#eta I don't really think they are still together at this point

[statementlou]

why do you talk about Louis using blue and green signalling as if it isn't about Harry, that what the blue and green are- do you not believe in larrie?

short answer for the reading challenged trolls to cut down on asks yes I am a larrie, not that anything is wrong with not being one. But longer (much more interesting imo) answer: We know H and L were together, but no one really knows if they are still or again- I personally mostly believe that they are, but I get why people don't think so and can't see any reason to get pressed about it. But you make a solid point- blue and green and certainly things like Louis wearing the H shirt don't potentially signify anything other than larry right? Well that's what makes it so interesting to me- I kind of don't think Louis IS using those things that way! As my recent anon pointed out (and I agree) he wants people to think he is Freddie's dad, he is not presently trying to be perceived as gay in the face of people trying to force him in the closet- he is in charge of his image and is choosing to publicly put forward that he is a guy who got someone pregnant and dates women. And I do think him and H are together, but I don't think he particularly wants to talk to us about that, if that makes sense? But I believe he does want to connect with his beloved fans on a more personal level, to revel in the acceptance and love and shared wink, I know you know I know, me and you until the end, our eyes meet, together we're the greatest- and I think he uses the larry imagery to do that, rather than to talk about his relationship. I could do this for days he gives us SO MANY examples to choose from but just to pick one: the all blue and green lighting for All This Time. Think about it- if he actually had images of a rainbow flag on the screens at his shows or waved one or something, it would make the articles and press and be a whole thing and revive every rumor ever about him in every tabloid! But if he makes the entire lighting and screens for a song blue and green (or wears a shirt with a giant H on it or any of the other one million coded things he does), well so what? No journalist would think a thing of it, nothing to see here- but the larrie majority of his fanbase hears him saying "you were right about everything and yes I am gay and I love you for seeing it" and go completely bananas! It's fucking ingenious tbh, SBB at his finest! And the fact that the song he chose for his current unhinged bluegreener fest was All This Time was for me the thing that really cemented this theory for me; I know some people disagree, but to me that song reads as being about him being closeted and his public life and the fans and choosing this lighting for that rather than for like We Made It or something really feeds my conviction that he is bluegreening on main as a way to tell us that he is gay rather than to tell us anything about his personal relationship. TLDR yeah I DO think he is signaling, a lot, but I don't think it tells us anything about the status of his relationship with Harry or anyone else and the reasons I think they are together don't have anything to do with Louis' stage lighting choices, but also that means I don't think it makes sense to say he's not signaling anything ever because you don't think they're together; both can coexist and I think it's just weird to act like he's not making pretty clear choices

[andy-wm]

"Who's been sleeping in MY bed?" the little one asked

I had a comment on my previous post asking if Jimin & JK stayed at the same hotel in NY and I realised I had assumed Jimin stayed in JK's room. But I don't think he did and I have thoughts on this whole situation.

[[ETA a few ppl have mentioned they had to read this twice. I apologise that this post jumps around and meanders and side-tracks all over. Believe it or not i did try to organise it... unfortunately it's an accurate representation of my brain]]

It's taken a few (probably way more than necessary) hours of looking at every bloody room in the Loews-Regency NY, and going back and forth between Are You Sure, I am Still, and the AYS behind clips to work it it but I can confidently say I know exactly* what unfolded on the night Jimin arrived in NY...

*clearly a lie, since we never REALLY know anything... However by collecting all the clues** left in these 3 series I do have a lot of circumstantial evidence. Combining that with a bit of deductive reasoning and a healthy dose of speculation, I have a decent enough theory.

** This cannot be accidental. The same people would be responsible (to an extent) for all three series. They have managed not to re-use any content, except once or twice we get the same scene from different angles. And that means we have a lot of information. BH knows army well enough to know we are absolutely going to gather up the (red) threads of these series and stitch together a story.

This is what i know:

Jungkook was in a Two Bedroom Suite - he had the master bedroom.

A Grand Executive Suite was used as a dressing room (but not much else).

Jimin had a Grand Executive Suite to himself (almost).

This is what I have reasonable evidence of:

Jungkook's master bedroom in the two bedroom suite was clearly used. Clothes on a chair, two open suitcases, personal items on the nightstand etc are evidence of the space being occupied. However when we saw him packing to leave for AYS, the bed looked largely unused. A dent in one pillow (the other pillows thrown across the bed) shows someone lay down on the bed, but the comforter was undisturbed and even the blanket at the bottom of the bed was still in place.

At first i was amazed that JK's suite is shown almost without restriction. It is not treated as a private space. But then i realised we see a number of staff moving in and out of the space too. It dawned on me that even though JK has an area for his own use (the master bedroom) this is considered a work environment, much like the hotels in BV and ITS.

So it's unsuprising that when filming, the staff casually follow JK around as he does his thing, even making a point of showing spaces we wouldn't otherwise see - like the master bathroom with its great big tub. Jungkook himself invites us into the living area when he checks on reactions to the Seven MV. and in AYS we get a glimpse into the kitchen.

We don't get to see the second bedroom or bathroom so I assume a staff member - maybe JK's manager - used those.

Compare this to the way Jimin's space is treated:

Jimin's suite is treated - mostly - as a private space. It's not just careful editing. By the actions of the staff members filming him we can see they are very aware of this.

We see it at the start of AYS when the staff member wakes Jimin up. They stay in the doorway of Jimin's suite, literally not even stepping inside. We see only a glimpse of the (second) bathroom, and the footage is cut when the camera pans away. Jimin seems quite cheerful about being on camera despite his sleep swollen face and his bed hair, but nevertheless the staff member doesn't enter his room.

On both occasions when we see Jimin's suite, the staff member recording him is cautious about being his space.

That's not something we often see when BTS are on camera - especially not as overtly we saw it here. The privacy of Jimin's suite is very obviously being respected.

Packing for AYS: Jungkook vs Jimin (and the MOOD)

In the Behind clip for AYS we see both of them packing for their getaway.

Jungkook seems quite unbothered about having his packing process documented as he moves around the big suite. It crosses no boundaries for him. He hums and haws about what to take, he chats to the staff member, and he talks to the camera as he moves from room to room. He knows he's working and this is part of his job.

Jimin, on the other hand is rattled. He stuffs his clothes into the cumbersome bag with visible annoyance, not even taking the time to open the bag properly.

Now remember, Jimin is a performer. He goes out of his way to be charming and entertaining. He knows how to turn that on for the camera and in this moment he's choosing not to.

He doesn't engage with the audience.

He doesn't talk to the staff member.

He doesn't turn towards the camera.

He gives nothing.

He huffs in exasperation as he struggles with the bag, and his movements are tense and abrupt.

Prickly is the word that comes to mind, but honestly that doesn't even cover it.

When he's done packing, he snatches that bag up and marches out of the room without a second glance.

His hair covers his eyes like a shield as he walks toward the camera but the tightness in his neck and jaw betrays strong emotion.

Yeah he's not happy

He slips through the half open door and strides down the hallway.

I get the feeling that if the staff member didn't move fast enough, Jimin would run them over.

When something like this happens, my response is usually to look closer, so let's do that.

Firstly Jimin is a consummate professional. He can usually put a good face on any situation. But in this case he doesn't even seem to try. I guess whatever is bothering him is not something he can or will just brush off in that moment.

So what's actually happening here?

What is it that's pissed Jimin off to such an extent?

Let's look at it again...

They are filming him pack his bag. The staff member stands closely beside Jimin and focuses only him, his bag, and the sofa.

Let's be honest, there is absolutely nothing interesting about this scene (except the implications we are currently unpacking).

They could have made this count for a little more, maybe by panning around the room or changing the position of the camera in relation to Jimin. But they don't. Even when, by chance, there's a glimpse of what looks like takeout containers on the coffee table and some random debris on the chair behind Jimin, the staff member moves so that we only see Jimin, the bag and the sofa. That is all we're getting.

