#my two cents on the ending

[thedissonantverses]

I promise this thought is Dragon Age related just bear with me for a moment.

I used to work in trails and environmental restoration. So we would deal a lot with invasive species. One important concept in ecology is naturalization, where you have an invasive species that’s been around long enough that other species evolve to deal with it and live with it. It’s a major mechanic of evolution and happens even when humans aren’t causing it.

When I think of the Veil, that’s how I see it. Tearing it down would restore an ecosystem that no longer exists in its original form. There’s no telling what the effects would actually be with magic tearing into mortals like that. We also know that Solas’ original ritual went wrong and there’s no guarantee tearing it down wouldn’t cause new, even worse problems. Or create something worse than the Blight.

It’s not like dam removal, where a lot of animals die in the initial destruction but the population bounce back is incredible, because those fish species are supposed to be there. We need them back in the ecosystem because hundreds of years haven’t passed, there hasn’t been time for the system to figure it out without them. Not to mention we’re talking sapient beings who did nothing wrong who would die in the process of tearing it down and not fish but you get the gist.

I stand by the Veil remaining intact and Solas being its guardian, because he broke the world multiple times trying to save it and frankly, it’s someone else’s turn. The mortals of Thedas deserve the chance to steward their world, especially that they’re finally free from the meddling of the Evanuris.

[royalarchivist]

Bad: I don’t think people understand the effect QSMP had on some of the streamers in terms of like… The real raw mental impact, so I’m gonna set the stage for you. [...] Imagine that you were given a friend to play Minecraft with — like your best friend — BUT if this person dies, if they die in the game, you never get to talk to them again. Can you imagine what that’s like?

Bad: If you did not live through the QSMP, if you did not live through that, it almost sounds like, crazy. But I don’t think people realize how much of a joyous experience the Eggs were. They were SO awesome! They were literally so awesome to just hang out with and spend time with.

Bad: I’m not saying I regret it. To this day, I loved the experience. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. Even knowing how everything went, I would still do it all over again. [...] I would still do it all over again, because — even knowing like, all the trauma and suffering and stuff like that — because it was just… It was just that fun, it was just that fun.

Earlier today during his stream, Bad shared his experience and thoughts about the Eggs and the significant emotional (and traumatic) impact they had on him and his fellow QSMP members.

This clip a very edited-down version since his commentary was ~13 minutes long, so I highly recommend checking out Bad's VOD if you have the time. (Timestamp: 47:36 - 1:00:14)

[ Full Transcript ↓ ]

———

Bad: To be fair Chat, I really think the QSMP... I don't think anyone really can relate to it, Chat. It's something that's so... I've told people this before, like– but it's hard to understand. Right? Like...

Where was I? Sorry Chat, I'm losing my train of thought. Look, let me explain Chat– here's the dealio, ok? Here's the dealio, and this is what I mean when I say like, it's important to keep this in mind, Chat. Ok? It's important to keep this in mind:

I don’t think people understand the effect that the QSMP had on like, some of the streamers, in terms of like… The real raw mental impact, so I’m gonna set the stage for you. This is the analogy I’ve given to every person who I’ve like, shared this with. Imagine you meet somebody– [He hears a strange noise] What the fudge was that? Did you hear that?

Anyway– Chip! The story I was just relaying to Chat, Chip, was this: I was sharing this story with them, I said–  I was giving them an analogy. 

Imagine Chat, for example, imagine that you were… playing Minecraft, with like– you were given a friend to play Minecraft with, Chat, like your best friend, and [unintelligible] were like, “Hey, you get to play Minecraft with this person, right? BUT if this person dies – they’re currently your best friend, Chip – but if they die in the game, you never get to talk to them again. Ever again.” Can you imagine what that’s like, Chip?

I don’t think a lot of people understand like, what that does, right? I’m not gonna say that like, it creates this situation, Chip, that like, messes with your head, but it– Chip – but it totally, totally does, Chip. It messes with your head! It literally puts you in a position where you’re second-guessing and thinking about everything, Chip! You’re thinking about EVERYTHING Chip! Ok? And that’s the problem, Chip– is you turn into a paranoid monster because of it, Chip! Like, you don’t understand Chip– I was- I was so afraid of every dirt block, I used to carry a shovel with me Chip, and I would specifically right-click dirt blocks that looked suspicious because mines, Chip– mines could not be shoveled! Like, I was crazy, Chip! But here’s the problem, Chip: that craziness is still there. I’m genuinely like–

I remember thinking Chip, that I would one day– I was like, “I’m going to move past–” here, let’s go up here, Chip. I remember thinking one day Chip, I was like, “I’m gonna move past the underground base, one of these days. You know, one of these days, I feel like I’ll be able to grow and achieve the desire to build a base that doesn’t have to be underground.” But I don’t think it’s possible now Chip, because I think… I just don’t know. I feel like the paranoia– there’s still like, residual leftover trauma from that situation, Chip.

