#none of this is subtext this is all text i'm sorry to say

[thefabelmans2022]

bitches on here will write long ass posts about queer "subtext" in a show about WITCHES and act like it's revolutionary analysis. yeah girl witches in twentieth and twenty first century art are usually coded as persecuted and marginalised people. we know.

[undead-cypress]

Some MRF thoughts that I don't have shitpost images for but I feel like nobody but me and my tiny group of freaks talk about. I promise this isn't another "it's QDS!!" post

(spoilers)

- there's universal themes here for sure but this game is still entirely about Japan. Like honestly I feel like some nitpicks ppl have about the game can just be summed up as "this isn't reflective of America". I could elaborate but it'd take a whole essay with how dense this could get. And we know people hate to read

- there's no romance or dating because the devs knew that's what all anybody would talk and think about if they added any. They learned their lesson. Unfortunately for them this will not deter anybody

(frankly I think there is a canonical intended love interest but it's not who most ppl think it is and whatever happens between the characters in that regard is none of my business unless it's for making shitposts lol. Nor does it really matter to me)

- there's a few things lost in translation, but tbf there was no way to really translate them, they're mostly visual puns and unspoken running themes. Like how the "Prince" archetype in Japanese was more like... Ruler? Sovereign? It's not really a hereditary kinda title, nor was it gendered. But it doesn't have the same weight in English, and usually refers to monarchs, so. Also "Savior" was "Messiah", because it was supposed to have a more sacrificial connotation. I'll probably make a whole long post about the Healer line design stuff later. "anxiety" being 不安 (lacking safety) and 不安心 (unstable heart). Like it still absolutely means anxiety and there's no better way to translate it but anxiety doesn't have the same weight in English as 不安 does in Japanese....

- for a game literally titled "a metaphor about fantasy reflecting reality" people sure aren't picking up a lot of these extremely obvious metaphors. I'm not even talking about the ones they literally spell out in the text, I'm talking about stuff like. The Sanctist Church isn't really talking about Catholicism or Christianity because they're not that big a deal in Japan, and this game is still about Japan. Sanctist Church is about the LDP. Y'know. Abe

- and then there's actually very good trans subtext? I don't even know it should be called subtext because it should be overtly obvious to Japanese people. It would take a long post for me to explain here though.

- speaking of, Junah is my favourite character. Absolutely did not expect that but she's incredible. The dialogue in this game is so carefully considered, especially hers. There's people saying her story is too simple - I'm sorry you've fallen for the trick. Hope you figure it out soon

- I actually don't think there's a single second of filler in the game, which really is a foreign feeling. Maybe because I do design, but the storytelling even in the random enemy, battle, and dungeon designs are all so intentional. You might have to play on hard to fully experience how the game nudges you to play or navigate certain ways that subtly informs you way more about the story and characters. They built it around the story rather than having the story be an afterthought. I haven't seen them attempt this since p3 tbh

- I think DDS/QDS enjoyers will get WAY more out of this than anybody. And some P3 enjoyers, if they're the type of p3 fan who's more obsessed by the literary influences and themes than the fandom perception of the characters. Also a little bit of musing on Nocturne, but I'm feel like I'm the only one who noticed (._. )

- ppl saying the game is grindy or hard - lol skill issue. I did 0 grinding ever, even against the dragon towers. Being Megaten Georg outlier that should not be counted didn't even help me in this aspect because I started off playing as if it was megaten and immediately got humbled. If you pay attention to what the game is saying (in the "please pay attention and think about what you're reading" game), it's really well balanced.

- like yeah this game rewards you for thinking and reflecting, the more you mull it over the more interesting and fun it is. I think that's where the true enjoyment is, and the game isn't subtle about this either. Which is why it's WILD to me I still see posts of ppl complaining about stuff that if they thought about it for more than 2 seconds are either just untrue or has a point or was a setup to be resolved later.

- the vistas on the bottom half of the map is either a reference to the laser cannon from Paradise Lost OR GODZILLA and I'm the ONLY PERSON WHO NOTICES THIS????

- honestly I'm so glad I go out of my way to read weird stuff a lot because truly. What you get out of MRF as a person who's a little too hyper aware of literary techniques, design intention and media presentation is so delicious. I'm literally here rotating shot compositions and event sequences and the story telling in the UI design in my brain (Will is sideways on the screen because they're. Lying down). The fuckin shade on the screen you can pick "this isn't utopia" option being the shot showing you the most billboards...

- this explains so much about the past few major games they've put out tbh. They really wanted to do more stuff like DDS and perfect the vision they couldn't get with p3 due to hardware limits and later financial troubles. It's like every single grievance they've had with executive meddling put into one game. Ppl know them as the persona guys but I remember they also made DDS and Nocturne and that weird Maken X thing 🫡

- I've been jokingly calling p3 depression simulator and catherine anxiety simulator I'm gonna start calling MRF recovery simulator because that's kinda one of the underlying themes

- Louis is so funny. "Nobody will commit atrocities anymore if I commit all of them", I'm paraphrasing but, girl, what kinda QDS5 Heat logic....

