#ons theories 21st season

[sparrowlucero]

ik you were joking but I would be genuinely interested to hear about the flux cowriting credits strife if you feel like going into detail on it

So I have a big conspiracy theory about season 13 of Doctor Who ("Flux"), namely that there's a lost episode was scripted and even possibly filmed in near entirety, but ended up being cut and cannibalized in post production due to behind the scenes issues, and the fandom has yet to pick up on it.

For anyone who doesn't watch the show: Flux is a miniseries of Doctor Who; a full season was not commissioned because it was produced during Covid. The most important stuff about it for the purposes of this post are:

It's 6 episodes long (¹). The episodes are all directly continuous and could not be shuffled around. (I should clarify here that, no, the showrunner can't simply choose on a whim to make 10 episodes, or only make 4; they had to stick to 6, as that was the amount they were picked up and scheduled for)

The showrunner, Chris Chibnall , wrote every episode apart from episode 4 (Village of the Angels) which he has a co-writing credit on.

(More subjectively but perhaps relevant) The season is largely considered to be kind of a structural mess and (less subjectively) there appears to some abnormal and consistent production issues (²)

So the first thing I need to evidence here is that Chris Chibnall, aforementioned showrunner and writer of the entire season, was late. Like, really late.

Word of mouth gossip had been circulating for a while that there was some sort of on-set problem involving filming having to be paused because he was still finishing scripts: (³)

This would later be confirmed at a Gallifrey One panel (⁴) with Matt Strevens, the executive producer, who suggests that filming stopped to allow Chris Chibnall to finish scripts; he further implies that large swathes of episode 5/Block 2 weren't written until Episode 4/Block 1 (in which Kevin McNally debuts) was filming:

So with that context, let's talk about that Episode 4, "Village of the Angels", the only episode not attributed solely to Chris Chibnall. Co written by Maxine Alderton.

The filming pics reveal an interesting bit of trivia for Village: namely, the clapperboards show that the story was actually filmed as episode 5, not 4:

As the above tweet suggests, this doesn't make much sense. The miniseries is, again, a single continuous plot. It's not like they flipped Village and the current episode 5, Survivors of the Flux; the latter explicitly takes place chronologically after it. And yet, Village having been intended as the penultimate episode 5 is further evidenced by the original trailer for it, in which a character states that the story takes place on the 28th of November. This line is dubbed over in the final episode and subsequent trailers to instead say the 21st:

Why is this line important enough to dub? Because that's meant to line up with the air date of the episode. Episode 4 aired on the 21st and 5 on the 28th. But something happened in post production, and now it's episode 4 on the 21st instead (⁵):

So if none of these episodes were moved around but it does seem like Village was meant to be episode 5, where and what is the original episode 4?

I have a theory.

Flux has a recurring subplot involving two side characters, a married couple (Bel and Vinder) who have been separated by the titular disaster and are traveling the universe to reunite with each other. This story is told through segments sprinkled throughout the episodes. These have a different writing style (including a diary-esque narration only present in these scenes) and an internally consistent visual style that looks somewhat different to the other parts of the season.

Village of the Angels, for instance, is a moody, dark episode set in a village in the 1960s:

However, Bel and Vinder's segments in the episode have a somewhat different look:

On top of this, they never intersect with the episode's A plot (literally or in any clear thematic way), and the majority of these segments piece together into one single scene that seems to have been cut up.

So, what I think is that the bel and vinder scenes across the middle of the season were originally a single full story, an episode 4 that took a breather from the main plot and characters to follow the lives of these two side characters; the differing visual and writing style is due to it originally having been filmed separately and with a somewhat different artistic intent. I believe Chris Chibnall's cowriting credit on Angels exists because these specific scenes are from a script he wrote, but that otherwise the Angel script can be credited solely to Maxine Alderton by normal cowriting standards.

"But wait," you might say, "I thought there were already 6 episodes that are all plot relevant? If no episodes existing right now can be cut, how could this 7th episode exist?"

Remember this tidbit:

The adventures in question comprise a large amount of the next episode (Episode 5: Survivors of the Flux), nearly 20 minutes of a 50ish minute runtime (and frankly, much of the rest of the episode is somewhat fluffy build up that feels like it's taking advantage of an extended runtime). A version without this added plot would, in my opinion, only warrant one final episode rather than two.

I think the showrunner, still scrambling to finish scripts as the episodes were being filmed, and making a snap decision to include a new major subplot (⁶), wrote a finale script so long and with so many plot threads that the only way to keep all this material of was to split it into two episodes, 5 and 6. And because they only could only make 6, he had to get rid of one of the previous 5 episodes - the already scripted and filmed ones - to make room for this new episode 5. A tough order when it's a plot-heavy miniseries... if not for episode 4 being a standalone divergence from the main plot about the lives of two side characters, one that could, in theory, be cut up and dispersed throughout the season without continuity issues for the main story.

(Some notes and clarifications under the cut)

(1) some sources initially reported the episode count as 8; this wasn't inaccurate - the 2022 new years/easter special were part of the episode order. Flux itself was always meant to be 6 episodes long. (2) A few of the production issues include: - episodes filming without a second draft:

- the fx team that had been on the show since 2005 abruptly leaving midseason (because they "didn't feel like part of the team anymore") and returning as soon as the creative team changed, including the head of the studio implying they weren't properly credited (mild vfx body horror warning in link):

- people working on additional projects such as books not receiving clear information on the characters they were assigned to write:

- and likely a director who was put on hold due to a script being rewritten:

Among other things I can't directly cite at the moment, including vfx artists having to do whole episodes solo in crunch time and writers not being told their work was massively overhauled until it aired due to major changes being extremely late in production.

While I don't wish to pontificate too much here and many of these things are pretty normal by themselves, I do think it could paint a picture of a production where an episode well into filming may genuinely be cut on a whim and without consideration for the crew, artists, etc. working on the show. (3) This reddit post comes from a leaker who was known to be consistently accurate. (4) Gallifrey One does not allow filming of panels. I know Kevin's livetweets of panels to be accurate. (5) It's very, very unlikely the entire season was moved back a week, as the premier is a Halloween special that was certainly always intended to air on Oct. 31st. (6) I don't wish to insinuate Chris Chibnall is, throughout his career, an inherently poor showrunner, but I do think that maybe his jump from police procedural - a genre that doesn't involve quite as much concept art, vfx work, marketing, convention panels, set building, episodic storytelling, and keeping in touch with expanded universe producers - to flagship science fiction adventure show may have contributed to some of these issues, especially when he was already in the mindset that things could be changed on a whim (perhaps not such a major issue when it's broadchurch and no new sets need be built)

(source) Basically I don't really think this is "the showrunner's fault" or anything; more that a perfect storm of a showrunner who was habitually late on scripts, used to writing lowkey cop dramas, covid, an entirely serialized season, etc. may have led to these issues

[vestaclinicpod]

Audio Drama Sunday - 21st April ✨

Here are the shows which got me through a particularly heavy set of night shifts! 😌

👻 @tellnotalespod (S2E78) The music in this episode was so sad 😭. Of COURSE Frank hadn’t considered the emotional nature of the tether in his research. Jesus 🙄. Leo needs to start running this show ASAP.

🌲 @hellofromthehallowoods (148) I’m absolutely obsessed with Buck’s glow up. Honestly, goals. What an interesting cast of characters we have aboard this ship, I can’t wait to spend more time with them. Dashiell reporting to have never met Valerie snuffs out one of my early theories … unless he’s lying! I’m so scared for Shelby and Clem! The action writing has always been amazing in this show but the TENSION this season. I can’t cope. Also, that body at the end! A reference to the circle of fifths?? I’m gonna get emotionally wrecked by the murderer reveal, I can already tell.

🧳 Travelling Light @monstrousproductions (18) oh these Augurians are so lovely and mystical but I was hit by a wave of sadness thinking about one old soul whose aviary is down to one single bird companion and then getting the prophecy of when it will die 🥺 But my sad thoughts were soon drowned out by the 🚨HOLDING HANDS ALARM🚨. Good grief, they’re bloody adorable.

🎙️WTNV (246) I’m so glad we actually got to hear this story!! I couldn’t agree more, Abby, it is not incomprehensible that two living people could haunt each other. I’m reminded of a fave Everything Everything lyric ‘if he’s dead, he’s not a deadbeat dad’…. you feel me?

🏛 @the-mistholme-museum (ERASED) oh, boy, I sure hope this episode title is just a fun word which begins with E and not a reference to what’s happened with HoResearch! Anyone down to make a petition for one more season where the guide just talks to itself? It’s so cute!!

🖥️ The Magnus Protocol (12) oh god, I bloody hate mascots/clowns and this is not helping at all….

🍎 @notquitedeadpod (XXXVI) I don’t like listening to Alfie cry 😭 forgive me, but I’m mentally not ready to give up on the idea of Cas coming back. I believe that Haley believes in what she’s telling Alfie but I’m also like… babes, you maybe want to ask your consultant about that? I need to relisten with a notepad or something to get this new biology lore down because it’s so interesting!!

I’m thinking about starting Hi Nay or Small Victories this week, I’ve heard such good things about both of them! If you have a particular fave or if there’s a show you think I’d prefer more - let me know!!

[cecilysass]

Scully the ice queen?

I often see people talking about the “ice queen” trope in XF fanfic from the 90s as an example of fanon becoming ubiquitous in fanfic. If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is it in a nutshell: basically, fanfic in the 1990s began to make reference to Scully as a perceived “ice queen,” both at work and in her personal life, meaning that she didn’t express her emotions, that she was repressed and cold. And then that became a thing, a standard trope that other fanfic writers drew on.

My theory is that the “ice queen” / Scully association didn’t actually come from specific works of fic or from specific individuals.  I also don’t think it necessarily originated in fic and then crossed over into fan perceptions of Scully. I think it’s easy for 21st century fans to get the causal arrows mixed up on this because we're missing some historical context. I believe many viewers in the 1990s—not just fanfic writers—actually interpreted Scully differently than viewers now because they interpreted female characters differently. I think people in the 1990s were simply much more likely to interpret women serious about their professional lives as “ice queens.” Especially if their professional lives involved science.

Consider the below female scientist (P.K. Newby) writing about her graduate school experience in the 1990s.

Of course this still happens today, and of course it didn’t always happen in the 1990s. But I think it’s important that this impacted actual women living their lives in the same time period, because it’s reasonable that this also affected TV audiences’ perception of a character. 

