#especially seeing how others interpret the “rules” of it or how some “ignore” these “rules”. have i mentioned pokemon quartz yet

[boxheadpaint]

how do i start coming up w more interesting character designs like urs. they are sooooo cool and i try to make a character like that but it always comes out stinky

if it stinks thats great

[beneathashadytree]

HEY GUYS! LONG POST HERE, BUT PLEASE READ🙏🏽

I am genuinely appalled by the discourse ongoing in the LNDS fandom these past few days—but above all, I am severely disappointed in what had started out as one of the most inclusive and sweet fandoms I’ve ever been in. I have a few things to say, so in this post I’m trying to put all my thoughts to words. Apologies if I sound harsh, but I’m genuinely livid. Also, please ignore any typos. I’m not wearing my glasses while word-vomiting.

First off, for a fandom that is composed of mostly adults, you guys have been acting terribly childishly. It’s 2024, and yet people are still unironically shaming others for “switching up on their favs” as if a person owes 2D characters any loyalty. Let people enjoy things. The novelty of Sylus and how he’s quite literally 6 months behind the other 3 love interests makes people want to catch up on the enjoyment of him all at once. He’s still such a brand new character and concept, so there’s no wonder everyone’s hyped up over him.

I’ve seen people get genuinely mad at other players and writing whole think-pieces about this. I promise you guys, the company making this game is still benefiting whether you’re pouring your money into Sylus or any one of the previous 3. We’re all happy to have an interesting character pop up among the roster now, and we’re taking our time getting to know him. Doesn’t make any of the first 3 any less loved. I genuinely don’t remember this amount of nastiness when solo events for each of the guys used to drop.

In fact, if the popularity thing is worrying you, going off MLQC (the company’s past game) the character who was last added was—eventually, after the initial hype died down—kicked off to the sidelines in most major events and was given the least content, and was the least favorite of fans.

Secondly, and this has my blood boiling, there is an insane amount of entitlement and rudeness I’ve seen on my timeline concerning how people characterize the men—particularly Rafayel.

Absolutely nothing warrants this shitty attitude towards other creators for how they depict characters in their fics. It seems you guys feel protected behind a screen and think it gives you the right to bully strangers online. Fanfiction is for fantasizing about your favs; for letting your imagination run wild. If this were a character analysis, then yes, maybe I’d agree that inaccuracies are aggravating. However, in fanfiction, there are zero rules, especially when it comes to smut.

Sexual preferences are not equivalent to a person’s whole personality—so whether he’s written as a dom, a sub, a switch, or whatever the fuck you wanna call it, this has nothing to do with his kindness, gentlemanliness, passion, power, ruthlessness, snark, or whatever minuscule aspect of his character makes up his lovely whole and matters to you.

I think this circles back to a lack of ability to separate sexual matters and personality, because how else do people interpret fics depicting him in a certain manner as them erasing his character? They might overlap, but they can very well be mutually exclusive. I’ve seen incredibly sweet and gentle men irl who were absolute doms in bed, and I’ve seen powerful and passionate men who were reduced to tears between the sheets. There is barely any correlation whatsoever, and if anything, claiming otherwise is what I consider piss-poor media literacy and reading-comprehension.

My third point is that for some reason, there have been many, many posts and replies on here where I’ve seen people just straight-up spread pure hate for the characters. Maybe this bothered me in particular because I’m an OT3 (OT4 now!) and absolutely adore all of them, but I find no logical reason for “yucking someone’s yum” when we’re talking about liking the characters of an Otome game—a genre of video games which is made to literally cater to the tastes of as many people as possible.

It’s especially disheartening to see when it’s at a time like this, when new content is about to drop, and you find in the replies of every other post/discussion at least a few people spewing hate and disgust at Sylus. Again, so many people are incredibly excited about him. Why is there a need to rain on everyone’s parade, especially in such an unsolicited manner?

This fandom originally started as a safe space for people of all races, backgrounds, genders, sexualities, and personalities to bond over our mutual love for characters. All I’ve seen on my TL lately (in terms of discussion) is negativity, and it’s such a fucking let-down. I hope whatever the fuck has happened to this fandom cools down after a bit. It’s probably exaggerated and very in-your-face rn, cause more and more people are downloading LNDS, so the probabilities of finding people being nasty are increasing. But I seriously don’t want to grow to resent this fandom and find myself distancing myself from it to protect my peace.

Let’s all remember to be kind towards other players, to not act entitled or bratty about the characters, and to try and mind our own business if we see content that doesn’t suit our tastes.

[astroeleanor]

💀⚔️🖤 Zodiac Placements with Necromantic Gifts (The Ability to Talk to the Dead)⚰️🕸️🦇

Hey everyone! Welcome to today’s post. I’ve been exploring some mystical concepts with my best friend (@witchyianuarius), and I can't wait to share with you insights about the Zodiac placements and how they might align with necromantic gifts/necromancy.

🎃 Also, HALLOWEEN ASTRO READINGS are available! Spooky season calls for spooky readings. Grab yours HERE. ๋࣭ ⭑🕸🦇

First of all, what is Necromancy?

Necromancy is a form of magic that involves communicating with the dead, typically to gain insight, predict the future, or harness the powers of the deceased. Historically, it has been associated with rituals to summon spirits or raise the dead in various cultural mythologies and magical traditions. While it often carries a darker, more occult connotation, necromancy in a broader sense refers to any practice involving the dead or death-related magic.

In some interpretations, necromancy also includes working with ancestral spirits for guidance, protection, or wisdom, and may not always be tied to negative or malevolent practices. The term itself comes from the Greek words nekros (meaning "dead body") and manteia (meaning "divination").

SCORPIO

Scorpio placements—Moon, Rising, and Pluto—are often associated with necromantic abilities because of their connection to death. These placements are tied to the power to navigate the boundary between life and death. With these placements, you may be naturally equipped to navigate these areas because you possess the tools to engage with this energy. You live in a psychological underworld where others fear to tread, and that’s exactly where necromantic abilities would thrive. These placements make you a natural conduit for what others consider mysterious or forbidden. It’s not a gift to be taken lightly, but it’s one that gives you the power to see beyond the surface.

SCORPIO MOON

The Moon governs your internal world, so when placed in Scorpio, it opens a window into the mysteries of life and death. Scorpio’s influence means you feel things others are afraid to acknowledge. You have a natural connection to what is hidden—whether it’s your own shadow, other people’s emotional undercurrents, and in this case, even the lingering energies of the deceased. Necromancy, the practice of communing with the dead, finds a symbolic home in this placement because you don’t fear death, it feels natural for you to explore these spaces, even if it's just on an intuitive level.

SCORPIO RISING

As a Scorpio Rising with Gemini in the 8th house, you may have a natural inclination toward transformation and exploring the unseen, including a deep interest in the ways you can communicate (Gemini) with energies beyond this realm (8H). With Scorpio Rising, you may also be drawn toward what others ignore or bury—often involving pain or unresolved issues from the past. This interest can extend to ancestral matters, which ties directly into necromancy: working with spirits and bringing the past into the present.

PLUTO IN SCORPIO

Pluto, as we all know, is the planet of death, rebirth, and transformation. In Scorpio, this energy is amplified to its highest potential. Pluto's placement here suggests a strong connection to the forces that govern life and death. You may feel a drive to control or understand these realms, even subconsciously. Pluto’s influence encourages you to embrace these energies, often leading to personal transformation through encounters with death or crises. This energy pulls you into the depths, demanding that you face death— metaphorically, through constant cycles of death and rebirth in your own life.

CANCER

Cancer placements, especially Moon and Rising, have a deep connection to necromantic abilities because of Cancer’s connection with the past and the unseen. Cancer is ruled by the Moon, which governs emotions, intuition, the subconscious–these qualities naturally align with necromantic practices, which involve communicating with the dead and understanding the subtle energies that linger beyond physical life. Your ability to feel what others ignore makes you a natural conduit for communicating with the dead, though it often manifests emotionally or through visions.

CANCER MOON

If you have a Cancer Moon, your emotional world is tied to memory and deep emotional currents. Cancer Moon is the most intuitive and emotionally sensitive of the lunar placements, making you highly attuned to what’s hidden beneath the surface—emotions, unspoken words, and energies from the past. Necromancy, at its core, deals with the dead, but it also involves retrieving what has been buried, either emotionally or spiritually. Your Cancer Moon allows you to feel these energies, often sensing unresolved issues from the past, whether they come from family, ancestry, or even the lingering presence of those who have passed on. This emotional receptivity makes it easier for you to connect with spirits or the dead because you can tap into these unseen emotional frequencies.

Additionally, the water element of Cancer, associated with intuition and the emotional body, plays a role here. Water signs are known for their psychic receptivity, and Cancer, in particular, has a lunar connection that heightens this. If you have a Cancer Moon, you may find that your dreams are filled with symbols or messages from the past, from deceased loved ones, or even from ancestors you’ve never met.

CANCER RISING

Having a Cancer Rising represents a deep pull toward the past. You’re drawn to ancestral roots  and the emotional imprints left by those who came before you. This inclination toward lineage places you in a natural position to engage with necromantic practices. You intuitively seek to heal or resolve what has been left unresolved.. So, as a Cancer Rising, you might carry the past with you and instinctively work to reconcile what lingers.

You might find yourself emotionally connected to old places, objects, or stories that carry the energy of those who have passed on–your natural empathy makes you a bridge between the living and the dead. You may even feel a pull to comfort or care for the spirits of those who still linger in some form.

8H PLACEMENTS

The 8th house is traditionally associated with death and the mysteries of the unseen, which gives it a strong connection to necromantic abilities. When planets like Mercury, Jupiter, and the Moon are in the 8H, they draw your attention to these themes and influence how you engage with the occult. Mercury gives you the intellectual curiosity to explore and communicate with the dead. Jupiter expands your understanding of death as part of a larger spiritual framework, and the Moon connects you emotionally and intuitively to the energies of those who have passed. 