But here’s the problem Chip: I don’t think I don’t think– I don’t think people understand it. Like, I just really don’t. But I also don’t blame them Chip, ‘cuz I don’t think it’s possible to fully understand it if you haven’t lived through it. Like, if you did not live through the QSMP… I’m talking about the QSMP, I don’t- I don’t know if that was obvious– if you did not live through that, it almost sounds like, crazy. But I don’t think people realize how much of a joyous experience like, the Eggs were. Right? I don’t think people realize it. Like, they were SO awesome! They were literally so awesome to just hang out with and spend time with, Chip. So, it’s just one of those things that–

[He’s interrupted by a loud rumble of thunder above them]

Did lightning just strike here? Is it thunderstorming out…? But anyway, Chip. That’s the food for thought.

But that’s the problem– Like, every time it rains in Minecraft, I have to like, look at the sky, and I get this weird, like, second--hand vibe because of the trauma. The trauma, Chip! The trauma is real! But that’s the point– I’m not saying I regret it. I, to this day Chip, I loved the experience. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. Even knowing how everything went, I would still do it all over again. 

[He falls down] Dangit, don’t come over here Chip, ‘cuz I’m coming back up! Ok.

I would still do it all over again, because — even knowing like, all the trauma and suffering  and stuff like that — because it was just… It was just that fun, Chip, it was just that fun. I really wi– I don’t think it’s ever gonna be possible, Chip, to give people that same energy, like that same experience. You know what I mean, Chip? I don’t think it’s ever gonna be possible again. Like, EVER.

Because… because like, one: I will say on one level Chip, I will say on one level, like– it’s sort of emotionally like… It’s emotionally devastating, and I think to actually go through that– and this is where like, if I ever do end up going to a– see a therapist, if I ever do end up going to see a therapist at any point, I’ll talk it over with them and be like, “Hey, what do you think about this?” Because I genuinely think on one level, like– it’s created this fear of forming attachments because of like, how things can go. You know what I mean? Like, the fear of getting attached to something and then potentially losing it. Like, it’s- it’s a genuine thing. I think people forget about that.

Like, at the end of the day, everything was RP, right? On the server. You know what I mean? Like, everything was RP, Chip. BUT at the same point, even though it was RP Chip, it was still like– there the reality of you were still playing like, with another person, and you were still getting that experience, and it felt like you were genuinely attached to someone and you didn’t want anything bad to happen to them. It was GENUINELY stressful, Chip.

But at the same point, I don’t regret it, and I don’t think it was a bad experience. I’m– 

Sometimes in life Chip, you go through stuff, and maybe you have a certain amount of like, things that like, can happen, that you’re like, “You know what, maybe this wasn’t a good thing that this happened,” but at the same point, you still aren’t necessarily upset about it, because… it’s like growing as a person, right? Here’s the thing Chip; even bad situations, Chip, can lead to an overall good outcome. Like–

Even if you’re going through something bad Chip, just because a bad thing happens doesn’t mean that only bad things have to come from that. That’s one of the things I tell people all the time, Chip, is that if you go through a bad situation, you can learn from it, and you can use your experience to help others. And you can be that– you can be, at the worst-case scenario, you can be someone for other people who are going through that same experience to lean on when they go through that.I think there’s a certain amount of comfort that comes from that; from knowing no matter how bad your situation is, you’re not the only person who’s experienced it. You know what I mean?

[inbabylontheywept]

seeing republicans attack legal structures that make it easier to register for voting always seems like a weird gamble to me. whose side has the laziest voters? whose side is willing to jump through the most hoops to vote? and how likely is that trend to continue into the future?

these aren't rhetorical questions. i don't know. and i don't think the republican party knows either. i can tell you, as a college student, i once got confused and registered to vote three times in one day. there are a lot of redundant programs to help young people vote. i don't know if there's as much of an effort to involve the old.

there's also something to be said about noticing when people take coin flip odds of success. the implied message is that they had less than coinflip odds of winning before. and i can believe that. the republican party has no idea what it's going to do in four years, least of all ten. if they seem busy and organized and scary right now, it's because they are cornered and fighting for their lives. who are they gonna run next? everyone that ran against trump the first time got humiliated. there's no one that he's currently training and grooming into a future leader. all the competency got driven out because trump viewed competency, correctly, as a threat.

like, they might pull a rabbit out of a hat, but i'm strangely optimistic. i can't even imagine what the republican primary will look like in 2029, least of all 2033.

we are looking at the republican party's last stand. and if it's messy and chaotic and insane, it's because they have nothing left to lose.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Why We Never See Elendira's Story

In a story that emphasizes the human or otherwise sympathetic aspects to its focal characters, it’s very intriguing that Elendira remains an enigma right up until the very end of her story.

