#anyways. that has no relevance to the story

[anneapocalypse]

#the whole way that dai dealt with the previous heroes was so......................#like the only reason they should want hawke is to put them on trial#and there's no reason cassandra pentaghast should care about the hero of ferelden at ALL except as leliana's girlfriend#the blight was ONE YEAR and it didn't leave ferelden people in thedas at large should not venerate the hof many shouldn't even know of them#like the inquisition is a religious organization meant to mediate between mages and templars can we please think strategically#why the fuck would you want the hof or hawke for any of that except that you need to pander to video game fans#who want to believe their pc is special#maybe we should have to reckon with the impending death of our first protagonist as the game timeline advances#maybe it's worth it to know that being a hero won't save you (@apostacism)

There's something to be said about fandom's romanticization of the wardens that I think is not quite true to what the wardens actually are. The wardens aren't freedom or a chance to start over or community when you've lacked it (and characters who are shown to imbue the wardens with this are regularly disappointed by it), the wardens are an independent quasi military organization leading short, brutal lives in pursuit of a seemingly impossible task. Bethany is not being unreasonable by her anger and disappointment at her joining - being a warden is a trap, it is a one-way street, it closes at least as many doors as it opens, if not more, and it promises only death as a reward.

[lukolathoughts]

Dearest gentle readers,

As a GCSE English teacher in the UK, I have taught Of Mice and Men until I am blue in the face. I know the text like the back of my hand. There is a scene/extract where Carlson takes Candy’s dog outside to be shot (spoiler) and the men in the bunkhouse listen and wait anxiously for the eventual gunshot. The tension builds and builds and builds and the characters become more uncomfortable as they wait. To demonstrate how this tension might feel, I would often show my students a video of a balloon getting bigger and bigger and bigger. You get the idea. Until it becomes so uncomfortable you can’t stand to watch it. You know the explosion is coming but there is nothing you can do to stop it. The eventual BANG brings both fear and relief. This my friends, is how I perceive the Lukola fandom at this current moment. Like a kettle whistling away on a stove that no one knows how to turn off. All waiting for the eventual BOOM of the gunshot that feels inevitable. It is in tarot, the Tower.

Of Mice and Men is also a great one for division. White against black. Men against women. Social class. Feels familiar doesn’t it in this day and age? Ironically, next year it is being taken off UK GCSE English exam papers for being too ‘controversial’.  A damn shame in my opinion, as it’s just as relevant now as it was in the 1930’s. Probably even more so. Anyway, in this fandom we have mainly the Lukola’s against the Jakola’s or the Jakeholes as I call them. This narrative was perpetuated by a certain creator after the festival photos of Jake and Nic emerged in August. Until this point it was widely accepted that Nic had been socialising with her ‘gay’ friend Jake and no one batted an eyelid about it. Until those pap photos dropped of a seemingly ‘tipsy’ Nicola staring adoringly up at her ‘friend’ Jake and scratching his arm. Hmm, weird I thought. Didn’t we just have chaos week? Wasn’t the fandom floating on air at this point examining Nic’s ‘drink your milk’ t -shirt and obsessing over Nicola’s insta posts? We knew damn well Luke was home from Italy and we knew he had left two days early alone without his homeboys and most importantly Antonia. What is the meaning of these paparazzi shots taken from the VIP area of the festival. Didn’t Nic just sign with CAA talent agency a few weeks ago? The gears in my over stimulated brain dismissed the photos as Nic simply being over friendly with Jake, as she is prone to be, despite him looking bored and uninterested in her, and I simply went about my day.

Well, we know the rest of the story. The New York stalking incident where a fan practically chased Nicola and Jake down the street. Again, sent to find them reportedly by the ‘creator’. The photos and videos emerged and showed that Nic and Jake were holding hands. It’s okay, he was just leading her away as she has little Irish legs. Now the narrative was well under way and the gleeful Jakeholes had started to creep out from their swamp. The Jakehole ship was rising like an infested remnant of an 18th century passenger ship, spluttering its way across the Atlantic. This is no splendid brand new Titanic, my friends. This is a leaky, wooden, rickety old boat that I’m amazed gained it’s sea legs in the first place.

This was then followed up by the real kicker. The Lukola fandom had been floating on air in joined union and rejoicing over ‘October chaos week 2.0’ as I like to call it. It started with Luke’s cheeky October 3rd post of Polin and ended with the sheer euphoria of BOTH Luke and Nic seemingly on route somewhere. Perhaps, together, perhaps not. But he posts his luggage at an airport! When has Luke Newton ever done this? Nicola then posts herself smiling on a plane and I swear everyone just about fainted in excitement. Oh, the euphoria. Only then spoiled by the stalking incident, which I am convinced spooked Nic and Luke back into the shadows. Then the second lot of Jake and Nic pap pics hit, and this is the one that really hurt. I remember my discord going wild and then me and my bestie wife (she knows who she is) trying to justify the weather for about three weeks in the UK. Not that it really mattered. Distraction or no, the stage was set for the most bizarre few months of my life and undoubtedly Nicola, Luke and Jake as well. What a mess. The Jakehole ship gains some traction and starts chugging away like Popeye the sailor man after too much spinach.

But we’re a stubborn bunch the Lukola fandom. Things behind the scenes were not adding up and anyone with a set of eyes and a smart phone could deduce the real story from Jake’s Instagram. And then like some magic glitter bomb in comes Antonia. Can you hear the song Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus screeching in your ear? Because I can. I had done a tarot read that morning and got repeated Antonia cards and most specifically the girl with the snake. My breath caught in my lungs, and I knew she was coming like some willowy Darth Vader with an axe to grind, eating a lettuce sandwich. I quickly jumped on You Tube and gave my warnings. I know it was inevitable. I know a lot of other readers got the same message that day too and I give some of them credit for that. Prepare the ship! incoming attack port side. Boom. I’ve really started to fear seeing bowls of pasta which is ridiculous. I think I have PTSD from pasta gate 1 and 2.

And here my friends is where another division happens. I can pinpoint it exactly for you. Antonia’s pasta video from a Rome restaurant that Luke had been tagged at an hour before. All hell breaks loose, and I mean it. I got a sick feeling in my stomach, not because I believe a word that girl says, but because I KNEW others would. People started jumping off the USS Lukola quicker than I could say, wait a minute, please just wait! There were me and others running around the deck shoving the band out of the way as the death throes of Nearer my God to Thee sound in a haunting melody. I could see the captain of the ship, followed by his foolish crew, letting the water suck them down whole. It was no use, they had jumped all the way down to Davey Jones locker while I still stood on deck, with many others, watching their faces disappear into the murky depths of the black sea.

I do not wish to give Antonia anymore power, but girl I would have been impressed if it wasn’t such a mean thing to do. There is speculation, Luke may have given her the video to distract from some things, that might even be a bit too delulu for even me to comprehend. She also had friends in Italy at the time who could have given her the video, including a dancer friend of hers. She could have simply saw Luke’s location and downloaded a video off the internet. Or she simply was there. I must come to terms with that critically in my own mind as a possible option. However, I do think if she really was there, she would have posted more than some woman making pasta. Admittedly, I am one of those people who like to take pictures of my food, and I bet my arse, Antonia is too. Where is your plate of pasta Antonia? Where are the pictures of Luke’s studio, his hotel room, his shoes? Any bit of evidence you are with him like she used to post incessantly during the world tour to prove her proximity.

We found out later that Luke was not at the restaurant that day. The man pictured was not the owner and just a fan who had a picture with Luke some days or weeks before. The next day after pasta gate 1.0, Luke pushes a bunch of PR explaining he is in Rome to film his first movie White Mars. I felt a lot of energy behind this from him, even if he didn’t organise the Deadline article directly. Antonia was punished accordingly and was in my imagination told by Luke, I will not like your pathetic grid posts on Insta for the whole month of November, so don’t bother. She didn’t post to her grid.

