#like no she’s not the most articulate and I don’t agree with a lot of what she’s saying but I know many many people who do!

[lunar-years]

Chappell’s thoughts on the election sound a heck of lot like many of the takes I see daily on social media in fandom spaces and leftist spaces and on my personal accounts from people I went to high school/college with etc. etc. and I actually think it’s helpful that she’s giving voice to the thoughts a lot of people are clearly having and acknowledging a fairly prominent point of view amongst a portion of young voters whilst STILL ultimately saying she’s going to vote (for Kamala!) and emphasizing the importance of local elections. Like, I personally don’t agree with her stance but many people do and many in that group are the ones going around saying they’re not voting entirely or trying to get us all to vote Jill fucking Stein. Maybe what Chappell is saying will register with some of that group? Maybe they will get out and vote for Kamala despite not agreeing with all of her policies and viewpoints? Which is…a positive thing? What am I missing here 😭

[ifwebefriends]

My thoughts during “The Sign” [SPOILERS!!!!!]

ID in ALT

More thoughts under the cut

So I think most of us can agree that this is the best episode of Bluey so far. It was so emotional and satisfying in ways that are kinda new for Bluey. It answered so many questions while giving us a few new ones. I’ve been waiting for this episode for months and it did not disappoint in any way.

This is just a Chekov’s firing squad of an episode. As in a lot of stuff that was set up in earlier episodes all pay off in this episode. I kinda understand why people love soap operas now lol. I will say that this episode was a tad overwhelming for me in the best way possible. As in I had to pause and rewind every 30 seconds or so so I could emotionally process what was happening before moving forward (but that’s a me thing). There was just so much going on and I’m happy about that.

Now onto individual thoughts about specific things:

The callback to Baby Race (“you took your first steps in that house!”) really got to me because Baby Race was the first episode of Bluey that I watched and it immediately made me fall in love with it so it just got to me.

When Chilli said “Frisky and I came up here as teenagers to…um…think,” my mind started racing immediately with “what the FUCK happened at the Lookout?” “Who hurt Frisky and/or Chilli?” And I’m just so curious about what made Chilli say that line like that but we’ll probably never know what happened.

So yeah that scene at the end when the music was playing and Bandit ripped the sign out of the ground and Chilli tackled him to the ground ABSOLUTELY CHANGED my brain chemistry y’all. I can’t articulate my feelings any more than that.

I know some people were upset that Brandy ended up getting pregnant but I thought it was great for her! I’m happy for her! And I think that even though she got what she wanted in the end doesn’t negate the feelings she had about her infertility earlier. But I think we’re all wondering who the father is and I don’t know if the show really needs to answer that.

The whole message of “we’ll see” in terms of if something is good or bad is such a mature message that I never really thought of like that so I will be taking that philosophy forward in life. Congratulations Bluey, you managed to teach a 22-year-old childless person something new and insightful about life that I don’t think I’ve learned from another show.

I want to know more about what Bob was going through and feeling and why he went to India, but again, we’ll probably never know.

I just love how the wedding photos were beautiful but imperfect. Like of course we’re not perfect and nothing will ever be perfect but it’s beautiful and worth remembering anyway.

So many little jokes and moments were so funny in a mature way (I.e. “are we allowed to do that?” And Nana thinking there was about to be a baby announcement) were just so funny and memorable.

I think some people would say it’s a cop-out to end up not selling the house after building it up for 2 episodes but I don’t know, I think it works. I think Bluey and Bingo learned a valuable lesson and Bandit (and Chilli kinda) learned it’s not always about making their kids lives “perfect” in their eyes. Also I’m just personally glad they didn’t end up selling the house and I also kinda like that it wasn’t entirely their choice to keep it.

On a more serious note I think this episode has some interesting commentary on like gender roles and gender relations in straight relationships. In this episode Chilli and Frisky (both women) have to deal with their male significant others pressuring them to move with them far away from what they know and love. In the end they don’t end up moving and the men didn’t seem to have like malicious or selfish intent with it, they were just kinda basing their choices off their jobs instead of what’s best emotionally for their loved ones. But I think it’s interesting to have this conflict where gender is kinda brought up in a way (“because your husband is making you”). It kinda plays into the traditional idea of like men are the breadwinners and the family has to move with them regardless of what they actually want. And this episode kinda like deconstructs that and says “no, it’s not always about the job or money, it’s also sometimes about connections and emotional attachment.” And I’m not saying that you should never move or whatever, but really weigh your options. I just thought that it was interesting that this episode kinda touched on that.

So yeah that’s kinda the main thoughts I had on this episode if you made it this far thank you for reading my rambles and have a good one!

[breezeflows]

The Long Road (Stanford Pines x Reader)

Chapter 3

WOOP WOOP CHAPTER 3 IS HERE AND BOY IS IT JUICY🫣 On a serious note though, we are finally getting into some of the exciting bits of the story!! I’m hoping by the next chapter we will finally be back in the present. No more sad flashbacks!! Also y’all writing Lizzy is genuinely my favorite. If this fic wasn’t about Ford I’d be wifing her up instead😔 Anyways- here’s chapter 3 you lovely souls!

Themes: Consumption of alcohol (reader lowkey gets wasted), major hangover, bill himself is a warning, suggestiveness kind of?? idk, heartache, lizzy is overall an amazing friend, alllll the angst and feelings, injuries, etc okay enjoy!

The drive to Lizzy’s place is quiet, the steady hum of the car engine and the sound of raindrops against the windshield the only background noise. You sit in the passenger seat, watching the trees pass by through the window as you fiddle with the wedding band around your finger. Lizzy glances at you occasionally, a small frown on her face as she senses your mood. She remains silent for most of the ride, giving you space to process your emotions if need be.

It's not long before the car rolls to a stop in front of her apartment building. You reach around to gather your belongings from the backseat and step out into the rainy afternoon. Lizzy follows suit, bright pink umbrella in hand as she leads you towards the entrance.

Once inside the building, she unlocks the door to her apartment building and the two of you usher inside. The soft yellow light of the living room envelopes you, creating a cozy atmosphere in stark contrast to the gloominess outside.

Lizzy begins to kick off her shoes, hanging her keys as she silently studies your face. She can see the turmoil in your eyes, and the uncertainty you’re trying to hide.

“So,” she says gently, breaking the silence. “You okay?”

Your eyes snap out of the daze they were in as you look over at Lizzy, giving her a weak smile.

“Oh, yeah I guess. Things went a lot better than I thought they would.”

Her expression relaxes at your response, a hint of relief showing on her face.

“That’s good,” she says as she walks over to the couch and plops down on it, gesturing for you to do the same. “I was half-expecting a tearful scene or something, honestly.”

You manage a light chuckle at her remark, plopping down on the couch next to her. You pull your knees to your chest as you grab a blanket draped across the back of it, wrapping it around you.

“Yeah,” you say softly. “Ford took it pretty well, actually. Better than I expected.”

Lizzy raises a brow as she leans against the back cushions, her arms crossing. “Girl, he better take it well after what he said to you. If it had been me, I would’ve dropped his ass on the spot.”

You can’t help but let out a small snort of laughter at her words, a genuine smile tugging at the corners of your lips for the first time in a while. It’s a relief to have Lizzy’s no-nonsense attitude around, her bluntness serving as a much-needed dose of honesty.

“Yeah, yeah Liz, I know.” you admit, the smile still lingering on your face. “I was a little tempted.”

Lizzy grins, satisfied with your response as she reaches over and pats your knee supportively.

“As you should,” she says with a nod. “You don’t deserve treatment like that of any kind, no matter how important his research is to him.”

You frown slightly at her words, opting to pick at the blanket below as a distraction.

“Yeah..”

Lizzy watches your expression carefully, sensing your discomfort. She tilts her head slightly, her gaze searching your face.

“But you don’t quite agree, do you?” she probes gently.

You let out a sigh, unsure how to articulate your feelings as you continue to fiddle with the fabric of the blanket.

“It’s just… complicated Liz,” you say, your voice tinged with guilt and frustration. “Yes, I’m hurt and angry with him, but I also understand where he’s coming from. We’ve been together almost our whole lives, and this is all he has ever worked towards. His research is important to him, and he’s under a lot of pressure.”

Lizzy nods slowly as she listens to your words, her expression a mix of understanding and concern. She reaches over and places a hand on top of yours, stopping your nervous fidgeting.

“I get that Y/N, I do,” she says quietly. “And I’m not saying he’s completely in the wrong. But you shouldn’t have to feel like an afterthought in his life either. That’s not fair to you.”

Your eyes brim with tears at her response, your hand twisting and taking hers tightly.

“I know,” you say, your voice threatening to break. “I just wish we could fix things..”

Lizzy squeezes your hand as your tear-filled eyes meet hers.

“And you will, Y/N. It’ll just take some time.”

A small, wobbly smile forms on your lips at her reassurance, a few tears slipping down your cheeks. The hope that you might be able to fix things with Ford, to find a way to bridge the gap that’s widened between you both, is a small but significant comfort.

“Thank you, Liz,” you murmur, your voice still shaky. “I really hope you’re right.”

Lizzy stands with a smile, her hand pulling away from yours and resting on your shoulder.

“I know I’m right chick, because you two love each other. I’ve seen it.”

Your heart warms at her confidence, a soft smile forming on your lips as you nod.

“Now, how about some pizza?”

The few weeks you spend with Lizzy fly by, days passing in a blur of movies, late-night conversations, and plenty of chocolate induced comfort eating. As the final night of your stay approaches, Lizzy turns to you with a sly grin on her face.

“Y/N, I know you’ve been pretty reclusive the past couple of weeks, but it’s your last night here and I refuse to let you spend it watching crappy movies in my living room.”

She places her hands on her hips and gives you a stern look.

“We’re going out for drinks and that’s final.”

You mope as you walk into her view from the bathroom, your voice annoyed and pleading as you speak.

“Liz, I don’t think this is a good idea. I’m a married woman, and this dress feels less than... modest.”

Lizzy rolls her eyes, her expression clearly unconvinced.

“Girl, you’re not here to pick up someone, you’re here to have fun. And as for the dress I picked out for you, it looks fantastic. Stop overthinking it.”

She gives you a onceover, inspecting your outfit.

“Besides, I’d like to see anyone who tries hitting on you tonight.”

You pout as you watch her, pulling down your dress so it covers your knees.

“I don’t know how Ford would feel about this..”

Lizzy scoffs, shaking her head.

“Ford’s not here, and we both know he should be the last person you’re trying to impress right now. You’re still young, and attractive Y/N, you deserve to enjoy yourself for one night without him on your mind. Not to mention you’ve got to live your life without kids while you can. I know the two of you have talked about it. ”

She grabs the hem of your dress and tugs it back up, flashing you a defiant look.

“And if he has a problem with you having fun, he can talk to me.”

You sigh as you give in, knowing Lizzy wouldn’t be changing her mind about your all’s plans for the night.

“Fine, fine. But we’re not staying out too late, okay?”

Lizzy grins, victorious.

“That’s more like it! And don’t worry, I promise we won’t be out until dawn,” she assures you. “Just a few drinks, maybe a little dancing, and then we’ll come back here. You trust me, right?”

“More than anything Liz.”

And that’s how you find yourself at the bar now, one too many drinks in and slumped against Lizzy’s shoulder.

She laughs at your state, her own cheeks flushed from drinking. She slings an arm around your shoulders, keeping you upright and steady in the booth the two of you occupied.

“Goodness chick, are you already trashed? We’ve barely been here an hour!” she teases, her voice lighthearted and amused.

You grumble something in response, your head spinning from the alcohol in your system. You take another sip from your glass, your tongue loose and inhibitions lowered.

“I blame you,” you slur, pointing an accusatory finger at Lizzy. “You’re a bad influence.”

Lizzy laughs loudly at your accusation, her eyes sparkling. “No one forced you to down those shots, Y/N,” she says, sliding out of the booth with ease. “I’m going to get you some water, alright? You stay right here in your seat.”

You nod lazily at her words, the idea of staying where you are very appealing. You watch groggily as she strides away, her bell bottoms and flare top in tow. She weaves through the crowd to make her way to the counter, your eyes becoming heavy.

Just as you’re starting to doze off from the alcohol, a presence suddenly sits down in the booth across from you. You blink in surprise, your vision clearing slightly as you focus on the newcomer.

Your eyes widen as you recognize your husband’s face, his features strangely serious and intense as he stares back at you. But there’s something off about him… Something otherworldly in his gaze that sends a chill down your spine.

“Well, well,” he says, his voice cool and calculated. “If it isn’t dear Y/N. You look a little worse for wear.”

Your vision blurs as you grip the side of the table, your words slurred as you speak.

“F.. Ford?”

Ford smiles widely, his eyes sparkling with a hint of mischief. The expression is slightly unfamiliar, different from the familiar warmth you’re used to. He leans forward, resting his elbows on the table.

“In the flesh, honey,” he drawls, his voice smooth and flirtatious.

