#meta-ing

[chenpire]

I keep thinking about tanthamore from Jade's pov because I feel the deepest gay sympathy for this women like she's so restrained. She's grown up falling ass over kettle in love with someone who is off limits and betrothed to someone else, they're not equals in more than one way, because Kit outranks her but also because Kit is an oblivious obnoxious brat (affectionate) so she lacks the emotional maturity and combat skills to be a reliable partner to Jade even if it weren't for their status incompatibility. Jade probably doesn't think Kit is aware that there is a thing between them, and probably assumes it doesn't consume Kit quite the way it does her, that Kit just needs her because she's familiar and ever present, and because she has hang ups about people abandoning her. When she's trying to tell Kit she's leaving, primary to pursue her dreams but almost certainly on some level to protect her heart, you can see how everything about Kit in that moment is making it as difficult as possible for her; hanging off her, looking like that, saying nothing has to change and making fun of her fiance like he's barley relevant to their life together, causing a scene and going to hang performatively off her fiance who she was just making fun of in the aftermath. The way everything suggests this is always the way with Kit, that she makes things difficult for Jade by her very nature. Like she kisses Jade goodbye because it's clearly something she's always wanted to do and this might be her only chance, so she does, because Kit runs on instinct a lot of the time, but even if it isn't her intention, kissing Jade once and disappearing from her life, leaving her with the memory of what that feels like only to never have it again when Jade's been terminally in love with her for years, is borderline cruelty. And Jade is also sitting there with the knowledge that Kit can't actually defend herself, and it's kind of Jade's fault she thinks she can, but also the fact that Kit has never noticed, or addressed anything between them when the ball is essentially permanently in her court because of their difference in status...like Jade is clearly frustrated with Kit most of the time but it is a miracle she is not absolutely seething. 'Expert on breaking my heart' indeed, it's like Kit was designed to do so I'm so-

[egophiliac]

Hi it's just to let you know that the official romanization of Revaan's name is Raverne ! Also they have romanized Baul's name to Baur !

Twst coming back at us again with the least expected romanization! thank you everybody (oh god my inbox) (no it's great, I literally asked for this and the reactions have been INCREDIBLE, thank you all!)

I do like Raverne though, I think it's got a nice fancy sound to it! (I had kinda suspected it was going to be an R instead of an L, so the fact that it's SO close to Laverne except for that is hilarious to me personally.) and Dragoneye Duke is honestly probably the best translation for his title, I wasn't envying the localizers that one. :') Baur instead of Baul I was NOT expecting, but in retrospect I think his name's supposed to be a reference to the Bauru crocodile, so that actually makes way more sense!

someone else also said Meleanor has become Maleanor, which is the REALLY weird one to me, because I was so surprised it was written as Mel instead of Mal in the first place?! oh god no I can't decide which one I like better. 😭 (I wonder if they might change it to Mal...they have made romanization changes before) (like I remember House of Distraction being corrected to House of Destruction in Playful Land) (I did check and she's still Mel for now, but I dunno, they might Mal her up and some point and save me from having to make a decision about which one to use) (HECK I CAN'T DECIDE)

uhhhh thank you for letting me ramble about anime names, let's just say MONOGRAMMED SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE

[womaninwinter]

i love this analysis so much

I think it's 100% deliberate on Mr Stroud's part - he loves to make his cases echo The Themes of the book and nowhere does he do it better than in THB. (THB is a master piece). He even has George call this out later, by having him say "Were you feeling particularly vulnerable or needy?" to Lucy after the Wintergarden case (I can't remember the exact wording). Wintergarden is an absolute masterclass <3

Ohhh. Idk if my third eye has been opened or I'm reading too much into this (isn't that always the way), or maybe this was just extremely obvious to everyone else so no one else thought to mention it - but the way Robert Cooke's ghost interacts with Lucy on the Wintergarden staircase really is a perversion of what she's looking for from Lockwood at this point in time, isn't it?

