#i've given up on the tldrs so sorry about that you've just got to read the notes now

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

The invasion of time (episodes 2 and 3):

'the matrix rejects the candidate' -> this seems to cause the doctor physical pain, the matrix can choose people, also it can probably see into his mind and see his intentions

'he is the matrix now, it can not reject him' -> the president becomes part of the matrix itself, idk if i have much to say about this, but something something the merging of technology and biology

self induced cataplexy as a defense mechanism -> this is treated as a completely normal thing, so it's probably just something that time lords can do

'high lords' -> what are the rankings within time lord society? who is allowed into the panopticon?

the doctor is taken to the chancellery to heal -> why there specifically?

outside of citadel is referred to as the outer world

leela knocks down two time lords with practically no effort -> love her for that, also says something about how these guards are 'trained' though (i'm very much on the side of them being largely ceremonial)

andred is wearing a gold breast plate -> ceremonial wear for the presidential induction?

the doctor talking about the alarms ringing in his head -> we can clearly hear the alarms out loud, but now that he is a part of the matrix and the matrix records everything that happens in the capitol, so it's probably at least somewhat in his head as well as out loud, which is not something i would personally want to experience (also something something being president of the time lords changes you in a physical sense, idk i think this gets talked about in alien bodies)

president gets referred to as 'excelency'

secret passages (can't remember if these were also in the last episode or not) -> these ones at least are voice activated, palm and retina also used to access things on gallifrey

chancellery guard continue to be a bit useless (this is not the last time this appears in my notes, but i don't think I'm going to write it down every time)

security control room is directly beneath the panopticon (on level 30)

why have a door between rooms when you can have an invisible force field -> still feel like that open wall type thing is kind of weird architecture, but whatever, that's not really the point here

'one of the highest security rated rooms in the citadel' -> referring to rodan's office, her job is basically traffic control, interesting what their priorities are

'that's their affair' -> in relation to not reporting that leela is there, doesn't want to get involved

'the guards and the time lords' -> some fascinating implications here, do you not need to be a time lord to be in the chancellery guard, or is this just a way of differentiating the guards from the political officials there

'i've passed the seventh grade' -> rodan what does this mean, how does time lord schooling work (and is this something i would understand if i was british or is she just saying shit?)

'i could never interfere, only observe'

'nothing can get past the transduction barrier'

love andred having absolutely no idea what to do with a jelly baby

borusa has a tapestry -> what is art like on gallifrey

there's ramps next to the stairs in like this one hallway -> gallifrey wheelchair accessible? (idk, feels like based on the other sets we've seen (and also when this was made) probably not, but i still wonder why this is there)

'i knew i'd like you, come in' -> you're letting a wanted alien you met ten minutes ago into a high security room, sure rodan, do that i guess

'no creature would dare' -> rodan in reference to someone approaching gallifrey -> what does this say about their reputation

'code beta three. an alien space craft within two spans' -> first use of spans (?), seems more like a measurement of distance here than time (something something the time lords relationship with time makes them slightly interchangeable? idk)

'raise the transduction barriers to factor five' -> they've got different levels of defense

alien invasion considered a red alert

everyone seems remarkably calm about the whole their planet is being invaded thing

'didn't you hear the lord presidents announcement, we must submit' -> yikes, doesn't even consider, you know, thinking for herself (like seriously no one is questioning him here, even borusa who doesn't seem happy about this)

'we are rational' 'you are cowards' -> leela have i mentioned that i love you (seriously though, i have problems with the whole 'companion leaves because she falls in love with a man she met ten minutes ago' thing, but i feel like leela was the perfect companion to end up on gallifrey, she is everything that a time lord isn't, yet she's the one that ends up living in their society for what i have to assume is hundreds of years, existing among them for so long that outsiders mistake her for a time lord)

also why the fuck are they putting leela in heeled boots, she wouldn't be wearing heeled boots (trust me on this, she told me herself) (like come on, she's a warrior, she's constantly running around, and they thought heeled boots were the correct costume choice?)

'the president need not apologize' he doesn't need to say thank you either it seems -> the president is treated more like a king or a god than a president

'you and the other time lords are singularly logical ... you also lack humor and imagination'

'my mind is too easy to read' -> not in the literal sense, they were just talking about mental shielding, but in the sense that he doesn't really know how to lie (adding this to my pile of evidence that narvin being a bad liar isn't actually all that detrimental to his job, time lords aren't as a whole creative enough for lying to be a thing they would need to know, and so much of their everything is based on their ability to change the truth (whether literally through timeline manipulation or just the perception of events) so they don't need to lie, they just need to make what they say the truth)

this part is just 'the polycule' in my notes (it's leela, rodan, and andred having a conversation)

there are time lords who aren't just blindly following the doctor's orders, but at this point it's like two people

well entirely unsurprisingly kelner is corrupt and power hungry

they get cloaks -> red for leela and a more maroon color for rodan

rodan has never left the citadel before this

'why are you scared?' 'it's all so natural'

show us gallifreyan plants you cowards, i know its more than just desert out there, i heard susan talking about those trees

kelner wants the presidency and is definitely willing to let the doctor die for this

the outsiders seems to immediately be able to tell that something is different about leela -> they make comments about her being odd, but not rodan, is it something int he way she's acting/dressed or something like what we see narvin doing in erasure (both?)

they're wearing shorts and what look to be short sleeves, but also heavy looking fur cloaks -> this really tells me a lot about gallifrey's environment, thanks (they're also all wearing headbands, but it seems pretty windy, so this one makes sense)

'an alien, that's dangerous' -> not time lords, but still have time lord attitudes about non gallifreyans it seems

rodan has little food capsules -> she also seems to never have eaten real food and wouldn't know what to even eat (says no to having ever had 'flesh or fruit')