“But I see you’ve had quite a few drinks already. Feeling a little dazed? I wonder how Sixer would feel about me seeing you in this state and not him. Hilarious!”

Your arm trembles weakly as you hold yourself up, vision blurring in and out as you sway slightly in your seat.

“Wha.. What? Why are you.. here..?”

His lips curl into a smug smirk as he eyes your disheveled form, eyes lingering on your exposed skin, clearly enjoying your confusion and intoxication.

“Oh, I had a little chat with Fordsy earlier. He agreed to let me take the reins for a few hours…”

He gives a careless shrug. “You know how he is. All work and no play. Figured I’d take advantage of the situation, hell, I even got him a new tattoo!”

You sit there, dumbfounded and wavering in and out of consciousness as your mind tried to process what Ford was talking about.

Ford’s – or rather, Bill’s – eyes rake over you again, giving an exaggerated sigh before his lips turned into a sly grin.

“You really are a sight for sore eyes, I can see why Sixer married you.”

Your thoughts are still spinning from the alcohol, making it hard to focus on the conversation. You struggle to keep yourself upright, your body feeling heavy and numb.

Bill notices your dazed state, chuckling as he gives a mockingly sympathetic tone.

“You look a little out of it, darling. You really shouldn’t have had so much to drink. Especially considering how easy it’d be to trick you into a deal right now.”

Your mind races with confusion as you stand up weakly, your gut telling you something wasn’t right as you sway back and forth, (Or maybe it was the alcohol) your vision blurring as you scan the place in search of Lizzy.

“Going somewhere? Those human legs of yours don’t look very stable!”

You wobble forward, ignoring his protests as you keep moving.

“You really should listen to me if you want to avoid that nasty bruise tomorrow!”

He calls out, and before you know it you trip, and everything goes black.

Hours later… aka early morning.

You slowly open your eyes, your head pounding and your memories fuzzy. You realize you’re lying on a couch in Lizzy’s apartment, a cool cloth pressed over what you assume to be a large tender bruise on your forehead.

Lizzy is sitting perched on the edge of the coffee table in front of you, her expression a mix of worry and frustration. She notices your eyes flutter open and lets out a relieved sigh.

“Oh thank god,” she mutters. “You had me worried for a second there. I stayed up with you all night waiting for you to wake up.”

“Liz?” you mumble, head pounding. “What the hell happened? My head is killing me..”

Her expression softens at your groggy murmur, her hand reaching out instinctively to brush the hair away from your face.

“Hey, take it easy,” she says, voice low and soothing. “You took a pretty nasty fall back at the bar. Hit your head on a table on the way down.”

Your eyes widen as your memory jogs itself.

“What..? Wait, Ford.. Ford was there?”

Lizzy freezes, her expression guarded at the mention of Ford. She averts her gaze, focusing her attention on the cloth that she’s holding against your forehead.

“Uh, yeah,” she says, her voice hesitant. “He showed up towards the end of the night when I went to grab you a water… You don’t remember?”

You think to yourself for a moment, your memory patchy and vague.

“I mean, I kind of do. But it was weird? Did something happen?”

Lizzy is silent, her gaze still firmly averted from yours. She adjusts the cloth, pressing it against your head with a little more pressure than necessary.

“Nothing happened,” she finally says, her voice tight. “You just had a little too much to drink and tripped, that’s all.”

Her words are curt and dismissive, clearly trying to downplay the situation. But there’s something in her expression, a flicker of unease that betrays her true emotions.

She glances at you briefly, her eyes meeting yours for a split second before moving back to your injury.

“Lizzy..?” you say, silently pleading with her to tell you the full truth.

She exhales slowly, her shoulders slumping in resignation. She knows you’re not going to let this go, and she owes you the truth.

“Alright, fine,” she mutters avoiding your gaze. “When I got back to the booth, it was exactly when you had fell..”

You listen closely, sitting yourself up slightly.

“I had noticed Ford when I got there, sure, but when I went to go help you..”

Lizzy pauses, a frown forming on her face as she continues.

“Ford laughed,” she says as her eyes meet yours, full of concern and.. fear? “And not in a lighthearted way, in a cruel mocking way Y/N..”

Lizzy lowers the cloth from your head, placing it in her lap as you sit there, dumbfounded.

“He was just… enjoying the view, I guess,” She mutters bitterly. “Like you were some kind of joke, I don’t know Y/N. It was fucking weird, really fucking weird. I didn’t like it. He laughed as if he was the one who had done it.”

Lizzy trails off, brows furrowed as she clenches her fists. While you, on the other hand, are utterly speechless.

Your mind reels with this new information, struggling to reconcile the image of Ford – laughing coldly and mockingly at your predicament - with the caring, affectionate husband you’ve known him to be your whole life.

“I… I don’t understand,” you stutter, your voice small and confused.

“He wouldn’t… he wouldn’t do that. Not Ford.”

But as you say those words, you can’t help but recall the other strange things that had happened earlier that night. Ford’s detached demeanor, his unfamiliar choice of words, the way he seemed so cold and calculating. Your heart clenches in your chest at the thought, leaving a sour taste in your mouth. Had something happened over the few weeks you’ve been gone? Did Ford get too deep in his research? Something wasn’t right.

As you try to make sense of the situation, Lizzy watches you with a mix of compassion and concern. She knows this is incredibly tough for you to hear, but she also seems to have her own worries about the situation.

“I don’t know Y/N,” she says quietly, her hands twisting in her lap. “It was just… so not him. I don’t know what the hell happened. But I’ve never seen him act like that before. It’s like he was a different person.”

Her voice trails off, leaving the two of you in silence as you’re both lost in thought.

Eventually, Lizzy breaks the silence, her voice sympathetic as she places a hand on top of yours.

“How about this, you rest up today, and when you’re ready, I’ll take you to the cabin to get some answers from Ford? Only if you feel comfortable, of course.”

You take a deep breath, trying to calm the storm of emotions inside of you.

“Alright,” you murmur. “I’m still feeling pretty rough, but I’d like to see him… tonight, if possible.”

Despite your confusion and worry, you know that facing your husband and talking with him is the only way to get answers. The answers that you crave so desperately in hopes that it’ll mend your breaking heart - and marriage.

Lizzy gives you a reassuring nod.

“Of course,” she says gently. “You rest up, and I’ll come get you when it’s time to go.”

She stands up, gently readjusting the cloth on your head.

“Try to get some sleep, okay?”

You nod, laying yourself back down.

You’re going to need it to cross the bridge that awaits you tonight.

READER AND BILL INTERACTION WOOP WOOP!! Also I’m not gonna lie, I feel like I messed up the timeline a little bit but I’m just gonna go for it. Thank you for reading! :)

Tag List: @artistic-gato @karmaisacatluzi @therottenheartofscum @violetvsworld @inquiit @catr4dora

[stormblessed95]

Hi!

Long time no see....

I did TRY to get this finished as soon as I could, but between the rollercoaster of 'Are You Sure?!', the hellscape that Jikook spaces (on Twitter/X and Tumblr) became (and honestly were already...), and trying to shorten everything down, it took a good while.

But I refuse to keep this past 2024, so here's an gift for the holidays (or maybe not considering the word count 🫥)!

I wanted to articulate exactly what my thoughts and concerns were, especially since this is a more serious topic regarding Jimin’s work and art, but I don’t think it came off that well before.

Hopefully I do better this time!

I’ve seen the many anons that were spamming your and other Jikookers’ inboxes the second WHO and MUSE released because “OMG Jimin said she/her!! He’s single and looking for a woman to love!” became the newest narrative.

While I do think it would be perfectly okay for him to want a female partner, it does make me slightly upset and sad, that people resorted to being homophobic and honestly misogynistic as a response. There is a way to discuss Jimin's potential romantic partners without being nasty to queer fans or possibly invalidating Jimin’s identity (especially since it is not likely that he’d ever fully come out (if he is queer/bi) in the way most people think nor want, given where he lives and his line of work).

Even the way people were talking about women was questionable. Going on about how it is outrageous for Jimin to deny himself the chance to be with a woman, have a biological family, and overall is wasting himself on Jungkook (if they are in a romantic relationship).

Making women out to be objects for men to use and only worth making/raising families, the homophobic rhetoric towards the longevity of queer relationships and same sex parents, as well as the blatant disrespect to Jungkook (that he’s “not enough” or “not right” for Jimin). If someone thinks that Jikook are nothing but platonic friends, that is perfectly fine. But to degrade their bond, as well as Jimin and Jungkook’s characters, is just unnecessarily cruel.

In regards to your response, I would love for nothing more than to say that it helped with my understanding of Jimin and MUSE, but I’m honestly not completely sure of that….

My first ask was sent right after the behind video for MUSE dropped, so before some of your posts that you linked about MUSE and WHO were posted (though I did read them again!).

Before I continue, I do want to make a few things clear:

I’m not stuck on any of my assumptions or thoughts being the “correct” way to interpret MUSE.

I’m not here to convince anyone that Jikook isn’t in a romantic relationship. I’m honestly really just confused.

I don’t need anyone to convince me that Jikook is still real.

I’m simply having a conversation and trying to process my thoughts and MUSE with someone that I trust and respect. Do I always agree with everything said? No, in fact disagreeing with others (Storm in this case) is how I tend to find out how I feel or think about a topic or situation.

I’ve done a lot of thinking about what exactly has been confusing me with MUSE, and I’ve narrowed it down to three main topics or questions: Is MUSE a conceptual album?, Is WHO how Jimin actually feels?, and What does this all mean for Jikook?

This is going to be long, I’m sorry in advance!

IS MUSE A CONCEPTUAL ALBUM?

Initial Thoughts

Since I’m used to Jimin’s recent work, FACE and his Photofolio, having lots of Jimin’s own inspirations and ideas tied into it, like Greek Mythology, German Poetry, Robert Mapplethorpe’s Imagery and Work, ect, with the title being MUSE, the idea that Jimin was going to vaguely write about his inspirations or muses (how Closer Than This is considered for ARMY) seemed likely to me.

Then as the track titles were revealed to be more romantic sounding, it felt like he may have used the concept of love to better articulate another deeper message. Or that he chose to write about a fictional love and focused more on vocal and production styles, in a similar way to what Jungkook did with Golden.

Post MMM

 While watching the MMM video for the first time, I was confused because Jimin had mentioned MUSE being more vague (or conceptual) than FACE but that WHO was his “feelings” after the previous tracks. Ultimately, I took that as him wanting to write about love but not having current personal experiences to pull from, so he decided to make up a fictional love story/crush, and then WHO comes at the end being like “actually that’s not true. i’m not in love, though i want to be.”

Then I saw this post:

https://www.tumblr.com/just-orbiting-you/756542511466643456/muse-is-a-concept-album?

I went back to watch MMM immediately, and was almost horrified at how I managed to miss or maybe interpret parts of Jimin and Namjoon’s conversation differently.

JM: I really tried to express all the emotions I felt at the time. “What do you talk about these days?” “How are things going?” Those were things Pdogg asked me about and I felt that it had been a while since I felt excited about something.

RM: Oh, over something.

JM: Yeah. We hadn’t been active as a team for a while either. I was working hard, I wanted to do well and was trying but it felt like it had been a long time since I was immersed in something or felt excited about something.

RM: So, since your life felt really bland, you expressed your different feelings through Muse?

JM: I tried to capture that in my album. I set my album like this, from tracks one through five, those emotions compared to having a crush and confessing my feelings.

RM: Having a crush is exciting.

JM: Exactly! So I share how I feel, then in track six which is the title track, I go, “no, that wasn’t really true”. “When will I feel excited about something again?”

RM: Then does it connect to Face in any way?

JM: Not really. It’s not that connected.

RM: Face was then?

JM: Those were my emotions then. Getting clarity, and this time it’s just vague.

With this in mind, as well as the fact that BOTH Jimin and Namjoon talked about Jimin’s work, singing, and idol identity more than anything to do with love, made the idea that search for love = search for his inspiration/excitement with his art more possible.

MUSE Behinds

Then the Behinds for Muse dropped….

Which led to my first ask:

https://stormblessed95.tumblr.com/post/758126579695190016/hi-ok-so-i-just-rewrote-everything-i-wanted-to

Looking back now, I don’t think I presented WHY I was so conflicted after that video that well in my initial ask.

JM: This album has a lot of cheerful songs. But I wanted to try a different approach for just the title track. There will be a lot of fun songs.

JM: It was harder to write the lyrics this time. I had to pretend to go through experiences I haven’t had before. I’ll explain it one by one in more detail later.

So I know a lot of people have been using the “pretend to go through experiences I haven’t had before” to explain the “looking for love” vibes of WHO, but my understanding of Jimin saying this was that it’s towards the first five tracks (where he sings about having a crush and falling in love). While both relate to it being a concept, it being about the rest of the album (the love part) does make it sound like he’s currently single.

JB (Jon): *interpreting Jimin’s ideas* I’d like to fall in love. I wanna, I’ll do what it takes to fall in love. I still don’t feel it, so what is my heart waiting for?

