#it’s like. It makes total and complete sense despite having little to no evidence

[yuttikkele]

the constant of nines and gavin dating in the dbh fanon is so funny to me because despite these two never even learning of each others’ existence, of COURSE they’re madly in love

[paradiseprincesss]

my random jonathan crane headcanons 🦇☕️🩺

i’m bored at work so i decided to jot down some of my personal headcanons & thoughts of our favourite little psycho doctor :] im talking about nolanverse!jonathan crane in these also <3

warning: nsfw themes/18+ MDNI

🧸💌💉🌙

• i think he's a scorpio sun, capricorn moon, and a virgo rising because it just...makes sense

• if we're on the topic of astrology, he'd definitely think it's bullshit - like i know he'd roll his eyes as soon as someone starts to talk about astrology because where's the scientific evidence proving this stuff is legit?

• he drives a mercedes prove me wrong; and i know he'd always pick you up because he insists on doing it. just got off work? he's there. need a lift to class? you best believe he's driving you and picking you up after

• for safety reasons too, of course

• and its tinted like im talking completely blacked out so nobody can see him because he values his privacy or whatever

• despite what everyone thinks, he drinks his coffee with cream and sugar just not overly sweet. he dislikes black coffee because it's just too bitter and i think he wouldn't even bother drinking something that doesn't taste that good if u know what i mean?

• if you brought him coffee AND you remembered his order he would pretend to not care but deep down, his cold heart is melting lol

• he wears mont blanc cologne. no i will not elaborate any further — but he does. specifically mont blanc legend

• he gets flustered when you compliment him on how good he smells i can definitely see him having a hard time accepting compliments from you

• i also think when he compliments you, it's a little stiff or awkward at first because he doesn't really know how to show genuine love because he rarely ever feels this way

• if he was to move in with you, even if you were the girliest girl ever with all the shoes, clothes, and handbags you could dream of... his suit collection would still take up more closet space than your things to the point where you'd probably have to have two walk in closets or separate closets

• he will NOT compromise getting rid of any of his suits to make space for your things, BUT he will buy you another closet/get your place renovated and pay for it so you have more closet space

• he would want a girl who is smart — intellectual stimulation to jonathan is extremely important. you simply cannot be with him unless you're willing to talk about theories, psychology, anatomy, etc with him because who else is going to be able to share his thoughts with?

nsfw themes below

• i think he'd much rather give than receive because he strikes me as a little insecure — if he's eating you out you're focused on the way he's making you feel and he gets to focus on your body, rather than his own

• his stamina is fucking WILD because the self control this man has... like it's insane? could go round after round and will let you have your pleasure before his own, not a selfish lover despite what people think

• i think he's one of if not the most selfless lover in bed because i just know he'd fuck you so good, leave you a mess and make you come over and over again first before letting himself go

• i also think if you aren't into the whole "fear play" thing, he wouldn't force you. he would want you to be kinky and he'd totally experiment with you, but he'd never ever make you uncomfortable or push your limits if you didn't want to or agree to it

• he would 100% pay for your hair, nails, etc whatever is is you want because he thinks it's even sexier when you're all dressed up and done up for him before he ruins you

• especially the whole manicured nails thing...he'd pay for you to have them done because he likes to see them while your hands are wrapped around his cock and you're taking him in your mouth, looking up at him desperately

• buuuuut him actually letting you give him head is kind of...rare? because like i said, he's a lil insecure so he really has to trust you if he's going to let you in like that? and we're not going to talk about how long it takes for him to actually fuck you without any pieces of clothing on

• literally would rather you be naked and him fully dressed for obvious power dynamic reasons, but also because HE LITERALLY IS A NERD LOL he's not confident in his body

• even though you'd die for him and kiss the ground he walked on he's like :[

• lowkey...he's into body worshipping. everyone's like oh he's into bondage, punishment, fear play, all the extremes and stuff - ok sure. yes, but also BODY WORSHIPPING. i already know he falls more in love with you every time you do it to him

• but there's a fine line between body worshipping and letting you take the reins for real. he would rather die than be a sub :]

• lowkey after care is giving!!!

• towels, warm baths, glasses of wine and if you don't feel like drinking, maybe some hot tea and lots of gentle love after

• sigh, you love your little psycho nerdy doctor

• come at me for making him soft but i believe he's like this due to 1) his actual canon backstory and 2) nerds lowkey do it best sorry i don't make the rules

• ps, the glasses STAY on

🧸💌💉🌙

taglist:

@girlinterrupted505 @ciriceimpera @jordyn-yeager @thevelvetvampyre @galactict3a

@xanaxiii @nocturnest @psylrd @bloodandglitter207 @humbuginmybones

@oceanstem @futurefamousdeadmusician @jonathancraneslittlepet @esotericdoe

@kpopgirlbtssvt

@ll4n4 @ilovetoxicfictionalmen @the-buddy-things @ellebelleshelby @wiseyouthinfluencer

@abprill @minedofmoria @strangeobsessed @5tud10-54r4h @franzine-xii

@stsrfujid @psylrd @eyraaaaaae @nyxxie-pooh @momoewn

@fauxcongenialite @ceruleanrainblues @o0laura @fiona-my-love

[cheqorb]

More Between Us.

You’ve always been just friends, but they can’t ignore how their heart races whenever you’re near.

FEAT. Isagi, Bachira

NOTES. probably my most tooth-rotting post yet! annnd I totally forgot I had this in my drafts Bring this duo back to me though pleasj

ISAGI is easygoing, and mild-mannered by nature (though perhaps his rivals disagree on that). It’s literally harder to not be friends with him. Your relationship was equally good, nothing particularly special and not abysmal. The type of friends who might talk on the way to class if you spot each other, but never go out of their way to do so either.

If asked, you wouldn’t even say best friends; he’s too busy with his teammates, and you have your own friend group.

See, Isagi enjoys thinking about stuff in a logical sense, using reason and evidence to support his ‘theory’. Both in real life and in football.

So before he even comes to the conclusion of a crush, firstly, there’s the small details he picks up about you.

Your eyes shift colour slightly if the sun hits them right. But, he reckons that happens with everyone’s eyes. Your eyes crinkle upwards when you smile, and maybe even dimples form on your cheeks as you do so. He likes seeing people smile, and yours is… in a way, cuter than anyone else’s? If he had to rank smiles, he’d put yours near the top. All hypothetical, obviously!

He’s always been observant, even as a kid, so Isagi figured he was just feeling a little more insightful as of late but it doesn’t stop there.

Suddenly, Isagi finds himself unconsciously lingering in places he knows you'll be. He tells himself it's just coincidence, but deep down, he has a feeling that he’s seeking you out more often.

Practicing with his team becomes a lot more strategic, with him making sure he's near your usual route home (not in a stalker way, at least, he hopes not), and just on time so that he can ‘bump into you’ and walk together.

And he lives in the complete opposite direction, so, while you don’t mind his presence, you find it a little odd.

Isagi begins to remember every little thing you mention, even the small stuff, like your favorite snack or the song you've been listening to on repeat. Next thing you know, he’s casually surprising you with them, acting like it’s no big deal but loves it when you get visibly excited about it.

He fumbles with his words a little more around you now, overthinking simple things that never used to bother him. It’s not like he’s shy (actually one of the best communicators out of everyone), he just doesn’t want to mess up or make you think he’s weird!

If he says something that could be interpreted as mildly creepy, he’s actually the first one to call it out and apologise over and over again. Beats himself up about it at home, even if you thought it was mildly funny that he knew what you were doing last week Tuesday at around 5:06PM…

When his teammates joke about him having a crush, he laughs it off, but there’s always a little pink in his cheeks that he hopes you don’t notice.

He'll start texting you first more often, just to share something funny or ask for your opinion on something trivial. It’s an excuse, really, just to have another reason to talk to you.

Also catches himself smiling whenever he sees a notification from you pop up on his phone, and his heart does a little flip when he reads your replies, no matter how mundane they are. Literally a “hey, I’m bored. Wanna hang out” is enough for him to lose sleep over it.

When you two do eventually go to said hang out, he pays extra attention to you: whether it's making sure you’re comfortable, or that you’ve got enough to eat, he’s always subtly looking out for you.

Despite all these signs, Isagi convinces himself it’s better this way — giving you small hints for you to understand rather than straight-up confessing. If you notice them and accept, great! If you notice and don’t accept, that’s fine too, he hopes you can remain friends though!

If you’re completely oblivious, well… he’ll muster up the courage to say it outright.

You and BACHIRA are like two peas in a pod together! Where there’s one, the other’s probably lurking nearby somewhere. Every second of every day seems to be spent with each other (and to anybody with common sense, you two already look like you’re dating).

When the crush starts, he thinks about you more than he already did, if that were even possible. Every little thing you do seems to make his heart race, but he sorta brushes it off as just excitement from being with his best friend.

Kind of a trickier situation than Isagi’s one this way though, because now you’re so close, Bachira doesn’t even feel that different about you. He might not even realise it’s romantic until his mother points it out in the midst of another one of his rambling sessions. About you, that is.

I won’t sugarcoat it; he’s nervous if anything. You’re one of the few friends he has and genuinely seem to care and like about him and if he ruins your friendship over his feelings, he’d be devastated.

But he’s back to his usual self and gains a little confidence after some encouragement from others!

Bachira’s clinginess ramps up a notch, but it’s so typical of him that you might not even notice. He’s constantly draping an arm around you, leaning on you, or just being in your personal space as much as possible.

Willing to share anything and everything with you. For example, if it’s snacks he’s got, he’s always picking out the best pieces just for you and handing them over with a cute smile.

Bachira finds himself staring at you a lot more now. Sometimes you’ll catch him and he’ll just laugh it off with a playful comment, but on the inside, his mind is racing with thoughts he can’t quite put into words.

When you talk, he listens with full attention, his usual playful demeanor softening into something more tender. He hangs onto your every word like it’s the most important thing he’s ever heard — and you could literally be talking about a bug you saw on the sidewalk this morning.

