#last drawing is based on that one episode dead kids

[baguantte]

love just putting random drawings together and posting them

[number8bciate]

I couldn't let myself forget you.

Set in season four, so spoilers ahead for that. This is based on episode five, I believe.

Cw: Lila and five in episode Five :P

You and five hadn't known one another long, a few years at most, but in that short amount of time, he had found himself growing quite attached to you. He wouldn't admit it outloud. That's just the kind of man he was. He didn't need anyone, but no one could understand him. He couldn't explain it either because he would sound just as insane as the people he had been investigating, but then there was you.

You were too nieve for your own good, but part of him loved you for it. It meant that anything he told you in your head made sense.

"Wait- that was our stop." Lila and Five spoke at the same time, pressing their hands and cheek against the door of the train as they tried to manipulate the train into going back but the platform that they needed to be on just got smaller and smaller and smaller.

Year one

Five thought about you all the time. When he was getting shot at, he thought of how you might bandage his wounds if he got hit or how you would scold him because he was in a dangerous situation. He sat down in the train station, watching Lila as she ate, wondering if she had been having the same thoughts about his brother, or if maybe she was thinking of her kids. He hated the fact that the memory of you was the only thing that kept him going, that kept him trying to get back home, not his family, but you... to be honest, you felt like his family now.

Year Two

"What's that?" Lila asked, peering over the older boys shoulder as she cut his hair for him, trying to catch a glimpse of what had been occupying his thoughts for the last few weeks. He shielded the book from her view, smacking it shut to ensure that she wouldn't see the contents. "Come on, Five!" She pressed, leaning over his shoulder, trying to grab his book, she thought it was harmless, he did not.

"Lila!" He yelled at her, with a different kind of tone in his voice, he was desperate, clearly, he was grieving too and she knew that but she was only trying to lighten the mood a little.

Year Three

Five had now filled three separate books with something in them, Lila wasn't sure what it was, but every time she tried to ask, she got a response not too far off a rabid dog that was protecting it's property, she knew it was important, which was why she wanted to know, which was why she waited until he was dead asleep to try and find out what it was one last time.

She skimmed through the pages that were mostly filled with useless words that made no sense put together, but Five's handwriting had never been the best anyway. She flipped through each page. Only one thing was recurring, and it was a random drawing of someone she knew but didn't know from where.

Year Four

The both of them were growing tired. It was hard to keep running and running with no sight of the end. Five knew Lila was fed up. He understood why, but he couldn't give up, not when he knew that you were still out there waiting for him because he knew you would be.

Year Five

"Hey Five." Lila leaned onto Five, both of them trying to find some sort of warmth between them as the cold metal of the train station dug into their backs. He hummed softly, looking around the room, trying to see if there was something they had missed. He knew there wasn't, but he thought he'd try anyway. "You know that greenhouse, the one with the strawberries?" She started, leaning her head fully on his shoulder now. He nodded, not willing to speak because he knew what her next suggestion would be. "How about we stop there for a few days? I- I know we've - I know we need to get home, I'm just... tired." He understood. Of course he did. He had been through this before, but the time before, he was all alone.

"Sure." He said softly, turning to look at the stacks of books that he had filled, he thought of you, and realized you'd want him to take a break, you'd beg him to, and so he decided he would go, but only for a few weeks.

Year Six

Five walked into the green house, looking at Lila and then the berry bush she was tending to. She tossed one strawberry at him, then another, then another. "If you keep that up, we won't have any left for the winter." He smiled as she threw one more and turned to her as she began walking towards him. She tripped up in a few watering cans that had been discarded on the floor, and he caught her just before she was able to hit the floor.

"Oh- sorry." He noticed the blush on her face, then felt his cheeks begin to heat. His hand rested on her cheek, cupping them and rubbing his fingers over her soft flesh, then he looked to the strawberries on the floor and pulled away, running to the stack of books on the table and joting down a few notes. "What just happened?" She walked over to him, her arms crossing as she leaned against the wall.

"What do you mean?" He asks, slamming the book shut and poking it into his bag. He turned to her, noticing that she had a slight pout across her face.

"Whatever that was." He stared at her for a while, shrugged his shoulders, and walked away.

Year Seven

"I'm going out to look for some more scrap metal."

"What happened to the stuff we already had?" Lila asked curiously, looking the boy up and down. He rubbed his fingers over the braclet in his pocket, the one he had made.

"I have no clue." He walked out of the house and back to the train station. He grabbed a few wires, tugging on them before he slipped and dropped his flashlight down onto the tracks. He looked both ways, just to be safe and climbed down onto them. "What's that?" He thought out loud as he grabbed a book he had never seen before. He climbed back up onto the train platform and opened the book. "That's my handwriting." He pointed out to himself as he read what was throughout the pages, figuring out that it was their way home.

"What's that?" Lila asked, sitting down next to him.

"A way home." He said simply, flipping through more of the pages, everything inside of his head clicking together like it had been obvious the whole time. He shook his head in disappointment in himself.

"Wait, what?" Lila asked, chasing after him as he ran back to their house and packed up his bag. "Should we think about this first?" She suggested.

"Think about what?" He asked, stuffing the books into his bag as he changed into what he had been wearing the day they had left.

"That- Maybe this is a trap of some sort? Set by the older, uh? Younger? You." She followed him around the house, trying to keep his pace as he charged out the door.

"I'm willing to take the risk, why aren't you?" He turns around. She almost smashed right into him.

"I am. I just think we need to consider the fact that this could be a trap." He understood her concern. Some people would rather not take the risk, there was a chance that this was a trap, and that they would die.

"Stay here if you want, I'm going." He decided and made his way back to the train station, her following closely behind him.

When they returned, it had only been an hour or two, you were sitting in between Allison and Luther and bounced your leg nervously, wondering where Five could have gone. Lila, walked in through the door followed by Five who's eyes searched the room until they landed on you. You jumped up out of your seat and ran over to him, wrapping your arms around him and holding him close. He nearly cried, as much as he hated to admit it, his eyes welled with tears, feeling you pressed against him was something he didn't think he'd ever feel again. "I wasn't gone that long." His voice shook, but only slightly as you pulled away from him to check him for any injuries, because you knew how careless he could be.

"It was too long." You smiled though, no matter how pissed you were at him for not returning your calls or texts, you were just glad he was alright.

He looked around the room again and stuffed his hand onto his pocket, feeling the braclet that he had forgotten about. The two of you walked to the center of the room, you sat down where you had been and five remained standing, you glanced over to Lila who had a distant look in her eyes as she looked at her husband and then you looked back to five, who was now standing right infront of you, playing with something in his pocket.

Everyone's attention was brought to him as he cleared his throat, he knew it was sudden, and he knew he would jump off the side of a cliff if you happened to not reciprocate his feelings, but he dropped down onto one knee and pulled a bag out of his pocket. Allison, who was now sitting up straight with a face full of surprise gasped at the sight if her oldest brother on his knee.

"I- Jesus. Uhm." You looked to Lila who, unlike before, was now focused on Five, but it wasn't that unusual, right? Besides the fact that her face held signs of jealousy and sadness, it wasn't weird at all. Your heart fluttered when he held out his cupped hands towards you, his eyes pleading with you to take the bag that was in them. "Y/n.." He spoke carefully, as his cheeks began to redden as Allison's reaction threw him off the piller of confidence he was once standing on.

You nodded, ready to hear what he had to say, you hands grabbed the bag but remained in their place, trying to soothe the old man's nerves as he worked up the courage to speak. "Will you give me the honor of.. marrying me?" You squealed and jumped out of your seat, pulling Five to his feet and you kissed him. "Will you?" He whispered to you this time.

"Yes I will." You kissed him once more.

Once the excitement settled down, and the bracelet sat proudly on your wrist, you noticed the bag that your fiancé had brought in with him. "What's that?" You asked, pointing to the bag. He bit his lip nervously and pulled a few of the books he had filled up the bag. Revealing the contents to you. The words didn't make sense to you either, until you saw your face, the soft brush strokes that he used to draw your hair and your eyes, you had never looked so beautiful.

He kissed your cheek and whispered into your ear, his lips brushing against them. "I- I couldn't let myself forget you."

"You remembered I like strawberries." You pointed out, you ignored the way he flinched when you had mentioned it, but he ran his fingers over the words and nodded softly.

"Of course I did."

[queen-simia]

now that ep 4 is live to the public, I can finally post what I've been sitting (and spinning) on for like a week, wheeee!

Major Monkey Wrench spoilers abound, so putting below a cut if you haven't yet seen the latest episode. And if you haven't seen it (or the rest of the series), you can do so here:

now ON TO THE INFODUMP

Shrike's status

so, since the beginning, I've been putting all my money on Shrike being an artificial being. Not in the sense of robotics/cyborgs and the like, but in the sense of a one-of-a-kind bioengineered creature. Since he was confirmed as an endling (as opposed to just hinted at in past episodes), I'm choosing to take that as a bit of reinforcement; his species is still marked as "unknown" by LAW, and if no one knows what you are and you're the only one they've ever seen, it's safe to assume they assume you're the last of whatever you are.

now, in a leap on my part, I'm further going to postulate that Shrike is actually an engineered squid. As in an honest-to-god Earth cephalopod, albeit in the same sense you can call a human a monkey. I think that maybe our boy Shrike is the end result of years-long genetic modification and breeding programs to create something closer to human shape and intelligence, but with whatever attributes his human creators wanted from squid...

