characters but its getting far too obvious to the point its comical;

SOTE also does screw up the entire timeline because the writers didn't know their own lore as proven by me many times on this trashy account whoops

also I agree on the "glazing miquellas writing" part because if you can take so many directions with a character that contradict each other, thats not even interpretion anymore that's straight up having your fans make the character for you 😭

getting a monthly anon rant is always a good thing. sorry if this post is as underbaked as sote's writing its the middle of the night cause my insomnia is always awake

[eliotquillon]

i actually really like the snappy pacing of s4 (even if i’m not overly crazy about the whole Fellow Finding Reality Show arc) and i honestly think it benefited from the shortened episode count BUT that said. so curious about what s4 might have been like if the writers strike hadn’t necessitated cutting it short. i think the overall shape of it would’ve been the same (house’s head/wilson’s heart are just too good) but here’s a list of stuff i think we would’ve seen/i would’ve liked to have seen if s4 had had a full 24 episodes:

-i think we probably would’ve gotten a lot more chase and cameron (and specifically Chameron Relationship Moments). this is based on the fact that a) we do get more of those in s5, when the episode count goes back to normal, b) we got so much build-up with them in the second half of s3 (i am not immune to punching the air when cameron shows up at chase's apartment in the s3 finale) that it does feel a bit weird that we barely see them together, and c) cameron especially does get a few moments of trying to prove she's the Best House Whisperer this season combined with the documentary episode of her making chase watch her chant 'i am not in love with house :)' in the mirror and i think there would've been more made of that if there'd been more episodes

-AMBER. i think we would've gotten a hell of a lot more amber + that her and wilson would've been together longer. i also think we would've seen a lot more of house and amber which imo is the main downside of this season being so short - house's head seems to allude to him having a crush on her by the time of the crash? or like. at least respecting her as a person which is more than you can say for most people. and i think a longer episode count would've allowed us to see more of that and/or let that simmer and fester for longer. anyway. amber in any capacity. send tweet.

-call me crazy but i think we would've seen more cole. i know we already get a disproportionate amount of focus/info on him given that he's never heard from or mentioned again after house fires him but part of me wonders if this is because he was supposed to have come back in another guest role at the tail end of the season and then that got cut but the rest of his stuff remained. would've been cool to lock him and cameron in a room together since she essentially goaded him into violence and all. maybe i just have too much faith in the writers for this one

-call me crazy again but a part of me wonders if this might have been The Huddy season. both because i read somewhere that lisa edelstein apparently had a sign saying that shippers should support the strike if they wanted more huddy (#based, always support a picket line) but also because like. the huddy slowburn is ridiculously long. by the time they got together i wasn’t even rooting for them anymore i was just ready for the arc to be over (and to be clear: i really like huddy). this is really speculative territory because obviously it wouldve had a massive knock on effect on later seasons (most of s5 and s6 gets knocked over by this) but like at the very least i think they probably would’ve kissed by the end of a full-length s4.

-i think it would’ve taken a bit longer for foreman to rejoin the team/he would’ve been a bit more of a stinker about it. emphasis on ‘bit’; i actually like how quick it is he regresses back to the fellowship/how fast he immediately resorts to malpractice at mercy (now there’s a spinoff title) but i think he probably would’ve stuck it out for another episode longer. maybe one and a half.

-absolutely we would’ve had a comedic subplot in some random episode about people trying to guess thirteen’s real name/their reaction to it. iirc the first time we heard her Actual name said Out Loud is with cuddy yelling at her over air bubble guy in house’s head. if there’d been time i just know there would’ve been a moment about this. that said i do find the canon reveal really fucking funny because for a moment when i first watched that episode i was like ‘who the FUCK is dr hadley’ which was probably the intended experience lmfaooo

-i think we might have gotten a few more sown seeds about house’s worsening addiction / mental health problems that obviously end up coming to a head in the final episodes of s5. nothing super big, but just a hint or two that something is Brewing.

