#but like. she also straight up fucking lied to me lmao

[lokh]

oh wait. i just remembered that while i was getting my blood drawn and asked to have the sex indicator changed (kept fucking up the reference ranges) the technician asked if i was born male and when i was like uhh no she was like oh ok thats fine. so are you in the middle of transitioning or are you done

[comradecowplant]

so things are not going well with my new elderly socdem friend unfortunately.

[thatdeadaquarius]

OKAY BUT I HAVE MORE IDEA FOR BLUNT READER CUZ I LOVE THAT AU SO MUCHANDMDJFKSLDKF

So you know how french people's insult are always outta pocket (from a person who's first language is french I can tell you that no other language compares in insult -apart for African languages)

Like,, some "bad" insult here would be : bitch, fuck off, whore,..

Which we can all agree is boring...

BUT THEN IN FRENCH!!!

We be getting creative with it

Eg.

"mange tes mort" wich translates to "eat your dead (relatives)"

"vas te fair enculer" means "go get yourself pegged in the ass"

(yes, we have a specific word for being fucked in the ass 💀)

AND THOSE WOULD BE THE COMMON ONES AS WELL

English could never compare ✨

BUT ANYWAYS

how would the characters react if reader was from france/ belgium/ canada(or any other french speaking country) and started cursing people out like they eould do in their home countrie !?!?

The eay their face would drop

We would make a couple of people cry

AND GOD(us haha) FORBID A KID OVER-HEAR US AND STARTS REPEATING US

Trying to un-teach them would be hell *cries*

Your thoughts?

Love yaaaa~

ABSOLUTE TOP TIER ORAH MY BELOVED!!

Nobody has any idea how much I HATE ENGLISH both for its rules/pronounciation BS/etc. But also, most importantly, THERES LIKE NO GOOD CUSS WORDS- OR LIKE CUSS PHRASES??

I HAD TO PUT THIS GIF BC THAT WAS LITERALLY ME WHEN I HAD THE REALIZATION TO LOOK UP OTHER LANGUAGE CUSS WORDS AND I WAS JUST BLOWN AWAY BY HOW GOOD THEY WERE- HOW CREATIVE- 😫😭🥲 ENGLISH WHY R U SO SHITY IN EVERY POSSIBLE LANGUAGE SITUATION-

like idk we got "eat shit and die / fuck off / go fuck yourself" ???? Like- thats pathetic 😟.

I love hearing someone just cuss smbody out their native language/non-english, it’s so badass and cool to see

Anyway u already know i love non-native english speakers from the bottom of my heart✨️

GOD I FUCKING LOVE BLUNT LANGUAGE AU ITS LIKE ONE OF TOP FAV AS U CAN PROBABLY GUESS I COULD WRITE A LITERAL FANFIC ENTIRELY OFF THIS SIMPLE PREMISE 💖💓💗���❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

omg so i HAVE SPECIFICALLY HEARD ABT FRENCH BEING RLLY CREATIVEEE

and i researched french cusswords/phrases,,,

😭 BRO IM CRYING

“bête comme ses pieds!” IM ROLLING ON THE FLOOR-

(trans: you’re as stupid AS YOUR FEEEEEETT)

idk what’s funnier, you translating urself in real time and saying all these phrases to ppl,

OR just scaring the ever-loving shit out of every teyvat citizen within a mile radius bc oh wow- you look pissed, so yeah somebody’s about to lose all their self-esteem for the rest of their life bc ur insults are known to be extra cutting bc ur so blunt-

OH CREATOR ABOVE (…oh creator, present??)- you changed to your holy language FOR THIS???

everybody just giving the npc the most bombastic side-eye for pushing you to do this,

or even just you stubbing ur toe/ate food when it was too hot

or my favorite, getting onto ppl like Wanderer when they do smth silly lmao

STOP I HAD A FOUL THOUGHT OF GETTING ONTO Ei AND WANDERER (like ei for not keeping him/at least giving him to someone else to raise, then all the shit he did as Scaramouche lol)

AND THIS CUSSWORD COMES OUT UNDER UR BREATH OR SMTH- DOES THIS FIT BC THIS KILLS ME:

“Putain de salope…” (whore of whore, I LIED IT MEANS FUCKING BITCH LMAO😭)

JUST GETTING THE MOM AND THE SON IN ONE FULL BREATH CRYINGGGG

STOPPP wanderer using it against other ppl ever since u used it lol

oh no stop dont bring the kids into thisss 😭😭

Klee would deffo be the first one to pick up ur words and use them, omg she just uses them as catchphrases like when throwing her bombs 💀

“Mange tes mort!” JUST WITH A SMILE ON HER FACE AS SHE THROWS HER HUGE SKILL BOMB INTO A FISH POND

Venti would definitely make sure the winds “pass along phrases of the sacred All-God language!”

which just means anyone who UNDERSTANDS YOU JUST GETS GENTLY CREATIVELY CUSSED OUT BY THE WIND IM SOBBINGGG

☆

i hope u guys are having a great summer! its basically too hot to go outside where I am, not unless ur going straight into the water or smth

which hey, ill be doing that this weekend, floating down the river about an hour away from my house with friends! :]

which,,, if anyone sees this, U GOTTA HELP ME THINK OF A 1000 FOLLOWERS MILESTONE THING TO DO IDK WHAT TO DO BUT I WANNA CELEBRATE IT BC I NEVER THOUGHT THATD HAPPEN!! lmk what u think in the comments if u read this!

☆

Safe Travels 0rah,

💀♒

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist / @thedevioussmirk / @the-dumber-scaramouche / @chocogi

[where-the-water-flows]

hey no wait. hang on, wait. wenjing is like, explicitly the secret sword, right, the one basically no one knew about, it's part of the reason the court is like 'mmk seems legit' when fang doubing is like ~I am totally for real his disciple~ because he knows about the sword at all

but li xiangyi/lianhua is clearly like. practiced at using the sword, which does not move like basically...any other weapon. that man has spent a fuck lot of time training to and straight up developing how to use a sword that is basically the most unswordlike sword to ever sword. that sword is like a slap bracelet with bladed edges that can also cut through....anything? nearly anything?? it does not move or react like your standard mostly rigid bar of folded metal sword, is the gist here.

which brings me to two, semi-related, points:

when saintess rocks up to steal di feisheng from the zombie cave and also is like 'I'm going to kill you uh actually lol nope fuck that I'm outtie peace bitches', is that literally the first time she's even got a hint that li xiangyi/lianhua has a sword that is basically nigh impossible to block because it can straight up bend around obstacles? (obstacles such as, say, anyone else's sword) if yes, no fucking wonder she's like mmmm I see no thank you I need to go wash my di feisheng's hair, so busy, catch you later because like. how the fuck do you even deal with that. a guy who should have been horribly and messily dead literally a decade ago rocks up and is like 'I lived bitch! also surprise, I have a sword made of glowing Go-Fuck-Yourself metal', like, I too would fucking split! you would only be able to find me by the cartoon dust cloud left in my wake. RIP to everyone else in the jianghu but saintess is making the objectively correct choice here, which is wild because, like. saintess.

how many people's last fucking moment was seeing throat cutter, probably glowing and covered in their blood? because like. Li xiangyi clearly used it! enough to be good at using it. enough to know that it glows blue when there's blood on it, even if he apparently was just like sometimes swords just glow for reasons I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. so. if no one outside of sigu sect high command knows that wenjing exists*, that means everyone else who ever saw that sword -- which there has to have been people, given that li xiangyi was out there uhhh using it -- those people who saw it presumably also uh. died. in a pretty confirmed kinda way. likely via....that sword. throat cutter** indeed

*and not even all of the inner sigu sect command folks knew about li xiangyi having it! they're pretty explicit that five people total know about the sword, which is the four court heads, and then presumably either qiao wanmian or xiao zijin, but not both of them (which, lmao, what the hell were sigu sect internal politics for real), and even that's if we assume shan gudao is not being included in the count because he's "dead"

**yes I know it's a reference to a friendship/relationship you'd cut your throat for per @murderedbyhomework's recent great meta, but also, like. it's still a cut throat, y'know? words can have multiple meanings, and also this is mostly a pun on the name. the rest of the post stands as is tho.

[rewritingcanon]

I just ADORE the idea of potter sibs learning lessons from their namesakes and being nothing like them :)

James being calm and studious and kinder than his namesakes

Albus learning how NOT to handle very specific social situations from his namesakes

And Lily is just like "FUCK them kids lmao"

YESSSSS literally.

james is more popular than his namesakes were (i like to think james and sirius were just impervious to popularity&they just gave 0 fucks, although sirius was default popular because of his surname and his attractiveness) because hes more welcoming and less of a dick and a nepobaby, but he’s emotionally distant with his peers and finds it hard to open up to others because he’s always a little suspicious of people (unlike james sr, who was an open book). he plays quidditch because he knows he should and it makes his mum happy and its kinda fun and hes kinda good but hes not that passionate about it. he gets amazing grades because hes studies a lot and not because hes a natural genius (unlike sirius, who didnt have to study hard for anything to pass comfortably). james a perfectionist, by-the-book person who struggles to think outside of the box, unlike his grandfather whos genius lied in nothing else.

albus reminds me more of his namesakes than the other two potter siblings, but he probably would appreciate the comparison the least. he’s quiet and lonesome and angsty with a ‘no one will understand me’ mindset, but severely attaches himself to the people he loves, and carries them with him throughout his life without ever moving on (all exactly like severus). hes cunning and always ready to martyr himself (both dumbledore and severus), but hes way more audacious and simple. he has a ‘1 + 1 = 2 end of story’ mind that he got from his parents that completely goes against severus and dumbledore’ long game of chess. albus does not care for such BS, hes still got that gryffindor dawg in him. he will go against every expectation set out for him on purpose (unlike dumbledore and snape, who will use their reputation to their advantage). also, albus is happy lmfao. its why he commits his life to himself and not to others like his namesakes did. he wants simple things like nicely-cooked dinners, warm houses, and to get married young and start a family. kind of like his dad and grandmother.

and lilyyyyy. she is all over the place. she is the quidditch star, the loud one in class, the person who fakes her report cards so her mum doesnt freak out at her. shes not studious like her grandmother, she attracts people to her and selects the greatest pick out of the litter for friends, and shes got a lot of friends (unlike lily evans, who’s love is so concentrated and loyal to very few, and luna who was socially repellent). she travels everywhere because shes a glutton for experiences, she doesnt plan ahead, shes will never be tied down— not even by true love and the prospect of staying with them forever. shes open like luna but her mind is more of a straight arrow than luna’s genius. lily grows up and never has any kids, not because she hates children but because she just never particularly wanted to. she never grew out of being reckless and impatient and impulsive, and she had always known that those traits would not be compatible with raising a child and she was okay with that (unlike lily evans who had always wanted to be a mother, and had dedicated herself to her baby).

