#i'm just saying that from my point of view personally their relationship wasn't close enough to warrant them the father/daughter status
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Idk if I'm gonna get jumped for this but....Iiii don't know if it's really appropriate to call Vander Jinx's dad. He definitely was her guardian, with huge uncle energy for sure, but dad? Like, dad is something really personal and requires a high level of closeness, and they didn't seem to share that bond. Out of all the kids Powder seemed to be the most removed from him and share very little traits/interests with him, and after growing up we don't see Jinx care about him at all. So, idk, to call him her dad seems more like a fanservice to me rather than what can be confirmed by the show.
He's defo her dad in the au, tho, because there he would spend a lot more time with her and because of Vi's death pay more attention to her, therefore tightening their bond.
UPD: I mean, Vander isn't even a part of her hallucinations. Now, you could argue that it's too traumatic for her even to remember him as is seen in season 1 ep9, but I think it's the opposite, actually. Knowing Silco he probably yapped about Vander all the time (and he literally does this in ep5), so Jinx definitely remembers him and thinks of him to some extent. But why then his hallucination appeared only once? Well, I think it only happened because Jinx was under extreme pressure already, plus she recently had a shimmer operation, which could've worsened her mental state, hence Vander appearing as a hallucination. Again, this is just how I see it, I may be wrong, but I do think this view of their relationship is rational enough.
#I'M NOT SAYING HE DIDN'T CARE FOF HER OR LOVE HER. AND THE SAME FROM JINX'S SIDE#i'm just saying that from my point of view personally their relationship wasn't close enough to warrant them the father/daughter status#am i partly motivated by my want to make silco her singular and definitive parent? yes. yes i am.#but if this opinion wasn't confirmed by the text i wouldn't have said anything about it. but it is not the case this time#you can absolutely argue with me on that tho lol. it's not THAT serious of an opinion and i won't take a hard stance on it🫡🫡🫡#just something i thought about and decided it was rational enough#and yes i know jinx wrote dad on vander's picture in the artbook. there's also a lot of stuff in the artbook that i choose to ignore and#consider them pure fanservice so. i don't care about that one either sadly#jinx arcane#vander arcane#vander and jinx#arcane critical#(?) i guess#arcane
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We're got a couple of assorted asks about quadrant dynamics here. Since they're all related, I'll answer them as a single post.
@galaxa-13 asked: I personally never saw Feferi being annoyed by Eridan talking about feelings with Karkat because he was only supposed to talk about them with her, but rather because he ONLY talked about them with Karkat. She had to do all the heavy lifting in their relationship by making sure he didn't commit genocide, and then didn't get to unwind with some romantic gossip. If my platonic boyfriend never talked to me, but did with others, I'd question him too. @lilietsblog asked: I never read Feferi as being jealous of Karkat in a violating relationship exclusivity / cheating on her way. I read it as a playful "why aren't you talking about stuff with me? is it because you've already talked it all out?" where Eridan was very much supposed to read between the lines and undersatnd that she just wanted him to tell her about his red crushes (awkward, that…) While I'm sure there are specific rituals trolls /only/ do with their moirails, my overall impression is that trolls normally just… don't form relationships close and trusting enough for emotional support like that. The quadrants help by making it semi-mandatory to find SOMEONE. (Also I'm actually sure that a healthy moirallegiance would be reciprocal with both partners pacifying each other, it's just the hemospectrum version of gender roles)
You may have a point. Eridan was clearly a poor moirail from the start - probably because he never actually wanted to be Feferi's moirail. To him, the quadrant was clearly just a stepping stone to matespritship, so he wasn't invested in its dynamics. Feferi's not really angry about Karkat, here - she's just a little frustrated about how one-sided their moirallegence has turned out to be.
That said, I do still believe that quadrants would work better if they were polyamorous - even if this particular scenario doesn't illustrate my point as well as I thought it did.
@morganwick asked: I mean, some would argue that placing undue emphasis on monogamy beyond what's actually healthy or natural is true of human romance as well. But part of what might be going on here is that on Alternia, it's not a good idea to let knowledge of your fears, doubts, and weaknesses spread too far, lest it mark you for culling. Best to vent to a single person who won't tell another soul. (See also how Vriska is saying things to John she wouldn't tell any other troll.) @bladekindeyewear asked: "At the end of the day, I do think moirallegiance is a good idea. I just don’t think it really works if moirails can’t be poly." What if they CAN be? People with naturally polyamorous inclinations are few and marginalized on present-day Earth, and Alternian society seems set up to STOMP OUT the marginalized. Quadrants certainly exist, but how much of their rigidity and the pervasive troll view that you only have "one true fated partner(s)" for each quadrant might just be cultural?
I think a monogamous system of moirallegence is probably all that Alternia could handle. Sustaining a polyamorous quadrant system would require a level of emotional maturity that the average troll simply isn't going to have - and, like you said, it might be dangerous to widen your circle more than is actually necessary.
I still think the trolls would benefit from such a system, though. On Alternia, it simply wasn't to be - but the Alternian Players now have the chance to build an entirely new culture. Who knows what new dynamics they might discover?
@lilietsblog asked: I don't think Hussie "jumped the gun". I think Hussie was messing around with the very idea of "what romance should be like". Trolls don't care about what gender their partners are, and have a different system of confusing rigid rules that no two people understand quite the same and that don't work out in practice that way anyway, instead. The quadrant system was never intended to be a serious worldbuilding project any more than Troll Will Smith
See, I get what you're saying - but the difference, in my opinion, is that that Troll Will Smith was a one-panel joke, whereas the quadrant system has informed our understanding of troll relationships for the entirety of Act 5. Unlike Will, quadrants have stayed relevant, and they've been critical to understanding many of the Alternians' key character moments.
That's not to say that quadrants aren't partially a joke. Frankly, I don't think any of Homestuck is entirely serious - but I do think quadrants are 'real' in the context of the story, and should be analyzed as a legitimate part of its world.
@bladekindeyewear asked: One last bout moirails-- Andrew in his asks has said that the idea behind each of the Quadrants IS supposed to match up with real human relationship and friend dynamics we already understand, making them relatable but w/ a romantic drive that isn't quite human-analogous. Trolls biologically compelled to enter them before understanding them, a challenge "particularly tortuous for young trolls" (p2393), plus the 600 hour session makes sense of Eq/Nep's relationship's drastic evolution to me.
I've always been a little skeptical about this whole 'biological drive' angle for the quadrants - mostly because there are plenty of human biological drives that are either overstated, misinterpreted, or outright fabricated.
That's not to say that the trolls don't have some sort of compulsion to seek out quadrants. If it does exist, though, I hope it slowly fades, now that the trolls have left their planet and its expectations behind.
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Ok so I have a real question not trying to start discourse or any thing. If Dean knew how he felt about Cas slash knew he liked men why was he always so weird about gay people. I can see a reading where Dean knew how he felt about Cas but not one where he knew he was bi
this is totally a fair question and i don't think there's any one True reading or interpretation of the show/characters so it really just depends on what version of events resonates the most with you. the way the picture makes the most sense to me is that dean is a guy who was raised in the 80s-90s in a hyper-masculine environment with zero stability. i think all of those puzzle pieces slotted into place in his brain in a way that said "sex with men is okay, feelings are not." a furtive hookup with a dude in a seedy bar bathroom is fine. going on a date with a guy is prohibited.
and the thing is that this is kind of true for dean when it comes to women as well. a one night stand is a-okay. falling in love and settling down is not. so, you take that sort of mentality and then apply all the homophobia of growing up in the eighties and the nineties and a life lived out of a car bouncing between truck stops and, well, you get a dean who is absolutely flabbergasted when confronted with the fact that not only are you allowed to want something romantic with a man, you're allowed to say it out loud to other people. you're allowed to have it.
dean wasn't weird about gay people, necessarily. he was weird about people who were able to just be themselves. he didn't know that was an option. also, i don't know about y'all but as a queer person who doesn't necessarily read as queer at a glance, i too get Very Awkward when confronted with another queer person in the wild and it's not because i'm homophobic. it's because oh! new friend! must send telepathic signals that me queer too! my behavior around other queer people in queer spaces does not match my behavior around other queer people in random public spaces. i'm embarrassing and i see that part of myself in dean lol.
and dean being weird about other people making comments about his perceived queerness, to me, is a very normal reaction for a closeted person (or even someone who is selectively and/or quietly out). you can be perfectly at peace with who you are and still not want to be clocked. like???? homophobia is not a thing of the past. dean grew up during the AIDS crisis. he was, what? nineteen years old when matthew sheppard was killed? his reactions to people insinuating he might be anything even close to queer make perfect sense for someone his age, living the life that he did.
also, like, here's the thing: i realized i was queer when i was about eleven and i freaked out about it for about a day and then promptly suppressed the whole thing because of a deeply traumatizing childhood. being queer was the least of my worries and there was never any time to unpack it and deal with it so i just didn't. and then when i was about nineteen i started to have queer sexual/romantic relationships but continued to suppress the fact that EYE was in fact queer because, again, i didn't really have the space to unpack it. it wasn't until i was about twenty-three and surrounded by other queer people (in a platonic way) that i finally felt safe to fully admit to myself and to other people that i was in fact queer. and then i never really did a whole coming out thing. i just... lived my life openly as a queer person and let other people figure it out.
my point in all this is that i feel like my general experience/trajectory lines up really well with how i view dean's. he had a very traumatic upbringing so while he knew he was attracted to men, he had no time or space to deal with it. that didn't stop him from having sex with men, but he never really unpacked what it actually meant. it wasn't until he was older and had openly queer friends that he felt safe enough to fully acknowledge that part of himself. and then.. that was it. he just lived his life as a queer man. like, i feel like we actually watched that happen over the course of the show???
most importantly, i cannot handle any reading where everyone else knows dean is queer but dean does not know himself. i especially loathe the idea that sam Knows and has to explain dean's own sexuality to himself. that is so ugly. dean is a very self-aware person. you could even argue he is perhaps too self-aware at times.
anyway, this is all obviously just a watsonian explanation of dean's relationship to his queerness. it doesn't even touch on the doylist stuff but that's a whole can of worms i'm not really interested in opening on tumblr dot edu right now.
so, yeah. that's my personal reading.
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I find it interesting how frequently JK says something to/about jimin that could be used against jimin by antis and then jkkrs scramble to explain and try to find a different meaning to what he said. Why does everything he says need a lengthy explanation to clarify he didn't mean this or that? As soon as i saw the trailer i knew antis were going to latch on to the " i miss the members" part and Jimin saying he's a member too. And this is the beginning, Jk is going to say a lot more vague things on the show that could be used against jm. It's a pattern and I'm prepared lol. Reminds me of when he said he wanted to go to special forces in that live and jkkrs had to search up every military department to find minor differences bw his and tae's. I'm not a jkkr but I admit i enjoy watching their interactions, until JK says something like that and the haters are given new material to harass jm then I'm like yeah I can't be on board with this ship. I'm fully expecting a lot more when the episodes are released.
