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xo-hugs-n-kisses-ox · 6 months ago

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Rumination

Ruminate

(v.) To think about something deeply

After Edward left her, Bella Swan fell apart. Desperate to try and save his eldest daughter, Charlie brings his youngest daughter to Forks to see if she can bring her sister out of her depression.

Now, y/n must try to help her sister find her way back to the light while also trying to navigate her Junior year of high school in the odd town of Forks.

---

Chapter Nine: Ultimatums

Now Playing: Twilight by bôa

Warnings: cursing, mentions of blood, spiders, mentions of fighting, reader has beef w/ Edward

Bella and I had an icy silence between the two of us. Jacob refused to talk to her after she chose Edward. I didn’t blame him. I felt betrayed, too, that my sister would choose him and his family over her own flesh and blood.

Well, she won’t be made of flesh and blood for much longer, I thought bitterly.

Charlie tried to get us to talk about it. Neither of us could without revealing the secret about vampires.

Sometimes, I think about telling Charlie about them just to spite my sister. I don’t, though. It would put him in too much danger, and that’s only if he believed me, which was doubtful.

I spent most of my time at Emily’s. The spare room was entirely mine now, and Sam had hung up decoration for me.

“This is as much your home as it is ours,” he had told me. I’m embarrassed to admit that I cried.

Jacob and I were closer than ever. Paul and I were still distant and icy. I didn’t have the energy to fight with him, and he kept his distance. I had explained as much as I could to Max about why I had been ignoring him, and we had made up about it. Sort of.

He was still sore about it, but he accepted the fact that I had things I just couldn’t tell him. He also had a lot more of an objective take on Bella and I’s situation, so he was good for perspective.

---

Emily’s house felt more like home to me than my actual house did. I could express my worries and hurt without fear of putting anyone in danger, and the house wasn’t accessible to vampires. It made me feel better.

I had just come back from a shift at Roy’s when I stumbled in, kicking off my shoes and collapsing face first into the couch to fall asleep.

---

I was avoiding going home, so we went to La Push. The boys played various games along the shore, and I was collecting shells and pretty rocks.

Leah was walking with me. She didn’t say anything, and I was grateful. After a while, Seth bounded up and held his hands out.

“Look!” He said, laughing, “Look what I’ve got!”

Curious, I peered at his cupped hands only to see a massive, hairy spider peering back at me.

I shrieked, stumbling backwards in my attempt to get away from the nasty thing. Leah stopped me from falling by grabbing me under my arms, but I continued to scramble away. Seth laughed and chased me with the damn thing, and I’ve never run faster in my life.

I sprinted back to Sam and Emily, ducking around Jacob and Paul as I made my escape through their game of football.

“Knock it off, Seth!” I demanded as I used Jared as my personal shield. Seth grinned, lunching forward. I shirked again, shooting backwards.

Paul picked Seth up around his torso, hauling him over his shoulder.

“Quit tormenting Y/n before she kicks your ass,” He warned, “She’s the one who helps make your food, and Emily’s not immune to bribes from her.”

Seth only giggled, dropping the spider down into the sand. I hastily backed up further from the scuttling creature as it hurried over to the brush.

---

Bella’s going to Florida with Edward. He got the tickets per my suggestion to try and get my sister to change her mind. If she was a vampire, she couldn’t see Renee and Phil in Florida. She couldn’t be in the sunshine. I hoped it would help.

---

Bella and Jacob were talking again. It was a relief. Maybe he could help change her mind, since going to Jacksonville didn’t.

Edward texted me the results, and I nearly threw my phone in the deep fryer. During my shift at Roy’s, my thoughts were filled with ways I could possibly get my sister to want to stay human. All of them revolved around Edward leaving again, but I knew it was too late for that to happen again.

I was walking to my truck when I saw a familiar face standing beside it.

Paul was leaning against the driver’s side door, his burly arms crossed over his chest. I tossed him the keys after unlocking the car, sliding into he passenger’s seat and waiting.

I wasn’t mad at him anymore. Not like I had been. The closest thing I was feeling was disappointment. He still didn’t apologize, not verbally, at least. It had pissed me off to no end that he refused to say the two little words that would fix everything, but Emily had made me rethink my anger.

Bella had just gotten back from Italy. All the guys were out patrolling. Seth and Leah were hanging out with us at the house.

Paul and I had gotten into another argument where both of us were being pigheaded only to annoy the other. He had stormed off in one direction, and I had gone the opposite way he did. Emily had come to find me.

“What are you so upset about?” She asked calmly, sitting behind me to braid my hair.

“He won’t acknowledge that he’s wrong!” I had said, and she had just hummed.

“You want him to say that he was wrong in his actions?” She asked, and I opened my mouth to respond. She continued before I could, “But were you not also wrong?”

I paused, thinking.

Sighing, I answered, “We’re both wrong.”

“Then what is it that you want from him?” She asked, always a voice of reason. I was quiet for a long minute as I tried to come up with an answer.

“I want him to say sorry.” I said at last, “I want him to apologize. And before you say anything, I won’t apologize first. He started this issue and he keeps starting shit. I’ll only apologize if he does first.”

She was quiet as she sectioned my hair out, running her fingers through it slowly.

“He has never been good with words,” she told me, and I laughed mirthfully, “He has always been someone who pays attention more to actions. He may never say he’s sorry, his pride might not allow for it at times, but he always shows what he feels.”

In the months following that discussion, I had payed more attention to his actions. We still argued, insults were still thrown, but my anger fizzled out quickly.

When he had made a jab about Bella that had pissed me off enough that I stormed off, he saved me dinner. The plate had the best parts of whichever foods we were eating that night, taken from his own plate and given to me.

He had made a snide comment about Max, and I had spat back about having a life outside of the pack. He had been the one to storm out, then, but I woke up to movie tickets on my bedside table. The note on them wrote, “Since you have a life, allegedly.”

He was still an ass, and he was still moody with a hair-trigger temper, but I was slowly starting to see beyond it again.

I didn’t want to apologize before he did. He was prideful, but so was I.

So I did what he did for me.

I pissed him off by making a dig about his capabilities and helpfulness a few weeks ago. As an apology, I convinced Emily to make wings for dinner since they were his favorite. He had looked at me oddly when I put the plate down in front of him, but I didn’t say anything and neither did he.

He and I argued in the car about my being a burden to him, and how he should just leave if he was so bothered. It resulted in him slamming the door and storming off into the woods. I brought an entire chocolate pie back from Roy’s for him.

I supposed that if he was an ass, I was, too.

---

I was sitting with Emily and Seth in the living room, watching old movies while the rest of the pack were out patrolling.

Seth was sitting in front of me on the floor as I put his hair into elaborate styles Renee used to put my hair into. Emily had just come back with the popcorn when Embry and Quil dragged Paul into the house. Both of them looked fine, but Paul’s face was cut open and his hands were split.

“What happened?” Emily demanded as I stood to go get the first aid kit from the kitchen.

I came back to the living room and found Paul refusing to let Emily near him, “It’s going to heal anyway, quit fussing!”

Still relatively intolerant to his bullshit, I grabbed him by his wrist and dragged him to the kitchen. He let me pull him along, snagging a chair from the dining table to sit on. I grabbed a wash cloth and wet it with warm water, carefully cleaning up his face.

“What happened?” I asked quietly, dabbing away the trickling blood from his brow.

“We were chasing the redhead, and she kept jumping between our land the Cullen’s,” he explained, “The big one followed her onto our land and I got him off. Cut my face in the process.”

I pursed my lips, but didn’t say anything.

I turned around to grab the disinfectant and dabbed a q-tip into it, tracing it along the cuts on his face. It ran from his hairline down to his brows, cutting across his nose and down across his lips. Already, the bleeding had stopped and the skin was ever so slowly closing. His hands were more or less just scraped up, already healed from his accelerated healing.

I assume the one who broke the treaty by leaping over the creek was Emmett. He was by far the largest of the Cullens, tall and wide almost like Jared was. He was nice enough any time he dropped Bella off back at the house. He almost reminded me of Embry, playful and excitable. But despite his intentions, he had broken the treaty.

“Emmett broke the treaty,” I said aloud, voicing my thoughts as my eyes focused on Paul’s, “What does this mean going forward?”

He shrugged, “It’ll have to be renegotiated, most likely. We don’t want an all out war since Victoria’s still loose and on our turf, and neither do they.”

I nodded, feeling weary.

Paul went to sleep on the couch after I cleared him. I cleaned up the cloth and tissue I had used, putting the first aid kit back where I found it. I, too, went to sit on the couch. Paul moved his legs when he saw me coming, settling them into my lap when I was comfortable.

Jacob came back after lunch. He had been talking to Bella, he said, and reported that Edward was trying to keep her in the dark about Victoria in the name of “protecting her.”

I took a deep breath, pulling out my phone. I dialed his number, waiting.

He picked up on the third ring, and I didn’t wait for him to speak.

“Either you keep my sister in the know, or I do it for you, Edward.” I told him flatly, “Which do you prefer? You can sugar coat it to hell for all I care, but we both know that I won’t.”

He was silent for a long moment.

“I see you’re still believing everything your dogs tell you,” he commented dryly, and Paul opened his eyes to glare narrowly at the phone in my hand.

“And I see that you’re still a cowardly little bitch,” I snapped back, “You have twenty four hours to explain the Victoria shit to my sister before I do it myself.”

“Last I heard, you two weren’t exactly on speaking terms,” he countered, and I felt triumphant.

“Don’t believe everything you hear, right?” I taunt, “Besides, she doesn’t have to hear it from me. There’s a good deal of people who don’t like the fact that you baby her for your own comfort.”

I was met with silence, and I smiled.

“Twenty four hours, leech,” I reminded, hanging up the phone.

---

At Roy’s the next evening, Max was sitting in a booth with papers surrounding him. He didn’t order much, more occupied with his current history assignment than eating. I didn’t blame him, the essay was brutal and the topic was plain boring. I only did it to get it over with, and it took me three of the eight days since it was assigned to get it finished.

Unfortunately, my friend wasn’t so smart and waited until the last possible moment to start and finish the essay from hell.

“Max, take a break and drink some water,” I ordered, “You look like you’re going to pass out.”

Wearily, he leaned back and rubbed his face.

“I hate this essay,” he bemoaned, “I hate school. Why can’t I just drop out?”

“Because then your mom would actually kill you,” I grinned, pushing his water towards him pointedly. He sighed dramatically, sipping the drink until it was at least half gone. Satisfied, I left him to his work once more.

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(Edited 1/5/25)

***Trying to add some more of Max! Lmk if you guys want anything in particular!

That’s a wrap for this chapter!! What’d you guys think ?? Also I lied, reader will be getting to understand the Cullens most likely in the following chapters

Anyway, peace out ✌️ 💕

(ps if y’all have any requests for scenes, things you’d like to see me write, etc etc lmk!!)

(pps i didnt forget abt max i promise)

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weemietime · 3 months ago

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Okay okay, I’d like to preface this by saying that I’m already deeply ashamed and embarrassed of myself for my behaviour and all, so if you think I don’t feel guilty and am bandwagoning, I’m not, I’m genuinely upset about what I did and there’s no one who could possibly hate myself more than me. And also, I’m not Jewish myself, but you could probably tell by what I’m about to say next.

So I was one of the many people who was a radical supporter of whatever has become of the pro Palestine movement (yes, I know, embarrassing behaviour) and I was perpetuating a lot of antisemitic things and would get super defensive about it because I truly didn’t think that what I was saying and/or doing was antisemitism and I also thought that I was genuinely helping people by being so… radical about things. A few months ago, I took a break from social media and on that break I sort of realised how much I don’t know about the harmful radical movement I was supporting and the Jewish and Israeli people that I was actually hurting by not listening to, and I truly am sorry and I do wish to become an ally, a good ally at that, but I do wonder if I’ve done too much damage already, I probably have. So yeah, I guess I was just wondering how I could possibly do better. I probably shouldn’t even be asking you this, you can totally block me if you want, I swear I’m not trolling or anything, but yeahhhh

The best thing that you can do for yourself and your community is to be honest about your perspective! How it happened, how you got radicalized, the things you said and why you said them. Some people won't be ready to forgive you and that's ultimately their prerogative. But people like you are the reason I am here, because I believe it is possible to form a bridge between our people and find a way to dialogue and call people back in from the extremism they've been indoctrinated into.

