#go magic trick theory | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ckret2 · 8 months ago

Text

So a while ago some friends were talking about fans who claim the Same Coin theory is canon. And I made the mistake of saying:

Do you know who also has tons in common with Bill? Mabel. Yet nobody claims Bill reincarnated as Mabel. …wait now I want a "same coin but it's Mabel" AU. Funniest Bill reincarnation option. The all-seeing arsonist is making macaroni glitter art. The omnipotent tyrant is crying because a unicorn called her a bad person.

And then I overthought it for two months.

So—AU where after death, Bill's soul shoots 13 years into the past and reincarnates as Mabel. I'll call it ✨ Sparkly Coin AU ✨

Don't leave yet. Lemme show you why it works. Behold the eerie amount of parallels in their personalities, dialogue, behavior, mannerisms, tastes...

I could have kept going but my attention span ran out. All right, we all on board now? Convinced we could segue from one personality into the other? Great. Now here's why you should be interested: the juicy post-Weirdmageddon angst potential.

As long as a small fringe of the fandom still thinks Weirdmageddon is Mabel's fault, why not amp that up x100 and have some fun with it?

Is everyone sold now? Great. Let's get into the details. I've got 8 more pieces of art under the read more.

So the AU starts the instant Bill dies. Thanks to invoking his deal with the Axolotl—one way to absolve his crime, a different form, a different time—the Axolotl gives him a new shape and shoots him thirteen years into the past. Apparently, the Axolotl thought it would be very funny to stick Bill in the family that defeated him.

Which probably made for a jarring transition.

(It's fine, she's like 10 minutes old, she probably can't even tell who she's looking at. Not being able to tell who she was looking at is what got her into this situation ayyyy)

When Dipper & Mabel come back from Gravity Falls complaining about this triangular jerk Bill, their parents mention that Dipper's name was nearly Bill. See, after they knew they were going to have a boy, one night their mom dreamed about a visitor—some kind of magic pink salamander??—calling her child "BILL." Then at the next sonogram they found out they were having twins, the girl must've been hidden at a weird angle the first time, and they wanted matching names, so they thought, Bill and Bell. But they didn't really like Bell; but eventually they stumbled on Mabel, so to keep the names matching they switched from Bill to Mason. Isn't that the darnedest thing?

(Of course, Mabel and Dipper assume Bill harassed their parents to try to trick them into naming a kid after him. To be a jerk.)

When Bill meets Mabel, he's unaware that she's his future self—Bill's notably bad at doing things like, say, double-checking to see whether he's going to die anytime soon—but like... he can tell something's up.

Naturally, before visiting Gravity Falls, there were echoes of who Mabel used to be—but nothing anyone would be able to identify without context. All her Bill-ish quirks either smoothed out with time (see: how between second grade and fourth grade Mabel went from being the "freak" to the popular girl in class), or else they were accepted by her family as Mabel-ish quirks.

After they meet (and kill) Bill, they have the context to understand some of Mabel's behaviors... and unfortunately, some of Mabel's latent Bill-ness starts surfacing after she's been directly exposed to her prior incarnation.

The part of the Pines family familiar with Bill thinks the worst case scenario is that maybe Bill's survived and is slowly possessing Mabel; but far more likely, they think this is just some weird way of trying to subconsciously process last summer. Mabel doesn't think she's being weird, you guys are being weird, stop giving her weird looks. They get attacked by one triangle and now she can't wear yellow or pick up macrame as a hobby??

(It's not all red flags and uncomfortable triangle imagery, though. When Stan asks her what she'd like as a gift for some important event, she shyly admits that she thinks she's starting to outgrow her plastic gem jewelry and maybe she's old enough to get her first piece of real gold jewelry, if that's not too expensive? And Stan's never been so proud of her. Thirteen years old and already thinking about buying gold!)

But of course, the real fun starts when Mabel finds out.

That's the face of a girl who's just discovered that she tortured her great uncle. Now imagine running into the brother she possessed.

But I've already spent a million words and thirteen images on this post. If enough folks are interested in the AU maybe I'll expand on it later. Let me know what y'all think.

#mabel pines #bill cipher #gravity falls #gravity falls au #gravity falls fanart #sparkly coin au #my art #my writing #(here's that AU I've been taunting y'all with)

3K notes · View notes

spacerockfloater · 11 months ago

Text

The way people switched on Tamlin the moment Rhys was introduced is diabolical.

“Tamlin never really loved Feyre, it was all a trick from the start”: It is stated that Tamlin was disgusted by the idea of forcing someone to fall in love with him and considered it slavery, but ended up being so in love with her that he ultimately lets her go and choses her freedom and safety over that of his own people. Rhys confirms that Tamlin loved Feyre too much. And he loved her truly. Not because he had to. Tamlin treated Feyre with dignity when she was engaged to him. He introduced her as his lady, to be respected and cherished by all. And she really was loved by his people, too. Rhysand uses her as his lap dog to scare Hewn City and parades her as his whore.

“Tamlin never did anything for Feyre, he just used her”: He improved her and her family’s life in every aspect and offered her everything he had.

“Tamlin had sex with someone else in Calanmai”: Out of duty and responsibility because he didn’t want to force Feyre, who still wasn’t sure about her feelings, into it. All of the High Lords perform the Calanmai. Lucien says so. How convenient that this is never brought up with Rhysand. He surely does perform it as well. All the theories in here, “Lucien doesn’t know what he’s talking about/ This is a SC ritual only/ He probably just passes the duty on to someone else” are just a way for people to villainise Tam and glorify Rhys again. All of them inaccurate. The Calanmai is canonically performed by every High Lord. There’s no evidence that proves otherwise. As the son of one High Lord and the ambassador of another, Lucien would know. He is 500 years old. It’s just more convenient for SJM to never bring this up again because it raises the question of “Who was Rhysand fucking all these years?” and it makes her favourite character look bad. And once he is engaged to her, Tamlin flat out refuses to do it. Let’s be real for a second.