...maybe attributes like producing ink.

"that's stupid, what makes you think that?" Glad you asked, Strawman! Here's what I'm drawing from:

Scratch's nicknames for Shrike

As much as these can be considered throwaways, Zeurel and Ash have been very good about sneaking in foreshadowing in dialogue. I don't fully think Scratch is calling Shrike "squidhead" just to be antagonistic (though in-universe, he certainly is; I doubt the character himself in canon has that kind of insight); I'm choosing to believe it may be a bit of a Chekhov's gun.

Shrike's design inspiration

In Tumblr ask replies, Zeurel's confirmed Shrike's design is based heavily on Humboldt squid, and he finds cephalopods and deep-sea life in general interesting. It's going into meta rather than narrative precedent, but I think for these reasons, having Shrike actually be an ascended squid wouldn't be that far out of the blue.

Shrike's terran connections

It's been established that Earth no longer exists, and what humans remain are persona non grata in LAW space. They're the reason behind the Cataclysm/the creation of Secondary Green, and what artifacts remain are traded on the black market (as implied by Scratch and Jaw Bone dealing in them, neither of whom are exactly upstanding citizens).

Yet somehow, Shrike speaks primarily in a canonically dead Earth language—Latin Spanish—and thinks highly of terrans/terran culture. He apparently is the only being in LAW space who does both. One could argue he picked up Spanish through exposure to contraband as a LAW officer, but even his translated speech is Spanish-accented. That to me is a clue it's his native language, as opposed to one picked up later in life. Maybe he doesn't speak it all that well, but it's what he learned as he grew up.

I believe that Shrike's interest in terran artifacts isn't so much fannish as it is nostalgic, though he doesn't realize it (yet). Remember, we don't know his true age—he's only estimated to be in his mid- to late 20s. He could very well be several decades or even 800+ years old, and for reasons yet unknown he isn't aware of it. Hell, he knows what VHS tapes are and how to watch them, something present-day kids are unfamiliar with right now. Even if he was treated as only a scientific specimen in his youth, something about Earth/its people may have been warm and familiar enough to endear terran mementos to him. But it's now too far gone in the past for him to remember why exactly he loves them so much.

Shrike got no dick

(originally posted to Twitter before the Shittening)

Canonically, the boy is Ken-doll smooth both front and back. Even though he has a gender (Questionably Masc™), he has no sex. Maybe his species could reproduce asexually, but it's pretty unusual for complex bipedal critters to do that. Plus, there's the fact that no peehole and no butthole also mean no bodily waste excretion, which is pretty much a death sentence for most life forms that run on metabolic processes. Therefore, I'm taking all these as artifacts of Shrike's artificial creation (and not just so it's more difficult to make show-accurate porn of him).

The Primaries, LAW, and Secondary Green

So there are three godlike beings that ostensibly also serve as the basis for government, referred to as the Primaries. Only one has been directly referenced as active in LAW government—Primary Red—but given the colors of the three LAW divisions, one can safely assume there must be a Primary Yellow and Primary Blue (whether they also govern, are off doing something else, or are AWOL is a mystery for now). It also just so happens that interstellar travel takes place in subspace pathways in the same colors as the Primaries (with varying speed depending on color), and spacecraft is fueled by "ink" in those corresponding primary colors.

It's also revealed in a news chyron in ep 4 that an intergalactic-capable drive had been in development (and had been stalled by bureaucracy) for at least 20 years, and is now ready to deploy. It's referred to as a Trinity drive, and required Primary Red's approval before it could officially launch. I think it's pretty safe to assume it's a form of propulsion that combines all 3 colors, however the in-universe physics work in that case. At the moment, it's been shown that using the wrong type of ink in a color drive will cause an explosion and a tear in space at best (at worst, we don't know yet), so whatever science went into developing a drive that combines colors must have been fairly dangerous (or potentially threatens to weaken whatever power the Primaries hold over LAW citizens).

Secondary Green

Background details are vital lore sources in Monkey Wrench. If you paid close attention near the beginning of ep 1 (and can easily read backwards text), you already know what's in the box the boys pick up in ep 2: something called "Secondary Green." It was evidently once in Chester's possession, but by the time Kara caught up to him, he'd already sent it on its way to LAW.

The second and third episodes refer to the Cataclysm being caused by terrans. The third episode explains the green corruption's effect on life forms, and LAW subsequently quarantining it to prevent its spread. It also shows Secondary Green corrupting the bit of Them that gets too close into the horrific black-green monster that overtakes the Bucket. The fourth ep has Jaw Bone directly refer to the terrans' "false idol" in reference to the Cataclysm.

While I was typing later paragraphs, I hit upon a possibility I hadn't even considered for what Secondary Green could be. So now, I've got 2 potential reads:

1. Secondary Green was the humans' attempt at recreating the Primaries' power for themselves. Whether this was to undermine LAW or to try to join the galactic stage at the Primaries' level has yet to be seen, but either way, it ended up biting humanity in the ass. Secondary Green and/or a byproduct of it/its creation ended up destroying Earth and a good chunk of its neighboring Milky Way space, and landed whatever humans remain squarely on LAW's shit list.

Now, those of you who remember me from pre-2018 Tumblr also know I'm pretty heavily into Mass Effect. That universe's version of the Milky Way also was governed by an alien-run coalition: the Citadel, which tightly controlled the means to interstellar travel (although the Citadel species did not create these means, they just found and activated them first). Thus, the similarities to the idea of a three-pronged alien government holding the keys to interstellar travel and commerce and forcing you to play nice if you want in have been resonating in the back of my mind whenever I watch Monkey Wrench.

The similarities end in that MW's answer to the Protheans are still very much alive and active, and are directly overseeing galactic travel, commerce, and government. There aren't established mass relays, but every ship contains its own "relay" in the form of ink drives. These can open portals into respective colors of subspace to get from one side of the galaxy to another faster than conventional propulsion (so far, red is the fastest, and blue seems to be the median speed everyday schmoes like our boys can access). And, most importantly, the means of this travel are less an external technological development and more appear to be tied to the nature of the Primaries themselves; these beings are not just obeyed, but worshiped (see Scratch's oaths in ep 3 and the red officer greeting Shrike and Armstrong exchange in ep 4).

However, there are still two very important similarities between these two settings that I think should be kept in mind:

i. Trouble started when humans started sticking their fingers into the galactic government's pie. In Mass Effect, it was shoehorning Shepard into the Spectre program and wriggling humanity's way into the Citadel Council. In Monkey Wrench, it was messing with fundamental forces it didn't yet understand and (maybe) creating human-made Great Value primaries, which resulted in at least one: Secondary Green.

ii. Control over interstellar travel—specifically, access to subspace—is a cornerstone of power. In Mass Effect, you need a specific form of reactor in order to engage the mass relays and "cheat" your way to FTL travel. These relays are heavily guarded and regulated by the Citadel; humanity famously learned this when it activated Relay 314 near Pluto and got a knock-knock from the police in the form of a turian armada. In Monkey Wrench, you need to equip specific color drives and fuel up at ink stations, which presumably are subject to LAW regulation and pricing.

In both settings, Earth appears to have taken a look at the galaxy already being run by someone else and immediately thought, "but how do I get around this?"

Engineering Secondary Green was MW Earth's answer to this question. Unfortunately, it backfired and drove humanity to (functional) extinction and criminal status.

2. Secondary Green is an unintended fusion of Primaries Yellow and Blue. This would explain their current-day absence (provided they don't directly appear in later episodes), and the subsequent fall of LAW enforcement into disorder that Armstrong alludes to in ep 4. Humanity was up to something that attracted the Primaries' attention—perhaps tapping into pocket dimensions, like the one embedded in Shrike's head?—and maybe things went awry. One way or another, Primaries Yellow and Blue's intervention ended in them fusing into a new anti-entity, Secondary Green. Instead of fostering life, their combined and imbalanced power corrupted it.

Left to their own devices (and likely hawkish methods, given Red oversees enforcement), Primary Red sealed off Earth's part of the galaxy and declared humanity LAW's enemy. The quarantine for justifiable safety/life preservation reasons, the outlawing likely to create the narrative that humanity was entirely to blame and not at all any fault of Primary interference (and maybe some vengeance for losing their comrades).

Or maybe, Red is covering their tracks.

LAW and Order

So the League of Aligned Worlds (LAW—yes, it's an acronym) is the current empire ruling civilized space in the Milky Way galaxy, under direct command of the Primaries (or at least Primary Red). There are three established branches: enforcement/military (red, which Shrike was once and has since defected from), science (yellow, which Dr. Agness impersonated), and commerce (blue, as represented by Killix and Sixty-Two, who appear to be led by an as-yet unseen Commander Tezzoree).

Being a centralized civilization, LAW has certain cultural and legal standards it expects its citizens to observe. Commerce and community are enabled by way of implanted universal translators á là Star Trek, but with one specific caveat: swearing is not allowed. It's so not allowed that it's physically punishable through painful translator auditory feedback—interestingly, people in earshot get punished this way as well just for hearing it.