On less serious notes:

- Atlus still sucks at official merch...

- I might be making notes on the Raidou style Eupha game that exists only in my head

- and the comedy road trip movie where Strohl and Hulkenberg must find Will who is pretending to be kidnapped for plot reasons, and Gallica didn't tell the two because they're not good at acting

- I still think it's very funny that the dogs at the beginning would either kill you in one strike or even if you kill one, give you nothing. They fungered me. I don't think the parallel to Fear and Hunger was intentional but that was an extremely funny coincidence, to me 😂 immediately upon the start

- I referred to More as Ike the entire playthrough as a joke to my friends because I thought it was funny they have the same voice and both games' about fantasy racism. And then I got the Radiance skill from the Prince archetype... "Behold... I walk a path of radiance..." (Not what they actually say but I said it a lot)

- I think wanting to fuck Louis is fine and hilarious but Will isn't the most fitting character to project that onto. They hand Zorba to you on a silver platter and people deny him and for what. His awesome design? Dedication to serving cunt? Awesome accent? Sexy fucked up arm? I weep to see my son's established personality sacrificed in the name of fucking Louis. It's like people giving Hulkenberg ass. Why would you do that to her, her flatness is the charm point. All that to say horny is fine I just wish so much of it wasn't OOC.

- however, I did make a lot of dumb jokes towards the end of the game that it must be canon we never fucked Louis because otherwise we can just teleport the gauntlet runner straight into his ass, Antman vs Thanos style, killing him immediately

- addendum:

Me: man I wish there wasn't so much OOC art of the MRF characters

Manga: hold my beer

Me: Hulkenberg would obliterate you

[henrysglock]

Is there a possibility, if the shadow is truly just an alien sentient being, that it's female? It's a weird thing to think, because it behaves like a virus and I don't think it would need to reproduce sexually, but IT was a pregnant female, and Ungoluant was a she apparently (never read LOTR). The shadow being female somehow would keep up with the theme, and it would partially explain why Vecna is so female coded at times, if it makes sense? Sorry if it's random, but whenever I have a random thought I like to hear what you have to say about it

Whatever it is, I think it defies the concepts of male and female. I also think it pushes the human concepts of male and female irt its victims. I'm not sure we can assign it one way or the other.

As you mentioned, the Mindflayer is compared to a virus, and viruses technically reproduce asexually. However...they do require a host. For all intents and purposes, viruses "impregnate" cells. They use injectable genetic material that hijacks the cell's own reproductive machinery in order to produce a "brood", so to speak, of viruses. The cell then bursts, releasing the young. Are viruses male or female, then?

There's also the additional point of the repeated AIDS/phallic/homosexual subtext (hell, even blatant text in some areas), and while we could compare it to Alien, with the facehuggers being a spider-like symbol of oral rape/"what if men could get pregnant by rape"...but even then the facehuggers laid young, which is more of a democreature thing, see: Will and the tentacles.

So we end up with all this AIDS/homosexual rape subtext that's completely separate from the references to the other homosexual oral rape (but still female, technically) subtext, which has me walking right back to "are viruses male or female?"

I'm also wary of thinking they'll copy too directly. The Duffers copy a lot, but none of it is an exact 1-to-1. So while it would fit the theme...I'm not sure it's entirely what they're going for. Having it be the same concept but with an inversion on the mode of reproduction/link to biological maleness and turning the victims into the female (rather than just having eggs like IT or grown young into incubator-type victims like Alien) would be something that's in-keeping with the Duffers' habits of trope subversion.

[cosmicjoke]

i am so sorry u had to deal with that anon, i hope you are feeling ok! :’) it sucks how shippers make their own reputation bad by not accepting another perspective/opinion :/ and to go to this extent over a fictional ship is just… something else😭 i’ll never understand how some can’t just enjoy their ship in peace and always have to prove it is canon and fight everyone else who doesn’t think like them, as if you can’t enjoy a ship otherwise?

anon just reminded me why i never took an interest in any levi ship, and i probably never will. i sooo wanted to say that i didn’t understand why anon suddenly started to hate on levi x oc shippers, but it’s obvious bc most oc’s are depicted as women and that is against their ‘canon’ ship and beliefs about levi😭 why care so much, levi can be whatever sexuality you want seeing as nothing was confirmed, so just take a step back, touch some grass and let people enjoy whatever they like :’)

anyways, once again im sorry u had to deal with all of that i can’t even imagine how tiring or frustrating it must be to always be attacked/asked about the same things constantly. i love your levi posts and i feel like you really analyze him very well! happy holidays :’)

Thank you so much, truly.