I give you this message from the Usenet discussion group alt.tv.x-files, the first season of the show, from before the fanfic Usenet group was even created. This user characterizes Scully as an “ice queen,” claiming to notice a change after Darkness Falls, and even associating it with her skepticism specifically.

(This is me showing you the whole message with the date, then showing you parts close up because it's so tiny. I'm very dedicated.)

So in this (very early online fandom) conversation, we have a fan who already read her as an “ice queen” on their own without the filter of fanfic to sway them.

Now please don’t get me wrong. Fanfic definitely took hold of the Scully / ice queen thing and ran with it. There are many examples in the Usenet group during the 1990s of people asking, “Hey, which episode was Scully called ‘ice queen’ again? and people saying, ‘Oh never, ha, that’s just a fanfic thing.’” It was a well-established trope by at least 1997. See below.

I just want people to consider that it didn’t have to be one writer, one fic, or one incident that led to the popularization of this piece of fanon. This would have been something people understood right away because it already was culturally out there in the interpretation of the character and in associations with professional women. And like the person asking the question in the above message infers, it probably did come organically from several people at once. 

That said, some 1990s fans actively questioned it, observing it didn’t seem to fit with their interpretation of the show.

Notice that in the below conversation, Scully as ice queen is mixed up in perceptions of GA as ice queen, too. 

(Side note: I mean, you can totally get where that person was coming from, right? Gillian Anderson was TOTALLY giving repressed, cold, virginal saint in 1997.)

As a prolific reader of fanfic, old and new, I think it’s also important to add this: it seems to me that fanfic writers more often made “Ice Queen” a hurtful nickname that Scully was called by other people (like Mulder being called “Spooky”), not an actual characterization of her personality. And actually, especially given her mostly-male workplace, this seems not unrealistic in the 1990s? Some fanfic writers may even have been writing from experience. (At least, I think I'm right in saying that tendency was true. I'd be curious to know if other readers of old fanfic think Scully herself is characterized as an "ice queen" more often than I'm saying.)

I’m an Old Person. I’m ashamed to admit that in the same time period, I had a high school friend who always studied really hard in school and prioritized grades over social life, and sometimes we jokingly called her an “ice queen.” There was no male equivalent term. So unfortunately, I know this was most definitely a thing outside of Scully and the XF fandom. Fortunately, it does seem to be something we see less of in the 2020s. (At least I think?)  I just want to point it out because it’s one of those things you could think was just a little fanon quirk concerning this character or this show when really I do think it’s about gender perceptions overall. 

Very interested to know, though, if others think I'm wrong.

(actual Ice queen)

[nowmemoriees]

What do we have and know about season 5 until now? Compilation 👀 (and theories!)

1. I don't know if this is a scene or they are just taking a rest, but it seems to be Lucas' house.

2. Will is probably getting vecna'd at the beginning of s5. We can see Noah wearing his final outfit in the roller rink and at a baseball court, which means that he's gonna have some #unlockedtraumas... maybe?

3. The table read is this year!

4. The set! So many things to say here. There are bunkers and they're rebuilding a lot of -war environment- stuff

Seems like the Wheelers' house is gonna be one of the first locations to be seen in season 5

Weird pics... might them mean something?

6. Apparently, Hawkins will be struggling with basics like food and electricity. Also, we can see a date in the Energy Conservation Fair poster: Saturday, November 21st. That's 1987!

7. Is this... lover's lake? 🤨

[lady-phasma]

Do you believe Aemond is a Valyrian Supremacist? He models Daemon so much in his focus on Valyrian history, dragons, Targaryen blood etc, that to me I feel as though he must to some extent believe Targaryen's to be superior? I see alot of people defending him on the basis he isn't, but... I just don't see why Aemond of all characters wouldn't have feelings of superiority based on his blood? Extending from that, do you think he would have preferred to wed a Targaryen woman? We get a glimpse he feels that way from the TV show, but in the circumstances he had another sister instead of Helaena, surely he would have been betrothed to her/wanted to be? I just truly cannot see him as being free of "bigotry" in regards to seeing non- Valyrians as below him. Like? Isn't that the point of him hating Rhaneyra's sons? Because they are bastards from a lower House?

This is a really great ask, anon. Thank you for asking me. But of course, you asked me, so it’s no surprise that I will give a very me answer.

First, I really dislike having that phrase Valyrian Supremacist on my blog. I only have it one other time that I can remember and that was also an ask. Briefly, I’ll tell you why: it is a 20th-21st century Earth term that may not have been present in Westeros. If we are discussing in-universe theory and not literary/film theory then I choose to avoid it.

This may get long but I want to be as clear as possible: I only slightly agree with you. If we grant the premise, that he models parts of his personality after Daemon (which is a difficulty premise to grant in its entirety), then I would say that his Targaryen side would value that heritage to a degree. However, he cares deeply for his entire family and that includes the Hightowers. His last name is Targaryen, but let’s not forget he is also a Hightower. I think great houses/names are very important to royalty in Westeros, Aemond included. Hightowers are certainly not lowborn.

Trying to go in the same order as your questions, I would say next that all descendants of Valyria may feel superior because of history and dragon lore. I can never overlook House Velaryon in these discussions. They also have immense pride in their heritage and name. However, when you say “Aemond of all characters” I wonder exactly why he stands out as someone for whom this pride seems more important. If we examine his actions in season one and in the book, I think we can see that his character is no more or less concerned with it than the average character.

If he were more concerned with Targaryen blood and that pride fueled his decisions, what would that say about Alys Rivers? I think most fans who haven’t read the book know a little about her, but for those who don’t she was a bastard Aemond took as a “war bride.” Regardless of whether or not she bewitched him, we can’t talk about his life as a whole without mentioning her and their relationship. If she did, we aren't told at exactly what point that happened. He wasn't above sex with non-Targaryens.

Since it was first uttered, I have been obsessed with his line “I would perform my duty, if mother had only betrothed us.” Leo Ashton delivered it with such sincerity and commitment that it is hard to argue against Aemond’s devotion to his family (not discussing any specific romantic ships here). As we know, royalty and aristocracy in Westeros get very little choice in who they wed. The hypothetical “if he had another sister” is interesting because that marriage would, ultimately, be decided by Viserys and Alicent.

Such a betrothal would have been seen as a duty and honorable, so I have no doubt that Aemond would have agreed. I don’t know that anyone would disagree that Aemond puts his family above everything else. Thus, I have yet to see in the series direct bigotry from him. Factually, with no nuance, the issue with Rhaneyra’s sons is illegitimacy. Every character may have a different interpretation as to how this effects the line of succession and only a few state it explicitly in the series. I would argue that Aemond doesn’t care that their father isn’t Laenor Velaryon when he first calls them bastards. Children at that age might not really comprehend the ramifications of that accusation (I think we see clearly that Aegon doesn’t). Aemond first dislikes his nephews because they were cruel to him. Yes, his brother was as well. The Pink Dread was seemingly almost entirely Aegon’s idea, but siblings often forgive each other more readily than they may forgive outsiders.

In Fire & Blood we get a clear picture of how much his animosity and resentment fuel his actions:

One by one, every man and boy with Strong blood in his veins was dragged forth and put to death, until the heap made of their heads stood three feet tall.

I do not think this action was about bloodlines or heritage. I believe this was entirely revenge. By this point in the Dance, Aemond is furious and nearly crazed by his need to avenge the wrongs done to his family. I don’t think it was an attempt to annihilate the Strong bloodline, but a show of force and power. Aemond is formidable, rash, and still young enough to not care about consequences. Perhaps you have noticed I skipped over the direct slight against him. Lucerys altered Aemond’s life irrevocably. Had this same mutilation happened to a low born boy, he would have had no future at all in Westeros. Aemond’s lifestyle was only salvaged because he is royalty and through determination of will.

Would the loss of an eye, the murder of one’s young nephew (Prince Jaehaerys), and the maiming of one’s brother cause a young prince to go nearly mad with rage and the need for revenge? I believe so. By this point in the Dance, further along than I think you asked about, Targaryen heritage is probably the last thing on Aemond’s mind. I have no doubt that he was raised to believe that dragons, the throne, and many other things make Targaryens better. But we should never discount his mother’s influence. This man loves her dearly and Alicent may provide some balance in his understanding of things. My headcanon about his religion (not particularly relevant here) comes from the canon that Alicent has a strong faith in the Seven. I think this has a deep effect on Aemond and could influence whether or not Targaryen blood is paramount to him.

Lastly, I wanted to address this statement:

I see a lot of people defending him on the basis he isn’t

I assume that you use “defending” in the sense that these fans attempt to separate him as somehow immune to this pride or better than other Targaryens. I don’t know that I have read exactly the defenses you’re referencing, but I will be clear: this is not a discussion of fanfiction. If that is an element of a work of fanfiction, then by all means, go for it. It doesn’t seem plausible, however, that anyone of Valyrian descent is immune to this type of indoctrination.

[geffenrecords]

update on my physical media collection (not including books / records ). list of everything shown in the pictures below the cut ⬇️

DVDS:

IT (1990)

it / it chapter two

ready or not

beetlejuice

glee season 1 (sorry)

glee season 2 (SORRY)

jaws

the secret of nimh

jurassic park, the lost world, jurassic park 3

the breakfast club / sixteen candles / weird science (John Hughes collection)

bill & Ted's excellent adventure / bogus journey

flatliners

the lost boys

diary of a wimpy kid

Grey's anatomy season 1 (SORRRYYY)

aliens

alien resurrection

TMNT (honestly idk why I still have this)

the outsiders

trainspotting

over the edge (matt dillon first movie)

Donnie darko

venom

Jennifer's body

jackass number 2

twilight

the karate kid

the princess diaries

fight club

star wars phantom menace, attack of the clones, and revenge of the sith

Narnia the lion the witch and the wardobe

the osbournes season 1

little miss sunshine

spiderman 1, 2, and 3

the amazing spiderman

elephant

Kung fu panda

the passion of the christ

pay it forward

original star wars trilogy

the polar express

a clockwork orange

heathers

life as a house

surfs up

scream

bowling for columbine

hackers

natural born killers

terminator 2

mysterious skin

moonrise kingdom

American idiot Greenday documentary

that was then, this is now

jackass the movie

suicide kings

the matrix

the Goldfinch

the day after tomorrow

speak

stand by me

kids

rumble fish

CDS;

the black parade (mcr)

danger days (mcr)

American idiot (green day)

