#makes me want to write my own meta post

[ibringyouasong89]

Don't mind me - just over here, catching up on some reading about character studies and discovering (re: obsessively devouring) all the 'Mulder Family' meta posts that @randomfoggytiger wrote up and left, for all of us innocent, RUINED (in the best way, ❤️) readers to find and be humbled, inspired, and emotionally damaged by on this site. At some point or another, if you come looking for me, I'll be the one moaning and rocking my-fetal-positioned-self in the corner, crying and gasping out, "it's unfair, it's unfair, it's unfair..." *goes back to weeping against computer screen*

[eshithepetty]

So. It's been said before that Mob has this compulsive thing where he looks at his hand when he's thinking about his powers. But I've wanted for a While now to compile exactly when and how much he does this, so!! Here's exactly a post for that ^^

Starting with the very 1st episode of Season 1, here he looks at his hand while Reigen's spiel about him not using his powers to use against others plays in his head. At this point in the story, we don't really understand the full gravity of these words, and what they mean to Mob - really, they sound more like the obvious usual advice that a psychic mentor would give. But from Mob's percentage rising (tho most people won't know what the percentage means at this point in the story), as well as him generally sitting on this advice, we can tell that a nerve has been struck.

Then comes season 1 episode 3. This is technically the same exact shot, but I still decided to include it both because it's still technically a different instance, and also, because of the new information we learn in this episode, we can look at this shot with a different context. Namely, that we now know what Mob's percentage means, and that his powers are connected to his emotions, which is why he stifles both in fear of hurting people as Reigen warned him of. It turns from impersonal advice to a Very personal and real concern. Though the biggest reason for why he fears his powers is still unknown at this point... (though we are made aware of the other reason - fear of social ostracization).

Ough... here comes season 1 episode 5. The shot of him looking at his hand, the one that makes it abundantly clear exactly what he is imagining and thinking back to when he does this. He's remembering the literal blood on his hands... fuck me.

Then are these shots from the same episode. The hands are covered by a towel, so this one is less obvious, but by his sight line and the conversation that he just had with Ritsu - about the incident, and what he did to him - it's obvious that's where his eyes are set. And now compared to episode 3, we know exactly why he hates and fears his powers so much. Why he thinks these hands are dangerous...

Season 1 episode 10, another repeat shot - this time from the psychically induced flashback he suffers at the hands of Muto. I still think the 100% rejection scene is so underrated - imagine being forced to relive the most traumatic event of your life, especially considering he usually avoids thinking about it.. god, the way he just screams and sobs is so upsetting.. though I do wonder what exactly Muto saw when Mob reversed the illusion on him.

This one's from season 1 episode 11, and it's a lot more innocuous than the rest - he's just checking that his psychic powers indeed don't work in this cursed room. But it's still him looking at his hand and thinking about his powers, so I decided to include it. (though I will say, there is a fanfic opportunity somewhere in here about combining the fact that, apparently, there exist curses that can surpress psychic powers, and Mob's desire to do just that... maybe one day I will get to it)

Now we jump to season 2! Episode 3. God, this is still one of the most intriguing scenes of this show to me... here, along with the fear of potentially having to hurt his clients, Mob is thinking a lot of things - among them, for the first time considering not only that he can hurt innocent people with these hands, but also innocent spirits. And the fact that he had been exorcising spirits, essentially killing these beings that are as close to him as living humans are, for years... I just love this episode. And as one commenter on Youtube pointed out, in season 2 episode 1, he made a promise to himself to consider his feelings more - and his feelings are innately tied to his powers. Thus, opening his eyes to his feelings also made him open his mind to the ethics of how he is using his powers, and whether following Reigen along on all these jobs without thought is truly what he should be doing. This is a big part of why I fully support him deciding to not work for Reigen post-finale - he needs to figure out how he feels about his powers without using them as tools to get profit (well. Not so much profit for him, and there's certainly value he gained from this job besides that - such as being able to at least use and express his powers somewhat, along with the relationship he gained with Reigen - but point still stands. It's healthy for him to be able to think these things through without that). Plus, I personally like to imagine he grows more sympathetic to spirits as he grows up and isn't anymore too keen on him destroying them being his job. But ramble aside...

Here comes mogami arc! Season 2 episode 5. As the subtitles say, in contrast to all other times he's been agonising over being too powerful, here, he's regretful over not being strong enough (plus, I like how Mogami has basically redefined what strength means for Mob in this fabricated world. Where in the real one, strength for Mob means sticking it to your morals and being able to resolve things peacefully, here it's... kinda the opposite..). Also, what's interesting here is that he still looks to his hand here, despite having all his memories of his powers and the incident erased from his mind. I guess it's just that deep-seated...

Same episode. This one is kind of debatable, but he certainly looks like he's rising his hand to look at it. Thus, I'm including it. Plus, it has thematic relevance to the incident. As he is saying here, in this world, he truly hasn't done anything malicious or dangerous that could warrant people treating him as the enemy, yet here they are. I could imagine, that, somewhere in the back of his mind, he is feeling like he's forgetting something...

Season 2 episode 10. Here he just woke up and immediately whooped ass with his powers. Also more innocuous, he's just confused, but still looking at his hand, so. Here it remains.

Season 2 episode 12 - this one's also kind of a oddball, since for once, he's not really thinking about his powers, but rather Serizawa's, and what they reveal about the man's feelings- but I thought it was close enough at him looking at his hand. Besides, I think it's sweet that this is one of the first times he uses his powers to empathise, to connect with someone (we see him do so again while trying to take in Toichiro's powers, as well as in the Alien arc, notably), so I'm including it for its thematic relevance.

Now onto season 3 episode 1! There's a really good post explaining this one (as well as the ghost family scene instance) here, but to summarise, here, Mob is thinking back to his powers and instances of him hurting people - making mistakes - and how he never learns. Never changes. Not enough... just like with the 100% sadness scene, it's just so sad that he thinks this one instance of his powers getting the best of him has ruined him for life. That he can't afford to make mistakes... buddy, you're 14 years old. A child. Making mistakes is part of growing up, part of being human :( But I'm guesing he doesn't always see himself as fully human does he ...

And then. Season 3 episode 10. Ough... This is just all his worst fears becoming reality. He's hurt Hanazawa, again. He's hurting his loved ones, again. He's monstrous and dangerous, again... All these years of repression have just led him back to square one and below - to bloodied hands once more. But this was inevitable. He couldn't have continued looking at those hands and fearing them.. he needed to face himself. Look that trauma in the eyes. And say: that's not all I am. I did that, those hands are mine, I am capable of hurting, but it's not all I am. I am capable of changing.... and he does!! Reverting once doesn't erase all the good he has achieved and all the growth he has experienced. But fact remains, that before you heal the wound you heal the wound, you need to clean it first. And it will hurt... but he gets there. He gets there.

So to finish on a lighter note! The ending of season 3!! This one makes me so happy, because, as opposed to all these other scenes where he's looking to his hand with turmoil and anguish in his heart, here, it's the opposite! He's smiling!! He's confident!! He's becoming surer of himself every day!!! He no longer sees his powers as a curse!!!! It's a promise, that eventually, he manages to deal with all the trauma and achieve a happy ending. It's just his hand, and his hands can hold instead of harm. It's just so sweet. I love him and his character development so, so much.... <3

In conclusion: he looks at his hand a total of 14 times - 12, if we exclude repeat shots. And I just think it's fascinating, how we can follow his development throughout these instances. So I hope that this was interesting for you to read as well, and that you all have good days out there <3 Toodles :)

[atopvisenyashill]

Bran The Time Traveling Toddler

Yes that IS a reference to the Tyrion the time traveling fetus theory. The thing about MY insane theories is that they actually make sense and I’m right. Follow me please down the worm hole!!

There’s very clearly Someone Influencing things when it comes to the Starklings and even the overreaching plot in general - there’s enough weird magic surrounding them, whispering in the wind, that it’s a no brainer they’re being watched over. The question is WHO and WHEN. For me, personally, I think it’s Bran, and I think it’s an older Bran from the future (whether it be Bran In TWOW and ADOS or Bran post canon) trying to lead his siblings to safety.

Now, like my Harrenhal meta, I don’t think I’m saying anything new so much as compiling what people have said scattered across the interwebs. There’s a lot of theories about whether Bran can time travel, time travel in general in the series, how george has dealt with time travel before, and about the three eyed crow’s identity and I agree with bits and pieces of what other people have said - preston jacobs is a more famous example of this theory for example. But I don't want to get caught up on things like time travel paradoxes because, like, i don’t care about that, and george has talked about how time travel is more fantasy than scifi bc it’s just not really scientifically possible. do you know what that means? it means there’s no weird physical paradoxes because it’s ✨magic✨ and Bran isn't literally going through space and time. It's as Jojen says-

With two eyes you see my face. With three you could see my heart. With two you can see that oak tree there. With three you could see the acorn the oak grew from and the stump that it will one day become. With two you see no farther than your walls. With three you would gaze south to the Summer Sea and north beyond the Wall

Through his greenseeing abilities, Bran can see the whole of a lifespan, from conception to burial, and can pop out at any point in that lifespan, because a span of 100, 1000, or 1,000,000 years is all the same to the weirwood. So I don't think it's in the realm of Crazy Ass Theories to say that Bran is capable of a more magic based form of time travel. That he can whisper in people's dreams, on the wind, taking on the voice of the old gods themselves and doing his best to nudge things the way he needs them to be in order to keep the people he loves safe.

I also don't think Bloodraven is Three Eyed Crow (though I do think he also uses this metaphor of "flying" wrt magic, and that's why Euron also has a comment about flying in his dreams - I just don't believe that metaphor originates with Brynden himself. Rather, I think he picked it up from somewhere else), but instead, it's Bran, using the weirwood network to get all the pieces on the board he needs where he needs them to be for the endgame. Notice that Brynden doesn't seem to know what Bran is talking about when he mentions the Three Eyed Crow-

"Are you the three-eyed crow?" Bran heard himself say. A three-eyed crow should have three eyes. He has only one, and that one red. Bran could feel the eye staring at him, shining like a pool of blood in the torchlight. Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck. "A … crow?" The pale lord's voice was dry. His lips moved slowly, as if they had forgotten how to form words. "Once, aye. Black of garb and black of blood." 

Brynden mentions the watch, but doesn't mention the three eyed crow. Everyone simply refers to Brynden as the greenseer, not the three eyed crow, except for Bran himself, who simply assumes Brynden is the three eyed crow (and we know magical assumptions in this series are generally wrong!).

What’s double interesting to me about this “bloodraven is the three eyed crow” assumption is brynden himself makes his “a thousand eyes and one” comment - but doesn’t mention a third eye. Meanwhile, Bran’s narrative is obviously filled with bird references and the opening of his third eye from Bran feeding the crows on the towers before he falls then longing to go back to the crows afterwards, of a crow sending Jojen to “the winged wolf,” of his dreams of living as a bird in maester luwin’s rookery with his siblings - Jon Snow even compares him to a bird in their final scene face to face when he thinks bran has “fingers like the bones of birds.”

And notable that though both Rickon and Bran have a greendream where they talk to Ned in the crypts of Winterfell just before Ned is executed, Rickon makes no mention of a three eyed crow, but Bran explicitly sees him-

The mention of dreams reminded him. "I dreamed about the crow again last night. The one with three eyes. He flew into my bedchamber and told me to come with him, so I did. We went down to the crypts. Father was there, and we talked. He was sad."

