#anyway i hope to make more analysis posts..they are fun

[strawglicks]

GRAHAM PAYSER IS INSECURE AS HELL

So ive been thinking abt this for some time and i decided i needed to make a post about it bc people were SHOCKED when i pointed it out and like. Is this new???? I thought it was obvious . But if its not, thats what this post is for <3

heres why grahams super insecure actually

Need for Validation

So graham needs attention and validation from other people NONSTOP.

from asking flint to validate everything he just said

to waking up cathal so they'll agree with him

to just seeking people's attention in general.

He cannot just be content with himself on his own, he needs other people to constantly reassure him that he’s right. He claims to be confident but isn’t satisfied with just himself, he needs other people to fill that void

Projecting

The ending cutscene is the biggest case of Graham projecting onto other people AND one of the biggest points where his insecurity shows.

He is EXHAUSTED from his own fight but he can't handle the failure, so he flips everything he's feeling onto the toons instead.

He spends this whole cutscene realizing he's lost and DESPERATELY trying to cover it up because he can't admit defeat, which reeks of insecurity by itself.

It opens with him realizing he's lost and immediately trying to cover up the fact he's upset about it.

He tries to flip the situation and make it seem like the toons lost the fight and puts them down for it because he doesn't want to put HIMSELF down. He doesn't even allow himself to fail, he has to be perfect.

He also straight up lies here. Graham was putting his ALL into this fight, proven by how he collapses from exhaustion at the end. There are no other forms, he wasn't getting started. He was trying his very best and still failed and that destroys him. Again, he can't handle the failure so he just. Lies at this part.

More projecting and trying to make it out as if the toons lost . He himself desperately needs a breather because he burned himself out, but again, he can't handle that fact because he's desperate to be perfect.

Not the ending cutscene but another point worth mentioning in terms of projecting. He brags about burning out the toons yet has a habit of burning HIMSELF out.

The fact he collapses at the end of his fight means he overworks himself to the absolute limits in desperation to be the best. If he's really so great, he shouldn't have to try so hard to prove it. Which brings me to the next point

Trying Too Hard

Someone who is genuinely content with themselves shouldn’t feel like they have to PROVE they are content, yet that’s what Graham constantly does. He is always trying so hard and putting on a show for the people around him to PROVE that he’s confident.

Someone who feels good about themselves shouldn’t have to shove that fact down everyone’s throats. This drives back to the validation point in which he needs people to pay attention to and validate him.

Fantasizing About Success

Graham obsesses over a better version of himself despite claiming to be so confident with who he is currently.

He's not satisfied with where he currently stands. He craves more power, attention and success because he is insecure with where he is now. There's no reason for someone so supposedly confident and perfect to be chasing after a better version of themselves.

Can't Admit Failures

Touched on this earlier with the projecting. Graham insists he's perfect and anytime he fails it immediately makes him panic. Someone who's happy and content with themselves should also be able to accept their flaws, but that's not what Graham does.

When his position for the job is threatened, he immediately loses it.

When he loses his fight, he immediately scrambles for excuses and some way to put himself back on top.

Graham may have a huge ego, but it's a fragile one at that.

Graham’s confidence is a facade. This isn't to say he's doing it intentionally; I honestly think he isn't even aware of his insecurity and genuinely believes he is confident and above others. But people like Graham will often obsess over the IDEA of being confident and above others because they lack it in reality. It’s not just a facade to convince others he’s on top, it’s also to convince HIMSELF he’s on top.

TLDR; oh hes a little fucked up actually.

To finish this off u can have this image i made the other day featuring one of my fav Grahams ive ever drawn LMAO

It pretty much repeats what’s already been said

[sgiandubh]

A word on Wardpark/Cumbernauld Studios

@docsama left a comment, on S's birthday, under one of my posts and I promised her an answer with more information, as soon as I got the time. Anyway, here goes - and @docsama, sorry for the delay:

Question is: who owns the Wardpark Film and Television Studios?

The answer was quick to find, in the not-so-old specialized media:

The story begins in 2013, with an ambitious Scottish entrepreneur, Terry Thomson - this guy (courtesy of The Herald, https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15984820.analysis-three-projects-pipeline-help-productions-make-big-picture/):

He is the owner of the Thomson Pettie Group, based in Carluke (https://www.thomsonpettie.com/about-us), which has nothing to do with cinema:

You've read that right: they are 'manufacturers of fabricated metal parts and assemblies', primarily for the national automotive industry. Yet, in 2013, Mr. Thomson agreed to rent what he described as 'a dormant industrial property' - a warehouse, to be exact - to Sony, in order to host the filming and production of OL. Thus, he became the CEO of a newly created entity, The Wardpark Film and Television Studios (https://www.hackmancapital.com/scotlands-largest-most-iconic-film-studio-acquired-by-hackman-capital-partners-and-square-mile-capital/).

By 2017, Wardpark was doing so well, that a big expansion plan was announced, with the direct support of the Scottish Government, which invested £4 million via Scottish Enterprise, its business support, advice and funding agency:

And then, in November 2021, the little engine that could was sold to those two big US investors, Hackman Capital Partners (HCP) and Square Mile Capital Management LLC (now globally rebranded as Affinius Capital). In this montage, Hackman Capital Partners brought its own confirmed film studios and media management expertise...

... while Square Mile most probably funded a sizeable portion of the acquisition, simply because this is what they do best:

Perhaps an interesting detail: HCP owns and manages both the Culver City based Sony Pictures Animation Studios' Campus and the legendary Culver Studios, now rebranded by Amazon:

Back to Scotland, Wardpark Studio's sale made just about everyone happy. Mr. Thomson kept his CEO job and look who was more than thrilled about the juicy transaction:

Currently, the studio is operated by HCP's subsidiary, The MBS Group:

That means that MBS probably manages just about everything, as far as daily management is concerned, from business operations, staffing and/or property management, to lighting and grip, trucks and generators' fleet, expendables and props. Unless I could see a contract and have a precise idea, I can just enumerate all the services they offer.

At no point in time did S and C own anything of those studios. As for the Executive Producer part, that is another discussion entirely. I could be coaxed to write something about it, if you really want to know why Those Two are EPs and what does that really, really mean - because once again, I have seen and read a LOT of bullshit in here, especially in the Desperate Housewives Disgruntled Tumblrettes' corner.

Thank you for asking. It was fun to research and write and I hope it brought more clarity to you.

[put-them-thangs-away]

while i figure that out, not sure if anyone has done it yet, but i want to do a little dive into the basics of the tarot cards used in this jack & joker episode, now that i actually have a moment and can do more than just the basic off the top of my head readings. i’ll be using the golden thread tarot deck mostly because i like how concise it is and also its more accessible to me right now underneath my sleeping dog than my shelf of decks in my room lmao. this is gonna be,,,, real long probably so all the details will be under the cut, if you wanna join me for my rambling:

fun little sidenote before i get started: when i went to begin discussing why i love the use of tarot and nang’s characterization specifically, my card of the day that i drew was the Queen of Swords which is like 100000% The Nang Card™️ lol [complexity, perceptive, clear mindedness etc.]

“a woman of immense complexity, sometimes considered cold-hearted, but also sharp of mind and wit, independent and possessing great powers of organization and analysis.” i won’t go down the rabbit hole of sword suits as a whole bc that’s not the point of this post and so far the show hasn’t gone into minor arcana, so i’m just gonna say HMMMMM very inch resting timing,,,,, anyways,,,

now, of course i have to start with joke’s card and its myriad of double meanings. in just about any piece of media, if you see The Fool card it should automatically be flagged as a red herring. it’s meant for you to look at it and take it at face value based on the words and image…. much like our four little idiots did when first shown their cards. like JOKE YOU GOT THE FOOL BECAUSE YOU’RE A DUMBASS LOL! and he’s the joker so of course he would also be the fool, yes? unfortunately for our little baby clown, the actual symbolism of the card is childlike innocence and naivety, often to their own detriment. it speaks of blank slates, new beginnings, and the start of a journey. “he does not know the dangers that can beset him during his travels, and thus he stumbles forward with complete optimism, never suspecting that he may be walking in a thin tight rope.” oof yikes. sound familiar? nang rly read that boy for filth huh,,,, aside from the obvious heavy handed post-prison clean slate, we’ve also got the metaphor connected to jack’s forgiveness and starting their relationship over. there’s a lot more to be said here as well about how naive joke can be when thinking he’s doing the right thing and that his choices are for the sake of someone else, without clearly seeing the consequences their may be for that person as a result of his actions. at the risk of Never Shutting Up About It, i will have to make myself move on.

i’ll get into tattoo’s card next because it’s really interesting to me that he was assigned The World, which I kind of would have thought would be a card assigned to jack instead. i see what they were going for in this episode with it, i think, but it felt a bit shallow in comparison, so there may be more in relation to this that we have yet to see. as The Fool is the first card (0) in the major arcana, The World is the final card (21). this card symbolizes an ending of a cycle of life, specifically before the beginning of a new cycle of life. it’s an indicator of major and inescapable change. throughout this episode, we see the shift in tattoo’s heart and priorities being held up in comparison to their past heist through some pretty straightforward parallels, so from that angle, The World makes perfect sense. (especially since one reading of The World when in reverse is inertia & stagnation) tattoo wanting to run in and save joke when he thinks he’ll be caught in the heist is our window in to see The World changing. that being said i find it interesting that this card would be chosen for him since it sort of,,,, kickstarts the journey for The Fool and is generally somewhat,,,, final. so i’m just reeeaaaalllllyyyy hoping that this does not mean tattoo has to actually end his cycle in any way other than metaphorical for the other to continue. the man has grown on me, what can i say? 😭 we’re just gonna ignore all those warning bells in my head and choose to go with the “accomplishment and fulfillment from both inner and outer sources” reading. yup.

then we’ve got arun, whose card is The Moon, which is double fun because arun’s name means dawn/sunrise. there’s a lot of meaning that could be extrapolated here, but based on tattoo’s card seeming on surface level to be about the state of his heart and his involvement in this little found family, i’m going to guess that arun’s is the same. The Moon card symbolizes intuition, the unconscious, illusion, and deception. it can be read as a signal of something being not as it appears, a truth you cannot admit to yourself, instincts that we have buried in our unconscious, among other things. this card being chosen for arun actually actively makes me more nervous than tattoo getting The World lol. if we choose to read it at surface value, could just be that in this heist he had to follow intuition, and got himself turned around in the process (eagle statue etc), or just generally that he did not previously appear capable, but here he is helping this mission be pulled off. with the opening scene of arun crying about missing his dad and that,,,, not really getting resolved actually,,,,,, that makes me wonder about some alternate reading options, but like,,,,,, i don’t want to. so. Simply going to close my eyes on that one! no thanks!

then of course there’s everyone favourite head empty good boy, hoy, who was assigned The Star card. out of all the card readings, this boy got the most straightforward one and i’m trying not to read too much into that since they were all assigned by nang and my brain hasn’t quite caught up to [handwaves] whatever she and hoy have got going on over there. this card is symbolic of faith, optimism, and hope. so….. yeah hoy in a nutshell. not a whole lot more to add in there.

skipping The Heirophant card and The Tower card to come back to later because i have Some Theories there and they may make more sense after i go back and rewatch a few things

ANYWAYS if you read to the end of this thank you and i’m sorry please feel free to yell at me about it

[lillysdreaminnn]

Labyrinth.