21st century breakdown (green day)

in love and death (the used)

may death never stop you (mcr)

baby one more time (britney spears)

life on the murder scene dvd / cds

nevermind (nirvana)

dookie (green day)

nimrod (green day)

uno, dos, tre (green day)

nirvana greatest hits

blue weezer

selfish machines (pierce the veil)

collide with the sky (pierce the veil)

three cheers for sweet revenge (mcr)

from under the cork tree (fall out boy)

teens of denial (car seat headrest)

in utero (nirvana)

licensed to ill (beastie boys)

lost and found (mudvayne)

what it is to burn (finch)

slipknot

no strings attached (nsync)

infinity on high (fall out boy)

fallen (evanescence)

green weezer

mellon collie and the infinite sadness (smashing pumpkins)

Tallahassee (the mountian goats)

bleach (nirvana)

in the areoplane over the sea (neutral milk hotel)

the downward spiral (nin)

facelift (alice in chains)

placebo

smash (offspring)

dirt (alice in chains)

peace sells but whos buying ? (megadeth)

garage days (metallica)

folie a deux (fall out boy)

devil put dinosaurs here (alice in chains)

spit (kittie)

alice in chains

incesticide (nirvana)

hot fuss (the killers)

load (metallica)

american beauty / american psycho (fall out boy)

among the living (anthrax)

oops i did it agian (britney spears)

viva la cobra (cobra starship)

almost here (the academy is...)

kill em all (metallica)

and justice for all (metallica)

lets knife (shonen knife)

lithium single (nirvana)

ride the lightning (metallica)

homemade bullets cd my dad made for me for christmas using scans he found online :)

nirvana unplugged

killings my business (megadeth)

enema of the state (blink182)

take off your pants and jacket (blink182)

pretty hate machine (nin)

screaming for vengeance (judas priest)

fabulous disaster (exodus)

let go (avril lavigne)

hidden treasures (megadeth)

dude ranch (blink182)

there be squabbles ahead (stolen babies)

master of puppets (metallica)

the black album (metallica)

twilight soundtrack

neighborhoods (blink182)

south of heaven (slayer)

blink-182

angst (kmfdm)

adios (kmfdm)

nevermind the bollocks, heres the sex pistols (sex pistols)

hybrid theory (linkin park)

the lion and the cobra (sinead o connor)

seasons in the abyss (slayer)

reign in blood (slayer)

meteroa (linkin park)

anything is (my bloody valentine)

CASSETTE TAPES:

pearl harbor attack story

music from hungary

so far so good so what (megadeth)

the four seasons (vivaldi)

concerti (vivaldi)

hangin' tough (new kids on the block)

tchaikovsky / liszt paino concertos

bach flute sonata

mozart symphonies

cats musical

days of future passed (the moody blues)

60s surf hits

doomsday for the deciever (flotsam and jetsam)

st elmos fire soundtrack

phantom of the opera highlights

defenders of the faith (judas priest)

VHS:

a year and a half in the life of metallica (original 80s tape from my dad!)

cliff em all (also original 80s tape from my dad )

walking with dinosaurs bbc

dead poets society

the lost boys

flatliners

family values 1998 tour (korn, limp bizkit, ice cube, rammstien, orgy)

attack of the clones

aliens

the terminator

hackers

not pictured are my books (way too many and way too unorganized to actually take pictures of), and my records. im not big into record collecting but i do have;

life on the murder scene soundtrack

three cheers for sweet revenge

the black parade is dead!

kill em all

master of puppets

[iwtvfanevents]

Rewind the tape —an AMC IWTV group rewatch

Episode 7: ...The Thing Lay Still

In the time leading up to the second season, which premieres on May 12th, we’re hosting a group rewatch of season one! Today, Sunday, April 21st, we’re starting with Episode 7, …The Thing Lay Still.

You can watch with your friends or in your own time, and come talk about it in the #vampterview tag! We want to hear your thoughts, theories and burning questions, as well as your favorite moments, costumes and lines from the episode.

Come revisit the first season, and countdown the weeks to the second with us, here or on Twitter, using the tag #vampterview.

Click here to learn more about this dedicated tag ►

We’re kicking off discussion of the finale with a question:

The final scene of episode seven recontextualizes what we know about the events of present day Dubai as well as the aftermath of Mardi Gras, revealing that Louis is carefully curating Daniel’s experience of both. What do you believe motivates Louis’ need for control over Daniel’s perception of the story and the interview?

[original-art-stories]

The Magnus Archives Fic list lying on my computer>

The horror and everything else. Mostly Jon centric probably...

Anatomy of a Mask - A new archival assistant is hired. Her name is Mary Sue. Starts as a comedy and absolutely does not end that way.

Plus One - Jon attends a series of parties for which a plus one is mandatory.

Decree Nisi - Elias and Peter divorce (again), and the judge is tired of their bullshit.

Reflection - Jon is haunted by himself, and refuses to take any of his advice.

Rosemary and Thyme - fantasy AU featuring romance, quests, and fairy politics.

What Belongs to the Sea - Selkie AU, mind the tags on this one.

Bell, Book, and Candle - “By the Ride or Die Pact of 2009, Jonathan Sims can call upon Georgie Barker at any time for aid with no strings attached. Despite their rocky history, their childhood friendship, and Jon’s barely recovered alcoholism, this pact is sacred and must be upheld.”

Things Could Always Be Worse - Jon swaps place with an alternate-universe version of himself, who is heroic, chivalrous, and wears plaid. It’s terrible. Inspired by the parodic “straight TMA” blog.

👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨 👁‍🗨

Sex Repulsion and Asexuality Save the World (Though That's Not What Jon Claims): canon divergent from MAG 160, in which Jon is so sex repulsed that a changed word in the Hazel Rutter statement saved the world. Crack is treated seriously.

Refusing to Give Up Tomorrow: safehouse hurt/comfort ft. MAG 160 divergence

The Eyespot Chronicles: Trilogy of works. AU where instead of going Somewhere Else, Jon and Martin stay in the OG universe. However, Jon is a moth.

Déjà Vu: Time-travel fix-it where Sasha, Tim, Jon, and Martin all wake up on the day of the day of season 1, episode 1, with memories spanning from that day to the moment they died.

terror management theory: AU where Mr. Spider kills Jon, and now Jon can't permanently die. Despite this, the fic is rather light-hearted (or at least crack)

Other Kingdoms: A season 3 fix-it, in which Martin uses a Leitner to wake Jon up. Do note that there are references to sex happening (Jon's demisexual in this), but it's rated T so nothing is shown.

When No One Looks: Dark Avatar!Jon AU set during the latter half of season 1

Chamomile: In which post season 4, the NotTea becomes a pet.

If The Archivist Had Been Meant to Fly...: Wingfic in which Jon saves Martin from Simon Fairchild

Molt: This is my favorite take on Web!Martin. This is also a darkfic, to the point that the author was made so sad by chapter 1 that they wrote chapter 2 as a fix-it to chapter 1. Also, as a warning that I would've appreciated but isn't in the tags or summary: there's a scene alluding to corrective rape, but this doesn't actually happen.

Drawn Out of the Unknown: Canon divergent s3 fic, official summary is "While investigating a possible location for the Circus's base, Martin and Tim find something unexpected.

The fic series that contributed to me listening to TMA was this Good Omens crossover by Bibliocratic. Really enjoyed it and finally between this fic and seeing TMA all over my tumblr dashboard (plus having a project to work on with my hands) I finally listened, so I'm thankful for that.

The other series I really love is>

The Magnus Institute vs the 21st Century: a series of emails and IMs which is just utterly hilarious. It's the Magnus Institute going through GDPR compliance processes and it's just fabulous.

And then one I'm still sort of following even though I don't read much TMA fic right now is

 dustsceawung by callmearcturus. It's a Moth!Jon fic with Martin as someone who moved to a town in a different fairy court (in a fae AU). Not complete and hasn't updated in a while but I really like the tone.

The world is too much with us is one of the many many many time-travel fix-it fics (I think that's a genre all it's own in the TMA fanfic community at this point). Spoiler to be on the safe side, it follows Jon after he's dropped back in 2014 by the Spiral, and relives what amounts to the next four seasons of TMA, using the experiences he had the first time 'round to try and avoid the apocalypse--and keep everyone alive in the process. Oh, and he's got the added bonus of already being an Avatar of the Eye. Very much angsty with a happy ending. This one's completed, so feel free to binge.

Martin x Jon 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/41149674As everything ends, as the tower crumbles around them, Jon and Martin hold each other in a firm embrace. What they see of the world shatters, and Jon breaks with it. He awakened, alone, confused, and something was terribly wrong with him.

Tim drags Jon to a party in celebration of his promotion with one goal in mind: getting  Jon drunk off his arse.

Martin is moving to a different position within the Institute and celebrates as well.

through the clouds like a moonbeam: Jon gets wings during the apocalypse. Martin likes them; Jon doesn't.

I’ll bear the waiting now: AU where Jon is the new head archivist with two assistants, but there's a disembodied voice that only Jon can hear. Do note that there is something that looks a lot like suicide but there's a happy ending. (Alternate summary that spoils the fic: Martin is a "ghost" and also Jon's "late" boyfriend. )

true kinda love: Season 3 Co-Archivist!Jonmartin

hiding: Season 3 jonmartin kissing to hide from the Circus

The Garden of forking Paths - Jon and Martin search for each other through universes.

“What about him then?” Georgie asks.

“Who?”

“Him,” she says again like it is obvious who she means, holding up the sketchbook revealing a spread that has several loose sketches of Martin. It surprises Jon it took Georgie so long to find Martin in the book considering he had at least one-third of its entirety dedicated to him.

To graduate from art school, Jon needs to paint a nude portrait, but none of his friends are too keen on modeling for him. As a last resort, he asks a handsome barista.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46426702When Martin needs a fake boyfriend to bring to his family reunion, Jonathan Sims is the last person he would have expected to volunteer.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/51906919Tomorrow, Martin begins his new job as a lighthouse keeper. He knows (hopes) he'll enjoy it. What he doesn't know (yet) is that a very, very curious selkie lives near and is intrigued enough by him to come visit.

https://archive.transformativeworks.org/works/30210444/chapters/81277828 The last fic I read (time travel)

This list has become a behemoth, comprising various lists created by others. I've saved it, but now I need to free up space. This is the process I'm undertaking for every list I've saved.

