#i really don't want anyone to take my own opinion and speculation as fact

[greyias]

Would you be willing to explain the h1b goblin mode hostages to people? Your summaries have been very clear and easy to understand and with the trump poll has completely over shadowing everything the h1b workers have already been buried. A round up laying out exactly what this is and why it’s appalling could help keep it going.

I do understand if you feel too burnt out and are just done tho. But goddamn, any time we start to think someone can’t get any lower they shove a bunch of hostages in and tell them to start digging

Sorry, I'm really not the best person to explain it, mostly because my understanding of the US immigration system is minimal at best. (Mostly limited to the experiences of my brother's ex-wife, and a few coworkers, as my company has a few employees its sponsored over the years. I am also not a lawyer by any stretch of the imagination, I'm just a video editor that sometimes has too much time on her hands in between projects). And I basically cut off my nose to spite my face, so I can't really do any proper round-ups past this morning (and I'm kind of burned out on that too tbh.)

So, please take all of this with a grain of salt.

In the legal sense of the law, they're not hostages. Technically, and I do need to stress this is in a technical sense, they can "choose" to leave their employer at any time. But it's a choice with a lot of baggage, and depending on their circumstances/finances/country of origin, the choice to leave might be very fraught.

The unfortunate side effect of that is people with this kind of visa are basically sponsored by their employer. From my understanding (which may be wrong), if they are fired or choose to leave, their ability to stay in the country is in jeopardy unless they find another employer willing to sponsor them. Which is likely why most of those remaining didn't take the three months severance that was on the table earlier this week. They live here, and its possible they have family members whose visas are tied to theirs.

I don't know the specifics of any of the individuals remaining at Twitter, but I can imagine there is likely at least one case of someone who has been working there for years. It's even possible they're working their way to getting a permanent residency visa so they have the freedom to change jobs in the future. Most people on this type of visa are highly skilled, which is why employers usually will pay the extra $ for all of the bureaucratic back end. The American immigration system is a nightmare to navigate, even for countries that have easier barriers of entry, lbr white countries, ie: Canada (which is where my brother's ex-wife immigrated from.)

Most of these workers have built a life over here, and at Twitter specifically, within less than thirty days their ability to not be deported out of the home they've made for themselves, has suddenly been upended by one petulant rich boy. A company that was staffed at over 8500 in October is down to a number that we don't actually know, but could be in the hundreds (or less). Those remaining are now probably being tasked with the impossible, maintaining a codebase, servers, and equipment they have zero operational knowledge of. And the moment something inevitably goes catastrophically wrong, it's likely someone who has had to take on extra duties/responsibilities will be fired as a scapegoat.

NOW. We don't know how many of the remaining workers at Twitter are here on visa, but the speculation that I've seen is it's a large percentage.

The outrage started building from this:

Please note, the ParikPatelCFA account is likely a "parody" account from what I've been able to determine.

So, with the idea that there is a lot of assumptions built into all of this, if any of the remaining workers at Twitter HQ are there under a H1B visa, who have not found another employer to sponsor them and help them stay in the country (which will also be at risk if the company goes belly up as Elno seems hellbent on running it into the ground out of petty spite), some people in this position might feel that they have no option other than to cater to the demands of a petty manbaby.

And when you look at the timeline of just this past week, it becomes absolutely insane and infuriating. On Tuesday they were given 24 hours to sign a fucking Google Doc to try and change the terms of their employment (which while is probably highly illegal, you have to have to jump through legal hoops to deal with that), locked everyone out of the building on Wednesday night and told them not to come back until Monday, then within the span of 12-15 hours said "JUST KIDDING GET YOUR ASS BACK IN HERE. FLY IF YOU HAVE TO", demanded in person meetings with HellBoss, and then, because these people had signed over to being "extremely hardcore" basically weren't allowed to leave until said HellBoss decided they were all done with "coding"* 1:30am.

If they decided not to cave to his whims and like, be with their loved ones or something stupid like that, he might decide to fire that individual. Maybe over Twitter, as he is wont to do. And according to the OH SO LEGAL (right) Google Doc, they signed away their right to the 90 day severance that everyone else got.

* - if you can consider scribbling your entire website's fucking architecture on a white board as coding. Also of note, so many critical staff are gone, it's possible there's no one actually ensuring security there anymore. I would say he's begging for a black hat hacker to take the whole place down, but who fucking knows anymore

So in summary of a very bad explanation: if any of the remaining employees at Twitter are there on a H1B visa, they technically have the right to leave employment at any time. However, they might possibly be risking deportation and feel compelled to work long, borderline illegal hours, be asked to take on job duties they haven't been trained or prepared for, and in general be treated like absolute shit and at any moment have to dance to the tune of Rejected Bond Villain.

You will see a lot of Elno fanbois screaming about technicalities. Technically, it's not indentured servitude. Technically, they're not being held hostage. But the reality of the situation is that for any remaining employees at Twitter with an H1B Visa is much grimmer. Like any grifter, he targeted the most vulnerable people, rushed them into making a supposedly legally binding decision on their entire future in less time than it takes most people to update their resumes. And many of them likely feel trapped and have nowhere to turn.

And it's fucking despicable.

And this is literally what he's doing to people he's paying. It's not even touching the irreparable harm being inflicted on the disabled communities, black communities, and every other marginalized voice that relied on Twitter to speak their word to power. That's an entire other discussion that I'm even less qualified to speak on than I am on this particular subject (and there are plenty of people talking about it).

And apologies, but I am going to disable reblogs on this, because I really am not qualified to talk about this, and I don't want someone taking my word as gospel because I probably got a lot wrong in the above. Also in all honesty I'm not sure I can take another post taking off to the stratosphere, I can hardly see my notifications as it is.

[halemerry]

hii first of all, i absolutely love your metas on GO s2! your breakdown of the last few minutes of ep6 was really insightful and i love you for your meta about aziraphale and his role as a protector - it is a very astute look into his character and motivations which not a lot of people acknowledge in their theories/speculation after s2.

more to the point of this ask: this is something i've been mulling over and is the only thing that still doesn't make sense to me in ep6. why is crowley so nonchalant, or at least not noticeably worried, about the metatron showing up to the bookshop (a space he is very protective of) and taking aziraphala away for a talk after aziraphale has already been threatened by micheal? throughout the whole season crowley has been extremely protective over aziraphale and is very much aware of the real danger he is in (re: the book of life). this is also right after crowley has returned from heaven and has learned what the metatron was willing to do to gabriel to ensure 'institutional integrity' and that much bigger plans were afoot. i find it hard to wrap my head around his calm demeanor when the metatron enters the scene and takes aziraphale away, even if it's supposedly for a harmless talk. i wonder if you have any thoughts/speculation about this?

(opps this got too long and rambling). i would love to hear your thought but ofc please don't feel pressured to answer :) love your posts about the season and i look forward to reading more from you. have a lovely day!

Hi!! Thank you so much! This ask has had me by the throat basically since you sent it. It sort of touches on some things I already wanted to write about so forgive me if this spirals a bit.

So in a lot of ways I think this is a question that can have a one word answer. But since I do wanna talk about the way the show gives us this answer I actually want to start with Nina. Specifically I want to start with the thing she tells Crowley as Aziraphale’s off with the Metatron.

“You’re the hard bitten one that can’t trust anyone ever again and Mr. Wherever He Is is the soft one that still believes in magic people being basically good and all that."

I’ve talked a little bit about this line before in my meta about the build up to the Confession here because I think it’s important to view from the perspective of how it preps Crowley for the following conversation he’s about to have. But, aside from that, I think it's really important because it's wrong. Nina is describing herself here, not Crowley. She’s projecting her own issues onto him and Aziraphale in the way that she perceives herself relating to them. Crowley himself is actually the one that calls out her trust issues for what they are explicitly. 

Nina doesn’t trust and she sees herself in Crowley far more than Aziraphale both in demeanor and aesthetic so she assumes he doesn’t trust either. But she has it backwards. Because Crowley isn’t hard bitten as much as someone who tries very hard to be perceived as such. And, most importantly in this specific context, Crowley actually trusts quite a bit.

And he nearly always has. Even as far as back as the Starmaker.

Just look at the way that the Starmaker and Aziraphale both talk about interacting with God. Aziraphale is nervous, anxious and pretty much immediately clocks that what the angel that would become Crowley is saying is going to get him into trouble. But the Starmaker? Even upset about the information he’s been given, he remains confident in the fact that it can’t hurt to ask a few questions. He trusts there to be no consequence for expressing an objection. He trusts that his opinion is valued. Even if he ends up wrong here there’s no inclination at all that he thinks his words will be taken inappropriately. And even the Fall itself doesn’t burn this out of him.

We see him trust Aziraphale, the cherub who was supposed to be guarding Eden from things like him, not to smite him on sight. And trusts him enough to not only have a conversation but express his own worries about his own actions. He then approaches Aziraphale like a friend at the Flood and makes no attempt to censor his horror at what is happening there.

Job is the first time we see Crowley act in a way that implies mistrust between them. This is the first time they’ve met since the Flood which I suspect is contributing to his reluctance to be honest with Aziraphale here. They fall into their roles and then very rapidly fall out of them. The fact Azriaphale reaches out to Crowley here is important. As is the moment where Crowley asks Aziraphale if he’s sure. After Aziraphale more or less agrees to be all in something changes. Crowley is surprisingly honest about his view on the world, mostly trusting Aziraphale not to use it against him. He places himself in front of a host of angels, trusting that Aziraphale would not expose him. And then later he’s even more honest, admitting to Aziraphale he’s lonely in an attempt to show solidarity.

The entire Arrangement could not exist without them trusting each other. Crowley’s pushing at Aziraphale’s boundaries is a constant exercise in trusting that Aziraphale will come around eventually - or that he at the very least isn’t about to weaponize the treacherous things Crowley is saying against him. As early as 1601 we see Aziraphale voicing active concern for Crowley's well being. We then see Crowley actively trust Aziraphale with both their safeties in 1941 - whether it’s trusting Azriaphale to save them from the bomb about to drop on them or trusting Aziraphale’s trust in him to not accidentally discorporate him during the bullet catch. They even explicitly talk about their mutual trust in this year during their shades of gray conversation.

During Armageddon Crowley shows up trusting that Aziraphale will help him fix this and once Aziraphale agrees never once seems to consider the idea that Aziraphale would hide anything from him (even when Aziraphale is actively doing so).

He also critically knows that Aziraphale tried to reach God and got himself discorporated as a consequence. And likely specifically knows that Aziraphale talked to the Metatron and came away from that conversation realizing that Heaven would not help him. It's worth noting whether Crowley knows this bit or not that in this conversation Aziraphale not only explicitly questions the Metatron's authority but also uses the conversation to extract information from the Metatron.

Aziraphale leaves this conversation with an active lie to the Metatron and attempts to call Crowley to tell him everything he knew. He then continually chooses Crowley over Heaven. They pick their own side and help stop the world from ending.

And then, all season, Aziraphale keeps proving that the trust Crowley has always had in him is well earned. Aziraphale, even more than Crowley himself, brings up ideas of 'us' and 'our side' and 'our car'.

Aziraphale openly talks negatively of Heaven. Not only does he agree with Crowley's disbelief that Heaven managed to stay in charge sending people like Muriel down, but he even goes a step further, implying that they perhaps never had control over earth in that way.

He also, most critically, immediately and without hesitation, tries to turn down the Metatron's offer to even have a conversation. Aziraphale, who has also just brought a group of archangels to order, reaffirms his lack of interest in Heaven right then and there in front of Crowley. Right when the Metatron has reaffirmed the threat of the Book of Life is out of play.

Crowley trusts Aziraphale. He always has. And more than ever lately Aziraphale has given him proof that he doesn't have to worry about where he allegiances lay.

But. It's also worth noting. I don't think Crowley is as chill as he maybe seems like he is. Yes, he's sprawled out and speaking casually here, but to some degree this is a bit of posturing. He's playing it cool and also not encroaching on the control Aziraphale has managed to wrangle on this situation. But he also doesn't just let them wander off either. As soon as they hit the door, Crowley is out of the chair and walking to the front of the shop to watch them leave through the window. He's keeping tabs as they walk away.

