#literally none of this is important?

[rcinydayz]

( jenna  ortega.  cis  woman.  she/her.  )  did  you  hear  ?  MARIANA  FLORES  is  stuck  in  stonehaven  for  the  for  the  foreseeable  future  …  they've  lived  here  for  HER  WHOLE  LIFE  and  are  known  around  town  as  THE  PESSIMIST,  though  back  in  high  school  they  were  better  known  for  being  voted  MOST  LIKELY  TO  DISAPPEAR  AFTER  GRADUATION.  if  i'm  not  mistaken,  they’re  a  TWENTY  TWO  year  old  sophomore  studying  PHYSICS  (  i  really  hope  that  translates  well  into  their  role  as  an  ENGINEER  in  the  ‘new  world'  ).  according  to  my  records  they  were  originally  on  the  trip  because  she  was  short  credits  for  the  semester—  which  checks  out,  given  they’re  RESILIENT,  BLUNT  and  CYNICAL.  if  you’re  ever  trying  to  find  them,  your  best  bet  is  to  start  at  northview  skate  park  and  listen  for  someone  humming  venus  fly  trap  by  marina.  oh,  and  don’t  forget  to  try  calling  out  mari  or  picturing  loud  music  needlessly  blasting  through  headphones,  dark  sunglasses  perched  on  the  top  of  her  head  even  when  it’s  cloudy,  chipped  nails  tapping  impatiently  on  her  phone  screen,  iced  coffee  spilling  out  of  a  skull  shaped  mug,  and  sleepless  nights  spent  tracing  constellations  through  fogged  up  windows.  for  extra  help.  let's  hope  the  chaos  doesn't  get  to  them  … 

B A S I C S .

birth  name  : mariana  lourdes  flores

nickname(s)  :mari

date  of  birth  : april  9th

age  : 22

gender  : cis  woman

pronouns  : she/her

sexuality  : bisexual

relationship  status  : single

birthplace  : (  west  side  )  stonehaven,  indiana

currently  : (  north  side  )  stonehaven,  indiana

languages  : english  (  fluently  ),  spanish  (  fluently  )

religion  : was  raised  catholic,  currently  agnostic

education  : currently  studying  community  science  at  stonehaven  college

occupation  : barista  (  previously  ),  engineer  (  currently  )

H E A L T H .

preferred  hand  :  left

blood  type  :  ab-

allergies  :  pollen,  tree  nuts,  and  chocolate

physical  :  in  surprisingly  good  shape  for  someone  who  rarely  works  out.

mental  :  undiagnosed  ocd

social  :  has  a  small  circle  of  trusted  friends,  but  she  often  prefers  her  own  company  over  socializing.  she  isn’t  antisocial  by  any  means,  but  she  finds  peace  in  being  alone  with  her  thoughts....

P E R S O N A L I T Y .

aries sun. istj ( the logistician ) . sanguine . patience . pride . slytherclaw. chaotic neutral . 4w5 ( the individualist )

positive  traits  : resilient,  adaptable,  candid

neutral  traits  : blunt,  perceptive,  competitive

negative  traits  : cynical,  aloof,  stubborn

habits  : biting  her  nails  when  she's  nervous

likes  : hot  sauce,  loud  music,  donuts,  energy  drinks,  the  color  blue,  plants,  journaling,  slasher  films,  and  video  games

dislikes  : pineapple  flavored  candy,  wearing  socks,  long  nails,  people  who  talk  too  much,  and  waking  up  before  noon.

fears  : large  bodies  of  water  (  she  can't  swim  ),  premature  death

skeleton  :  the  pessimist

tropes  : aloof  dark  haired  girl,  deadpan  snarker

inspiration  : raven  reyes  (  the  100  ),  peyton  sawyer  (  one  tree  hill  ),  kat  stratford  (  10  things  i  hate  about  you  ),  maeve  wiley  (  sex  education  *  if  you  squint  *  )

A P P E A R A N C E .

faceclaim  : jenna  ortega

face  : heart  shaped  with  soft,  defined  cheekbones  and  almond-shaped,  expressive  dark  eyes

hair  : sleek  black  hair,  with  curtain  bangs  framing  her  face

body  : slender  and  petite,  surprising  perfect  posture

style  : her  outfits  are  typically  paired  with  pleated  skirts,  high  waisted  shorts,  or  tights  layered  under  mini  dresses.  accessories  include  dainty  chokers,  silver  rings,  and  dangling  earrings.

misc  :  multiple  ear  piercings  in  a  mix  of  hoops  and  studs,  often  mismatched;  a  septum  piercing,  double  nose  piercing  and  faux  vertical  labret

B I O G R A P H Y .

mariana  flores  has  dreamed  of  leaving  stonehaven,  indiana  for  as  long  as  she  could  remember.  to  her,  the  small  town  was  more  a  life  sentence  than  a  home,  a  prison  she  was  desperate  to  escape.

