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liesmyth · 1 year ago

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did john decide which of his friends would be the necromancer and which would be the cavs when he brought them back from the dead, or was that random?

I wish we knew for sure! John's friends ending up 50/50 adepts vs. non-necromancers is obviously one of TM's premises and was done for doylistic reasons first and foremost, but I don't think we have enough elements to conclusively interpret it as intentional in-universe.

Putting aside any kind of authorial intentions, this is what we know:

» The rate of necromancers as part of the population hovers around 30%. John's core group being 50% adepts is way off from that, and could point to manipulation, but also we're working with a very small sample size. Think about how it's very possible to get head five times in a row when flipping coins; probabilities are much less accurate on a smaller scale. I don't believe it's out of the realm of possibilities that a group of 10 people had exactly 5 necromancers in it.

» Harrow's birth. The Reverend Parents made sure she would be a necromancer by manipulating the embryo with thanergy. It's clearly not a known practice among the Houses at large, and John calls it "a sort of Resurrection" — implying that he could be able to do the same with thalergy. However, this doesn't confirm that he actually DID.

In the same conversation, John says, "This was all different before we discovered the scientific principles," which I think is also worth noting. The fact that he understands NOW how you could get an embryo to grow into a necromancer doesn't mean that he had that knowledge at the time of the Resurrection. It also doesn't mean that the same identical process would apply to making formerly-dead-people into necromancers as they got brought back to life.

It could very well be that necromancy was a generalised side-effect of the Resurrection that affected some people more than others; or it could be that John DID do something different when bringing back some people that conferred them necromantic aptitude. Even if it's the latter, I don't think we can take for granted that 1) it was intentional and 2) he fully knew what the side effects would be.

» Ulysses and Titania. Counterpoint! It's also worth noting that John's "test cases" turned out to be one (1) adept and one (1) non-adept. Like I said above, this could still be a random bi-product of the Resurrection... but given Ulysses and Titania's whole everything, their dichotomy reeks of control group. They are a big point in favour of the "John did it on purpose" column.

Still: I still don't think we can tell for sure that John knew from the moment of Resurrection that he was giving some people death powers, and how that'd turn out in the long run. Like I said above, he could have done something different when resurrecting Ulysses vs. Titania, but it doesn't mean that he knew what would happen.

(Obviously, this argument only makes sense if we assume that Ulysses and Titania were among the very first batch of resurrected. I personally think they were, but obviously it's not confirmed)

» The inner circle. From NtN

I could only trust the inner circle. My scientists, my engineer, my detective, my lawyer, my artist, my nun, my hedge fund manager. My diehards. The ones keeping the lights on.

Putting aside the fact that Lyctors exist the way they are because Tamsyn needed them to exist, and looking at the Canaan House necro/cav pairings from John's point of view: why not give ALL his friends magical powers? That's something I struggle to wrap my head around, for about half a dozen different reasons.

Mind, I don't think John picking and choosing who gets to be a necromancer is that far-fetched, but from a #character point I find it less likely than the alternative (he didn't do it on purpose but turned it to his own advantage). IF it turns out to be canon, I'd be really curious about what the watsonian reasoning for it, beyond "this needed to happen."

Most meta posts I've seen that take for granted John picked and chose his future necromancers ascribe him a level of foresight, knowledge, and long-term planning that I simply don't think he'd have had at the time (not to mention the mental lucidity). To quote HtN John again, "[he] had never been God" before. I truly think he was winging it at least 60% of the time.

#Anonymous #ask #tldr: I think it's possible this is the angle Taz is going with but I don't think it's a given with the elements we have so far #I think if it turns out to HAVE been intentional on John's part #it's gonna be one of these plot points that exists because the book needed them to exist and everything else took shape around it #like how everyone on the Ninth stopped making babies after Harrow was born although there was a whole generation of childbearing age #tlt thoughts #tlt theories #ejg #elle tlt posting #tlt

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kvetchinglyneurotic · 10 months ago

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Obviously it's mainly for Doylist reasons that there's a disconnect between how Claudia looks (like she's in her late teens/early 20s) and how she's treated by the characters who don't know she's a vampire (like a child): it would be a really tough role for an actual 14-year-old to play, not to mention casting a real teenager would make it very obvious that the immortal, un-aging vampires are, in fact, aging. The fact that other characters call her "little girl" and ask where her parents are might partly be a holdover from the books, when she was turned into a vampire at a much younger age, but it also lets the audience know that in-universe, she's supposed to be a fairly young-looking 14.

That being said, I think the dissonance of seeing other characters treat a clearly grown woman like she's much younger helps to convey what that experience is like for Claudia. Her brain development is frozen at 14, but she sees herself as an adult and in a lot of ways she has the life experience to back that up, and so being treated like a kid feels wrong to her the same way seeing people react to Bailey Bass and Delainey Hayles like they're 10 years old feels weird to the audience.

It also makes some sense in-universe: we never actually see Claudia the way we actually see Louis and Armand; we just see the version of her that lives in Louis and Armand's memories and that Daniel reconstructs from her diaries. All of them know that she wasn't really a child, so it makes sense that the version of her that they picture would look a little older.

#i just think it's neat when creative decisions stemming from doylist considerations also add something on a meta/in-universe level #interview with the vampire #iwtv #claudia iwtv #meta #kvetch oc

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pangaeaseas · 29 days ago

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Harry Potter and the Half Blood Names

Introduction

When writing my previous meta about how surname names are largely used as political statements in the world of Harry Potter, I got to thinking (as one does) about the names of half-blood characters more generally, and how mixed magical-Muggle couples work to integrate both Muggle and magical naming traditions in the names of their children. We can learn a lot about parents from their children's names. And we can learn a lot about what it means to be a halfblood, caught between two worlds.