[biggie-chcese]

1, 7 and 13 for the choose violence ask game

The questions that are the foundation of why I hate certain characters (or how they're perceived) lmao

you didnt say the fandom so im gonna choose different ones from my fandoms based on how strongly i feel about them (rain code and tgaa)

(rain code) the character everyone gets wrong OOOO okay imma say vivia twilight. feels like a lot of the fandom either slots him into a "komaeda" archetype (which he just straight up Isn't), a stereotypical emo boy character, or just kinda only making him thirsty for yakou? his admiration for yakou is a pretty decent chunk of his character but it's got major case of "character acknowledged only for shipping" vibes to it if that makes sense. if he's gonna simp make it more in character dammit!!! (/lh) it's a shame to me because i really do love vivia's entire arc and story about "comfortable lies vs uncomfortable truths" and his general non-confrontational, deflective behavior (especially when using poetics to avoid ever being straightforward about something, love him for that). i'd love to make more art/fic of him. unfortunately i also am not the vivia expert (that title i'd gladly hand over to loremaster) and kinda struggle to capture his voice lol (i do wanna get good at this someday) so i wouldn't really tout myself as someone who gets him "right" either lmao. but you don't gotta be a chef to know when the food is off, yknow?

(tgaa) what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them? kazuma asougi i got so sick of his ass thanks to the fandom (especially because a LOT of kazuma enjoyers were also massive BVZ haters and also made ryunosuke's character all about shipping him with kazuma) but nowadays im more neutral about him. i still dont really care much for him anymore even though i miss the time when i was really obsessed w him.

(rain code) worst blorboficiation martina electro oh my god. (jigsaw voice) rain code fandom, as you can see, there is a giant cubing compressor surrounding you. i have before you a picture of marina electro. you have to say what you like about her character without simply saying she's hot or using some variation of "girlboss." you have five minutes. on top of that, many fans like to pretend she's yomi's helpless victim when she's just as fucked up and complicit in his shit right up until she gets sent to die. i already voiced my opinion on what happens afterwards in my "why yomi should've died" post (which btw isnt a yomi hate post just me talking about missed story potential) but that's spoilers for you lemon so im leaving it at that

[onesapphireeye]

yeah, i said it

You and Aemond have a workplace situationship. It's about time that changes.

modern!aemond x reader + "Kiss my ass." "Gladly." warnings: use of she/her for reader. some cussing.

nori says: i did something and tumblr ate this ask so if you were the anon who requested this, please reach out to me again! off or on anon, i promise i won't bite!!! also lmao oops its not beta read & i thought it would be SHORTER. xoxo

more prompt asks to come!

word count: 2,094

[new group chat started:]

[aegon added you!]

[aegon added aemond!]

AEGTAR: Dragonpit tonight? The hot new girl wants to get shown around our haunts. Baela said she’s down. I’m thinking about trying to get them to make out. ;P

OUTGOING: stop messaging me on the work chat and focus on finishing your part of the presentation.

OUTGOING: and stop making new chats! you can literally reply to the 100 other chats you make a day, just click the maximize button!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AEMTAR: What she said.

AEGTAR: WHaT sHe SAid!!! Suck up.

“Come onnnn!” You glanced up from your monitors to see Aegon leaning over the side of your cubicle. His gaze had a mischievous glint, and the corners of his mouth twitched with suppressed excitement.

He was a few years older than you and, though he had the advantage of being the CFO's grandson, his lack of ambition had kept him out of the promotion talks.

You, on the other hand, had been promoted twice from an internship and had now caught up to his fulltime employee status.

After an uncomfortable situation in the break room, where you had been the object of his workplace affections, you let him in on what unpleasant things you could do to his nut sack if it ever came near you. You had also let slip that Hannibal was your favorite tv show, and chomped your teeth dramatically in his direction.

He hadn’t spoken to you about hooking up since, but had instead relegated you to “dude friend” status and regularly tried to use you as a wingman.

You wished he didn’t talk to you at all, but this was better than before. 

“If I go, it'll be like cosigning a death sentence for her.” You cast a look at the newest employee, perched in a tiny corner cubicle. Today marked seven days since she’d joined the team, her face still holding that infectious glow of fresh enthusiasm. You had been her once, before you'd let this job (and Aegon) suck the joy right out of you.

Aegon gave you his best attempt at puppy dog eyes and you returned it with a look of stone-faced determination. But he didn't let up. “Don’t be a cockblock! She likes you and asked if you were coming before she said yes.”

“So you lied to her?” Your gaze burned straight through into the back of Aegon's head, and you heard a snort coming from in front of you.

You stood up to look over your cubicle’s divider wall and saw Aemond sat in his chair, arms crossed and brow furrowed.

You knew he was thinking about intervening on your behalf and defusing the situation, just like he did every other time his brother tried to push your buttons.

You glared at him. “You think workplace harassment is funny, Aemond? That’s not very becoming of a manager.”

Aemond's expression was stern, like he was trying to fight a smirk. He was supposed to be the steady voice of reason in the presence of his brother’s antics, yet now he remained silent.

Girls would tell you around the cooler that he probably had a crush on you, but you knew better. 

It was more than a crush.

He was pussy whipped and half in love.

You two had already been fucking for the last few months. 

At first, it had been your idea to keep it a secret and you thought Aemond would understand. But you could tell he was getting more and more frustrated with you for not wanting to make your relationship public. He didn’t want to see Aegon or anyone else hitting on you.

Aemond had been your lead when you were an intern and while he may have been into you then, your career success hadn’t been thanks to any special perks given by him.

You wanted to avoid the potential drama of work gossip while also maintaining your hard-earned reputation, but couldn't deny that you had also begun to feel an emptiness in not being able to formally declare your relationship.

Of course, you had made the decision to be private before you realized how much it bothered you to see him being flirted at. You said ‘at’ because, for most people, Aemond was like an impenetrable wall.

You were starting to think about having a real conversation about where you both stood and if there was still a chance of becoming something official. But you were afraid that he had already gotten too comfortable and settled into the status quo of being in a situationship.

"I didn't want to type it out, but think we should go." You gave Aemond a pout when he spoke up but sighed, knowing you had been out voted.

Aemond texted that he was en route, and a quick glance at his location showed he was about ten minutes away. You finished the final touches of your make-up and zipped up your thigh-high boots. You grabbed a small purse and decided against a coat, hurrying out to the parking garage.

You spotted Aemond's car rolling up and waved to him with excitement. It stopped in front of you and you opened the door with a wide grin. “Perfect timing, Baby!”

He rolled his eyes at you and frowned. “I really wish you'd let me pick you up at the door.”

“Why, when this is more efficient?”

“You can be too pragmatic at times.”

“Hello pot, meet kettle.”

He looked amazing in his leather jacket and blue jeans. You could see a white V-neck t-shirt and his signature Valyrian steel chain peeking out from underneath.

You got into his car, and as you turned to close the door and buckle up, the dress you were wearing slid up your thighs and his hand instantly went to grab it.

You loved many things about Aemond: his long hair, the scar on his face, his morning voice...but nothing could top your love for his hands.

Especially when they were in or on you.

“Your dress doesn’t seem to want to stay in place." He smirked teasingly as he gave your thigh a kneading squeeze. “Should have worn something shorter.”

You could tell he wasn’t entirely serious, but you weren’t going to take the bait. His religious background and jealousy could suck it; you were choosing not to bite. Whether you were his girlfriend or not, you weren’t about to let him dictate what you wore. You could compromise on many things for him, but this was not one of them: it was your body and you would die on this hill. 

You playfully slapped your hand on top of the one holding your leg, then rubbed it. "Kiss my ass, you prude." 

Aemond laughed as he pulled out of the parking garage. "Gladly."

The Dragonpit was, as always, busy as hell.

It was a the only club in town that never had a happy hour and somehow that made people feel like it was exclusive. In reality, influencers had been paid to promote it and they’d done their jobs well. The line usually stretched around the building.

You were suspicious of the online reviews, as the music was too loud, the dance floor was cramped, and one of the two exit doors was usually blocked by commercial-sized trash bins. If you were doing audits, you'd rate this place a recipe for disaster.

If there was a plus side though, it was that your Targaryen coworkers knew the owner and could walk straight in.

The acrid smell of sweat hit you as soon as the bouncer opened the door. Aemond grabbed your hand, and you both weaved your way through the throng of bodies on the dance floor until you reached the bar.

Aemond pushed his way to the ledge while you stayed close behind him. You glanced over the crowd to look for any familiar faces. You smiled as soon as you spotted Baela deep in conversation with a tall brunette, you realized it was Cregan Stark from her department upstairs. She gave you a wave and you motioned for her to come over. 

“Drinking anything?” Your attention was brought back to Aemond, who was looking over his shoulder at you. 

You nodded your head in the affirmative. “Just some shots, you pick.”

Baela, without Cregan, embraced you with a hug. Her promotion away from your work floor had happened recently, and you were amazed she hadn’t taken over the company yet. She was a motivator for you, almost like a guide. 

“I'm so glad you two showed up! Aegon said you were probably going to bail?” She sent an odd look at Aemond and you raised your eyebrow in question.

The Targaryen male cleared his throat, pointedly ignoring his cousin. He held out a short glass filled with a clear liquid and you accepted it without hesitation, offering a smile and a polite thanks.

“Aegon doesn’t know anything.” Aemond said and you verbally agreed. “Where is he anyway?” 

Baela made an expression of disgust and gestured to the same doorway you had walked through. Aegon and the new girl were in a tight lip-lock, as if they were trying to suck the air out of each other's lungs to survive. You two had walked right past them without even noticing.

“Seven days? That’s got to be some sort of new record?” You heard Baela say. That poor, poor girl. You threw back your shot in memory of her reputation at work.

You shook your head and remarked, “It’s almost insane how he always gets what he wants.” Aemond snickered and Baela gave you a cute frown.

“Honey, he’s rich.” You laughed at Baela’s words and guessed that was the only explanation you needed. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Stark to climb.”

Aemond drank his shot and returned both empty glasses to the bar counter, giving his cousin a dull look, "none of us need to know that."

She stuck her tongue out, as she floated back through the crowd. 

You both drained your second round of shots in one quick gulp. Your tolerance for alcohol wasn't great, but you weren't even close to being tipsy. You just felt a little more relaxed from borrowing some liquid courage.

You locked eyes with Aemond and gave him your most flirtatious look. "Should I go find something to climb?" He shifted his weight to rest an elbow on the bar, eliciting a few grumblings from the people trying to get by. 