That's a clear decision and there has to be a reason for that decision.

When they leave the room, we have an abrupt cut before the camera backs out the door and down the hallway. That's another clear decision. The staff member could easily have moved behind Jimin and followed him out of the suite but this keeps them - and us - out of Jimin's personal (private) space and he remains the literal gatekeeper to that room.

Once they are out of the room Jimin lifts his head briefly, shakes his hair out of his eyes, and strides purposefully - defiantly even - on. He still doesn't interact or make eye contact. He still isn't giving them (or us) a damn thing, and even the funky upbeat muzak they've used can't alleviate the tension in this scene.

So why is Jimin in a mood?

We know Jimin was there for one night before they began filming for AYS. So all this takes place before filming for AYS began.

And that, in my mind, is the key.

Jungkook was promoting his album and he expected to be on camera. He knew the space he occupied was a filming location. Jungkook was already at work when he was packing for AYS. but Jimin was not.

Okay, but this a BIG MOOD... what else is happening?

It's not the end of the world to be asked to start your schedule a little earlier, is it? We know Jimin was already awake...

But they came into his room.

I don't believe he expected to have anyone in his private suite - anyone besides Jungkook. And I don't believe he agreed happily, based on his behaviour.

I'm 99% sure Jungkook spent the night in Jimin's suite for two reasons.

Logically it makes sense that they would choose the place they have the most privacy, and even though Jungkook had the master bedroom and a private bathroom in the bigger suite, that is a WORK LOCATION. It's not his private space.

Add to that Jungkook saying he was packed and ready to go, and only needed to brush his teeth which he would do when Jimin arrived. He even told us where he would be putting his toothbrush (future tense).

It's not hard to guess where his toothbrush was. And why.

So we have two healthy young adults who (we are told repeatedly by Jungkook) have barely seen each other. The flirting started at the restaurant, and we've already seen the evidence of a night spent in energetic passion.

And we have a closed-up room. I don't know how much air would be circulating in that room with the blinds down and the doors closed. I don't know how much air would need to circulate to remove the ...how can I put this delicately? the ripe and musky scent of celebration. I expect there was A LOT of celebration...

And we have Jimin. Jimin is MESSY. Jimin breaks mosquito nets and marks people's necks and pushes boundaries even in public. He throws his things about with not a care in the world... clothes, yes, and other things. How many of Jimin's tissues has JK picked up? You get the picture. It's a Biohazard.

Lastly, we have (or had) an expectation of privacy, of no staff, of restricted access.

Now there's a person in his private space unexpectedly. And they have a camera.

So Jimin is pissed off.

I'd be pissed off too.

He seems to be over it by the time they're filming the preamble to AYS, but he obviously felt compromised and deeply uncomfortable. I am glad he made it clear he was unhappy.

This highlights for me the importance of them having agency over their content and their personal time and space. On this occasion he must have reluctantly (and with conditions) agreed but I hope that in future his boundaries are respected.

I hope even more that ARMY (and Jikookers especially. I hold us to a higher standard) remember that their personal time and space is precious to them, and they deserve to enjoy their lives away from the public eye. Like the rest of us they should have the freedom and confidence to do what they want (no matter how messy) without the fear that someone with a camera will invade their space and record them.

Please don't go to Jungkook's house, even while he's not there. It's not a tourist attraction.

[lurkingshan]

Things That Have My Attention in 4 Minutes Episode 4

Congrats to the Dome is Tonkla's brother truthers!

Let's talk timelines again. I still think we're working with two timelines, but I no longer think they're cleanly separated. Because if they were, you could not have some of these things happening concurrently. If we only had an Original timeline and a Redo timeline, then everything Great changes should be part of the Redo timeline. But in this episode Great saved Nan in the same timeline where Dome was dead, which we know because Great got Nan's location by getting Korn trashed after Korn fought with Tonkla over his abandonment in the aftermath of Dome's death. These things are all connected, so we can't cleanly sort events into one timeline or the other.

Which means it's most likely that the two timelines are bleeding together, making things unstable. This would explain Great's experience of overlapping moments last week, and Tonkla seeing Dome briefly before things went all weird and he disappeared at the end of today's episode.

By the way, it turns out those cold opens are not of the future--Tonkla has already done the murder in the same timeline where he's messing around with the cop. ETA: @my-rose-tinted-glasses pointed out that this is not necessarily true if the scene of Win getting the fingerprints and the phone call is also in the future. So back to square one on that!

Speaking of, what is up with Win? He is fully engaging in an affair with a murder suspect and doesn't seem to be investigating Tonkla at all. And I cannot let this pass without comment: why on earth did Win not put his pants back on during the long scene of him listening to Tonkla and Korn?! Was this really an appropriate situation to Winnie the Pooh it???

The flashback to Tonkla and Korn's beginning gave good context for why Tonkla thought he might be able to have more with Korn. I appreciated the details there: Korn was giving him money before they even had sex the first time and was lying to him about his intentions from the start, while Tonkla had zero experience when they met and didn't know how to recognize the signs of Korn's lies. Korn basically groomed this kid to be his sidepiece and has strung him along for years.

Tonkla definitely feels like a tragic character heading for a bad end, though perhaps he will also be saved eventually by the timeline shifts. In the timeline where Dome is dead and he's fucking Win, Tonkla is being incredibly reckless. I couldn't believe he just moved a new man into the home Korn pays for, he's gonna get caught.

I was grateful the show did not actually go all the way with Korn assaulting Tonkla, but it was clear he would have if Tonkla had not managed to distract him.

I continue to find the emotional tenor of Great and Tyme's scenes kinda weird. I don't understand why Great is so willing to betray Korn to help Tyme after just meeting him, I don't understand why Tyme revealed his face only to run away and then accused Great of being in on the conspiracy after already confirming he's not, and I don't understand why they were acting all blushy and awkward in that sex scene rather than leaning into the adrenaline high for a more sultry tone. They have been on one (1) date so the emotional investment is not really tracking for me for two experienced adults, but I can't tell if I am supposed to find this all weird and confusing or just go with it. It feels like the show just wants me to accept the shortcuts and buy into them as a serious romance, so okay I guess!

Speaking of betraying Korn, Great's plan was abysmal. He steals the information from Korn's phone (so considerate of him to spell out his criminal conspiracy including names and locations in one convenient text chain), tells Tyme everything without any knowledge of what his brother did, then walks right into an active hostage situation in his designer whites and shows his face to all Korn's goons. Korn is gonna know you did this, bro! Do you care?

It seems that Nan has a friend who was killed in a similar fashion to Tyme's parents, though I'm still curious how they connected and came up with this plan.

I still got nothing on this Lukwa connection. Why are she and Great the only two experiencing this phenomenon, and why did they see each other in this liminal space?

Also noting that there were several sex scenes this episode and no condoms or lube anywhere. I guess this show only depicts safe and realistic sex when they have a sponsor paying them.

[somecallmegin]

Gimli Son of Gloin, if every character in Lord of the Rings was a person of color instead of the Peter Jackson version. Don't get me wrong, I love those movies, but some of the design choices stump me. A few years back I used to fall asleep to the DVD bonus commented extended cuts & at one point I could probably have recited the different versions in their entirety. My favorite was the one commented by the ETA Workshop team, the miniature people and costume department were amazing.

Anyway. Not really sure what I'm going with with that expression here. I think it was supposed to be a bit more fierce in the beginning? The original idea was to place the scene somewhere along the time they meet the Rohirim for the first time, but he got a bit softer since then.

