#i've just finished s1 for reference

[queerestqueertoeverqueer]

so i just started ghosts-

[lactoseintolerentswag]

Rise Characterizations

Last month I did an in-depth re-watch of rottmnt s1 to take some notes on writing the characters of rise from their perspective and such. Figured I'd share what I found, but I'm also posting this bc my docs have a nasty habit of blipping out of existence.

We'll start with Raph bc he's the oldest of course, but I'll post the others sep. bc this is gonna get long!!

Raph Character Notes

Language Habits:

Catchphrases: "like a boss", "smash"

Verbalizes his attacks such as "smash", "knuckle sandwich", "power smash jitsu", "tonfa power jitsu", "mystic punch jitsu"

Uses older song titles for surprised exclamations or in place of cursing, most notably "jumping jack flash!"

Uses aave/bae, For example: 'em instead of them, 'ey instead of they, 'cause instead of because, forgoes the g in ing words (going becomes goin')

Uses less and less grammar the more he's stressed, and his voice will come to a higher pitch

Will speak in a softer tone to his little brothers if he's concerned about hurting their feelings. Aka babying them

Mixes up both metaphors and idioms. Would be one to say how the turn tables unironically

Does say "hero" a lot, lost count, especially in phrases like "hero town"

Refers to his brothers as "boys" or "fellas"

Refers to Splinter as "pop(s)" most often

Refers to strangers he's directly talking to as "bubs" or "hoss"

Personality:

Protective of his family

Plays up the hero act/has a strong sense of duty and justice

Impatient, rushes in without a plan (pre-movie), doesn't finish books until the end, falls asleep during "boring movies"

Oblivious, doesn't read into things beyond surface level. Struggles with empathy when something is beyond his understanding, but is still very emotional

Center of responsibility for his brothers, but also has a reckless sense of fun. As long as it's him doing the stupid unsafe thing it's fine

Carries the weight, in a literal sense he piggy backs his brothers, but will also use his body as a shield from danger. Unfortunately this also means he takes his brothers a little less seriously (Mikey the most common victim), and will try and either protect them from everything or as an oldest sibling everything has go "his way"

Doesn't do well in solitude. Needs to be looking after people to feel functional, and needs to be around people to feel safe

Clumsy, "takes horrible pictures", isn't very good at hiding, he's a big guy so it probably took a lot of time to find balance

A sweet guy who still won't shy from making fun of his family. Leo tends to be the brunt of his teasing since he is the most annoying, but he will also poke Donnie on his dramatics

Likes cute things!!! Has a teddy bear collection and loves animals. It's so cool how this isn't played off as a joke and he's still just as masculine for liking pink and cutesy stuff

Likes fighting!!! Gets a lot of energy out defeating bad guys (where he directs his anger towards), the one who is shown to train the most, and also weight lifts in his spare time

Doesn't do well under pressure, here the anger comes out the most. He gets stressed when it's all on him, especially since he tends to mess up the most in these moments

Miscellaneous:

Second to unlock mystic powers

Nicknames/codenames: "raph-a-doodle" by leo, "red rover" by april, "red king" by donnie

Teddy bear names: Doctor Huggenstein, Captain Snuggles, Cheech

Stinks: fear stink, amazement stink, sneaking up on people stink, victory stink

Seems to be less afraid of rabbits and more afraid of puppets

Went on his first solo mission at 13

Cannot lift a bus, at age 15

Thought about discussing fighting style, but I'm not as familiar with that concept and I've seen a couple posts dissecting such topic. So we'll end here for now. Hope this was helpful!!! I'll post the rest of the boys later and link here

Leo is up!!

Donnie is up!!

Mikey is up!!

Splinter is up!!

April is up!!

Cassandra is up!!

Baron Draxum is up!!

[drconstellation]

Chiastic Structure of S1

Here it is!

Yes, I deliberately made it detailed. You NEED to see the detail, it is, quite frankly, eye-opening in parts.

If the image I have posted is not clear, let me know, and I'll post a broken-down version in sections so you can read it. I'm just not sure how this is going to work.

I've got five footnotes for various sections where I want to make extra comments, so see them below.

If you don't know why some of us are looking into this - a chiastic structure or pattern a literary device where a sequence of events is presented then repeated in reverse order. For a complicated story like Good Omens this can and does gives us some interesting insights into the hidden stories we meta writers like to speculate on and discuss.

I have to admit it got a bit messy in places, so there still might be some tweaking to do in the middle parts.

The plain parallels still exist - I have a couple to mention in the footnotes. I'm also very excited about taking this challenge on because I've basically found proof that backs up my theory about the scene at Tadfield Manor telling part of the story of the Great War in Heaven, and also proof that the Flood may have been the time of their first "vavoom."

[1] M-pair: When Newt turns up to his new job there is an office meeting called and the upcoming "training initiative" is discussed. This then leads on to the paintball fight at Tadfield Manor. I discussed how the two scenes give us an insight into the past and the Great War in two metas, The Great War of Tadfield Manor, and The Newton/Crowley Mirror-Parallel in S1. The mirror-pair here is Dagon is rousing the troops with reminders of the "Glorious Revolution," providing us with a direct connection to the events of Tadfield Manor.

[2] Q-pair: This is a really interesting pair, as as it is still tied in with Tadfield Manor. Does it give us any insights into Crowley's role in the Great War and his Fall? I'll be looking more closely at this in the future!

[3] There is an interesting set of parallels around this area that didn't quite fit into the chiastic structure proper that I though was worth mentioning and I have already flagged for a meta before I had finished plotting this out. It's to do with Newt and Anathema and the prophecies in the book - oh, and the Velvet underground reference. Actually, I really need more space for that...you'll have to wait for the meta, sorry.

[4] Ohhh yeah. This one. The Vavoom moment. I wondered if the sex under the bed between Newt and Anathema would reveal anything. It certainly did! If you haven't read @vidavalor's meta about the first time they probably kissed, then you should. Stat! This pair backs it up - and maybe more.

[5] There is a parallel noted here that doesn't fit in the structure, that Crowley signs to start everything rolling, and Aziraphale signs to end it.

On to S2. Then I'll see if I can work a three-series structure together for some predictions.

Link to S2 Chiastic Structure Post.

@aprilodite @kayleefansposts @ineffable-endearments @sendarya

[lookingforhappy]

Five's Original Apocalypse (aka the one he got stuck in) wasn't caused by the moon

I don't think it was caused by the moon/meteor hitting the earth like at the end of s1, I think it was an alternate apocalypse caused purely by Viktor's unrestrained powers.

The amount of destruction that the moon caused is disproportionate to the destruction we see in Five's apocalypse.