We receive some tantalizing hints that there is much, much more to Elendira than what we’re explicitly shown – asides from her apparent sole interest in witnessing the end of the world (to which she'd prefer to see Knives' chosen ending, but is prepared to act herself if he fails), she looks somewhat resigned when saying that nice men “die so easily”, that no matter what Vash does, humans will “ruin it”, and so on and so forth.

[ID: Two screenshots from Trigun Maximum Volume 11. In the first, over a rocky ground, Elendira says "I liked you better when you had nothing to lose. What a shame." She looks down, somewhat resigned, and continues "I don't like nice men. They die so easily." In the second, she stands, frowning and saying "No matter what Vash the Stampede does... there will always be those..." On a close up of her right eye, she says "...who ruin it." End ID.]

Elendira seems to have little to no faith in humanity, and in that sense, she seems a lot like Knives. Knives, who aims to become more and more powerful, and in the process, severing all meaningful ties he has with others on his quest to ensure no one can take advantage of him or use him. We know, of course, that Knives doesn't quite succeed here... but Elendira has. She is the peak of human (or part human? We never get an answer to her unexplained abilities) capability in speed, skill, and strength. The only reason Livio stood any chance in that fight was due to his incredible regeneration.

(As an interesting aside, she also has an interesting commonality with Vash - what comes to mind is her telling the kids to bury Livio because he "died" trying to protect them. Why does she care about that? Why does it matter? None of the other GHGs do this. This is not important to the point I'm making here but it's just interesting to me. There's very few characters who explicitly make a point of burying the dead.)

The point being, Elendira is the height of strength... and at the top, she is alone.

[ID: A panel from Trigun Maximum Volume 13. Elendira is in the action of dropping her white coat, which she has taken off to reveal an underarmour suit that is almost skeletal in appearance. She looks confident. End ID.]

In a story where characters' motives and pasts are told through their connections with others, through their memories with people they cared for, and through the eyes of the people who care for them...

Vash's story is eventually told in pieces to humanity through Meryl, through Luida, and through his sisters. Rem survives in Vash's memories, and we see the part of her story that young Vash saw, just as we also see his own past from this recollection of her.

Milly is a clarifier and communicator who sees so strongly the sides of Meryl and Vash that they suppress, all that grief and fear, for the sake of remaining steadfast. She is the one whose eyes we see through. It had to be seen to be told. Wolfwood does this too.

The rest of GHGs get some elaboration also. Hoppered is defined through his loss of the woman he cared for in July. Midvalley is defined by his fear and contention with Knives. They also have a dynamic between them that few of the other GHGs shared - and it's likely for this reason we received more elaboration on the two of them than many of the others. But even characters like Rai-Dei, for whom we don't get very much at all, has at least his sunk-cost fallacy explained through the memories of the people he's killed to get to that point.

Chronica's story, though largely removed from the people of No Man's Land, is given definition and stakes through the loss of Domina, and we are told about her incredible determination and strategy she has through her reputation with the Earth fleet.

Legato, desperate to play a singularly important role in Knives' story, tells his own through that lens and that lens only. The moment his life changed was the moment Knives entered it, and that is likely the most important memory to him - Knives is the only meaningful bond he has (sadly for him, this was not reciprocated). Well, an argument can be made for the contentious dynamic he builds with Vash too.

Even Knives, for all that he tried to separate himself from others, is known and seen through his connection with Vash - and his acceptance and unwillingness to fully lose this connection is not only what eventually saves him, but also the reason we, as the audience, know his story so well.

We see characters' stories in Trigun mainly through the bonds they share with others - never the whole story, but the sides that others knew of them.

So, who does Elendira have? Every interaction she has is shallow, dismissive, and exceedingly temporary. Through her dislike of Legato, we get that she may be somewhat bitter about his important status to Knives... but there is no elaboration, because it goes no further than that. Knives calls her directly on the phone, and she is very invested in his vision for the end of the world and intrigued by him... but it goes no further than that. He does not really seem to care about her beyond her effectiveness, and she does not offer any information about herself. Even her allegiance is kind of flimsy. She's only there because she wants to be.

