#and to me it seems as though they analyze and consume it by reading it at its most base level

[skyloftian-nutcase]

for writing requests, the chain givin wars a big ol group hug and letting him cry cus let’s be honest bro is not holding up well

Sunsets were always Sky’s favorite.

It was strange, how much a moment in time could change something like that, though. A few evenings ago, the sunset was stained blood read, dripping with anguish and fear, held together by a firm hand and guidance. It hadn’t come from their leader, however - the Hero of Time had been completely consumed by worry over Twilight’s condition, and Sky hadn’t blamed him for it, particularly after finding out they had a blood connection.

But after that initial horrifying sunset, Sky found that the dusk brought only exhaustion and melancholy, a worry that there would be another sunset that would stain the sky with blood.

Sighing, the young knight glanced out his window and saw the person he’d been looking for. While Time had been by Twilight’s side that entire evening, there had been another Hero who everyone had heavily relied on. Sky had tried to mediate and help as best he could as well, but he paled in comparison, certainly in terms of leadership capabilities.

But everything had a toll. Sky could see it well enough.

Exiting the inn, Sky heard the gentle serenade of crickets filling the air as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon. The town was not as peaceful and quiet as camping out in the woods, but it held a warm sense of safety that they usually didn’t have the luxury to enjoy. Any town gave Sky a small degree of anxiety, as they were all foreign to him, but settlements like this put the captain at ease far more than anyone else.

At least Sky knew Warriors could get some peace somewhere. It was obvious the man was trying to seek it.

Warriors heard Sky’s approach, turning his head slightly. His sharp eyes were analyzing him in an instant.

“Hey,” Sky greeted softly, trying to settle the man’s worries; he’d been on high alert ever since Twilight’s injury, and he’d yet to calm down. It had been three days since then. “I just wanted to check on you.”

Warriors blinked, baffled a moment, not expecting such a remark, and then he huffed out a small laugh. “Me? I’m alright. Are you?”

Him? Sky was fine. Sky was always fine. He honestly didn’t feel much of anything anymore, except that sunsets made him anxious. He hoped that would settle eventually, as he did love them. “I’m okay. But I just… you’ve been on edge, you know. Since everything. Do you… our Ordonian is going to be okay now. They said so. You know that, right?”

“Of course I know that,” Warriors replied, his smile fading, voice growing slightly snappish.

“It’s just… you’re not acting like you know that,” Sky continued carefully. “You’re… anything sets you off. Everything has to be in perfect order, everyone has to be on their best behavior. You know? I just… wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Warriors watched him for a long time, face blank. His eyes steadily moved downward until they were staring at nothing, boring a hole in the cobblestone beneath Sky’s feet. The Skyloftian waited patiently, knowing when to be silent and let someone else process. Eventually, the captain sighed heavily.

“You were a great help that night,” Warriors said softly. “I wanted to thank you.”

“It was nothing,” Sky brushed off. “That’s not answering my question.”

Warriors huffed ruefully in response. “You’re not usually this persistent.”

“No,” Sky admitted. “But I’m not usually this worried, either.”

The captain’s eyes finally snapped back up to meet Sky’s. His stony expression softened, and he smiled gently. “I said I’m alright.”

“You can be, yeah,” Sky commented. “Like… you don’t have to wrangle everyone in now, you know. I’m here. Our leader’s getting back into, well… leading. It’s okay to step back.”

Something in the captain’s expression wasn’t quite readable, a kind of strange gentle amusement and haunting sadness. Sky wasn’t sure what to do about it. So he just walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. Warriors seemed both inquisitive and slightly apprehensive at the touch, so Sky asked to be sure, “Can I hug you?”

The captain looked as if he didn’t even know what to say with such a request. He blinked once, twice, before a breathy laugh escaped his lips, eyes holding a tenderness to them that Sky wasn’t sure he’d ever seen in them. “Yeah. Yeah, you can.”

Sky smiled in return, leaning in and letting the captain wrap his arms around him. Sky gave what he received, not squeezing too tightly when Warriors’ embrace was hesitantly gentle. As they stood there, though, it seemed like the older knight settled into his predicament a bit more, letting himself relax as Sky held him tighter. Being a little shorter, Sky settled his ear against Warriors’ shoulder, and the gesture made the captain shift a little, resting his own head against Sky’s. His breath was shaky a moment, and Sky heard him swallow thickly.

It only lasted a few moments, but it was enough. Sky ached for the contact, honestly, and wished he could hug him more, but he knew better than to push the matter. Slowly, the two pulled apart. If Warriors’ face was a little more flushed than before, neither of them commented on it.

“Thanks, Sky,” the captain said quietly.

Sky’s smile was brighter than the sunset. “Anytime.”

[absolutebl]

Given the wide range of BL you've consumed and analyzed. I am curious at your perspective when comparing BLs made/written by men and those that were written by women, in a different direction, comparing BLs directed by men in comparison to women.

If you could have the time and give your perspective in this two sources of BL , that would be great.

Hum, I'm not sure how to answer this. Except in a kind of avoidance way because I question the premise.

I think, in general, in most of the film industry, the original writing has very little to do with the final result, because so many new voices and povs are imposed on it the moment it begins to be adapted. After a BL leaves its author (predominantly female) it goes to script, a writers room, and eventually into the hands of director and team. All those people are different genders (predominantly male). And all of them have a significant impact on the end result.

Sometimes the author has unprecedented influence (mame for example) but that's pretty unusual.

Statistically speaking, the origin IP (whether novel or graphic) is most likely written by a female and the resulting BL most likely directed by a male.

There are always exceptions, of course.

Even putting aside all the other people, mostly script writers, in between the two primaries (which I just don't think you can) it would be statistically challenging to draw any commonalities amongst female directors (since there are so few) or amongst male writers (for the same reason). In other words, we have many many examples of really only 1 of the 4 possible combinations, and all those examples are muddied by the nature of the filming process (not to mention the nature of gender).

In other words, it would be challenging for me to say things are generally preferable in any one version of the pairings.

I have liked BLs written and directed by women, written by a woman directed by a man, written by a man directed by a woman, or written and directed by men (although those last two I would struggle to name any BLs).

However, I have also liked and then disliked BLs from the same general team and combination of genders behind the creatives.

For me, at least, there doesn't seem to be a reliable team or a reliable writer or a reliable director whose BL product I will reliably love.

I would hesitate to place a predictor on my BL taste (or anyone else's) based on the gender of any part of the team behind a BL. That seems..... weird. Especially when queers and 3rd gender etc are involved (and we have always been involved in artistic spaces for as long as humans have existed, I suspect).

But then I feel that way about most entertainment, from music to books to plays to comedy to fashion. I can be a fan of a director's style but not like some of their shows, just as I can be a fan of an actor's performance but not the character they're playing, or a fan of a pair's chemistry but not in those roles, and so forth.

I think what youth and influencers and the internet age has forgotten is that it's okay to admire a creative individual and not slavishly adore everything that they produce. (For fuck's sake though, don't tell them that, you absolute troll.)

Creatives and creative teams also have their own taste, and that may conflict with yours. Especially with newer IP where you might want the same old same old and they need to evolved. Consumers of entertainment are remarkably resistant to creativity, innovation, and change (so oxymoronic) .

It's okay, maybe you'll like their next BL, song, book, painting, performance......

I have no idea how I got here but:

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

I do have some stuff on a queer lens here:

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

Question: since Eowyn and Eomer have the same parents (read: Eomund’s hothead genes), do you believe Eowyn would be just as hotheaded as her brother if she were a man? As a lady, there were different expectations of her, so perhaps that’s why we don’t get to see much of that hotheadedness?

Ooh, thinking about what someone with Éowyn’s personality but who was born into the opportunities and freedoms that men had is a really interesting exercise! Thanks for asking! ❤️

I do believe Éowyn had those same hothead genes, and I actually think that we can already see them in her in the canonical story. She doesn’t have all the same opportunity as a man to show it, but she does repeatedly act impulsively and decisively; is very brave and heedless of danger; is very consumed with realizing her own goals to the exclusion of other considerations, etc. — all characteristics that are definitely hothead-adjacent.

When Aragorn unexpectedly appears in Rohan, representing everything that Éowyn wants to be and do and achieve, she wastes very little time before she is literally begging him to take her away with him. She’s immediately willing to throw overboard almost everything about her life to date to follow a man she barely knows into a situation that she doesn’t fully understand. That’s not exactly careful, rational decision making (even if we, as readers, don’t disagree with her choice!). We also famously see her boldly defy the orders of her father figure and king by sneaking into battle on her own — and with an unauthorized hobbit in tow! — not because she made a reasoned calculation about what was best for Rohan or Théoden or herself but simply because she was so singularly focused on her own goal. So again, even if we are entirely sympathetic to that decision and in retrospect know that it was the right one, that’s got some clear hothead vibes that go with it. 

She also repeatedly courts death, mouths off to the Witch King himself (“be gone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion!”) and laughs in his face, demands to be put back into battle as soon as she’s awake again in the houses of healing even though she doesn’t know anything about how conditions have changed since her injury, and is a little bristle-y with Faramir in some of their early interactions, jumping to her own conclusions about what he thinks and means when he speaks to her. All of that feels consistent to me with someone who is quick to their emotions, recklessly brave, and willing to act without sitting around to carefully analyze a situation first. She even talks about herself as being ungentle and a wild woman that others might seek to tame, which suggests to me that she also saw herself as embodying many of those same hotheads traits — bold, unconventional, potentially dangerous, etc. 

So I think she and Éomer both show some signs of hotheadedness throughout the story, and I think they show that a little hotheadedness isn’t always a bad thing! Éomund just had way too much of it and was impervious to being curbed, whereas Éomer takes advice when it’s given and Éowyn comes to see that acting with more deliberateness (as Faramir does) isn’t a bad thing either.

But all that leaves open to question whether Éowyn would have been an even bigger hothead if she had been a man. I see two possibilities there. Either her personality would have been exactly the same but the effect of her actions and behavior would have been magnified (making Lord Éowyn SEEM like a bigger hothead than Lady Éowyn) because a male version of her would have had more opportunities to follow his impulses and cause a ruckus. OR, perhaps some of her instincts would have actually been dampened a little bit by the additional freedoms of life as a man — without some of the (entirely justified!!!) resentment and frustrations that Lady Éowyn felt, perhaps Lord Éowyn would have been a bit mellower. I’m inclined toward a middle ground — some of the latter, but with the clear stipulation that even then Lord Éowyn was NEVER going to be an entirely cool, collected cucumber because that’s just not his core personality or how this family works! 

All my own 2 cents of course. I’d be very curious to hear others’ thoughts as well! 

[murfpersonalblog]

A Response to the Lestat Simps (Interview With The Vampire) - Said By Ty

Y’all Lestans need to STAY MAD! 😂🤣 Once again, I agree with everything Ty said. These nuggets in particular are absolute gold.

