#but this particular moment enraged me even more than what's been revealed in the egg's regrets

[adamnagaitits]

so you're telling me not only does this parody of a game doubled it (the systematic racism elves experience throughout across the entirety of thedas which they didn't show one fucking jot of lest they had to remember that dragon age isn't an intermarriage of marvel writing steven universe morality tiktok therapy and gender PSAs for straight people and that tevinter imperium goes beyond alienages and mirroring antiroma sentiment in attitudes towards the dalish with how they treat the elves and put slay in slavery) and gave it to the next person (qunari who are almost solely represented by the dehumanised faceless renegade barbarian colonisers who speak in monstrous unnatural voices and wear fuck knows what and skull masks and all they do is oppress and wreak havoc because If You Didn't Know They're Bad And Scary And Not Human Actually), not only does the narrative of this ridiculement of lore that they went out of their fucking way to make revolve around that FUCKASS egg cunt makes the only character who's not antaam and still follows the qunari tradition if not the qun itself an abusive dismissive and dissatisfied incompetent mother trope for like 95% of the time you spend with that character and tries to frame her as a transphobic tradwife who bestows the gift of internal misogyny upon her child and who only remembers that the qun is strict about social roles but not specifically gender ones and that transgender people are accepted and accommodated as long as they transition in terms of their responsibilities under the sun as well AFTER her gender-nonconforming child whom she's been somefuckinghow displeased with for not presenting and behaving like what she thinks a woman should be and do for quite some time tells her they're non-binary (without the narrative ever addressing taash's confirmed!!! internalised misogyny and dealing with it first because if you do that you're transphobic actually and it magically goes away if you transition in case you were wondering and using that EXACT modern terminology no less, why the fuck does my non-binary rook talks about their gender and their experience like you would expect someone from a setting like this and taash just goes "so i'm non-binary"?), not only does this absolute shitshow only redeems shathann through sacrifice and death because this is the only way a mother can be forgiven apparently, but also makes you force the character with a mixed cultural background to choose one and forsake the other because trick fucking weekes cannot begin to fathom the concept of mixed people and diaspora is not once but fucking TWICE EVEN if you chose to tell them that being mixed (culturally in taash's case since they're rivaini through having been raised there but not in terms of origin but the sentiment clearly extends to mixed people) is good and whoever tells them what they should be can fuck right off?????????? i hate this fucking game so much it hurts

[demented-dukey]

In-depth Meta of “Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts” as it pertains to Incest and the presumed sibling relationship between Remus and Roman

Thanks to @squipfromjapan​ for picking out these moments from the episode. They also notated other moments that could be interperated as “sibling banter”, but for this post I’m going to focus on the dialogue that specifically references brotherhood.

I’m making this post so I have something to link to whenever someone tells me that “They called each other brothers several times!” or “The episode said they were twins!”, because I keep seeing the same assumptions made over and over again being represented as cold hard facts, when there is so much more nuance and room for debate.

So. Let’s look at the episode “Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts”, shall we? Buckle your seatbelts, kiddos, ‘cause this is gonna be a wild ride.

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Timestamp: 5:46 Remus: “Have you ever imagined killing your brother?”  

Remus whispers this line in Thomas’s head. He is referencing Thomas’s dream the previous night, where Thomas literally imagined murdering his brother and dragging the dead body into his bathroom. The dream sequence won’t be revealed until later in the episode, but upon rewatch this is a clear reference to ~specifically~ That Dream. This is also a more subtle reference to the “Moving On” two-ep arc, when Thomas showed a drawing his younger self had made of him electrocuting his brother. We know from the livestreams that Thomas and Joan have been planning Remus since the “Growing Up” episode, and have been dropping hints and easter eggs about Remus’s existence in various episodes. That drawing indicates that these “intrusive thoughts” have been with Character!Thomas for a long time, and this is not the first time this particular thought has crossed his mind.

A few moments later, Remus appears and knocks out Roman. Patton screams, “You killed him!”, but it’s a lot less likely that Remus was actually intending to ~murder~ Roman - Roman is obviously not “dead” because he continues to mutter in his sleep, and Remus does not continue to attack Roman to finish the job. It’s made clear later in the episode when Remus attacks Logan that his actions are impermanent, and do not do lasting harm to the other sides.

