#i want to see new people discuss it and go over details and react to the different timelines and character developments aah

[dropthedemiurge]

there are not enough Be My Favorite reactions on youtube and tumblr, my brain isn't stimulated enough :(

[bbyblair]

small touches, pink cheeks pt.2

charles leclerc x f!reader 

pt.1

 *ੈ✩‧₊˚

a/n: right pt.2! hope you guys like it, this is a sloooow burn so you are all into a wild ride! thank you for all the support on part one!

summary: the start of the 2023 season, Bahrain in early march. you'd recently joined the sky team, working as a news reporter and interviewer for your beloved sport.it's your first week and a mix of nerves and anticipation swirl together in your stomach. you're giddy to finally meet who you’d be working with for the next few months… but what happens when an instant connection sparks up between the new girl and Ferrari's golden boy? 

warnings: cursing, charles being a cocky bastard. charles obsessed with reader! reader isn't sure how to feel abt him. pretty much a whirlwind of emotions and events ngl. probs non accurate f1 talk, I apologise!

word count: 2.0k

friday, march 3rd 2023.

you were stumped, emotions swirling in your mind and you didn't know how to properly react. on one hand you were flattered that the handsome man was paying attention to you that way, but the rational side of your brain quickly shut down those thoughts and you went back to feeling angry. slightly less angry, but angry nevertheless.you watched over the video another few times, okay so maybe charles actions were not as obvious as you initially thought. this could be seen as a friendly admiration, right? 

you sigh and lean your head down onto the table, letting out a small huff of annoyance, but you could still feel the heat on your cheeks after this morning. deciding to take a break from the editing, you got up and informed your coworkers that you wanted to look a bit more around the paddock and try to familiarise yourself with the copious amount of people who worked in the ten different teams. 

it was around two hours before the free practice would start and you assumed that all of the drivers would be already discussing strategies and looking over the track details. the circuit itself was huge and swarming with fans and workers. your sky f1 id hanging from your neck proudly, and allowed you to go all around the paddock with no questions asked. 

walking past the mercedes area you had spotted toto wolff, and internally fangirled a little to yourself, having a small crush and also lots of respect for the mercedes team principal. continuing around the paddock you passed the red bull area, you couldn't say that you had a team you were vouching for per se, but the dominance of red bull did annoy you slightly, you did always love a bit of competition. 

after looking around the red bull hospitality area, your eyes landed on an extremely familiar face. Well you hadnt actually seen him in real life but you certainly had seen him on tv. none other than max verstappen. he was already wearing his fireproofs and was gripping his helmet in his hand while having a conversation with who you assumed was one of the mechanics. you were staring a little, he looked different in real life. not like the mad max the media made him out to be. 

his conversation ended and he must've felt someones eyes on him, as while the mechanic turned and left inside, max's eyes landed on yours. he quickly looked over you and you could almost see something align on his face. he shot you a wide smile and then beckoned you over. shocked, you stood there for a moment and looked around meaninglessly to see if he was motioning for someone else. sure enough there was no one else around. 

slow steps moved you over to the man and you sent him a polite smile. 

“hi, im Max. you must be the new reporter for this season. I thought i better introduce myself seeing as we will be seeing each other a lot this season.” he sent you a playful wink and chuckled a little. 

you laughed a genuine laugh and a smile spread across your face, and you were surprised by his kind attitude. 

“y/n. Its lovely to meet you max.” 

“so tell me, have you been introduced to any of the other drivers yet?.” his eyes never left yours as he spoke, his tone was sweet like honey.  “yes, this morning i actually did an interview with the ferrari boys!” you replied back eagerly. 

“ah, well I hope they were accommodating to the new girl.” he said as he pinched your shoulder lightly. “of course.” you replied curtly. 

he looked around for a moment, and in his eyes looked as if he wanted to say more, but seemingly decided against it. 

“well i best go prepare for free practice but it was a pleasure meeting you.” his dutch accent lacing his words. you smiled up at him again and nodded. “you too!” 

.┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁۪ ｡˚ ✧

after your interaction with max you wandered down across the rest of the team's areas and luckily for you didn't bump into anyone else. you heard the roar of fans and assumed that free practice had begun and the drivers would be making their ways out onto the track to test their new cars for the season. you decided you better get back to work before your co workers notice your prolonged absence. 

swiftly you began walking back to the sky hq, and once you were firmly sat back at your desk you opened your laptop and began the tedious process of editing whatever the hell the interview this morning was. well hopefully the fans will enjoy it, you thought. Your co worker amilie made her way over to you with two coffees in hand and sat down next to you. she was a sweet girl, you'd only met her yesterday but she clearly took a liking to you. you were both around the same age, her being a few years older, and had some similar interests. 

“do you mind if i take a look at todays interview, the boss wants me to look over some stuff to make sure they didn't let slip anything a little too personal.” she said warmly. 

“yeah of course.. here.” you handed her the laptop, and sat there while she pressed play. heat began to rise up on your cheeks but you hoped she wouldn't notice the tension between you and charles. a few minutes into the extended clip she turned to look at you, your expression tried to be as neutral as possible, but you never did have the best poker face. 

“whats all this about then?” her words were not rude, she spoke with a girlish interest and smiled at you. 

“what?’ you replied dumbly, trying to avoid the question. 

“between you and leclerc!” 

even more blush threatened to explode on your cheeks as you sighed. shaking your head lightly. 

“I dont know what your talking about.” you tried to reply in a tone that indicated you wanted this conversation to end but she continued. 

“oh come on! he is so into you! even i am jealous. leclerc has the hots for you!” her french accent peaked through her words and how she spoke with such excitement and interest made a small smile grace your lips.

“like i said, i dont know what your talking about.” your tone this time was playful and you rolled your eyes and nudged your new friend. the conversation died there as she knew you wouldn't say anything more.

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁۪ ｡˚ ✧

you two stayed there for a matter of hours. editing the interview and getting it ready to be posted online. once you were done it was already the evening and most had packed up to leave. 

you began packing your bag and said goodbye to the few people still in the small office space. heading out of the building you began making your way through the paddock. to get to the exit you had to pass along all of the different teams' areas. mostly the building were dark, some motor homes lit up with people inside. 

passing by the ferrari section, you let curiosity get the best of you and peeked into the window. your eyes instantly fell on a familiar face. charles. he was sitting alone, watching over some footage of what you assumed was his free practice one today. headphones were wrapped around his neck and he was dressed in different clothes to this morning. just a comfortable sweat seat.you had to admit he was a very attractive guy. 

clearly you had been looking at him for longer than you realised, because his head suddenly snapped toward the window and eyes instantly locking with yours. blush erupted all over your face as you didn't know what to do. shit. he had just caught you staring at him. god you were mortified. a smirk spread across his handsome face quicker than you could blink and he sent you a small wave. his eyes had that same dark expression as they did earlier. 

its like you were frozen in place, legs refusing to move. you sent him  a shy wave and immediately  turned to leave. when you looked back behind to see charles, he had gone from his space in the small room. your stomach dropped. you didn't want to face him again, his cocky attitude annoyed you, and his stupid smirk, and his stupid unreadable expression! charles leclerc annoyed you. 

you heard some steps behind you and then a masculine voice saying your name. fuck. you didn't want to face him, but you didn't risk pissing him off and him then reporting you to your boss. you could loose your job! you stopped in your tracks, rolled your yes then turned around.

“mr leclerc.” you spoke sweetly and the way you addressed him clearly sat well with him when he chuckled a little. 

“so, how was your first day? did you enjoy your first interview?” there was that mischievous glint in his eye again, and the way he spoke just instantly made you blush. there was something about him that you couldn't quite place. 

“yes. i had fun.” you tried to keep your responses short and snappy. to try and send a signal that you wanted to leave. clearly charles was not a man who gave up very easily, when he responded. “good, i'm glad. did you meet anyone else today? any of the other drivers.” in his mind charles had thought that you and his teammate were the only ones who had seen the pretty new interviewer. he liked knowing he had you all to himself. so your next words clearly shocked him.

“yes actually, max. he was very welcoming.” you spoke softly. his gaze darkened and his jaw clenched. he didn't respond for a few moments. you took in his reaction, and it made you laugh internally. you could definitely use this against him.to annoy him the same way he annoys you! so before he could reply you spoke up again. 

“i'm so excited to work with him! i'm a big fan of redbull and it was such an honour to meet the best driver in the world!” now, most of what you were saying was a total lie, but charles didn't know. your tone was sickly sweet and as you spoke you batted your eyelashes up at him so innocently, that he did not question your words for a second. 

you didn't think his eyes could get any darker, but he proved you wrong. you could tell he was trying to control his breathing, his eyes piercing into yours so deeply that you got intimidated. he then let out a chuckle. not an amused chuckle. the kind of chuckle that you do when you are very fucking pissed off. he nodded. 

“hm. well we will just have to see who is really the best driver on the track this sunday no?” his words had a bite to them, and when he got angry his accent thickened in a way that is so delicious. he smiled at you. eyes never leaving your face as if he was trying to memorise every small detail about your face. 

you smiled and nodded again. then without even granting him a verbal response you turned on your heel and began walking back through the paddock to the exit. charles was stunned. and your heart was racing, never did you actually expect yourself to make such a ballsy move. your actually quite shocked at what the hell you just did. 

charles was also stunned. a girl had never ever dismissed him before. he was used to them falling to his feet. you shocked him. but if there's one thing charles enjoyed, it's a challenge. 

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁۪ ｡˚ ✧

wow. hope you guys enjoyed reading this part and it lived up to your expectations lmao! lmk if anyone wants to be tagged in the next parts <3

pt3?

tagged: @buendiabebeta @summerslike11

[uchihaharlot]

I didn't mean to break their hearts, I was just curious, srry!😭😭 (but Itachi's one was kinda funny-)

But anyway, now I'm wondering about how they would react if they found out that you can draw really cool and beautiful.

(I'm an artist, so😎)

Nonny 🥹🥹

That put me in an really good mood; lol. That was way too fun to write; maybe I can one day write a super angsty break up (but I love them too much!!!).

I love all artists 😭😭😭 Painters, writers — digital or paper. Anything that expresses the inner workings of someone’s mind and the fact that they can manifest it to reality is so so so beautiful. I hope I’ve secretly seen your art, I’d probably simp over it. Always simp over art. 😂😂🥹🥹

N/SFW; very cute Uchiha men adoring your artwork! 🥹🥹🥹 (ooc Madara??); Simpy Obito; …Scandalous Shisui; abnormally observant Itachi 😂 suggestive themes rolled out the further I got. For some reason, I just had to. (P.s. I should not be allowed to write when tired??? Half of this was done while my eyes rolled shut in bed).

Madara:

It’s not everyday that Madara is blown like a leaf in the wind. When you mentioned being a patron of the arts, he thought maybe the art of battle?? Didn’t expect your weapon to be a paint brush with some acrylic paint. Thought it was some weird jutsu infused shit.

And then you just had to go above and beyond and do a portrait of him for his birthday!!!!! It’s hung on the living room center wall so that it’s the first thing anyone sees! Honestly, this man is a brute, but your art envokes his softer side! A side that he hasn’t been in touch with for…well, a long time.

Makes sure that everyone and I mean, everyone, is aware of your talent! Still, he tries to find the side hussle in it, soliciting customers for you and all. 😭😭 Will trash talk the chalk art children make on the sidewalk, which ‘…that’s not nice, they’re children..’ you say. He shrugs, nobody is as good as you.

Obito:

Finds out and tries to ‘secretly’ commission you lmao. Makes it totally obvious too, his handwriting is shit and eveeeerrryyyyone knows who Tobi really is…. Plus how can you even begin without discussing what he wants done!! Duh, Obito! Unfortunately for him, you are more interested in drawing matters of the flesh. He’ll only show his chest, nothing more.

‘That’s fine.’ You shrug, and get to work. Obito, however, does not have the resolve to sit still! It’s frustrating to no end, but alas, after what seems an eternity— its done. Sort of. Still much to add, but the basics are there and you’ll work better when he’s not asking how does it look every twenty minutes.

Eventually you do finish this beautiful piece of him, and Obito cries. You made his scars tolerable and beautiful with your mind’s creativity, he feels less self conscious about them, only a little.

Shisui:

Is the least normal about it when he discovered your sketchbook — more like snatched and played keep away. Had to fight him for it, literally. Will ask you to paint/draw him naked…many times lol and you respectfully say no... Not that he likes people to see him naked (ok maybe a little?) but he secretly hopes it might happen one day. It would be a private thing for the two of you, cause he wants that ass.

