#me when the historical shows actually relate back to history of the characters

[llewnanith]

do you guys ever think about basilica hands, 17 years old, getting shot in the knee by his captain by accident and not knowing because he claims he has to kill one of you every once in a while or you’ll forget who he is. just like that, a gunshot, and he leaves you behind to fend for yourself in a stupid place names Bath and goes off and gets himself killed, leaving you again. do you guys ever think about israel hands, famous for helping take the Republic, watching slowly as the man he poured his life into pick someone else as a successor. then, a spat, and he beats you out in the open, as if you were a stranger, shoots you in the face and permanently disfigures you, forbids anyone from ever taking you in again and leaves you behind on an island. do you guys ever think about izzy hands, Blackbeard’s loyal dog, watching the man he worships slip out of his fingers like water, lashing out and destroying everything, reaping the consequences with being fed his own toe. staying despite that, clinging to this figure like a pathetic husband to a failing marriage. i think about it a lot actually. what the fuck.

[snek-eyes]

Good Omens fic recs

Hello all! Wanted to share a few of my longtime faves. These are all pre-s2, might do another with my post-s2 recs? Narrowed it down to 10, since that's the max links tumbl lets you have in a post.

Any Way You Want It

Author: Justkeeptrekkin Words: 27,500 Chapters: 5/5 Rating: Mature Mood: Vacation, soft but introspective After finally getting heaven and hell off their backs (at a cost) Crowley and Aziraphale go on holiday to a cottage in Scotland. Fluffy with fun snappy dialogue, the two really feel like best friends here! Aziraphale struggles with his tendency to go slower than even he wants.

Instructions Not Included

Author: Atalan Words: 68,000 Chapters: 13/13 Rating: Teen Mood: Detective / Gen (There are feelings but it earns that slowburn tag) My "if season 2 isn't good, this is my season 2" fic. Now, I liked season 2, but this is still SO good. After the notpocalypse, Aziraphale and Crowley start a detective agency investigating supernatural happenings together. New characters include Raphael (who totally missed the apocalypse haha whoops), and a big spooky dog (whomst I adore). Note that while this fic stands just fine on its own, there is an unfinished sequel that imo doesn't leave off anywhere stressful.

When in Rome

Author: Kedreeva Words: 4,000 Rating: General Mood: The liminal space of nighttime conversations What happens after Aziraphale invites Crowley to oysters: Wings and reading. Tentative and innocent in those early days.

the deft, sweet gesture of your hand

Author: deadgreeks Words: 12,000 Rating: Explicit Mood: Hurt/Comfort, introspection A few years after the failed apocalypse Crowley shows up badly injured at the bookshop. Aziraphale has to help heal Crowley and save them both, and still finds the time to knit his feelings.

Chemistry

Author: Twilightcitysky Words: 122,000 Chapters: 19/19 Rating: Explicit Mood: Y'ever want a side of learning something with your romcom? After realizing they might need their own corporations to heal themselves now that they're not working for heaven and hell, Aziraphale and Crowley turn on all their bodily functions. All of them. What could be a silly premise is played out very satisfyingly, the actual biology of hormones at play here is fascinating. (this is not really at all related but: has anyone else read Peeps by Scott Westerfeld? Because the format reminded me of this in that it did a similar thing of playing straight the concept of "what could cause vampires to be real" that drew on inspiration from real life parasites interspersed between the chapters. I dig it. Anyway!)

Reservations

Author: AnnetheCatDetective Words: 10,000 Chapters: 3/? (Technically unfinished, but leaves off in a satisfying spot) Rating: Not Rated Mood: Meta (Character study as story) “There's some competition for Aziraphale and Crowley's usual table at the Ritz…” A couple of miracles bend reality and, well… you ever been like, “The boys need therapy, but who could possibly give it to them?” I love crossovers where the TV boys meet other versions of themselves, this one is my favorite.

i can't say the words, so i wrote you into my verse

Author: mygalfriday (BrinneyFriday) Words: 5,000 Rating: Teen Mood: Snapshots through history "Crowley has tattoos and every few centuries, Aziraphale discovers a new one." Simple and paints a lovely picture.

By Definition

Author: idiopathicsmile Words: 3,000 Rating: Explicit Mood: Smutty but fond A night together after the Ritz fic where Aziraphale is asexual and Crowley isn’t and how that works for them. The dialogue here is positively delightful.

Bark Dust

Author: rfsmiley Words: 8,000 Rating: Mature (mostly for injuries) Mood: Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Historical Crowley is very badly injured in a battle, and Aziraphale has to figure out how to save his life.

Tell Me A Story

Author: brilliant_or_insane Words: 5,000 Rating: Teen Mood: Soft and warm Aziraphale likes telling stories and Crowley likes to listen. But when the demon is dissatisfied by sad endings and can't relate to the happy ones, Aziraphale decides to move them forward by telling a new story. (Of course, Crowley isn't entirely satisfied with the angel's perspective on that one either.)

[philsmeatylegss]

Can I talk about Cat King because no one else will???

I haven’t finished the show yet so this might be wrong or age like milk

I could talk about his role in the story for hours. Tbh I overly identify with Edwin because I’m gay with a lot of problems in the past and Edwin’s historical typical internalized homophobia already makes a history nerd like me giddy with glee. And Cat King easily can be written off as a gag character, which I do think is part of his purpose, but he also represents the aspect of this story regarding Edwin’s sexuality not solely being sexual, but also still being sexual. As in obviously Edwin sexually fantasizes about men, but there’s much more than just that. That implication, acknowledging the fact, feeling free to tell Charles and the others, acting on that, just day to day life. Edwin had gotten by for thirty years ignoring his sexuality until cat king came along. Edwin acknowledging his sexuality, acting on it, and discussing it (in his own way) is a large part of his character growth which is fully pushed on because of Cat King. I know he’s supposed to be the bad guy, but I genuinely believe he is an anti hero or something along those lines. I think at first it was to just tease Edwin, but it grew into something deeper.

Don’t even get me started on the cuff. It is SO symbolic I could almost cry. It’s a physical representation of how limiting and claustrophobic it is to be in the closet. Specially not being out of the closet to close loved ones. You couldn’t have a closer relationship than the relationship between Edwin and Charles, but it doesn’t seem that way before Edwin comes out. And that’s multiple reasons on both of their parts, but part of it is that complete shut down to that side of himself. People don’t realize how much sexuality plays into day to day life. And Cat King made Edwin realize how much he’s missed out on. And also that he can’t put off his problems forever. Slay relatable.

I think the addition of Crystal and Niko also makes Edwin realize that he needs to at least recognize his sexuality. I think they help him realize how much he is missing out on by not being himself in general, nevertheless outing his sexuality.

And all of this goes back to the cat king!!! It drives me insane no one talks about it!!! There’s also the aspect that, on the surface, cat king is just supposed to represent lust. The difference between his feelings for Monty or Charles is that there’s emotions there while cat king is purely lust and a giggle. But when you think about the story, that’s just not true. When media deals with a character’s sexuality not being straight, it’s usually over sexualized or not acknowledged as anything sexual. Cat king gives that balance to his feelings for Charles. Because being gay is partly explicit. As is being straight, bi, pan, whatever (other than asexuality). Saying you are ___ sexuality is implying that you are sexually aroused by whatever gender(s). And cat king is that reminder while Charles and Monty are the reminder that love and relationships are also part of it. Cat king adds balance that makes Edwin’s character feel way more authentic and actually gay.

I haven’t even gotten to cat king pushing for Edwin to admit why he solves cases. WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT IT?!?! I was gnawing at the bars of my enclosure during that scene. It is arguably one of the most important scenes of the entire show. And it’s entirely brought on my cat king. Every single time Edwin either decides or is forced to reveal something vulnerable about himself, it’s Cat King!!!! Edwin’s confession that it is about preparing a justification as to how he should be allowed into heaven even though he is gay is such an insanely important moment and I’m gnawing at my enclosure again!!!

I may be studying history, but I’ve always been an English kid at heart and symbolism about religion and childhood trauma brings me to my knees. And Cat King is scratching an itch I’ve had for years that I had no clue was there anD NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT IT WHILE IT IS DRIVING ME BANANAS.

Anyway, that’s my case for talking about cat king. I just finished episode 4 and it’s gonna be really embarrassing when something happens the next few episodes that completely invalidates all of this

[gavalaa]

Sketches of all my redone designs for my Phantom Thieves from my AU, Icarus! Lots of info down below on the cut, so if you want to know more about the details and inspiration, feel free to keep reading!

This includes Akechi’s design for his Princely/Robin Hood attire, BEFORE his Icarus attire you might have seen from my other posts! Check out the Icarus AU tag for more info! Icarus has a main focus on Akechi and his relationship to the thieves, but the AU is actually an entire rewrite with new designs, 3rd semester and epilogue/strikers/tactica stories, hence Zenkichi and Sophia’s inclusion.

Read below for individual info:

I decided to include more motifs towards their persona’s and general vibes; and also just my own personal touches haha.

AKIRA - Not much has changed, I really like his design overall. I raised his boots to be like Arsene’s and changed his neck area.

MORGANA - I hate the OG pill shaped head, his new design is based heavily on the shape of Palico’s from Monster Hunter. Added a little more nod to Zorro/His persona motifs and also just made him cuter! Little hamburger headed cat.

RYUJI - I made him a little bulkier and gave some more weight to his outfit overall. I gave him heavier boots and a slightly buffer build to relate back more to his sporty style.

ANN - honestly was never too big on her latex outfit, I wanted to call back to a personal favorite female lead; Christine Daae, and used one of the versions of her Don Juan costume as inspiration. I remember seeing Phantom live and in many stage versions of her character, the Don Juan scene was a pure moment of female control, and she was truly working the Phantom and controlling every movement on the stage. Her presence is commanding, and I thought it was a very fitting tribute to Ann’s character as feminine strength. (I’m absolutely not referring to the movie iteration of Daae btw.)

YUSUKE - I referred to some historical art and legend of Goemon to add more elements of design to his outfit. When I color them, I want to add some really strong pops of color to his clothing to really drive the aesthetics and artistry home.

MAKOTO - Another totally redid outfit, I opted to give her a design which relates back to Popess Joan, and also Anat. I gave her a clawed hand on her right side and an uncovered hand on her left as both a nod to Anat’s hand raised in iconography of her from art history, but also to show the duality of Anat’s title as both a goddess of war, and of love. It also relates to the mythology of Joan and her nature as both a leader and a martyr. I changed her mask to a Venetian Commedia mask as well.