I personally believe you have the target on the wrong back. last week my blog was full of a discussion on whether the members act in ways to get fan attention. posting publicly to social media i think could be open for more debate but largely, i think bts have a solid few of army that isn't broken down into quadrants like fans view it (ot7s vs. solos. vs. shippers, etc.). it is hard to make a conclusive decision, since we don't know them personally, but.
i really don't think jungkook is conniving enough to plan out ways in which he can draw jimin antis out on twitter. i don't believe jungkook trying to plot the downfall of jimin. in my view, jungkook has demonstrated that him and jimin are very close and care for each other very deeply. i don't see him as someone would do such a thing.
point blank. it is the stans. not jungkook.
with all due respect, in this ask you are following the agenda pushed forward by these solos, looking for anyway to make jungkook the enemy. in the name of protecting jimin from these antis, you are doing the same to jungkook.
of course, there are stans that say things that are a lot worse. but throwing the blame on jungkook here, saying he starts the hate is just incorrect.
realistically, a comment about how he misses the members, wishing they could be here to experience this with jikook, (which EVERY SINGLE MEMBER has said in behind the scenes from solo era by the way) should not cause this much of a stir. but tkkrs will find a way to say jungkook wasn't happy while shooting this show, he was forced to do this, and he's not happy with jimin ever. do you see how the stans are projecting this narrative??
i think stan twitter and stan spaces in general have a way of poisoning the fan experience. realistically we should all just be happy that we got this show and that jikook worked hard in preparation for its release. but instead minds get plagued by how jikook's actions will have stan repercussions.
there needs to be a reframing of shipping at large, because i think it does more harm than good as we can see from your ask and anti behavior. i've largely disengaged with trying to prove ships are real and just began to appreciate jikook as a duo. and that's enough for me. yeah i'll make gay jokes and ponder it sometimes, but it isn't worth the inevitable disappointment when you realize they probably can never tell us about their relationship.
Why does everything he says need a lengthy explanation to clarify he didn't mean this or that?
you're calling direct attention to the problems that arise when you focus on the details to try and find the truth. again, i engage with this myself sometimes, i've done it on this blog. but do it enough with the wrong motivations and you drive yourself crazy. that is the space in which stans operate in.
while it's brought up, if anyone has the clip or the timestamp where jungkook said he wanted to go to special forces please let me know. because i looked it up recently and could only find an tkkr edited video where it doesn't even look like jungkook said a word.
i personally believe there's a lot more in jikook that can't be twisted in a way that doesn't look ridiculous than stuff that can be used against them in a tkkr sense. i hope you're able to find enjoyment in the show beyond the stan narratives, because i really think it will be such a comforting show to watch.
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i really agree with you about the rafe and sofia relationship in s3 she just appeared of nowhere and it's like a hookup for rafe and i also think in s3 she kinda said to him what he wanted to hear like being approved by someone idk if you get my point in that, and then s4 to me is a bit messy with them because she lives with him and goes even to kook parties and events with him (something that the early two seasons rafe wouldn't do) and when he's asked what if she's his girlfriend he says no because he has standards and after that they forget that kinda only sofia and hollis stuff but it doesn't seem to affect that deeply the relationship from her side and in s4 pt2 it's weird how out of nowhere he proposed to her. I really think that relationship wasn't really exolored good enough to make the point of why rafe was a phsyco but decided to settle with her and changed his whole personality out of the screen and i really think their relationship was based on how she paid attention to him in a way his family didn't and she gave him the approval he needed so that's why i think that when he breaks with her after knowing she helped to scam him it's more because she hurted more his ego than feelings and kinda why he says to her 'after everything I've done for you' or something like that i don't remember, i see it more from a pov of he got himself a pogue gf that treated him good and he gave her like economic stability, but that's really my point of view and opinion on their relationship.
I'm sorry if something is misspelled English is my second language and I'm still learning
i get your point here! in S3, she kind of just… shows up, and it feels like she was just there for rafe to hook up with, she was just someone saying everything he wanted to hear. i feel like they never fully developed this relationship enough to explain why rafe, who was so fucking messed up, would suddenly be this new person with her.
it’s like her approval was this thing he was addicted to (instead of the coke) because he’s never had that with his family. so when she scams him, it's less about him having actual feelings (i think he does tho) & more about his ego/trust being crushed AGAIN by someone so close to him—especially with his “after everything i’ve done for you” line. i see it the same way: rafe got himself a pogue girlfriend who made him feel seen, and he provided for her in return, but it was never about love. maybe that came along eventually (or not), but it was more about him being "a man".
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Thinking about pacing and how it's why I became a Byler.
If Mike and El were endgame, the pacing of season 4 would be....weird.
Normally conflict and confrontation is climactic, ESPECIALLY simultaneous conflict that "all crashes down on you". That's built up separately as A and B plots that intersect, this point of intersection being Mike.
Which is why I was so surprised when Will and Mike fought and had to pause it and go, "wait, what's happening?" Before that point I was worried that the season conflict was veering towards pitting Will and El against each other over Mike based on the tension at the rink - I naturally assumed that it was setting up the season arc with the current events that would continue until a 3rd act payoff, but it wasn't.
Will calls Mike out immediately and El calls him out the next day. Leaving the rest of the season empty. It's why Mike's final speech doesn't work. The plot was not maintained. It was a setup and payoff much like the painting, which I forgot about by the time he pulled it out might I add. We do not follow either Mike nor El's point of views on this plot, with only one even ACKNOWLEDGING it.
It doesn't. Make. Sense. At least not for my original prediction. Which is why I paused it, and thought:
If Will is calling Mike out now that means he won't ignore him for the rest of the season. Then what will the central conflict be? Will has said what he needs to say. Mike clearly has not, though, so this is more of a setup for him, but a setup for what? Will has nowhere to go from here because he has already reached the peak of this arc, demonstrating the vulnerability self-assuredness required for this honestly AND there is nothing for him as a person to follow this up with. The ball is in Mike's court to apologize. So the ball is in Mike's court for this plotline, this scene is an inciting incident for Mike, but for what? In this scene, he contrasts Will's honesty by being closed off and defensive, so his arc is to truth, but what truth? What secret would be threatened by Will's accusations of- OHHHHHHHHHHH
Will got too close, Mike got defensive, and his season arc is gaining the courage and vulnerability to explain himself. Got it. (We're not done)
2 episodes later: he apologizes and explains with vulnerability - WHAT? Okay, but he still hasn't told him how he feels so they're just pacing it differently, we mentally adjust. He is building up to telling him no longer with the stakes of his relationship to Will but rather the urgency of owing El an explanation/decision by the time he sees her again, one which he would likely tell Will first. The stakes are the commitment and pain he causes the longer he stalls. He needs to confess by the time he sees her again. Yes. He seems to be slowly working it out, coming back to the "why" repeatedly, and Will is giving him coded words - not enough to be a confession from Will and he has already demonstrated his honesty (the van scene is really just an inciting incident for the Jonathan coming out scene as far as Will's plot goes) - that he's reacting to and are perfect to be the tipping point for his motivation. And he's looking between El and Will with a strange expression. And he's......(I kinda just sat confused for a while until I got to the end and realized it was supposed to be a cliffhanger for the first time and also that there was a season 5, at which point I sat further before understanding that this was a multi-season arc because season 4 had themes of subverted happy endings into tragedy)
I had to adjust it with little tweaks throughout but only ever in pacing, never in event. But if I got it 2 hours into a 13 hour season, I'm sure they'll catch up in the next 8.
#pacing#byler pacing#byler arc#will byers#stranger things#narrative arcs#mike wheeler#byler fight#byler endgame#first watch#mike wheeler i love you#general audience byler
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I see your a fellow Chaggie shipper. As am I. ANd I've asked other Chaggie shippers on tumblr and I must ask you: What are your FULL thoughts on Charlie learning of Vaggie's secret? From finding out in Heaven to her whole anger/hurt/confusion at Vaggie.
i wasn't ignoring this but i needed a few days to gather my thoughts because i have lots of them
between heaven and the two of them meeting back up with an army/weapons in tow, there's roughly a month's worth of time as far as i've been told/can tell, so i'm going based on that rough timeline
charlie's first reaction, imo, was shock; the way she collapsed and let vaggie shepherd her and guard her isn't the reaction of someone who's immediately jumped to anger/mistrust, it's the reaction of someone whose entire life view has just been altered.
i don't think they ever actually fought about it. gut feeling maybe, but considering what we saw (charlie curled in bed crying, vaggie saying "in our room... alone") and my personal hc that she takes after her dad in times of emotional turmoil by self-isolating and sinking into the depression... i have a feeling they didn't even talk about it for a while.
vaggie might have tried to; we got a glimpse of it right around alastor's deal with charlie. i firmly believe that after it was in the open, she probably did try to explain herself, and charlie was still half-shocked and feeling a bit betrayed and didn't have the brain space to deal with it between the upcoming extermination and knowledge that her loved ones were going to be targeted first. she probably did a ton of soul-searching on her own; remember, charlie is +/- a good few centuries, if not older, so while she's very upbeat and happy, it's not unreasonable to think she's had a good while to practice some emotional maturity. she isn't perfect, obviously, but based on how much she adores vaggie, i think she'd want to know firmly where she stands before they talk things out.
i also think vaggie was terrified the entire time that she'd just fucked up the only genuine, good relationship (romantic or otherwise) that she's ever had. we don't get much backstory on what things were like for her in heaven, but she doesn't seem to have been particularly close to anyone there, and "whatever it takes" sort of reinforces that with her "and it felt so good to be understood / but there's so much i wish that i could say." i think she wanted to tell charlie but she kept putting it off, and the longer she put it off the worst she thought it'd be, until she hit a point where she felt like she couldn't tell charlie because what would charlie think of her after lying to her for three years?
charlie did likely wonder how much of it had been a lie and whether vaggie had ulterior motives, because who wouldn't, but i think she dismissed that pretty fast. especially because there's no way angel and the rest of the crew didn't notice vaggie moping around like a kicked puppy; i'm sure they were equally unhappy with vaggie's lying, but the group sentiment didn't seem anything more than mildly annoyed by it.
she was the most hurt by the fact that vaggie didn't trust her enough to tell her; supported by her conversation with rosie. and that seems pretty fair, imo: vaggie knows how much charlie can forgive, can see the potential for redemption in people, and she's had an up-close view of that in vaggie for the last three years. and charlie trusts (trusted) vaggie wholeheartedly, so the idea of that not being reciprocal hurt her deeply.
i think they tried to talk things out ~a couple weeks in, and vaggie shut down in the middle of the conversation from a mix of trauma and fear that she'd lose charlie; i love vaggie dearly, but she's placed a ton of her self-worth on how useful she is to charlie. she very much believes she's nothing without charlie, because charlie saved her and is a large part of who she's become. there's a little bit of a power imbalance/codependency on vaggie's side, and while i don't think that's insurmountable for them nor do i think the relationship as a whole is unhealthy, that piece of it must have made it absolute torture to be pushed away.
i think she and angel may have had a few late-night conversations actually; they seem like they're on better/friendlier terms just before alastor and charlie make their deal; the whole "you ever think she's sensitive about her lack of wings? ... just like her lack of tits :D" bit struck me a lot more like friendly ribbing/trying to lighten the mood rather than actual malice. angel definitely doesn't have much experience with healthy relationships, but he does have experience with damage control, and i imagine he gave vaggie advice that basically boiled down to don't push, let her come to you, she's really hurt and needs to process. he cares a ton about charlie even if he doesn't show it, but i think he has sort of a begrudging respect/love-hate thing with vaggie lol. especially after the battle-bonding.