If you ever need anything, Bachira’s the first one to jump in and help, no questions asked. He’d go out of his way just to make you smile, even if it means a truckload of extra effort on his part.

Sometimes, he hints at deeper feelings in his usual roundabout way — in little jokes that might just have a hint of truth behind them. But he always plays it off as just that, a joke.

If you’re feeling down, he’s the first to notice, offering comfort in the form of goofy antics or just sitting with you in silence if that’s what you want.

If you ever confront him directly and ask if he feels something more than just being friends, Bachira might just spill everything in a rush of words; unable to keep his feelings hidden any longer. But until then, he’s content simply being by your side, even if it means he isn’t being entirely honest to himself.

[bimbosanddolls]

Diana was pleasantly surprised when she opened her door and saw a trail of rose petals leading her into the house. Her girlfriend, Lea, had never been much of a Valentine's Day person so Diana didn’t expect much of anything beyond maybe a cheap box of chocolates. At first, she thought maybe the roses would lead to the bedroom but they quickly went towards the stairs to the basement. As she followed the roses down, Diana’s mind was running through all the things this could be. Had Lea finally given in and done something extravagant for Valentines? Was there going to be a basement full of flowers? Or maybe a giant teddy bear? 

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, however, she was greeted by something very different. On the pool table, a person was kneeling with her back to Diana. The lack of tattoos immediately told Diana it wasn’t her girlfriend, but Diana couldn’t help but get a sense of familiarity from the girl. 

“Um, hi?”

Her greeting was met with silence at first. She tried again, speaking a little louder this time, but it was Diana’s girlfriend that emerged from the guest bedroom with a smile on her face. 

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Di,” the raven-haired girl approached her lover. “Hope you like your present.” 

Diana tilted her head slightly as the smile on Lea’s face shifted to a more mischievous grin. She approached the pool table and couldn’t believe what she saw as she came face to face with her present.

Kneeling on the table was her ex-girlfriend, Molly. Her face was staring straight ahead, eyes blank and completely expressionless. She was wearing nothing but skimpy red lingerie. Her hair and makeup were both impeccably done. Molly looked so perfect that Diana barely noticed the cheap Valentine’s Day balloon floating beside her.

Despite her eyes lingering on Molly’s ruby red lips, which hung open ever so slightly, Diana managed to blink herself back to reality, “Wait, Molly? What are you doing?”

Lea giggled softly, “She can’t hear you, silly. She’s just a doll.” 

“What?” 

“Well, you know that spellbook I found at the thrift store last week? Turns out it has some pretty kinky stuff in it.” 

Diana didn’t know what to say. Lea doing magic was nothing new to her, but it had ever been anything like this before. A love spell here, an obedience spell there. But turning someone into a doll? It sounded completely unbelievable, yet the evidence was literally right in front of her face. She tried to wrap her head around it, “But… Molly… I mean, how?”

Lea giggled, “That’s the best part! It was complete luck! I was actually going to try it on myself. I had even started writing you a note explaining everything but then the doorbell rang and there she was. I guess she found some of your stuff and came to drop it off. She was a total bitch about it, as usual. Anyway, I decided to try the spell out on her instead!”

“How long is she going to be like that?”

“I’m not sure,” Lea admitted, “the spell didn’t really say. Could be a couple hours, could be forever. Who cares, really? Magically, she doesn’t exist anymore. Like, no one remembers her but us. She’s just a toy, Di. And a pretty hot one if I do say so myself.”

Diana quivered slightly as Lea came up behind her and put her arms around her. Lea kissed the back of Diana’s neck and shoulders as her hands gently explored her chest.

“Stop worrying, babe. It’s going to be so much fun. I know you’re still attracted to her,” she whispered into Diana’s ear. Her hand reached down into her skirt, making Diana moan softly. “I can feel it. And you know I’ve always thought she was sexy, even if she was a total bitch about it. It’s Valentine’s Day, Di; let’s just have some fun and worry about everything else later.”

Her knees beginning to give out from Lea’s teasing, Diana couldn’t resist it anymore. The dollified Molly looked amazing, and Lea was pushing all the right buttons right now. She bit her lip as she gave into the lust and moaned, “Ohh-okay, let’s do it.” 

Lea giggled again, “Mmm, I knew you’d come around. C’mon, let's get her to the bedroom. I’ve wanted to play with those tits for years.”

[finalgirlminamurray]

remember when halloween 2018 (or as i like to call it, halloween h40) came out and people were making those flowchart-style diagrams explaining the various halloween timelines? i like when people try to do that for the texas chainsaw massacre series because it is a fool's errand. you cannot divide that series into distinct specific continuities because there aren't any. there's a good argument to be made that every single film in that series takes place in its own completely separate timeline because it so often does not bother to meaningfully connect them beyond the single recurring character of leatherface.

i've mentioned before that tcm2 is my favorite sequel and the only one i actually like and will accept as a canon sequel to the original film, and part of that is because despite the complete 180 in tone it does, it's the only one that bothers at all to be a sequel. i think it's the only one that makes sense as a continuation of the first movie - the only glaring continuity errors are confined to the opening scroll text, which you can take or leave as part of the films' canon. (by this i mean the first movie's opening implies that the sawyers' crimes were discovered after sally's escape, while the second film explicitly says no evidence was found. also it retcons sally's last name to be "hardesty-enright" instead of just making lefty's last name also hardesty, for whatever reason.) there's one newly introduced member of the family but you can infer why he wasn't there in the first movie, and the one who isn't there this time has a good reason to be absent (he's died.) one of the main characters in this movie is a relative of the first film's final girl and his involvement in the plot is explicitly connected to what happened to his niece and nephew. the events of the first movie clearly happened in this universe. low bar, i know.

this could be attributed to this being the only sequel also directed by tobe hooper, although the original film's screenwriter did not return, and him having more of a vested interest in continuing the story of his own work. most of the original film's cast did not return for this one (can't say i blame them), but they work with that pretty well. i do think the film ends in a way that pretty decisively puts the brakes on any possible continuation from there, which could be attributed to hooper not really wanting to do a sequel in the first place and trying not to get asked back for another one. (i agree this was not a film that should ever have had sequels, much less become a full-on franchise. but you can tell that upon having to do it they were just like fuck it, let's have fun. hence the tone.) not that that stopped the studios from valiantly trying again and again to profit off of this title.

which might explain why the later sequels are so particularly weird. they don't really have a lot to go off of, i guess. i think part of the problem is that this is one of the few slasher films where the villain is actually a group of people, not a single recurring killer or identity various killers take up. they do have a silent, masked slasher who can be played by whichever new stunt guy you get for each film, but what about the rest of the family? it's always felt important to me that there isn't anyone outside of this isolated little unit in the first movie, but sequels keep inventing totally new characters out of nowhere with no explanation as to where they've been in previous installments. doesn't matter - we're in a new continuity now. tcm3 does not logically follow in any real way from tcm2 or tcm1. it's not a sequel despite the number in the title. it's a reboot.

(i've kind of come around on tcm4 aka tcm: the next generation. i used to think it was the worst sequel but now i think i get what it's trying to do a little better, although it is a pretty stupid movie in a lot of ways. some people have described tcm2 as a deliberate parody of the first film but i think that applies way better to the next generation, seeing how it follows a lot of the same plot beats but done in a more outlandish and parodic way. also, hey: same screenwriter as the original, returning this time as director.)

then the remake made a shit ton of money and kickstarted a new direction for 2000s horror (great. thanks for that.) and got a prequel that also actually made sense as existing in the same continuity as the film it was a prequel to. (again it probably really helped that they were able to get most of the cast back. no need to invent new family members when you still have all the same people playing them.) then in 2013 we got a sequel that promised to Finally be a Direct sequel to the original movie and...it made no sense as one. they try to pick up right where the original left off but right away there are once again a whole bunch of new characters who definitely weren't there in the first movie suddenly appearing in the house, including a baby whose existence is crucial to the plot.

(i'm sure everyone knows about the bizarre timeline decisions of this one, namely the main character ostensibly having been born in the same year as the events of tcm1 but only being about 18 years old during the main events of texas chainsaw 3d, despite it seeming to take place in the modern day. however there is an explanation for that! originally the film was supposed to take place in the early 90s when a character born in 1973 would have been that age, but studio meddling forced them to reshoot it to be 2013. you might notice that any mention or depiction of the exact year the opening scene takes place seems conveniently obscured in this film, implying that it is yet another alternate timeline where the events of tcm1 occurred sometime in the 1990s. this also serves as further demonstration that 1. studio executives are the dumbest people alive, and 2. people really don't care that much about the first movie. more on that later.)

leatherface 2017 is an attempt at a prequel that also makes little to no sense as a backstory for its titular character; i wouldn't be surprised if it started out as an original screenplay that got retrofitted into a tcm movie. there are no new sawyer relatives invented for this film (i don't think), but it does seem strangely insistent on keeping its leatherface away from the family for as much of the film as possible, making it feel especially like it didn't actually want to be a tcm movie. (the twist of the titular character's identity is clearly meant primarily to be surprising and not to make sense, but i can only say: there's no way that the original film's leatherface grew up apart from his birth family for that long and also used to be a "normal"-by-neurotypical-standards, verbal kid. different continuity.)

then in 2022 we get yet another attempt at No Guys Seriously For Real, This is a Direct Sequel to the First Movie, and i should have known things weren't looking good when it was announced this was actually getting dumped on netflix in february but my expectations plummeted to rock bottom when that teaser came out that thought the most relevant part of the movie to sell to people was a "canceled" joke. jesus. tcm:tng i'm sorry, this is the clear worst sequel. (if it was just that one dumb joke it might not be, but there's so much more that's awful in this movie - whatever.) anyway continuity-wise i guess this isn't completely disconnected, there is clear acknowledgement that the events of the first movie happened, but it's really not relevant to the main plot at all, when you get right down to it. pro tip: if a slasher sequel advertises the return of the original film's final girl, she will most likely not be in the film for more than five minutes. there's some implied backstory about leatherface running away to this neighboring town and being taken in by the lady who runs the orphanage, but honestly this could easily be yet another different continuity where leatherface is the adopted son of a kindly old lady (who still has a confederate flag in her window, jfc, i think this is the first time that imagery has ever been used in this series and it's associated with a character who's supposed to be sympathetic??) who was keeping a lid on his murderous tendencies before she died. points for effort i guess but i don't think it deserves much.