He then banishes Muriel and promptly starts to clean. Now I'm always a little wary to mix Book and Show canon, but I do think his cleaning of the bookshop (as well as him carrying around stacks of books while babysitting Jim) are manifestations of Book!Crowley's tendency to want to stress clean. He's keeping himself busy and gets done too quickly then promptly glances at his watch before throwing himself into the chair with a frustrated noise. He's anxious and stressed the entire time Aziraphale is out of his line of sight.

In other words, Crowley's not actually as calm as he's presenting himself to be. He's trying to take that nervous energy out in a way that doesn't conflict with giving Aziraphale agency. Because he trusts his angel. And that in part is why it hits him so hard when it all blows up in his face.

[redlightspellsdaanger]

Thierry and Nicolas - and Martijn.

Need to write this down to organise my thoughts because I'm seriously fascinated with the dynamics between Thierry and his co-drivers.

Yes, he clearly has a very good relationship with Martijn and they work. But whenever he is asked about him - and in these interviews people tend to pile on the praise even if it's not quite like that - it feels he is almost going out of his way to sound as detached as possible ("you don't have to be friends", "we already end up spending so much time together, so it's best to not mix personal time", etc). It is almost cold. If you didn't see the way they interact you would think they don't mean much to each other.

Which takes us to Le Divorce, as he called it himself - with Nicolas Gilsoul.

The facts are known. Surprise parting only a mere days before the start of the season, both saying it was the other's decision and none of them going into details. Speculation: contractual reasons aka money. (in a very interesting podcast dated January this year Thierry actually said the confidence wasn't there anymore and he alluded to important changes in Nicolas' personal life that had an impact also in their work)

This split could have blown up in the media in a different way but none of them was really pointing fingers in public. To me it came across not as hard feelings - but hurt feelings on both sides.

One looks at how Martijn speaks about Thierry and you can clearly tell he sees him as the boss. My perception from the interaction with Nicolas was completely different. They seemed equals and level in every way.

They joked they were like Yin and Yang, that they complemented each other (N the funnier one, T the more serious; T the less affected by pressure, N would take a few days to turn the page, etc).

But in the middle of it all, you could tell they were extremely close.

With Martijn, instead they highlight how similar they are. In terms of approach, how seriously they take the job. And we have to remember that Martijn is a ray of sunshine but he sat down in the car with Thierry, zero testing together and no shakedown, and drove to a podium in Monte Carlo. He is not there to play.

People get more experienced with age, been there, done that. It's entirely possible Thierry has also changed overtime, older and more seasoned, responsabilities, a lot of pressure and time running out to win.

I can't help but think that the situation with Nicolas marked him deeply.

He doesn't want to be closer to Martijn. Professional aspect aside, he just wants someone who he is at peace with and clicks the same way he does, that they are in synch and that above all, requires no effort. He does not want to have friendship or emotions in the middle because it will make it harder if things go wrong at the job they have to do - he literally said this.

Relationships also work like that. You break-up from a very intense relationship, with incredible highs and devastating lows, and next thing you want is just something...simple.

Funnily enough, T+N remind me of Brocedes in a way. Except that Brocedes is a Hollywood story (full of pettiness, big words, high stakes, a lot of drama) while T+N is an European tale. Understated, lurking in the depths, hurt feelings but no fireworks. Two people who probably didn't stop liking each other but could not continue together.

There's so much I have missed, so this perception I have of the situation could be completely off the mark! It's a work in progress.

If anyone who reads this wants to share their own opinions ideas, I'm all ears!

This is the podcast from January which is quite insightful, on You Tube.

[enden-k]

Hi!! You're free to ignore this if it doesn't interest you ofc but I wanted to talk a bit about the "Aventurine racism" thing. It's mostly people not reading things right and misinterpreting things (as always.)

Aventurine is said to be Sigonian, a race known for being untrustworthy. Now, "Sigonian" is not a reference to any real place or community, in any language. It's entirely made up and exists only within the honkai universe. The reason people started speculating that he is Romani is because he calls himself "Avgin", which the game translates as "honey", and "Avgin" is indeed the romani word for "honey". This, of course, doesn't prove he's Romani or based on any Romani culture at all, but people took it and ran with it.

Ratio called him "Sigonian thrall" and, since Romani people have suffered a lot with slavery, people started freaking out. The thing is, Aventurine is a slave, but it has nothing to do with any Romani inspiration or traits he might have. Aventurine is a slave because he works for the IPC, and a good majority of IPC workers are enslaved to the IPC. He's not even the first character to be shown to have a branding mark. Topaz, who I didn't see anyone complaining about, is also enslaved to the IPC and has the same marking on her neck.

It should also be noted that although both Sparkle and Ratio were racist towards Aventurine, the "race" being discriminated against is entirely fictional and not meant to represent any real ethnicity or culture. We should keep in mind that the story is set in a magical universe, and we have nearly no information on Sigonians or Sigonia-IV.

Personally - and this is just my own theory/interpretation - I don't think Ratio was being racist at all. Judging by how the IPC operates, Sigonia-IV has most likely been destroyed or suffered a great disaster, so his claim of Aventurine being a "Sigonian thrall" could've been just a mention to how he has nowhere to run from the IPC, since his home world is gone. Also, Sparkle is just mean, and not really a trustworthy source of information - her comment on Sigonians being notoriously untrustworthy could be her own personal opinion rather than fact (of course, we don't have enough information on this to claim that it's just her opinion, nor that it isn't.).

Sorry for the long ask! I also have more to say about the possibility of Aventurine being romani if it interests you, based on him being a Su expy.

thanks for explaining this further, i dont really have anything add to it other that i share your interpretation there but i think its interesting for the others to see as well (this entire topic is tiring me out but mostly bc of some ppl taking it to extremes or making stuff up to prove their points. thanks for taking the time to write and explain all this!!)

[allastoredeer]

Hola deer I was wondering what are your thoughts of who might have Al on a leash…I know many people are speculating it to be Lilith, but I feel like There is no way Al had a whole breakdown song just for being Lilith lackeys. True it might be that he just wants his power back, but the idea of Lilith requesting Al to keep an eye on the hotel it’s not that bad per se. The way he reacted when Husk mentioned his leash, that was the face of a man who is terrified to lose control and making a deal with Charlie was his last remedy.

The man is desperate and I can’t stop thinking about the fact the he was already so powerful when he come to hell, And unless he met someone who had a lot of knowledge on the place before dying, I doubt he would have got the title of overlord that quickly. Someone must have helped him right?! Same with Lilith. As the story goes she became so very powerful when she feel in hell, but how? Do u just know what your power are and how to use them when u die? Lilith was the first of her kind to get down there, there was no one she could have taken inspiration from. And what about Al’s shadow? I mean what shadows have in correlation with a deer man with a microphone? To me it would make much more sense if when Al was alive, he got in contact with someone very powerful from hell and made the naive mistake to trust it. He sold his soul and he got shadows to help him through his murders, then Upon dying, he made a second mistake and momentarily forgot about his leash, going around and killing Overlords for his own entertainment, until he was called back to fulfill his end of the bargain.

My speculation is that root must have his soul and maybe even Lilith’s soul, or at least some kinda of deal with her, that got her to be the queen she is remembered as. Heaven is the only place where root eyes are not visible, and it might explain why Lilith disappeared for 7 years in the angel land , same as Al. Maybe Lilith helped Al in exchange of him taking care of his daughter for her or something, and while they were together Lilith might have accidentally influenced Al’s opinion on the king of hell as well, causing the man to hate him at first sight lol

Just imagining Lilith ranting about his ex husband to Alastor, like Charlie did about Vaggie, when they were going to cannibalism town it’s so funny to me.

I like the idea that She's just Luci's long-suffering wine mom friend who is amicably divorced from him and ends up gaining a second man child once Luci and Al get together. I think her being the villain it’s just too cliche and I feel like it would be so much better if she actually start bickering with Lucy, angry talking like two feral cats lol

But let me know what you think😆

I get why a lot of people are speculating that Lilith has Alastor on a leash, and I wouldn't be surprised (or upset) if she does, but I really think it's Roo.

Or, at least, I want it to be her so badly.

I agree that I don't think Alastor would have a mental breakdown over being Lilith's lackey. Honestly, I don't agree with whole idea/concept that Lilith is even the bad guy. Like, I won't be mad if she is, because I love corrupt or morally grey female characters, but I think there is so much more going on them meets the eye.

A lot of people saw that 5 second glimpse of her onscreen during the season finale and kind of just assumed she ditched Hell and her family to live it up in Heaven, but I just...that makes absolutely no sense to me, especially given how she's been depicted in the background during the show. Given what little we know about Lilith, I just cannot see her leaving Lucifer, Charlie, and her entire domain to go fuck around in Heaven, whom I imagine she wouldn't have a very good relationship with, anyway.

And yes! I also massively agree about Alastor getting his power from some kind of source. It was specifically stated that he was toppling Overlords and gaining power faster than anyone ever has before, and from what we can deduce from the show, Alastor has the power to actually kill sinners - which isn't supposed to be possible. The only way sinners are supposed to die is with angelic weaponry.

Not only that, it also hasn't been hinted or implied that anyone else has been able to rip apart souls like he does. As far as we've seen from the other Overlords, the most you can do is own someone's soul.

So we have Alastor over here rising to the top of the food chain almost over night, gaining power at a rapid pace, with abilities that no one else seems to have. Yeah, I 100% believe he made a deal with someone when he first came into Hell, and I think that person was Roo.

I mean, what motive would Lilith have for making a deal with this random sinner who just entered Hell? Out of the hundreds (if not thousands) of sinners who have to be arriving in Hell by the day? What would she have to gain by doing that? What could Alastor possibly offer her that she, the Queen of Hell, can't do herself?

But Roo? She's the Root of all Evil. She doesn't need a reason. She can be evil for the sake of being evil. I can see her picking a random, wide-eyed, recently deceased sinner and giving them the deal of a lifetime - one that she can cash in on later.

And even if it wasn't random, I can see her looking for a lackey to give power to, to then use as a pawn farther down the road. I can see her being cunning and careful with who she picks, and I 100% believe she would see Alastor's insecure ass and know that guy would do anything to get power (the faster the better), especially if he only just died and didn't yet understand the full scale and structure of Hell, and how serious those kinds of deals are.

(And I can also see Alastor making a deal with Roo when he was alive and then suffering the consequences of it when he died. That's be super cool.)

As for why, well, Roo obviously doesn't have much sway in Hell, despite being the Root of all Evil, because we don't see or hear about her at all throughout the show. If she had power over any of the 7 Rings, we would've seen it or heard about it. In fact, she's only been alluded to once, and that was in the first episode, during the opening sequence of Charlie explaining Hell's origin story.

Still, Roo has to interact with Hell in some way, considering she's the personification of evil and this is THE place for wickedness and corruption. I just don't think she has power or dominion there. At least, not yet ;)

I think she's been cooking up a scheme for a while and what we're seeing in season 1 is her slowly putting the game pieces into place. I think she has Alastor on a leash (that she's had him on a leash for a while but she's only just now using it), and I think she's also the reason Lilith is in Heaven.

I mean, when you think about it, of course she would want Lilith out of the picture if she's trying to make a power grab in Hell. Lilith was the one running the place. She thrived in Hell. She empowered it. So getting her out of the picture makes perfect sense, and who would even think to look for Lilith in Heaven? The very last place you'd expect her to be?

I don't know, the whole idea that Lilith is just a big bad evil women who doesn't care about her family and hates Hell and wants nothing to do with either of them just...it doesn't sit right. It doesn't make sense.

I do think that Lilith and Alastor have met each other in some way, though. The both of them disappearing for 7 years, at the same time, is too much of a coincidence (I want her and Alastor to be besties :3) and I just KNOW that there is more to Lucifer and Lilith's divorce than people give it credit for. I want those juicy details. I want a full blown argument between them so we can get that tea.

But if Lilith does end up being one of our antagonists in season 2, I won't be upset, cuz like I said, give me those morally corrupt women. They'll be loved and appreciated here.

Still, my gut says its Roo. And even if Roo isn't directly holding Alastor's leash, I think she's involved in some way and that she's going to be coming into play eventually. She seems like the type who would manipulate things from the shadows, using people as pawns, and playing a game that no one else even realizes they're playing. I want her to be a psychotic little mastermind trash lady.

I neeeeeeed it.