“Let’s see what you can do.” He challenged you with a smirk that burned with mischievous fire. You met his challenge and sashayed to the edge of the dance floor, swaying your hips dangerously and capturing his full attention. He watched hungrily as you moved your body to the rhythm.

His look darkened when another man approached and tried to cut in. Aemond quickly stood and pulled you to him, possessive and protective. "Don't even think about it," he growled, his low voice washing over you like a stormy sea. “Pick someone else’s girlfriend.” The stranger quickly retreated in the face of his will.

You raised an eyebrow at him, testing the boundaries of his newfound declaration. "Girlfriend?" You said with a mischievous smirk, chin resting on his chest. "Don't you usually have to ask the girl you're claiming? We aren't living in medieval times."

Aemond looked down at you with wide eyes, searching for something in your expression that wasn't quite there. Then with a deep breath and a determined look, he asked "Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

You beamed up at him and touched his cheek tenderly. "Yes," you breathed, standing on the tips of your toes to press a gentle kiss against his lips. "Absolutely."

Happy that mess had been sorted out, his grip was firm as he pulled you close and spun you around. The rhythm of the music reverberated through your body. His thumb traced your spine as his breath grazed your neck, a heat rising between you. 

It didn’t take long before you were grinding your ass into him. 

Off the dance floor, your coworkers looked on in wonder. Aegon and the new girl had joined Baela and Cregan. 

Baela let out a sharp cry of excitement. She slapped Aegon on the arm, nearly shoving him off his feet. “I called that shit! You owe me twenty dollars!” 

norinote: remember you can send me prompts from here or your own ideas! xoxo.

[bestworstcase]

Tbh I don't think anyone's saying that Oz has Never Done Anything Wrong Ever, or at least, personally, that's not my belief.

While personally I believe that Oz hasn't tried actually destroying Salem or erasing her from anyone knowing about her at all, I ALSO believe that Salem Is Not an irredeemable monster. I do believe she's trying to overthrow the gods rn, and that she hates the sword of damocles that is the mandate and has been trying to keep Oz from summoning the gods up until now (bc yknow, why wouldn't she try keeping the Relics from him??).

Plus, her fear wouldn't be unfounded (I still believe Oz was gunning for the task for a long time), and the narrative of "Salem is right" can still easily happen. Plus it's not like Oz is innocent; 1. He lied to Salem for their entire marriage 2. He decided to gun for the task Light gave him 3. Hasn't even tried communicating with Salem and 4. Has demonized her in his mind and to those in his circle. Both and neither are at fault imo. Oz fucked up big time, and he knows this, but the belief Salem hates him and his own self hate is keeping him from Actually Doing Anything. I think this also goes for Salem, fear and possibly self hate keeping her from communicating.

I just come from the perspective that both fucked up, Oz a bit more than Salem ofc. I just think that Oz isn't nearly as bad as people make him out to be. Like, this probably sounds really rude so I'm sorry in advance (/gen), but I feel like Oz being paranoid for No Reason and constantly trying to destroy Salem or erase her from public knowledge and demonizing her for No Reason beyond his own paranoia and unwillingness to change makes him seem... almost cartoonishly bad. Like it makes him sound like an abusive husband 100x worse than Adam and Jacques combined. And beyond that, it makes Salem seem completely innocent pre-war, that she was just dealing with her Abusive Husband who's delusional and paranoid.

To me, it doesn't feel nuanced, or at least as nuanced. I DO like the idea, but only as an AU. Not only that but I feel like it'd be really unfriendly to casual fans, people who don't do analysis n stuff, bc unless you bother analyzing every 2 second scene, you won't pick a lot of this up. And this is in terms of the writers, not you lol. Rwby IS meant to be analyzed, but not a lot of people will bother, and those who do haven't exactly picked any of this up.

I do think they're good theories to have though. Really it just gives me an excuse to re-analyze scenes and see if my thinking is flawed. I mean, if it's straight up Confirmed that your theories are right, then I'll be like "Oh, huh, I was wrong". I figured I'd just give insight to what people are probably saying bc I haven't seen anyone say that Oz is an innocent uwu wet paper bag. Cause he's NOT innocent, but I just don't think he's as bad or evil as people insist he is. And I do my best to analyze without any form of bias. I *did* come to the same conclusion about Salem lol.

Anyways sorry, this got long dhchvj. I hope I don't sound rude, I'm really tone blind (autism), I'm just doing my best to give insight to what people think. Cause trust me, it annoys me just as much as you to see people try to claim that Oz is innocent or that Salem is an irredeemable abusive witch. Cause obv neither is true lmao.

I hope you have a good day :] /gen

you’re fine. 

the core issue i have with the reasoning laid out here is that it demands a presupposition that oz is… well, a miserable spineless cowardly fraud who’s spent untold millennia pretending to believe in a pointless cause that he knows he will never lift a finger to advance in any meaningful sense. because it’s made quite clear that ozpin’s inner circle believes that they’ve been at war with salem for decades, that the huntsmen academies are fortresses oz built not to merely defend the relics but specifically to "stop salem"—that’s the language qrow uses in V4 and oz echoes it in V5—and that this is what oz has been doing for centuries if not   thousands of years, fighting to protect remnant from salem. 

the way qrow discusses the great war in both WOR and V4 insinuates that the conflict was really a proxy war between oz and salem, glynda chides ironwood by telling him "ozpin has experience the rest of us lack," in V3 the inner circle tells pyrrha "we are the protectors of this world" and "our group was founded [hundreds of years ago] to protect both mankind and the maidens" by "remov[ing] the maidens from the public eye, allowing their existence to fade away into legend." or as qrow puts it in V2, "we’re the ones that keep the world safe from the evils no one even knows about!"—i.e., from salem—"[which is] why we meet behind closed doors, why we work in the shadows."

now, while ozpin’s difficult relationship with the truth means we do need to be skeptical as to the veracity of these historical claims… the inner circle is circumspect on the details, but they’re not lying or misrepresenting the purpose of their group. they earnestly believe these things because this what ozpin told them, and in V5 we see oz recount the same general narrative to team RNJR: "i am the combination of countless men who have spent their lives trying to protect the people of remnant […] this curse was bestowed on me by the gods because i failed to stop salem in the past, but we must stop her now."

so there is no ambiguity at all about the story oz tells his closest allies: he is trying to protect the world from an ancient hidden evil called salem, who defeated him once in the distant past but can be stopped now by keeping the relics out of her hands, and in order to do that it is essential to keep the relics and the maidens secret (lest world rip itself apart in wars to claim this incredible power) and likewise to ensure that salem’s existence remains hidden (lest everyone panic and be wiped out by grimm). oz and his inner circle frame this as an secret struggle that has been ongoing for centuries, if not thousands of years. 

his inner circle had no reason to disbelieve what ozpin told them prior to jinn’s tale. and even after the lost fable, no one questions the narrative that oz has been fighting salem for a very long time. "ozpin believed that the best way to fight salem was to do it in secret," says ironwood. "ozpin spent his whole life, many lives, keeping this secret," says qrow. later in V7, ironwood describes salem as "an ancient and terrible evil," and in V8 ruby says "this isn’t some new enemy or invading kingdom, this is a force we’ve faced before, for centuries… salem."

for the moment we’ll just accept the presupposition that salem’s war against the huntsmen academies began with the attack on amber following perhaps a decade of planning and careful preparation, incited by whatever happened when she met summer rose, and that before that time salem was not actively participating in shadow war. 

if this is taken to be true, the question with regard to how ozma has spent all this time becomes: do we believe that he’s been doing what he says he has—trying to "stop salem" by guarding the relics and keeping all these secrets—or not? because it is undeniably true that this is what ozma CLAIMS to have been doing for centuries if not millennia. when ozpin tells people this story about who he is and what he’s spent lifetimes trying to do, is it because he genuinely believes that he and salem have been embroiled in a secret cold war all this time, or… is he just lying?

why would he lie about that? 

consider the things he definitely did lie about. why didn’t he tell anyone that salem can’t be killed? he feared they would fall into despair and give up, lose all hope and the will to keep fighting. why did he lie about his personal history with salem? he believes loving her is his greatest mistake ("the hearts of men are easily swayed" etc) and he feels ashamed, guilty, regretful, desperate to make amends yet certain she will never forgive him and terrified that even if she did it would doom the world—the truth is messy and complicated and he’s convinced that what he wants is evil, so he buries it. 

why, then, would he pretend to still be fighting her when he actually isn’t? if ozma had, at some point, resolved this inner turmoil on the side of "salem was right, the god of light is wrong, i am not going to fulfill my task and will instead dedicate my existence to insuring that the relics are never brought together, the best way to protect remnant is by rejecting the gods and their redemption," why would he lie about that? why would he continue to promote faith in the two brothers and the final judgment he foretold long ago (ozpin includes this story in his anthology with notes urging his readers to believe in it and to act each day as if the gods will return tomorrow)? why keep telling his closest allies, his friends, life after life, that he was sent to remnant by the gods themselves to stop salem from changing the world? 

why wouldn’t he change course?—and i want to be very clear that i’m not asking why he wouldn’t seek reconciliation with salem, because emotionally that’s quite a lot harder. but if he decided the divine mandate was bullshit and he wasn’t going to follow it any longer, why would he not… er… stop telling people that the brothers are the Real True Gods who left behind these divine relics which he is put on this world to keep safe until the final judgment? 

ozma strove to keep salem and the relics a secret for lifetimes—and ozpin was stridently opposed to revealing the truth, we see him and his inner circle balk at the idea time and again explicitly because ozpin insists that secrecy is essential to stopping salem, so we have no reason to doubt that he really did feel strongly that keeping these secrets kept people safe—so in the event he changed his mind and came to believe that the brothers were enemies of humanity who must be kept at bay… surely he would shut his mouth. 

but the brothers and their final judgment aren’t a secret! ozpin published that story in a book of fairytales with a commentary telling his readers to prepare themselves to be judged! after jinn’s tale, nobody freaks out about the divine threat of execution should mankind prove unworthy because they already knew that part; it’s the mainstream doctrine of a well-known religion that exists all around the world, which qrow and ozpin had already told them was real and true. 

oz is not a bad person. he certainly isn’t some sort of craven charlatan who’s spent thousands of years exhorting the world to believe in and follow a creed he secretly opposes—even if he still believed that salem was dangerous and needed to be stopped, it would be so simple to cast the gods as dangerous adversaries who must also be prevented from ever coming back. 

like, he wants people to live. he wants the world to be safe, even if at the cost of his own happiness. that is always what ozma is trying to achieve—even during the ozlem kingdom, he sacrificed the happiness he’d found with salem in their little cottage to try uniting the world with her because he truly, genuinely believed his happiness came at the cost of humanity’s salvation. 

