#bonus points if you know the scene i'm referencing

[sk3tch-rottmnt]

5 hours of drawing later...

I have this piece for @hitokshellart Big Mama's Child AU

Hope y'all like it :)

[shallowseeker]

Dean is a lot of things, but super transparent and open isn't one of them. You're contributing to a trendy rewrite of Dean and influencing fandom in ways that just don't reflect what we see on screen.

I get where you’re coming from—Dean isn’t always the most emotionally transparent guy on the surface, and his wariness is definitely a big part of his character. That said, I personally think Dean’s performance of toughness/gruffness pulls the wool over some viewers’ eyes. Dean’s time in Hell, in particular, made him more protective of his vulnerabilities, adding to the tougher exterior he develops over time. It’s not that I don’t think Dean isn't guarded; he absolutely is. But I think he’s far more open than some parts of fandom paint him, and even more open than he sometimes portrays himself. Dean chooses to be selective about who he shows his vulnerabilities to, which is a consistent part of his character.

It's also important to acknowledge those times he’s been open only to get shut down (ahem, especially in Season 7, by Sam, Bobby, and Eliot Ness). I think his close family members are terrified that his grief will lead to his death during a hunt, so they balk at it, encouraging him to lock his emotions down tight.

///

Of note, I think Mary struggles with a similar issue. She says, “I know I can be cold,” yet she’s often incredibly honest about her actual emotions. In fact, Mary is one of the first characters to answer honestly when people ask if she’s okay: “No.” (Dean will in fact mirror her example in 13x06). I even think her “I love you” during her would-be death scene with Billie in 12x09 inspires moments like Cas’s “I love you—I love all of you” during the fight with Ramiel in 12x12.

Like Dean, Mary downplays her own emotional intelligence and her own keenness to both read and reach out to others. All in all, I think these two are far more emotionally generous and intuitive than they give themselves credit for, even if they struggle to acknowledge or articulate it when they get too overwhelmed.

As for what we see on screen... For the record, I like to think that I do a decent job of referencing specific moments in the script or episode when I talk about Dean's emotions or openness. Even if you don't interpret things as I do, I hope you can see my perspective.

/// Just as a point of contrast, I don’t think Sam is as emotionally intuitive as he’s often credited to be, and I think sometimes even Dean gives Sam too much credit. We see this particularly in Don’t You Forget About Me, where Dean instinctively builds rapport with Jody, empathizing with her and even pitching in to help with the dishes as they commiserate over their girls’ behavioral problems. Interestingly, this rears its head again in Ladies Drink Free, with Sam's intellectualizing of emotions being a point of contention.

Dean’s ability to both read people and connect emotionally often goes underappreciated, even by himself.

///

Bonus: I actually think Cas is also far more emotionally intuitive than he gives himself credit for, even with the billions of years of suppress-or-die under his belt. Cas often deploys a distinctly reciprocal style of communication, revealing a personal failing or emotion to encourage others to open up about their own failings. We see it with the original "I'm not a hammer / I have doubts" scene with Dean, we see it in a big way with Jack in Tombstone, and interestingly, we even see it with the news anchor here.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Given we have finally gotten news regarding the anime what do you think about it being an adaptation of the manga?

I have some mixed opinions since we'll be seeing the same story for the 4th time at this point (game/manga/novel/anime) but there does appear to be some differences with each especially with each unique Yuu. I do think the OBs and fight choreography is best animated over a slice of life show.

I'm not expecting any major changes from the manga if any at all but I'm happy to see it animated at all. I do hope it is successful so that the other books get animated. I feel like we are in a purgatory of early TWST with how often we go back to the earlier books in different mediums.

[Referencing this news!]

Gonna be honest with you, I’m kinda numb to getting yet another adaptation of the main story (a story that, mind you, we've already heard ad nauseum). At this point, it really does feel like a never-ending purgatory or time loop where we are forced to relive Heartslabyul over and over and over 😅 Of course, I'm still looking forward to seeing the anime and watching some of the more complicated scenes play out (fights, flashback sequences, playing magift/spelldrive, etc.). However, I think I would have preferred something new...? For example, vignettes, the event stories, etc.

The anime being an adaptation of the manga is... fine? But that means the anime may also have the same issues that I have with the manga. Those would be:

We will never really be able to fully bond with or know Yuu on a deeper level since Yuu is constantly changing between books/seasons. We won't get to see how the Yuu of Heartslabyul interacts with characters in later books, we won't get to see how the Yuu of Octavinelle handled the Heartslabyul and Savanaclaw conflicts, etc. We won't see any of them grow or change as a result of interacting with the NRC cast. This sucks particularly because if you really love a particular Yuu, you know they won’t be sticking around.

Despite the Yuus being designed as foils for the OB boys of each respective arc, no special meaningful interactions come out of it. The reader/viewer is just left to draw the parallels but there is never a moment where Yuu and the OB boy reconcile about their similarities/differences, which would actually justify the frequent changing of the POV character.

Barely any alterations are made from the game's story, since the manga isn't allowed to deviate in significant ways. No matter how different the Yuu is, they cannot ever make a decision or even have dialogue that would actually change the story in interesting ways.

General time constraints (manga arcs are 20 chapters, seasons have a limited number of episodes).

Limited showing/screen time of some characters. Because the adaptation will be of the main story, some characters that make very bad first impressions (hi, book 2 Leona… hi, Sebek without the vignettes…) will maintain those bad first impressions and won’t have a chance to redeem themselves simply because the bonus content (vignettes, event stories, etc.) aren’t adapted. Other characters won’t get as much focus simply because they aren’t the OB boys. The former would mainly be a concern for anime/manga-only fans.

Most of my disappointment comes not from reliving the same story, but that we are reliving the same story with minimal changes. I would enjoy adaptations more if they actually played around with the source material and explored new avenues! It feels like a missed opportunity, you know??

As I said earlier in this post, this is NOT meant to be overly negative; this is healthy skepticism. I'd describe myself as still excited, but not as excited as I would be if the anime were about something else set in the Twst world. Hope that makes sense 🙏

I would also caution readers to take my concerns with a grain of salt; for all we know, maybe the anime will add new scenes or fix some of the issues I pointed out. We should wait until the anime is out to judge its content and quality for ourselves.