The damage had been done, almost like a tornado hitting and spinning USS Lukola on it’s head. But we were still standing with a new faction of die hard Lukola’s forming. Nothing short of a kissing photo or a word coming from either Nic or Luke was moving us off this ship and that is where we are today. The Lukola’s who jumped, what happened to them? Well, like ghosts of their former selves they spend their time walking along the seabed aimlessly between still wanting to be on the ship but having a new perspective of ‘realism’. We must be realistic, me hearties!! Luke is still most likely with Antonia (eye roll) and Nicola is with Jake (major eye roll, they have left my sockets). I talked a lot about critical thinking in my last blog and I don’t want to rehash it all here, but there is no evidence that Luke has been within the same breathing space as Antonia since last July. I do not count the dodgy Facebook post by Luke’s mother as any kind of believable evidence. No, I also do not believe that Luke’s mother has a beef with Nicola either. Anyone who ever meets Nicola seems to be sucked into her light like a moth to a Dyson hoover. I do not believe Michelle would to it to either Luke or Nic, as I have explained previously.

So, the last week has been a bit exciting for the Lukola diehard’s. Again, here comes another split. Crack, like lightening hitting a road. Nicola appears looking fabulous at the Big Boys premiere in London last Wednesday 22nd January. She was again dressed in black. I should have put bets on it, but I’d win pennies at this point in my predictions that Nicola would be wearing black. Now why is she wearing black again you ask, well dearest gentle reader that is the question, isn’t it? Why does she have a bottle of non-acholic beer at her feet? Why is her dress at the event raising eyebrows? I will tell you why: the Empress, the High Priestess and the Moon repeatedly. It’s as simple as that for me. That is all I will say, because the hate is real guys. I woke up Thursday morning to a barrage of insults. I had not said anything publicly on Twitter about Nicola.

Here now comes the death knell of my one remaining Lukola discord. I woke up to the announcement the server was being shut down. I took my Twitter private to stop the trolls and I thought it was a bright idea to make my own discord server, to hell with the haters. Welcome everyone else. Anyone who disparages Nicola in any way, shape or form in discussions of personal body issues I find disgusting. Talking about a person’s weight is vile to me, it is not acceptable and calling someone ‘just fat’ to explain away other things is abhorrent. We should not be saying things publicly. So now there the Lukola’s who believe one thing and the ones who still support Luke and Nic, but do not believe what they are seeing. That’s okay and we will not force those opinions on others. We will listen and we will wait. We will not comment on Nicola’s body.

There is one last split I want to touch on briefly. The division of the tarot readers. It is unfortunately the case now, much to my inner anguish. I started in this fandom listening to them and loving the readings. I had previously been reading privately on Harry and Meghan Markle (don’t even ask) and I was scared to read on Nicola and Luke because I didn’t want to know that weren’t together, because June 13th broke my heart just like everyone else’s. But these tarot readers were amazing, they gave me hope, and I truly admired and learned a lot from the OG’s. I listen and believe my spirit team implicitly and I will not turn on my intuition. I will not turn my back on Nicola and Luke. There is too much evidence to support they are together. Christmas and NYE confirmed this for me significantly and the fact that Jake got a job in Sheffield yesterday. Good for you Jakey boy, off you go and let the grown-ups carry on now. There are tarot readers who sadly stopped believing, they jumped off with the rest of the frantic Lukola’s and they keep trying to swim back to the surface, before being dragged back down by yet another social media post of the adjacents or paparazzi picture, despite evidence to the contrary.

You know who doesn’t have social media and her readings never change, and she stays true to her heart? The lovely Meghan on YouTube. She doesn’t know about adjacent drama, so they are simply not in her remit and her spirit guides do not address them either. My advice is to follow her lead and listen to what Nicola and Luke tell us, no one else.

It is okay as well for other tarot readers to have different opinions and I respect that, but as public facing roles with large platforms, it is our responsibility to be excellent role models to our followers. We should be supporting each other as women and not disparaging those we read on with our biases. Foul mouthed rants and calling Nicola names is not helpful.

In conclusion, the fandom is a powder keg. We are all sitting in the bunkhouse divided but ultimately waiting for the same gunshot that will snap us back. This might put us all back on the same page, all back to shipping Lukola where we started last year, or this gunshot could divide us further as all factions refuse to see or believe the truth. I truly believe we are coming to the end of this now and one way or another, the truth is on it’s way. We the fandom are the Tower, not Nic and Luke. One way or another, the tower will fall. One gunshot and bam.

[monosanimegenericzone]

Hunter x Hunter: Being bitched by a dude half your age

okay so can we talk about these two

and i cannot stop laughing how silva fucking zoldyck. in his prime at something like 42. getting his shit absolutely rocked by a "tee hee im not a teenager anymore" chrollo.

anyway. this is a breakapart analysis of how chrollo bitched him for a second time in the fight in yorknew.

side note: omg look its shalnark hiii

anyway

yap ahead. it got really long so proceed at your own risk

so the yorknew fight starts with the two zoldycks walking in on chrollo after tracking him down as fast as possible. and i mean as fast as possible. yes zeno probably could have used his 100m En to flash scan the whole building, but to parse out information from that- considering zeno has never met chrollo- would be pretty much impossible.

plus they had to deal with mafia grunts being idiots.

this is also a viable strategy. if chrollo was a pussy, he could have easily jumped out of a higher story window.

at this point neither the reader nor the zoldycks know what chrollo is doing in the building. they know the merchandise is intact and that they lost contact with 8 assassins so far, that's it.

we find out later that chrollo was playing for time, so if illumi was taking his sweet ass time taking out the 10 dons chrollo could have easily led the two zoldycks on a wild goose chase, but no, he's waiting for them.

getting into speculation territory. we don't know how long the fight actually lasted. the animated fight lasted like an episode and a half, but in hxh, time is irrelevant. the fight could have been 20 seconds tops.

minor point but- slightly relevant.

chrollo probably wanted to wipe out the assassins before making his next move and i cannot tell if he knew it was the zoldycks or not. again, him and zeno have never met, so even if zeno used En, chrollo would have no idea it's him.

point is. chrollo was waiting for the assassins to come to him. he wouldn't waste the time looking for them, so he wasn't even trying to hide as he just. casually meandered up the cemetery building.

but as soon as chrollo sees who it is his face does the iconic dark shadow. that- imma be honest- 2011 did him so dirty with.

for reference. he greets the other assassin like this

dawg is not playing

im giggling bcs its one of those "you can see the exact moment when he locked in" type things. its so funny

now this next part i will just present as a silly moment

but chrollo literally pulled a knife just to shank silva specifically. the grudge here is so real

how petty are you that you're trying to shank the guy and not his dad. this is so disrespectful

(satire)

anyway.

zeno earns chrollo's respect by being an actually seasoned fighter and able to break chrollo down for all he's worth.

those are eyes alright.

chrollo knows that silva is not going to attack him directly anymore, but he will have to keep silva in sight so that he never gets an opening.

chrollo is playing for time.

and- i did not notice this before-

ZENO FIGURED THAT OUT TOO.

