#cannibalism as a metaphor for love taken LITERALLY!!

[raviollies]

Theta is an incredibly old Hag having been able to survive for a millennium, her true age unknown as she herself stopped counting. Thus amongst Hags, not only does she rank as a Grandmother but a very powerful one at that, her only misfortune having been the last of her coven, the group having cannibalized itself in a struggle for power.

Such old Hags exist but are a rarity, and in some isolated pockets of rural areas they are worshipped as deities of the natural cycle of decomposition and as the group for life. Though this practice is few and far between and generally discouraged in favour of the standard pantheon and generally labeled as a false or old god. Their domains consist of ancient forests older than civilizations, not unlike Silvanus, though where they differ is that the Fae have a propensity to grant wishes and desires, for a price of course, rather than keeping a distance for the sake of balance (Often times this involves body parts [ a la what Auntie Ethel does in BG3, where they would be granted sight or hearing through your body] or living beings).

Theta's reasoning for pursuing Blythe is nothing special - she was simply seeking out Elven women with a potential, ones that have not awakened or honed their magical skills as to be molded and influenced (She sees it as teaching a chick to fly).

Like other Hags, Theta believes in the obscenity of love; patron of obsession and possession. She encourages Elven mages to cannibalize their lovers - and is staunch in the belief that consuming another grants their power. Whether or not that belief is fact or fiction is dubious.

[magicians-abode]

(This is my first time writing NSFW, and a over 2k words, so I'm excited to see if you guys like this)

"Hungry Love. Let us Feast"

[Laios Touden x gn!reader]

Warnings: NSFW content below - long fic? - mentions of reader having AFAB genitalia - mentions of cannibalism (nothing gory don't worry)

Laios liked monsters. And he liked eating them. He had an... odd fascination with them, but who were you to judge, when you liked the idea of cannibalism as an analogy for love? Exactly, you were in no position to judge your partner.

You hadn't told him that, though. That you liked the idea of "consuming each other", or that you wanted him to bite each other as you were in bed, treating each other like a fine dish.

—Is everything okay, love?— Laios placed a gentle hand over (y/n)'s shoulder, stirring them away from their thoughts.

They nodded, smiling up at him softly.— Yeah, just thinking— he sat by their side, crossing his legs. He had taken off his armor, wearing the clothes from underneath. They couldn't help their eyes traveling down towards the v-neck of their shirt, the strings loose for comfort.

—Thinking of what?— he asked curiously.

—Just...— should they tell him? No...— about us— they kept their soft smile as they talked for a while about different topics, relating one with another, love, food, monsters. Ugh, monsters. Don't eat them, eat me (y/n) thought to themselves, unable to hide the expression of slight annoyance on their face as the topic was brought up.

He noticed this and mid-rant stopped— Are you alright? Are you tired? We've been walking a lot today, maybe you should rest— if there was something he liked more than talking about monsters in this world, that would be you. He cared about (y/n) more than anyone could imagine or describe.

—Ah, yes... well— they hesitated, looking at their hands, then at his face, and then back at their hands as they fidgeted with their fingers in an attempt to calm their nerves.

They wanted to say how much they wanted to be... consumed, devoured. But would it be weird? Maybe for Laios not too much?

—I've. .. wanted to tell you something for a long time— they mumble— I– It's nothing bad... I think— they waved their hands as they tried to not scare him with their seriousness. Laios looked at (y/n), silently waiting for them to speak.— Have you ever heard of cannibalism as a metaphor or analogy for... love? Or sex even?— they closed their eyes as they said that, bracing for something bad that never came.

Laios put a finger to his chin in thought— Well if I'm being honest, I think I heard of it once or twice, when I was younger and studying literature, but I never delved in much deeper than the fact that it's a thing— he answered with their usual tone.— Why do you ask?— Laios looked at them for an explanation, curiosity clearly sparked in his honey eyes.

(y/n) gulped, trying to ignore how their cheeks started to burn with an incoming blush. Were they really gonna talk about this? They had already told Laios and piqued his curiosity, and he probably would try to pick up the subject sooner than later if they decided to just leave it at this. So gathering courage, they spoke.— I would like for us to– uh– how do I put it?— (y/n) searched for the right words to voice their ideas— to treat each other like a meal when we have intimacy— they blurted, trying to finish the sentence as soon as possible.

—Treat each other... like a meal...— he echoed, raising an eyebrow— so you mean you want me to eat you?— he concluded.

—Ah– well, yes and no, I mean it not in the literal sense, but in a figurative one obviously— they explained— you see, I'd love it if you spoke to me more...no– I...— they sighed again. Gods above was this difficult.— I want you to describe or treat me like a meal. I want us to enjoy ourselves as if we were... "feasting on each other"—.

Soon enough their explanations worked their way into Laios's brain, and he understood exactly what (y/n) was asking for. He smiled, already coming up in his brain with a few ideas. He'd have to think more about the subject though, after all, he always wanted the best for you.

That night, when everyone had gone to sleep in the rooms of the abandoned house they had chosen to pass the night in, Laios approached (y/n) from behind as they were getting into bed.

—Sleepy?— he whispered in their ear, their strong arms hugging them by the waist. They froze at the sudden interaction and slowly relaxed.

—Not really, but we need the rest, don't we?— they smiled, trying to turn around to hug them back, but Laios didn't budge in their hold. —Uh, dear?— they mumbled, this time trying to look behind them.

That's when they felt his lips softly spread kisses on their shoulders, going to the back of their neck and ending their path under their ear. His breath was warm as he spoke— I'm hungry...— he mumbled against their skin. His voice didn't sound like it usually did. This time it sounded... dominant almost.

(y/n)'s breath hitched at this, suddenly feeling themselves grow hot in the cold of the night.

—Should I see if Senshi has any leftovers?— they asked despite their nerves.

—What for? I've got a whole meal right in my hands already...— he let his hands wander, one going down to grip and squeeze at their thigh. The other one traced its way over their neck and up to touch their lower lip.— It would be a waste if I didn't eat you, don't you think? ...so much to delight myself with—.

He let go of them and guided (y/n) to lie down on the bed. They obliged, excitement and pleasure already cursing through their veins as Laios crawled and watched from on top of them how they looked at him with a shy expression, their hair all messy over the soft pillow, a few strands on their face.— Oh how beautiful you are...— Laios whispers, licking his lips and moving the strands of hair away from their pretty face. His lips softly collided with (y/n)'s, who returned the kiss as they tangled their fingers at the back of his honey haired head.

Licking at their bottom lip, silently asking for permission, (y/n) parts their lips, allowing their tongues to dance lovingly. One of his hands stays by the side of their head to keep himself up, while the other moves the spread their legs a bit further, allowing him to come closer, his chest now pressing against theirs.

A string of saliva connects their lips when they break the kiss, and they're both left already panting, thinking about what's next. Laios stutters for a moment as his fingertips touch slightly under (y/n)'s shirt— May I?— he looks up at them through lidded, yet soft eyes.— I'm dying to discover what my meal is for tonight— he let's his hand further under their shirt once (y/n) gives them the okay to go ahead.

His big and somewhat calloused hands cup one of their breasts, massaging it for a moment, his index finger reaching for their nipple and flicking lightly at it. —Mhh... you're so perfectly soft, my love— he uttered, peppering kisses all over their collarbone.

(y/n) sighed, a hand coming up to their lips to contain the moan that wanted to escape from their lips, caused by all the attention they were suddenly receiving.

—Don't...— Laios said firmly, looking up at them from their collarbone.— I want to feast your flesh, and I want to listen to the way you feel when I'm devouring you. So don't— his hand traveled slowly down from their chest to the hem of their pants, feeling the goosebumps on their skin.

Laios felt his erection twitch in the captivity of his own pants, but he bit his lip, focusing once again on the task at hand. Eating.

He slid their pants off easily, underwear gone along with them, taking the opportunity to get rid of his own shirt as well. His breath already agitated, he gulped down the sudden urge to just dive in between their legs and taste them without a word. He continued to gently massage one of their breasts and kissing their neck. Lips starting to trail downwards, he pinched softly at one of their nipples, kissing his way down towards the other breast and sticking his tongue out to play with the nipple of the other.

When their legs twitched, threatening to close in the slightest around him, he moved his hand to hold their thighs open with a strong grip. It wasn't enough to hurt, no. But it was strong enough to let them know, without a word, that it was not happening under his watch.— Can't have a feast without the main course, can we?— he chuckled, trailing kisses down their body and finally positioning his face in between their legs. (y/n) looked away, but quickly looked right back down at him, embarrassment and excitement mixing in their stomach.

He slid a finger over the slick of the entrance, watching mesmerized at their juices as he heard a soft gasp of surprise come from their lips.

Kissing both of their thighs for a few moments first, he looked up to them and whispered— Thank you for the meal, my love— and closing his eyes, his tongue stuck out to lick in an upward motion, testing the waters. Once he heard another gasp, accompanied of a soft whimper, he pressed his face right into their cunt, tongue lapping at the juices as his nose pressed against the soft bundle of nerves slightly above.— Gods, I've been starving— he mumbled against their clit, his warm breath making them shiver.

Sticking his tongue inside of them, then swirling it around their clit, their flavor stuck to Laios's tongue and lips, smearing itself around part of his cheeks and nose as he hummed eagerly against their pussy.

It went on for a while, a long while. And he seemed thrilled at their reactions. What if he licked like this? What if he bit their thighs? What if he raised their legs and pressed his face as much as he could into the sweet liquor of their pussy? What if he held your hips in place with enough strength to make you unable to stop yourself from being completely devoured by him?

He shifted his gaze up towards their face— Gods you sound divine. You're so perfect— lidded eyes looked at them, as one of his hands moved towards the entrance his tongue was just exploring.— Can I?— always so polite, he asks for permission to keep exploring more.

— You shouldn't play with your food— (y/n) says in a breathless whisper. Looking back down at him— but... I'll allow it— Laios smiled softly at their words.

His finger teased the clit first, procuring they were even more wet than before as he slowly pressed kisses all the way back up their abdomen and across their chest until they reached their lips.

Gently teasing the entrance and then pushing his middle finger in, he was met with the warmth and the tightness of their insides as they moaned into his mouth.

—Relax sweetheart...— he whispered near (y/n)'s ear, moving to press a kiss on the space between their ear and their jawline— We're going to be here a while. I like taking my time to enjoy a good banquet— his finger pumped in and out of their pussy beautifully, their slick only providing them with lewd sounds everytime he dipped his finger back in or out. Laios bit down onto their neck, procuring to leave a hickey that everyone was most probably going to be able to see in the morning, and (y/n)'s hips stuttered upwards against his fingers.— You sound so delicious sweetheart— he praised, moving a second finger up to their entrance and penetrating them with both now, eliciting a rather loud moan to escape from them.—Take your time, I'm not stopping until I get to taste your sweet release— Laios mumbled against their jaw.

Gods was that night going to be a beautifully long one.

[abuse-ken]

Ito is not an evil murderer for no reason: a meta

I'm going to be breaking down the lyrics and PVs of three songs: Yellow Papa (x), Dear Suns (x), and Flower War. This is a chronological look at Ito's story. Feel free to look them over if you need a review :3 the song is linked in the first word, and the lyrics in the second. I left a second translation for Yellow Papa and Dear Suns because I like the second one better for readability. Flower War has lyrics in the captions of the PV

Before I start: As I understand things, this series of songs by Abuse is centered around a cult that primarily idolizes indulgence to any degree. Especially through Ito and Zoy, we see sex and cannibalism heavily intertwined. For this reason, I interpret cannibalism to be both literal and a metaphor for rape

Ito himself is the oldest of four siblings. He is fully man himself, but serves as a parallel to Ote in that his mind is that of a beast while his body isn't. His mom is a beastman, and his absent father is a man

Yellow Papa

*Please note that Ito is described as "only just learning how to read" during this song, making him around five

The general point of this song (which I assume most people don't know as this is a song that was initially supposed to be Dear Suns, but Abuse cut and put on Abuse Bundle instead) is to illustrate Ito's childhood. Both this and Dear Suns seem to serve similar purposes, both coming out after Flower War to further humanize Ito. This song follows a parentified Ito and his siblings as Ito begs for love from their parents. So fun and chill ty Abuse

We see a lot of talk of meat and being eaten, as is standard with Ito ofc:

Most notably, the line "'Love us, love us!', My mother's fangs gobbled me up, and I became raw meat". Obviously Ito was not literally eaten here, which leads us to the conclusion that Ito's mom is sexually abusive

This leads straight into "That sort of sensation was of falling from the top", tying back to the opening line of "I ate the raw meat that had fallen from the top", meaning one of two things. Either we are meant to take the first verse's lines as autocannibalism, a metaphor for how he is having to take care of his siblings with their father absent; or we are getting our first glimpse at why Ito might be a cannibal: need. If this isn't meant to be taken as an analogy and Ito is eating "raw meat" (presumably people), this paints a picture of him and his family being in a dog-eat-dog kind of world, having to cannibalize other vulnerable people around them in order to eat

We also see his mother ask if he is going to eat her, which he says he is. This is touched on more in Dear Suns, obviously. He cites his reason for eating her as because his father doesn't love her. With the final chorus showing Ito more desperate for his father's love than food, which he and his family are very clearly lacking, it gives us the general themes of Ito as a character:

Love, sex (and sexual abuse), and eating are all one and the same to him

Dear Suns

*Ito is older here, he seems to be at least a teenager based on the illustrations, but there is no lyrical acknowledgement of his age

As I'm sure most people know, this is more insight into Ito as a character rather than any particular event in his life, outside of the detailing of him eating mother and siblings

To begin with though, we get some elaboration on Ito's life before this song and how he came to be at the church. At about 1:43, the PV reads, "one thousand necks have been severed, so many bodies remain, sever the necks of one thousand [millionares?], blood stains remain even in the shower stalls, I'm in the middle of the street, I spend a year in the hospital, I don't know my name, I don't know where I live, 'you are a child, and this is your new family'." This implies that somewhere in between Yellow Papa and this song, while Ito was still young, he was eventually taken in off the street and to a hospital where he lived for a year, the church taking him in as him "new family" afterwards. This is over the line in the song that reads "you must protect your family, carve it into your DNA," which points to the church directing him into the role he takes on in Flower War to at least some extent

At 1:04, we also see a shot of text that reads, "for the first time in my life, I have a purpose" right as soon as the chorus starts detailing Ito killing and eating people, yet another implication that this is something he took on as more of a job than a crime of passion

There's also a shot of him wearing a collar with a chained lead at 1:26, which is obvious enough a sign of being controlled, especially when all the characters are dog-based. There is an inherent dehumanization to all of the characters in this plotline of Abuse's, but it applies to Ito too, not just the beastmen characters. Despite being fully aware of his actions, he is collared, compared to an animal, and dehumanized by the narrative itself

This song especially is full of evidence that Ito was brought up in the church for the sole purpose of protecting the people in their cult. With several lines about "having to protect his family" and especially "protect your family and their connection to you, it's carved into the spiral/(alternate translation above)", it really makes it seem like he's more of a child soldier for them than just the common interpretation of him being a yandere type. There's also the mention of "xochimiquiztli"* which ties in more with Flower War (obviously more explaination later), meaning not only in Flower War but this song too, he is canonically compared to an honored soldier going on what is basically a suicide mission for the sake of pride and protection of their religion

And of course, the song closes with Ito saying "this is wrong". He's aware that he is commiting horrible acts on some level, yet he keeps doing it because he loves his family

*Refers to a death on the battlefield in a flower war. From the Aztec Empire, roughly translates to "flowery death"

Flower War

*Still no age for Ito, and he is pictured as a fox, so it is hard to gauge

To begin with, I'll give a brief summary of what flower wars are. In the 1450s, the Aztecs were going through a famine, and determined that the gods were angry and needed human sacrifices. In order to obtain these, soldiers were sent out into small, pre-arranged battles to take prisoners. Any deaths (or xochimiquiztli as before mentioned) were considered honorable, and the dead would join the god of sun, fire, and war.

This is tied to Ito's character as a whole. He grew up in the church because of growing up on the streets without food, he is heavily tied to sun imagery in Dear Suns and Flower War (while Zoy is notably tied to fire), and Flower War tells the story of his noble flowery death. In my opinion, this is too much connection to brush off as just reading into things. Ito is almost canonically called a child soldier through this analogy alone

This song really only follows Ito's last kill and his own death, which is a mission he goes on in order to kill people who "made fun of father (Zoy)" and "tried to kill Ote". The whole way he goes on about loving his family and his victims (again, love=sex=hunger to Ito), degrading himself, and praising his family members. He also mentions several times (2:06, 3:26, 4:01) that he is not supposed to kill children, which seems to be his undoing. While reminding himself of this rule, which he seems to only follow because someone else set it for him, he is shot and killed

In the final shot of the song, we also see a carnation that is red and yellow, the red meaning love (or specifically love for your mother, bc he has mommy issues ig) and the yellow representing disappointment and contempt. Like Dear Suns, this final moment displays some level of regret for his actions, and a final callback to his mother, who has now been mentioned in all three of his songs

In conclusion: my blorbo did nothing wrong /j please stop pointing out that he is a cannibal every time I mention liking him

[raayllum]

I love how we are basically opposites on the whole theory thing :

You predict plot points by making jokes that end up coming true

meanwhile me and my overdramatic mind obssesses over dark scenarios that would never fit into 9 episodes and then I'm surprised when they don't happen XD

Listen as long as you're enjoying what you're doing, I say have all the fun you want in fanon and taking insp from canon! That's the best part sometimes! <3

Although I have some things that started out as jokes that ended up being canon (my absolute favourite of which being this joke I made about Ezran in 2x04 that was then an actual thing in the s2 novelization) the weirdest thing for me has been like... the ultra specific thing / things I thought would be more metaphorical that ended up being more literal

AKA a list in no particular order

Me assuming since Through the Moon came out that Callum would inevitably play into Aaravos's hands and that the struggle to not do so would be his main conflict in arc 2 (which looking back, the possession plot line seems so thematically obvious I am genuinely a little sheepish I didn't see it coming)

The game motif being my favourite motif and then s4 fucking Delivered it was beautiful

Viren's atonement arc because of his eye symbolism

That the rune cube placement could be trusted to foreshadow things, specifically the Ocean rune in finding the prison and in foreshadowing Callum's dark magic use

Me going "Hey wouldn't it be Fucked Up if whatever comes out of the cocoon is like a child version of Aaravos?" (hi Sir Sparklepuff my beloved)

For that matter: that Aaravos would ask one of the mage fam to kill Sir Sparklepuff for a deep magic spell, and that they'd refuse to do so

Callum's interplay with freedom being too tethered to Rayla that I banked on her eventually being taken hostage and Callum doing morally ambiguous shit to save her like 3+ years in advance

Seeing Callum's S4 design for the first time and noting that the circlets around his wrists invoke chain symbolism but thinking "Nah him and Rayla being in chains like tarot cards will just be metaphoric right". Haha, no!

Ezran as the embodiment of Justice / the series' Witness (hell yeah thank you 4x03 & TOX for making Justice his highest value)

Predicting Rayla's entire arc 2 arc thus far re: her paranoid and restless nature being what puts them on the path to finding Viren and her wanting a rematch, the coins, and her self worth issues, written March 2020 (months before TTM came out)

Callum and Viren as each other's primary foils (begun before this but started being highlighted further from Nov 2019 onwards with specifically thinking that S4, as opposed to s3, would crank it up to an 11)

Rayla and Callum's whole ass light-dark motif that I thought would be a fun consistency in the background rather than a whole ass arc defining Thing

Characterization wise but Ezran as an Enneagram Nine The Peacemaker personality wise (once again thank u 4x03)

Back in Aug 2021 I noticed that bloodbending had thematic similarities to dark magic (in terms of framing, notions of control & agency) but again, didn't think it'd amount to literal likewise puppeteering (Aaravos is/was even imprisoned like Hama too!)

Seeing parallels between dark magic and thematic/metaphorical cannibalism / positing Aaravos as a cannibal in a fic I wrote in 2019 but never ever thinking it'd be more than metaphorical bc kids show, am I right? (when I tell you I screamed)

Like 3 weeks post s3 I came up with Political Trio Theory in which Ezran and Rayla are at odds about something and Callum is caught in the middle, as he agrees more with Rayla but feels like he should side more with Ezran, which an Ezran / trio centric conflict along those lines seems to be what we're going to get personally with Runaan / the coins in future seasons

Which, not only is it mostly to keep my English major-y brain sharp and my enclosure enriched (parallels are my perpetual hamster wheel), but it's also like... obviously predicting from theme/motifs isn't perfect, but it does mean you have all the right pieces. Then it just comes from running through the options to assemble what the puzzle might look like, & also thinking through the constraints of structure and run time (ergo I wasn't surprised when Callum didn't figure out the mirror himself in early S4 cause I just didn't think the show would have time for that kind of slow build).

Like following S2 I never really thought Callum's journey with dark magic was precisely over, firstly because I saw him absolutely as someone who would do dark magic / things he morally is against again if put in the exact circumstances he was in S5 (hence the CHET predictions post up above), but also because as our primary mage character and with dark magic being the core ethical dilemma for mage characters in the show, it just didn't make sense to assume that it'd be entirely resolved with a neat little bow 2/6 (since at the time we thought it'd be 6 seasons) in. Like - what? So that's something from an analytical standpoint of characterization, theme, and structure, for example, and TDP gives us a decent amount of time to get used to all those things especially in the first three seasons and then we can kind of build our predictions neatly from there.

So what usually happens is that I'll have a passing thought / gut reaction, think "huh maybe it's something," and then actually think about it for like 2 days to 2 weeks and realize that it loops back in with a lot of other stray thoughts and that there's something Substantial there. It never stops being wild

Anyway this was definitely way too long a response so TLDR; I'm always pleasantly surprised / excited whenever I predict anything correctly and also adore when the show throws me a curve ball (hi Terry <3), and the fun of theorizing (and sometimes throwing spaghetti at the wall) for me comes down to the themes and parallels and fun (fanon if nothing else) possibilities I can find. I love writing meta, speculative or purely analytical, even if/when they're often time consuming. My instincts haven't steered me too 'wrong' with TDP thus far, and I don't think they ever will!

[genderandanger]

So uhh spoiler for part 1 to 4 of baki

but like lemme get this str8.

Baki's mother is killed by his father, Yujiro calls killing an opponent devouring them, Pickle shows up, Pickle devour losing opponent LITERALLY, Pickle cries when opponent has to be eaten since he only eats who he respects >sees as a true equal, Yujiros demon back crying is an advanced move> when he has to kill a true equal => yujiro only devours the ppl he respects, Emi died happily since she realized this. Baki doesnt like or condone this method of 'love' but gets it.

Miyamoto Musashi shows up, Miyamoto Musashi kills a friend, Baki n the rest of the cast r like 'yeah this happens', only one guy is like no he kills ppl because he kills ppl there deep reasoning stop romanticizing murder, Baki sees this as an insult cus that would mean friend died for no reason, Musashi fights Pickle, Pickle gets physically uncomfortable, BAKI gets physically uncomfortable, realizing Musashi doesnt kill ppl out of love cus he's lonely, Baki tells Musashi to fuck off for being a fake *inherent romanticism in (metaphorical n non metaphorical) cannibalism* fan, Musashi is like 'yeah, I sure hope it does', Musashi is to be killed as a form of love, n we do NOT support forced kissing in this house but Musashi is taken out by a kiss, thus being loved to death literally

if this teach u anything, it should be that Baki speadrunning therapy in son of ogre was a horrible idea

[rodolfoparras]

Am I really stupid for not understanding the metaphor of cannibalism with love? LIKE, I CAN'T UNDERSTAND IT😭😭

I don’t think you’re stupid love! I think it’s the fact that it depicts such a taboo topic that makes it hard to grasp it!

For example we hear the phrase “I’d die for you “ being used a lot but it’s not often we think that the person will do such thing for us especially if they use the phrase in such casual context

Example:

A: You’re so pretty Omg I’d die for you

B: haha thank you!

If we were to take it literally, the expression would come off as rather drastic or scary even.

Same thing can be applied to cannibalism.

Cannibalism usually means the consumption of another human being but when used as a metaphor for love, if doesn’t literally mean that you see yourself killing dismembering and cooking the body parts of another person before you eat them.

It’s used to describe the insatiable feeling of wanting someone when they’re already in your bed and in your arms

You can only fully understand it if you’ve actually felt it but a simple way to explain it is when you have a headache, and you’ve taken painkillers, you’ve eaten, you’ve slept, you’ve done everything yet the ache remains.

It’s the same thing when it comes to the insatiable feeling of wanting someone. You’ve kissed them you’ve held their hand, you have them in your arms hell you’re inside of them yet the insatiable feeling remains so you wish you could consume them in some way or crawl inside of them til the feeling disappears

Now I could be wrong about it but this is how I interpret it

[desertbled]

✿ - for nines? (@mojavexpressd)

FRIENDSHIP.     childhood friends  /  work buddies or coworkers  /  family friends  /  friends with benefits  /  smoking buddies  /  adventure buddies  /  fake friends  /  recently friends  /  party buddies  /  friendship of need  /  dying friendship  /  circumstantial friendship  /  partners in crime  /  old friendship  /  [ your muse ] is the good influence  /  [ your muse ] is the bad influence  /  [ my muse ] is the good influence  /  [ my muse ] is the bad influence  /  opposites attract  /  ride or die  /  frenemies  /  roommates or flatmates  /  penpals  /  exes to friends  /  enemies to friends  /  other

ROMANCE.     childhood sweethearts  /  [ your muse is mines ] childhood crush  /  [ my muse is yours ] childhood crush  /  exes  /  exes to lovers  /  forbidden lovers  /  highschool sweethearts  /  secret relationship  /  opposites attract  /  long distance  /  unrequited [ from your muses side ]  /  unrequited [ from my muses side ]  /  unrequited [ from both sides ]  /  skinny love  /  friends to lovers  /  enemies to lovers  /  spurious relationship  /  power couple  /  newly entered  /  soulmates [ metaphorical ]  /  soulmates  [ literal ]  /  awkward  /  turning toxic  /  toxic love  /  cheating [ on your muse ]  /  cheating [ with your muse ]  /  other 

FAMILIAL.     siblings [ half ]  /  siblings [ step ]  /  [ my muse ] is an older sibling figure to your younger sibling figure  /  [ my muse ] is a younger sibling figure to your older sibling figure muse  /  [ my muse ] is a parental figure to yours  /  [ my muse ] is a child figure to your muse  /  guardian figure  /  legal guardian  /  adoptive child  /  foster child  /  [ your muse ] is taken under mines wing  /  [ my muse ] is taken under yours wing  /  other

ANTAGONISTIC.     dangerous to each other  /  dangerous to others  /  unpredictable  /  rivals  /  petty  /  developing into sexual or romantic tension  /  based off family matters  /  based of off circumstance  /  based of professional matters  /  based off misunderstanding or lies  /  conflict of ideology  /  betrayal  /  hero - villain dynamic  /  enemies  /  fight club  /  friends turned enemies  /  lovers turned enemies  /  exes turned enemies  /  other 

filled this out based on the fact that nines practices cannibalism & has evil karma. unfortunately, wolf is very rigid when it comes to his moral views, so he tends to favor good karma & frowns upon eating people. 😅 maaaaybe if there was no cannibalism involved i could see them perhaps growing into friendship / some sort of familial dynamic. otherwise, they’d probably just be begrudged coworkers, i think.

[release-the-mccracken]

yesss i love those songs, & is also a really good song and i think joe hawley and ross federman from tally hall also went on to do miracle musical / hawaii part ii which is incredible but also 42 minutes long total and some things are kinda difficult to interpret or piece together cuz a lot of it is unclear whether it's meant to be taken literally or metaphorically and some lyrics are in other languages and there's one other song by miracle musical called variations on a cloud that was released separately from hawaii part ii as a preorder bonus so it's debated whether it's meant to be included (especially since the song in question is about 911) but i love reading all the different fan interpretations of the story that the album tells and some of the lyrics and compositions are genuinely beautiful especially dream sweet in sea major (which u may have heard if u use tiktok it's the song that goes like "you look quite divine tonight / here among these vibrant lights / pure delights surround us as we sail / signed yours truly the whale". the song that goes "all for nothing at all" is also by miracle musical btw and i think that one became a tiktok thing as well)

also rob cantor from tally hall is the guy who made the cannibal shia labeouf song which is unrelated to the miracle musical thing i just find it funny

I totally get that, I love when songs have many different interpretations to it. Specifically when an artist never says what they actually thought it meant, leaving no real "right" answer to base it off of.

It's also interesting to hear he did the Shia song! I really love that whole production.

[mushroomjar]

👾 👀?!

Omg hiiiii

I chose Abbey by Mitski, taken from Diana's playlist

Now for the explanation, actually I only added this song to her playlist verrrry recently (maybe because I only actually started listening to Mitski recently lol). I promise it's not just because "lmao cannibal OC gets a song with lyrics about hunger that's funny". I mean, it is funny, and it is a little bit of that, but it's not just that okay!! Also themes of cannibalism paired with themes of hunger always make me go rabid so there's also that. I mean, Diana is a very hungry character (in the literal sense, sorry, I have a hard trouble grasping hunger as a metaphor), partially inspired by my own hunger (again, very literal no metaphors, I get very hungry very often even shortly after meals, it's a problem), so there's that

Obvious cannibalism jokes aside, I also really love the lyrics in this song that talk about a light that can only be seen when there is darkness inside, dreams that only appear in the dark, screaming about being set free, it's a bit harder to put into words but those are also very Diana-coded to me (it may be hard because Diana is a character that's constantly being developed and changing so not a lot is set in stone in terms of her personality and story), particularly the ones about the light that can only be seen when there is darkness inside her, I feel like that resonates with how she views herself (and tbh, how I view her) so well, she's a pretty twisted person yet it is only through that depravity of hers that she's able to truly shine and be happy, it's the only way she knows how to genuinely express kindness and love, and yet it's so damaging to those around her including herself, I just jshdhs I love her

Thanks for the ask!

Ask game

[sleepingdeath-light]

death how do you feel about cannibalism as a metaphor for love

no one will give me an in depth explanation and they just say 'yeah its cool ig' but i must know WHY

Ooo I actually really like this metaphor and have used it a couple of times in my personal (non fanfic) writing for uni prompts haha.

As I understand it there are two sides to this metaphor when it’s applied to love: devotion/oneness and possession/obsession. I’ll explain each briefly in separate paragraphs.

I had a lot of fun with this but it’s also a bit sloppy since I’m really tired right now so, yeah, I hope this makes sense anon! And, again, these are only my interpretations of that metaphor based on how I have used it in the past so, yeah… explanations under the cut because it got a bit more longwinded than I’d have liked haha

1 — Devotion/Oneness

Metaphorical cannibalism, through this lens, is romantic through its references to becoming so close to your significant other that you devour each other. In a more literal sense what it’s describing is the process through which people that spend a lot of time together end up mimicking and picking up on each other’s habits, traits and eccentricities (like how they hold a fork or how they pronounce ‘scone’). But in a metaphor this could be described as sucking on their teeth and swallowing their tongue (adopting their speech patterns) or making a stew of their fingers and tearing the flesh from their arms (mimicking their gestures).

Of course that’s very loose (and sloppily written tbh) and not the only way writers can use cannibalism as a metaphor for love.

2 — Possession/Obsession

When you become so deeply obsessed with someone that you can’t bare the thought of anyone else seeing them, touching them, or speaking to them. Where you become so twisted in your protectiveness that it becomes possessive and you want nothing more than to keep them to yourself — to hide them, devour them, until they’re yours and yours alone. By ‘cannibalising’ them in this metaphor you’re referencing this very unhealthy need to keep someone to yourself — swallowing bones and flesh and skin and organs until there’s nothing left to be taken from you. They’re a part of you now and, as such, can no longer be stolen or hurt or leave.

Of course this is incredibly toxic as a mindset irl but it’s technically a type of love (just not a healthy one) so I guess it applies.

[neo-shitty]

holy shit, i loved this so much. this is the perfect piece for sayaka murata readers (i.e., me). i just enjoyed how twisted this was from the get go. it took me too long to catch on that it was a mermaid au bc of gem's pov (maybe i'm just making excuses and i'm terribly slow lol). i really did believe her when she said it was just a fish!such a perfect mix of magical realism, domestic horror, and even a lovecraftian touch to pearl's character that i just couldn't put it down. i loved the world building; you nailed the feeling of isolation with a job that requires someone to have such long hours alone and the interpretation of gem's character as a ruthless fisherman. their dynamic together!!! i lost my mind at my darling gemini and then immediately backtracked bc why am i shipping a human with a fish... (. _ .) there's just something about this that was so haunting and alluring that i just. couldn't. stop. reading. i need more of this but it was also enough, it ended on such a perfect note that i wouldn't have had this any other way. does this fall under the category of cannibalism as a metaphor for love when it was taken literally???

[copied from my ao3 comment, saving this on tumblr for my reference]

Chapters: 14/14 Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: GeminiTay/Pearl | PearlescentMoon, GeminiTay & Katy | FalseSymmetry Characters: GeminiTay (Video Blogging RPF), Pearl | PearlescentMoon, Katy | FalseSymmetry Additional Tags: Blood and Gore, Fisherman GeminiTay (Video Blogging RPF), Mermaid Pearl | Pearlescentmoon, Cannibalism, kind of, gem is perfectly willing to eat a fish with a human upper half, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, dead salmon mermaid do not eat, no beta we die like pearl dies in this fic when her throat is cut by a filleting knife, No Sex, Biting, Knife Violence, Suicidal Thoughts, Self-Harm, Jealousy, Contains Both Temporary and Permanent Character Death, Murder, Shiny Duo-Centric, false is only there for a few chapters Summary:

a record of every time geminitay encountered the fish with the human face.

13: it always looked the same.

14: epilogue.

[nexusconjunx]

🌑 and 💣 >:)

Thank u dear x3333

🌑 - Is there reoccurring symbolism? Motifs?

OOOOOH I have a few of them and they are all super angsty and I love adding more terrible simbols x333

the Salmon: My main character is a chimera made from differet animals, one of them the Salmon. The struggle up a river to ensure the next generation, enduring pain for people you will never get to meet, ensuring a future... Although he himself does not know that. Does a Salmon know why it struggles upstream? He believes himself a koi, to be honest, and he wont be happy about his true purpose...

The Eyes: DUUUDE eyes are so gooood. Love them. Especially the ones that stare at you from a distance, you can barely make out a body, but you are Judged. I've got one highborn character who struggles a lot with his family, and he has always felt their burning eyes on him; they shame him and he tries but there is nothing he can do to win their favour. In the end, he tries to keep his young daughter (who looks part goat) from their judgemental gaze.

Cannibalism: I love me some good old consumption of the flesh. After watching the sandman i really want to include an imprisoned God entity, but of course I gotta make it a bit darker. An Immortal who you can eat and drink from to gain more power? Who will not die regardless of how much you cut from him? Right up my alley. This poor guys Teeth and Bones and Eyeballs are taken all across the realms and people gain unimagineable powers from them, while they feast on his flesh and blood to gain immortality. (this god thing bleeds magic, which is why it gets pretty wacky around earth)

I've also got a centaur who literally eats the poor, and Halling used to be a guardian for a wizard, so he has eaten human flesh before. idk idk idk i just really love cannibalism as the most demeaning act upon your victims body.

💣 - What/who triggers the climax of the plot?

What plot o(*￣▽￣*)ブ but no seriously so far its always been "Halling and Aard make up and live happily ever after" but... now I am leaning really hard into that salmon metaphor, and I want the two of them to free that captured god. Both of them know what it's like to be at the mercy of others, and they want to make things right. Somehow.

I do not know how to get to that point; i know Aards motivations for fighting the wizards (they treated him like shit) and Hallings (they want the charm that keeps him alive) and I know I want Halling to get worse before he gets better (personality wise; i want him to be selfish and uppity and a brat) but I dunno how to get to the ending yet.

Maybe Hallings Salmon journey is that he is the one who can save that godbeing and ensure safety for the rest of the world?

[touchmycoat]

23, 31, 40!

HI THANK YOU <3 <3 <3 

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

Mmmh I’ll go with Unethical Consumption / 痴!

My favorite thing to do in fic is to have plot elements interact with canon elements in inexplicit ways. As a reader I get a lot of insider communal joy when I see this in fics, so I try my best to do it myself~

So XXC gives SL his own eyes (without consent!) and then leaves, right? In this fic, through my favorite plot element of ~cannibalism~ they get to have that argument: XXC wants to cut off his arm to feed them both and SL gets to explicitly communicate the fact that he in no way wants XXC to sacrifice his own body for SL’s gain.

Navel-gazey but, I do hope this is establishes more than foreshadowing. Fan works are transformative works, right? Through thinking of plots like this, I get to see songxiao’s possibilities get fleshed out (through cannibalism haaaaah)! They have full lives beyond their short narrative tragedy; their character arcs exist beyond Yi City and its aftermath. Hopefully readers get the same feeling~

ALSO I got to write angry!XXC and fighting words are so much fucking fun to write :D :D :D 

31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?

oh god fandom has spoiled me completely rotten TTTTTTT YOU included!!!!! I feel like it’s because I have fandom that I can be self-critical y’know? People are so fucking nice, I get this safety net of readers who are here to enjoy themselves, who have such generosity of spirit that they’re seeing all these good things about my writing. I believe very hard in having faith in my readers, so every. single. compliment is taken to heart. I’m absolutely enamored with every analysis people do, every connection people make, every time someone tells me they laughed at my sTUFPID FUCKING SEX FICS JNDFKDJFNKD

but anyways, the nonexhaustive list: the person who just leaves a series of sweat emojis on all my porn, the person who comments one line that drags me on a fic-specific basis, the people who indulge my sex crack, the people who read my fics & comments within like the hour of publishing, people who take days but always circle back, people who tell me they’ve been saving my fics to read, people who tell me i sold them on a character they weren’t sure about before, people who like my porn lololol, people who like my cute stuff, people who copypaste all their favorite lines, people who flip out in the comments, people who wrote me essays, people who says it got personal for them, people who remember my fics, people who like my language, people who tell me they trust me as an author to write about less normative stuff, more emotionally stressful stuff....

aaaaah i’m getting weepy just thinking about it lolol <3 <3 <3 <3 literally anyone who’s even given my fic a passing try, god fucking bless.

40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

oh shit! pacing, probably? It’s the thing I edit the most—but huh, that might be because it’s the thing that requires the largest scale of editing lolol. characterization is something i gotta be constantly aware of? grammar?

!!! mixing metaphors. I love me some metaphors but it’s been a concerted effort on my part to be more consistent about them within the same fic lololol.

((Fanfic Ask Meme!))

[weallpartyatybcpatricksfuneral]

Also Patrick was like. Awake for all this. He was heavily drugged by the time of young volcanos but he could very clearly see that his friends were eating his organs (and they were definitely eating more than just like a kidney because the shots of the food paralleled with multiple surgery scars on Patrick's body imply that many more organs were taken out.)

I believe the one shot of Pete vomiting blood + the snake (along with some shots of the young volcanos video) imply that he also figures it out but?? Andy and Joe NEVER realize it and it's not even known if Pete even knows what happened at that dinner. Patrick probably knows some as he was awake to see what was happening but too drugged to comprehend it (by the time of the young volcanos video he is very out of it and giddy, so he's been drugged for a while).

This definitely ties in with the brainwashing Patrick goes through where he becomes hostile to music itself . He's had to cannibalize not only part of his physical self but also his metaphorical self.

- physically Patrick has eaten part of his own body that was forcibly removed from him. Like this wasn't skin or anything THESE WERE HIS INTERNAL ORGANS that were being eaten. And Patrick wasn't even put under anything for the operation either: he's wide awake as the women dissect him in The Phoenix mv. There's also some really fucked up ties to the last supper (which adds to the messiah like imagery that surrounds all of the guys but Patrick specifically) as the four of them literally consume the body and blood (I think it's also implied that the wine they drink is blood? Not entirely sure but it is possible). Patrick has part of him consumed by not only himself by but others-- others that he absolutely loves.

-metaphorically a part of him was torn out violently and then consumed by himself in the form of music. Patrick is the frontman! The lead singer + rhythm guitarist! He is VERY tied to music not just in fall out boy but also in his solo stuff. Which is why HE is chosen to become the brainwashing victim instead of Pete or Andy or Joe. Music is very very important to who Patrick is as a person, and that part of him is VIOLENTLY removed in an invasive procedure (paralleling the physical invasive procedure of the dissection in the Phoenix). Both the Alone Together and Rat A Tat mv show how painful the brainwashing process is for Patrick. It's implied he's being violently shocked (the electrodes on his head) while being forced to listen to music, which creates a sort of response that associates music to violence and pain and anger (in a sort of Pavlov's dogs type of experiment). Here Patrick is forced to "cannibalize" his music (whether it was his music or not that he was conditioned with, it's music all the same it's quite literally part of his body) and become something evil for the benefit of others.

What you said about the intimacy of it all-- carrying a part of the person you love inside of you in the most literal, evil sense-- is totally correct and I feel like it has something to do with the toxic relationship imagery that is spread throughout Fall Out Boys music (but VERY specifically in Where Did The Party Go and Miss Missing You).

- both of these songs address a relationship. A very toxic one at that-- WDTPG directly draws parallels between a person and a pack of cigarettes. They're beautiful (in a twisted sense) from afar, but it's only after you start to get involved that true colors are shown and you start ingesting poison. Specifically this parallel to cigarettes makes me think of the feast in Young Volcanos and how Patrick has to watch the people most important to him (whether you choose to view it romantically as in Pete or strictly platonic is up to you. The idea is the same at its core). Patrick has to watch this sort of twisted up beauty-- beauty being in the form of a holy supper, twisted in the sense they are literally consuming his body and blood-- and he eventually has to ingest his own poison himself. Patrick is both ends of the toxic relationship that he has with himself: he is the person that is toxic and dangerous and who you shouldn't get near because he will hurt yoy (as evidenced by him killing Joe and Pete in the two songs I specified) while also being the person dragged into a toxic relationship that slowly poisons him from the inside out.

-

[ofstories-archive]

before i was a liar, i was something else.  cast out.  out of kingdoms.  families.  universes.  again.  and again.  and again.

trigger warnings for death, murder, suicide, abuse, trauma, & cannibalism.

(  nat wolff, diana silvers.  unknown, physically twenty-three.  he/him, they/them, she/her.  )   everything’s fine,  LOKI LAUFEYSON,  you’re in the good place!  do you remember your last days in  MARVEL COMICS? but don’t worry, your  ( stories told around a fire, the green glow of magic, & black nailpolish )  will fit perfectly with the rest of the good place, so long as you commit to the  GOOD KING  despite your tendency to commit to  ( insecurities )  that the architect of the good place said you were. it’ll just be like a fun acting exercise! just play along and everything will continue to be fun.

so.... i’m going to assume we all know who loki is, yeah?  the norse god of mischief, (adoptive) brother of thor, prince of asgard, etc.  that’s all true to this loki, but if you’re only familiar with the mcu, there will be differences as i write a strictly comics/earth-616 based loki !

spoilers for most comics loki’s appeared in since 2010ish, but mostly loki: agent of asgard, thor (2018), war of the realms, and loki (2019).

stats can be found here.

BIO

i’m going try and speed through the first portion of this bio seeing as like.... loki’s technically died multiple times and been reincarnated (....basically), and i write the current, third incarnation of them.  so i’m only going to briefly mention the important stuff from the previous incarnations.  and if any of this is confusing, 1) i’m sorry, and 2) i know.

original loki.

son of laufey, the king of jotunheim.  laufey was (physically) abusive to loki.  loki wound up getting taken / being adopted by odin and freyja.  loki is fully aware of being adopted, and that he’s not an asgardian and is in fact a frost giant.

he, at some point, went back in time and brutally murdered laufey for being abusive (and also messed with things and basically manipulated the events that led to him being adopted).

he did some really messed up stuff, wound up being known as the god of evil rather than the god of mischief.  hated being defined by that, ends up trying to change but kinda sorta died.

kid loki.

loki wound up being reincarnated, as a child.

he’s... the loki that could have and should have been?  he’s.... great.  if loki were a true hero.  he used his tricks for good, tried to help people.

but literally no one trusts him because he’s the reincarnation of, yknow, the god of evil.

he’s being haunted by an echo/ghost of the original loki, a magpie known as ikol.

long story made short, ikol basically manipulates kid loki into dying.

ikol kills kid loki and steals his body.

and here we are, at the third loki - the specific one i write.  they’ve just committed the “crime that will not be forgiven”.  absolutely no one but loki themself knows about this.

they join the young avengers, trying to steal billy kaplan’s powers.  but things don’t go at all as planned, and they leave the team behind after somewhat helping fix the mess they had created.

they wind up working for the allmother (freyja, idunn, and gaea) in an attempt to redeem themself, to make up for everything they’ve done wrong in the past.

it goes... poorly, given that king loki - a loki from the future - shows up and promises the allmother that asgard will be everything they want, all for the low price of loki being the eternal villain.

loki, understandably, is less than pleased about this, and eventually through a whole lotta shit happening, the truth about kid loki comes out.

queue the trauma conga line! 1) thor tries to kill loki, can’t bring himself to do it.  still breaks loki’s arm and knocks out a tooth. 2) the asgardians declare loki to be worth no more than the dirt under their feet. 3) freyja banishes loki and sends them into exile. 4) odin gives them some very dubious life advice, and then sets them on fire.

king loki explains to loki exactly why loki will always be the villain, why they will never be accepted or loved or wanted.

it’s because they’re the god of lies, and no matter how much good they do, how can anyone trust someone with that for a title?

they get sent to “the metaphorical space.  the place we lokis always go for the final act.” and have a lovely conversation with the original loki and kid loki who basically....

og loki tells ikol that they have to accept that all they will ever be is the villain, while kid loki offers ikol the option of dying, of killing themself.  and that’s it.  loki’s lot in life is to either be a villain or to die.

but, because they have an amazing best friend (verity willis) who talks them off either ledge, they choose the third option: a happy ending, redefining who they are because they don’t have to be what anyone else tells them they have to be.

because stories?  stories are lies that people want to hear, lies that people love.  and loki winds up becoming the god of stories, instead of staying the god of lies.

it makes more sense in context.

but it’s not about loki wanting to be accepted by others, not really.  when odin says that loki is finally thor’s equal and that loki’s worthy, loki basically tells him to fuck off.

because see... loki’s arc is about them accepting themself and learning to love themself, and less about them actually being accepted by others.

but because this is loki nothing’s ever good and happy for long.

laufey’s back from the dead, and loki’s tasked with working with him to be a double agent for asgard (even though technically loki’s still in exile ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

shit keeps happening.

more shit happens.

then war of the realms !

during this time..... laufey finds out that loki’s a double agent and.... he eats loki.

yes, you read that and my trigger warning for cannibalism correctly.  i wish i was joking or lying about this, but i’m not.

loki has a sword and cuts their way out of laufey’s stomach, killing laufey in the proccess.  and in doing so becomes the king of jotunheim.

they do not want that throne.  they don’t want any throne, really.  they would gladly abdicate, but thor, who’s the allfather by this point, won’t let them.

none of the frost giants want loki as king, either but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

a bit more shit happens.

they wind up locked in the raft, a maximum security prison built to contain super-powered criminals.  however, loki can still use magic in their cell because they’re apparently not really a villain, and therefore the raft’s rules of neutralizing super villains powers can’t hold any sway over them.

loki winds up breaking out of the cell because they can and that’s what they do.

and here’s where i break from canon and into the rp.

there’s fighting over the throne for jotunheim, and loki eventually wound up getting killed as a result.

the fake life presented to them is something along the lines of if loki hadn’t ever died before and was like kid loki (ie, good but through less than good means) the whole while.

EXTRAS

loki prefers being referred to as laufeyson/laufeysdottir over odinson/odinsdottir but will reply to either.  they ultimately prefer no patronym be used at all, though.

their memories are... jumbled.  they don’t remember everything from past lives, and they have memories of events that have never actually happened.

here in The Good Place™ loki 1000000% feels like they don’t belong.

partially because of how many times they’ve died and come back to life, like.  they reckon they aren’t going to stick around very long.

partially because this seems too much like an alternate reality version of valhalla, and they know that’s not where they’d end up.

and partially because like... they’re a norse god.  this isn’t one of their afterlifes.  this is something else, and loki doesn’t know what to make of it.

they’re a resident of colohuara.

read their wiki pages they’re more cohesive than this is lmao.  og loki + kid loki + ikol

i’m so sorry about how long this got.  if you read through all of it, i love you and owe you my life.

if anyone would like to plot, just throw me a dm !!!

[jeanjauthor]

No Fandom Flame Wars, But...

...I am prefacing this with the statement that I am NOT going to participate in any arguments over ANY of this.  You have a right to your opinion, and I have a right to my own. Respect that.  There is NO need for a fandom flame war of any sort (and y’all will be ignored if you try to ignite one with me).  There is room for all sorts of viewpoints.

With that said...

Time for one of those Controversial Opinions™* that we keep seeing on Tumblr and Twitter, etc, ad nauseam...and here is my own (potentially very but who cares) Controversial Opinion:

I like the way The Witcher series has been plotted and filmed.

You don’t have to read any further (and I’m implementing a cut to avoid #spoilers for those who haven’t seen it yet), but that’s my take on it, and the TL;DR version of why is because The Show Is Making Me Think About All The Things In It.

This is a rare thing these days, because so much is spoon-fed to us in other shows...but I like it.  And for me...it works.

The rest is behind a cut.  Be warned, if you click the Keep Reading, you’ll be entering the *spoiler*-filled mists on those archaic medieval maps where cartographers usually put warnings like “Here Be Dragons” and such...

And yes, that IS a deliberate pun. *spoiler spoiler spoiler!* It was also a good episode, and yes, I want that tent. I just don’t want to have to transport it physically, yeesh...trust me, I KNOW how much tent that is to try to transport, the tent on the inside. (The one on the outside still requires a horse at the very least, but only one horse.). I’ve been playing around in the SCA, medieval society, for decades!

Anyway...on to why I like the series:

At first, I was hella confused. I literally had to rewind and repeat several time the scene where Renfri talks of Calanthe just having won her battle...when earlier, I’d seen Ciri telling Calanthe that “when you were my age”...  (Which, on a side note, is what I thought was the age of 14 years old. Dunno why I stuck on that number, but apparently in the chronology she’s actually 11yo, I guess, when Ciri’s storyline takes place?  Since Geralt left 12 years before, when she was still a nausea-stirring little zygote or whatever...but I digress.)

So the first episode confused me.  But holy hellz ballz, the fight scene was freaking awesome!  That was like...some grandmaster fight choreographer’s fightporn wetdream!  Every move Geralt made in the fight against Renfri’s men was believable.  Fast, realistic, hella good choreography!  ...Gross, gory, and at a few points I could see hints of the CGI used, but I was actually rather grateful to see some of the CGI, because that kept me from flinching too much...though certain scenes later on definitely made me Look Away.

[Btw, for anyone watching, #spoiler for #implied #suicide #attempts. Also, magical #cannibalism, yuck.]

Anyway, that first episode was fascinatingly good in its fight choreography, Geralt was pretty to watch, and I found myself interested in what was going on.

I’ll also admit I was confused enough to go looking for spoilers, and found some comment somewhere explaining that the different scenes were being told non-sequentially. That each different main character was in a different time period.  The post I read reassured the readers that, if we paid attention, we could figure out which stories were being told in which era, the more we went along.

THAT made sense to me...and I decided I’d give it a try...but to be honest, I wasn’t entirely wasn’t sure if they could pull it off.

I do think that is what has put a lot of people off, the way the story is initially being told, by the way.  Some people have compared it to a (grimdark) version of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys...but I really don’t think that’s a decent comparison.  Not because H:TLJ is better or worse in any way, but because it and X:WP were their own things, without consistent story-threads woven throughout each and every episode as a single tapestry.

...That’s actually a pretty good comparison.  In fact, it’s so good, let’s use this as a metaphor for the difference between the two.

This is Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as tapestry art:

Here are several different tapestries.  Each one is full of plantlife and people and animals.  Sometimes the animals are mythical, like unicorns.  Sometimes there are hunting dogs and horses.  Often times there are flowers and fruits.  A number of the tapestries have similar objects repeated over and over from one to the next...but for the most part, they are separate stories even if they have similar themes.  This is H:TLJ.  A series of separate or similar-themed tapestries.  Sometimes you’ll even get some telling a progression...but for the most part, they’re a bunch of different tapestries woven by different storytellers.

This, on the other hand, is The Witcher as a tapestry:

...Most people will recognize this as the Bayeux Tapestry (Do NOT @ me about it being technically an embroidery, not an actual woven tapestry, shush!)...but what you may not realize is that I’ve taken pieces of it from the very long single image posted on Wikipedia (located here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry just click on the images on that page, click through, and find the really long super skinny horizontal version).

More than that, I’ve taken pieces from it, and mixed up where they come from in the chronology...but it is all still one and the same story.

These seemingly disconnected bits and pieces are like finding a bunch of chests in an old storage room in a cathedral somewhere, opening them up, and finding folded bits of cloth with magnificent images embroidered on them...but not knowing that you’ve opened the chest with panels 4-6 first, and that the next chest you open has panels 25-27, and the third chest you open has panels 13-15.  You see these images, they’re fascinating, yet they seem disjointed and unconnected...but...they’re not.

We just have to put them into the right order to tell the full tale.

This is something we don’t get in storytelling.  Not very often, at least!  The storytelling invites us to put the pieces together.  Now, I’ll freely admit they could’ve done a somewhat better job in the very first episode, and finding that spoiler-warning that the chronology is mixed up did help...but I do like to think I would’ve figured it out as I went along.

Yes, I only just started watching the series, after all 8 episodes were out of the first season (prequel season? whatever) so that all the spoilers were already out, yadda yadda.  And yes, it’ll suck having to wait for the next season.  I am not sure if they’ll keep telling the storyline in this same open-a-random-tapestry-chest fashion, but since I do know (haven’t watched it yet, but it’s next in the queue) that in the 8th episode, Geralt and Ciri finally meet (and he’s already met Yennefer), that we finally have most of the pieces spread out on the walls.

They may not be originally laid out in their proper order...but we have enough to put things in order.  And that, dear readers, fans, etc, is our job to do, in the way this story is being told.

It is not for everyone.  I freely admit it.  But it does make those of us who stick with it invest more of ourselves in the story.

We’re the archaeologist finding these treasure chests full of these tapestry stories, and we’re just now realizing that this is a HUGE SINGLE TAPESTRY, with massively intricate details...some of which are just lending color to a scene, but others of which will be referenced later, or be a foreshadowing of something to come, or a flashback of what has already occurred.

That is why I truly like how this story is being told.

It’s not something I could enjoy within each and every story across all of creation...but I don’t need a bloody Bayeux Tapestry each and every time.

I got to puzzle out some really cool things.  I got to experience several aha! moments.  I had a number of wtf was that?? moments, too...and lord knows I got plenty of delicious eye-candy.  (Also the scene of the half-paralyzed bard dropped into the midst of the orgy scene was freakin’ hilarious, because you know he was being tormented, heaven-and-hell all at one and the same time, the lustiest night of his life...and he could not participate, poor fellow.

Also, “Toss a coin to your Witcher” and the other songs are actually pretty decently done. I love the fact the actor playing Jaskier is the one actually singing these end-credit songs.

...One last thing.  Some of the people don’t appear to age.  That might give the impression that most do not...and that did lend some to the illusion of chronology confusion.  In truth, most folks in this universe do age, but they’re mostly background characters.  Calanthe and her husband showed signs of aging, Mousesack certainly aged, and Yennefer gets in a good crack at the bard about his crow’s feet, a common sign of aging, if not one instantly visible to most. (Since he doesn’t get many close-ups, you can’t tell he has crow’s feet...but neither can you not tell...so that and the quality & style of his clothes changing help tell you that he’s been aging.)

To be honest, your genetics does quite a lot to determine how “old” you will look.  I knew a woman who looked like she was 92 (roughly the age my grandmother died) when she was actually only 62 (about a year before she died).  At the same time, I knew a woman who was celebrating her 90th Birthday, but she looked like she was at most in her late 60s.

Some people don’t get grey hairs until they’re in their 60s.  Some turn grey-haired in their 20s or 30s.  When I think back on the differences in appearance for people like Calanthe, she did look younger in the earlier era scenes...and she did look older in the later era scenes.  Plus, the better your diet and exercise are, the healthier and thus younger you’ll look...so it’s expected that a queen wouldn’t age nearly as fast as a commoner.

Additionally, when you have magically modified characters who cannot age, and they’re the main / primary characters...well, we really don’t spend nearly as much time looking at the secondary & tertiary characters.  Yet they did put some effort into aging those characters appropriately.

So with that observation made, I think they did a reasonably good job...because they’re also dealing with the constraints of a production budget.  Netflix took a risk on this series.  They sunk a lot into the special effects, blood splatters, choreography, magic effects, etc.  But I think it’s also a case of deliberately obfuscating the puzzle pieces.  They didn’t go in for the overblown obviously older effects (makeup, CGI, whatever)...because they want their viewers to think about what we’re watching.

But I’ll bet that, if we go back and take a second look...we’ll see the little details of non-immortal (or at least regular lifespan) folks actually aging, if they get to appear in two different timelines.  When you have a story this large and this long, however...not everyone will get to reappear.

Anyway...that’s my Controversial Opinion™.  I genuinely like the way The Witcher has been told in its first season.  For me, it genuinely works.  I’ve had fun discovering and opening all the tapestry-boxes, and am having fun trying to fit together all the puzzle pieces of each story section so that I have the full chronology in my head.

I like the amount of time that I’ve had to invest in this story to make sense of it.

...And I especially like the use of the word “Fuck.”  If you’ve watched the series, you know which one I mean.  The one that was quietly said, in the very quiet room, in front of a whole bunch of very quiet people.

Very well said.

*applauds*