So let's address the books. First, stop--IDGAF about what's in the books, it doesn't matter, stop bringing them up, it's redundant. From what I've seen, a lot of the Lestat sympathizers seem to think that the books should be some sort of prerequisite or mandatory reading in order to consume the show . That's stupid. I haven't read the books, but I'm pretty sure that Claudia wasn't 14 in the books! I'm definitely sure that Louis wasn't BLACK in the books! And I'm D@MN SURE that Lestat didn't drop Louis from 100+ feet in the air in the books! So if those things aren't even in the books, what sense does it make to constantly bring up the books, when we're talking about the actions in the show?! (1:58 - 2:38)

And I’ve seen the same Lestans throwing SO MUCH shade at Ty on Tumblr, who’ve also outright said that they KNOW Rolin’s NOT doing the Lestat from the books! This is NOT their precious uwu blorbo, yet they go BALLISTIC when show-onlies say AMC!Lestat’s a p.o.s!? Lestans stay mad cuz of 1x5, and CONSTANTLY complain that they wish the last half of Ep5 never happened, cuz it changes Lestat’s character oh he would never do such a thing~! Even though IN THE BOOKS he’s still a p.o.s. abusive rapist cheater liar pedo etc, so WTF? I’m a book reader, and I’ve seen the movies, so I DO treat them as prerequisites for my own approach to AMC’s adaptation, and I DO recommend that everyone have that extra context, but I’d never say anyone is REQUIRED to read the books or watch the movie in order to have valid takes on the show--even if those are takes I don’t agree with. Y’all Lestans are wild istg, and attacking Ty just for speaking his mind proves how out of pocket y’all are--esp. cuz he’s not the first or last, y’all did the exact same thing to FrankFreezy & Olurinatti etc.

Many people in the comments kept bringing up the books or telling me that I don't understand Gothic media and there are no good guys and bad guys and everyone's the villain and blah blah blah. Please shut up. Y'all use that as a CRUTCH, to turn your brains off and avoid analyzing bad behavior. Just because a show is gothic and meant to show horrendous sh*t doesn't mean I have to like or absolve a character OF that horrendous sh*t, and I can STILL enjoy the show that HAS that horrendous sh*t! I know--shocker! (0:57 -1:32) ....Now onto this idea that consuming Gothic media somehow means I shouldn't acknowledge or talk about a character's sh*tty behavior...I can enjoy...a dark show that's meant to be Gothic & dark and still feel my feelings towards certain characters; especially when that character is a driving force behind the narrative. And if feelings are supposed to be taken out of it, why is it okay for YOU to love Lestat, but ME hating him is a problem???? This is especially stupid, because the people saying things like this are the same people who hate Armand--and not in the love to hate kind of way--they just HATE him, and that's fine, but God forbid someone hate Lestat; then suddenly oh it's a Gothic show blah blah blah (5:53 - 6:34)

Just say y’all like Lestat cuz he’s cute~! 😂 You just wanna self-insert all your sexual fantasies into the character you’re most sexually attracted to, and not have to think about or be reminded of his problematic actions, and all the critics out here calling Lestat out are ruining your fun and drying your juices. THAT’S FINE! Just say that, and leave the people who WANT to analyze the show more seriously ALONE.

And then there are those of you who also say that I'm an Armand sympathizer or apologist because I believe his actions are more justified than Lestat’s--which many of you have misrepresented as me implying anything he did was good. NO. I just believe that he's more justified in comparison to Lestat, and I stand on that until further notice, and you can stay mad about it! (1:37- 1:58)

PREACH! Even in the books, Armand HAD A POINT! Like I’ve always said about him: He does wrong things for the right reasons--the road to Hell is paved with good intentions! He’s a religious fanatic cult/gang leader who’s been brainwashed into believing those garbage Great Laws, and is trying to maintain some sense of order, whenever Lestat & his fledglings come bringing nothing but chaos to his doorstep. Is he effed up for doing the things he does? Absolutely. But LESTAT is the one I blame more, for not warning his family about Armand & the coven--not back in NOLA, and not back in Paris. 

So apparently Armand forced Lestat to be part of that Trial in the books or whatever--I don't know, I haven't read the books.... You're so desperate to save face on Lestat's behalf, that you're revealing sh*t that the show hasn't even revealed yet. If you are not able to justify Lestat's actions within the realm OF THE SHOW, with what we know so far, shut up!!! Now if it turns out to be true, I have have no problem acknowledging that, and I can give Lestat grace in that specific instance. However, I'm still not going to FORGET about HOW HE TREATED LOUIS AND CLAUDIA--he was still abusive, I'm not absolving him of that, and I said as much in my video when I said no matter what he went through, what he did to them will NEVER be justified! (4:44 - 5:53) ... Maybe this is news to you guys, but you CAN understand a character, and why they do the things they do, without absolving them of the sh*tty things that they do. I can understand Lestat and why he behaves the way he does, and I'm sure Season 3 will provide even greater understanding, and I'm excited for that. But that doesn't mean everything he does suddenly becomes justified or is to be dismissed; that's not how that works. (12:38 - 13:04)

This is the god’s honest truth. IDGAF about Lestat’s sob story in TVL & S3. What I want to see is Les realize that despite the trauma he went through in the past, he’s done nothing but project his issues & hangups onto Louis & Claudia in the present, and that they didn’t deserve being thrust into his cycle of generational trauma just cuz Les didn’t know how TF to properly process his abandonment issues from depressed!Gabrielle ignoring him all his life to read books (#Louis); the abusive!Marquis not letting Les leave home to get an education or be an actor (”come play chess with your father”) (#Claudia); suicidal!Magnus raping him into vampiricism then abandoning/orphaning him without ever teaching him how to survive on his own (#Marquis/Gabrielle); depressed!insane!Nicki deliberately spiting Les and wanting him to suffer like he was suffering (”I hoped we would fail in Paris!”) (#Louis); know-it-all!/holier-than-thou!Marius abandoning Les for waking Akasha after Les had left everything behind & wandered around for so long looking for him & looking for answers Marius GAVE HIM, then reneged on when he got jealous Akasha liked him more (#Marquis/Louis).

I was also very clear on why I don't think [Armand] is worse. Yes he orchestrated the Trial, yes he did, he's sh*tty, I agree. But LESTAT IS CLAUDIA’S DAD. He participated! That is worse to me, and you're not going to convince me otherwise, until Season 3 gives me a reason to believe otherwise.... And I really don't understand why y'all are so intent to focus more on the fact that Armand lied for 70+ years, as opposed to Lestat helping getting his daughter killed. That sh*t actually confounds me. Oh, Armand erased Louis’ memories and lied about directing the Trial for 77 years omg he's clearly the villain~! Lestat dropped Louis from the sky just because Louis considered leaving with Claudia! And then later on he got Claudia killed! Like, hello?! At least with Armand we already know that he had it in him to kill Louis; he contemplated doing it when Louis didn't join the coven [in 2x3], so you expect me to suddenly clutch my pearls because he was prepared to let Louis die AGAIN? NO! ...Is he sh*tty? YES. Is he worse than Lestat? NO, not to me! He was NOT attached to Louis and Claudia like Lestat was. Two decades [Lestat] lived with them; two decades of living under the same roof, and he's their Maker, apparently sharing the Vampire Bond [with Claudia], and apparently he loved Claudia! But you expect me to be more mad at Armand...this random dude that they ran into and spent some time with for a few years, over the man who created them had a bond with them lived with them for two decades and then abused the sh*t out of them and then gets one of them killed! But he loves them~!... And I know a lot of you will stick to the idea that it's not about assigning blame and figuring out who's worse than who--f**k that! I have eyes and I know what I saw, and what I saw I did not like. (9:59 - 12:24)

ISTG I feel so vindicated and RELIEVED that there are Real Ones in this wretched fandom who actually have a effing spine, who aren’t afraid to speak their minds and call heinous ish out how they see it, and DGAF if the fandom gets mad & talks crap--SO BE IT. TALK CRAP, and look like simp apologists while you do it! 😂🤣 Go cry on Twitter or Reddit or Discord or wherever TF you want, but you’re not shutting up any of us viewers who are looking at this show with our eyes open and calling a spade a spade. I said it 1000x: LESTAT IS CLAUDIA’S BLOOD FATHER. Not Armand, not Santiago, not Louis. LESTAT. 🙄😒 IDGAF how cute he is: she’s DEAD, and he needs his lashings for it.

Oh, and don't even get me started on the comments that kept on saying: Well you can't look at it from a human lens~! Vampires aren't moral, we shouldn't put human morality on them~! ...I happen to think that it's reductive to make that statement, as if vampires are thoughtless wild things who are just INCAPABLE of having ANY type of morality. Louis, for example, CANONICALLY ON THE SHOW has not killed anyone since the year 2000.... This point proves that they ARE capable of having some type of personal morality, and DEFINITELY when it comes to them dealing with EACH OTHER. I CAN hold them accountable for the sh*t that they do! They experience remorse, they experience empathy, they are intelligent beings who DO know right from wrong to some degree. When it comes to each other...morality is why Lestat is apologetic to Louis! Morality is why Louis comes back crawling to Lestat expressing his own regrets for how he treated Lestat, even though in my personal opinion Louis was completely justified in his treatment of Lestat (but that's besides the point)! And it's how they're able to understand that what Bruce did to Claudia was WRONG! If they were just all-round immoral creatures, we wouldn't have the show, or at least not an interesting one! So yes they are fully capable of having morals and acting within those morals. Yes are they deep and complex and it's not black and white when it comes to how they interact and what they've been through...but I'm still able and IN MY RIGHT to analyze their behaviors and how they treat each other and still deem it wrong. They themselves do it! Why am I as a viewer burdened with the idea that I shouldn't be judging them for their horrible actions, when they themselves are!? That doesn't compute; try again (13:04 - 15:19).

AR’s vampires ARE still inherently human; that’s the whole point. She DIDN’T want to portray vampires as stock monsters with no souls or concept of morality. And that’s also why I disagree with what Sam Reid said about not seeing one vampire as good or another as bad. I can TOTALLY see some of these vampires as good or bad, wtf--Santiago & Bruce are inherently BAD. Sure, Armand & Lestat are more COMPLEX than they are, but that doesn’t mean they can’t EVER be seen as bad either! But y’all Louis-antis & Claudia-antis talk about how they’re p.o.s. people too! So don’t be effing hypocrites saying OTOH vampires don’t apply to human morality, BOTOH saying omg Louis’ the worst vampire on the whole show he’s so terrible to my blorbo Lestat/Armand~! Yes, there’s a difference b/t antagonists & villains, but y’all make me rotfl when you try to force Louis & Claudia of all people into the villain role, while saying with your whole chest that villains don’t exist in TVC/IWTV cuz that’s not the point and you don’t understand Gothic horror/romance as a genre~! STFU.

I don't have to agree with Anne Rice or the showrunners or the actors. My opinion is my opinion; stop trying to enforce this idea that because these people see it differently that we should all see it that way too. Once you put art out there, it is no longer yours; it is up for the audience to interpret! INTENT DOES NOT NEGATE IMPACT. This is a fundamental concept when it comes to writing for an audience: it doesn't matter what your intention was! If the audience sees it a different way, then you have to live with that!... So bottom line: the book and the show are two completely different entities, and they should be consumed as such. So stop trying to use the books to justify actions on the show; you look silly. (3:27 - 4:34)

PERIOD. 💯

[ntaras]

Bi-Han Analysis

Though the primary focus of this analysis is Bi-Han, I also do analyze Kuai Liang a bit. This analysis is also mostly for me to put my general thoughts together, so the formatting is a bit hard to read and messy. 

This analysis is not written with the datamined dlc story in mind, so for the love of god do not bring that up if you want to respond to this post. I also hate the way the brothers and the Sub-Zero vs. Scorpion rivalry was presented, but I’m writing this analysis with an attempt at avoiding placing criticism in the center (because I do have a lot of criticism that does conflict with this analysis.) 

Also, this is not meant to prove Bi-Han as “not evil”, because no, he isn’t, but he’s still an antagonist who’s making very bad choices. Also I talk about my own speculation regarding Bi-Han’s relationship with his father, and I want to make clear that I’m not trying to paint their father in a bad light because he is not canonically presented as abusive or evil. It comes off like that, but that’s not my intention. I’m too lazy to rewrite that portion of the analysis so this is just a heads up. 

