#i love it when people quote something i agree with bc i can just erase everything they say against it

[idk-my-aesthetic]

**Toh ending spoilers**

So if season 3 hadn’t been cut I’m pretty sure we would’ve had an all out Amity VS Luz fight in the finale

Like, this is just a theory. But not only is the setup absolutely there- both with the collecter possessing people under Belos’s instructions or Belos himself possessing ppl- but it makes for a fantastic parallel.

One of their first interactions is the witches duel! A full blown finale fight would be an incredible parallel to show how far they’ve come and grown as witches. Plus it plays on some of their biggest fears- hurting the ppl she loves for Luz and for Amity- who’s main thing is about working on becoming a better person- would be a devastating regression

Also just like. Big emotional scene where mind controlled Amity is saying mean things, and Luz agrees, and Amity has to snap herself out to convince Luz that no those hurtful things weren’t true and I’m so sorry and then they comfort each other and have a nice romantic moment

Like In the actual episode Amity is the one to comfort Luz and tell her about the light glyph being what wakes people up. (Which btw is a connection I love so much how the light glyph was the first she learned and it’s her name and it’s what keeps saving ppl Luz keeps saving people even when she thinks badly of herself she is good and kind and no matter what she thinks she can’t erase that or the good she’s done)

the actual interaction in the nightmare world are kinda short bc the mouse screwed them over and also bc Luz can’t properly finish her arc until she talks to Papa Titian for finale reasons but like

Imagine Luz in the nightmare realm as her freinds yell at her. And she believes them! Ofc she believes them!! She’s been wallowing in guilt for months of course she believes it

Amity gets the quote right. They fight.

Its big and flashy and scary. Luz is so distraught she’s not really properly putting up a fight and Stringbean has to kinda pick up the slack so she doesn’t really get hurt. The others are probably joining in as backup for Amity, throwing in mean things that Luz just keeps agreeing with

(There’s moments when Amity, misses an easy shot or takes a second too long to react, but that’s all the rebellion she can muster. For now)

Mid fight, while saying or agreeing with something mean about herself, Luz casts a light spell

Amity does not wake up

Willow does

And Willow says she’s wrong. Willow starts defending Luz from the others, rebuking all the self deprecating claims Luz makes. As she goes Willow manages to wake up Gus, then Amity, then Hunter

The four of them fight together to protect Luz from whatever monsters manifest from the nightmare, and also from her own self deprecation

Like I feel like it would be so beautiful. Luz’s whole life all she’s wanted is to be understood. She struggled so hard to make freinds, and she loves these ones so much and she’s so afraid that she hurt them. But instead they turn around and say no you didn’t and we love you and fight for her because after so so long of being alone Luz finally has a family, brothers and sisters and a girlfriend who love her.

She would have the support she needed to finally believe them and stop listening to her own fears. The support to finally believe in and choose herself

Now obviously changing this stuff would wreak havoc on the actual script and mess with a lot of what they’d be capable of doing in their limited time. Plus screw up some really really incredible moments like everything with the collector and Luz actually choosing herself. I do think you could make it all work with more time but obviously that’s the one thing the incredible writing team didn’t have.

Anyway I am writing a fic. but it’s very much a WIP. Collage is killing me. So expect it whenever I rise from the dead in the fanfic writer equivalent of Titian form

[ialwaysknewyouwerepunk]

I really loved your kind anon's post about solo harries not engaging with Harry's lyrics in any serious way, and your response. Engaging with Harry seriously as an artist is actually how I became a Larrie, because once I started looking at his lyrics and his themes it all felt so obvious and in your face, the shared themes, the conversation, the closeting, even the gender identity of it all.

And one thing that is, I think, 100% on Harry's team is the way that their approach to his promo completely disrespects and erases the intellectual and the artist in Harry, in ways that make me profoundly sad. Like, the RS article having throwaway lines about Haruomi Hosono and Harry's interest in architecture but devoting time instead to his personal life. Or the LNT MV having at least 3 really obvious readily identifiable art references, and the entire public narrative being "lol pillow fight orgy" (and don't say it's just because he's a pop star, the media gave Kanye credit for the Vincent Desiderio reference). Or Watermelon Sugar being constantly reduced to that one quote about "the female orgasm" and just "a book laying around" instead of any opportunity to actually talk about Richard Brautigan. I even have a pet theory that part of his inspiration for Harry's House (just based on the way he talks about it as a concept) is drawn from Klara and the Sun. But all of that is constantly erased from his art.

oooh kind anon i love this convo :') and yeah i agree. it's - as always - a multitude of reasons as to why he's reduced to bite-sized infobits, but at the core of it all is a disregard for harry's artistic measure. like yes, the media works that way so a headline can sell. yes, harry himself is terrified of looking pretentious so he sweeps his interests under the rug too. yes, they want to make him accessible to as many people as possible by oversimplifying him and his work. there are unavoidable aspects to it all, bc humans stereotype and simplify almost everything they can as a natural reflex, and you can't really write an article in a popular magazine about all possible intricacies of his lyrics and references.

