#him and allister would parallel play

[kakusboyfriend]

Kieran: um... Uh... Do you. Um. Do you want to start over and be friends again 🥺???

Me: oh honey dear... I never stopped being your friend

[anendtopursuit]

CHUCKY AUTISM???? thats such a great concept i love it pls indulge me

OK OK SO SO SO! obligatory disclaimer that this is all based on my experience as an autistic person and therefore won't resonate with everyone, but still! here's just... off the top of my head, based on my autism-fuelled chucky character analyses:

special interests/fixations: was at least semi-fixated on peter pan from ages 8 to 14, if not longer. his childhood bedroom had peter pan stuff in it, his parents shared names w certain characters, he read it to the younger kids in the orphanage, he played games w the other kids based on it (w himself as peter n the younger kids as the lost boys), and he themed his second ever murder after it (turning an adult whom he hated/felt antagonised by into captain hook). sure you could maybe argue that this is just a Regular Interest, but i'm including it anyway. he also later insists that his interest in magic is "just a hobby", but fast forward a few years and he has the spells memorised, carries the book around with him everywhere, etc etc.

hyperexpressive: this is absolutely a side effect of being played by brad dourif (and fiona dourif emulating him), but as a human, chucky has THE most cartoonish and obvious facial expressions. he would suck at poker, his face is just too expressive. he's also pretty emotive in his mannerisms, which luckily carries over to his doll forms (e.g. the way he physically jolts forwards and throws his arms down when he's angry)

emotional dysregulation: ...do i need to elaborate on this one?

parroting/echolalia: definitely a little bit of me projecting with this one, but still. even when he's using his own voice, he sometimes recites lines of the doll's dialogue ("hi! i'm chucky, wanna play?" "hi-de-fuckin'-ho, ha ha ha" etc) - and sure, sometimes it's to freak people out, but i have that dialogue as a vocal stim and therefore relate just a tad. he also is rlly uncannily good at mimicking people (most notably nica) and whilst anyone can have that ability, i do find it's easier to pick up people's accents if you tend to mimic people by default.

caroline parallels: one of the characters chucky is paralleled against is caroline, who is openly autistic and has chucky as her special interest. she, like how jake is used to parallel teen chucky, is used as a direct parallel for child chucky. they also get along pretty well in the present day - chucky seems genuinely fond of her, plays video games with her, openly discusses his plans with her, etc. and seems to understand her in a way other characters don't.

self harm: gonna be as vague as possible here to avoid potential triggers. over 50% of autistic people are recorded as having self harmed for one reason or another. chucky has canonically done this since he was 8 (it's not discussed or shown whether he continued throughout the rest of his life, but given his therapist was actively attempting to make his issues worse, it wouldn't surprise me). again, obviously allistic children will do this as well, but i figure it's worth mentioning as it's atypical behaviour.

stims: kicking his legs around. that wiggly arm-wavey dance thingy he does when he's excited. that scene in the 80s of tiff stabbing that girl, and he's physically jolting back and forth and doing stabbing motions next to her.

eye contact: too much of it! he barely blinks, even as a human, and he stares people directly in the eyes. sure, this might be an intimidation thing, but i doubt he's self-aware enough for that. (he also wears sunglasses indoors, which you could spin as either an eye contact thing or a light sensitivity thing, depending.)

empathy: could go to either extreme with this one, tbh! depends on the chucky (and yes, this is where the soul-splitting complicates things).

morality: autistic people tend to be very moral, yes, but we don't always adhere to traditional moral codes. a lot of autistic people view intentional and accidental harm as the same level of severity, and therefore view harmful acts as less morally reprehensible than the average person might. chucky talks about murder as if it's something everybody does, and as if other people are no better than him for much less immoral acts. he still has morals (no killing kids, no homophobia, sexual abusers deserve the most painful deaths, etc), just different ones.

code switching: ok, full disclosure, i'm fully aware that this is a continuity error/a character choice being made later in the series - but still! chucky's accent throughout the franchise switches. between new jersey (assumedly his natural voice, since that's where he's from) and chicago (where he and tiff lived, and where he ended up dying). autistic people will commonly mimic the accents or speech patterns of people around them as a form of masking - it makes sense that when he's in chicago, surrounded by chicagoans, he drops his accent, whereas when he's with tiff, whom he met back in new jersey, he switches back. (again, the irl meta reason for this change is that chucky's new jersey accent was added later on to poke fun at don mancini, but if i had to argue an in-universe explanation for it, then this is what i'd go with.)

ok i probably have more to add later but i'm gonna stop there for now! again, this is all just headcanon and speculation, and obviously not everyone will agree, but yk.

[teotalksaboutstuff]

Danganronpa Despair Time Chapter 2: Episodes 3, 4, and 5

Episode 3

-so no teruko traitor reveal? pog 

-monotv’s incompetence makes him my favorite host of any killing game. reminds me a lot of danganronpa: safety’s on, basically DR1 but Monokuma is about as incompetent as MonoTV is. it’s a great read, highly reccommended.

