#kind of wanted to use one of her quotes from the flashbacks but

[ginaporterr]

So this has been really illuminating on so many levels, but we kind of have a musical to save.

SOFIA WYLIE as GINA PORTER High School Musical: The Musical: The Series | 4x06 – Trust the Process

[hiddenreamers]

Unlikely pair

SUMMARY: Where Oscar is dating a musician known for strictness and harsh comments on survival shows. To everyone's surprise, the unlikely pair is nothing short of perfect.

yntheone made a new post:

Close your eyes, take my time Let's remember this moment

Photograph (prod. Offonoff) is out on Thursday

Comments:

user1: WHATTT

user2: this is not a drill I repeat this is not a drill

user3: girl you can't just drop this on us and bail 💀

user4: is this real or is this my ambien

user5: i see the saga of blurry pictures continues

↳ user6: it's a vibe, you hater 😤

user7: omg is this the song realoffonoff played on his live the other day??

user8: who is this and why is it not me 😩

user9: she destroyed everyone on Don Mills Daebak remix just to turn around and do cute rnb songs 😭 queen shit 👑👑

oscarpiastri: can't wait ❤️ liked by yntheone

↳ yntheone: ❤️❤️ ↳ user10: the last person I expected to see here ↳ user11: 🤨🤨 well that's suspicious

user12: You need to do an entire album with realoffonoff !! Cigarette was amazing 😍

↳ user13: oh my godddd do you think cigarette was about the same guy? ↳ user14: definitely ?? i mean how can you listen to yntheone sing she wants you to be addicted to her like cigarettes and go "nah I'll pass" ?? brain damage ahh behaviour

yntheone tagged oscarpiastri in a post:

Do you really think you're that good??

(He is.)

Comments:

user15: babe wake up new roman empire just dropped

user16: not the caption 💀💀 quoting herself like the queen she is

↳ user17: giving trainees war flashbacks lmao

user18: he better know how to fight 😤😤 im throwing hands

user19: this can't be the same person who tore apart trainees on live tv 😐 since when is she all lovey dovey

↳ user20: if you had Oscar Piastri smiling at you, you'd be lovey dovey too

user21: out of all the people I suspected to be the guy from a blurry picture, this man wasn't even on the list ??? there's opposites and then there's THIS

↳ user22: ya I'm genuinely surprised someone as calm as him can keep up with her �� user23: yall are forgetting he's keeping up with Lando Norris

oscarpiastri: I really am liked by yntheone

landonorris: he's not as good as me but I guess he's still kind of ok

↳ danielricciardo: you might want to rethink that mate ↳ landonorris: blocked

user24: I'll just assume every love song she's done has been about him

↳ user25: Cigarette?? Moon?? Photograph?? Make the Move?? He better know the poetry that she's written about him or he gon catch these hands ↳ oscarpiastri: I do know and I appreciate every word

user25: finally Mclaren found someone who can actually pull off the papaya and not look silly

user26: yntheone is taken?? worst day of my life tbh

user27: imagine all the contestants on survival shows that will come in mclaren merch 💀💀 we're about to unlock a new level of embarrassment that shouldn't be possible

user28: this is the best golden retriever black cat couple, everyone else can go home

user29: for his own sake, I hope he knows what he's gotten himself into 😩😩

↳ user30: no better racing motivation than remembering your girlfriend is famous for roasting people in front of the entire nation

f1fans_official made a new post:

oscarpiastri and yntheone on their little New York trip 🥺🥺

Comments:

user31: yes I watch f1 for the rivalry and driving

↳ user32: these two are the main plot

user33: am I the only one bothered by the fact that she's a rude bitch??

↳ user34: yes sis you're the only one who can't tell between a rude bitch and a professional realistically evaluating wanna-be artists

user35: no thoughts head empty thinking about my favourite paddock couple

user36: i can't even be mad she's taken my man 😞😞 they look cute together

user37: hope they don't break up I can't take going through my parents' divorce twice

user38: if Lando and yntheone become friends we're going to see the most iconic duo of all time

↳ user39: the Lando slander is about to get serious 💀 ↳ user40: Oscar is gonna be bald by the end of the year because of them lmao

oscarpiastri tagged yntheone in a post:

Resting and recharging before the next race weekend

Comments:

user41: it's giving he asked for no pickles

yntheone: no need to thank me, I know I'm the only thing you need 😴 liked by oscarpiastri

↳ oscarpiastri: wouldn't have it any other way ❤️

user42: forget guard dog boyfriend, Oscar's got a guard dog girlfriend and I'm here for it

↳ user44: feminism

landonorris: guys help me she's scary

↳ yntheone: I know where you live 🥰🥰 ↳ oscarpiastri: yntheone I'll hold your bag baby ↳ user43: forget the office this is the sitcom i'd watch ↳ georgerussell63: the bigger the distance from angry yntheone the funnier it is

user45: honestly why would he go for a manly rude bitch?? there are so many better women out there, just sad

↳ user46: have you considered the fact that men are not a monolith and have, in fact, individual preferences? or is your IQ too low to comprehend that?

user47: I will tell my children this is the royal pair

user48: can't wait for her the sample Oscar and add him to a beat 🔥🔥

user49: ok now I get why she wrote absolute bangers about him 😍

user50: if she's in the stands cheering him on, FIA should give Oscar a penalty for unfair advantage 😤😤

[actual-changeling]

Welcome back to Alex's unhinged meta corner, and today I have something surprisingly not kiss-related—though it is still about the final fifteen because hey, gotta keep the brand image.

I read this post by @goodoldfashionednightingale and began typing a small response. Then I made the mistake of drinking half a litre of coffee on an empty stomach right after taking my adhd meds and my brain began vibrating at the speed of light.

But oh, have I discovered parallels. This, my friends, is about the nightingale, where it comes from, what it means, and what the fuck happened in part 3 of 1941.

Ready? Let's go.

Now, as OP said in her post, s1e3 is important. In the script book, Neil himself says that these flashbacks are where the producers would tell him to cut scenes to save money. They suggested every single one—except for the one he ended up taking out, which was the bookshop opening scene set in 1800. The others are building blocks, you need them to see how their relationship progressed and what kind of important milestones they had.

(side note: author is very miffed that english does not have a separate subjunctive form like german which makes quoting lines way more confusing than it has to be)

The one I want to mention is neither 1941 nor 1967. No, what I want to talk about is 1601. This might be about to get a bit rambly but I will do my best to keep it tidy.

The focus of that flashback is on the Arrangement, yes, but it gives us a lot more information than that.

they both see Shakespeare's plays regularly, maybe even meet in the crowd

Crowley prefers the comedies

Aziraphale does not seem to have a preference, he enjoys the tragedies and presumably the comedies too

there is an oyster woman selling food -> reference to their meeting in Rome when Aziraphale tempted him to try some oysters

Aziraphale reflexively denies their relationship

Crowley might say he is not worried but circles Aziraphale the entire time, keeping watch

they both ask favours of each other and both agree to do them

What stands out to me in relation to what I am about to expand on is the line that Crowley delivers after Aziraphale's little 'buck up'—which Crowley finds adorable btw but that's a post for another time.

"Age does not wither nor custom stale his infinite variety."

Why would he say that? What exactly is prompting this? WHY say that specific line?

At first I thought it might be to tempt Shakespeare because he does commit art theft by just copying that line down, BUT I think there is more to that. So much more, in fact. I am wiggling now because I am very excited about this and my adhd meds are kicking in anyway.

First things first: the line itself.

It appears in Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra, a romantic tragedy, which was first performed in 1607 aka six years after this meeting. Enobarbus is talking about Cleopatra and describing why Antony won't leave her. Her.

Ccrowley uses his—again, who is he even talking about? Hamlet? Shakespeare? Random poetic quote?

No, I think this line is about Aziraphale and it's a code. Right after, the next line from Aziraphale is "What do you want?", meaning that this is their code phrase for 'I have a favour to ask of you'.

Age does not wither nor custom stale his infinite variety

Age will not affect his appearance nor will he ever become boring to Antony. Crowley, who later chooses the name Anthony for himself, tells Aziraphale, an immortal, that he will never age and that he will never grow bored of him.

It's flattery, pure and simple, and it's code at the same time. This establishes the important fact that they might use more of Shakespeare's work as code/already have a system in place (even though he steals Crowley's line for later).

They play their little morality game of back and forth, Aziraphale agrees, Crowley probably manipulates the coin toss, and THEN we find out that the oyster woman is called Juliet.

Why? What is the meaning of that? Why give her a name and that name in particular? Why bring the sexy oysters back into it?

Romeo and Juliet premiered in 1597, so it is safe to assume they have both seen it by 1601, but this is mostly for the audience, not for us-or is it?

