#none of that's confirmed obvs but

[visions--of--collisions]

For @its-just-a-glitch who asked for 4(T):

There's one spot left on the requests post if anyone wants it :)

EXCERPT: Argey Bargey (Spiderverse, Hobie/Miles, Rated T, Post-BtSV)

The portal spits him out on the waterside, is the only thing Miles can tell for sure, at first. Earth 138 is always a shock to the senses in the first couple minutes, from the colors to the contrasts to the torn paper edges you could see if you focused on your peripheral vision long enough. Pav and he had freaked each other out once by concentrating hard enough on a magazine spread to make out the Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet hidden inside the body of the printed text itself.

The smell and the sound of the water is enough to reassure Miles he’s where he should be, anyway, despite the mist like flecks of paint hanging in the air. He shivers a little in the damp chill and pulls up the messenger on his phone: Hey man, I’m here. Where u at?

Omw mate, stay put, comes the response.

Miles huffs and fires back a kaomoji. Staying put's a solid option, he figures, considering he has basically no idea where he is and can barely see six feet in front of him, even with enhanced senses. He's pretty sure the faint gray gradient up above is the sky, by process of elimination. There's some  over-saturated weeds growing through the paving under his feet, and the jagged outline of tall grasses growing along the edge of it. The rippling breadth of the canal is clearish in front of him, but when Miles peers upstream or downstream it recedes into a vague, dark road behind the fog.

Are we really in New London, here? He’s turning a slow circle, squinting in all directions to try to make out any sign of a high-rise or a smoke stack, when his Spidey Sense comes skittering up the knobs of his spine to set his scalp tingling. The hum of what might be an engine follows, steadily growing closer. Miles pushes back his mask and squints in the pertinent direction. He steps closer to the water’s edge, just as a shape becomes visible through the mist, gaining definition as it approaches.

He blinks and the silhouette becomes the nose of a boat. Miles stares as it drifts toward and then past him. There’s spraypaint and … paint-paint in arcing splotches all over the - hull, Miles wants to call it? Flyers are littered across the walls (and roof) of what he figures is the cabin. Someone’s drawn dumb faces in the holes made by the lifebuoys mounted on the sides of the craft. He’s so occupied with trying to take in the whole … thing, that it takes Miles a minute to notice he’s being watched.

Hobie is at the rear of the craft when Miles finally clocks him, one hand on the tiller, the other stuffed into his back pocket. He's wearing a frayed white battle jacket, and the neutral expression of a guy who has no idea he's the coolest thing his friend has seen in the last week.

And it’s been a Week.

He nods, once, eyeing Miles sideways. 'Alright?'

‘Alright,�� Miles parrots, gawking. ‘Sure.’ He shakes his head and jogs forward to keep pace as the craft trundles onward. 'Wow. Shouldn't you have one of those cable knit sweaters and the little, you know,' Miles mimes the shape of a brim, 'Captain's hat on?'

Hobie only looks at him, seemingly impervious to the baiting. He shrugs, finally. 'Yeah, but I flogged them, innit?'

Miles makes a face, and Hobie cracks a smile, at last. 'D'you need permission to board or something?’ he asks, curiously. ‘Or were you plannin' to walk?'

Miles raises his palms. 'I dunno, man, you're the boat guy! Don't you gotta put down the anchor, or blow your horn or something?'

The neutral look returns to Hobie’s face in response, accented with a judgemental tilt. Miles keeps his smile fixed and his pace steady, even as the barge drifts ahead of him. Hobie turns his head slowly, owl-like, to keep him so pinned.

Miles is just starting to worry about losing him to the fog when Hobie reaches for something, still staring, and he jumps when a hollow noise, like a foghorn sized down, bounces off the water and the paving stones under his feet. Something up ahead makes a high, honking complaint and takes off in a flurry of wings; Miles chuffs at the sight of its pale belly and webbed feet passing overhead, barely visible through the mist, and bends his knees to hop aboard.

[TBC]

[sylhea-raemi]

airi's realizing chapter gave me so much damage it's such an important chapter to me along with nero's gt9 chapter

[ichijokaoru]

@pockysquirrel yes so excited!! all of the ones in the red box Seem to be interviews, and like i said they're from a variety of eras!! super excited!!

also i said i was digging through niconico i think actually it was billibilli... this doesn't matter! the point is i found some of the videos i was trying to source :]

I wanted to get a torrent of the raws for kuuga (since my previous set was subtitled and idk I used to be a video editor and i like the idea of gifs etc. so y'know... wanted some raw footage) but it has seemingly come with a goldmine of interview footage from a variety of eras (both during and post the show!!) that I'd previously been digging around on niconico trying to dig up, and i believe isn't uploaded to youtube... so extremely exciting. while not ideal, it will also be good to just let google's shitty auto translate give a Vibe of what is being said with some questions which I can only do once it's uploaded (my partner will be the one doing that probably)

[justanotherhh]

some trailer things:

big fight around lust/ozzie's place that involves m&m and loona + we know fizzarolli is going to make another appearance, so i wonder how that'll connect potentially. also, new villain?

obvs the whole section of CHERUB working with DHORKS and this massive thing/portal:

john waters big villain episode???? (ghostfuckers from the looks of things)

also more crossdressing in that same episode + millie vs possessed blitz? both millie and blitz giving some evil dead type vibes?

more on stolas' whole social sphere and potential judgement and hell's class politics related to his dating blitz + p much confirmed that blitz will not take stolas' gift in the spirit it was intended

also, "you fucks think you can do this every time-" feels not just like it's about the wider class issues in hell, but maybe like it's personal (potentially with verosika? although it does seem like it's canon that he had more than a little bit of a hand in ending that relationship, so could just be him echoing everything he's been seeing in the treatment of imps and putting that onto stolas in this moment)

and then "thank you blitz, for making me so happy, even for a little while" is during this moment too. lot of teasers for how this is gonna go down (badly, upsettingly, emotionally)

the whole "do you feel any remorse for what you do" feels like a misdirect -- that is, it's edited to look like it's about blitz, but i feel like it's directed at stella or her brother

generally a lot of fun stolas visuals that i won't get into here, but am excited to see more contexts for

also this isn't new, but im always interested in blitz's heart/broken-heart forehead marking

blitz and tilla moment! generally more flashbacks (in the shape of blitz seeming to be almost at the movies, watching his own "failures") around the time of the fire! i didn't see any barbie stuff, alas, but the rest of it looks !!! also lowkey confirmed it was cash who stopped blitz from seeing fizz in hospital

who's this?

another sin? maybe related to ozzie and/or stolas and that judgement of the kinds of people they love?

blitz protecting stolas - maybe from the above, considering the hand motif of it all... stolas really living the life of blitz as a romantic hero, while blitz is barely holding it together as a person the whole time. different genres, my guys. different genres (that's their real communication issue)

this fuck-you-blitz cake looks like a verosika thing to do, esp considering it's her calling him shitty in the VO -- but yay, maybe giving that verosika catharsis, but also generally just verosika!

also the VO part where he says he doesn't want to be this way, he's wearing the same shroud as during his confrontation with verosika. idk, im just. contexts for things. i am curious

is the below also the same episode? I'd think so. it's set during halloween (?) and blitz is then maybe in the blood-covered shroud (costume? undercover? going undercover as a ghost? post-breakup stalking undercover ghost costume?)

MAMMON! and he looks pleased. oh dear.

this blitz + fizz moment

it kinda looks like blitz is wearing the same tee as when he and stolas have their moment + a horse bag + fizz casual wear. fizz generally in this trailer seems to be having the best time (outside the flashbacks). everything makes me suspicious all the time

(also generally hello all the different outfits coming up!!)

fascinated by this:

is that millie?

things we didn't see:

no barbie, no striker, no crimson, no asmodeus (directly, although his imagery is everywhere + fizz and mammon appear), no paimon -- this not to say none of them will show up, but am enjoying that a lot of this is clearly pulling from s1, with the focus on verosika, DHORKS, and CHERUB -- potentially a lot of the s2 villains need some time to lick their wounds a bit (and paimon was never a Villain, just a terrible parent... if he ever returns though...)

and barbie... i do want to see barbie again soonish ngl, she needs some proper introducing, but this is already giving so much callback and continuation of immediate plot-threads, very excited

[ratcandy]

Big Huge Irritated Rant About The Latest COTL Update's Story Choices and the Implications

So the lore drop in the new Cult of the Lamb update, Unholy Alliance, pisses me off. The writer's confirmation of what that lore drop means pisses me off more.

Why? Because it's unnecessary recontextualization that was made pretty obviously in favor in one character in particular, and somehow in that process makes that very same character way less interesting. I think it's incredibly detrimental to the story and I will Explain Why in a second.

But before I do, I just want to put this out there: Prior to this update, my opinions on the Bishops and Narinder and that entire plotline were pretty neutral. I'm an NPC enjoyer, I spend my time thinking about that moth with two lines of dialogue. I did not previously have strong opinions on Narinder or Shamura outside of mild dislike for fandom treatment. So I'm not coming from a place of bias here (or at the very least I'm not trying to be). I genuinely, wholeheartedly, 100% believe this writing decision was unnecessary and the Wrong one to make, and I think it severely undercuts the original plotline because this was a retcon and one that sucks pretty bad.

Ok we're on the same page here? Ok awesome. Long rant ahead, and obvs spoilers for the Unholy Alliance update

So first, what the hell am I talking about? What part of the update do I not like? Let's clarify that first.

