#no idea if this makes sense

[the-band-list]

the thing that gets me most about the 'do a-spec people belong in the queer community'-discourse is that it's not like the lgbtq+-community is not like an official club that you need to get membership to. It's not like being part of it automatically gets you some kind of benefits? It's not even a defined social group? Like, it is and always has been an idea, a concept, a social construct - one that serves (or should serve) a specific purpose in fighting or protecting people from patriarchy. there is not really any reason why gay people and trans people belong in the same category apart from the fact that they are both marginalized in heteronormative societies but even the mechanism and the effects this has on different identities is not at all the same. Like, when you talk about the queer-community or the lgbtq+-community what even is your definition? What is it based on? What benefits does that have? Even if you define queer as not straight and not cis (which would generally include most a-spec people) you can only say so much with that

[cachu302]

Gotchard and love languages

Watching Gotchard (and being probably one of the very few fans of the show) got me in the mood to do some more character insight and character study. I really enjoy watching how the characters interact with one another, which is easily one of the main strengths of the main writer, Hasegawa. In particular, the smaller moments and scenes stand out to me more than the bigger plot points, though more so for the students than the adults.

Crap, I sound like Kyuun.

Renge

Let’s start with the Osaka alchemist, Renge. Renge initially sticks out as a receiving gifts kind of person. She’s very upfront about possessions, seeming very comfortable with asking Houtaro to trade two of her on hand Chemies (Energyl and Sasukemaru, the bois!). When Minato moves to mind wipe his students, Renge’s immediate action after escaping is to start discarding her prized alchemy equipment, as Sabimaru points out. Renge felt happy receiving her alchemist tools, because it meant that she could start making an effort to help her family’s financial situation. But now those tools become a reminder of the state of the academy under Geryon’s control.

Around the time everyone resolves to keep collecting (and saving) the Chemies, Renge’s love language shifts to quality time. Some part of her has realized that she’s happier spending time with Sabimaru, Houtaro, and Rinne, more so than when she was all in on learning how to be a big-shot alchemist. Really, all four members of the Kitchen ICHINOSE Alliance seem to gravitate more towards quality time after they meet Daybreak Houtaro. Beyond that, however, Renge’s character moments become more focused on her bond with the others: how she and Sabimaru planned out extracting and transmuting Zukyunpire’s essence as a counter against the Abyssalis sisters as a way of supporting their Kamen Rider junior students. The Ninetail arc in her grandmother’s hometown really sells how Renge is focusing on spending time with her loved ones. Even when the Kyūbi Malgam unearths the hot springs, Renge focuses on how her grandmother’s town is safe, and that she’s still going to be able to visit her, rather than be like, “My Nana’s hometown can make money!”

Sabimaru

In contrast to Renge, Sabimaru starts out as a quality time kind of guy. Given that he’s poor at communication without the help of Isaac, it’s a bit surprising to see that just being around his new junior, Houtaro, is enough to get him excited about Chemy hunting. It’s not about hunting for the Chemies that gets to him, it’s more about how he can now spend time with others who share his interests. And that extends to the Chemies as well. Aside from Houtaro, Sabimaru is easily the next best friend to the Chemies, with how he’s seen playing with them while Houtaro and Rinne are away on their school trip. When he’s invited to the Ichinose Christmas celebration, he bonds with Kajiki about the idea that Santa is an alien. Now he has another friend outside of the academy that he can share interests in.

His brief stint as Dread also further reinforces his need for quality time. The way Sabimaru acts while captured by the Sisters, and his reluctance to fight, despite being strong armed to do so (so much so he breaks his arm trying to resist), it’s clear he misses his classmates. His friends. And when Houtaro saves him with the power of UFO-X, a Chemy he’s been fascinated with, he’s elated. He’s home, he’s back with his friends, he can spend time with them again, he’s not going to die as a pawn of the Sisters. Sabimaru is definitely going to double down on quality time with his friends.

