#can you tell that I'm not the biggest fan of Alice as a person?

[drummer-from-down-under]

Part 4, the finale.

[ennn]

Things I Liked About the Agatha All Along Finale - Initial Thoughts

Wooooo boy. Hey look I'm a bleeding heart shipper but I'm old and have been in enough fandoms. Let's process shall we?

Alice! Alice echo-ing what so many fans are saying about her lost potential. Rio actually being kind in reminding Alice her death did have purpose. "You're a protection witch, you protected someone."

The development of Billy's extremely complicated relationship with Agatha. Kid's not loyal to Agatha, he's understanding her, or starting to at least. He sees her being a relationship with Death and he's curious about the story there. He cares enough to connect the dots and see Agatha as a full person. And we see that developed as the finale goes.

"That's it? That's all the time that I get?" The show reminds us that death sometimes just happens – "Sometimes boys die" – I wonder if one of these writers is a Sandman fan because I immediately clocked a parallel to Death of the Endless taking a baby's life in her first comic appearance.

Death of the Endless is of course much kinder than Rio is with her (iconic) reply to that eternal question. "You lived what anyone gets... A lifetime."

That whole convo we got in the preview clip. And then them just sitting down and talking more? Albeit with layers of manipulation but y'know that's them.

Agatha telling Rio that she'll hand over Billy if Rio leaves her alone: essentially making Rio once again choose between her duty and her feelings towards Agatha. The deepest cut Agatha could make – which we see echoed with "If you do this I'll hate you forever." They know each other and the best ways to hurt each other.

I laughed waaaay too much at Agatha ragging on Jen's last vegetable name.

Jen's unbinding ritual was powerful and a fantastic moment for the character. She recognised and embraced her power. Agatha's mask slipping a little at the end as well. Amazing. Sasheer killed it.

The whole scene with Agatha working with Billy to bring Tommy back was beautiful and emotional and well put together and showed the side to Agatha that cements her as a great mentor (when she's not being the biggest murderous asshole).

Agatha using what she learnt from her Alice and Jen – and what Lilia told her – to hold her ground with Rio... okay it lasted like 10 seconds but it was a nice callback! Agatha's such a shameless survivor.

Incredible kissing. We knew Hahn and Plaza would deliver and they did. When it comes to kissing women, these two absolutely go for it.

Rio looking absolutely gutted with having to take Nicky away. Plaza really delivered with Rio's pain in these eps. Agatha calling her "my love", cursing and then begging.

Rio being soft about Nicky despite her job. Nicky willingly going with her with no fear, no hesitation – suggesting that they did bond somehow? Nicky knew she was a friendly face and trusted her. It was really a good death, all things considered. He wasn't sick, he wasn't in pain, he wasn't scared he simply fell asleep and just went.

Rio reminding Nicky to kiss his mom goodbye. She cares so much, as much as a personification of death can. It's funny how some people thought Rio was going to be this manipulative big bad but no, Agatha's the more toxic one in this relationship.

Okay like imagine Agatha finally dying and just straight up BOOKING it before Rio pops up. Rio hates ghosts. The number of times Agatha deliberately pissed her off this finale was amazing.

"I'm sure he'll forgive you for... whatever you did." Aw Billy is a good kid. Just like Nicky was. Agatha needs that reminder, that anchor to not be the Worst.

Chemistry aside, Agatha and Billy being mentor-pupil makes a ton of sense because these Maximoffs do the most fucked up shit (unintentionally) with their magic and Agatha's got the knowledge, charisma, cynicism, and the morals of a spinning compass to support him.

Alright when are they announcing the sequel / spin-off? I know there's a rumour of it happening. Rio's got 2 abominations and one endlessly aggravating ghost of an ex to deal with now.

[autismprotocol]

TMAGP Theory Board ( EP 10)

Hi guys sorry for the late post I ended up drawing a lot for this update especially because it's the last one before the hiatus so wanted to give it a little more pizazz :D

What Happened in Episode 10: Saturday Night

Interview with Nigel Dickerson. The inccident report this week was all about Mr Bonzo. If you remember from last episode Nigel is the famous tv personality who created the character of Mr Bonzo. During this interview he recounts the rise and fall of Bonzo while being ominous and on edge the whole time. what I gathered from the interveiw is that Bonzo is either trapping Nigel or Bonzo and Nigel are linked somehow. (when he say "he won't let me leave" and refers to himself as "us") we also learn about the murders that are connected to the Bonzo suit, first by the serial killer Terrance Menki and very recently 3 unsolved murders. Nigel also mentioned that the actors who wore the Bonzo suit would be prone to injuries on set which is also really stange. Could be they were used as Bonzo's victims near his begining

Gwen meets Mr Bonzo. The other section of the episode dealing with Bonzo is when Gwen goes to Nigel's house on her first assignment as the Externals Liason. So turns out Bonzo is maybe a hitman for the OIAR! Also, big thing Mr Bonzo is atually alive and is introduced with some kind of practice almost resembling a ritual. I heard somone mention they think Bonzo is an avatar of the Stranger and I can definitely see this. I'd love to hear if anyone else has a theory for what entity Bonzo may be connected to.

The Return of Colin. Colin isn't dead!! Shocking absolutley everyone Colin is still kicking. a few episodes ago he was sent on mental health leave by Lena after his parnoia caused him to mentally snap. Celia sees him while on break and they have a short convorsation. Colin tells Celia that he need to figure out the computers. also big thing Colin is back without the permission of Lena. It will be interesting to see what hes looking for and if he'll continue to sneak behind Lena's back.

Sam and Alice's Adventures into the Institute. Probaly the biggest development lore-wise was Sams and Alice investigating the ruins of the Magnus Institute. They don't find much (but I'm still am gonna talk about it for awhile) Alice mentions that there were weird carvings in the floor which she later equates to the worms on the ground. If you are a Archives listener hearing about worms in the archives starts seting off all kinds of alarms. This means in this universe the Jane Prentiss attack still happens, which is especcially iteresting because If I'm not mistaken in TMA the worm attack happened spesiffically to mark Jon with the corruption. Was Jon ever part of the institute? or if not Jon there must have been an archivist role in this Magnus Institute that would require Jane to attack it.

ERROR and the Tape Recorders so far in protocol we have been listening to the characters through either the computers or though their phones. But during the last few minutes we here the click of a tape recorder. and TMA fans around the world rejoiced. The magnus archives is entirley told through tape recordings and are a tool used by the web (spesifically the avatar Annabelle Cane) does this mean Annabelle made it to this universe? or it could also signal the presense of Jon (since the tape recorders are linked to him) Alice and Sam investigate the archivist office looking for a place for the key when the floor collapes and Sam drops the key. After some Sam and Alice banter, they leave but the recorder stays running we then hear the scraping sound and some shutterd breathing. This is when I highly suggest going through the transcript after listening to an episode becuase they specifically what were hearing and who is breathing.

I included the snippet from the transcript that pinpoints every not verbal sound we hear

water from the pit under the archives is disturbed

thud on wood then a rattle of a padlock

Key being dragged across the wood then fumbled into a lock that clicks open

trapdoor opens and ERROR imerges

ERROR takes 3 breaths

ERROR has been used before for redacting the roles played by Johnny, Alex and Tim (aka the voices of FR3-d1) during the cast anouncements for protocol. This makes me think that ERROR must be someone from the Archives universe my running theory is that it is a entity that houses Jon, Martin and Jonah's souls or consiounous. but It could literally be anyone. I'm also thinking ERROR has been locked in the tunnels under the archives (Mentioned in TMA)

And thats about Everything! plese let me know your thoughts or if you wanna correct me on any mistakes :)

Also I would love to know if you guys would prefer this style of post where I illustrate moments and scenes from each episode? it would probably delay when I'm able to post the breakdowns but I'd love to know if you guys perfer that format over the less illustrated one.