It's Shamura's dialogue. Like, all of it. For ease of understanding, here is all the dialogue I will be talking about:

"Ah... we gathered here, the four of us, a council of war and I the general. I have not forgot. I did not tell them that chains to bind a God must be forged of Godly matters. What matter of Gods? What matters of Gods? I have not forgot. The betrayal of kin, the breaking of spirits, blood spilled, his and ours. ...the sacrifice of what we had sacrificed so much for... ...shaped into shackles for our own brother. And our wounds always to weep. Such sharp claws..."

--

"He sought to break nature's own laws. Death was his, yet he placed his sacred duty in peril. His experiments... Experiments I encouraged. I am not... blameless. My soul, stained... yet I do not... Ah, The story. Yes the story... He wanted to open the doors between Life and Death, to... to allow their return. Those mere... mortals. Even though he knew their sacrifices, their faith, their fears sustain us. Death must be the end. Otherwise, what use would they have for Gods? They began to flock to him. What he promised, we could not match. He swelled with devotion... while we waned. Would he have let us perish? I could not take... the risk... the hunger... You are lucky there are none left to force such a choice on you. Hail, Lamb. Last God... lonely God... Ah... I feel... unburdened..."

And for fun, before anyone tells me I'm misinterpreting any of this or that it's left up to interpretation or is intentionally vague, Word of God (the writer of CoTL):

And it's this being Word of God that's spurred me into making this post to begin with. Because prior to this, I just seethed about this dialogue's implications in my server and hoped I was wrong. But now it's been confirmed what this means, and I'm . Disgruntled, to say the least!

And since I've started writing this post, there's been another addition made to further clarify parts of this. But I'm going to go over that addition more towards the end, because it also irritates me for separate reasons.

So, let's get this straight.

Prior to this update, the specifics of what happens between Narinder and the Bishops were pretty vague. We were told Narinder was "gluttonous in his ambition," per Shamura's previous dialogue, and that they "introduced him to ideas of change" but "Death cannot flow backward." Heket somewhat elaborates on this by saying he preached "heresy" and "noxious ideals" that would not be tolerated. Heket also notably refers to Narinder as a flat-out "monster." Narinder attacked his siblings and left them each with a big, symbolic wound. Then he was chained by the four of them, with Shamura the one to lead it (in their own words).

There's a lot of talk of betrayal, but before this update, it was unclear if the betrayal was meant to just be Narinder's experimenting with death (which even then was pretty heavily suggested to be resurrections) or the wounds inflicted upon his siblings. There's also a lot of talk of sacrifice, i.e. from Leshy if you kill Heket before him: "After everything we did. After everything we sacrificed. He will not be satiated."

Regardless, the picture this painted was of Narinder being this ambitious, evil, violent God that even his fellow Gods (Kallamar) feared and felt needed controlling. The idea that the wounds could have been in the nail in the coffin to this entire ordeal made sense; as they were obviously planned by Narinder to some extent (otherwise why be so intentional about who got what wound?) and a fair reaction to Being Mutilated would of course be to chain him.

Then of course there's the idea that the wounds were given while he was being chained and in self-defense, which only seems possible if you think Narinder could take on all four of his siblings at once like that and only manage to lose his claws in the ordeal (which was only revealed in this update to be something he's implied to have lost thru the relic). I thought this at first too, but realized it seems pretty impractical for that to have been the case if the wounds were also purposeful in who got what. I mean, sure, they could all be coincidentally symbolically appropriate for each Bishop, but I have doouuubts?

but now we're here, with this update, and all has been revealed.

And what's been revealed exactly?

Narinder's thing he was doing was indeed resurrections (we knew that)

Shamura encouraged him to do it (we also already knew this)

It seems like he did literally nothing else outside of that

His siblings got pissy about this because it made their domains purposeless and got all their followers to flock to him

"Would he let us perish? I could not take the risk" - Implies they literally did not even ask him

Shamura knew that in order to forge chains that could keep Narinder down, it would require a sacrifice of their bonds AND their flesh

They DID NOT tell the other Bishops this

Their wounds were requirements to chain him. They had to get the wounds they bear now in order to chain him. ONLY Shamura knew this. That means they allowed their siblings (and themself) to get attacked knowing full well what would happen. They may have even encouraged it, perhaps provoked Narinder into it, seeing as they knew the wounds were necessary to have him chained. (Or they just knew he would retaliate. Which, like. Yeah. They're condemning him after he went down a path they encouraged and, as far as we can tell, nothing else.)

And for... what?

In this version of the story, Narinder was experimenting with resurrections, and Shamura told him to keep doing that. Then he was successful, mortals turned to him, and his siblings (including Shamura, the one who told him to do it) got mad. That's it. That's their reasoning for chaining him. There's nothing else given. "Would they perish?" We have no idea. Is that how it works? Seems like Shamura doesn't know either. Or at the very least doesn't know if Narinder intended for that at all. Gives the vibe that literally no effort was made to talk to him and figure this out. They don't even really go down the "it puts nature out of balance!" path, which would at least have some merit, maybe. It's literally just "we are no longer sustained. What's the point of Gods in this world?" <- idk babe you had all the other ones slaughtered. So you tell me

And then Shamura just took it into their own hands, leading their siblings to their shared wounds (WITHOUT consulting them) and their inevitable destruction because of........... reasons, I guess. (I mean, if you think about it really hard, they probably also already knew what would happen following all this. With the lamb genocide and Narinder's resurfacing and etc. And they had their siblings wounded anyway. For no god damn reason)

And now why does this make me mad?

Because, honestly, in and of itself, there's not anything necessarily wrong with this added context. It's not contradicting anything in the main game. Shamura knowing what was needed makes sense, after all.

But it's... unnecessary. It screws up the motives and makes them more shallow, less nuanced, more... petty. Making gods petty is cool and all, I love doing that honestly, but in this case it just feels like a waste of potential.

But beyond all that. But most importantly.

This entire recontextualization of events REEKS of being made specifically to absolve Narinder.

I mean, come on. He's made out to be the victim, here. Shamura knew what he would do, knew what he would become, and knew exactly what would happen to their siblings if they sought to chain him (without doing so much as talking to him beforehand), and yet they encouraged it.

All blame is being shifted on Shamura. All Narinder did specifically against his siblings was inflict the wounds, which at this point seems to be hinted as self defense or a retaliation against threat or insult (assuming he was provoked into attacking, somehow). Because the wounds were part of the process.

And almost equally irritating, this seeks to arbitrarily absolve Leshy, Kallamar, and Heket as well, as they had no idea what the plan was and were just strung along. Which is just kinda worse, right? As far as they are aware, Narinder did just randomly attack them for no reason, and this wasn't foreseen, and surely couldn't have been stopped. All because Shamura didn't tell them any of it.

Shamura is being made into the big bad. Shamura is at fault for everything, for all of it. Narinder is a victim of Shamura encouraging him down a path they later condemn him for, their siblings are victims of Shamura and Narinder both (the latter of which could have been resolved at any point prior), and now any possible intrigue about Narinder being this big bad guy who tore apart his siblings due to his own ambition getting the best of him is ERASED.

It's GONE. All in favor of making him more sympathetic.

And sure, about a million different excuses could be made for Shamura, or could be used to headcanon whatever you want about exactly what happened. But with what we're given right now, just from the source, no attempt as made to stop Narinder before it got to this point. It is literally suggested they didn't even talk to him.

"Maybe they were too scared" - For the other three, maybe. Shamura is the eldest and clearly the most respected one, by Narinder as well (he holds some amount of respect for them even STILL. After EVERYTHING). They at any point could have stopped this.

"Narinder could still have been a bad guy outside of the attacks" - Sure, but we're given little to nothing on that front. In the old dialogue, literally all that's mentioned is the resurrection stuff and the wounds. Shamura is the one who said his ambition made a glutton of him, by the way. And hell, this isn't even touching the very real possibility that all of the Bishops (Narinder included!) are unreliable as hell.

"But Kallamar feared him even before his chaining, that suggests he was still a bad guy beforehand" - Sure, it could! But that's about all we get! And hell, in this new update, Kallamar's fears are fucked with, too. He states:

"Once, long ago, Followers would worship at my altar just to glimpse the beauty of my temple… of course, it could not last forever. Perhaps my siblings did not understand this, but I have always known. It did not make me less afraid. Cowardly Kallamar, ha…"

Here, it seems Kallamar's fears have been changed to be more about the decline of his temple and the loss of his followers, which was happening because of Narinder. He refers to Narinder's plans as "foolish" as opposed to... idk, horrifying, or threatening, or whatever. He also fully takes on the 'cowardly' title, giving the impression that his fears were somehow unfounded, which wouldn't make a lick of sense if Narinder indeed sucked ass outside of the wounds.

Not to mention he "didn't want to hear it" when Shamura "revealed the plan," but we know because of Shamura that they didn't mention anything about the wounds, so Kallamar didn't want to hear that they... had to chain Narinder? That's literally all he could've been told about the plan. Why wouldn't he want to chain Narinder if he was scared of him up until that point?? Doesn't make any sense!!! EDIT AFTER I POSTED: On reconsideration this might just be referring the lamb genocide plan, but that's hardly better, because now this update absolves Narinder, Leshy, AND Kallamar by making them blameless in everything (both Leshy and Kallamar expressed not fully understanding the plan for the slaughter or, in this case, not wanting part in it). What's up with THAT. Why is Shamura getting the blame for LITERALLY EVERYTHING.