Bi-Han is a walking self-sabotaging tragedy, and with Kuai Liang as Scorpion, they were doomed from the start for their relationship to shatter. You have the eldest brother: Sub-Zero, who feels forced into submission and forced to conceal his “true worth”. You have the younger brother: Scorpion, who watches his older brother be consumed by his desperation to be something, and stands unsure of how to help him. 

Bi-Han’s desire for power is the highlight of his character. His and the Lin Kuei’s role as Earthrealm’s defenders isn’t something that satisfies him- it isn’t something that shows his worth. He thinks he’s worth more than simply hiding in the shadows, waiting, and waiting for threats to emerge. Defending Earthrealm brings him no value, but perhaps taking part in ruling it would give him value (Sub-Zero: “You wield the power I aspire to be” Sindel: “Too bad you’re unfit for it, Sub-Zero.”) He wants to bring the Lin Kuei to the light, show that his clan is deserving of power. (From his bio: “Under his leadership, the Lin Kuei will come out of the shadows and fight for its place as one of Earthrealm’s great nations.”) 

I’m really emphasizing the word “shadow”. It’s an obvious reference to Noob Saibot, and it seems like the story is going for the route that Bi-Han is already someone in the dark, yet he doesn’t view himself to be in the dark. (Scorpion: “A shadow’s fallen on your soul.” Sub-Zero: “No, brother. I’ve seen the light.”) As the darkness envelops Bi-Han, he can only see that darkness as the light. 

Bi-Han refuses to see himself in the wrong, and even says his ambition is confused for evil. (Ashrah: “There are many in the Netherrealm just like you.” Sub-Zero: “You conflate ambition with evil, Ashrah.”) That dialogue also implies that Bi-Han does not believe he will end up in the Netherrealm for his actions, because he doesn’t view himself or his actions as “evil”. Everything he’s done has been for the better- has been for the good of the Lin Kuei. 

I wondered why Bi-Han was so loyal to the Lin Kuei in this timeline, as in previous timelines Bi-Han’s loyalty to his clan was because he was kidnapped by that clan, and conditioned to be their warrior (but still agreed to help Raiden and save Earthrealm.) So why is Bi-Han so loyal to the Lin Kuei in this timeline? 

This is more speculation than an analysis I can support with hard evidence, but if you’re asking what I personally think, I’d like the case to be that there was something deeper going on. That somehow, his father put so much pressure on Bi-Han (not intentional pressure) as the future Grandmaster and a protector of Earthrealm, Bi-Han ending up warping that role as “protector of Earthrealm” into his own desire for the Lin Kuei to show all their true ability is to not defend Earthrealm- but govern Earthrealm. Why must their efforts go unrecognized if their role is so important? Also this plays into his role as the first born son, the eldest child who ends up being the one responsible for their younger siblings. As the eldest, he knows what is best for his siblings. As Grandmaster, he knows what is best for the Lin Kuei. 

All the dialogue regarding their father paints him in a good light- even dialogue from Bi-Han. Bi-Han never once accuses his father as being abusive in some manner, but only as weak and lacking vision. So, there is no denying that he was a good man, but he’s still a man of mistakes, such as being the man indirectly responsible for the murder of Tomas’s family. The fact that that murder happened in the first place does raise a lot of questions about the inner workings of the Lin Kuei and how their father led the Lin Kuei.  

It does feel like their father’s death is still not fully revealed. His death is only referred to as an “accident” and not delved into further besides Bi-Han allowing him to die. (Scorpion: “I want to see the moment my father died.” Geras: “You are not ready to receive that knowledge.”) That could mean that there is more to his death, Kuai Liang isn’t ready to see that moment because he’d get all raged up, or it could mean nothing because that’s how a lot of dialogue is. 

The way their father led the Lin Kuei- and how the Lin Kuei has always been in this new era, was by teaching them to be submissive (to follow rather than lead.) And in Bi-Han’s eyes: weak. 

The fact that Bi-Han didn’t kill his father, but instead let him die, is fascinating. We can also compare that act, to how Bi-Han is submissive to Liu Kang until he’s away from Liu Kang and listens to Shang Tsung. ALSO, it’s interesting how Bi-Han doesn’t listen to Shang Tsung’s offer until he is in chains. Even if he let his father die, Bi-Han still was loyal to Liu Kang nor did he change the Lin Kuei in any way (we also do not know how recently their father died, so he may have not even had the time yet to drastically change the Lin Kuei on his own, but I think that’s besides the point). He aches for the right moment to “step up”- to separate himself from what he believes binds him. 

We see Liu Kang keep Bi-Han from being “too antagonistic”. After Liu Kang calls Bi-Han and Kuai Liang over in chapter 1, we see Bi-Han get hostile towards Kung Lao and try to advance towards him, but is stopped by Liu Kang. He glances at Liu Kang, wanting to bark back, but keeps quiet. In chapter 2, Liu Kang looks at Bi-Han when he yells “enough!” and Bi-Han quickly bows in apology. 

He keeps that loyalty to Liu Kang, until he is physically in chains, until he is physically shackled. He does not want to be prisoner to that loyalty of submission anymore. 

His submission to his father’s ruling of the Lin Kuei and Liu Kang’s Godhood is something he doesn’t want, because he feels like he is worth more than submission. He doesn’t want to be treated “so lowly".” He wants recognition for his skills- he’s eager to show himself off and prove that yes, he is a warrior.

If Liu Kang had chosen Bi-Han to be champion, then mayhaps this desire for power and self-sabotage Bi-Han participates in would have been avoided. However, it’s understandable why Liu Kang didn’t choose Bi-Han to be champion despite clearly having the talent to be one: Bi-Han always dies at a tournament. He didn’t want to risk Bi-Han’s death, and then the resurrection of Noob Saibot (or a falling out between Kuai Liang- Scorpion- and Bi-Han that resulted in Kuai Liang killing Bi-Han). But, it seems Bi-Han set himself down that dark path anyways. 

Now, onto Kuai Liang and a brief look into the relationship between the three brothers. 

The story fails at showing us that the three brothers do care about each other, but it’s just barely there. 

In Kuai Liang’s bio, it states two things: “...though he took pride in knowing that his brother, Sub-Zero, would succeed their father as the Lin Kuei's Grandmaster.” and “...he fears that may one day have to battle his brother for control of the Lin Kuei’s legacy.” He views Bi-Han as Grandmaster with pride, and is scared of having to fight him- scared of choosing duty over his brother. 

Kuai Liang verbally tells Bi-Han multiple times to “watch himself”- reminding Bi-Han of his duty (honoring their father) and questioning Bi-Han’s roughness with Johnny Cage. You do see Kuai Liang keeping an eye out on Bi-Han (as he states later in the game, he was aware of Bi-Han’s frustrations). Kuai Liang doesn’t even mind Bi-Han’s ambitions, as evident in the scene where they enter the treasure chamber. “There will be spoils in this war,” says Bi-Han as Kuai Liang does not chastise him for wanting those “spoils”, but responds with “let us win it first, brother.” 

If I’m being honest, I don’t even think Bi-Han was referring to the actual treasure as “spoils”, but rather the glory that treasure holds. Bi-Han doesn’t really have a desire for treasure, especially a bunch of coins, so I couldn’t really view him as having an actual desire for some coins and gems. And I think Kuai Liang’s response was him answering Bi-Han’s hidden desires- that Bi-Han can achieve his desire to “shine” after they finish their job. For Bi-Han to achieve his ambitions, he must earn it first. 

Up until the reveal of Bi-Han letting their father die, Kuai Liang is incredibly patient with Bi-Han. 

Regarding Tomas and Bi-Han’s relationship: Bi-Han doesn’t hate Tomas! Their relationship is complex with Tomas being the youngest brother and being adopted into the family, but it’s not wrong to say Bi-Han does care about him (as clearly evident by the “You are both unharmed?” comment).

I really do think Bi-Han being the eldest sibling is important to his character. It’s a role that brings him frustration as he cannot get his younger siblings to listen to him (them “abandoning” him and the LIn Kuei), and loses control over them. His anger is harsh towards Tomas, as is “what he gets” for being the younger brother, yet Tomas still cares for Bi-Han despite Bi-Han stating Tomas is not Lin Kuei. 

Bi-Han, in all his cruelness and frustration, cares about his brothers. And they care about Bi-Han. It’s evident in the fact that the brothers are so adamant on being the ones to kill/capture the other, not allowing anyone else “the privilege”. They are deeply hurt by the others' betrayal, and any hatred that comes from them is out of a broken heart. 

Kuai Liang did try to kill Bi-Han. After Bi-Han reveals that he allowed their father to die, Kuai Liang loses it, and knocks Bi-Han down, and you see him raise his chains ready to kill Bi-Han. Kuai Liang would have regretted it. He was in a moment of seering, blind rage, allowing his emotions to fully take over him. You know he would have regretted it, because in their confrontation outside the temple, Kuai Liang doesn’t kill Bi-Han. And if I’m being honest, I don’t even think that Kuai Liang knew he almost killed Bi-Han. 

“You are my Grandmaster no longer.” Not, “you are my brother no longer.” Kuai Liang disowns Bi-Han as his leader, but not as his brother. Even if Bi-Han shed his own brother’s blood, Kuai Liang cannot truly renounce his own blood. It’s their bond and their curse as brothers- as Sub-Zero and Scorpion: they are forever connected by rivalry and siblinghood. 

Their love is deep, but their hatred is even deeper. But is it not the same when it comes to siblings? Is that cruelty not the same as a loving embrace?

[bluemoonscape]

I'M HERE AGAIN TO BOTHER YOU

may I have. Some songs. And lyrics. You'd like to associate with my son thank you (no need to reply to this it's fine I just love overanalyzing over lyrics)

I LOVE ANALYZING LYRICS TOO POOKIE, BOTHER ME ANYTIME, I need a break from reading a textbook. On US politics. And it’s an online textbook so I can’t feel the paper and engage myself. My brain is melting

In my mind, THE Faust song would be “I’m Your Man” by Mitski. I said it in my last Faust post and I’ll say it again *grabs and shakes you* DOG SYMBOLISM. Faust, when he finds reason to invest himself in somebody, can’t do such a thing in small measure. He puts his entire being into it to the point where he risks destroying himself. He sees Will as his salvation; by being the kind of person for Will that he could’ve used long ago, he can save him, and by this logic, save himself. This comes across perfectly in those opening lines: “You’re an angel, I’m a dog / Or you’re a dog and I’m your man / You believe me like a God / I betray you like I am.”

And in the Hannibal verse for him, if Will marries Molly as per the canon in S3, Faust feels abandoned not only by Hannibal post-S2, but now Will, too. And yet he can’t detach himself from those relationships. He can’t make himself forget. (Fic spinoff plan go brrrrr) Look me in the eyes and tell me this isn’t that:

My Mitski propaganda is going strong with our son

The second song I’m picking for lyrical relevance to Faust’s character is “The Man Who Sold the World” originally written and performed by David Bowie, though my preferred version is the Nirvana cover—either works, however. This song is just the essence of Faust and works for any verse, Hannibal verse included, of course. The lyrics make me think of his relationship with the man who taught him to hunt in his time of need, then turned on Faust, leading Faust to kill and cannibalize him, thus symbolically turning him into the hunter:

“We passed upon the stair / We spoke of was and when / Although I wasn't there / He said I was his friend

Which came as some surprise / I spoke into his eyes / ‘I thought you died alone / A long, long time ago’

‘Oh no, not me / I never lost control / You're face to face / With the man who sold the world.’”

