#gq analysis

[faeryton]

james teamrocket my best friend james teamrocket

[foodnewsandupdates]

Revolutionizing Cancer Diagnostics: A Closer Look at Advanced Techniques

Cancer, a formidable adversary, requires early detection for effective treatment and improved patient outcomes. In recent years, advancements in diagnostic techniques have played a crucial role in the fight against this disease. This blog aims to delve into the world of cancer diagnostics, exploring innovative technologies and methods that are reshaping the landscape of cancer detection.

1. The Importance of Early Detection

Early detection is paramount in the battle against cancer. It significantly increases the chances of successful treatment and long-term survival. Advanced diagnostic tools now provide healthcare professionals with the ability to detect cancer at its earliest stages, often before symptoms manifest.

2. Genomic Profiling: Unraveling the Genetic Code

Genomic profiling is a groundbreaking technique that analyzes the DNA of cancer cells. By identifying specific genetic mutations, healthcare providers can tailor treatment plans to target the unique characteristics of each patient's cancer. This personalized approach has led to more effective treatments and improved outcomes.

3. Liquid Biopsies: A Non-Invasive Breakthrough

Traditionally, biopsies involve extracting tissue samples for examination. However, liquid biopsies have emerged as a non-invasive alternative. By analyzing blood samples, healthcare professionals can detect traces of cancer-related DNA, providing valuable insights into the presence and progression of the disease.

4. AI-Powered Imaging: Enhancing Accuracy and Efficiency

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized medical imaging, enabling more accurate and efficient cancer diagnoses. AI algorithms can analyze medical images, such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans, with remarkable precision. This not only expedites the diagnostic process but also reduces the likelihood of human error.

5. Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS): Unlocking Comprehensive Insights

Next-Generation Sequencing is a high-throughput technology that allows for the rapid sequencing of DNA. It provides a comprehensive view of an individual's genetic makeup, uncovering potential genetic predispositions to certain types of cancer. NGS also aids in the identification of targeted therapies for more effective treatment.

6. Metabolomics: Examining Metabolic Signatures

Metabolomics is a cutting-edge technique that focuses on the study of metabolites – small molecules produced by cellular processes. By analyzing metabolic profiles, researchers can gain valuable insights into the unique biochemical pathways associated with different types of cancer. This information can be instrumental in developing targeted therapies.

7. Emerging Technologies: Promising Future Prospects

The field of cancer diagnostics continues to evolve rapidly, with new technologies constantly emerging. From 3D mammography to circulating tumor cell assays, these innovations hold the promise of further enhancing our ability to detect and treat cancer with precision and efficiency.

8. Challenges and Considerations

While the advancements in cancer diagnostics are promising, challenges remain. Access to these cutting-edge technologies, cost considerations, and the need for specialized training are important factors to address in order to ensure widespread implementation and benefit for all patients.

Conclusion

The landscape of cancer diagnostics is undergoing a transformative evolution, with innovative technologies and methods paving the way for more effective detection and treatment strategies. From genomic profiling to AI-powered imaging, these advancements are revolutionizing the way we approach the diagnosis and management of cancer. As research continues and technology advances, the future looks brighter for patients and healthcare providers alike in the fight against this formidable disease.

[miwiheroes]

Full Airport Scene Analysis

I've seen like, a lot of people do analyses of the airport scene, but they often do it in parts when I just want to fully hone in on the whole ass scene and give it a full run-down. So, get ready for this post to be extremely long.

So, the camera pans across from Argyle and Jonathan looking super bored and tired to both Will and El, and I think this is actually very clever. Before this scene, you're not really sure who Will is in love with or who he made the painting for. The fact that the audience may remember El saying 'i think there is someone he likes' and then see how Will is holding the painting so proudly means that they subconsciously realise, oh the painting is for Mike meaning -- Will has feelings for Mike. Note how the juxtaposition between Argyle and Jonathan's demeanour and Will and El's demeanour further showcases how they feel the same way about him (supposedly).

Also this is random, but watching this scene over and over again made me realise that Will's is literally shaking so much in this scene. (WATCH HIS HAND WHEN EL IS LOOKING FOR MIKE)

Now let's talk about Mike's outfit (yes this isn't just talking about how ass it is)

So in the amazing GQ video on youtube, the costume designer talks about how Mike probably bought this outfit at the airport. He's dressing up how he thinks he should in California -- the double meaning being that he is trying to 'be more normal' as Finn Wolfhard says in another interview.

In this scene we know that Mike's trying really hard to push down his feelings about Will, he's trying to seem like he fits in, and in the GQ video, Amy Parris talks about how 'it's bright, it's not a colour Mike normally wears'. Orange and purple? Mike usually wears blue..... and yellow........... i mean what

I guess you could say that in a more surface-y way, he's trying to fit in by wearing something less edgy than he would normally wear, but if you look deeper into the colour coding of byler, he's trying to disconnect himself from Will because of him trying to deny his feelings. Will is wearing blue in this scene, but Mike's wearing orange, showing the disconnect between them in the scenes with these outfits on. I know a lot of people say he's wearing yellow, but nah, it's orange and that's actually more proof that he's trying to hide his feelings for Will.

Also this is another quote from Parris: 'he's worn teal before, so it felt like orange was the best colour that was different from his closet that felt like he was trying to make it work in california.'

And it's not like they just forgot the colour coding for byler. I mean, there's blue and yellow in this shot of Mike when we first see his outfit.

Can you spot it?

Okay moving on

In the first and last Milkvan kissing scene, it is important to note that the directors of the show are very intentional with the extras and where they move to during the scenes. During the shot of them kissing, the camera is focused on them, yes, but it is very busy. Watch the shippers try to edit this scene, the duffers really said.

Firstly, Mike is wearing a visor, he's holding a bag so he can barely hug her, he's also wearing sunglasses inside?? You can't see his facial expression, further showing this season is not in his pov. Not only that, but people are moving in front of the camera, it's very very busy. It's supposed to be a little overwhelming. I could barely take a screenshot without someone walking in front of the camera... like that is not a coincidence, they aren't filming in an actual busy airport. So so many extras walk in front of them during the whole scene, not just the kiss, but while they are speaking as well.

When El goes to hug him, as soon as she does, he makes a little noise of protest or something and is like 'careful, careful' almost like he put the flowers in front of them on purpose so there's like an excuse for them to stop hugging? They then stop hugging and he finally takes off his glasses so we can see his face.

He is wearing sunglasses only in the parts where he's being slightly intimate with his girlfriend -- eyes are windows into the soul, no? Without them being seen, you wouldn't be able to tell what he is thinking, and he needs these in these intimate moments especially, in case anyone notices something's wrong.

Okay now we go onto the flower theory thing, and there are many things to unpack here, and stuff that I personally don't believe, and some theories that I do.

What is super clear to me is that these flowers are the exact same dead flowers that El picks up at the end of season 4 to signify that her relationship with Mike is.... dead (sorry if that's kind of on the nose). However, it is also key to note that Mike says that he 'handpicked' them for her in Hawkins, which on the surface makes it seem like he made more effort, but really this actually sets up the fact that they are the same flowers that can be found on the field. If he bought them in the shop, they may not be the exact same flowers in the last scene.

So Mike says 'I know you like yellow, but now I'm realising it's too much yellow'. The writers of the show did not have to put that in, let's just think about that for a moment. What was the reason for putting this line in? And the '70-30' split line is also very very specific.

Will's colour in the byler colour coding is yellow, it has been subconsciously put into our minds ever since they started colour coding them, for example the s3 netflix icons, the shirt he wears for the majority of s4 and the lights over his head in Rink-o-mania.

Personally, I think this might be a bit of a reach, but could Mike just simply mean that he was thinking too much about Will, in his opinion? Like subconsciously he kind of added lots of yellow because he was thinking of Will when he was thinking of El.

As for the 'So I sort of did a 70-30 split thing' line, I'm not really sure what this means. It could mean that he's putting in 30% of the relationship because he also added 30% purple flowers which symbolises what he's putting into the relationship. Meanwhile, El's favourite colour of flower has a 70% weight in the bouquet, meaning she's putting more into the relationship.

It's also worthy to see that El looks at the note which has 'From, Mike' on it right as he's saying all this stuff about the yellow flowers, and the music dies down from this joyful tone to a sombre one, kind of showing how the yellow flowers are a symbol for something.

Now, before this ^^, the only problem that we think is going on in Mike and El's relationship is the fact that El's lying to him about having friends and not being bullied. But now we have a possible reason. She is insecure about their relationship and how real it is. Her face says everything, she notices it, she then tries to ignore it and tells herself everything is fine.