Because Remus attacked Roman directly after uttering this line, many people have taken that to mean the “brother” in question is Roman, thus it implies that Remus was talking about killing Roman. But correlation does not equal causation - just because the action happened so soon after the line, doesn’t mean that the line is referring to that action. The action echoing the line makes for a beautiful cinematic parallel, but it’s all a matter of interpretation. People can make that association, but it is their headcanon, NOT actual canon proof.

For example: Immediately before Remus’s appearance, the other sides are taking about whether ghosts are evil, or if they just appear to scare people. At the same time, Remus is appearing (much like a ghost) behind Roman. The conversation directly parallels this for a reason - the viewer is supposed to make that association and wonder “Is Remus evil? Or does he just scare people because you never know when he’s going to show up?” Being a mental projection of Thomas’s mind, Remus is very ghost-like, and he even says the trademark ghost sound, “Boo!”, but in this scene there is no more “proof” that Remus is a literal “ghost” of a dead person than there is “proof” that Remus is trying to kill his literal “brother”.

Conclusion: “Have you ever imagined killing your brother?” is referring to Thomas’s bad dream, not the relationship between Remus and Roman.

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Timestamp: 7:53 Roman: “Bro, I’m gonna whip your butt!”

Roman calls Remus ‘bro’. Yes, this can imply a sibling relationship, but “bro” is often used for non-sibling relationships as well. Roman says this line as a threat, much like the common phrase, “Come at me, bro!” or the less threatening but equally common phrase “Cool story, bro.” - which can be used to address anyone of any gender without indicating a sibling relationship. Much like “Dude”, “Bro” carries a inherently “male” association, but it is not used exclusively to address “men” - it can also be used interchangeably to refer to a woman or nonbinary person.

For example: In the beginning of this episode, Thomas is doing an advertisement for Hello Fresh. He holds up a dish of food and says to the viewer, “You jealous of this, bro?” Thomas is using the term “bro” as a nickname, and addressing his entire audience irregardless of gender. Thomas is NOT implying a sibling relationship with the audience.

Conclusion: “Bro” is a commonly used generic greeting, not proof of a sibling relationship.

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Timestamp: 14:30 Logan: “At a young age you filed away your products of your imagination as either welcome or forbidden. This led to the development of two separate sides of your creativity.” Thomas: “So my creativity split in two?” Logan: "Into two parts during your development, yes. Like an ovum. The Duke is like Roman’s twin.”

For this scene, let's go over some basic English Grammar rules. What Logan is saying is an example of a simile, because he uses the word "like". Logan says "Like an ovum. The Duke is like Roman's twin."

A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two things. Logan has proven in other episodes that he is very literal and very, very careful with his speech, so he is using a simile on purpose. He is not saying that the Duke ~is~ Roman's twin, he is saying that the Duke is ~like~ Roman's twin, drawing a comparison so that Thomas can better understand Remus’s role in Thomas’s psyche. This comparison has nothing to do with how Roman and Remus ~feel~ about each other, it is strictly an example of Remus’s role in Thomas’s brain and the portion of his negative Creativity that Remus embodies, as a comparison to Roman’s role and control of Thomas’s positive Creativity.

As Logan says this, he hold up two fingers together before splitting them while talking about why Remus exists - this indicates that Roman and Remus were once one whole side. Much like Thomas’s “whole” personality “split” into the personifications of Creativity, Morality, and Logic, Creativity “split” again to form Roman and Remus. Therefore, Remus and Roman are no more “genetically” related to each other than any of the other sides. 

It’s worth noting, also, that the specific details around the split are still unclear. A majority of the fandom has accepted the headcanon that Creativity, prior to the split, was a Personification of unknown name and personality that was equally split into what we now know as Roman and Remus. But it is possible that Roman himself was the Original Creativity with Complete Control, until the negative attributes were removed from him and created into a separate being, like Eve was created from Adam’s rib.