The moon fragment that hits earth is bigger than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. The Chicxulub asteroid (type that into google to get a fun little animation!) measured roughly 15 kilometers wide, for reference, this is 15 kilometers:

it's not even big enough to cover all of London or NYC. The crater it made was 10x that:

looking at the size of the smaller moon asteroids, they seem roughly the right size (note that i am terrible at maths and will not be doing any science to reach this conclusion) based on the explosion size - and there's at least 13 of them. 13 dinosaur killers before the big fragment even gets close.

using this guy's estimation, the larger fragment is a minimum of 100 km, which is more than 6x the size of the Chicxulub:

and guessing from the chicxulub crater, this crater would be 10x 100km = 1000km.

which easily eats most of western europe or at least 12 states:

which is more than an extinction event, it's The extinction event, possibly Earth's extinction.

it's not super clear what part of Earth the fragment hits, I think it lands somewhere in the pacific

the strip of dotted lights leading from the bottom right meteor to the middle most meteor is likely California -> Mexico, with the Meteor hitting close to or the east of Hawaii (RIP Hawaiians)

I've said this recently but I think this shot, showing the earth getting wiped out in a fireball shockwave is of California's coast.

with the bright group at the bottom right being LA (where Claire lives) with the sticky out bit being Long Beach. and the bright group at the top being San Francisco with the blue strip being San Pablo Bay and San Francisco Bay

But my main reasoning (because this is a superhero show where u have to suspend ur disbelief) for why the moon wasn't the cause of the original apocalypse is this:

Vik didn't seem interested in ending the world. He was more interested in just playing in his orchestra until Luther and Diego tried to charge him.

He also doesn't do anything even related to the moon on purpose, rather he gets interrupted mid power use, seemingly causing his powers to rebound back into him which he is unable to contain/control causing all that pent up power to release in one strong stream. sort of like how water will, under pressure, release in a stream, but without it will trickle in the direction of least resistance.

In Five's apocalypse, Luther, Allison, Diego and Klaus all die fighting Leonard and Viktor before the world ends

so with Viktor (presumably, unless Leonard survived having his eye socket ripped from his skull) as the last man standing, there's nothing to stop him from finishing his orchestra. which is what I think caused the end of the world.

Viktor's powers are already active before the orchestra begins, his eyes are white. Then as the hargreeves attack he begins to glow as he uses his powers not just to repel them, but to force the orchestra players to stay. But nobody's attacking him when his powers bleach him white, something they never do again. All he's doing is playing the violin, particularly, he's building up to the crescendo, if not at the crescendo when this happens. And soon after than, his powers begin to build in the surrounding area, with visible waves emanating from him.

So what I think the series of events were leading up to the original apocalypse, without Five's interferrance:

Luther, Diego, Allison and Klaus all play Reginald's murder mystery

Leonard finds the Red Book and begins manipulating Viktor

Leonard kills Helen Cho and Viktor gets first chair

Leonard's plan to trigger Viktor's powers by forcing him to watch his boyfriend get beaten up works but causes him to lose an eye

Leonard gets a prosthetic eye fitted

Viktor and Leonard return home for whatever reason - possibly to confront the Umbrella's with Viktor's new powers and learn their part in the cover up

Leonard is very obviously manipulating Viktor and using him to attack the Umbrellas, possibly even revealing his true motives

A fight breaks out causing Luther to rip Leonard's eye from the socket and for Viktor to crumble the entire building and kill Luther, Diego, Allison and Klaus

Viktor, pissed and betrayed, continues to attend his orchestra

Viktor's emotions doubled with his sound-controlled powers cause him to accidentally overload and destroy the world, but not destroy the moon in the process

We've seen Viktor do something similar in s2, in the FBI building. And while he was able to recover and only destroy one building, it was still an uncontrolled blast of power which wasn't even aided by Viktor's violin, complete with bleaching and new flight abilities.

We've also seen Viktor's powers kill people without any real root cause, complete with burned out eye sockets and withering bodies

but each time we see this element of his powers, he's interrupted before he can finish, so potentially, prolonged exposure to his life draining power could cause someone to end up looking charred

(i personally think this body is leonard but that's neither here nor there)

whilst those who were already dead prior to the activation of Vik's energy draining beams, may not have taken much if any damage (as there is no life or ebbs of life left to take)

this also has the added bonus of not burning literally everything (the hargreeves' bodies included, as well as the multiple books and newspapers and the glass eye that Five owns in the apocalypse).

and without the asteroid impact there is no mega tsunami to worry about either (which, if it hit close to Hawaii, would flood the entire west coast of America at the very least.) no acid rain or nuclear winter obscuring the sun for years. no acidic oceans. and it won't take 1000 years for plants to come back (and seeing as Five is already seeing plants return a mere 45 years after, this kinda tracks).

so basically what I'm saying is, the apocalypse that Five grew up in is not the same apocalypse that Viktor caused at the end of s1. Five probably did have the moon present, which probably contributed to him not suspecting meteor or outer space origins for the apocalypse, but rather human based causes such as the owner of the eyeball.

[vynxwave]

Sorry for this vent ask but I feel like I'm losing my mind seeing this: not me returning to the Earthspark tag to see what people were thinking of the trailer and stuff and immediately regretting it LMAO I'm really wishing that people who called the first third of the season garbage had just quit, because if they hated good episodes and don't understand the show as it is, they'll hate the next batch if it's also good and I'm not looking forward to the reception! I'm disappointed that it's like the book has been written on the beginning of the season. It's making me kinda spiteful/toxic and actively hope for things the fandom would hate to happen. How are you feeling about the fandom right now as the s2a lover & understander lol - arceespinkgun

I'm having the same experience as you looking at the fandom. Like holy shit, all of the complaints/fears are so baseless it's irritating.

I've seen people fearing that the Chaos Terrans' deaths won't be acknowledged/mourned... for some reason? It's such nonsense and completely ignorant of the strong family theme in EarthSpark and how it deals with interpersonal relationships/conflict, and the fact EarthSpark does reference/mention earlier events. That's not even mentioning that the Maltos are literally shown to care about them.

I've seen lots of people hoping that their headcanons come true and... I really think people need to understand that EarthSpark isn't written like how fanworks are written. I feel like for EarthSpark's fandom it's such a prevalent mindset, for some reason? I don't mean this in a sense of 'it's bad to have headcanons' but rather people should see the show for what it actually presents and be able to understand why the show goes how it does.

Like, characters aren't just doing things — they're also tools used by the narrative to convey messages, themes, and morals.

It's so weird how people have been treating S2a as if it's a whole season, even before S2b was decided to be called S3. I hope people will understand that S3 is functionally S2b when it releases.

Also, the complaints about the animation quality are so overblown. The animation in the trailer and S2a's looks great to me.

People hate Decepticons being antagonists, they hate Chaos Terrans being antagonists, they hate humans being antagonists... it's so weird. It really would not have made sense for the Quintessons to come so early in the season (S2a). The Quintesson Executioner appearing, though, does make sense appearing so early because it helps set up for the Quintessons to arrive later, as does Terratronus.

In S1 there was not set up for Quintessons to arrive in S2. There was, however, set up for Terratronus with Mandroid alluding to her in S1E25-26 The Last Hope with "... you have no idea the power that's been lying beneath your base all these years" "Showing you the weapon it's perched upon" when he uses the CyberSlayer on the Space Bridge. Then in S2E01 Aftermath Starscream says "Beneath Witwicky lies a tremendous weapon" which calls back to Mandroid's allusion to Terratronus; and when Starscream is talking to the Decepticons about making New Cybertron in S2E09 Witwicky the framing calls back to Mandroid's moment again when the Witwicky Tower (the defunct Space Bridge) is in frame — where we know Terratronus lies beneath.

Like, the way the series is building up to the Quintessons is great and cohesive if you look at the actual story that's being told!

Chances are the scripts for these next episodes were finished before S2a was released, so I really hope I don't hear an utterance of "retcon!" or "they fixed xyz!" when these episodes are released.