their first actual conversation about it was probably after the cannibal town army/weapons stockup before the battle. talking to rosie clearly really helped charlie process things, and i do think it's interesting that as far as we know, she hasn't talked to her father about it; not particularly surprising since their relationship is a bit tenuous, but still interesting, since he would likely have been a good perspective for her to have as a fellow fallen angel (ex-angel? idk if vaggie really counts as fallen). but regardless, rosie helped her a lot and most of her initial betrayal and hurt seems to have fizzled out with just the "why didn't she trust me?" piece left.
that was probably the main thing they talked about. vaggie tells her about what really happened to get her stuck here, and charlie is furious, and that alone probably helps her understand; i'd have trust issues, too, if someone i'd known presumably my whole life ripped off my limbs and cut my eye out. vaggie and charlie had an instant connection, clearly, but she didn't trust charlie enough to tell her initially and then things spiraled out of control. by the time she realized charlie might be okay with her past, she'd already been hiding it so long that it felt like too big a secret to share. and i think some part of her still believed this would be something charlie couldn't forgive.
and my favorite hc: charlie can't forgive it. we don't know how many souls vaggie has fully eradicated, but it has to be in the thousands, at least. lute's kill count from one purge was 275, and adam references vaggie being "one of his top girls." there's also a detail i saw pointed out elsewhere; most of the exorcists have plain black halos, except for lute, whose halo has a white glow as well... and vaggie, whose halo shares the same glow. there's a good chance she was high up in the ranks, possibly third in command -- and possibly quickly closing in on having a higher kill count than lute, which would explain her vitriol and eagerness to get rid of vaggie at the first sign of weakness. but obviously, that's just a headcanon. as is much of the above xD
but back to charlie, i don't think she'd be able to forgive that. the good news is, she doesn't have to. charlie is upbeat and optimistic, but she was raised in hell. she's not naive; she knows the people she wants to save have committed heinous atrocities. the difference is that she believes in change. the vaggie she knows, the one standing in front of her, isn't an exorcist. she's her partner, who while yes, eager to anger and easy to jump to violence, only does so when she or charlie are provoked/threatened. charlie is capable of still being disappointed/devastated by vaggie's past and acknowledging that it's not her present - or future.
one of the things i also think is so important is the battle scene. that was a huge test of charlie's acceptance; seeing her girlfriend step back into that role, that violence, was a big thing, one that nobody would've blamed her for recoiling from. she doesn't. she fights alongside vaggie (albeit... creatively, we'll say) and yes, the exorcists are enemies and she has a long history of reasons to hate them, but even during the battle she doesn't. she's still apologetic and doesn't really want to hurt anyone, just deter them. it takes vaggie telling her to be harsher for her to do it, and she follows vaggie's instruction. this is vaggie's area of expertise, and while she may have learned those skills by butchering Charlie's people, she's repurposed those skills. She's armor, not a weapon; she's violent only to defend, not out of bloodlust.
i think it's really easy to misunderstand charlie's acceptance of vaggie's past as naive or their reconciliation as too soon/too easy, but there's three years of history behind them and charlie actively chooses not to let this new information shatter the foundation they've built together. they're a prime example of the idea that relationships work because you continue to choose that person, to choose to work at it, and while that only works if both sides are willing, for vaggie and charlie, they are.
i do really hope we see vaggie find some self-worth outside of charlie in s2, though. she has so much potential to explore the complexity of her character and i really want to see that. i don't think they're bad for each other, but to some extent... vaggie went from serving one entity (adam) to serving another (charlie) and that level of devotion can be dangerous. charlie is infinitely better than adam, don't get me wrong, but vaggie definitely needs to find purpose beyond being charlie's right hand.
i'm personally hoping for sort of an... exorcist/angel ambassador role for her? something that ties into the hotel but is independent of charlie and something she wants to do. or maybe teaching self-defense/offense to the rest of the group (which she likely did for the battle/army, since she knows better than anyone how the exorcists fight).
honestly i probably have more thoughts than this but i hope you enjoyed my stream of consciousness ramble about Them <3
#i love them a lot and i have so many feelings about how they worked through it#chaggie#charlie morningstar#charlie x vaggie#vaggie hazbin hotel#vaggie#rainbowmoth#hazbin hotel#jesus fuck this got long oops
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Lisanna Makes Me Hate My Fandom More
Is Lisanna overrated by her fans?
No.
I can't believe that I even have to argue this.
And yet here we are.
I even debated the necessity of this post. Do we need another post saying fandom doesn't value Lisanna? Do we really need ANOTHER one?
Well, I need to get back into this writing on this blog somehow.
I reblogged a post about how fans worship characters you dislike some time ago. Someone reblogged my post all but saying they don't like how Lisanna's elevated over others because of filler moments by her fans. I know the person is a Nalu shipper, but I want to keep this about Lisanna. I have to imagine they think fans of Lisanna elevate her over Lucy. I'm not really interested in talking about that. All I care about is that argument about Lisanna's importance.
Part of me agrees with this. Much of the noise made about Lisanna comes from overestimating her relevance before coming back. This post wouldn't exist if I didn't like her, at the very least. However, as I've mentioned, she wasn't built up like multiple other characters or elements in the series.
Do I think we're on the same wavelength about this idea? Almost certainly not. If you think otherwise, remember that they ship Nalu.
But why make a post about this?
Honestly, this post has been on the back burner for years. I've posted it now as a prelude to another post I've been working on. Despite talking about Lisanna almost too much, I don't think I've emphasized something enough.
I've been talking about how fans handle Lisanna, given canon. I happen to be more generous than others are. Though, I have the opposite view of the situation. I don't think fandom does enough with Lisanna. Especially considering everything we've gotten from her.
I've done this a few times, but entertain me. Put Natsu & the Dragon Egg and everything the anime added to the side for a moment. (I need to talk about that special one of these days.) What has Fairy Tail actually told us about Lisanna?
Lisanna is the younger sister of two fan-favorite characters, Mirajane and Elfman. She'd had a close relationship with the series protagonist before the series started. (Yes, I'm considering Natsu as the protagonist for now.) About two years before Lucy met Natsu, she was presumed dead after a mission didn't go well. However, she was actually transported to another dimension. She spent two years working with an alternate version of Fairy Tail, pretending to be their version of Lisanna.
I know that's only a paragraph's worth of information. Admittedly, canon doesn't show a lot of this information. You're not getting the same focus on Lisanna as you would any member of the Strongest Team. Heck, you're not getting the same focus on her as people like Juvia or Cana at nearly any point of Fairy Tail. We've seen more of Mira and Elfman individually after Lisanna returned than just Lisanna over the entire series.
But let's break down each sentence of that paragraph.
Are fans doing a whole lot with Lisanna's relationship with her siblings? Are people writing about the Strauss kids as siblings? What do they think of each other? How has their relationship been affected by their experiences before and since joining Fairy Tail?
Are fans doing a whole lot with Lisanna's relationship with Natsu? I know most people dismiss their past relationships as currently irrelevant. However, it doesn't seem as though Mashima's forgotten about it. What about their past relationship affects their current relationship? What would a partnership between them look like at this point in the series? (I say this knowing this isn't very likely with the sequel's current events.) Is it possible that they could become closer than they are now in canon?
Are fans doing a lot with the mission that supposedly killed Lisanna? How does this affect those close to Lisanna? How do they treat her once she's back? How does the rest of the guild think of the situation?
Are fans doing a lot with Lisanna's time with Edolas? She spent two years with alternate versions of nearly every character in Fairy Tail. How does this affect her views of characters she didn't know before going to Edolas? How does she feel about Edolas and Edolas Fairy Tail? Does she resent being away from Earthland for so long or miss being in Edolas?
As far as I can tell, most people don't address these questions. People don't seem really interested in trying to read into Lisanna's relationships with her siblings or Natsu beyond potential shipping drama. People aren't interested in how Lisanna being in Edolas impacts anyone or anything in the series.
Now, people care about answering these questions. I've talked about these things quite a bit since Fairy Tail ended. My stories involving Lisanna in-series treat her time in Edolas as formative. And I've read several stories that provide answers to these questions from a number of perspectives.
However, most fans don't write about Lisanna thinking about these things. Has fandom moved past the kind of Lisanna that maliciously sabotages Lucy's place in the guild? Can't say. However, they're not doing a whole lot positive with her now.
"Why does it matter? Mashima obviously decided not to do a lot with Lisanna. Why would fans care about a character the series didn't do much with?"
The funny thing is that it's actually the opposite. Fans do (and should) care about Lisanna because there weren't canon answers to the questions surrounding her. Fans are interested in how these questions could be answered.
And frankly, this wouldn't be the first time. Mashima has done hilariously little with Meredy. But fans love her and create stuff for her all the time. She's one of my favorite minor characters to ship.
Heck, we got more of Levy because fans wanted to see more of her after Phantom Lord. The anime got Changeling to introduce Levy before Phantom Lord. However, there wasn't much else to her relevance to the series before and during that arc. It wasn't until the Fantasia arc that Levy became more plot-relevant and active. Mashima's gone on record to say fans are the reason why.
Fans have argued that Lisanna should have stayed dead for years. I've argued against this numerous times before. I've never understood why this matters to people. Of all the death fakeouts, why is Lisanna's such a big deal for fans? Mashima's written sloppier comebacks for characters. He's brought back characters with less importance. Why is Lisanna where fandom draws the line?
"What else do you expect from the Nalu vermin?"
Calm down, Chris. Of course, shipping has something to do with this. Nalu was always going to be popular with fans. Nalu is synonymous with the fandom. I've seen bias against Nali at work, even where it doesn't make sense.
However, you're not seeing the anti-Gruvia crowd write stories about Juvia being tortured and/or staying dead en masse. The issue with most isn't even with Juvia herself. Isolate her from Gruvia, and the problem is solved. The anti-Gruvia crowd falls into two camps: put Juvia with someone else or keep her away from Gray. Unless we're willing to argue that either is equivalent to killing Juvia, we don't have a discussion. (What day is today, again?)
The closest thing fandom's come up with for Lisanna is Bixanna. Unlike many ships, it feels like the fandom exists to give Lisanna someone to love. In fact, there's a small gap between AO3 stories with Bixanna and Nali. However, much of Bixanna's stories have the ship as a side attraction. Nali stories usually focus on Nali. That's telling on its own.
One last thing before the end. It feels irresponsible to end this post without making a suggestion to write Lisanna. Is there a good way to write Lisanna?
Incidentally, the anime gave us a solid approach. Lisanna has a tendency to tease others. We see it with Natsu at different ages in Natsu and the Dragon Egg. We see it with Elfman on Tenrou Island. If you're wondering, that crack about marrying Natsu aligns with that. That was also in the original chapter, so it's not without precedent from Mashima.
If you're writing Lisanna, you don't have to fall into many pitfalls other writers do. She doesn't have to be evil. She doesn't need to be possessive of Natsu. She doesn't have to be Mirajane's little shipping gremlin. (The fact that this is the best of these worries me.) She doesn't have to be the sacrificial lamb. At least make her a fun character to read.
In Conclusion:
Drink your respect Lisanna juice. This is not a request. This is a command.