Spanner

Spanner is a bit difficult to pin down, mainly because he’s a jackass so elusive. Despite that, it feels like Spanner responds more to physical touch, which is ironic, since he keeps everyone at arm’s length. Obviously, he doesn’t make many moves to get to know the rest of the gang, especially Houtaro, but it’s more telling when the only one he really lets in is his mother Kyoka. Kyoka is the only one who is shown to be allowed to invade Spanner’s personal space. When Houtaro offers him a handshake, he brushes him off. When he and Houtaro are duking it out over possession of the Gotchardriver, he’s keeping Houtaro at a distance, only striking him with the bokuto. When he takes over Houtaro’s call to Sabimaru, he basically rips Sabi’s phone from his hands (rude). Even Rinne, who we see he’s making an effort to be cordial to, he avoids contact with. When Bolt has her dangling in the air, Spanner ignores her and goes straight for him.

When his parents are revived, it’s one of the few times Spanner is visibly happy. Full smile and everything, not the arrogant smirk he gives the younger students (Houtaro). While he doesn’t physically interact with them, the implications of his time as Kyoka’s ward really start to sink in. Without his parents to offer him guidance, Spanner will lose himself to his black flames. The flashbacks of his adjustment to living with Kyoka show her hugging him, patting his shoulder in congratulations and encouragement, physically interacting with him. He’s not completely happy with her, but his is better than if he were to be left alone. And especially after he returns as Kamen Rider Valvarad, the first thing Kyoka does? She side-hugs him. Spanner, despite the torment and despairing realization he’ll never see his parents again, is content.

Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis

All three of the Abyssalis sisters start as receivers of words of affirmation, especially from Geryon. Leading up to his appearance, everything is for HIS plans. They don’t really have any other purpose than to start development on the Dreadriver. However, the creation of Dread isn’t as important to them as gaining Geryon’s approval.

Clotho is the simplest of the sisters, at least at first. Receiving the belly warmer power-up to her is evident that she’s received Geryon’s approval. And that seems to be all she needs. Grabbing the Gotchardriver from Houtaro would grant him access to the Door of Darkness, and further their plans. The process of doing so would easily net her more approval, so she steps up her game to seize power. But then Geryon gets yeeted into the shadow realm disappears, leaving her without purpose. Houtaro’s questioning of her purpose, her Gotcha, makes her realize that she craves approval, but also that she wants to keep her sisters, her family, intact. She craves quality time with Lachesis and Atropos, but her pride and rivalry with Houtaro prevents her from admitting so. And with her recent power up, who would need quality time when she can easily crush her rival?

Atropos is very clear cut from the start. She’s easily Geryon’s favorite, so out the gate she’s the only one receiving praise, apologies, and validation. Her specialty in escalating the situation easily wins her most of Geryon’s approval, so she’s content with keeping the situation as uniform as possible. Unlike Clotho, who basically wallows in uncertainty after his disappearance, Atropos doubles down on the scheming and escalating the situation, imagining herself winning more of Geryon’s affection, likely as a coping mechanism. The incident with Tsukumo could also be her attempt to deprive Rinne of her love language, as revenge for the disappearance of her own parent.

Unlike her sisters, Lachesis has rarely received Geryon’s approval. She’s the only one who doubts his leadership and methods. When Clotho tries to overclock the Dreadriver to take down Gotchard at the likely cost of her own life, Lachesis is visibly scared and worried for her sister, realizing that his plans don’t account for the sisters’ well-being. Upon Geryon’s arrival, he basically HIJACKS her body to be used for the Orochi Malgam, and leaves her defeated and alone, if not for Clotho coming to retrieve her. When Geryon creates the Cerberus Malgam, he doesn’t even bat an eye when Lachesis is thrown aside and injured, and only shows concern for Atropos, leaving the youngest sister bitter and envious. And then the tipping point comes when Geryon targets Spanner. Now Lachesis, having been given the short stick multiple times, bears witness to how truly relentless and unforgiving Geryon truly is. Is she going to be tortured like Spanner? Suddenly validation doesn’t seem so enticing when she’s at the risk of being torn apart in exchange.

Now Lachesis understands the hollowness of Geryon’s approval. Why should she try to receive validation when it’s clear he never cared for her in the first place? Her misgivings are further cemented when her own sisters are ordered to eliminate her. Clotho is hesitant, but Atropos is all in. Now she’s been abandoned, so what else can she do? She flees. Joins up with the Alchemists’ Academy as a ward of Kyoka. Lachesis is not happy, and the only love language she’s ever known now seems hollower than ever.