'i'm so tired and cold' -> so gallifrey is cold then

the president doesn't have authority to order the chancellor to do anything under the constitution -> the one thing against the president having absolute power i guess (probably also makes chancellor a very desirable position) (well, unless you're narvin)

'acting vice president' -> they have a vice president?

love the doctor just fucking with kelner

'the quantum force field around galllifrey' -> seems to be a different thing to the transduction barriers, have the ability to vaporize the whole planet if tampered with (also seemingly impossible to turn off when the transduction barriers are not)

'we were until we decided to drop out' -> outsiders talking about being time lords, seems to be a thing that can be given up

'never mentioned' 'well not it wouldn't be. it might upset their cozy little world' -> the time lords don't talk about the things they don't like, they might as well not exist

'loyal to the old ways' 'what other ways are there?' -> time lords love tradition

regeneration number seems to be the main determination of age, body age seems to matter less/is referenced less

exile as a punishment -> doesn't seem common and in the scale that the doctor's doing it, but also it seems to be a possible punishment

andreds trying to lead a revolt, they successfully have more than two guys who aren't just blindly following the doctor now

'and it'll mean breaking my oath, but i believe he's forefitted the right to protection' -> chancellery guard take oath, something relating to protecting the president it seems

'kelner's tame bodyguard' -> they really do just keep talking about time lords like they're dogs, don't they

so i've decided to watch through every episode that gallifrey appears in and take notes on them (not doing this for every episode a non doctor time lord is in because that's too many) for the purposes of either ranking them, figuring out the lore, or later comparing eu depictions of time lords to how they're shown in the show, i'll figure it out later. this little intro thing is basically just for myself to make a post where i can put the highlights of my notes (very much not putting all of them since so far its been an average of 1.5 pages of notes per episode)

[astridthevalkyrie]

Re: Your strong feelings against Regina - I won't be hard pressed bc it won't change my opinion (sorry my love for her is too great) but I'm curious to read if you've rambled at all about why you dislike her so strongly?

LOLL i've done a few rambles over the years and i tend to hatepost whenever i rewatch clips but i don't think i've ever done like a full on explanation on why. and yes please feel free to love her! idc how anyone feels about a fictional character.

some stuff i do like about her: lana parilla is obv very talented and pretty, her and jmo have rlly good chemistry, sometimes her one liners are super funny ("the entire charming family and their pirate mascot" is fucking hilarious i wish she said more stuff like that).

but tldr—she did way too many bad things and never properly redeemed herself for them.

in the first two seasons she does, like, incredibly bad stuff LMAO, including but not limited to: ruining snow's life after killing her dad, killing entire villages, casting the curse and the subtle ways she tortures snow in it, abusing henry (who is in therapy because he's told he's "crazy" for saying that he's aging while everyone else stays the same age), sacrificing children to the blind witch, the entire situation with graham (that she never confesses to, emma never finds out), trying to poison emma after emma tells her she's already leaving because she couldn't stand emma being in henry's life at all, separating the mad hatter from his daughter in the curse even though the last time they saw each other the mad hatter helped her and she betrayed him+making him remember his real self for some extra bout of torture, kills a little boy's dad bc the dad didn't want to drop his entire life and move into town so that she could fulfill her sudden dreams of motherhood, then later taunts that boy when he's an adult about how she killed his dad.

and what happened to her with daniel and cora's abuse is definitely really bad, it just doesn't even come close to justifying any of this for me. she didn't need to marry snow's dad. she gets rid of cora and sends her to wonderland before she's married. she stays because she likes the feeling of magic and the idea of being queen (rumple is obviously a huge part of why she turned out the way she did, "hooking" her on a magic which ouat tries to compare to drug use, but the murderous intent was in her before she even met him).

and then her redemption. hooo boy. it starts in season 2, with her just deciding not to actively do harm because she wants henry to love her. not a bad start. then she tries to destroy the well that snow and emma want to come back from (to be fair, she does this to stop cora, but she knows emma and snow dying is a possibility and is very cool with this bc it'll make her henry's only mom). she then is upset that everyone in town isn't automatically cool with her, for some reason gets credit for "saving" snow and emma (from a trap! that she! set!), and when cora does come back, she teams up with her. like. the lady who actually killed daniel and ruined regina's life. that lady. teams up with her. stands by as her mother kills snow's nanny even though they already got what they wanted. and THEN she's angry that snow had the nerve to do to cora what regina's done to dozens of people and kill her.

and then for the rest of the show there's just no point where there's time for regina's redemption because they're always dealing with the next villain. peter pan, then zelana, then the snow queen, so on and so forth. at some point she's just decided to be redeemed and anyone who argues with that point either changes their mind or is portrayed by the narrative as a villain. some of her one liners that a lot of the fandom think are so cool make me beyond angry LMAO like she tells david "i will not be given parenting advice by a man who shipped his daughter off in a box" GIRL??? BECAUSE OF YOU??? the show continuously pushes the blame onto snow and david (but especially snow) for giving emma up as though they had a choice. regina knew about rumple's prophecy. she knew snow and charming's daughter would break the curse. she was not gonna let that baby live if snow and charming hadn't sent her away.

snow and charming and emma's characters are all completely turned into dust for her too. emma is forced to grovel because she brought back a woman from the past that regina wrongfully executed bc it happens to be maid marian. snow and charming do uncharacteristic "evil" things so that they can be like "see! they're all good and bad!" when even ooc snow and charming's worst doesn't compare to regina's best.

[emzular]

I really need you as a full grown white adult to analyze why you think a character that hates black people is fun to ship at all. Like I could just make fun of you but just think with your little peanut baby brain for five seconds WHY you think it's okay to "go deeper" on an abusive racist's character at all. Lol

i mean, i shouldn't give you the benefit of a response because you've been rude but i will.