Anyway, my point is

This was a story decision made to make Narinder sympathetic. It's so blatant. And it's so, so irritating. It gets rid of so many potential cool flaws of Narinder and replaces it with "Actually, Shamura was the bad guy the whole time! Huzzah!"

And honestly, had the entire game come out like this to begin with, released at the start how it is right now, I don't think I'd care this much. But being added now, as an afterthought, after the fandom and devs alike have grown to favor Narinder above all others, it just...

It reeks of favoritism. It smells of revising the story to make Narinder more likeable. It's just erasure.

And for what. Like, I don't want to be That Guy, but I cannot help but notice that one of two nonbinary characters (outside of the Lamb/Goat themselves) is being this heavily demonized in favor of absolving a Man of his crimes. What's, uh. What's up with that.

Oh, and that addition by the writer I mentioned was made while I was writing this.

This was made after Jojo was questioned whether this was a retcon as to who caused the wounds, as this whole thing could also certainly be read as Shamura being the one to directly wound their siblings (which I didn't think was the case, but still).

"I don't know if they thought it would be so severe" - How do I put this in a nice way. This feels like a weaseling out answer. This feels like giving Shamura an out only after being questioned on this writing choice. How could they possibly not know how severe it would be. This spider is Knowledge. This spider has Foresight of some kind. And how do you not know what they thought. You are the Writer. If you want to clarify something like this you gotta say it with your full chest.

Not to mention a good portion of the fandom probably won't even see these tweets, so this context is all missing from the story presented in the game. This is Tacked On Context on top of already Tacked On Context. It's unnecessary retconning all the way down.

Anyway. I realize the fandom at large will not care about this, because (and I mean this in the nicest way I can manage) the Narinder favoritism in this fandom is already impenetrable, but for me personally? This retconning that was so clearly done out of that favoritism?

It ruined Narinder's character for me. More than the fandom possibly could have. I mean, if it's fanon, it can be ignored. But this was canonized. Because Narinder is the dev team's favorite guy.

And I can't stand it.

[autistichalsin]

I'm loving your blog as a huge halsin stan and autism supporter so much!!!

one thing I wanted to ask because I'd love to hear your response is that my wife heard rumors that halsin is straight, which to me seems absolutely preposterous (aside from it being a weird thing to program in, considering gender is so flexible in character creation). what do you think? (if you don't have time or resources to answer obvs no worries at all, I was just curious!)

Thank you!!!!

To that rumor (not your wife, just that statement in general): LMAO..... no. It's usually said by people who hate Halsin and want to paint him as a pervy problematic straight man.

NONE of the romanceable characters are straight; all of them are pansexual. Not playersexual, pan. Here is an interview with one of the writers (who wrote both Halsin and Shadowheart) confirming it- explicitly saying the word pansexual. I think Neil Newbon, who both voiced Astarion and was a director, said the same.

Halsin is also one of the "explicitly" pansexual ones, as he mentions having had male and female partners before; one story he can tell you under certain circumstances involves a Nelanther pirate who "clawed my back and cried my name until he was hoarse" and also mentions tenderly lying with elf maidens "under the boughs of oaks."

Halsin's the textbook definition of pan. <3

[kisavatore]

My wishlist for the upcoming life & death expansion & base game updated for it 💀⛏

*none of this is obv confirmed,I'm doing this list for fun

cemetery lot type (I would love for it o be a base game updated,but I can see them doing it as a part of the pack)

funerals

retirement home

inheritance

zodiac sings (base game updated)

astrology

tarot reading (skill,activity)

funeral director or mortician active career

fortune teller career (it would be great if you could choose to be "real one" and the things you sims said/saw would happen to their clients and "fake one" to scam sims for money)

secret "afterlife" world (kind of like the one in the realm of magic)

cross pack compatibility w/occults

new death types

fountain of youth (to make your sims younger or/and immortal<-that could be a reward trait)

new activities /hobbies for all ages (the life part of the pack)

aspirations for elders

funeral director/mortician aspiration

pregnancy overhaul (base game updated)

Olive Specter (being a part of townies in the new pack)

Goth/Alt Fashion for CAS

That's it for now,I may add to it later.

I saw others speculating that they may add a new life stage (pre-teens) personally I don't mind a new life stage,but I hope more that they will add stuff for existing sims to do,especially for kids and elders but also something new for teens and young adults/adults,I also saw people saying that we might get zombies with this new expansion,but personally I would prefer for them to be a game pack,rather than being part of the expansion pack like aliens/mermaids because one-they are going to be more fleshed out in the game pack than in expansion pack,and two-not everyone likes playing with occults or likes zombies and two not everyone likes playing with occults or like zombies,so in my opinion it would be better for them to be an option (game pack) rather than a part of expansion if you want let's say just do funerals etc.

[phoenixcatch7]

Yessss Bruce initially starting his detective work to figure out his own heritage!! Instinctively hiding as human which allows the Wayne's to take him in as a child and not an exotic pet.

Bruce dropping the kids off at Clarks like a lioness trusting the reserve ranger to keep an eye on her kids while she hunts 🥺. There's probably only like, a couple at this point but it's still a handful XD.

B: it should just be for tonight. Maybe two.

C, hugging Dick and babs: Bruce, what's going on? Where's Jason?

B, barely keeping his head above water emotionally: you'll find out later.

C: Bruce, I heard guns. I can help -

B, turning away: no. You can't be seen with me tonight.

Like Clark is fully ready to run to Gotham and cover for B but the next thing he knows is the Joker getting eviscerated by his human form, which, fair enough. He's not about to call Bruce out.

Jonn and b slowly learning to relax around each other,,, telepath to telepath. Empath to empath. And they're not quite on the same psychic wavelength but they can get ideas across pretty well with practice. Bruce beginning to trust him enough to imply about his kids, because he won't try and get revenge for his planet and the kids really need someone familiar with shape-shifting and telepathy and a willingness to be amongst them that Clark doesn't quite understand. He's invulnerable, sure, but jonn has almost the same vulnerabilities and first hand experience the kids might need.

The mutual fire weakness... Omg. They probably figure that out pretty early and don't like that they bond over it. Maybe it comes up in one of the first missions they go on together and they have to try and escape the flames. And then b wonders if he inherited it from martains and jonn willingly, for the first time, talks about them, tells him they already had that weakness.

Oh no ancestor trauma :(. Poor b. He and Clark definitely bond over the fear of experimentation, and B categorically refuses to say anything about it to jonn until he catches him thinking about it and thinks he was there during the martain war which leads to a argument until b can explain.

Oh he would get scapegoated at the start D:! His friends bringing their full diplomatic charm to the table to keep him safe!

Crocheting and knitting... Genius :D. Always good to have hobbies ^^! Lacing too, they've made new placemats and ruffles and even table cloths for the manor! B or Alfred totally would keep the kids' first attempts in a box somewhere. Stick them to the fridge like drawings XD.

Maybe he chooses them because they look a little like him, with his wings and antenna horns, and because they also have a bad rep despite being mainly fruit and insect eaters. Maybe he makes little crochet bats to give to people in return 🥺. Probably tons of people in Gotham have tiny round bats from a time batman saved them.

Slowly rotating xenomorph batfam, either full blown xenomorph or similar to several experiments are some sort of xeno hybrids- probably with human but there's also been other types too.

[sapphicdib]

"i could gush about my sig headcanons all day but auuughvjgghh". You know what, do it. I dare you. After that sleepy iterators post I'm itching for more headcanons to ponder.

SORRY THIS IS RLLY LATE, IVE BEEN WORKING A LOT

THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME HAVE AN EXCUSE TO HAVE A CATEGORY 10 AUTISM MOMENT ON THE DASH. this is legit about to be a better essay than anything ive ever turned in for university so strap in, obv everything is gonna be under the cut bc this is prolly gonna be long as fuck

Okay! My main headcanons for Sig are:

He uses he/she/it pronouns, but mainly he/she!

He's a bioengineering dork.

She's a specialized medical facility!

She doesn't really care much about the great problem, and thus has a lot of hobbies. He knitted her own scarf!

She has a lot of friends, even outside of the local group. He's incredibly close with Chasing Wind.

He's a mid-gen iterator, (Ages being: LTTM, SRS, SOS, CW, NSH, UI, FP), so his emotional AI is a lot more advanced than Suns' (there's quite a gap between the two, Suns is closer to Moon in terms of age).

She considers Hunter to be her daughter, Hunter calls him her dadmom and Moon her mom.

He tends to bury these emotions down for the sake of others, which leads to...bad situations.

She's terrified of being alone :)

Sig just gives me gender fucky-wucky vibes. Her pronouns are the/bit and he's committed to it. There's not really a basis for this in canon but it just fits his personality of being pretty laid back and goofy when not in um. emotional distress. Also the accessorizing to his puppet (ie the scarf) makes me think he likes to experiment with her appearance and presentation. To add on to this in the streamer au she goes by any pronouns and is pretty androgynous, so none of his followers can tell his AGAB, and its funny to him to watch the chat argue about it. (He's AFAB, tbh I can't see her as anything else). No one can guess his sexuality either, the only "confirmed" thing seems to be polyamourous, but other than that it's "whatever makes it gay", or "whatever pisses you off most".