Conclusion: “The Duke is like Roman's twin" is a simile used to explain what Remus’s job is in comparison to Roman’s job. It is not a description of how Roman and Remus feel about each other, and it is not proof that they are siblings.

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Timestamp: 15:01 Remus: “You made me this way Thomas. I was the unloved brother from the Genesis. Roman and I are Cain and Abel.”

Logan points out later in the video that Remus intentionally uses Religious Iconography to play to Thomas’s sensitivities. It’s possible Remus is being deliberately misleading as a scare-tactic (he accused Logan of being Deceit when he knew he wasn’t, so he is capable of lying), but for this meta let’s assume he is being genuine in his comparison.

Remus uses a metaphor (not a simile) to compare himself and Roman to Cain and Abel. While some people use this comparison as “proof” that Remus harbors a desire to kill Roman, this is not the point he is trying to make.

Let’s backtrack to the story of Cain and Abel: Cain and Abel are the first two sons born to Adam and Eve. Cain, a farmer, offers God a portion of his crops one day as a sacrifice, only to learn that God is more pleased when Abel, a herdsman, presents God with the fattest portion of his flocks. Enraged, Cain kills his brother. God exiles Cain from his home to wander in the land east of Eden.

Why is Remus using this as a metaphor for how Thomas “made” Remus the way he is? Remus equates Thomas to “God” in the story, because Character!Thomas is the one who “created” his own sides - He is the one responsible for visualizing them as separate beings. Logan points out that Remus and Roman literally wear Black and White because they are Thomas’s sides, and that is how Thomas sees them. Roman and Remus each contribute creative ideas to Thomas (read: “sacrifices” to their “God”), but Thomas is more pleased with Roman’s contributions and shuns/exiles Remus. Remus doesn’t actually say that he wants to kill Roman; however he does heavily imply that it is Thomas’s fault that Remus was created to be inferior, Thomas who chose to favor Roman over Remus, and therefore Thomas’s fault for Remus’s actions and any rage Remus may feel towards Roman.

Conclusion Part One: Remus uses religious imagery on purpose to play to Thomas’s sensitivities. He uses the metaphor of Cain and Abel to point out how he has been mistreated by Thomas, but does not confirm or deny any harsh feelings towards Roman himself.

But while we’re on the topic, let’s look a little more into Religious Canon. Adam was the first human created by God on the planet. God removed a rib from Adam and used it to fashion Eve, to be Adam’s wife. (As I mentioned above, this iconography is a cinematic parallel to Remus’s creation. As Eve used to be a part of Adam, so was Remus a part of Roman before he was removed and reformed into a separate being.) Not only was Eve literally created from a physical part of Adam, she also would then share his genetic code. Even if Adam and Eve didn’t have sibling “feelings” towards each other, an argument can be made that they are still an incest pairing.

Cain, a son of Adam and Eve, marries a woman and produces children to populate the earth. But if Adam and Eve were the only humans on Earth, then Cain’s wife must be a daughter of Adam and Eve, and therefore Cain’s sister. Thus, Cain and his wife are also an incest pairing.

Conclusion Part Two: Adam & Eve, as well as Cain & his wife, are both incest relationships. If a romantic relationship between Roman and Remus is considered incest, it is still no more problematic than the biblical family Remus was comparing himself to.

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Timestamp: 35:52 Thomas: “So, you have a brother?” Roman: “Yeah.”

This is, by far, the most commonly used argument in favor of the headcanon that Roman and Remus are brothers. Most fans hear Roman’s “yeah” as confirmation that he sees Remus as a brother. 

However, there is still room for debate. “So, you have a brother?” “…yeaaaaah.” Roman is reluctant. He tilts his head back. He stretches the word out. Maybe he’s not quite sure “brother” is the right term for it, but there’s not really anything else he can call him. There’s no easy word for the other half of what used to be a whole fusion. Remus is like a limb that used to be attached, or a rib that was removed and created into a separate person. Remus is something to him, alright, and Roman feels responsible for Remus in a way that the other sides aren’t because of their shared history. So of course he would default to “brother”, it’s the simplest way to try to grasp a large and complex issue. He then starts comparing Remus to a mirror - “It shows you everything you don’t want to be.” When he looks at Remus, he doesn’t say he sees a sibling or a rival - he says he sees ~himself~, the dark parts of his own mind he doesn’t want to admit to. The dark parts that used to BE part of his own mind before they were separated. 

