#era defining genius

[love-yellow-door]

✨The most learned woman of the 17th century was undoubtedly Anna van Schurman, a polymath who spent her life arguing that women should receive an education as long as it did not interfere with their domestic duties. Other scholars called her the 'Star of Utrecht', the 'Dutch Minerva', the 'Tenth Muse', 'a miracle of the gentler sex', the 'Incomparable Virgin', the 'Oracle of Utrecht' and the 'Jewel of Learned Women', all of which sounds pretty outstanding for a time when the vast majority of women were thought to be intellectually inferior to men.

But then she was different, a prodigy whose brain could not be contained.

A Dutch Calvinist, she was born in Cologne in 1607. Her family was wealthy, pious, educated, well-connected and modern, as her father broke the conventions of the time by teaching her along with his sons.

He may have had no choice, for Anna was so curious and clever that she could read by the age of three. By the age of eleven she had read Seneca in Latin and was fluent in German, English, Italian, Spanish and French, as well as being proficient in mathematics, astronomy and geography.

She was also artistic, creating intricate lace-like paper cut-outs at the age of six, detailed embroidery at ten, and a wax self-portrait at eleven so lifelike that her friend pricked one of the jewels to see if it was real. During this period she also taught herself calligraphy and glass engraving, all of which merged into a passion for wood engraving that she later developed by studying with the daughter of a renowned engraver and publisher. Her work was so good that she became an honorary member of the Painter's Guild.

The family settled in Utrecht when she was nineteen, following the death of her father. Her neighbour was a professor of theology and Eastern languages at the city's main university, and he was soon taken with her linguistic and intellectual abilities. He introduced her to two other professors, who in turn introduced her to the city's poets and philosophers.

Her living room became a meeting place where intellectuals discussed all sorts of issues. Some fell in love and proposed to her, writing poems to convince her, but she could afford to be celibate and chose to remain independent.

She would have liked to further her academic interests by studying at university, but women were excluded on the basis of three fundamental beliefs: that they lacked the natural ability to study, that it was unseemly for a Christian woman to do so, and that it would be a waste of time as women could not hold public office.

So when she was asked to write a Latin poem in honour of the University of Utrecht, she decided to use the opportunity to complain about the exclusion of women. The university authorities listened and allowed her to attend lectures behind a curtain so as not to distract the male students.

She became the first Dutch woman to enter such a prestigious institution and used it to gain a law degree, while also learning Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Arabic, Syriac, Samaritan Hebrew, Persian and Ethiopian, which enabled her to read the ancient texts in the original language, including the Bible and the commentaries of the Fathers of the Church.

Emboldened, she wrote a dissertation in Latin arguing for the education of women. It was printed and distributed throughout Europe, and soon she was receiving letters from all the learned women of her time as well as from important cultural figures such as René Descartes, Marin Mersenne and Constantin Huygens.

Towards the end of her life, she became involved with a contemplative religious sect founded by the Jesuit Jean de Labadie. Labadism was a mystical offshoot of Catholicism that preached the importance of communal property, an austere lifestyle and daily communal Bible study, which allowed her to pursue her theosophical interests. Crucially, Labadie also believed in the equality of all believers, including women, who were allowed to hold leadership positions within the movement and were encouraged to participate in all religious activities.

Her intellectual peers were shocked and opposed her, but she stood by her new faith and eventually renounced the Reformed Church through a public pamphlet arguing for another reformation. She gave up all her possessions and became co-leader of the group. They eventually founded a Labadist community on the outskirts of Amsterdam, where she continued to correspond with a variety of people on theosophical subjects until her death.

Through her radical ideas and linguistic skills, she successfully challenged the prescribed roles of women in 17th century Europe and planted the seeds for our equality, access and inclusion.

Self-portrait, 1633, Museum Martena, Netherlands

If only Eurus had turned towards more wholesome pursuits.

[simplydnp]

be honest with me. what are the chances of a hard launch in june

anon this question goes back years. and the thing is. we have been right once before.

you ask me this this time last year? fuck no. i might even quip that dapg would come back before dnp would hard launch. well. look at us now.

and even then, you look back on the content they started with in the revival--it honestly kind of felt exactly like where we left off, only a lot more explicitly queer (we stan). and then... trying to see without my glasses 2. and bang, spooky week happened. and that shifted the balance. we suddenly got slo-mo replays of handholds. day, after day, after day, finishing with the absolute masterpiece of halloween baking cinnamon rolls. in all honesty it was so much more than i'd've ever expected from them. truly another post-baking universe.

and it never really slowed down. suddenly we had cat prom photos, catboy butlers, catboy dan w/ phil photography credit, theyre 'wrestling' --running us full throttle into gamingmas, the first since 2017. and every day we had a new thing to freak out over: standing close. golf jokes. and then... pinof reacts. i don't know what compelled them to do it but i do have speculations. genuinely, i think they wanted to defang a lot of their history. we treated pinof 1, especially, with this... reverance. and it wasn't talked about too publicly--and dnp didnt do it either. so if they really wanted to move on, to bring down the walls, open the floodgates, define this new era: they had to throw the first stone. and they did. quite heartily too. suddenly this almost taboo part of their history--almost too intimate to be perceived--was on the table. and we were talking about it. joking about it. giving clear signals of 'we see it, it's okay.' and suddenly we existed in a post-pinof reacts world. of anything, i would've never predicted they would've done that. absolutely wild. follow that with it takes two being so chill and fond. incohearant being so blatant and heartfelt. trombone champ being unhinged and chaotic. the genuine and sweet complimenting of each other in the red carpet video. devan wedding... happilyphoreverafter... we crashed forward in time. never knowing what would be next. where is the line? how far will they go.

they teased us with japhan honeymoon and we knew 2024 would be wild. but we didn't know how much. from wdapteo 2023, to specific reminiscing about japan w/ devan, WAD happening, and phil playing a huge role in it all--from the orange carpet hosting, to 'ive been in *sex noises* with phil from the start!', to 'remote crisis manager phil lester', to dan saying he can stay during the thank you.

one of the biggest videos so far this year was the tiktok likes one. i will be forever haunted by the dog eating cheeseburger and willy wonka tiktoks--theres some things i was never meant to know. and yet. they tell us. explicitly.

every single video on amazingphil since the return of dapg has mentioned or featured dan. there's been a palpable shift in the way they interact. have you seen the way phil has been glowing in videos lately? this guy is on cloud nine all the time. it's really not hard to see why.

the energy of keep or yeet w/ dan... the absolute Lack of pretense of it all. phan twitter... watch your step baby girl...

dan and phil fucking crafts. talk about an unexpected return. legacy defining, one might even say. we're still in this tailspin of what everything means and they drop this insanely iconic video on us. from the storytelling to the production to the aesthetic--and its all capped off by explicit handholding. yes, it was part of the sacrifice. but hand in hand, the heart dan ripped from phils chest in one, and the knife that did it in the other... oh boy. we're really in it now. and then they put it on fucking merch. genius. truly no one does it like them.

and the foot has been on the accelerator since. dan and phil connections, shuffleboard & mocktails, getting deep slumber party, acknowledgement & approval of fics (yes previously given but never like this)--hell, even the sims today was wild for 'is their love language horrible banter 👀'.

you didn't ask for an essay but i gave you one. all of this to say, they've been moving the line. quite intentionally so. they intentionally revived their joint branding. they are 'dan and phil' again, and seem happier than ever about it, and i think that means something. they're saying things they never would have before--out of the closet or not.

as for june... 5 years since coming out is a big deal. so is this year being 15 years of dnp. hell, so is this year for being the first out pride month where they're explicitly a duo and regularly making content together. they're sentimental, there will be something.

my craziest idea is reacting to their coming out videos ✌️😔 --but i don't think it'll actually happen. as for more realistic, i could see pride merch. and however that goes will be significant, in my opinion. i'm excited and curious.

i don't know if they'll hard launch. it's hard to put all of the implications, complications, and speculations back into the box once it's opened. dan's talked about it before--wanting to be able to fuck up and not be publically executed, instead, being able to learn and grow and work it out. i think that's a very understandable stance to have. very grounded. we'd have to ask him if tour/dapg has changed that now. i do think he's had some sort of life epiphany--whether it's about that specifically, only he can say. but i think it's there.

even if i portray a lot of level-headedness, i wear my clown nose with pride. sometimes the only option is to go with whatever is funniest at the time. they're both jokesters, so they could commit to a bit like that. but it's also like, it can be too serious for them to want to joke about. i don't know. i think we're in this almost beautiful state right now--the we know you know of it all. there's no expectations, no demands to be met, no obligations of types of content. they're happy. we're happy. it depends on if they feel ready. if they want to. we'll be here, always.