JM (Through the Translator): It’s just a bit sentimental, so it doesn’t get too intense like, “Where is she?” It doesn’t get too depressing.

JM: It’s not supposed to be sad or anything.

Translator: He’s not like, not too deep into it. He’s like “This is what I’m feeling right now”.

JM: It’s kind of embarrassing to explain emotions. It feels like someone found my diary.

Translator: Thank you for explaining everything so honestly.

JM: My ears are red. *touches ears*

I really do want to hear more of what Jimin told Jon directly about his (Jimin’s) vision for the song.

While Jimin still could be working through the idea of a concept about his inspiration, when he says “It feels like someone found my diary”, to me it really did sound more personal to him than expected.

Especially to be getting so embarrassed about it.

JM: I’ve poured all my emotions into this, so I was very embarrassed just now. Even though they just wanted to ask about the story I wanted to tell. It’s just, everyone…. *laughs*

JM: Everyone’s just living alone, right? That’s what it is.

Yes, technically he does LIVE ALONE or he could have been using the feeling of not having that excitement to being alone….

But I'm curious as to what he meant by “everyone’s just living alone, right?” within the context of WHO, MUSE, or even in general?

Producer: If the album is going to be all about expressing the process, we could just go all out conceptual.

Producer: I thought we could do a story with a specific concept, and I thought it’d be great if we chose a name for a band.

With SGMB, the confusion for me was more about them mentioning it being about “expressing the process” and being conceptual after I had thoughts about WHO being more personal.

Now I wonder if they meant the process of falling in love.

Response to Your Thoughts

I really liked your take on the title of MUSE and relating it to inspiration and the Muses of Greek Mythology. It fits in line with what we’ve seen from Jimin, as well as what I was initially expecting.

Like I said above, after going back and paying attention to what they were saying (I literally typed out the entire video to go over 💀), the search for his inspiration and a version of himself that he’s fully satisfied with seemed likely to be the concept of MUSE.

Rejecting WHO, because “he didn’t write it”, feels not only disrespectful, but stupid to do so. It’d be one thing if Jimin had clearly stated that he had no connection to the lyrics/story and just liked the song that was given to him (though this is still weird, because him liking the song and presenting it to fans is valid and important). But that’s not what happened.

Yes someone else wrote WHO, but we’re literally told AND shown that Jimin was involved when they wrote it. That Jimin himself explained what he wanted to express through the song. Along with his further involvement with the MV and the choreo.

If he is explaining his search for inspiration through the idea of romance, that is incredibly smart and endearing of him. It shows me how much his work and art matter to him. That he’s willing to work on bettering himself (even if I thought he was already amazing) to achieve even better results that he can truly be proud of.

While I can see where topics surrounding his sexuality can come into play with WHO, more so with the MV, I’m under the impression that Jimin has come to terms with any gender expression or sexuality issues he’s had a long while ago. But still, even if he is accepting of who he is, others (ARMY, South Korea, The World, ect) might not be.

I’m happy though that even while in this search (whether for inspiration, satisfaction, or love) that he’s still able to be happy and content with where he is at and who he is.

Producers’ and Jimin’s Thoughts

Hearing that MUSE was born after Jimin was so excited to work on music, especially considering the darker topics discussed in FACE, makes me so unbelievably happy. The songs ending up as upbeat and hopeful, even romantic, really does make sense in that context.

But I'm honestly more and more confused the more people talk about this album.

The producers say the album is about looking for some imaginary woman, while every song other than WHO is gender neutral. Even with WHO, we are shown a version that was gender neutral.

“He’s a Korean Idol. He’s going to be portrayed as straight!”

So why is Jimin not following that?

Most (if not all) of what I hear him talk about in relation to MUSE is gender neutral. I don’t have an issue with Jimin making love songs about women, but make it consistent with the rest of the album that THEY (Jimin and Producers) wrote then!

Is it Personal or Conceptual?

Yes…

It's true that conceptual doesn’t have to mean fake, but the question I’m often left with is “In what way is this album conceptual?” Is it his search for inspiration and excitement of his work through a romantic lens OR is it his search for his person through a made up love story?

The idea of most of the album being love songs about a made up relationship/crush just to be like “I’m actually single and alone!”, does frustrate me a little. Like he’s an Idol, it’s already assumed that he’s single.

“Please misunderstand”, Park Jimin, what does this mean??

At first I thought maybe he meant him being in a relationship, because the songs (up until WHO) read as him confessing to someone or telling ARMY about his partner. But WHO exists on the album… so that narrative is already clear.

So is he not LOOKING FOR A WOMAN? Or is he not SINGLE?

Is the album not about his LOVE LIFE but his work?

Because ANY of those would actually make more sense to misunderstand.

Why is he releasing this in the military? I’d understand if he was planning on revealing a partner, but based on what Jimin, the producers, and WHO are saying, he’s single. So is he announcing that he’s looking for love once he’s discharged? Then we go back to it being assumed that he is already single… and not going to lie, that is a little strange to announce? Why make an entire album for that?

Why is Closer Than This on the album? I’m desperately hoping it’s not some sick way of saying “At least I got ARMY”..... and then what is Letter for?

IS WHO HOW JIMIN ACTUALLY FEELS?

The Song

So the only song that Jimin doesn’t have writing credits on is supposed to be the one depicting his “true feelings”... Interesting.

According to the producers, the song was born out of Jimin having trouble relating to a love serenade they were trying to write initially, and thus ends up asking himself if he can ever really love someone. With the song apparently being about the reality of feeling lonely and melancholy, and asking yourself where the person for you is , it does make me think that he hasn’t been in a long term romantic relationship for years, if it’s directly about Jimin and not just the concept of the song.

“He’s an Idol, of course he’ll say he’s single and doesn’t know what love is!”

Ok, but why mention it at all?

I could maybe see Jimin not being out to his producers (or more so with his possible relationship with Jungkook), but it’s also not hard to just take him at his word (via the producers) that he’s unfamiliar with romantic love.

Jimin mentions that when he meets up with friends, they’re all feeling similarly flat. I wonder if that flatness is towards not being in a relationship or feeling uninspired with life and/or work? He goes on to say it’s not a sad or scary feeling, but it’s also not exciting. This could go for either concept (Love or Work) to be honest.

The MV

Initially with the MV,  I just saw Jimin dancing with girls trying to find the one but ending up alone (in line with the song). The only thing that I really had trouble processing was the billboard…

I’ve read through multiple analyses of the MV since my first viewing, and I’ve noticed a lot more details that are somewhat questionable.

Auto Calibration being the main one as it flashes on screen after Jimin dances with men and then leads into him dancing with women. This does give some queer vibes, and makes me interested in what “story” Jimin had in mind with WHO as the choreo also has similar vibes too.

Jimin mentioning people instead of just women as potential options when passing by is also interesting, especially when he has mostly talked about this album gender neutrally.

The billboard with SOMEONE’S EYES dropping after Jimin sings “Who is my heart waiting for?” does seem as though it's an answer for Jimin, or maybe others. Especially when WHO with NO QUESTION MARK and Keep Going are written on it. In my opinion, it does resemble Jungkook's eyes. But I find it hard to take it as a promotion of some sort when it quite literally interrupts the MV, seemingly for no reason, instead of being a poster in the back.

Then of course, there is the insane potential connection of Taeyang, someone Jimin is a known fan of and is now friends with, showcasing his then girlfriend (now wife) on a billboard in a MV….

The Choreo

Most of the choreo just matches with the lyrics, but there are some parts that I found interesting.

During a Chorus part Jimin joins up with SIX OTHER MEN. I don’t know if this is supposed to be a BTS reference or just formations. But what is the point of having SIX when there is only FIVE later for the girls vs boys part? Why not just keep the seven men (including Jimin) and have seven girls? Where’d the other guy even go?

Next in Verse Two when Jimin sings about “taking her places they ain’t found yet, putting it all on the line, and being that someone she can count on”, he dances with two men. Why? Would it not be better for him to do some sort of partner choreo here?

In the bridge, he repeats “who is my heart, heart waiting for?” as he passes by BOTH WOMEN AND MEN. Sure he only tries to match with women, but he’s a kpop idol and the song uses female pronouns, so that’s expected. I’m sure the male dancers were most likely included just to have it look better, but considering Jimin saying people when talking about it, the gender neutral version of the song, and that Jimin was involved with the choreo, it’s something to consider!

Jimin also keeps mentioning the choreo feeling like a short film or musical, which makes all the film (play, pause, rewind) details in the MV fit.

I am a bit disappointed that he, once again, warned fans about him interacting with women in the choreo. Even to the point of saying “moments that you might find uncomfortable” and “please don’t be too disappointed”

This is part of the reason I’m genuinely confused if this was to be some big “ARMY I’m dating/going to date!” announcement, because why would he care??? He mentions that “it is part of the grand scheme of things”, does that just refer to the story aspect of the choreo or is there more to it?

His conversations with his friends come up again, about how there are few instances to feel really strong emotions and him thinking “Should I start feeling more passion?” while making WHO, and that the writers of WHO worded the story he wanted to tell in such a lovely way.

The choreo has a lot of fun theatrical elements as he seems to want to express a lot of picturesque scenes, and the dance suits him while being simpler and fresh. But he’s still concerned about how to express the emotions for this song, as it isn't a sad song, but it does kind of become one towards the end.

Jimin’s Truth

With the amount of story elements, I’m considering the song being more of a way to describe his feelings about needing passion in his life than a detailed recount of his “failing love life”. It’s still his thoughts and feelings, but maybe expressed in a more digestible way for the audience.

If he is being up front about his romantic past, then I really do hope he finds his person, whoever they might be.

Park Jimin OF ALL PEOPLE deserves to love and be loved!

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR JIKOOK?

Being More Open

I know Jimin, and all idols, needs to be careful when talking about love. It’s why I’m so confused as to why this concept, and why now? Though with Jin stating that he wrote Falling for someone, maybe this is just part of BTS being more honest and open.

I do want to take Jimin and Jungkook’s words and actions seriously, however part of what has been said about MUSE and WHO from Jimin and his producers, does make me question if I (and the rest of us) were mistaken of what the nature of their bond is.

Why Does It Matter?

I think part of the reason that it's important to me to know if Jimin is legitimately saying he’s single, is that I do want to respect him and his words.

“So why were you shipping him with his bandmate?” 

Personally I’ve always left room for doubt when it comes to Jikook. It’s not everything I think about in terms of BTS, Jimin, and/or Jungkook. Nor is it the end of the world for me if they’re simply platonic friends. I just thought Jikook seemed like they were/are dating.

Now I’m a little confused on where I stand, and knowing what MUSE and WHO are about in relation to Jimin would help. I know you obviously can’t know exactly. But I’m hoping I’ll get something other than “Jikook is real! Stop doubting them! You’re projecting your internalized homophobia!” OR “Jikook isn’t real! Jimin is straight and looking for a woman!”

Random AYS Interjection

I did want to finish this before Are You Sure premiered because I didn't want to keep talking about this past then and really didn’t think I had that much more to say.

But as I was going through my ask, your response to me, your posts you linked, my notes on Jimin’s video, the new videos that were being uploaded, and other anons and bloggers opinions, I realized this was going to take longer than I thought.

Part of me was also curious if my thoughts on MUSE would change how I saw Jikook in Are You Sure. Honestly my surprise when I didn’t find anything that pointed to them breaking up or being just platonic, was nothing compared to seeing that my opinion was uncommon to quite a few in the Jikook Community….

“What about the Car Conversation?!?!”

OK???? What about it?

Honestly, watching people discover that Jimin and Jungkook were busy and missing each other (or at least quality time) in 2023 for the first time this August was interesting to say the least…

We could get into the abuse and bullying allegations, calling Jimin being anti romantic over things taken out of context or making it into some weird narrative that Jimin doesn’t love Jungkook as much or that he sees their relationship as the Devil, or the fifty other weird things some of y’all said on your "Jikook Supporter" blogs…

But this is about MUSE, so THAT RANT will have to wait!

Final Conclusion

I’m still confused, but I do think after reviewing things that there is more to MUSE than I think. Especially with stories and theatrics being involved in so much of the concept.

I really just want to know what MUSE is about. The misunderstanding thing was fun for like a couple days, now it just makes me anxious and stressed. But maybe it was supposed to be like this 😔

Thank you for actually responding to my first ask so nicely and being willing to have this discussion with me!

Sorry this response took forever, hopefully it's somewhat decent 😭

Hope you're doing well, and are having a good holiday!

— Nice Muse Anon 🎨

I'm going to cry. I typed this whole fucking thing up. And it got deleted. So here we go again 😭

Hi love, I'm going to do this in a bit of a direct response thing. Copy what you say in red and then reply to it and so forth. Here we go. It won't be EVERYTHING you say, just the parts I wanted to make a comment about....

But I refuse to keep this past 2024, so here's an gift for the holidays (or maybe not considering the word count 🫥)!

And yet here I am months later. Sorry!

Your first 3 opening paragraphs about homophobia and misogyny.... Hard preach!