Maybe it's a form of socialization, in that LAW hopes you're nice enough not to want to hurt your fellow citizens by swearing? Or that your fellow citizens, having had pain inflicted on them, will browbeat you into compliance? Either way, it's a window into current LAW space being severely authoritarian in both the moral and legal senses.

This extreme authoritarian approach doesn't prevent corruption, however. Corporate lobbyists exist, as demonstrated by Chester in ep 1, and LAW officials patronizing vice industries like sex work (see the end of ep 3) is not unusual. And current LAW is disorganized to the point of each division being largely ignorant of what's going on in the others: Neither Killix nor Sixty-Two were aware Shrike is a defector, nor do they bat an eye at him admitting as such. Armstrong is able to impersonate a red officer with either stolen or purchased equipment, and even he's astonished that LAW keeps such loose tabs on itself that they still have Shrike registered as an active officer. Dr. Agness is able to get away with impersonating a LAW scientist, and the LAW representatives who collect her don't appear especially ruffled by it.

It's possible that this rigid adherence to authority and subsequent breakdown in the ability to enforce it is due to Primary Red being the only Primary left. The harder you clench your fist, the more sand slips through your fingers, and all that. However it happened, Red is at the moment the only one at the wheel, and they don't seem to be able to keep it together on their own.

aight, so where's this leave us

so for now, I think these are where we may be headed:

a: Shrike was genetically engineered to be in the running as a peer to/defense against the Primaries, but aligned with Earth. He has a means to access a pocket dimension/subspace, could possibly be a source of ink (either as secretion or in the form of his blood), is an exceptional marksman, and possesses anthropomorphic form and (allegedly) intellect. The problem is, he turned out anti-authoritarian, impulsive, and kinda stupid. He was disposed of at some point and now wanders space as the only one of his kind.

b: The same program that produced Shrike also created Secondary Green. Unfortunately, something happened—whether through accident or external manipulation—that turned it into a rampaging force of destruction. We have yet to see whether humans really did just monumentally fuck up, or if LAW is rewriting history.

c: LAW is on its way to collapse through Primary Red's mismanagement. Whether said mismanagement is through the other Primaries going missing on their own, or through a power grab on Red's part is the main mystery.

hooray done for now oh god

[scoobydoodean]

Okay so in 1.03 Dead In The Water, there's this exchange Sam and Dean have at one point in regards to Lucas—the little boy who watched his dad drown, who Dean connects with during the episode:

DEAN Andrea said the kid never drew like that till his dad died. SAM There are cases—going through a traumatic experience could make people more sensitive to premonitions, psychic tendencies. DEAN Whatever's out there, what if Lucas is tapping into it somehow? I mean, it's only a matter of time before somebody else drowns, so if you got a better lead, please.

And the last time I watched this episode, I went "Oh cool! A little Psychic!Sam Easter Egg." Right? Sam goes through the traumatic experience of losing Jess, and he's tapped into "whatever's out there" (the yellow eyed demon) and he's having premonitions about what he's going to do next. Which definitely makes a lot of sense.

But when I was gif-ing stuff from 1.03 today, I realized that... funnily enough, within the context of this episode we also have some fun stuff relating to the "slightly psychic Dean" posts that have gone around this year... Or if you prefer, Cassandra!Dean. Cassandra, in reference to the prophet in Greek myth, cursed by Apollo to utter true prophecies but never be believed.

Dean often knows when bad things are going to happen in Supernatural. He doesn't have visions—but he has "bad feelings" and makes predictions that turn out to be scarily accurate at times. Of course we can infer that Dean is just good at 1) reading people and 2) understanding how sequences of events tumble one by one in a row like so many dominoes. It's another sign of his incredible intelligence. But it IS fun to think about Dead In The Water as the first indication of Cassandra!Dean.

First, because Lucas has premonitions, and Lucas and Dean are paralleled and connect on an emotional level.

Dean and Lucas have similar traumatic childhood experiences. Both watched a parent die and both lost the ability to speak afterwards:

DEAN You're scared. It's okay. I understand. See, when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom, and I was scared, too. I didn't feel like talking, just like you. But see, my mom—I know she wanted me to be brave. I think about that every day. And I do my best to be brave. And maybe, your dad wants you to be brave too.

Dean is able to connect with Lucas through their shared traumatic experience. He's the only one who's able to get through to him—and after a short conversation and just drawing together for a while—much to his mom's shock. Dean is able to understand what Lucas is feeling without Lucas saying it.

Second, because Lucas has bad feelings that tell him the locations where the spirit will strike next, but no one listens to/believes him.

...Kind of like people usually don't listen to/believe Dean's bad feelings.

DEAN Anyway. Well, maybe you don't think anyone will listen to you, or, uh...or believe you. I want you to know that I will. You don't even have to say anything. You could draw me a picture about what you saw that day, with your dad, on the lake.

Of course, this line is just Dean paralleling Lucas with himself and his own reasons for not speaking, but it must hit home, because Lucas begins communicating with Dean through drawings.

Further, despite Sam also knowing Lucas is having premonitions, when Lucas reacts with extreme distress to the idea of going home and clings to Dean desperately, Sam still... doesn't think it means anything. He thinks the case is over.

Third, Dean has a bad feeling that the case isn't over, and Sam doesn't believe him.

The sheriff had just threatened to arrest them if they stayed in town, so of course going back to town is a big deal. When Dean turns around based on a bad feeling, Sam thinks he's just being paranoid.

SAM But Dean, this job, I think it's over. DEAN I'm not so sure. SAM If Bill murdered Peter Sweeney and Peter's spirit got its revenge, case closed. The spirit should be at rest. DEAN All right, so what if we take off and this thing isn't done? You know, what if we've missed something? What if more people get hurt? SAM But why would you think that? DEAN Because Lucas was really scared. SAM That's what this is about?

Dean sticks to his guns, and they arrive just in time to save Lucas's mother from drowning in a bathtub.

[space-blue]

s2 has been so ass and the butchering of silco and vander's dynamic by making them know the mother is so stupid. to me , the entire point felt that when vander saw the two orpahsn on the bridge , spotting their dead mother, and putting down his gauntlets, it was that he was not ready for the base violence necessary for change, so to say, and obviously he wasn't, so he reinforces the status quo (and zaun, for some reason, draws murals and statues of him and lauds him as a peacekeeper , comparing him direclty to jinx in s2 in that stupid mural??) . like im rambling but it's so bad. s2 is so bad. oh my god

IDK that it is stupid for them to know each other, but it is stupid that it has been irrelevent.

Vander's charm was that he adopted kids he had seemingly orphaned. Then he dropped his gauntlets and embraced them, in a very symbolic moment.

But now the writers want to tell us that this moment was nothing, and that he still turned to violence against Silco, even though he was last off the battlefield, even though he had seemingly turned a new leaf?

His adoption of kids he didn't know well (you can tell he knows who they are, or else how would he know who the mother is?) served to show all this. Now it turns out he's just feeling very endebted to his friend.

It cheapens the situation, especially since his emotional outburst against Silco is basically what sparked all the story up to now.

But it's still workable. It's not great, and leaves some really stupid questions in the open. I genuinely don't think we needed ANY backstory at all.

But I don't hate the show. I just feel like it's going way, way too fast, not establishing characters, not stopping to show key scenes, all because there is SO MUCH plot to get through.

And honestly it leaves me wondering how much does Arcane cost them to make, vs. how much does it bring, through Netflix.

Because this season is full of extremely static shots, much cheaper looking music videos, and with a ton of plot and very little time to get through it. Was a third season really not in the cards?

Was expending to 12 episodes really not an option?? I know for certain we would all have stuck with a slower pace if it meant getting more character interaction and better relationship buildup.

Regarding the statue of Vander, since Silco basically owns the Lanes, it's pretty clear he's the one who commissioned it. Makes sense if they were, you know, very very very close. But also because he was in power a long time, and Silco brought stability. When Silco dies, shit immediately hits the fan, and there is nobody to build him a statue. Who would pay for it? Who has the time?

And it makes sense that Jinx is becoming a symbol. She's the one who blew up the Council, and she's the one they're getting harassed over.

What I would really have liked to see on that Mural is Jinx with Silco AND Vander. People who don't know better looking back and thinking "our past two leaders and oh wow they shared the care of Jinx too, come to think of it."

[junkyarddawgz]

I'd love to know which of my fics (only one is currently up on ao3) I should prioritize based on what people like most, so I thought I'd leave it up to you guys here! Full descs are under the poll and cut.