Labyrinth; introduction.

Pairing; aaron hotchner x fem!oc

Words; 2.2k

Summary; Ivy got accepted to fill the empty place in the behavioural analysis unit - what she's been after her whole life - and meets her boss and colleagues for the first time.

Warnings; swearing, Derek being Derek, JJ being a little shit here and there (but we love her 🫶🏻), not proofread, i suck at warnings that's all ive got :)

A/n; hi! I decided to post my fic on here too! You can also find it on wattpad under the name Oceanbringerr (my dad picked it out 💀). It's my first fic 🫢 comments and reblogs are heavily appreciated and I hope you enjoy 🫶🏻🫶🏻

"So, do you think I'm hired?" Ivy muttered, fixing her blazer for what seemed to be the fifteenth time. April just shot her a glare, basically scolding her.

 "Okay babe; relax. You've been after this your whole life. You got this, I promise you honey." April tried to reassure her sister once again, watching her mess with her outfit more - messing it up even more.

 "Ivy, I swear to fucking God if you mess with your blazer one more time I will murder you." Violet, the eldest of the family, yelled as she shot up from her spot on Ivy's bed. She stormed over to her sister, forcefully fixing the blazer and top.

 "You're beautiful, honey." She said, a lot calmer this time. "I don't want him to employ me just because I'm beautiful." Ivy scoffed at her two sisters, putting her hair up in a slick ponytail, wanting to seem as serious as she felt about all this.

"So you haven't even met your boss yet?" Violet asked, popping a piece of chocolate in her mouth after she sat back down on Ivy's - once - perfectly made bed.

 "No, not yet. I only met section chief Erin Strauss... She seemed... Fine?" Ivy said with a soft laugh, turning back to her sisters who shot her a thumbs up. "Anyway, I have to go. Don't eat all of these, your date will go perfectly fine, plus you have seven more hours to stress about it." The girl snatched the chocolate away from her sister, smiling as Violet whined like a child.

 "Fine. Have fun!" The oldest sister called out after the youngling - in Violet's very words - as she ran out the door.

 Blasting some music in her car, Ivy was quick to arrive at the bureau. She took a moment to herself, staring at the building in complete and utter awe, telling herself that she finally made it. After all those years of pure blood, sweat and tears - maybe even literally - she was finally there.

 Taking a deep breath, she put her name-tag on and walked inside the huge building with a box of her stuff. She was greeted by the usual lovely agents she always passed as she made her way to the elevators, pressing the number eight.

 "Hold the doors!" A voice called out, making Ivy put her hand between the doors to keep them from shutting. Once the sensor got her hand, the doors re-opened, revealing a tall, strong man.

 He's handsome. Ivy thought to herself, smiling politely at him.

 "Thank you." He smiled at her, holding a cup of coffee in his left hand. "You're new here?" He asked Ivy, making her look up at him. "Uh, not exactly. I've just been promoted to the behavioural analysis unit." She said with a smile.

 She thought she was bragging, but she had every right to; she had been chasing after this her entire life.

 The man smiled, making Ivy smile a little wider too. "So you're the new recruit, huh? Nice to meet you, I'm Derek Morgan." He introduced himself, making Ivy almost drop her stuff. Of course she had heard of Derek Morgan. Who hadn't?

 The specialist on obsessional crimes.

 "It's very nice to meet you, Derek." Ivy offered him another friendly smile, since she was holding a pretty heavy box in her arms. "I take it you're meeting Hotch today." He laughed a little at Ivy's worried expression.

 "Yup." She nodded, her polite smile never faltering. "He's not as scary as he seems. He likes to play it tough, but he's very nice." Derek said as the two walked out of the elevators and into the bullpen.

"Good luck and welcome to the team, agent." Derek said with a small smile as he walked to his desk, leaving Ivy lost.

 "Staircase, first door to your right." A girly voice called from next to her, making her head snap towards the blonde woman next to her. Finally a familiar face.

 "Hi JJ." Ivy smiled, wrapping her free arm around the girls waist, as she hugged Ivy back with a similar smile. "Hi honey. Let me take you to Hotch, he's been quite stressed as well." JJ said with a laugh, leading Ivy to their boss's office.

 She knocked on the door and waited for the green light, so they could walk inside. When they did get the green light, JJ opened the door, Ivy standing behind her like a lost child.

 "Hey, Hotch. Look who's here." JJ said, making the man look up from his papers, a subtle scowl on his face. The scowl disappeared when his eyes landed on the terrified girl behind JJ.

 Jesus Christ, man up Ivy. You're a full blown FBI agent, for fuck's sake.

 "You must be agent Monroe." Said Hotch, as he got up from his chair, stretching his hand out to Ivy, who gladly gave him a handshake with a smile.

 "It's very nice to meet you, sir." She said, using both hands to hold her box again. JJ had left the two be, shutting the door behind her as well. Hotch motioned for Ivy to sit, which she did after putting her box next to her feet.

 "Strauss told me all about you and your achievements and I have to admit; I'm surprised. In the best way, of course." Hotch said looking down at some files and then back up at Ivy.

 He's stressed.

 The files on his desk had nothing to do with Ivy and she knew it. He looked down because of the awkwardness in the room, which didn't take a profiler to notice.

 "Thank you, sir. I'm very honoured to be here." She said, a small smile on her face as well. Derek told her Hotch looked - and she quotes - 'scary' but to her he seemed just fine. Maybe a little intimidating, but that's about it.

 After a very in depth talk about the job and some of Ivy's accomplishments, Ivy was cleared to go set up. With a polite handshake, she picked up her box and started heading out, when Hotch's voice stopped her.

 "Oh and please; call me Hotch. We're collegues now."

 Ivy smiled and nodded, mumbling a soft 'bye' as she shut the door behind herself. She made her way down to the bullpen and found the desk Hotch had told her about, placing her box on it and sighing. She took a moment to look around, smiling to herself.

 "Meeting with the boss went well?" Derek's voice rang out of nowhere, making Ivy slightly jump. "You're jumpy for an FBI agent." He joked, making Ivy laugh. "I'm not gonna fight that." She chuckled, staring to set up on her desk.

 "Need any help?" Derek offered and before a woman scoffed with a laugh, "Let the poor girl set up her stuff before you start flirting." A woman with raven black hair said, laughing a little.

 Damn, why's everyone so fine in here?

 "Hey, I wasn't flirting! I was just... offering a helping hand to the newbie." Derek defended himself, making the woman laugh again as she shook her head. "Don't mind him, he's a flirt but a really nice guy. Hi, I'm Emily Prentiss." Emily stretched a hand out to Ivy.

 Ivy gladly shook her hand while politely smiling at her. "Nice to meet you, Emily, I'm Ivy." She said, making Emily smile as well.

 "Very pretty name." Emily chuckled, making Ivy's cheeks turn a dusty pink. "Thank you." Ivy said with a smile, staring to set up her stuff on her desk.

 Derek was sat in his spinny chair while Emily was standing, both watching the younger agent set up her office. "Do you need anything?" Ivy laughed awkwardly, as the two agents basically ogled at her. "Sorry, you just look so much like JJ..." Derek said, sounding as confused as he looked.

 "We're second cousins." Ivy laughed, stopping her movements so she could look at the two with an amused smile. "Oh my God! You're the Ivy she talks about!" Emily realised, pointing a finger at Ivy, who was horribly trying to hold back her laughter.

 "That's me" She said, motioning to herself.

 "I pictured you a redhead." Emily mumbled, mainly to herself, but Ivy heard and chuckled.

 "It's the name."

 "It's the DC villain."

 "Maybe both."

 "Both." Both women nodded, a similar grin on their faces.

 Derek just sat confused, watching the two women talk as if they had known each other for ages. "I'm very confused." He commented, mumbling to himself, "You look confused." Emily pointed out as Derek scoffed jokingly.

 "I do not." He defended himself.

 "Why's Derek confused?" A tall, scrawny boy asked as he walked by, sitting across Ivy's desk. God damnit, he's cute too.

 "Oh fuck you."

 Ivy could only laugh at the sibling-like interaction between Emily, Derek and the boy - who seemed awfully young to be witnessing such horrors the BAU saw daily. "Because; Spencer, this is Ivy. The cousin JJ always talks about." Emily introduced, making Spencer nod with a side smile.

 "JJ talks about you very often. I always pictured you a redhead, though." Spencer said with a chuckle, making Ivy smile. He was indeed very cute.

 "Well, I'm obviously a blonde. But I've been thinking about changing it up a li-"

 "Don't even finish that sentence missy." JJ's voice called out suddenly, making Ivy groan. "Why do you always spawn so randomly? Does the universe put money in the slot or something?" Ivy mumbled, making Derek laugh subtly.

 "Ivy, you remember how it went last time you tried to dye your hair." JJ laughed, sitting on her cousin's desk with a smile eerily identical to Ivy's, who just smiled softly and looked down to her feet.