[communistkenobi]

I’ve watched the first three Mission Impossible movies now and it’s crazy how they’re all completely different films from one another lol. which probably has to do with the fact that they all had radically different directors (Brian de Palma, John Woo, JJ Abrahams), but the only real consistent through line is Tom Cruise. Because even within the ten year time-span between their releases, the series is already unrecognisable from itself

The first one is a 1990s genre-defining heist spy movie and its concerns are very much rooted in the fact that the CIA is now basically this massive institutional leftover of the Cold War with many hanging threads that need to be dealt with (one of the main McGuffins being a list of names of undercover CIA agents scattered throughout ‘Eastern Europe’). When I first watched it I thought it was pretty good but not like great, but after having watched two of its sequels and thought about it some more I’m a lot more positive on it. The imagery of that movie is unforgettable, the highlight being the completely silent scene where Tom Cruise hangs from a wire in an all-white room trying desperately not to touch the floor. It’s crazy that de Palma directed this and Carrie and Scarface, all films with scenes permanently lodged into the cultural consciousness. And like it is a distinctly ‘cool’ movie, but not in the insane rabid jarhead post-9/11 action movie cool way, like there isn’t this fascistic military masculinity grafted onto it, its way more sleek genius spy guy shit. Anyway this one is really good.

The second movie is pretty bad and often barely comprehensible, like the scene-to-scene editing is hard to follow and the pacing is horrible. The experience of watching it is like watching Face-Off (another John Woo movie), like same weird ass vibe and editing except in this case the movie is boring and bad. Some of the stunts are pretty cool but they can’t really rise above the film they take place in. It’s also not a spy movie, it’s just a bad action movie. I feel like MI2’s biggest crime is trivialising Tom Cruise, like he has no presence or command in that film at all, he’s literally just a random guy with long hair. It’s insane the immediate drop in quality. This one is about a bio-engineered virus that the villains want to use to start a pandemic, but the concern feels very far away and immaterial ? Idk I really didn’t like this one

And then the third one is also just as bizarre because it looks and sounds and is written exactly like a Michael Bay film, down to the same vibrant ugly orange-blue colour palette and quippy dialogue and saccharine ending. And it’s also not a spy movie either lmao!!!! Like god the jump in representation of US intelligence agencies from 1996 to 2006 is staggering, it’s moved from using fantastical spy gadgets to very real military hardware and technology, only keeping the spy-magic tech in MI3 (like 3D printing the villain’s face as a mask disguise) because it was already established in the first one. And the action scenes are straightforwardly action scenes, shootouts with military helicopters and dodging precision drone strikes. Tom Cruise does an insane amount of running in this movie and it looks sooooo good, like there are so many long-ass shots of him just fucking booking it at full speed and that dude’s running form was made to be captured on film. But MI3 is like so deeply entrenched in Bush era catch-the-terrorists stuff, though somewhat offset by having Philip Seymour Hoffman as the main villain instead of like Al-Qaeda (although the main anxiety has still firmly shifted from a post-Soviet ‘Eastern Europe’ to a scary generalised terrorist ‘Middle East’). But again it feels so incredibly different in tone and fixation and motivation than the first film. 9/11 really did permanently break the brains of every USAmerican. Anyway I can’t wait to watch the next one

[nemesis-writer]

Alphabet Boy

Masterlist

Always aiming paper airplanes at me when you're around You build me up like building blocks just so you can bring me down You can crush my candy cane, but you'll never catch me cry If you dangle that diploma and I dead you, don't be surprised

Damian was never as special as he thought he was. He had his errors, and you had yours. But yet your errors were considered as a tarnish to the Wayne family. You're always better than him, yet your talents were always considered as beneath him.

Your pain was even worse than him, yet you didn't complain, and you didn't shed a tear. All of your talents were God-given, and you never had to practice since it was so perfect.

But, if you're so perfect why won't they look at you?

I know my ABCs, yet you keep teaching me I say fuck your degree, alphabet boy You think you're smarter than me with all your bad poetry Fuck all your ABCs, alphabet boy

You were the first to learn gymnastics, all the martial arts training to defend oneself, cooking, hacking, and more. But yet you always seemed so useless, so weak.

You grew up in the streets till you were 12, and had learned their language, their style, and how they were able to get money. But with all these self-taught talents, no one would give you the satisfaction of looking at you.

The only talents that truly helped you are, pickpocketing, hacking, and killing. You learned all of them from the streets and from training at school. You could've been the best vigilante for the city, you could even be more talented than Robin Hood.

I'm not a little kid now, watch me get big now Spell my name on a fridge now with all your alphabet toys You won the spelling bee now, but are you smarter than me now? You're the prince of the playground, little alphabet boy

You didn't get what you deserve, because of that thing. Since no one gave you your reward, you'll take it yourself. You never needed their help for a long time. Everything you did was for yourself and for murder.

You were never envious of them, since your talents were considered as an era-defining genius, but yet you remained untouched and unloved.

Apples aren't always appropriate apologies Butterscotch and bubblegum drops are bittersweet to me You call me a child while you keep counting all your coins But you're not my daddy and I'm not your dolly And your dictionary's destroyed

No one can hear your cries, no one can see your tear-shedded eyes, no one can see your fragile body filled with scars and demons of your past.

You remained haunted by the memory of your late parents wishing you could join their utopia. But no, no one would grant that wish, not a genie in a lamp, not a fortune cookie, not even the Joker could grant you that quiet satisfaction.

So you did the last thing that seemed so erratic for a person in your position...

You fled

Alphabet boy, oh, alphabet boy Alphabet boy Alphabet boy, my alphabet boy Ooh

You've become a villain of every story, you've become an urban legend that everyone feared. You've become top of the ladder of criminals, criminals and heroes alike have been searching for you. So much, that the Joker fears you and plans to eliminate you.

The Bats have been expecting your demise without even knowing what you really were, and what you became. You're known in the underworld as, 'Eurus', because it described the unlucky east wind, and that''s what you were.

Unlucky.

"Eurus! That's enough, no where to run."

"Cmon' bats you can't kill me even if you wanted to."

"We can and we will."

*cackles*

"Still righteous as usual Robin, or should I say,

'Richard'."

"Who are you?"

"Your demise."

"We know who you are", Damian

"You don't know shit. Damian."

"How do you know our names?", Jason asked.

"Because unlike you I made an effort to know Mr Wayne, or should I say. Dad."

"Y/N?"

You took of your mask and they were shocked.

It was their child.

I'm not a little kid now, watch me get big now Spell my name on a fridge now with all your alphabet toys You won the spelling bee now, but are you smarter than me now? You're the prince of the playground, little alphabet boy

A/N: I kinda rushed in this fic, but I hope you like it!

