#i did put some symbolism and easter eggs but does this have any particular meaning? no not rlly

[lippmannssplatteredblood]

Quick doodle eheh

[twdmusicboxmystery]

10x22: Here’s Negan - Details

All right. Here are a LOT of details. 

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x22. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

We start with Maggie and Hershel walking around Alexandria early in the morning. She calls him “a little rat” affectionately, which I’m side eying. Because of Carol’s rat last episode and because we already established parallels between Hershel and Beth from ep 17 in that he went missing and Maggie and Daryl searched for him.

Then they sing “you are my sunshine” together, which is the same song Carl sang Negan. Because the sun is a Beth symbol, we’ve always seen her in that song. I also wonder if it foreshadows Maggie losing Hershel in some way. I don’t mean him dying, but rather being kidnapped. A lot of us have thought about one or some of the kids being taken at some point, and their parents having to search for them.  

Carol looks out a broken window (Broken Glass Theory) and sees the exchange. So, she leaves Alexandria and takes Negan with her.

Actually, the next thing we see is a dead rabbit she pulls from a snare. The rabbit is SUPER interesting. I answered an Ask HERE about the moon rabbit, and I really love this explanation of the symbol. It makes perfect sense for Beth because the moon rabbit sacrificed itself, which is exactly what Father Gabriel said cryptically in 5x16. “How you sacrificed one of your own….”

Plus the Moon rabbit is resurrected and combines the moon symbol and the rabbit symbol.

So what does it mean in this context? 

Well, I still don’t want to go into too much detail, though I will soon. (I promise.) But if rabbit = Beth, I think this is yet another example of symbolism that points to Negan and Beth having a big arc together later. (And Carol will probably be thrown into the mix.)

That evening, Negan drinks by the fire. What he’s drinking is clearly moonshine. It’s from one of those big glass moonshine bottles. I don’t know where he got it. I looked a second time at the stuff they left for him, and it might be in there, but if so, it isn’t visible. It would certainly be interesting if Daryl left him moonshine, but I don’t see any super-obvious hint at that. If it’s already there in the cabin, well, that’s Leah’s cabin, so….

This is where he sees his old self from the trailer. Some of the dialogue jumps out at me as things Daryl might say about himself. Evil Negan says to his good self, “You are nothing without her.” That sort of thing.

The next day he goes back to the tree with the stained-glass windows where Rick cut his throat. One of the plate glass windows has a hole in it and the other one is lying on the ground. 

My go-to explanation of course is that the one with the hole represents the bullet hole in Beth’s head. (We actually said this of the stained-glass window in Father Gabriel’s church that Sasha shoots a hole in in 5x16 as well.) And I always see someone falling down as a serious injury. So, when Beth belly-flopped in the elevator shaft with Noah, that was a foreshadow of her getting shot. So I’m kind of seeing the window lying flat on the ground in the same way.

Of course, Negan digs up Lucille, and then it goes into the flashbacks.

It starts of course with him being a prisoner of the biker gang. We do think this gang is a parallel of the Claimers from S4. Remember that I said, overall, Negan = Daryl, right? So, this guy (Craven) even kind of looks like Joe Claimer. They dress in a similar fashion, are rough-and-tumble kind of dudes. But also, Negan runs into them after he loses Lucille. He doesn’t realize she’s died at that point, but she has. Just like Daryl ran into the Claimers after being separated from Beth in Alone.

And we immediately see a blue cooler with IV bags inside. They’re Lucille’s chemo treatments. So blue cooler/Frosty Cola symbolism. Plus this can parallel to 6x06 when Daryl accidentally took off with Tina’s medicine when he met Dwight. Basically, these are both pointing to the same thing: a future arc involving Daryl and Beth. There are also 22s on the IV bags. So, 22 theory.

I will say that the format of this episode is a lot like 10x18 because so much of it is flashback. They even use the same font to show the time jumps. The main difference is that with Daryl, they started 5 years ago and then jumped forward, toward the present. Here, they actually move backward first and then forward again.

So it’s like a swinging pendulum. They go back 12 years to where he’s a prisoner of the bikers. Then it goes back 6 weeks to when he’s with Lucille in their home , and then it jumps back again to before the apocalypse when she first found out she had cancer, which was right about the time the turn happened. And then it moves forward to the two of them together in the house, and then back to him with the bikers.

Okay, so, “12 Years Ago” he’s telling his story to the bikers.

Then it actually says “Two or Three Days Ago” and it’s odd to me that they don’t specify which one it is. Negan says he found the mobile medical clinic 2 or 3 days ago, but there’s got to be a reason they don’t just go with one or the other. Anyway, this is when he found an RV with supplies. He tries to hold the doctor up and Laura (Savior) comes up behind him with a bat and hits him.

We also get a bit of a hallucination theme. When Negan looks at the RV and the dummy guards on the roof, his sight sort of warps in and out like he can’t tell for sure. When he wakes up, he’s also hooked to an IV. (Parallel to Beth at Grady.) The doctor says he was dehydrated, malnourished, and exhausted. So maybe, in addition to all the mental break stuff we’ve already said about Daryl in 10x18, we should add these to the list.

“Six Weeks Earlier” and it shows him and Lucille. The first thing we see is that she tells him he’ll have to kill the walker but he doesn’t want to. He just turns off the generator, hoping it will go.

So, she makes him read Pride and Prejudice to her. The Pride and Prejudice thing is really interesting. He only reads a line or two, but anyone familiar with the story will be able to pick out the scene. Basically, in the story, a man asks Lizzie to marry him and she rejects him. He doesn’t love her or anything. He’s just looking for a “suitable” wife, and she can’t stand him. After she rejects him, her best friend marries him instead. And this friend doesn’t care that it’s not a love match. She just wants to be settled in life.

So the scene Negan reads part of is where the friend, Charlotte, is coming to tell Lizzie that she’s marrying him instead. This is the part Negan reads:

"I see what you are feeling," replied Charlotte. "You must be surprised, very much surprised--so lately as Mr. Collins was wishing to marry you. But when you have had time to think it over…”

Here’s the thing. No way they’re putting dialogue from such a well-known book like this into the show without reason. And I know they said on TTD that it’s supposed to be an Easter Egg for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Fair enough, but it’s not enough of an explanation for me. In the past, there have been things Nicotero has labelled as homages to various horror films, and I’m sure that’s true, but they’re also clearly Beth symbolism.

So, you could say that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies applies to Negan and Lucille. It’s a true love story, but zombies are thrown in. That works. But why this particular passage? It’s about NOT marrying for love, or the passing of a man’s offer of marriage from one woman to another. None of that applies to Negan and Lucille. It would have made more sense to have him read a different passage between Lizzie and Darcy, you know?

So, what does this mean? We’re not entirely sure, yet. For me, I tend to think it foreshadows a future arc (I’m sure you’re shocked) and I’ll get more into that in the next few days.

@wdway​ suggested perhaps we could apply it to the Leah situation. Daryl is in love with one woman, but hallucinating a relationship with another. I think that works, too. For now, let’s just keep it in mind, shall we? ;D

Dialogue parallels include Lucille saying, “we’ll have to kill it,” which parallels Beth saying the same thing about the walker at the moonshine shack.

And of course then we get that all important scene with the green wig, “serious” mention, IV stand and bag, and walker in the eye.

We see Negan going out to look for more gas for the generator, siphoning it out of cars.

We also see them having fun together. Obviously them playing darts is a callback to Still. The part where they play darts is actually just like half a second in the show, which just goes to show that they did the promo shot because they wanted us to see the symbols in the scene. I want to draw everyone’s attention to the fact that the British flag is printed on the darts. This is part of the template I’ll talk about in a day or two as well. For now, I just want you to notice it. It’s important.

When they do the candlelight dinner (*coughs alone*) they eat DOG food. Sirius reference. She suddenly says “happy anniversary” and pulls out a present for him. He says, “You know what day it is?” and she says, “no, I just wanted you to have this.” So I think the idea is that it’s not really their anniversary. She just said that as an excuse to give him a present. It reminded me a little of the “New Years Eve” theme we saw around the Claimers. Not exactly the same, but a similar vibe. It’s not REALLY New Year’s Eve. They’re just saying it as an excuse to do something else (in that case, kill Rick). Here, it’s not really their anniversary, but Lucille is saying that as an excuse to give him the jacket.

When Negan says she doesn’t owe him anything Lucille says, “I stuck with you because I could always see the man you are right now, even when you weren’t.” So again, kind of a Beth theme of seeing the best in him even when he doesn’t see it in himself. That’s a huge theme throughout this episode.

There’s more refrigerator/cooler symbolism when the fridge defrosts, ruining the last of Lucille’s treatments.

Then it jumps back to before the apocalypse. There were some symbols here as well. The main ones I noticed were specifically around Lucille. After her diagnosis, she gets in the car and hears the broadcast about the virus victims eating human flesh. Kind of a callback to hearing the Terminus broadcast in 4a.

Then she gets mad and says, just play some g**d*** music. (Music reference.) When the car pulls out, you have to check out this license plate!

XVD-1144. The 1-1 you should recognize from @frangipanilove’s 1-1 posts. The 44 references the comic book issue where Andrea was shot in the head, and survived. And of course there’s the X. So then @wdway had the ingenious idea to ask what roman numerals X and D stood for. X=5 and D=500. So we basically have “X, 550, 1-1, 44.” Yeah, series number 55 was Slabtown. Beth was on the 5th floor. And all the rooms around them in the hallway at Grady were in the 550s. If that’s not proof that Lucille is a Beth proxy, I don’t know what is.

Plus, notice the type of car: mustang. We’ve talked about this before, but horse symbolism, and the type of car is always important.

Another thing @wdway​ with her eagle eyes picked up. Lucille is scrolling back and forth between Negan and Janine’s numbers, right? Notice the date:

November 12. Recognize that:

Yeah, not kidding. It’s a reference to the headstone in Alone. 👀

Back in the future again, Lucille asks Negan to stay with her. You don’t realize this the first time watching it, but clearly she’s ready to die, and just wants him to be with her, but he’s bound and determined to save her, an goes anyway.

A couple of things to point out. Negan looking for meds parallels to Daryl looking for meds at the veterinary college in 4a. Also, on TTD they pointed out that Negan is constantly putting Lucille in a position to be alone. Before the apocalypse, he left her alone to fool around with another woman, who was her best friend. He made her go to the doctor alone. (Lucille alone at the hospital could = Beth at Grady.) We see him constantly leaving her here to get supplies. And he leaves for like 6 six weeks to track the mobile clinic.

I think that’s mostly an anti-parallel to Daryl. Daryl never left Beth intentionally. But I also think it could be a future theme, not in the sense that Daryl will leave her, but I’ve always thought he would feel super guilty because they left her behind and now she’s been “alone” for 8 years. And again, not physically alone as we know she’ll be part of other groups and such, but without him and her family.

Back with the medical people again, Laura gives Negan her bat, the one she first beaned him with, since he doesn’t have any other weapons.

All they said about Laura on TTD was that they wanted to use her—someone the audience would recognize—but also someone who had a relatively minor role. So they talked about how they could have brought Austin Amelio on and had Dwight give it to him, but because Dwight is a bigger character, and because his onscreen relationship with Negan was much bigger, it would have made it a Negan/Dwight moment and they wanted to keep this episode focused solely on Negan and Lucille. So they used Laura.

And sure, that’s fine. But they could have used any Savior they wanted. And why did they even WANT a familiar face? Why the return of the Savior with the blond hair, you know? I’m just saying. ;D

Of course Negan tells the biker gang where the medical RV is and then goes back to Lucille, but she’s already dead. This really was a very tragic episode.

We obviously have a suicide theme here, and the fact that Negan never actually shoots or stabs Lucille in the head, both of which parallel Beth. 

On TTD, YNB even pointed out that she’s wearing the same clothes as she was the day he left, which means she committed suicide the day he left. Most of the 6 weeks he’s been out looking for medical supplies, she was already dead. Super tragic, no?

We also see keys, matches, the blue cooler again, and Negan wrapping the barbed wire around his bat. 

So, a couple of preliminary thoughts here. The 6 weeks was bugging me because they said it 2 or 3 times, really emphasizing it. I’m kind of wanting to equate it to 6 seasons. Because if Beth doesn’t show until S11 (and clearly now she can’t, unless she shows in Fear or something, but I’m not holding my breath for that) then it will be 6 seasons since Beth left the show.

And again, it’s more anti-parallel than parallel. For 6 weeks, Negan thought Lucille was alive, but she was dead the entire time. For 6 seasons, Daryl thought Beth was dead, when really she’s been alive the whole time.

And, of course, Negan burns the house down, much like Beth and Daryl did in Still.

But here’s the other thing @wdway noticed. Check out the similarities here:

Similar colors and structures, and both seem to be on fire at some point. And I don’t think the cabin in 5x09 was pointing toward Negan and Lucille. Rather, I think the symbolism in both instances point toward something we haven’t seen, yet. But the parallels and repeated symbolism are there.

When Negan leaves, he gets on his bike with Lucille (the bat) and drives away from the burning house. And interestingly, we see him smack his mailbox with it and knock it off it’s post. 