[xetlynn]

Twilight- Book Four-Mortality: Chapter One- Day Before

(Alice X reader X Jasper)

[One] [Two]

Bella and Edward are getting married, the invitation lying in my hand as I talk to Jasper and Alice.

Something Alice made herself. "Why are you giving this to me?" I tilt my head to the side in confusion. I only ask due to the fact that I have been shopping with my girlfriend for this wedding since we were told about it.

"It's just to say that you have it. Keepsake." She smiles, kissing my cheek before walking away. Leaving Jasper and I in the living room alone.

"You excited for the wedding?" He suddenly speaks up, lifting my thoughts away from the paper. "Mm, I don't like what comes after but what can I do about that?" I shrug my shoulders, the room goes back to being quiet and he lifts his arms. Inviting me into them.

Without a second thought I let him embrace me. He knows how I feel about Bella becoming a vampire. I'm not the biggest fan of it. I wish we could've grown old together, have our little families. Our kids be cousins.

But both of us succumbed to a fate we should've never experienced or had to endure. Even if she technically has the choice, she truly doesn't. The Volturi would stop at nothing to kill her if they had it their way.

"You have to break them in." Alice tells Bella who just stumbled a little in her heels."I've been breaking them in. For three days. Can I just go barefoot?" My sister questions, I smirk knowing what the response will be. "No, absolutely not."

"Just thinking it's a little much, you know? the dress and the shoes and all of this." She gestures ahead of us. Jasper and Carlisle carrying benches for the bride and grooms sides.

"No, it's exactly enough. Tomorrow will be perfect." Alice grins cheerfully. Emmett then comes into view. "Where do you want them, boss?" He asks, carrying a long tree trunk. "On either side of the aisle."

Rosalie then walks past with another tree stump. "What aisle?" She seems a little annoyed. "Does no one have vision?" My girlfriend exasperates loudly, throwing her arms in the air, heading over to them to explain where she wants everything.

I watch Bella take her heels off then put her converse on.

"Sorry you have to deal with her." I rub my sister's shoulder but I can't hide the very clear smirk on my face. For once I'm not getting dressed in ridiculous clothing. Due to this wedding it's only things about the decorations or stuff for other people. Not me.

I love Alice, I love every quirk she has. I love them more when they have nothing to do with me and they're focused on others. "It's only for a few more days then it's all back to you." She gives me a knowing look and I let out a short laugh.

"True."

Alice comes back over to us, putting my arm around her waist. "You, go home and get lots of beauty sleep. Your sister will take you home. That's an order." She points to both of us. "Okay."

The two hug and Bella walks away. Alice picks her heels up.

"Please make sure she gets good sleep tonight." She suddenly turns to me with the heels in her hands. "Yes ma'am." I nod my head, giving a tiny salute.

"I love you." She kisses my lips. "I love you too. I pull her in my arms, pressing her into another kiss. "You gotta go." She pushes me back with a smile.

"Ugh but I'll miss you so much." I whine, trying to kiss her again but she laughs, keeping a hand out, the other still holding the shoes. "I'll miss you too but you have to go." She tells me, I pout but listen to her.

"I'm gonna go say goodbye to the other love of my life." I walk off, hurrying over to Jasper.

Jasper's setting some of the flowers up, unaware I'm there. I quietly get ready to pounce on him. Squinting my eyes on how I'm going to do it. I glance around. The only person around is Rosalie. We make eye contact and I put a finger to my lips, motioning for her to stay quiet. At first she nods but then I see a glint in her eyes but it's too late I was already going forward.

"Jasper!" She shouts, earning his attention, he finally realizes I'm there. Ruining the element of surprise. I jump right into his arms and he catches me.

"Rosalie! I can't believe you." I act shocked. Once I saw her I knew she was going to do that. She's done it before.

"Anyway, I have to go before our girl yells at me once again. Just wanted to say I love you before I left." He was still holding onto me. My legs wrapped around his torso. "Well I love you too." He gives me a kiss.

"Yeah, yeah." I drop down, kissing him one last time then heading to Bella's truck.

I don't know why Alice said I was taking her home when Bella was going to be the one who drove us.

"Sleepover tonight?" Bella asks as we entered the house. "Um, hell yeah." I grin, "Let me get dressed and I'll bring snacks up." I tell her, both of us going separate ways to our rooms.

After getting dressed I go to leave my room but I hear noise outside and I immediately know who it is. Edward is seeing Bella before the wedding. Against Alice's repeated threats for him not to do that.

I look out of my window to see Emmett and Jasper. Emmett points to me, then points to Jasper and makes kissy faces. I roll my eyes with a smile.

I head out of my room and upstairs but I stop myself when I hear their conversation. I attempt to block it out of my head. Trying to focus on a different sound in the house. I lean against the wall and then I remember I have to get the snacks so I walk downstairs. Charlie seemed to already have gone to bed.

I get a bunch of snacks together, most of Bella's favorites then a few of my weird ones that I enjoy after turning into a Hybrid.

After putting them into a grocery bag I hear a whistle from outside. "What is that?" I hear Bella ask. "Come on! Let's go!" Emmett shouts from outside. "I'm late for my bachelor party." Edward responds. I hear a thud. "Send him out, Bella, or we're coming in after him." Emmett tells my sister.

I smile to myself, lifting the bag and walking back upstairs. Loudly crinkling the bag, entering her bedroom. "So, this party. Will there be strippers?" My sister asks, both of them acknowledging me but in the same not.

"No, just a couple of mountain lions. Maybe a few bears." Edward chuckles. A thump comes from the window and Jasper is there. "Don't worry, Bella, we'll give him back in plenty of time." He then winks over to me, jumping back down. Emmett and him playfully shoving one another.

"Okay, go before they break my house."

"Let's go! Let's go!" Emmett shouts. "I'll meet you at the altar." Edward says, heading to the window. "I'll be the one in white." My sister awkwardly tells him. "That was very convincing."

She laughs as he jumps out of the window. The both of us go over and watch the three guys mess with each other.

Once they're gone, I shake the bag. Getting her attention. "What movie we watching tonight?" I ask, both of us heading over to her bed and she gets her laptop out. I let her choose the movie and I try to focus on it.

Only hearing her heartbeat instead. Listening to the calmness. I glance over to her practically already asleep. Her breathing was slowed, heavy. I think about how this is one of her last moments as a human.

My chest tightens at the thought of her having to go through the pain I did when I turned into a Vampire.

I then feel her hand find its way to my arm. Mumbles exiting her mouth, obviously distressed. I look over to her clock and it's already been three hours.

I look at the laptop and the credits of the movie had already passed, its back to the loading screen. I didn't even notice the time go by.

She makes another noise and I play with her hair, trying to do what our mother used to do for us when we were little.

"What did I say about beauty sleep?" Alice questions Bella who grimaces. "Sorry, bad dream. It was wedding jitters." She apologizes, I think about last night and how many times she woke up.

Rosalie walks into the room, looking gorgeous. "Do you need some help? I could do her hair." She turns to my girlfriend who goes to speak but Bella interjects. "Really?"

"Please. I'm not offended by your choice of groom." She plays with Bella's hair. "Just my blatant lack of respect for mortality." Bella says.

"Essentially." Rosalie gently smiles. "Weddings. They bring everyone together." Alice dreamily sighs, leaning into my body. The three of us were dressed in purple dresses. Well I was in a dress suit. It was a similar color to Alice's.

We then hear Renee and Charlie speaking outside of the room. "[Name]? Bella?" Our mom calls out. "In here, mom." We yell together.

Renee enters first. "Oh, my gosh! You're so beautiful. Oh, honey." She begins to tear up. "Crap! My mascara." I let out a little laugh, going over to her and giving her a handkerchief. She leans into my side hug. "Thanks, sweetie. Charlie, get in here." She shouts over to the door.

"You sure? I don't wanna..." He walks into the room wearing a tux. All of us shocked by his clean get up. "I know. I look hot." We all laugh.