IS MUSE A CONCEPTUAL ALBUM?

Rejecting WHO, because “he didn’t write it”, feels not only disrespectful, but stupid to do so. It’d be one thing if Jimin had clearly stated that he had no connection to the lyrics/story and just liked the song that was given to him (though this is still weird, because him liking the song and presenting it to fans is valid and important). But that’s not what happened.

Agreed

Yes someone else wrote WHO, but we’re literally told AND shown that Jimin was involved when they wrote it. That Jimin himself explained what he wanted to express through the song. Along with his further involvement with the MV and the choreo. If he is explaining his search for inspiration through the idea of romance, that is incredibly smart and endearing of him. It shows me how much his work and art matter to him. That he’s willing to work on bettering himself (even if I thought he was already amazing) to achieve even better results that he can truly be proud of.

Agreed x 2

Hearing that MUSE was born after Jimin was so excited to work on music, especially considering the darker topics discussed in FACE, makes me so unbelievably happy. The songs ending up as upbeat and hopeful, even romantic, really does make sense in that context.

It does make sense in that context!

“He’s a Korean Idol. He’s going to be portrayed as straight!” So why is Jimin not following that?

This is part of why he is beloved. Him and BTS. They do this all the time and queer or not, it's impactful and meaningful and special to so many people

It's true that conceptual doesn’t have to mean fake, but the question I’m often left with is “In what way is this album conceptual?” Is it his search for inspiration and excitement of his work through a romantic lens OR is it his search for his person through a made up love story?

Personally, I think it's option 1. People can have their own opinions though, no right or wrong answer. Some might even have other options they think it is

The idea of most of the album being love songs about a made up relationship/crush just to be like “I’m actually single and alone!”, does frustrate me a little. Like he’s an Idol, it’s already assumed that he’s single.

1000% fair and I can even agree a bit with that frustration. Mostly my frustration there is with the company and fans though that cultivated this environment for idols

Why is he releasing this in the military? I’d understand if he was planning on revealing a partner, but based on what Jimin, the producers, and WHO are saying, he’s single. So is he announcing that he’s looking for love once he’s discharged? Then we go back to it being assumed that he is already single… and not going to lie, that is a little strange to announce? Why make an entire album for that?

I don't think he is announcing anything exactly. Like it's not a release meant to be for an announcement. If that makes sense. He isn't trying to inform people he is single and/or ready to mingle. He is trying to share emotions and a story. Why during MS? Idk.

Why is Closer Than This on the album? I’m desperately hoping it’s not some sick way of saying “At least I got ARMY”..... and then what is Letter for?

Usually singles that are released before albums get put on the album. Personally I think that was a one off goodbye song for ARMY before the army. I don't think it actually has anything to do with the album concepts or themes at all... Lol it just got stuck on the album because of release times. But that's just me and what do I actually know 🤷‍♀️

What is letter for? Good question. There are soooo many theories lmfao

IS WHO HOW JIMIN ACTUALLY FEELS?

The Song

According to the producers, the song was born out of Jimin having trouble relating to a love serenade they were trying to write initially, and thus ends up asking himself if he can ever really love someone. With the song apparently being about the reality of feeling lonely and melancholy, and asking yourself where the person for you is , it does make me think that he hasn’t been in a long term romantic relationship for years, if it’s directly about Jimin and not just the concept of the song.

Fair enough friend. I disagree but that's totally fair and valid feelings to have

“He’s an Idol, of course he’ll say he’s single and doesn’t know what love is!” Ok, but why mention it at all?

Because with the concept and theme being what they are, it would be discussed to hell and back (low-key hello is us in this post) and it's "damage control" regardless on how I feel about that, it's most likely what it is. No matter how annoying

I could maybe see Jimin not being out to his producers (or more so with his possible relationship with Jungkook), but it’s also not hard to just take him at his word (via the producers) that he’s unfamiliar with romantic love.

I personally Don't form my opinions too much based on things that are second hand. I still take them into account for sure. But I don't put too too much stock into things that via someone else on behalf of any of BTS. Because really, they can just say anything. Now don't take this as me dismissing things said, because I'm not. I'm just clarifying for everyone that I form 85% of my opinions ONLY on things that are direct from Jimin himself and based directly on Jimins actions. Things are going to be influenced by personal bias always as well too

The MV

I think we are mostly just mostly on the same page with everything you said here

The Choreo

Again, mostly think we are on the same page about your thoughts here. Will just comment specially about....

I am a bit disappointed that he, once again, warned fans about him interacting with women in the choreo. Even to the point of saying “moments that you might find uncomfortable” and “please don’t be too disappointed”

Very fair and honestly same. Again, mostly in the fans and company that have cultivated that environment he feels like he has to operate in now. I do wish he would care less about it though.

This is part of the reason I’m genuinely confused if this was to be some big “ARMY I’m dating/going to date!” announcement, because why would he care??? He mentions that “it is part of the grand scheme of things”, does that just refer to the story aspect of the choreo or is there more to it?

Jimin just cares a lot and very deeply about everything that matters to him, which includes his job and his fans. As for the grand scheme comment, I personally think it's in regards to the story aspect of the choreo, but that's just me

With the amount of story elements, I’m considering the song being more of a way to describe his feelings about needing passion in his life than a detailed recount of his “failing love life”. It’s still his thoughts and feelings, but maybe expressed in a more digestible way for the audience. If he is being up front about his romantic past, then I really do hope he finds his person, whoever they might be. Park Jimin OF ALL PEOPLE deserves to love and be loved!

HARD AGREE!!

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR JIKOOK?

I know Jimin, and all idols, needs to be careful when talking about love. It’s why I’m so confused as to why this concept, and why now? Though with Jin stating that he wrote Falling for someone, maybe this is just part of BTS being more honest and open.

Between Jin saying he wrote falling for someone, and Joon with some of his songs and posts... And some other things and comments, I really really hope that they come out of MS feeling more free and giving less of a fuck about certain fans and their feelings about things. But only time will tell

I do want to take Jimin and Jungkook’s words and actions seriously, however part of what has been said about MUSE and WHO from Jimin and his producers, does make me question if I (and the rest of us) were mistaken of what the nature of their bond is.

Fair enough friend

I think part of the reason that it's important to me to know if Jimin is legitimately saying he’s single, is that I do want to respect him and his words.

Highlighting the respect part, because everyone should want to do the same

Personally I’ve always left room for doubt when it comes to Jikook. It’s not everything I think about in terms of BTS, Jimin, and/or Jungkook. Nor is it the end of the world for me if they’re simply platonic friends. I just thought Jikook seemed like they were/are dating.

Yes

AYS comments....

Honestly, watching people discover that Jimin and Jungkook were busy and missing each other (or at least quality time) in 2023 for the first time this August was interesting to say the least…

It really brings back up that whole media literacy thing I keep bringing up people's lack of and as well as people's lack of understanding of relationships in general (platonic and romantic) doesn't it. Lol

We could get into the abuse and bullying allegations, calling Jimin being anti romantic over things taken out of context or making it into some weird narrative that Jimin doesn’t love Jungkook as much or that he sees their relationship as the Devil, or the fifty other weird things some of y’all said on your "Jikook Supporter" blogs… But this is about MUSE, so THAT RANT will have to wait!

Always willing to have any kind of discussion with you lovely 🎨! Either through asks or DMs.

Your conclusions

I’m still confused, but I do think after reviewing things that there is more to MUSE than I think. Especially with stories and theatrics being involved in so much of the concept.

I agree

I really just want to know what MUSE is about. The misunderstanding thing was fun for like a couple days, now it just makes me anxious and stressed. But maybe it was supposed to be like this 😔

JIMIN PLEASE. YOU ARE KILLING US. And this is for sure how it's going to stay. We are getting NOTHING more from him 😭😂

Thank you for actually responding to my first ask so nicely and being willing to have this discussion with me!

Fucking always. But I feel like I didn't actually DO anything for you here and I'm so sorry! I wish I could be more helpful for you in a discussion. Let me know if there are things I can give a more in depth opinion on if I haven't already?? I enjoy talking with you and hearing your thoughts!

~ Storm⛈️

[transmutationisms]

Hi Caden don’t know if you listen to Ethel Cain but was wondering what u think abt her subverting the Americana aesthetic since I think she’s often compared to Lana, at least online. I do think she’s doing something different & to me more compelling than Lana, but I don’t really know how to articulate it.

yep i like ethel cain. i agree she and lana are doing very different things. like, i said before that lana uses american nationalism because she's playing off the fact that it makes/has an erotic appeal, and she places herself as the object of desire in that paradigm—tell me i'm your national anthem, etc. my read on ethel is that she's interested in the rural americana 'trad' aesthetic from a very different angle, where she's trying to connect the homestead and american rural social structures to the perpetuation of violence. there's some overlap here in the sense that lana is definitely also interested in sexual violence and sexuality-as-violence, but in her work the violent or abusive man is generally a specific figure who's aberrant from the norm, and a lot of the artistic interest for lana comes (i think) from her interrogating what it is about this man that's appealing to her and how she sees herself through his eyes. with ethel, on the other hand, she portrays violence as coming through the infrastructure of normal and normative social structures, like the family and the church, with abuse understood to be a feature of these and not a bug. family, church, etc are in turn understood to be part of the infrastructure of american rural communities, casting the critique she's making through the ethel character onto this entire social apparatus (& there is some implication here of how this is all a part of westward colonial settlement—which is a potentially fruitful direction to go in, the idea of expansion into the 'frontier' as a narrative of, or narrative prerequisite to, violence).

so for example this is partly why, for ethel, incest specifically is a mode of sexuality & violence that she continually uses and interrogates: she's invoking it as an intensification of the 'normal functioning' of the family, which means the whole family structure gets pretty ruthlessly questioned through the character of ethel and the violence she faces. she invokes the trad aesthetic and the idyllic family homestead, then shows you the brutality that creates and is created by them. for lana, the family is not a concern in this way and is not something she's questioning or challenging the way ethel does (the daddy/girl thing in lana's work is p far removed from even a pseudo-incestuous reading most of the time, even in her lolita references). there's a similar distinction with how ethel examines protestant theology and practice with the explicit goal of pointing out inherently violent aspects of it, whereas for lana, invoking god or christian imagery is generally more on the level of playing off the way that american nationalism resembles and uses rituals of religious worship. lana takes political phenomena like the appeal of nationalism, and expresses them through the erotic configuration of these relationships with older, dominant men. with ethel it's more that she looks at social structures and practices signified by the rural americana aesthetic, and pokes and prods at these structures until the violence inherent to them is glaringly obvious to listeners through the ethel character's story. it's a way of problematising these institutions and practices, not letting them hide in plain sight by presenting themselves as benevolent.

so yeah i can understand why people might want to compare these two artists, but i think they're actually doing very different things. i would probably not say either of them 'subverts' americana or signifiers of nationalism, which is not a criticism, i just think that concept is often poorly defined and less frequently applicable to art than people sometimes think lol. ethel uses her character's story to deconstruct and question the american aesthetics and institutions her work invokes; lana translates these aesthetics and institutions into explicitly erotic discourses and dissects them through the allegorical figures of the people and relationships in her songs. (this is not to discount the importance of erotics in ethel's work as well obvi but this post is already long :P)

[serialsunset]

I'm curious! You once made a great post about why you love Isaac so much, but why do you love Julia as much? :3 I agree that she is super underrated and more fascinating than most give her credit for, especially in the way she hides her feelings. In Yamane's words, she is "forced to bear the fate of her brother, yet she's the one healing Hector"

Aaaah! It’s a bit hard to articulate but I’ll try, there’s a lot of reasons!

First of all I just adore her design. It would be so easy for her to slip between the cracks with the rest of the Kojima Blondes (said lovingly), but the vibrant rich colours in her palette and her more mature looking face make her look so distinguished and regal, she’s just got an air about her.

In regards to her actual character I really enjoy the bright spot she provides in the midst of everything, with all the characters being at each others throats throughout most of the story it always feels like a relief when she shows up. But even as a ‘bright spot’ she still has some darker qualities that I think about a lot.

Her shop is my favourite location in the game because it just radiates calm and safety, but there’s still an edge that throws things off kilter. Her theme descends from airy and light to melancholic and never quite gets back up there, it’s like you can feel a mask slipping the longer you spend time in her house. Her bookshelves are littered with skulls, she’s always fully stocked with weapons, she’s a caretaker not for animals but for demons from Hell. she’s a healer, yes, but she’s still a witch, what magic is she capable of that you don’t see? This little one-room location does more to characterize Julia for me than any of her actual dialogue (after all, in those scenes we’re just seeing her as she presents herself to Hector, and even then there are a couple moments where she slips and her frustration with him comes out).

Of course I also have to mention Isaac and her relationship with him. I don’t wanna get too far into headcanon, so I’ll just say that the sister of such a destructive person being a healer is very interesting, and it makes a sad sort of sense. While I’m absolutely certain that they love each other, Isaac isn’t really a healthy person for Julia.