EarthSpark S2b/S3 will be great and I hold no reservations about it, regardless of the rest of the fandom.

There's so many weird fears about what characters might not be present... like y'all... the trailer did not show everybody. The entire cast not being in some episodes/shots or synopsis does not mean xyz characters won't appear.

Honestly, a lot of what I read from people makes me wonder how much people understand about how to analyze media or how series are written. Like, I'm no king of analysis or whatever myself, but why are people unable to understand why certain choices or directions are made? It's weird how people are acting as if S2a is just sooo incongruent with S1 when that's really not the case at all if you go back and look — truly, like you said, it makes me wonder why people keep sticking around if they hate the story being told. I mentioned characters being tools of the narrative, and it really feels like people don't understand that when they're analyzing EarthSpark.

I'm currently reading Marvel UK G1 Transformers and EarthSpark's S1 established the Decepticons with such similar, or even verbatim, sentiments. But even without them the Decepticons' perspective in the show was clear to me.

Is it really surprising the Decepticons, who never valued/liked Earth or its inhabitants or the Autobots or the Maltos/Terrans, would fight the Autobots and Maltos/Terrans for the Embershards — the Embershards, which are key to building/securing themselves a new home (so promises Starscream)? It feels like people don't consider the characters' perspectives and their relation to the world/others around them when it's such an important part of analysis. And the necessity of conflict in a story.

I really don't understand how people thought the Decepticons would've turned good following S1... like it wouldn't have been warranted/earned. Now in S2b/S3, the episode synopses don't suggest the Decepticons and Autobots/Maltos/Terrans have a continued competition for anything; we do, however, see Breakdown punching SkullCruncher in the trailer which is very curious — given the setting, he's likely defending Bumblebee. I have seen people mention Aftermath in relation to Breakdown, and yeah, I wonder what Breakdown'll make of Aftermath's cruel death — some have wondered if he'll defect.

Really the main episodes I've seen people talking positively of are Breakdown & Bumblebee's and Prowl's.

It's so insane looking at a fandom and seeing a lack of actual fans and people just... not understanding the story. Hard being the S2a lover & understander in a world full of S2a haters & misconstruers! I genuinely cannot escape mentions of EarthSpark without people's dislike of S2a being the default opinion, and it's so frustrating! I know that if people do end up liking this batch of episodes, they'll follow it up with a "better than S2" which'll be annoying because S2a is the set up for S2b/S3.

I don't really have much to say about the trailer myself as I'm happy with what it shows because it looks interesting and the episode synopses sound great. The character I'm most excited for personally is Megatron, but I'll be enjoying all the others as well.

[wyrmswears]

Alr here comes the "long" ask ig

Thanks to you bringing back my wolf children/werewolves/wolves brainrot, my brain brained a weird lore in my brain about your inhuman thundersnow au.

Remenber this guy? Well yeah, he was the EM of lightning before Libber (also her dad), during the Serpentine War he used his raijū form to fight, even if he was one of the less powerful lightning EM ever seen (based off the color of his lightning being yellow, yellow lightning is less hotter than blue lightning) he took many serpetine down and in general it was like brining a crazy new weapon to the war that suddenly gives certain side a great advantage, ya know, war stuff.

After the war finished, despite him being a good guy. Raijūs started to be seen as horrible bloodthirsty creatures just because of what he did during the war, which wasn't too different to what other EM did is just that he did it as a wolf, even Garmadon thanks to the Great Devouerer venom did worse.

Anyway, people started to get paranoid about raijūs and this caused to some people dedicate most of their time to hunt them down, not all hunters did it because they were corcened or smth but because they simply wanted to have fun killing an exotic species, or simply capturing them for who knows what (maybe using them for taxidermy?? spooky experiments??? biological weapons??? idk)

Slowly the individuals of this species were less and less, until there was only one left, Libber. Her father died and she almost did too, in and the rest is history she leaving Jay with the walkers, etc...

One more species that got extinct thanks to humans.

(this is not my last ask 👹.)

yo this idea is dark af... hell yeah im using it, with some amendments. be warned i also used this ask as an opportunity to do some lore dumping

READ MORE BECAUSE IT GOT LONG

first of all, not all other raijū are gonna be extinct, but their population numbers have dwindled and most of them now avoid interacting with humans. i think it'd be interesting to have the gang meet other raijū at some point so i want to keep the opportunity open :D since they stop interacting with humans though, they are thought to be extinct and aren't really common knowledge among jay's generation.

both raijū and dragon will share this stigma of being dangerous bloodthirsty creatures, given that wu and garmadon also fight in the serpentine war (oni kinda have the stigma engrained in their identity in the ninjago series already ghsghsh and aren't really present in ninjago to most people's knowledge). dragons get off slightly easier however, being considered noble creatures in other legends, but raijū don't have the same reputation and are easier to hunt than dragons so they suffer a greater impact. this stigma is the cause for cole's fear of dragons in s1!

raijū don't make great taxidermy (their corpses eventually dissolve into lightning; full raijū aren't so much comprised of your typical things like flesh and bone), but i can imagine some being captured as living batteriess, although they only have enough power for about a single household, so it would work on a more individual basis than imperium's dragon energy scheme...

i've been having the idea that libber's dad isn't a wolf for his raijū form, but instead a snow leopard! you see, there's not a lot of mythology on raijū recorded online so i'm trying to fit in actual mythos where i can, and raijū aren't limited to a wolf/dog form, but have many four-legged animal forms recorded. i also like the idea of jay and libber's raijū forms looking similar, despite them not looking that similar for two canids, so related raijū in my au don't often have similar animal forms. libber's parents take the form of a snow leopard (in reference to ice who later takes a guardian role of sorts in place of libber's actual father) and a japanese serow.

furthermore, i mentioned this idea in the tags of one of my past posts but for raijū that are elemental masters of lightning, they often die when their child inherits their element. raijū are creatures made of lightning, but for those born with the element of lightning, they don't develop their own lightning because the element more than compensates for the power they need, so when the element is suddenly removed... yeah. so libber's dad is dead Before the main impact of the serpentine war, but perhaps her mother is killed as a result?

jay doesn't have the issue of dying when he loses his element like the bajillion times they do in the series because he's half human! it does mean that the first few times he loses his powers (including contact with vengestone), it feels Extra bad to him because it's literally part of his life-force taken away (i imagine lloyd has a similar effect but by nature of his element instead of his blood), but the longer he is without his power, the more chance his natural lightning has to develop, so by crystallised he can function pretty well without them :]

[s1lv3rp4w3dc4t]

its funny watching you rb abt inanimate shows as someone who has not watched one for ages (i remember binging battle for dream island (god was that even the name. cake time) as a kid but honestly thought it was a feverdream when i remembered it later) because i just feel like the embodiment of the ARE YA WINNING SON? meme. are those inanimates insane mutual?? (sources suggest yes they are)

highly insane! just like me. (<- REFERENCE??????)