"Shaggy," a small voice called. When Bran looked up, his little brother was standing in the mouth of Father's tomb. With one final snap at Summer's face, Shaggydog broke off and bounded to Rickon's side. "You let my father be," Rickon warned Luwin. "You let him be." "Rickon," Bran said softly. "Father's not here." "Yes he is. I saw him." Tears glistened on Rickon's face. "I saw him last night."

What that says to me is that the Three Eyed Crow has the ability to speak directly to only Bran and can only otherwise appear in a more ephemeral way to others. With the established rules about not being able to communicate properly with the past, I think this makes sense - being able to use the weirwood hivemind/greenseeing powers to appear in a different form to yourself but unable to appear in a concrete form to anyone else.

I think it's even likely we'll see Bran doing some of this nudging and whispering on page in ADOS or maybe as early as TWOW, but it won't be the exact same sort of "Bran can literally reach out and touch someone in a weirwood dream" that they had in the show with the later scenes. It'll be more like that very first scene in the show where we see Bran influence the past slightly - you know, when he calls out "father!" and young Ned turns around, having heard a voice on the wind-

And there's a direct parallel to ADWD here, where Bran is certain Ned heard him speaking in the godswood but Brynden says it's not possible (not possible for Brynden perhaps!)-

Lord Eddard Stark sat upon a rock beside the deep black pool in the godswood, the pale roots of the heart tree twisting around him like an old man's gnarled arms. The greatsword Ice lay across Lord Eddard's lap, and he was cleaning the blade with an oilcloth. "Winterfell," Bran whispered. His father looked up. "Who's there?" he asked, turning … … and Bran, frightened, pulled away. His father and the black pool and the godswood faded and were gone and he was back in the cavern, the pale thick roots of his weirwood throne cradling his limbs as a mother does a child.

It's not quite time travel. It's like the acorn and stump metaphor - Bran can't appear in his physical body in the past but he can make a bit of noise, perhaps even be mistaken for one of the old gods.

As TWOW and ADOS go on, I think we'll see Bran's powers grow (likely in ways that frighten him and horrify the reader), and we'll see the very beginnings of him influencing the plot that happens during the previous books, showing up in scenes we've already experienced, similar to the Ned scene above. I think this because, well...he's already done it!

Now, as for What Time Traveling Bran Has Already Done - it’s tricky because we have a LOT of magic users waking and shaking. I’m not including every single instance of weird whispering or funny birds here, just the moments I think are more likely to be Bran than anyone else because I think Bran mostly deals with his siblings. I imagine they're easiest to reach out to magically because they already have the ability to access magic, and they're also the people he cares most about. The most obvious to me is in A Clash of Kings, when Jon hears a voice on the wind, very similar to the young Ned scene in the show-

Jon VII in A Clash of Kings

The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only … A weirwood. It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother’s face. Had his brother always had three eyes?

Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow. He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew. He was smelling death. He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs.

Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him.

This moment was when I really started paying attention to Weird Shit Bran Might Be Doing because of that line "not before the crow." Now, we know Bran mentions talking with Jon later on, in the very last chapter of the book, here-

 He could reach Summer whenever he wanted, and once he had even touched Ghost and talked to Jon. Though maybe he had only dreamed that.

But I think it's both Bran in the present and Bran in ADOS speaking here - brothers reaching out to each other in their fear, and future Bran piggybacking off that connection to send a warning (this is back in Jon VII, during the shared Jon-Bran dream as before)-

Then he realized he was looking at a river of ice several thousand feet high. Under that glittering cold cliff was a great lake, its deep cobalt waters reflecting the snowcapped peaks that ringed it. There were men down in the valley, he saw now; many men, thousands, a huge host. Some were tearing great holes in the half-frozen ground, while others trained for war...This is no army, no more than it is a town. This is a whole people come together.

Bran warns Jon of the wildling army headed their way because he needs the Night’s Watch to stop fighting the wildlings, get them safely out of the True North (so they can’t be reanimated as wights), and focus on the Long Night. When you read the passage, it seems as if Bran is trying to awaken Jon’s third eye - something present baby Bran isn’t concerned with, because he barely understands his own third eye awakening. But a Bran in ADOS or beyond would know exactly what to say and do to get Jon and himself to wake up! Not just because of the paradox, but because of his connection to his brother and his vast understanding of his own magic. Similar to the idea that “who would know how to motivate Bran better than Bran himself” who would know how to motivate Jon better than one of his beloved siblings?

Arya X in A Clash of Kings

In the godswood she found her broomstick sword where she had left it, and carried it to the heart tree. There she knelt. Red leaves rustled. Red eyes peered inside her. The eyes of the gods. "Tell me what to do, you gods," she prayed.

For a long moment there was no sound but the wind and the water and the creak of leaf and limb. And then, far far off, beyond the godswood and the haunted towers and the immense stone walls of Harrenhal, from somewhere out in the world, came the long lonely howl of a wolf. Gooseprickles rose on Arya's skin, and for an instant she felt dizzy. Then, so faintly, it seemed as if she heard her father's voice. "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives," he said.

“But there is no pack," she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. "I'm not even me now, I'm Nan."

"You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you."

"The wolf blood." Arya remembered now. "I'll be as strong as Robb. I said I would." She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth.

Once again, we have a voice - it seemed as if it was her father's voice - telling a Starkling to do something specific, reminding that Starkling of their ties to Winterfell, the north, and home. The voice she hears, speaking her true name, is the kick in the pants Arya needs to grab Gendry and Hot Pie and get out of Harrenhal. There's something interesting, engaging, heartbreaking, that when Arya is at one of her lowest points, lamenting the loss of her pack, and out comes the voice of one of her pack urging her to keep faith, and helping to inspire one of her best moments - I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth. Again, we have a voice trying to get the Starklings to wake up and face their reality!

Sansa in A Storm of Swords

That night Sansa scarcely slept at all, but tossed and turned just as she had aboard the Merling King. She dreamt of Joffrey dying, but as he clawed at his throat and the blood ran down across his fingers she saw with horror that it was her brother Robb. And she dreamed of her wedding night too, of Tyrion's eyes devouring her as she undressed. Only then he was bigger than Tyrion had any right to be, and when he climbed into the bed his face was scarred only on one side. "I'll have a song from you," he rasped, and Sansa woke and found the old blind dog beside her once again. "I wish that you were Lady," she said.

To be clear I think there’s a large change this is nothing. BUT. Considering Bran seems to be reaching out to his siblings, I like the idea that Bran, and magic in general, is trying to talk to Sansa but she can’t quite hear it. Winterfell and it’s magic and it’s family is calling it’s daughter home, even torn from her magical guide as she is, still trying to reach out through her dreams and through the animals around her. I’m desperately hoping that at some point in Sansa’s early TWOW chapters, we’ll start to see birds acting and speaking funny around her as Bran tries harder to reach his lost sister.

Theon Greyjoy in A Dance With Dragons

BUT. I don't think it's just the Starklings that get these messages from Bran - it's everyone he cares about, everyone he loves or will love. One of the other more obvious examples of this is Theon Greyjoy, himself clearly capable of some degree of magic, just like the Starklings-

The night was windless, the snow drifting straight down out of a cold black sky, yet the leaves of the heart tree were rustling his name. “Theon,” they seemed to whisper, “Theon.” The old gods, he thought. They know me. They know my name. I was Theon of House Greyjoy. I was a ward of Eddard Stark, a friend and brother to his children. “Please.” He fell to his knees. “A sword, that’s all I ask. Let me die as Theon, not as Reek.” Tears trickled down his cheeks, impossibly warm. “I was ironborn. A son … a son of Pyke, of the islands.” A leaf drifted down from above, brushed his brow, and landed in the pool. It floated on the water, red, five-fingered, like a bloody hand. “… Bran,” the tree murmured. They know. The gods know. They saw what I did. And for one strange moment it seemed as if it were Bran’s face carved into the pale trunk of the weirwood, staring down at him with eyes red and wise and sad. Bran’s ghost, he thought, but that was madness. Why should Bran want to haunt him? He had been fond of the boy, had never done him any harm. It was not Bran we killed. It was not Rickon. They were only miller’s sons, from the mill by the Acorn Water.

“he had been fond of the boy” please allow me this moment to contemplate killing myself thanks.

okay back on track but this is very self explanatory - we know Theon has some sort of capacity for magic because he had a vision of the Red Wedding in ACOK and unlike Jaime who just fell asleep on a weirweed tree, Theon was just up in bed. We see it again here, where Theon can hear a voice on the wind and then seems to see Bran’s own face in the face of the weirwood tree. Once again, the voice on the wind is trying to help a loved one of Bran’s find their way back to themselves, back to home. And Theon, for all the harm he has done, is still so so loved by Bran, and loves Bran in return.

Samwell Tarly III in A Storm of Swords

Sam made a whimpery sound. “It’s not fair …” “Fair.” The raven landed on his shoulder. “Fair, far, fear.” It flapped its wings, and screamed along with Gilly. The wights were almost on her. He heard the dark red leaves of the weirwood rustling, whispering to one another in a tongue he did not know. The starlight itself seemed to stir, and all around them the trees groaned and creaked. Sam Tarly turned the color of curdled milk, and his eyes went wide as plates. Ravens! They were in the weirwood, hundreds of them, thousands, perched on the bone-white branches, peering between the leaves. He saw their beaks open as they screamed, saw them spread their black wings. Shrieking, flapping, they descended on the wights in angry clouds. They swarmed round Chett’s face and pecked at his blue eyes, they covered the Sisterman like flies, they plucked gobbets from inside Hake’s shattered head. There were so many that when Sam looked up, he could not see the moon. “Go,” said the bird on his shoulder. “Go, go, go.”

Whoever this is - it's Bran!!!! - helps to save Sam and Gilly's lives, actively tells them to run for it, and just a little bit later, Sam is around to help save Bran in turn. I think there's also something to be said for the brotherhood connection here. They refer to each other as brothers in the book because of their connection to Jon; that connection to Jon, and therefore each other, means a lot to both Sam and Bran. There's a practical reason for saving Sam here in that he can help Bran in the "present" timeline, will likely help in the future, but more than that there's an emotional bond here and it seems to me that magic runs off emotions just as assuredly as it runs off of other important stuff like blood and and sacrifice and weirwoods.

Jon Snow XII in A Storm of Swords

With a raucous scream and a clap of wings, a huge raven burst out of the kettle. It flapped upward, seeking the rafters perhaps, or a window to make its escape, but there were no rafters in the vault, nor windows either. The raven was trapped. Cawing loudly, it circled the hall, once, twice, three times. And Jon heard Samwell Tarly shout, “I know that bird! That’s Lord Mormont’s raven!” The raven landed on the table nearest Jon. “Snow,” it cawed. It was an old bird, dirty and bedraggled. “Snow,” it said again, “Snow, snow, snow.” It walked to the end of the table, spread its wings again, and flew to Jon’s shoulder. Lord Janos Slynt sat down so heavily he made a thump, but Ser Alliser filled the vault with mocking laughter. “Ser Piggy thinks we’re all fools, brothers,” he said. “He’s taught the bird this little trick. They all say snow, go up to the rookery and hear for yourselves. Mormont’s bird had more words than that.” The raven cocked its head and looked at Jon. “Corn?” it said hopefully. When it got neither corn nor answer, it quorked and muttered, “Kettle? Kettle? Kettle?” The rest was arrowheads, a torrent of arrowheads, a flood of arrowheads, arrowheads enough to drown the last few stones and shells, and all the copper pennies too.

