#i mean there’s his obvious guilt being involved in the killing of the coven but also

[shmistarkiller]

okay. that force possession scene when aniseya gets into torbin’s mind. “you have natural desires you suppress” and then running her hand across his chest?

she even gives him praise for being a “strong and good jedi” and makes it echo reverberate for emphasis

it’s not just me right? surely? 👀

EDIT: okay that entire lead up to when she tells him to kneel. this was v deliberate. 🧐

[thenightling]

My thoughts on Marvel’s War of The Vampires

Recently Marvel comics did a storyline called War of the Vampires.

In this story Dracula’s castle is destroyed and several vampires are vying for power.  There are warring factions apparently trying to gain dominion over all the vampires of the the Earth.   

The supernatural members of The Avengers and their allies are forced to get involved.  Blade: The Vampire Hunter gets recruited into The Avengers main roster.   

Dracula turns up in his old man form, looking frail and weak, and deliberately surrenders himself to the Russian government and he is taken prisoner.  (Avengers issue 014, 2019.)

And yes, Dracula conjures an electrical storm for dramatic effect during his entrance because Dracula is a freakin’ primadona!  I love him. :-P   

The Avengers want to take him back to America where they can better watch and keep him.  They consider him a proverbial living weapon and don’t want the Russian government to have him and potentially use him as a weapon.  Dracula claims he just wants some peace and quiet and is tired of the constant fighting and death.

While captive Dracula deliberately goads Tony Stark by telling him that his father came to him begging and offered anything (including Tony, in childhood) if he could be made immortal.

It briefly looks like Dracula is trying to provoke Tony into taking him from the Russians to drag him back to the America to be held by The Avengers in Avengers Tower.  However this is misdirection from the writers and not his actual plan and he does not want to leave Russia at all.   His deliberately creates a distraction. 

He creates a prison riot by psychically influencing the prisoners but does not try to escape even though he had the perfect opportunity.  He merely does this to prove to Stark that he can and that he is right where he wants to be, affirming his claim that he has surrendered himself and is tired of fighting.   

Further note:   They have all these elaborate restraints on him. An anti-bite face mask (that still allows for speech), a chest plate that’ll stake him if he gets too frisky (First time I saw that was in Boom Comics’ Dracula: Company of Monsters.  Someone’s stealing from someone else), heavy chains, covers on both his hands to keep him from using his claws, devices that somehow prevent him from taking bat, wolf, and mist form, and some sort of IV system to keep him semi-starved and weak / possibly drugged.  But no one thought to dampen his psychic powers?  The Raft (Superhuman prison) can do that but the Russian equivalent (currently being visited by Tony stark) can’t?    

Red Widow has the cruel task of interrogating him even after he has told them many of his secrets.  She rounds up all of Dracula’s vampiric previous lovers (and there are quite a lot).   

She tells him she’ll torture and kill them slowly unless he shares everything with them.  If he does share all the knowledge he has, she’ll kill them quickly.  Either way they die.  

 The scene also reveals that Dracula has male and female lovers.

Marvel’s Dracula has now been confirmed as having had male and female lovers.  This is not the only bisexual or panasexual Dracula in pop culture.  The German production of the Frank Wildhorn Dracula the Musical (Dracula das Musical) gives him brides and grooms in his castle and Dario Argento has said his version of Dracula is bisexual, and Marvel has now confirmed that their version of Dracula has had male and female lovers.    

  The first victim in the torture-interrogation is this pretty, androgynous creature.

I don’t know much about this pretty elfish, semi-androgynous character.   I’m not even entirely sure the character is male (but others have Identified him as male).  In any event Dracula wept blood tears when this unnamed character was killed.  And he (the lover) was clearly willing to die for Dracula. 

I don’t know his name so I am going to call him Samuel.  And in my mind he was the pretty castle librarian whom Dracula became infatuated with.  There.  Headcanon achieved.  

Further note: Usually if you make Dracula cry, it means he’ll take brutal and violent revenge. This is a universal truth with all versions of Dacula.  Never make him cry.  

Seriously, I want to know this guy’s story.  Dracula cries for him!  In front of his enemies, he weeps for him!   Did Dracula make him a vampire or was he already a vampire when they met?  Give us this story, Marvel!   Who is he???

Later it’s revealed that Dracula’s capture was part of an elaborate scheme so that he would get dumped in Chernobyl.

But this is precisely what Dracula wanted all along.

It is in this vast, isolated, irradiated wasteland that Dracula has decided to re-establish his kingdom of the vampires.   Everything was part of his elaborate plan just to re-establish his vampiric kingdom.   

But based on his reaction to the lovers being slaughtered, I don’t think that part was quite in his plans. So again, I ask, who was that pretty male lover whose death brought Dracula to tears?

By the way, I freakin’ love this story. I just hope Marvel doesn’t screw it up by doing something cliche like letting the radiation from Chernobyl mutate the vampires living there.   

Further note: Many of the vampires in this storyline were semi-innocent and sympathetic and some of the heroes were just douches, such as seeing “heroes” killing a coven of vampires who plead that they were peaceful and never fed on the innocent and literally said “Please don’t hurt us.” and begged for their lives.  “The good guys” ladies and gentlemen.   

It’s a good story but I’m tired of deconstruction.  I like my heroes actually having compassion and mercy.  You shouldn’t have to make good characters asses to make the antagonists sympathetic.  Marvel’s Dracula was already likable since Tomb of Dracula.  

A few other things I didn’t like.  

1.  Captain Marvel is shoehorned into the story even though it could very easily have been told without her.  It’s blatantly obvious that she was only in there to promote her new movie And it was shameless.   She’s crammed onto each cover so heavily that if I was just judging by the cover I wouldn’t even know Dracula was in this story!

Also, for some reason Captain Marvel is now immune to Ghost Rider’s Penance Stare because of course she is!  At this point I feel like asking who is left who is NOT immune to The Penance Stare?!?  Morbius is immune, The Punisher is immune, and now Captain Marvel is immune.  

This is getting as bad as Mjolnir.  A few years ago Loki (who was acting as protagonist in his own solo comic, Loki: Agent of Asgard) ended up under the "inversion spell" during the Axis event / storyline. The spell inverted his personality. Since he had been on a redemption arc this made him betray his friends, act selfishly and self-righteously.   And somehow "because he no longer felt guilt" was able to lift Mjolnir.   Now let's look at Ghost Rider's Penance Stare.   Morbius is immune to the Penance Stare because he feels constant guilt for the lives he's taken.  Frank Castle is immune to the Penance Stare because he feels no remorse for anything he's done. It would seem they are using the "Morbius reasoning" that Captain Marvel feels constant guilt. But constant guilt for what?  She (the comic book version) doesn't have as many sins as her cinematic counterpart and even then she was being manipulated by aliens who played with her mind.   Marvel keeps making too many excuses to allow the current "Flavor of the month" or "Cool kid" to do things to make them super special.   Currently by their logic if you feel no guilt you are immune to Ghost Rider's Penance Stare AND can lift Mjolnir.  That pretty much means all you need to be the best of the best in Marvel is to be a sociopath. Too many people are being allowed to lift Mjolnir and too many characters are immune to Ghost Rider's Penance Stare.  