“Tamlin didn’t help Feyre under the mountain”: He literally could not. He was bound by a curse. He was forced to be Amarantha’s consort and a consort cannot oppose you. His powers were bound. Alis warns Feyre that Tamlin will not be able to help her. Stop acting as if he didn’t want to help her. He decapitated Amarantha the moment he got his autonomy back. Claiming that there’s no proof that Tamlin was under the influence of a spell when he literally didn’t break the curse and Amarantha’s magic didn’t allow him to use his powers is crazy. And even if he tried, he could never provide actual help. We see this when he begs Amarantha for Feyre’s life. Him showing he cares about her would only make Amarantha more jealous and vicious towards Feyre.

“Tamlin made out with Feyre instead of helping her”: He couldn’t help her run away. No one could do that. She would never make it, Amarantha would find her. In fact, Tamlin specifically could not help her in any way. He could only assure her he still wants and loves her. And she wanted that just as much. Rhys abused her physically, mentally, verbally, drugged her and much worse. And he enjoyed all of it. If he didn’t want to raise suspicions, he wouldn’t have placed a bet in her favour. Rhys is a sadist, SJM just decided to mellow him down in the next book so that we’d all like him over Tamlin.

“Tamlin ignored Feyre’s wishes and only wanted her to be his bride, he didn’t let her be High Lady”: Both Tamlin and Feyre were bad communicators going though trauma and Tam had a whole court to care for. Tamlin was unaware of how Feyre felt because she barely spoke up once. Rhys knew because he literally lived inside her head and had all the time in the world to focus his attention on her since his court suffered zero consequences during Amarantha’s reign. And Tamlin simply told her the truth: there’s no such thing as High Lady. Even her current title is given to her by Rhys, the magic of Prythian has not actually chosen her to be High Lady. The title and its power are decorative. And she said she didn’t want that anyway.

“Tamlin locks Feyre up and uses his magic to harm her”: He locks her in his humongous palace to keep her safe, after she just came back from the dead and his worst enemy is kidnapping her every month, while he runs off to protect his borders. Rhysand locks Feyre in a fucking bubble. Tamlin loses control of his magic. He doesn’t want to harm her. That’s not abuse. Abuse is intentional. Feyre and Rhysand lock Lucien and Nesta up. They lock the people of the Hewn City up in a cave. Feyre loses control of her magic and harms Lucien’s mother. Double standards I guess.

“Tamlin is a bad and conservative ruler”: Tamlin is such a beloved ruler that his sentries literally begged to die for him. Feyre had to fuck with their minds to finally turn them against him. They were his friends. He was so progressive that the lords fled his court once he became their ruler because he wouldn’t put up with their bullshit like his father did. He loved all of his people. He is against slavery. The Tithe was just tax collection. Rhysand practically rules over just one city, while ignoring Hewn City and Illyria. He treats 2/3 of his realm like shit and everyone except the residents of Velaris hates him. He collects tax, too, but we conveniently never see this. He ranks the members of his inner circle (my 1st, my 2nd etc.) and reminds them every moment that they are his slaves first and anything else second, while Tamlin treats them equally and even gives Lucien an official title by naming him Ambassador.

“Tamlin conspired with Hybern”: He was a double agent and his short lived alliance, two weeks all in all, not only didn’t harm a single soul, but ultimately saved all of Prythian as he was the only one who brought valuable information to that meeting. He dragged Beron to battle. Rhysand’s alliance with Amarantha harmed thousands and only helped save one city, Velaris.

“Tamlin is responsible for turning Nesta and Elain into Fae”: No, that was Ianthe, who got the info from Feyre. Tamlin was fooled by her, just as Feyre obviously was, or she wouldn’t have trusted her. Tamlin was disgusted by that act.

“Tamlin is less powerful than Rhysand”: Rhysand himself says that a battle between them would turn mountains to dust. Tamlin killed Rhysand’s dad, the previous High Lord of the Night Court, in one blow. He is just as powerful as Rhysand. SJM again just wants us to believe otherwise. And he is smarter, too. He was the only one not to trust Amarantha. And he was a good spy for Prythian against Hybern.

All of these takes are cold as fuck. SJM was testing the waters with ACOTAR and she made sure the main love interest, Tamlin, was insanely likeable, so that the book could be a satisfactory standalone story in case she couldn’t land a trilogy deal. She didn’t know it would be such a big hit. But once she realised she could turn this into a franchise, she had to figure out a new story to tell. She may claim otherwise, but there’s just too many plothotes to convince me. And in order to make her new main love interest seem like the best choice, she had to character assassinate the old one. There was no other way. ACOTAR Rhys was too much of an evil monster to be loved by the majority of the audience. But Tamlin was introduced to us as such a heroic and passionate man that is literally impossible to turn him into someone despised by all. Feyre’s relationship with Rhysand reads too much like cheating on Tamlin. That’s why anyone with basic analytical skills is able to realise the flaws of the narration.

2K notes · View notes

theroundbartable · 1 year ago

Text

Arthur is stuck in a time loop.

At first, he doesn't really notice it, since every day feels the same anyway. It's Merlin's good morning that irks him, however, because Merlin tends to switch up the routine a lot. When then the topic of the court meeting is the same, Arthur knows what's up.

In loop three, he asks Gaius for help and the man explains that only a powerful sorcerer could do such a thing and that he'd need strong magic to break it.

The next morning, everything is forgotten. And Arthur researches on his own what's happening. He spends days at the library until one day, he's just really tired.

And so, he stays in bed for a couple days, and lets Merlin complain for hours. It's soozing in an odd way. As days go by, Arthur gets bolder. He approaches Merlin in broad sunlight, hands him food or flowers in front of people and receiving odd stares.

Arthur waits for Merlin's reactions and they seem rather hesitant if also positive. Yet, when Arthur finally gathers up the courage to confess, Merlin rejects him.

Arthur spends another few loops in bed, while Merlin no longer carries any memories of the incident. Arthur then asks Gaius dejectedly who the most powerful sorcerer is he knows.

And Gaius says Emrys and tells him the man lives in the woods, a two day march from Camelot. Arthur loses hope. One loop equals a day. He'd never make it. That is IF the man is even there.

