#not okay about it and never intend to be

[wildsaltair]

making this photo my phone screen, computer screen, bedroom wallpaper, personality, religion, and lifestyle

[shakingparadigm]

what is the theory that ivan manipulated the event where till and mizi met the wagyein?

It's not a theory, actually! It's confirmed that Ivan orchestrated the whole event. The true reason as to why however is still unknown. The information provides more context to this scene, though:

During the earlier times of ALNST the most rational explanation for this scene was that Till ran after a flower crown (presumably Mizi's) and Ivan followed him in out of curiosity. Now we know that Ivan was conveniently just standing there because he was waiting.

Side note, I find it heartbreaking (and maybe a little funny, sorry) that Till most likely didn't notice Ivan in this scene. That's just like him, isn't it. Always too busy running after Mizi while Ivan trails behind, an ever-present shadow.

I'm not sure how Ivan manipulated the circumstances for both of them to end up there, but it is confirmed that everything was intentional. What strikes me most is how they describe this particular scene:

I can't copy down what they said word-for-word (Patreon info), but they described Ivan watching "creepily" as Till and Mizi are faced with danger. We know that Ivan was familiar with the Cerberus wagyein beforehand, enough to touch its teeth and even to rest himself inside its maw. To Ivan, the wagyein is not dangerous, but to Till and Mizi, it could be. Ivan prepared the wagyein, led them there, and watched "creepily" from afar as Till fell on his knees, seemingly injured.

The closest I can get to making sense of Ivan's "scheme" is that he wanted to see how other children would react in a dangerous situation. Ivan's always been an observer, after all, and he's learned to survive by copying the more "normal" behaviors of his peers. This situation occured when Ivan was still young and had not yet developed his more charming mask, so perhaps he staged this encounter to study a situational response, to learn and mimic the emotion of fear. And what better subjects for the experiment than two of the most expressive and reactive humans of their batch? It helps that he was already fixated on Till beforehand, too. I think Ivan became irreversibly obssessed after this incident, especially since it's framed as a turning point in Ivan's life, comparing Till to the stars.

This is just my attempt at an interpretation, though. It could very well be for another reason. He most likely chose Till and Mizi specifically for personal reasons, not just for reaction. I'm still not sure on the purpose behind the whole thing.

The team wanted to capture Ivan's "dark emotions" through the shot of his stalking, which could relate to his more sinister intentions. His gaze can be read in a few different ways, though. Curiosity, interest, fear, etc. Maybe that's why they decided to redraw the shot in ROUND 6.

I think this better sells the feeling they were trying to convey.

[taruruchi]

Bundling up for the winter 🫶

Taglist: @solxima @angelwishess @scint1llat3 @distant-velleity @twtysevapr @cynthinesia @h0neybane @viperbunnies @linabirb @thehollowwriter @wafflethewitchboy @siphoklansan @jewelulu @skibidibabygirl @gimmeurmoneyagh (ask me if you wanna be added/removed!)

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Sorry, but can I just stress something about Louis that drives me insane? 

In his route where you've saved him, he kills Dorian. Louis directly kills another person. He shot her with a crossbow through the mouth.

It’s unavoidable. 

Sure, it’s considered an accident, and even so, it was also self-defense—Dorian sure wasn’t there for a friendly chat, after all. 

But here's the thing... of the Ericson crew, we know that Clementine, AJ, and Marlon have killed someone. And Minerva if you want to count her, too, since she once was part of the group . But the others? Maybe they have killed before and we just don’t know about it, whether it be out of mercy or self-defense.

Violet in her route had the chance to kill Minerva, but understandably, she didn’t. She opted to shoot her in the shoulder instead… but we never see her kill anyone herself. 

Maybe you could count indirect kills because of the bag of bricks/log that kills Yonatan, and maybe you could consider Mitch’s death as indirectly Tenn’s fault… Speaking of Mitch, he tried to kill Lilly, but we all saw how that turned out, didn't we? 

…but Louis? He killed Dorian. That was his first kill. His first. 

And he feels awful about it! He apologizes to the body as it lays warm at his feet! He’s shaking and can barely speak!! It feels like bile! He doesn't even have time to process it because uh oh, the boat's going to explode!

But he’s also been so hardened over the season by everything that’s happened to him that he comes out of it glad that he has it in him to kill because if that’s what it takes to protect Clementine, AJ, and his family and home, then he’ll do it even if he doesn’t want to.

How does that not drive anyone else utterly mad?

Fandom considers him the funny guy! He's cute and silly! He makes Clementine laugh!

He's also done murder! He's taken a life! Just like Clementine and AJ have! Just like Marlon did!