8H MERCURY

With Mercury in the 8th house, your mind naturally gravitates toward the unknown and the taboo. Mercury governs communication and thought processes, and in the 8th house, it’s drawn to secrets and the unseen realms, including death and the afterlife. Necromancy, at its core involves communication with the dead, so your 8H Mercury can give you the ability to explore these areas intellectually and intuitively. You might even be fascinated by the idea of what happens after death, and you can sense unspoken or hidden energies, which is critical in necromantic practices. This placement allows you to connect mentally with the energies of those who have passed, whether through active rituals or simply an attunement to the energies that others might ignore.

8H JUPITER

Jupiter in the 8th house broadens your understanding of death and the occult. You’re likely to see death as part of a larger, interconnected cycle, or you may feel drawn to study ancient practices or spiritual systems that involve communication with the dead. If you do have necromantic abilities, Jupiter’s influence might also attract opportunities for you to learn or teach about these hidden aspects of life. Overall, I’ve noticed that 8H Jupiter makes for great occultists.

8H MOON

Moon in the 8H pulls you toward the emotional depths of transformation and death. You may sense the presence of the dead on a gut level or feel emotional/psychic echoes of those who have passed. 8H Moon can make you sensitive to the emotional residue left by others, whether it's spirits or the emotional energy tied to past events. You may also find yourself emotionally attuned to ancestral energies or feel that you’re carrying emotional patterns from those who have passed. This emotional sensitivity allows you to tap into the unseen energy that lingers after death.

PLUTO CONJUNCTIONS

Pluto conjunct the Moon and Mercury conjunct Pluto strongly indicate necromantic abilities because these planetary alignments connect deeply with themes of death and communication with the unseen. They allow you to engage with death on both emotional and intellectual levels. The Moon’s emotional depth and Pluto’s transformative energy make you sensitive to the unseen, while Mercury’s intellectual nature combined with Pluto’s power over death helps you articulate or understand the energies of those who have passed.

PLUTO CONJUNCT MOON

This conjunction creates an emotional connection to what others fear: the darker aspects of life, death, and what lies beyond. Having this placement opens up your emotional sensitivity to the energies of those who have passed, into the spaces where life and death blur. The Moon governs your subconscious and instincts, and with Pluto’s influence, those instincts naturally turn toward the mysteries of the underworld.

Pluto conjunct the Moon also amplifies your ability to engage with the concept of death on an intimate, personal level. This placement may bring experiences where you confront death directly, not just in a literal sense but emotionally and psychologically. It can lead to a heightened awareness of ancestral energies or unresolved emotions tied to those who have passed. This deep emotional connection to death is where necromantic abilities start to show themselves, therefore you may have the emotional depth to communicate with or feel the presence of those who are no longer living.

PLUTO CONJUNCT MERCURY

Mercury conjunct Pluto links your communication and thought processes directly to the occult. Your mind naturally gravitates toward the deeper, hidden aspects of life. You’re drawn to mysteries, secrets, and what others avoid discussing—death, in particular. You have the ability to mentally process and understand the unseen, perhaps even receiving messages from those who have passed or intuitively knowing things that others cannot explain.

This Mercury-Pluto conjunction also gives you the power to communicate beyond the physical. Your mind becomes a tool for navigating these hidden realms, making you capable of deciphering hidden messages or energies–and your communication abilities allow you to bridge the gap between the living and the dead, even if that happens more intuitively than explicitly.

NATAL MERCURY RETROGRADE

Mercury governs the transmission of information, while retrograde periods shift the flow of that energy inward, often causing disruptions or delays in the external world. However, these disruptions also open pathways to the past, hidden or unresolved matters, and to what lingers beneath the surface of our usual conscious awareness.

Mercury Retrograde can be seen as a window into necromantic abilities because it draws you into communication with the past—whether that involves unresolved emotions or even spirits. Think of how during a retrograde, Mercury’s usual forward motion is reversed, metaphorically pulling you backward in time. This reversal can make you more attuned to subtle energies, including those left behind by the dead. Mercury Retrograde also slows down communication, and this slowing effect can be useful in necromantic work. Communication with the dead, or with energies beyond the physical world, often requires patience, stillness, and the ability to listen deeply. The external confusion or delays during retrograde periods might be irritating in daily life, but they also create space for introspection and spiritual attunement. When you’re less focused on rapid, clear communication in the physical world, you have more energy to tune into subtle, often overlooked messages.

In archetypal terms, Mercury is the messenger, traditionally seen as the guide between worlds, including the underworld. When retrograde, Mercury’s usual role as a straightforward communicator shifts into a more "shadow-y" one, making it more likely to bring up messages from the unconscious and the dead.

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

Thank you for taking the time to read my post! Your curiosity & engagement mean the world to me. I hope you not only found it enjoyable but also enriching for your astrological knowledge. Your support & interest inspire me to continue sharing insights & information with you. I appreciate you immensely. • 🕸️ JOIN MY PATREON for exquisite & in-depth astrology content. You'll also receive a free mini reading upon joining. :)

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

[canmom]

a polemic

every so often you see a conversation on this website that goes like this:

based story game enjoyer: D&D is a limiting game because of xyz design assumptions. cringe D&D fan: actually I changed these assumptions by editing the game to fit my group's needs. it works pretty good. story game chad, closing in for the kill: have you considered playing the perfectly designed game for your scenario that surely exists out there in the indie game milieu? you wouldn't have to homebrew. you'd be having better fun. foolish and wrong D&D incel: but I am already having fun with "modified D&D" and I don't particularly see a need to do that thing you said. wise story game sage, a single tear rolling down their perfectly sculpted face: do you not see that defending D&D, the product printed by Hasbro Inc., by pointing out that you can modify it, is self-defeating? tragic. there is no hope for these people. 42069 notes

along such lines, i saw someone today refer to homebrew in TTRPGs pejoratively as 'unpaid game design' and like. my fucking god guys. i don't love D&D-as-printed either but you've lost the plot.

not only is it good to modify the games you play and make them your own, it is inevitable. nobody ever plays TTRPGs exactly 'by the book', it's always filtered through the dynamic of the group. yes, even in those games that literally tell you exactly what to say like the quiet year or whatever.

you will ignore rules and guidelines. you will put your own interpretation on the wording of this or that rule. you will develop your own rhythms and at some point, yes, you can, will, and should change the rules to better fit whatever you're doing with the game.

the designer may throw up their hands and say "you are no longer playing Sorcerer By Ron Edwards, you are playing some other game! you're messing up my perfectly tuned mechanism!"

let them. it's an understandable frustration, perhaps, but once the game is in the hands of the players, the designer has had their say.

play the game you want to play, even - especially - if you have to invent it. use whatever tools you find useful to help you get there - whether that's a printed RPG book, a blog post, a memory of another game, a story that inspires you. maybe you want to take some existing and familiar system, such as PbtA, and adapt it - awesome (I reckon 95% of indie game designers pretty much do this). maybe you want to start from scratch and make a bespoke system for that one story - also awesome.

'this book requires a lot of work to adapt into something decent' is a fair criticism. 'nobody even plays this game by the book, so it's a bad game' is dogmatism. what game do they play? how do they learn to play it? what function is the book providing in that game? if you want to criticise a game, you need to talk about actual practice. there can be plenty to criticise there, for sure. but that's where you gotta start.

and sure, if someone wants to design a game, particularly to print, I would definitely recommend they look beyond D&D for inspiration. there are some really fucking cool and creative indie games that come up with wild ways to approach 'making up a story through a game' that I'd never have imagined. very often it's fun to follow a designer's frame and discover something new.

but don't make a fucking religion of it lmao.

[classygreydove]

Read a comment bashing lwj...

This is a very long rant about why I love lan wangji's character and why I think his behavior towards Wei Wuxian pre-sunshot campaign make sense. Some events I talk about might be out of order, because I'm rambling. Spoilers for scenes from Audio drama, cdrama, and the other mdzs canons.

So I accidentally read a comment bashing lwj and it made me so mad. Mostly because I found it incredibly inaccurate in interpreting his actions and his relationship with WWX. I can understand not liking LWJ just because his personality isn't one everyone would click with, but hating on him for inaccurate assessment of his character?! It feels like an injustice. So I'm going to share why his character is so fascinating to me, and why his actions make sense.

LWJ is one of my favorite characters for a reason, and there's a reason WWX likes this guy. Was LWJ's behavior as a teen towards wwx dumb? Yes. He was a teenager, lashing out because he had all these feelings and he was scared of being like his parents and scared of the idea that the things he'd been taught about the world was wrong, and he was angry because he couldn't control anything or make it align with that worldview, and he was so full of attraction and fascination and desire that frightened him, because the world and his clan had taught him it was wrong. And it was all happening because of this beautiful, bright boy, who wouldn't obey any of the rules LWJ had been taught made someone "good", but who was somehow so good anyway (which he learns from the Waterborne Abyss incident, when WWX rescues Su She). LWJ has been thrown into a hormonal, existential chaos.

He's never learned to communicate because he's never had a single friend in his life, and he hadn't had anyone to teach him all the ways love could be good, could be healthy, could be a blessing. Only that it was a sin, and that he was bad to have those feelings. He hadn't had anyone to teach him how to manage his emotions in a healthy way, or how to trust his own sense of right and wrong even over what others told him.

And here's this boy, who laughs at, disregards, disrespects LWJ's home and the wisdom he's been taught to look up to all his life. His clan's history and methods. And he's so beautiful, but it feels like this boy is laughing at him. And this boy is so charming, and every time he flirts or is friendly he must be making fun of LWJ because no one has ever teased him like this, or treated him in such a friendly way. Of course WWX doesn't actually want to be friends, or isn't really flirting. He has so many other friends, why would he want to be friends with LWJ? He just wants to get out of punishment, or be entertained. And he likes girls, so of course his flirting with LWJ is only to make fun.