Taglist

@lunayaps, @not-aya, @iluvcatzz, @vanessa-boo, @ivyrose9194,@thesehandsarerated-e, @eyeless-kun, @errorunfound1, @gwyneveire

[avelera]

It makes me sad when I see posts by people who are enjoying the Interview with the Vampire show but say they've decided not to even try to read the books.

To be clear, it's fine to just not want to read the books, there's plenty of reasons the books might not be everyone's bag, and one reason is that people might just want to enjoy the show without spoilers or the source material muddling the experience.

But I just want to clarify a few points that people might be hung up on with regards to reading the books in case they've decided not to on false premises:

Anne Rice was not homophobic or otherwise anti-sex or against queer relationships for her characters - those are lies, lies, and damned lies. Anne Rice was a queer writer before being queer-- much less writing about it--was cool (to say the least). She more or less defined herself as nonbinary before there was terminology for it, her son is gay, and she left the Catholic Church the second time because they wouldn't accept him (even though the Catholic Church had basically become her life at that point after her husband died, which is a long complicated story). She also wrote tons of erotica, specifically bdsm erotica, which was also very queer. She would not be horrified by the queerness of the show.

Anne Rice was anti-fanfic - Yes, she was. Yes, she was one of the most aggressive authors against fanfic (though she softened later). But just to be clear, she had a legal reason for it. I was one of the people most heartbroken in the early '00s by her aggressive take down of fanfic over the years but even then, I always understood why she did it, she reasonably believed she had to be aggressive in order to defend her copyright. You can dislike her for it but she wasn't just hating on fanfic for the sake of it, the early internet was extremely muddy when it came to the legality around fanfic and copyright and as an early adopter of the internet, she was very concerned on that front specifically.

The books are not poorly written/not fun to read - Look, your mileage may obviously vary, and many have found flaws in her writing (IWTV in particular is probably the slowest read of the bunch) but Anne Rice wasn't a NYT Bestseller on basically every single one of her books for no reason. Her style is easy to read, fun, engaging, and often darkly beautiful and deeply empathetic. She basically defined the modern vampire genre and modern supernatural gothic romance for the last 50 years, I mean she dominated the genre. Don't take an out of context excerpt of the opening of The Vampire Lestat sounding like "My Immortal" as an indication of anything. (The whole point of that intro is that Lestat is supposed to sound like a self-obsessed drama queen in the opening pages, that's the conceit of the book and introduces him as a self-centered unreliable narrator, which she then plays with to great effect. It's actually rather deftly handled how she introduced Lestat as a POV character with that introduction. As a writer, I will defend that introduction as actually genius.)

Anne Rice wasn't perfect, to say the least. And the books might not be everyone's cup of tea, she was often dealing with transgressive topics and probably held many ideas or presented many concepts decades ago that would be side-eyed today.

But they're bestsellers for a reason and she's an era-defining author for a reason. The show is doing some interesting stuff with modernizing and deconstructing the books but the rich material they have to do it with comes from the books.

At the very least, I suggest trying out "The Vampire Lestat" and then "Queen of the Damned" which I think are two of her best and will go a long way to informing how audiences view the show and what's coming next.

[youremyheaven]

Ashlesha: The Villain Era Nakshatra

Ashlesha nakshatra can create poison to destroy their enemies. They also have the ability to restrain their destructive powers and hold poison within themselves. As I said in my previous post, Ashlesha embodies the demonic feminine and showcases qualities of the dark side of the feminine. But we need to understand that "darkness" is a spectrum and can be defined/portrayed in a variety of ways.

In this post I'll explore various tropes that Ashlesha natives portray on screen.

Peyton List, Ashlesha Sun plays Poison Ivy in Gotham

"The thing I love most about Poison Ivy is her walking that line between bastion of Mother Nature and psycho Eco-terrorist. She sees herself as the hand of Mother Nature. If Mother Nature were "God," then Ivy would be her "Jesus." She defends the defenceless nature of the world and truly believes in her cause. Maiming, mauling, and mutilating are extreme measures, but it's nothing compared to what irredeemable cruelties humanity's done to the world of nature. Ivy always sees the greater good as she punishes those who deserve it."— J. T. Krul (comic book writer)

This describes Ashlesha natives quite well. They truly believe that the people they hurt deserve it. The aspect of serving karma/justice is a very prominent one.

Poison Ivy has the following abilities:

Genius-level intellect

Manipulation of plants and toxins

Decelerated aging

Expert seductress

These can all directly be connected to Ashlesha. Being a Mercury ruled nak, these natives are naturally intelligent and their minds work very fast, given the mythology of this nak, their connection to toxins and poisons is a gift given to the Ashlesha native. Mercurial women often look very young/youthful and maintain this youthfulness well into their 30s and 40s and on. This nak's deity is Nagas, the serpent God and serpent connection in any nak is a strong indicator of potent sexuality and seductive energy.

Poison Ivy possesses a poisonous touch and is characterized as a "supervillain" or "antiheroine".

I had mentioned in my old post about how movies featuring Ashlesha women have a common trope of them being abused, gaining power through that violent experience and then using those powers to go after all the bad guys.

Similarly, Poison Ivy was a botanist who was persuaded by Marc LeGrand to assist him with the theft of an Egyptian artefact containing ancient herbs. Fearing she would implicate him in the theft, he attempts to poison her with the herbs, which are deadly and untraceable. She survives this murder attempt and discovers she has acquired an immunity to all natural toxins and diseases.

2. Jennifer Lawrence, Ashlesha Sun plays Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games

if you're familiar with the books or the movies you would know that there is a heavy emphasis on Katniss' resorting to manipulation to skew things in her favour, both on and off the arena.

She's competing in a survival reality show where tributes have to kill each other for the entertainment of the masses but she manages to turn things around in her favour through media manipulation, using everything to her advantage.

This emphasizes on Ashlesha's mercurial ability to play with perception and skew the narrative in their favour.

Katniss is an impoverished girl from the poorest district with no chances of winning but she relies on things other than brute strength to see her through the Games.

3. Barbra Streisand, Ashlesha Moon as Yentl in Yentl

This movie is about a girl who disguises herself as a guy to go to school. She falls in love with her male classmate and his gf falls in love with her (believing her to be a guy).

Claire had said in her Ashlesha video about how WLW themes in cinema often involve Cat yoni gals (Punarvasu or Ashlesha)

4. Catherine Deneuve, Ashlesha Moon in The Hunger (1983)

this is yet another very Ashlesha coded movie about a vampire (played by Deneuve) and her aging partner and the doctor he consults to help with his condition and the homoerotic bond that develops between these women.

the fact that Deneuve is playing a vampire (i've noticed Ashlesha playing demonic/monstress esque characters a lot) and that "aging" is a main plot point (vampires don't age) is vv intriguing since mercurials are the most "young/youthful looking"; Mercurials are essentially teenagers even as they grow older, they don't "age" the way most people do, not just physically but also mentally and of course, it wouldn't be an Ashlesha coded film without some WLWism in it.

A major reason why Cat yoni girls are drawn to other girls or to non-penetrative intercourse is because sex is vv painful for female cats. A male cat's penis is barbed, and these little spikes scrape along the female cat's vagina during copulation, making sexual intercourse vv painful for them. I have noticed that many Cat yoni women irl tend to have vaginismus or other conditions that make penetrative intercourse unpleasant or difficult for them. Making love to another woman or intercourse with a partner (male or female) that's largely centred around foreplay is what feels pleasurable to these natives. More than the act of PIV, its intimacy that they crave from sex. They can be very passive in bed and find it hard to orgasm with just PIV. A low libido is also likely. They're not prudish, they're very imaginative with what they desire but when it comes to actually physically expressing themselves, they're like cats, they can't express it.