I'm fairly open about my history on here, but when I was a child I got indoctrinated into a violent gang. I adopted a lot of extreme beliefs and engaged in horrible, violent acts both under duress and of my own volition. So when I talk about indoctrination I am talking about something I have personal experience with. The people who I victimized to this day probably still have legitimate hate for me, and that's their right. I don't need to convince them I'm a good person or a changed person or whatever, you can't really undo harm or make up for harm like that, that's not how it works.

Once you put that out there, that's it. But at the same time, kind acts and good acts stand on their own, too. So I try and do outreach like this, to share my perspectives, to educate people on how extremism and radicalism and appetitive aggression work because I can't fix what I broke. All I can do is serve as a warning beacon for others going down a bad path, and I don't have any ability to know if that makes me a cosmically good or bad person.

Baruch dayen ha'emet. It's what we say when people die: G-d is the true judge. Only G-d knows those answers and I just have to have faith that G-d will judge me with compassion and understanding, and allow me to state my case. It's an ongoing conversation, you aren't ever just one thing or another thing. You grow, and learn, and that slowly changes the landscape.

I hope this helps in some manner! And I appreciate you sending this, we need to keep these avenues open, we have to build these bridges or else nothing will change. It's that simple.

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lovebvni · 2 months ago

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EGO; a callout.

unknowingly, for years now, i’ve been struggling with my own inner ego. what was that ego doing? basically telling me to never take no for an answer.

i want to preface by saying this doesn’t have to be a sign for you, you could be following me and have seen this and i’m a relatively large account here on tumblr, somehow. this also does not apply to all things. this, for the most part, does not apply to reality shifting. when you ask “i’m i going to shift at ‘x’ time and you get a ‘no’, that doesn’t mean give up! there’s a difference between PERSISTENCE (positively defying odds) and NEGATIVE DEFIANCE. i just so happen to negatively be defying what im told.

this post is to simply inform, help people with self concept, and for me to move forward. this will be me exposing myself negatively and some humiliation so i can move forwards. this is not negative self talk, this is putting down the ego that has controlled me for so long.

let me also say ego is something all of us have. how much of it you have determines if it’s good or bad.

since i was young, i was always pushy. i would force my friends to do things i didn’t personally want to do, persuade my parents (because they are divorced) to give me special things because i was sad… and because of that i didn’t like being told no. i still don’t. whenever the word “no” or “not this time” came out of someone’s mouth, i would get angry and throw tantrums. i would take it out on THEM because THEY didn’t see my best interest in mind.

to this day, i am like that. if my mother called me and i asked her to buy me something that i could buy myself, and she said no, i would probably really pissed off at her and shut her out. she’s providing for two kids and two dogs and I have the NERVE to ask her to take money out of HER paycheck from a job SHE just got to buy me something i can ACTIVELY afford myself? no, bitch. that’s fucking ego.

just recently, i had a show, and my mom told me glue eyelashes were harmful, so she didn’t want me getting them for a church show. i didn’t like that answer so i ARGUED with her in PUBLIC about getting FAKE EYELASHES WITH HER MONEY for a SHOW. not even for personal use or to go to school, for a show. a one time thing that would not be long term.

when i finally pushed her over the edge and she caved, i bought them, tried them, used them, and didn’t like them. i went back to the store a week and a half later to return them.

i thought I KNEW what was best for me, and even if i did, i still IGNORED my mothers guidance, went against her will, and did what I WANTED TO DO.

WHAT YOU WANT TO DO ISNT ALWAYS THE RIGHT THING. YOU NEED TO HAVE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES FOR A REASON! why do you think most shifters and manifestors only shift/manifest after being in a community and getting guidance? BECAUSE THEY HAVE A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.

this has happened a lot to me, with friends, advisors, teachers, and more. yet i’m going to be a cunt and decide only I know what’s best for me. that, inherently, is not true. the voice in your head or heart is not always telling you the truth, sometimes it’s making you delusional.

this can also be flipped on its head, as you can absolutely be right but you allow yourself to be walked all over. this is a lack of ego. you let everyone else’s words guide you and never ask your intuition or inner self for help until it’s too late.

you’re neglecting yourself, and i believe it’s a form of self hatred.

you need to find a balance, and a balance for you. don’t allow yourself to be stepped on, but allow yourself to be pushed in directions you don’t like all the time.

live in your truth, but without rose-coloured glasses or a log in your eye. Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye' while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye." Matthew 7:4-5.

from a place that was hiding in my heart,

the abyss

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kismet-cat · 10 months ago

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Something I’ve been thinking about a lot is how Jowd and Yomiel are parallel to each other. They’re both so stuck in worldviews that are blatantly wrong- Jowd thinking everything is his fault, and Yomiel thinking everything is the fault of everyone BUT him. To an outside observer, both these views are totally stupid, but the two of them feel like they HAVE to believe it or else everything they’re doing will be for nothing. If jowd is wrong, that means kamila did it, and he can’t let himself believe his kid could do that, it would destroy him. He’s so willing to take on the guilt because he feels responsible for not stopping the tragedy- even when it was literally impossible for him to foresee or stop. If Yomiel is wrong, then it means that literally everything he’s been doing since dying is useless and he’s the one responsible for the deaths of both Sissels, and he can’t believe that or he’ll sink even further down. So the two of them both push on, warping the truth until it suits their narratives, both of which are steeped in self-hatred. It’s a good thing they never met up before their respective character developments- like Yomiel said, Jowd would have loved to be executed by his own daughter. Sorry for talking so much I just think they’re fascinating!!! I love ghost trick!!!

No need to apologize, I love hearing other people's Ghost Trick takes/analysis! Especially along these lines!

This specific parallel is def one I've thought about too, and you put it very well! For me, it all comes back to the set of questions I posed in this post as being at the core of Ghost Trick's story:

1. When something terrible happens to you, what do you do with that trauma? 2. When you do something terrible, when you make a terrible mistake, what do you do with that guilt?

Like you said, Jowd is a person who, in response to both questions, internalizes all the blame; whereas Yomiel, in response to both (pre Chapter 17), externalizes all his hatred. And yes, from an outside perspective they're kind of ridiculous — just look at how many chatters in the secret sleepover society streams (and other lps I've watched) have been reacting to Jowd as a character.

But one of the things fiction arguably exists for is to present characters that take such ideas to such extremes for the sake of exploring those questions and making a greater point; it's the premise "What if there was guy who ___? Wouldn't that be fucked up or what?". And for me (and a lot of people, clearly) Ghost Trick succeeds in getting you to take those characters seriously, because they and the people around them take their own stakes seriously, while ultimately making it clear that their responses were irrational.

...And hey, while I'm here:

Cabanela's answer to the second question is to bury all evidence of it, to Not Think About It, to become (or at least project the image of) a person who would never make that kind of mistake. Meanwhile, his answer to the first question, if we say the terrible thing in question is his best friend confessing to killing his wife and asking to be executed, is to dedicate himself to trying to undo it, to set things right, everything else in his life be damned.

These answers are "better" than Jowd's and Yomiel's — they certainly cause less extreme collateral damage — but they still aren't ideal. After all, Ghost Trick is a game that highly values the forging/maintaining of bonds with others and being honest/open with them as the key to both parties' success. It's what saves the day in the end. Without Sissel, all Cabanela's efforts to save Jowd and protect Lynne would have amounted to nothing.

No, the person with the "correct" answer is Lynne. She doesn't really have to grapple with the second question (which is maybe my personal biggest disappointment with her character), but her answer to the first question is clear: Become the kind of person who prevents such things from happening to others, or who can be the one to help them when it does. Always believe in people, and in the ability of things to turn out right.

Now, it must be said: the reason she comes to this answer is not because she was born a perfect idealist. It's because, in that worst moment of her life, someone was there to save and then reassure her; to inspire her. Jowd.

It's her truth, but it's not, say, Yomiel's.

But. It's a truth that inspires the rest of the cast (Sissel and Jowd primarily). And, because of her insistence in it, they're able to go back, defy fate, and make it The Truth of the narrative.

(Sissel similarly only has to really deal with the first question because Reasons, and his answer evolves over the course of the game, from "focus on the wrong that was done to you and what you can do to make yourself feel better about it above everything and everyone else" (doesn't that sound familiar?) to be more aligned with Lynne: "use what you learned/gained from that unfortunate occurrence to help others". And Missile is basically on the "right" wavelength the whole time, which is why everyone agrees he's the Bestest Boy.)

#ghost trick #ghost trick: phantom detective #ghost trick spoilers #yomiel #jowd #cabanela #lynne #sissel #missile #ask time!#analysis #tl;dr all the main characters in ghost trick have a unique perspective on (at least one of) these 2 questions that make up the game's core #and their answers illuminate the Game's perspective from different angles #it's so cool! and so good!

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thegayhimbo · 5 days ago

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Stranger Things (1x05): “The Flea and the Acrobat” Review

Couple of things I want to clarify on in regards to these reviews:

Because these are being written before season 5 premieres, they will contain speculations and theories about what direction the Duffer Brothers will take the show. I still have every intention of reviewing each episode based on how the episode itself was written, how it continues character arcs and the show’s mythology, how it ties into the season it originates from, and how events in said episode impact future seasons (or act as call-backs to past ones). However, I also like predicting how certain characters and story arcs will pan out, and I am the kind of person who spitballs theories. I understand most, if not all, of these theories might not amount to anything, and the Duffer Brothers could go a direction I don’t see coming. I will do my best not to make these review dated in that regard, but there will still be speculations based on evidence provided in these episodes about its mythology and how certain character arcs could pan out. This also includes the teasers and hints Netflix and the Duffer Brothers are releasing on social media this year to promote season 5.

I do my best to be detail-oriented and make sure that what I’m writing about is accurate. However, because these are lengthy, and there’s a lot to talk about (to say nothing about the energy I put into researching, writing these reviews, and editing them to the best of my ability), there may be small details I slip up on, or stuff I’ll be a little hazy with. I’m fine if people want to remind me of certain things I haven't thought of or glossed over (and I will even go back and make necessary edits to previous reviews to correct that). That being said, please don’t be an asshole about it. I will block you if you act like that.

As I’ve told people before, I’m writing these reviews for me and my small group of mutuals. A lot of this is conveying my own thoughts about the show and characters while untangling myself from previous fandom perceptions that dominate fandom conversations (particularly on social media). This means me having opinions that are unpopular, or criticizing a popular character or relationship, or making my dislike for a character’s behavior known (even if that angers the stans of said character), or explaining why I think a character’s actions make sense in opposition to fans who think it’s OOC (and visa versa). Not everyone is going to agree with my takes, or even like what I have to say. That is fine. I am NOT here to cater towards certain fans and their feelings. I am just here to give my perspective of the show.

With that out of the way, ”The Flea and the Acrobat” is an episode I have wary feelings towards. It’s one that spikes my anxiety the same way “Holly Jolly” and “The Monster” does, because it deals with hard topics like Gaslighting and Projection. Considering I’ve been on the receiving end of those in the past, seeing those kind of issues play out on a show I'm invested in is always going to make me feel ambivalent about a given episode, regardless of what the writers’ intentions are.

Despite these reservations, there’s a lot to chew on here, and the episode allows me to reevaluate certain aspects, particularly in regards to the Upside Down, Jonathan and Nancy’s relationship, and the way they handled Steve and Lonnie’s characters.

Let’s start with the juicier mythology pieces, and work our way from there:

Part 1: The Upside Down (and its connection to D&D, Science, Vecna, El, and Will)

Fair Warning: Part 1 will be a bit of a trip down the metaphysical, scientific, cosmological, and fantastical elements related to the Upside Down. I will do my best to keep this on-topic and coherent, but it will be intertwined with various topics and theories regarding what the Upside Down is, and what may be revealed about it come season 5.