And honestly, I think this also leads to him forgiving AJ for killing Tenn because at this point, he understands. He hates it, and he wishes it didn’t have to be this way, but he gets that AJ saw something that he didn’t. Louis knows that AJ’s hurting just as much as he is, he even says as much if Clementine says anything other than “AJ saved your life” on the bridge. 

He relived Marlon’s death when Tenn died, but it’s not like his hands are clean, either… and neither were Marlon’s. Clementine’s hands definitely aren’t clean. 

It drives me crazy that best friends Louis and Marlon have each killed someone in TFS but Marlon killed Brody in a moment of panic because he’s a coward who wanted hide what he did while Louis killed Dorian in a moment of panic because he was trying to save Clementine from Minerva and she came up behind him like… hhhhnnnnggggggggg, y’know?

Oh, and don't even get me started on the clouis aspect of this because I'll lose it. He talks to her about it because he knows she'll understand, just like how she's always understood him. How he goes out of his way to tell her that having a home means protecting it and he's going to protect it [that home being her, AJ, and Ericson] no matter what because he wants to build this new life with her aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I've lost it—

[thatswhatsushesaid]

sometimes the thing you think you have written is way less interesting than the thing you have actually written.

[blossoms-phan]

thoughts on what dnp might be planning for March??

hi oma!! <3 i literally think about this so much and the most terrifying part is that we literally have NO actual idea. like… i know we’re getting to the point of asking/hoping for a phupload every day but this is so different to pyjama week yk, like the tour is actually done now and we have a couple of things to expect like a longer poppy playtime gaming video and the tit recording at some point but other than that…???

i feel like it’s fun to theorize about things that are personal to their *lives* like hard launch, dog, etc (which i don’t think are actually on the radar lol) but from their manager teasing them being “up to” something and the “march thing” points to it being one or multiple career related things to me but like?? what could that be?? projects, gaming channel rebrand, potential merch- there’s a lot that could be on the table but this is also dnp we’re talking about, right? like we kind of know what their limits are now or the kind of areas/things they’re comfortable doing at this point in their careers/lives but also… in dnp 2.0 that could be anything!! i did not think they would EVER tour again prior to the announcement last year and… look!

i just feel like there’s always been so much intention and meaning behind everything they do, all of their eras- speaking broadly of course, not every video or merch release has to be groundbreaking but im talking more so about the sheer level of popularity they had in the tatinof era, the absolute plethora of things they were doing in between that time while also going through changes in their lives and deciding to build a forever home together, ii and “giving the people what they want�� and ttlmt and it being planned as the end of dan and phil, coming out and covid nixing plans and actually telling us that they are moving into their fucking forever home together, ywgttn and wad and the gaming channel comeback literally not long after that and planning an entire tour and phil literally almost dying and then going on that tour… we talk about all of it all the time but genuinely just thinking about how they discuss all of this in the second pizza mukbang and how we’re in that post tour time now, where literally anything is possible in the world of dan and phil, and in their words, dan and phil 2.0? scary!

[starryroe]

Sometimes, you will be annoyed and upset by people for no serious reason.

Online i see a lot of discourse about what you should do in this situation.

To me it's pretty simple:

if you are going to see this person every now and then, not really be their friend, only be in casual conversations with them, then telling them is bad.

if you are going to talk to this person constantly, if they are a friend, especially an important friend, or they keep trying to interact with you, then you should immediately tell them any sort of thing they do that has hurt you. Because by sitting silently they will just keep acting the same way they are doing and eventually you will start silently hating them and ruining your friendship.

As always this is nuance pilled. There are billions of possibilities for any sort of situation. But this general rule will help you have an active social life while also keeping friends and partners close to you.

And when you are helping someone close to you in a situation like this, then you should act depending on if the person they're upset as is in the first or in the second category as well, by the way.

[pynkhues]

I’m confused by what you mean when you say that Lestat was “cast out of the house” after the drop in 1.05, as this is not what the show tells us. Lestat left of his own will — he wasn’t thrown out. He beat Louis half to death and then ran away, as evidenced here — “Lestat had disappeared after that awful night. Vanished out of a profound sense of shame he would later confess to” (Louis, 1.06). Louis was in no fit state to throw anyone out of anywhere: as mentioned previously, Lestat had just beaten him half to death.

Apologies if I’m misinterpreting, but in instances like this you seem to paint Lestat as a somewhat of a victim — poor Lestat, banished from his house by his uncaring, domineering husband — when in actuality he was anything but a victim. He was the aggressor, the perpetrator of horrific intimate partner violence, and so to twist the narrative to imply that he was hard done to leaves a very sour taste in my mouth. 