Couple of things here:

The name “Smith” is written on the mailbox, so apparently that was their last name. And they mentioned it on TTD. Smith is such an everyman sort of name. It might be one of the most common surnames on the planet, so there’s definitely some interesting symbolism there having to do with Negan.

But I’m side-eyeing the actual mailbox, as part of the Communication Theme. And, on a very basic level, I’m thinking that the mailbox was intact when Lucille was still alive. He destroyed it after he lost her. So maybe it represents something along those lines, or even represents the person they lost. So mailbox = Beth.

The scene that keeps flashing in my head is from 6x03 when Daryl is riding around on his bike, searching for Rick, and he’s passing all these mailboxes in the background. 

Then in 10x21, we see him walking toward the military walker on the train tracks (*coughs CRM, *coughs Rick*) and he passes the blond, Beth walker, but doesn’t actually look at her or see her. Do you kind of see the similar theme there?

Negan brutally killing the biker gang can parallel Rick doing the same to Joe Claimer in 4x16.

Negan tells Craven a story about how he lost his job. He got in a bar fight. It was their favorite because it had a JUKE BOX. And they loved the juke box because it played their favorite song (You are So Beautiful to Me.) He even talks about “seeing red” and how he now realizes he can do anything he wants (read: kill anyone he wants) so we kind of see his evolution into S6 Negan here.

And honestly, they leave a lot of loose threads here. We never learn what happens to Franklin (he’s still alive at this point) and obviously Laura stays with Negan long term, but they really could do more flashbacks about how he started gathering people and found the Sanctuary.

So then we come back to the present where he’s just dug Lucille up under the stained glass window tree. In the first scene at the beginning, we see a walker making its way toward him. Yes, it’s a blond, female walker, and I’m pretty sure she’s wearing Daryl’s shirt from when he was at the Sanctuary. Here at the end, Negan has been lost in his own thoughts so long, the walker comes up behind him and he turns around and kills it with Lucille. 

When he does, the bat splits down the middle. Yet another symbol of Lucille’s death.

He goes back to the cabin and sits in front of the fire and talks to Lucille (both the bat and his actual wife). He says, “I’m sorry I left you…I made myself not feel anything…I miss you.” See how we could apply that to Daryl?

He also says, “I’m going to do your fighting for you,” which I take to mean he’ll honor her memory better, now, rather than go back to the old, evil Negan he was. Which was really just years of him avoiding his feelings about her death. (Kind of like Daryl has with Beth, hence the Leah situation.)

Then he covers the bat in a white cloth (clearly meant to be a shroud) and puts the bat in the fireplace, burning it. On TTD, they do say this is meant to be the funeral she never got. 👀

Oh, and at the end of the “in memoriam” on TTD, it actually says, “Negan is burning down his past.”

So, at the very end, he actually goes back to Alexandria. Maggie, Carol, and Daryl are near the entrance and he asks where the “A” team is going. Carol warns Negan that if he lives at Alexandria, Maggie will kill him at some point. I actually really liked this ending. It was a good way to kick us into S11.

That’s the end of the episode. So, I’ll say this again and it will be a good segue into my next post about what I think Beth’s arc will be in S11, and how she’ll appear. I’ll post it either tomorrow or Thursday.

Without getting too much into the weeds, I think Negan and Beth will have some major, future interaction. And I really think the symbolism here backs it up, for various reasons. The symbolism itself wouldn’t prove anything, as we’ve seen this stuff repeated with lots of different characters and especially true love couples, which Negan and Lucille clearly were, despite his cheating.

But on TTD, Hilarie Burton talked about how strong Lucille was. She said she liked the character because so often when cancer victims or victims of other prolonged diseases are portrayed on film, they’re seen as angelic, ethereal beings. And while that’s fine if that’s truly who they are, you don’t lose your personality just because you become sick. So she liked it that Lucille was a little rough around the edges. She says that even before the apocalypse, Negan was just fussy enough that he would need a strong woman to rein him in, and he would also be attracted to exactly this kind of strong woman. 

Strong woman = Beth.

So, I’ll just leave it there.

Anyone find any symbols I missed?

[grimoire-of-geekery]

Detect Magic: the Sixth World Tarot by Echo Chernik

(pictured here- the deluxe edition [left] and the Arcanist edition of the Sixth World Tarot by Echo Chernik)

Y'know, it's been a long time since I did one of these, but here goes. It's time for another Detect Magic review. I haven't put the Dork Magician hat on for a while, so let's give this a whirl!

Today we're taking a look at the Sixth World Tarot, by Echo and Lazarus Chernik. She has this available on her website (click the above link), which come signed by the artist and the author. I'm a bit bummed, I bought a copy of this deck juuuuust before she started signing them. Not her fault, but still. XD

For those of you unfamiliar with Shadowrun, it's a cyberpunk dystopian magic-and-mech RPG setting and fantasy novel universe which originated in the late 80's. The premise is that magic is growing stronger, the world experienced a big Awakening in the early 2000's, right around the same time that corporations managed to gain extraterritoriality. So, you have dragons running huge megacorps, which basically enslave people to be lifelong wageslaves from birth (or as soon as they can get their hands on a desired talent), immersive VR Matrix hackers, cyberware enhanced fighters and magic practitioners acting as "deniable assets" to said corps for all sorts of shady business.

Hence the name "Shadowrun."

This setting, one of my absolute favorite settings out there, has had the misfortune of developing a sort of eerie prophetic element akin to the Simpsons and its bizarre track record of prediction of ludicrous world events. Shadowrun was intended to be a cautionary tale, not an oracular one. That being said, that does make a tarot based on Shadowrun more than a little on-the-nose for predictive purposes. After all, they're telling the future without even trying. Wait until they actually put some effort into it...

All right, time to Detect Magic!

Accessory- Crit (4 out of 4) Stunning artwork, evocative imagery... this deck is gorgeous. It's so beautiful, and so intricate and well made, that people who don't even read tarot (or even particularly like tarot) buy several copies for their geeky collections, and even people who don't particularly care about Shadowrun have dropped their jaw when I showed the deck to them.

A bit busier than I'm used to working with (not the art, but the extras which I'll explain later), I was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved the cards when I first got them. The box for both editions I own are a nice durable gloss with a magnetic foldover closure, there's a ribbon inside each to help pull the cards and book out of the box, and the decorative artwork is gorgeous and fitting with the setting. Definitely aesthetically pleasing enough to take places, and durable enough to resist scuffing or tearing for on-the-go divination and gaming use.

Tome- Crit (4 out of 4) So, the Tome section of this review is supposed to be about how well the cards help one in the pursuit of learning magic and practicing geekomancy. And... really, I don't think I've found a deck (or any artifact of fandom) quite as good as this.

Let me explain.

Tarot, in the sorcery practice I teach, are already basically a pictorial grimoire, describing life in a way that allows us to learn the hidden movements, mysteries, and forces at play in our world. Art is good for things like that in general. It helps you see the world through a special lens, one which allows you to see things you might have missed.

The thing is, the lens of this deck is the Shadowrun continuity, which as I said earlier, has proven to be more than a little prophetic, and alarmingly so.

The magic system of Shadowrun is pretty adjacent to our own. Life force lines, spiritual power sites, astral projection and spirits and magical "energy" forms, initiatory mysteries... it's all pretty much the same as our own reality, just juiced up a bit, with some extra game elements added (don't even ask me about insect spirits).

This makes the deck particularly helpful if one wishes to learn magic in any of the myriad ways described in Shadowrun (and they're particularly respectful and diverse and true-to-life in their tradition descriptions).

BUT, it also has an entire lore-book called the Book of the Lost associated with it, which explains all these little secret sigils and images and easter eggs stored throughout the deck, which can be used for gamebuilding and storytelling, but are designed to be arcane indicators and omens, among other things. And the kinds of symbols they use range from sentences or mottos in dead languages, all the way to waveform patterns and dot-matrix maps. I swear, if you're one of those people who like puzzles and cryptography, this deck is even more fun than the Hermetic Tarot.

In summary, while you'll have to get some Shadowrun sourcebooks to really get deep into the canon lore, there's so much of it that the cards really show you on their own that I don't consider this a setback at all. Feel free to deep-dive with this deck, you'll learn a TON about magic if you let it guide you.

Relic- Success (3 out of 4) If you read the Book of the Lost, or Unearthed Arcana, or any of the 5th edition Shadowrun magic sourcebooks, you'll see that "tarot magic" is an up and coming thing in their canon. Each text helps you see how practitioners use the cards in-game for spellcasting, ritual magic, initiation practices and spirit summoning. The Tarot are already really valuable as central objects of importance to certain kinds of magical practice. This particular deck is designed to be so handy a central object that there's an entire book dedicated to it.

Weapon- Success (3 out of 4) The only reason I'm rating this a success instead of a crit is because they don't provide enough spreads in the various associated books for one to immediately begin casting spells with them, which means you'll have to do some designing. They do have a couple solid unique spreads for basic divination though.

The deck's canon in-game suggests ritual practices like gathering and doing a ritual with sets of related cards, and one such ritual was easily adapted in my own practice, into the Lucky Kimono spread I designed (which people can read about on my Patreon at the higher tiers). So, even without outright including spell-spreads, they sort of gave us clues anyway.

Again, you're going to need the sourcebooks, but it's only a few of them, and they're well worth a read even if you're not planning on playing the game (and I don't play in the actual Shadowrun mechanical system, though I do like the sourcebooks for campaign setting ideas).

Overall Rating: Critical Success (14 out of 16)

Achievement Unlocked: Novahot Echo's artwork is already legendary in the dork realms of geekomancy. She's done work for Dungeons and Dragons, Mage: the Ascension, House of Night... she's even working on a Fate: the Winx Saga playing card deck right now. Her art-nouveau delicacy combined with the powerful non-pandering way she draws women means that her paintings pack a punch!

That being said, it's rare that we see professional artists create a tarot deck of this magnitude as a gaming accessory. Most tarot decks of this caliber are found in professional occult catalogues or as independent projects by artists just wanting to flex their skills for their own reasons. To have a deck like this, clearly a labor of love by all involved, as a major element of gameplay within a franchise is really very special. And something this diverse, deep, and absolutely saturated with layers of ciphers and riddles... it's a geekomancer's dream come true.

Level Up: 2 Levels I think the only way anyone's going to be able to top this deck is if they manage to design a tarot deck that's also a fully immersive VR video game AND an AR game and divination tool useable with one's iPhone or Android. Legit, Echo and Lazarus left everyone in the dust. I haven't been this excited about Shadowrun since Shadowrun Returns first came out, and I got a set of dogtags that had a USB drive with the game on it.

It's just... crazy cool.

Full disclosure, I've had the deluxe edition of these cards for a while now, so I've basically been low-key squeeing about this deck since I first heard about it in 2018, even before I got it. I've been utterly astonished that people weren't more excited about them, and I wasn't hearing about them everywhere.

Before this, I created my own Shadowrun tarot method using the Universal Transparent Tarot (cuz, y'know, plastic and see-through and weird little mosaic readings all in one place, seemed fitting to me), and when I got the Sixth World Tarot? I don't think I've opened the UTT since!

Anyway, this is my review of this deck! Go follow the link up at the top of this post, and buy yourself one! And hey, let me know if you figure out the cool little map trick. My jaw literally dropped when I was shown that!

[thefloatingstone]

If you’re doing Self Quarintine (and you should be if you can help it) here’s some Youtube recommendations! Some of these I have posted about or recommended before but with almost all of us stuck indoors now’s a good time to remind you of some cool things you can watch for free!

I’m not gonna imbed the videos, I’ll just post the link because otherwise I would only able to post 5 and I want to collect a few so you can make a playlist or something. (I could make a playlist too but then I couldn’t tell you what each video is and you can’t pick and choose which one sounds interesting to you)

In no particular order:

Polybius: The video Game that doesn’t exist

An hour long documentary in which the youtuber did extensive research to find the origin of the “Polybius” Urban Legend, which speaks of an early arcade game reportedly seen around the early 1980s which reportedly gave people migraines, insomnia, nausea, subliminal messages, and in some cases heart attacks.

The Universal S

A shorter video in which LEMMiNO does his very best to try and track down where exactly this S that we all drew in middle school comes from? Why does literally every country on earth seem to HAVE their children draw this S?

I also recommend LEMMiNO’s video on the Dayltov Pass Incident and the perplexing UFO cases

Down the Rabbit Hole: Henry Darger

Fredrick Knudsen has an incredible fascinating series called “Down the Rabbit Hole” which simply focuses on... anything you can discover and go digging into. From weird internet personalities, to bizarre happenings in history. This video is about the artist Henry Darger, a man who lived in the early 1900s and for all intents and purposes had a perfectly average, lonely life, until it was discovered just before his death he had spent literally decades writing and drawing a fantasy world in what is possibly the longest piece of literature ever written.