-teruko being bad at caulking a bathroom is so me. also of course monotv isn’t going to reveal the information but him not knowing it himself is interesting.

-hey, nice caulk.

-people changing clothes being this big thing is very funny

-charles’ straight up phobia of blood is uh... there’s clearly something deeper going on here

-teruko, put the fucking knife away. as much as it’s within reason that you’d be this paranoid, this does make you look like you are trying to murder Charles here, at least to him.

-id love to know whose motive Charles had, now that Teruko’s got it.

-loving charles and teruko actually being friends of some sort now that their positions have basically reversed since chapter 1.

-Chiteruko? i actually like the idea of those three as a polycule and want to see more whit/teruko interactions.

-MonoTV jumping on charles XD

-teruko playing with cacti i literally cannot???? best scene in chapter 2 by FAR

-living for the eden jumpscare here

-THE EDEN GREMLIN SPRITE MAKES ITS APPEARANCE. GOD I LOVE HER.

-Eden’s hope speech is also iconic. Her knowing the world is kinda fucked but still being kind anyways is something Teruko clearly needed to hear.

Episode 4

-what is the tea

-the gurlz are fighting

-naur

-teruko sandwich duck face

-ace markey, the ultimate allistic

-by all rules of danganronpa arei should have died here, and i am so grateful monotv isn’t competent enough to actually enforce the rules but at the same time is arei the mastermind? ofc he wouldn’t kill the mastermind.

-veronika living for the fights is also very me

-’you’ve been acting jerkishly as well’ eden she is literally being deadnamed and STALKED are you blind. J is 100% in the right here.

-nico fucking roasting ace is funny, and i get why he’d think its constructive criticism because i too am autistic and would think much the same.

-see, veronika gets it

-when death threats are the only way to properly resolve an argument

-arei lashing out at monotv is iconic tbh

-jesus christ arei yeah that reaction is a sensible one given your circumstances

-”hey, just so you know, failed hanging attempts are pretty painful” teruko wtf, im not entirely sure how that was intended to be helpful?

-we know what the tea is

-the gurlz are still fighting

-naur

-teruko has 99 problems and these bitchez aren’t about to be number 100

-charles making cucumber flowers is iconic

-DAVID YES YOU STEP IN THERE AND HELP THEM

-yeah people are gonna be... super hesitant about the motive secret thing, and teruko defo needs to talk to the person whose motive was originally charles’ as well as rose, whose she has

-see, j at least has the decency to ask the person before telling their secret

-eden has a dude’s motive secret evidently, maybe levi’s? that would be significant.

-who is the someone they’re inviting

Episode 5

-Arei’s typical ew reaction to everything, unsurprising. Makes sense she’d want to talk about motive though given her position.

-Granted leaving Arei out was before Xander died but nO AREI YOU ARE BECOMING A WORSE TERUKO LIKE AM I THE ONLY ONE NOTICING THE PARALLEL HERE OR AM I SEEING THEM WHERE THERE ARENT ANY?

-Teruko’s reaction being what it is does not surprise me.

-MORE AREI GREMLIN SPRITES WOOT

-oh wow arei actually wasn’t bluffing when she said she had nothing to hide

-is _ illegal nahhhh let arei be a girlboss yall just dont want to see women win

-teruko please stop acting as if you have any moral high ground here 

-i mean unless something like this happened to you then thats another matter entirely

-the true arei trauma dump. contextualizes literally everything about her in a way that actually makes me fascinated with her as a wonderfully complex character. 

-naturally this would develop into a philosophy where kindness is weakness, yeah

-DAVREI??? FUCK YES I SHIP IT!!

-ah, rose time

-yass art therapy, but i can understand why teruko was so freaked out by it

-in all fairness i dont know how you would respond to someone saying the stuff rose was about teruko

-TERUKO THATS LIKE SAYING I HATE YOU TO AN ARTIST?? LIKE CMON TERUKO YOU ARE MAKING IT REALLY HARD FOR ME TO DEFEND YOU THIS CHAPTER

-naturally, rose is fine with the secret coming out. she even has her own trauma dump scene with teruko

-i mean we been knew that teruko didn’t actually mean any of that and now rose maybe does?

-nico was mother for that tbh

-please don’t forget him down there ;-;

-the implication that nico actually likes the teruko gore art is an interesting one

-loving how nico wants rose to teach him painting omg

[theskyexists]

I watched wonder woman 1984 and it was fascinating because in concept it was really good. But in execution it wasn't.

So they wrapped up all their themes (unlike....many many films), but the themes didn't land.

Why?

I've seen people say it's because the narrative threads were too crowded. There might be something to that, but I think the most important problem is that Diana didn't feel like the protagonist. Max Lord was the protagonist. And that wasn't just because Pedro Pascal knocked it astronomically out of the park. (Also the kid they cast for allister was really good)

They tried to make the lasso of truth an artefact of power, give it some more mythology, but despite its serious screen time, that mostly failed.

They tried to say: it is better to have the truth, reality, than to have a lie, a desire you must pay terribly for. But it didn't land.