 "How'd it go?" Emily asked with a curious smile.

 "Miss Monroe here had greenish hair for like a month." Ivy shot her cousin a glare, trying to hold back her own laughter. Eventually she gave in and started laughing as well, shaking her head a little.

 "Yeah okay, it was a disaster. Something went wrong with the dye and I ended up with green hair." Ivy explained, everyone laughing at the mental picture of their new friend with green hair.

 Ivy continued setting up her desk while chatting with the rest of the team, getting to know them better. Ny the end of their shifts, they had done their work and even tried to help Ivy but she wouldn't let them.

 "Go home, Emily." Ivy said with a laugh as Emily sighed in defeat. "Fine. But text me when you get home." The raven haired woman said, patting Ivy's shoulder as a goodbye gesture.

 It was nine when Emily left, leaving Hotch and Ivy alone.

 Two hours later, Hotch exited his office, seeking some caffeine to keep him up for the ridiculous amount of paperwork he had for some reason, when he spotted his new agent. "She's still here?" He mumbled to himself, surprised that Ivy was there.

 He shrugged it off and made his way to the coffee machiene, deciding to leave the girl be for now. That was all out the window when he saw the exhaustion in her face when she lifted her head from her paperwork to sip her own coffee.

 So he decided to be a good boos and check on her.

 "Hey, Monroe. You alright?" He asked, reaching her desk.

 Ivy looked up from her files and smiled at Hotch, nodding her head. "Yeah, I just want to get these out of the way so I have less for tomorrow." She said with a soft smile, making Hotch smile too.

 She's interesting.

 "What are you still doing here?" Ivy asked back, as Hotch sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Chief duties." He said with a faint smile, making Ivy giggle. "It's eleven at night." Ivy pointed out, a soft smile on her face.

 "Your point?"

 "It's too late to work."

 "You're working too."

 "Not for long." Ivy smirked, tapping her pen shut and putting her hair up, "I'm officially done with these, plus if I stay an other minute awake I actually think I'll go crazy." She chuckled, taking the thick stack of files in her arms.

 "I'll take them to my office, don't worry about it; go home." Hotch said, putting the full coffee mug down on Ivy's desk as he reached for the papers. "It's fine, Hotch, honestly." Ivy tried to stop him, but he insisted.

 "You look exhausted, Monroe. Leave those to me and go rest." Ivy gave up and sighed with a smile, "Fine." She passed the files over to Hotch, who easily held them up with one hand while Ivy needed both.

 Damn.

 Ivy sighed and put her coat on, placing her bag over her shoulder. She finished off her coffee and threw away the papercup, while making sure she got everything she needed. Once she gathered the last of her things, she walked to the doors about to leave when a voice called out to her.

 "Goodnight Monroe." Hotch's voice called out, not even looking at her as he opened the door to his office.

 "Goodnight Hotch." Ivy chuckled, shaking her head as she walked to the elevators, calling it a day finally.

[leynaeithnea]

*appears from the shadows*

little wolf analysis 😏 ?

LITTLE WOLF ANALYSIS you bet

IVE WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS SONG AND I HAD SUCH HIGH HOPES AND I DIDNT GET DISAPPOINTED AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHJFSJJSSKDKFKDKKF

Okay lets go

26. Little Wolf

THAT BASTARD

"Fight, little wolf, fight, wanna entertain me?" HE IS TAUNTING TELEMACHUS, HE INVADED HIS HOME AND HE ONLY SEES HIM AS A SOURCE OF ENTERTAUNMENT, A MILD BOTHER, HE CAN PLAY WITH UNTIL HES BORED THAT FUCKING DOG AND THE OTHER SUITORS JUST BACK HIM UP AH, but "little wolf"??? Is such a sweet nickname????? Also if the post I saw about Odysseus family history with wolves is true thennnn my HEART ♡♡♡ (also explains the "the pack of wolves is swimming with the sharks now) but they use it such a taunting way, belittling him, gods i wanna fight them too

"Bite, little wolf, bite, let's see how you take this" they are pushing him, just wanting to see what happens when they bother him one to many times, when you strike an animal and wait for it to lash out at you, but instead of taking it seriously for the terror that you cause, you laugh about it because you know its not a real thread to you I HATE THEM (BUT THE GRIT IN ONE OF THE SUITORS VOCALS IM DYING FOR, ALSO ANTINOUS VOICE!!! PERIMEDES!!! AAAH) "lets see how you take this" MAKES ME FERAL dont SAY THAT

"Strike, little wolf, strike, wanna be a man?Then fight, little wolf, fight, little wolf, fight" They WANT him to lash out so badly, they want to see what happens, they see him as a kid, who doesnt belong into the palace, he is the legitimate heir, but he cant take the throne without acckowledging that his father wont come back, but if they do that, his mother has no more excuses to keep off the suitors, also I HATE how they use the "man up" argument, FUCK YOU LEAVE MY BOY ALONE

"You've made your worst mistake here, might be your last one too" AH, BITCH, anyway, so I suppose up until now Telemachus just tried to avoid the suitors at any cost, dont make them upset, stay out of their way, grit your teeth and wait, because your father will be back soon...right? Right?? Greek rules of hospitality and all; they cant send them away, but theyre taking in more space and theyre pushing Telemachus into a corner. But Antinous insulted his mother, he tried to get him to open up her room, that was the first time he talked back, prepared to fight, be like his father, being legendary, even though he has no clue what hes doing; and the suitors know that, they probably saw him grow up, and belittled him almost all his life, they know just how much he is not in any position of power and strength, but he dared to talk back, and that little bit of courtesy they had to leave him alone is gone, Antinous is pissed and he wants to get rid of Telemachus anyway, hes just in his way, so he'll take him down, after having some fun first, FUCK HIM, hes such a bastard

"You'll have run out of bones to break when you and I are through" this dude didnt even need poseidon to tell him that ruthlessness is mercy to become the monster rawr rawr rawr, hes just brutal and ruthless and merciless and hes having FUN

"I'll teach you all the lessons your daddy never could" OUCH? YOU ARE NOT IN ANY ANY ANY ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE A FATHER REPLACEMENT FOR HIM SO FUCK OFF ANTINOUS LEAVE ODYS BOY ALONE

"This cruel world doesn't give out presents just for being good", fuck you Antinous GREET THE WORLD WITH OPEN ARMS NOT KNIVES

[So Fight, little wolf, fight; Wanna entertain me Bite, little wolf, bite Let's see how you take this Strike, little wolf, strike Wanna be a man? Then fight, little wolf, fight, little wolf, fight] I love the chorus, OBSSESED WITH THE GRIT OF THE ENSAMBLE AH

The TRANSITION INTO THAT NEXT PART IS SO SMOOTH AND GOOD AND CHILLS AND AAAH

"Or die, little wolf, die" THEYRE SO RUTHLESS, THEY WOULD KILL HIM THEY WANT TO KILL HIM THEY AAAAAH BASTARDS (It sounds so good tho) They want to entertain themselves but they dont fuck around, they arent holding back, they dont care if he dies, they'd actually be delighted, fuck them

"Don't you know it's fight or Fly, little wolf, fly" fight or fly, response, he always was doign the fleeing but now this ONE time he choose fight, and they'll make him pay for it to teach him their lesson, he cant back out anymore

"All because you had to, try, little wolf try" all because he dared to step up for his mom bastards

"Run away before you, die, little wolf, die, little wolf, die" i might be contradicting myself in the things im said before, but they want him to run away, scared, like an animal they can hunt for prey, because if he doesnt; they'll fight him and ofc he has no chance against them, hes just a "kid", but that wont stop them from killing him

The music drop into Athenas quick thought Aaaahh

"Need some help?" LES GOOOOOO ATHENA TO THE RESUCE

"What's going on here?" Valid bb, Id be confused too ♡

"Is your plan to stand around? Cause I suggest you fight back" a little sarcasm huh, well at least you got humor >:)

"I don't know how" DO YOU HEAR HOW SCARED HE IS, HES FACING ANTINOUS AKD THE OTHER SUITORS AND THEY JUST KEPT ATTACKING HIM AND HE NEVER GOT THE TRAINING HE DESERVED TO FIGHT BACK aaaaaaah

"Uppercut him, now" u goooooo

(Neat soutscape, here fr)

"Woah, how did I do that? Is time now moving slow?" Again valid, and adorable, u go ! U punched him! You can fight back :D the vocal performance IS SO GOOD

"No, I just made your thoughts quick" ♡ Good mentor

"Woah, that is so sick" the rhyming here its so cuteeeeeeee, hes so exciteddddd HES LIKE ODYSSEUS WHEN THEY FIRST STARTED AAAH

"Alright now, let's try this again" ATHENA MENTOR LETS GOOO

"I've no respect for bullies, Those who impose their will, I've seen plenty enough to truly understand this kind of filth"...Zeus? (Also her vocalllsss aaah)

"Let's teach this dog a lesson In front of all his kind" her calling Antinous and the other suitors dogs that need to be taught a lesson because theyre acting up....(so much more harmless than a wolf) aaaah

"One young wolf has a larger heart than all these men combined" 🥹😭🥹😭🥹

The INSTRUMENTAL RIFF AAH

"Fight, little wolf, fight" SHES ENCOURAGING HIM AND GUIDING HIS ACTIONS NOW AAAH

also AM I HEARI G THIS RIGHT? DOES TELEMACHUS HAVE ODYS INSTRUMENTALS OCCATIONALLY??? PLS??? PLS???