And LWJ feels so vulnerable when WWX flirts, because he wants WWX to look at him and call him handsome, and maybe he's scared WWX sees that. So of course he's going to ignore him, avoid him. Of course he's going to respond with "Shameless!" and "Boring!" He thinks WWX is making fun of him. He thinks WWX is going to hurt him, if LWJ softens. And these emotions are so strong. What if they grow out of control, to the point his love becomes something that poisons, stifles, or hurts? That's a recipe for textbook anxious avoidant attachment style right there (I would know lol i am also this way).

And No wonder he reacted so strongly to the spring book prank. I think bro felt terrified/furious WWX had perceived, in some way, his own desires. And thought WWX was making fun of him. To me, this hits a lot more strongly in the cdrama, especially as the spring book cdrama!WWX used was of the cut-sleeve variety.

And when WWX knocks him over the wall, so sure LWJ will reveal that he's just like the rest of GusuLan, who just want to have rules to feel morally superior over others, enforcing them selectively but not applying them if it suits them (see: LQR) LWJ is determined to prove him wrong, and takes punishment along WWX for being outside the walls after curfew. And here's where WWX's (more negative) opinion of LWJ's character begins to change. He sees that LWJ is genuine in his desire to do good, to be morally righteous. And that makes LWJ stand out against so much of the rest of the cultivation world.

But LWJ still thinks WWX is teasing him maliciously, even when WWX announces that his opinion of LWJ has changed and he wants to be friends. LWJ is still heavily on guard, and again, WWX is approaching him when LWJ feels very vulnerable, given he's undressed in the cold spring, and WWX is also getting undressed in the cold spring. And then WWX says he'll introduce LWJ to girls. Again: he's vulnerable, feeling wrong, feeling made fun of, so he pulls away.

I don't think LWJ really starts to let down his guard until after WWX brings him the rabbits as a gift. Because WWX brought them, and even if he felt vulnerable and teased during that exchange, they were still a gift, proof that WWX had thought of him outside of just their exchanges during WWX's punishment. It is a much kinder feeling of being perceived than the spring book was.

And then WWX is kicked out of lectures, and LWJ doesn't see him again until indoctrination, but even though he was hoping-not-hoping with WWX gone the feelings would fade, instead he writes a love song because he can't get WWX out of his head. All his pulling away and guarding himself seems to be for naught. In the audio drama (the lotus seed pod extra) he even goes to a lotus pond to pick the seed pods with the stems attached because he missed WWX and was thinking about the things he'd shared about his home. He wanted to know about the things WWX liked, the things WWX experienced in his home, even if he wasn't brave enough to go to Lotus Pier directly. [EDIT: It was pointed out that this extra appeared first in the novel.]

And then there's the Discussion Conference, where WWX pulls off LWJ's forehead ribbon. I imagine this event caused LWJ to feel humiliated, ashamed, angry, (and even more horrifyingly to LWJ, pleased on some level that it was WWX) and exposed in front of the entire cultivation society. It might not "seem like a big deal" to a lot of fans because to us it's just a strip of fabric no matter how symbolic, but in this case it is very important that we imagine the gravity of this to understand where LWJ is coming from. For better understanding I would compare it to a lot of modern spiritual practices that use clothing in similar symbolic ways, and we would never want to disrespect someone by disrespecting that clothing, even if it is not a practice we personally follow. And WWX pulling the ribbon off in front of pretty much everyone (many of whom went to lectures at Cloud Recesses), including LWJ's own clan, who understand perfectly what it meant that WWX did that? Mortifying. And then his own clan reassures him that "it doesn't count" because WWX is a man, which must have been really invalidating to LWJ in its own way. So any progress on the friendship front/ideas of softening his guard on LWJ's part is gone. Toast.

And then his home has been burnt to the ground, his brother in hiding, and his leg broken. It's no surprise he's going to spurn WWX at indoctrination. He's grieving, stressed out more than he's ever been, in so much pain. LWJ probably feels really overwhelmed, overstimulated, and unsafe. He just cannot deal with All the Emotions About Wei Wuxian on top of that, and how would he even begin to tell WWX what had happened? He'd prefer to just avoid, avoid, avoid. (In the cdrama, I think he's also trying to distance himself so WWX won't draw the attention of WC.) And when WWX flirts with Mianmian, LWJ has had it up to here. He has no idea WWX is just trying to get medicine for him. And when WWX wants to carry him, the last thing LWJ probably wants is to be vulnerable with wwx in this very unsafe situation, where the Wens are constantly looking for weakness. So he brushes him off.

Then in the cave, LWJ is one of the first (along with JZX to resist the Wens and protect Mianmian. And then he stays behind with WWX and pushes him out of the way of the Xuanwu to get bitten instead. That speaks volumes about his character.

And then there's the whole debacle where LWJ is furious about the branding scar. I know he's of course jealous about the whole Mianmian thing, and WWX trying to lighten the mood/distract LWJ the way he distracts the Jiang siblings by going on about being a dashing hero protecting a maiden, but that just pisses LWJ off more, and I believe it's because LWJ is mad that WWX is treating the matter so lightly, because to him, love and devotion and self-sacrifically pushing people out of the way of danger is so powerful it feels like he's drowning, and WWX is over here like "haha she'll always remember me isn't that nice" and "it doesn't matter that i got hurt because it would have hurt her worse bc of beauty/reputation/the consequences of a woman losing her beauty" (which, kudos to WWX for understanding the ways women are affected by patriarchy, and beauty as a form of power/a tool for a future)

But LWJ is over here, viciously reminded he's not special and WWX would help and flirt with anyone and (seemingly) not think twice about it. Another thought process he could be having could be: but you got hurt. and that is unacceptable, and I hate that you're trying to say it like it is acceptable, bc it's like you don't care, and I care so much it feels like it could kill me. (I'm extrapolating a bit about this thought process here, but it seems plausible enough to me)

And then there's the whole thing where earlier WWX had made LWJ gay-panic hard enough to spit up blood, and then promptly reassured him he doesn't like guys. LWJ didn't need this on top of all the stress, and WWX just took off his headband to make a splint again, and so its presence isn't there to press him into restraint, and now the Mianmian thing, all the stress and adrenaline just come crashing down and bro just can't take it anymore and bites WWX bc maybe he he's mad that WWX has made the impact of a meteor strike in his life and it seems like WWX doesn't take more than a passing thought to those he impacts so deeply. So in all his deep and torrential emotions, bro is just like "I'll make you remember, even just a little bit, the way I remember you." I think in any other circumstance, LWJ wouldn't have lashed out in this way. It took so much for him to reach this point. Should he have bitten WWX? No. Do I understand why he did? Yeah.

And then LWJ tells WWX about Cloud Recesses and cries, for obvious reasons.

And so to call his behavior "abuse" towards WWX at any point in this timeline makes literally no sense at all (though unfortunately that was what the comment called it), and it tore me up to think about it. This is a very long post, and I have a lot to say about LWJ's actions during and post sunshot, but I'm tired so I'll just leave this here. Feel free to share your insights and what you love about LWJ's character. Also, if you have fic recs for favorite LWJ characterizations, please share! I'd love to read them.

TL;DR - Lwj's behavior and treatment of WWX pre-sunshot makes sense in context of his pov. He's flawed, but that's what makes him such a great character, and I love him for good reason.

[gayofthefae]

Okay but let's talk about this as a beautifully accurate representation of where El was in her healing here

She was abused by a man. In her healing, however, she found safe figures: a single father, a boyfriend, and two male best friends.

She is in a safer situation now. BUT

She has a VERY REALISTIC aversion to other women! She sees Max here from the moment she first saw her through the window only as competition for male attention. This is INCREDIBLY realistic and amazing to be shown so. Because trauma symptoms like this do not disappear immediately with safety - that's the definition of trauma 'symptoms', which only become disordered when not needed.

In her environment in the lab, especially with the now-knowledge of her siblings, she was not only appeasing the highest power which was a man, but she was in constant competition for that attention. We also know now: she was losing in that competition. But even when her only memories were of being an isolated "only child" abuse victim, the symptoms also make sense - the combination of conscious and subconscious memory creating the same trauma response.

The stakes of failing to gain approval from a man may no longer be public humiliation, verbal abuse, imprisonment, assault, electrocution, or abuse of loved ones (referring to 001's electrocution), but that doesn't mean the instinctive response isn't still very much there.

A man is someone to be appeased. A man is someone you seek approval from. A woman is someone you compete with for their approval. Only one can win. She doesn't have to actively believe Mike will hurt her to feel a general sense of high stakes and threat from Max being in his life.

It's why her relationship with Max the following season and prioritizing not just Max but a woman's approval over a man's and his desires from her is SUCH a big milestone. Because in season 2, she sees Max as a threat. A threat to her remaining prioritized goal, which we can interpret as being what she is so adamant about as her goal in the beginning of the season: male attention.

In season 1, she had Mike's attention and was rewarded with it. The only times she lacked it, he yelled at her or ignored her. Not in a way that genuinely resembled Brenner so much as triggered it - much like her triggers relating to him in season 4. So regardless of whether or how she factors that in, she either quantifies the idea of lacking his attention as connecting with some level of danger or neglect OR she does not factor those memories in making something differently scary: unknown stakes.

If a person is abused by someone who treats them nice when they do something wrong and poorly when they don't and form a new relationship with someone who is safe but they have never severely messed up with that person, they will hold that fear until they mess up and it's okay - likely repeatedly. As the abuse would have been long-term, they need to reassociate the consequences of mistakes. This is much of what we see in El's fears about Mike in season 4 and what I've talked about: because they are one of the only relationships of any kind that have not "broken promises" severely up until this point, she has no data on what will happen if she does. She doesn't believe he will harm her, but she does hold the very clearly stated belief that lack of attention means lack of love, and further that she is unlovable. This is the same reason it was so important for her and Hopper to break all their rules in season 2 - to demonstrate to her that making mistakes is a safe thing for her to do, the consequences of which may be anger but not danger or abandonment.