-

before reading: abuse is never an excuse to be a bad person, but it does help to explain why people act in certain ways. tldr: i could talk about this for hours but at the end of the day if a non-white person says "he's a racist" then i say okay and i won't argue with you,

but as you've asked for me to analyse it i will. the second his dad hit him, i got it. if you've been in that situation or a similar one, you get it in that second. does it excuse any of the shit billy did? no. but does his character suddenly have more depth? yes. so that's why it's okay to "go deeper", because the duffers made him deeper. sorry, complain to them for making a character with an abusive homelife. because the way i see billy is that he's been raised with abusively strict rules, to respect his dad's wishes. he has to do everything by the way his dad lives. dacre said he didn't see billy as racist and didn't play him as such, and though the duffers have said contradicting things (they've said both he is AND he isn't), they removed all of the racial slurs. but the implication in those scenes with lucas is that he is racist, yeah i'm not denying that.

because then you see the scene where billy's dad abuses him. and for people who've been through shit like that it clicks. i'm not saying abuse is an excuse to be racist and i'm not saying i want everyone to love the guy, hell i don't love the guy all the time, but i understand him. at the end of the series, billy doesn't give a fuck that max is going to the snowball with her black boyfriend - he knows she'll see lucas there and he doesn't say a word cos he doesn't care, because max has already made it very fucking clear that she's tough and she can handle it. but at the start of the series, when the pressure from his dad is high, he does care cos he's selfish as fuck and he's scared, and if his dad finds out that billy is letting max hang out with a black boy, he'll lose it.

that's how i see billy. is he a cunt? yeah. but he is a cunt because he's been abused, and that makes sense to me. being abused is never an excuse to do bad shit but the character is seventeen and no one's ever intervened, and that's where the fics and the shipping comes in. we don't write the billy direct from the show, we write billy as if someone had intervened. a billy that gets called out for his attitudes, a billy that realises the way things are is wrong, a billy that realises an apology will never be enough: an au billy. and i've done shit (nowhere near as bad as he has) that i had been raised to think was right, that has been ingrained in me from shitty parenting, and it's only in adulthood when someone sat me down and called me out on it that i learned. and mate i'm not sitting here stanning the guy who beat up black kids - i'm stanning the character potential. they could've given this abused angry kid background to robin and she'd have been the one i stanned. hell, if they'd developed johnathan a bit more, i'd be over there in byers-ville.

and abuse isn't an excuse to be racist, no fucking way, but does it explain/shed a light on why he's acting a certain way? yeah. but again, i'm not going to sit and tell you that he's not racist because if you see him as racist, then you have every right to and i'm not gonna convince you otherwise. i just think that the billy you see vs the billy we/dacre see is different.

if you ever read a harringrove fic, chances are the first thing they write him doing is apologising, leaving his abusive dad and explaining this shit. we're not writing and headcanoning an abusive racist billy, we're not sitting around rejoicing in him being racist. that's not the billy we see. we've basically made up our own billy, because the billy in the show is a dick, but the potential future billy could've been less so. and that's the truth.

[duke-of-fire]

Sorry, can you please explain what does "bread clip" mean? Like it sounds cool and interesting (tattoo includes smth about bread???), so I really want to know what it is. Thanks anyway :)

oh abso-fuckin-lutely I can! :D

I do find this topic cool and interesting! but! heads up, this is a bit of a long post. I have a lot to say about this subject because I find it fascinating, but as to not flood others dashboards, I'm hiding it under a read more. I did use your ask to talk about my special interest, and it gets a bit verbose <3

TLDR; Bread clips are the hard plastic things at the opening of bread bags. There's a whole website dedicated to classifying them. I've been collecting them for years and my favorite one has a little heart on it. I use them as a way to bond with my friends, but I also just like sorting mundane items into categories.

So! Picture this: you're going to the store to buy some bread. Maybe you're going to make a sandwich or toast or something. You get home and decide to open the bag, but to do so, you've gotta take this fucker off first.

This is a bread clip! This red one specifically is the most common in shape, but you've probably seen others like these!

These can be found in many places, including, but not limited to: sliced bread, bagels, and english muffins. Not only that, but they can also be found on those mesh bags that hold fruits and vegetables (best example I can think of rn is on potato bags)

The ones I've given as an example so far are all quite similar. They all have the same shaped opening, despite being different lengths and widths. Would be easy if that was where everything ended, but alas! What happens when you run into a clip that looks like this?

What the fuck, right?

This is where HORG comes in. HORG stands for Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group. Basically, their website is a database of holotypes of all these different bread clips. As a whole, the bread clips are called Occlupanids (Occlu meaning "to close" and pan meaning "bread"), and are treated as... parasites.

YES I KNOW. PARASITES. Stay with me on this because it's fucking wild

To quote directly from the HORG website, "Occlupanids are totally adapted to a life of parasitism. Ranging from 2-3cm to 5cm, they are dorsoventrally flattened for ease of moving between the folds of plastic on which they live."

Occlupanids are parasites that live on the bags of bread. Got it? Cool! Let's keep going.

Each Occlupanid is treated as a once living object, to better categorize it. For example! The red Occlupanid from the beginning of this post is categorized as the following:

Kingdom: Microsynthera Phylum: Plasticae Class: Occlupanida Order: Orthogonidectes Family: Toxodentidae Genus: Palpatophora Species: utiliformis

but we would simply refer to it as a Palpatophora utiliformis. In fact, the first three Occlupanids I shared are all part of the same family, that of the Toxodentidae. The families are distinguished by the opening, or to use the official term, the oral groove.

(Fun fact! the weird circle-y one from earlier that's not part of the Toxodentidae family? that's the Coronaspinus gregigelida, or the "Greg's frozen crown of thorns." No, I am not kidding, yes, that is actually what it's called.)

