#lbr louis is going to be here forever | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

yaz-the-spaz · 6 years ago

Note

I'm sure you've noticed me stalking your blog these past two days lol and I have another question if you dont mind. In my last ask you said you had some theories about zayn leaving ot4vszayn etc and I was wondering if you would expand upon them? If you dont want to write it all out, you can point me towards certain tags or other blogs if you want. I've been looking through your tags and have found a lot but I wanted to know if there is something that might be more like a timeline of sorts? Thx!!

hey there! here i finally am, so sorry to have kept you waiting but i hope this reply finds you well! :)

now onto your questions…

so as far as a timelines @bakagamieru has some really good masterposts (x, x) that i would recommend checking out that really break things down play-by-play and i think most of which was compiled as it was happening so it’s a super great (and super detailed) documentation of all the shit that was going down during that period and all the narrative inconsistencies and stunts and back and forth, etc. they’re quite long though and, like i said, very detailed so i would recommend making sure you have plenty of time on your hands before you get sucked down a masterpost and link rabbit hole lol

and for more thoughts/theories of mine i would say check my zayn vs. ot4 tags (x, x - sorry there’s multiple iterations of this, apparently sometimes i had put a period after vs and sometimes i didn’t and now i have two tags smh at my own damn irritating inconsistency)

now onto the meat of your question, which is my current theories on zayn leaving/the zayn vs. ot4 narrative which i’m gonna put as a read more cause i’m not in the mood for ppl coming for me if they disagree, so read at your own risk folks…

so over the years there’s four main theories that i’ve personally gone back and forth over, which i’m gonna summarize quickly and try and explain as succinctly as i can my thoughts on each one and my opinion on the likelihood of it holding credence

disclaimer before i get into the explanations - a large part of my reasoning has to do with the caveat of there possibly being any kind of real tension or bad blood between zayn and louis in particular or any of the other boys. not saying that it was necessarily actually the case, just that it was a potential factor that went into my rationale and personal mental debate over the whole situation

he was coerced in some shape or form to leave and instead of fighting it, went along with it (maybe b/c he was already unhappy) - if there ever was actually any real animosity between him and louis (or harry/niall), this could explain why louis (or the others) might have hypothetically been mad at him b/c he might have felt that zayn could’ve/didn’t fight hard enough or went along with it too easily. but all that aside, even if there was no tension between him and louis/the boys, this option makes a lot of sense because given all he talked about going through in the band (depression, the e.d., too much pressure, not having control or being able to do what he wanted, the intense and rampant closeting putting a strain on his relationship, etc.) it’s not hard to see how he might’ve felt this was the best and only option

he was coerced into leaving, tried to fight it but couldn’t (and possibly even knew for a while that it was coming) - this wouldn’t explain why louis (or the others) might have hypothetically been mad at him but instead does put more credence into the fact that that was completely contrived and pushed by mgmt, and is also just as likely as #1 to me for pretty much the same reasons, not to mention it explains some shady things that happened in the months leading up to it re him not being there for certain promo obligations and appearances, etc.

he was coerced into leaving and had absolutely no choice about it and no way to fight it (i.e. didn’t necessarily want to leave but still knew for a while that it was coming) - pretty much same reasoning as above for this one, the only difference being that in this scenario he wouldn’t have wanted to leave at all which given all he went through i just don’t know if i believe that was wholly the case (more on this below)

he chose to leave completely on his own - although it would explain any lingering animosity, this to me is the least likely in large part because i just have a hard time believing he would have chosen all on his own to just up and leave in the middle of a tour, not to mention been allowed to (esp given that they would’ve all known they had the hiatus coming up not long after and were about to go the countries where zayn specifically probably have had the biggest following/fan support - the middle east and north africa). but even if he hypothetically really did choose it all on its own it’s hard for me to believe that he would have even been able to leave like that unless there was some element of complacency from their mgmt that allowed it to happen and then you have to wonder why would they just let 1/5 of their biggest money maker walk away with no law suits, no drama, no nothing. it stinks of a larger plan at play which is what brings me back to the theories above.

those are the main theories that i’ve gone back and forth on and i’ve never really been able to settle on just one, but to me given all that he expressed after leaving the most likely are the first two. i think all of the boys were pretty much done with how they were being treated, but zayn especially so, and it’s very easy for me to see how, when the opportunity arose he might have accepted because he felt it was the best way to save himself (as in his mental and physical health) and possibly also his relationship, though whether that acceptance was with a little (theory #1) or lot (theory #2) of initial opposition on his part, who’s to say. however, i definitely believe that, regardless of the details, there was some element of seeding and/or coercion from tptb, esp when considered in context with the shadiness of certain things, like him not being at certain events that he should’ve legally been obligated to be at in the months leading up to his leaving if no one but him knew he was planning on leaving. or him crying at the last concert that he performed at. those do not seem to be like the actions of a man who wanted to leave completely of his own accord and without any degree of finessing by mgmt to orchestrate it. when you’re a mega popstar in the biggest band in the world you don’t just not show up to something. that’s the type of situation where people will literally come to your house and drag you out of bed because you’re costing them a shit ton of money (like millions of dollars worth of money) by not being there. there’s tons of stories of rock stars where managers or someone from their team would literally go bang down a missing band member’s door, shove them in the shower to sober them up or help them whatever they needed to do, and drag their ass on stage to perform or to a press event or whatever. so you can bet that nothing less, if not the same, would be done for a missing member of a multi-billion-dollar-making band if need be.

