#one to wrap your head around

[gale-dekarios]

I think Gale is a touchy feely person who needs to keep his hands on the Tav whilst they make love. He's gotta believe they're real, that they're with him, that it isn't a hallucination or a dream. He strokes their hair, he plants kisses along their neck where the heartbeat is strongest, and feels their breath against his shoulder. Even the simplest act of fingering or stroking them is a way to know they're truly in front of him. Tasting their arousal just to have evidence of their existence. He loves knowing that this is his newfound life. His new purpose. His new reason to live and not give up so easily as he almost had. Mystra wanted him to die for her. Tav wanted him to live for himself. So forgive him if he constantly needs the littlest of reminders to know Tav is truly real, and not just a hopeful dream.

retrospective edit: hi im charlie and welcome to my tedtalk. 50/50 on whether or not any of this makes sense, because i did in fact pop 9mg (prescribed) sleeping aides a half hour before writing this, so i could wake up tomorrow and realise this was all gibberish. or maybe not! i should not be the judge of that rn

regardless of how you or your character feels about the line, i truly believe that gale believes that tav/his romantic partner is a god/dess, and it's the things like this that cement it for me.

when you think about it, (traditional) worship is very much devoting your life to a diety, and receiving some benefit back, which could really be a range of things from feeling comforted and secure about your place in the world, to moreso your clerics with actual divine gifts bestowed upon them, to chosen, like gale, who, (at least in his case) gets to kind of... tap into the wellspring of that god's domain and understand it more than any other mortal could.

this type of devotion is even purer than his devotion to mystra. the reason being is that whilst i dont believe gale ever was devoted to mystra for nefarious self-serving purposes, it would be remiss to gloss over that he did enjoy certain luxuries that he wouldnt have if he wasnt so close to his goddess, and whilst tav offers a lot more than mystra ever could both emotionally and in the service to him living an actually good and normal enriched life, this doesnt translate to any practical benefit that could compare to a literal deity -- (clumsily worded, but again, in this case im referring more to endless knowledge and immense mastery over the weave and recognition of status among his peers rather than curling up on the couch companionably).

which is to say -- i promise there's a point -- a tav, in all of their mortalness, that gale truly worships, with all of his devotion (which is a lot, he practised), must be very special for him indeed.

so gale gets ""nothing"" in return for the same if not a higher level of devotion than he ever shows mystra (i mean, when it literally comes down to it, he completely ignores her, an actual literal goddess's, direct orders bc you asked him to, so theres no doubt who wins that particular fight.) BUT -- and this is the point that i promised -- the real clincher here is that tav ASKS for nothing. well, again, not in the way that a deity asks for something. a deity asks a devotee to give them their life, what tav asks for is that gale HAS his life to do with what he chooses, and for that, gale chooses tav.

devotion, with gale and tav, is both freely given, but also freely taken. not selfishly, but in acceptance. gale had no choice, really, but to follow mystra's orders, but he followed tav anyway. how does that make tav anything less than a deity? that level of blind faith? tav accepting gale's devotion by virtue of just loving him is such a beautifully mundane piece of godhood, and comparing that to something as shallow as the ambition mystra offered is like comparing night and day.

so of course gale treats tav like he caught lightning in a bottle. he spent his whole life in the service to a goddess, devoting his whole life for the celestial equivalent of breadcrumbs -- as awesome (and i use that word as its original meaning) as godly power can be, nothing that was ever given to him truly cost mystra any real exertion -- but with tav, there is no expectation of exchange, only the full weight of one man's worship, and that is what would cause gale to treat them like an illusion. of course it does. gods that ask for nothing but for you to do the things that are in your best interest are not a thing. but tav does exactly that. how wonderful is that? how pure is that? is there truer devotion? so unmarred by any external benefit?

touching divinity is something that gale's had the extraordinary luck of having twice, but that does not make those experiences equal. his deity, that allows him to run his hands through their hair, to kiss their eyelids, and yes, indeed to also have desperate, sweaty, mortal sex with, without ever once asking for anything in return except that he remain whole and healthy? by fucking god will he make sure this is real.

[tj-crochets]

The giant ant is complete, and it turned out so much better than I’d even imagined! It’s also surprisingly easy to comfortably carry around, which I did not expect

[volivolition]

DAY 3: RHETORIC - You – against the atom, the charm and the spin. Where the whole world failed – matter failed to bend to human will; human will failed to get out of bed and tie its laces – you alone, single-handedly, will rebuild the dreams of the working class. You are The Last Communist.

[bestworstcase]

whys and hows aside, ultimately what “summer joined salem” comes down to is:

salem has one more person working for her whose existence has been confirmed (seer call in v4 from beacon after establishing that all known agents are not there) but identity never revealed.

none of her other agents have had their identities obscured: even lionheart is revealed to be her spy upfront. the mystery surrounding the identity of this character is unique—ergo, narratively consequential.