FUTABA - ok. I’ll be honest. I never liked her skin-tight outfit, it just doesn’t match her personality at all. Also, the high tech Egyptian feel never really sold me. I totally understand the tomb thing, but I truthfully think a dungeon/palace which was more like… tech/nerd themed would have been much more “futaba” the inspiration for this new outfit relates back to her persona, the Necromomicon, as well as her nerdy personality, and her affiliation as Alibaba (Ali Baba.) I wanted to go more lovecraftian, long sleeves and patterning designed to look more like lovecraftian tendrils, and big baggy pants and her classic shoes to match. The patterning on her undershirt will resemble a rib cage, both as a reference to her deathly “tomb” iconography, but also to Lovecraftian and Necronomicon lore. I think she matches the description of a nerdy, techie DND dungeon master more than the initial outfit, so that’s the route I took personally.

HARU - relating back to some fashions from 17th c France, where Milady’s story (the three musketeers) takes place, I kept her design relatively similar. I just gave her a little more iconography relating to the three musketeers and that general timeframe.

AKECHI - in his pre-Icarus outfit, I’ve given him a princely sort of outfit befitting of his two faced nature, and edited it to relate to Robin Hood a little more. I tried to keep it sleek and just generally very concealing and layered.

SUMIRE - i gave her some iconography relating back to one of her personas, who is an inference to Freya. I also included some more nods to classic Cinderella, with fantasy gown elements. Overall, relatively similar.

ZENKICHI - again, relatively similar, I really like his outfit. I just opened up the face some to show more personality and spiced up the outfit generally to keep it matching. honestly, les mis/Valjean was a hard one, but I also think his character could be heavily related back to Edmond Dante (Monte Cristo.) so I gave some nods to that as well.

SOPHIA - I turned her into a FINGIE!!!! I made her whole dress as a nod to her persona/to pandora’s tiles around her/the pillars. I wanted to make her small and almost unnatural since she’s an AI, and I thought having a little guy on the team would add some more variation.

[mr-damian-s-power]

Sorry I did not mean for this to be this long.

I have two, both relating to the worldbuilding. This one is about how the visual aspect fails and the other is the written aspect, but they boil down to this: The Boiling Isles is the most bland, boring ass ‘dark’ fantasy world I’ve ever seen.

First off, even in the background it never really feels like fantasy world, maybe just a historic district with Halloween decorations.

The woods are just regular woods in autumn, Bonesborough is just a standard medieval/renaissance town with some eye and teeth iconography. The only time I felt we were in actual fantasy world was that brief scene in Latissa, the buildings look like they’re made of flesh, there’s pustules acting as street lights, the overview shots are far more natural and feel like they belong in the environment. The colors are dark yet vibrant, and it gives off a spooky, kind of Halloween-Town feel. I love that!

But we literally spend 98% of the time in Bonesborough, whose colors are predominantly shades of muted blues, grays and whites, and overall it feels too empty and tidy, like it’s not really a place where people have lived and worked for centuries at the very least. Yeah it has doors with eyes on them or roof races in the shape of teeth, but imho, they showed that one shot in the first episode and never lived up to it again, only harking back on it slightly for occasional ‘character observing the area’ shots.

Honestly I thought the Collector-controlled Isles were far prettier and more fantastical. Part of this I think is due to the artstyle, especially with the character design, bold, vibrant colors work better. And a lot of scenes just have such cold, impersonalable backgrounds. They don’t even have to be some eye-bleeding color explosion, just…not gray. There are some cartoons that have gray and muted backgrounds but they work with their art style.

And the woods aren’t much better. We seemingly only get ‘oh right, dangerous fantasy world would have scary woods’ when it’s plot convenient, but otherwise? It’s just more muted colors in a honestly pretty sparse forest. They apparently originally wanted far darker colors but it melted together too much so they opted for ‘bloody red’. I’m sorry but go look at the woods and tell me in what world is that a crimson color?

I know there’s a lot of crap that goes on behind the scenes and that with backgrounds and environments it’s especially difficult because you don’t want to muddy it up or distract the audience but I think that Latissa is a good example of how to do it right, it’s simple yet feels like it’s it’s own place with history and environment. Just a few bolder colors, make it more cramped and claustrophobic, that kind of thing.

The other thing with the environmental storytelling part of it is Dana took inspiration from Heirymonous Bosch’s paintings of Hell and illuminated manuscripts, and I just don’t get the feeling at all with the Isles we see for the majority of the show.

The second of far more agregous in my mind.

It’s seemingly stuck in the middle of wanting to be ‘like Earth but with magic’ and ‘ooh look at how different and inhospitable it is!’ For a world that’s supposed to be filled with monsters that will kill you for breathing and just stepping outside is risky to your life, the characters seem able to galavant about both civilization and wilderness without a care.

We get all these little asides in the first season about how they have boiling rain, skin-eating fairies, etc, but pretty much never factor into the story, and when they do, it’s either easily brushed off or used in the stupidest way. *coughBelossdeathcough* We have characters mock Luz and say she’s not strong enough to handle it, and even ignoring any Mary-Sue claims Camilla seemed to have no trouble with the more dangerous Collector Isles when she had nothing but a bat. When taking Luz’s OPness with sticky-note magic, it really neuters the dangers of the Isles, because it seems that half of the problems can be solved by being physically strong or clever with no magic required.

I am more forgiving of this, but the magic, especially near the end, went kinda off the rails in some aspects in power scaling, but also didn’t really stuck to the cooler concepts of that.

Abominations went from just creating and controlling golems to being able to craft anything with the material, yet we don’t get to see anything really big or flashy or even practical, Darius’s goo-form appears twice, making weapons or shields only happens a handful of times and it’s very quick and forgotten about(imagine if Amity went full on Mecha with abomination goo in the finale).

Bard magic can do completely OP things like control someone’s body like a puppet or change the molecular structure of something(put a pin in that) yet in the finale Raine just keeps flicking their bow across the strings to send out energy blasts and doesn’t use it to try and control things and sabotage Belos.

Illusion magic is able to dip into Oracle magic a bit and see memories, we even get a shot of Gus seeing Belos’s entire backstory yet this is never used or mentioned outside of Gus knowing Hunters a grimwalker. Even without that we see Gus can craft gigantic, in-depth illusions that can confuse and pyschologucally harm people, yet he never does this after Labyrinth Runners.

Plant magic, which in a fantasy world like the Isles would mean a number of poisons, toxins, and man-eating plants are at your disposal, and Willow’s only move is…vines. Granted, vines that seem indestructible and are able to take down things that likely wouldn’t be vulnerable to vines, but still…vines. (Which are also green despite the plant color of the Isles being red and it could e been a cool little aside for both Luz and the audience having to get used to seeing red for plants but oh well)

And the others…we don’t care about. The closet one is potions that seem to cover a wide variety of magic types(scrying potion-Oracle, Eda’s potions-Healing)and don’t need magic to do but whatever, why have Eda use her Potions upbringing to supplement her lack of magic when she can turn into a harpy and fly and..that’s kinda it.

Magic also supplements as variety of things, such as technology, and honestly? Not the biggest fan of how that was used just to give our quirky teen protagonists phones and computers-that they don’t even use that often so I don’t get why they were necessary except for ‘haha that Instagram right? Sooo relatable!’ It’s there just for asides and making the world confusing. Like how we can seen scrolls being used in Thems the Breaks, 30 years prior. Yet they seem to be only used for Penstagram, which also apparently only got updated to 2.0 during the second season, so what were they being used for before? And why is Penstagram so established if it’s that new and scrolls were used for other things before? I mean, as background jokes they used searching up disinformation and conspiracy theories and had characters not recognize any media site or conspiracy theories when using the Internet, so it might be a case of wanting their cake and eating it too.

Which is another issue that I can’t stand in isekai/other world type media. Regular human/person growing up it’s a regular human is able to reconfirm e the fantasy version of something, yet their mythical friends can’t understand that a car is like their horseless carriage.

Luz can catch on to the fact that scrolls and crystal balls are just our phones, computers and televisions but from a Halloween display, yet the witches can’t even tell what a shoe is (when they are 99% humans with pointy ears), or when one was made of mud. They refuse to accept animals or concepts that have the most basic information and dismiss Luz, like seriously, how hard is it to figure out what a paper clip is? Or that opposum are real when you know that animals like raccoons exist? Or the most annoying, there is a thing called a crow phone. We hear them call them ‘crow phones’ several times. But when Amity went to Willow for help about Luz? ‘I don’t know what this…pho-oo-on is?’

It’s done only for jokes and yeah it’s not supposed to be taken seriously but all it does is make the witches and demons seem incredibly stupid. Seriously Belos probably didn’t have to put that much effort into his campaign because apparently the residents of the Boiling Isles will accept literally anything at face value(didn’t even use that to make a point on propaganda smh).

This extends beyond the witches’ mental capacity and into ‘what exactly is this world?’ They don’t have technology above some steampunk blimps and automata, except for when they do because how else do they have modern western clothes like t-shirts and sweats? You can’t even say ‘oh it came in through a trash slug’ because Eda can literally customize and order t-shirts. In the literally the same episode, we see witches referring to the ‘four humors of the Titan’, which many people took as an idea that they have very limited medical and scientific knowledge, like no further than the 1600’s…only for Raine to be like ‘I changed its molecular structure!’ And it’s like what? How do you know what molecules are, or how to use your magic to change them in a way that just improves taste? You guys can’t figure out what a cheese grater is but you know about molecular properties?

Honestly I’d rather have a fantasy world just have phones and cars but they run on magic than this, because at least I don’t have to wonder how they know all these common modern ideas yet can’t figure out an umbrella even when someone tells them point blank.

Yeah, maybe it’ll be harder to explain an umbrella, but it’s not like the world tries to make any sense with he boiling rain thing. In fact, pretty much everything in the natural world in the show doesn’t make any sense because right when you can excuse it as ‘total fantasy, rule of cool’ it throws in something that kinda ruins it. In the case of the boiling rain, that’s not how boiling water works at all. I saw someone suggest it just being ‘stomach acid’ from all the titans’ giblets leaking into the sea, but even if we do that ‘it’s magic’ explanation of clouds heating the water up before it rains, it still has the thing of ‘if this is such a common thing, than why is anything vulnerable to it?’ Like the flora evolved and grew from the Titan, yet it doesn’t have natural protections against the rain? That leaf that Eda, Raine and King use in the finale seems to hold up fine so why isn’t all flora like this, or at least have it be part of their life cycle? On further note, why isn’t every building infused with a rain protection spell? Why isn’t there building material made to be rain resistant? Why does Eda have that magic barrier umbrella when we’re first introduced to it and never see it again. In fact, why isn’t that a thing? They have mass-produced clothing merch and stress toys yet they can’t make a push-to-activate protection spell for commercial use? It would’ve been cool to see how witches adapted and changed to the hostile environment, and far better than ‘lol like our smartphones’.