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05. POINT OF VIEW
pairing: kang taehyun x reader
word count: 883 + texts
summary: friends— that's all what you guys are, yet why does he brush your hair so fondly? why does he holds your hand as you walk home? And you don't even like each other that much. wait, fuck, maybe you do? does he though? you have to find out someway or another.
content: uses "girl" to address you
note: got a lil angsty here cus yn's longing for tyun :(
PREVIOUS / MASTERLIST / NEXT
From his point of view you're nothing more than a best friend. He loves you, platonically.
It started all the way back from middle school and you were but a little girl minding her own, quietly fixing your colored pencils in the box where they all belong. Then, all of a sudden, he walked up to you and stood in front of your desk.
He asked if he could borrow your colored pencils and you let him, however, days passed and you haven't gotten your colored pencils back. And days became weeks, months, until finally half a year had passed— Taehyun came up to you by your locker holding a pink box that was surprisingly still intact.
"I might've forgotten to give this back to you," he gave you a small smile, "but I promise they're all in good condition. I took good care of them."
Your lips formed into a pout, closing your locker after use. "I'm surprised you still remembered," you took the box of colored pencils from his hand.
"Eh, it's nothing. But as an apology, I'll buy you lunch? And I promise I only used your colored pencils once. I just forgot about it." He reassured you. And just like that you believed his words.
"Free food, how could I say no to that?"
Those colored pencils became the reason you bonded, the bridge to your ongoing friendship, and possibly will continue until later in your lives. But how come you've been so unsatisfied? You watched him get into several relationships, and as he dated you started to doubt yourself. Are you not enough for him? Why does he not see you the way he sees those girls? What's wrong with you? How can you change the way he sees you?
It's stupid. You're stupid. He changed your point of view and all of sudden your name becomes beautiful when spoken by him. And as you think of the possibilities of alternate realities, you cannot help but wonder, if maybe, just maybe, in a different universe, he would finally choose you. He makes you think of such things. But you couldn't help yourself. How can you not fall in love with him? He's everything you want.
Thud.
The excruciating sound of books falling from a desk snapped you out of your reverie.
And as if the universe was playing with you, he was right there in front of you. Every time you see him, you can't help but smile, and this time is no exception.
"You alright? I was looking everywhere for you and the library was my last resort." Taehyun kneeled down and picked up the books that fell from your table, then he carefully placed them back where they wouldn't get knocked down.
"Yeah, I was just thinking… and I'm a little sleepy."
He frowned, taking a glance at his watch. "The library closes in ten minutes. It's almost nine in the evening. How long have you been studying?"
Damn. Has it been that long? Time felt like it wasn't moving when you were reading and rewriting notes, but then again your mind wandered and eventually you fell asleep. You lift your head to look at him, confusion written across your face.
"I'm not sure. I didn't really look at the time, and got too busy with reading." You stood and gathered your things, placing them back all inside your bag.
Taehyun watched you, the shuffling of your clothes and paper filled the area. And he was right, the library was already empty. The librarian was the only person left aside from you and it looks like she was only waiting for you to leave before closing.
Taehyun took your bag from you and slung it over his shoulder, and before you could complain he shook his head. "You look awfully tired. This is the least I could do for you, so don't complain." He smiled.
These little things he does for you is one of the many things why you like him. Although, some people will tell you that it's the bare minimum. And honestly? You don't really care what they say because it's from him— Kang Taehyun. You wouldn't get affected if he were just some other dude trying to hit on you.
And watching him drive you home at this hour only made it difficult for you to control your feelings. He looked so… boyfriend— for the lack of a better term.
And as the car came to a stop by the red light, the dim glow of the street lamp delicately framed his face— you couldn't help but stare. His fair skin was visible only slightly from the opened collar of his buttoned shirt, his cardigan was uneven though you find it cute. Delicate strands of silver toppled over his forehead, his dark brows knitted together in deep concentration.
And it got you thinking, but you wouldn't risk it. You're not going to ruin the friendship you have for the past few years because of your silly little feelings for him, you'd rather have him stay with you like this than watch him distance himself away from you.
From your point of view he's everything you want. You love him so, so much. Your little crush on him from middle school wasn't just puppy love.
taglist: bold (can't tag)
@boba-beom @beeomgui @luvsoobs @bunnystrm @yenqa @hueninv @moontyuns @jjunsolos @sullystraw @tyunsion @txtbrainrot @goldennika @automatictalebeliever @vexstrils @soobinlover718 @strawbrinkofdeath @hyusun @wezbin @enhapocketz @dainsleif-when-playable @igotkpoops @luvdokja @vianna99 @emohazuzworld @taehyunsfel @hueneve @azurez
#taehyun smau#taehyun socmed au#taehyun x reader#txt smau#txt socmed au#txt x reader#taehyun scenarios#taehyun imagines#txt scenarios#txt imagines#kpop smau#kpop socmed au
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~NEVER Abandoned, and Never Alone~
A long post with odd topics. You've been warned ahead of time but this talks about some very... personal things. This turned into a vent post very quickly. (I'm not mad at you Seth/JustAThrowAwayHeeHee. I'm just using you as my reason to post as this made me realize I needed to say something.) I saw a response to me and I felt very sad because I never considered this point of view before.
I would NEVER abandon my diary. Mostly because... It's my Diary. It's my place to go to when I need to talk. However, I haven't been doing that and I regret it. Tonight, I want to talk to you. My diary. To be honest, I've spent a lot of this month in... a deep sense of melancholy. My last relationship hurt like hell and no better time to think of it... than Valentine's day. Valentine's MONTH for those who are happy and in love with someone/something. I spent a long time getting close to someone, just for them to hurt me, make me fear my own bed, and then wish that I could kill them. That feeling HURTS when you loved someone and then feel so repulsed by their actions and words, that you wish them death. It's been about 3 years since then, and life has moved on. I however, haven't. When everyone is telling you about how happy they are because they are so in love and you're just sitting there thinking of the last person you dated, knowing you may never date someone again, it feels miserable. I spent most of this month making time for myself. I started to really think about why I hated myself, why I didn't want to live, why life felt so lonely, etc. I learned more about me and FELT more about me. This sent me down a very unhappy but very clear path. I'm less afraid than I used to be. I was afraid for hundreds of reasons, but what really hit me, was that I feared my own mind and how I was being perceived. After days, and weeks of overthinking, I learned that I don't care anymore. I'm not afraid and I know that I'm claiming something unhealthy. Something disturbing to most. Something that got me in trouble before. The difference is this time, I don't care and I don't fear myself. I know me, and I wouldn't want THIS for the rest of my life. I am not afraid anymore. I'd rather be authentic and hated including by myself, than to live a lie for the rest of my life. I am not broken, because I wasn't a masterpiece to begin with. I'm a block of stone with a pretty face and no body because the sculptor got scared he'd ruin his art and left it in the dark for years. I refuse to wait any longer. I refuse to let life control me. I REFUSE, TO SIT BACK AND FEEL LIKE SHIT JUST BECAUSE I HAVE ENOUGH MENTAL AND PHYSICAL CONDITIONS TO SCARE MY ENDOCRINOLOGIST. I haven't been on normal medication in over a month and it's made me more aware of how fucked I really am. However, I don't mind who I really am. This looks unrelated but trust me, I have a point. I left because I was afraid to post. I was scared I would say something too "crazy," too unexpected, or post something no one wanted to see. HOWEVER- I didn't make this for ANYONE BUT ME. My posts can be manic, short, repetitive, etc. It's MY DIARY. This is MINE AND NO ONE CAN TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME. I will be posting more often. I will be posting possibly for days in a row filled with chaotic babble. However, it's me and it's real. I am the one in control of my actions and until I die, I will do whatever the fuck I want. It's my life, my blog, my diary. I'm allowed to be selfish and possessive when it's about something I own.
#stalkers diary#yandere#yandere x reader#irl yandere#yandere male#yandere x you#yandere boy#male yandere#nonbinary yandere#actually yandere#yandere rambles#yandere blog#yandere community#yanblr#yanblog#darlingcore#possesive love#ask blog#gender neutral reader#actually psychotic#obsessive love#obsessive thoughts#obsessive love disorder#yandere Diary#unmedicated#mental Illness#mentally unstable#actually mentally ill#vent post#tw vent
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TSATS, Finally!!
This's a very long post guys...
Idk if I have a natural ability to ignore responsibilities or I'm just genuinely not good at keeping promises. But yes, finally the long awaited review of tsats is here.
So, the general rating for me is 3.5, which is... Really good, considering the book,,
Now you know, points to talk about:
Firstly guys I want to tell you that, unfortunately the sun and the star had me run into a deep reading slumber, which is something I never expected it to happen. Idk if you noticed this but my favourite character in whole Riordanverse is Nico! And Will comes closely after him, so I thought tsats would only be a fast run to me, it's basically a solangelo fanfic just written by the original author. But as I ran the first 100 pages I found myself drained, I was bored, I was tired and we really weren't going anywhere. It was a displayer of Nico and Will's love for each other, and I'm sorry to be that person but!! I dislike it when the ship is just out there living and laughing like I'm sorry but I need them to suffer first then some smiles and laughs at the end would do (insert some offended face).
Yeah, let's talk real. I know we had to go through that introduction to know where exactly the two of them stand in their relationship to be able to observe the change and development later on, but it was very repetitive.
Nico is made from darkness, Nico had so much darkness, Nico lives in the shadows, Nico doesn't think he deserves love, Nico doubts Will's love, Nico feels he's not enough for Will. It all goes in circles and I didn't like it. Nico I know you're emo and such but I just think the narration focused too much in it on expense of getting good Will expressing.
And this coming from a big Nico di Angelo lover, I feel like we don't quite exactly know Will even after this whole book, there's yet so much to unfold about him, his mother, his life at camp, his feelings after all toa happened like his father was a teenager just like him and was the biggest loser ever (lol, I just love Lester), how come we didn't discuss that? Nico is a character we all know, we lived with him, we experienced every feeling he went through, he wasn't new to us which is not the case with Will. What's the difference between us and the troglodytes? All we know that he's a son of Apollo, a healer and Nico's glow-in-the-dark boyfriend.
I just felt the need to summarise because I felt that what I wrote could be compromised in better wording: the narration was too repetitive and too focused on Nico and his dark past™ which is not necessarily a bad thing but I just feel it'd be better if cut it a bit shorter and clear the stage for Will, because -surprise surprise- Will also has some dark parts (although not much like Nico, and yes I know the book touches the topic later on but it'd have been way better if we were introduced to it from the start thus it'd grow on us and would be very convenient later on. Tbh the book just goes "oh, Will also got a dark side, he must share it with Nico..." But what I'm saying is, we never were exposed to it, what's the darkness within Will? Those pigeons? His mother performing and him staying backstage? I feel like we could explore it much better) anyways, it'd also be really great if we got to experience Nico's dark past yet from Will's point of view more often, that way the whole communication arc would be better, because we will know that Will already had a solid image of Nico in his head (yes his lovely little emo boy with miserable history but we'll get to know what he knows about the Nico and also the flaws he had picked up in him) and as the time goes we'll get to experience that image altering.
I know someone will think "but it's a Nico di Angelo adventure!" Yes I know, but don't you think getting to know Nico, our adored character, from his boyfriend perspective would be much interesting? Come on guys, see the potential.