On a positive note though 🤡 M-Maybe we will see. Shirtless L*ona animated… because… y’know… Episode of Savanaclaw technically canonized it… HAHAHAh JK… unless…? 🥺 👉👈

[witchofthesouls]

Hello, I don't usually ask questions on social networks, but I wanted to know what you think of a story where our human friend suffers an accident aboard the lost light in the Brainstrom laboratory and now the bots are able to see his thoughts. Bonus points if it's weird stuff (most of our minds are very weird), (sorry if something is poorly translated, I'm writing this with the translator) ^^)

One, I absolutely adore this concept.

Two, did you know there are people that think in pictures rather than use an internal voice?

And to top it off, people go around referencing pop culture, iconic scenes, memes, and their favorite media as well as the weird, intrusive thoughts and extreme, nonsensical daydreams...

I like to think there would be a media war between the Cybertronians that never went to Earth and only know beloved cartoons and shows and memes from the weird reenactment from the resident human's mind but with the Lost Light crew getting morphed into it versus the Cybertronians that actually had direct experience and personally downloaded those shows and movies.

As the "I Ship It" song goes, canon ground versus crack ship space.

Does anyone else remember those Naruto animation videos where the Akatsuki are drawn drunk or doing hilarious dances? The human looked up the Decepticon Justice Division, cross referenced on what they do, and immediately thought of a full sequence of the D.J.D. doing the Gang Torture Dance from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

The human thinks of sequences, including but not limited to:

Ultra Magnus as Steve Harvey from Family Feud with Rodimus with the "Nekkid Grandma!" bit

Rodimus doing "Goofy Goober Rock" because Roddy would love to be suspended in the air and dressed in wizard swag with a killer rip on a peanut-themed guitar. Drift has the legs to fulfill Patrick's fishnet-and-heels dance.

Megatron and Ratchet in The Office because he would stare deep into the camera at whatever new trouble has plagued the ship

Getaway and Rodimus doing the "Tony and Ezekiel" bit

So many fire-related memes: Elmo and the "This is fine." Dog.

The overlap of Rodimus in Gurren Lagen and Bang Brave Bang Bravern

The continuously weirder and weirder thoughts on how Cybertronian strip club would look like based on Futurama, Cyberpunk, and Night runner's Magnum Bullets. "Snu-snu" bit included. It's both highly ridiculous, strangely erotic, and absolutely terrifying at the same time to the Lost Light crew.

Whenever a mech does something stupid, the human immediately reimagines the mech in Wheel of Fortune fails, or a shoving potatoes in the exhaust

Nightbeat in a noir setting or as Sherlock Holmes

Rung is "Mister Cellophane" from Chicago

Assigned character theme songs

The last bullet causes so much drama because mechs want to have really cool or badass themes, but no! The human assigns them sex or porn songs like "Life is a Highway" and "Shut Up and Drive" and "Two Trucks," or something silly like "Barbie Girl" or the opening theme to Mega XLR or the sad song on the world's smallest violin to the poor bastard that gets stuck with the engex bill at the end of the night.

[snickerdoodlles]

headcanons behind fic: brother texting habits referenced in long & short

Chay holds up his phone sheepishly. “Also, your brother texted me. We’re invited to dinner.” Kim’s smile drops. He doesn’t need to ask which brother. “Did he type that out, or just send an emoji with a question mark?”

ngl, had i realized how much i'd expand this series, this is actually a scene i'd cut or at least heavily rework. it's the weakest scene of the story and its execution has only felt more clunky as time passes. hindsight! that said, i don't regret the scene either because the headcanons behind the premise of that scene are very near and dear to my heart, namely the texting rituals of Khun, Kinn, and Kim :D

the boys have a system to their texting. it's not anything as concrete as a code, that'd be far too dangerous and anxiety inducing. their system, naturally, revolves primarily around giving hints to Korn's mood without outright saying anything:

firstly, all brother invites to things go through Khun, because Khun's invites will only ever be invites and Kim's 'no's will only ever be 'no's.

anytime Korn demands Khun or Kinn (usually Kinn) drag Kim to a family thing for him go through Kinn, and 'Kinn's requests are always phrased as a question Kim can refuse. Kim once tells Kinn he'll show up if Kinn orders him to (because he doesn't actually want to get Kinn into trouble if Korn's being esp insistent), and Kinn smiles and tells him "thank you" and never ever once orders Kim join them, because Kim asked not to be involved in the family business and Kinn will take on any burden to keep Kim free of it.

Kinn passes along how insistent Korn's being through the overall tone and vibe of his messages, usually indicated by how much of it he types out. requests Kim join official functions sound like a formal invitation printed on a card, requests Kim indulge Korn playing family are much closer to Kinn's standard texting style;

because, and this is a silly headcanon i will have forever, Kinn fucking loves emojis. you know his whole "this could've been an email" vibe when he shoots that guy in the head ep1? same vibes except much cuter. Kinn thinks emojis are adorable and efficiency perfected. why send "thank you" when the 👍 emoji is right there? a picture's worth a thousand words and 🫂 is a thousand warm ones. he could send "wanna check out that new coffee shop by the studio next tuesday for brunch? their menu is 60% sprinkles so i'm sure you'll love it" but ☕🧋🎙️❔👑2️⃣🗓️🕦🍬👉💕💕‼️ is so much quicker. the only reason why Kinn's texts aren't 87% cute stickers is because he hasn't yet realized they come preprogrammed in his phone.

("do you think he speaks in hieroglyphics because he's secretly ancient?" Kim asks one day.

"how old does it make you to understand him then?" Khun snarks back.)

((Kim leaves Khun on read for a week.))

some bonus thoughts: Khun's a spam texter of the highest order. every one text is sent across 3.5 texts minimum. Kinn only ever sends one (1) text. if Kinn's replying to multiple messages in one go, he separates his responses in indv bullet points (if he's feeling petty towards Khun, he responds to every one of Khun's messages individually).

(Kinn's multiple messages to Chay in long & short are absolutely because he's watching Kim's live. for all Kim's snooping, he has somehow missed that Kinn has every alert and then some set for Wik news and while he can't make every live, he plans his breaks around them and even moved a meeting once.)

also, while Kinn pretends he's threatening/blackmailing with these baby Kim pics, this is 100% him taking advantage of the situation to gush about cute baby brother with a fellow Kim AppreciatorTM. Kinn has the cutest little brother, and he's gotta keep up with news of baby brother's current shenanigans somehow 😤👏 Khun is guilty of similar crimes ofc.

(Kim suffers older brothers so much.)