Okay, I'm letting this sketch go now, I was clearly getting fed up and lazy with the beard, my hand was starting to cramp and I don't think I knew where I was going, haha. This Gimli has so much hair! There's no way any of those braids could be so thick while being so close together, but I'm going to say it's a classic dwarven constitution thing ; they're short, thick and have a truly massive amount of hair/beard.

Still getting the hang of Clip Studio Paint, but it's getting easier.

[mirror-ralsei]

THEORY: The Butterfly Effect

I'd like to thank VGFM for forming the basis of this theory with theirs, the excellent "The True Identity and Importance of "Everyman"". I highly recommend reading it!

---

A while ago, VGFM brought to my attention the presence of a butterfly motif in UTDR.

They noted the presence of butterflies in three specific places: Whimsun/Whimsalot's bullets, Reaper Bird/Everyman's bullets, and King's cape.

I'd like to expound on this by analyzing these usages, and also add another two instances of a butterfly motif that, all together, lead me to a conclusion about what butterflies in UTDR could mean.

1: Everyman's bullets

Probably the most memorable appearance of butterflies across Undertale and Deltarune. It's our pal Everyman!

In case it was possible to forget, here's a refresher: the amalgamate Reaper Bird in the True Lab features a guest star in their attacks. The strange, embryonic "Everyman" initially just stands there. Then their face is painfully eaten by butterflies, and they subsequently will go on the attack. Everyman has since cameoed in Deltarune a few times, but the butterflies have been conspicuously absent.

Still, this seems to be the character most obviously linked to butterflies so far.

As for what butterflies could mean here, there's only one really major thing to note: Everyman was not aggressive until the butterflies infested their face. In one of their attacks, the butterflies even seem to be "puppeting" a staggering Everyman, and are the ones actually inflicting damage by flying out of their head.

Does this mean the butterflies represent aggression? I'm not so sure. However, as we're about to see, they do seem to appear a lot in the context of antagonism.

2: King's Mantle

Another butterfly was visible in Deltarune Chapter 1, taking the shape of King's... cape?

At the time of VGFM's theory, we didn't have the Chapter 1 livestream, but Toby gave us this one for free: "Cool mantle, bro."

Setting aside the weighted term "mantle" for this theory (but rest assured, you're in good company thinking about the SkyMantle and ShadowMantle), I'd like to focus on the King himself.

Firstly: Many people refer to this character as the "Chaos King," likely due to the titular track that plays during his fight. But the character himself is only ever referred to as "(a) King." Let's squirrel this away for later.

Secondly: During said battle with King, during which he has his greyscale mantle, he is able to use a greyscale "tail" from his belly to attack us by slightly manipulating the UI.

King uses that grey belly tail to drag our box around the screen and into bullets in various ways, almost reminiscent of fighting Sans. As far as I can remember, (correct me if I'm wrong), he's one of the only DR characters who do this (ETA: @potabo pointed out Queen also has a UI-affecting attack, as does Spamton in a scrapped attack).

But after the King's mantle has flown away, we only see him using basic spade bullets. We never see the belly tail again.

Now, of course, this could just be gameplay/story dichotomy - we're in a cutscene, not in battle, so of course we don't see any grander attacks.

But it would be interesting if the mantle itself was what granted him the meta power to manipulate the UI. If true, then by extension, this might associate the butterfly motif with similar powers.

Remember what I said about "Chaos King" not being his real name? That begs the question: why is the track titled that?

3: CHAOS SABER

This one's a little sneaky.

We've all probably noticed by now that Asriel's battle is chock full of Deltarune references, and plot elements we weren't even aware of. There's plenty of theories and speculation out there about that.

But one of the elements flying under the radar is his attack "CHAOS SABER."

Not the Kris-like sword attack, or the unusual animations, or the Deltarune-like sparkles at the end... but the very sword sprites themselves.

Take a look again.

Yep - when put together, the two swords Asriel uses form a butterfly shape. (They're also reflections of each other...)

What do we know about this instance of the butterfly motif? Not much, really, aside from the use of swords to cut, the production of those Darkner-representing stars, and the title: "CHAOS SABER."

Uh-oh. Maybe we shouldn't speak too loudly of "chaos..."

4: Jevil's voiceline

Just a small one, but I think worth noting: Jevil, a character strongly associated with Chaos, has the voiceline "METAMORPHOSIS."

Yes, it's one of his references to those Line stickers. But face it: when you hear "metamorphosis," what's the first thing that comes to mind?

It may not directly spell out the word "butterfly." But fellow Line reference "I CAN DO ANYTHING" doesn't directly spell out "freedom," anyway, and that's an actual confirmed Jevil motif.

All I'm saying is, it's not out of the question that the "METAMORPHOSIS" line might tie into this ongoing butterfly motif.

5: Whimsun/Whimsalot's Bullets

You may have gone through this list wondering: where are Whimsun and Whimsalot? What profound meaning do they have? What fascinating secrets can we glean from their depiction of butterflies?

The answer is: I dunno lol.

Sorry, there was a reason I shunted them off to the end. Unfortunately, I just can't find anything that sorely sticks out! Whimsalot is one of the CORE enemies, sure, and those seem Deltarune-relevant in some way, but otherwise... I just don't know! If anyone has more profound insight to offer here, feel free to sound off - I'd love to hear your ideas. Personally, I'm gonna throw in the towel until we get another chapter.

CONCLUSION

You've probably noticed by now, but there seems to be a common thread throughout half of these instances.

Jevil, "Chaos King," "CHAOS SABER"...

In Undertale and Deltarune, butterflies may represent CHAOS.

And honestly, it makes more sense than you'd think.

The butterfly effect is pretty well-referenced in media: a single flap of a butterfly's wings, rippling out to eventually cause a hurricane somewhere else.

And what discipline, exactly, does the butterfly effect fall under? Chaos theory.

If this is the imagery Toby Fox is trying to invoke, I wonder if our actions won't "ripple out" in a great chain of cause-and-effect, either. After all, he did state some things "only appear random. All chaos is ordered."

As for what this means for the affected characters, the one that jumps out the most as an example is Everyman. Again, in Reaper Bird's attack, the poor fellow appears to be engulfed by butterflies - so, metaphorically, by CHAOS. Only after this do they actually become aggressive. And interestingly, Toby Fox also remarks on how the Dark Fountain may have changed King's behavior.

After all, in terms of the greater plot, the most solid thing we know about the role of CHAOS is that it will apparently result when the Dark Fountains fill the sky, and cause the Roaring.

So, is "Chaos King" actually King altered by the CHAOS-causing presence of the fountain? How many more benign characters like Everyman have been spurred into aggression in this way? And how long before all this mounting CHAOS becomes a true Roaring?

It seems we'll have to keep an eye on the butterflies.

...Well, that's all I've got for today. Feel free to leave your essays about Whimsun being the most important Undertale character - once things ripple out enough, you might just be right.

(Screenshot credit: 1, 2, 3)

[morrigan-disapproves]

My dragon Age Veilguard likes/dislikes/general opinions under the cut (with one major late game spoiler)

[ETA: Scream ok so i started writing this post like 3 weeks ago after completing the game but then forgot about finishing it. done now]

Stuff I enjoyed:

Faction backgrounds good concept mostly well executed, it was giving DA:O

Visually incredibly pretty game

Character creator best they've ever done it. The amount of options are amazing

The combat is fun! Fast paced and reactive. I played warrior and genuinely enjoyed hitting people with a big hammer and/or throwing my shield at them. Going to try mage next [ETA: this was a lie. I started a rogue playthrough instead and enjoy it]

Companion specific hangout missions are fun, I enjoyed walking and talking

Neve Gallus v compelling character, love to see a woman succeeding in a male dominated field (emotionally repressed noir detective). Her voice actress was also really great

Grey. Warden. Plots. I thought all the stuff with the wardens was compelling and gripped me, from the Weisshaupt mission to the creeping horror of the blight and the info about where the blight really came from

Cities are so back! Really liked Minrathous and Treviso as environments, they felt like deep and real places. Much better than completely empty Val Royeaux in inquisition. I liked Minrathous more bc it's fucked up: welcome back kirkwall da2!