Let's rewind a little bit, so 100 pages, I'm bored I stopped reading for three days then picked the book yet again and..... Stopped after 50 pages ;-;
I'M SORRY BUT I REALLY WASN'T FEELING THE VIBES OKAY I KNOW IT'S TOTALLY MY FAULT AND I'M SORRY GUYS.
And picked the book for the last time today and finished it.
Oh yes, another thing that felt off for me is how Chiron and Dionysus are portrayed here, idk they felt so out of character and the whole "dO wE hUg nOw?" I'm sorry, that was cringe, dw it's on me guys.
And there were points where the writing was so inconsistent, I never read anything of Oshiro's work before, but it's so painfully obvious when his and Rick's writing styles clashes (ugly clashes) that it makes the book really obviously written by more than one author, and other points where idk if Rick is trying water down his style or Oshiro is trying to level the work up to the satire and sarcasm Riordan's books are known for. Anyways, it could use some editing (and it's definitely edited but not enough to mask every hole, because if a dumb person like me speed reading the book was able to pick all that then it's obviously not enough).
Also Nyx was stupid. Yes, that's my statement. Iget it you refuse to change but I hate how dumb her plan was. First of all, why leave Bob without guard? I mean you obviously have better chances in luring Nico and maybe killing Will if they don't have a Titan with them?? But yeah this's not about her.
I also hated we lost originality here, I already told you guys it read like a fanfic, but it really was a fanfic, every fanservice they could include they did include. For example the Hades allowing Bianca and Maria to talk to Nico once again, look I'm not complaining (as you'll read later) but really WHAT THE FUCK??! Weren't they reincarnated or whatever? How the fuck is that possible?
Also isn't Tartarus like, beyond the powers of the gods?? Then how is Hades going to retrieve whoever-was-his-name-centaure-satyr out of it? And just because Nico asked nicely?
Another thing, I know that you can issue a quest (just like what Percy and Annabeth did to rescue Grover in SOM, and like what Ares did in SON) but how the fuck do you send a prophecy?? Isn't this also too much of a godly power? Like Apollo (the god of prophecy himself) stated that they're way above him then how can Hades send one???
So we mentioned the narration, we've done the character portrial that I didn't like, now we're off to good stuff!
A big point! A huge point! For solangelo's relationship, I loved how they often had fights, disagreed with each other, hid things from one another, had miscommunication yet still managed to figure it out as mature humans whom are much better than half of adults nation. I loved how quickly one apologise once they realise they were wrong, I loved how they stayed by each other's side and how they supported each other, like bro it seems like they can't stay angry at each other more than five seconds and I love for it!
This's actually Rick's trademark (along with having Percy in everything he writes) that he always sets a good example for kids, younger audience who read his books have a good exposure to an excellent functional relationship not like some other booktok authors whom I'm not naming (totally not about you Colleen Hoover, you do you honey🙂).
Hiss-magisty and oh boy how much I love them! They were so cute I really liked how they looked up to Will, especially that the boy needed such encouragement because of the whole child of Apollo, underworld, tartarus things going on. And yet another point to tsats for representation (never forgetting Epiales).
Nico, Hades, Maria, Bianca!! You just have to love them!! They're literally my favourite family in the whole Riordanverse, yes I'm so madly in love with Sally and yes I love Percy but the Hades/di Angelo family?? That's where my discussion ends.
And speaking about family, can we have a moment of appreciation for Persephone like I truly loved her back from mythology (which I know nothing about, like she's Hades wife, that's it, yet I still loved her because she seemed nice, and she's nice!) This whole journey won't be if not for her, girl single handedly opened Will's eyes and her love for Nico??? Told you that's my family right there.
Lol I just remembered when Demeter was lecturing Persephone for not marrying a doctor and now I just know she loves solangelo, so yeah even grandma is an icon, I stan by it, that's my family.
Okay I also wanted to talk about the concept of grief and ptsd and how it was represented. This actually deserves a major applause because that's really how you write a good deep psychological analysis of losing someone and having to cop with it, especially that part when Nico tells how he just shunned all his memories away, how in his mind Jason just went to a quest and someday he'll return to camp half-blood as if nothing happened, because surprisingly it's the same method my brain took when my mother died, it's like all these years had been deleted and I was just brought to world after her passing, a lot of times I try to remember some particular incident from the time but I just can't wrap my mind about it, sometimes I became alert because for a minute there I couldn't recall her name, it was like all the pain associated with her just disappeared, it is locked far away in my brain and I still can't get access to it. So yeah, away from this pity party, I love how it was represented here, with Nico really suffering the trauma and how he eventually learned to let it go. (I cried at that mention and also when he was reunited with his family for that little amount of time).
Can we name the cocoa puffs?? Because I just adore them so much and I feel like Nico and Will will name them such cute adorable names and I can't stop thinking about that. Lol, percabeth are yet to get engaged then married and solangelo already has kids.
Ps actually but the pet names??? OMG NOTHING SWAYS MY HEART LIKE PET NAMES. I was pretty much hooked when I read "Noble McSacrifice" SSKFHIDJ
Another ps. I liked the whole Gorgyra thing as a way to show us their memories like a breeze amidst the flames every couple of chapters. At first I was like "wtf is this, did it happen or is it gonna happen or is this an alternate universe??" Don't blame me I was sleepy.
Yet another ps. I hated the "DREAM SEQUENCE" that just comes in the middle, like bro the boy just went to sleep of course I'd know this's a dream no need to point it out every time it was so annoying.
I think I covered all of the points I wanted to talk about, I was going to say "yay, first review with me having actual time to write it and think it through!" Yet auntie barged in in the middle and everything seems all over the place now.
It's like a characteristic in me now, heh. But yeah, sorry for the long wait, sorry for this shitty review, but bear with me please.
I totally adored this book once I figured out how to keep up with it ").
I'm yet to read a bunch of books all by Rick, hopefully I'll start with the chalice of the gods and come for a quick chat later.
Until then, eat, sleep and take care of yourselves♡!!
#the sun and the star#tsats#nico di angelo#william andrew solace#will solace#solangelo#rick riordan verse#riordanverse#rick riordan#rrverse#book review
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Pointing directly at his shoulders, she unknowingly did the same action as well, although it wasn't intentional that time. "You just did it! See! I was right!" She lowered her face, hiding her grin and the giggles that bubbled out from the brink she'd set in herself that wouldn't normally let her laugh so freely. It felt... nice.
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The Sand Wraith grumbled in agreement, using every ounce of his strength not to aggressively shake off the splinter from his wing - if he was even capable of doing that due to how sore it was.
Nodding lightly at his response, Freya took a deep breath in before she exhaled, trying to release all of her worries through the small action. "Yeah, it's okay... I won't forget that I have my own stuff to work on too.. I just--" She scrupled over speaking her original route of that sentence; the lines, 'I care about you..a lot' not seeming fit for her to say. It was true, she did, but there was also the reminder that said not to give away what she truly felt towards him, caging in her emotions into something portrayed as only being friendly or considered 'normal.' "..I don't want you to feel alone in this, cause you're not."
As Hiccup provided the details to what he and her father talked about, her brows started to crease, the frustration targeted at Ragnar steadily increasing. "No, no, Hiccup. You did help keep me safe. Don't you remember, I don't know...grabbing me before I could.." She stopped there, not desiring to recite the event that she'd much rather throw out of her memory.
"Yeah, but, Hiccup... I'm pretty sure dads don't throw draggers at someone who's...supposed to be their child's partner.." Freya specified the word 'supposed', reminding herself that their so-called 'relationship' wasn't real. Not one bit. That's what they agreed on, wasn't it? Act and behave in a similar manner to a genuine couple and then...call it quits once they figured themselves out enough. That's the plan.
And yet, there was a quiet and taciturn side of her that hesitantly communicated that's no longer what she wanted, that it wasn't just something she could brush off so easily anymore. What if she did want it to be real? To imagine the Chief's son returning what she felt towards him was like a distant dream she could only hope to see one day. All she could do was imagine. Because, surely, he doesn't hold the same affection to a person who plainly and openly despised him and treated him how he was called in the past: Useless.
The word left a bitter taste in her mouth. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock wasn't Useless or pathetic; she earnestly wished she could've seen that sooner.
Faintly smiling by hearing that she managed to help him, Freya took another subtle step closer, remembering to always keep some form of distance to prevent herself from doing anything she'd later regret. "Then..that makes two of us. You have no idea how much of a relief it was to have you there with me...for everything today, actually.."
Lost in the warmth of being in his embrace, she softly hummed out her answer, encouraging him to continue with what he wanted to say. She, however, did not expect for him to speak the next words her heart hastily took in. Her closed eyes opened, widening as her ears became red. The flutters were back and for a moment, she wondered if Hiccup viewed her in the same way... "..You are too, y'know.."
No, he couldn't do that to her. There was the border between them that explicitly said 'do not cross' in terms of having real feelings involved in their masquerade of a relationship. She wasn't allowed to cross over that, obviously. He was right, they hadn't even talked so kindly to one another in years. She assumed she never did, truthfully. So, remaining reticent, that's what drove her away from his arms so abruptly, stuttering to coherently respond.
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Thankfully, the next day wasn't off to such a gloomy start, due to it being the first day when Berk would begin setting up for her favorite holiday:
Snoggletog.
Freya nearly became like Ayla when the holiday was in season, jumping in place mostly all the time when she saw the snow on the ground and her most enjoyable part of it all: the lights. Whether that'd be hanging them up, or watching others do it, she absolutely loved that specific decoration. That fact stood as she practically skipped over to the forge, a bundle of string lights in her hands while Blaze carefully trotted behind her.
With intentions of going to put the lights up around that particular place, she hadn't expected to see the future Chief already in there, working. The sight immediately made her pause in her steps, staring at him puzzled. She was behind him, so it wasn't a big surprise he didn't hear her right away when she arrived. "Uhm...Hiccup? How long have you been out here? I mean...in the forge, to be exact?"
Quickly greeting Toothless, she went to stand a reasonable distance closer to his rider. Slightly tilting her head, which caused the smaller additional braid by the side of her ear to briefly follow her movements, she pointedly spoke: "You do remember everyone's starting to decorate for Snoggletog today..right? I was even gonna set some lights up around here where the space is available.." She said, as they were tangled around her now folded arms, although she didn't realize it. "I didn't think you'd be...working so early.."
He laughed with her, feigning frustration but unable to keep the smile off his face, especially when she laughed as well.
He really loved her laugh, and wanted to hear it more and more.
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His eyes found hers, a little taken back by her words, but found them comforting all the same.
"You're right. I have Toothless," he glanced at the dragon, before a grin tugged at the corner of his lips. Facing Freya again, he added, "...and I have you. Knowing that...I think it's really going to help."
He nodded, but interjected, "I--I should have seen it coming, gotten you out of the way..."
"Well, my dad's choice would be an axe, but...you have a point there..." The way she enunciated the word 'supposed' didn't go past him, and the reminder that their relationship was fake felt somewhat jarring.
They had grown closer, that was true, and today they really had to rely on each other, but even after all of that, their relationship was still fake.
He wished that wasn't the case.
It was clear in her tone, she meant that, and Hiccup felt his cheeks redden as he shyly looked away. He didn't see himself as incredible, but Freya saying that sure meant a lot.
The way she pulled herself away made him think twice, wondering if he'd crossed a line in what he said. But...he didn't think that was the case...