THIS OLD MAN IS TOO OP. EXCUSE ME.

i can skip the rest of this fight otherwise i'll be here for 5 years glazing zeno for being the goat he is.

but chrollo's plan was to capture zeno alive. he can't secure abilities otherwise, and we assume fun fun cloth is inescapable once closed.

now picture this for a second. chrollo knows what silva's hatsu is most likely. and if he wanted to, he could have captured silva and gotten a hatsu out of him easily. silva is poisoned, slower than zeno, and the less obvious threat.

but no.

chrollo is more interested in zeno because silva is not worthy of his respect. even if silva had a really useful hatsu, i doubt chrollo would want anything to do with him. he won't even look at silva if he can help it.

also i realized that they were fighting in the basement. j'accuse.

but the really juicy part is what happens after the fight.

so i have a theory.

what if silva didn't know who illumi got a contract from. that would be the best troll ive ever seen out of chrollo in the history of ever

consider: chrollo knows about silva's warning to his kids. he and illumi have known each other for a long time, and because silva fought chrollo at least 3 years ago, i think it's reasonable to assume that chrollo and illumi already knew each other by then.

obviously we don't know for sure, but for my delusion let's go with that.

illumi is suddenly harder to reach, so chrollo tracks him down and illumi being illumi was just like "yeah dad said not to hang out with you anymore" so, chrollo, who knows illumi is a good asset, is like "bitch you aint going anywhere. imma pay you just to hang out. stick it to your old man"

so with that in mind. illumi ringing in asking for his client- who isn't zeno nor silva- and silva realizing in 0.2 seconds that it's chrollo. the immense fatherly sigh that woulda left his old ass man would have been fucking hilarious.

(based on textual evidence i dont think this is canon but its still too funny)

regardless, it's proof that illumi has either gone behind silva's back or got his reluctant permission. assuming the 'no phantom troupe' rule still applies at this time

"JUST BARELY"

SILVA BE FOR REAL I SWEAR TO GOD XDDDD

"JUST BARELY" ALIVE MY ASS.

anyway. real disrespect is chrollo only speaking to zeno. like zeno and chrollo are best buddies after going toe to toe for like 2 minutes and chrollo clearly respects zeno.

but here

right here

THIS RIGHT HERE. THE DISRESPECT IS ABSURD.

chrollo asked this question on purpose.

notice how silva isn't even in that question. SILVA IS NOT A THREAT TO CHROLLO.

AND WHAT'S WORSE.

ZENO CONFIRMED. INDIRECTLY. THAT CHROLLO COULD WIN THAT 1V1. IN FRONT OF HIS POMPOUS ASS CAT EYED SON.

LIKE LOOK AT HOW SILVA LOOKS AT CHROLLO.

HE'S SO MAD AND HE CAN DO FUCKING N O T H I N G

CHROLLO JUST BITCHED SILVA WITHOUT EVEN SAYING A WORD TO HIM, BY DEMONSTRATING THAT HE HAS CONNECTIONS TO AND CAN KILL EVERYONE SILVA RESPECTS IN THE FAMILY.

and chrollo is satisfied. he's done. he's out.

bro hit the deck waiting for his pals to show up.

and we know how pissed he was at the beginning of the fight. to be able to let it go like this- because chrollo's ass petty as hell-- he would not let it go-- means he KNOWS he made silva look like a bitch.

AND GOD DAMN. HE'S RIGHT.

thats my rant for the day. tata

[snoopyhq]

˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀ ARCANE CHARACTERS AND THEIR POKÉMON TEAMS !!!

includes: viktor // jayce // mel // caitlyn // vi // jinx // ekko

a/n: if you guys want a part two with any of the other characters, feel free to lmk which ones :D !!! i had a lot of fun with this, and it kind of went into a whole AU direction with all my ramblings. oops!

tagging @anexcellentshot <3

˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀ VIKTOR

For his team, I wanted a collection of 'mons that would kill it in a steampunk themed show, so here we are!

GOLURK

Its lore centers around it being an ancient Pokémon built by an ancient civilization, so not much is known about it

To me, this Pokémon would be perfect for Viktor due to its aura of mystery and its creation by human hands

It also fits well with Viktor's arc when he becomes the Arcane Herald (glowing eyes, larger stature, commanding presence, associations with otherwordly abilities)

LUXRAY

I'm a firm believer in the fact that Viktor is a cat person, so of COURSE he gets a feline Pokémon

Luxray is an electric type cat. Need I say more?

Viktor's Luxray hisses at anyone who looks at him wrong. It's very funny. A total lapcat and demands his attention at all times

Everyone else who isn't Viktor can get fucked

KLEFKI

END KLEFKI HATE 2025

Why do people hate Klefki?! Being so serious right now btw... like are they just allergic to fun and whimsy or what. IDGAF if its just a key that became a Pokémon, it's one of my faves forever and always

Anyways. As for its relevance to Viktor, I see it as sort of being a good assistant for him in the lab and such. Carries his keys, yes, but also his tools for him

ALAKAZAM

I'm pretty sure it's the most intelligent Pokémon, and Viktor is a whole genuis

The dots connect!

Alakazam likes watching Viktor work on his various projects, and it oftens plays chess with him. A very intellectually stimulating experience for them both. The score currently is very close, although whose ahead, we'll never know :-)

GALARIAN CORSOLA

OK SO ORIGIN STORY !!!

We know Viktor grew up in the Undercity, and where he was shown had a river with cave systems nearby. I believe him and Corsola found each other the same fateful day he met Rio

They see each other as kindred spirits, having suffered in the environment they were dealt. Viktor is protective of his Corsola, and caring for it makes him feel a sense of accomplishment

Very bittersweet

MAGEARNA

A Pokémon that was also built by human hands, specifically by scientists according to its lore

It also has an ability that makes it a wonderful caretaker of people

That falls in line with Viktor's motivation to use Hextech to improve the lives of the less fortunate, and this Pokémon fits his aesthetic so well. I think Magearna is a wonderful way to end his team with :3

˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀ JAYCE

His character grew on me. Jayce Talis, you should've been born into a shoujo, not forced to shounen </3

TIMBURR

Very helpful fella to have around a lab! Construction sites! Factories! That's the Talis family specialty!

His first Pokémon, and the two often played with wooden building blocks and LEGOs in his childhood

Specifically choosing the first evolution because I can see Jayce's Timburr growing alongside him in the craft and one day evolving into a Gurdurr, and perhaps even a Conkeldurr

Or maybe it can stay a baby, who knows?

HERDIER

Looks like Heimerdinger. I am GREATLY amused by this

Is the Talis family dog, and followed Jayce when he went off to the Academy

Always sighing like its got bills to pay but that's because it has to watch over Jayce away from home 😭 Get him a martini (dog-friendly) and a long vacation ASAP

Big theme of family and Pokémon with Jayce here hehe

TINKATUFF

Another great Pokémon to help Jayce out with his endeavors!

This one has the most attitude of his team, and only helps with extremely ambitious, daring projects

It wants to improve, and taking up easy shortcuts is an insult

Overall, a diva

He loves it anyways, and always makes sure to express his appreciation because its efforts DO pay off handsomely

DARMANITAN

Jayce works in a forge at some point in the series, so having a Darmanitan with him just fits

It can withstand the high temperatures and has the muscle to help him out

I was debating between this fella and Heatmor but I like Darmanitan's rotund look better, sorry Heatmor

CARBINK

Very mystical Pokémon. Parallels the Mage that saved Jayce and Ximena when he was a child

Also resembles a Hextech crystal lowkey

MELMETAL

I think it's SO funny that it has "Mel" in its name

Also, more continuation of Pokémon that can dabble in craftsmanship

Evolved from a Meltan that snuck into his luggage when he was moving to the Academy district and refused to leave

˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀ MEL

I wanted a team that serves both cunt AND power, so here is Mel's team! Looking for a transparent BG, full-body picture of her was actually so hard. What the flip. I thought it'd be in her Arcane Fandom Page Gallery, but it wasn't. AUGH

DELPHOX

Fox motif

Also a mystical one too, since its lore states that its burn marks were used in divination long ago

Mel being a mage means she can connect with her Delphox on a deeper level

KOMMO-O

Noxians are people who value raw, physical strength

Ambessa is canonically a warmonger. Mel having a fighting type Pokémon like Kommo-o goes well with that lore

It's powerful, dual-type with DRAGON, and just radiates aura

Also, its scale patterns and her braids can sort of match in style and it also works with Mel's gold accents!