[utilitycaster]

A lot of people who try to analyze religion in Exandria need to watch the Adventuring Academy episode where Brennan and Matt talked about worldbuilding, specifically when Matt said “In a game like dungeons and dragons, or a lot of role playing games where ultimately part of the game is to overcome villains and rise up and become a hero, there has to be some level of universal antagonism… there is a pure and defined entity or force that is evil, it may not be realistic to some stories out there, but that’s [how it works in DND].”

This is true, and it's really interesting to watch this happen because Matt will make a huge, unambiguous evil like Lucien or the Vanguard, or Brennan will do so with Asmodeus and people will do everything they can to try to come up with reasons to woobify them or argue why they're justified...but I haven't seen this happen in most of the D20 seasons, and I think it's because the villains in most D20 seasons have been things that reinforce people's beliefs, namely, capitalism and abuse of religious power. And to be clear, capitalism and abuse of religious power fucking suck, but it's telling that people assume the villain is capitalism in places where that doesn't apply on a wide scale, or in some cases, exist (EXU Calamity, Neverafter); or that the Ruby Vanguard or Tomb Takers, both of which have pretty much every single hallmark of a cult but just aren't affiliated with the main pantheon, are actually the good guys.

Incidentally: this is like, quite literally how people get sucked into cults. One of the leading cult researchers in the world, Janja Lalich, is a survivor of a now dissolved explicitly leftist/anti-capitalist cult. Abuses of power, which is, ultimately, what both Brennan and Matt lean on as their Universal Antagonist traits, rely on confirming people's existing biases and exploiting them - even if those biases are broadly good! This is in fact why I can get so fucking adamant about what is mostly silly fandom shit, because I do, on some level, look at some takes that completely lack critical thinking and am like oh you'd 100% buy into all kinds of dangerous patterns of thought if someone packaged it nicely; even something as stupid as the Caleb Werewolf Theory relied on circumstantial evidence and false information that you could easily verify was false. And it's annoying but mostly harmless in the context of fandom, but it always makes me wonder - does this person do this with political posts on social media?

Anyway getting back to the main point, I think watching/listening to Brennan commentary on Adventuring Academy is generally a really good idea because he is a very smart guy with a philosophy degree and has a strong grasp of the genres in which he works as well as TTRPGs as a storytelling medium, and talks to other people who also have a good understanding of the morality of fantasy stories. And if you listen to this, you will in fact get that the basis of evil in these stories is not something as specific as "capitalism" or "religion"; it's quite literally as basic as "exploiting other people simply because that is an option available to you and you don't care about them." And obviously that's the whole basis of capitalism, and it's a serious problem that exists within organized religion, but like...not to repeat myself from this weekend but I keep thinking about the "Suvi without the imperialism" and it's like...she is a 20 year old woman whose parents died for a cause and we have had ONE episode with her as an adult. We know nothing about the Empire except that it's an empire and it is at war. Like, can you look at imperialism and understand why it's bad? Can you separate the concept of imperalism - which, to be clear, is based on power structures - from say, your 21st century understanding of empires in the real world? Or do you see the word Empire and go "Bad Thing" without any capacity to analyze because that's how you end up looking at two flawed things in a story (well, if we're lucky; see the middle paragraph) and deciding one is perfect and correct for no reason other than because it opposes the thing you think is worse. And Brennan is REALLY good at skewering that, and Matt is REALLY good at portraying multiple complicated and flawed perspectives, but you do have to like, use your brain slightly.

[multifairyus]

Legendborn Fandom Challenge: Kane Coded

So this was a challenge originally for the Legendborn Discord Server (see @infiinnityverse’s bio for the link) and may make more sense that way, but fuck it!

It’s Gemini season ♊️, and I think it’d be fun to have a classic word prompt challenge for our favorite Gemini Classics major pansexual disaster, Selwyn Kane, with a twist: a Bingo Card!

Comment on this post or DM me to receive a ✨Kane Coded Bingo Card✨, and then create a playlist, theory/headcannon, fanfic, fanart, or any other fanwork to make a bingo! The work must feature Selwyn. It can focus on a familial/platonic/romantic/sexual relationship, retro/introspection, a monologue, POV switch, anything so long as Sel is the focal point.

The bingo can be in all one work, or a series! And it’s up to your discretion if you do the center “free space” prompt Kingsmage Angst. Post your Bingo card alongside your fanwork(s) by the end of Gemini season, June 21st (or don’t. Selwyn Kane content is never out of season, imo).

The rationale behind the bingo concept is twofold:

1. Relieve pressure on fandom creatives to complete a “x number of prompts” or have something be in “x number of days” challenge in it’s entirety. Not only can that be stressful, but it can be tougher to pull off for some fanwork more than others. I’m here for stress and drama in the books proper, not the fandom experience!

2. Different arrangements of the same word prompts adds an element of surprise! We all have the same words to work off of, but each person’s interpretation of those words and/or ways combine them are bound to be unique!

Pease tag me (this @ on AO3, Twitter, and Instagram) and/or use some variation of “Kane Coded Challenge” in tags for easy searching!

Okay I hope the bolding of phrases made people not skip past this cuz I really want it to happen and to see how creative y’all can get 😃🖤

Kthxbai~

💖 Multifairyus

[camillescreations]

Last year, the ofmd full trailer for season 1 came out about two weeks before the release date, on February 16th (release was March 3rd). So, in theory, they will probably follow the same pattern this year. Maybe. So I'm guessing we can expect a full trailer (if they intend to release one) on the 21st of September. Possibly give or take a couple of days. Hopefully that estimate is correct, I want a full trailer asap!!

[carriechambers]

Midsummer (Litha) 101

This post on website

Hello everyone. Summer solstice is coming up, and so I'm back with another wheel of the year post.

One of the biggest misinformation is that it comes from Celtic festivals. While it is quite likely inspired by them, this is not one of the four fire festivals that we know of from Celts! Wheel of the Year was put together from the 4 Celtic festivals and then the equinoxes and solstices of non-Celtic origin. We can't be entirely sure where it came from (though there are some theories that it could be Germanic), but Midsummer has been celebrated in many cultures around the world.

But now to the post! Here, you'll find out:

history of Litha (wiccan beliefs, general Midsummer celebrations)

ways of celebrating (simple ways to honour the day, what to do when the weather destroys your plans, what Drawing Down the Sun is, links to playlists, tutorials, and recipes)

correspondences (energies, colors, herbs, crystals, ...)

Click Keep Reading to read it right here, or feel free to go to the blog page Litha. There's also a link to dropbox, where I have uploaded the .md file, so that you can import it to logseq or notion, or for when you just want a short, bulleted version.

Midsummer / Litha

History

Litha, often also called Midsummer, is a time when the day is the longest and night the shortest - summer solstice. After this point, the days will shorten. As for the term Midsummer, this implication goes only one way - Litha is a midsummer celebration, however just saying Midsummer doesn’t necessarily mean Litha, though when we search for this term, it does mostly throw Litha at us.

Litha (read lee-tha but the ee is usually short) is celebrated on the 20th or 21st June in the Northern Hemisphere, depending on where the summer solstice falls. Southern Hemisphere has it on the 21st or 22nd of December. 

As a Midsummer festival, it is usually celebrated as a solar or fire festival. And with summer and fire there are often associations with fertility, abundance, prosperity, and good fortune. If you’re thinking “well, the other festivals were connected to some Celtic deity, so where is the deity in this one?”, then I might have a disappointing message for you - the sources talk about the 4 big fire festivals - Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasadh. From my research, it seems there aren’t texts that would talk about them celebrating the equinoxes or solstices. This part of the wheel of the year is thought to come from a non-celtic origin, like Germanic for example. Though, it is not entirely unlikely they didn’t celebrate it at all, as Midsummer is prominent in most cultures. Overall, this festival would be connected to solar deities, like Greek Apollo, Egyptian Ra, or Irish Lugh.

Some sources say Litha is connected to the Oak King in Celtic mythology, however the view of Oak King and Holly King, which is another view of the entire Wheel of the Year, is much younger. This view is more often associated with Wicca, or even modern Celtic paganism. In Wicca, Oak King and Holly King are thought to be aspects of the Horned God. They are constantly at battle and gain power during different times of the year - during Litha it is the Oak King. Another Wiccan view is the cycle of God’s death and rebirth, which during Litha would be the time where God is at his full power, while Goddess brings abundance to earth.

When we look at the summer solstice itself, it marked the end of planting season and beginning of the earliest harvest. It’s time of taking a break, because now you can start harvesting fruits of your labor.

How to Celebrate

As a time of abundance and fertility, this is a great day to spend outside. Sunbathe, do some grounding, take a walk. Grow things or otherwise take care of your flowers / garden. And while it is a fire related festival, it’s hard to not connect hot summer days with some water time, be it at the pool, lake, or sea. So go swim, or even just walk to some small stream and wash your face in it. This water part is often also connected to healing. Overall, enjoy the summer day, as joy is a big theme of Litha.

As it is a celebration of sun, you can observe the sun’s beauty during dawn and dusk! Watching the sunrise would require you to probably get up pretty early (at my place it should be at 4:51AM), but it can be quite magical. Sunset is easier with this, it should set a bit after 9PM here currently. So look up the sunrise and sunset at your place and you can go outside to watch it! (Make sure the time you find is when it’s beginning to peak, not after it’s already up / down.)

As we said in the history part, this is a time when we start harvesting fruits of our labour. So, this is a wonderful time to practice gratitude, and also spend some time with your family or friends, have a feast, dance, light a bonfire.

Now this all sounds lovely, but what when it’s a horrible weather? When it’s raining and/or you can’t see the sun at all? NightmarePoison on P&W amino has written a post about how their plans changed because of weather. They wanted to go have a picnic at a park (which is also a wonderful idea btw), but then found out it’s going to rain. Well they had some suggestions as to how celebrate, when weather ruins your plans (and I added some of my explanations and ideas). Firstly, lighting candles. Since bonfires were quite a big thing, this is like a small bonfire inside your house! Another option would be hearth - however that might not be a bright idea if it’s already 30°C outside. Other than this, you would do other Litha activities, but inside. Make a meal, decorate your altar, paint the sun, and then welcome the sun once it finally returns.

Another practice that is great for Midsummer is called drawing down the sun. There are multiple ways of looking at this practice. One is a wiccan, where a practitioner (usually male) channels the Horned God (kind of a counterpart to a more common drawing down the moon). However, another approach is drawing in the power of the Sun, kind of like charging your spiritual battery for the darker months to come. This is really energizing and belongs in the energy work section. Doesn’t necessarily have to be done outside, you can just sit near a window. It is however great to do it when the sun is shining directly on you and during the noon (please make sure you have sunscreen, it has quite the strength during noon). I have found two sources for this ritual - Llewellyn’s book and Calla'adira Moonsong’s post on amino. Both are wiccan - however Moon’s post is their adaptation of it into more of a meditation and even their chant includes “to the God of sun (or whatever Sun deity you hail)”, meaning this isn’t just adaptation for wiccans, but for whoever wishes to draw in the power of the Sun. I highly recommend checking their post.