Maybe it was just too much, from a too intense day. "S-sorry..."
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"Huh?" Looking up, he glanced around, confused, until he realized the voice came from behind him. Turning, he set the hammer down, a smudge of ash on his cheek. His eyes lit up a bit, seeing it was Freya.
Pulling out a cloth, he wiped his hands. "Uh...I'm not sure. I... couldn't sleep, and there's a lot of orders to fill. Thought I'd come in, get a head start."
Toothless warbled a hello, smiling and leaning into Freya's touch. He followed her, tilting his head at Hiccup.
His brows furrowed. "Oh. That's today?" He thought they had a few more days before the decorations were underway. "Uh, well, you can put up the lights. I just have to get some more work in."
Let's see, this axe was almost done, just needed to be sharpened. He had some shields to build next, the wood already sanded and ready for wrapping and adding the metal details.
Seeing her staring at him, arms folded, he asked, "What? Is there...is there something wrong?"
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Hey... I'm curious about something. How do you and your family treat Greek mythology and superstitions? 👀
Do you believe in them to a degree? If there were Gods and Goddesses, why wasn't it a full religion?
I hope this isn't rude. I'm more than happy to talk about mine.
Don't worry, it's not rude
Sorry, this took so long, it's a surprisingly hard question to answer because I needed to think about how I view Greek mythology vs how the rest of the world sees it and this accidentally turned into a rant 😅
also some of my opinions might be considered controversial but... I don't care! lol I guess the 5 Greek followers I have can unfollow me if they don't like this or whatever 😂
Anyway have some sparkles because this is kind of long oops ✨✨✨
WARNING: me trashing on Americans
The Greek pantheon was like any other religion in ancient times, but it's not really treated like one anymore. The main religion of Greece now is Orthodox Christianity, and the largest religious minorities are Islam and Catholicism. My parents and I are atheists. I'm certain there's still people that practise it, but they would probably be seen as foolish by the general public.
We are taught part of our mythology in school at the age of 8 (unless they changed it idk 😂). It isn't taught like a religion, but more like fairytales.
The way it's taught is very lacking in my opinion. Instead of explaining for example how sexism influenced the creation of these myths and what a giant asshole Zeus was, we are just told Hera was "the jealous type" and that's why she's the antagonist in most of the stories she appears in.
Achilles and Patroclus were definitely gay, but no one ever talks about it. According to our school books, they were just really close friends! In fact, this specific topic is avoided so much that I first heard about it from foreigners on the internet! A lot of people deny this, even saying that "friendship was just different back then, it was deeper"!! I'm sorry sir, I don't think I'd ever ask to be buried with the ashes of my just a friend™ no matter how close we were! Technically speaking there's nothing explicit in the original text, but Aeschylus, Phaedrus, Plato and Alexander the Great all read it as a romantic relationship and the first 3 even had their own headcanons about it, so that's enough for me!
I'm guessing a lot of these depend on what type of teacher each person has, and it's been a long time since I was 8, so teachers might be more open about it now, but if you just read the 3rd year history (mythology) school book this is the content you'll get. I don't think withholding this information is done because it's being taught to kids, it's not a "they're 8, so they wouldn't understand sexism". That would be a silly argument considering our mythology is filled with incest, rape and gore, which our school books very openly mention throughout. They are just trying to avoid it.
From 9 and up, we are taught more actual history than mythology. We focus on real historical figures and events, so most of the less know myths get forgotten. At 13-15 we're taught the Odyssey and the Iliad (by Homer), and Helen (by Euripides). Yes, that is in fact the order that they teach us these 🙃!! Supposedly it goes from easier text to harder text for each year, but I personally think that's stupid because the story is completely backwards now, and we get it translated to modern Greek anyway, so what's the point of telling it backwards???? It's not convenient, it's confusing! Anyway, these are taught in a similar way to literature. We analyse the text and characters and all that.
Ages 16-18, I honestly have deleted most of these from my brain tbh 😂. OK, not exactly, the first and third year are more historical texts and philosophy. The second year we do another play, Antigone (by Sophocles). Actually wait, the first one was about a war and there was a ton of political intrigue in there, and it was super interesting. The third one was more about philosophy.
The plays aren't exactly the same as mythology, it's more like fanfiction about historical figures and gods! I mentioned them because..... I just like them lol
I kind of deviated a lot from what you actually asked me and answered more generally. For me and my parents specifically, religion isn't really something we participate in. My grandma is very religious though. She used to go to church every Sunday before covid. Now she watches it from the TV (there's a specific Christian chanel that broadcasts church service from different parts of the country). I personally hate how brainwashed some people are by Christianity (including my grandma). Thankfully, we haven't reached American levels of religious fanaticism.
Mythology isn't really something that's on our minds often. My grandma didn't go to school, so I doubt she knows much about it. My parents probably learnt some of it. Outside of the school environment, ancient Greek mythology isn't really a topic most people think about (maybe I think about it more than the average Greek person, because I'm an art student and a bit of a history nerd). But even then, I've seen more about Greek mythology from people who treat it like a fandom on the internet and make AUs with their characters and stuff like that. Now, I know I made jokes earlier about fanfiction and headcanons, so this is probably going to sound very hypocritical of me...
However, Homer's poems and other ancient Greek plays are not the same as myths. They're not treated the same. They are theatrical performances based on historical events/figures. I don't care much about people's modern interpretations of these, because they are fictional stories. Now, myths are also fictional, I even compared them to fairytales at the start. But they were still based on ancient people's religious beliefs. People practised it as a religion, they had rituals and traditions, some of which are still done today (though they have changed and evolved over time). The myths were more like the framework for what the Gods represented in their lives. Kind of like how most Christians don't believe the events in the Bible literally happened.
I'm fine with people taking inspiration from a myth and doing a modern retelling as long as they're respectful. I've seen some modern, more feminist retellings of Medusa that I personally really liked. I've even thought of making my own version of Arachne (=spider) but without the religious propaganda and classist undertones.
What I'm not ok with, is people wearing bedsheets to "dress up as Greek"! I'm sure you can probably relate to this because Americans do this with a ton of cultures. If you want to "dress up as Greek", do this:
I'll respect you more!!
(this is obviously a joke, don't do this either, you'll get laughed at. This dude is part of a parody show)
And secondly, I'm not ok with people taking mythology and twisting it into something completely unrecognisable that doesn't even seem like it's from the culture it was based on. Basically, Americans shouldn't be allowed to make movies about other people's cultures!!! Ok, I'm exaggerating, but if you're going to do something based on mythology/religion of some other culture, you need to do proper research and be as respectful as possible.
Good example: Dreamworks-Prince of Egypt, 1998
Even as an atheist who was only taught religion in school, I can tell this is a very respectful adaptation. The team that made this met with religious experts to make sure they got it right.
Bad example: Disney-Hercules, 1997
This is the most American a Greek myth has ever been! It's more like Superman than Heracles. Don't do whatever the fuck Disney did here guys. I'm actually planning on tearing this film apart in a future review, so I'm not going to say anything else right now.
I'm not saying don't make changes. Greek mythology is very "fluid" in a way. Every myth has multiple versions, with minor or major differences between them. Changes are fine, even making a parody is fine. But I think the end result shouldn't just resemble its inspiration on a superficial level. It's not enough to have your characters wear a tunic and sandals and have them say Zeus instead of God every couple of sentences. The important part is why a particular myth exists. What is the original message? What does the story/character represent? That needs to be kept the same, otherwise the adaptation won't be an adaptation anymore. It will be a different story disguised as an adaptation. At that point, you should just make an original story.
Alright last thing and then I'm done talking I swear 😂!
You also asked about superstitions.
Here's a small list:
if you spill coffee it's good luck
if your right palm is itchy, you'll get money, but if your left palm is itchy, you'll give money. The first one is usually interpreted as like: "you'll find coins on the street or win one of those scratch lottery tickets". The second one is like: "a sign that the electricity bill is coming, or you need to pay rent". (my dad believes this one)
if you're born on Saturday, it means you're lucky (I was born on a Tuesday 😔)
evil eye: a curse when someone "glares" at you/has bad intentions. If you have blue eyes you're immune to this, otherwise you can wear an evil eye charm. (this comes from the Middle East, I think. You might know about this, because there's a ton of different countries that believe it. I personally just like the charms)
when you visit a house for the first time, you need to enter with your right foot first for good luck. If you enter with your left, it's like wishing bad luck for the people who live there. This is also done for the first person to visit the house on New Year's Day.
if you enter a place from one door you can't leave from another door, you have to use the same one. (supposedly it ruins your matchmaking if you do that)
if you're talking with someone, and you say something simultaneously, you say "touch red" and then you need to touch something red before you continue speaking. (I remember doing this a lot as a kid)
if you talk about something bad happening hypothetically, you knock on wood or say the phrase "knock on wood", so it doesn't happen
if you get served the last drop of wine, you get bitches 😎!!
There are a lot of traditions that are really old that a lot of people still follow, even if they're not religious or the tradition comes from a different religion. I'll tell you one of my favourites that's relevant right now. Every first of March people in a lot of Balkan countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia and others) wear a bracelet made from intertwined red and white threads. This is worn for the whole month of March, and it is supposed to protect you from getting burnt by the sun. At the end of the month, we take them off and leave them for swallow birds to use in their nests. Swallows are believed to bring spring.
hand reveal lol:
If you read this far, you are a legend.
It's your turn now. How do you and/or your family view Philippine mythology? What about the people in general? And also, do you have any traditions for spring?
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Has anyone put this here yet???? Ok ahem ahem sit back and buckle up as you hear me ramble about Mac and bloo's friendship because wowzers I have a lot so say
ALRIGHT ALRIGHT. Maybe I could be remembering some points wrongly, so do tell me if that ever happens so lol
noticing a pattern where a lotta people have claimed that Mac and bloo's friendship is considered "toxic", because of how big of a jerk Bloo acts towards Mac.
Well it is true, keep in mind that according to google atleast, the most accurate definition for that term is : a friendship where one of the party gets emotionally or physically hurt/used where it becomes a burden.
Think about it, if their relationship was really a burden Mac wouldn't really be willing to even give in the effort to visit him which shows how strong their bond is!! Sure it could maybe just be excused as a strong friendship, which it is (and basically clears the entire point of their friendship being toxic too btw)
I'm gonna try to keep it as short as I can, but here's something i wanna also clear up about Bloo being the selfish one
a lotta people would also say that bloo's personality drastically changed later on, but *in my opinion* it could honestly be viewed as the other way round where Mac is the one who actually grew up and matured instead.
Try to think outside the big picture - bloo's annoying and dumb behaviour could honestly be something him and Mac would uses to do/behave as before he grew up and matured if You. Get it (hopefully this makes senseLOL)
it could be described more as bittersweet, rather than toxic since imaginary friends could not age whilst their owners? Mmhm
Also how Bloo was intentionally supposed to be Mac's playdate where they you know goof around but as Mac grows older, he simply can't relate to Bloo as much anymore.
to close this off they definitely still care about each other very dearly in the end! You can also see how Bloo would truly show more affectionate back if it wasn't for his selfishness and ego in the way everytime!