Factions in general good concept, even if some of them had their edges sanded off a bit (more below)

Side quests always felt relevant to the overarching plot, this is another area they really improved on from inquisition

The endgame missions/content was good, a marked improvement in quality on the rest of the game overall. I found it very funny that even the negative reviews I read agreed on this point: gotta hand it to em I suppose!

Loved the Varric reveal. I had clocked that he was dead since the beginning but not that it was solas tricking you about it. I thought it was a cole-type situation, like where a spirit thinks it's a dead person. This is much better and crunchier.

Stuff I did not enjoy:

Mid writing on average

Slow start. Like I shouldn't be having to say "oh it gets really fun once you pick up all the companions" when that's like 15+ hours into the game

Twee music choices. Emmrich and Bellara especially fighting for their lives against this in their character missions

Companion characters don't really get to have flaws? Like not major ones - I kept waiting for more to be revealed but it just never came. OK they've all never done anything wrong in their lives ever. For a game supposedly about regret it's a missed opportunity

Same story re: the factions, especially the antivan crows. They are assassins! In the past games they were way more fucked up as an organisation - it would have been interesting to be forced by circumstance to work with them. Let there be some moral complexity?

Romance content felt thin. I guess a side effect of having every character be romance-able? Wait I counted and 7 is actually the same number of romances as in inquisition. I think my main issue is actually that the pacing was bizarre (very slow/late in the game)

Playing an elf was weirdly frictionless - I get they are trying to kind of clean up perceived more problematic elements of the series, but it was crazy to be playing an elf in Tevinter, elf-racism capital of thedas, who experiences no prejudice vs the experience playing an elf in the previous games set in the south. I think they got shit for their (admittedly poor and shaky) handing of fantasy racism in previous games but I think people (me) wanted them to do it better rather than cutting it all together

This is especially weird when the portrayal of the qunari still remains very orientalist. let's not get started on those lords of fortune armours

While I enjoyed the writing of the warden plots especially, I do think that having "blighted" be like a temporary status effect you can get but recover from (???) is insane and lore breaking. They should have made you have to undergo the joining if it happens too often lmao

???? Stuff:

The illuminati from across the sea made everyone do it in the secret ending? I saw the writers already trying to walk this back on twitter lmao but I think it's silly

Final thoughts:

Worth playing for me, I enjoyed the experience overall and already am halfway into a second playthrough

I think I will let the game marinate a bit and maybe write some fanfic to address aspects I feel they missed. If anyone has good (gay) fanfic recs already please send them my way, the situation was bleak when I last checked ao3 the other month

For me this has more replay value and I got on with it better than inquisition

[ETA: I since started playing bg3 as well and I think the first act plot pacing of that is markedly better vs da4 so far. However I find the bg3 combat to be so so tiresome and the cc options limited in terms of body diversity. Also im not that familiar with bg1/2 or dnd in general so if there's annoying lore change stuff that bothers diehard fans i have no idea lol]

Anyway I want to hear about everyone's thoughts!! and hear about their rooks

[thanatologie]

anyone that says emmrich never actually faces his fear isn't actually paying attention. hear me out, okay, i've talked before (so many times) about how i think for emmrich his fear of death is less actual thanaphobia and more...his fear of being alone. of living alone, of spending eternity alone - especially in a culture and a society that places emphasis on lovers being buried together; he's terrified of it. and a romanced emmrich is so terrified of his relationship with rook - and how he feels - that he's willing to try to end it on the eve of a battle one or both of them might not come back from, because he's worried it might not be the big damn love story he's been aching for his whole goddamn life.

and guess what! rook doesn't come back.

he spends almost a month making that damn dagger - and like the rest of the crew - trying to find rook to pull them out of the fade prison because he's lost them. he's lost them right after realizing his fear's gotten the better of him and he's staring down the barrel of eternity without them. he was already trying to backpedal the whole thing before solas pulled his switcheroo and you know rook telling him they'll talk about it at home was like...a constant refrain in his head that whole almost month they were lost.

(which raises a good point with the mortal vs lich path in this respect, because a mortal emmrich was ready to tear open the fade to get rook back, imagine how many lines a lich emmrich might cross, especially given his line about never letting them be parted in this or any other world again. i have thoughts about how emmrich doesn't come back wrong from that, no, but he definitely comes back changed, he's...off. i've seen speculation that lich emmrich isn't emmrich - which i don't buy - or isn't entirely emmrich - which is a little more interesting and there may be some truth to the latter, or it could be he thinks he's indestructible at that point and gets really reckless and less measured but that is another argument for another time.)

and basically the point i'm leading up to here is...you can complain all you want that he never uses the l word before the final battle, but even with harding pointing out he's gotten a little spacey and distracted and mopey with a relationship on the burner, and all the other pet names he uses so damn liberally (dearest, darling, flame of my heart), he's still holding a lot of stuff back. he's still holding himself back, quite a bit, until that moment when he finally (finally) tells rook he loves them. he never calls rook my love until after the fade prison in the mortal path, and it's just the once, as far as i can actually remember. and it's because of all of that shit above.

(lich emmrich does it earlier, because that this may be my last chance to say it comes a hell of a lot sooner, and he uses my love liberally after that point.)

this is intentional on his part. this man has skirted around using the word love so much ("very fond of you" my ass) that rook totally has the option to call him out on it and it's like a record scratch.

he's, i think, terrified of loving something that can die? and he's terrified of being alone. and ultimately a romanced mortal emmrich has to face both of those things, one after the other, between manfred and the fade prison. and i think, going forward, it's not going to be completely gone - in fact for a hot minute after everything it's probably exacerbated to a large degree and he's probably extra...like that for a while - but it makes him confront those things head on in...very blunt ways. here's a reminder of what losing someone you love deeply to death feels like. here's what losing someone you've given your heart to for safekeeping feels like. it's kind of disingenuous to claim his fears are left untouched, when he's given a one-two knock out punch and is left having to deal with the fallout of that.

eta: and none of this actually touches on the fact that it's him that tells rook to grab the dagger before they go poof, so he's siting with that constant weight on his chest, too, but we'll dig into that at a later time because it's cold and my fingers are starting to get stiff.

[heavensbeehall]

my elaborate mags headcanon

eta: lol i have edited this like five times to add details that I forgot.

Sixteen-year-old Mags Flanagan lives with her elderly grandmother who suffers from dementia, one-armed uncle (he lost it in the war but made the mistake of telling Peacekeepers a shark bit him) and cousin and is Reaped for the 11th Annual Hunger Games. She strongly suspects the Capitol-loyal Mayor of choosing children from Rebel families on purpose (he is naive in thinking eventually the Capitol will be appeased). Her Uncle feels incredibly guilty about her predicament. Her lobsterman cousin must race back from waters near District 13 (aka Maine) to look after the grandmother who should not be left alone. We learn the people of District 4 have always known District 13 was not destroyed (they can see it from their boats).

The small, redheaded girl has little hope of winning, especially compared to her tall, athletic District Partner, Tack, who is surprisingly easy to talk to and willing to team-up with Mags. She had thought him a bit of a jock. Tack's family were also Rebels and he has A Lot of Opinions on how the Capitol uses terror to keep the districts down. He would prefer to die at Mags' hands, or any other tribute than the muttations like the snakes that got Coral the year previous. He knows several District 4 kids who had nightmares about the snakes. He is very high minded, so obviously he will die. (Tack is blonde and has a polisci major vibe.)

