#its okay if they're all dead that's just more of a reason for me to ship them /silly

[elpeadro]

Glad you love my rambles, because I've gotten the brainworms on this AU! And yes, I will continue to endlessly speculate (aka ramble) everywhere on everything to do with this, like right now hehe.

I don't know if it's worse for Sashanne to never mend things, or for them to mend things then fall apart again. Both are ripe for letting toxicity flourish (and are very juicy in that regard), but is it worse for there to never have been any hope of getting better in the first place and things simply festered in the True Colors era of terribleness? Or it worse for there to have been hope, only for it to be crushed and wither away until things are right back where they started? Either way, the yuri is soooooooo toxic that I feel bad for poor Luz unknowingly walking into the middle of this. This mama has gone through a whole lot of trauma, but idk if she's ready for Sashanne's specific brand of it.

Yeah, Luz's childhood and the world being drastically different (i.e., life under the knowledge of a potential amphibian alien invasion in the future) was very unlikely, but it's fun speculation regardless of there being some ripple effects from Mr. X and Anne's brief reappearence on Earth.

Speculating on the personal reasons to not go to Earth:

Sasha doesn't have anyone to come back to, what with her parents' divorce and all. Marcy (in whatever capacity she still exists) and Anne are with Darcy's castle at any given moment unless Anne is out monitering or cleaning up a rebellious world, with Grime (and any possible frog friends she made in the resistance, if that arc is to happen in this AU) being back on Amphibia.

Anne doesn't return out of guilt/fear of her parents seeing what she's become.

The lack of a Hop Pop mention in the list of surviving Amphibians has me worried 😭. Is it just old age that gets him? (I sure HOPE that's all it is.) But at the same time, yay! Earth and Amphibia are okay! Yeah, it's at the cost of countless worlds, but we the audience know and care all about the homes of our once-protagonists (and current protagonist in Luz's case), whereas the worlds being conquered are faceless entities. At least until Darcy and their Heralds pull up on the Boiling Isles' doorstep. Then oh no!

Yeah, I can see a scene where Luz and company are able to move and hide the new portal door in the intial chaos of Frogvasion, and when Sasha captures Luz, she refuses to talk and give up its location. To which Sasha and Anne are just like, "...what? Nah, we don't care about that at all" and to demonstrate, they casually rip open a portal to another world or Earth. Which then becomes another aura/oh-shit moment because for the TOH cast, interdimensional travel is only possible with the blood of the primordial being whose dead body makes up all the lands and from which all magic is created, or from the starchild who is functionally a god.

And then these two humans (or once-humans) can just do it on a whim whenever they want. No need for tethering the power of a god to a fixed construct like a door.

(It would also be a good scene in a fic or a full story for organically introducing that bit of background lore to the readers. Luz is worried that Darcy wants to use the portal door to invade Earth, but then Sasha and/or Anne shoot down that idea and bring up the negotiations they made. Which, while it is a relief to the characters and audience, it then loops back around to worry, because what does Darcy want with Luz then?? (And there's still the fact that the Boiling Isles are fair game for being conquered.))

(It also serves as more characterization and humanization of Sashanne. They're doing terrible things, but they still care about their homes and loved ones, at least. Just that it comes at the expense of everyone else in the multiverse.)

I love your joke comic idea about Luz accusing the Core of having done something to Anne and Sasha (because why else would they be so terrible and toxic to each other?), only for Darcy to just snort and be like, "nah man, they were this way long before we got involved." (And I'm sure the Core feeds the flames of that toxicity, because keeping Anne and Sasha divided and at each other's throats is another layer of insurance to make sure they don't try and resist or rise up against Darcy.)

There could also be humor/jokes as Luz realizes these two god-like beings who have been terriyfing her world are:

her age or maybe even younger (3 years after Belos' death, she is 18, and Anne would be 17)

even worse, they're MARRIED??? Luz is out here living her best, yuriful life in her isekai world with her awesome girlfriend, meanwhile these two are the definition of "please get a divorce"

@finbowl

As funny as it would be for the multiverse's most divorced not-divorced couple to be younger than perpetual honeymoonphase lumity, they are a fair bit older.

In hindsight I think I should've written that the date in Luz's journal is 4 or 5 new era, but oh well path not taken. Suffice to say, the Calamity Girls are 29 (Marcy might be 30 at this point not that she gets to enjoy it), and Luz is 18 to 20. It's been about 12 or 13 years since the girls went to Amphibia, and they've been doing this multiverse conquest thing for a decade or so.

The Core being what it is and making them do what they do definitely isn't helping things, but let's be honest it doesn't have to do much to make Sasha and Anne's relationship more toxic, they are very good at doing that themselves.

[starheirxero]

ASTRALS IN LUNARA'S UNIVERSE REAL...... EVIL LUMINI HAS MERIT NOW!!!!!!!! :CHEERS:

[gaywineauntsstuff]

the reason I hate the "Tim doesn't trust Dick after Damian/spyral/ric" is because they are besties your honour.

Like there's a post going around that I cannot for the life of me find that says Dick is Tims trusted adult and they are so right fr ong.

Because despite what Fanon believes Dick is a pretty chill guy and people take one look at him and go "let me unload my emotional baggage on you"

There's like a very famous panel (that im too lazy to find or remember the name of the run its in okay don't yell at me) where Tim basically goes "soooo my girlfriends pregnant" and Dick nearly falls off the roof.

Tim is calling Dick for the dumbest shit imaginable to the world ending and so are the rest of the batkids.

so I have taken the Canon that Dick knows if not all but most and generalised it to hell.

-------------------------

Jason has been on a team with like 80% of OG titan members

they're having gossip session

Jason in a war zone dodging bullets with his bat travel mug in his hand: And THEN! Kori and Roy shared this look and you know the look they give you when they're judging you for bat reasons and you're like tell me why you're mad I was raised by a crazy person my normal levels are skewed.

Dick in NYC with a blueberry bagel In one hand, his Turkish coffee in another, just finished meeting up with Donna who gave him THAT exact look: No REALLLLL why are they like that, just tell me which one of the creepy traits I internalised as a child is bothering you.

Jason: omg you get it anyway so I grab the bomb and start playing soccer with it because its round and im bored and starfire takes it away like idk what im doing? bro ive been bombed I know how to work with a bomb..

Dick: hmmm and then what happened

Jason: and then.....

--------------------------

Tim: Dickkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Dick: yea Tim

Tim: Kon is being a dick

Dick: oh?

Tim: yeah and its really starting to bother me man

Dick who knows Kon is dead and Tim is either hallucinating or drugged to be more susceptible to manipulation and is already on his way: hmm tell me more babybird whys he upsetting my lil brother

Tim about to tell Dick what is a fever dream bc he contracted pneumonia and is loopy off his ass on painkillers:

---------------------------

steph does this more with babs in the hero scene but its just... so easy and totally gets into the habit of it after Dick is her Batman for a bit and now she uses him as her civilian life therapist

Steph on her way back from campus: and then this bitch looks me up and down and pours her coffee cup down my shirt!

Dick on his way back to blud after decking bruce in the face: hold on hold on hold on she did what??

Steph nodding vigorously even though he can't see her: pulls my whole ass sweater away from my body and pours her peats coffee down my goddamn shirt Dick.

Dick: omg she didnt

Steph still nodding: she DID and then I found out from Jonny who found out from Vivian that someone told her I made out with her boyfriend at Leos house party

Dick who has no idea who any of these people are: wait but you were at Leos for like an hour max last week. we has smoothies after.

StepH: exactly so I had proof that I wasn't there and confronted her and went like. I don't want your crusty ass alt white boy whose favourite 'indie' band is the neighbourhood. I dated Tim fucking Drake the OG crusty ass white boy and I don't do repeats

Dick choking on his coffee:

Steph: anyway we are besties now and planning on getting her boyfriend back because apparently he cheated on her with this drop dead gorgeous girl and im high key a lil complimented she thought we were the same person.

Dick who initially called for casework and is actually so happy one of the people he calls siblings is actually like living a life outside of vigilantism: tell me more

Steph: you sound a little teary

dick: don't worry about it

-------------------------

Damian: Richard

Dick: Damian

Damian: so I might be skipping patrol with father

Dick:? what you love patrol??

Damian: and school

Dick: Dames? what's going on:? is everything okay? you can talk to me

Damian: I am volunteering at a hospital

Dick: kid

Damian: Listen before you sAY anything I know what we do is important but I think I can help in another way and -

Dick had brown parents and was training for the olympics at 8, totally knows what its like to have insane expectations and rebel with a day job: kid kid calm down okay? you wanna be a doctor? is that it?

Damian: well? I dont really know but I just? there has to be another way to help people. besides what we do I mean-

Dick: Alfred left me Thomas waynes journals I initially thought they were to bash your fathers head in when he was being stupid but it seems the old man was looking out for us. Wanna take a stab at your other grandpas legacy when you come over next weekend. I'll tell Bruce we patrolled so you get a few more days off.

Damian: you're the best

[hexsdexs]

I can't stop thinking about the one direction boys.

Louis, losing yet ANOTHER majorly important person in his life. His best friend. His songwriting partner for so many years. His brother. I hope he's not asking himself if he couldve done more. If he missed the signs. How much suffering does one person withstand.

