#but at the same time....books definitely can have the same fear effect on me. i KNOW. i've been scared shitless numerous times bc of books

[trans-axolotl2]

I've been reading Cripping Intersex by Celeste Orr and one concept that I think is absolutely crucial and one of the best resources I've found for understanding my own experiences as an intersex person is the term Compulsory Dyadism.

Dr. Orr coins the term: "I propose the expression 'compulsory dyadism' to describe the instituted cultural mandate that people cannot violate the sex dyad, have intersex traits, or 'house the spectre of intersex' (Sparrow 2013, 29). Said spectre must be, according to the mandate, exorcised. However, trying to definitively cast out the spectre via curative violence always fails. The spectre always returns: a new intersex baby is born; one learns that they have intersex traits in adulthood; and/or medical procedures cannot cast out the spectre fully, as evidenced by life-long medical interventions, routines, or patienthood status. And the effects of compulsory dyadism haunt in the form of disabilities, scars, memories, trauma, and medical regimens (e.g., HRT routines). Compulsory dyadism, therefore, is not simply an event or a set of instituted policies but is an ongoing exorcising process and structure of pathologization, curative violence, erasure, trauma, and oppression." (Orr 19-20).

They continue on in their book to explore compulsory dyadism as it shows up in medical interventions, racializing intersex + sports sex testing, and eugenic and prenatal interventions on intersex fetuses. This term makes so much sense to me and puts words to an experience I've been struggling to comprehend--how can it be that so many endosex* people express such revulsion and fear of intersex bodies and traits, yet at the same time don't even know that intersex people exist? Why is it that people understand when I refer to my body in the terms used by freak shows, call myself a hermaphrodite, remember bearded ladies and laugh at interphobic jokes--yet do not even know that intersex people are as common as redheads? Understanding the term compulsory dyadism elucidates this for me. Endosex people might not comprehend what intersex actually is or know anything about our advocacy, but they do grow up in a cultural environment that indoctrinates them into false ideas about the sex binary and cultivates a fear of anything that lies outside of it.

From birth, compulsory dyadism affects every one of us, whether you're intersex or not. Intersex people carry the heaviest burden and often the most visible wounds that compulsory dyadism inflicts, as shown through often the very literal scars of violent, "curative" surgery, but the whole process of sex assignment at birth is a manifestation of compulsory dyadism. Ideas entrenched in the medical system that assign gender to the hormones testosterone and estrogen although neither of those hormones have anything to do with gender, a society that starts selling hair removal products to girls at puberty, and the historical legacy of things like sexual inversion theory are all manifestations of compulsory dyadism. For intersex people, facing compulsory dyadism often means that we are subjected to curative violence, institutionalized medical malpractice that sometimes includes aspects of ritualized sexual abuse, and means that we are left "haunted by, for instance, traumatic memories, acquires body-mind disabilities, an ability that was taken, or a 'paradoxical nostalgia....for all the futures that were lost' (Fisher 2013,45)." (Orr 26).

Compulsory dyadism works in tandem with concepts like compulsory able-bodiedness and compulsory heterosexuality to create mindsets and systems that tie together ideas to suggest that the only "normal" body is a cisgender one that meets capitalist standards of function, is capable of heterosexual sex and reproduction, and has chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, reproductive system, and sex traits that all line up. Part of compulsory dyadism is convincing the public that this is the only way for a body to function, erasing intersex people both by excluding us from public perception and by actively utilizing curative violence as a way to actively erasure intersex traits from our body. Compulsory dyadism works by getting both the endosex and intersex public to buy into the idea that intersex doesn't exist, and if it does exist then it needs to be treated as a freakshow, either exploiting us to put us on display as an aberration or by delegating us to the medical freakshow of experimentation and violence.

Until we all start to fully understand the many, many ways that compulsory dyadism is showing up in our lives, I don't think we're going to be able to achieve true intersex liberation. And in fact, I think many causes are tied into intersex liberation and affected by compulsory dyadism in ways that endosex people don't understand. Take the intense revulsion that some trans people express about the thought of medical transition, for example. Although transitioning does not make people intersex and never will, and the only way to be intersex is to have an intersex variation, I think that compulsory dyadism affects a lot more of that rhetoric than is expressed. The disgust I see some people talking about when they think about medical transition causing them to live in a body that has XX chromosomes, a vagina, but also more hair, a larger clitoris--I think a lot of this rhetoric is born in compulsory dyadism that teaches us to view anything that steps outside the sex dyad with intense fear and violence. I'm thinking about transphobic legislation blocking medical transition and how there's intersex exceptions in almost every one of those bills, and how having an understanding of compulsory dyadism would actually help us understand the ways in which our struggles overlap and choose to build meaningful solidarity, instead of just sitting together by default.

I have so much more to say about this topic, and will probably continue to write about it for a while, but I want to end by just saying: I think this is going to be one of the most important concepts for intersex advocacy going into the next decade. With all due respect and much love to intersex activists both current and present,I think that it's time for a new strategy, not one where we medicalize ourselves and distance ourselves from queer liberation, not one where we sort of just end up as an add on to LGBTQ community by default, not even one where we use a human rights framework, nonprofits, and try to negotiate with the government. I agree with so much of what Dr. Orr says in Cripping Intersex and I think the intersex and/as/is/with disability framework, along with these foundational ideas for understanding our own oppression with the language of compulsory dyadism and curative violence, are providing us with the tools to start laying a foundation for a truly liberatory mode of intersex community building and liberation.

*Endosex means not intersex

Endosex people, please feel free to reblog!

[linkemon]

I won't say I'm in love (Shroud Idia x Reader)

Friendly reminder that English is not my first language. You can check my Masterlists both in English and Polish here. Consider supporting me on Ko-fi. You can also check out my commissions if you’re interested.

Other oneshots can be found here.

ɪᴅɪᴀ ᴛʀɪᴇꜱ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴇᴀʟ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴜɴᴄᴏᴍꜰᴏʀᴛᴀʙʟᴇ ꜰᴇᴇʟɪɴɢ ᴏꜰ ʙᴇɪɴɢ ɪɴ ʟᴏᴠᴇ, ᴍᴜᴄʜ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ ᴍᴇɢᴀʀᴀ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ʜᴇʀᴄᴜʟᴇꜱ. ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʏ, ʜᴇ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴘʟᴀʏ ᴏᴛᴏᴍᴇ, ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴀɪɴ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ʀᴘɢꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡᴏɴᴅᴇʀ ᴡʜʏ ɪᴛ ɪꜱ ꜱᴏ ʜᴀʀᴅ ꜰᴏʀ ʜɪᴍ ᴛᴏ ᴀᴄᴄᴇᴘᴛ ɪᴛ.

— Ortho, can you repeat that again? — Idia blinked rapidly.  

He stared at his brother as if he had suddenly sprouted three heads. In the darkness, illuminated only by the light falling from the screen, he had the impression that the dark, robotic silhouette had turned into Cerberus. A huge dog standing guard in the doorway. He would love to cross to the other side of this imaginary Styx but he couldn't. Such betrayal? His own brother stabbing him in the back?  

— Bro, you don't have to be so dramatic…— Ortho shook his head. — I invited [Reader] because you haven't seen each other for a long time and...  

— And you don't see any problem? You're a huge red flag for doing this behind my back. —The older brother hugged the pillow. The huge dakimakura seemed to help him shut out the world.  

The youngest Shroud turned on the light. The glow of LED bulbs seemed to peer into every corner. It was looking for colourful wrappers from sweets imported from abroad. It skimmed over every screw and scrap of metal from failed projects. It even discovered piles of comic books mixed with records falling out of their packaging. The room was a mess. Ortho was aware of this. However, he stated that it was not worth turning the knife in the wound. He did not comment on the state of affairs. Instead, he turned on the quick cleaning mode. Idia joined him reluctantly. Silently, with a suffering face, he threw the garbage into a large bag.  

Ortho wondered what exactly he had done wrong. According to his information, [Reader] and Idia did not have a quarrel. On the contrary. Since everyone had returned from S.T.Y.X. HQ, he felt like his brother had finally made some friends. People he likes spending time with. They played games together and sometimes he even let them take him outside, which was a big success in itself. The prefect didn't mind his enthusiasm for fantasy. She seemed happy to learn about the media that reigns supreme in Twisted Wonderland. She hadn't had much opportunity to explore this side of the world, so Shroud was quietly happy to introduce the, as he put it, noob to the most important corners of Internet.  

The contact ended quite suddenly. Ortho didn't need special programs to notice that something was wrong. He asked [Reader] directly but she said that Idia was apparently very busy with a new project. He would have believed it if he hadn't lived with him. How busy can you be watching the same old Premo concert for the thirty-third time in two weeks? His brother looked like he couldn't find a place in his own beloved room and didn't want to say what was going on. So Ortho did what he always did — he pushed him. The invitation was the first step. What he will do with this fact will be his initiative alone. With that thought he left the room.  

There was a faint knocking sound through the metal door. Idia felt like he had just had a heart attack. He had a choice:  

a) pretend he's not there (20% effective, most people on campus knew it wasn't true because he used this attack too often)  

b) say that he is sick (an even worse plan, because someone will definitely take him to the hygienist)  

c) ask [Reader] to go away (a tragic choice in RPGs that causes you to lose a companion; if she hasn't hated him by now, she definitely will after this option)  

d) open the door like a civilized person his parents tried to raise him to be (he will be given the fearful status but will gain +10 courage)  

He decided on the last option and, taking a deep breath, opened the door.  

— Hi! — [Reader] immediately went to her usual place on the huge pouffe. She fell on it like a giant starfish from the Octavinelle aquarium.  

The boy expected anything. Or at least reproaches. He didn't fully understand himself. Was he such a good liar? NO. He wasn't stupid. He knew his capabilities. He was never great at this. Unless we're talking about framing someone from the opposing team in games but that's not the case. Maybe he was annoyed that she didn't miss him as much as he missed her...  

— I brought us a new game. Cater recently mentioned that his sisters had some to give away because they were bored of them, so I took all they had.  

— What do you have there? — he risked a safe question.  

The girl handed him a colourful package. He guessed that the record was second-hand. The colourful cover looked like it had seen better days. However, after seeing a crowd of pretty 2D men, he guessed what genre he was dealing with. Visual novel. And not just any kind. In his hands he held an otome…  

— Reincarnated in a fantasy world with six princes after being run over by a carriage... Okay, this title is so long it doesn't even fit on the cover. Meet them all: rules-loving, wild, THIS ONE IS A MERMAID?!  

He didn't feel like reading the rest. Idia wasn't a noob when it came to otome. On the contrary. He ate his teeth on all possible game genres. Usually, however, he made sure that they maintained any level. However, this title seemed to him like a bunch of random tropes. Someone on the other side just had to wait to throw them all together and create their fan dream.  

— I guess we can just take making choices — he said, inserting the disc into the console.  

— Don't worry, good people, for ladyknightskibidi:3 has arrived! — announced the prince with the archetype of the mysterious figure.  

— Idia, you have the humor of a seven-year-old — said the girl, seeing the MC nickname written on the screen.  

— But admit it, you're enjoying it. — Shroud handed over the controller.  

The heroine's long hair waved in the wind. Her eyes seemed to contain the light of all the stars. Rose petals were floating in the air and their strong scent seemed to captivate everyone around. Even though it was the middle of winter and they basically should be dead...  

— You can even choose the colour of the horse. Do you think this is important to the plot? And what if we miss the illustration? — [Reader's] hand hovered over the controller.  

— It's an obvious move. They want us to think that white is assigned to the pretty guy and black is assigned to the mysterious guy. Meanwhile, it's quite the opposite. I don't know who the last one is assigned to but it doesn't matter — Idia said.  

The white steed, a brave companion on many journeys, headed towards the main gate, where ladyknightskibidi:3 met the archetypal prince with a heart of gold who was talking to an NPC. She made her purchases, although they actually had no impact on the plot and were just a cash grab to force players to buy new outfits for the characters. So she left without a new dress, which was highlighted in the illustration by the armor that did not match the idyllic setting. After all, who says you can't kiss in full armor on the beach...?  

— There's no way we're going to pay for any DLC. Who do they think they are?  

— Do you know what the process of publishing indie games looks like? They have to make money somehow.  

— I don't care, we don't pay! I got this from Cater. Free is a fair price.  

The heroine saw the ultimate villain of the series, whom she had to defeat. With the power of kindness, friendship and, of course, sarcasm. Mostly sarcasm. Dressed in completely mismatched clothes because good stats are the most important. Even if it means you get married in a neon hat... The most important thing is that MC and her groom rode off into the sunset. Good ending unlocked. Now just repeat this a few times and multiply it by each save to also make bad endings...  

— Is it the end already? I understand they had to cram in a few routes but this is so short. — Shroud shook his head.  

The screen showed a colourful collage of obtainable illustrations. The end credits and the creators' names were scattered between them.  

The chosen one of MC's heart seemed to be smiling mockingly at Idia from behind the glass. Here is another story where someone like Vil from Pomefiore wins a girl's heart. Handsome, rich and famous. The complete package.  

— Oh yes, beautiful and perfect type. Why am I not surprised that bishōnen won? — Shroud mumbled into his sweatshirt sleeve.  

Unfortunately not quiet enough.  

— Idia, need I remind you that you also made half of the choices. You're also responsible for the outcome — [Reader] commented, putting down the controller.  

— I chose exactly as normies do in real life.  