Mags is more like Katniss in that she just wants to get back to her grandma. (She's old and might wander off a cliff!) But she does see his points.

Locked in cages, the tributes are interviewed by "the Gamemaker boy" (Snow), and Mags watches him very carefully as he charms some of the other tributes, particularly the female ones. Mags is, for once, grateful to be a lesbian because she forms a bond with Tigris, who is hired to make the tributes look presentable for the interviews, instead--both queer, both raised by their grandmothers and close to a cousin. She comes to realize Snow and Gaul never intend to stop the Hunger Games. She sees darkness in him and thinks he distrusts women (reader will know this is baggage from tbosas), thinking they are manipulative.

The Tributes are thrown into the ampitheater arena (same as 10 and prior) but it has been gutted and circus-themed, then filled with freakish muttations. There are different "rings" where different mutts are located. Mags and her partner work together and survive the lions, bears and--finally--an electric eel (as seen at the end of TBOSAS movie) which Mags evades mainly due to her ability to hold her breath for several minutes thanks to years of freediving in District 4. She is greatly affected by Tack's death.

When she emerges from the arena, she finds Snow made himself (the Ringmaster)--not the tributes--the star of the show, for political advantage. Mags is rarely allowed to speak in public--though her image is widely used for publicity purposes (see Capitol Couture) though Mags thinks it is Tigris who really made her striking. But she has a falling out with Tigris because she takes a dim view of Coriolanus, whom Tigris still thinks will stop the Games once he has more power.

Mags returns to 4 determined to spend as many good moments as she can with her grandmother (who no longer recognizes her, but that is okay because they are together) and hopes to prepare the children of 4 for the ongoing "forever war." She speaks out about her experience in the Capitol at events in 4 and eventually over the shipboard radios (mags basically goes on a podcast). Most people in 4 don't have TVs. Snow has her silenced with a poison that immobilizes much of her face. She helps her cousin run for Mayor in the hopes of finding a "better way" to chose kids for the Hunger Games--though she does not think any child should go only knows that it's not going to stop.

Slight Mags/Tigris but it doesn't work out. Epilogue set after the 70th Games, where Annie's disorientation reminds her of her grandmother. Annie very much wanted to be like the Mags of the posters the Capitol produced when she volunteered. But Mags knows that version of Mags was just an illusion. And Mags understands why the death of Annie's district partner nearly destroyed her. Themes about perception and reality, dementia, psychotic breaks etc.

Even though Mags' grandmother didn't know who she was at the end, it didn't matter so long as she felt safe and happy. Annie and Finnick give her a sense of family that she thought she had lost when her wife (who was not Tigris but that is okay) was killed by Snow. She is happy in this moment.

[mzannthropy]

Favorite and least favorite. DJATS scenes? My least favorite is the overdose scene in ep 8. Like,wydm Billy called Daisy "baby?" I doubt that. My favorite is either Billy saying good morning to Camila and Julia in ep 5,Daisy kicking Nicky out,or the Camilabilly s*x scene at the end of episode 5. (and he wasn't thinking about Daisy,idk what Daisybilly shippers say. He loves his wife, aurora is about her, nothing can change that.)

I can't shut up about the Pick Up Your Kid scene from Episode 3. Bc I know how much Sam loves his kids and being a dad, I knew how difficult it would be for him to film it. The tears were unscripted, that's just Sam crying for real. I've not really thought about favourite scenes. Camila and Billy on the balcony in the finale, but that's only bc of their acting. Aside from the fact that the dialogue was ridiculous, it shouldn't exist, bc there's nothing like that in the book. Erasing the Daisy and Camila hotel room scene was a huge disservice to the characters, to the fans, to TJR. Just thank the gods that Sam and Camila are such good actors. I liked all Billy's scene with Camila and Julia. As for other characters, I liked Teddy being a father figure to Billy, the final scene with Karen and Graham. I know the poor guy was devastated, but Karen made her choice.

Least favourite, where do I start. I agree on the ending of Ep 8. (It was in fact what set of me off on a mini villain arc that lasted all through till the end of June, when I accepted that Sam was not going get an Emmy nomination, which is why I wasn't even upset that he was snubbed, bc I had already grieved it, but it was a painful process.) It should have been Simone that found her. Once again, a female character robbed of a scene. Not to mention that a man cradling a woman in his arms (while she might or might not be dying) is the most overdone scene in all of TV/film history. Start noticing it and you'll never be able to un-notice. Also, same episode, when after the press conference they walk in that corridor and Billy tries to kiss her. The whole argument, even. Cheap drama for the sake of it--nobody argues with faces that close together. It gives me so much second hand embarrassment that I literally recoil any time I think of it. I don't get triggered by horrible scenes that usually carry trigger warnings, but I do get triggered by stuff like this. Bc it's stupid.

Sam has a film, The Nightingale (dir Jennifer Kent), in which he plays the most horrible character of his career. It's a brilliant film and I recommend it, just heed the warnings bc it gets really violent. Yet it's easier for me to watch than a lot of DJATS. Bc I understand his part in the story, bc he is supposed to be like that.

ETA: Bc I misremembered, I thought Simone found Daisy in the book, (I can't check the book bc I listened to it on audio.) so I thought they should have kept it like that, but she actually just woke up herself, broke up with Nicky and then called Simone. I knew Simone figured somewhere, at least. Doesn't change my point, though, bc it still takes away from a female character. It's even worse bc it means that in the show, Daisy needed a man to 'save her'.

Yeah, if anyone had to find her in the shower, Rod would have been the better option; he's the manager after all, and if Daisy saw in his face that he was really worried about her, not just bc she was the lead singer and he'd lose money or whatever if something happened to her, but out of genuine care, she'd realise she was worthy. But nooo, they had to go for the most male writing stereotypical scene instead.

[cadybear420]

For this ask game, for aiden and evie

Pre-relationship 2 + 6

General 2

Love 9

Domestic life 1

Ask game here! Details below the cut

Pre-Relationship 2: What was their first impression of each other?

Evie's first impression of Aiden: "Very serious, very focused on music. He's not mean or anything, but I'm not sure we'd get along, he doesn't seem quite like the type who would wanna be my friend. Probably too busy with music. But he is weirdly interesting, though. And kinda hot too."

Aiden's first impression of Evie: "She seems nice. A bit of a fool, though. Doesn't seem like the type who would be all that interested in my interests. But she is interesting."

Pre-Relationship 6: What was their "flirting stage" like?

Prior to Aiden asking Evie to homecoming, there isn't really any flirting because they don't quite know each other's romantic feelings yet. But after the homecoming ask, it is a little more clear they have feelings for each other, and so they are (or at least Evie is) more comfortable making more romantically-charged moves. Including their first kiss during their first dance at homecoming.

I'm not sure whether the stage between that kiss and when they actually become official counts quite as a flirting stage (and Evie and Aiden aren't sure either), but let's say it does count. Either way, during that period they're a lot more open with romantic gestures with each other. Lots of kissing, cuddling, romantically-charged comments/flirting, and quite a couple of dates. And maybe getting just a little bit frisky with each other during their alone time, albeit arguably more PG stuff like lap cuddles and feeling each other up through clothes. I think Evie would be giving attention to Aiden's ass by this point, albeit at more soft levels (like gently caressing/squeezing it occasionally, sometimes commenting on it).

General 2: Did they have an official first date? If so, what was it like?

Answered here, but Imma copy paste it here

Although it's months prior to when they confessed love to each other and even when they first started dating, the time when Evie invited Aiden to watch The Incredibles at her house with her the first weekend after homecoming is what they consider their first date, as it takes place after they both know they like each other. (ETA: I'm discounting homecoming because it's kind of low-hanging fruit when it comes to determining the first date lol)

Love 9: What reminds them of each other?

Answered here but I will copy paste here.