I've said again and again that I have nothing against any ship or shipping group. People can ship Levi with whoever they want. But these people who harass me over it, then accuse me of "talking" about it all the time, but the only reason I talk about it is because they're the ones asking me about it.

The thing is, is I just want to talk about what's in the actual story. Levi has no love interest in the story, either directly acknowledged or even implied. Everything this person sited as evidence or "proof" of Levi being romantically interested in Erwin, I addressed to the best of my abilities. They didn't want to accept it, and then they accuse me of being a hypocrite, trying to claim that all of my analysis posts are based on the same, speculative, inconclusive and flimsy material they base their beliefs on. As if breaking down text, expression, sequential order of panels, and patterns in the text and past character behavior is the same as taking an off-handed comment from Isayama in an interview from ten years ago or whatever and using it as proof of some super secret hidden romantic interest between Levi and Erwin. You can literally look at every post of mine analyzing AoT and find evidence supporting, pretty damn concretely, my conclusions in the actual text. And I'm hardly alone in that. There's many, many great AoT fans who write brilliant analysis posts about the manga/anime, using only the source material. But these people can never point to a single panel or word bubble or piece of text that supports this notion that Levi was in love with Erwin, or anyone, for that matter. They need to site promotional material to try and back up their claims, and extrapolate meaning from the panels and texts which isn't, in any discernible, concrete way actually supported by the text and panels. They literally need to twist Levi's words and actions in the most absurd, nonsensical, illogical manner in order to make it fit. That isn't how Isayama operates as a writer. Even when there's subtext, there's a clear, undeniable line between it and the action on the page. That's what analysis is based on, after all. There has to be a viable, evident reason for drawing certain conclusions.

Levi holding the serum against his chest, or touching Erwin's hand when he took the serum from him, or him thinking of Erwin when wondering who he could revive, none of that is enough proof in and of itself to support a romantic interest between them. I tried explaining to this person what those things actually indicate within the story. The last two don't mean anything. It's just how the panels were drawn. But the first, if this person had paid any kind of attention to Levi's actual relationship with Erwin, and how Levi regarded Erwin, and the reasons he was so loyal to Erwin, would understand that he thought of Erwin in that moment because he regarded Erwin as the leader that humanity needed, and that humanity's future was dependent on Erwin's survival. It's the entire reason Levi tried to stop Erwin from going to Shinganshina in the first place. I come to all of those conclusions based on the actual text and what we know about the characters leading up to that point.

I explained all of this to this fool in my initial reply to them, and they accused me of "brushing them off", lol.

Anyway, whatever. But thank you so much again for your support. I just can't seem to get away from these people, haha.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi! Do you remember Sam saying that "lestat needs to understand it's his fault all people he turned into vampire left him" including Gabrielle and Nicki. Do you agree with him? Because unless they'll majorly change dynamics between Lestat and Gabrielle and Nickistat it's not his fault? Gabrielle and Lestat couldn't stay together because they ultimately needed different things and I always felt they understood that, and Nicki was mentally ill... I'm honestly scared how they'll spin those relationship because they changed a lot from loustat dynamic in IWTV (book), while they added more romance, they added more physical abuse too and outcome turned out completely different (in book there's grey area concerning Claudia murdering Lestat, in show he deserved everything and way more etc) I just really hope they know what they're doing. I saw too many takes and theories how bad Lestat was to Nicki and Gabrielle, and if those turned out to be true I don't know what to do. I get that Rolin wants character redemption arc, but the way lestat's character morally made way worse for that is not a good thing IMO. Lestats antagonistic role in first book was more because of Louis general misunderstanding of lestats character, who he truly see in the end of the book. In the show Louis knows way more about Lestats past already AND lestats way more awful to Louis and Claudia. It can't be simple miscommunication (in simplifying terms). So I truly trust Sam with lestats character but I don't trust writers and unfortunately Sam can't influence them (at least majorly) Basically I'm afraid of them making Lestat even MORE removed from book!canon for the sake of future arc when there's no need for that

Sorry for the rant, but you're one of my favorite blogs in fandom, and your answers always do thoughtful, I thought I'd share my concerns with you

Glad you like my blog!

Tbh, I differ a bit with the judgement of Lestat being removed from the books... The show pulled all the subtext up (*ducks away from Sam*), not just the implied sexual components, but also in regards to the abuse. The abuse is in the books, it's text, it's good to remember that.

And Lestat can be quite capricious, and an ass, and he is a killer. They all are. I don't think he is that much removed from book!canon actually, especially when you consider that... we haven't even seen the real Lestat yet.