And when you do cave to his whim, just to satiate him. He’s nervous lmao. Had this oh so macho man idea of rocking a hard on but Shisui simply maintains his usual semi. It’s nice though, you make sure it’s extremely detailed..as he asked for.

But, ‘(y/n)… this is chibbi!!!’ Lol, jokes on Shisui!! He didn’t say how to draw his pp.

Itachi:

Is the most normal about it. Though he still will praise you every time you finish a piece and show him, he is still massively impressed. How does your wrist not get tired? …maybe this is why your hand jobs are so good. 😈 Just watching you try a new technique (pointillism, which is my favorite style) makes his wrist hurt. Enjoys when you ask him for ideas! He has lots of them! Mostly…obscure and derelict landscapes though.

Would not be opposed to having his portrait done, but it’s really not his style. He is disciplined enough to sit still but doesn’t see the value in it. Not until the final product is revealed, does he truly understand how important this piece was. You’ve captured his personality in a new light.

[onehelluvafan]

IncuBlitz Part Three: Just an ex??

This is part three of a three-part analysis related to "Better Than Blitzo" (or "IncuBlitz" as I like to call him) and the look that he gave Blitz, right before he kissed Stolas.

Click here for Part One: His Tattoo, Part Two: Verosika, or keep reading to dive into Part Three: Just an ex??—what his personal motivations could be for taking the time to check if Blitz is watching before kissing Stolas.

My last theory, and the one that I think is the most likely, is that he’s just an ex of Blitz’s at the party who saw an opportunity and took it.

As we can see from when Blitz and Stolas first enter the room, IncuBlitz is already standing in perfect line of sight of where they sat down to have their conversation.

Considering that IncuBlitz doesn’t pop in until over five minutes later, when Stolas is breaking down, I think his intention was genuinely just to ‘rescue’ Stolas from the person who was making him upset.

It does beg the question though: Was his primary motivation to help out Blitz’s “freshest ex”? Or did it have more to do with the fact that the person bothering Stolas was actually Blitz?

There’s definitely no question that he does know that Stolas is the ‘freshest ex.’ He explicitly mentions Stolas’ song, saying that he has “great pipes,” where Stolas had been introduced by Verosika as the “special new guest of honor.”

But did he recognize Blitz? And if so, at what point?

As with Verosika, there are several times throughout the night when anyone could have noticed and recognized Blitz. But in addition to those mentioned earlier, there’s one moment in particular that I think kicked off the events that followed. During the scene where Stolas stands up on the couch, yelling, “Harriot! Don’t get on that train. It’s going to London, and I cannot be without you!” there’s at least one moment where Blitz’s full outfit is exposed. Not only was this in that same line of sight from where we’d originally seen IncuBlitz, but we can also see that the people he’d been standing next to, both turned to look directly at Stolas.

Whether or not he recognized Blitz in that moment, I do think it’s the moment that his attention was brought to Stolas and where it seems to have remained.

While it is possible that he was no longer standing in that exact spot anymore, we do know for a fact that he was still nearby. 

Because 15 seconds later, when the point of view changes to Blitz, you can actually see IncuBlitz in the background, just a few feet away.

This places him well within earshot when Stolas wails at Blitz that he doesn’t want him there and to please go home, followed by a moment of distressed weeping.

Even then, we don’t actually see IncuBlitz pop in until it’s clear that Blitz is not only choosing to stay, but is also about to try engaging with Stolas further.

It’s at this point that not only does he interrupt them, but he explicitly does not look at nor react to Blitz throughout the entire exchange. In fact, it’s actually noted as an intentional detail in the official storyboard. Storyboard artist Tony Raphielle uploaded clips of this to YouTube three days after the episode was released. 

They even noted in the video description that for this scene, the voice actors' performance was based on what was blocked out on the storyboard. 

This is the reverse of how their earlier conversation was handled. For that scene, the voice acting was recorded first, with the storyboards being drawn afterward. 

This leaves me even further convinced that IncuBlitz’s behavior and timing, from beginning to end, was very carefully crafted by the Spindlehorse team.

And finally, let’s discuss the kiss that shook Blitz, and many of us in the fandom, to the core. 

Now, obviously, we can’t know at what point, if at all, that IncuBlitz recognized Blitz specifically as the person who was bothering Stolas.

But I personally feel confident that by the time he looked up at Blitz, right before that kiss, he knew exactly who he was messing with.

Because honestly, the entire context of the party would make it almost impossible for IncuBlitz to not have recognized him.

First and foremost, there’s the fact that Stolas’ invitation implies that the people in attendance either dated or at least had a brief encounter with Blitz. 

There’s also imagery of Blitz plastered all over the place, with the exact same outfit that he wore to this party.

And if IncuBlitz somehow managed to miss recognizing him before whisking Stolas off to the dance floor, it would feel downright comical to me if he still did not recognize Blitz while he was up on the balcony. 

Because not only is the tablecloth hanging open, revealing his signature outfit, but Blitz had also taken down his hood, leaving his hard-to-miss horns and unique forehead tattoo exposed to anyone who looked up.

Either way, the fact that IncuBlitz looked up at the person that he perceived to be bothering Stolas, right before he kissed him, in my opinion, was definitely intentional and personal.

And it’s entirely possible that it’s actually just as simple as that. 

After digging into this and doing my best to analyze and consider all of the evidence, I personally think it’s the most likely explanation. That he was just someone at the party who saw an opportunity to help out Stolas and stick it to Blitz.

I am super curious though, to see if the show mentions IncuBlitz going forward and under what circumstances.

Considering that his canonical name in the credits is “Better Than Blitzo” Guy, I think it’s safe to assume that this will not be a recurring character. 

I do hope that we at least get to hear if his interaction with Stolas ended on the dance floor or if they actually ended up spending the night, or several nights, together.

I will definitely be surprised if we don’t see at least one awkward moment between Blitz and Stolas related to this. Even if it’s just a nonverbal decision to not talk about that just yet.

[proxductions]

“My love is only for you.”

summary: Everyone loved Cedric Diggory, and the girls of Hogwarts can't seem to remember that he has a girlfriend.

pairings: Cedric Diggory x Ravenclaw!reader

word count: _

warnings/notes: a tiny bit of angst here and there. some lovely person wanted me to write about cedric so here I am 🖤 I will also be making a new post about someone who you might’ve seen all over your tiktok page. enjoy!

“The green-eyed monster can rear its ugly head in the most unexpected of places. In love, it can be a warning sign of Jealousy.”

"They're at it again," sighed your friend Hannah Abbott. You were both walking to your next class, discussing the fact that the Yule Ball was just tomorrow, when you both caught sight of yet another girl trying to flirt with your boyfriend, Cedric Diggory.

It was clear that Cedric was not interested in the brown-haired girl who was twirling her hair, fluttering her eyes, and pouting her lips.

You sighed at the scene and exclaimed, "How many times do I need to tell them that he's got a girlfriend? Why can't they put that in their stupid brain!"

Cedric immediately caught your voice and saw you. He gently smiled and pushed past the girl, who huffed as she saw who he was walking towards.

"Hi," Cedric said with a charming smile.

"Hello," you said coldly. You didn't know why you were mad at him, you just were.

Cedric knew when you were mad. He recognized that cold voice of yours and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Listen, I keep on telling them that I'm taken, but I don't think they want to accept tha-" He started but before he could finish his sentence, you were off.

It was finally the time.

You walked down the stairs when you were done and saw Hannah, who also looked absolutely stunning.

"Oh! I didn't know what to wear!" Hannah said, not noticing you yet. "There was this black long gown, but I didn't want to wear that. Oh! Did you see Hermione Granger? When I tell you, she looked absolutely--" Hannah stopped blabbering immediately when she saw you.

You were dressed in a large gown with the colors f/cs, and you looked absolutely amazing. The gown reached the floor and had the details of beading and a lace.

Your friend was absolutely flabbergasted.

"Oh, you're gorgeous!" she had finally said.

You gently smiled as you thanked and hugged your friend.

When you released your friend, you saw him.

It was as if he was looking for someone. He was towering over a lot, so it wasn't a trouble when his eyes had met yours.

He gapped at the beauty that he held his eyes with.

He quickly pushed people to get to you, and when he saw you, he immediately kissed your hand.

"You're beautiful," Cedric had said breathily.

Despite the presence of a large crowd and the loud noise, there was an unusual sense of stillness and silence.

Cedric then reminded himself why he was desperately looking for you. "Listen - can we talk?"

You nodded your head as he then gently held your hand away from the loud crowd.

In a deserted corridor, he started to talk.

"I don't know why they keep on talking to me as if I'm not taken. I truly don't know why, believe me. But all I need to say, and what you need to remember is that I'm yours, y/n. My love is only for you."

This had truly given you an opening, and you kissed his cheek softly.

"And I'm yours too. I'm sorry I reacted that way." You Shamelessly said.

"It's fine, really. I understand why."

You both shared a moment where you locked eyes, and in that moment, nothing else seemed to matter.

“can we just.. go back to the ball?”

Cedric then leaned in and planted a soft kiss on your cheek, sending a warm sensation throughout your body. The feeling of his lips on your skin lingered, making your heart race and your cheeks flush.

"Lead the way, my love."

[ohmycale]

 On fanon, canon and details Dark Souls style

Hey, @mellowwater.

I’m sorry if this is late and I haven’t replied to this in my original post. In truth, I have tried to go back and actually answer this question. I made a few drafts but I opted for this instead. The most important thing is you pointed out is this- there is a lot of not confirmed details gets floated around and we don't know what's what. People latch on info that they feel is the truth.

Canon tells us that when Jour died, Deruth did distance himself from his son. We both know they are both grieving and Cale (in Ron's memories) was trying to reach out. Deruth in the same memories was painted as someone clinging to Cale at that event.

Personally, Deruth distancing due to his grief and is understandable in an adult's POV. But it is confusing for someone in Cale's age at that time. I am sure not many have heard it but there is a thing called childhood emotional neglect. This is what I interpret as what happened to kid!Og!Cale. I think it also happened when Violan and Basen came into the picture and when Lily was born because they now trying to be a blended family. It would be normal for og!Cale to be feeling left out or replaced in this new dynamic.

Realistically, we‘re trying to find nuance on very little information, much less confirmed/canon information. It doesn’t help that the topic of the said info are side characters who are, for the sake of writing, not the interest of the story/ TCF in whole.

And of course there is the fanfic side, whether everything is basically under the sun. In fanfic, things get more muddled because there is a lot of character/plot interpretation (and even reinterpretation (I’m looking at you, do-over/fix-it fics/characters react to the plot fics). They are also people in the fandom who have some personal experience about a certain experience with our biases and projection. Same goes for fans who don’t have the said experience being projected.

Talking about og!Cale or any side character is like playing any game from FromSoftware. If you are not familiar with the videogame company aka creator of Dark Souls (you died!), there is lore on the game but you will be hard pressed to find a coherent storyline. I think TCF is the same – the author gives a ton of interesting characters and details about them but it feels wanting since you guessed it- they are side characters and practically, they don’t have much details.

Back to the TCF – I think it is okay to not have full details on what is fanon or canon. For me, whether the info is fanon or canon, it generates discussion, conversation, ideas and things that we (as fans) can throw at each other. Realistically, we cannot press for more info – the author gave us a few details and that’s it. They chose not to do more details. And fans discussing things will stick to what they want to believe – whether it is canon or fanon. It’s up to them whether to believe them or not. A fan can have their own cannon (aka headcannon) and it’s up to them to change their minds from other that. Even if somebody does bring forth canon, how many people are actually gonna believe that if it messes up with their headcannon?

In previous posts, I was welcoming anyone to challenge whatever I posted with canon evidence to the contrary since details get muddy. So far, nothing. But there are posts who post information whether it’s canon or fanon. I just opted for reading and reacting to what people post, whether fanon or canon since not a lot of people are posting canon, especially on the relationship dynamics of characters. Maybe there is someone who is more industrious than me out there.

I know I didn’t actually answer your question. I also know I have some many unanswered questions that I don’t even know if the canon covered. Because of the really lack of info, I don’t see fanon as something really bad especially for topics that we don’t really have info on. We all want clarity, alas, there is not much we can find.

[usamifriends]

IDOLiSH7 Anime vs Game Comparisons

First Beat - Episode 5

Getting a New Song! (+ Apologizing to Yaotome Productions)

Small detail, but Tsumugi actually called and was yelled at over the phone first before going to the office for round 2. In the anime, we just see leaving to go to Yaotome Productions.

Tsumugi discusses with Banri about how the overall team morale of IDOLiSH7 has increased significantly after TRIGGER's concert. Takanashi papa overhears this and tells Tsumugi to call the boys for an announcement.