Niall, the last to see him. I had this friend who I was as thick as thieves with years ago, when I saw her again after graduating it never felt the same. Because we're so different now. I stopped hanging out with her because that difference made me uncomfortable. I wonder if niall felt like that, was it a little weird? A little awkward? or did he feel like no time has passed at all and they picked up exactly where they left of? I wonder if he feels guilty because he got to have that one final goodbye and the rest didn't like some sort of survirors guilt. If he didn't see the warning signs. If he's going over their final interaction over and over and over. The last time I saw my grandmother was 2 days before she died and I play that interaction over and over and over and over.

Harry, who liam previously described as "having a sixth sense for when I'm struggling", and harry who described the death of another friend as the reason he always tries to check up on others. I wonder how long its been since they spoke. I wonder if harry feels unimaginable amounts of guilt for not seeing it. For not reaching out more. For not publicly acknowledging liam when his solo fans where bullying liam even though he preaches tpwk.

Zayn. God, zayn. Zayn who always thought they'd eventually get over their issues. Make their way back. Zayn who only months prior was discussing wanting to reach out and how he's been reminiscing and looking back at one direction much more fondly and much less bitterly. God I know he feels like he's just a day too late. If he had reached out just one day earlier, he would've been on good terms with liam. He would've had that at least. His post made me think of some friends i had to cut off. They were my favorite people in the world but too much had went down. I bawled. Life is so fucking short. They ruined my life and i shouldn't reach out but life is so fucking short. I don't want to wake up to one of them dead.

God I hope they're okay. I wish I could take it all away.

[yandere-sins]

OMFG I absolutely LOVE your writing and the overall creepyness of it💕😩 May I request a yandere childe with a crybaby s/o who Gets scared way too easily? Ik this might be basic but I really wanted to interact with you 💗🥹

Aah, thank you so much, you're so sweet! Sorry it took me so long, but thank you for requesting and interacting with me, I appreciate it! I gave the reader a good reason to be scared this time, hope that is okay! ♥

Extra Warning for Murder, Blood Mention

»»———————— ♡ ————————««

"Shh, babe, what's wrong? You don't have to worry about them anymore."

A calloused hand caressed your cheek, the other arm wrapping around your body as Childe drew you close to him. You were shivering, sobbing in his embrace. Still, he didn't seem to mind at all, a gentle smile on his face as he cradled you, having had more than enough practice with comforting his siblings to know how to comfort you. With the weight of his head on top of yours, you were nestled perfectly in the crook of his neck, his hand wandering back to brush down your hair while the one at the small of your back rubbed its thumb up and down. It was a perfect hug for a perfect darling, as Childe liked to call you. But there was one thing off about it.

The stench.

The squishy, wet feeling smeared all over your cheek and soaked into your clothes, together with the biting, iron smell of blood that stuck to him. Or perhaps it came from the corpses that lay behind his body, shielding the view. Or maybe you were only imagining it. It was hard to believe that you had just watched people die, their deaths caused by this almost stranger's hands. These people were your friends, and yet you couldn't believe it was real.

"I-I'm scared," you stammered, barely able to get the sound out of your throat. "They- They're d-dead."

"Oh, that's true," Childe replied, his voice full of pity and gentle reassurance. As if it hadn't been him who killed them. As if it was a coincidence, you stumbled over the bodies when, really, your friends had been laughing and talking next to you just mere seconds ago before Childe struck them down out of cold-blooded malice.

More tears dripped down your cheeks, countless of them. You were in too much shock to scream and run, but the flow of tears seemed endless as regret, guilt, and horror mixed. You felt nauseated, and yet you couldn't throw up, couldn't do anything. Frozen in place, you listened to the rapidly beating heart of the monster comforting you, feeling Childe take a deep breath, letting it out with a content sigh.

Whatever he was feeling, he seemed... proud of it.

You whimpered miserably as he pressed you tighter against his chest, swaying you side to side before pulling away a few inches. Not enough to let go of you, just so much that he could look into your eyes. Instead of pupils, there was only endless darkness, the moonlight dimly reflected in them, causing swirls of infatuation in the madness that was his gaze on you. Even with barely any light, you could see your own scared reflection. The blood stain on your cheek, the shock etched in every inch of your features.

"You need to keep it together, babe," Child whispered, the same broad, boyish grin on his lips that he had the first time you met him. Where you still thought he was a good guy, helping you carry some groceries home and inviting you to see the festival with him. You had to tell him "no" back then, since you already made plans with your friends. But now, they were no more, and he remained. Only now, that grin was nothing short of psychotic, standing in stark contrast to his eyes so devoid of emotions and the gore on his clothes.

"The guards will be here soon. You wouldn't want them to find you covered in the blood of those people, would you? They might think you did it."

Humiliating as it was, you could see your features grow desperate as a sob escaped you, your eyes crinkling as more tears fell. Childe hushed you again, pressing his lips to your forehead and kissing it over and over as he told you everything would be alright. That he wouldn't let anyone take you or take the blame for him. You could only listen half-heartedly as your feelings threatened to take over your whole body, controlling it and cementing you in place.

It had always been this way for you; the tears were your lifelong friend. Crying was the reaction your body knew best, whether in good or bad situations, and there wasn't much you could do. As a child, you had been mocked for being a crybaby, and as an adult, you were pitied for not having better control over your emotions. Fear had been your constant companion. Whether it was about making a mistake or not feeling like you were good enough to finish a task. You soon began fearing your own incapability, but no one—sometimes not even you—understood that this fear was a force to be reckoned with, one you were completely helpless against.

Unless there was another person stronger than it.

"Aaand up!" Childe proclaimed, having stood up and gripped your hands in the time you spiraled into anxiety and desperation, the overwhelming guilt not helping. But suddenly, you were on your feet despite the tears still falling. Even though you didn't know how to move or act. First, he had comforted you for the crime he committed, and now he did what you had never managed before—pull you out of the trance of your fears.

"Let's go!" he announced chipperly, a slippery, bloody hand gripping yours so tight that it hurt. Jerking you forward, you could only watch Childe's back as he began to run, laughing carefreely as if the death of your friends didn't bother him. As if he was free, unbound by laws and those feelings, you felt so strongly.

Only when you looked down did you notice your own feet moving—rapidly, swiftly. You didn't need to look up as Childe led you through the labyrinth of people who were so occupied with the Lantern Rite in Liyue Harbor that they didn't notice the two blood-soaked individuals passing through.

Breathing was hard, moving was straining, and his grip on you was relentlessly painful. Yet, neither of you stopped until you were already partway up on a mountain outside the harbor, Childe panting just like you, trying to catch his breath. He collapsed with a groan on the dirty trail up the mountain, and with your hand still in his grasp, he pulled you down with him.

It should have hurt when your body was forced to give out, but you landed cushioned in his chest and on his lap. The vibrations of his laugh against your skin felt weird, your senses not yet having returned fully. Lifting your head, you saw the countless lanterns rise to the sky, illuminating it beautifully with the people's memories of those they lost—and you should have been there, lightning lanterns for your friends.

"There we go," Childe muttered, catching your attention as he wiped over your cheek, sticky skin against more sticky skin. Only now did you realize that your tears had dried up, and you looked at the monster that had both made you cry and took care to run them dry—literally.

"You're a pretty crier," Childe sighed, the glow of the lanterns returning some life to the blue in his eyes. Or perhaps the sight before him returned his emotions to him, making him almost look normal despite the red stains. "But I like you better when you're happy. One of us has to."

Leaning his head on your shoulder, Childe reached for your hand, giving it another tight squeeze. Above you, the night sky was filled with beautiful lights, the view even better than from the harbor itself, but you couldn't forget even a second of what had happened that day. That you weren't enjoying this view with your friends, but with some murderer you barely knew, who had pulled you out of the sadness in your heart, only to leave it empty, no feelings able to fill it.

"I'll keep you happy," Childe promised, a faint blush on his cheeks that reached up his ears. "Everything will be the way you want, so you don't have to cry anymore."

Only then did you realize what it truly meant to be afraid, sitting on the lap of someone who thought manipulating the world to his liking would make you happy. Someone who didn't bat an eye before killing an innocent soul. Someone determined to make you feel as empty as he was, just to keep you by his side.

And when Childe looked up grinning, you managed to wipe the smile right off his face, a tear dropping down your cheek.

[genericpuff]

holy crap okay so

I'm two episodes into Kaos

normally I keep my expectations pretty minimal because, let's be real, the Internet - and especially Tumblr - has a tendency to severely overhype new series to be way better than they actually are and it often leaves me sitting there like "that's it? that's what people were freaking out over for weeks?? that was just a bunch of cheap ships and tropes that i've seen 123785902380 times before" LMAO

BUT thankfully compared to other series like Hazbin Hotel and The Amazing Digital Circus, I haven't been worn out on excessive fandom exposure prior to watching Kaos, so I didn't really know what to expect going in besides what folks have told me so far - it's a modern-day Greek epic, and it stars Jeff Goldblum as Zeus (which is, unsurprisingly, peak casting).