Aziraphale gives Crowley puppy eyes until he agrees to make Hamlet popular, and while I don't think Juliet itself is a code word, although it's very interesting that the OYSTER woman is the one with that name (especially adding what we now know about Job), Romeo and Juliet might be.

Yes, the Nightingale song came out in 1940 but the bird has been around for much, much longer, and, as many probably know by now, also shows up in Romeo and Juliet.

This is where I am starting to vibrate at the speed of light because listen to me. Listen.

Crowley is Juliet. Anthony J. Crowley. Antony Juliet Crowley.

(side note: I'm not saying that Crowley chose it based on that—though I am not not saying that—but that it is a clue for us at the audience.)

Why do I think that? In the play, Romeo spends the night with Juliet and then goes to leave as the night begins to end. Juliet tries to stop him and tells him that the birds they are hearing aren't larks, which sing at dawn, but nightingales, which sing at night.

Who is the one always pushing for more? Crowley. He is the one trying to convince Aziraphale it's safe, they're safe to spend time together.

Romeo disagrees with Juliet and says 'I must be gone and live, or stay and die'.

Leave and stay alive, or stay and hell/heaven will punish us. It gets even better though.

We all know how Romeo and Juliet ends: Romeo thinks Juliet is dead, kills himself, Juliet finds him and then kills herself too.

Hey, do you know how Antony and Cleopatra ends?

Antony thinks Cleopatra is dead, kills himself and dies in her arms, then Cleopatra also kills herself—by snake poison; Romeo also died by poison.

The parallels are THERE. They are jumping down our throats! Two tragedies, two sides, several familiar names and phrases, same fear, same ending.

I think by now you can guess how this ties back to 1941.

We do not see how that night ends, but we know it ends. One of them wants to stretch it out, maybe even quotes Romeo and Juliet because look at the setting!

Candlelight, wonderful night they spend together, the threat of Crowley's early demise, and, to quote the play once more, this time Romeo: I have more care to stay than will to go.

Crowley thought it was his last night on earth and went with Aziraphale to his bookshop, to be with him, because he cares more about that than the fact that he will be dragged to hell come morning. Do you remember?

"Expect a legion to come for you first thing tomorrow" THAT is the threat. They have until dawn, just like Romeo and Juliet, which is why she is so desperate for the birds to be nightingales. Fortunately for them, Aziraphale saves the day, BUT there is NO SECURITY. They do not KNOW if a legion will still show up or not. If dawn is a deadline and they will need to fight.

Sure, they improved their chances, but who knows? Maybe they will come for him anyway, it's not like hell is all fair and square.

The best part: it gets even better.

Juliet eventually panics and tells him to go, and Romeo drops a line that huh, sounds oddly familiar, doesn't it?

'More light and light, more dark and dark our woes!'

Remind me, what does Aziraphale say again? Ah, yes. Perhaps there is something to be said for shades of grey.

There is more. Yes, even more. We know the whole rescue relies on a magic trick, a switch. Guess what Juliet yearns for while telling Romeo to go save himself?

Oh, now I would they had changed voices too. While they did not for Romeo and Juliet—they kiss and part—they did for our two. One fabulous switch and we're good.

(side note: Toads? Associated with hell. Larks? Associated with the dawn, yes, but also heaven since Romeo says 'Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat the vaulty heaven so high above our heads.')

So, this was a whole lot of information, let's see if I can summarize my thoughts.

I believe the nightingale is a code word that has existed even before 1941 and gained a lot of importance over the years. In 1941, the song is added to the meaning and whatever happened between the two that we have not seen yet, it fundamentally changed their relationship. Maybe they kissed, maybe one of them tried to convince the other to prolong the night but they parted on not-great terms.

The nightingale and the song become a symbol of hope, a goal to achieve, another uninterrupted night, maybe, or an uninterrupted life.

When they part in the final fifteen, it's morning. Crowley points at the sky and says "no nightingales", which at that point has several different layers to it.

No nightingales because their night is over, just like with Romeo and Juliet, and please, please allow me to add another detail, because I am frothing at the mouth over this. The scene I quoted, known as balcony scene, do you know what it is preceded by?

A ball.

Star-crossed lovers defying their sides, falling in love at a ball, getting a hurried, wonderful night together but torn apart by danger of punishment, the nightingale as a dream, as a wish for unhurried time together. Family rejection, torn apart by parents, willing to die for each other so they can reunite in death.

No nightingales. The ball, the romance, is over, their dancing is over, heaven is tearing them apart, and Aziraphale returns to heaven while they are both stuck in a pit of misunderstanding and miscommunication, all bound together by fear for each other.

The thing is, Crowley hates tragedies, he never liked the "gloomy ones", and he does not want them to end in one—luckily, this isn't the end. Yes, they kiss and part, but the play keeps going. We have an entire act 3 to fix what Romeo and Juliet couldn't, to ensure that this is a COMEDY, not a tragedy.

Both Antony & Cleopatra and Romeo & Juliet died out of fear, hurried into making bad decisions because they knew what would happen if their sides were to catch up with them.

Crowley and Aziraphale can reunite heaven and hell with love, not death. This is THEIR story and they are writing the ending. No more day and night, no more deadlines, no more hiding and sneaking about, no more fear of larks and sunshine.

Good Omens will end the way it began: In a garden with two no-longer-star-crossed lovers embracing the song of a lark as well as that of the nightingale.

I hope this made sense to everyone who was no present while my mind started to vibrate itself into a puddle because the thing is I can see Neil doing all of this completely on purpose.

Thoughts? Questions? Additions? Come and join me in my insanity and until next time I have a mental breakdown over this show (probably in like two hours).

[reasonandfaithinharmony]

2024 Gif Round-Up

Thank you for tagging me @heartstringsduet @thisbuildinghasfeelings @paperstorm @alrightbuckaroo

@carlos-in-glasses @guardian-angle22 and @reyesstrand!!

I’m very late to this because the holidays didn’t leave me any time to myself. But @herefortarlos tells me there’s no deadline for these things. So here we go.😅

This year was the first time I watched 911 Lone Star live, and it was actually the first time I’d ever made gifs for *any show* as we got new episodes. It's been a lot of fun, even if it makes me even more aware of just how long it takes me to finish a set. 🙈

Here’s to everyone who puts lovely content on my dash, whether it’s your own work, reblogs, or funny/heartfelt commentary and tags. I would be so lost without all of it.

Please consider this an open tag for anyone who would still like to do their own round-up!

January

Carlos smiling into kisses Parallel set with scenes from Yee-Haw (1x02)

“You asked me to feel safe with you.” Flashback set with scenes from Friends With Benefits (2x04) and Push (3x04)

When a new hyperfixation takes hold Dan Levy reaction gifs

February

TK and Carlos comforting each other Parallel set with scenes from Friends With Benefits (2x04) and A House Divided (4x16)

March

“I'll keep going with you.” An emotional entry for incorrect quotes/text post–gifs, with scenes from In the Unlikely Event of an Emergency (3x08) and In Sickness and in Health (4x18)

 “I am tryna be your home, your safe place, your go to person…” Back to the more humorous incorrect quotes/text post–gifs, with moments from Yee-Haw (1x02)

“there’s honestly a lot of things wrong with you but im kind of into it for some reason. Do you want to get married.” Incorrect quotes/text post–gifs, featuring the darts scene from Texas Proud (1x03)

April

Their last terrified moments in their first home. Their first brilliant and joyful moments in their new home. Parallel set with scenes from The Big Heat (2x12) and Push (3x04)

“Hey now those (your big brown eyes) are some dangerous weapons…” Incorrect quotes/text post–gif with a look at Carlos in Negative Space (3x12)

That lovely first tarlos scene in Riddle of the Sphynx (3x13), without the credits obstructing our view.