They are getting a new song!!

It's funny because game Takanashi papa was much more serious and toned down. He also speaks in a lower voice. They say the exact same lines: "I've been waiting for you to be ready to sing this song." But in sooo different ways.

Game Takanashi papa was like this:

Anime Takanashi papa was like this:

Anime Takanashi papa seems genuinely excited, like a fan. It's very interesting to see the differences in direction. I think they had a better picture of how they want each character to come off as when they were producing the anime. The small changes to Takanashi papa really sets the atmosphere of Takanashi Productions: warm, supportive, and free-spirited aka the best home for our IDOLiSH7 boys.

The game has an added scene where Iori asks about the writer of IDOLiSH7 songs. Takanashi papa chuckles and says, "That's a trade secret."

The other boys start discussing the writer of the songs in the practice room because Takanashi papa's response caught their attention.

Mitsuki observes that Takanashi papa seems to be quite proud about this writer. Riku wonders, "What if it's the president? It seems like a lot of feelings were put into writing them."

Tsumugi doubts that because she's never seen her dad write songs. Then, she says that she has to go out for something.

Nagi offers to accompany her, but Yamato volunteers instead. Yamato insists saying, "I spent the whole night thinking about the schedule for this date. Let me go this time, okay?" Then, he tells Tsumugi that he will meet her on the way.

Tsumugi waits as she tries to figure out Yamato's intentions. Yamato arrives in a suit, saying he knows that she's going to Yaotome Productions to apologize and wants to accompany her. The anime just skips the whole date thing and starts with Tsumugi and Yamato outside.

We suddenly cut to the practice room with the others. In the anime, Riku immediately brings Iori outside to talk, but in the game, he just shuts Iori’s mouth. Then, they continue practicing. (The anime version is so much funnier. I love it so much.)

Then, we jump back to Tsumugi and Yamato who meet Tenn on the way back. In the game, Tsumugi actually FANGIRLS right in front of Tenn (lmao but I get her): “…Wow…. It’s the real Kujou Tenn… You have such a small face! And you’re so cute! So cool!! You’re really like an angel.”

There’s an added Tenn line when discussing about Gaku: “He[Gaku] is scary, like a werewolf who transforms under a full moon. Roar!”

It was so surprising, I had to add it.

Tenn surprises Yamato who asks Tenn to go easy on Yamato and the rest because they’re all non-aggressive people. Tenn continues to tease Yamato, and Yamato plays along.

We go back to the practicing boys with Banri bringing them lunch. Tamaki reacts negatively to Sogo’s comment like in the anime, so Mitsuki asks for the real reason. Tamaki was actually about to share his reason, but Iori started talking at the same time. He didn’t cut Tamaki on purpose. He was walking from another side to talk about Riku’s sickness to the rest of the members and Banri (as shown in the anime). Riku muffles Iori’s mouth before he could speak and brings him out.

After trying to bribe Iori with ice cream or taiyaki, game Riku actually increased budget in the game to 1000 Yen (around 6.5 USD). But Iori will NOT be bribed! In his response, he actually calls Riku "Riku-san", which does not happen in the anime.

The flow of the scene is very different. In the anime, it starts as a funny squabble with Riku's cheap bribes. Then, they abruptly shift the atmosphere into one that is much more intense with Riku's: "I'll keep dancing even if it kills me."

In the game, it starts out as an outright fight. Even Iori's "Hey. Let go of me." sounds much more angry than the anime's. Right after this, he is hit by Riku's cheap bribes. Iori tends to speak less formally when he is emotional, so I think his "Riku-san" in the game scene was because he was bewildered. He just found out that his center probably has a serious chronic illness. As he was trying to tell the others, he gets forcibly dragged out and suddenly bribed with cheap food, which kind of makes light of the situation (even though Riku does not mean that at all). After this, Riku muffles Iori's mouth a second time, which annoys Iori. The tension is resolved when Riku proves to Iori that he is taking the situation as seriously as Iori is by saying, "I'll keep dancing even if it kills me."

Side note: When Iori gets emotional, he often addresses people less formally. We'll see that in a future scene in the game.

Iori calms down and returns to calling Riku “Nanase-san”.

During the performance in a typhoon, there were some details that changed. Tenn was worried because he heard there was a typhoon, not because he noticed Riku going out of breath. Also, Riku was about to go for another song, but Iori announces the end of the performance.

Riku's Dream Scene

Game Tenn asks Riku what kind of performance he wants to see. He offers The Wizzard of Oz and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Based on this, it seems like Riku and Tenn's parents had some kind of troupe or theater that does musicals and other plays. I like this because it explains Tenn's connection to musicals. In part 1, Banri said Tenn caught the attention of Broadway people + if you know you know ;-)

Also, Riku wakes up in his room instead of a hospital bed in the game.

Teasing Riku

After Iori calls Tsumugi to talk, which happens in the anime, we get an extra scene with the rest of i7 left in the other room.

Riku observes that Iori and Tsumugi would often go somewhere together and wonders what they are talking about.

Sogo asks if Riku is curious. Yamato teases Riku for wanting to know. Mitsuki jumps in saying, "Should I teach you how to say, 'Stop right there!'" (stopping Iori and Tsumugi lmao)

Riku says, "It's not like that!"

They also shuffled some scenes. For example, the scene where Tamaki talks about being followed by HS girls and the Iori & Riku fansite comes after Iori talks with Tsumugi in the game but before in the anime.

Side Story I: Nanase "Tenn's little brother" Riku

We start with Riku worrying that i7 will treat him differently, knowing that he is Tenn's younger twin brother. He didn't plan to tell them, but because he was overwhelmed at that time (having to face the reality of his brother leaving him and not being able to sing to process those feelings), he impulsively told everyone.

He's stressing quite a lot over this that it's starting to affect his health.

He wonders if he should tell the others about his sickness too, but he's scared that they'll make him leave IDOLiSH7. In the end, he decided not to think too much about it because it won't get him anywhere. He leaves to see the other boys.

He swings the door open and greets everyone with the sunniest, "Good morning!" (There is no sound for side stories, but I can hear his voice🥹)

Yamato and Iori greet him back. Mitsuki asks him if he wants to eat breakfast. Their response makes Riku happy because they're treating him as usual. (Happy Riku, happy life ^o^)

Well... that's what they say out loud, but in their minds, they are thinking wayy differently, haha.

Yamato: "That's Kujou Tenn's younger brother..."

Iori: "That's the younger brother of TRIGGER's Kujou-san..."

Mitsuki: "That's the twin younger brother of a super idol...."

Sogo: "I'm living with the younger brother of the person whose concert I went to yesterday...."

Tamaki: "Rikkun, I heard your older brother is in TRIGGER. You know, I gave him a piggyback ride yesterday."

Riku responds saying that he heard about that and asked if the bomb thing was a joke... 😭 Tamaki frustratedly shouts that everything he said is true!

Riku asks Tamaki about what was Tenn like. Tamaki says that Tenn gives him good vibes. Riku probes for more information, asking if Tenn talked about family or more about his health condition.

Iori asks why Riku is suddenly so fidgety about the topic. Iori observes that Riku spoke with more resentment that day before the live (yesterday). Iori asks, "Didn't you want to prove yourself to the heartless person who abandoned you?"

Riku is surprised that he came off like that. Tamaki says that he won't talk about Tenn again if Tenn makes Riku uncomfortable. Iori continues, assuring Riku that he will definitely be able to prove himself. Someone with a voice like Riku will not only prove himself but also surpass that "heartless person".

Riku gets mad at Iori for calling Tenn a heartless person. He says that he's going too far! Iori defends himself, saying that Riku said that himself. Riku replies, "Well... but Tenn-nii might have had his own reasons..."

Iori asks if Riku wants to reconcile with Tenn, but Riku quickly denies it. He adds that even if Tenn apologizes, Riku will never forgive him. Iori is confused.

Sogo understands Riku's feelings and says, "I am grateful for my family and love them dearly, but that’s also why I feel such deep resentment." Listening to Sogo, Riku thinks that just might be it.

Riku thinks, "I wonder if Sogo-san understands that feeling because he also abandoned his family..." Sogo reads Riku like a book and seems a bit sad.

Iori breaks the heavy atmosphere, saying, "That sounds complicated." Mitsuki comments, "Iori is sensitive, but his motives and goals are aligned. So these kinds of conflicting feelings might be hard to understand?"

Iori responds saying, "...No, I can understand them." Tamaki jumps in saying, "Don't force yourself to understand." Iori angrily replies, "I don't want to hear that from you!"

Iori explains that he wants Riku to be clear about his goals because indecisiveness may lead to less than desirable results. Riku retorts with "It's not that easy."

Iori says that it might not be easy, but if Riku doesn't sort his feelings out properly, he will end up regretting it later. Yamato takes Riku's side.

Nagi wonders why Tenn didn't try to enter the entertainment world with Riku when Riku is so good at singing. Mitsuki adds that Riku does not have good stamina, but he can work on that. Riku smiles and promises to work hard.

Iori:

Yamato speculates that it's out of rivalry because he can't think of any other reason.

Yamato leaves to go to Yaotome Productions with Tsumugi.

After meeting Anesagi, Yamato and Tsumugi introduce themselves and immediately apologizes.

Anesagi is furious and says, "Do you think that an apology is enough?" Anesagi can't believe that IDOLiSH7 started dancing just because they were "feeling pumped". If IDOLiSH7 could dance anywhere if they felt excited, then Yamato should dance right here, right now.

Yamato says that right now he's not exactly "feeling pumped" right now. Anesagi replies, "Then, I'll make you 'feel pumped up'. GO! GO! GO! GO! Well!? How about now!?"

Yamato shocked, says, "I.... I'm at about 70%"

Anesagi furiously retorts, "70%!? Then make up the rest on your own!! Do you rely on others to get things done?"

Yamato apologizes.

Anesagi criticizes Tsumugi for just blankly observing the situation even though she's the manager.

Tsumugi also apologizes. She also starts cheering, "GO! GO! GO! GO!"

Yamato is shoookk.

Both managers are cheering now....

Yamato decides that he'll just dance. He says, "I'm sorry! I'm pumped up now! 100% pumped! I'll dance. Manager, can you hold my suit jacket?"

Just as he was about to dance, Anesagi shouts in disbelief, "What!? You're dancing!? I thought you came here to apologize, but you're dancing!?"

Yamato angrily replies, "Then, what do you want me to do!!" Yamato quickly catches himself.

Anesagi continues to express disbelief.

We cut to TRIGGER who could hear Anesagi screaming from another room. This part is in the anime!

TRIGGER catches Tenn up on their beef with i7 because game Tenn was delirious. They show Tenn some pictures, and this is when Tenn learnt that Riku is in i7 in the game.

We get a funny scene about Gaku's impression of the i7 members. At first, he thought they were talented, but because of the audience stealing incident, he started seeing them as shameless people, especially the center. Tenn chokes at Gaku's assessment of the center. Gaku adds, "Wasn't he [the center] smirking with a sinister smile?"

Ryuu doesn't think that the center was smirking. He thinks they seem like good boys. Tenn says that Gaku is not a good judge of character and shares his experience with i7.

He talks about Tamaki's cheap taxi fares, Nagi's love for role-playing, and Yamato's passiveness. He adds that if anyone has a dark side, it would be Yamato. He also says that he doesn't mind i7 dancing because it means TRIGGER's stage was that infectious.

He says but does not explain that i7 will not be able to continue if they do not change their center.

Side Story II: Confronting Yamato

Mitsuki asks about Yamato's "date" with the manager. Yamato said that it was great. Mitsuki whacks him.

Yamato teasingly asks if Mitsuki is jealous. Mitsuki says, "Why didn't you tell us? I didn't appoint you leader to wipe my ass." (to make him do all the hard stuff).

Sogo joins in and also asks Yamato to be more open with the members because they want to share the burden with him.

Yamato tries to play it off as no big deal, so Mitsuki whacks him again. 😂 He tells Yamato not to take on these kinds of things by himself more forcefully.

Then, Mitsuki cues Sogo who says, "Thank you for doing that for us. You've worked hard, Yamato-san." Mitsuki chimes in with another "You've worked hard!"

Yamato calls them idiots and then thanks them. Mitsuki says, "That's our line." Then, he invites all three of them to go drinking. (It would be their first time drinking together)

Mitsuki says that he knows Yamato often drinks in his room and asks Sogo how much Sogo could drink. Sogo said this would technically be his first time. Yamato tells Sogo that he can count on Yamato to teach him. Mitsuki is happy that they get to introduce Sogo to alcohol.