"We thought you needed something blue." Charlie then opens a gift box containing a hair comb that has blue jewels on it. "And something old. Besides your mother." He jokes, my mom shaking her head. "Nice."

"It was Grandma Swan's." Charlie informs her. Bella picks it up. "But we added the sapphires." Renee points to it. "It's beautiful, you guys. Wow. Thank you so much." Bella hands it over to Alice.

"It's your first family heirloom. Well it could be yours and [Name]s. Pass on to her then to your guy's daughters then onto their daughters." Renee begins to cry again. My body tenses up and I glance over to Alice who gives me a sympathetic smile.

"Mom, I love it." Bella goes to hug our parents but my girlfriend stops her.

"Nope, no smudging my masterpiece." She orders. I snort, Renee gently slapping me. "She's right."

"Okay. Time for the dress! Do you want to see it?" She asks Renee. "I want to see it!"

Masterlist

A&J M.L.

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If you did not get tagged that is because for some reason it won’t let me and I apologize! Or I might’ve didn’t see your comment!

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

(don't drop the gif - I might write it) au victoria/bella prompts please

... Do you really mean AU as in Alternate Universe? Or uh... anything else.

I'm not sure I'm the idea fairy you're looking for but I can give it a shot:

Canon Divergent

That Time Victoria Got Bella and... No One Cared

New Moon happens, Bella's been dumped, the Cullens flee town and Edward forbids Alice from looking in on Bella's life. Victoria manages to get to Bella before Bella knows about the wolves/when she's real deep in depression (Bella's Port Angeles adventure ends up being Hallucination Edward telling her not to wander up to Victoria clearly watching her across a street. "Hello Darkness, my old friend" is what Bella says to that)

Victoria, delighted, prepares to kill Bella but realizes... no one's here... Revenge doesn't mean much if the person you're getting revenge on (Edward) isn't around. At first Victoria assumes he must be watching his precious human, but time passes and... he doesn't show up. The humans have accepted Bella died, where are the Cullens?

Victoria goes on a quest to find them, and there's a slow redemption arc as Victoria and Bella spend a lot of time in each other's company.

That Time the Hunt Went on Longer

Bella doesn't go to Phoenix when hunted by James. As a result, her father's murdered as is her mother and Phil. Bella lives out of hotel rooms, Edward refusing to turn her when Alice has admitted that James would have immediately stopped and gotten bored if Edward had done that. Bella realizes the rest of her life will be lived out of hotel rooms. She starts falling out of love with Edward as the situation becomes increasingly stressful and awful.

On the other side, this is getting spicy even for Victoria, as James is obsessing over this human girl and destroying her personality making it clear that Victoria's just an accessory/useful gift to him. Victoria is forced to realize James doesn't love her and is destroyed by this.

Victoria turns Bella in revenge against both the Cullens (who enabled the destruction of her life) and James (who proved he wasn't her savior after all).

Edward now has vampire Bella despite his best efforts and for all Bella tries to make it work they fall apart. During this she forms a shocking friendship then something more with Victoria.

Victoria Joined the Cullens

James never came across Victoria and hunted her down and at some point Victoria made the acquaintance of the weird hippies called the Cullens.

Desperate, Victoria trades human blood for protection and finds herself (along with Jasper) the very black sheep of the family who is a little less gung ho about this diet than the rest of them. It's cool not killing people, she guesses?

Bella finds herself first drawn to Edward in Biology but then meets his hot older sister (red hair, it's the role Victoria gets) and finds herself drawn to the mysterious black sheep of the family.

("I ate so many people with my coven that we started the witch hunting epidemic" - Victoria)

Things get extra spicy when Edward dumps Bella.

Awful AUs No One Should Ever Write

Bella's a Barista and Victoria's a customer with an awful boyfriend

It's Little Shop of Horrors and James is a plant Victoria keeps in her flat and Bella her clumsy coworker dating a questionable dentist

Victoria's a bride of Dracula (James) and Bella is a sad sad virgin sacrifice given to James to be another bride.

They're all human in high school. Edward's in orchestra, Bella's the shy wallflower who thinks he's so intellectual, Victoria is a punk delinquent with a shitty boyfriend. Aro's the principal. He's constantly accused of tyranny.

They're all working in the same company as humans. Bella doesn't know how the Xerox machine works.

Bella's a vampire now and Victoria's the human!

It's a mafia movie now. No, there's no vampires, it's just a mafia movie.

Victoria's a rock star with a secret identity and Bella's her biggest fan! There's a subplot where Bella dates Edward who is the band's pianist and Victoria hates her life.

[daylander1000]

Will you watch season 2 of HotD or you've lost interest in the show? I wasn't thrilled with season 1, but I do like some characters and I'm curious to see if they'll do them any justice in the next season(s). I'm still trying to be optimistic (which is definitely against my nature 😁), although the latest leaks from Spain (which I desperately hope to be false) doesn't sound promising.

Idk it you read Fire & Blood, but that book is often overrated imho, almost all the characters there are painfully one-dimensional, shallow and bland, while the plot is full of illogical things (especially the Dance part) . So, as you can see, I'm not the biggest book fan, and I do believe that the show did some things better and gave a bit of depth and complexity to certain characters and fleshed them out. However, at the same time it seems to me that they didn't complete what they started, like, you see the potential of the characters and understand their motivations, but then out of the blue they do or say something totally nonsensical and OOC. Take Alicent at the end of episode 8. Rhaenyra says something nice to her and she suddenly forgives everything and forgets that's the same woman who wanted to "sharply question" Aemond after her son Luke maimed him over an insult (a fact, actually), the woman her husband always favoured at the expense of Alicent's own children and finally, the woman who is married to Daemon, the sociopath who hates Alicent and her children and who will kill anyone (and apparently with Rhaenyra and Viserys' blessing) without remorse if it benefits him and his side. I mean, the guy even had the gall to look annoyed during the prayer for Vaemond. Still, according to the show, Alicent somehow needs to "misunderstand" Viserys' last words to crown her own son, and not because it's probably the only way to keep her and her children alive and safe and because her son actually has the strongest claim to the throne according to Westerosi laws avd tradition. And don't get me started on the Velaryons who are collectively depicted as "Dae and Rhae fan club". Like, what is Corlys even thinking?! I won't ask about Baela and Rhaena because they obviously don't get to think and are just unconditionally supportive of Rhaenyra and the Strong boys. Rhaenys is contradictory and inconsistent. It's frustrating, really. Also, the fact that the narrative/the framing of the show heavily favours team black is also off-putting. Nevertheless, I'm still curious and just a bit hopeful that season 2 will balance these things a little. Maybe I'll just be terribly disappointed, but oh well. Sorry for the rant :D

Anyway, as a fan of your fic, I would like to know your opinion. Does the show deserve our optimism and what are your predictions regarding season 2?

S2 predictions? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Why would you ask me this? This is a show where someone in a professional HBO writers room said, "So what if a dragon just bursts up from the underground?" And the showrunner was like "Fuck yeah!"

I don't think they even thought to do a camera pan of the carnage. It's like they wanted to make Rhaenys look badass but did a Koolaid Man scene instead.

Tell me that this isn't Rhaenys

Predictions? This is not Leftovers where you could do a whole video essay on foreshadowing and subtext and hidden clues. This is a series where there's a horse running loose in a writer's room and nobody knows what it's going to write next.

This is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen.

My prediction for S2 is that during the time off at least one person realizes that they failed to make Aegon into Joff 2.0, that instead of having him be affably evil, he's onscreen affable and offscreen evil, and they'll try to double down on actually showing that he's evil and actually showing that he's worse than Daemon and Rhaenyra.

We've seen Daemon in brothels, grooming and marrying children, killing Rhea, killing innocent people and murdering lords at court, but we've only been told (by very minor characters) that Aegon is a baby-eating rape monster. It's all extremely "tacked-on."

I think Aegon's the biggest problem that they have to work on. Just getting at least this one character to make sense moving forward.