Sig obviously has a knack for bioengineering, as he was the one who started investigating the idea of using purposed messengers to stay in contact with others once the comms degraded, not to mention the creation of the slag reset keys. Yes this is my incoming rant of "Sig is not bad at making slugcats", since sometimes people tend to act like "Sig didn't follow Suns' instructions" or something like that, and that's why Hunter is sick. There are MULTIPLE points in their conversations where it's outright stated that Sig was the one who did it first:

Sig was the one who showed Suns the process:

SRS: I purposed a messenger, and sent the information by land via a data pearl. NSH: How original of you. SRS: I learned from the best.

Sig clearly has experiences with messengers, and Spearmaster happens before Sig begins working on Hunter:

NSH: I feel like I need to be simplifying my speech patterns. Is that something you do when conversing with your messenger?

SUNS SAYS "ANOTHER" MESSENGER, AND THEN LATER SIG SAYS "ANOTHER MESSENGER" AS WELL. SIG HAS MADE MESSENGERS BEFORE:

SRS: Do you suppose you'll ever raise another messenger?

NSH: I'm tempted to start work on raising another messenger as a last ditch effort, but to be honest I don't think there is any point.

And then, in her reply, she says, "*I* started investigating the method".

NSH: If the need arises, I certainly would. After all, I started investigating the method out of the inevitability of our situation.

And just to nail it down that Sig was the one who purposed them first, the gossip between Wandering Omen and Pleading Intellect:

PI: You haven't heard about what No Significant Harassment did? WO: All I heard was the complaining. Didn't he send an iterator something distasteful? PI: Well, yes, but more importantly, he trained a purposed organism to deliver it!

WO: How do you even get a dull creature such as that to follow orders? I may consider asking him to teach me his ways.

So yes, Sig was the one to purpose the messengers first. She had already made at least one in the past, to send the "distasteful message" to someone. I'd honestly say he probably made more between that/before, to test the efficacy and also just to mess around with the process.

This leads into my next headcanon: Sig was a specialized medical facility! Five Pebbles mentions to Hunter that "I was not a medical facility even when the equipment was functioning," so I believe that there were some more specialized iterators built. Sig's knowledge of bioengineering could be an indication of this specialization, not to mention it fits with him not really caring about the great problem to the same degree as everyone else. Purely headcanon after this point, but when Sig was first built, Moon was very nervous about getting a new model of "specialized" iterator that she wouldn't be able to help train as well! Moon was a more generalized iterator as she was older, so she does have knowledge about medicine and bioengineering, as all iterators did for the health and growth of her city, but nothing to the degree Sig would need. Thankfully, iterators are fucking supercomputers, so its not like Sig needed much "training" in the way of that, but still. Moon wanted to be a good mentor to her! And she very much was, considering how Sig turned out. That's why they ended up so close.

After the mass ascension, he became the resident "doctor" of the local group. Pointing back to the slag reset keys, Sig seems to have shoved as many as he could into that thing, since Pebbles reacts to the amount of them with surprise, so he knows his way around iterator biology. In pure headcanon mode now, when they develop my tangible projections thing (which Sig and Moon were heavily involved in), it meant that she could actually help others by preforming repairs on their puppets, and even their structures by sending her overseer into them. Moon's inspectors enjoy head pats from her whenever he's passing by.

Her being a medical facility also means she doesn't give as much thought to finding the Triple Affirmative as others. His processing power was delegated more towards finding cures, aiding the sick, and engineering better production techniques for medical equipment and such. His city is also highly accessible and optimized for the disabled and elderly. When you're a medical facility, your goal is more to keep people alive than perma-kill them! I mostly get this headcanon from the fact that when Suns is faced with "what to do" other than solve the great problem, they respond with "What else CAN we do? You're stuck in your can, and at any moment you have no more than two alternatives: Do nothing, or work like you're supposed to.". Meanwhile, Sig responds to Suns' question about purposing another messenger with "There's nothing better for me to do with my time, though.". Not to mention, he was already purposing messengers before this, so she certainly wasn't dedicating all of her time to iterating the great problem! Of course, he probably did iterate on it, just not to the degree his peers did. He also jokes about it in that broadcast where Wind is telling everyone about erratic pulse, saying "Haha with the slimers, lizards and etceteras? Surely the answer was in a lizard skull all along!" so it really seems like he doesn't take it very seriously.

Her disinterest in solving the problem led to her developing a wide range of hobbies. He's an iterator after all, they probably get horrifically bored if they're not doing something! She taught herself to knit (telling his citizens it helped her focus so they would provide her with needles and yarn), and eventually learns to make garments as well. I headcanon he plays video games too, especially with Chasing Wind, mostly just because she probably wanted to see if an iterator could run Doom for the lolz. Probably also trolls in the group chats sometimes, considering the "distasteful pearl", and I think her being being NGI ("No Great Ideas") would be funny as hell. This also makes it pretty obvious why I made the streamer au, Sig's a top level player for multiple FPS games and has won some pretty prestigious awards in esports tournaments. And then she goes home and plays Hollow Knight randomizers with Pebbles in a maid outfit.

Sig's personality also lent itself to having a lot of friends. Her and Chasing Wind were built less than 50 cycles apart (Wind is older), so they're practically attached at the hip. Wind isn't in her local group (He's in Sliver's), but they're still very close. It's not really explored much in canon since we really only see her interact with Suns for the most part, but given her personality, I don't think it'd be a far off assumption for him to have lots of friends. Because she's younger, she also has a more sophisticated emotional AI...which can be detrimental at times, but is helpful when it comes to maintaining friendships!

AHAH So here comes the um. SAD portion of the rant lol. I feel like Sig buries her emotions down a lot, for the sake of others. In her conversations with Suns, we do see him get snappy with him, but for the most part he remains either calm or sympathetic, at the most a bit pessimistic towards the end. When she finally does call Suns out for their bullshit, he (presumably) stops replying to Suns for a short time before apologizing and continuing to talk to them.

SRS: I'm in noticing you are becoming more defensive. This obviously wasn't the end result I was aiming for, you know. SRS: Please respond to my messages. I don't want to leave it like this. I need someone to talk to. NSH: I don't mean to be cold, I'm just very worried.

After this interaction, Sig seems to either just reply with facts/possibly explanations for Moon/Pebbles' actions, or completely changing the subject to Suns' messenger, which then leads to the broadcast where Suns is telling her all the ways they modified their messenger to sneak past Sig's overseers, by not giving them the mark and hiding the pearl, we see Sig's replies become very short, single sentence answers.

This to me reads as slightly passive aggressive, but Suns doesn't seem to pick up on it. To be honest I in my head I hear this as Sig hissing this shit through clenched teeth if he could, but it's just text so I suppose we'll never know.

Additionally, he still does let his emotions overwhelm her at points, (such as during the "Your plan was a complete failure" broadcast), but the most blatant is probably in the messages she sends to Moon and Pebbles.

Starting with the Pebbles one:

NSH: Five Pebbles, I will say once again. You need to stop. Immediately. NSH: I know you are going to trash this message like the rest, but... NSH: I hope eventually when you are out of this state of mind you will look back at these. NSH: Look back and reflect on all the regrets you've set yourself up to have.

Sig is angry. Like he shows no sympathy for him, and just hopes he wallows in regret for the rest of his life. She does express his dislike of Pebbles while talking to Suns as well, but manages to still be nice by saying "I think a lot of us were like that in the beginning.", and such, and then drops the subject by the next broadcast by talking about Suns' messenger. He only ever talks about Moon's condition, likely to keep himself from being a dick about Pebbles in front of Suns because talking directly about him is obviously pretty touchy. But this broadcast is straight up mean. She doesn't manage to hold back her emotions but to be honest? I don't think he actually cares, if he burns that bridge with Pebbles then fine, because Pebbles burned it first.

Pebbles took away one of the few friends he still had in this dying world.

I really and truly believe that Sig's biggest fear is being alone. She makes the slugcats as a way to keep in contact with others after the comms arrays degrade. After being snappy with Suns, she immediately backtracks, apologizes, and keeps talking to them, even if it hurts. His messages to Moon also emphasize this:

NSH: Moon? Moon, are you able to communicate?

NSH: Moon? It's me again.

NSH: I need to talk to you. I need to know you're okay.

The fact that we are provided two of these broadcasts and not just one seems to point to the idea that these are not the only two Sig sent. "It's me again." There is more desperation in her tone compared to the messages he shares with Suns, possibly because he's more comfortable expressing his profound distress with Moon because they're closer. A part of me headcanons she...never stopped sending messages. He needs to know she's okay. You can even find a green overseer in outer expanse and subterranean, locked out of the facility but still searching, still looking for any sign of Moon...or Hunter.

When Sig sends Hunter to Moon, the pearl he sends is goofy and lighthearted. He doesn't want to bring her down when she's already suffering enough. It's short, and sweet, because anything longer would probably devolve into something unpleasant. She's holding the words on that pearl together with tape and glue. Once again, hiding the pure grief he feels for the sake of others.

I also think that's why Hunter is sick. Once again, pure headcanon, but Sig mentions this on the pearl:

Excuse the unorthodox delivery method, equipment eroding etc etc.

I kinda interpret this as Sig pushing herself too hard to make Hunter in time to save Moon, and in turn, irreversibly damaging himself in the process. An emergency shutdown occurred after he ignores the 50th pressure warning his systems desperately tried to get her to pay attention to, causing Hunter to become sick thanks to the sudden disruption in his concentration, much like Pebbles and the rot. This is also why no other messengers were sent after this, Sig simply couldn't make any more that were healthy. She loved Hunter, and I fully believe that, as Hunter's last vision in the void sea was to return to his arms. Continuing the pure headcanons now, but he treats Hunter like a daughter and knits her a scarf for her journey. She tells Hunter that Moon is her mom. She gives Hunter a name, which were held in very high regard in ancient culture, a gift so she can at least be remembered for her sacrifice: "Hunting the Stars, Moon's Savior."