Nagi and Tamaki are watching anime together in Nagi's room. They were crying over a touching scene when Tamaki brings up how Riku and Iori has been kind of weird lately. Nagi agrees. He feels like they're hiding something.

Tamaki thinks that they're fighting, but Nagi said that he saw Riku treating Iori to some nice food recently. Tamaki suggests that they should try out what Iori did to Riku. Nagi agrees.

Tamaki puts his ear on Nagi's back. Nagi says that it feels like someone is wiping their runny nose with his shirt and that it is very unpleasant. 😂

Tamaki: Oh, you found out. (L.M.A.O)

Nagi: SHIT.

Tamaki immediately apologizes, and Nagi tells Tamaki that he should be glad that Nagi is not wearing his Kokona t-shirt.

Next, Nagi muffles Tamaki's mouth and asks him how he feels. Tamaki, obviously, can't speak properly. Finally, Nagi releases Tamaki and Tamaki says, "That was on purpose, wasn't it." Nagi admits yes. Tamaki says that this is making his nose runny, and he wipes it on Nagi's shirt... again 😭

We see Iori in Riku's room. He is still trying to convince Riku to tell the others about his sickness. Riku refuses and insists that it's not that bad of a problem. He asks Iori to leave because he wants to sleep early.

Iori refuses because he can tell that Riku is about to have an attack. Riku lies, saying that it's just a cold. And tells Iori to leave because he doesn't want Iori to catch it.

Iori gets angry and says that he is worried about Riku. He threatens to tell the others, and Riku finally admits that he is about to have an attack. But it's not a bad one. Iori asks Riku to be honest and tell him everything because he wants to help.

Iori starts asking some questions, but it seems like Riku was answering more about his resolve rather than his true physical condition. Iori restarts and asks another question.

Iori: Am I... Are my expectations for your singing putting pressure on you?

Riku says, "No." He is happy that people are happy to see him dance and sing. He dreams of being for others what Tenn was for him. He wants to stay with i7 and says, "Instead of giving up on my dream and living to a hundred, I'd rather die singing a hundred year's worth of songs."

Iori is surprised that Riku used the word "death". Riku assures him that it's just a figure of speech. He assures Iori that he won't die because Riku has become stronger and the disease is not life-threatening.

Riku says that he's really happy to be chosen as the center because he feels needed. He says, "....For the first time in my life, I feel like I'm truly living for myself."

Iori calls Riku an idiot and says, "Even if there is someone with your level of singing but with a healthier body and more stamina than you, I chose you to be the center. Because you are truly valuable, IDOLiSH7's center, Nanase Riku-san."

Riku says that he's touched but adds a question, "Did you even have a choice? Shouldn't it be either our manager or the president?"

Iori also says that it's just a figure of speech. Riku teases him a bit. Then, repeats a "Thank you."

Riku asks for details on what his value is because he likes being praised. Iori says that it's a secret for now. Through Iori's thoughts we learn that Riku's value is in Riku's ability to make people love him. Iori says that while not everyone might wish for Riku's happiness, no one is rooting for Riku's misfortune.

Then, Iori talks about his own dream, which is to be of use to another person. He is glad that he finally found someone who he can support without hurting. He says, "Even if Nanase-san has to walk down a thorny path, if that is what he wishes, I can play the role of a demon king."

[atopvisenyashill]

do we need another long post about the house of the undying? no but i needed to put all my thoughts in one place and i’m merely giving the people what they want.

obviously spoilers all the through the end of the series, and the winds of winter, and also we’re doing some predicting here. i welcome disagreement and debate but if you're gonna be mean keep it pushing for the love of god. most up to date graphic and then let’s goooooooo-

key

first of all, please understand i'm not positing that george was thinking about elements this concretely when he was designing these prophies. i'm not not saying that either but it's mostly just to help ME visualize the events and look for patterns. "why is there no air" because. that's why. the white text is stuff that is not related to a specific moment with an element.

secondly, i started highlighting the figurative language because i see a lot of discussion on literal v figurative. i think people contradict themselves a lot in this regard - you'll see someone go from "if the towers aren't literal towers than we can't trust the prophecies at all" to "well this one is more figurative and that's fine" within a paragraph. i think this is all completely silly. george is writing what sounds best to him and sometimes its literal and sometimes its figurative and that's fine.

and lastly, i also kinda split it up into two pieces - the threes and the visions. again, not saying they aren't related but i am saying they're slightly separated.

spoken prophecies

three fires you shall light - one for life, one for death, and one to love

so FIRST OF ALL i do wonder if there’s a pattern here - ie first thing refers to the dothraki time period, second to meereen/essos in general, third to westeros, or something similar. there’s some that seem more obvious, and when you look at it, it sort of seems to fit that pattern - that’s kind of what the color coding is, it started when i thought i saw a pattern there. i think it's really notable that a lot of the stuff in the first row have clearly already happened - except the treason for blood which i'll get to later.

for life is drogo’s funeral pyre that brings to life her dragons, this one feels like the obvious & correct conclusion. however i don’t want to say like “one hundred percent” bc what if george pulls something else. u get me. but imo it makes sense that one or two things would have happened already, to confirm to dany it’s true telling, and would stick out obviously in her memory. am i over explaining something really obvious lol.

for death is not as obvious. there’s a few options, for now i have landed on either the upcoming battle in meereen (it’s gonna go on a while) or whatever is happening in Vaes Dothrak/with the Dothraki. both those are very close events that to me feel like a kind of…hinge point? i guess in her story. like arya getting on the boat to braavos, sansa coming to the vale, jon becoming lord commander, etc etc, they’re jumping into a new part of their story, and both of these events are specific "fire light" moments that will change the trajectory of dany's story. i think it will be the first time we see her use drogon offensively, with the explicit aim of killing someone when she says dracarys, hence the “for death.”

to love...listen so the thing is regardless of how she REACTS to it, or the details on how it happens, i think it makes complete sense that dany is the one to set off the wildfire pots. i’m not saying she’s going to ~rah go mad~ but i am saying it’s been a Thing in her family to play around with wildfire anyway (aegon iv, aegon v, aerion, AND her father all play with it!) and it’s her father that put the pots there, it just makes so much more sense narratively for dany to be the one to deal with the legacy aerys left behind and one of the biggest Chekho'vs Guns in the series. i love the joncon & young griff & golden company stuff but introducing the wildfire as aerys' creation just for two characters who are very disconnected from aerys and the kl plotline to flow it up does not have the emotional impact of a character we’ve been following for Every Book being actively involved with the accidental destruction of the city her family built, and the city her dad took steps to try to blow up (who we see talking about blowing it up in a vision right before this!!).

now while i think “a fire to love” is likely about the event of king’s landing going up, i think there’s a lot of options for what that even means. i think it’s going to be OBVIOUS when it does happen, because the first fire is obvious & imo what the second one involves also seems obvious (and other prophecies, like the Ghost of High Heart’s Lady Stoneheart prophecy, are fairly obvious when they’re spoken like this (patchface doesn’t count). But i think its not quite obvious YET simply because there’s minimum 2k pages left lol. My gut feeling here is the fire to love will be about the wildfire pots though!

three mounts you will ride - one to bed, one to dread, and one to love

one to bed seems kind of obvious here as well; dany mounting her silver to her marriage bed with Drogo.

one to dread is murkier. lot of theories but the one i lean towards is the greyjoy fleet/a ship. the dothraki refer to ships as “wooden horses” and "wooden mounts" so it fits the mount theme, and it’s certainly dreadful, both that she’s likely to be paranoid about them (bc of the kraken & dark flame warning) and because dany & her new fleet are on their way to start conquering westeros.

one to love…it’s drogon. we use different meanings of “to” both times before - one to bed, literally a mount that takes her to a place, and one to dread, the greyjoy fleet and the “dread” of them being untrustworthy, and of landing in westeros. it makes sense to me that this “to” is a third use of the word "to"- talking not of a literal or metaphorical place the mount takes her, but of the feelings she has for the mount. and whatever romances or husbands she may have, drogon will always be her greatest love.

three treasons you shall know…once for blood, once for gold, and once for love

this section is difficult for me. dany believes they have all happened but not onlyy do i not believe she’s gotten it right, more and more i'm coming around on the idea that none of them have happened yet. what's more is that the events we likely have already gotten (mount to bed, fire for life) are very obvious but nothing really sticks out to me as an obvious betrayal for either blood, gold, or love!

i’ve played with ideas about how SHE is the one doing treasons to someone else but i’m still very much on the fence here. i think it’s likely these treasons are going to come from WELL KNOWN characters, likely even POV characters. i’ve gotten stuck on the word “know” - does it mean she’ll simply learn of three reasons that happen? that feels like “well the valonqar doesn’t HAVE to be CERSEI’S brother” copium to me though. the reality is....i'm not sure lmao.

once for blood… anyways i don’t think mmd is the treason for blood - mmd doesn’t betray dany! drogo doesn’t listen to mirri’s instructions, jorah doesn’t listen to mirri’s instructions, and mirri is not acting vindictively she’s acting defensively. she does not betray dany, though i would argue that dany betrays her - you could argue it’s for blood as in for rhaego, for mmd’s magical abilities for the sacrifice, but i’m unsure about that and i think the fact that dany is so confident makes me believe it's not this.

once for gold

The wealth of the westerlands was matched, in ancient times, with the hunger of the Freehold of Valyria for precious metals, yet there seems no evidence that the dragonlords ever made contact with the lords of the Rock, Casterly or Lannister. Septon Barth speculated on the matter, referring to a Valyrian text that has since been lost, suggesting that the Freehold's sorcerers foretold that the gold of Casterly Rock would destroy them.

from twoiaf. it might be talking about tyland & jason taking the gold from the treasury which directly leads to the death of the dragons + jaime fucking up aerys but i feel like why mention that now and not earlier if it was meant to apply to past events?? nah, i think someone is selling dany out for lannister gold. who tho?? again, unsure lol. i can see several scenarios - one of her sellsword allies flipping for gold, maybe a greyjoy (??) flipping for gold. i had the thought that tyrion would get her to westeros, then flip on her because aegon offers him lord of casterly rock as a title outright - literally flipping for lannister gold - but i don’t know that dany wouldn’t just promise him the lordship outright in essos tbh so.

once for love - again, fuck if i know and i’m not confident of any predictions i’ve had or have seen.

what i noticed is that the last part in each of these three groups are likely to do with the burning of KL - the mount to love being drogon, the fire for love being the burning of KL. so perhaps the treason for love will be tied to the fire for love and mount to love, and it’s a love that is one and the same - dany will betray her people because of her love for drogon with the burning of KL.

obviously…someone my predictions here run on a theme - dany will clash violently with people in vaes dothraki and meereen (at minimum & obvious), dany will Be Involved with KL burning, and yes it will probably involve her doing something from dragonback. if you asked me “take away any theory about dany setting off the wildfire, what are you most confident in” it’s the mounts for sure. i think three different mounts, a horse, a ship, and a dragon, all make sense. i think one to bed feels obvious, one to dread Is A Ship even if it’s not greyjoy related, and one to love is clearly drogon. i’m also pretty conspiracy brained about the lannister gold!! but it’s also like…fire for death….she uses her dragon to kill…fire to love…involved with the plot her dad started….we can debate the context but i think the EVENT is correct.

vision sequence

Viserys screamed as the molten gold ran down his cheeks and filled his mouth.

obvious, it happened on page already. i'm noting here that both of her brothers died at the hands of a younger relative (Viserys by Dany, Rhaegar by Robert) who immediately takes their title.

A tall lord with copper skin and silver-gold hair stood beneath the banner of a fiery stallion, a burning city behind him.

Seems likely to be rhaego, given the dothraki look with targaryen hair and the fiery (his mama) stallion (his pops) as his sigil. Also notable to me that all three men are direct relatives - her brothers and her son.

Rubies flew like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince, and he sank to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmured a woman's name.

obvious from contexts clues that this is rhaegar dying on the trident. name he’s saying could be lyanna, but i am a “he said visenya” truther.

mother of dragons, daughter of death . . .

her brothers both die young, violent deaths. her unborn son, rhaego, can never fulfill the prophecy because of his premature death. all three men shown are descended from aerys & rhaella’s line ie potential princes in the prince that was promised prophecy. all three must die in order for dany to rise as the prince.

“daughter of death” meaning she outlived all the sons of death, even the son who knew about the prophecy, so all that’s left to be prince is the daughter, the true prince that was promised.

Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow.

Stannis - blue eyed king, with Melisandre’s fake burning sword and shadow shenanigans. It’s interesting when you bring in the “slayer of lies” line because - what specifically is the lie she’s slaying? That Stannis is Azor Ahai, the PTWP? Or is it MOSTLY to do with Lightbringer being fake? Does Melisandre factor into it at all? And do all three sections point to the same lie or different lies??