[grilde1chesse]

AUGH plagued by the visions once again (metaltango brain rot)......

thinking about how upset & disappointed Krauser gets if you die before he transforms. he seems disappointed in Leon's lack of progress ("What the hell were you doing two years?" and "Everything I taught you... What a waste."). he sees Leon as a worthy rival (the chrisker & kreon parallels never stop it seems....), and was expecting a somewhat equal match.

its clear in the first encounter with Krauser he doesn't actually intend on on killing Leon (yet, at least), and treats the sparing as less of a fight and more of a training session (likely why hes so upset if Leon dies during it tbh lol). while i'm not a professional... the beginning of their fight in the first encounter (up until Leon deliberately slashes at Krauser), the attacks seem memorized, like a choreographed dance more than anything (a metal tango if you will ;-)). it looks like a memorized training exercise, something that only ends after Leon deviates from the "dance" and attempts to slash at Krauser.

not once but multiple times Krauser has access to Leon's throat & other vital points yet makes no real move to hit them (holding his knife to leon's throat, giving him time to get up when knocked down, etc. etc.). again Krauser treats the fight as a training exercise, from his behavior down to the way he holds his knife. same with the later encounters with him, if not in his actions than in his words; critiquing Leon and insulting him when caught off guard ("Sloppy!" "Embarrassing!" "You've made it all this way, but you haven't learned a thing! I have to say, I'm disappointed")

during their encounter post Krauser's transformation he doesn't seem as upset when Leon dies, rather a different form of disappointment (likely less towards Leon's training & skill, but instead that he refused to accept the "gift"/plaga. "You would've done well to accept this power for yourself."). its likely he didn't expect Leon to win, and was planning on killing him once revealing his powers ("I'm not surprised you made it this far!" & "Give up! My strength is without equal!"). it's as if all the earlier fighting/training was simply him playing with his food (foreplay cough cough).

a couple lines that stood out to me were: "Anything to make the pretty boy feel special." "You rely on those pretty blues too much." "I want to see you writhe." "After all, I know your potential better than anyone." "I guess I’ll make the first move." "Shut your mouth, you wouldn’t want to die with it open."  "You were wide open" "You’re too soft." "You're still a kid holding on to fantasies of whats right and wrong."

also, unrelated but smth i noticed that i found cool was how Krauser switches his knife from one hand to the other & is able to fight with both equally well. not sure if this is a specific fighting technique (possibly not, as a good amount of his tactics are mirrored by Leon besides this one, meaning he likely wasn't taught it (or was unable to master it for whatever reason.).) or if Krauser is ambidextrous.

link to some of the death scenes + dialogue i referenced in this (^_^) unnecessary plugin thats very important i promise

bonus pictures of my favorite metaltango genre: "gay porn is straighter than this" (all from this post)

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

The Bear's legacy

The series finale has already been announced

I still think Sydcarmy will be endgame, of course. But most importantly, I also think that all Carmy said in this scene in regards to HIS LEGACY (because that's what he was talking about, not just legacy in general but his own based on what he learned from the legends that taught him well) is the clearest foreshadowing of what Storer has in mind to wrap The Bear up.

I say all of this now because I believe S4 will be the last one and after this S3 we were just served my mind keeps wandering to: HOW CAN WE GET OUT OF HERE?!?! HOW WILL STORER GET US OUT OF THIS. HOW WILL HE CLOSE THE OPEN LOOP HE LEFT US STUCK AT IN THE SEASON FINALE:

I already went over my idea of how the endgame for the entire series may look like here, before watching S3. But that was just an assumption (yet fully compatible with what I will elaborate on below).

These previous posts of mine, also tap into The Family tree concept and I suggest you check them out for context as well:

The tree

Found Family

What I think will happen in whatever way Storer wants to go about it is that even though The Bear, the restaurant will not go under, at least not as a result of this bad review:

Eventually, it might close its doors like Ever did (after getting 1 or more stars for Sydney), so Carmy can live and escape the prison of his own design that Richie mentioned:

Now, I'm prepared to make a formal prediction based on the script presented in ep 03x07 → Legacy, which I cross-referenced with LWTH.

And the parallelisms, which would take a way longer post than what I have time to make right now, all point in this direction:

The team will spread around the world/country to open their own restaurants/bakeries, etc. - This happens either in the post The Bear era or even if The Bear remains open.

Or in other words, like Storer Carmy said:

This will be the case for each member of the family:

And because the show is about "found family", they still find a way to remain together, even if at some point they go their separate ways to carry on with The Bear's legacy elsewhere as Carmy foreshadowed and just like Carmy carried on with Michael's at some point, which was the kickstart of the whole series.

Thus, it will be a full circle.

IMO, and this is unrelated to the book, The Bear will close its doors eventually or change its name and Sydney will open her dream spot, maybe where The Bear once was or elsewhere. Carmy will change careers and will crossover into other arts, such as painting. Let's not forget that he's already an artist of the culinary arts, so it will not be too much of a stretch. He seemed to have found his peace once in Copenhagen doing this and he keeps coming back to it, even now, as he hits rock bottom, he keeps turning to this type of art to try and cope:

He never seems to drift too far away from it.

I think this is where he's headed post The Bear. Back to his solace (which will include Syd too).

And this is what comes to mind → an Austenian happy ending for the entire family that was foreshadowed in 03x07 "Legacy".

The ending will be all about carrying on with Carmy's legacy or better yet, "Sydcarmy's Legacy", one way or the other. Kinda like this fic narrates here.

And I can't wait.

Bonus track: I hope they leave the door open to continue telling this story on the big screen, which if you didn't cheat and carefully read the Found Family context post I linked at the beginning, you now know was Storer's original idea for The Bear. This, unlike all I mentioned above, is indeed a stretch. But... a girl can dream.

[cheriedies]

Naoki Urasawa's Monster in real life

So, I spent my holidays in Czechia and realized it would be a good opportunity to try and find the real life references and inspirations for one of my favourite anime series - Monster (haven't gotten my hands on the manga yET). After a bit of research I found that @fuckyeahjohanliebert has already done this almost a decade ago and their account has been extremely helpful. I also used the websites that I've linked at the very end of the post and you should definitely check them out as I didn't get the chance to visit every single location. It is honestly incredible how much work this person has put into their research. With that being said, here is what these places look like as of January 2023, alongside some tips I wanted to share in case you decide to visit them during your stay in Prague!