Conclusion: Roman’s “Yeah.” is the closest thing to “proof” of a sibling relationship in the entire episode. But it’s also debatable - Roman seems hesitant/reluctant to confirm that Remus is his brother, and he doesn’t actually use the term himself.

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So, let’s recap. In the Intrusive Thoughts episode, there were the following references to brotherhood:

One (1) occurrence of Roman calling Remus “bro”, which is a generic form of address.

One (1) occurrence of Remus comparing his relationship with Roman to “Cain and Abel”, which is an intentional use of Incestual and Religious Iconography designed to shock and repulse Thomas.

Two (2) occurrences of Someone Else (Logan and Thomas) associating Remus with a familial term (twin/brother).

One (1) occurrence of Roman (reluctantly?) “confirming” Thomas’s “brother” association, but never using the term himself.

Roman never calls Remus his twin, nor uses the word “brother”, and he compares his feelings towards Remus to “looking in a mirror” and seeing not a twin, but himself.

Remus never calls Roman his brother, nor his twin, and he never directly comments on his feelings towards Roman.

This will change as new episodes reveal more about Roman and Remus, but as of “Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts”, all the “proof” in the episode that Roman and Remus are brothers and/or twins is debatable and subject to interpretation.

If you want to believe that they ARE twins/brothers and share a platonic relationship, that’s a valid headcanon, but it is not the only one.

If you want to believe that they ARE twins/brothers and share a romantic relationship, that’s a valid headcanon. There are many reasons to intentionally ship a fictional incest pairing.

If you want to believe that they are NOT twins/brothers and share a platonic relationship, that's a valid headcanon.

If you want to believe that they are NOT twins/brothers and share a romantic relationship, that's a valid headcanon.

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Folklore Friday

I’m in a more humorous mood, and this particular prompt still amuses me, so we’re back to revisit the adventures of the giant Thunderboots, his darling wife Peony, and their very unexpected house guest Jack. Apologies to mobile users since mobile doesn't keep the read more for some reason

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Now, there are several very good reasons not to antagonize a giant.

You might get stepped on and flattened, for one.

It’s also not particularly neighborly to go rifling through someone else’s belongings.

Or hiding in their cheese.

But Jack was a somewhat impulsive boy.

He was also not named Jack.

It hadn’t seemed particularly wise to give a giant his name, and he’d just gone for the most common boys’ name in the village where he’d grown up. Every fourth kid was named Jack, regardless of gender, thanks to the village being founded by some giant-killing tailor who bore the name. And anyway, it was better than Runt, which was what most people called him.

While the giant and his wife had been discussing what to do with him, Jack had decided that he had no intention of sticking around to see if he was going to get his bones ground up to make flour. Which, frankly, sounded disgusting.

He’d grabbed a gigantic toothpick from the table for balance, and eased over the edge. It was far enough of a drop that landing would almost certainly have broken some bones. Luckily, the table legs were carved with enough edges and ledges that he could climb down with little difficulty. So long as he didn’t look over his shoulder, he was fine.

Jack ran off in the opposite direction of the giants’ feet, and it was a testament to their distraction that they didn’t see which way he went, considering the distance he had to cover just to get to the hallway. In fact, by the time he was out of the dining room, the boy was completely out of breath and sorely regretting his life choices. That was when the giants seemed to notice his absence, and there was a noisy clatter as they left their chairs and utensils behind.

“Oh bother,” said the giant man, “Now where’s he got to?”

Jack dove for a wide crack under a door some twelve feet away. It was only just large enough for him to roll under, but not without the accompanying fear of getting stuck. He waited next to the door for a moment, listening, but it sounded as though the giants were searching the dining room first. Jack quickly decided that he didn’t want to get smashed by a door opening, and scurried into the center of the room.