UMBREON

Evolved from her Eevee

It happened around the time Mel left home for Piltover for the first time. Their bond runs deep

Hates being confined to a Pokéball, so it roams out and about at all times

SNEASEL

Devious Troublemaker #1

Smart AND sneaky

It's resourceful with its wits and stealth, like Mel

Tolerates her Fezandipiti

FEZANDIPITI

Devious Troublemaker #2

Abuses its pretty privilege to get away with EVERYTHING (it works)

Best buds with her Sneasel

INDEEDEE

A Pokémon that "never leaves its trainer's side", so it makes sure she stays taken care of and GOD KNOWS she deserves a break

Secretary Pokémon basically

Keeps tracks of her papers, blueprints, speeches, and council talking points

Hovers over her during the duration of those meetings and makes sure she's comfortable

Also really, really good at snooping around and finding out the most incriminating secrets. Memorized everything to the letter

˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀ CAITLYN

Firm believer that she would be a competitive player in a modern world.

FROSLASS

Cold as hell (figuratively AND metaphorically)

Just like Caitlyn

It's a feminine Pokémon and it's TERRIFYING, I love creepy/non-conventional Pokémon lore

Highkey judgemental. Has purposefully iced out a council membor on more than one occasion. Thinks they're useless

SINISTEA

They're kind of twinning. Tell me you guys see the vision too

Like... same side part and everything !!!

Tea parties and they're both the prettiest princesses. They also talk about the best way to 'get rid of' Salo. It's great

Caitlyn never utilizes her Sinistea in battle. It follows her around instead, offers an off-putting vibe to the function

YUNGOOS

Yes, this is because of the mongoose comment

Also I think it's really funny that you have these elegant and put-together Pokémon on her team, and then there's this guy

Bites ankles

DECIDUEYE

She's a sharpshooter and so is Decidueye

Had it since it was a wee Rowlet, and the runt of its litter (nestmates? flock? i don't know bird terminology)

With her in every shooting competition and practice she attends

Her ace Pokémon. They're so in sync, she doesn't even need to voice moves aloud anymore

GROWLITHE

Enforcer ☹️

CORVISQUIRE

It's intelligent, even compared to other bird Pokémon similar to it

Also has that air of innate curiosity

Caitlyn had her whole detective thing in Season One of the show, so her having a curious corvisquire on her team makes sense to me

˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀ VI

If Vi has no lovers, I'm DEAD!!! Literally became one of my favorites the second she showed up one screen. I’m also the eldest sibling so maybe I connect to those characters more… Choso from Jujutsu Kaisen is another absolute faves of mine.

URSHIFU (RAPID STRIKE STYLE)

Matches her boxing fighting style

Very focused and disciplined

Her go-to sparring partner

LOKIX

A good kicker is needed to balance out a team of mostly fist-to-fists combat

Makes sure she does not skip leg day

Not that Vi would ever but it's nice to have someone look after her like an elder sibling for once

ALCREMIE

Similar to Caitlyn having Yungoos on her team, I find it funny to have Alcremie be the contrats on Vi's team

Her calling Caitlyn "cupcake" all the time? Please

Vi dotes on her Alcremie

First Pokémon she caught that wasn't in the Undercity, so it's a little bit of a primadonna, but who cares? It's adorable

Head chef of the team because picturing this little 1'00" Pokémon bustle around a kitchen area and whipping up delicacies makes me laugh

RIOLU

The youngest on the team and has the most to prove

Or at least, that's Riolu's mindset

Follows her Urshifu around like a little shadow, eager to learn and become the strongest of 'em all

Will evolve into a Lucario one day

CHARMELEON

Complements her color palette

I firmly believe she would choose a fire-type starter in any game route

Also has an insatiable fighting spirit, which I believe can be properly nurtured with Vi as its trainer and the rest of her team

Pairs up with her Riolu the most during sparring practices

ALOLAN MAROWAK

Both Vi and Marowak lost their mothers at a young age

Both watched their mothers die, even if the circumstances were slightly different

Not having a Cubone that evolved into a Marowak on her team would've been such a missed opportunity

˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀ JINX

Her team was the first one I finished putting together in my Google Docs. Very happy with how this one turned out.

BOMBIRDIER

The word "bomb" is kinda in the name

AND that fuckass bird is an asshole, according to it's Pokédex entry

I think it's hilarious, and fits Jinx's antics very well, especially with her first scene after the timeskip in season one

PANCHAM

The Pokedex entry for this one says it finds a Pangoro to look up to and trains relentlessly to get stronger like its mentor

Very much a reflection of how Isha looks (looked) up to Jinx, and wanted to be like her :')

NICKIT

Only surviving kit in the litter of Silco's Theivul

Naturally, it became Jinx’s Pokémon

Messes with her Espurr all the time. Gets lightly scolded, pretends to feel bad, and gets right back to it when her back is turned

Brings her scraps of metal and other shiny valuables it nicked (haha!) from unsuspecting citizens

HISUIAN TYPHLOSION

NOT A GOOD YEAR FOR MY BOY TYPHLOSION

Justice for him for REAL.

But anyways. Colorful flames, extravagant, explosions. It basically spells itself out

Keeps her Nickit in check when it gets too rough with her Espurr

INFERNAPE

Her signature calling card is the graffiti monkey

Her monkey bomb/gadgets !!! Motifs...

The most disciplined of her Pokémon

ESPURR

Look at it and tell me it isn't experiencing the horrors(tm) and the voices(tm) at all times

I think Jinx could see herself in it in a way, and having Espurr on her team is kind of a grounding experience for both of them

They save each other

This lil guy is her PRIDE AND JOY ok

˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀ EKKO

Ekko deserves the entire world and more, I'm being so serious right now. Ekko 4 President.

DRILBUR

Little guy who just enjoys digging. Yeah, put him on the team

Would be very helpful for finding trinkets that Ekko could bring to Benzo's (in a happier timeline, they continue spending their days like this)

When the canon events happen, its role now becomes finding/forming tunnels and escape routes

NOCTOWL

Scout in the air

Goes along with Ekko's owl motif :D

Caitlyn already had Decidueye, and I feel like a tougher, more rugged looking Pokémon like a Noctowl fits the boy savior better

His team is a lot of earthy tones I've realized

Undercity Represent 🗣️🗣️🗣️

CELEBI

Ekko's connection with time, the four seconds, etc. etc.

Celebi is a time traveling Pokémon. It's perfect :3

I think he's the only character with a mythical Pokémon on his team, and you know what? He deserves it. Big Ekko fan! He can have a mythical Pokémon, as a treat

HOUNDOOM

If aura farming was a Pokémon

Looks tough, is an even tougher fighter

The rear-guard of his team. It looks out for the other ones and makes sure they all get to safety whenever it's brought along during one of Ekko's missions

Acts as a heater for the others and Ekko himself

Completely chill with letting Noctowl perch on its back

SKWOVET

Ok hear me out, this is the comedic effect guy

I headcanon that he pulls a Meowth in the anime and taught himself to speak human. NOT for the pursuit of romance this time, but for the pursuit of gossip

One of the tiniest ones recorded, so it sneaks around really easily

Like Mel's Indeedee, it gathers talk and whispers that otherwise would not see the light of day, and relays it all back to Ekko

It keeps him up to date on movements of other political factions and certain people (Jinx)

Has grown spoiled on all the treats it gets fed from being really damn good at its job

KROOKODILE

Found by Ekko during one of his explorations underground with his Drilbur

Battled against his Drilbur, and then his Houndoom when they broke up into the surface

Was eventually caught, and now goes on side quests with Ekko's Drilbur

Gives Ekko some peace of mind knowing that Drilbur has a bigger, more formidable friend watching out for it

Totes the coolest, rivalling Houndoom in levels of chillness

[vidavalor]

You know what I just noticed? Hastur and Ligur aren't going to have to lurk around the graveyard all night. They're only there for a quick meeting with Crowley?