-old fraud (henry) probably would’ve come back for an episode as house’s PA. or he gets hired as cuddy’s assistant (we know she runs through them like water) and house feels betrayed and there’s a silly prank war about it or whatever. hey for someone who doesn’t like the finding fellows arc i keep mentioning the discarded fellows a lot

-i know chase’s sister is a crazy s8 retcon (compels me tho) but can you guys please hold my hand where i imagine a world where there’s a subplot with him and cameron having a blowout argument where he reveals her existence to her and cameron tries to force him to reconcile with her. Ok you can stop holding it now i recognise that this is pure copium and never would’ve happened since we don’t find out about this sister until 4 fucking seasons later but it was a nice idea right

-this would’ve been a great season for a requisite Musical Episode. we get a lot of fun one-offs in s5 and 6 (lucas’s failed spinoff launch, 5 to 9, wilson) and this is the season with the documentary episode (that doubles as both the Meta Episode and the Noir Episode) so like. the writers were already armed and ready with their long-running cable show special episode notebooks. there probably would’ve been a ‘you can’t always get what you want’ fakeout. i’m not a fan of musical episodes and so would’ve hated every moment of it but i am a person of the people.

[meyerlansky]

Something I think is interesting about the punch on the wing scene in MOTA is that Bucky says “I order you to hit me,” and then immediately after (I’m 90% sure it’s his next line after Curt speaks) says “ranks off.” Like… you can’t order someone to punch you (effectively pulling rank) and then say no more ranks. I mean you can, because he did, but yeah

Y E A H! IT DRIVES ME CRAZY ACTUALLY!!!

like you can take bucky's "that's an order" as a wink-wink nudge-nudge crack at the fact that uhhh neither of them really give a shit about rank on the ground: if curt did he wouldn't step up to gale about the RAF captains, and if any of the four majors in the scene did they'd have stopped a lieutenant from taking a hit his commanding officer stepped up for. i don't even really think curt cares about bucky ordering him to hit him, not in the sense of "i am a good little soldier, i can't disobey an order 🫡" anyway. when curt brings the ranks up, he's really REALLY obviously using it as a soft no, both to give bucky an opportunity to laugh it off and save face AND to try and get out of being made to do something he does NOT want to do even though his friend asked him for it. and even after that, he has to be pushed EVEN MORE into actually swinging. he gives bucky two very obvious soft no's, and only throws the punch after bucky physically pushes him into it. that's what we in the know call "coerced consent," baybee!

and then, boy i wish i wasn't at work so i could post caps, but AFTER THAT they have this little exchange that just feels fucking awful to watch: curt is watching bucky reel from the hit looking very concerned, and when bucky stands up he kind of backs away and puts his hands up like he thinks bucky's gonna swing back. bucky kind of sidles up to him and pats him on the shoulder—very "big dog who wants to play-fight with someone smaller" body language, as a note 😳—and it looks like everything's fine, but then as he walks over to the edge of the wing he shoots curt this look that's... a little resentful? maybe? like he wasn't expecting curt to hit him THAT hard? and curt turns away AFTER that look, so i think he caught it, and he looks SO FUCKING MISERABLE for the rest of the scene, even after bucky grins at him and i want to rip my own throat out about it actually

tangent ahead, my meta-writer roots are showing, i cannot help myself: bucky's relationship to his rank and authority is fascinating to me, actually. he really only wants it when it's convenient and it gets him what he wants. he doesn't want air exec because he feels left out of the fighting and guilty for being safe when everyone else is up, which is not THE most selfish on the surface, but it is still him prioritizing his feelings over doing the job he was given and thereby keeping the ENTIRE GROUP safe. he's buddy-buddy with the other pilots until he wants curt to hit him or crank to stop saying shit he doesn't want to hear [which imo is worse, even though i agree with bucky wrt Fuck 'Em; at least he was alone with curt on the wing, but making crank say "yes sir" in front of his ENTIRE CREW? ouch. ouch!]. he plays favorites in the air, with curt AND gale, and puts MULTIPLE FORTS FULL OF MEN in danger to get them out of tight spots. he basically abdicates all leadership responsibility in the stalag and puts it all on gale, up to and including only really discussing escape for the two of them, not their crews.

