#not to mention all the stuff with meg specifically

[thesummerstorms]

I kind of feel like the Demeter cabin kids must low key HATE Persephone.

Imagine that one of the most popular, well-taught Greek myths of all time is about how your mother's love and grief for your sister was so overpowering it literally created the seasons.

And then here you and your mortal siblings are, dying on a quest, or against the armies of Kronos, or in the hands of Gaia, or fighting an undead Roman Emperor, and your mother doesn't even spare you a conversation.

You and your siblings, despite your perceived weakness, show up to fight the armies of Kronos, to stop the thrones of the Gods from being overturned. Your siblings and friends are bleeding or dying.

And your mother takes her favorite daughter and hides in the underworld.

Demeter 's love for Persephone brought winter upon the world. Her love for you does nothing.

[blueikeproductions]

The Trigger collab animation came out and it’s the best thing Transformers has done in the current decade.

Truly a love letter to Transformers from G1 to EarthSpark, it squeezes in everything it possibly can from most media. However the catch is that it’s only animated media and the live action movies, the comics (any assorted manga, Marvel, Dreamwave, IDW & Skybound) aren’t referenced, while some Japanese exclusive stuff gets a lil’ bit more attention (understandable since it’s, y’know, Japanese fans being nostalgic about the anime they grew up with).

Transformers Go, Q-Transformers, and the Beast Wars anime got particular attention.

This shot of Liger Megatron and Green Lion Lio Convoy is especially cool.

I think initially I was expecting a Trigger animated greatest hits from select moments from each show, and while they still technically do that in spots…

It’s mostly a mega crossover with different characters interacting otherwise.

And it’s all the better for it.

I mean where else are you gonna find TFA Optimus about to smash Masterforce Overlord’s face in?

There’s no real narrative, it’s just random cool shots though the closest thing to a framing device is the PV opening with Vector Prime looking down on Cybertron across all time lines.

Regarding EarthSpark’s contributions to the short, they’re minimal. The Terrans and Mandroid don’t appear at all, which is a little bizarre.

ES Megatron appears among the other Decepticon leaders instead of being with ES Optimus on the Autobot leader side.

You’d think Mandroid would be there next to BWII Galvatron instead, but I guess not. Sadly they omitted RiD15 Steeljaw too, instead using RiD15 Megatronus Prime’s floating head.

SatAM Robotnik voice: Ah well, life is not perfect.

The main ES rep are the Maltos.

This just reinforces ES needed to be 2D, because they actually look good. Roche’s style doesn’t work in 3D.

Anyway the human cast they chose for this final shot amuses me.

Love seeing my favorite Clays being included. The lack of RiD Steeljaw (G1 Steeljaw did appear with Lio Junior and RiD15 Aerobolt though) is forgiven.

Anyhow, the specific use of the Clays, the (S3) Witwickys, the Maltos and the Onishis (this is especially funny since Koji’s mom never met her universe’s Optimus) is somehow very random, but also kinda appropriate. Like I get Spike and Dot’s families, since it serves as bookends, but the Clays and Onishis still feel a bit random. Still, including both Robots in Disguise families is a nice touch in my book!

The short ends with a different bookend as mentioned.

What starts out as G1 Prime & Megs transitions to ES Prime & Megs shaking hands. The old with the current series. It works~! I admit I’m surprised they didn’t include TFONE somehow. I know it’s technically not out yet, but there’s enough material to have had Orion and D-16 have some kind of tussle. It would’ve been an interesting way to tie it into the above scene and this one:

When it comes to general rep, the stuff that gets the most focus is G1, Beast Wars, Animated, & Galaxy Force. Cyberverse doesn’t really get anything beyond the leader shot, but there is this awesome but very random shot of Croaton over looking Holi’s Rescue Patrol walking on a beach littered with the dead bodies of the generic Decepticons from “War Dawn”.

Sucks to be you guys.

It also occurs to me the Rescue Bots cartoons appear to be omitted along with BotBots, but that might partly be due to them not having Japanese releases? I’m not sure, but it’s funny how Q-Transformers is acknowledged of all things, but not Heatwave or Burgertron. Maaaaybe that’s for the best on the later…

Still the PV is a blast and is pry the most earnest passion project that GETS Transformers vs what we’ve been getting post Aligned cartoon wise.

I still hope this leads to a proper TF anime series made by Trigger, like what happened with Gridman. We need a return to good 2D animated TF shows and not more CGI slop like WFC or S2 ES. That Beast Wars and Machines are still superior despite being retro by today’s standards says something…

The catch however is the original video is region locked…

but some fans have ripped it and posted it on their YT:

So go check it out while you can! It’s pure Energon-y goodness!

[doloresdisparue]

Hey I'm sure that you have gotten this ask many times before but I can't seem to find them so... Do you have any book recommendations of stories that are written in Dolores perspective's? I have been looking in many sites but I can't seem to find them. I know Li's diary exists but as far as I know, that's not a great adaptation at all (still in my to-read list).

Some books that I've seen that look like what I'm looking for don't mention their authors so finding them online is really hard.

Thank you!

(also, if you happen to have any link or library resource as to where to find the books I'd be eternally grateful but of course that isn't necessary)

Okay so, this is awkward lmao. I just sent you that ask and THE MOMENT AFTER I DID I found your list of recommendations of lolita's retellings so... Lmao

Do not worry at all haha, I'm happy to answer this question a couple more times for people who are interested but don't want to go digging through my blog! I'm aware of maybe 9 retellings/riffs on the story and out of those I'd rank the Dolly POV books as follows:

Lolita Child - Kyleigh Archer (this was written when the author was a teen herself so the prose is not polished and it is self published so there are a few spelling errors but it has the most heart and faithfulness to the original imo) | You can buy this on Amazon which I normally wouldn't recommend but due to it being self published there's no other way and all the profits are donated to an organisation that helps sexually abused girls.

Gemma - Meg Tilly (this has notable differences from Lolita, especially in the second half but the most heartrending child POV I've ever read, the only book I had to ever take breaks from because it made me nauseous. WARNING that unlike Lolita this one is graphic.) | As Meg Tilly is an oscar nominated actress you should be able to order this from your local indie bookstore or possibly library. Can't give more specific recs because I don't know about other countries library setup but I know in the US there's a library app for ebooks and audiobooks. I recommend the audiobook here if you can stomach it. Meg Tilly does a horrifically good child voice.

Molly - Nancy J. Jones (this alternates between Dolly diary POV and her childhood best friend reading her diary and reacting). | I believe there are some illegal(?) ebooks floating around but I had to order the physical copy from a thrifted bookstore on another continent via Amazon. Definitely no audiobook of this and I believe it is out of print but the ebook wasn't too hard to find.