"just got diagnosed as your soulmate...". Incorrect quotes/text post–gif featuring scenes from Yee-Haw (1x02) and A House Divided (4x16)

Season 4: parallel statements of love and devotion Scenes from Abandoned (4x04), The New Hot Mess (4x02), Swipe Left (4x12), A House Divided (4x16), and In Sickness and in Health (4x18)

May through December are below the cut because things got very out of hand very quickly:

May

Husband, husband, husband Every instance of “husband” from In Sickness and in Health (4x18)

When there are clues that date night has been interrupted Adding some visual aids to the conversation about the state of Carlos' shirt at the end of This Is Not a Drill (4x06)

“I think that both of them like to be the little spoon and the big spoon” – Rafael Silva For @carlos-in-glasses who shared her amazing Cameo video with us

“I missed it so much, I took a stab at writing fanfiction.” A relatable moment from Modern Family

June

If that moment in the fire was Carlos' last chance to say anything, he was going to say everything. A flashback set inspired by @doublel27's post that lives in my head, rent-free. Features scenes from The Big Heat (2x12) and In Sickness and in Health (4x18)

“He might not understand TK's fixation with a lizard, but… Um, you know, Carlos loves TK. And if Carlos loves TK, then that's all that matters.” – Rafael Silva For @thisbuildinghasfeelings who generously shared not one, but two Cameo videos with us

Just taking the opportunity to look at the details of some intense moments from the fire in The Big Heat (2x12)

“It’s a meal, not a marriage proposal, TK. || “So, the wedding. It’s coming up.” A flashback set with TK and Carlos sitting across from each other at the dinner table in Yee-Haw (1x02) and This Is Not a Drill (4x06)

wedding planning → wedding ceremony Parallel set with scenes from Control Freaks (4x08) and In Sickness and in Health (4x18)

July

“And when did you figure that out?” / “The day I met you.” How long have you thought that?“ / “Since the first night I took you home.” A flashback *and* parallel set with scenes from the pilot (1x01), Yee-Haw (1x02), The New Hot Mess (4x02), and A House Divided (4x16). Made in collaboration with @paperstorm. (Check out the accompanying fic here.)

That sounds sexual. 😏 A Rafael Silva reaction gif for various situations here on tumblr dot com

Andrea with her husband and her son, both in their tuxes for the wedding. Parallel set featuring scenes from  Best of Men (4x17) and In Sickness and in Health deleted scene (4x18). (I blame this one on @goldenskykaysani 😭)

August

My best attempt at zooming in on the final shot of the proposal scene in A Bright and Cloudless Morning (3x18)

September

No more wasted moments. A collection of scenes from A Bright and Cloudless Morning (3x18), Swipe Left (4x12), Both Sides Now (5x01), and the promo for Thunderstruck (5x05). (I still need to update that last one to the version used in the episode. Oops.)

Carlos on the outside, looking in  ->  Carlos surrounded by the love of his friends, family, and husband Not sure if I should call this a parallel or a flashback set. Either way, we have scenes from the pilot (1x01) and In Sickness and in Health (4x18), and I'm so very normal about it.

Sweet moments where Carlos is grabbing TK’s sweater/jacket Parallel set of still images from Riddle of the Sphynx (3x13) and the Thunderstruck promo (5x05)

Reaching across the table Parallel set of still images from Austin, We Have a Problem (1x10) and Both Sides, Now (5x01, season 5 promo)

TK and Carlos:  "husband" A collection of scenes from A Bright and Cloudless Morning (3x18),  Swipe Left (4x12), In Sickness and in Health (4x18), and Both Sides Now (5x01)

The look on Carlos' face when his own love language is returned to him in kind Parallel set with scenes from Swipe Left (4x12) and Both Sides, Now (5x01)

October

“One of the most magical things about being in a committed relationship is learning to really open up your heart and hate one of your partner’s coworkers you’ve never met” Incorrect quotes/text post–gif  for Both Sides, Now (5x01)

The way Carlos walks into the 126 firehouse:  unwilling to move past the threshold -> strutting in with donuts for everyone, just because. A collection of scenes from Austin, We Have a Problem (1x10), Bad Call (2x08), Spring Cleaning (3x17), and Trainwrecks (5x02)

“You look like the night we met. Green t-shirt and short hair.” For @strandnreyes and @paperstorm, to accompany their coda for C12 (5x03), with parallel gifs from the pilot (1x01).  (Read the fic here.)

TK and Carlos are not on the same page Parallel set for Swipe Left (4x12) and the Thunderstruck promo (5x05)

kiss + hand + ✨ring✨ Parallel set of still images from In Sickness and in Health deleted scenes (4x18) and Thunderstruck promo photos (5x05)

I will never not be thinking about this kiss 🔥 Thunderstruck (5x05) sneak peek

Had to make a post with sexy scenes from three different episodes. As a treat. 🔥🔥🔥 Parallel set for Yee-Haw (1x02), The Big Heat (2x12), and Thunderstruck (5x05)

"…everybody has needs." Pairing moments from The Big Heat (2x12) and Thunderstruck (5x05) with Rafael Silva’s Cameo video (courtesy of @carlos-in-glasses)

November

TK, Carlos, and Jonah – with Gwyn and with Enzo Parallel set of still images from Push (3x04) and a Kiddos (5x07) promotional photo. A closer zoom of the Kiddos image can be found here.

“This is great. I’m going to get a good grade in therapy, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve” Incorrect quotes/text post–gif for Carlos in Thunderstruck (5x05)

TK and Carlos moving in sync during couples therapy Thunderstruck (5x05)

Carlos in his troublemaker era, egging on Owen and Enzo Kiddos (5x07)

TK, Carlos, and Jonah at the firehouse Parallel set with scenes from  Push (3x04) and Kiddos (5x07)

“Hi, big brother.” / “Hi, little brother.” TK and Jonah reunited in Kiddos (5x07) A longer version of this gif set can be found here

Just the tiniest bit of slightly different footage from TK's birthday party Kiddos (5x07)

“Who’s gonna take him to dim sum?” || “Who’s gonna hug him?” Parallel set with scenes from In the Unlikely Event of an Emergency (3x08) and The Quiet Ones (5x08)

A microsecond of behind-the-scenes footage from TK's party Kiddos (5x07)

December

TK and Carlos reaching for each other in their sleep Parallel set with scenes from Riddle of the Sphynx (3x13), In Sickness and in Health (4x18), and The Quiet Ones (5x08).

Our loved ones live on through us Parallel set with scenes from In the Unlikely Event of an Emergency (3x08) and Fall From Grace (5x09)

“You were my dad." Flashback set with scenes from Best of Men (4x17), In Sickness and in Health (4x18), and Fall From Grace (5x09)

[genericpuff]

This might be kind of a stupid question, but in total, how many times did Rachel retconned LO? I clearly remember Hypnos being trapped for 10 years and then it getting retconned to "a few days"

Also, Hera, Demeter, Hestia going from friends to sisters

Did something else get retconned…?

UHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

this question got me thinking so hard i consulted the UnpopularLO crew, here's what we were able to come up with but there are almost definitely more examples:

Melinoe claims she's only been trapped for a few days but this contradicts what Hypnos told us about Kronos using a child deity to overthrow the Underworld in the first place. Unless this just means Persephone showed up just a day or two after everyone fell into a deep sleep, but considering the state of the Underworld when she arrives and other things we're told after the S2 finale, there's no way this is the case.

Speaking of Melinoe, the whole concept of "the interloper" was clearly something Rachel came up with on the fly and didn't have an actual solution to because when we're first told about them, they look nothing like Melinoe:

The weird replacement of Hades' imagined childhood self with Melinoe as a dream child who was actually "always present" throughout the first two seasons. Like, why is Hades so familiar with the ghost child 'checking in on him' if this was some random thing that started happening due to Kronos messing around with the timeline?

The sudden 'reveal' that Ouranos was the one pulling the strings and manipulating Apollo since the very beginning even though that makes zero sense and was completely unnecessary to explaining Apollo's motivations. Apollo himself even constantly flip flops between being some evil mastermind out to get Persephone for a very specific purpose (overthrowing Zeus) and being just a completely oblivious obsessed asshole who doesn't understand consent and actually believes Persephone is in love with him. After all, why would Apollo go on a date with Daphne and then ask her if she'd be willing to cut her hair to look like Persephone's if the goal was to get his hands on Persephone specifically for the purpose of using her powers to overthrow Zeus? How in the world does Daphne factor into that?

Throughout S1 and 2, the gods claim that the mortals are largely disposable and easily replaceable, but then when Persephone causes the plague, suddenly mortals need to be protected because their beliefs and rituals are necessary to sustaining the gods (funny how Hermes bounces between the mortals being necessary to save at all costs but also just inconvenient to live without, like which is it lmao):

The whole "plan" to overthrow Kronos bouncing between being Hera's idea and being Zeus' idea. Rachel just couldn't seem to decide if she wanted a strong female character like Hera to be a victim manipulated into abuse or willingly choosing to put herself in harm's way for the "greater good". IIRC it's written out in the end that Hera and Zeus couldn't even remember who came up with the plan first (but don't quote me on that, I need to find the panels, they do stick out in my mind but I don't know which episode they're specifically from)

The reveal that Hera was the missing fertility goddess depicted on the mural when the original reveal of the mural looks nothing like how it looks later in the flashback sequences. This is the same as the Interloper problem where Rachel was clearly grasping at setting up some kind of mystery box that she didn't know the contents of.

The reveal that Zeus and Metis had a relationship which is what allowed him to use her powers in the first place (because within that same episode Rachel revealed that a bond of love was necessary to using them, but then clearly realized that meant Zeus and Metis had to be in love)

Zeus consuming Metis was changed into some plan to "protect Hera" from being used as a fertility goddess power battery, but then Zeus just went ahead and slowly drained Hera of her powers anyways.