The Night's Watch seem to take this as some sort of divine sign, and Jon's friends take it as an excellent ploy from Samwell Tarly. But when Pyp confronts Sam over it a page later, Sam completely denies it -

“I had nothing to do with the bird,” Sam insisted. “When it flew out of the kettle I almost wet myself.”

Everyone has their theories about people warging Mormont's crow of course. I think what's interesting to me here is that Jon is really wrestling with the idea of leaving the Watch for Winterfell, in which case Janos Slynt was likely to take over command. Someone like Slynt being in charge when the Long Night is coming is a bad idea, and here, Mormont's bird directly contributes to Jon staying where he needs to be - watching over the wildlings and making sure they aren't turning into Wights.

(And this is getting into my other theories here, but IF Sansa as the Girl In Grey is true, I think this is a neat sort of timeline fixing - almost as if Bran is saying “no, not yet, the pieces aren’t aligned, Jon can’t leave yet, Brienne isn’t at the Vale to get Sansa, I haven’t trained enough, Jon still keeps slapping his hands over his third eye so he can’t see, I need to give myself more time here.”)

Bran II in A Game of Thrones

But...it's not just his family and friends that I think Bran is trying to help here, and of course, if he IS the Three-Eyed Crow, he isn’t YET. What I think is going to be a big climactic part of Bran's story is self sacrifice, giving up some of his own power, his own happiness, to save others. Yes, part of this is my absolute refusal to accept Borg Hivemind Fantasy Police State King Bran in that he will say NO to the hivemind, but I think there's something magical here as well!

I think in order to access great power you need to be willing to put your own body on the line.

Jojen mentions having gotten sick with "greywater fever" shortly before his greendreams started

Dany experiences a miscarriage then literally walks into fire in order to hatch her dragons

both Beric and Catelyn have to quite literally be gruesomely murdered in order for Thoros' fire magic to work to bring them back to life

Melisandre has to physically give birth in order for her shadow assassination to work

on and on it goes. In order to be capable of great power, you can’t just have a willingness to throw someone ELSE onto the pyre but yourself as well. But Bran is pushed out of the window instead of willingly jumping. Or...

The wolfling was smarter than any of the hounds in his father’s kennel and Bran would have sworn he understood every word that was said to him, but he showed very little interest in chasing sticks…Finally he got tired of the stick game and decided to go climbing….

The wolf did as he was told. Bran scratched him behind the ears, then turned away, jumped, grabbed a low branch, and pulled himself up. He was halfway up the tree, moving easily from limb to limb, when the wolf got to his feet and began to howl.

Bran looked back down. His wolf fell silent, staring up at him through slitted yellow eyes. A strange chill went through him. He began to climb again. Once more the wolf howled. “Quiet,” he yelled. “Sit down. Stay. You’re worse than Mother.” The howling chased him all the way up the tree, until finally he jumped off onto the armory roof and out of sight.

I think this is future Bran, finally becoming the Three Eyed Crow, inside Summer. Summer shows no interest in the game and it’s only then that Bran decides to go climbing. Future Bran is sacrificing himself for the greater good - but can’t stop his mournful cry of the fate that awaits his own young self.

[liesmyth]

thinking about Keeley Jones again this morning.

mainly thinking about how the show pays lip service to Keeley's 'independence' in a way that I find very lazy, because it doesn't match up with what we actually SEE on screen - actually, it actively goes against what we're shown about Keeley's attitude to romantic relationships.

like, even the original "Keeley Jones independent woman" scene is literally a gimmick she comes up with when she's trying to get Roy to ask her out, a couple of days after she slept with her ex because Roy wasn't replying fast enough to her flirty messages and she wanted to feel wanted! this is a woman who puts a huge part of her self-worth and identity on being in a relationship, even when she'd be better off alone.

I think the fandom is happy enough to roll with the 'independent woman' narrative because we want that for Keeley. It's totally understandable to want and wish those things for her, but I feel some kinda way about taking at face value a narrative that's only surface-deep because it leaves the writing off the hook.

anyway. I'm happy that she's ending S3 single because that IS potential growth for her, and she needs to be alone for a while and figure herself out. But she's not there yet <3

[dementedspeedster]

Alright here's my thoughts on a way Thad could have essentially a 'redemption arc' Post-FMA and post death. (Actually in retrospect Post-Rogues Revenge to be specific. I just lump that with FMA. Though I don't accept what happened with Josh Mardon).

This post started as a response/add-on to @radioactive-earthshine's post here, so a bit of its phrasing is in conversation with that post. Though i have done some editing since my first draft of this post.

Please excuse my rambling as I love thinking of Thad from a perspective of post-FMA and post-death and having come back to life for a second chance.

***

Notes:

General Note (before or after you read this post): I guess my big caveat with this idea is that at least some people have to be willing to give Thad a BIG chance and let him try to prove himself in order for it to really work. People gotta be cool with

*1 - Why post Thad's death? - I see Thad's death as a catalyst for him to change or be open to some change because death is such a huge consequence of his actions, but also because 1. Since he's a speedster he's not dead in the traditional way thanks to the Speed Force essentially housing speedsters. And 2. It also gives hm time away from other people and the influence of the Thawnes in order for him to think. He can look at his life and reexamine his own thoughts, feelings, decisions, and essentially his entire life and for once reflect on his own without having to confront someone else, prove himself, or defend his choices in that moment. He can just reflect. Though that won't fix everything. Instead, it is an impetus for Thad to change. (Also just from a comic/visual medium perspective I think it would be cool to delve more into the speedsters who are 'stuck' in the Speed Force. But that's a conversation for another day.)

***

By looking at Thad’s actions post Mercury Falling as being due solely to him and his feelings and desires such as a sense of bitterness, a desire to prove himself, and as a way validate his own existence such as through killing Bart, I can see Thad (preferably post his death)*1 realizing that his previous actions were never going to lead to his own validation. Thad killing Bart while it might have felt good in the moment, ultimately meant nothing and was a bittersweet endeavor because after that moment he loses all purpose and drive with his victory over Bart. He realizes that he was just falling to his own bitterness and the teachings of violence and hatred from the only life he knew.

With the realization that his past actions weren't right, that they didn't truly bring him happiness or validation, he can progress from where he was before. He would no longer be reliant on his hatred toward Bart to propel his life, but instead he would live for himself and live his own life for the first time. He would be free.

Now, just this concept where Thad no longer shackled to his hatred toward Bart in itself could lead to so many different scenarios and paths for Thad as he builds a life for himself (and I could go into that), but specifically in relation to a 'redemption arc' it would lead more specifically toward the tribulations that come with self-discovery and building a life for himself now that he is alive again. Now, I say this specifically with a social perspective in mind with regard to this bit. Because Thad post death would be trying to build a life for himself while people/heroes/most of the Flash Family consider him a villain and still hold his past actions, like killing Bart, against him. It's gonna be hard for him to go through this 'redemption arc' and there are gonna be consequences for Thad's past through how people treat him, but despite that he's still going to try. It's a scenario of self-betterment, but also I think unconsciously he's also trying to make up for what he's done by being a better person than he was.

Setting-wise this arc would be set in the Twin Cities are. Either Keystone City or Central City, so he can't help, but run into members of the Flash Family. But these potential/chance meetings with other Flash Members allows him to make connections; good, bad, and just neutral depending on who it is in the Flash Family he meets and if they're familiar with him.

***

Regarding the topic of redemption when applied to Thad/how he would personally handle the process of redemption/changing:

I think redemption for Thad would be half him fighting his own 'inertia,' his resistance to change. Part of Thad would still be so ingrained in the idea that he is "bad," a villain, and a Thawne (even though he's abandoned the family in every way except name) because that is what he has known for so long and because that is what people are telling him definitively when they see that he's alive again. Thad believes these sorts of things about himself and is also unwilling to let go of his past because it is all he has ever know, so he is fighting the fact that he actually is changing as a person. And this would be further reflected in his actions. He would be consciously putting distance between himself and the Flash family, he would be punishing himself for his previous actions, and SAYING that he has not changed despite how actions would show that he has. Thad's stubborn, but I also think that he would be scared of change as well, and at this part of his life would very much be his own namesake, Inertia.

***

Briefly regarding what his actions would look like at this time as he finds himself and his own life:

I say in this scenario he would overall straddle a sort of anti-hero line though his actions skew toward more heroic, though not to the same degree as heroes. It's not out of a desire to do right for others, but it would be selective in a way and drawing from what he cares about. Like, sure, if he's in the area he will save someone who is in danger, but more specifically I think he would be real conscious of how younger metas are treated, so no one ends up being used like he was in his youth, that they can have a childhood he didn't have, so he would speak up in those kinds of scenarios. Regarding labels: Thad still would probably still stubbornly label himself a villain because of his unwillingness to consciously/overtly change himself as I previously mentioned, but also because of the perspective directed toward him by heroes. Though people can call him whatever they like, but he's still going to do what he think is best.

***

Forgiveness

I agree that forgiveness would be very difficult, but I also think that it would be possible for him to interact with the Flash Family albeit selectively. I think that people like Max and Barry would be the most willing to give Thad a chance and willing to understand that he was used, manipulated, and essentially a child soldier, but also willing to give him a chance and see that he is not the same person he was before if they ran into him again.

Max and Barry are my top contenders for giving Thad a chance because respectively Max understands Thad to a degree. He's experienced who he was a child and the thought he gave to being a hero and potential he had. I don't think he would try to force Thad to become a hero again, but would meet him with some understanding though it might need to be earned somewhat after knowing about Bart's death. I think Max would have to see a bit of a change in Thad for him to fully try to connect with Thad again. It would take a bit of work.

As for Barry, I think he would in general be more open to giving Thad a chance simply if Thad expressed it. I think, in part, it is due to how disconnect Barry sort is from a lot of major events that have happened to his family and in particular Bart. He would be taking Thad more at a face value because he doesn't know Thad or his past. He probably wouldn't know how Thad kidnapped Iris in his youth, and he might not know that Thad is the one who killed Bart (that would probably depend on what he's been informed of by the rest of the family).

Overall, this scenario regardless of who would be willing to give Thad a chance would mostly cause some discord internally for the Flash Family, as they all would have different perspectives of Thad, but also probably regarding perspectives of 'redemption,' whether people can change, and specifically whether Thad can change or if he even deserves a chance.

Ultimately, though what this all would culminate to is either Thad very very VERY slowly becoming sort of a part of the Flash-family or sorta absorbed within the Flash-family circle in the sense that some of the members are willing to give him a chance. (I think there's a touch of hilarity and awkwardness just at the thought of someone like Barry inviting Thad to a holiday dinner. I also think it's also a good way exploring family and the complexities of family and family dynamics when you add someone like Thad to the mix. Kinda like a relative you're not fond of or the black sheep of the family who has history. There's just so many themes that open up when you add Thad to the mix.) It's very much a black sheep scenario. Or that his 'redemption' allows for him to slowly make up for his past. People can feel however they want to feel toward him, they can distrust him still or think it's an act, but the fact he's make strides for himself and as a person slowly becomes undeniable in this scenario as time goes on.

I also think both "outcomes" would allow him to have future appearances and interact with members of the Flash Family as he goes through the process of trying to prove himself/make up for his past.

And that is basically how I would write Thad in a 'redemption' arc. It's not a traditional redemption, but instead it's more focused upon consequences, actively working toward being a better person that you were before, and focused more upon the development than the outcome.

If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll try my best to answer.