I also recommend his video on the Hurdy Gurdy

Bedtime Stories Channel

I’m actually just gonna link the whole channel for “Bedtime Stories”. If you like weird and creepy stories, all of which at least claim to be “true” then Bedtime Stories is great. Coupled by illustrations and subtle sound effects, Bedtime Stories is literally listening to someone tell you a story about such things like hikers who mysteriously went missing, Sightings of Bog Men in Florida and giant Birds over Chernobyl, as well as weird and unsettling murders that remain unsolved. Sometimes the facts are a little dubious or have been disproved, but that’s not the point of the channel. It’s here to tell a creepy story, not give you a documentary.

A Journey Through Rule of Rose

Rule of Rose is a Survival Horror gave for the PS2 which has rather bad gameplay... but a FASCINATING story with just as many layers and symbolism as Silent Hill 2 could boast. It tells the story of one young woman traveling back into her own childhood in an orphanage in the 1930s, and all the horrors that contains. From repressed grief, abusive relationships, child neglect, abuse, and bullying... but it ALSO contains symbolism of societal class structure, politics, eating the rich, and how power structures work. Not for the faint of heart, but HIGHLY recommended.

I also super highly recommend his video on the similarities between Silent Hill 2 and Solaris

Clemps Reviews Crisis Core

Mr. Clemps is a great internet gamer who reviews JRPGs and other games he simply enjoys. Sprinkling in a heavy dose of comedy and very fast jokes and observations, Clemps’ videos are always upbeat, fun, and incredibly enjoyable to watch. I’m linking part 1 of his Crisis Core video in which he explains why the PSP game remains a personal favourite of his despite its flaws.

I also recommend his video on Eternal Sonata

Defunct TV: The History of Dragon Tales

Defunctland is a channel that deals with theme parks and theme park rides that are no longer standing, or which are no longer around in their current form. Defunctland also has a sub series though, called “Defunct TV” where they look at the origin of children’s TV which are no longer airing. I recommend the video on Dragon Tales which is incredibly wholesome, and a genuinely uplifting and soft story of good people trying to make good things for children. (I also recommend the videos on Bear in the Big Blue House, Zoboomafoo, and Legends of the Hidden Temple)

Hagan’s Histories of Polar Exploration

A Playlist for Diamanda Hagan’s videos about the doomed Franklin Expedition from the late 1800s, where England tried to find a passage through the Northern Arctic to the Pacific Ocean. This went horribly horribly wrong, with every member of the Expedition dead. Over a 100 years later we are still fuzzy on what EXACTLY happened, but apart from the arctic chill, there is also evidence of faulty canned food, a series of bad decisions, and cannibalism. Caution advised for this series.

I also recommend the rest of Diamanda Hagan’s channel. She is NOT for everyone, but if you enjoy somebody reviewing Z grade indie movies as well as just BIZARRE films, really bad Christian media bordering on Science Fiction (without making fun of religion itself) hot takes of classic (and modern) Dr. Who, an introduction to Red Dwarf, She’s an EXCELLENT channel to check out.

Good Bad or Bad Bad: Pass Thru

A half podcast half review show where two guys watch a terrible film, decide if it’s “Good” Bad or just Bad Bad and tell you if you should watch it too.

That’s it. That’s the whole show.

I recommend diving into the untold madness that is one of the best(?) bad film makers currently still producing batshit insane movies, the immortal Niel Breen.

There is literally nothing I can say that’ll prepare you for Niel Breen.

(I also recommend their more recent video for “Dancin��� It’s on!”)

History Buffs: Apollo 13

Do you like History? Do you like movies ABOUT History? Do you want to know if the movies about history you watch actually resemble what really happened in any way at all? History Buffs is an EXCELLENT channel, which does talk about the merit of a film itself, but is mainly focused on letting you know just how true to life that historical film you watch is. I highly recommend his longest video which covers the space race between the USA and the USSR, leading to what is known as “The most Successful Failure in NASA’s History”. The Infamous Apollo 13 and where the words “Houston, we have a problem” came from.

If you’re not interested in Apollo 13 however, I also recommend his video on the movie Casino, as well as his video on the female philosopher, Agora.

The Internet Historian: The Goodening of No Man’s Sky

With videos with literally MILLIONS of views, you probably already know the Internet Historian. But I still want to recommend him very highly because his videos are just THAT good and entertaining. I recommend his newest video, documenting that time we were all pissed off about No Man’s Sky, the difficulties the game studio was in when the game released, and how they have been working hard to finally create what is now a truly brilliant game which is winning major awards. A really good underdog story of how a video game company actually saw what was wrong with their game, and FIXED it.

I also recommend his video on Fallour 76 as well as the Failure of Dashcon

8 Creepy Video game mysteries

Hey. Did you know that sometimes there’s some REALLY weird shit in video games, hidden easter eggs which took literal decades to find as well as just a lot of “what the actual fuck?”. Oddheader is a channel with a dedicated discord and Reddit form solely focusing on trying to find or replicate bizarre video game finds, mysteries, and hidden glitches. Even if it means getting in his car and driving to a specific arcade just to check a rumour about Street Fighter II’s arcade version. So if you like getting spooked by weird game shit that’s not just some dumb creepypasta, this is a great place to start.

I also recommend his video on weird discoveries in DVDs and movies.

Red Letter Media: Best of the Worst

Look you already know who Red Letter Media is.

You know... these guys:

Here’s a video of them and Macaulay Culkin watching 3 terrible movies together.

I recommend literally any and all of their videos. Their discussion on Carpenter’s The Thing is amazing.

The Impact of Akira: The film that changed Everything

Ok trying to pick just ONE Super Eyepatch Wolf video is literal torture. Originally I was going to suggest his recent video on Final Fantasy 7 for the PSone but I realised I recommended something FF7 related with Clemps, so instead I will recommend The Impact of Akira, a video talking in depth about Akira both as a film as well as a manga, how it completely and utterly changed the anime industry both in Japan as well as the west, and why it is still a meaningful and one of the most important anime/manga even to this day, still being unsurpassed despite so much competition.

However, ALL of Wolf’s videos are incredible, so I also recommend his videos on wrestling (despite me not caring about wrestling at all), His video on how media scares us, The bizarre reality of modern Simpsons, Why the Dragon Ball Z manga is great, and literally any other video he’s made. He hasn’t made one bad video yet.

Was Oblivion as Good as I remember?

Exactly what it says on the tin. The Salt Factory goes back to playing The Elder Scrolls Oblivion and now with hindsight and modern sensibilities, gives feedback on his experience and whether Oblivion still holds up. This isn’t a super in depth review of the game’s mechanics or how its put together or how it was made. This is simply one guy talking about his experience replaying it with somejokes thrown in and how he felt revisiting it. It’s pretty good.

I also recommend the video he did on Morrowind (because I’m biased).

Weird Japan Only PS1 games

Thor High Heels is SO GOOD and deserves SO MUCH MORE subs than he currently has. THH focuses a lot of obscure and lesser known games as well as big popular titles like the Yakuza series, talking about what he likes about them, what he thinks is cool, and just what kind of atmosphere and mood a certain game has, even if the game itself is kind of ass. He’s done several videos on games that were only released in Japan, as well as videos talking about the fashion in Squaresoft games and how it inspired as well as was inspired by real world street fashion, the aesthetic of PC-98 games and other topics. He also styles his videos and thumbnails after promotional art for video games from the 90s and generally just has an excellent style to his channel over all. Very chill.

Blue Reflection Review

ValkyrieAurora is a channel run by Sophie where she talks about games she personally likes and enjoys. Her videos are really laid back and her voice is really calm and pleasant to listen to. She’s made a bit of a reputation for herself as “The channel that talks about the Atelier Games” and general is just a really enjoyable channel worth checking out if you just want something soothing to listen to.

Ancient Chinese Historians Describe Japan

Voices from the Past is a channel were historical text is read out loud in english. These can be anything like the above video where Chinese historians describe the people of Japan around 297 AD, Accounts of “Dog-Men”, or the worlds oldest letter of complaint from 1750 BC. If you’d like something interesting historically to listen to but don’t want a full blown history lesson, this is a really good way to hear contemporary people talk about their experiences and what they thought about each other in their own words, without opinions or input given by the narrator.

The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet

Whang! is a channel that covers weird internet stories, some horrifying, some curious and interesting, and some just plain weird. His video on The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet and its update, are about a song which was recorded off the radio in Germany around the 1980s, and after one person online asked if anyone knew who the artist was as they couldn’t find any information, led to the realization that NOBODY online knows where this song came from or who sang it. It’s a fun mystery to look into that, unlike some others on this list, is not creepy or unsettling, although perhaps a little frustrating.

I also recommend his video on The Most Mysterious Anime theme song, and the haunted Ebay Painting.

5 Lost, Destroyed, and Locked away Broadcasts

Yesterworld is similar to the Defunctland channel in that it talks about obsolete rides, theme parks and other forgotten pieces of entertainment. Although the majority of the channel focuses on movie rides, rollercoasters and Disneyland, I recommend the video on lost and locked away broadcasts which you can no longer see. I also recommend the video about Lost and Rediscovered movie props.

The Nightmare Artist

I talked about this one recently as I just discovered this channel. This video is about the renowned Polish artist Zdzislaw Beksinski who painted surreal and horrifying paintings during his lifetime. There is no mystery here or anything like that, it merely talks about the impact WWII left on Beksinski and how the trauma his country and people suffered influenced his painting, and how certain images and motifs can be seen to directly reference this terrible part of Poland’s history.

Disabilities in Prehistory

Modern media likes to portray how “savage” the ancient past is, and tell us stories of how any person born with a deformity or disability would be thrown over a cliff or dumped in a well because they would be too big a drain on a community to look after. But here’s the thing... according to archaeological evidence, it turns out our ancient ancestors actually did their best to look after its disabled members to the best of their abilities. This video talks about archaeological finds of people who had genetic disabilities and what we can learn from their remains. TREY the Explainer is a great channel for archaeology and also talking about what answers we could have for sightings of cryptids. (not ALL of which we have answers for)

I also recommend his video on Pre-Contact dogs as well as Homosexuality in Nature and the Genetic History of the Ainu.

Decoding “The Secret: A treasure Hunt”

“The Secret” was an art book released in the 80s full of beautiful paintings, but it is also more than that. The book has a fantasy story talking about 12 fantastical races who left wonderful treasures for humans to find,and the book’s paintings and riddles will tell you where you can find each of these treasures which are yours to keep if you can solve the puzzle... and the treasures are 100% true and can actualy be found and claimed, if you can solve the riddles in the book. The video tells the story of the artbook, who was behind it, what the treasures are, how many have been found and various other facts and details.

I also recommend the videos on this channel “The Game: A scavenger Hunt” and “The investigation of Erratas”.

5 Ancient Inventions That Were WAY Ahead Of Their Time

I would recommend you be careful with this channel as its main focus is existentialism and rather alarming topics such as “how close are we to the apocalypse” and other things whose titles alone are enough to upset me. However this video is nothing like that. This video is exactly what the title suggests it is. 5 ancient inventions that were so incredibly ahead of their time you’d think they were made up. From the computer used by ancient Greeks to steel swords we don’t know how to replicate, this video is a great mix of mystery and history.

Although I caution you with this channel, I recommend Joe’s other videos about mysterious books, as well as his video on the most inbred people in history.

However, I know I keep repeating this, I highly recommend caution with this channel. Perhaps its just me and the topics of life and existent are just triggering for me, but I’d recommend maybe just doing a search for the titles I mentioned and not to go searching through the video library unless you’re not bothered by this kind of thing.

-

Anyway I could keep going, but I think that’s a LARGE amount of videos to keep you occupied for the time being as well as some suggestions for further viewing.

Please enjoy, let me know if you found something interesting, and look after yourself!

If you enjoyed this list at all, please consider tipping me for a coffee

☕️ Ko-fi ☕️

[jonlovessansa]

HOW JONSA HAPPENED IN 8X2 WITHOUT US REALIZING IT

EDIT: Clearly the show proved me wrong by ep.4, but i refuse to delete this post because I still think it makes more sense than to believe they didn’t talk before the battle. Also, their consummation before the NK’s attack is one of my old theory from the books, so let’s see if this will turn out to be an Easter Egg… By the way, thank you all for your likes and comments!

So, I finally had a rewatch of episode 2 and I really can’t believe how badly we’ve been tricked... right in front of our own eyes… This is THE Jonsa episode, and they hid it behind the omage to all the characters.

Buckle up now and let’s start from where they left, namely Sansa posing a question:

While the camera closes up to Jon we hear a door opening: it is the link to the next scene with Jorah and Dany, but also, as by now we are all accustomed to, it is symbolic, because the last time we saw a door opening was on that boat.

What is clear here, is that Sansa knows what they’re doing, to Jon’s dismay because I suppose he was sure he was hiding it well… That’s why he swallows, that’s why he looks guilty, almost like a lover caught cheating. So if you think he doesn’t answer her, you are wrong, because the door is open now, and he can’t just close it and pretend nothing happened. 

And I’d go as far as to say that here they’re also acknowledging the tension between them, which they never address but that we’ve been told they have been skirting around since season 7, so they know it’s there: she has teary eyes and is heartbroken, he looks guilty and he's heartbroken too because she is hurt. The door is definitely open.

