#how did a show that started so real and revolutionary end with “we all make mistakes we just need to end the violence”

[nyxchipz]

My opinion on Caitlyn Kiramman over the course of the series

I never went from loving a character to despising them so quickly

Bonus: my Discord pfp

[moongothic]

When people talk about there being "evidence" for the theory that Crocodile could be Luffy's other bio-dad, they tend to point out these kind surface-level details, easter eggs and Crocodile's odd behaviour during the Marineford-arc. And while all of that is very important as it lays down the groundwork for explaining the theory to people, unironically I think there's even more to the theory. When you really think about the implications the theory has on Crocodile's character and how that would tie into the long running narrative elements and themes in One Piece as a whole, I think it kind of changes everything

So, in this post I want to analyze and speculate about the theory, going a bit "beyond" the basics we already know. Heavy emphasis on the speculation-part, because I'm not here to provide conclusive evidence to prove that Crocodad is Real, rather, I'm here to speculate about how it could be real in practise, and try to explain how so many things would suddenly add up if the theory was true. I'm here to prove that Crocodad would make sense on a narrative level.

Quickly starting with a brief-ish summary of the Basic Thesis of the Crocodad Theory, just so we're all on the same page:

Naturally, if you already know the basics, feel free to skip this bit

Crocodile has secret beef with Ivankov. Although there is no proof that the beef has anything to do with Crocodile being trans, when you go out of your way to introduce a new character whose power is Magic HRT, it's a natural conclusion for people to assume that if these two know each other, then Crocodile could be a trans man. And naturally, if we're assuming he's Luffy's other dad, then he has to be trans

Dragon, as the leader of the Revolutionary Army, is in canon considdered to be the world's Most Wanted Criminal. He is extremely famous as pretty much everyone (except Luffy) knows who he is

Crocodile knowing the second-in-command of the Revolutionary Army doesn't inherently mean he was involved with the Revolutionaries, nor that he has ever met Dragon, but being familiar with Ivankov means it is entirely plausible the two could've met in the past

(Sidenote but I do have a loose theory how Crocodile could've been involved with the Revolutionaries; not relevant here but if you wanted to read it, here you go)

Despite this, when Dragon is revealed to be Luffy's father during the Summit War, although Oda includes the reactions of all the other Shichibukai, he very specifically leaves out Crocodile's reaction to the revelation. This is suspicious as hell, because surely, between his ties with Ivankov and Dragon being world famous, he would've had some thoughts about Luffy being Dragon's son (wrote about this in more depth)

For Crocodad to be real, we are assuming that Crocodile did not know Luffy was Dragon's/his son until Sengoku's announcement during Marineford, this being the reason Oda didn't show that reaction; it would've been too revealing

(We are assuming that Dragon never told Crocodile his name; this is entirely plausible considdering his full name had been a secret to the whole world (as explained post-Enies Lobby), and Dragon had kept the existence of his son a secret even from Ivankov and Kuma. We also need to assume that Crocodile did not name his son, otherwise surely he would have realized Luffy was his son when they met in Alabasta)

This is why Crocodile ends up saving Luffy's life twice in Marineford (as well as Ace's) when until the revelation he had no reason to even care about the idiot

Crocodile choosing to save Luffy's life probably means one of two things; either he really hates the World Government more than the child who foiled his plans to take over Alabasta, or he cares about his son despite knowing Luffy hates his guts

Again, this is just the basic concept, if you want to read more and see all the more easter egg-type hints, I'd reccomend this post, this post and this post (the third one repeats most of the stuff the first two do in but less detail, but also adds a few more notes extra notes). But now that we're generally speaking on the same level, we can delve deeper.

Please, go get yourself a drink and maybe a snack, this is gonna get long and deranged

Going to start with a fairly small thing.

Through out the series Oda has been repeatedly hinting at Crocodile having A Past, some History, A Backstory that lead to him becoming the way he is. But Oda hasn't actually told us what that backstory is. On the surface, this wouldn't be that strange, after all, there's lots of characters whose backstories we haven't seen, for example Mihawk. We know essentially nothing about that man and how he became the way he is. But what's different about Crocodile as opposed to Mihawk and many others, is that Oda hasn't hinted at there being an interesting backstory there that's worth telling. Like I'm sure Mihawk could have an interesting story, but Oda hasn't alluded to that at all. So the fact that he has repeatedly told us that Crocodile does have a backstory, but at most gave us two whole breadcrumbs in an SBS, is a little suspicious. (For clarity, the hints we've gotten so far to Crocodile's backstory were his repeated comments about not trusting people and how he had given up his dreams in Alabasta, while Summit War gave us the Secret Beef with Ivankov and his grudge against Whitebeard. In an SBS in Vol 78, Oda did confirm that Crocodile had his ass kicked by Whitebeard after he became a Warlord in his early 20s, and that he went "quiet for a while" until he started his heroics around his 30s, setting his eyes on Alabasta. Indeed, we have some breadcrumbs of lore, but this hardly paints a full picture. We know nothing abot what he was doing in his late 20s, which would've been the time Luffy was born btw)

What I'm getting at, is that Crocodile clearly has a backstory, but the fact that Oda hasn't spilled the beans yet would indicate to me that it's likely Oda has been saving up that backstory. Which would make sense, Crocodile hasn't been in a role in the story yet where spending time to tell his story would've been appropriate. So really, we're just waiting for the right time for those beans to be finally spilled. But what makes things even more interesting is that One Piece has a very specific track record of not giving its villians extended and dedicated backstories/flashbacks. Villians can cameo in other characters' flashbacks (Moria, Arlong), they can have their own little segments inside the the heroic characters' flashbacks (Orochi, Doflamingo), they might even get their own SHORT dedicated flashbacks (Lucci whose flashback was 6 whole panels long). But villians do not get their OWN, dedicated and EXTENDED flashbacks. Flashbacks are for the heroic characters. There has been a single exception to this rule and that was Big Mom. That's it. And while I'm positive this rule is going to be broken at least one more time before the series ends, really. What do you think is more likely to happen? That Crocodile becomes such an important villian again, this late in the game, that he deserves his own flashback so we can finally find out what his deal is? (When Blackbeard and Imu are also there mind you) Or that Crocodile's role in the story might not be that of a villian anymore, and that Oda had been saving up his backstory all this time because it could reframe his entire character and how we view him?

Oda loves taking inspiration from various mythologies and pop culture alike to bring life into his work.

This is nothing new or surprising, we all know this. For example, Oda did base the original seven Shichibukai on the Seven Heroes from Romancing SaGa 2, each Warlord more or less matching a description of one of the game's villians. Crocodile just happens to match Wagnas, the queer coded leader of the group, who had the noble swordsman Noel (Mihawk) by his side when the group was created to save the world from a great evil. Meanwhile Alabasta as a whole took a lot of inspiration of Egyptian mythology, Crocodile in that arc matching the role of the crocodile-god Sobek. Sobek is a protector god ("Guardian of Alabasta"), associated with military power (literally what Crocodile wanted to obtain) and fertility, carrying the epithet of "he who loves robbery" (man stole a lot of things, from money and lives to rain and nearly a whole dang country). Sobek's name is speculated to come from the words "to impregnate" or "to unite", both being potentially very interesting coincidences (depending on if Crocodad Real and what Cross Guild's purpose in the story is going to be) (if you want more details you can go read the Wikipedia article on Sobek). (Also I'm sure there's something interesting to be said about Sobek's fusion with the sun deity Ra, Sobek-Ra, and how Luffy is our lil Sun God)

The reason I'm pointing this out is that based on Oda's hinting and/or references to mythologies, people have in the past been able to predict certain plot twists and reveals way ahead of time. For example, most recently people were able to predict that Saint Saturn had been the one to give Ginny (and by extension, Bonney) the Sapphire Scale-disease based on a certain legent about ushi-oni, which is what Saturn just happens to be. (Here's one of the many Reddit posts that predicted that reveal) And there is one particular story from Japanese mythology I want to bring up, as it may be relevant to our Crocodad Discussion here. The story of Toyotama Hime. Here's a quick TL:DR;

Princess Toyotama had travelled from the depths of the ocean onto land so she could give birth to her child. When the time to deliver the baby came, Toyotama asked for her husband, Hoori, to not look at her while she gave birth, as she would change into her true form. And while Hoori promised he wouldn't look, he couldn't keep the promise. He peeked in on her wife as she was giving birth, only to discover that she had transformed into a gigantic wani. Horrified by what he had seen, Hoori fled, leaving his wife and child behind. Hurt by what had happened, Toyotama abandoned her son and returned to the ocean. (You can read different summaries of the legend on the Wani-article as well as Toyotama's article on Wikipedia)

Now historically speaking, "wani" in mythology can have referred to serpent dragons, sharks or sea monsters. But in modern Japanese, the word translates to "crocodile". It's what Luffy and a few other characters call Crocodile on numerous occassions. Hell, Crocodile's favorite pets are his gigantic bananawani. Historically speaking it might be more accurate to say that Toyotama had transformed into a sea serpent, but for our intents and purposes, Hoori abandoned Toyotama after she became a crocodile.

I can not tell you what exactly the relationship between Dragon and Crocodile was like, how it began and how it ended. There's no way for us to know when Crocodile transitioned (beyond "after giving birth to Luffy"), nor do we know how Dragon found out about it and how he reacted to it. There's a million options for how things could've gone down, and nothing to truly go off of to even make a guess. All we do really know, is that 1) Dragon does not seem to wear rings at all. 2) Crocodile wears rings, but leaves one out specifically on his ring finger, where one would normally wear their engagement/wedding ring (mind you; for the first half of Alabasta Oda drew Crocodile without a ring on his middle finger, but from the latter half onwards, through Impel Down and Marineford, it's always the ring finger). 3) This suspicious ass comment

"I don't know they have kids or not" YEAH RIGHT

If we wanted to use the story of Toyotama Princess as a jumping off-point though. It's entirely plausible that soon after giving birth Crocodile transitioned thanks to Ivankov's ability, and because Dragon wasn't into it, the two broke up/got divorced. The unfortunate reality is that many couples end up breaking up if/when a partner comes out as trans and chooses to transition. Just like Hoori abandoned his wife because she turned into a crocodile, Dragon could've divorced Crocodile because he transitioned into a man. And Dragon would not be a bad person for it (as long as he was respectful about it). If Dragon is straight and just couldn't see himself being with a man, that's just how it is. At the same time, this would be a gut wrenching, painful thing to go through, and this kind of heartbreak could have devastating concequences for Crocodile's character. Concequences that could play deeply into One Piece's long running narrative elements, which is why a lot of my speculation from here on does end up relying on the Toyotama Myth possibly being inspiration for Crocodile's secret backstory. I acknowledge there's no quarantee that's the case, but I am here to make an argument for why it could be.

QUICK SIDENOTES

As mentioned before, although Ivankov holds the key to a weakness Crocodile has (in their own words), we don't know what that weakness is.

Crocodile joined the Shichibukai in the first half of his 20s (SBS vol 78), and he would've been 27 years old when Luffy was born. This means it's nearly impossible for Crocodile to be stealth trans, as he would've been a public figure for years; which means, Crocodile could be openly trans

A single earring on the right ear can be read as a "gay earring". The man does like his jewelry, so there's no proof he's signaling that he's gay, but if Crocodile's happy to let the world know he's into men, then surely there'd be no issue with him being openly trans either

His transition would've happened 17 years ago pre-timeskip, so in-universe it'd be old ass news and not worth bringing up to the readers if it doesn't add anything to the current plot or his character (which it wouldn't have during Alabasta nor Summit War)

If Crocodile's secret weakness wasn't him being stealth trans, and Ivankov can't detransition him against his will (can't hit Crocodile without Armanent Haki), then what is that secret weakness Ivankov knows about?

As Dragon told Kuma: "A child is a parent's weakness". If Ivakov was anywhere near Crocodile when his child was born (so that Crocodile was able to transition as soon as the kid was out) Ivankov could/should know about the child existing, and would thus be able to blackmail Crocodile by holding the information of his secret child hostage

However, Ivankov did not know about Dragon having a child

Meaning if Crocodile and Dragon were in a relationship, it must have happened in secret, otherwise Ivankov should've realized Crocodile gave birth to Dragon's child

So One Piece has a lot of narrative elements that come up time and time again through out the story,

And some of these have become more and more relevant in the story especially post-timeskip. This is not a comprehensive list of all of them, just the ones that could heavily tie into Crocodile if he were Luffy's other dad, as they could reframe his character. So, let's look at these narrative elements, how they've appeared in the story so far, and speculate how they could reflect in Crocodile.