Metis becoming a star after being eaten by Zeus because reasons.

The text messages from Leuce and Hades were retroactively changed into a "manifestation board", probably to absolve Hades of "fooling around" while Persephone was trapped in the Mortal Realm, but all at the expense of a woman who was now retconned into being delusional just for the sake of strengthening the main ship and giving Persephone someone to bully.

The reveal during the trial that Eris was the cause of Persephone's wrath when there was literally zero reason for that to be the case.

The reveal during the trial that Thanatos was actually Hades' adopted son, which really doesn't look good on Hades considering how much of a dick he was to Thanatos throughout the entirety of the first two seasons without any impression given that they might have a canon father-son dynamic.

Apollo and Artemis WEREN'T originally going to be children of Zeus in LO, as Rachel didn't want to create any possibilities for incest within the messy family tree of the Greek gods, but then she decided to make them the children of Zeus anyways as a "plot twist" which is really silly considering 1.) most people would assume they're Zeus' children anyways due to being his children in the myths, and 2.) she still designed them to look just like Zeus.

The subtle but very present SA retcon. This one's so egregious and in-depth I wrote an entire essay about it.

Minthe was originally written with BPD which Rachel decided to "move away from", probably because she realized how shitty it made her look to give BPD to the one character she was pitting the audience against as the "mean other girl" who we all knew was eventually going to be turned into a plant.

Edited panels and changes in the physical books. This is unfortunately not something that I can fully document here, I'm planning on making an actual dedicated post for it, but people have caught changes both in the webtoon version of the comic AND the physical prints that point to Rachel trying to quietly retcon things in the wake of her own bad writing, one of which is present in that aforementioned SA erasure essay in which a scene was added to make Persephone seem more sympathetic towards Apollo. That said, there's also a scene in the trial arc that was changed in the webtoon version, in which Rachel retconned Eris' dialogue from revealing that Hades was the reason Demeter wasn't queen of the mortal realm to reminding her that Hades was the reason (because obv later on we'd get a flashback sequence showing us what happened between Demeter and Hades, which implied that Demeter knew all along what Hades did because he did it right in front of her):

(isn't it funny-weird how Persephone never asks about this despite being in the courtroom when Eris mentions this?)

There are almost DEFINITELY more examples of Rachel absentmindedly and/or intentionally retconning things throughout LO, but that's what we were all able to come up with and should at least get the gears moving in our heads when thinking about other instances of it throughout the comic. Granted, some of these are arguably less 'retcons' and more so just logical inconsistencies / plotholes / etc. but they all still point towards Rachel doing a very bad job at keeping track of her own comic's narrative, its characters, and its twists, even in spite of having multiple other people working for her who all seem to enjoy LO (including heyitsjaki, who is also a webcomic creator), an editor with a background in television writing, and a massive and dedicated fanbase that actively keeps track of her story and its themes arguably more than she does. At that point it feels less "oopsie daisy!" and more just deadass not giving a shit. I don't want to accuse her of intentionally doing this, but it's like she knows her fanbase will just go with whatever she tells them even when it doesn't align with other things she's told them or make sense within the overall narrative - and she'll still be rewarded with Eisner awards regardless - so she doesn't bother to actually try when it comes to the writing, it's just about meeting that panel quota and giving people more H x P fluff.

The simpler answer though, even outside LO, is that Rachel just can't write.

[angelinthefire]

"Blisters and bedrock" and The Flashback

So I know the flashback scene with Felicia in s2e5 is controversial. So I wanted to take the time to understand it properly, and do a close rewatch.

And I realized that even though I watched the episode like four times before, I never properly evaluated what was going on with Vander, I wasn't thinking of him as a character in his own right, just as a symbol of Vi and Jinx's past, and hence I didn't understand the scene until now.

Of course, it's all about "blisters and bedrock". That phrase is the name of the episode, the line is repeated three times, obviously it's important. So what does it mean?

The first time we hear it, it's in Vander's garbled memories. The memory that's most impactful to him is the failed rebellion on the bridge and its aftermath.

There's fighting, there's Silco looking at him sadly, with almost child-like sadness, there's Felicia's dead body, then Vander trying to drown Silco.

Those memories are followed by his recent experience killing the enforcers at Stillwater, then by seeing Powder, and a still-blurry image of Vi, even though he hasn't actually seen her yet since he awoke as Warwick, almost as though Powder's presence implies Vi.

Then there's the image of Felicia at the jukebox, and then a disfigured Silco, toasting "blisters and bedrock". It's ghostly, almost accusatory, said as Vander's being faced with the gory injury he inflicted. But what it means is a mystery.

The next instance of the phrase is in Vander's apology letter. He gives his little explanation for his actions, and signs off, "blisters and bedrock." Still not super clear. The letter itself is kind of weak, as far as apologies go. And then there's this cryptic phrase at the end.

Finally, Warwick/Vander is drawn to the girls by the scent of Isha's blood. When he first sees Vi, she almost looks like a two-headed creature from his POV shot, with her massive gauntlets looking sort of like heads, with the glowing hextech gems as their eyes (And I think I need to make a separate post about Vi in this episode, because it's so good). They fight. But then she lowers her guard and he sees her, and that's when we get the full flashback.

Right off the bat, it's established that Vander and Felicia are close. He knows that the song she picked has some special significance. The way they look at each other is kind of flirty too.

They're celebrating the opening of The Last Drop, which they intend to be a pillar for the community of the Lanes (which is a very shop-local approach to politics, but whatever). We knew this was Vander and Silco's endeavor, and Felicia is the only other one there, which means she has a special place in their lives.

Silco is largely passive in the scene. We get a cute little bait-and-switch where it seems like he's going to be a super-serious revolutionary, but then he says something playful instead ("I'm bozo one"), so we get a glimpse of what he used to be like, and what the dynamic of his relationship with Vander was.

And then we get to the reveal that Felicia is pregnant. Now, I think what happens next has been twisted through discourse, so I want to quote it directly:

Felicia: The second I told you I put you on the hook. You two are going to figure this Zaun thing out. I don't care if you have to carve it out of the bedrock covered in blisters. You're not allowed to fail anymore. For her. For me. Vander: What’s the point if we can't raise an ankle-biter or two? Silco: To Zaun, then. Blisters and bedrock.

I've seen people characterize this as Vander and Silco promising to look after Felicia's child. It's not that at all. She's not telling them to look after her kid. She's telling them to succeed at winning independence for Zaun for the sake of her child.

"I don't care if you have to carve it out of the bedrock covered in blisters. You're not allowed to fail." That is: Do whatever it takes. Even if it's hard, and ugly, and painful. That's how you'll help my child.

Vander agrees - what they're fighting for is future generations of Zaunites.

And Silco turns it into a toast. Blisters and bedrock - whatever it takes.

So now we know that in the first ghostly flashback, "blisters and bedrock" was an accusation, it was a manifestation of Vander's guilt. "We said, 'whatever it takes'. And look at Felicia. Look at me."

"Blisters and bedrock" gives Vander's apology letter new meaning too. It turns a kind of weak explanation into something much more meaningful. He's saying he'll do what it takes to patch things up.

In an episode all about regrets and missed chances and forgiveness, it really resonates.

And there's one more instance of "blisters and bedrock" being used - in the song "The Beast" off the season 2 soundtrack.

Vander isn't really able to express himself as Warwick. So the songs providing a very literal window into what he's going through is useful. The lyrics of "What have they done to us", used towards the end of the episode, are just straight-up what Vander's thinking in that scene. I don't think the lyrics to "The Beast" are used in the show, but they're very straightforward too.

Here are the lyrics to the bridge of that song:

What happened to the place where we left off Any progress erased, I was dead wrong Couldn't carve out a place, every dream that we chased Through the blisters and bedrock

Vander is recognizing his failure.

When Vander put down his gauntlets to look after Vi and Powder, he wasn't keeping a promise to Felicia. He was *breaking* his promise to her.

The flashback frames the conflict between Vander and Silco in more personal terms too. In terms of what united them, they both promised to fight for Zaun for the sake of Felicia's child. But when those two things are posed against each other, Silco is willing to kill kids in order to fight for Zaun, while Vander gives up the fight for Zaun to protect the kids.

I think it's significant that the flashback doesn't end on "blisters and bedrock". It ends on Vander suggesting a baby name, showing where his priorities are going to be

And when he sees Vi, as Warwick, he sees the girl who he gave up the fight for. He's remembering his failures, he's tormented by his failures. But Vi, and Powder, are worth it for him.

[frollosversion]

Why is Hellfire (AND JUDGE CLAUDE FROLLO'S PERSONALITY) creepy in itself?