[fictionadventurer]

Of course the sequel to Out of the Tomb would be a vocation story. Tanza's let go of sin and embraced virtue. Naturally, the next part of her story would involve her figuring out what she's going to do with her particular gifts and interests. Especially if what she should do doesn't necessarily line up with what she'd want to do if given the choice. With all the crazy political stuff bringing in questions of duty and image and danger, it's the perfect fit. I can't believe I didn't figure it out before.

[wolpatinga]

[anarcho-masochist]

I need to finally admit that I only have so much time to write and thus need to decide & commit to writing one particular thing instead of researching everything forever in the hopes that I will one day have time to write All the things. You have no idea how nuanced my internal discussions on the topic have gotten at this point, though. The next post will be a poll on what to write or post about first.

[moongothic]

So I wrote this god forsaken post the other day because of the Crocodad brainworms, hoping doing so would clear my mind, but no, appearently I wasn't done, there's more shit I need to yell about, so here we go, Crocodile Specution Part 2

Not me coming back to this post a day later with an edit because I realized that not only is that SBS quote mistranslated, but it straight up debunks Crocodad from ever being plausible

I went and double checked how Oda had phrased his answer (in Japanese, SBS from Vol 78, page 86) to the SBS question and he explicitly stated that Crocodile became a Shichibukai in the first half of his 20s ("20代前半で", literally "first half of his 20s" and not mid-20s as the OPWikia fantranslation claims), and canonically, he would've been 27 when Luffy was born. (Crocodile's 46, Luffy 19)

So the canon timeline makes Crocodad just straight up impossible, unless he somehow still got pregnant after transitioning and managed to hide that while a Shichibukai, because the theory assumes that Crocodile's secret is that he's stealth trans. And I mean, I guess it's possible he could've transitioned years after becoming a Shichibukai, but there is no fucking way in a million years that he could've kept that a secret, and based on the interaction he has with Iva-chan in Impel Down, Iva-chan seems to know something about Crocodile that he doesn't want "revealed", so then that secret can't be him being trans since it wouldn't be a secret and wouldn't work as actual blackmail so like??? It just doesn't work???*

I dunno man, I'm emotionally devastated, I was straight up losing my fucking mind over this theory, trying to figure out if it was actually plausible or not, and. Well, I did. I managed to debunk it. But only after getting severely emotionally attached to the idea and the sheer storytelling potential it could've had

Like trans Croco is still plausible and I will never be normal about Crocodile ever again, but. God

RIP Crocodad, you will be fondly remembered in AU fanfics

*Edit again because I can't stop thinking about this stupid asshole god fucking damnit Considdering how Iva-chan talked to Kuma about him becoming a Shichibukai (at Marineford) I feel it'd be unlikely and would make little sense for Dragon want to be at all affiliated with a pirate "government dog", even in secret. But also. Hypothetically:

Crocodile could've moonlighted as a Revolutionary while a Shichibukai and like tried to leak info about the Government's plans etc to the Revolutionary Army

At one point or another he would've gone no contact with the Army though (because he had a weapon of mass destruction to find and a civil war he wanted to start and Dragon would not have been cool with that), which could've just added to why Iva-chan felt the way they did about Kuma joining the Shichibukai too

If Crocodile did transition years after becoming a Shichibukai, even if that was public knowledge it kinda would make sense nobody would bring that up because at this point, whatever scandal that might've caused would've happened almost 20 whole years ago. Also we don't know how often he would've been on the news back then, all we know is that he started appearing often on the news after doing his Heroics at Alabasta 16 years ago. Hell it's plausible Crocodile only ever got his one and only bounty before getting picked for a Shichibukai, and if he didn't really do much in public to get talked about and didn't settle down anywhere specific until like 18 years ago (after transitioning specifically)... There could be people who might not have noticed that one Shichibukai suddenly becoming a man. Hell if most people aren't aware of Ivankov's abilities, some people might've just been like "dude must've hit puberty late" / "he was a woman? That can't be possible, you must've imagined things"

Iva-chan's wording for blackmailing Crocodile might've been less about outting him and more of a vague way for them to threaten to detransition Crocodile (just written by Oda in a way that wasn't too obvious?) ((Tho Iva totally could've just said that, regardless of if Crocodile is trans or not, the average man does not want to become a woman so the threat would still be like REAL regardless of if it was involuntary transition or detransition))

Like.

I'm adding this to get this out of my system, like yes, there is still an argument and a theoretical, vaguely plausible scenario where Crocodad could still be real. I highly fucking doubt it. Like I feel desperate and delusional just writing that out (which I am, both, absolutely, 100%), but it's still theoretically plausible, I GUESS.

But whatever genuine faith I had in the theory is still gone.

(Below is the original post, now entirely moot) (At least as far as Crocodad goes, Crocodile's behaviour is still strange in Marineford so there could be something to it, just not Crocodad (at least the way I envisioned it). So please enjoy the general speculation anyways, just ignore the Crocodad parts)

Originally I thought it'd be good enough if I just rewatched some relevant parts of OP here and there, but in the end I just absolutely caved in, went and reread most of Marineford. Mainly because I knew I was forgetting scenes and stuff, and Toei adding/changing things can easily affect a character reading. Also it was just going to be easier to go through the manga and save all of Crocodile's scenes into an image folder for easier browsing, mainly because there's so much shit that happens between those scattered scenes it can be hard to like focus on one thing (especially if you're trying to specifically FIND those scattered scenes and appearances)

Anyway, because I had completely forgotten about this somehow (I'm such a fake fan smh)

We did learn that Whitebeard kicked Crocodile's ass at some point, to the point it left him Extremely Bitter About It, and him losing to Whitebeard is known to the Government at least

And very conventiently I came across this SBS Snippet about that

"D: I have a question for Odacchi. In "The White City", chapter 762 of volume 76, during the scene where Law stabs Cora-san, I found Crocodile printed on the paper Cora-san was reading. So what was that article about? P.N. Yamamoto・Sugiyama・Hori O: Yes. I'm quite impressed you found this one~. As you've pointed out, if you look really closely, you can find Crocodile there. This was from the time when Law was 10 and Doflamingo was 25; 16 years ago from now. Crocodile was 30 at the time. Similar to Luffy, back when he was young, Crocodile's name spread across the seas with incredible momentum, but soon after he was admitted into the Shichibukai in his mid-20's, he tried to fight Whitebeard and was completely and utterly crushed by him. Though he seemingly calmed down at this point, his eyes became set on the kingdom of Alabasta, and it happened to be precisely during this time period that he was being featured in the papers as a hero who hunted down pirates. In other words, that was an article reporting the acts of heroism by Crocodile at the time!"

So I think that pretty much confirms that it was Whitebeard who broke Crocodile's dreams, maybe even being the one who took his left arm.

It's still the sheer intensity of Crocodile's reaction though that's so interesting here. Like is it just him being bitter about "some weakling" landing a hit on Whitebeard but he couldn't, or is it even because that attack came from one of Whitebeard's followers, someone Whitebeard was supposed to be able to trust? Like why is Crocodile unable to trust anyone? What happened to give him his iconic trust issues? Did he get backstabbed too, and did that sight just trigger a horrible memory in him (a cherry on top of the pre-existing bitterness), thus his wild outburst? Who knows

This does also tell us a lot about the canon timeline actually, since we know Crocodile was at Roger's execution 24 years ago, where he like many others was inspired to go out to the sea and find One Piece, just a few years before the Ohara incident (only bringing that up because as much as I want Crocodad to be real, if it requires him being a former Revolutionary even for a few years, then we need to somehow believe he got inspired with a dream but didn't act on it for some reason for five whole years because the Army didn't exist for another two years and Luffy wouldn't be born for another 3 from there) (Of course, we do know that Dragon had been the captain of a group of Freedom Fighters (as we've learned from Vegapunk's flashback), so it's not like Crocodile couldn't have been a part of the forces even before they became the Revolutionary Army, it just feels odd if he had been as we've never heard as much as a suggestion that there could be another Founding Member of the Revolutionary Army beyond Dragon, Iva-chan and Kuma) (But again, there's many ways you could explain how Crocodad could still be real despite these things. Like I mentioned in my first post. There's many potential explanations. It's just the more you need to explain it, the less plausible it feels to me (which I only care about because I want to speculate about canon, like I love me a good headcanon but I want to speculate about canon here))

After Roger's death Crocodile did some pirating for about 8 years until he "retired as a Shichibukai" in Alabasta after his asskicking (can't tell if he decided to make his base in Alabasta immidiately after his asskicking or if he wandered around for a few more years before settling down there), and he proceeded to do his adorable Pirate Hunting Heroism Thing. Which we know was meant to be just a front he put on to gain the trust from Alabasta's people and the King so nooobody would ever suspect a thing. Like good god dude was playing The Long Game

(Sidenote, if Crocodile had been a part of the Freedom Fighters and/or the Revolutionary Army, it would make sense if deep inside he wanted to like, "maintain peace" even just a little, wouldn't it? Like of course the Army and Crocodile want to yeet the World Government into the bin first and foremost, but that doesn't mean either party nececarily want to allow random pirates to just run amock and ruin people's lives. So while defending the people of Alabasta definitely became a tactic for Crocodile to gain the people's trust, I do wonder if at he might've done it sincerely for a short while?)

Of course we now know that Pluton wasn't even in Alabasta, it's all the way back in Wano, so even if Crocodile had successfully usurped the country he still wouldn't have gotten the thing (poor dude just wasted like a decade of his life for nothing lmao) But I do have to ask; how, when and where did Crocodile learn about Ancient Weapons even existing, and where did he get the idea he might find Pluton in Alabasta? Like they aren't common knowledge at all, even Dragon had been shocked when Robin confirmed the existence of Ancient Weapons to him. So where did Crocodile find out about them? Did someone tell him about them, and if so, who? Did he learn about them soon after his asskicking and immidiately went after Alabasta because of it, or did he settle down in Alabasta first simply wanting to grab the throne for himself and later learned about how he could be sitting on top of a nuclear gold mine?

Mind you, Robin didn't join Baroque Works until 6 years ago, we don't know for sure if she joined when BW was being founded or if she joined a few years into the operation, so without her it's not like Crocodile would've been able to get what he wanted. So it does feel like between Robin being the only thing who could confirm existence of Poneglyphs (and read them), and the fact that Crocodile gave out orders etc exclusively through Miss All-Sunday, I feel like Robin joining should be what allowed Baroque Works to go into full operation at all

So to recap canon timeline

24 years ago Roger dies

22 years ago Ohara burns, the Revolutionary Army is founded

19 years ago Luffy is born

16 years ago Crocodile is making a name as a hero of a Shichibukai after having his ass kicked and dreams ruined, making base in Alabasta

6 years ago Robin joins Baroque Works

I dunno I just want to keep this mind for theorizing and for headcanons. Crocodile was a pirate for 3-8 years (depending on his involvement with the Revolutionary Army and if there was any at all), and then spent about 10 years in Alabasta having fun with his casino and protecting Alabasta for questionable reasons until Baroque Works went into full motion with Robin joining

Now, back to Marineford for a bit. There's something that's bothered me a lot about what we see of Crocodile in Marineford, and that's the timeskip between Crocodile attacking Whitebeard and when we next see him.

Crocodile makes his way onto Moby Dick to attack Whitebeard the second he spots him, Luffy deflects said attack and Whitebeard's underlings get between Crocodile and Whitebeard.

The next time we see Crocodile, he's off the ship. We never see how, when or why he got off the ship, but he did.