it follows that the reason ozpin tells his close allies that it is his god-given task to stop salem by keeping the relics out of her grasp whilst striving for unity and keeping all this a secret, he does so because he truly, genuinely believes that it’s the best way to protect the world. likewise, when he uses his public platform as the headmaster of a prestigious academy to publish an anthology of tales, including the one about the two brothers that articulates the divine mandate exactly, upon which he comments this: 

We have a fragile peace, and in some ways, we are more divided than ever. Even if the gods aren’t real, even if they don’t return to judge us for our deeds, we should act each day as though they are arriving tomorrow. In the end, we will be the arbiters of our fates. We will either create a beautiful, peaceful world and live in harmony together or destroy ourselves and our planet, and the gods will judge what we have chosen.

ozpin really earnestly does believe that proselytizing the brothers, imploring everyone to live as if the gods will return for the final judgment tomorrow, while keeping salem, the maidens, and the relics secret, is necessary and the best way to keep people safe. he wouldn’t be doing this if he thought it didn’t protect people!

so the story he tells his inner circle about WHAT he does—his purpose, his methods, his strategy—is true. it must be true because it would be both reprehensible and beyond foolish for ozpin to convince his allies they’re fighting in a war he knows isn’t real for a cause he doesn’t actually believe in, and ozpin is neither reprehensible nor stupid.

it follows that ozpin a) believes he has been fighting a protracted covert war over the relics with salem since the ages, and b) can be taken at his word when he says that insuring the relics and salem’s existence remain secret is an essential part of his strategy, especially because without fail he prioritizes secrecy above every other concern throughout V1-6 so he’s very much putting his money where his mouth is in that regard.

in V3, the inner circle makes the claim that their predecessors ("this brotherhood"), centuries ago, chose to "remove the maidens from the public eye, allowing them to fade away into legend." while i do have my doubts about the historical accuracy of that claim—a) the nature of the maiden inheritance rules would make it very difficult to keep the maidens under wraps and b) i think it’s more likely that ozma always intended for the maidens to act covertly, didn’t know what would happen when the first four died, and only pieced it together after a few centuries had gone by and he started to hear stories about young women blessed with magical power and went "…ah."—i don’t think there’s any reason to doubt that the maidens became a fairytale because ozma decided they should be kept secret. 

neither oz nor his inner circle make an exactly equivalent claim about salem… but. the situations are quite similar: the maidens were once "common knowledge," and when ozma first reincarnated he traveled around for years hearing tales of "the witch" wherever he went. some time long ago, ozma and his allies undertook to suppress public knowledge of the maidens, and in the present the last trace remaining is an old fairytale that no one could believe holds any real truth. as for salem, no one knows about her anymore either, and "ozpin spent all his life, many lives keeping this secret." 

the existence of the relics, similarly, is a secret because ozma chose to keep them secret—although the crown seems to have passed through at least a few pairs of hands before ozma tracked it down, hence the fairytale. (this is a subject for another post, but i actually don’t think 'the indecisive king' is about ozma—ozpin’s commentary on it is VERY impersonal and perfunctory compared to what he has to say about 'the infinite man,' 'the girl in the tower,' 'the story of the seasons,' or even 'the grimm child.' i think the original inspiration for the tale was some other person who had the crown before ozma found it, and he included the story because, as he says, he thinks it has an important message.)

so, basically, in the present ozpin and his inner circle are hiding three big secrets: the maidens, the relics, and salem. it’s stated outright that the maidens are secret because ozma and his allies chose to hide them from the world. 

of the relics, three are entirely unknown and one is the subject of a single fairytale of which the reliability is unknown (although my bet is on "the real crown isn’t that straightforward and may not actually work like that at all"); oz has been in possession of all four for at least fifty or so years. we know he found the lamp first, thousands of years ago, that he used both the sword and the crown to end the great war eighty years ago, and ozpin raised atlas using the staff. it’s very likely that he found the other three much earlier. the fairytale inspired by the crown suggests that one might have eluded him for a while.

in any case, once he had them all (and a few centuries had gone by to allow the story about the crown to be forgotten as anything but a fiction), ozma would’ve had nearly absolute power to decide who knew about them—salem being the only other person who could tell anyone, and at the time she didn’t know anything more than "there are four relics of some kind, somewhere in the world, that will call the gods to remnant to judge humankind if they’re ever brought together."

so the relics, too, are secret because ozma decided to keep them secret.

this leaves salem. before the rise and fall of the ozlem kingdom, she lived on the fringes of civilization and knowledge of her existence was widespread. (her decrepit house sat at the end of a paved, well-maintained footpath—she was within walking distance of the nearest town and did not make herself remotely difficult to find.) thousands of years later? nothing but fairytales that are, like 'the story of the seasons' and 'the indecisive king,' either believed to be entirely fictional or (in the case of 'the grimm child') about a real, if very rare, phenomenon unrelated to salem herself. 

this is not something that could have happened at all if salem hadn’t withdrawn from civilization as far as she did—which is one of the core reasons i think she hasn’t been at war with ozma all this time—so she tacitly allowed it to happen. but why did she withdraw so far? 

here is the part where it gets murky and highly speculative because we just don’t know what happened or where she went or what she did in those first few hundred years after the ozlem kingdom fell. it is plausible that salem just ran and kept running until she’d gotten as far away from people as it was possible to get, and stayed there in self-imposed isolation until, well, now—in which case ozma’s effort to suppress the knowledge of her existence would have mainly entailed not telling anyone about her and maybe destroying bits and pieces of the historical record. 

(i do think he’s made an active effort to keep her secret all this time, regardless: that is his first priority at all times until jinn spills the beans in V6, and if he can’t keep the world safe by destroying her then making sure the world doesn’t know she exists is the obvious Plan B. if nobody knows about her, no one can piss off the gods by siding with her. it’s really more a question of whether she put up a fight.)

hooowever. salem is a character defined by loneliness and longing for freedom, which to her explicitly means connection with others. love. companionship. this is why the gods punish her by making her immortal—separating her from the one she loves forever—and then when she overcomes that by going out into the world and turning her immortality into a gift that brings her closer to people and allows her to form new alliances and friendships, rather than a curse imprisoning her in isolation, the gods just. kill everyone. and leave her alone in the ashes. 

and as i said, even when salem is miserably isolating herself before ozma, she isn’t that far away from civilization—she’s living by herself but close enough to somewhere that she could walk into town, and her presence there was not only well-known but welcomed enough that people built a road right to her doorstep. this during a period of her life when she was so profoundly depressed that her house was rotting and falling apart around her! 

the point is that while salem does inarguably have self-isolating tendencies, i… don’t think hers are anywhere close to being as severe as ozma’s. his rendition of himself in 'the story of the seasons' may well be more poetic than literal ("So cold was his heart that the lands around him were covered in snow, the trees were bare, and animals and Creatures of Grimm alike avoided him. For centuries, no one dared disturb his peace…"), but at the time ozma certainly would have had the magical power to freeze all the land for miles around to keep people away from him, and even if it’s only a metaphor for how he felt then the implication is that he hid himself away in total solitude for possibly multiple consecutive lifetimes…

…whereas salem, at her absolute lowest, in the darkest depths of her self-isolating depression, lived by herself a short way from the edge of some town whose residents were probably rather wary of her (she’s not exactly friendly, nor human, and everyone knows she’s a witch) but nevertheless accepted her as a member of their community (because salem certainly wasn’t the one bothering to take care of that path). 

the way things ended between her and ozma, his deception, the deaths of their children, their kingdom collapsing, all of this was extremely traumatic for her and haunts her to this day just as ozma; i have no trouble at all believing that salem would flee to the edge of the world in the immediate aftermath. 

but i find it a lot more difficult to believe that she would stay there for thousands upon thousands of years if the only thing preventing her from returning to the margins of civilization were her own guilt and self-hatred. the gods punishing her by murdering the whole world, being completely alone for hundreds of millions of years, grimming herself, and the way humans would have treated her in an era when faunus were hunted down and caged like beasts wasn’t enough to drive salem into exile. i don’t believe her self-loathing, by itself, is strong enough to overpower her desperation to be free for very long.

i also really doubt that ozma would just, for lack of a better word, trust her to stay gone. especially not if—as jinn implies—he believed salem kept finding him somehow and sending grimm after him, which probably wasn’t true (her command over the grimm seems to be restricted to the ones she makes, and the incarnations we see in this part of the lost fable were not at all significant persons easily identifiable as ozma), but it isn’t an unreasonable fear for him to have? given how badly things ended between them. 

we know salem doesn’t like, obsessively devote her time to scrying until she’s found ozma again (because she doesn’t bother to do that after ozpin dies, she’s caught completely off guard by oscar—and if she doesn’t do so while she is actively waging war against him, it’s unlikely that it ever crossed her mind to try it at all, or else her scrying just doesn’t work that way), but ozma doesn’t have any way of knowing that. we know salem doesn’t control every grimm in the world, and oz seems to have figured that out eventually, but in those first few centuries before he found the lamp? he had no idea what salem might be capable of, what powers she might have hidden from him!

like it isn’t that ozma has No Reason to be paranoid. he knows that he hurt her really badly and that when salem gets hurt she lashes out, often in extremely vindictive and extremely violent ways. (he has no way of knowing that salem has spent these thousands of years clawing her temper under control, and no reason to think she would try.) he probably had no idea to what extent salem being grimm might be influencing her thinking—that’s where all the really deep distortions start to take root, ozma anxiously second-guessing every little thing like were there warning signs i ignored? was he right? did i let infatuation blind me to what she’d become from the very start?—by the time he finds the lamp, assuming jinn didn’t skip over any lives, he’s on his fourth life since the end; that’s a span of like, at least two to three hundred years depending how long he lived and how much time it took him to reincarnate each time. 

that is plenty enough time to convince himself she’s nothing but an evil monster who needs to be put down before he finds the lamp, and then he immediately uses his three questions for that lifetime so it would be another full century after that before he had the opportunity to ask jinn anything about… what salem is doing now, or what she lied to him about, or if she told him the truth after all. which is a terrifying prospect to even consider after a) multiple centuries marinating in an inescapable anxiety torment nexus echo chamber and b) hearing she can’t be destroyed, period. like what if the truth turns out to be "yeah the pool of grimm destroyed her soul and also she wants to burn the world to the ground and eat your heart now because you ruined her FOREVER!!! and there is nothing you or anyone else can do to fix her. you stupid fuck." like his cursed haunted brain keeps screaming at him 24/7?!

so.

we don’t really know anything about this period of time before ozma went after the lamp, except that "no matter where or how he lived, her presence was always felt." jinn combines that with a memory of two beowolves attacking ozma’s town to insinuate that salem kept sending grimm after him, or at least that ozma believed as much. 

but. but—"during his years of travel, he heard the same frightened whispers that spoke of a terrifying sorceress who commanded dark powers in the wilds, among the beasts and monsters. ozma was convinced that this woman was salem, and decided that he needed to see what she had become."