That said, I'm very pleased to say that so far, the show is absolutely blowing me away. The set designs, characterizations, weaving of all the players into a central narrative led by a very coy narrator, all of it feels both refreshing and respectful to the source material at the same time.

so uh yeah that LO animated TV show... we have reason to believe now that it's gotten picked up by Amazon Prime, at least according to the showrunner's LinkedIn and posting history from February of this year that seems to imply LO may have been picked up by Amazon-

(but still, nothing's really been confirmed because they're being so tight-lipped about this you'd almost think it's because there isn't a show happening at all cough)

But even then, that means at best we still won't see anything of the LO TV show adaption for another 2-3 years, depending on how production goes.

Why am I talking about LO right now? Well it should be obvious - Kaos double-whammied LO by beating it to the punch at its own game.

I mean, just look at the creative choices alone in the design of the Underworld and its rulers, our beloved Hades and Persephone.

And yes, the entire Underworld is color-graded like this, something so simple and yet effective in communicating the nature of the Underworld and what it stands for - a place where the past lives on through the dead, paused in time, devoid of the vibrant color grading found in Olympus - or "Olympia" as its been named in this retelling - which is, by the way, a visual treat to take in every time it's featured.

(and yes, that is S-tier-companion Billie Piper on the left, but I will not tell you who she's playing, you actually really should go into this show as blind as possible for the thrill of figuring out these characters as they're introduced <3)

That's not even getting into the narrative structure of the plot itself or the phenomenal casting and acting, but again, I don't want to spoil too much as the show is quite new, and I want to actually finish watching the show myself before I get more into the details of its story and how it delivers it (I'm very much hoping I will still be singing this show's praises at the end of its 8 episodes, please for the love of god don't jump the shark, I don't think my heart can take that kind of pain again.)

All that's to say though, Kaos is, so far, exactly what us disappointed fans of LO deserve after all these years, and frankly, I feel like whatever is coming for the LO animated TV show is really gonna have to step up to the plate to both live up to the bar that Kaos has set as well as stand on its own without being affiliated as a cheap Amazon knockoff living in its shadow. Sounds a little familiar and a bit ironic, doesn't it?

[userautumn]

For what it's worth (and it's not me being delusional) - I think there's a chance that Bobby in fact isn't dead, though he will be retiring and perhaps only come back to the show here and there. The cast's weak, coordinated reactions to the death (Ryan literally just posted a "funny" tribute picture to Bobby) when you know they would be providing far deeper messages to their mentor, just shows this isn't being taken seriously imo. I think Bobby is likely gone as a main but not dead.

Right. So.

I'm going to try to pick my words carefully here, because we all cope and grieve in different ways, but if Bobby isn't dead (and I truly believe he is), I am desperate for you to understand how much worse that is.

Listen to me.

If Bobby isn't dead, that means:

Tim is doing the press circuit

Peter gave a farewell statement and goodbye to the 118/Angela,

The cast posted tributes (whether you believe they're heartfelt or not)

all with the intention of screwing with the fans minds. Please hear me when I say:

That is not okay.

That is not normal.

That is not "clever," that is not "4D chess," that is not smart, or genius, or "a non-traditional approach."

That is, genuinely and without hyperbole, sadistic and malicious behavior on the parts of everyone involved.

What disturbs me even more, (and this is not at you directly, though it involves you) is the fact that Bobby not being dead is framed as a good thing by fandom. It's not. People are hurt. People are grieving. We feel this devastating loss deeply, and though this show, like every other show in the world, is a creative and escapist outlet, it's also not created in a vacuum. Which means that to suffer this loss on top of the greater tragedy happening in the world - both political and personal - means that this death, this grief has real-world implications. People die on TV; that's what people do and major character deaths do not have to be bad things. But as a showrunner, it is your inherent responsibility to treat these deaths with tact and care.

So to put people through that unnecessarily or to fabricate this grief for what I could only assume would be his own pleasure since Tim has stated on multiple occasions that he does what he pleases when he pleases would be so unspeakably vicious and evil. I need you to understand that.

I know many of you don't get it when I say I hate Tim Minear, and that's fine. We're all operating from different levels of engagement and understanding. But I need you to stop and consider this without the lens of fandom goggles.

As much as I am hurting right now (and believe me, I am hurting), I would rather Bobby's death be sincere than a fake-out because that would mean that every single person involved in the making of this show is complicit in a deep and unprecedented psychological manipulation that is, at its core, despicably evil. I don't want to believe that this show we have given our joy, our trust, and our hearts to for several years is created by people who view us, their viewers as fans, as little more than playthings. I don't want to believe that. But I will if the evidence points to that (and, right now, on Tim's part especially, even without the fake-out, the evidence is pointing to that).

As for the cast's coordinated tributes, it is common for casts to post farewells after the episode's East Coast premiere, so calling their posting coordinated seems baseless. As for those reactions being "weak," there could be several reasons for that. But when you cater to a fandom that is, in large part, dedicated to picking your words apart for clues, you often sacrifice intimacy in the interest of clarity. When your words are succinct and clear, it is impossible to misconstrue or misunderstand their intention. Do I believe we would have gotten longer, more heartfelt posts three years ago? Yes. But we have what we have and, what you interpreted as a weak response, I just interpreted as the cast saying their goodbyes in a clear manner.

We'll see what happens but know that if this proves to be fake, we as a fandom (all sides of the fandom) really need to reckon with who is running this show and how much power over us we want to continue to give him. Because this would not be okay on SO many levels.

[gay-jesus-probably]

Let me just preface this by saying everyone is allowed to have their own opinions, TOTK is a really fun game, and I'm glad that other people have been able to enjoy the story as well.

...But I'm being dead serious with my complaints about the narrative being 100% imperialist propaganda. And I'm getting really tired of people replying to those posts by saying it can't be imperialist propaganda, because imperialism is bad and the game says that Hyrule is the good guys.

Like, guys. That's not the argument you think it is. Yes, I am aware that the game tells us Ganondorf is a flat, one dimensional character with no ambitions, interests or motivations beyond destroying the entire world for the hell of it, and also it's totally not racist because he's green, not brown like literally every other member of his race. Unfortunately literally all of these things are kind of the entire goddamn problem.

See, the thing is, everyone trying to make these arguments is accepting the game at face value. Hyrule is the perfect and almighty nation chosen by the demigod Zonai, and whose royal family has the right to rule due to their divine heritage. The other races exist to serve the glory of Hyrule, and they're happy to do it. Ganondorf is pure evil and must be stopped at any costs.

But that's not how anything works. The story informing me that Hyrule is the ultimate good that has done nothing wrong is the whole goddamn reason why I don't trust Hyrule at all. There's always more of a reason than that. And the game fucking suggests there was more going on! Ganondorf mentions Rauru has repeatedly 'invited' the Gerudo to become Rauru's subjects, and let's be clear here, it doesn't matter how peaceful those 'invitations' were, when the guy who owns every single magical nuclear missile in the world repeatedly demands you surrender to him, there's always going to be an implied threat of 'do it or get magically nuked'. Just that power difference alone shows us exactly why Ganon would feel threatened enough to invade. It's because Rauru was holding a gun to his head, and Ganon was expected to just trust that he'd never pull the trigger.

And yes, even if it wasn't intentional Hyrule was always threatening to wipe out the other nations, considering the entire royal family walked around openly wearing their magical nukes as cute accessories. If they couldn't be safely hidden away, there wouldn't be four other secret stones sitting untouched in a vault until the last second.

But that's never acknowledged. Of course Hyrule is the only nation with the right to the secret stones; even if other races get to touch them, they can only have them if they swear eternal blind loyalty and servitude to the glory of King Rauru and Princess Zelda. Ganon wanting to have one magical nuclear bomb out of a stockpile of eight of them is proof that he's dangerous and evil. I mean my god, what if he just walked around all day wearing a magical nuke and using its power for his own benefit, that would be terrifying. It's only okay when Hylian royalty does it.

And you can't argue that Ganon betrayed his own people, considering we don't get to know fucking anything about his relationship with his people. He's shows as the leader of the Gerudo, we're told he's a hero to his people, he has soldiers that loyally follow him into battle... and then oh nevermind, they all hate him and will spend eternity trying to atone for sharing a race with him. How did the entire race do a complete 180 in the span of at most a few months? Who cares, what's important is that now they accept they exist to serve Hyrule so they get to be the good guys now and we don't need to know why they were following Ganondorf, or why they stopped following him.

Basically my point is that yeah, I fucking know how the game insists everything went down. That's the entire reason I think it's imperialist propaganda, because the entire story feels like Hylian propaganda to conceal and justify some horrific atrocities that caused all of this. I literally do not believe that I'm getting the story through reliable narrators, especially considering that the only people allowed to actually tell me the story are all the characters that have the most reasons to be heavily biased in favour of Hyrule.

When the game shows me protagonists that have a massive amount of power and control over the entire world, then says the bad guy doesn't like that system just because he's evil, and literally nothing and nobody in the game says anything to oppose that take, I have some questions about what the fuck the story isn't telling me. And I'd really appreciate it if people would stop trying to argue with me just by telling me to stop asking those questions.