"Show them that you've got some Bite, little wolf, bite" THE LYRICAL GENIUS turning it into encouraging from "bite little wolf" to "show them that you got some bite" as the phrase ITS SO GOOD AAAAAH

'Take advantage now and Strike, little wolf, strike" again guiding his actions!!!! So proudd, Ody would be grateful to her

"Don't go down without a Fight, little wolf, fight, little wolf" dont down without a fight YES

"Get up and fight" Vocal performance. Stunning AH

[Fight, little wolf, fight, Wanna entertain us? (Oh) Bite, little wolf, bite Let's see how you take this (Strike!) Strike, little wolf, strike Wanna be a man? Then (Oh) Fight, little wolf (Fight) (Fight, little wolf) (Fight)] THIS WHOLE SECTION IS SO GOOOOOD ATHENAS VOCAL PERFORMANCE AGAIN IS OUTSTANDING BEAUTIFUL POWERFULL ENCOURAGING the way she reinterpreates the suitors taunting words into encouragement IS SO GOOD I CANT EVEN AAAHHH

...and still Telemachus loses the fight

"Ooh, maybe I pushed you a bit too hard" Athena understanding the full scope of human fragility since never (but shes trying, i give her that)

"Ow" (hat pats) u did good kid, im proud of you

"Go back and cry in your corner" FUCK YOU ANTINOUS, im sure hes so upset that telemachus even dared to fight back, and is just planning his next steps

"Make sure your mother hears" ....fuck you, Antinous, he sends him back to Penelope as a warning "look what we did to your son, we can do worse, its our generosity that we sent him back at all, be grateful, or else we'll do the same to you" the vocal performance thooo

"If she won't choose a man to adorn her We'll bring blood and tears" ruthlessness.....i do wonder what would happen if she had choosen, the other 107 suitors, they seem to be respecting her having the right to choose (probably legal reasons) but eben if she would choose one, what would the others do? Are they just waiting to beat up each other as soon as she'd pick one? Or would they work together? but also MF STAY AWAY FROM MY GIRL DONT U DARE HURT HER OR TELEMACHUS >:) >:) May your blood cover the palace red

THE DROP AGAIN followed to athenas thing, AH THE INSTRUMENTALS ARE SO GOOD

----> telemachus goes back to his room to his balcony, Athena is still at his side

"Tell me, Athena, why you came to my aid" HE DOESNT KNOW HE DOESNT KNOW AAAAAAAH also his vocals ♡♡♡♡♡ HE SOUNDS SO MUCH LIKE YOUNG ODYSSEUS TOO?? AAAH

[faeruy]

Agatha All Along Tarot Reads

Episode 5 - Darkest Hour, Wake thy Power

Back again, with Lilia's tarot reads from Episode 5. There's a LOT to talk about with this episode, but other people are going to do that to death, so I'll focus on the tarot. As always, I'm an amateur, and I may get things wrong - see the edit on my post on episode 4. I've also done analysis on the cards mentioned in Episode 2 as well.

Knight Of Wands - This one is triggered when Alice goes to save Agatha by blasting her with power - and thereby triggering Agatha's magic suck power. It's a card that's absolutely referencing Alice in that moment.

At it's bare minimum, this could just be a basic, literal-ass read. Face cards tend to refer to people in your life as much as energy, and Wands are the fire suit, ergo the Protection/Fire Witch is a heroic knight.

Alice is definitely those things in the moment, but why stop there, when overanalyzing stuff is so much fun?

Knight of Wands is a lot about energy and motivation. It talks about someone who has found their passion, energy, and drive, and has the enthusiasm to move forward towards their goals. Given the events of the previous episode, I think that gives us a good idea of where Alice's head is at now. She battled the curse, came out triumphant, and now has the motivation that she'd been lacking most of her life, and the energy to finish the Road for her mother. She started to really be the Protection Witch for her Coven. It's interesting to note that of the four real Coven witches (still not sure about Sharon, Rio is something else entirely, and Teen is... ), Alice was the only one who started on the Road with all of her of her powers reliably intact. (Agatha's lost her purple, Jen's bound, Lilia's is a bit wonky) Because of the curse, and her mother's death, though, she didn't really embrace her power. Her trial changed that, and she definitely now has that Knight of Wands energy.

But the Knight of Wands is an impulsive card; in the "new project energy" vibe, it's easy to get in way too deep to quickly. Those it represents tend to be more "act first, think later". It's very much Alice's downfall; in a rush to do what is right, she makes herself vulnerable and gets hurt for it. I firmly believe that the ill-advised impulsiveness are probably what triggered the read from Lilia in the first place, even if Alice fits other aspects of the card as well.

The difference between Upright and Reversed readings on this one is.. odd, and I'm not sure how applicable it is to Alice. Both axis of the card reference impulsive thoughts and behavior, but the Reversed implies there's frustration and anger tied to an inability to properly express creative/motivated energy. And I don't think that's something we saw in Alice at that moment. It may be possible to read it as her 'misdirected energy' being the magic she blasted Agatha with, but it feels a little like a stretch. It might be more of a reference to Alice's past; a witch working dead end security jobs, blocked from doing any real good, any real craft because of a curse that made everything she touch go bad. Another possibility is that it could come into play later; despite what we saw, I don't think we're done with Alice Wu. I really hope not.

Anyway, that's my read the Knight of Wands; hope you all enjoyed it, and if you want to see my analysis for the previous episodes they are, Episodes 1-3 Episode 4 Episode 6 Episode 7 part 1 Episode 7 part 2

[tickldpnk8]

A Morphanna Theory

So it occurred to me as I was rereading A Game of You over the long weekend, that we might have already seen Johanna Constantine replace Thessaly in Season 1.

So bear with me while I put myself at risk of looking like this guy:

What we know

So we know a few things already given the BTS tidbits we've gotten so far.

We know that Season 2 will be significantly compressing the storyline between Season of Mists and Brief Lives. (baring something incredibly surprising such as having filmed a LOT for this season during filming for Season 1 and also filming ahead for Season 3)

A Game of You has to be either cut or significantly shortened/overhauled at this point considering the BTS shots of Wanda's character and the above outline of episode names.

We know (due to @writing-for-life's excellent analysis) that the music themes for both Morpheus and Johanna blend together well.

Pure speculation

So what struck me on this reread (and don't worry: I've got a draft started for my analysis) was just how much the interactions between Thessaly and Morpheus mirror the interactions between Johanna and Morpheus in S01E03.

First we get both women being generally unimpressed by Morpheus' ordering them about. With Johanna, it's in response to Morpheus turning up and demanding she take him to the sand.

With Thessaly, it's over him scolding her for acting rashly in taking the Moon Road to save Barbie.

This one felt more thematic to me than a direct comparison or direct quote.

Next, we get both of them lecturing Morpheus on his inaction where mortals are concerned.

(yes, I did learn how to make gifs just for this post: feel free to use) Johanna's lecture comes when Morpheus is ready to walk away after retrieving the sand...potentially leaving Rachel to her fate. Essentially blaming Johanna for leaving the sand there in the first place.

Thessaly's lecture comes as Morpheus is ready to walk away after removing the Skerry from the Dreaming. Although he hasn't stated his full intention yet, he's clear that he's not going to help them get home or get off the little bit of land that is left.

And finally, you see a bit of them both denying any interest.

(okay, so I made 2 gifs...) When Ric the Vic says that Morpheus is "not unfit", Johanna replies that he's not her man in a tone that makes it sound like she wouldn't consider it.

Meanwhile, Thessaly stews over Morpheus after he scolds her in the panels I posted above, saying that she's not buying his cool act and that he looks too skinny anyways.

So there you have it: scant evidence to be sure, but I found the 3 themes of each of them standing up to him for ordering her around, lecturing him in turn, and then also denying any attraction to be some fun parallels.

Given that we don't see much of Morpheus x Thessaly on-page, it feels like we have ample suggestions of Morpheus x Johanna in comparison. If they do go this direction, I really hope we see much more of it on screen than we did of Thessaly's blink-and-you-miss-it suggestion they were together.

[werewolf-girlfriend]

ive been enabled so let me share some of my thoughts on how to get ur art noticed online

if u want Engagement on ur posts then i believe that its critical to make people care about ur art. the easiest way to do this is to appeal to something they already care about, like fandom, aesthetics/subculture, current events, having fun (people love humor!). a harder but perhaps more fulfilling route is to talk about ur own ocs and projects enough until people start caring about them too

theres an infinite amount of topics people care about out there so id suggest picking something u already care about urself and channel ur art energy there. trying to make art for the most popular things out there regardless own interests is an exercise in misery, id advise against it..! if im allowed to get superstitious for a moment, i do believe that even untrained eyes can tell whether a piece of art was fun to work on or a chore. and besides! if ur having fun then its easier to create more, and the more u create the more chances ull have at getting lucky and having a post seen :)

on a very related note, art is a way to communicate ideas so the quality of the idea being presented in a piece of art is paramount to how popular a post will be. what i mean by this is that technical skill isnt the primary determinant of a posts popularity. if all your posts are portraits of original characters then people will have a hard time connecting with your posts and theyll keep scrolling, even if those portraits are masterpieces! the major exception to this is probably other artists, who ive found usually have a greater appreciation for the technical side of art (we can only speculate as to why..!)

lemme finish by saying that making popular posts and being good at art are two entirely different skillsets, ive seen many incredibly skilled artists with jack shit for notes because they dont give people a reason to care about their stuff NOT TO MENTION its a huge game of luck whether a post will get seen. so dont go insane in pursuit of recognition!

(i dont want to make this post too long so ive included examples from my own art and their note counts with my analysis after the break)

hello and welcome to the extracurricular segment to this post :) i bring yall two pieces from my art blog @werewolf-artfriend:

here we have a portrait of my fursona that im still proud of and a sketch suggesting "what if sniffers (from minecraft) were the size of mountains?" (let it be noted that the sniffer sketch was posted right during the minecraft mob vote = peak interest in the subject of sniffers).

the portrait at the time of writing has a crisp 30 notes, whilst the sniffer sketch has over 2000 notes. from the same artist, on the same blog, posted only a few months apart. i believe this is a good example both of the power of a piece of art having an interesting idea at its core AND of a piece appealing to the interests of the masses

this is of course just two convenient example posts, but i have experienced fan art of popular topics getting thousands of notes a couple of times now, amidst my other furry shit that these days get around 200-300 notes in comparison

this may sound like a really long winded way of saying "fan art make the world go round" but i just want to point out the nuances that

1) it matters what u make fan art of: if a fandom is small or dormant (waiting on new canon content for example) then clearly less people will be excited about the fan art you make. dont expect 10k notes on ur post if the average recent post in the fandom gets around 200 etc etc

2) it doesnt have to be fan art! ive also had some of my bird art get thousands of notes because people simply like birds :) and this applies to ANY topic people care about! the world rly is your oyster on this one

anyway i think ive started rambling dhgdjhgd thanks if u read this far! i hope i got my point across! and if ur feeling down about ur art not being seen then just keep at it okay! keep creating and keep having fun! keep sharing ur ideas and perspectives with the world and ur audience will eventually find u! i love you!