Rinne

I won’t go much into Rinne’s analysis since I did that in my last post. But at the very least, it’s obvious that Rinne is recipient to words of affirmation, just like the sisters. Her self-esteem is lower than that of her peers, though that may be the result of her self-isolation and full focus into her studies and alchemy, so it stands to reason that just hearing encouragement from another person (Houtaro) would be enough to make her feel seen, loved, and happy. Like mentioned above, Atropos capitalizes on this with Tsukumo by creating a scenario where Rinne would be unable to receive affirmation from her greatest connection, Houtaro, though this isn’t the case, since Houtaro absolutely trusts Rinne no matter what. In #4, just hearing Houtaro say that he believes her is enough to convince Rinne to escape the labyrinth. Houtaro believes her, believes in her, and is willing to let her know that as much as he can.

A side tangent: as seen in #14, as well as outright stated by Clotho in #27, the Gotchardriver gains power through cheers, encouragement, and belief. As such, it’s probable that the Alchemis Driver works similarly, only the effect is much more noticeable. Before Minato arrives to encourage Rinne, she’s getting easily overwhelmed by the Mammoth Malgam, enough so that her transformation fails. As soon as her teacher arrives and tells her to, “Fight like yourself,” she’s able to overpower the Malagm right back. And with enough encouragement, Majade is able to synergize herself easily with Platinum Gotchard.

Houtaro

The Gotcha boy himself. Houtaro is definitely one of the happier characters on the show, always surrounded by his friends and loved ones, whether they be Chemy or human. So it would stand to reason he’d be the happiest receiving words of affirmation or spending quality time with others. Yes, that’s true, but Houtaro seems to be at his brightest whenever he’s engaging in acts of service. For him, the simple act of helping someone is enough to make him happy. Receiving affirmation and quality time is also important, but to him, they’re more like smaller goals that help him reach the overall larger picture goal. Fighting against Malgams and freeing the Chemies will definitely make the Chemies happy that they are understood and have someone who is so willing to just be their friend, instead of seeing them as tools or freaks of nature. And if there’s someone who’s connected to the Chemy incident of the week? Houtaro makes it his goal to help them as well. Think of Mr. Asahi, who gave up on pro wrestling, only to be able to live his dream again thanks to Houtaro’s intervention. What about Riku, the boy with an overbearing parent? If eliminating the malice in his father’s heart can help resolving things and bring a happy end to all parties, then Houtaro is all for it. A classmate who wants to revive the drama club? Houtaro is willing to take part in the play just to get more students to join. Who cares if they find his acting hokey, or if Rinne s l a p s him in the middle of the show? As long as Mikuriya’s satisfied, then that’s great! Even at the cost of his well-being (fighting monsters) or striving for his Gotcha, Houtaro aims to make people happy.

Because isn’t that what Kamen Riders do?

His cooking skills also point to him favoring acts of service as a love language. Here, he is expressing his appreciation, his acknowledgment, what have you, of the recipient. Of course, since his choice of ingredients is… unique, the response of disgust and/or dismissal (or insults, in Spanner’s case) would be seen as a refusal or a downplay of his act of service. Rinne’s comment of “Something’s off,” followed by his outburst of “No Gotcha!” shows that he’s upset the other person didn’t understand his feelings. Of course, being Houtaro, it’s not enough to make him give up, and instead, he resolves to better next time. And the next time. So on and so forth. Until his feelings are properly conveyed.

TLDR, I love the character interactions in this show, and I’ve spent so much time thinking about it.

[sparrowseagles]

The terror 2018 & religious symbols in storytelling and character development

Religious themes are widely used in cinema mainly because religion is an inherent part of our culture. The story of the bible is told using tropes and storytelling devices that are still prevalent to this day. It can help the audience recognize themes, character archetypes and offers the storyteller/director an opportunity to play with those common ideas and reshape them to create a unique piece of art.

We will be looking at first season of The terror series and how that applies to it. I have not read the book on which it's based, so I'll be focusing on the show's version.

(Disclaimer, I was raised catholic but never went to catechism class, so my knowledge of the subject may be flawed as it dates back to my childhood. Also, I am awfully uneducated and don't know anything about other religions or how they may apply to any of this. Therefore I'll be sticking to what I know here, but you're welcome to add to this and enlighten me!)

