#might just be a case of parallel thought but idk…

[nyaa]

im not sure if I should admit this but there’s a lingering clawing in my brain that I might have introduced the word cuck to the modern lexicon because I had recently watched that episode of the office where Andy calls himself a cuckold in 2014 and I made a few posts on /a/ using it as an old timey ironic jokey thing. i kinda just read the know your meme entry on the spread of the word and they’re saying it originated on 4chan in 2014

[tevos]

////

[hyperfixation-or-death]

Thinking about a Parallels AU where the main four + Camille are all different ages at the start of the show, and all the dynamics are different because of it.

The only main characters who have met at the start are Sam and Victor, and Sam and Bilal.

Sam is fifteen years old, so he's the closest to his canon age.

Victor is nine years old, so he's the youngest by a lot in this.

Bilal is thirty years old, and he's working with his mom on the tests. He also tutors Sam in math on the weekends.

Romane is nineteen years old, and hasn't met any of the other main characters.

Camille is nine years old, and she and Victor go to the same school.

Episode one starts when Sam is supposed to go to tutoring, but ends up needing to bring Victor with him, because their parents weren't able to pick him up from some activity or other.

I haven't figured out how they get to the woods from there; for the sake of convenience, let's say that cat Romane and Camille feed shows up injured, and they end up following the cat to try and help it? Work in progress.

Anyways, once they're close to the bunker, they run into Romane. Assuming we're going with the cat plot device, because I can't think of anything else right now, Romane was also trying to find the cat. The cat is gone now, though, and they're all about to turn back.

Then Victor notices the bunker (the key is in the door, idk), and wants to go inside. Sam and Bilal don't think it's a good idea, but Romane also wants to go inside for some reason, and the four end up going to check it out.

The test goes off, of course, and the timelines split.

Timeline 1 - Romane and Victor are left in the bunker.

Victor definitely blames himself for the disappearances, since he was the one to suggest going in the bunker in the first place. Romane also definitely blames herself for the disappearances, since Victor is nine years old, and she should have known it was a bad idea, but she didn't, and now this kid's brother is probably dead because of that.

Romane ends up talking to Victor afterwards, and realizes that he goes to school with Camille. The conversation turns to that, and Victor mentions that he's not doing great in some subject or other; a subject Romane happens to be good at. Feeling like it's the absolute least she could do for him, she offers to help him with homework after school.

Since Victor is literally an elementary school child, his parents are not sending him to boarding school. They do become increasingly distant and harsh, and Victor becomes increasingly convinced that they don't care about him.

Victor ends up spending a lot of time at Romane and Camille's house. At first, it's just because Romane's helping him with homework. Then it sinks in that no one else understands what happened in the bunker, and that fact starts playing into their dynamic. Then he starts to become friends with Camille. By the time four years have gone by, Victor and Camille are close friends, and Romane sees Victor as another sibling. (She hasn't moved out yet because a. She's attending university nearby. and b. She doesn't trust Herve and wants to keep an eye on her family.)

Then Vanessa Chassangre dies, and Romane is faced with the possibility of losing her sister. She's trying to figure out if she has any chance at getting custody, when Victor shows up to ask if she wants to go back to the bunker. Neither of them have figured out the correlation with the test in this AU, but they still go, out of sentimentality and curiosity and several other complicated emotions.

Test happens again; Victor and Romane time travel.

Timeline 2 - Romane and Bilal are left in the bunker.

Bilal connects the dots between the tests and the disappearances pretty quickly. He tells his mom. Then he tells Romane.

Bilal decides to try and find a way to save Sam and Victor. This time, it's less out of personal grief and more out of a sense of responsibility for what happened and guilt.

Romane graduates high school feeling completely lost. She doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, and she can't shake the guilt over what happened.

Haven't planned it out too well, but Bilal and Romane stay in contact. I'm not sure how it's going to work, but he's able to get her accepted for an internship at some point, and she ends up working with Bilal and Sofia.

The three of them continue to work at the time travel. Along the way, Romane becomes close with both Sofia and Bilal, viewing them as family.

Vanessa dies; Herve tries to take Camille. This time, it doesn't work. Romane has a support net, a steady income, and a future in the physics field. Romane gets custody of her sister.

They figure out the time travel. Bilal decides to go back.

Timeline 3 - Sam is left in the bunker; Bilal travels back to this one; Victor and Romane travel back to this one.

Since Bilal was already an adult before the time travel, Sam still recognizes him. He's clearly aged several years, though, which everyone is very confused about. Bilal has his canonical memory loss.

Idk what happens for the first day, but then Romane and Victor show up to the timeline at the same time they do in canon.

I haven't thought about how the plot changes from there, but the timeline where Victor kills Sam and then disappears after time traveling again doesn't happen. The official explanation is that they're able to stop it from happening the first time; the actual explanation is that I can't keep track of that many timelines in an already complicated AU.

Notes on the AU:

Camille ends up being there for the finale's events, both because she's a little older in the AU and because she's friends with Victor in the AU, so she insists on coming with the main characters.

Victor's emotional conflict ends up being roughly the same, because on the one hand, he's had more of a support net for those four years, but on the other, he's younger with more intense emotions, so it all kind of evens out.

For obvious reasons, none of the canon romantic relationships exist, with the exception of Sofia and Lieutenant Retz.

Obviously lots of things are different with this one, but I can't really think of a lot right now because I'm tired, so I might add to this later.

[fulcrums501st]

So uhh what happened to shimmer in season 2?

Not exploring how shimmer production has affected the undercity in s2 is such a missed opportunity tbh.

Obviously there are addicts, but simply dismantling shimmer and destroying all the factories won’t solve addiction. That’ll cause a mass withdrawal and cause ppl to fight over whatever shimmer is remaining.

While it is messed up that Silco made Zaun so dependent on something so volatile as shimmer, that doesn’t change the fact that many are reliant on it. It has become a crux people need. What about the people who work in the shimmer factories? Do they resent shimmer? Are they grateful that it gives them a job? What are the thoughts of the people who may use shimmer but who haven’t become addicts (like Sevika). It’s something they use normally, but maybe not necessarily cuz they’re addicted. Shimmer is clearly parallels to hextech, it takes the place of the technology that Zaun does not have because of systemic inequality.

Are there normal citizens who use shimmer only for emergencies? Do they keep a stash with them in case they are attacked or mugged in the dangerous underground? Do some people start using shimmer cuz it’s the only thing keeping them alive? Are some just power hungry?

Or what about the addict Caitlyn talks to in s1 who says he “just liked the feeling of being powerful for once”. That would be so cool to explore how oppressed people who live in horrific conditions outside of their control might be more likely to become addicts because it gives them a sense of power they’ve lacked their whole lives cuz of inequality. Silco invents shimmer cuz he sees it and other messed up methods as Zaun’s only way to “rise to the surface”. It’s obviously twisted logic, but s1 goes to show that Silco isn’t entirely wrong, his methods are the closest Piltover has come to making Zaun independent.

“Ready to rise to the surface?”

When Cait starts attacking shimmer factories, Zaunites wouldn’t feel freed, they’d be resentful that Topside is taking away one of their only sources of strength (despite how exploitative that source of strength may be). From their perspective, dismantling shimmer could feel like another form of oppression, even tho Caitlyn’s intentions are good. Plus, destroying shimmer factories would no matter what lead to a spurge of panicked addicts and crime bosses trying to get their hands on as much remaining shimmer as possible. Shimmer shortages would create chaos that definitely wouldn’t have helped the undercity.