i really don't know why this series in particular is like this. most horror franchises will have their movies clearly follow each other and exist within the same continuity, sometimes with a reboot or two if they've gone on long enough (see: halloween having at least three different timelines, but all clearly branching from the same source.) if it's supposed to be an anthology series, they'll just...say that. i've heard it said that this series works best when viewed as variations on a theme, like the original film's events are an urban legend of sorts being told and retold around the campfire and every version is different because everyone remembers it differently or makes up their own. i do like that and think it makes the franchise make more sense but i know most people watching these movies aren't thinking about it like that, they're thinking of them all as sequels to the same movie, with the remake and its prequel being the only ones clearly existing in their own separate continuity.

it's a little sad to see how no one making official movies in the series seems to really care that much about the ostensible source material. maybe i'm biased because it's the film my brain latched onto the hardest when i started really getting into horror, but i think this movie is so interesting and there's so much there to explore with the little we're given about these characters and their dynamics and what they do and why they do it, and even if you can't really dive into all that in a movie you could at least use what's already there for your sequel and most of them just...don't. like they don't seem to have watched the original movie even before writing a sequel to it, just going off their own vague memories about that one scary movie about a guy with a human skin mask and a chainsaw. i know i shouldn't be expecting any more from a slasher franchise on its 9th installment but...whatever. it is what it is. this was never supposed to be a franchise in the first place. at least i can shout into the void about my thoughts and feelings on here.

(i think i read somewhere that the filmmakers were actually forbidden from referencing cannibalism in the script for texas chainsaw 3d and if that's true...oh boy. talk about missing the point. if you feel like something significant is missing in the later films in this series that's probably part of it.)

[ananke-xiii]

"The Born-Again Identity" is one of those SPN ep that I like despite the fact that there are so many things in it that drive me a little bit insane (truth be told, in part it's only my fault cause I can never completely turn up the "suspension of disbelief" volume and I go to a default "but why?" mindset everytime I see something on screen, so okay it's a *just me* problem). However, I do think that S7 was not that bad and it had some quite intriguing and original ideas while the execution was... well, let's say clunky. So, all in all, I think this episode is kinda cool.

the things that drive me a little bit insane:

the imagery of sam desperately running alone in the night along some tracks in a supposedly dangerous part of town. The "derailing" and "going off the tracks" symbolism was a bit on the nose; him buying drugs from the "tweaker" and sleeping with the guy in his car: mmm I feel like that was, like. a lot. to be just thrown away like that.

sam being admitted to the hospital with no mention of said drugs use and the whole scene with the doctor telling dean that they had to put sam in the locked psychiatric floor. I don't know, it also feels like.a lot. and.all of a sudden. they could ease into that way better, it's too ham-fisted as in: we have to find a way to put sam in an horror asylum-like facility in less than 5 minutes for the ep to make sense. so that what feels like to me.

daphne. everything about her drives me insane. I have a whole story where she has to clean up the mess dean has made and hide the body of the demon or something. she'll later start her own private hero's journey to find emmanuel and bring him back to their white picket fence life so perfect and so based on manipulation and stockholm syndrome.

the demons showing up at the grocery store. like what? it was established just a few scenes before when dean told the demon that he was "hands-off" or something and that the demon was actually looking for emmanuel. so why oh why would the other demons look for dean when there's emmanuel.alone.in.the.car. nonsense.

that one demon torturing sam with the electroshock. what was the point? why were demons there anyway? weren't the brothers hands off? maybe i missed something here but to me just felt like "asylum ep= electroshock scene is a must" and meh.

sam leaving the hospital.just.like.that and "swapping place" with cas. i'm sorry, what? i won't even comment on meg being suddenly hired as a nurse cause okay i want to give the writers that, but wtf? oh okay, this guy that has just showed up here (and has definitely possibly murdered 4 or 5 people at the entrance) is maybe not okay, let's not call his wife or someone, let's just lock him up. whaaaaat?

the quite intriguing and original ideas:

the cas/sam parallel: they are both evidently mentally unstable for very different reasons. cas has, in a way, "left the life" and dean, of all people!!!, is not 100% cool with him regaining his memories because what if he leaves???? sam is quite literally very close to leave life in general because the trauma is affecting his body in an irreversible way. they are both "born" again identities at the beginning and at the end of the episode. Very cooooool.

sam and lucifer interactions: the actors really did their job well in this ep cause everytime I watch it I'm exhausted, like I can't bear to hear Lucifer talk and talk and taunt and I definitely feel worn out like sam. I think Jared works very well with Mark Pellegrino, too bad that the whole Lucifer storyline was a mess in later seasons cause the actors had great chemistry.

meg. every scene with meg is just joy for me. and her storyline? left alone looking for "friends"? sure, she totally plans to use cas as her ally but what's new? (jokes aside, there's a whole pattern of women manipulating and using cas, am i the only one seeing it???).

marin. first of all, hello abigail????? (hannibal memories flooding in). second of all, cool MoTW-Not-So-Much-MoTW story. ofc she's a sam's mirror used to basically explain what happened to sam but the ghost who's tormenting her is also her brother and he must die-die-die because he won't let her go. hello??? paralleling sam's hallucinations with sam's issues with dean was super intriguing and too bad that the MoTW was Not-So-Much-MoTW cause marin's story was maybe not even 8 minute long.

bonus: "Peace of Mind" from S14 echoes this ep brillianty, they even cast one of the same actors (the doctor/the mayor) and they used the same surname for sam (sam smith/justin smith). cool cool cool (although unrelated to s7).

[ohanny]

what kind of drunks would the pit babe characters be

babe - the hot girl. he acts all cool and sits there in his leather jacket, being hotter than anyone. his drinks also aren't half as strong as he let's people believe because there's nothing attractive about a sloppy drunk. if he's forced to take multiple shots, he will quietly walk to the bathroom to give himself a drunk girl pep talk in front of the mirror.

charlie - the sober one. he doesn't drink, period. he actually hates the taste. he was destined to be the designated driver (yay, cars!) and the mom friend (sometimes this makes him wish he did drink because fucking hell, he is friends with actual gremlins).

way - the professional. he's on his tenth shot of vodka at the bar, chasing them with a whiskey and coke, mumbling “weak” at the people who started acting up after their third drink.

pete - the crier. he's a nice guy working in a high stress environment, okay? on the rare occasions he gets completely wasted, he will see a particularly artfully arranged napkin dispenser and burst into tears because life is just so beautiful, you know? and it really is unfair how much shit all of them have had to endure!

north - the social butterfly. drunk north knows the lyrics to every song ever written. at the end of the night he has like 50 new instagram followers, he's helped a girl through a break up in the women’s bathroom, he's learned the dj’s mom’s name and might have accidentally agreed into a threesome with a married couple (not that he knew what exactly they were suggesting). he's just pure vibes.

sonic - the instigator. drunk sonic has opinions and no sense of self-preservation. he will walk straight up to the enormous bouncer, get right in his face and go “wow. you're like… really ugly.” on an average night out, he should have died around five times but always gets away unscatched because, like a princess, he gets rescued by people who think he is way too cute to die.

kim - the sappy one. also a total lightweight. will declare his love for you after three beers. give him a shot and he will earnestly look you in the eyes while clutching the hem of your shirt and tell you what a great job you do and how he has always secretly admired you.

kenta - the horny one. he wants, okay? he downright needs. is he going to do anything about it? no. he will sit in some corner, vibrating, stewing in his hormones and if anyone dares to ask him how he's doing, he will look at them and go “do you have any idea what i would let him do to me?” and his smile is so terrifying no one wants any details.

alan - the slutty one. yes, there is a difference. see, alan is a man of action. alan will make it awkward for everyone by sloppily mouthing at jeff’s neck and trying to shove his hand down jeff’s pants on the sidewalk while they wait for charlie to pull up.

jeff - the houdini. he just… disappears. one minute he's there and the next he's gone, only to be discovered three hours later on the roof of a supermarket, feeding chunks of bread to pigeons. either needs a helium balloon tied to his wrist so you can easily spot him in a crowd or an ankle monitor. (was once found in a car, the morning after a frantic search. gave them a sleepy little smile and said “the gps knew where i was.”)

dean - the mute. once he hits his limit, he goes totally nonverbal. just trails behind everyone with a big happy smile and nods his head when asked if he wants to dance / have another drink / make out. super happy to be there.

winner - the big shot. tells everyone he's like the best racer ever and when people who still have critical thinking skills ask for evidence, distracts them buy buying everyone a round of the cheapest shots the bar has to offer. keeps challenging people to arm wrestle despite having noodle arms. finishes the night pissed off, buys two portions of street food and sits down next to a homeless person to share. they always let him talk uninterrupted.

tony - never goes past one glass of wine or whiskey, a lesson he learned the hard way. the first contract he lost back when he was just starting out? he hit the post meeting cocktails a bit too hard and drunk performed whitney houston’s “i will always love you” in karaoke. the humiliation was too much and i fear it really affected his behavior negatively.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[ Full video: https://youtu.be/5Ad77jEdZDY ]

The scenes from before the festival radiated love and kindness. That 10-second clip of Shani Louk dancing, you watch it and you think, this is what they fought for.

And then there's the image of Shani Louk on the back of that truck and the one of her being dragged through the streets of Gaza, thousands cheering and running after her desecrated body. Can you even imagine a starker contrast of good versus evil? It was joy, love, life versus violence, rape and death. Surely, I thought in my naivete, the left would see themselves reflected in these music-loving young people who looked like they had stepped out of the Haight Ashbury in the 70s. Surely Noa Argamani begging for her life as the butchers ride off with her would Inspire in the left a sense of identification and a corresponding sense of fear and anger. How could it not?