2.   She-Hulk now looks ridiculous.  She looks like Lobo from DC comics but painted green.  And she no longer answers to She-Hulk (because acknowledging she’s female and being proud of it is somehow anti-feminist... somehow?  HOW does this make sense!?!?)  Going by “Hulk” just puts her in her cousin’s shadow, something that was the complete antithesis of the character and probably the opposite of what they intended with that stupid name change.

3.   Less than a year ago Marvel promised it would stop doing so many events and now while one event was going on (War of the Vampires) the banner across each cover and on the splash page promoted the upcoming War of the Realms.  It’s literally just one “big” event after another.  The events have lost all means.   Now mere story arc titles are called “events.”   

4.   The cover art is very... boring.  Too many comics are heroes and villains lunging at each other in mid-battle.  It’s stale and uncreative. And I, a fan of Marvel’s horror properties, can barely tell there are vampires in the story. Hell, Dracula’s a key player and he’s not on any of these covers.    

But for all my complaining I did love this storyline.  It was fun.  Dracula was cunning and manipulative.  His bi / pan sexuality isn’t treated like a big deal and felt natural for the character.  And most of it was very well illustrated.  I also like the new costume for Dracula, it looks less like a warrior drow (something I hated since 2010).  and I’m glad to see Dracula in use in Marvel comics now for something other than a mere Halloween event.  And I love the ending with Dracula forming his new kingdom at the end of Avengers, issue 017 (2019).  Just don’t screw it up by mutating them from Chernobyl radiation. That’s stupid and cliche.   In general this was good though, refreshing compared to what Marvel Comics has been these last few years.  

[syzygyzip]

His Cage pt. 2: Wheel of Fortune

This essay may be read on its own, but it is a follow-up to another essay which psychoanalyzes the figure of Holy Knight Hodrick, a character from Dark Souls 3. In this section, the method and purpose of Dark Souls analysis comes under investigation, catalyzed by other images from Hodrick’s environment.

Hodrick as meta-critique of Freudian psycho-interpretation

Dark Souls 3 is known for its skillful, self-reflexive commentary; this game is keenly aware of the subculture that surrounds it. That in mind, what are we to make of the relatively blatant symbolic suggestiveness of Hodrick and the Greatwood? Perhaps their on-the-nose imagery is a reaction to analysis of previous Dark Souls games: the castration narrative is often cited in symbolic interpretation of Dark Souls 1, and the birth canal-esque passage of Dark Souls 2’s tutorial area is a classic introduction for people that play around with interpreting Dark Souls psychologically. And surely those myths and images are semi-intentional, relevant, and illuminating, but they are by no means the place to stop. This lore video points out how the vertebrae shackles collected by Mound-Makers resemble inkblots, the old psychoanalytic tool etched into the cultural memory as an image of Freudianism. One “reads out” of the inkblot the contents of their own unconscious. The understanding of projection, and the compensatory nature of the unconscious was one of the most significant discoveries at the dawn of psychology. Dark Souls could symbolize the principle of this discovery in a number of ways, but it is very intentional with its images, so when it decides to show us an inkblot in particular, the historical context is helpful. It’s an old and simple technique, which traces only the broad strokes of the analysand’s complexes. Likewise, Hodrick, the Greatwood, and Mound-Makers provide the interpreter with the rudiments for symbolic exploration of Dark Soul environments. 

Though this area is introductory, it is – like any part of the unconscious – inexhaustible in its depth and generous in its mutability. Consider the amorality of the Mound-Makers. Are they good or evil? Vicious or tender? Sustainers of maya or karmic accelerationists? There is so much room for the player to read into this allegiance a preferred moral perspective, at least partially determined by the general attitude the player keeps in regards to the slaughter of enemies. For the totally “unimmersed,” Dark Souls is a game and a game only, to be played, poked, prodded, to be mastered and speedran, and in that case of course any covenant is merely functional, there to surround and present a mechanic. For that player, the Mound-Makers are truly amoral. But for those who roleplay, who make at least some of their choices based on the imagined ethics of their avatar (despite extremely scarce moral responses from the game itself!), the issue is a little more complicated. Those who are simply in the habit of asking themselves, “Do I want to ally myself with this person’s values?” will not find an easy answer. On the surface, the covenant is abhorrently nihilistic, but a seasoned player may come away with a different take. So in this way the Mound-Makers, like the inkblot, are a measure of a player(/-character)’s feeling-involvement, which is itself born out of the player’s interpretational attitude.

When analyzing an object in a video game, always take into account the method by which it is encountered! Though the route to all this Freudian material in the Undead Settlement is a little arcane, it needs to be. The cryptic riddle about “Nana”, the obscure side-streets: these are there to make the player feel as though they are uncovering something secret. The obscurity is baked-in to make obvious that this material is repressed.

Though the riddle is strange, it is spoken aloud to the player, which is actually quite a telegraph by Dark Souls standards. The handiness of this secret is also metaphorically descriptive of this level of interpretation. If one stops at the purely Freudian: the mother, the father, the phallus, then they will project that schematic onto every available target. They will see reality as nothing more than a circus of oral fixations and castration dramas. If this stage of psychoanalysis is not passed through, it is nothing more than another cage to be carried around. It is the most rudimentary place to get stuck in the engagement with the unconscious.

The Armory of Symbols

What are we to make of the fact that the treasure of this area is the transposing kiln? This round thing, this simple, Arthurian symbol of the Self? It is both representative of the totality, and a totally profane and reductive simplification. I’ll explain what I mean by that.

On the one hand it is a true grail, because it has the capacity to turn the game’s hardest challenges into new tools. This is a fantastic life lesson, fundamental and perennially true. It is the pure gift of interpretation. It is said that the Buddha, in his realization that there is nothing outside of Nirvana, thereby saw that even the most torturous experiences of life, and the most unforgiving realms of Hell, were not apart from Nirvana, and that seeing them in this way thereby rectified this subjective experience of being in Hell. Once it was rephrased as Nirvana, it was always Nirvana, because all the suffering was born out of false views. Anyway, that is a very lofty height of interpretation, but one can see the boundlessness of the tool. That when the true cosmic appropriateness of an instance of suffering is groked, it is changed. On the other hand, transposition is a cheap parlor trick. It changes the essence of a boss into a weapon. It really only does one thing. Some of these weapons are useful, and most are flashy. It is almost mandatory for these weapons and spells to have a unique gimmick. So most of the time they convey to the wielder some unique flavor, some specific characteristic to consider, but even collecting such interpretations as these is merely a “building a collection.” Pinning down butterflies into a glass case. It is really no different than stockpiling corpses as Hodrick does. This device encourages the player to keep fighting, collecting, stacking bodies, finding new and interesting ways to kill people.

And ultimately, the same is true of collecting symbolism. Stockpiling a collection of unused weapons is no more or less a perversion that keeping a catalogue of archetypes for its own sake. The psychological interpretation of Hodrick, the Greatwood, and their unsightly tableau is relatively simple and straight-forward because it is meant to provide the player-interpreter with an introduction to the technique. The “game” of symbolic analysis is pointless if you spend your time taking potshots.

Wheel of Fate

Understanding the symbolism of the Mother through the eyes of Hodrick may be relatively simple, but the Undead Settlement also provides us with a more complex and transpersonal variation of the birth motif, localized at the far edge of town, hidden in a valley below. There we find catacombs tunneled into the rock, reminding us of the community of villagers who labor all day burying their dead. The Great Mother is thereby invoked, in her role which deteriorates form, which composts. The bodies decay, return to the Earth, and nourish new life. We see the skeletons sprouting branches in this dank place.