So, excluding the possibility that he lies to her face since it’d go against what they showed of their relationship in the episode, especially in this scene (if you think he lies when he says SHE’LL BE A GOOD QUEEN, that’s not a lie, and if you listen carefully to Jon’s mind, what he adds is a loud I’LL MAKE CERTAIN OF THAT…), we have only two options:

- he tells her that he’s not in love with D, implying that he’s just sleeping with her and that that has not clouded his judgment;

- he tells her about political Jon.

The opening of ep. 2 gives us the answer:

Sansa is upset for what happened with Jaime of course, but Brienne vouched for him, her own mother had trusted him… Her reaction is mostly of disrespect towards Daenerys, which means that she still doesn’t know the truth and so she is angry both because she’s in love and because she still believes Jon doesn’t think straight. How else could it be? She read this Queen at first glance, why didn’t he do the same? If she is an ally, why did he bend the knee? And if she’s a good queen, why does she acts like… that? 

Since it’s been established that Sansa is clever, and knowing she trusts him and has faith in him, as she confirmed to him, the only reason why she can’t make sense of that, is that her mind is full of love and jealousy and anger and hurt and she can barely contain it in front of her.

And then comes this beautiful played moment between her and Daenerys.

As many of you already discussed, this is when Sansa finally can put two and two together, when finally everything makes sense. And you can see all the emotions displayed on her face: she is happy and relieved because Jon is not in love, he’s not been manipulated, he is the manipulator. But most importantly, she’s proud, which is something we have to take into consideration to understand what’s about to happen, because it means, especially after that impossible level of tension in the office, that now we should expect Sansa to go straight to talk to him: they are too straightforward with each other to avoid confrontation, more than that they need it. And she needs it immediately because of what she feels. And once this truth is out, do you think Jon would be able not to tell her about his real parents? Not a chance! And if the last barrier between them falls, after what we saw in the office scene, what do you think will happen?

And the confrontation does in fact happen, they simply don’t show it to us, preferring toast to them with clues spread all over the episode, following their usual favourite shock value path.

Starting from the war council: if you look attentively, you’ll notice that not once, not even for a tiny beat, Jon and Sansa look at each other. 

In the first episode we’ve been shown this

and this

and this,

nevertheless, not once they look at each other during the entire scene. 

Jon looks at Bran and Arya, Sansa looks at Bran and, completely ignoring Jon next to her, she looks at Arya, but they don’t look at each other and they don’t talk to each other. It makes sense if we assume that Jon, knowing he’s not her brother, the last wall helping him keeping a minimum distance, is embarrassed to look at her. But Sansa? She’s not angry anymore, we saw she’s proud, and she understands now that everything he did is for the North, so why wouldn’t she look at him?

And they are both hiding something: Jon has his gloves on and Sansa has the same posture she had with D, with her arms crossed behind her back. At a certain point Jon even seems to turn to her but immediately stops himself like he is about to do something he shouldn’t do. Why?

 Also, they’re always blocked together, establishing that they are indeed a couple, but while in the Great Hall their chairs were practically glued together, and in the office they end up very close, here there’s always a safe little distance between them.

And then this happens:

This is the most close to “looking at each other” they do, and it’s subtly. Jon’s saying:

”LET’S GET SOME REST.”

Do you see Sansa carefully looking at him out of the corner of her eye? I say that she’s thinking of whatever they are going to do, except rest, in the Lord’s chambers…

Do you think I’m seeing things? Look at the boldness of D&D&co, what they shamelessly show us:

The Bear has entered the Castle! 

This is not the right post to talk about it, but yeah, the bear is Jon.

Now let’s go back to the previous scenes to search for the hints, thanks to the other characters, of what happened after S&D little chat.

THEON AND SANSA REUNION: 

If you think this is framed as romantic you are absolutely right, but it’s not forshadowing a love story between them, this is both a reminder of Castle Black reunion and a preview of what will happen the moment Sansa will be with Jon, far away from our eyes: a new reunion after she found out the truth, and it’s not a case that this hug resembles the one we all remember, with Theon being a stand in for Jon, like many times in the books and the show too.

Actually, Theon has one of the best political Jon forshadowing that we had on screen. Do you remember when he returns home by ship? He has sex with the Captain’s daughter and she falls in love with him. But he’s only using her, he even tells her that she could be pregnant with his child, a king’s bastard son. Then he arrives at Pyke and his sister is waiting for him… 

TORMUND AND JON REUNION:

This is another enactment of Jon and Sansa reunion, from Jon’s pov this time: Tormund, a tall red head, hugs him and calls him LITTLE CROW, and you remember that S&D joked about his short height, right? Then Jon tells him HE THOUGHT HE LOST HIM because the Wall has fallen, or the door has been opened in our case; also, KH is purposefully staring at Tormund’s lips!

But happily reunion apart, there is more: Jon changed his jacket. This happened in episode 1 too, establishing a precedent: after having sex at the Waterfalls, he changes his clothes before going to talk to Sansa. And I think the same thing happened here, only he changed his clothes after talking to Sansa… plus, do you see how ill-fitting and consumed the jacket is?

This is not the only time we see something like this, and there is a reason here too: I believe this is Ned’s (it doesn’t look like the one he wore in ep.1), and probably Sansa gave it to him after he told her about his parents, not to let him forget who made him the man he is or doubt who he is, a Stark.

GREY WORM AND MISSANDEI

There are many gifs with good parallels to Jonsa, plus they had sex for the first time before a battle. Here GW performs his version of Jon’s I’LL PROTECT YOU, just in case we forgot: “My people will protect you”.

ARYA AND GENDRY REUNION:

The parallel between these two couples has been established in the first episode

but here they go even further, because before having sex Gendry reveals to Arya who his real father is. Could it be more obvious?

JAIME KNIGHTING BRIENNE WITH HIS SWORD:

I remember many gifs paralleling them to Jon and Sansa, and they are all valid, but in the books there is an important moment that helps us understand better what we have here: when they were going to King’s Landing they had a sword fight. J cut B with his sword on her “upper thigh” and a “red flower blossomed”. The scene is described with a double meaning, alluding at J breaking her maidenhead with his “sword”.

Jaime using his sword to knight B has a sexual innuendo, and if you have any doubt, you should remember what Tormund says, and the expression on his face: 

“I’M NO KING, BUT IF I WERE, I’D KNIGHT YOU TEN TIMES OVER”

 Well, that’s exactly what King Jon and Sansa are doing right now!

JENNY OF OLDSTONE

I think we all know that this is a reference to Sansa and to what will happen to her and Jon, but let me add something about her leather dragonfly outfit: for those of you who don’t know, in the books Jon’s LONGCLAW has a virgin leather grip (Sansa is still a maid in the books, thanks to God no marriage with Ramsey there) and it is sheathed in leather�� I don’t think I need to explain why they chose this particular episode to have Sansa covered in leather.

(gif by @lokispells)

Now, there are some other clues, and there is a big one too, but first I need to tell you other things that I hadn’t planned to and that requires me more time. Is it conclusive enough what I got you here? I hope so...

Thanks for listening.

[trinuviel]

Regarding that feather...

Ever since the Game of Thrones season 8 teaser Aftermath was released people have been debating who or what is represented by the feather that slowly falls from the broken railing on the battlements of Winterfell down to the remains of Bran’s wheelchair. Some people think the feather symbolizes Lyanna, other people think it represents Sansa and yet others claim that it represents Jon’s parentage.

I’m here to say that the feather actually represents all three options! In itself the feather is just an object, a prop - what it means is completely dependent on the context in which it appears - and when the context changes, so does the meaning of the feather.

At various moments in the story, the feather symbolizes different things - and it all depends on the context in which it appears!!!!!

In order to ascertain what the feather might signify in the teaser Aftermath, we’ll have to take a look at the circumstances where it has previously appeared. The feather has made appearances in season 1 and 5 as well as in 2 of the promotional teasers for the upcoming season 8. 

Season 1

The feather makes its debut in the very first episode of the show, when the whole story takes its beginning. Immediately after his arrival in Winterfell, King Robert goes with to crypts with Ned Stark to pay his respects the Ned’s late sister Lyanna Stark whose “abduction” by Rhaegar Targaryen was one of the events that sparked Robert’s Rebellion, which put an end to the Targaryen dynasty. (Now we know that Lyanna wasn’t really abducted by Rhaegar but this is the official story and what Robert believes).

(GIF by Zulzibar)

Robert has brought the feather of an exotic bird which he places in the hands of Lyanna’s funerary statue. He laments that she is buried in such a dark place and when Ned says the she belongs there because she was a Stark, Robert angrily retorts that she belonged with him. Then Robert says that he kills Rhaegar all over again in his dreams, even after 15 years.

In this context, the feather represents Robert’s love for Lyanna - and it is thus a symbol both of Lyanna herself but also of his love and his loss, which haunts him to this day.

Season 5

The feather reappears in season 5 when Sansa Stark returns to Winterfell to be wed to Ramsay Bolton. Shortly after her arrival, we have a scene where she’s in  the crypts, lighting a candle that she places in the hands of Lyanna’s funerary statue, much like Robert placed the feather there. She notices the feather lying at the feet of the statue, picks it up and blows off the dust that have accumulated on it.

(GIF by @thelawyerthatwaspromised)

The showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss explains one of the reasons why they included the feather in this scene:

"The last time we saw the statue of Lyanna was in the pilot episode," explains series co-creator David Benioff. "King Robert Baratheon laid this exotic, tropical bird feather in her hand. As we were preparing the scene [with Sansa], we thought: That feather’s probably still there. People haven't been going down there and cleaning up much. Certainly after Ramsay destroyed Winterfell, there hasn’t been a janitorial crew going down and vacuuming." "We thought it would be kind of a great thing to have Sansa wondering about it," co-creator D.B. Weiss notes. "Hopefully viewers wonder: Where did I see that before? – and then remember that in the first episode of the show, this is something that Robert left to remember the woman he loved." (Making Game of Thrones)

Now this sounds like the feather is just a sort of nice little Easter egg for the attentive viewer to remember. However, the context of the scene adds a layer of significance to this little object because the official story of Lyanna’s fate comes to function as a foreshadowing for what happens to Sansa later in season 5.

Just after she has picked up the feather, Littlefinger intrudes upon Sansa as she pays homage to her dead:

Sansa: Father never talked about her. Sometimes I’d find him down here, lighting the candles. They say she was beautiful.

This shows that Sansa didn’t really know much about her aunt who died before she was born. She doesn’t really have a connection with Lyanna but yet she’s down in the crypt lighting a candle to her. Why? The line quoted above subtly tells us that this is Sansa’s way of remembering her father. There’s no statue of Ned in the crypts but she remembers her father lighting candles to her aunt - and so she does the same as a way of remembering him, which is both beautiful and heartbreaking.

Littlefinger then goes on to tell the story of the Tourney of Harrenhal where Rhaegar first met Lyanna and crowned her Queen of Love and Beauty - causing a scandal. Sansa finishes the story by saying that Rhaegar then kidnapped and raped Lyanna. This shows that while Ned never talked about his sister, her story (or the official version of it) was well known in the North and that Sansa knew about it from other sources. The conversation about Rhaegar and Lyanna also serves as an extremely subtle hint of a big secret (Jon’s parentage) for the discerning viewer, especially one who’s familiar with the books.

As they walk away from Lyanna’s statue, Sansa is still holding the feather! They discuss Littlefinger’s plans for her to end up Wardeness of the North and as he prepares to take his leave of her she says:

Sansa: I expect I’ll be a married woman by the time you return.

We never see Sansa return the feather to Lyanna’s statue, which I think is important to note!

Within the context of this scene, the feather is obviously connected to Lyanna but it also becomes connected to Sansa more than one way. Firstly, because Lyanna’s fate comes to serve as a dark foreshadowing of things to come for Sansa as she is raped on her wedding night by Ramsay Bolton. This narrative connection between Lyanna and Sansa is further elaborated when Littlefinger serves Lord Rhoyce the lie that Sansa was abducted by the Bolton in season 6. Thus, the official story of Sansa’s presence in the North is one of kidnapping and rape, just like the official story of Lyanna is - and it is used to prompt the Lords of the Vale to go to war for her, just like it prompted Robert and the Starks to go to war for Lyanna.

It is also worth noting that Sansa wears her black, feathered gown during the scene in the crypt. The costume design is important but WHEN the costumes are worn is equally important - and Sansa’s gown also sports feathers dangling from her wrists, which the camera work draws attention to in another scene. Sansa is thus already connected to feathers visually and she has quite a bit of bird imagery as well - she’s been called both Little Dove and Little Bird in King’s Landing. So there’s a visual comparison drawn between Lyanna’s feather and Sansa’s costume.

The there’s the fact that the show draws visual comparisons between Lyanna and Sansa in season 7. Thus, Sansa wears her hair just like Lyanna did during her secret wedding to Rhaegar Targaryen.