Of course, this made me think of the divergent names of the three most prominent half-bloods in the series: Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr., Harry James Potter, and Severus Snape.

It's pretty clear that the magical world and Muggle world have different naming traditions in HP, with surname names being a common feature of Muggle names while magical names are often very rare in the Muggle world and drawn from Greco-Roman mythology and history or ancient Anglo-Saxon style names. I also think that one point of difference is how to honor family: wizards generally use the same gender parent's first name as the middle name of the eldest child (for example Harry James and Ginevra Molly) while it largely* seems that the Muggle tradition of John Smith Sr. and John Smith Jr. has not been copied by wizards.

*I'll discuss the Crouches later, but I think they are an exception to the rule.

Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr.

Let's start with the half-blood who is probably least comfortable with his mixed magical-Muggle heritage, to the point of inventing his own new name to get away from the Muggle side (though it still draws on his full name). His full name is not an exact copy of his father's, but he shares the same first and last name, earning him the title of Tom Riddle Jr.

Voldemort is also the character whose name occupies the most space within the text: a lot of time is spent explaining it and how he felt about it. We don't know nearly as much about Harry and Snape's names and their feelings about them. But names are obviously a central part of Voldemort's character, and his inability to ultimately leave behind his Muggle birth name is symbolically important. The ordinariness of 'Tom Riddle' is important Doylistically.

Let's run through the canonical evidence of how Voldemort feels about his name:

“You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?” said Dippet curiously. “Yes, sir,” said Riddle, reddening slightly. “You are Muggle-born?” “Half-blood, sir,” said Riddle. “Muggle father, witch mother.” “And are both your parents — ?” “My mother died just after I was born, sir. They told me at the orphanage she lived just long enough to name me — Tom after my father, Marvolo after my grandfather.” (CoS)

By this point (while the Heir of Slytherin attacks are going on) he knows enough about his mother from being told or from finding out on his own to guess that she named him after both his father and grandfather, which is broadly likely (though i'll get into the specific reasons in a bit.

However, he resents at least the Muggle part of his name:

“It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father’s name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother’s side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry — I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!” (CoS)

We also received confirmation that Merope chose his name in HBP:

“Now, as it happens, she did,” said Mrs. Cole, who seemed to be rather enjoying herself now, with the gin in her hand and an eager audience for her story. “I remember she said to me, ‘I hope he looks like his papa,’ and I won’t lie, she was right to hope it, because she was no beauty — and then she told me he was to be named Tom, for his father, and Marvolo, for her father — yes, I know, funny name, isn’t it? We wondered whether she came from a circus — and she said the boy’s surname was to be Riddle. And she died soon after that without another word. (HBP)

Merope seems to have wanted Tom named after both sides of his family, with the Muggle side taking primacy.

We also know that Tom felt a connection to his name in his youth and used it to research his family history:

It seems that he searched in vain for some trace of Tom Riddle senior on the shields in the trophy room, on the lists of prefects in the old school records, even in the books of Wizarding history. Finally he was forced to accept that his father had never set foot in Hogwarts. I believe that it was then that he dropped the name forever, assumed the identity of Lord Voldemort, and began his investigations into his previously despised mother’s family-----(some more irrelevant text)---“All he had to go upon was the single name ‘Marvolo,’ which he knew from those who ran the orphanage had been his mother’s father’s name. Finally, after painstaking research through old books of Wizarding families, he discovered the existence of Slytherin’s surviving line.

Tom's name is the vehicle through which he discovers both the Muggle and magical sides of his heritage.

Tom Riddle is both an atypical and actually somewhat typical case of magical parents trying to connect a child to both sides of their mixed heritage. Atypical because he was named by only one parent and his mother didn't have many connections to broader magical society outside the Gaunt shack, but typical in the mixing of traditions his name represents, though it leans heavily towards the magical side. His mother chose his name in honor of his Muggle father, who she was still in love with, and potentially hoped the identical Sr/Jr name would cause Tom Sr to recognize his son and raise him. She may have chosen to include her father's name as well out of love for him or at least a desire to honor him and potentially her Slytherin heritage, or a desire for Marvolo to find the baby Tom and raise him (better than leaving him to die at least though doubtless not her ideal scenario) and that seems to be how Voldemort thinks of it. Voldemort may have chosen to preserve the letters of his original name in his new one instead of coining an entirely new name (which he could totally have done, so it's striking that he keeps even some of it) out of a desire to maintain that connection with Marvolo Gaunt and through him the Slytherin heritage, or out of love for his mother.

Tom's name caused him to be pulled between worlds in his childhood. Mrs. Cole thinks Marvolo is a strange name, fit for a circus, and Tom may well have been teased for this unusual name at the orphanage and probably at least saw it as strange, something that made him stick out--but also something that made him special, especially when he figured out its connection to the Slytherin heritage. He initially felt a connection to the Tom Riddle part, but finding out its Muggle origins and being rejected by Tom Riddle Sr made him want to get rid of it. Interestingly, he originally connected the 'boring' and Muggle sounding part of his name to his magical heritage, which reflects the importance of paternal lineage in naming due to his assumption it must have been his father from whom he got magic. When he realized it was Muggle, he rejected the Muggleness to coin a new name for himself. He also hated how ordinary his first name was and chose a much more unusual pseudonym.