A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd.

less obvious - i tend towards the cloth dragon being victarion. dany calls the cloth dragon a “mummer’s dragon” as in she believes it’s a puppet. but crucially, it doesn’t say mummer’s dragon in that section! i find it unlikely that the cloth dragon and the mummer’s dragon are the same person!

However, as I note, he DOES have a fake horn - perhaps she slays the lie that the horn is real? i think i just a feeling the lie of the sword and the horn are linked but maybe i am cornplating here. i also think, if we take victarian as the cloth dragon, it's interesting that you have stannis being propped up by a rholloric priestess, and victarian being propped up by a rholloric priest. that feels like another azor ahai prophecy link.

From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire.

it could be euron, with the towers being the ten towers at oldtown, where he currently is. could be stannis, meli loves to talk about stone dragons. it could be dany & drogon - her dragon awoken from stone.

now, IF the second one (cloth dragon) is in fact victarion, i think it’s a little weird that this is euron bc then it’s two greyjoys in a row. but i suppose that’s not disqualifying, it’s not like the greyjoys are trustworthy.

mother of dragons, slayer of lies . . .

i'm even more fuzzy on this one than i am on the "stone dragon" one to be honest. what are the lies. it’s more than one lie right. or is it a singular lie. is it azhor ahai. is it something else. i had this thought that like, the first is about the lie that stannis has lightbringer - he doesn’t bc lightbringer isn’t even a sword, it’s drogon. the second lie is about the lie of the horn - victarian thinks he can take drogon from her but he is wrong. the third is euron raising squid stuff - he thinks he can raise a creature equal to hers, he is wrong. perhaps its about another object that euron has, similar to the sword and the horn? i keep coming back to it even though, every time i type it out, i look at what i wrote like “who let this man cook."

i will say what's interesting is that the daughter of death section is very tied to the prince that was promised prophecy - dany inheriting the prince title after outliving all the other princes, rhaegar literally invoking the prophecy with his last breath - and this section seems more focused on azor ahai.

Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars.

the obvious scene is dany riding her silver to her wedding BUT. note the "darkling stream beneath a sea of stars" in the description - the dothraki believe that the afterlife is riding forever in the grass lands. there’s a death association in this section.

A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly.

i think it’s obvious WHAT this is but not quite obvious WHO it is (note corpse in parentheses). we literally see euron do this to aeron, and more it’s the corpse that is smiling sadly, indicating that the Corpse is the Greyjoy. BUT the corpse could technically be ANYONE who a greyjoy nails to the prow. also note death stuff again.

A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness

obviously jon is the blue flower, whose actions cause a chink in the nights watch (or a chink in the wall). i think this one is so goofy and i hate it skdjdj because the other two feel so mysterious and then this one is just a pin drop on jon’s location 🤧 however i would like to note that sweetness is not usually associated with good things in this series. it’s often used to mask poison, literally & metaphorically. this could mean like, so many things, but the death imagery in all three just goes WAY HARD.

mother of dragons, bride of fire . . .

there's a lot of "these will be her great loves" stuff but i'm not totally sure that's where it ends. i don't think this is inherently about dany being married to these three (four?) men. instead, i think the “bride of fire” is meant as a parallel to robb’s “true wife” being his sword. what they choose is their battles, and violence, and not any specific person to truly be wed to. see here:

She looked at her son, watched him as he listened to the lords debate, frowning, troubled, yet wedded to his war. He had pledged himself to marry a daughter of Walder Frey, but she saw his true bride plain before her now: the sword he had laid on the table.

visions part two

again, this part is all over the place. a lot of this has already happened by a dance with dragons.

Shadows whirled and danced inside a tent, boneless and terrible.

This is blood magic that mmd did to bring drogo back to life and claimed the life of dany's son, rhaego.

A little girl ran barefoot toward a big house with a red door.

This is Dany as a child. Interesting that she refers to herself as "a little girl" kind of separating herself from the vision she is in.

Mirri Maz Duur shrieked in the flames, a dragon bursting from her brow.

Waking the dragons, becoming the mother of dragons through blood sacrifice.

Behind a silver horse the bloody corpse of a naked man bounced and dragged.

The wineseller who attempts to kill her.

A white lion ran through grass taller than a man.

the lion drogo kills and gifts her in the dothraki sea.

Beneath the Mother of Mountains, a line of naked crones crept from a great lake and knelt shivering before her, their grey heads bowed.

The crones of vaes dothraki - this one doesn't seem to have happened yet and "naked crones" "shivering before her" feels like it's going to involve however she gets out of Vaes Dothrak. Very sinister feeling here to me.

Ten thousand slaves lifted bloodstained hands as she raced by on her silver, riding like the wind. "Mother!" they cried. "Mother, mother!" They were reaching for her, touching her, tugging at her cloak, the hem of her skirt, her foot, her leg, her breast. They wanted her, needed her, the fire, the life, and Dany gasped and opened her arms to give herself to them.

Obviously the myhsa scene. I think it's interesting how she associates herself with "the fire" "the life" and how she's being grabbed at.

But then black wings buffeted her round the head, and a scream of fury cut the indigo air, and suddenly the visions were gone, ripped away, and Dany's gasp turned to horror.

this is just so sinister to me. Drogon ending the vision sequence and her gasp turning to horror - feels bad scoob!

idk how to end this.

um dany is azor ahai and the prince that was promised but i don't think this is a good thing even a little bit. also drogon is lightbringer.

[shadowedoracle]

A Fear of Needles

Happy Fluffapalooza/ Skin Deep Day Everyone!

This is a short little ficlet that came to me at about 6:30AM when I was trying to grab a few hours sleep after getting my CCA ballot done. Since, apparently, when I desperately need sleep I actually wonder about whether/ how much the population of Storybrooke is vaccinated... Then this came to me.

Not sure It's exactly what I was creating as I was falling asleep but it's close enough. I've only done a very basic proofread so if there are any typos/ obvious errors let me know.

***

“I still don’t see why I need to do this.” Rumple muttered to his wife as they sat in the doctor’s waiting room. “I’m the Dark One, I don’t get sick.”

Belle shook her head, wishing she could roll her eyes as perfectly as her husband could as he returned to what he clearly thought was his winning argument.

“We’ve been over this already Rumple. You might not get sick like the rest of us. But we don’t know for sure that you can’t transmit a disease to someone else.”

“I’ve never done so in over two hundred years as the Dark One.” Her husband said huffily.

She looked at him levelly. “And for most of those years you lived alone. So that’s not as strong a point as it sounds on face value -- and you know it.”

“Humph, perhaps. But we lived in a world rife with disease and no prophylactic treatments such as vaccinations. You’d have thought if I was a carrier there’d have been some evidence of it.”

“Perhaps. But the data we have is just insufficient to be sure Rumple. And we need to be sure.” She laid her hand on his leg which was twitching slightly, a sure sign of his nerves. “I know you wouldn’t want to be the source of any harm to Gideon, if you could prevent it. Neither of us do. So by getting vaccinated we’re taking an important step towards ensuring we don’t harm our son, even indirectly.”

Rumple deflated.“I know.” He sighed. “I know.”

She knew he did know. They’d had this conversation before, multiple times now, and despite all of Rumple’s arguments she knew that ultimately she had the winning one: Rumple could never countenance being the source of any harm coming to their son, no matter how small the probability.

“Mr Gold?” Doc’s voice called through the waiting room.

They stood up and followed him into his office. After Doc had checked Rumple’s appointment details and medical record details-- well Mr. Gold’s medical records, so the age was made up since the computer system wouldn’t permit ages above 150, apparently -- he busied himself preparing the syringe.

Rumple looked at the needle with wide eyes, then his eyes darted to the door then to Belle. “Even if I agree this is necessary. Why are we doing this here? Why not go to Portland or Boston or New York? Somewhere with real doctors. Not a bunch of people who got there medical knowledge from a curse.”

“Hey!” Doc said. “We've spent over 28 years practising medicine in this land. We’re hardly new to things like injections.”

“I seriously doubt repeating the same day over and over gave you as much medical knowledge as you claim.” Rumple sneered.

“Enough Rumple,” said Belle. “We’ve discussed this before. It’s safer doing this here where you have magic, just in case either your body or your magic, reacts badly to the vaccinations.”

“Still doesn’t mean, I think allowing an inexperienced, non-formally trained doctor to stab me with a needle is a good idea.”

“I’m right here you know!” cried Doc.

“I’m sorry Doc.” Belle said knowing Rumple wouldn’t apologize for his remarks and wanting to reassure the dwarf. “I know you know what you’re doing. You’ve vaccinated most of the town by now, including Henry and Gideon.”

Rumple quietened at the reminder that both his son and grandson had been vaccinated by Doc. But as Doc swabbed his arm and picked up the syringe, he started fidgeting again.

Belle shook her head mentally. Who would ever believe the Dark One was afraid of needles? Time to break out the big guns. She put her hand on his thigh and leaned in so close that her lips brushed his ear. She made sure her voice was so low that Doc wouldn’t be able hear. “Rumplestiltskin, if you sit still and behave yourself from now on, I promise that tonight, once Gideon’s asleep, I’ll reward you in any way you desire.”

Rumple turned his head and softly brushed his lips against hers then whispered back, “deal Mrs Gold."

[amysubmits]

Hi there, hope you are well. Realistically speaking, how can I get over the fantasy or rather my "unrealistic" desire of how I want my first time having sex to be? Nobody forgets their first time, but I can't help but want to it be a certain way that I know isnt exactly attainable. I want it to be romantic and sensual and very very intimate, in other words for it to be really love making instead of just getting it done with. I am mid twenties so I am pretty young and obviously inexperienced so I am not sure if it isnt right of me to want that cause its not really how the real deal is or if its just me being nieve to want something so unrealistic..

Hi! I am doing pretty well, thank you!

I don't think having a desire for something specific is ever bad or wrong. But, I can understand why you may find yourself wanting to double check that your expectations are reasonable so that you don't end up setting yourself up to be let down.

I think it's really reasonable to aim for romantic, sensual and intimate. I think your best bet for making that happen would be to talk to your partner in depth about what those three things mean to you or how to create those feelings for you. Because what feels romantic to one person might not feel romantic to you, and vise-versa. This is just me, but something that came to my mind with those words was massage. If massage helps you to feel intimate and sensual then perhaps specifically discussing starting out with a slow moving, quiet massage might be a plan you could make that would nearly guarantee that you'd at least tick off the 'sensual' goal if nothing else. Perhaps you can come up with other specific things to include that you know have a really high likelihood of making you feel intimate and romantic. In my mind, where you need to leave a lot of space for flexibility is in the actual sex part of it. Bodies are finicky especially when our emotions run high and it's natural to be nervous your first time, or your first time with a new person, or you're with someone who you know its their first time - and sometimes anxiety makes it hard to relax and that can make our bodies not respond to sex as positively as it would if we were able to relax more. The first few times I attempted to have PIV sex it wasn't possible (vaginismus). For other people they might be able to experience penetration but it might not feel good, or the guy might struggle with getting or sustaining an erection. Any series of things could 'go wrong' and so I'd try to go into it just planning to make an attempt and learn about your body and your partners body. I would try not to go into it hoping to have amazing sex that makes you both cry and orgasm together, or something like that. Because while that might sound really romantic, it's sometimes really hard to make our bodies react the way we'd like them to. So try to leave lots of space for how that part of it might go. But a mood of romance, sensuality and intimacy should be able to be achieved regardless of whether your body parts respond as you're hoping they will. So I'd try to focus on that rather than the exact details of how he sex will go. Maybe also ask yourself if there are needs you have based on fears. I easily could be reading way too much into what you wrote, but with you saying what you said about 'just getting it over with' I wonder if you have specific fears about sex not lasting very long, and/or about feeling used or something along those lines. And if you can pinpoint what your fears are, you can communicate those with your partner and see if you can come up with ways to buffer against those. Maybe discuss cuddling after the sex, for example, if that might make you feel like it was less of a 'just getting it over with' kind of experience. It's cliche, but communication is often really key to working things like this out. Try to communicate your needs and wishes as clearly as possible and with the right partner you'll get pretty far together by doing that. :)

[sodalitefully]

Duff & Slash vs. The World – a selection of quotes:

"One night Slash and I went out to the Rainbow, a restaurant next to the Roxy on Sunset that was famous as a rock-and-roll hangout. They gave us a booth. This was a new level of deference. A booth! At the Rainbow! As we proceeded to get blasted, a really big, drunk guy wandered over to our table. Though he looked like an overgrown hick, he was in fact the guitar player from a band considered quite big just then — much bigger than Guns. He addressed himself to Slash:

'N*****s shouldn’t wear tattoos,' he said.