I'm begging you, I've been vague blogging about it but I BEG you. skip through s1, watch s2 up to ep14 then watch as much of s3 as you want and finish s2. genuinely the twist in the latest thing (or should I say TWISTS (I shouldn't!)) is insane and the reason I was screaming earlier

begging PLEADING down on my KNEES

PLEASE WATCH IT

there's SONGS that go HARD there's GAY PEOPLE that are GAY there's TRAUMA that. infects the silly guys

I prommie it's fire just push through the first season (BUT YOU CAN'T SKIP ALL OF IT BECAUSE THEY BRING IT UP LATER (IF NOTHING ELSE WATCH THE FIRST S1 AND LAST S1 EPISODES)

there's a reason I yell about these guys so much. in my brain. they live there

and yes, I am winning. WINNING THIS SEASON OF INANIMA--

[tjalexandernyc]

I finally started watching Leverage after years of friends and mutuals telling me how good it is. Just finished s1 and my thoughts are:

Wow y'all weren't kidding. This is a POLYCULE. Everyone has insane chemistry with everyone else. I've never seen such a horny ensemble cast.

I've started referring to Nate as Heist Dad and no I will not be explaining myself.

I'm thoroughly charmed but can I PLEASE ask costuming depts for a favor?? Can you stop having nuns and priests wear rosaries around their necks? Every damn time there's a nun or priest on my screen, this is happening. Catholics don't wear rosaries! (At least not Professional Catholics. I've seen young folks who might be Catholic wearing them as a fashion choice--catholic casual--but your local priest won't be doing that.) The rosary is not a necklace, it's just necklace-shaped! Priests and nuns carry rosaries. Some orders might tuck one into their belt or wrap them around their wrist but it's not jewelry. Never a necklace. Your canonically Catholic seminary dropout would KNOW this, it's frankly amateur hour.

Hooboy okay just had to get that off my chest 😂

[aster-petrichor]

Bridgerton S3 - brainrot rant

EVERYTHING

IT WAS EVERYTHING

SO YEAH

I'm struggling to find words so lets just get right into it. Ep5 itself was wow. and did they have to end every episode on basically a cliffhanger (i loved the tension, delicious).

It was. steamy. that scene with the yk mirror and the sofa and they talking and giggling.

'The firmness of your lips parted just so.. and then there are other parts I've been.. dreaming about' - Colin Bridgeron (a total fucking simp)

and then the cut to Anthony and Kate to Franchesca totally infodumping on this dude in the cutest fucking way <3<3<3

not to mention Benerdicts whole entire arc of s1 bicoded to s2 cishet to s3 bi-poly vibes in a very slay girlypop way and I genuinly think the show in this season has managed to do queer representation correctly and I'm just so happy about that.

Also I'm all over the place rn cuz I just finished watching but like for people who know book stuff. I was NOT expecting that for Francesca WOW YES (did anyone else notice the mirroring between that meeting and the one her mother had with her father?).

Also in the final ball the way Pen's dress looks green and then looks blue when she gets on the stage is !!!!! so yes wow pretty yes.

Did anyone else notice the way Violet fixated on the guys mouth when he was eating. The Bridgerton's really do all be like that. I appreciate the attention to detail from the showmakers there wow.

On the note of Francesca's upcoming arc. I somehow expected El and Ben to be it. But there are NO complaints from my end about this development.

more colin quote: "If my only purpose in life is to love a woman as great as you. Then I will be a very lucky man indeed."

Also Pen and her mother and that entire dynamic was a Moment and a half and I could try and write essays on it when I'm more awake.

Yk what lets talk Cressida. And her evil to good to sad evil arc she had going on. Because wow she has me feeling so many emotions both for and against her. Did they really end her arc the way they did were her being shipped off with evil aunt because I really was hoping she would either get away or marry debling (who seems to have vansihed) and that really sad. Like the blackmail was so wrong of her and I do think Pen may have just helped her if she had asked in a nice person way but she was desparate and alone and young and like she knew her actions were bad, but she was trying to save herself from worse and that sucks. She is giving August from YR but less intense and more tragic. I do wish she had a better outcome but also penance? Idk unsatifying end.

Tilly. Wow. She is kinda awesome and like. yeah. slay.

Danbury as always just ate. She walked in and slayed the floor down. I did like that little reference to the spin off Queen Charlotte they did there with the scene with Violet refering to the paper crowns and friendship. That felt like cracking a knuckle.

I think I'll go and reblog other s3 posts now and lose my mind elsewhere. Farewell and happy watching!!

[mirjam-writes]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @suavissimapenna <3 Sorry it took so long!

How many works do you have on ao3?

7 for Sherlock and 23 Good Omens that are completely mine. 6 collaborative fics I have either partly written, or just made art for. So, 36.

What's your total ao3 word count?

380,863

What fandoms do you write for?

Good Omens! I used to write for Sherlock too, but that's now in the past.

Top five fics by kudos:

Truth Or Dare (E, 6.5K words), my first proper smut ever! Post s1 gettig together story.

Angel Of Justice (T, 9.5K), my first ever Good Omens fanfic. Post S1 from Michael POV, A/C as a background couple.

!False (It's funny because it's true) (E, 5.4k), an office romance human AU set in software company.

A Stable Relationship (E, 9.9k), horse rider AU with trans Aziraphale. Friends with benefits becoming a romantic relationship.

Girls Just Wanna Have Sun (G, 1.7k), outsider pov scene about Robin's day at the beach, where she meets two weird gentlemen who have never been to a beach before.

Do you respond to comments?

YES I DO! Slowly, possibly, but yes I do, and I read and reread them!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uhhh... angsty ending? What is that? Technically Be Still My Soul: The Rift, but does that count if it's a middle part of a trilogy? That's definitely my angstiest fic of all time BUT I tried to write the happiest ending possible to it. But also, yeah, people died in the war (just not A or C), so maybe I'll count that story.

Edit: WAIT NO! To Love Somebody, a story from Shadwell pov about how he fell in love both Aziraphale and Crowley, and how that changed him. That's sort of angsty and the ending is bittersweet!

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmmmmmm. I have so many. I can't compare. Maybe Watching You (Watching Me), it's the porniest porn i have ever written, and it has...uh... several happy endings :D

Do you get hate on fics?

Not so far!

Do you write smut?

Yessss. I'm in my porn writer era at the moment :D

Craziest crossover:

I did some super weird anime crossovers as a teen (I hope those are long lost) but haven't dabbled on that since apart from very vague blink-and-you-miss-it references.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

One of my Sherlock fics was translated into french in 2018!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Only for one round robin event, which produced four stories! Not sure if that really counts as collaborating since we weren't allowed to talk about it when we did it, we just got the fic, read it, and added 600 words and gave it to the next one! It was super fun though.

All time favorite ship?

Aziraphale and Crowley. No competition there.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I don't usually start posting unless I'm 100% confident I'll finish the story, so I don't have public wips.

I had one pretty cool Sherlock post-apocalypse story idea, which I'd love to talk about if someone is interested, but writing it? Hmm probably not. But it's not really a wip, if I have only like two bullets in a doc?

What are your writing strengths?

I think I write pretty good bickerflirting and humour even in dark situations. And, uh... historical research.

What are your writing weaknesses?

LONG ASS SENTENCES. I need to cut them down. Chop chop chop. Also, I over-use commas and em-dashes.

Also, not being a native english speaker, but I think I've got a lot more fluent during the past years, so maybe that's not my biggest weakness anymore.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I have done it myself, in a situation when my pov character wasn't supposed to understand what was being discussed, but I did only a couple of lines.

My languages (apart from english) are finnish, very rough swedish, and teeny tiny bit of german, but many fics I've read that have used another language in dialogue, use French or Spanish (which are popular languages for English speakers to learn in school!), and with those I'm woefully lost!