So with that fear for her in mind, as we know it in general and as it applies to Mike and continues to through and well past season 2, let's talk about her goal of Mike's attention in season 2:

In season 2 episode 2, we see her crying when Mike gets up and leaves the walkie. Of course, she misses him, but we did not see this response before. She is fearing that she is losing him. It's after this point that she becomes increasingly desperate to see him, fighting Hopper harder, yelling and throwing things, before ignoring his warning of danger to break out and see him. The reason the scene with Max is so emotional for her is not because she never thought he would move on, but because she was recently starting to fear that he would. She felt him slipping away and was feeling an increasing urgency to it, that if she didn't act now he would move on from her. She checked in with him every day and sites later that she was given comfort from his daily calls, but he starts to get more self-berating in them to himself for trying in the first place...until the breaking point. And she was right. After that, Mike stops calling, as we know from the number of days she recites later. So after she got that giving up on her call on Halloween night, the next morning she argued with Hopper for the first time in the "when is soon?!" argument where she psychically throws his plate into him. The subtext of "on day 700? On day 800?!" is "We're on day 354 now and I'm already losing him. I'll be too late in a few days, let alone years." So she sneaks out to see him in an attempt to save him before he finally slips away. And what she sees, to her, is that she's too late. Completely out of her control, and driving her anger towards Hopper further, she missed her window, and she lost him. She lost his attention - to another girl. In her mind, if she returns now, he'll never love her again. That's what happens when you lose someone's attention: you're unlovable. So she leaves for Chicago indefinitely, for a time even seriously considering not returning, even for Mike. The only reason she does is because she thinks she can give him something.

But when she sees Mike, he is thrilled to see her. And when she sees Max, all Max is to her is the girl who almost stole him. Who would have given a couple more days. Because she was raised on the idea that only one person can be loved at a time, the rest discarded, and that love is a competition that must be both won and maintained. Not only that, but that that competition is for a man's attention, therefore against other women.

Pre-season 1 El's life depends on whether she can achieve and maintain positive attention from a man. The stakes are high. In season 1, El is able to achieve positive attention from a man. The stakes are not high, but she has no way of knowing that. In fact, "a promise is something you can't break ever" likely interprets as reinforcing it to a traumatized mind. She also learns(this doesn't mean it's true) that the only way for her to maintain that attention is to be of service via her powers, as each time Mike is angry with her, she is able to regain it by making contact with Will or saving Mike using her powers. She has now learned that, based on the model she was raised on of love being something to be maintained, she is not lovable if she falls short of heroic. She ends season 1 with the ultimate heroic act: self-sacrifice.

In season 2, though she has Hopper, she is prioritizing her original validating male attention, Mike. Because Mike believes her dead, she feels powerless as she is unable to maintain the attention she cultivated from him. She cannot actively lose it either, so all she can hope to do is return to him before the slow fade goes all the way out. But she becomes increasingly desperate to catch him in time as urgency increased based on time-lapsed and his behaviors she's observed. His attention towards her is waning. She needs to get it back before it's lost. This is urgent to her and it is high stakes, because she's a thirteen year old in love? No. Because a man's attention was once life and death, and her body has not left that state, regardless of conscious beliefs about Mike. So she sneaks out despite the known danger - because in her traumatized body, the danger of losing a man's attention is equal if not surpassing to the risk of being seen. She thinks of losing Mike's attention if she doesn't go as an inevitability and being caught as a less likely risk, and if you think of the stakes of those situations as equal, the decision is clearer. So she goes, and she sees that she's too late. She has lost his attention. She is heartbroken and leaves. She fights with Hopper, she finds out about her mother and who she was or could have been and this is where that healing gets started. She prioritizes a woman - her mother. Then she prioritizes a woman - her sister. It is also incredibly important that Kali is the leader of the gang. Her approval is the most important, not Axl or anyone else's - who are first presented to her as the most intimidating, insulting and threatening her until Kali is a revealed as the true boss. She heavily considering not returning to the men who she considers to be lost to her: Hopper is angry with her, meaning she has lost his attention and approval, and Mike has moved on, meaning he would not care for her return. Hopper's apology is a huge part of it, because it is likely only the second she has ever received (Lucas) and the first elaboration of love. He teaches her for the first time in her life that anger is not a lack of love or punishment and that it can actually be based in love, though that does not make him less responsible, and most importantly, something she has never seen, he demonstrates capacity for guilt. He loves her enough to feel bad about hurting her. She's never had that before. Hurting has simply been an act to revoke love as purposeful punishment and the people who do it have stood by and repeated those actions. She then sees too that they are in need of her help. She now knows two things: Hopper does love her. Her powers make Mike love her. She returns - going to Will's house, not Mike's or home, with intention to save the day, not reunite. It seems from her surprised look that she didn't know Mike would be there, so we can also assume the case for Hopper, but likely only the Byers. She has returned to save the day, as is her value. After her reunions, she ignores Max. Because Max, to her, is solely a threat, as only one person can win Mike's attention and if Max is in her life, there's a risk that it isn't her, for which, as we've established, the stakes would be very high. Learning that Hopper's love for her is unconditional is not the same as learning that she is unconditionally lovable. To segue, though, Hopper apologizing in the car cements that fact for her in her relationship with Hopper: "I guess we broke our rule" - that making mistakes is okay and not a threat to her safety.

In season 3, however, she starts out being neutral about Max but not close. They seem to not interact much and just share a physical space together, as Max seems intimidated when El first approaches her one on one. The only reason for which is to regain a man's attention. El is happy at the start of the season because she sees Mike every day and is keeping his focus and has been consistently "every day for six months" as Hopper references. She feels that his attention is a secure thing. So when she loses it unexplained, she is very surprised and confused. The remaining stakes in this for her are very clear by the fact that she seeks advice from someone she dislikes after under one day of not having his attention. She goes to Max for advice on how to regain his attention. Max is also no longer a threat to her as she knows now Max is not pursuing Mike's attention. Max says she needs to relax for a day because giving him a taste of his own medicine will get him to understand and come back. And she suggests that if he doesn't act properly in response, she dump him. This IS huge for El when she follows through. It is an impulse she would have been very averse to before having the support of Max. She is starting to value women's attention more. But it is also true that it was merely an impulse. That night, she needs comfort when she's reminded that they're broken up (this is because she misses him, yes, but no action or emotion is untouched by trauma responses as an abuse survivor). Max tells her to not worry because he'll come crawling back any moment begging for her to come back. This is nice to her because it validates the healing idea she learned from Hopper last season: that she is missed and people who hurt her feel independent guilt. Though the breakup is big for her, we know it doesn't solve everything from her persistent symptoms in season 4. Because though progress, every step of the breakup so far is a tactic. It is an empty threat, just like Max makes to Lucas, to get Mike back. At this point, she has never truly believed that they will stay broken up. Which is also why a huge step in the season is her ANGER towards him when she sees that he is remorseless and expects HER to come back to HIM. She wants his attention, and it's better than nothing that he still wants hers, but she now has Hopper as a healthy comparison to raise her expectations. Her expectations have been raised to expect remorse for hurting her(huge!). So when he does come "crawling back" SHE DOESN'T LET HIM. Again, HUGE FOR HER! She even argues that maybe Hopper was right in suggesting they spend time apart. Of course, this too, is said in anger and not commitment, as many such things are in life. Because he did not apologize in earnest, he shifted blame to Hopper. He 'explained', but he did not apologize. We know it is said in anger not follow through because in the very next episode he offers an olive branch, subtly implying regret for his previous comment by making fun of himself for it, and she immediately looks at him with interest again, showing she never genuinely stopped wanting to be together. She is not ready to forego his approval, but is still major progress for her hold out on it until her standards are met and he has yet to fully apologize. She then overhears him say he loves her which steps EVERYTHING up and I would argue actually causes major regression for her. It is the classic moment of regression: there is something she has been slowly learning not to chase after...and she gets it. She got the thing she craved. But she still holds onto her growth in holding out for that apology that she gets in the mini-mart the following episode. She has communicated with him her needs - trust - and received an apology. In the apology, though, he attempted to tell her he loved her but they were interrupted - she knows this, she heard the attempt, but it seems that he intends to follow up himself at the next opportunity, then everything gets complicated, so she lets him initiate like he seems to want to on his own time.

(had to paragraph break bc tumblr gave me a warning)Then, she loses the only man in her life who she has confirmed unconditional love from. She no longer has that to return to. It's the last day and she's leaving without having Mike as her boyfriend again. Not previously mentioned, but that is also pertinent because in season 2, she was shown learning English from movies that idolize romantic love about all - even using the name Michael. She lacks her father's attention now and doesn't want to leave without Mike's to hold onto in her shift to complete unfamiliarity, so she gives him one last chance to do it himself, then decides to initiate on her own and tell him she loves him. She, naturally based on what she overheard, assumes that nerves are the only reason he hasn't said it/gotten back together, so this will solve them. To her, she has his attention again.