I read Yamane’s quote of ‘forced to bear her brother’s fate’ in a couple of different ways, other than the obvious ‘she’s going through a lot emotionally but she’s focused on healing Hector’. First of all, Julia does sort of bear responsibility for Isaac’s actions, at least in her own mind. Every second trying to keep him alive is enabling him to fuck things up for other people. (I think it was you that mentioned how she sounds guilty when explaining that Isaac almost killed Trevor, and that tracks with this idea). But also, I read it as her giving herself the responsibility of protecting Isaac from his fate.

I view Isaac as a character who, well, isn’t really meant for this world. He wasn’t ever going to live very long, and that’s part of his tragedy. And part of Julia’s tragedy for me is that she’s trying in vain to prevent that. She’s a healer, if she can’t save her own brother what does that mean for her? It’s like she’s stuck in a perpetual period of mourning while trying to delay the inevitable. I think that Julia has been forced into the role of healing for so long that she’s completely neglected the idea that she needs help too. I see her as sharing Isaac’s self destructive tendencies, it just manifests in a different way, letting yourself slowly and quietly wither vs taking everyone down with you (I mean she threw herself in front of a murderously enraged Hector to stop him from going after Isaac, that’s not exactly practicing self love).

Really I just absolutely love my tragic siblings.

AND I love that despite it all Julia is not defined by her tragedy. Much like the skulls on her bookshelves and the sadness in her music, it’s a part of her that always lingers but never makes up the whole of her. She knows the world to be cruel and she remains kind. She sees pain everywhere and she chooses to heal it. She knows love because she’s full of it and I will always get behind a character like that. And I don’t care what Iga says, in my brain she ends the story leaving the shadow of the mountains and those cursed ruins to heal herself, it’s what she deserves!!

[gingerjolover]

hiii mama g!!! it’s my birthday today and so i’ve been thinking about what julien would be like on soft!gf’s birthday. first off, BIRTHDAY POST!!! (i’m taking her birthday post for herself into consideration while typing this) i think it’d be a slideshow of pictures, a couple that she’s taken of you and a couple that the boys or members of muna have taken of you. she’d definitely write a lengthy paragraph where every sentence is articulate and sooo meaningful to the point where it’s like your heart beats abnormally faster as you continue to read because she’s just SOOOO!!!!!!

secondly, i don’t really Imagine julien and soft!gf as hugeeee party people, so i don’t think they’d stay up at the strike of midnight waiting for soft!gf’s birthday. instead, i think julien wakes up at the crack of dawn, and obviously she knows how to cook, so she makes not only the most pleasing breakfast JUST to look at, but the most delicious breakfast for the both of them. so then soft!gf wakes up to julien, who’s already smiling ear to ear holding a tray table and setting it down before just peppering you with kisses and saying happy birthday in between each kiss I CANTTTTT IM FEELING ALL FUZZY shes so cutesie

and 24/7 on your bday, acts of service julien just never stops. she does every minor thing you’re so capable of doing for you. finished your breakfast? julien’s already taken it to the kitchen and washing the dishes. dropped something? she’s bent down to grab it for you. also, even though she already does this, she makes sure to open every single door for you, pull out the chair you’re gonna sit at, open the car door for you… like she is ON IT!

and then after having made sure she’s done (almost……) everything in her power to ensure that the day was all about you, there’s just oneeee more thing she was waiting to do to realllyyyy show how much she loves you…….. you get the VIBES! won’t say too much on that cause i’ve already talked your ear off and once i start, i won’t be able to stop BUT YEAHHHH JULIEN ON SOFT!GF’S BDAY ☹️☹️☹️💘

first off, HAPPY BDAY BABY!!!!! I hope you had SUCH a great day<3

and you are soooooooo right, i fully believe that acts of service is julien’s main love language (i have a blurb coming up about love languages for munagenius) and your birthday is the PERFECT excuse for her to literally wait on you hand and foot

as for the insta post i think you’re 1000% right and i can literally imagine julien scrolling through her album of you (of pics she’s taken but also ones that she’s been sent of you from muna or the boys or mutual friends) she would be so fucking picky about which photos to post making sure they encapsulate your personality perfectly and you’re right the post would be so beautiful and so heartwarming 😭 i think she would take the time to post the pics of your initials on her finger or a tattoo she got for you with you like posing cheekily with a thumbs up next to her or something

and i agree, unless it was a big birthday i can’t imagine them throwing a party but maybe if your best friend was in town or maybe your family or if it was a bigger bday and the boys, muna, kelli and ally and other friends wanted to do something for you it would still be super lowkey and julien would spend the whole day with you beforehand

she gives off the vibes of like if you open your door yourself she leans over, closes it and then runs to your side of the car like a bullet and then opens it, she def gets grumbly when you try and do stuff yourself

and I GET THE VIBES BABE I DO, i think she would just want it to be extra special and do everything you wanna do (she def makes a birthday sex playlist with an obsecure name i will die on this hill)

i also wanted to add she def wants to do everything for you on your bday, i think canonically soft!gf and julien don’t exchange gifts, like not big ones, mainly because they both do a lot of little things throughout the year, but julien ALWAYS spoils you on your bday, its usually stuff that’s practical but she loves to get you little things to watch you open in bed when your hair is all messy and eyes are sleepy, you’re like holding the covers up over your chest and she’s rubbing your back as you unwrap a bunch of little presents 🥹

[painted-bees]

aw yay! Here's a bunch more OC questions sent my way by @wulff20ko <3

promt description: Questions about two of your original characters about their relationship. Should work for friends/lovers/coworkers/enemies/etc, maybe not so much for family, but you're welcome to try!

Answering all of these for Margie and Raf again lmao

1) How did they meet?

Like this!

2) How long have these two characters known each other? 

 Since 2008..! I think the last piece of Hi-Note writing that currently exists takes place in 2014. So–six years over the span of their story so far.

3) What were their first impressions of each other? How does that compare to their impressions of each other now?

 Raf thought Margie was a bit strange and ditzy, and she rubbed him as a pathological humble-bragger at first–which was…really unattractive to him lmfao. He initially kinda pulled at that thread in the interest of seeing the whole thing quickly unravel only to discover that she’s legitimately some manner of undiscovered genius who has absolutely no idea just how incredible she is.

  Margie thought Raf was a charismatic player “says that to all the girls” sort–with some shade of mental illness that made it all feel a little too uncanny to be fully effective. She was technically right, but quite differently from what she initially thought lmao.

  Nowadays, Raf knows Margie is his superior in several avenues; she’s a smarter, faster learner, an adaptable problem solver, a far more brilliant musician, and the most genuine, kindest, patient person he’s ever known.

  And Margie knows now that the guy she met in the train station was a fictional character that Raf employed to stand between himself and the threat of forming meaningful relationships. The real Raf is a quiet, anxious, isolated pessimist buoyed by the hope that he isn’t the only person in the world who wants to do well by others.

3) How would they describe each other if asked? Physically? In personality?

  Raf: “Margie? She’s brilliant, she’s sweet. You won’t meet a more incredible person.”

  Margie: “Raf’s a huge dork with a dorkier smirk and you just kinda gotta treat him like a cat if you want to make a good impression on him. Y’know like–just sorta ignore him, let him come to you first.”

4) Do they get along? Why or why not?

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

5) Do they have any shared interests/hobbies? Do they ever do these hobbies together?

 Pretty much most things, these days. Music, walks, rock flipping at low tide… If Margie does anything, she prefers doing them with him. Good experiences are best shared!

6) How often do they see each other? Where do they usually meet?

  Well, initially it was just every Thursday for jam sessions. And then Raf started inviting Margie to crash at his place. Now they live and work together.

7) How do they communicate with each other? Are there any recurring phrases or gestures unique to their relationship?

  Their relationship only exists as it does because of how they communicate with each other. They’ve developed a lot of little shorthand gestures to indicate to one another that things are good and there’s nothing to worry about, such as here. But there are also clear signals they provide when one needs some space or time alone, or if hugs are in order, and other such things. They’ve established a baseline understanding that when they are mad, it is never at each other–and have agreed not to assume that just because one of them is upset, it’s because they’re upset at the other specifically. The person who is upset will always take the time to explain what upset them, once they are able to properly articulate it. Until then, the priority is making sure they get the space or whatever they need to calm down and process what they’re feeling and why.   If they were unable to establish free and easy modes of communication with one another, where they don’t put each other on trial, on the spot to immediately defend their behaviour in the heat of a moment, but give each other the space and grace to process and discuss things under calmer, less volatile circumstances, the wheels would fall off this relationship real quickly, real dramatically. 

8) What is one quality they have in common?

  They love music! They love playing music–together!

9) What is one major difference between them?

  Margie is a very rosy optimist, and Raf is a very calculating pessimist. 

10) Does one act as a narrative foil to the other? How so?

  Yeah, It’s very puppy and cat. Raf’s long established career and jaded burnout vs Margie’s nascent/struggling career and bright-eyed, passionate energy. Margie’s willingness to trust and believe the best in people, vs Raf’s pathological mistrust/suspicion and the constant threats he sees hidden in the actions and words of all those around him. Margie’s ability to bounce back from failures and adapt to challenges–it’s all a learning process for her, vs Raf's stubborn rigidity and unwillingness to compromise–failure is devastating for him. Raf helps Margie keep her feet on her ground so that she can make more purposeful strides towards her goals. Margie helps drag Raf out of his paralyzing anxiety spirals, and keeps his creeping cynicism at bay.

11) Do they have any affection for each other? How do they show it?

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

12) Do they have any disdain/contempt for each other? How do they show it?

oooh…Raf, at his worst, can feel quite overwhelmed with resentment towards Margie for how much sway she has over his feelings of worth and wellbeing. At times when he feels like she fails to understand how her actions can dictate his moods, and fails to behave in a manner sensitive to this [it’s very mercurial and unpredictable what exactly this entails–what sets him off], it’s really tempting–and it feels wholly just–to lash out just to make her feel a fraction of the discomfort/hurt he’s feeling, as way of some kind of punishment. Instead, he gets really quiet and withdrawn, sometimes for a week or two. Margie understands this as “mental health is happening at him” and takes care to stay well out of his way until he’s wrestled control of his narratives again. 

Margie’s got nothing but love in her heart for Raf.

13) Do they share the same goals in life?

  Yeah! They just wanna be comfy, and loved, and make good music together. Everything to do and build together is towards that shared goal.

14) Do they trust each other? Why or why not?

  They do.   Margie’s a given, she trusts everyone.

  Raf, though, has vacillated pretty wildly between wanting to trust her by trying to brute force fake that trust until he believed it–and not trusting her at all. However, the morning she basically returned from the dead to come shambling back home to him in one piece–cemented his trust in her. He thought she had died and, in her concussed state, she was just sorry that she took so long to get back, and wanted to know if they can still play music together. He still has hiccups and moments of panic about the honesty of her relationship with him and such–but so long as he can recall the sheer relief he felt when he held her, and the absolute heartbreak she delivered to him thereafter by way of concussed murmerings–it’s irrefutable to him that she loves him very dearly and that she’ll always be there. Come hell or literal high-water.

15) Is one of them keeping secrets from the other? Why? How would they react if the secret was revealed?

  Not anymore, no.   Initially, Raf had only explained to Margie that he had PTSD. All of his paranoid behaviours and such were swept under that as their explanation. Once things had become quite a bit more serious between the two of them, Raf’s Uncle asserted that Margie was eventually gonna have to know about and understand the challenges of his paranoid personality disorder. And after some gentle coaxing about that, Raf finally relented to ask his uncle to talk to Margie about it for him–because if it was left to Raf to do it himself, it wouldn’t…go well, if it ever happened at all.

  Margie had dated a guy with schizophrenia during her time in Winnipeg, and so there wasn’t really a big scary stigma that needed to be dispelled. The schizophrenia of her previous relationship had been such a non-issue compared to what she otherwise might have expected, that it maybe gave her the idea that Raf’s PD would similarly pose no major challenges. Eehhhh…she was a little off base with that assumption, but she got up to speed on all of it eventually, and it’s mostly fine. At the very least, it didn’t change her opinion of Raf at all, and any drama that accompanied the reveal was hosted exclusively in Raf’s poor brain. 

16) Are they keeping a secret together? How do they feel about that?

  Yeah lmao Raf’s PD is no one’s business but their own. Of the people still alive, Margie, Nels, and his therapist (and Tess) are the only people who are aware of Raf’s PD. The rest of the guys at Hi-Note know he has PTSD, but that’s it. 

17) Do they view their relationship as temporary or permanent?

  Use to be temporary, until the temporary part of their relationship was almost exercised–and now it’s as permanent as a relationship can be lmao

18) Are they satisfied with their relationship? Do they wish they were closer/more distant?

  There’s always things they are working towards together, but they’re both very happy with their relationship, generally.

19) What is their best memory together?

  Oh nooo there’s so much lmfao. I think they both look back on their first year in Cortes Island very very fondly–as kind of a turning point where their lives together became a pretty ironclad thing. It was forged in fire the entire year prior, and they stuck it through–and suddenly things were easy and calm and nice again, and it just…strengthened everything quite beautifully. 