Take it from a Theater Major! Let's dive in his song breakdown!

In a musical, there are 3 types of songs. There are "establishing/new songs", an "I am song", and an "I want" song.

Establishing/new songs are made to— self explanatory— establish the existence of the set and the characters without getting much depth as it focuses on the build up of the world the characters are living in or what the center of that place is supposed to be.

Let's not stray too far. Let's use The Bells of Notre Dame. Clopin, as the narrator, elaborates that an object, or a phenomena is linked to the character but doesn't really say what the character's in depth wants, needs etc are included (Which is the Bells and the Cathedral herself). 'The bells of Notre Dame' is played at the first part of the film/musical to establish a backstory or a character's focal point and a glimpse of moral standpoint (Claude's backstory and the Existence of Quasimodo) and to establish the setting (Which is Paris 1482 + 1462 flashback). That's the establishing/new song. It is also used as breathers like Flight into Egypt.

Next is an "I want Song". "I want" songs are automatically given to the main characters so the audience can get a peek of the beliefs of these characters and resonate with them in a sense. This kind of song elaborates the purpose and goals they try to achieve.

Quasimodo's "Out There" is a very good example of an "I want" song. He sings about his dream/goal to go down the bell tower without any consequences— "Just to live one day out there" as he would quote (love you quasi). That's where he's at and that's what he wants. To feel like he belongs. (ALSO, GOD HELP THE OUTCASTS IS AN I WANT SONG)

Next is an "I am" song. Now, an "I am" song isn't directly given to villains/anti-heroes either. These can be used as a type of song to other characters. But in most cases, villains own these songs. Good example of an "I am" song is:

“Gaston” from Beauty and the Beast,

“Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid,

“Mother Knows Best” from Rapunzel,

or “Be Prepared” from The Lion King.

All of these songs explain who they are not just on one fragment. But the entirety of it.

Villains use this to establish the dynamic and the power they are trying to uphold and "shove in" the viewer's faces to who they are.

Now, the problem (the situation, rather) in Hellfire, is Frollo gets an I WANT song instead of an I AM song. Again, An I WANT song is used for the protagonists— to allow us to see the goodness in their hearts and what they want best.

He tried to just do an I AM song, given that the first verse is literally

“Beata Maria, you know I am a righteous man of my virtue I am justly proud.

Beata Maria, you know I'm so much purer than the common vulgar weak licentious crowd.”

He tries to convey that Hellfire is an I AM song but eventually slips into the lines like he wanted her bad. Like... BAD bad.

And now since Frollo got an I WANT song, we saw what he wanted, which is lusting on Esmeralda + his moral dilemma. AND WE DON'T REALLY WANT TO SEE THAT, DO WE?? (I do. hehe). We saw things that we didn't really want to see. In this instance, his "little trouble at the fireplace."

And it's disgusting and disturbing to see how twisted a person is when left repressed and pushed. Not to mention that he's being sacrilegious himself because he blames that it's the Most High's plan that he made the devil "so much stronger than the man.". It's creepy. I know. sighs.

He's given a divine intervention (film), when he said "Let her taste the fires of hell or else let her be mine and mine alone!" Which he straight up rejects even if he asked for the sign himself AND PROCEEDS TO SING AND FINISH THE WHOLE DAMN THING.

So yeah, he's creepy, hellfire is twisted as it is. You get the gist. Thanks for listening to me yap. Take notes in case you wanted to write a musical. Yun lang! Mwah. HAHAHAHAHA

[aeoncss]

…some of my personal movie!mike schmidt hcs <3

disclaimer: you dont have to agree, just don’t be an ass. thanks!

tw: parent/sibling death, mentions of insecurity, nightmares, trauma flashbacks, some nsfw (18+!), could be ooc?? idk?? don’t quote me on it

he’s a soft snorer. like the faintest sound comes through at night, and it’s usually when he’s laying on his back. when he’s sick, however, he snores so loud that abby has definitely thrown something at him to be quiet.

used to smoke cigarettes quite heavily. started in high school, then it turned into muscle memory that escalated into a harsh nicotine addiction. the second abby complained about the smell, mike stopped cold turkey, and hasn’t picked up a pack since.

does, occasionally, smoke weed though. usually in his car or in his garage late at night. spends extra time cleaning around and getting the smell out, including doing an extra load of laundry so his clothes don’t reek. it helps him sleep, although doesn’t do much for the nightmares.

mike has one of those huge CD books shoved underneath his passenger seat (it won’t fit in the glove box). it’s filled with many broken disks that are heavily scratched from use, and a lot of them belonged to his father.

he’s so bad at folding. so bad. he either hangs it up super sloppily or straight up just throws his clothes into his closet.

he prefers dogs over cats — although he takes the time to feed one of the neighborhood stray cats that abby has named ‘mr. whiskers’ because that’s gonna become his pet goddamn it

listens to a lot of korn, foo fighters, deftones, and the offspring. mike kinda refuses to play that kind of music in the car with abby around, so he might have grown to subconsciously love spice girls and a*teens as well…

grows insecure when he finds himself in a relationship, feeling like he equally can’t be enough or that he’s doing too much. mike has such a fear of pushing away good things from him, so it takes a lot of reassurance for him to finally understand that he isn’t doing anything wrong.

falls asleep during horror and romance movies. physically just can’t do it.

he can’t ever listen to the romantics ever again. if he hears even a snippet of ‘talking in your sleep’, his body straight up shuts down and mike goes into automatic panic mode.

service switch — really, he just wants to please his partner in any way. he doesn’t have a preference for anything sexually related, but he definitely gets a kick out of how good he can make his lover feel. he might have studied one too many playboys.

he doesn’t really realize how much he craves affection until after he gets into a relationship. whenever his partner leaves for the night, he feels like a piece of him is somehow lost, and he nonstop thinks about how nice it was to just be in their arms — even if it was just for a short moment.

besides the reoccurring nightmare of garrett, mike developed a new one after the events at the pizzeria. he can’t save abby in time, the sound of spring locks echoing deep inside his brain that he wakes up so physically ill. he has to go check in on her to get himself to calm down.

has a few really shitty stick n’ poke tattoos that one of his old high school buddies did while drunk together. he has a little stick figure on the inside of his left wrist, and a horribly disproportionate star on his right.

he’s a moaner. not a loud one, but there has been times where he’s either had to cover up his mouth by a pillow or even by his partners hand. it’s not overtly obnoxious or dramatic, more hushed pants and quick whimpers that escape deep from his throat. when he’s close, that’s when he gets a bit louder, the sound almost guttural.

he really gets a kick out of seeing his partner in his clothes or just doing something in his house. sitting on the couch just TV surfing? he’s hiding behind the doorway to the kitchen just so he can try and get his hard-on to go away.

mike was the type of kid in high school that genuinely did try to pass with good grades, but he just barely managed to scrape by without getting held back from graduation. it’s a regret of his, but understands what was going on during that time.

nicknamed his honda accord ‘marvin’.

really into making out, sometimes preferring it over sex. he likes the closeness and just enjoys the action of kissing — plus, it’s really nice foreplay.

[claimedcrossbows]

Tyler Galpin's "Did you ever even love her?" Line Analysis, And Why It's Important to Weyler!

Y'all might wanna grab y'all popcorn for this analysis.

-

I know this has probably already been said a million times, and theorized upon but @gardenoblues and their analysis on the Tyler and Wednesday talk at the Rave'N got me thinking about a certain Tyler Galpin line.

Let me explain.

Tyler asking his dad in season 1, if he ever even loved his mom is actually so out of place considering we didn't learn ANYTHING of his mom, other than she was a Hyde, and eventually died after giving birth to Tyler, and apparently his dad and mom must've had some type of falling out.

That's all we learn in Season 1.

The reason I say it's so out of place to ask his dad in this episode or even season is because usually when writers set up a disposition, I feel it's usually followed through by the end of the episode or season. In this particular case we get no history or pay off at all of what Donovan and Francoise relationship was really like, not even a small flashback so this question seems like it was asked to early right?

So this makes me as a viewer as well as a writer ask the question.

"Why was this line incorporated into the show and why so early?"

Besides the Obvious reason, they just wanted to show some kind of drama with the Galpin household to make Tyler suspicious.

BUT

To me there's only 2 reasons this line was important enough, to be set up for Season 2 but mentioned in Season 1.

1.) This line is (obviously) going to be further delved into, giving us more of Francoise, Donovan's and Tyler's backstory in Season 2.

Yes, reason #1 could be enough to set up a One Liner so early in the first season, only to be resolved a season later. But to me, it's still a little weak that this couldn't have easily been delved into in season 1, if only just a little bit.

Which makes me think, there's ANOTHER reason, this line was used as a set up.