On loop xy, Arthur asks Gaius again, during a different time of day, where Emrys lives. And Gaius answers: about half a day ride north, Sire.

Arthur is confused. That doesn't make sense. Why would Gaius say something different than last time? Gaius was clearly part of the loop! Unless he's lying. And each time he lied he just said the first thing that came to mind.

Arthur stops avoiding Merlin at one point and accepts that Merlin won't respond to his feelings. So, he approaches him and tries to discuss magic issues with him. While Merlin warns him of magic like read from a script, Arthur argues positive aspects. Because he's trying to talk himself into turning to magic to maybe manage to save himself if he trained himself in the arts. Even if it takes years of the timeloop.

Unprompted, Merlin hugs him tight and looks at him with so much affection that Arthur is sure Merlin likes him.

Needless to day, Arthur is more than confused. And Arthur notices another thing. Both Merlin and Gaius react differently to him, depending on how he talks. If he's positive about magic, they are eager to help. Merlin looks most carefree then. And almost like he wants to ... Well, what exactly?

One loop, Arthur tests the theorie: Merlin, I'm going to lift the magic ban.

Merlin stops in his tracks and stares at Arthur. Arthur repeats himself, nervous of the response. Almost more nervous than he was when he got rejected.

Arthur: merlin?

Merlin: why

Arthur: because magic isn't as evil as my father had me believe.

Merlin: is this a trick?

Arthur: a trick? No. I just understand now that sometimes magic is needed. And I need magic right now. *Explains situation*

Merlin: ... arthur, i don't know how many timeloops you've been through

Arthur: you believe me? Uhhhh... 200, probably

Merlin: ... I can help you

Arthur: how?

Merlin: because I'm emrys

#bbc merlin #merlin #merthur #merlin bbc #arthur #concept #time loop

2K notes · View notes

procrastiel · 9 months ago

Text

I don’t exactly know how this fits (or if it’s relevant at all), but while reading this meta I remembered that it was Crowley who tossed the book to Muriel… so, considering that we have possibly Aziraphale mouthing “we need help”, at the beginning of the final fifteen, and The KissTM with possibly Crowley passing something to Aziraphale, and then possibly Aziraphale passing Crowley a message back via the song in the Bentley… I wonder if Crowley passed Muriel a message, too? They looked quite intent while reading and made sure The Metatron wasn’t able to peek inside the book… at that time Crowley didn’t know that Az was offered/fake-offered the Supreme Archangel position, but maybe he had a hunch they were in danger. He looked positively panicked when Az left with The Metatron.

The Devil's Elevator & The Three Travelers

Maybe I'm the last to learn this but did you guys know there's a card trick in magic wherein decks of cards are made into metaphorical elevators and chosen red cards (representing "good") are progressively put into positions within a pile of black cards (representing "evil") as if falling to Hell... but the trick is that all of the chosen cards always return to the top of the pile?

And did you know that this trick is called The Devil's Elevator?

And that it has a sister trick called The Three Travelers that actually involves four cards getting into metaphorical elevators-- three red cards and one black one...like Gabriel, Aziraphale, Muriel, & Crowley...

...as God would say in S1:

Watch carefully... Round and round they go...

Let's start with The Devil's Elevator...

This trick just uses four red cards and four black ones. The black ones form "The Devil's Elevator" by representing Hell. The pile of black cards is the elevator with the elevator button being represented by the magician tapping the top of the pile to "press the elevator button" to complete the trick by seeming to magically moving the cards from one position to another.

One at a time, each of the red cards is then slotted between cards in the black card pile while the spectators watch. The magician then presses the "elevator button" atop the pile and the red card that had been placed between the black ones -- and metaphorically "fallen"-- suddenly appears at the top of the pile, rescued from The Devil.

The spectator's response is naturally one of bewilderment. They saw the red cards be placed in with the black cards... so, how did they then get back up the top? What in the bananafish gorilla shoelace is this card sorcery?! How does this trick work and what does all of this have to do with where Good Omens' story might be going?

If the red cards symbolize angels, then, metaphorically, in our story, the magician (Aziraphale) keeps helping push those fallen, red cards (Gabriel, Muriel, etc.), one by one, back up to the top of the pile...

...and, eventually, at the end of the trick, all of the cards-- "good"/red and "bad"/black alike-- are then spread out to reveal them to the spectators as equal, individual cards... just all members of the deck... which we see a bit already in the story and which would then be where the story is headed overall by the end of S3... but, we still have a big question...

...how does our magician do it?

How does he get all the fallen cards away from Satan and back up to the top of the pile and then reveal the full pile of all of the cards as an equal deck by the end of this? What can learning about how the literal card trick is done tell us about how Aziraphale might achieve something like this for the characters in the story?

Quite a lot, it seems...

You see, in the card trick, the magician successfully fools those watching and pulls off the trick with a certain bit of sleight-of-hand... something that is in view of the spectator but which the spectators-- distracted by the falling red cards-- do not fully notice...

...it turns out that the magician pulls off the trick by having been secretly holding one of the black cards close in his hands the entire time...

There actually are not four, aligned black cards in the pile... there only appears to be. The magician has separated one black card from the rest and woven it back in with the red cards. The magician uses this card to help protect the red cards and to show the spectators that they all belong at the top of the pile.

Pulling off the trick involves repeated showings of all of the red and black cards alike to the spectators in order to convince them that there is not secretly a black card involved in the magician's trick... but, to most eagle-eyed spectators, this is a deception. It already seems unlikely that the magician doesn't have his hands on his preferred black card because the trick's success doesn't actually make sense without that being the case.

The only way for the magician to pull off upending the social order of these "cards" and eventually blowing up The Devil's Elevator (and Heaven) alike is if one of the black cards only seemed like he was part of the demonic pack but was actually partnered with the magician.

Neither of them can do any of this on their own. They're a team. A group. A group of the two of them, one might even say lol... one that rescues, supports, and protects one another.

The magician rescues the selected black card by offering him an escape from the legions of other black cards through the magician's prized care and favor. It is this black card that then comes to the magician's emotional rescue, enabling him to feel secure enough to pull off the trick with confidence...