Yes, shimmer is a messed up drug that does a lot of harm (but even then it is used recreationally and for medicine), but there were so many interesting ways to explore how Zaun has become so dependent on it in so many ways. You can’t deny that is has become linked to many activities that people rely on. There’s so much nuance to explore there. But this season like doesn’t mention shimmer until after Caitlyn says she’s gonna “dismantle shimmer” (actually maybe the chembarons mention it in ep 2) and then we don’t even see that happen, it’s in a police brutality montage that also glosses over how police brutality affects normal non-crimeboss citizens of the undercity.

Alas, if only s2 has been interested in continuing s1 like idk a second season is supposed to.

[hoshinasblade]

Professor!Hoshina thoughts.

Like I instinctually think he’d be an English teacher who does higher level courses specializing in Japanese literature and poetry. The kind where the class size is like 20 people or less.

On the other hand, I can also see him teaching gen ed literature for entering freshmen and just being a super chill guy. He’d be all “I get that the majority of you don’t want to be here, but you gotta so let’s get through this together.”

Regardless of type of course, I think Hoshina would know exactly how to motivate (oo la la~ lol) his students. He understands people have lives outside of his classroom. He’s attentive during one-on-one conferences, and has great office hours. General student consensus is that he’s strict, but fair.

Also glasses. Like reading glasses. He doesn’t wear them while teaching, but he does in his office for grading and doing computer work. Idk if this is what you’re looking for l, but yeah

if i could make out with this ask, i would have 🥹 this is a bit long so buckle up.

quick trivia that i am an english major; that's why i mentioned in my post before that i am biased on making vice-captain hoshina an english professor if i am going to write a fic where he is a teacher. it just fits his character, i would agree. it's also canon that he reads poetry so there's that too. personally i agree that he would be someone who teaches something esoteric as this parallels his role in the manga/anime. might be slightly off-tangent but this assumption of mine relates to how hoshina is portrayed as someone who is stubborn and proud. it was clear in the beginning that his own father thought that use of blades is already obsolete, but what did hoshina do? he persevered, earning a spot beside the highest ranking official in the third division. i would say something similar would happen when hoshina decided to go down his own path of being a professor - he comes from a well-off clan, i suppose he can choose any other profession if he wants to, but he stands by his decision to be a part of the academe anyway.

now off to the good stuff. NSFW AFTER THE CUT, MINORS DO NOT INTERACT.

hoshina is strict within the four corners of the classroom because he values his principles and his reputation. he can be friends with a few of his students outside school but during class hours, he carries himself as serious and businesslike. which is why i arrived at two scenarios if we are going to discuss anything nsfw involving professor!hoshina:

professor!hoshina x student!reader has a very slim chance of happening but you will be able to make it happen because hoshina sees himself at you. of course you being hot and attractive also helps out your case, but what takes the cake is that you aren't scared to speak your thoughts and fight for them. i can imagine a classroom setup, a heated argument about a required reading, and you find yourself on the opposite side of the discussion from hoshina. usually a student would be afraid to disagree with a professor's opinion, but not you and that gets his attention. having learned that you are in his class not because you ran out of elective program to enrol to but because you actually like the specialised course, i see hoshina getting impressed at how much you respect his field of expertise. the thing is i don't believe he would proactively initiate a sexual relationship with one of his students, but one after-class consultation leads to another, and the farthest he is willing to go with you is... sexting. he is already gambling with his life here, but he thinks this is the safest the both of you can go where losses will not be much. you don't send him nudes right away because you know him better than that - the pictures you send him are just enough to provoke something inside him: a shot of you wearing a black lace bra that barely covered your nipples, or a skimpy skirt that showcases your ass. his response would be him telling you in explicit detail what he would like to do to you once you are not his student anymore. when you got your clearance to graduate, he celebrated by asking you to sit on his desk, commanding you to show him your pussy and finger yourself for him as he jerks off his cock in front of you, watching. he will most definitely fuck you on top of the desk after, and to hell with the papers and documents atop his table, he won't stop his thrusts until he gets to cum inside you for the first time.

professor!hoshina x colleague!reader where hoshina is rightfully hesitant on starting anything at all because he thinks workplace affairs are tacky and impractical. but you make him laugh, and you are not bad at your job too (he's interested at the fact your students are fond of you despite the fact that your program has such a high rate of failing students). he commiserates with you on the struggle of being an effective class facilitator and he is surprised at how you and him have so much in common - you are both into poetry but hates superficial verbiage, you and him believe that a professor's role is not only to teach, but to make sure that students are learning - sometimes those two can be different things - and that although you prefer less sugar, you and hoshina are into coffee. when the literature department spent a friday night drinking at the local bar, you were stuck in the streets during the late hour, and hoshina being a gentleman, offered to take you home. which he did - take you home, just with the worst intentions. maybe it's the alcohol that made him cockier than usual, or maybe it was him catching a glimpse of you undressing so you can change into a more comfortable blouse, but he took the leap of kissing you first, shoving his tongue in your throat, his palm roaming on your chest. let's just say that you were lucky it was the weekend the morning after, because it would have been embarrassing to be walking funny in campus.

... i feel like i yapped too much, so im gonna stop now lol. if you have more thoughts, my inbox is always open. :)

EDIT: just an addition because i think i missed the last part of your ask - YES, GLASSES ON PROFESSOR!HOSHINA. i already came up with a scene where you took his eyeglasses off because you already wanna eat his face and he's like "you know i can't see you that well without my glasses right", and your response will be "that's fine, i can take the lead". my brain is melting with all the ideas, someone help me 😩😩😩

[katyspersonal]

Idk if you have enough to say since he’s a fairly minor character but can you give thoughts on the Hornsent (NPC)? I love him so much and I absolutely agree that he’s a huge parallel to Marika herself and I wanna hear more of your thoughts on that and him in general!

Hey, he is not THAT minor! xD All seven NPCs that were attracted by Miquella and are our guides through SOTE's lore are pretty much in the spotlight! Elden Ring's story just has these important Demigods and characters more strongly involved with them that their gravity makes it harder to focus on the Little Guy 😔 (and all Thiollier fans laughed sfdhfdh)

Okay so uhhh, I will post observations and thoughts in order, because yeah, with this guy you sort of need to pay attention twice or something?

1) He originates from Belurat

The kind of mask he is wearing could've created some confusion, but "the tower" exclusively refers to Belurat in the lore!

Freyja states this much at the beginning, and it is admittedly easy to forget because most likely you check this dialogue just on the first playthrough and before what 'tower' is clicks properly.. but yeah!

A more bold evidence here is that Hornsent will recognise the meal that is trademark of Belurat!

2) Don't be confused though, Grandam is not his mother!

He states in dialogues upon being killed by Leda and if he was not summoned to fight Messmer that his child, wife and mother were killed during Crusade!

2.1) He doesn't mention father nor gender of a child, though?

I think this on itself is interesting, and opens a bit more for potential backstory! His father might have been dead before the Crusade, or... maybe even divorced. x) Or maybe, he survived the Crusade, like Hornsent himself, but perished for another reason; maybe old age, maybe even upon seeking revenge as well? It would still make sense for him to not mention his father even then, because he would not count as massacred IN purge of the Tower!

Saying 'child', not 'son' or 'daughter', also gave me a kinda fucked up idea, listen! What if this means something? For example, his wife was merely pregnant, or the purge happened at the time when she just gave a birth, so he never learned whether it was a son or a daughter? I know I should not make it even darker than it already was, and it is probably just to specify the 'status' (he does say 'wife' rather than calling her by the name, after all)... But imagine...