🐊 People existing in the wrong bodies / bodies that have been altered (and what it means for you to be "you"/how does your body reflect who is on the inside) 🐊 Queerness

Wrote about this more in-depth in this post, but to keep things short; Thriller Bark, Punk Hazard, Dressrosa and Wano all heavily featured characters who have had their bodies either temporarily or permanently altered, sometimes with the person's consent and sometimes without it. Not to mention all the various characters through out the series who have gone through similar things, like Franky, Kuma as well as Brook, among countless others. As well as every Devil Fruit user who can transform their body (including every single Zoan user). People, the way they inhibit their bodies and the freedom to be who you are is very important to One Piece. That is already a very queer-coded narrative, but then we also have explicitly queer characters. Queer characters, who have been deeply important to the story, and whose presence has become more and more prevalent with time. Not to mention how queerness in general has been "escalating" over the course of the story. There's this video from Berry for A Thought on YouTube which explains this more in-depth, but to summarize the most important observation from the video; we have slowly gone from Kuina wishing she had been born a man, to non-binary drag queens (first one being able to temporarily change their own bio-sex by turning into someone else, to the second one being able to change anyone's bio-sex permanently), to two pre-transition transgender characters. All we really need for this escalation to reach its "peak" is if we had a (named, non-background) transgender character who has already transitioned. Unsurprisingly, Crocodile could fill that role really nicely.

🐊 Loneliness

Loneliness is generally speaking a very important theme in One Piece, as it's on the opposite side of coin with friendship on it. So many of our main characters have suffered for years from loneliness, by being ostracized and rejected by their communities, abandoned by their families, sometimes suffering for decades for the sake of their loved ones because they had promises to keep. Luffy himself considders loneliness to be most painful, scary thing imaginable.

Loneliness is something queer people struggle with. A lot. Being rejected by your loved ones for who you are is a painful, common experience for many. It alone can keep many queer people in the closet for years and decades, because the fear of being left alone and abandoned is too much to bear. Some people are accepting of queers but only as long as they stay "over there", pulling a full 180 when a family member comes out. Some people only ""accept"" trans people as long as they don't transition. And while some people may appear to be accepting of you when you come out or are early into your transition, many (trans men especially) lose friends and support the more they start to pass. Crocodile does not trust people. He set up base in Alabasta sometime around the age of 30, meaning he spent around 14 years by himself (until he recruited Robin), unable to trust anyone. That's a long time to be alone. Of course, there may have been a practical side to why Crocodile chose to spend over a decade in utter emotional solitude. If he was scheming to take over a country, then having anybody close who could leak his plans out and foil them would be dangerous. Hell, it's exactly what happened thanks to Robin. But having your significant other destroy your ability to trust people and then isolating yourself to avoid further heartbreak and "betrayal" could be another, potential reasoning as to why Crocodile chose solitude.

🐊 Two failed weddings and one relationship that never was

In Thriller Bark we witnessed Nami almost get married off to Absalom. On Whole Cake Island, we almost saw Sanji get married into Big Mom's family. During Egghead arc, we saw how Kuma never got to have the relationship with Ginny he had yearned for deep inside. I already mentioned Crocodile's missing ring. How his relationship with Dragon might not have worked out because of his transition. How Crocodile's queerness could've lead into solitude, out of distrust. We already have three relationships that never worked out. So how about a fourth one.

🐊 What makes a family (/chosen families) 🐊 Family reunions (with blood-relatives) 🐊 What it's like when your blood-relatives are really horrible people

For the first half of the series, One Piece did very much focus on the concept of chosen families, as most of the Strawhats grew up with non-blood relatives that they all considdered just as much family as their actual blood relatives (if not more-so); Luffy with Ace and Sabo, Sanji and Zeff, Nami, Nojiko and Béllemere, Chopper and Hiruluk, Franky and Tom's Workers. Chosen families are deeply important to this story. At the same time, a lot of post-timeskip OP has actually revolved around (blood) family reunions. Punk Hazard was about sending the kidnapped children back to their families (as well as Momonosuke to ""his father"" Kin'emon), Dressrosa was about reuniting all the broken families Doflamingo (and his family) had torn apart. Whole Cake Island was about Sanji reuniting with his blood family while being forced into a whole new one, and Wano allowed Momonosuke to reunite with his sister (and Kin'emon with his wife). On Egghead we've gotten to see the gutwrenching reunion between Bonney and Kuma, and we are all dying to see Luffy meet Dragon eventually. Not to mention all the other reunions many of us are waiting to see, like Shanks and Buggy, Moria and Perona. Luffy and Garp (currently held hostage by Blackbeard), Mihawk and Zoro. And many others. But indeed, not all the family reunions have been good. Sometimes, the blood relatives have been horrible people. Like Big Mom (to some of her children and husbands), Judge and Kaidou. Sometimes, your blood relatives suck ass.

Needless to say, Sir "I tried to bomb one million people to take over a country" Crocodile is not exactly the greatest guy around. But what might be arguably more important is that... Why is Crocodile a plot-relevant character again, on an emotional level? As I mentioned, characters like Buggy and Mihawk relate to certain characters, so potentially getting to see them reunite with other characters would have emotional weight behind it. Mihawk and Buggy are both relevant characters both to the plot but also on an emotional level, their return to the spotlight makes sense. But then we have Crocodile, a fellow member of Cross Guild. Sure, he's definitely there to help move the plot along, no doubt about that. But emotionally speaking, why the hell is he here again? Is there a character he could "reunite with" that would have that same kind of emotional weight behind it? You could argue Vivi perhaps, but between Vivi hating the man's guts and and Crocodile probably not giving a damn about her, I'm not sure that reunion would have that much emotional weight? Robin on the other hand could be very interesting, considdering she did live under Crocodile's protection for four years until she betrayed him, an action that seemed to have stung Crocodile. That reunion could be deeply interesting.

But you know what this post is about. If Crocodile is Luffy's other dad, then those two coming across each other would suddenly have enormous weight on it even if Luffy himself didn't know about it. Because if Luffy were to find out, Luffy would then have to decide if he'd acknowledge Crocodile as his other dad or disown him. Mind you, Crocodile already knows that Luffy hates his guts for what he did in Alabasta, not to even mention the fact that he tried to kill him three whole times. Luffy has every reason in the world to hate Crocodile. The man surely understands that. But then there's the fact that Crocodile isn't Luffy's mom, but his transgender father. If Dragon rejected Crocodile for being trans, why would his son be any different? Which raises the question, would Crocodile be afraid of that? Of meeting Luffy again? Of Luffy somehow finding out and then getting rejected by him too? How does Crocodile feel about any of this? Now of course, we the readers already know that Luffy canonically loves and respects queer people. Luffy would never look down on Crocodile for him being his dad (the warcrimes are different). But Crocodile doesn't know that. And this is what I mean by there being emotional weight on these two reuniting, as anything that could go down between these two could have massive concequences for Crocodile's character. And please, keep in mind, although Oda hasn't dwelled too deep into the subject in One Piece, there are people who aren't accepting of queers in this world.

This prince, and his entire kingdom, could not accept his mother for who she was. An entire country crumbled because their queen came out as trans. So just like there are accepting families (including Kaidou strangely enough), there are unaccepting, queerphobic ones too. So the fear of rejection would not be unfounded. (Also, if Crocodile and Dragon are divorced then those two coming across each other, especially after The Shit Crocodile pulled in Alabasta, would have a lot emotional weight on it too.)

🐊 The things you are willing to do and sacrifice to protect your loved ones

Shanks gave up his arm for Luffy. Zeff ate his leg so Sanji could have actual food. Béllemere died for her daughters while Nami sacrificed her freedom in an attempt to save her village. Tom gave up his life to protect Franky and Iceburg. Robin attempted to sacrifice her life so the Strawhats could continue their journey in peace. Sanji gave up his freedom for Baratie and the Strawhats. And so many countless more lives, given up for the sake of others.

So people often give Dragon shit for being a "deadbeat dad". I've discussed this in the past, so to keep it short; the World Government went out of its way to hunt an unborn child, hurting countless pregnant women, mothers and newborns while chasing for Gold Roger's son. A child who had "evil blood" and had to be exterminated from the world. Similarly, the World Government went out of its way to put a massive bounty on an eight year old child for the crime of being able to read ancient texts. Dragon would have known and understood that if he ever had a child, as the leader of the Revolutionary Army, his child would become yet another target for the World Government to hunt, just like Ace and Robin did. This should also apply to Crocodile; if the WG found out about him having been involved with the Revolutionaries they would no doubt strip him of his Shichibukai status and make him a wanted man again. Crocodile's child would thus be in just as much danger, even if the Government didn't realize it was ALSO Dragon's son. If Dragon wanted his son to be free and choose his own path in life, Dragon had to keep his distance from Luffy. The same would apply to Crocodile. Luffy probably ended up in Garp's care, not because his parents didn't want to raise him, but because they wanted Luffy to be free.

But as long as the World Government exists, if they ever found out about Dragon having a son, that child would end up in danger, he could become a target. And the only way to ensure that child's safety would be by eliminating the ultimate threat. The Government.

Now that is the ultimate goal of the Revolutionary Army anyways, something Dragon and co have been working towards for over two decades now. But most of their efforts have gone into freeing small countries by overthrowing corrupt governments and gaining support, little by little. Which is understandable, the WG is impossibly powerful, you can't just walk into Marijoa all willy-nilly, take out the Tenryuubito and free the world, the Government's forces would take you down within seconds. Dragon understands this, which is no doubt why the Revolutionary Army hasn't made a move against Marijoa directly until the latest Reverie. It'd be too risky, and if the Revs were taken down, who would be left to oppose the WG? Their slow approach makes sense. But at the same time, while the Revs did attack Marijoa, destroying the Tenryuubito's food banks and freeing a single slave... as long as the Tenryuubito are allowed to literally stay on top of the world, this attack has done nothing. They're just going to demand more tributes, they're going to enslave more people. It's going to make things worse for those who aren't in power. It's harsh and unreasonable, and I don't agree with them, but I do understand where some fans are coming from when they considder Dragon a "fraud". If you wanted to help free the world from this corrupt rule, then you have to actually strip those in power from their status, otherwise nothing will ever change. You have to actually fight the enemy.

I can not tell you for certain why Crocodile wanted to create "a military nation powerful enough to oppose the World Government", I do not know for sure why he wanted to obtain an Ancient Weapon. But nuking Marijoa out of orbit sure would be a fast way to end the rule of the Tenryuubito, ensure nobody would get hurt by the World Government's corruption and slavery ever again, and make sure your son would never become targetted by them. A line of thought I'm sure Dragon would not have agreed with. But a line of thought Crocodile could believe in.

Remember how we still don't quite know what Cross Guild is up to? How the Shichibukai are based on Romancing SaGa 2's Seven Heroes, a group formed by Wagnas (Crocodile) with the swordsman Noel (Mihawk) by his side to save the world from a great evil? And how Cross Guild has been focusing on hunting down Marines by putting bounties on their heads? Make of that what you will.

🐊 Learning not just to love and trust others but to be loved as well

Robin tried to sacrifice herself not just because she loved the Strawhats, but because she thought she herself was unlovable and did not trust the crew, believing they too would betray her eventually. Sanji tried to sacrifice himself because he thought he was unworthy of being loved. Ace went through most of his life, thinking it would've been better if he had never been born at all. We know Crocodile does not trust people. The logical assumption here is that it's because he was betrayed in the past and had his trust broken. Did he ever have a crew, in his younger pirating days? If so, what happened to them? Did they betray him, leave him? After Whitebeard kicked his ass? Who knows. If Crocodile was in a relationship with Dragon though, it does mean that one point he loved and trusted someone, deeply. So much so they had a child. But if their relationship ended because Crocodile is trans, that would have broken his heart, wouldn't it? Made it hard for him to trust anyone ever again. And what would make you believe you were unlovable more than being rejected by your significant other for being queer. But as I mentioned before; Luffy loves and respects trans people. His affection towards queer characters through out the series is absolutely unmatched (the way he exclusively uses the "-chan" honorific for Bon Kurei, Ivankov and Inazuma, calls Yamato a man, and is far more interested in Okiku's spooky mask than her being trans). What would be a better way for Crocodile to be reminded that he can be loved and that he can trust others than being accepted by his estranged son?

🐊 Inherited Will

In Alabasta we learn Crocodile once had a dream that he gave up upon after learning how strong the most powerful pirates of the Grand Line, the ones standing between him and his dreams, truly were. In Marineford we learn Crocodile lost to Whitebeard in his youth. During Miss Goldenweek's Cover story, we learn Crocodile dreamt of becoming Pirate King.

A dream that he shares with Luffy. An inherited will Luffy carries on.

You know the RPG trope where the final boss is either god or your dad? Yeah. This line really hits different when you shout it at your father.

Now, all of this is fine and dandy, but what does this actually do? How would Crocodile being Luffy's other bio-father add to his character, impact Luffy and the story as a whole?

Now there's no way for me to fully predict how the plot is going to develop through out the Final Saga and what might go down. There's a million moving pieces and a billion potential directions things could go. We could be here forever debating those things. But as I did explain in detail already, if Crocodad Real, it could heavily impact Crocodile's character depending on what does/doesn't happen.