and like, i get it! i 100% understand why he's as selfish as he is, and in particular i wouldn't expect his internal logic to be consistent while he's White Girl Wasted as a—very bad, but really his Only Available—coping method for very deep trauma and grief. but he's SO self-centered, basically all the time, and it is such an interesting trait in contrast to the rest of his character, which is: he's fundamentally a good guy. i buy what he says to paulina, that he signed up because he wanted to help right nazi germany's wrongs. he's the one who says "maybe we should think about them" when the tuskeegee airmen roll in, and you can take that a couple of ways, but i personally don't think gale would've talked to alex without that push from bucky. he gets bitter about lil and dye for a hot minute [again, while drinking] but then gets over it REAL quick to reassure her dye'll be fine. he writes the letters to the families of the guys they lose over bremen even though it's not his responsibility As Of Five Minutes Ago. he SNAPS after the mustang fires on the march column, because simoleit put his men in danger with the night marches. he was absolutely NEVER going to shoot the german kids in westphalia, vs gale who is SO OBVIOUSLY talking himself OUT of murdering a child. he does actually care about people! even people he doesn't know! and i don't actually think he'd shrug off his abuses of rank and skirting authority, if it was pointed out to him and it impacted people he didn't want to hurt. which is why i wrote 2.6k of navel-gazy fic about it, even though he only finds out curt's hurt because of him at the end of the fic but shhh

[okthatsgreat]

can i ask what your beef is with the dear evan hansen text?? like i agree with you i just wanna know lol

ohhhhh anon you are getting an essay from me LMFAOOO. for a bit of context: im a HUGE musical theatre fan and i was a massive fan during the 2016-2017 period of broadway where a HUGE influx of younger fans were getting drawn in so of course i listened to the soundtrack a ton. but after a bit i looked back at it and sort of understood a lot of its flaws in the base script/lyrics, and upon watching the australian dear evan hansen it became superrrr clear again imo!

ill put my long winding essay down below just because its pretty negative :) and, of course, long and winding

so there are some veryyyyyy distinct issues with the text of dear evan hansen, which i will TRY to pull apart into seperate categories just to make this a bit easier LMFAO.

TONE: tonally, this show is a MESS. it wants to both be a comedy musical while also having very heartfelt discussions around topics of mental health and suicide. in my opinion, while TRICKY, this CAN be done successfully, but was not handled well here. the switch between tone is far too jarring-- in one scene you'll have cynthia mourning her son who just committed suicide, desperate for any information that could connect her to her late child, reaching out to cling onto evan once she sees the cast that connor had signed before his passing. and then it IMMEDIATELY cuts to jared making a sex joke like im not kidding. these moments of grief and seriousness dont get time to breathe before they bring jared in or make connors ghost sing a funny song about not being gay

i know that an argument can be made that this show is supposed to be a "dark comedy"-- even if it was it wasnt done well, but as a whole it's actually not supposed to be a dark comedy. the suicide of connor murphy, evan hansens debilitating anxiety, and the mental wellbeing of these characters are placed in the centre of this show as its primary message. this is a show that marketed itself as being THE mental health show, that brought these issues to light and brings a powerful message about "not being alone". the writers of this show want you to take it very seriously. there are some very well written moments within this text (in my opinion a lot of the arguments the murphys have are well paced, good dialogue, especially towards the end before words fail) but it loses so much of its impact because its shoved in between these scenes of forced levity. so so much of that is the fault of jared as a character but thats a whole other essay

it's an extremely indecisive show over all, and you are going to see that throughout this essay: this show doesnt want to fully commit to one thing, but rather dabble in tinier, vague concepts and never truly go all the way.

MENTAL HEALTH: i am not going to deny that in 2016-2017 when this show was immensely popular, it DID start some sort of discussion. this show did have a very positive impact, specifically on a young demographic, because it did open up avenues for them to discuss issues such as this. at the time there were hardly any musicals targeted towards that demographic, and hardly any musicals that discussed mental health at all (besides shows like next to normal, but they were never that huge with the younger generation). for a young person, or anybody really, to resonate with a show concerning topics of anxiety and suicide is a great thing, and i am not trying to diminish the impact of this show at the time.