The ‘because magic’ excuse is also lame because it doesn’t even go that far or use it for crazy environments. Like the Titan is the size of Vermont, which is huge for a living being, but it is so tiny in the show. Apparently the Titan is based off of ‘the Earth is a corpse’ motif in several real mythologies but those corpses are far, far bigger, so big you can’t even recognize that it is a body. Yet several times characters get across the isles in minimal time, covering distances that shouldn’t be possible-not just in air, but on foot too. How did King and Steve get around the entire Titan in a motorcycle(even though the most advanced vehicles were steampunk airships) on dirt and cobblestone roads? How can something the size of Vermont(for reference, that’s about the size of Sardinia and Sicily and twice the size of Jamaica)be viewed in its entirety from a bird’s eye view and close enough off-shore that individual buildings can be seen? Or that it’s big enough to sustain several different biomes that are alluded to(but never seen)including a desert?

Then in the finale it’s big enough to reach into space from a prone position…yet we also see that the world is a globe. So these creatures, who were numerous and loved food, lived on a planet that was so small compared to them that they could reach into space by laying g flat and extending their arms straight up. This would’ve been a great spot for pure ‘because magic’, like the entire realm is a giant flat plane that eventually just falls off into nothingness and above the sky is like celestial heavens, but apparently not!

Also despite the fact that earlier it was stated that all landmass is made up of Titan carcasses there apparently was regular land just off shore, so close that the Titan is nearly touching it. Which from how much of the isles can be seen from just off-shore makes you wonder how nobody ever noticed that land or went over there.

There’s a lot of other things, like how abominations was said to be a good career path yet we don’t see evidence of that outside of Blight Industries which seems to be very exclusive, or that the ‘authoritarian’ government is completely laughable, but overall the isles feel like a bunch of people say around, said ‘hey wouldn’t it be cool if?’ And then added it in without any thought. But then both the show and fandom act like every aspect is some never-before-seen, not-like-other-shows star when it can’t even decide on its tone for the main setting.

You know, I was talking about this issue with a friend not too long ago. The Demon Realm loses its 'edge'. When it's introduced, they wanted to make it out like it's a dangerous place to live. There are vicious monsters around every corner, vegetables run away from being eaten, people have no qualms with harming or even killing children. Bump doesn't step in to stop Boscha from bullying Luz because it 'wasn't fatal' or something. So they clearly want to set this place up as a 'survival of the fittest' World.

But then, if they kept it this way, it would interfere with the story. You see, the Demon Realm is supposed to be a world worth saving, and the way it was initially presented isn't really that. If they kept everyone how it was, would the Day of Unity really have been THAT bad? "Hmm, is it really that bad that a bunch of bloodthirsty psychopaths are going to die?"

To achieve this, they had to really 'neuter' the Isles. Now, later in the series, a lot of the danger is just gone. Characters walk around willy-nilly with no threats around them. Where's the Witch-eating furniture? Where's the Boiling Rain? The monsters? Painbows? Gorenados? Where did they all go? Having your cake and eating it! This show's mantra!

Amphibia does a better job selling a dangerous world IMHO! There's a monster around every corner and the world is quite inhospitable, but the people are resilient and make due.

-

Ugh, yep! This is a world with 'magic technology', but the characters are still stupefied by our normal tech. This would have made sense if the Demon Realm were a low-tech medieval world, but it isn't. They want the characters to have magic phones, but still go "durr, what is this 'phone' you speak of?" It really does make the Witches look stupid if anything!

Owl House has plenty of issues with its worldbuilding! We could be here all day discussing them!

[embrassed-dabblings]

Alright so, ever since I showed my redesigns for IMP, I've been nervous about showing anyone else (mainly because I'm not greatest write). But I wanted to take a shot at it

And (from what I think) people liked them, so I did someone else.

I took on the "prince in distress".

To be honest when I first watched hb since the pilot, I didn't mind it. But then it started to grow on me and then it became more meh (It really started when his outfit was switching between a shirt and a jumper (?). Anyways, onto this owl.

Janus is a well-known and upstanding hellborn citizen due to him running one of the most successful sections within hell, but also having the title of one of hell royalty depends him on.

You see, Janus restores things, but mainly magical things. Any magical artifacts from Asmodean crystals to even grimoires, he is able to restore them back to new. He is a well-known curator who is tasked by royalty to store all historical and not so important books of hell's history.

This first fact catches the eye of a certain imp. However, he didn't expect (or even predict) that he was sneaking into a building where its owner is actively awake during the night.

The thief leaves only with a fairly damaged tome, but Janus doesn't be too alarmed as it wasn't important as ones that are hidden and locked away, but the magic within it was expected to wear out eventually.

A few years pass and life is going normal, Janus finished having breakfast with his wife Elanor and his daughter Octavia and they're watching tv together. A commerical break is happening and Janus is clearly uninterested in all of them

Until one catches his eye

One with an imp that looks VERY familiar to him...He's gotten interested and upon getting the number, he decides to help the thief once more to see how far this imp can go.

And that's Janus! In my au,/rewrite, he is not a main character and is not shown much until he gets revealed later. He still get shown but still not as much as it's mainly revolved around KODAL.

So now, headcannons + changes:

- Let's start with the biggest changes first: Janus does not take the place of Stolas. Stolas (the actual prince) is a seperate character from Janus. Also in addition, that Stolas is not like the show version

- Janus is NOT a prince or related to royalty; he is in fact an Overlord (yes, THOSE overlords) as he works as a mayor (of sorts) to his section in Pride. The only relevance to royalty he has is that he works with them sometimes (and are seen within their good graces)

- He hasn't cheated on Elanor (Stella in the au) and the thought has never crossed his mind (They are the real gomez and morticia addams)

- Despite hiding in the shadows and acting like a villian, Janus genuinely wants to see Pyro and KODAL succeed and constantly gives them multiple clients (and pay) to get benefits for both of them

- Janus looks imitadating, but man is a total sweetheart: consoles in everyone, an absolute dork whose head over heels about his family and would invite you over to tea. However don't let that fool you, He can still be a malicious beast if he deems you a threat or upset him or his family greatly.

- His favorite hobby to do with his family is shopping and taxidermy (a shared interest)

- As for prince Stolas, he is one of Janus's patrons as he is a frequent customer. He holds in high regard and sees him as a role model (hence the coat having stars and having paimon's robe palette)

And...that's all I have so far, thank you for looking and reading !!

No hate to the original designs btw, just did this for fun

[justgottafinishthischapter]

Writing Worlds: Homosexuality in Historical Settings

As someone who loves period romances and craves romantic relationships between queer men, it’s very alluring to write queer romances set against the backdrop of historical settings and time periods. But, due to the treatment of homosexuality for a lot of our world’s history, it can make it tricky to know the best way to handle this topic. Consider this to be a sister post to go along with my Writing Romance: Courting post. The two go hand-in-hand.

ESCAPISM VS REALISM

The first hurdle is to decide whether your story is an escapist fantasy or favors realism. In an escapist historical queer romance, the queerness is simply not an issue. The prince can flat out tell his parents to arrange his marriage to male suitors, and the only real reaction is his mother immediately listing off good matches for him. The conflict has nothing to do with the fact that the relationship is between two same-sex characters, and would work just as well for a heterosexual romance story. With an escapist fantasy, you can show the Count of Yorkshire navigating the hardships of courting by having multiple young men vying for his hand, or the whirlwind romance as he catches the eye of the Duke of Orleans. And this romance can be just as open and public as any straight relationship. This option would fall under Historical Romanticism, the term used for when historical settings are made to be more idyllic and favorable than they likely were in real life. The only media where this approach tends to show up often is Fantasy, in worlds where homophobia simply never really existed. The Elder Scrolls is one such setting where male gods are married to one another, other gods change genders and pronouns as they like, and your player character is free to romance anyone of any gender as well as adopt without anyone making biggotted remarks.

On the other hand, Realism in a Historical Queer Romance is going to come prepackaged with a lot of tension and angst, as it’s automatically a forbidden romance. Because homophobia is a real issue that real queer people deal with, having queer characters deal with these issues can help your queer audience feel seen as these fictional characters can relate to their own life experiences. It’s also just more historically accurate to have queer lovers needing to tiptoe around behind people’s backs and hoping they don’t get caught. However, due to this prejudice, it’s also very easy for such settings and stories to come off as depressing, and can perpetuate unpleasant tropes in queer media, such as Bury Your Gays, Unhappily Ever After, and downer Nomance endings. Because their relationship isn’t “appropriate” for public eyes, it makes it hard for the couple to have a truly happy ending. For someone who’s tired of dealing with homophobia in their own life, or it just being present in almost all queer media, it can be tedious for those who want an escape to enjoy two guys smooching while looking dapper in period costumes.

