#it wasn't even satisfying for her

[notesontheside]

one possible way to interpret the artificer's final boss fight is that after killing the Chieftain, she realizes that it was Not Enough.

killing them was Not Enough to avenge her pups, and that nothing would ever satisfy her grief. she isn't stuck at the lowest karma bc she murdered, or anything like that; she's stuck bc violence is the only thing that will give her any semblance of Peace.

well. that and seeing her pups again.

[festivating]

elphaba has such an intriguing relationship with her magic in the musical. like. imagine having this mysterious power you can't control and you don't understand and obviously nobody is going to help you understand it because everyone completely fucking hates you.

and elphaba wants so badly to control these powers she promises nessa that once they're at shiz things will be different and she won't use them but she doesn't KNOW how to do that. so this is yet another part of her that scares people or makes them angry at her, and it's yet another part of her that she has no control over.

it's fucked that she admires the wizard also. because she thinks the wizard has magic but of course that's a good thing. magic isn't the problem. the problem is her magic. she never even considered a career in sorcery because her magic is more a curse than a gift.

and we know her magic is tied to her emotions and it comes out when she's mad or frightened. can you imagine how many times she must've gotten mad growing up, considering how hard her life was? and how many times her powers manifested without her control? it must've happened a LOT if she had to promise nessa she wouldn't use her magic again. and how many times she stopped herself from getting mad in the first place because she was afraid of what she could do?

also elphaba tells morrible "something just comes over me sometimes. something i can't describe. but i will try to control myself." and then she apologizes to nessa. she apologizes for something she can't control, something she has clearly tried to control before, smothering down a part of her that should be natural, that should be considered a talent.

and a part of me thinks that she grew to resent her magic so thoroughly she carried that resentment even after getting training from morrible. after her lessons and after getting the grimmerie all the magic we see from elphaba is more "controlled" so to speak.

but still think about the scene at the governor's manor, when she purposely enchants nessa's shoes and she says "FINALLY from these powers something good" so even after all that time she still never saw her own powers in a positive light. and i mean. with the wizard and morrible tricking her to fuck up the monkeys of course she thinks like that.

she went from having to hide her powers, to trying to suppress them to make the people around her more comfortable, to being hunted because of her powers. of course she's never going to see that side of herself as something good. the amount of self-loathing she carries is just unreal i don't know how to finish this post but i love her very very much and she needs a hug.

[wearepaladin]

Minthara: There is something about you that troubles me, though. Something that I need you to explain. You chose to incapacitate me rather thank killing me when you eradicated my minions. Why? Paladin: I recognized you, in a way. You were what I would have been, enthralled to the Absolute, a warrior with their zeal poisoned by a false faith. If another had found me that way, I'd hope they'd have seen me, like I witnessed you. Minthara:...I no longer have the certainty that my faith was only ever a means to control. But I am grateful that you saw my strength, even turned against you as an enemy.

[claudianolastname]

Do You Know What it Means to Be Loved by Death ? • Claudia

[raayllum]

The way he's not but then he looks at her, and sees that she's okay, so at least momentarily, he is too. His eyes / expression just getting perpetually softer. And this is, I think, the one time in the season other than the stargaze "head on shoulder" touch that Rayla initiates in the whole season as well

But like - of course, he's not okay

And the final hesitation before he takes his hands - unclasping them, now 'stained' more than ever - and hugs her back, because he won't refuse her comfort

After all, he did this for her:

AARON: But yeah, I think you're—you’re right in characterizing it as it’s certainly a more complex, you know, justification that is required to pursue dark magic. And there are some people who would not accept that justification. But what’s interesting about it is, you know, the questions, there are questions, you can you can come out on either side of it. You know, there are cases, you know, would Rayla have died if Callum hadn’t used dark magic? Yeah. I think she would have.  So did he have to? Are we thankful that he did? Thank goodness—well yes, we love Rayla! Well of course we needed him to do that. You know what I mean? Then there’s some kind of morality that sometimes is based on your attachment. Now if you said, should Callum use dark magic to save one person, knowing that he'll—he may be corrupted for the long term and his potential to be, you know, a hero in the future may be altered and his potential to be manipulated or you know, go down the wrong path, all that risk to save one person? Well, now you might say, “Oh no he shouldn’t—for one person?” But then if I go, “But it was Rayla!” then you go “Oh no, [laughs] yeah, he needs to do it!” [KUNO laughs] So I don’t know. But it’s also even that, right? It comes down to “well, in that moment, what did he do?” Well in that moment, he took like a—I-I think the ingredient is a piece of a snake rattle [...] “He didn’t even kill it, it was already dead, it was already dead man, what did he do?” Well, I don’t know. He supported the system, so it is complex. It’s worth arguing about, a bit. There’s not a clear right or wrong. There are risks. There are long term consequences. Those are baked into it. But I don’t know. When—when it’s your Mom in trouble, what do you do? You do the dark magic! You save Mom, right? I do.