Other things:

Spotify playlist

Youtube instrumental music

Sun crochet: 1, 2, 3

Prosperity, abundance, healing, growth, change, and love spells (I would recommend the Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials book in sources for some spell and craft recipes.)

decorate your altar with Litha correspondences

wear clothes with the color correspondences, or sun symbols

for those who like yoga - Sun salutation!

6 Litha tarot spreads

Recipes

100 recipes to celebrate Litha

Lemon bars

Strawberry pie with jello

Cinnamon rolls

Correspondences

Incense: cinnamon, orange, lemon, lavender, sandalwood, pine Herbs: cinnamon, mugwort, yarrow, vervain, oak, lavender, marigold, rose Decorations: rosettes, sunflowers, wreath Colors: gold, orange, yellow, red, green Foods: berries, cinnamon goods, honey, lemons, oranges, sunflower seeds, ale, lemonade Stones: carnelian, citrine, diamond, emerald, jade, tiger’s eye, sunstone Other names: gathering day, Meán Samhraidh, Feill-Sheathain, Litha, Enyovden, Alban Hefin Other celebrations this time: St. Alban’s Day, Golowan, Yule (southern hemisphere) Misc: sun, energy, joy, abundance, growth, light, health, love, fire, warmth, success, power

Final Note

Thank you for reading this far! Comment how you're going to celebrate! In 2024, this is also very soon to a full moon, will you combine the celebrations? If you'd like to see more informatial posts, check out the Library. I'm also preparing to post some book reviews! And I would appreciate any like or reblog. Thank you💜

Sources

Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials - Midsummer (Rituals, Recipes & Lore for Litha) by Deborah Blake (2015)

mabonhouse.co - history of litha

thornandclaw.com - how to celebrate summer solstice

wiccaliving.com - litha

arcane-alchemy.com - who are the holly king and the oak king

reddit.com - did celts celebrate the solstices and equinoxes?

seawitchbotanicals.com - how to celebrate litha & the summer season

paganpages.org - litha correspondencesCelebrating Litha… when it’s raining by NightmarePoison on P&W amino

#Suncentric Practices: [Drawing Down the Sun] by Calla'adira MoonSong on P&W amino

Midsummer & Sun Correspondences by Druid Kele on P&W amino

pictures in this post are stock images from unsplash

[arabian-bloodstream]

La'an & Kirk: A Theory

I have a theory about La'an and Kirk!

La'an and Kirk actually first met in their first alternate timeline. In the first season finale, 1x10, "Quality of Mercy," this timeline was created after Pike prevented the death of some Starfleet cadets. La'an transferred from the Operations division to the Command division. She reached the rank of Commander and was assigned to the… wait for it! USS Farragut under, oh yes, the command of Captain James T. Kirk.

So, that is Timeline Number One.

Then in season 02, 2x03, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," La'an is bum-rushed by a man in a business suit who hands her a device and tells her to save the bridge. She goes to the bridge where the captain is James T. Kirk, but it's not her bridge (obviously, no Pike), and he's not the captain of her Enterprise in her universe (again, duh, no Pike). We are now in another alternate timeline. The Vulcans and Romulans and Klingons and everyone hates each other and cats and dogs are all fighting! It's war! War! War!

So, this is Timeline Number Two.

Jim reaches for the device in La'an's hand and activates it and they are transported to Earth 21st century. They steal clothing, play chess, hang out in a hotel room, engage in car chases, visit a new, old friend, save the future, and develop the feels for one another, have a kissy-face, and then Kirk dies before La'an does what she has to do (i.e., letting her evil future ancestor live), and she gets transported back to her timeline. La'an sends a subspace call to Kirk to say 'Hey!' -- as they had never spoken or met prior -- but then is visited by a temporal bigwig who tells her no telling anyone, that's a big no-no!

That be Timeline Number Three.

In the current timeline in which La'an normally occupies, Lieutenant James T. Kirk comes on over to the Enterprise and he and La'an officially meet. Subspace harmonies happen and truths do be spilled in song, so La'an decides to break the big timey-wimey no-no to Kirk before a 17th sea shanty can do the deed. He too feels the connection, but alas, his on again/off again girlfriend is on because she's preggers. So, welps!

And this, folks, is Timeline Number Four.

So, my theory!

Kirk and La'an have now been thrown together in not one, not two, not three, but FOUR different alternate timelines. That's a lot of timelines for two people to be linked together. Now, admittedly, the two in "TATAT" are tied together, but they are still two separate timelines. The kicker is the one from "Quality of Mercy." Another one? Really?! So, yeah. And, it has been pointed out, if you take a gander at her uniform, it looks as if she is not only in command but as if she is his First Officer, his Number One! Uh, yeah.

However, before we dive into that, let's look deeper at the conversation between the real timeline Kirk and La'an which I feel has been misrepresented overall from what I've read. The overall take I've seen is that Kirk and La'an are dunzos because of that convo, and I dunno, I just didn't even remotely get that. Kirk made things very clear, and based on what we know about life in this era, other things can be pretty clearly inferred, and based on what we know from The Wrath of Khan we know other things.

So, let's do some numbering.

Life is complicated.

In other words, the fact that he has a girlfriend who is pregnant is "complicated," not good or happy, but rather "complicated."

She is his "sometimes" girlfriend.

That in and of itself is NEVER how one should describe their significant other. Like EVA!

Carol is intensely dedicated to her job on Starfleet One.

He tends to not stay in one place for long which is a growing problem since Carol is pregnant.

We are putting these two together because Carol is intensely dedicated to her job ON STARFLEET ONE, while Jim tends to NOT STAY IN ONE PLACE LONG. Ie., yeah, it's complicated. This is basically a bright, neon glaring sign that this is a relationship that is not for long. Like at all. (Even if we didn't already know that.)

So, OK, in this era, it's not really easy to get pregnant what with modern technology and medicine, right?

Carol is his "sometimes" girlfriend who ain't leaving Starfleet One, while her "sometimes" boyfriend goes flying all over the place, and she just happens to get preggers? Hmm, OK, then. We know from "The Wrath of Khan" that when David shows up and finds out about Kirk, Kirk, of course already knows, and tells Carol, "I stayed away like YOU wanted me to." Mmhmm!

So, with all that said, I'm speculating that Carol either (a) got herself pregnant to make Kirk stay on Starfleet One or (b) was so busy science'ing up she got preggers. Either way, being pregnant it came down to he needed to make a choice choose her and his kid, or her career and the stars. And Kirk chose his career and the stars. And that is what is going to come out… and La'an will be there through the fall-out because there likely will be fall-out from like Sam, and Kirk just feeling guilty and all that.

But what about the timelines? Well, so my theory is that Kirk and La'an have a relationship, happiness, blah blah blah, while he's on the Farragut, she's on Enterprise, etc., and then as we get near the end of SNW's run, some big choice has to happen. In order to save lives or some such, La'an makes a sacrifice, saving peeps, but in the process, everyone in the current timeline forgets her. Thus, no mention of La'an when they meet Khan, no mention of her and Kirk, or basically just her at all in TOS.

But for her sacrifice, she gets:

TADA!! Timeline Number Five….

In this one, she and Kirk live happily ever after. And her family didn't die at the hands of the Gorn. So on and so forth.

Or maybe this is all just wishful thinking, hahahahaha!

[cosmicanger]

“ppl talk abt the george floyd uprisings as failing i just dont think thats true. energy from them went into the revitalized labor movement and the clarity from them have been informing the pro-palestine movement, ppl need to see this as a long process rather than being defeatist.”

“Yeah but the goal was defunding the cops and police funding increased. I'm not knocking energy and joy, but at some point, morale has to create a material result. We can't just "long process" ourselves forever. Believing in ourselves enough to go back to the drawing board and start figuring out how to do more is the opposite of defeatism. I marched with Occupy Boston. I marched after Michael Brown was killed too. I understand that *in theory* it is a long game. What incremental leftists don't understand is that the 21st century does not have to be like the 20th. The whole idea that long games work is based on 1) the civil rights movement, 2) smaller policies that marching has more consistently worked for. In both cases the results came from convincing people in power, which involved A LOT more than just marching. The electoral organization, the militant wings, the ability to overcome resistance from the right, none of those pieces are in place for big stuff because the country is structurally different now. We have a lot more people, A LOT fewer at the top, and multiple info bubbles. The "long game" argument is based on the idea that the majority will eventually win out, but the country is now structured in such a way that that's simply not true. Billionaires & politicians have figured out how to game the system to keep us constantly in a state of cope. This is why I've been doing threads on how they're playing us with Palestine. They do not care one bit that we're shutting down the streets. There does not eventually have to be a stop to the genocide just because the majority wants it. Those are 20th century assumptions. I understand that this is scary because it throws out the model of activism that incremental leftists have become entrenched in. But I expect that, as leftists, you should be able to face that fear head on. Otherwise you all are just street party Democrats. Also, finding new models of activism doesn't mean violence. There's more tactics in the world than marches, symbolic shutdowns, and violence. I'm begging you all to stop being so complacent about the long game and start thinking bigger. On Palestine, the past month has gone from "If we threaten not to vote for Biden, the Democrats will call off the genocide" to "Maybe if we get everyone in the streets?" to "Well, it's a long game, Palestine will be free eventually." Seasoned activists on here pivoted very smoothly from "The people united can never be divided" to "Well, look, boycotts take a year to really work, and movements are a long game." THEN WHY ARE WE USING THESE TACTICS, WHEN GAZANS MIGHT MASS STARVE IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS?????? If you see a short term problem and funnel everyone into long term tactics that OBVIOUSLY will not work in the scheduled timeframe, then as far as I'm concerned you are just as complicit as our entire government.”

[daystarvoyage]

Ok here are the posts of the owl house that’ll break & debunk your logic, theories

And a special context of what my movie fanfic will be about.