But honestly, i don't need to understand every fic under the sun! You do you, I bet there are people who can understand whichever languages you'd like to mix in your story, and that will be amazing for them!

First fandom you wrote in?

The Book Series That Must Not Be Named. I projected so much of my teenage angst into wizard school drama.

Favorite fic you've written?

You monster! Making me choose. Uh.

Okay, fair. It's easy. Be Still My Soul, hands down. @be-still-my-soul-fanfic

No pressure tagging: @hkblack, @ambrasue, @tawnyontumblr , @ack-emma and @zehwulf and anyone else who wants to answer!

[smoozie]

...life series ace attorney au?

colour me intrigued.

I've already explained the jist of it here and expanding on some defense/prosecutor duos I enjoy here

I am so excited to talk abt this!! Feel free to ask more questions! I'm using this ask as an excuse to talk abt design ideas regarding the lawyers!

Starting off with Gem, whose design I've already finished!! She has a similar silhouette to Apollo's angsty Dual Destinies design with her (green) jacket over her shoulders because of the shawl(?) In her hc10 skin and witch skin. I gave her a white button up with a yellow tie since a lot of her skins have yellow/gold accents. I also gave her a corset because of the corset for her empires skin (now sure what season, I haven't watched her empires u-u). I've given her a single glove as a reference to her hc10 skin and to Athena's single glove, since I think Athena and her share some fun similarities. Finally she has some grey pants (Capcom give these lawyer women pants!!) And brown dress boots.

Unfortunately, Gem's design was the easiest for me! I'm trying to keep the defense side relatively simple as you'll notice in aa they tend to be (rip Athena). I don't want everyone in a basic suit tho so I am trying to mix things up a bit. Would love some suggestions! As for the others, I have some ideas

Scott's S1 Empires skin is actually perfect! It's that multicolored tunic that could easily be depicted as a suit jacket with a white dress shirt underneath. Could be fun to mess around with what kind of shirt he's in or a neck accessory besides a tie. Other than that I haven't got much for him. Ace attorney lawyers also tend to be strongly color coded, so a multicolored suit may break that aa feel, but uh it's more fun <3. I may end up playing around with the colors anyway.

Mumbo's design is actually the easiest. I had more fun with Gem, hence why she was done first, but Mumbo is already wearing his ace attorney suit design lol. I kinda want to play around with it a bit more, but I may end up settling on his self imposed aa design.

Scar has an extremely unique problem for me where he actually has too many fun lawyer-adjacent skins. Particularly his hc8 and limited life skins. They are both very iconic to me but would be difficult to actually mesh into one deisgn. Additionally I ADORE the color pallette of his secret life skin (og, but red is good too) but I'm not sure if I could include it. Altogether Scar is the hardest!! If I pick one route I feel like I'm losing so many possibilities! And I don't want to just copy one skin of his, like Gem I want their to be numerous references to different skins. May have to study the aa wiki defense attorneys to get some better in-universe outfit ideas.

I've been having some trouble with Grian as I wanted to include his iconic sweater without breaking the prosecutor vibe. The prosecution tends to have more wild or whimsical (see Nahyuta) designs. However, I think Grian may end up on the more simple side of the prosecutor spectrum, Edgeworth is a more simple prosecutor anyway and Grian is Edgeworth-adjacent. Come to think of it tho, his poultry man skin looks stupidly similar to Gregory Edgeworth. Could do smth with that maybe hmmm.

Etho's design is actually pretty straightforward from his skin. And he only has one to work with haha. What I'm picturing looks a lot like Godot's outfit, he even has a mask on lol. I'm probably gonna try to make it pretty unique, but it is hard to resist the urge to just turn those sleeves into a button up and that green into a suit vest.

Joel is one I'm trying to play around with more. I've perused his skins and haven't had any stand out as super lawyer-y. His default is fun enough to work with tho! Gem's comment of his weird vest thing as a corset is making me consider giving him a corset (he and Gem can match!). I'm trying to distinguish him from Shrek as much as possible while still keeping recognizable elements from his default. All in all I think he'll be fun.

CLEO oh BOY am I excited for Cleo. I'm thinking a lot of Franziska's silhouette with Cleo, focussing on extravagant sleeves, particularly relating to that blue dress skin of Cleo's. I'm also thinking of Nahyuta's detailing. Cleo's skins, to me, give the perfect amount of inspo without spelling anything out. I'll probably stick to her usual color pallette, but playing around with her 80s skin colors could be fun! Cleo is very exciting for me!

Finally, Pearl. When it comes to Pearl's design, her top aa influence is Barok van Zieks. I adore his cape and would really like to use it as a reference to scarlet Pearl. I also really like his soldier-esc getup underneath it, and while I wouldn't go as heavy handed with it, I am tempted to take some bits. I also really like Lana Skye for Pearl as a design reference, but mostly for her sprites. Pearl will not be crazy corrupt like her, but I would like to draw some parallels

[kneelbeforeyourdogbabylon]

Tag Game: AO3 and fic writing!

Tagged by @cheeseplants and @dbacklot99 💖💖

How many works do you have on ao3? 24

What's your total ao3 word count? 303,167 with big collabs! But without those, I clock in at 170,775. 👀

What fandoms do you write for? Good Omens currently, but have written in Stargate Atlantis, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica as well as one classic film fic.

Top five fics by kudos:

Not including the big collabs, and all Good Omens (E, NSFW):

A Sixty In Nine Saves Time

Aziraphale reads the wrong book, uh oh! Feeling responsible (or maybe just titillated), Crowley tries to lend a hand.

Takedown / Reversal

After their near miss in 1941 with a bullet, Furfur, and Nazi zombies, Aziraphale and Crowley retire to the bookshop for a mellow evening of too much wine. Unfortunately, someone is wearing quite the saucy fedora, and someone else takes quite a fancy to it. Obviously wrestling and banging and angst must ensue. Bittersweet ending with a 1955 followup. (inspired by @gleafer arts!)

Shake Like Hell and Spell Success 

Set after S1/Armageddon. Newly smitten (I believe), Aziraphale tries to create the perfect first-time scenario but has difficulties. As usual, Crowley doesn’t know what’s going on until he does, and then he knocks it out of the park on his first swing, because, demon? There's lingerie involved.

Wooing Peaceably 

Sometime after the Second Coming, Crowley and Aziraphale are visiting Crete during olive picking season. A little bit of happiness (and smut) after too long. Olives olives olives and olive oil!

An Arrangement in the Dark 

England during Georgian/Regency time period. Crowley turns down Aziraphale’s offer of an Arrangement swap for a Northamptonshire holiday house party. Naturally Aziraphale turns up anyway to see what kind of especially Evil! wiles need thwarting.

Do you respond to comments? Absolutely! Like all of us I adore comments. Someone liking a fic I wrote enough to say so is such a great feeling.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Definitely Takedown / Reversal, although I tried to soften it with a follow-up. Not sure if that worked. 😆 Also Impersonal (Firefly, Inara/Zoe) is a bit angsty but hopeful.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I think a lot of my fics have pretty happy endings! Maybe It's the Edge of the World As We Know It?

Do you get hate on fics? Not yet...