Why? Why? Why? Because the climax of the movie did not align with the climax of Diana's story.

And because the lesson Diana drew from her youth applied most specifically to Max, not herself. They should really have put in at least two more 'bits' whether separate or part of the starting 'young Diana' sequence. One of these should have centred on the lasso in its full mythological origin and glory, and a centrepiece of Amazon culture and Hyppolita's lessons - nobody remembers what was said about it in the first movie! This should have been inserted at the least before they discover the wishing stone's divine origin so that it's explicitly paralleled as the inverse divine object.

(Also the action scenes were really bad holy SHIT. It looked BAD. And silly.)

If you have three stories of three characters, then all those stories must come together at the same moment, or they will feel like sidethreads.

Diana's story resolved the moment she said goodbye to Steve and regained her powers - the rest was denouement. That made her story the side story. That was a poor choice. The epilogue of the movie would have been bittersweet if we saw her resolve to try and learn to fly after being open to a chat with a nice man (whose body she did not involve in sex without consent....yikes) - really landing that combo on moving on but honouring Steve through his gift - flight.

Cheetah's and Diana's fight should not have resolved (or ...LOOKED like that) before the climax. Steve should have been with Diana, as she stubbornly refuses to renounce her wish, he flies her wounded to Max and Cheetah to face an impossible battle.

Diana puts on Asteria's armour (I did not like her outfits at all especially all the Focus on the heels (CLOSED! CLOSED HEELS, NOT EVEN HORSE RIDER'S HEELS!! THAT WOULD HAVE MADE SOME SENSE - they even did a little inside joke on it and I was super mad lol) but THOUGH she can deflect a missile (Diana manages to make the plane invisible but Cheetah's senses have been enhanced so much that she can pick them out bc of superior senses and Diana is forced to try and fly - Steve and Diana fly together for one moment!) - she cannot deflect Cheetah's claws - which establishes Cheetah as a Force to be reckoned with and the armour not as simply flimsy.

So she gets kicked around by Cheetah (the fight in the White House should have been shorter) even as Steve tries his absolute best to help getting busted up more and more - which hurts Diana terribly, she cant protect him again and again (I did like how his part in fights was always essential if at a different level - and they did a good job on believably weakening Diana).

They bust through to Max Lord and Cheetah is pissed that Diana is 'not taking her seriously'. She is about to kill her and Steve is like - Diana there is no choice! Look at what you'll lose!!! What is at stake! Interspersed with the rising destruction of the world because Steve takes the lasso and wraps it around HER wrist - a glimpse of Allister in there. Max is just raving. And Steve echoes Diana's mother!!!!!!!!

God. Because they did not articulate the link - it does not land.

He echoes that this is the day, the truth is that she is a hero. It is her time to win, to protect, to sacrifice, to stay behind, to be like the golden warrior. That is the second bit that should have been part of Diana's youth in this film: there should have been a flashback to the GRIEF that came with the golden warrior being left behind - of losing and being lost. Winning, being like the golden warrior, is being strong enough to stand that. It also inverts Steve/Diana's martyrdom - the martyr is the one who is left behind.) That is the truth.

She whispers soundlessly that she renounces her wish - Steve's fascilime of a body crumbles. She explodes into golden light instead of weirdly wheeling into the sky. Cheetah is thrown back.

The lasso gets a real close up and Diana loops Max and Cheetah in - just like she did with the robbers in the first scene - and shows them the truth - along with the world. We get shots of Max's past, Barbara's past, and then faster and faster the people of the world losing, grieving and people FAILING.

Because, though Diana deals with loss and grief - Max and Barbara are dealing with failure. Diana should narrate Antiope's response to young Diana's claim that things are not fair.

The order of the climax was also wrong. People in the world should have started renouncing their wishes, and Max should have protested. UNTIL, Allister comes onto the scene. This was an enormously touching sequence. It was exactly right. Keep it exactly the way it should though Cheetah should visibly lose some of her power in the shot that Max runs away. The world rights itself explicitly as wishes once granted and their effects are disappeared. Max has his touching moment with Allister.

We go back to Diana and Barbara in the ruins, both kneeling. Both lost. Diana gets up and stretches a hand out to Barbara.

But Barbara is the one person who wished on the stone before it was Max, her wish is still in effect. She's still caught on the lasso - but she looks at her old self and she despises it - she stands up herself and she refuses to renounce her wish. Not when Diana implores her to, not when she sees the nice homeless man's face after she kicked the shit out of the horrible dude - because she hated feeling weak and disliked and afraid.

Now we get the lines about Diana having it all and her being patronising. DIANA JUST LOST THE MAN SHE LOVED AGAIN. Diana should try to say: you were the only one who drew me out of my shell, you made me feel happy again. That was your power. I wanted to be your friend.

Barbara runs. A nemesis for the future.

Then there's the epilogue with the snow and the man and the learning to fly. And then Lynda Carter as Asteria because that was DOPE.