For one, we could have an idea of why Crocodile is a plot relevant character again; if his ultimate goal had always been to destroy the World Government to protect his son at whatever cost, then we might know why he wanted to create Cross Guild to begin with; either create a military force strong enough to fight the WG on their own, or, if nothing else, dwindle down the Government's forces and be a general nuisance that leaves the WG vulnerable (perhaps enough so that the Revolutionaries can do the hard work) and/or unable to spend their resources on hunting down Luffy and the Strawhats. Crocodile could be acting as bait, a distraction to protect his son. There's a few options there. This would also give us an idea of where that Cross Guild plotline could be heading; some people believe CG is there to join the race for One Piece and get defeated by the Strawhats, and that'll be the end of it. But now we would have another option, of Cross Guild joining the expected final war against the World Government together with the Strawhats and the Revolutionary Army. So that's one way Crocodad could impact the story and the general direction its heading.

But then there's the character-side of things, how would Crocodad impact our characters? Now obviously, the three characters that would be most impacted by the theory would be Crocodile, Luffy and Dragon. There's some other characters too, Ivankov (since they didn't know), Robin, potentially some Cross Guild members (could they learn to respect Crocodile more sincerely if they learned that the man did in fact have a heart and something/someone he cared about and wanted to protect?) and maybe even Garp, but realistically, it's the core of the family itself.

Now Dragon already would know about everything so there'd be no Shocking Revelation for him. And based on what we saw him say about Sabo maybe being responsible for Cobra's death at the Reverie, we can make an educated guess that Dragon is Not Happy With What Crocodile Did In Alabasta.

So the two aren't on good terms, probably. Dragon might just be absolutely furious at Crocodile for what he did. Understandable tbh. I guess we're just going to be left wondering if the two could somehow ever reconcile, and whether or not they still love each other deep down, despite all the pain and hurt (and warcrimes) they've gone through.

Then there's Luffy. And I guess everything boils down to two major questions; will Luffy ever find out the truth, and if he does, will that impact how he feels about Crocodile? 'Cause it's entirely plausible the series could end with Crocodad being real and Luffy never finding out. And in that scenario, well, Crocodad could impact those other aspects of the story, just not Luffy. And in some ways that could be fine too. It could still be meaningful for Crocodile (and Dragon) that way. But what if Luffy did find out? Now, mind you, it's already a bit of a mystery how Luffy feels Crocodile as of now in the story; back in Impel Down he still understandably hated the man's guts with a fiery passion, but after Marineford Luffy does kind of owe Crocodile his life after he saved him. And Luffy is generally speaking pretty respectful when it comes to stuff like that. But also Luffy was unconcious when Crocodile yeeted him and Jinbei out of Akainu's reach, so does Luffy even know Crocodile saved him? (Though surely he would remember Croc sparing Ace and getting guarded from Mihawk) Not to mention, when the Cross Guild reveal happened, the only comments we got about it where Luffy calling Buggy an idiot and Zoro being confused about Mihawk being there. They didn't even acknowledge Crocodile. It was almost like Oda seemed to avoid the subject?

We also need to considder how much would Luffy find out? Just the basics, that his other parent is a trans man and just happens to be Crocodile? Or like, everything? From whatever his plans were with taking over Alabasta to however Crocodile might feel about his sweet baby boy? Because if all Crocodile had wanted to do was protect his son, despite knowing he might never see him again, and if Crocodile did still unconditionally love Luffy despite everything that happened, despite knowing (/assuming) that Luffy already hates him... Well first off, Robin nearly assassinated Iceburg and was willing to let the World Government potentially get their hands on an Ancient Weapon just to protect Luffy and co (on top of all the deaths she helped cause while working for Crocodile, all because she wanted to read the Poneglyph herself). If Luffy was willing to forgive Robin for all that, would he not forgive his dad for doing the same? And Luffy isn't one to dismiss kindness, when people express that they genuinely care about him and his well being Luffy does respect that (even if doesn't fully reciprocate the feelings, like with Hancock). And Luffy has deep emotional intelligence too. If Crocodile was convinced he'd be rejected by Luffy for who he was, especially if that had happened to him in the past to begin with, over something Luffy wouldn't bat an eyelash at (like being trans), like. Luffy wouldn't be shitty about that.

We know Crocodile is a broken, traumatized man. We don't know how much shit he has gone through though, beyond getting his ass beat by Whitebeard and The Divorce. Knowing how Oda likes to layer trauma in character backstories*, there definitely could be more to Crocodile than just those two things, but for the sake of this post, let's just focus on The Divorce. *(Like how Robin was alienated by her community long before the Ohara Genocide, and then spent decades of her life fleeing from the Government, hurt and abandoned by people time and time again. Or how Kuma was born into slavery, lost the love of his life and finally gave up everything he had just to save the life of his daughter. Early OP flashbacks may have been a bit simpler, but as time as gone they have definitely gotten more complex and layered, so I would not be surprised if Crocodile's Full Backstory had like 3+ layers to his trauma)

One important part of One Piece has been teaching/reminding certain characters important lessons, to change their view of the world and make them better people as a result.

Here's some of the messages of One Piece, its beating heart and soul

And of course, sometimes some characters can't have their minds changed, at least not that easily. But their ideals and worldview can always be challenged and proven wrong. This is what happens to many of the villians in the story. Like Moria's ideas of how he shouldn't have to do any of the hard lifting himself and how instead of having friends he can just have replacable zombies instead. Moria's worldview was wrong, and is exactly what led to his downfall in Thriller Bark. Or Spandam and the CP9's ideas of justice, how anything they do can be justified as it is for the "good of the world", including killing innocent civilians. They can do that, because they are "heroes of the world", they are "justice". Needless to say, none of the CP9's actions during Enies Lobby could be considdered "heroic", and, well. If "justice always prevails", then their defeat did prove theirs was a false one. Or how Enel isn't a god, how Doflamingo doesn't have a god given right to rule (neither does Wapol for that matter), how Akainu's ideas of "absolute justice" are monstrous at best, how the way Judge and Big Mom treat their families is not how a family should be like at all.

During Alabasta, Crocodile's plans were foiled because of he didn't trust his underlings with his secret identity and refused to communicate properly with them himself. That one conversation between Crocodile and "Mr. 3" (Sanji) is more or less what allowed the Strawhats to reach Alabasta just in time to stop him. But although distrust is what lead to Crocodile's downfall, he still carries that core belief even now; he still doesn't trust others. Which raises the question, what other beliefs might Crocodile still carry deep inside?

That he can't trust anyone because people will betray and leave him sooner or later? That nobody would ever stay by his side, that nobody will ever love him?

Are those not the exact same core messages of One Piece, the false beliefs that we've seen proven wrong, time and time again?

It really wouldn't be right to end the series without Luffy proving Crocodile wrong once and for all, and make him change his worldview, now would it? But hey, the good news is that there might be no better way to prove Crocodile wrong than to have his son unconditionally forgive him and accept him as his father.

All of this to say; yes, I think if Crocodad was real, it would heavily impact Crocodile's character and whatever character arc he might have. Like I'm not arguing for Crocodad in the name of meme'ing. His whole story could suddenly tie into so many of series' core themes and messages, and tie into our main character in a meaningful way. It could impact heavily where the story as a whole is heading.

The other, more likely option is that Crocodad isn't real and that I have lost my marbles thinking I was onto something with this post. In the end, time will be the judge of that. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed my utter derangement.

Minor EDIT (Oct 20th, 2024) but. Because I am still obsessed with Crocodad, I keep on thinking about it and both coming to new conclusions and noticing new things, and I wanted to link a few shorter posts I wrote recently because I think they add to Crocodad, if in minor ways

Crocodile's motif is being a protector

Ivankov's fame as a miracle worker matching the Crocodad Timeline

Whitebeard would not have invited a woman on his crew (side tangent; the actual post is about something else)

[confused-rat]

I kinda ended up watching Lily's Pokemon retrospective and it was fine at first.Nothing great or revolutionary, or even funny, but okay

Then she started modding in her Ralts, which felt unnecessary, but whatever. Kind of feels like it ruins the fun of making friends with new Pokemon, but that's just my opinion

Then she got to Black and White and I almost got scared by the way she repeatedly lost it on N? There was nothing funny about that. Especially if you remember that the kid was horrifically abused, but of course she doesn't mention that, she calls him a sweaty debate bro and derails the plot synopsis for minutes at a time to unload on him

Also she seems to think that every Gardevoir is her specific one, like from the Madhouse comics? Based on the way she talks about it and how she keeps posting images from that same comic and it's weird

She complains about Black and White having basic ass dialogue about dreams and ideals, but her favorite game series is Kingdom Hearts with its light and darkness galore

Oh and she kept addressing Junichi Masuda personally to blame him for everything she dislikes because he's the director? Kinda like how she blames Rebecca Sugar for everything Steven Universe. Junichi Masuda was the director of the game. The writer was called Toshinobu Matsumiya. It took me three seconds to google that

Junichi Masuda was also one of the composers, which is interesting because she was praising parts of the soundtrack in Ruby and Sapphire but didn't feel the need to name the people responsible for that

I actually didn't get farther than her Black and White review and after this, I'm not sure if I want to based on the velocity with which we hit rock bottom

Lily’s hatred of N is so weird. Like yeah, shit on the dude raised in a cult by an abusive father, who never knew how the real world worked and was raised thinking all Pokémon were horribly abused until he encountered the Player Trainer. Did she ever cover Blank and White 2? Or did she just bypass that bit of character insight?

(Oh hey, it’s worse in the manga!)

I’m not going to subject myself to a hours long Retrospective by a person who obviously doesn’t give a damn about the actual franchise or engaging with it in good faith. Power to you though anon for trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.

(Also, the way Lily can’t even do the bare minimum of looking up sound design or writers when she does these retrospectives/reviews just shows how, even if she didn’t do all the horrible shit she’s done to others, she would still be a shitty YouTube critic. She made a whole joke about a straight dude writing gay characters better than gay writers and didn’t even look the writer up to realize HE WASN’T EVEN STRAIGHT. Basic fucking research. Didn’t fucking bother, because she wanted to potshot Rebecca Sugar more.)

[rostekhorn]

Rogue One in a post-Andor world

Watching Rogue One right after a full viewing of Andor really does enhance a lot of things.

The main plot, obviously. Andor feeds right into Rogue One in the same way Rogue One feeds right into A New Hope. The last season has been all about the Rebels becoming aware of the Emperor's new weapon, and now here it is.

"We have to hurry. This town, it's ready to blow." Well, that takes on a whole new meaning now that we've seen Ferrix and Ghorman. Cassian knows exactly what it's like when a city's about to "blow," and why it's a bad idea to be there when it does.

"I'm afraid those recent security breaches have laid bare your inadequacies as a military director." In fact, Krennic's whole attitude through the movie. The fallout from the ISB security breaches related to the Death Star have already consumed Dedra. They've already consumed Partagaz. Krennic is desperate to make sure they don't consume him. Sorry dude!

Saw Gerrera. When the movie first came out, we assumed he came by his breathing problems honestly, like Vader and Grievous. Turns out that no, he's actually a junkie who's been huffing fumes for so long it's slowly killing him and driving him nuts. Ties in nicely with everything else about him, but also makes it that much more meaningful that he's able to step back and give Jyn and Cassian the plans and put his hope in them at the end.

The two bigwigs from the Alliance Council who show up for cameos in both media. My God, they really are as useless as tits on a boar, aren't they? Honestly, those two running away right before Scarif might be the best thing that ever happened to the Rebellion. Just think what it would've been like running the entire war with them trying to veto your every decision. God, can you imagine them after Hoth?

Last and the opposite of least: Darth Vader in Rogue One was already a master class in how to use your big gun sparingly to guarantee maximum effect. Putting two seasons of Andor in front of that somehow makes it even better. You've just spent twenty-four hour of television in front of a (more or less) naturalistic, low-key, "realistic" science-fiction environment with nothing but muggles. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere comes this nazgul/gargoyle/wizard to wreck your whole day.

Things that don't get better with Andor:

The K2 droids in Rogue One go down just as easily as stormtroopers - one blaster shot through the torso and they're done. No sign of the heavy armor they had on Ghorman that kept them invulnerable until you rammed a truck up their ass.

"We've been in worse cages than this." "First time for me!" No Cass, no it isn't. It's not much of a plot hole and it's easily explained as him trying to put on a confident face for the others, but it's there.

"Suddenly the Rebellion is real for you? I've been in this fight since I was six!" The original version of Cassian (explained in expanded universe materials released at the time of the movie) was a guy who fell in with a Separatist group when he was just a kid and has been in some sort of fight with the late Republic, and then the Empire, ever since. Andor did away with that backstory to replace it with the story of a regular(ish) guy being radicalized into revolution. Again, you can explain this away because Andor shows that the Empire started taking his life away from him long before he became a proper revolutionary, but you can still see the bones of the original character arc there.

In sum: Andor capped off by Rogue One is a saga with a couple parts that don't fit together, but nowhere near enough to ruin the overall effect, which is that this is a freaking masterpiece of storytelling. I don't blame Tony Gilroy for being done with Star Wars. He had a particular story to tell, he's told it now, and honestly, can you imagine trying to top this?