All and all, Sig is desperately trying to delay the inevitable, watching the walls of loneliness close in as she loses contact with friends, slowly encroaching on her until he's locked up in a box. Alone.

HOWEVER!

I for one, absolutely adore the goofy, flirty personality the fandom gives Sig. I really do believe when he isn't in extreme emotional distress, she is like that. The motherfucker uses tildes in his texts and teases Suns and makes jokes about slimers and lizards. I just like peeling apart the little snippets we see of him, which are mostly at pretty low moments unfortunately, and just seeing what I can extrapolate from that. Even if some of my headcanons are far-fetched and shit, I do at least try to keep most of them at least slightly in character with some explanation.

I hope you enjoyed my unhinged rant about my favorite guy!!!! I put this in google docs and its literally like, 2.4k words, I could genuinely have turned this in to one of my fucking college courses LMFAO. It's probably better than some of the garbage I DID turn in tbh. If you want more I am totally happy to provide, cuz I could make a whole OTHER ramble about Hunter that's just as long LMAOOOO

(Oh also none of this applies to rot au Sig. that freak deserves her own post bc at this point he's 50% oc and 50% No Significant Harassment Rain World LOL)

[i-guess-im-into-this-now]

The Apothecary Diaries

S1E11 First Watch

Here's where I watch The Apothecary Diaries for the first time and give my thoughts, analysis, predictions, and occasionally I stumble into a joke.

To start at the beginning:

Episode 1

My character/location cheat sheet

Lady Ah-Duo - Pure Consort, one of 4 top concubines

Garnet Pavilion - Lady Ah-Duo's residence

Fengming - Head LIW at Garnet Pavilion

Lady Lishu - child bride concubine

Jade Pavilion - Lady Gyokuyou's residence

Luomen - Maomao's physician father

No cryptic opening! Maomao is in a garden, examining a flower, and maybe this is one of those plants that she mentioned last episode. One of the medicinal plants that suspiciously grew both in the palace and in Luomen's own garden. Is she thinking of the secrets that her father has kept from her? Or how the machinations of the palace affected him?

Maomao goes to deliver a letter from Lady Gyokuyou to Lady Ah-Duo, but runs into Fengming, and I'm guessing that's why she is actually here. Maomao opens a box and shows her something that makes Fengming nervous. Maomao has figured out what has been going on in this pavilion and she's either here to confirm something or to offer her own form of justice.

If that's the case then I'm scared that she's doing this on her own. Aren't we still assuming that someone here tried to murder Lady Lishu? And wasn't the servant girl that worked here killed? Isn't it dangerous to confront these folk all on her own? Does she know something that I don't (she does), about these mysteries that makes her feel safe walking in alone?

The people of Garnet Pavilion have their luggage packed and are vacating because Lady Ah-Duo is about to be replaced.

Maomao confronts Fengming with what she has surmised. Lady Ah-Duo had her baby at the same time as the former empress and was unable to receive medical help during delivery. Something went catastrophically wrong if Maomao is correct, and Lady Ah-Duo lost the ability to bear children. Since Lady Ah-Duo was so injured after birth, Fengming cared for the newborn. Fengming made a critical mistake when she fed the infant honey and azalea (Oh that's the flower she was examining in the opening). The death was attributed as being due to the same poisonous powder that killed another newborn recently, but Luomen was blamed, labelled incompetent and expelled from the palace. Later Fengming learned that she was responsible when she heard Lady Lishu's story, but kept the truth hidden, and tried to keep distance between Lady Ah-Duo and Lady Lishu, who had developed a bond. Fengming tried to eliminate Lady Lishu by poisoning her soup.

Fengming denies none of it and simply asks:

What may I ask do you want?

Justice asshole!

But really, what is Maomao trying to achieve here? She isn't trying to blackmail Fengming. If she really wanted to do something about this, couldn't she just tell Jinshi and let him handle this? What does Maomao gain by going directly to Fengming with this? It seems dangerous.... is she trying to see if Fengming would kill someone for discovering this secret? Trying to see if this is what happened to the servant girl who was killed?

Fengming feels incredible guilt over what happened to the baby. She witnessed Lady Ah-Duo's grief. And devoted herself completely to her concubine.

Maomao: I can't relate. I don't have it in my heart to let anyone that close to my own.

Girl, we noticed. But that is Maomao's character arc! I've talked before about her fear of vulnerability, I just didn't know she was aware of it.

I've been thinking about Maomao a lot (obv, I'm writing blogs on every episode), and something has been slowly becoming more and more apparent. She doesn't think very highly of herself.

Oh sure she's assertive in how she acts with others, but that's only because she typically only speaks on topics she is certain on. She consistently declines to talk about gossip, and routinely resist talking about conjectures. Jinshi is sometimes an exception. Maomao knows what she knows about medicine and draws a line where her expertise ends. So when she speaks, she speaks with confidence and we get the impression she is a confident person.

But I don't think that's the whole story. I think she views herself in how she can help others. She only is valuable because she can serve others. If she couldn't do that, then what good is she? And even as an apothecary she doesn't take pride. She believes she's subpar, because she compares herself to her father.

I don't think she sees herself as inherently worthwhile.

We hear it quietly in off hand comments sometimes, like when she was talking about Lady Lihua having a large chest and she says that she herself isn't blessed that way.

We see it in big ways like self harm and suicidal ideation.

We see it a whole lot in how she relates to Jinshi.

Maomao: Please, I'm of lowly birth. It's not right for you to touch me. [Episode 6]

She really thinks she isn't worth his attention.

So she's going to need to learn to love herself for more than what she can provide to others before she can accept that others love her too.

But she does better when she's surrounded by people who truly love and appreciate her, like the ladies of the Jade Pavilion. And Jinshi too. On his good days, he's a great influence on her. I like the ways he makes her comfortable enough to share her thoughts, supports her, and appreciates her. He's giving her some desperately needed validation. And what is love if not feeling seen and valued? Our girl will get there eventually.

Maomao: Once he hears my story, Master Jinshi will surely apprehend Fengming. There's no way she wouldn't be executed. The woman is smart, and surely she already knows this.

Then Maomao offers to take her two motives and make them into one. I wonder what she's doing. Lady Ah-Duo watches Maomao walk away, turns out she wasn't out of the pavilion as Fengming had claimed after all. I wonder if she heard all of that.

Maomao is exhausted from the stress of all the emotions she's been navigating all day, and the weight of the choice she has to make next. Turns out she was prepared in case Fengming had tried to stab her. She really walked in to a situation where she thought she could have died. And for what? What did she achieve today?

My guess is that she needed to confirm her theories before she brought them to Jinshi, because the stakes were too high for her to be wrong. If Maomao's theory had a flaw in it, and Fengming was executed because of it... well Maomao couldn't risk that. So she walked in there, knowing she could be attacked or killed, to get the truth. Holy shit Maomao.

Jinshi is also tired. Fengming handed herself in. I'm sure he's happy to get to the bottom of this case but it's yet another thing for him to deal with. And maybe he hoped that there was some other explanation that wouldn't require him to execute Fengming.

Jinshi asks if Maomao knew about it, she denies it. I'm sure he already knew she was involved before he asked and I'm sure she knows that he knows. So this little exchange is just a testing of the waters. With Jinshi saying are you ready to open up to me yet? And Maomao saying nope. The whole conversation Jinshi's keeps pushing, keeps giving her opportunities to tell him the truth. He never gives up on her. But she has locked every door he tries open.

We find out that Lady Ah-Duo was already scheduled to leave the palace to go to an imperial villa. Jinshi thinks Fengming's motive is odd.

Oh Hongniang came by earlier and brought some flowers? I'm sure it was just a meaningless gift for the palace manager and not an excuse to spend time with Gaoshun.

Maomao starts sucking on a flower so Jinshi does too. Then she tells him it's poisonous. Just because Maomao eats something doesn't mean it's safe! Which is actually hilarious, because she is a food taster.

Maomao explains that she convinced Fengming to say the baby's death and the attempt to poison Lady Lishu were due to the same cause, which was trying to secure Lady Ah-Duo's position as a favored concubine. I don't quite get how that motive explains the baby's death, but I'm just going to roll with it.

Jinshi goes to Lady Ah-Duo to talk about Fengming. He's going to have to execute her, but she was a well respected companion to Lady Ah-Duo. I think it is kind that he is taking time to have this difficult conversation with Lady Ah-Duo. Jinshi never shies away from a situation because it's hard, and I think that's admirable.

But also, this is SO his mom! I know I said that about the dowager empress, and I was dead wrong. In my defense, the empress also has the same coloring as these two. But, Lady Ah-Duo, she even wears her hair up in the same style. And there was a whole scene in an earlier episode about how Jinshi wouldn't spend time in a concubine's room alone with them, but here he is, perfectly comfortable doing just that. She's his mother, and he knows that, and probably other people know that too, since he's not afraid of getting busted. I'm dying to see how Jinshi relates to the emperor and empress.

Maomao is feeling guilty. She's done the right thing, but someone was executed because Maomao got involved and she's struggling to accept that. She climbs up on the wall. This is the same place that Lady Ah-Duo's lady fell to her death to drown in the moat. This wall which represents the boundary between the cage of the palace and death in the moat. I don't think it's a coincidence that Maomao is here. Is Fengming's execution justice for the girl who died?