Mortalizer: This fic gets deep but when things start to get chaotic outside of Kenny's own crisis, the action really picks up. I have so much plot going for this story and I'm really excited about it lol. Apart from dying, there will be lots of Crenny and Style, lots of character development, interactions with the Goth Kids, interesting disguises, hero-Cartman, friendly kidnapping, climbing through bedroom windows, etc. Currently there are nine chapters up on my AO3 (junkyarddawgz)

Heres the AO3 Desc

Kenny McCormick discovers he's been rejected by death. As denial drives him mad, he begins to toy with his own life- until a series of horrifying crimes remind him that not everyone comes back from the grave. Or... One year ago, Kenny's entire life fell apart, and the new version of it is not worth living. Every time he tries to end it, though, he only wakes up again; alive and with a beating heart. No one even remembers he was ever dead... that he knows of. After weeks of dying almost every day, two new things happen too close together to be coincidence; someone else is dead, and another anonymous someone seems to know Kenny has been too. He hardly even gets a chance to panic before things start to get way worse, and Kenny realizes he might be the only person who can stop whoever is behind it all. (Mysterion vs Serial killer)

Creek Fic (Untitled): When something goes way wrong with young NASA astronaut Craig Tucker's mission Feldspar, he finds himself trapped in an endless solo mission that should only have lasted 28 days. With NASA refusing to keep him in the loop about what the hell is even going on, he is surprised to discover he actually looks forward to those informationless ground-control calls each day. Maybe he just misses human contact, or maybe there really is something more behind his infatuation with that one twitchy, blond ground-control agent.

I wrote that desc just now, but it probably won't be the same one I write in for the eventual AO3 upload. No I don't have an outline or even really a full plot going for this one yet, but I do have a general idea of what it might be. Soooo.... slowburn, angsty, trapped in space Creek fic, anyone?

Children on the Edge of Forever: A tragic spin on the season 2 episode "City on the Edge of Forever" (which is itself titled after a Star Trek episode) in which instead of telling silly stories while they sit in the bus hanging off the edge of a cliff and wait for Miss Crabtree's return, the kids find themselves confessing deep honesties in their last moments before the bus finally gives in to the temptation of gravity. Confessions range from those of love- requited or not, personal identities, crimes, and final forgivenesses. Each chapter is written in the POV of one kid on the bus (I'll be doing about 12 of them) with a final chapter detailing their shared ending.

Yes, they do all die in the end, but that doesn't mean we can't have Style, Creek and Bendy fluff before their final demise lol. I haven't written an official desc yet, but the first chapter should be up before the end of December regardless of poll results (simply because it's already mostly written).

Totally Killer AU (Untitled): This one is based on the 2023 slasher film Totally Killer, which was ALMOST a good movie lol. I decided to make it actually good. Heres the AO3 desc:

When the decade of materialism and Madonna finally began to draw the curtains of a close, three teenagers at South Park high had their lives brought to their own abrupt ends. The face of their killer is never unmasked, slipping away through the cracks of passing time. 35 years later, as the third decade of the century hits a halfway point, a fourth victim is claimed to mark the killer's return. Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski find themselves thrown not only in the middle of it all (and maybe even at each other), but also back in time- to the point just before everything first began.

TIME TRAVEL STYLE!!! This one is going to be so good because I'll be writing their parents as teenagers and showing so much background. I feel like fresh characters (or fresh versions of them at least) in a South Park fic is something you rarely see, so I think it will be fun to try and pull off.

Anyway, this fic involves Stan and Kyle working together to try and prevent the first murders from ever happening so as to save the fourth victim from dying in the future. Theres angst and fluff to come no matter who dies lol.

[pikahlua]

If Hori wanted us to believe Bakugo was dead, why did he walk back the 'death' so quickly then?

Kid, why don't you try engaging with your own questions in good faith for a bit before sending them where everyone can see them?

Everyone and their dog knows Katsuki's coming back whether or not Edgeshot has his scene afterwards. The question isn't WILL he come back but HOW will he come back? But the artistic language of manga and anime are necessarily different. The same image can read entirely different when animated versus in a manga drawing. The subtlety in the manga volume cover with Katsuki's silhouette works in ways it would absolutely not work in animated form. Bones gets to choose what it focuses on, and savvy anime viewers would pick up on any nod towards Katsuki's revival because they could tell Bones made a decision to focus on it. This is why Bones' "spoiler" of the Invisible Girl in the last anime opening was clever--because any feature of her would spoil she was important, so what they did was continue the implication that she was the traitor this way by emphasizing her so that no one would pick up on Aoyama sitting in his cell in the frames right before.

Also, based on what's depicted in these OPs, I'm not sure the OP animators knew for sure which episodes would be in which cour before they had to make these. There are a lot of things in the cour 1 OP that haven't happened yet, for instance. They already hinted heavily at Katsuki's death in that OP. If they were to do it again, it would be like an anvil over the head. Give space for other moments to have their spotlight.

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition): 2x3

And here are my additional thoughts that contain spoilers through all the teasers and the books through book 13: A Memory of Light.

I was watching show-only reviews to try to figure out if it's safe to call Ishy 'Ishamael' yet but reaction seems mixed on whether or not Moiraine's words clued people in on the situation, so I'm going to stay ambiguous about him in my book spoiler-free posts for now.

I loved the changes that the show made to all Nynaeve's tests. They all make sense in context of the show and Nynaeve's character, they all tell us something about her, and there's also some great connective threads between them. We've known for a while (or guessed) that her first test would take place when she was a kid because her mom appeared in the casting lists... quite a few months ago. Ages ago. But I definitely prefer this one to the book version. It was so heartrending and touching.

2. The crimsonthorn strand throughout the tests is very interesting to me. I talked about this in the other post, but on a more spoilerly note, I like that the show is not defaulting to "all the Wondergirls feel a draw towards Green because They Like Men" and that Nynaeve is actually getting tugged between Yellow and Red in these last two episodes, as Liandrin tries to influence her. It makes me wonder if maybe they'll have Elayne incline towards maybe Brown ("I like to tinker with things") instead of Green. Though Nynaeve did put Egwene in the Green Ajah in her personal AU (which did such a good job in only using elements that Nynaeve was aware of when she went into the arches! No Elayne in Nynaeve's AU; and no Rand because she believes him to be dead).

4. Side note: thrilled that Nynaeve does not have to be naked for the test. The amount of times that women have to strip down for rituals in the books gets pretty ridiculous (especially when men doing the same kind of ritual -- ex. going to Rhuidean -- does not require them to strip). Stripping down to her shift makes the point well enough.

5. A thought I had about the people attacking the Two Rivers -- could this have been happening during the Andoran Succession Crisis that led to Morgase being Queen? And so the Queen's Guard, instead of keeping the roads clear of bandits, were busy with the civil war among the nobility, which let bandits get even as far as the Mountains of Mist. That could actually serve as a really good reason for the Two Rivers to basically nope out of being part of Andor -- "you were so busy squabbling amongst yourself that you let bandits rove the lands and kill innocent people". I'm not certain if the timeline matches up, but I will put it out there as a theory.

6. Her second test is based on the same worries that she had in the books -- that she's abandoned the Two Rivers and she won't be there when they need her and someone who isn't a good Wisdom will have taken over for her -- but shifted the details to hit harder in the show version, and to use characters that the show viewers are already familiar with. It really worked for me. I also liked them essentially using Perrin's lies about Rand to Tam in the books for Nynaeve here instead, where it makes a lot more sense -- she doesn't want to steal the only comfort that she can give a dying man by telling him that his son is dead.

7. Liandrin genuinely got herself invested in Nynaeve! I liked seeing that. I really like that the show is giving more emotional depth to our Darkfriends. Both Sheriam and Liandrin come across as very genuinely upset that Nynaeve hasn't returned through the arches. Because they both think of themselves as the good guys! Liandrin's motives in the show seems to be along the lines of "You need to have power so that others can't have power over you" while Sheriam's in the books were about being Black Ajah essentially to get ahead in the Tower but never expecting that she would actually need to do anything TOO terribly bad in exchange. Neither of them wanted Nynaeve to die or get hurt (they were both probably hoping to turn her to the Black Ajah). It's also really funny that it's entirely possible that they do not know that the other one is also Black Ajah.

8. Theory: being able to sense latent channelers may be a Talent rather than something either everyone or no one can do. Because it's one specific damane who comes out to point out the individual women to get dragged off to be damane, rather than it being the two women who were used to attack the village.

They are hitting the dehumanization angle hard. Egwene's 'training' is going to be so hard to watch.

9. Ishamael doesn't seem like he was expecting to find Perrin here, so I don't think Ingtar has been in regular contact with him. I really do wonder where exactly the Darkfriend social happened, timeline-wise, to the rest of the season thus far.

10. Ah, goodbye, Uno. I'll miss you, but you went out like a boss. Given the changes that were made to the plot, this does make a ton of sense -- Uno is not a man who backs down easily and he's also not a plot-relevant character really... ever, at any point. He's a fun character for flavor but someone who can be sacrificed to illustrate a narrative point without needing to change any of the story in the future.

11. Changing Logain to being able to see men who can channel as opposed to ta'veren makes a lot of sense on a practical level -- Mat was sitting right next to Rand, so if he saw ta'veren, then he would have seen both of them glowing; making it about Rand being a channeling focuses Logain's attention and memory in on Rand specifically.

12. Rand being kept out of the knowledge loop here kinda cracks me up because "Rand is on an information diet" is something that kept coming up in the books and it frustrated me so much because, in the books, it was consistently a result of his allies just never being willing to tell him a fucking thing ever unless he bullied them into it or spied on them. It makes a lot more sense here that he doesn't know what's going on with anyone else's plotlines! Taking something frustrating from the books and making it make sense is a really good habit that the show has been doing.