During their final fight, Wolfwood lives on through Livio, through his actions and resolve. It is the teamwork between him and Razlo, in the spirit of Wolfwood, that eventually overpowers Elendira. Amusingly (at least to me), Livio is quite literally never alone, because he always has Razlo - and now, Wolfwood too.

"Yer too strong... and that's why yer gonna lose."

[ID: A screenshot from Trigun Maximum Volume 13. Livio narrates over a shot of his eye, Razlo's eye, and finally, his whole face, with Wolfwood's final vial of serum between his teeth. "...to me... to Razlo... and to him." End ID.]

Elendira has succeeded in separating herself from everyone – she is the most powerful of the GHG, and every battle with her is basically one-sided – but she’s alone, and that’s not only why she loses… it’s also why we never get to know her in any meaningful way.

Because no one knows her. She has no personal connection with anyone. Her motivations never get any clarity. We don’t even know who did her modifications or how she gained her power. Even if she did have someone she cared for in the past, she apparently does not hold onto their memory. And maybe that's the reason she told the kids to bury Livio - not out of respect, but because to her, that is where the past belongs - dead and buried, soon to be joined by the rest of the world and humanity as it all comes to an end.

We never see Elendira’s story… because there is no one from whose eyes we can see it in any capacity.

[mohntilyet]

i read the wigmaker job recently and there’s an idea that really stuck with me, which may well have been discussed before, but it’s really been itching at me. it came from this exchange near the end –

“i don't want to quit.” / illario sat back. the distance between them suddenly felt much wider than a table. / “even if it kills you,” illario whispered. / “death is my calling,” lucanis stated, matter-of-fact. “just as yours is to become first talon.”

(the bits before and after this give important context, too, but these specific lines are what gnaw at me)

i. really wonder if this conversation – and the long-standing beliefs held by both of them that it’s indicative of – contributed to giving lucanis to zara.

like, illario coming to terms with the fact that lucanis really just will. not. stop. for ANYTHING. his cousin WILL get himself killed doing this and lucanis won’t have any regrets. he’ll leave illario to go this alone. (no one to follow after anymore.) combined with the envy of knowing that lucanis is and always will be caterina’s favorite, and she will likely pick lucanis to be first talon even tho lucanis does not want this At All…

i wonder if he thought that, well, if lucanis is going to die anyway… maybe it’s better to have it happen sooner, rather than later. why put off the inevitable? especially if this is the one thing that could shift caterina’s gaze to illario and give him what he’s wanted – what he’s earned.

lucanis wouldn’t be happy as first talon anyway (honestly, illario seems to see that what lucanis is NOW isn’t so much ‘happy’ as it is ‘obedient and content to accept the scraps that gives him’), and he’s GOING to get himself killed doing this, anyway… and sure, they COULD wait it out. wait for lucanis to do something foolish enough that he can't just walk away from it. maybe he’ll even last long enough to be made first talon (if caterina can ever bear to loosen her grip from the title) and be miserable for a while. years even, maybe. before he, again, does something he can’t walk away from.

OR. or. or illario could cut through all the pointless waiting and get right to the point. go straight to where this was always going to end up.

(and maybe part of it is an extension of anticipated grief, too – the loss will be agony. if illario controls when and how it happens, he can control his grief. …except he hasn’t accepted the inevitability of lucanis’ death quite as well as he’d thought and when he gets sloshed at the wake, real grief seeps through the cracks)

i dunno. something about both of them viewing lucanis’ death as a foregone conclusion and how illario Might have had that shape his decisions.

YEAH . YEAHHHHH. i do also think the “to reason” exchange is what solidifies it in illario’s mind. lucanis is like 'this has been a productive if tense talk with my cousin. surely he sees sense now.' and illario is like ‘what the fuck. i think he wants to die’ <- okay im exaggerating a bit but i do absolutely see the end of wigmaker’s job as the start of lucanis-illario’s downward spiral. there’s a reason that it’s something lucanis is stuck on during inner demons, and the exchange that you have very nicely broken down is what he hears echoes of, this is where he knows it started to go wrong

probably the worst part is lucanis WOULD have worked himself to death and it takes the series of events in veilguard for lucanis to see other options for his life, and still he ends up being shoehorned into first talon by the end of the quest. i thought his quest would parallel iron bull’s, in that rook shows them that living outside and away from crow influence is possible, and that he is much more than the weapon they turned him into, but it ofc doesn’t go through like that. it’s genuinely a bit heartbreaking that lucanis finally has support and like. FRIENDS. but with the way the game ends he’s pulled back into the crows and to a life that will be about protecting a cousin that the organisation he runs hates, and for as long as caterina lives, unable to say no to her. and meanwhile after lucanis has made connections outside of the crows, illario has absolutely nothing left (prison of his own making i get it but i still want to get his ass out of there. 😭) so the codependency that they used to share is gone as well. maybe lucanis has a foot out the door but i genuinely have no idea how illario goes on after this