but the message of mental health is a very shallow one upon rewatch, unfortunately. as mentioned before, they are SO CLOSE to delving into interesting topics but never want to fully commit to anything. zoe and her opinion of her late brother is a FASCINATING topic that gets swept up in evans lie. we hardly hear much discussion about connors anger issues or mental health topics that are deemed less "palatable"-- in fact, very rarely does this show discuss the elements of mental health that can be seen as less palatable to a wider audience. it NEARLY does, it VERGES on those specific discussions, but never wants to linger too much. or it is fully treated as a joke (connor smokes pot, which can very easily be read as a form of self-medication as the murphys were struggling to stick to a single form of help for him. him smoking is ALWAYS a joke however. this is NOT explicit in the text).

not to mention, its clear that some topics were not well researched or even well examined within the text. i really really loved how the australian alana (carmel rodrigues) portrayed her (i very personally think she played alana as being autistic or at least neurodivergent) however she has a single throwaway line about how she felt invisible and then never mentions this again. this needed to be built up to a LOT better. evan STOPS TAKING HIS MEDICATION during act 2, claiming he "doesnt need them", and it is NEVER mentioned whether or not he starts taking them again. and while medication is a varied topic from person to person, and not everybody has or even wants to take them, the show has framed evan not taking his meds as a personal triumph, in which his life has finally "gotten better" to the point he doesnt need to take them anymore. for many many people this is not the case, especially with anxiety.

the core message of the show, "you are not alone", is also rather hollow. it's a good marketing point and its a great hashtag for the dear evan hansen team to spread on social media but it isn't extremely nuanced. dont get me wrong, sometimes a show doesnt HAVE to be extremely nuanced in a way a show like next to normal is, but to frame your show as THE mental health show with the aim to discuss these topics of suicide and depression seriously (rather than unseriously, like heathers), then it needs to be treated wayyy more carefully. saying "oh if youre sad then just reach out for help", while an okay message for a young audience, isnt very groundbreaking and in fact can come off as a little corny upon rewatch ("you will be found" felt verrrry very cheesy when i watched it live)

THE ANTI-HERO: evan is a teenager who severely fucks up. TREMENDOUSLY. and even though the marketing of this show i think has actually let evan down a little bit in regards to his personality, it isnt JUST due to the fact he has social anxiety. sure, this greatly impacts him and his decisions, but there are many moments within the show where he explicitly states his motives for why he did what he did. he is an awkward, LONELY teenager. while his anxiety not to speak up may have landed him in his situation in the first place, ultimately it is evans desperate need for human connection and family that compels him to keep this lie going.

and in a rather traditional narrative, his schemes would be framed as properly sinister. while he doesnt necessarily have MALICIOUS intentions, he still acts very selfishly and with little foresight. the lies keep piling on and piling on and he feels as though he can not reveal himself, but also he doesnt WANT to. he doesnt want to let everything go, even if he is very VERY in the wrong. this is selfish. and a character can BE selfish!

but while the narrative clearly paints evan as being in the wrong, he is NEVER supposed to be the "villain". nothing he does is truly conveyed as sinisterly as it actually is, and it gets SINISTER. ultimately we are supposed to be ROOTING for evan, as he is meant to represent the core themes of this show: mental health. even if he gets found out we are NEVER shown "true" consequences besides the murphy family getting kind of upset at him and asking him to leave during his song "words fail" where he tells them he used to be so sad and lonely before all of this and thats why he did what he did. it then cuts to him and his mom, where the discussion mostly revolves around HIS mental health and his suicide attempt rather than what he had just done to the murphys. finally after that scene we go to the finale many months later, where the consequences are hardly implied, and its even stated that evan got off LIGHTLY for what he did as the murphys never revealed who wrote connors note. yknow, the note that the entire internet was using as means to harass and dox that grieving family not too long ago

he is never treated as if he is completely in the wrong, and always given that core theme of mental health to hide behind. and because they dont want to discuss the more "unappealing" elements of mental health, or theyre too scared to imply that his anxiety is "making him the villain", evans actions ultimately are forgiven by the narrative.