13. Lanfear continues to be the funniest girl in the world. She is just on cloud nine so far in s2, cruising along living her best life. Also, we see that her inn cheekily has her personal symbols as their sign.

14. Given how much Rand is experiencing the class divide in Cairhien and how much he's seen the poor get mistreated and looked down on by the rich and titled, I almost wonder if he isn't going to get a bit of Mat's arc from the books when he finds out that Elayne is a noble and needs to realize that she's not like the Cairhienin nobles.

15. Mat escaping from one abusive situation only to land right into another one definitely reminds me of the Tylin->Tuon pipeline in the books, of course. The main difference being is that we're dealing with mother figures in the show and not 'romances' (please take that word with a very large grain of salt). Possibly the biggest way that they can set Mat x Tuon up for success is actually showing us her relationship with her mother and how toxic and cruel the environment that she grew up in is. I feel like not killing off the old Empress at all and instead having Tuon take over a faction of the people and split off them off from the Empire would give us a sense that she really IS Not Like The Other Seanchan, instead of just wanting people to believe Mat when he says it despite there being no evidence in Tuon's actual behavior (I'm trying to remember who originally suggested that idea, but it was a while ago, so I have forgotten; I'm sorry!).

16. Liandrin grinding in to Mat how worthless and what an awful friend he is will, presumably, be some pretty good setup for him to show himself to be both loyal and vital in the final episode, though there will probably be more pain for him in the upcoming episodes (maybe involving what happens with Min's viewing about him stabbing Rand).

17. Lanfear is buzzing on such a high of getting show off of her Personal Dragon to a fancy group of lords and ladies at the start of this party.

18. Rand's conversation with Moiraine's sister is particularly fascinating! There's a queen of Cairhien but I suspect that it's not a Damodred (maybe I'll be wrong and Anvaere is the queen! We'll see!). That Anvaere reaches out to the mysterious ~outlander lord~ and shares so much with him is very intriguing, especially if we end up seeing her again later in the season (once Moiraine arrives in Cairhien?).

18. Here is where the cracks in Lanfear's illusion of perfect happiness with her New Lews Therin are beginning to show: he's keeping secrets from her, he's doubting her, and then he just leaves her behind. She is probably getting some very unhappy flashbacks right about now.

19. I wonder if Rand's bad experience with Logain here will inform his choices in the future. In the books, there isn't really a good reason for him to give Taim free rein over the school, but if it's more of a "Taim vs Logain" situation and he already doesn't trust Logain (and Taim appears less affected by the madness), then him trusting Taim might make more sense.

20. Mat being released from a prison cell and not knowing where to go and then (temporarily in this case) returning to his prison gives me echoes of "Mat inexplicably appears by magic in Ebou fucking Dar, a place that treated him like shit for months" from A Memory of Light, lol.

21. Perrin feeling wary about getting too wolfy because of his encounter with Ishamael feels like a much better reason that we got in the books... though I wonder if we'll follow it up by having him meet... shit, the guy who lost himself to the wolf; do not remember his name. But I'm thrilled to have him hanging out with Elyas and the wolves (Hopper?) for now.

22. Liandrin calling Mat Cauthon, agent of chaos, "nothing if not predictable" feels like it needs to bite her in the ass at some point.

23. Yeah, on rewatch, the sex dream is definitely Lanfear feeling like she can finally show her possessiveness and anger in Rand's dream. She is MAD at him for keeping secrets and leaving without her, but she can't show it when he's awake because it doesn't fit her carefully crafted persona. She does NOT like her men with an air of mystery -- she wants to know every tiny thing that he's thinking and feeling. I wonder if Rand actually did light the roof on fire or if Lanfear helped it along -- she's definitely taking advantage of his vulnerability in the aftermath of the fire. "If you ever leave me like that again, I will kill you." Yeah, that's absolutely Lanfear.

And, you know, her inn burning down does mean that she doesn't have to worry about dealing with it anymore. Now that she's had a taste of Rand in fancy coats, I think she probably wants to try to figure out a way to make it happen again.

24. Nynaeve's dream does have a couple of painful easter eggs in it -- Mat gets a wound over his eye; Perrin gets killed by an axe.

Nynaeve does forcibly bring back the arches in the books too, just without so much happening in the illusionary life. But I liked this a lot because of how much it gave us from the other characters who believed that Nynaeve was dead.

25. So, my theories about what we might get in episode four. Wow.

Rand's trajectory... I don't think he's done with Logain. But I feel like ep4 is going to be a big one for him, based on the title (Daughter of the Night). Rand may find out the truth about Selene in this episode, which would be a. be a pretty big betrayal but also b. might make him realize that it's not likely that the Dark One is actually dead.

Moiraine is presumably on her way to Cairhien right now, but it doesn't seem like she thinks Rand himself is there, but more that she's investigating the poem situation, so they may run across each other by accident.

Everyone is going to get to react to Nynaeve powering her way out of the arches (like a boss). I am very curious if Lan is going to spend an episode in the Tower before going after Moiraine... but if Actual Lan goes to the Tower... hard to imagine he wouldn't tell Nynaeve, at least, that Rand is still alive. He knows how deeply Nynaeve cares about the Two Rivers kids.

Unless Liandrin tricks Nynaeve, Elayne, and Egwene into leaving the Tower before Lan arrives there?

Where are Mat and Min going! Mat can't be going after Egwene & co to save them because... nothing to save them from at the moment. Where would Liandrin want him to be led? Falme? I mean, maybe, but he can't channel, so it's not a secure prison for Mat like it would be for the girls.

Perrin's storyline is going to teach us more about the Seanchan and wolfbrothering, I imagine. Maybe some scouting. He can truthfully tell any Seanchan soldiers (if he runs across any) that he's taken the oaths.

Will we follow right on from episode 3 or is there going to be a timeskip to give the characters some time to travel to new locations?

[charmac]

speaking of things that were brought up in the show once and then never spoken of again, im honestly astounded that the revelation that luther was sending letters to mac and dennis was destroying them has seemingly had no impact on the characters beyond tggth. ik the fans probably discussed it more when the episode came out (which i wasnt there for) but its such a huge reveal like…mac who is ignored by his father 99% of the time was actually receiving letters from him and both of his best friends knew and didnt say anything. id love to see that revisited.

Tbh I think that one’s definitely a dead and buried event as spoken between Mac and Dennis, but I definitely wouldn’t say it’s had no further impact on the characters.

Mac’s internal struggle with his dad loving him certainly continued, and from what I see, it was pretty heavily built off the basis of Dennis destroying the letters:

Mac’s ‘PTSD’ nightmares are between him killing his father, just as he hopes he’ll say he loves him, and Dennis making a move on him, finally returning physical affection. I’d say that’s a good idea of how Mac processed/was processing what Dennis did. Mac’s mind seemed to be rationalising that he would kill his father by his own hands if he had access to him. Dennis physically destroyed the possibility, ‘proving he loved Mac’ (and further in Mac’s mind, Luther would kill Mac, given the opportunity).

But then, Mac does ‘kill’ [his relationship with] his father by his own hands when he comes out to him. His father doesn’t want Mac’s true self, and won’t listen. So when Mac does have a way to express himself in return, it hurts him. (Again, further affirming himself that Dennis cut off a potential relationship to protect him).

Now what’s really interesting is that they chose to go with letters again, in connection with Mac’s father, they further cast GSC to play his Uncle, made him gay, and weaved the idea of Mac having kids into the play. Isn’t that just all, a lot to chew on…

Honestly it’s hard for me to properly space it out, so I hope the following makes sense (and I am responding to this while on NYC transit, but what better place to dump my brain out):

I think the letters from Luther to Mac being destroyed by Dennis was a solid base they continue to build around through now. I mean, it’s certainly no coincidence that they decided on letters to be his family legacy, letters his mother destroyed before Mac could read. And then it can’t be a coincidence that the last time Mac spoke to his father, the first time he spoke to him since he found out about his letters, he expressed he wanted Mac to have children, and now Mac is telling his Uncle who looks like his father that he wants these new (old) letters for his children (alongside the theme of ignoring a shared sexuality). That’s not a coincidence, I really hope it’s not.

So I think it remains unsaid between the characters for a few reasons. 1. The confessions from TGGTH went down with the ship for all of them (stuff it down with some brown, bury it under the booth, kick it under the kegs). 2. Mac sees it as a twisted act of love from Dennis, so why teeter with that? 3. It’s a base plot device they continue to build off of for now that, maybe, eventually they’ll address, if we ever work back around to another Mac finale (We can see a theme of things being unburied… Or they’ll just let the insane analysts like me draw dots and connect lines and spout my shit through the rest of time.)

Though those are just my thoughts, certainly RCG will have to talk about it when they get to Seasons 11-13 on the Podcast, so that’s something to look forward to in 2.5-3 years!

[kerubimcrepin]

Live-read: Trying to understand the Aux Tresors novels without actually reading the novels in question.