The only(!!!) "real" Lestat we get in season 1... is "Come To Me". And if you look at the text there, it is surprisingly insightful, I've written about it here (and I'll go over it in today's chapter of 'Laden').

Louis is telling us his story, for an effect. He wanted to omit Lestat in Paris, and for that he had to be dead, and it had to be inevitable for him to be dead. The reason for this interview is still unclear at this point, though I believe it has a lot more to do with Daniel and Armand than the need for an actual second interview^^.

I'd be very careful with theories and metas taking only what is the "first level" of it all at face value, namely what Louis is telling to Daniel. That is a tale, and that tale has already been broken apart at the end of episode 7. Was it all a lie? No, most certainly not.

But it was not the (whole) truth either and told for an effect.

So, I'd... suggest not to fret just yet.

From what I've seen and what I've heard... there is literally no reason to worry. 😅

None.

For all the characters btw, not just Lestat.

I think they did their homework, and magnificently so, too. That will show in all the relationships, in the one to Gabrielle and Nicolas, too, but... remember we are likely on Lestat's POV then... and that will be massively different.

The writers are playwrights, let's let them tell their tale :), and then we can judge after.

But I'm not worried at all tbh. Just giddy.

[captain-astors]

Hi! Can you do 001 for trigun and 003 shirazu?

1. I am glad to know you’re not a bot for certain at long last because I enjoy consistently spotting you in my notes, also sorry this took so long.

2. ABSOLUTELY?? You have functionally handed me an early christmas present in an ask. I'm going to divide this up into two posts, this’ll be the Trigun one, I’ll do the Shirazu one in a separate post.

Favorite character: 

LEGATO BLUESUMMERS MY DEAREST. Oh this poor man. I can’t even say “I want him to get better” because he would resist it with all his might and I can’t say I want him to get worse because this man is at rock bottom and actively digging deeper. Hugging him is not enough. I need to divide him into atoms, sort them into categories, and hope it gives him relief. I have 99 problems and seeing Legato heal wouldn’t solve a lot of them but it would be great. 

Least Favorite character: 

Difficult question because I really do like them all. Is none an option. I could just go with a random side character who exists just to be scum of the earth but I suppose if I’m looking for “was marginally involved” Stampede Conrad makes me want to hit my head against a wall. 

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): 

Mashwood and all its individual parts, the insurance girlfriends, Summerknives? Millionssummers? But for the consequences of feelings more than an actual belief that they have the capacity to be a couple. I saw Zaziemeryl once and that was sweet. Everyone x Therapy. 

Character I find most attractive: 

No idea. Wolfwood? I’m starting to realize there are very few characters I’m actually acutely attracted to aesthetically for long periods of time but I’ve been loving his expressions for as long as he’s existed. Also I’m not sure about attractive per say but Zazie has such splendid gender and I would like them to share. 

Character I would marry: 

Vash. I am not immune to his sopping wet energy and the freakish height. I would like to either carry him in my arms or be carried, either is fine.  

Character I would be best friends with: 

Zazie! Or alternatively I would sell my soul for a hug with Milly. I’d say I could have trans solidarity with Elendira but unfortunately she wants everyone dead and that might cause a lot of awkward conversations.

a random thought: 

I really want to lick stampede knives’ snuggie thing. 

An unpopular opinion: Whenever someone attempts to quantify Legato and Knive’s dynamic as simple pining, mentorship, or even familial, they inherently lop off an intrinsically necessarily quality of that same dynamic which is the fact that Legato does, more than anyone else, see Knives as an actual god. He worships him, and what a terrible thing it is to love your god. Also Roberto was lovely but he did have to die. 

My Canon OTP: 

What canon couples are there? Whatever the ‘98 anime was trying to set up between Wolfwood and Milly was sweet so I suppose that. 

My Non-canon OTP:

Technically it���s half-canon but, Millionsummers, but in a I-want-to-see-the-consequences way.

Most Badass Character: 

Dominique the Cyclops or Elendira the Crimsonnail. 

Most Epic Villain: 

They’re both villains so… see above. 

Pairing I am not a fan of: 

Pl*ntc*st. WHY is it so popular now, YES the subtext has always been there but no one demanded you to make it TEXT.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): 

Elendira deserved more attention in Maximum, she’s so cool. 

Favourite Friendship:

Hmm… Milly and Meryl. 

Character I most identify with: 

Legato. I’m fine, trust me. 

Character I wish I could be:

Zazie! No contest. They’re just living their best life.

Thank you!