What? Was this his idea of a joke or something?

He wasn’t laughing.

I stood up.

'What the fuck did you say to my friend?'

'You heard me. N*****s shouldn’t wear tattoos.'

I slugged the guy. Then I slugged him again. And again. He reminded me of the bullies back in Seattle, the meatheads who beat up punks in packs, who called everyone f*****s. I’m not sure how many times I hit him—I just completely lost it—but he went down. I found out later that three of his ribs had broken."

It's So Easy: And Other Lies, by Duff McKagan (2011)

"D: [Goes into a long incoherent rant about a fight he got into at a club on New Year’s Eve] … and the guy was bigger than I was, but I just went CAH-BOOOM! And… his eyes crossed, like you see in the cartoons, like that? And he went down. And then everybody dragged him back and dragged me back, but they were dragging him past me and I fucking biffed him three more times in the head! They said I broke his jaw…

S: Nasty [Suicide – former Hanoi Rocks guitarist] stuck his arm in through the crowd and got one in there too!

D: So we go through this shit all the time, people trying to fuck with us. I was telling you earlier, if anybody fucks with my homeboy here, Slash, – and it’s happened before, like if a big guy was gonna hit him – I’ve stepped right in front of him.

S: Sure, and I can hide in the crook of his knee…

D: I beat up a guy for him once. And he’d do that for me.

S: But not to sound stupid, because we’re starting to sound stupid…"

Last of the Giants: The True Story of Guns N' Roses, by Mick Wall (2016)

"Slash: [Sam Kinison and I] got into a really big fight. It was real violent, and Duff punched him out, the cops were involved, too, and it was a big deal.

Stern: Who won the fight though? Who could beat up who? I bet you could take Sam in two seconds.

Slash: Well, no. He actually – I don’t want to... Duff punched him out. He gave him a black eye. But, before that, he was sitting on me. And I had no way of getting out, because he had my elbows pinned down. I couldn’t get my arms up, you know?

Stern: How did he get you down on the floor?

Slash: He jumped me from the blue and just landed on my chest. I was gonna be dead. He was choking me. I was history. I was, like, sitting there going, 'I’m going out this way? I can't believe I’m gonna go out this way.'

He just showed up at my hotel room one night. I didn’t even – you know, a knock on the door and, like, it’s Sam, and I’m like, 'Okay.'

And so he got on my case about all this stuff, and he called me a dickhead. And I got pissed off and I jumped off the bed, and I didn’t expect him to react the way he did. And I turned my back – you know, I turned around for a second – and he just jumped on me.

He got me by the throat and my arms were underneath his knees. And I was like, 'Oh, this is it. I’m going out.'

Robin: And then Duff came to the rescue.

Slash: Then Duff woke up in the other room.

Stern: Hey, you owe Duff, man. I’ll tell you, that’s kind of funny, too. And leave it to Sam to jump Slash from behind. I mean, that is a low blow. That’s not right.

Slash: I was just this little guy with no clothes on. I mean, cuz I was in bed when he came."

The Howard Stern Show (April 30, 1992) (edited)

Additional details, related quotes, & discussion:

The first quote is from Duff's autobiography, obviously. The "big, drunk guy" in question was Chris Holmes of the band W.A.S.P. Slash's autobio (2007) recounts the incident somewhat differently:

"One time at the Rainbow I got into a fight with Chris Holmes from W.A.S.P. Duff overheard Chris saying that n*****s shouldn’t play guitar. He didn’t say it to me, but it was obviously about me. As I remember, Duff told me about it later and the next time I saw Chris I went up to confront him and he took off running. Aside from insulting me, it’s one of the more ridiculous and untrue things a musician, of all people, could ever possibly say."

Aside from the obvious discrepancies in their versions of events (pretty much par the course for rocker autobios... Chris Holmes has shared his own take as well and rest assured it's very different), it's interesting to compare how they described their responses. Slash glosses over the fight entirely, he almost makes it sound like he was going to "confront" Holmes by giving him a lecture on the history of rock music – the last sentence is by far the most emotionally charged.

Duff's account is just shy of a brag, his sense of righteousness is evident.  Fighting is a significant theme in his book, Duff chronicles his journey from scrapping with school bullies, to drunkenly picking fights, to discovering martial arts in sobriety:

"Those beatings were also probably a factor in why later I would see red every time I perceived a wrong done to me or someone close to me and would fight at the drop of a dime. Justifiably or not, I saw myself as the protector, and the street-fighting skills I was forced to learn while getting my ass kicked as a teenager meant that I was not reluctant to perform that role with my fists."

"From then on, I wanted to kill anyone who crossed me at any club or concert. In my mind I was still fighting for righteous reasons—not just to hurt people but to protect, to make bullies stop doing bad things. But it’s pretty clear in retrospect that I was taking out aggression about the situation with the band. I would find offense in the stupidest little things and then I’d just flip and go street."

Slurs aren't a trivial offense, but we can see how Duff's protectiveness has been both a strength and weakness at times. In this scenario, Slash is "someone close," and Duff is eager to assume the role of his protector.

-

The second passage is in excerpt from an unaired interview (1990) transcribed in Mick Wall's biography of GNR, a secondary source. (That is, the more recent biography he wrote about GNR, not the one that supposedly earned him a scathing mention in UYI II's Get In The Ring.)

Anyway, Duff was a little less eloquent in 1990, but the pride he takes in standing up for himself and his friends is consistent.  He mentions a time he defended Slash against an aggressor, and I wonder if the incident with Chris Holmes is the one he's referring to.  Whether it was the same event or a different one, Duff's statements in this interview are certainly in line with the behavior he described in his book.

Slash's sarcastic comment made me laugh – I couldn't say for certain if he meant it in good (or self-deprecating) humor, or if he was getting a little miffed by the way Duff was characterizing him as someone who needs defending. I also included his last line because it seemed to me like he was trying to change the subject – while Duff could have happily gone on, perhaps Slash was conscious of playing into the dumb drunk rocker stereotype, something both of them have a history of struggling against. He’s also conspicuously not jumping at the chance to chime in and tell the world what he’ll do if anyone tries to mess with them.

-

The third excerpt might call for a little more context: Sam Kinison was a comedian and a friend of Slash's who passed away shortly before this interview. Earlier in the interview, Slash described how he was supposed to make a guest appearance in one of his shows, and Kinison didn't take it well when he had to cancel. 

This incident was never talked about much — as far as I know Duff never publicly shared his version of events — but another guest (comedian Andrew Dice Clay) on the Stern show recounted a phone call with Duff about the incident prior to Slash's interview:

"So, he's choking him to death, and the girl that Duff is with wakes Duff up, and she goes, 'I'm not sure, but I think somebody's killing Slash.'"

I wonder if the girl was the same one who was with him in Duff's chat with Howard Stern from around the same time. Slash said it happened in San Francisco, Clay said it happened at the Chateau Marmont in L.A., and Duff didn't specify, but I wouldn't put money on the accuracy of that detail in any of their accounts.

Anyway, this excerpt is a little different than the other two.  It has less to do with Duff's protector complex — instead we can examine the way that Slash talks about a fight, where in the previous examples he tended to dodge the subject.

I edited the excerpt for readability (and I made pretty significant cuts, so click the link above if you want the full picture), but this was an interesting conversation all around.  It's a bit awkward, because while Slash and Stern are ostensibly sharing memories of their mutual friend, Kinison is clearly the antagonist in Slash's story.  Slash didn't really react much to Howard Stern's enthusiastic assertions that Slash could take Kinison in a fair fight, and while he made a point of explaining that he was caught off guard, he seems pretty content to tell the story as it was: he got his ass kicked.

The way Slash talks about himself ("just a little guy with no clothes on"!) leads me to believe that his comment about "[hiding] in the crook of [Duff's] knee" in the Wall interview was meant as a self-deprecating joke.  He seems comfortable characterizing himself as harmless and nonaggressive, perhaps even uncomfortable with the idea of playing up his prowess.

Slash doesn't mention too many altercations in his book, but he does describe one friendly brawl with Nikki Sixx:

“[...] but I do remember doing what I always liked to do when I was drunk—wrestle some guy who was much bigger than me. In this case it was Nikki, whom I tackled, bar stool and all, out of nowhere. Nikki is pretty tall, and at that time he was pretty heavy, too, so he ended up turning it around: he slammed me on my back and sat on me.”

He goes on to explain how he passed out and woke up to find that he'd "dislocated four vertebrae in his back" and, to add insult to injury, he got teabagged by Tommy Lee.

Obviously we're working with a small sample size here, but like with Duff, we're starting to get a consistent picture.  Slash's tales of getting into fights are distinctly lacking a certain rock-n-roll bravado. His accounts aren't very serous, he comes across as terrible in a physical fight and he doesn't seem to care.

All of this isn't necessarily to say that Slash didn't get in fights – just because he doesn't like talking about it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.  But he's also made it pretty clear that he doesn't consider himself a violent person.

“I hate violence. At our shows, people hit each other and throw things, and I don’t know why. I love the energy of it, but everyone needs to be considerate of those around them, and that usually doesn’t happen.”

I don't have a source for that quote, so take it with a grain of salt if you choose.  Either way, you get the picture.  Slash is an image-conscious guy, yes, but he's not overly into fighting (or arguing, or yelling... but that's another set of quotes) and he doesn't try to pretend to be.  It's not an image he's actively trying to project (perhaps one he's trying to avoid?) — but in some ways it's one he was labeled with anyway, thanks to GNR's reputation.

-

Clearly I have a lot of thoughts on this, but I'm going to put a pin in it here because honestly, I think it would be pretty presumptuous to try to make too strong of a claim about the personalities of two real people that I don’t know based on just a handful of quotes (from questionably reliable narrators...). All I’m trying to do here is show a pattern, and to point out the contrast between the respective ways that Slash and Duff view/talk about physical conflict.

When Duff talks about fighting, it's important to him: he fought to deal with his emotions, he fought to protect the people he cares about, and he fought to get sober. When Slash talks about fighting, he laughs, makes a self-deprecating comment, and brushes it off. Duff wants to project that he’s more than capable of defending himself and others, Slash prefers to distance himself from the topic. It's interesting to see this juxtaposition in their relationship, and the way it translates into Duff acting protective of Slash.

-

Alright, thanks to those of you who stuck with me this far, lol. Feel free to let me know your thoughts, and of course keep in mind that this is just my take on the subject!

[pwrestlingxpress]

AEW Has a Problem

Everything that I type here is all in my opinion and it's something I didn't want to discuss at first but feel like it's time to say it. AEW has a problem and that problem is CM Punk.

How did this problem start, you ask? Go back to the post-media event of "All Out 2022" where just minutes after regaining the AEW World Heavyweight Championship, CM Punk lashed out at the media instead of talking about his reaction to the return of MJF (aka Maxwell Jacob Friedman) from earlier that day.

His words caused a backstage brawl that resulted into suspensions of himself and all around him including Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Kenny Omega, Brandon Cutler, Michael Nakazawa, etc. Also, due to that brawl, both the AEW World Heavyweight Championship and the AEW Trios Championship were vacated.

The Trios title ended up being help by PAC, Rey Fenix, and Pentagon until January 2023 while the AEW World Heavyweight Championship would be returned to Jon Moxley who regained the title and held onto it until November where he lost in what many can considered controversial fashion to Max Friedman.

Many people including myself were under the impression that a deal was reached where CM Punk would be let go by the company for his actions. Not the case as we learned that this Saturday (June 17, 2023) a new AEW show will premiere called "AEW Collision" and the show will heavily involve CM Punk.

Now...how did people react to his imminent return. Not very good. From everything I heard and read, the reaction was very negative with boos almost all over arenas and on social media. AEW tried to cover it up by finding those who'll cheer his return. It didn't work. Worse than that...the announcement of his return caused slow ticket sales so what happens next...let's announce his return match.

CM Punk, Dax Harwood, and Cash Wheeler vs. Jay White, Juice Robinson, and Samoa Joe. If you're a Jay White fan, you'd be like "yay, Jay's on AEW Collision" in an exciting way but when you read he has to face Punk in 6-man tag action you like "yay, Jay's on AEW Collision" but your excitement meter goes down.