BUT THEN. an article can still be simple and refreshing. bite-size and smart. informative and respectful. i think this recent article was lazy, and followed the mindless herd's feelings and opinions on harry. was it rolling stone or a tabloid bc.....?! i get it, they are instructed by harry's team to insert the stunt in there. it's all part of the intentional closeting. but talk about his private life overtook the article imo, despite his clear unwillingness to share. why isn't rolling stone interested in his writing process? in his inspirations? in his artistic rituals? in the lyrics he's most proud of? most of what was said about his art was something we already knew. you can't tell me he has questions about everything involving his art blacklisted lol.

and i know it's also me and my tested relationship with this kind of journalism. the 'observer' who goes on an adventure with harry and writes a diary entry about it. with vogue it was done right, here it went wrong. why isn't there any simple objectivity in the articles written about harry? why do i have to hear the journalist's personal reading of his outfit and character? just ask him real questions and write down the answers. and i know that even when he lies, or tries to make his way around personal question, there's still something interesting in there for us to figure out. but i'm also over it. how was that super short video interview recently where he got gifts and reacted to them the best content we've gotten from him in recent times like... yeah. i know i'm fed up and it won't lead anywhere but ig it was good to let it out

[jesterkoops]

I brought down by niks latest interview.Saying "J never needed redemp.He was a guy who certain circumstances in his life e.g. Kingslayer so then he needed to redeem himself bc he did this horrible thing when killing the Mad King. Then N said the redemp arc where he had to be good guy, stay with Bri etc that's not GOT.You cant erase ur prev life.Jaime bel that redeem urself meant redeeming his past and he couldnt. He can't cut off who he was.The idea of leaving C alone is impossible to him" Wtf?

2/2 Downhearted anon. Just that interview makes no sense. In prev season interviews, wasnt Nik wanting Jaime to escape Cersei for good and be with Braime forever, like he was the biggest Braime shipper??? I dont understand. Does he think ppl don’t remember stuff? Its a shame theres no way to ask him about this.

Dear Downhearted anon,

I have to admit I read only a short excerpt from that interview, so I might have missed some of the other content, but, from what I read, this is what I can say.

There are different layers to his comments, IMO. One is the take on the story, and the other is the justification of the writing choices. And, as much as I might vehemently disagree with the former, what I take issue with is the latter.

When it comes to the take on the story, we have to remember that he has to talk about the actual content of the show. The show, unfortunately, did go with the idea that Jaime is essentially doomed to never escape his past. I do not believe that is his arc in the books for many reasons, and I think it was extremely underwhelming, nihlistic and unsatisfying even just taking the context of the show into account. But, unfortunately, nihilistic and unsatisfying is what we got. The show was aiming for romanticizing incest and abuse romantic tragedy with JC, in the end (I actually think there was a far more disastrous chain of events at play, which required multiple OOC developments for multiple major characters just to arrive to Jon killing Dany - but that’s a longer story), and it is what it is. He has to talk about the reality of the episodes, not the alternatives.

If you take most of Nik’s comments, and go back to read D&D’s and Cogman’s interviews from the past, you’ll notice that it’s mostly stuff that’s lifted straight from their quotes, even down to the language: “good guy/bad guy”, “he doesn’t have a redemption arc”, “it’s just life, and he has made some mistakes”. I don’t know whether this is because he had a “final season” briefing with them and came around to see things their way and agree, or because he was told this is what he was supposed to say about the story, or because even though he doesn’t agree with it, this is what was written in the end and so this is what he talks about. His reasoning for saying these things is anybody’s guess and kind of beyond the point. But, where before he used to have his own take on the character and his arc, he’s now basically regurgitating the party line.