so yeah zayn just not showing up for promo events and performances in the months leading up to his leaving? not believable to me at all. the only conceivable reason for him not to have been there is if mgmt didn’t want him there and the only reason (at least that i can think of) for why you wouldn’t 1/5 of your biggest money-maker to be somewhere he should have been legally obligated to be (and that might’ve cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars for him not to be) is if he wasn’t legally obligated to be there because you were already in the process of phasing him out. ergo it was very likely planned. months in advance. and if it was planned months in advance with the help and orchestration of mgmt then that story of him just deciding to up and leave is complete bs and makes it even more likely to me that there was a level of coercion (because again if 1/5 of your biggest money maker suddenly says to you ‘i wanna leave’ you’re gonna do everything in your power to make him stay so you can keep making money, not help phase him out. unless of course you want him out, which they clearly did.)

one last thing i wanna add is a link to a post i had saved that i feel adds a bit of further credence to all this, it’s nothing concrete but it’s something that helped solidify some things for me when i was a giant ball of confusion over what to believe

anyway, i know that i rambled on forever and this definitely did not end up being as succinct or brief as i had hoped (though lbr when is anything i do ever), but i hope this at least sort of answered your questions and made some amount of sense/was not too incoherent and didn’t completely bore you to death lol

#asks #kurtain-the-cat #my thoughts #zayn vs. ot4 #zayn vs ot4 #zayn leaving #theories #(side note: there's also one more side theory re louis and harry's possible/hypothetical animosity toward zayn #that i didn't include here cause it's super tinhatty and has to do with babygate #but if you're still curious about that after reading all this then we can talk about that too)

34 notes · View notes

vera-invenire · 6 years ago

Text

VnC Liveblog - Chapter 9

.All chapter liveblogs are linked HERE.

Welcome to the flashback chapter. Fun and daises for everyone!

...what’s that? We’re gonna get terrifying tragedy and endless heartache, not fun and daises? oh.

Well. Onward?

Last time on VnC, Vanitas was having sexy bloodtimes with Jeanne while Charlatan was digging through Noé‘s head for kicks and giggles.

And everything in Noé’s head, apparently, revolves around this kid named Louis, who happens to be Domi’s older brother. It is time, ladies and gents, to meet Unnerving Boy.

Look at these precious children, they hardly look creepy at all.

Teacher seems a bit flake-y, but he’s looking pretty good for a grandpa. (are some vampires immortal? how long do they live?)

So we know Teacher bought Noé, the last Archiviste, off the black market. Somehow, I don’t think it was because he just really wanted to adopt a kid. I mean, he’s already got two right there.

Oh my gosh, Domi is shy. And look at Noé clutching at Teacher’s arm, aw. Even Louis seems like a nice kid.

I take it back, LOUIS YOU ARE STILL CREEPY. AND KIND OF A JERK.

But he also knows Something is up about his grandfather. Teacher’s interest in Noé will probably not be a good thing for Noé himself.

The chapter is subtitled ‘Friends’ but like. I think you can find better friends than this Noé, I’m just saying.

Noé being raised by humans before this point is interesting. I’m guessing we’re in Averoigne, in the vampire world. (exactly how big is the vampire world...?) (and is the assumption here that vampires always give birth to other vampires?)

Note for Noé‘s timeline, as it seems likely to become important -- he was found in the human world crying by himself during winter when he was very young. Geez, that’s a mystery in itself.

Uh, humans aren’t the ones who regularly consume the bodily fluids of other people, buddy.

woah, Noé‘s got a good arm for a little kid, good job, Noé --

The adopted grandparents knew about vampires, hm? More specifically, they knew Noé was a vampire. Was this because they knew more about the situation than little Noé was aware, or was his nature just hard to hide when he was that young?

One thing is sure -- they treated him well.

He made Noé cry. Keep glaring at him, Domi. (I feel like this is the first inkling we’re getting of who Domi will become when she’s older.) (Actually. Current!Domi is a lot more like Louis than she is like past!Domi. Starting to wonder if that’s a deliberate change on her part, along with the more masculine clothes. She dose survive the massacre her brother dies in, after all, that has to have left an impression.)

And now we find out if it’s possible to guilt Louis into acting like a decent human vampire being.

Hey, it is! There’s hope for you yet, kid.

That last panel “I thought we’d be together forever, but...” has a double meaning. Noé’s talking about his grandparents (grandpa got sick and died, grandma passed in her sleep shortly after), but the narrative is whispering that it applies to this little trio, too.

1. Was Noé completely by himself after his grandparents died?

2. ...the vampires kidnap humans and force them into labor in the vampire world?? Blood source, too, I imagine.

3. Look at that bed, that bed is amazing. I want one.

4. The vampires don’t seem to have many compunctions about selling their own kind, either.

5. The background of the purchase scene is weird. Those are awfully fancy curtains. I’m thinking gaudy, horrifying auction.

Oh my god, this precious bean hasn’t changed at all.

So this is a very cute and humanizing moment for Louis, but it’s also a very Vanitas-ish moment. Vanitas does this, the unexpected and uncontrollable laughter thing, all the time. Which means I am now going to be looking for Vanitas parallels everywhere.

A bonding montage~

Louis turns into less of a jerk -- we see him helping Noé up into his tree and helping Noé with his reading. Domi delights in dressing Noé up in feminine clothes (reminding me of that little flashback of her teaching him to dance where she was dressed in masculine threads.) They even sleep in a cuddle pile with Domi curled up against Noé and Louis acting like he’s trying to put some distance between them but he’s still there, you aren’t fooling anyone, kid. (and he’s getting hit in the head by a sleeping Noé for his pains, heh.)

There’s one more picture: Teacher comes back with presents. Domi and Noé are cheering, but Louis wanders over all cool and disinterested. But remember what Louis said at the beginning of the chapter -- “Having my grandfather take a shine to you...you poor thing.”

Louis distrusts his grandfather. He knows something we -- and Domi and Noé -- don’t.

...yeah, that fun ain’t gonna last. Also, how much you want to bet the ‘secret base’ is gonna be where all the heads start rolling. (it’s chekov’s base!)

(are they playing dress up with Teacher’s clothes?)

Hey, Louis, you see how innocent and simple that blood exchange was? Unlike whatever it was you were doing in that other flashback.