[silicon-tmblr]

Do go off about the logical fallacies in Chapter 4, I always thought something was off about it. I'm curious to know your thoughts

Oh... if you insist... (currently bouncing off the walls with excitement ask??? I love answering ask—) ahem.

I suppose I can categorize my perceptions of Chapter 4 into levels of objectivity, with the highest being "I'm sure anyone with reading comprehension can understand the point I'm making and how this logic plays out" and the lowest being "I'm just petty about this"

Disclaimer: I'm a Kokichi liker but I kinda bash the guy in here. I insist it's out of a sense of love, as in "why the hell did you do that you little—" (my point is maybe don't read this if you're too too attached to Kokichi and don't like the insinuation that he did some bad stuff. Generally I assume this is a safe topic though.)

Let's start with my most objective take!

The murder setup was kinda garbage (might rephrase this heading later) (I didn't. fight me)

I know this sounds like opinion but hear me out. This is where the phrase "logical fallacy" really comes into play.

Let's outline Chapter 4 real quick. Miu is planning to kill Kokichi, and obviously Kokichi doesn't want this.

What are Kokichi's options from here? Apparently, one of them is reusing the motive from earlier in the chapter (the truth of the outside world) on Gonta to convince him to kill Miu under the guise of a mercy kill plan. This way, Kokichi doesn't die. This is what happens.

There's a lot to be speculated about regarding Kokichi's motivation for enacting this plan, but let's take the view that, first and foremost, Kokichi did not want to die to Miu.

With that out of the way, let's move on to the next piece of this defective puzzle: Miu's motive. We can cover this in two parts:

Part 1: Miu wants to kill Kokichi to escape the academy.

We can assume this much because she tried to set up a murder that would be near impossible to solve, as she would have had power over all the information available regarding the workings of the virtual world.

Kokichi makes the point in trial 4 that Miu coerced everyone to enter the virtual world so that she could manipulate the setting of the crime completely. She wanted to set up a murder that looked like it could only have happened in real life, while withholding the information that would reveal it was possible in the virtual world.

Kokichi was the only one who knew quite a few of the finer details that allowed case 4 to be solved, and she planned to kill him anyway, meaning these details wouldn't have come to light. Since her intent was an unsolvable murder, she wanted to get away with it and escape.

Part 2: For what reason did Miu want to escape?

We can see that she wanted to change the outside world with her inventions based on her own words in Chapter 4. In a flashback of the moments before she was killed, seen in the Chapter 4 post-trial, she explains this explicitly.

Her belief is that the outside world can be saved if she can only escape back out into it. She believes this is her duty as the Ultimate Inventor.

And finally, we reach the point that the logical fallacy falls into place. If we first assume that Kokichi Oma is a cunning individual who plans things out meticulously and considers all possibilities (thus allowing him to do ridiculously clever things like plan his own, truly unsolvable murder and write an entire script of dialogue for Kaito to use in trial 5), then we can assume that his actions in Chapter 4 are reflective of what he views as his optimal plan.

And yes, in-game evidence shows that we are, in fact, to believe that Kokichi Oma is inhumanly smart and analytical. A script. A SCRIPT, with lines for every possibility he could possibly envision. It's a freaking tome of borderline clairvoyance ahksfwosfawei (as you may notice I do not like the existence of Kokichi's script. A SCRIPT. I may be a Kokichi liker but am I really supposed to believe he's a freaking clairvoyant????? like can't you clairvoyant the end of the killing game bro????? and I adfkaweoiefdfshkj)

See, the thing is... Kokichi's optimal plan, having Gonta murder Miu... is... not... optimal...

There's an alternative solution. All the pieces are in place for it to work. And the salt in the wound, the twist of the knife...

...Is that Kokichi himself already knew the mechanism I'm about to propose.

If Kokichi wanted to survive Chapter 4, he could have removed Miu's motive to leave.

Using the already planted Flashback Light in the Virtual World which contained the memories of the true outside world, Kokichi could have demotivated Miu from even killing him. Her motive was saving the outside world, and Kokichi had what would have been irrefutable evidence that the outside world was unsaveable.

This logical fallacy could be explained by reasoning that Kokichi's motive for having Miu killed was not only to survive, but what then? What would Kokichi's motive have been otherwise? Maintaining a mastermind act?

Why would he even need to do that if he could have lobotomized the killing game by letting everyone find the Flashback Light in Chapter 4 to begin with?

Maybe that means the logical fallacy stems from the ultimate use of the outside world motive in Chapter 5, when the truth of the outside world is used by Kokichi to demotivate the entire group. If, say, seeing the outside world led everyone to become bloodthirsty for some reason (?) then I guess that dodges the fallacy?(??????) It's just kind of a garbage motive in general... it didn't even work as a motive when Kokichi used it, and it demotivated the others. Makes you wonder why it was even included.

I guess my point is that the logic really doesn't add up in Chapter 4 and 5 in exchange for some thoughtless added drama. Y'know, typical writing issues stuff.

Um... I spent quite a while writing this one part up, and this is the view that I care about most, so I might split the others into another post, if I even do another one.

In case I don't, I'll just do a quick overview because they're really not nearly as necessary to explain in depth:

The cord switching bit. With the rest of the Virtual World segment riffing off of games and gaming knowledge, the dissolution of suspension of disbelief hit me like a truck when I was told to believe that Gonta reversed the cords and the whole thing basically ran fine, with just the one issue of memories not transferring back. I... am a modder. I type C007_Ki-bo instead of C007_Ki-Bo, the game crashes. Hell, even without being a modder, I have a drawing tablet with 3 cords and if I don't plug them in right, it won't do anything (duh). No way am I buying this.

Not a logical fallacy, but more of a story writing shortcoming. It kinda sucks that Gonta barely had a substantial role in this chapter despite being the culprit. He didn't plan the murder he committed, and he didn't defend himself for the murder he committed. I get that the idea was probably to make a case centered around Kokichi more than Gonta, but (and I say this as a Kokichi liker) we see enough of Mister Oma as it is. Too much, maybe even. (I mean Kokichi has Chapter 5. He DIES in the Chapter 5 case but still plays a role in the trial. And we're really gonna just have him take over trial 4 when Gonta isn't seen for the rest of the game?)

(content: discontent towards Kaito) Also not a logical fallacy. Maybe not that much of a fallacy at all. I might just be petty but I thought Kaito was cringe the whole time. (okay me and Seb literally had to get up, close the game, and go take a walk outside because we were losing it from everything Kaito was saying. DO YOU???? NOT KNOW WHAT A HYPOCRITE IS????????)

A bit of a shill I guess, but I did write two fanfics which were heavily influenced by my views on chapters 4 and 5, which tried to remedy these fallacies and others in V3. Canon-compliant Bloodied Hands renders Tsumugi the ultimate mastermind behind every murder (not just Rantaro's) with her dramatic meddling leading to the emergence of V3's logical fallacies, while The World is His takes the same premise, just diverging from canon such that Kokichi lives.

[bubbl3s-dot-jpg]

My thoughts about TMAGP 7 before reading anyone else's:

Oh my god we got a lot of stuff today

Celia recognizes Chester's voice which could imply a few things: One, Jon is alive in this universe and she met/knew/heard of him. Two, Jonny Sims is playing an entirely different character with whom Celia has met/known/heard. OR three, Celia has previous experience with the fears. All three are equally likely in my opinion, IF it weren't for the next piece of information.

Sam got an email from someone named John. (I checked the spelling on the official transcript and that is how it is spelled). The email was internal. I'm not going to jump to conclusions about this because of how this is spelt and because Jonny is known to reuse names. (See Jared and Gerard, and Michael). However, if I were a writer, I wouldn't mind using common names for smaller characters that may or may not show up again, but would mind severely if a major character shared a name with a minor character. Jury's still out on this for me.

Colin doesn't allow external devices into his workspace. I didn't think about it much in earlier episodes, but I think it is notable that we only hear him occasionally and never from his own devices. Sam brings in external devices, or he's out and about, in a place where devices can hear him. He could be worried that they interfere with his work, but Sam had described him as otherwise paranoid and worrying about interference seems to be something not worth fighting about. This leads me to believe Colin knows something is going on.

The mention of hilltop road is interesting. I'm aware that Hilltop road is a road an therefore could have multiple addresses, but since it was such a significant part of MAG, I think it is worth noting what happened there. To me, it feels like a bunch of avatars, or a cult, similar to that of the Lifeless Flame attempted to bring a bunch of items that could possibly be fear-adjacent (like Leitner books) into a place of power. That's pure speculation, however.

Lena has attempted to murder at least two different people, and they both suggest "disappearing again". I have no idea what this could mean, but it feels relevant to me. I'm keeping this in mind for future refrence.

Lena makes mention of "real work" which leads me to wonder what everyone is doing there. People have speculated that the OIAR is feeding the eye in the same way the Magnus Institute was and I think I agree with that. However, Magnus' goal with the institute was to start the eyepocalypse. Is this what Lena is doing? If so, how? Is she doing it the same way Magnus was, by taking a already fear-touched person and using them as their avatar? If that's the case, what is the point of the files that they are reading?

Gwen's family is rich. I don't know if it was mentioned in MAG that the Bouchards had money, but I think it's more relevant here. It also explains her entitlement and the fact that she watched two attempted (and one successful?) murders and decided that this was the line of employment she wanted to continue. I'm biased because I have a history with the name, but we're only seven episodes in and I already don't like her.

Last and very least, Alice thinks Norris's voice (possibly aka Martin's voice) is whiny.

This was a way longer post than I meant to write, but I'm interested in seeing where the fan discussion goes. This was such a plot-heavy episode that I'm still taking time to digest it. I'm also really interested in seeing how my theories and thoughts evolve.

[aphrodite1288]

Idk if you still perceived them as a toxic relationship, I'm the one who thinks that the most healthy thing in a relationship is communication so I really doubt ksoo get enlisted bc he wants to and not telling anyone about it, I mean exo is a thing, his relationship with jongin is other, maybe he didn't tell the other members but Ji is something else in his life plus his dad just died almost a year ago. I kinda understand your point and your theory about ji's depression cus his disease is a fact told by him, but speculate everything is all about ksoo fault its fck toxic. Depression is not something you experienced from one day to another and can be caused by so many accumulated reasons that took years and years to understand and ksoo must know that tho do u think he's that cruel and go to the army without a reason knowing Ji could be really sad about it? Kai must know that before anyone else so he could have time for processing and plans to do tgt but is normal still be fck sad after ksoo left and having therapy is a completely smart thing to do, that doesn't mean they had a huge fight

First of all, all what I said is not my perception, not my opinion, it's what I've been told from everyone: from K-EXOL, to our sources to the insiders who know SM staff or worked in SM and from Exo themselves told about this issue. And guess what? They know better than you. They're closer to him than you would ever be.

Sorry if it can't fit your narratives and feed up your fantasies.

Kadi just like any other couple aren't perfect they have their ups and downs and they certainly have their own flaws. Calling a relationship toxic just by one argument is wrong of you. This is not wonderland I think you should go seek medical help if you think like this.

You're the one calling them Toxic for not having a communication not me!

Ask your parents, I don't think they've never fought in a relationship of 2 decades at least.

I don't know if I'm allowed to share this info, but fuck it, I hate when dumb people who think they know their faves start calling us liars.

Kadi in 2022 in March exactly, they were on a massive fight and had a break again and they even went to Couple Counseling and the old Fans of this Tumblr from the Instagram group know this already. I've seen kadi's name on their Couple Counselor's Chart with their names and IDs, it was a bad thing from that Counselling company as they sold the Info to Sasaengs easily, K-ExoL, when they saw Ji and Ksoo going there frequently alone separately were curious why were they attending couple counseling sessions? Do they have issues with each other or with someone else they know ? And hence they followed them dug into the subject and discovered this and unfortunately the info was leaked. Remember when Ksoo went to Hawaii alone? Well it was during that period of time they were on a break.

Couples fight dear. It's normal ! And most of the couple fights occur because of LACK OF COMMUNICATION.

So yeah ! Expecting a couple in a relationship of 14 years won't have any miscommunication or a fight is so dumb of you. We don't live in Wonderland ! This is life! Have you ever been in a relationship have you watched BLs and Couples movies haven't you seen couples hurting each other and crying and breaking up despite being in love??