5. Audrey Tautou, Ashlesha Sun in Priceless (2006)

Audrey Tautou plays a gold digger-y woman (a common Ashlesha trope) who mistakes a bartender to be a wealthy man. She later helps him work as a gigolo for a wealthy woman.

Ashleshas are skilled at manipulation (this is often described in a negative light by many astrologers but manipulation is a skill like any other and can be used for good and bad reasons). This whole movie revolves around one woman's ability to manipulate men into giving her what she wants and by teaching this to another person, she is emphasizing the fact that this is a skill that can be picked up (an essential Mercurial principle because Mercury is about that which we cultivate not what we've been innately gifted with).

6. Marilyn Monroe, Ashlesha Rising in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

MM plays a gold digger who carefully uses her feminine charms and allure to get with wealthy men. Understanding how to channel femininity in ways that benefit them is a very Cancerian woman thing.

If we were to consider the fact that Marilyn basically created a whole alter ego, adopted certain mannerisms, dressed a specific way, used a fake baby voice, styled and kept up a whole persona then we can see the positive manifestation of Ashlesha and Cancer's manipulative feminine nature. She wasn't born Marilyn, she became her through her carefully cultivated charm. This is peak Mercury, peak Cancer behaviour.

Sidenote: I've noticed many Cancer women speaking in a fake baby voice tbh hehe, Paris Hilton (Pushya Moon) also does this. Paris is also a great example of Cancerian performative femininity. She managed to convince the whole world she was a dumb blonde heiress when she was anything but. She created a persona for herself and played that character to the t. Her hyperfeminine mannerisms, almost caricatur-ish personality has had a lasting impact on pop culture. She herself has come out to say that she "was playing a character".

7. Anna Kendrick, Ashlesha Sun in Alice, Darling (2022)

this movie is about a manipulative, abusive and controlling relationship based on anna kendrick's real life experiences. Ashlesha women and Cancer women in general are very susceptible to relationships of this sort. It starts at home usually, these women have very dysfunctional relationships with their mothers and go on to form unhealthy and toxic romantic relationships (if unevolved).

8. Ashlesha's connection to Snow White

Ashlesha Sun & Moon, Charlize Theron as the evil stepmother in Snow White & the Huntsmen

Ashlesha Moon Lily Collins as Snow White in Mirror Mirror

Snow White's story depicts the OG toxic mother-daughter dynamic which is a common theme in the lives of many Ashlesha natives. Receiving step daughterly treatment from your own mother and having a sibling who is more favoured than you is another common theme.

We see this play out in real life with Bella and Gigi Hadid who both have Ashlesha Mars as their atmakaraka and amatyakaraka respectively.

Many Ashlesha women play the toxic mother in tv shows and movies (Vera Farmiga, Ashlesha Moon in Bates Motel) but its equally likely for them to play the daughter who is at the receiving end of the abuse.

A major way that this "toxicity" manifests is through highly co-dependent relationships with their mothers, who essentially run their lives for them and keep them "trapped" in childlike passivity. The thing is Ashlesha women almost kinda like it this way, they want to be taken care of, they're needy and would much rather have someone else do everything for them. Rising above this passivity is their biggest challenge.

The Indian actress Sridevi (Ashlesha Sun & Stellium) was known for her highly co-dependent relationship with her mother. In the 80s during her peak, it was a running joke that you could ask Sridevi anything and she'd respond with "Ask Mummy". Sridevi, like many Ashlesha natives had a very childlike personality and was often described as lacking "mental maturity". The reality is that her mother micromanaged her life and made all her decisions, controlled her finances and told her what she could do and couldn't do until she passed away when Sri was well into her 30s. She forced Sri into films when she was barely a toddler and never gave her any formal education. Of course Sridevi never described this relationship as "toxic". Most of these natives wouldn't because its been ingrained into them that they're incapable of getting anything done on their own and "need" their mother to do things for them. They're gaslit into believing they're inept. (Sridevi was also known for speaking in a baby voice 😌)

Ashlesha lies entirely in Cancer rashi which means they are lost to the watery depths of Cancer's influence, the combination of Moon & Mercury always makes one prone to manipulation and although this is considered a negative, I absolutely believe it can be manifest in positive ways. However it IS hard.

The feminine/ yin urge to absorb energy manifests itself in an absolutely self-serving here. Imo this is by nature self serving always however other Cancer rashi naks have the ability to give to others in ways an Ashlesha native can't.

Ashlesha is cancer at its most passive, absolutely unable to "give"; this means they feel easily drained by others and have to be very selective with who they give their energy to. Women in society are harshly judged for how much of their energy they give to others which is why Ashlesha women who are largely self contained are viewed as "toxic", because our society looks down upon women who only exist for themselves, we're all taught to "give". A woman who cannot do so is seen as "toxic" because its "selfish" to keep to yourself. This is why Ashleshas are so grossly misunderstood.

Mercurial women have a very complicated relationship with sex and sexuality. This is most evident in the case of Ashlesha women. Cat yoni is the most restrictive yoni and this is not only apparent in their sexual preferences and relationships but in the way they conduct themselves generally. They are usually introverted and struggle the most with their tendency to be passive because cats are by nature, very lethargic creatures who are self involved and seldom seek outside company.

The other two mercury naks, Jyeshta (rabbit yoni) and Revati (elephant yoni) have a very different approach to sexual matters. For Jyeshta natives, its the frequency of sex that matters, since rat/rabbit yoni is considered the most sexual. They usually have a high sex drive but sex itself is impersonal for them.

However for Revati natives, given that their yoni is the largest land animal, more than frequency its the quality of sexual intimacy that satiates them. They are thrill seekers. Sex that is ordinary or "vanilla" does not fulfil them; there has to be an element of adrenaline rush, which BDSM or other taboo relationships can provide but its rare for these natives to feel pure, naked desire for someone, they crave the thrill of sex itself.

Overall, a major focus in the lives of Ashlesha natives is building an identity for themselves. Many of them cultivate a self that's entirely different to who they were growing up, with a very apparent change in style/mannerisms etc. Like snakes (to whom they are closely linked) they need to shed their skin and renew themselves again and again.

Their Mercurial gifts of intellect, wit and street smarts see them through these and allow them to flourish in every avatar.

[what-gs-watching]

"You can be beautiful or you can be ugly, but you can’t be plain."

Soooo I’m pretty sure I died over Christmas; my entire family got a stomach bug that was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced, and now I have a head cold and I’ve lost my voice and I’m convinced this is some weird limbo and I’ll never be healthy again.

BUT! Before all of that, my dad and I got to indulge in our favorite holiday tradition: going to the movies. He and I have been sneaking off in the afternoon once everyone falls into a Christmas coma to see something for like, fifteen years. That man hates holidays because my mom goes insane trying to make them perfect and he just wants to escape and I appreciate that he allows me to go with him. 

This year, I was especially excited - the first time I saw the trailer for A Complete Unknown in September, I called him immediately screaming about it. Bob Dylan’s music was a huge part of my childhood, another thing that my stoic father shared with me, and could not wait to see it with him. Honestly, I’d been vibrating out of my skin about it, shrieking at the tv every time the commercial would come on.

Gang. It was so worth it. What a beautiful fucking movie.

Wherein, 19 year old Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet) heads to New York City in 1961, befriends Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger (Ed Norton), breaks into the folk scene, falls in love, has insane on and off stage chemistry with Joan Baez, writes songs that define a generation, puts the Newport Folk Festival on the damn map, learns he doesn’t really love fame, and then eventually goes electric. 

I do realize this movie isn’t going to be for everyone - it’s specific. Like, were you alive then and you’re wanting to relive that time and the way Dylan’s music made you feel? Perfect, you’ll dig it. Or, are you a super weirdo like me that WISHES you were alive during that time and just deeply loves the 60’s aesthetic and longs for what you think was a simpler era but it really was not, and you just want to romanticize the whole thing and feel wistful about it? Amazing, get your ass to the theater. 