This first half of the song, to me, is the beginning of their arrangement and leading up to the end, in which Faust consumes the hunter and feeds him to his group, which, again, symbolically represents his own Becoming (think Matthew in S2 saying “I’ll be the Chesapeake Ripper now” and Hannibal’s reply of “You’ll have to eat me”):

“I laughed and shook his hand / And made my way back home / I searched for form and land / For years and years, I roamed

I gazed a gazeless stare / At all the millions here / We must have died alone / A long, long time ago

Who knows? Not me / We never lost control / You're face to face / With the man who sold the world (x2)”

NEXT UP (yes I’m still blabbing I really hate that textbook) “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode. Once again, it’s a song that I feel describes Faust’s relationship with Will and Hannibal very well, and I think the lyrics could be taken either way. Faust wants to be Will’s savior, yet he ALSO views Will as his own savior. With Hannibal, I’d imagine he feels saved in some sense by Hannibal’s understanding and acceptance of the darker parts of him:

“Reach out, touch faith / Your own personal Jesus / Someone to hear your prayers / Someone who cares / Your own personal Jesus / Someone to hear your prayers / Someone who's there”

This song is the side of Faust with the good old savior complex.

The last song I’m going to analyze by lyrics is “The Yawning Grave” by Lord Huron and then I’ll just drop a few Faust songs that just seem fitting to me :D

“The Yawning Grave” describes through its lyrics and eerie tone what can only be described as a supernatural situation, as well as a general message of “you shouldn’t meddle with things you cannot understand” WHICH IS VERY FAUST.

“I know the rain like the clouds know the sky / I speak to birds and tell them where to fly / I sing the songs that you hear on the breeze / I write the names of the rocks and the trees

Oh, you fool, there are rules I am coming for you / (You can run but you can’t escape) / Darkness brings evil things, oh, the reckoning begins / (You have opened the yawning grave)

I tried to warn you when you were a child / I told you not to get lost in the wild / I sent omens and all kinds of signs / I taught you melodies, poems, and rhymes”

Once again, this feels reminiscent of Faust’s dynamic with the hunter, and it represents his own hunger for knowledge and how dangerous it is.

For some extra general Faust songs, No Return by Anna Waronker, Eat Your Young by Hozier, and Everybody Wants to Rule the World (original version or Lorde version but Lorde pops off with the creepy vocals). Ok I disappear into the void of education now

[fishandships]

For Luchino- " I really, really want to kiss you right now"

Kiss Prompts (thank you!!!!)

      It was a quiet morning. Thus far Luchino had been left to work contentedly without interruption, and had made good progress analyzing a particularly rare venom sample he had managed to obtain from an old colleague. After quite some time peering through a microscope, however, his eyes were beginning to strain. He was just considering taking a break when he noticed the steady scribbling sound coming from Rosario’s desk by the window had stopped. Glancing in their direction, he saw them poring over a book, an expression of rapt interest set on their face. He smiled to himself as he observed them. Lost in their research, they paused to switch from one book to another in the array spread before them, diligently fact-checking before scribbling again in their battered notebook. In between, they rested the end of their pencil against their lower lip, the eraser sinking slightly into the soft surface. Their eyes were wide with fascination, their whole countenance glowing. It almost appeared as though they were entranced by what they were reading. Luckily, Luchino knew the magic words to break the spell. “Caro mio,” he called softly. 

His smile grew when they immediately looked up at him, their expression softening and the spark in their eyes shifting to fondness. A pinkish hue quickly spread over their cheeks and nose. “Why are you looking at me like that? Was I making faces again?”

“Not really. I’m just admiring you,” he replied. “What are you working on so intently?”

They blushed deeper, bright red racing to the tips of their ears and a boyish grin spreading across their face. “Warblers’ adaptations to brood parasitism. It’s fascinating.” 

He came over and pulled up a seat opposite them. Leaning on the desk, he rested his chin in his hand. “Tell me about them.”

Before they had been softly glowing, but at this their entire countenance grew positively radiant as they passionately disseminated the subject that had so thoroughly captured their interest. Luchino’s heart swelled with affection until it almost ached. He listened, hanging on every word, while at the same time studying their features adoringly, practically basking in the light they seemed to give off. Now and then he took advantage of a natural pause to ask a question, all of which Rosario was more than happy to answer. Everything about them in the moment - their wide eyes, their animated gestures, the reverence in their voice - had their partner riveted. This was one of the things Luchino loved most about them: their endless wonder and curiosity, as consuming and unrestrained as that of a child.

As the conversation wound down, Luchino laid his hand atop Rosario’s. “If I may,” he said, “I very much want to kiss you right now.”

They looked a little confused, but smiled softly nevertheless and leaned forward. “Okay.”

A pleasant shiver ran through them as he trailed the tip of his claw along their jawline to tilt their chin up. He kissed them sweetly, lingering long enough for them to offer two more kisses in return. Then he settled back in his chair. “Thank you.”

Rosario’s eyelashes fluttered rapidly as they attempted to get their brain back on track. “Thank you…What was that for?”

He smiled fondly. “I love listening to you talk about your passions. There’s a light about you…it’s like glimpsing the light of Heaven.”

Bright scarlet tinted their face again. “My love, I am only the moon to your sun,” they said with an affectionate smile of their own. “Actually, on that note…”

They mirrored the pose he had been in moments before, their elbow on their desk and their chin on their hand. “I want to hear about yours, too. And then kiss some more. Please?”

Luchino chuckled. "I'm more than happy to acquiesce that request."

As he began to speak, that look of rapturous fascination he so loved was fixed on him. It was so distracting he was almost unable to wait until he was finished to claim more kisses.

Almost.

[kiaraartsymcfartsy]

LONG rant post ok so for all yknow ive been staying up all night and increadibly sleep deprive so later if i could have worded things better or if theres something to provide better context or explanations or that my sentences are incoherent idc i also dont care if anybody sees this or if nobody sees this nobody ever see my post anyway but i just need to scream into the void about this but ive been increadibly pressured to conform to this art mentally and its making my art worse and as a matter a fact this consumption of art as fast fashion is making more stressed out about my art and making me hate it and not just that but conforming to society standard of what considered acceptable art is lowkey baffling to me and not to mention how it seems my generation is more conservative these days but atleast now conservatism is allowed for everyone and not just white ppl i feel like the more left we go we just circle back to being right again and how anti art some the people of my cohorts are theyre unable to decipher art and understnd the nuances of it like how the artist prespective growing up might develop the art of how the time period and norms of making the art might embrace or discard it and or how they could not possibly think of different prespective or empathize with artist pov if it doesnt match their opinion were so close minded nowadays and that is speaking from someone that comes from a conservative islamic southeast asian country that censored everything that might seems slightly sexual these people cannot fathom that the artist might have different view on things or that they might not even support of what id being depicted and cannot the difference between satire art earnest art or propaganda art these people gonna make things as clean as possible and that theres no way we could tell real stories of experiences from people they could not empathize and they cannot even handle art maturely and gotta take things at face value and its ruining how we experience analyze and embrace the world we live in because if we cannot even tell stories with art how are we suppost to tell our experiences they are censoring your words and your stories and you just let them because you believe that anything that is seem as taboo or have anything that depicts taboo topics are harmful but theyre not just censoring taboo subjects they are also censoring stories of marginalize ppl and so what if a bad actor take advantage of free speech if you have some resemblance to media literacy you can differentiate the difference of harmful propaganda and not just to critically analyze every media you consume but to also learn from others on what they did right and what they did wrong if you are being spoon feed every information by someone else you are becoming a sheep and letting someone else to herd you and others like you so they could easily control things in their favour remember if you have enough critical thinking you dont need someone else to analyze for you

ok sorry if i did go on alot of tangents or that i might miss something but then again idc i write this if anybody did read this is because i actually want make art depicting complicated ppl and taboo topics but im worried since how puritanical the internet have been that i might get hate for it but idc people will hate no matter what and there will always be conservatives but just want to share my thoughts in here since its been on my mind alot especially since the us elections even though im not american but im worried that a nation that is so keen on free speech will have the same censorship as indonesia ughh anyway if i do make art that might possible upset you please do yoirself a favour and block me its true not every art is good for you and that not every art might seems paletteable to you but its best you avoid art that triggers you for your own mental health and safety theres a mute and block list for reason but dont block or censor things for others let them do it on their own anyways idk if im gonna delete this later but just letting yknow not gonna be posting alot and will be busy with school gtg to sleep now also heres my miku figurines i just bought

[natalynsie]

Candy (Noco Oneshot)

Cody’s afternoons consisted of normal teenage things. Playing video games, doing homework, and thinking about Gwen.

So, a usual Thursday afternoon, Cody was laying in bed, watching a youtube video but not fully paying attention, and thinking about Gwen.

He thought about how she looked today in Spanish, and the things she said, all the typical stupid delusional teenage boy things that consumed Cody’s life.

Yeah. By this point, Cody knew he had no shot with Gwen. He stopped flirting with her for the most part. And they were chill as friends. Well, more like acquaintances. Either way, he stopped all of that because at this point he knew he was being annoying. But that didn’t stop him from thinking about her.

Cody yawned and turned off his phone.

Spanish was great. Cody loved sitting behind Gwen. When the teacher wasn’t being a stickler, Cody had a good time talking to Trent, Gwen, and Noah. And he did. And Gwen looked so good. She put her hair up in a half-up-half-down and she couldn’t have looked cuter. Cody was 79% sure she caught him staring.

Cody rubbed his eyes, adjusting his pillow.

Noah looked pretty cute too. He wore jeans today, and this cute little button-up shirt. Cody wondered why Noah had dressed so nicely these past few weeks. Whatever it was, Cody was not complaining. He didn’t mind a little eye candy.

In English that morning, they played grammar games. It was table versus table, and the winners each round got candy. If that wasn’t a motivator, Cody didn’t know what was.

Unfortunately, the rest of the class thought the same way.

“The second sentence should have a comma. You need to move you’re in the way. should have a comma between move and you’re. Congratulations to Eva’s table.”

Eva smirked at Cody and his table.

Ms. Brown walked to Eva’s table with a bowl of candy.

“Thank you Ms. Brown,” Harold said dryly. Leshawna, Ezekiel, and Eva just responded by taking their candy.

“You won this time Eva, but we will be victorious!” Izzy exclaimed.

“Calm down Izzy,” Noah suggested.

Izzy shook her head at Eva before returning her eyes to her own table with Noah and Cody.

“We gotta step up our game, guys,” Cody heard Courtney say from another table with Duncan and Alejandro. Cody turned his attention to Trent’s table, but it seemed he, Tyler, and Justin weren’t really interested. The other two tables did seem in-the-game, though.

“Okay, gameplan,” Noah began. “Me and Izzy do the work. Cody checks us over if we get our paper returned. Owen gives the paper to Ms. Brown when we tell him to because he sits the closest. Ready?”

“Wow, Noah. I didn’t know you liked candy that much,” Izzy expressed.

“Yeah, I thought you weren’t big on sweets,” Owen confessed.

“I’m just competitive,” Noah stated.

“No, you aren’t,” Cody replied. “You’re in my gym class. I’ve never even seen you touch a dodgeball.”

Noah crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. He took a quick glance at Cody before looking away. “I’m just into the game.”

“Ohhh,” Owen smiled. “I get it.”

“Get what?” Cody asked.

Owen laughed. “Nothing.”

Cody remained confused, but brushed it off. “Well I’m glad you’re doing whatever you’re doing, because I love candy.”

“We know,” Noah stated.