The audience notices this, obviously, and is like??? wait what's going on? Why does it say 'from Mike'?

They get the answer real quick.

Because right after this, is when Will bounds over.

They shot it so that he's kind of in between them, subconsciously placing a thought or idea in the audience's head about what the problem is between Mike and El, even though it's very implicit at this point. The audience should also have the slight idea in this scene that Will has feelings for Mike, and they get reminded of this fact when they see Will in the background. They're then like.... oh so that's why they having problems? Damn....

Before El even stops speaking, Mike sees Will. We can tell from the way that he literally takes his eyes off El and goes 'oh,' before doing the second 'oh!'. I bet if this was shot so you could see his face, this would be way more obvious, but they shot it so that we could see Will's initial happiness at seeing Mike instead.

Awkward bro hug... um yeah so this is one of the biggest byler proofs to me. I mean, why would you need to hug your best friend like that? When you are perfectly fine at hugging your other male friends? (He hugged Dustin in the first episode btw).

Given everything that we know so far, that Will has feelings for Mike because he made him the painting that El said is for someone he likes; that there must be problems going on in the Milkvan relationship; that Mike is hiding his face and dressing unlike normal.... yeah he's trying to repress something. He won't let himself hug his best friend. Will is acting normal, they could have made him the one not to hug Mike because he is in love with him, but they didn't.

Also, unlike the Milkvan reunion, his face and his reaction can be very easily seen here. They literally zoom in on both their reactions to seeing each other because it is more important than Mike and El's reunion. This is what the scene is about!! It's main focus is on the development of byler and the breakdown of Milkvan. There are like very little extras passing across the camera because the directors want you to focus on their reactions here and how Will and Mike are feeling.

Obviously, Will is dejected but Mike's reaction is more telling. On the right gif, he looks down. Maybe he sees Will's painting and remembers what El told him, which was that it was for someone that Will likes. In my opinion, Mike does not know that it is for him. In Finn's words: 'I don't think he knows'.

After seeing that painting, he instantly looks to other people for their reactions to the hug, maybe being like, hey guys was that normal enough? Did anyone see that? Showing how he cares about the opinions of those around him or maybe that he doesn't want to look at Will for much longer idk.

After that...

Okay so now he's ready to ask about the painting. There's a beat, then he asks 'Uh, what's that' in this kind of breathy, panicky voice. It's not a casual tone at all, it's very tense, and the audience can tell, because this makes the audience tense too. When I first watched it I was like AHHH because oh shit. He asks it like he knows something is up with it, he knows that Will made it and it's significant.

The next shot is a slide-up from the painting to Will's face. This could be in Mike's pov to show that he was looking Will up and down, and this shot is inherently kind of romantic in that way. Either that or it's simply just to focus on the painting before showing what Will's going to say so that the audience know he's talking about the painting.

You can kind of see the cogs working in Will's head in the very little time between 'um' and 'it's nothing', as he realises that he probably shouldn't show Mike the painting based on how Mike didn't hug him.

Also notice how in the gif, an extra walks by the camera as soon as Will is not entirely truthful, so why would this not be done with El and Mike's reunion scene??

Now, this further pushes the agenda that Mike didn't hug Will because of his feelings for him. The audience already knows that this painting is supposed to be a gift for someone that Will 'likes' based on El's letter to Mike at the beginning. The fact that Will no longer feels comfortable with sharing that painting means that he is more unsure of Mike's feelings now that he's seen him irl.

However, the way that Mike goes cool is supposed to be weird. It's supposed to show the audience that he's pretending. I honestly don't know whether it's bias or the directors or the writers or the actors somehow made it this way but the speed at which Mike says 'cool' kind of just implies that he was not ready for that kind of confrontation. He was not ready to confront his feelings or enter into an interaction with Will about the painting. Because it means he can't deny the fact that he's jealous of Will having a crush on some girl. So he quickly shut it down.

He doesn't want to feel the disappointment that Will just basically confirmed the painting isn't for him.

In season 3, he is very interested in knowing who Suzie is, Dustin's girlfriend, but when he knows that Will has made a painting for a girl he likes, he doesn't bother asking at all what it is or who the girl is. He doesn't want to acknowledge it.

Also, the fact he wasn't ready to feel like this and is so focused on Will is shown by how startled he is by other people breaking the moment.

Now this next part is so funny given what we have already been presented with. We already know that Mike is self-conscious about hugging his supposed best friend, and that he does not want to confront his feelings about the painting. He is trying to be someone else because he is wearing unusual clothes for him, trying to seem like a normal person in California. He didn't want to hug his best friend because he wants to seem normal. He's out of character.

"Oh no, no. It's a shitty knockoff."

Laughing my whole ass off.

This ties the whole scene together. It makes the audience go OHHH right he's just been pretending this whole time (if they have any sense). It's genius writing. Without Argyle saying this, we might never really have full confirmation on whether he is really out of character or whether this is just how he has always been. NO, he is lying to himself. He is pretending.

They did not have to make Argyle say this. Ever heard of double meanings folks?

And Mike's reaction?

This reaction has always kind of been interesting to me. How would you assume how Mike would react to someone insulting him? Usually he would scowl or look annoyed but here he doesn't, he almost looks worried. Like oh no he's just been found out lmao

After this there's an awkward moment spurred on by Argyle Mike's like 'yeah this is so awkward'.

Now, since I'm literally Mike and he is me, I know what he's doing here by saying this.

I've done it before, it's where you kind of say that it's really awkward in order to make it seem like you're not the one making it awkward, like you're blaming other people (which he always does).

But Michael, it's kind of your fault?? Like, you didn't have to do the bro tap, you also didn't have to act that way around Argyle.

BRO WE ARE HALFWAY THROUGH NOW LMAOOOO THIS IS SUCH A LONG POST

Now onto the next part, where El is talking about Rink-o-mania and she starts lying again. I have watched this scene over and over and literally Mike barely looks at her once, while he glances at Will multiple times. I feel like audience members don't catch this explicitly, but subconsciously, they can sense that there is tension between the two because of the way that Will is placed during this scene…

I counted them up in this video and Mike glances at Will..

6 Times

Just want to say before we talk about each glance, this scene is extremely telling. It tells you exactly, through subtext, what the atmosphere between Will, Mike and El is going to be like throughout the season/ the beginning of the season. It's textbook foreshadowing.

Will is standing off to the side while Mike has his arm like really tightly around El. They could have had this scene be a cute scene between Milkvan because of how close they are, but instead this scene is about Will's sadness, about how he was ignored by Mike. He's still holding the painting, so the audience are still aware of its existence and what it could imply for Mike and El's relationship.

This scene is also about El lying! Not about how 'cute' Mike and El are.

Okay so here is me talking about every single glance <3

"Wha- Really?" -- Could Mike make it clearer if he tried? I think this is the most obvious one that the audience could easily catch, if they are watching without distraction. Which is important, because it is the first one. He stutters over his words when he realises that Will is looking back at him. Sound familiar? In a much more obvious scene, he does this with the triple take in the desert... It's also kind of clear that they looked at each other because Mike and Will look down/ away straight after Mike goes 'wha-'

"Trust me" "No I trust you" -- So this one's a little more subtle and maybe to the audience it could seem like Mike's looking at El, but then the camera turns to focus directly on Will and him looking at Mike with disappointment. I don't think he's upset about Mike completely ignoring him, but he's upset about this weird little awkward dance they're doing. The reaction from Will is because of the uncertainty. The fact they focus on Will with a single shot at all instantly makes this scene about his emotions primarily. This becomes a pattern.

"Rink-o-mania..." -- This one's also super subtle. I'm not even sure why Mike looked at Will here, but it is clear that he's not looking at El, if you want to slow it down then you ig. Maybe he sensed that Will was staring at him just a few seconds prior.

"Are your friends gonna meet us there?" -- Even though he is speaking to El, he looks at Will. This kind of shows that even when he is supposedly thinking about El and what they are going to do together, subconsciously, his mind is still on Will. This can then be seen in the Rink-o-mania argument when it is revealed that he has been focusing on Will's reactions all day when the audience believes originally that he was ignoring him: "You were! You were rolling your eyes, you were moping, you were barely talking, you basically sabotaged the whole day!" Mike, Mike, Mike. Your girlfriend being bullied didn't ruin the day, Will being pissy to you did? ANYWAYS THIS ISNT ABOUT RINKOMANIA JHDGASJHDG

"Friends what friends?" -- So this fifth one is kind of ambiguous because he has his visor on, hiding his expression and where his eyes are looking. But you can see with the way his head turned, that he was looking at Will because of the way he said "Friends what friends?" This is probably just Mike being confused on what's going on, then. BUT it is another thing that makes this whole scene not about 'uwu mike and el awww' but about Will's feelings or the fact that El's lying and the unstableness of their relationship.