— It's not about the game at all, is it? — [Reader] looked straight at him. — You've been avoiding me for two weeks. — So he really wasn't a good liar after all, he thought. — I don't think I gave you a reason to be offended but if I did, just tell me. And if it's another S.T.Y.X. problem, I'll try to do something too but I can't help you if you don't talk to me at all.  

Communication was never his default stat. However, he had to admit that he rarely tried to put any points into this skill tree. He just didn't develop it. He really wanted to start but just thinking about it felt like the ends of his hair were starting to change colour. The edges of the metalic chairs reflected an embarrassing red. As always, his hair had to betray him.  

Idia was a nerd. He thought through the situation in several hundred different ways and came up with tons of potential solutions. So why wasn't this conversation in any of his plans? Why was it so difficult to put any of the imaginary conversations into action? His brain went into a glitch because he had to face this hopeless truth that he didn't want to reveal even to his own brother.  

What could he say? [Reader] didn't deserve this prolonged, embarrassing silence. But she waited patiently despite two weeks of being ignored. So he did what was the only thing that came to his mind.  

— I'm an NPC — he finally said.  

— Okaaay. — Prefect of Ramshackle tilted her head uncertainly.  

— No, you don't understand — he sighed, rubbing his forehead. — For example, take the MC from Reincarnated in a fantasy world... uh... the MC from this game. You are like her. The main character is always running around and helping all the characters around her, without looking at herself. She doesn't even realize that she is smart, selfless and beautiful. She always knows what to say to bad guys and is not afraid to fight. And then a prince arrives on a white horse. He's pretty, rich, and provides her with everything she needs. There are no flaws because that's not how you write ikemens. They just should be cool and that's it. Then these two come together and boom! Good ending. At their wedding, the creators will put the NPC who sells you items in the crowd because they don't want to make a new model, so they can use it. In the sequel, maybe he'll even say a few words and you'll find out that he has a brother, a magic workshop and will repair your carriage but that's where the relationship ends. He will stand by the gate and sigh because he loves her but he will never tell her because he is not even in this game. He was never selected so he didn't make it to the cover...  

Everything he said came to him with a delay. When it came to games, his brain had always thought faster. But now he cursed him inwardly because the statement seemed to hang heavy in the air.  

[Reader] looked at him searching for something. She seemed to weigh her words. But he was prepared for anything. He played so many bad endings. This one will just be another one of them. So why was his heart beating so terribly fast and he was silently praying to his favourite idols to just take him away?  

— There are almost always secret routes in otome — the girl said.  

— Huh? Idia blinked rapidly. — I've played more otome than you, I don't know if you should educate me…— [Reader]'s raised brow made him stop talking.  

— The truth is, I played it a little with the Cater's sisters. This game also has a secret route. The seventh romance character is hidden. You unlock it when you pass…  

—…all routes — Shroud interjected. — Okay, I'm seriously shutting up now — he added, looking down.  

— This character is an item NPC. — [Reader] paused in case the boy was to interrupt her again but nothing happened. — What I mean is that the MC can also choose an NPC. If only he tells her how he feels and wants to take part in the game.  

The screen illuminated her face with a pale glow and the boy realized that in the darkness she really looked like the main character. How can you seriously say something so cool, as if nothing happened? She stared at him with silent expectation. He wanted to scream into dakimakura but he probably wouldn't look too cool doing it. So he mentally prayed to his idols. If there was ever a time the Premos should help him, this was it.

— In the game, the MC makes decisions, so technically she has no causative power and... Ahem. Okay. I know that I'm going too far. Sooo... would you like to go on a date with me? But it's best not to go to Mostro Lounge because there are a lot of people there and for the first time it could be tragically scary and...  

— Idia?  

— Yes? — He swallowed loudly.  

— I'll go on a date with you but your hair is burning the controller right now...  

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Hello! I have seen this question debated many times and I wanted to know your take on it cause I find your theories very compelling. Do you think harry should've been in Slytherin? Does he have what it "takes" to be a Slytherin? Is it because of voldemort's soul in him that lead the sorting hat to even suggest he could be in Slytherin? I know this is not one question but I would like to know your opinion on this topic in general!

First of all, thank you for the kind words! 😊

As for the questions, well, you've asked more than one question, but this ask kinda gives me a good reason to talk about how Harry isn't some golden Gryffindor. He actually has some anger issues and he most definitely has what it "takes" for Slytherin.

I'll start with the last question and then go backward, actually.

Did the hat consider Slytherin house just because of the Horcrux?

I don't think so.

I mean, Harry is incredibly clever, magically powerful, and has a cunning streak a mile wide all on his own. I'd actually go as far as to say he's more cunning, ruthless, and resourceful than many of the Slytherins we see in the books. So his own traits definitely are in line with a Slytherin sorting, Horcrux or no Horcrux.

We can try and discern if the Horcrux has an effect on Harry's personality then, and if its influence is seen like that. I'd say that I don't think so either.

Tom and Harry, while they have their similarities, are very different people. They both have a bad temper (although they react to anger differently), but Harry has low self-esteem whereas Tom thinks he is the best (while still hating himself). They're both stubborn, but Tom is much more obsessive than Harry in pursuit of his goals. Harry cares for justice and isn't willing to hurt innocents, Tom doesn't really care about any of that he cares for efficiency. If the Horcrux was influencing Harry's personality, I'd expect to see more similarities between them that go deeper than that.

So, I don't think the hat only offered Slytherin because of the Horcrux. Harry is a Slytherin in his own right.

Does Harry have what it "takes" for Slytherin?

So, I honestly got really excited at the sight of this sentence. See I love Harry, that's no secret. But one of the things I love about him is that he isn't the perfect noble hero. He can be angry, and cruel and ruthless. But he has a sense of justice, he wouldn't wish harm on someone innocent, but someone who did harm to him, or was mean to him or someone he cares for... then Harry can be terrifying when he wants to be.

So, now I'm going to go through some (I have so many more examples of this, and the examples here are mostly books 1-5 since that's what I had on hand) of my collection of quotes showing Harry Potter's vindictiveness and anger.

Harry's response to "have a good summer" at the end of his first year:

“Oh, I will,” said Harry, and they were surprised at the grin that was spreading over his face. “They don’t know we’re not allowed to use magic at home. I’m going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer.…

(PS, page 221)

This is Harry's (very justified) vindictiveness we see towards the Dursleys many times in the books. He uses the idea of magic to scare them and is gleeful at the thought of Dudley's fear. Harry is very much chill with vengeance.

“…He likes to keep in touch with me, though . . . keep up with my news . . . check if I’m happy. . . .” And, grinning broadly at the look of horror on Uncle Vernon’s face, Harry set off toward the station exit, Hedwig rattling along in front of him, for what looked like a much better summer than the last.

(PoA, page 435)

Same as above, just Sirius Black as the threat instead of magic.

Yes, thought Harry, that looked all right. There was no point putting in the dream; he didn’t want it to look as though he was too worried.

(GoF, page 25)

Harry can and does lie and conceal information, even from people he trusts (like Sirius) if he thinks it'll be better not to tell them something. Whether that is for his own image or for what they would think.

“Potter! Weasley! What are you doing?” It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines. “We were — we were —” Ron stammered. “We were going to — to go and see —” “Hermione,” said Harry. Ron and Professor McGonagall both looked at him. “We haven’t seen her for ages, Professor,” Harry went on hurriedly, treading on Ron’s foot, “and we thought we’d sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry —” Professor McGonagall was still staring at him, and for a moment, Harry thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice. “Of course,” she said, and Harry, amazed, saw a tear glistening in her beady eye.

(CoS, page 259)

And he clearly can lie well, even at 12.

But Harry wasn’t going to stand for this. Gone were the days when he had been forced to take every single one of the Dursleys’ stupid rules. He wasn’t following Dudley’s diet, and he wasn’t going to let Uncle Vernon stop him from going to the Quidditch World Cup, not if he could help it. Harry took a deep, steadying breath and then said, “Okay, I can’t see the World Cup. Can I go now, then? Only I’ve got a letter to Sirius I want to finish. You know — my godfather.” He had done it. He had said the magic words. Now he watched the purple recede blotchily from Uncle Vernon’s face, making it look like badly mixed black currant ice cream.

...

He stopped there to enjoy the effect of these words. He could almost see the cogs working under Uncle Vernon’s thick, dark, neatly parted hair. If he tried to stop Harry writing to Sirius, Sirius would think Harry was being mistreated. If he told Harry he couldn’t go to the Quidditch World Cup, Harry would write and tell Sirius, who would know Harry was being mistreated. There was only one thing for Uncle Vernon to do. Harry could see the conclusion forming in his uncle’s mind as though the great mustached face were transparent. Harry tried not to smile, to keep his own face as blank as possible. And then — “Well, all right then. You can go to this ruddy . . . this stupid . . . this World Cup thing.

(GoF, page 33)

Again, vindictiveness and manipulation of Vernon through fear. Not only that, but Harry can keep his calm and keep his face blank even at 14 for the sake of getting something he wants.

“Get stuffed, Malfoy,” said Harry. “C’mon, Ron. . . .” “Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren’t you, Potter?” sneered Malfoy. “So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?” “You know your mother, Malfoy?” said Harry — both he and Hermione had grabbed the back of Ron’s robes to stop him from launching himself at Malfoy — “that expression she’s got, like she’s got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?” Malfoy’s pale face went slightly pink. “Don’t you dare insult my mother, Potter.” “Keep your fat mouth shut, then,” said Harry, turning away.

(GoF, page 204)

Harry has a bark (all of the above quotes are Harry having a bark). He can and does shoot back as good as he gets.

Harry isn't all bark though, he's got a bit. Harry's anger is palpable and so very real and I love seeing it:

just as Uncle Vernon burst out of the dining room, his trouser leg in bloody tatters. “COME BACK IN HERE!” he bellowed. “COME BACK AND PUT HER RIGHT!” But a reckless rage had come over Harry. He kicked his trunk open, pulled out his wand, and pointed it at Uncle Vernon. “She deserved it,” Harry said, breathing very fast. “She deserved what she got. You keep away from me.”  He fumbled behind him for the latch on the door. “I’m going,” Harry said. “I’ve had enough.”

(PoA, page 30)

Again, Harry has his vindictive strike. (Obviously, Marge had it coming, but that's also what Harry is thinking).

A boiling hate erupted in Harry’s chest, leaving no place for fear. For the first time in his life, he wanted his wand back in his hand, not to defend himself, but to attack . . . to kill.

(PoA, page 339)

“You killed my parents,” said Harry, his voice shaking slightly, but his wand hand quite steady.

(PoA, page 341)

Harry, at 13, was fully willing to kill who he believed led to his parents' deaths. And more:

So what if he had to kill the cat too? It was in league with Black. . . . If it was prepared to die, trying to protect Black, that wasn’t Harry’s business. . . .

(PoA, page 342)

He's willing to kill Hermione's cat if it stands in his way.

Harry stood there, feeling suddenly empty. He hadn’t done it. His nerve had failed him. Black was going to be handed back to the dementors.

(PoA, page 343)

Harry Potter, at 13, laments that he didn't have the nerve to kill Sirius himself. He thinks he should've killed himself. He sees it as a failure that justice would be served by someone other than him.

Harry sat there staring at Snape as the lesson began, picturing horrific things happening to him. . . . If only he knew how to do the Cruciatus Curse . . . he’d have Snape flat on his back like that spider, jerking and twitching. . . .

(GoF, page 300)

Harry felt oddly separate from everyone around him, whether they were wishing him good luck or hissing “We’ll have a box of tissues ready, Potter ” as he passed. It was a state of nervousness so advanced that he wondered whether he mightn’t just lose his head when they tried to lead him out to his dragon, and start trying to curse everyone in sight.

(GoF, page 347)

The above quotes are both situations Harry was willing and wishing to curse people. Even Crucio Snape. He's not as noble and righteous and golden as many fans and characters in the books make him out to be...

If Dudley’s friends saw him sitting here, they would be sure to make a beeline for him, and what would Dudley do then? He wouldn’t want to lose face in front of the gang, but he’d be terrified of provoking Harry. . . . It would be really fun to watch Dudley’s dilemma; to taunt him, watch him, with him powerless to respond . . . and if any of the others tried hitting Harry, Harry was ready — he had his wand . . . let them try . . . He’d love to vent some of his frustration on the boys who had once made his life hell —

(OotP, page 11)

And sometimes, Harry wishes for an excuse to fight. An excuse to take his anger out on someone. (He has a lot of anger in him)

Smirking all over his pointed face, Draco Malfoy leaned across Harry and seized the largest bowtruckle. “Maybe,” said Malfoy in an undertone, so that only Harry could hear him, “the stupid great oaf’s got himself badly injured.” “Maybe you will if you don’t shut up,” said Harry out of the side of his mouth.

(OotP, page 260)

He's threatening and witty.

“Oh no,” said Hermione, quaking so badly that her knees gave way. “Oh, that was horrible. And he [Gwamp] might kill them [the centaurs] all. . . .” “I’m not that fussed, to be honest,” said Harry bitterly.

(OotP, page 759)

And when it comes to people he doesn't consider innocent, or ones he doesn't care for, even if they never harmed him, Harry is still vindictive. The centaurs mistreated Firenze and Hagrid, so Harry doesn't really care if Gwamp kills them all.

That being said, he is more concerned about Sirius in the above scene.

And he can and does cast unforgivables easily by the later books:

Hatred rose in Harry such as he had never known before. He flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed “Crucio!” Bellatrix screamed. The spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as Neville had — she was already on her feet again, breathless, no longer laughing. Harry dodged behind the golden fountain again — her counterspell hit the head of the handsome wizard, which was blown off and landed twenty feet away, gouging long scratches into the wooden floor.