Homosexuality and Religion

As a medieval historian, I actually did a full research paper on homosexuality in the middle ages as a part of my final for one of my medieval history classes. I still have the paper saved, so let me share an abridged version. Pagan cultures might have had some issues with homosexuality, such as the Norse favoring the “tops” over the “bottoms”, a sentiment shared by both the Greeks and Romans. However compared to later eras of history, these Pre-Christian cultures had little problems with same-sex relationships. Every Greek God but Ares, Hephaestus, and Hades had at least 1 male lover, Emperor Hadrian had his boy-toy Antinous deified after he drowned in the Nile, and the Sacred Band of Thebes was made up entirely of same-sex lovers. The idea that homosexuality was wrong only emerged with Christianity. Just... not as soon as you’d think. Christianity became a wide-spread faith across Europe around about 300 AD, mostly spread by Constantine’s deathbed conversion to Christianity. However, it would not be until the 12th century that homosexuality as a sin would emerge. This shift first started during what is known as the Medieval Renaissance when Christian theologians like St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome altered the theological discourse on sin and virtue. Prior to the Medieval Renaissance, the mindset was that simply being Christian and accepting Christ as one’s savior was all it took to get into Heaven. After the Medieval Renaissance, the focus shifted to individual sin and the worthiness of the individual soul. They came to view Earth as sort of a testing grounds or waiting room, and any temporary Earthly pleasure was a wicked temptation sent by Satan to lead men astray. How you did on the test impacted whether you passed or failed. One thing that was declared a sin was fornication without the prospect of procreation. And this went for everyone. Any sexual act that would not result in childbirth was a sin, because you were doing it for the pleasure, not for the purposes of making a baby. Furthermore, any position except Missionary was also sinful, again in an attempt to limit pleasure. Since cis-gendered homosexuals cannot procreate, any homosexual acts were universally labeled as a sin by happenstance. Later in 1179, Peter Comestor proposed to the Third Lateran Council a link between the biblical condemnation of sodomy with explicitly condemning homosexuals, and not just anal fornication as a whole, even stating that clerks found guilty of this act should be removed from office, and laymen should be excommunicated from the church. It is Peter Comestor and his stance on homosexuality that truly caused homosexuality to be labeled as a sin on principal, and is why so many modern Christians still believe homosexual relationships are sinful by nature. However, it’s worth pointing out that the time from when Christianity was a widespread faith in Europe (approx. 300 AD) to the Third Lateran Council (1179) is a span of 879 years. As of this point in 2023, the time between Comestor’s condemnation of homosexuality and the present is only 844 years. Meaning that Christianity has a longer history of tolerating homosexuality than it has condemning it. I say all of this because in any setting where Christianity is not a part of the worldbuilding, there is no reason to have homophobia, unless you replace Christianity with a similarly homophobic fictional religion, as George RR Martin does with the Faith of the Seven in A Song of Ice and Fire. As for Judaism and Islam, I’m at a loss there. My studies didn’t really lead me to those topics, and I can’t offer much insight there.

Handwaving Escapist Diversity

Let’s be real, we can’t even cast People of Color in fantasy stories without racists crapping their pants, so unfortunately, we’re going to face similar problems having queer couples openly courting each other in a historical setting. But, there are a few ways around this where we can have our cake and eat it too without the homophobes being able to hide behind “historic accuracy” as a reason to have a problem with queer romances in historical periods. It’s all about the genre. Let’s look at some of the genres we can use.

Historical Fiction: This is the base form. Any period piece is going to be historical fiction. However, Historical Fiction comes in a wide array. Historical Romanticism is the lighter approach, simply putting make-up on the era to make it more palatable and appealing. Think of Bridgerton where the dresses are shaped historically and the characters behave historically, but the Queen is a woman of color, and the dress materials are far more colorful and bright than they would have been at the time. It’s still the Regency era, just with a bit of rouge. On the other hand, there’s Alternate History. Historical settings where a major deviation has occurred in the timeline. Whether the Roman Empire never fell, the British crushed the American Revolution and took over the entire world, Christianity never caught on and the Roman Pantheon is the most widespread belief system, or the industrial revolution exploded even harder, resulting in a more Steampunk vibe. A major upheaval has altered the face of history, and your queer romance is set in an utterly changed world with a different timeline.

Steampunk: As I just touched on, your world can be more technologically advanced, however, Steampunk can also be a genre for completely fictional worlds, giving you a great way to have a story set in an era with an 1880s - 1910s aesthetic, but easily exist as it own world with its own history and values where homosexual relationships aren’t a problem. Steampunk is also the most optimistic and aesthetically oriented of the science-fiction -Punk genres, compared to the much bleaker and more cynical outlooks of Cyberpunk, Diesel Punk, and Gothic Punk.

Gaslamp Fantasy: Basically, Steampunk but with fantastical elements. It keeps that late Victorian - Edwardian aesthetic, but adds magic, faeries, dragons, vampires, etc. Now, Steampunk leans more Sci-fi, while Gaslamp Fantasy is more well.... Fantasy, so Gaslamp Fantasy does tend to lose some of the technological aspects of Steampunk, but it can also overlap with Magitech, a subgenre where machinery is powered and propelled by magical energy. So, you can very well have a Steampunk Gaslamp Fantasy where all of the steam and gears and machinery is powered by magic. It’ still Steampunk, so long as that train is powered by shoveling magic energy crystals into the furnace, instead of coal. Howl’s Moving Castle is a good example of how the two can coexist. There are normal trains as we see in Sophie’s town, but we also see Howl’s castle which can move because of Calcipher, a fire demon that needs to constantly eat a fuel source of one kind or another. The world is full of witches, magic, and curses, but there’s also muskets, trains, airplanes, zeppelins, and a castle that spews steam and smoke as it wanders the countryside.  

Paranormal Romance: Especially common with Vampires, but the fallout of Twilight and Alpha/Beta/Omegas in pop culture has also led to a rising interest in Werewolf stories, and a recent trend has also swept Faeries into the pop culture spotlight as well. All three offer stories where one or both of your characters is an immortal (or very long-lived) individual. Perhaps their world is homophobic now, but when they met and fell in love, it was perfectly acceptable. Perhaps being alive for 800 years piqued the main character’s curiosity and they decided to give it a try. The long history of homosexuals being demonized has led to a large percentage of queer people identifying with the monsters and villains of media, causing them to see themselves in the hated monsters, demons, and vampires that threaten the heterosexual heroes of old.

Historical Fantasy: For everything else that’s not within that Victorian-Edwardian window, Historical Fantasy has you covered. From Cyclopes and Sirens in Ancient Greece to Dragons and Goblins in Medieval France, or a mermaid ending up in an Americana freak show, this pretty much covers ever kind of fantasy romance in a historical setting that’s not covered by Paranormal Romance or Gaslamp Fantasy.

Renaissance Punk: It’s like Steampunk, but the world’s technology resembles the contraptions of Leonardo Da Vinci, as opposed to the clockwork, gears, and steam aesthetic plastered onto the turn of the 20th century that Steampunk offers. Also called Da Vinci Punk.

Space Punk: If you’re wanting to lean more Sci-fi, you can do Space Punk. Think Treasure Planet, though I could also call that Sail Punk. It has a very Victorian clothing and technological aesthetic, but then space is full of a breathable Ethereum, and even Doctor Doppler’s “space suit” looks closer to an old-timey diver’s suit. But the ship has solar sails, the mast charges up with a power source that propels the ship into space, lockets project holograms of still photographs, cybernetic prosthetics are technologically advanced, and aliens are a common sight, even for the poorest commoner.

Same-Sex Courting for Escapist Romance

I touched on this in my Writing Romance: Courting post, but I’ll cover it again because it’s especially applicable here. The rules of courting in the 1800s relied heavily on gender roles. So, how does one make sense of courting rules when the couple are the same sex? The basic rule of thumb is that whoever is higher in status is the one to be chased, while the one of lower class does the chasing. If a Duke is looking for a husband, does the Duke chase Viscounts or do Viscounts chase the Duke? Always, the Viscounts chase the Duke. A Duke is a valuable husband, a prize catch those Viscounts would want to have. What if the romance is between two men of equal class? Two Dukes falling in love? The one who would take the more passive role is likely to be whichever is higher in the line of succession. During the courting phase, an elligible queer bachelor is likely to recieve many gentlemen callers. They would come to the bachelor’s house where his family could keep an eye on him, and judge his prospects. They would bring gifts and trinkets, and sit in the tea room, sewing room, drawing room, or whatever room is used to entertain guests. Gentlemen callers would then talk with the bachelor, recite poetry, play the piano, or whatever else they could to impress the bachelor and his family. Again, as I said before, the one being visited by gentlemen callers is whoever is higher up in the chain of nobility. The Duke’s family is going to scrutinize every gentleman who calls on their son, while the Baron’s family is going to urge him to call on every queer man who outranks him. The other thing to keep in mind is inheritance. The first-born son inherits everything, so a second-born son or third-born son will get nothing from his father, or best case scenario, he will get a small fraction of the family fortune from his father or older brother. In order for these younger sons to stay in the lifestyle they were raised in, they will have to marry someone who is coming into his fortune. In a setting where women can inherit her father’s entire estate, a lesbian would function the exact same as a gay man. Ergo, any queer romantic lead who is not inheriting his father’s full estate must seek a first-born son who will inherit his father’s estate. Meanwhile, if your protagonist is a first-born son, he is far more likely to be chased by the younger sons of distinguished families. Finally, when it comes to the social season and courting at dances, queer nobles would likely wear something to distinguish themselves from the heterosexual nobles at the party. Something to let the other guests know their preference in dance partner. That way, gentlemen know not to ask the Baroness of Agincourt to dance, but that the Duke of Orleans is all too eager to receive male attention.

Lavender Marriages in Realist Romances

A lavender marriage is when a queer person marries someone of the opposite sex to disguise their homosexual dalliances, such as Renly Baratheon marrying Margaery Tyrell, or Laenor Valyrian marrying Rhaenyra Targaryen. In these instances, the woman knew her husband was queer and was willing to work with him to keep the secret. However, sometimes the wife wouldn’t know, and the husband was keeping his sexuality a secret from everybody. However, it was usually hard for a noble to keep his dalliances completely hidden from the court, as in both of these cases, both Renly and Laenor were well-known around court to be fanciful of male attention. Everyone typically knows the wedding is a sham, but tend to turn a blind eye to it regardless. I know I’ve been using male examples this whole post, but this does also work with lesbian romances. I believe the term is still lavender marriage with a lesbian, but I could be mistaken.

Actual Homosexuality in Historical Time Periods

Scholars debate the exact nature of their relationship, but in Arthurian Myth, King Galehaut is conquering his way across Arthur’s Kingdom when he challenges Arthur to a duel for the throne of Camelot. However, upon seeing Sir Lancelot, Galehaut offers to concede to Arthur if he’ll introduce him to Lancelot. From then on, Galehaut and Lancelot became Very Close Special Guy Friends, and it’s suspected that the pair might be lovers, or at least that Galehaut is in love with Lancelot.

Leonardo Da Vinci was involved with one of his male models, Pietri Bandielli, who Da Vinci used as a model for Jesus. Which also means, If you pray to the white version of Jesus with the little beard and long brown hair, congratulations! You’re worshiping a gay Italian male model that used to have sex with Leonardo Da Vinci.

Hans Christian Andersen fell in love with the son of his financier, Edvard Collins. But, when Collins became engaged and later married to Henriette Tybjerg, a heartbroken Andersen wrote the story of The Little Mermaid as an allegory for his unrequited love. Collins was the handsome prince who didn’t return the mermaid’s feelings, Henriette was the Temple Girl who stole the mermaid’s love, and Andersen himself was the mermaid, unable to verbalize her true feelings, and suffering great pain just to be near the one she loves.