"but no matter where or how he lived, her presence was always felt. if humanity were ever to stand a chance at being united, one thing was clear… [he had to destroy salem.] knowing he could never rid the world of her through any mortal means, ozma sought out the power of the relics: armed with my knowledge, he believed he could fulfill his promise to the god of light."

<- these are parallel statements. everywhere he travels, he hears stories about a witch; no matter where or how he lives, her presence is always felt. ozma was convinced that this terrifying sorceress was salem; ozma grew convinced that he had to destroy salem for humanity’s sake. he needed to see what she had become; he needed to find the lamp to guide him. see the repetition? the echo?

i don’t think salem just vanished into the wilderness. i imagine she ran pretty fucking far, but remnant is a big world and there are people all over—there have even been people living in the southern region of the now-uninhabited continent where salem presumably lives, based on the map shown in WOR: vale. 

(the markers for those settlements are red in color; all the other markers are color-coded to the kingdoms, orange for vacuo, green for vale, while for atlas, blue for mistral, yellow for menagerie and what i assume are a couple of faunus settlements in southern anima, with tracks with the white fang’s headquarters being located vaguely in anima. in the blood-splattered map in the great war episode, there’s a fire burning in the southern peninsula of the uninhabited continent—implying battles were fought there and possibly that some of those red settlements existed as recently as eighty years ago. 

i turn this over in my mind a lot. it doesn’t make any sense to me to think that salem could have been remotely present in civilization anywhere within the past century, but rwby is so particular about color that the only reason to choose red for the now-defunct(?) settlements on the continent where salem lives would be to imply some degree of association with her, and if a WHOLE KINGDOM had been destroyed i think that would have been mentioned so these were probably just free towns and villages—possibly with a loose connection to vacuo? it’s sort of the logical place for displaced peoples from vacuo to wind up after fleeing their conquered kingdom. and in that case their "connection" to salem might be nothing more than her having taken pity on a bunch of refugees with nowhere else to go and kept the grimm off their backs until the great war…happened. but i would like to know.)

…the point being, i think "her presence was always felt" because salem, after some decades, maybe a century, hating herself deep in the wilderness, crept back to lurking on the periphery of civilization because a) ozma was gone and she had no idea where, when, or even if he would ever come back again and b) no matter how determined she is to punish herself, she just isn’t capable of wallowing in abject misery forever, even when she was the only person alive with absolutely no hope she kept moving until she found something to try.

so naturally people would have kept gossiping about the terrifying dark witch who lives in the woods among the beasts and monsters, and ozma would have known it was her. imagine if he’d reincarnated for the second or third time, wound up on a different continent altogether, and immediately started hearing the exact same sort of frightened whispers as before? even if it was pure unfortunate coincidence and salem did not have the slightest idea he was there, how terrifying that would be? and if salem didn’t want him to find her because she was scared or ashamed or angry or all three, then she couldn’t stay in any one place for too long—so this sort of indirect crossing paths oh-gods-she’s-already-found-me nightmare scenario could conceivably happen more than once.

(frankly, even if salem wanted nothing to do with him and was trying her level to avoid him without just never being able to come within sight of another person again, i think her not vanishing forever makes ozma’s intense paranoia so much more understandable because like. very literally, no matter where he lived, her presence would always be there—rumors, frightened whispers, everywhere. of course he’d start seeing her in the shadow of every grimm!)

i don’t think they’ve ever actually come face-to-face since that night—maybe glimpsed each other from afar across a battlefield, but if they’d met or spoken to each other i imagine it would have been necessary for jinn to show it happening. BUT i do think it’s likelier than not that there were several centuries when salem was legitimately an inescapable presence dogging ozma through life after life because she was just sort of… wandering around in a miserable traumatic haze on the very, very edge of civilization. and people talked about her.

so he went for the lamp, and fell into the depths of despair when jinn crushed whatever passed for his hope at that point. that is, almost certainly, what pushed him into his hermit era. 

now! if the fairytale’s centuries of eternal winter isn’t a pure fiction—if there is even the smallest kernel of literal truth in there as to ozma using magic to force people, animals, and grimm to stay far away from him, then. if salem was not already living in exile, this would have been when she began to hear rumors about him. yes? this is the first thing he does that would rise to the level of local legend salem might possibly hear. 

that his seclusion ended with "and then i met four young women who reminded me how to be a person so i gave them my magic" as opposed to "and then salem turned up with thousands of grimm to murder me and salt the earth" suggests that if she wasn’t living in exile at this time, her interest was probably more in avoiding him than vengeance.

and if that’s so, what does she do upon finally discovering where he is? er, probably travel as far away from the Cursed Wizard Forest as it is geographically feasible to go and decide that this is fine, that’s his continent and this is her continent and they can just stay on opposite sides of the planet until the end of time and never have speak to or see each other again. amen. 

if we take the fairytale literally, several centuries pass. lifetimes. enough time for salem to find somewhere to, if not quite belong, at least become a constant because well she’s been here since before granny was even born and no one knows who or what she is because she doesn’t really talk to anyone, but she’s not hurting anyone either, and legend has it that a goliath once attacked our town and the witch just walked out of the woods and exploded it with a glare, and that’s why grimm never come here, so she’s our witch. maybe enough time to send someone halfway across the world to check on the Cursed Wizard Forest to reassure herself that yes ozma’s still there, he’s not going to come after her and he must have come to his senses about the gods so she’s. safe. ish. as long as no one ever finds those relics. 

the fairytale ends with the hermit dividing his magic among the four maidens, and then he says: "My rest is over. It is time for me to resume my journey and work as well."—they didn’t just resuscitate ozma’s will to live, they restored his faith and his commitment to his task. maybe the world can be saved! maybe he can really do it this time, now that he’s found people willing to help him shoulder the burden!

(i do firmly believe that ozma told the original four maidens about his task and salem’s sworn hatred of the gods and the danger she could pose to the world if he emerged to try again, before offering them magic—as we see in v8, he isn’t naturally predisposed to lie or manipulate people, that’s a pattern he only falls into when he feels hopeless and scared. so i think he and the original maidens planned to gather the relics and get to work on uniting humanity, and the vague fairytale ending is an obfuscation.)

aaand i think that’s when he went after salem, because he emerged from his Cursed Wizard Forest after multiple lifetimes rotting in solitude, filled with new hope and ready to try again to complete his task, immediately tripped face-planted into rumors about the witch in the woods AGAIN and panicked. 

he can’t kill her, he can’t get rid of her… she can’t be stopped but, as oz says to hazel, she can be fought and someone has to try. doesn’t he have to try? if he believes the world can be saved, isn’t it his duty to try?—he knows she’ll never, ever bow to the brothers, she made that excruciatingly clear, and as long as she’s present in the world, as long as people might listen to her about the gods, remnant is doomed. so he has to make her go away. somehow. he has to try.

i think for salem all it would take is once. one time. if she still tried after everything to do what was right, leave him alone and not hurt anyone else and pick up the pieces as best she could. because the thing is, salem blames herself for getting her daughters killed in her anger—that’s why she tries so hard to keep her temper in 6.4—she hates herself for lashing out that night as much as ozma hates himself for the same. that self-blame would counterbalance her anger at ozma: yes he lied to her yes he tricked her yes he attacked her but she attacked him right back and now her children are dead.

how much of a temptation is vengeance with that clawing around in her head?

but if her mindset was like, "that was the most horrible thing that has ever happened to me and the worst thing i’ve ever done, and i don’t understand why he lied to me but i just want it to be done, and he’s over there and i’m over here and we can just. leave each other alone forever," and she found a place for herself where she started to feel maybe almost kind of ok again and then ozma violated the truce she’d invented in her mind but never thought to communicate to him by appearing out of the blue to attack her, completely unprovoked as far as she could tell, and whatever little town or village or even just one single person who’d been kind to her got destroyed in the resulting fight?

that’s an injustice. that’s i did nothing to deserve this, how dare you do this to me. 

and… that’s also, i think, the one thing that would compel salem to willingly cut herself off from all civilization and remain in exile for thousands and thousands of years (because she’s impossible to kill and too powerful to force her out if she decides she’s not going to go gently into the night). her fear of collective punishment. if she thought there was even the smallest chance that ozma might start doing what her father did or what his gods did to anyone close to her, i think she’d go and stay gone until she felt absolutely certain she could take him down forever.

(also theres a certain narrative elegance to the idea that they had their horrible mutual-incineration duel where they were equally matched in every way… and then ozma rotted in isolation while salem tried really hard to be okay and convinced herself they could just stay peacefully at a distance forever, until he found a spark of hope that ignited all his desperation so he went after her and she was blindsided by this truly awful and unfair and egregious thing that he did… and then she rots in isolation and ever-mounting desperation while ozma tries really hard to fix everything and pull the world into a semblance of peace until she finds a spark of hope and blindsides him with this brutally ruthless charge for the relics. 

they explode each other, fly in opposite directions—downward spiral vs picking up the pieces—then reach critical mass and explode again so hard they fully reverse positions and do the whole ordeal again. so it’s both a journey of learning to understand each other and a vicious cycle they can only escape by inversion of the first exactly-equal fight that exploded out of nowhere from a seemingly happy partnership, i.e. both reaching out unexpectedly in the midst of a seemingly inescapable conflict. it’s about symmetry)

This Has Been A Very Long Post Sorry About That. but—all speculation about the details aside—i do strongly feel that the most compassionate reading of ozma is that he is completely sincere about whathe’s trying to achieve (uniting humanity without committing genocide or turning salem into a scapegoat so everyone can be saved including her!!) but has absolutely no idea how to make it happen and has only just, in his second-to-last life as the king of vale, accepted the reality that it isn’t possible, and thence the whole building a replica of salem’s father’s castle to put his office in her tower-prison and hucking his emotionally tortured anthology of fairytales out the proverbial window (you know, like the girl in the tower who writes herself out of danger, coming from mr. fairytales this is a tornado siren of a cry for help) so forth. 

thus what he and his inner circle say about his efforts both past and present is true—he has been actively working to keep salem a secret for as long as the maidens have been hidden if not longer. as long as salem cooperated by not wandering around letting other people see and/or talk to and/or run away screaming in terror from her, what "erasing salem from public knowledge and keeping her existence secret" means, practically speaking, is tracking down any texts that clearly describe her as a real person (not a fairytale) or artistic depictions of her from the ozlem kingdom and destroying Those, and perhaps muddying the waters of all those folktales by inventing new nonsense out of whole cloth or mixing stories about her with other stories that definitely aren’t about her to a) blur the details and b) make it look to future scholars like the witch-in-the-woods was a loose folkloric archetype encompassing a huge variety of different beliefs and superstitions as opposed to one very specific kind of story about one very specific witch. 