(OotP, page 809)

Harry raised the hawthorn wand beneath the cloak, pointed it at the old goblin, and whispered, for the first time in his life, “Imperio!” A curious sensation shot down Harry’s arm, a feeling of tingling, warmth that seemed to flow from his mind, down the sinews and veins connecting him to the wand and the curse it had just cast. The goblin took Bellatrix’s wand, examined it closely, and then said, “Ah, you have had a new wand made, Madam Lestrange!”

(DH, pages 152-453)

As Amycus spun around, Harry shouted, “Crucio!” The Death Eater was lifted off his feet. He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor. “I see what Bellatrix meant,” said Harry, the blood thundering through his brain, “you need to really mean it.”

(DH, page 502)

So, I think Harry definitely has what it takes. He's clever, he can be ruthless, and he's capable of lying and hiding secrets when he feels it's the best option. He can hide his emotions when he really needs to, even if he rarely does. Actually, only in book 6, Harry starts sharing everything with Ron and Hermione on Dumbledore’s advice. Up to that point, he kept quite a bit to himself. And when someone wrongs him, he can and often will swing back.

And last but not least, should he have been in Slytherin?

So, this is an interesting question, because "should" can have two meanings.

1. Should've for the story — as in what is best for the narrative.

2. Should've for the character — in universe, which house the sorting hat should've picked.

So, for the first one, my answer is no. Gryffindor was the right choice for Harry for the narrative of the books as they are. Gryffindor is essentially the opposite of Slytherin and represents a choice more than just the traits and values the house represents. It represents Harry's choice even though he could've been a Slytherin he chose Gryffindor. And it's a constant choice with every heroic act. (personally, I'm not the biggest fan of equating school houses with morality, but it's effective in creating a clear narrative)

And while not all Slytherins are evil and not all Gryffindors are good, a Slytherin Harry Potter would've resulted in a very different story than what we have. So, for the story we ended up getting to happen the way it did, yes, Harry needed to be a Gryffindor.

For the second, maybe. Personally, I believe people (even if they aren't hatstalls) have more than one house they can fit into. Harry is both a Slytherin and a Gryffindor, and neither of them is more wrong or right for him as a person. I think deciding which one of them is best for him is up to a coin flip (and when in his life the question is asked).

He can be ruthless and cunning like a Slytherin. Selfless and courageous like a Gryffindor. He values justice like a Gryffindor. But he also has the selective loyalty of Slytherin to their own.

Point is, there isn't really a "should", because both suit him and he would’ve done well in both. Do I think Slytherin Harry is an incredibly fun concept to consider? Yes. Did I read way too many fics with this premise and would read more? Yes. Do I think he might've fit into Slytherin better than Gryffindor? Well, not necessarily.

Harry is much quieter than most in Gryffindor, but I think the constant scheming and image-keeping in Slytherin would be exhausting to him. He just doesn't care about all the gossip and politicalizing (something that occasionally leaves him out of the loop also in Gryffindor). So, again, both suit him about equally. The difference is that we get a very different story depending on his house.

[successfulgoddess333]

VOID STATE THE SPONGEBOB METHOD

So I’ve been thinking about this

Maybe it’s because I’m currently obsessed with watching SpongeBob

But I was thinking

What if we use the void state or

Any “L.O.A” methods

As SpongeBob characters?

Here me out,

Let’s start here

The 3D is Squidward

Pessimistic, unhappy very cruel

Definitely the type to think that life is hard or isn’t fair

Then you have SpongeBob

Who’s optimistic hard working energetic and determined

We need to be like SpongeBob

The void state and our desires

Is the Krusty Krab

No I don’t think we have to work as hard but I definitely think we need that dedication and maybe even his delusion

He thinks Squidward is his friend

If we treat the 3D like it’s not against us but with us

As in the 3D isn’t the enemy it’s going by based on what YOU assume

Assume it’s kind to you that everything in your 4D that you WANT is already here

Think of it as this

He goes to work everyday

Never misses

He’s persistent

What we need to do

Is be persistent like him

Like SpongeBob

Squidwards negativity hasn’t stopped SpongeBob from meeting his goals from doing what he loves

So why should we let the 3D or any one or anything stop us from getting our desires??

Where would SpongeBob be if he procrastinated about working?

If he absorbed everyone’s toxic energy

While he is gullible and easily pressurized and manipulated

The only traits of his we’ll follow is his persistence, creativity,determination and delusion

Because Squidward(the 3D) doesn’t know what greatness our mind consists of

SpongeBob’s creative “imagination” helps him see and do things others cannot comprehend

The bubble buddy episode

When everyone was questioning why he was friends with a bubble(who turned out to be real in the end)

Or that episode with the box

Where him and Patrick were using their imagination to create digital sound effects and make it seem like they were in a movie

Stick to your delusions until they’re not fake anymore

Like when his bubble friend came to life in the end

If we use our imagination

We can create the life we want by acting as if we already have it

Fame? Pretend you’re doing a Jimmy Fallon interview while you’re in your room

Singer/rapper even if you aren’t good sing in the shower close your eyes act like your literally Beyoncé and sound just as good

Rich? Act like you’re the epitome of wealth

Beauty? Look in the mirror ignore those pimples look at yourself the same way you’d look at your favorite model

Or say you are a model

Naomi Campbell is shook when she sees me

The 3D is literally a book

If you don’t like the chapter you’re currently reading

Stop re reading it

What do you fear? What the next chapter is about? Life isn’t coming at you

It’s coming within you

If you don’t like how your book is going

Turn the page

Or better yet

Create a new book

Kick out a few characters if they don’t resonate with your current lifestyle and mindset

Create new characters

You can change your tomorrow

Or even right now stop wasting time

Your desires want you more

Just open your eyes

Open this new book and get to writing

Using your imagination

SpongeBob Style💕💕

I hope this reaches people

[stars-and-inkpots]

Promise Me | Gale x Reader

Gale accepts his fate so eagerly, and you don't understand why. You don't understand how he can leave everything- how he can leave you behind without hesitation.

Pairing: Gale/Reader

Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, can be read as platonic

Notes: I don't have much to say about this one other than that I love Gale a lot and the fact that he just agreed to this in game makes me so sad when I think about it too deeply

Ao3 Link: Promise Me

Word Count: 1,415

When Elminster showed up, in the Underdark no less, to tell Gale that he could earn his Goddess’s forgiveness by effectively killing himself, you could hardly understand it. What made you even more confused, was Gale’s apparent acceptance of the task.

You had tried to interrupt them. You tried to explain how irrational the whole idea was, but Gale only waved away your attempts. He was accepting the task, seemingly eager to be a martyr. 

You expect Gale to change his mind once Elminster leaves. You expect him to tell you that he only agreed so he could get the orb under control. But when Elminster is gone, Gale affirms his choice once more. Nothing you said could change his mind, and he refused to talk on the matter any more for the rest of the night. 

It was cruel of Mystra to ask this of him, and you can’t understand how Gale can’t see this. 

The next morning, Gale acts as though the whole interaction never happened. 

He’s still smiling, still full of sarcastic comments that always seemed to lighten the mood while you all made your way through the Underdark. The next day is much the same. 

Everytime you try to talk to him, he’s conveniently out doing something else, or so busy with his studies that he “absolutely cannot spare a single moment.” As much as you care about him, it’s starting to annoy you just how long he’s willing to continue ignoring you. 

“Glaring at him every time he’s not looking isn’t going to accomplish much, my dear,’ Astarion says quietly. You’ve been walking back to camp for the better half of an hour, and you know you should be paying more attention to what’s around you given how dangerous the Underdark can be. 

“I know,” you grumble. 

“Have you talked with him about it?” The two of you are quiet enough that Gale won’t hear you. 

“No. He’s been avoiding me.” 

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Astarion hums. “I imagine he’s scared.” 

“Of me or blowing up?” You joke, maybe in poor taste, but it’s the first smile you’ve had in a while and Astarion appreciates the humour given the situation.  

“Both, definitely both.” Astarion smiles. “You can be quite scary when you’re angry. Maybe he thinks blowing up will be easier than answering to you.” It’s an awful thing to joke about, you think again, but you laugh anyway because there really is nothing else you can do. “I mean it though, that’s probably why he hasn’t said anything about it. As much as I hate to defend him, I’m sure he’s just trying not to think about it.” 

“You’re being strangely thoughtful, Astarion; dare I say considerate,” you tease. Astarion raises a hand to his chest in mock pain. 

“You wound me, pet. Am I not such a beacon of empathy all of the time?” 

“Alright, alright,” you laugh, loud enough this time for the whole group to hear. You wait a few moments before speaking again, sure that no one is still listening. “I’ll talk to him tonight then. I promise I won’t be too mean to him.” Of course, you couldn’t be mean to the man if you tried. You could be annoyed with Gale all you wanted, but you know that you would never be able to voice that anger. You know the look on Gale’s face would be too much, and you would immediately feel terrible. You know your anger is not truly anger. It’s fear, and it’s sadness. 

---

“Gale, I wanted to talk with you.” You watch as Gale freezes, hand reaching for the book he wasn’t quick enough to pick up before you arrived. 

“Ah, my apologies, I was just about to-” Gale trails off when he finally looks up at you. 

You don’t look angry, you look like you’re already grieving. You can feel the tears that already threaten to fall, and you know they likely will soon. “Gale,” you whisper, because you know your voice can’t handle any more than that without faltering. “Please. I just want to talk.” 

“Alright,” Gale relents. He lets you inside the tent first, sitting down across from him on the organised mess of blankets surrounded by books. He looks guilty when he looks back at you, but he doesn’t say anything yet; you know he’s waiting for whatever you have to say. You can’t bring yourself to look at him yet. 

“I’m sorry,” you start, and Gale is both surprised and confused. “I haven’t been very fair to you. I was so caught up in how I felt about everything that I didn’t consider how you might think of it.” 

Gale expected you to yell; to show some sort of resentment for his apparent acceptance of the terms of his ‘apology’ to Mystra. 

“I know I can’t change your mind. If you decide you want to go through with this, it’s your decision. I just want you to promise me something.” You finally look up at him, and Gale can see you’re crying now. 

“I can try,” Gale answers honestly. He’s never been fond of promises, especially when they could be so easily broken. 

You make a pained sort of noise. “Please. Promise.” You move closer to him, close enough that your knees are touching his. 

“I promise,” Gale decides. He’ll keep this one. If there are any promises he will keep, it has to be this one. You look relieved, but the frown creasing your brow hasn’t left you yet. The expression doesn’t suit you, Gale thinks, having grown accustomed to seeing you smiling so often despite everything. Knowing that he’s the reason for it only serves to make him feel worse. 

“Whenever you decide you’re going to do it, whether you decide that morning or the night before, you have to let me say goodbye. You can’t just leave when no one is looking. You have to tell me. You have to say goodbye to me.” Even though Gale already promised, it still feels like you’re begging him for this. The thought of never knowing when the last time you would see him would be made you sick. If he was going to go through with this, he had to give you this. You had to have the opportunity to say goodbye to him. To see him one last time. 

Gale doesn’t know what to say. He’s made the promise, but he knows it will be easier for himself if he leaves before he can change his mind. He knows that he has to leave well before anyone can hope to catch up with him if he wants any chance that they would be safe from the aftermath. He knows that if he has to face you before he leaves, he’s not going to be able to go through with it. You’ll only make him remember how much he truly doesn’t want to die- how terrified he is of death. 

So instead of saying anything, Gale leans forward and hugs you. 

You’re quick to wrap your arms tightly around him, clutching at the back of his shirt like he’s already about to leave. He lets you sob into his shirt, only just holding back tears himself. 

Is this what it’s like? To have someone care about you so completely- unconditionally. Someone who cares for not only your safety above all else, but would beg you for just the chance to say goodbye before you leave. You had assured him there had to be another way, and at the time, Gale assumed it was simply because you didn’t want to risk being caught in the crossfire. But now he knows that it wasn’t that at all. The thought of Gale’s death scares you just as much as it does himself. 

“I’m not leaving,” he says quietly. “You said we can find another way. We’ll find it.” 

“I don’t want to stop you from doing what you want to do. It’s your choice, Gale, but you have to know that it’s unfair of Her to ask this of you. You don’t deserve this.” You don’t want him to change his mind because of you. You want him to change his mind because he understands his life is worth it. His life is worth more than the forgiveness of a Goddess who doesn’t care about him. 

Gale’s arms tighten around you. He may not believe your words just yet, but it’s a start. 

It’s a promise. 

[brunhielda]

Because this is becoming THAT blog-

The one where I review old movies we all have already seen, but I personally, have not seen for years until recently.

I just watched “An American Tale.”

If you were a child of the 90s, you just thought- “There are No Cats in America 🎶? THAT American Tale?”

Yes.

If you had that thought, you likely already know. If you have not had the absolute joy- buckle up. I am going to rant about a classic.

First of all- This is Don Bluth.

His movies do not get worse with age.

They get BETTER.

And American Tale is example number ONE.

No, it is not fond memories or nostalgia glasses, you can breath, and then go treat yourself to a viewing.

Secondly- the man did not dumb down or sanitize his history.

He said “I’m going to tell the immigrant story” and then opened with a fucking ethnic cleansing.

I said what I said.

The movie is set in the early Russian Empire, a time full of anti-Semitic sentiment and enforced laws, also seen in “Fiddler on the Roof.” Fiddler on the roof might actually be tamer on the subject.

Every other historical note in this movie is on point and easy enough to look up in a history book, if you have the common sense to realize that names have been altered.