Also in the catacombs there are the dual figures of Irina the saint and a statue of Velka, goddess of sin, both of whom sit abandoned. The juxtaposition of these two sacred feminine figures is symbolically dense and deserves its own essay, but I mention it here as an echo of Kristeva’s philosophy that we passed by earlier: that of the child’s necessary bifurcation of the Mother into sublime and abject.

Velka alone is highly useful here, amplifying the Great Mother motif to a vast and cosmic context. Velka is a notoriously elusive figure in Dark Souls: she is never seen, rarely spoken of, her motivations are unknown, her ontological status unconfirmed, her objects and attributes seem to contradict each other. Nevertheless she is a crucial if not essential force in the world, and her presence can be inferred for those with eyes to see.

The main Velkan element that should be addressed here is her association with Karma, which is perhaps her principle attribute. From the beginning of DS1, she is introduced as governess of ethics, law, and equity. She explicitly oversees sin, guilt, and retribution. What practices are promoted through this governance? Mechanically, there are primarily two: keeping track of invasion penalties (in DS1) and resetting the world. If you incur penalty as an invader, the Blades of the Dark Moon will find you and punish you. So Velka prolongs and complicates PvP dynamics.

Resetting the world is an effect Velka provides that suggests forgiveness. If you aggro an NPC, and wish to get on good terms with them again, Velka allows that condition. In this way too, Velka is prolonging interpersonal relationships, but it is the relief of debt rather than the accruing of debt. Velka keeps the cycle going, she is like a keeper of the wheel that turns the age. In Dark Souls 1 a statue associated with Velka turns with the cranking of a wheel, in a room full of bonewheel skeletons. In Dark Souls 3, a similar statue turns with the cranking of a wheel in a room full of flies. In both cases, the wheel is hidden in a wet chamber behind an illusory wall. This suggests that behind the façade of the world, there is a primal place from which time is manipulated (though in this case it is but a single “tick” of the clock, an off-to-on switch which causes a fixed rotation).

Does Karma cause the rise and fall of the great ages? Is the distribution of karma the grease that turns the wheel of the world? It does seem to be that desire is what sustains the age of fire. Consider the enemies in the place where the wheel turns: bonewheels, who cling to their instruments of torture, to their suffering; flies, who bury themselves in a mountain of rotted food, a symbol of greed.

The skeletons who throw themselves into combat, and the flies which gorge on their rotting piles: either is a handy metaphor for Hodrick. His lust for the battlefield is another way of keeping himself stuck on the wheel of Samsara, collecting those shackles, representing the Velkan attachments of karma. Velka’s totem, the Raven, is found in flocks on a ravaged cliff in the settlement, among a wealth of corpses to be looted. The Raven is “associated with the fall of Spirit into that which is impure and enjoys carnage […] To raven is to plunder. This is what the word means. To have a ravenous appetite suggests greed and lust and insatiable desires.”(Valborg) Ravens keep the circus of suffering going!

Grist for the Mill

Velka is a bleak goddess, associated with “lifehunt”, the capacity to drain the essence of life, dreaded even by the gods. For this reason one of her attributes is the scythe, so she is something of a reaper figure. But we have seen she is also life-giver and sustainer, through her arbitrage of karma. This ambivalent nature is expressed by the Raven, which is a solar bird yet dyed deep black, who is cruel and enjoys carnage, yet in many myths is associated with the bringing of light and the creation of a new world.

The raven flies to and fro between the solar orb of eternal life and the dying eyes of man in time. He mercilessly pecks away at the delusions formed like veils over the cornea's shield until he penetrates to the darkness of the pupil's cavity and releases the invisible light within. (Valborg)

If the goal of Dark Souls is the realization of the Dark Soul -- the unique potential of the human being -- then perhaps Velka and her karmic processes are meant to midwife that birth as well. Could all the weight of karma, the pain of enduring a body, the cruelty of life’s entropic march … could it all be in service of birthing the Anthropos? It would explain why the Lords of Dark Souls are so antagonist to the Ashen One -- in Gnosticism and Buddhism the makers, the deities, are said to envy the actualized human being. And to be fair, the theme of surviving hardship and loss is central in Dark Souls’ reputation, and something to which countless players can attest, on practical or psychological levels (eg: “Dark Souls Helped Me Overcome Depression”).

Identity Riddles

I am the one who is disgraced and the great one. Give heed to my poverty and my wealth. Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth, and you will find me in those that are to come. And do not look upon me on the dung-heap nor go and leave me cast out, and you will find me in the kingdoms. And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who are disgraced and in the least places, nor laugh at me. And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.

But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel. Be on your guard!

Do not hate my obedience and do not love my self-control. In my weakness, do not forsake me, and do not be afraid of my power.

-- excerpt from The Thunder, Perfect Intellect ca. 100-230

The abject Mother sits at the edge of the symbolic order, in fact it is her abjection that positions the boundaries of that order, yet it itself does not accept boundary. “Abjection preserves what existed in the archaism of pre-objectal relationship, in the immemorial violence with which a body becomes separated from another body in order to be” (Kristeva 10), referring to birth and symbolized by the Hodrick and Greatwood scene, but beyond that it also refers to the Dark Souls creation myth: the archaism in that case being the undifferentiated fog of arch-trees and everlasting dragons in the Age of Ancients. For there to be matter and objects, psyche (dragons etc) must be born into time. Once psyche has materialized itself upon the wheel of time, it cannot exist in immediate, gestalt totality – it moves and changes, expressing its fullness over aeons through its becomings. But everything must be accounted for; Karma only brings what is due. The mystery of how psyche is refined by its extension into matter will likely stay with us until the “end” of time. But with common sense we can suppose that the condition of duration allows things to be taken apart and put back together, and that at least in our mundane lives that process frequently brings about some freshness in the object. But neither the meaning nor mechanics of the larger karmic process can be groked, just as Velka and the Mother are archetypes who inherently escape the fixidity of signification. The ultimate force of taking things apart, entropy – symbolized again by the raven and its desecration of corpses – is something that has been deeply culturally villainized, and it usually takes a second to stop and consider how the diffusion of matter engenders the condition for new forms to grow.

[Ravens] tell of the renewal of the world in terms of the past which is yet to be. The unwanted Truth is told and its insatiable desire to express itself may produce terror and loathing in one who is not prepared to give up all to its insistent glare.

This is keeping with Kristeva’s view of the abject as the eruption of the Real into consciousness. Aside from their role in pecking open an aperture of light, crows have another specific job in the renewal of the world, as described in a number of myths: measuring the size and extent of that world, flying in “progressively longer intervals in order to estimate and report on the increasing size of the emerging earth.” The extremes of incarnation, the edges beyond which dwells the abject, are scoped out in order to create the blueprint; the raven brings knowledge of the schematics.

Interpreting by Attention

And what about our own schematics? We’ve thrown away our tools – the colorful cast of characters transposed into weapons of interpretation – but perhaps it’s time to pick them up again. We cast them off because we didn’t want to fix the Dark Souls myth through explanation. Archetypes cannot be superimposed, prefab, onto a tableaux of psychological symbols. Interpretation is rather the act of elaboration: flying, as the raven does, around and around a widening and changing arena, reporting back continually new understandings of what is appropriate.