“I didn’t,” Izzy told the group.

Ms. Brown handed out the new papers. “Three, two, one, turn your papers over.”

Papers all around the room were immediately turned over.

Cody watched as Izzy and Noah stared at the paper, analyzing every word.

"Capital," Noah deadpanned, scratching the paper with his pencil.

Izzy made some changes all well before Noah handed the paper to Owen.

Owen charged for the teacher's desk, but unfortunately he came back with the paper. "We got the first 3 right but we're missing something."

"Cody," Noah said, shortly.

Cody nodded and immediately took the paper. "You forgot punctuation here," Cody pointed to a spot that read "I asked for a ham sandwich" he said. "Wait. Comma or period?"

"Comma," Noah answered quickly. "Dialogue with dialogue tags after it always has a comma instead of a period."

Cody quickly added a comma and handed the paper back to Owen.

After skimming two other papers Ms. Brown took Owen's.

"Good job. Owen's team wins this round."

Ms. Brown explained why Noah's team won, a few groans at simple mistakes were heard around the room.

Ms. Brown took the candy bowl and let the group each take a piece.

Cody quickly grabbed a green apple jolly rancher and popped it in his mouth.

"I can't believe you like green apple," Noah stated, twirling his snickers bar between his middle and pointer finger.

"It's the best flavor, no questions asked," Cody responded.

Noah rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Want my chocolate?"

"Really?"

"I wouldn't say it if I wasn't offering."

"Okay. Sure." Cody took Noah's snickers, smiling widely.

Noah smiled back.

Cody sat up in bed. He looked at the clock for a moment before staring back at his wall.

When the hell did I start thinking about Noah?

How did he get from Gwen to Noah? He was just thinking about how beautiful Gwen looked and all the things she did today and then he started thinking how beautiful Noah looked and all the things he did today.

And Noah looked so beautiful today.

Why was Cody thinking about how beautiful his friend was?

"Fuck," Cody whispered. "I like him"

Cody laid back down. He liked him. He liked Noah. Of all people.

And why? Because he wore a goddamn button-up shirt and gave him a candy bar in English. Izzy really was right when she said his type was girls who are mean to him and boys who are nice to him.

Cody did not need to like a boy. That was not something he needed to do. Especially with his parents.

Well to look on the bright side, maybe this would help him get over Gwen. Hopefully. But he hoped it wouldn't give him another useless unrequited crush.

Either way, this was a problem for morning Cody.

[eventhorizon081]

Quick analysis of the "rondo across countless kalpas" short (that I'm doing instead of reading Freud because that man needs to shut up):

Majority of the short is pretty self-explanatory, but the one part that stuck with me was (of course) the hunt sequence. Ignoring the inconsistency of all the predator/prey depictions being from food chains on Earth only, it's interesting that the final image (that swallows all of the others) is that of a black hole, or IX (the Nihility). Not sure why people haven't made this connection yet, but that probably implies that IX is the "apex predator" of the cosmos, and will inevitably "consume" all. (Other notable images, from what I remember, is the spider being eaten by the venus flytrap -- just a little bit ironic and unexpected, I suppose).

It's also interesting that Black Swan's "death" is depicted by a skeletal swan with all her feathers lost -- we see this throughout the dance as she continually loses feathers, but I'm not too sure about the significance of that because she does turn into flocks of birds, thus seeming as if the feathers are just a part of her and not something that's meant to be quantitatively lost or gained. Anyways, the conventional symbolism of feathers/flight is freedom, so that could just symbolize Black Swan's complete inability to escape Acheron's mind realm in that moment, or some larger "imprisonment" that will likely rear its head in the 2.1 main questline (well, if there is one).

Overall, for how excited I was about the short when I first watched it, I'm a little disappointed by how little there is to analyze (in the context of plot, not ships). Still, I'm extremely excited to see an elaboration on Black Swan and Acheron's relationship (and don't even get me started with the sexual tension in that dance), and I'll probably be writing up something about them and the myth of Hades and Persephone. (Don't expect it to be romantic, though. I'm sick of the romanticization of that myth.)

[brightmalcolm]

I'm so happy I found your blog! This show has been my hyper-fixation ever since it came out and it's nice to find people who still talk about the show :)

ANYWAYS, I just started reading The Count of Monte Cristo (for totally normal reasons, and not so I can deeply analyze S1E13 "Wait & Hope") and I wanted to know your thoughts on the fact that The Count of Monte Cristo was Malcolm's favorite story growing up. Because this book, like said in the episode, is about a man murdering for revenge (take this with a grain of salt I'm on page 73). And I can't help but think about Martins though process of reading this story about murder to Malcolm. Because in the episode, We get a flashback of Martin reading the story to Malcolm, and He's acting out a scene from the book where I think the Count kills one of the men who betrayed him (again I'm only on page 73 I'm not completely sure). And he makes the act of murder seen fantastical, fun, and light-hearted. Which makes me think that when he reads this story to Malcolm, not only to get Malcolm used to the idea of murder, but to also prematurely downplay his crimes. So when Malcolm found out that Martin's a Serial Killer as a kid, Martin could then say, "Well you didn't have a problem with it when I read those crimes to you, why do you have a problem with it now?" And we see the adult version of this when Malcolm is an adult, Martin brings up the fact the he never killed anyone on his operating table, he only killed people when off the clock. Which of course means that his crimes aren't as bad as they really are because he could have done so much worse!

AND THE WAY MALCOLM WOULD HAVE LOOKED BACK AND THOUGHT HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BECAUSE OF THE BOOK!!

because of course Martin the Murder would read a murder book instead of a normal Fairytale, of course Martin would only act out the murder scenes from the book. It just gets the trauma ball rolling, like give my guy a break please he's had enough.

hi omg it's nice to hear from you!

so obligatory I have not read the count of monte cristo so take everything I say with a big grain of salt bc I am just going off the wikipedia page and conversations I've had with people who have read it. I like to think everything (or at least most things) with this show are intentional so I enjoy looking in to these kind of details to see what they might mean. I think one way to look at it is the writers trying to do a short hand for malcolm being an intelligent and precocious child and a bit kind of like "ha ha of course malcolm's favorite childhood book was an old french classic about revenge and not like the magic tree house bc he's so eccentric and pretentious." also it ties nicely into a murder investigation that they can base on the story to give malcolm more reasons to know a bunch of random info to help with the case.

but when it comes I think with martin basically anything can be used as a tool for manipulation, even if in another context it wouldn't be by someone else. like the count of monte cristo doesn't seem like something super out of left field for a parent to read their child in my opinion, yeah it involves murder but a lot of books involve heavy subject matter and are still read at any age. so I don't want to imply it's like bad or odd for a child or their parent to read something like that, I was reading things like the outsiders and the hunger games around malcolm's age which are both kids/young adult books but also contain death and violence. BUT I think with martin he definitely could have had some more ulterior motives and again, the show deliberately made reading the book a memory malcolm had with his dad so I think the writers definitely had intent behind details like that.

so yes I get what you're saying and could 100% see it being used that way in martin and malcolm's dynamic. I think it's in the vein of how malcolm collects murder weapons in that it demonstrates how death and murder kind of consume his life even in to his interests and hobbies and how martin's shadow is always there (again, not saying reading about murder or being interested in it mean you're a serial killer obviously but in the context of like themes in the story, a reoccurring one is malcolm's preoccupation with death and how it relates to his trauma from his father). like the example you gave, martin is very good at justifying what he has done, especially and specifically to malcolm bc he knows his son is already traumatized by his actions and desperate for some logical reasoning behind them when there just really isn't one. the way martin acts out the story is also an interesting point. again, not trying to imply this is like inherently something bad or problematic but specifically in the context of this show and this relationship it definitely shows how martin kind of presents murder to malcolm. like it's all about the larger context for me; what does this mean with the information we already know by episode 13 and what conclusions should we draw from it. and I think it makes sense how you interpret the episode!

anyway TLDR the way martin talks about murder with his son is a vital part of their dynamic. martin knows malcolm wants to understand his seemingly incomprehensible actions and he uses this multiple times in the show to try and manipulate him in to thinking different ways about them, whether that is by telling malcolm he is somehow responsible for him murdering people (see 1x02) or that he saved more people than he hurt (see 1x07) or that he has changed completely (see 2x13) ect. ALSO I just remembered how interested I am in how this show portrays the concept of monstrosity and wow this TLDR is getting long specifically in the episode you referenced eye of the needle 1x14 and how martin says something along the lines of "I'm the monster, so vanquish me" as if simplifying the concept down to that of a storybook, like he's a dragon to be slain and how he tells malcolm there's no such thing as monsters in the pilot, conjuring the image of like a child who thinks there's a monster under their bed or in their closet. so the lines kind of get blurred and martin will ultimately use every tool in his disposal to manipulate malcolm in different ways, even using things that are innocuous on their own or in a different context. would love to hear everyone else's thoughts especially if you've read the book :)

[saezurumurmurs]

Hey!!...how are you??. I just wanted to ask you about what do you think about Alice Osman words about bl/yaoi. From my point of view, she sounds quite pretencious, because I dont feel "heartstoppers" is that great , and she just from be british she has the opprtunity a big plattaform as netflix oppen their doors, so she cant imagine what is been an asian author and how actually his work is BL.

Taking Advantage of A Fandom

I watched the show, and haven’t read the comic. However @absolutebl posted a terrific commentary on this issue a while back:

From my perspective, BL and by extension, yaoi, is a uniquely Asian sub genre of erotic romance.

Alice Osman is a British creator who wrote a young adult LGBT+ romance comic. So the comparisons made seem ‘convenient’ for ‘marketing purposes’.

I personally resent the accusations lobbed against fujoshi of fetishisation, because it’s rooted in anti-woman rhetoric and I won’t have my tastes dictated to me. Everybody has opinions, but not all of them are valid.

BL is full of problematic tropes, just like regular M/F romance… and I’ve been reading romance and erotica for forty odd years. But these tropes are part of romance as a genre, and these tropes reflect our lived context. To single out BL/Yaoi as unique is nonsense. The tropes exist because the reality exists. Storytelling exists to allow us to find empathy for one another.

There are some good academic pieces out there, that debate this far better than I can. What I can tell you is that the internalised and externalised misogyny regarding BL content, is quite painful to me. Somebody always gotta rush on to tell women what they can and cannot enjoy. Dictate their sexuality and shame them for their pleasures.

We literally can’t have a damn thing nice, without some bozo trying to make us feel bad because we like it. Chile, I’m too old for that shit. We are allowed to like what we like, and enjoy problematic media just like anyone else. We are people too!

And lest you think otherwise: homophobia and transphobia’s roots are in anti-woman thinking and policies. That women do it to other women… well, it’s nice to be somebody’s favourite pet isn’t it. You get a padded cage, and the best kibble.

Osman benefits from the BL label, even though her story isn’t in my opinion BL. But criticising and alienating potential readers within the BL fandom seems to be a bit of a sport across ‘BL’ as it’s being broadly defined here. Because throwing shade on fans happens too much… by too many creators both Asian and Western.

Which is interesting, because the global market consuming this content is HUGE. You don’t understand the numbers of people reading Painter of The Night. I believe last year, it was more than all the people who bought romance novels in the West COMBINED. So if you think the Western authors don’t know the market for their stories are pale compared to what BL is doing on a global level, I should encourage you all to get interested in the business of BL. There is a lot of money and soft power in it.

But because it’s a FEMALE audience interested in SMUTTY stories, well… it’s a PROBLEM. Even in the countries of origin.