Friends it did not. Leftist women found nothing in their hearts to say about it for months. There was a total failure of the international feminist community to stand up for the Israeli women who had been brutalized by Hamas in a particularly sexual way. Despite the preponderance of evidence, there was a code of cilence from the usual suspects. Some would even deny it. YouTube personalities formed what I like to call an "Our Hamas Would Never" Brigade to defend the butchers and the rapists from the evidence of their crimes, insisting it was all war propaganda.

Now this would be bad enough. But you have to remember, these women, these publications, these YouTube personalities, you have to remember who they are. These aren't people who, in general, feel that one should have a high standard of evidence before making an accusation of rape. The exact opposite is true. These are the people who demanded that all standards around evidence for accusations of sexual assault be completely suspended. These are the people who demanded that a standard of affirmative consent be deployed to judge whether a woman had consented to sex, and without that affirmation, any sexual encounter was to be deemed rape.

These are the people who recoded bad sex as rape, sex one regretted as rape, flirtation as harassment, regrettable kissing as assault. And then they turned around and said, well does shooting nails into a woman's vagina truly count as rape? Does chopping off a woman's breasts really count as a sexual war crime? Would our Hamas, who after all are very religious people, ever rape anybody?

Never mind that Hamas had filmed themselves committing these atrocities, had bragged about themm had GoProed them and sent the images to these women's families, never mind that they had little booklets with helpfully translated phrases into Hebrew like, take off your pants. The left was silent, the feminists were AWOL.

How could this possibly be? How could it be that just six years after the MeToo movement, which gave voice to the outrage women felt at being sexually harassed at work, which upended gender relations and wreaked havoc on workplace after workplace because men had complimented their female co-workers, how could it be that these same women who demanded "believe all women" could turn around and say, actually don't believe the confessions of terrorist rapists? The same women who demanded men be fired for asking women out and driven from public life for having consensual sex with underlings, were now defending, with their words or with their silence, the mass rape of Israeli women, siding with men who had driven nails into women's vaginas and cut off their breasts to play with them. The same women and organizations who turned flirting at the office into the civil rights issue of our time, when presented with evidence of the mass rape of Jewish women immediately began to say, we need more context, we need more evidence, remember the plight of the true victims here, who it turned out, were the perpetrators.

They took their standard of "believe all women" and turned it on a dime to "don't believe the bragging of rapists" because their victims were Jews. And this isn't just on the leftist fringe unfortunately. On CNN Dana Bash asked Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who I believe is the head of the progressive caucus, she said to her, "I have seen a lot of progressive women generally speaking that are quick to defend women's rights and speak out against using rape as a weapon of war, but downright silent on what we saw on October 7th and what might be happening inside Gaza right now to these hostages."

"Why is that?" she asked Pramila Jayapal. To which Jayapal replied, "I think that rape is horrific. Sexual assault is horrific. I think that it happens in war situations. Terrorist organizations like Hamas obviously are using these as tools. However, I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against the Palestinians. 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes, three quarters of whom are women and children," she said. Because "Our Hamas Would Never" lie about such a thing.

Meanwhile, the New York Times, which had an extensive article outlining the mass rapes, then shelved an episode of its popular podcast "The Daily" about the rapes due to internal pressure from its leftist newsroom, which apparently is chock full of members of the "Our Hamas Would Never" Brigade. the New York Times refused to stand by its own reporting when its sociopathic woke employees demanded that their audience be protected from knowing about this.

How is this happening? It's easy say this is just antisemitism. And I want to be clear: of course it's deeply fucking antisemitic. There's also the political calculation of trying to satisfy multiple constituencies and the fact that, and I think this is very important, the women's movement has been severely weakened by the transgender agenda, which has gotten women used to being asked to defend transgender rapists, for example in prisons, or transgender athletes beating up women in sports. I think that being forced to defend this has had a huge impact on the women's movement.

But it goes beyond that to the core of leftist ideology, which is built on a belief system that has erased the difference between right and wrong. Now, this belief system is one you will know well if you have been to a university in the last 40 years, or an American newsroom or on Tik Tok or in a meeting with any cultural institution in America, or any progressive organization including any liberal Jewish organization, or if you're on the board of a museum, or even in a writer's room in Hollywood.

People call it Critical Race Theory or Marxism or Social Justice. I call it Wokeness. Wokeness is when you take a worldview that was once based on the difference between right versus wrong, virtue versus evil, and you replace it with a worldview that does not distinguish between right versus wrong, but instead suggests that the world is built on the primary binary of powerful versus powerless. They ascribe inherent virtue to those they see as powerless and evil to those they see as powerful and they superimpose some characteristic onto the binary, whether it's race or gender or sexuality or national origin or religion, rendering all people, for example who they see as "people of color" powerless and oppressed and thus virtuous, and all white people powerful oppressors who are inherently evil and compromised.

This woke worldview absolutely dominates the left which means it dominates the cultural and intellectual output of the United States these days. Once our Elites were eager to offend the powers that be with their art and their scholarship or their journalism. Now they will conform at all costs. And the thing they conform to is the view that "people of color" are inherently virtuous no matter what they do, because they have no agency and are oppressed and marginalized, while white people are inherently evil, the root of everything bad and responsible for any ills that befall us. This is the source of 21st century leftist antisemitism. Every Jew is is coded as white, and thus they are the oppressors and thus they are bad, and every Palestinian is coded as a "person of color" and thus oppressed and thus inherently virtuous.

And that includes Hamas. Every Palestinian outranks every Jew on the oppression scale, and thus any Palestinian in conflict with any Jew is the one the left must side with. The Jew has all the agency and is the oppressor and the Palestinian has no agency and is the oppressed. Anything bad that happens between them must ergo be the Jew's fault because you cannot blame someone with no agency for anything. They are an innocent, like a child. To the woke, the less powerful has no responsibility to act ethically because their rank on the oppression scale means they cannot act at all. And thus they are inherently imbued with virtue no matter what they do.

Their abjection is their virtue and that goes for the terrorists among them as well. Because to the woke, "people of color" have no agency, when a so-called "person of color" commits a heinous act against a so-called white person, the agency of their actions must be reassigned to their victims, who have agency.

What this means is that when a Palestinian rapes a Jewish woman, the agency was her. It was not his. She remains the oppressor. His act was her fault and her suffering does not release her from the burden of her status as oppressor, even in death. That is why leftist feminists cannot side with raped Israeli women. To do so is to betray everything they believe.

They truly see the Israeli women as deserving of everything that happened to them and having brought it on themselves. Like the conservatives of yore who blamed rape on the miniskirt worn by the victim, the left today blames the fact that Israel has more power than Hamas for everything Hamas does. They simply cannot think their way out of seeing Hamas as virtuous, because to do so would be to admit that their entire worldview is not only wrong but is fucking disgusting.

-

"There's nothing more delicious than pretending to be good while acting in a sadistic manner." -- Nina Power

[beloveddawn-blog]

The Course of True Love

Dedicated to @minnieposting who I was discussing this idea with.

This is based on the fact that when Lucius became a romanceable character, Teleri went from like seven hearts with him to two. I didn't even do anything! But Teleri isn't the farmer romancing this elf, Zari is.

Zari/Lucius

2200 words

Rated T for some language and implications.

Zari grinned as Lucius laughed, pleased to be making her new friend happy. He had been the first person she’d met when she was new in Nel’Vari and what a welcome he had been! Her favourite part of him at first had been his clear dislike of shirts, though it had quickly been overshadowed by his dry sense of humour and easy-going demeanour. He was reserved, for sure, and obviously had gotten so used to being ‘the strange one’ that he didn’t even try to make real friends anymore, but Zari had persisted. He hung out most often on the bank of one of her favourite fishing spots in Nel’Vari, so it hadn’t actually been that hard to strike up conversation with him.

It had not escaped her notice that he hid from the citizens at the very edge of the city, any more than it had escaped her notice that they had managed to stick her even further out.

Their casual camaraderie had slid quite easily and unstoppably into a crush that Zari could no more halt than she could halt breathing, making her heart race and her palms sweat every time he was near. She always scanned for his name on the notice board, searched for his striking hair wherever she went in town, and swooned the days she was lucky enough to see him. She kept her wild heart a secret, however, and never spoke of it. He had made it clear, in a thousand little ways and a hundred bigger ones, that his attention, devotion, and zeal was reserved for the Moon and only the Moon. As he adored the moon, so too did Zari adore him: near (but not near enough), true (yet unwantedly different), and steadfast.

Then, one day, something changed.

Lucius was not at the riverbank as expected.

Lucius was not anywhere he could normally be found.

Zari had fretted herself into a total state before finally working up the nerve to question Opal about it. She was the only other person Lucius really interacted with… which made her the only person who ever could spill her secret to the man in question. It was enough to make Zari unreasonably wary of the other woman, despite the fact that Opal… actually didn’t seem to care too much about what was going on around her.

As evidence, her complete disinterest in the strange behaviour of her coworker.

“He’s apparently ‘working through some things’.” She replied, doing full air quotes and rolling her eyes. “Which is fine, but do it on your own time. Nel’Vari doesn’t run itself, you know. The moon attendants are vital to the health of the city and all who live in it. It is not a duty that can be shirked.”

“Is he alright, though?” Zari asked, even more worried than she had been before she got her question answered. Opal sighed longsufferingly.

“Ask him yourself tomorrow when I drag him out of the Temple by his ear and make him work.” She replied, glowering in a way that made it clear to Zari the conversation was over.

Only… It turned out she didn’t have to go looking for him. There, standing next to the path to her farm, was the exact person she was looking for.

He had come looking for her.

The usual butterflies that took root in her stomach when she saw him went on a rampage, with all of her worry and love coiling together like a nest of snakes in the very core of her. All of this together put her on the very edge of her last nerve, and she couldn’t help the grating giggle or high-pitched squeak she made as she called out to him.

“Lucius! Hi! I haven’t seen you around lately!”