I also want to stress that while I have some familiarity with Dungeons & Dragons, I am NOT a hardcore expert on it. Both my brother and my friend are huge D&D players and know a lot more about the game, but I’m not a “Disciple of the Lore” to put it mildly, and I’m not familiar with every edition of D&D books that have come out over the years. If I get some details mixed up, or miss some aspects, I apologize in advance.

This is the first episode The Vale of Shadows is mentioned by Dustin to convey the idea of what the Upside Down is to the audience: “A dimension that is a dark reflection or echo of our world. It is a place of decay and death. A plane out of phase. A place of monsters. It is right next to you and you don’t even see it.” As Mike also puts it: It’s an alternate dimension.

If you were to look up the term "Vale of Shadows" online, you’d find out pretty quickly that it isn’t an actual term (at least from the impression of several Reddit and D&D threads that have discussed Stranger Things and its connection to D&D). In fact, not only is it a term invented specifically for the show, but most of the lore and inspirations for the particular type of world Dustin, Mike, and Lucas are talking about in the D&D mythos (with two notable exceptions) are ones that came AFTER 1983.

In D&D Lore, there’s a detailed cosmology dealing with various planes of existence that players can venture to (or end up in by accident) based on the Campaigns they’re undertaking. There are also planes players may never travel to, but are still essential to the worldbuilding of D&D. One of those cosmological structures is The Great Wheel Cosmology, and there’s a video that breaks it down to its simplest terms:

youtube

There are also two other cosmological structures players have used in D&D: The World Tree Cosmology, and the World Axis Cosmology.

In regards to The Vale of Shadows mentioned by Dustin, there are two different planes of existence that likely inspired this: The first is called Shadowfell (or the Plane of Shadow), and the second is the concept of the Demiplane itself.

Shadowfell is a dark, twisted version of the Material Plane (i.e. the main world in the game) devoid of color and light, and instilling feelings of dread, despair, and nihilism within a player. It’s a land of bleak desolation and grievous loss, and it’s also home to various monsters, specifically shadow creatures formed from a special kind of matter called shadowstuff. Some of these monsters are referred to as “dark creatures” and resemble their material plane counterparts as distorted versions of themselves. In Stranger Things terms, it’s the difference between regular dogs and Demodogs, or regular bats and Demobats. Technically, they’re similar creatures, except one is a more perverted version.

Like the Upside Down, it also contains frigid temperatures, small earthquakes (similar to what Steve, Nancy, Eddie, and Robin experience in the Upside Down during season 4), landscapes similar to those in the material plane except as a wretched unholy echo (a beautiful mountain in the material plane vs that same mountain in Shadowfell as a destructive volcano raining fire and ash), structures that look familiar but are warped in some way, tendrils that are alive, and a world that is impressionable and ever-changing.

Just as Dustin mentioned on the show, one of the ways to travel between the Material Plane and Shadowfell is via Shadow Walk: An illusion spell that enables players to venture to the Shadow Fringe (i.e. the intersection between the Material Plane and Shadowfell) where you could travel at a normal rate in the Plane of Shadows, and it would cover the equivalent of 50mph in the Material Plane. How this intersection occurs is different, depending on which kind of cosmology (World Axis, World Tree, Great Wheel) is in effect, and other factors. For instance, a place where tragedy and loss has happened is a prime spot for shadow crossings because the negative energy from those tragedies and losses can narrow the barriers between the two planes, and create a bridge to traverse the two realms. Graveyards, Battlefields, and Crypts are some examples of where shadow crossings can take place. The sun being hidden is also another component.

For those looking for more detail, these video and Reddit threads elaborate more on the concept of Shadowfell and its evolution in D&D Lore:

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In relation, Demiplanes are finite sized planes that are considered unfinished, and could either be found in other planes of existence or outside of them. They are planes formed by powerful forces and energy, and are impressionable to change. In earlier editions of D&D, Shadowfell was originally a demiplane bound to the Ethereal Plane before the 3rd Edition changed that.

You might be wondering at this point why the Duffer Brothers simply didn’t just have Mike, Dustin, and Lucas use the term “Shadowfell.” Simply put, this term did not exist in the 80s, and it wasn’t until the 4th Edition of D&D came out in 2008 that Shadowfell as a whole was introduced. Prior to that, there had been concepts and ideas regarding a dark dimension which paralleled the material world, as well as different demiplanes of existence, but they hadn’t been agglomerated yet. Those ideas came from the 2nd and 3rd Editions, and the 2nd Edition wouldn’t come out until 1989. Even the first book that describes the various planes of existence in D&D wasn’t published until 1987, 4 years AFTER the events of season 1.

So yeah…………this is one of those cases where the Duffer Brother took Artistic License with D&D concepts. This wouldn’t be the last time either. Season 4 did this with the D&D version of Vecna: While he was technically introduced as a character in the Dungeon Master’s Guide in 1979 (which perhaps not-so-coincidentally is the same year in-universe when The Massacre at Hawkins Lab took place and Henry/One/Vecna was banished to the Upside Down), it wouldn’t be until the 2nd Edition in 1989 and the release of the module Vecna Lives! in 1990 that Vecna would have his backstory and character fleshed-out. The Duffer Brothers justified this at the time by saying Eddie was a good enough Gamemaster to have studied the lore closely enough to deduce who Vecna was, but I get why some fans might consider that a bit of a stretch.

Getting back to The Vale of Shadows……..the only reason I’m not calling its placement on the show a continuity error is because there are two concepts in D&D Lore that did exist in 1983 and before that.

The first concept, called The Plane of Shadow was introduced in 1980 in the D&D 1st Edition resource Deities & Demigods. It wasn’t a fully-formed idea yet (in contrast to how detailed The Vale of Shadows was made out to be on the show), but it did lay the groundwork for what would eventually become Shadowfell.

The Second was an adventure module introduced in 1983 that would also be instrumental down the line in the formation of Shadowfell: Ravenloft.

Ravenloft is a vampire-themed adventure, centering around the famous D&D villain Count Strahd von Zarovich and his control over the land of Barovia as the players attempt to bring his reign of terror to an end. While it was more or less a contained adventure module at the time of its release, its popularity would lead to it becoming a whole campaign setting that would eventually introduce other concepts like the Domains of Dread (or Demiplanes of Dread). These were horror-esque demiplanes surrounded by mist in Shadowfell that were ruled by an evil overlord who act as the masters and prisoners of their own personal hell, and yet were also subservient to the Dark Powers. For those who want to know more, this video goes more in-depth to that aspect of lore:

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Tying this all back to the episode’s mention of The Vale of Shadows, there is a slight argument to be had that D&D players in Stranger Things like Dustin, Lucas, and Mike have taken aspects of lore they’d be familiar with in 1983, like The Plane of Shadow and Ravenloft, or even the idea of parallel universes (something that TV shows like Star Trek and The Twilight Zone were exploring back in the 60s) to form the idea of The Vale of Shadows that they would use in their D&D campaigns. There may have also been copyright issues the Duffer Brothers wanted to avoid since D&D is NOT in the public domain, which may explain why they took Artistic License. Either way, concepts like The Vale of Shadows and shadow walking on the show during the 80s requires some suspension of disbelief and the idea that members of the Party are scholarly experts in D&D Lore. Given how comics like Stranger Things and Dungeons & Dragons showed the number of years the boys were invested in D&D, I can buy that.

All of this leads back to how it ties into the Upside Down: A hellish landscape that’s a dark echo of our world? Check. Creatures present in that world that are perverted versions of ones from Earth? Check. Frigid temperatures? Check. Structures and landscapes that mimic ones in our world that are twisted in some way? Also check.

Back in 2023, I did my review of The Other Side, where I offered several theories about the Upside Down and why it froze in 1983. While each of the theories were different (and ones that have evolved past their initial concepts based on new information that’s been provided), a key idea behind them was that the Upside Down was impressionable and the environment was ever-changing. Those theories have since evolved into the idea that matter and energy in the Upside Down can be manipulated and take on shapes of their own, similar to how The Plane of Shadow in D&D is malleable, constantly in motion, and reshaping itself. Even the Domains of Dread have similarities to the Mind Flayer’s rule over the Upside Down. What's noteworthy is how evil actions and negative emotions of powerful forces in the mortal realm can influence how the Domains of Dread are shaped in D&D, and even leave scars on Shadowfell that manifest as negative energy that eventually cause these demiplanes to take shape.

In the theories I suggested for The Other Side, I proposed the idea that either Vecna presence in the Upside Down slowly led to the terraforming of its landscape into a twisted mockery of Hawkins and the rest of the world, or that Will being kidnapped somehow caused the Upside Down to form itself into a twisted version of our world on November 6th 1983. The key component is that negative emotions, whether Will’s trauma over encountering the Demogorgon and being violently ripped from this world, or Vecna’s rage manifesting itself in the environment (including his twisted mindscape from season 4, which could be a demiplane of its own), was responsible for the morphing that took place.

People might look at these theories and say “What about El and her violent reaction to opening the Gate being the cause of what’s going on in the Upside Down?” That is a possibility I’ve considered as well, and while they could go this direction, there are a few things that hold me back from fully embracing this theory:

We know El banished Vecna to the Upside Down in 1979 in a major display of violent emotions, and technically opened a short-lived gate to do so. Despite this, the environment of the Upside Down was not altered at that point (as we see in Vecna’s flashbacks).

El’s knowledge of the world in general was limited prior to escaping the Lab. The brief glimpses she did see via remote-viewing were done under Brenner’s control and likely restricted. It’s hard to fathom she could have known that much detail about Hawkins and the rest of the world for the Upside Down to manifest itself from her memories and emotions as a twisted but accurate replica. Vecna, on the other hand, had no such restrictions. He had over 4 years to remote-view into this world, and could have been terraforming the Upside Down based on what he was seeing and the negative emotions manifesting from him.

Interviews from both Noah Schnapp and Jamie Campbell Bower have not only suggested the idea of Will being central to everything in the story, but also hint that Will and Vecna's connection to one another could be instrumental in explaining the nature of the Upside Down and why Will was the first person taken by it.

This isn’t to dismiss El’s role entirely: She did open a Gate that left a tear in time and space (as noted in the boys’ conversation with Mr. Clarke at Will’s funeral) and it has screwed with the gravity, electromagnetic field, and the environment itself. Mr. Clarke even notes that such a thing could swallow our world. Considering what Vecna succeeded in doing in season 4, it makes me wonder how much of Hawkins and the area around it will be left in the final season. In any case, the events of The First Shadow make it clear that El didn’t create the Upside Down (which was a world that existed before she was born), but was a by-product of it via the altered blood in her system that came from Henry/One/Vecna after his visit to the Upside Down and his encounter with the Mind Flayer.

There is an imbalance with how each world is affecting the other. In regards to the Upside Down’s influence on our world, it’s presented in the first two seasons as a slow infection. Season 4 speeds this up after Vecna opens the Gate again by showing plant-life dying within days and the atmosphere taking on characteristics of the Upside Down, but you could argue that has more to do with Vecna’s Gate being larger than El’s former one. All of this still doesn’t explain why, compared to how the Upside Down takes its time infecting our world, the changes in the Upside Down's environment were instantaneous. Both season 1 and The Other Side spell out that when Will was taken to the Upside Down, he was already arriving in the twisted mirror image of Hawkins, as opposed to the hellish, desolate landscape Vecna arrived to back in 1979.

If we quickly look at the Upside Down from a scientific perspective, as the characters do when they discuss Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, there’s a plethora of explanations the show could go with. These range from molecule and particle manipulation, to terraforming, to the expansion and contraction of unused matter, to idea of the Upside Down not being an alternate reality but it’s own planet somewhere in the cosmos with the Gate being a tesseract that quickly transports people who walk through it from one world to the other.

Back when season 4 finished, Michael Maher Jr., a concept artist and VFX specialist on the show, revealed some more details regarding the flashback in the season 4 finale with Vecna and the Mind Flayer.