evan and his family friend dance around the room, creating fake emails for a kid who killed himself in order to fool his mourning parents into believing the two of them were friends. evan stands in front of the school and gives a speech about how much him and connor were friends (even when they werent), and then spearheads a mental health campaign in connors name, all under the pretense that he KNEW and CARED for connor. he, a STRANGER, frequently goes over to the murphys house and allows them to treat him like a pseudo-son, nearly to the point where he accepts a college trust fund from them, which was meant for connor. he LIES to connors sister-- who was having very complicated opinions about connor due to his abuse towards her-- and convinces her that connor actually cared about her the entire time, practically forcing her to view her abusive brother as a better person than he was. and then evan DATES HER.

which brings me to my next and final point--

ZOE: god zoe. she makes me so unbelievably sad. WHY did evan have to have a love interest.

zoe could have been such a fascinating and intriguing character if she was handled with far more care than she had been. connor murphy was very explicitly stated to have been verbally abusive to her and likely physical as well, and at the beginning of the show she is rightly upset with him. she doesnt mourn him for his good parts because to her she doesnt KNOW any good parts. she tells evan that "the last time she can remember connor being nice to her was in his suicide note", which EVAN wrote. zoe was by no means obligated to mourn her brother, but was frequently encouraged (especially by cynthia) to do so, to find the good parts of him to remember. this complicated relationship with grief is fascinating

but evan has a crush on her, and thats when everything starts going downhill. he starts lying to her about what connor had told her ("if i could tell her" is a very creepy song coming from a brother but thats yet again a whole other post HGJKF) and plants false memories of him inside her head. that is FUCKED UP!! he is giving this poor girl, who is battling with her conflicted feelings towards her late abusive brother, false reasons to think fondly of him and invalidating every reason she had to feel anger towards him. because this show wants so desperately for the message to be that "nobody deserves to be forgotten", without any sort of nuance whatsoever, even if the person that died had been terrible to you.

and then they start dating. they start dating, all based on the lies evan had told zoe. before they kiss zoe says "you gave me my brother back", which is a HEARTBREAKING thing to hear from her given what we as the audience know, but this is NOT conveyed NEARLY as sinister as it is actually is. we witness evan be extremely, EXTREMELY selfish, and for the first time this can not be blamed on his anxiety like most other events in act 1 could. this was evan wanting to get with zoe, and it seemingly fell into his lap after he conned this family into believing he knew their estranged, late son. that is horrifying! zoe does not get NEARLY mad enough at him once he tells the murphys the truth! zoe doesnt get any time at all to shine in act 2!!

how absolutely mortifying would it be to realise that the person you were dating is a complete and utter stranger to you! he had been impersonating somebody and staying in your house, sleeping over, DATING you, all under entirely false pretences. and how absolutely mortifying would it be to realise that everything you thought you had finally learned about your brother was a lie? you had finally come to terms with accepting your late brother for his good parts only to realise that all of those alleged "good parts" werent actually true at all?? zoe would practically have to grieve ALL OVER AGAIN. the murphys would have to grieve their son TWICE. this is NEVER touched on. evan does not experience the consequences for this nearly as much as he should, and zoe is not given this resolution or nuance.

if this was done with a little more care this could have been GOOD. this was a terrible, terrible thing evan did. their romance should have always been framed as such. "only us" should not have been written as this charming cute romantic love song. given what the audience knows it is impossible to view this relationship as pure, which is what the writers had intended, and we are all sitting in our seats waiting for the ball to finally drop and this poor girl to finally realise who she is dating. its horrifying! and it doesnt get treated as such!

because ultimately evan is the hero and evan is the person you are supposed to be rooting for, regardless of his actions. ive seen a few arguments saying that this is intentional, that songs like "you will be found" are SUPPOSED to be sinister and hollow because evan is "tricking all of them", but the truth is that was never the writers intention. they wouldnt have made that song their entire marketing campaign if it was supposed to be seen as malicious. the writers were never willing to fully commit to anything, making this show as a whole underbaked and tonally inconsistent.

TLDR; the show has a hollow message and wants to be many different things at once but ultimately succeeds in none of it

[wine-dark-soup]

Re: what in the seven hells are the elementals

The nature of the elementals has been the source of GREAT confusion and, in my opinion, it always felt like the writers tiptoed around it because the twelveswood went through great changes after 1.0 to try and correct gameplay and lore issues... which they succeeded to do... although... partly.