20) What is their worst memory together?

That whooole year before they arrived in Cortes Island lmao. Uncle Bills death and dealing with his estate was the most difficult test their relationship will even endure, I think.

21) When were they the most vulnerable with each other?

  Hm, this is hard, they’re vulnerable with each other pretty well all the time. Again though, the most vulnerable moments were probably during that year of grieving and dealing with Bill’s estate. Raf had basically hit a melting point and was largely incapacitated for much of the latter half, and it culminated with Margie admitting she couldn’t take care of things like he needed her to. I think they both thought the other was gonna leave, because things had stopped being fun and enjoyable, and they couldn’t carry each other out of it or provide what the other person obviously needed. Raf was just waiting for Margie to get sick and tired enough to walk, but Margie was wrecking herself on the terror that he would feel irreparably let down by her if she failed to adequately carry his burden for him when he needed her the most. In the end, Margie’s breakdown and her fear of not being and doing enough for him is what galvanized Raf to get his shit together just enough to put some real, physical distance between them and all the garbage that had piled up on them. A move that Margie had suggested months earlier, but Raf had been too stubborn/overwhelmed to properly consider at the time.

22) Do they have any mutual friends? Mutual enemies?

 All of Raf’s friends are Margie’s friends (he only really has two aside from her and Tess)–but not all of Margie’s friends are Raf’s friends. No mutual enemies, either. Solely because Margie doesn’t have anyone she’d describe as an enemy haha. Maybe Raf’s mom…but Margie has never met her, so it feels weird. She greatly dislikes everything she’s heard about the woman, though.

23) How do these two interact with each other in public versus in private?

 In public, you might think they’re just really close friends. Margie and Raf don’t engage in any explicitly romantic displays of affection in public–largely because Raf is very uncomfortable about it.

 In private, they’re in each other’s space a lot of the time, and fill silences with the occasional sappy call-and-responses that are all some shade of “guess what?” “what?” “I love you.” “Woah, I love you too–weird!” Sometimes the words they string together to carry this sentiment between each other are absolute nonsense…but they know what it means. They’re also just very content to be in the same room together, quietly doing their own thing and otherwise ignoring each other in perfect comfort.

24) If a stranger saw them together, how would they describe their relationship?

 “They seem like really good friends! They’re working together quite well!”

25) How would these characters react to being stuck in a small room with each other?

  Stuck? Well…They’d try to figure out what the deal is. And if it’s like…a busted elevator situation or something, Raf wouldn’t pause for levity until the situation was under control. But once it’s just a matter of waiting for things to become unstuck again, He and Margie would sit in each other's space and pass the time musing and joking to one another. They just enjoy each other’s company, generally.

26) How far would they go for each other? Would they risk their own lives for each other? 

  Margie would crawl out of Davy Jones's coldest locker for Raf lmao

  Raf would walk into oncoming traffic for Margie.

  But more than that, both of them would endeavor to live their healthiest, happiest lives for each other.

[lemonhemlock]

https://www.tumblr.com/lemonhemlock/763163615828361216/adding-to-your-nuanced-discussion-regarding-sara much of the hatred towards sara hess is gross and openly misogynistic. unfortunately, it also muddies the waters for making valid critiques of her writing overall. i’m only familiar with her work on HOTD, and while i think she does basic level serviceable work (ie- mostly the plot makes sense) i find a lot of it extremely lazy. take both HOTD finales for example; we have two scenes of domestic violence (daemyra and helaena/aemond) being used to communicate the pretty elementary idea that these men are bad, wrong, and power hungry for anticipating war in a struggle for succession. now with both characters, you can argue it makes sense; daemon has been orbiting the throne all season, he sees the greens as the threat they are and, understands war is inevitable. he’s frustrated with rhaenyra’s lack of response and lashes out after finding out viserys didn’t trust him enough to communicate aegon’s dream. meanwhile, aemond has just discovered he is at a great disadvantage in this dragon cold war, has already committed severe violence to become regent in the first place, and is also lashing out because he is insecure in his position and fearful of what might happen.

the problem is instead of exploring these (very sensible) feelings for the characters or developing them through actual scenes and dialogue, we have this shorthand where Men = Violent, because they couldn’t possibly explore these emotions for these characters in another way. i can’t remember if it was olivia or phia who spoke about the aemond/alicent/helaena scene as helaena refusing to feed aemond’s violent male ego… girl you are literally at war! idk if this is about his male ego so much as he doesn’t want to fucking die 😭 not to point the finger at the actors, i am just assuming that idea came from somewhere, and it seems most likely to be the writer or director. and daemon isn’t in the wrong for expecting battle- yet instead of having that be a real conflict between him and rhaenyra, we have this moment of abuse that is quickly brushed aside and moved past. it exists only to show us how aggressive daemon is in the simplest, laziest way possible, and then it’s disposed of when it’s no longer needed. you can say the same for “civilians don’t matter”— it’s just lazy writing! they don’t have to, in that the story can function without an in depth look at the smallfolk’s relationship to dragons and the targ dynasty overall, and why bother to do any of that when you can just decide that for this one scene, none of them matter!

this is very long 😮‍💨 i’m sorry for the essay! i find this topic hard to discuss because too often people come in to just call her a cunt because she wrote a medieval man who didn’t articulate feminism perfectly. there are real issues here!! and it’s not all on her, condal obviously approves everything and they are on the same page here. anyway. thanks for reading as always!

Coming back to this ask after some time, sorry for the delay!

I agree very much with your assessment of her doing serviceable, but ultimately lazy writing. Perhaps that under a more competent showrunner, she could have written something decent. But one of her problems is that she is only superficially familiar with the source material - I'm saying this because she gave an evasive answer when asked if she read the books ("a long time ago"). This matters because she clearly doesn't understand the politics of the universe she is writing for (the scheming is nonsensical in HOTD) or the themes (dragging back the "civilians don't matter", but it's very revelatory to how she approaches the scripts). How can you write ASOIAF media, a series that relies heavily on politicking and dismantling tropes, without a grasp on those two things? D&D misunderstanding the themes of the series is famously one of the reasons for its lackluster show ending.

And that's just not going to rectify itself on its own. If she lacks the initiative to analyse the text properly, then someone should direct her as to what exactly to write. I'm sorry, but that's you can't just have it both ways - not do the work and then shrug your shoulders when you end up creating a divergent version that doesn't fit in the plot you're bound to follow.

take both HOTD finales for example; we have two scenes of domestic violence (daemyra and helaena/aemond) being used to communicate the pretty elementary idea that these men are bad, wrong, and power hungry for anticipating war in a struggle for succession. [...] the problem is instead of exploring these (very sensible) feelings for the characters or developing them through actual scenes and dialogue, we have this shorthand where Men = Violent, because they couldn’t possibly explore these emotions for these characters in another way.

Exactly, and the reason it ends up working for Daemon is because he previously got a ton of screen time and we got to know his personality, whereas Aemond gets little next to nothing in Season 2, in addition to his in-built disadvantage of being much younger and, thus, getting introduced later on. Well, surprise surprise, what worked for Daemon will not work for Aemond in that situation, because if you don't invest in Aemond's characterisation, the parallel will fall flat. Aemond and Daemon had very different upbringings and it's very silly to think that what applies to Daemon will automatically apply to Aemond and, therefore, you don't need to bother to dissect Aemond on screen in any meaningful way.

That's just concentrating on the logistics & not even critiquing the very lazy stereotype of men = violent & women = peacemakers.

i can’t remember if it was olivia or phia who spoke about the aemond/alicent/helaena scene as helaena refusing to feed aemond’s violent male ego… girl you are literally at war! idk if this is about his male ego so much as he doesn’t want to fucking die 😭

This. ^^^ I often find that the writers were trying to make some kind of point that, in other circumstances, could have been relevant, but they have a knack for picking the worst situations as illustrative examples. And, after that, they're surprised their simile felt mismatched.

Aemond having a violent male ego and being critiqued for it within the text is absolutely fine, but is it reasonable to do it when he's trying to ensure his family are not getting killed? And have Helaena be that agent of critique, when she herself has just been subjected to horrific loss and trauma at Daemon's hands?

Conveying that the smallfolk live miserable lives that often lead them to forsake their morals and commit horrific acts in desperation (such as becoming assassins for hire) is another valid point to make. But is it really appropriate to beg for clemency from the audience via a widowed dog (the lowest form of sympathy begging, if you ask me) when we are talking about a cruel child-murderer at the end of the day?

In the same vein, high-borns having more resources at their disposal to recover after trauma is very true. But is it appropriate for that comment to come out of the mouth of a mother who only just recently lost her son to horrific violence? Especially after having her grieve so halfheartedly, it's giving less intersectionality and more her not actually giving much of a shit instead. No one in their right minds would go to a rich lady mourning her dead child and start lecturing her on the privilege of grief. Helaena is just not the appropriate vehicle in that moment for that kind of commentary.

Neither are the smallfolk of King's Landing in a position to mourn the dragon Meleys mere days after it butchered so many of their fellow townies. So many times I can sense this disconnect between what a believe, humane response would look like and half-baked attempts at social commentary.

and daemon isn’t in the wrong for expecting battle- yet instead of having that be a real conflict between him and rhaenyra, we have this moment of abuse that is quickly brushed aside and moved past. it exists only to show us how aggressive daemon is in the simplest, laziest way possible, and then it’s disposed of when it’s no longer needed.

Yes, in some ways, Daemon is the writers' opportunity to eat their cake and have it, too. They make a lot of noise about how much of a problematic bad boy he is, but, when it comes down to it, nothing he does has any kind of real consequence. The only consequence he ever faced was Viserys banishing him and that was way back before any kind of time jump (and it got overturned in the end, anyway).* Alys doesn't do anything to him except hold his hand and gently nudge him in the "right" direction. Rhaenyra takes him back with nary a snide comment.

Even back in season 1, he can kill Rhea Royce with no fallout: the Royces don't do anything and Lady Jeyne is still Rhaenyra's lackey with no explanation given. He can spread the rumour of killing Laenor with the intent of sowing fear and decapitate Vaemond in front of the greens. Yet the greens are not worried about him and scrambling to prevent Rhaenyra from seizing the throne. Oh no. Crowning Aegon is just misunderstanding Viserys' dying words. 🤦‍♀️ Daemon can even kill Jaehaerys and still Helaena decides to help him instead of her own brother.

*honestly, that's one of the reasons I think the first 5 episodes of season 1 are the show's strongest. It's like back then you did stuff and it had consequences. Incredible achievement.

you can say the same for “civilians don’t matter”— it’s just lazy writing! they don’t have to, in that the story can function without an in depth look at the smallfolk’s relationship to dragons and the targ dynasty overall, and why bother to do any of that when you can just decide that for this one scene, none of them matter!

You know, I would actually like to take this opportunity to point out that I get this conundrum as a showrunner. You don't really want to make a story about smallfolk suffering, because it would be a massive downer and it would not sell as much or be as popular. Not many people are interested in Les Miserables but with dragons and that's understandable! But there is a way to simultaneously not delve into the intricacies of oppression in your escapist nobility fantasy, but not be downright insulting about it.

They don't need a ton of screen time to set up the basic theme of "it's always the innocents who suffer when you high lords play your game of thrones". They just don't and I'm tired of pretending otherwise. They can very well illustrate the point of smallfolk suffering without resorting to insane suspension of disbelief like King's Landing starving after two weeks of blockade. And, if they can't, then they shouldn't be in the writers' room for productions that have the audacity to submit episodes to prestigious award shows.

[mothybean]

Airhead

Chapter 3

---

Our study session ended a little after midnight. Once I pulled myself together and focused on Jinx’s explanations, rather than her lips, I actually learned something. She was a lot smarter than I had anticipated. Jinx agreed that Heimerdinger’s approach to teaching was niche and super convoluted. I was shocked that she was able to decode his old English riddles and with such ease. It was almost second nature to her. As we went through each question, Jinx was able to break them down in a way where my brain could genuinely absorb the information. I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, the fear of failure was becoming less intense the longer I paid attention. It wavered, but ultimately, our session did help. I had a new profound sense of confidence after just a few hours, who knows how much confidence I’d have in just a week!

I closed my laptop and shoved it back into my bag. As excited as I was, I was exhausted. We studied for about five hours straight. Jinx seemed pretty tired too. I didn’t want to push her. She sat on the far end of the couch, watching me gather my belongings as she fiddled with one of her braids. I couldn’t help but feel flustered, her gaze on me. Being the awkward mess I already was, my awkwardness always intensified if there was a pretty girl nearby. It was a curse. I was very well spoken, but put me in a room with a hottie and it’s bye bye articulate and hello neanderthal who lives in a cave and shits in a hole. 