In any case, his child was still very little! In Japanese he refers to his child as '幼子よ', and I checked... Yeah, it refers to basically an infant, it seems!

3) He is very reluctant to make a connection, even under spell!

After Tarnished gives him the Scorpion Stew, he gives them Furnace Visage (useful item for killing two Furnace Golems that can't be killed normally and to "wake up" one blocking the way in Ruins of Unte). His motivation is, "I desire not to be in your debt"!

And he refuses if you try to give him another Scorpion Stew:

The last phrase (お前と、慣れ合うつもりもな…) is more accurately says something like "I have no intention of getting used to you"! The only thing Miquella's spell did was to give him hope, but he can't open up even to "comrades"!

4) He is not likely to be a potentate, despite his mask!

He is wearing the mask that is otherwise worn by potentates, however, there is something else about potentates:

By the practice of his village of birth! It looks like this is basically a "family business" inherited through generations, something Hornsent already is probably excluded from, since he is one of the people of Belurat!

I think the simpler explanation for why he has this mask is not its context but its practical purpose: "to ward off thoughts and distractions (from his honorable quest of revenge)"! He must remain focused on vengeance; no friends, no falling into despair, no "wax nostalgic 'bout days gone by"... I also played around with the idea that this mask was from his mysterious never-mentioned father rather than something he picked somewhere! Maybe he was one of those Potentate barbarians that somehow climbed social ladder a bit by marrying a woman from Belurat! Don't know whether it is something possible in this society, it is hard to tell :p

Hornsent also doesn't use trademark weapon of Potentates, their butchering knife, but his weapon Falx - something created with the purpose of vengeance! I think it implies that he was not even a fighter before, and only started to wield weapon to begin with FOR vengeance!

4.1) He must not oblivious to where it comes from, though, so what does it say about his character?

Regardless of whether the mask comes from, I doubt he doesn't know its actual origin! I am positive that the people who executed Shamans are long ago dead, but the practice itself is alive. Besides, even Hornsent themselves get this treatment if they've convicted:

So you'd wonder what he is feeling avenging "his beloved people" who put other people in jars, and whether there is some hypocrisy, right? Well, I THOUGHT there was some awareness:

It makes it sound as though he is, at the same time, aware that his folks are not perfect either, and believes in Miquella's new world to fix their flawed, even barbaric culture as well, right? I double checked for Japanese text, and I do not really see it as translation mistake?

ミケラが、その誓いを違えず、一族をも救う神となるのなら

一族を、救って…

In Japanese, he uses 救, which means to 'save' or religious kind of 'salvation'! To 'redeem' doesn't seem to be too far removed from original meaning, but I'd say this gives off more of the vibe of 'salvation' that is justice for the martyred, for those who were murdered unfairly! Justice of God upon sinners and to help out the victims, rather than the 'cleanse our sins' kind of 'salvation'!

Maybe I am looking at it through the wrong angle, but I also kind of like this interpretation more! He is not exactly in the mindset to question imperfections or straight up hazardous religious practices of his nation when the wound of losing his own family, and countless other families being burnt in "cleansing" is what defines his whole life now! Hornsent culture deserves to be criticised, but it is not his priority for the long time now, maybe never again, and it is fair enough!

^ Another line pointing towards him certainly not having "criticism" towards his clan nor intending to, as this is translated very plainly:

…よくも、我らを汚物と呼んだものだ どちらが真に汚物なのか、自分でも知っていただろうに！

5) He disrespects Leda without crossing her boundaries

He never once addresses her by name! It is not just how he is, as he addresses not just Miquella by name, but also Marika and Messmer, his sworn enemies! However, Leda he addresses only as:

The thing is, she is not just Leda, she is Lady Leda! She has the title by her knightly status, and calling her by the name is something reserved only to either close people or those who wants to be an asshole on purpose x)

He surely would not call her Lady, and it could be not quite personal but just because he chronically dislikes Tarnished! But he also would not shorten the mental distance between them by using her name without honorfic. I think it is a neat detail!

6) He doesn't use the flasks to heal!

I actually only learned it from @slavonicrhapsody here ( x ) as I was not paying attention, but, yeah! Developers actually bothered to differentiate him by not having him use flasks, a thing of the Erdtree, that fits the lore!

7) His invasion location might be not coincidental!

Hornsent still invades us even if we helped him to complete his revenge upon Messmer because FromSLOP hates us and our desired bonds with the characters in case you haven't noticed that upon finding dead bodies of Ansbach and Thiollier lmao. But his invasion location is particularly quite close where Romina is, and in the place full of Scarlet Rot+! And Romina is herself form Belurat!

Perhaps, even though he called us a "comrade-in-arms", maybe meeting her made him turn upon us after all? Sure, he does say that after all, he doesn't wish Miquella's help but only vengeance upon everyone under Erdtree, but come on, dude, we are friends now!

But maybe meeting another Belurat survivor face to face after a long time knocked him back to his previous mindset harder, and he decided that "no, not a single person of Marika's world deserves to be spared, not even my comrade that helped me"! As opposed to just thinking up of a change of a heart on his own! It is one thing to keep the 'idea' of victims he is avenging in his mind as his compass, but another to meet one face-to-face, to see her living in the ruins now and latching onto twisted Eldrich God of endless death-and-rebirth that was not meant to be released similarly to Formless Mother! This is a far cry from Hornsent's religion and their worship of Divine Beasts from Heaven, Romina is "ruined" and so is the nature itself in some way, and it is all Messmer's and Marika's fault...

8) Another nameless character!

There are other characters in Elden Ring who abandon their names and instead take up titles that reflect their new purpose (like Dung Eater or Goldmask)! I can only assume that he forsaken his name, instead simply using title of his nation as one, after he lost his family. "The man I used to be died in the fires with them" kind of thing...

This is just an idea that I like, but I think if he was to ever find new relationship, he'd allow this person to refer him by the name or a nickname they pick for him! But he never wants to use his former name again. He might try to start a new life in the best case scenario, but never repair anything from the former one. Things once broken... you know.

9) You KNOW where his mapping skills come from!

He doesn't just also follow Miquella, but is an invaluable help to the team in picking and mapping his exact traces! He has been pursuing Messmer and his forces before in vengeance, and needless to mention that the size of Elden Ring's world is only scaled down for the sake of a videogame not making your brain AND computer explode x) He for sure needed a lot of spyoning, researching and seeking to both find his ways and not prematurely die.

I just think it works better if he lived comfortably in Belurat, a pretty high-class place, and HAD to develop both fighting and mapping skills as a response to his trauma and craving for revenge... I know there ARE military forces in Belurat too, but he is not exactly an armoured warrior, nor a Curseblade. And think about tragic drastic change of a character.... Miquella's charm sort of put those developed skills to a good use.

10) I am not sure what to think of his face data!