Though we are seeing this from Noé‘s POV. The incidents might look different because Noé perceived them as being different, emotionally. It would mesh with how he sees Domi as ‘just a friend’ and Louis as this mysterious, complicated, unnerving, compelling tragedy who haunts him to this day. (also it’s pretty gay, lbr.)

Domi’s crush is so cute. And pfff, Louis, you thought you were gonna get out of it that easily, especially after you made fun of Domi like that? Nah, bro.

This is the point where we remember that Louis is just a little kid, too. One who has been dealt a crap hand we don’t know about yet, and is probably acting out in small ways in reaction to that.

This would be why Domi feels more sheltered than Louis. Though I do wonder, if Domi is making monthly trips, why isn’t sister Veronica shown, too?

Firstly, what the hell, family de Sade.

Secondly...this feels like one of those Sneaky Pages. I’m assuming that hand in the left most panel is Louis’ and that the last panel is those pages catching Louis’ (almost shaken looking) eye.

Lastly -- the kids are growing up. I’d guess we’re into the pre-teen years by now.

Noé, you’re making her dance under the symbol of the vampire bogeyman, have a care, would you.

We’ve seen this flashback before, too, so we’ve just about hit all of them. Except for, you know, the Big One.

(oh, no, wait, there was a mini-flashback of Noé training with Teacher, but he was a teen in that one. When did Noé start training? Why did Noé start training?)

Louis can see right through his grandfather, has ALWAYS been able to see right through him.

I’m glad that panel in the library was resolved so quickly, though. Saves me from going nuts about details, lol.

So this is a very Kid reaction to bad family news, but like, he might be right? Louis is cynical by nature, but also very sharp. If at this point he thinks his parents had Domi to replace him then -- I think I believe him.

Grandfather just fucking smiles at him. Grandfather is a dick.

And then the teeth come out.

“You have no luck. Having my grandfather take a shine to you...you poor thing.”

Look at those tendrils of darkness reaching out for Louis. And they’re coming from Grandfather.

Grandfather is sending a very clear message: he is here as an observer. Grandfather is not going to interfere with anything Louis wants to do. He’s not going to give him any help, either. And something bad is going to happen to Louis -- he’s going to do something bad. Louis now knows for sure that his family expects him to turn into a monster and not one of them is going to try to help him.

This whole bucolic paradise is an experiment with Louis as the test rat.

And why?

Because Louis is a curse-bearer from birth, or shortly thereafter. How did that happen? Why isn’t he showing any symptoms yet? The implication seems to be that he’s a ticking time-bomb, but is he?

(and if Louis is the test rat...does that mean Domi is the control?)

Noé says that after this day, little by little, Louis started acting (*cough*more*cough*) strange.

By which he means... Louis took up wood-carving? Louis is carving a piece of wood, Noé asks what he’s doing, Louis says it’s a secret.

The way to Noé‘s heart is through gifts, got it.

We know why Louis is acting this way, but Noé has no clue. But though Domi’s presence started to cause Louis pain, Noé doesn’t say anything about Louis taking it out on Domi herself, which is a big point in his favor, imo.

Unhealthy (?) coping mechanism, check.

The one person who tried to help him.

Louis was finally going to tell Noé what’s wrong with him.

I know I drag Louis a lot, but I do like him. He’s clever and dry and is so alone because the adults that were supposed to protect him wrote him off when he was days old.

Of course he came out weird and morbid. And unlike other characters I could mention (*cough*Vincent*cough*) he hasn’t resorted to taking his pain out on stuffed animals or cats or his little sister. This kid isn’t a lost cause at all, he’s just lost.

Those brittle edges can still cut though --

Aaaaaand here we go. This is what sets it all off, what brings the happy memories to an end.

Now that Domi’s older, I wonder...does she know Louis is a curse-bearer? Did someone finally tell her?

This is the thing Louis has been living with since he found those papers in the library. You know, on top of the whole “gonna turn into a rabid monster” thing.

But Noé, he can only read this as callousness toward their friend. He doesn’t know Louis is talking about himself.

Remember in Orlok’s office, when Noé snapped at the thought that they wouldn’t be able to save Amelia? How he did a complete 180 with Vanitas, making *him* come along with *Noé* because he was going to do what it took to save Amelia, no matter what?

Yeah. That reflex (and trauma, because he didn’t save Mina, did he) was born here.

(”save me, then, if you can”)

He doesn’t get to save Louis, either.

Berserk button that will shape Noé and follow him into adulthood: officially installed.

Domi chases Noé out of the room, saying she wants to help save Mina, too. She’s the one who comes up with the only plan they have, bare as it is -- they’ll ask the other village kids for help to somehow get Mina out of the village.

Oh hey, remember the secret base? As he asks around for where Noé and Domi went (the servants don’t know), he realizes that must be where they went with Mina.

“...they didn’t --!” he says once he’s figured it out.

Louis is frightened. And then...

Louis’ curse is manifesting. (that typesetting, though...some things don’t work across languages, YP)

And Mina’s curse manifests, too.

This is a classic zombie movie scene. The survivors don’t know they’ve let in an infected until it’s too late and they start to turn, taking bites out of everyone else.

Let’s run with the infection metaphor. For people like Amelia (and Mina? hard to say), Charlatan finds them and ‘infects’ them by corrupting their true name. Infection to manifestation doesn’t seem to take much time at all, maybe a few weeks.

But for people like Louis, who are born with the curse, it needs to be triggered by desperation or desire and may lay dormant for years.

It is Charlatan in his mind, though -- see the finger-claws? But I wonder if ‘Charlatan’ isn’t a single entity per se, but a creature more like PH’s Humpty Dumpty that is spread out among multiple hosts.

This desire and the manifestation of Louis’ curse is what Grandfather was waiting for. The most heartbreaking part of all this is that the desire that finally triggered it was Louis’ desperation to protect his friends.