He broke into a heart stoppingly sweet smile when he noticed her, though one ivory brow winged curiously upwards.

Even that made her swoon.

“Zari!” He replied, stepping forward and gathering one of her hands in his. She flinched, entirely startled and too on-edge to hide it.

They had never touched before.

His face pinched in with concern at her unusual reactions. He’d seen her arm in arm with Sass or Helios plenty of times, and even all over Char as the two giggled and raced through the woods together. He knew Zari wasn’t leery of contact. She smiled reassuringly at him, though from the way his lips turned down she assumed it must have come out rather sickly.

Those beautiful lips…

Zari gave herself a full body shake and focussed her attention back on Lucius, who was now looking rather concerned. “I haven’t seen you in days! I was worried something might have happened to you.” She confessed, noting how that simple admission caused him to relax so swiftly.

“I have been… preoccupied.” He admitted, glancing down momentarily and rubbing a thumb contemplatively over her knuckles. “I needed time with just the Moon and myself to understand exactly why.”

Time without you. Zari heard, clear as day. There was no one else to avoid. There was no one else who sought him out the way she did. No one else that cared like she did.

“Oh.” She replied softly, pain lancing through every nerve as her heart broke. She offered him whatever pitiful remains of a smile she could muster up, and charged right through this conversation without pausing to note the way concern laced his face as he seemed to recognize the agony in her. “Oh, I see. It’s… It’s fine, I get it. I’m glad you enjoyed your little sabbatical, because let me tell you, Opal is pissed that she’s had to do all your work for the last week.”

“Zari…”

“And I wouldn’t want to piss her off, she seems like the sort to take it personally, you know? So I’m sure you’re going to be really busy this week as well…”

“Zari…”

“And I’ll miss my favourite view coming into town, of course, but you do what’s best for you…”

“Starlight…”

“And I know the whole chest thing isn’t about me! I promise I know that…”

“Favourite… View…”

“It’s just most people who hang around the edges of town dressed in as little as you dress in are looking for company rather than avoiding it, and sometimes a girl thinks a few things before knowing better, you know?”

“Company.” He repeated with distaste, obviously getting the reference, before leaning in closer to take a better look at Zari, who was full on panicking now.

“It’s just that you have such nice shoulders and such a striking colour and it hits like a punch to the face…”

CRACK!!!

Both of them stilled, the sound of bone splintering echoing through the trees around them. Lucius let go of her to raise his own hand to his face, carefully catching the first drops of too-bright red to mar his cool colour palette as they ran down his face, the contrast emphasizing just how out of place they were.

Zari laughed, high and hysterical. “That was meant to be a mime.” She blubbered through her maniacal giggles. “It was supposed to be a mime of a hit, you weren’t actually supposed to be that close to me.”

Lucius’s eyes shuttered as he took a step back, still cradling his face. “I see. I’ll make sure I do not encroach again.”

Zari’s wings flared with power. She couldn’t stop her hysterics, she’d been wound too tight for too long, but that didn’t stop her from healing what she’d done.

Well, healing the physical, at least. She watched in despair, still cackling, as Lucius turned on his heel and disappeared into the forest.

Her laugher turned to tears, and eventually to quiet as she lay there, no one else coming by to check on her. No one ever came this far out except Lucius, and now even he wouldn’t.

And it was all her own fault.

*

It was Helios that had grabbed her off the forest floor, of course it had been. He’d come thundering through the woods like he was perusing the hounds of hell, mounted of his own hellhound, and scooped her right up to ride with him. He scolded her all the way back to the Nel’Vari house about losing contact and staying out past bedtime, but subsided when she burst into a fresh set of tears when he mentioned inconveniencing the elves.

He just sighed, promised her they would talk the next day, and yanked her at full sprint through the house. They collapsed on the single bed (so reminiscent of the first season her friends all came to visit her, back when all four of them would squish into one tiny bed) and he almost immediately passed out. Zari had just a moment to appreciate just how good her friends were to her before she followed him into oblivion.

*

The next day Helios was off like a shot, apparently having forgotten he’d promised to talk to her. She smiled into her pillow, charmed by how adorably eager he was to go see his wife, then her mood fell as her own abysmal failure to communicate with a person she liked struck her again. She melted back into her bed, suddenly feeling like even moving was going to be too much for today. It was unusual, she was always so energetic, but today she just… couldn’t.

Char came to find her around noon, apparently having been tipped off by Helios that she wasn’t feeling well. Zari hadn’t moved.

The fire elemental curled up next to her, using her whole body like a heating pad, and ran her fingers softly through her short black hair. They stayed like that, lost in the act of giving and receiving comfort. Finally, Zari felt strong enough to speak. “I messed up.”

Char hummed thoughtfully. “I’m sure we can fix it. You fixed it when I fireballed the fence, and I fixed it when Sass accidentally took out the daisies at the end of Hive Row. And Helios didn’t even actually ban you from Sustainable Forestry when you messed up planting trees in rows. We can help. Fixing things is what we do. Except Sass, who I’m pretty sure is actually trying to start her own Zoo.”

Zari snorted. “This isn’t just about us, though. I… may have been mean to Lucius?”

She could just feel Char narrowing her eyes, even though she couldn’t see it. “... I doubt that. You’re head-over-heels for him. I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”

That got Zari’s attention. “How did you know???” She hissed, shooting up to sitting and accidentally knocking Char onto the floor. The other girl glared at her from her new prone position.

“It’s not like it’s a secret.” She replied, obviously peeved. Her expression softened into shock at the panicked look on Zari’s face. “By the Flame, did you seriously think it was? Everyone knows, Zari! Please, please tell me you didn’t actually think that was a secret?”

Zari buried her face in her hands as her wings snapped out and vibrated in distress.

“Oh, Flame.” Char cursed. She ran her hands down her own face with an exasperated groan. “Okay. Okay. This is still manageable. What did you say to him?”

“... I… said it was fine he never wants to talk to me anymore..”

“See? That’s manageable.”

“... Then I implied he dresses like a whore.”

“... Not ideal, but still manageable.”

“Then I punched him in the face and broke his nose.”

“Zari!”

“It was an accident! He was holding my hand and I panicked!”

“And you broke his nose? He’s going to think you don’t want him to touch you!”

“...”

“What did you do?”

“I, ah, I flinched? When he grabbed my hand? I wasn’t expecting the motion!”

“Why are you like this?”

“I don’t knowwwwww!” She wailed, throwing her hands in the air.

Char sighed expressively, but before she could say anything the door was flung open, echoing through the house.

“THAT DOES IT!” Sass’s voice rung from the stairs. “NONE OF YOU ARE ALLOWED TO TALK TO ANYONE YOU LIKE WITHOUT A SIGNED PERMISSION FORM AND AN APPROVED SCRIPT.”

Char pouted. “That’s really unfair. Zari is the one that messed up!”

“YOU MISSED YOUR FIRST DATE WITH DOCTOR WORNDHART BECAUSE YOU WERE BUSY FIGHTING OUR OWN SCARECROW.” The indignant voice was getting closer, and both other girls sulked back from it. “THEN YOU WANTED TO SHOW UP AT HIS HOUSE AT 6 AM IN A WEDDING DRESS AND HOLDING A DIAMOND AS AN APOLOGY! HELIOS HAD TO SIT ON YOU IN THE BOUTIQUE!” The demon stormed into the room as she continued to shriek at them, pointing an accusing finger before her. “THIS APPLIES TO YOU TOO.”

“I, on the other hand, am married, so I actually am exempt.” Helios commented, strolling in behind her with a shit eating grin on his face. “Suck it.”

Sass turned her accusing finger on him then. “Not. Helping.”

“Of course I’m not. Char has somehow wooed her paramour through repeated hospital visits and blue roses, and Zari has charmed Lucius enough for him to initiate physical contact. They don’t actually need help, so instead I’m going to laugh at them.” He grinned, sharp and sharklike, “Serves them right for making fun of me first!”

[zazzander]

Dosgred Disappoints: Character Bloat

One of the biggest downfalls of this manga is the sheer number of characters. The author loses sight of the main cast very quickly, to the point that it gets really confusing what’s going on in the story.

I’ve spoken about Chapter 1 already. In that chapter, we meet: Rou, Haruna, grandpa, Keiichi, and Koichi. This is, presumably, our main cast. It makes sense that they are all introduced in the first chapter.

As I said in my previous post, the story fumbled it’s introduction of the cast. By the end, we don’t know much about Rou and Haruna. We know even less about Keiichi and his brother, Koichi.

Chapter 2 gives more information. The brother’s dynamic is solid. They're on good terms, nothing much to see there. As for the twins, Haruna blogs about her brother which is lowkey kind of weird. She seems to have no hobbies outside of this – again, weird. Like she says ‘Rou’s going to a local middle school’ even though they are twins. Surely, they would both be going. So this blog is seemingly for the benefit of Rou's fans back home.

Everything going fine... until Page 22. Things start falling apart from here.

On this page, we are introduced to Rou’s middle school ice hockey team. Despite Rou and Keiichi both being walking distance from the same lake, they apparently don’t go to the same school. This isn’t crazy, it happens all the time, but it was a little confusing because it seems unlikely they live close to two middle schools considering this is supposed to be Hicksville.

(The author is inconsistent with the size of this town. For example, there isn’t any major shopping location nearby. It’s primary industry focuses on a single large factory. Yet we have evidence of multiple middle schools and apparently four skating rinks.)

The entire middle school team is introduced all at once – yikes – and here begins the character bloat. There are four main guys on this team. Their role in the story is basically to convince Rou to play a game of Ice Hockey. That wouldn’t be a big issue but for the fact that their story completely takes over the plot.

Considering that this is the first time Rou and Keiichi play agaisnt each other, you’d think that would be the priority. He’s the rival! Rou and Keiichi are the main characters and should be the focus. Instead, at the start of chapter 3, we meet even more characters. This time, some guys on Keiichi's team (but not Keiichi's friends).

Now, in chapter 3 we have a total of 11 "important" characters. I have to class these new guys as important because they get flashbacks. You heard me, these random kids get flashbacks but actually important characters like Rou and Keiichi don't.