The elementals went from terribly potent entities who could curse you with the greenwrath (meaning. death. plain and simple) to mostly passive entities that lost their power and can only voice their discontentment.

So like, seems quite simple, right? powerful thing lost its power. but if it stopped there i wouldn't be writing that post. the elementals were feared as much as they were respected, and since they became passive forces... this fear... remained. you must not anger the elementals. not just listen to their counsel through the conjurers and padjal. you must not anger them. but then: why don't gridanians take action? i mean, technically, they do, there are plenty of quests done in the name of the elementals. but if the elementals call to you to kill invasive beasts, why don't they do just that to solve the rampant injustice - racism, inequalities, etc - existing in the twelveswood? surely injustice means the balance of the forest (which they are the wardens of) is disrupted? surely the elementals should be mad?

and so players were left with this for uuuuh a solid decade with no real explanation as to why things were that way. the elementals were mentioned here and there as happy or sad or angry, depending on your actions. and you know, that's fine. nice fantasy tool and all. AND THEN.

Nophica tells you, in the quest The Heart of the Myth:

"Tell me, have you ever met an elemental? Many hold that they were born of me, and as I mentioned, they are the voice of those who abide in the Twelveswood. At times, they may seem excessive in their actions, but it is out of an abundance of love. So pray be good to them, and heed their warnings!"

THEY ARE THE VOICE OF THOSE WHO ABIDE IN THE TWELVESWOOD.

I REPEAT: THEY ARE THE VOICE OF THOSE WHO ABIDE IN THE TWELVESWOOD.

The natural-considered-divine entities and the common people were ONE AND THE SAME ALL ALONG. It's like the writers finally gave closure to that plothole in a single sentence.

It makes perfect sense: the elementals from 1.0 were dangerous creatures because the world was full of madness and on the brink of destruction (and also gridanians were more hostile to the outside world, which is why the elementals didn't welcome strangers and cursed them with the greenwrath).

The elementals from 2.0 onwards are thus less powerful because the will of the people got broken after the calamity, and, as the plot goes on, you can interpret their silence as a sign peace is coming back to the world. or their massive fear as a sign a threat is looming.

This is great! I love that! Just like the Endwalker tank rolequests have stressed, balance in the black shroud is actually actively maintained by mutual concord between its inhabitants. So retroactively, this is why people were finally allowed to dwell in the woods and leave their caves: the elementals - the people themselves - were ready to work together to make this place their home.

That makes the elementals mini-primals, sort of, i guess.

OK, it's all well and good, BUT IT DOES RAISE MORE QUESTIONS.

number 1 being: what are padjal exactly then?

i'll make a tentative answer: it's established that the will and faith of the people can alter the appearance and very nature of things. so if the first dwellers of the twelveswood decided - albeit unconsciously - they needed people to decipher their own will, they manifested them. babies were born with distinctive signs (horns and long lives) and powers (the ability to listen to the elementals).

that implies one can't always listen or understand their own desires, wants, or fear, and needs an interpret. which is great imo. i sure don't know what i'm doing a lot of the time. the padjal thus became the living symbol of the forest's balance - and you turn to them if said balance is disrupted. And if they are balance itself, it stands to reason the elementals would grant them and only them the power to wield white magic.

of course, that also implies padjal are just vessels, just like ysayle was to shiva, for example. and we know how bad that was for one's humanity and sense of self. there could be a whole thing about that and how damaging it is or how, conversely, it could be a sign of concord, but we have to content ourselves with the guardian tree speaking through kan-e-senna turned oracle as a symbol of union.

number 2: SPEAKING OF, what is the guardian tree then?

I have no real answer for this one. It's made of aether and it's very ancient; it may be the Ultimate elemental. The will of the forest and its people made visible.