(From video by Zullie the Witch ( x )) I just had a flashback in black-and-white filter to the guy that passionately tried to prove us with the foam at his mouth that Fromsoft was super lazy, and honestly... all his arguments were super wrong, yet he never would mention something like THIS! You can absolutely tell that developers created one of these characters first, and then made the other one atop of these sliders instead of making a new one. 🙄

@slavonicrhapsody suggested that burnt marks on Hornsent's face could be from him surviving the purge, and I totally like this idea! Them making a unique character first with clear idea in mind and then remembering "ah, shoot, right we need a few annoying invader NPCs too" makes more sense! Especially since Potentates invaders are all generic, without variants! Basically, I think Hornsent holds priority in this kind of face data for obvious reasons, but, god, if they picked another type of beard, why not remove burnt marks? 🙄🙄 #FromSLOP

__________________

Tbh I already liked this character instantly upon first jumping into DLC! According to my friend @val-of-the-north people were thinking he was kind of an dick, which apparently absolutely went over my head as I didn't feel this way? Maybe it is because I am both familiar with distrusting other people as person with PTSD and not familiar with "being polite" as a concept as an autist lol dhsfh

I just found him intriguing, but his monologue after being summoned for Messmer scared me a little bit. The way he grows more obsessed with revenge, and doesn't intend to stop only at people who were actually guilty... Fun fact: I've summoned him on Messmer's arena by pure accident! XD I didn't know it could be done, I just randomly saw a summon sign while running from Messmer all over the place fhshfds Apparently it was a good call, because most people skipped this turn of character on their first play?

Also unpopular opinion, but I think him being "unlikeable" on some sort of objective level is good? I feel very strongly about the whole mindset of 'only feeling compassion for the 'good victim'' that lingers in society. Like... gooooood forbid if the victim becomes angry, or ends up hurting the world back, or otherwise develops the unlikeable traits, right? Only soft "likeable" victims that just weep and clearly never did anything wrong before OR after their trauma deserve compassion, right? (Slavonic I am using all my willpower to not link your post about Beebus rn fsdhfdhs) I think Hornsent developing negatively as a person is good and realistic. I praised the base game for how Dung Eater and Mohg were executed (not everyone who opposes the oppressive system or was a victim of it is automatically a good person), but Hornsent is not even a villain, and it is even better! He is "not good victim", and it doesn't mean that he doesn't deserve sympathy and recovery!

At the same time, really good character in his function, to show how revenge will only endlessly create more revenge infinitely! I think he deserves better than being automatically written down over what his mask item is given all the other context, and he definitely deserves all the "I can fix him" Tarnished bitches. 😔😔😔

[ir-abelas-vhenan]

I wanted Solas to be able to steal your companions (or at least some of them) away from you

On my first playthrough I genuinely thought that the test of your leadership abilities was going to be if you could keep your team together despite the machinations of the Dread Wolf himself. Obviously that was not the case, but I like the idea enough still that I want to share it now!

(Idk if I should tag this as a critique or not because while it IS me saying I wish the game had done this, that sentiment is also like. The extent of the displeasure you will hear from me in this particular post. So instead, I'll just put the divider in and give everyone a heads up now that while I am about to descend into a spiral about something I think would have been cool, me describing the cool thing I would have liked is not peppered with hate and might therefore still be fun for you to read. )

My brain went off the rails the first time I heard Harding tell Rook and Neve that Solas can go into people's dreams and kill them. (Which, was this something we learned in Inquisition/Trespasser and I missed it? I totally probably did if that's the case because I did not do a replay before jumping into Veilguard, but that line freaked me out when I first heard it lol I was like "since when?!").

While Rook assures both that they're a-okay, all good, it's just a little bid of blood magic, I thought we had just been blessed with some hella foreshadowing. Based on:

-My belief that Solas was going to have followers at his disposal

-The knowledge that he likes to mirror people and give them what they're dishing out

-Him telling Rook that once he found out they were pursuing him, he did his research

-My belief that reminiscent of other games, low approval could result in companions turning on you/leaving the party/speaking against you

I thought that Rook was going to learn that at some point in the game, Solas approached the Veilguard companions in their dreams and tried to sway them either to join him or abandon their leader. And I think there was a lot of opportunity for this to work really well.

Lucanis is perhaps the easiest example to work with here, but there's potential with all the companions because all of them can relate to Solas' experiences.

Solas, through communications in the dreams of his followers or through snooping through Lucanis' himself, would have been interested in the parallel the two share of "extreme loyalty to an important woman in their life that they look up to and take orders from" when it comes to Mythal and Caterina. Solas also knows what it's like to be gone from the world as you understand it to be for a long time and struggle with the adjustment to come back. It would have been wild to find out that he inserted himself as an interested party who sympathizes with Lucanis' struggle and had slowly been showing him all the reasons he shouldn't put all his faith in Rook while playing as a supportive mentor to Rook at the exact same time.

I think depending on how Rook handled Spite, it would have been interesting at either high approval to have Lucanis be like "hey I just want you to know that Spite caught Solas snooping around in my head last night and we shut him tf out" or a low approval Lucanis being convinced that there's no place for him at the Lighthouse/he isn't understood/is too feared and that he needs to try and help through other means. That, consequently, would create some additional difficulty when it comes to trying to kill Ghilan'nain or gain loyalty with the Crows.

And obviously him going for every single companion would have been hard to do or made the game repetitive, so maybe if at a certain point in the game it just took your companions with the lowest approval and triggered Solas attempting to sway them, that would be fun and add an element of replayability. And if you manage to raise their approval enough after getting kind of a warning-sign cutscene where they're more frustrated with Rook than usual, they then tell you "hey yeah I heard from him but I shut him out."

For brevity so that this doesn't go on forever:

-He could have very easily nerded out with Emmrich and convinced him that the world he wants is what's best for the spirits (especially since he does genuinely believe this)

-He could have come to Neve and been like "you don't have to like me because I did kill Varric, but you do love your city, don't you? As I loved mine? And wouldn't you do anything for it?" (especially if Rook saves Treviso over Minrathous)

-He could have promised Taash a place amongst his followers where they don't have to hide their fire/potentially shared some compelling truth he learned in his nerd travels about fire-breathers that they, craving more about their identity, would be tempted by

-He could have tried to play on Davrin's sympathies for the griffons and shared that all he wants is to create a world in which those he harmed have a chance to be at their fullest capacity once more, especially after its revealed that the wardens abused the griffons and then hid from their history. (Now, Davrin is a king and I see him being very hard to persuade even at low approval, but I didn't want to exlude him)

-With Bellara, I mean come on. He is the least sinister of the old elves running around, and she has always craved questions. Knowledge about Arlathan is one of the strongest connections she has with Cyrian. I also think he might try and argue that Rook could have spent more time/energy towards rescuing Cyrian, OR offered her information on the Forgotten Ones that would save him in exchange for her assistance

-Finally, I think it would have been cool if Harding is the only companion Solas actually refuses to try and sway regardless of their approval with Rook. Much in the same way Varric didn't nickname her because he feared her, I'd like to think Solas would know that having fucked with the dwarves enough, she's off-limits to manipulate because he regrets his actions so much. It would have been a cool way to actually explore that part of the narrative a little more, especially because I personally think (especially if you don't have Cadash in the game or a dwarven Rook) someone deserved to have a tough discussion with him, and given Harding's quest line, it would make sense to be her. Assuming she survives past Ghilan'nain's death, I think a cutscene while Rook is in the fade of him coming to her when we know she wants to believe that he can be saved or else it's all for nothing (I can't remember the exact quote right now, so apologies if I'm way off) and them having a really meaningful conversation about the Titans and the rage she holds would have been cool, especially since they did know each other and fight for the Inquisition together.

So yeah, just some thoughts I've had brewing, that's all.

[exaltedfuzz]

hiii! this is really random but i was looking at your pinned comic again and what do you think gant meant whenever he would talk about swimming? idk if it's because there was so much going on while playing the case, but i could never really figure out if there was more to it and im curious about your interpretation if you dont mind !!