, t

So same for Kadi, they can hurt each other, misunderstand each other, Do things to each other, TAKE DECISIONS WITHOUT DISCUSSING IT WITH E/O! Take decisions in a moment of anger ! It's normal it happens and this is what Ksoo did and unfortunately it's true and it was a no-going-back issue becos that's with the government it's military application. He himself regretted it later because he missed many good Movie offers and opportunities at that time, even his managers and SM's production team told him he messed up he acted in a moment of anger at that time, and going on hiatus due to military in the Epitome of his career is a very bad move and he was told that by Veterans and his friends in the industry and he admitted it to movie producers and Management teams in SM, and.it was a famous discussed subject. No idol wants to go on military hiatus when they're on the epitome of their career, but instead until they settle things down first then they go. Because Many idols and actors get a little forgotten and may lose their popularity after military due to the hiatus and some DON'T! which is why you see Baekhyun and all idols always anxious telling their fans "Please don't forget us! Promise you'll be here when I'm back! It won't take a longtime! I'll be back before you know it!" " think of me all the time when I'm absent" and Baekhyun was smart enough and was the very first idol to have filmed Content for his fans to be outed every month it was so smart fans didn't even get to forget him.

So moral of the story: Kadi aren't perfect. And you should know Honey that YOU DON'T KNOW KSOO !! The idea you have on him is not 100% what he really is like! Y'all tend to glorify and shape idols in a perfect mold and put them on a pedestal as Sacred people who don't sin or Do wrong. Honey 😂 your Ksoo Oops isn't a Saint! He makes mistakes!! Remember you're just a fan! You don't know him personally to keep saying he can't do such things and that it's not his character 🤣 blah blah blah who are you? His mother?

Listen I'm just really tired of explaining everything to dumb people here. I don't care anymore, I say the info I have which I didn't create myself, I just report what I've been told and confirmed with Evidence, believe what you want if you don't wanna believe, leave it and leave.

Don't come up here and force your opinion on me, because we're not here discussing opinions, I'm giving you an info most of the time "A FACT" means something that actually happened and was proven to me, so I'm not here discussing it with you wether it happened or not and what you think about it, I don't care what you think , the thing happened years ago and that's on Period. I'm not gonna go back in time to discuss with you how it should have happened.

[lemotmo]

I love that we're all just spiraling into AU theories 🙃

Q. I'm nervous about the fact that they have clearly added several Lonestar writers. That show is so ridiculous and all the BTS stuff coming out is making me more confused, haha. Because what the actual hell is happening?? Hello magazine cover!

A. Okay it's time for some truth. Is Lonestar a ridiculous show? Yes. But 911 is not free of its own ridiculous choices. I watch Lonestar. And it's nothing but mindless television. It's pure fluff. It's wacky and over the top and does certain things that are absolutely ridiculous. But so does 911. We just tend to give it more of a pass because it's the show we prefer, and overall it is the far superior product. Overall it has better characters. Overall it has better acting. Overall it has better stories, but they're still capable of telling absolute garbage. The entire back half of last season proves that. The first half wasn't without its flaws either. For starters spending three episodes on the sinking ship was definitely one episode too many, in my opinion. Especially when you account for the fact that a great deal of that time was spent on that ridiculous Norman and Lola plot. It was stupid and was allowed to take up way too much time. Was anyone dying for an update on Norman and Lola? No. Literally no one cared if we ever saw them again, but there they were front and center for three freaking episodes. Let's move to the wedding episode now. Was that much hallucinated Doug necessary? Nope. Again, way too much screen time devoted to a part of the story absolutely no one wanted to see again. The episode was excellent overall but there was way too much unnecessary Doug. Then we spent the rest of the season with Bobby and the cartel, vigilante Athena, and Eddie dating his dead wife's twin. Utterly ridiculous television. We have to call a spade a spade.

If they really are doing an AU everyone will need to understand that a storyline like that comes with a certain built in level of ridiculousness. All of the speculation is fun and interesting, and some of it probably way better than what we will actually get, but people need to acknowledge parts of it will most likely be ridiculous. It's called fantasy for a reason. We can't automatically expect it to play like Buck's coma dream. We're most likely going to have to suspend reality for a bit. Especially considering the BTS stuff we've gotten so far leans more satirical than dramatic. Obviously we have no actual details but I just don't want people raging if it goes more camp than serious. That doesn't mean the events that lead up to the AU or the parts that come after the AU can't or won't be serious. I just think people should have the expectation of at least some of it being ridiculous. And that's okay. It's okay to have a bit of fun with it. And yeah the magazine was odd, lol. I have no idea what's happening. He does look like Eddie. Kind of. So who knows. The big thing for me was that he was hiding his hand, again. So that's clearly going to be something. Hopefully he does get to punch Gerard. But I doubt it. That would just require makeup for bruising, unless he breaks his hand doing it, but the cast would just slip on and off, so there would be no need to keep it on when he wasn't filming. Then again this is 911 so anything is possible. They're clearly reading our theories though so I'm not even sure if everything we're getting can be taken seriously. This got long, anon. I'm mostly just trying to tell you to not overthink everything. Which we're all going to do anyway so......

Thank you Nonny!

I have never watched Lone Star beyond episode 2, so I can't really comment on the first part of this ask.

As for the possibility of an AU episode? It's been done successfully before in other more 'serious' shows, so it can be done. I do think the 911 writers are clever enough to pull it off.

That magazine article is probably nothing. Someone over on Twitter found the stock picture that was used for that magazine. You can find it here. So in all likelihood it was just a prop magazine and the guy on the cover happened to look like Ryan. Who knows?

I agree that Ryan hiding his hand each time was very interesting. And the magazine picture was taken in the emergeny room. So, that might be something.

But yeah, we don't really know anything at this point. It's just a guessing game. Let's just enjoy the speculating and theorising and hopefully we'll get some good new bts content this week. Then we can obsess over something else yet again. XD LOL!

IMPORTANT! Please don't repost this ask and/or a link that leads straight to my Tumblr account on Twitter or any other social media. Thank you!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

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If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[starlightiing]

ah yes the rare breed of pierre fan and esteban fan. you must be in turmoil.

Turmoil is probably a bit dramatic, but I'm definitely not happy.

Fans on both sides are being incredibly horrible. Name calling, saying very inappropriate and insensitive things about either driver, hating on really stupid shit, taking the whole 'feud' thing too far and too seriously. Not only has it gotten weird and parasocial and creepy, but the fans think they need to also fight the other driver to the death bc their blorbo doesn't like him. They've taken a personal issue these men have with each other and made it an issue to pit fans vs fans in their honor or something. Which is just, oddball to me.

It's not that serious. Esteban made a stupid mistake. A really stupid mistake. It's done and nothing can change that now. He apologized and he's been reprimanded and penalized. If Famin and Alpine think he deserves a worser fate, that's out of our hands. He doesn't deserve to be fired (which he won't be, imo, I have my expectations of what I think the consequences might be but I don't like to speculate) over this one incident. If there are issues behind closed doors that have lead to Famin's overreaction, then, fine. That's not for us to know, and we probably never will. All of the fluff over this incident though is unwarranted and ridiculous.

It's not that serious. Pierre made a statement saying he's disappointed in Esteban, and why wouldn't he be? He's allowed to say that. He didn't say "ew Esteban is stinky and smells and he's also really dumb and I hate him what a stupid man" - maybe he truly feels that way, I dunno, but that's not what he said. He was disappointed because it was a BIG day for Pierre and for Alpine and that was almost taken away by Esteban's error. I have a hard time believing anyone else could possibly be any more graceful than Pierre was about it in his shoes?

Their perspectives are their own, just like every fan is entitled to their own perspective and opinion on the matter and can hate whoever they want for any reason. That's not what gets me all hot and bothered. It's the name calling, the insults, and the absolute disregard for the fact that these guys are real living breathing humans, not little puppets in a display cage, that have complex thoughts and feelings and emotions all their own that we are not ever entitled to knowing. Who the fuck knows what goes on behind closed doors. Who the fuck knows if Esteban apologized to Pierre or if he didn't. Who the fuck knows if he actually got yelled at or if he didn't. Who the fuck knows how seriously either driver is ACTUALLY taking this right now. It's not our business to know, and not everything that is said and done between them needs to be said and done publicly. PR is on it, PR will manage it. Everything is out of our hands.

And that's really all I'm going to say on the matter. If I get some anons, I might decide to respond to them depending on how they choose to discuss things with me/tone/ect. But generally speaking, I don't want to talk about Esteban and Pierre in this specific scenario anymore. There's nothing else to be said until/if something happens with Esteban.

[atomicpoetrymusic-blog]

I've noticed that a lot of people are starting to get a bit frustrated with the way Bridgerton is being handled, lately. Believe me, I've started to feel this way myself, but I think a lot of this is just marketing, and I believe (this is my opinion and NOT a fact, so please don't hate me) that a lot of it is to do with Queen Charlotte (I'll be calling the show QC from now on, just to make my life easier), and the POTENTIALLY polarising effect of Polin.

I'd like to reiterate, I definitely haven't done all the research into this topic I probably should have done, but I do have some idea about the way production and marketing works. This is my own speculation about why Shondaland are being so slow on giving the audience content, and on releasing s3, and in no way reflects what is actually going on behind the scenes - as I have just done here, I will be referring to the whole production team, including marketing, as Shondaland (again, to make my life easier, as I've written a lot). I'll also be incorporating my own opinions into this speculation, so please take everything I say with a mountain of salt. I enjoy this show, and I really want it to do well, so I mean no disrespect to anyone involved, and everything I say comes from a place of love.

I'll start with QC, as it is a little more straightforward, and a little easier for me to get my head around. Basically, I think that Shondaland put so much effort and money into QC, that they want it to have its moment in the sun, without the flagship show taking up the spotlight (forgive my mixed metaphors). I don't know/can't remember if it was delayed at any point, but if it was, then I COMPLETELY understand why the main show is taking so long in its release - they want QC to do well and make its money back.

Personally, I always thought that a show about Queen Charlotte's past was a bit strange, especially with the hype for s3 so palpable right after s2 aired. I understand that this is a massive brand, and they wanted to profit off that, and make all the spin-offs they could think of, but at the same time, I think they should have doubled down on their focus on s3.

Like I've said, within the fanbase, Polin has proved to be a little more of a fraught and contested relationship, unlike Saphne and Kanthony, and instead of drawing out the problem and making the audience wait, they should have had an earlier release date for s3. In fact, I think the QC release date would have been great for s3 - apparently, they had mostly finished post production on s3 in late March. S2 was released in March 2022, and QC was released in May 2023. That alone was already over a year of waiting for new content. And it wasn't even the main show.

In fact, as it turned out, QC was competing with an ACTUAL royal event, the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, on the same weekend. I'm English, a royalist, and I wanted to watch real history taking place. I know that's just me, and definitely doesn't represent the audience as a whole at all, but millions tuned in to watch the coronation - a fictional queen, no matter how based on history she is, just doesn't have the same significance.

Also, a lot of the more casual viewers just would not have been interested - my mum is a casual Bridgerton viewer, but I don't think she even knows about QC. And some fans (unfortunately, me included) just weren't as invested in QC, and didn't watch it. I myself only got halfway through episode 2 - I paused it so I could make dinner, and couldn't bring myself to turn it back on again afterwards.

I think that's why we got all the proper trailers and teasers and just general promotion for QC, while s3 hasn't had that - QC is a spin-off, Bridgerton is the main event, and a popular one at that. Again, they want to make their money back, and exceed it if they can. But now, Shondaland have made the whole Bridgerton audience wait well over a year for a new season of their flagship show - and we still have another 6 months to wait.

This leads me on to the Polin side of things, and why s3's marketing has been so all over the place.

Colin and Penelope's story in the show is going to be DRASTICALLY different from the book, and so the audience, for the first time, truly don't know what is in store. Book fans have some ideas, but the fact is, the context is different; the events leading up to the season are different, their relationship going into the season is different, their relationships with their friends/family are different, and the synopsis of the season that was released is, again, different. Shondaland are playing very close to the chest at the moment, they don't want anything leaked or spoiled. But the fact remains, the audience have waited a long time now, and are starting to either chomp at the bit, or lose interest.