OH WAIT In the middle of writing this here are some other good points my friend bought up:
Basically the entire point of Foster's is leaving your imaginary friends there as the owners grow older and stuff but in Mac's situation he doesn't just leave Bloo like that!!! He is actually WILLING to still hang out w Bloo no matter how "different" they could be from eachother
This point is similar as the one I've mentioned above, js wanted to throw this into here aswell since it makes my point more justified :)
Ok that's enough for now YEAYYYY
#I'm kind of scared to post this coz I might get something wrong possibly#It's been a while but hey!!!!! If any of you wanna add on/correct something please go ahead#I can ramble more and more about this but I just kinda don't have the energy anymore#Tell me if you need me to elaborate more!/gen I might've worded some sentences wrongly so apologies#Fhfif#Foster's home for imaginary friends#Mac fhfif#Bloo fhfif#blooregard q. kazoo#Rocko rambles#SOME OF THESE POINTS WERE GIVEN BY MY FRIEND SO shoutout to ren 🙏🙏🙏#their user is @/silhouette_chr on twtFOLLOW THEM#ok ahrm ahem if youy have any questions you i will try to answer them alrigjt#again i couldve word some of these weirdly so pls don't be afraid to askAAUGSHB im not the best at explaining my apologies
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All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (TV)
All too well is a Taylor Swift song about Jake Gyllenhaal that recently was updated to last 10 minutes, and I am going to annotate the lyrics and give you my opinion on what each line and verse means. (Just to say that we only have one point of view in the relationship so we will never truly know what the song is about)
Verse 1 - “I walked through the door with you, the air was cold” which probably means it was winter. “But something ‘bout it felt like home somehow” which could suggest that Taylor felt at home with Jake, or felt safe with him. ”I left my scarf there at your sister's house” which to me says that it is not winter, it is in fact Autumn and that Taylor and Jake were close enough to meet each other's family. “And you’ve still got it in your drawer even now” which shows that Taylor doesn’t believe that Jake has gotten over the relationship and still wants to keep a piece of her, even though he knows he could throw the scarf out, he doesn't want to. But from the name of the album which is “Red” we can infer that the scarf is probably red.
Verse 2 - “Oh your sweet disposition, and my wide eyed gaze” shows that in the relationship Taylor saw Jake as kind and affectionate, and she admired him for it. She felt like she was in love. “We’re singin in the car getting lost upstate” doesn’t really take much explaining, it shows they went on a road trip together that seemed to be going well and they were enjoying themselves. “Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place” proves my point about it being autumn. It also represents how sentimental Taylor is and the fact that she believes everything is happening for a reason, even the weather. “And i can picture it after all these days” she is reminiscing over her old relationship with Jake and thinking back to how happy she was when she was with him.
Prechorus 1 - “And i know it's long gone and that magics not here no more” Taylor is aware that their relationship ended a while ago and they no longer love each other but sounds remorseful of the fact. “And i might be okay but i'm not fine at all” suggests that she still felt something for Jake when their relationship ended and is upset it ended but is also relieved. This line could represent Taylors feelings at the beginning of their split and later on in the song could show her becoming more accepting of their break up.
Chorus 1 - “Cause there we are again on that little town street” Taylors memory of their time together was vivid, and she is currently recalling the moment. “You almost ran the red cause you were looking over at me” shows Jake's feelings towards Taylor at the beginning of the relationship/song juxtaposed with his feelings in the relationship at the end of the song, which were pretty much non-existent. “Wind in my hair, i was there, i remember it all too well” The use of the song title in the chorus is pretty common, it shows she doesn't necessarily wish to remember her time with Jake that vividly, however she still does. The “Wind in my hair” part shows they were driving in a convertible car which could also symbolise the sudden change in Jake's feelings towards the relationship, because convertible cars are known for their convenient and fast change from roofed to free, which could show how quickly Jakes feelings changed when Taylor thought it was going well. Or maybe she expected it? Convertible roofs dont change on their own, they have to have been put down or up. So maybe she wasn't enjoying the relationship even before Jake's feelings towards her changed? Anyways…
Verse 3 - “Photo album on the counter, your cheeks were turning red” this could suggest that Jake is embarrassed by the pictures in the album or it could suggest that he was embarrassed by the person showing her the album. “You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin sized bed” Taylor is comparing who Jake used to be (based on the photo album) to who he is now. “And your mothers telling stories about you on the tee ball team” Shows it was Jake's mother showing Taylor the photos, and she is proud of him and how far he's come. Taylor could also either be interested in Jake's past, or be too polite to say she isn't interested. “You told me ‘bout your past thinkin’ your future was me” shows Taylor believed Jake cared and felt so deeply about her she thought that he could’ve been her future. Or maybe Jake said something to Taylor that made her think that? “And you were tossin’ me the car keys, fuck the patriarchy” may be a manipulative trick on Jakes part, making Taylor feel as if she had a certain amount of control over the relationship, potentially later on giving him the upper hand. It doesn't matter if he tossed her the keys as a trick or a genuine action of what he deemed as kindness, it still gives him the power. “Keychain on the ground, we were always skipping town” in the urban dictionary, ‘skipping town’ means to leave a town hastily, so Taylor and Jake spontaneously left their town to go somewhere new. “And i was thinking on the drive down ‘any time now, he's gonna say it's love’ he never called it what it was” shows even though Jake felt as if he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Taylor, he wouldn't admit to being in love. Taylor shows how hopeful she was in the relationship, which could be perceived as young naivety, or just pure optimism. However Jake didn't want to admit to the depth of his feelings. This could show that Taylor had stronger and deeper feelings for Jake than he did for her. In ‘we are never getting back together’ Taylor hints at Jake's attempt to win her back by telling her he loved her, whether he meant it or not is debatable. “Till we were dead and gone and buried, check the pulse and come back swearing it's the same, after three months in the grave” this line is interesting. ‘Three months in the grave’ is another reference to ‘we are never getting back together’ when she said ‘we hadn't seen each other in a month when you said you needed space’ which could reference the time after the breakup or after a lull in their relationship. In ‘the 1’ Taylor also compares love to the morbidity of death when she says ‘in my defence i have none, for digging up the grave another time’ Taylor also uses death as a metaphor in ‘my tears ricochet’ however seemingly not a metaphor for love, she says “If im dead to you, why are you at the wake’. Jake also seemingly tries to convince Taylor that nothing went wrong in the relationship when she said “check the pulse and come back swearing it's the same”. “And then you wondered where it went to as i reached for you but all i felt was shame, as you held my lifeless frame” Taylor still went back to Jake even though she felt shame when going back to him, which is a sign that he manipulated her into feeling as if going back to him was the right thing to do. “As i reached for you but all i felt was shame, as you held my lifeless frame” Is represented in the short film, one of the main clash points in the film couples relationship is when the man drops the woman's hand when she reaches for him, causing her to feel violated and ashamed for reaching for him in the first place.
Prechorus 2 - “And i know it's long gone and, there was nothing else i could do” Here Taylor is reminiscing on the past relationship with Jake and she realises there was nothing she could do for the relationship. Also in ‘I knew you were trouble’ Taylor shows similar sentiments about the relationship by saying ‘And he’s long gone when he’s next to me, and i realised the blame is on me’. “And i forget about you long enough, to forget why i needed too” Which suggests that Taylor forgot about Jake and didn’t think about him to the point where she forgot why she forgot about him in the first place.
Chorus 2 - “'Cause there we are again in the middle of the night We're dancin' 'round the kitchen in the refrigerator light. Down the stairs, I was there. I remember it all too well” Taylor recalls the ex - couples past. “And there we are again when nobody had to know. You kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath” A secret is much more common and frail compared to an oath. This line could also suggest that Jake wanted to keep their relationship secret. In the ‘All Too Well’ short film it seems like the man is trying to make out like the woman is just a friend to him, which could signal how Jake acted around his friends when with Taylor. Taylor saying ‘Kept you like an oath’ could potentially suggest she was loyal, this could contrast how Jake was in the relationship. Was he unfaithful in the relationship? ‘Sacred prayer, and we’d swear to remember it all too well’ In this line she is saying that they both promised to at least remember the relationship, but later she asks ‘Just between us do you remember it all too well?’ This shows that she kept the ‘sacred prayer’ like an oath and does remember it. However she is unsure as to whether he meant it when he swore and she wonders if he ‘kept [her] like a secret’ meaning he was ashamed of the relationship and moved on without remembering it.
Bridge 1 - ‘Well maybe we got lost in translation, maybe I asked for too much’ Taylor is again hinting at disloyalty from Jake's part in the relationship. She is also suggesting he didn't understand her and her needs and wants whilst they were a couple. ‘But maybe this thing was a masterpiece, ‘till you tore it all up’ Suggests their relationship was perfectly fine until Jake ruined it. This also hints back at the cheating allegations ruining their relationship. ‘Runnin’ scared, i was there, i remember it all too well’ This shows how young Taylor was during the relationship and that she was scared of what came after their split. ‘And you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest’ Taylor uses ‘mr casually cruel’ in the song ‘Mr Perfectly Fine’ although this song is said to be about Joe Jonas and not about Jake. There is a potentiality that Taylor is referencing the phonecall described in the song ‘Babe’ when she said ‘Big mistake, broke the sweetest promise that you never should have made’ and ‘I break down every time you call We’re a wreck, you’re the wrecking ball We said “no one else,'' how could you do this, babe?’ The lyrics seem to parallel the bridge on All Too Well and, if they are describing the same moment, then Taylor’s ex called her up to tell her that he cheated on her. ‘I’m a crumpled up piece of paper lying here, and I remember it all, all, all’ Now, ‘crumpled up piece of paper’ could refer to two possible things. One of them being, Taylor was sat, damaged after Joke called to tell her he cheated. Or it could refer to her never being able to go back to how she was before he took her virginity. Like she is permanently scarred by his manipulation and doesn't know how to deal with it.