"Angela?" -- This one is very notable. Firstly, here is what we know: Mike knows about the fact that Will has probably done the painting for a 'girl he likes'. Mike thinks that this 'girl' isn't him because Will says 'it's nothing'. Mike maybe thinks that El's friends are also Will's friends. AND Mike does not want to ask Will about the girl he likes because he doesn't want to know about Will liking someone else/ he does not want to confront his own feelings. So, The way that Mike looks at Will with that kind of dead expression, (and he actually does a little double take) is super duper telling. You don't know what he's thinking but if you read into it, he could be thinking that Will was feeling hopeful that Angela would come and is kind of nervous for it.

Finally, El says "I want this day to be about me and you!" which is meant to be ironic. The showrunners would not have put this little line in if it wasn't supposed to be funny tbh..... like this whole scene was about how El was lying and she's suddenly saying it's just about them.

Because of what she says as well, Will rolls his eyes and crushes his painting a bit. (HEARTBREAKING)... The fact that he rolls his eyes is probably just him being annoyed about what she said, because it further makes him feel like the third wheel. The scene ends with his eye roll, emphasising how this whole scene was about how Will is feeling, not the "Main Couple Of The Show tm??" But alsoooo, he crushes the painting :(((( meaning he was also feeling heartbroken a little by the fact that they are acting very coupley and Mike doesn't seem to care about him oops, since the painting is for him.

OKAY IM DONE LMAOOOO

In conclusion, this scene is about byler in the first half, and the flaws of Milkvan and Will's feelings in the second half. This scene is meant to foreshadow the arc between Will, El and Mike which transpires in the rest of the season. The bro tap is the gayest thing I've ever seen, and did not have to be included in this scene. It could have been Will that was awkward. It shows that Mike has changed. He has changed ever since Will moved away and he had that realisation. In season 3, Mike seems confused, unaware of his feelings. But now, in this scene, in only 2 minutes, we know for sure that Mike is in denial. He knows.

Anyways

Byler Endgame.

[accio-victuuri]

an analysis : Xiao Zhan + The Moon & Sixpence 🌖

as usual with xzs videos like the one just released, you can make an entire thesis into the possible meanings of every chapter and frame. add it’s relation to xz and if you’re a pro, go deep into the techniques they used in shooting and editing. this one tho is centered around the theme of “the moon and sixpence” which is a book xz recommended before. I saw a few articles linking this to the elements on the vlog and so i looked into it.

i have lightly talked about some elements from the vlog yesterday but focused more on the quotes that appeared and the music chosen.

it’s been years since he mentioned this book and he didn’t even say that it’s his all-time-favorite. for example, the van gogh elements, we expect that already to be a recurring theme. as well as the moon, but this one has another connection to it. i am honestly curious where his headspace is at, and why, in this specific point in time he felt so close to the message of that book or some parts of it.

let me start with a synopsis and the book is available on googlebooks if you wanna try it out like i did. 🔖

with the plot alone, you can get a sense of why he would like it. at the time he read it, he was not yet the superstar xiao zhan that we know now. and this is why i guess he related to it more now. especially the sacrifices he has to make for the path he has chosen. this was evident in his GQ cover story interview where he compares himself to his other friends and how they have normal lives. the books is written in the first person POV of narrator who is looking into the stockbroker turned artist Charles Strickland. you get to see the thoughts of the narrator and how he views the main character of his story. the way i see it, the narrator is “Xiao Zhan the person” and how he sees “Xiao Zhan the public personality”. this concept of two sides to him was opened up in his esquire cover story and i can’t help but think it relates to this story.

i will be heavily quoting passages from the book that attracted me and i personally thought relates to xz. this is my personal interpretation only.

The greatness of Charles Strickland was authentic. It may be that you do not like his art, but at all events you can hardly refuse it the tribute of your interest. He disturbs and arrests.

the story starts of with this line and well isn’t this one way to describe xiao zhan? he has always been described as authentic and the “real deal” as far as idols and actors go. not many people are expected to like him or be part of his fan club and chase him — however, one thing is clear: he disturbs and arrests. his popularity is something that is unheard of and many artist and companies try to replicate. he is a disturbance to the norm in c-ent and why he is a constant target. it’s his biggest asset and liability. something like MFW and stepping out of his home is also expected to attract all kinds of attention. He is aware of that.

“His faults are accepted as the necessary complement to his merits. It is still possible to discuss his place in art, and the adulation of his admirers is perhaps no less capricious than the disparagement of his detractors; but one thing can never be doubtful, and that is that he had genius. To my mind the most interesting thing in art is the personality of the artist; and if that is singular, I am willing to excuse a thousand faults.”

this is in the POV of the narrator, describing the artist he is writing a book about, Charles Strickland. the message of this quote is similar to the one i mentioned above. xz is not perfect and people, specifically his fans should accept that. it’s what makes him more real. through his wins and losses, he is still xiao zhan.

“It is a salutary discipline to consider the vast number of books that are written, the fair hopes with which their authors see them published, and the fate which awaits them. What chance is there that any book will make its way among that multitude? And the successful books are but the successes of a season. Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours’ relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey. And if I may judge from the reviews, many of these books are well and carefully written; much thought has gone to their composition; to some even has been given the anxious labour of a lifetime. The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of his thoughts; and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.”

this next passage makes me think of the projects he has done and what it must feel like for him. there are a lot of dramas/movies that come out every year and what we repeatedly hear from xz is that he only wishes to bring good works. something people will enjoy and appreciate— never mind the popularity that comes with it. he just finished filming a big project LOCH which i can only imagine is so stressful to him. and now is working on another historical drama.

he is someone who immerses himself in the character and once it’s done, it must be a huge weight off his shoulder. like what is said — seek reward in the pleasure of work and in release from the burden of his thoughts.

“Then, what in God’s name have you left her for?’

‘I want to paint.’

I looked at him for quite a long time. I did not understand. I thought he was mad. It must be remembered that I was very young, and I looked upon him as a middle-aged man. I forgot everything but my own amazement.

‘But you’re forty.’

‘That’s what made me think it was high time to begin.’

i think this one is pretty self explanatory, how he started in the entertainment circle a little bit later in his life. compared to his peers. but the answer was simple to him as it was with Strickland, in his case, “i want to sing.”

‘I tell you I’ve got to paint. I can’t help myself. When a man falls into the water it doesn’t matter how he swims, well or badly: he’s got to get out or else he’ll drown.”

this message seems similar to the one quoted on the vlog about about the rivers and small streams. in this one, it emphasizes how one should not be afraid to take the small step of “swimming badly” in hopes that someday they will wade the waters more efficiently.

“But here was a man who sincerely did not mind what people thought of him, and so convention had no hold on him; he was like a wrestler whose body is oiled; you could not get a grip on him”

If there was something in this book the describes XZ so perfectly — it is this one. I think he is not devoid of over thinking about what people say or being a people pleaser. but in recent times, i am seeing a change in him and how he is more calm. a freedom in the way he speaks, the truths he is no longer holding back. he is not afraid to be different anymore.

which led to that GUCCI outfit. LOL! 🤣🤣🤣

‘Look here, if everyone acted like you, the world couldn’t go on.’

‘That’s a damned silly thing to say. Everyone doesn’t want to act like me. The great majority are perfectly content to do the ordinary thing.”

so true. a great majority wouldn’t and couldn’t do what he does. just looking at the chapters in the vlog, from going to a distant place and dealing with the MGW chaos. after that, being only afforded a small time to decompress and sit. to enjoy the sunset. that’s what his life is.

“I don’t pretend to be a great painter’, he said. ‘I’m not a Michael Angelo, no, but I have something. I sell. I bring romance into the homes of all sorts of people. Do you know, they buy my pictures not only in Holland, but in Norway and Sweden and Denmark? It’s mostly merchants who buy them, and rich tradesmen. You can’t imagine what the winters are like in those countries, so long and dark and cold. They like to think that Italy is like my pictures. That’s what they expect. That’s what I expected Italy to be before I came here.”

i would guess this is how he sees his work. he never claimed to be the best, you can see that with how he always mentions wanting to be better. he wants to give the people a positive view of life. which i can clearly see from the vlogs even, makes you wanna go where he visited.