The Statue of Liberty was not built by a pigeon, for example. It was built by a Frenchman. (Frederic Auguste Bartholdi).

I don’t know of an “honest John,” but I did guffaw out loud when he started taking names of the dead at funerals to add to his vote count. Ghost votes were very real, one of the reasons people are still so twitchy about voter fraud today.

I do not recall a moment in 1886 when the minorities of New York managed to run off prominate members of authority… but with how on point everything else is? It would not shock me.

Thirdly- Bluth DID NOT FLINCH

I don’t remember who said it first, but both Bluth and Spielberg had a belief that you could put very sad and scary things in children’s films, as long as the ending was happy.

This movie has multiple nightmare moments. Cats, monster waves, more cats, bugs and fish, and of course, the horrifying “Mouse of Minsk” (iykyk).

The thing is, it’s not even how they are drawn. Like, yes, the image is scary, but it’s the storytelling around it. It’s the lighting change. The soundtrack. The horrific sound effects. Seriously- whoever did foley on this film deserves all the awards- you make me scared of the kitty kats, and I LOVE cats. 🐈

Some people will question whether or not it is appropriate for small children. I would say maybe wait until they are six, and watch it with them, but they should watch scary things if they can. Being scared in appropriately safe space teaches you how to react to fear and handle moments when you are scared in real life. It is my major argument for Halloween. But each parent has to do as they think is best for each individual child. In any case, watch this one first before showing it to your kids- definitely more scary than you remember.

Finally- the animation on this film is a national treasure. I honestly hope this film is in the Library of Congress collection.

There are animation techniques here that don’t exist anymore.

Sparks. Sparkles. Glimmers. Stars in the Night Sky. Smoke billows.

Actually, I almost paused the film on a smoke billow. Sony is doing some things in the recent “Spiderverse” trilogy that are insane- and part of it is their mixed animation.

All the smoke billows? Hand drawn.

They look the same as Bluth’s smoke in this film, which is making me wonder if one of their artists studied under him. Maybe not- maybe they just did their homework on good hand drawn cloud formations. Either way, realizing how close they got to the master work in this film made me appreciate them even more.

Speaking of insane animation-

I don’t know WHO Bluth felt he had to show off to, but this man could DRAW WATER and he fucking knew it.

Like water is hard to do, ok? Like hands, Da Vinci had notebooks full of sketches of the substance, proving it to be the bane of the artistic existence.

Most water in hand drawn animation comes in two forms-

Flat water color with pretty things floating in it to distract you-

Or drawn over a live video of water that they spliced into the image.

Even that was hard to do, and they used a technology no longer available to us. It looks pretty cool honestly.

But no, not DON fucking BLUTH.

Not only can this man hand draw water without the underlying video, but he draws it moving in multiple different ways. He shows it from the top, side, and sinking underneath (with moving bubbles and shifting light, no flat blue for him).

He turns it into a NIGHTMARE FUEL WAVE MONSTER.

He ADDS it to SCENES it DIDNT HAVE TO BE IN!

The more I watched this film, the more I realized that if Milt Kahl had the head swaggle, Don Bluth had water, and by God was he going to use it.

He wrote plots AROUND the idea of water, so he could showcase it in every scene. “Rock-a-doodle,” and “Pebble and the Penguin” come to mind. “Anastasia,” “Thumbelina” and “All Dogs Go to Heaven” all feature action scenes in water. Heck- the one in “All Dogs Go To Heaven” came out of no where, and makes so much more sense if it was just Bluth wanting to show off.

“An American Tale” had the travel by boat sequence and our main hero being thrown over board. He could have left it there. NOPE. There were puddles and sewers and fire hoses and action scenes at the docks.

And the few scenes without water? Let’s throw some scary sparks in there. Maybe some smoke billowing. For funzies.

Also- we’re going to have a Love Song with the most incredible Night Sky you have ever seen and a Comedic song featuring fun house mirror distorted reflections because WHY NOT???

I think he was trying to make sure Disney regretted him leaving, the way you dress up when you know your toxic ex will be there, and I love that for him. 🩷

Also- the backgrounds are all beautiful water color. I love a good water color.

Also- yeah, the sound track holds up. The songs are just as catchy as they ever were- if you have ever seen this movie you WILL find yourself singing along.

As previously mentioned, when it comes to the scary parts, the composer UNDERSTOOD THE ASSIGNMENT and the music easily fits into a good horror film.

And finally- the music at the finale when everything is made right, and the happy ending is finally here, is the most heart breaking thing you will ever hear. You will cry. Watch the movie, but bring the tissues. 🤧

This movie is definitely worth a watch.

This movie is more than worth a watch, it should be mandatory for elementary history and college animation classes alike.

But also it’s just fun. 🤩

[the---hermit]

Podcasts + crochet is the autumn activity of the year, and some more annotation in my copy of Richard II.

05|10|2023

Today was a really tiring and frustrating day, but I will try to focus on the positive. I am slowly learning how to have chill conversations with my classmates who I don't really know without feeling paralized by fear and anxiety. Compared to how I was feeling when I started to go back to in person classes last semester it's such a big win for me. Today I got to uni pretty early and I had a random conversation with another guy who was waiting, and I felt super chill about it, same thing during the pause mid-lecture I chatted with a couple of people sat near me and I felt pretty calm about it. I always feel like I have this anxiety in the back of my head but today I managed to keep it under control and it didn't effect me too much. So that's my win for today.

Cozy hobbit autumn activities and productivity:

Read first thing in the morning

Listened to a calm autumn playlist while I walked to my bus stop

Answered to so many texts

3 hour English lit lecture

Got fresh focaccia for lunch, and you can bet I'll be doing the same tomorrow (usually I made myself a sandwich or something in the morning, but for some reason I was struggling to eat those, and felt very unhappy about it, so I guess I will change things a bit more often and grab a piece of fresh focaccia while I go back to my bus stop from uni, today it definitely brought a lot of joy. It was so good and I was very happy about it and I didn't struggle to eat)

Daily Irish practice on duolingo

Listened to the daily re:dracula episode (this podcast is keeping me sane lately)

Enjoyed a tea with my mom (she picked me up from the bus stop so we could go get a tea and a sweet treat together)

Crocheted a bit

Tonight I'll be home alone so I plan on having a very relaxing evening

📖: The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly

🎵:Into The Unknown covered by Thomas Sanders (tis autumn time which means tis otgw time)

[cumscrotesailboat]

I finished Citrus, the "infamous" GL that i keep hearing about and as far as i've seen, its only the anime thats insanely weird. The manga is super different from the anime adaptation. There's a lot to critique with this series BUT the argument i hear saying that it caters primarily to men is not quite accurate. It was made by a sapphic woman, of which the story was inspired by a real experience she had, published by a company that caters to QUEER women. It certainly wasn't made with men in mind.

(Also, spoiler at the bottom if you have plans on reading it)

With that out of the way, the "incest" subplot of the series felt like it had little significance to the narrative of the story. The only time it was being mentioned was the Blonde MC's inner dialogue about how she can't possibly be with the Black haired MC because they're sister and that's it. At the end, their parents agreed to not get married so the two can legally be married. There was no push back on the parents or anyone they knew, it was just there. I can't tell what the author's purpose with it is. In another wlw series i read, the incest subplot was there to shut down the argument "If same-sex love is ok, then that should mean incest love is ok too bcs it doesnt affect anyone right?", but in here I can't be sure if its for drama or if its for the "spicy forbidden love awoogawooga" japanese anime fans seem to love. Personally, i think its the former. It's drama but very weak drama. I don't wanna write off the latter that fast either. Sapphic women can get weird with incest fantasies too. I personally am not into it bcs its incest, crazy take i know, but sure ig? This one I don't really care since it had such little effect on the narrative that you can just ignore it or even delude yourself with thinking it wasn't there at all and your understanding of the series would still be fine.

For the sexual assaults in the early chapters. I dont fucking know man, why did she do that? I mean, we know why, she was trying to push the Blonde MC away as seen in the letter but uhh.. 🤷🤷🤷? Sexual misconducts, harrassment, and assault just makes me feel uncomfortable so this is the one I dont like with the series at all. To give meaning to it (just bcs i dont wanna gloss over it that fast), the black haired MC did that as an impulsive act of selfishness, isolation, and fear of companionship. Early chapters has her shown as shackled by her family's legacy so she was cold and also fucked up.

Another thing are the supporting characters, there's this middle schooler that just fucking REEKS of trauma and the series just doesn't address that. It's so funny bcs you are 13 girl, don't talk as if you're in that grown up world you keep talking about. They're all great tho, even if they felt flat. One thing i keep noticing with nowadays consumption of literary is that every character has to be well-rounded, no it doesn't! its fine if the main cast are the only rounded ones! but yeah, that middle schooler has to be stopped. Please author, what the fuck is wrong with that kid😭☠️

Overall, its really not as bad as its reputation precedes it to be. Its weird yeah but not as weird as the majority of people say it to be. Its fluffy and drama and it definitely wasn't made for men. It's really whatever and only got its reputation bcs of that weird ass anime adaptation thats trying to cater to those freak ass "otakus". Saying that word makes me feel disgusted, jesus christ. I have mixed feelings if its a series I'd recommend bcs there are other series that are better but what i'm sure is its an okay read. I'm big to romance and drama and this series has that. It didn't make me cry but it made me feel tense and sad for the characters, and in my book thats a successful attempt at those genre.

My only gripe with it really is the unnecessary incest and SA, thats why its getting a low score for me. Everything else was fine

anw balls

[paeliae-occasionally]

Hi! If you’re still doing the WIP Q&A can you tell me something about the Tiel’Drysar? I’m particularly curious about how their reincarnation might affect their social norms around age/gender/appearance/etc

Hi, yep definitely. Sorry I missed your first ask I will get to that later. I have just come back from a big physics project so I have a little more time now.

Ok so the Tiel’Drysar…

The Tiel’Drysar used to be just called the Drysar until they made the pact with death.

Drysar was a long-standing nation who intensely studied necromancy and the death realm. (True death not Tamir’sul) Through the generations a few of the strongest necromancers travelled into death and very few made it out to describe the realm in incredible detail. They write their findings in a book containing detailed maps of the realm and descriptions of the Tae’etsu (the type of creatures that escort souls through death).

After the godly war the Drysar become even more powerful as they don’t fight so have little competition, and lots of magic is released into the world.

Essentially after years of research the Drysar travel to death in small groups for further research and they start getting back more frequently. (This is only living souls, no dead souls have made it back)

During this very successful period, they find a powerful necromancer in death and a drysar fights them and wins. This necromancer is wearing a medallion that allows the wearer to pass through death and into a new life without losing their memories. This was a big discovery because up until now, only living souls could remember after travelling in death.

This Drysar walked through death for many years in research until Death takes notice of this living mortal unafraid of his domain. Olsaan (Death) visits the drysar and speaks to them of their purpose in his domain. He learns of the medallion, and though the Drysar is originally afraid that he will kill them, he is actually quite impressed at their adamant defiance of death for so long. He has no fear that the mortal will come back to him eventually but was interested in their fleeting hope for continued life. The drysar becomes a follower of Olsaan and he gives them guidance through his plane.

Because of the success of this alliance, Olsaan agrees to make more amulets for the Drysar, allowing them to be reborn without losing their memories. Eventually old Drysar pass their medallions to other people and choose to die fully and death welcomes them home as honoured guests and guides them to a new life.

The drysar change their name to the Tiel’Drysar meaning ‘living drysar’ to honour their extended lives and pact with death.

So very practically, how does this work? How does it effect the culture?

The form the Tiel’Drysar take depends on the state of their body. If their body is kept in good condition and was not damaged beyond repair in their death they can return to the same body after rebirth. Because of this they have a large culture of the sacredness of dead bodies and have extensive healing and maintaining rituals to keep a body stable after death so the soul can return. Alternatively if the person specifically hated their previous form, they can request their body cremated before they return so they are forced into a new body.

New bodies are either newborn babies who gain their memories gradually as they have the capacity to hold them, or they can be other good quality bodies that are no longer connected to a soul. E.g. their previous host soul has already passed to a different body.

How does this effect social norms?

Well they don’t really have children unless they are intending to die soon and pass on their medallion so there are not really any family units. Because of this they skipped over a lot of the sexism stuff that the Altic went through as the women always worked with the men.

Also because anyone can reincarnate into any body, they believe that the form means little to nothing as they really only care about the soul inside, so you always state your age as a total of all your lifetimes and gender is a really fluid concept.

Age is still very important to them, if you have not experienced your first rebirth then you have little credibility in the Tiel’Drysar and all natural mortals seem like children to this ancient people. Despite this implied hierarchy they do actually help out the mortals in many ways, guarding the mortal plane from any threats that pass through death, including necromancers and the undead they might raise. They have dealings with the lighthouse keepers (ooh new faction…) sometimes, but other than that are mainly self reliant.

Hope this answers the question, please feel free to ask more, (I will get to your earlier question now, Thanks for waiting)

Tagging @wyked-ao3, @drchenquill and @honeybewrites because you all asked about something similar.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

HOTD 2X04 Review/Thoughts (SPOILERS)

I know I am late with my review this week as well, apologies for that I have had a busy few weeks so haven't had as much free time as normal. But anyway 2x04 of HOTD, this episode definitely picked up a bit in terms of action, I do feel like so far this season its been a lot of sitting in rooms talking and not much on the action front so I am hoping this is the first of many more action packed episodes to come. As I say in every review, I have not read the books so my following thoughts and opinions are based solely on the show and of course there are spoilers.