I feel like I've had more information from the cast and the fans than I have from the official sources. TUDUM (which was yesterday, as of writing), was hyped up to be this big event where the fans got a bit of a taste of what is to come, potentially some stills, a quick 30 second scene from the first episode, maybe even a teaser trailer. What we got in reality was disappointing, to say the least. Four stills, all of either Colin or Penelope (one of which we've basically already had because of a leak, which has been floating around the internet for a while now), and nothing else. I'm not complaining about the pictures we got - they look beautiful, and do shed some light on the potential storyline - but there really should have been something more. It was all focused on Pen and Colin, with only a couple of blurry Bridgerton family members in the background of ONE picture (I'll come back to why this particular point could be damaging to the show later).

Now, my next point is rather delicate, and does hit close to home for me, so I'll be as sensitive as I can. But, it has to be said, and I feel that it really could have an impact on the show if it's not handled correctly.

This point is about Penelope's appearance, especially compared to Daphne and Kate. Nicola Coughlan is gorgeous, and the latest stills released definitively prove that, but the fact remains she is not the typical Hollywood slim body type that the previous 2 female leads were. I know that there are differences between Phoebe and Simone as well, but they are both considered 'attractive' by industry standards.

Given that this is a show with sexual content, the physical appearance of an actor/actress is important to the audience. Yes, to many fans it doesn't matter, and are in fact applauding the representation of different shaped and sized actresses, especially given the context, but the casual viewer might not be so interested in watching. And casual viewers tend to make up the majority of any audience, which Shondaland will know, and should be taking into account when promoting the show.

Now, I'm not exactly slim or conventionally attractive, either. It has taken me a long time to come to terms with my weight, and to feel beautiful and comfortable in myself. I have nothing but respect and admiration for Nicola to be a plus-sized actress in such a high-profile way and still seem so confident and happy in herself. But even I don't want this to be a focal point of the story between Penelope and Colin. Yes, this should DEFINITELY be addressed in some capacity, especially as it relates back to Pen's insecurity and part of her character arc, and even Colin's in a way, but I'm anxious about how it will be handled, whether that be that they don't address it at all (which I believe is unlikely), or they address it too much.

I can relate to feeling insecure, feeling trapped, and hiding my emotions because I don't want to be hurt or to hurt anyone else. But I don't want to be told that I will be looked down on in society for being even the slightest bit unattractive, unconventional, or different every 5 seconds. I get that enough on social media. It is victimhood mentality, and I watch this show as a form of escapism, and I'm sure many other people do too.

This is one of the reasons why I think Polin can be so polarising. In the book, they actually bond over feeling insecure about their places in the world, and how they desire responsibility over their own lives - Pen with the creation of Whistledown and what it means to her, and Colin's struggle with his place as the third brother and finding his purpose. It has been touched upon in the past 2 seasons, but now will be front and centre.

These feelings, when not handled or written or even acted correctly, can seem shallow, annoying, or uncomfortable. Especially if you see them either as overly privileged, or perpetual victims. It is a difficult tightrope to walk for a writer, let alone in marketing. Creating promotional content is hard, as the actual context of why the characters might look or behave in a certain way is skewed and can be easily misinterpreted - just watch those videos about changing the genre of movie trailers. Shondaland are probably still trying to find a good fit for what they're promoting, that will satisfy both the diehard fans, and the casual viewers. This doesn't excuse the long time between seasons, but might be why they are being so careful with the content they are providing right now.

Another reason Polin can be polarising is the context of the past 2 seasons. There are fans who dislike the way Colin has treated Pen. There are fans who dislike the way Pen has treated Colin. There are fans who want Pen to treat Colin like dirt and for Colin to grovel at her feet. There are fans who think Colin is being side-lined and mistreated in his own love story in favour of Pen becoming a girlboss. There are fans who think that the 2 characters shouldn't end up together. There are fans who want Colin to get back together with Marina. There are fans who want Pen to be in a romantic relationship with Eloise or Benedict.

These are all real wants I have seen coming from the fanbase. And those are just the ones off the top of my head without research.

Personally, I love Polin. I think they are sweet and lovely friends-to-lovers goodness. That they both understand and connect with each other on a level that goes beyond romance and friendship (despite Colin's obvious obliviousness to her feelings and Pen placing him on a pedestal, only for it to swept out from under him in a matter of moments last season). And, that they also have a darker side to them that creates the story and has lasting consequences for both their relationship and for those around them. This combination creates an interesting dynamic, undercut by a romantic tension and connection that neither character truly understands yet.

However, as I mentioned above, not all fans feel this way, and are being actively vitriolic against the pairing. Shondaland will be very aware of this, and so far have done their best to make it clear to the audience that Penelope and Colin ARE the main couple and main characters in s3. As I said WAY back in the QC section, TUDUM released 4 new stills, all of which feature Colin and Penelope, as their only new promotional material. I think this is a good thing, for the most part, because ultimately, if s3 mainly revolves around them and their relationships (with each other and with the other characters), then that is the product/content they are selling, and those people who don't like it are able to step away if they feel that strongly about it, while at the same time Polin fans are given reassurance that Shondaland won't be deviating too much from the source material and having the couple split up/never get together at all.

However, as a knock-on effect, the casual viewers, and the people who are only middling, and prefer the aspects of the ensemble cast, or want some Kanthony content, are left a little by the wayside, as there is NO new content for ANY of the other characters (I said I'd come back to this point later!), except for the blurry Bridgertons.

We don't know how Eloise is holding up after her fallout with Pen, or what Benedict is up to now he's left the art school, or how Francesca might be doing on the lead up to her first Season (both in the show, and as a cast member :D). We don't know what married Kanthony are doing now that they're together, or what the Featheringtons are up to, or where Violet and the unmarried Bridgertons are even living, as they should have moved out of the house into No. 5 to give Kate and Anthony Bridgerton House as Viscount and Viscountess. There are just so many options for stills they could have added, even if it was just a generic picture of Kate and Anthony stood next to each other holding hands, or Benedict and Eloise sat together on the swings, or Francesca walking around a ballroom accompanied by Violet. These things, yes, give us information about the upcoming season, but are all things the audience are expecting to see anyway. Why not give the fans a little more to work with?

I also don't think it helps that the audience, although finally being given the release date, still have to wait 6 months. The anticipation is already starting to wear a little thin, and it just gives the audience more time to get frustrated by the wait, and to sour on the show. I've seen more and more posts on a variety of platforms getting more and more vitriolic and nasty towards not just the show and its characters, but the production team and the cast, as well.

As I said earlier, I think giving s3 QC's release date would have been preferable for a variety of reasons. Spring and/or Winter are the best times to release Bridgerton's kind of genre, especially in TV. Summer is too hot and sticky and everyone would rather be outside doing stuff, and Autumn (Fall, for any Americans) is when a lot of the network TV shows (at least in the U.S.) are released, and so would have a lot of competition. Bridgerton s1 was released in Winter -where everyone is snuggled up, most workplaces are closed for holidays - and did fantastically, while s2 was released in Spring - not too hot, not too cold, and early enough that teenagers wouldn't have exams/end of year tests to worry about, capitalising on that demographic.

The release of QC kind of ground the release of s3 to a halt, because of the need for that show to not be overshadowed (see my QC section again for detail on why that's important). And, with the above Summer and Autumn reasons not to release, it makes it tricky for s3 to be as successful as it could have been if released then.

As I've said, I haven't finished QC, so I don't know if that show will have any impact on s3, but even if it did, I think I'll stick by what I said; s3 should have replaced QC in the release order. Yes, they finished post production on QC first, but then I would say they should have delayed filming on QC until after they had already got a solid amount of s3 done, if they were worried about it being overshadowed by s3, and have QC be released on s3's release date, if not a little sooner. That way, the audience hopefully wouldn't have such a large gap between seasons of Bridgerton, and they would be able to streamline the production of both a little better. Personally, I think I would have been more interested in QC if it was released in the Winter, but maybe that's just me.

Overall, the marketing for s3 of Bridgerton has just been a bit too lacklustre and drawn out. Most people are probably still just as excited as ever, and I hate to be the cynic who throws water on the fire, but it's just been such a long wait with minimal content, that I'm starting to get tired of the slow arrival. But, I'm still looking forward to s3 when it finally comes, and I hope it doesn't disappoint. The past 2 seasons were really enjoyable.

And, that's all my current thoughts on the recent Bridgerton marketing! This literally took me hours to write, so I hope you liked it.

If you didn't like what I had to say, that's fine. But please, don't be mean about it. I have put a lot of thought and effort into this - despite starting to write this on a whim - and at the end of the day, I'm just a fan who wants to enjoy this show.

If you got this far, thank you so much for reading!

[chaifootsteps]

I'm not sure what your opinion on that's 70 show, but I wanted to share something with you.

Years back after the show ended, there was controversy with the mc actor Topher because he left the show to pursue other career opportunities, but his career really didn't take off. People criticized, laughed, and ridiculed him. I remember someone telling me it was karma since his cast mates allegedly loved him and he "ruined" the show. In fact, I'm pretty sure people know his castmates more than they do him since they've gotten so much recognition and other work. So, apparently all of them are very close except for Topher and I have heard even Laura Prepon isn't as close with the cast either. Well, that stuff with Danny Materson started to come out a few years back. Danny lost jobs, then what happened in September months back.

Now, this is just speculation I saw, but people theorize that Topher was aware of the crap that was going on or knew something was wrong and didn't want to be affliated or caught up with it. Not just that, but there's other controversies his castmates were in, this was before Mila and Ashton said they don't bathe/shower often. I'm not going to mention the Wilmer Valderrama stuff cause that's its own iceberg. Ashton, so what if he was with an older woman, he did have that stuff with his ex who was killed. I'm not getting into that since I know it's triggering and I don't want to trigger anyone.

My point? Sometimes I think people are afraid or don't want to get into trouble or the drama. I always did find it suspicious how Topher fell off the face of the planet while everyone stayed close and got nice jobs. Sorry, didn't mean to share a tin foil hat theory. I just think it'd very iffy when someone isn't in the it crowd.

No, thanks for sharing that, Anon! I knew absolutely none of this, I was always a peripheral That 70s Show watcher, but it's something to think about. You never know what's going on behind the scenes.

[gayrobos]

Why not have Thrash's frustrations over the war be linked with how Bee was forced to go back into hiding? Speaking of the war episode, why have Shockwave act like that? I was expecting him to come out, not caring that the war is over or anything that wasn't his scientific plans to terraform earth into a Cybertron 2.0. And, you know, not act disgusted at the sight of the Terrans. WHY have a scientist who sees this LITERAL PHENOMENON and act racist to it? No? [2/4]

Shockwave should have been like "Oh good, this could help advance my research." AND TAKE THRASH. It would have been interesting to have Shockwave show the same dissmissiveness Thrash showed when Megatron was retelling the war. Having him question the scientist and receiving answers that reveal how little he cares about anyone outside of his plans. Even if it causes human to be erased, and horribly experimenting on the terrans, in the processed! [3/4]

Also, the absence of Optimus, the lack of him and the autobots on what happened with Bee, THE PARASITE GRUBS! WHY DIDN'T DOTTIE CONTACT ANY OF THEM ABOUT THAT?! Just-! Augh, it feels like so much information was lost in between episodes from the plot's refusal to cover those little moments that should be there to keep it consistent! [4/4]

--------------------------------------------

tragically, anon, your first ask got eaten. ::( I'm tantalized by the link between bee having to go into hiding and thrash's frustrations about the war. I also thought it was kinda weird that shockwave, who is famous in at least 2 popular continuities for using science to create things that should not be, was not more into things that should not be! and we know he's a scientist in this so it's kinda weird that he's engaging with an unknown phenomenon as like... some kinda robo alt right dude and not as a scientist.

um and then I wrote like a billion words of speculation so I'm putting it under a cut. I know your ask wasn't really about this but oops

you ARE making me want to think about a rewrite to center the terrans + siblings thoughts and feelings about their history. I think it would be cool to have them model "coming to your own conclusions about historical events" since they're the audience identification characters. maybe not the three babiest terrans (who honestly make these episodes SO crowded, there's not a lot of time for established characters). but I really like twitch's motif of being desperate to protect her family, and I'd want to foreground what's going on with thrash--as you point out he doesn't seem to care a lot about the history, he doesn't see why it should affect him. they don't understand how they're supposed to relate to this, which is great! I might have the last piece of season 1 see them accepting that they DO have to care, realizing that no single person who was there for the war can give them an unbiased account of it, not even their parents.