[galacticlamps]

ok I have A Lot of thoughts about the staircase confession (well really about Edwin's whole character arc, but all roads lead to rome) but for now I just wanna say that, yes, I was bracing myself for something to go terribly wrong when I first watched it, and yes, part of me was initially worried its placement might be an uncharacteristically foolish choice made in the name of Drama or Pacing or Making a Compelling Episode of Television but at the expense of narrative sense--

But I wanna say that having taken all that into account, and watched it play out, and sat with it - and honestly become rather transfixed by it - I really think it's a beautifully crafted moment and truly the only way that arc could've arrived at such a satisfying conclusion.

And if I had to pinpoint why I not only buy it but also have come to really treasure it, I'd have to put it down to the fact that it genuinely is a confession, and nothing else.

That moment is an announcement of what Edwin has come to understand about himself, but because it takes the form of a character admitting romantic feelings for such a close friend, I think it can be very easy, when writing that kind of thing, to imbue it with other elements like a plea or a request or even the start of a new relationship that, intentionally or not, would change the shape of the moment and can quickly overshadow what a huge deal the telling is all on its own. But that's not the case here. Since it is only a confession, unaccompanied by anything else, and since we see afterward how it was enough, evidently, to fix the strangeness that had grown between him & Charles, we're forced to understand that it was never Edwin's feelings that were actually making things difficult for him - it was not being able to tell Charles about them. 'Terrified' as he's been of this, Edwin learns that his feelings don't need to either disappear completely or be totally reciprocated in order for him to be able to return to the peace, stability, and security of the relationship with which he defines his existence - and the scale of that relief a) tells us a hell of a lot about Edwin as a character and b) totally justifies the way his declaration just bursts out of him at what would otherwise be such a poorly chosen moment, in my opinion.

Whether or not they are or ever could be reciprocated, Edwin's feelings are definitively proven not to be the problem here - only his potential choice to bottle it up - his repression - is. And where that repression had once been mainly involuntary, a product of what he'd been through, now that he's got this new awareness of himself, if he still fails to admit what he's found either to himself or to the one person he's so unambiguously close with, then that repression will be by his own choice and actions.

And he won't do that. Among other things, he's coming into this scene having just (unknowingly) absolved the soul of his own school bully and accidental killer by pointing out a fact that is every bit as central to his self-discovery as anything about his sexuality or his attraction to Charles is: the idea that "If you punish yourself, everywhere becomes Hell"

So narratively speaking, of course it makes sense that Edwin literally cannot get out of Hell until he stops punishing himself - and right now, the thing that's torturing him is something he has control over. It's not who he is or what he feels, but what he chooses to do with those feelings that's hurting him, and he's even already made the conscious choice to tell Charles about them, he was just interrupted. But now that they're back together and he's literally in the middle of an attempt to escape Hell, there is absolutely no way he can so much as stop for breath without telling Charles the truth. Even the stopping for breath is so loaded - because they're ghosts, they don't need to breathe, but also they're in Hell, so the one thing they can feel is pain, however nonsensical. And Edwin certainly is in pain. But whether he knows what he's about to do or not when he says he 'just needs a tick,' a breather is absolutely not what's gonna give him enough relief to keep climbing - it's fixing that other hurt, though, that will.

Like everything else in that scene, there's a lot of layers to him promising Charles "You don't have to feel the same way, I just needed you to know" - but I don't think that means it isn't also true on a surface level. It's the act of telling Charles that matters so much more than whatever follows it, and while that might have gone unnoticed if anything else major had happened in the same conversation, now we're forced to acknowledge its staggering and singular importance for what it is. The moment is well-earned and properly built up to, but until we see it happen in all its wonderful simplicity, and we see the aftermath (or lack thereof, even), we couldn't properly anticipate how much of a weight off Edwin's shoulders merely getting to share the truth with Charles was going to be, why he couldn't wait for a better, safer opportunity before giving in to that desire, or how badly he needed to say it and nothing else - and I really, really love the weight that act of just being honest, seen, and known is given in their story/relationship.

[slutforpringles]

Interesting to me that even AMuS highlighted how unusual it was for Red Bull's Head of PR to be with Daniel for his media rounds, while also reiterating that Daniel still has Christian Horner's full backing and support. I also think Visa advocating for Daniel is a HUGE boost for him given their sponsorship deal is worth upwards of 20 million a year.

via: AMuS | Bleibt Daniel Ricciardo bis zum Saisonende?