Daemon and His Ghost Hunting Adventures

So I wanted to start out with Daemon who is still having quite the time of it during his stay at Harrenhall, he is still being plagued by visions and it seems they are now also effecting him whilst he is awake. What I think is really interesting about these visions is it seems to be of things he either feels guilty about or has some regret over. So lets talk about these visions he has.

The first one we see is another vision of young Rhaenyra, this time she is sat on the iron throne, she is dressed in the same black dress she wore at her coronation, she is wearing her father's crown but interestingly in this vision the crown is too big for her. What is also interesting is how when she first starts speaking he can't understand her, even though she is speaking Valyrian a language that they often communicated in. I think this might be to show how even though they both have the same goal, rhaenyra as queen, the greens defeated, aemond killed in retribution for luke's death etc, they still have this distance between them, Daemon just does not understand Rhaenyra's recent actions, why she would even consider suing for peace or why she would ever consider the green's terms. Then Rhaenyra's speech becomes clear for him and again what she says is interesting, telling him he was the one who created her but now he is seeking to destroy her because his brother loved her more. Another little detail in this scene in that this conversation happens under the eye of that giant stone statue of Viserys, showing how even after his death his shadow still looms over both Daemon and Rhaenyra.

We also then see Daemon lash out at this vision of Rhaenyra and cut her head off. The way I interpreted this moment was that it wasn't really Rhaenyra that he was lashing out at, I don't think it was an anger thing directed towards Rhaenyra herself, I think Daemon knows that this is a vision, obviously because this is young Rhaenyra and not current Rhaenyra, but it is clear that Daemon is very disturbed by what this vision is saying. As I said above, these visions seem to be playing into Daemon's fears, inner conflicts and things that he feels guilty or responsible for. Right now Rhaenyra is in a lot of danger because she is the heir, because she wears her father's crown, with the vision saying 'you created me and now you seek to destroy me' I wonder if this is because Daemon feels like if his own actions hadn't led to him being replaced as heir then Rhaenyra wouldn't be in the danger she is now, also that if he hadn't acted recklessly when it came to the assassination attempt on Aemond then he wouldn't have made things worse for Rhaenyra inadvertently putting her in even more danger as now he's been sent away from her and can't be there physically to protect her as well as losing her trust. It's interesting that when he cuts her head off the crown falls from her head, I wonder if this is his worst fear that the greens will take her life whilst attempting to de-crown her and that in some way he will be responsible for not protecting her, maybe that is why when he wakes up for a brief moment there is blood on his hands, he fears her getting hurt and that blood being on his hands.

So the next vision is the one where he is following Aemond through the halls of Harrenhall. Can I just say though, that we are officially 4 for 4, last week I did point out that so far we have had a scene where one or more characters have creeped through dark hallways, and this episode is no exception. So now we have daemon sneaking through the dark, creepy halls, in pursuit of his current greatest enemy, only when he catches up to his foe, it turns out to be himself. I think the message here is clear, Daemon in his thirst for vengeance recklessly went after Aemond, seeing him as his worst enemy and the greatest threat to Rhaenyra and his family but in the end he was his own worst enemy and he in turn ended up being a threat to Rhaenyra when his actions damaged Rhaenyra's reputation.

I think the next vision he has is another one that is pretty self explanatory. Whilst at a meeting with the head of the Blackwoods Daemon envisions the cup bearer as Laena. In the vision he sees her as we saw her in ep 6, when they lived in Pentos and when she was pregnant with their unborn child that died with her. In that episode Laena expressed a wish to go home, wanting her child to be born in westeros, at driftmark. This was a request Daemon denied as at the time he wished to stay away from westerosi politics. I think this vision shows how he has some regret over not agreeing to go back to driftmark with Laena, maybe he thinks things would have turned out differently if they had returned. It's also possible that he is just feeling grief over the way things turned out, and is reliving the trauma from the way he lost Laena. Again it could be him feeling a sense of responsibility for failing to protect his wife and that playing into his fear of not being able to protect his family during this war.

So sticking with Daemon for a moment the other scene I want to talk about is the one between him and Oscar Tully. And look hear me out ok, Daemon had a point. Not to say that Oscar should stick a pillow over his grandsire's head but Daemon had a point about House Tully being a fish with no head and how that is leading to its Vassal Houses not respecting or obeying their authority and basically doing whatever they like including slaughtering each other. So Daemon had a point when he asked if Oscar would speak on his Grandsire's behalf and then in how he dismissed the boy when he refused as Oscar at that point was pretty much useless to Daemon's cause. Don't get me wrong I did feel sorry for the kid but Daemon wasn't wrong, if Lord Tully is incapacitated then someone else needs to step up and take charge. Seeing as no one is doing that because, its not their way, then it makes sense that Daemon would look else where for support and strong leadership.

Alys the Trapped Barn Owl.

Ok I have to say, she is a little creepy, but I really like Alys, she was very amusing in this episode and it was funny seeing her wind Daemon up. There is something that makes me wary of her though. I do wonder if she is the one giving Daemon the visions or whether it is as she said, that Harrenhall is cursed due to a grove of weirwood trees being cut down to build the castle and how the spirits that lived in those trees now haunt those who reside or visit the castle. The way she said that Daemon's bed was made from one of the trees makes me wonder if that is contributing to his visions. We know that magic is real in westeros and there is more to the weirwood trees than them just being trees, so I could 100% believe that they are what's haunting Daemon, but I also can't help but think Alys has more to do with the visions as well. I also wonder whether the drink she gave him was actually to help or whether it was too further open his mind to the visions or have some other nefarious purpose. Either way I am intrigued to see more of Alys' character and learn more about her.

Potential Offspring (TW. Abortion mention)

So I am going to throw these two in to together as I don't have loads to say about them and they are kind of around the same subject.

We got a scene between Rhaenys and Alyn, the sailor who saved Corlys' life, that was really interesting. There was an obvious tension between the two whilst they were talking and an awkwardness that indicates a secret, when Corlys also joined the conversation that tension and awkwardness only increased. Between Rhaenys saying that Alyn's mother must have been very beautiful and then telling Corlys I know who he is, I think its safe to assume that Alyn may be Corlys' bastard son. Couple of things I want to say about this, firstly, we know that Alyn has a brother and now I am wondering if Alyn's brother also is Corlys' son or if he and Alyn are half brothers sharing the same mother only. The other thing I am wondering is, if Alyn and his brother are Corlys' sons then did his affair with their mother happen before or after he was married to Rhaenys, I'm not sure how long he and Rhaenys have been married or how old the two men are. What i do think is interesting though is Rhaenys reaction to Alyn, it doesn't seem to me like she holds any ill will towards him and even chastised Corlys for trying to hide him away, saying that actually he should be honoured for saving Corlys' life.

Speaking of potential bastard children it looks like Alicent may have taken some steps to abort hers and cole's illegitimate child. Judging from the tea that the maester brought her and how she was using warm rocks to deal with cramping I think she found herself in the pridicament of being pregnant with Cole's unborn child. I could talk about the obvious hypocrisy here but at this point I think the writers have made it pretty clear that both Alicent and Cole are hypocrites so its old news at this point. I still feel some sympathy for Alicent, obviously going through an abortion is difficult and painful and possibly it was a hard choice for her to make. I suppose she could have tried to say that the child was viserys' but I don't think anyone would believe that in his state at the end he was partaking in any marital relations, then there is the fact that the child obviously wouldn't look targaryen at all, so she really didn't have much of a choice but to abort it. I do wonder if the tea was effective though, I know in season one they said the tea could be ineffective if not brewed properly. From the cramping I am going to assume that it did work but you never know. I don't know what Alicent would do if she is still pregnant though, I guess time will tell. I also wonder if she will tell Cole about the pregnancy and her choice to end it or whether she will just keep it to herself, I also wonder if she does tell him what his reaction will be to it.

Aegon the Puppet King

This whole season the writers seem to have been taking efforts to show that Aegon really is unsuitable to be king, it was clear that he wasn't given any training or preparation to be king and in this episode it really is made painfully clear why, they only ever wanted a puppet king, a king whose strings could be pulled and who would be the face of the crown but who would ultimately leave the actual ruling to the hand and the small council.

The two scenes we see of the green council are great examples of just how little authority Aegon really has. In the first council scene Aemond arrives and announces that he and Cole have been strategizing together and acting without consulting Aegon first, they've planned to take Rook's Rest instead of Harrenhall and Aemond ignores Aegon's request that Cole turn around and retake Harrenhall from Daemon. On top of that Aemond then humiliates Aegon when he speaks to him in High Valyrian. It is obvious that Aemond was aware that Aegon isn't as well versed in the language and Aegon is put in the situation where he is struggling to speak a language that is traditional to his house, this was an obvious move by Aemond to call into question Aegon's legitimacy as a targaryen and show himself as being the more superior one, and it was a definite hit to Aegon's ego and hit on his insecurities. I do wonder how much the small council understood the Valyrian because they reacted like they understood what was being said. It also seemed like although Aegon struggled to speak the language he was able to understand what Aemond was saying perfectly fine.

The next council scene is a smaller one but still shows how little the council respect Aegon as king and how little consideration they have for his opinions. In this scene Aegon announces that he is bored, that they are all boring him, before he gets up and just leaves the council room. The significant part though is the fact that after he has left the council just carry on as if he was never even there to start with showing just how little involvement Aegon truly has in the running of the kingdom.

One scene that I did find a bit frustrating though was the one between Aegon and Alicent where Aegon confides in Alicent that he feels like the council don't care what he thinks and don't listen to him. Alicent's what thoughts could you offer comment was really kind of harsh. I think what I found frustrating was that Alicent was essentially complaining about how unfit Aegon was to rule, how sacrifices were made to put him on the throne, but it was her job to get him ready to rule, hers and Otto's. For years she was telling Aegon that one day he would be king, they plotted to put him on the throne but did nothing to prepare him for the role and is now complaining that he isn't prepared for the role. Being King also wasn't something that Aegon wanted, I mean he literally tried to run away from it and had to be dragged back, so it was a bit galling to see Alicent act like Aegon should be grateful considering the sacrifices that were made to give him the throne when lets be real here it was something that was forced on to him, not something he wanted for himself. If you look at this from Aegon's pov, he spent all of his life being told by his mother that he would be king, yet his father made it clear that his choice was rhaenyra, then his father dies and he is forced to be king, meanwhile his mother is assuring him that his father changed his mind on his death bed and actually he wanted Aegon to be king. So Aegon decides to try his best to fulfil the role he thinks his father has given him, admittedly he does it badly but he does at least try, only for his mother to then turn around and say just don't do anything, do nothing, she might as well have told him he was worthless. Like obviously this is going to mess with Aegon's head.

The other thing that I found frustrating about the conversation was that Alicent says that having a crown put on his head doesn't imbue him with wisdom, she also then chastises him telling him she thought when he became king he would be humble and ask for advice from others more wise and experienced than him, but I'm like if he wasn't humble before and if he didn't listen to others before, why would she think he suddenly would once he was king. Like if a crown doesn't imbue the wearer with wisdom by the same measure it isn't going to imbue them with humility either.

In this scene Aegon was looking to his mother for reassurance and comfort and it very much reminded me of that scene in the carriage on the way to his coronation where he asked if she loved him. But just as she did then, instead of giving him any reassurance or comfort she instead belittled him. By this point Alicent knows how Aegon can act out especially when he is angry or upset, the smart course of action and what Alicent really should have done was attempt to calm Aegon and pander to him a little to keep him under her control, give him the attention, affection and reassurance he was clearly seeking. The result of Alicent pretty much telling him he was useless and the best thing he could do was nothing, was that Aegon felt the need to prove his self worth by getting on his dragon and joining Cole's army in the attack against Rook's Rest. Which had disastrous consequences.

Jace the Very Fed Up Prince.

Now I want to talk about the black council, like the green council it seems like the black council is beginning to lose respect for the Queen's authority and wants to start acting and making decisions without her. In Rhaenyra's absence, Jace, Baela and Rhaenys have been left to try and keep some handle over the other lords but its proving to be a difficult task as those lords are cleary restless.

I will say that I loved Jace and Baela in this scene, they don't have much to do but the moments we do get are golden. Like I love when the lord criticises Baela for not burning Cole and her response is just well maybe you can on your dragon, she's not taking any of his crap. I also love that Jace immediately supported and defended Baela, he made it very clear that in this house you better respect his betrothed. I also really liked that tiny blink and you miss it moment where Jace reaches over and takes Baela's hand after Daemon and his silence is brought up. I do think this gave us a little glimpse of how Baela and Jace would be like as King and Queen and it is clear that they would support each other and stand together.

I also have to say that I fully understand Jace's frustration and anger at rhaenyra when she returned from King's landing. I said myself after ep 3 that her going to king's landing to talk to Alicent was a foolish move that put her in unneccesary danger, so I think Jace's reaction was warranted. It was also kind of amusing as it was almost like Jace was the one that was in the role of a parent and rhaenyra was the teenager that had just been caught sneaking out when she shouldn't have.

I do get where Rhaenyra was coming from when she said that before ending the peace she inherited from her father she had to be sure there was no other way, but at the same time like, alicent has spent years terrorising you and your sons, the greens have usurped your throne and attempted to hide your father's death from you in the process, caused you to go into preterm labour and you then losing your unborn daughter, Aemond has then killed your son, in retaliation Aegon's son and heir was killed and its only now that you've realised that there was no other way, like really? Because I figured out we were past the point of no return about 4/5 episodes ago. Like I get the need for building anticipation for the dance and showing that rhaenyra made an attempt at peace and didn't just immediately jump into war but they built up the anticipation just fine in season 1, they didn't need half of season 2 as well, I just feel like they needlessly dragged it out. On top of that Rhaenyra could at the very least have told someone where she was and what she was doing, even if was vague like in this moment where she says she was making a last ditch effort for peace. But instead she left her council in the dark and to try and deal with Cole's advancing force without the queen there to guide them and give them instruction.