mariana  had  a  childhood  full  of  love  ...  raised  by  her  mother,  gloria,  who,  for  a  while,  seemed  like  the  only  person  in  the  world  who  truly  understood  her.  the  two  were  inseparable  ...  it  was  them  against  the  world,  and  even  when  things  were  tough,  they  managed  to  get  by.

but  that  all  changed  when  gloria  remarried.

what  started  as  an  awkward  adjustment  period  turned  into  something  far  worse.  her  stepfather  was  volatile,  their  house  filled  with  tension.  over  time,  her  mom  became  someone  mariana  barely  recognized:  controlling,  bitter,  and  relatively  heartless.  the  warmth  and  love  that  once  defined  their  relationship  evaporated,  leaving  mari  to  navigate  her  teenage  years  on  her  own.

by  the  time  she  hit  high  school,  mariana  had  already  learned  to  fend  for  herself.  she  became  a  master  of  shutting  people  out  with  a  glare  or  a  sarcastic  remark,  her  sharp  tongue  a  shield  against  anyone  who  got  too  close.  a  girl  with  a  bad  attitude  and  bigger  dreams  than  they  thought  she  deserved.

despite  her  tough  exterior,  mariana  had  plans,  airtight  plans,  to  escape.  graduate,  head  to  college  on  the  west  coast,  and  never  look  back.  but  life,  with  its  cruel  sense  of  timing,  tore  that  dream  apart  mere  weeks  before  graduation.  her  stepfather  walked  out  for  good,  and  gloria  spiraled  into  a  pit  of  despair  that  left  her  incapable  of  functioning.

the  years  after  her  high  school  graduation  were  a  blur  of  working  double  shifts  at  the  local  coffee  shop,  making  sure  her  mom  got  out  of  bed  in  the  mornings,  and  trying  not  to  drown  in  the  bitterness  of  her  own  sacrifice.  while  her  classmates  left  stonehaven  to  chase  their  dreams,  she  was  stuck  behind,  too  weighed  down  by  responsibility  and  anger  to  move  forward.

but  last  year,  something  changed.  maybe  it  was  the  realization  that  her  life  couldn’t  wait  for  gloria  to  get  better,  or  maybe  she  was  just  tired  of  being  angry.  whatever  it  was,  mariana  finally  enrolled  at  stonehaven  college,  for  physics.

it  was  a  surprising  choice  to  those  who  knew  her.  but  for  mariana,  it  represented  a  lifeline,  a  way  to  control  her  future  when  so  much  of  her  past  had  been  dictated  for  her,  plus  she  was  pretty  good  at  it.

by  her  sophomore  year,  she’d  found  a  strange  rhythm.  days  were  spent  in  class  or  at  work,  nights  studying  by  the  light  of  her  laptop  or  taking  care  of  her  mom,  and  weekends  skating  at  northview  or  working  on  her  beat  up  old  car.  she  wasn’t  happy—not  yet—but  she  was  managing.

when  the  opportunity  came  to  join  a  weekend  community  service  trip,  mariana  signed  up  for  one  simple  reason:  she  needed  the  credits.  in  order  to  keep  proving  for  her  mom,  and  not  lose  her  job,  she  had  dropped  a  class  early  in  the  semester  leaving  her  one  credit  short. 

the  idea  of  spending  three  days  surrounded  by  overly  enthusiastic  peers  was  about  as  appealing  as  a  root  canal,  but  she  could  endure  anything  for  her  gpa.

the  trip  was  uneventful—just  hours  of  manual  labor,  forced  small  talk  and  the  occasional  burst  of  laughter.

but  when  they  returned  to  stonehaven,  everything  changed.

the  sight  of  the  town  hadn’t  changed  much,  but  everything  felt…  off.  it  was  just  strange—empty  streets,  no  one  at  the  diner  or  grocery  store.  it  would  have  been  her  dream  if  it  wasn't  so  creepy.

as  the  minutes  stretched  into  hours,  the  strangeness  turned  to  fear.  she'd  finally  done  it  ...  escaped  her  mom.  but  at  what  cost?

H E A D C A N O N S .

she’s  on  a  strict  pescatarian  diet  after  a  disastrous  attempt  at  veganism.  started  after  she  watched  a  documentary  about  factory  farming  and  decided  she  couldn’t  eat  meat  anymore.  but  her  resolve  crumbled  after  two  weeks  when  she  was  caught  eating  a  triple  meat  pizza  during  a  moment  of  weakness.  she  compromised  by  allowing  herself  to  eat  fish  because,  “they  don’t  have  faces  you  can  feel  guilty  about”

mariana  has  an  almost  photographic  memory  when  it  comes  to  small,  seemingly  insignificant  details  about  people.  she’ll  casually  remember  a  favorite  coffee  order  or  an  offhanded  comment  someone  made  months  ago.

though  mariana  spends  a  lot  of  her  free  time  at  northview  skate  park,  she’s  not  there  to  skateboard—she  rollerblades.  it's  her  form  of  release  and  a  way  to  clear  her  mind  when  everything  feels  overwhelming.

