#now you should know not to use any symbols that you don't understand at all

[vee-is-a-clown]

Ok you know what makes me angry? Why is Allura so mature and humble? She's a daddy's girl only child princess who was set to inherit a flourishing kingdom. Sure, she's well educated and probably elegant and graceful and tactful because that's how she was raised to act for diplomatic reasons but she was also probably spoiled throughout her adolescence. She probably got whatever she wanted whenever she wanted because her family had the resources to give it to her. Who's to say she isn't a spoiled brat who can otherwise act kind and approachable? Even if she isn't a brat, she was still handed her life on a silver platter. She has to learn how to operate and be self sufficient.

When she gets out of that pod, she should be scared. She should be angry. And she deserves to be so. Her father that she relied on for just about everything shoved her into a sleeping pod and suddenly she's awoken by someone who isn't him. Logically, that means he lost. She should be kicking and screaming. She should be having the worst panic attack ever. She should be mourning everyone and everything she's ever known. She should be mourning the status quo that will never again be maintained. She should be mourning the future that can never come to fruition.

She has to figure out life without any system or technology that she's ever relied on. Coran doesn't know how to fix and maintain everything. She's like one of those people that wake up from 10+ year comas and don't understand modern technology. She is my dad who has had the same flip phone since forever and now must figure out how to use a phone with a touch screen.

Every luxury she had as a princess is gone. The castle chef who knew exactly how she liked her food. Her mother's ladies in waiting who told her the castle gossip. Her own ladies in waiting who'd sneak out to festivals and other trivial things with her. The cleaners that arranged her room exactly as she liked it. HER MOM. I don't care if she was a daddy's girl, she still has got to miss her mom.

I feel like she should've had more outbursts. Seeing Keith in the red paladin armor should've made her cry. In fact, all of them should have. The new paladins in their armor is a symbol of a new era- an era without the people she loves. She deserves to scream at the top of her lungs and lock herself in her room and trash something. She should be yelling that life isn't fair. She should be angry. She should be so angry.

I don't care if she's trying to hold it together for the paladins in the show. She's holding together too well. She needs more moments of instability. She needs to grieve. She needs to be tired. She needs to be imperfect.

[in2u-4asec]

Seems like the cult got another name for them all because of the symbol they so proudly uses ☠️

what goes around, comes around...

[boxingcleverrr]

Popular Hades & Persephone "retellings" are, rightly, getting dunked on all over the socials right now and, as a Pagan who has an altar to the Queen, I could not be happier. But also, I feel like a lot of people miss WHY they're bad - aside from just plain bad writing and lazy tropes. Which are, yeah, also REALLY bad.

Pretty much all retellings try to wave away, or excuse, or twist the whole kidnapping bit. And I actually do have sympathy and understanding for why, when speaking from a modern perspective.

But honestly...you gotta get over it. There are other stories to play fix-it with, not this one.

The Abduction is The Thing.

Were I a little more sober I could bring up chapter and verse of the Hymn to Demeter but frankly, if you know even the middle school mythology curriculum version of the story, you SHOULD know the themes. The story of Persephone was one mothers and daughters in the ancient world held dear, because it was a reality: you will, one day, be swept away from your home to go cleave to a man you most likely know nothing about. You will miss your mother, but chances are very good that he will be a good husband, once you get to know him, certainly better than Zeus or Ares, and he will make you a queen of his home.

Leaving home to marry was often scary, and violent (look up the history of the tradition of Bridesmaids, if you don't already know it - they were originally decoys on the marriage road). Centuries later we'd have tales like Beauty & The Beast serving the same function: comfort, hope, you are leaving your safe loving home to figure life out with a (often older, powerful) stranger. Your trauma over this sudden ending of your childhood made manifest in a Beast, or a God of The Underworld.

It's wonderful that we don't NEED stories like this anymore to comfort us (here, at least, in this culture). But if you try to force them into modern vernacular it just will not work, not really, because you're gutting out the whole point just to have a more tidy romantic male hero.

I have read MANY very good ...novelizations? fanfic(? however you would frame them, but they're certainly not "retellings"), etc. that simply take advantage of the blank spaces in the myth, and there are many!

It's not explicit that sexual assault happens - "The Rape of Persephone" as a title was coined in much earlier eras, when the word was just as often used to simply refer to abduction.

"She was starving!" the gods didn't need to eat. So it's easy to read her eating the Pom seeds as a deliberate choice on her part. Like, shit, people, scholars have written whole papers on the symbolism of this moment, between marriage rites and even yeah, Seph choosing both worlds with her husband's knowing consent.

And that, I think, is the real heart of the thing. People want an utterly mundane, spelled-out story here, as opposed to what it really is, has always been, just like any other myth or religious parable: IT'S A METAPHOOOOOOR.

They don't need to be destined, or meet at a goddamned BALL and then CONSPIRE to fake her kidnapping, or shit, I once saw one where Hades got MIND CONTROLLED by Zeus?! Jesus.

Persephone was yoinked into the Underworld against her will.

That's how it went.

I don't mean this in a "stay out of my belief system!" way, shit I'm a white American chick with delusions of witchery. I mean this in a "stop stressing yourself out trying to make things palatable" way:

This is a very real, very precious myth to many people, BECAUSE for at least that one event, Persephone had no autonomy, BECAUSE for thousands of years most women had no autonomy. Erasing that, sanitizing the fact that a girl is ripped out of the spring, from her mother's arms, is erasing the thing that gave comfort to women for centuries. And people can and should still find power and healing in it now!

Fill in the blanks the story leaves in whatever manner seems fit to you, there's plenty of room, but. Come the fuck on.

[sirfrogsworth]

These folks watched a whole ass movie not realizing the main character was transgender and it was a 2 second kiss between men that made them lose their ever-loving minds.

It's amazing to me that if it weren't for those 2 seconds, many of these folks would have given this movie a 4 or 5 star review. But two seconds of the most vanilla, non-sexy, yet genuine and loving kiss somehow ruined every moment of enjoyment the previous 90 minutes brought them.

Imagine if they realized the trans allegory. I wish I had a way to tell them. I wish I had a way to make them realize they related to a trans character. That they rooted for them. That they accidentally empathized with a trans story.

This was a beautiful movie. In every sense. I really hope between this and Spider-Verse, we can have a moratorium on every 3D animated movie using this style of character design.

It's time to let go of the rubber toy look.

I love Toy Story, but its success kind of doomed 3D animation to never take any risks. I thought maybe it was just a limitation of the medium, and perhaps it was for a time... but after seeing Love Death + Robots and Arcane...

I realized they can make 3D animation look however the hell they want now.

The rubber people were just risk avoidance.

"That's what people are used to and so we're sticking with it."

But the real beauty of Nimona was the story. I won't spoil it but the plot is pretty much, "If you get to know a trans person, you probably won't hate them anymore."

Not knowing any trans people is one of the biggest factors in anti-trans bigotry. And so this movie uses allegory to let an audience get to know a trans person. And you get to experience someone slowly start to understand what it is to be trans from an outside perspective.

It's sad that will probably be lost on those folks above because all they will remember is the kiss. Seriously, it was such a harmless, mundane, blink-and-you-miss-it kiss. But I'm hoping that others will take the lesson of this movie to heart. That you should get to know people before you judge them.

Part of me does wish we could tell trans stories without allegory. That we could just have overt trans characters. But I think this is the best representation possible right now.

It's crazy that Supergirl was one of the bravest shows as far as modern trans representation. It wasn't an edgy HBO drama trying to push boundaries. It was a family-friendly superhero show and they were just like, "Here is a transgender woman with superpowers and it's fine." And I loved that it was part of the character but it wasn't all the character was. Though I think they just missed the manufactured "moral panic" window where that choice would have been extremely controversial causing boycotts of Warner Bros. and whatnot.

My only complaint about Nimona was a small penis joke. It went by very quickly and many may even miss it. But I was surprised to see it in this movie in particular. Especially since those jokes can have collateral damage toward trans folks. With all of the positive messages, wasting a joke on body shaming was a tad disappointing. I mean, it was a fairly lighthearted "Is it cold in here?" joke. I don't want to make it sound worse than it was. But it still registered on my Richter scale of things that bother me.

Anyway, I wholeheartedly give Nimona a 5 out of 5. It helped me understand my friends on a deeper level and it was warm and funny and entertaining. There was a scene at the end that was so beautiful and heart-wrenching and I was crying my eyes out. The animation and the symbolism and the acting were just so perfect.

It's a shame Disney tried to kill this movie. But I am so glad it was allowed to exist despite that.

[tirsynni]

I'm already seeing it: everyone complaining that Trump is going to win. Why? Because people are frustrated with Biden. So their response is... what? To passively let Trump win? Are you kidding me right now?

If Trump wins, I don't want anyone blaming Biden. Not a single person. Everyone has already made their position clear and have also made it very clear that they understand the consequences of those actions. Just instead of accepting blame, they're blaming Biden. For their own choices. For their own actions.

No. You need to be an adult to vote. Now prove you're an adult and that you can take responsibility for your own actions.

No matter how pissed you are at Biden, you need to recognize that non-Trumpers outnumber the Trumpers and it doesn't mean shit if non-Trumpers don't vote. Guess what. Trumpers are going to vote. They're going to go to the polls and they're going to vote. If they vote and you don't, guess how it's going to go, even if non-Trumpers outnumber Trumpers. Doesn't mean shit if your vote doesn't reflect that.