It looked like a mess. Stacks of things like pretty baskets and odd looking mirrors littered one corner, and another held four chests of drawers stacked precariously on top of each other. There were multiple chests as tall as oak trees, holding unknown contents, and large sacks containing who-knew-what. It looked, Jack thought, like the storeroom in the castle of the baron whose cook had hired him for a night or two to clean dishes. Perhaps it was a storeroom. Unfortunately, nothing there looked small enough for him to carry out. But fortunately, there were a great many places to hide.

“Come on out, little one,” the giant woman called from nearer to the door, “It’s no good running of like that, you’re bound to get hurt in a place like this!”

Jack was pretty sure having his bones ground into bread would hurt more.

So he drew his ragged vest a little tighter around him and eased his way into the pile of baskets. Choosing one that had been woven with large openings shaped like stars, he squirmed through the holes and huddled back into the shadows. Of course, there was always the risk that if the other baskets tipped over, he would be crushed. That seemed to be an issue with the majority of the things in this castle. But Jack was expecting that, seeing as it was a giant’s castle.

He held his breath when the door swung open with a low boom.

“Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman,” Thunderboots muttered under his breath -- which was quite loud enough for Jack to hear.

“Oh can you now?” Peony chuckled, passing behind him to examine the cracks in the wall.

“Well, no, I expect that’s just copper deposits in the walls,” Thunderboots amended, “But I’m certain I still smell cheese.”

Jack shut his eyes and listened to the giant rattling around the storeroom, looking over and under things.

“Well I hope the little thief hasn’t come in here,” Thunderboots sighed, “We’d never find him.”

“The library would be worse,” Peony observed. “Lucky for us that’s too far away for someone his size to have gotten to by now.”

She leaned into the room behind her husband. “If you’re in here, little fellow, give a holler, won’t you? Too easy to get trapped in a mess like this.”

Jack, of course, stayed silent.

After a minute or two of fruitless searching, Tom and Peony gave up and went to move on to the next room. “Well, if you change your mind, wherever you are, you can always make some noise,” Tom suggested.

They didn’t shut the door. While that made getting in and out easier, it also made it easier for Jack to be spotted. He didn’t exactly appreciate that. So when he squeezed out of the basket, he kept to the piles of junk, staying out of the open places on the floor. He was halfway around the circumference of the chamber when he heard the music.

It was a harp, sad and sweet and coming from somewhere high over his head. Perhaps it was the stolen golden harp! Jack looked around until he spotted a shelf somewhere above the precarious stack of drawers. Well, there was no harm in looking, was there?

Climbing up the drawers was a nerve-wracking experience. Tiny though he was, even Jack’s weight was enough to rattle the drawers if he moved too quickly. So he took his time, stopping on the ledges jutting out here and there from uneven stacking. At this point, Jack was regretting not having eaten anything other than cheese. He was very tired now, and he didn’t feel especially well. He had a vague idea that if he’d had a mother still, she’d have cautioned him to lie down and wait it out. Perhaps she’d have stroked his hair and said “there there, you’re alright”, too. Someone used to say that to him, he was certain.

Jack waited a while before continuing his climb. It had taken him nearly thirty minutes just to get halfway up, and he curled up on a broad drawer handle for another twenty. Then, when his stomach was not making so many interesting noises, he began to climb again. This time, it was harder. His little arms shook, and his hands were sweaty. His back and shoulders were screaming at him, protesting all the climbing he’d done that day in no uncertain terms. He had to take several more breaks as he neared the top, but after about forty minutes, he dragged himself over the edge and lay on the top of the highest chest, out of breath.

He fought to hoist himself up onto the shelf from there, and it was an arduous task. But at last he’d discovered the source of the music! The golden shape of a faerie girl, a bit older than him by looks, knelt on the shelf. What would have been wings coming out of her back served as the frame of the harp, and the strings were seemingly being plucked and strummed by an invisible hand. Just a little ways down the shelf was a box serving as a nest for the largest goose Jack had ever laid eyes on. It seemed to be about the size of a bear, dozing fitfully as the harp played. Strangely, the goose’s feathers looked metallic and golden.

“Well hello there,” Jack whispered. The harp had to be the one that had been stolen from the prince! He crawled towards the instrument, wondering how heavy it was.