HERE WE GO!!! 1st one

ill be releasing a movie fanfic along with a belos prequel book the upcoming belos story will be on dec 21st Yule season

with oc characters and full on closure to supporting characters

Happy yule everyone

[raayllum]

Cube Hostage Exchange Theory :: End of Days

Because I like nothing more than to organize things accordingly and my brain needs something to focus on for the final few days before the season drops and we get answers to a lot of questions (or at least, a lot of the questions this theory has attempted to answer over the past two years) I thought, “Hey Dragons, why not do your best to compile and breakdown literally every single piece of evidence there is for Cube Hostage Exchange Theory, just in case you’re right and want something to fondly look back on?” 

(And also because I know I won’t have the same motivation to make this post if I’m wrong, but making this post sounds like fun for one last hurrah for myself and the little CHET posse this theory has, somehow, fondly amassed). 

So here it is. 

My end of days, final presentation of Cube Hostage Exchange Theory (otherwise nicknamed as CHET), all that it encompasses, and all that it could inspire, what’s been added to it over time, and why I think it has a decent shot at being what happens in the S4 finale. As well as a little indulgent walk down history / memory lane for me because I started posting about it two years ago, and I do what I want.

What is CHET?

A theory that proposes the S4 finale / current climax with Claudia, Aaravos and co. will threaten Rayla’s life in order for Callum to hand over the Key of Aaravos, thus allowing him to fully break free of his prison and putting the world at risk as a result, specifically in holding her hostage.

I first posted about it on September 21st, 2020 (a couple weeks after Through The Moon graphic novel got released) as just an idea and then made a proper theory post about a month later on October 26th, 2020. 

It is my little bonbon and I think it is very neat. As you can see, it was an exceeding simple plot structure modelled to be a finale or final 3 episode prediction (4x07-4x09) for the end of the season, with very little speculation of what would happen in the build up to it besides 1) Callum having to learn about Aaravos in order to know what he was risking and 2) Callum and Rayla getting a chance to hash out some of their emotional baggage even if they hadn’t wholly resolved it. 

The original theory post itself touched on some concepts that will be repeated down below, such as the idea that the hostage exchange would ideally 1) not be Rayla and Callum’s first reunion, 2) the series’ intrinsic concept of Exchange, 3) why failure is necessary for Rayla but not a punishment, 4) how her lack of self worth manifests, and perhaps most importantly, 5) how Callum is always instrumental in breaking her cycles.

The theory has since grown to encompass many others as well as a plethora of evidence I stumbled upon, first accidentally and then with a more purposefully keen eye, in terms of foreshadowing, set up, and parallel / cyclical episode structures that TDP loves to utilize and has utilized before. Again, more on that at the bottom.

What made me first think of it?

Simply put, it just seemed the most straight forward route that would also yield the biggest dramatic consequences for character and for story. Post-TTM Rayla was racing right towards Aaravos without even knowing, Callum has something called a Key, Aaravos wants to escape his prison. Thus, it would give Callum a clear hand in how the plot would move forward and fit with some of the more dubious choices he’d made before. I also liked the way it could conceivably offer up a pathway for Rayla and Callum’s emotional arcs; for Rayla, it’d be an unexpected hammer to her own perception of her self and her self worth, for Callum to throw it all on the line even after she’d hurt him so terribly much; for Callum, it would give him space to be angry with Rayla but also room for a good old “Fuck everything else, I just want you to be okay” when it comes to like, offering us a strong reconciliation within the limited emotional time frame of a TV show.

Why Should Rayla Get Saved?

Rayla left in TTM because she thought Callum could handle losing her in ways she couldn’t handle losing him. This fundamentally comes down to Rayla’s self sacrificial tendencies veering into self-destructive behaviour (leaving at all) and her justifications for it being that she isn’t “good enough” to be worth fighting for / loving the way she loves others, as well as deeper issues of survivor’s guilt and possibly not feeling like she quite deserves to live and be loved.

Although I don’t subscribe to the “Rayla left out of pride” lens at all, even under it, Rayla needing to be saved seems like the most logical conclusion, otherwise how is she supposed to learn that she can’t do everything herself? 

Rayla can’t succeed in her quest to stop Viren or to fully protect Callum, lest she think what she did in TTM is “ultimately fine” just because it worked in protecting him successfully. She also can’t single handedly stop the villains only halfway through the show. Therefore, Rayla has to fail, and likely has to fail at protecting Callum by the finale specifically, as that was her worst fear. Since she went to all this effort to protect him, the biggest form of failure would be if he ends up in danger at one point because of her. However, that’s precisely why it has to happen - and why it would also hammer that point in further if he’s also saving her while he does it.

Why Can’t Rayla Just Save Callum? 

More recently there’s been an upswing in theories regarding Rayla being Callum’s guiding light out of his “path of darkness” (Callum’s promo quote) given the way the moon halos her head upon entry, her name meaning, her associations with Truth and the Moon arcanum over Aaravos’ starry deception. It is also more in line with what I thought S4 might be like pre-TTM’s release, with Callum getting in way over his head with something magical and Rayla having to help (alongside Ezran possibly) pull him back from the brink.

The light and dark motif now running more prominently throughout both their arcs is also, funnily enough, something I noticed and wrote a meta about close to five months ago back in June, which you can read the full thing here. It was something I had always appreciated about Callum and Rayla’s framing with one another throughout S1 and particularly S2 with Rayla representing the light. It was something I only started to think more on when I began to compile parallels between Aaravos and Rayla, including their names (“between light and dark” and “ray of light” respectively). 

Thus, I do think Rayla will save Callum emotionally/mentally from Aaravos in some manner at some point in the season, as that’s in line with how she keeps Callum out of his head in S1-S3. However, the other half of that pattern is Callum saving her physically, and that’s why I think the light and darkness motif feeds nicely into what I’ve also penned as the Mutual Salvation Theory originally in August 7th, 2022, before we even knew Rayla would be returning at all.

The question then becomes: well, what is he going to save her from? To a certain degree it’s herself, as laid out in this interview with Devon Giehl (TDP’s head writer) and Michal Schick (a staff writer) regarding Rayla’s letter:

She wants to stay because she’s in love with Callum, she wants to leave because she’s in love with Callum. And I think that’s just kinda like - Rayla’s version of love is, at this point in her life, always gonna hurt someone, including herself. Badly. 

The clearest way for this to manifest is for each of them to get a chance to reaffirm their love for one another and choose each other. Due to the symbolism baked into the trailer and the season promo, it seems pretty clear that at the very least, Rayla will be guiding Callum away from darkness at one point in the season. Thus, what’s left is for him to save her in an equally thematically and plot-driven way - thus proving her previous beliefs wrong, reaffirming his love for her, and pushing the plot along. 

This dual “I save you, you save me” plot line is an add-on to broader CHET, as that would provide Callum’s turn of things. Additionally, I think Rayla saving Callum in “guiding light” way may happen before the finale, with the finale then focusing on him saving her, for one main reason:

The Moon Arcanum

Given that the season will inevitably talk about Callum reconnecting with Rayla and the foreshadowing in previous seasons that the Moon arcanum will be the next one he connects to, it seems like S4 is the most natural place for it. This is only reaffirmed by Callum likely being tempted by Aaravos, a great deceiver, as well as the way he’s obsessed with secrets and denying parts of himself / his feelings already in 4x01, and Rayla representing the Truth, the way she always has been.

If we go along that route, then there’s the question of what would compel Callum to connect to the Moon arcanum, especially if he’s off chasing dark magic somewhat this season. Again, given the thematic and symbolic set up already in store, it will likely be him admitting out loud to himself that he loves Rayla, and always will, thus allowing him to fully see past Aaravos’ deceptions (as far as temptation goes).

However, I do not think, though, that such a triumphant note can be where the season ends. After all, we know this era of the Dragon Prince’s world is known as the Return of Aaravos, and that the Startouch elf must be broken free of his prison by the end of the season. Thus, our heroes have to fail, and I think it needs to go one step further than just failing to stop Aaravos from getting out, but of actively helping him - even if it’s against their will. 

So what would that look like, and why do I think it has to be the transfer of the Cube for Rayla?

The Cube

Paraphrasing posts I’ve made before but:

1) Without the cube being called the Key of Aaravos, it being the key to Aaravos’ prison would feel like it came out of nowhere. However, because of such a specific name, it is many people’s default assumptions and that feels purposeful. After all, if they wanted one or the other kind of associations, they could have said Hand or Eye of Aaravos, or Key of mystical sounding name here, but they specifically chose to put those associations together. The show loves to be cryptic and straightforward all at once, with warnings like “Draw your last breath” (3x07) being instructions to literally draw a breathing rune

2) One of the reasons I think the cube is related to Aaravos’ prison is precisely because it was entrusted to Callum by Harrow, the two characters most concerned thematically with the theme of Freedom through both their speeches, actions (Callum shattering the primal stone to free Zym, Callum ending Rayla’s cycles) and most notably his arcanum of the Sky. So you have Callum, who is tethered to the theme of Freedom, with a Key in his possession, Aaravos having some idea of how to get himself out of his prison if his machinations / guidance of Claudia and Viren are any clue, and Aaravos, who wants to be free of his mirror prison more than anything. 

Larger meta post here as well as some very cool similarities the Key could have to the Egyptian myth of Thoth, god of knowledge, presenting a Key of Life to Osiris, god of the underworld. 

3) The Key has been associated specifically with Rayla and her relationship to Callum above anyone else since the beginning of the series. Their first real bonding moment is her agreeing to go get it from the Banther Lodge, she risks her life to do so, and is routinely the other character (sometimes swapped in or sharing that role with Bait) that Callum discusses the cube with. Then there’s also the fact that ties into one of Callum’s consistent aspects of seeing worth in things Rayla doesn’t: appreciating Xadia’s magical nature with fresh eyes (1x05), seeing worth in the Cube (1x04, 1x05), and indeed, Rayla herself (1x05, 3x04). Rayla’s language surrounding the key is also very interesting, but we’ll talk about more of that in the next point, which is:

4) Back in early December 2021, I made a post documenting what I’d noticed of the consistent way the Cube was referred to as a game piece or Aaravos playing a game. (Just for frame of reference, this was almost precisely 6-7 months prior to Aaravos holding Viren like a game piece in the SDCC intro trailer). 

Also keep in mind that Viren asks Aaravos once, and only once, if he’s playing a game. The rest of this coding is done through Rayla alone as a character: “It’s a toy. It’s piece from a children’s game,” “It’s a glow toy” and then “Are you practicing magic or are you losing a game?” which now seems like very overt S4 foreshadowing. 