...and, together, they save the fallen cards by spreading the deck out and revealing for the spectators that, while individually unique, the cards are all fundamentally made of the same stuff...

...but, before we get there, there's another, sister elevator card trick to this one that is equally relevant to this story that we should look at...

...it's called 'The Three Travelers' but there are actually four cards on the move that "go into the elevator" during the course of the trick.

Three of the cards are red or "good" cards while the fourth is a black/"demonic" card...

...and have I mentioned that... making things more interesting... one of the red cards actually "gets in the elevator" with the black card?

...is this beginning to seem a bit familiar? 😉

This isn't The Marvelous Mr. Fell's magic trick here. Aziraphale isn't our magician in question on this one; this is an overall narrative magic trick. The Three Travelers card trick aligns with some of the story structure in S2 and into S3's set up in a way that might suggest it partially inspired it. So, let's look at how this kind of elevator card trick works and how it differs from The Devil's Elevator...

This one involves a full deck of cards but only four of them are actually used in the trick: three red and one black card, as we said above. The deck of cards is the elevator and on what the magician will tap to "push the button" for the elevator to make the magic of moving the cards around.

The trick has three stages, with four different cards total "getting into the elevator": First Red Card, Second Red Card and Third Red Card/The Black Card.

This maths out, as we'll look at, into this:

First, Red Card: Gabriel...

Second, Red Card: Aziraphale...

Third, Red Card and The Black Card: Muriel and Crowley...

This trick, though, does not result in all of the cards going Up...

...which is why it's the one that we're in the midst of currently watching unfold in the story rather than the endgame The Devil's Elevator that will be what Aziraphale and Crowley manage to pull off to bring the story to a conclusion.

What's the result of The Three Travelers trick in our story? It's to shake some things up and move these characters around in surprising ways that have only just begun to be fully seen by us so far...

The magician begins the trick with the deck stacked and with what seem like only three, red cards separated from it and shown to the spectators. These red cards, symbolically, are Gabriel, Aziraphale and Muriel in our story. However, the magician has really separated out a fourth card as well-- a black one, who is Crowley in our story. The spectators do not see that this card has been pulled from the deck as the magician has pulled it at the same time as they did with the Third, Red Card (Muriel) and keeps them together for a future twist that the spectators will see at the end of the trick.

Part 1 of the trick? The First Red Card-- Gabriel.

The First, Red Card (Gabriel) is shown to the spectator as being on the top of the deck... but is then placed by the magician at the very bottom of the deck.

The magician then "presses the Up button" on the deck of cards by tapping the top of it and telling the spectators that that's what he's doing. He then turns the top card of the deck over and reveals that it's actually the First, Red Card that the spectators thought that they just saw put at the bottom of the deck.

From a story perspective, we might sense this coming already. We saw Gabriel fall in S2 but we also know that Crowley and Aziraphale have discovered that Heaven can't actually strip angels of all of their powers. It would not take much for Gabriel to learn this information in S3 and Crowley is now willing to share it, as we saw him basically begin to tell Muriel this in 2.06 when he opened the file on Gabriel in front of them. Gabriel was The Supreme Archangel of Heaven and it seems likely that he is going to learn in S3 that, in terms of personal power, he still really is... all of which will be very helpful to Crowley and Aziraphale as their story results in winding up overthrowing Heaven to stop Armageddon for good.

Part 2 of the trick: The Second, Red Card-- Aziraphale.

Next, The Second, Red Card that was separated from the pack goes into the elevator... but with a really big twist.

The Second, Red Card is shown to the spectators to be-- I kid you not-- the next to take the same position of The First, Red Card.

The magician shows the spectators that The Second, Red Card (Aziraphale) is going to be placed on the top of the deck of cards-- the place formerly occupied before by The First, Red Card (Gabriel) before the start of the card trick-- and makes the spectators believe this to be the case...

...and the magician then places The Second, Red Card on top of the deck of cards, saying it's "gone into The Elevator"... because, remember... the point of the trick is actually to unexpectedly move the card from one place to another...

...and then the magician "pushes the button" on the deck of cards, symbolizing pushing the elevator button to move The Second, Red Card...

...the thing is, though, that the magician actually says he's pushing the opposite button to that of what he pressed for The First, Red Card...

In the magic trick, The First, Red Card comes from the top of the deck, is placed on the bottom, the button pressed by the magician is then the "Up" button, and The First, Red Card winds up on the top of the pile...

...all of this is actually reversed for The Second, Red Card in the trick. That card is placed on the top of the deck, the magician actually says he presses the elevator button of "Down" when he taps the deck of cards, and The Second, Red Card is revealed to be on the bottom of the pile of cards.

In Good Omens, all of this tracks for Gabriel and Aziraphale... with the exception of which button is pressed for which character. Gabriel goes down in the elevator but comes out on the top of the pile in the card trick while Aziraphale seems to be going up in the elevator but, we are seeing, looks like he's actually going to the bottom of the deck of cards. All of the cards eventually, though, are reunited with the full deck and become equal to them after The Three Travelers trick is complete... just not yet in either of the tricks or in the story itself.

While Gabriel was placed on the bottom and will surprise in S3 by still having the power he had on top and being able to use that to help everyone, Aziraphale-- The Second, Red Card-- is given an inverse of The First, Red Card/Gabriel in the trick. Aziraphale is placed on the top of the deck, as far as the speculators are concerned. He's given all the power. If the magician is to be believed (lol a big "if"!), Aziraphale is supposed to be The Supreme Archangel.

This is the deceptive part of the trick, though, because then the magician presses the elevator button-- the opposite one to what was pressed for Gabriel-- and, even though that button for Aziraphale is Up, well, something's going down in The Up. It's the opposite button to Gabriel's so it means the opposite thing because, in The Three Travelers magic trick, it's then revealed to the spectators that The Second, Red Card?...

...it's now actually moved to the bottom of the deck...

...but we're not done yet. One more part of the magic trick to go...