It's a really strange choice. Yes, it explains why the match means something to these boys, but it feels like a waste of time for the overall story. Rou and Keiichi should be the most compelling characters right now! This kind of minor character exploration is something that should happen much later.

We get hints at Rou-Keiichi conflict in chapter 4. The members of Oino high’s team, including Keiichi’s brother, show up. Oino's coach watches the game. He’s got this unreadable expression. Considering how often we see him, and his involvement later, we probably have to call him relevant character #12.

Basically, he’s watching the game and he should be watching Keiichi BUT he's actually focused on Rou. Rou plays weird but he’s clearly got talent. This is potentially such a big deal for Keiichi and a means of solidifying their rivalry. If this coach expressed an interest in this random newbie over him, Keiichi could get all huffy about it. He might try to play better to get the Oino coach's attention.

That doesn't happen. The coach's commentary is unknown to the players themselves.

By chapter 8, we are introduced to yet more characters. This time it’s several guys on the Oino team. Plus, we get reintroduced to a figure skater who had been Rou’s rival before he quit. I didn't call this guy important before, but since he's here again and gets a speaking role, he gets upgraded. "Important" characters: 15.

Dogsred gives us no time to breathe as it mostly ignores Rou yet again to depict high school championship finals. Now, I do understand why we need to show this game.

Oino loses here. Suddenly, there’s a team even better than they are! And that’s crucial because this is going to be Rou’s team soon.

Rou makes the choice to go watch this game rather than the ice skating. This symbolises how invested he’s getting in the sport.

However, the choice to depict the entire game is where the story suffers. Hears an alternative way to present the same plot information but without losing sight of our main characters:

Haruna tells Rou about this ice skating tournament and he seems like he might go, missing out on watching the championship game.

POV switch to Keiichi, there’s a break in the game and he’s gone to get snacks with/for his friends (does Keiichi have friends? I assume so, he’s the captain of his middle-school team there’s so many characters it’s hard to keep track).

Suddenly! Rou shows up. He's here to see the game, after ditching his sister and the ice skating tournament.

The boys argue. This is a good chance to really establish why they hate each other.

Then, while they were distracted, the final part of the game starts. Oino is losing!

Keiichi ignores Rou in favour of cheering on his brother. The game ends in a loss.

Keiichi gets huffy at his brother. “I can’t believe you lost! It’ll win us the championship next year!”

Basically, we focus the story on the character interactions because the two main characters aren’t on the ice. We don’t know the people playing (outside of Koichi who is by-and-large just Keiichi’s older brother at this point).

Regardless, this choice can be forgivable. Chapter 12 however… cannot.

In chapter 12, the author decides to completely ditch the main plot to focus on the rival high school, Sameoh. We meet several members of the team. That's twenty characters with names, personalities, and the makings of a plot. Twenty!!!

Then for all of chapter 13, we focus on these guys as their hometown get hit by a tsunami. This is a big setback for them – and completely derails any tension that was set up by them ending that 19-year streak the main team, Oino, had going. LIKE WHAT. I’m so serious right now, that undercuts all the tension.

It is only now, in chapter 14, that we finally arrive at Oino high school and Rou signs up for the actual team he will play for. That’s so late, guys. Arguably too late.

I’ll use an example of a hugely popular sports manga that started the characters in middle school too: Haikyuu!! Do you want to guess what chapter Hinata arrived at Karasuno High? Chapter 1. That manga covered Hinata's entire middle-school journey in less than a character. Now, Dogsred doesn't have to be that quick, but at minimum this moment should have come within the first five chapters.

This is what I mean by character bloat. The plot has been bogged down by all these unnecessary characters.

The good news is the next few chapters focus on the try-outs.  We meet no new characters and the reader has a chance to get their heads around what's actually happens. That ends in chapter 18, when we get the backstory of random two defence players on the team. Relevant character count #22.

That being said, after trawling through all of this, the story has several great moments. There’s a lot of potential here – I just think the manga needed some serious reworking before it got picked up for publication.

What do I mean by that? Typically with sports manga, the introduction has three main plot points to hit: why does the MC love this sport, some kind of set-back in middle school, and them joining up for their high school to achieve their goals. Now, Dogsred didn’t have to hit every one of these beats. Big Windup, for example, skips the first one.

In Big Windup, we start with the MC’s “set-back”. Mihashi was hated by his middle school team because he was a terrible pitcher. He signs up to his high-school team and is allowed to be the pitcher because they don’t have an alternative. Mihashi really wants to play baseball though, despite his shy demeanour. It's clear he loves baseball, even if we aren't given an exactly "why".

Within the first few pages, Big Windup jumps into it's MC joining his new team and fills in backstories later. Dogsred could have done the same. Start with a flashback of Rou’s decision to change sports and jump forward to him walking onto the field to join the ice hockey team. Everything else can be elaborated on later. To hint at the past, a couple characters could recognise him as “the Rabid Prince” but Rou brushes off their questions.

We could even have Keiichi recognise him from the lake and him go “but you’re a figure skater!” and have a brief flashback to their fight on the lake.

All in all, my point is that this manga meanders and runs breakneck at the same time. It tells us about all these random characters who don’t matter. Because of that, it got lost.

The good news is - Dogsred seems to have finally gotten back on the path! Now that Rou is in high school the plot is moving forward at a much more standard pace. I guess we’ll see where it goes from here.

[seriousbrat]

the implication that james never changed and/or tricked lily into marrying him pisses me off, not for james but for lily.

we have so much evidence that this girl was stubborn and headstrong and not afraid to call james out on his shit. what you’re saying about her when you say she married james despite him not maturing is you implying that she’s a silly woman who prioritizes romance and attraction over morals and would gladly go against something she is firm in her stance about for a man.

or that he tricked lily into marrying him- what does that even mean? lily isn’t stupid, how exactly would he trick her? at this point you’re putting more work into creating these nonsensical theories just to validate your dislike for a character when you can just dislike him because you can. you don’t kneed to grasp for straws trying to justify why you hate james, you’re allowed to just not like him.

but these weird theories are just silly and make no sense. and they really do lily’s character a disservice.

for real!!! I agree. We dont know much about Lily but what we do know is she wasn't shy about telling James exactly what she thought of him. For her to do a total 180 on that makes no sense and is completely out of character for her, which is impressive given there's relatively little character to be out of when it comes to Lily.

to be blunt the idea that James manipulated Lily into a relationship, based on what we know, is objectively so... so. unlikely in terms of just the base text and authorial intent. and in my opinion, a pretty overdramatic reading; purposefully backflipping into the worst most dire explanation based on very flimsy non-evidence. people are free to have their headcanons obv but that's what they are in the end.

also, like you said, it does feel unnecessary because there's already so much to hate about james (or love, if ur galaxy brained and enjoy a good character flaw) in canon so what is the point. the exact same goes for snape. idgi personally.

the "he tricked her" thing is utterly absurd on many levels imo, peak jamespiracy thinking, but also funny because personally my hc is that's what Sev believed at first, or wanted to believe anyway. He was the original jamespiracy theorist but I think he was smart enough to eventually realise that this was massive cope and untrue in the end. It's just so much more likely that jily were simply 2 young people who liked each other.

I understand relating to Snape and that it's hard to be objective about something you personally feel very emotionally invested in; but I think it's helpful to try, especially when dealing with others who may have differing viewpoints. It does seem like ppl are automatically determined to believe the very worst of James no matter what, and refusing to hold my poor flawed fucked up Sev to anything even remotely close to the same standards; it's perhaps worth being aware of that. the same is def true of many james stans/snaters i'm sure but anyway, the jamespiracy lives on!

edit to add: its not that I dont believe that strong/smart people can be manipulated. it's that it's (imo) out of character for lily to suddenly decide that she's okay with james's behaviour, implying there was a change of some sort. and I think it's more likely for him to have just matured but still been imperfect than it is for there to be some horrible dynamic of manipulation and abuse going on the entire time, which we would have seen evidence for.

[calumhoodgoss]

Hihi Lighter anon back (I’m gonna have to announce myself like this all the time right, even when I’m not talking about the song?)

Been catching up on posts and omg girlie, you’re my favourite blog 🥰 this little corner of the internet is so great!!

Your review is so valid!! Luke’s voice is just incredible and the way you described it is perfect, I never would have thought of putting it that way but that’s just so true.

I really agree, the visuals in the video really suited the vibes, idk you put it so eloquently.

As for why it was just Luke ��🏼‍♀️ no clue. But that man crumbles into peer pressure so easily (see shoey at Brisbane NFATTNE show as main evidence) so I just want to assume they told him he that he absolutely had to and he just did it.

But we can hope and pray for some promo from Ash and Cal but I feel like maybe the ship has sailed slightly on it?

But I wanna get everyone’s opinions on the self-titled 10th anniversary stuff. Cause like everyone on twitter and reddit where being so awful about it. IMO just be happy they’re acknowledging it and we’re getting anything at all. I definitely think I’m in the minority when i say that I actually liked the merch (even ordered some despite the shipping cost) because it’s simple and wearable. I feel like it’s an if you know, you know vibe and I’d rather that than an outlandish huge design. But idk, thoughts?

Hope all is well xx

OMG HI GIRLIEEEE

hahah you can totally give yourself a different nickname thats not lighter anon if you prefer 😂 whatever bbbbbbbb

THANK YOUUU and omgosh he totally could of just been peer pressured in lmao i didnt even think of that 😂 but its certainly a possibility hahahhaha oh lukeee

as for the self titled merch i totally agree. at least its wearable and pays homage to their early merch designs. its not out of line for what they used to produce so ?? it makes complete sense to me

on the other hand though, i do feel like it was an obvious choice and quite lazy (for lack of a better word). if we got an interview or some other kind of content along with the merch i dont think people would of been nearly as mad. but because it was just the merch, and it was the most lack lustre and obvious design choices, i feel like fans are just feeling a bit under appreciated. i dont personally mind, but i can see how many people would feel like that. especially not having gotten any content from them all year, people are thirsty lmao

side note, isnt friends of friends meant to be happening?? its 'august' - whatever that means

[spunkykirby]

Didn't the new Chenyu lore solidify Zhongli was always a compassionate person (word for word, Xinyan's lore about pre-Archon War)?