[thewertsearch]

[ there was more to this ask, but some was spoilers 😆 - C ]

Ooh, that is a fun challenge! I might make this a bigger Title post, actually, because it's been a good while since we've had one of those.

...alright, I just finished, and this one kind of got away from me. I hope it's ok that I sort of hijacked your post to talk about Aspects as a whole - but rest assured, I did answer the original question. Let's get into it!

Unfortunately, it might be kind of difficult to make Class guesses. My theory is that they're Sburb's take on RPG party roles - and for obvious reasons, we haven't seen how any of the non-Player characters would fit into a Sburb party. A full analysis of the hypothetical Midnight Crew, Exile and Guardian sessions would be fun, but it's a little out of scope for this question.

Personality certainly seems to be a factor. I don't think it's a coincidence, for example, that the Seers are the most inquisitive members of their respective parties. Dave and Karkat both hide their true emotions behind a persona - but then again, so do Feferi and Jade, two happy-go-lucky Witches with incredibly dark backstories. Dave may be the worst offender, but half the cast is hiding behind some sort of facade.

John, for his part, doesn't seem to have anything in common with Equius - at least, nothing I can see. I might dig a little deeper for human/troll Class parallels once we've seen more of Equius and Feferi, but our sample sizes are so small that it's going to be hard to tell which shared traits are intentional.

Anyway, none of the other classes feature a pair of Players that I could toss into a Venn diagram, so we're at a bit of a dead end.

I suppose I could approach this from another angle, and try to extrapolate a Class from each character's life circumstances - for example, by speculating that Grandpa's inheritance of the Betty Crocker brand makes him a potential Heir - but that's clearly not an accurate method, given that literal heiress Feferi is a Witch.

See, Classes are a tough nut to crack! The main issue here is that the comic has given us very little to work with - it's been tight-lipped on Titles in general, and there's been almost no exposition on Classes specifically.

It might be easier just to try and assign Aspects to each of the non-Players - so that's what I'm going to do. I'll also take the opportunity to put forward my best guess for what each Aspect means.

Without further ado:

Time means time.

This one seems extremely straightforward. Not all the Aspects are quite so literal - Breath, for example, seems more closely related to wind than the body function it's named after - but Time is about engaging directly with its namesake. It may have other meanings as well, but we haven't seen any yet.

If you wield Time, then you're the session's designated time traveler - which is a lot less cool than it sounds, because it means you're on Doomed Timeline cleanup duty. Enjoy the corpse disposal!

Both of the comic's Time Players have fashioned their own personal time machines out of musical instruments. Music seems to have some connection to Time - which makes sense, since it's an art form of pitch, rhythm and beat. Music is time.

We can also talk for a second about Dave's Quest. As we'll see, each Land Quest seems to directly concern the Player's Aspect. Dave's Quest is to...

...um.

Well, one of these is Dave's Quest. The LOHACse is the only one of the two which is directly related to Time, but I've speculated that Dave's sword-in-the-stone quest will involve him rewinding Caledfwlch to an earlier point in its timeline. Plus, the Caledfwlch quest also speaks to Dave's Class as a Knight, so I think it's the real one.

For the sake of completeness, let's also talk about the Time Lands. Each Land always seems to feature one trait which either directly or obliquely references its Player's Aspect. LOHAC is self-explanatory, but Aradia's Land of Quartz and Melody is an interesting case, as its 'Aspect trait' could be either of its two descriptors. Quartz could reference the quartz in a modern clock, and Melody could reference the musical connection I mentioned above.

I can't think of any non-Players with particularly strong ties to Time - aside from the Felt and Lord English, who we know very little about. Let's say they're all Time Players, and English rules over them as a Prince of Time. As a mob boss and destroyer of worlds, he undoubtedly shares some of Eridan's megalomania.

Space... well, we actually don't have much for Space. We haven't seen Jade or Kanaya do anything with their Aspect, nor do we know anything about their Quests.

We do know that both Space Lands contain the Forge, so maybe there's something to that. Presumably it's going to forge something, and I think it's probably where you're supposed to create the universe. If your task is literally to create Space, it makes sense that a Space Player would take point - but that begs the question of what would happen in a session without a Space Player.

Maybe the game prefers a Space Forge, but it can spawn on another Land in lieu of one - or maybe Space is the 'default' Aspect, and it's actually mandatory in every session.

As far as Space's symbolism is concerned, my assumption is that it's as straightforward as Time, but we'll need to see more.

While I'm here, I guess I should dip my toe into this hot mess.

Yes, LOFAF's Space Word does appear to be Frogs. Yes, that does imply that Kanaya's was also Frogs, or something equally mysterious. No, I do not know what this could possibly mean.

These frogs are apparently heralds for their god, Bilious Slick, whose shadow has been looming over the comic for months now. I guess their appearance on the Space Lands implies that Slick is Space themed, which is at least consistent with my theory that he's the final obstacle between the Players and their universe.

Moving on, because I give up.

(Oh, and if anyone's a Space Player, it's Bec. You could also make an argument for Mom Lalonde, since her home was fitted with an observatory, but that's very tenuous. We don't know much about Space, so I don't know how else to tie a character to the Aspect.)

There's a lot going on with Light.

All Quests so far have had ties to the Player's Aspect, so whatever Jaspers thinks he's talking about here should have something to do with Light.

Jaspers... seems to be talking about different ways to represent information, and instructing Rose to find a particular DNA sequence. (I have to assume this isn't the MEOW sequence, because I don't think Sburb wants Rose to fill LOLAR's oceans with First Guardians.) So, it sort of looks like Light is information, doesn't it?

Well... maybe. See, things are are complicated by the fact that Dave's Quest above was also Knight-themed, so this spiel from Jaspers could be partially Seer-themed. How can we tell which is the Seer stuff, and which is the Light?

Recently, Rose said this, seemingly confirming that her Title is about information ('knowing shit'), and also implying that the 'knowing' is a Seer thing.

This allow us to compare her to Terezi, the other Seer. As we'll see below, she specializes in discerning people's personalities and motivations - literally, seeing into their minds - so it sounds like being a Seer is about perceiving or 'seeing' things that relate to your Aspect.

Rose, the Seer of Light, should therefore have an advanced perception of Light - but just what is Light? What can Rose see?

Well, she says she can see 'the big picture'.

I think Rose's powers allow her to zoom out, understand the broad strokes of a situation, and see how it all ties together - and I think that is the essence of Light.

Dave wonders how he's going to navigate the Furthest Ring's twisted-up space, so she scans the overall situation with her Light powers, and vaguely understands that it won't be a problem. Dave will be able to play his part.

However, if he asked why, exactly, it won't be a problem, or how he's going to do it, she'd be stumped. That's not her department.

I think I sort of understand what Light means now, but I can't think of a succinct way to describe it. The zooming-out Aspect, maybe? The everything-is-connected Aspect? The don't-sweat-the-details Aspect?

Guys, I think I'm starting to understand Homestuck!

Ah, shit.

Yeah, I don't know how Vriska or her powers slot into this interpretation. As the Thief of Light, I guess she'd be stealing... the bigger picture... from other people? And that lets her take their luck, somehow?

I guess when you give yourself 'good luck', you are sort of improving your situation in the general sense, rather than the specific. You don't know the details of how your luck will manifest, but you don't really need to - all you need to know is that it'll be good for you.

I don't know. This is getting messy, and more than a little abstract. I'm sure Vriska will be doing a lot of luck-stealing, so we'll hopefully learn more as we go.

At least the Land of Maps and Treasure fits Light-as-the-big-picture. A map is, literally, a big picture.

A flurry of disquieting happenstance is related to the ADORED SOVEREIGN. With no other options, her counsel is all that is left to be sought. Abdication is never ideal. But in the face of inevitable conquest, conceding ground can supply the only remaining advantage.

WQ, then, seems like a good fit for a Light Player. After listening to PM's full report, she seems to understand how the pieces fit together.

The Queen knows that Jack wants her dead, and clearly understands how dangerous a Player item can be, in the wrong hands. She doesn't know what's in the package, or what Jack will do with it - but she doesn't need to. She can see the writing on the wall, so she retreats.

I did a bit of Breath research for this post, and landed on the above quote. I think Breath is about direction and destination.

TT: John? TT: Are you there? -- tentacleTherapist [TT] is now an idle chum! -- EB: hey, yeah i'm here! EB: and not dead i think. TT: I know. TT: I've been watching you scramble through the house like a lunatic. TT: You should have answered me sooner.

John's a meandering kind of guy. He's wandered haphazardly around the session for three thousand pages, but he always seems to reach his goal. Despite not knowing where to go, he always seems to be where he needs to be.

John's Quest as the Heir of Breath has been explained in detail. He needs to unclog the pipes of LOWAS and defeat Typheus, freeing his Land's fireflies from their cloudy prison. In essence, John's Quest is to give these bugs a new direction, allowing them their full axis of movement once again.

There might also be some Heir stuff in this Quest, but its ultimate goal seems to align pretty well with that Breeze quote above, so I'm willing to accept it as Breath evidence.

AG: Have you ever tried to fly? I 8et you haven't! AG: How a8out we take to the skies, Pupa! AG: Hahahaha, oh you like that idea, Pupa? Yes, you do. I can feel it in your simple, mallea8le 8rain. AG: You want to fly so 8ad!

Breath might also have something to do with agency - or at least, the ability to choose your own actions. John's freedom-themed Quest isn't the only example of this - Tavros's entire arc is about how Vriska keeps denying him agency, while pretending she's doing the opposite.

(I'm going to avoid comparing Homestuck to other works, because this post is long enough as it is, so you're just going to have to imagine the twelve paragraphs of Deltarune meta that would otherwise be placed here.)