she  originally  planned  on  majoring  in  psychology.  she  thought  it  would  be  the  perfect  way  to  understand  people—especially  her  mom,  and  perhaps  herself.  however,  she  quickly  realized  that  the  emotional  toll  of  constantly  analyzing  human  behavior  was  too  much  for  her.  she  couldn’t  handle  the  idea  of  getting  emotionally  involved  with  other  people’s  pain  when  her  own  family  was  unraveling.  so,  she  decided  on  physics,  which  was  the  better  choice  in  the  long  run. 

her  biggest  fear  is  ending  up  exactly  like  her  mom—bitter,  trapped,  and  stuck  in  a  life  she  never  wanted.

she  has  a  pet  snake  named  ophelia.  she's  pretty  is  low  maintenance,  just  like  mari  prefers.

she  loves  her  coffee  strong  and  bitter.  cannot  start  her  day  without  it.

W A N T E D .

LORELAI  MASTERS  / RIDE  OR  DIE  -  they're  the  classic  childhood  best  friends  turned,  outgoing  +  angsty  side  kick  duo.  they  pretty  much  grew  up  together  and  although  their  social  circles  eventually  grew  apart  they've  always  managed  to  stay  very  close.  think  peyton  and  brooke  or  marissa  and  summer  minus  the  boy  drama.

PLATONIC  SOULMATE  -  the  two  started  off  as  good  friends  and  thought  that  meant  they  were  soulmates  however,  after  a  disastrous  attempt  at  dating  they  realized  they  were  better  off  as  friends.

CAMILLA  BENNETT  / EX  FRIEND  -   they  used  to  be  so  close—inseparable,  even.  but  something  small,  seemingly  insignificant,  caused  their  friendship  to  end  on  pretty  rocky  terms.  as  mariana  tries  to  forget  about  it  and  move  on  with  her  life  she  can’t  get  over  the  fact  that  there  is  someone  in  the  world  who  doesn’t  like  her,  someone  who  knows  all  of  her  secrets.  

ROCHELLE  JOHNSON  /  OPPOSITES  ATTRACT  -  someone  who  refuses  to  let  mariana’s  pessimism  drag  them  down.  they  challenge  her  cynicism  at  every  turn,  pushing  her  to  see  the  good  in  situations.  whether  it’s  through  humor,  kindness,  or  relentless  cheerfulness,  they  keep  her  grounded,  even  when  she  pretends  it  annoys  her.

OCCASIONAL  FLING  -  pretty  self  explanatory.  the  two  met  doing  god  knows  what  and  after  a  few  drinks  found  themselves  in  compromising  positions.  they  agreed  never  to  do  it  again  however,  neither  have  been  able  to  keep  that  promise.

FRENEMY -  ying  and  yang. although  the  two  are  thick  as  thieves  they  often  find  themselves  in  at  odds  because  they  are  polar  opposites. they  butt  heads  more  often  than  not  but  it's  worth  it  to  keep  their  friendship  alive. 

CRUSH  /  WILL  THEY  WONT  THEY -  mari  recently  has  a  huge  crush  on  them  and  she's  VERY  embarrassed  about  it.  she  just  doesn’t  know  how  or  when  it  started  but  every  time  she  sees  them  she  gets  all  hot  and  bothered.  most  likely  someone  she's  good  friends  with  /  has  known  for  a  long  time.  she  tries  her  best  not  to  make  it  too  obvious  so  that  their  friendship  isn't  awkward  but  they  can  feel  the  shift  in  their  relationship. 

ANYTHING  PLEASE  !

[phoenixkaptain]

I love it when pre Original Trilogy era shows how much effort went into making the Death Star. It took decades, literal decades, and it took so much money and so many people and it was such a secretive thing and it’s staffed by millions because it’s the size of a small moon.

I cannot express how much all of the added information makes it so much funnier that Luke blew it up.

Luke destroys literally everything Palpatine built. He blows up the Death Star, which was referenced in universe as early as the second movie. He blew up the weapon of mass destruction twenty years in the making. And he blew it up pretty much directly after it’s first and only successful attack. It was operational for fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes that Palpatine had the thing he’d been building for longer than Luke has been alive, and Luke blows it up. First day retirement, but first hour retirement.

Luke convinces Darth Vader to turn back to the light side, a feat thought literally impossible by literally everybody. Sidious clearly doesn’t see Vader’s betrayal coming. Vader’s betrayal was not in his plans, nor was it something he was prepared for. Sidious is a powerful Force user with all four limbs while Vader is a man in the tin can Palpatine put him in. If Palpatine had seen Vader turning coming, he would not have allowed it to happen.