I'm actually intrigued by the possibility that Merope knew what she was doing in giving Tom such an unusual name by the likely pureblood naming standard of 'greco-roman/anglo-saxon/mythological first name, father's first name as middle name' with Sr/Jr being very unusual and did so as a deliberate rejection of her family's pureblood supremacy. Given the Gaunts' focus on extreme maintenance of 'pureblood traditions', I think they would probably maintain this naming tradition (unless it was solidified after they left mainstream society, which is definitely possible): in fact they seem to be even more strict, with all three members we know about having M names. I wouldn't be surprised if Morfin's full name was Morfin Marvolo Gaunt. And in the context of her whole family having M names, Merope's choice to eschew the M and give her son a new starting letter seems very deliberate and a rejection of those family traditions. She does incorporate a traditional name to give her son a sense of her heritage, but it is not incorporated in the traditional format as it's his greandfather's name, not his father's, and his father's name is instead given much greater prominence than is typical. She's putting a Muggle twist on the magical naming custom and her own family's name, reflecting her desire to live with the Muggle Tom Riddle primarily in the Muggle world and to escape the extreme pureblood supremacy that raised her. She intended for Tom to be raised primarily in the Muggle world, with the possibility of rejoining the magical one contained in his name as well as its suitability for a Muggle life.

A Detour: Bartemius Crouch Sr. and Jr.

In thinking about the possibility that Sr/Jr style names are unusual among purebloods, I realized that the only two cases of this style of name are with a Muggle and his son--and with this pair, who are not known for their healthy relationship (to say the least). Barty Crouch Jr's name would have been seen as unusual by his peers and Is another point of connection between him and Voldemort,whichhe explicitly references. The fact that he shares his father's name is a reflection of Crouch Sr's arrogance and self-importance, and his sense that Barty Jr was only an extension of himself, reflected by how he chooses to treat Barty by putting him under the Imperius curse and subject to Sr's will at all times. I think others would have seen this name as a marker of Crouch Sr's poor parenting (and we know that Crouch Sr is generally seen as a poor father). It may also be a deliberate alignment with pro-Muggle values on the part of the notably anti-Voldemort Crouch Sr. (who even wore an appropriate Muggle suit to the QWC!)

Harry James Potter

Out of our three half-bloods, we know the least about how Harry was named and how he feels about his name. The only people we hear express an opinion about it are Vernon and Petunia, and this is more a reflection of their ambitions to social climb (thus giving their son a more upper-class sounding name).

"“I suppose so,” said Mrs. Dursley stiffly. “What’s his name again? Howard, isn’t it?” “Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me.” “Oh, yes,” said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. “Yes, I quite agree.”" (Sorceror's Stone)

Ironically, Harry's name is a reflection of in fact coming from a much higher class status than the Dursleys do. James and Lily could give him a 'common' name because they didn't need to perform their class status as assiduously as Vernon and Petunia. It might also not come from the Evans family, given Petunia is calling it nasty and common, but then again this might be projection and it could be an Evans name!

Harry's name is one of the things that marks him as separate from the Dursleys: he doesn't have the same last name, which marks him as not part of their family unit derived from Vernon as the patriarch. He is not a Dursley and therefore is not treated like part of the family, but instead severely mistreated. His Potter surname may have also caused questions for him growing up if people knew Dudley was his cousin and wondered why they had the same last name. He seems to like his name and his connection to his father's magical family.

James and Lily certainly had anti-Voldemort political commitments, and I like to think those commitments influenced their choice to give Harry such a Muggle name. They mixed Muggle and magical heritage by giving him a Muggle first name with a traditional middle and last name and may have mirrored James' parents own decision to give him a Muggle name. Extracanonical material suggests Harry was named after a relative of James's, though I personally don't really like this idea and prefer to imagine Lily chose Harry's name. However, if Harry was indeed named after James's relative, his name would still reflect an attempt to integrate Muggle sound with wizarding heritage, which I think is a typical move by the parents of half-bloods. In contrast to Merope, James and Lily envisioned Harry being raised in the magical world, and so gave him a name that works well there while also signaling his Muggle heritage to an audience of primarily wizards.

Harry's name is also Doylistically important as a generic, everyman name for the protagonist, who readers are supposed to relate to. I think his name was probably one of the first decided on. Out of all the characters in the series, he is the one with the most ordinary name. And the few fellow exceptions are his parents!

Severus Snape

Snape is probably the most intriguingly named of all three of our half-bloods in my opinion. We have a lot of material on why Voldemort was named, none at all on why Harry was named aside from extracanon, but we do have a little bit of material on Snape's name: specifically, his choice to pick a new name emphasizing his wizarding heritage in a mirror of Voldemort.

“Well . . . yes,” said Hermione. “So . . . I was sort of right. Snape must have been proud of being ‘half a Prince,’ you see? Tobias Snape was a Muggle from what it said in the Prophet.” “Yeah, that fits,” said Harry. “He’d play up the pure-blood side so he could get in with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of them. . . . He’s just like Voldemort. Pure-blood mother, Muggle father . . . ashamed of his parentage, trying to make himself feared using the Dark Arts, gave himself an impressive new name — Lord Voldemort — the Half-Blood Prince — how could Dumbledore have missed — ?”" (HBP)

If the Half-Blood Prince name is indeed associated with Snape's Death Eater period (which is not necesssarily true) it's an interesting rhetorical move, both emphasizing his pureblood heritage and his abject status according to Death Eater views of the world: he's presenting himself as one of the 'good' half-bloods and as subservient. However, if he coined the name earlier, it might reflect a mixed pride in his half-blood status and Muggle heritage (things I could imagine him positively associating with Lily when they are still friends) with a desire to distance himself from his abusive father.