Well, honestly, I think it's threatening enough if it's just swimming. (Speaking as someone who can't swim, haha.)

Seriously though, I think it's a combination "let's be better friends and have fun" with an undercurrent of "you know I could hold your head under water at any time and everyone would think it was a freak accident". Because swimming can be brushed off so easily as simply something fun, there's a sort of gaslighting there too. Like "Now loosen up... why did you think I'd drown you? We're just having a good time, aren't we?" This sense of constant threat in something so supposedly happy. Just like Gant himself.

As for swimming with Lana, although he never proposes this in game, it's what I had in the comic, so I'll put some of the thoughts behind it here.

I'd imagine it as a purposeful disarming tactic again. Lana's design, I feel, is a collection of things to keep her looking strong, and importantly, to cover up her weak points. Her shoulders need squaring up, so she wears military style epaulettes. She's shorter than Gant, so she wears heels. She can't have her throat vulnerable, so she wears a scarf. One that's interesting is the medals. Firstly, her heart is the reason why she was able to be manipulated so entirely, since everything she did was to protect Ema, but the medals are on the wrong side of her chest to keep her heart locked behind her achievements. And Gant knows this, he flat out says it in game - that he "knew Lana" and knew that if Ema was implicated, she'd do "anything and everything he wanted" (don't remember who says this, think it might be Nick), despite being someone who "hated anything corrupt" (Angel). Second, I think this means Lana is a bit insecure. None of the other King of Prosecutors winners that we see (Edgeworth, Manfred) have any desire to show off the medals they presumably have (and though I know this is partly because they didn't exist when they were being designed, I also think it's interesting from an in-universe standpoint) so I think Lana is clutching at the things she can tangibly show off. (Interestingly, this actually makes her slightly like the other Chief Prosecutor we see, [Blaise] Winner. He's covered in the badges... I won't spoil AAI2 for what they are, but... The means by which they each obtained their medals and what they point to about them is, now that I'm thinking about it, a really interesting parallel. But that isn't the point.) She does the same thing with her grades, tells you she was the best in her class. I think that without these accolades she'd feel completely useless, so, this brings me to swimming.

Obviously, swimming, you're half naked. I propose that Lana's insecurities extend to this. Seems the sort to be arms folded in a T-shirt and jeans at a pool party. So, I think an invitation to swim with Gant would be something designed to unsettle her and make her uncomfortable, make her lose all her neatly put together armour. I'm not keen to read potential sexual motives into it, for Lana's sake. That poor woman has really been through enough with what's contained in the canonical text. But certainly, Gant would use it as a means of preying on her insecurities and pushing her buttons re: covering up vulnerabilities. The threat of being scrutinised, without any shields (chipped or not) under Gant's uncomfortably long stare, would be terrifying. I think with Gant, it's always the threat of how entirely unknowable he is. Of course, that unknowable-ness leads to him murdering two people as almost a reflex action, and all he seems to care about is making pawns and raising himself up.

Also, since it's water, it's a sort of washing the blood away style thing. Actually, now that I write that, when you look at Gant's design, he's got a huge cross on him. (And parts of his design went into Strongheart, who has a sort of clergyman-style coat) Maybe there's a bit of a baptism/washing away sins Christian style thing going on there. Not to mention the massive church organ in his office. (On Gant's cross tie, actually, something I noticed and found really interesting was that there's so much "red around neck" in RFTA. Gant's tie, Lana's scarf, Ema's bow, Jake's neckerchief, Angel's little octopus hotdog thing, the suit of armour in Gant's office even has a red scarf style thing. Something about the chains heavy around all of their necks. Naturally the most assertive red is Gant's, since not only does it branch out like a marionette controller, but at the center of it is his big badge. So having the chief position has given him control over all these other "red around neck" people, ready to tighten up the noose at any time. I'd say Angel gives credence to this too. She has the least red going on, and she's the only one who doesn't work there anymore. It's also not actually the thing around her neck, which is a black choker, but an accessory that she's attached to it. Emblematic of her really choosing to go back into this world however she can, and that includes emulating the "red string of fate", as it were. Neil's tie is pink (which is light red) so it's faded into memory, and Bruce's is blue with white spots. Now, this doesn't seem like red, but blood is red too, and the luminol reaction is blue. So this is the discovery point, if that makes sense. Where the red has been revealed to be blood under the blacklight, and things start to become undone. Ultimately, as well, the "white spots" become the holes in Gant and Lana's plan, so I think there's something there! But that isn't the point of the post.)

One thing I find interesting about "swimming" in particular is Gant's theming. His damage sprite is him going completely nuts electrical style. So maybe...

Thanks for your ask, sorry for going off on one. Hope I answered your question, haha!

[protect-namine]

it's interesting that yingdu E1 is gonna be the episode that really tells you if you like S1 story structure more, or S2 story structure more.

I thought yingdu would be more like S2 but I'm actually pleasantly surprised it starts more like S1? and I already knew this about myself but I really loved the episodic, slice of life nature of the first half of S1 (and the chibi shorts). I loved S2 and all, but the first time I fell in love with link click it was because of the day-to-day kind of issues they face before they started playing mind games with other people who have abilities like them. and I think I wouldn't have enjoyed S2 or even the back half of S1 if the show didn't start with episodic, low stakes cases. of course, I think they'll probably mix both storytelling styles this special season.

but idk, I really missed that vibe. shiguangling being domestic is sweet. I did like the cosplay story more than vivian's story, though I think them trying to set up the scammer parallel to lu guang was funny. I think cheng xiaoshi shines a lot in these kinds of moments because he's very empathetic even with the little things. lu guang is the one dealing with a lot of big picture stuff (time and death itself) but cheng xiaoshi? he just wants to set up a photography studio and maybe help a couple of people out when he can. play basketball. find a cosplayer to return her paintings. help their student council president to not get scammed.

he's just a little guy! look at him! he thrives in low stakes situations!! give him milk tea and he's happy 🤗

I think the most surprising details in this episode were:

lu guang is in the anime club :o

lu guang kept a detailed notebook of the past?? damn. I feel like he spent one timeline just memorizing and noting down events, down to the last minute.

"your eyes remind me of two people I knew" holy shit. time traveler parents possibly true. what if cheng xiaoshi's parents are lost to the time stream? like, they faced the consequences lu guang said you'd face if you stayed more than 12 hours into a picture (notably though, lu guang doesn't seem? to have this issue when he dives? or I guess past 12 hours you get "stuck" in the past and aren't able to come back to your "present")

what is up with cheng xiaoshi always wanting lu guang to be his partner "for life" asdfghjkl. my guy. you're so sweet

lu guang moves into the photo studio during their university years and bridon happens right after. and he's wearing cheng xiaoshi's summer clothes...

cheng xiaoshi did not clap when he activated his powers with the bridon picture (his hands were holding the envelope and the picture). which is... weird? how did that happen? also he went there as himself which means this picture was... not taken by a photographer? because otherwise he should've possessed someone like normal

finally: lu guang didn't have a watch in the beginning. idk why I always thought he had a watch. anyway, I think we can use the placement of his watch as a signifier of which timeline we're in

no watch: original timeline. when lu guang dives back here, I guess he buys a watch afterwards

watch on the left hand: either the og timeline (after he buys a watch) or the first time he dives? the timeline with cheng xiaoshi's first death? the style of the bedroom makes me think this happened in the first time they go to bridon (which isn't necessarily the same timeline we're seeing in the donghua right now).