We can't forget about Part 3: our Third, Red Card (Muriel) and The Black Card (Crowley)...

The magician throws a big twist into this part of the trick...

While the First and Second Red Cards are largely about inverting expectations-- moving the cards into opposite positions of the top and the bottom of the deck of cards from where they were placed-- this part of the trick involves splitting the deck and changing the notion of what being at the top and the bottom of the decks actually means entirely.

By this point, the spectators are wondering what the deal is going to be for last element of the trick-- for The Third, Red Card that was presented at the start of the trick. The first, two Red Cards have largely moved up and down on the deck. One went top-bottom-top while the other went bottom-top-bottom. What new thing then can then happen with The Third, Red Card?

The magician shakes things up for the spectators by offering up this twist: what if we split the deck of cards in half?

The magician then lifts the top half of the cards off of the bottom half and separates them into two piles. The Top Half? We'll call it Pile A while The Bottom Half, we'll call Pile B. There is no deception here-- it's just literally halving the deck into two piles as close to evenly as can be eyeballed.

At this point, The First, Red Card (Gabriel) is now sitting atop Pile A while The Second, Red Card (Aziraphale) is now sitting at the bottom of Pile B. Collectively, this is still one deck of cards in total-- just visually split into two-- but what happens here with The Third, Red Card splits the power structure in an unique way for the sake of the story, which you'll see in a second.

What we now have by having Pile A and Pile B are two different portals-- new destinations to which the elevator can send the cards besides the up/down of the first two parts of the trick. Instead of putting a card on the top of a pile or the bottom of a pile and having it appear in the opposite spot, The Third, Red Card is about to travel sideways with the help of The Black Card... who also gets a new position of his own.

The magician puts what appears to the spectators to be The Third, Red Card down atop Pile B. (As a reminder: Aziraphale will be at the bottom of Pile B after getting into the elevator.)

The magician then sends The Third, Red Card into an elevator with, secretly, The Black Card riding along with them. In the card trick, the spectators do not know about the presence of The Black Card at this stage but, on our visual tv show paralleling this, we have to know this. So, we see Crowley and Muriel get into the elevator together.

The magician then "pushes the elevator button" on the top of Pile B. We spectators just saw what card the magician wants us to believe they just placed atop Pile B-- The Third, Red Card (Muriel). If Az is in Hell at the bottom of this pile and if we leave Muriel about here, more or less, at the end of S2...

...we think we know what's happening with Muriel-- that they've swapped with Aziraphale and have taken over the bookshop...

...but we haven't seen the magic trick actually fully performed yet, have we? Because the magician put The Third, Red Card down on the top of Pile B but he hasn't actually done this part of the trick yet... so, we think we know what's happening for Muriel but the whole point of the trick is that the card has to move now that it's been put into place and gotten into the elevator, right? So, it can't actually be in S3 where the magician first put it down in S2...

I don't think as a whole that we are even thinking about the possibility that Muriel is not actually running the bookshop in S3. None of us are, right? Has this crossed anyone's mind at all? I know for sure it didn't cross my mind until I just recently found myself on a devil-themed card trick rabbit hole and writing this meta lol... But, the thing is, if The Three Travelers theory is correct here... Muriel is actually going to be on the move. Let's look at how...

So, the magician puts The Third, Red Card atop Pile B and "presses the elevator button." The spectator knows, intellectually, that this means that The Third, Red Card (Muriel) is going to travel somewhere, as that is the point of the trick, but this happens quickly and, initially, we're just shocked by the fact that, when the magician then lifts that top card off of Pile B... which we just saw him make The Third, Red/Muriel Card before he "pushed the elevator button"... it's not that card.

The Third, Red Card has seemingly vanished from the spot it was just put in by the magician... so, come 3.01, Muriel might initially, for a moment, seem to make like Aziraphale's farthing in 1941 and not be where we expect them to be...

...but the twist is that, when the magician lifts the card atop Pile B and shows it to us, we spectators are shocked to realize that the card that is actually there is one that the spectators didn't consider a factor at all and never knew was a possibility for this role:

The Black Card.

So... Crowley...

Immediately upon the reveal of The Black Card atop Pile B, the magician flips over the card that is now atop Pile A...

The Third, Red Card has now teleported sideways in the elevator and has gone from the top of Pile B to the top of Pile A... which is the top of the deck of cards.

So, to recap... Muriel and Gabriel are now the top two cards in Pile A, which makes them the top, two cards in the entire deck as a whole... with Muriel actually now somehow slightly eclipsing The Supreme Archangel in power... while Crowley is topping Pile B and Aziraphale is at the bottom of it. In this way, even if they travelled sideways, Crowley and Muriel also both actually flipped their own positions from top to bottom, in a way kind of like that of Gabriel and Aziraphale. Crowley went from being a demon of Hell to being in charge of Angelic Embassy X while Muriel went from being in the bottom two ranks of Heaven to being up at the top (traveling alongside Gabriel a bit there, as well.) Most surprisingly?

Crowley has taken Muriel's place from where they were left in S2, which means that Crowley has the bookshop.

How does any of this work and make sense for S3? I think there's actually a lot here that does, surprisingly enough...

If you were The Metatron and Gabriel had thrown a monkey wrench into your Armageddon: Round Two plans, the absolute last thing you'd do is put anyone in charge of Heaven who you think would actually be good at being in charge of Heaven. You don't want someone who is an effective leader-- you want someone who will do what you tell them to do.

You want to make sure that you maintain absolute control and power so you might not put in charge anyone like, say, Michael or Uriel, even if they'd be logical choices to fill Gabriel's shoes. Especially because both of them-- especially Michael-- worked with Gabriel closely over the years and you might not trust that they won't flip sides. You would need someone with no known relationship to or specific loyalty towards Gabriel who seems like they're eager as all get out to do whatever it is you tell them to do.

You would actually be more likely to give someone like Muriel the position of Supreme Archangel... and lolololol do we think The Metatron would have any idea what kind of trouble he'd unknowingly actually caused for himself in doing that? His biggest mistake ever might be underestimating Muriel, right?