“A man’s work reveals him. In social intercourse he gives you the surface that he wishes the world to accept, and you can only gain a true knowledge of him by inferences from little actions, of which he is unconscious, and from fleeting expressions, which cross his face unknown to him. Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.”

another one that i think describes xz. his little actions that we see reveal his true self —- the gentle, funny and dorky xiao zhan which is a contrast to the character he sometimes has to portray. it’s when we talk about his duality, the way he was posing and “game face on” for GUCCI but when he did the interview you can see the dorky xiao zhan 😂

there are times that xiao zhan merges some of the qualities of his celebrity side and i think it’s perfectly person. it is a huge part of his life, and the way i see it, his experiences only make him a better person.

“I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage.

They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known.

Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history.

Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs.

Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth.

Here at last he finds rest.”

read that again. it’s a lovely way to put into words what i imagine is something that not only xz goes through. we know what kind of environment and country he lives in, i’m not trying to get political but you get the point. being a celebrity or public personality like him is vastly different from how it is with the rest of the world. i have always admired how he handles it all with grace, how he he willingly accepts the responsibility and burden of being who he is. and that’s why i was also surprised by his answer when asked about a parallel world and he answers about a superpower where he can make it possible to have no disputes in the world. being in that place, with lots of people around, from different parts of the world probably made him think more about this topic. aside from eating pizza and being his usual beautiful self, he was thinking about some serious issues too.

chapter 1 was about going to a distant place but not really, there was something in that place and experience that feels like a home he longs for.

alternate explanation, this can also mean him living his life as a graphic designer, and then spreading his wings into a different industry — being the place he has sought. but considering the time this was released and where he is now at life, i’m thinking it’s more of the former.

so busy yearning for the moon that he never saw the sixpence at his feet. 🪙

this imagery at the end of the vlog + the coin he holds + the quote fits so well together. the way i see it, XZ is doing both. he appreciates the moon, he looks up to it but he doesn’t miss to see and hold the sixpence. it’s why he is holding on to it, in some, it was even rolling on it’s own towards him. and it’s not just the proverbial sixpence. he is seeing and appreciating his surroundings —- the egg he ate, laundry, bike etc.

as a fan, this is actually comforting to me. the book itself is not the happiest, which makes sense cause xz prefers melodramatic to downright tragic stories. but it shows a realistic view of what some goes through to pursue their dreams. it’s not as glamorous as what we see on tv or the internet. but the end of the vlog, shows that xz is keeping a balance. he is not just busy looking up at the moon— he is also living his life.

-END.

I first knew about the connection of the vlog to the book via 辉夜姬不叽 and i got hooked into writing something about it and reading the source material. i also liked @resonancewitness interpretation of the vlog, particularly the lines in starry starry night.

[whereispearlescentmoon]

This is for the two other people who are obsessed with Ghost Quartet (it’s my favorite musical please listen to it I have CHARTS FOR THIS), here is my analysis of who in the Divorce Quartet is who (note for non-GQ fans, there is a character named Pearl in the show. To lessen the confusion, I’ve color coded.):

Pearl- Rose Red. Rose as a character is someone who feels wronged and abandoned and then uses that to hurt others in every lifetime, namely Pearl (who I am assigning to Cleo). She looks to The Bear (who I’m assigning to Martyn) for help in getting her revenge, but he is uninterested in helping, which causes her final spiral, like how Martyn leaving Pearl in episode one led to her being alone for the series.

When Pearl is the Soldier, Rose manipulates her by flirting and steals her honey, then shoots her. When Pearl is Lady Usher, Rose’s manipulation of Roxie as a child and later stealing Starchild is what leads to Lady Usher’s descent into madness and her death. When Pearl is Scheherazade, Rose callously takes her last piece of stardust. When Pearl is the Victim, Rose chooses not to help her, letting her die. And through all of this, until after it’s reveled that it was all for nothing, Rose sees her actions as righteous vengeance against Pearl. There is a parallel to be made here about life series Pearl killing Cleo over and over, still bitter from Double Life.

There is also something to be said for the fact that the person who gets hurt by Rose the most, besides Pearl, is Rose in other lives. Roxie and Starchild are the most obvious examples. Rose lies to Roxie as a child, leading her to become a tortured ghost when her expectations of heaven aren’t met, and she steals Starchild from her mother, baptizing and then abandoning her. Double Life Pearl, in her effort to hurt the person who wronged her, spends the season torturing herself.

Cleo- Pearl. Besides the irony of the name, see the above. Ultimately, it’s the Astronomer who betrayed Rose Red, not Pearl, yet Rose’s anger manifests in hurting herself and Pearl. And, in Rose’s defense, Pearl did act selfishly. She started a relationship with the Astronomer, knowing that her sister loved him. And we can see this from how untrusting all of Pearl’s lives are, similar to how Cleo behaves towards her allies. The Soldier is apathetic towards the idea of dying, knowing Rose’s flirting isn’t genuine. Scheherazade knows that the story she’s giving Rose is the last piece of stardust she has, and she gives it anyways, not because she is selfless but because she wants to rest. When Lady Usher is killed by Roxie’s ghost, she still sees her as her little girl.

I mean, I feel like these lyrics could sum up Cleo and Pearl in the life series pretty well honestly:

“This has all happened before….And the dead girl leapt upon her mother//And her sister//And her daughter//And her lover//With the rage of four generations”

No matter who Cleo is to Pearl, Pearl kills her in the end. No matter who Pearl is to Rose, Rose ends up killing her.

Scott- The Astronomer. The Astronomer is, in my opinion, the real catalyst of the show, even if the focus is on Rose and Pearl. He uses Rose for her observational skills and gets close with her before ultimately choosing Pearl over her, which you could parallel to Scott choosing to ally with Cleo and ditch Pearl in DL.

However, The Astronomer, like Scott, is not truly an antagonist. He is a man, who as we can see both from the songs The Astronomer and Fathers & Sons, acknowledges his faults but can’t find it in him to get better. The Astronomer wishes he could sing and see beauty the way Rose does, but he doesn’t practice and he’s “CONFOUNDED BY MUSIC// AND BABIES AND LAUGHTER//AND STORIES AND GOODNESS//INFINITY AND LUCK//I’M CONFUSED BY THE NOTION//THAT SOMEBODY LOVES ME”. We see this in the Astronomer’s other lives too. Lord Usher says that he knows he’s a bad lover and deadbeat dad, telling The Son that he should leave and never look back. David plays the piano in the palace of the Shah even as it hurts him and even after it has been determined that humans don’t deserve music, because he is begging for forgiveness, which you could parallel to the way Scott kills himself in DL as an apology to Pearl.

Martyn-The Bear. The Bear is a character who acts solely on impulse and base desire, which fits in line with how Martyn is often characterized as someone who acts before he thinks, whether out of love or rage. Martyn ditched Pearl in the heat of the moment because he felt hurt by Cleo’s rejection, and spent the rest of the season begging for Cleo back. Instead of being honorable in the final duel with Scott and Impulse in LimL, he indulges in his bloodlust. Half the time in SL when he got guesses wrong as a yellow it was because he was goaded into guessing and couldn’t resist.

The Bear, similarly, is a creature of instinct in every life. He sends Rose on a wild goose chase just because he wants honey. As The Son he leaves his grieving family because he wants to go join a band in New York. All the Shah wants is to drink, eat, and indulge himself in mindless entertainment. The Pusher gives no consideration to the fate of the Victim when he shoves her onto the tracks, he just takes a swig of his drink and pushes.

[lukolabrainrot]

Part 3: re: New Speculation that L&N have been together since Toronto

Pattern of L’s and N’s circle of friends

“9) N and N friend group posts including JD – I will post this analysis separately of a pattern that I’m seeing. Pattern is the posts from her side coincided with posts on his side (as in they happen in a specific cluster of days). Almost as if N knows something from his side will be posted and she a) has to distract herself b) distract the fans so that whatever L posts don’t get that much of a backlash c) has to send a secret message to L that she’s doing fine and she’s still 💯 in”

I think part of her secret code to L is as long as she’s wearing her claddagh ring, she’s still in. Even if she bought the ring herself to celebrate S3 success, I doubt that she will wear it all the time if it gives her bittersweet memories – I think she wears it to hold on to loving memories from Ireland. I don’t know what L’s secret code is - I think it’s as long as he’s on lifeguard duty, he’s still in 😂

I’m sure there are loads that I missed. I kept the IG posts from N to Bridgerton unless it’s really newsworthy or quite anticipated by fans. These are just from the pap walk onwards.  I also included some posts from outside sources because of speculations that they might be coming from their team to further the goal that they are working on. Which makes me think (and this is going to be an unpopular opinion) that N may have a hand on DM posts of her and JD (me: hides behind a door).