Another instance of this is in your Byronic Hero post, where you suggest that Louis “decides when Lestat gets to live at Rue Royale”, in reference to him being “one of the monsters who’s controlling the household”. We’re talking about someone that has just spent months recovering from a brutal attack by their partner; Lestat chooses to not return because he is ashamed and he knows that Louis has not forgiven him. Louis is not forcing anything on him — and he certainly doesn’t have the power to keep Lestat from RR.

Can you understand why assertions like these are problematic? I understand you wanting to explore the push-pull power dynamic between L&L, but in doing so you seem to be missing the essential through-line in 1.06, which is that Louis and Claudia cannot leave while Lestat lives. Any power they may have once held is overshadowed by Lestat’s absolute control of the household, so to place Louis on level with Lestat as “one of the monsters controlling the household” is at best misguided, and at worst displays an unsettling disregard for victims of IPV. 

(x)

I mean, with all due respect, anon, you're responding to a series of tags I wrote last night that I specifically said I would later clarify and better articulate, so I'm not surprised you're confused and yes, you are misinterpreting me (again, I suspect, as I think you may have sent me asks like this before). I've been clear for months now that the drop is a singular act of violence on this show, and it's not one that I'd ever diminish or underwrite, and as a result, this feels like a pretty bad faith read of something I've both spoken about already and explicitly said I would be talking about again soon. Instead of paying me the respect I extend to all of you by giving me the time to reply in the way I've signalled I would, you've used my tags to make assumptions about what I will say and frankly made some pretty unkind accusations as to my character.

It takes me time and energy to write up replies, particularly replies on this sort of topic that require greater attunement, sensitivity and nuance than others. It's something I do for free, and at the sacrifice of other things in my life, and it's something I do with my name attached, unlike anons. And look, I enjoy doing it - I do - but if you follow me, you should know that my sister - a survivor of recent IPV and her two small children are currently staying with me, after I was a witness in her courtcase against her ex-husband in October - real people, not fictional characters - something I've also been open about, and so you telling me that I have an 'unsettling disregard for victims of IPV' feels like a particularly cruel thing to say to me right now.

I will answer the other anon's ask, as I said that I would, but I'll do it in my own time, and in the meantime, I'd ask that you perhaps don't put words in my mouth or mount arguments to things you yourself say you are confused about or feel you could be misinterpreting. I'll clarify, again, as I said that I would.

[troiings]

MyAnna Buring as Victoria Cilliers (The Fall: Skydive Murder Plot)

[the-insouciant-scientist]

what are hyakinthos's thoughts on the boatman and the slow boat in general?

Ooh, taking a quick sidestep from the rest of the ask game asks to answer this real quick! Short answer: a little complicated but generally friendly! Long answer: Gotta give some backstory first, bear with me. I have been thinking so much about belief systems vs established canon. Canon says that every human who dies regardless of belief (there may be nuance I'm forgetting but I'm in full speed infodump mode rn so that's a problem for future me) goes to the Far Shore. I say that's... kinda bleak? Also I'm just not a fan of stories where there is only One Real Belief and the rest are played off as silly distraction or whatever, but I digress.

A lot of his everything is based around the idea that both belief and proper death/burial care are important to get people to the afterlife they're meant to be in. Ritual makes all the difference between going to the Far Shore vs the Fields of Asphodel, for example.

His Boatman is Charon, or at least accepts the name. Hyakinthos has a working relationship with him and has probably taken up the oars at least a few times, especially for people who need the extra care in getting to where they need to be.

There's respect there, but there's also a certain... I'm not sure I have the words for it. The idea that death in the Neath is uncertain in so many ways (whether it'll stick that time, whether the person will make it to their afterlife or if they'll slip between the cracks and end up in the wrong place, etc) can be... discomfiting, to him. So while he does hold the boatman in high regard, there's always some little uncertainty there.

(Every so often, by their standards at least, Hyakinthos will bring him a very old obol. The Boatman will always refuse it. This is a ritual of its own. They'll sit for a while and talk anyways, and then part ways afterwards a little lighter.)

[itspileofgoodthings]

I didn’t think that reading north and south again this past summer would make me a hater of it but it did.

[age-of-moonknight]

“The Past is Present,” Phases of the Moon Knight (Vol. 1/2024), #3.

Writer: Justina Ireland; Penciler and Inker: Daniel Bayliss; Colorist: Dee Cunniffe; Letterer: Cory Petit

[lord-squiggletits]

Speaking of Tyrest. A lot of people forget that he treated Pharma with absolute disdain, not only using him as a test subject for a clearly painful mass murder machine, but talking to Pharma like he saw him as nothing but some henchman to order around that was nothing more than a 'diseased cripple' if Tyrest hadn't come to rescue him.