which is a bit obsessive and weird but given the fate-of-the-world stakes at play here and the plain unarguable fact that humanity cannot be redeemed if anyone sides with salem against the brothers, which is demonstrably something she can accomplish if given the opportunity, honestly pretty restrained. 

and so the million dollar question is: what does it take for salem to cooperate by staying in exile? is the fight in lost fable and her guilt over her daughters shattering enough to lead her to just give up and hide forever alone?—who knows, right now it’s purely a matter for speculation, but i think the circumstantial evidence suggests "no" more strongly than it does "yes." 

which is not to say that she was the pure innocent victim of an abusive revenge quest, but rather that i think the facts of the situation for her would, in the immediate aftermath, tilt her in a more positive direction (he did a horrible thing but so did she, and she’s survived many horrible things before, and she can’t exactly lay down to die instead so she has to do something, and she doesn’t ever want to see him because it hurts so much and she’s so angry but her anger killed her daughters so she cannot ever let it out again so she’ll just have to stay away from him and live with it) whereas ozma. yknow. Spiraled. and her being elusive but inescapably present in the world make that so much worse, which isn’t either of their faults, it’s just a terrible situation.

it’s like. short of literally stumbling into each other by chance and yelling at each other until it was all Out There. i think no matter WHAT she did, ozma was bound to snap and lash out at her sooner or later because he spent centuries. centuries!!! with all this trauma reverberating and intensifying in his head with no reprieve because there were stories about her everywhere he went.

and then as soon as he does that salem’s lifelong extremely traumatic history with collective punishment and her self-hatred and guilt are going to smash together and she’ll run the fuck away to alternately freak herself out and plot his downfall and tailspin while ozma, meanwhile, after a few centuries of her being gone and the endless rumors fading into just old folktales no one really believes anymore, finally gets the distance he needs to catch his fucking breath—his hermit era doesn’t count he was just ruminating for centuries—so he can focus on other things. and by then keeping her a secret mostly boils down to "don’t talk about her" lmao

his paranoia never really goes away, as we see in 9.10, although he does also get really complacent by ozpin’s time, and i think it’s irrational and grounded in a lot of very wrong conclusions he reached during those first couple centuries of Spiraling—but given what he did and did not know at the time i do also think the reasoning and inferences he made were fairly logical; it becomes irrational over time as the reality of the situation (salem avoiding him) increasingly doesn’t line up with his perception, but as we see in V2-3 ozpin is supremely, irrationally confident that salem is not about to unleash a major attack, which suggests that on some level he’s aware that his paranoid beliefs are unsound even if he hasn’t yet had the conscious realization. he’s right on the cusp. 

& then none of this precludes smaller scale, limited conflicts like e.g. salem assassinating a troublesome member of his inner circle or throwing grimm at people to intensify social conflicts and insure ozma never gets comfortable enough to invite his gods to remnant. i’m very sure that salem has made it a habit to check in on him at regular intervals and cause problems if it looks like he’s doing too well because she Does Not Want him to ever summon his gods. and that’s obviously going to be one-sided because i don’t think ozma actually knows where she’s hiding, and salem’s terror of collective punishment is her own seething bundle of irrational paranoia, because after he digs himself out of Spiraling ozma absolutely would not kill people just because they happened to be near her. 

[ironladders]

mk1 khaos reigns spoilers + rant below cut

the more i think about this dlc the more homophobic it feels and i am partially joking but also not really

first of all i am fully aware that tanya is bi, but why did we get more sentimental/romantic scenes between khaos rainya than new era taleena in the main story???? taleena, who have been canon for years???? is that not really weird??

emperor rain served cunt for the 5 minutes he was alive and his death scene’s graphics were very good, i’ll give him that, but i’m still annoyed. i know i might be overthinking this but i can already tell a Certain Crowd is going to use this to shit on tanya x mileena ughh

also i just did not care about them as a couple because of how fast paced this story is but that’s an overarching issue KR has with every aspect of it lmao

AND AS FOR THE NINJAS. CYRAX AND SEKTOR WERE STRAIGHT UP GENDERBENT SOLELY FOR SHIPPING PURPOSES IT ISNT EVEN FUNNY

sektor’s entire fucking character in KR revolved around being obsessed with bi-han and i hated it so much. it’s already bad enough the short length leaves her somewhat underdeveloped along with everyone else, but i swearrrrrr the only time she was likable in the story is when bi-han wasn’t around or being brought up (i.e i found her banter with khameleon really fun). but given how short this dlc was and how much bi-han was central to the plot,,, yeah. it sucked.

and i would have at least accepted if her feelings were unrequited but they’re NOT?? what the fuck!!! what is the point of the bireena hint from the johnny announcer if sekhan or whatever it’s called is gonna sink that!! i hope they break up

cyrax mostly escaped this thank god, but an intro with noob confirms that she’s kuai’s ex and i just… why…. why…???? gonna sound hypocritical as an ashzoth shipper but nothing about their relationship or the story wouldve changed if they were just old friends or something, we do NOT need every ship to be just “boy know girl”

reiko x li mei was also dumb as fuck but thankfully they died

idk… i was and still am defending the genderbends against dudebros, but it’s really all been soured for me. obviously if they wanted romance between the ninjas they couldn’t keep cyrax and sektor as men because that would have angered a lot of the fanbase but at the same time if that’s the case, none of them could’ve been romantically involved and it would all be still fine BUT IT ISNT

either nrs shouldn’t have been cowards and let the lin kuei bros be bisexual or had literally no romance in this story. we did not need rainya and we certainly did not need the cyber lin kuei to be genderbent for ships nobody likes. christ.

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

ಠ_ಠ

I... um...

[The single best part is how they say "three" Hydra agents, implying they think Bucky is one on top of the Maximoffs. Fuck you! None of them are!]

Oh boy, that's fun. I feel like writing today. Let me start with Walker.

Never abandoned his allies.

What allies? Plural? He had one. And he was killed. (RIP Lemar, I liked the guy.)

Helped Sam and Bucky

He was arrogant, way too comfortable way too soon with two men he did not know at all, he called them "wingmen" and lied about Steve on live TV. Dude was a jerk. Also, they tried to negotiate with him and the dude went for the kill. Not very 'helpful'.

Is a family man without using time travel

Uh… he wasn't in EG.

Avenged his friend

Avenged? It's that how we're going to call a public execution? I won't argue that his mental state at the time was compromised. Fine. But you see, what matters even more than him executing a man on the street is his reaction afterwards. And he took no responsibility whatsoever. Just like Stark in CW.

Did his best by a Government that let him down.

Hey, I agree. The government sucked. And he was an obedient puppy up until it didn't benefit him. Why do you think they gave the shield to him and not some other soldier? Dude was obedient as a little boy.

Seen as a bad guy.

Yep. A bad guy with the potential of being an antihero if written well and allowed his shady morality. NOT as a Steve counterpart.

Steve's turn now.

Abandoned allies, making Sharon the Power Broker and Bucky depressed.

Every Sharon act is Steve's fault now? Way to strip Sharon of her agency! Her cynical side was interesting, at least to me. She had to flee and she survived in any way she knew how. It would have been interesting to see her go from that to helping Sam and Bucky and admitting her crimes. But we all know why she was turned into a villain (she's Saint Maggy's rival for Steve's affection! Not misogynistic at all, huh?).

Bucky's depression goes waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond Steve. I know a lot of people are incapable of seeing them as two different characters, but... they are. Despite how much I love them together, don't get me wrong. In a well-written story, Steve wouldn't have left and he would have joined Bucky in therapy (both needed it). Real therapy though, not the crap we saw in the series.

Lied to Tony for 2 years and chose three Hydra agents over him.

Again with this? He didn't know (for sure) it had been Bucky. But I have a question. These people claim to hate Hydra but they're super quick to put the blame on anyone except them. It's not Hydra, it's Bucky, It's not Hydra, it's Wanda. It's not Zemo, it's Steve. You sure you're against Hydra?

Is a massive hypocrite but still lectures others

Heh, love this one. No examples or anything, eh? It's hard to find them, isn't it?

Used time travel to make himself happy.

Yep, I hate EG too. But here's the thing: when everything pre-EG points at him staying and then EG makes a 180 and takes him back, that's just bad writing. Also come on, we all know they got rid of him to bring Saint Maggy to the present (they thought we'd like her… lmao)

Is worthy of a hammer created by a genocidal tyrant.

I love this one too. So, let me see if I get this straight. The OP is mad that Steve can lift Mjolnir because it's a sign of greatness and worthiness, but in the same sentence they say the hammer is a tyrant's weapon anyway and it doesn't mean anything. Make up your mind!

Seen as a hero.

No. Not seen as a hero. Seen as THE hero, thank you very much.

[golbrocklovely]

So we cant have an opinion? Ok..if you think calling us names just because we have an opinion is okay, then its weird. We say what we think about the drama and about the things they do. Also its very sad that youre protecting m and still throwing shade at shea even tho m isnt any fucking better. I dont understand you why you hate on stas and shea and not on m, she isnt ANY BETTER. Some of you should know that every person can have a different opinion. Okay bye

the inconsistencies in yalls arguments are FASCINATING to me lmao

if i'm weird for calling you guys names, what exactly are you for constantly shitting on colby and calling him a manwhore, trash, fuck boi ect???? what about all the terrible things you say about m??

also… what drama is there to be had? m posted a picture. how is that drama? it's only drama bc you guys have such vitriol for her that you need to find any and all reasons to hate her. same thing goes for k.

and if we are really gonna bring up shea and stas - let's get one thing straight. for all the reasons i don't like either of those girls, NONE of those reasons are bc of how they look. but that seems to be the SOUL reason yall don't like m.

or maybe the only reason yall comment on her looks so much is bc you know NOTHING about her and don't really have anything else to add to the conversation besides "m has fake boobs".

as for shea and stas, first off, i don't even care about stas anymore. she's off doing whatever she wants. i spent months on here defending her until i couldn't anymore. and then there was a period of time i didn't care for her and what she did, which was basically try to make every fan think her and colby had a thing going on while he was literally taking another girl on dates. but at this point i don't give a fuck about her. she's gone and is the least of my concerns.

but shea…. i have literally given LISTS as to all of the reasons i don't like her. bc she has actually done questionable things for years. and especially now - with all of her livestreams consistently bringing up colby, she can't even keep her own story straight as to what went on between the two of them. she lies bc she wants to look like the victim. that's not to say that colby probably didn't do her wrong at some point. i ain't saying he's a saint. but there does come a point where if you're gonna air out all of his dirty laundry, shit that we as fans shouldn't know about at all, that he came to you IN CONFIDENCE with, but claim you're the victim in all of this….. you've lost the plot entirely.