Muriel is amazing and far from dumb. They are not going to want to end all life on Earth. Muriel would make sure there was no issue with Crowley having the shop and would be the first to go to him for help. Maybe Crowley has no idea, even, that they're the Supreme Archangel for awhile because maybe Muriel didn't know at first and just said they were being recalled to Heaven.

Maybe the jumping off point for S3 is Crowley then finds out that Aziraphale is not in charge of Heaven when Muriel goes to him for help with Armageddon and, in the process, Crowley discovers that Aziraphale-- whom he hasn't seen since Aziraphale got into the elevator, x amount of time ago-- has fallen. Crowley eventually goes to Gabriel and Beez for help, bringing them into the story and now there is a group of like-minded angels and demons working together to save Aziraphale and stop Armageddon?

This actually would help set up something I've wanted for awhile and theorized might be the case but wasn't sure how it would work after the end of S2... which is for 3.01 to maybe be a bit like 1.01 and its 2008 minisode... only, this time around, the angel-ish being who lives in and runs the embassy bookshop is Crowley and the demon with a plan saying they need to work together to stop Armageddon is Aziraphale? 😊

#good omens #meta post #card tricks #magic #🪄#magic tricks #the elevator #aziracrow #crowzi #ineffable husbands #aziraphale and crowley #aziraphale loves crowley #gomens #go s3 theory #vidavalor #angels and demons

354 notes · View notes

justhereforthemeta · 2 years ago

Text

Romantic expectations and the story we didn't see: A magic trick hiding in plain sight

Here's a hopeful meta for all my fellow celestial brainrot sufferers out there. Cheers! :)

This idea started as a dead end, trying to track the movements of Crowley’s sideburns/tattoo because I thought time travel shenanigans were afoot. I had to abandon that theory when it was pointed out that David was simultaneously filming as the sideburns-having Fourteenth Doctor, and in-universe Crowley can do whatever he wants with his facial hair whenever he feels like it. But hey - null findings are still findings!

On the bright side, pausing the show to make notations in a spreadsheet forced me to slow down and notice other changes I'd overlooked the first time around: acting choices, costuming choices, references to book lore. And possibly a few surreptitious flicks of the wrist, in places where we’re meant to be focused on the magician’s other hand.

@amuseoffyre and @ineffablefood had a great exchange recently about romance and “the significance of misdirection and three-in-one (magic) tricks” throughout the show. I suspect Neil has done something brilliant with the audience’s long-standing expectations (since the 1990s, really) for the love story between Crowley and Aziraphale to develop. And while it is a wonderful story indeed, playing to this expectation lets Neil distract his audience from the blink-and-you'll-miss-them seeds he's planting for the final chapter.

Continued below the cut...

Let’s start at the beginning of Episode 2. First, context: In the previous installment, Crowley stormed out of the bookshop, was whisked away to Hell by Beelzebub where he learns about the Book of Life threat to Aziraphale’s existence, then returned to the bookshop to dance a little apology dance and hide Gabriel with an unintentionally massive joint miracle. In S2E2, we and Shax catch up with Crowley as he's snoozing in the Bentley.

Shax: “You’re in trouble”

A. J. Crowley, cool as a cucumber: “Obviously. Former demon, hated by Heaven, loathed by Hell. How will our hero cope?”

Interesting! Sarcastic? Yes, absolutely; but that’s also a good 4500 years and an averted apocalypse away from “I’m a demon. I lie,” wouldn’t you say? Someone is sounding a whole lot less depressed and aimless and navel-gazey (do snakes have navels?), and a whole lot more like he’s got a project to focus on, since his "what's the point?" ruminations on the park bench in E1.

And of course we all noticed the costume change right away. Hello, black turtleneck. Feeling cute today, thought I’d cover up my graceful long neck? That sounds unlikely. Let’s put a pin in this one.

There’s also an interesting acting choice going on here. Crowley speaks to Shax in a funny, drawling, too-cool-for-you voice that we haven’t heard in a while. Specifically, not since 1967. If you go back and give the S1E3 scene in the Dirty Donkey a listen, you’ll hear it (and if you know of another instance of it that I've missed, please let me know!). In S2E2, he keeps up this odd voice (if anybody knows what kind of affect this is supposed to be, please do tell!) throughout this dialogue with Shax, except for the brief moment when she first surprises him about the joint miracle having been detected.

1967 was a fun year. Crowley masterminded a heist! And seemed like he was having a ball doing it, right up until his little caper was called off after Aziraphale brought him the thermos of holy water. Crowley spoke to his co-conspirators in that same funny, very 60’s-caper-film voice. He wore a hip 60’s turtleneck. He bought petrol for the only time ever, so he could get those sweet James Bond bullet hole decals for his car (per the book, seen on the Bentley in the show).

Those James Bond bullet hole decals would of course have been part of a promotion for this 1967 release, which you just know our film-enjoying demon went to see in the theater:

Starring this suave, be-turtlenecked guy:

And now - begging your forgiveness - a brief rant.

There are a number of posts out there that refer to Crowley’s S2E2 turtleneck as a flirtatious sartorial choice - actually, ‘slutty’ seems to be the favored accusation. There are even a few posts floating around commenting on how sweet it is that Crowley swaps out his slutty, kinky, throw-me-over-your-desk-and-take-me turtleneck for a more dressy and appropriate collared shirt specifically to attend Aziraphale’s Jane Austen ball.

Now this is all in good fun, and Crowley does indeed look fantastic here, and I do love a good fangirling sesh as much as the next person. However, fandom’s collective tendency to interpret what we are seeing on the screen through the lens of romantic expectation can, at times, give rise to a kind of blinkered enthusiasm that obscures the original text in a haze that is part Mandela Effect, part unrestrained horniness, and part in-group code talking and identity reinforcement.

Respectfully, Crowley’s black turtleneck does not appear at all in S2E5: The Ball. In fact, it never appears again after the end of S2E2.

For Someone’s sake, let’s collectively pull our heads out of the romantic fog/gutter for a moment and focus on what we are actually seeing in the book and on the screen. For Crowley, this is an uncharacteristic within-period costume change. There is a surreptitious flick of the wrist happening here, out in broad daylight, and we are all missing it.