as for mo and robbie, they've already had a very specific education on the war, at least the part of it that was on earth--both their parents were there for it, and we know public schools teach it. and how does it affect THEM? they're not being held accountable for it like their terran siblings, but they do feel protective of the terrans and they're in this weird place where they're half "with the autobots" and half "unaffiliated." it really seems like they've been taught differently than most of the humans we meet in the racism parable episode; the malto kids believe autobots are not to blame for the war. I mean it seems like they have weirdly little blame toward the decepticons either but I think that might just be inconsistent writing. I really want to know what they actually think and how their opinions have changed after personally meeting a bunch of transformers.

e11: doesn't need to change, no notes. I like that the first 3 episodes are just baby terran nonsense and I like the twitch + hashtag relationship. wait actually no we need to address the fact that soundwave got captured on purpose and like... did they escape? what is their plan?? we need 1 crumb of foreshadowing so viewers (me) aren't rattling the bars of the fence like HEY WHAT'S GOING ON!!!

e12: deals with personal identity as a transformer and crucially!! personal identity in relation to war and politics! we hear that megatron adopted a new alt mode when she changed sides--she now has a form that humans can ride in. I think I'd want to have thrash in here instead of hashtag, because he chose his alt mode specifically for mo... we could introduce early the idea that he gets uncomfortable and checks out when he has to think about the war and the fact that he's expected to relate to it. he's not very interested in cybertronian society and falls more on the side of feeling like he's fully From Earth.

e13: deals with the idea of transformers wanting to integrate into human society. I don't get why they didn't introduce anti-transformer racism here if they were so excited about it. also I'm arbitrarily replacing tarantulas with sky-byte, the number 1 guy who is known for being a nonthreatening decepticon. he likes poetry, he likes history, one can easily see him being interested in humans and wanting to experience their culture as one of them, whereas it's not really clear why tarantulas wants to be a human. so I might make this an episode that complicates the enmity and separation between humans and cybertronians. I also want to make a little room to see mo and thrash's opinions about decepticons... cos we DID already do an episode about what if a decepticon seemed nice and fun, and mo and thrash got burned there. here we see them both trying to be responsible big siblings and stop nightshade from hanging out with a decepticon, but thrash also has some complicated feelings about the idea of transformers Becoming humans.

e14: look. if we're doing an arc about how much bumblebee cares about decepticons, we've got to go all the way. we HAVE to talk about decepticon ideology and why breakdown actually joined. friends don't split up for no reason; can we model for kids what it looks like to have a real important disagreement with someone and have to decide whether you can forgive them? how is that a parallel to megatron and optimus' relationship????? which wasn't in this series of episodes at all despite being really important in the first 10??? so I'd add that. I'd also retcon some of episode 8 bc as armcontrolnerve pointed out bee was really blithe about sticking mode locks on the cassettes, which doesn't really jibe with the idea that he values decepticon freedom. anyway. in my perfect world (I'm keeping twitch's freakout obviously) breakdown would be bitter about how bee wants to pretend they don't have any real differences and that their situations are the same and they can forget factional conflict and have a beer together. bee says something obliviously hurtful and breakdown is genuinely going to leave and save his own skin--until he sees bee give himself up for breakdown. we get some reciprocity to their relationship, and we get the sense that bee is willing to put himself on the line for people he cares about even if they're decepticons. the lesson for kids is that good intentions mean nothing if you don't say and do things to care for your friends.

e15: ummm okay I don't think the plot of this episode adds anything. it just makes me feel so bad for dot because she's been assigned saintly mom of infinite patience by the writers but her life is genuinely so hard. if we're gonna have a dot episode let's have a dot episode!!! what are the things she's trying to protect her children from knowing? what happens when she loses her cool and panics or yells or breaks down? I'd want to do a thing where she's trying her hardest to present her strong cheerful face for the kids but when it's over she goes to alex to be weak and express sorrow and frustration. "it's not your fault, kids. your mom isn't upset at you. she's just upset." my priorities are 1) allowing dot to be human and have faults, 2) showing that parents have an obligation of care toward their kids but that doesn't mean they don't need support too.

e16: this is the first time any of the kids get the sense that the war was actually ABOUT something. twitch is uneasy because she understands that the war is still happening and she feels it's her responsibility to defend her family from it. I might show this by having her ask pointed questions: what tactics were used in the war? what were casualty rates like? how can I best prepare for it to happen again? megatron finds this disturbing. the war is over, she insists. (I'd want to start to explore here in what ways megatron's account of the war is self-serving! maybe having nightshade ask cogent questions megatron ends up answering "well it's uhhh complicated.") twitch doesn't press the issue, but it's clear she doesn't agree. thrash, meanwhile, is checked out again and wanders off. shockwave gets reawakened, captures him, and we get the threat he'll be experimented on--I'd use visual parallels or even flashbacks to when they were captured by mandroid. shockwave is foiled and refrozen but thrash realizes: lots of people see us as symbols of whatever they want to see, not as people. thrash understands that there are people who are trying to make his family into a battleground. I'd end this episode by reaffirming that the malto family is not a battleground; they're not divided along those lines, they're whole. to his parents and siblings thrash is just a person. ideally he also looks cool in front of his younger siblings and feels the big brother emotion ::3 the thing that's fun about thrash, which is obvious comparing his shield to twitch's swords, is that he's really not about fighting. he wants to be a good big brother and help his siblings become their best selves; he's empathetic, he's about strengthening internal family bonds through fun and (eventually in my perfect world) also emotional intelligence. so his big moment isn't about taking the burden of battle, it's about being the one who's not freaking out and who allows his younger siblings the space to make informed choices about whether and how they want to fight. so the terrans take down shockwave together while megatron is frozen! we end on something nice with mom and dad... but nightshade, whose lessons in history from sky-byte have made an impression, wonders how shockwave would have told the story of the war.

e17-18: I'm completely changing the plot of these because I think "people are terrified of you because your countrymen destroyed a bunch of their cities, you can't do anything about this because you're just a kid" is a shitty thing to have to put in your biracial family metaphor. so. I'm going to make some wild claims about what the plot of this finale is going to be, and I'm not totally happy with it because I think the show writers came up with a premise that's pretty impossible to do well (giant alien robots on earth as an analogue for marginalized human groups).

I think the intro is bee and brawl and they're genuinely teamed up. we can use this to convey that bee has a reputation among decepticons as a whole for being willing to ignore factional boundaries. yo okay you know what would be really cool? is if bee is using his exile to try to free decepticons who are under human control, being threatened with getting handed over to GHOST in the same way mandroid was threatening novastorm and skywarp. this can be about gladiating as opposed to what I think is a more realistic case (the military extorting people to join? never!) because it's a kids' show. but it's crucial that the same people hurting the decepticons are also the ones hurting humans who are under their power. people who are capable of causing genuine harm to transformers have the power to do that to other humans too. we can even use this to build a little human/tf solidarity. brawl pushes a heavy cart for a custodian whose back isn't what it once was, because it costs him nothing and he has a new perspective on having a job that sucks and hurts you. bee remarks on how he's changed. then we have this bee/brawl friendship and it makes it starkly weird when we see grimlock and realize there's something wrong with her. brawl says that she didn't used to be like this.

the malto half of the plot can be that hashtag and nightshade have teamed up to investigate something suspicious they found on the internet or something. a video of a transformer acting really weird? they dive into forum posts and supply lines and realize that someone is selling devices that mind control transformers. jawbreaker hangs back and tells the four older siblings, who now believe it's their responsibility to bring everyone back safe without waking up mom and dad. so now we have hashtag and nightshade infiltrating the arena in time to see bee fighting grimlock. knowing about the control chips, they realize what's going on and interfere with the fight, freeing grimlock, who furiously demolishes the arena. bee hurries the kids away to find brawl, who's been injured in his own fight against grimlock. at the end of the episode bee and brawl will leave together, with bee citing breakdown as someone he shouldn't have let out of his sight in the first place.

we end up finding out that mandroid is selling control chips to fund his projects, with the rationale that it keeps humans safe from transformers. I think we can still have him appear and have the hashtag fight, because that was really fun. I might cut the GHOST/mandroid connection because the good cop/bad cop thing they're doing with the schloeder siblings is extremely tiresome and irritating. I do want to keep the subplot where robbie meets one of his old friends and realizes he's changed a lot as a result of having the terrans in his family: he's more empathetic to people who are different than him, he interrogates what he's told to see if he believes it. in my mind his friend is excited about transformer fights and robbie's like "dude that's messed up."

so the overall thing the finale episodes are about is 1) people in bad situations feel empathy and solidarity and help each other out, 2) the babiest terrans are developing their moral compasses and teamwork skills. I feel like there's got to be a way to make the plotline more coherent but I've been looking at this post for like 3 hours and I'm just not smart enough to fix the mess the writers have made lol

[yujeong]

Hi! About your post with the vp-kp hate, i think it may be about the specific vp fans who negatively compared kp's hotel sex scene to vp's sex scene? I've seen some posts n tweets that were pretty hateful, mostly in the way of "vp was consensual, kp was not", which may be what kp fans are frustrated about?

I know that some kp fans have made posts to battle those people specifically, since some(!) fans were getting out of hand with the hate comments on other people's posts. They would say things like "kp is toxic", "and that's why I like vp better" or "at least vegas did it consensually unlike kinn", which, as you said, isn't true, and an odd comparison to make.

That's also where I think the "vegas king of consent" came from, which is what some people (I think on twitter?) started with, and that some people on tumblr adopted.

But don't let it ruin your experience, enjoy what you love and don't let others spoil it for you. There'll always be annoying fans (sadly), so it's best to stick with the ones that don't care about the drama. Cheers!<3

Hey there! Thanks for reaching out.

Tbh, I'm not aware where it all came from. I've heard how bad the shipping wars have been in the fandom, so much so that people speculate Build's first scandal happened due to KP fans hating VP's immense popularity by the end of the show, but I hadn't seen the show then. I watched it in November and I started using Tumblr like two months ago so I'm fairly new here haha

I can believe VP fans exist that hate KP and make sure everyone around them knows by being condescending and preachy about it but I haven't seen much of that myself on social media. I'm sure this is due to me loving VP and not really caring about KP, so my feed must be in accordance to that.

Since you gave me the chance, let me give my own opinion about both first times:

VP's first time couldn't have been more consensual with these two: Pete was free from his restraints, he returned, he could have left whenever he wanted afterwards because Vegas had basically given up on everything mentally by that point and his seduction was just his effort at taking the attention away from himself.

KP's first time was dubcon: Porsche was clearly in a state of not being able to give consent but he also wanted to have sex with Kinn, hence the term.

Now, the important thing to note is how both of these characters feel after the fact. Porsche doesn't even remember it at first - the first red flag - and then, once he does, he feels awful about it. Ep 6 is all about their talk and how Porsche expresses that he felt violated by it, with Kinn recognizing what he did and apologizing for it.

Pete, on the other hand, remembers everything and never regrets it. What he experiences is subdrop which Vegas is too whipped and on cloud 9 to notice. His solo scene before Vegas comes with the noodles in ep 13 is him being conflicted about why he liked it, why he wanted it, not that he gave in.

That's how I view both of their first time. No offense to anyone who believes otherwise obviously, everyone is free to interpret media in different ways ✌️ Also, don't worry about me and getting my fandom experience ruined. I make sure to not engage with hate and to be surrounded by positive vibes about my boys.

Kisses 😗

[carnivorescarnival]

It's been interesting to sit down and analyze what's actually happening in this post. To preface this, I don't believe anyone here is acting with any sort of mal-intent. However, the core argument here is worth examining for its reliance on deeply concerning rhetoric. It appears to hinge on many assumptions, and it expects its audience to take the concepts it relies on for granted in order to engage with it further. I wanted to examine it more closely.

First, OP identifies the apparent decline of social etiquette as the culprit behind the "floundering" of the "the younger generations." (Notably, this post does not make any attempt to define said "floundering" or offer examples of how it manifests. For the purposes of the post in question, the existence of this "floundering" is supposed to be self-evident. I still do not quite know what OP is referring to, and I suspect the claim does not hold up to scrutiny.) In asserting that "we haven't replaced [social scripts] with any more sincere or easier new script," the disappearance (or at least obsolescence) of all social scripts is taken for granted. This assertion goes unquestioned despite the irrefutable fact that "easier new script[s]" absolutely exist. Perhaps they do not take the form of instructional manuals which are overly concerned with the placement of forks on the dinner table, but such scripts do very much still exist.