Initially, the idea was that an altered state of gravity existed within the Upside Down. The Mind Flayer particles that Vecna uses to form a shape for it were “particles of an anti-gravity element” attached to the floating boulders. As noted however, this idea was scrapped because it would have taken too long to explain on the show. Given the revelation in The First Shadow that the Mind Flayer already existed in the Upside Down, and was responsible for corrupting Henry/One/Vecna back in 1959, we know now that Vecna didn’t create the Mind Flayer, but instead gave it a form to operate under. Whether or not the show revisits this scientific explanation in season 5 remains to be seen.

Finally, to wrap this part up, I want to discuss something that was brought to my attention by my siblings when they binged the show: The Stuffed Lion. This was a toy found in El’s room by Hopper at the beginning of the episode, along with a picture of El and Brenner in the same room with the stuffed lion on a table:

Later in the episode, when the Byers dog Chester goes to lie down in Castle Byers, we see the stuffed lion next to him:

This same lion is present two episodes from now in the Upside Down when the Demogorgon comes for Will:

While it’s possible this could just be a coincidence, the show has dropped subtle hints in the past (like the reference to X-Men #134, which foreshadows El’s showdown with the Demogorgon in the finale) that make this hard to ignore. Is the implication supposed to be that El and Will had some kind of connection before they ever met each other? Or that both played a role in the Upside Down freezing in 1983 as a distorted image of their world? Was the picture supposed to be Brenner having El create a replica of that stuffed lion with her powers as a way of testing them, and Will would later get possession of that replica manifesting itself outside of the Lab?

Like I said, the whole phenomenon of the Upside Down has links to the metaphysical, cosmological, scientific, and fantastical. It’s going to be interesting to see what answers the Duffer Brothers will give in season 5 for the Upside Down and how it works.

Part 2: Lonnie and Steve

I want to discuss Steve and Lonnie together since both of them act as foils to one another in this episode.

It’s been common knowledge for a while that Lonnie was originally the character who'd come to the aid of Jonathan and Nancy in their struggle against the Demogorgon, whereas Steve was supposed to die unredeemed. There have even been fan discussions on Reddit and Tumblr arguing there was some kind of subtext hinting that Lonnie was supposed to be more than a “deadbeat dad,” and that he was set up to have a larger role that never materialized because of the changes the Duffer Brothers made. Put a pin in this because we'll come back to it later.

While I can buy that the original concept was that Lonnie would have the redemption arc instead of Steve, this comes with major asterisks, particularly in regards to the original Montauk Script (which by itself was a rough draft and NOT the final product), and whether or not this redemption arc could have been pulled off with Lonnie’s character.

Just like Steve in the Montauk Script, Lonnie doesn’t exactly leave a good first impression: The Byers are already established as a struggling family, with Lonnie having left at this point, while Joyce is forced to make ends meet. Dialogue from Joyce in the Montauk script (some of which made it into the first episode) mentions that Lonnie constantly put Will down and called him names like “faggot” and “queer.” There's also dialogue about Lonnie not giving a shit about his sons, about how he’s sleeping with women half his age, and then there’s this:

Some people have tried to argue that this is from Joyce’s perspective and that she’s a biased source, but the problem is it’s undercut by the lines regarding Lonnie’s homophobic insults towards Will and his refusal to pay child support. We have no reason to believe in the script that Joyce is lying about any of this this, so it already creates a negative first impression of Lonnie. There’s also the way characters like Jonathan and Joyce were initially pitched, which is similar to how they deal with Lonnie absence on the show:

I can’t claim to know how the Duffer Brothers would have developed Lonnie from this point onward had they stuck with the Montauk pitch, but what is clear is there were already multiple strikes against him. It doesn’t help that we don’t see an outline for Lonnie the same way we do for Jonathan, Joyce, and Will, which leads one to question if Lonnie’s “redemption” was going to be spontaneous (which is in direct contrast to how they threaded Steve’s redemption in season 1). Either way, it was always going to be an uphill trudge if the Duffer Brothers intended for Lonnie to become likeable to the audience, and it’s questionable if they would have succeeded. In today’s culture, it’s EXTREMELY HARD to make a neglectful and/or abusive parent redeemable in a way the audience is going to accept, ESPECIALLY when that character’s actions have caused so much damage to their family and loved ones. Shows like Cobra Kai and My Hero Academia that have tried this for characters like Johnny Lawrence and Endeavor, but those characters continue to be divisive with their respective fandoms, and the jury is still out over whether the writers succeeded in truly redeeming those characters or not.

Additionally, there's Lonnie's importance to the Byers backstory. For as much as Steve-Antis (or even some casual fans) claim that the changes to Steve’s character altered the fabric of the show……………..it didn’t. Regardless of whether Steve was redeemed or not, or even if he died in season 1, the show would’ve continued on without him. Jonathan and Nancy were always going to meet up because they had loved ones (Will and Barbara) that had been taken into the Upside Down. Steve didn't need to be there to make that happen, and the Duffer Brothers could have written an alternative scenario where Barbara was taken by the Demogorgon that didn't involve Steve at all.

Lonnie meanwhile, despite only appearing in 3 episodes of the show (and The First Shadow) is a character you couldn’t rework without completely altering the Byers family dynamic. As awful as Lonnie is, his actions play a major role in how Joyce, Jonathan, and Will have been shaped, from Joyce’s anxiety problems and history of being gaslight, to Will’s insecurities over his sexual orientation, to Jonathan being forced to mature at a quicker rate to watch over Will and take on responsibilities around the household because his dad was absent.

Contrary to the snide suggestion some people have put out there about Steve’s character only being altered because the Duffer Brothers liked Joe Keery (which I maintain is a gross oversimplification and ignores other factors that led to said decision), it's likely a big reason for the change between Steve coming to Jonathan and Nancy’s aid instead of Lonnie is because the Duffer Brothers realized there wasn’t a way to write Lonnie’s character where the audience would grow to care for him. At least, not without either seriously downplaying Lonnie’s worst qualities, or completely rewriting the personalities and dynamics of the other Byers family members.

As for the so-called “subtext” those fans say is in the final product with Lonnie that indicates there’s more to this character than meets the eye………..TV Tropes has a term for it: Jerk With a Heart of Jerk. It’s a bait-and-switch tactic used in writing to imply that an asshole character may have a softer side and redeeming qualities to them.........only to reveal that they’re just an asshole through-and-through. Think of an onion spoiled on the surface, and peeling it back to see how deep the rot goes.

To say I was not remotely surprised by the revelation that Lonnie was here to profit from Will’s death is an understatement. All the signs and subtext from previous episodes, from his snide and demeaning comments, to little things like Jonathan checking in the trunk of Lonnie’s car for Will, to the lack of flashbacks showing any positive interactions between Lonnie and his sons, to the insinuations from Hopper and Jonathan last episode that Joyce suffered from anxiety because of previous gaslighting Lonnie had engaged in (something he goes all in with during this episode), indicated this guy was an ASSHOLE with a capital A. Even his demeanor prior to Joyce’s discovery about his true motivation isn’t that of a man who’s in deep mourning and regret over his son’s supposed death, but a smug snake whose entire interactions with Jonathan and Joyce reek of belittlement:

For someone who’s repeatedly violated the trust of his family, not only does he make ZERO effort to regain it prior to Will’s funeral, but he doesn’t even apologize at any point. Instead, he guilt-trips Jonathan, deflects from his past sins when confronted, and pulls the “I’m a responsible parent” card despite having done NOTHING recently to earn that. There’s an ugly sense of entitlement that radiates from Lonnie in those scenes, and it makes me wish Jonathan or Joyce had punched him.

I don��t know if Lonnie will be brought back for season 5, but I doubt it. Just like with Angela, he’s served his purpose in the narration and fucked off to God knows where. The fact he hasn’t returned to the show since season 1 is a big indication the Duffer Brothers are done with him. Good riddance, I say.

On the opposite side of the coin, we have Steve, who contrasts Lonnie’s behavior with showing up to Nancy’s house to apologize for his self-absorbed reaction in the previous episode while genuinely wanting to see how Nancy is doing and if there’d been any information about Barbara.

Unlike Lonnie, who was never able to do this, even as a young adult, Steve is willing to accept responsibility for his behavior, and his concern for Nancy is sincere and not rooted in the kind of phoniness Lonnie projected during Will's funeral. Even Steve's offer to take Nancy to see All the Right Moves (a movie I will talk about in relation to Steve’s redemption when I cover “The Bathtub”) is sweet, if only undercut by the situation Nancy is in.

One of the movies that gets discussed in this conversation that’s a shout-out is Risky Business. Steve even mimics the famous “Rock and Roll” scene from the movie (minus being half-undressed) while noting similarities to himself and Tom Cruise. He would later dress as the character Joel Goodsen in season 2 for Halloween.

There are similarities between Steve and Joel in the kind of clothes they wear (Risky Business was one inspiration for Steve’s costume design), having friends that use Steve/Joel’s house to have sex, and the fact they come from upper-class families with emotionally strict and distant parents. Even the character arcs involving growing up and taking responsibility parallels one another nicely (with this episode being a nice start for Steve). Only differences is Joel is high-strung about grades and not screwing up his future whereas Steve doesn’t pay as much focus to it until he graduates and realizes he probably should have. There are more parallels down the line between Risky Business and Stranger Things in season 2 (including the crazy shenanigans Steve and Joel get into later) so I’ll wait to elaborate more on this movie when I review that season.

I’ve heard people speculate on “What If…” scenarios regarding if Nancy had asked Steve at this point to investigate Barbara's disappearance with him. Considering how he came through for Nancy and Jonathan in the finale, I’m willing to bet he would have taken her up on her offer. It probably would have been contentious and awkward as hell with Jonathan there (and I expect all three characters would have gotten into a heated argument just like Nancy and Jonathan do in this episode), but Steve would have been brought up to speed a lot quicker on what’s going on.

For the sake of his character development though………..the next 2-3 episodes, as unpleasant as they are, needed to happen to make his growth and his decision to finally cut ties with Tommy and Carol believable.

Part 3: Joyce and Hopper (and the theme of Gaslighting)

I forgot about how close the Byers House was to Steve’s House and Mirkwood (all within a mile of one another), where the Demogorgon resides for now. While it’s easy to believe on first watch that this is simply the Demogorgon’s hunting ground and Will is just in its path, The Other Side and later seasons imply heavily that the Demogorgon was intentionally keeping Will trapped, and would manifest itself whenever Will was trying to contact Joyce. There were even several moments in the comic where he had to distract the Demogorgon so it wouldn’t go after his mom.

It presents a double-layered motivation for the Demogorgon (and by extension, Vecna) for the frequent appearances in the walls of Joyce’s house: It wasn’t just about scaring Joyce and gaslighting her to make Joyce seem crazy to everyone else; it also wanted to make sure Will couldn’t leave for the time being.

Sadly, it isn’t just the Demogorgon putting the brakes on Will’s attempts to communicate with his mom. If you needed one more reason to hate Lonnie besides the gaslighting, The Other Side reveals that when Lonnie boarded up the hole in the wall Joyce created to get to Will, he prevented Will from accessing that specific portal again.

It's always baffled me how many fans ripped into Joyce when season 1 aired over how she acted during Will’s disappearance. So many words thrown around, like “hysterical” and “childish” and “over-the-top,” to describe her behavior. It even got to the point someone on TV Tropes put her in the Unintentionally Unsympathetic category (As of writing this, she is still placed there for some reason), which…………..REALLY? If your child disappeared, you saw signs that they were in the house but you couldn’t communicate with them easily, and then you started hearing and seeing monsters in the wall, how would you react? With tranquil calmness? A peppy demeanor? 🙄

It's been exhausting seeing fans from all walks of life (especially those who tout themselves as being ‘progressive’) who constantly fall into the same traps of “blaming the victim” when it comes to how female characters behave in stressful situations. This reared its ugly head again in season 4 with how certain fans reacted to El smashing Angela’s face in with the roller-skate. It’s especially egregious when said female character is someone who’s been on the receiving end of gaslighting and abuse, and they still can’t catch a break from the fandom because these fans think those characters should only behave in a certain way they deem acceptable.