One thing I appreciated about this movie was that it wasn’t really shoving anything down your throat, what was happening wasn’t overly explained, there were no ridiculous voice-overs or forced understanding, and honestly, Dylan was fairly mysterious. It didn’t feel like it was from his point of view, you’re not going to come out of this feeling like you finally GET him. He’s still this weird mythical genius, just doing what he’s driven to do. He never explains himself and he never wants to. So is this really a biopic? Or are we just seeing a snapshot in time, take it or leave it? I don’t think it matters; it’s wonderful, either way.

Also, like, DAMN, Chalamet. He was fucking incredible. Dylan is a hard guy to portray, he’s always been kind of aloof, withdrawn, he’s never seemed like this larger than life personality and to pull off that demeanor in a way that’s still endearing to the audience is NOT easy. He really encapsulated Dylan’s confusing charm, it was pitch perfect. And I had to laugh to myself a bit - last year’s Christmas movie was Wonka, also starring Chalamet. What a hilarious dichotomy from one year to the next. 

I’m going to be watching all of the award shows just for this. Give this dude all the flowers. 

As much of a fan of his music as I am, I never did a deep google dive on him and so I really enjoyed seeing his relationship with Joan Baez unfold. The scenes of them performing together were honestly beautiful, their voices blending and complimenting each other. Her song “Diamonds and Rust” unsurprisingly was also a large part of my musical upbringing and to learn she’d written it about their relationship - fuck. I listened to it again after we left the theater and it was devastating in an entirely new way.

Here’s the thing. I absolutely cried big fat tears a few times sitting there. It’s not a sad movie in any way, shape or form. But when he performs “The Times They Are A-Changin’” at the festival, just him and his guitar and his harmonica, and the crowd starts singing along with him, having never heard it before, I sobbed, smiling. 

When I was a senior in high school, my dad - who notoriously never put effort into gifts for us kids, relying on my mom to know what to buy - sat down and  made me a bunch of mix CDs of the songs he’d always been sharing with me. One of them was his 12 essential Bob Dylan tracks. The rest of that year, I lived in those tracks. The agenda pad I used for that school year was littered with Dylan lyrics, it’s my basement even now, “don’t criticize what you can’t understand” scrawled all over it.

So I was 17 again, sitting there, or 8 or 21 or any of the ages I’ve been where Dylan has kept me company. “It Ain’t Me Babe” is deeply ingrained in my mind as part of the dumpster fire that was the relationship I had with the first boy I ever fell truly in love with, and watching his long-time girlfriend Sylvie (Elle Fanning) witness him singing that with Joan Baez was like a punch to the gut. 

I’m not 100% sure what I’m driving at with all of this, but what I can tell you is: A Complete Unknown is beautiful. If you have any connection to Dylan’s music, it’ll light your soul on fire. If you don’t, it’ll still immerse you in a time or place you really should visit. It’s fascinating and visceral and glimmering, and it just might change you, a little bit.

HOW does it FEEL?

[turbulentscrawl]

I LOOVE your Luca he's soooo <3 may I please request some headcanons for him with an s/o from the future? (As in our time) like they time traveled back to the manor and are now stuck there. Sfw and if you can think of anything nsfw then go for it!

Thank you! And I love writing for Luca, he's definitely a favorite of mine <3

I may have missed the mark a tad here? I think Luca would largely treat an future-s/o the same as one who's not...but technology definately plays a factor in some aspects of the relationship.

Also the whole time I wrote this i kept thinking about what skills someone from the future would have. It would be hilarious to blare music to speed up ciphers, or maybe chug a preworkout and get a kiting boost hahah

-So first of all, everyone is completely mindblown by this development. It’s not like anyone really knew anything concrete about the manor’s time-space situation, but this just proves even the most popular theories hold no weight. Are you from a different era, or a different timeline all together? Why are you the only one—or are you just the first?? Has more time passed than they suspected, is anyone here even from the same universe???

-Basically, there’s a lot of chaos, spoken and unspoken. Everyone is varying degrees of scared, distrustful, and excited. It’s mostly the last one, in Luca’s case, which is why he’s one of the first people you get to know. Instead of avoiding you, he’s constantly around you. Question after question after question—it probably gets tiring after a while.

-But he’s just so earnest! His excitement is contagious, and despite running his mouth a lot he’s incredibly respectful and well-mannered. When he gets a moment with you alone, he concedes that this must all be more overwhelming for you than it was for everyone else, considering that you’ve lost about 100 years of development along with the regular shockers. So he asks you to come to him if anyone treats you too harshly. He promises to be a respite from that, if nothing else.

-And he is! Luca doesn’t often let people in his work spaces for several reasons…but he makes an exception for you. Just don’t touch anything, okay? You’re safe in his messy spaces. It’s during a visit there that he tells you about what happened to him, all the things he’s been told but doesn’t remember. He’s open about having been in prison, of course, but he doesn’t give the details to just anyone. This is his good-faith peace offering, strange as it might seem. And you can share your life with him when you’re ready.

-If any of your technology happened to come through with you, he’s going to want to look at them. I don’t…entirely suggest letting him? It’s up to you, but just know your phone may not survive the thorough disassembly-inspection he wants to give it. On the other hand! I think Luca could charge your phone just by holding it so no worries if you didn’t have a charger in your bag.

-Years down the line, you two will still have things to teach one another. Culture and technology both are very different in each of your homes, and the little details show themselves at the strangest times. Luca, in all his genius, does his best to replicate the things you miss most about home. It’s only fair that the manor be populated with creature comforts for everyone. It’s not that he’s trying to impress you or anything.

-At some point he starts to ask about dating modern culture. It has its perks, obviously, like being able to stay in immediate touch long-distance, but honestly he’s a bit disappointed to hear about the rush and informality of it. Luca returns the favor, explaining how courtship tended to work from his time…so you know what he’s doing when he starts courting you. He can speed things along if you really want him to, but Luca would enjoy a month or so of gentle flirting and pining. Anticipation is part of the enjoyment!

-After being together for so long, he starts to pick up some of your mannerisms and modern dialect. It’s funny for him to suddenly be throwing out pop culture references when he doesn’t fully understand them. It’s like teaching your grandparents slang; he doesn’t get it but he’s happy to be involved. I’m 100% sure there’s no wifi at the manor but if you have any funny videos saved to you phone they become Luca’s favorite thing. You are now designated manor documentarian! Make sure to catch all of everyone’s embarrassing and funny moments.

-On that note, it’s also incredibly helpful for Luca if you film the two of you a lot. Literally anything, him mumbling to himself while he works, silly jokes, him playing the piano. It’s so much easier to show him things when his memory fails, than to try and explain your relationship from the ground-up.

[shadowofthelamp]

Creation

Summary: Bill decides he wants a kid with Ford, and when someone's given themselves to you entirely, you can do a lot with that.

Beatrice creation story! Rated T basically for a cut to black at the end/a brief non-descriptive use of magic making him feel good, but nothing explicit is shown and the kid is created by magic. Set in the 'muse' era shortly before everything spirals.

Warning: Mpreg

Wordcount: 1200

“So, smart guy!” Bill had been grinning. It was in the way the corners of his eyes pinched up, how his pulsing glow on each word was brighter. “You want to help me with something, don’t you?”

“Of course!” Ford floated easily towards him, gravity a mere suggestion that could be brushed aside here in the place where dreams become reality and reality twisted to the wildest fancies of the imagination. "Why wouldn't I? It has to be more interesting than watching the gnomes trying to capture bath squirrels again. The forest is starting to really settle down for winter."