[aeneia-art]

I have an uncomfortable and very personal connection to Lucanis, Illario & Caterina's (and Taash & Shathan relationship tbh, they're honestly a flip side of the same trauma) family dynamic, and it's sadly "neurospicey with high expectation caretaker (that is tbh, also Neurospicey)" that I want to shed a bunch of headcanons that I don't see brought up but OH BOY, I KNOW SOME THINGS.

It's unfortunately the "woman who lost all her children and now there is just one survivor" because my mother had six kids before me, they all died in infancy or early childhood, and there are things that I just feel about their upbringing. Bonus, my mother is Italian-Australian, if you want that extra cultural relevance I guess. But it made me very much appreciate their writing of her - because I recognised that hollowed out woman so well that watching her felt like a gut punch of familiarity.

SLAPPING A BIG OLD WARNING ON THIS AND UNDER A CUT because yeah, a lot of discussions of child death, intergenerational trauma, child abuse and family trauma. Seriously please mind those warnings!!

( and if you read these and go... OP are you okay,,,,?? its okay, I am told its called "intergenerational trauma"! and the therapist gave me pills about it! I kid, but also - yes i do therapy about it, don't sweat it, I also find these things kind of therapeutic because instead of just having these life experience rolling around I can use them to help others write good or understand character beats that might not be apparent straight away and honestly this kind of trauma is not written often or well, which is far more frustrating and upsetting, because often there is a lot of shame around failed motherhood, but also no one ever wants to talk about what its like to have dead children. Even if high infant mortality rates and loss of even up to age 15 children has dominated much of human history, but outside of horror movies, it's seldom actually discussed what that does to a family or the women involved over the long term. Weirdly outside of horror I can find it more readily about men than I can about women. )

Illario and Lucanis are often called the wrong name as children, when they are children especially, but even sometimes into adulthood. The exhausted moments when Caterina turns to Lucanis and goes "Giovanni, go get your brother." Then she stops, he stops, and then just get on with it.

The correction at them in training: "Maria- how many times have I told you not to-" then she swallows, their child eyes stare up, Illario wants to ask, Lucanis jerks his head to stop. Caterina swallows and taps a foot back into position.

They do things sometimes, training, talking, and especially gesturing, that Caterina's eyes just close and a pain falls over her face and there is no asking what it's about, but its clear, for a moment, just one or two, they were the same: they moved the same, acted the same, and the times and places blur.

Lucanis and Illario grow up without a sense of ever being completely alone in any room, especially when Caterina is present. The are ghosts in House Dellamorte, they do not know them particularly, but they know they wear their faces often.

There are anniversaries that they do not understand the importance of, moments that for some reason they will never be privy too, they must be present. They will seem sometimes so innocuous and unimportant, no one ELSE around them will ever understand it, but they know they can never miss it.

My immigrant kids will know this one well, but over protective parenting? It's turned up to 11. Imagine every stereotype about Asian / Eastern European / African / Latino / Mediterranean parents, but on HIGH BLAST. It's more akin to stories I have heard about parents who had to live through a war-zone and what their kids grow up with. You can't go anywhere, do anything, say anything, no one outside of your family is to be trusted. Friends? Keep them at arm's length, if they're allowed at all. Activities are limited to what can be supervised. And what's worse? There is no arguing that it's just them being paranoid. The proof is there. It happened. There is no saying that it's anxiety, it's over the top, because the worst has happened and they know it. You can't say it's "just paranoia talking" because it happened over, and over, and over again.

They wake up with Caterina walking in to check their breathing. I am 30+. My mother still does this, and every time I hear her take a relieved breathe. Life will never be taken for granted. Survival will never be taken for granted. She checks on them constantly, and it probably felt strange and spooky to feel her hovering as a child, but some point around 16, it probably started to make sense.

As children, they want to ask, they need to understand, they want to know why they have to live this way when others don't. It's frustrating too because others seem to know all the details when they don't and they're fed it in pieces. Then by adulthood, they understand and the pain is theirs too, now, whether they wanted it or not.

Teia must have been a breathe of fresh air to the entire household when she visited, the soul person that can banish the ghosts. Because Teia is an elf, there can be no confusing her for any of the other children, some confused creeping despair. She's Teia and she's only Teia, and it's probably in part why Caterina enjoys her company, because she's clearly no afraid of the old woman, but that there can be no mistaking there here and now of it.

Speaking of creeping despair: probably thank the Maker there are no mages in the family, if demons are born out of human emotion twisted??? What in the fuck must the Fade look like just the other side of House Dellamorte? IT'S A GOOD THING NO ONE IN THE FAMILY CAN GET POSSESSED RIGHT [stares directly into the camera like the Office]

The long nights of despair are palpable when alone in House Dellamorte after the servants are gone to bed and Illario and Lucanis sit doing study nearby. They watch her at times stare into the hollow depths, and at times when conversations veer about survival, choices, making assessments, she speaks candidly of crawling out of that place with her own two hands, not for pity, but on how one learns to live and go on. She says it's that or death, Illario asks if that means because the enemies of House Dellamorte will kill them? She says no and leaves it at that. They only realise in adulthood how often their grandmother sits and contemplates death, and not from another assassin's blade. It is only that it is completely unacceptable for her to ever give up that made her drag herself out. It's not grand declaration, it is a simple contemplation, she'd never want your pity. Even if therapists did exist in Thedas, what would they even say? Or do? There aren't enough therapists and drugs in the world. Everyone understands that no parent should bury their child, but to do it over and over and over? After awhile, there is only the quiet shuffling and exhaustion.

Of course Lucanis attracted a Spirit of Determination that became a Spirit of Spite, that is exactly what he has had shaped to him. Welcome to the other side of despair. Welcome to how you live through the worst days of your life. The first funerals of the Dellamorte House were probably the typical big wailing Mediterranean-type funerals. You scream, you cry, your rip your hair, you throw yourself at the coffin and wail. She thinks there is nothing worse in the world, and then - she finds out - there is worse. The last Dellamorte funerals are silent. There is no more grief to tear out. What is left is only determination, only resilience, only spite that drives the will to go on.

Likewise, it doesn't surprise me that he could calm himself even in the depths of torture, to make a deal with Spite. The Ossuary was hell, shut off and shut down as he says. But he and his family are a long won lesson on survival even when survival cannot feel worth it, anymore, a test of endurance that not even Zara would be able to scratch the surface of. When submission to pain would be so much easier. That is a resilience that didn't come from Caterina's torture, it comes from growing up in a graveyard that ebbs around you, that everyone sees when they look at you, and yet finding a way through, for good and bad. Perhaps not even well, but they have, they did, they continue to do so.

Caterina is past grief and it makes the woman before and the woman afterward, like two seperate lives. Which makes it so odd for Lucanis and Illario when... you know that moment when you find out that your parents were whole people that did wild shit before you ever existed that have just been sitting in the back? It's like that but worse. They hear stories and learn deeds, and it's hearing about a completely different person. Caterina that other people remember likely used to smile, and laugh, danced, did hijinks. They find old letters, portraits, commemorations, to this woman that seems to be as much as a ghost as all the other dead aunts and uncles. They have been robbed, not just of their family, and yes a peaceful childhood, but of that woman who could have been Nonnina, and now is just La Signora Dellamorte.

The apple never falls far from the tree, and I imagine that Caterina-before-the-deaths was some split of Lucanis and Illario. Which comes to something that I am sure might be contentious because I imagine it's hard to hear and see for someone who became so outright abusive as Caterina was to her grandchildren when we all love the boys dearly, but in a game about how good intentions and the best wishes and parts of us can be twisted I feel this isn't a far leap. You think you end up with five kids for someone as savvy as she was because she was an unpassionate, unloving woman? She was likely as fierce and devoted and passionate as the boys are now. (Which if you think all of this is to excuse her abuse, no, being broken by the world does give excuses to visit upon the next generation, that is the big difference between my mother and Caterina, my mother took her grief and shoved it fiercely into reminding me every day that I am loved). I understand it's easy to say abusers just woke up mean one day to hate the world, but the reality is probably way muddier than that, as often is in Dragon Age especially, this is a world where everyone has reasons they became what they are, and often did not start that way - and I think the unfortunate truth is that Caterina was once like Lucanis and Illario: passionate, driven, full of life and interest, hope and ambition to be the best she could be, and never dreamed of what it would all become.

So, yes, if you want to know what Illario and Lucanis look like after they have been actually, truly, soul-crushingly broken in a way that can never be repaired, look no further than Caterina. You can already see the shades of it in the Hardened Lucanis run, he turns himself away from remorse, redemption, love. The way Illario is trying to goad Lucanis into killing him. There but for the grace of the Maker, go her grandsons.

In that vein, I suspect she saw the traits that failed her most in Illario, and the ones that helped her survive in Lucanis, which in part lead to the divide in her treatment of the two of them.

There is probably some moment when someone is an edgelord at her, as dramatic mediterraneans are wont to do, spouted off about torture and pain and suffering. Caterina probably laughed in their face about it. It has big "you cannot hurt me in any way that matters" and "you can't hate me more than I hate myself" energy. She has stared into the abyss, she knows the darkest parts of herself, and some rat thinks they can frighten her back?