[neurotheascars]

Re: the post about bullying people on misspellings and reading comprehension and such.

no real, I’m the person people talk about when they say dyslexia

(I have all the other ones too, dysgraphia, dyscalclia, dyspraxia too)

And so my reading comprehension and also spelling is kinda trash, not in a bad faith way but in a “I genuinely completely missed like a whole paragraph” way.

which just sucks, I’m still extremely new to the whole “writing” thing.

genuinely if you saw something from a couple years ago vs now you’d be flabbergasted at how much we’ve improved.

but I always thought it was extremely rude to bully and or be mean about people who don’t understand or read things right or write things right.

you just genuinely do not know who they are and why they do it, whenever I try to correct someone I say it kindly and give constructive feedback.

Like genuinely it’s not hard to be kind, some people are still learning, sometimes it’s someone’s second language, sometimes they use speech to text and text to speech.

it’s just such a deeply ingrained belief that anyone who misspells or misspeaks or misunderstands is dumb or stupid.

I can’t even count on my fingers how many times I’ve misheard, worded something trash, or misunderstood or misinterpreted something.

but that’s just how I am and I can’t change it, but I can change my reaction and outcome and make friendships even after fucking up.

it’s just a sad feeling that even if you have the best intentions you still fail horribly, subtext and tone are hard to parse through, so much meaning and context gets a bit screwy when you write it down.

and sometimes life is filled with mistakes and failures and there’s nothing wrong with that, I can’t know everything and I probably never will.

I love the quote

“a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

because yeah, I’ll never be a master at English or talking or anything.

but I can be a jack of all trades, I can try to learn and be better.

more skills even though I’m not a master at any, helps so much.

We beat ourselves up and others for things we can’t control rather than lift ourselves and others up.

that’s just my thoughts on it, I just didn’t want to add it on the main post it’s pretty unrelated to the original lol.

-pop

You are so very nice to write all this pop. Sorry I take a bit to respond. The system has been super busy.

The "trouble" that I mentioned in the tags that I got into was when I said I unfollowed someone for being rude about reading comprehension and had a complete stranger come out of nowhere and correct me like I was talking about them when I wasn't and then when I said I wasn't and was frustrated that people apparently do this enough to assume unrelated call outs about it are vagues about them, they acted like I was "rude" and like...

I'm an alter that has slammed doors hard enough to crack walls. I've said such utterly fucked things. I am trying my hardest, my best, to be nice when I'm upset. I have come so far and it hurts. I use all my energy when I do it. Tumblr is almost like a kind of language thinking therapy for me. It's a good place to practice being as polite as I can, because it's safer to fail online as opposed to IRL, where backspace and walk away are not options.

To try as hard as I did and still be called rude is... Ugh. It's just awful. Especially when it was an otherwise cool blog that said that about me. They even said on their blog separately if another alter apologized on my behalf that they'd be friends with them and just avoid me.

And that's actually trauma for me! That kind of thing seriously destabilizes my system. I've had people literally abuse my system by manipulating us like that and talking about me, calling me an asshole like I can't hear. But I get that that's just a mistake too.

It's all mistakes!

I think the world would be a better place if more mistakes were seen as harmless.

Also I vibe with the jack of all trades bit. We definitely as a system feel that.

[justheretofollowstuff]

Sorry....No.

The game EXPLICITLY states that Mohg was under the inluence of Miquella BEFORE entering the Land of Shadows and being kidnapped, with him being active enough to have managed to charm Ansbach.

"Once, in an attempt to free Lord Mohg from his enchantment, I challenged Tender Miquella, only to have my own heart rather artfully stolen. I knew not how weak I was." - Ansbach

Miquella was in an unconcious state when he was kidnapped (the cocoon only breaks after we walk in, after all). This event had to happen BEFORE the kidnapping, which means that Miquella had already charmed Mohg andplanned this all out in advance. You can think about that what you want from a satisfaction or writing perspective, but it is text, there is no other way to explain this other than Ansbach is somehow unreliable - but you would have to present proof for that, of which there is none.

It also makes no sense to mention Thiollier here - of course he wouldn't be obsessed with Trina...Because Miquella's charm makes people dedicated to Miquella, not Trina - they have fundamentally different powers even if they were once in the same body. Again, the proof is in Ansbach, who rejects Miquella after the charm is broken - he was the only one of the followers who was forced into submission to Miquella, all the other ones held genuine loyalty towards him because of his charisma.

None of this is subtext - all of this is explained very clearly to the player, in a way Souls games almost rarely do.