Pre-season 4, they have been writing consistent letters and are implied to talk on walkies when Mike has access to Dustin's radio, as El has a walkie in her room with her Mike-things. When it comes to letters, there is a maximum amount of attention you can get or give and she is getting it...almost. She's started to notice the pattern that, though she pointedly signs her letters "love" every time, he always signs "from". In retrospect, she realizes that the his last attempt to tell her he loves her was mere hours before it was first discovered that she lost her powers. She isn't the hero to him anymore, so, just she felt in season, she has stopped being lovable. Although in season 1, the tone was different. In season 1, it was "I can make myself lovable with my powers! I can get love I haven't had before!", but now it's "I have the ability to lose that love". Despite her personal efforts, losing her powers makes her incapable of maintaining his love, which she still believes she must do. She is also being bullied. Not only has she lost her powers, but she is failing socially. She still has Mike's attention, but like in season 2, though for different reasons, she fears that it is waning. She lies to him in the letters to maintain it and when he arrives, plans the entire day with the sole intention of winning him back/convincing him to love her, to the point of completely excluding Will from it: "I want today to just be about you and me". Because in this case, Will, too, is capable of stealing his attention from her, though she wouldn't blame him the way she did Max, she still protects herself from it. Because she believes that if he finds out, she will lose the last bit of his attention she had and he will discard her. Which is also why, even after being caught clear and red-handed, still she asks Angela to lie for her. Because this is still high stakes for her. We then see a direct confirmation when Mike is directly paralleled to Brenner in her flashback. But this is not the first time he is paralleled to Brenner. Mike has been a representation for the stakes with which she views male attention the entire series - which is why only Mike and Hopper are directly paralleled to Brenner, a Brenner parallel means high stakes attention - season 4 is just the first time we're seeing her when she's actually failed to attain it and can no longer assume she would have been fine. She had started to believe that she was lovable to him in season 3 as he expressed missing her when they broke up, but she now views her powers as the only thread causing that. He views her as "incredible", not lovable. Everything he 'loves' her for, she no longer is. And as Mike's cut line describes, she somewhat gives up here. But not in an independent way. In a resigned way. Not "I don't need your love", but "if you can't love me it's because no one can". So she leaves. She leaves to become lovable again.

And when she sees the first man to ever teach her she was worthless, she runs at first - of course, he represents danger on a base level. But then he tells her he is confident he can, to her mental translation, make her lovable again, and she goes with him willingly. Because at the end of the day, too, every moment spent trying to convince any man to love her was just an attempt to relive and rewrite her relationship with Brenner to convince him to. That opportunity is in front of her again, and she can't pass it up.

Because none of this was about Mike. And none of it was about Hopper. And none of it was about Max. It was about Brenner and her siblings. She has spent the entire series fighting for male attention and seeing others as competition for it without knowing why. Season 4 is about her learning way. In season 4, she uncovers and processes the memories that founded her belief that love must be repeatedly earned and maintained and the consequences for it not being are abuse and death. Now that she can point to the exact memories that taught uniquely her that, it no longer looks like a fact of life. And she can let it go. She can let him go.

She has someone to blame now. "I came her to find out if I was the monster. But now I know. It is not me. It is you." She has someone to blame.

It isn't her fault for failing to earn his love. Because love is not be earned. "Papa does not tell the truth". That was a lie he told her to get away with it. She has someone to blame now. Which also means she has someone to let go.

She's free. She reunites with Mike and he is just Mike to her. He is no longer a mirage of her abuser abandoning her over and over again. Will is just Will. He is not someone she'll be locked in a cage for not being able to be.

So when she said she was worried Brenner was right about it being soon, it is guilt towards Max only. Hypotheticals she could have done differently. But she says that to Mike as just Mike. And she goes to her room and she sees her dad as just her dad. And her mom isn't competing for her dad and her best friend isn't competing for her boyfriend and neither is her brother. Because she doesn't need it anymore. That's what not needing it is.

Because she never need Mike to love her. She needed Papa to love her. She doesn't need that anymore, so Mike is what he always was. Not needed, but wanted. She never needed Mike. So not needing him now is good thing. It means he's just Mike to her <3.

[0aurelion-sol0]

My Arcane Season 2 criticisms:

Things I actually disliked:

How the Hextech plot turned out, I though it was very badly executed especially in terms of Viktor's evolution through the whole show. Lack of proper explanation about what was actually happening, unnecessary and horribly executed twist at the end, clumsy established rules and dissapointing payoff for anyone involved in this plotline. Final battle was cool and I like the Commune's designs but dear god, was this storyline confusing...

Ekko's community plus the tree's state at the end of the show. You really couldn't put a 15 seconds shot of the community being well and tree being ok ?! Seriously I know you had to make choices given it's animation but come on now... It was like one of the main driving points to stop Hextech for him & one of the safe haven of Zaun & Piltover and it's completely shoved to the side but no, we have to see minutes of Loris, Steb and Sky being there just being a representation of our characters' inner conflicts as if them doing it and/or saying it out loud wasn't enough...

Ekko convincing Jinx to not kill herself by telling her what he experienced, Jinx rallying the undercity to protect Piltover & Zaun from Noxus & Viktor and a proper conclusion to Sevika's story regarding all of this. WHAT THE HELL ?! We needed to see this, this is so important & it's completely ignored. IN WHAT world, did anyone think cutting this was a good idea ?! We needed to get a proper closure & development about Ekko & Jinx's relationship which was already thin to begin with. We needed to see Sevika affirm what she truly thought about Jinx and a moment about Isha regarding the two of them even if Sevika wasn't super close to the kid, we needed to see Sevika get to see the Undercity finally rallied together after spending the ENTIRETY of the show trying to do that and see how that whole thing came about for them to fight with Piltover. It is ridiculous to that me that this was cut... It was so important!

Things I didn't necessarily dislike but I have mixed feelings about:

Jayce not getting a single scene with his mom. I know she was there at the end, in the crowd, mourning him but come on, not even one scene with her before the end where she could allow him a form of reflection and comfort before putting his life in danger or after, I don't know... DISSAPEARING FOR WEEKS IF NOT MONTHS! I know you could interpret it as Jayce being so lost on his mission that he forgets about her and her importance but she was one of the reasons they ended up in Piltover in the first place. It's of course not as vital to the story but it could have provided some breathing in this fast-paced season.

Vi's character arc this season. While there are some part that I like, I feel like it wasn't explored as deeply & as fully as it could have been. The foundations are there but aspects like her relationship with Vander, violence and Zaun could have been pushed far more than they were in this season.

Caitlyn's arc and how the most important bit happened off-screen, again, just like with Vi, the parts it would have been better to see or being more developped weren't as much as they could've been. I am not of the conclusion she didn't face any consequences or was let go by the narrative of the things she did, but her coming to terms with her actions happened mostly off-screen and that is a shame because it was one of the more interesting parts of Season 2.

Singed's characterization. Now I understand why he was developed the way he is, in terms of what he represents for Caitlyn and for the show, but I don't think it was as compelling to me to have him be yet another parallel for the themes of the show or being a reminder of them was completely necessary for me. We got it the other times, I understand why, it had it's purpose; I just prefer how evil Singed was in the original lore & the story he had back then. I understand humanizing antagonists & reinforcing the theme of your story but sometimes it's nice having an element that's a bit of an outlier and explore other themes to give some variety to the story.

[autistichalsin]

I know a lot of people find it boring how much Halsin talks about nature, and I do get it- it is repetitive. However, I also find that if you break some of his statements down into what he's implying, you end up with something a lot more interesting. (ESPECIALLY because a lot of these support the "Halsin is autistic" interpretation.)

Take, for example, Halsin talking about his place in the world, specifically relating to relationships:

Halsin: I still have hot blood in my veins. Nature gifted us our desires, and the means to act on them. But we muddied its beautiful simplicity with rules, social strictures... clothes. So, I am not bound to nature. I am unbound in nature.

Halsin: Relationship? Such terms belong to civilisation - a little unfamiliar to my lips. You know what we share is more fluid, more founded in the principles of nature.

Implications: Halsin finds society too complicated. He enjoys nature because its rules are simpler and more sensical; rather than social rules and structures that are beyond him (especially when you take into account the autistic Halsin interpretation), he feels comforted by nature, which is complex in a way that he understands.

There's also Halsin's friendship with Thaniel.

Halsin: I had a friend when I was young, long ago. He played with me in the forests where I grew up... but eventually, I realised no one else had heard of him. It was Thaniel, of course. Nature was my very first friend. I get older, but he hasn't changed a day. I knew then that I had to be more than a companion to him. I had to be a protector.

Implications: Nature, by being Halsin's first friend, has always been what Halsin is comforted by. It has been a steady and comforting presence for him, something he can rely in, in contrast to other people who are unpredictable. Nature is consistent and comforting for him.

Halsin, infamously, is not happy in the city of Baldur's Gate.

Halsin: Too much noise, too many lanterns kept burning... nature's rhythm is ignored here.

Implications: Halsin is overstimulated easily by excessive noise and other sensory inputs. Nature provides him somewhere quiet.

Halsin: I wish... I wish there was a better way. I wish everyone could see the sun, have a full belly, and know nature as a friend. There is a balance that is yet to be found.

Implications: Again, Halsin sees nature- not just Thaniel, but all of nature- as a friend. A source of comfort and companionship.

Halsin: I think on [politics and high art] also. But nothing matches the splendour of an ancient tree.

Implications: Halsin loves the beauty of the natural world as much as anything else. Rather than art or music (which he can appreciate), what he prefers is something that grew rather than being made.

Halsin: I am... less anxious to find myself in a city. So removed from nature's power - I do not know how I will fare.

Implications: Not only does Halsin prefer not to be in the city, but he is actually, to some extent, frightened of it (likely due to how overstimulating it is for him), in contrast with his feeling of being right at home in nature.

There's other things to note as well. If a Dark Urge player embraces Bhaal and then tells Halsin to bow, Halsin has this to say:

Halsin: Nature bows to none. It will fight on and survive, no matter what madness your god has inspired you to undertake.

Implications: Halsin views nature as strength, and admires that very much. He draws a lot of his tougher qualities from this aspect of the natural world.

Or a line where Wyll gently points out that he talks about nature a lot:

Halsin: When you care about something deeply enough, it consumes every thought and word.