(there could be questions about why the elementals were seemingly made of aether if they are mostly manifestations of dynamis, but after all, primals are born of a mix of aether concentration AND prayers - dynamis - so if we accept they're a sort of primals, here is that. but why are their aether differently aspected? because people can, too, shape their aether so it bends towards a particular element?)

number 3: OKAY. BUT THEN, IF THE ELEMENTALS ARE THE PEOPLE ARE THE ELEMENTALS, WHY DON'T THEY STILL SOLVE ALL THEIR PROBLEMS? WHY DON'T THE SEEDSEERS ACT? HEH?

yeah. yeah. that's still strange. but i think it boils down to what i said earlier: the will of the people may not necessarily lead to good things - e.g racism creates the need to go through a ritual to prove the elementals you're worthy of living in the forest. and the people don't necessarily know how to interpret what they feel and see. and the summoning of primals didn't solve the problems the beast tribes faced.

In short the elementals are a symbol of balance but themselves - the people - disagree about the way to reach balance. this shows the limits of the padjal's role. they still have to serve everyone... but everyone disagrees on what makes them happy... but the padjal see the balance (or hear it, i guess) in their mind and know they can't let it tip one way or the other...

i suppose this is why we mostly see individual actions in the game: we have to treat one problem of the woods at a time. the closest we get to a real manifestation of balance is again at the end of the EW tank rolequests. everyone agrees to work in unison and recognizes kan-e-senna's efforts, even if they're not enough. so now the forest is more peaceful, though not completely, but if everyone works towards achieving a longlasting peace, the elementals are pleased, because that peace is what the people wants.

one can imagine they're now working on solving their systemic racism and class issues... but ok, that last part is wishful thinking. the way they treated this was clearly a bad writing problem that they never recovered from. they could, if they wanted, we KNOW how good the writing team is now, but i think they're off to new horizons and have been for at least five years. the "the elementals are the voice of those who abide in the twelveswood" was intended, in my opinion, to give us some answers before moving to the game's next arc for good.

unless one day they come back to developing the city states (and gridania most of all, maybe through the void plotline?) again but who knows.

[moistvonlipwig]

some thoughts on angel's pov on the buffy/angel relationship in the later seasons of the buffyverse, under the cut because b/a shippers may not want to see it. this is an angel-positive post though, i'm interested in looking at his mindset, not tearing him down:

it's interesting and imo telling that post-early s3 of ats, angel only seems to bring up buffy & get caught up in the idea of a relationship with her when he feels like a failure of a hero. when he's happy with baby connor he never says aw gee i wish buffy could be here to meet him. when he's sad and needs comfort (e.g. when connor gets kidnapped) he never says god i wish i could talk to buffy about this. it's only when jasmine takes cordelia and connor away from him and he lets it happen and he signs his soul over to wolfram & hart to try to save the last bit of connor that's left that he goes crawling back to buffy all like, if buffy still wants me then maybe i'm not the worst most pathetic biggest failure in the universe. maybe i can pretend i'm still the cool hero guy she always thought i was. and in s5 it's only when spike comes back from the dead full of swagger and seemingly the champion angel feels like he no longer is that angel suddenly starts obsessing about which one of them buffy likes more, and again nearly always explicitly in the context of feeling like a failure of a hero.

(even in tgiq there's the context of angel literally planning to go on a suicide mission in a couple weeks. he certainly was not under the impression that he and buffy had any kind of actual future together. it seems more likely to me that he saw an opportunity to say goodbye and when spike interfered it raised his hackles and made him defensive again.)

post-buffy's resurrection, as much as the writers liked to throw bones to buffy/angel shippers (imo to the detriment of both shows' narratives), it still doesn't actually read as angel still wanting to be with buffy so much as angel idealizing his time with buffy as a simpler time when he felt like a good person just by dint of being around her. she isn't someone he super wants to hang out with (unlike, say, cordelia), she just represents 'goodness' to him and when he feels like he is running out of his own goodness he grasps at her image to try to make himself feel better. it's no coincidence that he seems to regress in maturity every time the shows try to bring back his feelings for buffy in btvs s7/ats s5, because at that point in his arc, when he retreats into his old feelings for buffy, he is essentially taking comfort in a childish ideal to avoid facing reality.

it does frustrate me that the shows never let him realize this and let go of this coping mechanism (because, again, i think they wanted to keep shippers on the hook), but at the same time i think it's pretty textually obvious that that's what's going on in his head. it's not that he hasn't actually moved on from her or is incapable of doing so, it's that when things get too hard and he loses his actual support system, angel (unlike poor billy pilgrim) becomes stuck in time, longing for the days when he only cared about one person and his life was easier for it. easier -- but not better. and he knows that, which is why, per "awakening," he doesn't actually wish he could go back to those days. not truly. he just wishes his life didn't suck quite so bad.