For example, Tumblr's overall "culture" has its own rules of engagement. These have not remained stagnant over its lifetime. They have changed significantly since I began using this site over 13 years ago. In fact, the Internet as a whole has its own ever-evolving code of conduct—and although this code is mostly unwritten and informal, its existence is perhaps best proven by the fact that social punishments are meted out to those who fail to abide by the "rules" (examples of these punishments include ridicule and/or ostracization in response to "transgressions" like using an emoji in the wrong context, or failing to understand a joke). As is the case in "real life," online social norms frequently transform and evolve. While it was once considered taboo to reveal your name online, it is now considered fairly normal—and in some contexts, even expected. My personal feelings on Internet safety and privacy aside, this point is to illustrate that we cannot conflate the evolution of norms with the absence of them.

The first user to respond cites other responses that do not, in their opinion, adhere to the spirit of the post - then goes on to use "ghosting" as an example of a modern social interaction which has essentially "replaced" what is characterized as a social script ("it was at least something to say"). I'm not here to speculate about the countless reasons one might have for ghosting—that's not the point of this post. What I'm here to say is that it is useless to judge the act of ghosting by its adherence (or lack of adherence) to "politeness." Ghosting constitutes its own social script. It is not an action with a singular motivation behind it. Rather, it is its own method of communication, and one that our reliance on technology has not only proliferated, but in certain cases rendered necessary. Politeness is culturally constructed and thus subjective; to one person, ghosting may be the ultimate social taboo, while to another, it may be vital for assuring their own safety. In a situation where further interaction may be met with the escalation of unwanted advances, can we really say that ghosting would be rendered obsolete if only society would agree to relearn a "script" sufficient to replace it?

A few comments down, one user seems to believe that the answer to that question is a resounding yes. This comment seems to value adherence to etiquette over all else—even at the expense of one's own boundaries. Repeatedly saying, "Thank you, but I gave my final answer"—as this response recommends—asks the target of the boundary-pushing behavior to make their boundaries malleable for the sake of upholding some arbitrary sense of politeness, "no matter how many times they [the boundary-pushing person] come back." It is interesting that in this example, the obligation to respond with politeness does not end after the first breach of boundaries. Rather, politeness (here, synonymous with "supplying a courteous response") is demanded of the recipient at all times, while the one who is characterized as "rude" for breaking boundaries is actually exempted from this scrutiny on account of their rudeness! In my opinion, once the "social contract" has been breached by the person breaking those boundaries, then I am no longer under any obligation to continue corresponding with them. My obligation to etiquette—if indeed I had one—should be considered fulfilled. There's also something to be said about the characterization of younger generations as inherently more rude and "pushy" than older ones, which is manifestly untrue, but it sure does serve as a rhetorical device that upholds the original argument's appeal to a romanticized vision of ~the good old days~. There is surely nothing suspect about an argument which appeals to an idealized vision of an evergreen past while simultaneously asserting that the youth of today are suffering from a lack of moral guidance.

When it comes to the topic of formal etiquette within the context of history, there is no reading of works such as Emily Post's that is sufficiently critical. That is to say, no matter how egalitarian it claims to be, the concept of etiquette that Post and others put forth cannot be separated from the implication that a person's worth depends on their ability to follow these moral edicts. Etiquette is not merely a neutral social script (if indeed such a thing can ever be neutral); its ultimate purpose is, and has always been to "better society"—a purpose which can only be realized through strict adherence to a specific set of established social customs. (No points for guessing who establishes these customs, or who might benefit from perpetuating them. Why does this definition of "bettering society" rely so heavily on constructed social rules and customs? Should one's capacity for kindness be judged by their ability to act according to rigid instructions? Who stands to gain when how "considerate" someone is, is defined by how well they adhere to social norms constructed and upheld by the upper classes?)

Any sort of comfort that one might derive from the existence of "basic etiquette" has always been a side effect to its primary purpose: to uphold and reinforce class divisions. There is a fundamental difference between expressing a preference for more structure and guidance within the context of social interactions, and turning that need for guidance into a moral imperative—the apparent absence of which becomes the scapegoat on which to pin all the presumed failings of today's youth.

When we claim that the end goal of etiquette is the alleviation of awkwardness and discomfort, whose comfort is being prioritized?

I feel like in the rush of “throw out etiquette who cares what fork you use or who gets introduced first” we actually lost a lot of social scripts that the younger generations are floundering without.

[fadetouchedsilk]

okay so i finished the game last night, time for some thoughts--

might as well throw this under the cut but i will Try to keep it as spoiler free as i can edit: i did not in fact manage to do this so open at your own risk

overall i think this was a neutral to positive experience for me, with some (imo well justified) criticisms and frustrations here. i'm trying my best to be objective & fair here and i think i did a decent job lmao (but also this is completely just my opinion so sometimes we veer. it is what it is.)

i feel like the entire time i was playing this game i was basically assessing it on two levels. the first was more critical, trying to take into account the production & the game as a Product in the franchise as a whole (regardless of how some people may feel, it's still under the ip & is still officially a da game). more of a technical side basically. the second was looking at it without the 'what could have been' lens & just trying to see if it was able to be successful in what it set out to do.

don't ask me why, but having these two channels helps me with personally more relaxed about how i'm feeling & process better. idk if this is a me thing or if anyone else knows what i'm talking about, but anyway.

in general i always expect bioware games to be uh. kind of crap in a very specific way lmao. i honestly think part of why i enjoy these games is genuinely Because i can patch up some of the gaps with my own ideas and still have the core of the narrative followed. personally i don't like deviating Too much from canon, i like to make connections to bolster it if that makes sense? if media is too good it doesn't usually end up compelling me in the same way since i don't feel the need to pick away at it (with very, very few expections). the scaffolding bioware gives me is pretty much ideal for this, so i was expecting another solid C+ feeling game to poke around in.

that's a very long-winded way of saying my expectations were absolutely not high going into this. not so low that i would have just been satisfied with literally anything, but low enough that i was going to play it anyway if for no other reason than just to see what happened next. (honestly, had this never been released, i would have been content with someone leaking a script & just reading through that. that's where i was at lol. it's been a decade, i invested a Lot of energy into loving dai in particular and even though it's not my first choice hyperfixation anymore by a long shot, there's still some interest there.)

most of my thoughts on the first are speculative & formed from trying to piece together what i've seen the devs speak on and what we know about the whole mass-firing thing. i think there are definitely areas where it seems like corners were cut with the writing, a lot of the time it gave me the impression that Someone on staff wanted to do more with what they were writing, but for whatever reason it wasn't allowed to go there.

i'm not really sure why it was implied pre-release that there wasn't going to be a lot of cameos or callbacks, because those were definitely there. i did definitely find myself frustrated with this on some level. i don't think it was malicious, but if nothing else it showed that it was completely possible to connect things to past games more than they did. i do somewhat understand the glossing over origins, since it was released without the expectation of sequels in the first place & you Can kill off your protagonist there (which automatically presents chances for continuity discrepancies later on). i also wasn't expecting to hear from hawke since we had their appearance in dai. but there should have been more callbacks to inquisition than there were, period.

even if the game was supposed to function as something to appeal to new players, i don't think it would have been hard to add a few extra line of context to the codexes to fill those gaps. we hear enough about the happenings in the south that it would have been justified, imo. this wasn't enough to pull me out of the game completely or anything, it was just a small ever-present disappointment as i went through. it really felt like a 'bare minimum for the sake of continuity' situation, and at that point i start to wonder if we would have been better off not getting them at all? i can't really decide either way. it's been a good half-decade since i picked up dai, but i was invested like you wouldn't believe for a good handful of years. my lore knowledge is slowly unearthing itself from my brain and it's entirely possibly my stance on this will shift as i remember more.

i will also say that this one-foot-in method doesn't really do new players any favours either. no, me forgetting lore doesn't really put me in their shoes, but it did definitely allow me to temporarily see how having less context for some events made it more confusing than just. having a codex blurb.

the pacing was. odd throughout. it's apparently a three act structure, but it felt unbalanced. i don't know if this had to do with the way i was playing (did all main/companion/a bunch of side quest stuff) and spacing things out or what, but the game felt weirdly lengthy up until i hit the davrin/taash/emmrich recruitment period, then fell into a lull, and only really found footing near the end bits. that's... not super great. when inquisition felt long, it was because you were still wandering around a map instead of progressing. here, it's like the non-main story content is being bread-crumbed out to the point it becomes disjointed. i think we probably saw the companion quests chopped up like that to encourage us to return to the lighthouse periodically & make sure we were catching up with everyone? a lot of the ambient conversations there reminded me more of field banter than the actual field banter, and i wonder if this had something to do with moving from a 4 man team to a 3 man team.

field banter triggered fairly regularly, and i Loved the fact that if it got interrupted by a fight it would pick up again right after. considering how slow dai's was to trigger, i would call this a quality of life win lmao. sometimes the banters would repeat, but i believe this is some sort of bug related to the way some people noticed that reloading a save would push you back a few minutes in time from when you Actually made the save. bug wise, that was the only thing i experienced consistently and i wasn't particularly bothered by it + i know some people had it worse. i do hope there are some hotfixes out soon, particularly for the player appearances being overwritten & saves not loading properly. i have a theory that the player appearances might be tied to using a preset rather than just starting from scratch, but i haven't seen enough people saying this to be sure.

i like the companions a lot, more than i thought i would, but much like with the callbacks, i just really wish there was More for them. they're fun! the lore expansions are interesting (what is going On in the crypts), we just don't get to spend enough time with anyone? the cutscenes in this game feel so short, specifically for anything not related to the main story. this game feels like it takes place over at least a couple months, we should be able to spend some time getting to know these people. i don't like how you can't just click on them at the lighthouse and get a dialogue loop once you're done talking to them about something new, surprisingly. even if in the past it was just a 'hello/goodbye' situation after exhausting dialogue trees, losing it was disappointing. i think it somehow led to the home base area feeling more static than it needed to be. again, the ambient conversations between them don't really do enough to help, because you can pretty easily miss it and/or just walk away. i know a lot of people struggled to click with the dai companions, but there was absolutely more screentime you could have with them than these ones & it's a real shame.

the inquisitor was There. i know a lot of people are saying they were bland and that's pretty accurate but also from what i remember, also not unfaithful to how they came off in dai. i think i forced this out of my mind after writing so much for my inquisitor back in the day, but it all immediately came flooding back to me as soon as i heard the dialogue. annoying, sure, but also consistent so i don't really have any strong feelings here. (why was i as an elf almost the same height as dorian though. she is not that tall lmao.)

i do think that fundamentally the game set out what it wanted to do when it came to solas' story. i actually really enjoyed the last sections of the game, & he became a delightful bastard antagonist type which was unironically the most fun i've had with him as a character since... ever? with inquisition, i hated that you couldn't really hit back at him in a way that had teeth, unless you wanted to punch him. which is fine for some, but i was sorely craving the option to ask him if he fucking hears himself in Multiple conversations. rook satiated that one in me, i won't lie lmao. pulling the knife-swap on him and then watching him stick to the veil like a fridge magnet was Great. i will probably try something else next time just to see what happens, but that felt like a pretty organic way to handle someone who couldn't help but lie & condescend to you the Entire time. from what i've seen, a good number of people are also enjoying their endings & finding that it makes sense, so i'm comfortable saying that in this respect, the game did its job.

and god help me i actually liked solas this time around.

look, i'm a human person. i'm also nearly 30 and have been around for almost a decade with this franchise, i have shifted opinions before & am capable of doing so again. do i like to be a hater sometimes because i think hyperbole is funny? yes! am i also 100% open to a new perspective from the writing and moving on from there? also yes! i wasn't optimistic here, but believe it or not, i actually wanted to be given something so that i could shift my thoughts on this man. romanced or not, he's the wheel that these events turned from. being completely sick of him 100% of time was somewhat draining. like i would see the writers talk about him and i would become frustrated because i genuinely could Not see what i was supposed to be latching onto here in any capacity. dai solas didn't make me love him, like him, or even hate him--i was mildly annoyed by him and honestly? kind of bored. considering how i don't exactly hold these games to high standards for entertainment, that was a pretty damning strike against him.

understand that i have never vibed with solas before this time, like, period. i wanted to, because i love a morally grey motherfucker & an antagonist who sees himself as literally anything but that, but something about him has consistently just rubbed me the wrong way. i think this is definitely partially due to dev favouritism (something that gives me the ick no matter the fandom. you & i are not friends, leave that boundary between fan and creator up, thanks.) & also, quite frankly, a lot of abhorrent behaviour from some of his louder fans. i didn't like the vibe of him being THE most important thing here, everyone else who didn't romance him or wasn't otherwise up his ass didn't matter. it just felt really mean spirited & like we played the game the 'wrong' way coming from dev comments. i can't tell you how happy i was to see that end up not being the case. true, majority of us weren't thrilled with how dai got treated in general, but at least it's across the board lmao.

however, we got to push back against him this time & peel back some more layers. the dialogue choices felt more like actual reactions i can see someone having when having a conversation like that. i was impressed that there were actually multiple options for his fate near the end. it did feel like a more fair version of the me3 ending choices, at least insofar as they were presented & played out. there was a choice that made sense for the different ways we could have handled interacting with him, which i did appreciate. him being physically incapable of not trying to fuck us over isn't something i consider bad writing, it was in character, his actions were logical based on context & as a player i had options that existed beyond 'roll over and take it' or 'punch him.' he's very fun to argue with, i must say. no, i probably won't ever be able to do the solavellan route myself. i can push my suspension of disbelief pretty far and roleplay a character well enough but if i man i was interested in irl ever spoke to me that way i think i would snap and i just can't get over that here lmao, but i can 100% see how this would feel like a pretty decent ending for the ship.