edit: actually, scratch that. now I think this might have been lu guang's bedroom lol. the date is 4/12 which is the day cheng xiaoshi reads the 👌 text from lu guang about playing basketball again

it's also consistent with the flashback to cheng xiaoshi's death in S2E1 — watch is on the left hand.

watch on the right hand: S2 finale dive / yingdu E1 dive. which means vein showing up in the photo studio happened sometime during our "current" timeline.

lu guang keeps his watch on his right hand during S1 and S2 as well (catguang in the chibi shorts also has a watch on his right... paw).

there's probably other details I missed but anyway. welcome back link click!! I'm already one square away from getting a bingo in my yingdu bingo card lmao

[junabyclairo]

I would love to hear more of your thoughts on season 3.

i loooooooved season three. it was so wonderfully written and executed imo. many a spoiler under the cut

episode one where we actually got some back story????? amazing i loved it. the ayo directed episode????? BEAUTIFUL. my absolute fav. ik there's a lot of criticism about having not a lot of back story for other characters (like sweeps, manny, ebra, and angel) and i understand where people are coming from but also we didn't know a lot about others from the past couple seasons so i mean it's similar ish. and also i feel like having the faks get a lot of screen time was a little too much for me - the faks annoy me so it might just be me but idk. some of it felt like it contributed to the story but most of it didn't yk. also claire, i never liked claire but this season kinda felt like it was over doing it, constantly talking about her was very annoying and i don't remember any scenes with them (claire and carm) together after what happened in the fridge so that five minute scene with them making out felt very unnecessary and i debated skipping it. also there were a lot of flashbacks which wasn't always a bad thing there were just a lot of them. and i really liked the episode with sugar and donna, it felt really raw and i think it was beautifully written and truly showed generational trauma in an accurate way. AND TINA'S EPISODEEE. my baby i love her so much. her episode was truly amazing i think it's my favorite. and i loved seeing richie interact with eva again, i think they're just so sweet <333. and i also liked seeing sydney and luca interacting they were so cute. AND CARM GOING TO MIKEY FUNERAL BUT NKT GOING INTO THE CHURCH. i screamed. and carm and d*vid (nyc chef) interacting... and all of the parallels of them interacting and carm and syd was insane. it showed how much trauma and anxiety affects someone so much and how they treat other people as a result so well. i think this season was so beautifully executed i loved it sm it holds a special place in my heart. however, i was lowkey delirious when i first watched it (as it came out) so i don't remember much but ill watch it again soon (probably tuesday?) and ill write down my thoughts.

this season was so good and i do wish that there was more focus on other people but that was kinda the case for season two yk. anyways five stars i loved it.

also john cena as a fak was wild wtf.

here's some twitter (x) links that show my emotions perfectly:

ayo director debut

richie/carm fighting

claire/carm fridge thoughts

tomorrow, napkins, and ice chips

ayo and liza need all the awards for napkins

pete fan club

anyways lmk if you have requests for carm after season three lmao

[moliathh]

This had been irking me so i have to say it. I know Hellsing is a horror media with a LOT of flashy action scene, however, it is unjust to see it as solely gore and fights. I've seen complaints about how adding a "romance" in will reduce the quality of the story as an "action horror". (specifically speaking is between Alucard and Integra because of course in the end of the day this is just ship war, not a serious discussion whatsoever) I would argue that Hellsing is never ONLY about the actions. Yall might have already noticed how Alucard is too OP, and it was not even because he got any tricks up his sleeves. He is simply invincible, his mechanism is just that hes a "deus ex machina". He did NAWT need to start out with zero and levelling up like your common action anime protagonist. It's not a first time a central character is overpowered in an unreasonable way. A way you could interpret this trope is that it was not about battles, not the physcial one, but the development in their characteristic, their thoughts and emotions and ideology all that stuffs. A classic example is Sir Gawain and The Green Knight (TGK), where all of their (physical) battles are nonsense and did not mean anything in terms of combat, they dont even fight each other, even the climax (the decapitation of TGK) was dismissed into a looney tunes moment. BECAUSE OF COURSE IT WAS NEVER ABOUT THE BATTLE NOR PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT, it was the internal struggle and maturing in character. THAT is what's happening in Hellsing IF yall look pass the very flashy facade of gore scenes Hirano put up. READ BETWEEN THE LINES, because he's not gonna hand it out to you on a plate. If you want to see how each character developed you have to look closely at their reactions and dialogues, not how they fight.

SO, imo, it's reducing the quality and message of Hellsing to interpret it solely as an action horror media, not the other way around. AND MIND YOU, romance subplot and action horror can coexist. For what does the character fight? A higher ideal? Power? Fun? Love? All that is noteworthy to think about when you engage in a media display many fight scenes. DONT YOU WANNA KNOW WHY THEY FIGHT THAT HARD ???? and in this case it is VERY obvious that Alucard is motivated by Integra. LIKE it cant be more obvious

And I'm so tired of seeing "Alucard only listen to Integra because of the seal and shes a Hellsing". Bestie, he literally ripped Richard's hand off, we dont even know the extent of the seal, like how far? or can it REALLY control Alucard? Besides, if you have read The Dawn you would see what a damn lazy ass Alucard was, Arthur sent him on a mission and he didn't even bother to walk on his own and just sleep safe and sound in his coffin until he felt like waking up??? Compare that to his enthusiasm to beg Integra on four just for her order and even purposefully tick her off by asking about her enthusiasm for war, oh and did we collectively forget this

(This is the Dark Horse eng scan if i remember correctly? i might be mistaken idk)

Sure it could just be a mere parallel, "The woman he personally desired" might only means Mina Harker and not directly Integra herself, I see. But, why bother choosing this parallel, and RIGHT after this panel he went STRAIGHT to Integra to ask for her order.

You know how enthusiastic he is with a fight and everything was already laid before him, worthy enemies and all. Yet he would not act without her words? I did not see him needing permission before ripping Richard's hand off... Also the seal did NAWT ask him to do all this

There are more of his sickening and excessive display of obedience but i don't have time to pull the panels out yet, but we all know its there since Alucard's submissive attitude and Integra's bossy demeanour is one of their most appealing traits, I know, because it is literally one of the BIGGEST selling points and running joke of the fandom, funnyyyy how people always love to call Alucard a sub and use words such as "freaky" and "slutty" to call him as if he didn't reserved this treatment for ONLY Integra. Sure Integra is a demanding boss to even her enemies, and it works like wonder everytime, because she's Integra, she mastered Alucard, others are just piece of cake to her. But that's not the same case with Alucard. Major literally said "She is the only authority Alucard recognizes". And have Alucard extended the phrase "My master" and all the begging and insinuating jokes to anyone else? It's so convenient isnt it, to just take one specific trait of Alucard's personality and make it his entire character without considering to WHO he directed those innuendos to.

Oh and I haven't walk us to the final chapter yet, like the seal did NAWWWWWTTT asked him to call her "Countess" (or Count, depending on the translators) and literally he could accept his death becoming a paradox? Wasn't Alucard had been craving an end for a long while now? Why the need to return just because Integra asked him to??? Be serious for a moment here

Also a personal interpretation of mine that could be a stretch or just pure delulu is that, in the manga AND the anime adaptation, the last word Alucard said after goodbye is "Integra" (In both Japanese and English dub, the word order is exactly the same), not "Master" or "Integra HELLSING". The same goes when he addressed how he can kill without remorse but the decision is in her hand, he also said "I am a monster, now regarding you, Integra". To me that is an indicator for how he CARED for her not just because she's a Hellsing or his master but she's Integra, from the first of their meeting it was very clear, that Alucard wounded A HELLSING to protect Integra.