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

The British Invasion: The History of British Rock, Vol. 7 1991 Pop / Psychedelic Rock / Psychedelic Pop / Pop-Rock

Plenty to say about a whole bunch of the British Invasion songs that were included on this comp, so let's cut to the chase and start with its most provocative group of all: John's Children, a very short-lived band, who, like the Sex Pistols roughly a decade later, seemed to employ an attention-seeking blend of controversy, spectacle, and outrage, but backed it up with music that, at least in retrospect, was certainly worth hearing. But that's really only because their manager, who also managed The Yardbirds, was quite cognizant of the fact that John's Children were, musically, a horrendous band, and slyly continued the charade by enlisting session musicians to play on their records rather than the band members themselves. As such, their 1965 debut single, "Smashed! Blocked!," seems to reflect the surreal madness of what their stage show was like, as a whirling, manic episode of pop hysteria that kind of feels like a mashed-together medley of completely disjointed ideas. Somehow, this song is both wildly psychedelic and also a soft doo wop ballad, and while it's definitely something that's self-aware and campily fantastic, it only sounds good because the people who played on it weren't actually in John's Children at all 😂. And then they briefly added future glam rock hero Marc Bolan of T. Rex fame to their ranks afterwards too.

And again, we have The Hollies, who I think have appeared on every volume of this series thus far, except for one. When I last posted about them on Friday, I mentioned what a perfect piece of upbeat power pop "Look Through Any Window" is, but today I'm gonna talk about how impressively chameleonic The Hollies had a capacity to be too. They manage to sound like a cross between The Four Seasons and The Beach Boys with their rich vocal harmonies on their opening of "Carrie-Anne," and then in the early 70s, they'd sound deliberately like CCR on "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress," with that Louisiana swamp rock sound that was actually from...Berkeley, California. And The Hollies were not particularly known for being either Four Seasons- or Beach Boys- or CCR-esque—they were better comped to The Beatles—but clearly, they could sound like either of those very distinctly different groups if they wanted to too, which I think is a testament to how great they really were.

Next, The Walker Bros.' "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)": speaking of imitating sounds, co-producers Johnny Franz and Ivor Raymonde spun themselves a real baroque breathtaker with this cover of Frankie Valli by figuring out how to re-create Phil Spector's own revolutionary 'Wall of Sound' technique. The Walkers themselves weren't British, but Franz and Raymonde were, and with a song like this, it was like their country now had their own answer to America's Righteous Brothers, as the Walker sibs succeeded far better in the UK than they did in the States. The Righteous Bros.' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," which had represented Spector's first song with them, was released in November of '64, and then this Walker Bros. one followed in February of '65. And as a pair of similarly epically soaring tunes by singing men who weren't brothers but called themselves so, both songs ended up topping the singles chart in the UK.

And then for some actual brothers, it's pretty remarkable to find a group like The Bee Gees unassumingly nestled within a comp like this that's dedicated to documenting the British 60s writ large. Typically, we first associate The Bee Gees and their magical falsettos with the peak of glitzy, hairy-chested disco in the late 70s and Saturday Night Fever, but a decade and more before that, they were also around with a completely different sound, and "To Love Somebody" is a pretty terrific and string-laden example of the blue-eyed pop-soul that they were making back then.

So another total banger of a comp here from Rhino. Feels like they're kind of continuing to lose the plot with each successive volume of this series, as not everything's rock, not everything succeeded in the States, and not everything's totally British either, but many of the songs that they selected are excellent nonetheless, and I guess that probably matters more than anything else.

Highlights:

The Easybeats - "Friday On My Mind" Los Bravos - "Black Is Black" Donovan - "Mellow Yellow" John's Children - "Smashed! Blocked!" Dusty Springfield - "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" Jonathan King - "Everyone's Gone to the Moon" The Smoke - "My Friend Jack" Small Faces - "All or Nothing" Eric Burdon & The Animals - "See See Rider" The Walker Bros. - "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" The Hollies - "Carrie-Anne" Wild Uncertainty - "A Man With Money" The Bee Gees - "To Love Somebody" The Tremeloes - "Silence Is Golden" The Merseys - "Sorrow"

[on-partiality]

Hi, I’ve been curious about Hercules Mulligan’s inclusion in the Rev Set ever since I have seen posts saying that one of the other aids like Meade and Tilgman or Tallmadge (if Herc was added solely for spy stuff) would have been a better choice. Id love to hear your thoughts on this.

Also, (terribly sorry if this insults any Mullette shippers) but do you know why people ship Mullette? (Correct me if I’m wrong) but these two have had zero historical relations. In addition, I don’t remember from the last time I saw musical but if you do, what was Laf and Herc’s relationship onstage?

So sorry about this super long ask. I just felt like you would be the best person to ask. Tysm and I hope you have a wonderful day!😊

Aw, this is such a cool question! And you're really nice, anon! I wish you the best! I would also like to make it very clear right now to anyone else who wants to send me a long ask. I love long asks. They give me more to ramble about!

When I was first getting into studying the real history behind the musical two years ago, this same thing confused me heaps. Mainly because we have no proof that Lafayette or Laurens ever even met Mulligan, let alone became good friends with him and he wasn't particularly close to Hamilton either for most of the war (I mean, in the continental army, he would've barely seen Hamilton, and the other aides would have been around him all day). Hamilton lived with him when he was in college, and they got along really well, had fun late-night conversations, just overall were great friends who influenced eachother in positive ways and Mulligan's chats with him definitely made young Hamilton more enthusiastic about the revolutionary cause. Additionally, Hercules Mulligan was part of his artillery company, The Hearts Of Oak or the Corsicans - Mulligan's the whole reason why we know the story of 18 year old Hamilton stealing British cannons with his volunteers is because of the recount of that night that Mulligan later wrote - however, for the rest of the war they just didn't interact with one another much.

They had their separate jobs, and they did them well. Hamilton was confined to his own quaters and the aide-de-camp tent, Mulligan was hanging around British camps and the battlefield doing exactly what Hamilton wanted to do. The relationship between the two was completely different from how Hamilton, Laurens, and Lafayette were through most of the war. Working together, seeing each other just about every other day, creating the same drafts and plans; Especially Laurens and Hamilton as Lafayette got some more 'exciting' jobs because of his rank as a Major General. But out of the bunch, Mulligan really sticks out like a sore thumb, historically the group was called the gay trio and for a good 3 quaters of the war it was just them all together. So why on earth would Lin Manuel Miranda add a fourth to the trio? It very well could be that like you said, he wanted everyone in the main group to have a different role that was integral to how the Continental army ran (Lafayette commanding, Hamilton writing, Laurens battling (?) and Mulligan spying) but I ended up reaching the conclusion that because the musical starts in 1776 while Hamilton was still in college - in the musical at least, presumably, but because of the way events are swapped around with eachother and happen at all the wrong times it's a bit difficult to tell what time things happened in the musical like I believe that when it starts Hamilton's meant to be in college and not yet a soldier however Hamilton left college to make his militia thing in 1775 and he stole the cannons in 1775 however the musical shows this happening after Aaron Burr, Sir and at the start if that song they make it very clear that it's meant to be 1776 which also means that Hamilton and Mulligan should've already known each other, I digress, I could ramble about how the way the musical timeline is makes no sense for years - , they wanted to show someone who was really important to him at that age, and they just kept him with the group for the rest of the show to avoid confusion as to why he disappeared or so that they wouldn't have to introduce another character (like why they used Jefferson instead of Monroe for the Reynolds pamphlet).

I don't know about using Tallmadge as a substitute though, given that I haven't read of any interactions between him and Hamilton or him and Laurens historically, I haven't read of any between him and Lafayette either, but it seems more likely that they would've spoken given Lafayette's position as a major general. It's entirely possible that the trio had heard of him but never actually met him given that I believe that I read somewhere that the whole trio knew of the Culper Spy Ring and a lot of what they would've heard to do with the Culper Spy Ring would have related to Benjamin Tallmadge in some way or other because he was the co-founder of the group. Meade and Tilghman would be good to swap Mulligan for, but then it doesn't make sense that he was talking to them in college (although Laurens and Lafayette didn't meet Hamilton when he was 19 either and like I mentioned earlier, Mulligan should have already known him so with the logic of the Hamilton musical they could be in the main group, yes). If my theory is correct then it would make sense why none of the more historically accurate quadrios were chosen, if they wanted someone who was close to Hamilton in his college years who still fought in the revolutionary war; then Mulligan would've been a great fit.

I'm going to guess that Mullette is one of those ships where people went, 'Hmm, I have ships for every other character but these too, and they seem close enough (in the musical that is), so I'll pair them together!'. Y'know, one of those pair-the-spares kind of things that people who are really into shipping do. Additionally. I believe you're correct; it has to have been an 100% musical fandom ship originally because if there was even just a little bit of historical evidence to back it up, then we'd know for a fact that Lafayette and Mulligan knew each other. Oh, and as someone who has seen the musical rather recently (late may last year) in the show, Lafayette and Mulligan didn't interact much, but they did come across as good friends and for some very creative people, those crumbs of interactions are enough to develop whole stories and relationships and I applaud those people, the way they create so much out of so little is amazing. Personally, I don't like any ships that don't have even a semblance of historical backing because I'm definitely an amrev fan before I'm a Hamilton musical fan (I still love the musical, I just value the real history more). People can like what they like though; I won't judge.

I'll always think Mullette's funny because here in Australia recently it's become a trend again for young boys and men to get mullets and I can't read the name without thinking of some crazy looking mullets that I've seen. Thanks for the ask, Anon! It was super fun to answer :D

Sincerely,

O-P/Milly

(I apologise if I come across as rude, I've struggled with tones my whole life)

[invisiblegarters]

Micro (or not) BL Reviews

It's that time again. Seeing as how a couple of things have ended recently and I let my obsession with a certain drama sort of take over everything else of late, I dedicated this week to catching up on all the things I've been missing and doing a quick round up (or not so quick, as it's me).

So let's get started, shall we?

Recently Completed

Stay By My Side - Oh Taiwan. I just love you. I think we had like eighteen "fall into you" moments in the first three episodes alone. The premise was fun - it reminded me a lot of Master's Sun, but the execution of course is totally different. The leads were cute. The chemistry was chemistrying. I loved the sister and that basketball boys. It was mostly fluff, which I am not complaining about because I love me some fluff. That said, I don't think it did anything particularly revolutionary and it never really did manage to grab me.  7.5/10

Wedding Plan - A MAME offering, but…not bad? I mean, not great either, although I will put up with a lot for the premise because I eat shit like that up, but I've seen way worse from MAME. However, it's not going to become a guilty pleasure show like LITA or an unexpected comfort show despite myself (at least the AePete parts) like Love by Chance. It was fine.

Things I really did like:  Nuea's family and his workmates (I loved how fiercely both sets of people stood by and supported him through everything from his huge mistake in sleeping with the groom to running back home to deal with it to basically adopting Lom into the group when they worked it out ("we have a new brother in law"). The lesbians - I could have used a bit more heat but I'll take it for now. Let's work on normalizing GL in our BL (frankly I'd love it if we started doing more of that and less of the token straight couple or three)! Was a little annoyed by how they had to fix everything but I won't pretend that the bits with them in episode 6 didn't get to me - I may have teared up a little when Marine was being treated so horribly by Yiwa's mother - that whole thing was so upsetting on a number of levels. And I was happy for them that they could afford to run away to their own happy ending. Also the gag of Lom pretending to be devastated when he was anything but was kinda funny, I will give the show that. And I did like the way that Lom's mom came around - realizing with time that losing her son the same way Yiwa's mother lost her could be a very real result if she kept being rigid. I also liked that she didn't just suddenly become a PFLAG member (or whatever the equivalent would be here) but simply told her son that she would work on it, because that felt more realistic.

The show also got me with how fucking lonely it must have been for both Lom and Yiwa, to know that they were gay and that they could never say anything, and how overwhelming and relieving it must have been to find someone who understood in each other. No fucking wonder they'd do anything for each other. I would have too, if I'd had someone like that growing up.

So yeah. It was fine. I mostly had a good time, even if I got a little bored once or twice. Frankly when it comes to MAME, being a little bored is preferable to feeling like the top of my head is about to come off because I'm so annoyed. Final verdict 7/10

Jun & Jun - Korea keeps making office BLs and I will continue watching them until the end of time. Especially if they keep on serving good kiss while they do it. And this one had bonus scent kink! I honestly don't know what's gotten into Korea lately but I am very much here for it.

This was a fun little office BL.  I liked how flirty it was from the get go, the way that both Juns danced around each other with the full knowledge that they were flirting. The intern group was fun, too. I really enjoyed the boyfriend episode at the end.

Everyone was very cute in this, but Simeon was my utter favorite. He totally stole the show for me. Him and Young. Young especially was a surprise, since she drove me bonkers when she first showed up. But she grew on me. I liked how fast she decided to embrace Lee Jun, and her and Choi Jun's friendship was cute.

I shipped Simeon and Hyung Hyun Jae too. Hard.

All in all this was cute, even if it didn’t manage to grip me as hard as I hoped. Like I said before, I'm not sure what's gotten into Korea lately but I hope it continues. 8/10.

Laws of Attraction - When I first saw the trailer for this, I decided to skip it. The leads were attractive enough but to be honest it seemed kinda poorly made and like it didn't know what it was going to do with itself. And I was feeling surly and judgmental and decided that it just wasn't for me. Also it was on iQIYI and I had no interest in signing up for another subscription.