Roger Fishbite - Emily Prager (set in the 90s instead of the 50s, inverts a lot of stuff from the original in intelligent and heartbreaking ways, unfortunately has a weird dose of anti asian racism on the side for no reason) | I got mine at a second hand bookstore in Dublin, you should be able to still order this from bookshops or online and there are probably ebooks. It's a mainstream published book so all the usual avenues.

Lo - Norma Davison (I respect the intention and that this book clearly sides with Lo and condemns Humbert but it is also terribly written and totally breaks with canon while being incredibly graphic. Humbert has a weird pee fetish and they both die of AIDS despite this book ostensibly still being set in the 50s. Do not recommend to be honest) | There is an illegal ebook floating around and you can order a physical copy on Amazon. It is also self published.

Literally anything on AO3 probably

Lo's Diary - Pia Pera (Genuinely godawful and evil. Lo is a sadist who tortures her hamster to death, spews racial slurs at the maid and is squarely made out to be seducer. She hates adult women possibly more than Humbert in the original. DEEPLY strange and offputting you can't even read it for a laugh.) | Don't even try buying this tbh. Even Peras publisher hated her so much they compared her to Hitler.

Honorable mentions:

Journal de L.: (1947-1952) - Christophe Tison (I have not read this as it is only available in French and Chezch but I have heard good things about it. Only one I know of written by a male CSA survivor and I do want to read it even though my French is more than rusty.) | A very recent release you should be easily able to order this from any bookstore that carries international releases or like on ebay.

Darling River: Doloresvariationen - Sara Stridsberg (I have not read this. It is available in a couple of languages but not English. I haven't heard anything about it and the summary makes me squint suspiciously but I do want to try to read it at some point)

Poems for men who dream of Lolita - Kim Morrissey (I have not read this. As the title implies this is a poetry collection. As far as I know it's out of print and I have not found it online but if anyone has resources I would appreciate it)

My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell (The core story of this book is very different despite also being about CSA but it grapples very tangibly with the impact the misinterpretation of Lolita has had on pop culture and young girls growing up in the shadow of it and the story itself about a woman coming to terms with her abuse years later is very touching.) | Mainstream release, easy to acquire probably even from your local library.

The Real Lolita - Sarah Weinmann (Nonfiction book about the Sally Horner case. Very thoroughly researched) | Mainstream release, I found mine at a bookstore with a big nonfiction section, you can probably order it or find an ebook easily.

I have a lot more recommendations for books that remind me of Lolita, use similar techniques or tackle CSA in interesting ways but in terms of Lolita adjacent books this is my list for now. Pia Pera I will see you in hell.

[decepti-thots]

7 19 25 for Violence

"what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?"

i would not go so far as to say hate. but there was a period where very specifically megatron/minimus hardcore shippers got Really Fucking Annoying to me (shoutout to the person who claimed that rodimags shippers were "enforcing heteronormativity" and we only didn't like their ship because we were homophobes) and their interpretation of idw meg took him from a character i already have very complicated feelings about into This Guy Again Ugh territory for, idk. like a year maybe. lmao. (it was very hard for me to avoid, unfortunately, as a minimus fan!) thankfully that has largely died off now- the asshole behaviour specifically- so we're all good now. haha.

"you’re mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like…"

i am a bad person to ask this of tbh, lmao. no guilty pleasures in THIS house, baby. oh, i don't know... i suppose the most 'what' thing is that i have to mention that yes, the canon material for my niche favourite Glit is kiss players. LMAO. that one is a little 'oh god', i will admit. (and unlike rosanna and sundor, it really is just KP, a tiny cameo in Legends aside.)

"common fandom complaint that you’re sick of hearing"

okay this one is toy collector stuff but it's recently come up AGAIN and i gotta say it. STOP COMPLAINING THEY MAKE G1 MEGATRON TOYS THINGS OTHER THAN A GUNNNN they are not! going to release a new kids' toy in US markets! that turns into a REALISTIC HANDGUN! AND THEY SHOULDN'T. you are so dumb!!! the tank mode is FINE. just buy one of the MP megatrons they did that does turn into one and CHILL. okay rant over. (SS86 megs has been confirmed to be a tank. twitter has been mad as fuck for like two days. lmao.)

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Around the time of Megxit, I wasn’t a royal watcher but I had a little interest in royals. I admit, I was on Twitter a lot around the time. I was someone who needed to touch grass. Anyway, what I remember from that time was that I actually bought Harry and Meghan’s narrative a bit. They were more popular at least among the people I follow. So, I remember seeing this article (I forgot from what publication) about how William and Kate hired Harry and Meghan’s former social media person. I only vaguely remember this because I wasn’t yet deep into this, but I.remember that the narrative the article wanted me to think and what I got from it was that William and Kate were not cool so they had to go and steal young and cool Harry and Meghan’s social media strategist. Now that I’ve delved deeper and is more familiar with all the names and have now a different lens to look at things, I can’t figure out which employee that article I was referring to. Do you know who I am referring to and what exactly happened with this story that I vaguely remember?

Yep. That was Christian Jones.

He worked at Burberry before joining KP, where he became known for doing the Sussexes’ social media (though he wasn’t really assigned to any one specific royal or office; at the time, the Sussexes and Cambridges had a combined household so everyone worked for everyone). Meghan took Christian to lunch after he started working for KP and called the paps on them, suggesting that she wanted it to look like he was exclusively supporting her and that she was responsible for poaching him from Burberry.

Then the household split, Christian chose the Cambridges, and the Sussexes showed their fury by trying to pin the Megxit leaks on him. First Harry wrote this in Spare, of the Sandringham Summit:

I told [William] about one past staff member sabotaging Meg. Plotting against her. I told him about one current staff member, whose close friend was taking payments for leaking private stuff to the press about Meg and me. My sources on this were above reproach, including several journalists and barristers. Plus, I’d made a visit to New Scotland Yard. Willy frowned. He and Kate had their own suspicions. He’d look into it. We agreed to keep talking.

Harry, to his credit, never named the staffer.

But Meghan did, via Scobie in Endgame. Scobie’s description of this interaction and the events leading up to it specifically mention Christian by name many, many times, and includes speculation that all of the leaking against the Sussexes that Christian did came at William’s command because Christian’s hiring was shady (according to Scobie) and not at all following normal procedures. I’m pretty sure I talk about it in the Endgame book report (it should come up under the Endgame hashtag).

[omiiomiaaus]

Toji’s music taste

headcanons

Headcanons on what songs or music i think toji would like but it’s really just what i like bc i’m lazy and don’t wanna look up new songs.

warnings: none??? some mentions of sex but no details, not proofread, literally none??