The meaning of a game is determined by what a player thinks and feels while they play it. What decisions they make, what their attention lingers on. The game is the inkblot. There are special times when the game insists upon a subject, like a film: for instance, when the crank is turned and the Velka statue rotates. But such a sequence has a different meaning in games than it does in film, because of its context: it anchors a player to a single necessary and unchanging action in the context of a world that is typically responding to their decisions with nigh-unrepeatable novelty. The fixedness of the cinematic exposes the malleability of the rest of the game. “Velka” is an approximation, an aggregate; she is not the same goddess in each playthrough, the scope and the flavor of her influence is always changing – but it is always reflecting the actions of the player.

So how then, can we arrive at a judgment regarding Hodrick? We can’t, because again, each player’s experience of him is different. Earlier I implied that Hodrick is clinging to the world, out of horror and alienation in regards to the Mother figure, and that his killing spree is only building his attachments, keeping him fixed to the wheel of incarnation. So what is the difference between his wild manslaughter, and Velka’s own penchant for carnage and lifedrain? Only the intent:

The transformation of relationship can come about through a genuine understanding of the difference between murder and sacrifice. Both kill or suppress energy, but the motives behind them are quite different. Murder is rooted in ego needs for power and domination. Sacrifice is rooted in the ego’s surrender to the guidance of the Self in order to transform destructive, although perhaps comfortable, energy patterns into the creative flow of life. (Woodman 33)

But see, it is only the inner experience of the act that has authority. In my view, Hodrick’s actions are clearly ego-driven, but another player with different exposure to this character could come away with a different impression. And the archetype speaks through the individual encounter itself, not through lore videos, essays, or any other metatext. This is a crucial function of video games that bears repeating and is rarely addressed. Games commonly use the act of killing as a metaphor for the transformation of relationship (the very notion of EXP hinges on that). The unconscious is receptive to these mutations regardless, but the nature of the effect is dependent on the conscious attitude of the player.

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror. Columbia University Press, 1980.

Layton, Bentley, ed. The Gnostic Scriptures. Yale University Press, 1995.

Valborg, Helen. The Raven. Theosophy Trust, 2013.

Woodman, Marion. The Ravaged Bridegroom: Masculinity in Women. Inner City Books, 1990.

[queenofallcorgis]

The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth [Chapter Eight]

Summary: Although the Association of Supernatural Species (yes…A.S.S.) brought together all the various magical beings for conferences they didn’t much mingle. At least not until Phil met Dan. Pastel!Vampire!Phil and Punk!Fairy!Dan

Warnings: Violence, smut, noncon touching in later chapters.

Title is from A Midsummer’s Night Dream

Master list of Previous Chapters

“Well…you are certainly in a pickle,” Louise surveyed the scene, from the dead vampire on the floor to the unconscious fairy on the bed.

 Phil nodded frantically, eyes wide. “Can you help?”

 He had met Louise at a convention as well. She was a witch who worked at the children’s hospital, using her magic secretly to help the most extreme cases. They had become fast friends and Phil had Louise to thank for most of his fashion choices.

 “I don’t think I understand the situation…you killed your maker?” She turned to him with wide eyes.

 “She was hurting him. She was torturing him,” he whispered. “I couldn’t let her do it anymore. I love him.”

 Her eyes softened and she looked down at Dan again. “I’ve never seen a fairy before. I can take him back to my place and patch him up if you want to grab a few of his belongings. We…we can call the authorities later.”

 Phil nodded frantically and Louise gave him a reassuring smile. She placed a hand on Dan’s bare shoulder, closed her eyes, and muttered a few words. The air around them seemed to distort and then they were gone.

 The silence that followed was overwhelming. Phil stepped around the bed to see Clara lying on the floor. When she had found him he had been desperate to forget the horrors he had seen. The celebrations and homecoming had been short lived and soldiers had gone from proud and strong to hollow eyed. Phil remembered how his hands had begun to shake even early in the morning and the only thing that stopped it was enough drinks that he couldn’t remember anything. He would wake up sick with some nameless man and woman.

 He was dying slowly.

 Clara had changed that. She had saved him from that slow death and showed him that there was something worth living for. They had traveled the world and she had held him when the memories had become too much.

 Maybe he had even loved her once but not anymore.

 Carefully, he knelt down and gathered her in his arms before laying her on the bed. Even in death she looked beautiful and a pang settled in his chest.

 “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “But I couldn’t become you.”

 With a shaky breath, he riffled through the overstuffed closet and found a duffle bag. He filled it with various clothes, books, and a 3DS that was sitting on the bedside table. Before he walked out of the room he grabbed a leather jacket and pulled it onto his own arms.

 The leather was soft and worn, smelling of Dan’s cologne and smoke. Phil took a few moments to just close his eyes and breathe, trying to forget the last day.

 This wasn’t like the war. He couldn’t just force himself to forget. Someone depended on him and he couldn’t let him down.

 Phil slung the bag over his shoulder and hailed a cab to take him to Louise’s house.

 By the time he was in her room Dan had been mostly bandaged up. The healing spells were hard at work but Phil knew that an injury caused by another supernatural being would take longer to fix. His neck was bandaged heavily as were his wrists and his chest barely lifted.

 “I can’t give him a blood transfusion because of how different fairy blood is but he’s on a saline drip and glucose supplement,” she nodded at the IV stand. “He should be fine. It was close.”

 Phil dropped the bag by the foot of the bed and sat down next to him. “You’re sure?”

 “He lost a lot of blood. His neck will have a lot of scarring and no amount of magic will fix that. His wing also wont look like it did before. I stitched it up the best I could but it wont be the same.”

 The wing did look a mess. It was obvious that Louise had tried to match up the patterns and colors but it still looked like Dr. Frankenstein had tried a hand at it.

 “It’s all my fault,” Phil whispered, trailing a finger across Dan’s still too pale arm.

 Louise paused and pulled her pink tipped hair back into a high ponytail. Her eyes were soft and sad when she turned to him. “It’s not Phil. You couldn’t have possibly known what Clara was going to do.”

 “I always knew that she thought everyone else was below us,” he mumbled. “You weren’t around then but she was against the formation of the alliance. She believed in natural selection, that if another supernatural creature could be caught that it should be food. She hated the laws protecting others.”

 Louise placed a hand on his back and rubbed it. “But you’re a good guy.”

 “That kind of belief was what led to that bloody war,” he swallowed heavily. “We were born like this but it doesn’t mean we should act like others think we should.”

 Dan was still unconscious but that was almost a blessing. The memory and the fear, betrayal, and panic in his eyes made Phil feel sick again. The idea that he had been the cause of that was almost too much to bear.

 Now he looked peaceful, lashes falling in a graceful half moon across his palid cheeks. If he really pushed it, Phil could imagine that he was just watching him sleep.

 “I contacted the association and told them what happened. They’ll be here shortly to take you into custody,” a chill ran down his back and Louise blinked back a few tears. “I’m sorry…I…”

 “It’s fine,” Phil whispered and scrubbed a hand through his multicolored fringe. “I don’t know what to say. I killed her.”

 Silence followed as Louise continued messing with the equipment. “I’ll take care of him. If you love him this much then he must be something really special.”

 “He is,” Phil felt his heart drop further when there was a knock on the front door.