So... even non-romantically, you cannot deny that Alucard voluntarily worked for Integra. They DO care about each other a lot, even platonically, their bond is almost like soulmates with how well they trust and understand each other. I just don't like it when people keep side-stepping the depth of their relationship just because you don't like to ship them romantically. These are the canon informations you can't just seriously unironically say that there was nothing there.

And oh don't even get me started on the "But he is a vampire, the enemy of her family and he hates Hellsing because of Abraham something something stockholm syndrome something she's ace coded she's lesbian coded she swore to be a virgin until death she wouldnt throw it away for the enemy of her family etcera etcera" you're saying it as if ace people aren't allowed to date or have sex and you're saying it as if Alucard isn't canonically genderfluid. Why always view the ship as solely heteronormative while they were never conventional to begin with. And MIND YOU, i thought everyone love the enemies to lovers trope?? they were BARELY stockholm syndrome at all did we forget about the Bird of Hermes analogy as a metaphor for loyalty voluntarily given.

If you care so much about "monsters and humans are forbidden" and "they are not canon" maybe treat every ship with the same attitude since MOST of hellsing most popular ships fit into that exact two sentences above, maybe except Pip x Seras is canon, but they're also human x monster, so what now???? Just hate on a ship all you like, I hate ships too and I hate them because I don't like them, that's all, no need to do extra mental gymnastic to prove the ship is "wrong" or their shippers are "wrong".

[hauntingofhouses]

the tale of the ronin and the bride really changed the entire premise and promise of the show. because mizu really could've been happy. she WAS! she was happy. she fell in love and found peace and she was about to accept all of herself and openly be all of herself but then it was robbed from her.

and not to push my taimizu agenda again (sorry) but for taigen to behave the same way mikio did from the inevitable gender reveal would be so redundant in my opinion. it would be different if mikio didn't exist and that whole storyline didn't exist, but it does. so taigen won't need to play that role of "guy falls in love with mizu, only to find out mizu is a woman* who's insanely good at fighting, and then lashes out at her and destroys their relationship" anymore. someone already did that before him.

like! i was thinking about how taigen's reaction might mirror that of avigdor in yentl, which is the movie that inspired the love triangle in BES. so if you haven't watched yentl, basically it's about a woman named yentl who crossdresses as a man so she can study and go to school. at the school she befriends avigdor, who is just as passionate about her studies as she is and they basically become best friends who bond over their debates of rabbinic literature. yentl falls in love with him, and it's implied that avigdor also starts feeling that way for yentl, despite believing her to be a man. at the end of the story, yentl reveals herself to avigdor, and he lashes out at her for having "tainted" everything and for having made him a "sinner." he gets angry, there's an argument as he demands to know why she did it and why she is exposing herself now, and yentl ends up breaking down crying, confessing that she loves him. avigdor holds her and comforts her, confessing his mutual feelings towards her, and they kiss. and then they talk about running away together and eloping, but in avigdor's plans, yentl would have to be his wife and thus would no longer be able to do what she loves (study). so they end up parting ways and yentl leaves aboard a ship to find her own freedom.

so anyway, the parallels of yentl=mizu and avigdor=taigen are clear, but to me, it would be rather redundant if taigen were to try to force mizu into this role of a docile wife again. because that's what mikio tried to do! and mizu had done it, and was about to do it again. for a year she lived as a submissive wife and even began to enjoy it. and after sparring with mikio and him rejecting her masculine side, she put on her bridal robes and her makeup in hopes to apologise.

so whatever taigen's reaction will be, i think will definitely be a parallel to mikio's, but i think will end up contrasting it in the end (see: my taigen and mikio are narrative foils post)

i mean, definitely there will be conflict and drama though, about that there is no doubt. especially cuz we all know taigen is a huge drama queen, there's no way he WON'T make a big deal out of it—and this would be the case even IF he grows enough to be able to deal with all his conflicting feelings internally instead of lashing out. regardless, he won't be so accepting immediately, but i don't think he will outright betray her and be an antagonist again.

idk idk. i'm just having lots of thoughts about this now.

[spacedlexi]

since you are THE TFS enthusiast, i was just kinda thinking of random contrasting parallels between Peaceful Guardian S1 Lee & Destructive Broken TFS Lilly They both stumbled upon Clementine, one in his own panic finding her at home while the other is calm and has a plan, finding Clem who is homeless (again lol) Lee doesn't teach Clem anything until he's given the advice while Lilly is prepared to teach Clem by whatever measures, harmful or not Lee never harms her friends (in this case, Duck) but Lilly isnt afraid to put harm on the Ericson's kids Lee dies by saving Clem and then asks her to let him die either way Lilly dies by fighting Clem and then begs AJ/Clem not to kill her

Clementine leaves Lee in a peaceful manner with a sweet goodbye while she is forced to leave Lilly and is bitter and pissed off

Lee is hesitant but then enjoys the teamwork and comradeship with Clem, contrasting to Lilly essentially laying down the law and claiming Clem as a possession rather than family

Idk I just had to get this off my chest to someone so I wanted to know if you have any thoughts!

i do think that dichotomy between lee and lilly intentionally exists in S4. lilly even uses lee to antagonize clem more than once

lee taught clem how to survive and stand on her own. lilly only ever knew clem as that sweet little girl and thinks she can break and mold her into a loyal soldier (like how she did to minnie. like her father seemed to have done to her. she Was air force pre-apocalypse). but S4 clem is old enough to reject what other people might want for her. she knows what she wants and she'll fight for it. and lee taught her that shes capable enough to do it

lilly is the only character who could throw off and unnerve a S4 clem on a core level (other than christa rip 💀). lilly is clems last connection to lee, and had relied on her at a time when she was young and extremely vulnerable. clem Still wearing the hair ties lilly gave her back in S1 shows just how long this connection has lasted

the dichotomy between lee and lilly is why i really enjoy lilly returning as the S4 villain. i actually think lillys characterization makes perfect sense in S4 even tho some people seem to disagree. the reason her and kenny butted heads so much is because they were ultimately very similar in their desire to have singular authority and "protect their own", and they werent afraid to do it in a "by any means necessary" style. lilly snapped after her dad died, and we all know what happened to kenny... lee always existed as the man caught between them, but ultimately rose as their "leader" as he was able to keep a level head and typically keep the group grounded. learning that they cut lilly feeling like a monster because she was relieved her horrible father was dead was actually so disappointing and wouldve added to her characterization in both S1 and 4. due to feeling horrible about being happy he was gone, she just doubled down instead and convinced herself she was wrong to feel that way, which causes her to repeat the cycle of abuse on others that he imparted on her. and S4 is all about breaking cycles. lilly (and minnie) being so caught up in their own are why they work so well as antagonists, and highlights clems struggle to break free from it all and build something new. something lee would be proud of (and he is So Proud 😭😭)

[tschulijulesjulie]

i just had a thought! (yeah yeah, i know, funny) so, iwtv is a show of parallels. Lestat and Armand both manipulating Louis, Louis and Daniel both having their memories altered, Armand using Lestat and later Louis to dismantle his coverns, etc.

So, idk if this might be far fetched, but hear me out. its Armandiel/Devil's Minion brainrot, but maaaaybe I'm onto something.