Lady Ah-Duo meets Maomao up there. She probably has a lot o her mind since her head lady in waiting was just executed for killing her child, and attempting to kill Lady Lishu whom she has a fond relationship with. Plus she's leaving the palace tomorrow. Perhaps she wanted to come up to the wall one last time before she leaves forever.

Lady Ah-Duo tells us she never wanted to be a concubine and questions why she clung to it for so long. Her relationship with the emperor was that of a friend rather than a concubine. Maomao thinks that Lady Ah-Duo would be saying the same thing to anyone whom she may have come upon on the wall this night. I disagree. I think Lady Ah-Duo is a lot more aware of who Maomao is then she is letting on. I think she overheard the conversation between Fengming and Maomao the day of the confrontation. So Lady Ah-Duo has Maomao to thank for uncovering the truth about a couple of things. But also. Since I'm assuming Lady Ah-Duo is Jinshi's mother, there is also the possibility that she knows a whole lot more about Maomao, having heard it all from Jinshi himself.

I see. Lady Ah-Duo is up her for the same reason as Maomao, which is to remember the servant girl who died. Turns out even a servant girl's life mattered to someone in the palace. She didn't just disappear without a care. I wonder if Maomao will take this to heart, if it might help to ease the black mood we saw from her a couple of episodes ago.

But her death was a suicide. She killed herself this way so as to keep suspicion from Lady Ah-Duo. Perhaps Fengming even helped her. Lady Ah-Duo knew how the girl died. She calls her a "fool" but cries and says "we all are." This entire story arc demonstrates the desperate choices people make under pressure, and what they are willing to sacrifice.

The servant girl's suicide is the most prominent example of acting out of desperation, but every character in this arc has their own version of this. Fengming in what she has done to cover up the truth of Lady Ah-Duo's baby's death. Lady Ah-Duo with her clinging on to her position in the palace. Maomao in her need to figure out what happened to the servant girl. Even Jinshi in his desire to connect with Maomao.

Maomao is coming down the wall when she is startled by Jinshi. She falls, into his lap. And... is Jinshi... drunk? She tries to get up, but he hugs her.

Oh Jinshi. If we needed another example of desperation here it is. Tears fall as he asks Maomao for warmth, just for a little while.

Jinshi has been unraveling for awhile now (See previous posts). He's lonely, overworked, and overwhelmed. And now he is overcome with emotions. Plus, he's just had to execute someone today. And his mom is leaving. Yet another loss from his ever shrinking circle of support. It's been a rough time for our dude.

I don't know what was happening with him and Lady Ah-Duo, I'm guessing they were drinking about how shitty the day was or maybe saying goodbye since she's about to leave. I wonder why Lady Ah-Duo wanted to get him so drunk, and then left him in her room to wait for her. When she returns, she tells him she's satisfied now. What does that mean? Oh! Is she saying she approves of Maomao?! Then she threw him out. Maybe, so that he could have a serendipitous encounter with his sweetheart? Is Lady Ah-Duo on team JinMao? I am choosing to believe yes!

In any case he's drunk and his will to keep holding back his emotions from Maomao has bottomed out. This one person with whom he feels some kind of connection with just fell into his arms, and no, he's not letting her go right now.

So, he squeezes her tighter and she settles in, willing to tolerate this breach this time. Allowing him to touch her is a line she tried not to cross, but she's not willing to enforce her boundary this time. Her boundaries are there because she's afraid she's unworthy, and she's afraid that getting involved with Jinshi could lead to trouble, and she's afraid to be vulnerable. Those boundaries aren't there because she doesn't care. In fact, it's because she cares, that she breaks her them down tonight. To deny him in this moment would be cruel. And she's not willing to hurt him, even if it means she has to be a bit vulnerable herself. Her boundaries were never meant to hurt other people. They were there to protect herself. If the choice is between protecting someone else and risking herself she will choose to endanger herself every time, she's consistently self-sacrificing.

It's a major step forward for both of them, and I'm extremely interested to see if the boundaries will go back up the next time they meet or if this wall that just came down can't be re-erected.

Also, props to Jinshi for asking for exactly what he needs. Maomao is terrified of being vulnerable, but Jinshi is fearless. They are both such fascinating characters.

Lady Ah-Duo gives back her crown to symbolize her official retreat from the palace. Maomao is seeing Jinshi and Lady Ah-Duo side by side and it hits her that they are mother and son. And boy doesn't that have a lot of ramifications.

Maomao surmises that Lady Ah-Duo's baby was switched with the empress's child. Perhaps Lady Ah Duo did it to ensure her child would be safe. Turns out that was a justified fear since the baby in her care did die. Maomao thinks that someone may have found out about the switch after the baby was dead and held Luomen accountable for not noticing the switch. It also explains the odd position of the emperor's brother. And why Lady Ah Duo stayed around the palace so long despite not wanting to be a concubine. And Jinshi must know too because he stayed around drinking with her.

Maomao: What complete nonsense. I'm disappointed for even thinking of it.

Same, Maomao. Same. It's exactly how I feel about all of my theories, and this blog in general. But unlike me, Maomao is rarely wrong, so I'm counting this as proof!

Lady Lishu is crushed that the only maternal figure in her life is leaving, but it does look like her food taster may be be on her side now.

Maomao walks away from the scene, which is closing out so many of the mysteries that were unsolved. And I can't help but notice that there are clouds gathering on the horizon. Foreshadowing.

I don't know what the last scene between Gaoshun and Jinshi means. But the storm has arrived, so I know this is a turning point.

Gaoshun: Fengming's kin, and those connected.

Jinshi: *sigh* She told me she was kidnapped and sold off, but...

What does it mean that Maomao's name is among those of Fengming's family and associates? I only have one theory and I don't like it. My theory is that the emperor had a relationship with Fengming and that Maomao is the bastard child of that relationship. Hidden and removed from the palace for... reasons. But I don't believe that theory myself, if the emperor hid that, then it wouldn't be coming up now. I'm returning to my theory that "the annex" will hold the answer to who Maomao's parents are. And now that I think about it, why would Jinshi mention the kidnappers here? Are the kidnappers part of Fengming's family? What will happen to Maomao because of this? Is she to be punished? How will Jinshi handle that?!

What I really need are more scenes with the emperor so I can get a sense of that person. So much of this story revolves around him (harem story duh), yet he's not actually around all that often. I'm so intrigued to know how he and Jinshi relate to one another. Let me into that emperor's head already!

At least now we don't have to pretend we don't know Jinshi is a prince. We don't know for sure who is father is. I'm going to guess he's not the current emperor's child otherwise his position in the palace would be as a future heir, and not the ambiguous position he holds now. As it is, he's being presented as the emperor's younger brother, which considering the emperor has no legitimate heirs, I think that would make him the crown prince. At least in name, if not in blood.

And Maomao may think her theory is wild, but now that she's thought it, I wonder how it will affect how she behaves around Jinshi. If she thought he was too far above her as a eunuch official, what will she think now that she suspects him of being the crown prince? Also, surely she'll realize now that he is not indeed at eunuch. The empire would not castrate their prince. Will that realization impact Maomao?

I can tell we are at a turning point in the story. Early storylines have been all resolved, and the characters have completed their first arcs. We're ready to move into the next challenges. Frankly I'm super excited.

To start at the beginning of these blogs:

Chapter 1

Next Chapter

Chapter 12

[laughterbynight]

Pretty consistently there are posts about how Tim should have a new identity but the problem is DC has tried before and it just doesn’t stick. Tim doesn’t *want* a new identity, he’s only interested in working with Bruce. It’s built into his character. He was designed to be the perfect Robin to Bruce’s Batman. That could morph into its own thing maybe down the line, but tbh Damian has a better shot at having a new identity of his own. It’s established he works well with Dick and I quite like the solution tumblr had for this years ago where he became Rook, Nightwing’s sidekick. If you dig hard you might even find the old art if it wasn’t an accidental casualty of 2018’s insane bots.

If Tim does get a new identity it will probably need to be more subdued than a lot of the brighter birds I’ve seen thrown around, as he’s pretty much confirmed to be a “bat” personality wise. Obvs more well adjusted than modern versions of Bruce but my point is he would need to blend in with Gotham better. Raven, Crow, something darker if the bird motif sticks. I do like the gray ghost thing I’ve seen but he would seriously stick out, and I don’t see that working. Tim’s thing is he’s either working with Bruce or he’s not doing the hero deal. He was still acting as his Robin even when Bruce “died” so whatever he becomes, If anything else, would still need to fit the Batman vibe.

Regardless I think Damian should probably still work with Dick. I agree that none of the boys will probably take the mantle. Cass is the one who feels the strongest about it the way Bruce does, so why not start establishing something new for Damian now? He’s already pulling away although idk if that’s being well received by fans or not.

I didn’t dislike Tim as RR and I think a lot of other fans enjoyed it too, but it’s hard not to think of it as a placeholder identity. Especially since it was meant for Jason (not that I think DC will ever do the work to finish bringing him back into the fold proper). I’m used to Jason as hood, but it doesn’t make much sense to me tbh. None of the aspects of joker that Jason integrates into his identity do, but y’know logic whatever.

I think DC really needs to clean all this up but I don’t know if they care to. It’ll be about what makes money and is easy to market, not what makes sense, sadly. Granted…seeing some of their past attempts maybe this is best. We get enough character assassination as it is.