But then I saw someone had stuck it on youtube and I was bored one Saturday an there were a few eps already out, so I thought, eh, why not?

And I've not regretted it for a moment.  I loved this show so much my god. Even when OF started (and you all know how much I obsess about OF) this was still the thing I looked forward to most on Saturdays. I adored Charn and his shark smile from moment one, and that adoration did not cease throughout the entirety of the show's run. His character development was by far the best on the show, and I loved the slow, stumbling way he regained the person he used to be, while still keeping the ruthlessness of the man he allowed anger and bitterness to let him become (up to a point). I loved that the show began and ended with his shark smile, but for very different reasons. And he and Tinn were adorable.

I appreciated them banging the marriage equality drum, too, and especially Charn's very pragmatic reasons for wanting it to be legal (as a lawyer, he would think like that, and I appreciate that the show kept him in character even when he was sappy). I also loved his wedding jacket I want four.

I also loved Tinn, and I have to give credit to Jam for the way he portrayed him. While Film totally ate as Charn I do think that in some ways a character like Tinn is harder to portray, because it would be very very easy for him to become preachy because of his morality and rigid sense of justice. But Jam played him with enough nuance that he never slid into that for me - he was willing to occasionally be at least slightly underhanded when the situation called for it, and while he expected Charn to be better (and read him to filth when he caught him out lying to and manipulating him), he thankfully also seemed to understand the fine art of compromise. Plus he's really pretty. Both of them are really pretty.

But the thing that I never expected was just how hard I turned around on Thaenthai. He drove me absolutely bonkers for the first few eps, and I was loudly annoyed by the fact that after about ep three (if not sooner), it became clear that he was not the one who had hit Tonkhao but that he was being made to take the blame. It felt to me like the show wanted me to excuse how vile he was (acting like Tonkhao's death was nothing, beating the crap out of Tinn when he was already tied up and helpless, just generally acting like a spoiled, entitled, horrible shitstain of a human being) because his father beat him. And while that was horrifying and I wanted him to get the hell out of there as soon as possible I still felt that a worm is a worm is a worm, even if the worm's father happens to be worse.

But then the show went and did something I did not expect it to do: it didn't just tell us that Thaenthai was lashing out because he was caught in a desperate limbo of wanting to run away from his and wanting to please him, but it went and did the work to show it. I started turning around on him after he found out about the gardener his father used as a scapegoat once things started getting heated, because we finally got to catch him before he had time to put on his mask. And it just kept coming, because now we knew what to look for. He's still an ass for beating the shit out of Tinn when he was tied up though, lol.

Another thing I really loved that this sow did with him was show him loving his dad in spite of everything. This man beat him, nearly drowned him, let him take the blame for a murder he did, tried to kill the only person Thaenthai felt was really on his side (because I do think that the intent was always to kill Thee - I'm just not entirely sure why it didn't happen as soon as Thaenthai got on that plane. I guess because we needed a happier ending. I am not complaining), and told him to his face that he could never love him because he killed his mother, and yet Thaenthai still loved him, still wanted his attention and his respect and his love in return. And it just rang very painfully true to me. You don't stop loving your parents because they're shit, and humans for some reason tend to be wired to try harder for love that is hard to receive (or impossible, in this case).  It did not surprise me that Thaentha tried to visit his father in prison, or that he was sad when he died. But neither did it surprise me that something in him seemed looser in those scenes as well, because even though he loved his dad there's a part of him that's glad he's gone.

I love stuff like this, because it's so complicated and realistic and it hurts in a way that only something that resonates with reality can. I ate it up.

Shout out as well to Not Vorarit, because he really did a good job with Thatthep. The way he slowly unraveled as the show went on was pitch perfect, every little nuance from his first intro as the shady but possibly not *that* shady "concerned" parent right up until that last scene with Charn where he's just a cackling monster. Kudos, you created an excellently detestable character. Watching him get his comeuppance was certainly a highlight of the show for me.

I was also really into the way that Tonkhao was very much a main character despite the fact that she died so early. One of the best strengths of this show was the way that it never let us forget what started this whole thing, it showed Tinn and Grandma grieving for their little girl, talking about her, missing her. Being reminded of her around every corner. They kept her in the forefront of our minds exactly the way that they should have, and I was delighted by it.

Other fun notables are himbo ex Nawin and Rose and Maya, our GL couple that I wish had gotten a little more screen time *as* a couple but either way were fabulous. I will love this show forever for introducing Nawin in the final hour and making him such a great combination of ridiculous and ruthless. And the way they let him breathe as a character - they really just stood back and were like "look at this ridiculous man stealing the show" and it was amazing. And Rose was just - she was such a good friend to Charn the whole way through, and both her and Maya's utter delight for him when he found Tinn (and them welcoming not only him but grandma into their little family so readily) warmed my cynical heart. And I will watch Sylvie Pavida in pretty much anything, I think.

All this raving and yet I still have to go with a final score of 9/10. I recommend this show, it's way better than I thought it would be, but there are some questionable choices made, the CGI and the fight scenes are laughable (the fire at Charn's office made me laugh so hard I had to pause), and they pulled out a guitar and sang not once, but twice. And they don't even have the excuse that one of them is supposed to be a singer. Also frankly nowadays every Thai show I watch I have to ask myself "did I enjoy this more than Moonlight Chicken?" which I only gave a 9.5, and for this one, the answer was no. So 9 it is, but a highly recommended 9. This was so much fun and it will be very missed on Saturdays.

Currently Watching

Be Mine Superstar - I really do  not get why they have decided to give the doom eleventh episode to this drama. It makes such little sense from this couple, who are the least dramatic pairing possible. They should have just left the angst to Muang and the doc.

Speaking of which, I have been disappointed with that storyline. I feel like we went from nothing to boyfriends with no real development, and now that they're not boyfriends again we're supposed to care, and I just don't.

Also Title is really out here doing the most. My dude, can't you just bow the fuck out gracefully? Blergh him and the manger stuff is still really annoying. Kevin was a delight though. Even though that's one too many dudes thirsty for Ashi for my personal taste (although he is very pretty so I totally get it).

Hidden Agenda - I actually kind of loved how ridiculous the conflict between Joke and Zo wound up being. Oh sure, Pat helping Joke along was a betrayal of trust or whatever, but it just felt perfect for the kind of drama this is. I get the idea that it felt like a betrayal of trust, but I also don't really get how it was too much different from what Zo was trying to do with Nita. Whatever, I love my low stakes drama on Sundays, keep it coming Hidden Agenda.

Kiseki: Dear to Me - This show is doing what I wanted from Only Friends and giving me all the cameos. The way I yelled when I saw the two from history: make Our Days Count. I think my favorite is Ai Di - poor little ball of adoration and pettiness and jealousy. I adore him. Oh, and that scene in the spa was great - I loved how everyone was looking at everyone else while the episode's guest stars (HI, Be Loved in House I Do guys! Good to see you) side eyed the lot of 'em. Me too, my friends. Me too. They're all messy and in love with everyone else and I am here for this weird quadrangle.

The main couple has less of a chokehold on me, but I like our uptight, traumatized doctor to be. And okay, yes, it got me with his unwilling return to a solitary life after Ze Rui disappeared on him. My guess is we're gonna speed run to the imprisonment and amnesia in the synopsis, and I'm good with that. I hope the cameos continue, but even if they don't I'm really enjoying this.

Taikan Yoho / My Personal Weatherman - I saw this called live action yaoi and at first didn’t really believe it, but no. No, it really is. And I am *here* for it. I can't say it's my favorite thing airing right now but I'm enjoying it.

The Jungle - (not a BL, so I'm cheating here, ah well) I don't know who thought that what we needed was four entire episodes of Pine's manpain, but they were very wrong. At least for my money. On the bright side, August is gorgeous and Pat is killing it. The series has been uneven for me and I'm a little annoyed they apparently want to wrap up Pine's BS, Nathee and Florence, *and* address Hunter's backstory in just two eps. But eh, whatever, I was only ever really watching for the women and Mix and thankfully Hack and Irin gave me all the mess that was promised (and not really delivered on, unfortunately. Not that I wanted a bunch of assholes womanizing, but aside from freaking Pine everyone's stories wrapped up in a couple of episodes of mostly no mess at all). 

Looking Forward To

23.5 - Come on GMMTV get this thing out already I want it. I have been patient but come oooooon. I had three highly anticipated dramas for this line up and this is the only one that hasn't been released yet and I want it. Gimme my GL.

Absolute Zero (Sep 27, iQiYI)- this is gonna hurt but at least I know it going in?

The Box (Sep 22, not sure about where) - Not a BL, but looks like a good time. Plus I'm interested to see Prem in a thriller - I think he'll do well.

I am also wondering what will replace the Monday/Tuesday hole The Jungle will leave when it stops airing or if they plan to do reruns.

And apparently we're getting the GMMTV 2024 lineup in Oct this year, which seems really early but maybe I'm wrong. I didn’t actually pay attention to the 2023 lineup until way after it came out so I can’t be trusted. *whispers* please let Midnight Museum have a season two, please let Midnight Museum have a season two.

[aphelionsabyss]

What is up everybody? Welcome back to:

APHALLY OBSESSED

Your NEW favorite "Daily Radio Show" in which your host, Aphelion (Me, Of course!), tells you all about music that they're ACTUALLY OBSESSED WITH!

Today's song is:

H.S by Tom Cardy

The title of the song today is H.S which stands for: Hot Shit.

And let me tell you, this song, is Hot Shit. It's The shit. It's great. It's Amazing, 10/10 used to play it on repeat in 2023.

H.S by Tom Cardy holds a special place in my heart.

When I first started "Aphally Obsessed" it was to share music with my friends in a server that no longer exists. To me, sharing music is something that I love to do. Because I feel like music really connects all of us. At the time, tensions were kinda high in the server and some people were feeling down on themselves. Meanwhile, I was jamming to this song and looping it for hours! So I thought to myself "You know what, I should share this!" And I did! Did my silly little intro and talked about how this song was helping me with my sadness. And how I connected to it because I love space and the dwarf planet Pluto.

I hope they listened to it. I hope Aphally Obsessed helped my friends out for the short time they had it.

____________________________________

This is an uplifting song about loving yourself (while using a space metaphor) :)

Onto talking about the song:

Tom Cardy starts the song off talking about how we all get a thought like "Am I living to my full potential or am I holding myself back?" And he says "Stop that shit, you're p-p-perfect!" Heavy on that staccato. I love it. Then he pulls out that talk box sound that gives a robot effect and says " If you need some help to see, take a lesson from space. They say Pluto's not a planet, do you think that Pluto gives a shit?" And the music goes from being this chiller sound to

And he goes on in the chorus to talk about how Pluto doesn't give a shit cause they still know that they're HOT SHIT! And it's full of space references. But he doesn't stop there, no. He talks about how when Pluto was insecure and jealous of Jupiter, who wanted to be like our Sun, and the Sun was unhappy because she wanted to be a big black hole. BUT what the sun didn't know was that a black hole was unsatisfied with herself because she's not supermassive :( BUT THE SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE IS AMAZED because Dwarf Planet Pluto is THAT BITCH!!!

And then at the end, he even starts talking about how he gets scared sometimes that he's talking about space too much, but no! He's not! Space is cool (he's right) and people who let him talk about space are cool! The moral of his the story, you're perfect! If someone doesn't like you! It's okay! Cause you're awesome. You don't need to be like anyone else but yourself!!! And I hope Tom Cardy continues to. I also hope he makes another space song.

____________________________________

I wanna bring something up that I think is SUPER cool real quick that I never mentioned though: Tom Cardy never uses pronouns for Pluto. Like, I realized after writing this that I wrote "Them" for Pluto. But in actuality, in place of pronouns, Pluto uses Pluto's name. Kinda like Elmo. And I think that's genuinely super cool :D It's not a revolutionary thing at all but I think it really fits Pluto's vibes.

Uh okay I'm gonna be honest guys, I wrote this for yesterday then fell asleep before posting it. Sorry!!!!

You can find the song on, YOU GUESSED IT, Everywhere you can listen to music!!! :)

[liebgirl]

how much did millie bobby brown slay in damsel 2024 with DETAILS please :-)

she was slaying and serving the entireee time for real... she was screaming and yelling and crying and breathing so heavily at times you worried she was gonna pass out due to the fact she was still wearing that damn corset and she was grunting while climbing up ropes and jagged cliffs and then doing more screaming. basically our girl made a lot of noises... which had me very worried in certain scenes and i had to be like girl be quiet the dragon can hear you!! but she literally was not letting up on the letting out shrieks and yells. and that was the weirdest way i could start talking about this movie but i just wanted to set the stage for everyone so we all know this was a screaming movie. and i KNOW we all love it when millie bobby brown screams her fucking head off we all saw stranger things season two...

anyway i don't know if i'd necessarily say this was her best acting but i'm not about to be some asshole who thinks she stopped being talented after she turned 17 and romanticize the "glory days" of early stranger things like what am i a man get serious... she's a great actress in everything she does! but i would say this was probably a very very easy role to play for her so i imagine there was a certain level of phoning in. i say that as a compliment to her talent not a put down of the film's writing... but elodie is not a character she had to put in a lot of work for like she had to be able to scream and yell and run. and she had to be kind and likeable but most of the heavy lifting there is already done via the fact we are already rooting for her because she got thrown into a dragon's lair as a blood sacrifice... what i'm saying is that it's an easy movie both to make and to watch it's not revolutionary but it IS huge massive insane to ME because it's so like, within the confines of it's genre (girlfantasy) because i happen to like it's genre very very much!