When Jahaerys is killed, I think they'll use that to really commit to making him the bad guy. Like he'll have to be killing a baby or raping someone or eating someone so that it's not Rhaenyra and Daemon killing a child but "Look at what this bad man was doing instead of protecting his son."

As far as predictions go, that's all I can see. If they only develop one character in S2, it needs to be him. Rhaenyra has Rockstar!Daemon, Rhaenys and Corlys on her side, so they'll have to upscale the green threat otherwise it's a bunch of grown people and veteran soldiers fighting two children who have no experience at anything because the oldest one is a 20-year-old frat boy and his brother is still a teenager. Aegon's going to have to really be villainous.

I feel like there's a reason all his nude scenes are with his mother, it's one of the few consistent things between them through the time skips and actor changes, and I feel like they're going to go fully 500% in that Commodus direction

and have him just be creepy and rapey with her in a "bad incest," how-the-turntables, "be careful what you wish for" way. Alicent's defining trait seems to be "perpetual victim," so I feel like they'll go this way and frame it as if she's getting what she deserves for slapping him around. Ten extra points if they have Rhaenyra or Rhaenys there on hand to be like "Is this your king?"

I don't see them doing anything with Rhaena besides sending her away, and I actively don't want to see Baela going out there getting her dragon killed and her face burnt off in defense of Rhaenyra.

I honestly try to not think about s2 of this.

I was a hardcore asoiaf fan but I didn't like Feast or Dance. I read Dunk and Egg, but he didn't finish that either. And when F&B came out, I got the audiobook and I listened to it for a few hours, probably less than five, and I couldn't concentrate because I kept thinking "Did this bitch seriously package his story notes as a novel for sale??? This is an insult to storytelling."

And I deleted it.

It's the quality for one thing. It's the lack of diversity, it's the author not finishing anything, it's the fandom being 20% fantasy fans, 80% trump rally...

Like, in just 10 episodes HotD has managed to give a voice to pro-rape feminists. Didn't even know that was a thing until I saw it on Twitter.

I saw some of the leaked pics of Helaena at the funeral on my feed, didn't have to scroll far to see people just casually r-wording Helaena and acting like having six fingers is a killing offense since eugenics rhetoric is apparently thriving in this fandom.

And on top of all that, the story doesn't even make sense.

I don't want to be like "dramaturgically speaking" but narrative coherence is a thing. Just from bing chat (yes, I'm using bing 😣):

Narrative coherence is the degree to which a story makes sense. Coherent stories are internally consistent, with sufficient detail, strong characters, and free of significant surprises. The ability to assess coherence is learned and improves with experience. Individuals assess a story's adherence by comparing it with similar stories. The ultimate test of narrative sense is whether the characters act reliably. If figures show continuity throughout their thoughts, motives, and actions, acceptance increases. However, characters behaving uncharacteristically destroy acceptance.

This show has curb-stomped narrative coherence.

Like, take that scene where they killed Vaemond. The way they write it, Rhaenyra has come back after 6 years of never visiting her father to drag him off his deathbed so he can support her in taking Driftmark, the seat of house Velaryon, away from Velaryon people to give it to her son by Harwin Strong. Vaemond is killed for telling the truth.

With different lighting and music, that's peak tyranny. That's some Mad King Aerys shit. In full view of all the lords at court. Every single person in that courtroom is aware that Luke is a bastard and they've just witnessed a lord like themselves get beheaded over it. This isn't Daemon killing commoners. He's killing the lords and ladies of Westeros.

But there's no fallout. Nothing. All the lords of Westeros cease to matter. It's just another Tuesday to them.

Hell, they go even further and frame the scene like Viserys is Old Theoden fighting off the curse of Wormtongue. Otto, Alicent and her goblin children all but shrivel and wither from the sunlight that Rhaenyra brings as Vaemond is cut down by noble Daemon. In that scene, Dark Sister might as well be Andúril, Flame of Old Valyria, sword of justice.

There are shows that are easy to watch that we say are "no brain cells required," but HotD is like, "No brain cells allowed. Switch them off or put them on silent so you don't disturb anyone."

I have no hope for season 2. I would never rec this to anyone or say that I think the writing will improve. The foundation is shit. You can't build a strong s2 on a shit s1 unless you're writing a procedural or an anthology where nothing that comes before matters.

You can't undo things like Alicent supporting Aegon as king because of a misunderstanding. There's a limit to how many things you can retcon without destroying all sense of continuity and they've already gone beyond that in s1.

They're past plot holes. They have whole parts of the world that are just void of all thought. Alicent and Rhaenys are characters who respawn and disintegrate from scene to scene as needed. Corlys is three lines of dialogue in a trenchcoat. Daemon Targaryen is somehow, impossibly, a less-developed Damon Salvatore.

No optimism here.

I'm that jaded ex fan who's like, "hotd is a barren wasteland, riddled with racists, ableists and toxic stans, and those are just the writers. The very fandom air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten-thousand Lindelof-level writers could they fix this shit."

But that being said, I have a really bad habit of watching shit TV.

I've seen Catwoman more than 5 times.

Waterworld, Jonah Hex, Elektra, Daredevil (Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell), Battlefield Earth, Supernova. At least 8 of the Fast movies. All the Transformers. Dracula 2000. All the old school classics of bad cinema.

I haven't watched Morbius as yet and the only reason why is because I feel like Jared Leto is intentionally trying to become Nicholas Cage and I don't want to support that.

There is something about the cringe that hooks me. And with a TV series? That weekly cringe? That is peak entertainment.

It used to take me 4 sometimes 5 hours to watch and digest a single episode of Titans because there were so many questions to think about.

I hyperfixate on bad writing. Trying to figure out all the ways it went wrong and why and what they were trying to do. Once I start, I can't stop thinking about it. I'm hoping swhhw gets it out of my system, but I don't know.

Like, anybody can make good TV. Anybody can do that if you try hard enough. But truly horrible TV isn't supposed to exist. It's like 20 million an episode to make HotD? Nobody is supposed to invest that in a show where the showrunner doesn't even know how old the characters are. Bad TV shows are supposed to be snuffed out before they see the light of day.

But HotD is something special.

You don't accidentally end up with a Koolaid Dragon busting up through concrete. A director described that scene to a VFX crew. The actors had to rehearse that repeatedly. They had to do a read-through...

Like, just think about that.

And then they announce that they're going ahead with s2 without writers?!

That is insane. Part of me says look away, and the other part of me says that s2 of HotD will be something the likes of which I'll never see again.

I really don't want to watch S2, but honestly, I might. Not because I think it will be better but because I'm dead certain it can only get worse.

[justmybookthots]

Legendborn

Um??????????

I put this book off for so long because a) I heard the next book in the series only comes out in 2025 and I didn't want to be left hanging, and b) I wasn't the biggest fan when I heard there was a (sigh) love triangle in there. And yet here I am, having finished it at long last.

Confession: I was/am in the middle of something like a reading slump. February has not been kind to me with my reads. When the Ann Liang book I was anticipating for months let me down horrifically, ALL the books that followed either fell flat too or were just… middling. I went through book after book feeling empty, and then I told myself: you know what. Legendborn has been on EVERYONE and their mother's radar, and their responses are the same—near unanimous acclaim. It's honestly quite insane.

So I took a gamble. I got the book and started reading it. 

You can TELL. You can just TELL when a book hits right for you, unlike the ones I read before it. I was hooked. Engaged. Totally captivated. I'd read and DNFed another fantasy book just weeks ago, which also utilised King Arthur lore (titled Silver in the Bone), but somehow Legendborn succeeded where that story failed (for me). Maybe I'm just a basic bitch who's a sucker for the typical storyline of a normal girl finding herself entangled with a group of monster slayers and doing tournaments to become one of them. (Is this why… I was instantly enthralled with the Infernal Devices??? Or why I love Demon Slayer—the anime—so much????? I am finding out new things about myself.)