Mina went full zombie and took a chunk out of Fred’s throat. She lunged for Noé and Domi, but was knocked aside. And then we see this -- Louis half turned, Mina’s ripped off head in his hand.

But look at his hands. Those claws remind you of anything? Say...Vanitas’ gloves?

The difference is, these claws are very real.

And now, Louis starts to lose control.

Out of his mind, he attacks Giles and Fanny, killing them as Noé watches in horror, unable to do anything.

He tries to get through to Louis, asking if Louis is doing this because Noé didn’t listen to him earlier (Noé.) and that he was sorry and he takes the blame, all he wants is Louis is to go back to normal again.

He knows what happened to him, he doesn’t want to be like this.

Were any of the other curse-bearers half this aware and coherent?

That’s his last wish. That’s his --

Nope, I’m sorry, I’m done, this is all terrible, goodbye.

of course he can’t do it, he’s like 12 and this is his best friend, this is a fucking tragedy

This flashback is painful, how long have they known each other? Five years, more? Half their lives?

....I’m just numb at this point

what the fuck was that

I knew that Louis died at the end of this, but who was that? The bourreau meant to come for Mina?

Grandfather is a piece of shit

(part of me wants to look at that last panel and make comparisons to that one early, creepy panel of Break with Gil and how Break ended up not being a bad guy, but no, no. Grandfather is a piece of shit. HE KNEW SOMETHING LIKE THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. HE WAS WAITING FOR IT.)

(I really wish I knew for sure what color that moon is. what if it’s blue? what would that mean?)

where is child services, please god, someone take these children away from this man and put them in therapy

ugh. alright. before we close, couple more things I wanted to think about.

1. Louis’ curse obviously worked much differently than the other curses we’ve seen. suppose that’s because his curse WAS different? could he have been another Blue Moon vampire, another Vanitas in the making?

(this bit is pure speculation, but I’ve been wondering if Vanitas’ gloves are an affectation he picked up from the Blue Moon Vampire, like the name, and now we’ve just seen Louis’ hands go full claw when the curse overcame him. could be a link between the two.)

2. We’ve seen how this incident has scarred Noé, but what about Domi? She was there but we haven’t really seen how -- ...oh. Oh, I forgot. It’s the clothes. Even the personality, a bit. Domi reacted to the violent death of her brother by trying to become more like him. She’s not entirely like him, she’s still Domi, but. Ugh. Ugggghhh. I already knew this, but I didn’t know it, ugh.

3. Grandfather/Teacher (I’ll go back to calling him Teacher after this chapter, I think) deliberately threw Noé and Louis together. Why, we don’t know. (part of me is thinking he’s using Noé the Archiviste as his freaking camera, but who knows.)

Here’s what we do know -- he is ALSO the one who threw Noé and Vanitas together. For some reason. (it won’t be a good reason)

4. Vanitas and Louis are distinct characters with a few striking similarities between them, but I think their biggest difference is that, underneath his manic energy, Vanitas is Tired™, while, under his morbidity, Louis is Tired of This Shit™. It’s a slight but important distinction.

5. Remember that look of wonder on Noé‘s face in chapter one when he saw that Vanitas could cure curse-bearers. Yeah. Yeah, that has a new layer to it now, doesn’t it.

And that’s it for chapter 9. Did you have fun? I did not have fun.

See you next time for chapter 10, folks.

(Chapter 10 now HERE.)

#vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #vanitas liveblog #vanitas #noe archiviste

52 notes · View notes

girlharmed · 6 years ago

Text

— ✧ INDIANA EVANS? No that’s actually DOMINIQUE WEASLEY. The SEVENTEEN year old BEAUXBATONS student is currently in her SEVENTH YEAR. I’ve heard that the HALF-BLOOD ( 1/8TH VEELA ) can be ENIGMATIC and COY, but also ENTERPRISING and OBSERVING. If they had a theme song it’d be HOW DO YOU LIKE IT by JYNJO FT SPRITELY.

hey hi i’m bailey & i haven’t been in a harry potter rp in forever so i might be a little rusty!! however i’m super pumped to be here :-) anyw before we start, HERE is dominique’s pinterest bc i love her sm & have to share it ok xx i’m going to bed now bc it’s 1am but feel free to hmu babes.

full name: dominique fabiana weasley.

nickname(s): although she prefers dominique, she’s okay with family & close friends calling her dom.

age: seventeen.

birthdate: may 2nd.

sun - moon - ascendant/rising signs: taurus - aquarius - gemini.

birthplace: lourdes, occitanie, france.

home residence: outskirts of tinworth, cornwall, england ( shell cottage. )

gender identity: cisfemale ( pronouns: she/her. )

orientation: bisexual, biromantic.

face claim: indiana evans.

height: 5′5″.

known languages: french, english, spanish, latin, some romanian.

parents: bill weasley & fleur delacour.

siblings: victoire weasley ( twin sister. ), louis weasley ( younger brother. )

wandlore: pear wood, veela hair core, 9″, unyielding.

patronus: fox.

familiar: tabby cat named oriel ( reference. )

amortentia: tba.