Yes. 😂 The scene ending is kind of the punchline to the narration there that is not exactly about Hastur & Ligur... Not entirely anyway. *sets you up with a plate of nachos*

The Voice of God is largely narrating using passages from the novel and those passages contain a lot of unique phrasing, yes? This lady goes on about nightingales, about the speculated tropical fish of the surplus baby, about the Russian cultural attache's black bread. There's a purpose to this beyond just that it's entertaining.

These types of sentences are all what's known as la plume de ma tantes-- those things Aziraphale makes a joke about in French to Crowley in S2. That is the name for those weird, awkwardly-phrased sentences you might learn when you're learning to speak a new language that you know you will never, ever have to say in that way in your real life. The purpose of the existence of la plume de ma tantes is to teach you more vocabulary than you would otherwise learn so you can learn to speak the language more quickly. This is how they are relevant to Good Omens.

One of the primary jobs of The Voice of God in the series is to teach us how language works in the series. She's speaking Crowley and Aziraphale's cant-- their hidden language-- for the entirety of her narration in order to help us pick it up. There are other keys to it in the series in everything from Demon's Guide to Aziraphale's magic words to the words on the tv in the opening of 1.01 but one of the best ways to learn it is to just listen to The Voice of God.

Even though the visuals on the screen when God give us a lesson on lurking are Hastur and Ligur, the joke is in them doing a literal version of about what God is speaking figuratively. It takes place early on in the series and the point is to show that the narration has other levels besides just recapping what we're seeing happen on screen in front of us. It also helps to reinforce the idea that the literal and the-figurative-and/or-euphemistic are all always very present things at once in the story-- as would be the case with a witty story from a queer-coded novel that is using the ultimate in debate over literal vs. figurative-- The Bible-- as part of what it is satirizing.

Hastur and Ligur begin the scene by both coming up to the surface, right? In their case, they've literally come up from Hell to arrive on Earth. They have sullen menace in the fact that they're gloomy and a bit evil and, if necessary, they could sulk and lurk around with their negative attitudes all around the graveyard all night but all of this is very literal. Hastur and Ligur are just *literally* coming up to a surface and then *literally* prowling around the actual edge of an actual graveyard.

They are showing us a visual example of the literal side of what The Voice of God is talking about but what she says is worded very intentionally in such a way as to be applicable to Hastur and Ligur in this scene, yes, but really more to send us on a more figurative and euphemistic track with what she's saying as well.

Look at what she says again and, in addition to applying it literally to Hastur & Ligur, also apply it more figuratively & euphemistically to our main characters, using the same word hints we are shown in different scenes:

Two demons lurk at the edge of the graveyard. They are pacing themselves and can lurk for the rest of the night, if necessary, with still enough sullen menace left for a final burst of lurking around dawn.

Demons are also people who are god-like/genius-level skilled at a particular thing and who have great enthusiasm for something. What are these demons in question really good at doing, according to The Voice of God? Lurking, yes? To lurk is to lie hidden away, to escape observation, and to move about in secret. It comes from the Swedish lurka, which means: to be slow in one's work... all going along with the fact that these demons are pacing themselves this evening. They can lurk all night, we are told! And where are they lurking?

At the edge of a graveyard.

A graveyard is a resting place for the dead and an orgasm is, as the French long ago put forth, a "little death", making this an example of death/destruction/Armageddon as sexual metaphor. Two demons lurking for the night and pacing themselves = two skilled and enthusiastic secret lovers spending the night in bed and taking their time. If they're lurking at the edge of a graveyard all night, they're bringing each other to near-orgasm without release repeatedly aka the word that's also just there in the sentence already-- edging.

They can do this all night-- "if necessary" (lol)-- with still enough what left? Sullen menace.

Sullen is connected to the word soul and derived from that word's homophone-- sole-- a word that is a kind of a fish, a part of both the foot and of a shoe (some Bildad/walking the Earth in there), and which also most frequently means someone's one and only of something. Menace = men + ace. Ace is rooted in word relating to being one and to unity and is slang for being a highly-skilled expert. Menace = being good at being people/being one together. The demons still have enough sullen menace left for a "final burst" (climatic innuendo) "around dawn"-- just before Romeo has to leave before they get caught lurking.

As Crowley once said, sometimes...

[homestuckreplay]

100 Page Instant Retcon

(page 1258-1268; Snowman theories)

Clubs Deuce has a ‘hat full of bomb, a fist full of penis, and a head full of empty’ and a HEART FULL OF LOVE FOR CLOCKS. Never forget. Even when he is trying to be tough and scary.

Stitch is absolutely right about the C4, I checked it out and that stuff is explicitly designed as a ‘safety explosive’ that doesn’t detonate due to physical damage or heat, only by a shockwave emitted from within. To be honest Stitch’s surgical needle powers could probably do something there if he wanted. And considering Droog thinks Stitch is worth keeping alive and might be able to actively fight against Lord English, he might be one of the more powerful Felt members, maybe able to survive an explosion.

Page 1260 has a title drop! I really like ‘Don’t Bleed on the Suits’ as the intermission title, it hits the tone well and the double meaning of suits as playing cards and formal wear is on brand. Suits are already important to the younger two Egberts, and games are relevant in general, so the title is reflecting motifs from earlier acts which is cool. The line is also good in context because Droog and Stitch, with their mutual interest in clothing presentation and preparation, should absolutely go rogue and make their own gang.

Boxcars’ recurring Red Cheeks magazine (p.1221, 1262) seems like a reminder that the intermission is more ‘adult’ than the rest of Homestuck, with jokes about sex and depictions of graphic violence. I mean, as graphic as it can get given the simple shapes of the art, but we see bullet holes and pools of blood while fights in acts 1-3 just had characters get knocked out. And then we get the introduction of Snowman, which warrants the first flash page since the intermission’s opening and presents the hot noir femme fatale, who literally stops all the fighting and leaves everyone stupefied with her presence.

I’m really interested in what’s going on with Snowman as a character, but I don’t love the whole ‘women are Special and Different to so-called “regular people”’ and ‘it’s not okay to hit girls’ tropes this plays into, whether accidentally or otherwise. Comparing this to the ‘reveal’ that PM is a woman, where AR says it would be ‘quite a pity to blow up that tall attractive female’ (p.1107) and then blows her up anyway because the law is the law, I definitely think the intermission is consciously taking a different tone but in this particular case it becomes less interesting than the main story.

I understand the 8 ball symbolism, although it’s a BIG increase of scale to go from ‘this guy is slow’ and ‘this guy sees near future trails’ to ‘if you kill [Snowman] you destroy the universe’ (p.1268). Jumping between timelines is extremely powerful (gonna circle back to this in a minute), but I still wasn’t aware the existence of the universe itself was at stake. But if so, does this have something to do with Jade’s MAGIC 8 BALL?