I might really be reaching here -- deep in my delulu seeing patterns when they don’t exist – but listed out like this almost seems like there is a back and forth between their groups and what gets out publicly.

Aug 8th

L – Bridgerton press tour bloopers

N – Choose Love, political posts

A – Soho with friends

Aug 2nd 

T posts Italy recap video

Aug 1st

N – Tatcha, skin care routine (self care)

A/R/S/T/C – various photos, stories, videos from Italy trip

July 31st

BG – Italy SM posts

Jul 30th

A/R/S/T/C – various photos, stories, videos from Italy trip

PM – Italy article

Jul 29th

A/R/S/T/C – various photos, stories, videos from Italy trip

“Pap” Maria – videos of lifeguard Luke

DM – Italy story

N and friends – JR birthday

Jul 26th             

N – Dr. Who, CAA announcement

A – TT dance (Chris Brown)

DM – N/JD and L/A posts

L – unliking HBS IG posts

Jul 24th

N/LH/SMcS – IG stories of nightout; N’s new polaroid

DM – N/JD speculations; belated L/A spotted in Brighton Soho

Jul 23rd

A Fan account – posts of 20 somethings that L followed during HBS 2023

A – story, rehearsal for Lettuce dance

Jul 22nd

R/S/T/C – Brighton Soho for T’s birthday (not confirmed if L and A were there)

Jul 20th

A – Latergram LA photos

DM – 2nd pub shot with N/JD featured in DM

Jul 17th

A – story with Theo; TT dance (Apple)

Jul 16th

N – Polin team, NC last day of filming, Top 6 post

Jul 15th

A - Latergram LA photos

Jul 14th

JD/JR/LF – Football match (speculations N was there)

Other Sources - L/R/JV Football match (can’t confirm if A was there)

Jul 13th

N with Mum – Wimbledon with launch of new polaroid (L’s groomer did her hair)

L – Carla’s wedding (can’t confirm if A was there)

A – IG story of her made up face (looked like she’s going out, maybe implying she’s going to the wedding)

Jul 12th

DM – 1st pub shot with N/JD featured in DM

Jul 11th

A – Football story (with JV and R, can’t confirm if L was there)

A – TT late LA post (Good luck Babe)

Jul 9th

N – NC last day of filming, Top 8 post

Jul 6th

L – GQ Heroes dump

JD – story in N’s apartment

Jul 4th

N – BTS, entering Top 10; Independence Day Binge

A – TT late LA post (Million Dollar Baby)

Jul 3rd to 5th

R/S/Other Sources – photos and videos from GQ Heroes

Jul 1st

L – La La Land

From other sources – PR birthday, pool pics, 1st lifeguard duty

JD – People Places Things play date

Jun 28th

L – Laterals BTS

N – Shoes…more shoes release

A – TT GRWM post (Birds of a Feather)

Jun 27th

Other Sources – Galway video and photos (I don’t recall L or N reposting these in their own SM accounts)

Jun 25th

JD – hanging out in the park; N’s bag featured

Jun 24th – 30th (approx.)

L and A in LA (ugh)

A – LA hotel story

From other sources – PR birthday, pool pics

Jun 23rd

Other sources – more Loewe photos and videos, L supporting JB cause

L – Loewe IG stories

JVN – IG grid post, 6th slide “I hope you let them” – I think this is JVN message to N

Jun 22nd

N – wedding transformation

L – Loewe story teaser

Jun 21st

N/JVN – Taylor Swift with M and CW

Jun 20th

N – Wedding Dance

L – Fallon guest spot, photos and video

Jun 18th

N – wedding BTS

Jun 17th

L&N - really early in the morning GMT time, Washington Posts IG stories and posts

N – SKIMS campaign

L – L and Corey in Milan

A – Milan IG stories

Jun 16th

N – London Premiere photos; SATC TT; “Bridgertons” story

From other sources – more Milan videos and photos including at least 3 occasions with A in them

Jun 15th

L – Milan/D&G photos

N – Boob cake story (with JD, CW, and others); Tatcha post end of promo (self-care)

Jun 14th

N – TFMT table read; pre-premiere pics

Jun 13th

DM/PM pap walk photos

N – the furniture they broke

L – feel like celebrating, Men’s Health, London Premiere BV photos

.

[newlabournewromantics]

did you guys know tony blair actually wrote supercut by lorde?

this is dedicated to @tonyblairwitchproject thank u for enabling me

the process of putting together a supercut, of rewriting and reimagining an (artificially) positive version of a particular storyline, is eerily similar to what tony blair does in every aspect of his life. this is especially noticeable when it comes to his relationship with gordon though — he rarely goes into detail as to just how ugly their interactions were, and his public statements about why they grew apart are always imbued with soulless language about “professional” and “political” disagreements, rather than any honesty about the deep personal betrayal that was actually going on. plus, whenever tony does express any sense of anguish over the breakdown of the relationship, he’s always incredibly quick to defend his own behaviour (denying granita even happened… what the hell), erasing any responsibility he might bear. he is LITERALLY creating and playing a supercut, one which only has any traction in his own head.

journalists have written about new labour in 1997 being drenched in a certain magic, offering the public something to believe in. “gave” is past tense though, as the tbgb relationship began to deteriorate just months after getting into government, and newlab’s popularity would only dwindle as the years went on.

remember that one clip in the gq alastair campbell interview where tony refused to say he didn’t dream about gordon? yeah i remember it too, isn’t that funny!

two things to say here. one, tony can’t reach for gordon because they are not on speaking terms like whatsoever not even remotely. two, i truly think that tony has repeated his own version of events concerning gordon, both in his head and in public, so many times that he’s come to view them as reality — even if tony did interact with gordon properly, he would only be able to see the version of gordon that he’s created.

1994-2005 (ish), they wanted to reconcile and ease the tensions, but external pressures (teams around them, pressures of the jobs, emotional blockages etc) prevented them from truly fixing anything.

Tthese lyrics give me the impression that the speaker would twist themselves into any shape, fashion themselves into any persona, just to hold the attention of the person these lines are directed at. Very much reminds me of accounts re the 1994 leadership discussions, where it’s said that tony was promising gordon anything and everything to get him to swing behind him, then making similarly wild promises about succession later in government just to keep gordon playing the game. Also, it reminds me of that absolutely fucking awful (positive) rawnsley quote that goes something like “tony would cajole, plead, argue, rail against gordon”, just to get him to talk to him.

in my head, this section relates to his immediate post-pmship period, where he’s taking on international roles left and right to try and recreate the pure magic of newlab (and ultimately failing! lets’s not be dishonest here).

THIS IS THE MOST TONY BLAIR SET OF LINES IN EXISTENCE!!! PAY ATTENTION HERE!!!!!!!

first line relates to the nonsense (very sensible accurate analysis) i was spinning about tony rewriting his and gordon’s history, erasing his own culpability and capacity for TREACHERY! the lines about calling… such an obvious parallel with the infamous three hour phone calls, the “endless circular conversations”, the screaming fits down the telephone line…….

another dreaming reference? more likely than you’d think

this outro, although repeating lines i have already covered is actually very important to cover separately. the way that it just repeats itself, over and over and over and over, until the song finishes is actually incredibly aligned to tony’s mentality when it comes to tbgb. as i said earlier, i truly think that tony has repeated his own narrative regarding the way that he treated gordon — and his responsibility for how their relationship played out — enough times to view it as reality. he is insane and i understand him like nobody else.

[dyelwi]

I’m not on Twitter so I don’t see a lot of negative things about Athena. How exactly are people ableist to her? /gq (I don’t doubt it, I’m curious though 😅)

Hi, yeah I feel like going on that rant now lol. Gonna clarify first that this isn’t some Big New Discourse, rather it’s just an observation I’ve personally made from seeing the way people talk about Athena, especially on Twitter but here to an extent as well. Putting this under a read more because it got VERY long. It’s sort of a character analysis and sort of a fandom analysis??? Idk lol.

Athena is mentally disabled. This is heavily implied at LEAST, though I’d say it’s straight up canon. Even if you don’t subscribe to the common interpretation of some of her experiences (sensory issues, trouble communicating especially when young but even in the present to an extent, her relating to robots more than people as a child) it’s clear that these things actively disabled her at the very least as a child. There’s some bigger posts going more into how autism coded she is but that’s actually not even what I see people being ableist about!