HORG itself is quite interesting as well! I can't pinpoint an exact date of their creation, other than sometime before 2011, as the home page is dated from December 1st of that year, but they claim on their website to have founded in 1632 by someone named Altimus Horg. The image they use for their founder is in fact, a publisher by the name of Aldus Manutius, an Italian man who died in 1515.

They also include a picture of what they claim to be Altimus' personal occlupanid collection, but it is, in fact, an Organum Mathematicum. It had many functions, but none among them included organizing bread clips.

Finally, the rebirth of the HORGanization is directly attributed to a man by the name of Horatio Horg, who the website claims is a direct descendant of Altimus Horg. Just like the case of his ancestor, the image used for Horatio Horg is a real person by the name of Alexander Parkes, the man who invented the first plastic. The whole situation is weird - it's like saying Eugen Baumann invented Funko Pops, while also claiming that Funko Pops are alive, and calling Eugen different name, like William.

Despite my distrust for HORG, their website is fantastic, and if you have the time, you should absolutely go check it out. There's so much on the website that I didn't go into, from the Order Kirigimi, to their film division, to the hypothetical Occlupanids from the 16th century! On top of that, all the pictures in this post are taken directly from their website, save for the image of Aldus Manutius.

This link is for the home page, and then I recommend that you start with their "What are Occlupanids?" page. If you find a Occlupanid in the wild, maybe take the time to categorize it!

To get back to your original question, why do I want a tattoo of a bread clip? I am a proud occlupanologist, collecting and classifying specimen that I find in the wild. I came across my favorite Occlupanid recently, a Quadratopalpus ilex. After years of collecting Occlupanids, this is my only specimen of its species. Mine is a beautiful deep green color, with markings not unlike the one on the holotype. A tattoo of this would be nice. I like the color, I like hunting down these funky little plastic guys and figuring out how to classify them. It's a fun conversation to have when my friends have extras that they bring to me because they know I like them.

If you got this far! Thank you for reading! :D I hope the rest of your day is fantastic!

[ppbpencilcrayon]

Amnesty Sylvain Theory(?)

Ok so I was relistening to some amnesty episodes, (mostly 28 and 32 because I love making myself cry apparently) and I had some thoughts. I dont event know if the information I'm basing this theory off of is even 100% accurate but I'm gonna try to make this as understandable as possible because it's just gonna be me rambling for a couple paragraphs. I'm on mobile rn so I don't think I can put a keep reading thing so sorry, this is gonna get long.

Oh yeah and spoilers for up to episode 32

So here's what we know so far and I apologize if I'm getting some of these wrong.

Sylvain, the entity, is missing

Aubrey can hear the thoughts and memories of Sylvain's Interpreter who I cant remember the name of at the moment

Sylvain is missing because a while back some humans went to Sylvain and broke off pieces of the crystal

Aubrey can interact with the crystal, but instead of giving her energy like it does to other Sylvans, (is that the term? Or is it silphs? I cant remember) she gives energy to the crystal

The Flamebright Pendant has been passed down throughout Aubrey's family and is made of the Sylvain Crystal

Aubrey thinks her powers were what caused the fire the night Ned and Boyd robbed her house

Aubrey met Magic when she was trying to revive Deputy Dewey

Dani told Aubrey that recently she realized that she felt at home when she was with Aubrey

Naturally when given this information, some people have come to the conclusion "oh, Aubrey might be Sylvain" but I don't think that's the case. I'm gonna try and go over my thoughts on that and try to be coherent because my thoughts are very scattered as I type this. One big thing that I keep going back and forth on is how Dani told Aubrey that she felt like home. And she even specifies, not sentimentally, literally. There's probably a good couple of ways you could interpret that, but the way I've seen people interpret it as is "Subconsciously, you remind me of Sylvain". But that also doesn't make sense. When Dani is expressing her worries about which side of the gate to land on, she mentions that part of the reason she was having such a hard time with that decision was that Sylvain no longer felt like home.

But here's where my little theory(?) (and I put a question mark with that bc honestly I'm still not sure about it) comes in. What if Sylvain is in the Flamebright Pendant?

Ok, yes, I know, it's a bit of a reach bc for most of amnesty the flamebright pendant has been locked in the back room of the cryptonomica, but hear me out. (I would like to emphasize, there's a whole bunch of connections I'm just kind of bullshitting with no data to draw from so you might want to take this with a grain of salt)

My main reasoning is that if memory serves, Sylvain went missing the day the crystal got broken, so who's to say that she(?) didn't get trapped in one of the shards? And that shard hadn't just been providing the Little Family some luck, but also a little bit of magic that got passed whenever a family member passed the pendant down to their descendant? That could be why Aubrey's powers manifested that night specifically, not just the danger, but because her mother gave her the pendant. She wasnt wearing it, but maybe all it took was Mrs. Little vocalizing that, yes Aubrey was the next owner of the pendant. Then even after Ned took the pendant, that magic was still fairly linked to Aubrey, just not as strong.

The real question is, why would Aubrey's magic suddenly reactivate again at some random magic show? Mama. Mama, who is constantly working with the former inhabitants of Silvain. Mama, who has probably been to Sylvain multiple times. Whatever piece of sylvain is connected to Aubrey might be able to sense that? So her magic sparks again and she's brought back to Amnesty Lodge where there's even more Sylvain energy because not only is the gate right there, but Aubrey, without even realizing it, is closer to the pendant than she has been in years. So now that the connection between Aubrey and Sylvain is stronger than, probably ever, she's now starting to get more access, more control, over her powers.

Why does Aubrey have access to Alexandra's(?) memories? Maybe because they both have fairly strong connections to Sylvain, they have some amount of connection with eachother by association? (Another interpretation could also be Alexandra is Sylvain and Aubrey is the new interpreter?)