What do you think is going to happen with Palestine if Trump wins? If you're pissed about Biden's actions and inactions regarding Israel and Palestine, how are you going to feel about Trump? Because I promise, if you choose not to vote for Biden, you are voting for Trump, and he will be worse.

There is no third party option which is going to win against Trump. Your symbolic non-vote is a vote for Trump. If you don't vote for Biden, you are fucking voting for Trump, so I hope you're ready for that.

"But Biden --" I don't give a fuck. Be an adult. Accept that sometimes in life, you have to accept the lesser evil. There is no room for you to go "Well, I have to do what feels right." NO. That is self-serving, self-indulgent, selfish bullshit. You are helping no one but your own feelings. You will pat yourself on your back with one hand and stab your neighbor in their back with the other.

If you are really concerned about Palestine, vote for Biden, because I promise, he's still better than Trump. Vote in all elections, because they all matter and Trumpers are voting in all of them. Make phone calls. Raise hell. Sign petitions. Do whatever else you can. I fucking promise you, though, that for any of that to count, you need Biden in the office, not Trump.

Again, I don't give a flying fuck if you hate Biden. I sincerely don't. The US presidential election will be two party. Should it be? No. Doesn't matter. That's reality. The US presidential election will be two party: Biden vs Trump. We need to be adults, and we need to recognize what we're dealing with. I will say it again and again and again: any vote which isn't Biden will be a vote for Trump. Don't think to yourself, "I don't want to show the Democrats they have my support with all of this bullshit, so I'm going to not vote/vote third party/symbolically write something in." Be truthful with yourself. Be realistic. If you are pissed at Biden and decide that you aren't going to vote for him, say clearly to yourself, "I'm voting for Trump and all that entails."

If you really think that way, please let me know so I can block your selfish ass. Make sure to tell your neighbors that you're cool with fucking them over, because you need to do what feels right, and that means letting Trump back into office. If you want to brag about your integrity, then at least have the integrity to at least be that truthful with everyone.

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

"Murder is Werewolves" - Batman

I don't got the SPOONS to do this thought train justice, I have seriously been trying to write this thing for MONTHS so just, idk, have this half baked skeletal outline of the essay I guess:

I don't believe that Batman's no-kill rule is primarily about rehabilitation or second chances.

His refusal to believe that Cassandra could have killed someone when she was eight years old because "how could a killer understand my commitment not to kill" is absolute fucking MOON LOGIC from a rehabilitationist standpoint. No jury on the planet would think for even a second that she could reasonably be held accountable for her actions in that situation! Her past cannot condemn her to being incapable of valuing human life under a rehabilitation centering framework. However, Batman's reasoning makes perfect sense if he believes that killing is a spiritually/morally corrupting act which permanently and fundamentally changes a person, and that corruption can never be fully undone.

Dick Grayson killing the Joker is treated both narratively and by Batman as an unequivocally WIN for the Joker. The Joker won by turning Nightwing into a killer. Note that this is during a comic in which the Joker transforming people was a major theme! Batman didn't revive the Joker because the Joker deserved to live; he revived the Joker to lift the burden on Dick.

His appeal to Stephanie when she tried to kill her dad is that she shouldn't ruin her own life. He gives no defense of Cluemaster's actual life. Granted this is a rhetorical strategy moment and should be taken with a generous pinch of salt, but it fits in the pattern.

When Jason becomes a willful killer, he essentially disowns him, never treats him with full trust ever again, and... Well, we can stop here for Bruce's sake. Bottom line is that his actions towards Jason do not lead me to believe that he thinks Jason can become a better person without having his autonomy taken from him, either partially or fully.

The Joker is, for better or worse, the ultimate symbol and vessel of pure, irredeemable evil in DC comics now. He hasn't been just another crook in a long time. He will never get better, he will only get worse. If you take it to be true that the Joker will not or can not rehabilitate, then there's no rehabilitationist argument against killing him.

Batman does not seem to consider it a possibly that he'll rehabilitate. Batman at several points seems to think that the Joker dying in a manner no one could have prevented would be good. Yet Batman fully believes that if he killed the Joker, he himself would become irredeemable.

Batman's own form of justice (putting people into the hospital and then prison) is fucking brutal and clearly not rehabilitative. He disrespects the most basic human rights of all criminals on a regular basis. It is genuinely really, really weird from a rehabilitationist standpoint that his only uncrossable line is killing... But it makes perfect sense if he cares more about not corrupting himself with the act of killing than the actual ethical results of any individual decision to kill or not kill.

In the real world cops are all bastards because they are too violent to criminals, even when that violence doesn't lead to death. Prison is a wildly evil thing to do to another human being, and you don't use it to steal away massive portions of a person's life if your goal is to rehabilitate them. In the comic world, Batman is said to be necessary because the corrupt cops are too nice to criminals and keep letting them out of jail. I don't know how to write a connector sentence there so like I hope you can see why this bothers me so damn much! That's just not forgiveness vibes there Batman!!

I want to make special note here of the transformative aspect. You don't simply commit a single act when you kill, no, you become a killer, like you might become a werewolf.

The narrative supports this a lot!

Why did Supes go evil during Injustice? He killed the Joker. Why did Bruce become the Batman Who Laughs? Bruce killed the Joker. Why was Jason Todd close to becoming a new Joker during Three Jokers? Because he killed people, to include the Joker.

Even if these notions of redemption being impossible aren't the whole of his reasoning (people never have only one reason for doing what they do) it is a distinct through-line pattern in his actions and reasoning, and it is directly at odds with notions of rehabilitation, redemption, and second chances.

So why does he give so many killers second chances?

Firstly because this doesn't apply to all versions of Batman. Some writers explicitly incorporate rehabilitation and forgiveness into his actions. You will be able to provide me with examples of this other through-line pattern if you go looking for them. The nature of comics is to be inconsistent.

Secondly the existence of that other pattern does not negate the existence of this one. People and characters are complex, and perfectly capable of holding two patterns of belief within themselves, even when they conflict to this degree. You can absolutely synthesize these two ideas into a single messy Batman philosophical vibescape.

Finally and most importantly to this essay: he has mercy on killers the same way that werewolf hunters sometimes have mercy on someone who is clearly struggling against their monsterous nature, especially if they were turned in exceptional circumstances or against their will. They understand that they are sick, damned beasts, cursed to always be fighting against themselves and the evil they harbor within. It is vitally kind to help them fight themselves by curtailing their autonomy in helpful ways and providing them with chances to do some good to make up for their eternal moral deficiency.

I think in many comics Batman views killers as lost souls. Battered and tormented monsters who must be pitied and given mercy wherever possible. (The connections to mental health, addiction, and rampant, horrifying ableism towards people struggling with both is unavoidable, but addressing it is sadly outside of the scope of this essay.)

Above all, the greatest care possible must be taken to never, ever let yourself become one of them, because once you have transformed the beast will forever be within you growing stronger.

To Batman, it is the most noble burden, the highest mercy, the most important commandment: Thou shalt suffer the monsters to live.

[hbmmaster]

how many games are there?

"how many normal play partizan games are born on or before Day 4" is an unanswered question that, depending on how much you know about game theory (the mathematical field of study, not the youtube series) either doesn't mean anything, sounds like something we really should have an answer to, or sounds like something that probably cannot be answered with existing technology.

normal play partizan games

I recommend this video (RIP Owen) as an introduction to the concept, but this is a very specific type of "game". these are turn-based perfect-information games for two players, conventionally named Left and Right.

every game (or game position, or game state) is defined in terms of what options the two players have from that game state, if it is their turn while the game is in that state. these options are themselves defined by what state the game enters when that option is chosen.

the "normal play convention" part means that if it is your turn and you have no options, you lose and the other player wins. ties are not possible.

the standard notation for games used in combinatorial game theory is the form {L|R}, where L is Left's set of options and R is Right's set of options.

equivalence

one important concept to understand for this problem is the comparison of games, and in particular when two games are equal to each other. I again recommend watching the video I linked, but here's the short version.

two games G and H can be "added together" to form a new game, G+H. the way the game G+H is played is that on your turn you can either make a move in the G part and do nothing in the H part, or make a move in the H part and do nothing in the G part. the normal play convention still applies: you lose and the other player wins once you don't have any options in either part of the combined game.

it's also possible to subtract one game from another game by adding its "negative". the negative of a game is simply the game where Left's options are all the negatives of Right's options from the original game, and Right's options are all the negatives of Left's options from the original game. in essence, the two players are swapped.

so then, for reasons that make sense but I am not going to get into, two games G and H are said to be equivalent to each other if G-H, the sum of G and the negative of H, equals some game where if both players are playing optimally, the second player wins.

the birthday property

since these games are defined recursively in terms of what other games can be reached from them, all "finite games" can be generated in an iterative process, building a new batch of games out of the games you got from the previous iteration ("day"). this is called the "birth" of a game, and the "day" a game is "born" on is, naturally, its "birthday".

on Day 0, no games exist, so the only possible set of games that can be used to make more games is the empty set. the only game born on Day 0 is {|}, conventionally called "0".

on Day 1, two possible sets exist: the empty set, and the set containing 0. so, there are four games born on or before Day 1 and their conventional symbols:

{|} = 0

{|0} = -1

{0|} = 1

{0|0} = *

Day 2 is somewhat more complicated but not by much. now that more than one game exists, sets with more than one game can be used as options. but for advanced game theory reasons, only some of these sets actually work for generating unique games. a total of twenty-two games are born on or before Day 2:

{|} = 0

{|0} = -1

{0|} = 1

{0|0} = *

{|-1} = -2

{-1|-1} = -1*

{-1|0} = -½

{*|0} = ↓

{0|0,*} = ↓*

{0,*|0,*} = *2

{0,*|0} = ↑*

{0|*} = ↑

{0|1} = ½

{1|1} = 1*

{1|} = 2

{0|-1} = -½±½

{1|-1} = ±1

{1|0} = ½±½

{*|-1}

{0,*|-1}

{1|0,*}

{1|*}

I don't think those last four have established symbols besides their {L|R} definitions, but this stuff is not that easy to look up.

anyway, once you get to Day 3 things explode, and now there's 1474 games! and beyond that it's an open question.

on Day 4 we know that there are at least three trillion of them, but there could be anywhere as high as 5.2x10^443, a number on a googological scale.

if it turns out the final answer is somewhere in the trillions then it might be possible to brute force the full list with enough computing power and time, but the space of possible games that need to be checked is simply too vast.

anyway that's neat isn't it

[lemotmo]

one thing i'm a bit worried about as we got into season 8 is that there are a lot of fans talking about buddie like it's an inevitability and saying things like "buddie canon confirmed" because of the bts stuff we've seen.

it feels like people are setting themselves up for being disappointed and mad if buddie doesn't end up going canon (and honestly, it's kind of their fault for reading so much into fun little posts from the cast when the only way they'd ever confirm buddie is in an episode).

i really want buddie to be canon, but I'm keeping my expectations low because I don't want to be disappointed and it feels like people should be prepared for that potential outcome.

All right Nonny, here's the thing...

I get it. I completely understand what you are saying. I have been in the 911 fandom since season 1 (not so much on Tumblr) and when season 2 happened I hopped onto the Buddie train (on Tumblr).

I have been there, season after season after season. I saw people building up a lot of hope only for that hope to end up in disappointment. And I felt some of that disappointment as well. Although I have to admit I was always on the sidelines. I never really thought it would ever go canon. I hoped for it, but I had very low expectations.

After all, both men were canonically straight. Even though we could all see the queer-coding, fundamentally nothing ever changed. Buddie got closer than ever, but they still had girlfriends and relationships.

So yeah, I didn't have high expectations and I was happy just chilling in my little Buddie corner, speculating and reading/writing fan fic. Just genuinly having a good time.

But then season 7 happened. The show got cancelled by FOX at the end of season 6 and ABC picked it up. The first thing ABC did was put Ryan and Oliver front and center, having them freely talk about Buddie. I couldn't believe my eyes when these interviews happened. Articles were written, not just by smaller click bait sites, but actual reputable magazine sites. I watched all of this with wide eyes, not sure what to think of it. 'Would they? Could they?'

Then another bomb went off when 7x04 happened and Buck came out as bisexual. I was floored. For the first time in 6 seasons, I started entertaining the idea that the show might just go there. If they made Buck bisexual, surely they wouldn't ignore the highly popular Buddie aspect of it? Would they?

Let's not get into the whole Tommy debacle that happened afterwards. Because in the end it's not important for this answer. Tommy has been set up as a narrative device to help Buck out of the closet. He isn't even a factor in the overspanning Buddie arc we've seen progressing over 6 seasons.

I also want to add that it's crazy that we know for sure that it was actually supposed to be Eddie who would come out of the closet (first).

The end of season 7 gave us an Eddie who told Kim that he is broken and he can't be fixed. Chris left and now he's all alone. No more Chris, Marisol or any other distractions. He is on his own now. Lots of time to reflect upon his life and relationships. His arc will be built around his emotional journey and his personal growth. And we all know who will be by his side for all of it. It's a given at this point.

Then we have Ryan doing these interviews, saying things like:

“The character has been established now, we kind of know what to expect with the vibe. Now it’s just kind of falling back in old rhythm. The only thing different now is where the character’s head is at and where he is going.”

Next to that we have new looks for both Ryan and Oliver. A new beginning perhaps? That moustache has some clear queer symbolism attached to it as well. Something we cannot ignore, because the show knows that its fans aren't stupid and they also know that they have a solid queer fanbase.

And yes, Ryan and Oliver seem happy and relaxed on set these days, while especially Oliver didn't seem all that happy at the end of season 7. In fact, Oliver has completely ignored the Tommy aspect of his new 'canon' relationship. He speaks more about Buck's bi journey and ignores the Tommy factor as much as possible.

So Nonny, if you read all of the above information (and I'm sure I forgot a bunch of stuff) how can you not become more hopeful and a lot more positive that there is a high chance of Buddie happening in season 8?

I'm all for protecting yourself from possible disappointment, but when you are constantly wrapping yourself into a protective cocoon so you don't get hurt in the process, you might just miss the best (and most fun) part of being a shipper: the experience of your slow-burn ship finally becoming canon.

I admit it! I too strongly believe Buddie might just happen in season 8. I'm almost completely sure.

And yes, if Buddie doesn't happen, there will be disappointment and there will be people who choose to express that disappointment through anger. But honestly?

They would kinda have a point.

Because no, it wouldn't be the fans' own fault for getting their hopes up if Buddie doesn't happen. During previous seasons I would have said 'yes', but not now. Not anymore. Now I would definitely say that they are right. It's the show itself that has gotten our hopes up by the consistent Buddie promo, the many Buddie scenes, the whole Eddie being in every part of the BT arc thing, the bts and all the other things they've thrown at us. They know exactly what they are doing. They are hyping Buddie up to the max.

I don't actually believe there will be disappointment though. This is truly the first season where I have been pretty confident that Buddie is in the works. I've never had that feeling before and I've been here forever.

Now that being said, complete certainty doesn't exist for a shipper. if, for some reason, Buddie doesn't happen? There will be disappointment (for me as well) and anger (for me not so much), but in the end that emotion will fade and Buddie will become just another great fandom experience with a bad ending. We've all been there before. It happens.

That is just the nature of being in fandom: 'You win some, you lose some.'

However... this time? With Buddie?

I really think we're about to win big. Sorry Nonny!

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

[jpitha]

Used to Humans

Lots of "HFY" and "Deathworlders" and "Humans are $Adjective" stories understandably talk about early days with humans in the galaxy. It's fun to think about how humans could be different from other sapient species and how the things that we do that are normal to us could be seen by others. Eventually though, everything gets explained and the galaxy moves on, right? What does it look like when everyone already knows about the wild things humans do.

****

Vic burst through the door into the lounge. "I've got it! If we can route the neutrino stream away fro-"

Resimar and Pel'im didn't look up from their card game. Many of the games humans brought into space are popular, but almost all pale in comparison to the humble deck of cards. The idea of pieces of laminated paper with numbers and symbols on them to play hundreds of different games was appealing across all sapient species in the galaxy. Resi and Pel were currently deep into a Pinochle tournament.

Without looking up at him, Pel'im says, "Nice work Vic, I'm sure it'll work great." He sighs and flicks his eyes up to Resi. "twenty five points." Resi makes a face, but flicks her ears, indicating agreement.

Vic looks at both of them, incredulous. "You don't want to know what I figured out?"

Resi puts down four cards. "Kings around."

Pel snorts. He takes a moment to move the cards in his hand to a slightly different orientation. He doesn't look up at Vic. "Vic. How long as humanity been in the Galaxy?"

"Uh, more than one hundred Earth years now?"

Pel nods. "Right. And in that time, how many planets did you destroy?"

Vic thinks for a moment and looks down at his pad. "On purpose, or by accident?"

"That's entirely his point, Vic!" Resi looks up at Vic while Pel fusses at his cards. "For the last hundred and something years, when something wild has happened in the galaxy, you go to the center and you find one or more humans, either cackling with laughter or covered in soot going 'I had no idea that was going to happen!' We're just used to it now." She frowns at the cards in her hand. "You usually clean up any messes you make, so go nuts, have fun. Tell us when it's over. Is this going to be like the 'Apple Pie' incident again?"

"Double Pinchole!" Pel throws down both jacks of diamonds and both queens of spades, triumphant "That's thirty points, and my win for this round.

Vic crosses his arms. "No, it won't be another Apple Pie. For one, I know more about your physiology, for two, HR has forbid me from the kitchen, and for three the captain says that it wasn't that big of a deal actually, and nobody was seriously hurt in the end."

Resi sighs and scoops up the cards, carefully arranging them and with her smaller than human hands very carefully shuffles them. Pel leans back and takes a sip of his tea, satisfied.

Vic stares at them, deflated. "Oh. Uh, okay then. I'll let you get back to your game. Who is winning?"

Resi snorts. "Pel currently, but the tournament is not over yet."

Pel leans back and makes a gesture like rolling their eyes. "It basically is."

Later that day, when the bulkhead doors slammed shut to prevent all the atmosphere from venting from the ten meter hole that appeared in the hull near Vic's workstation, Resimar wondered if she should have expressed more interest in what Vic was working on.

[personwhowrites]

Treasure

König x f!reader x Ghost, some f!reader x Price.

Slight intension of.. smut. MDNI!!!!

——————————————————————

His hazel eyes are locked onto you, following your every step and gesture with keen interest. They trail along the contours of your enchanting figure, lingering on your captivating face. He's completely absorbed, unable to get his fill. The reason behind his fascination is a mystery to him, but he's not bothered by it in the slightest.

"Ghost!" you exclaim, waving at him from across the field. "Hey!"

He simply nods and averts his gaze. A hint of disappointment creeps into your heart, preparing you to run towards him. Just as you're about to take off, a gentle hand grabs your arm.

"Y/n..." someone says, smiling. "Surprise!"