Episode 6 "A Mercy"

This episode quite obviously relates to religion as Fitzjames names the event they organize after the Catholic season of Carnival. All the episodes after it also follow the events that come after Carnival in the catholic faith, fasting for 40 days and then the resurrection of Christ.

Fitzjames orders this Carnival to keep the crew's spirits up and to "prepare them for what's to come". The walk home and/or the Lent season.

In the catholic faith, Carnival is a celebration of worldly pleasures. People eat in abundance, expensive and unhealthy foods, lots of sweets and fat. This is a time of celebration, with dancing, music and playing games. And of course lots of alcohol consumption.

We see the event through Francis' eyes, still afflicted by withdrawal. There is a fever dream quality to the place. The abundance of everything, the time it must have taken the men to not only build the place but their costumes as well, it all feels exaggerated and far too elaborated for the resources available to them.

This furthers the idea of abundance that Carnival represents.

Francis congratulates them on their skills, their creativity, and their cooperation in building this place that he calls a 'temple'. Again, the word is significant in the sense that a temple is a church.

He goes on to tell the men what's awaiting them. A long walk, to get back home. After Carnival comes a season of fasting in the Catholic faith during which people atone for their overindulgence. They eat sparingly, no meats, sweets, dairy, and liquor and everything else they did at Carnival.

This fast lasts 40 days. A parallel can easily be made with the imminent starvation the men are about to go through.

One of the most important things that happen at this Carnival is its end. Dr. Stanley foresees these horrors awaiting them all and opts for mass murder, in his eyes it's the gentler end, 'a mercy'.

He attempts to save the men from this otherwise inevitable fate by setting himself on fire and walking out with his arms spread out like a burning cross.

There is a tradition at the end of Carnival where the Carnival King is burned, it represents the end of the festivities and the beginning of lent. It's a scapegoat for all this excess.

Also, before Carnival Kings were puppets or floats, they were an appointed person. During Carnival, this 'king' was allowed to speak freely, even against their own government and would not be punished or imprisoned for it afterwards. They were meant to advocate for the people and bring up potential issues. Where Crozier tries to be honest with the men and make them feel brave to face the task ahead, Dr. Stanly, knowing the truth about the cans, goes against that directly, to him there is no hope. He advocates for the crew through an extreme act, which looking back on by the end of the season can indeed look like the lesser of two evils.

The 40 days of fasting are a call back to the 40 years the Hebrews spent in the desert, before reaching the promised land. When looking at the visuals from the episodes following the Carnival, the landscape is strongly reminiscent of the desert. The rocky hills look just like sand dunes. It's just as barren, nothing grows and nothing lives there. Where one is hot, the other is cold.

Dr. Goodsir as a Christ figure

First off, Goodsir's nature and personality can be compared to that of Jesus. He is a man who acts out of compassion and who believes in the goodness of human nature. He doesn't project racist beliefs onto the Netsilik people, like most of the crew does. He treats Silna as an equal and a friend, not a captive. He is the one who brings her her food, symbolically breaking bread.

He even continues to believe in the good of the British people despite the horrors he realizes they are responsible for, he claims this is not all his people are. His profession itself is reminiscent of Jesus, as they both heal the ill.

But his Christ-like metamorphosis really shines through in the latter half of the season.

As we established, the 40 days of fasting relate to the 40 years of wandering in the desert. However, it most importantly relates to the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and being tormented by Satan's temptations.

Many times in the 4 episodes that follow the Carnival we see Goodsir refusing to eat, because he knows of the cans. Later Hickey's group stops eating the cans as well, but they don't fast, they resort to cannibalism. Where satan tempts Jesus to turn the stones into bread, Hickey makes Goodsir turn men into food. Still, despite being hungrier than any of them because of his fast, Goodsir does not yield to the temptation Hickey lays in front of him.

Furthermore, the only way he can be coerced into participating in this horrible act and preparing the flesh to be eaten, is by being threatened that harm could befall Hodgson if he refuses.

Witnessing Dr. Stanley's suicide planted the idea for Dr. Goodsir's own early on, but what triggers it is Hodgson's story about attending papist mass.