“See, this is why I like you, Fordsie, always asking just the right questions!” Bill lightly tapped a finger on Ford’s nose, and a rush of lava spiraled down his nerves at the touch. “Now, you promised your body to me, and I’ve been using it plenty well- keeping you up and running past those silly human limits so we can get the really important work done, fixing the little stresses here and there, things like that. There’s something I’ve been wanting for eons, but no one else was good enough- not until you.”

“Bill, I-” Even without the limitations of the human body present in the projection, instinctively Ford found himself swallowing at the compliment. “Thank you. I’ll do my best to live up to whatever it is. So! What do you need? Does it have anything to do with the portal?”

“You’re the human vessel to help carry my- our genius to the masses, you already knew that, but I’ve got even bigger plans for this hunk of rock.” Bill snapped his fingers with another ‘smile’ (perhaps sharper than usual, eye a bit more narrowed?) and a deal-flame burned bright blue-

-Before he plunged it directly into Ford’s stomach.

The red-hot pain that ignited every soft organ below the lungs was almost enough to throw Ford back into the waking world, but Bill’s fingers merely curled inside of him as he whistled, rummaging around until a new pain of something swelling, growing, mixed with a wave of pleasure to counter the agony currently cauterizing his organs. Wave after wave of mixed sensations radiated out from the intrusion as a noise even he couldn't define slipped from his lips, and he clawed at the air with moans muffled into the infinity of the Mindscape.

“There we go, figured I might as well toss you a bone for dealing with this! Woo, this is going to be a lot to handle for an oily sweat beast meat-sack like you, but you’re a good human, you’ll manage.”

“Wh- what is?” Ford managed to stutter as Bill pulled his hand out, thick red with sparks of starlight dripping from the sleek black fingers all the way up to the elbow. Nothing existed in his mind but questions, even as the pain sucked into itself like a black hole and disappeared. “What did you do to- what did you put in there?”

“Why, our child, of course!”

There was a moment’s silence as Ford processed that before an actual record scratch sounded somewhere in the Mindscape, which just made Bill slap his knee and cackle.

“Oh, oh that is perfect timing. Your brain is a riot, Sixer, you know that?”

“Our child…?” Ford’s eyes had widened to the point that the lids had nearly receded into the skull, and one hand instinctively dropped to the still-oozing stomach, droplets of flickering silver mixing with deep maroon. “That can’t be-”

“Exactamundo, our child! Offspring, half-clone, spawn, whatever you want to call it!” Bill summoned his cane specifically to spin it and jab the end into Ford’s chest. “I’ve told you my whole tragic backstory-” (Ford’s eyes instinctively darted up to the hat and he felt a pang unrelated to the whole hand-shoving-through-guts thing) “-But I figured it was time to move on fully, starting a family of my own. And you’re the lucky candidate that I’d like to spend the rest of your life with! You’re smart, you’re a freak, you’ve already given me complete control over your body, and I wouldn’t mind a little rugrat running around with your cute little face on the part of the time they don’t look like me!”

“The part of the-” Ford shook his head to himself. That was not the thing to focus on, and his fingers curled around the stomach of his sweater tight enough that the threads unwound in the non-air. “Bill, I don’t have the- the- equipment for this!”

“And I’m a triangle, but do you really think I can’t make a few adjustments on that little problem? You wound me! Seahorses do it, it’s just a design flaw that humans can’t, really!” Bill rested his palm atop Ford’s knuckles. “I just needed to scoop out a little extra space- you don’t need all of those organs, so I just combined a few. They should work just as well!” He waved his free hand. “Besides, you said you wanted to do something for me. I’ve barely asked you for anything, and this is an honor!”

“Bill, I-” Ford’s free hand raised to tangle in his hair as the dream deity pressed up against his middle as if listening for a heartbeat already. “It’s not that I’m not flattered-”

“Then what is it, brainiac?” Bill tilted upward. “We’re already changing the world, and you’ve already pledged your life to me. We can be happy together. What’s one more string sewing us together? I picked you for a reason.”

He floated up, gripping a cheek in each hand as his single eye met both of Ford’s, sticky silver and ruby blood mixing together and oozing down the skin. “I already told you, I can’t imagine anyone else I’d want to do this with, and isn’t this what humans are meant to do, squirt out squirmy little genetic reproductions of themselves? Let’s face it, you’re never going to meet a girl, and this way you’ll change the world with the portal and by carrying the first new member of my species in a trillion years!”

His thumb stroked the skin as he tilted slightly, as if turning his head. “You’re the only one I’d want this with. Don’t you trust me, Fordsy?”

It may have been the leftover heat of the deal-fire from whatever Bill had done before, but Ford found his cheeks burning as his mouth fell open slightly, a puff of breath escaping.

“...Yes.” The truth of the admission came from deep within, even as doubts squirmed like pinned insects. “I- I have given myself body and soul, you know that.”

“Good boy.” Bill’s bloody fingers shifted, one thumb sliding between Ford’s wet lips, and Ford instinctively sucked, getting a pat with the other hand as liquid stardust slipped down his throat, igniting his stomach with a far more pleasurable flame that shot further south. “Now then! This is the fun part!”

Ford was about to ask, but Bill’s other hand had slipped beneath the neckline of his sweater at the same time his form began to crack along the bricks to spill free something ancient and starving, and there very quickly ceased to be any possible questions.

[shibaincubus]

2024 wrapped

The year has come to an end Shibain

It's time to celebrate your year in life!

Before you enter in a new era. ya ꩜.ᐟ

» Click me (ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ.ﾟ

⋘ 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕, 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒂 𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈...⋙

⧣₊˚﹒✦₊ ⧣₊˚ 𓂃★ ⸝⸝ ⧣₊˚﹒✦₊ ⧣₊˚ /) /) (｡•ㅅ•｡)〝₎₎ 「✦Categories✦ . .╭∪─∪────────── ✦ ⁺. . .┊ Top 3 accomplishments ˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧˚.🎀༘⋆ . .┊ What I manifested ࣪ ִֶָ☾.⭒ . .┊Life lessons 𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ⋅ᡣ𐭩 ་༘࿐ . .┊Mindset shifts ˚˖𓍢ִִ໋🌊 🪼˚˖𓍢ִ✧˚. . .┊Quotes ⋆˚🐾˖° ╰───────────── ✦ ⁺. ⧣₊˚﹒✦₊ ⧣₊˚ 𓂃★ ⸝⸝ ⧣₊˚﹒✦₊ ⧣₊˚

───── ⋆⋅𑁍ࠬܓ ⋅⋆ ─────────── ⋘ 𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 ! 𝒑𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒑 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐… ⋙ ╭──────────.♯..─╮ ╰─..♯.──────────╯

/) /) ପ(˶•-•˶)ଓ ♡ /づ づ (Success) ˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧˚.🎀༘⋆

Top 3 accomplishments ˙✧˖°📷 ⋆｡˚꩜

Not in order tho

A lot of revelations have been made and I pondered a lot.

Accomplishments incoming ...

🎀Milestones in my rich girl era ⋆ ˚ᯓ★ ˚⋆

I experienced the rich life literally for 3 months. It gave me a lot of insights in the mindset and made my goal more attainable it gave me direction for success.

🎀Healed mindset/ᐠ - ˕ -マ

In this year I archived a new mindset like I healed all the work done ya

🎀Healthy era˚˖𓍢ִִ໋🌊🦈˚˖𓍢ִ✧˚.

So I never struggled with food perse but my health awareness in all areas got high like sleep; No cravings; posture improvement etc. like everything got better and health is wealth ya

What I manifested ──★ ˙ ̟🎀 !!