I again understood Jace's frustration when Rhaenyra said she would fly out on Syrax. He was correct in pointing out that she was too valuable to risk, that if she died all would be lost. But I also think Rhaenyra made a good point when she said Jace lacked experience, the flip side of that is he won't get any experience if Rhaenyra keeps him locked up inside dragonstone. Ultimately Rhaenys is the most logical choice, as she said she has the largest dragon and has experience as well. Still it was clear that it was a difficult choice.

The Battle of Rook's Rest.

Ok I know last week I was complaining that I wanted to see the dragons fight already but having seen the dragons fight in this episode I have changed my mind because boy was it horrific and distressing to see. That being said I am glad that we actually, finally got to see some action this week.

The whole battle was great, horrifyingly great. It really did show just how brutal and terrifying these battles between dragons are for everyone involved, the dragons themselves, the riders and those on the ground, I mean seeing that body crumble to ash when Cole touched it and all the soldiers whose armour had literally melted onto there skin was pretty haunting. Some parts that I really thought stood out was, those moments where Rhaenyra was recounted the prophecy to jace in a voice over as we see Rhaenys/Meleys and Aegon/Sunfyre preparing to fly to battle. I loved those little moments showing the bond between dragon and rider, where you had Rhaenys leaning her forehead against Meleys and speaking to her gently and where Sunfyre playfully nudges at Aegon. But that whole scene with the voice over from Rhaenyra as the two dragons fly to war gave me goosebumps.

It was also interesting seeing the different sizes of the dragons. It was clear right away that Sunfyre and Aegon were completely outmatched by Meleys and Rhaenys, not just in size but also experience. That moment where Meleys comes up from under Sunfyre and just claws into her was awful to watch, just seeing how much damage was inflicted and seeing the blood pour out as Sunfyre flew away screeching in pain, was heartbreaking.

Then we have Vhagar and Aemond. I totally called it last week after Aegon publicly humiliated Aemond that Aemond would retailated against Aegon somehow and so I really wasn't all that surprised when Aemond took this opportunity to literally roast his brother. Still it was not fun to see poor Sunfyre in pain like that and falling from the sky.

It was equally upsetting when Meleys and Rhaenys fall from the sky. Again throughout this battle we really do see the experience Meleys and Rhaenys have, it was pretty ballsy for them to take on Vhagar but they actually did do some damage, even bringing Vhagar down to the ground at one point. I think Rhaenys knew she wasn't going to survive the battle and so her plan was to just inflict as much damage to Vhagar and Aemond as she can. It seems to me like one of team blacks main priorities is to take Aemond and more specifically vhagar off the board for obvious reasons and this was Rhaenys taking her best shot at that. What I do find interesting is how Rhaenys death mirrors Luke's, both were taken out by an ambush attack from Vhagar and both fell with their dragons. Also both had the opportunity to leave but both stayed to fight for their queen's cause. It seems to be a pattern with team black where they are all in, die or nothing types. I fully get why Rhaenys didn't just flee when she had the chance. Rhaenyra gave her a mission, destroy Cole's host, defend Rook's Rest and stop it from falling into greens hands. Rhaenys hadn't completed that task yet and she was going to complete or die trying, and if she could take out a green's dragon or two then she'd give that her best shot too.

Losing Rhaenys was definitely a huge blow and I was really sad to see her go, I really did like her character and how much she supported Rhaenyra. I think this is going to be really tough on Baela and Corlys in particular, so I am really hoping that Baela gets some comfort from Jace and that there is someone there to support Corlys too.

And am very interested to see where the story will go next. It looks like Aegon might still just about be alive, also Sunfyre was still breathing at the end of the episode but did look like she was in terrible shape, so I am interested to see if they both pull through and just how extensive their injuries are. I am assuming that Aemond is now going to act as regent in Aegon's place, potentially, or will it be Cole who acts as regent seeing as he's the hand? I guess we will find out next episode, so until then that is all I've got this time.

[joannerowling]

i'm rewatching the harry potter movies because i'm sick and trying figure out why they made the absolutely baffling choice to have every single spell have the same effect (target thrown 2-3 away as if from an explosion). the second movie is particularly egregious, especially the duelling club. rictumsempra (spell that canonically makes you laugh hysterically, very easy to make happen in movie)? thrown across the floor, no laughing. expelliarmus? thrown across the floor. serpensortia? thrown across the floor, snake appears.

also i wish madam pomfrey would show up and fix the rib i cracked coughing because ouch.

100%, it's always annoyed me because the way magic is used in these books is often so funny and absurd (remember Lupin sending a chewing-gum up Peeves's nose? lol). I get how some of these effects might have been jarring on screen, audiences respond to things differently etc., but the magic in the Potter films is just excessessively bland as a result. The worst offender was probably the Dumbledore vs Voldemort duel in OotP, which is incredibly dull compared to the descriptions we get in the book.

(I'll give Yates some points for having encouraged actors to develop a personal "wand wielding style", which at least gave elegance to something that could have easily looked very silly. But at the same time Yates's fear of silliness really weakened his production, you can see how the sets and costumes suffered from it. I feel like there could have been a better middle ground than all that cold sepia nonsense, but it was trendy at the time - see: Nolanisation.)

Also, some characters's personality really suffer from this. One of the ways Hermione's intelligence is shown (rather than told) is her creative thinking in battle; she uses her environment a lot, unlike Harry or Ginny who have "signature" spells (Harry's Expelliarmus, Ginny's Bat-Boogey Hex). Hermione will do things like turn a tapestry to stone so that the person chasing her will crash into it, or make an Erumpent's horn explode knowing no one will have recognised it and known to stay away.

This is one of the things i'd try to work on and show better if i was working on the Max show, especially because you know audiences would be into it. People enjoy when characters have individual fighting styles. You have to be careful not to get full video gamey about it ofc (this isn't DnD), but a touch more than what it was in the movies definitely wouldn't hurt.

[vaalthus]

Convergence Part 1 (spoilers)

*Deep inhale*

*Long exhale*

THE TIME IS NIGH!!!

So to start,

I have to say I was utterly shocked that Jaania chose not sacrifice any more of her forces to buy her more time weave her spell but after giving it some thought it's an action that makes sense for her. As I mentioned in commenting on the Final Steps release, Jaania is finally able to see that our motivations we're always intended to strive for everyone's sake in the best of ways we knew how. As a result, she's hoping we can see and have faith in the good she's trying to bring about through her ascension.

As such, it makes no sense in her eyes to waste the lives of those who have been so loyal to her in helping her reach this moment when there's a chance their lives can be spared by us and they in turn be able to experience the world she seeks to achieve. Though those same troops would have been more than happy to lay down their lives for her so that world is brought to fruition. It's just a pity Jaania didn't give the order to retreat sooner otherwise the last of the Pelekoans might have survived.

What troubles me is the comments like these:

It's no secret to anyone that the last of Jaania's forces were those who were most loyal to her and her vision but what I find troubling here is the inevitable aftermath of these people once this conflict reaches its conclusion. As Hansa, pointed out to us in the Awakened Depths, Jaania became a beacon for those who had a simple wish to be achieved: to be free of any and all magical threats that Lore offers. However, it's not just these soldiers that want that, it's the nobles, the farmers, the little guys that have been supporting the Rose all these years across Greenguard and likely still do, sure that number has definitely taken a dive since the start of Book 3 but I doubt it's still insignificant. All of those people will soon find their dreams and the person who was meant to bring back a sense of uninterrupted peace in their lives is about to be dashed. We can only hope their response to this reality is constructive as opposed to the opposite.

What I've been saying all along folks :3

Miss me with that "we're not so different you and I" speech.

I like to think this is the Hero taking all they've learned about the ability to make choices in the Maleurous saga and is just throwing that much needed wisdom back at Jaania who feels the need to instill order in the world.

This comment is interesting to me because we have seen the Hero effectively try and be everywhere all at once for eveyone's sake, quite almost obsessively I might add, and I feel if Jaania hadn't recently just had a change of heart on her perspective on them, and taken the time to analyze the Hero's deal, she might have been able to more strongly appeal to their need, their desperation, in protecting everyone they can. Not that it would work either way, the Hero's distrust and deep-rooted fear of her, as seen in Fear, showed that getting us on her side was simply not possible.

If she was more predatory, of course, she would have used that aspect against us as every other villain that attacks our psyche has done before. A neat contrast here is what I'm pointing out.

*sigh* Every single new questionable scene with this woman continues to force me to find comfort in the fact that her and the other Magesters too dependent on the Mana Core Fragment will be dead eventually thanks to Roirr's actions. I truly want to believe there's a positive future for the Shapeless Empire that doesn't involve exploiting its citizens through this agreed upon cycle without violence but the rotting hands of the past never want to let go of control easily.

YOU GAVE THEM TRAUMA AND WEREN'T EVEN SORRY!!!

Okay technically this right here is the more sensible reasoning, but I stand by what I said! What I like most in this scene is that we simply reaffirm what we've been trying to tell her since this whole mess started with her organization. Everything we bring up about the harm the Rose has done thus far has been consistent and aren't negated by the fact that Jaania, at heart, wants to do what she believes is best for everyone's sake.

What I love even more however is how she averts her eyes the moment we bring up Akanthus because she knows she can't even reasonably, or delusionally for that matter, deny she has made a grave error in judgement in allowing Akanthus' abuses on, well, basically everyone, and soon everything, in his wake. It's that "Yeah, ya got me there look" that just sends warm feelings down my spine.

Now if you told me at the start of this saga Jaania was going to offer us a bargain to effectively play as the puppeteer god of fate alongside her, I definitely would have called you insane. It's moment I'm sure comes as a complete shock to everyone, it certainly did to me anyway. And honestly why wouldn't it? It's one thing to ask us to stand down and simply allow her to achieve apotheosis but it's a completely different matter to propose to come and play god. But it's one that sadly makes all too much sense.

Jaania has admitted that she has made terrible mistakes and has been too much of an imperfect being in her quest to achieve peace and prosperity for Lore. So better way to accommodate for her ham-fisted actions and judgement so far then to have someone like the Hero to hopefully keep her worse tendencies in check. As opposed to someone like Akanthus or Zadd who would, in all likelihood, make things worse had they been afforded the opportunity. There's another reason I believe she makes this offer but I'll get to that later.

Nothing else to say here beyond epic callback!

Out of all the Hero's moments in this quest, I believe this is where their experiences throughout the Maleurous saga shines through the brightest.

In a way, you could argue that, in spite of the obvious chaos that will come with it, Jaania's plan is to instill an eternal order, a Destiny, upon Lore itself, one in which she will insists never ends as she dictates. Yet the Hero knows the importance of others being able to decide the paths they choose to walk, I'd argue they've known that since Calamity, without some transcendental hand to yank them in another direction against their own will. So they certainly would not agree to be the one to dictate the fate of all those that live on Lore let alone allow someone as misguided as Jaania to do it.

Okay, I think we all knew that the void pearl was too easy a solution to deal with Akanthus and was likely not going to work but there's something absolutely amusing about Hesperrhodos being used a shield to be sent to the Void and then teleport immediately back to Lore without issue since, ya know, Elemental Spirits can just do that at any time. Hell I at least would have thought that thing would have let a monster through or something. The downside to seeing Zvezdana looking completely slack-jawed after these events unfolded is the fact that we still don't have a damned plan to take Akanthus out of commission...so yeah.

I have to say I love this final appeal Jaania gives to the trio of combatants because it shows a few things. First, that she still fails to understand that her organization was really only giving the illusion of peace to all those the dwelt within range of the Rose's reach and even then only really through the lens of normal humans. Second, it displays that she never truly had a proper grasp on the relationship she fostered with those she worked alongside. Lastly, she places too much hope that wanting the same things is not the same as agreeing ideologically how get those things.

Which inevitably leads to one option: Violence

I have waited 12. long. years. for this very moment. 12 years spent waiting since we broke free from that ice cap. 8 years I waited since from the first time we saw her again in Timelines. 7 years since the original Gala and our spat. 4 years since dealing with the second rift and I had a deeper appreciation for her mental state which motivates her.

And now I am finally here to fight Jaania one on one. So, you best believe I fought alone to prove which of us was could beat the other!

The following boss fight that ensues is perhaps one of the best thematic story fights in the entire game at this point, as it should be for the antagonist that is the face for this entire saga. I'm quite pleased that devs designed her to be difficult, hell I'm even glad that couldn't easily soul gambit my way out of this one.

In terms of mechanics, it's everything you could expect, Jaania does everything she can to debuff us and each time she fails and has her health cut down in bulk she commands even more strength to take us down, even attempting to go for the old freeze'em solid trick and when that doesn't draw any purchase thanks to Aegis she relies on her new found soul weaving arts to dispatch us. All the while we deal with the tragic music in the background tugging at the heart strings for a conflict that should have been avoided.

How far we've come since the Doom Amulet was our first real challenge in-game for year, eh?

And can I say how amusing it is that Jaania trapping us in ice is something that could only work once? Aegis apparently always had the means of unfreezing, he simply couldn't due to Draco keeping everyone away from where we were placed. So, with him already being close by to protect our soul from going poof, there's no way he's going to let us get trapped again. Even more amusing is to think about how Jaania is basically using the old ice soul weaver meta to take us on.