Right before the final manifestation, as Lucy's getting grumpier by the second about Lockwood including Holly too much at the same time as he's kept so many secrets from her, she's musing about how losing Jessica might have impacted his approach toward their jobs, and wondering what it would take for him to really let her in. She observed that Lockwood's approach to ghosts - his approach to emotions, as a parallel that was finally obvious to me on this third read - is always Eradicate the ghost. Don't engage with it. Destroy it. - as in, eradicate the feelings, don't engage with them, destroy them. The emotional safety switch cranked up to eleven.

And then Lucy, misguided, overly compassionate at her own risk, tries to rescue this ghost without considering her own boundaries or limits: But the thing about animals [other people's feelings, or one particularly reticent boy] was, you could tame them. You just had to prove they could trust you. I moved closer, holding out my hand. The whole thing in this interaction is that she can't see the ghost as it really is because she's bringing all these preconceived notions to the table and coming into it with something of a savior complex. Sound familiar?

And she's so desperate to hear the truth, to hear what the ghost - Lockwood - needs; she's thrilled when she seems to be on the verge of accomplishing it, and irritated when Holly and George interrupt. The ghost keeps smiling at Lucy (her obsession with Lockwood's smile - this is what triggered the comparison to me), and it sounds just like Lucy silently begging Lockwood to open up to her after every crumb he gives her: The ghost was smiling at me. If I could just get it to speak again...

Then you've got sort of the reverse of the Hollow Boy going on, as death grows too powerful beside life: And how watery and hesitant my smile was beside the boy's grin. And then, turns out they got it wrong - ack! terror! - but Lucy hears from this ghost a twisted version of what she desperately wants to hear from Lockwood:

Lucy needs to know Lockwood needs her, wants to hear him admit it. (She's not anywhere near ready yet to accept that he wants her; she has some work to do first, untangling all those internalized messages.) She could help him, understand him, if he lets her in - but right now that would be a threat to both of them, in one way or another. I think, to Lockwood, this would be confirmation that he can't open up to Lucy that way - not that he's consciously making the connection, of course, but I still stand by this being the moment he realizes he's in love with her, either when he races up the stairs to save her or when he wakes up after, and for as much as he was shutting Lucy out before, he really starts distancing himself now. And for Lucy, this is when she starts to realize she can't have a life with Lockwood in halves, unfortunately right as he's determined not to need her because of everything her Talent - their emotions - could open them both up to.

Then back to the comparisons with the Hollow Boy coming later, as Lockwood launches a dashing rescue, parallel complete with one half of the pair concussed, even. So I guess that makes two false premonitions/versions of himself he destroys for Lucy in this book (before he gets around to besting the real hollow version of himself for her, but that comes later).

I dunno, I started this post thinking maybe I was adding symbolism where there was none intended, but now I've done a pretty good job convincing myself this is yet another example of intensely brilliant writing from Mr. Stroud that further reveals itself on every reread, my goodness.

[starjunkyard]

(hands u a domestic hudson sketch)... Take this.......... for the journey...............

[mx-anthony-janthony-crowley]

aziraphale's relationship with heaven vs crowley's relationship with hell in S2 serves as this beautiful, heartbreaking metaphor for the choice that so many queer people with unaccepting - and in many cases abusive - families find themselves forced to make. crowley has made the leap. he's cut himself off, and when they've tried to stay in touch or even bring him back, he's always resisted. "we're better than that, you're better than that!". in a way he's been through it before - he was rejected by heaven, and so it makes sense to him to take the opportunity to reject hell on his own terms. it doesn't come without consequence, of course. so many queer people find themselves having to suppress their identities until they're financially independent - cut to crowley living in his car. but he's made the choice, and he's free to do his own thing now. aziraphale, at the start of the season, is also more or less completely separate from heaven; we know from crowley "they don't talk to him anymore", and he's not making any effort to get in touch with them. but then when they ask him to come back, they manipulate him again. the metatron offers him coffee and then tells him "i've ingested things in my time, you know" - a world away from gabriel's "why do you consume... that?". he's assured that the things which he thought made him too... different, too not-good for heaven, are in fact okay. aziraphale was finally living his own life, far away from them, and doing the things he enjoyed, the things that they always shamed him for. but now he thinks, maybe he can go back and this time they'll accept him - it doesn't have to be like it was before! he's changed and maybe they have too, and if they haven't then maybe they'll listen to him! he can show them how to be better, he can make a difference. he isn't yet ready to face the reality that he can never be the person (well, angel) that they want him to be, not without losing sight of what makes him him. he might wish he could bring himself to say no, to cut them off, but he can't do it. because despite it all, he still has hope that they can change. and of course he does - years of trauma have told him time and time again that they're the good guys, after all. so he thinks, if they can't change, then who can? if they can't accept him, who will?