Luke literally should not even be alive. Palpatine almost definitely got Padme out of the way on purpose, and he almost certainly was trying for her unborn child as well (there was way too big of a risk that a cute liddol bebe would bring some humanity back to Anakin, and Palpatine did not want Anakin to have any humanity) Luke living is literally the first step in Palpatine’s ultimate downfall, especially once Vader finds out that Luke is his son. His very alive son. His son that is not dead, despite Palpatine claiming Anakin killed Padme. Implying that Anakin killed Padme and she posthumously gave birth. But, she didn’t give birth on Mustafar, which was the last place Anakin interacted with her. And once the mother dies, you have to get those fuckers out fast or they die too.

I imagine Darth Vader piecing all of this together is that meme with all the math floating around his head, because how could Padme have died by his hand and then given birth like two hours later?

Luke killing Palpatine is what ultimately leads to the dissolution of the Empire as an omnipotent entity. Luke killed the Empire. Luke spends a good amount of his adult life killing Empire remnants. We see that in the Mandalorian, since he’s so recognizable that Gideon immediately knows he’s fucked just by seeing an X-wing. We read it in Legends’ continuity, where Luke terrifies Imperials because he can walk into their changing room and stand in their for a minute and they don’t even notice.

Luke destroyed Palpatine’s life’s work. Everything Palpatine spent his whole life working towards, and Luke kills all of it. He blows up not one, but two Death Stars (he may not have pulled the trigger on the second Death Star, but without him, it never would have been destroyed). He convinces not one, but multiple Sith and Dark Jedi to return from the Dark Side. He is the only reason that Obi-Wan Kenobi, the biggest pain in Palpatine’s ass ever born, lives long enough to make it to the Death Star.

Palpatine went through so much effort. And just when he had finally won, when he finally had a weapon capable of destroying entire planets with a single blast, making it impossible for any planets or peoples to go against him, Luke shows up nineteen years late to the Jedi party with space Starbucks and a droid twice his age and almost singlehandedly destroys everything Palpatine ever had a hand in creating.

Luke manages to become even worse than Obi-Wan Kenobi, the ultimate thorn in the side of politicians, and Luke doesn’t even understand any politics. He wasn’t trained in diplomacy like Obi-Wan and Leia, no, he’s a farmboy who left home for the first time in his entire life, just this morning. And he is the one to destroy the Empire.

If they rewrote Star Wars and had it entirely from Palpatine’s perspective, Luke Skywalker would be his greatest foe. Luke Skywalker would be the final boss. Luke Skywalker is the antithesis of everything Palpatine believes in and he is the one character that Palpatine cannot predict. He isn’t as moldable as Anakin, he doesn’t respond to threats very well, he’s apparently impossible to kill via Force lightning (still the funniest scene of all times, the progression of Palpatine’s face falling and him looking like “what the fuck??? Is this kid rubber??? I’ve electrocuted him eight times???”), his unwavering faith in his father’s goodness makes Darth Vader want to be a better person, Luke Skywalker is the big bad of Palpatine’s story and—

There is nothing in this world that is funnier than someone’s biggest antagonist being Luke fucking Skywalker. Luke Skywalker, who saved the galaxy with the power of love and who shouldn’t exist, by Jedi rules and by Palpatine’s own attempts, and whose best friends are literally droids, which Palpatine canonically hates!

Everything about this is hilarious, this is the funniest thing in all of media, Palpatine loses absolutely everything to some backwater farmboy who fucking likes droids.

[space-sheep08]

Actually so tired that people mainly focus on the bdsm when they talk about La Pianiste when we literally have this dynamic right here. Like, that's insane.

What if you were a little girl in her 40's who couldn't grow up because of your mother-wife who made you sleep in her bed and forced you to repress every sexual desires and thoughts of becoming your own person just to keep you close to her ? What if you fought back and yearned for dangerous things out of her reach ? But also, what if you let her because it's all you've ever known and been taught to want ?

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[navree]

"rhaenys could have ended the war by dracarysing all the greens right there" yes because a distant relation to the throne deciding to barbecue an anointed and publicly positively hailed king and his entire family who is well loved within the city and in multiple other parts of the country for the sake of the succession of a far-away princess no one was ever on board with who hasn't been seen by the populace in literal years, her psycho husband, her three obvious bastards, and two toddlers from the psycho husband would go over super well with westeros and especially in king's landing where scores of the still-cheering population were killed for no reason by that same dragon who would do the barbecuing, because when targaryens act unilaterally without thinking of how the people would react there's never any problem, which is why the storming of the dragonpit and robert's rebellion were actually just collective delusions dreamed up by readers who hate rhaenyra and not key parts of the story and house targaryen's history that directly contributed to their demise and are intrinsic to the plot

truly team black stans are made up of only the most genius and media literate amongst us

[six-legged-sea-leopard]

no i am not over how one of the first things kris does of their own accord without our input is to lay down their life for this weird ipad kid they met five hours ago no i am not over "hell yeah i am here to humiliate you fucker" no i am not over "did you miss me? because i missed you!" no i am not over how much not only susie but also kris (and ralsei) genuinely care about their new adopted little cousin guy and the fact that he went from having no friends at all to 3 ride or die bffs who were willing to do what every adult in his life failed to do which is stand up for him i-