But after all of that we prove in the end, with or without aid, to be stronger than Jaania, at least in this exact moment.

It's a pity though that the moment does not last as expected Jaania will not let it end without fighting at her full potential.

This right here is the reason I believe Jaania made her initial proposal to us and why I bring up the Maleurous saga. For me at least, it's easy to see the similarities between Jaania and Notha. Both are exceptionally powerful accomplished mages that desperately sought out to change a world that gave them deep rooted traumas that they wished to change that world so that the suffering they experienced could not continue. However, where Notha wanted to bring about chaos to change the order of the world; Jaania is hellbent on imposing order on the chaos the world of Lore and its magic offers its inhabitants. Furthermore, I suspect, unlike Notha, that Jaania cannot bring herself to reconcile with the trauma magic has placed on her life and the people she cared about. Most defining of all though, which will likely be her downfall, is her need to be in control of everything so that she or anyone else might never hurt again.

Antagonists like Jaania are always left in a hard spot. They seek to rid the world of suffering and conflict forever and while that is a noble desire they fail to realize how unfortunately intrinsic those things are to existence. Thusly they bang their heads on a wall until they're bloodied and broken only for that dream they longed for to dissipate before their very eyes.

And so, her last option is to go full synchronization. I can't guess what happens next here with Jaania. Judging by the increased streaks of white in her hair, her soul is continuing to unravel though I think she's in no worse of a state than Tomix was when he was at the end. I was originally going to say synchronizing with a corrupt spirit created through forbidden magic would spell instant catastrophe for Jaania but then I remembered Aspar was created through the same means, although he was just a fragment, so she might pull off the effect with little issue.

I suppose we must simply wait and see what becomes of our troublesome Arch Magus and where the winds will turn for her ambitions.

And of course, there's still this asshole and the doom device.

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

no worries at all, i've never been asked that actually! i really apologize for how long this took to answer because i was thinking so long and hard about characters in media that have touched my heart in different ways.

but in no particular order my top 10 favorite characters are

honda tohru

haruno sakura

narancia ghirga

rengoku kyojuro

bakugou katsuki

iwakura mitsumi

yamada asaemon tenza

nijimura okuyasu

furina

sokka

+ 2 bonuses for fun

the protagonist of fruits basket, my girl tohru. my fellow clumsy queen. if i were going to list down 4 characters i related to the most in animanga, tohru would be one of them. maybe it won't be too much of a surprise she's on this list because one of my highest ranking posts is literally a deep dive into tohru as a character. shameless self promo read here, but this would definitely explain all the reasons i love her so much. but the amount of love this character exudes despite all the painful things she's been through, how i relate to how she tries her hardest to present herself as bubbly to hide her loneliness from even herself, there's just so much i can't help but love about this character.

sakura is one of my girls from now until forever. she's the reason i love cherry blossoms so much. if i had to pick only one character from naruto to call my favorite, it would go to sakura hands down, no questions asked. i'm a first generation sakura fan (lmao is that a thing?) where i liked her from her very introduction to naruto. i loved her pink hair, her green eyes, how she carried herself and you will always see me in the trenches defending sakura as a character and what she supplied to the naruto series. maybe it's because i also related so much to sakura growing up and growing up with the character as well, so there's a lot for me to love here.

narancia is honestly one of the most beautiful characters in jojo for me and i'm not just talking about aesthetics. off rip he comes off as a dumb, violent gangster when in actuality, in spite of the more obvious aspects of his characters, there is a strange purity to narancia. in his loyalty, in his straightforwardness to even how his stand ability manifests as a toy army plane. the implications of the child soldier narancia very much became, his efficiency in being able to kill while very much so still being that kid whose biggest fear than anything was being alone. narancia truly believed he was going to die alone in that alley. his death in jojo is honestly still to this day, one of the hardest hitting. because it was so brutal and unexpected and in a lot of ways so unfair even if the rationality as to why he was targeted made sense (i've talked a number of times with my mom who has seen jojo about how all of the characters who die in pt 5 are core members of the 'heart' of the bucci gang, narancia ofc being one of them). in that moment, everyone cried for him whereas prior he was the one who cried on behalf of the party for the loss of abbacchio.

rengoku lwk just might be everyone's fav in demon slayer but i don't care, same here. his owlish design, his vibrant energy, the conviction to stay behind his principles and even die by said principles? i can't not admire the guy and how despite his short appearance in the story, you still feel the ripple effect of it throughout the story. sasori, maybe deidara had a point when he said true beauty is fleeting and an explosion.

katsuki honestly stole the whole show of bnha for me. hell i was out here enjoying him even when he was just an irredeemable bully because i could see early on the complexity of the character and was honestly curious to see where such a belligerent personality came from. how he's reflected on himself throughout the story, becomes better than the person he was the day before, all of that is really admirable to me. it's lwk honestly gets to a point where if katsuki isn't the focus of an arc or episode, i lose interest. show me the explosion boy please. i also feel like even with the great aspect of the character, there's a lot of disservice towards him regards to how the way his parents treat him is swept under the rug, the way they completely brush over the fact they muzzled and chained him on live television due to his refusal to accept an award and presented a strong student as mentally unstable to the masses (something that led to his very kidnapping, mind you). but my gripes with those things honestly make me love this guy even more than i already do.

mitsumi from skip & loafer is another relatable character for me. from the older trans woman figure in her life (one of my moms) to the clumsiness. like mitsumi, i too am always falling over and because of that i've gotten good at picking myself up. characters like mitsumi, you can't help wanting to follow the model of. i love her straightforwardness, her open-mindedness and appreciate how she views life and those around her. i can only hope to be more like her, among some other characters i love, in my daily life. i love how it doesn't really matter who someone is in relation to her or someone else she knows, she makes her own fair assessments of that person and judges based off her experiences with that person.

tenza is the best character in hell's paradise. argue with a wall i can't be argued against here. damn did we lose when his fine ass got axed early in the storyline. i deadass almost stopped reading hell's paradise after chapter 21 because i was that upset about his death. i'm a sucker for a character who dies saving the rest of the group, and the way he went out in a blaze of glory. already dying, already bleeding out but still deciding he'd spin his last few minutes of life buying time for his comrades. his final thoughts wondering what his life could have been like if he weren't dying in that moment. the students he could have had. the wife he could have had. the visceral reaction i had seeing his body get tossed over like he was nothing but garbage? still feel that. he's another example of a character who didn't have long to shine in the story in terms of number of appearances but the way you feel his presence in the story after his death? how it fuels shion and nurugai's quest for vengeance. how that vengeance almost very well destroyed one of them. how tenza in spirit gave nurugai the will to save shion's life. i really, really loved it. it was such a subversion of expectations seeing the pupil die rather than that master.

okuyasu is definitely my favorite character in diamond is unbreakable. he comes off as just comic relief, which to be fair, okuyasu is very funny. however comma, there's so much to depth to the character that you really appreciate as the story goes on. he's a follower by nature, you can see that from the very first episode you meet him where he follows his brother's orders. that once keicho died, he immediately found someone new to follow in josuke, our jojo for the part. but you see him slowly starting to take those steps towards becoming someone who doesn't just follow, but leads. someone capable of deciding for himself what he wants to do. especially after his brother dies and he becomes a caretaker for himself and his father. how he wants to put large windfalls of money into his savings. how he is able to work around his intellectual shortcomings with his strengths. okuyasu is dumb but he isn't an idiot. he is actually quite astute in a lot of ways one doesn't expect and that he doesn't give himself credit for. so all of this made his grand decision not to follow his brother into the afterlife so satisfying.

oh how i loved furina from day fucking 1. from the moment her design got leaked i knew where my primogems were going. when she entered the story officially? i was even more in love just due to how different she was as an archon. i could understand why she wasn't for everybody but she was everything for me and that's all that mattered. then we get the level 4 tragic backstory, her 500 year long opera where she alone is on the stage? it wasn't enough just to pull for furina, furina deserved everything my account had to offer. her story quest really made me want to shove paimon and the traveler into a blender but regardless, this character has my whole heart and i will eat up any content that pertains to her as i fucking should. she deserves my everything.

sokka. absolutely sokka. seeing sokka finally get his fucking flowers during the atla revival during 2020 brought so much joy to my soul. i've loved sokka since back when atla was still airing on tv. he has been my favorite and honestly i think some of my humor and sarcasm of today relates all the way back to the guy with boomerang. i got both of my moms into atla and it really made me happy to see the guy they initially saw as the dumb funny one in the group when they just glanced at the tv when i was watching it, is actually arguably the smartest on the team and a literal genius who grew into the man he wanted to become since episode 1. that he was actually the most logical member of the team and the most practical when it came to their long term goals. he was humbled and realized his misogyny was an incorrect way of thinking, he learned from his mistakes an even with his insecurities about where he stood on the team, he never let that get him down for long.

+ 2

ojamajo doremi is coming back, so i gotta mention my two of my fav girls from the series that i relate to the most. first up, harukaze doremi or i'm doing myself a disservice. doremi is a character that has a lot of shortcomings from her clumsiness to her . and i relate a lot to her because of that. whenever i learn something new, i'm never the best at it. especially handicrafts and seeing others around me being good at those things definitely sucked. so seeing a character like that was great for me at that age. but one thing that is just so great about this girl is, to quote caribou-kun on youtube (please watch his video essay on ojamajo doremi on youtube) "she is the greatest friend in the entire world". and i don't say that lightly, she's like the tohru honda of majou shoujo. she would literally take off her shirt and give it to someone to throw up in if they needed it. the way she can connect to people. how she supports them when they most need it even if she doesn't know what is the right thing to say or even if it is at the cost of her own feelings. when i say i want to be a good friend to someone, doremi is one of the faces i picture.

and finally, senoo aiko. she was my favorite favorite of the ojamajos growing up. initially because, well, she was the blue one and blue has been my favorite color since before i can honestly remember. because damn did certain parts of her character also really relate to me. divorced parents (although in my case, they got divorced when i was very young and have been that way since my earliest memories) and doing your best to handle that situation even if you want your parents to get back together. my parents never got back together like aiko's but honestly, she i was happy to see that old dream of mine be realized through her. she has had to be the prince for herself and others in her life for most of her life, and when you finally get to see the moment she can just be the princess is wonderful.

there are other characters i haven't mentioned due to the limitations of just 10 characters but these are some characters that immediately come to mind for some major favs.

[sol-consort]

Okay, so you get to have an orgy in mass effect, but you only get to invite 7 people. Who are you inviting and why?

Also, what songs would be on the playlist for the event?

can i fuck one person 7 times instead? no? ok cool.

man i don't like orgies; I'm an attention whore, if I'm not at the centre of your world during sex then I don't even wanna be there

but if you put a gun to my head then hmm, I can't pick my favourites (Thane) bc I would get jealous over them despite us literally being in the same orgy. Oh you glanced at someone else? While giving me head? Death penalty.

I guess Garrus can come...and cum. Just not in me, shoo. Go finish on someone else birdie. Miranda unironically seems fun in orgies, def want her there, maybe I can pop a tit in my mouth or something.

I would invite Tali, but I'm worried for her health & safety. Likewise, I would invite Mordin, but I'm worried for my own health & safety.

oh, Javik, definitely! get some prothean protien in the diet. He'd make things interesting too, maybe treat it as his own personal harem rather than a communal orgy which is fine in my book, I don't wanna be the leader in this group project.

Jaal because I'm 90% sure angara and orgies go hand in hand. Plus it would be absolutely hilarious to see him interact with Javik.

It's never a complete orgy without an asari... but I fear Javik might antagonise her. No bullying allowed in my christian minecraft server orgy!

Feron bc there is no way I'm getting through this sober, at least one drell in the mix.

Drack.

this is quickly turning into a sausage feast, and I'm trying to think of women, but none of them would realistically agree to an orgy. Ashley? no way. Jack? Ha, not anymore. Samara? maybe in a cuck chair. Otherwise, her code says no. Vetra? Aria? Nyreen? Absolutely not. Any and all krogan women deserve a 1 on 1 heartfelt night.

Liara might agree...but I want to take her to dinner and have a romantic night alone instead :( She's my asari you can't have her! go away! get your own asari.

But PB? Yeah, she'd be 100% down. plus her dad is an elcor and yk how freaky down dirty they can get.

So

Garrus

Miranda

Javik

Jaal

Feron

Drack

PB

I think one person might die.

I could also just have an orgy with 7 different geth, Legion being part of them is very preferable but never mandatory. Have you seen how hot and tall the huge red ones are?

Or more preferably

Samara

Matriarch Aethyta

Matriarch Benezia

Consort Sha'ira

Aria

PB

Lexi

Because i am no better than a dog

I would also jump at the opportunity for a threesome with Admiral Hackett and Captian Anderson. You didn't ask, but I needed you to know this vital information. Thane & his wife seem kinda fun. Kaidan & James. Ashley & Liara.

As for a playlist, we're listening to Gangbang by Ayesha Erotica on repeat. Maybe the brat album if it gets stale?