With the crystal stuff, I feel like maybe Aubrey is drawing her powers directly from Sylvain? And while the crystal is the battery, Sylvain is the energy source. The crystal only has so much energy to give out before it's drained, but Sylvain was its constant source. So that could explain why instead of giving energy, the crystal takes from Aubrey. (Of course this could be the crystal's reaction to all humans, we just dont know since Aubrey is the only one we've seen touch the crystal so far).

And finally, when Dani tells Aubrey she literally feels like home. I know what I already said but there's something else I didn't mention. The thing that Silvain provides that all of its inhabitants require to stay sane. Everywhere Dani has been, everywhere she has called home, as had that one specific similarity. It had to, or else all of the sylphs stuck on earth would have long gone feral. Whatever energy is given by the crystal and the springs by Amnesty Lodge. Dani also mentioned it was a recent thing. Aubrey getting her pendant back was also a relatively recent thing.

(Also I feel like they're gonna find some way to bring Sylvain back bc it would make sense that the big loose end of "where the hell did Sylvain go" is something that got tied up at the end and this seems like a good way to do it)

Congrats you've finally made it to the end of this absurdly long post. Next time I go on desktop I'll edit this and add that keep reading option.

TLDR:

[lizzybeth1986]

Quick Thoughts on TRR Book 3 Chapter 11

• Again, fam, I'm not entirely sure I'll have this QT out in time but I hope I will. My surgery has been fixed for next Thursday, and I'd like to finish whatever I can before I leave for hospital. It's going to be hard, but fingers crossed I can get it done.

Here is Part 2 of Chapter 11's Quick Thoughts once you're through with this one!

• I'm noticing a narrative pattern here! Whenever something devastating is happening right in front of us (like the two attacks in the palace) they immediately pick up from where they left off in the previous chapter, bring that portion to its dramatic conclusion, and then play the opening theme (in this case, it's the sad version of the TRR title track). They used a similar narrative format in Chapter 1 of this book.

• This is also the third time the sad TRR track plays in the book. The only time it was played sans the narrative style of Chapter 1 and Chapter 10's openings, was in Chapter 6, after the orchard at Applewood was burned. All at points of time when all hope seems to be lost, before our lead characters get up, dust themselves off, and resolve to keep going despite everything and everyone against them.

• It was pretty clear that Constantine would sacrifice his life in this chapter, given the way he was talking at the end of the last one. It's the kind of symbolic send-off one tends to write for a character one knows will die sooner than he anticipates. Which is why even though I'm kinda pissed that Leo comes now when everything seems safe, I understand why having him there is so important. In the narrative, Leo is an important part of the closure that comes before Constantine's demise.

•

A few notes on Constantine's demise:

1. He's right about one thing: it definitely is a better end for him. He dies a hero. Cordonia never finds out that he was going to die anyway. No one gets to know what he did to the future Queen/newest Duchess either. I'm still going to be unhappy about this because it's a way better end than the man deserves.

2. I know I would find it disturbing if the man who arranged for me to be harmed in multiple ways in his own house was hailed a hero during his funeral, with only me and a handful of other people knowing he had done, and without the option of ever opening up about who was really behind it. I don't know about you, but my MC Esther would definitely feel conflicted about that.

3. Also..."everything I did, it was for you...whether or not it was right". Sorry Constantine, but that's a load of bullshit. After all this time, this man is still making excuses just before he dies. Liam answered this brilliantly in the last book - Constantine had a choice. He always had a choice. There were other, better ways of getting the MC out of the competition if that was his goal but no, his mind went straight to privacy violations and assault.

4. Also, while he pledged to help us under pressure from Liam, the fact remains that the brunt of his actions were borne by other people. The MC's name was dragged into the mud and SHE had to run around and make all the effort of setting it right. Liam was forced into a loveless match that would have culminated in a disastrous marriage had Tariq not cooperated, and he had to work on figuring out who was behind this not knowing his own family was involved. In all this, Constantine did all the work of making his own home as unsafe for his guest as it could possibly get, and very little of the work in restoring her reputation in the eyes of all of Cordonia. Did he apologize? Sure he did. But that doesn't change a damned thing. It doesn't change the fact that he sowed evil and left it for other people to reap.

5. I find his last line to Liam quite poignant though. "You are Cordonia". That's a very loaded statement, and a very accurate one. And I think if there is anything that can keep Liam strong and carry him forward, it's that. No one in this book is as immersed in the culture, history and spirit of Cordonia as Liam is - which is why he makes the best king for the nation. Because he knows it intimately and cares for it, he knows what this country needs so it can heal. Even if it takes a while for Liam to realize that himself.

6. So long, old man.

• Title: Cold Fire. Kinda fitting, considering our tour has now moved to Lythikos, but the 'heat' of the tensions within the court have turned up several notches. It could also refer to that sick, sick burn Drake delivered to Madeleine today though 😂😂😂

• Alternative titles:

Drink What Everyone Else Is Drinking. Good For Health.

Drake Doesn't Need A Sword to Slay Assholes. Nor Does Olivia, Apparently.

@callmetippytumbles suggested a shorter and better alternative title to that one, and it's: Drake Roasts And Gets Roasted.

• I was hoping we would spend at least a chapter in the Capitol and, yknow, actually help Liam work through his grief, but nope. Flash-forward it is.

• Bastien is in hospital now, with injuries sustained from escorting people out of the palace, so Mara (who apparently hasn't been sleeping since the attack) is the one doing the debriefing on his behalf.

• It's clear to Liam and our friends NOW that whoever has been conspiring against us was a part of the Unity Tour and working from the inside (bruh, I could have told you that long ago). I'm thinking now that if Neville is part of this plan, perhaps the duel was meant to serve as a distraction so arrangements could be made within the time that the entire court was out in the courtyard. Just a theory.