AT: bECAUSE THE ONLY TIME i EVER HAD FUN PLAYING THIS GAME WAS WHEN i WAS ASLEEP,

Tavros just wanted to do his own thing. He wanted to ignore the game and float around Prospit, away from everyone's expectations - but he was denied this opportunity, again and again. It's no wonder that he's on a bit of a high right now, after being granted the freedom of his new robo-legs.

As for potential Breath Players - well, CD reminds me of John a little, but he seems a lot more likely to stay on task. I don't know what Aspect he'd be assigned.

Now - we're onto the Aspects we've only seen in trolls. We don't have as much for most of these, since we haven't seen any troll Quests, nor any Aspect powers sans Vriska and Terezi.

Terezi, the Seer of Mind, deals in personality - or maybe, more generally, vibes.

CG: WE'RE NOT EXILING JACK, HE'S COOL. [...] GC: [...] 1 DO NOT G3T 4 GOOD F33L1NG FROM H1M! GC: H3 K1ND OF CG: STINKS? [...] GC: W3LL GC: SORT OF GC: H3 DO3SNT SM3LL B4D 4CTU4LLY GC: H3 SM3LLS R34LLY CL34N 4ND SH1NY 4ND D4RK D4RK D444RK L1K3 4N O1L SL1CK 4ND TH3R3 1S 4 T1NY H1NT OF L1COR1C3 TH3R3 TOO GC: 1TS MOR3 L1K3 GC: TH3 W4Y H3 MOV3S GC: 1 SM3LL H1S SMOOTH MOT1ONS 4ND TH3 W4Y H3 SQU1NTS H1S 3Y3S 4ND 1T G1V3S M3 TH1S R34LLY N3RVOUS F33L1NG

When she smells someone, her Mind-enhanced perception doesn't just tell her what they look like - it also seems to communicate that person's essence. Terezi can see the idea of Jack Noir, here. She's smelling what it feels like to be inside his head.

GC: TH3 D4Y 1T H4PP3N3D W4S TH3 F1RST T1M3 1 3V3R H34RD FROM MY LUSUS GC: SH3 WOK3 M3 UP, 4ND 3V3R S1NC3 H4S B33N T34CH1NG M3 4 D1FF3R3NT W4Y TO S33 GC: 4 D1FF3R3NT W4Y TO P3RC31V3 3V3RYTH1NG 1 GU3SS, NOT JUST 1N 4 S3NSORY W4Y

Terezi is also a naturally perceptive person, so it's sometimes unclear whether her reads are due to Seer clairvoyance or her own deductive abilities. As a general rule, I'll only treat her insight as a Mind power if she explicitly refers to her sense of smell as its source, since that's the avenue for her supernatural perception.

GC: T3LL M3 YOUR R34L N4M3!!! >:[ TG: ok lets say its TG: dave why not GC: D4V3! GC: TH4T SM3LLS L1K3 TRUTH GC: 1 W1LL D3C1D3 TO B3L13V3 1T >:] TG: fuck

Therefore, I'm pretty sure her powers do, in fact, allow her to detect lies. Mind, then, might be related to the concept of truth - as in, your Mind is the truth of who you are, stripped of all illusions.

I was initially going to place Droog here, since he seems to be the only Crew member with his head screwed on, but I no longer think Mind is about being rational or analytical.

Blood is the first Aspect I don't really have a guess for. Maybe it's got something to do with genetics - Karkat is a carcinoGeneticist, after all, and a mutant to boot.

Spades Slick is blood brothers with a Knight of Blood, and he's got a lot in common with Karkat, commanding his party with a moderately annoying leadership style. I'll put him here on the strength of those parallels, and I can revisit it when Blood is explained.

We don't know much about Nepeta, so we don't know much about Heart. Shipping is all about drawing them, though, so maybe Heart is about romance - or, more broadly, relationships and connections.

Nepeta's Land of Little Cubes and Tea is a lolcat joke, so it might not conform to the Aspect Word pattern. I guess, since the cubes are sugar cubes, it might be a pun on 'sweetheart'? Who knows.

I'll put Hearts Boxcars here, and not just because of his name. He's the only member of the Midnight Crew with any interest in shipping.

Feferi revived Sollux with a kiss, so Life is probably healing, as it is in many other element systems.

How her Land of Dew and Glass relates to Life is a mystery. While dew can refer to condensation on any surface, it's often used to describe the water droplets which accrete on grass and other flora. That's kind of a connection to a living thing, but feels like a stretch and a half.

Let's also put Nanna here, since she's the only true healer in the cast. I don't know why the other sprites don't use the healing beam.

Our Void Player is in a Land of Caves and Silence - a hole in the earth, and an absence of sound. Void seems to represent negation, or a lack of something.

Also - this might be a reach, but Scratch describes the gaps in his clairvoyance as 'pockets of void', so perhaps Void also has something to do with uncertainty - aka, a lack of information.

Most of the Guardians could go here, really. Bro seems the best fit, since he's constantly hiding from Dave, and completely vanishes for most of the session.

When a timeline is marked for destruction, we say that it's doomed.

Doom seems to represent death, obliteration and entropy. Sollux Entered into the Land of Brains and Fire, and I think it's pretty clear that Fire is the trait which is tapping his Aspect.

Doom may also be the Aspect of prophecy. After all, Sollux is a prophet of Doom - so maybe he's a prophet because of Doom. It could also be related to his nature as a Mage, but Mages haven't been explained, so I can't speculate.

I originally thought that Sollux might be a Seer - but the Seer Class seems to be about gathering information related to a particular Aspect, rather than directly divining the future. Maybe a Seer of Time could see future events, but it's certainly not a default ability of the class.

Grandpa seems to have some ties to Doom. He prophesized Jade's death to her when he told her about her dead Dream Self - plus, he's a hunter, with a house full of corpses. Also, his entire presence in the session is overshadowed by the spectre of his future death. This is probably the Aspect guess I'm most confident in.

I guess there's also Hope, a brand-new Aspect with no lore. Eridan's 'hope' would seem to be expressed in the fact that he constantly hits on people, hoping in vain for a yes. Thankfully, we're not aware of any non-Players like that....

The mail is the one final hope for resurrecting a dead planet from its ashes, and the letter carriers are the brave soldiers of God in this righteous crusade. They are the defenders of the light of knowledge, free communication, and the exchange of ideas. They are the bold toters of all those little papery conduits of freedom, the white postmarked angels that whisper a message on their deliverance, a promise to the yearning: "There is hope yet."

...but PM is pretty much screaming about hope in her mail monologue, so we'll put her here.

ORDER IN THE COURT. YOU WILL HAVE ORDER IN THIS COURTROOM. IF EVERYONE DOES NOT SETTLE DOWN YOU WILL CLEAR OUT THIS COURTROOM, YOU SWEAR TO GOD.

It's hard to classify the Aimless Renegade. He's all about crime and punishment - which is certainly a Terezi trait, but I don't think it's a Mind trait.

As for Dad, he has a well-established gentlemanly personality, but I don't know what Aspect is the most 'gentlemanly'.

I could try and classify more obscure characters like FedoraFreak, the Pen-pal, Jaspersprite or the Hussie self-insert, but I'll tell you right now I don't have any guesses. Still, that was fun, and it was a good opportunity for me to update my thoughts surrounding the Aspects!

[judesmoonbeauty]

i love your theories on jude’s route and also your analysis of his words (the wedding event??? omg <3) so now i’m super curious to hear what your theories are in regards to him entering a relationship with kate 👀 like what would a confession of jude look like? or rather an acceptance of kate’s confession / her feelings? because i keep thinking of this one bond level chapter where kate told him she dreamt that jude said "i love you" and he just straight up said "wasn’t me. why are dreaming about other men" lmao and all the story events are either sorta pre-relationship or in-relationship. so how do you think the transition would look like? out of everyone jude truly seems like his own category haha and might stand out the most in comparison to the other main routes! the way he shows his love and care is always hidden behind other words so with him reading between the lines is so important… idk but i’d love to hear your thoughts!

Mild Spoilers from Events & Sexual content - MDNI

As usual, this is just for fun, we can't be dogmatic.

First, thanks for the ask, and I’m glad that you enjoyed my previous posts! I love this question, and sorry for the delay in responding, but I wanted to give it proper thought.

To start, I think it’s going to be a rough transition. Um, I feel like Jude is going to do everything he possibly can (no matter how crooked it is), to send Kate back home. I just feel the need to be prepared for A LOT of arguing between them at least in the first few chapters of their relationship.

Often times in his events (especially earlier ones), Jude is described as being cold, dispassionate. The Valentine’s Day CE -KissXXX- is an excellent example of this. So, I think he is definitely going to have a thick wall up, and I don’t expect him to be kind to her in any way.

I feel like there will be sexual intimacy between them, I don’t know how early on in the route, but I suspect that the first encounters will lack actual sentiment and emotional attachment. The island lust story is indicative of that (to me at least), they are together physically, but it’s more or less just to fill this sense of longing that they both have.

I can imagine a scenario where Jude says something spiteful and teasing to her about being “played” with by him, but she wouldn’t be able to handle it, and she’d be like, “Oh, wanna bet?” Cue the R18 scene. Then of course, the ending will have that emotional attachment when they are actually together….I’m hoping.

Now, in regards to who confesses to whom:

I could be SO wrong about this, but I really don’t see Jude confessing to Kate first. I’d love to see it, but knowing how much he goes through in his events (from intentionally sending her to an incorrect location for a mission, to trying to scare her into giving up), I doubt he’ll outright confess his feelings.

Of course, Jude’s Kate will have none of that.

It wouldn’t be surprising to me that Kate would confess to Jude first. His anniversary SE is what makes me think this. I’ve mentioned it somewhere before, but Kate tells Jude that they should just stick together because it’s too late. She reasons that she can’t ever return to a normal life anyway because people associate her with him now, and he gives in and signs her continuation contract.

Of a similar nature, I think she will tell him that they should stick together, of course with the bonus that she loves him.

I think that Jude will cave into the feelings that he’s been denying the entire time, and respond to Kate the way his VA - Kaito - said he would in an interview about Jude pre-game release:

“’The line, “If ya ever plan on runnin’ from me, ya better kill me first. ‘Cause if ya don’t, I ain’t lettin’ ya go till you’ve turned to nothin’ but bone and dust.’” This line really captures the depth of his love for the heroine, and how at that point, only death could keep him away from her. It felt like he was confessing to her that it was all or nothing, that he was putting his life in her hands.’”