[rare-prism-s]

YIPPEE

[gretahayes]

badly phrased but nobody is “saving the batkids from bruce”. they have their own agency. they choose to be devoted to their mission or utterly devoted to him. they don’t need to be saved. they do not want to be saved. you can call them a tragedy because if things were just a bit but fundamentally different it would be better for them, but it isn’t and this is how their story goes. they’re hurt and always come back, but they’re hooked on it. this is the path they’ve chosen time and time again and don’t know why this rubs me the wrong way but like. there will be no “seeing the light and walking away from bruce and/or vigilantism fully” in comics, and there should not be. if there is, it won’t be with the batkids. that would be taking away from the very heart of their stories, of their beings. they’re not...innocent babies. abuse doesn’t work that way, even if we all agree bruce is their abuser, especially when you get The Mission tangled up in it. just...i get the soul of the statement, the wish for a “perfect happy ending”, but this isn’t the genre or story for it and stripping away all nuance and context and background in favor a black-and-white view of something that is complex isn’t. a good read on it? and this is a bad take sorry

[barkrocks]

i get why everyone is obsessed w the other rat grinders (criminally underused in canon get those children a personality STAT) but mary ann skuttle is one of the funniest people in the world to me. every day since the finale i have thought about her asking gorgug if it "made him mad in real life" when she destroyed him at bloodrush. an icon if we are all being honest

[essektheylyss]

Alright, deeply circumstantial conspiracy theory time.

Remember how we never fucking figured out Vence Nuthaleus's deal? Ludinus's annex, who supposedly was working outside of Ludinus's knowledge or orders?

The Nein found two Abyssal Anchors in Xhorhas while chasing the Angel of Irons cultists, ostensibly to cause chaos and distraction during the war. These anchors were created by Vence based on tech used by demon generals during the Calamity to invade the Material Realm with more ease, and Vence created crude approximations of them, that Obann then deployed in Asarius and Braan.

(If only Caleb hadn't incinerated that goblin in Braan. We could've cracked this case wide open years ago.)

under a cut, as this is long—and does contain spoilers for c2:

The last anchor the Nein come across directly is in the Chantry of the Dawn; Jester scries on Vence delivering it to Cardinal Respa, along with two scrolls that are supposedly from the vaults of Vasselheim that provide guidance for establishing a ritual in the Chantry, upon a fane that was one of six holding Tharizdun at bay. Respa notices the scrying, and ends it, and the Nein immediately head to the Cathedral, though Vence has already left, and the anchor is set up as a distraction, while the main ritual happens elsewhere.

This is primarily notable because the timeline is fairly compressed. Jester scries on Vence while they're already in Rexxentrum; they go to the Chantry and fight assorted cultists under Respa's watch, the demons coming out of the portal, Obann's crew of cultists, and then Obann the Punished. They exit the basement fairly quickly and talk to several officials who have arrived at the Chantry, and then are immediately marched to Dwendal's throne room for an audience.

This is the conversation in which Ludinus admits that Vence had "recently" asked for an Amulet of Nondetection, and he granted the request. Given that Vence hadn't been attuned to it prior to going to the Chantry, he evidently takes the time to attune to it within the two hours (accounting for travel times around Rexxentrum) between those periods.