He describes the vivid elated feeling of being purified through eating the body of Christ. In the Catholic faith Jesus died for our sins and by doing so, absolved us of our wrongdoings. By consuming him, we become a little more like him ourselves. If you attend Mass on Easter Sunday, the lights will be off and then turned on to symbolize the resurrection of Christ, then you are called to eat the wafer. It's Christ's body that you first consume after your fast, it gives you life again.

But even dying on the cross, Jesus continued to love people, even the ones who put him there and asked God to forgive them. Goodsir, captive in Hickey's camp and pushed to his limit, takes another route. He only lets Crozier know of the plan, therefore sentencing Hickey's followers along with him.

Hodgson told Goodsir that if he were a braver man he'd kill Hickey, implying not Hickey's group. Francis tells Hickey that he forgives everyone, except for him. Goodsir, however, is starting to embrace his former colleague's point of view, and opts for mass murder as well.

He tells Crozier that even through all of this he still finds beauty in the environment that surrounds them. As he bleeds to death, it is not loved ones that welcome him, like he had told David Young in the beginning, but symbols of nature.

In many ways, Goodsir represents an alternate path Jesus could easily have taken, one in which he lost his faith in the goodness of people and his faith in God.

"Any God?"

Still, Goodsir is a martyr and makes the ultimate sacrifice, like Jesus did, dying for the sins of others. But by eating his flesh Hickey will not be washed of his sins but punished for them.

[blvcklizard]

I'm trying to make sense of the whole "Castti and Trousseau accidentally ended up in Lostseed and nothing happened (besides Trousseau going completely insane)" thing for a fic and... I think I've actually found a possible answer.

It bothered me so much that afaik it's never elaborated on how they got there. Like, it's not exactly a place you can just "stumble into" by chance. I don't remember if there's another way to Lostseed, but even if the game doesn't let you access it, there has to be a way outside of New Delsta, because like... why would you look for herbs in the sewers, lol. That path would have to be pretty well hidden though. So I was thinking, what if someone led them there? Not the whole way of course, but what if someone deliberately pushed them in a direction that would lead them to Lostseed?

It makes sense that there'd be a "guard" of sorts, since Claude is quite the social guy, but if you let too many or the wrong people visit, they might cause major trouble. So Claude and/or the moonshade order probably has people for exactly this situation, to control who gets to visit Lostseed. I see two groups suited for this job.

The first option is that it was a moonshade follower. (I know we're on the Eastern continent here, but since they're perfectly aware of who Mindt is, it doesn't seem that far off to assume some of them are active around there too.) Since it was Claude's objective to make Trousseau and Castti join the moonshade order for all I know, it seems likely that it was a mission for its people.

But there's the less likely but far more interesting possibility that it was a blacksnake. They have control over the entry in the sewers after all, and they're supposed to find their way to Lostseed at one point; it makes perfect sense that Claude would use them as navigators, both to lead people to him, and to see if they figure out their own way there.

You see where I'm going with this.

Imagine Throné losing her mind for the first few days after meeting Castti because she's sure they've met before (and Castti's amnesia doesn't help it at all). She eventually brushes it off and essentially forgets about it, until they get to Lostseed/find Ori's journal and connect the dots and fuck, it all makes sense now. Not in the best way, though.

Alternatively, if Pirro pretended to be a regular citizen out to look for mushrooms or something... I feel like him and Trousseau would have gotten along quite well. Their personalities might be a good match. All aside from how they've both had rather simple, good-faith things they wanted in life that were corrupted by their circumstances (and Claude).

[no-1-rosalind-lang-apologist]

I think it would be really interesting if Phoebe ended up getting mad at people who never really saw how much she was struggling and/or underestimated her (Silas, Orion, etc).

Because she very much is “the pathological people pleaser who only wanted you to see her.” But at the same time those two ideas are somewhat antithetical because if you’re people pleasing you’re actively making it more difficult for people to see you.