Furthermore, Lyanna’s wedding gown features a belt that looks very similar to the one that adorned Sansa’s wedding dress in season 3 in the way it cross over her torso and sports an embellished collar. This is NOT a coincidence since costumier Michele Clapton is very particular with her designs and how they support the narrative - and in season 7 she was especially insistent on how each costume detail is symbolic:

We try to be really symbolic about everything everyone wears now.” (Michele Clapton, Insider)

Thus, the show creates a subtle connection between Sansa and Lyanna through the costuming and that adds to the way that the feather connects the two characters through the context of the scene in season 5. In light of this we have to ask ourselves WHY? 

Why has the show gone out of the way to connect these two characters?

Crypts of Winterfell - season 8 Teaser

The feather makes a third appearance in The Crypts of Winterfell teaser for season 8 where we see Jon, Sansa and Arya stride through the crypts of Winterfell only to be confronted with statues of themselves. Though we never saw Sansa return the feather to Lyanna’s statue in season 5, it is back in this teaser where we see it cradled in the hands of the statue.

As Jon walks past, the feather is disturbed and it flies away from the hands of the statue as a Lyanna in a Voice Over says: “You have to protect him.”

These are the very words that she spoke to Ned on her death bed, which we saw in the flash back of season 6 - a scene that revealed that Jon Snow is not the bastard son of Ned Stark but rather the son of his sister Lyanna and Rhaegar Targaryen. Baby Jon’s life was in danger because Robert Baratheon would kill any Targaryen he could get his hands on, even a child. Thus the lie that Jon is Ned’s bastard was born.

In this context, the feather comes to represent Jon’s true parentage, which is a narrative bomb set to go off in this final season of the show. It is a secret that promises to radically reconfigure the narrative and have a huge impact on both political and personal relationships.

The feather IS important because the teaser draws special visual attention to it, not just by focusing on it after Jon ahs walked past Lyanna’s statue but also by making it the subject of an extreme close-up at then end of the sequence.

In short, once again the feather is ascribed a new meaning due to the context of the scenes where it appears in the teaser.

Aftermath - season 8 Teaser

The feather makes yet another appearance in a second teaser for season 8, The Aftermath, which I mentioned in the introduction. In this teaser we see a broken and abandoned Winterfell covered in snow. The Stark direwolf banner is torn and as the camera moves about the ruined castle, we notice objects associated with the main characters: the golden Hand brooch of Tyrion, Arya’s sword Needle, Bran’s wheelchair, Daenerys’ chain of intent, Jaime’s golden hand and Jon’s sword Longclaw. However, we don’t see any object that is obviously associated with Sansa. Yet Lyanna’s feather makes another appearance. Right before we see the feather, we get this shot of the battlements:

This particular place is a place where we’ve seen Sansa several times during seasons 5-7. It was where she was threatened by Myranda just before she and Theon jumped from the walls to escape their prison. It is where she talked with Jon in both season 6 and 7 and it is where she and Arya buried their differences at the end of season 7.

Sansa has also been at the battlements alone in season 7, right before she held the trial of Littlefinger.  She the ONLY character that is especially associated with this particular location in Winterfell.

After the establishing shot of the battlements the camera zooms in on the wood guard rail that has been broken. Lyanna’s feather rests on it until the desolate wind picks it up.

Then it slowly falls down on the ground.

Right next to the broken remains of Bran’s wheelchair.

The camera focuses on the feather for 9 whole seconds, which is a long time in terms of television, especially in a trailer that is just a little over 1 minute long. In comparison the camera spends only about 3 seconds each on the other character symbols except for Jon’s sword, which the camera lingers on for 9 seconds. This proves that the feather is obviously important.

So does the feather represent Sansa in this teaser? It isn’t a question that can’t be answered conclusively unless the creators either confirm of deny it. However, considering that the battlements is a place especially associated with Sansa, combined with the fact that she was associated with the feather in an earlier scene in season 5 + the visual connection made between her and Lyanna in season 7, I’d argue that there’s a very high possibility that the feather does indeed represent Sansa. But why use Lyanna’s feather and not a more recognizable item, like her necklace, that is more readily associated with Sansa? I don’t really have an answer for that other than the creators have decided to infuse the teaser with some ambiguity and that the Lyanna/Sansa/R+L=J connection that the feather symbolizes will be narratively important in some way.

Another interesting detail is the fact that the sequence with the feather is placed between the shot of Arya’s Needle and Bran’s wheelchair, which brings to mind the promotional photo shoots where Sansa repeatedly has been placed between Arya and Bran. 

Having the feather land by Bran’s wheelchair also connects it symbolically with Bran, which activates its symbol value as a signifier of Jon’s true parentage since he is one of the only two people who knows the truth of Jon’s parents as of the end of season 7 where he witness the secret wedding of Lyanna and Rhaegar. Thus, the feather comes to symbolize several things at the same time: Sansa as well as Jon’s parentage, also invoking Lyanna by association.

The Crypts of Winterfell teaser invoked the feather as a symbol of Jon’s true parentage and its importance for the narrative. It is the most narratively coherent of all the season 8 trailers and it establishes the importance of who Jon really is and hints at what it could mean for him politically (”You have to protect him”).

The Aftermath teaser is quite different. It is akin to the season 6 Hall of Faces teaser where the faces of both living and dead characters adorn the walls of the temple of the Many-Faced God. it was clearly meant to remind the audience that no character is safe on this show and to make people worry for their favorites. 

Aftermath serves a similar purpose. It teases a grim future where our heroes lose the War against the Dead, leaving behind a frozen wasteland. It teases the ultimate defeat and the death of all the characters, making us worry just like the Hall of Faces teaser did. There’s no room for politics in this apocalyptic scenario and you have to wonder why the camera takes its time to linger long on an item that symbolizes Jon’s parentage as well as Sansa. You have to wonder why they’ve chosen to put so much focus on this humble feather that is narratively connected to both Lyanna and Sansa as well as serving as a symbol of Jon’s royal heritage.

[gunterfan1992]

Bubblegum and Marceline in the “Come Along with Me” Intro?

As many of you know, I’m now a firm believer that Marceline and Princess Bubblegum are alive in the Ooo 1000+ world. (You can read my elaborate explanations here.)

However, over the last few days, I’ve become interested in the idea that not only are they alive, but that they are actually in the finale’s intro. Let’s take a look...

If you freeze the intro at about 0:02, you’ll see a humanoid wearing a parka staring through what looks like a collapsible telescope. There are several things interesting about this shot.

First, the critter that the person is riding on is the duck-rock that appeared for the first (and last) time in season one’s “Evicted!” You know who else first appeared in that episode? Marceline. It is extremely odd that this minor, minor character makes a call-back in the finale’s intro of all things, especially considering that with only a few exceptions (e.g. Gibbon, the two-headed duck), none of the other creatures showcased here were featured in the original series timeline. What is more, when the duck-rock first appears in “Evicted!” it’s in during montage that plays over the “House Hunting Song” (the tune that notably features the chorus, “Oh Marceline!/Why are you so mean?”). Now, what’s important to note is that when the duck-rock is on screen, its during a very particular portion of the song that goes as such:

You know you should have stayed And fought that sexy vampire lady. But Jake was feeling terrified, He was super scared of her vampire bite. Which is understandable 'Cuz vampires are really powerful. They're unreasonable And burnt out on dealing with mortals. [emphasis added]

Why does this matter? Because it’s the portion of the song that transitions from the first half of the track (focusing entirely on Finn and Jake trying to find a new house, with nary a mention of Marceline), to the second half, which focuses almost entirely on Marceline. This fact, given the above, suggests that the duck-rock’s inclusion was intended to cause the viewer to think of the last time that they saw the critter, and in doing so think of Marceline.

Second, if you freeze the intro at about 0:025 (seriously, you have to be quick), you’ll see that the telescope the person is using is engraved with two letters: an “M” on top of an “A”. I’ve seen a few people online argue that this is an inverted version of Adam Muto’s signature (e.g.), but that seems like a rather nonsensical thing to put in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot (why would he have inverted the letters?), especially when you consider a) Steve Wolfhard, not Muto, boarded the intro, b) just how many lore-based easter eggs are crammed into this intro, and c) Adam doesn’t like it when people put him in the show. No, I think the letters must have a deeper meaning (UPDATE, see footnote 1). Now, who do we happen to know who could conceivably be around in this world and whose initials are “M” and “A”? That’s right, the immortal Marceline Abadeer (in fact, I can’t seem to find any other character with those initials) (2):

(Marceline marking her property with initials is not out of character—in fact, it is exactly how Marceline marked her territory in “Evicted!”, although “Evicted!” featured only the M. This is almost certainly due to the episode airing before Marceline’s last name was even considered. Still, the fact that we’re getting what seems to be a second allusion to “Evicted!” is telling.)

Notice also that the person is covered from head to toe by a baggy coat, snow pants, and mittens. As Reddit user thadwdavis notes, “This person is fully covered which, if I remember correctly, has only been true of two characters: Gunter when Orgalorg was leaking out, and Marceline in the sun.” The character, indeed, is out in the daylight, and the sun in frozen regions can be brutal to humans (and thus vampires). Also, the person is wearing bright red boots, which—not to play too much into sexist stereotypes—definitely look feminine, given that they have pronounced heals. You know who else loves to wear vibrant, red lady boots with distinct heals in many of her episodes including her debut episode? That’s right—Marceline (3). Finally, I think it’s important to note that this individual resembles a human; the Ooo 1000+ world seems to be populated with decidedly un-humanoid individuals (e.g. the pups, Shermy, Beth); in fact, if you watch the intro, you won’t see anyone else who even vaguely resembles the duck-rock rider. The same is true for “Graybles 1000+” and “Lemonhope II”. Of course, this is not the most convincing piece of evidence, but I’d argue it’s just one more clue that this is Marceline.

Now let’s talk about Bubblegum. Her appearance is intertwined with the presence of the elementals in the intro. If you pause the intro at 0:00, you can see Patience St. Pim’s ice sphere that she froze herself in at the conclusion of Elements, meaning she is (likely) still in ice-stasis:

A few seconds later, just before we enter into Shermy and Beth’s cave, you can clearly see what the new flame elemental firing a tank round at the new slime elemental, the latter of whom is holed up in the ground:

You know which elemental seems to be missing? Candy.

Or wait? Is it? Check out this frame, around the 0:01 mark (immediately after St-Pim’s sphere):

Pink hands! As Uncivilized Elk points out in his dissection of the intro, “Pink in Adventure Time should of course make one think of gum.” While he postulates that the individual might be Aunt Lolly, I would wager that this is Princess Bubblegum. On Tumblr, Wolfhard explicitly stated that all the elementals are in the intro. Given the obviousness of Fire, Slime, and Ice, the fact that the candy elemental is for the most part hidden suggests that it is Bubblegum. How so? Well, if that wasn’t Bubblegum in the prison, Wolfhard would have likely redesigned the elemental to keep us in the loop, like he did with the others.

It’s also thematically fitting that in the future, when the Ice Thing has gone banana-nuts (presumably after all his loved ones, e.g. Turtle Princess, have died or moved on), that Bubblegum might have been kidnapped by the flying menace, just like Ice King used to do. Everything stays, amirite?

If that’s the case, then is that mysterious figure on the duck-rock actually Marceline trudging through the Ice Thingdom, searching for Bonnie? That would explain why she is in the Ice Thingdom with the telescope; she is literally surveying the land, trying to find her boo. If this is true, it’s kind of a bummer that this is the last we see of them. But as Reddit user JohnEnderle puts it, “[It’s evidence that] they're probably still in love and still having adventures a thousand years later.”

That makes me smile!

Footnotes

(1) This is further supported by the fact that the only text snippets appearing in the intro are these two letters, the letter “G” emblazoned on Gibbon’s Pup Kingdom, the strange tombstone/statue marker reading Fin[n?] ... Jer[maine?]”, and PB’s “World’s Greatest Uncle” mug. These all have pretty clear meanings: "M.A.” must mean something, too. UPDATE: Steve Wolfhard posted a pic of “Pawn Swan”, who has the same symbol as a tattoo! While this might be evidence against the idea that these are Marceline’s initials (awww), it still doesn’t really explain what the heck they mean. Maybe Pawn Swan really digs the Scream Queens?

(2) Some people have noted that a very similar symbol appears at about 1:10 during the “Come Along with Me” montage (video here). This is true, although the symbols are noticeably different: that rune, seen on the upper-right, is upside down, its bar is bent (not straight), and it has a dot underneath it. It is also a bit wider (comparison). Are they connected? While it is possible, I should note that intro has a lot of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments that directly hint at the show’s lore. Given this, as well as the fact that the two symbols are not identical, I’m more inclined to believe that we should take what we find in this intro at face value. My two cents.

(3) The figure’s outfit is also somewhat similar to what Marceline wore in “Everything Stays”, during the scene in which Simon leaves her. It is not identical, though. Also, I swear I remember her wearing mittens at some point in the past, but I can’t seem to verify this mental image.