Do you write smut? Yes ma’am

Craziest crossover: nothing super wild? Most GO fic features some kind of fun historical reference or person (without feeling like RPF to me since they’re usually long dead, but essentially…) @angelictroublemaker and I wrote a Firefly/SGA crossover and that was about as wild as I got.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge 👀

Have you ever had a fic translated? Not yet!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! My first ever fic was cowritten with @angelictroublemaker and I’ve done more collabs within Good Omens fandom. My fave so far is a big ol project with @dbacklot99 and @sixbynine-da ❤️. The others:

Coming Home - A Choose Your Own Adventure Story

Interdimensional Leakage

Keeping it in the Vault (and its less-hairy counterpart)

All time favorite ship? I love Aziraphale/Crowley so much. I have lots of other favorite ships from fandoms I've read but not written in, though.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Probably one of my Human AU bits from the Guild Thursday sprints: Aziraphale as wedding planner/Crowley as floral designer, or Aziraphale as photography dabbler/Crowley as Some-Eldritch-Thing-Or-Other he (Az) starts capturing on film. And just typing these out makes me want to work on them now, so NEVER SAY NEVER.

What are your writing strengths? Description, grammar(ish), dialogue, smut (I hope. I like to write it and rewrite it at least).

What are your writing weaknesses? Description 😳 Also I have to really work on movement of plot (if I actually manage to have one, instead of events that happen for Purposes of Smut) and pacing.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? Perfect for Good Omens in my opinion. I like it overall.

First fandom you wrote in? I wrote a (disavowed) Mary Sue-insert fic for Star Trek Voyager in a notebook when I was a youngun. My first posted fic was for Battlestar Galactica.

Favorite fic you've written? I really like how To Ride a Journey on a Jade turned out, and also Sea Change. I also am loving working on Sins of Knowledge, although the size of it is intimidating to me.

And also whichever one I'm finishing up at the moment! Right now that's a Pride Exchange fic that I'll share (if the giftee is willing) this Saturday, and an angsty Doppelbanging fic that may or may not see light of day.

Tagging: @angelictroublemaker, @lemon-tart-221, @ghst-signal, @ladybracknellssherry, @demonsandpieohmy and anyone else who wants to play!

[thawthebeez]

hey guys. tumblr user thawthebeez back at it again with yet another haikyuu essay B) the topic of today is one that i see NOBODY talking about which is crazy because this motif is (in my opinion) one of the main foundations of the kagehina community.

now may someone please explain to me why the HELL nobody ever talks about how whenever Tobio expresses an insecurity of ANY KIND, Hinata is ALWAYS the first one to swoop in and tell him not to worry about it?

yes, we've all established that Hinata Shouyou is the #1 Kageyama Tobio understander. we get that. BUT THIS IS ONE OF THE MAIN DISPLAYS OF THAT AND I'VE SEEN LITERALLY NOBODY SPEAK OF IT EVER.

i'm pretty sure there's an instance of it in season 2 (either that or my brain just made it up) when Tobio is a little worried about his and Hinata's quick attack not really working out but Hinata tells him "nah you'll figure it out eventually" or something along those lines. i'm not going to lose my shit over it because i can't find it but if you know YOU KNOW.

a part that i COULD find from season 2, however, was this:

here we have Tobio explaining how talented of a setter Oikawa is- how he's so much better than him- and it's clear that this is something he's insecure about given his facial expression.

THEN we have Hinata's INSTANT response:

and it blows Tobio away because WHAT

because, to paraphrase a little, Tobio basically just said "yeah oikawa can make any spiker look good no matter what team he's on" to which Hinata replied "yeah but that team wouldn't be Karasuno" which is essentially "Karasuno is strong enough as it is" BUT- if ur crazy- " dw he wouldn't take your spot babe" (<- which probably isn't how it's meant to be interpreted because they just finished talking about The Team That's Stronger As Six thing so like... context clues. it's probably not the insane interpretation).

ANYWAYS boom there it is. Tobio expresses insecurity, Shouyou swoops in and goes "Ermmmm Actuallyyyyy🤓" WHICH IS SO FUCKING ENDEARING ON IT'S OWN BUT THE FACT THAT IT HAPPENS MORE THAN ONCE AND AT SUCH A CRITICAL POINT TOO

the critical point in question being:

(context: Tobio just came back from his training camp in Tokyo and is a little frustrated because he's gotten so used to playing with other prodigies like himself so to go back to talented-but-not-prodigious players is a bit of a switch for him. don't get him wrong tho he loves this team to DEATH it's just a little different that's all. hashtag number one Tobio apologist right here)

SO THERE'S THIS! and it goes without saying that Tobio is DEEPLY insecure about his late middle-school days and being referred to as a king. Tsukishima adds a little salt to the wound and while I didn't take a screenshot of it Tobio makes this look of absolute HORROR after he says what he says

(which, side note, shows a lot of a character development within Tobio. especially since I've been flipping between season 2 and 4 a lot looking for these clips. Tobio didn't even notice when he was acting kingly before but he realizes it INSTANTLY now which is so so so good for him yayyyy character development!)

this also leads fantastically into my next tangent which is

TOBIO FUCKING APOLOGIZES!

now, admittedly this isn't entirely related to my thesis but i absolutely ADORE talking about this scene and i genuinely think it is one of the most prevalent displays of character development within Tobio because i feel like he tends to get overshadowed by all the other characters (especially Hinata, which i'm not upset about in the slightest like it makes perfect sense and if Tobio got all the attention all the time the show would be soooo unbalanced)

but I feel like a lot of people skip over Tobio's overall development over the course of the show. I mean compare s1 Tobio to s4 Tobio THAT IS NOT SAME PERSON ANYMORE. he grows so much over such a short period of time (which is another essay I could write. something along the lines of "Explaining Why Tobio And Shouyou Need To Be On Separate Teams Actually Because Character Development Purposes" because the amount of people i've seen on tiktok complaining about kghn being on separate teams and how they should just be on the same team forever makes my blood boil violently) and it's so refreshing to see Tobio's growth especially as a big Tobio enjoyer.

ANYWAYS back to the main thesis.

So Hinata steps in IMMEDIATELY here. literally cuts Tobio's apology off because HE HAS NOTHING TO APOLOGIZE FOR. he was expressing his thoughts whatever that's fine he could have done it in a nicer way SURE but listen the guy still has a LOOOONNNGGGG way to go but still, nothing to apologize for. it's just growing pains, y'know?

now the quote "What's wrong with him being the King again?" appearing here isn't the first time we're seeing this. Hinata has ALWAYS been confused as to why calling Tobio a "King" is a bad thing. literally from day fucking one Hinata was like "nah dude I think that title is cool" WHICH, AGAIN, TOBIO BEING INSECURE ABOUT SOMETHING AND SHOUYOU REASSURING HIM THAT IT'S TOTALLY CHILL HELLO?????