But sure… the beginning isn't anything too different from traditional YA structures. But as you get going, and you continue down the road, you start to see new grounds being tread, and it deviates from anything I've personally read as a teen.

As usual, even though I loved this book, I'm going to do what I almost always do and explore the dichotomy of what I liked and didn't.

Spoilers abound. 

Didn't like:

It was predictable… up to a point (and then I was GOBSMACKED but we'll get to that later). Like, I knew pretty quickly which characters were going to make it to Squires and which weren't. You could just tell from how the author treated certain Pages (the folks trying to be Squires) in a more favourable light. The nice ones win, the not-nice ones don't. I'd have liked more nuance in their characterisation, TBH.

Speaking of which, however, Bree's characterisation at the start was rough. Like, she'd do stupid shit and get in trouble and continue being irresponsible. I wasn't surprised Alice was mad at her, and I don't think that the trouble she faced stemmed solely from her race but rather her irresponsible behaviour (going off-campus when she already knows that's grounds for expulsion and she STILL gets mad when the dean, who decides to let her off, is churlish with her. Seriously?). That said, I am NOT Black, and I can't speak for the quotidian prejudices they face, so take my perception of it with a grain of salt. In any case, Bree changed and this was no longer an issue for me later on.

Nick. And his whole romance with Bree. Like, I really did NOT care. And Nick was pretty much a white boy-damsel in distress the entire story. Every time screen time was devoted to their romance, my eyes would glaze over and I'd start skimming all the kissing and stuff. 

There were a lot of characters. Like, a lot. Too many. My brain was scrambling trying to remember and place everyone in their different roles. And aside from a few (bless William), they didn't have very distinct voices. Greer had, like, ZERO distinctive voice other than being non-binary, which should not be the only thing to define a character. Whitty was… nice, is all? Everyone kinda just melded in my brain, which is probably why none of the character deaths really hit me. 

I'm not a huge fan of Chosen One tropes. But this does play on the trope in a VERY interesting way. 

WHAT I LIKED (!!!!!!!!!!!):

The whole concept of Root and Bloodcraft. I LOVED how the author used magic to convey the colonisation of white men. The idea that Legendborns forcefully TAKE their power, while non-Bloodcraft users only borrow their power, speaks volumes to me. It was such a good way to portray real life.

Also??? The ending twist about Bree????? All along, I was convinced she was secretly the Scion of Lancelot, but I wasn't sure HOW, because all the knights are obviously white. And then the author pulls a fast one on me and she's actually fucking Arthur. The reasoning is so good. I loved how the White Man's own cruelty and their disgusting ownership of Black people led them to this predicament. I think THIS was the part that truly sold me on how terrific and unique this book was.

Characters-wise… William. Like, I adore the fuck out of him. In another world, in an even less conventional book, William would have been the hero for me. He's exactly my type with how calm and confident he was without needing to be overbearing about it. In fact, he was so gentle. (Makes me think of Jem Carstairs, but obviously Jem is THE published blueprint for types like this.)

Sel. Yes, I know I just talked about how I didn't like overbearing characters, and I initially went into this book expecting to hate him, but… :) I thought he was quite justified in his hatred / distrust towards Bree at first, knowing what he knew about how the mesmer and Oaths didn't take. I'll see if my opinion of him changes in the sequel. 

I  really, really liked how for once, King Arthur wasn't depicted as just some hero. He actually seemed almost villainous in this book, especially in the moments when Bree was possessed by him. What happened to her supposedly getting wisdom when she Awakened, though? This man does not sound wise at all. I am intrigued.

I am so glad I read this book. SO GLAD. I was down in the dumps for a bit and finally reading a good fantasy made me feel a thousand times better. I'm a bit nervous reading the sequel because some things often don't live up to their predecessor, so I shall see.

- 28 Feb 2024

[spot-splatter-splash]

Im petty and on day 4 or 5 (I lost count) of fighting allergies. Anyway.

I do not understand (in general across any fandom) people who call themselves fans of a franchise but hate reboots no matter what.

I'm not talking about disliking elements or major chunks of a reboot. Personal preference is valid. And I've seen my fair share of rough rides when a long standing series comes back in a monkey paw way and its lost a lot of its original charm.

I'm talking about the people who are adamant and hell bent of shooting something down just because its new. Some never even consume the reboot and others do with the sole purpose of finding everything wrong with it rather than acknowledging what it did well and sepearting that from where it went wrong.

Even I, someone who is the biggest hater and critic of 1 very specific Alice in Wonderland Movie acknowledge what that film does well despite loathing it.

Theres nuance to media. What happened to nuance? Its easy to say "the writing was poorly paced and the animation was clunky so I found it less visually appealing than the previous series" or "I don't particularly like the voice acting in this one because I'm so use to and attached the older one" and still say "but I did like xyz".

When I see critical posts of something I like I'm going to have a more open mind when someone acknowledges what they did like or elaborates on what they didnt in a manner that doesnt read like a tiktok comment section or a twitter thread. If you just say "this shit is trash and the old series was better" respect for your opinion no matter how eloquently you word the post from that point on pours from my body like a glass without a bottom.

And yes I am critical of the stuff I enjoy. So it's never a blind "well its perfect because I like it and youre all wrong" because I also have criticisms. Nothings perfect.

Im more inclined to trust people who have watched spin offs and reboots open mindedly because at the very least they can genuinely convey why they did or didnt like them. When people act holier than thou over not watching or not liking a reboot my first instinct tells me their kind of an asshole or at the very least not very fun to interact with. Some people make it their personality the CB fandom is horrible about this.

[clownery-blog]

What Alice adaptations do you like best??

This post is going to be very long (I'm going to talk about 4 different adaptations)

(also this is a warning that if you're scared of the 1933 Alice in wonderland &/or creepy looking puppets, animal suits claymation or stop motion that I will have photos of those things in this post)

The 1972 Alice in wonderland has been my favorite for a while. It has my favorite Alice, and everything about the movie is just beautiful. The soundtrack isn't great and it can get a bit boring, but I'm very emotionally attached to this movie.

(also I love the frog footman in this movie)

Also, the 1949 Alice in wonderland is great. When I watched it I was really frustrated with how much time they spent on lewis Carroll's personal life 😭 but the rest of the movie is claymation & live action (with Alice being the only thing live action in it) and it's just so cool. Claymation I think is the coolest form of animation and I didn't even know this movie was claymation until I watched it

The 1933 Alice in wonderland is also one of my favorites, I think it's really great and I can't even explain why. I'm biased towards any Alice in wonderland adaptation with puppets in it. Sterling Holloway was also in this movie, he played the frog foot man, who's one of my favorite Alice in wonderland characters.

Another is the 1981 Alice in wonderland & through the looking glass, both about 30 minutes long because I believe they aired on tv. These were in a language I don't speak, but there's captioned & dubbed versions of it. It's my favorite animated adaptation, the art is extremely creative and the style is just beautiful. I like it a lot.

Lastly my favorite through the looking glass adaptation, the 1966 film. I can't even put it into words, I never stopped thinking about it since I had watched it. It's such a creative story and the sets are amazing and the songs are great and it's funny and it's interesting and it's just a really good movie. I don't know where these films get Alice's jester side kick from (please tell me if you do😭) but to be fair I've never even read ttlg. I do adore Lester tho, his song was my favorite, it's always in my head. The jabberwocky was a creative character as well, I didn't like his voice tho. But I liked his character. The plot kind of didn't make any sense but that doesn't really matter at least to me

I am this movie's biggest fan

Also I saw this question last night but I had to keep myself from staying up and writing this

[thephantomcasebook]

So apparently both Olivia and Emma will be filming in Spain this month (where they film King's Landing exterior scenes) and this only means one thing: the fall of KL is happening in S2 which is a bit too much isn't it? Considering the season will only have 8 episodes…everything is going to be rushed and there will be no time for proper character development, especially for team green. And sadly I already see lots of people justifying this mess and claiming it's all going to be fine because they'll be moving the Battle of the Gullet to season 3 and Rhaenyra taking the city is the perfect ending because they shouldn't just let her sit the whole season in Dragonstone doing nothing and having no win. Rook's Rest and its aftermath with Aemond being crowned as regent would have been a much better season finale but by the look of things right now this battle will probably happen in episode 4 or 5 and Blood & Cheese in episode 1 or 2…

There's a little speculative inside baseball going on right now of what people are talking about in production that I hear going around private fan discords.