—Hot Brown Morning Potion Podcast interview with Aaron Ehasz and Villads Spansberg

[uncanny-tranny]

I always think it's funny that a terrible life is one where "you're alone with no lover and you will only have the company of cats to keep you scarcely tethered to the real world.

Like... don't threaten me with a good time. That is a dream to me

[fanghuas]

Anne Carson, Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides

[carbonateddelusion]

Villa nd Polilla <3 he also has fangs like his mommies, they're just hidden

[my-current-obsession]

Dunno if it's a hot take, but I think the "platonic" path for Chihiro (as in making the "wrong" choices early on so she doesn't even confess, not just rejecting her when she does) was actually WAY better than her romantic rank 9.

Instead of getting insanely jealous of the thought of Mitsuru and MC spending time together (for the sake of HELPING HER), she's actually totally fine with that and begins to leave before stopping because she's upset AT HERSELF for continuing to rely on others. Her motivation to confront the teacher is entirely about taking action herself rather than it being centered on a desperate attempt to fix things quickly to keep the guy she likes away from another girl.

The way she celebrates with MC on the rooftop afterwards is really cute too. She acknowledges her growth in being able to confront an adult male by herself while also recognizing she still has a ways to go and this is kind of just the beginning. It's just really good character development and very wholesome, how her FRIENDSHIP with MC helped her become more confident and capable. Meanwhile her romance has that character "development" tied entirely to her being very jealous/possessive. She was only able to confront the teacher because she was terrified to let MC be alone with Mitsuru. That's not really growth, and it's certainly not a healthy foundation for romance.

[colorfuldream]

Since we've calmed down after the last Splatfest, I can finally bitch about some Shiver fans' takes.

My God she did NOT try to "change the subject and try to make Frye comfortable".

Shiver SUCKS. She's greedy, she brags when she wins, she'll say anything she has to to get vote. That's WHY SHE'S FUN! Every member of Deep Cut Kinda Sucks. That is the point!

Big Man does get a little carried away and sometimes gets worked up (though he's still being nice) during the fests announcements. Frye barely even tries to make an argument (her job!) because she's too busy being silly.

None of them give a damn about the results. They're here to party and have fun. Sure, they like to win but they don't care if they lose. Almost every single time, the winner says something along the lines of "all three options are nice though" or "let's do all three!"

Shiver did exactly what she did for the Nessie vs Aliens vs Bigfoot festival: lie her ass off. This time, instead of lying about seeing Nessie, she pretended that her choice was better because she legit doesn't know how to do a fist bump. It's silly! It's endearing! She's a loser! Girlfailure! She doesn't care if it's embarrassing, she came clean because it's no big deal and she won! She won eight fucking times in a row, she gets to brag if she pleases.

It's fine for your fav to not be perfect. You don't need to go out of your way to mischaracterize an entire dialogue because you need to defend her from the "haters". And quite frankly, wouldn't it be worse if she was babying the other members (or singling Frye out) because they didn't win for months? Don't you think it would be condescending? Her lines were implied to be prewritten. None of them have a problem with what they have to say. They might even write them themselves for all we know!

Deep Cut are all good friends. That's why they don't give a single flying into space fuck about who wins, the things said to win, or the things said after they won.

And, finally, ofc it also goes for Frye and Big Man fans. Neither care if they lose. Frye doesn't even try (ie: she had less than 10% of the bite for Team Fame and had no reaction, especially when she could have made great arguments for it since it logically beat the other two teams (sorry for breaking Splatfest law guys, it needed to be said)), Big Man is just happy to be there (though he probably really wanted Love to win... But alas capitalism triumphs all). I'd LOVE it if Nintendo finally wrote them some spicy dialogue instead of the bland and boring "eh gg" we've been getting for over a year. I'd LOVE the acknowledgement that Frye is incredibly unpopular and has gotten brutal loses. They did it in Splat1 and 2. I want my girl to go on a rampage or for Big Man to impose himself. But it's not that big of a deal. We ain't getting angst. Deep Cut is too busy sharing their one braincell to decide what meal they're gonna have to care.

It's not that deep. It doesn't matter in the end. What fucking matter iS TO STOP KILLING YOUR TEAMMATES DURING TRICOLOR WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SHOOTING AT ME WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER—

[confinesofmy]

things will happen and i will think okay. initial reaction. i wish i was dead. secondary reaction, i'm maybe overreacting, let's pretend it's fine. <- BOTH of these suck.