Interestingly, Snape is a foil to Voldemort in that he never uses this name outside of school: unlike Voldemort's equally cringe bad French anagram and abandoned obscure Muggle name, Snape is known to all as Snape with the Half-Blood Prince name a mystery abandoned to his school years. He goes by the name Severus Snape his whole life, ultimately retaining his abusive Muggle father's surname. It does seem that Snape's halfblood status is not well known, and the Snape surname seems to be unusual and obscure enough that it might well be assumed to be a not-well-known wizarding surname (an interesting contrast to the social prominence, if in a limited area, of the Riddles: conceivably Tom Riddle Jr might run into people who knew of the Muggle Riddles, but that's far less likely for the dirt poor Snapes).

Snape ultimately does retain that Muggle surname despite having good reasons to discard it, another contrast to Voldemort. I don't think we can definitively decide why but there are a lot of possibilities. Snape did have positive connections to his Muggle childhood through Lily, so maybe keeping the name was a way to honor her. He may have had negative encounters with the Prince family and not wanted to be associated with them. After he left the Death Eaters he may have wanted to emphasize his half-blood heritage and found some degree of personal pride in it or used it to show his commitment to opposing Voldemort. He may have chosen to honor his mother's choice to give him that name. He may have simply never gotten around to changing it, especially considering he joined the Death Eaters very young and changing to a pureblood name might both emphasize his non-purebloodness to a Death Eater audience and cast doubt on whether he had reformed after leaving the Death Eaters. He may have felt affection and love for his Muggle father. He may have wanted to reclaim and redefine the Snape name so that it signaled only him (as it would indeed do to a magical audience), standing on his own two feet as an independent autonomous individual instead of drawing on the connections of the pureblood Prince family, and allowing himself to redefine a name with painful associations as a point of pride.

It is also interesting that the only person who gives Snape a nickname is Lily, who calls him 'Sev', which while still unusual can be seen as analogous to something Muggle like 'Kev' for Kevin. While as an adult, Snape's closest associates, including Narcissa and Dumbledore, seem to call him Severus--a much less Muggle-sounding name. Snape was teased for his unusual first name by Sirius and James (an interesting move considering, you know, Sirius is named THAT) despite its magical sound, but he seems to prefer that more wizard-sounding name as an adult to reflect his preference for the wizarding side of his heritage.

Out of all three of the mothers here, we know by far the least about Eileen Prince Snape, though we know Tobias abused her. So her son's name is one of the few pieces of information we have to characterize her. We know she announced her marriage to the Muggle Tobias in the Daily Prophet, which likely reflects hopefulness for the marriage as well as a commitment to moving in both the magical and Muggle worlds. She probably married in the Muggle world as well, but chose to announce it in the magical world and mention that Tobias was a Muggle. On one hand, she may have been proud of her husband being a Muggle, on the other, she may have considered spreading word of her marriage in the magical world as more important and seen the magical world as superior.

Snape's name is an interesting contrast to other half-blood names like Harry's, where a wizarding child is given a Muggle first name and magical last name. And ultimately I think his name reflects the opposite move to a mixed couple giving their child a Muggle-style first name to show commitment to the Muggle world: I think Snape's name is a reflection of his mother's commitment to the magical world. Severus is a very unusual first name in the Muggle world, but it fits right in with other Greco-Roman and saintly names in the magical one. His magical lineage is maternal and thus couldn't be reflected in his surname without a fight Eileen probably couldn't win, but she could make sure he would be committed to the magical world by giving him an obviously wizarding first name which set him apart from his peers in the Muggle world (see Lily Muggle-izing it by calling him Sev and how he stops using that nickname as an adult living primarily in the wizarding world). I like the idea that Eileen chose her son's name to reaffirm her own potential political commitment to wizarding supremacy.

Doylistically, Snape's wizard-sounding name helps maintain the mystery of his true heritage and allegiance.

The different names of half-blood characters reflect how they ad their parents chose to navigate the divide between the Magical and Muggle worlds in HP. You can learn a lot about magical society, and characters' feelings about it, by examining their names.

#Severus snape #eileen prince #Tom riddle #voldemort #merope gaunt #James potter #lily evans #petunia dursley #harry James potter #hp meta #names in hp #worldbuilding in hp #my hp meta #barty crouch jr #barty crouch sr

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wildehacked · 2 months ago

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Hen should have stayed in med school

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

See, it depends on how I look at it! If I'm looking at this purely doylistically, it's obvious that she had to stay a firefighter, because the show is about firefighters, and it would have been hard to split our attention into firefighters | dispatch | hospital drama, especially since we want to see our friend Hen interact with the other characters we already know and love. If I look at it watsonianly, I'm like, okay, Hen wanted it so badly, and she was really good at it, and it's a career with a lot more longevity than 'firefighter,' given how hard firefighting is on the body, and honestly part of the reasons she decides to stay where she is seem to be out of fear of change, and I want better for my friend Hen than that.....but if I look at it too watsonianly, I'm like, well, but my friend Hen made a decision that felt good to her, and she doesn't seem to have regrets, and I obviously respect her choices, lol. i think that balances out to 'true neutral'!

#911

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pigtailedgirl · 7 months ago

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Ray Vecchio Undercover My HeadCanon on WHY???

Ray leaving. That thing that hurts my heart. You get why the show in Doylist ran with this idea. It seems so fun and perfect on surface. With replacement a nightmare of the character linchpin to Fraser in Chicago. Reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture was Ray Vecchio! There is no logical or emotional way Ray would leave, unless had to. Killing would tone shift and be devastating. Straight actor switch has no story to build. But man, the never explaining the why in canon or really dealing with the weight of it hangs around. Nothing makes sense. A lot of guess work for a Watsonian fit.

@quasilogical put out their idea. Very interesting.