☆ Just gotta say one thing… this man was in his prime life in the 2000s…. He was listening to songs that are older than me 🥸

☆ okay Megumi canonically listens to weezer so i think he got some of his music taste from Toji. (i think almost everyone that develops a liking for rock gets it from childhood roadtrips with their dad)

☆ Toji only plays his music in the car.. he can’t stand the radio. …100% played buddy holly and meg picked up on it

☆ it’s mostly alternative and rock with the occasional hip/hop songs but he doesn’t really like new music, he’s an oldie after all

☆ he definitely listens to Coldplay oh my god i think that would probably be one of his favorite bands bc their songs are soft and helps him fall asleep (literally me)

☆ his favorite coldplay song is clocks bc he’s a little basic but it’s the most classic song like??

☆ he taps to the beat of any song on the steering wheel and only mouths the lyrics bc he doesn’t like his singing voice.

☆Toji and deftones >>>>>>> he definitely went to their concerts (his favorite songs are birthmark and rosemary)

☆ Is the type to act surprised when a good song comes on and put the volume on blast while saying “Oh shit” even though it’s his own playlists

☆ his gym playlist consists of heavy metal or rock songs that get him in the mood to use all his strength. (and some phonk songs bc he likes to pretend he’s in a movie but he’d never admit that.) so a lot of Metallica, Type O negative, Pantera, and Slipknot

☆ I GET MAJOR TOJI VIBES WHEN I LISTEN TO ‘I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU’ BY THREE DAYS GRACE!!!!!!!

☆ as for hip/hop he likes in da club by 50 cent and and without me by Eminem. those real 2000s vibe songs. none of the new stuff. He actually really does like Eminem.

☆ like??? 3am by Eminem just sounds like him… real villain shit

☆ he also really likes outcast. so fresh so clean is his songgggg. He holds his fist up like a fake mic and says “don’t you think i’m so sexy i’m just so fresh so clean” then holds it up to your lips for you to say “so fresh and so clean clean” and he won’t move his hand until you say it. also quotes “the coolest motherfuckers on the planet” randomly.

☆ he prefers r&b songs for his sex playlist. slow and sensual songs. and one joke song that he plays Russian roulette with when he presses shuffle. It absolutely kills your mood but he laughs his ass off when you’re in the middle of fucking and all of a sudden the speakers are blaring “you get the limo out front… hottest styles, every shoe, every color.”

☆ This mf got a Hanna Montana song from your nostalgia playlist and thought it would be funny to include in the sex playlist…

☆ Okay Toji is the type of guy to not play music in the shower bc he’s a psycho and just takes 3 minute showers (we all know he doesn’t wanna rack up that water bill) BUT when he does.. it’s a quick playlist filled with songs he doesn’t really like so he can hurry up and get out.

☆ Okay the songs I feel like he’d actually listen to are way different than songs for the vibes he gives off…

☆ He gives off major ‘she knows’ vibes by Ne-Yo, and it’s because of that one edit on tiktok… lord bless those editors for taking two second clips of Toji and making it something so scrumptious

☆ ‘monster’ by lady Gaga is another vibe bc “he ate my heart” that part reminds me of him for some reason… he can eat more than just my heart :)))))))

☆ also ‘lights down low’ by maejor and ‘no hands’ by waka flocka.. literally frat boy vibes but its so fanon him right???

☆ any phonk song reminds me of him because tell me he wouldn’t listen to that shit just to get in the zone????

☆ the lost soul down (specifically the sped up version) is just so himmmmmm <33… again it’s probably because of all the edits but still!!

☆ shine dreams (also the sped up version) idk who it’s by there’s so many versions lol but just any song like that >>>

☆ I also think of him when I listen to ‘level7’ by OSAKA… idk something about it…

That’s all I have for now :)

[1-800-sapphire]

my supernatural lgbtq thoughts :3 (only Cas, Sam and Dean for now)

don't be a hater to me I've only seen up to season 8 OKAY?! no one asked but receive anyways! these are both gender, and sexual orientation (as a nb-lesbian myself) and don't try with hating, I wont stand for it just leave me and my gay hunters ALONE! If you don't want to read my explanations, just scroll all the way down for summaries lol. !!REMINDER THESE ARE JUST HEADCANONS. YOU DONT HAVE TO FOLLOW THESE!! Castiel is very gender-fluid. They/It/He/She when it comes to gender. I said why in a previous post but to sum it up, gender mainly matters to angels when it comes to vessels. Otherwise I fear they don't give a fuck less. Cas definitely experimented and landed on they/it as their favorites. aka I'm using my pro-nouns on Cas because Cas is my favorite :C Meanwhile for sexuality I fear Cas is a gay man. They experimented with Meg with that one pizza man scene that they pinned + kissed Meg, but otherwise has stuck to men (aka Sam). Sammy my boy. I love trans FTM Sam because it holds a place in my heart. To me I love trans Sam, simply because it makes sense. John didn't want to raise a daughter (Sam) and a son (Dean), so he focused on his son. Pushed all the hunting stuff onto Dean while simply making sure Sam was still breathing. Dean of course took care and actually tended to Sam, and when Sam came out as trans, John was simply happy he didn't have to cater towards a daughter & a son, so he took the two sons and balled with it. But, since he had barely raised Sam either way, it didn't change a lot in their relationship. And he only got top surgery probably during college. He would study while recovering and before. So for me, Sam is Trans FTM, He/Him. And for sexuality I see Sam as a pansexual, we know he was with girlies in the past (Jess, he hooked up with Ruby for a bit, etc). And he absolutely experimented a bit in college with who he did and didn't enjoy in flavors of other genders before he got with Jess. Then, after Jess died and his grieving made him bury it even more until it picked back up probably around season 5-6 (ESPESCIALLY Soulless Sam being a "I don't give a fuck who, just fuck with me.") So to me, Sam is a Trans FTM, Pansexual man. Deano! I personally enjoy the idea of demi-boy Dean. He probably buried it all until Charlie came around for her to educate him on other genders. To which he leaned towards He/They. They didn't care for it a lot, only going so much to understanding Sam's gender change when the two were younger, and using different pro-nouns before he simply just shrugged off any other notice of gender. They knew what was important, which was not to use she on their little brother, and that's what mattered to him. Now for sexuality, Dean is bisexual. From all the scenes of him and Cas, to other scenes of Doc Mc Sexy (If I remember that name correctly) and others. They absolutely had a bit of a fling for a bit with Cas before the two had a mutual agreement that they weren't for each other and split, before Cas was with Sammy. Dean definitely has no preference and simply just goes both ways. They can be seen flirting with girls, buying them drinks and giving a specific eye look, but he can also be seen with guys, giving sharp grins, playing a game of 'Are you into me like I'm into you?' and not to mention leaving with them after he wins the game of 'Yes, you're into me like I'm into you'. Incase you don't want to read all that, my summary for you is Castiel : They/It/He/She (Gender-fluid), Gay. Sam : He/Him (Trans FTM), Pansexual Man. Dean : He/They (Demi-Boy), Bisexual Man. Thanks for coming to my ted-talk of what I think Team Free Will is lgbtq wise, and maybe I'll make more. :3

[bots-and-cons]

Love that "Scarlet Witch Saga" you've been written and task for. But i've noticed there's no Decepticons mentioned, so i'm gonna ask a request about it:

What about the Cons? Did they noticed the Reader's "death"? What are their thoughts about the Reader? Does Megs respect the little witch? Did they noticed the Autobots' treatment on the poor thing?