“I really appreciate you helping me out tonight. I’m sorry it went on so late.” I said softly, hiking my ten thousand pound bag on my back. Jinx stretched her legs out on the couch and her arms above her head, the intensity of her stretch caused her black tee to hike up a tad, her stomach revealing itself slightly. My eyes immediately homed in on her navel, my thirsty side was getting stronger by the second. As I examined her stomach, I noticed she had even more tattoos; the same blue clouds she had on her arm. They seemed to trail down her whole right side given the line up. My thoughts started to wander, wondering just how far down they went. My curiosity was piqued.

“No biggie.” She waved me off.  “Lemme know if you need more help.” She said casually, her body sinking into the couch, her shirt riding up even more, her stomach now fully exposed. I couldn’t help but stare. Much like Vi’s, she was in good shape too. Not as much as Vi, but Jinx absolutely had definition. My mouth went dry at the sight of her. The primal urge to drop my bag and pounce on her like a wild animal was intense. As much as I wanted to, I seriously needed to pump the breaks. She was my tutor and my best friend’s girlfriend’s little sister. Would it be weird if we started dating? I wonder what Vi would say, no, what would Caitlyn say? Did Jinx even swing that way? It seemed like a fair accusation, most bi or gay chicks had dyed hair and tattoos. I don’t think I was too far off based on my educated guesses.

“Hello?” Jinx questioned. I snapped my attention to the blue hair goddess still sprawled out on the couch. Goddamn she looked like a painting. “You good? You’ve been like…staring at me.” Once again, I felt my cheeks go red hot, my heart started to pound a bit harder. My heartbeat felt so loud, I was starting to think she could hear it.

“Oh, sorry, I just…” I needed to think of something and quick! It was only a matter of time before the incoherent babbling started. “I was just going to ask you about…your tattoos! W-where did you get them?” I felt sweat start to form  on the back of my neck with how nervous I was. Jinx raised an eyebrow in question. She pulled her shirt down, covering her exposed skin and sat up straight, her eyes burning into mine. 

At that moment, the room’s vibe suddenly felt…different. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was a palpable tension. I was praying that she wasn’t pissed off at me being a thirsty idiot. I was staring at her like she was some exhibit afterall. Who wouldn’t have felt uncomfortable? I was about to apologize when Jinx suddenly stood up, her eyes still locked onto mine and pulled her shirt over her head. My heart was racing faster than a fuck boy street racing at two in the morning. I couldn’t think of one coherent thought as she stood there in only her sports bra. My eyes slowly looked her up and down, counting every single cloud she had on her immaculate complexion. 

“I got these done a couple of years ago. You like ‘em?” She smirked as she modeled her tattoos, her fingertips slowly dragging down her arm seductively. I felt my temperature gauge break. I’m pretty sure I looked sunburned with how red I was. She was stunning. My legs desperately wanted to move forward towards her. I fought hard against my subconscious behavior, counteracting them by giving her a forced smile.

“Wow.” Was all I could mutter. Jinx chuckled softly, obviously amused with my reaction. She stared at me a bit longer before her hands dropped to the hem of her pants, slowly pulling them down. Stunning and VERY out of pocket. If I were a cartoon character, steam would have been pouring out of my ears and blood would have been spewing out of my nose. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t know if I could handle it, considering I almost creamed my pants just by standing in her bra and pants. It was game over if I saw her in her bra AND underwear. I had to get out of there. Fast.

“Oh! Wow, look at the time! It’s really late. You’re so gorgeous-I mean-THEY’RE so gorgeous…haha. Silly me. I’m always messing up my words. You’ll have to show me next time! Uh, bye!” With my babbling idiot making an appearance, I took that as my cue and I sprinted towards the front door and bolted outside, leaving the door wide open. My heart was thumping against my rib cage like an angry UFC fighter. What on Earth was she doing? Wait, what was I doing? I was just in there ogling her and then the moment she makes an advance, a super strong one if I may add, I dip?! I was pathetic. I smacked myself in the face, realizing my mistake and started to turn around. The moment I faced the front of the house, Jinx was leaning in the doorway, her arms crossed and a smug look of satisfaction planted on her beautiful face.

“See ya next time, Y/N.” She chuckled, closing the door, an audible lock sound echoed. I stood there embarrassed as ever. I probably looked like a moron with how I reacted. At least she said ‘next time’, reassuring that I didn’t completely freak her out by my nincompoop behavior. I couldn’t get her body out of my mind, her blue clouds flashed everytime I closed my eyes. I was captivated to say the least. 

I got into my car and tossed my bag onto the passenger seat. I turned the ignition, my car’s engine stuttering a bit before fully turning on. I caught a glimpse of myself in my rear view mirror as I backed out of the driveway. I was still red as a lobster. I couldn’t wait to get home. I was going to take the coldest shower in existence. I had to cool down my core. If my body went any hotter, I’m pretty sure I would have melted into a pitiful puddle. I had to say, even though the night ended kind of weird, I was eager to see her again. When next time rolls around, I won’t run.

[velvet-cupcake-games]

How would the Ros react/Handle having to be a part from Marion for a few months to a year? And how would Marion herself react?

I think I’ve done this but it was a while ago, so I’ll do it again!

Marion: She’ll be sad but will soldier through it as long as there’s a good reason for the separation. She *did* spend her youth running Glastonbury Hold by herself, after all.

Robin: Marion receives multiple messages from John begging her to return because Robin is driving everyone up the wall.

John: He will send lots of love letters and will keep himself very busy until they are reunited.

Will: He’ll manage, unless he feels like he’s been unjustly left behind. If that happens, he might break up with her. But she knows that’s an issue he has so she would do her best to make sure he doesn’t feel that way.

Meissa: Nope. Nope nope nope. Meissa is not letting themself get separated from Marion like that. They will do whatever is necessary to prevent it, and um, you don’t want Meissa doing “whatever is necessary.”

Alanna: She expects this to happen from the outset. She’s going to have to travel sometimes in search of new stories and songs, and Marion won’t always be able to go with her. She believes in making the most of the time they do have together.

Geoffrey: It kinda kills him inside but he has a hard time articulating that fact. Is likely to arrange things to keep the separation as short as possible.

Gui: Like Alanna, believes in making the most of their time together and living life moment by moment. As long as the separation has been discussed and is mutually agreed upon, he will be ok.

[jonimitchellstan212]

Okay so I’ve gone on a Tiny Desk Spiral and so am just going to write up a little thing on what I’ve been listening to. And my past favs. Hopefully this post can just grow and grow since I don’t listen to nearly enough of these they are truly amazing. Like most of the time I like it better than the recordings💀

Doechii

So first off, if you are reading this and haven’t listened yet, GO LISTEN. Truly a masterpiece.

Anyways, I don’t listen to a lot of hip-hop, but for some reason it’s always tiny desk that gets me into a bit of a binge. But even as someone who doesn’t listen to the genre I still just know that it’s fucking masterpiece. The backup singers??? The band???? I listened to Alligator Bites Never Heal and I loved it (especially the second half something about that kind of breathy, smooth quality a lot of the later songs had just HITS you know?)

Anyways, everything about this is SO GOOD and I can’t even really articulate anything more than that

Sabrina

Okay so, I’m not a fan fan of Sabrina’s, I haven’t gotten around to a lot of her stuff but everything I’ve heard has been real good. This tho, I feel like she really leans into that country vibe her voice always has a hint of and she did so good. Genuinely one of my fav tiny desks ever. Bed Chem was a stand out for me, but everything was beautiful and everyone did amazing, not just her.

Billie

Really lovely performance all around, I actually love them acoustic, I’ve never been a huge fan of her recorded stuff but I really loved this😎

Moving on to older stuff

So a trend you’ll notice here is that most of the music I listen to is like…the most popular in each genre. Like I’m looking at all the tiny desks I have saved, and all but two are like in the millions of views. There isn’t enough time in the day to deep dive into all of the genres I love😭

Megan Thee Stallion

So I’ve never listened to her before this, but MY GOD. As every comment agrees she’s truly so talented. Her breath control??? Jesus Christ. Anyways tho, as I was watching this I remembered a post on here I saw a while ago saying Megan sings the same subject matter (but like opposite you know) to Hozier, but people don’t give it the same…I don’t know respect? Or something along those lines because she’s a strong confident black woman. And she really singing such a similar vibe (but opposite to the music I love so much. Like Freak Nasty????

We’ve got

But stop licking my pussy hard, That shit aggravating

Followed later by

If he say he a dog, I'ma treat him like a pet

LIKE GIRL HOLY SHIT

So anyways 1. She’s so good god damn 2. Her lyrics, her vibe, just 😙🤌 3. The band?? Phony Ppl just amazing. The song they did together was amazing

Chappell

So firstly, who HASN’T seen this?

1. Not even getting to the music, her outfit, wig, make-up, entire vibe, the whole “someone take a picture” was just perfect. I can’t even explain why it was so good but she has an image and she commits. I love her

2. The music!!! her band!!!! Beautiful versions. I’m mainly focused on Picture You because that’s probably my favorite song of hers, but this arrangement was really beautiful. I honestly cannot remember the instruments she used on the album, but the cello truly just brought everything together, this song was made for strings. The way her voice has that, wavery, almost country quality to it just makes me into a Little Freak honestly

3. Be bimbos ladies!! 🫡

Alright my wrists are sending pains from typing (yay) so I’m not doing the rest well. 🥲. But like what am I even commenting on this isn’t real analysis I’m just saying I like stuff lol

Butcher Brown; incredibly chill, one of my favorites to come back to

Hozier; I love him. I love everything he does. Honestly not my fav of his live things but I will make a post specifically just everything he’s done live (that I know of) and how much I love it all lol

Eskimeaux; I have never listened to them elsewhere before or after but I LOVED their tiny desk. Singer has a truly lovely voice

Aurora; I really loved this. I feel like she was a bit nervous, but the emotion on her face was really beautiful and the first few times I watched this there were def tears something about Aurora and everything she does just makes me feel things

Florence and the Machine; enough said honestly my god I love her. Some of my fav of her songs. Her singing voice is somehow a perfect blend of shaky, full, and confident that just hits the spot

[darkanachronism]

🗡🗡Your OC’s personality 🗡

I saw these in the BG3 tags, and fuck it. I like talking about my Tav. I wasn't tagged, but I saw @aristenfromwarsaw doing it. So they're responsible.

🗡🗡Dirk Knifely🗡🗡

🗡🗡How would you describe their personality?🗡🗡

Stressed!  Anxious! About two seconds from curling up into a ball and crying! Especially during the events of Bg3, I don’t think she ever really relaxes.  Which, given everything that’s going on can you blame her?  She’s just a little guy with one HP!  And she does not agree with anxiety well.  It makes her fairly unpleasant to be around.  She’s pretty direct, and quick to get aggressive if she feels like she needs to make a point.  And she usually feels like she needs to make a point.  Eighteen Wisdom, Eight Charisma means she usually spots the problem and has good ideas.  But boy can she not articulate them for shit.   She acts like more of a villain than she is.  Or, at least says she’s worse than she is and is genuinely fucking stymied the minute anyone has anything nice to say about her.  But it also takes about one sincere thank you to have her like you for life.  She’s got a soft spot for other little guys who get a raw deal from the world at large, goblins, owlbears, tieflings, vampire spawn, ect. She’s softer than she wants to be, and is perpetually annoyed by that.  She will admit that she likes people, and she’s open about how much she hates doing that.  It’s just more things to worry about.  But she’s perceptive, and she’s smarter than people credit her with, and she does her best to keep herself and the people she cares about safe.  So, not a total wash.  Generally Dirk makes herself useful enough to be worth keeping around. 

🗡🗡What brings your character joy?🗡🗡

Well, that's a tough one. Happiness is a slightly foreign concept to Dirk. But, she likes alchemy. She finds things with clear instructions and steps relaxing. And the serotonin that comes from having a finished potion of speed is unmatched. Similarly. She likes planning. A well researched and thorough plan that actually goes right, fantastic. She also complaining. There's a reason she's so fond of Astarion. I guess Astarion also gets a mention here. They're a thing, they mesh well, she likes bouncing ideas off him. He thinks she's funny. Which she doesn't understand at all because she's never made a joke in her life. But having him around generally does something to make her relax. And, as much as she is loathe to admit it. She might like helping people. Specifically she likes getting thank you's and admiration. And, respect. Respect brings Dirk joy. And when people listen to her.

🗡🗡 What does your character strongly dislike? 🗡

The Flaming Fist.  Rich people.  Socioeconomic inequality.  It’s the source of most of her misery.  She also has a real bad reaction to people threatening to eat her.

🗡🗡Is your OC scared of anything? 🗡

Cats.  Birds of Prey. She spent a lot of time as a rat when she was a kid.  Made getting around the city easier.  But you end up in something’s mouth once before you drop the wild shape and it scars you for life. She also hates large bodies of water and boats.  They make her feel like a sitting duck.  If she can’t beat a hasty retreat it’s not a place she wants to be. 

🗡🗡 What is their alignment? 🗡

Well, she started at Neutral Evil, and ended at chaotic something.  She’d hesitate to say good.  But when it comes down to brass tacks, she’ll usually help someone who needs it.  So, a reluctant Chaotic Good.  Just don't tell her that.