It’s mostly speculation, but it’s believed that Richard I of England had a clandestine homosexual relationship with Phillip II of France. The majority of evidence comes from one particular courtier’s writings who described them as eating from the same dish and not being separated by their beds at night. However, it’s hard to say if this is evidence of a homosexual relationship, or just the flowery prose writing of the time describing a very close bromance.

Edward II of England had little interest in war. Hoping to toughen up his son, Edward’s father assigned a squire to Edward that excelled in tournaments, Piers Gaveston. However, this backfired spectacularly, as Edward fell in love with Piers. Gaveston flaunted his sway over the king, being so bold as to wear royal purple and the queen’s jewelry during Edward’s coronation. Gaveston was hunted down and beheaded by a group of barons, and Edward himself was killed with a red-hot poker shoved up his backside.

King James I of England was a well-known bisexual, even having a secret passageway linking his bedchambers with that of George Villiers. James’ male lovers experienced royal favoritism and protection, as James absolved one male lover for poisoning a political rival, and twice protecting Villiers from impeachment for incompetency. Following James’ death, Villiers was struck through by a sword.

Anne Lister was a noblewoman who often dressed in masculine clothing and kept a coded diary which recounted her many and varied lesbian affairs over her lifetime. Lister even earned the nickname Gentleman Jack, and is often regarded as the First Modern Lesbian.

Pirate ships were one of the few places where gay marriage was legitimate. Pirate captains could perform marriage ceremonies, and marriages between male crewmates was not uncommon, even having rules about sharing property and distrubution of goods among crew members with a married couple on-board. As well as the distribution of property following the death of a same-sex spouse.

While we know that brothels and prostitution has existed since Ancient Greece, in the 1700s, it was possible to find a Molly House. A house which featured male prostitutes who catered to male clients.

Women were not believed to have sex drives, so when two women loved each other, they were often called “bosom buddies”, and two women living together without a man in the house was called a Boston Marriage.

In the medieval era, it was believed that a woman’s womb was naturally cold and had to be kept warm with regular activity. If the woman was unmarried, the womb was to be kept warm by hand. But since using her own hands would be sinful, it often fell to the woman’s female servants to do the deed.

Men and women often existed in entirely disconnected social spheres. For a man, he would go to work where he would only work with men, after work he would go to a local bar or club that was exclusively for gentlemen, and following dinner, he would often retire to a private room in his home or another man’s home to sit, smoke, and talk with his male colleagues. Even within a single house, men would retire to the gentlemen’s lounge to smoke, while women would depart to the sewing room, tea room, or drawing room to have afternoon tea with the other ladies. As men would spend their entire days solely in the company of men, and the same for women, many men and women only spent time together in public spaces, during meals, and when going to bed. Even then, it was not uncommon to see households where the man and woman had separate bedchambers, and the woman would only sleep in the man’s bedroom when he desired sexual congress. Even the Palace of Versailles had separate chambers for the king and queen. This gave queer couples plenty of time to sneak around without anyone being the wiser.

This to Keep in Mind

One of the biggest issues behind the AIDS epidemic was the promiscuous nature of gay lovers in the 1970s. Because gay men had to be discreet, they would often have anonymous relations in public spaces like bathhouses and bars. This combination of unsafe sex practices and anonymous lovers caused STDs to run rampant through the community, and allowed the AIDS epidemic to have a devastating impact on the queer community.

In Victorian great houses, the footmen were effectively the “face” of the manor’s servants, so height and attractiveness was favored when hiring them. As such, footmen make for excellent romantic interests in a historical time period, since they’re required to be attractive to be hired.

The mafia has a long history of working with and supporting the LGBT community. In the 1920s, nightclubs in the black districts of Harlem would host drag balls, these events being known as Harlem Nights. The mafia helped these groups to meet without police interference for a kickback fee. Even the Stonewall Inn had Mafia protection. In a world where homosexuality is still seen as a sin, think about what groups are willing to turn a blind eye in the interest of profit.

Homosexuals were among those rounded up the Nazi Party during the Holocaust. Just as Jews were forced to wear the Star of David on their clothes, so too were homosexuals marked with a pink triangle. The Nazi Party also destroyed research on gender and sexuality, which destroyed a lot of evidence that had been gathered of queer existence up to that point in time. Today, the Pink Triangle is among the reclaimed symbols used by the queer community.

Queer people found ways to signal to one another. At different points in time, the visual cues have included wearing green ties, having a red carnation in their lapels, and in the 1970s, a bandana in the back pocket was a common way of indicating someone was a homosexual, and the color would even further indicate what they were looking for. Many modern slang words even started out as gay code words so that gay people could talk in public without drawing attention to themselves. Codes like “buns” for butt are still in use today, but got their start as codewords to keep gay conversations undercover.

While we often remember the Red Scare of the 1950s, we often don’t mention that there was also a Lavender Scare at the same time, which hunted down homosexuals just as the Red Scare hunted for communists. It was the belief that homosexuals would be more likely to undermine American policies or spread information to enemy nations, and thus had to be kept down.

Rich men often kept “actresses”, paying for apartments for them, paying for their food, drink, fun, costumes, and whatever else. If they really were an actress or otherwise a struggling entertainer, it was not unheard of for the wealthy benefactor to pay to get the actress roles, pay for tutors and lessons, or even buying them an entire theater. It’s not so hard to believe that a wealthy gentleman could keep a male model, actor, or artist in good stead, especially because artists in particular flourished in periods where rich people would sponsor and commission artists to paint for them. And this can work for either type of story, as a husband or wife would be equally annoyed to learn that the Duke of Orleans is keeping a young actor on the south side.

Gif Sourcing:

1. Bridgerton (2020 - present) 2. Game of Thrones (2011-2019) 3. Mary, Queen of Scots (2018) 4. Downton Abbey (2010-2015) 5. Victoria (2016) 6. Cloud Atlas (2012) 7. A Place to Call Home (2013-2018) 8. Mary Shelley (2017) 9. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

[ranchthoughts]

various thoughts and musings on Only Friends and ephemerality, inspired by @waitmyturtles and @lurkingshan's thoughts here

In her post, @waitmyturtles pointed out how the theme of ephemerality in time and life has popped up in the show so far: in Ray, who blacks out and can't remember the previous night; in Boston, king of the one night stand; in the atmosphere of the show (Cheum telling Mew to get with Top, because they are facing COVID, airborne particles, and radiation); in Mew who bucks the paradigms of his friend group (doesn't take shots, remains a virgin, etc.), who wants to take his time/get Top to stick around, to reject ephemerality, unlike his friends.

This all got me thinking about how time and ephemerality show up in elsewhere in Only Friends and in the other characters' lives.

We have, of course, the ephemeral and short-term one night stands contrasted against the non-one night stands (Boston's whole deal vs. what Mew wants from Top), but even the question of "ephemeral" one night stands is getting complicated here. Boston has lots of one night stands, but also he wants another go with Top, and he returns to Nick several times. What does Boston think about "letting things age like plum wine" as it were? Why isn't he interested in longer-term relationships?

We also learn this episode that Sand has his fair share of one night stands too. In the preview for the next episode, Sand says he's never slept with someone who is not his lover more than once. Here we see a contrast between short-term/ephemeral hookups and longer-term relationships - Sand has both one night stands and lovers, temporary and lasting. Sand and Ray are not lovers/boyfriends, therefore the sexual element of their relationship (and perhaps even their friendship itself) must be temporary, according to Sand. Why does Sand draw these distinctions, why is he placing Ray in the category of short-term hookup and not relationship material (if he is actually doing that)? How does his view of short term vs. long-term relationships differ from Boston's?

Mew wants longevity with Top and doesn't want a one night stand, but as waitmyturtles pointed out/we saw in this second episode, he also wants to go back to the beginning and have Top hit on him again. He wants something permanent, but there is this also this thread of ephemerality, of going back in time, of starting again/forgetting what came before, present in his story line just as there is in Boston's.

Boston and Nick are "temporary" lovers (despite Boston returning to Nick several times, enough that Nick is surprised and wants the relationship defined), Sand and Ray are "temporary" lovers (despite Ray wanting to continue a friendship through it), Mew and Top are "lasting" lovers (though Mew clarifies that he only accepted Top as his boyfriend because he felt embarrassed by the public question, and asks if they can start at the beginning again).

Waitmyturtles and lurkingshan got into the idea of "seize the day," "live now because we won't live forever," and that is reflected in a lot of these characters' story lines. Nick recognizes Boston when he comes into the phone store and decides to seize the day, take advantage of this once in a lifetime chance to get with him. He has to move fast not to lose it. Sand and Ray throw caution into the wind and sleep together, despite Sand's warning that they can no longer be "just friends" after this. Boston wants Top one more time, even if that means getting Top to cheat on his boyfriend. There's a carpe diem vibe, a recklessness, even a disregard for consequences, to their actions (and I think we know we are going to spend a lot of time dealing with the fallout from these decisions).

In my messages with waitmyturtles and in lurkingshan's response on this post, we both latched onto how this carpe diem mentality and ephemerality of time and life relate to queer history. Queer people have historically faced difficult and shortened life spans due to HIV-AIDS, hate crimes, criminalization, and other threats to the community - life must be lived quickly and all at once, because it may not last long. Lack of marriage equality and other legislation also means queer relationships have not been offered the permanency and weight of heterosexual relationships. Queer people couldn't wish for a long-term, permanent happily ever after for a very long time (this makes me think about queer futurities - linking @chickenstrangers' post on this in Bad Buddy - and @waitmyturtles talking (here and here) about how queer automatically = pain and tragedy in media, especially earlier queer media). Therefore, to queer people throughout history and now, we see the "life fast die young," "we aren't going to live forever" mentality that permeates Only Friends.

On another note - I am interested in the idea of ephemerality and permanency as it relates to money and class in the show. Sand is not in a good place financially (he has to take on multiple jobs, live carefully within his means, etc.); he is unable to achieve the longevity and stability that comes with financial security. Ephemeral in another way. But we see also that money doesn't necessarily mean stability or permanency (or happiness) either - Ray has lots of money but is alone. His friends don't stick around, he pays for the temporary company of Sand, he spends his money on drink that makes him forget the night before - ephemerality yet again.

@waitmyturtles also brought up the idea of plum wine (which sweetens as it ages) and drew parallels to I Promised You the Moon, slowing down, lingering in relationships, etc. I couldn't help but notice that Sand's plum wine is carried in a bag that reads "You only live once" - the lasting and the ephemeral, the slow and the fast, the permanent and the temporary.