To make matter worse for AEW, they aired a VTR of Punk last night on AEW Dynamite that got the crowd booing even more. And from the people I follow on social media, all were furious that AEW keeps on showing Punk. Some even ask "why has he not been punished yet for his actions" "why is he getting awarded when everyone got punished"

These questions I cannot answer but I can say that AEW has a problem (CM Punk). They've tried almost everything to cover up the problem and instead have made it worse. And now...I read something in which this problem AEW has with Punk is so bad, I don't know how they're going to solve it at this point. That something...an interview that apparently and/or reportedly went out of control. Read some details on it and...it's not good.

The last time I watched AEW was the week before "All Out 2022" in which I was starting to question Punk's booking at the time but was somewhat proud to see Kenny Omega back in the ring. Haven't watched AEW since then and until they release CM Punk, have no intention to watch AEW again though there'll be times I'll watch certain highlights but not a full show.

One more thing I've been reading since they've been announcing his return was a proposed match against KENTA at "Forbidden Door 2023" taking place June 25th in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From what I read, many are thrilled about the proposed match because this could solve the one issue many have, who really owns the "GTS'. Instead, I read that Punk was "not interested". Reading that really boils me up because how in the world can you not be interested in facing a former GHC Heavyweight Champion, a 3-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, a 3-time GHC Junior Tag Team Champion, a former GHC Tag Team Champion, a former Global League winner, a former IWGP United States Champion, a former NEVER Openweight Champion, and a 2-time (and reigning) Strong Openweight Champion. Why in the world do you say "not interested" to someone is regarded by many to be the best the world has to offer. Read KENTA's response to the proposed match and...it's a interesting one because he'll only do it if it requires the money provided but if Punk is saying "not interested" then why bother.

Again, AEW has a problem that they've yet to solve and based on all I've read, based on all I've heard, and based on almost everything I've said here...are not even going to attempt to solve the problem and it's a shame that this is happening. None of this would have happened if they had just fired Punk. Instead, look where we're at right now. This (AEW Collision with Punk) is going to blow up in their face.

With that...done talking about Punk here. Again, everything I just typed right here on my Pro Wrestling Express is all in my opinion. Feel free to comment on your opinion in this ongoing problem that AEW has no attempt to solve at this time.

[bawmbo]

hey, okay so ive been thinking about this one a lot. i want to emphasize before i post anything here this is not meant to attack op, but function as a means for me to express my opinions over it and discuss with others if wanted. and while i am not a very big account, if i find out that any of my followers harass anyone over this, this post will be taken down. please behave ty

i am the (relatively new est. few months or so) host of a transmasc did system (and should go without saying but i will add, cptsd, depression) so i think i have some unique perspective on this.

all of it will be under cut for the sake of not completely clogging up my blog because i talk a lot

i. transgender codedness and headcanons

i want to start with, "the arguments for headcanons of this kind were quite remarkabe, and in particular far-fetched; ... (1)" and the idea that, "headcanons on religion, gender, orientation, etc. should be very careful, detailed, and canonically close. (2)" and because this discussion is about gender and mental health, i will be focusing on that strictly.

(1) - "the arguments for headcanons of this kind were quite remarkabe, and in particular far-fetched; ... (1)" - while it could be confusing where it comes from, as stated before, cross is probably one of the best and clear trans coded characters i have seen made in the public utmv as it exists at the moment. and while a lot of his reactions blend into trauma, it does not negate the fact that trauma and trans identities can co exist and affect how one may react to the sort of feeling it invokes to have your identity disrespected; see: being called sans instead of cross.

though it isnt entirely just because of his reactions - his feeling of disconnection from a normalized "whole" of what hes supposed to be and what he actually is is trans coded. and while i havent read the xtale comics or watched the most recent underverse episode, we see aspects of ourselves in his behaviors; in being hypersensitive (and while not a feminine trait, there are (frankly fucked) gender 'roles' and 'rules' that made us believe it was - our father telling us "girls are just more emotional" - but i could get into gender roles and that kinda stuff and rant about it forever. still want to emphasize that anyone can feel anything but looking at this from the lens of how society views gender versus how i do lmao), in being rowdy, in being in the royal guard, in behaviors that we were described as "tom boys" with. and his blasters a girl, and everything in relation to him is queer. this is all from memory and im sure if i looked up more about him id be able to pull more, but it goes to say everyone has their reasons beyond "cross is transgender because he does not want to admit that he is one of the sanses." - and imo, thats a fair enough reason alone

(2) - "headcanons on religion, gender, orientation, etc. should be very careful, detailed, and canonically close. (2)" - i believe that certain headcanons, to a degree, should be handled with care to not further very harmful stereotypes. theres a lot of gray area to it, but i want to speak specifically about gender, where i believe there should be less strictness on it.

disregarding the fact that its confirmed, canonically, that cross is trans coded - i believe that gender orientation headcanons should not have to be restricted to the rules of "canonically close." thats what headcanons can be. not close at all. and while mischaracterizations are an entirely different semi-frustrating topic for me, but as a transmasc being and a writer, i loooove love love seeing people headcanon characters, especially my characters, as different genders. like idk, dr. blue is an incredibly cis man in my head. you see yourself in his experience? you wanna headcanon him as transneu puppygender? maybe transfem or transmasc? maybe fully a transman? perhaps to you he is aroace, and maybe hes bisexual, and maybe hes some incredibly obscure label i dont even know yet. he can be polyamorous. by all means, go ahead. it doesnt closely align with his canon but it doesnt harm anyone at all.

this section is more so my opinions if anything but i still wanted to get that out there: it is not harmful

and i dont vocally address half of the things said in the slideshow against it, but again; trauma and transness can and do co exist, and there is no harm in imposing labels onto characters that you see yourself in. this is how a lot of people empathize and connect with characters. this is, intentionally or not, how representation can be made.

ravenpaw and barley from warrior cats are not explicitly stated as gay characters, and are coded to be, and a little kid may see that and finally be understood by a character. ink and fresh are autism coded, and not explicitly stated to have autism, but that meant that in a world where no one would listen and understand our hardships, we at least felt seen and a little bit more comforted knowing that our favorite characters were just like us. the same can be said about dream, nightmare, and religious / parental trauma.

ii. PTSD, DID, and mental health

"cross' approximate diagnoses include PTSD, dissociative identity disorder, depression, or extreme aggression."

"after all, he goes crazy about his past, blames himself for everything, he has many triggers, he does not control his emotions and especially anger, he is ready to do anything to fulfill his desires. He loses himself because a whole multiverse opens up before him, everyone does not tell him something and lies. Many use him and harm him. From which he develops all the listed states."

to circle back to harmful headcanons - i want to focus solely on my experiences with being a system and ableism. i want to reiterate i am by no means a professional and this is speaking strictly personally

i feel that did is something that you should be very careful with headcanoning, as mental health and gender, while can affect presentations of each other, are very separate and treated differently.

did is often very demonized, very mocked, not taken seriously. you may see the movie split, and we had actually been asked at some point if being a system was "like (split) that movie". we were formerly in a relationship before the host change where i was kinda the equivalent of "the evil alter" and every time i fronted i was met with hostility and ableism (physically disabled as well). our other protector was also treated pretty badly and he actually puts in the effort to be a bit nicer lmao. but still. despite my efforts of being kind or sharing the energy, it was just me. and that isnt even the first person who saw me this way, and im not the first alter to be demonized for just doing my job. and to this is just me saying that i dont really know if theres been much progress in education towards the public of this disorder lol

and while, yes, cross has childhood trauma and identity problems, i dont think he really exhibits anything like it? the closest youll get to showing an "alter" is when he is, quite literally, being possessed by xchara. and while i can joke about experiencing fighting for front to being fighting for my body against possession by a ravenous 7 year old, it doesnt actually translate.

when the only applicable alter wants to murder people, i think you get into some iffy territory over whether or not you should claim it as the disorder thats kinda commonly portrayed as "my evil werewolf alter ego who wants me to kill people disorder." and sure, some alters will want to cause harm, and i think that that should be addressed, but it is very harmful if thats the only thing being shown about it. i also think that that should be addressed very carefully due to the aforementioned demonization and misrepresentation already. and they are very literally separate people

cptsd is closest. he does not want to be connected to his past, hes constantly running to find himself, hes attempting to make a new identity for himself. hes incredibly hurt and reactive to everything around him, its all bite and little room for barking. but hes consistent. the point is, hes always been cross. he always will be cross. he will never be sans, he will never be what they thought of him to be, and if he has to spell that out in a near death battle to hammer the point in then so be it. and the way he is so angry about how they disrespect his identity feels like all of the scenarios id imagine yelling to my parents about, "im a boy, im a boy. im your son. call me (not even my name). call me the name we told you we were. i am not your little girl" that will never happen.

sure, he has extreme aggression, and its on par to say that he probably has depression alongside it. but DID, not at all. thats one whole guy. he lacks any real key details about the disorder, especially alters

"he is so worried about his name and his originality because he is afraid of being lost among a thousand copies, and his name was the first thing that distinguished him in the crowd."

all sanses are called by something different (swap/blue, fell/red, ink, error, geno) it would have been no worry for anyone in the multiverse to adjust to - but his family. who refuses to accept that he wants his own autonomy. that he wants to have the freedom to be who he is. that he isnt like the thousands that came before him and the hundreds more that will come after. the fact that he is so concerned with his name and the fact that it was always a key part of his character, only to be confirmed as a trans coded thing is more than likely intentional. from a writers standpoint whose also writing a character whose transness and trauma are intertwined and incredibly important to each other.

also some extra notes,: cross isnt incredibly dissociative. he is shown to be incredibly hypervigilant of his surroundings, connected and key to everything. he doesnt really show signs of even derealization, emotional amnesia, amnesia in general tbh, etc., this all goes to say that i also think the post is very poorly worded and ptsd is also demonized. but i am just going to assume it was meant with good intentions. i could be nit picky about wording whenever. but it does read as ableist and transphobic

extra extra side note. creators can just do whatever they want with their characters. even if it wasnt intended and she realized that "hey, actually this is kinda trans coded" and decided to make it canon on a whim, then who cares. its actually super cool when creators make popular headcanons canon because it adds to their story and fits in well

anyways ill stop yapping for five hours. i am not proof reading it idk if its coherent. i just like talking

-✦

[stonewallsposts]

16 personalities questions

I recently put up a post about something I've come across called Human Design, wondering if it was essentially a new-age version of the personality tests. While I was rummaging around in a folder at work I found some of our notes from a few years ago when we were brainstorming ideas. Part of that process was trying to assign personality assessments to the characters we were writing about, and then seeing who among us might have the closest personality to the characters as we had defined them. In this way, it might be useful to pick the brains of anyone who was close to a specific personality type to see how they might react in certain situations. We all took the personality tests from 16personalities.com.  

I ended up with ENFP-A - the assertive campaigner. (I had to look that up- it was posted in July 4 2019)  But....in the percentages, I came out as:  61% extravert (mind)  51% intuitive (energy)  54% feeling (nature)  56% prospecting (tactics)  51% assertive (identity) 

As you can see, I'm pretty much in the middle. But as I was answering the questions, it's just a simple "where on a 7 point spectrum do you fall" answer. But I thought I'd take some time and answer these in some more depth. Given how close I am to the center, I imagine I could take this on four different days and come up with four different results. 

These are the questions/statements from 16 personalities, here goes. 

You regularly make new friends 

I make friends pretty easily. I feel like I'm a pretty open person, so I'll start talking with people and relatively quickly be able and ready to share details about my life. Apparently there are some people who are put off by this. I've had people ask me sarcastically: What? Are you writin' a book? So I guess I crossed over a line with them, but at that point I just stop asking them any more questions. Most people are pretty open in return. I did have the feeling with one brother at church awhile back that he thought I was oversharing... I suppose I was if he thought so. There's probably an art to reading people better that I don’t know about that would help me grasp when to share and when not to.  

For the most part, I think people respond well to me. I hope they can sense right off that I'm asking questions, or sharing, in earnest, and they reciprocate.  

I suppose a distinction would be in order though: I talk to new people easily, but that doesn't necessarily make them my friend. Being friends with someone would mean more than just breaking the ice, but actually doing things with that person.  

We have had some work functions where we've invited people from other business to the office. I'm happy to meet and talk with people there, and as much as you can call consistent conversation partners 'friends', I've achieved that. 

I feel like I'm friends with many of the people at our office. 

But if I were to think about how many people I actually regularly spend time with, it's a much lower number. So maybe I don't "regularly make new friends". Then again, who has like... a hundred people they regularly hang out with... and constantly add more friends as they go? I doubt many people do... we just don't have THAT much time. So maybe I'm back to "Yes. I regularly make new friends." 

I suppose that's why I'm spending some time processing some of these questions a little more deeply.  