Will we ever hear the word’s “I love you,” from Jude in the main story? Maybe, if Kate is on the verge of death, and he says "I love you" when he’s terrified that she might die, and doesn't want there to be any regrets??? Or perhaps in a future event after his main story???

I think his above line, coupled with his actions, will shine upon just how much he loves his beloved, Kate. As usual, it’ll be fun to see just how off the mark I am when his route hits.

[scrumptiousstuffs]

Some of the asks you get are literally FK antis in disguise

if you think saying your piece is gonna change someones mind and fall for your distorted narrative that only you see then good luck

I don't understand what they hope to get by doing them, acting like they know more and wanting others to feel the same

anyway the boys were adorable today and they deserve the world

Yeah, I don’t understand why of all people they want to “ask” me. Like my blog has FK stamped everywhere 🤷🏽‍♀️

I’m trying to be open minded. But some of the asks were clearly set to provoke or incite anger (maybe not intentionally…but that’s how it read anyway).

I’m also not sure what they expect me to say. My posts are 95% of me just gushing over FK (so, why will they expect me to shade any of the boys?) plus a smattering of other dramas/ other actors/actresses that I find interesting. I am not well-versed enough in BL world to do deep meta-analysis of anything in Thai BL and the characters in said dramas. Sometimes, if it strikes me fancy, I’ll write an analysis of an episode from a drama series that I like, but more to gather my thoughts before the next episode arrives. However, I’m not expecting people to read or agree with me at all.

They are enough blogs out there doing deep analysis of BL characters, the colours (and what it means) and how the storyline reflects Asian BL society as a whole etc. And you’ll find tumblrs out there debating about CP, the BL industry as whole etc. I’ll read them sometimes but I’m happy in my zone here, tq very much🙂

I have my own thoughts of course. However, my blog is really just for fun, where I can squeal about my hyperfixation on FK 😂 . I make no apologies for that.

Anyway, like you say anon, let’s focus on something more important - our boys! They were certainly super adorable during the Taipei Fanmeet🥺

[ender--slime]

long post about the 10/8 update incoming!!!!!!!

ok i dont usually post my thoughts on updates bwcause im the number one adhd rambler of all time but here we go.. you get to read them today!!!!!!! SO. one of my big HSBC theories is that Ult Rose is actually the mastermind of sorts behind the whole story. not in an evil way, because dirk isnt even evil, just in the way that she knows a lot more than shes letting on!!! and that dirk and al might not be the only ones with real influence here. this theory was first thought up by my friend @classpectpokerap and its called the "Gloves are Canon" theory and you can read about it more in-depth here and here! as a fun challenge go back and read the epilogues and early hs2 (and also new updates) with the idea that rose knows more than we think. youll get some really fun stuff out of it and hopefully youll be convinced :p

SO ANYWAYS. how does this concern the 10/8 anniversary update?

HOO BOY

first of all, lets get a few content warnings and things outta the way. this lil analysis is gonna talk about some suicidal characters and suicidal ideation so plz !! be warned!!

first off, we know that Ult Dirk is really just afraid. hes not scary or intimidating at all, to the reader, because he killed himself in one timeline and hes really just trying to do it again. he even says this in the epilogues- that he hopes his death is Just when it comes, and he hopes its dave that does it. dirk feels as though he doesnt belong- hes always felt this way. he thinks the world and his friends would be better off without him, and his last gift to them is to create a new universe where they can start fresh outside of lord english's influence for good. he might be the most obnoxious narrator on earth c, claiming that he knows whats best and that hes doing right by everyone and by you, as the reader. but the TAGLINE of the epilogues are "tales of dubious authenticity". it tells you from the start that youre dealing with the worlds most unreliable narrator here. a guy who says one thing, says hes fine, puts on a mask to make himself seem stronger, but is always harboring the most pain. who also thinks this way?

rose fuckin lalonde!!!!! this isnt just beyond canon either. try and count how many times she did some suicide mission shit in og homestuck. and how non chalant she was about every single one. this character trait stuck around, and its especially clear in the 10/8 update.

and who does she reference, saying that he made the right choice to kill himself?

bam. this miserable motherfucker wants Out.

notice how she doesnt say "kill himself". she says LEAVE. as if she knows ult dirk is in the other timeline, alive and well. as if she knows that she could have done that too. made the right choice. the canon choice.

but what does that mean, in terms of Gloves are Canon? well, if you read the gloves are canon theory part 2, it states how at the beginning of candy, rose's ult self visions completely went away supposedly, but by the time HSBC picked up last year, theyre back...and worse?

how? its only been a few days, in universe.

was she lying about them being gone? is it the influence of having the Light, the Narrative, the Eyes of the Reader back on her now that the comic is going again? was she ulted the whole time just like dirk and we dont know it?

to the reader, the rosemary breakup in both timelines was a destruction of rose's character. but to rose.....its what she thinks kanaya deserves. rose thinks kanaya deserves a life without her. rose thinks shes BETTER OFF without her. and maybe deep down she thinks the whole timeline, and the whole universe, is better off without her too.

just like ult dirk.

i have a lot of thoughts on the other two parts of the update, but i wanted to focus on the concept of ult rose with this post because. god. idk her whole section was so potent and not only confirmed my theory, but just made me feel sick!! /pos

[platoapproved]

heyyy I just discovered your blog and am really a fan, especially of your analytical takes of iwtv, so I wanted to ask if you have recommendations of blogs/tags where one can find more analysis (yk, the type, posts that are basically essays and *will* tear your heart out). Cuz it's almost always a lil bit of luck to find bangers in the tags

This is honestly so flattering and kind of you, I really do not think of myself as like, a very analytical person or someone who has anything unique or interesting to say about IWTV. I talk about it because I'm thinking about it CONSTANTLY but... anyway, thank you!

I don't really know of any blogs that are mainly essays and analysis? I follow lots of fun people who post a variety of stuff and there is meta in there.

@armandposting knows so much about the books and often posts meta / thoughts that tear my heart out.

@asthedeathoflight often has analysis of stuff that I love (sometimes as posts and sometimes in the tags)

@dreadfuldevotee also has written some wonderful analysis that I enjoyed tons

There's probably loads of other folks I'm forgetting. I'm following so many eloquent and insightful people... when I was first diving into IWTV fandom I just looked at the tags on gifsets I made and saw who had interesting stuff to say and just .... followed all of them lol. So that is one way to find blogs who are engaging in fandom stuff in a way that you like? Look at the tags on a gifset you like or a piece of meta and see who is saying what and go make friends.

💚! I hope this is helpful!

[sophiamarieispinkbunny-chan]

ED 2 In-depth analysis (Or me overanalyzing anime’s decision in everything and long post again yes, I just got so much thoughts, sorry for making you read a lot, but anyway I hope you enjoy)

I just want to point out 3 things that I’ve noticed in this ED

1.The turning into the light

In the first part we see montages of Loid, Anya, Yor, Bond, Yuri and Fiona with the light shining on all of them. However, it was only Loid, Anya, Yor, Bond and Yuri who were facing the light. See the difference in these?

Fiona seems like she doesn’t care to turn into the light source, she had her back turned into it and her eyes closed. And even though Yuri was facing the light it was only half his face that was lit, he wasn’t completely turning his head to it. Meanwhile it was Bond, Yor, Loid and Anya who turned their heads and faced the light directly, illuminating their whole face (even though we didn’t see Yor it’s evident she glanced straight into the light source)

We all know that light, generally speaking, represents warmth and happiness which the people shown in the montage never get to experience because of the tragedies they face, Loid and Fiona (because of the war and traumatic experiences that led them to being spies) Yor and Yuri (The loss of parents at their young age) Anya and Bond (Because they were experimented on)

However, the Forgers, despite being formed in the foundations of lies, secrets and deception, found that warmth with each other. The light shines full on them because they are the ones who experience that light the most since they became a family. Fiona has her back turned into the light because she wasn’t accepting that what the Forgers have is real while Yuri is still hesitant to accept her sister’s newfound family as her new source of familial warmth.

In addition, I found the symbolism of the light in the allegory of the cave quite similar. The prisoners in that cave are chained, they are unable to move, and so do the characters in this montage. Something’s holding them in seizing the light but the Forgers were the only ones who stepped out of the shadows to follow the light. The light represents self-discovery and enlightenment and each of the Forger family experiences that the more they spend time with each other. Yuri hasn’t had that kind of self-reflection (But in the manga he’s slowly starting to, thankfully) while Fiona seems like she isn’t interested in that.

2.The Sitting and Standing

I therefore conclude that WIT and Cloverworks hates Fiona more than the manga does. They just kept on emphasizing how much of an outsider she is in this family in this ED😂.

I noticed that in this turning around the house scenario, in this one Yor is sitting in the chair while chatting with Yuri. Both are sitting on the chair.

Then let’s skip first to Franky and Anya, they were also both on the chair while talking to each other.

Both of these duos are within each other’s eye level while they are talking to each other and both seem to have mutual understanding and are genuinely having fun.

Then let’s go back to Loid talking with Fiona, and notice how, even with that open chair in front of him, he was not sitting with her at the table. He is also standing just like his wife in the background. They weren’t on eye level indicating the standing one as the superior between the two of them.

Clearly, this emphasizes that Fiona is a mere junior colleague in Loid’s eyes and will never be someone he could have a mutual understanding with. (Anime is really putting Fiona in her place😂)

3.The Colors of the Clothes

This is the one that inspired me to revisit this ED because the decision about the color of the clothes bugs me the first time I saw the ED. Why does Yor wear blue in here?

I know that we’ve seen Yor wear blue in the anime but we’ve never seen this particular outfit in this color in the series. So why choose to dress her in blue here?