 Louise gave him another glance before hurrying off. When she returned she was followed by three beings; a vampire, a witch, and a werewolf. They were all dressed neatly in suits and looked like they had never smiled a day in their lives.

 “Philip Lester,” the werewolf spoke firmly. “You have been accused of the murder of your maker and coven leader Clara Woodbridge. Come with us for questioning.”

 “Can I wait for him to wake up?” Hot tears burned in his eyes and made his throat grow tight. “See if he’s okay?”

 “Come with us for questioning,” the werewolf said again, eyes looking like ice.

 The earlier calmness turned into a raging storm and his breath quickened. If he was found guilty he could be burned at the stake and Dan would live the rest of his days hating him. The other vampire grabbed him with strong hands and pulled him to his feet.

 “I’ll make sure he’s okay,” Louise said quickly. “It’s okay Phil, it’ll be okay.”

 His breath continued in panicked gasps as they walked him out to a shining town car out front. Phil was pushed into the back seat and the officials remained silent the entire ride to the headquarters.

 The room he was finally put into was dark and windowless. A metal table and a few metal chairs sat in the middle and he sank down into one.

 He could burn for this.

 The idea of it caused anxiety to claw at his insides. He could burn without seeing Dan’s smile or hearing him laugh. He could burn without holding him in his arms again.

 But…but it was worth it. It was worth it knowing that Dan wouldn’t spend the rest of his shortened life as Clara’s slave.

 “Mr. Lester,” his head snapped up to see a sweet older woman wearing an overly bright purple pantsuit. “My name is Ida Landsing. I am a Harpy with A.S.S. Yes, I know how ridiculous it sounds. I am hip with the kid’s lingo.”

 He would have smiled in any other situation. “You don’t look like a harpy.”

 “And you don’t look much like a vampire,” she nodded towards his pale blue sweater covered in clouds. “Although the jacket helps.”

 “It’s Dan’s,” he mumbled and she nodded.

 “That was the fairy involved yes?” He pursed his lips and nodded his head once. “Well Mr. Lester, do you understand what I do here?”

 “No ma’am.”

 “Harpies once went around the world gathering guilty souls to bring to the underworld. Obviously things have changed over the millennia,” she chucked to herself. “We still have a knack for knowing who has guilt in their hearts and Mr. Lester yours is drenched in it.”

 A shuddering breath escaped his lips and he slumped further down in his chair. “I killed her. I wont lie.”

 Ida nodded, her gaze never faltering. “Fledglings shouldn’t kill their makers. There is a bond between you both to stop yourself from doing that. How did you get past that bond?”

 “Dan. She was hurting Dan and…and I guess that was enough,” Phil shrugged.

 “I understand,” Ida leaned back in her chair. “You understand that you have been charged with the murder of another supernatural citizen, the murder of your maker, the murder of your coven leader, and the drinking of blood from a unwilling supernatural citizen. How do you plead?”

 “You know that answer,” Phil whispered, staring at the smooth tabletop.

 “I know that you don’t feel guilty for the death of Clara Woodbridge,” she said, her voice soft and gentle.

 “No. She deserved it,” a tendril of anger colored his voice.

 “And I agree. She compelled you, she planned on keeping someone prisoner, and she broke many of our bylaws. She would have been burned for her crimes,” Ida glanced down at her clipboards. “So you are guiltless in that crime. Your coven has agreed and they will not charge you for what you have done.”

 The relief that crashed over him made him dizzy.

 “But, I still can see the guilt,” the harpy continued. “What for?”

 Phil swallowed and dug his fingers into the supple leather at his wrists. “I put Dan in danger. I played along with Clara and he was terrified of me. I’m the reason he is hurt. I’m the reason she is dead.”

 Ida was silent for a long moment before reaching across the table and taking his hand. “Love is pain my dear. Love hurts. It is what we do after the hurt that shows us what love really is. It is a far more powerful magic than any of us can hope to control. She is the reason he is hurt and her actions are the reason she died.”

 “How can he ever forgive me?” Phil managed to choke out and the harpy gave him a warm smile.

 “Because he loves you and you love him,” she patted his hand before leaning back and writing something on her clipboard. “I’m going to declare you innocent. I hope you and Mr. Howell have many long, happy years together.”

 She placed a warm hand on his back and led him to the door. Phil felt almost like he was in a daze, stumbling along in front of her. The clean modern halls of the association headquarters were almost blinding after being in that dark room.

 He was free.

 He was going back to Dan.

[dachi-chan25]

Riverdale Meta? Theories?

So @lostinafictionaluniverse made some amazing questions about the finale and what’s to come to next season, and this is my attempt at guessing/figuring out the answers so here I go:

-Who the fuck was Cliff Blossom doing business with in Montreal?

A: Well I think it’s pretty obvious it’s Hiram Lodge (aka Daddy Dearest) not only because FP’s comment to Hermione in episode 8 but also for the conversation Archie overheard at episode 9 where Penelope and Clifford mention then were the ones who sent him to jail and when Hermione and Ronnie discover the Blossoms sent a monthly income to Hiram.

Now my prediction as to what was the business about I think it was something crooked but not the drugs, my guess is that Hiram tríed to play Clifford as he did with Ethel’s dad (and probably many others) but being just as dishonest as him, Cliff managed to turn things around and send him to jail, or maybe they really were partners and Clifford dug up some shit on Hiram and sent him to jail to have the business all to himself.

-

Why the fuck did Cliff Blossom kill Jason? (yeah yeah I know – bcos Jason wanted to expose his business, but I need more than just a narrative that emerged!)



A: So a theme very prominent in the Blossoms (and in Hal Cooper who is also a Blossom xD) was the legacy and the importance of keeping the name of the family in a high and important place, Cheryl was the black sheep because her parents see her as someone that causes trouble (too volatile, too emotional, too needy, in resume weak) in contrast they have their golden boy: Jason. Penélope gives a pretty accurate description of the father-son relationship they have on episode 12: “He (Cliff) was grooming Jason to be his heir!” that’s pretty telling tbh, she didn’t say ‘he was his son’ or ‘he loved him’ but make an emphasis on Jason’s role in the family and their status quo among the Blossoms that we also get to see on episode 9 with their sticky maple ritual and the whole coven/vampire from Twilight look from the board an insight about the Blossoms as a family, as soon as Jason was dead they came to Riverdale to put pressure on Cliffy-boy to choose a new heir among them, that’s why they put on the whole Archie/Cheryl power-couple façade, to mantain the highest position among the family/business/

Now we have Jason, who was dating Polly (that bothered Hal more than the Blossoms of course because ‘ewwww incest’ but the Blossoms see it as ‘those babies are more pure Blossom than anything’ #I’m kinshaming you Penelope) which was not entirely good with his parents (they still don’t like the Coppers) but it’s really inconsecuential and they don’t try to separate them at the beginning, until Jason tells them Polly is pregnant at that moment they cared about their image and of course this wasn’t in their plans! Jason was supposed to finish school, go to collage and then take over the business, what do they do? Well according to what we’re told by Polly and her statement to Sheriff Keller they ordered him to break up with her, and he did (but I think he did so to pretend and gain some time to come up with a plan) for a short time, then they got engaged in secret with Nana Rose as their witness/supporter, I think by then he already had the idea of faking his death, but everything goes wrong, he ends up dead and Polly with the Sisters of the quiet Mercy.