extracurricular(s): head girl, potions club, charms club. although dominique is officially a student at beauxbatons academy of magic, she did attend hogwarts from her first year to third year, where she was sorted into slytherin. she transferred purely out of her own want, because after hearing all the stories from her mum & aunt, she found herself more excited about it. besides --- bill & fleur both knew their daughter would be at school for the majority anyway, she came home for holidays all the same. quickly rising to the top in many classes, dominique found herself becoming a prefect, and now in her seventh year -- head girl. despite it not being hogwarts, when she shared the news her family was just as supportive and proud. for her aesthetic, definitely think camilla macaulay from the secret history. dominique loves any sort of literature, roaming around coffeehouses, and during all her times at hogwarts she enjoyed spending time by the lake. has on more than one occasion stayed up all night in a library because she lost track of time. she doesn’t talk much nor is she the loudest person ever, but when you get her going it’s hard to tell when she’ll stop. her favorite class is charms!! second to that would be potions or herbology, then dada. has an unhealthy obsession with coffee. please someone take it away from her. came out as bi in her fifth year, probably announced it without any actual thought at some big wotter family get together lmao like... very casual, no fucks given. is more attracted to women if she’s honest, but likes to make bad choices with men so hey there’s that. regardless of the personality that she shows others, dominique is very... well, she’ll get what she wants, one way or another. if she can’t find a way, she’s going to make one herself. and that itself is not only admirable but like scary bc have you ever seen someone get so determined they get That Look in their eyes?? ye a h. doesn’t play quidditch herself but she’s a big fan xoxo like she’ll see her school mates playing like “yes fuck them up!! win!!!” but she’ll also see her family play at hogwarts?? and be like “i’m rooting for you too, don’t worry, i’m just being quieter ab it” ljhfdjhns. she really loves baked goods. and has a sweet tooth in general, if you will. catch her doing late night visits to the kitchens no matter where she is tbh. 100% proud of her family lineage, no matter who decides to talk bad ab them cause lbr there’s still some people who are gonna. she won’t throw a punch bc like... she’s not trying to get her head girl status revoked, but she’ll cast a sneaky hex when the other person isn’t looking bc she’s petty. :)

#idk what else to say #shrug emoji #aeterna:intro

3 notes · View notes

ninjabelle · 4 years ago

Note

Love this ask! Here's some of my fave ships/character dynamics and analyze worthy shows for anon:

-yullen from d.gray-man! Ive written a bunch of meta about their dynamic and development as the story progressed and their opinion of eachother changed but honestly there are other pairings in the manga too with just as much intrigue and even if you don't ship shit dgm is amazing at giving every character substance and a significant backstory so it's perfect to get obsessed over and lost in!

-jonadio from jojo's bizarre adventure but if im completely honest it's more what the fandoms done with them as opposed to what we got in canon, but the absolute mutual obsession being molded into hatred instead of something better always echoed a very toxic version of griffguts to me so it's worth a go! + once you get into jojo there will be so many ships with every new part even if the story gets a bit out there you'll have content forever! Special mention to part 5's brugio that antis have a field day with but that I personally find very interesting since it's 2 people sharing a dream and ideals yet still being very different in their approach. I could write an essay on Bruno alone tbh!

- meronia from death note which is an oldie but goldie but the concept of opposites attract is very strong here and I feel like if people ignored lxlight for a second and also remember that matt had like 4 panels they might appreciate it more!! So much wasted potential there tbh, I found them the most interesting thing about the second part of death note yet they barely got developed.

- johan x tenma from monster. For which I might get demonized but uhhh again with the clash between ideals and ways of thinking and doing I can endlessly rewatch the show, it has like 74 episodes and I've not grown tired after like... 4 or 5 full goes yet! You don't have to ship anything there for it to be worth analyzing. It's really well written and not nearly as popular as it deserves to be. The themes are deep and thought provoking and I remember dramatically dropping myself on my bed to lay there in AWE when I finished it. The only time I've ever done so right after a final episode of anything ever.

-hiei x kurama from yu yu hakusho! They're also opposites (again! I have a ship type lmao) but between the lines theres a lot of substance to their ship because by all accounts they should dislike eachother but don't. Theres this cool sense of mutual respect there that blossoms into something more and I'm weak for stuff like that. And since it's also by togashi lemme just add a far more sinister one:

- from hxh: hisoillu. Now that one is completely different but LOVE their weird friendship yet willingness to obliterate the other the second that becomes necessary or whatever. As a ship I feel you can write a lot about them, especially Illumi who, given how he was raised, should not be as close to Hisoka as he has become yet seems completely unaware he's being a massive hypocrite about it and lying to himself. I adore a good self-unaware character! And lbr, hxh is a goldmine for ships of all kinds and they're ALL fleshed out and well written. Anyone who hasn't seen it yet loves theorizing needs to get into it!

- literally any ship or character from netflix's castlevania. Tbh it just ended and I was blown away by some of the character arcs, special mention to alucard and isaac. Really if you stan the gays the bis and the polys this is THE show. The main trio are all very different yet work brilliantly because of that and even though some characters don't get the screentime they deserve the whole thing is great to really dive into and analyze.

- lestat x louis from the vampire chronicles. Gotta end this list on a high note and what better ship than one that the author herself FORBADE to be written about for years. Luckily for us anne rice gave in and there is now content galore but really, from watching the movie as a kid It pretty much started my love for that very precise 'these ppl Can't Stand eachother yet Cant Live Without eachother either' dynamic I still adore so much today!

And as a bonus, a great non-shippy (or at least not until mob's older) dynamic would be something like reimob from mp100, where you have reigen as an adult and mob as a kid and a teen being equals in terms of how much they change and develop because of eachother! I love a good mentor/student dynamic but this show took it to another level. It's my latest no.1 recommendation, just an allround feel-good show. Season 3 WHEN????

Anyway there's probably 50000 ships and shows im forgetting and anon might have seen all of em already but ehh, giving recs is always fun and if anyone sees this and has more to add please do! 🖤

This question isn't specifically about Berserk, but do you (or your mutuals, idk) have any favorite character dynamics in any other media (can be manga, books, movies, etc)? Like where their characterizations are so interesting (individually and together) and well-developed that you could write an entire dissertation about them and their interactions/thematic significance in one go?

Hmm depending on the angle you’re looking at it from I think you can get rly analytical with anything, but yeah imo there are definitely some canons that more easily invite and support an analytical look than other canons. Honestly despite being into meta I tend to gravitate towards cheesier, shallower media for fandom lol, so my recommendations are very limited, but here are a few gay ships I think you can spend some quality time thinking about analytically:

Will/Hannibal from Hannibal NBC is the first thing that instantly leaps to mind, and there’s a lot of fandom meta for it.