Even if you look at her and think that the autism is just a headcanon, it’s pretty undeniable that she has severe trauma that presents much like PTSD, especially with how the main symptoms she displays are flashbacks and repressing memories of the trauma, which I wanted to note are actually real things that happen but are used in fiction especially often to portray severe trauma. PTSD is a mental disorder that most agree on as a disability from what I’ve seen (phrased this way because there’s no real list of what disorders are and aren’t a disability, it matters more how it impacts an individual, but PTSD often impacts people in ways that are disabling) and sure enough we see that it disables Athena.

Athena has trauma specifically surrounding murder and court trials. And she works as a defense attorney!!! This is important because it means she is frequently around things that trigger her (in the way the word is meant to be used, not the meme-y way people sometimes use it). It’s like if Edgeworth became an elevator repair guy or something. And sure enough, we see her struggle because of her trauma being triggered. This is something that happens not only in ace attorney 5, the game which most explores her trauma, but also to an extent in ace attorney 6 when Nahyuta basically tries to bully her out of defending Bucky (I love Nahyuta but this is not his nicest moment lol). She begins to question if she really can do a case by herself. She hears the feelings of everyone in the room (if you want to bring the likely autism into it, this is a point for that as she’s having some sensory overload), and she reaches perhaps one of her lowest points in the case. She is struggling, due to her disability(-ies if we include likely autism) because Nahyuta and the gallery (more so their emotions she heard but same thing) triggered her. You could argue she doesn’t like go into full panic flashback mode here but to me at least, this doesn’t mean she isn’t struggling or that she isn’t triggered. She’s probably been able to start healing after aa5 after all. Regardless of that, even Simon specifically says that Nahyuta is using her hearing abilities against her to try to win, so if you’re considering the autism as an aspect of this that feels like more than enough. And so, Simon Blackquill, who sees one of his closest ever friends struggling in protecting something he cares about, steps in to help as her assistant.

People hate this. And I was surprised when I learned that. Simon is one of my favorite characters and one of my favorite parts of this case. But people apparently blame misogyny for him coming to help her, when if we’re looking at this from the perspective of the ace attorney writers they clearly just wanted to give Simon some (deserved) screentime and use the typical ace attorney setup where there’s a character assisting the defense attorney. It was weird going into this that Athena was alone, quite frankly, as that only happens on rare occasions in the ace attorney formula. Athena is not being treated as a pathetic woman that needs help when other characters wouldn’t. The other defense attorneys in this series need help rather often actually. And Athena is a defense attorney in an ace attorney game. And in-universe, she is a disabled person working in an environment where she is constantly at risk of her disability, well…. Disabling her. And I think most people would argue that disabled people needing help isn’t a bad thing! But for some reason, people refuse to give Athena the same grace they’ve given other characters in the past who weren’t even in as triggering of situations as she was in this moment.

And so people talk about their dream Athena-led cases, where she needs no assistant. I understand where they’re coming from, if you can’t tell I’m a HUGE Athena fan and I want to see her character grow and develop, I want to see her get her own game. But often people really like to talk about the idea of her not needing help, being able to do a case on her own. Not only is this rare and difficult for the average ace attorney defense lawyer, but it begins to feel a lot like when, in the real world, people try to convince disabled people to work through their disability or push the idea that growing and being their best self doesn’t involve accommodations. This is generally accepted to be a pretty shitty and ableist way to look at disabled people that is often tied to what people mean when talking about how people can treat overcoming disability as a sort of inspiration porn. When people say that Athena should be able to defend on her own and imply that this would make her better somehow, it feels like they’re saying that in order to be better at their jobs disabled people should just get over their disabilities to be stronger. Which I know is not something a lot of people that say these things about Athena would actually agree with! I don’t think people are doing this maliciously. But I wish people understood that this is what I hear when they say these things, as someone with multiple mental disabilities myself.

I relate to Athena a lot. I have, since her introduction, seen myself in her more than I have almost any other fictional character. And I wish people understood that what they imply when they talk about her like this can hurt a bit. I worry a lot about being able to do my future career effectively (I’m a college student rn hence the future part) and so to hear people imply these things about Athena?? I feel it by extension. You can say I’m just projecting or whatever, I don’t care, but I think people need to understand that disability is a big part of Athena’s character and that how they think about her can reflect some subtle, unconscious thoughts and feelings they may have about people like her that exist in the real world. I know ace attorney is just a video game series. I know that it’s typical of writers to treat things like this as something a character will push past to become stronger. But it’s a bit disheartening to hear so many people agree all the time, especially when the game itself hasn’t even done that with Athena’s arc, at least not yet.

tldr Athena is a victim of fandom ableism more than writer misogyny in this specific aspect surrounding her capabilities as a defense attorney who is written as a disabled character and who exists within the ace attorney setup

[turtlesallthewaytomgreg]

tom wambsgans' win delusion based on his damn watch.

i have to disagree with GQ's analysis on this one—that his choice of the audemars royal oak "reeks of clueless WTF-ery." this watch has too much rich history/overlap with the current season.

released at a time when the watchmaking world was in a period of upheaval: "the cards were being reshuffled and many people rightly sensed that a major earthquake was imminent."

coined, 'the quartz crisis' – this devastating period for mechanical watchmakers was marked by mass lay-offs...

with many swiss watchmaking companies in particular on the "precipice of financial ruin..."

amid the turmoil, audemars released it's royal oak design, which had "no immediate take-off" and became the "target of visible criticism."

most notably, the "clasps were perceived as too large, the tapering shape of the bracelets had to be compensated for by adding studs, and the additional links [were scarce]."

and yet, somehow, the royal oak took off in sales and managed to "save the company."

ummm??? tom, sweetie?? what are you planning?

sources: audemars , montredo, adam crainotes, alessandro mazzardo, the loupe

[nutteu]

[cattonquick] all the cows were falling out of the sky (kiss me here and here and here)

[rambling compilation]

six impossible things before breakfast. (or, the one where felix is a sheltered child, when it comes to oliver, anyway.)

[felix/oliver; 5+1; an outline/draft, will gradually add things whenever i'm in the mood; warning: too many italics and em dash, i like them]

i.

the most ridiculous thing just happened to felix. he was, simply put, flabbergasted. he wouldn't have believed his own eyes even if he put on oliver's ungodly glasses on—that was how much he was shocked by the turn of events he had witnessed.

he had been on his way towards oliver's room because for once he woke up earlier and their schedule coincided; thinking perhaps that they could have breakfast together, and he could walk oliver to his class like a best friend would, even better, because he was felix and he bet his lost-found collection of vapes that no one had ever done something this nice for the other man. hell yeah, more best friend reps for him, no one could compare. not even farleigh's lackluster efforts to conceal his desire to befriend oliver—in secret, because he'd probably rather eat a leather shoe than admit it—and get him to keep rattling off analysis and shit, throw some insults in there too like there was no tomorrow, felix didn't know, he wasn't in-the-know of his cousin's list of kinks— would ever compare. that was just how awesome felix's plan was.

so, he was just on his way, merrily, knocking three times in successions because he wanted to copy oliver's way of knocking on his door, and waiting patiently for the man to blearily come out of bed to greet him with that sleepy, lopsided smile. fucking adorable, man. felix had always liked cute things—dogs, kittens. not adult cats though, they were too scary. oliver was one of those things, now. especially if oliver moved too much in sleep and he got bed hair and his kinda coarse tufts of hair would stick every which way. beyond adorable, and kinda dumb. felix should suggest oliver to buy a new shampoo; this one smelled too sharp and didn't soften his hair, though felix didn't really mind burying his nose into oliver's hair, like he had done multiple times when he was drunk or when they were pressed too close in the pub. or, better yet, another best friend rep soon to be gained, he should just buy oliver a good shampoo! yeah. felix's morning was swell.

that was—until the door creaked open and instead of oliver's downturned, blue eyes greeting him, his gaze settling on felix's chest at first before looking up, up, up, it was someone else. felix was tall; taller than most of his peers. but this time, it was his turn to look up. the man standing in front of him was bare-chested, standing on the doorway only in his boxers, had dark eyes and dark hair, had a face that would fit right in on the front of gq, scratching his belly and looking pissed-off that his sleep was disturbed. it was definitely not oliver and his stupidly endearing, huge yawns. definitely not felix's oliver.

so, what the fuck was this man doing in oliver's room?

his eyes widened, worry overtaking him immediately as multitudes of unpleasant thoughts went through his head. he was about to punch the stranger on the sternum—punch first, ask later, felix was very worried—when the guy turned towards where felix knew the bed was, and called out, "ollie, this guy yours?"

ollie? ollie? no one called oliver with that name except for felix! this man had no right whatsoever; he was so going to sock his freakishly sharp jaw, ruin it so that his stupidly handsome face would look wonky at least.