[alivebaguette]

Sometimes I remember that Patroclus has one of the highest named character kill counts in the Iliad because he did a ONE VS TWENTY GOD DAMN SEVEN (1v9 x 3), tried to scale the LITERAL WALLS OF TROY three times, and that it took three characters, including APOLLO, to kill him

And then he STILL has an attitude with Hector on his death bed😭 This guy was smug asf you guys, he knew what he was capable of

[borgialucrezia]

peaky blinders — 6x02 'black shirt' created by steven knight

[faerynova]

what if i draw holiday and rex as a pietà painting what then

[mohntilyet]

not to mention the entire antaam fleet like 😭 that was the PERFECT moment to show off what the lords could do!!! The antaam fucked over rivain, theyve been a thorn in the whole nations side for a long time now, they would not pass up a chance for payback via full scale naval warfare so that the veilguard can do what they need to!! Sure dreadnoughts are dangerous but at this point they probably have tricks up their sleeve, thats one of the few things they have!

also wouldn't it be personal because does solas not try to blow up kont-aar because he's trying to 5d chess tevinter and the qunari into destroying each other. like. i know technically this would not be incredible widespread news because the attack was stopped, but i don't think the wonderful citizens of kont-aar would have missed the tsunami that nearly hit them and the shockwave that actually hit them. rumors go around. and i assume irian/vadis tell varric. who i think would tell isabela. who would tell the group she leads. who would care because ofc, they LIVE IN RIVAIN, and now know that solas and his followers thinks they can trade rivaini lives* to further his plans.

*while i also think there's probably a divide between kont-aar and the rest of the nation, it's one that the rivaini love to jump across and back over. an interesting comparison to be made here with most of rivain having similar sentiments towards dairsmuid and the chantry. like this is the country specifically mentioned to have a lot of citizens who follow the qun/are non-andrastian + it being MUCH more multicultural and accepting than other nations. any attack on rivain, even if it's a qunari settlement, would fan a lot of flames that solas cannot put out so the idea of trying to him taking multiple steps back because he didn't realise how intensely the qun/rivaini/lords would react is very fun for me. it would have been soo interesting for rivain to be a hub for efforts against solas because of how it's not influenced by andrastianism, how he (or his agents) specifically fucked them over, and (maddeningly for solas) also part of this resistance has spirits who willingly guide them against him. this could have even been a plot device where the door goes both ways and solas finds out rook's plans because he manages to eavesdrop through a seer or something.

and on the spirits. all the stuff where the mourn watch regularly communicates with spirits could have been done with rivain as well, and with different takes on being 'friendly' with spirits. iirc there's a spirit in the hall of valor which is so interesting but it's literally just there for flavour text. THERE'S A SPIRIT IN THE HALL OF VALOR THAT DOES NOTHING BESIDES LIKE. SAY HI. ??? bioware i would have liked to see more spirits and seers and the matriarchal pantheists you have talked about please. and also the idea of the peaceful qunari settlement being pushed to protect the country they are part of and what that means for them as qunari vs. rivaini. taash's storyline could have contributed to this . so A LOT less about choosing a side, more about how kont-aar has developed, changed, how rivain has influenced it and what it means to be qunari. not the qunari agents and fighters that we have seen, but their 'civillian' way of life in kont-aar.

complete waste not seeing any of established lore reflected in the lords of fortune or rivain because i stupidly actually thought we were going to see some kind of settlement and be introduced to a very different cultural norms.. in my beautiful mind i like to think taash is a little taken aback by how badly mages/elves/etc are treated. like they understood it was different outside of rivain (they would have been young when the dairsmuid circle annulment happened right? so they don't 'remember' it themself, they likely heard others talking about it when they're old enough to understand) but until they actually saw what was happening first hand, they had a weird dissonance about it. but what we got was a deserted beach, ties to another faction (wardens are fine!! they are great !!!! the fourth blight is interesting!!!! yet they are not the faction with a lack of info about them!!!!!) and also the hall of valor that exists as flavor text with nothing meaningful behind it besides a pub used in a few cutscenes and a minigame.

[blyszczopies]

the sparkledog of the family

[bookwyrminspiration]

the other ask made me remember the weird pro-life implications of the inception date day . . .

It's a rather awkward worldbuilding detail that I think a lot of us tend to avoid. It's mostly implication and isn't really relevant to anything (so far)

Many people have said it, but it also seems like it's inclusion has nothing to do with pro-life ideology or exploring the elves' beliefs and reasoning. Instead, it serves to decrease the age difference between the MC and her love interests, as the younger you are the more significant each year is. the pro-life associations are just a side effect

I'm not opposed to fictional cultures with different beliefs and ideologies. In fact they serve as great thought experiments and opportunities to explore other perspectives (even if in the end I still disagree). What are the implications, what changes, who is impacted and how, does this make sense for this species/culture and why, etc.