Edit: I should add I'm not a 'Mohg was a good boy all along' truther. You are right in saying that Miquella's charm doesn't change people's personality, it shifts their loyalties, perspectives and attentions. Mohg was likely always a creepy, evil weirdo, it's just that Miquella's influence forced him to focus that entirely on him.

about miquella's kidnapping, you know the charm only works if miq gets really close in your face (see heart stolen + freyja's account of being healed) and it doesn't do a 180° in your personality (the npcs in the shadow realm are there to show us how it affects them and we can see it didn't change their personality) what the charm does is: make you non-violent (see heart stolen) makes you forget bad things (see leda and ansbach remembering "cascading sheets of blood" after the charm is broken)

if anything, I'd say the charm would've made him more sane, take thioller for example he's completely obsessed with trina after the charm is broken, to the point where he tries to kill you after she talks to you

compare thioller's dialogue:

"i am her chosen, not you. only I can doze off in the sea of st. trina"

and

"only i am allowed to know. of your velvety sleep. its sweetly gentle embrace. so please, smile—for me, and only me." (st. trina's smile)

to mohg's dialogue:

"miquella is mine and mine alone"

both are possessive and obsessed. miquella's charm nullified thioller's obsession, and I have no reason to believe miquella can just pick and choose the side effects his charm will have.

my points on why miquella did not want to be kidnapped

1 - he wouldn't have cocooned himself for a long ass time like he did otherwise. and you know he was there for a long time because he's all skinny and covered in cocoon liquid stuff. and mohg wouldn't need to break open his cocoon like he did, he would just take it back to his palace

2 - miquella couldn't have known mohg even existed. he lived in the sewers his whole life, and miquella never went to the sewers. also, even if he did, he couldn't have charmed him there bc otherwise ansbach would never know to differentiate a non-charmed mohg from a charmed mohg .

3 - mohg is already a established kidnapper. from the "war surgeon gown":

"Bloodstained white gown of the war surgeons who were effectively mercy killers. Of the surgeons that were abducted by the Lord of Blood, none were able to tame the accursed blood. None but Varré, that is; though he was an exception."

4 - mohg had his own reasons to kidnap miquella. he wanted to build his blood dynasty and to become a lord, as ansbach says he was seeking lordship, and the consort of an empyrean is a lord by right (see dark moon ring description). miquella is the only empyrean available, as ranni is presumed dead and malenia already has a god inside of her (and he could never kidnap her), leaving only miquella who apparently doesn't have an outer god meddling inside of him, so perfect vessel for the formless mother

now, you're probably wondering "well if the mohg thing wasn't planned, who would be used as a vessel for his consort??" to answer that, miquella probably didn't know he needed a vessel in the first place, as the ">>>secret<<< rite scroll" is only found in the shadow realm, he couldn't have known about that thing while living in the lands between.

verdict: miquella was forced to switch plans after the kidnapping (can't complete anything he starts curse yadda yadda), mohg did not beat the allegations, and miquella got his revenge for being used (mohg was living/sleeping inside his corpse how do yall forget this???) by using mohg's corpse to house his promised consort's soul somehow (which is awful too, but that goes without saying)

remember, the story in the dlc is there to parallel his ascension to marika's ascension. in this case, the hornsent killed and tortured marika's people, and she responds by genociding and terrorizing the hornsent people. mohg used and abused miquella's corpse, and he responded by using mohg's corpse.

marika = miquella

hornsent = omen

I just think it's weird that so many people are running off with the assumption that miquella, who the dlc all but confirm has the body AND mentality of a child, was charming mohg out of malicious intent rather than self-defense. remember he was probably never trained to fight nor does he have the strength to do it, the charm is basically his self-defense mechanism.

I think the main issue is that if you disagree on even the littlest thing here, the whole narrative shifts, and that's why there's so many different interpretations and confused people.

this is all subjective and there's no reason to claim my interpretation is the correct one ofc but I do think I make a good argument.

[buck-yyyy]

alright. for the past week or so i've been thinking a lot about the ST fandom space on tumblr, and i'm gonna be so blatantly honest--the "hive mind" that we all talk about and love, especially when it comes to byler, is starting to feel like a bad thing. i feel like we've built up a lot of unrealistic expectations for what season five is going to look like, and for lack of better available phrasing... i really wish that that mindset had never formed.

(to be clear--i am including myself in this criticism!! i am not excluded from what i am saying in the slightest. just to make sure none of you think i'm saying i'm exempt from it or that i think i'm better than anyone, because i am NOT)

anyways, i made this tier-list to be as show-accurate as possible in terms of each character's relevance. stranger things is an ensemble show, but not every character is going to be given the same amount of screen time or have the same amount of attention paid to their storylines, and i think that the division between primary, secondary, and tertiary protagonists in the show is often misconstrued in ways that lead people to believe that a lack of focus on a character's story is some sort of bigoted failing on the writers' part.