----

This would tie Diana's decision into the other two's. It would make her decision the climax - the triumphant and tragic moment - and the other two's the (inverse) parallels that they are.

Diana renounces the person she loves for her protective power, Max renounces his destructive power for the person he loves, and Barbara.... was heavily, and I mean, HEAVILY coded with romantic comedy tropes with Diana. While Diana rejected all classic romantic film tropes with dudes - she played the partner to them for Barbara (picking up her papers for her, going on a date, Steve being Diana's old friend and Barbara Diana's new friend). Barbara gives up the person she admired/could have loved for her destructive power.

[pkmnomegaverse]

What fankids do the Galar characters have?

So first things first is that I’m not all that quick to develop fankids.  It takes me a while to decide on the canon cast, both what they’re doing in the future and if any of them get together, let alone deciding on fankids.  So this is one of those things that will likely expand with time.  Here’s my initial thoughts after beating the game though.  Which is more about the characters than any potential fankids.

Bede

Bede is definitely the character I’m going to hyperfocus development on, which both means he gets the most drama, but in theory, his children are the “main Galar fankids”. He’s an omega, no question there. I’m pretty set on endgaming Victor/Bede, but it takes a while for them to officially get together. 

I’m like 90% committed to the idea of Bede having a son conceived during ingame events, pretty much during the Champion Tournament.  Let’s just say I had the terrible realization that my fankid, Darcel, would make a really good child for Bede and this other character. Darcel is too established in Kalos to switch his parents, but I was stuck on the idea for its max-drama potential, so I decided to make a new fankid. A “not-Darcel”. Bede raises his son on his own and while it’s not the primary reason he turns his life around under Opal’s guidance, he is determined to be a strong and good parent to his child. Get his life together for both their sakes. My prototype name for the kid is Roan, although I might give that name to a Pier’s kid.  Regardless, someone is getting that name. 

Victor and Bede kinda end up with a complicated relationship early on, in the sense that Victor wants to be more official while Bede is often pushing him away. Plus Bede has kind of a warped perspective on what’s normal in a relationship, due to his past. Despite how far he’s come, he still has a long way to go.  He also doesn’t completely let go of his tsun tendencies when it comes to Victor, so even from a non-angst perspective, the guy plays hard to get.  At some point, they end up with a kid, a younger half-sibling to Bede’s first child. More than likely also an accident baby.

This one is way more up in the air, but given Bede’s backstory, I can see him possibly wanting to adopt if he ever came across some unfortunate orphan in need.  He’d see himself in the kid, and want to be a much better guardian than Rose was to him.  Break the cycle. So perhaps he and Victor end up with a third child who’s adopted.

Piers

Piers is the other character I really loved from the game, so he gets to be hyperfocus #2.  Also an omega since that’s my preference. I’m not 100% set on the pairing, but I am strongly leaning towards Raihan/Piers as endgame.  I do like Raihan/Leon as well, but my vast preference for Piers means I want to do more with him. So the pairing involving him wins. I’m too bad at OT3s to generally make a threeway work, so I can’t see myself going in that direction with these three.  

Kid wise, I feel like Piers has at least two kids, since I can see him wanting his child to have a sibling the way he did. As his first child is certainly an accident.  The second one could be an accident as well, but is likely deliberate, since again, he wants a younger sibling for his oldest child. He likely aims for them being closer in age than he and Marnie are. 

I do think that Raihan and Piers would have…problems making things work longterm. Not impossible, but I see Raihan as too into himself.  Kind of selfish and also likely not liking the idea of being “tied down”. One could say Piers would similarly not want to be “tied down” but given his relationship with Marnie, I see him as much more family focused. So were he to have children with Raihan, he’d be more willing to make sacrifices to make the relationship work. But a guy can only do so much on his own. It’d be on Raihan to make some compromises as well. I still need to think about this pairing more before anything is set though. 

Everyone Else

The main issue is other then the above ships, I really don’t ship anyone else. I liked Hop, but I felt he only really worked with Victor. But since Victor is with Bede…Hop is either a single dad, or maybe I’ll rarepair/crackship him with someone. 

Marnie was fine, but like Hop, no one really stood out as shippable with her.  Presumably Gloria could be shipped with either her or Hop, but I still have to decide if/how I want to implement her.  I’m fine with the idea of her as Victor’s twin, but since it goes against what I’ve done for every other region, I’m leaning towards not doing that (since even though I made Sun and Moon twins, I had a good reason for Moon not appearing in-game.  I wouldn’t be able to use the same excuse for Gloria, and I don’t want to rewrite the game plot to pretend she was there all along).  So maybe she’s some random girl, in which case, she probably would work better with Marnie over Hop?  Since Hop is too closely linked to the protag.  Were she to be Victor’s twin though, then Hop is the more likely ship.  As for omegaverse aspects, Marnie is an omega, like her brother.

Nessa/Sonia makes sense as a pairing and I can see the potential, I just don’t feel strongly enough about them to give them a fankid at this point. But they’re likely endgame.  Nessa is maybe an omega, but I can honestly see her as anything. Valid arguments for each.  Sonia is probably a beta.