Our precious Neuvillette IS all of that and while nice, you have to also acknowledge he is just as stickler and black and white like Zhongli is when it comes to performing as executors to their concepts. They're literally the same person, just switch "contract" with "law" and they will follow it even if they know certain details are wrong re:sending child Wrio to prison despite him stopping a CHILD TRAFFICKING RING and sending Childe to prison despite LITERALLY declaring him as not guilty 2 seconds prior lol.

Three out of four of those traits/factors can be attributed to 95% of the fandom's most popular and favorite characters (villainous or not, and this INCLUDES Focalors/Furina), so Zhongli isn't more evil-like for harboring those same traits and expressing them in a tolerable manner like them (each and every instance was controlled and he is not expressing these "flaws" in a reckless, villain-like fashion).

"Just to prove a point" sounds incredibly disingenuous/ALMOST like a somewhat biased understatement in an attempt to trivialize the topics at hand to further villainize Zhongli. It was a test curated to determine if the people he was responsible for could hold the risky reigns he's been handling for centuries. Someone responsible would make sure their replacements have a sufficient test and experience before jumping ship and leaving them in a demanding role.

The game literally goes out of its way (re:Three characters directly involved in the plot) to confirm anybody who DIDN'T sign up for this was never in any real unpredictable danger, this test wasn't even at the actual harbor (Keqing stating they couldn't let it reach the harbor in the cutscene). If he were irresponsibly reckless he would've left without a second thought and left the relations between Adepti and Humans forever fizzled and unprepared for Divine conflicts that are guaranteed to come in the future. Are we going to villainize all coaches for testing their athletes now, and every teacher testing students? There is no test without risk, that's just a fact of life.

Once again, what Zhongli embodies is also exactly what Neuvillette embodies, just replace "contract" with "law" and they're still the same thing, Neuvillette takes pride in never making exceptions to what he embodies too 💀

Blaming Zhongli for the Vishap Chronicles makes the least amount of sense in this entire rant, and sounds like an attempt to solely villainize him while ignoring any further context and nuance in the narrative. Where is the sense in blaming someone else for a villain's actions when that villain has full autonomy over what they can and cannot do? If we're going to blame a villain who has their own autonomy and is responsible for their own actions on the person who either stopped them or prevented them from doing their antagonistic things in a certain place (in this example Liyue) then we can blame all the Archons for their own problems that are completely outside of their control. We can blame the Traveler for issues they partook in when they have no control over the villain's actions too (ex:Traveler totally caused Childe to unleash Osial, they are to blame). This makes no sense.

The way "colonized" is used here applies to every country and every Primordial One-centered being in Teyvat then too, INCLUDING all of Fontaine and the humans residing there, so it's not such a unique gotcha in Zhongli's case, otherwise we'd have to villainize literally everyone in the narrative who isn't a dragon.

I wouldn't note on Ashikai being a reliable source either due to the fact outside of Deshret and Remus there is little to no evidence/100% conjecture of anyone else holding onto that title (Decarabian?? Of all characters??). This is the same person who said Zandik (Dottore) had French origins (FRENCH...he's from Sumeru) and noted little to nothing on Zhongli's Chinese motifs despite it being 95% of his character (the title Rex Lapis is solely an English translation by the way, Zhongli canonically has NO Latin ties in Chinese).

Where is the evidence of Zhongli being personally involved with PO and the Dragons besides him maybe being slightly older than Teyvat? When he's noted on being *young* during the Moon sisters era? And if he was, why would Azhdaha bother being submissive to him right off the bat, even worse, becoming BFFs with him when Zhongli was literally trying to kill him and all of his brethren a few years before?? EVERY single archon is part of the modern Celestial system, yet Neuvillette does not look down upon Focalors/Furina for participating in it despite being forced in just like Zhongli was, too.

Zhongli didn't seem that shaken up but that's just my perspective. Dude was literally smiling when Hu Tao said they'd get along, before quickly shaking himself back into Mysterious™ character "oh I actually have to be suspicious" lol he did the same exact thing to Venti last year and barely anybody believes Zhongli is genuinely afraid of Venti.

HP should've activated during Fontaine, would've made it 80x more dramatic. We're due Celestia lore 100%!!

Zhongli evading Neuvillette is like making me both laugh and cry because THE COMEDY IS LOST but also zhongli IS a filthy war criminal bastard and hes also old and neuvillette carries the weight of the pain of his previous incarnations but hes also this little young angry dragon and i NEED them to interact in the endgame(and not in an event) no zhongli and neuvillette will NOT be hanging out together remember that solid rock is shattered by water and the dragon's justice is served Cold.

[missing-wires]

But I thought you couldn’t save Discord convos?

Technically, you can’t and it’s against TOS, but I used a third party app that extracted everything to html.

Ah, I see, how does it look?

Kinda shitty, tbh. Some of the images don’t load, but text wise everything is there. But maybe you could find a really good html viewer, that’ll make it look really good!

Haha, maybe, I’ll have to see what I can find. So what’s with these stalking claims? How did you find out where she lived?

Well, she initially she told me her name “Elizabeth,” haha so that much was never a secret. Later on, she sent me an unedited Venmo screen shot of a guy we referred to as Staff Sgt Scotty, who was this Navy aircraft mechanic, who enjoyed luring her off live streams.

White knight type of thing?

Exactly, he would pay her like $50 per hour to talk on the phone with her. One time, he wanted to talk to her for free, because he was being deployed again and asked for my advice.

Haha, what did you say?

Haha, I don’t even recall, to be honest. Maybe “Fuck that shit, charge him double” but I’m sure it’s in the convo. Anyway, she had 4 friends on Venmo, all of whom were publicly visible. I literally just typed in her ex’s name on FB, and searched “Elizabeth” on his friend list and her name popped up. I was concerned about how easy it was to find, so I told her.

Ahhh I see! And what about the pizza and the address?

Well for starters the pictures she sent me via text message were geo-tagged, so it was p obvious where she worked and lived. But even then, I wasn’t like 100% sure or anything until she confirmed it when she posted the pizza on FB.

Yeah, I mean, despite all the evidence, it was possible she could have like slept somewhere else and just been hanging out at certain place?

Haha, I mean of course. I never really cared to know her daily schedule. But like the geotagged shit was blindly obvious, why pretend like I don’t notice that shit?

Haha, bet, say how much did you pay this little bitch?

Haha, good question. First and foremost, everything I paid towards her streaming was completely refunded. Then I paid her $60 for 1 month of Snapchat access, but she cut it short after getting mad at me. My bank covered me the amount lol. I don’t know if it was a chargeback, but I told them what had happened and they covered it.

Aw that’s cool.

Yeah, so the first time i actually gave her any money at all was in early November. I sent her $100 to help with an unexpected tire/tow expense. I felt bad because she had literally just got a new car, and tried calling some “friends” but nobody would come out to help her. Left stranded, she turned to her mom, who’s always been there for her. She just sort of broke down and dropped some childhood trauma shit on her and I wanted to give her a little something to show her that I still cared, even though I had known what was going on, at that point

You knew at that point?

Haha, of course, I really just wanted her to admit it. I tried dropping hints about it, but had a hard time disguising my frustration.

Ah, that makes sense. So what, you only gave her $100?

No, I also sent her a $50 Amazon Gift Card as an early X-mas present, as well as a surprise donation of $6.66 to celebrate her reaching 666 IG followers

Aww, that’s a nice touch! Did she thank you for it?

Haha of course not, but by that point, I was never doing it for the thanks, haha. Or honestly, I don’t think I ever was doing it for the thanks. I just decided that I liked her and that was that.

Haha, I see, so in total you gave her $156.66 over the course of a year or so?

That is correct.

That’s not a big return for a year plus

Haha, no, it’s not

[last-flight-of-fancy]

I still see the misconception that Vanitas is pure darkness and/or the Darkness from KHUX only sometimes, and that drives me a bit feral as your local Vanitas enthusiast, so for your conveniance I have compiled a handy list of evidence to the contrary. As always, there may be more factors we are not yet aware of, but I still feel confident in the assertion that Vanitas isn’t pure anything.

**Side note, I am fully aware of the fact that darkness is not inherently bad, but it is instead too much of light or dark that causes problems. This is not an ‘uwu i want my baby villain to be light because light is Good’ argument. This is a ‘hey this is kh and the characters are a lot more complicated and layered than some seem to think’ argument.

So. Let’s start with the beginning, shall we?

Well, kind of. We’ll get to khux in a bit. BBS first.

The initial light is easily written off as being Ven’s own light as the split takes place, however;

The light continues to rise, right into the ball of darkness that creates Vanitas. honestly I’d say right there makes it pretty indisputable that there is at least a small part of Vanitas at his very core is light.

(edit: as of the kh4 trailer it’s been pointed out that the way Vanitas uncurls and the way the Darksides uncurl as they appear is basically identical. i dont know what that means either in canon or wrt this essay but i do sure think its INTERESTING)

POV: you are ventus about three inches from death looking up at a severed piece of your own heart.

is it visual smybolism or is it Ven’s perspective being too-bright due to his own split related trauma? you decide. (both? both.)

But again, when Vanitas gives up (and yes, he just.. gives up, and it breaks my heart), he turns to light as he falls, just like Ven (who, tellingly, rises instead)

Vanitas’ fall also reveals Ven’s heart station, again by way of a circle of light. I still do not beleive that they completely re-integrated, but I do think it’s a very nice way of showing how they still need each other, despite their divergence.

(whether that need is healthy or not is a matter for debate)

To contrast this, I turn your attention to all the nobodies defeats, and most importantly of all imo, repliku’s.