[professional-bulshitter]

the fact that in paradigms of human memory or 2x20,,, Annie talking about the stolen glances and would they might they of the whole dynamic between her and Jeff is then followed by a cheesy edit that you can see on YouTube about any on-screen couple or other celebrity ships,,, which is basically Annie making an edit of her and Jeff and i- that is so cool and whack and epic of them and her (she's so fucking real for that)

and then the other edits,,, of Pierce and Abed,,, and dean and the fact that this dum little show does shit like this not to be meta but just is meta YK (i have no idea if this makes sense and no brain space to put it into better words today but yeah) and i love it so fucking much

because it just connects to its viewers in a way that feels so much more intimate,,, like all other shows are so much fun (like I do enjoy them) but this feels like home (?),,, like I don't really need to explain my bullshit just like they don't and I will just take it cause it's really entertaining and cool and just exists to be fun

and yeah

[angelive-40]

Why did I have to see the take “people who self harm and post about it online are doing it for attention.” It doesn’t matter if they’re doing it for attention or not. They’re still harming themselves

[tirsynni]

BotW/TotK Hylian Royal Family meta ahead. 

These are my headcanons based on what I’ve seen from the games. Obviously, everyone has different thoughts on it. No bashing in it and possibly Rhoam-critical but not Zelda-critical. Just headcanons about how the role religion played in Royal Life pre-Calamity.

Also, I’ve barely touched AoC, so this meta is based more on BotW, TotK, OoT, MM, TP, and SS, with the full understanding that this is headcanon and no consistent canon on this matter exists and will never exist... not even between BotW and its direct sequel, TotK.

A major plot point in BotW is Zelda’s inability to connect with her powers. There is no indication that she can do the things Link takes for granted in BotW, like see the Koroks and dragons. I would be surprised if she could. She’s young, frustrated, and her father -- her only living parent -- is pressuring the hell out of her to connect with her powers. It’s clear in the flashback and in his journals that he isn’t acting like a parent and he’s aware of it. He’s acting like a king who knows that he needs a specific weapon and is given a rough rulebook on how to access the weapon. Per their history, Zelda has Goddess blood which gives her access to a weapon which can defeat this grand evil; her ancestor was able to activate it, so obviously Zelda should be able to do the same; Zelda is failing to activate the weapon which should be automatic to her per some ancient rulebooks. It’s unknown how detailed the guidelines for activating this power is or the King is just assuming that of course this is what Zelda needs to do to activate this power. I mean, it was 10k years ago (which seems insane to me, but whatever).

Here’s where more headcanons come into play. I think the power of the Goddess -- and honestly, pretty much everything spiritual -- is completely disconnected from the Royal Family in this era. Per their records, the last time the holy power was needed was a long time ago. I would be shocked if something else hadn’t happened in the meantime (seriously, it’s one hell of a time difference), but for them, the power of the Goddess Blood hasn’t been needed any time recently. Zelda has made it clear that she has no personal connection to it. Her drive is scientific. She has no internal motivation to be connected to the Goddesses. Her motivation to connect to her powers isn’t because she wants to connect to anything on a spiritual level. She wants the power to protect her people and, honestly, because she’s experiencing so much pressure and backlash. Again, per BotW (and TotK, really), we don’t see her do any of the spiritual/divine/extra stuff Link does. Link talks to multiple divine statues. He plays games with the Koroks. In the BotW flashbacks, she is happiest when she’s doing Science(!), and in TotK, she focuses on highly practical things with no stories (that I’ve seen so far) of her doing anything with a spiritual slant. Her focus is rebuilding a school, not rebuilding a church.

It makes sense, though! I think the Goddess Blood and its associated power is more academic than anything. They know Zelda has it. Hell, the Hylian Royal Family relies on that Bloodline to claim their divine right to rule. They know that the power of the Goddess was used by previous princesses to protect the family. With all that said, there is no indication in canon that it has any modern role in their lives. Hell, there is no indication that spirituality in general has any role in the lives of the Royal Family. It seems like the Goddess Blood has two primary roles pre-Calamity: to ensure Divine Right to Rule and to awaken to protect Hyrule from the Calamity. That’s it.

In at least one previous game, it was said that the Hylians’ ears were shaped that way in order to better hear the spirits and the like. We don’t know Link’s own abilities when it comes to this pre-Calamity. I personally enjoy the headcanon that he could hear and see far more than Zelda but didn’t want to say anything because it would hurt her. Would also match with the concept of “keeping his mouth shut helps keeps his ears open.” But there’s no strong evidence that spirituality or anything play a strong role in Hylian daily life pre-Calamity. It might have been something which was also lost through time. That is a major theme in many Zelda games: that important things, including connection with the divine, have been lost. The Zelda games love showing ancient, forgotten things, things whose stories can never fully be told again. The original stories are long lost, and all that exists in the BotW/TotK are modern interpretations, fairy tales, prophecies, etc. For further examples, see the Zonai Survey Teams and how they are excited about their discoveries but can’t connect to them in the way Link casually does.