Utena/Anthy and Juri/Shiori and probably anything else from Utena

hoooonestly Fraser/Ray Vecchio from Due South because season 1 had this whole symbolic fall to earth arc thing going on that’s fun to dig into imo, and the characters are interestingly complex and fit together in a way that embodies the show’s themes. The writing kind of falls apart midway thru season 2 though, and it’s a very different show thematically in season 3.

At a stretch you’ve got Kirk/Spock, which fits lilke a glove into the basic themes of Star Trek TOS to the point that the first movie doesn’t make thematic sense if you don’t ship it and that’s p fun. The themes aren’t like, complex or anything but it’s still enjoyable to think about imo.

And along those same lines maybe Xena/Gabrielle from Xena - they do some neat things with the whole peace/war light/dark redemption/corruption etc stuff, and the combination of intention and slapdash writing is also fun to try to reconcile imo. like you can spend a lot of time just trying to map the development of their relationship in the somewhat conflicting subtext, and that’s a lot of fun (tho tbf by that standard you could probably throw any show with several seasons and a lot of homoeroticism in here, but hey, I like Xena so that’s the one I’m saying)

then there’s stuff I could recommend but like, not so much in a shippy fandom-y way? As much as I enjoy overthinking media I’m really not much of a film buff lol so again my suggestions are limited but when it comes to like, gay/homoerotic movies featuring relationships that embody themes and stuff:

Velvet Goldmine, Moonlight, The Favourite, The Lighthouse, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia (with a warning for racism ofc), mmmaybe Thelma and Louise, The Killer, Talented Mr Ripley, and Haunting of Bly Manor maybe despite being a miniseries and not a movie... yeah that’s what I got off the top of my head. But tbf those aren’t so much extremely well-rounded complex characters you could write a dissertation on as a relationship that relates to the themes of the film in an interesting way.

Aaaaand I got pretty much nothing when it comes to books, I don’t often read actual quality lit lol.

Anyway hope this was at least a somewhat helpful answer, and @ anyone reading this, please jump in and offer more suggestions! This is definitely the kind of question that should have more than one person answering.

#rant rant #recs #i was thinking shit i forgot a fave ship which was it again... then it came to me! griffguts! ...the ship the initual ask was about #god im an idiot lmao #long post #but worth it if you wanna get into good stuff!#yet i went and listed the classics everyone already knows lmao

17 notes · View notes

alexenglish · 8 years ago

Note

HELLO ALEX WHEN YOU'VE rECOVERED AND HAD SOME SLEEP TELL ME ABOUT YOUR INTERPRETATION OF THE SONG !!!!! BECAUSE YOUR THOUGHTS ARE SO NICE AND UR SUCH A GOOD WRITER AND I RESPECT YOUR OPINION

WOW THIS IS SWEET?! Thank you for that! I’m gunna put this under a cut this because this is a lot of opinion and headcanoning, and definitely not the only interpretation of the song I’ll have, but here goes!

Anyway, for reference I’ma leave a bible version here – if you’re at all familiar with Christian mythology, the imagery Harry evokes in his cover photo and the name of the song could very well come from this verse: “and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” Matthew 16:3

I’m not at all Christian Bible savvy, I stopped going to church 14 years ago, but from what I understand, this verse is basically saying you can look at something and think you know what may happen, but you really don’t.

I think that’s the tone that Harry’s trying to evoke with this. Obviously from the style of the song it feels nostalgic, but even the lyrics are nostalgic, so I’m like mmm wow, this is a OT5 song OBVIOUSLY. This is about Zayn leaving (it’s all about Zayn leaving, lbr). This Harry to the fans, to himself, saying that we can never know what’s coming even if we think we know.

OT5 had this projected path. They were working their asses off, the five of them against the world. None of them really anticipated OT5 truly ending imo, they said it over and over, they were going to do it forever – until they didn’t. Until it just kind of fell apart in the most subtle of ways leading up to the most unsubtle way of all: Zayn leaving.

I think Harry’s kind of like, yeah we all thought it would last, we all saw that in our future, but we could never predict how it actually turned out, where we all ended up.

I think it’s a pretty good End of an Era song that Harry has right here. There’s a whole tone of hope throughout that really carries you through despite some of the lyrics being more weighted than others, though. It’s kind of reassuring in that way.

Just stop your crying, have the time of your lifeBreaking through the atmosphereAnd things are pretty good from hereRemember everything will be alrightWe can meet again somewhereSomewhere far away from here

I read a good post that quoted the first 3 or 4 lines and hearkened that back to his time in 1D and his fame in general, ‘why are you complaining, you have it so good’. I think the pressure to appreciate every little thing 1D was exposed to – the invasive questions and fans and lack of privacy and the opportunities left so little room for any of them to properly process things or establish boundaries.

(I also think of Zayn here tbh. So many people called him ungrateful for leaving and implied that he should be satisfied with what he had because it was such a damn good thing.)

Why are we always stuck and running fromThe bullets? The bullets

We don’t talk enough, we should open upBefore it’s all too muchWill we ever learn? We’ve been here beforeIt’s just what we know

So my personal headcanon is that Zayn internalized a lot of his discontent and frustration during his time in 1D, instead of talking it out, and no one approached him about it because they wanted to keep the illusion of contentedness throughout the band.

They’re so used to exuding gratefulness and trying to say the right thing that they’re unable to express the ways in which they might be unsatisfied. Like, to others, but maybe especially to each other. None of them wanted to seem like the most ungrateful.

When that guy was talking about how Louis led the charge to get more creative control, it was very much with the implication that the others were backing him up. They all worked as a business unit, in that sense.

For me this acknowledges that they avoided talking about/acknowledging all the bad/uncomfortable things about their situation, thinking that would solve things or make them go away, and it imploded.