[stagefoureddiediaz]

I am having thoughts though - as people seem to have ave decided to theorise about the will being brought up to Tommy 🙄 and that being the hurdle they need to deal with.

I’m actually thinking its more likely to be the sperm donor baby, although I feel like there’s plenty of other stuff more 118 connected that could and would work just as well!

The thing with the sperm donor and tommy being weirded out by it, is the way that it would juxtapose so perfectly if the will was brought up as part of the Buck/Eddie stuff that’s going to happen in 806 - the sitting in silence - because it works on so many levels.

It creates a clear and obvious contrast between Eddie and Tommy while not making Eddie part of the bt plot in any way (which is very good and what the show has been doing so far - nothing buddie has happened with Tommy present - it’s always been separate and they’ve always taken tommy out of the equation at the start leading into buddie stuff - even the birthday stuff in 801 - 2 lines and then step out of camera so we can focus on buck and Eddie’s faces in tandem!)

It creates a potential hurdle in that it brings in a wanting kids/ not wanting kids conversation and that can then spiral out into the way Buck sacrifices his body constantly for others (which plays back into the will of it all without it being about the will of it all) Tommy being weirded out by the donor thing but then saying that other forms of self sacrifice are ok could be interesting - the idea that Tommy thinks it’s a good thing to be ‘expendable’ on the job as saving others is more important than one’s own life.

It would even let Tim play on the death of it all - have the arc that Natalia would’ve had if she’d stuck around. We already saw her weirded out by the sperm donor thing, then come back only to be told she constantly wanted to talk about bucks death. They’ve also already planted the lightning strike into the bt plot - at the hanger in 704 - so it all would make sense if Tommy is down for dying or Buck dying on the job (like not literally dying but stating that he doesn’t see dying on the job - sacrificing himself for others as a bad thing)

That would get Buck thinking about who he is and what he wants and allow for his death and rebirth to be explored a bit more than it was in 6b, and it would also play into the saving Gerrard/ meaning to hurt him thing as well - and Bucks struggles with that.

It would be very interesting as a way to deal with all Bucks baggage (as Oliver mentioned!) and get him to deal with it - whilst setting him up to realise his feelings for Eddie in an organic way that separate from Tommy!

I can see them taking that route and I’d actually love it if they did, and not only because it plays very heavily into my tommy is alt buck theory, but also because it really and truly would get buck off all of the various hamster wheels he’s been on and actually moving forward rather than flirting with moving forward!

[liaragaming]

Just adding my two cents, but I didn't personally read Solas's visceral, curling in on himself reaction to be due to Mythal.

When he first sees Mythal, he looks like a sad wet cat man, but that's it. (And this the first time he's seen her since he killed her, so this seems perfectly accurate, imo.)

They have a whole back and forth with each other before we get to the curling in on himself reaction. and he's relatively composed.

Mythal: I pulled you from the Fade you loved and sent you into war. I used your wisdom as a weapon... and it broke you.

Even Solas's "The things that I have done", he doesn't seem broken down yet.

Mythal: Are not for you to bear alone my friend. The many wrongs we did, we did together.

We don't see him breaking down until the "We did together" part, and she's so far away from him at this point.

To me, this whole scene is about getting Solas to let go of the pain of regrets, and that's never been something he's been able to do. Mythal's words are telling him: You are not alone in this. All this pain isn't yours to carry. And that's so incredibly difficult for him to process.

He's been carrying all of this and blaming no one but himself for thousands of years. Of course, he's going to have a visceral reaction to having someone who was there, who participated in those regrets, who he himself killed, telling him that pain isn't deserved and to let it go.

The dagger represents Solas's regrets. He created it to sunder the titans, Mythal was killed with it, he drew her essence from it and then never spoke to that essence again, he used it to create the Veil, he killed Varric with it - all of Solas's mistakes are tied up in this thing and he's trying to give it to Mythal. He's begging her to take this pain and these regrets from him. He doesn't want them anymore!

And then she does exactly what he's asking.

Mythal: I release you from my service.

So many of the things Solas did and regrets, he did at Mythal's behest. And in the final moment, she takes responsibility for those things. She takes those regrets and lets him go.

Finally, he is free.

This scene is about Solas healing. Mythal helps him to do that.