Pretty much any time Evie hears/listens to music or sees anything related to music (like musical instruments) or sees something that could be considered rhythmic or compared to music, she thinks about Aiden and how he would analyze it and what he thinks of it.

Anything Aiden sees that he knows Evie likes will remind him of her, take your pick lol. And half the time, if he can, he will buy it for her.

Domestic Life 1: When they move in together, who gets the most say in decorations? What do they each have to have in the house?

Both of them get equal say, but Evie is a lot more "grabby" when it comes to decoration choosing. She sees anything that looks really nice or cute and she immediately wants to get it.

Not quite sure about what specific things they each have to have, but they do have different styles. Aiden likes anything that's neat and tidy and clean but still stylish and distinguished. Evie is similar, but especially likes when the "stylish" in question is vibrant yet cozy.

[x-on-the-calendar-business]

ryan ross iceberg (tier 7)

tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, tier 4, tier 5, tier 6, tier 8

deep waters:

light up skechers fancam:

this is a fancam made by twitter user fleetwood_wac. the background song is skechers by dripreport, and i think it was a tiktok song? (i don’t have tiktok) in 2020/2021, it became famous on ryan ross stan twitter. i don’t think the original tweet is still up, but aryn has it in this reply.

side note, if you weren’t on ryan ross stan twitter in 2020, you were sorely missing out.

go figure. to late honey:

this is a quote from one of ryan’s livejournal posts from july 3, 2005. it’s SO iconic.

zrosswald:

this refers to ryan/z berg/alex greenwald. i think it’s meant to refer more to their friendship; the golden trio, if you will. however, i’m sure there are people who genuinely ship them all together, just like rydan.

they have been a tight group for a while, as z and alex both played with the young veins some. also, ryan and alex made appearances at z’s prom events.

eta: as i suspected, this is definitely a real ship.

here's a tumblr post explaining the ship dynamics a bit more. this blog has a lot of zrosswald content if you're interested!

kale:

on thanksgiving of 2011, ryan tweeted this:

in 2021, it became a meme in the ryan stan twitter community, and people tagged gordan ramsay in the tweet, asking his opinion on ryan’s cooking.

first male model for mac:

the story goes that in the fever era, the makeup company mac offered ryan a spot to be their first male model. unfortunately, he declined. according to the comments on a livejournal post i found, ryan discussed this in a 2006 spin magazine interview [i]. there were scans of the interview, but sadly, they’re not available, like most pictures on lj. it hasn’t been archived either.

the same commenter says that article doesn’t specifically mention mac, though. mac did offer ryan free products, but he doesn’t say if he accepted them [i].

so, it’s unsure if ryan was offered to be mac’s male model (unless there’s another source i’ve missed) or another brand’s. either way he turned it down. my guess is that the mac idea came from the fact that he used mac’s products back then.

beef with pete wentz:

after the split, brendon got pete in the divorce.

in a MTV interview that ryan did in 2009, it says “…he wishes Urie and Smith well and still considers them both to be his friends…The same cannot be said, however, about his former boss -- Decaydance Records honcho/ Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz -- who seems to have clearly aligned himself with the Urie/Smith camp following the split" [ii].

in the same interview, ryan specifically says:

"I haven't spoken to him in a while, since this happened. I guess I've been meaning to call him back. He called me, but I've missed a lot of phone calls this week," Ross said. "We're not sure [whether Ross' and Walker's new band will be on Wentz's Decaydance Records]. I'll have to talk to him, but obviously from what's happening online, I think he's ... he's written a lot about them. I don't know if they're working together on their stuff. I'm not really sure, but it's been awhile since we've spoken. It's strange. It's kind of weird" [ii].

the author of the article speculates that ryan and pete’s friendship is over [ii]. i can’t find the source for this, nor can i remember what the specific comments were, but i swear that pete did make some shady comments about ryan at one point.

however, it does seem that their relationship is not on negative terms currently. in 2016, pete tweeted this and this about ryan [iii] [iv]. also, this year (2023), pete mentioned ryan in a video fall out boy posted of pete reviewing his old fashion! you can watch it here:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fall Out Boy (@falloutboy)

i’m also going to link an article i found that chronicles ryan and pete’s entire relationship, which is an interesting read (although i get the feeling they’re a little biased against ryan…).

ryan’s pet turtles:

i can’t find the post or comment, but on a lj post, ryan commented “this reminds me of when my dad ran over my pet turtles with the lawn mower. thanks.”

“i went to high school with ryan:”

i have two sources for this, and i’m not sure of which one is the original. however, this one is the one i remember seeing first (around 2014).

on tumblr, someone sent in an ask saying essentially the same thing, also in 2014.

i know that both are referring to the same thing; i’m just not sure if the first pic is based on the ask, or if the ask is based on the image. either way, the sentiment is the same.

honestly, i don’t think this story is true. still funny nonetheless

hot girls eating pizza:

this is another one i cannot find a source for anywhere (not even a tweet mentioning it), even though i was able to in the past. i apologize.

but i’m pretty sure that what this is about is a tweet/social media post in which he referred to hot girls eating pizza.

if anyone has a source or more information on this one though, please let me know!!

(i was going to dm the creator of one of the icebergs i referenced to ask her, but twitter won’t allow me to send dms to someone who doesn’t follow me unless i pay for twitter blue. i’m committed to explaining this iceberg but not enough to give elon musk my money i fear)

sent to an island:

in an alternative press interview from 2018, z said that on christmas eve, she shipped ryan off to an island to clear his head. ryan says, “true story” [v].

kate moss playboy:

in the following picture from ryan’s instagram, you can see a kate moss playboy on the table.

hentai:

in the fever era, panic did interviews for a japanese magazine. someone ran ryan’s portion through an image translation, and it brought back something about hentai.

eta: update, twitter user givememallce bought the actual magazine from japan and provided us with translations of this image and the questions the band was answering! they also included the answers from the rest of the band if you're curious about those [vi]. so the biggest shoutout to them and their service.

fake wedding with z:

in 2009, ryan and z pretended to be married. ryan tweeted a picture of z with a wedding ring, called her his wife, and also tweeted a quote of her calling him “the best husband ever” [vii].

later, he tweeted that his wife left in the middle of the night. he then had a revelation:

the best part is that all of these events took place within a single day.

here’s the masterpost with all the details:

not actually 5’11:

this is a conspiracy that ryan is lying about his height.

one piece of evidence was that brendon is 5’9, meaning ryan would be 2 inches taller than him. however, in a lot of photos they look to be relatively the same height.

the other piece is that multiple fans who have met ryan said that compared to their own heights, he can’t be 5’11. i don’t have specific sources of people saying that, but i know it was discourse on twitter at one point.

next is the final entry in the iceberg, where we get into the most obscure stuff the iceberg has to offer and finish this thing up.

tier 8

references:

[i] https://bandfandom-ref.livejournal.com/133181.html

[ii] https://www.mtv.com/news/1fedpk/exclusive-ryan-ross-talks-about-leaving-panic-at-the-disco

[iii] https://twitter.com/petewentz/status/794988164901261312

[iv] https://twitter.com/petewentz/status/795025751930114048

[v] https://www.altpress.com/ryan-ross-z-berg-the-bad-list/

[vi] https://twitter.com/GIVEMEMALlCE/status/1695649402663363028

[vii] https://pathetic-at-the-disco.tumblr.com/post/180912208431/ryan-ross-and-z-bergs-wedding-masterpost

[pluto-glow]

I've been meaning to ramble about this for a while oops but me and one of my partners worked on an rvb au based on this art We don't exactly have an official name for it- we've called it rvb ai swap au and rvb freelancer fix-it since a lot of the freelancer's ai's were swapped around and we added a lot more ai's and freelancers and it kinda fixed somethings? But also fucked up some other stuff so ya know

But the ai swap that started this entire au was North and South getting Eta and Iota. North got Eta since Eta's associated emotion was fear, so that just ended up with North taking on even more of a caretaker kinda role for Eta. South got Iota who's associated emotion is happiness. The Director saw how well North and South worked together and when Eta and Iota formed together, he wanted to see if giving them to the twins would help North and South work even better together than they already were. And it honestly does kinda work, North takes care of Eta so some of his anxiety and worry about South has an outlet, and Iota helps South have more fun.