OK SO. i simply must talk about the outfits. as we know they put her in a beautiful gorgeous wedding gown and it was progressively torn to shreds as the story went along which was AWESOME. the way they showed her being prepared for the wedding in so much detail and we saw how many layers and how much went into the dress and how much it must have weighed down on her (both literally and metaphorically!!!) and restricted her movement, and it's destruction represents the dismantling of her faith in the system she was essentially sold into... the dress was literally DESIGNED to trap her in the cave with the dragon i was losing my mind at the part where she couldn’t get further into the cave away from the dragon because the hoop skirt was stuck on the rocks like that was crazy… and. now. was it insane that in the end she was essentially wearing a sleeveless minidress with a snatched corseted waist? well a little yeah that was kinda ridiculous. but the larger point was that she escaped the traditional constricting dress they put her in so they could continue on in their comfortable life and she was left in the underdress exposing the wiring and manipulation that exists underneath their society’s beautiful exterior… you understand!

and her character was soooo lovely is the thing... perfect girlfantasy protagonist fr...!! lowkey her guinevere choices realness. um but without the prophetic visions! i loved how the whole movie opened with her and her sister chopping wood to bring back to their town like she's a lord's daughter but she isn't above doing everything she can to help! she didn't want to get married either but she knew it would help her people... when she saw that first bird on fire in the dragon's lair and she gently held it after stamping the fire out but she couldn't save it... almost cried! she just had so much care for all life and so much drive to protect everything and everyone and most especially herself... the way that she was the second sacrifice out of three so she kept going because she knew there was still one girl left she had the power to save... crazy stuff!!! she even saved the dragon...

the way that in the end when she walked into that third wedding and everyone was shocked that she clawed her way out of that mountain and back to their castle for revenge and there was a moment where it was almost implied that they'd spare her and find another sacrifice if she still wanted to be the prince's wife and take part in their family's sick farce... and she was like fuck off actually i think you should all stand here in your golden palace while my new bestie the dragon burns your shit to the ground... and it was cunty!!!!!!! i was clapping and cheering and smiling yayyyy!

in conclusion. a 10/10 slay, we love you millie bobby brown <3

[leaving-fragments]

tbh i think the barbie film had some good material, the whole scene between barbie and ruth with the whole "i don't want to be the idea, i want to do the imagining" bit, like that had potential. because womanhood is an idea someone else came up with and forced women into. but that scene is so disconnected from the rest of the plot, it's the first time in the film that we see barbie struggling with being an idea, so it kinda comes out of nowhere

before that she was struggling with (not) being perfect and then with not being good enough at anything, which are also expectations many women struggle with. but none of these points are really talked about thoroughly, they come up as one-liners or as ironic quips and it's just. so frustrating because the film never really says anything, it just mentions issues in passing

like, there is no feminist statement made in or by the barbie movie. pointing out patriarchy exists isn't a revolutionary message and the film never really shows anything changing, neither the real world nor barbieland... the ending is basically just everything being the same as at the start of the movie

so apart from all the things other people have pointed out with jokes about colonialism, the playing into incel culture etc. the barbie movie isn't even very feminist

i will also say i personally did enjoy the film, it's a fun watch and has great costumes and music, but i find it quite silly how some people want to make it out to be revolutionary... if that's revolutionary to you your worldview must be very narrow

[lepartidelamort]

Russia and Iran Couldn’t Have Saved Syria.

What was Russia supposed to do ? Airdrop in like Cobra Commander ?

Putin has his own problems and can’t possibly micro-manage Syria if Assad is incapable of the most basic competence.

As with any big event, there is a lot of nonsense swirling in the narrative around the fall of Syria.

Some people are going around claiming that this is a failure of Russia and Iran, that these allies should have swooped in and saved Assad.

People are so gay and retarded.

Russia was already bombing the terrorists. Iran was trying to send in troops.

What happened happened so quickly that it would have been completely impossible for Russia and Iran to send more reinforcements. The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) stood down, completely, and so this “revolution” only took as long as it takes to drive Toyotas from Aleppo to Damascus. When the media says “lightning fast,” they are understating the matter. A more accurate axiom would be “like a warp portal.”

We know now as a factual matter that this is because the SAA leadership was entirely bought off by the Turks and opened the doors for the Islamist and Kurd terrorists. If the SAA would have put up a fight, the Russians and Iranians – as well as Hezbollah, for that matter – could have come in and backed them up. But when the military simply stands down, what are the allies supposed to do? You can’t just fly in a fleet of jets and drop off troops on the frontlines. That is not how these things work, something I assume we’ve all watched enough war to understand.

In real life, you can’t just airdrop in and start shooting at the enemy like Cobra Commander.

That was a cartoon show for children and not especially similar to real life war situations.

The Jewish media is spinning this as “looking bad for Russia,” and on a basic level, because most people won’t ever understand what happened, it does look bad for Russia. But there was nothing Russia could have done.

Frankly, if the SAA would have fought, Russia would not have needed to send troops, as the air support would have been enough to hold off this movement indefinitely. The whole horrible scene was entirely defined by the military stand-down.

Assad was not only not in control of his own military, he had no intelligence about what was happening beforehand, so other than the enemies and the traitors, Assad is the only person who can be blamed here.

Also, No, The Refugees are Not Going Back and You’re Getting Millions More

A lot of people are joking about “so I guess the refugees can go back now,” but I’ve also seen people seriously suggesting this will happen.

That’s a laugh.

This is going to result in many, many more refugees, and a whole debauched scene with Turkey. It will be like 2015 all over again.

The media obviously claimed that the reason the refugees couldn’t return is that there is no democracy in Syria, but if you believed that, then I’m sorry, you are a gay retard. Some wealthy Syrian exiles might return as the country is being auctioned off by the revolutionary authorities, but the poor people who flooded Europe are not going back.

This coalition that overthrew the Syrian government, the Turks, Kurds, and Islamists, all hate each other, and the only thing unifying them was hatred for Assad. Really more than hatred for the man, they wanted his power. Now they’re going to have to figure out a way to divide that power, and it’s going to be very complicated.

Israel invading and making the country look like a little pussy bitch while the revolutionary refuse to even comment makes it all the more volatile, and Israel will no doubt be bombing various people in the country for a long time.

This is to say: the “Syrian Civil War™” did not end. It did not come close to ending. This is going to enter into a new hot period, where everyone is going to be trying to take as much as they can get. They’re all already militarized, so it is going to take 2 seconds for any conflict they have to be militarized. They’re not going to be talking things out in a parliament or whatever.

It’s an unmitigated disaster.

Andrew Anglin for the DailyStormer

[sandraharissa]

Yeah, I have two things to add to this.

1) I agree that it’s weird the most important ppl on the council with the most influence (Heimer, Mel and Jayce) that we focus on the most are also shown to be well intentioned idiots or oblivious to the problems.

With the exception of Jayce and his confrontation with Silco.

I think it works really well cos at this point Jayce has been a councilor for maybe a week and he’s clearly only thinking in terms of surface level fixes to his current problems like ‘shimmer seems scary so let’s stop the production’ or ‘get the crystal and punish the person doing all the bombing’ but from my (and probs Silco’s) perspective Jayce through his ignorance asks for pretty unreasonable things. Like ceasing the production of shimmer, when it seems to be the main and most valuable thing the Undercity produces and exports outside, so their main source of outside revenue. If Silco took the deal and went along with the demands (very unlikely imo, what stops Silco from continuing to smuggle shimmer anyway) then even tho on paper Zaun would be independent it’d in practice be more dependent on Piltover than it had been for years now. So here’s a really good example of Jayce asking for extremely unfair conditions as a part of their deal that would hugely contribute to the problems and oppression Zaun is already facing, but he does this completely unknowingly bcos of lack of experience, and the audience can tell based on him just agreeing to everything Silco asked, not haggling, which probs makes him think he can also ask for smth in return and that it’d be fair and so he comes up with the few things on the fly.

2) I agree that Fireligths were overly glorified without concrete reason, like you said they and Vi will fight with others from their own class and work to take them down but they stop at trying to come up with a plan to bring down the people above them and it’s not treated as a flaw.

However Silco is also overly cruel in his revolutionary endeavors to a fault based on what we already saw but it can get even worse in the future seasons. We’ll have to wait and see but I’m expecting the next season to show how without Silco the whole thing falls apart. Without the one guy at the top who cares about the cause who’s got everybody by the balls all the chembarons will just fall back on being greedy and start fighting for turf. And the monster philosophy when applied to the ‘governing’ and shaping of the city but going unchecked from now on will stop being about the weaponization for the sake of successful revolution and we’ll get fanatics like Urgot (disclaimer: I don’t know much about the games). Hence Silco built a pretty volatile and susceptible to corruption system that can't function as intended beyond his rule, so no real longevity. (Sure his intention for 99% of the time was creating a revolution so that's by default a short-term endeavor compared to the establishment of a government so he probs treated a lot of things as means to an end, but still this is his legacy and contribution to the shaping of Zaun).

Besides that, there’s one detail that is kinda important that can easily ‘redeem’ Ekko in the future season.

It’s that Silco only ever talks about his dream to Vander and Jinx, his closest loved ones. If he ever did that in the past he gave up on that, maybe cos ppl weren’t listening. He doesn’t even discuss the idea of Zaun with Sevika even tho she supports the fight for independence. I feel like Silco was likely ahead of his time with his ideas about national identity and how it'd help them in fighting for better lives, but others probs thought it was lunatic talk. My point is that while we know Silco's inner thoughts the most likely scenario is that Ekko thinks Silco's just doing all this for influence and profit, and doesn't know that the guy even has long term goals for freeing the Undercity from Piltovers rule. Cos where would he even learn this from, right? there's no way that he knew, so that changes the way we'd judge his attacks on shimmer shipments, he doesn't even know what they're for so he can't even reflect on the fact that he's undermining revolutionary movement for his own people.

That's what I'm currently thinking cos of Ekko's LoL lines like "Zaun is the future.", "You'll always be Zaun to me." (to Vi), "Welcome to Zaun!", "How many Pilties does it take to make a hammer? — Zero! They make 'em in Zaun!" and MORE. LoL Ekko shows a ridiculously strong national identity and curiously he uses the term Zaun, which is kinda normal in-game cos it's always been the case in the game that it's Piltover and Zaun, but in Arcane we're introduced to Piltover and the bad side of the Piltover city with Silco being the only person who cares about the idea of Zaun, so it's interesting that in-universe they're for sure about to adapt this as the official name for the new independent city and that it's likely Ekko will be hugely supportive of this notion once he learns about it without losing his empathetic instincts. Fighting very similarly to how he always did, against cruel ppl to make Zaun a better place, without ever having to fight the dirty fight for Zaun's independence cos someone already did that for him, now the problem is cleaning house from all these monsters. Kinda functioning as a successor to Silco symbolically, embracing the good parts and fixing the bad parts of his rule. Which if they do this my brain will explode (also his work with Heimer can be short-lived like with Cait and Vi).

What do you think about Arcane's politics in general? Do you feel like it pulled its punches in depicting the council's cruelty against the undercity? Or that there was an imbalance in how topsiders' cruelty vs zaunites' cruelty were portrayed? Like, on one hand, they do explicitly show enforcers massacring rebels and abusing undercity citizens on orders from the council. Silco also mentions that topside had zaunites working in toxic mines with unbreathable air that literally clogged their throats, and apparently they were explicitly restricted from using the hexgates (as Silco had to demand it in a deal with Jayce) which is another way to keep them down.

But then we also get these moments where it feels like they pulled back a bit, such as dialogue that portrays topside's crimes as just "neglect" and "ignorance" instead of like. Active and malicious steps taken to brutally oppress people and carefully maintain that oppression. Understandably more screentime was given to characters like Heimerdinger and Jayce compared to other councillors, as they are game champions. But then we have this imbalance where most major topside characters are those who just "didn't know" and "weren't aware about how bad the oppression was", they simply needed to go down there and open their eyes and now they're graciously trying to do good.

Which is all well and good, but... what of the councillors who KNEW of the horrible conditions of zaun as they themselves worked to create them? All the oppressive legislation had to come from somewhere and someone right? The horrible mines Vander and Silco's generation endured, laws restricting them from the same economic privileges topside gets, and of course the murder of zaunites by enforcers, ordered directly by councillors. The last one in particular is strangely brushed under the rug in pivotal moments, like Vi entering a Councillor's home and just? Laying in bed? No disgust or anger that she's in the home of the same people who ordered her parents to be killed? She IS aware that enforcers' violence is sanctioned by the council right? As well as Ekko inviting Heimerdinger, the ex-ruler of the city, into his secret safe haven, no animosity at all, even though there was plenty aimed at Caitlyn.