[anthrowitchology]

Ēosturmōnaþ is NOT Ishtar´s month... <3

(From Pagan Study Group) I keep seeing these posts with an image of the very ancient Akkadian/Assyrian great goddess Ishtar, claiming her name to be the very meaning of the English word "Easter", and that the celebrations were originally to her honor. Without providing a single piece of evidence, they go on to claim that her symbols were the hare and the egg, although they have no image at all to prove it (such an image does not exist). To think that two words from two very different languages are etymologically cognate just because they sound about the same when pronounced in one of the languages is a very common misconception among people who have not studied languages. Also, Ishtar is pronounced Eesh - tar, while Easter Month is derived from Eostar monath, Eostar being the genitive form of Eostre /Eostrun, pronounced Eh - oh - streh / Eh - ohst - rune, and does not sound that similar after all. The people who post this have obviously very little understanding of etymology, language developments, and history of religions, so I would like to just set a few things straight. You will be extremely hard put to NOT find a culture that does not celebrate spring, and in pagan times and places, spring is usually associated with a goddess, what with all the birthing and bringing forth new life and new growth. Obviously, you will find evidence for spring fertility rituals more or less all over the place, including in the lands were Ishtar was once celebrated. I understand that the people who keep up the lie about Ishtar being the origin of Easter are eager to promote that old goddess, but they do not seem to realize that they are actually diminishing her original importance in the cultures that worshipped her by assigning her a role as a spring goddess. Ishtar, who in her time was identified with both Semitic Astarte and Sumerian Innanna, belongs to the category of "great goddess" in the sense that she was worshipped in the large, officially sponsored public cults, worshipped by all people, men and women, high class and commoners, and celebrated for having influence on more or less all aspects of life and death, associated with kingship and rulership, war and peace, love and death, and with the heavenly bodies of Sun and Moon and Venus and besides Earth itself. In the image here, from Meli-Shipak II (12th century BCE), Ishtar is depicted as the Queen of Heaven, seated on a royal throne and surrounded by her emblems: the symbol of Sun, Moon and Venus, assigning kingship to a worshipping man. To assign her a role as a spring goddess is to diminish her original role, and as wrong as assuming the Norse Freyia (her Scandinavian equivalent, functionally speaking) was simply a "goddess of love". She was just a lot more than that. Also, the meme about Ishtar-Easter keeps claiming that she was symbolized by the hare and the egg, and thus the origin of the Easter bunny and the Easter eggs. Newsflash: Ishtar was symbolised by the LION, quite like Indian Durga, the great goddess of the Shakti/Shiva tradition, with the owl, a symbol of wisdom, and also with the eight-pointed star (Venus) and the solar disc - but not with the hare or the eggs. The ancient Mesopotamians who knew Ishtar/Astarte/Innanna as their great goddess most probably celebrated spring, and it is possible that the goddess had something to do with that, but it appears a lot more credible to single out the myths of how her lover, the lovely youth, dies and is resurrected through her grace, and it could appear that HE was the god of vegetation who dies during winter and is reborn during spring. Her role as his resurrector may have meant something during the spring celebrations, but still, her name has nothing to do with that, and nothing to do with the English word for Passover, "Easter". (LATER ADDITION TO THIS POST: Ok, so I had some comments to this post, and one very interesting one which goes: "The painted eggs come from the Babylonian Akitu new year festival, which were transferred to the Jewish Pascal and Persian Nowruz, not sure if the eggs are related to Ishtar worship or not, but Ishtar was honoured during the Akitu. The issue most of the ANE pagan community have is that date of Inanna-Ishtar's ressurection can be traced to the vernal equinox if you look to the Nippurian calender, so the earliest attestation of what would one day become the Akitu festival was the resurrection of Inanna-Ishtar, which went on to influence the Jewish Passover during the Babylonia captivity, which is tied the the crucifixion of Christ when you look at the symbolic freeing of the prisoner Barnabas and such like, so you can't say Easter has nothing to to with Inanna-Ishtar, much like the bebunking articles suggest. I just don't think enough people look to the ancestral religions of the Abrahamic faiths for answers, or realise that Jesus was a Near Eastern deity just like Ishtar, and wonder why they can justify a male deity moving but not a female deity. There is just no proof that Eostre was the trans-cultural Diffusion of Ishtar. Though that will possibly be contested soon." So I would just like to comment back, that yes, by all means, the fact that Ishtar was associated with a spring ritual about the dying and resurrecting god may actually have been indirectly influential on the Passover/Easter myth of Jesus dying and being resurrected, although the resurrecting god has become a male, monotheistic god rather than a female deity belonging to a polytheistic pantheon in which she ruled as queen, the founder of civilzation and the bestower of power, among many other things. But as I said, Ishtar was so much more than just a seasonal goddess, and as I also said, spring celebrations happened everywhere and often involved a dying/resurrected god or goddess by the grace of a higher goddess - you have Demeter and Persephone, Isis and Osiris, and countless others, which means it wil be difficult to pinpoint Ishtar or any other singular deity in a singular culture as THE origin. This sort of ritual seasonal celebrations have been happening in so many places over so much time, it is not strange if they also have similarities. There is still no evidence for any etymological connection between the name Ishtar and the name Eostre or the word Easter. The word "Easter" is particular only to the English language, everywhere else there are other words such as Pascha, which certainly is not related to the name Ishtar. That there were cultural connections between North Europe and the Middle East going way back in time is not to be doubted, however. We have the Mystery cults that I have always argued to be a part of the Norse tradition also, and we have the sacred marriage in connection to kingship inauguration which certainly began in the Middle East and which also certainly reached both the Celtic and Germanic areas. I could add that Norse Freyia has a lot of similarities to Ishtar/Innanna/Astarte but also to other great goddesses such as Durga Mahadevi, Cybele Magna Mater, Isis/Aset, Anahita, Afrodite, Demeter, Hecate... this does not mean that any singular goddess is her singular origin. It probably just means that ideas have spread and influenced each other mutually for thousands of years of traveling and cultural interaction. If new evidence turns up, able to pinpoint any direct and continuous connection between Ishtar and Eostre/Easter, I will change my opinion, for even a debunked theory may be brought to life again in the light of new evidence and convincing arguments, but for the time being I can see none.) ORIGINAL POST CONTINUED: That word, Easter, is derived from an ancient Germanic name for the spring month, Ēosturmōnaþ, also referred to developed from an Old English word that usually appears in the form Ēastrun, -on, or -an; but also as Ēastru, -o; and Ēastre or Ēostre. According to the 7th century monk and scribe, Bede, the pagan Anglo-Saxons called that month of spring "after a goddess of theirs named Ēostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month." We do not know more about that goddess, but we have little reason to doubt that the pagan Anglo.Saxons, like everybody else back in the day, celebrated spring and particularly a goddess of spring, in this case one whose name has survived only in their name for the month corresponding to April. In Scandinavia, we have no traces of this goddess, but that goddesses were worshipped during spring is extremely probable, just as it is extremely probable that they celebrated spring. It would be more preposterous to assume that they did not. But the Christian tradition of Easter has thoroughly wiped out any surviving evidence for exactly what went on then. All we know is that some sources place the major celebration of the dísir (the goddesses) at spring time. In Norway, we call Easter by the word "Påske", an adaption of the name for the original Christian holiday, Pascha. The eggs and the bunny have, by all appearances, a Christian origin, but may of course be older than that, seeing as eggs are great symbols of the new life that is about to be born during spring, and the hare is a great symbol of fertility all over seeing as the expression "breeding like bunnies" is based on the fact that these animals produce an amazing number of litters every year. If there is any one goddess of the known Norse pantheon whose myths and symbols could correspond to the spring celebrations, I think it could be Idunn, whose name indicated a stream that returns to its starting point, who is associated with the symbol of a nut (new life), and whose single known myth is all about being the cause of rejuvenation and resurrection, and about being resurrected from death - and who is indeed called the "Frá Yggdrasills", "The Seed of Yggdrasill", the seed and fruit of the world tree, the youngest and the oldest child and the one lover of all the gods: "There dwells in the valleys a knowledge-hungry goddess: The seed of Yggdrasill sinks down the ash She is of elf-kin, her name is Idunn (Returning One) The oldest of the Inner Ruler´s The youngest child" Dvelr í daulom dís forvitin, Yggdrasils frá aski hnigin; álfa ættar Iþunni héto, Ívallds ellri ýngsta barna. (Hrafnagaldr Óðins, st. 6, The Poetic Edda) :)

[angelsandcelestials]

Messages from your Angels & Guides~April 1-8, 2018

Good afternoon! Happy Easter! Happy Spring! ("finally," said with a snicker..lol)

I don't know about you guys but the Mercury retrograde has been kicking my butt. My cell phone charger caught on fire last Sunday. And basically fried my phone and burned my arm. Then I had to go through a bunch of nonsense to get a replacement from AT&T. Even though the phone is still under warranty, they seemed to be making the process difficult. Then I finally get the replacement phone but they send it without a charger. I had to call them once more to ask them how I am supposed to use a new phone with a fried up charger? And they had no clue either but sent out a new charger posthaste. By the time you're reading this, I  still don't have a phone. It is all good when I am home because I still have a landline..( yes I do..lol) But when I am out and about? I need my phone.  Mercury is the planet of communication. How crazy is it that my phone, a tool of communication, does not work during the retrograde?

Anyways, I hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Choose a word and then scroll down your guidance for this week.

Lily,  Easter Bunny, Stars

If you choose Lily~

Lilies symbolize rebirth and renewal. Also, resurrection as it is a symbol of Easter. The message for you is that you are now reborn. You are renewed because what was in your past doesn't matter. The past is history and it can't be changed.Nor can it be held against you any longer.  All that matters is now and what you do henceforth. You are not the same as you once were. So stop dwelling on the mistakes of the past. Lessons were learned and the slate is now clean. Your soul is on to bigger and better things.

Totem Tuesday~Wasp

* Note from me-This particular totem is usually not a favorite. But I realized that all animals have a message, even if the animal appears to be undesirable. I happened upon a Wasp's nest recently which is why I am using the wasp symbolism for this week's totem.*

Success is the steady progress toward your personal goals.

-Wasp

When Wasp comes buzzing into your life:

You are being reminded that simply thinking about your dreams will not make them a reality as quickly as going out and doing it. Make a plan, keep working towards it and let nothing get in your way. Perseverance, desire, and action are what is called for. Apply your passion to the reality you wish to achieve!

Alternatively, Wasp is letting you know that resistance to change is by definition self-sabotage. It’s time to allow yourself the notion that all things are possible, and that you deserve to have all your dreams come true. Be the best you can be!

If the Wasp is your Animal Totem;

You are comfortable in both social situations and on your own. You are an independent thinker who is goal oriented and allow nothing to get in the way of your plans. You are willing to be expressive with your thoughts – regardless of the sting that is occasionally behind them. You have a detachment when it comes to romance in your life and more often than not do not commit to long-term relationships. You will simply do your own thing whenever you choose to.

If the Wasp has come to you in your dreams:

To kill this insect in your dream signifies your ability to stand up fearlessly for your rights and to stand tall against your opponents. To be stung it signifies the need to look closely at what is going on around you. Perhaps something you have sown is going to come back and bite you. To dream of this insect building, her nest is a symbol of productiveness and success in the pursuit of your goals.

Additional Associations for Wasp:

Challenges

Communal Living

Communication

Community

Construction

Development

Disharmony

Fertility

Intellect

Involvement

Order

Organization

Productivity

Progress

Reason

Sisterhood

Spite

Teamwork

Thought

Truth

Unexpected

Warrior

via SpiritAnimals.net

If you chose the Easter Bunny~

The rabbit symbolizes abundance, fertility, growth. The eggs are the seeds of potential. The message for you here is that you are or soon will be entering a time of growth and expansion. The conditions are ripe for harvest. You are more creative than you give yourself credit for. Time to start putting those ideas to use. They have been given to you for a reason. You have sat on them long enough and now it's time for them to hatch.  Now for some reading this, there is a literal meaning for fertility.. successful IVF treatments... Pregnancy, babies born... you know what I mean.

Just for Fun~ What's Your Easter Bunny Name?

If you chose Stars~

Stars are infinite and they hold the wisdom of the universe. Stars also illuminate.  They provide direction such as the Star of Bethlehem and the North star did. They are the firmament of the heavens. People like to know what is in the stars. The message from the stars for this week is that you are being guided by a divine and powerful force. You will start to see evidence of this very soon. Trust that all is well. Also, that teeny -tiny thing that is buried in your heart, the thing that you want so much.  Something that you haven't dared to allow yourself to believe can happen. It will be coming to fruition. Count on it..

This week's messages was channeled by none other than me. Enjoy!

I do hope that this week’s messages resonated with you. If it hasn’t upon first glance, then feel free to re-read them. There may be a deeper or hidden message specifically for you from your angels and/or guides. These messages may also apply to several people and/or the collective. That’s how Spirit works..lol   Let me know though I would love to hear from you. Also, please share, reblog, and like. This way you will be paying it forward for others to receive this guidance. Follow Angels & Celestials on Instagram And on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AngelsandCelestials111/

[adapted-batteries]

You Sultry Land Pirates Ruined My Dig! Chapter 2

Fandom: The Librarians

Rating: General Audiences/sfw

Ships: a little bit Jazekiel, little bit Jassandra, and some Cassekiel in a bit

In a world where Cassandra and Ezekiel are top tier land pirates, and Stone is an expert in archeology and history but new to being out in the field, there is a weird, impenetrable tomb in some Sumerian ruins, with things that don’t quite make sense.