Tbh for me it’s just like, a reflection back on what has happened and saying things have to change because they always change and that’s not necessary a bad thing, even if it is a sad thing.

#mic check #anonymoose #//#///#////#solo hs #1dposting #sott #lyric meta

9 notes · View notes

braverydefined-blog · 8 years ago

Text

important thing that i’ve been meaning 2 talk about for forever : john’s ptsd !! because pretty much no matter the verse , if it’s after his brother dies ( when john’s 20 in main verse or 17 in modern verse ) , he has it. i’m no expert & don’t have ptsd myself , so pls let me know if i get something wrong here , but i have done my research , so hopefully everything’s alright. ( tw for mental illness / suicide / death. )

001. JEMMY’S DEATH.

i feel like everyone expects that a post - war verse john would have ptsd , but he has it before the war even starts ( and in modern verses too , but i’m gonna focus on canon verse & post - war au’s in this post ). when john’s 20 , his little brother ( james ‘jemmy’ laurens , 9 years old ) dies in his arms after falling from a roof when john was supposed to be looking after him. this is the start of everything. after this he tends to detach himself from others ( leading to his breakup with francis kinloch a bit later & his ensuing one night stand that gets martha manning pregnant and causes a whole other slew of problems for both ) , and his depression gets way worse. at this point , he’s in london studying law , and doesn’t have many friends thanks to his father’s influence on his life , so there’s no one to pull him back from this depression or try to help him cope ––––– his only friends at the time , francis kinloch and louis de vegobre , are still in geneva , leaving john 100% alone. this only makes everything worse ( my headcanon is that during this period is one of the two times john actually attempted or came close to attempting suicide , the other time being when he was a prisoner of war in philadelphia. both are times when john is isolated from those who care about him & has just experienced some kind of trauma. )

already , even before he goes to join the war , this affects his life in a lot of ways. he becomes more afraid of attaching himself to people , scared that they’ll somehow meet the same fate as his brother , and that it’ll be his fault. he blames himself entirely & thinks he should’ve been able to save jemmy , somehow , and feels incredibly guilty over it. he develops a fear of heights , not for himself but for others ––––– if someone he knows is , for example , climbing a tree , john’s likely to be having an anxiety attack on the ground until they get down. he has frequent nightmares about jemmy’s death , to the point where he often forgoes sleep and decides to read or work instead. he doesn’t experience flashbacks , which i feel might be an important thing to note since it’s the most commonly thought of symptom , but there’s plenty of other ways it impacts his life.

now let’s talk about the affects of jemmy’s death on john during / after the war. during the war , his ptsd from jemmy’s death only gets worse. in addition to the things he experienced before , his nightmares now meld the jemmy incident with scenes from the war , making them even more persistent and even more terrifying. he’s reckless , nearly suicidal in his quest for glory , and sees it as some kind of penance ––––– if jemmy hadn’t died , john wouldn’t be nearly so eager to follow in his footsteps ; his self - blame from jemmy’s death is a major part of why he thinks he deserves to die before the war’s end. it’s even easier for him to avoid sleep during the war , claiming he has some writing to do for the general or that he needs to go over his battle strategy one more time ––––– he sleeps very little until he’s too fatigued to do anything else , and only then will he get a full night’s sleep. finally , he doesn’t tell anyone about the reasons behind why he acts this way. he fully believes if he told someone of jemmy’s death , they would see that it’s his fault and hate him ––––– very few people could get that information out of him ( if hamilton & lafayette were persistent , they probably could , but i doubt he’d trust anyone else enough to tell them , especially given the aforementioned issues with attaching himself to people. )

002. MORE PRE-WAR SHIT.

another thing that’s important to mention here is my headcanons for what john does just before the start of the war ( because historically he joined up after the war had already begun , but since the musical places him in nyc before the war i go with the musical canon. ) he was a mercenary , almost , for the sons of liberty ––––– he killed brits they needed taken out , basically. kept the tories from getting suspicious of their operations. and he was good at it ––––– but he was also only 22 years old , and had never killed anyone or been to war , so in summary it fucks him up.

he tends to hide it , as he tries to hide all of his symptoms , but this develops in slightly different ways than his trauma from jemmy’s death. he’s hypervigilant ––––– his recklessness may look like he doesn’t care enough to notice what’s going on around him , and he tries hard to create an air of nonchalance when he’s not too busy being angry at the british government , but he’s also jumpy as hell if startled. he has angry outbursts , sometimes at the slightest of things. there’s also breakdowns sometimes ––––– he makes sure he’s alone when these happen , but they’re not pretty , and usually involve a lot of tears & eventual dissociation. the effects of this are louder than the effects of the jemmy incident , and tend to be more aggressive.

003. WAR SHIT.

ok now the part everyone would probably expect. at this point it’s pretty much just additions to the same symptoms he’s had for years ––––– some of them change with the addition of the war , but for the most part they just shift slightly. like , his nightmares start featuring both jemmy & the war ; even after the war is done in verses where he survives ( which is the verses i’m gonna focus on for this part ) , he hardly sleeps. it’s easier for him to sleep if there’s someone else there ( which sucks for him since in main post - war verse he’s lonely as fuck , unless elams or some similar arrangement happens ) , but that also runs the risk of him waking up & dissociating & his jumpiness making him see the other as a threat for half a second ––––– it’s only happened once , probably with alexander during the war , but he’s terrified of the possibility of him hurting someone he loves.

also , just as how things were the loudest , metaphorically speaking , during the pre - war shit , things are the quietest in their manifestation now. this doesn’t mean they affect him any less , but he’s more withdrawn in how he shows them. his recklessness isn’t as strong after the war ––––– and during the war it could be disguised as just a soldier doing his job , but after , when he is reckless ( in bar brawls & etc ) it’s very clearly apparent as a suicidal act. he doesn’t make as much effort to hide that fact after the war ––––– in most verses he doesn’t think anyone would really care either way. his angry outbursts all but stop as he gets older and further from the events , but much of this is because his depression only gets worse , and tends to overrule most everything else.