I can understand they wanted an approach of every main character having shades of gray, and giving attention to councillors who intentionally took action to oppress zaun would cut into valuable screentime, and those straight up evil people are simply not the type of characters Arcane is interested in exploring. But maybe they still could have had zaunites react a bit more realistically towards these councillors, so it doesn't suddenly feel like they pulled their punches.

What are your thoughts on this?

Thank you Anon! First off I must say this is a fantastic ask, and I think you and I see eye to eye on most of this. Sorry for the delayed response, I didn't often have enough spoons to finish the reply.

I'm going to answer this as someone who has read the wiki broadly and knows almost nothing about the game lore and other game-only characters.

I think everything is Piltover's fault.

You have it correct in your depiction of the Zaun/Piltover divide, but I think you can go even further. Arcane is a story of intergenerational trauma, how it gets passed down like a curse... But this trauma is born from the violence of their situation, and that is entirely created by Piltover's oppression of Zaun.

The furthest back we see for our characters is Vander drowning Silco in the Pilt, full of chemicals that leave him disabled and disfigured. We know from dialogue and the show events that they were oppressed then, that they fought for liberation, and that Vander betrayed Silco and ended up having some (rather vague) power in Zaun.

The city is poluted. The people are struggling to rebel and gain independence... And our desperate characters turn violently on each other, setting the stage for the decades to come, with more death, more violence, more desperation.

That entire set up is due to Zaun being under the boot of Piltover. If Zaun were an independent nation, they could blame themselves for (most) of it. But they are a pretty dire depiction of colonialism instead. If Zaun was doing as well as Piltover, Silco would be a fine businessman, friendly, driven, maybe smitten with the gentle barman Vander, who only punches in his boxing classes.

The entire show depends on Piltover being the worst, and keeping Zaunites' heads under water.

They have deals to keep Zaunites away from Piltover, with Vander enforcing it. They have a complete hold on commerce with the bridges as chokepoints. They export all their polluting industry there. Clearly they control the wages, and the very solid glass ceiling of social advancement. Viktor, after all, is terribly aware that he'll never go further unless he breaks the rules. His Zaunite origins are a shackle.

I personally was very impressed with the show for going that way. But You got it. I think they wanted to have their cake and eat it. They made Piltover's oppression real and awful... I mean that shot of them ordering the city be choked further? Despite the Sheriff's protests?

And sure, Heimerdinger isn't in that picture, but he can't always be absent from Council asshole moments, since he's been on the Council from its inception.

In my humble opinion Heimerdinger is the biggest asshole of Arcane. Sits on the Council while it destroys Zaun for profit, ignores the political situation in favour of being a clueless arts and science enjoyer, out of touch with 99% of his constituents as he fails to perceive they live drastically different lives from him (or fails to understand why that matters, leading to Viktor's radicalization and Jayce's takeover).

But worst of all he crosses the river, realises how bad things are (probably has no idea too, because a trip to the seedy part of town would not reveal the depth of destitution and systematic abuse rampant there), and thinks he's 'not welcome' because his attempt at "fixing things" aren't welcomed. BRO, the only thing you tried to fix was making a girl smile with a TOUPEE MAGIC TRICK.

He's detatched from reality. He IMMEDIATELY gives up. It made me incredibly mad that Ekko was stripped of his identity and class consciousness to suck on his furry cock for The Joy Of Science. Like hell no. Heimerdinger needs to be put in a burlap bag and drowned in the Pilt for centuries of crime against humanity.

So yeah, they wanted to show a place in deep trouble due to oppression, but they also wanted some of the oppressors to be UwU blorbos who don't deserve hate because they try so hard and they actually have a kind heart... Just like with Cait and Vi's relationship, I feel like it's due to rushing things. The show is nearly perfect, but it sure could have used an extra episode, or since it already has a second season greenlit, could have kept councillors as Antagonists for longer. We understand asshole rich people. We could understand Heimer with his head in the sand and disconection to mortals. We could forgive a lot if they went through a proper arc. But making toupees and gushing about science with Ekko isn't character development.

I feel like the Firelights were shoehorned not for complexity or to show a divided Zaun, but to give the viewers 'good Zaunites' to root for, so they could switch Silco into a villain.

Sadly anyone with critical thinking will realise that Silco is the one who obtained freedom for Zaun (no matter if he squanders it as he dies), and the one who has been working hard to make it a richer place. It's not just the chembarons. Like the episode after the timeskip literally shows us a montage of this new Zaun. And sure shimmer is a part of it, but shimmer is also shown to be a GOOD thing in places, a FUN one in others, and it's far from being the only weird/amoral thing Zaunites use or indulge in. Silco isn't a morally good guy, but his goals are good for the whole of Zaun, and he's the one who gets what he wants in the end and could have ended the oppression he dedicated his entire life to fighting.

Meanwhile the Firelights are a haven against shimmer, but they're a ONE tree house worth of people. They have no plan for Zaun. They actively attack and hinder the one guy who'll ultimately win THEIR OWN FREEDOM. Yeah, it's divided, and that's great! I love all of it, except for shimmer's vagueness. But where the show fails, I think, is in trying to tell us that this is Good. That the Firelights are the morally Good Zaunites. Waiting in a treehouse, being an insular group that fights another gang to the death, being differentiated only in that they don't partake in the local drug... Is Good. While making sacrifices, bad deals, using drug money, is Bad. Even if it came with political unity, and was the group that got the results, it's Bad.

They made a perfectly grey and subtle setup, and then instead of going 'there are many grey, even dark ways to be a hero for your people' — looking at both Silco and Ekko — they went white/black and 'also the freedom fighter is a bad guy, not a complex guy'.

Ekko doesn't have plans to free Zaunites. He thinks killing Silco will kill Shimmer, which is the reasoning of a child. If Silco dies, if all of Silco's gang dies, someone else will step in and pick up shimmer production. It's like toothpaste, you don't get to put it back in the tube.

Even if Silco took shimmer with him to the grace, all that Ekko would have achieved would be to leave Zaun at the mercy of power hungry chembarons, ready to split up again and enter a power struggle that would harm thousands of Zaunites under their rule.

Would Ekko care? Yes, I guess he would, but he won't be able to put all these poor Zaunites into cute tree houses, so fuck them I guess.

More importantly, would Ekko ever come to realise that killing Silco was a mistake? I don't think so, because Ekko got his brains scooped out to love on Heimerdinger. He lets a Councillor's daughter lecture him about violence, a day after 5 of his people were killed by Jinx.

Ekko is one of those characters that looks cool if you don't scratch the surface, but didn't have a real arc or a real character consistency. Unless we're truly to believe he's politically dumb enough to think Silco is a bigger evil than Heimerdinger and that life in Zaun is miserable because of Silco and not because of hundreds of years of oppression overseen by Heimer.

And that's indeed what we see, so oopsies I guess.

If Zaunites reacted more realistically to Councillors, Heimer would get a dressing down at best, and Cait would have an incredibly better arc with Vi, but the show would need one more episode at best, and more uncertain Season 1 endings for the Pilties.

I've rambled a lot and not sure I've really made a coherent answer... But this is what you get x'D sorry

[dudeyuri]

I'm having thoughts and feelings about bad buddy must be a day that ends in y. But like, last episode tomorrow, kind of verklempt, need to word vomit

My first watch of Bad Buddy kind of smacked me upside the head. I know this is not a unique experience. I was left reeling for a bit. Watching Bad Buddy was the first thing I did in 2023 and I watched all 12 episodes in one sitting like a glutton and I stayed up til 1am even though I had to get up at 4am the next day (I haven't done stupid shit like that since college). Then I started my rewatch the next day. Then I put it aside for months because it was actually a physical ache in my chest when I thought about it. I just...never?? encountered such a fulfilling narrative that followed through on all its promises. Even with its deliberate deceptions and twists and uncertainties - I put my trust in Bad Buddy's narrative and was rewarded for doing so like never before.

It got me from the first episode - the first episode did what I think almost every first episode should do: tell you exactly what the story is going to be, without telling you exactly what the story is going to be. Fantastic writing, deliberate pacing, satisfying character development, pitch-perfect acting, all top-notch. It kept the energy up all throughout even as it got heavier, and stuck the landing in such a profound and bittersweet way. This was the first Thai BL I've ever watched, and probably the third BL I've ever watched period. One of my first impressions after finishing it even for the first time was that it was, maybe above all else, self aware.

My initial impression was also not a unique one: so far this is funny, charming, an exciting premise. And by episode 4 I was starting to get hit with it: this story is all those things and a knife in your gut, a lump in your throat. And it's queer, and it's tragic. Like, from the jump we see the two households both alike in dignity, we know what this is: it's Romeo and Juliet (or Kwan and Riam). We know how it ends. Pran knows how it ends. They teased us the whole show with Pran's decor, his doorknob hanger, like this show's version of a comedy and tragedy mask - what's it going to be? How's it going to end? Everyone watching knows how romcoms typically end. But everyone also knows how Romeo and Juliet ends.

In a move that can really only be described as revolutionary, Bad Buddy decided that queering the Romeo and Juliet narrative meant a happy ending. With caveats, but happy and alive and together. It was as simple as two characters finding their agency in a world trying to deprive them of it, seeing every path around them that led to tragedy, and instead trailblazing a new one that led to happiness. (everything that could be said about this has already been said; I look to this essay by @chickenstrangers often!! helped me make sense of pat gets shot lol. MK I hope you're not sick of people linking this left and right). It's a narrative choice that resounds.

I was personally struck by that specific pain Pat and Pran experience, the pain of having to lie to your parents and keep love a secret from them - is there a queer person out there who doesn't relate to that in a bone-achingly deep way? Regardless of your relationship with your family. Having to partition yourself like this is part of the queer experience. And it's exhausting because you just have to live like this. It's exhausting because the people who are supposed to love you have made a liar of you instead. You can be surviving and thriving and happy, but your parents will still ask your siblings about their love lives and ask you about the weather (too real??? oops). There's a hint at a possible thawing in the final episode that gives hope, but Bad Buddy does not magically make the parents realize they were wrong and accept their sons' love - I mean, that just doesn't happen. It would have made for a disingenuous ending, it would have been a disservice to the narrative and to the viewers and to the metaphor. If you're lucky enough to have parents who would, you're lucky. It's a sad truth. "We can't change the world...but the world can't change us either."

At first glance, Bad Buddy plays in the "BL bubble". Upon a slightly closer examination Bad Buddy says there can never really be a bubble--stories aren't crafted in a vacuum, the dominant ideology that is homophobia traumatizes and endangers and oppresses all who do not align with it, still there are happy endings for us here. We find each other and carve them out ourselves. To say all this, and to not veer into heavy-handed "yeah okay we get it" territory is a feat honestly! Seldom accomplished in such a riveting and sexy way! How refreshing! Bad Buddy reminded me of reading a good poem - upon first read, a good poem is about "a thing," and it's evocative as is and you don't even have to read it again to enjoy it. But you can also consider it carefully and unearth "the other thing," a deeper meaning, the answer to "why was this written?". Bad Buddy trusts its viewers to get there. I mean I know it's really not much of a hidden message, but again, they are subtle with it, iykyk etc. BB doesn't hold our hand, but it takes our trust and respects it and doesn't break it (though it shakes the jar, like quite a bit, lol. All good stories should tbh).

I think a lot about the form, too. In a less capable storyteller's hands 12 one-hour-long episodes can drag (I'm thinking of some recent gmmtv BLs lol), or even not be enough (I feel like I personally see that in a lot of western shows whose fanbases are out here begging for second seasons to tie up loose ends). P'Aof (and co.) knew exactly what to do with 12 episodes. Has anyone in the entire history of TeleVision ever known what to do with 12 one-hour-long episodes as undeniably as P'Aof and co in making Bad Buddy??

I know I'm being a little dramatic, excessively lauding good writing like this. Like yeah stories should be good and thoughtful and make sense, of fucking course. But I just have to appreciate it in a genre, in a capitalist reality, where a story does not have to be profound or clever or full of love to be marketable. They truly did not have to go this hard. (Though the writer in me who now considers Aof a personal idol also thinks: yes of course they absolutely did have to go this hard in fact It Is The Only Way). I'm so so grateful for it for so many reasons!! And I didn't even breach the topic of how fun and sexy I think Pat and Pran are together. Didn't even mention the fingersucking, the scent kink, the kissies - all genuinely just as important to me as everything else. It's all in the making of a good story! I am taking notes through my tears and I am so thankful

[tickldpnk8]

On Hob and William Caxton

So a stray comment on this meta thread had me adding my thoughts to the end on Hob’s mention of going into printing. But I don’t think my thoughts got seen much because they were fairly off topic. But! The history of printing is a particular pet topic of mine so I wanted to expound on this a bit. Because it’s one of the echoing storylines that Gaiman weaves through the centuries to show how interconnected that time is. And it’s also an echo we see in the larger series about literature, stories and language.