This also played into what I had noticed in terms of the likelihood of games and tests being intertwined, as they often are in mythic stories or folktales, and this statement from Aaravos felt like something that had to come back in some way (and already has for Claudia as a character, circa end of 3x09). 

Playing a game (particularly chess) against Death or the devil for your soul is common and fit neatly together. The marketing for S4 has only reaffirmed this with lines like “They’re not games. They’re tests” from Soren’s short story. 

Aaravos has offered a test of love to one pawn, in Claudia, first tasking her with reviving her father, and now stretching it further to see what she’s willing to do to keep Viren alive. Viren, who was already dead, just as Rayla comes from a culture in which she is already dead and seen as a Ghost. It doesn’t feel like a stretch to presume Aaravos will give Callum his own Test of Love to either pass or fail, and given that Claudia’s have all related to Aaravos’ main priority of getting out of his mirror, Callum’s likely will too. Especially since it seems like Claudia’s motivations for helping Aaravos may change drastically in S4... but more on that later.

What Does CHET Provide Narratively?

Arc 1 of TDP was largely concerned with “How can we fix our parents’ mistakes?” However, as the world grows more complicated and characters more complex as a result, it is likely Arc 2 will ask, “How can we fix our own mistakes?” This requires mistakes to be made, of course: for Rayla, the continual fallout of her leaving, and for Callum, inadvertently helping Aaravos successfully escape his mirror - and then more so by choice (or under coercion, depending on definition). 

This ties into the way Callum often breaks Rayla’s cycles that she’s trapped in whether through her choices, circumstances, or both. By shattering the primal stone, he frees Rayla from her literal and metaphorical chain of her binding. He inspires Rayla to break the cycle in 2x07 and then does his one dark magic spell to break the chains that Rayla’s swords cannot. He breaks the literally circular pendant from Rayla (and Ethari), weighed now with grief and remembrance, in order to see her free to make her own choices.

Which is to say that Rayla is repeating all four of her parents’ most damaging behaviours and cycles, has likely come back with the intention of protecting Callum (with little to no regard to her own well being) and still believing in the idea that she has a price to pay in order to be happy, and all these damaging beliefs need to be broken. If Rayla is going to save Callum from making the full mistakes of his predecessor, in some ways, isn’t it only right that he saves her right back and does the same?

After all, let’s talk about

Paying the Price

This line from 4x01 immediately stood out to me in a major way for a few reasons: 1) this is the first time Callum has ever directly referenced paying the price in such a manner; Ezran (1 time), Rayla (multiple times), Viren (1 time), Harrow (multiple times), and Claudia (1 time) are previously the only characters to do so and Claudia’s is the one comedic exception to how the phrase is usually delivered. 2) It is also the phrase used in the season synopsis, directly asking the question of, “But where did this enigmatic Startouch elf come from? What does he want? And what price will our heroes have to pay to stop him?”

We know, of course, that they won’t stop him. We know then, that ultimately, there is a price they are not willing to pay to stop him. We know, thanks to the series extreme dedication to emphasizing agency, that they rarely let characters off the hook when it comes to making hard choices, for ex: it would’ve been so comparatively easy for Harrow to not know what Viren planned to do ahead of time to the egg and for him to find out after the fact, but instead we see that Harrow knew and approved of Viren ultimately murdering a child. 

If Callum has the cube (or whatever Aaravos needs from him) just tricked/ conned out of him, it removes what would ultimately be the hardest choice he’d have to make. If it’s taken from him forcefully, he’s failed yes and made a bad choice, but again, removes the actual hand over from the equation. When has TDP ever not forced a character to make a hard decision, after all? To choose the harder path and be aware of it, or to pick a different path and convince themselves it’s the right one? Why would Callum and everyone else suddenly be let off the hook now?

And while it’s supplementary material, so we can take it with a grain of salt, but this also ties into how Callum’s Devotional and Liberty (highest) attributes are described in his Tales of Xadia bio:

“I value those close to me more than anyone or anything” and “I’m beholden to my inner circle, not some silly kingdom” respectively

This also ties back to the perpetual trolley problem, if you will, that TDP returns to time and time again, with situations only getting worse and escalating when the dignity of an innocent or one life is disrespected and tossed over for “the greater good,” particularly without their consent. 

Even after her growing bonds with Ezran and 2.5 seasons of character development, we see Rayla consider her choice to spare Marcos to be a mistake (circa 3x03 with Ethari):

R: I failed them. It was my fault we were discovered.

This is particularly true given that Rayla’s original failure was when she was on a mission to a kill a prince and king of Katolis, and she takes on a similar literal and metaphorical mission in TTM as well: killing / leaving one prince of Katolis (symbolically) by taking a piece of his heart (“My heart for Xadia”) just like the Magma Titan while setting out to actually kill a king of Katolis (Viren) that we know she will ultimately fail in.

Which is to say that the “You saved her life and risked us all” is an interesting concept the series has returned to, most particularly in Callum’s foil relationship with Viren. Their primary difference is contrasted starkly back-to-back in 1x02, when Viren offers up guards’ lives in exchange for Harrow’s but hesitates to offer up his own, whereas Callum offers up his own for Ezran’s without hesitation. Ergo, Viren offering up other people’s lives is decidedly shadier because he takes time to come around to offering up his own. But we already know Callum would die and bend his morals for Rayla.

Could he really bring himself to go through with his plan? What if he didn’t succeed? What if he compromised his beliefs and it all ended up being for nothing? […] But her blade bounced off with a clang, sparks flying. She reeled back and tried again. Nothing happened. She was in trouble. He inched towards Claudia’s [spellbook]. (S2 novelization of 2x07)

So him exchanging the cube would not be risking anything of anyone he’s not prepared to risk of himself, creating a messy but understandable justification, and it’d validate the hell out of Rayla’s own ‘original sin’ in sparing Marcos. Life and living is about more than just numbers and survival - and saving her, weighing her life against the world’s and picking her anyway, is not only a classic hero dilemma, but something that would carry a particular amount of weight in the series as is. 

This also ties back into the series’ intrinsic concept of exchange, including but not limited to:

Killing Harrow and wanting to kill Ezran in exchange for Avizandum and Zym’s believed murders

Viren’s plan to exchange one soul for another’s with Harrow in 1x02 that was originally Claudia’s idea

Callum trying to take Ezran’s place to save his little brother in 1x02

Dark magic as an entire principle, exchanging the life of magical creatures for power or agency

Soren killing one king to protect another (3x09)

The entire goal of taking Zym back to his mother in the first place, in hopes that they can deliver a baby dragon in exchange for peace

So why not have that thematically continue through Rayla’s life being exchanged for the cube and exchanged for war?

But this is all more abstract narrative and thematic stuff with some cyclical analysis and nods towards characterization and arcs. Now it’s time to get to the real meat of the theory, which is:

Parallel Episode Structures 

So TDP likes to do this thing, with Callum and Rayla’s arcs in particular, but also with the show as a whole, where they will repeat episode / character conflicts while steadily changing the circumstances and raising the stakes in order to reveal character and spur character / plot development. And they do this especially with plot structure.

Examples of what I mean: In 1x03, Callum chooses staying with Ezran over saving his father, and Rayla chooses the egg and princes and fights Runaan as a result. Both of them, unknowingly at the time, lose their adoptive fathers that night. Then, 2x03 and 3x03 each deal with the fallout of those respective choices they made, processing grief and regret over their losses. 

Or, to get even more specific, I’ll offer up what I call the “Rayla saves a dragon quartet” in which Rayla wants to do something brave but dangerous / self-sacrificing in order to protect a dragon, Callum has reservations, and their dynamic steadily evolves to the point that he goes from worrying but not being able to do anything to jumping right after her. AKA 1x03 on the rooftops, 2x07 in the rain, 3x08 with the Dragon Queen, and 3x09 with Zym. 

Or to get even more specific, I’ll offer up the “Rayla is trying to hide her own pain, Callum tries to get her to open up three times with her nastily rebuffing him each time, then she has a breakdown in the face of his unconditional love, and something bad happens to Zym as a result of them being distracted.” Am I talking about 1x06, or 3x04?

Which is to say, if CHET goes along with the “Callum goes too far and does something reckless / dangerous in relation to Aaravos, Rayla pays the consequence and gets taken hostage, Callum / the boys come to save her, he gets her out in a way she has understandable issues with, and ends with a note of ‘I hope it was worth it to you, putting everyone’s lives in danger,’” it will be a perfect inverse of 1x04. And we know 1x04 was written with an endgame in mind, given the mention of the cube being in the game room, as well as Callum saying things like, “You wait here, one minute, two minutes - however long it takes, I’ll go find a key.” 

After all, much like they could have had Callum resolve to do dark magic in 2x07 without harkening back to his crush on Claudia to foreshadow his growing feelings for Rayla, there were infinite ways to write 1x04 that did not have Rayla being the one to find and risk her life for the cube. They could have easily had Callum or even Ezran stumble upon it, grab it, and have Rayla get caught looking for it or just not moving stealthily enough around the room when Amaya catches her. They could’ve had the boys go into the Lodge together with Rayla hanging back (as they’re human and wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows), but she can’t exactly leave without them, but no. The show chose this very specific plot structure, and we’ve yet to see it entirely repeat in full. And with 4x01 paralleling 1x01 very closely (Soren letting slip the king is in trouble, Callum wanting to help, king and high mage discussing Moonshadow assassins on balconies), and with 4x02 possibly paralleling Rayla’s return with callbacks to 1x02, I think this future repetition of 1x04 is only getting more and more likely.

Then you also have the ways that, if Callum transfers the cube - something magical and powerful, something he’s fixated on - and ‘sacrifices’ it for Rayla, it’s another perfect inversion to how he shattered the primal stone to save Zym in 1x09, thus unleashing a storm onto the world but for good reasons, and for a peaceful purpose. Again, if we look at Zym as one piece of the exchange for peace, then unleashing Aaravos in another terrible sort of metaphorical ‘storm’ is the perfect inversion that an even greater era of war and conflict is on the way. 

The show has had smaller 1x09 parallels - Callum trusting Ezran rather than doubting him (3x07); Rayla almost going off the cliff to save Zym before she actually does so in 3x09; and in terms of Callum sacrificing the primal stone is a good example of how he’s let go of some of his 1x04 fuelled fixation for the time being. But they’ve also shown Callum repeat his old mistakes when he goes out into the storm in 2x04, in which he says, “I put us both in danger. I could’ve gotten Zym killed” yet “Worst of all, when we were right there in the centre of the storm - I thought I wanted this badly enough but in the end, I didn’t have the guts.” He still considers the worst part of the experience to be his lack of a magical connection.