I get that we should analyze the problematic tropes in BL/Yaoi, but that’s what storytelling is for. I’m not for false equivalencies, because I personally disdain most Western content… and where do you see these types of stories in profusion from Western creators? No place. That’s where.

Maybe Osman has feelings because her story is no Painter of The Night. Maybe somebody asked her one too many times about our smutty stories… and what we got was shade and salt.

I did watch Heartbreaker on Netflix, and it was cute but I don’t feel compelled to rewatch it, the way I do say KinnPorsche or Love In The Air. I haven’t been moved to hunt down the comic to find out what happens next, the way I did when I watched that last scene of Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather.

Chile… Osman could NEVA.

[genericpuff]

To me the problem with lore olympus and rachel is that she keeps the fan feedback too close to her chest, yes it does "affect her because she's very sensitive" which is smth rachel has said before in interviews and stuff, but the problem is that if u let fan opinions get in the way of ur work maybe u should set boundaries with the way u interact with fan content OF UR OWN WORK.

Im not sure if im explaining myself correctly, but the way rachel somehow always tries to prove criticism wrong and has slowly started ignoring the foundations she previously set is making everything just so flat and boring. She doesnt work with what we've already read but trying to somehow "fix" things that are sometimes not clear on the get go.

For example, u (and a lot of people) complained about how demeter explicitly said she always put persephone in white (when persephone has willingly been wearing that color through the entire series). Meanwhile, i remember having read a post from loreolympians on instagram (iirc) analyzing perse's change of color scheme during s2.

The problem with these things is that rachel has most likely been engaging with these fans who take for granted that she plans everything out or that everything has a deep meaning (which to a sense you should do, because having faith in the author is usually how to go about analyzing storytelling), and somehow it's become a strange echochamber and it results in these weird, very blatantly written to be noticed, details or moments htat try to be smart but are just flat bc rachel doesnt give any effort to anything else aand prefers telling rather than showing so she can feel like a good author when fans obviously point these out

Jdhdjd these are just my two cents and sorry for the long rant but yeah basically rachel should separate herself from the fandom and try to write more objectively and focusing on the narrative instead of taking every little criticism of her comic so personally

Honestly, I can get being a little squeamish around criticism, shit I've had analysis stuff on my work that's consisted of praise and it's still sometimes a little overwhelming to read (I've got a big one in my asks right now that took me like 10 minutes to get thru because I had to keep taking breathers and I still need to actually share it LMAO it's not even criticism! it's just got so much in it, ahfdsaklg)

When it comes to criticism, I still get a little "aw man" sometimes. I recently got feedback from Pyrrhic & Victoria on my Reaper redraws and even though I'm pals with them and know they aren't gonna be harsh, it's still an incredibly vulnerable position to put oneself in. Especially when it's projects that you hold very close to your sense of self.

RS has definitely taken it a little too far in tying LO to herself as a person. Criticism of the comic = criticism of her , and her fanbase seems to view this the same way, that if someone doesn't like the comic, that has to automatically say something about them as consumers when... it really doesn't. If anything their reactions to criticism say way more about them as people than the criticism existing lmao

What's more upsetting and simultaneously eye-rolling is the fact that Rachel goes out of her way to look for things to be upset about. On multiple occasions now over the past 4-5 years, she's snuck into groups containing criticism, attempted to strongarm power away from moderators so she could have criticism removed, and basically just ruined her own day over other people's opinions whether or not they were meant to be read by her.

It's why I stand by the fact that people shouldn't be directly messaging RS with criticism or hate because that would just be unsolicited cruelty. While she should be more open to criticism, that doesn't mean she needs to open the floodgates on her DM's because there are plenty of places for criticism to exist outside of her peripheral. But she keeps turning her head to look at it. Like, she'll throw a hissy fit over criticism that wasn't even really directly aimed at her, just meant for the sake of discussion. And that's where I'd really honestly wish she could just get a grip.

Like, I'm sure there's criticism of Rekindled out there already. Shit, I've had other projects from yeeears ago that ended up being made fun of outside of where I posted it. It sucked, but going out and actively looking for it for the purpose of erasing it from existence wasn't going to make me a better creator nor was it going to benefit me as a person.

It's a shitty reality, but the bigger you grow as a creator, the more you will have to separate yourself from your audience. You don't have to stonewall them completely, many people follow these works for the creators themselves, but you're not entitled to everyone's friendship and praise, and if the criticism really bugs you that much, then fucking work on the thing they're criticizing, don't double down on it or try to control how your audience consumes your content.

It's why it drives me so nuts when RS does infiltrate these groups because it's an incredible invasion of privacy as well as the creator-reader relationship. Q&A's, panels, and personal socials are where you go to interact with the creator. A creator sneaking into a Discord group or subreddit or FB group with the intent of "listening in" would be equivalent to J.K. Rowling showing up in person to a book club meeting. It's just disrespectful to your audience and makes you look like a huge asshole. Have some grace and for once, I'll tell Rachel and her fanbase to take their own advice - if you don't like it, don't read it.

[h3llraz0rr]

MTL OC RAMBLE TIME

I wrote this angsty ass fic of my MTL OC Dorian and how after meeting Lionel (USHUM'S OC!) he has a change of heart and wants to quit the Revengencers, but Magnus manipulates him into staying 💔 I really wanted to illustrate their dynamic and I haven't written in a while so I figured WHY NOT 😈

----------------

Dorian stands in the bathroom and hunches over a cold sink, water pouring out the faucet to drown out his quiet cries. His head bowed down, tears falling and mixing with the water already rising in the sink.

After spending copious amounts of time with Lionel, someone he recently met whom has ties with Dethklok, his whole perspective has shifted leading him to sit in his mental turmoil. His entire life was dedicated to hunting down Skwisgaar Skwigelf, his negligent father whom declines any biological ties to him. He was so blinded by hate, that once this passionate man sprung into his life unexpectedly, it seemed to wash away. All the pain, suffering, depression and anxiety.. gone. Forgotten, as if it hadn't been there for his entire life.

Therefore, all of this led him to this moment. Thoughts of regret and denial running through, was revenge what he really needed this time? Or is it time to forgive and move on? If it's one thing his time with Lionel taught him, it's that sometimes you need to forgive not because you HAVE to, but because if you don't you'll be consumed by the trauma.. forever. It is his own brain that has become his biggest torturer, not his father. He began to realize this now as he sulked in front of the mirror.

After tightening the knob to the sink, he raises his head to get a good look at himself. His eyes were dark and puffed from all his crying, now wiping away the wetness that dampened his cheeks. He catches a glimpse of a figure standing behind him, leaning against the doorframe with it's arms crossed. This causes him to immediately turn around, now seeing it's-

Magnus.

Dorian would sniff a bit, clearing his throat before leaning against the sink.

"Oh. Hi." He'd avoid eye contact with the man that stood before him. The other bore a cold stare as he analyzed the man before him.

"Hi." Magnus rose a brow, "You.. good in here man?"

"Yeah- yeah. You gotta use the-?"

"No. I was looking for you, and then I found you here crying. You.. really sure you're okay man?" Magnus emphasized.

Dorian would bite his tongue, a burning sensation filling his chest as he found himself struggling to breathe. How was he gonna tell him? Especially now with Toki in their possession, isn't it a little too late to call it quits suddenly?

"... Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." Dorian nodded to himself, leaning off the sink as he prepared to walk past the taller man.

Magnus blocks the doorway suddenly, placing a firm hand on his shoulder to stop him from leaving. Dorian tenses under his grip, now finally giving him the eye contact he clearly wanted.

"Talk to me man. Really, you look shitty." Magnus pushed the issue further. He clearly sensed the tension here, making Dorian even more nervous. It felt as if his throat was tightening the more Dorian looked to Magnus. He was paling, and Magnus noticed it.

Dorian knew he couldn't avoid the issue anymore, because Magnus refused to let him. He had no other choice but to spit it out. He complies, now backing up before anxiously rubbing his hands together.

"Look. There's.. no easy way to say this. I don't think this is gonna work out for me. I've been doing some thinking and I-"

"So that's it." Magnus cuts him off, his arms crossed again, "You're quitting?"

Dorian's palms began to dampen from his nervousness, his face starting to feel hot as his throat tightened more. ".. Y.. Yeah."

It was hard to read Magnus's expression, he was so nonchalant throughout this interaction on purpose. It was his tactic of intimidating Dorian, and he knew it too. He would then sigh, "Well, alright. Tell me one thing though, did that little 'lion' guy have something to do with this?"

Dorian felt his heart sank.

"... What?"

"Oh c'mon. You didn't think I knew about that? You left behind his business card. Lionel, right?"

This only increased his anxiety, making it harder for him to NOT have a full blown panic attack.

".. Right." He swallows hard.

Magnus nods at this confirmation, now standing aside to allow space for him to walk through the doorway. He'd even gesture his arms out of the room for Dorian, though he could barely budge.

"I understand. I'm not mad bud, you can leave. But.. I just find it odd, you spent your entire life searching for him and now you're giving it all up. All those years are just.. wasted now. But who am I fooling?" A smile suddenly beams on his face. It's.. an unfamiliar expression, making it harder for Dorian to gather the courage to walk out. He looked similar to a frightened dog, tail between his legs.

After a tense standoff between the two, Dorian walks out the bathroom and returns to his room. Magnus remains in the bathroom doorway with his hands now behind his back as he watches Dorian gather his belongings into a duffel bag of his. He could feel Magnus' eyes watching his every move closely.

"I just find it funny. We're so close to getting our revenge, and suddenly you want to bail. Since when did your moral compass shift?" Magnus asks with a sly look on his face, he continues rambling to the other man as he packs up.

"You have no where else to go, Dorian. I picked you up off the streets and gave your life purpose again. I didn't have to do any of that, but I saw a drive in you, kid. I saw something in you that no one has ever seen before. It's a shame."

This causes Dorian to stop packing for a moment, now looking back at Magnus. The grin he once had now shifts back into it's neutral expression.

"You know there's no coming back after this, right?"

"I.. I know."

"And you're just- okay with letting Skwisgaar do what he wants still? Consequence free?" Magnus unfolds his arms to now hold them out, exaggerating his words.

"There's nothing I can do, Magnus. I wasted my entire adolescence years trying to hunt down a man that doesn't even know I exist, let alone care. I'm tired." He says in a defeated tone, even his eyes expressed how exhausted he was of this cat-and-mouse game that never leads to anything.

"What about your mother? She was killed at their concert and it made your life crumble, and all while this affected you, he was probably out in some foreign country getting laid by numerous women, celebrating their success. Doesn't that anger you? That this cycle continues to repeat? Think of all the other children he's affected that are his too! You aren't the only one, you know that right?" Magnus now approaches Dorian, looming over him and his duffel bag.

"He's impregnated millions of women, made them all sign that 'paternity waiver', and left them while he gets to swim in his riches unbothered. It isn't right that he gets to do this to so many people, it isn't right that ANY of them get to." He squats down to his level now.

"And if you think for a second that that little 'boy-toy' of yours is gonna heal all of that pent up trauma you got goin' up here.." Magnus gently knocks on Dorian's forehead, making him jolt in response.

"Then you got another thing coming. Face it, until you get this revenge, you'll always be burdened by it. Seeing his face on television, hearing their devoted fans talk about him, you'll always be bothered and reminded that you.. you mean nothing to him. You're nothing more than a orphan with intense daddy issues. And then? What if your little boyfriend ends up leaving you? Decides your issues are too much for him, then you're back at square one? Eh? You gonna go back to being homeless? Living in the streets.. sleeping on garbage bags.. while he gets to live in a bed made for a king?"