The only threat that hangs is someone hurting Illario and Lucanis. Nothing is too far, nothing is too much, when it comes to protecting what she has left. Caterina is both impassive to them, unknowable at times, frustrating at others, but then she throws down in broad daylight even as she enters true old age. I shudder to think about the torture she now inflicts in the name of her family.

[operationslipperypuppet]

we all know work song is a hardshine song, so what if i put a bunch of naddpod moments together to make that more true.

Transcript:

Moments from Work Song by Hozier and (in order) C1E54, C1E68, C1E91, C1E70 (two clips), C3E39, C3E32, C3E30, C3E45 (two clips), and C3E44 edited together. Song lyrics are in bold. Episode jumps without lyrics between them are shown with "--".

When my time comes around

Murph [narrating]: Hardwon, you are in this strange, in between world. {Kingshammer begins playing in the background} Like, the Feywild right now looks like an oil painting, like it's gray and white, and you can vaguely see what's going on, but it's all blurry. And you hear a bunch of voices in the distance. You hear the voice of Gemma, in the distance going:

Gemma [Murph, whispering]: Hardwon, it's not your time yet, Hardwon. Hardwon, we'll be together but not now.

Hardwon [Jake]: Gemma.

Murph: You hear another voice calling to you.

Elias Stormborn [Murph]: Son, join me in the halls of Isgard.

Murph: And from somewhere else, you hear dissonant whispers, but amongst them you recognize the voice of the Widow.

Lydia Stormborn (The Widow) [Murph]: We can get out together, we can get out together.

Hardwon: Mother?

{Kingshammer slowly fades out}

Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth

Moonshine [Emily]: {Gutless plays in the background} Um, I just wanna remind you, not every problem needs to be fixed, but, if you want, I can reincarnate you.

Hardwon [Jake]: I wanna die, real bad.

[Caldwell laughs]

Moonshine: Okay, well, I'm gonna take that as a positive because if you die, then I can reincarnate ya.

Hardwon: Take it whatever way you want [chuckles]. Uh, but no, I, yeah, no, that's, that's the right interpretation.

Moonshine [overlapping]: Hardwon -

Hardwon: I w - I -

Moonshine: I really don't want you to want to die, because I want you to live so much and I don't wanna be alone in that feelin'.

Hardwon: I don't wanna die. I wanna - I wanna - I wanna live again.

No grave can hold my body down

Murph [narrating]: And you guys hear its voice, uh, simultaneously echoing through the cave and also sounding like it's right over your shoulder, somebody whispering into your ear.

[Emily hums in acknowledgement]

Death [Murph]: Hardwon Surefoot.

Beverly [Caldwell]: Woah!

Hardwon [Jake]: 'Sup?

Death: {The Purge starts playing in the background} You should be dead.

Hardwon: Yeah, looks like you can't do your job right, can ya? [Caldwell chuckles]

Death: The reason I can't do my job is because people like Beverly and Moonshine break the laws of death.

Hardwon: Careful, you're talking about my family.

I'll crawl home to her

Murph [narrating]: {Oh, Melora! plays in the background} Hardwon, your spirit, um, flies into this body. Uh, you see, Melora picks it up, pulls him out of the sea, and brings half-elf Hardwon into this, um, demiplane with all you guys.

[Caldwell laughs]

--

Hardwon [/Jake]: {Tale's End plays in the background} I smash my forehead against Moonshine's, too. [Emily laughs in delight] And say, hey, if I was gonna come back as anything, I'm proud to come back as half of you.

When my time comes around

Hardwon [Jake]: But, Beverly and Moonshine? They don't need me. [pauses] And, and I have to be okay with that.

--

Hardwon: {A Memory plays in the background} But I'm coming to understand the reality - that they're gonna stay as strong and heroic as we all once were, and I'm going to fade away.

Lay me gently in the cold dark earth

Hardwon [Jake]: Um, do me one, one favor? If I start to slow you down {bird chirping sound in background}, you leave me behind.

No grave can hold my body down

Hardwon [Jake]: {metal guitar music plays in the background} Hardwon kips up.

Murph [narrating]: Your eyes are closed, you're knocked out, you remember the last time you were knocked out by an avatar of Gruumsh, you know you can't let that happen again. Just pure, force of will, you jolt your heart and get it going again, and you kip up.

--

Murph [narrating]: {The Hexblood Centurions plays in the background} Hardwon, you are suddenly jolted back awake with the help of Sol, you see Sol hovering over you.

Hardwon [Jake]: Oh, my god -

Sol [Caldwell]: Hey.

Hardwon: - do I love the smell of mushrooms after I wake up from death. [Caldwell laughs]

I'll crawl home to her

Hardwon [Jake]: [other cast members laughing throughout] Moonsh - Moonshine, if you can hear me, I'll be there tomorrow. I'll be there tomorr- I'm coming. As fast as I can.

[vashtijoy]

I wanted to ask if you could clear this up for me, if you play in third semester and you get to Maruki's Reality, we see Akechi appear to turn himself in on Christmas Eve so, Im not sure exactly why we dont see him do so when you go back to The True Reality? what was the reason for it, Im not clear on it a bits

Hi! In short, Atlus want to maintain the mystery of whether Akechi is canonically dead or alive. Thanks for your question!

... okay, okay. More seriously, Akechi arriving on Christmas Eve is the first use we see Maruki make of his enhanced power. Akechi is present in Shibuya to take the rap for Ren because Maruki puts him there. So when that is later undone, Akechi is no longer there—and Ren was arrested and detained, all along. Just as he was in the vanilla game.

but doesn't maruki's reality start on 12/31?

We-ell... kind of. As he says in his 1/1 journal entry, Maruki finally merges Mementos with reality late on 12/31, when Ren has his dream about the butterfly. But he's already using his new power before that point, to do nice things for his friends, the Phantom Thieves.

It's not just Akechi in Shibuya. The Christmas Eve party in Royal is very different from its counterpart in vanilla—well, sure. Ren's not in detention, so the whole mood is different. They talk about Akechi, but then they just move on to have fun. Well, it is Christmas.

But the New Year's party is a strange sequence of pleasant events. Futaba calls it "an actual, real-life good ending"! We hear not just that Ren's conviction is likely to be overturned, but that Shido is to be prosecuted for the crimes he confessed. In February, of course, Sae will tell us that it took months just to document his confession, and that he's being prosecuted only for breaches of electoral and funding law.

Something else to note about the Royal Christmas and New Year events: to my ear, they have a glib, superficial tone. Don't you think so? Matters of import come up, but the team move past them, to talk about trivialities, about their party and the fun they're having. It's kind of nice; this is who they might have been without the weight of responsibility, of grief. But equally, that weight should be there.

This is illustrated in the script. Both events feature a long string of sound effect emotes:

These SE lines are never translated, but what you see here is Joker, Ryuji, and Ann laughing—waraigoe, the sound of laughter, literally "a laughing voice". This laugh, on New Year's Eve, continues through the whole group, not just the Phantom Thieves but also Sojiro and even Sae.

Coincidence? There are group laughs later, after Joker is released, and at the big confidant party. But those are just attributed to 全員 zen'in ("everybody"), or 一同 ichidou ("all present"). These lists of identical laugh lines at the start of Maruki's reality are just a little bit unnerving. By the time of Maruki's bad ending, those brief lapses into reality, with all of its unpleasantness, are gone.

So yes, in small ways, Maruki is using his power even before he merges Mementos with reality late on 12/31. And here's one last thing to pay attention to on 12/24. You know how Maruki alters reality itself, by altering people—by changing everyone's cognition so that the world agrees on its new nature? Watch Sae, during this scene.

She's surprised, sure—but she never seems surprised that Akechi is alive. She's just surprised that he's turning himself in. In the vanilla scene, on the other hand, she explicitly says that Akechi is missing. Ren can bring up that Akechi is back from the dead, but Sae doesn't seem to care!

Wheels within wheels.

so where's akechi in the "real" timeline?

Can of worms. Which "real timeline"? There are two, depending on whether or not you maxed Akechi's confidant. In the vanilla timeline, you don't get him to rank 8 before the engine room, and he dies behind the door. But in the Royal timeline, you do get him to rank 8, and you keep your promise, and that gives Akechi the will to live.

(Yes, this is what I currently believe. And more than that, I think it's the true meaning of that creator interview, "the player's feelings are equivalent to the protagonist's cognition". It doesn't mean that guy on the platform can be a randomer in his school uniform or a ghost!—it means there's one route where he's dead, and one where he's alive.)

In the game as released, we don't know where Akechi is. But in his February deleted scene—where he's clearly alive—he tells us where he was, for precisely this reason.

He wasn't in Shibuya at all. He was at this refuge, wherever it is, going into hiding. He wasn't around to save Ren.

If this scene had been left in, this would have been the moment Akechi came out of safety, out of hiding, and gave up on his life—to do what's right once more, to confirm his 12/24 decision, and face justice in Ren's place. If you think Maruki altered him, and he would never have turned himself in otherwise—watch this scene again. Yeah, we were robbed.

what else does akechi say?