Inspired by the lovely story line (and outfits) in episode 3x09 “And the Fatal Separation” where Cassandra and Ezekiel smuggle Stone, Baird, and Flynn in while they pose as land pirates.

Posted on my Ao3 here.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 , Chapter 4

---

The desert was not Cassandra’s favorite place they had been so far. It was only 8am but the sun beat down, making her sweat under her thankfully lighter colored “explorer’s outfit.” They used these clothes anytime they needed to blend in with scientists in the field; various colored tan shirts and pants, some sturdy boots and today, a light blue shawl to cover her head almost like a very loose hijab. Ezekiel was similarly dressed, minus the shawl, but he did have a white cloth over his head like many of the workers at the site, to protect his head and neck from the sun, which he held in place with his leather headband.

Dr. Stone, dressed similarly to Ezekiel but without dangling feathers from his headband, saw them approaching. He seemed to be looking at a map on a makeshift table of crates, talking to two workers in their language.

“Miss Adamantine and Mr. Zet, welcome,” he greeted after giving the workers some instructions. He walked towards them, gesturing in the direction of the expansive ruins that lay just north of the camp. “Some of the good artifacts have already been shipped back for analysis, but the ruins themselves are still a wonder.”

“Oh, that’s alright. We still get a personal tour of the ruins,” Ezekiel chirped, getting a smile from Dr. Stone.

“So, a little history of these ruins,” Dr. Stone started as he led them to the entrance. “Around 3,200 B.C. a shift in weather triggered a spread in population for better farmland. Uruk was the main city at the time, it’s about 30 miles east from here, which is most likely where the people came from. Based on the structure of this settlement, they diverted a portion of a larger canal from the Euphrates for water.”

He led them down into one of the finished excavations; a large square plot of earth that had several remnants of buildings. They were mostly stone, a sandy tan color, but there were clumps of dark materials against some of the walls, both inside the building walls and outside them. Dr. Stone pointed to one of the clumps. “Now it was common to use wooden beams to support the walls and ceiling, something we find in Uruk, but these carbon deposits weren’t just in the homes. In this portion in particular, it looks like these people had a garden or courtyard with trees and other plants, not a common thing to find in a drying climate.”

After about thirty minutes of listening to Dr. Stone get excited about the people creating an oasis in the desert and how they did it, they finally arrived at the promising burial chamber. “An expensive courtyard, which was constantly watered by slaves, mansions, and things normally found in the richer houses in Ur and Uruk, makes it seem that this settlement comprised of a few noble families and enough commoners to support them. It made sense that we would eventually find burial chambers, but these people didn’t make burial chambers like underground basements,” Dr. Stone said as they stood in front of the entrance. He had taken them into the remnants of one of the big homes and down the sloping dirt to the oddly placed stone door at the bottom of the excavated pit. “We know where the floor was based on the deposits on the stone bricks up there,” he continued, pointing to a faint line visible around two of the walls. “So this was definitely underground. Basement-like storage pits were common, but never with such a sturdy stone door. Whatever is behind here, they didn’t want people finding. They fortified the earth for it, as you can see, bricking only this wall in and fixing a door to it.”

“Did they normally use doors like this for other tombs?” Cassandra asked, much more interested in this dig than before.

“Some of the large temples had similar doors, but they didn't lock, rather they were placed as heavy covers that sealed the room until a new body went in. This door we can’t get open, but it’s not sealed like the bricks. It seems to have some sort of locking mechanism, based on the characters on the door, almost like an ancient keypad, for lack of a better analogy,” Dr. Stone responded, looking at the door. There were thirty symbols on raised stones, arranged in a five by six grid.

Cassandra stared at the door, absorbing the information to analyze later. “What language are the symbols?” she asked, not recognizing some of the characters.

“From my own research, I've determined it's some offshoot of Archaic Sumerian, but only some symbols look like it. These others,” he pointed to several odd looking shapes, “look more like ancient Hebrew if anything. But that doesn't make timeline sense because Hebrew doesn't exist for another 2,000 years.”

“Interesting,” Cassandra responded, still processing the pattern of the letters. She needed to brush up on her ancient Hebrew to make sense of the symbols.

“What type of lock would they have used to make this door?” Ezekiel asked, doing his part of the problem solving.

“That we know of, they didn't have very complicated trap systems, or if they did, they've decomposed to where we can't study them.” Dr. Stone walked up to the brick wall and tapped it. “We also can't see through this wall either. No sonar, ultrasound, or x-ray will penetrate this brick. But there's nothing unusual about the brick that we can tell.”

“How come you don't just blow a hole through the wall?” Ezekiel suggested. Cassandra rolled her eyes, and Dr. Stone looked like he thought Ezekiel was out of his mind.

“How many archeological digs have you heard of using explosives to excavate, hmm? If we did that, not only would I lose funding for any future projects because I ruined my own dig, but I'd for sure destroy anything inside, and probably collapse the building remnants above it,” Dr. Stone scolded. He then restrained himself, taking a deep breath. “If we were in a different environment, where not everything was basically sand, maybe we could punch through some bricks, but with the weight of sand above and around, plus the precarious stability we already have from excavating, it's a bad idea.”

“Yeah, you're right, I didn't think of that,” Ezekiel backtracked, knowing he needed to stay on Dr. Stone's good side for now, even throwing in a little grin too, trying to sell it. Based off Dr. Stone’s smile back, he presumed he had succeeded.

“Well you've seen the dig now, but we've got the artifacts in a sorting tent back at camp,” he started, moving back towards the dirt ramp. It wasn't a horribly steep incline, but he gave both an unnecessary helping hand up it. “We sent off some really nice pottery a couple days ago. Mostly fragments, but there was one almost completely intact and barely faded. Love it when we find those, it's like a kid on an Easter egg hunt that finds the egg with the $20 bill in it.”

“How long will you be excavating here?” Cassandra asked after they cleared the threshold of the mansion door.

“Oh, we're only about halfway done excavating. We know where all the buildings are now, so we just gotta dig them out a bit, especially after finding that door. It'll probably be a couple weeks or so,” he replied, nodding to some workers on their way back.

The artifact tent looked like all of the others; simple tanish canvas and rope. It was one of the biggest, about the size of a metal shipping container, which made sense when they stepped inside. Two foldable tables stood in the center with a variety of tools and cloths on it. Crates, boxes, and cases of all sizes lined the walls except for a bare spot near the entrance. Based off the markings and impressions in the sand, those were probably the boxes that he sent off a few days ago.

A non-local, easy to tell by the sunburned skin, stood at one of the tables, brushing something. “How's cleaning going, Sydney?” He asked. She looked up from her work, a hint of confusion on her face when she saw Cassandra and Ezekiel.

“Oh, fine enough. I'd rather be out in the dig though,” she sighed.

“You can go back out when you don't look so much like a lobster,” he chuckled to her. “This is Sydney Denton, she's my on site geologist, and currently artifact cleaner,” he clarified to the strangers. “Sydney, this is Miss Adamantine and Mr. Zet...uh-”

“Antiquities dealers,” Cassandra cut in. “We were in town for business and ran into Dr. Stone last night.”

“What a coincidence! Well ya’ll missed the good stuff, but I just put up some nice bowls and a little ceramic figurine,” Sydney said, turning behind her to a partially open crate. She pulled out some fragments, a cracked whole bowl, and the hand-sized figurine, and brought them back to the table. “It’s amazing how many things we found intact like this. Most items this old get crushed or broken.”

The little figurine caught Cassandra’s attention. It was a fairly intricate sculpture; a person held a rectangular tablet in one hand at its side, and its other held a cup. She didn’t know much about Sumerian culture, but the pose had to mean something, and there was an easy way to find out right in front of her. “Does the pose signify anything?”

“Generally a tablet would mean the figure either was a noble or a priest, as they were the only social classes that knew how to read and write,” Dr. Stone answered, gently picking up the figure.  “The cup can have a variety of meanings depending on the age of the figure. Problem is, sculptures of this detail don’t show up for another 500 years or more. Yet another reason this settlement is...well...weird.”

Sydney snickered at the last statement before adding her own response. “If a thing is ‘weird’ it’s just not understood fully. Just like magic is science we don’t understand yet.”

“Well, I don’t understand it, so it’s weird,” Ezekiel commented. Cassandra narrowed her eyes at him, but Dr. Stone just chuckled under his breath.

They got to see a few more artifacts before Dr. Stone got called for by some workers. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I do have work to do,” he said, starting to leave the tent. He turned back before he let the canvas flap close. “If you wanna get a drink sometime, before you leave, you know where to find me,” he practically purred to Ezekiel, suddenly sounding like he did the night before.

Instead of getting flustered, Ezekiel ate it up. “I’ll definitely take you up on that.” Now Dr. Stone got flustered, not quite the jaw drop, but enough he couldn’t respond and instead left the tent with a smirk. “We must be getting back to the city, but it was lovely meeting you,” Ezekiel said to Sydney who had gone back to cleaning.

“Best of luck to your excavations!” Cassandra chimed in as they started backing up towards the entrance.

“Thank you, it was lovely having visitors in my jail,” she chuckled. “I guess I’ve learned my lesson for forgetting to reapply sunscreen.”

“That is a lesson you tend to only learn once,” Cassandra added.

“That it is. Have a lovely day!” Sydney said, waving. The two waved back, then left the tent.

They didn’t talk until they were back in their hotel. “Ok, did you see anything in those symbols? A code, pattern, anything?” Ezekiel asked, flopping down on the king-sized bed with his phone in hand.

“I need to know what the symbols translate into before I can think of possible patterns. Dr. Stone was right though, it did look kind of like neo-Hebrew,” Cassandra explained, sitting at the desk to start her research. “Did you see anything? Mechanisms you know?”

“Sort of. He did get right the whole ancient keypad. Each of the buttons moves something on the other side, but there’s a good chance it’s a string of those symbols. Without getting through that wall, I can’t do much,” he confessed. “It’s sort of like that box we found in India a couple years ago, except stone and bigger.”

Cassandra was already typing away. “If I can find the translation, or something remotely close, I can limit down the number of tries we’ll have to take. While I work on that, can you look for things the people of Uruk would find important, names of nobles, events, anything they could make into a password.”

“Sure, ‘cos I’m definitely a historian,” Ezekiel scoffed.

Cassandra turned back to him, intense stare on her face. “We don’t have much time, considering we’re competing against a world-class expert who’s got a few days head start. If you can find me things to start with-”

“I know, I know, brain grape will do the rest,” Ezekiel sighed, already typing away on his phone.

“Hey, this is one of the biggest jobs we’ve had. After this we can go to a beach somewhere for months on that money. If we get to work, we could have whatever’s in that tomb tonight,” she continued.

“Then you better get to work, I can’t do all the research can I,” Ezekiel toyed. Cassandra, used to him doing this, just sighed heavily and turned back to her laptop.

The pros of having a world-class thief in the 21st century meant that Cassandra had access to ALL academic databases and library catalogs, even the ones not in access to most academia. This made research on all the artifacts much easier; a world-class mega library at her fingertips. In four hours, with a break for food as well, Cassandra had figured out what the Hebrew-ish symbols probably were and Ezekiel had compiled everything he could find about Sumeria around 3,200 B.C..

“Ok, time to let the magic happen,” Ezekiel said as he sent her his list.

Cassandra took a deep breath, standing up from her chair. “Alright…” She spread her hands in front of her like she was trying to manipulate a hologram. To Ezekiel, he just saw her moving her hands and eyes, focusing on some spaces before swiping it away or enlarging it, but to Cassandra it was like an interactive whiteboard, letters and numbers and symbols and pictures appearing in her field of vision. “Ok so if there’s 30 letters, and those give an alphabet mostly in Sumerian. It won’t be those long phrases, passcodes are normally 5-15 characters, unless it’s a sentence.” She swiped around and zoomed again. “Hmm, the specific Hebrew line up with holy symbols...Oh! Together they could spell YHWH, but the whole Hebrew faith didn’t exist yet, unless this is something undocumented.”

At this realization, data poured into her field of view, too much at one time. Cassandra became dizzy, unsteady and wavering on her feet. Ezekiel quickly caught her, setting her down on the foot of the bed. “Hey, you alright? We’ve got time, you can take a break if it’s too much,” he soothed, watching her intently almost like a parent making sure their kid was alright.

“I can, I’m fine, ow, ok I’ll take a break,” she strained, holding the left side of her head for a few moments before swiping a finger under her nose. “Hey, no nosebleed this time.”

“That’s good. You know, we don’t have to go on vacation again, we could get that out-” he started, but she lifted a hand to cut him off.

“If I do that there’s a chance I lose everything. If I lose that, I’m no use to you or anyone.”

“You don’t know that,” he countered, defensive. Knowing she didn’t need more stress, he sat down next to her and grabbed her hand. He didn’t look at her, he never did when he said this (which was more often than either would like to admit), and instead studied their intertwined fingers. “I don’t care if you can’t ever do math in your head again, I don’t want you to leave me. You’re more than just some walking computer.”