2.) For a motif, parallel's and indirect (covert) foreshadowing.

And what I mean by all this is, The phrase, "Did you ever even love her?" is a set up quote to be used again (A motif), by a different character, probably to the same person who asked the quote prior. Meaning at some point in S2, maybe even S3, I 100% believe this quote is going to be directed back to Tyler.

It will be a parallel because Tyler's question is now reverted directly back to him.

And I say it's indirect (Covert) foreshadowing because dramatic irony is amazing and in my opinion underused in movies or shows, because really, how ironic would it be to have someone ask Tyler the same question he asked his dad in similar circumstances?

Now, who could be asking him this question and who is it directed towards?

The first one, I'm not sure who's asking Tyler this.

But I can definitely tell you who it's directed towards.

Wednesday Addams.

Because when you think about it, from the very beginning of Wednesday's and Tyler story, all the way to the very end of season 1, Their entire relationship boiled down to the simple question.

"Did Tyler Ever Really Love Wednesday?"

I said all this to say this, that question more than likely will be asked to Tyler, just like he asked his dad, and I can't wait for the moment to happen.

*MIC DROP*

[annabelle--cane]

htn act four thoughts:

-> genuinely surprised that judith is still alive, good on her for surviving being mega stabbed. also condolences to her for losing her cavalier without even getting to eat her, gotta be one of the worst case scenarios for this kind of relationship.

-> if god felt the damage done to harrow's temporal lobe from touching her face, then surely mercymorn must have noticed as well, right? but when she touched harrow's head to try and figure out why she kept calling the saint of duty "ortus," it didn't seem like she came away with a clear answer, nor detected anything that would point her towards such an answer. hmm.

-> I think god believes that harrow couldn't have actually broken into the tomb, but I do not buy that reality for a second. similarly, cytherea was 100% under harrow's bed and either ianthe is up to something or that was non-hallucination ghostly apparition.

-> god's characterization is scratching some itch inside my brain because there's a lot that makes me want to like him. he speaks kind of awkwardly and uses metaphors that don't work. he quotes dead memes and even deader literature for no reason. he's in a weird situationship with his lyctors. harrow tells him about the greatest shames of her life and he tells her they're not her fault and she has nothing to feel bad about. but also his reactions when harrow came to him about "ortus" made me Violent. "yeah I know being constantly brutalized isn't fun and I don't like it but it's a display of loyalty to me so cope ig" "he's a stand up guy, that doesn't sound like him, idk maybe try being normal?" I'm going to bone construct chest explode you.

-> the Big Mysteries heading into the final act: what's up with the second person speaker, what's up with just how wacky the flashbacks are, what's up with the sword, why does "ortus" do any of the things he does, cytherea ???, who's the traitor judith mentioned, and whom the fuck stabbed harrow in the prologue.

[distinguished-slacker]

ONS CHAPTER 143 THOUGHTS

With the official release, I want to add some thoughts that I didn’t mention in my previous posts.

I actually did like the dialogue in this chapter. Shinoa’s words to Ky are similar to a quote that stuck with me from some animes which is “Don’t expect to go into a battlefield intending to kill enemies if you are not prepared to get hurt in return.” I honestly felt bad for Ky but in the end, as a person, he wasn’t innocent. As a character though, I wished he got a better written death, not one that happened immediately after revealing his past and dream.

However, as much as there is some nice dialogue (especially from Urdie) in this chapter, I find it a little bit funny that it took Urd a millenia to come to the realisation that human life is meaningful because it is not eternal. Well…that’s why humans try to achieve developmental milestones within set age ranges.

Kagami’s true talent is creating more questions rather than answering the current ones with flashbacks. I don’t know how to feel with Shinoa squad having met in past lives. Will this reveal turn to be meaningful in the long run (or whatever is left for OnS to be completed)? Who knows…but current Shinoa squad truly has some poor relationship development so maybe not. I finally got a panel of baby Mitsu though (although I wished she was drawn cuter). I wonder if it’s just the artstyle but Yuu and Shinoa’s past selves (the only ones we can fully see in these panels) don’t fully look exactly the same as the child versions of the present Yuu and Shinoa.

Damn…Urdie is being a poet in this chapter and I love him for it❤️ He is one of the characters that I like the most to hear what he has to say.

People thought Urd x Rigr was the ship when in fact THIS was true ship✨ Jokes aside, I feel so bad for them. I wanted Mitsu to get screentime but not at the expense of Ky becoming a demon and much less losing his relationship with Urd. My tiny meow meows…

Onto the topic of Mitsuba getting a Black Demon on a silver plate, I feel like Kagami is speedrunning it a bit. When Shinoa ambushed Ky, did she do it with the intention of giving him to Mitsuba from the beginning? I wished the manga put more emphasis on Mitsuba not being strong enough. Sure, she was kind of left out during the Demon Mika arc because she did not have a Black Demon, but considering how underused Yoichi and Kimizuki have been despite having Black Demons, the gap in strength between the guys and her wasn’t felt at all.

I am looking forward to the contract between Mitsu and Ky (wow, just writing it feels so weird because I didn’t expect this duo) because she is the only whose inner world/heart/inside/whatever you call it we didn’t get to see. Contracting with a Black Demon is hard so I want to see her fighting and struggling for it. Kagami wasn’t lying when he said he wanted to write her in the near future. If I am honest though, I don’t think she is strong enough to win but we will see…

I hope Ky’s demon outfit is done justice (Mika’s one is just…ugh), that we get at least a glimpse of Tenjiryū before Ky takes over and more importantly, for Mitsu’s axe to stay the same.

The artstyle is failing everyone but Shinoa. I love this panel. I’m not happy with Shinoa getting so strong. I know she has suffered for it but the boost in power is just too big and it feels weird how she knows how to use The First’s spells with no prior practice. The problem is not solely Shinoa’s though; Yuu suffers the same issue as well and I hate it. That’s why at least I like this moment of vulnerability. Is Shinoa crying because she is feeling bad for what she is doing to Ky or is she crying because she is having access to Ky’s memories? The duality in this and how it it is open to interpretation is nice.

I love how she is supporting Shinoa here. I’m not really on board with the mitsunoa ship but this is much better than wasting Shinoa’s screentime on having her simp for a guy who doesn’t want and can’t give her what she needs.

We’ve been getting crumbs of Mitsuba caring for Shinoa since her first time getting possessed by Shikama. But there is something missing and that is their friendship backstory. I pray we get to see how the girls met when Mitsuba makes her contract.

I also love to see how the entire squad is supporting each other even if it’s just one panel. When Yuu was still part of them most of their conversations were with Yuu. Being in a group and everyone talking to just one person? A bit unnatural.

If I may mourn the artstyle for a second, something that I miss from the previous artstyle that the current one lacks is the lack of different eye shapes. Yoichi and Mitsuba’s eyes aren’t supposed to be this upturned…

First, what are those ring shapes in the top left corner of the panel? Second, I like when characters with hair that cover their forehead occasionally have it parted to reveal some of the hair line (it happens with Shinya as well). Third, how did she figure out Yuu’s location?

[qinluna]

I really like this theory! Because I was thinking the same during the last few chapters when we finally get a glimpse of Sylus and MCs memories. This is the link - https://x.com/millecreupe/status/1813809147508613476?t=2YsqG032kliHKY18Z4QKZg&s=19

The way I'm so dedicated to this cause that I ended up making a Twitter account just to view this.

Let me preface that I am a bit freaked out right now because everything OP wrote about in this thread is pretty much accurately aligned with every specific detail I've predicted/theorized about Sylus and his purpose of changing fate/breaking cycles/etc. I've delayed making any posts about lore because I genuinely don't want to go back into the story chapters to take screenshots and shit, it's very tedious to me LOL 😭😭😭😭😭 I promise I remember what I can, even if it's not miniscule details, I just take away the important things!

(Side note: I've previously predicted/prophesized things before that have come true & I'm a little spooked by it. I don't like to put things out there unless I'm super passionate about a subject LMFAO)

[Warning: VERY LONG info dump/theory post ahead!]

Often when it comes to unveiling or creating monsters, there is always a price to pay. That's the common formula for any story involving someone who has an alternate form or is on the verge of becoming something non-human. It takes a special kind of trigger - often, it's intense emotional states - to unleash a creature or be granted a uniquely regal power. (ex. Eren from AoT, Nero in DMC5, Ignis in Final Fantasy 15)

I'm going to follow the evidence listed in OP's thread for my references + additional responses to the thread that are relevant, which I will link here for easy clickback! (Thank you so much again anon!)