• This was also alluded to in Perfect Match, when one of Nadia's alternative identities is Steel, a guest in the 'royal's tour who is actually an assassin.

•

This is perhaps the closest we get to Liam confessing how much all this has been affecting him, and sadly enough, he doesn't have enough time to really work through his grief. The suggestion to continue to Lythikos and get their answers there comes from Liam, and he speaks of it as something Constantine would have wanted. It isn't entirely healthy, but I think this is the way Liam has been brought up and it's hard for him to give himself time to be vulnerable, to give himself the space to grieve properly. Because now more than ever he has an entire country depending on him, and the royal family is known for projecting displays of strength and stoicism even if they don't feel it. It's not a good way of working through one's issues, but it's probably the only way Liam knows to deal with his trauma. I feel like in a lot of ways he's reliving especially the assassination attempt that happened earlier, but worse because someone he loved actually died this time. I'd definitely see some signs of PTSD at work here, even if it's suppressed. Particularly given that he speaks of feeling empty.

•

Waitaminute...are you telling me that Esther, the future Queen of Cordonia, is going to attend a Ball, her fiancé's father's funeral, a meeting, and an entire trip to Lythikos in this fever dream of a costume???

Fine. Fine, Esther, I give up. Fanta bottle inspired Stephanie Seymour gown it is 🙄

• What Madeleine says about the effect the MC has (particularly if the MC chooses all the right options during the tour) on people is very very similar to the last thing Constantine said before he died:

I'm guessing in a lot of ways this is seen as the MC's personal victory. Constantine and Madeleine were the two people who believed least that the MC had anything of value to give if she became Queen or a person of power in Cordonian politics. It was a long hard road to achieving this level of confidence even in her naysayers, so in a lot of ways the MC now truly is a unifying factor. Which makes me wonder what they say if you do a gag-run instead where the MC fails miserably during the tour. I know @boneandfur is doing such a playthrough as of now, but I don't know exactly if Madeleine and Constantine's words to her change in such an eventuality.

•

OMG. The design team is KILLING IT with the OOTD this week! It's gorgeous, and it tells us plenty about the Lythikos duchy and the Nevrakis House! For those of you who haven't read my House Sigils essay, I theorized that red was one of the house tinctures (colours), and that the sigil was either a sword or a spider. The flaming sword is attached to the gown (possibly as a brooch pin). @i-dream-so-i-write and I discussed this, and it was she who pointed out that Diavolos signature weapon was the flaming sword, as can be seen from the above picture. I'm not sure which metallic colour would form the second colour/tincture, but evidence seems to be learning more towards silver (there is a little gold on the brooch-sword, so it could be either). Tldr: I love this gown. It has that grace and effortless style that I've come to associate with Nevrakis fashion.

• Olivia is wearing the gown she wore for her Coronation. Come to think of it, the Scarlet Duchess moniker that Olivia got would refer to way more than her fashion. Given that it's one of her house colours and she was proud to be a Nevrakis especially at the time, Scarlet Duchess would mean so much to her. So much.

• So we're seated in the front and served fresh, piping hot food. SWEET! XD This time we get to order stuff. Maxwell gets fondue, Hana gets glazed salmon and Drake has ordered for ribs.

• Olivia: I had to request a few changes for your more...rustic palette.

Drake: Are you expecting a thanks? Because you're not getting one.

You're in for the meal of your life, Walker 😂

•

If you've never liked Olivia at all before? This scene in reason enough 😂😂😂

• Lucretia drops by to make more heavy hints about marriage prospects for Olivia (including relief that her niece wasn't scarred from rubble. How...caring).

• Olivia and Liam then perform the opening dance (like they did during the social season) and Liam takes this opportunity to find out what she knows. He gets little, beyond her worries about having to marry someone Lucretia will pick for her. Hana points out that perhaps "one has to wonder who Lucretia wants Olivia to marry". Good question.

• But before that, Kiara comes up to the MC to tell her she will be withdrawing from court after the Winter Festival ends. Kiara's argument is sound - she had already extended her public support and seems to be attending the wedding. But now is a dangerous time to be a part of the court, and Kiara's doing what she can to stay safe. Remember, she was the only noblewoman in court injured during the attack at Homecoming Ball, a fact that was given hardly a minute of consideration before the MC "convinced" her to join them again.

• Hana mentions that perhaps they can speak to her before she returns. I hope this means we will FINALLY address what happened to Kiara and look into possible - very valid - concerns about her safety. This is something we SHOULD have been talking about when we meet her at Castelserraillian, but no. PB decided to create a whole new character instead just so Kiara wouldn't get the attention she deserved as a character.

• Then again, she is seen as a suspect in a way none of the other court ladies (besides Olivia, and she's only viewed as such because of her family history) are. Sigh. The MC gets the option to speculate that she "knows something" and Drake gets to answer that "we must suspect everyone". DRAKE. Who ALSO got wounded at the same Ball that she was wounded in. Ugh. I mean I shouldn't be surprised considering he gets angry about people not supporting Liam barely hours after he got shot, but he's friends with the King. Kiara is not, and if she gets wounded again wouldn't it be their fault for not addressing the concerns she and her family had in the first place? Apparently Penelope's and Madeleine's concerns should be given ample consideration, but Kiara? Kiara who?? Oh right, Penelope's love interest's sister 😠 While we're at it, let's just make her suspicious for no reason!

• CONGRATULATIONS MAXWELL STANS on getting your first character development scene! There isn't a lot of overt character development but the scene does show us how observant and resourceful Maxwell is, pointing out the hole in the armoury wall that will allow us to overhear people's conversations and give us a better idea of who we should suspect. It does this while still establishing him as goofy, fun-living and always ready to live life king-size.