Joyce’s behavior not only makes perfect sense from an emotional perspective, but also a logical one. Even in this episode, the subtext with how Winona Ryder plays Joyce indicates she isn’t 100% buying Lonnie’s initial reason for being there. She may be tired from everything she’s been through, but she hasn’t written off Will like Lonnie wants her to. Look at how she's behaving during Will’s funeral:

Side Note: Hi Erica! 😊 We will see you again in season 2!

Anyways, my point is her reaction doesn’t look like that of a mother in mourning. It looks like someone who’s annoyed at having to go through this charade when she knows deep down that Will isn’t dead. She even has this same reaction later at the wake while she’s sitting alone and Lonnie socializes with other people to make himself look good.

It’s hinted at that this isn’t the first time Lonnie has pulled this kind of manipulative crap. Joyce was simply waiting to see how this would unfold. The moment she saw the flyer for the Law Firm confirmed her suspicions. She didn’t even look surprised. Just disgusted.

Speaking from my experience of being on the receiving end of gaslighting………when it’s repeatedly happened to you, you learn to pick up on certain behaviors, phrases, and patterns that the gaslighter uses to paint you as unstable. This isn’t Joyce’s first rodeo having to deal with Lonnie. Her anger, combined with throwing him out of the house for good, was absolutely the right response. When someone is pulling that, you don’t indulge it. You shut it down, and be forceful about it. People like Lonnie work to wear others down psychologically while engaging in bad-faith arguments, moving the goalposts, and personal attacks (similar to internet trolls), and the only appropriate response is to cut them out and refuse to further engage with them.

As for the gaslighting the Demogorgon/Vecna engages in with Joyce, she may not completely understand what is going on, but she’s learned from hard experience to trust her senses. If what she is seeing and hearing is that Will is alive, she is sticking to her guns on that.

One of the movies cited for inspiration for Joyce’s character and costume design was a 1980 film called Foxes. It deals with four teenage girls growing up in the San Fernando Valley and the turmoil in their lives as they deal with relationships, families, and life choices. The character of Annie and her wardrobe inspired Joyce’s costume design, and there are similarities between both characters in that they deal with abuse from a family member: Joyce from Lonnie, and Annie from her father. The big difference is Annie deals with it in self-destructive ways, from constantly running away to doing drugs to hanging out with people who are dangerous, whereas Joyce (aside from chain-smoking) has a better handle on how to deal with it. If anything, I see more similarities between Joyce and the character of Jeanie (played by Jodie Foster) in that they both shoulder a lot of responsibilities and find ways to deal with the chaos in their lives without it overwhelming them.

Likewise, Hopper is on the receiving end of gaslighting from Hawkins Lab when they try to take advantage of his drug problems to make it seem like he was on a bender. Unfortunately, they underestimated how resilient Hopper is, and that he knows himself better than they do in regards to what he’d remember. It also isn’t the first time someone’s tried to mess with Hopper like this. A serial killer from Darkness on the Edge of Town (the prequel focusing on Hopper’s time with the NYPD in the 70s) also tried gaslighting Hopper, and it did NOT end well for them.

In any case, even without Hopper’s distrust of higher authority figures (something The First Shadow and Darkness on the Edge of Town explores), he’s savvy enough to realize they would have bugged his place in case the gaslighting didn’t work. Bonus points for him going over to Joyce’s to check that her house wasn’t bugged as well.

This show repeatedly mentions “shared trauma” as a strong bond between characters, but in the case of Hopper and Joyce, knowing that you’re not crazy and that there’s someone else who knows the same things you know is also the formation for a strong bond.

Finally, on a semi-related note that ties briefly to Hopper’s story in this episode: We get informed that two hunters, Dale and Henry, disappear near Mirkwood where the Demogorgon is. While we don’t see their deaths onscreen, both The Other Side and Tales from Hawkins Issue #1 reveal Henry’s gruesome fate at the hands of the Demogorgon. Poor Will was there to see it, and ends up comforting Henry before he dies.

Speaking of shared trauma…………

Part 4: Jonathan and Nancy

While I liked the Jancy scenes in the previous episode, this one was a mixed bag. I have problems with Nancy and Jonathan’s fight in the woods, and there are aspects of Jonathan’s behavior that remind me of how he acts in future seasons which I took issue with.

Let’s start with the positives though, and work our way from there: I liked their interactions at the shooting range. The reference to Jonathan being a fan of Thumper from Bambi was cute, and his aversion to guns after what his father forced him to do is understandable. Nancy, being a first-time shooter, was also delightful to see, and I like that the show continued to have Nancy develop her familiarity with guns in later episodes while also acting like a responsible gun owner.

I also want to answer a question @stillhidden asked about in The First Shadow review regarding the ages of Karen and Ted Wheeler. As of season 5, we know Karen’s age is 43, which means she would have been 15 in The First Shadow (a freshman in High School) and 39 in season 1. Ted is stated in the teleplay for the first episode of this season to be 45, meaning he would have been 21 in The First Shadow. That leaves a 6 year age difference between the two of them. Considering how The First Shadow depicted Ted as a dumb jock, there are implications he was held back in high school (similar to what happened to Eddie). The whole dynamic between Ted and Karen in the play reminded me a lot about the Brittney/Kevin dynamic from the MTV show Daria. And Kevin is someone who also got held back.

For fans who think that’s a questionable age discrepancy, buckle up because Lonnie and Joyce’s relationship wasn’t any better: Joyce was around 17-18 in the play, and Lonnie was supposed to be 25 years old. 24 years after the events of The First Shadow and Lonnie's now dating women like Cynthia who are half his age. 🤮

Nancy speculates that neither Ted nor Karen loved each other when they first met. There’s likely truth to that as the brief scenes we get from the play of Karen and Ted are them constantly making out, implying their initial relationship was based on sex rather than any deep feelings for one another. Once that phase was over and both left high school, they had nothing meaningful to work with. Just based on how Karen married Ted because of the “cushy job, money, and coming from a good family,” I’m assuming either Ted was forced to get his shit together and finish his education, or his family had a hand in getting him a job that could provide for his marriage. I know fans believe Jonathan’s snipe at Nancy about “marrying some boring one-time jock who now works sales and lives out a perfectly little life at the end of a cul-de-sac” was meant to be about Steve, but considering what Nancy told Jonathan beforehand, it could also be referring to Ted as well.

One could argue the same thing for Joyce and Lonnie in The First Shadow: Jonathan claims they must have loved each other at some point, but if that was the case, the play didn’t convey that well. Lonnie was already showing his less-than-attractive qualities back in 1959, and Joyce’s exasperation with him was clear and present. I wouldn’t even be surprised if love had less to do with them getting married, and more to do with financial security (similar to Karen’s situation). Even Joyce’s anger about Lonnie using Will’s funeral to cover his debts with money from a lawsuit implies that (in addition to being a shitty husband and lousy father) Joyce divorced Lonnie because he was financially irresponsible and nearly drove the family into poverty.

And this brings me to Jonathan.

I get Jonathan is on edge in this episode with the arrival of Lonnie, and he can already tell Lonnie is up to no good. Unfortunately, Lonnie knows the right buttons to press to guilt-trip Jonathan into going along with what he wants, and the fact Joyce has been through a lot the past few days factors into Jonathan’s decision not to tell his mother about what he’s doing. It’s sad and frustrating because it’s once again leaving Jonathan with no support other than Nancy, but I get why he did it.

I also think there is some truth in his ability to relate to Nancy’s situation in that both come from broken homes with apathetic fathers. Nancy’s parents don’t have a loving relationship, which has led to both her and Mike being stunted in their ability to be emotionally vulnerable when in a romantic relationship. We see this in season 2 with Nancy and in season 4 with Mike, particularly when it comes to their reluctance to say “I love you.” Likewise, Jonathan’s put up his own walls after seeing how much of a shitshow his parents’ marriage was. He also intentionally distances himself from others because he doesn’t like them. Given the number of people in Hawkins who are show to be just as superficial, shallow, and mean-spirited as those in Lenora, I can understand where he’s coming from.

I don’t even begrudge his feelings towards Steve in this scene, even if the camera-breaking incident is grayer than fans have made it out to be in the past. Considering the last 48 hours had Jonathan believing his brother was dead on top of having his camera smashed, I can understand why he's not having warm feelings towards Steve right now, and why he isn’t enthusiastic about Nancy trying to endear Steve to him.

Where Jonathan loses me, however, is when he starts making the insinuations about what the photo he took of Nancy represents.

I’ve seen a lot of fans who’ve taken Jonathan’s words about Nancy in this scene (i.e. being someone she isn’t, another suburban girl thinking she’s rebelling against her parents, etc) and uncritically run with it while proceeding to infantilize Nancy as a dumb teenager who doesn’t know what she’s doing by hooking up with Steve. It’s an interpretation I’ve come to dislike over the years because of how condescending it is, as if (according to these fans at least) Nancy is too stupid to make her own choices regarding her love life. It also comes with some pretty ugly double-standards attached to how Steve and Jonathan are judged: Whenever I see posts on Tumblr saying “Nancy isn’t a prize for Steve” (something I 100% agree with), there’s a part of me that questions if these people feel the same way about Jonathan in regards to his relationship with Nancy.

To be clear, I have NEVER believed Nancy is a prize for either Steve or Jonathan………..which is why I’m put off at the fandom interpretation that Jonathan is somehow wise and all-knowing about Nancy’s life simply because he took a photograph of her and she told him certain aspects about her life (but not the whole story).

First off, contrary to what Jonathan says, a photograph doesn’t tell the entire story, and can easily be taken out-of-context (something Jonathan should be aware of considering Steve pegged him as a perverted creep because of the photos he took, even though we the audience know that isn’t who Jonathan is). I cannot begin to express how many times I’ve seen idiots on this website post certain photos (sometimes intentionally) which are then interpreted in the most bad-faith manner possible, with people making assumptions left and right………only for it to be revealed later that there was more to the story than that one snapshot. The idea Jonathan somehow thinks that photo was saying everything he needed to know about Nancy in that moment is pretty damn presumptuous.

Second, at this point in the story, Jonathan has not been present during any scenes involving Nancy and Steve. He has no clue how long they’ve been dating, or what their relationship is like behind closed doors, and is making assumptions about it without actually having been there or having the full context. It’s especially egregious when I see fans who get angry with Steve for jumping to assumptions about Jonathan this season (which is framed by the narration as a WRONG THING FOR STEVE TO HAVE DONE) who then turn around and make excuses when Jonathan does it to Steve.

This isn’t the only time this happens either. Jonathan did this again in the season 4 finale, which led to this controversial moment:

All of this brings me to a problem with Jonathan that began in season 1, and has unfortunately carried over to season 4:

Contrary to what Nancy says about Jonathan in this episode (which is also framed by the narration as a wrong assumption on her part), Jonathan’s character flaw isn’t that he’s a "pretentious creep." It’s that he projects his issues onto people. He’s good about not doing it to immediate family (sans Lonnie, whom Jonathan has every right to distrust) or even Will’s friends, but it is something that he’s done with strangers, and it’s something that even gets called out in the screenplay for Episode 2:

Look, I don’t have an issue with Jonathan’s contradictory feelings about wanting friends vs his desire to distance himself from others because he doesn’t like socializing and has a negative view about people in general. God knows I’ve had feelings like that before. I can even understand him projecting his issues regarding his parents’ marriage onto Nancy, especially with Lonnie’s visit bringing up all those painful memories from his childhood. Where I draw the line, however, is the fandom idea that Jonathan knowing Nancy better than she knows herself despite having limited interactions with him up to this point and NOT having ALL the context about her life.

It’s the same issue I had with Jonathan’s snide comment about Steve in the season 4 finale: If this had been said during season 1 when he and Steve were still hostile to each other, I could understand that. Steve hasn’t done anything at this point to endear himself to Jonathan. But 4 seasons later, when Steve has repeatedly proven he’s changed as a person and taken on more responsibility, and has worked to make peace with Jonathan (even after Nancy and Jonathan got together in season 2)? Not only is it derogatory and petty on Jonathan’s end, but it also comes off like he’s projecting his guilt about not being there for Nancy in season 4 onto Steve.