On 2/2, Akechi tells us how it happened:

Let's take a quick look at that line in Japanese:

Akechi けど、君たちと戦ったあと⋯{F1 82}ともう一度会うまで僕の中にハッキリした記憶はなかった。 kedo, kimi-tachi to tatakatta ato... [Ren] to mou ichido au made boku no naka ni hakkiri shita kioku wa nakatta But after I fought against you all, I had a gap in my memory that ended with meeting up with [Ren] again. [lit. But, after I fought with you and the others… until I met back up with [Ren], I had no clear memories.]

hakkiri shita—"clear; distinct; vivid; plain; explicit; well-defined; sharp; loud and clear". hakkiri to kioku shiteiru—"to remember clearly". hakkiri shinai kioku—"unclear memories". hakkiri shita kioku—"clear memories".

Note that well. Akechi is not saying that he remembers nothing. He's saying he remembers nothing clear, which is substantively different, and not conveyed well by the English "a gap in my memory".

(He also switches address mid-sentence—in the first half of the line, he's addressing Ren as kimi ("you"), but then he cuts off, and addresses him as Ren. It looks like he switches from talking directly to Ren to talking to Maruki. And if you remember him being a dick about that moment on 1/2... this might be the line that reveals that actually, yeah, their promise in the engine room really did matter to him.)

Akechi believes he's dead on 2/2; I think there can be no question of that. There isn't a big reveal that he was alive all the time. And you can't even get this scene if you didn't max his confidant, if you didn't keep the promise—if Akechi didn't survive.

But there is an afterlife in the Persona universe, from which characters have even spoken—so I'd like to hear a little more, some day, about these "unclear memories" of his.

but how can he be alive

Bear in mind that the third semester looks identical (besides that engine room flashback on 1/2), regardless of whether or not you maxed Akechi's confidant. That's to say, whether Akechi dies in the engine room or not, the third semester does not change.

That means that everyone's perceptions of it cannot change. That includes Akechi. If he was dead and Maruki revived him, then he has no memories before he awakens in Shibuya, because he was dead. But if he wasn't dead—if he was at the refuge we see him at in the deleted scene, or in Hawaii, or on the Moon—if Maruki believes that he was dead, and attempts to revive him based on that conviction—

Well, then he creates a world where Goro Akechi died behind those shutters, doesn't he? A world where Akechi remembers nothing before he awakens in Shibuya, because now he was dead for those weeks. A world where, even though you saved him, Akechi died in the engine room. Just like in the vanilla timeline.

revision history

Click here for the latest version.

v1.2 (2024/07/13)—wording.

v1.1 (2024/07/12)—added a bit about how akechi bookends 1/2 and 2/2.

v1.0 (2024/07/12)—first posted.

[scoobydoodean]

would love to hear more about the “chuck was the one who brainwashed cas and kelly actually” theory, thank you :)

Okay so I'm going to sound like I'm not addressing your question at all at first but just bear with me.

One of the primary reasons that the baby brainwashing incident fascinates me is that Cas's actions are a betrayal of his and Dean's bond on a foundational level. I'm not talking about The Colt or the mixtape (though they're related).

Dean and Cas's relationship as handler and charge was shed and a real, genuine bond bloomed in 4.22, after this exchange:

DEAN Destiny? Don't give me that "holy" crap. Destiny, God's plan... It's all a bunch of lies, you poor, stupid son of a bitch! It's just a way for your bosses to keep me and keep you in line! You know what's real? People, families -- that's real. And you're gonna watch them all burn? CASTIEL What is so worth saving? I see nothing but pain here. I see inside you. I see your guilt, your anger, confusion. In paradise, all is forgiven. You'll be at peace. Even with Sam. DEAN You can take your peace... and shove it up your lily-white ass. 'Cause I'll take the pain and the guilt. I'll even take Sam as is. It's a lot better than being some Stepford bitch in paradise. 

These are the words that convince Cas to rebel. These are the words that dissolve Cas's doubts in doubt, and convince him to follow his convictions instead of act on blind faith. Shortly after this conversation, Cas flies Dean to Chuck, who tells them what they're up to isn't supposed to happen. This becomes a theme of Dean and Cas's relationship.

Together, Dean and Cas do things that aren't supposed to happen—that aren't part of God's plan. They do something Chuck explicitly says isn't supposed to happen in 4.18. They do something that Chuck explicitly says isn't supposed to happen in 4.22. They do something that Chuck explicitly says isn't supposed to happen in 5.22.

Dean and Cas's relationship, at its very core, is built upon the rejection of two things: 1) Destiny and 2) Paradise—and by the end of "The Future", Cas explicitly (in the production draft) embraces destiny and paradise... and that screams Chuck.

This is what Cas says to Kelly right after the devil baby brainwashing at the very end of "The Future". The "Paradise" part doesn't make it to the final cut—just the "future" part... but the Paradise part is implied by the "future" part anyway.

What else happens in "The Future"? Kelly says the line.

It's not supposed to happen this way.

She says the line that Chuck said every time Dean and Cas defied the writing during the first apocalypse by doing something Chuck couldn't or didn't anticipate. Kelly says this after Sam and Dean catch up to Castiel—after Sam and Dean convince Cas to just talk through all of this with them and not jump to the nuclear option of murdering Kelly—to consider an alternative plan where Kelly and Jack's lives are both preserved because Jack is born a regular baby. The moment Cas begins to agree to talk, Kelly says "It's not supposed to happen this way."

Now let's talk about Kelly. Her behavior this entire episode is insane. She begins the episode despairing because giving birth to Jack will kill her. She then tries to kill herself, but Jack won't let her die—and this throws Kelly into a sort of religious fervor—convincing her that Jack is actually good and could revolutionize the world. Her belief in this is so powerful that when Sam and Dean arrive, she immediately rejects the plan they've come up with that will spare her and Jack's lives:

Sam: No, Kelly, if you go with Cass, you die. Your baby dies. Kelly: I go with you, you take away the thing that makes him special.

She sounds nuts. Like. Imagine saying you'd rather you and your baby DIE than have a "normal" baby. Your baby HAS to be a special baby or you'd rather be dead? Uh... ew—and to a point that screams supernatural brainwashing.

Of course—Kelly's actions aren't quite as irrational as they seem because right before Sam and Dean arrived, Kelly was shown something by "Jack". She got Cas to lay his palm on her belly, and "Jack" showed her a vision of the future. After she takes off with Cas in the impala, she says,

When you put your hand on my stomach, I heard him. He spoke to me. He told me that even if it seems scary, if I just went to the gate, if I just followed your plan, that you would make sure he was born.

So even as she's driving herself straight into Cas's plan to kill her and her baby, Kelly believes everything will be fine—because "Jack" showed her the future... and the thing is? She's... not wrong. "Jack" did show her the future. "Jack" showed her a tiny moment that actually does happen at the end of the episode—Cas standing between her and Dagon and saying "You stay away from her".

Why do I keep putting "Jack" in quotes here? Because Jack never displays the ability to see the future after his birth, and yet "Jack" did have this power from the womb... only? Yeah... I'm not so sure. I'm wondering if it was someone else—someone who showed Kelly what they had already written.

I'll also note in 13.01, that Jack doesn't seem to remember... any of this happening—at least not in the same way. In fact, he recalls very little leading up to his birth. The way he describes it, his sole knowledge of the world prior to his birth came from Kelly speaking to him while he was in the womb... but also... not? Because he says he was Kelly?

SAM: How do you speak English? JACK: My mother taught me. SAM: So you talked to her. JACK: I was her. JACK: My mother, she said Castiel, he would keep me safe. She said the world was a dangerous place. That's -- that's why I couldn't be a baby or a child. I... That's why I had to grow up fast. That's why I chose him to be my father. Where is he?

It's all pretty confusing, but something blinks at me here: Jack says Kelly told him Castiel would keep him safe and indicates that he chose Castiel as his father based on Kelly's assessment. However, Kelly told us Jack showed her the future which told her that Castiel would keep Jack safe back in 12.19. These are two contradictory stories. What if a third party sowed both?

Two other little bits:

First:

Kelly: Maybe – maybe everything that I've been through, everything that I still have to go through, is happening for a reason. Maybe it's part of some plan. Castiel: No, it isn't. I used to believe in a plan. I used to believe that I had some mission. But I have been through enough now to know that everyone is just winging it. 

Castiel does a 180 on this by the end of the episode and it screams Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck.

Second:

If you go to the 12.19 production draft (graciously provided to the fandom through @/spnscripthunt) on page 45, you'll see something that never made it to screen—Cas's vision of paradise.

Only—these visions don't seem to come to fruition unlike Kelly's vision of Cas protecting her. The bits with Dean and Castiel's wings don't feel like the future anyway—they... just feel like what Cas wants most desperately at that time—to be a protector and provider who can handle everything on his own—who needs a "win". This is another theme of the episode. Cas stole The Colt in a misguided attempt to protect his family from having to be directly involved in the ruthless murder Cas had determined would be necessary. He didn't believe there was any other choice, and he wanted to spare Sam and Dean the pain of being involved in the dirty work.

Sam: Then – Then why didn't you call us? Cas, we could've helped you. Castiel: I know. I wanted to keep you out of this. I-I was trying to keep you safe. Dean: You're not our babysitter, Cas, okay? That is not your job. And when in our whole lives have we ever been safe?