Now in FP’s statement he says Jason went to him for a transport and money, which concides with what Trev tells to Betty in their ‘date’ Jason distanced himself from his friends at school and started selling his things, now I think as careful as Jay-Jay might’ve been, Penelope or Clifford were bound to notice the missing stuff and the wierd attitude, from there it was easy to suppose why, and that’s when Clifford confronted him, we know from Cheryl this was the day before they faked his death at the Sweetwater River, by then I guess Jason was too confident about getting away that he told his dad the things he always wanted to say but never dared in resume I think he told him he wasn’t going to direct the company ever, and not only that he threatens to expose him (the drug business) if he doesn’t let them (Jason and Polly) get away

I think Clifford had someone spying on Jason, and from there he knew about his plan of eloping and of his deal with FP, at frist Clifford confronts him to try to convince him not to let down the family and all that jazz, but when Jason refuses and on top of that threatens him, he loses it.

He indirectly warns the Coopers about Polly’s plans, and trusts that Hal’s hate and Alice’s need to keep up with appearances will keep Polly out of the way, he kidnapps Jason and takes him to the basement of the bar (we know Mustang was his acomplice) there he makes Jason spill the beans about how much he knows/what prove he has/ whom else knows about daddy’s secret business (in the video Jason was in pretty bad shape but I don’t think it was Cliff I think Mustang was the one to 'soften the boy’ for the interrogation) I’m thinking at this point Clifford was still giving him the chance to put this whole thing behind and retake his place as heir and maybe even help him support Polly or some other shit, Jason refused and Clifford was running Out of options, he couldn’t keep Jason there forever, and couldn’t let him get away and expose him, also every one in town already believed him dead, they even had a funeral for him! So his only option was to kill him.

I think he decided to do it himself because he thought a Blossom can only die at the hands of a Blossom, and it works as a parallel for grandpappy Blossom killing his own brother.

Why the fuck did he kill himself? (consumed by guilt and shame – yeah, yeah – tell me something I can believe)



A: Well what options did he have? Either way he was gonna loose the business and go to jail, the family would be let in disgrace, he killed himself, I think, to preserve the little pride he had and in that way he wouldn’t had to face the consequences for his actions, I mean can y'all imagine Clifford Blossom in jail? That pretentious fuck wouldn’t be able to endure it (and I don’t think Penélope would have helped him, all in all she truly seemed to love Jason, or at least she cared more for him than for Cheryl) and maybe it had to do with Hiram getting out of jail too, we know that even from inside Hiram had connections who knows what he could do to Clifford once he was in jail and Hiram free.

Who the fuck is the local component of Blossom’s business? (And it’s not the Serpents, I believe you FP)



A: Yeah I believe in FP too, but still I’m not 100% sure none of the Serpents had deals with Cliffy (look at Mustang for example) so maybe some are Serpents but again he must have had other people I think he disguises them as something else a motorbike gang is too obvious, and in Riverdale everything is about appeareances.

Who the fuck wrote “Go to Hell, Serpent Slut” on Betty’s locker? Where the fuck did they get pig’s blood? And a voodoo Betty doll?

A: Alice gives us a hint about this: she says some people have been attacking the Southside residents for the whole Jason ordeal and she wouldn’t publish Betty’s article because she doesn’t want her to get hurt. We can conclude it was the son/daughter of some of these that did that to Betty. But I think that was a red herring, come on guys who has a feaud with Betty? Ding,ding! Chuck FUCKING Clayton, so he tríed to get back at Betty on Jughead’s party but he utterly failed (and got punched and kicked out of the Andrews house) not only that but after solving/helping solve Jason’s murderer she became some sort of untouchable heroine (which just sucked for him cause it made harder to get her and he had to be sneaky) that is until Betty publish es her article, that gave him the perfect opportunity to scare her and publicy humilliate her at a very tense moment (aka Riverdale’s Civil War) and make other students see her in a bad light, honestly I also think Ethel was involved in the vodoo doll thingy after all we never really knew what they were talking about when Betty confronted him and wasn’t it weird that if Ethel was accosed by him she would defend him against Betty? Also who the hell told Chuck and Cheryl about the birthday party for Juggie? They sure as hell weren’t invited, we know none of the core four did it (Archie and Cheryl had a fallout, Verónica resented her family for sending her dad to jail, Betty was always bullied by her not to mention the Thing with Polly, Jughead didn’t even knew about it) Kevin would have never done something like that plus he seems not to be friends with Cheryl, Joaquin doesn’t even know them and that lefts is with Ethel who is very shady (at least about Chuck) and seemed very gleeful when Betty lost control so that’s my theory.

As for the blood, well I don’t know where they got it, but it’s a callout to the movie/book 'Carrie’ if you haven’t watched/read I’ll try to summarize it here: Carrie is a teenager with telekinetic powers, she is described as wierd by all the people (this is due to her very religious mother education that made Carrie very shy) and is constantly bullied by the girls in her school. So one of the girls feels bad about a particular nasty thing they do to her and decides to help her, Susie ask her boyfriend to ask Carrie to the dance and he agrees, at the same time other of the girls (Chris) is banned from the dance cuz she refused to take her punishment for bullying Carrie, and when she catches wind of Susie’s plan she decides to intervene, she arranges the votes so that Carrie and her date be King and Queen of the dance and when they go up the stage she pours a bucket of blood over her, this destroys Carrie because she had to stand up to his mom to go to the dance (the frist time she defies her) and was actually having fun and making friends (she was normal) so when she thinks people are laughing at her (just like her mom said they would) she loses it and kills everyone with her powers.

We, and Chuck, know Betty is struggling with her mental health and I think the pig blood was a way to taunt her about it, indirectly comparing her with Carrie.

Why the fuck is Mayor McCoy branding Archie as hero? Up until the point he saved Cheryl, Archie hardly did anything - it was all Betty.

A: Because he is the convinient choice, the investigation of Jason’s murderer was entirely a job of Betty and Jughead, the mayor can accept Betty as a heroine but she can’t be the public image of the safety and peace in Riverdale for her family’s involvement in the case (the whole Polly/Jason stuff) and she can’t absolutly sell Juggie as a hero, he doesn’t look the part, his dad is a known alcoholic and in jail, he was homeless, has a criminal récord (in the juvvie) and so on, not exactly Riverdale: the town with pep! Ideal hero.

Archie (Ronnie and Kevin too) was obviously with them when they turned in the USB proving FP’s innocence, and as we know after Jason’s death Archie became Riverdale High’ new golden boy (neither Mayor McCoy nor Sheriff Keller know about Miss Grundy) he lives on the good side of Riverdale, plays football and is popular for his music.

They try to sell the image that everything is as it was before, a place of innocence and peace were justice always triumphs and who is better to represent it than the perfect all-American boy and the girl next-door??

Anyway it’s pretty shitty and fake af, I’m so glad my girl Betty called them out on their shit.

Who the fuck are attacking the Serpents? Does that mean Juggie will be harmed too? (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)

A: Alice says that they’re people trying to blame someone on the change of Riverdale (this losing of innocence that is the theme of Juggie’s novel) now Clifford killed himself so he can’t be the target and Penélope and Cheryl are victims in all of this, and the next who they find some guilt on the whole Jason affair is FP, yes he didn’t kill the boy, but by cleaning the scene and all that jazz he made it harder to resolve the case, now this combined with the prejudice they seem to have towards the Southside… Boom! A fucking civil war, before they could ignore the Serpents but now their righteousness and their fear that something worse happens to their kids or themselves makes them want to 'protect’ their town.