“I know. It’s just, well, irrational fear. Doesn’t have a good reason to be there but it is.” She sighed, looking out the window. “I’ll think about it. But for now, I’m stuck with my brain grape.” She turned to him, a sad look in her eyes, something he hated seeing. Not wanting to lose his composure in front of her like last time, he looked at the wall in front of them. She leaned her head on his shoulder; they sat in silence for some time before she spoke again. “I don’t want to leave you either. And if doctors can help, then I should do that.”

“You shouldn’t do it for me,” Ezekiel whispered, strained, definitely close to losing it.

“I know. It’s my choice,” she answered, just as softly as him. He didn’t respond with words. Instead he turned his head, kissing the top of hers.

---

Ch 2 post notes

For the most part, all the archeology stuff is accurate (thanks to google and my anthropology class last semester). It’s weird to write stuff like that but it wouldn’t be the Librarians to me if someone wasn’t nerding out about something.

Also writing Cassekiel was fun, in a heart wrenching kind of way. Definitely fueled from Cassandra processing in ep 3x08 for sure. I don’t really know how involved they are in this universe, but they definitely care for each other immensely.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

5x09: Analysis

How did everyone like last night's episode of FTWD? I really enjoyed watching. As expected, it was very much a set up for the B half of the season, but I also found some really great symbols and some very promising possibilities. Let's dive right in.

***As always, spoilers abound for this episode below. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

Also, let me say that, yes, I did watch the TWD S10 Preview show and yes, I will do an analysis of it. Look for it tomorrow. I wanted to get my analysis for this episode up today first. ;D

This episode was a slightly different format than we’re used to. They did in the style of a found-footage documentary. This has become a popular style for films in recent years, and I suppose it was a natural thing to do given how Al records everything.

We start out with all the main characters in the group being interviewed on camera. I won’t go over everything they said, as not all of it jumped out at me as super important. But one thing did. Alicia said it felt like, "everything else was training for this." She meant driving around helping people and rounding up survivors to put together a community. But it also feels like a foreshadow of something big coming. Everything prior to this is been training for what lies ahead of them.

Al said they raided a Big Stop and took every camera, battery, and tape they could find. It caught my attention, mostly because Big Stop sounds a whole lot like Big Spot from 4x01. The point was that they now have several cameras traveling around with various groups when they split up to do different things. But of course, Battery Theory.

It's a little unclear what happened with Logan. He showed them where a gas tanker was (though he still hasn’t found the “oil fields”) but they left him behind. All we saw was he running after Sarah’s truck. 

Sarah was quite gleeful about it. And it's a little odd because obviously stuff happened that we haven’t seen yet. Last we saw in 5x08, while they obviously didn't entirely trust Logan, they seemed to be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I got the feeling they would keep a watchful eye on him, but they weren't planning on kicking them out of the group either.

So they’ve obviously skipped over some things and I'm sure they’ll go back and show us what happened and why the decision was made to leave him behind at some point.

We saw them utilizing red and yellow gas cans. Very significant colors. Red = death, yellow = escape. I didn’t notice any green gas cans, so this particular color sequence is, as yet, incomplete.

Dwight said, "I got lucky." (Luck Theory.) He’s also still wheedling and he created a chess set. 

That’s significant and we’ve seen chess sets in the past, both around him and the Gov (X). I also think it's interesting that Dwight doesn't want a haircut. He said in 5x08 that he might take Daniel up on the offer. Now suddenly he's decided against it. I feel like that could be symbolic, and there's a specific reason for it, but I'm not sure what it is. We know that him and Daryl are heavily paralleled and they’re not going to cut Daryl’s hair short anytime soon, so maybe that's it.

We saw a lot of food symbols in this episode. Grace mentioned rice noodles and then they ate them at the end. Anyone who follows @frangipanilove’s theories knows about her noodle theories. It's a symbol we’ve seen a lot, specifically in FTWD, and she has tied it to resurrection and return symbolism. Grace also mentioned being low on powdered eggs. In general, eggs = Easter eggs = resurrection symbol. Tptb also often talk about leaving Easter eggs for us to find. It's kind of interesting to hear that.

They went out of their way to mention that Grace is listening to an audiobook. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this, but it’s such a random detail that they focused on, I'm sure it significant. We didn’t hear the title or author of the audio book, so we can’t read into that. Perhaps it's just a way of showing that book titles we see are significant.

We heard Sarah sing a trucker song about hunting a bear. Obviously, that's a big deal because bear symbolism is part of the Sirisu/Dogstar/return symbolism. Here, it was associated with music. They had a whole discussion about music and Sarah even called it an anthem. Look at lyrics again.

This was one of my favorite symbols in this episode. Let's assume for a minute that bear = Sirius/return symbolism, which means bear = Beth’s return. The song is specifically about hunting a bear. Which suggests looking for a return. The group is actively looking for people to help. So, the way I interpret this is that perhaps the people they’re looking for will eventually lead to Beth’s return.

The main story, aside from having the characters talk about how they feel and where they're at mentally, was about helping a woman named Tess and her son leave their home. She contacted Morgan via walkie-talkie, telling him her husband left to get an inhaler for their son. He never returned.

The husband put landmines all over the front yard and Tess was afraid to leave because she hadn't left in years, since before the apocalypse happened. The group splits up to try and help her. June and Strand find the drugstore but the inhaler isn't there. They figure he must've already gotten it and headed home. Then, when Alicia is by one of the painted trees (which I'll talk about in a minute) a blond male walker comes up behind her and Strand kills it. Turns out, this walker is Tess's husband. He’s dead.

Morgan's group crosses the yard to help Tess and Morgan steps on landline. It's pressurized, which means it won’t go off until he lifts his foot. Al tries to help him disarm it and Tess leaves her house to help as well. Thankfully, everyone gets out alive and Morgan does not lose his foot.

(Although, the way they focused on his foot on the landmine did make me think of Lost Shoe/Foot symbolism. I can't help but wonder if this is a foreshadowing for something down the road and if Morgan might lose his foot at some point. Or perhaps this is jut a way to tie this situation to other symbolism we’ve seen before. Not sure yet.

John says the Tess situation hit home for each of them in a particular way. Morgan was very invested because of what happened to his wife and son. He very much wanted to save Tess and her son because he couldn't save his own family. Because her husband didn’t come back, June and John, who looked for each other, sympathized with her insistence that her husband would return. I thought this was an interesting way to examine where each of the characters are mentally at this point.

At one point, John talked about being partners with Morgan. He said Morgan doesn't talk much. He then talked about being a cop and how you could not say more than two words to your partner all day, but you know them inside and out, and what makes them tick. You have each other's back know how to work and survive together. He basically said that's what Morgan was like. Morgan said the same thing about John, that the neither of them talk very much, but they still work well together.

I sat and thought for a bit about why they included this little snippet. It was a little strange. Morgan and John did work together in this episode, but Al and Luciana with them, as well as others. It wasn’t just the two of them, or anything. It might be a foreshadowing of some arc the two of them will have together in coming episodes, but it also made me think a little bit of other relationships we’ve seen on the show. Naturally, my head went to Beth and Daryl. While Beth definitely talked more than Daryl, there were parts (such as the beginning of Still) where the two of them just stared at one another and didn't say much. It's really about getting to know people not having to fill the silence. Whether it's a romantic relationship or platonic, I really like this theme.

John mentions ugly mustard situations. It’s just a way of saying the situation was very bad. But here’s the thing, guys. In biblical symbolism, the mustard seed is very obviously entwined with the concept of faith. And who talked a lot about faith? That would be Beth. In terms of this situation, “ugly mustard” may specifically apply to a scene where there’s a lack of faith being demonstrated.

Oh, one other really fun reference John made: he was talking about how money is useless now in the apocalypse and the true currency is survival skills. He said something about people who used to sit on piles of money. The kind of people who ate “caviar from ladles.” Yeah, that’s an ocean reference and a Little Dipper reference all rolled into one, y’all. ;D

There were several mentions of something that was needed or something they all needed. It reminded me of the S7 TWD title "Something They Need." I think they said this about Tess needing the inhaler. I know Morgan talked about having planned the campfire dinner at the end and saying it was something, "we all need." This was a definite theme in this episode.

The other theme that I saw was actually very powerful and I feel like it reaches through both shows. They talked about how they didn't blame Tess for not believing her husband was dead. Morgan said that sometimes you can know someone's dead, you can see they’re dead, you still just don't believe it. Basically, it's because you can't bring yourself to say goodbye. 

Tess was that way. She couldn't bring herself to say goodbye. At the end, she did and then she was able to leave her house, go with Morgan's group, and start to live and move forward again. This is something very specific to Morgan because he said that the same thing happened with him and his wife and son. He never said goodbye to them, and he needs to, he just doesn't know how.

I think we could apply this to Daryl. He’s sad because he's never really said goodbye to Beth. In a way, this is actually sort of the opposite of her arc. Here, Tess was told her husband was dead. People saw him as a walker, but she just couldn't make herself believe it. The opposite was true of Beth. We never saw her as a walker, we never saw her get stabbed in the head, but everyone still believes she's dead, when she’s not. So, there’s an anti-parallel going on here. Meanwhile, Daryl has never said goodbye to her.

This is also the key to what's happening whenever any character loses someone and can’t move on from them. They have to find a way to say goodbye, but often they don't know how.

(@wdway often says that FTWD is teaching us HOW to read TWD symbolism. They’re much more obvious in how it should be interpreted, but that just give us a map of how to read TWD symbolism. I think she’s right and this is a good example of it.)

At the end, the group eats rice noodles, carrots, and nuts. I already talked about the rice noodles, but the carrots are big as well. Those were big Beth symbol.

I said I’d return to the painted tree. I'm not going to say too much about it here because I'm going to do a post later in the week that touches on it as well, but this is the other thing that made me super-excited about this episode. Alicia says that she wants to find out who painted the trees. She wants to find them.

Before, I just thought the trees would be used as symbolism in the show. I didn't think they’d be part of the plot beyond that. But Alicia saying this is a foreshadow. Eventually, they will find whoever is painting the trees.

Of course, my first thought was, could it be Beth painting these trees? I'm about 50/50 on that. The wording and the faith inherent in the message (mustard mentioned in the same episode as this tree) definitely sounds like her. But to be fair, we also never saw her doing visual art this way. She was all about the music. The person we did see doing visual art was Jadis, who is also now tied to the helicopter group. I'm not saying Jadis painted the trees. That actually wouldn't make sense given that currently, FTWD is six years behind TWD. Jadis and the Heapsters are still at the junkyard. I’m just saying we can tie it to Rick’s departure and the helicopter group.

You could argue that these are little notes left on the trees for people to find after the person who painted them had already left. It just feels a lot like Beth wanting to leave the thank you note at the funeral home in case the owners ever came back.

I don't know where this will lead, of course, and it may have nothing to do with her in the plot, but it still made me super excited.

At the end, we see a young man watching the group’s video. They’ve set it up at a gas station along with a walkie for people to watch and contact them. The TV and walkie are hooked up to a generator in a locked room. The man doesn’t use the walkie to call them but rather breaks into the generator room and steals some gas. He uses it to fill up his motorcycle. (He and Daryl would be biker buds.)

Then Logan and his group arrive. Logan first assumes he’s with Morgan’s group, but of course he’s not. He looks a little like Heath, but this is a new character. Logan says he likes this guy, but he still steals his stuff and shoots his bike, basically stranding him. He even encourages the guy to call Morgan’s group on the radio and convey a message. No way to know yet if this guy will contact them or not.

Obviously this is a set up for the rest of the season (which will probably consist of Morgan’s group looking for and finding more people, and having run-ins with Logan) but I also saw some interesting symbols in this final sequence.

Inside the gas station (a symbol by itself) was a large sign for hot dogs. It was the “dogs” more than the food that caught my attention, but still. There’s also a money orders sign. I haven’t talked about this, but let’s just say @frangipanilove is working on a money/currency theme in the show. So just tuck this away for now.

The gas station has Grady lighting inside and signs for hot dogs. The gas can he carried out was also blue. 

I also noticed that when Logan got out of the car, he was wearing cowboy boots and the camera focused on them for a second. Not sure what to make of that, but I think it’s significant. Lost Shoe symbolism? Beth’s boots? Even reminded me a little bit of Boots (Tauriel) from 7x08, because it showed the boots before it revealed the face (Logan). So we’ll have to keep an eye on that moving forward.

Actually, there was a lot of shoe symbolism in this episode. There’s what I’ve already mentioned with Morgan and Logan, and then Logan throws a torn up pair of cowboy boots at this guy at the end, saying this is what happens to your shoes and feet when you walk 200 miles. That has to be symbolic--especially as they use cowboy boots--but I’m not sure exactly what it points to yet. 

Also, there an RV (time symbol) in the background as they talk.

So, we definitely have a lot of potential for this coming season and where it will lead. They set up Logan as a villain in the first episode of the season, but we didn't deal with him very much in the A half. I’m sure he'll be in the B half a lot more. Also, meeting new people to help gives us the potential to run into the helicopter group some more and perhaps find the person who is painting the trees. (Yay!) What did everyone else think of this episode?