All of Magnus' points would overflow his mind, now his gaze lowering as he sits in thought. He was so sure about his decision earlier, why now is he back-peddling? What if he's right, what if he is too much?

What if he ends up at square-one again? Homeless with no secure place to stay, while his father is lavished like a king. He could feel the anxiety begin to boil up again alongside the hatred and anger he felt. He looked back up to Magnus, who would return his deceptive grin.

"But hey, it's your choice at the end of the day. If you feel like this is what you really want, aye, nothing a little therapy won't fix right?" He shrugged before standing back up, Dorian would nod in compliance.

"No.. You're right, what am I doing.." He'd ask himself before then standing back up with the taller man, now slowly looking back up to him. "We.. We came so far. I'd be a fool to throw this all away. It isn't.. fair." His hands that once calmly rested by his sides would ball into fists, that gleam in his eyes of anger returning.

Magnus seemed proud of Dorian for reevaluating this decision, now opening his arms wide. "Now that's a good boy, come here."

Dorian seemed hesitant at first, but regardless walking into his arms and hugged him. Magnus would return the gesture, rubbing his back. He'd stare into the a long mirror that stuck to Dorian's wall across from them, smirking at himself in deep satisfaction. His plan worked, he had successfully manipulated Dorian from leaving.

"See.. It would've been a mistake of you to leave. You'd be full of regret, and you don't want to live a life of regret.." Magnus whispered to Dorian who would nod.

"I know you, Dorian. That isn't what you would've wanted. You need.. to think for yourself. You just need guidance, a hand to redirect you when you feel like giving up. Let me be that for you. You have so much..

...

Potential."

[braintapes]

The Hotel Podcast Season 3 Analysis: Part II - The Lobby Boy

(Time to blow out another candle.)

Welcome back! Part I was allll about the Manager's arc, covering episodes 3.1 - 3.4. We saw the Manager as she was repeatedly killed by a pale, gibbering creature, we watched the darkness consume her and the lobby, and we also witnessed the Hotel being built, in a way.

The Manager's been killed again by the gibbering creature. Now we see from the Lobby Boy's perspective. Well, we will see.

As I said in my previous post, S3 is simultaneously the old crew's origin, end, and a place/time/series of events they intermittently return to. This means that we're seeing the staff in a very specific, raw state of being. A different a lens to understand them through.

(Time to make a wish.)

This season functions as a collection of character studies showing us how the old crew responds to inevitability. The certainty of death. There is no release for these three, as there may be for the guests. There is only dying to wake up to die again.

The Manager's arc emphasized the certainty. The Lobby Boy's arc will showcase the cycle.

As always though, this is only my own personal read on the text/audio. Analyzing the art and stories I like in this way is a creative fun outlet for me, and my hope is that this can prompt more discussion for other people too. I love getting to see other people's perspectives and bring up stuff I hadn't considered!

Enough preamble though, let's get right to it. (Do get comfy though, because this is nearly 7 full word pages long)

(It's almost my birthday.)

To properly set the stage for the Lobby Boy's arc, I need to talk some more about the Manager first. Who is the Manager? What drives her?

I'm going to go by Season 2 here. I believe S2 is another, though different, look at these characters. There, we see them as raw as raw can get. They're a mixture of ingredients sitting in the pan waiting to be put into the oven. Whereas in S3 they are freshly baked and piping hot. And also still being baked. And speaking of food metaphors…

The idea of hunger and satiation continually shows up in the Manager's stories. Burger Baby is, uh, fairly obvious and speaks for itself, I think. Mrs Bones is interesting because again we see her thirst as this primal need inside the Manager, a desperate instinctual urge that drives her forward. This also happens in 5.1 Merp and Burble, where she. Well. She merps and she burbles.

In these altered states of consciousness, she has an animal-like nature. She is concerned only with satiating herself. But even when she gets what she's looking for, it's never enough. She can never truly be content.

This shows up in 3.2, when the laborers' deaths satiate the Manager. They even build her/the lobby as they perish one by one. But of course, of course, the fullness doesn't last. This is one of my absolute favorite aspects of the Manager's character. It makes her so distinct from the other two.

The Manager's response to the inevitability presented to her is to allow it in. She neither fights it, kicking and screaming, as the Owner would, nor does she run from it, as the Lobby Boy will. She accepts her circumstances and adapts to them. She takes to everything the easiest of the three.

So, she dies. So...she dies. So what? She's dead now, and will remain so for the rest of the season. What's done is done, until the Hotel wills it otherwise. They serve at the pleasure of the Hotel Herself, after all.

(Do you remember how to die? I'll remind you.)

The most distinct difference between the Lobby Boy and the Manager is that the latter seems to relish in her job. Not in the way the Owner does, as a title to preen and puff up over. She gets nothing out of lording her position over the other two. She does what she does because it's in her nature to do so, and it's a form of sustenance. Her job is her life is her nature. Literally hashtag ultimate girlboss, y'know?

The Lobby Boy, on the other hand, does NOT relish his duty. He is deeply intimate with death and dying and the horrors that lurk inside the Hotel in a way that the other two simply are not. He constructs nearly every awful thing in the Hotel and personally delivers the guests to those things.

As the gibbering creature continues to beat (and then starts to consume) the very dead Manager in 3.4, the Lobby Boy notes the "pulsing and bruised" walls of the Hotel. Something is deeply wrong here and he can feel it. The way he's seeing everything is not how he normally would. He says:

"It's not supposed to look like that, I think. Not to me. Maybe to the guests, but to me it only looks like...I knew underneath and behind and through everything was something awful and vast watching, but I could still look at the facade and know my place here."

The Lobby Boy has, off the top of my head, seen the Hotel in this way two other times. Well, one of this times was in a bonus episode and so doesn't really count, but it's one of my favorite bonus episodes so I'm going to talk about it a bit anyway. Feel free to skip that part.

First, in 4.12 X - X, during the big fight between the Owner and the Lobby Boy, the two go sailing and flying through the Hotel. They crash through lobbies and halls and rooms. The Lobby Boy SEES everything in the Hotel. He sees everything he has built and everything he hasn't yet. He sees the guests dying. He sees himself, burning. And he hates it. He decides to look away, to try to not remember.

In fact, the Lobby Boy's active avoidance of witnessing his own work is THE big reason the Owner hates the Lobby Boy and picks that fight with him in the first place.

In the bonus episode The Hotel, the Lobby Boy has a dream in which he is entirely alone. He examines the lobby before using his cool powers to rise up through the Hotel in such a way that he can see it all. He keeps going, pushing aside and shaping and conducting the Hotel's form until it reaches a crescendo of swirling color and shape and fervor...Then, of course, he remembers that he's not alone, not really. He's never alone in the Hotel.

Like I said, that lies in murky non-canon-ish waters so feel free to ignore it. I personally consider it an interesting supplemental to the other two examples. The point is, the Lobby Boy isn't an idiot. He's very well aware of what the Hotel is. What he is and what he does.

3.4 ends with this:

"In the Hotel there is only death. Only ever death. But still I run to the second floor, where the deaths don't matter so much. The floor with the guest rooms."

He sees the darkness consuming the lobby, the Manager, everything in the Hotel lobby. He knows what's happening. Still, he decides to run. He chooses to look away. To not think about it, if he can.

He runs to what he knows best: the guest rooms. The familiar forms the Hotel is supposed to take. The facade he can try to lose himself in, knowing all the while that it's a lie and he will face the horrible truth that envelopes and underpins it.

(Here comes another one, don't miss it or we'll have to start over.)

Now, it's time for 3.5 The Lobby Boy Dies.

“I step off the elevator and hold the door for the guest, but the elevator is empty.”

The Lobby Boy is alone as he walks down the endless hallways. The lights wink at him as he passes by. We'll see the Hotel Herself flicker her lights at the Lobby Boy other times, like in 4.10 Audrey Burns. It's one of her cheeky and fun ways of communicating with him! The Hotel is absolutely playing with him like a toy in this arc. I mean, that's true of every arc but this one especially feels so delightfully cheeky.

He refuses to look back behind him. He's seen the guests look back and it's never saved any of them. Then he spots a different kind of light – a candle by an empty guest room.

“I...the candle wants me to stare into the flame. It wants me to go inside the room. The door matches the key ring in my hand... Why-”

But the Lobby Boy knows what's happening here. He drops his keys and continues walking. He avoids looking at anything but straight ahead of him, down the hall. With each room, door, candle he avoids, another one shows up until every room is an empty guest room with a candle. For him.

He wants to refuse. He doesn't want to go in. Tells himself he won't, he CAN'T. But the Hotel pulsates in the background and he starts to imagine what it would be like if the walls caught fire...the fire spreading...Chasing him...He runs!

But why? Why avoid the flames and the burning and the smoke when he knows he can't, won't escape them? When he knows he'll end up dying anyway?

There's a few ways to look at this. One is that it's part of his nature – he doesn't want to face death, not necessarily in a human way but because it - like basically everything else - makes him squeamish and uncomfortable. If he runs, he doesn't have to face it. If he runs, he can pretend:

"The doors seem to turn towards me as I pass now. Stretching, almost reaching out. Presenting to me, showing me the sweetest lie: Safety. Safety from what is behind me. Safety from the end ahead."

“The flames behind, the fire ahead, I will pretend not to know what is beyond the door and know relief for a sickening, hopeful, instant.”

[Bolding mine]

The Lobby Boy is aligning himself with the guests here. He is a guest in this episode: he has a room he will go and die inside of. He knows the guests aren't saved by their pretending, but he does it anyway because the tiny glimmer of light inside the Lobby Boy is hope. Is wanting. In this case, it's wanting the comforting lie that he'll be okay, somehow.

Another part is that this is technically new to him, new and frightening. His nature is fearfulness, so of course he runs. He's still a fresh-out-of-the-oven Lobby Boy at this point! All of this that's happening doesn't gel with whatever knowledge was baked into him from the Hotel. He hasn't had a chance to acclimate yet!

He enters his room and sees, just before the door closes, himself stepping off the elevator in the hall. He stands in the dark for a long time until the candle appears again.

“I stare into the flame and I can hear the Hotel around me.”

He's transfixed until the candle falls over and the whole room goes up in flames, burning him to death. He doesn't accept it, he screams and tries to run and tries to open the door he knows will not open again. He dies just like one of the guests.

(You were there too.)

Since the previous Lobby Boy is dead, the Lobby Boy who we just saw step out of the elevator is our narrator for 3.6 The Lobby Boy Tries Not To Die.

“I step off the elevator and hold the door for the guest, but...there is no guest. I'm alone.”

Last episode, we saw the part of the Lobby Boy that identifies with the guests, the part of him that's just as trapped as they are. But there's plenty more layers and sides to the LB we've yet to peel.

The Lobby Boy lies to himself and attempts to convince himself that the guest he saw at the end of the hall definitely did not have his face. It for sure wasn't him. Totally. He slips back into his role, what he knows he should be doing. But everything's wrong, still. He continues down the hall and passes rooms full of smoke and burning and screaming.

Occasionally, his voice reverberates. Notably, it happens when the ceiling is full of soot. He says:

“I don't want to fall up into that void. I don't know if I'll hit the ceiling, or just fall forever. (forever, forever.)”

[Formatting taken directly from transcript]

In my last post, I talked about how the darkness – the Hotel – is inextricable from the Manager/the staff. The idea returns here with...Well, with the smoke and soot, obviously, but ALSO with these vocal effects. It's one of the Lobby Boy's things, sometimes if he's particularly worked up he'll get effects like this in his narration.