Oooooh~ that would definitely changing the game ~

I can't help imagine the Cons make a gloat about this (Mostly Megs and Screamy i guess), mocking and rubbing at the Autobots' faces on how not only they lost a powerful ally but also broken the poor thing's heart. Calling out the Bots a bunch of hypocrites and such prejudice jerks. I kinda want to some Autobots bashing for once somehow 😅 giving them a reality check a bit. lol.

A/N: I'm glad you like it. The post this is referring to, can be found here

•Megatron obviously noticed you were strong but he wouldn’t consider a human to be a worthy opponent in any situation

•You’re throwing rocks and all kinds of stuff at the vehicons, and if you get really angry, you can just sort of disassemble them or tear them apart

•A lot of the cons notice you don’t seem to like doing that though

•Which is true, you don’t want to kill anyone, but sometimes it’s necessary to keep yourself or the autobots safe

•Megatron sort of ends up testing this, he wants to see how ruthless you can be, so he orders some vehicons to go after you specifically

•Over time he also notices that you seem to have less reservations about hurting the vehicons

•This of course corresponds with when the autobots start treating you worse and worse, so you sort of start to become unhinged

•Starscream is pretty scared of you after he sees you rip apart a couple of vehicons, so when you “die” he’s relieved

•Of course he would never show that he’s scared of a human, but he definitely starts mocking the autobots after your disappearance/death

•Things like “You truly are useless, you couldn’t even keep one human alive” and “Oh what a pity, you lost another ally”

•Megatron is pretty much the same, he mocks the autobots and basically relishes in the misery he’s causing

•He actually took credit for killing you, just to piss off Optimus, even though Megatron knew he most definitely hadn’t killed you

•Breakdown always wanted to fight you, but he never really got a chance, so that’s a loss in his book

•Though mocking the autobots and rubbing your “death” in their faces, is a lot of fun too

•Knockout was pretty terrified of you when he saw you tear apart vehicons, so he definitely kept his distance from you

•After you “died” though, he was very loud about letting the autobots know they had failed spectacularly

•Megatron especially wanted to make it know that he thought the autobots had pushed you over the edge

•He actually thought he might be able to turn you, but you were gone before he had the chance

•The decepticons notice when you’re suddenly not there anymore, you were a pretty formidable force to reckon with after all

•I’d say the vehicons are the most relieved when you’re gone to be honest

[moonlight-tmd]

Ooh regarding shockbee I always thought a fun idea to write out would be Bee just dropping the fact that he has a Prime for a boyfriend or something like that, considering only Bulkhead would really know about being close to Longarm at Bootcamp-

Yep, Bee would defo do that. XD

He would be just talking with someone and then they'd mention something about relationships and Bee just casually drops that Longarm is his Sparkmate and the fact he's a very high ranking Prime(even if he's just doing datawork all the time).

Imagine the look on that bot's face when they hear that from a streetwise, dirty repair bot. They'd think he's lying but then Longarm shows up to pick him up from the party or something and everyone's jaws just drop.

Now i imagine Longarm and Bee got together at boot camp and only Bulkhead knew, they weren't really keen on showing affection in public. So then Bee gets kicked out and Longarms stays to graduate. They call each other all the time, Bulkhead sometimes joins, the rest of the crew doesn't really know about that.

But then Bee and the crew goes missing. Longarm is distraught, he does everything he can to find Bee. Then he hears about an expedition to this planet called "Earth" and he tags along and boom, they find each other.

So they get there, they find the missing crew and the Allspark and the few 'cons along with Megs. But that's not on Longarm's(Shockwave's) processor- the only thing he cares about is that Bee is alive. (also Bulkhead too, he does care about him but not as much as Bee)

Longarm visits quite often- he tagged along on Steelhaven and has his own mini-ship to fly in and out of Earth's atmosphere. The others are surprised he is at their base so often, they know he, Bee and Bulkhead went to boot camp together but that's about it.

Now i imagine Longarm bringing them sweets and stuff, he'll bring them meal-metals, fancy (non-'alcoholic') drinks and all sorts of snacks and maybe some small gifts- the one to get the most of them will be Bumblebee.

One time Longarm drops by for a real short visit and brings an entire energon cake for Bee only. And not just any cake, it's a high end one too, the luxurious kinda food. The others have no idea why Longarm would give Bee out of all the 'bots something like that.

"Because we're Sparkmates, duh. Also it's our anniversary." He casually said while taking another bite of the piece of the cake on his plate. The look on everyone's faces (except Bulkhead) is hilarious, especially Optimus'- the little mech he treated almost like a son is Sparkmates with the high-end Prime, Longarm. Longarm outranks him now that's he's on the repair crew, for the record.

So- the little, humble Bumblebee has access to luxurious stuff via his lover who's a high-positioned Prime. He's able to essentially get whatever he wants and indirectly influence other bots' lives- for the better or worse. They never expected someone like Bumblebee to have that kinda power.

The surprising part is that Bee doesn't really seem keen on all the opportunities for his own life to improve, he'd rather live his life to the full- and he does that by being stranded on a planted called dirt and helping tiny organics with mundane things while also indulging in their weird culture. Sure, he does like an occasional high-quality polish or rare cybertronian food, but most of the time he likes to run around in the rain and play in mud and dig in trash to find beautiful things. Similar to Bulkhead- he's happy with what he has, and enjoys spending time with the ones he cares about.

Still, the fact he doesn't take opportunities to get himself somewhere higher in life doesn't mean he won't do anything for others- he most definitelly pulls a few string to get stuff for his friends, for example; Ratchet gets better med equipment and Optimus gets access to specific files if he needs it. I imagine Prowl would get some ninja equipment from Jazz sometimes but that's not important.

It's a cool thing, a headcanon for the ship is you will, it's definitelly something Longarm(Shockwave) would do. Just spoil his little Bee with all the sweets. And Bee casually telling (or not) that his Sparkmate/Conjunx is a Prime. XD

[whatwooshkai]

Any particular lore behind Megs chewing habit? I like to think it's just a little stim he started after the war since he was no longer living off of adrenaline and actually had time to relax. (Brain doesn't like not moving all the time.)

Also either Ratchet or KO probably prescribed a chew toy or two because Gnawing is bad for your teeth and jaw. And they probably haven't invented gum.