I read a story once about how a pastor once invited an enthusiastic member of his congregation to lead a prayer one day. He didn’t ask her beforehand. She was always highly motivated, highly social, and a strong believer. He didn’t think anything of his request. It should have been fine! Instead, she walked up to the front of the congregation, stood there for a moment, burst into tears, and fled. Later, he discovered that while she was very religious, she was never taught how to pray. Prayer was a major part of their religion, and as such, it was expected that everyone automatically knew how to do it! Not so! He realized an important lesson that day and didn’t take it for granted again.

Prophecy and Divinity play a significant role in the Royal Family, but do they actually know what to do with it? Zelda is told to pray and she’s told to do it for a specific reason: unlock her powers so she can help defeat the Calamity. We never see the King pray or do anything religious at all. He obviously believes in the prophecies and such but doesn’t actively do anything himself: Hylia favors their family, Zelda has Goddess Blood, etc. etc. etc. Very matter-of-fact things. Nothing he needs to do, actually! Because according to the Prophecies, he just needs to make sure the players are in place! Actual knowledge and practice doesn’t come into play here. No actual internal spiritual beliefs: just practical applications.

So that’s my headcanon as to one of the reasons why Zelda struggled. Would knowing how to pray have helped in the end? Unknown. When her power eventually arose, she was still pretty disconnected from it. It seemed like in BotW and TotK that she never fully connected with it: just used it to fulfill her goal, which was stopping the Calamity from destroying her people. Maybe her daughter or granddaughter or whoever would connect with their spiritual heritage. Overall, King Rhoam, who had probably never really prayed a day in his life and had no real connection to Hylia himself, looked at his daughter, told her that the only way to awaken her powers was to pray, and never thought for a moment that if he didn’t know how to pray, how the fuck should she?

[1981-the-end-of-an-era]

Sirius did not know what it felt like to gaze upon the sun.

But good god if James was not the sun. If James was not the golden glow of summer. The warmth of that immeasurable star upon his skin.

But every sun has its Earth, and Sirius was merely a spark in the distance to Lily's earthen tone, to Regulus' Clay covered hands.

James was the sun, and Sirius was cursed to only gaze upon him from a distance.

A universe between them

[slime-hoe]

Southern trans guy on top

Call that cowboy cunt

[saintluil]

still grieving about shadowlands because the concept is cool but it was not done to its fullest potential at all. and it used the hand as an easy way out (why are we still writing it??)

[bi-hop]

actually another interesting parallel between thistle and kabru is how they deal with new ideas abt other ppl i think. like thistle's first instinct is either denial or taking that idea and twisting it (basically the confrontation he had with laios, he was understandably pissed but also the way he was like ohhh ur right ill just give them food!!!! and like. basically trapped him in situation where thats all he can do help mee) meanwhile kabru tends to act accordingly and adapt to new information he receives. he might have the wrong idea or perception about someone and then they defy his expectation and it does disappoint him a lil sometimes or catch him off-guard, but his "yes and," V.S Thistle's jester "yes and," is different in a way that he can change his mindset and grow and "update" / readjust accordingly while Thistle can't do that because he's been in the trenches for so long akdhsjhd

Ooo yeah. Specifically the examples you use illustrate that really well. Whenever I think of characters as potential foils or just having interesting parallels I try to take their scenes and swap who’s in the scene and see what happens. Dungeon Lord Kabru when presented with this food argument wouldn’t be like “hmmm lemme force feed someone for eternity”. To be fair, I think he would also be able to realize that the loss of hunger and such isn’t great independently. But if not, it’d still end up like a more sincere:

I think due to his deep interest in people for example, he is able to more easily adjust his personal perspective about an individual to accommodate new information gained

But if Thistle was the one who was like “the Toudens are indifferent to humans”, I don’t know how well he’d deal with new information that contradicted his decided reasoning for why that perception exists for him. I can’t articulate this much better right now but I feel like, judging from his scenes, he tends to take in stimuli, processes them, and then sorts them into these neat little categories or explanations and what have you, and even when he ‘changes’ his mind, he still slots things back into where he feels they should be, regardless of the intent of what people presented to him. The severity of a challenge like that is either treated that way or dismissed as a lie (like when he ignores that Delgal fled the dungeon altogether). Obviously Kabru doesn’t have a Delgal figure, but I do think he could learn to accept the loss as the truth after a bit.