‘You might consider smashing it, but you are a little superstitious about whatever ominous consequences that might have, even if the occult talisman in question is a cheap piece of garbage.’ (p.804)

I think destroying the universe is a pretty ominous consequence, personally. I don’t think Snowman is literally Jade’s 8 ball, but I think they have similar magic. And from the same page:

'You guess maybe it could be used as a reverse-prediction device, and always trust the opposite of what it says.' (p.804)

I think there’s a good chance Snowman is a double agent. Obviously she’s a chess piece and not a green man, and would have fought alongside the Midnight Crew within Sburb as they’re all from the ominous planet, but at some point defected. So she needs to stab Slick in the eye as she walks past to keep up appearances that she’s no longer working with him, and also as a general power play, because she was (is?) probably the true leader of the Midnight Crew (some sort of joker or wild card?) but we have already been told that 8 balls aren’t to be trusted, so her true allegiance could be to either gang, somebody else entirely, or only to herself, and she could be giving everyone different stories.

'The MAGIC CUE BALL on the other hand is said to make predictions with alarming precision and specificity. Unfortunately it lacks a portal on its surface that allows you to view the prediction.' (p.805)

And for what it’s worth, this could provide some clues about Lord English, who is surely the Felt’s cue ball, directing all of their moves. Based on this description, he has total knowledge of everything that happens in his domain (the whole universe?), shares this with nobody, and is both completely inscrutable and also hidden away, only communicating with members of the Felt (hence why Stitch needs to be locked away, and why Snowman wanted to become part of the Felt – he’s a very powerful person to have on side).

Anyway the crazy thing is, this whole Snowman scene only happened because Slick pulled Crowbar’s pin, and straight up undid everything that happened across the last hundred pages/twelve real time days. A great little time travel short story suddenly gone, with very little clarification on what, exactly, is different. I definitely think this will be undone by putting Crowbar’s pin back in a few minutes – but it is a reminder of how tenuous this story is and how these two gangs might be smart enough to carry out complex and effective temporal plots, but a single pin can make it all worthless. Feels like a power move from the author in some ways and a reminder to the reader that anything can happen, and also raises questions of which if any timeline is the ‘true’ one.

Also Snowman gets two lines of dialog in her flash! I barely noticed before, but this intermission is FILLED with dialog – it’s not presented in the chatlog format, it’s reported speech but quoted directly from ALL these characters. Which is interesting because WV, PM and AR don’t speak at all, but the chess people here definitely do. And out loud dialog has been so rare in the early acts – I think just Dave’s ‘Stop!’ (p.354) and Jade’s speech to her grandpa (p.919) – that it’s wild that I didn’t notice until now, and I’m interested to see if this change will carry over to Act 4, perhaps if/when John and Rose meet in person inside the Medium.

As a final side note, I noticed this Felt poster on Dave’s wall (p.312, 353) and it gives us a glimpse of missing member Cans, who is totally huge and jacked from the look of it.

[wishchip106]

Alright since you wanna talk about your ghosts au here's a couple questions

How'd they each die?

What other characters are relevant in this au/what roles do they play?

Does them being from different time periods alter either's personality any?

huzzah!!! 🤩

Charles dies in november, 1662 after having his drink poisoned during a dinner party

i haven’t fully written out how Erik dies but basically he was sent on an mission to infiltrate a british base (the manor) but it didn’t turn out well and he was shot in the chest

he wouldn’t of been shot if he didn’t hear a whisper of Charles’ voice 😔💔 L ratio ig

i have eight other ghost characters that are a mix between the first class kids and the main xmen. Logan is going to be the main live character

they don’t entirely match up to the original ghosts but i’m slowly figuring out which role to give to who

i feel like the different time periods do affect how they act but since the main story is set in the late 90’s they’ll just have a more modern type personality

here’s the list of ghost characters and the few that have powers:

* Hank - caveman, death- ??, age- 29

* Charles - stuart, death- 1662, age- 30

* Jean - tudor, death- 1603, age- 24

* Scott -1980’s, death- 1984, age- 38

* Erik - world war 1, death- 1915, age- 32

* Ororo - victorian, death- 1879, age- 39

* Alex - plantagenet, death- 1432, age- 44

* Angel - tudor, death- 1565- 24

* Raven - stuart, death- 1683, age- 43

* Irene- edwardian, death- 1908, age- 41

Irene moves on before the main story

powers:

* Charles can partially pierce the veil with his voice- live people hear faint whispers

* Angel can fly

* If passed through Jean, victim gets a sudden heat flush/ always has heat waves coming off her

* Erik is a poltergeist (moves objects)

* Ororo can tamper with anything electrical

anyway thank you for asking me i’m growing more and more passionate about this 😿😿

[caterpillarinacave]

Hello! Yes/No anon here! I just wanted to take a pause for clarity, to be sure we are both on the same page since a lot is happening and the path is winding ever more twisty. :)

So far, you have discovered a new world, lived with its people, learned the local language, and come across the journal of someone who passed through before you. You have made contact with the next world in the Forward Path and deciphered a small amount about this strange system including that some items develop unique properties when they pass through the door.

Currently, a group the journal describes as a cult has appeared in town. The people in the town have been open with them and told the cult you are staying at your friends farm. The cult will be showing up at the house soon, but luckily your friend was able to warn you before they got there.

To be clear, you want to grab your things, which fortunately are already packed, and race to the Forward door, leaving your friends to direct the cult to the door with instructions to stay twelve feet from you while you discuss what they're looking for you for as well as any additional information they may have and if anything should spook you you'll be jumping through and slamming the door closed?

Yep, all seems clear! Indeed, the continues to thicken! Very interesting to see how this will go. Anon, I continue to be impressed with your persistence and creativity; the story could easily have plateaued at several points and been very difficult to continue in a coherent way. However, that has clearly not discouraged your writing; I hope you know you should really be proud of your work!

I'm pretty prepared to step through this time; even if they seem friendly. It feels within reason to be like "yeah, I believe you mean no harm but I would feel more comfortable not being in the world".

I'll let my hosts know that as I leave; thank them sincerely as I can and explain that there's a pretty decent chance I won't be back soon. I'd mention that if there ever is another person from another world like me to direct them to journal I've been keeping in my room (presuming they don't find the one tossed in the bushes), and give them some more berries since thats all I've really got to offer lol. If I ever gain an understanding of this sort of travel I'll do my best to come back to this world and visit them; I feel like they deserve an update.

Then I'll just go sit at the door; keep all my stuff close of course, and keep an ear on the walkie and stuff. When I first get there, before the cult shows up, I'll scribble a lil' note about what's going on and toss it through for my otherside-of-the-door friend, just so I don't jumpscare them falling through the door screeching with a cult behind me.

I'll update the situation in the journal in the berry bush (the existence of which I will notably be keeping away from the cult members) while I wait.

Also, I'm going to *try* to write down some stuff that happens with the cult as we converse? Probably useless since I don't multitask well, but if there's some sort of super important word I'd like to have it written down lol. Maybe if theyre chill enough I can get them to go away in like. ten minute intervals. so I can feverishly scribble and they can wonder if everyone from my world is like this or if its just me.

[lgbtlunaverse]

I feel like too often people frame Nie Mingjue's issues as ignorance borne from safety. Like, they think that because of his privilege as a sect leader he doesn't know what it's like to be in danger and forced to make hard choices to survive. And I disagree. Strongly.

First of all, Nie Mingjue is very familiar with death not only from war but from. You know. Actively dying since the age of fourteen. Let us not forget Nie Mingjue is dead! Super dead! And maybe he didn't die the exact way he expected to but he did, absolutely, know he was going to die. To act like Nie Mingjue is unfamiliar with the scenario of "do something you find morally reprehensible or die" is to ignore that he has been living that exact scenario and chose death.

Nie Mingjue knows death is a risk for someone like Jin guangyao, in fact he explicitly acknowledges it even in his worst moments like the stairs in chapter 49. Had his issue been ignorance, then he would've responded to Jin Guangyao saying that he's in danger and has to sacrifice others for his own safety with "No you aren't you'll be fine." But he doesn't. He accepts the fact that jgy is in danger with no qualms and says: then you should die.