Primus I love the silly Man. Certified Creature.

the chewing thing is mostly me projecting, haha. but that was the idea- I imagined a lot of bots have developed more self destructive stims after the war, like picking at their paint, and as mentioned, Breakdown chews on his fingertips. that's why megatron's fangs are blunted, because he's chewing on stuff all the time. I didn't think about specific chew toys, but it's pretty funny to imagine megatron with one of those squeaky dog bones

[ohplagg]

Keeping Track of Time in I Love Yoo

I am back again with another timeline because I guess this is my life now. This timeline, though, is specifically about the events for December 21st 20XX and forward since I've noticed that Quimchee is adding clocks ever since Nol got stabbed, and everything feels like a race against the clock for some reason.

I'm not going to add any screenshots since this is just, as the title says, keeping track of time. Nothing more, nothing less.

Just in case someone is not paying attention to what they are about to read, this contains spoilers up to I Love Yoo's Episode 244.

If more clocks appear in future episodes I might update this.

As always, I love hearing what you guys think so feel free to reach out!

Italic means that it's not known when exactly in the timeline that specific event took place. I still placed the event where it makes most sense.

(Ep. XYZ) means the episode where the time is mentioned/seen.

Saturday December 21st

9:42pm Nol falls from the second floor to a glass table. (Ep. 210)

Before 11pm Nol is rushed to the hospital (Ep. 215)

Kousuke went to Hirahara's hostpital to look for Nol after being spaced out for around 30 minutes. (Ep.213)

Kousuke get's knocked out by a wall.

11:55pm YuJing leaves Rand alone. (Ep. 215)

Sunday December 22nd

12:00am Kousuke wakes up to hear Hansuke arguing with Yui (Ep. 220)

12:19am Meg find's Rand's present for Kousuke in the trash (Ep. 220)

12:22am Hansuke steals the blood samples (Ep. 221)

4:28am Rand leaves to visit Kousuke. Kousuke has been knocked out by the tea. (Ep. 221)

4:21am Nol wakes up. Shin-Ae texts Dieter and Soushi who are out of the hospital (Ep. 215)

4:47am Dieter and Soushi leave WacDonalds (Ep. 225)

5:06am Dieter and Soushi arrive to the hospital (Ep. 225)

5:09am Shinae goes to get Dieter and Soushi/Birthday party starts. (Ep. 225)

5:26am Stalkyoo dance to christmas music at sunrise. Geez, not even 20 minutes? no wonder Dieter was still awake to witness it all. (Ep. 220)

Hansuke visits YuJing and stores the blood samples.

Nana arrives to the hospital and Nol's jail time is pushed for 3 days counting today (so December 24th is his last day of freedom)

Hansuke takes the blood samples to get tested

7:52am Shin-Ae texts Dieter "Is everything okay?" after he and Soushi left the hospital (Ep. 225)

8:21am Shin-Ae and Nana meet (Ep. 225)

Kousuke wakes up, goes with Yui for breakfast, Hansuke and YuJing pick him up afterwards

8:40am-ish Yui arrives to church right after mass ended (Ep. 230)

"Convince me"

Shin-Ae gets picked up from the hospital by her family

Maya and Shin-Ae talk

Kousuke get's medically checked

11:30am Dieter texts Shin-Ae about going to the hospital together during the afternoon. Shin-Ae takes a nap (Ep. 235)

1:30pm Kousuke drops off his phone at his apartment before heading to Nol's hospital (Ep. 244)

3:30pm Dieter texts a sleeping Shin-Ae (Ep. 240)

Dieter comes to pick up Shin-Ae

Dieter talks with Nol

Kousuke arrives at the hospital with Hansuke and YuJing

Kousuke has a panic attack

5:51pm Shin-Ae wakes up from her nap (Ep. 240)

5:55pm Shin-Ae texts Nol "I know I'm blocked but just in case..." (Ep. 243)

The AA 101 Group to which Shin-Ae and her dad go to is at 7:00pm

7:41pm Hansuke and YuJing are hanging out with college friends. Kousuke isn't picking up his phone. Gregory M tells Hansuke that he can get his stuff done by the end of the week (Friday is the 26th) (Ep. 241)

8:35pm Nana, Dieter and Soushi leave the hospital for the day. (Ep. 242)

8:45pm Shin-Ae is at the AA 101 Group and receives a text apology from Dieter (Ep. 242)

Alyssa tells Nol she "really needs to see him"

Monday December 23rd

10:10am Kousuke's secretary looks at his watch and notices Kousuke missed work (Ep. 243)

10:30am Yui get's a text message from Alyssa saying she's going to visit Nol (Ep. 244)

11:05am Meg mentions how she is heading to the library soon (Ep. 243)

A bit before 11:45am Alyssa arrives to Nol's hospital to talk (Ep. 243)

Between 11:45am and 12:25pm Nol and Alyssa stay quiet (Ep. 243)

12:25pm Alyssa and Nol finally start talking and Yui arrives. (Ep. 243)

Shin-Ae will arrive to the hospital around 2pm (Ep.244)

Nana mentions she'll arrive around 3pm. (Ep. 243)

[akindofmagictoo]

DRAGONSONG: worldbuilding intro: cool new knight stuff!

i should make more posts about the knights. a lot of work went into that. but for now: the newest stuff! (all subject to change, but i wanted to share)

in this post i discussed the barrier spell and the fact that the continent’s dragons are currently locked away and being experimented on. the current king is especially interested in that.

(tw below for mentions of needles and injection)

also, relatedly, i watched The Witcher recently...

so what’s the king been up to?

he wants to empower his fighting force. why? i’ll work that out eventually. but in the meantime he’s kind of using his fighting force as a police force, which has Issues.

off the back of his experimentation, the king is essentially mutating his knights. all of the newer knights, and any older knights working in the citadel or the castle, have had this done to them. a number of older resident knights have not.

what does it mean for the knights?

knights with the mutation are faster, and have the capacity to become stronger more easily than they might otherwise (and with a higher ‘maximum’ strength)

they also recover from injuries much faster than civilians, taking days or weeks to recover from an injury that might otherwise take months. further, they scar much less easily. 

in addition, they are more durable than their civilian counterparts; for example, in the first chapter Isi takes a dragon tail blow to the torso. the same blow dealt to Isi and Sierra would probably leave Sierra with broken ribs; Isi is mostly just bruised.

small downside though... the mutation has to be injected, and not just once. after a certain amount of time (to be decided) the body starts to treat it like poison. so it has to be administered regularly. without it ... Isi doesn’t know of anyone who knows for sure, but it gets unpleasant. she’s definitely heard rumours of people who’ve died from withdrawal. either way, at least in the citadel, it’s impossible to skip a dose and go unnoticed by knight supervisors.

who specifically does this involve? (that we care about)

citadel knights who have been knighted: Isi, Meg, Brendon

castle knights and/or former castle knights: Henry

younger resident knights: Aurelia, Ella

oh, and pretty much any given Antagonist Knight we run across

who isn’t involved?