"König?" you say, a wide smile spreading across your face. "Oh my god! What are you doing here?"

You embrace him tightly, and he returns the hug, casting a glance towards Ghost. There's an intensity in his stare, a simmering tension. Ghost clenches his fists and curses under his breath. You're within his sights now, within his personal space... not König's.

"How have you been, mein Schatz?" König asks, holding your hand, your fingers intertwined. "Have you been good?"

"I should be asking you that..." you reply, a giggle escaping your lips. "But I have been. How was your three-month mission?"

Ghost watches with anger as König engages in conversation with you. He understands the meaning of "mein Schatz" - "my treasure." It infuriates him how oblivious you are to the endearment, how effortlessly you respond when König uses it. Do you not know its implications? Are you okay with being referred to that way? Lost in his thoughts, Ghost fails to notice you approaching with König. He only realizes you're there when you tug on his knife.

"Ghost?" you say softly, concern in your voice. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Ghost replies, his gaze shifting to König. "Was..."

"What?" König interjects, his glare now fixed on Ghost. "I'll talk to you later, Y/n. I need to catch up with Ghost."

"But I don't have to go anywhere?" you say, puzzled and unaware of the mounting tension. "I mean, I was hoping we could hang out and work on our sniper skills."

"Later, mein Schatz," König says softly to you. "I know Soap was looking for you."

You glance at the two men and bid them farewell before turning to leave. König's eyes darken as they meet Ghost's, an intense exchange of gazes. It's a sight to behold - a tall, menacing masked man locking eyes with another masked figure. It feels as though a confrontation is imminent.

"...You and Y/n seem to have gotten close while I was gone," König hisses, his gaze still fixed on you as you walk away. "How funny..."

"Funny?" Ghost retorts, his annoyance evident in his voice due to König's presence. "What are you doing here?"

"Easy now..." König responds, his eyes still on Ghost. "I outrank you."

Ghost remains silent, releasing a frustrated sigh. König moves to Ghost's left, leaning against the tires, creating a symbolic barrier. König always exploits his rank, using it to his advantage in any situation. It stirs Ghost's anger, knowing he can't say much without crossing a line, given König's tactic.

"Stay away from her," Ghost asserts, his attention now fixed on a pair of rookies training. "She's mine..."

"She isn't an object," König retorts, a hidden smirk beneath his mask. "She chooses who she wants to hang out with..."

"I never said she was an object," Ghost hisses, his response causing König to side-eye him. "She... she just needs to be with me."

"Why? Is it because she's replacing all the trauma you've endured?" König says, a sharpness in his tone, causing Ghost to snap his head towards him. "..Isn't that right, Simon?"

"You're one to talk... hiding your face because of some high school bullies," Ghost fires back, his fists colliding with the tire beside him. "You don't know anything about me."

"And you don't know anything about her," König replies, now focusing his gaze on Ghost. "...You know nothing. Not her favorite food, not her favorite animal and color..."

"Those are just minor details," Ghost asserts, standing tall. "I know her more than you think..."

Ghost storms off, determined to find you. König watches as Ghost departs, and then he, too, sets out to seek your presence.

"Soap?" you say, entering his room. "Hey, König said you were lo—"

You pause, noticing Price rummaging through Soap's belongings. Price freezes, his eyes meeting yours. He looks like a deer caught in headlights, clutching a letter in his hand. Glancing around the hallway, you swiftly close the door and turn your attention back to Price.

"...What are you doing?" you whisper-yell, a sense of urgency in your voice. "Price!"

"I don't have to explain myself," Price responds, locking eyes with you. "Why are you here?"

"König told me Soap was looking for me," you reply, snatching the letter from his grasp. "What is this?"

"Give it back," Price says urgently, attempting to reclaim the letter. "Y/n, I'm serious."

As you try to open the letter to read it, Price inches closer, attempting to grab it from your hands. Unbeknownst to both of you, Soap opens the door, causing you to stumble backward and fall gracefully. In the process, Price loses his balance and lands on top of you, with his face buried in your neck.

Soap's bewildered voice fills the room as he gazes at the unexpected scene, "What the hell... What were you two doing?"

Ghost swiftly helps Price up, and König takes the chance to lift you in his arms, carrying you protectively. You quickly hide the letter and glance at König. Meanwhile, Price clears his throat, seemingly embarrassed.

"I was looking for you," Price stammers, rubbing his hands together. "Seems like I found you."

Soap directs his attention to you, asking, "Y/n, why were you in my room?"

"König told me you were looking for me, so I came to see you," you reply as König sets you down. "I just didn't expect Price to be there."

"I wasn't looking for you," Soap says, giving König a questioning look.

You turn your head towards König, gasping dramatically, "You lied to me!" You exaggerate your disappointment and then turn to Ghost. "He lied! How could he?"

König nervously rubs his neck, unable to come up with an excuse this time. Ghost smirks under his mask, glad that König has finally been caught in a lie. Price grabs your arm, shooting you a glare.

"My office now," Price orders, leading you away. "You three can talk to her later."

You don't have a chance to bid farewell to the others as Price pushes through the crowd, making a beeline for his office. Once inside, he snatches the letter from your pocket, leaving you confused and sighing.

"What's the letter about?" you ask, amused by Price's behavior. "Is it some sort of love letter?"

"No... uh, it's just..." Price stumbles over his words, rubbing his eyes. "Nothing, you're dismissed."

"Whatever you say, Captain!" you respond with a chuckle before leaving Price's office. As you step out, you accidentally bump into Ghost, who swiftly grabs hold of you. "Not even a 'what happened'? How rude."

Ghost scans the area and notices König approaching. He starts walking with you, drawing attention from onlookers. While Ghost remains unaware, you can't help but notice. Your hands are intertwined, fingers touching and entwining with each other. A warm sensation spreads through your heart as you gaze at your joined hands. It feels like König's touch, yet somehow even better. Eventually, you come to a stop and realize you're in Ghost's room.

"Don't choose him," Ghost pleads, looking at you with desperation in his eyes. "Please..."

"What?" you reply, growing more confused. "Wait, don't choose who?"

"König... you... and him... please," Ghost says, removing his mask. "Choose me..."

"Ghost, I..." you begin to speak but pause, captivated by his face. "Ghost..."

Even in the simulated room, his eyes seem to shimmer. You watch as he gently places his hands on your face, his thumbs tenderly stroking your cheeks. Your face warms up as he leans closer.

"...Choose me... please," Ghost whispers, his voice soft as honey. "...Choose me... over König..."

You remain silent, caught in the moment, when suddenly the door opens, and König pulls you away from Ghost. König glares at Ghost, and you shift your gaze to König as he removes his own mask. The tension is palpable. Ghost reaches out, grabbing your hand and trying to pull you towards him.

"Choose me," König repeats, echoing much of what Ghost said. "You have to... mein Schatz..."

"Guys... uh..." you stammer, trying to extricate yourself from their grasp. "I don't know what's happening. Why do I have to choose between my friends?"

"Friends?" they both say simultaneously.

"I mean, we are friends, right?" you inquire, utterly clueless. "Right?"

"Y/n, I love you," König declares, clutching your right hand. "...I love you, mein Schatz..."

"Y/n," Ghost's voice trembles with vulnerability as he takes hold of your right hand, his eyes filled with sincerity. "I can't keep it inside any longer. I love you... beyond the boundaries of friendship, beyond any words I can find. You mean everything to me. You're the moon that casts its gentle glow upon my darkest nights, and the sun that brightens my every day."

Stunned into silence, your mind races to make sense of the situation. Love? Is it possible that these two incredibly attractive men hold such deep affection for you? How and why did this come to be? Did you unknowingly impact their lives in some profound way, or is this an elaborate joke designed to mock your emotions?

"Wait, wait... what?" you stammer, your mind racing to comprehend the situation. "You two... love me?"

"Yes," Ghost replies, looking deeply into your eyes. "Pick one of us, so we don't have to keep suffering."

"It doesn't matter who you pick... we just want you to please pick," König adds, his gaze soft yet intense. "We can't keep pretending to hide our feelings for you."

Feeling overwhelmed, you take a moment to collect your thoughts. "Listen... you guys are both incredible," you say, trying to find the right words. "Any girl would be lucky to have either of you."

"But... I can't pick," you finally admit, your heart aching at the thought of hurting either of them. "I'm sorry... I hope we can still be friends and maybe..."

Before you can finish your sentence, Ghost's lips gently meet yours in a passionate kiss, taking you by surprise. The intensity of the moment sends shivers down your spine, and your eyes widen in shock. Just as you start to process what's happening, König leans in and captures your lips in another tender kiss, leaving you breathless.

The emotions swirling inside you are a whirlwind—confusion, desire, and affection all tangled together. You feel the softness of their lips, the warmth of their embrace, and the sincerity of their affections.

Finally pulling away, they both gaze at you with a mix of hope and uncertainty. Your cheeks flush red and you take a moment to catch your breath, trying to make sense of the whirlwind of feelings that now consume you.

But before you can utter another word, they nod to each other with a silent understanding. Ghost reaches out and switches off the lights, enveloping the room in darkness.

In the darkness, the sensations intensify, every touch by them makes your body burn with passion. Ghost's lips meet with yours, his kiss desperate with a passionate. The taste of him, mingled with a hint of urgency, lingers on your tongue, leaving you yearning for more.

As Ghost pulls away, König steps forward, his hands finding their way to your waist, pulling you closer to him. His kiss is a tender exploration, a delicate fight of lips and tongues that speaks volumes of his adoration. You can feel the softness of his mouth, the gentle pressure of his embrace, as he deepens the kiss, his desire mingling with yours.

