#god this is way too long

[nimrism]

hello! daily morgana pendragon deserves the world. also, i'm very curious to see what you think a morgana and lena interaction would look like! i feel like the universe would break. oh! this is me realizing they both have something against their brothers. what a nice realization to have! anyway, just wondering what you think that might look like :)

DAILY REMINDER THAT MORGANA PENDRAGON DESERVES THE WORLD!

i'm so sorry it took me THIS LONG to get to replying to this but i wanted to do it JUSTICE cause i love this ask with all my heart it speaks to my very soul :)) (i do apologize for this getting really really long, though)

lena and morgana!! they're so similar and yet so different at the same time it's so awesome to delve into their characters and try to dissect what's happening in those brilliant heads of theirs like i could write thesis papers analyzing their characters without ever getting bored. they're just so special to me :,)

what would an interaction between them look like, though? hmmmm i guess it depends on the context of the interaction like why would they be in the same room in the first place? has morgana been reincarnated? what is she doing in national city? or is lena the one who crossed the pond and went to england? are we talking canon s6 lena who has magic? has she gone to england to get closer to her witch ancestors? IS MORGANA HER WITCH ANCESTOR? DID SHE ACCIDENTALLY/ON PURPOSE RAISE HER FROM THE DEAD? i think the concept of morgana being lena's ancestor is super interesting cause it would influence lena's opinion on arthur and merlin and camelot in general. so, if we consider the connection between them ancestral, i think their interactions would be reverent (at least on lena's end) and morgana would (maybe after initial reluctance or hostility) sort of accept lena as her descendant and her protégé and teach her all sorts of magic. lena's part in helping morgana adjust to the modern world would also be a huge aspect i feel like cause morgana would be so confused with modern technology and the fact that technically there are no more "kingdoms" and camelot is no more so what exactly is her purpose in this modern world? lena helping her through that (or at least trying to) would form a huge part of their relationship i think.

buuuuuut if the context is different like maybe lena has discovered a way to time travel and she finds herself in camelot or in the woods around morgana's s4 cabin and morgana happens to stumble upon her there, it would be different. because WHY is there a woman in morgana's image in the STRANGEST clothes walking around with glowing objects (technology) that aren't inherently magical (morgana can't feel the magic in them) but MUST be because this isn't just something anyone can conjure up?? no matter the time we're talking (s1/2/3/4) i feel like morgana would react very negatively until lena can earn her trust or at least convince her she's not a sick joke merlin/emrys is playing on morgana. i also think lena would be wayyy out of her depth in medieval england like yeah she's a genius but she eats salads and fast food and has a bajillion-dollar penthouse equipped with all the latest technologies so living without the luxuries of the modern world would be a CHALLENGE even for her so i think it'd be fun to see morgana's reaction to lena absolutely STRUGGLING to get through her day.

once we're past the logistics of the interaction and the awkward introductions and general initial animosity phase and they FINALLY get to talking, they'll have lots of things in common. like you mentioned, they both have this innate hatred for their brothers, but with lena, lex has caused her unimaginable trauma and pain and despite all of that she's managed to get back up and say to his face that yeah she hates him but she loves herself more and that she's finally letting go of that hatred to go live her life. with morgana, however, that hatred for arthur has become all-consuming, even though it only stemmed from uther sort of unknowingly pitting them against each other forever by acknowledging arthur as his son and heir but never morgana. morgana's hatred for uther extended to arthur and when uther died, arthur became the sole recipient of that hatred. unlike lena, morgana doesn't have anyone to pull her out of the darkness, to show her that even when family fails to understand you and/or accept you, there are friends who will. she doesn't have that support system, and so she succumbs to the darkness and the hate and lets it eat away at her soul. this is where they differ, in my opinion, lena had a support system and the innate strength to stop the generational trauma cycle, while morgana had neither (doomed by the narrative from the start maybe i'll just cry).