NOTE: 1/5 OF THE NOVELS HAS BEEN SCANNED AFTER THE WRITING OF THIS POST. SAID SCAN HAS BEEN TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH+RUSSIAN BY ME, AND THEN LIVEBLOGGED. THIS NOTICE WILL BE UPDATED IF MORE BOOKS ARE TO BE FOUND AND TRANSLATED. YOU CAN FIND THEIR LIVEBLOGS IN THIS SAME TAG ("NOVELS")

This is the last, and the most borderline-experimental and cringe-flop part of the reading break #1, because in this post, I will be discussing the five novels based on the show.

Without actually reading them.

Nobody has seemingly ever scanned or copied them, and I don't have the ability to buy them. If you're French, or a rich person, perhaps you could get your hands on them and tell me how wrong I am, but until then, let's speculate.

You can find the... (sighs deep as fuck) Plot Summaries on Otakia. Everything I will discuss here comes from Otakia. You can find the books somewhere else. Perhaps Amazon, probably some other site too... Because as far as I remember, Ankama's literal official shop only has one of the five.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 1 : Le ciel sur la tête

>Read about it here

To regurgitate a bit of info from Otakia: just like the Wakfu novels, which apparently also exist, these five novels are kind of like... a bonus episode in a written form, following the structure of the show.

When grabbing quotes from Otakia I will be putting them into a translator and then screenshotting, so that you can quickly read them, and so that I don't have to copy things.

But I won't be copying the descriptions or summaries of the books, just the bits I'd like to elaborate on. You can read them yourself there.

To reference that one meme: Why didn't he start thinking about his dead parents? Is he stupid?

OKAY, I really didn't expect this post to go anywhere, but it's funny that even in Dofus times, Porkass people were known to eat Twelvians.

You will never fucking guess with what nation Bonta of the Waven era, is involved in a seemingly mutually cannibalistic war with.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 2 : Une étoile pour le shérif

>Read about it here

I want to thank whoever runs Otakia for uploading this image specifically. Thank you Monsieur/Madame Otakia.

You may notice that, I will be upscaling all the images I bring here from the Otakia articles. The reason for this is that I am a normal and sane person, and need to look at it in a crispier way.

As you may remember, Kerubim already said that he used to be a sheriff in episode 16, West of Astrub.

The writer of this article will literally be like "the book gives you candy, sucks your dick clean and dry, cleans up your home, and then it gives you a hundred dollars, so I didn't like it."

I wish Kerubim would be a fucking loser and a menace more often.

In the Judgement of The Twelve episode, Kerubim and Bashi had already mentioned meething each other many times as young adults, and having stories about it, so it's nice to see this factoid utilized for more than 2 episodes, if only in a book.

Also, yet again, Kerubim literally doing his job and Bashi being fucking insane and hating him for it, despite doing far worse things.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 3 : Panique à Astrub

>Read about it here

Indie is insane for this btw.

Joris canonically eats burgers and YES reading this article a while back is the reason I put burgers into my Joris fanart.

You can see full art on my general artblog @atcham-crepin. Yeah, my blog naming scheme is very creative, I know.

I just think his refined ass eating burgers is funny, even though in canon he is only depicted doing this as a kid.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 4 : Le décapiteur de soiffard

>Read about it here

Including the cover art because it is very nice, and to draw your attention to THE best novel none of us will ever get to fucking read.

My dream Joris & Simone story, and I can't even read it. Smh.

List of things I love about this:

Joris stealing stuff.

Joris stealing stuff.

Joris stealing stuff.

Simone being a leader.

Kerubim, as we had seen in the past episodes, literally the type to text something like "I am not long for this world.... tell my family I love them." over a tummy ache. I hate this man so much it's unreal.

Of Course he sent them on a wild goose chase over some random bullshit.

Simone and Joris @ Kerubim at the end of this book:

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 5 : Tous en piste

>Read about it here

I will be real, I don't think any living being can tame that fucking beast.

These books are just treating us with characters in outfits we hadn't seen them in, in the show. It would be... a better world, if these books were episodes instead.

Also, want to yet again remind you that I am upscaling the shit out of these images. Because I'm normal. But at times the results can be wonky.

The World of Twelve has never seen, and will never see again, a couple more toxic than them. Sad!

Unlike the Simone & Joris book, I yet again don't have much to say, but, I'm sure I would, had the books been available to me.

This brings me to a close with the first reading break. After this post, I will resume liveblogging about the show. But I do have ideas of what the next reading break entail, and I think they're rather fun! Like "trying to read Dofus manga without reading Dofus manga" or "reviewing Dofus Aux Tresors merch without buying Dofus Aux Tresors Merch", or, perhaps, "scrying on a crystal ball to read Tot Ankama's thoughts."

...Yeah. Only the last one is a joke.

[ameliadoesstuff]

introduction/navigation

hiii i rejoined tumblr as a fan blog for like the. fourth. time i think. when will i learn? idk! but i'm having a HEAVY hyperfixation and the urge to reblog fanarts is strong so i have sadly returned.

get to know me: fandoms and favourites

bold = will post abt & interact with these fandoms :)

fav tv shows/musical shows

ninjago (all forms)

voltron: legendary defender (unfortunately)

the dragon prince

gilmore girls <3

gossip girl

glee

skins uk

sex and the city

bridgerton

the good place

crazy ex-girlfriend

breaking bad (currently watching)

newsies

hairspray

rocky horror

legally blonde

chicago

funny girl

top 4 movies

breakfast at tiffany's

lady bird

amelie

dead poet's society

games

i love story choice based games

telltale's the walking dead

the sims 3 & 4

until dawn

what remains of edith finch

detriot: become human

stardew valley

roblox

episode interactive

music

uhhh i pretty much like everything honestly, i listen to basically all genres across all decades. yes unfortunately that means i like musicals too (i'd say retired theatre kid but really it's just like. dormant theatre kid.) some of my favourite artists i am regularly listening to:

the beatles

mitski

lana del rey

taylor swift

amy winehouse

olivia rodrigo

chappel roan

sabrina carpenter

ariana grande

fiona apple

no doubt

sza

youtubers i watch n reccommend

kurtis conner

danny gonzalez

drew gooden

berleezy

janelle eliana <3

bestdressed

mike's mic

nickdominates

izzzyzzz

schafrilla's productions

cosmonaut variety hour

callmekevin

dominic noble

hobbies/other interests

creative writing!

reading!

poetry

drawing, though i can draw like. one thing and that is specifically headshots of women in a semi-cartoonish style. i neglected to draw men for about 10 years and thus suffer the consequences.

journalling

scrapbooking

yoga when i can be bothered

hot girl walks

listening 2 music while staring at the wall for several hours and daydreaming x

video games except i mostly watch other youtuber's play them

make-up

fashion

find me elsewhere:

aesthetic blog (@lilyofgiverny). you'll probs see this one liking your posts because it's my main

reddit (ameliadoesstuff)

ao3 (ameliawritesstuff)

hashtags navigation:

OKAY i think that's all

listing all my fandoms and interests is just impossible and this post is long enough so sorry i have serious oversharing issues. idk how to summarise my interests normally...seems like an impossible task. anyway, if u want to know anything just ask :)

[last updated: 19/11/24]

[burnwater13]

Concept art by Christian Alzmann. Boba Fett holding onto the Sand Beast, while saving a child of the Sand People, on Tatooine. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 1, Stranger in a Strange Land.

Din Djarin stood there, looking over Grogu’s tiny shoulders watching his son and apprentice sketch. He’d done that dozens, if not hundreds, of times. The amazing child, who came into his life and flipped upside down with a single ‘coo’, loved to document everything he interacted with in sketches and drawings. 

They weren’t all the same quality. And the Mandalorian was certain that’s why there were so many of them. Quantity could resolve issues that skill hadn’t been able to address yet. The only time he didn’t enjoy this part of their time together is when they had to down select images for placement on the preserver. Then the arguments (Greef Karga would have called them discussions) were often repetitious and frustrating. 

“Grogu, we already have a sketch of the Razor Crest on the preserver. Do you want to take the old one down and put the new one in its place?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to take the down the sketch you did of Fennec when the Majordomo gave her that box from Peli that ended up having a dead womp rat in it?”

“No.”

“Then which picture is coming down?”

“No.”

Why Karga ever gave the kid that button, the Mandalorian would never really understand or forgive. He really preferred being coo’d at or chattered at or even growled at. But that mechanical ‘no’ in IG-11’s voice was just too much. 

“Okay. Have it your way, kid. The new one can’t go up there.”

The Mandalorian remembered the first time he made that argument with Grogu. The little guy seemed to deflate and his ears drooped and he shuffled off to beg clutching the pile of drawings he thought could go the surface of something smaller than an astro-mech. He had hoped the disappointment would help his apprentice appreciate that hard decisions were necessary. He had hoped. 

The next morning when he entered Grogu’s room to wake him up so they could head out to scout more of the old Imp Base on Nevarro, he realized abruptly just how wrong he had been. Grogu had taped, pastes, fastened, and some how stuck, every one of those drawings on the walls, floor, doors, and ceiling of his small room. 

“Buddy! How are you going to move around the room without damaging all these things?” Din Djarin had asked from the doorway, annoyed and secretly proud of Grogu’s ingenuity. 

Grogu opened his eyes wide, grinned a toothy grin, and held up one hand and proceeded to float from the bed to the dresser so he could claim his coverall. Then he floated back to the bed. 