Implications: Halsin isn't thinking of little else besides nature because he's "boring"; it's because it's important to him. (A special interest, one might say.) And when something is deeply important to a person, they think of everything else in relation to that thing; think of a sports fan who constantly uses sports metaphors to understand the world around them.

There's another party banter with Wyll that is telling when combined with what he has to say about the city, too.

Halsin: It is most unfair to pour such scorn on rats - they have their place in nature, same as you or I. 

Halsin: I thought cities were supposed to welcome folk of all walks of life. Clearly I was mistaken.

Implications: Halsin feels everyone has a place in the natural world, yet that the city shuns those it deems different. As someone who has struggled greatly with fitting in/finding a place he "belongs", Halsin feels more sympathetic to nature, where all living things belong, than anywhere else.

I think that when you break up Halsin's love of nature into all the little things it implies, it paints a much more interesting picture of him, personally. It also supports the "Halsin is autistic" interpretation, which makes him even MORE interesting.

[justanotherpersonsuniverse]

Hey Cap!! 

Miscellaneous meta PN lore question!

I have some questions about Time Travel! In Panthera, Bunnyx is yet to show up, I presume because her first canon appearance is in season 3, however I’m curious about what thoughts you have regarding the Rabbit Miraculous and time travel in the series in general :3

Time travel always has a lot of different interpretations and it’s one of those things that can be an absolute pain in the ass to plan for. Especially cause as soon as you open up the ‘time travel is possible’ can of worms it either a) has to be addressed why the big bad evil guy wasn’t just… stopped before they could begin or b) have some sort of rules about time travel that generally change depending on what is convenient for the plot (or secret third option c) use suspension of disbelief because the story wouldn’t have happened if someone had went and fixed everything).

Sorry, I think about time travel a lot. A version of time travel is a main component of my original fantasy story so this is actually a hugely pared down prelude to what I wanted to write. 

Anyway! I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on how you're going to handle the fact that it, well, exists. It feels like the sort of thing you wouldn’t shy away from, especially because of all the lovely existential dread that could come from having access to that power, though it would come in different flavours depending on how you choose how time travel works. (Eg. You can’t change the past but you can partake in it, it's just that this was always what happened but the time traveller is the last one to experience that moment. Or you can change the past but would it be ethical or right? etc.).

Obviously, Time Breaker could (and did!) time travel, but the mechanics of that were just totally different so it's a different ball game. Though I did like how you wrote Time Breaker and the ramifications of that, I'll get into that for my story observations :3

But… it’s also a total bitch to plan around writing wise, you need, like, a special kind of foreshadowing for it to pay off properly and it's all complicated for no reason so I totally get if it’s a canon aspect you want to mostly ignore. 

oOHOHOHOH HAVE I THOUGHT ABOUT IT <3

Ive thought about it a LOT on why Bunnyx hasn't 'fixed' any of the in universe problems.

I love Alix, so I have great plans to explore how she goes from being Alix- a very emotional character with strong emotional ties and, as Timebreaker showed, the drive to recklessly fix something if she's given the chance to- to Bunnyx, someone who- well... is an enforcer of the future.

I'll keep my cards close, but I will leak some details on how time itself works in this universe though! See;

If this universe is a gated off garden, the many different timelines that co-exist are the singular different plants and flowers growing. Different seeds grow into specific plants.

A tomato seed turns into a tomato, a Chat Noir timeline produces a Chat Noir timeline, and so on. Bunnyx's job is to tend to this garden, keep timelines and their roots from interfering with each other. This means alternate timelines exist.

Becoming Bunnyx means she's not allowed to pick and choose what timelines she wants but is responsible to make sure they end in the ways they're meant to, and if they're not, she will know because they often interfere with other timelines like Weeds.

In minor situations, a timeline will feature a hiccup where a scenario doesn't go exactly how it's meant to or occurred without meaning to, and Bunnyx will either readjust this event to make it work smoothly into the 'canon', ignore it because its harmless, or cut the hiccup entirely so it never happens.

In MAJOR situations, a disrupted and unintended timeline will not only occur and change the direction of a single timeline, it will slowly weed its way into causing the other timelines around it to ONLY END the way the original Anomaly does. That is when the event that caused the anomaly must be cut from the root- before it's infection affects her too.

[sapphoshands]

"We broke every rule we established for the trials and the characters broke every rule given to them but its funny that viewers have different interpretations" not cute actually, Jac. Just bad writing that verges on outright racism by killing off the one Asian character and making the Black character over the top malevolent. Oh and putting the sole (white) man in narrative center. Should've known it was too good to be true.

it is of course extremely déclassé to go into the inbox of someone who is loving a thing and tell them why they should not be loving the thing, but you know, i'm so deep in this show, i'm just like *rubs hands* more time to think about my blorbos! so!

i will do you the courtesy of ignoring your bad faith phrasing to engage with your actual points - and of course, we also have to keep in mind that we're just over halfway through the season, so things may come back in ways we can't yet see. that said, i adore the idea that agatha's punishment in this was to be seen by yet another coven as an object of horror and fear, especially after a few moments where she was seen as a real person. i think that's going to play very strongly into the end of the season and i think it's a very smart bit of writing that plays with the expectations of the characters on screen and the audience watching the show. i got a little seduced by some of the alternate trial theories, ngl, but that is one of the joys of episodic television and i am having a blast watching more of this story unravel.

re racism, i as a white woman am certainly not going to tell anyone how they should receive a story like this. but i feel about alice's death much like i feel about the push for no more dead lesbians, which is that if we erase any sort of peril for any given segment of the population, we are no longer telling full stories about them. speaking for myself, i am a advocate for increased representation of all sorts on screen (and behind the camera), and simple math tells us that having more people of colour on screen means more people of colour will die on screen. so i always ask myself whether the death feels racially motivated, and in this case, to me, it doesn't. we've already lost a white woman to the road and it is important for the show to keep the stakes high. to me, alice's story was gorgeously tragic and a really wonderful parallel to agatha's - you really felt alice, having discovered the depth of her connection to her mother, feeling that lack for agatha. but naturally... you may have a different interpretation.

jen, on the other hand - oh my god, jen, i fucking loved her in this episode. and again you can read her as OTT, although in contrast to agatha i think she's really rather restrained! obviously tropes play differently for Black characters than white, but in the context of the show, in the context of the way the rest of the coven has been portrayed, she fit perfectly. i mean, in jen's trial, agatha tried to sacrifice mrs hart, tried to cheat, tried to literally break out, etc, because she was so determined that her quest was the only thing that mattered to her. i frankly don't blame jen for pulling an agatha and deciding to put herself first, and i don't think the show wants us to blame jen either. totally tracked to me. the retainer moment? exceptional. and alice and lilia were right there with her - it's not like she was the only one pushing this agenda, you know? certainly she wasn't singled out by skin colour.

billy, now... i am not gonna lie. i am a little worried that we're gonna turn this into the billy show. and i do mostly trust jac schaeffer and mary livanos and the whole setup of the fucking show that they won't, that this is about women and witchcraft and queerness and all of my favourite things. but it's a marvel property, right? and we always have to have this fucking fear. but this interview, again, actually made me feel a lot better about that:

obviously this sounds like it was really early in the room and things change throughout the course of development, but it is really reassuring to me that in the early stages of breaking agatha's story, billy... wasn't billy. he was, you know, a sexy lamp. someone else could've done his job. so his innate billyness didn't matter. to me, that suggests that the established arc remains agatha's and billy's just there to prop it up. i'm sure that since he became billy in the writing process, he became more important and elements of his story became part of the narrative and so on, but i expect it was a series of discussions on how to fit him into the story rather than how to rewrite the story to suit him.

i'm just as biased in my defence as you are in your annoyance, so you're welcome to dismiss all of this and grump on with your grumpy self. but i think this is a smart, interesting, nuanced show that hasn't spilled all its secrets yet. and i cannot wait for more. is it wednesday yet?

[lavenderprose]

I have a lot of thoughts and opinions about people calling Izzy homophobic because honestly I can ALMOST see where they're coming from. Izzy Hands experiences internalized homophobia on a level that is almost sickening to comprehend and that much is obvious from the way he talks to Lucius and, to a certain extent, Stede. His 'toxic' masculinity is a symptom of that but I have my own specific headcanons about that which I'll keep to myself at this particular point; I may very well elaborate at a later time. All I'll say here is that I personally headcanon Izzy as being trans, and though I understand that that's purely a headcanon, it does add some layers to his character.

That being said, I feel like Izzy is operating from a place of "There is ONE safe way to be a man who has sex with men." It's the one he's learned and has been obeying the rules of for probably his whole life. More than likely he's seen the consequences of...not doing it that way. This is something about him that I feel people tend to overlook, especially those who already have bad faith interpretations of his character. They like to use the piracy = queerness metaphor where 'traditional' (Izzy's) piracy is compulsory heterosexuality and the Revenge's (Stede's) piracy is glorious queer freedom, but I don't really agree with that. In this show, piracy is piracy and queerness is queerness. You don't need a metaphor for something that's explicit in the narration.

Izzy (And maybe even Ed, though I hesitate more with this interpretation for him) is a gay (Possibly trans, if you wish) man who thinks he knows exactly how you're supposed to live in order to Survive Being Queer. There are many real life people like him who are good and valued members of our community, but who balk at our current openness because it seems dangerous to them. Like, actively life-threatening. And yeah he's mean about it and he doesn't necessarily need to be. But you'd probably be a little mean if everyone around you was telling you to ignore every layer of protection you've ever wrapped around yourself because you don't need that anymore! It's silly and reductive to think that way! Get with the times!

And that's not to say that either party is in the wrong. That's kind of the whole point; Izzy struggles with the Revenge crew so much because from his point of view, his reasoning and fears are very valid, while Lucius and Stede et al. feel that they are reductive and old-fashioned, and neither side of the debate is inherently wrong in feeling that way.