/___/\ ꒰ ˶• ༝ - ˶꒱ ./づᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊°.~♡︎ Safe --Affirm--Success bang˚✩

So I'm lowkey kinda new to manifesting but there are some things that I have manifested this year

💝Being healthy✩˚｡⊹୨୧⊹｡˚✩

Like I swear I did not have a fewer or anything this year like the only thing I had was a stuffed nose for a few days at the beginning of the year

💝Rich era ✩°｡⋆⸜ 🎧✮

I manifested the opportunities to get to know the other side. It was lowkey luck -acc manifested-

Life lessons ꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱₊˚⊹✶𓏲ּ꩜ .ᐟ

✨Networking is quite literally everything໒꒰ྀི ꒱ྀི১

Don't get me started on it; like grades count for success but if you are just school smart and don't have enough charisma the genius ideas will not be seen as much & popularised as being just charismatic.

It's 80/20 rule with good grades +/- it's 80% but Charisma is the 20% ya

✨ You are not meant for everyone૮꒰っ˕ -｡꒱აᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

Some people like you and some don't. Trying to get everyone to like you is a recipe for disaster. It's giving people pleasing. It's giving social burn out ya. Not everyone has to know everything bout you they will not like you more. Focus on yourself and attract the right people.

Tbh I'm grateful that I'm out of this era tho *success and delight*

Mindset shifts: 𓏲🐋 ๋࣭  ࣪ ˖✩࿐࿔ 🌊𖦹ִ ࣪

🦋Fix the mindset and the actions will come ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡°

The mindset is lowkey underrated when it comes to changing your habits. You have to ask why -> EX. Why do I always procrastinate -> Answer -> Why (Answer): Then you acc come to the source and can destroy the problem like It's a form of shadow work

🦋Abandonment of the past⋆.୨ৎ˚⋆ᰔ⁺•୨ৎ"⋆

The past doesn't matter. It's not real. Lowkey humans are bad at memories and your feelings can impact it sm. Don't let the past define the future. The future can be manipulated and the past is like the past -> Things that happened 5 years ago or today won't matter in 5 years so they don't matter today

Quotes𐙚⋆°｡⋆♡˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚

Quotes to end this chapter in my life

I'm just a girl in this world fweeee(>؂ •́)ᕗ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ૮ ˃̶͈ 𐃷 ˂̶͈ ྀིა 2025 will be my year ૮ ˃̶͈ 𐃷 ˂̶͈ ྀིა sprinkling sillyness and happyness ya ૮ ˃̶͈ 𐃷 ˂̶͈ ྀིა My heart is full of dreams ya

That's it 2024 was a great year and 2025 will be too. All the lore that'll be collected next year ya s-tier ; s-tier ; s-tier 🌨️🫧

Manifesting a great year for every girlie girl fweee

Thank you sm for 230+ followers ya I love you alll˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀

[jazzy-tzw]

There’s only a handful of individuals that honed their craft and believed in it the way he did.

Every promo, every match, literally everything was done with so much passion and it’s one of the reasons I was so intrigued by him.

One of the best defining superstars for the better half of this era…

Despite everything creative wise, he was a good man.

A father, a husband, a son, a brother, a friend, an inspiration…

A true creative genius. A Visionary.

[waffowo]

I was scrolling through Tumblr and saw someone claim that you don’t need to watch Series 8 and 9 of Doctor Who. Thus, I shall advertise why both seasons are so fucking good and SHOULD BE watched.

Series 8-9 is pure character drama (with an added thematic focus). Like the most character orientated of NuWho. Moffat is criticised for his inability to either consistently write a cohesive narrative or his third acts fail to meet the hype. However, to apply that critique to these two seasons feels really wrong because these elements that played a major role during The Matt Smith era are incredibly second hand and only serve as a backdrop for the intensity of the drama at hand. Often, the finales of 8 and 9 are instead incredibly thematically driven and several “unresolved” narrative threads are actually metaphors or symbols surrounding the Doctor and Clara.

The approach is incredibly experimental and Moffat at his greatest. In Series 8, there is a literal double feature that not only has really cool monsters/concepts but is also in reality unravelling Clara’s own character and deconstructing what it means to be the Doctor. To go even further, Clara evolves from a mystery box with some vaguely defined (but still there) character traits to a dissection/inverse of Rose. Clara may be disliked by the end (not by me) but she is an incredibly complex character in Doctor Who and Series 8 further recontextualises her actions in Series 7 while Series 9 escalates them entirely.

Clara and Twelve have possibly the most insane chemistry since maybe Tenant and Tate. However, instead of the comedic genius that is Donna and Ten/Fourteen, we get an incredibly tense and tenuous relationship that verges and transcends romance and platonicism. They would literally go to the ends of the Universe and destroy it along the way if it means to save the other. Coleman and Capaldi are literally acting their asses off each time regardless of what the episode calls for. Also not to say they aren’t funny though, they are still incredibly fucking funny (Magicians Apprentice, Robots of Sherwood etc). Also to not watch these two seasons completely annihilates the character arc The Doctor goes on from 8-10 so do not fucking skip them.

These two seasons may not feel like Doctor Who but they still are regardless. They are about what it means to be The Doctor and the wildly divergent stylistic approach in comparison to RTD1 and Moffat’s Smith Era helps give the show a greater variety. I think it’s vital to keep an open-mind, tis all.

[pistatsia]

Marc Snuffy: the one who's in control

my Snuffy & Lorenzo fic using this characterization

Snuffy is the epitome of the word 'control'. From his motto to the use of his body with its perfect, calibrated balance on the field in the form of jiu jitsu (elements of which were also utilised by logic genius Sherlock Holmes in Conan Doyle's fictional style).

Snuffy controls everything from the individual strengths of his players to their place in his strategies, while also building all of his logic on a solid, confident base: for example, when constructing his team at Ubers he goes by the club's tradition and builds it on defence rather than attack. Even Lorenzo was raised by him to be flexible and adaptable (and most importantly, with the understanding that the most important thing is not to win, but to live), which can be seen in his attitude to the game - both serious and entertaining at the same time. And capable of accepting both losing and winning with dignity.

He controls even personal relationships, clearly defining the conditions for both sides, their benefits and losses - where it would seem that there should be no room for formalities. And if about Barou this could be hardly regarded to the football, then with the starving Lorenzo everything is a bit more complicated.

And I think it's obvious to everyone that this not entirely healthy level of control, going far beyond the boundaries of dedication, grew out of his trauma from Mick's death and their failure.

It's evident even in his relationship with the characters closest to him, Lorenzo and Barou. Through them both - two people so similar to Mick Moon (Lorenzo in appearance in his homeless era, Barou in both appearance and personality) - Snuffy recreates his trauma in an attempt to rewrite it with a happier ending. The kind of thing that Barou gets a glimpse of and is rightly angry about.

Of course this is hardly fully realised, only partly - in life, for example, kids who were bullied in their childhood sometimes become teachers. And then they stop the bullying near them as working adults, giving the new kids the happy ending they once deserved. And that's exactly Snuffy's case: he saves his players from a fate he himself couldn't avoid. He's willing to keep them as safe as he can control, growing them in almost hothouse conditions, which is exactly what Barou hates. So much so that he's easily willing to take the blame if they fail.

But at the same time, which makes perfect sense for such a person, Snuffy hates it when things get out of control, especially when there is deliberate sabotage - which is actually what Noa is teasing him about. I'd even go so far as to say that Snuffy is the kind of person who can only focus on a far-reaching goal by completely ignoring the unimportant things along the way - for example, he saved Lorenzo's life, but it seems they never talked about the fact that he didn't have to play football for Snuffy to love him, and that "worth" of his isn't that important.

Remember how Snuffy reacts to Barou's attempts to get out of his control and break his patterns: he's full of cold fury. That look is far scarier than shouting and punishment.