(this is not about lucas, erica, or patrick. every single criticism of the way their storylines have been handled by the writers, especially with the treatment of lucas and erica, is absolutely true. this show has a racism problem, fucking acknowledge it).

anyways, to the best of my ability, i've put the protagonists and antagonists in order of their importance/prevalence to the main story*. they have separate tiers, because i don't feel they're fully comparable.

this has nothing to do with what characters i like the most, or how well i think that their stories were written/pulled off--this is simply my own examination of how each character feeds into the fundamentals of what stranger things is. this does not take theories or speculation into account--this is SOLELY based strictly on the text.

i'm not including edward, rosemary, or any other speculative theory-based characters, because 1. i'm trying to be unbiased and don't want to favor specific theories over some i haven't heard of, and 2. they are moreso subtext than text at the moment. no i'm not counting newspapers or set design as text. sorry if that comes across as rude.

owens is in his own category because i cannot for the life of me figure out whether or not he's actually a good guy. chrissy, patrick, and fred are also in their own category because they're not necessarily protagonists, but they're certainly not antagonists--they're more devices in the story than anything else.

there's definitely room for improvement, and i'm very much open to criticism on how i've structured this--but please for the love of god just keep it constructive, don't call me an idiot or be condescending because i didn't take your theories into account when putting this together. i'm just one dude!!!

anyways. the biggest reason i made this is because i am firmly of the opinion that vickie being under-developed compared to other main ships is NOT lesbophobic, it's simply the fact that robin is not a primary protagonist and is therefore not going to be paid the same amount of screen time as certain other characters. it sucks that vickie is a carbon-copy of robin, and it sucks that she's barely gotten any characterization, especially since amy mcnulty is an incredible actor, but it isn't subtle or unintentional homophobia. it's the fact that robin (and by extension, her love interest) is not as important to the story as ships including one or multiple of the primary protagonists.

*flayed!billy (ST3) and billy hargrove (ST2) are noted as different characters and have different places in the tier-list, as are henry, vecna, the mindflayer, and the meatflayer.

[casasupernovas]

you know what im just gonna say it.

i really dislike the assertion that people dislike rose in series 2 because we can't bear to see her more 'confident' and 'assertive.' more 'sure of herself.'

not only is this a blatant glossing over of rose's actual arc in that season - which was becoming a more selfish person (i'm sorry it is the truth), but here's the thing:

we all know what a confident, more self assured, brilliant rose looks like. i champion the first season so hard because it does it perfectly. rose is wearing red in the last two episodes because she's confident enough to wear red now, and she can pull it off too. no more loose fitting clothes, but fun, vibrant ones - see boom town.

the most blatant and best example of rose becoming more assertive, self assured and confident is in 'the long game', where the doctor is visibly proud of her as she shows adam around, showing how much she has learned.

that, is a confident rose tyler. she's not perfect but she's grown.

rose's 'confidence' in series 2 manifests in ugly ways and it's the truth, and that's because she's not becoming more confident, she's becoming cold. her cocky attitude towards cassandra shows her becoming fearless but also the girl who plead for cassandra's life before is nowhere to be found, now she laughs at the memory of cassandra's demise. next, she stares at a man being mauled to death and shows that she completely doesn't care seconds later, preferring to prioritise giddy excitement at seeing a werewolf. she's becoming desensitised. she's eager to trip up a pig in the 50s with the doctor, leaving the family to suffer the mess after the door is closed. "you've had your fun." quickly dismisses the alien in 'fear her.' in some cases, she's only empathetic when the narrative needs us to feel sorry for characters like elton despite expressing anger moments earlier.

rose isn't disliked for being 'confident' in series 2. she's disliked because rose loses most of her best qualities, or if they were there, they are in the background, not the foreground. in fact, some are so much in the back that they're literally in deleted scenes.

none of what i say should be controversial honestly. it is within the actual subtext and literal text of the show. s4 rose is another entity entirely though.

[amwritingmeta]

Love your take on everything & it really gives me hope for a destiel endgame. I was wondering if you had noticed Dean getting a bit more 'camp'? I don't subscribe to that kind of stereotype normally but as Jensen, a supposedly straight, (let's keep cockles out of this!) actor's interpretation of bi, it seems as though his mannerisms have been somewhat feminised, maybe? I'm thinking mostly of The Face that Mary points out. (also Max's interest in the grenade launcher interests me!) discuss :-)

Helloooo my dear and lovely Nonny! 

Yes, this reply is long overdue and all I can ask is your forgiveness!! Thank you so much, I’m glad you’re enjoying my take and that it gives you hope! :)

I’ve had to ponder this question for a good long while, tbh, because I kind of know what you mean, but I also feel that Jensen’s mannerisms as Dean have had a few wrist flicks and eye rolls that have always felt overly dramatic because Dean can be high drama, right? I don’t know if I’d necessarily label these things as camp or feminised, though.

I mean, I could watch this gif forever. This moment is so fucking awesome! :P

We could theorise into eternity about what’s true and what’s not true about how Jensen claims to play Dean so straight and so uber-masculine, right? I mean… proof’s in the pudding, puddin’ - and even though the editors can change the meaning of a scene by cutting out parts or changing stuff around, there are too many moments that are clearly directed, if not chosen by Jensen in how to be acted out, that are done so in order to be edited in a certain way. There have been these moments of wrist flicking from the beginning, I’d say, because it’s how Dean moves in certain moods or moments. 