this part's a bit controversial cause it depends on your headcanons and who you ship and stuff but another thing i feel was detrimental is UNREQUITED LOVE. lena's half-hearted "villain" arc only happened when she found out that her best friend had been keeping such a huge part of her identity from her (which isn't something you would do to someone you love) so she was like fuck it i'm going to fix humanity cause you guys SUCK. but when she eventually realized that wait, maybe kara does actually love her and care about her and she didn't entirely mean to hurt her (whether you read it as platonic or romantic, her love was requited) she went back and apologized and everything (even though she didn't need to apologize she's never done anything wrong in her life). morgana's brand might as well just be unrequited love, on the other hand. it goes as far back as her biological father (bro didn't even acknowledge her as his daughter), and extends to pretty much everyone she may or may not have been in love with (whether you ship her with gwen (the only right answer) or merlin or even the dumbass alvarr guy). she's been made to feel unlovable her whole life and at some point she believes it and takes it at face-value as the truth, and that's part of what pushes her to extremes like the ones she goes to in the show. ("if i can't have love, i want power"). with both gwen and merlin they're both so devotedly loyal to arthur that even if i were in her shoes i'd get pissed off, so, since she doesn't believe that they'll ever be loyal to her just because, she tortures and brainwashes merlin to get him to do her bidding, and she kidnaps gwen and brainwashes her to get her "old friend" back, because, in the state that she's in by s5, she doesn't believe that anyone will ever be devoted to her for HER, so she forces them to be. this concept of never having love requited voluntarily plays such a huge part in shaping morgana's character and making her that much different from lena, in my opinion.

i could go on and on about the implications of the dark tower episode and every word morgana said to gwen, but that's a story for another post because this one is already getting waaay too long.

ANYWAY i may have strayed from the point a few times BUT I JUST HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THEM, OKAY? thank you so much for this ask it was so much fun to answer and AS ALWAYS if you want to further discuss morgana or lena or both and speculate on how they would meet/interact i'm always up for a fun discussion 😼

[mangozic]

my dead goth son and his friendly neighborhood personified concept of insanity

[tofixtheshadows]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.

Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.

Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.

Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.

I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.

He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).

First, we get this:

Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.

They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.

It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.

We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.

What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?

He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.

In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.

Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!

...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.

Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.

And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.

I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.

And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.

Meals are the privilege of the living.

[bloominglegumes]

i love normal guys doomed by the narrative

[rainofthetwilight]

EGYPTIAN MIKU ❗❗❗❗❗❗❗❗

[dabigbird]

“Saw his dimension burn”

“Misses home, but can’t return”

[soldierkitten]

jumpscare! tilly the god au ep 1 (part 3 of 4)

starting stuff / prev / next

[heartorbit]

find another role, carry on the show

[turtleblogatlast]

One of my favorite headcanons is that Leo grew up watching telenovelas with Splinter.

It just works so well - his bits of Spanish that he spouts randomly, his showy way of apologizing, and, of course, his love for dramatic betrayals all point to this being a very real possibility.

Plus, it’s very cute to imagine a tiny Leo at his father’s side as they both gasp in shock when the show’s eighth plot twist in just as many episodes happens.

[revvetha]

[shows up at your door at 2AM] hey can we go through that last D&D session scene by scene and discuss the symbolism and the narrative themes and their implications, and how each character has grown and evolved? But in a normal way?

[anastacialy]

guys, i think the hermits are going to accidentally start a prank war again. because just like last time, a game of telephone has begun. first, false made iskall's build into ''false beans,'' her shop from the previous season. however, to give herself plausible deniability, she signs it with "love, Joel. x" due to his username, smallishbeans.

next, iskall sees this, and completely believes it. he thinks it was joel who pranked him, and as he says to pearl while showing off the sign, which he kept even after tearing the prank down, "joel gave me a kiss." in his most recent video, he pranks joel by sending him loads of anonymous messages in order to completely spam and fill his inbox, preventing him from getting any more mail, with notes such as "thinking about you. x"

of course, joel is going to have absolutely no context for this, because he didn't make the initial prank. so who is joel going to assume sent him all those messages while he was away on holiday? well, i have a guess.

etho.

[pharawee]

How to have sex carefully in tent. I'm ready. Can we do it?

—MONSTER NEXT DOOR · Episode 9

[panthermouthh]

And I said, “Hello, Satan

I believe it’s time to go.”

[toastsartcornerthesequel]

Kon pulling out his new diary to write about how insanely depressed he is

[sandwichedbread]

certified jellie moment 👍

[netamoonshark]

It's just them.