And I’m sorry, but I don’t buy the excuses fans have made for Jonathan about not knowing what Steve has done for the kids in the previous seasons. This is a group that keeps each other informed about anything related to the Upside Down and the adventures they go on. I am hard-pressed to believe that Jonathan is ignorant about Steve keeping the kids safe in season 2 when they burned the Mind Flayer’s tunnels to lure the demodogs away from El and Hopper, or making sure Dustin and Erica didn’t get captured by the Russians in season 3, to say nothing about how Dustin was at both of these events and would have chatted everyone’s ear off about Steve’s heroics.

The frustrating thing is it’s hard to tell whether Jonathan’s projecting is meant to be seen as a character flaw by the narration. Sometimes, it seems that way (like in season 4 when he tries to justify to Argyle about not meeting Nancy for Spring Break) whereas other times (like the conversation in this episode), it’s murky.

All of this made me glad when that conversation was over and they finally cut to later in the evening.

I feel bad for the poor deer that got dragged off by the Demogorgon for dinner. The night scenes in the forest with Nancy and Jonathan reminded me of The Evil Dead (i.e. the same movie Jonathan has a poster for in his bedroom that Lonnie demanded he take down) with the eerie woods and unseen monstrous force lurking within. We even get Nancy’s encounter with an unearthly tree (though thankfully, the show steers clear of the infamous tree rape scene from that movie) and climbing through the portal to come across the Demogorgon while unintentionally alerting it to her presence when she steps on one of the vines. They did a great job with the creepy atmosphere, and even the song choice at the end (which I’ll discuss in a minute) was haunting.

Part 5: The Breaking of The Fellowship

Remember what I said about certain references and inspirations having important roles in future episodes? We get that with the Stand By Me adventure the Party undertakes on the train tracks when they’re looking for Will………….

………..and The Thing in this episode.

Demogorgon and Thing teeth comparisons aside (as seen in the pictures above), they’ve been building towards a confrontation between Lucas and Mike as early as "The Weirdo on Maple Street," and it finally explodes here. From Lucas’s skepticism about how El could know where Will is but not know how to get to the Upside Down, to his observations about El’s odd behavior on the tracks, to his angry realization El’s been manipulating the compasses. To be fair, he isn’t completely wrong about El trying to dissuade them from going to the Upside Down, and given that he’s worried about Will’s life, his anger is understandable, even if it’s misplaced. El certainly doesn’t want Will to die, but she also doesn’t want to lead her friends into the belly of the beast in a fight she know damn well they can’t win. That’s also including her trauma over encountering the Demogorgon for the first time (as we see in her flashbacks when she hears the monster while spying on the Soviets) and her fear of what it is and whether her powers will be enough to combat it. It’s an argument where both sides are valid.

When Mike and Lucas get into the fight and El intervenes in a way that briefly knocks Lucas out, I was thinking back to the Childs-MacReady confrontation in The Thing. Particularly, when MacReady comes under suspicion for being the titular thing, and has to threaten to blow the base up to get everyone to back off. This getting followed up later with the famous blood test scene when an on-edge MacReady kills Clark (who’s later cleared of suspicion) and is accused by Childs of being a murderer. Never-mind that Childs was ready to kill MacReady beforehand despite MacReady being innocent. Both scenarios involve people in intense situations where they’re dealing with an unknown phenomenon, and the pressure brings out the worst in the characters. I’m not in a position to pass judgment because God knows how I would react if I was under that kind of pressure in either situation, but the way the characters act here when trust is already fragile (both at the junkyard in Stranger Things, and the Antarctica base in The Thing) is understandable and in-character.

At least for Lucas and Mike, there is a chance at reconciliation and moving forward. The most we get from Childs and MacReady at the end of the movie is a bitter resignation to their fates: Trust is completely gone, and while they’re not going to attack each other at the moment, they’re waiting to see what happens next.

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Part 6: Song Choices

We get one hell of a haunting song at the end with Nancy trapped in the Upside Down while Jonathan frantically searches for her. “Nocturnal Me” by Echo & The Bunnymen.

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I’ve discussed eerie songs in my reviews before, but this one has a very otherworldly quality to it, which is fitting since it’s being played while Nancy is in a different dimension. ‘Nocturnal’ refers to something that occurs at night, or is active at night. The term also can refer to “nocturnal flowers,” which open during the night. Given the Demogorgon’s nature of usually attacking at night, and how it has a mouth shaped like a flower with teeth inside…………..you can already draw conclusions here.

There are also these suggestive lyrics in the song:

“Take me internally, Forever yours, Nocturnal Me, Whatever burns, Burns Eternally.”

“When I’m on Fire, My Body Will Be, Forever Yours, Nocturnal Me.”

I could be crass in pointing out the obvious, which is how this refers to sex. But to quote Oscar Wilde “Everything is about sex except sex.” Songs like these have double entendres. It’s similar to “Like a Prayer” by Madonna: On the one hand, the lyrics for that song contain obvious sexual references, but on the other hand, it’s also about Madonna’s complicated relationship with God and religion.

In the same vein, if we look at the other side of "Nocturnal Me," it’s possible to interpret it as a unison of two in an ever-expanding, ever-changing universe, or even in circumstances that shouldn’t make sense but ultimately do. “Ice-capped fire” is one such oxymoron that lends credence to this. It could refer to the connection between the Upside Down and Hawkins (especially with how this song starts playing as the portal Nancy climbed through in the tree begins to close), but could it also refer to Nancy and Jonathan as a future couple? That they were meant to come together despite whatever differences they might have?

“And you and me, As realized, Our bigger themes.”

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babyleostuff · 2 years ago

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BOYFRIEND PHOTOS | KIM MINGYU

summary | a sunny date spend with your precious boyfriend

genre | fluff

word count | 974

pairing | mingyu x gn!reader

author’s note | purely inspired by gyu’s recent instagram posts. thank you for giving us the fluffiest boyfriend pics <3

“I’m here.”

Usually you couldn’t imagine grinning so hard over such a simple text, but coming from your precious boyfriend changed the perspective completely. Finally, after all the comeback stress and months of hard work he and his bandmates had to go through, he was allowed a day off.

You checked your outfit for the last time, feeling all giddy of the mere thought of this perfect sunny day you’d spend with Mingyu. Carefully running down the steps, you walked out to the street, almost bumping into the man before you.

“Mingyu!” you happily exclaimed, almost tackling him to the ground with a big hug.

Without saying a word, he chuckled and put his arms around you. It has been so long since you had a moment for yourselves that you’d forgotten how good it is to just simply hug him. No matter how long you’d been together nothing would top the feeling of just being in his strong arms.

“I missed you,” he said quietly, and you could bet a lot of money that he was slightly pouting too.

You pulled back to finally get a good look at his handsome face, adorned by the sunlight, making his honeyskin look even more beautiful.

“I’m so happy right now, you have now idea. I swear I don’t remember the last time I was so excited to go out. And it’s like the universe knew, I mean look at the weather, it's perfect,” he said excitedly, slurring his words which made his lisp come out a bit.

He gave you a big smile, showing his fangs that you adored so much. As you put your hands on his cheeks you asked:

“Kim Mingyu, are you going to kiss me or do I have to wait another month?” you didn’t even get to finish the question properly as he leaned down to seal your mouths in the most delicate kiss known to humankind.

His lips were soft, like pillows against your own, and oh how you’ve missed this. You could feel the tickle of his breath beneath your nose, while his fingers were carding through your hair.

You parted for a second to catch your breaths, but impatient as always Minguy went back in, this time kissing you with a little more force, as he also was dying to feel your touch again. Warmth and the smell of his cologne consumed you. With the butterflies dancing in your stomach, it was almost overwhelming how content you felt.

With a last peck he took your hand in his and pulled lightly to finally get you going, before both of you gave up on an outside date and went back to your place.

“So, where are you taking me today?”

“I found this cute cafe nearby and it looks like a good place to take some photos too.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“What?” he asked, with a slight concerne in his voice. You giggled at him and put your hand around his arm.

“I know where this is going, you’re just going to use me to take pictures for your Instagram! And what do I gain from this, hm?” you said in a jokingly offensive tone.

“Thousands of other people simping for my boyfriend, excuse me very much. I’ve had enough after scrolling through tens of tik toks saying how hot your “darumdarimda” is.” Now even he could contain his laugh.

After a couple minutes of walking and catching up on what you’ve missed, you hit your destination, and Mingyu was right - this was the cutest cafe you’ve seen in a while, situated in the best place to give you a bit of privacy.

“Here, here! Take a picture,” Mingyu suddenly said. He ran up the colorful stairs, and before you could take a single normal photo, he started doing some weird and funny poses. Not questioning your boyfriend’s antics, you took a couple of photos.

“My phone storage is crying right now. You have no idea how many of your stupid ass photos I have in my camera roll.”

“Do I get at least one day of freedom where people don’t bully me?” he whined. “Also, my own girlfriend? That really hurt,” he frowned while walking down the stairs.

“Also, why are you wearing your sunglasses like that?”

“Like what? Are you going to criticize this too?” Mingyu frowned even more. You would never fathom how this 6’2 man could act like a little child sometimes.

Before he could argue further, you snapped a quick photo, smiling to yourself.

“Cry about it big boy. At least I have stuff to blackmail you with,” you said and went to look for a free table to sit at.

“You hang out too much with the boys, I swear,” he said and pulled the chair back for you. After settling comfortably, you ordered some coffee and lunch and fell back to the conversation from before.

You could feel your heart race, because of how content, happy and loved you felt.

Looking at Mingyu, who was dramatically telling a story from one of their dance practices, where Wonwoo did a step wrong so Soonyoung threw a tantrum, you couldn’t contain your giggles, laughing at how overdramatic your boyfriend was acting.

“Why are you looking at me like that, hm? You don’t want to take photos of me? No problem, going to do it myself,” and he did as he said, starting to take some selfies from different angles.

“Oh stop it, you know I was joking. Here, let me,” you pointed your camera at Mingyu.

You both knew how much you loved taking pictures of each other, saving them as memories you’d have fun reminiscing on later in the future.

You spend the rest of the day in the same atmosphere, bickering, talking and laughing, but most importantly - being in love.

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averydavery · 30 days ago

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The Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth Problem

Ichiban sprite WIP for my (admittedly self-indulgent) fangame

Pseudo-essay and ramblings below the cut

Tldr:

I’m a sore, butt-hurt player who feels a bit cheated and a lot disappointed.

Critical Rating- 8/10

Personal Rating- 6.5/10

SPOILERS AHEAD

So I’m writing this as of just finishing the game. Mind you, it took me about three-fourths of this year to beat LAD8. Not because it was challenging but because one thing or another pissed me off so much, I had to put it down for extended periods of time. Now I want to get my glazing out of the way so you understand the things that I’m 100% not bashing here and a lot of my criticisms just have to deal with how RGG studio as a whole has become as storytellers and developers.

But most obviously addicting was the gameplay. This is probably one of my favorite turn-based RPGs in terms of mechanics and strategy— and I played BG3 this year. It improved everything that was in 7 and added only more things worth liking, especially the inclusion of Kiryu breaking the entire physics and reverting to just pummeling someone. I thought that was a really endearing touch. Also, out of all the games I’ve put on the TV, this was the one my dad enjoyed watching most. For context, my dad is a fifty-three year old man who only plays first-person shooters and has no interest in any other kind of game. I play with subtitles too and he’s usually not a fan of that since he has poor vision but he LOVED watching the silly little “essence of” moves. He genuinely got excited whenever I did a shit ton of damage on an enemy lmao. Also in my dorm I have a poster of Ichiban and my dad pointed at it recently and said “I know that guy! He beats up people with his magical bat!” … literally sobbed.

Besides the gameplay, it had nice quality of life improvements from 7 which was to be expected. Although I am VERY opinionated in terms of the story, my favorite part was Eiji and Ichiban’s development. The ending scene had such a cyclical feel to it that kind of reigned in some of the craziness to remind the viewer that the first “new” character Ichiban met was Eiji and a lot of Ichi’s expository conflicts were the result of his actions. I thought out of all the antagonists, he was the most realized and motivated as well. A lot of the more shocking moments I cared for had him in it— either explicitly or implicitly. Also not to mention the “bon voyage” motif, that was adorable.