The room becomes an intimate sanctuary, the darkness providing a cloak of intimacy that allows you to fully immerse yourself in the moment. Time loses all meaning as their kisses become an intricate symphony, a passionate exchange that transcends words and captivates your senses.

With each kiss, the intensity builds, the longing and desire intertwining with every brush of their lips against yours. The taste of Ghost and König becomes an intoxicating elixir, their essence seeping into your very being, leaving an indelible mark upon your soul.

Their hands continue their exploration, tracing trails of warmth along your body, leaving a trail of goosebumps. Every touch, every caress, is a testament to their love, their desire to please and ignite the same fervor within you. They take turns kissing your tender skin, slowly removing a piece of clothing, gently whispering sweet words into your ears.

“..Be good for us..” König mumbles while gently kissing your neck. “..be a good.. girl..”

“You will be good for us.. won’t you.. mien Schatz?” Ghost hums in your ear while pulling you to the bed. “Right..?”

Your face burns up as you feel their hands trail all over your body. The darkness.. being your friend that long.. long afternoon.

[fantastic-nonsense]

Wasn’t it Alfred who’d made Damian Robin in Battle for the Cowl? Dick must have agreed after the fact, but Alfred was the one who set it in motion.

Nominally yes, in the sense that Alfred is the person who first put the cape in Damian's hands:

"You can't keep me here." "I'll do no such thing. But understand that you've been injured. Severely so." ......."What the hell are you pulling here, Al?" "It's time to earn your keep. If you're up for it." "So long as I'm not wasting any more time in here, whatever." -Battle for the Cowl #3

However, the reality is "not really." Three things to note about this:

One: no one in the story who actually knows what Damian's gotten up to while Dick was tracking down Tim and fighting Jason actually treats Damian as Robin. For the purposes of the narrative and everyone in it, Tim is still Robin, as Squire points out:

"I'm sure Nightwing could use a hand finding Robin. This way, then." -Battle for the Cowl #3

We don't really see anyone else's reaction to Damian wearing the cape in BftC. Even when Damian saves Tim while wearing the symbol, Tim has no actual reaction besides a single exclamation of Damian's name, and he seems more bewildered that Damian is there at all than he is about Damian wearing the Robin tunic. But the people we do see? Don't treat him as Robin. They treat him as an ally who happens to be wearing the Robin tunic for convenience.

Two: within the bounds of BftC, Damian is explicitly framed as being "Dick's responsibility" with Bruce gone. After Jason shoots Damian, Dick has the same conversation with Alfred that Bruce often did whenever one of his Robins was hurt, framed in a way that made it obvious where things were heading:

"Damian...this child...I could have gotten him killed tonight. I have a responsibility to him now. I let him down, Alfred." "Bruce also said the same of you...and Master Timothy, many times over the years." "And of Jason Todd." "Him as well." -Battle for the Cowl #2

Dick has already implicitly accepted Damian as his Robin at this point. And though Dick and Tim have not explicitly discussed it (as we see via their argument in Red Robin #1), it was also fairly clear that Tim would not be Dick's Robin based on how Dick thought of Tim by that point (as his brother, as his equal, as someone who should not be taking orders from him full-time). Tim had already spent time as the Robin to Dick's Batman back in Prodigal, and both boys had come a long way since then. Once Dick decided to take up the cowl at the end of BftC #2, it was inevitable that Damian would be his Robin rather than Tim (for a whole host of reasons I won't get into here). Alfred just hastened that inevitability.

Three: simply wearing the cape does not make you Robin. You are Robin if and only if two things happen: you have been explicitly accepted by Batman as his partner and Dick Grayson has given his blessing. You are a potential Robin. You are an ally wearing a Robin costume. But you are not Robin until those things happen.

Tim was not Robin in A Lonely Place of Dying even though he stole the costume with Alfred's help to save Bruce and Dick. Tim did not become Robin until after both Bruce and Dick had accepted him as such and he went through a training period (he was known as "Little Bat" until then, btw). The same is true of Damian, who wore the Robin tunic at least three times prior to actually becoming Robin (Bruce briefly took him out while wearing it in Batman and Son and he famously wore it during the events of Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul); he was no more Robin then than he was in BtfC.

The costume isn't what makes you Robin. Batman saying you're Robin and Dick giving the blessing of his parents' legacy to you makes you Robin (which. I will freely admit that's a loaded, complicated topic given the history of how the Robin mantle has been passed down over the years. but it generally holds true). Damian properly becoming Robin after BftC was clearly Dick's choice; Alfred can't "make" anyone Robin if Batman doesn't agree.

The core conceptual problem with Battle for the Cowl (well. there's about 5000 problems with BtfC. but you know what I mean) is that it tries to deal with about fifty different things at once, most of which all ordinarily would have gotten their own dedicated space across multiple books or tie-in comics to deal with. Instead, all of these things are smushed into a single massive threeshot event comic with awful characterization and a near-incomprehensible chain of events. In a perfect world, we would have gotten the same kind of build-up and transition between Tim and Damian that we did in the 90s when Tim became Robin after Jason's death. Unfortunately that's not what we got, so we're left to fill in the gaps ourselves.

But textually, Alfred did not make Damian Robin. Alfred handed an ally to the cause a Robin tunic during a crisis specifically for the purpose of rescuing Robin. After that crisis was over, Batman chose to make that same ally his Robin for reasons entirely unrelated to his wearing the symbol during that specific crisis. Dick chose Damian to be his Robin, and that choice should not be looked over just because removing it conveniently lifts some of the hurt feelings and messiness of that transition off of Dick's shoulders.

Dick handled his own legacy, as he should have. And while he did not handle it with as much communication and grace as he should have or probably would have liked to, it was his mantle and legacy to handle at the end of the day. For once, he had complete agency over choosing a successor to his heroing legacy (and his parents' legacy), not Bruce or Alfred or anyone who self-appointed themselves as a successor, and we should acknowledge and respect that.

He didn't pick Damian because Alfred unilaterally gave him a battlefield promotion; he picked Damian because he thought Tim was grown and independent enough to thrive without taking his orders every day and believed Damian needed his direct oversight and the growth opportunity being Robin would provide more than Tim did. Allow Dick the dignity of his choices instead of acting like he had no input or say in the matter of who his Robin was going to be.

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: I should make a fucking...(food) web of connected concepts with panels that connect them...

I love how Kabru is just part of this friend group, now. He invited himself and no one's questioning it. Laios invited him to lunch later, and that counts.

.

I love how everyone is varying levels of "oh fuck" until we get to The Current Party, where it's:

Senshi: thinking intently, a little grimly, about how he could butcher and cook this

Marcille: a dash of 'oh fuck', but also sad, in the way of watching a friend slide down a slippery slope

Chilchuck: incredible dad energy on this line, honestly.

.

don't you give my son orders, you piece of shit. you aren't worthy of being lord of anything. you protect nothing, wish to help no one, except your own desires. (The Demon never should've been alive at all. It's not suited to it.)

.

This is gonna look sooo cool animated in color.

.

I might actually be more offended by the demon wearing Kensuke like normal than by the whole wearing of Laios's body? It's so symbolic.

.

I want to know how the ancients achieved that - binding the demon such that, while underground, it could only warp reality in service to a living being's desires. Though really, that seems to be how it's always operated - the only desire it ever expressed for itself was to eat the desires of others. Otherwise, it's only shown fulfilling wishes, before it's locked in the dungeon as well as after.

But I wonder if having a physical form gives it the ability to want more? Does it hunger and third and want to rest, now? DOes it really feel a yearning not just for the completion of its plan, but for the open sky and sight of the world which it hasn't seen in so long?

.

Needless to say, we love a visual parallel.

.

yep, this sure is the Eating Each Other Cyclically chapter! (This is the Eating Each Other Cyclically story, actually. It's called the ecosystem!)

.

oh I hate this actually. It's scary in a real way. I do not like being forced to acknowledge that Chilchuck is much, much smaller, weaker and more fragile than Laios. I do not like seeing him curled up and helpless and unable to ever reconnect with his family.

.

Freak cubed! Actually, how many times has it gone back and forth, now...?

the lion swallowed all of them

Laios ate hte lion in order to swap bodies (ish)

honestly I feel like the demon being counts as eating him in turn. Making Laios's body part of itself, you know? That's eating.

(monster!)Laios ate demon(!Laios)

demon(!Laios) is now eating (monster!)Laios

...so, Freak^5

.

The parallel to Marcille snapping at Laios to drop the plant seeds in Chapter 2... Love how every now and then people resort to yelling at this man like he's a dog. Truly, he is a beagle of all time (eats Things) ('Things' is an unlimited category of which the details are best left unknown)

.

THIS IS IT, BITCHES! THESIS TIME!! I'M GONNA USE "IF AND ONLY IF LIKE IT'S A GODDAMN MATHEMATICAL PROOF, BECAUSE THAT'S HOW THIS HAS BEEN PRESENTED THROUGHOUT!

LIVING IFF EATING IFF HUNGERING IFF WANTING.

TO DO ONE IS TO DO THEM ALL, FOR EVERY ENTITY IN EXISTENCE: EVERY RACE, EVERY CREATURE.

LIVING AND DYING, EATING AND KILLING AND BEING KILLED AND BEING EATEN, ARE ALL SIDES OF THE SAME COIN. YOU WILL DO BOTH.

IT'S CALLED THE ECOSYSTEM.

And it applies to social structures as well as biomes btw.