but then, there was a mumble, in a very familiar voice, and felix forgot all about the stranger, shouldering him away and stepping into the room so he could make sure that oliver was indeed unharmed and felix could kick out this guy and they'd be back to his original plan. what he saw, however, was just fucking ridiculous. of course, it was oliver, so he still looked cute and dazed from abruptly interrupted sleep. but aside from the well-known bed hair, the smattering of chest hair that sometimes felix wanted to pull just for fun, there were bruises. bruises. and, oh dear lord, were those hickeys? there were myriads of them, both alike—on oliver's neck, his chest, down to his bare hips, and even his wrists. he looked like he had been run over by a truck, but felix was too familiar with those things to deny himself the truth, no matter how much he didn't want to believe it.

that stranger, that fucking dude wasn't just any stranger. he was oliver's one-night-stand. wait—it was one-night-stand, right? he wasn't, like, oliver's secret supermodel boyfriend or anything, right? oh, merciful god, felix was feeling faint and- and—upset. very much so. he didn't know why, or how he was suddenly overwhelmed by that feeling, but he chose to put the blame on this stranger. oh- oh god. what if oliver was taken advantage of? what if he got drunk without felix by his side and ended up with someone he didn't want in the first place? right. back to punching it seemed.

but. but that guy called oliver 'ollie'. so easily, too. like it was something familiar between them, and oliver had answered to it as well. felix's head was spinning. he needed to sit, but he was still too wary of the stranger in the room to do so.

"felix?" oliver croaked out, rubbing his left eye, still not yet focused on the very dire situation in the room. "yeah, mine, dee" he then said, and felix took a moment to understand that it wasn't him oliver was talking to. who the hell was dee? it sounded very much like a pet name. felix didn't like it one bit.

"oh," dee said. "good, then. thought it's some git bothering you." then, the man looked at felix with a more pleasant smile on his lips. felix narrowed his eyes. dee laughed a little. "calm down, i didn't do anything to ollie."

"it's oliver to you," felix regarded coldly. "and what the fuck did you mean by that? he's definitely- definitely..." he petered off, at loss of what to say. there were too many emotions swirling in his chest, and he didn't like any of them, because he didn't understand why he'd feel them in the first place. this was too confusing.

"fucked six ways to sunday?" dee offered a helping hand, his smile changing to that of indulgence. "yeah. he was."

felix didn't understand. oliver was his best friend. they shared everything, even though it was mostly felix blabbering about his life and his interest. it was hard for oliver to open up, and he understood that. he was patient, trying to be a good friend by welcoming any sliver of story about oliver. but, despite that, he knew oliver. his oliver, his ollie, who was shy and a wallflower, who couldn't dance and was clingy when he was drunk; whose smile was prettier than anything felix had ever seen, and whose mind was terrifyingly intelligent and competent when it came to academic. he knew the shy man who clothed himself in godawful clothing that felix slowly warmed up to, even thought endearing, and his awkwardness when it came to teasing and physical interaction with someone else other than felix.

that ollie never said that he was interested in anyone, be it a guy or a girl. never came home with anyone at the end of the night, and instead spent it either waiting for felix or trading insults with farleigh. that ollie never bared his skin unless it was absolutely necessary, and was always shy when the talks in the pub came to a more raunchy topic. that ollie definitely never told felix that he had someone who also called him ollie, whom he called with an answering nickname; never told him that he was okay with being littered with bruises and hickeys and being fucked six ways to sunday, fucking christ.

so, who the hell was this? was this still the same endearingly awkward man felix had known these past six months? or... perhaps it was felix's fault? for always talking about himself and didn't push oliver enough to talk about his stories and secrets in return? was this a secret that felix unknowingly walked into? he didn't know. he didn't like not knowing when it came to oliver. they were best mates. it should mean something, right?

he didn't know if his thoughts showed on his face, but if they did, he must've looked crestfallen right now, and he knew that if this oliver was still the same person felix knew, he'd cave in quickly and try to console him in a heartbeat.

"oh, felix," oliver said, voice light and still smeared with sleep. "what's wrong?"

felix let out a breath that felt too much like relief. "nothing," he said, and was mortified to hear petulance in his voice. "nothing," he repeated, louder, "just- just- ollie. who's this man? your boyfriend? how come i never knew about him, ols?"

oliver's harsh face softened, and felix looked him in the eye, those summer blue, for comfort. he got that instantly. "he's just a friend."

felix's lips pursed into a pout. "but you slept with him."

oliver shrugged. "sometimes, yeah," he said. "as i did with some others. i'm sorry i didn't tell about—well, this... part of me, i suppose? i don't know how to bring it up into a conversation and i don't think it's important."

oliver didn't think it was important. it meant that this dee motherfucker wasn't that important. just friend-with-benefits, then. felix exhaled, yet again another thing that felt too close to relief. he was easily appeased, sue him. he glanced at dee, and the man was rolling his eyes as oliver spoke, but there was mirth in his dark eyes and he looked two seconds away from laughing. felix didn't know what was funny. surely, his little crisis, whatever the reason was, wasn't funny at all. oliver would agree.

"okay," he nodded. "i was just hopping by to see if you want to have breakfast together. and if you want me to walk you to your class."

"i would appreciate that, yeah," oliver smiled, lopsided and sleepy. fucking adorable.

"i guess i'll take my leave," dee announced to the whole room, unnecessarily. but at least he started putting on his clothes and gathering his things. "ollie, i'll see you later?"

"no, he won't," felix said before his brain could catch up to it. he panicked for a second, because he didn't know the reason why he said that. he cleared his throat, and continued, "we're going to a pub later. no time for you today."

dee raised an eyebrow. "okay, guard dog," he said. "later, then, oliver."

felix was two seconds away from shooing him out of the room, but then oliver moved to pull away the blanket, and thankfully he was clad in boxers too, because felix saw some more bruises peeking from the hem of the boxers and he didn't think he could restrain himself anymore from gutting dee if he saw any more of those higher up on oliver's inner thighs.

oliver put his feet down, and started to stand, then abruptly aborted his movement. he scrunched his face for a moment, then, with a sheepish face, he said, "felix, a little help?"

"are you hurt?" felix immediately hounded, moving towards oliver at the same time as dee.

there was a pretty blush on oliver's cheeks, travelling up to his ears, when he said, his voice small and clearly embarrassed, "i don't think i can walk."

dee gave him a smug grin and felix threw his fist. he was parried, but not before satisfaction coursed through him when dee looked alarmed. serve him right. guard dog, he said? damn right he was. felix wasn't just going to bite, he would tear him down.

"like you said, a fickle child," sighed dee, then rolled his eyes again as felix pushed him out of the room, slammed the door right on his stupid face.

"sorry about him," oliver winced. "he just likes teasing people."

"he's so annoying," felix whined. "i don't like him."

"i know," came the answer, easy and light, as if felix's plight was something endearing to oliver. "um... help me to the bathroom?"

"of course," felix said readily. "do you want me to carry you?"

"maybe later," laughed oliver, then smiled something secretive. "so... breakfast? then walk me to my class? i like your plan."

felix grinned. take that, dee. his morning plan might be slightly dented on the side by surprising occurrence, but it wouldn't deter him easily. this morning could still go as swell as he had hoped it would be. and, now that felix knew about oliver's apparent endeavor with people, he could, maybe, try to goad the man into telling him more, and maybe hog some more of his time so that this kind of thing wouldn't happen again in the near future.

sounded like a good plan, honestly.