Here's where we start to get circumstantial: if Vence had obtained the amulet before, why hadn't he attuned to it immediately? It's possible he hadn't even gotten the amulet until then, at which point there was already a Kryn attack underway, as well as a significant disturbance at the Chantry of the Dawn. This seems an odd time to request such an item, as well as a rather foolish move on Ludinus's part to grant the request with little information.

With that in mind, let's go back for a moment to the Abyssal Anchors.

They're said to be crudely-reconstructed versions of Calamity-era technology. They create a planar rift between realms. They were not designed to assist in the ritual to summon Tharizdun, and instead seem only to have been a distraction—though a rather odd one, as they created minor nuisances that were, in both cases, dealt with by the Nein, and never on the direct orders of the Dynasty's leadership. The war itself seems as though it would've been distraction enough.

We also hear that there have been similar anchors discovered across the Empire, collected, and destroyed—words that come only from Ludinus's mouth.

The Nein had considered that perhaps Ludinus knew what Vence had been up to, but they had no tangible evidence of that, and he of course denied it. I recall considering the possibility at the time that he had even been involved, and mostly discarding it because he seemed to have no motivation to do so.

But now we know that something notable happened about six years ago, in the timeframe of the Material Plane: according to the Calloways, Ruidus became visible in the sky in the Feywild, and presumably with it, the Shadowfell.

We know that at the time, Ludinus was using the findings from his stolen beacons to create the dunamantic liquid that was used to make an assassination attempt on Keyleth. We also know that at some point, an annex of Ludinus obtained scrolls from the vaults of Vasselheim that gave instruction on creating a ritual to "release the fane" beneath the Chantry. (Fanes are, generally, places of power—which is similar to the list of locations across the Feywild that Ludinus looked into in order to absorb power from, per the notes that Team Wildemount discovered in Gildhollow Tower.) Incidentally, we also know that Ludinus oversaw, in 835 PD, the excavation of crash site A2 in Eiselcross, which held both the corrupted forest akin to the Savalirwood, and a threshold crest just beyond that. All of this happened roughly around or just before Ruidus was tethered to the Feywild.

Though we may never know for sure that these things are related, my theory is that these crude iterations of the Abyssal Anchors were the test run for whatever arcane device that Ludinus used to tether the moon in the echo planes, finally allowing him the ability to put his long-considered plan into motion.

[dreemurr-skelememer]

i have been thinking deeply about resetmare and how different they are in terms of trauma compared to all the other dreamtale AUs

their story shifted right when the apple incident happened.

imagine the worry and confusion if they ever met any the half-a-millennia old dreams and nightmares. because to them, the most that's happened is almost losing each other to the villagers' greed

for the other dreams and nightmares, that's just...not the case. as a matter of fact, they detest each other. they fight because it's all they know and that's what they are now.

the resetmare kids are considerably younger and less troubled by these things. they don't even know the multiverse exists yet.

is that a worse or better thing? will they even understand what the older dreams and nightmares had to go through???

[wizardofahz]

Saw a Criminal Minds gifset and suddenly started thinking about canon vs. fanon JJ.

TL; DR: Fanon JJ is the facade canon JJ puts on to hide trauma.

(This discusses JJ's sister, so content warning for suicide)

The obvious starting point for understanding JJ's characterization is her sister's suicide. That's a traumatic event for anyone, and even more so for an eleven year old child. So it's quite understandable that JJ decides she will do whatever she can to avoid experiencing hurt like that again.

In episode 3.17, JJ tells Will about their relationship, "I didn't want to tell anyone because the minute I do it becomes real, and when it becomes real, people get hurt, and I've always run from getting hurt. Always."

But JJ didn't only lose her sister.

In episode 14.12, JJ's mom admits, "I got so caught up in all my troubles that I forgot there was another little girl under my roof who had just lost her sister. You needed me, and I wasn't there."