In summary, I regularly meet new people, and am friendly to them. Do they really count as friends? Probably not, but I'm not really sure who would regularly make friends in that way, so yes, I think I do. 

2. You spend a lot of your free time exploring various random topics that pique your interest 

Uh, yes, an inordinate amount of time. This happens to me all the time. I get interested in something and then I want to know something about it, and I launch off trying to teach myself. It's probably the reason I read so much. 

But as an example, my son and I have had a bunch of political discussions. He is on the opposite side of the spectrum as I am, and regularly refers to people on my side as a slur. Of course both sides do this. Conservatives tend to think leftists are all some level of socialist/communist, and progressives think anyone on the right is a fascist. This got me to thinking that I don’t really know anything about fascism, and while I considered myself a socialist in college, I still didn't know all that much about that either. So I decided to start reading. 

I've done this with a bunch of languages, having started into: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, Romanian, German, Arabic, and Latin at one time or another.  

I've looked into history, philosophy, theology, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism... I used to watch documentaries on countries I didn't know anything about while I was doing brainless work. I'll read about things and then follow rabbit trails looking for information on them. In short, yeah, I spend a fair amount of my free time exploring various random topics that pique my interest. 

[cosmicjoke]

Uggh, Claudia’s diary entry in “Merrick” has got me all messed up.

I mean, first, it’s sad as hell how much she hated Louis, but at the same time loved him, and how she admits she loved Lestat just as much.  But this part here:

“Louis will do as I wish, even unto the very destruction of Lestat, which I plan in every detail.  Whereas Lestat would never cooperate with my designs upon Louis.  So there my loyalty lies, under the guise of love even in my own heart.”

It makes me think of what Lestat said to Louis in “TotBT”, that he would never, ever have let anyone hurt him.  Even Claudia knew it back then, and that’s why she targeted Lestat, not out of some unique hatred for him over Louis, but because she knew Lestat never would have agreed with or allowed her to kill Louis.  It’s both beautiful and tragic in what that says about Lestat’s love for Louis, and of course heartbreaking that Claudia felt the need at all to kill one of them and keep the other in thrall to her basically.  She chose to keep Louis because she could control him.  At the same time, her awareness of her own cruelty and hatred is in itself tragic.  She knows what she’s going to do, she wants and needs to do it, and yet she still fears for Louis and Lestat both. 

I also found Claudia’s line about Lestat and Louis here really interesting:

“Perhaps in the court of my heart, I hold Louis far more accountable for my present state than ever I could blame my impulsive and simple Lestat.”

One thing about Lestat’s character that I think a lot of people don’t get, maybe because of the new show and how it depicts Lestat as this sort of mastermind manipulator, is that in so many ways, he was and is more like a child than Claudia herself.  She calls him impulsive and simple.  She knows he never meant to or designed for her to suffer or be in pain.  He never planned on things going the way they did, he never tried to control or manipulate her, or hurt her.  He was always just too guileless and artless for something like that.  And so she can’t hold him entirely responsible for her current state, and indeed might actually blame Louis more for it.  And whew, seeing Louis’ reaction to that revelation was a gut punch too.  The way he doesn’t even blame Claudia for her vitriolic words about him and his “useless conscience”, and knowing he only wishes to know that her soul is at peace so he can die himself, seeing just how low he is here, it’s rough. 

And the above reveal about how Lestat would never go along with or tolerate any harm coming to Louis makes the plan between Louis and David, and Louis’ plans in particular, the way they discuss them in front of Lestat, when Lestat can’t really react or know what they’re saying, all the more awful.  If Lestat understood what Louis was planning to do, he would, as David correctly thinks, do everything in his power to stop it.

[the-arctic-commune]

Belief and Activism in Media

Or, why Technoblade is the villain.

Before we get started, I want to acknowledge my debts. I owe the seed of this post to.... someone. Probably at least a year and a half ago, a post in Techno’s tags about this topic is what got me thinking about it. I particularly owe that poster for linking this wonderful article [x], which dives into the topic with more detail and broader scope. I highly recommend reading it if you’re interested. However, that was, as I say, many months ago, and I have no idea who the poster was. So if this topic seems familiar to you, please let me know so I can give credit where it’s due!

Now, let’s set the stage. I brought this up in relation to the Red Festival. In particular to the climax of the Festival, in which Technoblade, under threat by Schlatt and his administration, was forced to kill his ally Tubbo.

This was, shall we say.... controversial.

Both within the server and without. Tommy fought with Techno over the murder/execution multiple times (strangely, perhaps, Tommy was much more distraught than Tubbo in the immediate aftermath, but that’s a different post), and it was still being brought up as late as the “Rescuing Michael” streams, when Technoblade apologized to Tubbo for the incident. The fandom, meanwhile, has spilled a great deal of ink discussing whether this was an acceptable or even justified action on Technoblade’s part.

In relation to this incident, and more broadly to the often-controversial actions of Technoblade and his fellow anarchists on the server, I think there’s a very interesting way to understand why many people were (/are) so vehemently adamant that Techno made the wrong decision.

Anarchy, you see, is villain-coded.

(This post is going to be heavily discussing mainstream media in the US, particularly media produced by Hollywood, Disney, and related giants. If you go to smaller producers or other cultures, you will certainly find plenty of counter-examples to what I’m about to say, but hopefully we can all agree that Hollywood has a big impact on what many English speaking audiences expect from stories and media, and that this is a big portion of the Dream SMP audience.)

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Part 1: Activism Is Evil

The article I linked above is “Outlaw Kings and Rebellion Chic,” by Alister MacQuarrie for the New Socialist on March 27, 2019. It discusses the phenomenon of the non-ideological hero.

Mainstream media loves rebellion, but it doesn’t want to discuss why we rebel. Heroes rarely have a defined cause, ideology, or even plan for the future once tyranny is overthrown. Instead their motivations are vague notions of “freedom” and “justice,” defined mostly by how the villain is preventing them, and their greatest victory is a promise of return to “normalcy,” a presumably-democratic and prosperous society but we don’t have to get into the details.

Villains, in contrast, often do have a defined ideology. In common storytelling wisdom, heroes only react; it’s the villains who provoke them by acting, and thus the villains who need a cause to fight for or an ideology to drive them.

Ideology, then - the simple fact of having beliefs about the society and politics around you - becomes a feature of villains, while heroes promote an artificially constructed non-ideology, a vague liberal-centrist position which licenses reaction but not action and tolerates change only insofar as it doesn’t make anyone uncomfortable.

You see this in the trope of the activist who goes too far - a side character who the hero must prevent from causing harm, because they care too much about their cause and, depending on the story, may be willing to sacrifice life or morality to get it. You also see it more prominently in the trope of the villain who has a completely rational reason to want to tear the system down - and also is totally ok with murdering babies and kicking dogs, so the story doesn’t have to engage with their philosophy and it’s fine to just kill ‘em and leave things the way they are. To “engage” with current activist movements, issues of climate change are filtered through the ecoterrorist; issues of racial justice are filtered through the extremist or separatist; and so on and so forth.

“The Legend of Korra” is possibly the most absurd example of this trope in popular media. Multiple season villains in this TV show are activists whose ideology is then twisted into cartoonish evil in order to avoid actually engaging with the critiques they present.

The Season 1 villain is Amon, leader of the Equalist movement. He and his followers critique their society’s prioritization of benders (in-universe magic users); benders preferentially control the government and military and even, due to their unique skills, have access to job opportunities that non-benders are barred from. This leads to non-benders having little say in society and being more likely to live in poverty; the Equalists want to change this.

Also they commit multiple acts of terrorism and kidnap benders to forcibly strip them of their powers. And Amon is actually secretly a water bender which means he’s a hypocrite and we don’t have to listen to him anyways. The Equalists are defeated and the problem of non-bender inequality is never mentioned again.

Season 3 introduces Zaheer and his fellow anarchists. They fight for freedom and wish to tear down the governments of their world; they assassinate at least one major world leader. Also they want to brutally torture the protagonist Korra to death. For, uh, reasons. Anarchy! Once they’re defeated discussions of freedom and tyranny are completely dropped; oppressive empires are good because anarchists are worse.

So hopefully you see what I mean. In mainstream media, belief and activism are the domain of villains, and thus they are villainized.

A character who comes onscreen speaking of tyranny and revolution is not to be trusted. If someone cares enough about their ideology to become an activist and fight for it, they’re almost certainly the bad guy.

And, to the vague change-averse liberalism that Hollywood likes to project, few ideologies are quite so ideological as that of the radical anarchist.

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Part 2: Compromise Is Never An Option

Ok, so you can probably see the seeds of what I’m arguing here, but there is one slightly tangential point that’s important to bring in. Because there are things that the “non-ideological” hero is allowed to fight for: life and friendship.

These are usually supposed to be the highest priorities of the hero, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing! Heroes fight to keep people safe, especially their friends, and they don’t compromise. One for all and all for one; we don’t trade lives.

No matter how hopeless the odds, heroes are supposed to keep fighting, and they must refuse to sacrifice for their victory (unless it’s self-sacrifice, which is usually ok). This is what motivates them in absence of any more sophisticated ideology; the villain kills or threatens people, so the hero defends them.

In “Star Trek,” Spock repeatedly insists on the Vulcan adage that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. This is treated as cold and alien, and is something he’s supposed to give up as he learns to value and rely on his friends. It’s all right when it’s self-sacrifice (Spock subjects himself to lethal radiation to save the ship), but it’s not all right when it sacrifices others (the rest of the crew rejects Spock’s concerns when they decide to risk their entire ship for the sake of a few crew members).

In “Star Wars,” Lando Calrissian betrays the heroes to Darth Vader. He does this because he’s responsible for an entire city. Darth Vader and his Empire have threatened Cloud City if he doesn’t comply, and they are far too powerful for Cloud City to fight off on its own. Lando can betray his friends, or he can let millions of his citizens die. The choice, though hard, seems obvious, but the narrative still treats it as an unconscionable betrayal. It’s only once he seems to truly regret his actions - and thus to, at least tacitly, admit that he should have let his city die rather than betray his friends - that he can be redeemed.

So: heroes don’t sacrifice, and they don’t compromise. They’re supposed to always keep fighting, no matter the odds. After all, they’re in a story. Victory will come, no matter how improbable.

Right?

.

Part 3: Technoblade’s an Anarchist

When he first logged onto the Dream SMP, Techno (IRL) had a plan. He needed a way to fit himself into the narrative, distinguish his character, and explain his presence in the story. So he decided that he would play an anarchist, someone who had come to support his friends in their fight against Manburg’s tyranny.

This started out as a pretty media-typical portrayal of anarchy as an unprincipled “the strong survive” approach (see his pitch to BBH), but quickly evolved into an actual, principled, self-consistent ideology, as IRL Technoblade seems to have taken an interest in the philosophy.

Genuinely, Technoblade’s portrayal is probably one of the best depictions of anarchist politics I’ve ever seen in popular media. But most people’s expectations are based on the caricature of the philosophy that is usually presented, and the one he started with.

So I argue that many people were simply primed to assume that Techno was, narratively speaking, a bad guy. He wasn’t solely fighting for Wilbur or Tommy - he was fighting for their cause. He had beliefs to fight for outside of his loyalty. And in the tropes of popular media, that made him suspicious.

(Of course, in one sense this is correct! He did end up abandoning the Pogtopians when their victory put them in power, and thus in conflict with his ideals.)

At the Red Festival, killing Tubbo a was an indefensible act not because killing in general is wrong (that would be pacifism and thus ideological and suspicious), but because it wasn’t the act of a hero. A hero would have found a different way. No one ever seems to be able to say what that “different way” should have actually been, but it doesn’t matter: our sense of narrative justice says that there must have been one because it’s what a hero would do. It doesn’t matter that, in-character, Technoblade has no idea he’s a hero; he should operate like one, and he’ll make an incredible last-minute escape because that’s how stories go. How the story does go is replaced with how the story should go. Never mind that in MCRP a single misclick could completely upend such a story.

.

So Technoblade gets double strikes. First, he’s an “activist,” which is narratively suspicious. Second, he doesn’t operate as a hero (at least early on), placing no trust in deus ex machina to save him and his friends.

In the language of narrative tropes, Technoblade is “villain-coded,” especially prior to his “retirement arc.” His actions at the Red Festival are particularly villainous, both because he, essentially, gives up and because he expects his friends to share his dedication to their cause.

That makes it quite easy to end the analysis with Techno as the bad guy!

.

To be clear, though it’s probably been clear throughout, I’ll end by saying that this isn’t a perspective I agree with. The media’s vilification of activism is something I greatly dislike. Technoblade as a hero with a radical cause is an enormous part of why I liked his DSMP story so much.