Milo has strong potential Dad Energy, but I really have no ships for him, so probably nada for fankids.  Milo is an alpha.

@pokemon-legends-and-legacies‘s suggested Bea/Gordie as a couple and the idea is really growing on me.  So that one is at least a consideration.  Gordie is probably an alpha and I actually kinda like the idea of Bea as a buff fighter-type omega, since I always make fighter-type trainers alphas. Although she could possibly be an alpha as well.

I like Allister in theory, but again, I don’t have the slightest clue who I’d pair him with. There’s really no one who stands out, since all the younger characters I’d likely ship with someone else. He’s an omega cause I’m like that.

Opal is an omega since I like the idea of her being able to relate to Bede in that way.  Offer him some advice and probably teach him the ends and outs.  Since there’s no way Rose was giving him any practical information. He probably had to rely on the internet for anything he wanted to know that wasn’t taught in whatever schooling he had. I don’t think Opal has any children, since that was the overall impression I got from her trainer cards. She just skipped straight to sorta-grandma for Bede.

I don’t really think about Kabu all that much, but he’s likely an alpha.  Maybe he has family back in Hoenn, maybe he doesn’t. 

Leon and Hop are both alphas, since I like the idea of all the similarities between the two being part of what fuels Hop to want to be just like his big brother at the beginning of the game.  If I were going the single dad route for one of the brothers, it’d be Hop first, so Leon is the cool uncle to any of Hop’s kids.  Perhaps he and Raihan end up true bros as well, so he’s kinda the cool uncle to the Raihan/Pier’s kids. Maybe. 

Raihan is an alpha because of course he.  No question.  I feel like regardless on whether he and Pier’s make it long term, he’s still the father of Pier’s children. A dad with way too many pictures of his children.

Rose is an alpha and we’re not gonna discuss him right now since I’m struggling to decide what happens with him after the events of the game.  Oleana is maybe an omega?  Like Nessa, I can see there being a good argument for her being an alpha or a beta instead.  I lean towards omega going with the idea Rose “rescues” both her and Bede from a life of poverty.  And both are omegas, despite the fact the two don’t get along.  Cause I like parallels. Oleana likely won’t have children since she’s at the bottom of my list of characters to develop.

Victor is an alpha and Gloria is maybe a beta?  If I add her.  Will depend on what I decide her origin story is.

[fortunatelylori]

Crypts of Winterfell teaser

The 3 headed wolf

So ... this thing dropped sometime this morning while I was still asleep ...

First thing’s first ... We finally have an official release date, guys! I kept wondering if the show would start at the beginning of April or the end of April but as it turns out, HBO really wanted to be contrary so it’s the middle of April ... the 14th, to be exact. :)))

One of the disadvantages of living in Europe as a GOT fan is that by the time you see the new teasers, a whole host of other people have already analyzed it so you can’t really bring that much at the table. But I’ll give it a shot anyway. :)

The feather makes a come-back! 

No one really paid much attention to that feather, mostly because the last time the motif was revisited, it involved Sansa and we know how unimportant she is so why bother? Jonsa fans however have analyzed the symbolism behind it time and time again and what do you know? Here it is again, signaling the parentage reveal. Also, notice how the WW mist freezes the feather which in my mind can only mean that Jon will be in some kind of danger. 

The immediate interpretation is, of course, related to the fight with the WW that will take place at Winterfell so the feather in this context is a visual way of showing that conflict. 

It’s interesting that they chose the crypts for this teaser and involved the WW threat into it. A while back, I watched a video regarding how the crypts of Winterfell and the old kings of Winter might come into play in the story and considering this teaser, I think it’s worth revisiting this theory: 

Regardless of what secrets the crypts might hold in relation to the Starks relationship with the WW, the Winterfell crypts do pose a big problem for the humans fighting this war. If the NK can resurrect the dead, what is to say that he won’t raise the old kings from their crypts when he finally arrives at Winterfell? Imagine people taking refuge in the crypts during the final battle only for the dead to haunt them through the labyrinth. That would make for quite the sequence. 

But the feather symbolism can’t be related only to the WW because why would the WWs care who Jon’s parents are? The freezing of that feather must also relate to another hidden danger Jon will face. 

It’s interesting that they included Lyanna’s VO here: 

Lyanna: You have to protect him. 

Because this is where the feather and the VO come into play. Lyanna is asking Ned to protect Jon from Robert Baratheon. In that scene, if you remember, Lyanna says that if Robert were to find out who Jon is, he will kill him which leads Ned to keep the parentage of Jon a secret for almost 20 years. But let’s also remember where that feather came from ... it was Robert who placed that feather in the hand of Statue Lyanna. 

So that feather is a visual reminder that Robert would have killed Jon had he found out who he is. In addition to being the son of the man Robert hated, Jon posed a threat to Robert’s kingship. As Rhaegar’s son, Jon had a claim to the throne Robert had taken for himself.

