#essay liveblogging

[skyeventide]

— Tolkien, Augustinian Theodicy, and 'Lovecraftian' Evil, Perry Neil Harrison

[diabeticgirl4]

it's such a quick subtle moment, but I really appreciated the teamwork of grog having percy land on him in their fall (+supporting him w his fist!) so he wouldn't have to slow down in his chase for ripley

[incesthemes]

it's so great that the pilot episode of supernatural features a monster born out of anguish toward her husband's infidelity. and even greater that sam is the one targeted by her—implying then that sam has been unfaithful.

the show opens with the themes of infidelity and returning home. sam takes the central role in the conflict here and must make a choice to return home.

he stands on the threshold of two homes: family, where he comes from, and stanford, where he's forged a life for himself. his internal conflict is made manifest by the woman in white: like constance, he wants to go home, but he can't. the "home" sam can't return to shifts over the course of the episode. in the beginning, it's the family he can't return to, but by the end of the episode, it's his normal apple-pie life at stanford. these two homes are embodied by jess and dean, who both want him to come back to them.

the home distorts and melds with the lover as a result: jess literally occupies both spaces, which implies that dean occupies both as well. and then the woman in white attacks sam, targets him for his perceived infidelity, or potential for it. but who is it that he's unfaithful to, then? to jess, because he ran off with his brother? or to dean, because he abandoned him for jess?

but sam hasn't been unfaithful yet—he hasn't made his decision, hasn't chosen which home he'll return to. when the woman in white can't leave the impala, he realizes that she's scared to go home. it's a turning point in the literal plot and for sam's internal conflict. he voices his fear of returning home. this as a result implicates which "home" he will inevitably return to.

it's immediately after this realization that constance attacks him. he hasn't been unfaithful—yet. perhaps constance recognizes that sam's perception of home is shifting here, that "home" is no longer jess and has once again become dean. he's on the precipice of infidelity, and the ghost has seen the ending: "you will be."

sam drives the impala, the car he was raised in, the car he has called home, into constance's house and saves the day.

after this, sam becomes reluctant to go back to stanford. his surety from the beginning of the episode has become hesitant as he struggles to choose between his two homes. his home has shifted over the weekend, and it's only his sense of obligation that seems to win out at this point.

the woman in white's prophecy is finally fulfilled when sam adopts the revenge quest of his father. he chooses his home: dean. implicitly, this answers the question of who, exactly, sam was unfaithful toward. he leaves jess alone, vulnerable, and open to attack by running off on a weekend tryst with his brother. sam is the unfaithful husband, dean is the temptress, and jess is the dead wife haunting the next five episodes of sam's life. sam chooses dean, his home and his lover.

[kadextra]

q!Bagi’s analysis of q!Bad’s ability to keep secrets

THANK YOU BAGI. YET AGAIN SHE UNDERSTANDS!!!

[daincrediblegg]

“Language in its highest expression is musical” HE READ THE REQUIRED READING!!!!

[sharptoothed-gaze]

Aw!!! Llulah named the turtle áak! (Which is apparently turtle in Mayan)

[qrcane]

Here’s what kind of egg recipes Baghera would prepare if Bolas laid eggs:

Jaiden: Egg soup

Charlie: Gas station egg

Philza: Omelette

Foolish: Beat the whites (I don’t eat eggs idk)

Cellbit: a word in French I didn’t catch but it sounds like fat cock

EDIT: I think @logo-ssspathosss got it- Cellbit’s was croque madame, or something similar :0

[eerna]

I don't think it's misogynistic to clown on SJM and all the writers who follow in her wake, I think it's misogynistic that we don't treat Pierce Brown the exact same way

[ardentpoop]

the way i see this coming every time and it still makes me go "AHH????"

[qsmp-yaoi-island]

I'll say the admins' decision that purgatory 2 is as canon "as the ccs want it to be" is awful and going to cause so many problems.

I think it's perfectly fine to have CCs choose to be out of character for their own lore because then they don't have to commit to rp all the time, but you absolutely cannot do this with the MAIN plot of the story. One of the main reasons is that not everyone will pick and choose what's the same as canon.

A perfect example is just a few days ago, Phil was involved in a main story point of protecting Luffy who escaped. Luffy told Phil that he was looking for Tubbo/Bagi, and of course, because Phil was not informed of anything going on, he told them that they went back to purgatory. Even though Bagi and Tubbo said their purgatory isn't canon. So now imagine Phil is panicking about Luffy not finding the people he's looking for only for tubbo or bagi to show up randomly and confuse the plot even more.

I will say that I don't really care about how the story should be perfectly consistent because I know that's impossible, but it's more about how it's ruining the rp choices of others. Phil did such incredible rp stressing over how everyone left for purgatory again, but for them to show back up without a care or explanation? Undermines all of his emotions and effort into making it feel real.

Another point is how it's effecting the CCs efforts for consistency. Tubbo gets kidnapped IN FRONT OF HIS FRIENDS EYES, but logs in the next day and gets attacked by a code. So now you face the confusion of either believing he was taken and how that effected the characters rp around him, or believe that the code is back as a main story element. You can't believe both because they directly contradict eachother, so you end up wasting a good plot point for another. For example, Fit has canon separation anxiety and seeing tubbo go missing in front of him could have made for good character development.