Louis believes that Armand slept with Lestat, because that is what he told him. We as the audience are also lead to believe that, but we also do know that not everythinng theyre telling us, is actual true. if they did stick with book canon, he didn’t actually sleep with him. let's go with that assumption.

we also did believe young!Daniel had slept with Louis, and even Daniel himself believed that, until Louis did reveal to him that he did in fact not sleep with him. Then we have also young!Daniel reassuring Armand that he didn't sleep with Louis.

both times we get a love triagle in a way.

in the first case its Lestat - Louis - Armand. with Louis actually having slept with both other parties, and also believing that Lestat and Armand did sleep with each other.

in the second case we get Daniel - Louis - Armand, where we know for sure that Louis and Armand have slept with each other. we also get the parallel of Daniel/Louis and Armand/Lestat not actually having done it, so like an open side of the triangle. but what about Armand/Daniel, you ask. yes, indeed, whay about Armand/Daniel?

As a 70s/80s devil's Minion truther I'd like to assume that Daniel, even though he doesn't remember, has actually slept with Armand, so that the triangles are actually even

kinda like this:

yes, I'm taking my Armandiel brainrot very seriously.

[littlespoonevan]

*slips you a fiver* hi i'd like to hear about those abby/tommy parallels please

oh anon, i am Obsessed with you for asking me this question askdjf let's go!!!

okay. so rewinding to 5x04: the thing that endeared me most to buck/tommy as a pairing and the reason why i'm more on board with them than i ever was with buck/taylor or buck/natalia is mostly because of buck's reaction to tommy during the kiss. it's been over a month but i still haven't quite come to terms with just how lovely???? his reaction was???

because buck, in the immediate aftermath of the kiss, is just so in awe. and so shocked at the possibility of this thing that he never thought he could have. and it honestly really reminded me of how he was with abby??? i think i made a post about it at the time but in both instances it felt like a moment where buck was realising, "oh i can have this if i want it???"

in abby's case, the 'this' in question was romantic love. the possibility of real feelings and a real connection with somebody who wanted him back.

in tommy's case, the 'this' is obviously the idea of romantic love with a man and discovering a part of himself he never lingered too much on before.

in both scenarios, it offers us up a side of buck that's just so genuinely happy and excited and giddy almost??? most likely because of how real it feels and how much he's letting himself feel it??? like, idk if you've rewatched s1 recently but s1 buck is just so Open with his feelings for abby????? and regardless of what happened afterwards or if you ship them, seeing that side of him is just askfja it makes me giddy lmao.

and i definitely think we're seeing something similar with buck now. like, it's a little different - buck being open in s1 meant him being very charming and very upfront about his feelings whereas in s7 buck is more open in the sense that he's not shying away from his feelings for tommy even though coming to terms with his sexuality is obviously a very big thing too.

and i just don't think we've seen that from him with ali/taylor/natalia. with ali, it's understandable since she was barely in s2 and it was really just his attempt to start moving on after abby. with taylor, i think the 'buck is taylor's abby' theory still holds a Lot of weight and i think he never really knew how to be all in with her the way he was with abby. and with natalia, well, we all know that didn't really get any development. so seeing him like this now is just very refreshing, y'know???

(i'm not saying he didn't care about those partners, he obviously did, but the sense of anticipation there now is very much something that i feel is only on a par with his pursuit of abby)

and then ofc, on a more basic level, there are parallels in them both being older and having a lived a Life outside of buck that maybe he doesn't full comprehend yet and them both being a sort of guiding hand to him as he navigates a new part of himself.

but in terms of where things'll go now and how it might affect buck? i think buck is a very different person from season 1. he's also lived a Life (several really at this point) and his current personal life is so much more full than it ever was when he was dating abby so i don't think he'll be pinning all his hopes on tommy the way he sort of did with her. i think he can definitely still get swept up in his feelings (as we've seen lol) but i also think he's willing to take this thing between him and tommy for what it is and not put pressure on it like he would've before.

tl;dr it's not necessarily about the tommy/abby parallels and more about the buck parallels when he's with both of them, y'know??? :')

[greenqueenhightower]

Anon back again with more rumours/leaks from twitter to make (un)substantiated claims🫡

Okay so one of the people that went to the premiere in NYC was answering some questions also in regards to Alicent. They said it is implied that the first sex scene we see between Alicole is not the first time they have sex, but they made clear that the implication don't seem to be that it was something that happened pre-Viserys death. Which would put their relationship starting after 1x09 and before 2x01. That would make sense to me.

This also lines up with some other leaks I heard where they said Alicent and Criston's first scene of the season was a sex scene, so it is more an established thing that is happening. The same previously mentioned leaker replied in regards to Alicent's character that mainly she seems confused, which we know as she is looking for a sense of self.

Some people theorized that the large number of sex scenes (3 rumoured for first two eps) and the fact that Alicent's story seems to start there in s2 (also Olivia mentioning sexuality as something that is explored) could be written as hypersexuality as a response to her trauma manifesting after Viserys' death. Others theorized that it could be comphet and her figuring out sexuality in a place that is so deeply repressed. It could also simply be that she is having sex because she wants to (good for her) and then because it happens during B&C that the guilt of that is so great she simply represses it all again and the relationship falls apart after that. In any case I can see various routes in which this could be explored in a way that makes sense for Alicent's character.

Now for Criston's character: we saw some leaks and early reviews (watched either ep 1 and 2 or 1 through 4) saying that he gets more "bitter" as the season progresses and would become "the most hated character on tv". Now I take the second one with a grain of salt because people tend to dislike him way more than for example dae/mon who is uhm worse idk. But the common conception seems to be that he gets worse as the season goes on. So seeing as ep 1 starts with Alicole together and then B&C happens at the end of ep 1 start of ep 2, it seems like they skip the getting together stage and instead show the falling apart of this relationship. This would make sense if they are paralleling rhaenicent (as Ryan said) because at the same time dae/myra also seems to be slowly breaking apart.

For now to me it seems this relationship is mainly to show Alicent's headspace she is in of being confused and feeling purposeless. An Alicole rift after B&C as a result of this would make sense and would leave Alicent even more alone (save my girlie). We'll have to wait and see. Also glad you like my thoughts I'm just spitballing here and honestly need the episodes immediately.

Thanks, anon, for keeping me updated! 💚

Okay, actually the idea that Alicent and Criston consummate their relationship some time after Viserys' death and before the Dance of the Dragons sounds good to me. Again, I would have liked to have seen the entire pathway of their relationship that culminated in that, but hey--as long as it is well-written I won't mind.

Your comment about hypersexuality manifesting itself as Alicent's post-traumatic response to her marriage is very interesting! I also see it as a manifestation of agency in the sense that she no longer has to be summoned to perform a sexual act upon request, but she can seek it and want it herself. It most definitely can be comphet too, because she is not as free as per Westerosi patriarchal and heteronormative standards to contemplate and realize any relationship apart from the norm.

When it comes to Criston's character development in S2, your theory that the writers might have Alicole parallel Daemyra to showcase how the Dance has devastated all kinds of relationships: familial, conjugal, erotic, etc., is quite plausible. Watching Alicent and Criston's relationship suffer to the point of breaking would be heart-wrenching but angsty and spellbinding at the same time. I just wish we get to see more of them together before that happens.

And as for Alicent's battle with guilt and her quest for agency and self-worth, I am all for it as long as the show does not victimize and wh!rify Alicent. I assume that Alicloe will break up after B&C, but will at some point get together again (maybe after Aegon is injured at Rook's Rest?). And for all the time they are apart, I hope we see more of just Alicent crying and being miserable and Criston being ruthless in war and battle.