1.) Is that the scene in question is another attempt by Alicent to prevent the full scale war after finding out about what happened between Aemond and Luke above Ship Breaker Bay. Apparently Alicent will completely and totally throw Aemond under the bus, in fact, she'll throw all of her children under the bus trying to maintain peace with Rhaenyra, including offering herself as a hostage.

This lines up with a rumor going around in December that Alicent will be framed as being a secret Rhaenyra sympathizer working against Aemond and Criston's war effrort, and that she would be portrayed as, basically, being a captive of her own children and Lord Commander. This was something that apparently Cooke pitched right after Sapochnik got the boot by HBO/Warner.

I'm not saying this is true, cause you've got be fucking retarded to write Alicent Hightower - the woman who loves her children more than life itself - in such a bullshit manner. But if this does turn out to be the case, it might be one the biggest character missteps/betrayals since Jaime took Brienne's virginity and then went to die with Cersei in Season 8 of GOT.

2.) The other speculative rumor is that this scene takes place post "Blood & Cheese" in which Rhaenyra apparently either never knew that Daemon was targeting Jaehaerys or that they were trying to assassinate Aegon and got Jaehaerys instead. Either way, Rhaenyra is apparently absolved in involvement of this monstrous murder by the writers, and she is trying to apologize to Alicent, but Alicent goes fire and brimstone and vows to help Aemond and Criston make Rhaenyra pay for what she and Daemon have done to her baby boy.

This seems a little more believable, in that I can completely see the writers continuing to try and whitewash Rhaenyra further by making Daemon the monster and Rhaenyra his pigeon. It would also fit with Condal's vow to make Daemon more unlikeable and tarnish him in the eyes of the fandom.

My opinion is that I'd prefer the latter much more than the former. I mean, I'm perpetually super annoyed that they're still trying to whitewash Rhaenyra and make her seem a better person than she ever was for going on thirty years of continuity. But I can live with it if it means getting a more book accurate Alicent who will kill every memeber of team black she lays her Mutha'fuckin eyes on!

I am also 1000% done with whatever fucking girl-crush cutesy bullshit going on between Olivia Cooke and Emma D'arcy. If they want to be friends on their own time, go fucking nuts - by all means get matching t-shirts and B&B with their boyfriends on a doubles vacation, and all that shit. But when it starts to effect the work and they aren't mature enough to play the characters as written without putting their own bullshit into it and it starts to show on screen, than we've got a problem.

I'm telling you, right now, if those December leaks turn out to be true and we get an Alicent who is actively working against her children and who proclaims Aemond a monster to a woman who just murdered her granchild cause she's in love with her, I'm gonna lose my fucking mind.

[soulcost]

⭐️

send a " ⭐ " and I will list muses I would be interested in throwing at yours

saga anderson — we all know how the story goes, how the draft has changed. but what happens once return concludes? I, for one, could see saga and alan (and casey) working under the FBC moving forward to figure out how to get a certain specific person out of the dark place, as well as investigate on how to mitigate AWE events around cauldron lake. additionally, with the way the alternate ending concludes and saga's general mindfulness and empathetic nature, alan's stuck with a friend now. we both say so.

alex casey — he's still annoyed that he shares a name and profession with the fictional character of alan's acclaimed series, but he's also a little less of a hard ass about it since he has a more nuanced understanding of how these things came to be. they've also both been possessed by scratch and I think that opens the door for some interesting conversations and development.

rose marigold — she's still your biggest fan, alan, and yes, she still thinks that you were the one leaving her hidden messages on how to fight the taken and help the hero in your new story while you were trapped in the dark place. one thing that stuck out to me was that she mentioned the A. WAKE sending her messages also left some recipes to try; imagine if they're the kinds of things alice used to make. imagine if alan puts this together. then imagine rose showing alan all of the messages she was getting over the years and helping bridge some gaps in getting alice out of the dark place. (also, I'm forever thinking about that page from AW1 where she observes alan and alice and wishes she could be their friend, I'm js).

scratch — you know him, you hate him, he's all the worst parts of yourself dialed up to five thousand! there's a lot we can do here and I'm open to exploring all of it. scratch truly exists to make alan's life worse and his work is never done. after all, you can't have light without the dark.

jill valentine — I'm not saying the BSAA and the FBC are two sides of the same coin. I AM saying that it's entirely plausible that there has been overlap in one reality or another and if bioweapon sightings were to end up happening in bright falls or if AWEs were to end up happening during biodisasters, there's more than enough potential for their paths to cross.

max caulfield — both life is strange and alan wake take place in the pacific northwest, both games take heavy inspiration from twin peaks, there are SO many spiral symbols around max at all times and she can quite literally rewind time. also, she's probably a big fan of alice's work. put these two in a room, let them save humanity and never tell anyone a word of it.

[ennn]

I expect Billy is going to be an antagonist for a while and that's OK

Anti's for either Agatha or Billy are probably going to get more intense as I predict our boy Billy's gonna be antagonistic for a bit. And let's be clear, I'm not hating, or saying either are evil, or in the wrong.

That's way too simple a take for this show. In the words of showrunner Jac Schaeffer:

...we populated the show with similarly flawed individuals who are also selfish and self-serving, who are self-sabotaging, who are constantly standing in their own way. And then they were just in conflict.  Everybody is kind of an anti-hero in the show. That was really fun and felt very truthful there. 

No one here is meant to be a pure "good guy", which is I think kind of Billy's arc -- but more on that later.

And when I mean antagonist I'm talking about the characters roles in the story. An antagonist isn't necessarily a villain. Agatha is the show's protagonist as well as its main antagonist: as much as she claims she wants only power, deep down she wants a coven, a community, a family. But she is as Schaeffer puts it, "in the way of her own thing."

Billy being an antagonist simply means that his goals – or some of them at least – conflict with Agatha's. Rio has been described as a "romantic antagonist" as well because some of her goals are also in conflict.

Long text speculation post and mild promo spoilers under the cut:

Let's first get this out of the way: Why do I think Billy's going to take on an antagonist role? Aside from well, all the things that happened at the end of Episode 5, there's some clues Billy's not all who he's been saying he is:

There's a promotional video with audio lines, and you can hear Billy saying things like "Agatha Harkness can never be anything but a covenless witch" and "I do not trust you".

Billy claiming to be "obsessed" about Agatha and her biggest fan and going on the road for power should know that she is the world's most notorious witch-killer – why is he appalled about her killing and so against it? And if episode 5 is any indication, power is not what he's lacking.

Joe and Schaeffer have mentioned that Billy will be different in the back half of episodes.

A quick clip from a trailer has Agatha (covered in mud) telling Billy "Last one there is a nice person", implying that Billy at this point doesn't want to be nice. I assume, at this point, he wants Agatha to pay for her misdeeds. The yellow tint of the clip also matches with the current Road area they're on.

Now at this point I do not know if Billy was involved in what I believe is a fake trial in episode 5. I'm inclined to think it's the Salem Seven, and we get this truth of Billy as fallout. I believe he definitely didn't want Alice dead.

Now for reasons why I think it'll be okay–even interesting–to have these two in conflict and everyone should put away their pitchfolks:

They are going to come to an understanding

You know how in Hawkeye series Yelena wants to kill Barton because she blames him for Natasha's death? I think we'll get a broadly similar arc or vibe for Agatha and Billy here. And they will design it in a similarly emotionally satisfying manner.