Like it really is an interesting background dynamic with some curious implications, but when you look at fandom posts from around that issue/the years after, for some reason people just saw "Pharma worked with Tyrest" and concluded Pharma is a card carrying bigot ksjfnskxkd. Like yeah Pharma didn't do anything to stop Tyrest but it seems his main beef with the Autobots was with Ratchet in particular and maybe a general disdain for his ex-comrades. As well as continuing to hate Decepticons which like, not even the "good Autobots" are immune to (even in Pharma's introduction, First Aid says in his journal something like "yeah we all hate Decepticons, but Pharma REALLY hates them"). And despite what fandom likes to construe there's really no evidence in IDW1 that Autobots and Decepticons are different "races" or "types" of Cybertronians, so Pharma hating Decepticons really isn't a bigotry/robot racism thing. And instead probably has something to do with, idk, the 4 million year long galaxy-spanning blood feud war, or maybe being blackmailed and tortured into insanity by the Biggest and Most Decepticon-y of Decepticons.

Tyrest treated Pharma like trash, the other Decepticons working for Tyrest (how come no one ever brings that up btw) also hated him, so if anything it seems that Pharma was more of a rogue element only staying with Tyrest bc he was his best option and probably had no way to even escape.

I'm glad that at least in recent years the fandom has acquired a keen reading eye and good taste to finally recognize Pharma as the (accidentally) complex character he is instead of making him some posh, racist Starscream clone SHSJDGSGDH

[electroniccollectiondonut]

me any time someone hates on the darkling:

[grims-archive]

...

[unproduciblesmackdown]

time for the hints & threads of Christmas Wish Family Reunions Adjacent To "All I Want For Christmas Is You" as i can trace them

1st & 2nd xmases: all i Know thanks to this video is it's 2nd xmas that has lance rubin as himself like i wish lance rubin's father could be here to see me perform "all i want for christmas is you" towards the end of the show....

& i Know both roles were also in the very first xmas show, but of course anyone's otherwise uninformed guess whether this went the same or similarly then or was a total first into second Shakeup. meanwhile feel free again w/the alternate angle from an alternate show from 2nd annual xmas here

3rd xmas: or the cozy ars nova one, as i like to think of it....plausibly the first appearance of mister macabee as well as that first iconis wrole ft. peter the coffee kid? well here's our aiwfciy video

ft. none of the potentially present dialogue before or after but jeremy morse is there Somewhere, potentially reprising [lance rubin's father], seemingly not in the backup singers / dancers group although mister macabee & will roland as will roland are, & christmas around the world, & the macarena, & seems that endzone riffing is making some reference to the "hooray for lance rubin's father showing up" plot point. [little of the audience shown] vantage point pros & cons

4th xmas: no rubins no morses this xmas show but again I Think the first sickly british ragamuffin perhaps? seen here in the aiwfciy with seth eliser's character, corresponding to will roland's officer rossi the christmas burglar, but who knows what relationship between [seth's character] & [ragamuffin] & what possible plot point here? not me

5th xmas: welcome to 54 below, bitch....

shoutout to again the sage sweater under red tee xmas outfit, jared weiss's christmas pants....again no idea about any possible plot points here, no helpful dialogue, adjacent ragamuffin & katrina rose dideriksen's xmas beach episode doesn't seem to give anything away. if there's a lance rubin's father it's not jeremy morse with whom we're getting perhaps the first baby it's cold outside & then fast forward to "not sure what the plot is around the presence of That Old Man but here's julia mattison intent on hitting that" reverberations between 5th annual mister maplestone & gladys levine & 11th annual melvin cooterstein & phyllidia krampington, 5th annual of the will roland mister chestnut's christmas medley (a sequence present in 4th annual xmas), of that likewise fancily filmed here comes santa claus, rocking & rolling for sure w/5th annual many videos....but before you think there's only Not AIWFCIY Family Reunionesque Info, there's also this:

lance rubin seemingly as lance rubin with a Plastic Novelty Candy Cane to be pensive over? like what holds the ashes of joe iconis as joe iconis's extended family from jackalope holler in more recent xmas years? (yes) & is that alexandra ferrara of what will be further xmas years' Magical Family Reunions With Lance Rubin Around AIWFCIY with slightly different choreography in this number & i could sure read into the "setting aside the candy cane to see & dance with this figure only for them to depart & you're dancing with the candy cane again but you'll be fine" as setting up later magical family reunions but that's all semi-informed speculation. forever lots going on with hard candy christmas sequences; again a floutist is there