I wanna ramble bout mine or where I go most times.

AND it's I pretend Ray was pegged by the Feds for this even pre-Fraser. This is why he's on the Feds like Ford's radar, and the whole going down double entrapment angle and IA continuing interest.

Much like Ray K, who I think was only selected for name similarity last minute, hence his confusion. and because he was easy sell at low point and a easy place-holder if people are looking for the name to stay consistent and all that, Ray V starts the series in the same loner boat and is easy mark to sign up an operation for.

I think the Feds were building this project for a long time.

But the question is not of Due South having people who look alike, cause it recurs, getting to be someone else. Maybe Armando was like the thug, cop, cab driver extras. Maybe he was Ray's long lost family mob connected bro. Maybe he never existed before Ray. It doesn't matter that Ray has a look alike.

Questions important is... When and why was this Armando alike was a sure out and Ray in? Which canon gives absolutely nothing for because seasons 1 and 2 had no build for this obviously and seasons 3 and 4 never bothered to backfill.

But the question of why or how post-Fraser you could get Ray to go? How Fraser would let it happen and stay and not run to get him or leave? There is your meat of continuity.

What I think happens is in steps. That for me always hinges on three layers.

The Victoria incident. The shooting and the unresolved issue being do Fraser and Ray giving conflicting accounts of who had the gun in the final chase? If Fraser said he took it off Victoria, and Ray says he saw it in her hands. UH-OH

Wiggle room for a wedge against Ray. Does Fraser think Ray is lying and his dealing with why.

Then Juliet is Bleeding happens. It's another bad shoot-out for Ray. It's also a power vacuum in the Mob set up in the area as up and comer Sorrento goes down, and so does Zuko likely from the business. Ray and Fraser have deaths like Louis, Irene, and guilts to live with.

Finally there is the Rankin Incident. Where Rankin claimed police brutality on Ray and less extent Huey and they got forced to cut him loose rather than Ray revealing to anyone he'd beaten him earlier and was tailing him for almost raping Frannie. So Ray takes the rap but not revealing the reason.

If we can infer from the show talk that it's been sometime between season 2 and 3, as there is cases like Greta Garbo that says time passage, there was sometime between JIB and the end of season 2, and approx. 90 days between Ray's undercover and the body of Rankin getting discovered; We can think long-term planning and short windows to implement again for Feds/

I think too it's important that A Likely Story references the family Langoustini having connection with Tucci and Chicago, not only Vegas.

My theory goes they tried to rope Ray in post VS. Had a mobster in Armando working/watched to do family building and maybe on the Feds inside the whole time.

Ray said no but wasn't able to confront or turn it down completely because of Fraser. Both not talking about their issues with justice/duty versus personal and the gun thing. But Fraser didn't know. And Ray is both guilty and angry at it all.

Then Juliet is Bleeding sinks Ray and makes the offer start to realize as inevitable. The Feds make it plain to everyone, even Fraser, we have means now to make this project a go. The Langoustini's can affect Chicago. The Feds move to install Armando as a bigger player in the chaos. Ray moves to an apartment as seen in Red, White, and Blue. Fraser and Ray are having major undercurrent vibes of picking understanding and loving someone, versus projection and ignoring feelings for your duties. Personal loves and morals or the profession. It's make your choices.

And that makes me feel so bad for Fraser but makes him clearer to me. Ray, who is going through old relationships closing up wounds and wants, wants Fraser to express feeling for him. Or someone! To let it out at least, even if it's with or to Thatcher or someone else. Fraser is caught between hard places of Ray should do this for justice in the abstract but really Fraser doesn't want him to personally or to lose him friend or otherwise.

So Fraser retreats to Mountie persona. Season 3 opens to runs to a vacation in Canada to pretend just like old times, I'm okay. While Ray's emotions undo him with the Frannie incident and the Feds strike, before Fraser and Ray can even come to terms.

Hence the season 3/4 weird brothers betrayals and unknowns of people coming through and the hatred of corrupt cop leadership, personal vengeance and mob activity on everyone's plate.

Essentially Fraser knew Ray was going but got blind-sided in the moment and in how to cope and how to justify it. Ray too on how Fraser sees him or feels in light of. Ray couldn't say no and betray that sense of having to do right that Fraser installed over personal, even if this is the worst fucking way and timing. Even if it's not justice and a lot of personal fail guilt like JIB mixed in, he can't come out and emotionally admit that failure to Fraser thinking Fraser doesn't put that above the job. So he got to go do the job. Fraser can't pursue the why cause fear of bad answers so stays protection mode Chicago, driving himself mad wondering, and trying to get over it, get over his issues, and getting to know new Ray with new issues and be helpful and bond.

So when Fraser does see Ray again; OMG chase, reunite, but all this tension and drama is still on the table for them. Of I don't know who you are or I am anymore and I know what we don't want, the wacky hurtful adventures of emotional and physical danger and mistrust, but they no longer have a read on trusting themselves, knowing what the other wants from each other and are scared to let out those feelings lest hurt each other. Why Ray went undercover? Cause I loved you dummy and thought you wouldn't like me if I did the wrong thing. Why Fraser can't trust Ray isn't the bad guy who didn't do the wrong things? Cause you love him dummy, and that feeling and belief you have to put it out there and above the image to not be your dad and to get it back and not lose it.

Then of course, more shootings, F/V staples, and Fraser learns the exact wrong thing and trauma retreats. Runs part 2. Ray retreats to Florida too, cause pretending to be not Ray sounds like it works better. Damn.

Until they work it out in the next episode of head canon addition lol.