The inception date concept, however, doesn't really serve that purpose. it's an offhand, meant to fix Sophie's relative age, but carrying a lot of unexplored secondhand consequences and baggage. Which is a shame, because it's left so many of us in this awkward place. we don't get the satisfaction or intrigue of the thought experiment, just uncomfortable associations

I think it either deserves more time and proper explanation or should just be scrapped. Either commit or not, but this passing mention isn't fulfilling

[trashlie]

ILY FP 258

I can't believe we're actually passed episode 250 lmao I Love Yoo is truly the never ending story (affectionate). I appreciate how much of the story we really get to dig into at this pace and while I know a lot of people have long-since dropped it, I imagine the rest of us (those reading this post because why else are you here?) also appreciate it. And that's what is even more refreshing about this episode - if refreshing is even a word we can use to describe it. Getting the extra scenes from other characters, a look at their lives and from these glimpses, what we can glean in the unsaid between the lines.

Can you believe I used to prey on Kousuke's downfall? There's so many posts of me talking about him from a different view, believing that the only way he could grow and develop and make the changes necessary to make him a better person was for him to crash and burn, to fail so significantly that he would be forced to pen his eyes to reality. But here we are, me, fervently swaddling him up like a baby and shoving him into my pocket because GOD he needs to be protected.

I don't even remember when it was, that my view on him began to shift, when I went from "he's interesting but awful" to "GOD THIS IS MY SON AND I WILL FIGHT EVERYONE YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH ME" but.... lol there's no going back!

That's enough rambling, let's jump in.

There is something so painfully devastating about every time ILY confirms to us something we have long-since known or suspected through nuance, foreshadowing, reading between the lines, etc: That Kousuke isn't Rand's biological son, that Shinae was at the formal for Gun Kim, that Kousuke has been manipulated his whole life. Nothing in this episode regarding Kousuke is actually new to us. We have known, and talked about, for months and months long before the confirmation reveal that Yui drugs Kousuke - that he has been manipulated by her his entire life, that she orchestrated his life to manipulate him into situations she could take advantage of. It's the way she spoke about Rand's affair around Kousuke, the way she commodified Rand's love so Kousuke became convinced he'd never earned his father's love, the way she spoke of their family vs others and convinced him from such a young age that everyone was out to get them, to destroy them, and that he couldn't let them get close, couldn't let them near - and how Nol was very much a target planted in his mind.

But it's the fact that he is speaking of this and acknowledging it! Until now, Kousuke has heavily lived in denial. Again, we know this. We talk a lot about the chasm between reality and the reality he believes in. We talk a lot about how Kousuke couldn't face reality, even though on some level he knew everything he believed and was told was not quite true not quite real, but that he was so afraid of the truth, he couldn't do it. Kousuke admitting that he's been driven by fear and envy explains everything about him, and why he could not accept the only unwavering unconditional love he was offered.

A few weeks ago I saw a video on instagram of this father talking about a conversation he had with his daughter, who was feeling a little uncomfortable with her friend group. A new girl started to play with her and her best friend and she said she wasn't exactly jealous, but that maybe it was that she was afraid that there wasn't enough love to go around. Her dad had to explain to her that love is not like a pizza - it's not finite, a limited amount that could be taken and hogged by someone else. But Kousuke never learned this. His father's love was commodified and he was made to fear this other kid who he mistakenly believed knew a version of his father he'd never been privy to. He never learned that love is finite, that Rand could have enough love for the both of them, and feared that Nol would hog it all - that he WAS hogging it all because whether or not it was good or bad, Nol received more attention that Kousuke did. And that speaks VOLUMES about how Kousuke sees Rand, what he thinks of their relationship. In his mind, he is still unworthy, that he's not noteworthy enough.

This part gets to me so badly. We, as omniscient readers, know that Rand has tried his best, but that Yui runs a spectacular interference with which he can't compete, largely because of the roles their family have placed them in - Rand the busy businessman, Yui the mommy homemaker. But no matter how hard he tries, it isn't good enough. Rand tries to reach Kousuke, but the manipulation and paranoia are so far gone that the times Rand does have the chance to convey his feelings, Kousuke can't even believe it, because he thinks he's not good enough to deserve that love, that he hasn't fully qualified for it yet. And despite that, Nol, who Kousuke feels hasn't done half of what he has to deserve Rand's love, gets the attention. It doesn't matter that it's negative attention, that Rand barks at Nol, that Nol feels Rand hates and regrets him, because ultimately, it's still more than Kousuke receives. And worse, to him, every time Rand is busy reprimanding Nol, he turns away from Kousuke to do it.