It’s because it’s connected to that chair analysis I recently posted. The one sitting in the designer chair featured in the volume and the one sitting in the same chair in the comedic inside cover have mutual understanding of each other the most. Like in Volume 1, Anya is sitting in Loid’s chair, Volume 2, Yor is in Anya’s chair, and in Volume 3, Loid sits in Yor’s chair. I've explained it in detail here. And they are exactly in the same arrangement in this ED but it’s their clothes that match the color of the eyes of the one who pays attention to them the most.

Anya’s eyes matches Loid’s green sweater

Anya is fond of spies like Loid and she thinks he’s the coolest, Anya often read his thoughts more compared to any other characters in the series.

Yor’s eyes matches Anya’s red dress

Yor is the one who often looks after Anya and the one who keeps her safe most of the time

And the last, Loid’s eyes matches Yor’s blue top

Yor caught Loid's attention when they first met and he only has his eyes set on her, not on any other woman because for him she’s the only fitting to be Anya’s mom and of course, his wife and no one could ever replace her in that role.

They were also in the same color scheme when Yor wore something blue in Episode 10.

Even if the secrets they have kept them hidden in the dark from time to time, they know they  would always have a light to go home to that is just on the other side of the door and I think that’s a wonderful subtle representation of their relationship in this ED.

Addition: I wonder what these two dorks are talking about before heading to bed. They sure do love talking with each other don’t they? Maybe sharing a room could help them lengthen their late night conversations as long as they want right? I don’t know, just a suggestion.

This post longer turned longer than I've intended, I planned to talk about the color of the clothes only. Sorry I have no self control. But do let me know if you think analysis makes sense.

[plusvanity]

what is your take on Pelle's mental health?

He never received any diagnostic, so needless to say, my opinion is strictly based on my personal observations on his letters, interviews, and general facts.

I think that he was suffering from Major Depression with Psychotic Features.

His depression may be rooted in childhood (according to the possible reference he made in his s*****e note) and it would make sense because any form of depression started at a young age (untreated) turns chronic in time. It not only worsens, but it can definitively change the chemical composition of your brain and major depression is a life-long condition.

Now, his psychotic features can be evident from his claims that he felt 'physically dead', that his blood was 'frozen' in his veins, that he didn't feel 'human', that there was a fundamental discrepancy between him and the people around him. Major depression can (and in some cases will) lead to psychosis. Forms can be mild to severe.

What in the 19th century was called 'Cotard Syndrome', which doesn't take part in any diagnosis nowadays. What doctors will call this condition is psychosis. To explain this briefly, any behaviour that suggests that a person had lost their touch with reality is psychosis, so it's fair to assume that Pelle most probably dealt with that. It can be due to his prolonged, untreated depression or a head injury, or a genetic factor (I don't necessarily believe it's genetics, but you never know), what is certain is that he vehemently believed that he was a 'living-corpse'. Feeling like a 'living-corpse' for a short while is fairly common in people who suffered Near Death Experiences actually, but of course, in his case, things were different.

I do believe that he felt like he claimed and this alienated him from everybody else, but I won't use the terminology of 'Cotard Syndrome' because it doesn't exist in the DSM under this name, not because it doesn't exist as a condition.

His body dysmorphia seems more related to his psychosis. I don't believe that he starved himself soly because of depression and self-hatred (although it came as a co-morbid factor in every aspect of his mental illness), I genuinely think that his delusion was the most predominant factor in his mental degradation (because that's how delusions are compared to 'sedentary' mental illnesses) but I can be wrong.. he could've had a neurosis, but I doubt it because neurosis is less severe. Anyway, nobody can tell anything for sure as nobody examined him or scanned his brain or anything.

But, feeling like a corpse is just as valid as feeling like a god or an inanimated object. You see, perceptual hallucinations manifest in the same way, no matter what extraordinary 'thing' you feel like. I'm horrible at explaining things or, rather, summing up my analysis on him, I hope you follow.

I think that there is a possibility that he suffered a brain injury (concomitant with that spleen rupture) that irreversibly affected his reality perception and it intertwined with his preexisting depression, making his life completely miserable.

This is my opinion, not the truth. Anyone can think anything. I think he was severely depressed, but there was something 'extra' that put him in another category. And that something 'extra' might have come from that horrific incident that sent him to the hospital.

I've done consistent research, read a lot of books, and made psychological portraits on Pelle, Øystein and Varg, so it's fun to reply to these types of questions. I won't post my work here because I have no reason to, but I will share some crumbs here and there.

[lgbtlunaverse]

3zun data analysis part 2 electric boogaloo

So in my first post on 3zun data analysis I said I manually excluded all non-3zun ships in the 3zun tag to figure out how many of them were actually centered around 3zun.

So that's... actually not how i first went about that. Instead, I decided to, one after the other, include each 2-out-of-3zun ship, and then manually exclude every relationship not contained in 3zun. (leaving te other 2-out-of-3zun ships alone) Then, I'd figure out how many of these fics were exclusively tagged the ship I included, how many included only one of the other 2 ships, and how many included all 3, which would allow me to calculate how many 3zun fics in total had 2-out-of-3zun ships included but no other side pairings, which, upon being added to the otp:true fics, should give me the total number of 3zun fics exclusively focused on 3zun.

"Wow! That seems really inefficient" yes! But it did give me more information for this post. Because with these numbers, I can somewhat crudely estimate what 2-out-of-3zun pairing tends to get more narrative focus within 3zun fics.

Here are the results, data collected on march 18th 2024:

There are 196 3zun fics tagged with xiyao and no non-3zun relationships. Of these, 151 are also tagged nieyao, and 137 are tagged nielan.

Coincidentally, nieyao has the same number, also 196, 151 of wich are also tagged xiyao, but only 117 are tagged nielan.

Then there are 159 3zun fics tagged nielan with no non-3zun pairings, with 137 of them also being tagged xiyao and 117 nieyao. (I hope you've all noticed those numbers matching up!)

by the way, here are the raw stats in just the plain vanilla 3zun tag, no filters, for how many fics are tagged with the different ot2s.

Also, this has nothing to do with anything, but for nielan and xiyao i mostly had to filter out relatively normal side pairings, a few crossovers with mxtx's other works or different danmei, nothing too weird. But the nieyao tag had THIS

JESUS/JUDAS??? IN MY NIEYAO?? It's more likely than you think!!

Anyway, to the complicated numbers! Selecting for all 3 after excluding everything else gives you 112 fics.

With these numbers you can now calculate some really fun stuff. Taking the fics tagged with both xiyao and nieyao (151) and subtracting the fics tagging all 3 (112) you get the number of 3zun fics that are only tagged as xiyao and nieyao, excluding nielan. In this case: 39

"Couldn't you just exclude nielan on ao3" you have to understand I like doing things the hard way.

Doing this gives:

Fics tagged nieyao and xiyao but not nielan: 39

Fics tagged xiyao and nielan but not nieyao: 25

Fics tagged nieyao and nielan but not xiyao: 5

Generally tagging 2 ot2 pairings in an ot3 signals that either the relationship is a V and the excluded ship are not together, or that- even if they're a triad- the excluded ship doesn't feature in the narrative much. As you can see, xiyao is by far the least likely to be excluded here.

Now doing some more math (or, if you're normal, clicking a few extra times on ao3) will give you the fics exclusively tagged with one ot2 pairing besides 3zun. Generally that means that this relationship is the narrative focus, even if all of 3zun are together.

And these results actually surprised me.

Fics exclusively tagged xiyao: 196 - 112 - 39 - 25 = 20

Fics exclusively tagged nielan: 159 - 112- 25 - 5 = 17

Fics exclusively tagged nieyao: 196 - 112 - 39 - 5 = 40

I checked the answers by actually filtering on ao3 (making all my work redundant) and uh. Yeah. I had expected that, with xiyao being the least likely to be excluded, the most commonly tagged ship in 3zun overall, and simply the most popular ship, they'd be first here too.

And yet, not only does nieyao have more fics, it has more than nielan and xiyao combined. Despite having less fics in total than either of the other 2!

Out of interest, I repeated the experiment without manually excluding all the unrelated ships.

Basically, for each 2-out-of-3zun ship, I only filtered out the two other ships. This data will give us the same insight into narrative focus, just without excluding all other non 3zun rleated side pairings.

This time I just included one ship, and excluded the other 2-out-of-3zun ships. (the hard math comes later)

Doing this gives:

3zun fics only tagged xiyao: 45

3zun fics only tagged nielan: 33

3zun fics only tagged nieyao: 59

It's a less drastic difference, but nieyao still come out on top!!

What this means, I think, is that people with nieyao as their absolute favorite side of the triangle are a lot more likely to write 3zun fics than those for whom the same is true for nielan or xiyao.

That is to say: Someone who likes all 3zun pairings equally is more likely to write 3zun where the pairings all share narrative balance. And if you really really really love xiyao, and think nieyao and nielan are pretty ok but you don't go crazy over them, you're a lot more likely to just write a solo xiyao fic than you are a xiyao-focused 3zun fic. Idem ditto for nielan. But if nieyao is your absolute fave, you wanna put those guys in a throuple anyway.

What I'm saying is I think nieyaoists are the subfandom of triangular desire. Which... *looks at my own mutuals*... is the least surprising thing i've ever said.

Anyway! I didn't stop there! I wanted to see which pairings were more likely to get tagged together again. I also decided to make things even harder for myself!

Instead of filtering one ship at a time and seeing how many of each of the others were tagged alongside it, like i did last time, I only gave myself a few figures to calculate it manually: The overall number of tags each had in the 3zun tag (348, 328, and 284, as pictured above) the afformentioned data about exclusively tagged fics, and the number of fics tagged with all three 2-out-of-3zun ships (175)

Rather than a simple subtraction, I had to... Well i'm just gonna let y'all look at my notes app. I wanna stress that i could have looked all of this up in minutes and in fact did later to check my answers! No time was saved! A lot was wasted!

But I like number so 👉👈

Tldr:

Fics tagged xiyao and nieyao but not nielan: 73

Fics tagged xiyao and nielan but not nieyao: 55

Fics tagged nieyao and nielan but not xiyao: 21

Once again, similar but slightly less drastic results.

With this I can only come to one conclusion: the fandom likes to joke about 3zun being a love triangle with xichen in the middle. But looking at these numbers? The real center is jiggy. Everything revolves around a-yao, baby!.