[bibuckaroo]

yes i’m a khunbam supporter first and a human being second, but i’m also the person who doesn’t believe they’ll go canon (by other people’s standards, by mine they pretty much are) and because of this i ended up giving waaay too much thought about who i would accept bam to end up with (because we all know khun is not ending up with anyone, i’m just hoping he’ll be alive by the end of it all).

and the strongest contenders in fandom in terms of the girls are endorsi and yuri and i just… wouldn’t like that… at all.

endorsi is clearly interested in him romantically, but it’s so very clearly one-sided, bam sees her as a friend and nothing more. and she’s so pushy and demanding with him, it makes me dislike them together.

meanwhile, i don’t pick up romantic vibes from him and yuri at all? i adooore their relationship, so very much, but to me she acts so much like a big sister around him and i think it’s adorable.

but anyway i ranted about all of this, because the only one i would accept ending up with bam is ehwa of all people, because they actually have some romantic moments, she actually cares for him and respects his space and wants him to be happy (also i can’t get it out of my head that he smiled his ‘khun smile’ to her once: big smile with closed eyes, when he was rescuing her).

that being said, i don’t actually know how to multiship when i think two characters belong together and khunbam are soulmates, this is just me ranting because i believe they’ll never get together.

[shoot-i-messed-up]

was gagged at these pages. bruce and diana, u r two rich assholes

[imtheiliad]

i think that they are all getting a commendation for the cruise ship rescue

[mxhirus]

Pre-apocalypse Mahiru headcanons?

I was actually thinking about this and was like "damn we lowkey don't know much about Mahiru before Guren's epic sophomore year of high school". So... why not talk about it?

So here's MY takes!

Mahiru 1000% is on the National Honors Society, like that girl has a 4.0 GPA unweighted and is slaying through her years

though I think that her grades might've dropped significantly because of the fact that she was slowly planning to betray the Hiiragis, and despite how she's inherently "perfect", she can't be so perfect to the point where she can juggle all these plans

Honestly? Definitely took a large dip downwards once Guren arrived.

She, Shinoa, and Shinya often play tea party together. Similarly to how Mahiru and Shinya used to chat over tea as children (i love their friendship so much and want to build on it more, hence my personal headcanons.)

Actually, speaking of Mahiru, I think her relationship with Shinya was relatively stable until she delved into insanity and betrayed EVERYONE

I think in the class ranking, Mahiru would be 1st and Shinya 2nd. I feel like it would be a part of the message of his character. He desires to one up everyone to prove that he's not worthless, and he isn't. He fought very hard to get to the point in which he is today.

I feel like Mahiru would be rather popular at school, but people wouldn't come up to her and talk to her. They're too scared because of her status as a Hiiragi. (I actually can't remember if this part is canon or not, but if it is, I agree) It's reflected by the way people treated Guren for his lower status.

Mahiru herself is rather emotionally tender despite being skilled in communicating her thoughts with others and conducting plans. She was always soft hearted. She more or less had to harden her heart to be able to go down the darker path she sought.

If you were to ask her about herself, she wouldn't be able to tell you. Superficial things, like what she likes and doesn't like. She couldn't tell you. She never had the time to think about these things because she was so busy perfecting herself and her persona. Picture perfect. The way everything should be. Right?

She is a lonely person. Despite being surrounded by people who want to help her, or be her friend. She often finds that she isolates herself from others, not because she doesn't want to talk to them, but because she feels that she does not fit in.

damn these got a little psychological but these are just some personal takes i have about her, as she is my favorite character in ons besides yuu ^_^

[nameless-o]

This is the same picture

[mephistopheleswasrobbed]

BL or no BL, is that the question?

I've been wanting to talk about this for a while now but I came across a post in the tags that made me finally do so because I mostly agree.

I make a post every week accumulating all the "proof" I found that Home and Peach are actually gay for each other despite the "not a BL" label of the show. And I used to say in the tags that I don't intend for this to be taken entirely seriously but I kind of stopped doing that because I felt like I was repeating myself but now I think maybe I shouldn't have (I might go back to add those disclaimers back in).

But I would actually be completely fine if the show never has them kiss or plainly state "we are dating" or any other irrefutable "proof" that they are in a romantic relationship. I don't think not doing so would make it queerbaiting and I don't think it would diminish Home and Peach's relationship in any way. (Just to clarify, I would also be fine with it if they do say explicitly that they're in a romantic relationship.)

Personally I don't like the idea of strictly separating romanitic/sexual relationships from platonic ones. In my opinion/experience there can often be overlap between the two or rather many relationships just don't fit neetly into one of those categories.