Gif from @aristenfromwarsaw Edit: You're supposed to tag people in these things, I have zero people I talk to but @monowires you post about your Tav a lot and we're mutuals. So hopefully this isn't weird.

[sparrow-in-the-field]

your severance szn 2 criticism summed up everything I’ve been thinking that I just can’t articulate! I think the acting was insanely good and the visuals really levelled up from season 1 but I think a lot of the writing really let it down. And I think a lot of fans have been so distracted by ships and just all the extras and bonuses from the showrunners and cast that they’re distracted from how easy it is to pick apart the weaknesses in the writing. I think you can really tell there were big issues behind the scenes in the writing room and last minute rewrites and so the outcome of that was shrinking the narrative scope to focus mostly on the Mark/Helly/Gemma plot and benching the other major players. Milchick had the best character development but it had the most disappointing conclusion and Dylan’s story had so much potential and it was barely given room to breathe. And I really don’t understand why we‘re still having to base our understanding of outie Irv’s character on unconfirmed theories and assumptions that have been around since 2022. I fully understand why John was a bit hesitant in confirming if he was coming back.

I’m really glad I’m not the only one who felt a little bit let down

thanks anon! I'm glad you liked my thoughts (they were longwinded enough I'm just happy that anyone was willing to read them lol).

I think you really hit the nail on the head here, too. I completely agree that this season had such high quality filmmaking; it's honestly one of the major reasons why I'll stick around for s3. The cinematography, the set, the score are all top notch. And the acting!! Man, I'd give them all Emmys if I could lol. Even if the story and writing is off, each episode is still a joy to watch because of these elements.

I think about the writers room a lot; I believe one of the main directors from s1 left the show because of creative differences, and I would love to know what direction she would have taken the show; alas, we'll never know. And ooff don't get me started about the extras/bonuses!! That's been bugging me a lot. I won't lie, I don't listen to the podcast; I'd watch the talking heads at the ends of episodes and often be like "wait what?". It bothers me that so many people take what they say outside of the show as being the same as direct canon. Call me crazy, but I expect a show to be able to stand on its own to be understood and interpreted. I shouldn't need to consume the supplemental material to understand the thesis of a paper, you know?

It is surprising to me, based on s1, how much the show ended up turning the focus towards ships/romance. I mean, the Helly/Mark/Gemma stuff has always been part of the story, of course, but like you said, in s2 it really came at the sacrifice of other characters and storylines. I really missed the MDR found family aspect this season, and I feel like there's a version of the show where Mark and Helly could have had a romance without it taking away from their friendship with the rest of MDR.

I was excited for Milchick's development! It felt like they were laying the groundwork for something big, but then in the finale he was just the same ol' Milchick. Maybe in s3 we'll see some more growth from him (and/or backstory, please!! where did this man come from?? how did he get this job?? He's never seem dedicated to Kier in the way Cobel was, so I'm so curious how he got here!)

Dylan and Irv both deserved more screen time this season. I enjoyed Dylan's story with Gretchen, but I completely agree that it deserved more room to breathe, and I think Dylan deserved more time with MDR (loved his and Irv's interaction in ep1, more of that energy, please!), as well as some more tension with Milchick (like after s1 they should still be on edge with each other at least, but they barely interacted this season). And the whole Irv story...I've said my piece already lol. But at the very least, if we must go in this direction with Irv, tell me who he's been talking to/working with! I fear Ben Stiller and co. are going to simply pretend that didn't exist for convenience, but I will never forget, Ben. I won't.

You've got me rambling again, anon!! Lol. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!

[nightcolorz]

Hiii. I love your acc and the analyses you've made of TVC characters; reading your posts has expanded and helped me articulate the ideas I already had. Anne Rice as an author was very revealing, I mean, by reading her books and analyzing the characters and their dynamics, you get a lot of information about her as a person. That's very interesting. I think all authors put a bit of themselves into their works, but with Anne Rice it feels more personal, maybe because there are quite a few books following the same characters. What do you think?

omg thank you so much 🥹❤️ the makes me so happy. I agree wholeheartedly with ur take on Anne rice. The books are suuuper personal, sometimes to the point where I almost feel like I shouldn’t have access to them 😭 like I’m reading someone’s weird diary. I think this was because her writing functioned as her only outlet. like iwtv was so visceral and sad bcus it was such a raw unfiltered expression of her grief, and the rest of the books all follow the same format (to varying degrees of quality lol).

When it comes to the characters, she was open about how every character is in some way representative of a part of her (especially Lestat and Louis). U can analyze for days how Louis and lestats evolutions r akin to witnessing evolutions of Anne rices mental health, Louis her former self insert created during probably the darkest time in her life later becoming a representation of what she considers the worst parts of herself that she is ashamed of and being basically cut from the series, and Lestat going from an embodiment of her fraught relationship with her husband in iwtv to in tvl a power fantasy who she wishes she was like to at the same time a mouth piece for her existential dread and loneliness and anxieties

The way that lestats religious crisis and manic breakdown from Memnoch to blood canticle aligns perfectly with Anne rice’s own religious crisis and sudden shift in her work is so crazy to me😭 and then there’s Anne rice literally using Lestat as a blatant mouth piece to scream at the audience in the iconic blood canticle opening monologue of course, how could we forget. A lot of the time the personal nature of these books makes the technical quality of them worse, but even still it is one of the major reasons why I love them so much. Part of it is that reading something so personal and unfiltered, where u get the impression that the author wasn’t thinking at all about how it would come off to people while writing it, makes it feel almost more real to me? Or more authentic? Reading tvc sometimes makes me feel like I’m reading actual history or personal accounts from real people. And the bad writing and offensiveness and heaps of bullshit and the pages of unrelated tangents adds to this in a way 😭. Like yeah this is exactly what reading a biography by a hundreds of years old vampire would be like lmao.

I love interpreting themes in these books so much because I often feel like Anne rice didn’t place them there on purpose. She had a very “I’ll just write whatever is in my mind and the themes will happen on there own” approach, and they did! and for someone like me analyzing it is super rewarding. Figuring stuff out that the author wasn’t even aware of, basically. Tvc are rich with meaning in a way that only these books are, and the personal nature and the lack of thought into meaning or themes is I think majorly responsible. For me when it comes to fiction, I like to do the work. And Anne rice throwing her personal as hell freak sex vampire yaoi with the most agonizing portrayals of trauma and mental illness ever no editing no forethought out into the world definitely gives me room to do the work 😭

Also, I tend to really only enjoy art if I feel like it is a messy reflection of the creator. I’m not sure why but I can never really get into something unless I can see some of the creators flaws or baggage reflected in the work 😭 I feel like art isn’t rlly art to me if I don’t feel like a know the person who made it a little too well after seeing it. There’s something really special about finding out the worst parts of someone in a book, honestly. I love reading these and being like there is so much wrong with this woman and I know way too much about it 😭 she’s horrible but I’ve lived in her mind and I don’t wanna leave.

I admire in a way Anne rices unhinged abandon with how blatantly vent-like and unfiltered her books were (literally unedited 😭). She got extremely lucky making a career from it, typing out all her insane thoughts and feelings into gay vampires and becoming rich and famous. A girl can only dream for that life, I do that shit for free on a03. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anything published that has the same energy as tvc in this way. The only thing that comes close would be like, a quotev fan fiction I read for laughs written by a ten year old in 2010 who is unintentionally revealing way too much to me about their semi concerning home life 😭. It’s wonderful! Thank u Anne rice for ur beautiful scary lack of shame u have given me so many things to write about on tumblr

[rj-drive-in]

Culture War Of The Worlds Department:

There's nothing more terrifying than high standards.

CONDESCENSION OF THE STARLINGS © 2025 by Rick Hutchins

When the aliens arrived in their enormous interstellar worldship, sending their delegates down to each and every sovereign nation on Earth, all governments decided in their own fashion who would be among those who would meet with them. Here in the United States, the President made the decision (despite the opinion of both houses of congress that there should be a vote); and, in my opinion, she chose wisely. Besides herself and the Vice President, she selected the Speaker of the House, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense and the Administrator of NASA. She allowed each of these officials two assistants.

Hundreds of elected officials, including the governors of all fifty-one states, voiced strenuous objections. Tens of thousands of others voiced objections of varying degrees of credibility.

In the end, of course, we learned that the aliens had pre chosen the representatives of each nation with whom they wished to meet.

(And, yes, I’m well aware of the controversy over calling them “aliens,” and the preference for terms like “visitors,” “E.T.s” or “starlings.” Among the common people– those who are generally unaware that dinosaurs did not coexist with early man or that Mars shares our sun– the word “alien” conjures up connotations of either illegal immigrants from Mexico or bug-eyed monsters from old drive-in movies. The hell with them. In my blog, I call them “space aliens,” just to rub it in.)

At the time, of course, I had no official connection to the government or the current administration, although my status as former Speaker helped drive the popularity of my blog and my influence of popular opinion, deserved or not. I agreed with the president’s appointments, even if I hadn’t voted for her– but I did not object in the slightest when the aliens invited me to the First Contact Retreat.

Despite press releases to the contrary, the Retreat was not held at Camp David– I don’t know if that has ever been officially confirmed, but I’m confirming it now. The unmarked Navy jet took me to an undisclosed location somewhere in the Midwest. I’m pretty sure it was Southwestern Nebraska. And the aliens never told me beforehand why I was chosen. I was certainly not the only (or most prominent) pundit expressing reservations or suspicions about the motivations of the space aliens; the networks and cable news channels all had high-profile naysayers on their payroll. I thought at the time that it was my lack of corporate ties that attracted them, but the truth is that I had no idea.

The aliens call their planet Minwhanimoh and the alien who met with us was named Draadimuhhmwuh. Their vocal abilities are more limited than ours, so their words have a tendency toward a lot of syllables; you can distinguish their personal names by the long, drawn-out vowels. Meeting one of them in person was the most surreal experience of my life. They are tall and bipedal. Two arms, two legs, one head and a face with two eyes, a nose and a mouth; yet the spacing and proportion of the features, the length of the bones and articulation of the joints added up to a being that was subtly and startlingly unearthly.

While the aliens aren’t much for standing on protocol, Draadimuhhmwuh condescended to allow the president to speak first. She made a benign and inoffensive statement, no doubt generated by standard speech composition software, and then answered his questions with carefully crafted replies rehearsed during her pre-meeting coaching sessions. When he was done with her, Draad (for short) spoke to a librarian from Wichita and a Jesuit priest from Boston. Then he came to me.

“Good morning, Ms. Washington,” he said, in that kind of tight-lipped way that they speak. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person. I’ve read all of your essays and books.”

“Good morning, Mr. Draadimuhhmwuh,” I replied. “I’m flattered.”

“I’d like to speak to you about your concerns regarding our visit to your planet and our desire for cultural exchange.”

Human and alien body language are in no way similar, but for the sake of my terrestrial colleagues I maintained a confident pose. “If you’ve read my essays, you should be well aware of my views,” I replied. “You are obviously more scientifically and technologically advanced than we are. You claim to be more intelligent on a biological level, and therefore more artistically and culturally sophisticated. You come to this world telling us you want to help us. When a more advanced culture encounters a more primitive culture, claiming to offer aid, it always leads to slavery and oppression. The upper classes always view the lower classes with contempt.”

“You believe that we look upon you with contempt?” he asked a bit sadly.

“Yes, I do.”

“Tell me about your sister, Ms. Robinson.”

A chill ran down my spine. “What do you know about my sister? What do you want with her?”

“I want nothing. I merely ask after her health.”

“She’s fine. Very healthy.”

“But she has a medical condition, does she not?”

“Yes,” I replied carefully, wondering how he was planning to use Jazmin against me. “She has Down’s Syndrome. But she’s in good health.”

“This syndrome leaves her intellectually limited. She has the mind of a child in an adult body. Is this correct?”

“Yes.”

“How do you feel about her, Ms. Robinson? Do you view her with contempt?”

“Of course not!”

“No, indeed, of course not. I have read your essays, Ms. Robinson, not only those about my people, but also those you have written about your sister. You love her very much. In fact, your love for her is only deepened by her limitations, as are your feelings of obligation and protectiveness. This is something I have learned that your people have in common with mine. Humans are, for the most part, given to affection for the smallest among you.”

Our conversation continued, but that was the moment of epiphany for me. The moment that everything changed. I knew then that the Starlings had our best interests at heart– they didn’t hate us for our smallness, they loved us for what we are and what we want to be. I took that message back to my followers in the blogosphere. From there, I took it on the road to local guest appearances around the country, to television interviews and debates, to guest editorials and podcasts.

And the people got the message. And that, ultimately, is why the aliens returned to their homes amongst the stars, taking all their knowledge and artistry and wonderment with them. As in so many works of fiction, the invaders came and were oh-so-righteously defeated. But they weren’t killed off by the common cold or vanquished by a computer virus or driven away through wit and ingenuity. They simply left because they weren’t wanted.

Because the one thing that the common people can never tolerate is intellectual elitism.