• Maxwell and the MC engage in what is known in European folklore as an apple-shot (Apfelschuss in German. The most popular folk tale involving this feat of archery is that of William Tell, a Swiss folk hero, who was ordered to shoot an apple from the top of his son's head by a cruel nobleman named Albrecht Gessler. Thankfully, he succeeded).

• Oooh now comes my favourite part: the weapons!

• This is an amazing Easter Egg in two ways if you're a TCaTF fan. One is that it reminds me SO MUCH of when Val gets to be the narrator, which is ALWAYS fun! Case in point are the names she gives the Iron Empire soldiers at Ennan: Pointy, Mr Fancy, Birdface, Grumpy and That Other Guy. Here, the MC gives names to all the weapons.

• So if you're someone who has played TCaTF and forgotten the weapons, no problem! I'm here to list out what these weapons are actually called, where they originated from and how Kenna (if the reader pays) gets them!

• The Weirdly Fancy Dagger is the Black Asps Dagger (which I think might be venom-tipped, like Adder's Fang) which Raydan gets from a Black Asp agent when he is imprisoned under Azura's orders. I see this weapon as being associated most with Abanthus/Lythikos in this list of weapons, because it comes from Adder's team of Lykos spies and assassins, and eventually (if Kenna chooses so) Adder can get to rule over this kingdom either alone or alongside Princess Zenobia (or not at all).

The Dragon Face Hammer! is actually the famous Wave Hammer, made by Kailani Keawe of Ebrimel - a fierce warrior and a skilled craftswoman - from Heart Oak Wood sneaked in from Thorngate. Heart Oak has all the appearance of wood with all the strength of metal, and makes for an amazing secret weapon.

The Ram Head Thing is Crown Guardian Leon Stirling's signature weapon - The Ram's Head Mace. This is a weapon clearly associated with Stormholt as Queen Adriana bequeathed it to him. Leon gets to pass it down to Kenna upon his death, if she so chooses. This mace is strong enough to crush armour, and Leon won the tournament at Ducitora with it before Azura killed him.

The Skull...Flail? is Val Greaves' signature weapon, The Deadman's Flail, which is powerful enough to crush armour. Kenna can use this weapon in her fight against Severin Cale, Leader of the Mercenaries. Val herself uses it often in battle.

The polo mallet is just...there.

• Ooh finally! It's time to investigative.

1. Madeleine approaching a man the MC has rejected in favour of her current fiancé. If you're marrying Liam, this man is Drake and he gets to roast Madeleine like she's never been roasted before ("Liam does get what he wants. That means he also gets to throw away what he doesn't want"). If you're marrying Drake, Hana or Maxwell, she is talking to Liam, addressing the king-sized elephant in the room. Liam doesn't pull any extra punches - he just looks extra annoyed and tells her he's "had other matters to attend to". It may seem like a weak defense in comparison to Drake's explosive comeback, but to be fair the man is going through some crazy shit here, and I don't think anyone in that state can actually expand enough thought to form a rebuttal at all. I doubt he'd have either the inclination or energy to actually respond with more than "I've had other matters to attend to". It's particularly awkward if your LI is Maxwell because he is standing right next to you hearing all this, but that hardly reflects in his dialogue. Basically, I view this sequence as telling us more about Madeleine than about the men: she may have changed a tiny bit, but she's still just a huge shit-stirrer.

Possibly, this might be set up for the apology that will ensue if we save Madeleine's backstabbing ass next chapter. It'll be something along the lines of "oh forgive me, I was so wrong, what I did was so wrong, I'll never do that again" etc etc yadda yadda getouttamyfaceyoufakeassbitch.

Also, I believe that the part of the reason Drake delivered that zinger to Madeleine was because he was still stinging from Olivia's burn at dinner 😂

2. While there are very few differences between the first and last conversations, the second conversation changes drastically depending on who your LI is.

a. If your LI is Liam, Hakim comes up to Liam, gives him his condolences for Constantine's death, and then comments positively on Esther and the upcoming wedding, which leads to a discussion between the MC and Maxwell about wedding preparations. I think this is mostly because Kiara never really interacts with Liam, so they got Hakim to do the honors. Over here though, Hakim and Liam's conversation about the wedding forms only a tiny portion of the conversation, as opposed to the entire thing.

b. If your LI is Hana, Kiara and Hana have a lovely, lighthearted conversation about the latter's upcoming wedding. Kiara expresses great happiness at Hana getting married to the MC, and Hana confesses to being so nervous she constantly dreams about it. I love the way Hana and Kiara's friendship is written here: how open Hana is with Kiara and how encouraging and supportive Kiara is towards Hana. I think it's so beautiful to see 😭

c. If your LI is Maxwell? It's Hana and Kiara again, this time speculating what the MC's wedding to Maxwell will be like. Kiara confesses that she plans to skip a cousin's reception on the same day by pretending to be ill, just so she can attend their reception instead. Together they discuss what surprises the Beaumonts might spring during the reception - from dance-offs to ball pits to hot air balloons filled with kittens. Here too, it's a lovely moment - two of the smartest court members having fun talking about weddings.

d. If your LI is Drake, Kiara talks to him instead. First about the offerings at the dessert buffet, then about the wedding. Kiara is overly chirpy and happy and excited about the wedding, and Drake tenses up when she turns the topic towards the wedding preparations, because those are "complicated". Of course, if you do the LI scene with him at the ice palace, you will find out that he doesn't like talking about it because he would rather keep things simple and focus on his bride, and the nobility is all about perfection and elaborate preparations. Very possibly the Kiara-Drake conversation was written this way as a lead-up to his conversation with the MC at the snow palace. (and perhaps also to dissuade people who would like to ship Drake and Kiara, especially given the backlash Kiara got from fans just for having a crush on the man).