That's not him betraying his values, those are his values. He is, essentially, pro-suicide. Jgy is like hey I have a moral dilemma what should I do and nmj straight up goes "Kill yourself" and earlier that same chapter when he was faced with a moral dilemma he went "I'm gonna kill myself." He believes the solution to moral dilemmas is suicide! He is extremely consistent about this! When it's pointed out to him that it would have been dangerous for Wen Qing to oppose Wen Ruohan it doesn't phase him because he thinks putting yourself at risk to do the right thing is the only moral choice. The idea that he can only hold this belief because he is himself somehow not in danger, again, requires you to ignore that he is dying the whole time. And it doesn't deter him. He is the idea of self-sacrifice as a moral good taken to its absolute logical extreme. Someone who is ready to die and demands the same from everyone else.

It makes him a very fun case study for fandom, because a lot of fandom spaces also tend to revere self-sacrifice as the ultimate good, and yet we get very uncomfortable when someone starts demanding it of characters we love. Like woah, hold on, that's a bit too far isn't it? Only we the audience get to do that!

[egophiliac]

CROWLEY SSR THOUGHTS

there is zero basis for this, but I can't get this thought of my head

I don't know why I decided to draw it this way

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine looking at a character whose entire premise is that in every stage of his life, he's made every version of himself into someone that inspires people to such a degree that EVERY SINGLE VERSION OF HIM has people wanting to literally follow in his footsteps in some way or another.....

And coming to the conclusion that like.....the most important things about him are the sum of all his trappings. His entirely homemade developed from scratch could not exist if not for what he already was and brought with him BEFORE crafting this newest version of himself trappings, with his greatest trait throughout all of it being his adaptability; his ability and willingness to roll with the punches and not try to simply weather any opposition or changes to his life but instead reshape himself as needed to better fit INTO whatever new shape his life and the world around him takes. All while managing to carry the most innate, fundamental and necessary aspects of himself from one version to the next. Thus every single version of himself is different but simultaneously every single version of himself is also undeniably the same person.

The strength of this character, to me, will always be that he can be so many versions of himself, he can become so many things, all without ever actually losing or discarding any of the aspects of himself he considers most essential, the things he's not willing to lose or give up just to keep going. Finding that road not taken by most, usually because most never even think to look for it as an option. But one that he's always able to find because the one trick he's mastered in his tumultuous life is threading that needle of not just digging in his heels in an unproductive way but rather being selective about when and where he makes a stand and decides "this is not a thing I'm willing to compromise about" but here are places and ways I can and will change and evolve and adapt in order to make it possible for me to hold onto these parts and keep them as they are.

And that's why its always so mind-boggling to me that so many writers can't seem to think of anything else to do with Dick Grayson other than invent some new reason for him to just....not be that person, or to like just take the character whose most basic fundamental trait he's NOT about to compromise on is willingly giving up his spot in the driver's seat of his own life.....and make him just a passenger in his own life and stories.

Dick Grayson at age nine....at age nineteen...at age twenty nine....the one core thread running through all versions of him is the only way he's standing back and letting you call the shots for him or putting him on the sidelines in some way is over his dead body.

HOW he goes about that, what that looks like, who he becomes and what aspects of himself he plays up at some times and what traits he lets fall by the wayside at other times when they offer less in service to his primary goal here....that changes constantly. He changes constantly.

But those changes are almost always (or at least they used to be/should be IN MY OPINION) made with the intention of keeping certain things about him or his life as consistent as possible.

That's the duality of Dick Grayson that I'm here for. The inherent contradiction of him that COULD allow for endless conflict and breaking new narrative ground in all sorts of ways if mined properly:

His eternal willingness to compromise....but only ever in pursuit of doubling down on the ways he's not willing to compromise.

Forever walking that tightrope in ways that only a kid born and raised in a circus could ever hope to.

[timetravelstudies]

This got long and annoying so its under a cut now

The way in the fight w the museum director insul gets the same big injuries he has given trianon (so far), aand particularly the ones that T thinks back on often as specific sources of fear/humiliation/control (pepper sprayed in the eyes; kicked in the balls; choked with smth small and thin ((wire / car window)))….. im too tired to formulate a proper Thought abt this but the fact this all happens right in front of tjat one painting of dante & virgil in hell + insul and the director are in the exact same pose right as insul is about to die* is obviously so meant to evoke the idea of contrappasso….. at this stage trianon isnt “””strong””” enough (doesnt understand Insul enough and most importantly doesnt fully inhabit himself and his own strengths) to be able to pay back Insul’s violence (as he does later, though not in such a literal way anymore) so tje director will do for now🥰 bc they both need to descend into hell they both need to be subject to physical and psychological violence in order to strip down layers……. so its cool how the director serves that purpose for this phase 1 both in story for insul himself (who eats shit in this fight) and also as a sort of alert for the reader like make no mistake they are BOTH gonna get put thru the ringer. even the top has to wade through cocytus! or smth

[aroaceleovaldez]

Mark Oshiro confuses me a little bit not going to lie. In the press tour for the first book all they ever talked about was how Nico is their son and Will is fine I guess. Then they said like 2 weeks before TSATS came out that they didn't understand Will's character at all and it's one of the main reasons why Will has so little POV.

Possibly unpopular opinion but I don't think it's a good, encouraging sign when the writer admits to not really caring about the deuteragonist or not even having a sense of how to write them...

Yeah, no. If you have no interest in 1/2 of the POV characters of your book, you REALLY shouldn't be writing it (or at least, not have that be a main character). Especially when the main way TSATS could have been improved is if it was primarily Will-centric instead of Nico-centric. Will basically had next to no established character prior to TSATS! He was practically a blank slate! But all the new stuff we got for Will in TSATS was so clearly disinterested and had no regard for his previously established traits (or the established timeline/canon). Which is annoying because fleshing out Will would have been the PERFECT opportunity to actually incorporate a lot of the topics that Mark Oshiro specializes in as a sensitivity reader, which was the ENTIRE REASON THEY WERE BROUGHT ON AS A CO-AUTHOR!!!!

As TSATS stands, there is no reason for Mark Oshiro specifically to have been the co-author instead of someone else. It's so clearly just a PR move from RR following the huge backlash Rick received due to his response to criticism on how he wrote Piper and Samirah (and Reyna and etc etc). This was immediately following Rick saying he wasn't going to write what would become TSATS because "it [wasn't his] place to." Most of the topics that Mark Oshiro specializes in either weren't relevant at all to TSATS or written very poorly (to downright offensively) in TSATS, so either Mark Oshiro wasn't doing their job or was not able to do their job for some reason, but either way it basically makes the theoretical justification for Mark Oshiro being the co-author/sensitivity reader irrelevant.

With Will, it was HUGE fanon back in the day for him to be trans. Trans!Will and photokinesis!Will were basically the two biggest headcanons for him (both largely popularized by Cherryandsisters). We know Rick is aware of this old fanon because he canonized photokinesis!Will. If we had gotten trans!Will, that would have been great! And then made sense why we specifically got a trans co-author! (Instead, if anything, TSATS canonized Will being cis.) If we had gotten Will being latino, that would have been amazing!!!! And also then made sense as to why they chose Mark Oshiro for the job as a latinx author/sensitivity-reader, versus potentially choosing an Italian co-author since Nico being Italian/Venetian was emphasized so much in the book (and done poorly! Yknow what they could have done to fix that? GOTTEN A SENSITIVITY READER FOR IT)! Based on the themes and focuses actually present in the book, it would have been most logical to get a queer, neurodivergent, Italian co-author or sensitivity reader who specializes in those three topics at least. But we didn't! So why was Mark Oshiro chosen instead when they only specialize in one of those topics? PR reasons. It's blatantly entirely PR reasons and no actual thought or care was put into this book (or, likely, TSATS 2 either).