6th xmas: & now, thanks to lyrics, it can be said by me we've Definitely made the journey from [all i want for christmas is you "reunion" with lance rubin's father] to [with lance rubin's sister]

is she a velociraptor(tm)? as you know, another one in the realm of i personally can't say....dancing gets me every time in these, i Can personally say. we can all also look at photos from this year, some more wrol mister chestnuts for you

& i bet a gladys n maplestone bico again it looks like, & one of those particularly genderously free for all virgin mary dancer years, & susan blackwell xmas villain whose redemption involves Is A Nun Now & whatever's going on there w/ragamuffin ft. maybe this doesn't have anything to do with lance rubin as lance rubin family reunions but he's sure reacting to it & adjacent to macabees reunion too, maybe not the first time we get this but the first time i'm detecting it. thanks, photos

7th xmas: great that there's more photo articles available about xmases now b/c don't think there's Videos of songs to help us out with this one. much to see, multiple ragamuffins even with just the one classic Sickly British lauren marcus role, introducing julia mattison xmas villain phyllidia krampington, introducing jeremy morse xmas villain ineffective henchman (as speculated at some length by me) the hick (in overalls), perhaps introducing will roland uncle peenie & aunt lorette? oh & a sweet baby jesus pic is here, reminding me to mention he definitely cropped up for 6th xmas too, extra relevant for potential miraculous reunions. & on the family reunions around aiwfciy note, as identified recently:

LANCE! AND NANCE!

8th xmas: pics this time from bwayworld, ft. potential for more info with the captioning

novelly decidedly have the Joe's Flashback element, again as per the measure of: as far as i personally am aware. belly button puppeteers in the hard candy christmas segment (a wrole) & uncle peenie (another wrole) & aunt lorette more familiarly styled lol though variations are always possible, phyllidia/the hick as villain/henchman bico it seems, (the ghost of) bob dylan is here, another wrole as virgin mary dancer like 8th annual whew....

perhaps time for a sweet baby jesus miracle & lance rubin is there?

immediately followed by what sure looks heartwarming enough to be a magical family reunion towards the end of the show, perchance just in time for an all i want for christmas is you? only one party hasn't (known to me) already been a magical family reunion aiwfciy participant before? bit fucked up about like speaking of shaking up familiar looks, where's the red tee over green sweater. rolling w/it

9th xmas: but never fear, the red tee is back, as is wrangling playbill's carousel display format for these pics

which makes it seem more likely something other than an [as themself] role when there's a costume change (so was 8th annual's Different Outfit a Different Role as well?) here ft. The Flashback

ft. philip jackson smith (8th annual's flashback jason, 12th annual's flashback joe, 9th annual's flashback [???]) & alexandra ferrara of previous magical family reunions with lance rubin, ft. the baby tree

& of course seth eliser in the mix again for good measure

even better measure, some more Family Reunions materials

& of course now the all i want for christmas is you, with lance, alexandra, seth, & there's philip jackson smith as flashback [?] & sweet baby jesus just nearby, & the reference to the Time Traveling

10th xmas: pics a bit more mysterious like this is probably the flashback but you'd hardly know it from the article alone

later on getting likewise Mostly Inferrable reunion magic

& along the way krampuses, cardboard cutout gettyimages christian borles, first Definite To Me fancy tree, the little evalina role is here re: all i want for christmas is you presumably & the Immediate Adjacency of that song to magical family reunions, if patterns hold

11th xmas: bwayworld pics offer those aforementioned melvin cooterstein glimpses, plausible [the krampus sings hard candy christmas] year, eric william morris mislabel, no sign of end of show reunions unless you count a pic of little evalina as implicit aiwfciy, & Flashback looks ft. again afaik first definite look at extended family Animal Band of jackalope holler

truly with overalls but no white tank top more a Maybe still hearing his voice than with 12th xmas's pics ft. flashback joe glimpses & little evalino all i want for christmas is you post-magical reserections. & of course can crack into 13th xmas pics with bevested abf flashback joe, animals extended family band, little evalina aiwfciy, & the So Much More of every xmas. & of course, hell, look at 14th xmas pics

naturally too if you spin off of those first several christmas show's "if only my father could be here to see this" in terms of like as many elements as possible, like [reunited with long lost family, whether presumed or actually dead or alive. wanted] or [reunited with family, not that lost] or Reunions or Family or It Was More Heartwarming Before You Kept Talking But Oh Well Yaayyy or Gay Sex like christmas spectacularextravaganza elements are all around you