and you know why i can say m is better than both of them? she isn't in group chats with fans telling every little bit of info she can about colby. shea and stas can't say that.

see yall mistake me being nice towards m and k as me liking them. i don't like them. i don't CARE about them. and i also understand that i know nothing about them, which is something yall can't say. you think bc you hate watch everything they post that somehow you know everything about them when reality is you know nothing. at all.

but sure, m is exactly like shea and stas. if you honestly feel that way, i want you and your little friends to confidently say that shea and stas are also clout chaser that just used colby to get ahead in their careers and are also plastic bags bc they too have had work done. i will gladly cosign that if yall do it. but i'm not gonna hold my breath bc i know yall ain't gonna do it lmao

and i'm not stopping you from having your opinion. you guys loudly go on twitter day in and day out and complain about m and colby and call them every name under the sun. no one is stopping you. but you know, you're right. we are allowed to have different opinions. and wouldn't you believe it, this is me having a different opinion than you.

you think m is gross for having fake boobs and an onlyfans and colby is a manwhore. i think you guys are terrible, insecure fans who need to grow up and stop acting like children all the time throwing a hissyfit over their crush not liking them back and dating the popular girl instead. your insults are low and also not creative in the slightest. you spend every waking moment being miserable in a fandom you claim to enjoy being in, yet literally hate 1/2 of the content creators in it. you hate watch two girls you don't like whatsoever, essentially wasting your time so you can raise your blood pressure, just to run to twitter and get in your little gcs and bitch about the girls that wouldn't and don't give you the time of day. you're basically a fan of them bc of how much time you spend thinking about them, talking about them, theorizing about them, ect bc genuinely when do you guys even log off or think about something else? i don't even think most of you have a job, a, bc you're mostly really young (which already explains so much) and b, bc you clearly have a lot of free time on your hands. i genuinely hope you and your friends find a better avenue to put your anger to use rather than just complaining about snc and their gfs all day. you live a miserable life, and i hope that changes for you. and if not, kick rocks with open toe shoes.

okay, bye :) and genuinely don't come back lol

[uglyduckling339]

KY'S LIFE IS STRANGE DOUBLE EXPOSURE NONSENSE LIVEBLOG: Episode 3

(as always, spoilers ahead!! don't read unless you've played the game or watched it bc otherwise none of these will make sense)

Tutorial Episode 1 Episode 2

LETS FUCKING GOOO IM SO EXCITED i actually really like this game ngl

(fun fact: this episode alone took 103 drafts to liveblog, and i actually shortened the amount by combining some into a list. without the list, it's about 150 drafts lol)

WOLF SQUAD HOODIE 🗣🗣🗣 AND PINK TIPS 🗣🗣 BEST OUTFIT COMBO AROUND FR

bruh max is ALWAYS sleepin in the beginning of ep 3 lmao

the best part of max's dissociation is there is no way she could be 100% confident that she DIDN'T kill safi. even she is getting slightly convinced by the photo and its prolly bc she knows theres days she wakes up and she doesn't feel real; days she forgets completely. she will NEVER be certain she didn't kill safi bc she'll never know if she just forgot it and erased it from her memory.

oh um, ik i was just yapping abt dissociation but i just remembered that it could be a future version of max instead😭 so idk

if i had a nickel for every LiS game i've played where the main character is accused of murder and wears a wolf squad hoodie, i'd have 2 nickels.

highkey i forgot safi and vinh fucked. they're both so real ngl

LMFAO MY BROTHER SAID MAX IN THE PIC WITH THE GUN HAS A LEAD PAINT STARE

cheetos toes?? max?? girl??

AH EW ALDERMAN KYS I HATE U

max. the picture. girl. u forgot the picture.

why would u walk to open the door with very explicit evidence against you js chilling in plain eyesight u freak

love her "oh fuck" + the face she makes lol

YO WHAT THE FUCK??

WHAT

FUCK YOU DUDE

he mentioned arcadia bay?? holy shit

my fav draft in here is: "girl js eat the photo atp"

okay what was alderman even tryna do. piss max off??

her instant breakdown :( poor max

OH MY GOD

OH MY GOD

MAX PHOTO JUMPED AGAIN ??????

shes js hella rusty but damnnn omg

hey! so what the fuck was that.

why was the storm in the background?

was it a diff universe maybe?

istg it's like her nightmare never ended fr

also MAX IS STILL FINE AS HELLLLLLLL IN THAT STORM EVEN AFTER 9 YEARS daymn

omg :( her collapsing tryna use her powers

the music in this episode is so good btw

is this the first ep in DE where we get 'sits' back or did i just miss them all last time

now i love you max but yk DAMN WELL ur talking straight out of ur balls with that whole "disappearing" thing. we dont know if u vanish or not 😭

okay so luckily she DOES disappear. unluckily i have SO MANY COMMENTS now:

what abt the dozens of kids she vanished in front of last ep then? did they just not care? does this mean that when she time travelled she DID teleport around? and people js didn't say anything? hilarous 10/10

goddd this might be my favorite ep so far. the amount of references and stuff added is insane.

max's trauma peaking through ily

she's like edging a breakdown but thats not quite enough tbh. i need to see her js COLLAPSE. let her hit her lowest. suffer ♡

actually i think i just wanna see max have a super reasonable reaction to this chaos she lives through ngl

okay so i looked away to liveblog and when i looked back up a diff universe alderman was there?? and moses could see him??? huh??

obvi i saved him. max wouldnt let him die

"i could've saved him!!" "no, you couldn't have." OH MY GODDD

highkey, the random extras in this game fucking SUCK. why is one british. who tf is kim. why do i care abt changing "photo guy"'s grade. i miss the tiny cast in LiS 1

stupid ass game making me google words

quick shout out to my dad for playing the whole Yasmin scene for me. he didn't have to, he js insisted bc "i paided 85$ for this game; i wanna try it"

okay so i actually hate Living World! Vinh ngl

VICTORIA?? GIRL?? DAMN??

talking mad shit on my pink twt page man.

also max's glitchy hair in this is so interesting !!

i forgot in which world Vinh owes me a favor so i've decided to not use any favors ever 🤩

"my door is always open" sounds familar...

lucas is the only person to be like slightly consious of max wandering around his room lmao

yup lucas is supposed to be jeffershit coded

AHH direct jefferson mention 😰

yk what. i dislike the loading screens. why r they so often

safi :( no :( y r u so mad :(

OH MY GOD IT'S COURTNEY'S BDAY </3

MAX IS SO SAD AND LONELY I LOVE HER

i think at first these liveblogs were more detailed but now i just say words lowkey

dude shes like so sad rn its insane. ily girl

SMASH OR PASS LMAOOOOO:

pass moses, smash gwen, didnt even get a choice w amanda (i think thats fucking WEIRD btw; i'll elabrote in a min), pass lucas, Kiss vinh

OH MY GOD I FORGOT TO ADD THAT SHE NEARLY CALLED CHLOE. BAE WAS SO UPSET SHE ALMOST CALLED HER OLD BAE

guys i make Max kiss Warren and Chloe is LiS and now i wanna do that again with Vinh and Amanda. #PolyamorousMaxineCanon

amanda's scene gets bisexual lighting okk

LETS THRASH SHAKABRAH !!!!!!!!!

okay so going back to the Amanda 'no choice' thing, at first I rejected her (bc the first interaction in the game with her is the game borderline shoved us onto her??) and now i've grown to kinda like her.

I like rhat she does listen to our boundaries and doesn't push on now but I feel like we missed alot of chances to learn more abt amanda bc of the romance being cut. Like i'm almost certain if I had chosen a romance with her we could have gotten a way better conversation from it.

anyways !! max almost crying :(

all lesbians like gwen bro

OH?? OKAY B&E

MY CAT?? IS MY CAT OKAY?? IRIS?? BABY??

this is the first time idk who coulda done this. i have so many guesses but i have zero clue fs.

I FOUND THE BABY DONT WORRY GUYS

poor sweetiepie is so scared :(

oh thats a lame reveal. its js another max

MUSIC SLAPS THO 🔥🔥🔥🔥

so im hearing that alderman was just a lil bitch

so the 'dopplegangers' are actually a shapeshifter??

THE SHAPESHIFTER IS SAFI????? WHAT??

okay i'm going straight into Episode 4 rn cuz i'm hooked but that was fire. it felt more like a Life Is Strange episode then the other 2 and yall know i LOVE characters showing any emotions ever lol

[bisluthq]

Did you see this Nat? A journaliste posted a few days ago the interview she did years back when Blake and Parker Posey were promoting the Woody Allen movie, and it's not a great look

https://youtu.be/F2-2RBi1qzY?si=eHttTq7K1sPu7ZMo

I see this and I’m ngl lol the timing of this tells me very clearly that… Melissa and Roza are doing their mf jobs lmfao. My guess is a lot of crap about Blake and some crap about Ryan is going to “organically surface” in the next few weeks. Because that’d be the best way to go about this lmao. My guess is they’re not going to try and prove Justin’s a good guy - especially since no one has been willing to come forward and allege anything formally so what is there to try deny lol or challenge and denying just brings more attention to the allegations which is dumb - but rather straight up focus on demonstrating that Blake and Ryan are shitty people. Which they’re likeliest to do with shit like this, imo. I think they’re gonna try avoid lies and direct attacks but they’re gonna find crap that genuinely makes Blake and Ryan look bad, make that crap go viral, and try get everyone to focus on hating those two and forget about everything else lol. That is… crisis PR in action lmao. And they’re fucking good at it.

fwiw from the PR side that’s also what they did with Johnny - they didn’t really try prove him innocent (because he wasn’t; re Justin who knows lol kinda weird no one’s actually come forward so I do lean to him not being that bad but obviously who knows), they just showed all the ways Amber was a crazy ass bitch (which she was but like imperfect victims are still victims). So that’s what I rate they’ll do here: show us all the ways Blake is a hypocrite and a cunt and all the ways Ryan interferes and is a bully.

Gonna be a mess lol 🍿

[monstersinthecosmos]

May I ask you at what point it's clear Anne wrote/decided that Armand was physically a teenager? He doesn't seem to be written specifically as one during IWTV (especially) or even QOTD -- possibly why he's portrayed as a grown man in the early comic books and in the 1994 film?

Okay hahah full disclosure I’m writing this at work instead of working and I don’t have books with me to pull quotes so use your imagination or if anyone wants to jump in with some quotes please feel free!