YOU WILL ALWAYS EAT, AND THEN YOU WILL ALWAYS HUNGER FOR THE NEXT MEAL. BECAUSE YOU ARE STILL ALIVE.

Which is why hunger(/living) is poisonous to this infinite being, btw: the cycle is infinite, sure, but specifically because any single creature within the cycle is finite. To exist as part of the cycle, the world, breaks the infinite being, even as the infinite being inevitably destroys the world.)

But most of all:

EATING (IFF BEING EATEN IFF LIVING IFF WANTING) IFF UNDERSTANDING IFF BEING CONNECTED/BEING PART OF

THE FUNDAMENTAL [DESIRE/HUNGER/LIFE EXPERIENCE/CONNECTION/SHARED UNDERSTANDING] OF BEING ALIVE IN THIS WORLD IS [EATING/LIVING/DYING/KILLING/WANTING/HUNGERING/BEING CONNECTED/UNDERSTANDING OTHERS/BEING UNDERSTOOD/WANTING TO BE UNDERSTOOD/WANTING TO UNDERSTAND/WANTING TO BE CONNECTED]

...WHICH DOES ALSO INCLUDE (MONSTERFUCKER) VORE

(This is the fucking...Theseus wrestling the Minotaur statue...of this world... People are going to make this statue of King Laios Eating the Demon... It's going to be in museums...and in the palace... The true curse here is that Marcille is going to have to see versions of this motif for her entire excruciatingly long life...)

[drenched-in-sunlight]

Hi there! I wanted to say your art is absolutely incredible and always brings me back to Elden Ring when I forget just how amazing the game is. I live for your depictions of Marika.🥹

I was partly just curious after you posted the recent family tree, is there a reaspn Ranni and Radahn don't make as much of an appearance in your drawings? What is your thoughts on their questline/storyline in general?

Thanks for all the cool art, you're getting better with every piece!!

tbh... i think draw Ranni a lot, she's literally the cover of my first fromsoft fanbook 🥲🥲

though most of my art of her is from 2 years ago, i wouldn't say i don't draw her often at all 😭 i've drawn Radahn 4-5 times too. i understand because i draw too much, it's easy to have an impression that i draw some specific characters less, but compared to, say, the Omen Twins or Rykard or Melina (who i keep meaning to draw but haven't got around to do so yet), Radahn and Ranni are two Carian characters i draw the most of that side of the family (well, Rellana is looking to dethrone them soon but you get what i mean aksfkjdfkj)

Radahn dudebro fans keep pointing fingers saying i hate him but i actually like him. as a guyfailure that is so obsessed with these symbols of a Lord in his father and Godfrey, yet failed to live up to any of them (*stare at that scene of Morgott whooping his ass*). his involvement in the DLC is an interesting spin on things to me, and make a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things (when i saw that we found like... 11 Miquella's Lily in places most personal to Radahn like Carian Manor and Sellia. hoo boy).

lately, i lowkey think Radagon specifically picked him for Miquella and encouraged his obsession with being a Lord. to me at least Radagon is really bitter that Godfrey is the First Lord and not him (her actual other's half! sentenced to live away from her while another man got to be her first in everything! the injustice!), so him not only discrediting Godfrey's descendants (whole thing with Hunters of TWLiD) but also preparing a whole new pair of Lord and God that should have been how he and Marika could have been from the start sounds like the kind of overcompensation he'd be doing (look honey that could be us but you tripping).

so in a way i do feel for Radahan and Miquella falling victims to Radagon's list of issues (though it's only one reason in many other reasons for them to turn out that way ofc. Radagon merely nudges the pieces into certain direction, they go barreling head first down on their own). and i actually like that i could come up with all that thanks to the DLC. imo it actually adds a lot more to Radahn and Miquella's character (depends on how you view the story though whoops).

you can say i like him (and Miq) the way one likes AC6 Iguazu... or Genichiro. the kind of hater characters that are doomed to fail from the start, but they are stubborn and will run head first into the wall again and again. and it's fun to put them in a jar and shake them.

Ranni... after the DLC my feeling for her is a bit more complicated. before i get why she did all those things and i like her story enough, but after the DLC as you see i come to really like Godwyn and links him closely to Marika. so now it's kinda awkward for me to insert Ranni in all the scenarios im drawing lately?

it's not that i stop liking her, it's simply that the scenario doesn't line up for me to add her in that's all. and it goes to other characters i haven't drawn tbh. not because i don't like them, i simply don't have anything in my brain about them to draw out. i don't think there's any characters in Elden Ring i hate tbh (yes i do like even the Hornsents. i find the stories in the scorpion stew and dried flower talisman really somber and give them a lot of humanity too, fucked up rituals aside).

and thank you for your kind words! my editor has been on my ass for a whole year about my art and it does help me improve a lot, im glad to know it shows in the quality of my fanarts as well!

[snakes-and-fluff]

Contemplating when blood is explictly shown in Milgram MVs and for what purpose. (Plenty of shots of blood and bloodied people below the cut)

Both of Muu's songs show a pretty clear-cut image of the murder, blood and all.

But it's interesting to note that, while Muu does show realistic blood in both MVs, in After Pain it's only for a single shot: most of the shots of Rei's body have her covered in a neon green liquid instead - the same liquid inside the hourglass. But in It's Not My Fault, while the hourglass does return, it's not used as a stand-in for blood this time, only showing realistic shots of blood at the scene.

Realistic blood is again shown in The Purge March and although this whole scene is metaphorical, it is highly likely that this is what the state of the actual weapon would have been.

Some of the blood in MeMe appears to be representative of real events (though the circumstances around the murder are still so vague I can't say for sure), but some of it is clearly over-exaggerated for dramatic effect and not a representation what literally happened.

Sometimes blood is purely symbolic, like in Cat (in addition it is coloured pitch-black, even on Hinako's face when the lighting should make it appear brighter).

Similar to the above, the blood in Bring It On is symbolic of Fuuta's guilt, but is portrayed with more realistic colouration.

Then you have Haruka's weird midground, where he has blood in both his MVs, and both are heavily stylized (albeit in different ways). If the shot at the end of All-Knowing and All-Agony is any indication, he strangled his victim which should have been a bloodless death, but he has engaged in literal bloody activity before (killing pets), so his blood appears to be both metaphorical and literal.

At the end of Deep Cover, Kotoko stands covered in neon pink blood, chess pieces representing the other prisoners scattered about her feet. But the only pieces that are shown are those voted Innocent in T1 - those she has not yet attacked. So the blood here is not representative of any particular event, but rather her intentions.

But if that's the case, what does that say for Double, which portrays John standing in a train, dripping with blood the wrong colour as he attacks mannequins? Is this merely a mental block he has because he cannot clearly remember the events? Or, like Kotoko's similar theming above, is it purely metaphorical, indicating his emotions rather than his actions?

Then we get to Milgram Enigma Number 1, Mahiru. I Love You undoubtedly shows realistic blood, but whether it is literal or not is left very unclear. If the only bloodstain present was the one on his torso I'd be more inclined to believe it was truly all a metaphor; a betrayed or bleeding heart. But that doesn't explain the stain on the sleeve. And of course, it begs the question: if it is metaphorical, what is it representing? Fuuta showed guilt by recoiling at the blood on his hands, and Kazui showed remorse and how he feels like a monster by tearing a dove apart. But we don't see Mahiru cause this wound, nor does she react to it. As of right now I don't understand enough about Mahiru to form a concrete conclusion but if the trend in the other MVs is anything to go by, I'm afraid that these bloodstains might be more literal than I want to believe.

Interesting to note that Fuuta is the only character to show blood in his T1 MV but not the second, and both Yuno and Shidou show no blood in either MV (ironically enough for Shidou, as things like rotting fruit have to take the place of organs and blood instead)

[galadrieljones]

Chartreuse, P.A.D.R.E., The World Beyond coda, and some other potentially wild connections to Daryl Dixon season 2 (Team Delusional)

Hello friends. This post contains spoilers pertaining to recent script leaks, outlined in this helpful post by @bookqueenrules. If you don't want to know anything about these leaks, you can read this post all the way until I post a WARNING. At that point, you should stop!!

Anyway, here we go. Let's look at the shot above.

When I saw this shot in the DD2 trailer, I paused for several reasons. First of all, and most obviously, I saw the Mona Lisa, which is housed at the Louvre. Recall this shot from season 1, which draws a visual connection between the Mona Lisa (shot in the left side of the forehead) and Beth. Daryl literally stops to look at her, as if he is seeing exactly what we are seeing.

Now, the second big thing I noticed in that shot from the trailer, and what I want to talk about today, were several bottles of some sort of green liquid...

These are definitely bottles of CHARTREUSE.

Chartreuse is a unique French liqueur made of alcohol infused with 130 different herbs, flowers, and plants, and which always appears to be either bright green or yellow. Of course, the color green is always interesting to TDers when it is used out of context (ie: on things that are not usually green). It reminded me of two other important out-of-context examples of green in TWDU: the green chlorine gas from The World Beyond and The Ones Who Live, as well as the green corrosive substance which causes Amanda's death in the Tales episode "Davon."

The thing is, while it seems out of context here, it's really not. Chartreuse is supposed to be green. Very green. As far as alcohols go, it, just like moonshine, has quite a bit of symbolic significance pertaining to what's going on in TWDU...