(as an aside, i've seen the 'happy' ending there, but can you do something like the fakeout/uno reverse betrayal with the inquisitor here too? i think the old kiss'n'stab would be a very fun option because of betrayal parallels, but i'm not sure if that's something we're be allowed lmao)

anyway it probably doesn't sound like i vibed with him here very much, but i promise you i did. i'm harsh by default & like to argue irl for fun with my friends, & i would have 0 issues saying if i thought he kept sucking here lmfao. he did, just like, in a way that i personally enjoyed, so it turns into a net positive.

varric being dead was just. ech. personally da2 was my least favourite & actually still is lol. i'm not attached to his character. he's a fruitfly to me. i don't hate him but when i saw him returning again i was like Really? but his presence makes sense to me on the grounds of me being unable to picture literally Anyone Else trying to do what he did during the prologue. even harding was like 'should i shoot him in the head.' in hindsight the clues are very much there but i 100% did not catch them because i straight up wasn't paying enough attention to varric.

on the subject of that, yes, it's very annoying that you need to keep being told to Do Your Sidequests For The Love Of Fuck. i got why immediately as i picked up on what we were supposed to do during the last fight, though. and if we're assuming that this will be a number of people's introduction to this sort of game, then yeah, alright, on a mechanical level the reminders make sense. somehow i have still caught a handful of people surprised things went poorly because they didn't do the companion quests, and with peace and love i think some of you need to brush up on basic media literacy. it was not subtle in delivery, we were supposed to know those were important. i can't decide if i'm annoyed with this writing or if i'm impressed bioware was anticipating the rpg horseblinders this way. it's probably both.

the blight evolution felt natural & made enough sense that i don't feel the need to chip away at it. like alright, based on the information we were provided with in the text, this tracks. it did start feeling a bit like me3 with the husks, but that might also be a glameplay thing. also, same studio. a bit of similarity here and there isn't a surprise imo.

dwarf lore was pretty neat to get, dwarf players how are you feeling? i honestly didn't think we would get to revisit the titans in any significant way, so i was pretty pleased to see them return & be a major part of the story. i haven't delved too much into it structurally yet, but to me it came off as another loose end being tied off in a way i can live with.

elsewhere, though... i don't know. i had a good time, but i also wasn't really allowed to 'settle' in this game the same way as i have before. it felt very go go go onto the next mission, spend 5 minutes there and keep going. 'shallow and short' is the combination here for a lot of the first 3/4 of the game, and that's unfortunate. obviously we weren't going to get the same puttering around like in dai, but i think we could have had some more depth from these people. again, frustrating. i like what we were given, but i don't think there was nearly enough of it (seems to be a repeating sentiment here doesn't it?)

i will out myself as someone who enjoyed the score. i will also out myself as someone who have no music background and can't remember the dai main theme despite having 400+ hours in that game. do what that information what you will. as my girlfriend pointed out, the music because very mass effect, especially with the synth coming in (which explains why i was vibing). she does know music, and did also say the score was objectively fine, it just didn't quite fit the game.

interestingly, something we both picked up on was the structure itself starting to feel more like mass effect the longer we played, specifcally me2/me3. if you've played me2, you will absolutely get flashbacks to its suicide mission during the last two pushes in veilguard. i'm actually not mad about a shift towards this format. i think it will be Significantly easier to produce these games going forward if they're looking at the trilogy as a model. like, yes, there was choice in those games, but it was far more linear & limited than what we came to expect from dragon age. given that the veilguard epilogue seems to hint at another game (and, as someone pointed out, there were at least 3 eluvians that were still blacked out by the end of the game. not shattered, just inactive--dlc maybe?) & this game seems to be doing well with reviewers/financially, i suspect they will be wanting to continue with the series in some form. changing the structure up this way will hopefully help avoid another decade-long hiatus. also i just objectively liked the trilogy a lot. veilguard seems like a transition piece into that sort of structure, and i think it shows. there are some growing pains, but i think if they settle into it it won't be nearly as apparent going forward.

speaking of me3.

the final couple missions were absolutely taking notes from me2's suicide mission, but the overall ending felt more along the lines of the me3 finale. there were some callbacks and appearances of past characters, and i think we were definitely meant to feel that same 'everyone collectively coming together to fight' thing from me3. it did kind of miss, though, since we don't have everyone. this game is the direct sequel to dai in a way that the other games weren't billed as. this is the place i would have had more connections to really hammer home that feeling of unity. if we got the cameos and links no where else, it should have been here. me3 was painful, i cried when i was done. there were heavy emotional beats near the end for sure, but they didn't hit as hard as i know they could have. i think if we had more of dai to latch onto for the epilogue, then the South being scorched earth (literally and metaphorically) would have felt like less of a sore spot. me3 also destroyed... just about everything. we watched a lot of people die, we couldn't save everyone. but there was still some catharsis in the narrative. choices we made previously might not have mattered in a big way, but we got a couple frames during the climax and it was like oh! okay! & you sat there and Felt Something.

i don't actually mind that this is a soft reset, or that the south got fucked up. i knew going in this was intended to reboot things so i already acclimated to the idea beforehand & i'm sure that helped. inquisition stressed that we were not a small organization, there would be influence over thousands of people's lives. in some way, i personally feel like this is a clumsy extension of that. there was always going to be collateral with the scale of what we were fighting here, it just would have been nice to see (even quickly) some signs that the characters we moved on from were actually involved in it. the inquisitor letters didn't really fulfill this need at all. i'm not sure what the best way to implement it would have been either. my gut instinct says cutscene but who knows? we were obviously meant to feel a lot of emotions here, but the punches were pulled in the end to the game's detriment. i'm still not overall mad at it, but i can't help see where there are massive holes.

rapid fire other stuff:

i love some of the visuals here. some of those maps? absolutely wretched! disgusting! i was living in the blighted areas. no idea why i saw so many people saying that this was 'too light' for this franchise. maybe early game? and then you get to a turning point (you'll know it when you see it) and it's like ah, i remember how i felt seeing the brood mother for the first time.

the maps in general are very decently sized. you don't realize it initially because you can't explore all at once, but they're fairly large & there's plenty to see. i don't miss the open-world format at all tbh.

popping the blight boils had no business being as satisfying as it was but every time i did it compelled me.

i'm okay with none of the companions loathing each other this time around & wasn't actually bored by it. there are some conflicts, but they feel like a decently realistic level of beef to have with acquaintances.

i didn't notice a lot of approval/disapproval happening but found myself not missing it a whole lot either. i don't know, i think because we all had the same end goal here it was kind of whatever to me.

(again, very mass effect of them here to do this. it's been a while since i played that too, but you really could just do Whatever as shepard and people would stay 99% of the time)

i still wish the well of sorrows came up. seeing how mythal was fractured, i don't think there's a reason it should have been glossed over. if nothing else, solas was mad as fuck about that incident & i'm kind of surprised it didn't carry over for that reason alone.

there are some... decently salvageable looks. i think the shadowdragons & crows do the best, with the lords of fortune being absolute bottom of the barrel for me. it's not only impractical, it's also orientalist and ugly. literally 0 redeeming features to it, throw it all away. (or like just give isabela pants. that actually would have made that look a low pass for me. peacock feathers don't fucking sit like that.)

mournwatch outfits broke my goth heart though. i know it's like... morgue scrubs inspired or whatever but i don't like it & why is there so much green and gold. game devs in general do you know silver metals exist. not everything has to be yellow gold.

i don't think we needed a crafting table, but i was for sure missing dye abilities (ffxiv has spoiled me in this regard i fear, i forgot the trenches dai had me in before mods)

the dreadwolf is bald?? like as a wolf? grain of salt, i'm running this game on med-low settings (on a ssd, it has no business being sold as hdd compatible but that's a rant for another time) so i might just not see the strands but uh. that looked like my cat's bald patches and turkey neck. i know it was a cool fight scene but Bald Dog made me laugh way too hard.

i chose to talk isseya down, i didn't catch it but i think we just left her on the floor crying? or something? did we kill her? like what happened there.

the art style, i have mixed feelings here. in general i think the stylization is actually fine, my biggest issue is with the character proportions. the heads are too goddamn big. full stop. it makes everything look off, & every time i see someone trying to figure out what's bothering them about the models, it can almost always be blamed on the head size relative to the body. the qunari have the worst of it, but the short neck/big head situation is rough for everyone*

*unless you look at dwarves, who have stockier builds and the ability to have actual curves (the body models are weirdly triangular?) & end up looking the best because of it.

fuck you if you wanted to have ass/thighs/tits above a downwards tilted a cup. i am so fascinated by the game's ability to let you be fat but not actually retain fat in areas that people typically do.

the high quality hair physics look really strange to me, it seems too slippery & i actually prefer how it moved when i turned this down.

combat is fun! very reminiscent of andromeda actually, a lot of mobility & flashy abilities. i played on the lowest settings because i wanted to do the story first, but even that was a good time and didn't drag on (i am looking at you dai). my girlfriend has tried a few other difficulties, it looks like mob size fluctuates as well as how armoured the enemies are.

camera tools is a plus for console players in particular. it's limited to non-cutscenes & i don't think you can toggle the ui off though, but it's still nice that it's there. (i still prefer to use other camera tools because i would rather pause cinematics.)

i can't argue about the way some topics being handled came off as corny or in your face, because it did. but on the flip side i've also seen a lot of people say they felt really seen by taash's storyline & were affected by it, so even if it was pretty unsubtle, i think it was overall a net good that it was there. this will absolutely be some people's introduction to Gender Things & i genuinely wish them the best with that. also taash's note in the codex about gender terms after talking with mae was actually pretty funny & mae's quote at the end was nice. despite being nb myself, i'm filing this portion of their storyline in the 'it's not for me but it's going to hit for someone & probably wouldn't have achieved that if it wasn't blatant in delivery.'

fade fish tank, 10/10 no notes.

overall, yeah, i would actually recommend that people give this a shot but to absolutely manage your expectations beforehand and understand that the goals here were to primarily wrap up with solas & give the devs a clean(er) slate for future installments. contrary to the impression given online in the weeks leading to release ('just headcanon it yourself' is imo the worst response that could have been given to people asking valid questions & will piss me off every time i remember it & this is why i say we need boundaries with creators online but anyway) it didn't come off as the fuck you i was quietly bracing myself for. there were parts left to be desired in execution (when aren't there) but it wasn't bad by any means. i think if you actually give it a fair chance, majority of people who play it can at least find a good couple things to be invested in. i'll always wonder what got scrapped & what suffered under production constraints, but i wouldn't call this a failure by any stretch. some of my predictions came true, some did not, some things i was genuinely surprised by & while i'm not remotely as attached to this game as i was to inquisition, i am still left quietly interested in what comes next.