Robin (not knighted yet), Jasper (older and doesn’t work in the citadel)

all of the civilians: Sierra, Holly, Ebele, Cole, SB, etc.

that’s the main stuff. but as always, it’s not the full extent of my Thoughts (mostly because this has Implications for several arcs), so... i can probably be convinced to infodump more in the future

TAGLIST (ask to be added or removed)

@isherwoodj @metanoiamorii @lilmissravingwriter @weekofwednesdays @the-unwrittenwriter @talesofsorrowandofruin @little-boats-on-a-lake @teriwrites @magicalwriting @magic-is-something-we-create @writingbyjillian @waysofink @perditism @thehellinsideyourhead @calicowrites @vellichor-virgo @google-plexed @therecouldbecolorsandlove @the-orangeauthor @ellatholmes @happyorogeny @ladywithalamp @ashen-crest @authortango @strangerays @moononherwings @nikkywrites @ambersky0319 @ambsthom @talesfromgringolandia @wickerring @wizardfromthesea @diphthongsfordays @e-lisard @enchanted-lightning-aes @emscribblings @teardropsandtherain @lowslore @fablewritten @dirtybarkshark

one time tags for @daisywords @klywrites who were intrigued on my previous post, and @zmwrites who’s not on the taglist but knows bits and pieces about this already

[blueikeproductions]

Some CyberWorld stuff cropped up.

…Kinda.

Prices were revealed for the line.

Of note is the Scorponok toy that’s roughly 100 bucks. The price has led some to guess it’s similar to the Hot Wheels playsets with the car eating monster and assorted Batman and Paw Patrol transforming playsets.

It’s thought that if this is a transforming playset of some kind, presumably that means this Scorponok is likely based on the G1 version.

And it Transforms from base to scorpion, no robot. Of course the toy could also be based on Bay Scorponok…

At this point it’s hard to say without photos yet, but something similar to G1 Scorponok seems likely.

The other prices seem … ok. Toys are still expensive but these seem manageable? Unless Cyber Changers are more One Steps like Cog Changers, $14 bucks seems a little steep for that though. Hopefully they’ve retired that as the Cyberverse and EarthSpark One Steps clogged shelves my way for the longest time.

The Cog Changers aren’t moving much here either so maybe it’s time for a different approach. Fans do seem more intrigued at what all these toys will be and are hoping Hasbro is learning better lessons after the failure of CV & ES.

Another thing that sticks out is Megatron is indeed part of this toy line, but whether that means he evolves to Galvatron or Galvatron is a separate character we don’t know yet. For that matter we still don’t know if Megatron’s a bull or bulldozer, lol. Both would be funny. It seems then it’s only a matter of time before Bumblebee is also revealed if Megatron’s still involved.

The original listings didn’t explicitly name Megatron, leaving us confused if Meg Bull was Megatron or was a separate character, so this is new information.

Another thing that’s cropped up are the Swapticons.

It’s unknown if they’re related to CyberWorld (both this and CW DO make use of Grimlock and Snarl specifically), but the mention of a Jungle Mission implies a larger return to animals all around from this, CyberWorld and Wild King post ROTB.

The gimmick seems to be a revival of an aborted toy considered in the 80’s.

It’s still just as bizarre now as it was then, but at least the pairs for the Swapticons make a little more sense.

The weirdest pair though are Nemesis Prime and Clench.

Both that Hasbro seems hellbent on making Nemesis a proper character (RiD Scourge aside), and that Clench is remembered. At all. He’s incredibly obscure, and certainly a unique choice.

Hazarding a guess the toy might use the “Laser Prime” body type since that fits what Clench usually turns into the best.

Shadow Panther and Ravage is also funny because depending on the continuity, they’re the same character!

The Beast Wars versions are, unsurprisingly, usually repaints of Cheetor. Apparently Shadow Panther is supposed to be a separate character in Japan, but some Beast Wars stuff in America tried to make him into Ravage to tie into his role in the cartoon.

How this Swapticon version works I don’t know, as I would think G1 Ravage would be the dominant one, but I don’t know if I see this turning into a cassette. Maybe it’s loosely based on BW Ravage?

Or it’s just a Cheetor/Tigatron repaint and I’m overthinking it.

The aforementioned jungle pack is probably the Dinobots, the cats and maybe Nemesis and Starscream?

Hopefully the Swapticons have better luck than the EarthSpark Tacticons, as those finger puppets keep clogging pegs my way. No one wants Hashtag and Arcee that badly it seems.

Also can we go back and use Swapticon and Tacticons as actual factions? They sound cool by name alone.

[kaontic]

*Takin’ a stab at this cuz about time I did—*

🦁 Emperor of Destruction, King of Beasts and Guardian Spirit of Paradise 🦁

Or, um, in other words, here’s Megs’ holoform as a shishi:

See? I’m not biased for Megatron over Optimus. I didn’t even color him in all the way. 😅

(Which is totally not because I’m scared of messing up the outlining. That’s potentially demoralizing fr…Maybe I’ll try anyway later idk)

Cliffjumper: >:(

Me: Um...you guys are probably wondering about some stuff— 👀💧 *Clears throat*

*In the tone of Barbs from Geography Now*

What is a “shishi”? 👋

What are the flowers he is holding?

Well, as the poem one Kabuki dance abides to puts it:

“As the peony is the king of a hundred flowers, so is the lion the chief of a hundred beasts.”

Hence the association.

Reflector: You better put a source for that.

Me: I KNOW— ��

Renjishi (Two Lions) is the name of that Kabuki dance. There’s another dance (and other versions of that dance), but we’ll get to that if you’re interested of course. ;)

Btw, the dancer above, Yukimasa Futamura of Miyabiya? He’s awesome.

He wasn’t even the one that convinced me (that was Onoe Kikugorō VI), he just reaffirmed it because WOW DO THEY LOOK SIMILAR— O_O

Someone (i really wish I remembered their post 😭) noted how Megatron has one of the most human-like face plates out of everyone (and ironically so)

Idc what anyone says, they were on-target (yes that pun was intentional).

Oh wait, he’s not “human” after all, is he? Riiiiight… 🦁

(You know he would try to make that excuse lol)

Ok ok ok, last question—

Is a shishi good or evil?

I mean, their purpose, whether in China (as these specific Kabuki dances are based off of Chinese legend. Renjishi even takes place on a holy mountain in China, with the shishi guarding the bridge to Buddhist paradise), Japan or other countries, are to protect important (usually religious) locations and ward off evil spirits.

Yeah, in the other major dance Kagami Jishi (Mirror Lion), a servant girl named Yayoi, working in the shogun’s palace is influenced and gets possessed by a shishi via a lion mask, and dragged off-stage due to the shishi chasing 2 butterfly spirits, but ya know…

Cats will be cats. :)

The same actor that plays Yayoi will even return as the (male) shishi to dance with the butterfly spirits.