(i do think it interesting to note how many of the nobodies have touches of gray light in their fading too, though some are more noticable than others. They’re all a little bit unique, which I like. i could definitely metaphor on main on these guys if i wanted to. except luxords. which is totally black? for some reason? hey luxord what is uuuuuup)

Anyway, repliku. who also fades with darkness, and a little bit of blue lights (which along with purples seem to often be like, darkness tangential, presumably for visual design/contrast reasons).

It’s important to note here that the GBA version came out in 2004, and the PS2 remake in 2007. BBS was released in 2010. There was visual precedent for a darkness based non-nobody character fading out of existence, and they tellingly did not use it.

Okay, so what about Xion then?

Xion is pretty solidly light based imo, which makes sense considering how strongly she is connected to Roxas (who is basically light incarnate going by kh3 lol) and sora (who is also pretty strongly connected to light), as well as memories of kairi (PoH) and riku (light cloaked in darkness).

and also there’s the whole ‘memories erased from existence’ thing. I can only assume that fucks with like... everything.

in kh3 we see repliku fade again, this time a mix of his current and past selves which... is a mix of light and dark.

So there’s plenty of examples of characters fading with darkness attached to them, which begs the question.... why not vanitas? The character we are told over and over again is only darkness?

As MoM told us, the truth is what we see, not what we hear.

Which means the answer is that he isn’t.

He’s definitely part darkness, that much is without question, even without the presence of KHUX’s darkness (which i’ll get to in a second), everybody has darkness in their hearts whether they like it or not, with the sole exception of the Princesses of Heart (and possibly ventus. maybe. given the conceit of this whole post though i’m willing to bet not as much as we’re told he is).

anyway. KHUX. let’s look at that shall we?

because i think this is where people get confused. Or simply assume that the previous lore is being retconned. while kh can and does occassionally retcon things, it rarely does so in a way that actively contradicts itself (sometimes it may look like it does, but eventually is shown to only be missing context that made it make sense)

So that being said, I don’t beleive any of my previous points are or have been retconned by khux.

We all know Darkness did a big old possession of Ventus and did a Bad Thing (murder) with him as a host- Ventus himself is a bit of a mystery here since its uh. kind of implied he was a Big Light even before this? and uses that to trap Darkness? kind of unclear. Ven still has some mysteries around him that could certainly turn things on their head again.

So here’s the thing about Darkness. It wants nothing, MoM says their thought processes are utterly foreign to people, it’s excellent at mind games and lying, and it mostly just seems to do things because it was foretold, no real personal connection to anything. From what we see of Darkness in khux, this appears to be more or less accurate. It didn’t care about OR hate anything about ven, or strelitzia, or anything around them; Ven said he wanted power, so the Darkness gave it to him (in the most Monkey Paw’d way possible).

Look at this, now back to Vanitas, now this, now back to Vanitas, he’s on a horse (yeehaw).

sorry

Doesn’t sound the same at all, does it? Vanitas definitely has a tendency to lie, but that has as much to do with how he’s been manipulated as with an actual concerted effort to do so. A little bit of mind games? sure, mostly with Ventus. Not sure I’d call him great at it or anything. But that’s kind of where the similarity ends, because Vanitas definitely wants things, and he has a lot of feelings- literally so many that his broken heart can’t contain them.

now of course I must mention that the novels are what I would classify as Canon-Lite, meaning that they do occassionally contradict the games, though usually in small, not terribly significant ways. That said however, Vanitas’ ENTIRE conceit through the entire novel is how much pain he is in. Constantly. I find it extremely unlikely that such a major part of the story would be discarded without acknowledgement- maybe in any other series, but not this one. Nomura has outright said that he assigned the writing of the novels to Tomoco because she understands the series in a way no one else does. I also find it unlikely the novels don’t pass through Nomura’s hands to review at some point either. This series is his baby after all.

You cannot read this and honestly tell me you don’t see a child in pain. I won’t beleive you. Xehanort tells him the only way to be free of his pain is to forge the X-blade with Ventus, and from there it all makes sense. Literally every single thing Vanitas does is with that goal in mind, to be free of his pain, and can you blame him? To be in that place, constantly taunted by Ven’s happiness and friendships, told there’s only one way out, constantly in pain and then further abused by your supposed Master on top of it... Is it any wonder a lot of people relate to the abuse/chronic illness vibes?

All of which to say none of that sounds like the Darkness of KHUX. Like... at all.

You know what does sound like the Darkness of KHUX?

This guy.

Now, Sora assumes this is Vanitas, and honestly to him this is a perfectly logical conclusion to come to. He’s in Ventus’ heart, which he knows to be connected to Vanitas, there’s a great big dark blotch there, and it says it’s Darkness, which is the last thing that Vanitas told them in the KBG (”What I am... is Darkness.”).

But here’s the thing.

He’s wrong.

Now I’m not going to pretend I did not also have a big “OH MY GOD IS THAT MY SON? IS THAT MY BOY?” moment when I first saw this scene. I very much did. But the more I think about it the more I’m certain that this is not Vanitas, but the OG khux Darkness, and if I haven’t been clear so far, I fully beleive Darkness and Vanitas are two completely seperate beings- ones who have certainly influenced each other, as is inevitable when you share a heart, but are not the same. To say they are I think would be the same as saying the same of Roxas and Sora, or Ventus and Roxas. Namine and Kairi. Xion and... well, a lot of people tbh XD. They are all strongly connected to each other, have influenced each others hearts in so many ways, but are not at all the same.

Honestly even Sora himself seems uncertain of his conclusion, saying Vanitas’ name as a question rather than a statement. It doesn’t really talk like Vanitas either, and the fact that the lines are conspicuously unvoiced (why create a mystery if the answer is as obvious as most people seem to think?) leads me to beleive Vanitas has no part in this interaction.

Which begs the question... Where is Vanitas? How much of his darkness is his own, Ventus’, Sora’s? How have things changed for him since he fell into Ven’s heart, which then fell into Sora’s? I don’t know for sure but...

I do think we’re going to find out.

[hchollym]

I read your post about Percy being a spy during book 7, it makes sense perfectly and many people believe it also (except the fact that if he was, why Rowling didn't clearly tell it? because of time restricted? Voluntarily, like something she intentionnaly hiden?) I just wanted to add two little things which i have never see people point out, and who may support this theory: Percy had become a departement director after the war, we didn't have more information about this but it's likely that he was one of the youngest departement head ever, if not the youngest. From the little we know and can feel, he seem to be a respected man in the reformed ministry. I am not convinced that he could have accessed to a very hight position if he had gotten along, even if it was by obligation, with the voldemord government (and people don't pay attention but we are even free to go as far as imagine that he become minister since cursed child is evidently not canon and JKR know it), despite having participed in the battle at hogwart. He may have fake his loyalty and end up with "the good guys", but he had still been associated for months with the last minister and this had chances to have limited his career perspectives. I may have totally wrong, but i tend to thinks that his hight position after the war can also be a argument. Another thing is that we can wonder what he tells to Aberforth exactly for him to believe and had confidence in him (obviously he totally had, otherwise he wouldn't have call him for the battle). It's possible that they had acquaintance in common who have assured him that Percy was truswhorthy, but we don't know. But i doubt that Percy just arrived and say "hi, i am the son of Arthur Weasley, the one who had deserted and was assistant to Fudge and Scrimgeour, i want to go back to my family but i can't, can you call me if something happen? It's possible that it was that and not go further (they just talk and Aberforth understand him), but i think that Percy had give him some guarantee other than that. It's very obscure anyway. What do you thinks?

Sorry for the long post, i hope you read me until the end of this!

I love getting longs posts like this, because I enjoy reading other people's perspectives, so no worries! 😄

I don’t think it matters much that Rowling didn’t specifically say that Percy was a spy. She had plenty of “ghost” or dropped storylines in the series, and even after the 7th book, she left quite a few unresolved story arcs. She also didn’t tend to focus too much on the plots involving minor characters, so I feel like Percy being a spy is just another one of those things that she ultimately didn’t want to waste too many pages on.

I agree with you completely about your first point. After the series ended, Rowling said, “Percy ended up as a high-ranking official under Kingsley.” What’s interesting though is that she also made the statement that, "Any Ministry officials who knowingly and willingly went with Voldemort's ideologies during the time when the Ministry was under his control were sentenced to Azkaban." So what exactly is considered ‘willingly’? It’s incredibly vague, because it would be hard to prove whether someone went along with the Ministry because they wanted to vs. they were afraid of the consequences if they didn’t (especially since law enforcement didn’t regularly use Veritaserum in questioning suspects due to its limitations). 

Percy was working directly with the Minister of Magic while it was under Voldemort’s control. He would have gone along with everything the Minister did - on the surface anyway - and would have been involved with the new laws based on the deplorable ideologies (more so than many other officials in the Ministry). Frankly, if he wasn’t a spy, that would have been enough to sentence him to Azkaban, regardless of his involvement in the final battle (because one good deed does not exonerate someone from past war crimes). So the fact that Percy didn’t go to Azkaban and became a high-ranking official instead is very telling; it implies that Kingsley had no doubts about his loyalty before the battle, which would only really be possible if Percy was proven to be a spy. 

I also agree that Aberforth would have needed to trust Percy in order to risk contacting him. If Percy were actually aligned with the Death Eaters, then Aberforth would have given him full access through a secret tunnel to Hogwarts and the people opposing Voldemort. In that situation, Percy could have led all the Death Eaters inside in a surprise attack and the battle would have been over before it began. Aberforth needed to have at least some assurances that Percy was not a traitor. 

As you said, it’s possible that he came to that conclusion after having a conversation with Percy, but I tend to doubt it. Aberforth was rather cynical and not overly trusting. I think Percy proved himself in some way (such as passing on vital information) in order for Aberforth to directly reach out to him. Also keep in mind that Aberforth was likely contacting as many allies as possible - Percy was only one person (as opposed to a big group of people that could have joined them), and yet Aberforth took the time to specifically let him know what was happening. That implies that there was a stronger connection between the two of them than just a quick conversation about loyalty. 

You made some excellent points, and thank you for sharing them! 😊