This probably stings for Cas because he knows they aren't, and he wants them to be—he wants his family to be safe... all without having to discard his conscience by killing Kelly. He wants her to be safe too! The stuff he sees gives him what he wants--Sam and Dean and Kelly happy and safe—Dean thanking him—Cas once more a fully powered angel who doesn't need anybody's help.

But all of this stuff he sees? It's a lie. It's a lie because it never happens, but it's also a lie because destiny is always a lie. Paradise is always a lie. God's plan is just a way to keep them all in line... and Cas is trying to secure paradise for someone who said they'd take the pain and the guilt over someone else's vision of their paradise.

[thechekhov]

Dungeon Meshi Quick Reacts

CH.30 (Good Medicine)

I kind of assumed that things would get worse from here...

...yeah, there's no 'but' to that. Getting Falin back so quick was too good to be true.

Aren't those the ghosts Falin talked to? They could be friendly.

"ee gads! a hairless little man!" I'd be frightened too if Chillchuck was suddenly behind a door I'd just opened.

Chillchuck, buddy, less than 24 hours ago you threw a knife directly into a dragon's eye. You can take care of some worgs, right?

Senshi's a card carrying member of the smells-okay-to-me-chief club.

Orcs be like 'oh, dragon's gone? Hm. Curious' and then just carry on. Wouldn't you be worried that something took out the dragon? Could be even more dangerous than the dragon itself.

I feel like at this point Falin might be just that.

MOUTH TO MOUTH RESUSCITATION!

Marcille, I don't think you have a lot of options.

......just realized those moose antlers are holding up her rack. Talk about a pushup bra. Damn. Respect.

Wait go back to that "create monsters to do their bidding" thing again. Was that the little mini dragons or does that include larger monsters like the dragon itself?!

OR something that was IN the dragon, controlling its actions and make it act irrationally? Is that why the Sorcerer wasn't surprised to see Falin as a separate thing outside the dragon? Was the assumption that whatever THING it was had escaped and become Falin?

And for all we know... it kinda had. It had merged with her spirit....

Or maybe I'm way off.

Congrats on the larger story plot! :D You're now in even more danger! Hoorah!

Chillchuck, a normal person would just go 'I'm leaving, pay me'. You're giving yourself away, worrying for them.

I can't hate him for the reasoning here. The deeper you go, the less likely you are to be found. The only person who cares enough about Marcille and Laios and Chillchuck to find their bodies are.... each other. So if they're dead here, they're likely dead-dead.

I want to nestle into her bosom and live there as a little creature.

Moreso than when she was literally in the gullet of a red dragon?! Come on, be reasonable. At least she's alive now. And remembers who she is.

Ooooh friendly ghosts. Makes sense why Falin was so chill about them.

All the more reason to believe there's something to be done!

Love the doggo yawning behind Chillchuck.

He's a coward, but being afraid isn't necessarily a sign of weakness. It's a sign that you realize how dangerous a situation is. Cowardice isn't stupidity, no more than ignorance of danger is bravery.. I think the orc leader is maybe realizing he's not doing it for completely selfish reasons. Mad respect to her though.

It WAS Falin, wasn't it? It wasn't as if it was a thing pretending to be her. She was there, and she was revived successfully, and then the soul confusion thing happened.

......damn. What a small holiday they got, before the next horrible thing happened...

hey, Marcille is not dumb! She's got loads of braincells! they're just all focused on doing evil stuff and being gay.

🎯

That's right! It's just like you, Chillchuck!

Was that... there before?

Oh, okay, no, it was. Hm.......

This stupid man is about to full a Falin and jump out a window to go look for her, isn't he.

Gods, this sucks for him so much. For all of them. Because they.... they WERE successful! They rescued Falin! They brought her back from the head! They DID that!

But now, instead of getting the reward of it, she's just gone. Is it better, because she's alive?

Or worse, because the threat is even more nebulous?

If they all died, would it be worth it?

who's the coward...? he's ready to go back.

For Falin, they went down there. They risked themselves.

For them, after talking to him only a bit, the orc leader went from 'hey, nice snack for my dog' to 'we're helping you get that girl back'.

It's about the CONNECTION!!! IT'S ABOUT HELPING EACH OTHER AFTER LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND ONE ANOTHER!!!

[purpledemonlilyposting]

Okay it's time for me to go a bit crouching retard hidden genius here, take off the clown nose and put my thinking cap on. Cause unlike many, many people who reference Nineteen Eighty-Four I've actually read it. Several times. And not as a school mandate.

What does "He loved Big Brother" tell you about media literacy?

Like what even is that point, Lorch? What does just knowing the final sentence of the book tell you about someone's media literacy? What do YOU even think that line means? Cause I'd love to hear it and I doubt you've ever actually read the fucking book.

There are many take-aways you can have from Nineteen Eighty-Four regarding the control of the populace through deception, fear, propaganda, regulation, indoctrination of the young, the dumbing down of language, and sheer hypocrisy. I'd be more interested in someone's take on passages like this to gauge their media literacy:

'It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn't only the synonyms; there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other word? A word contains its opposite in itself. Take "good", for instance. If you have a word like "good", what need is there for a word like "bad"? "Ungood" will do just as well -- better, because it's an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of "good", what sense is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like "excellent" and "splendid" and all the rest of them? "Plusgood" covers the meaning, or "doubleplusgood" if you want something stronger still. Of course we use those forms already. but in the final version of Newspeak there'll be nothing else. In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words -- in reality, only one word. Don't you see the beauty of that, Winston? It was B.B.'s idea originally, of course,' he added as an afterthought. A sort of vapid eagerness flitted across Winston's face at the mention of Big Brother. Nevertheless Syme immediately detected a certain lack of enthusiasm. 'You haven't a real appreciation of Newspeak, Winston,' he said almost sadly. 'Even when you write it you're still thinking in Oldspeak. I've read some of those pieces that you write in The Times occasionally. They're good enough, but they're translations. In your heart you'd prefer to stick to Oldspeak, with all its vagueness and its useless shades of meaning. You don't grasp the beauty of the destruction of words. Do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year?' Winston did know that, of course. He smiled, sympathetically he hoped, not trusting himself to speak. Syme bit off another fragment of the dark-coloured bread, chewed it briefly, and went on: 'Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we're not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there's no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It's merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won't be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak,' he added with a sort of mystical satisfaction. 'Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?'

The speech had been proceeding for perhaps twenty minutes when a messenger hurried on to the platform and a scrap of paper was slipped into the speaker's hand. He unrolled and read it without pausing in his speech. Nothing altered in his voice or manner, or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different. Without words said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. Oceania was at war with Eastasia! The next moment there was a tremendous commotion. The banners and posters with which the square was decorated were all wrong! Quite half of them had the wrong faces on them. It was sabotage! The agents of Goldstein had been at work! There was a riotous interlude while posters were ripped from the walls, banners torn to shreds and trampled underfoot. The Spies performed prodigies of activity in clambering over the rooftops and cutting the streamers that fluttered from the chimneys. But within two or three minutes it was all over. The orator, still gripping the neck of the microphone, his shoulders hunched forward, his free hand clawing at the air, had gone straight on with his speech. One minute more, and the feral roars of rage were again bursting from the crowd. The Hate continued exactly as before, except that the target had been changed. The thing that impressed Winston in looking back was that the speaker had switched from one line to the other actually in midsentence, not only without a pause, but without even breaking the syntax. But at the moment he had other things to preoccupy him. It was during the moment of disorder while the posters were being torn down that a man whose face he did not see had tapped him on the shoulder and said, 'Excuse me, I think you've dropped your brief-case.' He took the brief-case abstractedly, without speaking. He knew that it would be days before he had an opportunity to look inside it. The instant that the demonstration was over he went straight to the Ministry of Truth, though the time was now nearly twenty-three hours. The entire staff of the Ministry had done likewise. The orders already issuing from the telescreen, recalling them to their posts, were hardly necessary. Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia. A large part of the political literature of five years was now completely obsolete. Reports and records of all kinds, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks, photographs -- all had to be rectified at lightning speed. Although no directive was ever issued, it was known that the chiefs of the Department intended that within one week no reference to the war with Eurasia, or the alliance with Eastasia, should remain in existence anywhere. The work was overwhelming, all the more so because the processes that it involved could not be called by their true names.

Also please read Nineteen Eighty-Four everyone. It's a very good book, it's not very long, and it's still scarily relevant to today.

[abracadav-r]

"Okay, makes sense, but also what the fuck is going on with Vhaeraun's lore anyway😭

It still baffles me that it looks almost like they don't know what they want or what they're doing with him. At least that's the impression the current canon gave me the last time my mutual shared random bits of lore with me"

@mmigrainee

I think this is likely to go longer than a reply comment allows, so I'll put it here. Won't be citing as much as usual since I'm on mobile and the app likes throwing tantrums when I go in and out of it but here's the Cliff Notes version:

2e Vhaeraun has an entirely different depiction. His entries in Demihuman Deities and other 2e books by parties like Ed Greenwood depict him as a power that—while lesser to Lolth—is successfully able to convert followers from Lolth and skirt around the margins of Menzoberranzan as a noticeable threat to the Church of Lolth.