Anyone who disagrees with this, please, do jump in! I encourage you adding your thoughts and interpretation!

Now, I know we could debate where Jensen stands until we’re all blue in the face and we’d still be none the wiser. I know a lot of people who believe he sincerely did not know that Dean is meant to be bisexual and that he played him straight as a doornail for eleven or twelve years until someone said, look, we’re deciding to move forward with the love story so, beware, Dean is in love with Cas and this is happening. And I think this is fair enough! Because Jensen has been so outspoken about how he plays Dean and relates to Dean and Dean is s.t.r.a.i.g.h.t.

Yeah, in there lies the problem for me. In what motivation he’s had to make this statement again and again. I find it hard to believe that an actor would work on any project for over a decade and not take an interest or feel curiosity about how the narrative is built. Actually, I find it improbable. Jensen has spoken about how he used to fill every page of the scripts he’d get with thoughts on Dean’s motivation. Does this mean Jensen knew Dean is meant to be bi? Nope. And I can’t argue for or against, merely say that it doesn’t add up to me - at all - that an actor who is so in tune with his craft and who clearly cares about this character would play him - consistently - for twelve years without really knowing him. 

There is this marked pattern with Dean where he’s attracted to a man and immediately overcompensates by chasing a woman and it’s established in 2x02 with Ash and Jo (if not sooner…). It’s fascinating to watch that episode and notice this pattern because it becomes like a subliminal thing. 

It in no way works as proof that Jensen chose to play Dean attracted to Ash, and running after Jo to narratively compensate for it, like it’s a subtextual scale that weighs too hard on one side and then immediately needs to be righted by overtly stating that Dean prefers women. (which looking at the subtext blatantly just is not the whole truth and never was) But it’s a character trait that is brushed at from the start and then becomes the lynchpin for so many important character moments and, looked at that way, even works as foreshadowing for Castiel and the role he’s going to play in Dean’s character progression. But I shan’t go into deeper details on that now because then we’ll be here until Christmas morning. 

What I’m saying is that this has been a conscious part of Dean’s character from the beginning (to my mind) and my mind fucking boggles at the idea that Jensen - who has dedicated such a huge chunk of his career to playing Dean, a performance that will, most likely, be a career defining one - would not know everything there is to know about Dean. 

Okay, I’m crossing over into complete Jensen-behaviour conjecture and speculation and that’s not really what your question was about. (though they do relate, as your question reflected) :P

As for Max and the grenade launcher (god what a lovely choice of topic you throw my way!!) :) –>

Max is gay. Max is hot. Max likes the look of Baby. Max is invited to view Baby’s goodies. Max notices the grenade launcher. 

(that wasn’t meant to come out as the text for a story book for children) (…or was it) ;)

This has been discussed before so it’s very likely that you’ve read up on it a while back because I am so damn late in replying, buuuuut let me still give you the bare bones of this exchange, yeah? I mean, they’re pretty amazing bones.

The exchange between Max and Dean opens with Max saying that Baby is still “major” and Dean offering him the tour. Which consists of what? Max calling out the grenade launcher. And Dean replying to Max’s question of “is that a grenade launcher” with “yes she is” but then immediately grabbing what they need: witch killing bullets. 

I mean, the actual lead into this exchange is Max telling everyone he successfully got a guy’s phone number, right? Dean making this face:

What’s so amazing is how Dean gets a dose of a guy completely and utterly at ease with his sexuality, and then we’re taken to the trunk of Baby - the prop that Jensen says “is a part of me”, speaking as Dean…….. - and shown the phallic shaped monstrosity of a weapon in serious need of release and Dean, aptly, assigns it a sex and, to his mind, it’s a “she”, it’s a female in need of release, as is Dean’s non-performing side. His feminine side, if you will. His yin to his overcompensating, toxically masculine yang.

The beginning of inner balance being found between these two is given to us by Dean launching that grenade into that cement wall in 12x22. 

And here we have a beautiful setup for exactly what that moment means for Dean Winchester. And that he is so extremely subconsciously aware of it all.

“Yes, she is.”

I mean…. seriously, Dean.

And why is it Max asking to dig his nose into Baby’s junk? Sorry, I mean trunk. (….or do I?) Because Max is a reflection of Dean throughout this entire episode. He is our Dean exposition in many many ways. And he ends up making the wrong choice for the right reasons. And I look forward to when Max and Alicia return and I wonder if Alicia will be restored. Come on, Jack. You know you can right this wrong!! :)

Thank you for asking, Nonny! And happy holidays to you!

xxx