Suddenly, the carved faerie girl’s head rose, and she stared at Jack in shock. “Oh!” she cried out, and the strings struck a sour note.

“Eeh!” Jack squeaked in return, having not anticipated that the harp might be alive.

And that, unfortunately, woke the goose.

Now, some geese are sweet birds, and some geese like to think that they are dragons reborn, here to impose order and terror on the world. The golden goose on the shelf was one of the latter. It rose from its nest, revealing a golden egg underneath it, and hissed menacingly.

“Ohhhh nononono go back to sleep, go to sleep,” the faerie harp sang nervously, clasping her hands together.

The goose bent its head back, then took a step forward. It bobbed its head up and down and then commenced with the most awful racket Jack had ever heard. He covered his ears and winced, which the goose evidently did not like. It flapped its wings with a sound like thunder and began to waddle very aggressively down the shelf towards Jack and the harp.

The goose was so loud that it drowned out most of the other noises nearby. So when there was an exclamation of surprise from down the hall, Jack didn’t hear it.

He squeaked and tried to get out of the way of the angry goose, but there really wasn’t much room on the shelf. His main options were falling off the edge or probably getting all his bones broken by an enraged bear-sized waterfowl.

A shadow fell over him and before he had time to react, Jack was snatched off the shelf and dropped into what felt like some kind of sack. It was rough cloth, and dark, save for the opening at the top he’d been dropped through. Something huge and heavy pressed against one side of his prison, making it difficult to move. On the other side of him, there was a deep drumbeat just loud enough to hear.

Wait. Was that a heartbeat? Was he in a pocket?

Thunderboots kept a hand over his shirt pocket, shielding it, and with his other hand he pinned the goose in place. “Settle down! Settle down, you! Near caused a disaster again, didn’t you? Peony’s right, we’ve got to find a place to put you where you can get some exercise.”

He shook his head and muttered, “Squawking menace, more trouble than ye should be…”

Then he peered down into his pocket. “Alright in there, my boy? That was close, wasn’t it?”

He strolled out of the storeroom, considerably less tense than before. “Found our little cheese-thief, darling!” he called, “Lucy near ate him, but he’s alright!”

Jack couldn’t tell where in the castle they were, or how far away from the entrance it was, but after a few minutes the hand came away from the pocket and he could move again. Jack tried to climb out, only for Thunderboots to catch him at the edge.

“Whoops, watch it,” he warned gruffly, “Don’t want to fall from here, wee man. That’d be a nasty way to go.”

He was in a bedchamber, slightly dusty, next to an ornate dollhouse as big as a regular-sized house to Jack. Jack glared suspiciously at the giant, who offered a smile that would’ve been disarming if not for all the teeth.

“We can’t very well have you running about like this, can we my boy? No, don’t think so. Broken bones, eaten by Lucy, eaten by the cat, oh that’d be much worse -- or stepped on! No, I really don’t think I like the idea of walking about my own house knowing I could accidentally step on a tiny person trying to steal my cheese.” Thunderboots undid a latch and opened the front of the dollhouse. “Peony and me, we’ve been keeping this in case we ever have children. You aren’t exactly the kind of “children” we were thinking of, though, tell you true.”

“Lemme go!” Jack pushed at the giant’s fingers and scowled. “You’re not gonna eat me!”

“I daresay I’m not!” Thunderboots sounded a little offended. “That would be disgusting. Like eating a mouse, probably. Anyway-” he reached in and deposited Jack in one of the dollhouse’s fancy little bedrooms, “Pardon the dust, I’m not especially good at tidying. Peony keeps this little place in pretty good order though. You just sleep off your little adventure, my boy, and tomorrow we’ll decide what we ought to do with you.”

He swung the front of the dollhouse closed again before Jack could make for the edge, and the boy heard the latch click shut.

“There you go, gave you a bit of privacy. You don’t need a lamp on or aught, do you?”

“Why are you so weird?!” Jack burst out. He was fairly certain this was all a trap.

“I dunno,” Tom Thunderboots shrugged. “I’m just me, lad. G’night!”

Well. This was a predicament, wasn’t it?