A Quick History of Chartreuse

Chartreuse has many imitators, but much like French Champagne, there is only one real Chartreuse. Real Chartreuse is very expensive because it is in limited supply, literally produced by Carthusian monks near Paris. It is named for a monastery in the Chartreuse Mountains near Grenoble, France. It began with an alchemical recipe in 1605, presented to the Carthusian monks in the monastery outside of Paris by French King Henry IV, called an "elixir of long life." Over 120 years later, it was enhanced by a monk named Brother Gerome Maubec, and over the next 60 years became quite popular in France.

Anyway, during the French Revolution in 1793, the Carthusian monks were exiled from France. They took refuge in Spain until 1816 during Napoleon's reign, when they returned to France and continued to hone and develop their "elixir of long life." But in 1903, they were exiled again, their distillery confiscated by the French government, and they returned to Spain, specifically a city in Catalonia named Tarragona where the French monks would remain, distilling the only authentic Chartreuse in the world, until they were finally invited back to France after World War II.

Parallels to French History in DD season 1

Okay, why is any of this important? To answer this question, we need to return to the World Beyond season 2 coda, but first, we should recall the events of Daryl Dixon season 1. In season 1, Daryl is taken in by Catholic nuns in an abbey near Marseille. He befriends a nun who implores him to embark on a journey to Le Havre, a place called the Nest, where he will deliver Laurent, a "sacred" boy whose "power" we don't really understand. When they finally arrive at the Nest with Laurent, we meet Losang, who is, in fact, a monk, and who has just come from Spain. Losang is not just a monk, and he wasn't always a monk. Though we know little about his past, we do know that he is originally American, and that he came to Paris to study before the fall.

In season 1, we also meet Genet whose movement The Power of the Living (or Pouvoir des Vivants) espouses strong French Revolutionary vibes. She wishes to return the power to the people in France, implying that in order to do this, the people must rise up to "usurp" said power from somebody else. We don't know for sure who Genet's true enemies are, but it does seem that Genet's enemies have some relationship to Losang, The Union of Hope, the Nest, and the USA, hence her relentless hunt for Daryl and Laurent and her impending assault on the Nest. She even shouts "Vive le France!" during the arena fight at the end of season 1, an exclamation associated with the Storming of the Bastille in 1789.

Losang's faction the Union of Hope is described in season 1 as a movement that unites all religions and all people. While it is helmed at the Nest in Le Havre, it knows no borders. We meet several sub-factions in France, including Lou's group of "Lost Boys" as well as Fallou's people in Paris. We also get some sense that there are arms of the faction in Spain, as Isabelle mentions a spaniard on the radio, and Losang has come from a pilgrimage in Spain, one that @frangipanilove has written about brilliantly. Read here.

The World Beyond: The Science of Wildfire

Let's return now to the World Beyond coda. In the coda, we meet a nameless French scientist who downloads the contents of several hard drives onto her laptop at what appears to be an old bioresearch laboratory, somewhere in France. One of the hard drives contains several folders of interest, including one titled "TB Ellis Papiers" and another titled "Slingerland," which is currently still a mystery, though very interesting, as it is the name of a prominent American musical instrument manufacturing company from the mid-to-late 20th century, which mainly manufactured drum kits and guitars. (If anybody has their own theories on Slingerland, let me know, as it's an obsession for me lol).

The French scientist proceeds to watch a video of correspondence from Dr. Jenner from season 1, who discusses at length many scientific angles on producing or addressing a cure or some sort of treatment or mitigation factor for the Wildfire virus.

As she is watching, an assassin enters with a gun and asks if she is on the "Primrose Team." She corrects him to say that she is on the "Violet Team," and that the Primrose Team was in Toledo, Ohio at the time of the fall. The Teams, as we can gather, are groups of scientists, possibly dispersed internationally, who developed the Wildfire virus and, in their efforts to curb its effects, the French teams specifically, created deadly variants, which, according to Jenner in the video, are not endemic to the US. We believe that the Jenners were members of the Violet Team, given their correspondence with the French scientist on the Violet Team and the fact that Jenner's computer assistant is named "Violet." Of course, that's just speculation...

The assassin in question seems to be unaware of the details of what's gone on with the French teams and is only carrying out assassinations on his leader's behalf. He mentions that they are no longer simply jailing the scientists. They're killing them. His faction, which I believe is the Power of the Living, blames the scientists for causing the Wildfire spread, and also for "making it worse." He shoots the scientist in the head and leaves, at which point, even despite the headshot, she turns into a walker and runs violently toward the door.

In this interaction, we learn that at some point in the first ten years after the fall, a major faction (likely the Power of the Living) began hunting the scientists responsible for the Wildfire virus, jailing, and killing them. Some of the scientists were in America at the time, in Ohio, and we think that some of them are still there, and that they possibly attempted to migrate down to the CDC in Georgia at the beginning of the outbreak. The reason for this is that there are variants of "smart" walkers which seem to exist *only* in Ohio and Georgia and *not* in Virginia. In seasons 1-4 and 11 only, we run into walkers who can run, climb, and use tools. Some even have keepsakes, such as the very first walker we see in "Days Gone Bye." She reaches for her stuffed bear, which implies some semblance of "memory" hanging on from her old life.

Mainly these walkers are encountered in Atlanta and later at the Commonwealth. Since Jenner verifies in his video that he hasn't seen any evidence of variants at the American CDC, this suggests that the variants arrived in Georgia at some point in the first three weeks of the outbreak, or before Rick enters Atlanta for the first time.

Anyway, given that we meet one of the scientist in the WB coda, this suggests that there are more in existence, but that they've simply left France. She came back to see if the Primrose team might be there, after all this time. She was wrong, but this scene has given us many massive clues. This is where the folklore of Chartreuse becomes very interesting.

When the Carthusian monks, or the makers of the "elixir of long life" were kicked out of France, BOTH times they went to Spain.

In Spain, they continued their operation until the French were so threatened by it, they finally invited them back after WWII. Given all the WWII callbacks we get in DD season 1, including the revelation that Daryl's grandfather died on the beaches of Normandy, it may be that we are currently entering into a "proxy" situation, in which Daryl fights alongside his allies in France to defeat an existential threat. Only this time, unlike his grandfather, he will survive, and he will live to see his home and his loved ones again, and soon, the "cure" or science which could mitigate the Wildfire virus, could return to France.

The "elixir of long life," aka Chartreuse, could be a compelling historic and symbolic proxy for the Wildfire virus, which I have speculated, based on its regenerative effects in walkers (ie: slowing down their rate of decay, a scientific process that is discussed in World Beyond, but which is not well understood) could have started as a cure for death or the aging process, or a way to heal and regenerate mortal wounds. A literal fountain of youth. The holy grail. A true "elixir of long life." Unfortunately, it was leaked and allowed to infect humans en masse before it was adjusted beyond its most destructive phases. This is just a theory, mind you. It's just based on a hunch.

Either way, remember that the holy grail, which is determined to be "holy blood," is the object of an intense search in the book and film The DaVinci Code, which has been cited multiple times in relation to the lore of TWD, particular TD theories, and which was the inspiration for the TV show DaVinci's Demons, which Scott Gimple wrote for prior to his work with TWD.

Like the Carthusian monks, the scientific teams in France were hunted, jailed, and exiled by a revolutionary cause and took their science with them. If this comparison is intentional or holds any water, it creates a very likely scenario for why season 3 will take place in Spain. If Genet is behind the exile, then this would also explain why Genet is so intent on attacking the Nest and neutralizing Losang and his forces. She wants the scientists dead and out of France.

What are Losang's Motivations?

Returning to Losang, my fellow theorists and several other TDers are suspicious of Losang after his motivations come into question in the ten minute preview currently available on AMC+. Losang is hesitant to attack Genet even though she has taken several of his people as prisoners. He is also critical of Daryl's attempts to teach Laurent self-defense. Why would that be? He says that it is unhealthy to expose Laurent to so much violence, but he says this knowing that Laurent traveled all the way to the Nest with Daryl and Isabelle, and was almost killed multiple times, that he already had to kill a walker to save Isabelle's life, and that said walker was his own biological father. In what way will teaching him to protect himself in a dangerous world keep him from experiencing the same trauma that he's already experienced?

One reason could be to keep Laurent as helpless as possible, ignorant, focused only on the intellectual and the spiritual, not the physical. It could, of course, be innocent but we believe Losang may have ulterior motives or plans for Laurent, who was born to a walker. The speculation that Laurent may have inherited some sort of immunity to the Wildfire virus has been rampant in the fandom, prompting many to make comparisons to Ellie in The Last of Us. Within TWDU, Laurent having any sort of immunity would make him very valuable to cure research and very interesting in terms of deepening the Wildfire origins lore.

If Losang, as an American, was in Paris to "study" at the time of the fall, it is likely he was at one of two major research universities in the region: the Sorbonne or the Pasteur Institute, the latter being at the forefront of vaccine technology in the modern world. While, of course, we don't know for sure, and we could always be wrong, the notion that he could be a scientist or medical/research doctor is not unfounded. Eastman, a good character proxy for Losang, and who counsels Morgan in the season 6 episode "Here's Not Here," found a similar spiritual awakening in the Eastern philosophy of Aikido after the fall. Eastman was a psychiatrist in his previous life.

I also believe that, logically, it is time for Daryl Dixon to follow through on the connection to the World Beyond coda, considering the fact that Scott Gimple verified a connection between the two some time ago. The set-up with Losang, a highly intelligent leader and "pilgrim," reformed monk who has just come from Spain despite being an American with an academic past, would be the perfect opportunity for the writers to draw a strong connection between two major themes in TWDU, which have been percolating for a while: science and faith.