Other things I enjoyed a lot were Dondoko Island, what a great in-depth mini game that at times I’d much rather play than the main story, and Chitose and Tomizawa. I liked both of them a lot, I thought the were sweet additions, it’s just Chitose had a lot of bearing on the story in regards to Eiji and I wish I could see it through. She wasn’t in the ending much at all and I feel like since she was so guarded we didn’t see her personality very much. Tomi was a much smaller part of the story which was a bummer but regardless, he certainly didn’t bother me and I like him for what he’s there for! Also he’s the most down-to-earth and relatable character on the team so that perspective was nice.

Okay now onto why I didn’t like this game so much.

I enjoyed this game really up until Kiryu went back to Yokohama and got his own team. Everything I disliked about the plot could be traced back to starting around that chapter. If you boil it down, this game introduces itself as being a continuation of Ichiban’s story and revolving around him. But when we take ahold of Kiryu it reveals itself to be a game centered around both of them. And one side of the story is about a new, fresh, and beloved character we players are always excited to play as… and the other is Kiryu.

I’m gonna rip the band-aid off now: I am sick of Kiryu. Do I think he deserves a better ending than in 6? Yes. Have I played Gaiden? No. Do I think that they should’ve found a way to end his story in Gaiden? Yes.

We as players have spent SEVEN AND A HALF games playing as Kiryu, from 0 to Gaiden. I think it’s not a stretch to say they need to give him a rest. I wish everything that happened with Kiryu at the end of this game was either put into Gaiden and RGG had marketed that game as “the true twilight era and ending of Kiryu Kazuma” or been experienced through the eyes of Ichiban. After all, it felt like Kiryu was upstaging Ichiban more or less in his own game and not in a good way. If this game was supposed to be truly “shared” between the two of them then they shouldn’t have made Ichiban such a focal point and made it like some grand scheme visualized through two different lenses like they did with Kiryu and Majima in 0. Every time I was back at the helm of Kiryu was just biding my time until I was Ichiban again! And call this an original take (sarcasm), but I don’t think a game should be played like that.

Not to mention that RGG now has a habit of making the game unplayable by forcing the player to spend hours leveling up to beat a boss and while I think that’s a clever way to get the player to spend more hours in their game— I definitely think we can all agree that spending time grinding to level up or to get new poundmates was no one’s favorite part of the story. So not only am I trying to rush through Kiryu’s story that I’m bored by, the game forces me to stay playing as him which only makes me hate that half of the game more.

I also think this series has really lost its spark, it set a standard that the conflict has to be so large, so all-encompassing and complex that it doesn’t really know what story its telling. What I mean is done best in 3 which is my favorite game in terms of story, is because of its scope. Sure, the US is involved so the issue is slightly international and there is some silly, yakuza-brand confusion but 3 is solely focused on that little town in Okinawa. Everything came back to Kiryu’s attempt to settle down there and how the Tojo Clan still seemed to follow him all they to his doorstep. The plot was localized and familiar characters like Majima and Dojima made decisions remotely from Kiryu, while new faces like Rikiya and Mine got to shine. In 8, the scale is so large and is trying its best to be so fanservice-y that the story of “Ichiban finding his mom” is lost completely in the cracks.

Also the cult shit. I know this RGG but even for their standards, this was stupid and not in a silly way. I was just groaning.

Not to mention, Lani is a character I felt no emotion towards. I wish the story was solely been about Ichiban finding his mom and it had spanned the entirety of the story, rather than the player being told “well, Akane isn’t the important one that Palekana is looking for it’s actually this random kid she’s protecting that you don’t know anything about or have an attachment to instead.” I think if they had, again, narrowed the scope and simplified the plot to be Ichiban searching for his mom— it could’ve been way more emotional and impactful. They could’ve even tried to achieve that Twin Peaks “who killed Laura Palmer?” vibe. Be which I mean, a very simple question or sentence could’ve been expanded upon tenfold.

I don’t know, this has gone on long enough. What do you think?

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jukkaricity · 1 month ago

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Companion banter with Alectris - Lace Harding edition

Alectris and Harding get along like a house on fire, despite their backgrounds and upbringing being as different as they could get.

Alectris: Did I get it right? You worked for the Inquisition?

Harding: Yes! I’ve done a lot of scouting for them, seen most of Southern Thedas.

A: You have to tell me all about it.

*depending on Inquisitor’s race*

(qunari) A: Is it true that the Inquisitor was a Qunari spy?

(elf) A: I heard that the Inquisitor was Dalish and could shape shift!

(human) A: Someone said that the Inquisitor was actually a Tevene Dreamer?

(dwarf) A: The Ambassadoria said that the Inquisitor came from a forgotten Thaig!

H: What!? No!

***

Harding: You’re with the Shadow Dragons, right? Like Neve?

Alectris: Somewhat, yes. Have you met Lorelei, the front? My shop does something similar.

H: Your shop?

A: My family has owned the place for a few generations. Don’t get hung up on that.

***

Alectris: Lace? Is it true that you only have surface dwarves in Ferelden?

Harding: What do you mean? If a dwarf sees the sky it makes them lose their caste, so they come up and live on the surface. How else could it be in Ferelden?

A: Well, the dwarven embassy is carved deep into the ground beneath Minrathous, some of the emissaries never leave the deepest chambers.

H: You’re kidding? I thought that Tevinter only respects humans?

A: I guess the desperate need of lyrium puts things into perspective.

***

Harding: Do you ever get tangled up between your sword and the magic?

Alectris: I’m sorry?

H: I mean, do you sometimes mix your moves up? Throw your sword instead of a fireball?

A: *laughs* Doesn’t really happen anymore. But you should have seen me flailing when I started.

A: You’re dealing with this new magic thing way better than I did.

***

Harding: Have I heard some lute from the armory?

Alectris: I… No, surely not. Maybe someone playing in the kitchen?

H: I might have believed you if I wasn’t there at the time.

H: Sounded really good too!

***

Alectris: So… is It true that magister Dorian Pavus was part of the Inquisiton?

Harding: Yes! He was part of Inquisitor's inner circle! Traveled with the team nearly everywhere!

A: *laughs* I cannot believe this. Dorian Pavus, his fancy clothes and even fancier mustache in the Ferelden wilderness.

A: What would I pay to have seen it.

***

Harding: Alectris! When did you learn inquisition songs?

A: Some of them I knew before, just had no idea where they came from.

A: A few others I had to ask around for.

H: That’s amazing! Oh, we could have a singing evening instead of the book club!

H: Do you have a favourite song?

A: Oh, yes. I like that song about a certain Inquisition scout.

H: What? No!

***

A: Scout Lace Harding…

H: Yes?

A: Swift and cunning…

H: Stop it! It’s embarrassing! A: Her arrows cut you down to size H: If you don’t stop I might as well!

***

H: Do you know how to dance?

A: Yes. And whatever your next question is, no.

H: I didn’t even say anything!

A: I know. But no, I’d give my leg to a dracolisk before I agree to anything.

#dragon age #dragon age veilguard #da veilguard #fake banter #oc: alectris mercar #scout lace harding #lace harding #dragon age harding #scout harding #datv #dav #veilguard #jukkari writes: da stuff

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darcytaylor · 3 months ago

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The Importance of Staying Grounded in Speculative Conversations

It’s that time again, where I’m writing what might be a thought-provoking post? Inspirational? Overbearing? I know most of you are probably tired of these by now, but hey, maybe there’s something worth considering in what I’m about to say. Or maybe not. Who’s to say?

So why am I writing this? Is it to convince you to agree with me? No, you don’t have to. Is it to share my personal take on what's going on? Nah, honestly, I don’t think my opinion matters that much. Do I have thoughts on what’s happening? Sure, but it’s not my place to tell anyone how to think or what to believe. But maybe I can offer a perspective on speculation and how people engage with it:

I’ve been reflecting on how people engage with speculation (shocking, I know! haha), especially in fandoms and even in other public spaces. People have this undeniable passion for what they believe to be true, and while that passion can be understandable - and even admirable at times - it can go a little overboard.

When I say, “I don’t actually know what’s going on because I don’t know the people involved,” I tend to get a couple of reactions: Some people see it the same way, some people get defensive, some people try to convince me to see things their way. But here’s the truth: I don’t know the people involved - and neither do you. None of us know the full story or what’s going on behind the scenes.

A lot of people will say, “But look at the evidence! It’s so obvious!” And here’s where I disagree: Without firsthand knowledge, we’re essentially trying to put together a puzzle with most of the pieces missing. And drawing conclusions from that? It’s risky at best - and misleading at worst.

What really gets to me, though, is the need some people have to stir the pot (and I guess this is the main reason I make posts like this). It seems like some people want to rile others up, making it appear like they know more or that their perspective is the only one that matters. Maybe it’s a way to feel validated or in control, but in the end, it doesn’t help anyone. It just adds noise and fuels unnecessary drama, which - can be harmful!!

When people get defensive about their views, I think I could be because they’re seeking reassurance. They want to feel like they’ve figured it out. But the truth is: none of us have all the answers. We’re all just outsiders looking in.

For me, staying grounded means accepting that I don’t have the full picture - and that’s okay. It means being open to the possibility that there could be many explanations for a situation and choosing not to rush to conclusions. This isn’t about being overly cautious or passive - it’s about showing respect. It’s about letting people live their lives without outsiders treating their guesses like hard facts.

I think if more people took this approach, fandom spaces and public discourse would be a lot less toxic. It became so toxic for me that at one point I had to step away, because of he vile anonymous asks I was getting. It’s entirely possible to have thoughtful, respectful conversations without falling into the “I’m right, and you’re wrong” trap. A little humility, and a lot more recognition that things are often more complicated than they seem, could really make a difference.

At the end of the day, none of us have all the answers -and that’s fine. What’s not fine is turning speculation into fact or stirring up drama when it isn’t necessary. So, can we be more mindful, respectful, and take a step back from the impulse to turn every guess into something?

If you see a take that isn't damaging, you don’t need to respond just because you don’t agree with it. You can let people have their own perspectives without degrading others. That said, I have no respect for speculation when it comes to matters that are too personal or just downright mean, especially when people try to act like it isn’t. Some things shouldn't be speculated on, and treating them as public fodder isn’t just disrespectful - it’s harmful.

Life’s complicated enough without us making it harder than it already is.

#bridgerton #luke newton #nicola coughlan

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thenightshadowqueen · 3 months ago

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What do you think are Merlin and Arthur’s greatest personality strengths and weaknesses? Why? What do you love about their dynamic?

Also, what are your top 5 favorite moments from Merlin BBC? Sorry if you've answered this questions before....

Ooh, those are great questions! And don’t worry; I haven’t done these yet. Thank you for the ask! I am so, so sorry that it’s taken me so long to get to this; I’ve been having a time the past few weeks, and I wanted to give you a properly thought-out answer.

Okay, so: Merlin. I think the idea of strengths and weaknesses for him really comes from whose perspective you’re looking from. If we’re looking at what makes him such a compelling character, then I think his greatest strength is his complete and unconditional devotion to Arthur. That is what draws me, at least, so totally to his character—not in the sense that he isn’t a fascinating and full character separate from Arthur, but in the sense that his self, especially in the later seasons, is so fundamentally tied to Arthur that it’s impossible to have Merlin as he is without Arthur. However, if we’re looking at strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of Merlin’s own mental health, this very same trait is his greatest weakness. The same is true if you look at all of the bad things that happened due to Merlin’s decisions: his worst decisions were made with Arthur’s best interests at heart.

Arthur’s strengths and weaknesses are, I think, a little easier to determine. His greatest strength is probably his dedication to his people and his determination to do what’s best for his kingdom. On the other hand, he is a bit of a dick, especially during the earlier seasons. He can also be quite oblivious (some of which is his character and some of which is questionable writing).