[ihateliterature]

Things that (as far as I'm aware) were not included in the main game (and probably never will) (currently playing Yves, the only one yet untouched is Leon) and I think that's a damn shame

SPOILERS

obv

1. The backstories of the mothers

First of all, I want their names, ALL of their names. Isn't it crazy how we only know the full names of Anita and Leticia?

As such I will give them the next nicknames:

Jin:Belle

Chevalier:The Queen

Leon:Lady Dompteur

Yves: Princess Kloss

Luke:Mrs. Randolph

Clear? Clear

We know about Leyla and that Luke took his stepfather's family name but we don't know his mom's?

Unacceptable

I want to know everything about these women

I want to know exactly how the Queen's mental health went down the drain and the Marquis' perspective on it

I want to know Leticia's childhood and why she killed herself

I want to know exactly what were the motivations behind Lady Dompteur's actions. Her family circumstances. Her perspective on the situation, what she felt when she realised her son couldn't be saved and where she went after he died

I want to know where Belle came from. If she had any family in Rhodolite, what did they think when she was exiled? What country did she run to? How was her life there until she got sick?

I want to know why Princess Kloss was the one sent to Rhodolite. Her opinion of her husband. How she felt about Yves. How she planned to raise him. If she saw the writing on the wall before she died

I want to know about Anita's life with the troupe. The countries she's been to, the people she met, the performances she held. If she loved the King and their first meeting

I want to know how Mrs. Randolph got to the palace. How she dealt with what happened to her, how she really felt about Luke. How she met her husband and what she felt when Layla was born. Whether she thought about Luke before she died

I want more of these women and I'm tempted to write it myself

2. Related to the last point, the relationship between the Queen and Leticia

They are described to have had a really beautiful friendship and I want to know more

3. Chevalier's early life and his relationship with his mother

Nuff, said, have another post about it

4. Yves first blunders in the kitchen

You can't became that good without lots of failures (unless you're Chevalier) I want to know about all the disasters he caused

5. The beginning of Jin and Nokto's whoring behavior. When did they start and why?

Headcanon time!

I like to believe that none of them started out good or really all that consensual

My headcanon for Jin is that he got picked up by a woman while he was drunk and woke up the next day confused and slightly regretting what he did

The one for Nokto is that he got groomed by an older noblewoman into becoming her secret lover

6. The previous selection

WTH happened? There was a Belle so there must have been more princes, where are they? I think they're confirmed dead but what happened to them after the selection?

7. The King, we know jack shit about this guy

We don't even his name. The fandom has to debate on whether his name was Grandet or Klein

We know about his first love, shitty behavior and decaying physical and mental health, but that's it

He was described as being well loved once upon a time. Why? What were his good qualities? Was he a military leader? A negotiator? A charismatic leader? What did he want to do with the kingdom? What ambitions did he have? What was his relationship with his own father? His mother? His brothers? Were there any sisters in the picture?

8. The 4th Prince

How was he like? Was he similar to our Leon in personality? What was he thinking while he was on his deathbed, with his only companion being the boy who will secretly replace him after death? Did he resent his mother for it? Did he understand her reasons? Was he bitter? Peaceful? I. Need. To. Know

[princess-of-the-corner]

Hoesntly, Hawks is like. He had suspicions about Nijiko, but none they ever confirmed, & her Quirk is more "extreme" than his, like, just different enough that he can go "yeah, it COULD BE related to mine, but Quirks are weird, it doesn’t actually mean shit." Then the Hirokazu sitch pops up, & they do a quick test through the CC hero agency for speed. & like, Hawks is going "ok, clearly the dad can’t be me, I have no memory of these events." Only nope, & now Hawks is in hell.

I wouldn't even call it suspicions it's more like a. Hawks noticed the 'oh she can manipulate her feathers that's ODD' but obvs he knew he didn't cheat on his husband and couldn't (or didn't) want to think to far into how that would occur because obvs that means something bad happened. So he just. Told himself it was coincidence.

Which works for the most part! There's plenty of Quirks out there they could swing around to something similar! You just gotta combine 'bird' with some sort of telekinetic ability and bam you get Nijiko! Totally what happened and has nothing to do with him hahaha!

But yeah then there's this whole mess getting dropped on him and they know that /something/ happened. And Hawks is having a Bad Time™ with the whole situation.

[truculentbitch]

most crit blogs operate on facts 🤷

i get what you’re saying and it’s valid not to want to talk about dregirls, idc about that specifically. i’m not trying to argue, and definitely not trying to argue for people to talk about dregirls. i just don’t think it make sense to say this when a huge majority of conversations on crit involve speculation and theories about dteam, and whatever they’re doing or whoever they’re talking to. i don’t get how sylnap speculation (before it was confirmed obv) is different from dregirl speculation if they’re both based on things that have factually happened and interactions we’ve seen. or even dnf speculation. most blogs have discussed one of those things, and none of those relationships are factually, objectively real (again besides sylnap now), so what’s the limit? i don’t think talking about dregirls equates to not operating on facts if dnf speculation, previous sylnap speculation, toosh speculation, snf speculation, and every other unconfirmed relationship isn’t also categorized as that.

even outside of relationship speculation, so many topics and conversations on crit involve things that aren’t necessarily confirmed as 100% factually true, theories, speculation, inferences, and the like. why is this one topic different, and a testament to a blog’s validity and character? i personally think it’s all the personal preferences of blogs, which is all fine and fair.

i’m just clarifying again that i don’t care about dregirl talk at all, i don’t care for the conversations, this is just about your response and what it implies. i’m genuinely wondering how that correlation can be made for one single topic of discussion. it’s being depicted as an invalid topic for critblr, of all places. no one mentioned dregirls or tried to talk about them in your inbox anyway, at least in those asks. who cares?

apart from everything else and whatever else i say i want to make it clear that none of this is a testament to anyone's, blog or anon, validity or character. that's not at all what i'm saying - i've never said that.

if you're wondering about where the line is between baseless speculation and extrapolation on actual facts? it's complicated.

if we take sylvnap as an example: there's been speculation for a long time based on their behaviour on early streams and certain things they would say about each other. being sure of their /r rlship based on that would be drawing a long bow and would be less welcome on crit, even after years of it, bc there's no solid proof of anything, just interpretations of the 1% of their interactions that we see publicly. from ~18m ago we had actual proof of the closeness of their rlship through certain leaks, certain ways that their lives were (officially, bureaucratically) intertwined in a way that typically only occurs with couples. then a lil while ago we had proof - the wedding invite - that could be talked about more publicly.

previous to any solid proof there were arguments about what that 1% of interactions meant - were they in love? were they fwb? was sapnap being mean to her on purpose on her bday stream to avoid speculation or bc he really didn't care about her or was this just their rlship dynamic and was it /r or /p? all of that is impossible to know from the tiny, tiny, miniscule look we have at their interactions but we could argue it forever bc each of us has a whole 99% to fill in. we could be here til kingdom come arguing about it bc we're basing shit on fucking nothing.

that gets tiring and really fucking boring so you're gonna find that ppl who've been in the space for longer aren't interested in it. think about all the possible situations and interactions and happenings that it's possible to do this same shit to. think about how tiring that is to be constantly squirrelling into every single little thing when that thing has nothing provable behind it. some things blow over quick - eg the 2-3wks where every anon and 1/2 the blogs were convinced dream was fucking yasmina - and some take longer. some end up true and some don't. but nothing's ever been proved true by baseless gossip so i don't care to engage with it.

i'm not saying the theories speculated about are wrong; i'm saying that until there's something solid behind it, it's the same as any other unsubstantiated rumour or gossip and that's nothing to me.

i'm not interested in talking for hours about what a certain word used on socmed means about a potential rlship etc when the end result is just ppl solidifying their opinion of a stranger based on possible scenarios they've imagined. it's nonsense.

in the same vein, i think speculating about dteam rlships based on the small amount of shit we see is foolish. i'm not interested in discussing whether snf hate dream bc they go to eat cookies without him or whether dnf don't care about sap bc neither went on a flight with him to la. that's stupid to me. acting like we know any of these ppl and then arrogantly discoursing about their behaviour and lives and characters bc we see maybe 3% of their lives rather than the 1% that regular fans see is fucking stupid, pompous, and completely reductive.

if you're asking who cares about dregirls? a whole bunch of ppl and it's ridiculous to deny that. it's ridiculous to deny that any discussion of 'dregirls' doesn't end up being extremely negative towards dream and the women involved. there's no denying the way women end up dehumanised and dream ends up demonised in every single one of these conversations on crit. not by everyone ofc but it always happens. it leads to claims of dream and any woman being at turns predatory and manipulative or pathetic and foolish. it happens every single fucking time and some of us have been around long enough to not want to even start down that path.

[intertexts]

ALSO OOPS I DONT THINK I EVER SENT YOU THE TRIVIA FOR 27?????? UH OH. OUT OF ORDER. this one is a lot shorter though so it's ok

EPISODE 27 TRIVIA:

- bizly opens this one in a baby voice "wewcome to just wolled wiff it!" absolutely insane

- charlie makes excuses for his cracked energy was because he was in the UK and tommy and ranboo were in the other room (TOMMYINNIT JUMPSCARE)

- Jesus is canon yet again. but only in vyncents world

- CONDI THOUGHT HAMSTER DANCE WAS A UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE AT MIDDLE SCHOOL DANCES. and not just like. a youtube video that everyone knows. they played hamster dance at his middle school dance.