And this I find interesting for multiple reasons. Of course, most people tend to point out that during this time Sengoku announces to everyone that Dragon is Luffy's father, and we never see Crocodile's reaction to this. Even if you put Crocodad aside, knowing Crocodile may have known Dragon due to his past with Iva-chan, the ommission of Crocodile's reaction is very suspicious, considdering all the other reactions we end up seeing (including Kuma's non-reaction, which like, in theory makes sense since Kuma did know Dragon, but also, Kuma's dead, he had no reaction, and his involvement with the Revolutionaries wasn't known yet to the readers, so having his reaction was kind of pointless???)

But then when you add Crocodile getting off Whitebeard's ship, it just gets even more suspicious

Like. I think Oda wants us to just assume that someone off-screen managed to get Crocodile to back off the ship and he's trying to get back to Whitebeard, since he's fighting off Whitebeard's underlings in that next scene on top of getting sent flying Jozu, so it is certainly plausible. Someone pushed him off and he's annoyed he can't get back to Whitebeard now there's resistance. I think that's what Oda wants us to believe is happening.

But it's this line Crocodile says here that's messing with me

Now. Problem. Translation issues. Kinda. Fantranslation on the left, official translation on the right.

I'll get into it a moment but needless to say the implications of what Crocodile says on this panel is actually kind of important, but the thing is. Like, fantranslations aren't always correct, since they are questionable fantranslations from like 10+ years ago at this point. Of course, the same can be applied to the official translations, especially when the official translations go through actual localization while the fantranslations are often far too literal to be genuinely accurate. Translation is an artform, alright, it's not at all a straight forward thing, thus neither translation here is fully reliable

And try as I might, I was not able to find raw scans of this chapter (560) so I could check what Crocodile says in this panel myself. And annoyingly, I can't make out what he says in the anime either ("zuibun tou muita"???), at least not clearly enough to then try to figure out how to write it (like with what kanji) to try to retranslate it myself (plus I could be mishearing the line)

So this bit needs to be taken with a massive grain of salt, alright

But if Crocodile is actually saying they've "gotten far behind", doesn't it kind of sound like he's actively trying to chase someone?

Of course, that could be just him complaining the amount of distance that's been put between him and Whitebeard, but if so it'd be a strange way to complain considdering Whitebeard has not moved an inch-- Crocodile hasn't fallen behind chasing him, he's just been pushed away, right?

But then, he gets pushed even further away from Whitebeard by Jozu, he has his little chat with Doflamingo, yells at Whitebeard when the old man gets stabbed, then saves Ace from Execution Attempt One after having gotten close enough to do so (which is in the opposite direction of Whitebeard mind you) and finally saves Luffy

It's completely possible that Crocodile was trying to get back to Whitebeard to kill him, but between Jozu proving himself as a force to be reckoned with and Whitebeard showing himself "being weak" Crocodile gave just up, figuring getting to Whitebeard was too much effort at that moment, and that he'd get another chance later.

But he never does attempt to get closer to Whitebeard again, not that we see that at least

Instead he chases Luffy around the battlefield

So I can't help but to wonder if that line with questionable translation choises wasn't about Whitebeard but Luffy instead. Did Crocodile during that missing scene, where he hears about Luffy's father, decide to abandon Whitebeard, intentionally got off Moby Dick and backed away, only to have Whitebeard's crew chase him and Daz (since they didn't realize Crocodile was backing off)? Daz thus clearing a path for them to move towards Luffy while Crocodile was holding off the people chasing them? (We don't see when Crocodile gives Daz the orders to assist Luffy either, so he could've given those orders immidiately after he got off Moby Dick) Was Crocodile complaining not about getting further away from Whitebeard, but from falling behind on Luffy?

Moving on a little bit though, to some smaller things

It really is also strange how Crocodile spares Ace's life. Even the Government knew about his beef with Whitebeard, and considdering how Crocodile feels about both Luffy and Whitebeard, he should have no reason to try to spare Ace's life, even if he hates the Marines more.

And yeah, considdering how Luffy ruined not just his plans for usurping Alabasta but also stopped him from touching Whitebeard like less than 5 minutes ago...

...He shields Luffy from getting cut down by Mihawk. And aids Daz at the same time.

This is just absolute bizarro behaviour from Sir "I kill useless underlings for fun" Crocodile. Again, even if he doesn't want the Marines to "win", considdering how he should not be on good terms with the Revolutionary Army (regardless of if they were actually affiliated in the past or not), he should have no reason to give a flying fuck about Dragon's son, let alone the idiot who ruined his plans

Regardless of his reasoning, dude is not happy about any of this, not at all

The last thing Crocodile says at the end of this battle, was him telling Jinbei "if you want to protect something, do it right".

When Whitebeard finally dies, we do see Crocodile's reaction to it. Considdering his previous outburst, you'd think he'd have like, strong opinions about it. But doesn't he seem like he's... pre-occupied, thinking about something else???

Like, doesn't he seem kind of... distant? Detached?

Sure, maybe by this point he had kind of emotionally prepared and knew he wouldn't get his vengeance on Whitebeard and missed his opportunity. But if so, wouldn't he have a bit more of an, I dunno, an annoyed, pissed off expression?? Instead of that?? (Also minor addition, but it is kind of interesting that of all these reactions, Crocodile seems to be the only one facing to the right, Doflamingo facing kind of straight ahead at a slight angle aside. Because you could like, see it as a sign that while everyone else is focusing on Whitebeard (looking to the left), Crocodile has already "turned his back" on it and is focusing on something else. And soon enough after these panels Akainu continues his pursue of Luffy and Jinbei, a pursue which multiple people do step in to try to stop, but the last one? It's Crocodile, being the last person we see to step in to deal with Akainu ensuring Luffy and Jinbei's escape.)

Not really connected to anything but I just keep on thinking about this one panel. Mainly because when I see people bring up Crocodile reading the news about Luffy defeating Big Mom as confirmation that he's invested in Luffy, they tend to use the anime screenshot of the scene

Because yeah it does kinda look like a "proud dad reading about his son" etc. But what I'm really interested in is original the manga panel

'Cause boy howdy do they not look the same at all

Motherfucker looks like he's aged like 20 years

And I'm not sure what to make of that at all. Like. If I'm not misremembering I think this is actually the first time we saw Crocodile's face post-timeskip, so part of me wonders if Oda originally did intend to make Crocodile look considderably older from pre-timeskip and just went back on that decision later on

But, regardless of if that's the case... That's not the expression of a proud father at all, is it? Like??? I'm not even sure what to make of it, doesn't he look kind of... sad? Stressed out?? It's so strange????

Like, because don't know canonically yet what Crocodile currently thinks of Luffy, if we wanted to still believe he has a grudge against Luffy, even if he was displeased, annoyed and even jealous about Luffy pulling off a stunt he never could've, I still can't imagine THAT being his reaction to reading about it.

But if he does actually care about Luffy and is worried about what kind of trouble he's going to get into next... I dunno, would that explain that expression???

I dunno man, this panel just haunts me

And now, in the present.

Crocodile's back at it again, trying to create his Utopia, this time with Mihawk by his side (also Buggy, as their mascot). Which is an interesting choise- Crocodile justified his invitation to Mihawk based on how neither of them trusted anyone and how together they'd be less of an easy target to take down, but he did also mention that Mihawk is known as a Marine Hunter. Which. Y'know. Considdering how Crocodile feels about the Government, yeah, greatest swordsman aside it makes sense he'd want to team up with Mihawk.

But it also truly makes me wonder about where the Cross Guild plotline is supposed to go from here.

Buggy has his little moment of inspiration and realizes he wants to get One Piece and become Pirate King, but neither Mihawk nor Crocodile seem to be interested in that at all

If anything, Buggy blurting that out made poor Crocodile age like 10 years between panels from being so angy

(It's just funny because Crocodile is supposed to be 7 years older than Buggy but based on how they look in the average panel you'd think it was the reverse lmao)

Of course, his anger is understandable considdering 1) Buggy may have singlehandedly ruined Crocodile's Utopia Plans once again, this time taking even less effort than Luffy 2) That IS Crocodile's broken dream Buggy is talking about. Like, he's rubbing salt directly into Crocodile's wounds

But Crocodile still wanting to make that Utopia is so interesting, 'cause like.

He probably understands that as long as the Government exists, they will continue to try to hunt him down. Same for Mihawk, and every single pirate out there (including the Strawhats). They will never know peace until their bounties are nullified, which isn't great for Mihawk especially since he seems to yearn for a quiet life. But surely it's not the only reason Crocodile wants to destroy the Government, right

(Sidenote, did I misread or did the fucking Government just send the three remaining Seraphim to Empteebluffs to take down Cross Guild??? Like as if I wasn't curious enough about what kind of a fruit power Vegapunk gave to S-Croc considdering he can't replicate Logias, could we maybe see Crocodile fight his Seraphim? Oda please, I am dying, if that's gonna happen please I need to actually see it, don't have it happen off screen I will perish)

Like. We know Crocodile wants to destroy the Government, that's what the military force is for, that's kind of why Cross Guild came to exist and possibly part of his reasoning for inviting Mihawk

Where is this going, where are these plot threads leading? Like it would be so strange for Oda to introduce this plot thread if they're only going to get wiped the fuck out by the Seraphim, and I can't imagine Crocodile and Mihawk actually joining Buggy and trying to get One Piece first (especially if they don't have the Poneglyphs for it)(and again, that's Crocodile's broken dream, even if Buggy did somehow inspire him and reignite that flame there's no way Crocodile would do it under Buggy's name), neither should have any interest in that

Like??? Is Crocodile just going to take over the Cross Guild from Buggy and bringing them to war against the Government with the Revolutionary Army?????????????????? I mean Dragon seems to be on the move since he contacted Vegapunk??????????????

But also

Like, considdering all the shit Crocodile has done and/or attempted to do, even if they were exes (or hell, especially if they're exes), I find it hard to imagine Dragon would just welcome Crocodile and Cross Guild into the Army with open arms.

Or maybe they would because they'll need all the help they can get?? And having the greatest swordman in the world on their side against the Government would be extremely useful, would it not???

If Crocodad real, it would make for one hell of a reunion though and I'd be dying to know how Luffy would feel the stupid alligator meeting his dad. (Robin too, I'd love to see her reaction)

Although, considdering Luffy is going to be escorting Vegapunk to Elbaf (at least that's the plan rn), and if Dragon is on the move, and if Cross Guild has three Seraphim on their asses and one clownish ship ready for them... Might they all meet in Elbaf????????????? Thing is I don't think Luffy would want to pause his adventure to help his dad take down the government mind you, but also, Vivi is in trouble and he did want to go save her????????

I just

Where the fuck is any of this going Oda

Is Crocodad real

If so, what the fuck is going to happen next

(Just whatever the fuck it is, Oda, please don't make it stupid and transphobic, please, for the love of god)

(Also I literally just found out about this panel from a short Red promo Oda drew and I swear to god if that's supposed to be Luffy and his mom I will fucking cry)

(Like do not fucking tell me I have been loosing my god damn mind over Crocodad for the past two weeks only to find out I missed this page because I didn't give a shit about RED when it first came out)

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Since you've mentioned Scarlet Lady in one of your posts, what's your opinion on it?

I've mentioned before that I'm a big Scarlet Lady fan, which is the only reason that I'm comfortable answering asks like this one. I don't publicly criticize the content of hobby creators. That's wildly inappropriate! Punch up, not down.

The linked post was a general discussion of the adaptation process and how @zoe-oneesama did a fantastic job, so for this one, I'm just going to do some general gushing because I do actually like praising and enjoying things!