As for what I love about the dynamic, I think a lot of it comes down to the fundamental imbalance of the whole thing. I’m fascinated and quite compelled by unhealthy ship dynamics (I have my theories as to why, but we don’t need to get into that here), and just the fact that Arthur doesn’t know about Merlin’s magic means that their relationship can never be equal. And then, when you think about Merlin’s self-destructive devotion, it all becomes clear. Arthur is just as dedicated to Merlin as the other way around, but because Arthur doesn’t have all the information, he is unable to put in the same amount of effort and love as Merlin. [Autocorrect tried to change ‘love’ to ‘lube’. Just thought I’d share that.] Of course, there’s also the fucking chemistry; that’s what got me into them in the first place, but the unbalance of the whole thing is why I’ve stayed so long.

Top 5 BBC Merlin Moments

5. “Where does it say my destiny includes murder?” (S1E12)

This scene has always stood out to me during rewatches, because with the context of the full show, it’s dripping in dramatic irony. Merlin kills so many people for Arthur, most necessary and some not, and at some point he stops thinking twice about it, because he’ll do anything to protect Arthur. And this scene is so fucking sad, because he’s so innocent, and you just know that that’s all going to be ripped away.

4. Merlin poisoning Morgana (S2E12)

This is such a crucial turning point. This kind of solidifies Morgana turning sides, but it’s also the first moment you get to see that ruthlessly devoted side of Merlin. I mean, he poisons one of his closest friends to save Arthur. And I feel like this is one of the first times we really get to see how far he’s willing to go. Also, shoutout to Colin and Katie, because the acting was incredible.

3. That one five-second shot of Morgana grabbing Gwaine’s jaw (S4E12)

Look, I have deep reasons for the other ones. I’m allowed to have one shallow moment as a favourite. As a treat. They’re both so fucking gorgeous, and together? In that dynamic? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: they are conspiring to cause my death.

2. Arthur and Merlin’s fight in the marketplace (S1E1)

They’re both such sassy little shits in this scene, and I love them for it. But also the pure sexual tension in that scene is unreal. Like, Arthur is so fucking delighted to find someone who treats him like a normal person, and Merlin is just pissed off. Is there a better dynamic? I don’t think so.

1. Arthur’s death (S5E13)

It’s heartbreaking. I’m not denying that. But it’s gorgeous. Colin and Bradley did such an amazing job, and there’s so much love and heartbreak packed into those few minutes, and I actually don’t know what I can say about how much I love it other than just look at it.

#I’m so sorry again about the delay #chronic illness is a bitch #but again thank you for the ask!#I really enjoyed answering it #I love lists #ask box #merlin #bbc merlin #merlin spoilers #merthur

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stagefoureddiediaz · 3 months ago

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Go with me here - I have thoughts!

So I’ve been thinking about this since we got the stills, of both Buck and tommy at the loft, but also the divorcing couple, but then the quote from Tim got me feeling more convinced than ever!

Tim has revealed quite a lot in this quote - it confirms that whatever it is is about Tommy and about the BuckTommy relationship - its not about other outside things - there are only a couple of things that that could mean.

I don’t think it’s going to be about Abby - but I do think she is relevant! I’m very much still sticking with my theory that Tommy is an alt version of Buck and things are feeling more and more like this is in fact the case. See if Tommy is alt Buck then we have some very interesting parallels and contrasts to explore, especially around the part of my theory that BuckTommy is a reversion of the BuckAbby relationship - only this time, Buck is in the same place as Abby - so the one who wants out of the relationship whilst not knowing how to actually end said relationship.

Buck and Abbys relationship was Bucks entry level relationship into the concept of actually dating and being with someone - not just for sex - but for them as a whole person. Tommy has been described by Tim in the same way - as an entry level queer relationship for Buck. Buck is the main character here, so he needs to show growth and development - so putting him into the same place Abby was - having him figure out how to end things on his own terms - talking to his family and actually recognising what it is he wants - showing us that on screen -that would be a good thing.

Say we get a inadvertent confession from Tommy early on in the episode - where Tommy implies that he was interested in Eddie first - pursuing Eddie before he switched to Buck - just as a throw away comment that can be read in multiple ways, but is enough to send Buck spiralling and seeking the advice of Bobby and of Maddie and Josh - everything then ‘becomes clear’ later on towards the end of the episode when Tommy fully reveals and confirms that he was into Eddie not Buck. It makes complete sense to play it in parallel to Buck Abby - it’s the way it creates a spiral that allows Buck to avoid Tommy for a short period so that he doesn’t have to start thinking about his own feelings at the start of their relationship - he doesn’t have to confront the fact that he might’ve got things wrong and that it wasn’t Tommy he was feelings things for - he was threatened by Tommy - because he posed a threat to Bucks relationship with Eddie - and if that is the case then Buck has to face up to the reality of his feelings for Eddie - that they are not actually platonic.

Ultimately Buck will realise he’s got to end things with Tommy and give himself the space to work out the Eddie of it all - that it’s not fair to be in a relationship he can’t fully give himself to. It gives him the closure he never really got from Abby when she left him and gives him a large amount of growth and it also gives us pining Buck as we head into Hiatus and when we start 8b.

I’m not just pulling this out of thin air either - there are a few things that back up my theory from a costume and set perspective - and from a script and directorial perspective too.

Firstly we have divorcing couple storyline - a man quite literally spilling his guts - a man who it seems from the episode blurb, doesn’t want a divorce. He is wearing a plaid check suit jacket - which mirrors the plaid we have seen Tommy wearing so far this season - and ties into the suit jacket at the end of Episode 5. The ex wife is wearing yellow and blue - the Buck and Eddie colours (see mine or @lover-of-mine ‘s many metas on the subject of blue and yellow and Buck and Eddie!) the set of that scene is also heavily yellow blue coded - the painting on the wall especially.

Then we have the fact that Tommy has been located in the exact same place as Eddie was in the coming out scene from 705 - and wearing Black - I think its really really ket that we note this fact - mirroring that scene is a very loud directorial, set and costuming choice. Tommy is meant to mirror Eddie from that 705 scene - Eddie is making his own confessions in that scene - he is basically figuring out how to break up with Marisol because he didn’t know this big thing about her (and that big thing is hitting a bit too close to home for Eddie) and we get a whole thing about buck and tommy having the right idea - to just hang out with the boys etc. Eddie basically reverts on his plans to end things with Marisol when Buck makes his own confession.

So we have a scene about confessions in an episode called confessions paralleling a scene about confessions in an episode called you don’t know me - that is a choice - a very intentional one. Plus there is the fact that Tommy is sat in Eddie’s seat saying he thought Eddie was gay would be really great paralleling to Eddie taking Bucks coming out to mean for him to fix things with Marisol because Buck had become available and unavailable to Eddie. Eddie now has the knowledge that Buck was an option, but that he’s not available as an option. So a Tommy confession that plays into the buddie of it all both helps the queer Eddie arc along as well as driving Bucks arc forward - creating a big enough hurdle for Buck to chose to end the relationship, but also a hurdle that the relationship could successfully navigate its way over if both parties wanted to.

The thing is - Bucks costume tells us all we need to know about which direction this will ultimately go in - he is wearing Blue in the scene with Eddie - the one time he actively chooses to come out to someone (the fact its Eddie is telling all on its own) - and that specific blue is very heavily connected to Bucks journey in figuring himself out - who he is and what he wants in his life - its a colour very much tied to Eddie - he wears that shade of blue in Eddie heavy scenes - and tends to wear different shades of blue in connection with other characters (look at my s6 costume metas for more on the subject!) The fact that buck is in green for this upcoming Tommy scene is an indicator that the relationship is nearing its end - Buck wears green when relationships end - this bears out all the way back to season 1 - he is wearing a green plaid shirt at the airport when Abby leaves to go to Europe. Buck doesn’t wear green all that much and like I have said in a previous post - the darker greens are always connected to break ups. All this is showing us that Eddie is the right person and Tommy is the wrong one.

And then we have the lighting and the set. The lighting is starkly different - we. Have the warm yellows and low light levels of the Buck and Eddie scene from 705 while this Buck and tommy scene is brightly lit and the light is cool toned. This does two things - in the Buck Eddie scene it created intimacy and warmth - it allows the confessions from both of them to read as being important but ultimately changes little in their relationship - it remains intimate and warm - as the hug backs up. In contrast the Buck tommy scene illuminates everything - its not intimate - it is harsh and revealing - the lighting gives no place to hide and the cool tones play into the cooling of the relationship - it will be interesting to see if the direction of the scene also plays into this - the Buck Eddies scene we saw the distance between them narrow and end in the hug before Eddie departs. My expectation is that this Buck Tommy scene will either maintain a distance between them that doesn’t really close - or it will show the distance increasing between them as the scene progresses.

We have lots of threes in the set design for this Buck Tommy scene too - the three jars in front of Buck, there appears to be 3 baseball caps on the coat rack and we’re have the three coloured jackets on the coat rack as well.

The three jackets are basically the writing on the wall for the relationship. They are saying so much while they just hang out there behind Tommy in seemingly innocuous fashion. Their meaning becomes even louder now we know that Eddie is going to be in yellow this episode. Buck is the blue jacket and Tommy is the green one - they are together right now like those jackets are hung together, but the yellow jacket - on it s own on the other side of Tommys head is there waiting. The yellow jacket is Eddie. The green one is in between the yellow and blue - in the same way Tommy is in between Buck and Eddie .

Blue and green represent a break up in Buck terms and with the green jacket being the same colour as bucks shirt - it is saying that the break up is in Bucks hands and once it does, the yellow and blue will be there on separate pegs - but unimpeded by a relationship. The break up will move us one step closer to the yellow and blue joining together.

The bike being gone is also part of the symbolism - no more Buck without brakes - he can put a stop to things now - he has control.

One other things is that I’ve been parsing over the meaning of the plane emergency fro the opening 3 episodes - because the show always foreshadows all of the character arcs through the main opening emergency - if you look at all the opening disasters you will see that it echoes through the season for each character arc. The cruise disaster from s7 plays into each character arc perfectly - characters lives being turned upside down in some way - Eddie upending his life through his choices - the Kim of it all leading to Chris leaving. Buck’s life being turned on its head as he figures out he’s bi. Hen and Karens lives being altered through Mara coming into their family and then losing her because of Ortiz. Maddie and Chims wedding being knocked off course and turned upside down through Chim going missing because of the illness he develops. Bobby trying to retire and then the bathena house being burnt down. Athenas storyline with Harry - they are all arcs that play into the idea of being capsized.

So I’ve been contemplating how the plane emergency is relevant - and I know a lot more will become clear as the season unfolds, but right now we have some interesting things going on looking at it from the Buck and Eddie perspective. So we have the bike symbolism in connection with Buck - which plays into the loss of his bike from the wall, but there is the fact that he highjacks a bike in the opening disaster - buck is on someone else’s bike on an empty bit of road - symbolic of his relationship with tommy - he’s the only one in it but it’s not the right relationship - when he gets off that bike he can signpost Eddie in to land - the bike he gets off being a metaphor for tommy and the plane being one for Eddie.

The fact that Eddie is broken and unable to change direction at the moment - like the plane - and he’s looking for a place to try to land - him managing to land safely in the end is a bit of foreshadowing for buddie going canon - Buck will initially direct him to a landing spot but will also be there waiting for him when he does manage to land - in the place for bobby. It continues the Buddie parallels with bathena - Bobby there waiting for Athena in the same way buck will be waiting for Eddie.

Plus the Jem of it all works too - him being representative of Chris - so the idea that Chris coming back into Eddies life will help Eddie land his plane is pretty loud as well. That Chris will help lead Eddie to Buck - in some way. I keep thinking about the simulation game thing as well - something about Chris being with Helena and Ramon being like a simulation - its pretend and not the real thing - and it will cause him to crash - but he can walk away from it and when it comes down to it - to the real thing - he will step up and be successful in it. That Chris will be the one doing a bit of directing Eddie on how to heal and land the plane.

#i ran out of time to finish this properly but you get the gist #911 spoilers #eddie diaz #911 abc #evan buckley #buddie #anti bucktommy #anti tommy kinard #911 speculation #right episode time!#basically buddie canon is happening and they’ve been laying the ground work in more ways than you realise #and we’ll figure out more as the season unfolds

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