As it's applied here, it feels like something directly tying him to the Hotel. A part of him that is like it. These reverberations come back at the end of the season both with the Hotel Herself's narration and the staff's response to her. They are not separate entities, but a strange splintering and amalgamation of each other.

The Hotel's pulsing starts up in the background. The Lobby Boy continues walking but his steps become wet and squishy as the floors become coated in, um. Melted Lobby Boy soup leaking out from the room doors. It pools and congeals into a gory sticky mess that clings to him, hinders his running. The desk bell dings and something is chasing the Lobby Boy and screaming at him and his immediate instinct is to run away.

The slurry of himself enmeshed in the floor shows that the part of the Hotel that is the Lobby Boy is this second floor. The same way the Manager is the lobby and we saw her being built, the Lobby Boy is every endless hall, room, door, ceiling, floors. He is both the facade and the horrible truth at the end of it.

What he runs from is himself, literally, in this episode, but also from...himself. You know what I mean?

“I run faster. I want the soot black ceiling to take me. I want to sink into the cold bleeding carpet. I want grey walls and nothing else.”

(mood man I hate being yelled at too.)

They're both screaming now, his pursuer and himself. Just...screaming. I LOVE the distorted layered yells here. Something visceral and miserable about the sounds perfectly encapsulate the Lobby Boy, I feel.

He runs and every door turns into an elevator. He ends up, of course, back at that door. That room, with the smoke and the fire and the other burning Lobby Boy already inside of it. He looks back and sees himself clearly this time. He's terrified. He'd rather burn to death than be caught by himself. He closes the door “a little faster” before the other him can get inside.

And so the Lobby Boy Fails To Not Die.

(Did you see him? Was it too fast for you?)

We are roughly two Lobby Boys down as we head into 3.7 The Rooms Are Filled.

“I step off the elevator and hold the door for the guest. The guest steps out and into the hallway.”

So now there's two of them in the elevator. One must be the guest, if one of them is the Lobby Boy. But then...? They walk together and the other lets our viewpoint LB into the room.

Once again, this opening sequence involves the Lobby Boy following his standard routine. Bring the guest to the room. Ask if they need anything. Our narrator gives a quick rundown of the room but then the fire starts consuming everything again. Instead of running away from each other, the two Boys struggle pathetically over each other to get out. One of them escapes, the other remains trapped in the room.

He heads back to the elevator and goes to another floor.

“There are so many buttons twinkling dully at me. I like to stare at them on the way.”

Bringing up this quote just to say I'm putting a pin in it for later in this post. Bear with me, there WILL be a payoff to this. I just wanted to make special note of this line in particular.

The elevator doors open and the cycle continues, repeats. One Lobby Boy brings the other Lobby Boy to his room and he dies there as the Lobby Boy goes back to the elevator to do it again. Again. Again. Every time the Lobby Boy dies, a light in the elevator goes out. Slowly, they burn to darkness every hall in the Hotel.

He's not running the same way he was during the last few episodes. He's settling in. Getting acclimated. The way he gets through this is by not thinking about it. If he doesn't think, he can hold out the sliver of hope within him that he won't be the one to die. But he'll still die.

He sounds so utterly exhausted as he relives both the walk from the elevator to the room and the burning to death inside the room. So strained, bordering on anger almost.

“Why do I look so afraid, if I'm not the one who has to burn? But I am the one who has to burn. And the one who has to close the door. I'm the only one here.”

Okay to be honest you could just ignore every single thing I've written here and just look at these lines because this is the crux of it all.

The sound gets...weirder from here. The elevator door dings wrongly. The Lobby Boy doesn't hold the door open for the guest. We hear the Owner's scream for the first time in a while, though this comes immediately after the line saying, “The rooms are filled with my screams.”

Hmmmm...

But I can't talk about that yet. I need to talk about this:

“The halls are filled with smoke and mess. I don't know why The Manager only had to die once and I have to die so much. So much. Too much.”

[Bolding mine]

Does this line sound familiar? He sounds envious here, almost...resentful, in a way that reminds me very specifically of 2.2 Cracker Man:

“Why do they get to be in the house? Why do they get to be young and happy and beautiful? Why does it hurt to watch them live? I don’t know why but it does. Every smile stings.”

The Manager's S2 episodes showed us her primal instinct as one of her core traits. The Lobby Boy's S2 episodes show us his envy and rage. He's portrayed as a stalking figure in both Cracker Man and Frozen Figures, something that watches from the outside before going in for the kill. Yeah, technically the Owner and Manager do this too, but it feels personal for the Lobby Boy.

Why do THEY (the guests) get to live? Why do THEY get to pretend, to have the luxury of not knowing what's going to happen to them? Why did the Manager only have to die ONCE instead of being stuck in this endless cycle? (She didn't, she died at least like 4 times, but I suppose he doesn't know that). Why is he stuck here and they're not? WHY CAN'T HE D--

“There are so many buttons twinkling dully at me. I like to stare at them on the way.”

That envy and his feelings towards the guests are also why I think the Lobby Boy likes staring at twinkling lights. I mean, there doesn't have to be anything deeper to it. I do think it is just...a thing he likes and that's that. But if there WERE deeper meaning to it, I would say part of him wants what the guests have. He wouldn't know what, exactly, he wants. But he knows they're different. They have something else. Maybe something nicer. Maybe. He admires the shimmering light until it turns into a desperate flame that eventually burns to soot and ash.

His envy collapses and gives way to the rage tucked deep inside him in Cracker Man. Here in 3.7, he taps into that and chases down the other Lobby Boy. Once again, he becomes the pursuing monster. He is the rooms he built. He is the guests he brought to them. He is the horror that will kill them inside the rooms. The screaming effects layer beautifully again.

“Every room is getting filled. Endlessly. We put ourselves here because we did. Never a thought to why or where. He runs so I'm running. He burns so I'm burning. If I could catch him, if I could touch him, could we burn together?”

I have nothing to add to this, I just want to sit and appreciate these lines for a minute.

The chase continues. This Lobby Boy can see into the elevators lining the hallways. Behind the both of them, “the void spills out” and chases them. No matter what direction they go, he'll always end up back in that darkness. Whether he's inside the burning room or out in the hall. He still, still, holds onto that tiny sliver of false hope that maybe, just maybe, he can catch him this time.

But the Lobby Boy sees him and closes the door a little faster. And the Lobby Boy is brought to a void by a trillion lights.

(The guests were never meant to come this far.)

There's...a lot more I'd love to say. I could go on and on in endless circles about this arc. It would be fitting, but this is already so long and I still have the Owner and the Hotel Herself to talk about!

So for now, let's see what happens to the Lobby Boy in the cleverly titled 3.8 A V O I D.

The Lobby Boy doesn't actually...do much here, since this episode is meant to start us on the Owner's arc. LB sits in the void, afraid. As familiar gibbering/Powers That Be noises follow after him, he panics.

“The worst it can do is kill me. Again. And Again. Forever. WHY CAN'T I DIE?”

[Formatting taken direct from transcript]

One last time, there's the crux of the Lobby Boy's despair. Why is he trapped like this when he's so, SO afraid? Why? Why why? The hopeless wailing and thrashing shared by the guests in their last moments.

We proceed listen to the Lobby Boy having the worst time he's probably ever had when he whimpers and begs “No no no no please no.”

His question is answered by as he's brutally killed by the gibbering creature the Hotel.

(He seems to be dead now though.)

And then the Owner chimes in with the fucking funniest possible line, “Thank you. Dispatching that creature has been long overdue.”

Thanks king. So glad to see you on your hater streak <3

Anyway, that wraps things up for the Lobby Boy's arc. I've never seen a more literal version of the “Man Vs. Self” style of conflict as this, as he grapples and struggles and fights with himself across time.

We get to see the fearful core of his being on full display along with the reasons why he'd be so afraid compared to the other two. Neither the Manager or the Owner are as down in the dirt with the guests, so to speak, as the Lobby Boy is. He embodies the most important aspect of it, the rooms and the killing.

It seems the only way he can get himself to function in that endless cycle is by avoidance, turning himself away from it all. The Owner just doesn't get it. Even though they have so much in common...

Well, that'll be for next time to delve into. See you then friends. Thanks again for reading! :-)

[nonbinarylocalcryptid]

MAG11 - Dreamer, review and stuff

Diversity wins! The guy who dreamed about your death is gay!

I was hesitant to write this one because I didn't know where to start. Not because it isn't good, I love every single episode of The Magnus Archives, this whole exercise (reviews etc) brings up a few questions to me, what's the point of consuming horror media if I am not scared by it? Can I truly review it if I'm not scared?

And, in relation to MAG11, is death scary?

Well, personally I find the horror genre intriguing, and highly dramatic. It's a dark fantasy that you won't have the chance to experience in real life (or at least, I hope so xD). TMA plays with probability, rather than impossibility, even if there are some fantastic elements in the mix. Every episode is a promise, or a threat, horror and fear would find you anywhen and anywhere. Not even the Dreamer is safe from this promise.

Can I review the hell out it? Yep, yes I can. I can be objective, and I can analyze how well constructed everything is. Have you ever reached episode 200 and made a relisten? Do it, you won't regret it.

Death is scary, is the only certainty in life and at the same time, is paradoxically, uncertain. Everything ends, that much we know, and Antonio Blake doesn't seem to think there's nothing after.

I always think about this quote from Doctor Who when thinking about death, maybe it's useful for you

(Transcript: Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor in The Return of Doctor Mysterio, "Things end. That's all. Everything ends and it's always sad. But everything begins again too and that's always happy. Be happy.)

And talking about quotes, let's comment some bits from the episode:

"I’d broken up with Graham, my boyfriend of six years (...)" - Antonio Blake, March 14th 2015

Yes, yes, weird thing to remark, but hear me out: Graham? Graham?? Is the same Graham as in Graham Folger????

"It was there, sleeping on my friend Anahita’s sofa, in the depths of my misery, that I first started to have the dreams." - Also Mr Blake

Woah, take a seat misery etc, I'm this dramatic too

"I found myself standing atop the very peak of Canary Wharf and overlooking the Barclays building where I had spent so many hateful hours. Behind me I could feel the pulsing beat of the light that stands atop that looming tower; it thrummed through me and I could see the glow pass across my skin like oil but, try as I might, I could not turn around to look at it." - I don't know why it's so appealing.

I tried to recreate it with a screenshot from Google Earth and Photoshop, the result doesn't convince me but it's pretty close xD

"Lucid dreaming has never been a skill I’ve possessed, and I generally get swept along in the current of whatever runs though my sleeping consciousness." - I love it when horror characters get logical, like, uhm, this shouldn't be possible, sir, this is a Wendy's

"And by my estimation he had appeared about ten days before his death. I tell you this because I feel you have a right to know the sort of timescales that we’re dealing with here." - Antonio "may as well just roll with it" Blake

He is so chill about all of this, isn't he? Like, yeah, I have this weird ass powers, I figured out more or less how they work and hey, you're next

"I’m well aware that I don’t even know your name, and I have no responsibility to try and prevent whatever fate is coming for you." - Antonio "I'm doing it anyway because I'm that chill and cool" Blake

"At the very least, you should look into appointing a successor." - LMAO

" I have no idea if Gertrude got the chance to read this statement before she passed away, but if anyone comes in ranting about dreaming my death, then I very much want to hear about it." - Jon "anything is bs except Leitners and prophecies about my death" Sims, April 15th 2016

Sir, with all due respect, wtf

General overview:

Vibe: it's mysterious with a side of peace and quiet

Horror: spooky, just plain old good spooky

Audio: pretty ASMR in general

Humour: Jon, why are u like this

Score: 10/10