For my part, I never completely disagreed with the idea that Jaime does not need redemption per se. Jaime doesn’t need atonement for slaying the Mad King, for sure. He needs recognition for that. He needs atonement for a other horrible things he’s done, but even those (e.g., pushing Bran, the incest) are more about moral gray areas areas than villainous behaviour per se, since he’s never committed atrocious acts just for his own selfish gain, or for power, or because he enjoyed hurting and killing. More importantly, I have always seen Jaime’s story as more of an identity arc, where redemption is just one component. In that sense, I can agree with the take that that he is a “complex character who, at times, has made some terrible mistakes”. Jaime is not, and never was, a straightforward villain who needs to atone for his sins. He’s a much more complex and layered mix of sins and honour, and goodness and idealism turned bitterness and cynicism, and a messy product of living most of his life in toxic and abusive environments who, in some situations, has committed some horrible mistakes that he needs to own up to and face the consequences of, and who is trying to redefine and reinvent himself in the aftermath of some life-changing events such as losing his hand, meeting Brienne and growing disillusioned with Cersei. 

The problem is that, while D&D preach about Jaime being a complex character who does not need a ‘cheesy’ linear redemption arc, they also, in the same breath, justify an ending that shoves him precisely into a clear, black-and-white, simplistic category (”he just accepts he is a hateful man”) or display the psychological depth of a 5th grader (go check out their take on the sept scene in their Oxford Union Q&A and their inability to think in any more complex terms than “good guy/bad guy” or to understand that not all “bad” actions are equal). They’re not deep writers, and that shows painfully in their execution. But I can understand the “no need for redemption” arc, from a theoretical/philosophical perspective.

What I take far more issue with is justifying writing choices by attempting to play the realism card, or the adult writing card, or the “this is GoT” card, basically implying that everyone who dislikes or criticize it is being unrealistic, immature or unsophisticated for not accepting the only inevitable outcome to a story (I wrote a twitter thread about it this week). Just because your story has decided to depict things in a certain way, it does not mean that that is the only realistic option for the story, and that people who expected/wanted/hoped for something different were fooling themselves, let alone that it had to be written that way because that is how life works.

Sure, there are people who fail to break away from their (abusive, traumatic, toxic, what have you) past and move on, but there are also plenty of people who do, and who end up thriving. One outcome isn’t any more realistic or true to life than the others. And, while some might think this is a hyperbole, it is highly irresponsible, IMO, to say that being unable to escape toxicity and your past is “the way things are”, when there might be people out there who do struggle with trauma, toxic and abusive relationship (or know people who do).

On top of that, it is rather silly to imply that we were expecting some unrealistic, too-easy scenario, where Jaime flipped a switch and totally erased his past overnight. That implication is misguided, at best, and dishonest, at worst. We put up with four entire seasons of show-only “non-linear” storytelling when it comes to Jaime, and were incredibly patient with it. Wasn’t the point of those four seasons precisely to show that life is complicated and he couldn’t just let go of his past so easily? We watched that. It happened. Nothing about this was easy or unearned.

Had we been shown a Jaime who was 100%, stupidly and completely devoted to Cersei at every turn, cruel, evil, selfish and not caring about the innocents, of course expecting an outcome where he just leaves it all behind for a honourable wench or what have you would have been a ridiculous expectation to have. Indeed, back when Jaime did come across as that kind of character, nobody was expecting anything from him. He could have died with Cersei under those bricks and most wouldn’t have cared.

Instead, for years, we were shown a Jaime that did struggle between his toxic past/Cersei and his honour and, far more often than not, we saw his honour win out. While I can see an argument for saying that didn’t guarantee an outcome where he did break free of his past for good, it’s not like like there was no buildup or seeding for the more positive, less nihilistic alternative. So I don’t find it so far fetched to have expected the events of S7 to be the last straw that finally tipped the scales completely to the other side (especially considering how 8x02 was written very heavily to imply just that or, at the very least, did not seed any doubt).

By Nikolaj’s own admission in TONS of interviews, he had been fighting with D&D for years because he expected things to move in a certain direction and kept getting frustrated when they didn’t, or when they confused him. He wanted the exact same things we wanted for Jaime and in his relationships with Cersei and Brienne since SEASON 2. He might have resigned himself in the end to having lost the battle, but he behaved exactly like us for years. So, assuming he believes what he is saying, if I could talk to him, I’d ask him how is it that he got the same feeling of “expectation” for something that in the end never came? Maybe because the seeding for both options were there all along? Maybe because, if the seeding for both options were there all along, the alternative isn’t so far fetched and inconceivable after all? Maybe because if the alternative isn’t so far fetched and inconceivable after all, then what we got isn’t the only inevitable way this could go down? Food for thought.