While I don't think that this is necessarily the intended motivation for Izzy as a character (Honestly, where the writers are concerned, I don't think any of this is That Deep) it's definitely an interpretation that I feel helps to explain his motivations and the choices he makes in the show, if you're so inclined to view him as anything other than a villain. He's a queer elder who hasn't learned yet that he can maybe just a little bit STOP white-knuckling the performative masculinity that he's been clinging to to keep himself safe.

[annofthearchives]

buffalo springfield’s “i am a child” through the eyes of romantic power imbalances

Buffalo Springfield was a band founded in 1966 by (most notably) Neil Young and Stephen Stills, among several others. most known for their hit song "for what it's worth," the band messes around in folk, country, psych. rock, and sometimes even jazz. their record last time around released in july of 1968 is essentially a compilation of previous records, as most members of the band had moved onto other projects at the time. the song "i am a child" is a Neil Young tune, one he continued to perform for the rest of his career.

the song opens with a classic Neil Young harmonica solo, accompanied by a guitar, bass, and drum. the chord progression is simple, the guitar has a simple strumming pattern, the bass repeats an "oom-pah" V-I bassline, and the drum hits are simple. overall, the song is easy to listen to. it seems to be a finished version to Young's unreleased song "the rent is always due" - a song that details the mental change that comes from transitioning into adulthood. the lyrics describe a child talking to an older male figure - "You hold my hand, rough up my hair / It's lots of fun to have you there," for one example.

however, one cannot ignore the somber, if not morose, delivery of Young's lyrics. in the (possible) demo "the rent is always due," Young's delivery is uplifting, especially towards the end of stanzas. it seems that there's a positivity about adulthood that Young can see. in "i am a child" on the other hand, it's clear that he views the experience of a child as one of power imbalance, maybe pointing to a specific relationship with an elder in his life. Young's relationship with father was uncertain, at best, so this might be a reflection of that relationship. while not meant as the original interpretation, one can also view this song from the perspective of an imbalanced romantic relationship.

regardless of age difference or sex difference, Young's lyrics can apply to the point of view from a less experienced romantic, to a partner possibly taking advantage of them, either mentally, physically, emotionally, etc. the lyric in the opening stanza "You can't conceive of the pleasure in my smile" sums the relationship divide well - one less experienced, more naïve lover compared to an older, more mature, or jaded partner. the next line "You hold my hand, rough up my hair" seems sweet at first but could hold a double entendre - if our interpretation is anyone but a kid, the notion of their hair being 'roughed up' could hold symbolism for some aspect of their lives being roughed up, or messed with. given this interpretation, Young's repetition of the line "It's lots of fun to have you there" at the end of multiple stanzas could also be seen in a sarcastic light.

he goes on to say "You make the rules, you say what's fair," noting that this other person is, to be frank, in charge of the ground that the relationship is built on. for a child/father relationship, this makes sense, although possibly hinting at the frustration that kids might feel to be put under rules they don't quite understand yet. in a romantic interpretation, it's a relatable line for anyone that has gone through an abusive or mentally/emotionally tolling relationship - you may never know what the rules are, and may never feel that the other person is setting fair expectations. later on, Young states "I gave to you, now you give to me," either still awaiting to be given the same care as the person he's talking to, or stating a fact of how the noted relationship works. this works well for our narrative as these types of parasitic relationships rely on one partner giving constantly, always awaiting for their partner to give the same.

lastly, if not the most convincing line for this argument, Young twice repeats "What is the color, when black is burned? / What is the color?" this phrase is said after the simple line "The sky is blue and so is the sea," a statement of fact. in the original meaning of the song, it's something that can be heard as a child just stating fact that they have maybe learned which preambles the question about what color black is once it's burned. in the original interpretation, this line is confusing, as it seems to hint to that morose mood but with no context to what it could mean. in our interpretation, i see it as telling the state of the relationship - what IS the color when black is burned? well, it can't get darker, so it stays stagnant, in the darkest it could be. for a relationship, this could be hitting rock bottom with nowhere to go.

all that being said, i'd also like to end with connecting the lyrics and meaning to an entirely unrelated story - Lolita (1955) by Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov's 1955 novel tells the tale of a french literature professor, Humbert, who falls in love, kidnaps, and takes advantage of a 12 year old girl, Dolores Haze. actor Brian Cox, who played Humbert in a 2009 production of the movie describes the novel as "Lolita as a memory," insinuating (like others have said) that the book never gives us an insight into Dolores' actual thoughts, rather just Humbert's narrative telling of her personality. Humbert, in this way is more of an unreliable narrator than anything else - Brian Cox describes it best when he states that the novel would be best told in theater as a solo monologue, rather than a play with multiple characters. from this perspective, applying the solo narrative approach that Nabokov gives Humbert, we can approach Young's song from the 'perspective' of Dolores. not her thoughts exactly, rather the thoughts that Humbert's idealized retelling of the tale might give her. a childlike perspective on an imbalanced relationship whose faults might not even be known to the voice in the lyrics. for those who are familiar with the story, you can see how the lyrics fit.

for what its worth, its a nice simple song with an originally simple meaning. trust the musicologist to give a simple song an unnecessarily complex meaning.

*this is not a claim that the lyrics are directly related to anything i've stated, - just all food for thought.*

similar songs (by vibe):

4+20 - crosby, stills & nash

sweet wanomi - bill withers

everydays (live) - buffalo springfield

thorn tree in the garden - derek & the dominos

bluebird - paul mccartney, wings

treetop flyer (demo) - stephen stills

river man - nick drake

similar songs (by theme discussed):

probably just anything by lana del ray

[ratatouilleborg]

Hello. I saw your post and I wanted to send my big three.

Libra Sun 10th house

Leo moon 8th house

Sagittarius rising

Thank you. Feedback will be given. I also wanted to know if we are able to send in more placements?

LIBRA SUN 10 LEO MOON 8 SAG RISING

if anyone wants to send big 3 for a description read based on my interpretations feel free!! 💌

warning;  i wrote a heck of a lot for this lol. i think bc i have a lot of friends with similar placements and especially libra.  (i have libra placements haha)  so sorry for the long read! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i’ve known a lot of libra suns, and actually , they give “cool girl” vibes. 

level headed and fairness is common, but they play it cool. bc it’s air sign, they don’t get emotional. libra naturally remains calm about things, their emotions. 

decision making can be difficult, it’s not like an internal conflict, more like “i don’t want to be the one to make the decision so i make no decision” kinda takes from virgo in wanting the correct choice, except they’re not concerned with right or wrong, more like taking responsibility if their decision goes wrong.

i like this theory i found somewhere-don’t remember from where but- each sign takes a trait of their previous sign in the zodiac order. it’s supposedly an “elevated” version of the previous sign. 

so take that into consideration, libra will take some of virgo traits but improved. 

take virgos perfectionism, subtract relentlessness, keep the need for precise decision making- take away emotional distress. 

libra sun in 10th no matter what the sign, 10th house sun will strive to stand out. 

not necessarily like sun/leo. as they want attention, it takes on capricorns ambition. 

10th house just needs to be on top. 

they do not feel at ease unless they are achieving at something. (anything) 

10th house suns are competitive!!! i have this placement too (in placidus house chart)

and i hate to lose. i love power in the weirdest ways. i think its because sun is representative of our ego. 

libra is elegant, sweet veil. 10th house is power. 

the combination is quite admirable i think! 

it’s actually inspiring to me. i personally like pretty things, i like how libra thinks. 

libra ruled by venus is just effortless pretty! 

10th house makes the libra a GREAT leader. 

leo moon 8th house sounds scary😃

one of my best friends is leo moon, she is the life of the party. 

i admire their strength their fucking fire!!! 

no bounds, absolutely does not hold back. so lively, so expressive. 

the 8th house is a conundrum come to think of it! 

lively leo moon, in 8th house is a bit uncomfortable. it’s kinda jarring. 

not familiar for leo, especially bc it’s in the house of scorpio, which squares the sign. 

hmm this feels to me like leo moon 8 is even more strong, even more powerful. 

it seems to create an unmoving person. 

yes, stubborn, but like remains still? 

i wanna say stubborn but it’s not so stark as that, more just a powerful force that can’t be budged. 

you stand on business! i think this adds to your leader power! 

emotions in 8th house is so tragic. moon is our mother, and the 8th house suggests unstableness in upbringing. 

from how you perceived your mother, or environments growing up, or your own experiences. 

you more than likely experienced a LOT. growing up. 

i feel for all 8th house moons😓

aside from upbringing, the present experiences you endure with 8th house moon; you’re perceived as an anomaly. 

the pluto energy will always draw people in! 

sometimes people flock to you, or they secretly envy you. 

it’s because they see a depth to you. 

what people notice in others, sometimes they think they lack in themselves. that’s why it feels like they’re out for you. 

but they are just insecure, they’ll find their own path… ? when? who cares about them. 

it’s their life, they find it , they don’t. not your problem!!! 

you keep it pushing and you ignore lame haters!!😒💅

sag rising !!! i love this placement!!! 

while i don’t know anyone with it, a close friend of mine is sag moon! 

she inspires me bc she’s so spontaneous and can just shed off any negativity and hardships. 

i admire how curious you guys are!! like the sister sign gemini!

i think sag rising ppl seem like they don’t wanna be contained ever !! they like going at their pace and they love new things. 

they’re open minded people, pretty go with the flow. i think they make great company🥺

maybe not the most emotionally invested but definitely there for you, will do their best to cheer you up. 

jupiter is planet of expansion so they’re always looking for more. in their daily lives and this placement is about finding what makes you happy or content. they will leave something if it is NOT working for them. 

kinda like aries, goes for what they want (fire signs). 

they’re usually funny and can be loud. but they’re honestly a joy to be around imo. 

i’m sure i’ve met some but can’t confirm. just can guess based on their presence and vibe they give.

all together i think these placements make a strong confident person. 

the 8th house might dwell on things, but besides that I think you're still powerful.

the style sense i get from these placements is tomboy/cool girl. 

either masculine or feminine, it gives off chill cool vibes. 