[charmixpower]

Final thoughts on season 6 despite my better judgment

Okay so this piece of shit has a few good things in it so we'll start with that. It's going to be a very short list, so it won't take too long before we get into the meat and potatoes

Things I liked about S6:

Icy's, Darcy's, and Stormy's dynamic in this season is actually peek. After s5 I was extremely hesitant to see how these three would be written, but it's actually great! They are extremely sibling towards each other, and the way they bully each other after failures is super cute

While I don't like the fashion in this season, tying it all back to Stella's love of fashion and having her passion come though is really cute and makes me wish that the winx were allowed to pursue their interests independently

The Legendarum in concept. I like the idea of stories in a book being animated with magic and going into pocket dimensions. I just like that, it was a fun way to immediately get into a new set piece

The dark witch forms. They had a very Salem energy that I absolutely loved

The specialists new outfits. They are finally wearing armor, Godspeed

The specialist's new weapons. They have weapons that can be relevant in a fight, they're not, but like they could be. Tbh they're already using magic weapons, having magic effects on the weapons was a long time coming

Miele. She's cute and she gets to be a badass and save Flora and be saved by Flora they are so cute 🥺🥰

How Flora got her Bloomix. Is it derivative of s3? Yes, this entire season is a worse season 3 except they don't have the balls to do anything half as cool as the Enchantix sacrifice. Is it cute to see Flora save Miele without her powers??? Yes!

Getting to see other magic schools do indeed exist, that was definitely fun

How the Musa/Riven arc ended. Like literally just the final episode of it where Riven left. That's the only good part of that arc and BOY IS IT GOOD. S4 gave me poisoning and this episode fixed it. Riven fear of not being able to help Musa against enemies, and him doing introspection without being smacked into it (I'm looking at you s3-4, he can do it on his own) is everything to me

Diaspro not being plot integral this season thank God, s5 was enough late season Diaspro. She's the fairy of the dragon flame, therefore fire is good for her was also a hysterical ass line

The trix disguising themselves as freshmen and going on trips with the Winx was funny, though why the fuck were they're only there freshmen I hate it here

Selina poisoning Flora has got to be the Selina and Bloom highlight, very cunning on Selina's end, and Blooms look of horror was peek

The vampires are really funny, but the zombie pirates were hilarious

The fun way they twirl the mythix wands sometimes, mythix can get so silly sometimes and it's super cute

Aisha and Nebula, they are so cute

Tecna and Timmy's fun raft adventure

Helia struggling with Flora's evil plants

Riven howling like a wolf, now bark like a dog boy

The werewolf fight in general was funny and entertaining

Icy vs Flora was emotional and action packed and very good! I loved that nature itself helped Flora recover

The elite girlies of CT fighting eachother and training was always cute

Timmy impressing Tecna's parents was cute

Stormy going mad with power in the Legendarum as Frankenstein's bride

Musa getting voice spells

Things I disliked about S6:

Daphne was characterized so badly here. She's nothing. She might as well have been sleeping beauty of the winx world and her personality would have been the same. There's absolutely no hint of the all powerful Nymph that's literally chiseled into the walls of buildings to commemorate her achievements. Now she's just clumsy, not as strong as the Winx, and is good at history. That's nothing. You could literally replace her with an entirely different character in this season and that would probably make more sense

Special mention to how Daphne is condescended in the beginning of this season. Why'd they do that to her

The beast of the depths. You literally made that one up for this season. It's very obvious that none of this was planned ahead of time nor are they even pretending that they give a shit about the timeline. Set it on fire.

The parties. The parties. The parties. Oh my god the parties. Anytime literally anything happens there's a completely useless party attached to it. Instead of developing literally ANY of the EXTREMELY underdeveloped subplots, they write in two billion fucking parties. I am tired

The fashion in this season is ugly, out of character, and has zero personality. Like. I feel like they were dressed by an AI, fucking randomly generated ass outfits. Terrible layering, over use of colors, and it's like they're always wearing outfits in the same fashion line. They never look like they own their own damn clothes, everything they wear is matching. It's like there's a hive mind, while yes I appreciate the incorporation of Stella's desire to be a fashion designer having them never wear their own clothes just makes them feel flat, like they don't exist outside of eachother

The pixies were more redundant and annoying than ever

Cloud tower being taken over in s1 was cool, it was meh in s3, and it's just plain boring and nothing in s6. Stop doing this over and over again I stopped caring the second time. "Oh well this time we'll make the school flying AND invisible." I hate you

The Legendarum as it was written. I swear to God it could have just been called the plot device machine, it just does whatever the writers want it to do

I just realized how did the pixies survive in the Legendarum that long???? Griffin literally flip flops her morals in this season again too, are you okay with tormenting sentient creatures or not please pick one

Why on earth did the witches of Cloud Tower support the Trix???? Why make witches in this show even more one dimensional. As well as the Trix's elite students weren't even memorable, this was more interesting when s3 did it with the mind controlled witches because they had to find why they were acting like that

Nex

NEX

Thoren

Did you remember that Roxy was in this season because I fucking didn't. She's so aggressively sidelined it's not even funny

The trix just show up where ever the winx are... On accident. Sure, they just have the most insane coincidences. God what even

What is a paladin anyways?? Still unclear on this

Okay I should probably say something more on Nex and Thoren. Thoren is literally a nothing character and the only thing we'd lose if he was removed is Sky being a bit pissy, Diaspro manipulating him specifically and not like... Nex or Roy or whatever. Nex is like. A bitch. He acts like s1 Riven but with less self esteem and paranoia issues. Like Riven is a self absorbed asshole who hates himself and who had an arc realizing that punishing everyone away was bad and that he needed to learn to trust, Nex is just a self obsessed asshole with a desire to embarrass and put people down, even being willing to actually injure them over stupid ass contests. Even when being manipulated by Darcy Riven was never that aggressive, he mostly just gossiped and did dragon fighting. Nex is literally a more dickish, aggressive, self obsessed, competitive, and uncaring, Riven. And you want to convince me that AISHA, AISHA "who said you were driving?" WOULD PUT UP WITH THAT SHIT ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

Literally everyone and their mom can steal powers in this season, it's so fucking easy it means nothing

Remember how in s2 there was a large amount of focus on the not Bloom main character because the main characters of Winx were the WINX CLUB and not Bloom, remember how s3 had a lot of focus on the not Bloom characters. S6 wants you to remember that Bloom is the most important specialest baby in the world and doesn't care that there's other main characters. Fuck narrative balance and giving the cast a chance to shine outside of Bloom I guess, Bloomix is a thing

How literally everyone got their Bloomix power except Flora. Triple back flip I'm going to hurl

What stated the Riven/Musa arc this season, like at the beginning he's just dismissive and overly competitive, it's only towards the end he says hes doing this because he wants to be able to help Musa. They should have written him like that the entire time

How quickly they rushed everyone getting their Bloomix, it was giving me charmix flashbacks

DIASPRO WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE???? STOP SHOWING UP!!!

Bloom getting her Bloomix last in her own episode is trying to be s3 so bad. Okay Nick writers please sit down. That was so good and impactful because Bloom didn't have a home planet, this time Bloom should have gotten Bloomix first and you could have done something with Aisha's magic rejecting the dragon flame or something. Stop trying to be s3

Thoren/Daphne is underdeveloped, Riven(/Musa) is underdeveloped, Roy v Nex is under developed, Selina is underdeveloped, these are all season long arcs and they suck ass. Please, spend more time on your subplots over PARTIES

Allowing the pixies to have combat spells midagated how annoying and intolerable they are but it was also extremely weird. No Piff cannot attack people your making that up

Eldora's diary

Saying that Bloom had friends on earth, s4 did that too and look how that garbage turned out

Selina's lack of motivation and lack of consequences for her actions

S6 wastes so many episodes showing us places on earth when we could be going to new planets, I wanna see Romeula

Eldora's personality is the most annoying thing I've ever had to deal with

Eldora not noticing the FAIRY OF THE DRAGON FLAME IN FRONT OF HER

Eldora and Selina knowing Bloom, this literally makes no sense. And she was also an Alfea teacher because of course she was

You'd think Bloom would grow out of running to earth whenever she's upset, but no

The girls get into so many arguments this season over bullshit. Like yes I don't want them to be perfect friends but this is a bit much

Why is everything important in gardina?? The winx world conspires to make Bloom the only narratively relevant one

The extremely annoying amount of "Wow!" "Cool!" "Awesome!" The girls do constantly

Eldora can summon counter myths to fight the Legendarum, she does this once and never again

The entire mother's day thing, like they didn't do anything interesting with it, got rid of the day of the rose, and did another stupid party

The mythix wands, they are about as thin as paper, they're excessively pink, and why do they already match the Winx that makes no sense

The way the Winx need to keep proving themselves, like you can bring in conflict other ways. I would love to see a choosey artifact just once be like "oh the winx, go ahead ma'am's" that would be so funny

The 3d in this season is so ugly and I hate everything to do with it. Mythix is extremely ugly and bland and WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FLOWERS ITS SO FLOWERY I HATE IT

The time limit on the Legendarum world only exists for fake stakes, the pixies were in there for how long??

The spell "friendship flame" Bloom just being allowed to make people Faries makes me irrationally angry

The two things used to make the Legendarum key are so arbitrary it pains me

Magic just came back to earth but everyone is acting like it's been around forever

Stella being stupid and self centered again. Like Stella was full of herself but she was also usually aware of people's feelings and only accidentally hurt people by not thinking, she also is the glue that holds Winx together!!! She's the one who gets them all together!!!! You don't get it!!! She'd never act like that she does have a brain!!!

God I hate the entire thing around Stella being queen for a day except how Stella looked in a crown, it was all awful

The music cafe was nonsensical and stupid and I STILL DON'T KNOW HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT ALFEA

RUMPELSTILTSKIN IS THE MOST ANNOYING AND STUPID CHARACTER IN THIS SEASON AND THE FINAL BATTLE HINGES ON THIS DUMBASS CHARACTER AHHHHHHHHH

Musa not having any spells in Mythix

Acheron feels like discount wizard of the black circle and Valtor with the worst pacing and battle out of all the finale's I've seen thus far it's so bad

Daphne why are you getting married

In conclusion I hate it here

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 37 of Harrow the Ninth

In that case, I'm kind of wondering where exactly Mercy looked that she saw the beast in the last chapter

That's from the Vulgate, apparently, the full quote means "The Lord is the source of my light and my safety, so whom shall I fear?" and "Dominicus" is just, essentially, "associated with the Lord", except that in the Latin this referred to the Christian god, whereas John is using it to refer to himself, which is kind of remarkably hubristic, haha

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that most main line stars are not in fact destined to become black holes when they die, and that our sun is either not big enough or not bright enough to ever become a black hole

Are we meant to believe that John is like a battery that is keeping all the resurrected planets and the star going? That would mean that John's resurrection isn't true resurrection - if something still needs some outside power source to sustain itself I'm not sure that counts as the same thing as life, sort of in the same way that Harrow being able to manually control a skeleton isn't true resurrection, or the skeletons at Canaan House that were ultimately controlled and powered by Teacher weren't truly resurrected, and this would just make John a more powerful necromancer piloting a bigger corpse. So I think either this isn't true, or the generally accepted idea of what the resurrection was isn't true, and possibly both of those things are the case

Oh god, there really is a None Pizza with Left Beef reference. Maybe I'll have to eventually make a poll on which of these modern memes in this story has the earliest sell-by date

I mean, based on the story so far, I think the actual Nine Houses answer to "how is babby formed?" (and honestly thank god Muir didn't actually put that literal phrase into the book at this point) is "in a vat"

Also, John really is everyone's embarrassing dad, isn't he?

I do appreciate this little nod to the fact that sex and romance aren't the same thing and can exist independently of each other

So, based on him calling her "First" and "One" and her being "not a normal human being", I'm guessing A.L. was the Earth, and I gather his resurrection of her involved creating a human body for her, for some reason. I'm not sure from this whether the death of Earth was caused by climate change or some sort of mutually assured destruction nuclear war, but neither of those things should have had any effect on the rest of the solar system, so even if this is remotely true, there are still some big questions left unanswered. Also, I think if resurrected Earth lived to see the Lyctors become Lyctors, then John couldn't have become a god by absorbing her soul, since he would have had to be a god already for the Lyctors to follow him, and Mercy and Augustine actually have memories of A.L., so John can't be making that part up. Unless there was also some memory fuckery that happened as well, and I mean, that definitely wouldn't be a first for this book. I don't at all believe that A.L.'s death had anything to do with resurrection beasts, as he's implying here. Maybe John gained some godlike powers some other way, and then absorbed A.L. to gain more powers, maybe she attacked him and his Lyctors for committing the indelible sin and he killed her a second time and locked her in the Tomb, but I'm pretty sure that this version of events that he's telling Harrow did not happen, exactly because like Harrow is thinking, it's just sad and boring and there's no way this was sad and boring in actual fact. Also very curious how John managed to be the last person left alive on Earth

Going back to the John absorbed A.L. idea, I wonder if what he actually means here is that him absorbing her was a proof of concept for Lyctorhood

Gideon is really not thrilled about her reaction to this, huh?

He could be saying this because he just critically underestimates Harrow, or overestimates his own abilities, but I think another possibility is that he needs to her to believe she didn't really open the Tomb because there's some information that you could get from doing that that that would unravel a bunch of his bullshit. I don't know if he knows that she is schizophrenic at this point, I think if her schizophrenia was caused by opening the Tomb, there's a good chance he could guess that she was, especially since she's told him things that I don't think he believes, like that Gideon the First was fucking around with Cytherea's corpse or that Cytherea's corpse was the one who tried to murder him, so he might be intentionally using that to gaslight her, before she figures out whatever he doesn't want her to figure out about the Tomb and the Body. We know that Harrow did not in fact hallucinate doing this, because Gideon saw her do it and reported it, but Harrow doesn't remember that anymore. I guess in her false memories she told her parents about it herself?

Is he seeing whatever she did to remove Gideon, or is he talking about the schizophrenia? Because the temporal lobe does control memory, but it's also affected by schizoprenia, and there's a possibility that Harrow's schizophrenia was artificially created by something that happened after she opened the Tomb