So in IWTV he’s just described as a young man, and Louis doesn’t go crazy telling us too much about what he looks like. I have a few thoughts about this, and about how it influenced the movie and other incarnations of Armand:

Louis has spent most of his vampire life with a grown woman who looks like a 5 year old, so BIG FUCKIN DEAL LOL, wow ur 17? Get in line.

The movie specifically made him older & more spooky old world looking for the visual contrast, also to sidestep Louis’s rebound love interests both being children/young.

I don’t think we should get too nitpicky about the comic books like let’s, just. Lmao. Let’s leave that one.

By the time he shows up in TVL is when he goes from being described as “young man” to “young boy”.

I lied I do have this one quote:

This was a boy, as I had said, and he had a head of long curly hair, and he walked very straight and very simply through the silvery light and into the church. He hesitated for a moment. And by the tilt of the head, it seemed he was looking up. And then he came on through the nave and towards us, his feet making not the faintest sound on the stones. He moved into the glow of the candles on the side altar. His clothes were black velvet, once beautiful, and now eaten away by time, and crusted with dirt. But his face was shining white, and perfect, the countenance of a god it seemed, a Cupid out of Caravaggio, seductive yet ethereal, with auburn hair and dark brown eyes.

So there’s like, 12 years or whatever that she took between books and that gives her a lot of time to let her mental image and idea of the character to evolve, but also just her writing style is so different. I remember Anne saying that she also had Stella from The Tales of Hoffmann in mind when she wrote Armand, so he evolved from “ageless & androgynous” to “gleaming manikin of a young boy” !

For a visual reference, this is Moira Shearer as Stella, which Anne said was Armand in her mind:

And this is the painting Lestat mentioned:

But I think we are all aware of the tonal shift phenomenon between IWTV & TVL where IWTV is this like, heavy melancholy Gothic tome and then Lestat just shows up and fucking wrecks the place.  I don’t recall ever hearing her talk about this aspect of Armand and I don’t know if she had it in her mind the whole time, even if Louis didn’t take the time to describe it in detail the way Lestat does. I’d love to know how much of this was in her mind the whole time and if anyone has clues please let us know!!!!!!!

TLDR to answer your question, it’s ambiguous in IWTV and obvious in TVL.

HOWEVER.

I have this crack theory lmfao. !!!!!!!!!! About how Prince Alexi in The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty is also an auburn haired teenager, and how it was written in between the two VC books.

I mean like. Anne can say anyone has auburn hair but it’s just such a staple for Armand 2 ICONIC so how are you NOT gonna wonder about it when she’s writing BDSM porn? Idk.

There’s really no evidence for this except me with my Charlie Day board but sometimes I wonder if that break between books influenced her idea of him at all, and what impact it had on her prose for when she returned to Lestat, and I always wonder if they’re connected at all. IT JUST SEEMS SUSPICIOUS TO ME.

Like I mean. I think, there’s lots of teenagers in her books, so maybe this isn’t really much of a coincidence. But. I must wonder!

[evansbby]

Would you be willing to rank your favourite people from Vanderpump rules since you finished season 2?

Lol I like to ask all my friends to do that (we are friends idc what you have to say about that) and get their opinions after every season to see how much changed

Oh bestie I love you for asking me this bc I really thought I was yapping into the void and nobody cared about me watching this show bahahah

1. Stassi!! She’ll always be my number one! Of course she’s not perfect and can be controlling and bossy at times but there are parts of her that I admire so much. Like her confidence, how she has every man literally eating out of the palm of her hand and bending over backwards for her, how she doesn’t settle, how she knows exactly what she wants. And she was great in season 2, I love how graphic she gets with her imagery when describing things. Like someone asked her “what would you do if your boyfriend threw his drink at you” and she was like “I would cut his dick off and put a stick through it and barbecue it” or smth along those lines 😂😂😂 it’s so unhinged yet hilarious. I really felt for her when she found out Kristen and Jax slept together, and the way she staged the whole exposing Kristen at the club thing was amazing! That backhand was iconic lmfao.

2. Tom Sandoval. He’s problematic in season 2 bc he cheated on Kristen multiple times BUT he really brought the drama this season! Like he’s up here for entertainment purposes. And him punching Jax on the forehead was so satisfying. And honestly I did feel for him at times lmao. Him and Kristen’s drama had me sat and invested and was way more interesting than Jax/Stassi drama.

3. Kristen. Again, she’s super problematic but she brought the drama this season just like Tom so she deserves to be up here lol. She’s crazy though… like the way she behaves is honestly UNHINGED. Acting so sad about being cheated on when the whole time she was also cheating on Tom and with JAX is crazy. But she was super entertaining and I felt for her at times too. This season would’ve been nothing without her and Tom.

4. Kristina??? Idk if her name is Kristina or Katrina but the brunette skinny friend I feel like she’s so cool and pretty and talks a lot of sense haha.

5. Katie — she’s so boring to look at and listen to and her blonde hair was awful. But I did feel for her when her boyfriend threw his drink at her. I don’t understand why she’s still with that loser. I do feel like she’s a bit of a follower though, like she does whatever Stassi tells her to do.

6. Scheana. She’s just so blah! Like she tries to be fun and entertaining but her parts are so boring and she’s not bringing ANY drama. Like literally everyone else is surpassing her bc they actually bring drama. Although Scheana needs to be studied fr, she gives strong pick me energy and I can understand why none of the girls seem to trust her fully.

7. Jax. I get such an astronomical ick from this man. Like he just grosses me out at this point. His looks, his actions, everything! Like I can’t even hate on him anymore bc he’s so lame and nobody in the friend group even takes him seriously anymore. He’s 1000% a psychopath though, the way he felt zero remorse for fucking his best friend’s girlfriend who was also his ex girlfriend’s best friend. Weirdo fr.

8. Ariana. I hate her so much. Like I have zero respect for her and don’t care at all for her “chill badass girl” persona. She’s a homewrecker and the way she straight up lied when asked if something happened between her and Tom??? I don’t trust her at all. Lookswise she annoys me too like why is her hair so aggressively side parted??? Like I genuinely think Kristen is way prettier than her. Also joke’s on Ariana bc the way she probably thought Tom would never cheat on her. But once a cheater always a cheater and I know Tom cheated on Ariana like last year!!! But fuck her I feel zero sympathy!

[pogidoow]

Frozen Creative Notes Volume 2 Part 1 | Chapter songs edition

Volume 1 | Chapter Titles edition

Some more extra content for the few readers who actually listen to the chapter songs or songs I sneak into the story.

Spoilers ahead up to chapter 15 so read at your own risk!

Chapter 1 Song | Firestarter by The Prodigy: The Prodigy is one of my all time favorite bands so it was only right to start the story off by making one of their songs an intro to Frost as a character. The moment Firestarter came on, I thought "this is Frost" because it foreshadows her personality and temper, along with the past she's known for, and hints that she's bringing that trouble with her. Additionally, I found it cool that there's a "Hey" repeating throughout the song. It's like she's greeting the TF141 as she joins the team, saying "Hey, I've arrived to complicate your lives."

2. Chapter 2 Song | it’s ok, you’re ok by Bonjr: although, it's an instrumental song, the title is relevant as it's what the officer says to little Frost once he finds her ("It's ok, you're ok. You're safe."). It's the first bit of comfort she ever receives from another person.

3. Chapter 3 Song | Conspiracy by Paramore: Frost finds out that the team lied and knew about Doberman before her transfer. Then, Price went behind her back and invited Keegan to join them on the mission. At this point, she still doesn't trust the team and realizes that the power she had as a solo operator is now fading. She begins to understand that she depends on the decisions of the team.

4. Chapter 4 song | Arrow by Surf Curse: This song is about what's going on inside Frost's head. It's the first time readers get a glimpse of her vulnerability, the way she deals with all the trauma she carries with her, and how bad she is at understanding her own emotions.

5. Chapter 5 Song | Night out by Radiator Hospital: Oopsie. This was just straight foreshadowing of what happens to Sergeant Bo.

6. Chapter 6 Song | It's All So Incredibly Loud by Glass Animals: We're inside Frost's head again. She's struggling with the loss of Bo and her guilt.

7. Chapter 7 Song | Tears by Boy Harsher: History repeats itself. Price asks Frost to join Las Cuchillas again. The song focuses on her discomfort at the thought of going back and foreshadows the origin of her knife throwing skills ("follow the knife").

8. Chapter 8 Song | Knife Prty by Deftones: Once again, a simple play on words. Frost takes on the members of Las Cuchillas, stealth-style with knives. The song foreshadows Frost's successful initiation and Carmen's pining for Frost in the following chapters.

9. Chapter 9 Song | Ese Hombre by LA INDIA: I fucking adore this song. Basically, the whole song is about a horrible man the singer is in a relationship with. She spits at his face, devours him. It's iconic. BUT although she hates him, he is still her man. This is how Carmen sees Frost. Frost has done her wrong, but she's still her Cocaina.

How can you not love it? She goes off lmao.

10. Chapter 10 Song | Reckoner by Radiohead: Aww this one. This one makes me siiiick. We're in Soap's head now... That sweet idiot. Soap risks his life to see and check on Frost while she's out with Las Cuchillas. The main reason for this song choice is the melody. It's as if I'm listening to Soap's desperation to save Frost in a form of a melody, how his thoughts and his heart tear at his helplessness. There's also this very simple line that perfectly explains his need to protect Frost at that very moment:

11. Chapter 11 Song | Summer Again by The Wytches: Frost loses Carmen. The grief is too much for her. She decides to leave. The whole song is just... just listen to it. It's an incredible musical depiction of vulnerability and pain. I feel like someone is tearing my heart open when I listen to it.

First line: Frost never got to tell Carmen how much she actually did care about her, second line: Frost is sitting on the floor with Carmen's body in her lap, third line: Frost decides to run away

12. Chapter 12 Song | Bad Timing by dEUS: Pretty self-explanatory. Frost comes back, only to find Soap and Jazz in her room. We all remember this one. Ouch.

13. Chapter 13 Song | You Do Something To Me by Paul Weller: The team goes on a team building trip. She's still in denial, but Frost realizes she has some kind of feelings for Soap since she is bothered by Jazz and they have a brief tense moment after the volleyball match. Beautiful song.

14. Chapter 14 Song | Vale by Maribou State: Frost starts pining for Soap, badly. She's barely holding herself together next to him, especially on the beach after the kayaking accident. The song shows Frost's internal vulnerability, excitement and realization that she does in fact, feel him.

15. Chapter 15 Song | Die On A Rope by The Distillers: Love the energy of this song and thought it would be awesome for an action-packed chapter. Also, a pretty literal play on words. Ghost and Frost are stuck on a cliff. Ghost urges her to jump to him but she's reluctant to do it. Will she jump? Will they die on a rope if she does?

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That's it for Part 1. Let me know if you'd like Part 2!