So here’s a thing. Aziraphale appears to have settled comfortably into life on Earth, his neighborhood, his books, using Crowley as an outlet for sharing his good deeds that he would once have reported to Heaven. Meanwhile, at first glance, Crowley appears stuck in a rut. There he slouches on a park bench with Shax in S2E1: a guy who lives in his car, stagnantly clinging to old familiar habits, mulling over the pointlessness of it all.

Setting aside the bit about living in the Bentley (I’m going to attribute this to well-documented issues between him and Aziraphale, discussed in many other excellent metas, and move on), Crowley has at least two very good, proactive reasons for maintaining his contact with Hell through Shax. First and foremost, it’s a source of information he can use to keep ahead of potential threats to Aziraphale and himself.

But also, I would posit…he kinda likes it.

Recall that book GO was first conceived as a parody, with Aziraphale and Crowley as spy-against-spy (but not really) field operatives in an ages-old cold war between Heaven and Hell. Their entire book dynamic is rooted in the trope of two opposing agents who have been in the field for so long that they now have more in common with each other than with their respective head offices. Their St. James’s Park meetings among other spies and ministers trading secrets are a sendup of what was once a well-known Cold War-era cliché.

Our contemporary Crowley still likes slick outfits and hellaciously expensive watches and high-performing vintage cars and pens that write underwater while looking like they could break the speed limit. He coaches Shax on how to blend in as a demon on Earth, and he helpfully redirects the wayward contact looking for the Azerbaijani sector chief. He loves improvising and getting away with shenanigans under the institutional radar. And boy golly was he impressed with Jane Austen: master spy, brandy smuggler, and mastermind of the 1810 Clerkenwell Diamond Robbery.

And if you look at it a certain way, for as long as Crowley has considered himself to be on “[his] own side” - going at least as far back as Job - he could almost think of himself as a sort of double agent. It’s actually a very romantic sort of notion, befitting our hopeless romantic of a (professedly former) demon; but it’s romantic in a very different way than we, the audience, have been primed to watch for.

In other words, in a very “on my own side” kind of way, Crowley really gets a kick out of being a spy. Or at least, dressing up and accessorizing as one, and moonlighting as a good-doing double agent when he can get away with it. And also being a plotting criminal mastermind. Two sides of a coin, really. Just look at Jane Austen.

My point is: No, Crowley did not wait around for Shax to come find him in a turtleneck so that he could go flirt with Aziraphale later. He’ll flirt with Aziraphale no matter what. No, this:

is actually this:

Much like the one he wears to the Dirty Donkey in 1967:

whilst holy water heist-plotting. Here's a clearer shot with gratuitous Bentley, because I love them:

…and which he'll wear again, with appropriate camouflage, while infiltrating Heaven in S2E6:

That is the 1967 planning a HEIST turtleneck for committing ESPIONAGE and STEALING THINGS in. Because turtlenecks are what modern human master spies wear to get their hands dirty - after all, he saw it in a movie once.

Crowley dons his tactical turtleneck sometime during the first major break in the action (which doesn't happen until after the joint miracle to hide Gabriel) after he learns about the threat the Book of Life poses to Aziraphale. Loverboy started mentally preparing himself to go after that book immediately upon learning that it was in play as a genuine threat.

Now let’s pick up at the S2E2 Dirty Donkey scene, reading the story from this angle. Of course, Crowley enables Aziraphale’s delusions about Heaven by hiding information from him, and does not disclose the Book of Life threat when they meet again. They go into the pub, Aziraphale shamelessly paws Crowley’s chest like the seductive Bond Girl he is, and Crowley gets to act all smooth and suave and intimidating as he chases off the interloping Mr. Brown (or Mr. Collins for the Pride & Prejudice fans, take your pick).

Ergo, theory: beginning in S2E2, Crowley is already thinking of himself as a Jane Austen/James Bond action hero (“How will our hero cope?”), psyching himself up to rescue Aziraphale by getting his spy game on and stealing the Book of Life.

Now, watch closely...This is where Aziraphale and Crowley brainstorm their plans to solve the problem they both know about: getting Maggie and Nina to fall in love and thereby get Heaven off their backs. Crowley’s vavoom plan is drawn from yet another movie (“Get humans wet and staring into each other’s eyes - vavoom, sorted. I saw it in a Richard Curtis film.”). But Crowley also implicitly shares his solution to the problem he hasn’t told Aziraphale about. And true to form, Crowley’s Jane Austen solution isn’t the same as Aziraphale’s Jane Austen solution.

Two solutions that fail by the end of Season 2, and a secret third one that might still work...and there's our magic trick of three.

‘“I’m lost. Am I doing a rainstorm?” Yes, babe. And a heist, too - just not until season three. Can I get a wahoo!?

I won’t spend time on A Companion to Owls during this meta, except to note that in all three minisodes, we get to watch stories that involve Crowley acting as a double agent on “his/their own side” - successfully making Hell and Heaven think he’s fulfilling their will while saving Job’s goats and children; failing to fool Hell when he does a good deed in Edinburgh; and of course, collaborating with Aziraphale whilst evading detection as an infernal turncoat during the Blitz.

(Because this is getting long, I'll also skip over Crowley's interrogation of Jim in this episode - I'll probably come back to that in another meta. But interrogating is a rather spy-ish thing to do.)

When we catch up with Crowley again later, he’s already slipped out of the bookshop, having left Aziraphale to his biblical reverie about Job. He saunters snakily down Whickber Street as usual, but with a very pointed and swift glance over his shoulder (see pic above). This demon is up to something - possibly something we didn’t get to see, something that may have happened offscreen while he stepped out. In any case, knowing there’ve been unfriendly angels in the neighborhood that morning, he’s rightly concerned about being spied on.