#due south #due south meta #ray vecchio #undercover headcanon #my loose and rambling interpretation #what's everyone else?#forgive the long screed post

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horizon-verizon · 11 months ago

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https://www.tumblr.com/evebestthinker/751366825102770176/the-way-he-looks-at-her-as-if-no-one-else?source=share

It's funny that their relationship is so romanticized. Whether by showrunners or even people in general.

Corlys and Rhaenys in the original material have a bigger age difference than Daemyra, yet no one talks about grooming.

Rhaenys, from what I remember, certainly chose Corlys, but Rhaenyra also chose Daemon and everyone prefers to say that she was groomed to want her sexy old uncle... 🙄

The fact is that, apart from this age difference, Corlys only wanted Rhaenys to be queen for her own person and the name of her house, let's be realistic. And in Fire and Blood, it was actually Laenor and not Rhaenys who was actually proposed to the throne with Viserys.

Unlike Daemon, Corlys has also always shown a genuine interest in the throne, whether in HOTD or Fire and Blood. This guy fights for power and always goes against his wife's wishes in general.

Yet they are supposedly a great relationship ? A great marriage of love ? A couple goal ? People's double standards are astounding to me.

I will add that Corlys, aged 60 in Fire and Blood, is having sex, from what I remember, with a girl under 16 or in that age range it seems to me. In any case, a close age that Rhaenys was when he married her at the time, showing that he has a type of age range for women, unlike Daemon who in Fire and Blood was with women of varying ages.

So basically the directors of HOTD said to themselves that Corlys and Rhaenys would make a superb love story ? WTF seriously ? They keep talking about Daemyra's age difference but obviously it's only a problem when it's them and not the others.

Actually, what I'm trying to say is that... most of the criticisms leveled at Daemon : Bad father, bad husbands, way too old for his ultimate wife, power-hungry, throne-seeking, loving the girls are rather young... Well it's actually Corlys who ticks all the boxes. Show and or Book.

Disclaimer: This is to note the discrepancy that fandom does when it tries to bring up age differences, how biased people are towards Daemon. You can look to la-pheacienne's notes about GRRM and age differences HERE, where we talk abt Doylist vs Watsonian readings of GRRM's storytelling and over age diff creepiness vs what story the dude is telling in-world.

It mimics how people will say "Targs are colonizers" and then they ignore what the Westerosi did to the giants and twstsote/children of the forest. There's a clear bias and lack of reading being done, because yeah I agree. Like, Corlys is an impressive man, but that has little to do with this conversation topic. (For all who don't know, Corlys was 37 when 16-yr old Rhaenys chose him as her husband; Rhaenyra was born in 97, Daemon in 81; RhaneysxCorlys has a 21 diff, Daemyra has a 16 diff)

In the show, it makes way less sense as to why Rhaenys & Corlys are together. I did a TikTok abt it, but here it is:

Rhaenys has constantly said that she considers a "good" leader AND [good] person to be one who goes out of their way to avoid violence, war, or great conflicts. Someone who takes measures to make sure their own actions do not lead to conflicts that may hurt even more than themselves. Even at the cost of one's own political advantages. She values what HotD has implied is "self-restraint" & defends Rhaenyra from Corlys' saying everything is her fault [specifically by reasoning that out of all the men who are there, Rhaenyra is the one who is trying to not go to war or any battle]. She is also supposed to care very much for her daughter, Laena, and her own grandchildren through her. Supposedly above Corlys' interests (episodes 6-7). Compare this to Corlys' self-interest evidenced by his pushing for a Velaryon-marriage through his 12 year old daughter & keeping Lucerys as his heir DESPITE the would-have-been-clear discontent from Vaemond abt the Driftmark succession PLUS how the Velaryon boys wete not his grandkids biologically AND Rhaenys advis[ing] him to name [their] granddaughters instead. With every value and action these two take for & against their family and against the other's desires….For what the HotD writers & whoever responsible wrote for these two…. Why do we believe that this ship is one of the best ones --or even makes logical sense-- to earn the reputation of being one of the best during this part of ASoIaF history?! The [show]relationship doesn't stand up on its own without the looks & performances of its actors. It also gets away with the nonsensical dynamic in two other things:

the constant defense of "two canons"

the many time jumps that remove any possibility for us or the writers to show us how these two actually like each other & continue to like each other

Once again, Daemon was never a good person, but he is also not what is depicted in HotD and grooming does not = DV. they are not the same, thus you do not have to include DV with grooming by saying it "eventually" happens with groomers. Espe when GRRM has a track record for just stating abuse when it happens (Jaehaerys with Alysanne, her pushed to keep giving birth; Robert Baratheon with Cersei):

#character comparison #corlys velaryon #daemon targaryen #asoiaf asks to me #fire and blood characters #hotd fandom #fandom critical #fandom commentary #daemon's characterization #corlys velaryon (dance)'s characterization #rhaenys x corlys (ship)#canon shipping #asoiaf shipping #hotd ships #hotd critical #hotd comment

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sylvanas-girlkisser · 2 years ago

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Anyone remember how in Mass Effect 2 it's revealed that Miranda hooks up with random men from dating apps, with the explicit purpose of getting pregnant and never seeing them again?

The Doylist explanation for this is obviously that this is Mass Effect and the writers either didn't know, or didn't think about artificial insermination. Like Miri babe, you can entirely skip paying for tinder gold and just use your exorbitant salary as an unethical scientist/assassin working for the proud boys, to have a licensed professional get you pregnant in the sort of strictly business relationship you're looking for.

However, for a Watsonian explanation, I think it's much more funny to imagine Miranda just has a huge breeding kink she refuses to acknowledge as such; and the reason you never see her drink is because she knows she will start rambling about how every woman secretly desires to spend her whole life pregnant and make everyone uncomfortable.