- speaking of which they've been overlorded again because the hamster WAS NOT ORIGINALLY A HAMSTER bizly did that solely because he has never heard hamster dance and wanted to be in on the joke

- charlie gets so worked up over the william short leg thing again and it's REALLY funny. bizly is like "I'll stop bringing it up when you stop having hilarious overreactions to it"

- "why the fuck did william make ice copies of dakotas parents that's so dark man"

"HE DIDNT MEAN IT TO BE !!!!! i think william is not very emotionally intelligent especially when it comes to stuff like this and he wanted to do something sweet for dakota. 'i know. Christmas is a great time for him to see his parents again because it's family and it'll make him happy!' without thinking about the moral implications OR the fact that they would come alive and try to strangle him"

grizzly: "dakota probably doesn't even remember Christmas with his parents"

charlie, REALLY far away from his mic: "WELL FUCK ME THEN"

- that was CONFIRMED mal trying to brwak through the barrier! charlie is TERRIFIED for williams sake especially bc he can't use his powers anymore

- condi: "hes pissed william isn't a planeswalker anymore and thats all he wanted you for"

charlie: "yknow! I dunno if william is a planeswalker anymore! he might not be!"

- WILLIAM WAS ACTUALLY BORN WITH A POWER!!!!! I forgot about this omg. so the one he was born with is called true sight and it means he's always been naturally able to see ghosts and monsters that normal people usually can't. YIPPEE

- he's also still got Kemuri's (smoke guy) powers obv ("that he regrets deeply every day"). they ARE in the spirit world and usually william wouldn't need a guide but since the wisps left him their guide is now master cole! if he were to leave/abandon them or whatever they'd no longer be able to stay in the spirit world. even william

- there are full versions of the colestyle gaming videos hidden somewhere on the patreon. fun fact. they're also talking about now doing one where william plays phasmophobia. or doing one with all 4 of them playing a game and bizly being tide. i don't think they ever actually did that but GOD i would kill for it.

- charlie was being annoying and grizzly responded with "I hope william stays alive *forever*" which sounds like it should be a nice thing to say but the way he said it was so absolutely scathing . brutal.

- quick mac detour theyre back to the game thing charlie says he wants to do a video playing elden ring as gillion and i NEED THAT SOOOO BAD. I miss gillion so much :(

- speaking of gillion idk why there's so much gillion trivia rn but charlie says the inspiration for his voice was "a combination of the spongebob narrator and my himbo fantasy" hello?

HOW HAS BIZLY NEVER HEARD HAMSTER DANCE??????????? yes this is what i'm taking from this. hello. how.

im so delighted w/ william thinking it's a great idea to make ice copies of his friends dead parents. god. NONE of the fucking prime defenders are emotionally intelligent they all have so many problems. prime traumatic stress defenders!!

ive said it like a billion times but i'm so fucking excited for the mal shit!!! i can't waittt!!!!! shaking him back n forth!!! wiwi torment nexus now!!!! also him being born with true sight is REALLY cool actually i feel like. this has been referenced on n off but i didn't realize it was actually a thing.. huh. i wonder if that's why the wisps targeted him. except their entire thing Is being seen so i dunno.!! cool... god. wiwi i love u wiwi... i want to go to deadwood i have so many fucking questions!!! why is the trickster there!! rift between worlds thats just coincidentally in his hometown!!! also i was just thinking ab kemuri's smoke powers im so glad he still feels awful using them :]] "i hope william stays alive forever" MEAN TO HIM!!! holy shit!!! wheezing!!

im gonna have a great time w gillion whenever i get around 2 riptide btw thats so funny. help. spogebob narrator himbo fantasy........

[brokebegginerartist]

I have a whole ass storyline featuring these two, spawned from that very okayish movie.

Also a spoiler review:

The sequel was pretty okay. I had a good time watching it. Obv it's very technically impressive and the way that the water ways is very good™️. The designs in general were very neat. Super pleasing from a guy who likes designs. I prefer looking at the human vehicles over the creatures but yknow, sucker for lower sci-fi stuff.

From what I remember of the first movie (which is almost next to none), I think I enjoyed the characters here a lot more. Super Memorable Main Character Jake Sully wasn't at all too interesting here. All he's really got is:

a) guerrilla leader, which the movie skips out a whole lot of potential in the prologue like seriously there was so much they could've done with that but they just didn't

And b) kinda strict father figure. Like I mean, it's something, for sure. But he never really does anything that a father figure wouldn't reasonably do. There was this bit in the beginning were his sons, uh. Noatok and Middle Child, mess up really bad and got a number of folks killed, but Jakesully kinda ignores that and berates Middle Child that he nearly got his brother killed. And his punishment for nearly screwing up a military mission? He's grounded. Around two thirds of what made this dynamic interesting was abandoned when the family bounced. Honestly though I can understand why his character takes a bit of a backseat as the film now has to devote screentime to his kids, which is more of an excuse than the previous film had.

Neytiri has largely the same issues too. I didn't really think of her as anything more than Scary Mom and Spicy Wife, but I don't rlly know what else they could've done with her.

That being said, I liked the kids a whole lot more even if the only ones who had an arc were Middle Child, Kiri, and Spider. Which is. More than ¾s. Anyways they were just kind of fun to be around even if I was getting a little tired of the discrimination aspect, though I understand why that exists. I'm especially happy with what they did with Kiri. Having that dynamic with Grace and Eywa was an amazing concept and I'm very interested to see what they do with it in the next one. I'm personally hoping we see Grace back in her Avatar.

Quaritch, compared to the last movie from what I remember, was way more interesting here than in the last movie (which is more than I can say for his squad. They weren't even particularly harder to kill than any of the human mercs. While the blue was flashy and cool, I'm disappointed with the lost potential here, even if it was only for better action scenes). It's good to see him with an attitude that isn't Military Man. He's also the main reason Spider exists, in and out of universe. At the beginning of the movie I was like "why does this kid exist besides the self inserts for young men" but during his scenes with Quaritch, I'm glad he does. I'm really into the esthetic of the military gear on the wyverns. Mega, Mega cool. Which is another thing.

I'm kind of disappointed with the treatment of the humans here. Very nearly none of them have any sympathetic qualities whatsoever. Even the ex-humans on the Naavi side were basically entirely useless. They only existed to paint a target on the Seal Naavi, telling Jakesully that, yknow, Kiri having seizures underwater could be bad (also it's very convenient that Naavi don't have the instinct to inhale when they suffocate like humans do. Very odd tbh) and to also claim that Kiris visions were caused by brain problems, which, while possible, they have actual, measurable proof that Eywa and her effects on the environment exist (I mean for fecks sake one of thems an Avatar too. Literally just stick him into a tree or some crap. I'm pretty sure they have recordings of Grace confirming this, no?). I sincerely hope this is improved in the next one, like Jesus this is a thing that took me out of the film for a bit

There's also this feeling that this whole conflict is really black and white, as in all the humans are bad guys and all the blue peeps are good guys. I'm no supremacist, and I understand that they're gonna do something with the concept with the introduction of the fire nation, but at least give us at least something to suggest that this conflict isn't that simple, like something more tangible than bullies for the blue side and, y’know, any sign at all that the humans are worried about the future of their people on the sky side.

Something besides all that, that I wish they did, was lean into the mixed esthetic like they did with Quaritch's wyverns. Something I think would've been cool for Jakesully's character. How, although he loves his wife and family and wants to separate himself from the worst parts of his heritage, he still mourns the things he lost. Even Especially if it was only the little things, like beer with friends or the general esthetics of Night City. Another thing that could've made the vibes more mixed. Like the weird coms gear that the Avatars use. I'd like some signs that both humans and Naavi have something to learn from each other, like some technical skills and even just an interest in cultural studies (if Eywa wasn't a force that solves damn well near all their problems and if they had a more open mind on anything that wasn't Eywa, although I could understand why they wouldn't considering the circumstances), and maybe, besides the incredible biology studies, a little bit of culture exchange on the humans side (if they weren't both desperate and assholes and led by a megacorp)

And besides that, some nitpicks

JakeSully's decision to leave when Avatars are targeting his family. Dumb, dumb on multiple levels. 1, You're like the only competent guerrilla leader of these people and you're leaving them high and dry. 2, You're leaving the hallelujah mountains, your most strongly defensible position, as on top of the general hostility of the entire planet, it has electro magnetic shenanigans that make the human instruments malfunction. And 3, if you decide to settle with anyone else, you'll be putting their community into danger by association because you cannot tell me you thought they were just gonna leave you alone if you disappeared from radar for a bit.

Everyone besides the kids lack of concern for Spider. JakeSully takes his family and bounces when he hears he's been captured (altho tbh what was he gonna do besides not leave, massive dumbdumb), and Neytiri takes him for hostage. She was emotional and they had Kiri, but still like wtf both of you. Butthole moves, you guys that was fucked

Why are the whales sapient? They don't seem to have admin privileges like the Naavi (or hands with which to create). What tf is the plan here Eywa

The mosasaur looking thing abandons the chase of a large fish out in open water, in favour of a much skinnier and more inconvenient Middle Child

The sea mercs plans rely nearly entirely on the whales refusal to retaliate in any meaningful way. I don't remember how much damage Middle Childs buddy did in his flashback, but his bros had all been killed. What was the difference between then and now? Where are all the high explosives that you dudes obviously need on standby?

The Sea Naavi dissappear in the middle of the climactic battle

Despite all that tho movie was pretty and I had fun, hoping the next one is better :)