-

[bluestarlett]

hi starlett

i’m just wondering how/why you kin the blue one from tfftt(/gq)? i keep looking through the lyrics to see if there’s characterization for the different ones and i’ve watched the mv like ten times,,, i can’t find anything though 😭

hi there dear so for me its a little more about symbolism and interpretation

to me blue symbolizes the past and space and wanting to hold onto one's innocence

my good friend clemmie actually made a little analysis on him that i really connect to

and i connect to that a lot because i kind of have always made attempts to push away the reality of the world in hopes of preserving the innocence ive got left as well as being an age regressor but honestly i have a lot of trauma both from my repression and before it that i

ignore a lot

its deeper than that but that is where it starts to get personal for me and i dont like talking about that

[foodnewsandupdates]

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[castlebyersafterdark]

I don’t think you believe in bracelet gate but I do, so walk with me here. I don’t think it’s that crazy tbh. I personally believe that’s what we saw on his wrist as you posted some pretty good screen caps once and imo it looks and sits on the wrist like the bracelet does. Ofc we can’t know for sure but that’s my take. It’s a very close match. Anyways there is convo on twitter from fans about—and I can’t find the source though I imagine it’s one of Joe’s recent interviews—about how Joe said they gave each other crazy gifts and letters for the wrapping of the show, and pairing that with the GQ thing where Finn said Natalia gave him a rolex…and the kind he got even used is at least a few thousand dollars, I don’t think it’s wild to think that Finn (or someone) from the cast gave Noah that bracelet for a wrap gift if it is indeed the cartier love bracelet. It fits right in with the crazy gift theme and is right up Noah’s bougie street. Seeing as how it’s romantically coded, my guess is Finn cause duh, but I just saw a tweet about a story Director Luca Guadagnino told about how after he broke up with his partner a few years ago and how he always wanted his partner to give him a love bracelet but he never got one, timmy surprised him by taking him to cartier and letting him pick a love bracelet out, and they are just dear friends, so it also could just be something that’s given as a sign of pure love between people in certain circumstances, even though ofc the romantic association is inherent to the piece. Now we don’t have confirmation that is a cartier, but if it is, I don’t think it’s crazy to think someone gave him it as one of the crazy wrap gifts if Finn got a rolex that demonstrates the level of gifting they were operating on hahaha

only time will tell if I am right but I hope we at least find out one day that it’s 100% cartier even if we never learn the backstory

I was a "braceletgate" neutral all this time! Was happy to provide the screenshots and analysis many seem to reference but I didn't have a solid opinion on it because I've been holding out for clearer photos in the future of it before I staked my true opinion, otherwise undetermined.

The filming wrap gift giving... well... this changes things a little. I'm feeling a bit more willing to believe it's the Cartier without clearer image now knowing this!! Since it's certainly not far fetched the cast in general were gifting meaningful, expensive gifts to those dearest. Hmmmm.....

[punishedgwyndolin]

Apologies I phrased that very poorly, transfem/otherwise AMAB (not all AMAB nonbinary/genderqueer people identify as transfeminine which is why i use agab, but TMA would be more appropriate!) GQ experiences are different enough from AFAB (etc etc) or TME transgender ones to classify them as different things? Lumping both together under “transgender” widens the experience the term captures. the experience of transmisogyny is 90% of transphobia, I don’t believe transmascs face any systemic discrimination aside from reactive misogyny before passing, and most have extremely different experiences from transfems: Are they similar enough to be recognized as transgender in the same way? Or would another term be more appropriate. Something I’ve been thinking on for a while

ahh, i see, thanks for elaborating. while i get your meaning, i would disagree. i think its certainly true that trans experiences range pretty broadly across the spectrum and that transmisogyny is really extreme and probably the most numerous example of transphobia, but im not sure id go so far to say that it is wholly representative of transphobia; although id get pretty close, a lot of transphobia and bias is influenced heavily by transmisogyny or other generalized fear of transfemininity/failed masculinity, like a lot lot.

moreover, i worry that this kind of analysis could lead to overfocusing on some aspects of gender, and losing sight of other vital key parts to how gender is actively lived and enforced (such as class, race, culture, whole milieu). i also want to push back a bit on the "transmascs dont face systemic discrimination" because i just think its too black and white since they definitely do (not mentioning other axes of oppression here, though you should when thinking this out because systemic discriminations interact in many ways with transness), just sometimes less or in different ways than transfems/tma folks. as an example, trans women have been observed on avg to be paid 60% less than the avg worker (horrendous), trans men arent much above that being observed at 70% (referencing this). sure the gap sucks and is evidence of the privilege that comes with not being tma, but they’re also still getting screwed, right? i also dont think we need to chalk these issues they face up to misogyny imo, i think its more accurate to describe it as transphobia as its denying their worth based on their divergent gender

tl;dr, while this feels a little baity, transmascs are definitely also discriminated against and while they can (and do) perform terrible transmisogyny to transfems and completely not understand their transphobia due to their own unique trans situation (many such cases), as a whole we have more in common with each other than against each other, most importantly the value of trans liberation and a cuter future where gender isnt so big of a deal. but to be clear if you're a snake about trans women and fail again and again to confront and learn from your transmisogynistic biases, you are poisoning the well by spreading such ideas in the community

[delphientropy]

heard from sera(phim system) that you guys like STP we'd love to hear your takes on it (also are you that mootie of ours that recommended it to us ? /gq we cant remember who it was)

we do!! ( i do at least 🥲 )

uhhmm we actually haven't been looking at it for a while since we were afraid it would trigger our voice of the paranoid out, so we dont have.. that much knowledge on it 😮‍💨

plussss we do really REALLY bad with vague requests so we dont really know what youre asking when you say "takes" /nm

but i wanna at least try so

based on what ive seen/heard, some little things i could try to point out in slay the princess

of course, slight spoilers for stp but kinda not, really basic knowledge tbh

- it always seemed to me that Narrator was actually just another voice rather than an *actual* narrator. especially in the ending when the princess took over the body and noted the narrator as one of the other voices (at least to my memory)

- there are no right or wrong decisions. i know it was stated in the beginning of the story but i keep seeing people say "wrong" decision or "right" ending. there is no right or wrong or good and bad, per se. there are decisions and endings. dunno how we cant grasp that when i thought this was stated in the game in the beginning 😅 i feel like this almost highlights how obsessed people are with right and wrong and good and bad? i dont know im bad at like "deep analyses" (how tf do you spell plural analysis)

- each voice serves a role or an emotion, making up one fuctional body (cough system core tbh cough cough /silly) and it really shows ending through ending. i like how the voices serve a purpose rather than just having quips

idk thats all i have.

also on that last question... probably, maybe? who knows

[lukolabrainrot]

Part 2: re: New Speculation that L&N have been together since Toronto

List of items that I think other armchair detectives will raise:

1) L’s post about “don’t let her ruin our night” - message to N, consistent with theory

2) SATC TT - N captioned this with ‘not you Colin, you’re perfect’ - this is a message to fans to emphasise that she is not the victim in this narrative because people thought L is hard launching gf, distancing himself, etc. “Bridgertons” IG story is N’s attempt to make L laugh.

3) Double Washington post posts - consistent with theory plus damage control

4) Fallon - I now think N was with him in NYC. The point of this is still damage control, to put focus on him, not for selfish reasons, but to deflect attention away from A and especially N. But dude can’t keep his mouth shut about N 😂

5) Milan/Loewe - I think Milan was planned before break up but L went ahead with it with A because of the agreement. Even though there were some videos that got out, it would appear that there is an attempt to minimize any pap photos of L and A going out (there are speculations that L and team bought them out).  L looked anxious and stressed here while A looked confident as all out.  I think she’s also meant to go in Loewe but with the backlash, she was asked to sit this one out.

 6) LA part 2 - I think this is work related for him and she was planned to go before break up. Went as planned because of agreement and also so that she can explore career options here (we had the birthday party from PR person here). A posted LA photos but no arm or hand in sight. First lifeguard on duty photos that were publicly leaked. L captioned La La Land on his one and only post. Note he didn’t use “LA” anymore. Is this an inside joke to N?

7) GQ - networking opportunity for A - she was really in her element here. I think she enjoys being able to rub elbows with celebrities.  His photos on his IG posts were mostly in the dark, is there some symbolism at play here?

8) Italy - group trip, weird and awkward behaviours from both L&A – 2nd lifeguard duty photos that were again publicly leaked. We got the whole shebang here: pap photos, DM, PM, and BG posts. I have a feeling that this is L’s PR team at work.  I think this is nearing the end of the agreement that is why we’re getting a full-court press.

9) N and N friend group posts including JD – I will post this analysis separately of a pattern that I’m seeing. Pattern is the posts from her side coincided with posts on his side (as in they happen in a specific cluster of days). Almost as if N knows something from his side will be posted and she a) has to distract herself b) distract the fans so that whatever L posts don’t get that much of a backlash c) has to send a secret message to L that she’s doing fine and she’s still 💯 in.

10) The Great Unliking of 2024 – personal reasons … I think he didn’t like the reminder that, at one point (especially now that he’s with N), he wavered on the notion that he and N could be together. Unliking J posts - this is a secret-not-so-secret acknowledgment on when his feelings for N surfaced (read: became undeniable).  This is his way of coming to terms/quietly accepting that this is the date when he clocked out on his J relationship.

Sidebar: I think L, while he is happy with N, is salty with fans. It’s like end of S2 backlash for him again. He is probably thinking why he has become the villain again for events that are not entirely his fault. I think he’s hurting and in disbelief that people believe he can do something as vile as what a lot of folks think about the pap walk (including me initially), that he would actually waste 4 years’ worth of effort, both his and N’s efforts, and disrespect the Bridgerton team and N like that.

.