But ... Robert is dead. He poses absolutely no danger to Jon now. But the threat is still highlighted here and the idea that Jon is in need of protection is brought up again. So against whom will Jon need protecting? Is  there another person in this story that might feel threatened by Jon’s claim? A person who has a huge army and at least one dragon and also a volatile temper? I would say that would be the person Jon would need protecting from. And as always with Jon, it seems that the people that will offer him protection will be named Stark. 

The wolf must have three heads 

(source: @undeadmanbun)

Perhaps we can now finally put to rest the theory of Jon, Tyrion and D*ny as the three heads of the dragon since this teaser strongly parallels Jon, Arya and Sansa to the original Ageon, Visenya and Rhaenys. Of course there are difference between the reiterations but if we were to look back at Aegon and his sisters, there are clues there that 3-way relationship was more in tune with Jon/Sansa/Arya then we might imagine. 

Yes, Aegon was married to both his sisters but his romantic preference for Rhaenys is blatant. I’d go as far as to say that the only reason why he ended up married to both his sisters was because Rhaenys was the youngest. I doubt he would have married Visenya, had things been reversed. Visenya, though, is Aegon’s equal in terms of military matters, his most direct partner when it comes to waging warfare. They have a pretty contentious relationship, with Visenya going so far as to physically harm Aegon in order to prove a point about him needed better protection. She’s the one that comes up with the idea of the King’s Guard. 

Speaking of which, let’s remember what Arya told Sansa in season 7. 

Sansa: You shouldn’t have run from them. (the guards)

Arya: I didn’t run. You need better guards. 

I can see Arya being the Visenya to Jon’s Aegon, without the sexual aspect. Pushing him, consulting with him on military matters, fighting with him when she believes he’s wrong while they work to achieve their common goal. I’ve said for a while that their relationship might be more strained than people imagine and I hold to that. I also think that no matter how many strains there are, they’ll always come together as a unit because of the incredibly deep bond they share. 

So if Jon and Arya represent the warrior aspect of the 3 headed dragon/wolf, by extension, Sansa must represent the political aspect of it. Otherwise why include her in this teaser? Both Jon and Arya are more fight oriented to begin with. You need a political mind to balance everything out and this is where Sansa comes in. In addition to that, Sansa shares a lot of similiarties with Rhaenys due to their common love of music and stories, as well as being prone to flights of fancy. This might foreshadow a Sansa that begins to drop her barriers this season and gets back in touch with her softer side once again. 

As people have already pointed out, Jon is placed next to Sansa and not in the middle between the two sisters as Aegon is usually depicted, making him visually closer to Sansa and thus stocking the Jonsa fires. Personally I would have preferred for Sansa to be at Jon’s left to make things even clearer but you can’t have everything in life. 

Also placing Jon in the middle wouldn’t have been a wise blocking choice because of the differences in height. 

(source: @iheartgot) 

By placing Jon in the middle, you’d have what we call in my country a “donkey’s stair  which is always a big no-no visually. 

EDIT:  Color me stupid but it’s been pointed out in the comments that in fact Sansa is on Jon’s left side if we look at the statues themselves. She’s also on his left side when he turns. So there is actually no other way to set the 3 of them up if you want to have that effect. Well ... this is even better!

Parallels to the House of Black and White promo

One thing that struck me the most about this teaser is the similarities to the promo for season 6. 

We are, once again, treated to effigies of both dead characters as well as live ones. Looking at it superficially this seems to spell doom for Jon, Arya and Sansa but I don’t think that’s the interpretation we should take from it. 

After all, season 6 not only brought back Jon from the dead, it also marked the resurrection of House Stark from the ashes, culminating with Jon and Sansa taking back Winterfell and ending the season in control of the North, with Jon proclaimed King in the North. 

Also, look at the VOs they used in that promo and how they related to the actual plot. 

Ned: The man who passes the sentence, should swing the sword. 

Jon ends up passing the sentence on the NW brothers who assassinated him and swinging the sword at their execution. 

Robb: I’ve won every battle but I’m losing this war. 

Robb might have lost his war and Jon came close to losing the Battle of the Bastards but Sansa’s Kinghts of the Vale intervention and Wun Wun sacrifice got them back Winterfell and the North, readdressing the vaccum left by Robb’s murder. 

Catelyn: Show them how it feels to lose what they love

I think this can be linked to Arya’s revenge on the Freys. She’s the most obvious representative of the eye for an eye type of revenge Catelyn is talking about in that quote. 

Jofferey: Everyone is mine to torment. 

Joff has been dead for a long time so his inclusion in this trailer feels odd but ... I don’t think this is related to him. This is about Ramsay, who is a more extreme version of Joffrey. Of course, the season ends with him being eaten by his own dogs, a sentence orchestrated by Sansa, the woman he tormented, proving that when you’re a monster who enjoys hurting people eventually you will have that come back to haunt you in the most extreme way possible. 

Jon: The Long Night is coming and the dead come with it. 

This not only foreshadows Jon spearheading the fight against the WW but also the fact that he is one of the dead that comes with the Long Night, hence his resurrection. 