Of course, I want to believe that he isn’t that tone-deaf and unsophisticated as an actor (and a writer) not to realize that the only problem with the way Jaime and JB were written in S8 was not the fact that they didn’t get a HEA. Ignoring the writing quality, for a moment, and just focusing on the writing choices, there were literally dozens of ways of writing a story that ended even in a similar tragedy (EVEN with Jaime dying with Cersei), that would have been far better and more satisfying than what we got. The problem isn’t that Jaime didn’t declare his everlasting love for Brienne or that he didn’t stay together with her. The problem is that we patiently waited through all the buildup and seeding mentioned above, for years, for a relationship that ended up being butchered within 30 minutes, destroying literally everything it ever stood for (first and foremost trust and respect - I am not going to list everything, but Jaime trying to sneak out without so much of a goodbye and being completely indifferent to her pain after she vouched for him and saved his life multiple times was not only OOC, but completely unnecessary to the plot, unless it aimed to destroy the foundations of their bond, way beyond the romance).

To conclude, I’ll leave you with GRRM’s own words, when asked about Jaime’s redemption arc that he, unlike the show, has explicitly stated he wishes to explore:

“I want there to be a possibility of redemption for us, because we all do terrible things. We should be able to be forgiven. Because if there’s no possibility of redemption, what’s the answer then?”

The show decided that the answer is that we don’t escape our past. We are doomed from the beginning and any attempt to change and move on is eventually futile (and that ended up being true of nearly every character in the show, not just Jaime). But that doesn’t seem to be at all the stance GRRM has on this whole thing, and I would dare anyone to tell me that GRRM’s vision and his writing are inferior, too easy, or less realistic than what we got from the show.

There’s no guarantee that Jaime will survive in the books, or that he and Brienne will get a HEA (although I do not rule it out at all).  But the fact that the man who invented these characters and this world has a different stance on Jaime and redemption automatically invalidates any nonsense show people can say about how this was the perfect and only way it could end, and that expecting anything different from this series was wishful thinking.

[sunshineindark]

(cw: american perspective 🤢) there is so much actual harm being done to queer people right now. FL don’t say gay bill, banning of trans youth in sports, the questioning of obergefell v. hodges, these things do not happen in a vacuum they are the result of the conversations we have about queer people. for a long time queer people were (and still are) only seen in association with kinky/weird sex (see early pride). the reason that politicians, schools, communities have the ability to erase an oppress queer people is because of the public narrative that is pushed that queerness is not a safe or appropriate topic. I don’t care if you’re queer or not any conversation that normalizes love in queerness is something we should be amplifying. so many people want to isolate harry out bc he doesn’t fit in all the “rules” to be “queer”. the gatekeeping of how queer culture should be spoken about is only hurting us when the conversation is positive we are shooting ourselves in the foot. 

Hey sorry for the late reply. I agree with everything you said. It just baffles me how people took that quote and twisted it into something so completely different just to further the queerbaiter narrative. As long as people refuse to acknowledge that closeted queers exist we won't actually see any change. Being out and proud is great but that doesn't give anyone the right to police how other people show or accept their queerness. I don't think many realise just how harmful these conversations can be in a fandom that consists of a lot of closeted people who just don't have the option to come out and no amount of disclaimers anyone put in their essays help.

[phereinnike]

hey vero since u said u like talking shit why do u hate gan/sey? (I wanted to ask earlier but I didn't want to get u hate but since u said u don't mind here we go) (also love ur blog <3)

Don’t you just love how there are a shit ton of ‘your fave is problematic: gn/sey’ posts that only mention his shit fashion sense and how he puts avocado on pizza and like completely ignore any and all character flaw he might have because the fandom is so busy sucking his three dicks that they either don’t see this flaws or completely condone and forgive them? 

I don’t love it either. 

PSA: This is 1.2k of gansey semi-serious hate open at your own risk.

Dickington Dickface McDikinson the third is kinda like universally loved and forgiven even though he’s done shit like: wonder out loud if poor people are capable of love (bcs ofc poor people are animals for you to study and you can extrapolate the relationship between 2 of them (out of the 3 you know) universally, they’re basically microorganisms??? right???), insinuate he’d pay a girl to talk to his friend (bcs again poor people are trained zoo seals that will dance for money and that proposal isn’t dehumanizing of both the girl and your friend at all bcs like were they even humans to begin with?) and erase someone’s humanity so completely he invalidated their existence. 