In 1489, we get this panel where Hob mentions that he’s taken up a new trade called…printing. (Not that there’ll ever be real demand for it)

But it’s not until 1589 that we learn the name of this mysterious friend: William Caxton. (Mentioned by Hob as Billy Caxton)

But who was William Caxton?

Caxton was an Englishman in the mid-1400s who started his career as a cloth maker and merchant. By the 1450s, he was living on the continent in Bruges and by 1465, he had turned to politics. With the War of the Roses underway in 1470, he had turned his attention to bringing printed books to the untapped market in England.

Printing was a new industry in the mid-1400s in Europe. (As opposed to the printing traditions of Asia.) Gutenberg had used his jewelry-making expertise to cast individual letters for printing around 1440, and developed a printing press that revolutionized books, publishing and illustration in Western Europe. Caxton likely traveled to Germany and saw a press in action around 20-30 yrs later before buying his own and setting up shop on the continent. Demand for works in English was low on the continent, so he soon moved his shop back to London.

What Caxton did was revolutionary for the time. No one was printing books in English. Even in England, scholars preferred Latin and French, considering them more beautiful and more expressive. Caxton not only brought a whole new trade/industry back to England…he also played an important part in our linguistic history. By translating works into vernacular English—specifically his London dialect—he was saying that English literature traditions were just as worthy as Latin or French for scholars and the masses. His work helped to standardize spellings at a time of great linguistic change. And his dialect that he was using became more widespread through his publishing. Plus, through his poor translation, English adopted a number of loan words.

The first book he printed once back in England? None other than Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. He later published a second edition containing woodcut illustrations. He mostly published works he thought would be profitable with the gentry and then expanded his market by publishing works of popular fiction. His translation of La Morte D’Arthur helped popularize Arthurian legend.

What did a 15th century print shop look like?

I imagine that when Caxton started out, he might have had to wear many hats. In this woodcut from 1568, two men are setting type into forms in the background while one person inks the form on press and the other pulls the print. Not pictured are separate jobs for folks to carve illustrations like the above out of wood (or use other printing making methods like intaglio, etc) and to bind the books.

Pulling a print could be manually hard work. Once the form is inked and the paper put into place behind a frisket, the whole apparatus is rolled under the platen on the right. Pulling the big level attached to the screw above the platen would apply even weight to the inked form, leaving an impression on the paper. Then, the apparatus would be rolled back out, the paper removed and the process started again. Once all the pages were printed, they would have been bound by bookbinders.

By the 1600s, the print shop could have had multiple presses with even more staff as shown in this engraving. Guilds would have been set up with proper channels for learning the craft. Plus, a whole merchant system was in place to sell all those books, pamphlets and prints.

You can see a press like this in action in this video:

How does this tie into Men of Good Fortune?

Men of Good Fortune is as much a history of England overview as it is a history of English literature/language. By spacing his references out, Gaiman is able to allude to its evolution concisely for the purposes of his story and the limited real estate of his panels.

So here are Gaiman’s key references by date:

In 1389, we see Chaucer out for a drink with a friend in the midst of writing The Canterbury Tales.

In 1489, Hob is working with Caxton to set up his publishing business. Who would then go on to print several editions of Chaucer’s works.

In 1589, Hob refers back to Caxton by name, and we meet Shakespeare.

In 1689, no literature references

In 1789, Hob refers back to Shakespeare’s King Lear having a happy ending and asks after the nature of Morpheus’ deal with him.

In 1889, no literature references

In 1989, up to your imagination!

Hob and printing

For Hob specifically, his involvement could have meant many things. He could have become a typesetter and learned his letters. He could have been pure muscle pulling prints. He could have bound the books or carved the illustrations. And he could have branched out into being a merchant by selling said books. Or…all of the above.

As I’ve been writing this over the past week, @teejaystumbles just posted a printer!hob illustration. Was super excited to see it! Anyways, I’m hoping that this context was interesting for folks and I can’t wait to see if anyone writes/draws more printer!hob, because I can’t wait to read/see it!

[archduchessofnowhere]

With the few adaptations of Sissi and her marriage to Franz they always show a scene where he has to sign off death penalties and seems hesitant to do so. Is this something that is accurate? Or do they add it to make him seem more likeable?

Hello anon! This is an interesting question because I feel that this is something that's never really properly explored - not only in fiction, but also on non-fiction. Let’s start with how fiction handles this:

The latest two series about Empress Elisabeth both introduce the young emperor in a scene in which he orders the execution of rebels - although they handle it quite differently, almost oppossite. In Sisi (2021-), an annoyed Franz Josef smugly complains about how these rebels brought over themselves their deaths “only for a constitution”, and only seems troubled by it when a woman in the crowd curses him (can’t remember if this happens before or after he orders the men to be hanged). In Die Kaiserin (2022-), a very hesitant Franz Josef cannot even bring himself to order the execution and in the end is his mother who orders the rebel men to be hanged (a great example of this series’ writing superb subtlely *sarcasm*). Now these are clearly scenes which have the function of introducing the characters and setting their inner conflicts: Jannik Schümann’s FJ being an arrogant man who almost seems to enjoy his impunity, suddenly being faced with the real consequences of his actions, while Philip Froissant’s FJ is a weak-willed ruler controlled by his mother that most break free from her in order to follow his liberal ideas (yeah he’s Rudolf here). So which of these two portrayals is closer to reality?

Well, probably neither. Because first of all, Franz Josef was not present at the executions (or at least I’ve never came across with any account that places him there), so neither of these situations would have happened. And second, neither fully allign with what we know of him as a young emperor. For Franz Josef the executions and repression were a matter of putting his empire in order, he believed in the dynastic right of the Habsburgs and that it was his duty to rule over his subjects, that's it. Neither of his portrayals are accurate to him, because they're both emotional takes: in one he's a cruel man that must find mercy, in the other he's a merciful man but weak ruler that must find strenght (and in both cases, he must find this through loving his wife). In reality, he was a bureaucrat signing off orders that thought would bring back the power to the dynasty, that was always his only main goal. That's also why years later he was willing to compromise with the Hungarians. Emotions just never played a part in his policies, which is what the series miss in their respective characterizations.

Now on the historical accuracy:

The two people held to be the main responsible of convincing the emperor of following a policy of repression are his mother Archduchess Sophie and the Prime Minister of Austria Prince Felix Schwarzenberg. Sophie indeed thought that the revolution must be crushed, meanwhile Schwarzenberg allegedly said that “Mercy is a good thing, but we must do a little hanging first”. How much did they actually influenced him, however, is all up to speculation. He was very young (only eighteen!!) and deeply respected his mother's opinions, as well as he agreed with Schwarzenberg, but he also wasn't a manipulable person and one of his first goals was to rule alone as an autocrat.

The emperor appointed General Julius Haynau to lead the forces against the revolutionary Hungarians in 1849. Haynau already had earned a reputation as a violent man for the brutal repression he commanded against the Italians during 1848, and was said to have “a meanness not entirely in keeping with military dignity”. About the exact number of people that lost their lives in Hungary during the revolution and the counter revolution, Hungarian historian András Gerő says in his biography of Franz Josef that:

We do not possess detailed information concerning the ensuing terror. We can barely say with certainty how many lost their lives fighting for the rights of their nation in 1848-49. Generally speaking, only the victors draw up statistics. According to  Austrian calculations, some fifty-five thousand Hungarians fell in the fighting. The period of repression, which lasted through the autumn and winter of 1849, saw 120 judicial executions: the number of those executed without due process, “shot while escaping,” as the grim saying goes, remains unknown. Around forty to fifty thousand were forcibly recruited into the army or deported, while 1,200 were imprisoned. Thousands emigrated. The lack of adequate statistics speaks for itself. Similarly expressive was the manner in which the resolution of 20 August was enforced. Haynau had wanted to stage large-scale executions as early as 24 August, but the Russians and the Habsburg court had restrained him.

These executions were all highly unpopular abroad and there was an outcry of indignation from many other countries. Needless to say, this also made the young emperor a hated figure within the empire too. By 26 October of 1849 Franz Josef called the executions to a halt, in part because of the protests against them but also because most of the big figureheads of the revolution who were caught had already been punished. However:

Haynau remained unconcerned: he continued to issue and to carry out death sentences against the emperor’s orders. Despite the embarrassment this caused, for the time being the emperor did not react to Haynau’s brazen insubordination. It seems that he did not lack “‘patience,” “human understanding,” and the “spirit of forgiveness” after all (what is more, Francis Joseph even decided to pardon some, albeit low-ranking, offenders).

I've seen people dismissing the emperor's role in the counter revolution by pinning it to others (which is what Die Kaiserin did by stating that Sophie singlehandedly was the responsible for the rebels executions). Which I don't agree with. I mean, if the EMPEROR isn't responsible for the policies applied in his name with his consent, then who is? To quote Gerő once again:

In hindsight, while Francis Joseph’s responsibility can be shared out among others, it cannot in any way be diminished. Naturally, both Schwarzenberg, the prime mover of events, and Haynau, who had acted under orders, were complicit. But Francis Joseph could have withdrawn his consent at any time. As we have seen, he had demonstrated on a number of occasions his readiness and ability to act as he saw fit when he felt the need to demonstrate his free will and sense of responsibility as a sovereign. He had every opportunity to make up his own mind about the policy of repression, if he had thought differently from his advisors. Furthermore, this would have been a wise course, given that a willingness to be merciful was part of the image of a sovereign, and that there were some who actively urged him in that direction. Had he exercised mercy, his rule over Hungary would not have been undermined. However, showing mercy was not a matter of principle for him, but rather one of tactics.

Now if he ever regretted these executions, I don't know. The only thing that I could find is this that Elisabeth said to Bishop Mihály Horváth: “Believe me, if it were in our power, my husband and I would be the first to bring Luwdig Battyany and the blood witnesses of Arad back to life” (1986, Hamann). Which is an statement that I would take with a grain of salt, to be honest. I don't doubt that Elisabeth was being sincere on the sentiment (in fact she ended up befriending Batthyány's son), but whether the sentiment truly extended to her husband is hard to say (if someone knows of any statement Franz Josef ever made of this please add it!)

Hope you found my answer helpful!

[thetimelordbatgirl]

For a show that chose Amphibians as a major plot element because such animals represented change very well, it feels like most of the Amphibian cast is honestly fairly flat and stagnant. They all feel pretty 2-D and puppets of the plot, while the girls stand out because their development is actually consistent, builds off of who they are, and overall just feels more real; They feel more like real characters while 99% of the Amphibians feel like puppets of the plot who don’t actually think and make decisions, because we need a lesson of the day story!

It’s telling that the fandom is totally apathetic to the Plantars; They’re just not interesting. And part of the reason for that is they’re just largely stagnant... They don’t really change or develop save Polly, but that’s in the second half of the show tbh. They’re totally disconnected from the plot when they don’t need to be (remember when Hop Pop was set up as a revolutionary at the end of S1 only for that to be dropped?), so they just feel like bystanders who distract. Mother of Olms could’ve been an episode about the lore and prophecy, but no I guess we need her to be amnesiac and waste time on a useless gross-out adventure so Hop Pop can feel better about his arthritis that sprang up out of nowhere, despite not being an issue a few minutes ago in the previous episode.

The Plantars just feel arbitrary and superfluous for the most part; Any ‘flaws’ they’re given have no buildup and are introduced at the start of the episode to be resolved at the end, and then those lessons never come up again, assuming they aren’t repeated for some reason. They’re honestly stagnant and HP and Polly feel like the only ones who changed... But even HP became a useless flanderized idiot in Season 3. The Plantars are supposed to be Anne’s emotional support yet they pressure her to take them back home out of nowhere with zero guilt???

I think the show believes that more screen time exposure to the Plantars will automatically make us like them more, but that’s not necessarily how it works. The show has all this runtime but it never does anything meaningful with it, so most of the Plantars’ screentime feels redundant and even makes us RESENT them for wasting time, instead! It feels like the show is just fulfilling an arbitrary quota by giving them something to do because they’re main characters, instead of properly fleshing them out and giving them actual arcs that are both personal and connected to the plot, they just don’t contribute beyond ‘emotional support’ I guess. The herons were shoehorned into the finale for the sake of giving the Plantars something to do... It all feels forced and not at all natural.

The fact that they literally did the Hop-Pop getting old not once but twice in S3B....like....we get it: he's getting old and getting mad people don't have as much interest in gardening as he does. How about we actually see that damn revolutionist we were foreshadowed back in S1 already? And I just....look at how they dumbed Sprig down, I swear. Like, this show really telling us he'd be so stupid that he'd potentially fuck up a mission just because he and Ivy got told they can't work together for this mission??? And....yeah, no, you right about Polly. She really the only one that developed in the end and I am somewhat concerned the baby character is the one that developed more then her brother and grandfather.

Like, if they had just done SOMETHING with the Planter's, their screen time wouldn't be so annoying. But because it was either generic plots or plots that made them annoying. Like, Spider Sprig or Sprig and Ivy could have been something, but they won't, and they literally wasted an episode on Hop-Pop in Hollywood, let alone how they handled the three as a unit in S3A as a whole. Like, again, S1-2? Perfection. But dear lord, S3 was a mess for everyone.