But where does Theta go if they don't end up with North? In this au North gives up Theta to Maine instead of Carolina giving up Sigma and I love Theta and Maine being paired up so much you have no idea. Theta helps Maine with communication and Theta figures out a way for some of the Freelancers to learn sign language so Maine can talk to people more directly. Maine also gets protective of Theta after a while which helps Theta a lot when they get scared at night. Maine doesn't have as many headaches from Theta as he did from Sigma either.

Wash still gets Epsilon, but the Director and Counselor figured that implanting an AI who's associated trait is literally memory directly could end up with Wash knowing more about the program than he should- so they did something closer to when Epsilon/Church was in that mongoose I think it was? He's in Wash's armor, can project and all that, can still access the armor, but can't access in Wash's head. It makes the 2 of them communicating a lot harder, but it also means that Epsilon being implanted doesn't fuck up Wash's head so-

One of the non-canon Freelancers that I've been working on for this au is Maryland. She's easily distracted a bit of a major klutz, and can get pretty social anxious, but she's one of PF's best snipers. She gets paired with Kappa who helps her with focus. Honestly helps with focus a little too much. Kappa doesn't see the point in doing anything that doesn't have to do with Project Freelancer, but Maryland still likes to relax when she gets the chance. They but heads a lot when it comes to when to work and when to relax, but they still work pretty well together. Maryland's armor upgrade is a rations pack, it holds everything from water to ration bars to fluids that can be injected through an IV if needed.

Now I know Temple isn't exactly a Freelancer and he hates them but- Temple is supposed to be Church's counter part, right? So why not make Temple an AI. Temple was originally an AI named Tau, he's the Alpha's want for revenge. The Director and Counselor figured that having an AI around who just wanted revenge on them would be a bad idea, so they shipped him off to a sim trooper canyon and made up this fake backstory for him that his name was actually Mark Temple and he had signed up for Blue Team, and did the best they could to make sure that Tau didn't remember Project Freelancer. But if Temple was really an AI then what about Biff? Biff was actually a Freelancer sent there to watch Temple like what Florida was originally supposed to be for Church. Biff didn't really know a ton about the "memories" Temple had, but Biff had to go along with them anyways. The Director and the Counselor decided they liked how the experiment with Tau/Temple went, so they ended up trying the same thing with the Alpha when the time came

We have a lot more than this- the google doc we made for the AU is like 60 pages? But this is just some of the main characters I've worked on

[hislittleraincloud]

DirecTor: *sweat-drenched and sore, tries to sneak in as quietly as he can*

AB Wednesday: *turns on the light with a click*

DirecTor: *jumps* Heeey. There. Kiddo. How goes it?

ABW: Hey there, author. It goes quite fine. *takes out her phone, taps the screen, turns it to me* But care to explain to me what I'm seeing here?

DirecTor: *squints* That's uh...that's the Lords of Acid.

ABW: ...I know. I'm asking about the scene behind Gigi. *taps her little black-nailed fingertip on the screen over my disabled Weeble ass gesturing to the crowd to show me their pussies*

DirecTor: Well uh...see...uh — I was...there.

ABW: ...I know. But how did that happen?

DirecTor: *swallows* Well. I was seated sort of off to the side near the stage entrance and when Gigi called for people to come up on stage for 'Pussy (Round)', the dancer pointed to me. Probably because of my shirt.

ABW: *purses lips, and I can't tell if it's out of anger or irritance* Well, it is an attention-grabber.

DirecTor: Yeah, tell me about it. I got a lot of grins and comments on the way to the venue and then at the venue. I'm on a shitload of peoples' clouds. How'd you get that video anyway?

ABW: *clicks it off after she sees Praga Khan giving me a hug at the end of the song* I have my sources.

DirecTor: ...

ABW: ...

DirecTor: It was Fester, wasn't it.

ABW: ...Perhaps.

✨👹🔥🫠🔥👹✨

So...somewhere in this world more than a few people have pics and video of my thicc ass embarrassing myself behind Gigi Ricci (the current vocalist for the Lords). Face reveal!:

This is actually a screencap from a video I took of myself listening to the White Girl Drama next to me before the shows started. I wanted to stick an icepick into my brain to escape her blathering. She was with her friend and they were both dressed as Coop Voodoo U devil women, full-on red body paint and all. But because of their drama, they left before the Lords even got to 'Voodoo U' (and it was on the set list). Like...the yappy one had fallen asleep at her table at one point and her friend looked a little concerned. I asked her if she was okay and she said yes, but...she didn't look ok 😬

I'm so tired. I'm too old for this shit, but it was worth it because it seems that every time I go out and do something like this, people gravitate towards me. I got to shake Praga Khan's hand (he turned to me before the song and shook my hand after I climbed the short stairs w my cane...I was shocked to have even been invited onto the stage by his dancer ETA: WIFE, I learned it was Inja, Praga Khan's wife 💀), and then he hugged me after the song was done. He's so little and frail 😳 But very sweet. I haven't let anyone touch me bc of COVID, but he was the exception. The man is a legend, and the Lords still have it.

Gigi was topless! She didn't have any X tape taped over her nips tonight, unlike during the Philly show (the vids I posted).

I did have to leave a little early (they weren't done yet) because I wanted to beat the crowd to BART and I didn't want to get stranded late in the damn Tenderloin. I made a friend...of course he is a cultured, older European (Dutch, LOL). He was sitting alone before everything started and looked a little lost (his friends didn't show up). He too needed to leave early bc he lives in San Jose and also had to catch BART back. We chatted quite a bit and stuck together during the show.

Anyway. I guess time will tell re: if I get sick. I shouldn't, bc I don't think my gear slipped and the venue was not packed...it was a comfortable half-packed hall, so people could actually socially distance themselves, or dance and move around. The crowd was pretty geriatric (like me), but there were quite a few younger Millennials there too. I really should have a headache from all the headbanging, but I don't (and interestingly enough, my voice isn't hoarse either, despite loads of screaming). My feet and legs are dead tho. I'll probably be bedridden for a couple of days.

ETA: The dogs were all asleep when I got back, and my old boy was fine. I love it when they're well behaved. Someone was trying to get their dog into the venue (when I arrived at the hall, there was a short line of people waiting to get in). I don't know if they succeeded, but I didn't see the dog in there, so. It was a small, white fluffy dog with a 'service dog' leash on it. Even if it was a real service dog (and I don't think it was), why would you bring the poor thing to a freaking Lords of Acid concert? It's not a goddamn orchestal symphony. The Lords are LOUD. I kept thinking how horrible it would be for my baby had I brought her. Too loud! She's used to loud Lords of Acid since I sometimes play the Afterburn soundtracks when we go out in her little front pack, but not THAT loud. Damn, people. That's just cruel.

[kattahj]

Okay, so, trying to weed through the reasons Last Twilight is losing me emotionally, and it turns out there are more than I thought.

Please note that there's still a lot I like about this show! I'll still keep watching it! This is just about the negative stuff while I sort out my feelings.

On the other hand, the negative stuff is NEGATIVE, so read at your own peril!

1. I'm not sure I buy these two as boyfriends. The initial banter was great, but now they're together, and they still feel like chums.