So, going by that parallel, what speculation can we draw from the season 8 teaser? Let’s look at the VOs: 

Lyanna: You have to protect him. 

I’ve already discussed this in the first section but aside from foreshadowing Jon coming under threat because of the parentage reveal, this also links back to the importance of who Jon’s mother is and the role she played, plays and will play in Jon’s life. 

All his life Jon tried to model himself after Ned Stark, the man he believed was his father and that gave him the legitimacy of being included in the Stark family, a position he’s always wanted to maintain, even when being a Stark brought derision and insults (Allister Throne calling him the son of a traitor, for example). Part of the reason for this, I feel, is because Jon doesn’t know anything about his mother and more importantly fears that his mother doesn’t care about him and that she abandoned him (as per Jon’s last conversation with Ned). The parentage reveal will connect Jon to his mother and also erase those fears. Because Lyanna loved Jon. Her last words were concerning him and his well being. Also, Lyanna will replace Ned as the link between Jon and his Stark heritage. 

Catelyn: All this horror that’s come to my family ... It’s all because I couldn’t love a motherless child. 

This is probably the most controversial of the VOs quotes because some people feel that this is being used to attack Catelyn. I don’t see it that way. For one, I think it brings back into the conversation the idea of Jon being legitimized as a Stark since in that monologue, the true source of shame for Cat is that she made a vow to help legitimize Jon but didn’t follow through. The fact that this is placed in tandem with Sansa walking past her mother’s statue, seems to indicate that the way Jon will be legitimized as a Stark is through Sansa. 

This interpretation is due to an anonymous ask I got last week. I’m going to link it here. Nonnie was the first to my recollection to point to this scene and it’s possible foreshadowing elements so huge kudos to them!

Ned: You are a Stark. You might not have my name but you have my blood. 

This foreshadows, I think, the struggle that Jon will face once the parentage reveal hits. He’s going to feel lost, hurt and deprived of the Stark connection that has informed his entire life and all of his choices. But as Ned put it, he is a Stark and that’s what he will always be. 

On another note, one of the most glaring absences in this teaser is Bran. You’d expect him to be in this teaser. For one, he’s the one that will reveal Jon’s parentage. He is also part of the pack, not to mention that he’s the key to defeating the WW. His absence does raise questions.

But I think that just like the Hall of Faces promo, the Crypts promo is deceiving. The Hall of the Faces promo leads one to believe that season 6 will be very focused on the House of Black and White and also that it will signal more loss for House Stark, in particular. But neither one of those things actually occurs in the actual season. The House of Black and White is a secondary plot line at best and as I’ve said season 6 is the season House Stark gets back on top. 

So, I’m going to speculate that the Crypts promo isn’t really about the WW conflict as the ending might suggest, which would explain Bran’s exclusion. I think that taking all of the context into consideration, this teaser is really about the Dance of Dragons 2.0 and the three headed wolf replacing the three headed dragon. 

Miscellaneous thoughts

The torch

I can’t say for sure why they decided to give Jon a torch, other than that it makes him look even more badass. However, the fact that it’s extinguished not only severs all connection between him and his dragon father but also serves as a reminder that fire is actually ineffectual against the WW. I don’t know how many other clues people need at this point that the dragons will be of no actual use in defeating the NK.

Sansa’s expression

(source: @bethnoel)

I was struck by Sansa’s expression here. We haven’t seen Sansa look so emotional since season 6. It kind of brings to mind Sophie’s quote about this season being about an emotional fight for Sansa. 

Jonsa is coming!

[ranawaytothedas]

Oh Alistair... beloved Origins hubby... I usually like to have him stay with the Wardens because I don’t think he would be a good King and I have never played a human in Origins so maybe he would be okay with a Warden Queen but alone... nope and Anora better keep her grubby paws off my man... for serious. Cuz my dalish female warden is named Dany... and she will burn down Denerim, don’t temp her... ROFL In GOT terms (which is my other big love) He wouldn’t be Joffrey... but he is not Aegon Targaryen... he is like what would happen if Jon Snow actually became King... and Jon DID NOT WANT IT... and neither did Alistair... actually there are LOT of parallels between Alistair’s character and Jon Snow.... so like I would want Jon to stay with the Watch.... I want Allister to stay with the Wardens.... It’s honestly where he can do the most good.

Also brief cameo of Amara Hawke... who has the most messed up relationship with Fenris.. 

[homestuckisautistic]

Thoughts on the new Friendsim

I want to preface this with a gore warning for the end of Nihkee’s route. If you choose to hesitate instead of accepting her training you’ll end up viewing a series of flashbacks to the old friendsims as well as an image of Nihkee’s mangled leg with bone sticking out. Be careful!

I’ll talk about Daraya first.

Firstly, I think it’s really interesting that they’ve confirmed that the jades aren’t this close-knit group of friends like we’ve all assumed. The fandom in general up until now has assumed that and depicted the jades as super close buddies but Daraya’s route confirmed that wasn’t the case. She outright says that she hates Bronya and Lynera. I really hope that something will actually come of this and that it won’t just be forgotten about. 