[bluebooks1]

I tried to connect all Neil Patrick Harris characters to make it like one life. And his sidekick/wingman for each. Spoilers for Doogie Howser, Dr Horrible's sing along blog, HIMYM, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Uncoupled.

My NPHU (like MCU).

He starts as Doogie Howser when he gets his medical degree and his friend Vinnie. After a while, he gets bored of being a doctor since he has been doing it since he was young. His friend is a shorter brown haired guy who wants girls. Eventually, when Doogie gets bored of being a normal doctor, he becomes Billy, Dr Horrible. Vinnie also moves on with him and becomes Moist (who is another shorter dark haired guy who is Dr Horrible's sidekick). When Billy loses Penny, even though he gets into the Evil League of Evil, he is unable to handle it. I think in HIMYM, when Barney tells his story of how he became how he is with the suits and Shannon, it is partially true. I think the guy did tell him about the suits and cause him to be like that but it wasn't Shannon, it was Penny's death that made him like that to begin with. So, when he "meets" Ted, and says "I'm going to teach you how to live", really it's just Moist who came with him from being Dr Horrible. And he attempts to teach Ted/Moist/Vinnie what he just learned to become Barney Stinson. In How I Met Your Mother, he is originally against the idea of marriage and everything because he lost Penny but when he falls in love with Robin, he changes obviously as the show portrays. However, when he loses Robin due to the divorce, he becomes evil again. He becomes Count Olaf. He uses his money from PLEASE to become Count Olaf. However. He no longer has a sidekick/wingman because his dark haired friend achieved his long term goal and got married and had kids. Since this happened, Ted didn't move on with him so Count Olaf was alone. At the end, Count Olaf loses his again love Kit and fakes his own death. (It was too sad, I refuse to believe he died.) He then moves on from being Count Olaf to Michael Lawson but after losing so many women to death and divorce, he gives up. He realises he is actually bisexual/gay and marries Colin. And then Colin leaves him. It's very sad for him. He tries to make new friends to replace Vinnie/Moist/Ted but then Stanley gets cancer.

Bonus information:

When Barney had his meeting to be crowned Player King of New York City with all the other people. I believe this is inspired by the Evil League of Evil with him trying to create his own.

Done

This is as far as I've got. This is using main things that I have seen NPH in. There are many many plot holes to this and I don't fully remember all of the shows but I still tried my best. I enjoyed this more than I should have and if anyone can be bothered to read this and understands it all, I'd love to talk to someone about it since my friends and family do not care and have not seen it all. Also, if anyone has anything else to add, please do. I do not know if this makes any sense but I cannot be bothered to go back and check, feel free to correct me.

[ashenmind]

The orange corner is getting a bit crowded

[professional-bulshitter]

i love how Crowley just creates problems and chaos and mischief that is supposed to make people's life inconvenient and then,,, is surprised when the same problems that he created are then inconvenient to him

just like,,,

Crowley: creates problems

Crowley (then affected by those problems) : surprised Pikachu face

which,, in hindsight is quite cool because it also shows how there's a disconnect between his actions and his perception of himself? like he knows he's a demon, he knows he's different so,, he perceives himself that way too which means that when he does these little things to annoy and frustrate 'humans' he's not counting himself in the affected category,,,

but then also,,, he's living like a human, he's doing the things humans do, his lifestyle is based on him enjoying human things,,, he's basically living in a world that is full of people different than him (which is fundamentally what all of us also do but he's of a different species and nobody really gets that or can grasp that except for aziraphale),,,

so in essence his actions scream human (ish) but his perception of himself is that of a demon (which,, fair) and it's just really nice to see the way it is established (I'm rewatching season 1,, am on the first episode and already have thoughts)

[neimiismycoolgirlname]

Lmao i just realised my brain could not factor in the warmth in physical touch so it imagined sex being cold and other people feeling like marble statue until now. And last night my entite skin was slithering and emitting happy hormones imagining itself being against someone elses and feeling warmer for it.