[epersonae]

Truth or dare! 🔪🧩🪲

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

ngl I am very low research for my fics, back in the TAZ days the most it ever was is looking at tazscripts for specific lines from the show or looking up D&D spells for the characters to use. and ofc David Jenkins School of Historical Accuracy - but I will say that I did do a bit of a deep dive when I was working on chapter two of Hungry for love, ready to drown to figure out what books Stede might have looted, and took way too long figuring out when the Jacquard loom was invented. I think there's a balancing point of having an understanding of what's plausible historically in order to know when to play with it, and writing that fic was a fun place to play with it.

actually, no, wait, speaking of Hungry for love, ready to drown: that is the fic that prompted @emi--rose's Stabifesto, which was merely my attempt to answer the question: how much would Ed be bleeding after getting stabbed? ended up being a waaaaay deeper dive into the subject than I had intended, and I ended up using like three details.

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

minimum bar of writing quality, I also have a minimum bar of characterization which is a "know it if I see it" thing (and occasionally if the writing is good enough I'll forgive it not quite being in-character), in particular there's sort of a constellation of things with Ed and Stede specifically that if I see it I'm like oh you don't get these guys. And like, write what you want forever, but also I'm not going to read it. honestly, anything with Izzy alive post-canon.

and then there's this weird, I don't know how to describe it, with canon-era fic, but it's related to my thoughts about use of history, and knowing the rules you're breaking, and sometimes the wrong anachronism will throw me out of the story so badly that I can't keep reading. (there's an absolutely gorgeous fic that I know a lot of people love, but it reads to me like it's set very clearly and solidly in the late 1800s or early 1900s, and I kept getting thrown by the details because they're so lovely rendered, it's a beautiful world that is entirely wrong. if it had been written as an AU it probably wouldn't have bothered me so much!)

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

I'm actually going to skip this, the thing I was working on last is in a spot where I don't want to post anything to tumblr 😅 (but who knows, maybe I'll come back and reblog this with an addition)

[geodetojoy]

ALRIGHTY i am no longer busy so heres my full thoughts on Newsies :DDD

tagging @royallygray and @mysteriouswolf if yall wanna read :D

ok this shit got LONG so the rest is under the cut

GOD where do I even start its beautiful its wonderful its emotional i love it so much

Ill try not to copy my intermission thoughts too much (if you havent seen those here they are)

Ok lets talk about the history of it. A quick google search says its based on a strike in 1899, and Roosevelt ran for presidency in 1901, so we'll just say the musical takes place in 1899 too (correct me if theres a different confirmed time).

During this time, work conditions are absolute shit, monopolies and trusts are on the rise, and the concept of a union has recently emerged. I really didnt need to say much of this bc its apparent in the musical, but i love historically accurate stuff so deal with it /lh

And in the musical we see the beginnings of Roosevelt's trust-busting and ideas of social equality that he acts on during his presidency (it also kinda ties into his environmentalism stuff a bit too!)

And after reading up a bit on the strike the musical was based on, a lot of the effects of the strike in the musical were historically accurate too! the newsboys could sell back papers they werent able to sell on the streets, but the price was unfortunately not yet lowered. (also, the names of the publishers in the show are historically accurate as well!!! makes my little history brain happy :DDD )

SO whats the point of all of my rambling here?

people make historical art all of the time. we see it in musicals like Annie, Hamilton, and so so many more. obviously this goes beyond musicals here, but since newsies is a musical ill try to stay with that topic.

anyway, we learn about history to learn from it. we see these past issues that our previous generations struggled with, in these art forms as to be easily digestible, and we discover their solutions. we get to see the humanity behind the issues and the conflicts they faced to overcome them. and ofc its not the only reason, but one reason these stories are told with art is to bring attention to them. people are way more likely to listen to music than study a historical textbook. so, they make it entertaining. they make relatable and lovable characters. they make people care about the show and subsequently the issue itself. all of this is to explain how and why things that happened in history are bad as to never repeat them again.

We see these topics of worker mistreatment, corrupt businesses, child labor, gender/sex inequality, and the class separation all brought to the spotlight in this show, and it does a damn good job of showing the pain and suffering they cause. the story of this show is incredible and so very important to learn about.

OK now onto the actual musical itself im done nerding out

ive done a lot of charater analysis already in that intermission post bUT WHO SAYS I CANT DO MORE HAHA

im saving jack for last bc theres so much to unpack there

KATHERINE MY LOVE <3333

Everything about her being a girlboss absolutely remains the same shes INCREDIBLE

and holy shit PULITZER'S HER DAD???? i love her even more. she directly ran away from an easy life to follow her own dreams and pursue her own passion from scratch. incredible. inspiring. mwah

i also just love her personality. shes so bubbly and happy and passionate and bright and optomistic shes the best <3

oh god crutchie. hes absolutely my favorite btw im sorry everyone else i adore him <33333

GOD his prison song actually killed me. im fully dead. deceased.

THE NEWSIES ARE SUCH A FAMILY GAHHH THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH RAHHHH

the sheer ecstasy i felt when he came back and hit Snyder with his cane i could not stop stimming MY BOYYYY

the absolute definition of sunshine character. he sees everything as glass half full and wants just the brightest future he deserves the absolute world

and ik i talked about it earlier but i adore how they take such a neutral opinion about his leg. people give him shit for it, and his brother beat them to a pulp. its just a part of him and they love his whole being, so why would they not love that about him too?

Les only got better as the show went on. i thought he was a smartass before LMAOO

AND THE DATE BIT??? WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM???? AND IT JUST NEVER GETS BROUGHT UP AGAIN LMAO WHAT

i think the biggest change i felt towards a character was Davey

he grew on me soooooo much his character growth is everything to me

he went from trying to stay out of their business to teaching them what a union was to helping them start it to running it himself when jack ran off to convincing jack to come back when times got tough he is sooo important to the story

and to me. hes important to me <3

OH AND RACE

i saw people mention the name before but i didnt know which he was until they addressed him directly I LOVE THAT GUYYY

especially in king of new york hes got such a big personality what a silly guy

OK now for the guy the silly the mc jack

At the beginning he is entirely driven by both his love for his family and ofc his dream of living in Santa Fe, but atm hes just trying to get by so hes more focused on the newsies. but a boy can dream

then he gets all caught up in the strike business and only focuses on that for a while bc he wants to protect his boys

then shit goes south. they get essentially jumped, and crutchie gets hurt and arrested.

and he thinks, what was it all for? if he couldnt protect his brother (never living that down btw), whats the point of even trying to strike anymore

so he changes his focus back to santa fe. the one thing hes still got going for him.

and he gets confronted by katherine, les, and davey, and they knock some sense into him. stopping the strike isnt going to take away any of the harm done. the danger is expected, theres no way any of this could go down without some form of a casualty. so why not try to do something about it. the only way to make this situation better is to get back in the game and keep pushing for change.

and ofc the thing with katherine which ill talk abt a bit more later

in all of this, something in him changes. he dreamed of santa fe, a simpler life, one where he didnt have to worry about having to afford food and clothing for the next day.

but what he never considered was the loneliness. sure, he offered to bring crutchie and katherine with him, but hed be leaving behind so many more. and thats when he realized he never needed to get out, he just needed things to change a bit. and they did! because of the strike, living became so much more affordable. no it wasnt perfect, but it was enough to be safe and secure, just like he wanted. and he had his family beside him the whole time.

ill admit that before i sat and thought about it for a while, this ending was really unsatisfactory to me. i mean we got how many santa fe reprises? all for naught?

but in reality, santa fe would never be enough for him. hes just so used to this life surrounded by the people he cares most about and doing everything in his power to protect him, hed just be so bored, so understimulated, and hed just continue to yearn for more. that path of wanting would never come to a conclusion and hed live his life never truly being happy. so i really do thing he made the right choice in staying, because new york became his santa fe. he didnt need to seek it out, it came to him.

Ok now with him and katherine

ill start by saying i do really adore them. i feel like a lot of what im about to say might seem like i think otherwise, but i truly do think theyre very sweet

ok so every interaction of theirs in act one was. very uncomfortable to say the least. he honestly seemed really predatory at times and it just really felt like an old-timey romance where the girl doesnt know her worth so she flocks to any guy that shows interest in hr bc she thinks its her only purpose

now obviously that is NOT the truth, those were just my first impressions. Katherine is extremely capable of taking care of herself and deciding what is and isnt right for her, she likes jack purely because she can and does. she knows her worth and just likes him bc she likes him, no strings attached

i will say the first kiss kinda caught me off guard lmao. like i knew they were gonna be a thing but that is NOT how i expected that to go down. its likely just bc of my aroace-ness but i saw no sign of them actually getting together prior to that, aside from them being the main man and leading lady in the show so ofc they have to be together. i mean ig her reaction to him drawing her was a bit of a hint but still. ok maybe its just bc im demi. hadnt thought abt that until now. damn. is this a normal thing? maybe it is. maybe im being too harsh. idk lmao

anyway ill admit the kiss was successful in getting his attention and getting him to listen to her so ill give it that lmaoo but tbh i did tune a bit of their song out bc it started to make me a bit uncomfy but i did liste back to it later on. they really seem to have a healthy relationship where they both care about the other and know the other is strong enough on their own, they just both want to be a part of the other's life. its really sweet! theyre so supportive of each other!!! green flags all around!!!

the bit with him learning shes pulitzers daughter was really interesting to me. at first she tries to talk to him but he kinda brushes her off, but from then on he just kinda has full faith in her? i mean yeah he gets upset about it bc he thinks she lied to him, but i dont think he thought she had any ill intentions. that was a complicated sentence lmaoo damn. i think he really understood that she wanted to help, he was just caught up in a lot of Feelings and was afraid that she wasnt trustworthy despite him still trusting her. and then he let her explain and from then on they fully support the other and trust each other immensely

so yeah first impressions were a bit iffy but i think theyre very sweet <333

OK GOD CAN I GUSH ABOUT THE STAGE DESIGN FOR A BIT???? GAHHH

i mean the moving stairs and scaffolding arent new. i know this. but just the way they frame scenes with the scaffolding is stunning. the chase scenes??? dude. enthralling. the bits where theyre in the city and they have people just up their acting like civilians? SO cool. makes it incredibly more realistic and believable. and the way they projected images onto the curtain-like things they pulled down was extremely creative!!! like in theory its such a simple design. it was literally nothing more than the scaffolding and stairs, and a few tables and wagons and such in certain areas. but they did SO much with it it was hard to believe it took place on a stage. ofc the filming helps with that but still. the start felt like it was on the roof of the building bc of a combination of the lighting and the use of just one of the scaffolding pieces. and when theyre in buildings, the wall of scaffolding works really well as a backdrop!!! and i already talked about the city street scenes, it fits perfectly. god its so inspiring id love to be behind something like that one day

OK AND THE CHOREO??? the sheer ENDURANCE of these people HOLY I COULD NEVER. THE FLEXIBILITY? THEYRE ALL LITERAL GYMNASTS WTF ARE THESE FLIPS AND HANDSTANDS IM SORRY???? holy shit its all SOSOSO impressive

oh my god i havent even talked about the MUSIC yet

if i had to choose a favorite song, a, i would punch whoever told me that in the face, and b, i would simply combust bc i cant choose just one

my top three tho would have to be between king of new york, carrying the banner, and crutchies prison song (idk the name its not on spotify :'((((( ) in no particular order

i havent had them on repeat enough to have any memorized, but i did remember santa fe, carrying the banner, and the world will know from the last time i watched it and i belted along to all the parts i knew this music is so good at hyping me up I WANNA START A UNION

and oh my god katherines voice???? stunning. her song is sooooo good. her part in king of new york is incredible. i love her <3

jesus christ this post got out of control. im still not done lmaooo

ok one thing that really has nothing to do with the musical itself is just the fact that it reminded me of so many other musicals ive seen at specific parts, even some of the songs sound like others i know.