I'm not an anthopologist and I haven't really done any reading into this so take what I say here with a grain of salt but my impression is that our current understanding of love and relationships is not universal across human history and cultures. Maybe, when we changed the intent of marriage from an economical union between to families, to a proof of love, we went too far in the oposite direction, maybe capitalism has an influence here through its concept of the nuclear family, I honesty don't know. (If you come across this post and do know, feel free to recommend me some resources because I'm genuinely curious about this). Anyway what we have currently is this idea of a strict differentiation and hirarchy with romantic(+sexual) monogamous partnership at the top, familial relationships beneath that and platonic relationships of varying degrees beneath that. And I fundamentally disagree with that idea. I think you can love your friends romanically but still see them as friends and not someone you want to date. I think you can be in a commited partnership with someone you love platonically but not romantically. I think you can love the same person both romantically and platonically to different or varying degrees. And sexual attraction is another factor that varies (imo, and to varying degees for different people) relatively independently from the other two. (I am personally also not a huge supporter of the idea that monogamy is somehow superior to other relationship constellations and I'm convinced that if monogamy wasn't so ingrained into our culture, fewer people would choose that relationship model. Does this have something to do with men wanting to ensure that their offsping is "actually theirs" before the invention of dna testing? Who knows, not me, but I could see that being a factor)

All of that to say, I think the show has so far made it very clear that Home and Peach have grown to love each other and want to form a family together. A family that also includes Pangpang who is Peach's sister by blood and Home's sister by choice going by her contact name in Home's phone. If we compare Home's relationships with Peach and Pangpang it is also clear that Home doesn't view Peach as a brother. I think if one were to ask Home who's more important to him, Peach or any of his numbered ex-girlfriends, the answer would be pretty clear. Even if Home doesn't want to have sex with Peach (but if he does, all the power to him), he clearly views him as more than just a friend (again not that I agree with the idea that frienships are somehow lesser that romanic relationships, in the first place). He views him as someone he wants to be a family with. And imo that's pretty queer.

A lot of discussion of queerbaiting comes from a time and place where studios put little hints of queerness into their shows to hook the queer and shipping viewers but always kept it subtle in a way where the stock standard straight viewer didn't pick up on it because they wanted to have their cake and eat it, too. A lot of frustraition around this comes from the fact that we, as viewers who picked up on those hints, were constantly ridiculed by other fans who didn't want any 'icky homo shit' in their media. And because those "fans" would have never accepted anything but the caracters saying "we are homosexuals in a homosexual relationship" before making out on screen for 10 minutes as "proof" that anything queer might be happening between them, they could always feel like they were "right" and we were "wrong". (It hurt especially when the creators of those shows, who themselves put out the bait, participated in making fun of us.) And a lot of frustraition came from the fact that there wasn't a lot of explicitly queer media easily available to us at that time. So the subtle bait we got made fun of for noticing, was kind of all we had. Obviously we wanted them to make it more explicit, to make it "real".

But neither of these factors are really at play here. (I can't speak to the TV viwership numbers in Thailand, maybe they will contradict me) I don't think Peaceful Property is more popular than it would have been if they had marketed it as a BL (judging by the apparent spike in engagement for ep 7, it might even be the opposite) so I don't think they left it more vague (if that is the route they're going) in order to not alienate a staright conservative audience. There is also definitely not a dearth of explicitly gay media from gmmtv (and we've even gotten to a point where BL characters are increasingly allowed to call themselves gay/bi and aren't portrayed as straight boys who incidentally fell in love with another boy but are definitely not queer or anything).

With this context I think we can (again, if that is what they're going for) portray queer relationships that don't map neatly onto the predominant idea of a romantic relationship and that maybe don't have a sexual component to them.

Thanks for making it through my unorganised rambling. Have a pic of my beloved Chai-Un as a reward.

TL;DR If Home and Peach kiss, that's cool. If Home and Peach don't kiss, that's also cool. Either way what they've got going on is pretty queer.

[yoiiyoii]

I do agree that it's OOC and doesn't make sense that Giyuu and Sanemi canonically had descendants in the ~4 years of life they had left. But I also do think people hyperfixate on the logistics a little too much sometimes when discussing character, headcanons, post-canon, etc etc (it kinda gets annoying hearing "why don't we ship Giyuu with his ACTUAL wife for once??" for the thousandth time...)

The fact that they had kids has less to do with "Giyuu and Sanemi went on dates with women and found their perfect match and decided to marry and have kids" yada yada, it's moreso just a representation of KNY's core theme about "eternal human feelings". Giyuu and Sanemi survived, and their humanity got passed down. The rest didn't, but their humanity got passed down anyways through reincarnation. It's merely another tool to show a big middle finger to Muzan and less about the concept of "Giyuu/Sanemi had a wife and they left her alone after dying at 25" (I mean, there's a reason we weren't even shown them, not even a blank silhouette, because that's just not important).

Having said this I heavily recommend the series Love Letters From Tomioka by sciathan_file on ao3. One of my fav KNY fics, about Giyuu (clumsily) trying to court a woman.