Child Abduction, the Nest, and P.A.D.R.E. (***Major Spoilers Ahead***)

This is where you should stop reading if you don't want spoilers!

Something my fellow theorists and I have started kicking around, in the wake of a recent script leak, which is apparently the final moments of the final episode of season 2, is the possibility that Laurent will be abducted, or that he'll be lured away from the Nest by someone he trusts, perhaps Losang.

Note that the leaked script implies that, by the end of season 2, Isabelle has apparently died. Laurent is also not present in the final scene. I do not believe the writers will kill off Laurent, but that instead, they'll use him to broaden the scope of the world (and to soften the hearts of both Daryl AND Carol). I also don't believe that Daryl would leave Laurent behind in France with Isabelle dead, or that Laurent would want to be without Daryl, given all they've been through and their attachment to one another. In the trailer, we hear that Daryl and Isabelle have begun to discuss taking Laurent back to America. After the war in France, if Isabelle is gone, it might be that Laurent will still want to go back with Daryl and Carol. But since we don't see him in the final scene re: the leaked script pages, and we haven't heard anything about him in Spain, could it be that, when Daryl and Carol return to the Nest to retrieve him (in a coda, perhaps) he's just gone?

Let's talk about child abductions and missing children in TWDU. While the notion of child abduction starts with Jocelyn in "Scars," it comes to a head in Fear, seasons 7-8, in which we learn that children are being abducted by mysterious "snatchers" and taken to a highly secretive place called P.A.D.R.E., where they are trained to fight, essentially, a walker war. P.A.D.R.E. began as a US Military operation, designed by politicians, military personal, and other experts to maintain sustainability after the fall of civilization due to the Wildfire virus; however, for reasons I don't have time to get into, it turns into something else completely. The children at P.A.D.R.E. are all given BIRD NAMES, ie: Finch, Dove, Wren, etc. Madison Clark, who turns up alive in season 7, is nicknamed Lark, and she starts her journey toward redemption as one of the "snatchers" who steals "eggs" or babies and children from "unfit" parents and returns them to the safety of P.A.D.R.E..

This is very interesting. Let's consider the terminology, which greatly revolves around BIRDS. Children who are good prospects for "snatching" are called "eggs," and where might eggs be stolen from?

A NEST.

The children are then nicknamed after birds and taken to P.A.D.R.E.. "Padre" is a SPANISH word. It means priest or father.

So we have bird eggs being snatched from their nest, taken to a place with a Spanish name related to themes and inventory of Catholicism. Is it possible that P.A.D.R.E. was foreshadowing for the events of Daryl Dixon? Is this why the writers chose bird names for P.A.D.R.E.'s wards?

This is also where we might consider Beth coming in, because Beth's main job when she was with Team Family was taking care of Judith and the children. When they escape the prison, she survives because she leaves the bus to go searching for the children. In "Inmates," she leads Daryl on a search for missing children, which ends badly.

Beth also has a bird cage in her cell in "30 Days Without an Accident."

Is Beth in Spain? Will Laurent be taken there? Is this where the French scientists are hiding out, continuing to develop their "elixir of long life" in secret? Some sort of "Spanish Slabtown?" Are they conducting research on children who are "special," people who have "immunity?" Was Beth part of something bigger than we realize? Bigger, even, than the CRM? Something that spanned international borders? Something related to the origins of and cure for Wildfire?

For a very long time, the season 5 templates have lead us to believe that Daryl and Carol will leave together to search for Beth, but what if they're searching for Laurent, and they find Beth by mistake? OR, what if, while they're searching for Laurent, Beth finds THEM? In any case, it's very important that Carol be there for it, as she is the only other living person who we know of that has been inside of Grady and might have memory of what went on there.

Only time will tell. For now, it's fun to speculate...

💫

[tonydaddingham]

take me up / cast me away

so this is going to be a veritable word vomit but this is actually so exciting to me; we obviously affiliate aziraphale with the flaming sword and both its biblical and GO narrative implications, but the catch that @frog-person made on this particular shot has got every synapse firing.

(and therefore this is a meta for @frog-person and them only, mwah✨💕)

not only is the sword going through their hands, but it's one sword of many in a particularly fiendish magic trick (or at least an earlier version of one made popular by the morettis in the 70s), and the box itself with all of its swords is relatively prominent in most of the scene, as background props go (more on this later).

now, i don't know enough about magic tricks or illusions to understand the significance that this aspect may have, if any - possibly the element of trust, sure, but also the sheer ability to hoodwink the audience into accepting that there is no way that whatever is inside could possibly survive such a trick. however, i simply want to just talk about the sword in general.

let's start with connotations and symbolism behind the image of the sword. first of all, it's a phallic symbol and is largely used in the context of knighthood, chivalry, and sovereignty. it symbolises justice, and truth, and righteous and merciful power. to hold the meter of life and death in your hands, and to be trusted to use it in conscience and clemency.

in alchemy, the sword was shown as a symbol of purification, between life and death. similar connotations in other histories, literature, and customs read the sword as being the key to balance between truth and enlightenment. later into history, especially in the middle ages, swords of discernible quality were understandably resource-intensive to make and therefore came to symbolise wealth, but moreso in the context of strength and glory, and further then a symbol of protection and shelter. traditionally, oaths and pledges would be made to the sword (literally, sworn-sword), and in turn swords were - and continue to be - used to elevate you to a higher station (eg. use of a knighting sword).

the imagery of the sword in the box is evocative of the sword excalibur, probably one of the most famous swords in literature and legend. cliff notes: excalibur was the believed magical sword of king arthur, and was written in some accounts (specifically in this case in the poem Merlin by robert de boron) to have lodged in an anvil, sat atop a stone, and that whoever could pull it from the anvil would be proof of rightful lineage of uther pendragon - and therefore, by divine right, king of the britons. obviously, arthur was said to have pulled the sword from the stone.

excalibur's symbolism can be interpreted somewhat as being as i said above; tennyson wrote that the words inscribed on excalibur as being (paraphrased): "take me up" / "cast me away"; to indicate that the sword is a weapon that should be used sparingly, only when necessary, and never without mercy or fair judgement. it is a power that can destroy, and should be safeguarded from turning that power to insidiousness. a call-to-arms when taken up, and a grace and peace when cast away.

(im a whore for arthurian legend ok, im from southwest uk) (and have a tattoo on my arm of those words, im a basic cornish legend bitch)

now, i realise that excalibur is not literally a part of the GO story (that we know of, notwithstanding the flashback in s1), and the sword we know in GO has a rather different narrative importance (or does it?). so, we know that in genesis the flaming sword was given to the cherubim in eden to guard adam and eve, and this is pretty much transposed to GO right up until aziraphale does the Cool Thing and gives it away, meant as a means of protection.

however, given that it ends up in the hands of humanity's personification of war, it bears a rather vivid mirror to the intention of excalibur; that in casting it away, aziraphale inadvertently introduces the concept of destruction to humanity.

but im now going to move away from the symbolism of the sword itself (i promise im trying to organise this meta into some semblance of order), and instead look at it in terms of when aziraphale actually holds it. we start with him giving it to adam and eve:

and then when he takes it up at the airfield:

and in the time bubble with adam and crowley:

now this is really obvious, i realise, but it does have some bearing for me on the image we see in the 40s minisode. sword up: ready to fight. sword down: ready to rest. it's a reasonably common occurrence to see in heraldry (by extension in logos/emblems and even on gravestones) two crossed swords pointing up or pointing down. usually, for the former, that the prospective wielder is ready to battle, is prepared and willing, and is or always has been braced for the onslaught.

the latter however indicates that either the fighting is done, or that no threat is meant - and that this can be in death, in surrender or defeat, or out of conscientious choice. that the wielder may have chosen mercy, and to act with peace and without conflict. one step further - sheathed sword goes on to symbolise that a fight is not anticipated; not necessarily in the sense that the wielder is unprepared, but instead that they are not turning to violence as an option.

this is where i think the presence of the sword in the shots from the minisode, with all of the connotations of it from eden (and its similar, in my eyes, likeness to excalibur) come into play. as i said before, the sword/s are notable visually in the whole magic shop scene. its in primary focus along with the desk as they enter, its the first display aziraphale goes towards, and it oscillates in the background from to aziraphale's right, to between him and crowley, and latterly back again:

summarised thoughts on this, because it will otherwise be a truly garbled mess:

the sheer presence of it reminds the audience that a fight may be imminent, even if the scene/story is currently at peace

that whilst the narrative is not currently in full combat, it pays heed to not only the events of ep4 being somewhat of a fight, but the events that precipitate in ep5 and ep6, and leading into s3

that where it is currently cast in the figurative stone, it may be called upon to take up arms, and confer suggestions of sovereignty, divine power, and strength

that victory (however that may conclude) may only be possible with the right person in power; aziraphale as the new supreme archangel and prince of heaven

it also confers the necessity of protection, of justice, and of mercy, being elevated to a position where you have the power to make that judgement

all things which aziraphale intended by giving away his own sword, and is what he indicates in ep6 that he intends to deliver to heaven once he ascends

that this fight, whenever it may come, may literally divide him and crowley in the story that lies ahead

...you don't need me to explain this bit contextually, right?

the last thing that stumped me, however, is that there ought to have been something in ep6 that almost bookended all of this imagery (at least temporarily, until we have a s3), or at least indicated whether or not aziraphale chooses to take up the sword again like he does at the end of s1. that shows him prepared for a fight, to defend the weak, and uphold judgement in mercy... and then it hit me:

of course there bloody is.