From this point until the beginning of episode six, there isn’t a whole lot of opportunity for Crowley to make any next moves. He babysits the bookshop, during which time he manages to wring some crucial information out of Jim; he follows his Crowley’s Angel around like a puppy, and downs a bottle of red like a good old fashioned lovesick boy once that’s been pointed out to him. If any plotting or scheming is underway, this occult being is keeping stumm for now.

This has been a long one, so I’ll wrap up with Crowley’s infiltration of Heaven with Muriel. The turtleneck disguise works (Archer fans, be vindicated!) long enough to gather some information that will be crucial not just to the denouement of S2, but also to Crowley’s journey in S3 (previous post on Crowley's Fall, Saraqael, and memory wiping). And Aziraphale gets to enjoy that view exactly zero times. The point isn’t oh, a turtleneck! How flirty! So cunty! So cute! Y’all. Everything matters. The costume change was a deliberate choice. In-universe, Crowley’s decision to wear his special spy turtleneck for spying in is a signal that he is out doing spy things, even as we watch.

In sum: Beginning in S2E2 and continuing through the end of the season, Aziraphale and Crowley are actively living out the scripts of two parallel, concurrent, and completely different Jane Austen stories. But you and I, dear fellow audience member, we came here for a comedy with a hefty jigger of romance, and that’s what Neil gave us to focus on. And right up until the Final 15, that was the only story we saw.

Meanwhile, Special Agent A. J. Crowley doesn’t have time to mope around at the end of S2E6. He’s kicked down, but he’s not out. He's got a Book of Life to steal, a very serious bone to pick with a certain memory-wiping angel, and his Angel and the world to save.

“‘Heigh ho,’ said [romantic, optimist, former demon, hero, master spy] Anthony Crowley, and just drove anyway.”

#so honestly #I think the biggest mark against this conclusion is that Crowley sees his mirror Maggie taking a nap at the end of S2E6 #there is a strong chance of a depression nap before any further spying gets underway #but I am counting on Muriel to be a dorky ray of sunshine and snap him out of it with Clues #good omens #good omens meta #good omens 2 #crowley in a turtleneck #demon bookseller plantdad spy

2K notes · View notes

httpsserene · 1 year ago

Text

kinktober '23 table of contents

welcome to serene's f1 kinktober special! i do not know how many posts i will be doing for this event, but, reblog and save this masterlist for any updates concerning my f1 kinktober.

posts will be tagged with: # httpss :// kinktober 23 | status: completed.

view playlist? ↴

upload 1 : charles leclerc / max verstappen x reader | corruption kink

innocent and virgin !reader has never touched herself before. she knows how to, in theory, but whenever she tries, she chickens out. her tried and true way of receiving pleasure is failing her. she thinks that maybe it's time to allow her relationship with her two respectful and experienced boyfriends, to reach the next step. and she'll find that they're very willing to teach her a few things.

upload 2 : carlos sainz jr x reader | were/wolf shifter & predator/prey

for all people believe that werewolves are dangerous creatures, your wolf is pretty tame, even with some of his...quirks. this halloween you let him be the big bad wolf to your little red riding hood, while you give out candy to trick-or-treaters. what he doesn't know, is that you have your own trick-or treat planned for him after this– you're his treat tonight, but he's going to have to chase you first.

upload 3 : oscar piastri x reader | car sex & squirting

your boyfriend has to make an appearance at some sponsor event. he's gone ahead and bought you an alluring outfit, but he failed to mention how seductive he looks in the new fitted suit his team got him. you two won't be staying long, but you increase the pace by riling him up, mostly unintentionally. so it's your fault that he makes you ruin his loaned mclaren.

upload 4 : daniel ricciardo / max verstappen x reader | overstimulation

you can't remember the last time you've gotten to spend more than three days at a time with both of your boyfriends. you understand how demanding their job is but, you just can't remember the last time they really exhausted you...pleasurably. and then winter break comes around, and they have all the time they need to make you lose your mind.

upload 5 : lewis hamilton x reader | tender sex & cockwarming

your husband comes home to his monaco apartment after achieving p2 in spain. from the texts you sent him before he boarded his flight, he expected you to be awake when he arrived. however, you’ve fallen asleep–but that’s not a problem. he’ll sneak into bed right next to you and catch a few extra hours of sleep. you’ll commemorate the podium come morning.

upload 6 : george russell x reader | vampire & hickeys/biting

george has created a serious problem. you two have been dating for over three years, and he fed from you the first time about three months ago. the problem lies within the fact that he conditioned you to orgasm every time he used you as his glorified high-class wine bottle. on second thought, that’s a pretty good problem to have; his thirst is sated, and yours is as well.

upload 7 : pierre gasly x reader | witchcraft

witch!reader and potions master!pierre run a shop to fulfill anyone’s magical needs. it’s nearing valentine’s day, and the shop is bombarded with desperate humans looking for love charms & potions, even though there’s no magic spell strong enough to replicate true love. oddly, news travels from a few villages over that there’s a potions master who managed to make a real love potion. pierre has to get his hands on it—for the bit, obviously. there’s no way it will work.

upload 8 : lando norris x reader | pussy worship

if lando achieved a podium at silverstone, you promised you’d give him anything he wants. he thinks about it the whole race weekend, and when the two of you are celebrating his second-place finish, he tells you that he wants to take care of you. you’re disbelieving–he takes care of you every waking hour. lando, on the other hand, said that with his chest. and he’ll prove it to you.

upload 9 : charles leclerc x reader | orgasm delay/denial

the 2023 season has had a despicable effect on charles’ self-worth. it pains you to see how he attributes ferrari’s failure to deliver to himself. you can’t stand to see him berate himself for things that are out of his control. when the emilia-romagna grand prix is understandably canceled, you start forming a plan. if charles doesn’t believe he’s as good as you say he is, you’ll make him internalize it–using any means necessary.

upload 10 : yuki tsunoda x reader | ab-riding/frottage

your mental state is suffering–you’re not sure if you can handle alphatauri posting another thirst trap of your boyfriend to disguise their inability to build a car that doesn’t break within the first ten laps. but, when yuki posts his own half-naked picture on main? he’s asking for it, at this point. clearly, he’s been spending too much time with pierre.

2K notes · View notes