As for the hurting part, well Alice said there had been attacks, which is vague af, but I think it can go in 2 ways: They have been attacking shouthsiders for going up north, and these people they attacked are not a part from the Serpents (I mean it’s illogical af to believe half a town is a gang) I believe these cuz Juggie himself says about Southside High that it’s a normal highschool with all sorts of people, so I think the same applies to the whole Southside. Also the Serpents seem to always go on groups, I mean the only Serpents we saw alone in the Northside were FP (with Fred and on Juggies bday) and Joaquín (he was posing as Kevin’s boyfriend) plus I don’t see some suburban mommy or daddy (except Alice but she is an ex-Serpent so) attack a gang member on their own, so probably the people that got attacked was extra innocent.

My second option is that the attacks refer to vandalism, y'know some sneaky suburban moms and dads going together to the Southside in the middle of the night and leaving 'cute’ messages like the one on Betty’s locker or trashing the trailers a bit.

Maybe a mix of both?

As for Juggie I think that he will be a essential to the conflict between North&South Riverdale, and he will (with Betty’s aid) end the conflict, I don’t think he’ll be attacked I mean the Serpents sure as hell are gonna keep an eye out for him after FP sacrifized himself defending their innocence, but maybe he’ll get hurt in other way (I mean the writers hurt Jughead at every opportunity they have) still I think beanie boy can manage just fine.

How much is Cheryl’s spider brooch worth? Does that mean Juggie is rich now? Or will Cheryl ask for it back since she’s not dead?

A: Well she makes it sound pretty damn expansive but Cheryl is extra af and tends to exaggerate, so maybe not rich but with some money. I don’t think she asked for it, but I have the hc that Juggie gave it back after they rescued her (idk how expensive it is she gave it to him because she was gonna commit suicide that’s terrifying and I don’t think he would want to keep it) oh I think Ronnie did the same with Cheryl’s shirt.

Where the fuck is Nana Rose? Did Cheryl get her out before Thornhill burned?

A: Cheryl got Nana out of the house even before she drenched the place in gasoline, the twins seemed to be genuinely fond of Nana so for me is impossible to think she would let her burn, so she took Nana somewhere safe before.

Where the fuck are the Blossoms going to live now? At their closest relatives’ - the Coopers? (*incoherent sounds*)

A: LMAO I almost chocked can you imagine Hal, Alice and Penélope under the same roof??? *shudder* nah the Blossoms are loaded and they surely have other properties if not Cheryl’s spider’s brooch surely can buy them a house xD.



Why the fuck couldn’t Social Services find a foster home for Juggie in Riverdale so he could keep going to Riverdale High? (I know, cos there wouldn’t be drama – but really, why?)



A: I mean it surely was for the drama, but let’s think about it from an insider’s pov, so before anything the Social Worker must have talked and researched his mom (I’ll expand on it in the next question) and of course she must have went to see Mr. Wheaterbee, now remember on episode 12 he wanted Jughead to finish the semester from home because of the backlash he could potentially recieve about his dad being the killer, consider that the Social Worker has to have the child’s best interest in mind, of course I think she tríed to find something in the Northside frist (that’s where Jughead’s friends are and what he knows) but do y'all think that someone would take FP’s son in when all of them are prejudiced little fucks, surely when a Southside family offered the social worker realized it was the best for him.

Why the fuck is Juggie’s mom over-extended? (Whatever that means – Sure, him being at Southside beats him going to Toledo, but shouldn’t she be assuming responsibility for him?)



A: okay I won’t pretend to understand how Social Services work in the USA but I did some research. Over extended means to obligate (oneself) to do more activities, work, etc., than one has time for or can accomplish well. In context we can safely deduce Gladys can’t afford to support both JB and Juggie, in that case Social Services would ask for her permition to place him at a foster home which I assume she gives. I hope the next season explains Gladys’s apparent unatachment to her son.

Does a DUI really disqualify Fred from being a foster parent to Juggie?

A: Yes, Social Services must have the child’s best intrest in mind, and someone who drives drunk doesn’t scream responsible to anyone but Fred said his financial problems also influenced in him being ruled out as Juggie’s foster dad.



Why the fuck does Ronnie keep wearing her pearls if she’s so disapproving of her daddy dearest?



A: Appereances, she realized openly confronting her father can hurt her and her mom, and my hc is that is to remind herself to never let her father sway her or buy her again but who knows really? Maybe is the #aesthetic.

Why the fuck is Hermione being a shady bitch when she had a mini nervous breakdown just in the last episode when Hiram’s bag was found with Mustang?



A: The nervous breakdown was because she was scared of losing everything again (the SoDale is all they have left) I mean she wanted to leave town to avoid that, but then she calmed down she probs talked to Hiram aka the King of Shade moved some influences (I mean they already bought Mayor McCoy once) and it’s a pattern with Hermione really, everything that has to do with Hiram reverts her to her old shady self and now that he is coming back it only intensifies.

Why the fuck can Penelope be so cold and unfeeling? (Sidenote: I hate her)



A: But is she really? At Jason’s funeral she almost loses her composture with Archie, and when Cheryl asked about Jason and Cliffy’s discusion she got real mad, at the Riverdale Taste she bitch slapped Alice for her article on Jason’s autopsy… So no she is not unfeeling nor completely cold (but yes she is pretty hateful) I think her apparent nonchalance about everything has to do with being the Blossom’s clan matriarch, remember when that creepy woman at the Maple tapping mocked Cheryl for crying at the funeral or when Penelope banned her from speaking at the funeral? That’s because as I said before Cheryl was too emotional and in the Blossom clan that equals to weakness.

Being Clifford’s wife surely taught her that, at the funeral she was composed (with the exeption of that little slip with Archie and when Cheryl gives her speech) with Cheryl she loses patience quickly I think because in her fucked up way Penelope tríes to teach her to supress her emotions and stop showing weakness in the family.

Another thing I noticed is the weird obsession/pride she has for the Blossom name, and it makes me think perharps she is part of a smaller branch of the family which would make her and Cliff relatives, this would explain why she seems so pelased about Jason/Polly and the babies.

Now after Clifford killed himself she knows they automatically lost their supremacy as the Alpha Blossoms, the board is surely gonna sack them and I’m guessing she is doing some control damage and she needs to be in control of her emotions in front of them. Clifford told her they smelled blood from miles away and they would surely leave her and her daughter on the street at the frist chance they get

She can’t deal with Cheryl because her daughter’s open grief reminds her of her own and that is not what she needs right now (that is still super shitty btw I’m not saying she is not awful but she must have a reason to act that way)

Does Alice know where her son is? What does quiet adoption mean? Was it anonymous?

A: I don’t think so, when someone gives a baby for adoption you sign a legal form that prohibits you for looking for the baby/parents 'til he/she is 18, now I think if Alice knew where the baby was she would have try to get him back (she is a very impulsive woman and also pretty fierce when it comes to her babies) I suppose quiet adoption is not giving details about the mother of the child and all that jazz, and yes it was definitely anonymous Alice and Hal (but mainly Hal) didn’t want to lose the perfect couple image they had going on. The Coopers care too much about what people says/thinks about them.