What happens to Yayoi in the end tho? Um—

She’s fine. Probably. Maybe (just me speculating, this has nothing to do with the actual performances) she gets to spend the rest of eternity as the lion’s hostess. 👀

Is there more to the dances? Oh yeah, always. It's Kabuki, an intricate and detailed art form requiring huge skill that everyone should check out.

I didn't even mention the son character in Renjishi and his significance.

Furthermore, are there other Kabuki characters (especially villainous) that would fit Megs? Yep.

There was literally this one noble, Togashi Saemon from the dance-drama Kanjinchō, who was so impressed by how far his enemy’s follower was willing to go for his master through deceptive means, that he just straight up let them go.

Even at the cost of his own life because that’s how much trouble he’s gonna get in for that. 😬

Megs notoriously enabling his traitorous subordinates’ behavior even if it’s self-sabotaging? Similar energy.

There was also the provocative (and quite frankly pathetic) governor Kō no Moronō from the drama Kanadehon Chūshingura, who the 46 rōnin came for on their quest to avenge their master, and proceeded to [REDACTED] his head.

Yeah, given our options, so far, he better be thankful that his holoform is a shishi. 😑

It’s not the only holoform he has (any Cybertronian can have several in my AU), but I think it’s a good start.

[f0xgl0v3]

ToA: Hidden Oracle, silly thoughts?

I finished the book! I also had some thoughts about it and some things floating around in my head, so let’s get to start. (A note for context, barely any idea what happens in the other books, I know the very basic like rough rough outline of the plot.)

First off, Austin’s YouTube channel. This one upset me so much when I read it and it’s so silly. Austin in his first appearance mentions his view count on a saxophone YouTube video. A monumental feat I’m pretty sure but also. The entire book drives in the idea that all the camps/demigods/demigod adjacents have been having trouble with anything internet or communications related. No one can call, text, video face time, Iris message, even physical mail isn’t working. So how is Austin able to YouTube? It’s an entire platform dedicated to communication, and demigods canonically can’t use much modern technology because it monster beacons. Is Austin risking the safety of camp to the monsters that live inside Camp’s forest every time he saxophones? If that is true then he skyrockets in my ToA character appreciations so far.

Now the actual stuff that I bookmarked in the book. This isn’t everything obviously (I marked a lot of stupid stuff like and mention of Harley or the talking arrow dialogue just to go back for laughs so obviously this is a summary of the more important stuff).

The actual content

(I forget to put page numbers after the 1st one)

Feral demigods! Mentioned on page 23 we get a confirmation that there are indeed demigods who are never found (which probably was a given) and the fact they have their own name. Also a set time where it’s most likely that monsters start their tomfoolery when a demigods is 13 (this puts Frank, and Leo, and Piper to still be funky.)

New Rome university specifics! Hehehe new Rome but we also get the introduction of the DSTOMP (the demigod standard test for mad powers). All we know is that there is a music and poetry analysis segment, but we can probably assume that each God (or important Roman God more likely) designed a segment of the test.

Ouranos mentioned of his face? It brings up what state Ouranos is in, how that works and affects him, if he’ll ever reform and that also brings up Gaea because they Ouranos’ed Gaea- albeit in a much different way but still.

Apollo recognizes that Octavian wasn’t the one at fault, even if he doesn’t voice it but at least Octavian gets mentioned, this is totally important enough.

Said that headaches on Olympus are from Gods and Goddesses in a Gods mind that were to be extracted via Hephaestus head splitting, how many immortals are we unaware of that have been formed this way?

Athena thinks that Olympus is going to move to Brazil at some point. Worth noting.

Demeter doesn’t often fall in love with mortals *OFTEN, IM SORRY I DIDNT TYPE. DEMEMTER DOESNT OFTEN FALL IN LOVE WITH MORTALS*. The myths seem to support this, but also that Meg is unusually powerful in relation to Demeter kids who “could do little more than make crops grow and keep bacterial fungi at bay” though considering some of the things that Miranda does near the end throws a karpoi into that statement. Along with that a could pages later we are noted that the Greek forms are indeed stronger (which also seems like a given, but brings up if their even older forms are more powerful.) and seemingly implied confirmation and gods can only claim you if you are in the right camp/domain area. As Apollo mentions that it couldn’t be Ceres because Demeter claimed Meg at CHB, and Meg is powerful.

Apollo mentions other deities (and science) also keeping the sun on track. But especially mentions Sol and the wolves (along with making Aztec and possibly all other mezzo American gods canon to pjo universe). However; and forgive me if I’m wrong. Sol is Helios’s counterpart and I know that Helios is currently chilling in an Ichor vat at the moment, so how is this..? Could possibly just be because Helios and his fading thing wasn’t thought of (even though he still is widely popular in this day and age) during Hidden Oracle’s writing, but still, I don’t.. like? Brain doesn’t function this.

Hades has a haunted house and also for the funsies canonically would sneak up on Apollo using shadow travel and make him mess up on plague arrow shots. Based on my knowledge of Hades I can only assume these were not malicious.

Harley is one of my favorites I love him so much he’s baby.

Upon listing demigods Apollo had seen turn against Olympus he mentions the Tantalus situation, King Mithridates, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. Though this implied that Mithridates would be a demigod along with either Clytemnestra or Agamemnon (who if my memory wants to cooperate, I believe was either a grandson or great grandson of Zeus?) along with mentioning that the human sacrifice was to him. For context I believe Apollo is talking about Agamemnon’s daughter that he sacrificed, though I thought that was to Artemis? Oh well.

We get to see summaries of Octavian’s convincing, which like? It’s serviceable to fuel the imagination. Also feel like he might’ve been genuine in a few of these? They all feel like very Octavian things to believe (the War with CHB being quick and easy; which I don’t think he believed whatsoever. And then raising temples to Apollo and how much support he had, both of which I think were true).

Saturnalia mention. Just had to put it out there because apparently Sherman would’ve won most violent holiday decor. Which, knowing what Saturnalia is it doesn’t make much sense? Anyway probably a Saturnalia/CJ ‘Christmas’ festivities post soon.

We get some descriptors of monsters that are inside the Camp Half-blood woods. The named ones including a two-headed wolf that seems standard, and a DRAKON. I say it again, the giant serpent things which are wild and dangerous, a DRAKON living its best immortal life in CHB woods. Excuse me? And Myrmreke, I love the Myrmreke and I want one as a pet and to kiss on the forehead. They are very cute.

Gyser God oaths. Unsure if this applies to oaths made not just with a Gyser God. But uh, a random Gyser bursting forth from the ground and boiling you sounds like a solid reason to not be making Gyser oaths.

Rhea mentions how God-Emperors are made, this feels like it would imply that other important historical figures also reach some form of immortality (Achilles, Theseus, Elvis Presley, George Washington, the sorts). And what about the other Emperors who were deified? Of the original Octavian and like.. the other ones?