“what happened to summer rose?” is a central narrative mystery which has thus far been partially answered in this order: a) she met salem, b) salem perhaps did something other than killing her, c) raven was involved and whatever happened turned her past admiration for summer into the scorn on display at haven.

the timeline on summer being made into a hound does not add up (the hound is “an experiment” and a novelty to both salem’s enemies and her inner circle now—salem met summer approx. fourteen years ago) but it’s deeply unlikely that the narrative would have flagged the possibility of fate-other-than-death if she were actually dead.

the conclusion that salem turned summer into a hound is offered by ruby, on minimal evidence; in v4, ruby hears tyrian waxing poetic about his “goddess” and with no hesitation goes “cinder,” which is to say ruby has a demonstrable tendency of jumping to conclusions based on incomplete information that are close but nevertheless very wrong.

so the narrative has given us these pieces:

summer met salem.

salem probably did not kill her.

summer can’t have been grimmed.

summer broke raven’s trust, badly.

salem has had an anonymous agent holding beacon, we have known this since v4, and we have yet to find out who this person is.

what happened to summer rose?

the anonymity of the person on the other end of that seer call is the keystone holding everything together. the facts pertaining to summer rose alone don’t necessarily add up to “turncoat,” only “not dead and not a hound,” but when taken into account with the open question of who salem has at beacon, then the simplest, most straightforward answer is that summer joined her.

the point of keeping the beacon lieutenant’s identity a secret is to maintain suspense. it is a character the audience already knows—or knows of. (the reason salem’s reveal at the end of v3 works is because she’s been the narrator since the beginning, for example.) with the way the cast is set up, this more or less requires that the beacon lieutenant be a turncoat; the other possibilities are tai, glynda, oobleck, and port. if it’s any of them, the separate mystery of what happened to summer rose remains and must still be answered in order to resolve that increasingly central narrative question, and the how and why tai or glynda or oobleck or port joined salem needs to be answered too. if summer is the beacon lieutenant, the narrative answers two questions with one answer.

[artem1sc0re]

Woah

Aiden Pearce on a whiteboard

I feel obligated to add more to this so uhhh hands you this and runs away

[peachdues]

thinking very fun things about club owner!Tengen from Compass and this song

[wildsaltair]

sometimes I think I can be normal while taking screencaps of my beloved husband. I am always incorrect

BONUS BECAUSE I'M IN THE THROES OF AGONY OVER THIS STATUESQUE MAN

[thetrinitytest]

if ianto jones (NOT gareth david-lloyd. actual ianto jones) walked through your door and said he wasnt dead and he needed a kidney and you were the only match what would you do

i am holding his face in my hands, kissing that man on the forehead, and asking him if he wants the left or right one

[quibbs126]

You know I have to wonder, why did IDW decide to have Galvatron and Arcee twins, of all characters?

It seems like such a random pair of characters to make related to each other. Like I feel like their only connection is being from the 86 movie, and I’m pretty sure almost any other character there could’ve worked better, as either Galvatron’s twin or Arcee’s

I mean it’s what the Wiki told me, I don’t really know the specifics, but again, it’s so weird, why did they do that?

[starry-eyer]

literally so done with rhaegar antis at this point. we know practically nothing about this character besides all the good things other characters say about him and the fact that robert baratheon hates him and says things about rhaegar that ned disagrees with. and robert baratheon is a pos so being hated by him only does favors for rhaegar’s character imo.

but somehow all these characters who think well of rhaegar are just lying. even though almost all of the characters who have spoken/thought well of rhaegar come from different families and have different allegiances. make it make sense. explain it to me like i’m five. what do jamie and ned have to gain by thinking positively about rhaegar? what about jorah? and barristan?

seriously. stop with the “prophecy obsessed freak” and the “rhaegar was mad” bs. none of this is supported in the books.

for 1) the prophecy is real! this is a fantasy series! and it’s very likely that jon snow (his likely son) is one of the azor ahai/prince that was promised figures! the other completely certain azor ahai figure is his own sister! so yes this prophecy seems to be centered around rhaegar’s family.

2) rhaegar being “mad” is not supported whatsoever. prophecies and magic are very real in asoiaf. so believing/trying to figure out prophecies is not an act of a madman. if anything, we should praise rhaegar for having the foresight to be actively concerned about this world ending threat! he was right. and one mention, if not the first mention, of the song of ice and fire comes from a vision in the house of the undying… from rhaegar. please remember what the title of this series is…

now, it is fair to criticize rhaegar for how he treated elia at the tourney at harrenhall. he was wrong there and that was a terrible thing to do to elia. however, saying that rhaegar was awful to elia throughout their whole marriage is not supported. and saying that rhaegar was awful to his children is not supported at all.

also, getting angry at a fictional character for needing a son to secure the succession to the throne is hilarious, especially since it was necessary for not just rhaegar, but also for elia to secure their own positions at court. they both needed a male heir, but elia needed to have a son more than rhaegar to secure her position. so why are people so mad that rhaegar and elia had aegon? andal tradition says that a son comes before a daughter and a daughter before an uncle… but aerys had viserys to threaten rhaegar with because aerys was king and had the power to change the succession. having aegon was very important for both rhaegar and elias futures and protected rhaenys position as well. just look at what happened to alys karstark when all of her male brothers were gone. she was almost usurped by her uncle. do you really think aerys would let the throne pass to a girl? aerys??