2. Follow-up: I'm not convinced, in general, that they're strong enough actors for this story. There have been plenty of shows for me that manage to sell ridiculous plots through strong performances. This show is the other way around: it's fairly solid but demands a LOT of its actors, and sometimes I just don't buy the result.

3. Acknowledging that I may just be expecting too much, because it's Aof and I've been waiting for it for so long. But looking back, there was quite a bit in his other shows that was sold by the performances, and now I retroactively question my judgement of those shows too, which makes me sad.

4. I don't like the Mee story. I enjoyed the Little Prince reference in episode 1 because it's a book I'm already familiar with and emotionally invested in, but Mee's story just feels cloying and manipulative. It feels like they don't trust the scenes well enough on their own and have to add commentary to make sure I have the right reactions to them. And then I still don't! Because I resent being told what to feel!

5. We're hitting a lot of disability clichés, which maybe wouldn't be so bad if they weren't treated as profound. Again, I feel like I'm being emotionally manipulated, rather than allowed to arrive at those emotions on my own.

(Sidenote: the trope of a blind person touching someone's face to "see" them was pretty much ruined for me by one of those "ask a blind person" segments, where they went, "Yeah, we don't do that," except for one guy who went, "I do it to pick up sighted girls, they love that stuff.")

6. We are completely losing Mhok's story in the process. Maybe we'll get back to it later, IDK, but right now he serves primarily as the "inexperienced able-bodied person teaching disabled person how to live their own damn life" trope that I have already talked about hating.

7. A lot will still depend on where this story is heading. (If they do magical healing I am done. I think they won't, but I don't trust it.)

8. Some fan reactions are making it worse,  especially in the youtube comments, where they really lean into the most maudlin interpretations.

9. Things like the dad showing up just feels like they drop melodrama in there for the sake of it, and without being willing to properly engage with it. Compare and contrast Jam's appearance in Moonlight Chicken, where the emotions felt so much more honest and well handled... but again, better actors...

10. The way Day projects his own shitty driving onto Night isn't WRONG for the series, it may even be GOOD, but it did put me in a bad mood that may have influenced my ability to engage with the rest of the episode.

11. Nitpicking, but I just don't get them giving Last Twilight as a wedding gift. I mean, obviously I get it on a symbolic level, but on a practical level, why would you give a book to the person who recommended it to you, and so presumably already has it? And why would you give a book missing its last page to anyone?

12. With everything else stacking up, that final scene on the mountain just felt like someone was spraying whipped cream into my mouth while blasting "Memory" on high volume = may be a high point for others, just makes me feel like I'm choking on dairy and violins.

ETA 13: A MLC gifset just reminded me – the product placements in Last Twilight really feel shoehorned in.

[skelingtonsderek]

(From Willow) For "Remembrance.":

They’re pressed in close, hands still clasped from their efforts to raise Boyd from the grass. His other hand, he slides from Raylan’s hip to the small of his back, presses in just enough to encourage Raylan just a little closer, leaves a small kiss against the frown Raylan makes sometimes when he forgets to smile. 

“There a story to that face of yours?” Boyd asks, voice as gentle as his lips as he lays another kiss, this time on the scrape across Raylan’s cheek. There’s a shadow under his eye Boyd knows will develop into a beautiful purple to match the ruddy mauve his already swelling lip will be by tomorrow. 

Raylan releases his hand from Boyd’s, runs those anxious spider legs he has for hands along Boyd’s sides, just this side of tickling. There’s a knowledge there, when he looks at Boyd, a shimmering depth that Boyd wishes to plunge into with the ardent yearning of a man at the shore of an expansive lake on the hottest day of the year, hot eyes fixed on just exactly what he wishes to quench the thirst in his flesh upon. 

Raylan hums, taking his hat off and settling it gently on top of Boyd’s head. 

“Oh, you know me, Boyd,” Raylan responds, smile breaking out all lopsided and goofy and brighter than the sun above on his face. “I don’t play well with others.” 

Willow!!! You have great taste in picks, too. Y’all are killing me. Deceased. Dead. I am really quite fond of Remembrance. As a story. I promise I don’t say that about all of them just all the ones I like (all of them) Don't think I didn't notice this one was also a Hat Scene...

So this is like a couple things all at once because I can’t not multitask when I’m having fun but anyway there’s this ending to Remembrance. here to talk about. Boyd is unearthed here, now no longer feeling like he’s in his grave and dead. His mind finally allowing himself to believe that he’s alive and he’s alive because Raylan reached into perdition and— argjygfns;OIEHK sorry was briefly possessed by the Supernatural fandom there. It’s like this. Their experiences together, their shared agonies and griefs and joys have brought them closer. Boyd has returned to himself but different. He came back wrong but that has made them all the more close to each other because of it. A sort of hope in what they might grow to be together and a faith that they Will. “There a story to that face of yours?” Is a line taken directly form the script for the show that Boyd asks Raylan at one point when they meet. Used here to show for Boyd’s curiosity about Raylan continuing even with his memories back, he wants to know more and more and more. Bookended by another line taken from the show. I think “I don’t play well with others” is said by Boyd in the show though. I can’t find the scene again. I wish I could. But. OK. I have to admit it. This is a confession. Confession time here. I was also referencing someone else’s fic but only a little tiny bit because there was a scene from it that gave me the idea in a sort of roundabout way so I wanted to pay homage to that as well but was too shy to like just out and out say it. In Take Care of You by norgbelulah there’s this scene where they get in to a bit of a shootout and Boyd goes in to shock and I thought that was quite dramatic and interesting and then I thought well what if he really did go mad tho so I took that thought and ran with it. “You know me” is one of the things Boyd and Raylan say to each other in that story. I don’t know if it’s actually a Thing in Set Fire to This House but my head said it was and just… quietly altered my brain to include that as a term of endearment.

ETA: also because it's affirmation. Boyd really Does know Raylan and has the whole time and would all over again given the chance to learn him a third time lololololol

[feldspursfiyero]

downton abbey 6x08

CARSON CONTINUES TO BE A DICK

mary is so anthony-coded <3 :3 making other people be miserable when she's miserable skjfngk

edith's outfits in this ep are on point!!! like, almost all of them. iirc it's only her outfit where she made up with mary that i didn't like

thomas needs a boyfriend

THOMAS NEEDS TO BE HAPPY

carson is a dick to everyone??? like, even to mrs patmore, and mr moseley, and he tried to talk back to (question?) lord grantham, like dude just fuck offffff

lord grantham should fire him, i'd love to see his face go pale

i absolutely did not look when carson and mrs hughes kissed lmao that's filed under things i don't want to see (the other one that stands out in my memory is anna and bates' wedding night... ew ew ew)

if i could be bothered/was more into giffing, i'd gif all of my fave edith outfits from this ep

mr moseley winning over the class was fun

umm so... i didn't realise that thomas taking a bath is a sign to be alarmed...? or have i forgotten something/am i just more aware of the various other ways a person can kill themselves

carson is a dick btw

still rooting for edith and bertie. also partly because i know they end up together haha, i wonder how that happens (i think i'll go spoiler myself after this)

edith's office looks great, she and the girl she invited to the race in the prev ep should get married

speaking of which, tom and henry should get married too... honestly that kind of manoeuvring would've pissed me off like it did mary. but unlike mary i wouldn't have taken him back. because grrrr he was really pushy at one point?? at the top of the stairs. SHE ALREADY TOLD YOU TO FUCK OFF OR SOMETHING. like, people not taking no for an answer is such a turn off

eta:

eh, thought of something. thomas saying he had to be nicer to people; well i thought he'd been pretty nice to people in the past few eps...?

also, teeny tiny criticisms: there were some very quick scenes near the start of the ep that ... felt choppy, and i guess they were really trimming it for time maybe?? and thomas' attempted suicide sorta got lost in everything. but maybe i was expecting more about that because i knew it was coming