Mentions of how Meg can “hear the trees growing” and the idea that the Muses can hear ink drying of poetry pages? Is this another skill to add upon them, no idea and frankly that sounds painful.

Nero and me have the same laugh I think and I don’t know how to feel about it. The best resources I can give you to visualize my laugh would be looking at Dolphins or Hyena’s. His is described as, “a snide little barking sound in the back of his nose” and I’ll be honest if nose was turned to throat It’d be pretty identical. Felt that was important to add to the ever growing and non important Kleos lore.

Nero mentions how it’s impossible for him to fade now due to being permanently remembered through the internet. Man that’s gonna age poorly in tower of Nero isn’t it? Also God-emperors are like, in a weird limbo esque situation and idk how to feel about that? I can only assume the most comparable thing would be something like New Rome’s Lares, the most noticeable other than Vitellius would be the literal ghost of Cato (I assume the younger) in SoN’s senate meeting. He’s called a ghost but I wouldn’t be surprised if he were to be in this limbo like state.

Nero yelling about the Rome fire was so funny I put three flags on the monologue.

Ellis can identify the location of the Colossus and the fact it’s a war machine. Perhaps similar to the like Percy boat/nautical knowledge he has innately.

We’ve learned that automatons are possibly being fueled by primarily the life force of wind and water spirits like Apollo states which is.. dark. But also like uh, thought they were engineering? Does this imply Festus is powered by a poor nymph or anemoi?

Gatorade can help speed the recovery process of exhaustion due to shadow travel. My only idea is that it is partially due to the electrolytes and that shadow traveling has similar effects to intense long term workouts and that the sugar also helps. Along with the fact that one singular shadow travel has seemed to wear Nico out after we’ve seen him do much bigger feats and take longer to be passing out like this?

The arrow of Dodona is really funny I’m sorry.

The Colossus is mirrored after.. someone? I don’t know they threw around Nero and Apollo’s name when talking about it. This in context with Nero is no surprise but If talking about Apollo it meant that at some point in Rome’s lifespan and potentially more Apollo had sideburns. Take that information as you wish.

Plaguey, plaguey, plaguey.

Apollo mentioning how much humans truly do affect the gods and how much the gods truly don’t like that.

Leo’s back… yay.

I don’t think Patroclus and Brises had any beef. Please media stop potraying them as containing beef I want them to be buddies.

And Calypso’s back. After reading the Odyssey I like her much less. I mean I didn’t like her much to begin with either.

Okay, I might do this for all of the ToA books? It’s a nice way to quickly get thoughts down that wouldn’t naturally give themselves over to a full post, or a good resource for me to check back on things I didn’t like and therefore will be going back and making full posts.

But also this was fun, I tried to take out a lot of the things I marked just because I thought it was funny but like… oh well lol. Good night!

[provincial-girl]

So, when I get really into a new show, I like to go ahead and look up the meaning of character’s names. Often there’s not much of interest there, or the name doesn’t say a whole lot. Then, every once in a while, I come across some neat stuff, which is what happens when you look into the meaning of names for A League of Their Own characters, particularly Greta and Meg's names. 

The first very first thing I found when I started down this specific rabbit hole is that Greta means “pearl,” which honestly makes so much sense for her. A pearl is this pretty, shiny object,  but it's created when a grain of sand or food particle gets stuck inside the shell of the oyster. To protect itself from the irritant, the oyster secretes a substance that will harden around the grain of sand and eventually become the pearl. Greta is exactly like the pearl in a lot of ways, because she’s shiny and charming, but her outward appearance is very much a product of all the things she does to protect herself from getting hurt. She has this secret that she knows is dangerous, and she constantly cloaks herself in this protective layer, putting on a performance to keep herself and those around her safe. The product is pretty to look at, made to be looked at even, but it is a hard outer shell meant to protect Greta from suffering any more pain than she already has.   

In an interesting twist, Meg means “pearl” as well, because both names appear to have roots that can be linked back to the name Margaret. We know so little about Meg, Carson’s sister,  that any attempt to draw parallels requires a certain amount of speculation. If the parallel is meant to be intentional though, it would suggest that there’s something similar about Carson’s sister and Greta that we don’t explicitly see.

 One possibility is that perhaps Meg’s fixation on behaving acceptably in the eyes of those around her comes from the fact that she thinks it will offer a layer of protection from censure. That’s why she marries and has kids right away, and bakes the pie that Carson promises the woman at the train station to save face (Greta’s end of the phone conversation with Meg suggests as much). That behavior and her insistence that Carson conform is a defense mechanism, a hurtful, damaging, deeply misguided attempt to protect herself and her family from the same sort of pain that comes from their mother failing to conform when she leaves them behind. She might actually be more concerned about protecting the family than herself, as she specifically mentions their father having to answer questions, as he probably had to when their mother left. She even says she wishes their mother was around so Carson wasn’t her problem, which suggests that Meg wouldn’t be reacting in this way if their mother had never left. Is Meg simply suggesting that their mother might’ve made this call instead? Maybe, but the fact remains that Meg behaves in the way she does, calls and yells at Carson for running away because their mother isn’t around, and she feels it’s her duty to do it to maintain an acceptable image of their family. It's a misguided attempt to protect them from censure and the same pain that comes from their mother leaving. 

The natural reaction may be to say, well, Greta and Meg are nothing alike, because there are a lot of ways in which they’re not alike at all. To start, the repercussions of not performing properly are so much higher for Greta than Meg. Meg doesn’t face the threat of physical harm that Greta does, and the censure she faces is much less intense than what Greta faces if she’s discovered. The fact, however, remains that a lot of their behavior is a reaction to societal pressures to conform and an instinct to avoid pain. None of this is to say that Meg’s behavior is remotely acceptable, or that Meg could ever be as compelling and well-rounded as Greta. What we know of Meg isn’t even a little bit flattering, but I don’t think Meg has to be likable to be understood. This potential parallel  simply gives a bit more depth to Meg, makes the story as a whole a bit more interesting. It suggests that every female character, even the ones as minor and unlikeable as Meg, face some kind of societal pressure to perform in a certain way or face repercussions, and their behavior and treatment of others is often shaped by that pressure.

Again, this all involves a certain amount of conjecture, and may very well be a coincidence, but ALOTO is such a thoughtful show that I just can’t help thinking there’s a real possibility this was an entirely intentional choice. Greta’s name meaning and the Meg parallel were the most compelling ones I found, but there’s also a whole bunch of other name meanings that I’ve found that are actually perfect for the characters, which suggests to me that at least some of these character names are very intentionally chosen for their meaning, and I could definitely see more meta potential in that list. Whether the name choices are fully intentional or not, I enjoy thinking about the way that small details contribute to a story’s larger, overarching themes, and love that this show continues to offer up opportunities to do just that.