LITERALLY FROM DAY ONE SHOUYOU HAS BEEN DOING THIS. THAT MAN MAY THINK TOBIO'S AN ASSHOLE SOMETIMES (and he kinda is) BUT NEVER WILL HINATA INHERENTLY HATE A PART OF HIM. and i don't think they realize it here nor do i think the realization comes soon after but at some point there will be the realization that they love each other. every single part. fucking Tobio probably realized it way back in junior high but that's a tangent for another time.

now this line.... this one right here...... oh my god i can be SO NORMAL ABOUT IT.

the main reason why Tobio had this look of HORROR on his face after he yelled at everyone was BECAUSE HE KNEW THE ENDING. he knew that yelling at them would have consequences (if it weren't for Hinata stepping in thank god). HE'S SEEN IT ALL BEFORE. in his final year of junior high he yelled at his teammates to run faster and jump higher and be better AND THEY LEFT HIM!!!

so Tobio yelling like this instantly makes him afraid that he's just ruined the entire balance of the team. he thinks he's going to be left behind again because he yelled and everyone is going to leave him BUT!!!!!

BUT SHOUYOU IMMEDIATELY JUMPS IN AND SAYS "idc what u say honestly if i don't like i'm just not gonna listen" OR, TO TRANSLATE "i'm not going anywhere regardless of what you say"

Tobio's biggest fear is losing this team. I literally do not need to explain why. that man would fucking DIE for this team (if you really need an explanation just to go the end of the Kamomedai match when Tobio admits that he's upset they lost because he wanted to play with that specific team more).

and for Hinata to essentially say "you could literally be as kingly as u want and i simply would not care, pal, i promise you i am NOT going ANYWHERE!!!" which has got to be SO FUCKING RELIEVING FOR TOBIO.

(also something something "nobody was there" / "i'm here" something something "doesn't matter what kind of toss goes up if you send it my way i'm hitting it" something something they're soulmates or whatever they are literally bound together by the universe they were destined to be together and it's a crime that universe kept them apart for so long and now that they're together they will always BE together two peas in a pod literally inseparable they are hot glued and duct taped together.)

and then there's this. i mean at this point you already know what i'm going to say like you get it by now but again IT MUST BE SO RELIEVING TO TOBIO to know that shouyou thinks his biggest insecurity is cool. that shouyou thinks that it's not something to be concerned about. that no matter what, no matter how much a King he is, they're not going anywhere.

SOMETHING SOMETHING "you drew stars around my scars" IF YOU EVEN CARE

and just the fact that it's always ALWAYS shouyou to do this. the fact that there was dead silence before shouyou spoke up. the fact that it's ALWAYS HIM there to understand Tobio (someone who has been misunderstood for as long as he can remember) GOD THEY DRIVE ME INSANE.

anyways thank you for being a witness to this madness👍

[drconstellation]

A Tale of Two Peacocks

The Relationship Between Gabriel and Michael

Some weeks ago I said I would take on the challenge of looking at the relationship between Gabriel and Michael, then I got sidetracked writing something else* - which is not always a bad thing. But I want to return to this because its too good not to do a post on it, and before I get too deeply involved in the other writing.

This is definitely going to involve some NSWF language - hey, I can't help this, its in the script - so the bulk of this is going to be below the cut. But the short of it is, they have a fairly low opinion of each other.

We need to go back to S1, where there is an interesting set of parallel scenes we should start our discussion with that spells it out for us. The first one is in S1xE2, and the other is actually in one of the deleted scenes from the cold opening of S1xE3, and they both use parallel characters to inform us of what Gabriel and Michael think of each other.

It turns out I've already talked about the first one, in this meta here, where I discuss how Newt is a parallel for Crowley.

Then [Frobisher] power-walks past. Newt is not even worth her time stopping for. "Need a hand, Dick?" *Snort* - and ouch. That's a below-the belt joke. She's just called him a wanker. In the US you might use the term jerk instead. Someone who's a bit egotistical and more in it for themselves than others. (and I never thought I'd be fact-checking the meaning of this word ever, but there's always a first time...) She's basically just equated him Gabriel, in my book (and in more ways than one.)

And I wrote all that months before I started writing my Crowley-Gabriel parallel/foil series, too.

The other thing about this first parallel scene is the character of Frobisher, who is dressed very much like a demon, but is actually the parallel character to Michael, as we see later on in the paintball fight at Tadfield Manor.

(Er, I know this is all a bit 2nd/3rd hand evidence, but the second scene is a bit more direct, so bear with me.)

The second one, in S2xE3, is the deleted bookshop opening scene.

Source: Script for the unaired scene of Aziraphale opening his bookshop in 1800

Oh, look at that. Somebody is being called a wanker. Again. This time it's Crowley calling Michael a wanker, however, and its only one step to the side with Crowley being a parallel character to Gabriel (and I challenge you to watch s1 again in this light after finishing this post, and see how many similarities you can see between Crowley and Gabriel showing through even back then.)

OK. So we've established that Gabriel and Michael both think each other are wankers at this point, but what else can we find out about them?

Peacock Fighting

I've written a couple of posts about peacock symbolism. Firstly, Michael is strongly associated with having many eyes - their Ophanim ring, their costume has eye motifs, and they are essentially head of surveillance for Heaven. So this made me think they might be the peacock referred to in the Job minisode.

But later, after more research, it became apparent the lines paraphrased in Job were definitely referring to Gabriel. (See also Judgement Day.) There are associations with both royalty and vanity there.

They are both peacocks, but for different reasons.

And they are also both in competition with one another.

Gabriel Doesn't Have A Desk

Desks are a symbol of power in western society.

The bigger, and more solid the desk in a corporate office, the higher up the person is.

The teacher at the front of the room, the authority in the room, has a bigger desk than the students.

Those desks offer protection to the person in authority sitting behind them. They mark a separation between that said authority and the masses they command on the other side. Only the most trusted get to come around to the same side that they are sitting on to be more intimate with them.

At work, your desk is connected to your identity there. Its your place in the organization. You may even individualize it with decorations.

Just take a look at what Newt was bringing on his first day to work in S1xE2:

Pens, a pen holder, notepads, a ball of rubber bands, a plant (a bromeliad, a plant that does well in fully shaded damp environments, just like Hell) and some rations. Er, I mean lunch. Given to him by God Frances his mother.

The travesty of the modern trend of "hot desking" is de-personalizing the employee. They are no longer a valued employee with a valued place, they're just another faceless cog in the grind.

We see Michael behind a desk as Duty Officer in S2. It's starkly clean and sharp and made of glass, as we would expect to find in Heaven. It's used a shield and badge of office when we see them fulfilling that role.

Michael doubts Gabriel has a desk, although Gabriel insists he does, even though we have never seen it. Yet he still requires the proverbial archive box for moving locations?

I'm just going to leave the parallel between Newt and Gabriel there for further discussion. Please do remember the bottom falls out of Newt's box in the car park, leaving him with an empty box, too.

(Muriel has a glass desk, too, but interestingly they don't have a chair. You might like to compare their encounter with Aziraphale in the Job minisode to the escapade with Crowley in the present day. There is volumes said without words.)

Just while we are on the subject of desks, thought you might like to compare Crowley's and Aziraphale's desks as well. They are always on about how much paperwork they have to do!

Sovereign versus Disciplinary Power

This is eventually going to turn into a discussion about fate versus free will at some point, but I do need to talk about the different types of power first, because I haven't done my long promised Power and Authority meta yet. The two concepts are closely related, and Gabriel and Michael are each acting as foils for a side of the concepts.

Gabriel represents sovereign power, the supreme legitimate power of the state. Power and action trickles down from the top, and punishment is almost a show of entertainment, but one designed to educate. "Oh, those angels Fell - if I do something bad, I might Fall, too!" And so Gabriel expects to Fall when he is given his trial, and Aziraphale when he lies to save Job's children.