Let's start with the easiest location: Charles Bridge. It is probably the most visited place in Prague and so it can be quite crowded, especially around NYE.

Next, we have a shot of a tram in front of what today is the Palladium, a large shopping mall. Location: Nám. Republiky 1078/1, 110 00 Petrská čtvrť, Czechia

Okay, this one was a bit tricky because I wasn't able to find the exact reference for the Tri Zaba (Three Toads) sign. Most sources pointed me towards Hotel U Tri Pstrosu (Three Ostriches) which is right besides the Charles Bridge. However, a reddit user posted a picture from U Tri Capu hotel (Three Herons), and someone mentioned it being a possible inspiration in the replies. Therefore, I took pictures of both and upon looking at them closely I honestly cannot be certain about which of the two served as the main inspiration, maybe it was a mixture of both? Looking purely at the shape of the sign the Three Herons (Far Right) seems to be the closest. The positioning of the three ostriches on the other hand (Middle) is more similar to the way the toads are positioned. If you have any sources I've missed pls link them!

I also found this detailing you can spot if you are walking by the Vltava River. A thing to note: I could find this specific fencing only of the side of the river that is next to the Ministerstvo průmyslu a obchodu, If your cross the bridge the design is completely different. Location: Petrská čtvrť, 110 00 Prague 1, Czechia

Now onto the Red Rose Mansion. Fans figured out that the Břevnovský klášter (Brevnov Monastery) served as the main inspiration for the Red Rose Mansion. Unfortunately, the monk that is responsible for the visits was sick during my stay in Prague, and would not be coming back until after I left. You can see the exact room that was referenced for the murder scene in the websites I've linked below. I was a bit sad that I wasn't able to see it with my own eyes but I hope he has a speedy recovery. After all, this gives me a reason to visit this wonderful city again! Tip: Don't be an oblivious zoomer like me and bring cash with you to leave a small donation at the Bazilika svaté Markéty Antiochijské (Basilica of St. Margaret of Antioch). You can get a postcard with the picture of the monastery for about 10 koruna and I'm sure it helps with the maintenance of this beautiful place. Also, there is a small, cozy cafe on the territory and they have really tasty Medovnik cake!

The Rose Garden at the Mansion actually has no roses! It is actually a Cherry Garden, and can be visited at the Orangerie right behind the Monastery (tip: as far as I know it is only open on weekends and closes at 8pm). During this time of year it is obviously not blossoming however it was nice to visit nonetheless and walking in between the tall shrubs made me feel like I was Nina :p

As a bonus I wanted to add this picture of a hanging Sigmund Freud that absolutely startled me on my first day in Prague. Many fans have speculated that the character of Franz Bonaparta was inspired by him, given their similar looks and involvement with Psychology

I hope this was enjoyable and I hope you visit these amazing places if you ever happen to be in Prague! Once again, I'd like to highlight how grateful I am for the research fans have done and as mentioned above here are some of the websites I used:

[cryptocism]

i know you've said before that you had a lot of missed opportunities with moments between three and four in the past, (mainly to keep the story moving through six's perspective,) and i'm just curious if you have any specific instances in your brain that you'd like to share? i wouldn't blame you if you didn't but i love these guys and i thought i might as well ask !!

oh yeah there was a handful of scenes i had outlined. originally my idea was to have short flashbacks from Three's POV at the beginning of each chapter, basically functioning as a simultaneous vehicle for empathy and to flesh out his backstory. A lot of it was going to be retellings of canon Inertia Moments from Three's perspective, sort of like "missing scenes" in canon.

a lot of those discrete moments i ended up reusing and combining into the scene that Six witnesses, but originally they took place over a handful of instances.

one of those "missing scenes" bits was going to be referencing F:FMA #7 where Four brings CRAYDL some CD's from the past:

basically taking place in the gutter between those last two panels. lots of drama and unspoken tension: four's much more positive relationship with CRAYDL, the fact that CRAYDL calls Four "Thad", and lil sprinkle of foreshadowing for the CD's and other "artifacts" from the past that are clearly ferried to the kids in the basement without Three or Four's knowledge.

throughout the flashbacks would be a narrative thread where Three is holding tight to some hypothetical future where Four lets his guard down and Three can kill him and take his place. Then gradually the existential doom of the situation seeps in through the cracks of Three's psyche while he watches Four (failing, despised by hero and villain alike) and realizes that existing as Inertia is just a shadow of a real life, and that taking Four's place would doom him the exact same way. plus the bonus drama of wanting Four around even when he's terrified Four is going to come back, connecting neatly with the way he keeps Four's corpse in the future because he needs the reminder that Four is dead but can't stand the thought of letting him go.

anyway it all ended up staying in the outline phase because at that point i was more committed to Six unwillingly bearing witness to the past in a bid to avoid his doomed future bc it felt like it got more mileage story/character-wise. as much as i love Three and Four's insanely toxic dynamic, i think if i wrote out their scenes as originally outlined the tone would really blend together as one long bummer.

however i did really like this one line that went something like: "Being without powers was a helplessness that caught in Three's throat like a fish hook." so rip to that one ill have to find a way to repurpose it in something else.

[illym]

"Have you ever noticed that people wear a lot of belts around here? They're originally for keeping clothes from falling down, but after a certain point I can't tell if that's the purpose they're attempting to serve."

"Hmmmm.... No, I don't think I see what you mean. I've never thought people wear that many belts."

(Maybe I should add some belts to my outfit? It'd help me fit in more, at least.)

There's this saying that an artist is happy to draw a picture without thinking about the context beyond, but an author has to know what led up to that scene. Considering how much I thought about the dialogue here while drawing, I can tell I'm an author at heart.

Person on the left, Sylv, belongs to me, Maria-Anne in the middle belongs to @ultineeet , and Bridget's sister on the right belongs to @deluxegolem . (Apologies for not asking permission to draw her, I was midway through lineart when I realized.)

BONUS:

Their associates are reinventing Guilty Gear Isuka gameplay by having a three way brawl. They're getting along a lot less nicely. Or maybe this counts as getting along for Guilty Gear...?

(I was referencing Nagoriyuki's concept artwork without realizing it was different from his final design.... Oh well. I rather like how it turned out.)