given that treatment wasn’t really ,, a thing ,,,, back in the 1700s , he’s left mainly to deal with this on his own. he tries to use alcohol to self - medicate but that doesn’t tend to make it any better , so he never really reaches a point where he’s reliant on it / never ends up full - on alcoholic. if he has people in his life he can lean on , that makes it somewhat better , but as i discussed in this other longass meta , in most post - war verses he doesn’t really have anyone ––––– and even if he does , he’s not open about his issues ; he doesn’t talk about it , and tends to shut himself away when things get too bad. i do think that , if he does have people who care about him ( poly elams!!! ) & that are willing to help him through it , he could work to make things more manageable with time , but in most verses he doesn’t have that & he’s left alone to work through it all.

i was gonna also include a part on reincarnation verse ( summary : he has almost all the same symptoms but with no idea why until he starts to get flashbacks of his previous life ) , but lbr this is already like 1.5k words long and that is way more than i intended to write here , so to sum this up : john’s life is tragic and he needs a therapist really badly.

#— ❛　out of character.　┊　show time !#— ❛　headcanon.　┊　i watched the summer heat turn it all to flames.#ptsd //#death //#sibling death //#suicide m //#depression m //#anxiety m //#long post //#wow thats. a lot of tags yikes #anyways if anyone actually reads this pls lemme know if i fucked up in any way!#jemmy's death is basically the catalyst for it all‚ the war just makes everything 1000x worse

3 notes · View notes

love-ya-tommo-row · 5 years ago

Text

Just realized I haven’t had my Thoughts on the Walls vid yet!!

First off, Louis looks GOOD in this one. The hair! The clothes! Excellent excellent styling, brings out the best of him

Interesting use of location, effectively paradoxical, and I liked the mirror/door/burning motifs

That being said there are some OBVIOUS visual allusions which are Interesting Choices

Let’s start with Oasis Live Forever because it’s the most straight forward

Like cmon we all know he did that bc It’s Cool, yeah?

He wrote a song called Walls that’s a musical tribute to Oasis and picked one of their most memorable images, guy on a wall. I saw that in the teaser and thought “Lol, he’s really learning into the vanity project nature of this whole endeavor ain’t he?”

I say this in love, if I had a million dollars to make a music video I’d make it nothing but Cool Shots And References too

I mean looking at Live Forever, lyrically there are some interesting parallels and connections to be drawn, but lbr

Which brings us to the Eyes Wide Shut stuff

INTERESTING CHOICE

I mean obviously there’s a lot of potential interpretations to EWS, but I think the MV is pulling off the surface: sex, drugs, secrecy in the absurd, and corrupt wealth

Which is some interesting and counterintuitive imagery to pair with the otherwise pretty straight forward lyrics!

I can’t talk about this without jumping to The Band Stuff

OH BOY

First of all I heard Louis had members of his new band pose as the 1D guys? Which is Big If True

Second of all WHAT a verse to put the band imagery over “So this one is a thank you for what you did to me/why is it that thank yous are so often bittersweet/I just hope I see you one day and you say to me oh oh” like DAMN MM

There’s some sincerity there- Louis has never been anything but grateful for 1D and the opportunities it gave him, and his affection for the others. But like, the OTHER imagery this pairs with- there HAS to be a little sarcasm?

Because Louis was the BOSS 1D was his band he LOVED that group, and he has said over and over he didn’t want to break up the band. So there seems to be a little “Thanks for breaking up the band you assholes, thanks for giving me the chance to go solo you fuckers”

I’m living for this btw

It’s also interesting he used OT5 imagery when he’s often been OT4 in interviews

I think he intentionally gives songs double meanings- not one being more correct than another, but some natural connections

I really do think his relationship with Eleanor is inextricably linked with the band in his mind, because they mirrored each other so perfectly- he and El started dating right as they dropped WMYB, and made it official just before the first tour, things went downhill with El as the band got strained and El and Zayn left Louis/the band in rapid succession, so I think when Louis writes autobiographically about El, it’s natural for 1D references to work in that frame, and I think he intentionally includes some ambiguity for fans, since he knows 1D is so central to their experience of him, and is more accessible than an often private relationship

(insert my ongoing joke ‘walls is a zouis concept album’ here)

I think it’s time to address the Lights Up reference

BOLD MOVE TOMLINSON

There’s no fucking way that’s not a direct reference and my initial reaction was “I can’t BELIEVE he just did that!”

Also interesting- most fans I’ve seen have interpreted the Lights Up orgy scene as being about Harry’s ambivalent relationship with fame- that on the one hand he really enjoys it and loves being the center of adulation but on the other it’s dirty and crushing and grasping and overwhelming and he wants to bust out of there and ride away into the sunset. I’ve also seen some tie drugs into it, usually in the “fame is a drug” kind of way

So Louis recreating that scene with the EWS imagery seems like a hot and unambiguously negative take, and I would LOVE to know more about what he wanted to say with those shots

I read it as shade- that Harry’s being swallowed up in drugs in sex, that his desire for a secret private life leads to a nonsensical mask

I mean Louis’ strident insistamce that he’s being honest and speaking the truth about his feelings and his life is such a consistent feature of his public statements, and his use of the EWS imagery contrasts so strikingly with that

And of course obviously the 1D stuff is headline bait, but it’s very tasteful and interestingly done, so I enjoyed it

Curious about the ending which is why I’m curious if his current band members really were the 1D body doubles- it makes him rejoining the line up read differently, especially since he’s said he has a 5 album plan and this one is easing fans out of his 1D style into his new stuff

We Will See!!!

In short beautiful song, beautiful video, beautiful boy

1 note · View note