I want to make it clear that this is a deep trauma point of Kousuke's. He's never learned healthy love and the only person who gave him healthy love was someone he was set to fear and fight. Something I think about a lot is the flashback to Kousuke, in the bushes, watching Nessa and Nol's display of warm affection, before Yui appears literally looming before him. In that moment, he witnesses something he's been deprived of. "We're not like other families"'. He's told from a young age he shouldn't compare himself to those healthy families, to warm and affectionate relationships that he will not cultivate in this household. From such a young age it is normalized, that they aren't like others, that they are cold and distant. From a young age, he's made to stuff down his feelings, his tender wants and desires, in order to earn them. To be a good little boy who makes his parents proud. To make his father look his way.

There's also something about the way he says "I've been a good boy" that echoes Shinae learning she's been manipulated by Yui, devastated and angry and yelling about how she's been a good girl so why do these things keep happening to her, all she wanted to do was help her dad. Two people who, from a young age, felt they had to be so obedient, so good, to not be a burden, and despite following the rules, despite doing as they were told, despite trying to be whatever version of "good" they believed in, the world still beat them up and mistreated them. The world still punished them.

As Rin in our discord server pointed out, though, to some degree, Kousuke is very much a person who can - and does - act out, when he's emotionally high-strung. He's a volatile man, and it's largely to do with the fact that he's been drugged to placate him for so long. He never learned emotional regulation, he never learned how to deal with high-stress situations or to face conflict or to own up to things. This is something that some readers who hate Kousuke and expect him to act a certain way because of his age are missing. You don't just learn these things with age. You learn them with experience and Kousuke was deprived of the opportunity TO have those experiences. He never had to learn these behaviors, and now as an adult he cannot function when overwhelmed.

Idk this whole episode is just heartbreaking. It's devastating. I remember when I was someone praying on Kousuke's downfall and now I want to take it all back ;___; I always believed he had to crash and burn to be able to see the world for what it really was and to face his fears, but this is somehow so much worse.

And even though he's drunk, I don't think he's going to forget all of this in the morning. Rather, I think what he's voicing are things that have been plaguing him since waking up in the hospital. From that moment, we saw him wary and distrustful of his mother, we saw his concern for Nol rising above everything else, but grappling with the understanding that he doesn't deserve to stand in front of Nol anymore. These aren't epiphanies coming to him just because he's drunk; it's more like he's only voicing them because he's drunk. But even when he sobers up, he will probably still be haunted by these fears, these agonies, these truths, this understanding.

How does he face his mother after this? How does he face anyone? He may not even feel like he can trust Jayce - who while very kind to him, is still employed by his family. He may not even feel like he can trust Hansuke (though I really hope that's not the case).

He's so miserable and it genuinely hurts to have him lay it all out for us - everything we've known and suspected, like how it was so painfully clear he WANTED Nol's friendship, their brotherhood, but feared it, didn't believe that there was enough love to go around, that there could only be one of them and that even if it was for good or bad reasons, Nol cast him in the shadow. And all these years, watching as Nol, as Yeonggi, grew into this person who sounded so very much like this unknown version of their father, someone funny who makes others laugh, someone goofy, someone so boyish in the ways Kousuke was never allowed to be. Watching as he gathers friends, while Kousuke, so unlikeable, is wanted only for his money, for his status, for the clout.

He doesn't even know WHO HE IS! Questioning his own traits he's believed of himself, wondering if this is even him, if these parts of him are real or does he just act it, say it, pretend it, while trying to fulfill a role he was shoved into. That makes me feel SO deeply sad, because it's something I've been anticipating for so long: Kousuke wondering WHO he really is, how much of him is real and how much of it is the result of manipulation.

And that moment that he catches himself and says no no that's offensive and rude you can't be like that. ;AAA;

For him to admit how much he envies others, how much he craves the kind of connection others have, the kind of family others have, to feel that love and warmth that he's been deprived of, forced to endure this solitude because, as he believes, he didn't get the good parts of Rand. And what will happen when he learns that Rand isn't his father? That he never stood a chance to inherit any of those traits. Kousuke has operated on this belief that, if he tries hard enough, he can earn the things he craves, but I fear learning about his parenthood will make him think that no matter how hard he tried, he would never earn that, because none of it was ever him, could have gone to him.

I think this is where Shinae, in the future, will come in. I feel so very strongly that she will be someone who helps Kousuke to see that this isn't true, that these kinds of personality traits aren't something inherited, but rather something learned. For him to one day realize it's the paralyzing fear that holds him back, not his genetics. Of course, I acknowledge this will still take a lot of therapy but...

Something else very remarkable to me is the way Kousuke recognizes Shinae in Shinhye, because their eyes "feel the same" and he opens up to her - on some level, whether or not he is consciously aware of it, Kousuke knows, or maybe just wants to, that he can trust Shinae. That she is someone who is safe. He even knows how she feels about his mother. I don't think we'll see a lot of Kousuke and Shinae's friendship until we're passed our timeskips, but it makes me feel a little hopeful about it, that she'll be able to reach him, because she feels like someone who is safe. It's the way he sees Nol in her and wants to try to have that do over, a relationship with someone who  has unconditional love for him. It's the way he knows he mistreated Nol, that it was wrong, that he took it all out on this kid he was so afraid of because he had no other outlet, and he wants to do better but knows that there's nothing to salvage anymore.