I want to dive into one of the examples I listed first before I proceed. (Light spoilers ahead, and iffy details since it's been so long since I played the game.) While Ignis doesn't have an alternate form whatsoever, there's a DLC in FF15 where you have the opportunity to play as him during the climatic event of main story. Essentially, this would involve Ignis changing the planned fate of the protagonist where he would end up sacrificing himself in the very end to save his world and his people. Ignis pretty much defies that fate, going against godly forces and sacrificing a part of himself that ends up changing the canon ending. In short: Ignis saves the protagonist, everybody else, and everything's great. Yay!

I'm a broken record at this point by saying Sylus' involvement is going to defy fate and interrupt the timelines. TLDR; He's going to ultimately save MC from her curse and break the cycles, no matter the cost.

First, let's discuss Sylus' Evol (power). Energy manipulation can mean a lot of things, though as far as the story has shown us, this means he can bend anything/anyone at will through energetic binds. Also, he can know someone's deepest desires, which is activated when his right eye glows.

At a certain point in Chapter 9 (or 2.1), Sylus mentions something about the MC's Evol being weaker/not as strong as before. While we know Energy Resonance is the MC's power, there seems to be something more at play when it comes to it. It's a likely possibility that the MC herself is more powerful beyond resonating with others, perhaps to the point of causing re/destruction.

I like what OP says in part 3 of the thread: "I assumed MC didn't kill him but instead resonated with Sylus, making his self healing ability double in power, AND at the same time directly **pouring the energy of her aether core into the core the he would be implanted, forcibly reshaping a "heart" in his body."

[Previous quote was in alignment to: "Sylus turned into a wanderer. And if mc died and didn't kill him there, he might completely turn into a wanderer..."]

It's hard to deter me from the belief that in the flashback we saw towards the end of 9.2 that Sylus was literally in a Wanderer form. The arm that moves and reaches out to MC is a lot bigger than her own and when looked at closer, you can make out a textured hand with claws. You can see his palm held out faced upwards, and a weapon floating(?) just atop the center of it.

[10/25 UPDATE: The last time I touched this post was back in July, LMAO. This has been sitting in my drafts for months, but now with the Sylus Translation Project, I'm happy to add it to this mini dissertation.]

Here are some points from the Reddit post that struck my interest the most:

[Changed Facts] Changes how Sylus's powers work: specifically, there are invisible shackles inside of his body that prevent him from absorbing even more power. There is not a tether that prevents him from "tapping into" more power. This is a fundamental power difference and has created a complete misunderstanding about how his powers truly work amongst English-only speakers in the global community.

[Missing Fact] Sylus's Aether Core works by him invading and taking over consciousness; he does not merely perform basic mind control, it's actually far more insidious and terrifying.

[Power Nerf] Sylus's powers are actually described as "all-powerful and all-encompassing" but this was somehow reduced into merely blocking exits.

I encourage you to read the entire post in full, for it shifts so much about Sylus' character. Though for me personally, it only justifies all my speculations and conclusions about his character even beyond mistranslation. I will repeat myself over and over and OVER again: Sylus is beyond powerful, way more than we even know and I'm honestly just waiting for Infold to do something to show this grand transformation or show of power.

With these fixed translation points, it makes sense why he's so desperate to resonate with MC. A few comments on the Reddit post have the same speculation I did that it's possible him and MC have the same Aether Cores in their bodies. [OP responded to a comment with: "MC hears things like "Devour," "He's yours," "It belongs to you," I almost wonder if it's actually because they share two halves of a single Aether Core…"] [[THIS I AGREE WITH HEAVILY.]] If this is the case, I don't doubt that Sylus knows this, but he would rather MC find this out on her own due to some morale of integrity, building her inner strength, etc.

TLDR; Her resonating with him would unleash those shackles. I also don't think it's amiss that MC also has some kind of shackles, but that's just me thinking of other possible scenarios. Everything is so vague with this story because we've only been fed so much tidbits.

But one thing's for sure... I really, really think these two are the true fated pair, to a certain degree. And why it's difficult for them to resonate is due to the fact that they both wield a power that can shift the world, the universe... everything altogether.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 9/10/2024

someone adopt this little orange man from me in Houston TX! more details here!

listening

the 1991 Ella Mae Morse compilation Capitol Collectors Series is the official driving-cats-to-the-vet album bc it is so mellow but still fun. this album has previously been featured several times in tuesdayposts but i think you should all listen to it again.

seven thousand three hundred days IS a long long time to sleep ur so right ella

-

reading

two different works that annoyed me: Emily Hamilton's The Stars Too Fondly. my first clue should have been that this is my least favorite poem, bc ppl would quote it to me smugly after my mom died. im sure they thought they were being so super comforting to a budding astronomer, but, much like how i can no longer eat lasagna bc ppl gave us Twenty! Party! Size! Platters! Of! Lasagna! after my mom died (they would just Appear on our front porch, frozen), too much of this poem really soured me.

i had this book on hold Forever and then delayed delivery twice bc i have not felt like reading lately. here's the publisher's description:

In her breathtaking debut—part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com—Emily Hamilton weaves a suspenseful, charming, and irresistibly joyous tale of fierce friendship, improbable love, and wonder as vast as the universe itself. So, here’s the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn’t mean to steal this spaceship. They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace. But then the stupid dark matter engine started all on its own, and now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri, unable to turn around, and being harangued by a snarky hologram that has the face and attitude of the ship’s missing captain, Billie. Cleo has dreamt of being an astronaut all her life, and Earth is kind of a lost cause at this point, so this should be one of those blessings in disguise that people talk about. But as the ship gets deeper into space, the laws of physics start twisting, old mysteries come crawling back to life, and Cleo’s initially combative relationship with Billie turns into something deeper and more desperate than either woman was prepared for. Lying somewhere in the subspace between science fantasy and sapphic rom-com, The Stars Too Fondly is a soaring near-future adventure about dark matter and alternate dimensions, leaving home and finding family, and the galaxy-saving power of letting yourself love and be loved.

should be catnip for me, right? wrong. starts out as a chat fic, which i hate.

i had a lot of trouble finishing the first chapter, which also has an extended third-person omniscient narrator flashback in italics, a thing i also hate. i KNOW you can figure out how to integrate this information into the book in a better way instead of dumping it in my lap.

i think part of why this is not hitting like i wanted is the tone, because i think this veers more new adult than i was really hoping for. i think introducing a big group all at once is very hard to do effectively. i do not like a series of character introductions that feel like they are trying to sell me action figures. or perhaps blind-bag figures. i do not like a six-deep list of cheesy puns about someone's name. i do not have the patience to see if this debut novel finds its footing a little later on, though i am glad a sapphic ghost in the machine romance exists in this world.

i also read dean motter's mister x (both the original late eighties through early nineties run and the 2008 follow-on).

let's yoink the description from wikipedia:

Set in Radiant City, a dystopian municipality influenced by Bauhaus and Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the series concerns a mysterious figure who purports to be its architect. His radical theories of "psychetecture" cause the citizenry to go mad, just as he did, and he takes on the mission to repair his creation. To accomplish this he remains awake twenty-four hours a day by means of the drug "insomnalin", all the while coping with a Dick Tracy–like rogues gallery and supporting cast including his long-suffering ex-girlfriend Mercedes. (ed note: the redhead in the santa beard below)

the art in this comic book is really and truly stunning. everyone was firing on all cylinders. beautiful retrofuturistic advertisement vibes, very fun play with panels and word balloons while still being readable, there are airships, you know how it is. looooooooove a hardboiled noir.

the Concept of mister x, this horrible awful futuristic city that grinds its citizenry up and spits them out? both figuratively and sometimes literally? love it!!! love a great wounded beast of a city as a character!!!

unforch the "who is mister x" subplot does not resolve in a satisfying way, imo. there's a lot of flip-flopping, there's a lot of options, he ends up being (maybe?) someone he was very definitively proven NOT to be in an earlier issue, and it really soured me on the whole experience. and also i don't believe it! that specific person makes no fucking sense! who mister x is, is by far the least interesting part of the series. tell me more about how he's fixing the city. show me more of the city. shut up and dance, robot artists

-

watching

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016, dir. Singer). this movie did not need to be two and a half hours long. appreciated the EXTREMELY divorced energy from charles & erik though, quicksilver rescuing the school scene was also very fun. my bestie's husband has informed me we are NOT watching Dark Phoenix, i'm not sure if we're going to loop back and watch the ??? number of wolverine films or if we're going to see how i feel about deadpool. bc i find this character insufferable through clips only.

-

playing

there is a feature in the video game genshin impact to turn your World Level (TM) down in order to make overworld enemies a little easier. i am at seven out of nine bc i genuinely can't finish the boss to unlock world level 9, and i am finding some of the overworld enemies too hard at 8 and want to finish the achievements in a more relaxed fashion.