Baghera was asked to stay off the server for the past few weeks because the admins had lore planned out for her. She expressed that she missed being on and seeing her friends but trusted in the admins that her return would be worth it to wait for. So some characters are allowed back and immediately cause inconsistenties but some people have to wait? It sucks for CCs like Baghera, Slime, and Pol who express how they want to get back on but are committed to their lore. But I also can't entirely blame the people who came back from purg2, even though I do think its a bad rp choice on their part, because the admins specifically told them they could.

Finally, the worst part is how it demeans the story being told. Imagine after purgatory 2 ends all the people coming back could talk about the hell they went through, the people they met, the fate of Cellbit and Baghera. But instead Bad's "1/4" came back and immediately told Pomme he saw Baghera. Isn't that lame? Doesn't that feel like a waste of good exposition? Hell even Foolish was there and just chose to ignore it because, hey, there's no canon reason he should know that!

That's the problem now is that no one knows what to tell eachother anymore, because it will only be inconsistent with what others are saying or doing. The stories is slowly losing its integrity because it's doesn't know what is important to take seriously anymore. Should you worry about the code attacks? I don't know, it happened to someone who wasn't even technically there. Hey I saw this missing person but I'm also supposed to be missing too, so should you even believe me?

It's confusing, it messy, and it will absolutely ruin story lines down the road.

I love the story of the QSMP. It's what drew me into the server and made me love it ever since, and to see it get pushed aside for a competitive event really sucks. With the way the server has been so rp and lore dependent for the last nine months, it just feels so strange for it to not be the focus anymore. Purgatory was fun, Purgatory 2 looks even better, but I would not trade them for the fandom toxicity, story inconsistency, or divided attention on gameplay it created.

I know with time the story will pick up again, people will return, and it'll be well throught out and planned again. I just think it's important to be critical of these decisions now so they don't get repeated in the future. If there ever is a Purgatory 3 or some other event, all I would hope for is that it has a clear and defined plot revelvancy so you don't have to scramble to tie up all the loose ends later.

[muffinrecord]

Oh hey, this is the first really interesting character bit that we learn from here imo.

Okay so yes, as per usual we get the "Iroha doesn't know much about the modern world and what's popular" but her solution to it is interesting to me. Instead of listening to popular music or watching popular shows, her solution is to... read about them?

That's an odd reaction, right?

Maybe the reason is because she's too busy with magical girl stuff, but this isn't a problem that Rena or Momoko seem to have with idol stuff. Iroha's hobby is apparently cooking, it's not like she's got a ton of extracurricular activities going on. For the first bit of main story she's going back and forth on a train from her hometown to Kamihama, but I feel like that doesn't mean she couldn't watch things on her phone as long as she had some headsets. Maybe it's because she doesn't know phones very well...? But if she's so technologically inept that she can't listen to a song on a phone then I have a hard time imagining she could look up information about that same song on that same phone.

I'd also like to note that this isn't her saying she doesn't enjoy popular stuff either. She's not insulting the more popular interests of her peers, she just generally seems left in the dust by it.

With that in mind, I think it's less a time investment and more maybe feeling like an outsider. She doesn't consider listening to the music and watching the shows because maybe she doesn't feel like she'd "get" it even if she did. Maybe she'd watch it and everyone would be talking about something else entirely still.

Looking up what other people say means she's not experiencing what they experience but that she can understand why they're into it and what a conversation is talking about. She can't participate, but she's not left out. But even then, she can't really participate in that conversation, can she? She doesn't have anything to offer unless Iroha wants to use someone else's words. It just means she has a chance at understanding why people might like something in a passing conversation that she's not a part of.

There's something kind of melancholy about it, and it's such a throwaway line. Somehow it's like she already gave up before she tried.

I like it.

[skyeventide]

What do you think a deus ex machina is. Now be quick

[setsailforthestars]

I’m sorry I keep talking about Ayden so much but oh my goooddddd the visual of him taking damage from his bond with The Emissary the jesus imagery is still going strong !!!

[incesthemes]

there's an interesting comparison made in playthings on the topic of the home that i keep coming back to. sam and dean are, technically speaking, homeless, and this episode is about a home—a home which, as it turns out, has generations of history behind it. the inn has been in susan's family for over a century. it sits in stark contrast to sam and dean's nomadic lifestyle—sherwin (speaking on behalf of susan and rose) and dean can't connect on these grounds because dean has never really known the stability of a home, and susan and rose have never really known the instability of homelessness.

what i keep thinking about, then, is that sam and dean are paralleled with maggie and rose. these are two characters who are trapped within the confines of their home, swallowed whole by its walls.

maggie can't leave her home, and rose dies to save maggie, willingly trapping herself within it as well. this is a good, happy ending, with both of them finally at peace now that they have each other, alone together forever.

if maggie and rose are trapped within their home, and maggie and rose are sam and dean, then that would imply that sam and dean have a home to be trapped within as well.