It doesn't help that we're also actively being told that the published version of TSATS was a rough draft. Or that their editor blatantly isn't doing her job. Or that "The Sun And The Star" was the working title that they just kept cause they didn't bother to make an actual title. And that the final version is full of explicitly last-minute scenes that weren't checked over at all (the final Bianca scene, for one). Or the ACTIVELY ADMITTING TO SOURCING IDEAS AND INFORMATION FROM FANS! That last one is kind of important because at this level of publishing that is a HUGE no-no for legal reasons. You can get into a lot of trouble for that and there is a reason why it is Ye Olde Fandom Law to never try to pitch your ideas or headcanons to the source creator(s) and keep fandom separate from the creators. There is a REASON why Rick Riordan is so distant from the community these days and it's for PROTECTION AGAINST LEGAL REPERCUSSION. Mark Oshiro being the exact opposite while also ACTIVELY ACKNOWLEDGING sourcing concepts from fans does not bode well! It has to do with copyright stuff.

It's just. So. Sighhhhhhhh >->o <- me lying on the floor about all of this. It's sad being able to see the glimmer of what could have been at the very least a decent book underneath all this. If anyone involved in the process had actually cared just the tiniest amount.

[lucalicatteart]

 sculpted a strange shimmery two headed snail, speckled with wild flowers on it's shell~

[lemonhemlock]

tried watching the new queen charlotte series but was immediately put off by the ridiculous anti-corset propaganda, so get ready for another rant.

first of all, this is the georgian era so what she's wearing are called /stays/ - corsets are a victorian invention. why do we still not know this in 2023 when period productions have remained consistently popular throughout the years? the concept of tighlacing (the goal being a reduction of the waist) is also victorian and was not the norm at all and v much an extreme practice. this understanding of history is so superficial, it's as if an alien were to open up People magazine and conclude that all human women resort to butt injections and lip fillers to stay with the fashion of the times. also, no, you cannot tighlace in stays to obtain a waist reduction because they are shaped like a funnel (picture 1 = long stays, 2 = short regency stays, 3 = corset)

charlotte goes on to complain about how dangerous whalebone is and that it might kill her if she makes the wrong move. what the actual fuck? whalebone was actually the very best material to use for this because it was sturdy yet flexible and allowed the /stays/ to completely and comfortably mold around a woman's unique body shape. one of the reasons why today it is v difficult to replicate the same effect in corsetry is because we do not have access to whalebone (killing whales is not cool for obvious reasons) so corset-makers have to resort to other materials like plastic or metal, which CAN break. whereas whalebone doesn't really break as easily. furthermore, stays/corsets were NEVER worn on bare skin, but with a chemise/shift underneath.

why did women in the past resort to this type of undergarment, you ask? well, apart from the fact that women need bust support, the stays also serve the purpose of allowing all the many skirts and petticoats to be placed comfortably onto the waist. you try piling on that much fabric around your bare waist and see how you like it and if you can even carry it all around without it cutting into your stomach.

clothes throughout human history did cater to the popular fashions of the time, yes, but they also reflected the technological limitations and there was thus a practical aspect to it. this is a time before elastic bands, before industrialization and fast fashion, clothes are v difficult to make, everything is done by hand, so a lot of care is put into preserving them, because they are /expensive/ and labour intensive. you don't want your fancy outergarments to get ruined so you wear a lot of undergarments to absorb your bodily fluids since those are easier to make and don't have to look "pretty", can be stained and patchy etc. again, why do you need so many layers in the first place? because this is a time before comfortable heating, with poorly isolated and drafty houses, and it's bloody cold otherwise.

the third reason why that monologue was so dumb is because CHARLOTTE is the reason regency court dress was so preposterous. long story short, in a few decades, the fashionable silhouette changes wildly from the late 1700s to the 1810s.

the regency waistline was much higher and the gowns were much more flowy and unstructured than the late georgian ones (what's commonly known as the empire waistline). the long stays of the late 1700s were now replaced with short stays that really were similar to modern bras. the scene in the first season of bridgerton where they squeeze penelope's sister into what looks like a pair of long stays (?) is bonkers bc no one would wear a waist-constricting boned undergarment under a regency dress. why would they? the natural waist is not even emphasized in any way. this is just another reason to peddle the women-were-oppressed-by-their-lingerie agenda. so if charlotte really hated long stays that much, regency would really have been her time to shine, right? wrong. the woman loved the fashions of her youth so much she forced everyone who came to court to still comply to them, which is why we get the absolutely atrocious regency court dresses - essentially a combination of the georgian style with side panniers, but with an empire waistline.

yeah, this is how daphne SHOULD have looked like when she was presented at court in front of charlotte. i can understand why the showrunners decided to just leave her in a regency silhouette because this is ugly af. but, anyway, queen charlotte is the last person on earth to be complaining about how uncomfortable stays are.

creative licence aside, the reason this pisses me off is because it is SUCH lazy storytelling. the show wants us to know charlotte is a spunky pseudo-feminist character so the easiest way to do that is to have her complain about the evil 'corset' trying to kill her. it is so profoundly ahistorical and does nothing to contribute to the conversation about women's true problems and true limitations during that time. instead of genuinely exploring social history and women's actual lived experiences, we are STILL, in the year of our lord 2023, diverting the discourse towards fabricated issues that never existed in the first place.

the reasons actresses complain about boned underwear in interviews are manifold. costume designers are very overworked, they have to produce clothes for hundreds of people in a very short time, so they simply do not have the time or resources to construct corsets/stays that fit the actresses like they are supposed to. in the past, these garments were made individually for every person and completely to their own requirements. they also make these actresses wear the boning on BARE skin to look extra sexy to the audience or to emphasize their oppression - that never happened, a shift was always worn underneath (hello dakota fanning scene in the alienist??).

moreover, they lace them up until they constrict their ribcages - these women are already super thin and their bodies cannot support more reduction - instead of relying on the historical practices of padding and illusion. nowadays, body parts are what's fashionable - that's why so many resort to fat transfers or breast implants or starving themselves to achieve a flat stomach. in the past, anyone of any size could have accomplished the fashionable silhouette because they had a wide array of accouterments to plop underneath their garments - panniers, bustles, hoop skirts, padding of any sort. it didn't matter how big your waist was, you just padded other areas until you achieved the desired shape. fat women wore corsets/stays, too. working women, who did a lot of physical labour, did the same. how were they able to perform all of their tasks if they were incapable of moving or breathing? even today, people wear medical corsets all the time.

TLDR the media's obsession with portraying modern women as so liberated because they wear bras instead of "patriarchal" underwear is so tedious.

EDIT: Some very basic chronological tadpoles to make this easier to place within historical context. "Georgian" is used to denote the 18th+ century when Great Britain was ruled by several kings named George, so roughly 1714-1830. Within this interval, we refer to the Regency period as encompassing the regency of Prince George, future King George IV, when his father George III was incapacitated by mental illness. The official political regency took place during 1811-1820, but culturally speaking, this was extended to roughly the end of the 18th century up to maybe 1830 or 1837. This is the time period of Napoleonic wars and Jane Austen novels, so all her heroines should normally wear Regency styles. Think "empire waistline" as in Imperial France and Napoleon. The Victorian era (and its corsets) follows throughout the rest of the 19th century. Queen Charlotte was a contemporary of Marie Antoinette's, so they should be dressed in similar fashions (robe à la française vs robe à la anglais).

[namelessprince]

drew my ocs as riptide characters :3