Because through Barou's prism Snuffy sees both his and Mick's paths. And most of all Snuffy is terrified of falling back into that helplessness - when he wasn't prepared for the event that broke his life in two. An event over which he had no control.

But it would seem impossible to be prepared for such an event. It's like a natural disaster and a terrorist attack - it's something that tears the usual fabric of life apart.

But when has that ever stopped anyone, right?

So Snuffy, in the moment of tragedy that destroyed his past, felt that he had a duty to anticipate everything. He had to know how and where to act, find the right words for Mick, save the careers of both of them, and basically hold the world on his shoulders so that it wouldn't break them apart.

It's terribly cruel and certainly unfair upon himself - but that's the way trauma works.

And that's why the journey he takes with Barou's help is so satisfying and liberating. Blue Lock does show overcoming one's traumas and chains visually and vividly very well - and how, with Barou's help, Snuffy was able to transcend his limitations, rising like a phoenix from the ashes, is perceived both visually and consciously, because it's relatable.

Because a person who is able to prepare for everything, to expect both loss and failure in advance, who knows exactly all his skills and advantages....

...also clearly sees the limitations of his body and mind. He simply cannot go beyond them - because he controls himself so much that he unwittingly limits himself, almost self-sabotaging - just to stay on predictable, familiar ground.

Logic is incapable of improvisation.

And this is what Barou is talking about - and what he teaches Snuffy anew, re-igniting his desire to live and play.

He shows Snuffy again that both life and football are made up of unpredictable moments - those where you are happy that something unexpected has happened that you weren't waiting for, those where you amaze yourself by going beyond your limits, those where you are happy and at the peak. Those where you need logic, but where you can't build your victory and happiness on it alone. Because happiness is in illogicality and unpredictability.

These moments are the things a person's destiny consists of.

The moments that Mick Moon lived for.

And the moments for which Marc Snuffy survived and rose again.

[savagewildnerness]

I am not ready!

I’m so curious how Armand will portray Lestat & Nicki in this episode. I’ve just been relistening to Nicki’s death in TVL audiobook & when Lestat first meets Marius today & it struck me how much Eleni must withold from Lestat in terms of Nicolas’ madness & the sorrow & difficulty of it for him & for them. I kept thinking upon the closeness of genius & mental fragility as I listened to Eleni recount Nicki’s racing mind, wild invention & inability to cope with his overwhelming vampiric powers & his unconsumed urges, emotions & shattered belief systems.

It also struck me how like a continuation of Lestat & Nicki’s conversation Lestat’s first conversation with Marius is - everything echoing back to Nicki. Though Marius of course is very different.

Marius calls Lestat a true innocent, defining innocence as an absence of the need of preconceptions & Lestat wonders whether this is what Nicki meant when he talked of the light.

Lestat’s core “innocence” as Marius deems is is one of my favourite things about The Vampire Lestat. Obviously Lestat doesn’t fully retain the purity he has in this era, going on to have crises of faith. But here his stance is pure. He questions & analyses every thought from the purity of his own emotions & experience. And I always related so much to this.

Interesting, Gabrielle’s talk of toppling humanity - redolent of what Akasha will try… and Lestat here saying he would fight it…

Nicolas’ death is so sad in the book. And the way Eleni describes it: the inevitability & the silence of speech & closing down of soul with which Nicolas seems to sign off from life.

And the whole thing infused with this impending end; allegory to our own grieving & depressive eras, and the overwhelming sensuality of Marius’ arrival & Lestat drinking his blood. It’s strange how I don’t love Marius as much as many other vampires, and yet in many ways I find him personality-wise the most similar to Lestat, so it’s curious….

I wonder how the TV show will tell Lestat’s Father story? It’ll have to be different! Even Nicolas & Lestat’s story will have to be different- given the time changes. I’m curious.

Anyway, I reread the book only a month or so ago, but I’m listening to the audiobook again already now & oh this part is just so sad. I basically just want to live in TVL.

I can’t believe Lestat is so relieved he still has Nicki’s violin at Marius’…… but he’s literally about to let Akasha crush the thing! Crushing a Stradivarius- unforgivable!!!!!

[nemesis-writer]

Five Minutes (Prologue)

[All it took] Masterlist TW- mental illness, neglect

Five minutes.

That was all it took to destroy you.

Five minutes to talk to you, five minutes to look at you, hell, even five minutes to think of you. They didn't even gave you one minute. You are the only one that fought and murder for the fun of it.

You were insane in the head, and you loved it.

You love the darkness, you loved the thrill of experiencing death nearby. Everything insane, that a logical person would fear, you would enjoy. It never occured to you, how abnormal it seems to other people.

You would be described as a neglected era-defining genius with the desire to kill. Yet you remained nothing to them. While Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, and the girls' intelligence are designed to do abide by the law, yours were designed to reprogram a functional human being into doing inhuman things.

Your 'talents', were too notoriously significant, people were sort of compelled into doing all sorts of crimes such as robbery, corruption of the government facilities, and murder.

With their neglect for you proliferating, so did your talents and the crimes that are associated with them. You'd always get what you want but what you truly want or should I rephrase, 'wanted', was love and care.

You were too discreet to be thought of as a sociopath, but had a sliver of emotion from being a psychopath. You are and always will be years from now, clinically unique.

You tried to gain their attention, but only once. You were desperate but not naive and definitely not too naive to try and beg for attention. It was a gift on how you never cried over spilt milk, and just remained unflinching towards the neglect, jeers, and worse, beatings of your younger brother.

It was a distant dream for a happy and 'picture-perfect' family when you lay on the bed, asleep. Only to wake up in the same nightmare that has brought you to the darkness.

There's a reason why people say, "Once You're In Hell, Only The Devil Can Help You Out."

A/N: This is the second fic I'm starting <3! I'll also try to make a playlist 4 this

Taglist

@lunayaps, @not-aya, @iluvcatzz, @vanessa-boo, @ivyrose9194,@thesehandsarerated-e, @eyeless-kun, @errorunfound1, @gwyneveire

[avelera]

Why You Should Rewatch Season 1 of Arcane

For those who are just jumping onto watching Arcane now that Season 2 is coming out, let me just quickly say what transformed me from a fan to a frothing-at-the-mouth insane evangelist for how this show might be an era defining work of genius.

The writing is good, yes, but did you know that structurally, Season 1 might be the most tightly written show ever created? (And no, I don't mean that as hyperbole, because the animation, the music used, and the story as written is all done in-house by Riot, Arcane might truly be the most tightly created, centrally controlled story ever made for film).

If you go back and re-watch Season 1 knowing how it ends, with Jinx's rocket shattering the sky on its arc towards the Council Chamber, you can then actually go back to the very first scene of the show and see how every beat of the story up to that point led to that moment.

The core thesis of Arcane S1 is the question: how did we get to this moment where the potential peace of this divided city was shattered by the violent attack of one traumatized child of Zaun?

Every scene, literally every single scene, every single frame, every single word said or not said, every gesture, every pause of Arcane Season 1 is how we got to that moment.

Every chance encounter that happens or doesn't happen. Every time someone was in one place instead of another. Every time someone helped or didn't help a loved one when they needed it. Every time someone spoke up or didn't speak up when they needed to.

Every. Single. Beat. Every single breath of Arcane S1 is about that last scene and how it came to be and how no one stopped it before it happened. You can pause any frame, dissect any scene, and point to exactly how that last scene could have been averted if this moment had gone differently.

It is truly mind boggling how tightly connected even the smallest fragment of this story is. The care and attention put into it is so next level it doesn't even seem like it's in a different league (heh) from most other films, it's playing a different sport.

And I recommend everyone who has only seen Season 1 once go back and watch it again with this question in mind.