Santa Fe really reminds me of Maybe from Annie, both music-wise and lyric wise. i mean theyre both "i want" songs so it makes sense but i feel like they sound kinda similar too. honestly a lot of the music sounds like Annie, but maybe its just the types of instruments used and thats just how musicals sounded when they were made. i think they were made about the same time. *checks spotify* ok well the newsies i listen to was produced like 40 years after Annie so maybe that just a stylistic choice-

idk why but the beginning of watch what happens sounds like the intro to reginas speaking part in meet the plastics lmao-

oh and brooklyn's here has the same beat as the military from Seussical but thats just bc its a marching song lmao. its also the same beat as the spanish alphabet song my spanish teacher used to use!

ok and this one really doesnt make sense but something to believe in reminds me of the power in me from Twisted lmao- kinda similar message ig? and sound vaguely similar? but idk it really doesnt make too much sense

i should. i should sum it up. this is getting out of hand.

okay i love this musical sm. clearly. do you see how long this post is. i was missing out when i refused to listen to it previously. oh my god.

and for some reason it really makes me wanna go watch my favorite musical so im ending this here TO YOUTUBE I GOOOOO TY FOR READING IF YOU DID AND TY TO ROYAL FOR UNINTENTIONALLY PUSHING ME TO WATCH THIS HAVE A GREAT DAYYYY

[emmedoesntdomath]

guess who found it in her to make a delanceys part three

HAHA

I WAS GOING THROUGH OLD NOTES I MADE ABOUT RESEARCHING OLD FAMILIES OF THE UNITED STATES AND WE’RE BACK ON OUR HISTORY RANTS BABEYYYYYYY

so! I’ve seen a couple posts giving ideas and headcanons about the delanceys’ backgrounds and ethnicities, and I myself have made TWO separate posts about their background, specifically relating to their father, familial income, and status in comparison to the newsies, but I’ve never explored their ethnicities/actual family history beyond immediate (partially because I had no historical basis, partially because I didn’t care). BUT. BUT. TODAY IS THE DAY THAT WE WADE INTO THESE WATERS, ARMED WITH NOTHING BUT OLD EMME NOTES, NEW INFORMATION FOUND ABOUT AN HOUR AGO, AND SHEER AUDACITY. YOU’RE WELCOME. 

to begin this expedition, we must start with a lil’ crash course of american history. or, pre-american history. 

fun fact- new york city actually predates the establishing of the united states! it was originally dubbed new amsterdam by the dutch, and was a city created purely for the flourishing economy and selling of goods. run by and for the dutch company, it slowly became a metropolitan hub of commerce with incredible diversity of languages and peoples. the british took control in 1664, renaming it new york, and turning it into an autocratic province. corrupt governors would routinely reward their favorites and give them land and influence. examples of these favorites include the jays (including the future founding father, john jay), the livingstons (who, for my hamilton fans, were related to the schuyler family, and who would one day host an alexander hamilton whilst he served as an aide de camp to washington), and, funnily enough, the de lanceys.   

right now you might be thinking, emme. what? their name isn’t even the same. and to that I respond, oh, yes, you’re correct- history has never changed a name through multiple generations EVER. don’t use any other major family as an example. clearly, they don’t count. or, or, emme, these are fictional characters, this was probably coincidental. mayhaps. but. isn’t it a little funny? isn’t it a little interesting that a show based so much in history chose that name? I think so. here’s a little more backstory. 

the de lancey family is/was originally from southeast england, and from the very beginning, they were well off. money, land, the works. then, when times got awkward in the good, ol’ land of the queen (ie. religious tensions), the de lanceys peaced out, and migrated to the new world. and, again, you’re probably doubting me, like, emme, you can’t just say they were there when you want them to be there. actually, I can.  

we know from censuses that there were de lanceys in the new york area beginning in 1740, with stephen delancey (HA. SEE? THE NAME CHANGED)(look em up, he’s important to this story)- whose descendants would retain his influence. 

the lovely little british colony becomes the united states of america in 1776, and the delanceys are proud patriots in the american revolutionary war, producing an american general by the name of oliver delancey, who was the great-nephew of our friend stephen delancey (and cousin to stephen’s kid, the 28th and 30th governor of virginia back when it was just a colony. still think this is a coincidence?). he had a kid also named oliver delancey, and from there, there was another couple generations of US soldiers. and then, after roughly 1800-1825, the delanceys just kind of…disappeared. poof. 

now, does this mean the family didn’t exist? no, absolutely not. they just disappeared from that higher class and state of influence. in fact, you can still find large amounts of delancey descendants in north america today. 

but to my point, we can say our delanceys disappeared around…1815. that gives us, what, roughly three, four generations before we hit 1899? and if our delanceys are maybe 17-20, then let’s go with three. that still leaves PLENTY of leg room for a father that works the trolleys and two kids who turn to their uncle for grunt work to make an extra buck or two. and- ta da! the history of the delanceys. surprisingly more complex and long that one might anticipate. 

(I donate this to @sparkedblaze and @noxexistant specifically xoxo)

[triviareads]

ARC Review of The Duke Gets Desperate by Diana Quincy

Summary:

Raya Darwish unexpectedly inherits her late cousin's castle, much to the displeasure of Anthony, the Duke of Strickland. Stick's father should have passed the castle onto him, but instead chose to leave it to his wife, who left it to Raya, an American interloper. Now Raya and Strick are forced to work together to bring the crumbling castle and the lands surrounding it back to life...

My review:

First, as a daughter of Asian immigrants, I deeply appreciated the Arab-American rep we got with Raya and her aunt. Raya was born and raised in Brooklyn and is pretty American in her attitudes (as Strick derisively points out every time she brings up ways to monetize the estate), but she also holds onto the Palestinian culture of her parents. I appreciated the references to the food she enjoyed back home, as well as her describing how her parents took care to protect their daughter's modesty, something that is culturally very important from my understanding. Raya's Auntie Majida reminded me fondly of all the aunties in my life, particularly in the way she melds her Arabic and English when speaking (Diana Quincy also wrote Majida's accent into her dialogue), as well as her attitudes towards certain, uh, *improprieties* lol.

Regarding the romance of it all, I enjoyed this variation on the enemies to lovers trope. The management and ownership of the castle and its surrounding estate is the main point of contention between Raya and Strickland— which is not so lighthearted as a petty grudge, but neither is it something super intense or horrific. And it makes sense: Of course Raya's entrepreneurial American spirit would clash with Strick's aristocratic English attitudes, but they're forced to work together anyway. Which leads to an abundance of sexual tension between them.

There's this particularly great period of time between them where there's just.... unmitigated horniness on both their parts (but of course they don't act on it minus the time he's like "show me your tits" and she's like "...yeah why not") where Strickland keeps trying to use his sexual wiles on her to persuade her to marry him, and Raya keeps inadvertently turning him on by using business lingo. He delivers what might be the most and yet the least persuasive proposal in HR history which goes something like this: "I want to fuck you so bad it hurts. I cannot wait to be inside of you. Ergo, marry me."

Luckily, Raya is a smart gal and before agreeing, she takes care to secure her legal right to the castle using an actual solicitor thanks to property right laws that have changed recently. See, this is why I like historical romances set in the Victorian era (this is set in the 1880s): there's far more potential for racially diverse characters, as well as feminist themes, even if they're subtle. Raya getting a legal agreement on paper and making Strickland sign it to protect her rights absolutely counts.

There is also a mystery aspect to the plot, though it doesn't pick up until more than halfway through the book. Raya's late cousin died under mysterious circumstances by falling off the top of the castle, and this is related to Strickland's missing artifacts (which he's passionate about excavating and collecting). In addition, there's a bunch of will-related issues which also serves to drive a wedge between the couple. Does Strickland also attempt to use sex to grovel? Absolutely. Speaking of which—

The sex:

This book has solid sex scenes, and Diana didn't skimp on the foreplay (I'd argue the foreplay was the best part). I really liked this scene where in order to "seal" their bargain, Strickland asks to see Raya's tits (like I mentioned earlier) and goes to town on them. Specifically, the wording here is that he "clawed" at her bodice and tbh I find that level of desperation very hot.

The standout sex scene is probably when he covers her in Anglo-Saxon-era gold jewelry and then proceeds to finger her while making her watch them in the mirror. That being said, the unsung hero sex-wise might be Strickland's dirty talk. Like, man has some hits including "your quim wants to be friends", "I'm going to enjoy your sweet tits every day until we're old and grey", and "I'm going to keep burying myself in you until I'm too old to move". The future-forward dirty talk really did it for me. Bravo Anthony.

Overall:

I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, and specifically anyone looking to start their historical romance journey. This is your quintessential "enemies to lovers" historical romance complete with a smart, plucky heroine, a hero that's initially arrogant and suspicious of the heroine but falls HARD for her later on (and that's after him panting after her for a good chunk of the story), and a plot that really makes you reassess the role of the aristocracy by this time period. Like, no longer are dukes infallible beings; they have to deal with money loss, railroads buying them out, possibly opening their homes up to tourists, and so on. For me, it was this aspect of the plot, combined with the dynamic between the hero and heroine, that really sealed the deal for me.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my review.