#valk yelling at clouds #I feel like the mass effect team didnt know much about womens reproductive health #see also Miris magical benign tumor that in the year 42069 is entirely incurable #we can do ovary transplants today why is that not an option for her???#what is up with the fertility clinic just going 'we're sorry you're gonna die alone and unloved you barren hag'

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allyriadayne · 1 year ago

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something that i just noticed is how aegon is dressed like alicent in the teaser? the green with the gold and the bulky chain of order. even the dragon embrodery on his chest with the two dragons facing away from one another is something we saw on alicent's targaryen dresses last season.

i know you didn't ask for an essay anon, but this is one of my favorite topics ksjdkasd 😭. YES I NOTICED TOO! aegon dresses (and will dress) a lot like alicent. i have this little fantasy that she picks out all of his outfits because he will not bother at all......

but anywayyyy. aegon's outfit in the s2 trailer do have callbacks to alicent, solidifying his position as the "green king". as you say he looks a lot like her with the bulky chain and the color palette esp with the alicent of ep 9 in her coronation outfit: the huge seven-pointed star vs the big ass chain and all the gold-green details.

(big chains around their necks hmm.......might mean something i don't know what.....)

i actually thought aegon's chain was the same one as the one he used in the coronation but it's not! the one from ep 9 is a lot smaller and looks a lot like the ones otto usually wears (alicent picked up from her father's rooms because it might make aegon look better, the eyebags bloodshot eyes are not a look!).

(looking just like his papa grandfather!)

and you are right! i didn't remember this dress of alicent's but they do have the gold dragon embroidered (sunfyre my beloved). i like that they signify different and the same things to both of them. for aegon it might mean a sort of coming of age, coming to the self he was always meant to be whether he liked it or not, and even then honoring (possibly?!?) his only friend in the process. while for alicent it means the same, to fit in what she's supposed to be, the targaryen queen, but obviously never completely fitting in....there's a reason her dragon dresses look so awkward on her. it's only when she starts wearing green that she can dress how she actually likes.

(dragons meeting in the middle, dragons looking in opposite directions. WE GET IT CONDAL)

i like that in aegon wearing green with the dragons in full display is a sort of culmination of alicent's role and "victory". here is her son, the goal her father impressed upon her, wearing her colors (because green is her color now, not the hightower's) and showing with pride he's the legitimate targaryen king (that aegon is a tyrant and a drunk is another issue).

i'm obsessed with the doylist decision of making aegon wear a bigger crown and chain the same way alicent's huge star is saying how much she relies on faith, and also that he is the only one of her children who STILL wears green when the rest have outgrown the color when they are shown as adults. i'm super excited to see the rest of the costumes!

#anonymous #ask #aegon ii targaryen #alicent hightower #aegon x alicent #alicent dressing aegon.....the doll she dresses in her colors like it is her bestest friend in the world #they are the sameeeeeee. both puppets of a bigger plot. both calls to war!!! her dark mirror 😭#he wears green because he's the only one that matters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#the gender of it all.......

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anonymous-force · 1 month ago

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original post

P. 1 - Intro

(Important part that nobody asked about)

I wanted to write about their life more chronologically, but I NEED to start from the moment when Bad draws Scribble. I'm EMPHASIZING it. because I think about it too often! there are things that keep bothering me about it, especially so because it's supposed to be this character's ending. most importantly, why did Bad Cop say "I hope there's still good cop in me"? it's reasonable to assume that he literally meant Good Cop. but why? why in this particular moment? wishing to bring his headmate back, he could've tried to do that right when he found the marker. I think he had enough time before masterbuilders escaped. yet, he did it in front of everyone, trying to tell them something.

obviously, first thing you think in this moment is: "this is his redemption arc, so the bad guy brings back the good guy". it's in their name(s), lmao. but those characters are... definitely deeper than that. I guess official sources do call them "sides", often making them sound like they're one guy split into two moral opposites. still, I personally don't see Good Cop as literally good and innocent (so I'm dismissing any hints from canon lol). after all, he never tried to side with masterbuilders and, as if this wasn't enough, they deliberately made him the one who got a kick out of Emmet's death sentence! and Bad Cop isn't bad either! the moment with their parents sets GC and BC up against each other, but the point made is actually about how far Bad Cop can go to protect himself comparing to Good, despite being visibly terrified by the situation he's forced into.

so, what I'm trying to say here is... does it really make sense that Bad Cop tried to replace himself with Good Cop? I'm pretty sure masterbuilders would know the truth about GC after years of being hunted down by them both. let alone Bad Cop knowing Good better than anybody else. from masterbuilders' point of view, BC is already helping them (after protecting them from bots) AND has a reason to join them (everyone saw that Business left him to die). he's redeeming himself and it's believable. but he did what he did... at least it still worked. imagine Good Cop coming back not realizing that they're on masterbuilders' side now, this couldn't end well. HOWEVER, I don't think it's strange that nobody questioned Bad's decision! they're in the middle of revolution, this isn't a good time to be picky about your allies.

let's get this out of the way. there's a simple answer to my question: Bad Cop acts irrationally because he's, undoubtedly, going through some real shit. "redemption arc" may be a Doylist explanation, because it's kind of still there and it's obviously the reason why this moment was written like that. but Watsonian reason is more complicated. it's a reoccurring thing with GCBC! you can pay 0 attention to his personal storyline and it will make sense, and you can look into details and it will only get better with more character complexity sneaked in. just like that, in-universe explanation of why he's trying to replace himself is: (1) HE sees himself as irredeemable and doesn't want to give anyone even a chance to forgive him, (2) he had a last straw and he can't bear fronting through it all anymore and (3) a secret third thing?? more like a whole bunch of things that made him feel like he shouldn't exist. at all.

#my headcanons

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thatgirlonstage · 1 year ago

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What if Twilight and Thorn Princess met each other but due to a combination of disguises/not actually being able to see each other for whatever reason, Loid and Yor don’t, you know, realize That’s Their Spouse. But because they are used to each other and are kind of subconsciously comfortable with each other (and perhaps with a bit of competence kink & That’s My Archnemesis thrill) there’s some… chemistry… there.

Shenanigans ensue where there’s some sort of allies-of-necessity situation that involves a lot of ridiculous happenstances that prevent them from actually seeing each other, so it’s just Twilight and Thorn Princess on a mission constantly going sideways and Definitely Not Flirting over the short range walkies they’re using to communicate. And they stop whatever guy decided to blow up a hospital or something that made them work together, and they do a whole “I’ll let you walk away this once” thing where they finally have the chance to see each other’s faces and choose not to look out of respect for the help they gave each other. They both go home, Loid and Yor are obliviously surprised to meet each other in the hallway on the way back to their apartment, and life continues.

Except, yknow, of course it happens again.

It’s rarely the two of them actually work together in the same place at the same time — if only bc, from the Doylist perspective, it would start to stretch suspension of disbelief to the breaking point for them to never catch a glimpse of each other, and Yor doesn’t habitually bother to hide her face — but there start being these overlaps in their goals that mean one of them might pick up a mission where the other leaves off, they start occasionally trading information, they both start seeing cracks in their own country’s methods and goals and start cooperating to save more lives overall.

And even though their conversations are always short, even though they haven’t even seen each other, oh boy does the chemistry keep racking up.

Until you have both Loid and Yor having a crisis because they’re emotionally cheating on their fake spouse with their spy/assassin arch enemy and it’s not like they can tell anyone that, but also they’re starting to feel dishonest in an icky way rather than a “this is my job and it’s necessary” way

There’s any number of wacky breakup/get together avenues you could take from there, obviously concluding in a reveal where they both see each other’s faces and immediately feel monumentally stupid and then save the world or something, I just think it would be both hot and very, very funny if they flirted in their Twilight and Thorn Princess personas

#spy x family

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thevalleyisjolly · 1 year ago

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So I was rewatching the Ninth Doctor a while ago, and it occurred to me just how much the future regenerations were shaped by Nine’s decisions in Season 1.

(From a Watsonian perspective, of course. From a Doylist perspective, there have been so many different writers and showrunners that it’s a wonder there’s any consistent characterization in this show at all)

Because Nine was a Doctor fresh out of the Time War, believing himself to be the last Time Lord, and even as he ran from what he did, in many ways, he ran back towards how things used to be. Travelling the universe with their companions- but trying not to interfere, trying (and mostly failing) to just observe, repeating again and again that they’re just here to observe, not to break the laws of time.

As travelling time and space goes, it’s a pretty Time Lord way to do it. No interference (or, as much non-interference as can be reasonably expected around the Doctor). And entirely understandable - the Doctor has just made the decision to commit two genocides after a horrific war full of multiple genocides on both sides. Taking up that mantle of authority again, of control over people’s lives, is a raw, open wound after The Moment.

Except then the S1 finale happens. And Nine himself says it, horrified, “I did this.” He went around, dipping in and out of events, trying to be just a tourist, never staying long enough to think about the consequences of his actions. Meanwhile, the Dalek Emperor was able to take over the Earth for centuries, harvest humans, mutate them into Daleks, and eventually almost destroy the planet. The irony in The Long Game (1x07) of the Doctor scolding the journalist and telling her to do her job and ask questions- later, do you think he asked himself what he might have found out, what he might have prevented if he’d done what he said? Dug deeper, asked questions, didn’t take things at face value and just accept that things would sort themselves out?

The subsequent incarnations have often featured arrogance as a character flaw. Most obviously with Ten and Eleven but Twelve and Thirteen have also had their moments. They meddle, they assume authority, they shape events and manipulate people. Think of that recurring theme in S2, characters such as Harriet Jones and Queen Victoria and Yvonne Hartman repeatedly challenging the Doctor for “assuming alien authority over the rights of man.” They aren’t wrong! The Doctor may have more head knowledge about the current emergency or about aliens in general, and they may be right about what to do in the situation at hand, but they are assuming an authority on behalf of (and often over) humans.

And for better or for worse, this is a character element that (at least from a Watsonian perspective) I think really emerged from Nine’s experiences. The Ninth Doctor tried very hard to be just a traveller (oh, but what a very human, heartfelt traveller) and look what happened. After that S1 finale, whether their decisions and actions have positive or negative consequences, whether it’s the right or wrong thing to do, the Doctor has to get involved. Has to solve the mystery, has to take control of the situation, has to find the answers and satisfy their curiosity because the last time they left things alone, Earth and its people paid the price.

It is arrogance to assume this authority, this responsibility, to appoint themselves humanity’s guardian, the defender of Earth. It does often lead to positive outcomes because the Doctor does know what they're doing a lot of the time, but it also has negative impacts as well, especially on the people around the Doctor. And to be sure, Gallifreyan culture very much cultivated arrogance as a valued trait, the Doctor’s guilt isn’t the only place it comes from, but they sure as hell have a heavy conscience on their mind.

TL;DR Watch the Ninth Doctor. Not only is Christopher Eccleston fantastic, but it lays the foundation for a lot of the Doctor’s subsequent character journey.

#doctor who #nuwho #doctor who meta #long post

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