I also want to note that at times Daraya really looks like Gwen from Total Drama Island at times (they’re both goth but that’s about all they have in common), and that I loved Chahut’s cameo because uhhhhh I’m lesbiab!

I really liked the conversation between Tyzias and Daraya, it functions as a parallel to actual leftist discourse that happens every day on this website and in real life too I guess. There are people who once they realize how shitty this world is become depressed and nihilistic and there are others who get pissed and try to change things. One is certainly more constructive than the other but neither is the right or wrong way to feel about society.  

I think these two worldviews also apply to the autistic community and the various way in which we interact with our own oppression in society. When I first self-diagnosed with autism I was 14 getting ready to turn 15 in spring 2015 and I was very eager to share my newfound knowledge about autism with the world (like identity first language and why functioning labels are bad etc.) so I went around talking to basically everyone I trusted about it. But as we all are well aware of here, talking to allistics about autism is like talking to a fucking brick wall. And this got very exhausting very quickly and when you put so much effort into trying to change things with no results you eventually get to the point where you just say fuck it and stop trying. This is what happened to me and honestly I’ve actually regressed a bit since I first self-diagnosed in that I used to boldly flap my hands around my family and close friends but now I can’t because I’m too ashamed. I’m too ashamed to flap my hands around my best friend of 11 years who has known me and loved me and accepted me before I even fucking knew how to pass as allistic which is uh a big problem and it’s one that I’m working on. 

It’s also kind of dangerous to talk to allistics especially NTs about autism because you never know how they’re going to react. Sometimes it’s safer and wiser to just let that asshole who sits next to you in 4th period to keep using autism as an insult because there’s no way for you to educate him without outing yourself or him suspecting that you’re autistic because you’re awkward and don’t have any friends in this class and risk him starting to bully you vs. keeping yourself safe and trying to ignore this guy who you won’t ever see again after you graduate in a few months. In other words, to quote an old country song: “You've got to know when to hold 'em Know when to fold 'em Know when to walk away And know when to run”

And it fucking breaks my heart that this is a choice we have to make on this bitch of an earth because nobody should ever have to ask themselves “is it worth it to risk abuse/bullying if arguing with someone for a few minutes will ensure that they have a change of heart years down the road?” because no matter what choice you make you lose.

Daraya strikes me as autistic with a special interest in...idk how to phrase this...rebellion? Societal power dynamics? Idk but if you’ve played through her route then you know what I mean I’m sure. Daraya is also obviously depressed and suicidal, and unfortunately I get the sense that she doesn’t get much support from the other jades which doesn’t help. It’s heavily implied that she just lets herself burn to death in the fire at the mall, which is one hell of a way to die. Ask anyone who’s survived a fire and they’ll tell you that burning is on a whole other level pain wise. Heck, if asked then I’d say that a cigarette burn is among the worst pains I’ve felt in my life. I hope that Daraya gets help somehow. It really broke my heart when she asked if she could go to Earth with the reader.

Onto Nihkee

Nihkee’s route was a fucking wild ride. And I loved it.

This is minor but I really liked those horse statues in the background. The indigo caste almost has this ancient Greece/Rome (idk I’m into American history not European history and my world history class was 4 years ago) theme to their culture which I find interesting and I think it really works, aesthetically speaking. I also really like that they made Nihkee explicitly buff and didn’t sexualize her at all. Not that I think Hiveswap is the type of media that would do that but even Zarya from Overwatch, which is a game that tries to be progressive, has fucking boob divots in her “armor” which is not practical at all!

Nihkee seems autistic to me too (come on, who the fuck would be that enthusiastic about something if not for it being an autistic person’s Special interest) she’s really into wrestling and being buff, and even though I haven’t ran any significant distance since my freshman year of high school, I’m fucking here for it! Yeah I don’t have much serious analysis to talk about here because Nihkee’s route just was more lighthearted except for that one ending with the gore. I really liked Tyzias and Stelsa’s appearance though, I’m always happy to see them! I really want to see more of Nihkee because her character is so ripe for situational comedy imo. A conversation between her and literally anyone else would be fucking hilarious. 

Also in the background at the beginning of Nihkee’s route there’s two trolls wrestling in the cage and we later find out one’s a purple blood (which was obvious because, I mean come on look at his face) and that the other one is an olive blood that uses she/her pronouns but the thing is that she appears to be shirtless? Damn, tiddies really are just out for Nihkee I guess. 

I think it was a wise decision to pair Daraya’s somber and serious route with one that was more lighthearted like Nihkee’s.

I also want to stage why I didn’t make a post about Fozzer and Marvus’ friendsim. It’s no secret that I’m biased towards the girls and that mindfuck at the end of Fozzer’s route just didn’t appeal to me analysis wise and Marvus’ route was like 40 minutes long on YouTube but I bit the bullet and watched a few minutes and at the first mention of concert diapers I noped on out of there.

- Mod Jessica