Verse 4 - ‘They say all’s well that ends well but I’m in a new hell every time you double cross my mind’ The phrase ‘All’s well that ends well’ means struggles and difficulty will pass as long as the ending is positive. Taylor uses this phrase in a more positive light to contrast the use of it in this song in her newer song ‘Lover’ where she says ‘All’s well that ends well to end up with you’ Shakespeare also has a play of the same name which is a romance which tells the story of Helena and Bertrams struggles to be together, but despite their fight for love they end up together in the end. Taylor also notably referenced Romeo and Juliet in her song ‘Love story’ which turns the classic romance between Romeo and Juliet into a teenage romance story. ‘You say if we had been closer in age maybe it would’ve been fine, and that made me want to die’ Jake and Taylor began dating when Taylor was twenty and Jake was twenty-nine, with a nine year age gap. It is also important to note that in the short film, Sadie Sink (the actress that plays the woman in the short film) and Dylan O’Brien (The actor that plays the man in the short film) have the same age gap as Taylor and Jake had. Taylor also suggests that Jake blamed the end of the relationship on their age gap. Taylor seems to have felt like Jake loved a specific version of herself that would never change, but not her as a whole person. ‘The idea you had of me, who was she? A never needy, ever lovely jewel, whose shine reflects on you’ Based on the context of the song, Jake only thought of Taylor as a ‘shiny jewel’ he could bring to parties and show her off as a possession, not as a needy girl that he had to take care of. So the moment that Taylor asked for attention, Jake started to see her as childish and making it about herself. That's how Jake managed to blame their age gap on the reason they broke up. ‘Not weepin’ in a party bathroom some actress asking me what happened you, that's what happened, you’ The line ‘Weepin’ in a party bathroom’ references the song ‘the moment i knew’ When Taylor says ‘And there in the bathroom I try not to fall apart And the sinking feeling starts As I say hopelessly “He said he’d be here”’
In this song, she recalls Jake failing to attend her twenty-first birthday party. In an interview, Taylor described the birthday party to be the worst experience ever. The second part of this line, Taylor addresses ‘Some actress’ asking her what happened. This line most likely refers to Jennifer Aniston who supposedly approached Taylor at a party shortly after her and Jake's breakup. Also, the fact that Taylor addresses her as ‘some actress’ shows how disorientated and upset she was at the time. ‘You who charmed my dad with self-effacing jokes, sippin’ coffee like you're on a late night show’ This suggests that Jake was comfortable with Taylor’s parents This probably made Jake's later disloyalty and betrayal more heartbreaking.The part where Taylor says he looks like he is on a ‘late night show’ is a metaphor. People on late night shows are supposed to make a good impression on the audience and host, however most of the time these conversations aren't genuine. This could also represent a lack of care for Taylor and her family if he treated the people he was supposed to care for the same as his work life. This line also links to the short film where the woman brings the man to a cafe with her father. ‘But then he watched me watch the front door all night willing you to come and he said “It's supposed to be fun, turning twenty-one” This concept also appears in the song ‘ The Moment I Knew’ about how Jake didn't show up to to Taylor's twenty-first birthday party: ‘I’ve got my eye on the door just waiting for you to walk in, you should’ve been here and i would've been so happy’ Taylor also references this memory in her song ‘coney island’ when she says ‘Where you standing in the hallway with a big cake, happy birthday?’ In the song ‘22’ Taylor expresses how determined she is to make her 22nd birthday party better than the 21st, the song shows how she wants to get over her past heartbreak and spend an enjoyable night with her friends. It is also worth noting that in the short film, the woman is surrounded by older people who are legally allowed to drink, whilst others drink their alcohol the female lead leaves a full glass of red wine in front of her on the table.
Verse 5 - ‘Time won't fly it's like I'm, paralysed by it’ This line could possibly be referring to the song ‘right where you left me’ where Taylor says ‘Did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen? Time went on for everybody else, she won’t know it’ which suggests Taylor feels like she’s frozen in time. ‘I’d like to be my old self again, but I'm still trying to find it. After plaid shirt days and nights where you made me your own’ The first half of this line suggests that Taylor's relationship with Jake changed her, but not necessarily for the better and maybe she feels it aged her too soon. Or again, she could be referring to the concept of virginity and the fact Jake took it from her via manipulation or mind games. The second line also refers to the virginity concept when she says ‘nights when you made me your own’ in the song. ‘Now you mailed back my things and i walk home alone, but you kept my old scarf from that very first week’ Jake is acting like he doesn't care for Taylor at all anymore, sending her stuff to her rather than giving it back to her in person which would ensure she gets her stuff back. However, in the next line, he’s kept something of hers which gives her hope that maybe he’s not as cold towards her as he is acting. Sadly, it could also be that he kept it as a kind of trophy rather than out of any remaining affection for her. ‘Cause it reminds you of innocence, and it smells like me.’ The first half of this could show Taylors youth at the beginning of the relationship, not only age wise but mentally too. Her mental development and gradual maturing could contribute to the end of their relationship if Jake claimed she had changed like when she said ‘i’d like to be my old self again, but i'm still trying to find it’ could show Taylor was willing to change and go back to how she was before if it meant she could save the relationship, but she never had the sense of identity she has now at the end of the relationship, therefore she doesn't and never had known who she used to be. Maybe the split helped her determine who she truly was. ‘You can't get rid of it, cause you remember it all too well’ shows Jake uses the scarf as a souvenir of their failed relationship and cant get rid of it, possibly in fear of forgetting their time together?
Chorus 3 - ‘Case there we are again when I loved you so, back before you lost the one real thing you've ever known’ Here, Taylor claims that this relationship was the only real one that Jake had, with all his other relationships being minor compared to her. Now that she’s gone and he’ll go back to other girls, Jake will probably realise it. This is reflected in another track on Red, “I Bet You Think About Me”: Does it make you feel sad, That the love that you’re looking for, Is the love that you had? Taylor then goes on to reference other choruses by saying ‘Wind in my hair’ and ‘Down the stairs’.
Verse 6 - ‘And i was never good at telling jokes, but the punchline goes, i'll get older but your lovers stay my age’ Taylor recalls Jake's dissatisfaction with her humour which may have made her lose confidence in herself. She calls out behaviour with a hint of sarcasm. She references things like this in other songs such as like ‘Begin Again’ when she said ‘And you throw your head back laughing like a little kid, I think it’s strange that you think I’m funny ‘cause he never did’ As well as her vault song ‘I Bet You Think About Me,’ in which she says ‘You laughed at my dreams, rolled your eyes at my jokes’. In this line she also calls him out for dating women disproportionately younger than him. Even though they dated in 2011 at ages 20 and 29 - 21 and 30, Jake is still dating women the same age as Taylor was back then, even though he is now 41 years old. ‘From when your Brooklyn broke my skin and bones’ Jake lived in New York for the better part of his life. His sister (who’s house the “scarf” was left at) lived specifically in Brooklyn. In 2010, Swift and Gyllenhaal were spotted together over lunch in Brooklyn. ’I'm a soldier who's returning half her weight’ When soldiers return home from war, they can look malnourished, or “half” their body weight. Taylors choice to liken the relationship to a war highlights how damaging the relationship truly was to her well-being. The other “half” of her weight could have been her partner, who she now has to live without. She described breakups in a similar fashion on her December 2020 track ‘Tolerate it’ when she said ‘Gain the weight of you then lose it’. ‘And did the twin flame bruise paint you blue’ Taylor acknowledges the subject of the song to be her twin flame. A twin flame is an intense soul connection with someone thought to be a person’s other half, sometimes called a “mirror soul.” It’s based on the idea that sometimes one soul gets split into two bodies. Here, Taylor is asking her twin flame if he also felt the sadness and pain she felt—the metaphorical bruise he had left her. Additionally, Taylor has also mentioned in “State of Grace” that she and Jake were “twin fire signs”, meaning they share the same star sign. Both her and Jake have the star sign Sagittarius, a fire sign. Taylor wonders whether Jake felt the same disappointment at the relationship’s end, which she also expresses in the bridge lyrics ‘You can’t get rid of it Cause you remember it all too well’. The use of “maim” as opposed to a more common verb like hurt is relevant as well, it suggests a more permanent pain, of lasting wounds that make it impossible for her to go back to being her old self. ‘Cause in this city's barren cold, I still remember the first fall of snow, And how it glistened as it fell, I remember it all too well’ The song comes to a close as time moves on — the beginning of the story took place in fall, while these lyrics move towards winter ‘Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place’ The leaves would presumably be ‘dead and gone and buried’ by the new snow on the ground.
Outro - The beginning of the outro continuously repeats lyrics of the song as if it were a ghostly echo/flashback which is referenced in the song ‘Red’ when she said ‘Remembering him comes in flashbacks, and echoes’. It's almost like she is from the outside looking in on their relationship, or looking back? Throughout the outro, Taylor is repeating the words “I was there” to reaffirm the fact that she did remember everything that happened, contrary to what her partner gaslit her into thinking. In the end, she’s saying she knows now she wasn’t crazy, and deep down he knows it too. This change echoes the one in Dear John, where the last line of the chorus, in which she sings ‘I should’ve known, turns into, You should’ve known’. The song first paints her remembering those memories from her own retrospective point of view, and then the act of singing and reliving past memories shifts the blame from herself to her partners.
#taylors version#taylor swift#taylor swizzle#all too well#song analysis#song#red tv vault#all to well 10 minute version#jake gyllenhaal#taylorstans#taytay#my songs#my analysis
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i know the show (and george himself) claimed that george was the opposite side of ross but honestly i never saw it. and the more i thought about george's S1 portrayal (the only one i can bear) the more i realized that, sorry folks, he and francis are far more "two sides of the same coin" of a duo than he and ross.
now let me cook. look at both men from the outside. they're weak personality wise (or, to avoid like i'm bashing francis, weakER than ross), have huge daddy issues and because of that are deeply insecure (george out of rejecting his father's love out of shame, francis' from constantly belittled out of his father's favoritism for ross), are constantly trying to show they are strong enough to stand on their own (and failing); heck they even surrounded themselves with "stronger" people to convince themselves of their attempts at strength (francis with george, george with his fake friends group that went in a puff of smoke for no reason).
so where does the contrasts lie? where's the "two sides of the same coin" at? a simple fact: one has the love of ross. you see the more i think of it, francis had more of a chance to become george if it wasn't for his family (but in this case, we'll just say ross). say that ross wasn't his cousin but, seen from afar, unable to be grasped like george's POV. i really think that he would be jealous over his father's favoritism to the point of viewing him as george does: having a hatred and enamoring for him at the same time.
the very idea of them being "friends" at all is such a deeply interesting thing to think about. because if you ask me it was a long time coming. they're just too similar for something not to happen. and as i said the only thing that really prevented francis from becoming "bad" (or george) was that he ross (or in this case, he is synonymous with love now) and george didn't. so what happens if you take ross out of the question? exaaactly. it also makes me think of ross questioning liz on francis and george's "friendship" after he came back. it genuinely surprised him. and of course he would be, since he and francis were inseparable all their lives. it's also interesting to see the dynamic of francis and george by itself as well? the fact that george drew francis away from ross (love) and into his own world of darkness and self pity. and that the only way francis could stand up to him is if he gained security and self worth (i should also add here that, interestingly, the both considered suicide. and while the one became stronger from it, the other became weaker. i would argue that the one who became stronger only had the ability to because he had love, while the other doesn't even know what it is).
for my last comparison i would love to touch on george's seduction of francis, because it is truly so riveting to me. in his preying on francis, george is already coming from a weak mindset. he doesn't know love (in my opinion, he's incapable of it but i believe he can come close to it if pushed that way) and as such has no real interest in francis. and he knows that (1 as an outsider (2 the fact he's not ross will never get his attention, so instead he puts on a facade of a stronger man that will attract him. any normal person would see right through george and know he's faking it, but the vulnerable and equally weak francis falls for it (inevitably imo). notice how verity was never friends with george? nor charles. and liz always had an arms length relationship with him. no, the only person who was ever close with him was francis. and so in this relationship, we see two weak men feeding off of each other's insecurities, insignificant self worth and fathered rejection. francis falls for george's imitation of strength, which in of itself is starkingly weak that he cannot find a shred of himself that is good to use on francis, so he just does what he always does in life, taking parts of actual strong people and applying to it himself in a way of survival, almost. the only way such a deeply messed up could work on anyone is if they were as weak or even weaker than him. thus in comes francis, who happens to be connected to the man he's obsessed about. he must have thought he was blessed from above.
as for george and ross, what can i say? besides that they were rivals (mostly on george's end anyway) both lived in cornwall, i guess? i have tried to make a connection on the yin/yang affect and nothing much came to mind which made me believe the push for it was contrived. i could write even more about francis and george, however, but i'll stop here.
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