Right now Billy's basically like everyone–including the rest of the coven–who believes that Agatha is truly what her reputation says. And that's not surprising! Agatha is masks and layers and theatrics and she's not opening up unless she absolutely has to.

It may take a few episodes but I expect we'll get that before the series end, with this sobering exchange we have from a trailer:

Why do you let them believe those things about you? Because the truth is too awful.

I don't think Billy will be the Big Bad simply because I expect at the end Agatha's going to have to choose between wanting her coven, her community of witches, and something else—power perhaps, or her son, and go back to her old ways.

And for that to happen Agatha will need to have formed enough bonds with her coven, including Billy, to make it a difficult choice.

Power, darkness, and anti-heroes

Look, Agatha is my babe and she definitely needs a win after all that awful that happened in episode 5, but if you think about it Billy being a lot like his mom is really interesting? More interesting than him just being a cute innocent fanboy.

Because if he is an anti-hero, with some darkness in him, it's an opportunity to explore some of the themes or ideas we touched on in Wandavision with Wanda and her power, and her sense of self.

Heroes don't torture people.

Agatha recognises the darkness in people, delights in it even: as touched on in interviews, it's one of the reasons why she saw herself as Detective Agnes in that spell, as an investigator exploring the darkest aspects of humanity. She's seen the worst in people, and knows how to play the villain.

For Billy to avoid making the same mistakes as his mom, he needs to understand not just his power, but his potential for darkness.

Power corrupts, and when you're born with that reality-warping level of power, it's dangerous. It's so tempting to make people do what you need them to. And it's a slippery slope once you start killing, even if it's for good reasons.

Agatha never wanted to kill her first coven, in that moment she only wanted to live. But she did, with a power she never asked for, that made it so easy to keep taking and taking.

It is kind of tragic given the circumstances that Agatha couldn't have been a mentor to Wanda at the end of Wandavision, given the events of Multiverse of Madness, because she made some valid points and they could have been a coven, given Agatha's deep-deep-buried desire for one.

And looking at all the mentor-kid pairings we've seen in the MCU so far (Parker and Stark, Clint and Bishop, Strange and Chavez, etc.), I don't think we've ever had this kind of dynamic.

Interesting power dynamics

I think Agatha is at her most interesting when she's on the back foot. As we've seen in episode one, she's not one to give up when physically outmatched, quite the opposite. She's a survivor, she's stubborn, and she's a performer.

Billy has been revealed to have the magical equivalent of a gun, and is capable of taking this entire coven hostage.

They're going to have to interact in new ways now. But now it's going to be more of a dance.

It's new danger, new complications, but also new ways to connect, and also the opportunity for a more honest relationship.

Knowledge, history, community

This point isn't specific only to Agatha and Billy but I'm reminded of Billy taking it out not just on Agatha but Lilia and Jen as well.

It's not surprising that Alice and Billy, the two youngest coven members are also the most idealistic and noble. The world has not been kind to witches over the centuries—Lilia's been chased out of villages for her visions, Jen has been attacked—and the older members of the group have done what they can to survive: How much can you blame them for being selfish in a cruel world?

Power isn't your problem, it's knowledge.

In this case I mean not just the knowledge of witchcraft, but lived experience as well.

Younger witches have to learn their community's history, and the older ones have to be challenged in their set ways of thinking, in how they've adapted, because they're not always good.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was an allegory to be made here to the queer community as well. Schaeffer has mentioned there is a large overlap between the history and persecution of witches and that of the LGBTQ community.

--

Good lord this post ran away from me. If you actually read all of that you do deserve a cookie.

[boldlyvoid]

so... this interview got me thinking.

J: Your fans are amazing fans. I will just say that. I know you said it earlier, but they obviously are so excited that you're here on our show, so we're getting a lot of buzz from your fans. And they were like, "Wait. What are they going to talk about? What's going on? I heard this. [ Blabbering ] "This is ten seconds long." There's Easter eggs that maybe aren't even really Easter eggs.

T: Yeah, it's sort of a tradition that we started a very long time ago. I think the first time that I started dropping sort of cryptic clues and things in my music is when I was 14 and 15 putting together my first album. And I wanted to put -- I wanted to do something that incentivized fans to read the lyrics because my lyrics are what I'm most proud of out of everything that I do, every aspect of my job, so I really wanted people to read the lyrics. And, um, when I was a kid, I used to leaf through CD booklets and just read the teeny, tiny print and just obsess over it. And so I wanted to incentivize them. So in my lyrics, for my first, you know, several albums, I would have all lower-case-letter lyrics, except for capital letter, capital letter, capital letter every once in a while. And if they circled the capital letter, and wrote them down, it spelled out a secret code, a secret passage.

J: That's so fun.

T: It was really --it was really fun, and it would either tell them a story about the album or a hint about what the song was about. And so that's when it started. But when it got out of control was...

[ Laughter ]

T: Yeah. Was when I started to realize that it wasn't just me that had fun with this, that they had fun with it, too. And I should never have learned that because then I couldn't stop. And then all I started thinking of was how do I hint at things? Like, how far is too far in advance? Can I hint at something three years in advance? Can I even plan things out that far? I think I'm gonna try to do it. The first time that we did a crazy video like that was a video called "Look What You Made Me Do," and I started playing with doing nods to former musical eras I've been in, in my career and all kinds of weird stuff for them to just go through the video and be like, "That over there! What's that? What's that? What's that? Does this connect to that? What does that mean?"

J: I do that.

T: Really?

J: Yes! I did that with "Folklore." I go, "Wait. What? Betty? What?"

T: There's a lot. There's a lot going There's, like, a fictional love triangle between three fictional teenagers in the "Folklore" album.

J: I know all about it.

T: There's all kinds of, like, really, really --Yeah, we go really into the weeds over it. And look. I think that it is perfectly reasonable for people to be normal music fans and to have a normal relationship to music. But if you want to go down a rabbit hole with us, come along.

J: Taylor is your person.

T: The water's great. Jump in. We're all mad here.

Which is a hint at Alice in wonderland. back when this first aired, everyone thought she was referring to the fact one of her bonus tracks on 1989 was Wonderland, it's also the name of one of her perfumes. this went with her first TikTok when she released Wildest Dreams Taylors Version... which Taylor Nation confirmed today was a hint at midnights and not 1989 TV.

what's interesting to me about the use of this, is that Clocks go Tick Tock. it was her first tiktok! she's in midnights variant blue and the section of the song is "You'll see me in hindsight. Tangled up with you all night. Burning it down."

it's obvious she's been making a lot of references to night and fire. but also time. Time is the biggest component of this album. And it's the most important theme inside Alice in Wonderland.

Credit

If Lover is Midnights Sister Album:

the Forward in lover gives us even more clues on what to expect.

she mentions her journals, she started writing them when she was 13. she has every memory written down on pages and she shared them with us. The Delux version of lover came in 4 volumes. 4 sets of journals documenting past and highlighting moments of love.

What if Midnights is the night before Lover? she did write Lover in the middle of the night.

And then i remembered the Vault Tracks were clocks...

stopwatches to be more exact.

she's been telling us everything we need to know this whole time.

[wardrobeoftime]

Having looked over costumes from so many movie and TV show, which one do you think has the best costuming? If not overall, then from a certain period?

Oh my godness, that is such a hard question and it depends on what someone understand as good costumes. There are pretty costumes that absolutely do not fit the period (not that I'm the biggest expert on it) and there are ugly ones that are pretty accurate.

I think it is more important that the clothes help tell a story and work with the character and not against it. I enjoyed that Margaret Beaufort was dressed very modestly in The White Queen because her piousness is a big part of her character although I'm not a big fan of the costumes themselves.

The Spanish Princess and The White Princess were great at layering items and creating entirely new looks with them which really can stretch a tight budget. The latter also reused and refitted quite some costumes from Maximilian - Das Spiel von Macht und Liebe which gave them very different feelings.

Michelle Clapton did some amazing work on Game of Thrones. Not all of them are pretty in my opinion but most are very detailed and fit the economic status of the characters. House of the Dragon has some hits (Alicent's green dress at the wedding, Rhaenyra's black dress in King'd Landing) and some misses (Rhaenyra's golden dresses) but they all showed clearly where a characters allegiance laid.

For modern series, I adore Dynasty's festive/evening clothes. Maybe also because I wrote my bachelor thesis about the use of gender roles by Fallon and Cristal in the first season. The costume designer was the same as on Reign and I think this was much more her area of expertise than 1500s France and Scotland.

I think most costumes I personally love are just very lucious things that you can't really wear everyday. Usually in black or blue. Rather too elegant than underdressed. Or basically my very own wardrobe choices 😅 If I had to dress myself from a show, I would choose Season 01 Queen Elizabeth II's formal/work clothes from The Crown. I love the early 50s formal style.

I'm also still pretty sure that one of the dresses on Reign on Elisabeth of Valois either used an IKEA bed sheet as fabric or they sourced the fabric from the same manufacturer as IKEA did because it looked exactly like my bed sheet. I also saw that pattern in a different color just yesterday when preparing the files for Natasha Rostova's clothes.

Not sure if I answered your question satisfyingly or just rambled 😅

[your-coquette-queen]

I challenge you to tell me at least one thing you love about several of your rockstar crushes 😌

OK

PAUL STANLEY:

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SO MUCH OML.

I think for him, it is largely because I can relate to him on so many levels. Whether that be how I feel around other people, issues that I have had with my family, or just my ideas on work ethic and goals, there are so many connections that I have to him. Also he was the first member I noticed when I got into KISS, and the person who really got me interested and wanting to learn and embrace the band!

Rachel Bolan:

I love his sense of humor, and how he is constantly in a good mood. He is always so sweet and it just lifts my mood.

Jon Bon Jovi:

THIS MASTERPIECE OF A CREATION TO THIS EARTH MUST BE PROTECTED FOREVER.

I love Jon becuase he is so sweet. He always looks so happy and he is so cute and quiet in interviews LIKE UGHHH HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE HIM. THIS MAN IS A MASTERPIECE

Izzy Stradlin:

Izzy is basically how I present myself to the rest of the world unless you get to me. I'm very shy when I don't know someone and people kinda see me as mean or distant lol. Like Izzy, once you get closer and warm up, I'm actually a friendly person (kinda like on this mess I proudly call my tumblr page) You all make me fell comfortable so I feel ok to share myself with you guys😊

Bruce Kulick: I have one word that I can use to describe this man: RESPECT. I have so much respect for him. One of the reasons why 80's is my favorite lineups is because of Bruce. He was always the quieter member which is nice when you compare to the craziness of everyone else, but I think it contrasts well. Also his playing is amazing! But more than this, I have so much respect for how he chandelled leaving KISS, and any other stuff KISS had done concerning him. I think we all know about Peter, and Ace too, however Bruce did a really good job of talking about it, without portraying himself as either happy nor sad. Obviously it is hard when you have to leave something you have been a part of, however it is always nice when you can look back on it fondly ( in contrast to a lot of what Peter has said- Peter fans DO NOT come at me for that. you know it is true) I think that is one of the reasons why it is so hard to say something bad about Bruce. He has always been super positive about his experience in KISS and stuff that has happened, and has moved forward and done other awesome stuff too. Honestly with his positivity, it actually reminds me a lot of Alice Cooper!

Dave Mustaine:

AGAIN. I have a ton of respect for him. The fact that after he got kicked out of Metallica (which would go on to become one of the biggest bands), he was able to move forward and make his own band, of which would become one of the big 4 thrash metal bands along side Metallica. Also I just think he is really funny as a person and a great dad! He also faced a lot of issues that he had to overcome that I find really inspirational.

Rick Savage:

Sav is just a sweet beautiful masterpeice that I love with all my heart. Need I say more?

Zakk Wylde:

I think that it is awesome that this kid, who was a major Ozzy and Black Sabbath fan, could go at like 19 (or 20 I can't remember right now haha) to becoming Ozzy's lead guitarist, and would go on to become one of the most recognized, and influential guitarists of all time. I love his relationship with Ozzy and Sharon, it is so beautiful, and I think he is a really nice genuine person too! Also his wife is an absolute sweetheart. I also appreciate all the respect he has for Ozzy and the great relationship they have maintained even after he has left the band and created his own. THE FACT THAT HE CALLS HIM THE BOSS STILL

... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH>

IN CONCLUSION

Thank you so much for this ask!

This was really refreshing to do! I feel like a lot of the time, all of us (DEFFINETLY including myself) start to like someone more so for their looks and start to forget what made us love them in the first place. It was really nice to just go back and think about when I first got into someone what it was the made me love them, instead of just focusing on the appearance. It brings me back to when I first got into hard rock music, and I was just starting out and here for the music, not really caring about the musicians looks.

OBV I still love how they look too, however it is fun to just appreciate them for their work.

Thank you once again, and I hope this was an adequate response😂

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Overexposure anon here,  I don't even have to venture past this last week to explain why I find your comment about his team worrying about overexposure comical. For 3 straight days,  daily mail was posting an exclusive with Olivia's nanny exposing her and Jason's relationship drama and Harrys involvement.  Day 1, everyone was into the salacious gossip of Flo cheating on her boyfriend and sleeping with Harry.  Then Harry cheated on her with Olivia and that broke up her relationship with Jason. Throw in secret salad dressing recipes and Jason risking his life for it and you got everyone talking. And it makes no difference if any of it is true,  everyone is talking about it.  By the 3rd article,  everyone was sick and tired of hearing about Harry the homewrecker and Olivia being a bad mother. So what did Harry and his team do? On day 4, they go out to a concert front and center for everyone to see.  They didn't give the story a chance to quiet down. He is getting hate from all sides.  The gp who are tired of the headlines he's constantly getting.  And the fandom too. I make it a point to follow every side of his fandom and everyone from larries,  who are pissed off about lack of mp promotion, to harries who don't understand why he keeps tying himself to a problematic person like Olivia.  It's a constant fight between everyone who are at odds about his career,  his relationship status and closet.  Im a level headed person and can look at all that stuff objectively.  However when I wanna gush about how cute Harry looked in his grandpa sweater vest but fans are fighting about olivia and why he's going out to concerts and not promoting mp, it gets tiring. So even as a stan,  I find myself not able to enjoy his content as much because of all the discourse surrounding him.  And I'm putting that on hshq and their inability to control the narrative and continuously allowing him to be in the headlines. However if this is their goal,  to get him to be the most famous person in the world who is constantly surrounded by controversy,  then they're doing a bang up job.

Oh anon - to me this ask seems full of fandom fallacies.

The fact that there are articles in the Daily Mail for three days that all make as much of Harry's name as possible - doesn't tell us about whether or not Harry's team is concerned about overexposure. Because Harry's team don't have control over the Daily Mail or Jason and Olivia's nanny.

So all your left with is the fact that Harry and Olivia went to Wolf Alice. And there are lots of competing priorities that might have gone into that decision (including a desire to see Wolf Alice). Just because avoiding overexposure wasn't the overriding imperative in this example doesn't mean it's not a consideration. Particularly when there's so much that Harry doesn't do.

Most of this ask, which is supposed to be about over-exposure, is actually about fandom distress. Worries about overexposure have nothing to do with fans, who are not at a risk of being overexposed (I've seen dozens of pics a day of Harry for more than 7 years - it's pretty clear that I can't be overexposed to him).

You seem to think Harry's team can or should do something about fan distress. But that's looking at this all through fans eyes, rather than HSHQ eyes.

I think Harry wants to be one of the biggest artist's in the world, and that means being one of the most famous people in the world and Harry's team has been working to ensure that happens. It is a risky path, particularly given who Harry is and what he wants. But you don't get to be in the position Harry's in, unless you really want it.