The Author explains people being like completely up Gansey’s ass as a consequenceof him as a character being super invested in people liking him and working hard for it. And like I’m not saying it might also be because white american rich boys are allowed to do anything at all in the world and people will always find a reason to excuse it but yk, it could like, have played a small part on it. 

He features some loveable character traits like 1) not understanding poor people -he’s rich what can he do? pay attention? ask? don’t be silly, rich people don’t ask we throw money around until things happen as they should-  2) and trying to solve his friend’s fear of depending on someone forever by -wait for it, wait for it, this is brilliant-getting him indebted to himself -my boy, such a mind such a brain- because ofc being indebted to him is different than being indebted to his dad and Adam being reticent to owe someone something as big as his high school fees or a fucking appartement after the incredibly traumatic relationship he has with his dad and money in general is not understandable at all. How is dickinson supposed to understand that??? by investing time -aside of money- in his friends? RIDICULOUS. 

There’s also that tiny unworthy of mention quote of “the difference between us and kavinsky is that we matter” that no one aside from me seems to have a problem with. And like, yk, maybe IT’S ME. Maybe thinking that the world revolves so completely around you if someone doesn’t matter to you they just don’t matter, maybe it’s totally normal. Maybe erasing a human being’s experiences and fears and hopes just because you don’t like them is acceptable. 

Like, I mean, dehumanizing drug addicts and insinuating anything bad that happens to them it’s their fault and they deserved it is kinda a real thing. So maybe everyone just agrees with that and I’m not disgusting enough for it. Maybe mocking someone with no support network coming from a place of incredible privilege is fun in america? idk dude. Like I seriously don’t get it. Because Ronan and Kavinsky do some pretty gross stuff too but at least peopleacknowledge that they did it????? (even if they excuse it afterwards).

Also he puts avocado on pizza which is totally on the same level, what a moster, what a heathen. 

There’s also that little thing he does where his life lacked sense so hard and he felt so guilty for being alive when other people aren’t “someone is dying when they should not and so you’ll live when you should not” that he shoved all his sense of self-worth into the mission of finding a dead dude and asking for a wish. Like, he could’ve decided to use his incredible privilege and money to help people or at least pulled a batman and became a night vigilante -we all know this wouldn’t work bcs he’s weak as shit- but no. This was more pretentious and went more with his general bitch aesthetic so here we are. And then he chastisises and mocks anyone that doesn’t have a life purpose because how do they dare not feel guilty for being alive????

On the topic of what a pretentious piece of shit he is, let me tell you i go to law school and spend 6 hours a day surrounded by gross rich people in boat shoes and polo shirts and I have never met anyone this pretentious. HE CHEWS MINT PLANTS. Not only is he so sickeningly pretentious that it’s not even cool anymore?? It’s just like those boys that talk you up in a bar but like “oh yeah i’m into welsh kings, specially glendower, bet you don’t know who that is, let me mansplain it” and you’re all please god fulminate him. It’s ridiculous? have you met any american teenage rich boy that spoke like an eightysomething british historian and not automatically wanted to break his nose in???? is that possible???? am i the only one that hate people whose usual voice tone is condescendence?????

And he’s such a special snowflake??? “oh you do drugs?? lozer!1!!1 glendower is my drugz!!!1!! lolz”. Like please dickinson calm down. No one cares. No one fucking asked. No one ever fucking asks. Just shut up. I’m sure if dick had a tumblr he’d be a superwholockian and you fuckers would still be up his ass. 

Along those lines he’s also the most entitled character I’ve ever read about??? He changes Blue’s name to something fancier without fucking asking and everyone finds it super quirky but if I tell a boy my name and he insists on calling me Jane I would break his nose in and I refuse to believe Blue Sargent wouldn’t too?????? (but i also totally hate blue and try not to read anything about her so what the fuck do i know). His holier than thou attitude comes in a nice holiday package that includes policing his friends hobbies as if his wasn’t weird as shit and also potentially lethal, not correcting people when they call his bestfriend a dog and even playing in on the joke, hanging with the literal paid killer that murdered his bestfriend’s father throwing him into a suicidal ptsd induced spiral AND then proceeded to beat up said’s bestfriend brother who dickinson is kinda friends with because can he keep is fucking nose out of someone’s affair??? unlikely! 

I’d say to rush and get this package before it sells out but, like dickinson’s happiness at having met himself, it will never ran out of stock. Rejoice.