Dank Farrik! Of course the kid could use the Force! Not just could, had. He had used the Force all night long to get everything just right. Just right until he drew just one more sketch and now it all had to be redone. Fortunately, IG-11-M stopped by with some protectors for the drawings and Grogu spent a happy afternoon organizing them while the bounty hunter cooled his beskar covered heels on the front porch. No one wanted him to damage any of the artworks with bootprints. 

He looked more closely at this latest drawing and began to chuckle. 

“Buddy, is that the sand-beast Fett told you about the last time we were on Tatooine?”

Grogu nodded his head but stayed focused on the artwork he was busy creating. 

“Did Fett actually show you any vids of the critters when he told you about the one he saved the Tusken kid from?”

Grogu turned away from the paper to stare at him, a frown creasing his brow.

“Sorry. Sand People. When he saved the child of the Sand People tribe who adopted him.”

Tuskens vs Sand People was an argument the Mandalorian had last a long time ago and even with Grogu’s consistent reinforcement he still slipped up from time to time. 

Grogu shook his head ‘no’. Whew. A head shake. That was much better than hearing the button say ‘No, No, No, No’. 

“I see. I think we should consider saving this one for Daimyo Fett and bring it to him the next time we go to Tatooine. I’m certain it would look great in the throne room. You can give it to him for his next naming day.”

Grogu looked up at him smiling and hit the other button.

“Yes.”

The Mandalorian chuckled again. 

“Good. I’m sure he’ll enjoy it. And Fennec too. When you’re done how ‘bout we go catch some frogs and I’ll tell you stories about training with the Flying Corps?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.”

“Okay. Okay. I’ll be on the front porch when you’re ready.”

Din Djarin wondered if Grogu could sense his amusement at the way the drawing was turning out or not. It was hard to tell. He tried hard not to laugh at things that weren’t quite perfect. Grogu put so much work into them. But he really wondered if Fett understood that in telling Grogu about that very dramatic incident in his life he was setting the boy’s imagination on fire? The Mandalorian doubted it. Otherwise, the sandbeast would have only had it’s customer one head, six appendages, and no tail. The one he’d inspired had three heads, at least twelve appendages, and no fewer than seven tails. It also looked like it was wearing beskar armor of some sort. Additionally, Fett himself looked to be about the size of scurrier in a flight pack. 

It might not be accurate, but it more than made up for that with a triple helping of drama and wasn’t that what you wanted from a good story, no matter what form it took? The boy who wore beskar armor sure did.

Happy Father’s Day to all who take on that role. May the Force be with you.

[lampmanliveblogs]

Season 2, episode 20. The penultimate episode of the season. Am I ready for this? Probably not, but whatever, let’s just go!

If you are only just now joining me, be sure to check out the two previous posts I made. In one of them I go over some of my theories and predictions for the finale. In the other, I tell you about the exciting game we’re going to be playing together during these two last episodes of the season.

Now. Let’s do this.

The portal has been moved to a cave in the head of the Titan by now and an abomaton is making the last few preparations.

I’m gonna be honest with you guys, the only reason I decided to grab this particular screenshot was because I noticed no less than four faces hidden in this image.

This really is it, huh? The end of the world as we know it.

We get a short scene between Belos* and The Collector. The Collector is impatient, begging to be freed from his eternal prison, with Belos countering that the draining spell has to work first. We get to see more of The Collector’s childish personalty, as they talk about all the games they wanna play. And this is the guy who’s apparently responsible for wiping out a race of island-sized giants.

(*sidenote: I kinda wanna start referring to Belos as Philip. Eh, I’ll wait and see. If Luz ever calls him Philip, I’ll start calling him that too)

Belos mentions that he doesn’t want to make another grimwalker until he’s dealt with Hunter, so I guess we can rule out other grimwalkers appearing. Unless Belos has reason to believe Hunter is dead I guess, but let’s not delve too much on that hypothetical.

It seems that Belos intends on returning home to the Human Realm once it’s all over, which makes sense I suppose. Gotta bring the good news right? The thing I’m wondering though is how long exactly he expects to survive there. Even without the violent mutations his barely human body goes through, he still relies on absorbing palismen life force to survive. There are no palismen in the Human Realm, so I imagine that he’d eventually run out of juice to keep him going.

(which may or may not be how he ultimately dies)

((I think Belos is gonna die, btw. i think i’ve mentioned it before, but just in case you forgot, or missed that post, or this is the first liveblog of mine you’re reading)

(((the jury is still out on the collector’s final fate)))

Another thing that I thought of while typing this: I’ve speculated that The Collector is going to betray Belos and not kill all life in the Demon Realm. But this could go the other way too; Belos might betray The Collector and not release them. Or at least try to keep him sealed, at this point I think it’s safe to say The Collector is going to be set free.

Oh, and another another thing I realized when looking at this screenshot. I wonder if the creepy robes and hoods is to make it easier for the animators to draw large crowds? I imagine that with how diverse the Boiling Isles are, any shot of a large crowd would be a nightmare to draw. Dressing everyone in single-colored robes makes that easier. I think, I don’t know all that much about animation.

Clouds on the Horizon

I’ve already gone over most of my predictions in a previous post already and I don’t really have anything to add as of now based on the title or what I’ve seen so far.

We can see some abomatons being loaded onto an airship while Odalia talks to Kikimora. I honestly did not expect Odalia to really be important, but who knows, maybe she will be.

Amity, Edric, and Emira are here, with the intention of telling their mom about the draining spell.

Emira points out that Odalia won’t believe them, which I could see her not doing, she is pretty stubborn. However, Edric follows that up with that even if she does believe them, she ”won’t care.” Which… yikes. Belos plans to kill everyone. Odalia’s no saint, but I don’t know that she’s such a  bad person as to not care at all about her kids and husband dying. And if nothing else, she is part of everyone, surely she has some sense of self-preservation? Even a lot of hardened supervillains know that there is no profit to be made in the destruction of the planet; it is very bad for business.

…or maybe she really will be that evil. This is the season finale, the Day or Unity is here, anything can happen and everything can change. I gotta keep my mind open.

She mentions a new product… that they’re going to test on Kikimora. Or maybe Kikimora will test it? Maybe it’s like an abomaton mech or something. That might actually make Kikimora somewhat threatening again.

(Odalia called Kikimora a gremlin. Is that her species… or is gremlin an insult on the Boiling Isles too?)

[thewaywardkees]

Tag Game — Stranger Things Edition!

Tagged by: @destroya2005

Note: this was based purely on my opinion.

Ride or Die ship (OTP): Harringrove (Steve Harrington + Billy Hargrove). There is something about their dynamics that draws me in. Plus fanfic writers and video editors make the pairing believable enough! (:

Most annoying ship: personally, I don't really enjoy Steddie but it is mostly because of the toxic part of their fandom. I have seen a lot of people in that fandom bullying other m|m couples… makes me wonder why people love wasting their time making others feel miserable. Just chill and reblog some stuff! | Huge shout out to Steddie fans who don't witch hunt others! And to the ones who make amazing fanart!

Second favorite ship: Lumax (canon), Jopper (canon) and Argilly (non canon). Lumax and Jopper are definitely the best couples on the show! And Argilly??? How did people come up with that ship!? It is amazing!

Favorite platonic relationship: Stobin. I must admit I was a huge fan of the couple in S3 until Robin came out to Steve. The duo is one of a kind!

Underrated ship: Munver... tiger-freak... whatever you guys wanna call it. I mean... that ship has a lot of potential! Chrissy-Heather-Robin. Love them too! The fanart people are creating for the trio is chef kiss.

Overrated ship: — .

One thing I would change in canon: the whole introducing new characters in the show only to kill them in the last episode of the season... It is a never ending cycle. Like… don't be shy, kill some of the originals. The Duffers REALLY need to learn from George RR Martin… like, have you guys read/watch Game of Thrones (A song of Ice and Fire)?. The man doesn't give a crap about what fans think! He/She/They are your favorite chars? BAM! DEAD! 💀

Something canon did right: the 80's setting (music, clothes, cars, etc. Etc.).

A thing I am proud of creating for the fandom: I haven't posted my share yet, I am planning to… maybe someday… someday, yeah….

A character who is perfect to me: Hopper. He reminds me of my dad, they have the same personality.

Character I relate to the most and why: Steve Harrington, we are pretty similar in lots of aspects. We learn through experience (rights and wrongs) and both have deconstructed ourselves and created critical thinking of our own. — also, we both have great hair ;D

Character(s) I hate the most: Neil Hargrove, Henry Creel and Dr. Brenner… The three of them are monsters. (🚩🚩🚩)

Something I've learned from the fandom: I haven't interacted with the fandom as much so nothing yet. However, I admire how passionate people can be over their favorite characters.

Three tags I seek out on AO3: AU - Canon Divergence and/or Modern Setting, Happy Endings, Enemies to Lovers (👀).

Songs I associate with my OTP and/or Favorite Character: Harringrove — More than Words (Extreme), Words (F.R. David), Him and I (Halsey, G-Eazy), Bloom (The Paper Kites), There is a light that never goes out (The Smiths), Shameless (Camila Cabello). || Steve Harrington — Good old fashioned lover boy (Queen), The Archer (Taylor Swift), You are on your own kid (Taylor Swift).