anyways, we don’t know enough about rhaegar and elias relationship to actually make any concrete statements about them, but, from danys house of the undying vision of rhaegar and (likely) elia, their relationship seemed fine and they seemed open with each other. not every marriage of duty ends in nedcat and five kids, but their marriage was clearly far from the robert and cersei nightmare.

another thing rhaegar antis love to harp about is how he is a pedophile. i’m literally so sick of it. rhaegar, someone who seemingly struggled with some form of depression, finally found some joy outside of a marriage of duty. the author himself called rhaegar a love struck prince. ned never thinks ill of rhaegar, even though if the stories robert baratheon would have us believe were true then ned would be the first character who thinks rhaegar is some sort of monster. but ned doesn’t. back to the pedo argument… anyways i have issues with the age gap as well. but i know where to lay my criticism. with george. he’s weird about ages and it pisses me off. however, i won’t let this change the way i see a character, especially since westeros doesn’t have any age of consent laws.

god just criticize george already.

but to be clear, rhaegar, a tragic character who died trying to protect his family, who’s daughter hid underneath his bed for protection, is not some monster. he was born in grief, lived in grief, found some joy, and died whispering the name of the woman he loved. that’s sad. and it’s horrible that he’s blamed for his family’s deaths even though he fought and died trying to protect them. and then robert baratheon sat on his throne and drunk and whored the realm into debt. thank you mr. boar. and good riddance. cersei slayed with this one.

now if you want to blame someone for the war and what came after, then blame aerys for his cruelty. blame brandon for his foolishness. blame robert for his warmongering. blame tywin for his monstrous actions. blame gregor and amory for their terrible violence.

stop blaming the guy who died trying to protect his loved ones.

and tbh, we literally have so little knowledge of what happened before the rebellion and after harrenhall. we just don’t know what happened between rhaegar and lyanna besides what george has told us and whatever small scraps we get in the book. we don’t know if it was a rash decision or if there was some plan in place when rhaegar and lyanna ran off. we just don’t know.

so please stop treating your headcanons like canon facts. especially when your headcanon isn’t supported anywhere in the books! it’s so tiring to see! i get it! you hate this character! whatever! but stop acting like what you’re saying is canon!

rhaegar is simply a ghost haunting the narrative. but his legacy lives on in dany and (likely) jon. and both of them are saviors fighting the good fight. and based on the descriptions we have of rhaegar, i can say that he’s likely very proud of his sister and son.

[puppppppppy]

people who do STEM or administration as a career full time and continue to do art as a hobby, I am scared of you but like in a hot way. youre like if we were allowed to have cold drinks in winter. i look at you and think of miles morales with his two cakes. do you want to make out sometime

[sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes]

TSS compilations need to stop popping up in my reccomended I don't want to be back in the fandom 3 years after I left in the year of our lord 2024 I think my brain would explode

[missmungoe]

If you have a moment, you should go check out TricksterMelon on Twitter :) I hope you like it <3

I am speechless

[faaun]

i think if i painted my ex situationship i'd be cured it's the most shallow but intense connection i've had w anyone i think i am so obsessed w how she looks i want 2 photograph her/paint her forever rant in tags but ive talked abt it b4 so feel free to ignore

[mobius-m-mobius]

Do we have any new interviews of Owen talking about his time as Mobius? It feels like after Loki s2 he just disappeared into shampoo ads...

Unfortunately not any that I can think of, no 😔

Tbh considering promotion for S1 was impacted by the pandemic and S2 aired while the writer's strike took place it's probably a lucky break we got the few moments of Owen discussing Mobius we did since he's not one to participate in a ton of press even in the most ideal circumstances but still, talk about a massive shame there haven't been more opportunities to hear about his process because I genuinely think despite the unreal career he's had this was a real turning point in realizing how much his contributions were valued on set!

Not to mention the way he disappeared into Mobius is second to none, forever in awe of the way there's so much of his usual charm and persona there but you don't actually see *him* until they call cut, it's an amazing performance I'd love interviewers to bring up more often as well as how much depth there is to his performances in general since that's glossed over waaaay too often

[eraserbitz]

this is a Nothing Post but i have considered before that if radiocomputers have games on them... then its not a stretch to say that much like in the real life history of computers, theres bound to be porn games being published in elysium

if we accept that porn games are Real in elysium, we obviously have to consider the likelihood that the resident computer nerds in Disco own or play them. first, we have soona, who probably has an awareness of them, though i can't say if she really cares about them in particular (sorry). she is passionate about coding and gamedev so i still wouldn't brush it off as a possibility.

and for the sake of thoroughness let's include the mentioned but off screen developers in fortress accident: also wouldn't say no to that, though they strike me as being quite pretentious about it in either direction.

Trant, however, is the guy who went to an abandoned building because he knows that a prototype for a computer system used to be developed there (computer history nerd), and plays adventure games in his free time (Gamer). maybe he doesn't love porn games, but it just SEEMS like he would at least take note of them. he would just never talk about them like he talks about anything else, out of a sense of propriety. all this to say that to me, trant is this guy: