#considering we're only on episode 6

[bapydemonprincess]

I'll be honest if the plan is to put some or somehow all of Green Witch Arc shoe horned into Season 4 instead of giving it its own seperate thing, I'll be.. highly upset

[blueskittlesart]

All children raised religiously are being abused. They're sweet now but in thirty years see who's voting for Trump Jr or who ever the fuck.

ok let's talk about it. for context i've been working with children aged 2-6 in both school and home settings for almost 10 years and have met kids raised in basically every major religion in the world. I was personally raised completely agnostic.

religion is not inherently abuse. religion is a moral framework. All religions have the potential to become high-control groups or perpetuate abuse, and certain religions are more prone to those issues than others. that does not mean that teaching your child about the god you believe in is abusive. the abuse comes when your religion perpetuates a lack of choice, which, as I have already explained, most of the religious children i have worked with are not experiencing. Religion at such a young age is often primarily about stories, which preschool aged children LOVE. The bible functions similarly to, say, a my little pony episode to these children, in the sense that it's a fun story they get to experience which teaches them an age-appropriate moral lesson at the end. (and by and large, these kids are only getting the age-appropriate stories and lessons. I do not know any evangelical children who are being taught about the rapture and i don't condone that kind of fear tactic, but again, that's not what's being discussed here. we're talking about RELIGION, not high-control groups that happen to use god as a mechanism to perpetuate their abuse.)

in that same vein, religion in preschool aged children largely functions as a moral framework, which, in certain situations, can genuinely be very helpful. the christian and muslim children I have worked with especially are very often the ones that are the best at resolving conflict. they understand the concept of "treat others the way you want to be treated" and they're able to articulate it to their peers at an age where their morality is still developing and children often think in very black and white, self-centered ways. With rituals like prayer, church, etc, at such a young age they tend to consider them bonding activities. they have friends at their church or temple. their entire family prays together in the same way an agnostic family may enjoy a family dinner. again, I'm not denying that these rituals have the potential to be used to control or abuse, but they are not INHERENTLY abusive. they're normal. religion is a normal part of life for a VERY large percent of the population. telling your two year old about heaven isn't inherently going to strike the fear of god into their heart. more likely it's going to make them tell their babysitter, very earnestly, that when they go to heaven they're going to bring their legos so that we can all play legos together in heaven.

it is very likely that you, personally, have people in your life who are privately religious and you never even knew, because religion is not inherently a public statement of identity nor is it necessarily conducive to fringe or radical beliefs. it is a part of the human experience. you need to learn to be normal about religion.

[eloise-t-g]

i think for me, the watcher situation comes down to this:

it's absolutely respectable that the watcher team wants to grow and produce better quality content. it's respectable that they don't want to stagnate and end up pushing the same content out over and over again. that's not satisfying for them creatively, i get that.

however, if higher quality, more heavily produced content is not what your fans are asking for, then you can't ask them to fund it.

this all-or-nothing method they've gone for is frankly bizarre. it feels like they leap-frogged all other alternatives to improving their finances and ended up here, alienating and frustrating the majority of their fanbase (the fanbase they thanked for getting them to where they are).

i think this could have gone a lot better if they:

Hadn't hyped up this video for a week.

Hadn't announced the worth it successor just beforehand.

Hadn't put out a wishy-washy, "boo hoo we're so sad about this", over-produced video.

Hadn't made it $6/month (more in a lot of countries given exchange rates).

Had considered that this means fans in specific countries literally cannot pay for the subscription due to geo/region-locking.

my ideas for improving their funds, aka things they could have tried before blowing their brand up: create their own website with two options - a free version with ads and a paid version without ads, OR make better use of their patreon/make their website extra content, not all their content, for example:

Put the ghost file debriefs on there.

Put shows like survival mode on there (or even shift that show from pre-recorded video to live-stream - live stream access to patrons and VOD access to everyone, maybe).

Put episode commentaries there.

Do reaction videos to their old buzzfeed content, talk about memories and BTS, and put that there.

Put one/two episodes of each show, per season on there (and ONLY there).

Put the episodes up there a few days early.

Make specific, website only content (that's not your main and most popular series aka ghost files and puppet history).

Record the live, in-person shows and put those VODs up there.

EDIT (thought of something else lmao): put extended or even uncut versions of ghost files on there. Paranormal Detour on Detune's twitch channel has shown that people will willingly sit through 6+ hours of a ghost investigation.

EDIT: idk, do livestreams once a week where you watch scary movies with fans on discord or twitch.

(side note: the fact that they're not taking down their patreon and instead shifting all of their podcast content on there, something the patreons who have been loyally giving them money for years didn't ask for, is ridiculous and greedy. add to this the fact that they don't even get a free sub to the new website, instead get 40% off - a measly 10% more than anyone else who subs before the official launch).

the thing for me is that they're claiming they want to make "television" and "television-grade content". that's completely fine. what's not completely fine is acting like your four episodes a month is equal to netflix's entire catalogue.

this really felt like it should have been something they told us they were progressing towards, not something they revealed to be on the imminent horizon. idk, it just feels out of nowhere. no, they don't owe us all of the info about their company. but something had to be better than this.

final thought - it's okay and valid to be upset at the team for this. for a lot of people, it's a complete betrayal (especially the comment that $6 a month is something "anyone and everyone can afford", i mean yikes). i do think some people's anger got the best of them, and some of the comments i've seen across youtube, twitter, and tumblr are plain bullying, racism, and harassment. until we have the whole story, we can't decide that one founder (aka steven in a lot of people's minds) is solely responsible. i know a lot of these awful things are only coming from a small minority of the fandom, but they still get seen.

at the end of the day, all three of them got up in front of a camera and made this video, together. that can only lead us to the conclusion that they made this decision together. acting like these men in their 30s couldn't stand up against it if they truly wanted to, is so strange and parasocial lmao.

tl;dr there were much better ways of going about this announcement, if it even needed to be made at all. however, that doesn't excuse the hateful shit being spewed at the team. for now, all we know is the three founders decided they were done with youtube, and done with their loyal youtube audience.

(i have so many more thoughts on this but i need to stop lmao. however i do wonder how different things could have been if 1. they had hired someone with actual business experience as their CEO from the jump, and 2. this video was more of a "hey we're broke! this is a last-ditch effort to save our company!". guess those questions will remain ... well ... you know ...).

[nogoodsheepstealing-greatgrandma]

Consequences of Driftmark for Alicent and Rhaenyra

*In F&B, the events at Driftmark take place during Laenor's funeral, not Laena's, and Harwin is still alive, and Lyonel Strong is still Hand.

In bold are the consequences that are depicted in House of the Dragon - the rest are cut.

Consequences of Driftmark for Alicent in F&B:

Aemond (10) accidentally loses an eye, scarring him for life

Viserys publicly forbids any questioning of Rhaenyra's sons' parentage

Consequences of Driftmark for Rhaenyra in F&B:

Jace (6) is 'savagely pummelled' by Aemond and Luke (5) has his nose broken

Viserys orders Rhaenyra to move to Dragonstone to put an end to the fighting, therefore distancing her from court

Viserys orders her lover Ser Harwin Strong away to Harrenhall to dispel the rumours (resulting in his and Lyonel's deaths by fire)

Viserys considers but passes over Rhaenyra as his new Hand and reinstates Otto instead.

Meanwhile in House of the Dragon:

Harwin is already dead after being sent away for beating up Ser Criston Cole defending the honor of the Crown Princess against the Kingsguard knight who is apparently allowed to publicly shit-talk her?

Rhaenyra has already chosen to exile herself to Dragonstone because something something wise sailor steers to avoid the storm??

Rhaenyra is never even considered in the running to serve as her own father's Hand despite being the Crown Princess. Viserys even mentions that his own father Baelon had served as Hand for his father King Jaehaerys... but nope he just gives that pin straight back to Otto.

And then there's Rhaenyra immediately marrying Daemon after faking Laenor's death...

Again, Laenor is already dead at this point in the book. It is his funeral, and that is why we're having the first public confrontation over the boys parentage now, when Laenor is no longer around to refute it. Yes, Laenor is an unfortunate example of an LGBT character getting killed off, but the attempts by the show to avoid burying their gays creates a new host of problems. Laenor is now ok with murdering an innocent bystander, and then traumatising his parents and children with a body burnt beyond recognition. Rhaenyra is now also ok with this. This is now a part of their characterisation, but not one the show actually addresses or acknowledges - because it was only ever a temporary characterisation for the purposes of finding a way to get rid of Laenor without repeating a harmful trope. Similar to how it is now apparently a part of Rhaenys' characterisation that she will slaughter hundreds of smallfolk (and keeps a nifty change of armour in her purse for emergencies). This was purely for the Doylist purpose of having a big shocking Game of Thrones Episode 9 Moment, as evidenced by the weak Watsonian reason for why Rhaenys didn't end the war there and then ("she wouldn't do that to another mother" "it wasn't my war to start"). Not to mention that by episode 10 both Rhaenyra and Rhaenys seem to espouse the ideals of the Geneva Convention.

The change makes Laenor a suddenly very shitty person - particularly considering he left his kids with a burnt corpse so soon after their biological father actually died in a fire (it's not as though the show even makes the most of this trauma to actually develop Jace as a character). If Laenor is to exit the show anyway, at least have him exit with integrity. Then instead of spending his final episodes setting up Laenor faking his own death we could have explored his relationship with his children. What if instead of Harwin defending the boys in the training yard we had Laenor facing off against Criston Cole? The man who murdered his lover and now bullies his children? This would also establish Laenor as a father figure whose presence would actually be missed - as it is he is treated as a political nuisance to be bumped off so Rhaenyra can finally marry Daemon.

Which is also a consequence of changing the order of deaths around - Harwin is still alive during Laenor's funeral in the book. If Harwin were still alive in the show, Rhaenyra would not be looking to marry Daemon - as GRRM said in an interview, he could write at least a novella about Rhaenyra's romance with Harwin. Rhaenyra certainly would not have been plotting to get rid of Laenor. Again, it is as soon as Laenor dies that there is a public confrontation over about their sons' parentage; losing Laenor only hurts Rhaenyra.

On that note, while Daemon is rumoured to have paid Qarl Correy to get rid of Laenor, he is not the only one who stood to benefit from Laenor's death. It is much easier for the Greens or for Vaemond to challenge the legitimacy of Rhaenyra's children with Laenor no longer alive to claim them as his own. Especially if you kill him off before the now-betrothed Luke and Rhaena can grow old enough to marry and seal the alliance (in the book, it is Laena who arranges to betroth the children - perhaps she knew her cousin Vaemond would have no qualms usurping her daughters). And especially if Harwin is still alive and looking very suspicious as Rhaenyra's sworn shield. Imagine Harwin at Laenor's funeral, unable to comfort his grieving children without raising suspicion now that Laenor's absence leaves them exposed.

Providing an alternative suspect for Laenor's death would allow Daemon to be a more mysterious and grey character. I think one of the best moments of the show was when it cut away from Daemon's 'Heir for a day' toast to Otto reporting it to Viserys. Matt Smith apparently delivered the line with more sincerity than Otto makes out - a creative choice which is very in keeping with the spirit of F&B, filled as it is with biased narrators. I think it's a shame the show dropped this approach - imagine if the audience only ever heard rumours of Daemon murdering Rhea Royce, or murdering Laenor? Imagine if we had to balance for ourselves the light and dark in the character, analysing for ourselves how much truth was in the rumours. Imagine if Rhaenyra knew as much as we did, and had to decide what story she believed (what story could she live with?). This is the approach Game of Thrones should have taken with Ned Stark and Littlefinger - instead of Littlefinger monologing his evil plans like a pantomime villain it could have placed the audience in Ned's point of view (like in the book), forced to make decisions on who to trust based on limited information.

It would also make it more believable for Rhaenys to back Rhaenyra. True, Show Rhaenys doesn't leap to ally with Rhaenyra because she suspects she had a hand in her son's supposed death. But she also gets over that a little too easily. There is the Watsonian explanation that Rhaenys decides she can live with backing her son's potential murderer out of political pragmatism. But since by the finale she is fiercely defending Rhaenyra and singing her praises I'm going to assume that she's just in tune with the Doylist explanation that Laenor isn't actually dead. They could have at least have Rhaenys only suspect Daemon, and have the source of the rift be that Rhaenyra does not share her suspicions. That way Rhaenys can reconcile backing Rhaenyra without insulting her son's memory.

In addition to insulting Laenor, these changes remove sympathy and context for Rhaenyra's character.

Now Rhaenyra does marry Daemon within half a year of Laenor and Laena's death, and this is considered scandalous in the book. But the show makes it out to be immediately after his death, and it removes everything that happens within those 6 months. And a lot happens. Again, Rhaenyra is exiled away from court to Dragonstone.

To prevent further conflict, and put an end to these “vile rumors and base calumnies,” King Viserys further decreed that Queen Alicent and her sons would return with him to court, whilst Princess Rhaenyra confined herself to Dragonstone with her sons.

Yes, Rhaenyra 'took possession of Dragonstone' as her seat when she was 16, and she spent a lot of time there. We know she visited Laena at Driftmark from Dragonstone, and we know she gave birth to Joffrey on Dragonstone. But Dragonstone is close enough that Rhaenyra at 14 was racing Syrax between Dragonstone and King's Landing daily. And we know that until the events at Driftmark her sons were being raised and educated alongside Alicent's:

Though all six boys attended the same feasts, balls, and revels, and sometimes trained together in the yard under the same master-at-arms and studied under the same maesters, this enforced closeness only served to feed their mutual mislike, rather than binding them together as brothers.

Aemond losing his eye at Driftmark was what caused the final split of the royal family - not Rhaenyra getting embarrassed by her breastmilk leaking during a council meeting. Rhaenyra did not willingly leave King's Landing, because that would be a bad move, and the show knows it's a bad move, which is why they had to come up with that dumb line about the wise sailor steering to avoid the storm.

Next, Harwin is sent away, resulting in his and Lyonel's deaths.

Henceforth Ser Erryk Cargyll of the Kingsguard would serve as her sworn shield, whilst Breakbones returned to Harrenhal.

Lyonel Strong, Lord of Harrenhal and Hand of the King, accompanied his son and heir Ser Harwin on his return to the great, half-ruined castle on the lakeshore. Shortly after their arrival, a fire broke out in the tower where they were sleeping, and both father and son were killed, along with three of their retainers and a dozen servants.

So after being effectively exiled by her father and being forcibly separated from her lover, Rhaenyra suffers another huge personal loss. And so soon after losing her best friend Laena, and her husband and friend Laenor. Most importantly, by placing the fire at Harrenhal before Driftmark, rather than in the aftermath of Driftmark, the show erases another huge blow to Rhaenyra:

Rhaenyra is passed over as Hand.

Lord Strong had been the King’s Hand, and Viserys had come to rely upon his strength and counsel. His Grace had reached the age of three-and-forty, and had grown quite stout. He no longer had a young man’s vigor, and was afflicted by gout, aching joints, back pain, and a tightness in the chest that came and went and oft left him red-faced and short of breath. The governance of the realm was a daunting task; the king needed a strong, capable Hand to shoulder some of his burdens. Briefly he considered sending for Princess Rhaenyra. Who better to rule with him than the daughter he meant to succeed him on the Iron Throne? But that would have meant bringing the princess and her sons back to King’s Landing, where more conflict with the queen and her own brood would have been inevitable.

Viserys needed a new Hand after Lyonel's death, and he almost called Rhaenyra home. Her exile to Dragonstone was almost temporary, and serving as her father's Hand would have done wonders to smooth her transition to power. But Viserys prioritised avoiding conflict between Rhaenyra and Alicent and clearly decided 'happy wife, happy life' - and gave Otto the pin instead. Which positioned Otto perfectly to arrange a coup.

For all TG complain that Rhaenyra faced zero consequences for Aemond's eye - she sure got royally fucked over in the aftermath of Driftmark. For all TG complain that Viserys played favourites and let Rhaenyra get away with everything, his desire to avoid conflict and placate his wife seriously sabotaged Rhaenyra. He may have backed the legitimacy of her sons, but overall Driftmark was a political win for the Greens... and for Daemon.

These rulings pleased no one, Septon Eustace writes. Mushroom demurs: one man at least was thrilled by the decrees, for Dragonstone and Driftmark lay quite close to one another, and this proximity would allow Daemon Targaryen ample opportunity to comfort his niece, Princess Rhaenyra, unbeknownst to the king.

However you feel about Daemon, the timing and context of Rhaenyra's marriage to him is important.

Yet hardly had Ser Otto arrived at the Red Keep to take up the Handship than word reached court that Princess Rhaenyra had remarried, taking to husband her uncle, Daemon Targaryen. The princess was twenty-three, Prince Daemon thirty-nine.

Otto arrives in King's Landing to take the position that is rightfully Rhaenyra's, and Rhaenyra marries Daemon (upstaging Otto in the process). That's the context of their marriage. Daemon (however you interpret him and his motives) comforts Rhaenyra at a time in her life when she is losing everything, one after the other - her best friend, her husband, her lover, her influence at court, her position, the security of her succession. Rhaenyra marries Daemon to feel stronger again, at a time where much of her strength is being stripped away. Daemon was there at an extremely vulnerable time for her - he may even have related to her how he was also exiled by Viserys, how he was also passed over as Hand.

Based on the timing, Rhaenyra was also probably already pregnant.

Septon Eustace claims that Rhaenyra knew her father would never approve of the match, so she wed in haste to make certain he could not prevent the marriage. Mushroom puts forward a different reason: the princess was once again with child and did not wish to birth a bastard. And thus that dreadful year 120 AC ended as it begun, with a woman laboring in childbirth. Princess Rhaenyra’s pregnancy had a happier outcome than Lady Laena’s had. As the year waned, she brought forth a small but robust son, a pale princeling with dark purple eyes and pale silvery hair. She named him Aegon.

Even accounting for the possibility that Aegon was born early - which is likely since he is noted as being small - it is possible Rhaenyra conceived him before her marriage to Daemon. The year after all began with Laena's death and ended with Aegon's birth, and as I've detailed Rhaenyra goes through a lot between Driftmark and her wedding to Daemon. So while he is comforting Rhaenyra for her many losses, Daemon gets her pregnant.

The show does at least keep the context of a grieving Rhaenyra having recently lost Harwin when she finally sleeps with Daemon. But by changing the order of events they remove much of the context that made this such a low and vulnerable time in Rhaenyra's life. She doesn't lose a best friend. Her children don't lose a protector in Laenor. She leaves King's Landing voluntarily. She was never in the running to be Hand. Her exile is erased from the show.

In the show, it's "hee hee we'll get rid of Laenor and then we'll be an unstoppable power couple and RULE THE WORLD - from Dragonstone though, 100% voluntarily, because something something wise sailor avoids the storm..." And this is apparently the more interesting and complex improvement on F&B?

At this point the show had already changed Rhaenyra's childhood so she is no longer bullied by her stepmother and groomed by her sworn shield. These instances of adversity in Rhaenyra's life are exchanged for a version of Alicent and Criston that are more sympathetic and that many find more interesting. I may personally disagree, but I can understand it, and I can understand why some fans like these changes. However I do not understand why it was necessary to keep taking away even more instances of adversity faced by Rhaenyra - why erase her exile, why erase her being passed over as Hand? it does not make the story more interesting, and it makes Rhaenyra's story less compelling.

How much more heart-breaking would it have been to see Rhaenyra begging her dying father to wake up and defend her, if the show had stuck closer to the book version of events? After forcing his daughter into an unwanted marriage with a homosexual man, after exiling her while she was grieving, after passing over her as Hand, after hurting her transition to power, after failing to to bring her home... how much more emotionally satisfying would it then have been to finally see Viserys drag his corpse out of bed to defend Rhaenyra and her sons?

The book version of events would also open up a more interesting relationship dynamic between Rhaenyra and Daemon than "lets fake my husband's death so we can be an unstoppable power couple and rule the world!" If I were adapting it, I would have kept Daemon's possible involvement in Laenor's death ambiguous - uncertain to both the audience and to Rhaenyra. Again, suggest the possibility that it could have been the Greens. Have Rhaenyra, at her lowest and most vulnerable moment, convince herself that she can live with the doubt. Because at this point, with Laena dead, Laenor dead, Harwin dead, and with her father exiling her, Daemon is one of the few allies she has left. A Rhaenyra who chooses to kill an innocent bystander to fake her husband's death is cartoonishly evil. A Rhaenyra who chooses to live with the possibility that her new husband murdered her old husband is interesting.

Meanwhile Alicent goes from victor to victim at Driftmark...

Yes, of course in both book and show her child is the most seriously injured and, again, scarred for life (though in the book it is the result of violently bullying little kids half his age so 🤷‍♀️). But politically, Alicent comes out on top after Driftmark.

See Book Viserys doesn't give Rhaenyra an honour without also giving Alicent one, and vice versa.

King Viserys loved both his wife and daughter, and hated conflict and contention. He strove all his days to keep the peace between his women, and to please both with gifts and gold and honors.

And because Alicent champions the patriarchal status quo (and in the book is an adult battling a child) this 'neutrality' is to Rhaenyra's detriment. So yes, Driftmark sees Viserys publicly forbid anyone from discussing Rhaenyra's sons' parentage - that is a loss for Alicent and a win for Rhaenyra. But Alicent's victories at Driftmark are much more significant - Rhaenys is effectively exiled from court, her rival's influence at court is severely diminished, Otto is brought back as Hand and gets to stack the council with Green supporters. Viserys' weak efforts to stop the fighting and placate everyone ends up favouring Alicent significantly.

In the show, its all 'poor Alicent can't even get her mean husband to cut a 6-year-old's eye out for her and its making her big beautiful brown eyes sad'. The show removes all the consequences Rhaenyra faces at Driftmark, and replaces it with Alicent snapping because 'that spoilt Rhaenyra gets away with everything'. All of Alicent's victories from Driftmark have already happened before Driftmark, and they don't even count because Alicent's big beautiful brown eyes are sad. Rhaenyra has already committed political suicide by voluntarily leaving King's Landing, and Otto is already Hand because Rhaenyra was never in the running.

This is worsened by the fact that the show feels very inconsistent in how it depicts Alicent's position as queen consort. In the book, as stated, Viserys strives to please his wife with gifts and gold and honors, and Alicent is surrounded by a 'Queen's party' of 'lickspittles, fawning over Queen Alicent and her children'. Alicent's worth is apparent in the fact that Viserys throws a huge tourney to celebrate their 5-year-anniversary - Alicent is the centre of attention and celebration. Because this is the 'benevolent' form of misogyny Westeros takes in the books - one that celebrates and reveres wives and mothers like Alicent (while of course not permitting them bodily autonomy) and demonises non-conforming women like Rhaenyra.

In the absence of Alicent's special tourney in the show, we don't get Rhaenyra's iconic dress entrance - instead it is given to Alicent during Rhaenyra's wedding to Laenor. Because this is such an iconic moment for Rhaenyra, the show tries to compensate in episode 3 by having a bloodied Rhaenyra upstage Aegon during his birthday celebrations. Since this is no longer the culmination of years of being bullied by her stepmother, the moment loses quite a bit of its impact (at least the soundtrack is gorgeous). This version also replaces Alicent's special day with Aegon's special day - which depicts a very different world of misogyny. The more complicated benevolent misogyny of the book is replaced with a more basic misogyny in which Alicent is simply ignored and unappreciated.

Which feels like overkill. I don't think this change was necessary to understand Show Alicent as a victim. Personally, if I was pimped out to my friend's dad and suffered through marital rape and unwanted pregnancies with zero bodily autonomy, I wouldn't consider a tourney to be adequate compensation. Alicent can be appreciated and celebrated and still suffer. If anything it could further feed into her self-identification as a martyr.

So the show depicts an underappreciated victim Alicent with her big beautiful sad brown eyes. But episode 6 depicts Alicent as having accumulated a significant amount of power as Queen. The episode establishes that Alicent is powerful enough that she can demand that the Crown Princesses' newborn be taken away from his mother and brought straight to her (in a world of high newborn mortality rates) - and the Crown Princess has to comply. It's implied that this kind of behaviour isn't new, and either Viserys isn't intervening or Rhaenyra is just not telling him for some reason. Meanwhile Alicent can shut down a proposal by the Crown Princess that the King is in favour of, overturn the Crown Princess at council meetings, and seems to be the final voice at the council meeting. Not to mention she has made Criston Cole so untouchable that he can murder vassals of House Velaryon, publicly bully Prince Jacaerys, and openly speculate on the sex life of the Crown Princess (and it is Harwin who gets punished???).

But one episode later and Alicent is snapping in despair because Viserys won't cut out a 6-year-old's eye for her. And the subtext of the scene is that it isn't really about the eye, it's about a marriage where she has gone underappreciated and unrecognised, and Viserys always chooses Rhaenyra over her and his other children, and big brown eyes are sad... All ignoring of course everything that she gets away with in the previous episode. Really, it feels like Driftmark is a last straw for Viserys - he's been essentially letting her run things so far but he draws the line at cutting his grandson's eye out.

And I would be willing to accept this inconsistency as purposeful - people are inconsistent and hypocritical, and Alicent self-righteously views herself as a martyr. And there is a tendency for critics to mistake in-character inconsistency for inconsistent characterisation and bad writing, and I do see this tendency a fair bit in discussions of Alicent (some instances being more valid than others). However I get the impression that this is not a purposeful in-character inconsistency, or at the very least there were competing visions behind the scenes. And this is because of the victimised way Alicent and her big beautiful sad brown eyes are framed - and because of the way the events at Driftmark are also shifted around.

Firstly the dynamics are changed between the children to make Aemond more sympathetic. The age gap between him and Jace is narrowed and Baela and Rhaena are added to the fight - making it a fight of 1 against 4 kids who are close in age. Meanwhile in the book, Aemond is 10 and starts the fight by hitting a 3-year-old Joffrey for making noise. A 6 and 5-year-old Jace and Luke then come running to defend their little brother against a much older and bigger bully - who easily beats them up.

Joffrey had run to get his brothers when Aemond took to the sky, and both Jace and Luke had come to his call. The Velaryon princelings were younger than Aemond—Jace was six, Luke five, Joff only three—but there were three of them, and they had armed themselves with wooden swords from the training yard. Now they fell on him with a fury. Aemond fought back, breaking Luke’s nose with a punch, then wrenching the sword from Joff’s hands and cracking it across the back of Jace’s head, driving him to his knees. As the younger boys scrambled back away from him, bloody and bruised, the prince began to mock them, laughing and calling them “the Strongs.” Jace at least was old enough to grasp the insult. He flew at Aemond once again, but the older boy began pummeling him savagely…until Luke, coming to the rescue of his brother, drew his dagger and slashed Aemond across the face, taking out his right eye.

Jace's injuries are much much worse in the book, and he is much much younger and braver. I mean, it takes balls for a 6-year-old to go up against a 10-year-old - and a 10-year-old with a giant fucking dragon at that.

And then there is 'questioned sharply':

Afterward, King Viserys tried to make a peace, requiring each of the boys to tender an apology to his rivals on the other side, but these courtesies did not appease their vengeful mothers. Queen Alicent demanded that one of Lucerys Velaryon’s eyes should be put out, for the eye he had cost Aemond. Princess Rhaenyra would have none of that, but insisted that Prince Aemond should be questioned “sharply” until he revealed where he had heard her sons called “Strongs.” To so name them was tantamount to saying they were bastards, with no rights of succession…and that she herself was guilty of high treason. When pressed by the king, Prince Aemond said it was his brother Aegon who had told him they were Strongs, and Prince Aegon said only, “Everyone knows. Just look at them.”

The order is reversed. In the book Alicent is the first to demand violence against a child - in the show it is Rhaenyra. Now I argue that Rhaenyra's demand was more toothless - in both book and show it was more about backing Alicent into a corner to get her to admit to plotting a coup. But In the book, both mothers at least had an understandable context behind their shitty demands - Alicent's son had just lost an eye, and Rhaenyra was responding to a violent threat to her son (plus, Aemond had just savagely pummelled Jace). Since Alicent is publicly demanding violence against a 5-year-old, now is a good time for Rhaenyra to ask 'hey, I wonder who taught Aemond my sons are bastards, hmm Alicent?'

But in the show, Rhaenyra is the one made into the aggressor, and Alicent is now the victim reacting defensively. Rhaenyra just opens with wanting to question Aemond sharply, right while Aemond is in the middle of getting his eye stitched up. In the book, the argument between the mothers comes after the boys have been made to apologise to each other, which implies that at this point Aemond has at least already received medical attention. But in the show, Viserys immediately goes along with Rhaenyra making her sons' parentage the more pressing priority - all so the scene can escalate towards Alicent losing it and demanding Luke's eye. The scene is more dramatic and nonsensical as a result - it is bewildering that this is the order of priority and this primes the audience to sympathise with Alicent here. Viserys is shouting at his injured son and Alicent's big brown eyes are sad. And Rhaenyra is temporarily characterised as the sort of person to demand her brother be tortured - as the aggressor rather than in a reaction to a threat - for the Doylist purpose of a more dramatic escalation towards Alicent picking up the knife.

Now Viserys making the question of his grandson's legitimacy a priority could make sense in the show's version of events - if there is a potential coup it does have to be shut down immediately. The consequences for his children and grandchildren are after all life-threatening. And to be fair to him, his first impulse (while Aemond is receiving medical attention) is to ask the children how the fight started, which is reasonable enough, and the episode has already established that he's not in complete control of his mental faculties.

But emotionally, we the viewer are watching an injured kid get yelled at by his dad while Alicent's big beautiful brown eyes are sad. And not only are the events around Driftmark changed to remove the adversity Rhaenyra faces, but the events at Driftmark are changed to add to Alicent's victimhood. She is no longer the aggressor, she is depicted as undervalued, and her victories at Driftmark are erased.

And by episode 9 it seems Alicent is so powerless as Queen Consort that she has to let Larys masturbate over her feet. And episode 8 makes out that she's been acting as nurse maid to Viserys, instead of Viserys having servants to look after him (though we did see Alicent voluntarily sending these servants away back in episode 3 - did she send them away permanently? Were there spending cutbacks on staff to make way for the redecorating?)

But in episode 8 Alicent also appears to be running the kingdom, and has the power to decide on the succession of Driftmark. Alicent even tells Rhaenyra that she will be the one sitting in judgement while Viserys is ill - not Otto, the King's Hand, but Alicent. How is this consistent with Alicent being undervalued and underappreciated, if she is given this power and responsibility? How is she so powerless that Larys gets to masturbate over her feet?

From these inconsistencies, TG draws the following picture: underappreciated Alicent is busy running the kingdom, while spoiled Rhaenyra is off 'playing house' with Daemon and avoiding her responsibilities. Poor Alicent is depicted as doing all the work while Rhaenyra is off having fun, instead of Rhaenyra being effectively exiled against her wishes to placate Alicent. It's almost as insulting as the change to Rhaenyra and Criston - instead of Criston (who is exactly the same age as Rhaenyra's mother, by the way) grooming Rhaenyra from the age of 7, he is the one presented as Rhaenyra's victim by TG (like poor friendzoned Jorah).

Alicent's victories are presented as unappreciated sacrifices and burdens, and Rhaenyra's losses and adversities are presented as her idiotically skiving to live in domestic bliss.

And the problem to me isn't simply that there were changes made, or that I wish Alicent was a more one-note antagonist etc. Though I would have preferred a more book-accurate adaption, I was initially cautiously on board for the changes in the first half of the season. They at least seemed interesting, and I was intrigued to see where this high-budget fanfiction would go. But the show goes too far in taking sympathy and depth away from Rhaenyra to shower it on Alicent - the accumulation of changes tips it over the edge. There had to be a better balance than what the show gave us, one where we could root for Rhaenyra as she struggles in the face of adversity (making the eventual dark path she goes down all the more tragic). The sympathetic version of Alicent that the show gives us simply does not demand taking so much away from Rhaenyra.

The one scene in the second half of the show where we get to see how adult Rhaenyra deals with adversity is her introductory scene. She responds to Alicent's demands by walking bleeding up a flight of stairs rather than let go of her newborn. And this is where my frustration lies with the show, because it has so much potential and yet it is so inconsistent. On the one hand, it's ridiculous that Rhaenyra doesn't just ignore Alicent. But on the other, it's a decent way to compensate for the change to Rhaenyra's childhood. Since we no longer have young Rhaenyra getting bullied by her stepmother, we needed this big moment of cruelty. And it shows just how much Rhaenyra will fight for her children.

And yet the same episode will have her voluntarily abandon King's Landing (and far far too early - there is a point in F&B where a considerably more broken Rhaenyra faces a similar choice, and we are nowhere near that point yet). Rhaenyra ditches because she's been, in her words, humiliated. This would be salvageable if this was simply a case of Rhaenyra deciding not to put up with Alicent's shit and establishing herself from a seat of strength at Dragonstone. But staying away? Being absent from court for years? Episode 8 even establishes that Dragonstone is so close that they don't even need to stay the night when they visit King's Landing! This woman walked bleeding up a flight of stairs rather than let go of her newborn baby, and now she's just relinquishing all influence at court to the greens? This isn't consistent or accurate characterisation.

Rhaenyra already has plenty of canon flaws, without adding that she voluntarily leaves and stays away from King's Landing and her dying father. Even when ordered to move her family to Dragonstone, Rhaenyra in the book always tried to come home. She brought Maester Gerardys to save her father's life. She at least tried to influence the council by nominating her choice of Archmaester. She doesn't just roll over and let the Greens tilt the council in their favour without a fight.

Though Grand Maester Mellos washed the cut out with boiled wine and bound up the hand with strips of linen soaked in healing ointments, fever soon followed, and many feared the king might die. Only the arrival of Princess Rhaenyra from Dragonstone turned the tide, for with her came her own healer, Maester Gerardys, who acted swiftly to remove two fingers from His Grace’s hand to save his life.

Princess Rhaenyra wanted Maester Gerardys, who had long served her on Dragonstone, elevated to replace Mellos; it was only his healing skills that had saved the king’s life when Viserys cut his hand on the throne, she claimed. Queen Alicent, however, insisted that the princess and her maester had mutilated His Grace unnecessarily. Had they not “meddled,” she claimed, Grand Maester Mellos would surely have saved the king’s fingers as well as his life. She urged the appointment of one Maester Alfador, presently in service at the Hightower. Viserys, beset from both sides, chose neither, reminding both the princess and the queen that the choice was not his to make. The Citadel of Oldtown* chose the Grand Maester, not the Crown. In due time, the Conclave bestowed the chain of office upon Archmaester Orwyle, one of their own.

*the seat of the Hightowers - great attempt at neutrality there Vizzy

With King's Landing so close to Dragonstone, there is no way Rhaenyra didn't do what she could to mitigate the damage of her absence. The fact that she is noted as being in the confinement stages of her pregnancy during the coup, and that this is considered serendipitous, suggests to me that Rhaenyra otherwise would have tried to attend court as much as possible:

With the princess in confinement on Dragonstone, about to give birth, Queen Alicent’s greens enjoyed an advantage; the longer Rhaenyra remained ignorant of the king’s death, the slower she would be to move. “Mayhaps the whore will die in childbirth,” Queen Alicent is reported to have said (according to Mushroom).

If the draft script leak is true, the show initially had Rhaenyra explicitly say that she abandoned King's Landing to strengthen her claim, which is both nonsensical and adds to my belief that the show didn't fully understand that they were taking the fight out of Rhaenyra by having her voluntarily leave and stay away. Or maybe they did understand it, seeing as they replaced this statement with the more vague 'wise sailor' line, with Rhaenyra's theme music playing triumphantly to trick us into thinking they weren't assassinating her character.

I've seen essays by fans of the show that have tried to argue that Rhaenyra leaving and staying away is actually a compelling character flaw, spinning it as either the inadvertent self-sabotaging actions of an overprotective mother, or an entitled antagonist who wants the throne without working for it. The latter is character assassination and inconsistent with the rest of her characterisation. The former is also inconsistent, and for it to work it would necessitate that the show spend more time actually fleshing out her children and her relationships with them. These inconsistencies, and the half-hearted way the show tries to rationalise her decision, leads me to the unfortunate conclusion that the show is simply less clever and more inconsistent in quality than it had the potential to be. Which is all the more infuriating in a show that has potential - it can be very capable of writing compelling characters when it wants to, it just rarely does when it comes to Rhaenyra and her children.

Ultimately, a character who fights as much as they can is always going to be more compelling than one who rolls over. Is anyone honestly looking at, say, Sansa in the early seasons of Game of Thrones and thinking "hmm yes I'm glad they got rid of Sansa sneaking out to the Godswood to plot her escape, tricking Tyrion into thinking she was just praying, refusing to kneel during her forced marriage and learning valuable lessons from being used as a political pawn by the Tyrells. It's so much more compelling watching Sansa spend her time getting petted by Shae, Margaery and Tyrion, not knowing what sheep shit is, and getting passively whisked off by Dontos in a surprise rescue".

Rhaenyra has had to fight ever since she was named heir aged 8, ever since her stepmother started bullying her as a child. That fight is an indispensable part of her character - whatever other changes you may make, taking away her fight is not on the table. And above all, taking away the adversity she faces removes opportunities for her to be interesting.

[ninjagobythenumbers]

Bechdel Testing Ninjago

So, a little while ago I did the Bechdel test on Ninjago because I've always seen the show as sort of an interesting case study in how women are portrayed in cartoons. Of course, I'm aware the Bechdel test originated as a joke and something passing the Bechdel test doesn't make it feminist/not. Rather, or for me at least, it's an indication of how deficient female representation can be at an aggregate scale. As a way to analyze Ninjago, I feel it works as it shows how female representation over the course of the show. If you're interested I'll now discuss my thoughts on how the analysis went season by season. DISCLAIMER: I did this for fun.

The pilot was easy. Nya's the only one, so test failed across the board. The first episode that passed the test was when Jay's parents came to visit. Yay Edna! Mystake does show up in episode 7 but, I don't count it as she has not yet been named. 12&13 had a kid's mom in a bus which I decided was enough cus hey, Mom's a name she uses.

Here's where we really get going. Patty Keys, their real estate agent continues to show up through seabound as a background character, which is pretty cool imo. Episode 5, Mystake finally gets named. Episode 6 was huge for my chart as it's the introduction of Misako. You'd think episode 7 is when her and Nya talked but that's actually when Nya and Gayle had a lil convo. From then on I spent the episodes just staring at the Nya and Misako thinking "talk to her talk to her talk to her." Fortunately, when they did speak, Nya and Misako would be discuss like science, maps, and fate of the world so I never ran into a problem with rule 3. That is, until Rebooted.

The good news is Pixal's here so it'll be years before we fail rule 1 again. The bad news is we've got a love triangle so goodbye rule 3. Nya actually talked to her student, Sally, and Pixal quite often but it was so often about Jay or Cole so I would just be scouring the episode for a single exchange where they talked about anything else. During the Tournament, Nya, Pixal, Skylor, and Misako were all in different groupings and it was rare that Tox or Camille would say something so no rule 2/3 successes until late season.

The good news is, the love triangle is over so we're back to rule 2 usually meaning rule 3. The bad news is, Pixal's in Zane's head so we're back to hoping Misako and Nya say something to eachother. Nya usually shared her scenes with Wu, Ronin, and Jay during these seasons so chances were few and far between. However, unlike the first few seasons where the default was male, we're now getting some female henchmen (Bansha and Dogshank) so that made things easier.

Thank you for being in Day of the Departed Edna Walker. Early Hands of Time was tough because Nya, Misako, and Commander Macchia were rarely in the same scenes. In the latter half of the season though, we thankfully see the return of Pixal. Maya also helped us with some wins.

What a breath of fresh air. Thanks to Harumi & Ultraviolet's introduction, Pixal's return, Mystake's upgrade to a reoccuring character, and Nya & Misako's continued support, failing even rule 3 is pretty rare during the Oni Trilogy. We run into some complications during Hunted because though we have Skylor and the aforementioned characters in Ninjago and Faith & Jet Jack in the First Realm, sometimes people don't talk to eachother. And that's ok. Overall, smooth sailing.

Ah??!? What happened. Worry not. I realized this was, in part, because the Oni Trilogy had 20 minutes worth of chances for women to speak to eachother, these were only 10 minute episodes. So, for the sake of comparable units of analysis, I considered each pair of episodes to be 1 episode. I'll show both charts until DR.

It looks a little better, but it's still not at Oni Trilogy levels. Still, I'd be curious to see what the test would look like if I dissected the earlier episodes into 10 minute chunks because it's probably not a great sign if 10 v 20 minutes makes such a big difference. Ok, proceeding. The Fire Chapter was usually pretty successful because Pixal, Aspheera, or Nya would usually end up talking at one point or another. Gayle even helped at one point. The Ice chapter usually achieved successes through Nya talking to Sorla. In one episode, I counted the Preminent's roars as conversation with Pixal. The Ice Chapter had quite a few failures largely because, as in previous seasons, all the women were split up.

Despite the fact that Nya was one of the longest lived ninja, Prime Empire has total failures at levels not seen since before season 2. This is largely because for the most part, Pixal and Nya are never in the same episode. Racer 7 helps but she was only there for a bit. I should point out that I feel like the 10 minute era is really when Pixal starts feeling like part of the team to me. She's always part of homebase meetings and always plays a key part in missions. Alas, if she's not in episodes with Nya, that's not going to show up on my chart. It's a reminder of the fact this test doesn't show substance.

Master of the Mountain is similar to the other seasons of its era. The fact the 10 minute era tended to show its plots episode by episode (ex: Ep 3 = Plot A, Ep 4 = Plot B, Ep 5 = Plot C) rather than all in one really takes a toll on the test. For the most part, Nya and Vania were our only chances for success and it was rare they'd share an episode. We also had the rare rule 3 failure with the Queen of the Munce episode. Thanks Jay. The Island only had Nya until they found Misako, so it was struggling even more.

It feels right to see all green when it's a Nya season. In the beginning of Seabound, they put Nya, Pixal, and Maya on a boat together and by jove it made things easy. Late season was a bit trickier because Nya was on her own journey. Crystalized had Skylor, Pixal and some ressurected villains saving the day. Late Crystalized is the way it is because it had so, so many different groupings. I have a chart based on groupings and this season was such a challenge.

I really felt the difference with Dragons Rising. I mean, you can see the difference, but it was even more clear when doing my data collection because it was just so easy. Rather than grabbing at scraps of dialogue like I had to do in early seasons, there was often a wealth of more meaningful conversation between female characters to choose from. As with the Oni Trilogy, a female villain with a female henchman makes things easy because they scheme together. We also had Nya and Sora on a joint quest. Funnily enough, there is a rare rule 3 failure because Sora and Kreel only talked about Kreel's friend in one episode. Episode 17 had the classic split up issue and actually would've failed entirely if not for Agent Underwood, which is actually a great example of my next point. You can really tell how male is no longer the default because not only is there the introduction of all the fantastic new female main characters, but also there's plenty of random female characters scattered throughout. I haven't seen DRS2P2 yet but I expect it'll be more of the same. I should mention I also made a chart with the reverse (two named men in an episode who talk about eachother about something besides a woman). Only three episodes fail in any capacity. (Say thank you to the Akita, Pixal, and Harumi solo episodes). If you read this whole thing, thank you. I had a lot of fun doing it. Let me know if there's any other charts I can do!

[pianostarinwonderland]

book 8 foreshadow ⁉️ in MY halloween ?!?! 🤯 more likely than u think ! 😳

When I saw Jack Skellington in the last trailer before the Abema stream for this Halloween, I thought, "Oh. Oh this is going to be good. This is going to be so good for the main story."

I've always had a feeling that we were going to meet the Great Seven somehow, where the characters realize the revisions made in the stories they heard of them vs. what actually happened. After all, Twst brings up more than once the idea of history being revised (especially through Lilia's dialogue). And when the first Lost in the Book event with Stitch came out, that possibility has been made even more open. And now with the way this Halloween is written, it feels like a setup for main story.

Halloween, being Twst's biggest event, is the one event that the Twst writers like to use to foreshadow the main story. Halloween 2/Endless Halloween and Glorious Masquerade have been used as foreshadow to Book 7's events. The latter was also used as a kind of reflection of Book 6's story, so in some ways, GloMas was also a transitory period between Book 6 and 7 (and notably, the GloMas stream was also the same stream where they put out the last trailer for Book 7). However, more importantly, in the context of this post, it is worth noting that Halloween 2 came out when Book 6 was still in its first part. Hence, this Nightmare Before Christmas event foreshadowing a Book 8 while we're far from done with Book 7 is very much plausible and that's why I fully believe this.

Here in the Lost in the Book with Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas event, we have Skully J. Graves, a character whose aesthetic not only matches most with Jack Skellington but also idolizes him, who meets his Halloween idol. This is the first time we see any Twst character meeting not only their idol but the Disney character they are twisted from. This is huge! Considering how distant that Twst is set from the time of the villains and heroes, it had always seemed impossible that such a meetup could occur. But slowly, Twst is revealing to us that there are ways that this could happen.

But here's the truly delicious part: We witness Skully learning what kind of person Jack Skellington really is. To Skully (and the community that he grew up in), Jack is a feared Pumpkin King who values the solemn kind of Halloween. However, the real Jack is someone who wants to celebrate Halloween together with people and—at least in the setting of the event—leans towards a Halloween that is more festive and jolly, akin to his wonder for Christmas in the movie. And this shakes Skully to the core, so much so that we see him lose it in Episode 3. We watch him continuously push for his ideas, to the point that he puts his idol to sleep.

If this is foreshadow to Book 8, will we see our characters face that same disillusion? Is that why we have all 7 Overblot characters in this event? Because let's be real, while everyone has a form of admiration for the villains, those 7 are the ones who idolize the Great Seven the most. For fuck's sake, their OB phantoms are the Great Seven in some form. And more importantly: How will they feel learning that everything they've learned is wrong? Will they be like Skully and start fiascos as they cope with the knowledge that has been unfortunately bestowed on them? Or will they grieve for a bit before recovering quickly? Will they, like Skully, start aligning with the opposite side (Skully aligning with Lock, Shock, and Barrel and consequently, Oogie Boogie)? Or will they stay on the same camp, just with more wariness?

But once they get past that, what then will they do? What measures will they take to learn more deeply about the huge historical revisionism that occurs? Will they even do something about it? Where do we play in as the MC that receives these dreams about the stories that did happen?

Something that I do want to bring up is, how do they even meet the Great Seven? One could say, oh they could get sucked into another book, but for characters so grand and worshipped, it feels too little to do something like that. Besides, unless they do something different for the ending of this event, they will come out of the book, not remembering a single thing. Book 7 allowed us to peer into Lilia's past—which felt unreachable—through his dream. Is there a possibility that Malleus might use his unique magic? To peer into someone's dreams about the Great Seven?

... To peer into our dreams?

But imagine if somehow, the Great Seven were alive again and about to wreak havoc in modern Twisted Wonderland. How would they even be revived? I have an old theory about this where the 7 Overblots are used for it. Of course they are just theories made 4 years ago, but it remains as something that haunts me, especially when Idia outright states that someone has to be behind the OBs. We have yet to learn either what occurred between Crowley and Idia's parents in Book 6.

As an end note, it is very intriguing to see where Twst is going. I'm very excited how the main story will turn out from here, and what will happen once we get past the last dorm's arc.

[mortuarywriting]

Falling into Place

Ao3 Link - [First] - [Next Chapter ->]

All things considered this isn't what you were expecting to wake up to when you went to bed. One minute you're on your phone, trying to pass out, and the next? You're here. You've had some interesting greetings in your life, but dropping about six feet and having twelve guns leveled at your face? That takes the cake

Warnings:

Reader Insert, Plus-Size Reader, The Author Regrets Everything, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Isekai, canon divergence Look we're gonna dig into the implications of omegasverse changing bits and pieces of history as well as addressing whatever the FUCK is happening as CoD's history. Idk man Godzilla is canon and nobody bats an eye at that fact and you think I'm gonna be normal about that? No

You could be having a worse day, you think, as you stare at the interrogation table you're cuffed to. They could've shot you the second you fell the six feet from the sky into a random army base. That's a very real thing that could've happened.

But no, you just had a dozen guns pointed at you in one moment and a slew of questions you didn't have satisfying answers for.

No, you had no idea how you got there. You'd been in bed tooling around on your phone and then you were falling.

They asked who you worked for, and were not impressed by your mundane answer. You didn't work for some pmc or intelligence organization. You asked them to their faces if they thought you could pass a PT test if you tried. Not that they answered or appreciated your point, mind.

It was only after you gave them whatever identifying information you had that things got… spicy.

"I would love to tell you what this designation of yours is if you tell me what you mean. Is it like a classification of civilian versus enlisted? Is it physical? Is it your horoscope? I don't know what I don't know," you explain again for the Nth time. You didn't wanna play twenty questions but here you fuckin were, captive audience and all.

The man asking you questions had lost his charming good cop look. He was getting more and more annoyed on this one, "your designation," a demand, not a question and sure as shit not an answer.

"Again, would love to tell you! I don't know what you mean! Feels like some kinda Star Wars thing," you grumble the last bit to yourself but the man cocks his head.

His eyes narrow, "what are… Star Wars, you said?"

You blink owlishly, "beg pardon?"

"Star War. Clarify."

It's your turn for your brow to furrow, and furrow it does, "Star Wars? As in the multi-billion dollar franchise created by George Lucas and eventually sold to Disney," your tone is questioning, just shy of asking if the guy lived under a rock but his expression didn't let up and the last thing you needed was bad cop, so you continued, "the story of what happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? The political space series of movies versus Star Trek's more scientific and discovery based longstanding TV show? Nine major movies and the Clone Wars before Disney sunk their talons in. Like yeah we got more shows and movies that expanded the universe but they also cut out decades of book contributions in their acquisition and that kinda sucked. But yeah, that Star Wars?"

"Nine movies," his tone is disbelieving, and now it's your turn for your eyebrows to raise, "can you name them?"

You nod, "well yeah. Do you want them in episode order or release?"

His brows furrow, "did they not release in order?"

"In a sense? Three trilogies, 4-5-6 back in the late 70s early 80s, then 1-2-3 in the late 90s early 00s, and 7-8-9 through the teens. So order, yes, just… not a cohesive one."

"Release, then," he leaned back and crossed his arms, a position you'd love to mimic if you weren't cuffed to the table for… an indeterminate period of time now, actually.

"A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi-"

"Woah now, empire? What's a jeddy?"

You give him a blank look, trying very hard to mask your disbelief as you look between him and the mirror behind him. You look at your reflection, take a deep breath, and- "sir would it be easier for you to maybe check the internet?"

He seemed to bristle, nose flaring and looking at you expectantly.

You just… kinda sat there. You tapped your fingers together on the desk and kept the eye contact he was intent on. It took a good minute and him getting progressively pissier before you simply ask, "would you like the other movies now?"

You didn't expect an explosion of movement from the man. He downright snarled and slammed his hands on the table as he burst to his feet, the sudden change sending his chair screeching back before falling with a clatter. You leaned as far back as your cuffed hands would allow, eyes wide and a panic rising.

Both of you turned to look at the door when it slammed open with a barked, "Williams!" 

The man who opened it reared back a bit, "Christ, layin' it on a bit thick," he groused, his tone sounding more like someone chastising a teenager for using too much Axe body spray. He smoothed his posture back into something casual as he fanned the air dismissively with a hand, "cap wants you to take a walk."

Your interrogator- Williams, apparently- stares at the man in the door, the two locking eyes before the one in the door straightens from his purposely relaxed posture. You watch the both of them, noting the shoulders tensing as the two just. Staring at each other? Eventually the guy who'd been grilling you looked away and stormed out, the man in the doorway letting him slip out easily enough before turning a charming look back to you.

He took a minute to fan the door a few times to get newer, blissfully cool air in before he entered the room, "sorry 'bout him. He really did a number in here," the new guy tsked before closing the door quietly behind himself.

Your brow furrowed even as you slowly relaxed a bit, had this Williams guy like… farted or something? A nice quirk of ventilation keeping you from smelling something abhorrent? Either way you simply shrug as he walks in and tips the chair back up, sitting and giving another reassuring smile, "how you doing, love?"

You opened and closed your mouth a few times before simply settling on, "I'm a bit… whelmed? This has been," you give as vague a rolling gesture as you can without your cuffs rattling too badly, "a lot? And I have no idea what just set him off either?"

It's the man before you's turn to quirk a brow, "no idea?"

"If I knew the answers to his questions I'd've given 'em by now. I don't, though, and then he just started staring? And hell I just thought it was some kinda macho 'I can stare the truth out of you,'" you pitched your voice lower and pushed your shoulders out for a second to mimic the douchebag behavior before settling, "so I kept eye contact because I'm so out of my depth I have no reason to lie at all and now…" you trail off, gesturing around the room, "all that."

The man nods slowly, "alright love, could you tell me about the last five years?"

Your brows furrow, "oh fuck, 2019 was five years ago wasn't it. God, time is an illusion. Anyway, you want what I was doing leading up to and through the pandemic?"

You think he might've startled for a second but he simply moved to scratch his chin, "mhmm. Just your thoughts on the last five years is all."

So… you ramble. Because he was nice and not prodding or asking weird questions. You talk to him about your job before the pandemic, how people thought covid was just a flu until the death tolls kept climbing, how tons of governments dropped the ball on a local or country-wide level and how that kicked back onto your life, and then the absolute crapshoot of the last election cycle, the shitty 'oh no this is the new normal everything is fine' behavior that has lead to surges and cycles of a fucking plague and so on. He simply nodded, gave some sympathetic hums and winces appropriately at your experiences.

"And did you go back and watch Star Wars through that? Or other things Disney owned?"

And, well, that was a weird way to phrase it but you shrugged, "the mouse is just shy of a monopoly and not one that anybody can take that down so… yeah, I guess? They kept putting shows out and expanding their Star Wars universe so that's been kinda neat to watch but not just them, no. Couple other games and stuff like that to keep me busy, too," you kinda handwave and shut up because panic rambling to MILITARY PERSONNEL is probably not your smartest move in hindsight. Especially when you don't know his name. A+, self.

You tap your fingers against the metal table as he looks at you, "and you said covid has a long term effect of ruining people's senses of smell and taste?"

You nod slowly, "yeah, dude? It's one of the biggest warning signs for most people? Like if everything starts tasting like it was made by a middle class white mom who keeps shoving random letters in her kids names you should swab? That kinda shit?"

What rock has this guy been living under? You were pretty sure the military were supposed to be way more familiar with this shit all things considered, but you've been wrong before.

It was his turn to give you a bit of a wide eyed look before he poorly covers a laugh, "alright, that's fair. I need to go talk with my captain," he hooks a thumb over his shoulder to the window, which didn't surprise you that there had been people back there. He offers a reassuring smile as he stands, humming idly as he pushes the chair back in. He pauses mid-step, "you mentioned that there were cards…?"

You find yourself nodding slowly, "yeah it was important and you couldn't fly or go to certain places if you didn't have one for a while. Should still have a picture of mine buried on my phone," you really didn't wanna get another first-round of covid shots, you REALLY didn't wanna repeat the 24 hours of suck for no reason.

"Cool, thanks," he flashes another charming grin before he slides out of the room.

You lean back in your chair, what an odd guy. Nice though.

-------

"Right," Gaz says as he opens the door to Price and Ghost, "either our mystery guest is off her nut or she's legitimately from somewhere and somewhen else."

Ghost and Price look at each other before turning back to Gaz, this… complicated matters.

Well, it's not like you hadn't given them information to identify yourself. They'd dig up who you were one way or another.

-------

You stare blankly as the nice man from before gives you a sympathetic look, "what do you mean I'm dead?"

Behind him is a guy you're not sure if he's just fuckoff huge or if he's just moderately huge and it's forced perspective.

You don't think it's forced perspective.

You are absolutely trying not to panic spiral.

You are absolutely doing a horrible job at that.

"Well," he opens the file before him and there's a news article, proudly proclaiming "Locals Die in Horrible Freak Accident" like that's not some form of you that was looking like some smear on the pavement, "there's this. Fingerprints match up. Can check for dental if you're really curious."

"Were there even any teeth left after that," you mumble as you take and read the offered article. Seven people were involved, the pictures used are mostly flattering. Hell, you almost don't mind what pic they used for an alternate you but… "that's certainly not the pic I would've wanted. Maybe this me had different tastes?"

You take the time to actually read through the article. It's not helping because for as much as you stare at the page you're not absorbing any information. Some form of detachment, if this was really you? You'd died. A different you but a you nonetheless. You died and you're reading how it happened. There was a lot to unpack in all this and you just needed to put the suitcase away for now. You'd much rather throw it away at this rate.

You were rapidly coming to the understanding that you and Toto were not in Kansas anymore, and there wasn't a convenient yellow brick road to get yourself back home. No easy way to get the hell out of Dodge either. Was it Dodge or the O.K. Corral that was in Kansas? No the O.K. Corral wasn't in Kansas- Dodge was though, that's right. 

This analogy was getting away from you and some part of you figured this was just your brain trying to protect yourself but… wait, wasn't this a metaphor? There wasn't 'like' or 'as' or goddammit not again.

You recognize some names here and there but largely everyone involved were perfect strangers. The article doesn't cover if it would've been slow or quick. You hope for the smear that it was quick. Smears like that don't happen slowly, right? Well, not unless it's like a dramatic slide down a window, but not usually across pavement like that.

Still not sure how you feel about all of it. Bit morbid being confronted with your mortality like that.

Certainly answered a lot of questions about your theoretical passing you never thought about. Like if the obituary for you in what you know to be your own home and world is just as… really kinda just mediocre as this. Have you really done nothing of note for an obituary? Damn.

You kept pouring over the article, each pass bringing new words into focus that help connect the picture a little bit, but… Something repeated in the article made you pause, "two alphas, four betas, and an omega?" 

There was no decent way to ask about that. Any questions invoked from here would border into dangerous territory better kept between yourself and a private browser history. You knew what you were about but there was no fucking way.

"Their designations," the nice man whose name you still hadn't caught explains, "mostly explaining their secondary gender."

You look at him owlishly. You pray to whatever God might be listening that you wake up shortly. Or that the earth below your feet opens up and swallows you. Whichever comes first, the mortification will snipe you otherwise.

"Please tell me this is an elaborate joke at my expense," you are very quiet as you are trying to get really cool with a lot of things really quickly.

"Negative," the big fucker in the back practically growled and you knew that voice would do things to you if you weren't half stepped out of your own body. 

You missed whatever his followup was but your brow furrowed when you checked the date on the article, "I've been dead for months? That…" you let the paper fall from your hands. Everything about this is wild at best and very overwhelming at worst. 

A lot of this qualified as worst.

You look up at the two, missing the odd look they shot at each other as you try to pull yourself back together, "so now what? You've got a not-a-smear of me that fell from the sky onto a secure military base, and where I'm from we didn't have," you paused to gesture between the paper and the two soldiers, "dynamics was it? That was just a fanfiction special."

"Fanfiction."

The way he said it was so carefully neutral you paused, "oh my god without Star Trek to popularize fanfiction and the fan community, how has fandom evolved? Is fanfiction a thing- well, yes, it does fanfics have been a thing since Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy and even before- well, the question is more if it's still popularized? Are there still the wattpad fics of- I am getting so off track. What exactly is the next step?"

You look from the nice man to the big fucker and back, neither saying anything but looking at you with careful blankness.

You felt like you were being weighed and measured in their eyes.

You hoped to anyone listening that you weren't found wanting at least. Not when you're in the shit situation it looks like you ever so increasingly fell into.

"Considering I'm. Not smear. And very much not from here? Are blanks a thing? Or is that what a beta is I'm," you trail off, brow furrowing, "fuzzy. On the whole thing. The flavor of understanding, dynamics, and population skew tended to be dependant on the author's level of horny."

The did get a bit of a snort from the pretty one before you, the one in the back tilting his head just so as the pretty one spurred you on, "okay please don't take this the wrong way, you have given me nothing to go on but A/B/O and-" a finger was raised in question to that, you quickly explaining, "the fanfic shorthand for the universe without being a mouthful. Anyway- I've seen population numbers being roughly the same across the board, I've seen alphas and omegas at roughly 1% of the population of society on either end, I've seen alphas at about 5% and omegas at 1%- those ones are usually the most horny I swear.

"And it's all over the board, no consistency- sometimes it's betas are infertile, sometimes they're the straightman to the comedy that's an alpha and omega trying to woo each other without being too horny to function. Sometimes it's a sliding scale where being beta just means you're more the more middle-ground regulated hormonally with alphas and omegas being the opposing ends of a spectrum. Can you please say something and give me a fucking break because my panic rambles are probably like. Some kinda prejudiced. I'm still not over the 'I'm supposed to be a smear on the ground we don't even have dental images of to confirm who it is anymore' nugget you dropped on me. I think I'm doing well for this"

You would rather not tell them that as soon as you're out of this box of a room you were gonna be curled up in a ball and unabashedly weeping. That was none of their business.

The pretty one gave you what you're sure was supposed to be a reassuring smile but the quiet stretched just a bit too long. You looked from one to the other before leaning forward, "is this supposed to be soothing in some way? Because it's just a bit of an extended awkward silence and that's uh-"

It was the big one in the back's turn to give an amused snort, the pretty one looking bashful, "right, sorry, we uh-"

You jerk a bit, "wait, was that supposed to be some scent thing," you really didn't wanna say pheromones and potentially dig yourself into a deeper, more awkward hole based on Horny Pseudoscience.

Pretty rubbed the back of his neck, "something like that. You really couldn't smell anything?"

You know the exact Face you're making. It's very much your 'I have told you this and I'm getting tired of having to repeat it' face. You can tell he clocks it but for the record, because to your mortification this has to be recorded, you simply give a succinct, "no, I haven't smelled anything. Not from you, not from him," you jerk your head towards the big fucker, "and not from douchebag from be- Williams! His name was Williams. Nothing. Really had no clue why you were fanning the door when you came in."

You sigh, rubbing the heels of your palms into your eyes, "okay. Assuming I'm not about to be put into past tense a second time. Do we have any idea what popped me out here?"

The sentences are stilted, you know you're getting more rattled the longer you're here but sue you alright it's been the worst six hours of your life here.

They just continue to look at you, pretty keeping a polite almost customer service look as big one just stares unceasingly.

"Right. Okay. Am I going to be reintegrated to society or is this," you gesture around the little room as much as you can, "looking like my home for the foreseeable future."

No change in what you can see of either's expression, and you just sag. Deep breath in, deep breath out, "cool. Alright. Well. I know nothing of how biology is altered here, I'm not sure how that has impacted changes throughout history, and frankly I don't know what your pop culture has done. I'm assuming math and written languages are largely the same but in all fairness I don't know what I don't know."

You just stare quietly at the table for a bit longer before looking back at the two of them, "is there anything else you need because I can feel the freakout creeping up and while I know there's no real privacy, uh…"

The pretty one looked back to the big one, at some point you're sure you'll get some sort of names but for now? Now you watch the big one nod, the pretty one give you a polite smile and some vaguely polite bullshit your brain is swiftly going too far out to hear.

You only hope that whoever is behind the mirror is polite enough to look away as you put your head down on the table and give yourself the opportunity to, just this once, cry. As a treat.

[Next Chapter -> ]

[peachjagiya]

You know what?

I did it.

Lets find out how much Tae didn't want to be there/was on his phone/was not involved, shall we?

Note 1: y'alls keep saying "Except for episode 1" but no, I'm not going to discount the bit that proves you wrong. You don't get to pick and choose what bits of his expended energy to consider when these episodes happened over 3 consecutive days.

Note 2: I have considered "not involved" to be any time he isn't with JK or Jimin or both.

Note 3: You can't measure "looks like he doesn't want to be there". It's subjective. So I have noted where his energy is dipped or doesn't match the other two.

Note 4: As we're in the business of assuming every word is accurate representation of feelings, I've included where Tae expresses joy and happiness that the trip is happening.

Note 5: These numbers are obviously simply what we saw on screen but that's what we have to go with. You can make logical assumptions but for the purpose of this, I have not.

Note 6: This is ridiculous and I fundamentally don't agree that any of them need to be on screen at all times to prove their interest to us. But asks like this really spurred me on:

The arrogance.

Anyway. Numbers:

Episode 1

🐻 After the intro where he has not yet been introduced, Tae is present in activity for all but 1m17s, just 2%, of the episode run time.

🐻 But those 1m17s are when Jimin is being filmed and we know Tae was in the restaurant with JK and in the pool with JK at those moments. So Tae is actually present in conversation or activity with either JK or Jimin or both for 100% of what the show presents as chronological events.

🐥 Incidentally, those Jimin moments were Jimin choosing to be on his own, first looking at the sea and then not being in the pool with JK and Tae.

🐥 Jimin also sleeps for 4m24s of screentime. In terms of not being involved, Jimin is uninvolved in conversation or activity with another member for 10% of the episode.

🐥 But it's important to remember Jimin was not well. We give him that allowance as a human being with bodily function that sometimes does not align with what is required for their work. Jimin was ill. If we assume he slept because he was not well, he actually only misses 1m17s through choice. That's just 2%.

🐰 JK was either showering or motorbiking any time he wasn't with one or both of the other two. He really pulls double duty these three episodes.

Episode 2

🐻 Taehyung is not involved in activity or conversation with another member for 14m9s or 20% of the episode.

🐻 That 20% comprises:

Being too stuffed to swim.

Going to bed early.

Being on a call at the cafe - organising his training workout for the next morning

While JK and Jimin were diving - he was unwell at this point; kinetic tape visible on his neck.

While JK and Jimin are snorkelling - unwell. See above.

While JK and Jimin are on the net drawing the shark

🐻 That seems a lot! But at 5m36s he first complains of neck pain, then at 26m17s the next morning he says he has a neck cramp.

🐻 So 7m9s or 10% are times when he is too hurt to be involved or is taking/making a call.

🐻 By choice ie; being too stuffed to swim, going to bed early and not laying on the net with them at first, he's not present for 7m or 10% of the screentime.

🐻 At the cafe, they all three look shattered. JK says he wants to sleep, as does Jimin. Tae is chilling in exactly the same manner as them. He also does a little skit as server when he's giving JK his drinks and then he's shown laughing - with JK - at something we don't see happen on screen.

🐻 He says a few things that suggest he's enjoying himself:

At 2m24s he says "It's so great travelling with you guys. Lets do this more often."

After snorkelling while they eat ramyeon, "This is great."

When he joins Jimin and JK on the net, "I love this."

🐻 You can hear Tae singing to himself over the headset as they ride to the boat. There's no numbers attached here, I just thought it was sweet.

🐻 What about "constantly on his phone" though...

At 42m21s he sends a message on his phone and puts it back in his pocket. He talks to Jimin as he does this.

At 42m30s he again sends a message on his phone and again puts it back in his pocket.

He makes a call in the cafe. He's talking to someone about when the workout finishes and that it's an indoor gym. This is probably the workout he booked for the morning.

At 55:49, he is shown on his phone while he's sitting out of snorkelling and then puts it aside and gets up to watch JK and Jimin snorkel.

Approximately 7s of phone time we see though we can guess more on the boat. But we don't see it so we won't assume.

Episode 3

🐻 This is his most detached episode. He spends 25% of it separately at times when the other two are together.

🐻 This includes:

He disappears from the BBQ restaurant for 1m34s. Jimin is also gone for this time. Discounted because all were not together. Any time when Tae is not the only one missing has been discounted.

Tae disappears briefly for 12s

Tae is unaccounted for while Jimin plays with cat and JK plays with dog for 2m11s. He does point the cat out to them but he could well have done it as he walked past.

In bed and then at gym for 5m32s

Napping at house for 6m31s. Jimin is also asleep for 2m16s. Subtracted Jimin's nap from Tae's time.

🐻 Phone time wise, he picks his phone up for 47s or 1% of episode time.

🐰 However JK uses his phone for 2m21s of the episode whilst in back of car. That's contrary to the TKK assertion that JK only used his phone in NYC and Sapporo, for the record. 👍

🐥 Jimin uses his phone as he's laying in the kitchen while JK cooks. He goes from sitting with it to laying on his back with it. Half of this he converses with JK while he's on phone, as Tae did at BBQ place.

🐻 At end of episode, he says he "felt like a kid again."

🐻 His energy does drop for the third episode. It's undeniable. But this guy wakes early and goes to work out - a planned early work out suggests it might have been important for some reason - and then the next time we see him, he's fighting sleep to the point where he drops off in the car.

🐥 Remember that Jimin fought sleep in episode 1 of Jeju and finally gave in for his little terrace nap. In the run up to him dozing, he was a little low energy too.

🐻 Of the seven activities they engaged in - swimming x 3, climbing, go karts, snorkelling, fishing - Tae didn't partake in two of them due to his neck. Jimin missed one. Jimin also doesn't climb as much as Tae and JK but he was not feeling his best either. JK took part in all.

🐻 All told, there is 16% of the whole show where Tae isn't involved. For a "guest", that seems a pretty big contribution.

Well. Do what you will with this information. You might think I'm biased so you're welcome to do your own analysis obviously. But you now know that I personally think you live in a house of lies, anonymous Tae haters.

[glitteringcrab]

Nice to meet you, I guess

I gotta say, this interpretation is turning this whole scene right on its head for me:

Because I originally thought this was Evil Morty coldly and manipulatively overplaying his Mortyness:

And yet I think we can all agree that this is real fear (because there was no one conscious around for Evil Morty to adjust his reactions to):

Same as I think we can all agree that this was a calculated move:

THE TRANSITION BETWEEN THE TWO EMOTIONAL STATES IS NOT READILY APPARENT.

One moment he was scared, then he... put up an even more scared façade? Overplayed his fear?? While at the same time having foreseen the way to bring Rick Prime down and coldly luring him closer with his apparent helplessness?

Well... I think... I get it now... Here's how I think it went:

1. Eyepatch Morty's allies are down, and he does not know what to do. Hence the slow, hesitant reactions:

2: And yet he stands his ground to face Rick Prime (and might I note that Evil Morty could have teleported himself away during that time Rick Prime had not yet regenerated --and hope the Omega Device would not be used on Mortys-- but not only he stayed, it appears he later places himself between Rick Prime and his fallen allies).

3. This is a real flinch:

(and he had flinched again right before that, when he saw Rick Prime first beginning to get up)

4. Although we're never shown him walk (so this could be an animation mistake) as mentioned before, it seems he has placed himself in front of his temporary allies and is standing his ground:

5. And then he flinches again when Rick Prime reaches for his gun (lots of flinching in this episode). As far as I can tell Evil Morty's forcefield had fizzled out, and a painful death is imminent.

6. He automatically, subconsciously tries (what I assume to be and what turned this scene on its head for me) a self-pacifying gesture: touching the eyepatch.

This is important because if the interpretation of this gesture is correct, it would mean that none of Evil Morty's above described reactions had been clever nor calculating. His Mortyness was not deliberately overplayed. This is a raw, genuine moment. He was just scared, and the best he could do in the face of imminent death was to instinctively reach for an object he had equated with freedom and strength, an object that he considers so strongly as a part of his identity that he wears it even when completely alone outside the Curve.

7. Only that this attempt at self-soothing doesn't work; he isn't wearing the eyepatch right now.

He quickly camouflages his attempt by turning the gesture into a scratch.

8. This line? This dumb line that he utters next?

That's not Evil Morty cleverly and deliberately impersonating Morty Prime by making himself sound like an idiot; although he is following along the "I'm Morty Prime" ruse, this is Evil Morty being scared out of his wits and genuinely having no idea what to do or say to save himself, exactly like Morty Prime would be.

9. THIS IS THE MOMENT HE THINKS OF THE FINGER GUNS:

Eyepatch Morty lowers his gaze and raises his left hand slightly. I dunno, but I think this could be read as the face of someone who's thinking, and I feel like the motion of his left hand is rather indicative of what he was thinking.

10. More flinching as Rick Prime approaches. He's going to have only one shot at this.

11. WOOP. There ya go, a-hole:

(note that he's using his left hand, the same one he raised slightly earlier)

And I think Eyepatch Morty's expression in this is interesting. Compare it with another instance when he's firing a weapon that requires a lot of focus:

Doesn't Evil Morty's wide-eyed expression when he fires the finger gun look... almost curious? Uncertain, sorta? Like he's closely observing to see the result?

It feels to me like he made the finger guns with another Rick in mind and wasn't sure if the disruption they would cause would even work on Rick Prime (but I could be reading too much into it).

12. HOORAY:

13. Aaaand he puts the eyepatch back on as soon as possible.

(Whew!)

I dunno, the more I try to read Evil Morty's actions (trying to self-pacify after getting shot, subconsciously choosing a blue color for his forcefield, repeated flinching, avoiding any sort of attachment as too painful, taking kinda poor care of himself outside the Curve, opting to talk to Morty Prime and Rick C-137 instead of attacking them, being too scared to face Puppetmaster Rick alone), the more fragile, scared, tired and lonely he seems to me, despite his constant masks and apparent endless strength, intelligence and determination.

I feel like even the moments when he shows genuine pain or fear we are inclined to disregard his humanity and interpret as cold and calculated acting.

...Although I may be only seeing what I want to see.

[morganski-19]

Eddie and the priest, and how that fits with my theorized timeline.

It fits perfectly.

I have had the opinion that gay Eddie isn't going to happen until at least 8b, possibly even late 8b, for a while now. This man is incredibly repressed and filled with guilt. And there are layers to that guilt, that leave him feeling like he doesn't deserve forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a complicated thing, and is heavily emphasized in Catholic media and the church itself. Like the priest says, God is forgiving and would forgive Eddie for what he did. It's now up to the people in his life to forgive him, but most importantly, himself. Eddie thinks that he needs to earn his forgiveness, and this is mainly because he can't forgive himself.

He has a mustache so he can't look at himself in the mirror. When he looks at himself, he can see someone who isn't himself. He can dissociate his body and his mind. Almost like he's running away. (which he very much is).

Father Brian realizes that, and gives Eddie really good advice. In order to move on from this, to start healing, Eddie needs to learn how to forgive himself for his perceived failures. He has to do something that just evokes pure joy instead of suffering, so that healing can start.

In my theorizing about episode 6 post, I talked about Eddie needing a shock to his system in order to move forward instead of punishing himself. This is what I'm considering the first shock to his system.

It's been talked about that this period of time apart from Chris is going to give Eddie a chance to learn who he is. He can only do that if he stops punishing himself. By punishing himself, he only roots himself in one state and that will do nothing but hurt himself and the people around him. But, by starting to peel off that first layer, he can find the others that lie underneath.

I still think Chris is going to at least say he wants to come back in the episode before the mid-season break. it would be a great cliffhanger, and be the perfect step to Eddie further trying to forgive himself, and also earn forgiveness from his son.

TLDR: Don't give up, we're closer than we ever have been.

[thebluemallet]

Predictions for Bridgerton Season 3

We're only a few short weeks away from the premiere of season 3 of Bridgerton, so here are some of my predictions for things I think could happen.

1- Peneloise won't reconcile until the last episode

Obviously, Eloise hasn't forgiven Penelope since the previous season. And it will be an uphill battle to get these two on speaking terms again. Eloise is definitely the kind of person to hold a grudge so she'll be the one kicking and screaming all the way up to the reconciliation. And Penelope won't be too keen at first, either. I think the show will milk the estrangement between these two all the way to the final episode at the latest, episode 7 at the earliest.

2- Benophie Will Be Next Season

Some people have speculated that Philoise will be the next Bridgerton couple, but I think it will be Benedict and Sophie. I don't think Eloise is there with her character development yet to seriously consider marriage. But Benedict might be.

3- Francesca Will Feel Some Pressure From Queen Charlotte

This isn't that groundbreaking of a prediction. Queen Charlotte has put some pressure on the romantic leads to choose a specific person for the first two seasons. With Daphne, it was the prince. With Anthony, it was Edwina. And if the promo photos are anything to go by, she has a specific suitor in mind for Francesca. But Francesca may have her own ideas on who she'd most like to marry.

4- Violet: Captain of the Polin Ship

This isn't really a prediction. This was pretty much said in an interview. Once Violet is clued into what's going on between Colin and Penelope, she's going to be feral for them. She'll be the one making the t-shirts and cheering from the sidelines. Hell, she might even lock the carriage door herself if she thinks it'll speed things up.

5- Cressida Uncovers Lady Whistledown...Because of Eloise

Do I think that Eloise is going to just come out and tell Cressida who is behind Lady Whistledown? No. Or at least, I hope she doesn't. If she really wanted to expose her ex-friend's secret identity, she would have already done it. For whatever reason, it seems as though Eloise is keeping the secret. HOWEVER, I do think that she'll make enough not-so-subtle comments that Cressida will figure it out for herself.

6- Colin Finds Out Penelope Is Whistledown In Episode 4

We know that we're getting The Carriage Scene in episode 4 and book readers especially will know that The Carriage Scene immediately follows Colin finding out that Penelope is Lady Whistledown. I think it's pretty likely that Episode 4 could still play out this way. And their expressions in those leaked clips allude to them having an emotionally turbulent time in that carriage before they start getting down to business.

7- ...Or Does He????

I can see the showrunners making things even more dramatic by delaying the Whistledown reveal to Colin. Maybe the raw emotion on their faces in the carriage is because Colin yeeted himself inside to beg Penelope not to marry Debling and he confesses his feelings instead. Maybe things start getting hot and heavy from there.

And then they're very hastily enaged.

But if Colin is still in the dark about Lady Whistledown, I can see the revelation happening a little later--most likely the very next episode--and oh, boy that emotional gut punch would knock the wind out of me.

[antianakin]

@theneutralmime

I'm very definitively positive on clone/Jedi relationships, both platonic and romantic.

I'm going to hit the biologically children thing first because like... no, they're not. If you want to go that route, then you have to count Grogu as a middle aged adult because he's 50 years old even though his official name for a while was literally "The Child" and he's definitely treated like a child in the narrative more often than he isn't. Jango Fett was (as far as I'm aware) a regular human. The clones, the altered ones at least (so not Omega or Boba), are almost an entirely different species. They LOOK human, but they've been engineered to be different from the baseline human they were based off of to the point that they aren't necessarily all that similar to a regular human beyond cosmetics. So if you don't view them as "fucked up humans who should be treated like children because they're technically only 10 years old" and instead view them as "subspecies of human that reaches maturity around 9 years old", then it's a lot harder to view them as children.

I think that it's fair to claim that the clones are SHELTERED and likely fairly ignorant and naive about a lot of things in the world due to their upbringing, sure, but that doesn't make them children. They're also relatively young regardless of whether you'd consider them children or not, the youngest ones we know about are sent out to war at what would be the equivalent of about 20 years old and they're only around 26ish by the time the war ENDS. So even accounting for the accelerated aging, they're still pretty young and there's going to be a lot about the galaxy and how to live in it that would be new to them. Their understanding of how relationships work is going to be skewed given everything we know about their childhoods and the way the Kaminoans canonically seem to view them.

So I think that the Jedi and clones would likely often end up in a sort of mentor/mentee relationship, especially in the beginning. We see this most strongly with Yoda and the three Coruscant Guard characters and Plo Koon with the three 104th characters in the first four episodes of season 1, as well as with Shaak Ti and Fives and Echo during the Clone Cadets episode of season 3. The Jedi are natural teachers and I think they'd start to get to know these young men who are so devastatingly intelligent but who were only ever taught about how to fight a war and they'd immediately take the opportunity to help guide the clones towards figuring out who they are and who they want to be. We're pretty much told that this is true point blank when I believe it's Nala Se or Lama Su speaks to Dooku during season 6 and they say that the Jedi have been encouraging individuality in the clones. Fives says that the Jedi respect the clones and calls the Jedi their best friends at two separate points in the narrative. The Jedi literally use their OWN PHILOSOPHIES to help the clones learn what it means to be PEOPLE and to embrace that for themselves.

The relationship between the Jedi and the clones is honestly one of the most beautiful and heartwrenching dynamics in the entirety of Star Wars to me. Their destinies are entwined irrevocably and they are each the others' doom and salvation all at once. The Jedi help the clones discover who they are, but they're also going to end up being the reason the clones lose all sense of themselves. The clones are a light in the dark for the Jedi during the war, but they're also going to be the weapon that helps plunge the entire world into darkness by eliminating the Jedi. These two groups that are SO similar in so many ways but for vastly different reasons who are thrown together by forces beyond either of their control and learn to understand each other better than anyone else ever has and love and trust each other implicitly for it and that love and trust is then used to destroy them both. It's absolutely devastating and really gets me in those feels.

As far as romantic ships, I sort-of said my piece on the age thing earlier, but I honestly find that fussing about characters' ages in Star Wars is more ridiculous than it usually is. These characters are literally ALIENS and it's a universe where human characters who are twelve years old are allowed to hold office. I have my personal preferences in terms of clone/Jedi ships, but I am a very ship and let ship sort of person (yes, even with the ships I DESPISE), so I'm not going to make a big deal out of clone/Jedi ships. I also like clone/clone ships which tons of people find problematic for other reasons, so whatever.

I HAVE seen the superior/subordinate thing get addressed in clone/Jedi fics before. Sometimes it ends in the characters deciding to wait until after the war and when the clones are given rights and official citizenship status or something before they begin a romantic relationship, and sometimes it ends in the characters recognizing that a lot of the rules shouldn't really matter when they're at war and they could die literally any day and they deserve to find happiness and pleasure where they can find it so long as they work to ensure that this doesn't impact their respective responsibilities. Again though, this is a space fantasy and absolutely nobody on the writing staff for The Clone Wars was taking the structure and internal dynamics of this fantasy military particularly seriously, so I'm not sure why I or anyone else should have to if they don't want to.

So yeah, I love relationships between the clones and Jedi, it's probably my favorite dynamic in the whole franchise, regardless of whether it's platonic or romantic.

[correlance]

Rewriting Vaggie's Character Arc and Backstory in Season 1 of 'Hazbin Hotel'

One of my biggest issues with Season 1 of Hazbin Hotel, and the Charlie/Vaggie relationship, was how Vaggie's character and arc for the season were written - or, specifically, the lack of solid, thoughtful writing, as well as character and relationship development for Vaggie.

First up are the two main songs in Season 1 that feature, or relate to, Vaggie specifically: "Whatever It Takes" in Episode 3 ("Scrambled Eggs"), and "Out For Love" in Episode 7 ("Hello Rosie"). Both notably feature Carmilla Carmine, who serves as a foil for Vaggie in the show.

I've seen "Whatever It Takes" compared to "Do It For Her" from Steven Universe, except the latter has several seasons and dozens of episodes' worth of character development for Pearl, as well as the exploration of her relationship with Rose Quartz. Meanwhile, "Whatever It Takes" comes in just Episode 3 of Season 1 of Hazbin Hotel, and the song feels really out-of-place. It sounds like a song that should be later in Season 1, or even in Season 2, and not Episode 3, which I feel made the song seem shoehorned in due to the fast pace of Season 1, and lessened its impact, for many fans and viewers.

We also have no prior character development for Vaggie that would explain how and why she is singing those particular lyrics, especially for first-time viewers who never watched the original pilot episode. This is a big problem for the song itself, and its notability, overall.

The way the song is written and framed also gives off the impression that Vaggie and Carmilla have some sort of prior connection, or that Vaggie may be one of Carmilla's daughters...only for this not to be the case in Episode 7. Even Carmilla's song, "Out For Love", in Episode 7 makes a lot more sense, if you consider the possibility that Vaggie may have been originally written to be one of Carmilla's daughters in early drafts of the show. Many also assumed as much from the song.

However, once Vaggie's backstory was changed, the songs were still kept in, which led to highly confusing lyrics which make no sense. This is because we're never told what Vaggie's motivations actually are, outside of her wanting to be a protector for Charlie in Episode 3. However, this is also a problem, because it reduces Vaggie's character to just being "Charlie's girlfriend", with no other attributes. I think Vaggie could've been written to be a more compelling person.

Here's what I think Vaggie's original character arc in Season 1 was, prior to rewrites due to a short episode count: Vaggie was one of Carmilla's daughters, and a moth sinner, as opposed to an angel. The angels went after Carmilla and her daughters, and Vaggie killed one of the exorcists to protect Carmilla and her sisters. However, Adam and Lute are now hunting for Vaggie, so Vaggie has to go into hiding.

The Hazbin Hotel provides the perfect opportunity for Vaggie to do so. Vaggie doesn't believe that sinners can be redeemed, though she does befriend and fall in love with Charlie, and helps her with her project.

Vaggie and Charlie bond over how much the exterminations suck, but Vaggie wants revenge on Heaven, and hates Heaven, for murdering so many sinners in cold blood, and is more militaristic - wanting to use Carmilla's angelic steel weapons to fight against Heaven - whereas Charlie is all "eat, pray, love" and "kumbaya", and wants to find a peaceful solution (redemption of sinners) with Heaven instead.

Things come to a head in Episode 6, when Vaggie has a fight with Charlie over where the Hotel is headed - as redemption isn't working - and how they should handle Adam, Lute, and the exterminations. Vaggie's hatred and self-loathing eventually lead her to Carmilla's doorstep, where Carmilla then sings "Out For Love" about how Vaggie should fight because she loves Charlie, and not hates Heaven.

There, I just wrote a better and more interesting character arc for Vaggie than just "hurr durr, let's just copy the most popular fan theory about Vaggie, something something, lazy and boring writing".

[kay-claire]

What really gets me with the whole watcher thing is that like, there are ways for them to have made this decision without it going so horribly wrong. Like they could have said "hey we want to be more independent and not rely on platforms like Patreon and YouTube as heavily as we currently do. So moving forward we will be moving all our Patreon content over to our new streaming platform. Content will be posted there a week/month earlier than YouTube, and we will still be posting our regular content on YouTube, but we hope that you will consider joining our new streaming platform in the future." and THEN, after a few months, they could have said "We're planning to make brand new shows that will be exclusive to our new platform, and we'll share the pilots of those shows on YouTube, but after that the rest of the episodes will only be available on that platform. All your favourite Watcher shows will still continue to be made and posted to YouTube, but reminder that they're available earlier on our streaming platform." Or something like that, that could have been a gradual change. People would have still probably been like "lol no" but they wouldn't be unsubscribing in droves.

Asking people to pay $6 a month for a new platform that doesn't have any content on it currently, and they only put out 1 video a week?? This was never going to work. People are willing to spend $5 on Patreon a month to support their favourite creators, but there's a big difference between supporting someone's Patreon and paying for a product they used to be able to get for free.

(Also why the fuck was the announcement video 14 minutes long?? I skipped to the very end to just see the actual announcement, did anyone even watch the whole sob story?)

[zeeohoh]

A/N : Oh my gosh this is my first fic and I'm impulsively writing it so it isn't proof read or I might overthink it and not post it.

pleaseee give me prompts or recommendations, not limited to Spencer! Any member of the BAU, or Criminal Minds, I am only halfway through season 9 so no spoilers!

I'm currently on 09x15 of Criminal Minds, and this episode is directed by our very own Mr. Gibson.

"Do you wanna come upstairs?"

(Gn!reader) after a particularly exhaustive case that struck Spencer the hard way, reader tries to be there for him ( this isn't a romantic fic but is up for interpretation/ as you wish ;) ) .

I've been a part of the BAU for about seven months now, I transferred a little while after my time in the field under the SOC, but I had assisted them on multiple cases before and was familiar with most of the team so the transition wasn't hard. I was great friends with Penelope already because she'd help me on my cases sometimes if she had the time to spare, she would invite me to her movie nights and outings and from there on I befriended the others. I was good friends with everyone on the team except Spencer, we weren't on bad terms or anything, but things were rocky, I had no doubt that he trusted me as a team member. Perhaps he just needed more time to consider me as anything more than that.

Everyone slept soundly in the bau jet as we headed back for Quantico. The team had been in Wisconsin for the past 6 days trying to chase down an unsub that had been kidnapping teenagers and sending letters to their parents written in their blood. This case was mentally and physically draining. I was sitting next to Morgan, who was sound asleep with his headphones on, occasionally stirring in his sleep, uneasy, he had taken a couple of hits chasing the unsub with JJ. The unsub might've gotten away if it wasn't for Spencer literally throwing himself at the unsub to subdue him. He may not look(or be) the most physically fit person on the team, but over the years during his time working for the FBI, he'd been more than able to stand his ground.

I couldn't fall asleep on the flight back so I thought I might as well make some coffee, as I was preparing the pot, I glanced around the jet and locked eyes with a certain Curly haired genius with a book in his hand, he looked like he'd woken up not long ago, I held up the pot in my hand as a way of asking him if he'd like some and he simply nodded with a tight lipped smile. I grabbed both of our coffees and set his down on the table infront of him.

"Thank you, Y/N, I thought you'd be asleep"

"I was, but Morgan keeps stirring in his sleep, and that woke me up, what about you? What's keeping you up? I figured you'd crash the second we boarded the jet, you must be exhausted"

"My side hurts from earlier so I can't find a comfortable position to sleep in, I'm just waiting to be back in Quantico so I can hopefully rest at home"

"Do you want- uh- would you want to sit here instead? I know the plane lands in the next 20 minutes and we're already almost there but-"

"I'd like that, thank you, Dr. Reid"

"Spencer"

"What?"

"Call me Spencer, if you'd like, Reid feels too formal, like we're nothing more than co-workers" he almost whispered the last bit ,there was a hint of disappointment written all over his face.

Was he...upset that I didn't call him Spencer?

"Okay, Spencer, I am just used to calling you Reid, has a nice ring to it, and for the record, I don't consider you as just a guy I work with, you're more than that" I smiled at him. "You can go back to your book if you want, we don't have to talk or anything"

"Oh okay" he looked as if he wanted to say something else but decided against it and reached out for his book instead

We sat in silence as he went back to his book and I leaned back in my seat and shut my eyes, the silence wasn't awkward, the silence was comfortable.

After landing, everyone filed into the bullpen as Penelope greeted us all with warm hugs.

"Everyone take the weekend off, I'll see you on Monday, Morgan, Reid, take care and let me know if you need anything"

Reid headed to his desk to grab a few things and I stayed behind, waiting for him.

"You haven't left yet?" He questioned me as he approached the elevator

"I was just waiting for you, we take the same train home so I figured we could head back together"

"I'd really like that" Spencer smiled at me.

I don't just want to walk him to the station, I really want to walk him home, just for my peace of mind, I don't know why, I just do

"You just missed your stop" He asked me as the doors closed on what should've been the stop I got off on everyday. "Are you walking me home?"

"...Is it okay if I do that? I mean it's not that I'm worried that you can't get back on your own with you being hurt, it's just that for my peace of mind-"

You're rambling, Y/N, big time

"Y/N, it's okay, I really appreciate you doing that, it's very thoughtful of you" he cut me off

We walked towards his apartment building as we talked about our plans for the weekend, Reid decided to stay in this weekend and recover while I will probably be spending the next two days doing movie nights with Penelope or meeting up with JJ.

We came to a halt as he stopped infront of a building I presumed he lived at, I actually had no idea where he lived until this moment.

"Well, this is me"

"Okay, have a nice weekend,okay? If you need anything, please don't hesitate to call, I am serious, I live close by anyways"

"Would you like to- uh- Do you want to come upstairs?" Reid looked at me expectedly.

"I wouldn't want to intrude, besides you should definitely get some sleep, Reid- Spencer, you've had a long day"

"I have a strong cup of caffeine in my system, I'm tired, yes, but I'm nowhere near sleeping, we can order take out, my treat, besides, some company would be nice, your company would be nice, if you want to ofcourse, don't feel compelled to say yes"

"I'd like that, thank you, Spencer, but please don't hesitate to tell me if you change your mind and want to sleep instead or want to be left alone."

We headed up to his apartment and he set up an old Silent movie for us to watch, enjoying the takeout, we got so caught up in talking that I didn't even realize how late it had gotten, we were on our second movie before I heard the silent snoring and looked over to my side to see Spencer fast asleep,I finished the rest of the movie and got up from the couch to clear the table and throw away the take out boxes, I reached into his go-bag and took out a blanket he sometimes carried with him and placed it over him.

He looks so angelic when he sleeps, so peaceful

As if sensing me staring at him, his eyes fluttered open and embarrassment flushed his face as he realized he had fallen asleep while I was still over.

He turned his head and locked at the clock, 01:23

"How long was I out? I am so sorry , I had trouble sleeping the past few days and when it finally came to me it just had to be when you were here."

"Hey, don't worry, it's fine, really, you looked so peaceful sleeping that I didn't want to wake up, I'll be out of your hair now"

"It's late right now, Y/N, it isn't safe for you to go out alone ,not that I'm in any way hinting that you can't take care of yourself, you could throw Morgan over your shoulder if you really wanted to or Two Morgans for that matter but the point is, I don't want you to go-" he let out a sigh and looked down at his hands that rested on his lap. "If I asked you to stay, would you? I hadn't slept this well in a while and I'm sorry if that's weird but-"

I cut him off "point me to the bathroom, I have a fresh set of clothes in my go-bag that I can change into"

This man must have been more exhausted than I thought he was because he was asleep again as I stepped out of the bathroom, as I leaned down to wake him up to sleep on the bed instead, I glanced at my phone that had a new notification, from Spencer

Please take the bed, make yourself at home and turn off your alarms for the morning, Goodnight Y/N

P.s thank you for staying with me tonight, it means a lot"

I poured a glass of water and placed it on the table next to the couch, incase he wakes up thirsty and headed for the bedroom.

Goodnight Spencer, Sweet Dreams.

His bed was so comfortable that it wasn't long before I slipped into a blissful sleep.

[indelicate-delicacies]

Hey so not to get too wildly off-track from the normal topic of conversation on this blog, but if you so permit it, I'd love to talk about another little theory of mine about the Magnus Protocol of all things. It's only a little hatchling, too young to really be too particular on the details, but we've got that season 2 drop closing in, so there's only so much time I have left to ship it off before it gets completely demolished from being proven wrong 6 times over.

As you might expect, spoilers incoming for pretty much the entirety of Season 1 (Not including the s1 epilogue).

So, the fears, right? If you've not heard of them, then you are the very rare individual that has somehow both found my blog, and listened to the entirety of Magnus Protocol before listening to half of Magnus Archives. I am very proud of you for managing to find this; though perhaps you should check if you've been marked by the Eye. (Joking.)

We're here to get down to the fears, where are they now, what's their new business plan, etc. etc. Well, I can say one thing for certain: Smirke's 14 is certainly not the main system we're operating with. There are some clear remnants of this system, such as the Stranger--they're still going strong, what with the Mr Bonzo and such. And I'll get into why that's still here later, but my point is we will not be relying on Smirke's 14.

But even if it's not 14, there are still some kind of division of the fears present. While the motifs may not be familiar to us, they are there if you look for them. The Deep is a clear example, because once it is literally name-dropped by an avatar external, the motifs become pretty easy to look out for. Even in one season, the amount of episodes involving drowning or water is too statistically significant to be some accident.

So you may be asking, "how does this work? How are the fears being stretched in such awkward ways that they have to go by completely different names?" Well, the thing is, they are not being stretched any more awkwardly by these new names than they were by the old ones. Think of it this way: they are mapping out the same landmass, but they break up the landmarks with completely different borders. You can see some decent overlap between certain fears, like the Deep with the Buried, and that's because that area has to go somewhere. And the Deep takes a good chunk of it, so as a result it seems awfully familiar.

The next question to answer: "If it's not 'Smirke's 14' anymore, then who's responsible for this one?" Shockingly, I think we can answer this. With the statement regarding Sir Isaac Newton himself, a Historical figure just like Robert Smirke, that shows him speculating on fear and its mechanics, we have a potential culprit for this new arrangement. Consider this parallel: Robert Smirke was always focused on balance, and how the fears are supposedly able to cancel each other out; Newton's third law of motion states that "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." That's not much evidence to place him as specifically responsible for all the current fear stuff, but it would be particularly powerful foreshadowing if the guy who designed these new fears was name-dropped all the way back in Season One, and Mr. Sims has made it clear he is quite fond of making sure everything is included for good reason. So I'm just going to make an educated guess and point my finger at Newton.

But the main thing I'm going to be discussing here is what the new fears are, how they're broken up, what their motifs/"motives" are, and afterwards, how the old fears factor into all of this. The thing is, I'm not exactly studied up on all the alchemy stuff, or much of anything regarding Isaac Newton outside of his theory of gravity; Maybe I'll research in the future, but again, we're working with a limited amount of time so I won't be diving into Isaac's methods and ideas just yet. Right now, I just mentioned him as a possible lead so I could have a name in here for the sake of naming this system of fears. That being Newton's system of 8. But let's get into that, shall we?

Here's how I think the fears are broken up:

The Deep. Related to the Buried and the Dark (and a portion of the Vast and the Lonely).

(Note: this is the only name confirmed in canon--the only other possibly canon name is "Liminal Hunger," which although it could be a name, it is likely not a frequent name. But for all the other names, they are speculations based on their themes.)

There seems to be only a small difference between the choking of the Buried and the drowning of the Deep. But there is certainly a difference. In the Buried, there is no action, no moving, no seeing. But the Deep is always moving. It pulls you downward, always further in, perhaps even convincing you to try and swim. But the pull is too much. You are locked in its grasp, and it will never stop pulling you closer and closer. The shock of cold gets you, paralyzing all your muscles except the ones in your heart, that cannot stop beating faster and faster. You struggle and fight and you try to swim, try to get one gasp of air. But it holds you close, and yet closer still. The cold grip tightens until you freeze. And only then do you stop moving.

Occurrences of this fear are: Episode 11 case file; statement of the corpse from episode 15; Episode 29 case file.

The Wild. Related to the Corruption and the Hunt.

The climbing, crawling, creeping Wild. It describes the Wrath of Demeter, the dense weeds with desire to spread and take control, the angry beast that wishes to fight and defend its territory. Sometimes it comes to devour, sometimes it comes for the sport of sewing chaos. Its truth reveals we are all not too distant from animals. It's angry, and hungry, and it just wants to survive. So it will take, splitting rock open with its roots. From nature we came, and it promises that to nature we will return.

Occurrences of this fear are: Ink5oul's floral serpent tattoo (described in episode 2); episode 3 case file; episode 14 case file; Lady Mowbray (episode 15); episode 24 case file.

The Risk/Never Enough. Related to the Desolation and the End (and a portion of the Web).

There's always a risk. At any time, there's risk of an accident, an injury, death--every day is a gamble. We believe that we get control over our lives, but there will always be a risk of losing everything. And if that's the case, what harm is there in challenging risk? If you're already living with a ticking clock that could run out at any moment, why not try for something more? If a small gamble pays out, then maybe you'll earn yourself a bit of a safety cushion? You'll only be taking one risk to replace another, and if your luck is as good as it's been so far, with you still being alive and all, maybe you'll finally be safe from the risk entirely. Except, there's still a risk. Maybe smaller after taking that chance, but not small enough. You need more gambles, more wins, until you're finally safe. Finally free. It won't matter how many times you lose, as long as you win in the end. Just one more try, just one more risk...

Occurrences of this fear are: Episode 1 case file 1; Episode 9 case file; Episode 13 case file.

The Pain. Related to the Slaughter (and a portion of the Flesh).

Fear of pain is simple. We're all familiar with it; that sting as some new injury has disgraced your flesh. Perhaps some marking their brand forever on your body, cutting deeply enough that your skin cannot repair without producing scars. A fear so common, it is almost ubiquitous. And yet despite this, it is a fear so commonly disrespected. What harm is there in hesitance in the presence of a needle? Why compare it to larger injury, when even such a tiny thing is capable of causing permanent damage? One needle is enough. Enough to burrow deep into you with complete disregard for the body it has infiltrated. Even a single sting is small, but it stays, and leaves you with some unnamable, deeper ache. A fear of its ability to return, and to take the opportunity to cause something much, much worse.

Occurrences of this fear are: Ink5oul (episode 2, 11, 16, 20); episode 6 case file.

Liminal Hunger. Related to The Spiral and the Flesh.

I'm not sure I understand this one. It is a hunger that must be sated, an emptiness that wishes to be filled. A place waiting to fulfill its purpose. But are the people who made it the source of this desire? The wish to have their work mean something, brought to life? Or is it something carried by the viewer, who expects something from a building until it decides to oblige them? Either way, there's something about those places. That it was created, theoretically with some purpose, and now its potential is being wasted. Even if it's some niche use, it still deserves to be used. It deserves to have a place, to get the appreciation that it earned. It deserves to have its purpose. At first I believed this fear to be something from the Flesh, being that the Hungry Man Grill really suggested that that fear was still around. I considered that it could have just expanded to be more than just meat and food, shifted toward a matter of creation. A hunger for purpose. But that wasn't it. While there are shared components with the Flesh, it is distinctly separated from its desire for simplicity and nature. The Flesh says we are all nothing but meat, but Liminal Hunger says we are something more. Something strange. And whatever it is, the fear wants it drawn out of us, have it pushed out our lungs and our hands and our eyes. It wants to live through us. It wants to be our creation.

Occurrences of this fear are: Episode 7 case file; episode 8 case file; episode 18 case file; Helen Richardson (Episode 26); The Custodian (Episode 30).

The Stranger. Mostly similar to the version of the Stranger in the Magnus Archives.

This version of the Stranger is very similar to the one we're familiar with, but it's not the same. All these ideas on the "other" and the unfamiliar are present, but they have been shifted to be an examination of objectification and desire. For an example of the contrast: while the previous horror in the taking of Breekon and Hope's name was about identity theft and your name no longer being yours, the loss of Nigel Dickerson's self is quite different. Mr. Bonzo was a simple property of his, one that was such an obsession for people that it eclipsed him as a person. People knew Mr. Bonzo, they liked him and were familiar with him, but everybody forgot the person behind the character. And then, all of it was taken away when the famous face was turned infamous. Mr. Bonzo is a story about celebrity culture, about being popular but never seen. Breekon and Hope were quiet, a personal and secret theft of personhood, while Mr. Bonzo was loud, an identity tainted and swept away by a roaring crowd. Not all of the fear is reaching this level of publicity in its motions, but it does permit itself to be seen more often, even if that image will always be false. If the Stranger had a name-change to reflect the way it's been changed, it could be called the Performance.

Occurrences of this fear are: Episode 5 case file (possibly located at the amphitheater); Mr. Bonzo (episode 10, 12); Episode 27 case file (though seemingly a more traditional version of the Stranger than my suggestions of the Performance).

The Mirror. Related to the Lonely and the Spiral (and a small portion of the Eye).

Sometimes when we look in the mirror, we are disturbed by what we see. Either by what is there, or what isn't. Some become trapped by the sight, trying to make fixes, or make conversation. Some are disturbed by the warps they see in the reflection, wishing to find an image of themselves that portrays them in perfect accuracy--in the attempt to deny something they wish to not be true, or in the hope that they will one day be able to understand just what they are. It's a fear that many people interact with in many different ways. And because the way we fear the Mirror is personal, I can do no more than describe its silhouette. I cannot fully express the complexity of its design, the intricacies of its attack. Because it is impossible for me to be a part of the dialogue that only You and the Mirror can share.

Occurrences of this fear are: episode 17 case file; episode 21 case file; episode 22 case file; episode 23 case file.

The Network. Related to the Web and the Eye.

The Network is a lot of things. On some matters, it is much like the Eye, nosy and knows how to find people. But on others, it's blind and clumsy. Because the Network is the fear of people. Not like how the Stranger is the fear of people--crowds of unblinking dolls and false identities--but real, genuine humanity. People that are just the same as you, and yet will always stay separated. The disconnect from others that cannot truly be broken, despite how tightly we are all interwoven. The truth that everything, every bit of the social structure we have created to make people feel safe, will always be vulnerable to simple human error. And this fear is only exacerbated when systems of hierarchy are concerned. Humans that are no different than anyone, no better than anyone, are put above each other in a never-ending cascade of hierarchy. At times, some feel they gain power from this system, some genuine control over their lives, not subject to the bizarre whims of a stranger. But then, no matter how big the role they play, a bigger fish shows up. Even the Externals have something to fear. Because there is no top, no point where you're above other people. That's a fiction invented by the desire for control, for stability. The Network is the fear that there is no stability, because the world is filled with people just like you. The fear that we will continue to enforce a broken system, not out of ignorance, but because it's the best we can do.

Occurrences of this fear are: The OIAR (all episodes); episode 16 case file (though caused by Ink5oul, an External related to the Pain); statement of Samama Khalid from episode 28 (just speculative--motifs are unclear, but not sure how else to place it).

If you kept a careful tally of the different case files I divided up amongst the different fears, you might have noticed I missed a few. You might think this implies I left one of the fears unclassified or something of that nature, but I think it's different. All these edge-cases are essentially arguments between "philosophers"-- because despite the mostly lacking presence of Robert Smirke, there are clearly still some remaining artifacts from his work. Some examples include... You know... The Magnus Institute existing at all in the show. Also that violent violin that was nothing but a dead-ringer for the Slaughter (episode 4 case file). And I think they are present because, at some point in time, Smirke did actually get down to the brass tacks of trying to break up the fears like he did in the Magnus Archives. The only difference is, he failed, and most of the fear structures that he built eventually dissipated back into the format they were previously reliant on. There's a reason why the violin story was so old, and why the Archive only spits something out when someone goes picking at its supposed corpse. It's not clear whether the buildings were destroyed because Newton himself came down to beat Smirke to death with a metal pipe, or because Smirke made some little mistake that got him killed (resulting in his architecture being left to slowly erode over time). But clearly Smirke had a short time where at least some of his structures were in place, and if some fragments of their remains are intact, then they remain capable of producing the occasional little nugget of fear. The Stranger, however, might have outlived the rest for a reason. If Newton's setup already had something remarkably similar to the Stranger, it could have decided it was easier to adopt/reformat the new motifs than it was to wholly reject them-- perhaps even leaving the amphitheater mostly undamaged. This is why I listed the Stranger as one of Newton's system of 8.

With all that wrapped up for now, I wanted to leave you with an "honorable mention" of a theory. For how close the number of fears was to 7, and for the Christian themes in the Newton case file, I almost made my theory revolve around the seven deadly sins. But 7 just didn't make as much sense as 8, so you all have been saved from this theory cliché. But just so you all know how close it came: The Deep was Sloth, the Wild was Wrath, the Risk was Greed, the Pain was Envy, Liminal Hunger was Gluttony, the Stranger was Lust, the Mirror was Pride, and the Network was assumed to be from remnants of Smirke's 14--though that wouldn't have made sense when they were the ones responsible for destroying the Magnus Institute (and likely the other buildings).