[theshadowsingersraven]

You know something never mentioned with the whole "evil lightsinger" theory for Gwyn?

Catrin.

You know, her twin sister.

Would Catrin also not be a lightsinger if it's being based on their river nymph heritage? (They are, of course, separate species, but I digress.) So, that would mean that there aren't one but two lightsingers somehow conveniently avoiding detection despite lightsingers being described as killing for sport? As well as both of them living in the same temple with the same access to potential prey?

That's not counting the fact that presumably, Gwyn and Catrin's mother and grandmother are still alive. So, if they are lightsingers with the exact same nefarious description that we were told, then that means at any given point in time within the last 28 years, there may have been four lightsingers outside of the Bog of Oorid, and somehow no one knew about it?

Especially not even Azriel, with his entire spy network? Just because he couldn't leave Velaris while Rhys was UTM doesn't mean that Azriel's spies couldn't. If Azriel could determine that Koschei was whispering words on the wind to Briallyn, then feasibly, he'd be able to figure out that there were now four lightsingers outside of the Bog. Because they're, y'know, dangerous and mentioned as something to avoid in the Bog.

That definitely reads as something that would be a big deal. I mean, think back to how Lucien and Tamlin reacted back in TAR to the Bogge. It wasn't supposed to be in their lands, and Tamlin hunted it immediately because it was dangerous.

Wouldn't someone in the Autumn Court probably either eliminate Gwyn's grandmother, who would be a full-blooded lightsinger, or at least find a way to weaponize her? And again, something Azriel would likely know.

If we assume Gwyn's mother had her and Catrin at the same age as Gwyn, 28, that's 56 years between just the two of them minimum that lightsingers would be out of the Bog. Remember, Gwyn's mother couldn't stay in the forest house of Autumn or in the rivers of Spring, so she was born out of the Bog.

And that's not accounting for how long Gwyn's grandmother would be alive for and how much time she could've spent out of the Bog before finding Gwyn's grandfather.

Now, don't get me wrong, SJM isn't a perfect or incredible writer and does make mistakes.

But three generations of evil, bloodthirsty lightsingers somehow escaping the notice of all of Prythian? Let alone Azriel, who would probably be closely watching Spring and Autumn because of how both those Courts have harmed his family?

As well as somehow not noticing any signs of Gwyn's potential lightsinger nature while he trained her?

It seems like an awful lot to overlook, imo. So, if we want to believe everyone is still relatively good at their jobs and assume SJM has some of her writing shit together...maybe Gwyn isn't a lightsinger?

Maybe by nature of being 3/4 High Fae and 1/4 river nymph, she probably has magic that manifests in a way unique to her mixed heritage? Like how Rhys can magically hide his Illyrian wings?

Or maybe lightsingers just have the worst assumed of them, and it's not fully true. Like how humans assumed all fae were like the Naga and ate humans?

Either way, though, the possibility of Gwyn being evil seems pretty abmysmally low in my humble opinion. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[indigosabyss]

You know apparently Elliot Page wanted to continue to play Vanya as Vanya ’til the series’ end rather than having the character transition to match his own real-world transition? The writers having pushed for it to be applied to his character as well in place of what they had planned.

Personally, I liked that Viktor transitioned. Seeing him there and happy was good for me.

imo obvs Elliot had to say he was okay with playing a character in a popular show he had a contract with as one of the lead roles. Seems kind of a bad idea to be burning bridges like that, because the industry isn't kind to trans actors. Don't know the full story but yh makes sense he'd agree to still play a woman for a bit.

You could have also phrased this better instead of deadnaming the character, no offense.

His transition didn't actually take up much space imo. Whatever they had planned could have happened too, if it was worth it. Viktor already had a lot going on with Harlan??? What more did they want to wring out of this one guy lol

S4 had the most glaring issues, but S3 was an early sign of the cracks showing in the way character development and screen time was being distributed. But they really nailed Viktor for the most part.