-

making

this is going to be a lot of previously posted pics so bear with me.

saturday morning/saturday evening. plants? repotted. porch and stairs? swept. old wasp nests? knocked down. different mirror on the porch to go out to the curb when i have the energy? yes. also a giant slab of engineered stone from the top of a dresser but that's out of frame.

speaking of the giant broken dresser that was in my apartment when i moved in just over a year ago, i ripped it apart with a crowbar and threw it in the dumpster. put my pretty zebrawood desk in the empty space and started thinking about what to hang on that wall. the wall across from it is maps, bc i think a cozy office should have lots of maps and it makes a good video conference background. maybe this will be the dedicated cowboy nonsense wall. i did so much dusting and vacuuming and mopping and the girls can't even hang out in here bc the orange boy is in the office bathroom. big sigh.

also a lot of driving around and emailing and calling thirty shelters and rescues figuring out how to get this orange man a home. please take this orange man off my hands.

[box-fivephantom]

Simone Ashley is such a brilliant cookie to have been pretty vocal about wanting to return to Bridgerton. If that People’s magazine (not the most reliable source and ir appears to be quoting her from the s3 press) article is right and she won’t be back no one can blame her.

It makes no sense.

She is the Viscountess Bridgerton, the head of the household, she is part of the family. She should be in any scenes concerning the Bridgerton family.

The only way I can somehow understand her absence is IF Jonny is filming some kind of flashback scene with Luke.

That’s it.

But otherwise the show should have wrapped up her story with a bow, show us their baby and them being happy.

[pynkhues]

Does the show ever definitively say that Claudia would have died if they hadn't turned her? It feels like by the time Louis gets her home in the "real" version, she's clearly dying--he says "she's going cold". But is there a chance that she would have lived had he rushed her to a hospital? And does it not matter because he should have let her die rather than turn her without her permission and trap her in a young teenage body forever? I would be interested to know if Claudia would say that she would rather have died than be turned like that. But of course, she could be furious that they would do that to her and still also want to live.

I just saw a phot of Delainey where she looks like such a little girl and it made me really want flashbacks with her as rue royal Claudia. She has such an endearing face.

No, it doesn't definitively, and I think the ambiguity there is pretty deliberate too. In theory, Lestat and Louis both would be able to sense how close to death she is, and the extent of her burns would certainly impact her health and quality of life into the future if they don't kill her, particularly given the time period, but we as an audience don't know for sure in no small part because I think Louis wouldn't want us to. He's made his choice the second that he sees her, and I think any version of the story that doesn't give him a daughter is unfathomable both in the moment and in hindsight.

As for whether it matters and Claudia's own choice - - mmm, yeah! It's an interesting thing to contemplate.

I'm kind of fascinated by the shifting metaphor when it comes to being turned without consent, because we've seen it (or, well, have heard but will soon see it in Lestat's case) twice now, but I read the metaphors very differently. Lestat's turning is a rape, which the book's clear about and the show has already implied, but I tend to see Claudia's turning as much more akin to this idea that no child asks to be born. There's no way to reach through time and space to get an infant's consent or non-consent before deciding to bring them into this world, and I think that metaphor holds strongly with Claudia having been so close to death she was voiceless and powerless before her birth.

Her turning is entirely about Louis and Lestat's relationship, as it is for most parents having a child, and whatever choice she may have made for herself is irrelevant because as a child she doesn't get to choose to be born. She just is.

This is kind of an aside, but I find the revisited turning really interesting at the moment, especially in the context of Louis coercing Lestat to turn her given we know for a fact now that he could've turned her himself. He turned Madeleine after all, with seemingly no further instruction to it given Armand's repulsion at turning others and Louis' disconnect from the other vampires. As a result, I think it's pretty heavily implied that Louis has the same knowledge at Claudia's turning that he does at Madeleine's, and while the emotions are very different, there's an interesting sense to me that Louis wanted Lestat to be the one to do it.

The motivation for that is totally open to speculation, of course, whether Louis wanted to shift any accountability by not being the quote-unquote 'birthing parent', whether he wanted Lestat complicit to be able to shift the blame onto him if things went wrong, whether he wanted to lock them together even further after having lost everything else, whether he really did just want a family with this man that he'd chosen, whether he was simply too emotionally raw to do it - - I don't know! I think it's probably a bit of all of that, which is what makes it such a fascinating scene, and honestly something I don't see talked about enough.

[mc-critical]

This has always been one of my favourite Mahidevran scenes because despite of its casualness [and a kind of formal cordiality all throughout; I love me some tender Mahi!], it (retroactively) tells a whole, crucial story about Mahidevran's relationship with beauty entirely through how she deals with Aybige's objections and concerns.

Mahidevran has always cherished beauty and how one looks (as seen by her constantly taking care of her appearance) — it's important how you come off in such a place as the harem that has these specific, drawn-out demands one should adhere to, get used to or outright adopt, so of course Aybige's 'style' strikes her as odd, as something that has to be cleared up and "corrected", a view she shares with others like Hafsa too. But while she still would let Aybige's clothing slide for Nigar's wedding in E44 because she couldn't sway her to try a dress on, now that she'll be "the daughter-in-law of the Ottoman dynasty", engaged and then wed to Mahi's own son, it all simply can't go on like this. Aybige has to be swayed; she has to be at her best, most appropriate shape, she has to set an example and Mahidevran will be the one to make sure of it. That's why she calls Aybige only after she's prepared the concubines that'll take her measurements for the dresses as well as the ones who'll serve her - she is well aware of her resistance and immediately makes the first step to circumvent it. That's why she gets a little more stern ("Aybige Hatun. I don't want any objection.") and imposing (standing up to assert authority before saying the aforementioned quote) when Aybige still resists. But it's the doubt Aybige expresses in her own beauty that makes Mahidevran soften up the most. Because it turns out she too knows well what it means to tie your beauty to your self-worth.

Beauty is how Mahidevran won Süleiman over. Each time he praises her in their Manisa flashbacks it's in relation to her beauty: "The beautiful who makes me lose my mind. This beauty, this glance... you made me fall in love."; "My Mahidevran. My pretty-faced Sultana." (E55); "You. [as an answer to Mahidevran's question of who's more beautiful out of her and the emerald ring]" (E01). There's also Süleiman's assertion in E02 (the transition between Manisa and Topkapi in SS and Mahi's relationship reaching its completion) that the ring has to be "flawless and worthy of Mahidevran" and given their other conversation about the ring that we've seen, this may also be about her beauty especially. It's only natural that Mahidevran has assigned value to her beauty, perhaps the first thing she ever got notable for in this harem, and it's in front of someone else, in front of the sultan most of all, that she has to look beautiful. Beauty is an ideal of/for Süleiman that she follows and aspires to (hence it's rather poetic that at the end of the show she's left without even a trace of it... and she doesn't care), a vital, almost indispensable part of their relationship. And she isn't sure whether she can fully live up to it as there are moments where she does want her beauty to be affirmed: from asking Gülşah does she find her beautiful in E41 to that exact question to SS regarding the ring in E01 (is this another reason why losing the ring, the one thing Mahidevran measured her beauty against and is also supposedly indicative of her beauty that seems so important as well as the integrity of her place in SS's heart, hurt this much?). So when she sees Aybige have that exact same worry (while it's usually a defense she uses when people make her wear stuff she doesn't like, I think that there are some sincere feelings there), of course what she does is to assure, just like Aybige had reassured Mahidevran's beauty in the past also (E44: "I wouldn't be as beautiful as you no matter what I wear"; "You're beautiful"). The deeper, more familiar that appears to lie underneath the "You're a very beautiful girl", given the warmth with which she says it and looks at her throughout (but there's also a close yet characteristic of a sultana hand gesture!), along with Mahidevran genuinely thinking that Aybige is beautiful and since she's beautiful, she has to use it. She has to fascinate Mustafa with her beauty and her 'femininity' (E53) because that's how it worked for Mahidevran herself. It's only a matter of a gentle push, of a reaffirmation that Mahidevran will too very much appreciate in her place. She won't let Aybige dwell in these doubts; she'll see her beauty and her worth and she'll bring them forth.

But since beauty for Mahidevran is already that ingrained, it also seems to be a vital, almost indispensable part of her as well, which allows it to go beyond Süleiman, beyond taking care of yourself simply to "dazzle" someone else. Beauty also underlines identity, individuality (that also can't help but include where someone stands in the harem). Mahidevran has used clothing, new fabrics, furniture several times to leave her mark on the harem, to show who she is. She keeps taking care of herself even after she leaves Topkapi. She does it because she wants to, because she likes it, because it remains within her and means a lot to her, so why not show it? So she considers Aybige's beauty, her "dazzling" Mustafa through these ways a part of her identity as well, one she has to embrace. Nothing else would do.