i think you can make the argument that the house they're trapped in is their codependent relationship. it's the focus of the season, after all: they're settling into their codependency, learning each other in a new way now that they've accepted this twisted relationship they've chosen. it's the crux of the tension between them as they struggle to understand what codependency means for themselves and each other, misunderstandings popping up left and right because they can't quite get it right. dean is choosing sam, sam is choosing dean, but they're doing it in ways that don't quite match, or ways that have disastrous consequences.

playthings, then, shows a "good" ending for them, a conclusion with hope and promise and ideals. if you consider maggie as sam (the "monster" of the story, the unfortunate child who suffered a fate they had no control over and who simply wants to be loved, to have a family), then dean is rose—the keeper, the one suppressing the monstrosity from affecting those uninvolved until a stroke of weakness allows the monster to leak out, an accident which can only be rectified by self-sacrifice.

in reality, the "monstrosity" is simply a violent loneliness. maggie wants someone to play with, and sam wants to belong inside his family unit. whenever sam isn't accepted into his family, he's pushed instead toward his fate, toward azazel. when dean isn't pulling him closer, he's being pushed toward the monstrosity of destiny. it's a violence of circumstance, a violence brought forth by neglect and ostracization.

the only way to quell the "monster" is through the family. the keeper must die, or rather choose to stay with the "monster" forever. rose dies so that maggie will have a playmate. she placates the spirit and they live happily ever after. it's hopeful, promising. there is a way out of this cycle of tragedy.

just two episodes prior, dean nearly does the same thing. he will die alongside sam so that sam doesn't have to be alone. he will die alongside sam so that he doesn't have to be alone. within the context of croatoan, this was the correct choice that dean made: he abandoned his duty to john and his fate and chose sam above all else. he went against the judgment conditioned into him and followed sam as his moral compass. he embraced whatever monstrosity might spill out of sam and chose it for himself, too, because he couldn't leave sam to suffer alone.

there was a way out of their cycle of tragedy.

the conflict presented in seasons 1 and 2 (and beyond) is that of the winchesters' fates versus their family. as a result, whenever they aren't choosing each other, they're inevitably following the paths to their destinies. playthings therefore shows the "good" end, the way out of that destiny: if they decide to save each other, they will escape their fates as the mythical cain and abel, as michael and lucifer, as hunter and boy king. indeed rose begins the story using hoodoo to bind maggie's spirit, suppressing and rejecting her. they start as opposing forces until they choose love, choose each other, and come together to escape their fates, finally existing on their own terms outside of the story of good and evil.

sam and dean, too, have the ability to transcend their destinies, close the book, and abandon the story. it's exactly what dean tries to do throughout season 2, until azazel forces their hands to move the plot along. while sam is busy fretting about his destiny, dean's head is clear: he's going to save sam, choose sam, destiny be damned. dean goes down the same route as rose. maggie and rose therefore show what could be, what would be if they both abandon the story for each other.

by positing maggie as an allegory for sam, there arises some interesting suggestions about sam's desires and needs. maggie wants someone she can be with forever, without anyone bothering them. someone to play with, to share her every moment with, to be locked in their own little world with for the rest of time. if maggie is sam, then perhaps there is something of these desires within him, as well. sam's violent protectiveness of dean supports this idea, and so does his rather enthusiastic abandonment of society to form a codependent relationship with him—the beginning of season 2 depicts sam as being much more devoted to this codependency than dean is, while dean is struggling with john's death and his new conflict.

maggie's core fear is being alone. this is rather synonymous with sam's core fear of being excluded, and understanding them as parallels develops both of them as characters: sam's isolation mirrors the isolation maggie felt for however many decades rose spent binding her spirit. there's also a fine distinction between sam's core fear and dean's, which is illustrated through this comparison—dean fears abandonment, the people he loves walking away from him. sam on the other hand fears exclusion, which is not exactly the same. exclusion can mean being held at arm's length, knowing that his loved ones are in on something but not himself being part of it. maggie is trapped inside her home; she can't leave. at the same time, her family has grown up around her, and she has watched them become different people without ever being able to interact with them. the binding of her spirit doesn't magically erase her presence from the house; rather, she implies quite directly that she was aware of the time passing when rose was "keeping her away." maggie is an outsider inside the home from which she cannot escape—very much like sam, who is trapped inside his family unable to extricate himself from their confines while simultaneously being isolated from them.

and in this way the pierpont inn—the home—becomes a symbol for the family. the home in playthings transforms from a prison to a sort of freedom and peace when rose chooses to trap herself inside of it alongside her sister. the family is sam's prison, but if he chooses to stay with dean and dean chooses to stay with him, they can trap themselves within its confines and escape the monstrosity lurking outside. and this, the show suggests, is their happy ending, at peace among each other, alone together forever inside the walls of their home.

[maoist-mizer]

Louis is so Anthy-coded at this moment. Wanted to become a vampire because it will further damn you as you believe you're responsible for your brother's death. Allowing yourself to be sexually abused again and again because you think you deserve it as a punishment, as penance for "ruining" your brother.