[quietwingsinthesky]

Oooh religion! I think for a Buddhist companion, the idea that time lords can regenerate pretty much regardless of what they did while they were alive would be difficult for them to really understand.

Like the Master committing war crime after war crime and still coming back?? Or even the Doctor in certain instances

Would the Doctor understand and respect their religion and the significance it has to the companion?

exactly exactly! it would be fascinating for doctor/companion conversations. new perspective on regeneration!

i think the ideal scenario for the doctor having a religious companion would be like. we’re past the point, i think, of the doctor as a character being judgmental about beliefs that don’t cause people harm, you know? they regularly reference meeting historical religious figures, they know a baseline in human religions, so i think the vibes would really be “curious, if occasionally clumsy.” which would also be good as a storytelling tool as an invitation for the audience to learn about the companion’s religion as well.

i think it would be unfortunately extremely easy for the doctor to be written as like. An Atheist Asshole, even if that was well-intentioned to carry a message of them learning respect or something. It’d be a lot better and more meaningful to give them the same energy that they had in Demons of the Punjab. she wanted to participate, and there's even the fun detail that, while the Doctor herself didn't really get why her current presentation precluded her to being a part of one ritual instead of another, she rolled with it, she was delighted to get to take part in something in a new way. that's how i think the doctor is best written in relation to religion: clearly apart from it, as they are with everything else, genuinely interested, liable to say something they shouldn't because they're overeager and misreading the situation, but respectful.

(there's actually another moment too in that episode i'd call attention to in order to illustrate the doctor's relationship to spiritual beliefs. this time, with something alien, when she confronts the Thijarians, she goes in guns blazing and accusatory, and then. god it's such a good scene, it really is. the minute they are allowed to explain their actions, to explain their loss, she's immediately able to relate to it and adopts the same hand gesture they're making to honor their planet. and like, it's such a small detail, they could have easily just written her relaxing, but she specifically mirrors what they're doing back to them. and she does it so fast. it's the little moment of apology and also understanding.

sorry i'm getting off topic, but i also think this was very clever just in general. the doctor is in the middle of a historical tragedy, and it would have been easy to have her directly draw a comparison between that tragedy and her own losses. it also would have been a mistake, would have done a disservice to real history. it was much better to give the doctor the Thijarians as a fictional mirror to remind the audience that she has personal experience with losing her home, her everything, and that her perspective is affected by that without directly comparing it to real world tragedy. i feel like that was a very good episode actually for a lot of reasons akdsjaldjs)

but yeah, that's my thoughts on the doctor interacting with a religious companion. someone a hell of a lot smarter than me would have to write deeper about it for specific religions. but i would love to see it just being like. a factor that the doctor and their companion have to take into account while traveling together. both the philosophical, something to incorporate into the larger sci-fi morality tales of the show, but also the practical. it'd be neat!!!

[irlusa]

can u explain scotpru to me? i’m very curious about this ship

Oh I would be HAPPY to lmao

So scotpru (for me) started because of a gereng rp I did with a friend ages ago that had both Gilbert and Alasdair as characters.

Keep in mind I'm not much on the historical side of hetalia so I can't speak on reasons to ship them re: concrete historical potential trading or connections the people may have had.

BUT, that being said, when it comes to nationverse, Gilbert and Alasdair both are somewhat older nations who have seen and experienced a lot of the world. They have quite a rough (and often annoying) exterior to their younger brothers, but at the same time have a genuine and warmhearted love for certain cultural aspects that they cultivate and put pride in. Both share a love of handcrafted pieces, whether they're old engraved weapons or woodworked furniture or illuminated manuscripts, they put value in creating something yourself and putting in the time and effort to learn that skill.

In my eyes, they connect via old tales of the world and the other nations when they were younger, as well as clashing in the kitchen in a positive, poking fun kind of way. Scotland cooks more often, Prussia bakes more often (which Scotland doesn't complain about at all, who would when they're getting served sweets?)- though Scotland's cooking style is much messier and "intuition" based versus Prussia's meticulous recipe notes and measuring and cleaning practices. And oh, they love to work on projects together that can utilize both their strengths- it's kind of one of their love languages in a way.

Also, Scotland's voice matches Prussia's flute perfectly, and both of them adore hearing the other play. It's soothing. They love the outdoors and often go camping or out on daytrips into the countryside where no one else will hear them play together, like a personal little show they put on for their ears only.

Beyond concrete interests that are similar, Alasdair and Gil also seek out each other in the sense that, because they have these sorts of connections with each other, they can find comfort in each other. They know how the other grew up, they've seen them grow and change over the years. They don't have to put on the strong unaffected persona with each other when they're alone. Gilbert appreciates that Alasdair doesn't treat him any different after being dissolved- doesn't look at him with barely-held back pity and annoyance. And Scotland knows that despite being the eldest and supposedly having all his shit together, when he feels like everything is falling apart he can come to Gilbert, who will put aside his usually abrasive front to welcome Alasdair with open arms. They learn to open up emotionally and trust each other. Neither are the best with words, though Alasdair is worse imo, and so they're able to pick up on each other's nonverbal cues and signs of affection that others might not note. And I do just like Gilbert's explosive energy next to Alasdair's slightly more laid-back vibes.

I feel like it's one of those relationships where neither actually said "I love you" for a very long time, it was just mutually understood that they shared a bond with each other that they didn't feel with anyone else.

Humanverse and other aus have similar notes to them- in my mind they often meet at say, a bar or pub, or even perhaps at daycare while dropping of their siblings depending on the au, and begin connections through some mix of love of history, music, baking and cooking, crafting, and/or just the fact that both can often feel like outsiders in their current community, and said relations bloom from there.

Anyway I love them so so much and I hope this messily-worded collection of thoughts helps convey why ehee

[boleynns]

Have you read the fire and blood books? If so, ok this is a very dumb question but I haven’t read the books and everyone keeps telling me daemon cheats on rhaenrya after they get married with mysaria and other women. It’s been confirmed that mysaria comes back next episode and for the rest of the season sooo like?? Is this canon or was it a rumor that he cheats? Apparently rhaenrya didn’t care either but with the way the show is going it looks like he cares more about her than book readers are implying?

literally the entire book is rumors, so "canon" in relation to the show, especially for the relationship dynamics, honestly isn't really relevant. It is a fake in-universe history book, and like real history is full of bias, errors, and huge amounts of rumor and uncertainty about what "really" happened. My favorite example of discrepancies between the "historical text" version from Fire & Blood and the "real" version so far is what we see in Episode 2. According to Fire & Blood Daemon was going to marry Mysaria, she was pregnant, and he wanted a dragon egg for their baby. But in the show we find out that Daemon wasn't actually engaged, Mysaria wasn't actually pregnant, and he said all of that and stole the egg for attention. I like to interpret that change to: all the historian had access to was that triggering letter Daemon sent to bait Viserys saying that he was getting married and having a kid -- so that is exactly what history remembered.

All that to say, the character's personalities/relationships/dynamics from the book aren't really relevant to the show at all, because that is literally a Maester's interpretation of what these characters might have been like based on hearsay and rumor and the Maester's own biases.

So you tell me if you think Rhaenyra would "be okay" with Daemon cheating on her based on what we've seen, because I don't think that is the dynamic they've built between them AT ALL. Like, please imagine them doing all this build up, and paralleling all their storylines even when they're apart, and making their romantic tension a huge part of the show and their character's arcs, and establishing how strong of a bond they have with one another and how much they care about each other, and making their other long-term partners basically irrelevant, and having them reunite after years and finally sleep together, and then finally get married -- and then after all of that Daemon just randomly sleeps with someone else, and Rhaenrya is just fine with it, because they are just so uninvested in their relationship even though all we have seen is how overly invested they are in each other. Literally nonsense.

Let me reiterate a theme (& evolution of that theme) the show has been harping on for both Daemon and Rhaenyra, both together and separately, literally from the first episode: I don't want to be married to anyone and/or I don't want to be married to someone I didn't choose -> Marriage is a political necessity, but you can still have a side piece -> Maybe marriage wouldn't be so bad if we were married to each other, but that is not an option anymore -> We are married to other people now, but we can't be each other's side piece because that would be depressing and diminishing -> We are finally single and able to not only choose who to marry, but also to have a marriage that is not a placeholder or a show we're putting on for other people 🎉

That throughline is not narratively building to "...and then they slept in separate bedrooms and fooled around with other people on the side with zero emotion, #politicalmarriage"

[unnaturalequilibrium]

Watch Andor. It is the best and most topical scripted television I've seen in years. Don't watch it because it's a Star Wars and don't disregard it because it's a Star Wars. This is just good television. The writing takes it's time to establish a world populated by complex characters with multi-layered agendas and ambitions. The writers know how to use perspective to get beneath your skin and to truly make you comprehend an issue on a human and relatable level. Each character, protagonist and antagonist alike make sense even when you deeply disagree with their personalised logic. They all have a path, but it's not fixed because they actually react to and are influenced by the events they're a part of. Still none of them surprise you in their reactions once you've gotten to know them. Their personality is consistent, but their path flexible. It just makes for such good storytelling.

And the show takes it's time to establish a Universe too, you spend time with new cultures and customs that mirror our own, but still feel like their own thing. It's very much a story about an Empire in a galaxy far far away, but at the same time breaks down fascism and imperialism into comprehensible facets that easily slot into our own contemporary and historical world. In many ways makes a much better job of explaining things than any newspaper or history book could.

The only bad thing about this show is that it's re-awoken a love of Star Wars in me. That Universe was so deeply dead after The Rise of Skywalker for me personally. The Mandalorian was good, but it didn't really get me excited about the Universe. Baby Yoda mostly made me roll my eyes and sure it was a good Space Spaghetti Western, but not that much more than that. And the rest, I'm not even going to acknowledge it. This however, this put like a new coat of paint on everything that came before it. I'm still going to completely disregard the last three movies as any type of canon, but the rest...with this story being told in Andor everything else before it feels like it carries more weight. Hell, I even went back and watched the prequel trilogy and found things in it of interest (not a lot, but some. Also that has to be the worst love story ever written, but that's perhaps a rant for another day and time.). Now I'm also jonesing after more of the Legends books, because I want more adult political Star Wars drama. So that reawakened obsession with this stupid Universe is somewhat of a negative, but I'll gladly deal with that as a payoff of having gotten to experience Andor.

Watch Andor. And don't be afraid to let the anger and determination slip inside your own soul. I think it might be good for us.