[kanade-yoisaki-official-archived]

// ngl i think the tenma siblings thing we've got going on right now is like hilarious

^ tenma-mom when she comes back from her business trip

[gertstarlight]

Also the shivcat dynamic should’ve been explored more. Not even in a gay way but after Yolanda realized Cindy wasn’t behind everything I think they could’ve used that to evolve their relationship and to have an actual conversation and stuff. Ugh I loved the finale but I can’t pretend that I’m suuuper happy with how everything turned out

EXACTLY ANON!! yolanda's life basically fell apart cuz of henry/cindy but she never got a real apology or any effort to make amends on their part.. their dynamic was literally tossed aside after they "solved" the jsa drama in ep 6

[cheekblush]

really starting to think someone put the evil eye on me.....

[blorbosexterminator]

Ohhhh I’d love to see Martin’s and Sergio’s first meeting. It’d be soo funny in whatever way you imagine it happening. Like I imagine Andres introducing them in a work setting, having Martin explain a plan they want Sergio’s input on or even after the fact showing off to Sergio how they pulled of an impossible heist. And Sergio nodding along thinking “wow this guy really knows his stuff”, impressed with the equations and terminology Martin uses. And as soon as they’re done with the heist talk Martin proposes Sergio a ‘masterful fellatio’ ( or something along the lines off) and it throws Sergio completely off. Second or two passes Martin starts laughing ,Andres starts laughing and Sergio doesn’t know how to respond, if it was a serious offer and he should politely but firmly refuse or if they’re just messing around with him. Probably both. With time I think that’s how Martin brought Sergio’s guard down. Something I don’t think anyone in Andres’ life managed to do (the wives, work associates…) I would necessarily call it ‘trust’ but I feel like Sergio relaxes around Martin, doesn’t have to be on guard as he usually is.

Exactly, anon, exactly! In whatever scenario you imagine their first meeting, it'll still be hilarious. Like we see how flustered Sergio is sometimes still around Martín after ten years, imagine how ???? he was the first time Martín was Martín around him.

Please yes, this scenario! Absloutely love it. Sergio not being able to decipher whether Martín is serious or fucking with him and Andrés being with Martín must have sent him insane.

I fully agree with you here too! I definitely believe out of anyone Andrés ever knew, befriended, worked with, or married, Martín is the one who ended up with any significant effect on Sergio. Sergio doesn't exactly "trust" Martín because he knows Martín and he knows exactly where and how would he trust him, this is much more intimate (and I doubt Sergio trusted even his brother in that regard. He's too smart and knows them both too well to trust them in that sense.)

I think a lot of elements went into making Sergio's guard go down with Martín. He knows that he fully loves and has unbounded loyalty to Andrés, which I'm sure had a part of why Sergio ended up "liking" Martín so. Martín is also a lot like Sergio himself. I often think Martín is a mirror image to both brothers. In soul, ambition, attitude, morality, sense of art and romanticism, he and Andrés are the same. But as Andrés said, in his genius, sheer dedication, obsession, egotistical believe that on one else alive can do the job like they are doing, and unstoppable drive, he is Sergio's mirror image. And both Sergio and Martín know it, which makes Sergio uneasy (and which makes two of their most significant scenes in the show together start with Martín telling him that unlike everyone else, he knows Sergio and can immediately dissect what's happening in his brain. Unlike a lot of the lcdp characters, Martín is perhaps the only character who sees Sergio exactly as he is.)

But also above all, there is such genuine respect between them. Martín cares about Sergio's opinions and approval as much as Andrés does, this obviously, especially for a character as egotistical as Martín, didn't just come from nowhere. And it's very telling too that this is the exact same vice versa. Martín is the *only* banda member who knew how the gold goes out. And I do believe Sergio didn't only tell him because Martín noticed something was hidden from him and outright refused to enter the bank if he wasn't told, but because Sergio respects him and when it comes down to the heart of it, he "trusts" Martín. And with all of that, it's such an older brother and younger brother relationship too. It parallels Sergio's relationship with Andrés in such a fascinating way because there aren't many if any characters in the show that Sergio "reveries" but you can definitely notice it in his scenes with Martín. Such a fascinating relationship!

[warningsine]

The reason that the first season of "UnREAL" works is that even the romances reflect what the show is about: the amorality behind the scenes of those reality shows and how even Rachel and Quinn fall for the concepts they sell to their audiences.

For example, Adam sees a good girl in a toxic working environment whereas Jeremy sees a toxic girl in a toxic environment. (Personally, I found Rachel's love triangle beyond boring, but I get what it represented.)

And the Chet/Quinn arc ends with Quinn's emancipation. Because Chet was a manchild that profited off Quinn's hard work and was never going to change.

But there's so many times that you can see these women fall in love without starting to yawn.

After season 1, things just happen for shock value, but the storytelling sucks. Not to mention that the romantic choices for the ladies make no damn sense.

Like, why would Quinn ever go back to Chet? What purpose did that serve in the story exactly other than ruining her character development?