The main focus of this conversation of course is to give out the message that the MC's upcoming wedding is something that still excites people, and that even people afraid of staying in court don't want to miss it.

3. The third conversation between Olivia and Lucretia is given the suspicious sounding music from ES, and begins with Lucretia trying to find out more about the MC. Olivia doesn't tell her much beyond what everyone else knows, and Lucretia leaves her with this cryptic statement:

I feel we're going to have a Big Reveal about what actually happened to the Nevrakises and whether they really were traitors or not.

• With that we finish our little stint at investigation, and in comes our next chance to spend diamonds on our respective LIs!

• I love how Liam's outdoor kink has been referenced two chapters in a row now 😂

•

(Screenshots: @kennaxval for Hana, @mariamatsuo for Drake and the Vika Avey YouTube channel for Maxwell).

Again, like the previous scene, the LIs have their own individual stamp over their ice palace scene. The beauty of it is not just that they all seem different in the way they make love to the MC, but that their reactions to the ice palace itself vary from LI to LI.

Liam gives us a legend. He tells us about the prevalent pre-wedding tradition in Lythikos, where an engaged couple would have their village build them an ice palace the following winter. Kind of like a seasonal barn-raising, which also involves a community coming together to build something for the couple. It says plenty about Lythikos and its people (I won't elaborate because at some point I'm going to be writing essays again). But it also confirms for us how immersed in Cordonian culture Liam is, and how much his Queen will learn when she is with him.

Hana gives us a fairytale. She tells us a story her mother used to read to her at night, about a frozen kingdom, an ice palace and a princess with a frozen heart, which thawed the moment she found true love. The fairytale Hana tells us bears similarities to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen", and more to the film it inspired, Frozen. But snow maidens are a staple of certain European cultures (particularly Norwegian and Slavic legend), so it could be a mix of many stories. It's fitting that Hana relates the ice palace to a story, connected as she is to literature and folklore and romance. In a lot of ways, hidden beneath the fable of the ice princess is Hana's own story.

Drake gives us a memory. As a follow-through to the conversation between him and Kiara in Maxwell's armoury scene if the reader bought it (unbeknownst to him, because he doesn't know the MC was overhearing them) he gets to be more open about not being very interested in planning weddings. His ideal would have been to take his bride to his mother's ranch in Texas for a wedding very reminiscent of his parents' union, and were Cordonia not in this condition that's exactly what he would have done. It's very like Drake, whose most powerful emotional associations are connected to his once-happy childhood and his memories of his parents, particularly his father.

Maxwell gives us an gift, made with his own hands. When he brings the MC to the ice palace, he suggests creating ice sculptures, and both make one of each other. It's a sweet, funny and affectionate scene, with both of them exchanging cute banter about Maxwell's "secret affair" with "Ice MC" and his tongue getting stuck in ice while pretending to kiss her 😂 It's very Maxwell. He's very hands-on, likes to do fun things, likes to entertain. And that's exactly the vibe I'm getting here.

The love scenes are tender and sweet and hot, and I think each of these scenes is worth the diamonds you'll spend. The scenes are tailored perfectly to fit the personalities of each LI. This is exactly what I hoped to see with scenes like the bathtub scene at the beginning of the book, and the spa scene. If they continue with this kind of quality content going forward, then I'm really really glad they took that hiatus.

• Okay we're back to the ballroom now. With Madeleine super drunk on...um...some pineapple drink.

• Madeleine is the only person to have the pineapple drink, and she seems to have an affinity for pineapple's since Maxwell offered her that Pineapple Paradise Punch in Fydelia. Everyone else is drinking Lythikos Nog.

• Madeleine collapses in the middle of Olivia's speech!

• The security detail uses "Code Locusta" to refer to poisons. Which is fitting, because Locusta was a very notorious maker of poisons during the time of Claudius and Nero (around AD 54 was when she contributed to the assassination of Emperor Claudius, and his son Brittanicus a year later). She was not only someone who was an expert on poisons and hired for that purpose, but also someone who used her skills to bring down royalty at the behest of their enemies. This could be a bit of a stretch, but I think this ties in symbolically with the plot of the movie scene in Liam's playthrough, where the enemy of the throne is someone who also can claim to be a royal. Especially considering poisons have been used to kill Liam's mother, and now to kill a supporter of the Crown and the MC, and a member of a very powerful Cordonian noble house. And yet...the other noble house - the Nevrakis family of Lythikos - stays untouched.

• The last time I recall "Locusta" being used in literature was in Alexandre Dumas' (père) The Count of Monte Cristo. A chapter of this book, in which a woman attempts to poison her stepdaughter so the family fortune could be passed on to her son, was titled Locusta as well.

• Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, folks. Or should I say, in the Kingdom of. Cordonia?

• Can I just say I love the parallels between Lythikos in Book 1 and now? We learned a little about Olivia's past in passing from Liam here, and now it will hit us in full force in the form of Lucretia. Constantine didn't seem to be in Lythikos, and returned to tell Liam that he was going to die soon, and now we visit the same estate after he has given his life to save his son.

Olivia gave us the worst place and the worst treatment then, and the best now. We convinced Kiara to support us in this very ballroom, and perhaps we might have to do so now too. It was here that Madeleine proudly claimed she was neither unrefined or insecure...but now she doesn't care about propriety.

I recall it was here for the first time that Maxwell stans were given the chance to express affection towards him, and it's here that they now get his first character development scene in Book 3. Most of all...it was here that the initial 3 LIs started to open up to us, in different ways, (if we paid) and now we return...an engaged couple - shedding all our layers and keeping each other warm in the cold (again, if we pay). I have many fond memories of Lythikos, and this chapter definitely brought me back there xD

• Tumblr isn't allowing me to write further for this post, so I will be writing my theories and who I believe is involved in the next post.