But also, it just makes me hope more and more that in the future we WILL see a reconciliation between the brothers. As I say every time, it doesn't mean they have to become brothers or friends, but I just want them to see each other fully. Kousuke knows what he did to Nol. He doesn't deny it, even if he might not say it out loud unless he's drunk. But Nol is still so in the dark. Yujing is trying to tip him off and make him aware of it, but I hope one day when Nol realizes it, when he finds out that Kousuke, too, was Yui's victim, that he wasn't the only one, that Kousuke was made to fear Nol's love, he might.... understand. I'm saying understand here loosely because I don't want people to get the idea that I mean Nol will forgive him and Kousuke will be justified, but rather that Nol would be able to understand why Kousuke felt that way, and move on. But I can't help but hope that it will lead to an understanding, a reconciliation, where maybe they can try to be in each other's lives.

I think it's also interesting that Shinhye was somewhat honest, even if she wasn't very forthcoming, with Kousuke about her own family. It sounds like her mother has been gone for a long time, that she's been on her own the whole while, and I think it reinforces the idea that she believes both that Simhan is her father and that he rejected her, that he didn't want anything to do with her. It lines up, too, with how she feels that he wouldn't react well if he saw her (although I think she credited that to looking like their mother). In the same way that Shinae has felt abandoned and cast aside by their mother, Shinhye probably thinks their father never tried reach out, to find them, to maintain a relationship with her. Or perhaps it's that her mother fed her lies about him, made her believe him a different type of man, made her believe there would never be anything of their relationship to salvage. And given that she's the one who Kousuke opened to, it makes me think that there must be some kind of parallel there; the way she mentioned her own mother feels like maybe her mother, too, was a manipulative - or at the very least, dishonest - person.

I don't speculate a lot on Shinhye because frankly I don't think I know enough about her to really try to talk about her, but I do think that it's very likely there's some kind of connection between Shinhye and the Hirahras or Gun. To be clear, I don't believe she's working with Yui at all. I think it's more like... Alyssa isn't the only girl who has been trafficked by Gun. What's the likelihood that Shinae and Shinhye's mother was? Given her history, the gambling addiction that was so egregious her reputation haunted Shinae and chased her to a new neighborhood and school, was she seeking money somewhere else, somewhere more dangerous? Is that part of why they had to change their name? There's so many questions left about them, and I look forward to learning more about her, but, much like with Alyssa, I think it will take time and be dropped in little tidbits like this - things to read into and try to glean something from.

And maybe we'll see more of this duo in the future? It would feel a little weird to give them this one single run in, but I'm not entirely sure. Quimchee likes to keep us on our toes. After all, Minhyuk and Shinhye have also had only the one run in. Still, I think it would be interesting to watch, if Shinhye ever felt.... I want to say maybe compelled? to dig in more to Kousuke, ever feel a kind of kinship. I don't think she'll open up to him at all, but rather, maybe she'd keep going back because a. he's wealthy and there's more she can nick from him (assuming he doesn't realize she stole anything while in his apartment, if he even remembers any of this) and b. wanting to gather more intel.

Like I said though, she's hard to read so I don't want to cling too hard to any ideas and, instead, sit back and enjoy the show.

[trekkele]

something something something the Waynes refusing to allow the Kanes to give Martha a jewish burial because it would “look bad” if she wasnt buried in the Wayne Crypt or whatever.

Something something something about Thomas and Martha Wayne being the only ones buried on the manor grounds after Bruce returns from his world tour.

[paranormaljones]

ohhhhhh my gosh the dots are connecting.

when Mike and Vanessa are in the storage room looking for tablecloths and Vanessa warns Mike away from messing with the springlocks, she says that they're known to be unstable, and the way she says it makes it sound like she has personally experienced this instability before. but obviously this must have been before the most infamous springlock failure.

and then when Mike says that he thinks they (the ghost children) know who took Garrett and Vanessa closes her eyes and sighs, it's NOT (as Mike probably thought) out of exasperation or disbelief. it's because she knows he's right. because she, too, knows who took Garrett.

then literally two seconds later when Mike is saying how he feels closer to Garrett and how he almost feels like he can- "change what happened?" and Vanessa finishes his sentence like that, it's because she also wishes she could change what happened.

possibly because the ghost children have tried to make her a similar deal in the past. because something was taken from her, something she would do almost anything to get back.

what if she also lost a sibling because of Afton? (hint hint Michael Afton-esque)

what if Golden Freddy kid is her brother? (purely because he's blond, i don't really have anymore evidence to support this)

what if she herself was a victim? (see: my earlier theory about her being the Crying Child in this canon)

she knows every word that Mike says because she's lived it before. in some way, she has been in his place and she can't let it go either.

[kaurwreck]

beast is not a good timeline for akutagawa.