-------------------

those are my thoughts from this !!! 

you can send more placements yea! i’ll try my best to speak on them. i am a beginner so bare with me if im dead wrong lol just lmk correct me! i’d love to learn🫶🩷

[distant-wcrlds]

//Actually, while I'm at it, I'm going to post some of my favorite headcanons for each active muse to start things off.

Hawke:

He doesn't like to kill. It's never his immediate goal, and he only does so when he sees no other option. Killing the Arishok, who he had seen as a friend of sorts, was only done because he was backed into a corner, and it avoided potentially even more deaths being on his head. Still, he hated himself for it, and he hated that statue even more. This is also part of why Anders's choice to involve him in gathering those ingredients made him feel more deeply betrayed and why he nearly spiraled out in panic at Sebastian's ultimatum. He didn't want to kill anyone, but especially not a (former?) friend, and especially not the man he owed his brother's life to...

Lavellan:

This is probably going to be the most lighthearted one here, and I'm not sure if I already mentioned it on his individual blog, but I just want everyone to know or remember that this poor amnesiac little elf didn't even know his own name when he woke up. Unfortunately, due to the legend now surrounding him, everyone else addressed him as if they knew him, and for a brief period of time, he had to deal with the disappointment and horror of thinking his name might be "Harold".

Raven:

Less of a headcanon than legitimately a way you can interpret the canon events of the show, but you know the whole Trigon arc? Raven did not think she would survive. She did not think her friends would find a way to defeat her father and undo his destruction of Earth. She literally sacrificed herself and the rest of the world to protect the only real family she'd ever had. And given that she wasn't even sure if the protection she'd placed on them would work, at the very least, she wanted to protect herself from being able to experience their deaths.

Leia:

So, this was never intended and was actually a recent discovery, but I do pride myself on doing more research than the CW writers when it comes to scientific plausibility (no "absolute heat" gun, that struggles to even melt metal doors btw, here). Anyway, while researching fire, heat, motion, density, and calories, I had the startling realization, that in order for Leia's powers to plausibly work without killing her, she'd need new organ structures that make her no longer completely human, she might be somewhat immortal (probably not invulnerable, though), and if she ever reached real absolute heat, she'd create a black hole, create a new universe, and/or break the laws of physics as we know them. She doesn't realize any of this, and she probably won't handle it well if she learns about it, but that's science for you! ✌️

Bruce:

So, there's one kinda fucked up thing in Bruce's past that almost nobody knows about, and that's the fact that he almost killed Joe Chill before he became Batman. When he didn't go through with it, he confided in exactly one person (Alfred by default, but potentially Harvey in threads where they were childhood friends). What nobody but Bruce knows (now that Joe Chill's dead), is that when Jason died, and Bruce was faced with the first murder of a direct family member since his parents, he decided to ask the man who helped create his no-kill rule what he should do about wanting nothing more than to break it. There's a lot more to this, but the short version is that Joe kind of avoided answering but strongly pointed Bruce towards not going through with it by asking how Jason would feel, and Bruce planned to ignore that, but while beating the Joker to death, he couldn't stop thinking about that question and restrained himself from going through with it for the sake of not tainting Jason's memory. Needless to say, the whole Red Hood thing had him feeling extra fucked up.

[sapphiewritesstuff]

Dude I need a hardcore yandere Namor x reader!

Where your Riri’s friend and specialize in chemistry and biology so you know how to make different materials for her and even make money off the side with selling your stuff to the government. And Namor definitely wants to kill you like the scientist but after finally seeing you in person has a change of heart, his mind convincing him it’ll be a waste on someone so intelligent to die, especially someone so beautiful- Namor then rizzes you up enough to manipulate you into staying with him after the war

(Extra points for tension and possessive)

love your work please drink more water 💧❤️❤️❤️

Hi!! Thank you for the request and I’m really really glad you like my work, thank you for supporting me <33 I will try my best with this ask, as I usually don’t write hardcore Yandere, so if it’s not what you expect I’m sorry, but I am a soft girl at heart and Namor is my bby girl <33

Warnings: GN! Reader, Yandere, Violence, manipulation, kidnapping, Namor is dark but not darker than he is in the movie, isolation, punishments, murder, not proofread.

-You were kidnapped along with Shuri and Riri, knocked unconscious by Namora and taken to Talokan.

-Namor takes an almost immediate interest in you, wanting to talk to you and learn more about you. At first, he tries to excuse it as trying to get closer to the enemy, even though he doesn’t treat Riri the same way, but later learns to accept that he thinks that you’re beautiful.

-He accepts the fact that you're a genius, your inventions and experiments are like none other, and it intrigues him. Talokan could use someone like you, it would be a waste to kill you.

-The more time he spends with you, the more infatuated he becomes. Everything about you is perfect, from your brain to the way you act to the way you look, he needs you as his own.

-You plead with him to let Riri and Shuri go, but never beg for your own freedom, and Namor respects how selfless you are.

-Nakia soon comes to rescue the three of you, but as Namor started keeping you in his private hut, she was unable to take you back to the surface.

-You told yourself that they would come back for you, that they were just planning their next move, but days turned into weeks, and nobody ever came.

-Namor took pity on you, he hated seeing such a beautiful person be ruined by the surface dwellers, but he knew that he could use this to his advantage.

-One day, he sat down beside you, taking your face into his hands, and very firmly, yet gently, told you words that you'll never forget.

-"They're not coming for you, my love."

-He 'takes care' of the Wakandans soon after. (Interpret that as you will, if Wakanda and Talokan become allies he convinces them that you're in Talokan willingly, you're too afraid to say differently.)

-Life with Namor isn't spent as a captive, if you can overlook not being allowed to leave Talokan, he treats you like royalty (which you are, he has already made you the other ruler of Talokan through marriage). His touches are soft, and he feeds you only the freshest of fruits.

-Namor has a temper, there is no denying that, many poor servants have been subject to his yelling and wrath after disrespecting him or you.

-Despite this, he never lays a finger on you.

-Punishments? He doesn't like hurting you, his little scientist, but he knows that if he doesn't teach you, you'll stray away.

-He isolates you. You have been down in Talokan for god knows how long, with Namor being your only interaction, as much as you hate to admit it, it's nice having someone to keep you sane. Namor knows this, and uses it to his advantage. Whenever you act up or break one of his rules, he'll ignore you until you're begging for him to look at you again.

-He also makes you watch as he guts some innocent who 'wronged' you in his eyes. Sometimes it's an act of love ('look at what I would do for you!'), other times it's a punishment ('this is what happens to people you get too close to, it's your fault, stay by my side and nobody will have to suffer')

-You'll never see the surface again, he knows that the government will just come after you, he must keep you here to protect you and his kingdom. He's doing this for you!

-If you ever try to escape, god help you.

[demon-of-the-ancient-world]

Really trying to get the vibes of the messy messy Paul/Irulan dynamic that lives in my fic and it's hard because we really don't see all too much of their actual relationship dynamic in the books? They're almost never together. All we really know is Irulan is kind of a disaster, Paul pretty much ignores her, she reeeeeally wants him assassinated but also obsessively writes down everything he says. There's some real interesting nuggets in there though, especially combined with how their characters have been shown so far in the movies.

ramblings under the cut:

Because while Irulan still is very much plotting against Paul, 1) the specific Thing I'm working on partly takes place immediately after Part 2 i.e. a long time before that so one of the things I'm working on is figuring out how their relationship evolves over that time and 2) what fascinates me about their relationship is that in a lot of ways it's an inverse of Paul and movie!Chani's. Both women are very much Not Happy with him, but their reasons are reversed. Chani knew him, loved him, and by the end of the film has been deeply betrayed by him on a personal level. For sure they end as political enemies as well, but the main source of strife between them is emotional.

And then Irulan is almost exactly the opposite. She has presumably never met Paul and knows little about him, but (at least in my version/interpretation) is somewhat fascinated by the idea of what he is now. And contrary to Chani, her reasons for conflict with him are about 90% political. Sure, he disposed her father, but I think Irulan - unlike Paul at the beginning and by extension Leto - understands how shaky the rule of a royal family really is and clearly sees the behind the scenes workings of all that it takes to keep that kind of rule in place. Her father killed his, and now he is taking revenge. Of course that results in some level of emotional baggage, but I think she gets it in a way. She's analytical and calculating, and sees this more as a political move on his part than a personal one. He's a threat to her status, to the Imperium as she knows it, but these threats are the sort she would be used to dealing with as an emperor's daughter, albeit on a lesser scale than what he brings.

So on one hand we have Chani's highly-emotional-but-wrapped-up-in-political-views conflict with Paul, and on the other we've got Irulan's emotionally-distant-but-based-in-large-scale-political-motions conflict with him. It's a very different vibe.

I'm also trying to sort out what will hopefully end up being some VERY messy complicated Feelings on her part. There's a whole spectrum of like:

"Who does this kid think he is???"

"...he kind of scares me"

".......he kind of scares me and I hate that a part of me is kind of into it"

"this BITCH took my dad's throne that could've been mine maybe if the patriarchy didn't exist how DARE he you little shit you won't get away with this istg I'm going to slit your throat --"

"wait ok if things weren't so fucked up you'd actually be a crazy interesting person hold still so I can put your brain in a test tube you weirdo"

"genuinely kind of wish I was just loved. No not by my husband ugh buuuut it's a shame our marriage sucks ass can't he just Be Nice"

"look how hard I'm manipulating him I'm such a girlboss he thinks he's won but I'm manipulating him soooo hard right now good job me"

"...this little shit doesn't scare me"