She went to the sisters when she was four months pregnant? Did no one know? Wouldn’t she have started to show?

How the fuck did Alice and FP both go to Riverdale High when they were from Southside? Did the school district thing not exist back then?

A: That really depends on the woman, my aunt was already 9th months pregnant with my lil’ cousin and she had a little bump that could very well pass as tummy or bee compleately hiden if she was wearing sweaters, so I don’t think it really showed a not on Alice’s case. I doubt she told anyone but Hal. Well maybe because their parents wanted them to attend RH but I really don’t understand how the whole school district thing works, here in Mexico City we make an application for a certain number of options of highschools we would like to attend, we make an exam and based on the point we make we are accepted or not (the best schools have a higher requirement) so if anyone under stands how it works please explain it.

Does Jug not have his cellphone anymore? Why is he always calling people from phone booths?



A: Yes he does, in episode 12 at the beginning Archie tells Betty he is been calling and sending him texts, what I think is that more often than not he doesn’t have the money to afford a plan or credit and he uses the booths instead.

Do those Serpents all know Juggie from before? (Sidenote: He didn’t know Joaquin and Joaquin seemed to be FPs most trusted sidekick)

A: I don’t think so, Jughead never really approached his dad when he was with the Serpents and 'til episode 13 we have no interaction with Jughead and the Serpents, probs FP wanted to keep his son out of all that stuff.



Why the fuck did they not call 911 when Cheryl was drowning and decide to just ineffectively scream into space?

A: The moment they realized what she meant to do they were horrified they had no way of knowing if it was too late or if they could still save her and their frist instinct was to look for her, then it was a matter of acting as fast as they could to save her, who knows how long it would have taken anyone to arrive?





Did Hermione say something to Cheryl after Ronnie left? Is that why she decided to burn Thornhill?

A: I don’t think so, she and Ronnie were going to go to the Jubilee and what would she tell her 'Burn'em all!!!’ like mad King Aerys?? Nah, besides deep down Hermione must know it’s not Cheryl’s fault what her parents did to Hiram.





How much is FP still not telling? (I don’t buy that Jason came to peddle drugs for him, I still think he asked his help to expose his dad, Jason planned on getting kidnapped and they were planning to get a confession on tape, but things went horribly wrong and FP is languishing in jail because he feels morally responsible for what happened to Jason)

A: I actually do believe Jason went to FP as he says in his statement, making a lie believable implies mixing up some truth in there, and of course he ended up taking the whole blow for Clifford’s crime, and I genuinely think he said all he knows he has no reason left not to, Cliff is dead and Jughead is relatively safe, but him being in jail is finally attoning for all his bad decisions as he tells Juggie and is another step in his path of redemption/cleaning up his act for good.



Why the fuck did no one think to stay with Cheryl after she fell in the river? (They should’ve taken her to the hospital and left her there. Archie went there for his hand, didn’t he?)

A: I think it was Cheryl herself who refused their company, her near death experience and her creepy Jason vision must have given her the idea of burning down Thornhill as a rebirth and purifying action, still I’m guessing at least Verónica stayed with her to make sure she warmed up and that she was gonna be okay.



What did Fred mean when he said Hermione was at a crossroads too? Like she had to choose whether to be good or evil??

A: I think he said so because Hermione has the option of being honest and make the right decision or go back to be a shady business-woman along her shady husband.





WHY THE FUCK DID THE SERPENTS HAVE TO CHOOSE THAT EXACT MOMENT TO KNOCK ON FPs TRAILER??? (15 SECONDS INTO THE HOTTEST MAKEOUT I EVER SAW AND SECONDS AWAY FROM JUGGIE’S HANDS AND LIPS TRAILING OVER LORD KNOWS WHERE NEXT!)



A: Well of course was to stop Jughead and Betty from going all the way and set-up the conflict/tension between them in season two, but from the show’s perspective IDK WHY PRECISELY THEN!? SURELY THEY COULD WAIT TIL MORNING TO GIVE HiM THE JACKET!!!

Where the fuck were these Serpents when Juggie was alone and homeless? Plus they trashed the only place he called home and earned a living at with FP as their ringleader?



A: Because yes Jughead was FP’s son but he was not a part of them, of the Southside community, also if FP was okay with it why the hell would they intervene in his personal stuff.

Just how pregnant is Polly?

A: So presumably she was one month or so in July, next hint we have is on episode –: the maple tapping, according to my research the maple syrup season starts in February so by then Polly is 8 months along give or take (she can be Seven) so the mystery of Jason must have been resolved in a month or less and we’ll surely see her giving birth to the twins next season (that s if the writers don’t play along with the timeline)

Also I almost broke my FUCKING head trying to figure out how the tapping (February) was the episode before Juggie’s birthday (October) but then I remembres RAS saying that was kind of a stand alone episode and maybe that’s why it doesn’t fit the timeline.

Anyway I tried.

How the fuck is Hermione mixing alcohol with Valium? (Sounds really dangerous)



A: It is pretty damn dangereous, mixing them can produce:Confusion,disorientation,accidents,sedation,stumbling,ddizziness,nausea,loss of consciousness, adicction,brain damage,coma and death.

What makes me uncomfortable is how flippant Veronica sounds about her mom doing such a dangereous thing (I get it she is angry but this is very serious stuff) and goes on her merry way to fuck Archie like maybe check up on your mom frist????

What the fuck was the “something serious” Fred was gonna say to Archie at Pop’s at breakfast? (It sure as hell wasn’t about staying away all night, cos he seemed pretty chill with that)

A: Fred is always super chill about Archie’s sexual exploits tbh, I think he was gonna talk to him about Hermione trying to buy his share and about Hiram.



Why the fuck did Fred get up from his booth to face the gunman?

A: To divert the attention to himself and avoid Archie trying to be the hero (he shakes his at Archie, he ignores his dad and tríes to make a movie and then Fred stands up).



How the fuck did Fred manage to get shot when we saw a moment ago that the gun was pointed at Archie?

A: Well Fred is Archie’s dad, he must have jumped to protect his son, adrenaline can make you move real fast.



What about those fucking guns? Grundy’s, Alice’s and now the gunman’s? Are they the same? Are they different?

Who the fuck sent the gunman?

A: I found a clear picture of Grundy’s and Alice’s and they are indeed different, even if they are both revolvers, Grundy’s looks a bit older and from the design I think it’s a Colt, the muzzle of Alice’s gun is slightly larger and hers looks like a Smith maybe. i couldn’t find a good picture of the gunman’s weapon so I can’t be sure the model or type of handgun it is, but it’s most definitely different from Alice’s or Grundy’s. I don’t think anyone sent him, as Juhead said this was the final nail on the coffin of Riverdale’s innocence/safety, when there are conflicts/tension in a community crime is sure to follow.



Where did all that money come from, that was strewn on the floor next to Fred as he lay bleeding?



A: It was some of the money the gunnman tried to steal, I mean he had Pop at gun point and only one free hand to get the money into the bag, and he was crearly trying to hurry up, so after he shots Fred he gets scared (which probably means he is not a very practised thief) and runs with the money he has leaving on the floor the rest.

Wow so this is pretty long but I hope y'all find it not so boring. I would like to read more theories from the fandom guys!!