Scarlet Lady's chosen format (comic) allows it to have this wonderful conversation with canon where it can rely on the framework of canon to tell it's own story while also using canon for jokes and meta commentary. This means that Scarlet Lady is about as close as fan content can get to a direct reboot because it's able to have moments like this one from the comic's first post:

[Image description: Adrien standing in his room after transforming into Chat Noir for the first time. He is beaming and his eyes are shining with excitement as he exclaims, "This is gonna be awesome!"]

A single picture that communicates everything we need to know about Adrien getting his miraculous. When I've done this same thing in fanfic, I had to write out the full scene because that's how novels work. You have to give the full picture. With a comic, you can just quickly acknowledge this thing that we all already know and then move on to the new stuff. A picture really is worth a thousand words! (Or, in my case, more like two thousand...)

This allows Zoe to keep the same akumas that we get in canon without her story feeling like a boring rehash because she can focus on what's different in her version. A novelization of the same content would have to show both the stuff that stays the same and the stuff that changes for it to be coherent. That's a lot less fun to read and write. It's why I basically never revisit canon akumas in my own stuff. It's just too derivative for the written word.

This is one of the big reasons that I loved Scarlet Lady. Because it was able to have that more directly conversation with canon, it was able to take canon and say, "hey, why don't we embrace the tone that you established in season one and retell the story with that vibe?" That's something that I desperately wanted to see, but that is totally unsuited to my chosen artistic form. It couldn't be a novel. It had to be a comic.

If you want to know what a true formula show version of Miraculous would look like, Scarlet Lady is it. It does everything that Miraculous should have done:

Sticks to a lighthearted tone where nothing is ever super serious

Keeps Gabriel entirely unsympathetic

Has slow character development and background hints at a bigger plot as the only serial elements, allowing the individual episodes to be their own story while never feeling incomplete or rushed

Allows characters other than Marinette to shine while keeping Marinette as the clear main character

Makes Adrien narratively important

MAKES THE LOVE SQUARE CUTE SO I CAN ACTUALLY SHIP IT

Understands that Lila and Chloe can't coexist as antagonists

Reverses the love square, which is the best way to tell their story. Yes, I will die on my "love diamond" hill. It's a good hill. Come join me. I'll bring cookies.

I could keep going, but you hopefully get my point. While Scarlet Lady is certainly not the only way to do a formula version of canon, it's proof that a formula version does work! You don't have to go the serious route for Miraculous to be successful.

I want to take some time to gush about the ending, but I don't want to spoil it, so I'll put that gushing under a "read more" in case anyone hasn't seen it. I'll finish out this less spoilerish section with this:

I feel like some people are surprised when they learn that I love Scarlet Lady because - as some of you have probably picked up - it is quite different from my ideal version of canon. I'm not sure why that would stop me from enjoying a thing, though. It's important to remember that our personal ideals are not the only way to tell a good story. There are lots of ways to take what canon gave us and make something wonderful! It's part of the reason that I enjoy being in a fandom.

If I only wanted to see my ideal take on canon, then I'd stick to writing/imagining my own stories. But I don't want that! I like seeing alternate takes, too. Scarlet Lady is one of my personal favorites. It's completely different from anything that I'd ever think to write and that's why I'm so glad that it exists! I like being entertained just as much as I like creating my own entertainment and I don't want to only read stories that look like something I'd write. That's boring!

Spoilers below:

I've mentioned before that there are many, many ways to properly handle Chloe's character and Zoe did such a good job with her take on that! Chloe isn't absolved of all the things she did wrong, but she's also treated as a young woman with the ability to change.

While the comic bares the name of Chloe's alter ego, she was the never the main character. She never went on a journey. The story kept her to her shallow season-one self: a petty brat who just wanted attention. It did this because that's who Chloe was in canon and who Chloe needed to be for the comic to work.

The first time we see any complexity from Chloe is in the comic's final few episodes, which was absolutely the right call for Zoe to make! In a recent post, I talked about how the end of a formula show is the only time when you can break the formula in catastrophic ways and that's what Zoe did. She kept Chloe static until it was time to end the story and that's when the formula breaks. That's when Chloe gets depth because, once she has depth, the formula doesn't work.

That depth is not used to redeem Chloe, but to show us that there's hope for Chloe. That this petty brat who we've been dealing with has some serious issues and needs help. Help that she's going to get far away from the people that she's hurt because her issues aren't an excuse for what she's done. They don't erase the harm that she caused. At the same time, understanding her issues makes us hope that she can be better now and Scarlet Lady took a moment to give us that hope. To show us the START of Chloe's true story.

That is the kind of ending that I have wanted to see in so many properties!!! It was so wonderful to finally get one that did this right. A story that understood that full redemption to the team and damnation to death/suffering are extremes on a scale of possibilities. You don't have to go to extremes! You can fall in the middle and the middle is a perfect, natural place for Chloe to land in this kind of story. Fully redeeming or even fully damning Chloe simply doesn't work in lighthearted formula content. It's too big a lift as canon has already demonstrated.

I also loved Zoe's take on Emilie. I've mentioned that I don't like evil Emilie in part because it makes her revival feel like the start of a new story. She's back and she'd bad, so we have to take her down now! But I don't want that. I want the story to end when Gabriel is stopped. Zoe does this by giving us an Emilie that is another perfect middle ground. She matches canon's uncomfortable implications without feeling like a true villain who is a threat to society.

[vyva-melinkolya]

we all agree that the push towards short form, vertical video (tiktok/reels/shorts) is ruining fucking everything right? Tiktok has been useful for the dissemination of political information (e.g Gaza) i’ll give it that, but that feels moreso a result of meta and twitters algorithms being just a little *more*’evil and censor happy. And i want to make it very clear that my hatred for tiktok has nothing to do with the fact that it was a product of a Chinese company, because i see a lot of critiques relying on some sort of sinophobic conspiracy. On the contrary, it’s what tiktok has become in the vacuum of western popular culture and marketing that makes me fearful.

I know that every generation faces a new, polarizing technology and inevitably, there are those among said generation who will critique it. That is the nature of things. However, there is also something to be said about how, with the acceleration of technology (running parallel to the acceleration of capitalism, acceleration towards collapse etc), each coming generation faces an increasingly more malevolent “advancement”. TLDR, i’m going to talk my shit.

I’m going to speak on the aspect that is most relavent to me, as a musician. I am petrified by what short form video is doing to music and to musicians. I think that tiktok provides the illusion of making music and being a musician more “accessible” while actually pouring gasoline on the fire that the pop music machine had already started. Standards for what popular culture “expects” from music are being doubled and tripled. Let’s talk about song length. Success and marketability favoring shorter songs is not something new, it has been the trend for decades. But with short form video, it goes even further. You’re not just hearing the same song over and over on the radio, you’re hearing the same 15-30 seconds of the same song over and over again. This in-turn, starts to influence the way people write music, persuading people to make songs that *could* have that 15 second appeal. There is an art to pop music, there is an art to writing a catchy hook—this is something else. We weren’t meant to hear or understand music like that. There are so many songs from reels that i found annoying, until i heard them in their full context. It’s insidious. It makes everything feel like a fucking commercial, even if nothing is being advertised.

I’m going to pull directly from someone else’s experiences, someone who’s music seems to be everywhere on short form videos. The ambient musician My Head Is Empty has a hundred million streams on the song “i was only temporary”. Despite that exposure, they experience “never ending copywrite issues” and have “received death threats” by people who refuse to credit them when using their song. Pulling a quote here, from a comment on their own post

“vyva_melinkolya unfortunately it just gets worse. i saw a bot content page that steals pod cast footage and spams dozens of videos with my song stolen, comment on a "motivation" spam content , who actually made a post telling people the name of my song, and the previous page i mentioned, the pod cast spam commented on that video saying "Bro stop don't give out the sauce. this audio helps me pull numbers brooo" - so people are actively INTENTIONALLY stealing it and telling people to not credit me. like. u can't make this stuff up”

Beyond this, My Head Is Empty feels frustrated that despite all this exposure, the rest of their work (nine albums) as a musician remains under appreciated, and i think that frustration is 100% valid. People cannot fully appreciate music, or even understand it as a work of art created by another human, when it’s taken so far out of its context. Again, the soul being sucked out of art by “the machine” isn’t anything new but, this is a whole other level. Being a musician is more expensive than ever, streaming earns you fractions of a cent etc, it all feeds into itself.

When a song or a musician i love deeply finds its way on to tiktok (let’s use Duster’s “Stars Will Fall”, one of my favorite songs ever as an example)I am not upset that i cant “gatekeep” it anymore. I’m not upset by the idea of something I love and hold dearly finding a larger audience. I AM upset in the manner in which it is being disseminated. I’m upset with art I hold dear to me being chopped up and used as “trending audio”. When I saw Duster in concert recently, lStars Will Fall” was the song I was most looking forward to hearing. It was the last song they played, and it was the song seemly everyone chose to talk loudly over. The audience was mostly people my age and younger. This complaint might come off as petty or pretentious or cliche, i frankly do not give a shit.

Let’s talk about how musicians are expected to promote music on tiktok/reels. This is a matter of opinion, at the risk of sounding very pretentious: the “POV we are x band from x” “My label says i need x followers before x” “posting this video until c musician notices me”. I understand that some of it is in jest but, what the fuck? When did this become the norm? I do not blame anyone for promoting their music like this, but we should want more for ourselves. I’ve always said being a musician is deeply embarassing, inherently. If being a musician is inherently embarassing then what is this? I dont have a solution for this, and the music industry has always been ugly and bloodthirsty and seldom fruitful— but i feel like the very small amount of dignity we had as artists is now lost and I cant fucking stand it. Artists seem to promote the same single with dozens of reels over the course of months, hoping that something sticks. I dont want to sound like i’m shaming or, again, sound like i can provide a solution. I’m just very fucking sorry that it seems like this is “the way”. And personally, i’m scared that if i dont “get with the program”, im going to fail.

Again, all of this speaks to larger trends in entertainment industry and even larger trends in capitalism. But i’m just airing specifics right now because frankly? I cant take it anymore.

[lurkingshan]

Love in the Big City: A Proposal to Extend the Discourse

Many of us have been anticipating this full length drama adaptation of the beloved novel by Sang Young Park for months, and when you watch the trailer above, you can see why: this is a queer story through and through, written semi-autobiographically by a queer man in South Korea about his own experiences, and then lovingly and determinedly made into a live action drama to bring his story to more people. It's a landmark show in the Korean media landscape; nothing of its kind has been made before. And that is exactly why the show is drawing harsh backlash before it even airs. It's too honest, too heartfelt, too steeped in empathy and understanding for the nuances of the queer experience in a suppressive society, and that scares people who want to continue shoving queer folks back in the closet.

As a result of this backlash, the story, which mirrors the novel by being structured in four parts with a different director and focus story in each set of two episodes, is being released in one giant episode dump to ensure that it all makes it onto air. Sang Young Park himself confirmed that conservative groups in South Korea are trying to prevent this show from being seen, and he is fighting to keep promoting it and will ensure its release on October 21st. It will air on TVING in South Korea and on Viki for the international audience.

The best thing we can do to fight back against this kind of censorship is to watch the show loudly, to write and make art about it and celebrate it, and to do that for more than just a couple days. Earlier this year, @bengiyo and I started the Love in the Big City book club to read the novel with friends in anticipation of this drama's release. For four weeks we coordinated weekly discussion posts to correspond to each part of the story, and we intend to do the same with the show. Given what's going on with attempts to suppress this story, I want to open up that invitation beyond those of us who are participating in the book club to include anyone who wants to watch and talk about this show, regardless of whether you've read the novel.

So here's the proposal:

Beginning Monday, October 21st when the show drops, we'll each watch the show on whatever cadence we like (personally, I will be watching two episodes at a time with breaks in between, because that is how it was made and intended to be seen)

Regardless of when we each actually watch it, we will post weekly starting on Mondays about each part of the story in turn. So the week of October 21st we will post art and meta and reactions to Part 1 (episodes 1 and 2), and each subsequent week we'll post about the next part (or each set of two episodes).

Ben and I will also write up and post book club discussion questions each Tuesday that will be more about the adaptation to live action and comparisons to the novel. Anyone who has read the book is very welcome to respond to those even if you haven't been in book club with us previously.

My hope with this proposed schedule is that we can keep discussion of the drama alive for a solid month and give it its full due. Tumblr is a crucial part of the fandom ecosystem and I want to do our part to ensure this show isn't buried. This is a complex story with so much nuance, and if we binge and forget about it in a few days, we cannot do it justice. I want to support Sang Young Park and so many others whose stories have been forced under wraps by this kind of oppression, and I would love it if you all would join me.

[rageserenity]

It's 2024. Are you still thinking about movieverse!Cherik? Because I am.

For the past several months, there's only been a very slow trickle of posts/fics in the xmcu cherik tag. Let's try to breathe some life back into this incredible pairing!

With one clear winner of my poll, here's thirty prompts for the thirty days of April. (This is a super chill, laid-back event---do these in any order, interpret them as loosely as you like! Create in any medium! Fic, art, gifs, meta, incoherent screaming about the otp…all winners in my book.)

The only rule here is to cherik too close to the sun. Alright. Here are the prompts.

Mutual Pining

Doesn't really even need elaboration! Write that horrifically slow slow-burn. Gif every time McAvoy made insane fuck me eyes on screen. Make a playlist of songs about impossible love.

2. Alternate Meetings

There are endless quotes about how these two complete each other in a way no one they'd met before or after ever did. How else could they have met?

3. Erik Has A Telepathy Kink

This is basically canon. Let my boy get freaky!

4. Canon Fix-It

All the times Fox fucked it up. There are endless options.

5. Hurt/Comfort

Put them in that Situation. Put them in that Blender. Break them apart and put them back together ❤️‍🩹

6. Canon Compliant

Draw that missing scene! Gif your favourite cherik moment!

7. Beach Divorce

Make it worse. Make it better. Show it to us exactly how it was. Break it down in a 3,000 word meta. Go wild!

8. Domestics

Sometimes you just want to see them doing normal couple things. Erik put the gun down.

9. Found Family

The real heart of x-men!

10. Time Travel

There are SO many possibilities here. Stick them in a time loop. Give them a chance to change their past.

11. AU

Love a good AU!

12. There Is Only One Bed

Had to get this one in here. What better way to amp up the tension?

13. Genosha

By some miracle, cherik actually did end up together at the end of 2019s trash bag disaster Dark Phoenix. We aren’t making a big enough deal about this.

14. Declaration(s) of Love

Who says it first? How do they say it and when? Have they said it…without saying it?

15. Jealousy

Need I say more.

16. Reunion

These two have absolutely no chill.

17. Soulmates

Classic prompt, had to get this in here too.

18. The DOFP Aircraft

The TENSION here. Break it down for me. How does Charles feel about his injury? How does Erik feel about his injury?

19. Gay Mutant Road Trip

You already know.

20. Body Swap

SO fun when people have superpowers.

21. First Kiss

When? How? Who initiated it?

22. The Mansion

Mansion!content is a genre of its own.

23. Conflicting Ideology

Give me your theses. Who’s right? Can they ever reconcile completely? Write a fic where it drives them apart.

24. Sebastian Shaw

A trope unto himself.

25. Team As Matchmaker

They had to have known something was going on, didn’t they?

26. Cooking

Charles deserves a good meal. Also, imagine Erik using his powers in the kitchen. The sheer domesticity…

27. Hurt No Comfort

Plenty of scope with these two 🥲

28. Growing Old Together

Giving Sirs Ian Mckellan and Patrick Stewart their props as well!

29. Making Up

*pushes chess board across the table* sorry babe

30. Charles Xavier Did More For Mutants Than You'll Ever Know

Rising to each other’s defense. Only I can insult this man.

I will be tracking #revivecherik to reblog stuff! Here’s a fic collection for the same. Let’s get this ball rolling! Please feel free to send me an ask if you’ve got anything to say! And most importantly, let’s all have fun 😁

*I know a few of you preferred something like a gift exchange because of the commitment factor—I’m super down to organise a tiny one for the handful of us! If this promptathon doesn’t flop horribly, we can hopefully do a whole bunch of stuff :)

If you read this post all the way through, please reblog for reach! Thank you! Hoping you participate come April.

Shoutout to @inmymagnetoera for reaching out and helping with this!

[mimir-anoshe]

I love that ARCANE is using the MAJOR ARCANA for symbolism.

Chefs kiss.

These are Sevika's tarot cards from season 1.

The Magician (upright) overlapping Death (upright).

Foreshadowing? Oh hell yeah. But its only now after S2 Episode 6 do I understand what they might actually be foreshadowing. People may have talked about this before, so I apologise if this is similar to anyone else's meta. These are all my own thoughts, I usually just watch arcane and don't dabble into the meta but this season has me feral and I just rewatched season 1.

SPOILERS for Arcane S1/S2 below.

I just want to prologue this post with a note about how I've noticed even from season 1 there are thematic parallels and linear symbolism being afforded between Jinx and Viktor. Others in the community have too I'm sure. Its strange. I thought it was interesting in S1 but didn't deep dive into it, but S2 has driven headfirst into it and its making me go "oh... oh ok." Even Viktor in S1 noted Jinx's genius, and in another timeline perhaps Powder would've been a student of Viktors had fate not set them on parallel paths. Two children of Zaun, both mechanical/scientific geniuses. One physically disabled whilst the other mentally disabled. One who "escaped" and was given a chance, rising to the top only to create something that would be used for harm. Fighting that fate at every step. Whilst the other trapped at the bottom of the barrel, forced to use her gifts to become a weapon herself. Such GOOD story writing.

So now let's think about the art of the cards, because in tarot, even the symbolism of the specific art is important. Its why an artists interpretation of a major/minor can be so crucial to a reading.

Here's a figure map I made earlier.

Lets begin with Death.

Thirteenth of the Major Arcana, a "significant transformation and the end of a phase in life." There is death and rebirth symbolism all over arcane, but let's take a closer look at the symbolism mirroring the art.

Figure 7&8 - The one who has "died" a skeleton/skull laid down and being "imbued" with something as something else is taken away.

See that the imbuing focuses on the "chest" area.

It's quick, but it flashes briefly when Viktor is being imbued with the Hexcore. He canonically dies "the skull" and is reborn with the Hexcore on an "altar"/table.

Same with Jinx. Canonically "dies" and is reborn laying on an "altar"/table using shimmer. Purple being used as the visual thread between shimmer and the arcane of the hex; a colour imagery representation of "magical" alchemical/arcane power turning them into something beyond human.

Singed and Jayce. Two hands of death, giving and taking life as if they were a God. One using shimmer, the other Hextech thats imbued with shimmer. Messing with the balance of life and death.

With Viktor, the energy is transferred straight into his chest, just like on the card.

So now we've established the parallels to the death tarot, lets look at The Magician.

The First of the Major Arcana, "the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds, and the ability to manifest one's desires."

Viktor is the Magician. No doubt. He connects the physical and spiritual world of the arcane, he brings people back from the brink of death, as he was. He manifests his desires through the use of the hex, the arcane. And the dude just looks like a mecha wizard.

Though if you want it to be even more obvious.

Figure 3 - The Third Arm/Third Hand.

The image below is "The Machine Herald" Hero from League of Legends. This is the hero Viktor is based upon.

He canonically has three arms, same as the Magician in the card. The Magician is Viktor, Viktor is the Magician. The Magician is the Machine Herald.

The Magician overtakes/overlaps death. But Viktor by episode 6 still doesn't quite resemble the machine herald from the games. There's no third arm... Yet. So the Magician in the card isn't Viktor from episodes 1-6, this is the machine herald who comes after the one killed in episode 6. Another Rebirth is set to happen for Viktor.

Figures 1 &2 - White mask. Red/pinkish eyes.

Hmmm... Red/pinkish eyes are associated with shimmer. And a white mask, of the machine herald? The mask of a messiah. That the hextech Viktor will most likely also be imbued with shimmer like Jinx, to become the true "machine herald." Messiahs of the hex, monsters of the shimmer.

Its also worth noting that both Jinx and Viktor are framed as messianic figures of Zaun in this season. One the fighter who will rally together the undercity and free Zaun from its oppression. The other a healer and a saint like figure who will free the Zaunites of their suffering and lead them into a better future.

Jinx wanting peace - represented by Isha - and Viktor's dream of peace and healing for Zaun - represented by a lot of things including healing Vander - are metaphorically and literally killed in episode 6. Funnily enough, one symbol of peace killing the other (Isha and Vander - Child and Father). After all, peace and violence are two sides of the same coin, as are Viktor and Jinx. Or should I say, two sides of the same cog...

Figure 4&6 - The Cog shaped Hole in the Magicians chest/The Cog Coin and Jinx's cog.

"I understand now. The message hidden within the pattern. The reason for our failures in the commune. The doctor was right. Its inescapable. Humanity. Our very essence. Our emotions... Rage. Compassion. Hate. Two sides of the same coin. Inextricably bound."

In episode 6, whilst Viktor is explaining to Vi about what it will take to heal Vander, Jinx is sceptical. She doesn't even believe in herself as a messiah, so this "hero"? This "saviour" coming along to solve their problems? To fix things? When all she can do is break everything around her, jinx her own family, destroy? She's scoffing at Viktor sure, but she's also scoffing at herself. Mirroring. People treat her like they treat him, so to believe in him as a saviour means she would have to look into the water of that well and face her own reflection. And Viktor sees right through it, the pretence, and he sees her potential.

Knowledge is a paradox. Jinx wants to stick with what she knows, to destroy instead of to build, to "Watch it all burn." Or ignore the plight of Zaun, so she can live peacefully with Isha. Jinx - Powder - is choosing to remain ignorant to what's right in front of her. Right up until the moment Isha dies.

In the scene earlier in the episode, Jinx accidently destroys a bit of the well, releasing a cog that falls into water. Cogs have been symbolic of Viktor healing people throughout this season, using cogs to "Build."

Powder was thrown into water just like that cog by Silco, and reborn as Jinx. But its not Silco that picks up this cog. Its Viktor. He holds the potential of his creation in his hand, and in paradox, holds Jinx's destruction. Viktor holds Jinx's potential. He's literally holding the two sides of Jinx/Powder in his hand, her - their - fate. Just like Jinx, Viktor has the equal capacity to destroy, and if he is reborn as a weapon later on, perhaps that cog represents Jinx being reborn too. As a creator. A builder.

He holds onto Jinx's cog all the way through the rest of the episode, balancing that potential, that fate, of creation and destruction in his hand. Right up until the moment he dies, and the coin/the cog falls, sealing their fate. His death causing the deaths of Isha and Vander too.

So we've established that the story is viewing cogs/coins in a similar light. We've also established the show is linking Viktor and Jinx through the symbology of the cog.

This is reiterated in the symbolism surrounding the Tarot cards. Around the cards are coins that take the shape of cogs, the currency of Zaun. Fate - coin flips - and cogs, gods and machines. Deus Ex Machina, that is what Viktor is to become, and Jinx creates destruction using machines. She's an inventor, just like Viktor and Jayce. A creator and a destroyer. A god of the machine.

So how does Figure 6 - the coin cogs - relate to Figure 4? The hole in the Magician's chest.

On the Tarot Card, the Magician has a circle in the middle of his chest. A hole. Just like the hole Jayce puts through Viktors chest at the end of Episode 6. The one that kills him.

But if you look closely at the image above, it might be a stretch, but to me, the striations on the inner ring look very similar to those of a cog. The hole is what kills Viktor. Cogs have been given visual symbolism for healing, and are also associated with Jinx's potential for creation. Its a stretch, but it could potentially be foreshadowing Jinx using her abilities to heal Viktor; to build instead of destroy. We've already seen Jinx do it once with Sevika, by "building" her a new arm.

I also find it interesting that we're shown Jinx using her talents to build someone a new arm, and Viktor - the machine herald - still has yet to acquire his third arm. Perhaps he doesn't make it. Perhaps Jinx does?

Maybe, just maybe, Jinx - Powder - is the one to fix Viktor, and flip the cog of fate once again.

Now in Episode 6 we already get foreshadowing that it'll be singe - not Jinx - who saves Viktor by imbuing him with the ultimate shimmer from Warwick/Vander - stabilising him. He says it in the episode, but Viktor refuses to sacrifice Vander in the name of creating the ultimate weapon of destruction.

"It would destroy him."

Viktor's potential for destruction goes hand in hand with Jinx's.

Its even foreshadowed in both the cards. The red/pink eyes of the machine herald foreshadowing shimmer. And the shadow being imbued into the chest of the dead skeleton (Viktor) looks an awful lot like Warwick; the beast that traps Vander.

So why am I talking about Jinx saving Viktor if I'm so certain its Singe? Well I'm certain Singe will bring Viktor back to life, to be used as a weapon. That seems like the most likely outcome.

But like Viktor was saying about Vander "He's not a specimen, he's a man." Viktor was doing everything in his power to save Vander's humanity. So yes Singe will bring the machine herald back most likely - even if I think it'd be thematically cool for it to be Jinx - but I think Jinx will save Viktor. Save the man, the humanity. Be the big fat hero.

Jinx was a girl imbued with Shimmer, and despite having monstrous abilities and doing monstrous things, her humanity has still survived.

I could be wrong, I most likely am, but the the thing that's getting to me is this...

Figure 5 - The Broken Infinity.

At the centre of Viktor's chest, in the middle of Jayce's death blow and Jinx's cog of creation & destruction, is a symbol.

Now a diagonal infinity symbol is associated with the Firelights. Ekko. The boy who shattered time.

Broken Infinity? Shattered time? Seems to go hand in hand.

Though Ekko's symbol is a whole infinity, more akin to a Z than an ongoing X.

There are plenty of theories Ekko will play a role in Viktor's fate and the fate of everyone by rewinding time somehow. And the multiple shots of the coin rolling support that to an extend. Rewind time, change fate, change the flip of the cog. And I agree, I think Ekko is going to have a role to play. But there's also another character who fits with this symbol, who uses shimmer to move faster than humanly possible and defy fate time and time again. Who is the fulcrum of fate in the eyes of the story, the catalyst of everything. And only one character who has solely been associated with a broken infinity symbol before.

Jinx. That's Jinx's symbol. Her champion tag.

Jinx's symbol, right at the centre of Viktors chest. And this line to Jinx from Viktor...

"You have much to offer this commune, Powder. Your talents could be used to build instead of destroy."

And the line from Singe, about Viktor's fate being tied to the commune. Viktor IS the commune, he's the centre of it all. The one who can make the dream of Zaun - Vander's dream - a reality. And that line foreshadowed Jinx using her talents to help the commune. To help Viktor.

Hell, she was technically the reason he "died" in the first place. She fired the rocket that nearly killed him. Wouldn't it be poetic story telling if she was the one who saved him in the end?

I can't wait for Saturday.

I believe whatever happens, Viktor and Jinx's fates are inextricably bound.

[metalomagnetic]

After seeing about 50 'Dumbledore is evil' and 'everything is Dumbledore's fault' and 'but why didn't Dumbledore did this or the other' posts in a row, I find myself wishing Dumbledore just fucked off to somewhere nice and sunny in '81, early retirement (or is it early if he's already 100?) and washed his hands off magical Britain entirely.

Some of y'all sound like Fudge with your Dumbledore bashing. I wish, at least, Dumbledore would have left when Fudge and that corrupt as hell Ministry did their best to ruin his name and his image.

Pack up his ancient shit and move to a nice beach somewhere, with his pet bird and a huge bag of candy.

This way, my man Voldemort could have won in like five minutes, and Harry would be dead, Voldemort would rule supreme, Bella would keep being the queen she is, and my little Voldemort shaped heart would be happy.

But no, Dumbledore stayed, orchestrated Voldemort's downfall by giving Harry step by step instructions, gave up his own life in the process, made sure Harry would keep his, because apparently that's what 'evil men' do instead of retiring in comfort.

Not only Harry wouldn't have survived without Dumbledore, but he most likely wouldn't even exist without Dumbledore. Because, you know, this evil man is also the one that took down another dark lord back in the day; if Grindelwald would have won, there would be no Lily, most likely. Thus no Harry.

But yes, go get your 'Dumbledore is evil' badges- I hear Fudge and Umbridge are leaders of the hate club, I'm sure they'll receive new followers with open arms. Draco is probably the secretary, because he hates Dumbledore, too, and he likes making badges.

Also, can someone explain to me how Dumbledore, the only gay man in canon, became the fandom's resident homophobe? That's just weird, my friends. Very weird, to say the least. It gets even nastier when you say he 'groomed' students. That's an awful thing to throw around about a gay dude, you know?

There are so many reasons one can dislike Dumbledore for, but you do have the option to not like a flawed character without turning them into a ridiculous caricature of themselves.

P.S: I am not talking about fics. Write your fics and your characters however you want, whatever makes you happy. Your fic is your domain, and you do whatever you want in there, hopefully with no asshole to attack you in the comments. Same with reading- read what you want, bashing or no bashing. Have the best of fun!

I am talking about these 'meta' type posts on social media, tagged with "Albus Dumbledore", where they act as if canon Dumbledore was legit evil, incompetent or homophobic.

[mxtxfanatic]

Just wanna say for those of y’all who came into this fandom late: just a few years ago, speaking on Jiang Cheng with anything less than glowing praise used to bring so much harassment that “angry grape”-related tags had to be created to circumvent jc stans finding and subsequently dogpiling your posts. I’ve since seen this tagging convention appropriated by his stans to be an “affectionate” petname for his character. If you wrote a wangxian fic in which Jiang Cheng did not appear, your fics would get bombarded with stans flooding your comments with their own headcanons on why Jiang Cheng isn’t around but “this is how he’d react if he was” and “everyone loves him, they’re definitely thinking about him, rn” and “when is he supposed to show up, op???” If you read a wangxian fic and Jiang Cheng did appear, there was a 95% chance that you would have to slog through thousands of words of abuse apologia paired with every character (except maybe Lan Wangji, maybe) claiming that Wei Wuxian deserved to be abused and should just learn to handle it better because abuse is really love. It took me a year of reading purely (only, exclusively) wangxian fics to find a single fic that had both 1) canon Jiang Cheng and 2) did not twist the other characters into fanon iterations to justify canon Jiang Cheng’s abusive behavior. When more canon writers started appearing, their fics got flooded with negativity, claims that the fic wasn’t realistic because “jc isn’t like that,” and demands to change things. They started moderating their comment sections. Eventually, jc stan writers even stopped tagging Jiang Cheng in their fics despite writing him as a major character because people began to avoid reading fics if they knew from the tags that his character appeared.

The “canon jc” tag was created on tumblr because jc stans said that if we didn’t like being attacked for canon opinions we should “create our own tag.” It was not a tag that always existed. Nobody used it until my friends created it. And every few months after that, we’d get a new “flood the tag” campaign by jc stans pissed at the name until it died down… until twitter refugees arrived, bringing with them a new faction of jc stans. That jc appreciate week or whatever they call it that starts on Halloween? Created by jc stans in an attempt to flood out Wei Wuxian appreciation posts on his birthday by making sure that new Jiang Cheng content would dominate all the major tags on that day. I watched the creators brag about that.

One BIG fandom upset happened when a jc stan wrote a horribly mistagged rape and murder wangxian fic and had their friends promote it so that wangxian lovers would read the fic and be traumatized. They gloated about having "successfully baited people," then tried to delete their tweets admitting it when they got them in trouble. I was there for that, too, and I only dodged being triggered because I saved the fic to read for later instead of cracking it open immediately.

Some of y’all may see me around now, but I’ve been watching this fandom for much longer than I’ve been making posts, before even the friends and mutuals I know now even knew I existed (yes I was a lurker lol). I’ve seen the development of all this play out across tumblr, ao3, and twitter (despite my best efforts to avoid the twitter side, that’s how ubiquitous it was). That’s how inescapable it was. I saw so much shit go down that I already had a mile-wide blocklist before I made my first post, and even then, I still got hate commentary on some of my posts the moment I dipped my littlest toe into metas. I had anon off for like a year because I didn’t want to deal with any harassment, and the moment I turned it off, I started getting bait anons (though not as bad as the others I’ve seen, holy shit). When I started this blog, all I did was liveblog and reblog other people’s art and metas. I was so stressed entering this fandom because the shit I had seen off rip was absolutely disgusting. That’s why I have very intentional rules of engagement that I try to hold to for myself. I may never be the first to start the fight, but I damn sure will defend myself and my friends. I also will never run away from admitting my mistakes, but I will also never be bullied into treating someone’s personal fantasies as equal to the actual factual text.

This isn’t to say that fanon enjoyers don’t get harassment. Another big fandom scandal was that a popular fanfic writer obsessed with canon had been harassing other writers through a series of bot accounts into leaving the fandom. What a lot of people don’t bring up in their bid to paint canon enjoyers as particularly prone to “fandom bullying,” however, was that the “canon” they were obsessed with was tied almost exclusively to the canon wangxian’s top/bottom sexual dynamic. I’d read that person’s works before—enjoyed them, even, before the scandal happened. They wrote fanon into their fics in other ways. The fanon/canon divide isn’t the problem; entitlement to unanimous fandom praise and recognition is.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying canon or fanon, nothing right or wrong or morally superior for either camp. But do me a favor: go into the main jiang cheng character tag right now, and count how often you see a post about Jiang Cheng that portrays him in a negative light. Not one that portrays him as an snarky asshole or a teacher’s pet or a helicopter parent or a crybaby who only wants to be loved, but one which shows him in all of his uncensored glory as a piece of shit antagonist. How often do you see fanart of Jiang Cheng that isn’t “best jiujiu” or “sad didi” or “badass sect leader”? How often do you see metas that don’t include some iteration of “everyone is just so mean about poor little jc who just didn’t have a choice in anything he ever did 😢”? Go to the main novel tag and do the same. Hell, go to the wangxian tag and see what you find while you’re at it. How many of those posts are viral compared to “look at jc with his dogs!” or “look, I made lxc and jc kiss!” Then tell me whether or not you believe that jc stans are being specifically targeted for some unique and undeserved persecution by the fandom at large.