[scheodingers-muppet]

in honor of speak now tv about to drop, im bringing back my stranger things taylor song casting. i wrote a lot of this on my phone after listening to the album so apologizes for grammar errors or anything

mine: ronance, from Nancy's POV. Careless man's careful daughter. Sitting there by the water mirroring the boat scene. You learn my secrets and you figure out why I'm guarded. In the music video, we see the couple fighting when things get tough outside of the relationship, which we've also seen Nancy do, both when she was struggling with Barb and fighting with Jonathan when dealing with sexism from her job.

sparks fly: lumax. Max is the rainstorm, Lucas the house of cards. "I'm on my guard for the rest of the world, but for you, I know it's no good"

back to december: stancy; but just Nancy apologizing for how things ended, not them getting back together. "that night" not just being the Halloween fight but her cheating on him. I think she would feel bad about how things ended and I really want them to talk everything out in season 5. Plz. Also the line, "I miss your tan skin, your sweet smile...how you held me in your arms that September night, the first time you ever saw me cry" Obv with the tan skin and smile, but I hc that after Nancy told Steve what happened to Barb, he held her while she cried

speak now: byler, from Will's pov. Not in a literal wedding sense (though that might make a fun fic...) but more of Mike asking Will for advice about El and Will just finally coming clean. Maybe it doesn't go great and he doubles down with El and it causes some tension or maybe the roles are reversed and Mike comes clean then panics and doubles down and Will is trying to get him back

dear john: Joyce about Lonnie. I hate this man.

mean: El about Angela. Imagine if before the roller skate incident, she confided in Joyce and she told her to just confront her with her words, ya know? Like just call her out for being mean. Then when that doesn't work, she thinks, "well, what would Hopper tell me? Gotta fight back." Makes my heart melt

the story of us: Mike and El, from El’s pov. I just really feel like El would use story tails and romance stories, etc. to compare love to. This song to the letter fight just... ugh.

never grow up: Nancy. First verse to Holly, how she knows what's ahead, both in terms of alternate dimensions and being a teenage girl. She doesn't want her to have to deal with either of the two, just to stay little while she can. Second verse to Mike, seeing him start to become more of an adult and secretly missing her annoying kid brother. (brings more punch to the line “all your little brothers favorite songs”) Third verse takes place after she graduates, moving for school. Her night light mentioned in the verse was her graduation/farewell present from Holly, who says she's a big girl now and doesn't need it.

enchanted: elmax! From Max's POV. Imagine the second verse is them having a sleepover, playing truth or dare. I also love the use of referencing the story tail love metaphor again

better than revenge: stommy; Tommy singing about Nancy. idk it’s the closest I could get.

innocent: Steve and Nancy. First verse is about Nancy (lost your balance on a tight rope, lost your mind trying to get it back. wasn’t it beautiful when you believed in everything and everyone believed in you. , second about Steve. bonus points if you imagine them singing this to each other (not in a romantic way)

haunted: lumax (I’m sorry) Lucas begging for her to come back after her attack. Trying to move on and be happy but he can’t get over her. the chorus too, “somethings gone terribly wrong” “your eye’s gone cold” the bridge too “you’re not gone, you can’t be gone” you can also imagine it as like, she lives but can’t face the party without thinking about what happened too

last kiss: stancy / mike and el (parallel!) I think I’m gonna write up a post about all the parallels I see in the characters and dynamics, but I really love this one. Steve being El and Nancy being Mike. The Wheelers having severe issues with love (specifically saying the word) and hurting those who are head over heel for them. I see this from all of their perspectives, switching based off the lines. first verse is mileven (the plane line, “sit on the floor wearing your clothes” we’ve seen El wear clothes from pretty much everyone in the party) the second verse is stancy from Nancy’s pov (life of the party, “i’m not much for dancing, but for you i did” listing things he did she loved without saying “i love you”) bridge is rapid fire switching. “so I’ll watch your life in pictures like i used to watch you sleep” mike (bylers take a lot of family photos; i can imagine him seeing her in photos will sends) “i feel you forget me like i used to feel you breathe” steve “and i’ll keep up with our old friends just you ask them how you are” el “i hope it’s nice where you are…it’s a beautiful day” nancy (i think she feels bad for how things ended)

long live: the whole party. they deserve to feel like hero’s and royalty after everything they’ve been though. i desperately need to find an edit to this

ours: Steddie. the town hates eddie atm and would probably not take well to king steve dating him. the lines “i love the riddles that you speak” and “any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos will be ignored” i can also see lumax, but this is just such a light hearted song to me so i didn’t want to compare it to the racism we’ve seen be thrown at lucas and his relationship

superman: jopper. i love the idea of joyce hyping him up as her superman. also based on my parents (my dad was a first responder and this song always made me think of them for the “saving the world” aspect) “he’s not all bad like his reputation” i’m ignoring the sad parts and just focusing on the “go be a superhero, i’ll be here when you get back”

electric touch: steddie. eddie’s taylor, steve is patrick. “this could either break my heart or bring it back to life” “got a history of stories ending sadly” (eddie) “everytime i tried for love, it fell apart” (steve)

when emma falls in love: robin. i have no real proof, it just reminds me of her. i love the image of steve saying all of this about her ❤️❤️ (obvs pronouns change and stuff)

i can see you: steddie (it’s a very steddie coded album, leave me alone) from steve’s pov, talking about how he’s always had a crush on eddie and always noticed him but it breaks eddie’s brain fhat king steve has a crush on him

castles crumbling: steve angst time. talking about his “fall from social grace” and how he lost everything, both in terms of reconciling what he lost from being a jerk as king steve and what he lost when he was dethroned

foolish one; byler. “stop checking your mailbox for confessions of love” “it’s delicate but i’ll try my best to seem bulletproof” “maybe someday when we’re older this is something we’ll laugh about” “you haven’t written me or called” “i’ll get your longing glances but she’ll get your ring”

timeless; jopper. soul mates for real

[acourtofantumbra]

Thinking about Iphraxia

Yes, I inhaled the HOFAS prologue and chapter one Sarah posted to her new site yesterday... and a couple things have been itching my brain since (and making thinking about anything other than release day impossible).

Safe to say we're hitting the ground RUNNING. Poor bb Ruhn. But some through lines and well... associations made by both proximity and repetition that have me (tentatively) very excited about a BIG hope I've had. One I'm not alone in.

🚨 HOFAS PROLOGUE + CHAPTER 1 SPOILERS 🚨

I have also not read the book in its entirety yet. This is just me spewing nonsense. Please don't reply/comment with any spoilers if you have read all of HOFAS. I've waiting two years for this! Just feeding my spinning brain until Monday night.

WHAT A FIRST CHAPTER! I have so many thoughts spinning about the info dumps we get - and awesome confirmations like Daglan = Asteri + Cormac shadows = Azriel shadows. Good work team!

But I'll be honest, I'm looking for any and all crumbs for a TOG connection... and this one just wouldn't stop irking me.

So, I'll begin with Bryce's lies. She spells out for us that, honestly, she's never had too hard a time deceiving folks by playing into what they wanted to see from her: a ditzy party girl incapable of scheming. We've spent two books, and many years, peeling back Bryce's layers, only to discover she's even more capable, more selfless, more calculating than we ever could have guessed. Even where we're guided largely by her POV. Queen. Aelin would be proud.

That gift we've seen honed over time... lasts all of two seconds in the presence of Rhys, Amren, and Azriel. But specifically, it seems, Azriel.

Now I'll fearlessly reference the cursed Azriel bonus chapter from ACOSF...

"“I..." He watched her swallow. She clutched a small gift in her hands. "I was coming to leave this on your pile of presents. I forgot to give it to you earlier."   Lie. Well, the second part was a lie. He didn't need his shadows to read her tone, the slight tightening of her face. She'd waited until everyone was asleep before venturing back down, where she'd leave her gift amongst his other, opened presents, subtle and unnoticed." A Court of Silver Flames, Azriel Bonus Chapter

So we have Azriel referencing, perhaps, his shadows' abilities to detect lies. They can also hear the Cauldron sing in ACOWAR, so why not expand their extra sensory capabilities? Rhys and Cassian have even confessed to not really understanding the full scope of Azriel's powers... so naturally we're not entirely sure all that he's capable of either.

Azriel's also the Night Court's spy master and in this scene with Elain, he defaults to those skills he's mastered over time in lieu of his shadows' guidance. So, language barrier or not, Azriel might just be able to read Bryce, as she points out herself. We love a male fluent in body language, amirite?

But humor me for a sec, we've had two years since the crossover was announced to kind of side eye the fact that Azriel's blade is call Truth Teller - which is now front and center in the overarching plot and specifically this chapter. And for the TOG readers among us... we couldn't help but notice we've had an actual truth telling blade before: Damaris.

Azriel's sort of alluded to legend about his blade's abilities - mostly that it'll strike true. But we've never really confirmed if he's able to use it like a lie detector as Dorian does with Damaris in TOG.

And the specificity of couching the language barrier issue (pre-magic bean lol) alongside references to Truth Teller pretty consistently in this very first chapter has me 👀

In the scene above, Bryce is immediately curious about how Azriel could react to what she'd said if he couldn't understand her and the laugh/Rhys' surprise when Azriel clarifies leads me to believe he didn't need to know what she was saying to be informed it was BS.

Of course, again, pre-bean, Rhys is likely mind speaking translation for Azriel in the second instance in particular. But he's still relying on Azriel wholly to confirm truth or not prior to moving on. And Rhys doesn't question Azriel's response - at least no audibly.

And I'm just saying, we know Azriel is currently holding onto Truth Teller.

Azriel, being the primed warrior that he is, is sitting and lying in wait for some shit to go down the whole time. So when Bryce has a bad reaction to the magic bean (lol sorry I will never stop teasing), before she can get her bearings she's already slammed down by Azriel's shadows, dagger drawn.

The fact that we can assume he's been holding Truth Teller, ready to strike, makes the shock at the blade's reaction to Bryce sans Starsword all the more interesting. When Amren is like, "Dude why do you even have that thing with you and close to her?" Azriel kind of bashfully winnows it away. Amren's ellipses there is suspect as hell too, but that's for another time (or the rest of this book).

Anyway, if we pretend that Truth Teller is displaying some Damaris type traits, then the other details we're getting in close proximity to the blade's discussion are worth a second glance as well (in my humble opinion). Also, want to note that I'm aware that TT is a dagger and Damaris is a sword. I don't think they're necessarily the same or from the same ore. That's for SJM to explain lol.

Anyway, as Bryce is selectively explaining her/the universe's predicament, Truth Teller comes up again. But first I wanted to pause on the "only three planets that were able to kick [the Asteri] out." While I'm fully open to this being a little different than we have been theorizing - we've come to speculate that Hel is one planet and the Starborn Fae planet is where Prythian is located. This leaves the third successful planet: Iphraxia.

A quick reminder what we know about Iphraxia:

So the Iphraxia events happen 16,323 years prior to conquering of Midgard and many have speculated this planet could house Erilea and our beloved TOG crew.

I've always side eyed the use of the word "denizens" because it can either mean "an inhabitant or occupant of a particular place," or "a foreigner allowed certain rights in the adopted country." Rigelus alludes to the Asteri encouraging planets to come and conquer others, never realizing those who opened the doors were the true masters. In that case, Asteri referring to a group like the Valg as denizens would also make quite a bit of sense to me.

Maeve fights in Erilea's first wars - granted she manipulates the hell out of them - but she confirms at one point that she just wants to have her kingdom in peace (an evil kingdom) and that she's been running from Big Bads for a long time. She is of course Valg - not native to that world - and is not on Erawan's team to start. But it becomes very clear by KOA that we're all playing checkers and Maeve - a world walker - is playing chess. Then of course we have a group of stranded, vengeful gods who want to return to their family/world... but were left behind in a hasty evacuation perhaps? Of course when Aelin shuts the gates, they're presumably lost forever, but that chapter would have come long after Maeve originally fought back against Erwan who believes that planet was his to command... motivated by that world's larger forces perhaps.

^ This is why I shouldn't have procrastinated my TOD and KOA rereads... the details are not as sharp as they should be. But that is the general essence of things.

Anyway, returning to the reference to Iphraxia and the grounding connection Truth Teller is being set up to be has my TOG IS COMING alarms blaring.

Of course this chapter ends with the horn tattoo on Bryce's back being exposed and Amren confirming it's similarity to the Book of Breathings... a book we know landed in Midgard along with TOG's Walking dead in Jesiba's library... and written in markings we can pretty confidently say are wyrdmarks. And you know what crew of folks are crackerjack at reading wyrdmarks? :)

Anyway, I think TOG officially entering the crossover is imminent and with this line of thinking re: timeline... it might not actually separate the TOG timeline as far back as we've been predicting it might be (like in the very far past).

All I know is that I've had great fun over the years reading people's analysis of first lines and first chapters of books actually providing you with everything you actually need to know/can expect from the book. Sarah is actually pretty great at doing this so in our proper chapter one (not the prologue but sure why not) we're hitting a couple of beats pretty repetitively and I can't help but feel it's priming TOG's reentry for us.

That being said, can't wait to be proven wrong in just THREE FREAKING DAYS!!! Unless Walmart stops lying to me and actually delivers my book as early as it's claiming it will.

[theclo4ked1]

iiiIIT'S SUMMER! Well, not quite, but close (enough...) I feel so free, but you know what isn't free? My laptop's storage space, there's a gigabyte and a half left on the C drive right now, but that hinders the performance; it frees its own space so I can put more things, but that's not good since the computer needs those resources to function goodly, or so I've heard.

This is why I am (not) launching a Kickstarter to buy a Faster Stronger Better Gaben- I mean a cooler computer, preferably a desktop tower. Here's a list of perks and things YOU will RECEIVE If you support me:

 

 

...and as a bonus,  

Please (do not) donate! Give to the (not so) needy XP... Alright alright, I was just playin'. I finally caught another break so now I can rest and do other things like: cleaning... AHEM so, some days ago, I made a short post hinting at something I was doing relating to Dora the Explorer, if it wasn't obvious. If you know me, you'd know that show (the first four seasons anyway) is a...pretty significant part of my life, and I look forward to what plans the creators have in store for her future.

Hm, what's that? A reboot on Paramount+? One season has been released? Oh, okay, yeah I'll give it a look- Kathleen Herles returns as a voice? Holy. Miér-coles. Okay real talk, I was gonna watch regardless of if she was gonna come back as a voice, if she would come back at all. I actually just watched the first Paramount+ episode, not the ones pre-released on YouTube, and when I finished watching it, I thought to myself...

Huh. I don't think I learned much of anything.

Maybe the point is to just entertain children, and if that's the case, fine. But in my opinion, that makes this reboot far less interesting. Y'know I wrote this big ass post to the Forum for the franchise's fandom wiki giving a critical look at the reboot, "Dora '24", and comparing it to the original show that I lovingly call "Dora2K" because the show began airing in 2000, but did you know it was being produced in the late '90s? I call them by numbers after "Dora" because the new show is just called "DORA", subtitled "Say Hola to Adventure". Anyways, I'd appreciate if you read it, and gave me your thoughts either here or there. Actually, I found out today that someone wanted to know about a Discord to talk about the show, one that I did want to lead, but wasn't sure how it would go, how to promote it, who would help moderate; the works. Okay okay okay okay, enough pr'amble, (more like mumble lol (could you even call it preamble? i got caught up in things again, im so sorry)) BEHOLD, MY FLOATING MA- *skips cutscene*

This, my guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, is my BIG FUCKING THING! I'm not just referencing the Shadow the Hedgehog Fandub unnecessarily, no, this paper is approximately 4'x6'. "seee~, moy grahn-day" teehee Yes, this is what was brewing at D(ora) ‘n D(rawing). I planned for a cubism kind of drawing, then saw it after it was finished and decided it wasn't exactly cubism, then I was told it looked like cubism, so ultimately... It'S iS CuBiSm!!! I didn't explain it before, but the drawing takes from that scene from the live-action movie where Dora's cutting a GOT damn rug at the high school dance. She dances in a style that mimics animals from the rainforest, but the thing about that scene is that it's just Dora on the floor-a. Everybody else is by the wall, not on the dance floor at all because it's an awkward event, as any school would have it. I call this piece "Disco Dorka: Inspiring Sunshine", but I shortened it to the subtitle when sharing it with peers. "Inspiring", because the whole scene with Dora just being herself, not giving a damn (though I can't remember if she knew the other students were making fun of her right there) is inspiring to me. "Sunshine" comes from the sun costume Dora wore because it was a solar system-themed school dance. You may have noticed this is an ink drawing as opposed to my pencil or a digital drawings. A month or two ago, I was introduced to ink, and of course, that changed my life. I wholeheartedly adore ink, THIS is what I needed, it's a digital exclusive thing I can achieve only on a computer screen; it flows, it can make thick black lines THATS LIKE MY FAVORITE THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD but its messy but like OMG WHO. DA HELL. CARES?

Being introduced to ink really helped me to find myself, artistically, and my, is it freeing to know what I can do; what kinda potential I had. I apologize if it sounds like I'm bragging, but I think maybe it shows that finding out exactly what you're made of requires you to go outta your zone. Not your comfort zone, just what you know. Explore. (oh my god thats dora's whole thing, wtf why does it loop back) Last thing I wanna bring up is the text. I was told by peers that adding text is something that defines my ink style, it makes it mine. Probably not unique, I shouldn't have to say "i KnOw I'm NoT tHe FiRsT", but I know. I'mnotthefirstHAHA The text references Season 3 and parts of 4 of "Dora2K", y'know, the stars that Dora and Boots caught like Pokémon? It confuses me, do the stars travel from Star Mountain and are returned there from a wormhole in the Star Pocket, or is the Star Mountain in the pocket a pocket dimension, or OUGH! MY HEAD. The movie, as far as I know, makes no reference to this. I thought of writing REACH FOR THE STARS but then I was like "nah that's Sonic, this is about Dora now change it" and so i did. Ah, that's all I wanna say about my cool thing. These last four months have certainly been a trip, but now you can expect MORE ART probably. I'd get back to playing Sonic Mania (which is apparently bad now??) but I'm too tired...zzzzzzz... zzzz- oh yeah thanks for reading... z.....zzzz......zzzzzzz.......

[thecatsaesthetics]

I'm not sure where this claim came from that Nesta and Elain "did domestic work" (they didn't) or that Feyre was "lying".

It seems to be just something Nesta stans repeat because they are upset that these events happened. Nesta only contradictions we get of Feyre account once from my memory, is Nesta's boots were in bad shape and that Tamlin asked Nesta to go in her place.

The first one, okay maybe Feyre didn't realize her boots were small but whatever they still are incredibly entitled to the labor that Feyre is doing and offering very little if anything in return. That does not mean Feyre was "lying" or "misremembering" what happened.

On the Tamlin thing, I'm not sure what SJM was on when writing that, but rereading the scene I'm not sure how that could have happened without the audience knowing or how that would work. Tamlin needed Feyre specifically and it's not like he knew at this point her sisters never would go in place of her. That's the only contradiction I noticed and it's not like this makes Nesta look good. If anything it makes her look worse.

Nesta and Elain both state over and over again, that they relied on Feyre. They never contradict what happened or say they did other work.

On top of that, even if we ignore how Feyre perceives Nesta's and Elain's actions they still were very entitled to Feyre's labor. You can see these two scenes

The first scene Elain flat out asks "Will it take you long to clean it" Again no offer of help, just a simple demand of Feyre's labor. It's Feyre's assumption that Elain doesn't do this out of malice but that she simply doesn't realize she could do more, however that doesn't mean she is doing more. She doesn't offer Feyre any type of help when she sees the deer and wolf pelt. She immediately goes on to think about

Nesta does the same with the wood, when questioned why she didn't do it she says Feyre is better at it and insults her while doing so.

I also highlighted the part where Feyre collapses on her bed, because even if they were doing something around that house, it wasn't equivalent to Feyre's. What Feyre was doing was risking her life, staying in the cold for HOURS (which makes you burn more calories), and tracking animals. That is intense work, which burns more calories and we do not see Nesta or Elain do ANYTHING similar.

When Feyre gets home they immediately demand more labor for their own benefit. Things they could either do or help with.

On top of that we have this scene from Nesta's bonus chapter in ACOMAF (which is canon because it's referenced in ACOSF)

Nesta was not doing labor, and she hated that Feyre stepped in and fought for her survival. She hated that Feyre was able to take action to save them, when she wanted them to suffer to cause their father more pain.

We get one scene in ACOSF where Nesta claims she would have done anything (including sex work) to keep Elain alive but her actions very much say differently.

I've said it before but Nesta's character (when she's not being SJMs self insert) is one of inaction. Similar to Tamlin, she SAYS she would do something but she can't for whatever reason follow through.

So I'm not sure what books Nesta or Elain stans are reading, but no where in the text does it claim Nesta or Elain was doing even HALF the labor equivalent that Feyre was, and yet they felt incredibly entitled to rewards of Feyre's labor and they wanted her to do more. This fandom often times either willfully misquotes things or they use their own headcanons as proof.

We have nothing in the text that indicates Nesta and Elain did anything in that cottage but sit around. You can say that's bad writing and maybe it is, but it is the story SJM wrote and she never retconned that, Nesta and Elain repeated in other books how much they failed Feyre or demanded of her.

I’ve noticed that almost everyone who complain about the fandom “disregarding” nesta and elaina hypothetical house work are the same who forget Feyres actual, canonical, written on paper work that she did during the war.

I guess it’s all “feminine work still matters” when it comes to cleaning a rotting cottage but healing almost dead soldiers, glamorizing a whole army, finding the suriel who showed them how to find the cauldron, cutting linens to make bandages, and getting the mirror to make a deal with the bone carver isn’t considered do anything because she didn’t pull out a sword and fight.

Also like the main thing she did was save the fucking world?

Reforging the cauldron??

SHE DID THAT.

[1863-project]

So people are just. Reading a lot of Dracula right now. And one of the scenes is apparently Dracula pretending he's normal, by reading the timetables for public transit. So now i'm just imagining Ingo/Emmet having to deal with jokes about them secretly being a Dracula, every time they're reading the train schedules even though thats part of their job.

This gives me the opportunity to talk about two things, actually, so here we go...

1. Bradshaw's Guide

The timetables being referred to in Dracula are printed in a book, which is why the titular vampire uses it to pretend to be reading. Bradshaw's Guide was being issued monthly by the time Dracula was written, and it had an instantly recognizable cover, which is the entire point - it makes it obvious that Dracula isn't actually reading, and Jonathan Harker ostensibly should notice that (especially given that he's engaged to self-described "train fiend" Mina). But it then gets flipped, because Dracula is planning to go to England, and that's an English Bradshaw's Guide, so he's actually trying to learn the train schedules there. In classical English literature, you'll see people refer to "Bradshaws" a lot! You can learn more about them here - Sir Terry Pratchett even referenced them in Raising Steam because he was the best.

2. There's actually a character in Gen 5 whose design is stated by developers to have been somewhat inspired by Dracula...

So if there's going to be any jokes, they're going to be about Grimsley.

To quote Bulbapedia: "According to an interview with Yusuke Ohmura in Nintendo Dream, Grimsley's design is themed on both vampires (specifically Dracula himself) and gambling. While his clothes are meant to look refined, the blue-black and red color scheme is a reference to the colors of the roulette."

So Grimsley is literally a gambling Dracula, and if you wanted to do a Pokemon parody of the novel you’ve got your vampiric count right here. (As a bonus, Clay could easily be Quincey.) But I can 100% guarantee you that Ingo and Emmet would both know what Bradshaw’s Guides were and would try to use them if they went to Galar to plan out historical train trips.

[sansigma]

A random assortment of Locked Tomb theories. I don't believe in all of them, but it's fun to speculate. Some of these might have been posted before by someone else, I don't super keep up with the fandom. If so, I'm sorry.

If anyone wants me to elaborate on any of these, please just ask!

Here were go:

Anastasia Lyctor chomped Alecto to "shut her down", and is thus her tomb as much as her tomb keeper, and it's her body Harrow saw (extra points for "Alecto's body is buried at Canaan House, powering it" – which, to be clear, I did not come up with myself)

Harrow had older, non-necromantic, siblings who died with the other Ninth House kids (extra bonus points for "Nona is one of Harrow's siblings")

Harrow stole Gideon's godly necromancy in the interval when Gideon was dead as a toddler

Corona and Ianthe have a shared plan to overthrow God

Gideon and Harrow were friends as kids, Harrow lobotomised Gideon to make her forget, after they broke into the tomb

Harrow and Palamedes used to secretly correspond, just like he corresponded with Dulcinea

Harrow knew about Gideon being the child of God, or at the very least that she's immortal, and thinks Gideon is stupid for not having figured it out herself

The people of the Ninth know that Harrow's parents are dead and are just playing along, like you do with a beloved child

Lastly, less of a theory, more of an inference that I felt the need to share: If Nona is Alecto, then the experiences Nona is unconsciously referencing in the "that's how people look at you when they want to see you naked and it's a sex thing" scene are probably experiences she had with John, judging by how creepy he is about her. Ew.