No pressure tags: @theladycarpathia , @bigdumbbambieyes , @hephaestn , @harrgrove , @lemonhitsu , @ihni , @thediktatortot . And everyone who wants to participate, really! 🩷

[entelodontidae]

Stranger Things rewatch notes: S3 E1

Important or interesting stuff is in italics

——————————————-

Opening Scene: the Russian portal key

June 28th, 1984

We never figured out what the fuel is. I wonder if it is the same stuff in the demogorgon tanks later on.

Foreshadowing to the last episode with the Two Man key rule. Also Wargames reference and general Cold War movie trope.

Portal opening - signifying them as villains.

Machine breaks - signaling that they still haven’t figured everything out and that they have time.

One year later.

“A little more time could open closing doors.” GENUIS TRANSITION

Mike is holding a “Space Gamer” magazine, it was about TTRPGs!

God he’s so annoying in season three 😭

——————————————-

Starcourt Mall Introduction:

Lucas is wearing an ocean pacific T-shirt, just find it funny because Mike got an off-brand one in s4. Maybe he thought Lucas was cool and wanted to be more like him. Or, it’s just because it was a popular brand.

Day of the Dead. A really good movie choice given the… later happenings of s3 (zombies).

I love how Lucas and max and mike and Will are always paralleled, it’s so sweet

Gorgeous transition to Brimborne Steelworks. They must’ve used a drone.

——————————————-

Open the Door

I DO find it interesting how the first song is about opening closing doors and how this one is about opening closed doors.

Plus the fact that Mike and Will are consistently paralleled to all the other couples.

Oh Bob :(

——————————————-

Dustins’s

Gold leader returning to base in a gold car.

Sooooo many Stephen King references in this one scene (monkey symbols, toys moving on their own)

I’m just going to pretend that the whole Karen thing never happens, but I do find it absolutely hilarious that the cover of the book she’s reading looks like Billy.

——————————————-

Melvalds

Heart-to-heart.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I wonder if mike being the heart has anything at all to do with that or if I’m drawing dots that don’t exist

——————————————-

Dustins again

“The forever clock, very useful in an apocalypse.”

I can’t believe that Mike wouldn’t know what a ham radio is, he’s probably just trying to not be a nerd in front of El

——————————————-

I love how stranger things is just planted and grown in character and human experience, friendship and love. It’s the main thing that makes the show unique, makes it powerful.

I have to say, the cerebro scene has stuck with me ever since watching this show in 2019 on an airplane. It’s just, it feels like being a kid.

——————————————-

Joyce watching TV

“He had a couple sips of Chianti tonight and asked me to marry him.” Heard on TV playing Cheers

Hopper orders Chianti at Enzo’s

In S4, hopper says he was dreaming about Chianti. Maybe that line is foreshadowing

Poor Bob, man.

——————————————-

And the radio call paired with Billy’s crash ties it allll together and gets the plot going! It also raises questions;

Where is the base? Who is this guy (Alexi)? Why are they opening the gate? How will the kids stop it? Etc.

it’s a great opening episode because it introduces these things and leaves you with questions. Aghhhh I just adore this show

[aquariusdeanw]

The ending of monster is perfect.

(My thoughts on the finale, the series, Johan’s character; and why I think it fits so well)

Before watching the last episode I thought “oh it’s the finale they’re only gonna wrap things up and tie some loose ends” but it’s done beautifully.

I know that everyone says that monster is a show about humans and their inner monster and how society creates monsters, and I agree.

But when they show you that, it’s not a way to excuse people of their bad actions, it’s to show that even in their “villainous” acts, they’re still pretty much human, you never think “oh this is something that couldn’t happen in real life”.

Eva, Roberto, Rosso, Bonaparta and so many more, they’re so different from each other, but at the core they’re still painted in the same way. They’ve done despicable acts, some more than others, but in the end they’re just people who made their choices based on their beliefs.

As I said, all human.

All presented as human except for Johan.

While the writer tries and succeeds to humanize all the other characters, giving them many layers, he dehumanizes Johan from the very early episodes. Not only he attaches to him a very “supernatural” evil presence;

«you mustn’t look at him doctor, you’ll die» / «we were hired by a monster» (in the very early episodes)

«he said that he shot something with seven heads and many horns» (in the penultimate episode).

But also the way Johan is shown doing terrible things, is very “simplified”. In his scenes they don’t really dwell a lot on the why he does what he does. Sure, they give you enough insight to keep you interested in the character and to not make him bland. It’s the viewer that with the very few lines and appearances that he has, tries to decipher his personality and his motivations. And yeah, one of the reasons for the lack of his physical presence is to add to the sense of dread that fills the viewer when he really appears. However, during the journey that Tenma has, even if Johan is not physically there, his presence is. We feel it in the tales that fall from people’s mouths and the dead bodies that Tenma encounters and the hundreds of people he corrupted. And while Tenma meets these people the show always gives a glimpse of their humanity; but with Johan it’s the opposite, it seems that every tale about him it’s evil and eviler.

You keep asking yourself why? Why? Why?

Does this kid really feel nothing?

Is it because what happened at the orphanage? But in its destruction we see him smiling, delighted by the events that unfold in front of him. Why does he keep killing the people that show him the good in humanity, the people that treat him and his sister well? What kind of kid (that is already capable of orchestrating human feelings) kills people that helped him and tells his sister to shoot him in the head, with the calm of someone that’s asking the most trivial thing?

The most beautiful thing about Johan is the complete juxtaposition of his character. Yeah he doesn’t have any morals or ethicality, whether it is to accomplish something or just to mess with the psyche of a child,

(«you can’t kill a human being!» — tenma

«why not?» —johan)

but at the same time he feels emotions. He feels sadness, he feels rage, gratification, fear, guilt

(«I wonder if I had forgiven him from the beginning what would have happened» — Nina

«Johan are you crying for me?» — Karl

«While he was seeing the drawings of us as happy kids, he was crying just like me.» — Nina

«the thing I’m most afraid of is...forgetting Anna» — Johan

«Did she try to save me or did she confuse me for my sister?» — Johan)

For the whole series, Tenma’s ideology and Johan’s are (as we all know) in contrast. I won’t make a long post about Johan’s nihilistic view of the world, because there are already tons of them. But I’d like to say this: in one episode there is a scene that involves two characters that are neither Johan or Tenma; but it sums up Johan’s character very well. This guy says something along these lines to Lunge:

«you won’t believe that Tenma is not guilty, because all your life you have been an investigator that’s never been wrong, not once, and besides that you have nothing; no hobbies or family. If you’re wrong about this case, then you won’t know who you really are, and that would break you.»

That’s why johan kills people and wants Tenma to kill him.

If someone tries to give him a name he kills them, (he believes that his mother never gave him a name.) if someone is kind to him he kills them, (he has a nihilist view of the world), if someone tries to separate him from Anna, his other half, he kills them. («it’s just me and Anna in this whole world»)

Him being wrong would break him, and that’s why we see that desperate expression on his face when in the penultimate episode he almost begs Tenma to shoot him; because if what he believed all life is true (and to him it’s the truth because people kept demonstrating that he was right) “that not all lives are created equal”, then Tenma had to shoot him. Johan had no doubt in his mind, it was logical to him: even the most benevolent man, put in the right situation, can kill a person.

Tenma doesn’t shoot. He doesn’t kill him. Chance comes in play, and that’s something that even Johan couldn’t predict.

The finale gives you an answer to your “but WHY does he think the way he thinks!” question and as a viewer I find that very satisfying.

In the last episode we find ourself in a metaphorical mexican standoff of ideologies.

«Humans are equal only in death» Johan’s ideology, because if that wasn’t true, then why was his mother capable of making a choice between her two twins. Her children, that should be equal in the eyes of a mother. But when forced to make a decision, she choses one over the other, and what messes Johan up even more is that he doesn’t know if his mother choosing him was her choice or a mistake; but there certainly was an “unwanted child”. (as he puts it)

On the other side there is Tenma, that made one choice many years before, thinking it was a difficult, but fair one. A child over a privileged adult. The child that he saved though, was a monster, and he brought it back to life unknowingly of that fact. It caused the death of so many people. If Tenma had a time machine, would he save the kid again? Or would he just let him die?

There’s no need for a time machine, because the choice presents itself to him one more time. This time he knows the true nature of the person that he has to save. And he saves him. It’s hard, but he does it not only because it’s the right thing to do according to his ideology, but if he didn’t, he’d only prove Johan that he was right. It’d be like he had shot him himself.

That’s why he goes to Johan to prove him wrong once more, when he tells him that he does have a name, that his mother did give him a name.

Is it enough to convince Johan?

(Will he unlearn the hatred that humans are capable of, like Dieter? Will he accept that he has a name, like Nina did with hers? Does he, like Lunge, discover that the simple things in life do matter and are a part of why we live? Does he forget about what he was before, because like Eva says «we only remember the good things; because otherwise humans wouldn’t be able to keep on living»? Does he “turn human” again, discovering the peace that Grimmer found in his death?)

We don’t know.

We only know that the nameless monster isn’t there anymore.

It’s like he never existed in the first place.