Then we get Cunningham's novels, where the Vhaeraunites and their centers of power are depicted in very shallow ways thoughtless to his existing lore (his followers have sex slaves and prowl after women) this also starts the "Evermeet's take on this is now taken is as good as the official timeline rather than a bardic version intended to please the court of an elf nation with its own problematic history".

These depictions continue into 3e onward, leaving most depictions of Vhaeraun and his followers as slavers, sex pests, genociders et al and most notes of egalitarianism are removed from him and either disappear entirely or are reassigned to other parties, especially in the era where we have storylines focusing on the "redemption of drow".

4e comes around and Hasbro wants to streamline and thinks too many gods are annoying and they want everything Lolth all the way down. Lady Penitent comes out and kills everyone but Lolth in stupid ways and 4e pushes that all drow convert or die. Every underdark city that isn't Menzoberranzan might as well no longer exist, assuming they didn't outright eradicate it with whatever reason they spun up to have unopposed rule.

In between, Ed and others are consulting. Their work is cut by editors but more recently they've said there was plans to have the twins return as archfey in a campaign after their deaths, returning to their origins.

That lore never gets published, so we move into 5e with them still dead or just reappearing like a lot of gods did with no justification. Hasbro doesn't want to do the worldbuilding work they did in 2e-3e so they just leave everything with a big hole turn in it. You guys only care about the Sword Coast, right?

Ed eventually gets asked on Candlekeep about it and spins up a narrative that Mystra interfered in Vhaeraun's attempted assassination in Lady and behind the scenes, grabs the twins and pulls them into the weave in torpor essentially. They weren't dead, pretending at it, which is why the Skulkers of Vhaeraun received spells. This may be tied to the Demon Weave content in 4e's Council of Spiders, perhaps Mystra wanted Lolth to feel confident and overextend, which helped knock her down from a Greater Power to a Lesser Power in 5e.

Ed continues on this, saying the twins have reached an "understanding" and now won't be directly opposing each other, though members of each church may.

tldr: Hasbro doesn't really give a shit about a consistent narrative, they just want to republish books every 5-10 years with the same three paragraphs and it really shows in 5e when the original creator has to come out and say "yeah I hear you guys and had plans that I now can't really talk about due to NDA but here's something new to try and fix the gaping hole."

[tokyo-debunkers-headcanons]

ya know how jin usually wears his jacket uniform around his shoulders? my brain literally does not shut up abt this so would it be possible to request a romantic headcanon/drabble with frostheim and vagastrom boys where they give their jacket to the reader (and ur reasons for why you think they do) :’)

Thank you for sending in a request!

JIN KAMURAI

he doesn't give his jacket up easily, just be aware. And as stated before He's not big on PDA but I think he'd get a little jealous if they were out and about together. If they were really cold He'd give it up, but he'd absolutely complain about it first. (CAPTAIN! DRABBLE SPOTTED ON STARBURD SIDE!)

Jin glared around at the dirty Vagastrom pit. If it wasn't for MC being there for a mission, he wouldn't be caught dead in a place like this for fun. He didn't trust those thugs to make sure MC got back to their dorm okay. When he finally spotted them, he made a B line for them, noticing some general students getting too close for comfort. He stepped in, using his powerful voice and stigma, saying,

"Stand down you thugs!"

Jin swiftly walked up to a shocked looking MC, taking off his jacket and throwing it over their shoulders. He placed a hand on their shoulder, glaring daggers at the general students and guiding MC out of there. When they were out he grabbed their hand and started leading them. Without taking his eyes off of where he was going he said,

"From now on, whenever you come to this shit hole. You take my jacket, is that clear?"

TOHMA ISHIBASHI

Okay, Tohma would give them his jacket if they were cold but I think it would be more of a shield from others if that makes sense. Like to cover them up or to comfort them when something is happening. (WELCOME TO THE DRABBLE DOME!)

Tohma narrowed his eyes as he watched MC leaving Frostheim for the day. He had spotted some general students milling about and getting closer to MC. He stayed where he was until one of the students had tried to grab their arm. In what seemed like a flash, Tohma was there with his typical smile. He held on to the offending students wrist tightly, his composure never cracking. After a moment he let go of the students wrist, and slipped off his jacket, placing it over MC's shoulders. He looked down at them saying,

"Please do forgive them MC. It seems I will have to teach them proper guest etiquette"

KAITO FUJI

Kaito would TRY to give MC his jacket like he's seen in movies and magazines. But he would get WAY too worried about if there was some sort of stain on it from lunch or if it smelled weird. Like if its raining, he'd be too worried about the condition of the jacket to realize MC either ran for cover already.....or is already soaked from the rain. (WE ARE LIVING IN A DRABBLE WORLD! AND I AM JUST A DRABBLE GORL!)

Kaito took a deep breath and shifted his uniform jacket as he walked MC back to their dorm. He saw on his phone that it was supposed to rain today and he purposefully 'forgot' his umbrella. As they were walking it started to drizzle, before quickly turning into a downpour. Kaito thanked whatever diety was out there for this chance. He swiftly took off his jacket, draping it over their shoulders and grabbing their hand to run back to MC's dorm. He laughed along the way, picturing what it looked like to MC. what he thought was a cute scene from a movie.....was really him dragging MC by the hand in the pouring rain. When they finally DO make it back to MC's dorm, they're both sopping wet and MC says,

"Thanks for lending me your jacket and all Kaito.....but i hope you know there's a hole in one of the sleeves."

Kaito died a little inside when MC told him that.

LUCAS ERRANT "LUCA"

Luca, being the lovely English gentlemen he is. He will always give MC his jacket even if it's just a little windy. He would beat himself up if MC got sick when they were with him. (EXTRY EXTRY! DRABBLE FOR ENGLISH BOI!)

Lucas had sent MC a message to meet him in the library to do more research on both their curse and demons. He was making his way to the library, when he spotted them. He waved and jogged up to them, a small smile on his face. He grabbed their hand and gently squeezed it. Keeping their fingers interlocked while they walked together.

MC was mentioning something that happened in one of their classes when Luca felt a drop of something hit his nose. He looked up, noticing clouds overhead. Without hesitating he took off his jacket and placed it on top of MC's head to shield them from the rain. He pressed his hand against their lower back gently guiding them into the building. MC fussed over how he was wet, but he brushed it off with a smile and a soft hand on their cheek, saying,

"I'll be fine MC. I was more worried about you. I wouldn't ever want you to get sick. I promised to protect you after all"

ALAN MIDO

Okay to start with, Alan doesn't wear his jacket. He HAS one, he just doesn't wear it. He has a vest though so its CLOSE ENOUGH! But with his vest, they HAVE to tell him that they're cold AND ask him for his vest. He has no objection to give it to them if they're cold. But his mind is on other things, he's not gonna get the hint if they just tell him that they're cold.

Alan was on his back, working on one of the cars in the Vagastrom garage while he waited for his partner to show up. Tonight was supposed to be date night and they agreed to spend some time together doing seperate things (its called parallel play for those who don't know!). He rolled out to grab a drink of water and a different tool when MC walked in. They were holding their arms and shivering slightly. He greeted them and went back under to work on the car.

MC sat down on the couch and cleared their throat. Alan rolled back out and asked them what was wrong. When they told him it was cold, he offered to get them a blanket or something. When they refused that offer, he didn't know what else to do and went back under. MC sighed and got his attention by calling his name. He rolled back out and asked,

"Did you change your mind on that blanket?"

MC had not and just asked him straightforward,

"Alan sweetie, I'm cold. Can I please borrow your vest?"

He thought about it for a moment before telling them no, then getting up and walking away. MC sat there SHOCKED. For a moment they were upset, but after a minute or two, Alan came back with a uniform jacket, tossing it towards MC, saying,

"Wear that. It'll look better on you than me anyways"

SHOHEI HAIZONO "SHO"

I feel like Sho would hand MC his jacket whenever he's either about to cook, or about to fight. He'd give it to them if they were cold sure, but he'd complain about them not being prepared.

Sho made his way back to the Vagastrom dorms with bags full of ingredients. He texted his partner MC to show up with an appetite. He was glad to see MC already at the dorms by the time he got back and parked Bonnie (his bike) properly. He raced past them into the Vagastrom kitchen, urging them to follow.

When they came in, they saw Sho adjusting his bandana to keep the hair out of his face and taking off his jacket. He held it out to MC saying,

"Hang onto this for me babe. I'm about to make a master piece"

Seeing the fire in his eyes, MC gladly took his jacket, slipping it on and sitting down at the kitchen counter. They watched as he expertly cooked: cutting vegetables, frying and double frying meats, even his plating was mesmerizing to watch. When he was finished he set the hot plate down in front of MC with a smirk.

LEO KUROSAGI

Leo would NOT give them the jacket he wears. Its a very expensive jacket that he got from a brand deal. The only time he would willingly give MC his jacket is if something happened and they were really really upset (not at him though)

Leo sighed as he walked to MC's dorm. He didn't bother knocking as he came into the old cathedral. He looked around calling for MC. He eventually found them curled up in bed, sobbing. He cringed a bit, not entirely comfortable with such intense emotions. He took a minute to think before sighing dramatically. He sat down on the edge of the bed and threw his jacket over their sobbing form. He put a gentle hand on their back, saying,

"Just try not to get any tear streaks on it, okay?"