Michael is representing disciplinary power, something that lies at the heart of society today. This is where power is spread among individuals, and individuals are more likely to do their own discipline merely because of an overhanging threat of a possibility they may get caught if they do.** Are they being watched? Who might see and report their transgression? Michael has eyes (and ducks) everywhere... So does Orwell's book 1984.

This is a very simplistic view, of course - reality is more complex than that, and is usually a combination of the two, but we have to start somewhere.

Now lets throw the fate vs free will components into the mix. Let us revisit the story of King Cnut and the tide.

The story, if you are not familiar with it, is that Cnut had his throne set on the beach and commanded the incoming tide to halt where it was, and not to wet his robes or feet. Of course, the tide kept rising and splashed the king, where he leapt up and declared his might and power as a king worthless compared to that of God. The story is meant to demonstrate his piety before Heaven, and that he was not the ultimate controller of all things - his sovereign power was limited.

They say time and tide*** wait for no man - we are at the mercy of what ever fate they bring us, and we can't manipulate that. That's decided by the supreme power, the ultimate sovereign power, so to speak.

Gabriel tends to take this line - he does not have control over the summoning of the Four Horsepeople, they are just happening as they supposed to, and that's not his department. Plausible deniability, baby! Back channels? What back channels, Michael?

So if you did want to have some power over it, some free will to control outcomes? But hang on - every one else has free will as well. Sounds a bit chaotic. Who's in charge? Nobody. Everybody. Welcome to Michael's world. They want the power, they're prepared to fight for it, for what they think is right - but so is everyone else.

But what if you were the creator of free will itself? Would you be The One to have control over time and the tides?

Tadfield Manor, Again

Michael is the archangel who throws Lucifer down from Heaven, and we see this play out at Tadfield Manor during the paintball fight, when we are shown that it is actually Frobisher/Michael who shoots the shot that hits Norman/Lucifer in the heart - although we are initially made to think its Nigel/Gabriel who did it. (One day I will teach my self how to make GIFs and make a GIF of this.)

Frobisher is the more competitive one at all times - she is the only other employee besides the naive Newt to put their hand up when Nigel asks who is looking forward to the Training Initiative and she asks Crowley and Aziraphale "Who's winning?" as she runs past them inside - to which Crowley presciently declares "You're all going to lose."

If you look at the extended scene in light of the above, you can see sovereign authority of senior manager Nigel/Gabriel is still floating around as a rather toothless tiger to the whims of fate, while everyone else is exercising their free will and disciplinary powers to try and control one another. And, as Crowley says, nobody wins. It's a lose-lose situation.

Michael is competing for an empty dream.

Gabriel is trying his best to survive something that is not what it seems.

And...I think I'll leave it there. Thanks for reading.

*I've started writing a multi-chapter human AU fanfic. But I'm a slow writer, and I'm not writing it in a linear fashion - because it has to be stuffed full of meta, of course - so I decided I better pull myself out of it before I got pulled in too far and finish a couple of things off so you didn't think I'd disappeared completely. I wasn't planning on doing one, but you know how these things go - one day an idea just pops into your head, the next thing the characters are talking to you and taking on their own life and a couple of thousand words later...

**There was a post about the oculus, (found it! thanks to gallup24) the round skylight window in the roof of the bookshop and the Panopticon, an infamous prison design where the prisoners can all see each other but can't see if the guard is watching them, but of course I've lost track of it, haven't I.

***The tides are controlled by the Moon and Sun, and ostensibly for this argument, by Heaven as well. They are fated to continue in their set orbit and/or path through the sky - or the Earth on it's orbit around the Sun, is probably the better way of looking at it.

[mommyashtoreth]

crowley's s1 design vs crowley's s2 design go

GREAT question I am so pumped for this bc if you know me you know I like character design and ESPECIALLY goth character design. His design changes a bit within both seasons but I'll say that the 2011-era design (yknow, with the half-bun and the silver chain and the tortoiseshell rims) is like, top tier Crowley design to me. It's also less corp goth than like, s2 Crowley and thus more easily replicable by Me Specifically and as. ahem. The Crowlet Of The Group that does a lot for me. But that doesn't mean I DON'T like the sleeker corp-gothy s2 look, I love the blazer and the shoes and how the scarf works with it all and I truly cannot complain about a season of television that delivers a 50something goth cuntress in a turtleneck and a black leather vest. One thing I'm not Crazy about in the s2 design is the hair, I like the color and think the lighter streaks especially are very fun but I don't Love the way it's styled. Like it's fine I don't hate it but it's just not as good as the half-bun very little ever will be. And in general I prefer the more "natural"-looking s1 color, I default to describing Crowley as "ginger" in most cases and even when I refer to his "red hair" (like when I say his stomach hair is red or his bush is red in any of my terrible terrible writing) I'm imagining a more orangey natural red. That's just personal preference tho! Either way I think he's got a great design, I've lauded it before, I really love how different textures and fabrics and finishes are used to not make the monotone black feel "boring" or samey or anything. Being goth is hard work! You don't want the blacks to blend into each other too much but you DEFINITELY don't want the blacks to clash too much either. It's a delicate balance and I think the show strikes it really well

Bonus lightning round of me ranking every historical Crowley costume I can think of off the top of my head, worst to best:

French Revolution bc it blows, the medieval Black Knight one bc it's kind of boring, Shakespeare bc who cares, Bilbo the Shite or whatever his name is I'm sorry but I'm not into it. the minisode is great but it's nowhere near one of his best looks, 1800s St James Park bc who cares, 1940s it doesn't do that much for me I'm sorry once again (I think it's the slickness of the hair again. I don't dig it), angelmode which certainly isn't hot per se but I still need to see bouncing and moaning on it, 1960s, 1970s, the Crucifixion bc I NEED a milf with a receding hairline or I'll die don't let me die, 1890s Edinburgh because Jesus God the cunt (it's the shape of the shoulders), and NANNY ASHTORETH!!! You thought I wouldn't count her would you. Well you thought wrong that's what we do around here baby

[goranvisnjicdaily]

Good Sunday Evening!

I'm just done watching "Dollface" I did also screencapped The Episodes in Which Goran appears... I can so relate to Jules haha!

Goran scares me as the Doctor invading Jules' nightmares in Mama Bear (Episode 8) ahhah! For some reason, that scene of Goran reminds me of a Scene in Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master, when Freddy appears dressed as a doctor in one of the main character's nightmare... I've seen too many horror movies ahah! 😂😂 (See Youtube Video below for the Reference...)

Alright back to more serious stuff, right? ahah! So, the Dollface screencaps are completed and all available in the Gallery 👈

📷 335 Screencaps from "Dollface* S1.E5 ∙ Beauty Queen

📷 118 Screencaps from "Dollface* S1.E7 ∙ F*** Buddy

📷 34 Screencaps from "Dollface* S1.E8 ∙ Mama Bear

The Freddy Scene I'm referring to ahha!

📷 100 Screencaps from "Dollface* S1.E10 ∙ Bridesmaid

I still have in mind to finish Screencapping "Timeless" perhaps not this week, but I'd really love to finish this before the Winter Tires rush starts at work... Yup, In a few weeks, Winter will already be here in Quebec! ❄❄

On this have a good night everyone and a great start of week :)