At eleven years old, JJ was a traumatized child without a support system. So she learned to rely on herself. Other people were just avenues for hurt, and she decided that wasn't worth it.

All of which leads to this confession from JJ in the season 14 finale: "There are only four people I trust in this world."

My three non-negotiables are Will, Hotch, and Emily. The fourth is between Reid and Garcia, but I lean towards the former given Garcia's penchant for invading people's privacy.

Even if anyone disagrees with that list, there's not a lot of room for choice. At any given time, the BAU usually has seven members, and given the amount of turnover they've had, JJ hasn't learned to trust most of them.

Do they know that? They probably know her facade masks trauma, but I doubt they know the extent of it. There's a reason that episode starts with the team playing poker, and JJ showing Reid he doesn't know her as well as he thinks he does.

So let's talk about that facade. In contrast to Reid, who wears his trauma on his sleeve, JJ buries hers as deeply as she can. She takes care of the people around her, and while it's not disingenuous, it's part of a prettily painted reinforced fortress wall that says, "hey, look at me, such a put-together person that doesn't have problems of my own, so I can help with yours."

And it does the job because it has fandom fooled too.

[stargazerdaisy]

Watching Season 2, I feel more confident that Coulson knew Ward was going to escape and intentionally allowed it. I don't know that he wanted it, in a positive sense, like he was hoping Ward would. But I can't see how he wouldn't expect it. He knows exactly what Ward is capable of and he even warned the guards not to give Ward any chance to take them out.

In Season 1, when Coulson found out May was reporting on him and he thought she was a traitor, he locked her up in The Cage and put specialized handcuffs on her so she couldn't escape. But he lets Ward get into that van with only regular cuffs on and guards that certainly do not have the training and skills to contain a Specialist of Ward's caliber? If he didn't consciously know what the results would be, then he's absolutely idiotic and that speaks worse of his abilities and skills (and thus if he should be leading Shield, which is a whole different can of radioactive worms).

Plus, he gave Ward all of the motivation in the world to escape. Ward would no longer be able to see Skye, he was being taken to his sociopathic and abusive older brother - who himself was very motivated to hide/kill Ward, and Ward was told he was of no use to anyone. There was no advantage or benefit to remaining in custody. And Coulson had no affection for or loyalty to Christian. He was using Christian to get the heat off Shield and Grant just happened to be an effective bargaining chip in that.

I'm not going to assume Coulson's motivations, though I could speculate on them. But I think it's pretty reasonable to assume that Coulson did know Ward could and would escape and the director chose not to stop it.

[homeless202]

the fact that he left the face mask and earplugs aside shows he's not afraid to there anymore. the ghost dorm is his home now. he's back home again <3

[pridetempt]

something about lucifer's angelic nature meaning that his anger sets off others' fight, flight, or freeze response ?? even those that swear up and down they're not scared of the little king get that burning feeling they should leave , run , put as much distance between themselves and the angry angel as possible.

being on the receiving end of an angel's ire ( true anger. not adam throwing a bitch fit ) is a terrifying thing. they are not all holy light and everything nice. they were built to be warriors defending God's vision and were given the means with which to do so. for an angel as old and powerful as lucifer ? his anger creates a visceral feeling of absolute dread and terror you can't escape. he's as old as creation , helped make it ! he is intrinsically woven into its very fabric and his rage holds the potential of tearing it to shreds. you feel that in your soul.

[helloidkwhatimdoing-0]

I kinda fucking hated the wwdits finale I'm ngl

Like im glad some people enjoyed it but I just. No thankyou that was Not a good ending to me

[throwup-yourguts]

Foodlogs | September 22th 2024

METADAY

.

Breakfast

4 slices of bread

20g marmalade

.

Lunch

2 mozzarella sticks

2 nuggets

1 burger

Southern fries

.

4pm snack

1 beer

.

Dinner

Skipped

.

Total: ???kcal

.

I didnt count today's kcals because I'd freak out lol

I'm obviously over my limit but it's fine I'm back in a liquid fast (7 hours 30 minutes in)