Then there’s the way that post-TTM has lined up well with 2x07, episode wise. Again from a structural standpoint: Rayla feels compelled to do something, Callum wants to help her, she goes off alone, he hangs back with Ezran feeling helpless and frustrated before he ultimately goes after her, bending/breaking his morals and engaging with Dark Magic to do so. The big differences is that Rayla has gone from saying it’s okay if he can’t come with her to telling him not to, and that rather than resolve to find her on his own, Rayla has returned to him first. But up until her return, the structure was intact, so I’ll be curious to see if the second part of the episode comes true too. Possibly - in an alternative way - with Callum doing dark magic in general, or with him specifically handing over the cube. 

If you are interested more in how TTM parallels 2x07 itself specifically, setting up a reconciliation plot structure for Rayllum in S4 reminiscent of 2x08-2x09, check out this larger meta here.

Orpheus and Eurydice Motif

So we know that Rayla and Callum are going to get separated thanks to this screencap from the trailer with two main options: 

1) it’s a fakeout and they’re reunited shortly afterwards, finally reconciling, or 2) it’s not a fakeout, and part of the finale, 4x09, “Escape from Umber Tor” following the fallout of 4x08 “Rex Igneous” is about getting her back. Given that Aaravos has been compared to Lucifer and that “Umber Tor” means Shadow Tower, if Rayla was taken to a shadowy place high on a mountain or deep below the ground... It’s a pretty good Underworld allegory, and the show has given this to Rayllum before in which Rayla travels to their version of the Underworld, her Orpheus - a magically inclined artist per the mythos - goes after her, and unlike in the myth, he manages to successfully save her. Sort of. Since, as we know, the end of TTM still results in a tragic separation for our two lovers. 

This is also similar structure wise to Rayla facing certain death in 3x09 by tackling Viren off the Pinnacle, Callum jumping after her, and his love for her unlocking new magical power so he can save her. Again, this meta of Callum and Rayla as Orpheus and Eurydice goes into greater detail, but I think it’s interesting it’s a pretty specific pattern we’ve seen happen two times, and now the question is if we’ll see it happen as a third. Especially since as the musical Hadestown paints it so eloquently 

TTM has just been the mythic structure fulfilled both happily and tragically, with Rayla choosing — in many ways — both metaphorically and literally, in risk taking to go back to the Underworld. Callum is then reaching a double crossroads. Does he follow her down into hell, again? And in other ways, this is arguably the first time he’s being tested. For so much of s1-s3, and even in TTM, saving Rayla was a no brainer. Whatever chance he had, Callum had zero hesitation, zero misgivings. In his heart and in his mind, he had no reason not to.

Now, thanks to TTM, there is a seed of doubt. And just like with Orpheus cutting a deal with Hades out of love to get his wife back, Aaravos may cut a similar deal with Callum as his own Test of Love.

[ORPHEUS, spoken] Mr. Hermes? [HERMES, spoken] Yes? [ORPHEUS] It's not a trick? [HERMES, spoken] No, it's a test

Speaking of which, let’s finally talk about Aaravos’ hand in all this - as well as foil relationships and contrasts with Viren and Claudia.

Pawns and Kings 

Once S3 wrapped up, I figured that Rayla and Claudia’s foil relationship would be amped up further, now that they had nearly matching white hair, and I always thought that Rayla’s paranoid and restless behaviour would return in a significant way prior to TTM. Now they’ve both destroyed their lives for Viren - Claudia to save him, Rayla to kill him - in the two year timeskip and are dealing with the fallout of those decisions. 

While the Viren-Callum parallels going into S4 are massive, and are undeniably the biggest foil relationship this season, I think ultimately the conclusions on their arcs will be regarding their differences, given lines that Viren has said of, “We must be ready to sacrifice, even the things we love,” while if Callum picks Rayla over the world, he will be steadfastly and repeatedly rejecting that in his arc, while Viren may catch up too late that he has unintentionally sacrificed Claudia for his goals. 

I went into more detail on it here a few weeks ago, but now that we have confirmation from a few reviews of the first four episodes of season four, it seems I was right to think that Viren is getting an atonement arc, regretting what he’s done and specifically what Claudia has done for him as a result of it. This would perfectly parallel the sort of Rayla arc also needs to have, of realizing the full weight and why of her previous mistakes and realizing she was wrong. After all, she and Viren are both “already dead” - metaphorically and literally, respectively. 

Meanwhile, Callum and Claudia have been set up to have mirrored arcs as well, as they get pulled deeper and deeper into Aaravos’ machinations as his two latest pawns. We will presumably see him manipulate both of them this season in order for them to help get the pieces in place to release him from his mirror. Claudia and Callum have, in their relationships with Viren and Rayla, already had parallel Tests of Love in 3x09 - saving their loved one from the brink of death in a powerful display of magic - and are set up to have parallel Tests of Love regarding lies and forgiveness in S4.

However, where I think this season will end up seeing Claudia and Viren split from one another - her angry that he “doesn’t understand or appreciate” all she’s done for him thanks to his re-evaluation that maybe he should stay dead, his life not worth the toll it’s taken on the world and her (and that he’s right this time) - that leads the way for the finale’s Test of Love to be Callum and Rayla in so many ways, as Callum saves Rayla from being “already dead” - and he’s right to do so, even if it’s still a hard choice. 

This would allow Viren and Rayla to be strangely ideologically aligned, Viren in a positive way for his arc, Rayla in a negative way in her arc, in believing that when Callum shows up that

More meta on Rayla and Viren’s parallels here, as well as Rayla as Aaravos’ inverse to Callum’s Viren. 

Furthermore, this scenario gives all the characters place to work from in future seasons: Claudia can fall deeper into villainy now truly unhinged thanks to being “abandoned” by her father and as Aaravos’ next future pawn to discard (almost a la Ozai and Azula in ATLA, as Claudia has been compared to Azula by co-creator Aaron Ehasz in the past), Viren must work with the heroes who have no reason to trust him but to who he can provide infinitely valuable information, Aaravos keeps him alive in a “reap what you sow” esque punishment, Rayla can possibly start looking for her parents properly and will have a new kind of self worth, and Callum has a goal to reclaim the cube, help Rayla, develop his Moon arcanum magic, and defeat Aaravos once and for all. 

Since, after all, Callum is the King that Aaravos needs to get out; the final pawn in this stage of manipulations. 

Checkmate

More than a game of strategy, Chess is a game of sacrifice. I’ve played for most of my life and typically, games come down to making sure you sacrifice the right pieces (pawns) in order to protect your more important pieces, particularly your Queen and of course, your King. Aaravos’ relations to chess have been repeated over and over again, as well as Checkmate referring to him winning the game and getting out of his mirror by the end of the season which again, we know is happening this season. 

If you are interested in reading more about TDP’s chess symbolism, check out this meta in which I break it down for the main cast of characters. Terry is not included as we didn’t know he’d be in the season before I wrote it, and as we still know very little about him, I’m not sure where I’d place him (although maybe as a Rook or Bishop or something). 

Moreover, one of the most important rules in a chess game is that if a pawn reaches the other end of the board, you can swap it in for one of your more important taken pieces (which will almost always be your Queen if you’ve lost her). 

And again, the chess metaphor works particularly well because in a game of strategy and sacrifice, Aaravos has to find the thing the heroes aren’t willing to sacrifice; the price they’re not willing to pay. Per the chess metaphor and characteristics of the pieces, although I considered other options as I went along, Rayla fits the characteristics / placement of the Queen piece the best and Callum as the King piece.

It is for all these narrative reasons and more that I think it is very likely that, if not taken hostage directly, Rayla will at the very least be what’s used to coerce Callum into having an almost equal hand in freeing Aaravos as Claudia (also giving her some wiggle room to potentially come back from, if she does it out of spite or if she thinks if she ignores Viren’s wishes and ‘fixes’ the problem he’ll change his mind, like she thought she could with Soren in 2x08/9 in some ways). 

After all, if the emotional payoff of TTM isn’t going to be Callum looking for her, there still has to be a counter-balance / reason behind her absence. What better reason could there be than “I lost her once. I’m not going to lose her again” with his grief in the two year absence providing his emotional, plot driven justification as Callum does everything he possibly can to get her back?

Now, onto my favourite part: the foreshadowing. 

The section is what I call the “this feels like direct setup” with some repeats of what we’ve seen before as well. The next section will be about generational stuff including parents, character designs, cycles, etc. The third section is stuff I think is possibly less likely foreshadowing, but I like it, so I hope it is, called “Be foreshadowing, do it for me.” Hope you enjoy!

Misc. Foreshadowing #1: Heavily Likely

Who the hell is Aaravos saying his “My return to this world is inevitable” and why Rayla is a real candidate to be who it is being delivered to.

Callum rejecting the cube in 2x08 when Harrow reminds him that he’s free VS Callum handing over the cube in 4x09 because Rayla isn’t

They said that, sometimes, we make sacrifices so that the ones we love don’t have to. It’s part of protecting them—part of protecting you. Taking on hard choices and going to dark places is an act of love.

Generational Parallels 

If Callum is rageful against Viren, that cements the other half of the Viren-Avizandum intro parallel, as that is a moment in which Avizandum is not only separated from his child, but hunted due to taking away the love of King Harrow’s life, Queen Sarai. Just as Rayla is repeating Runaan’s cycles (down to her one silver shoulder pad design that is a smaller version of his), it would not surprise me if Callum began to repeat Harrow’s. If you want the in depth version of this theory, check out this tag here, but I think the screencaps speak decently well enough for themselves, don’t you?

Rayla and Runaan’s parallels are also particularly important as due to his stubbornness and duty, Runaan was taken captive by Claudia to be used by Viren specifically in regards to the mirror, and Sarai ultimately died saving Viren’s life.

There are also Callum’s parallels to Runaan to consider (down to the hostage situation in Bloodmoon Huntress) as well as Rayla’s parallels to Harrow.

Misc. Foreshadowing #2: Please be foreshadowing, do it for me

Rebuttals 

Don’t have a lot of interest in discussing negatives, however as the theory gained a lot of traction in the past 3 or so months, there were some issues people had with it, namely: doesn’t it reduce Rayla to a damsel in distress, isn’t it predictable, and why would Rayla forgive Callum for this in the end, all of which I’ve laid out ‘rebuttals’ to over time. If you have for some reason made it all the way down here in this post while still having reservations, one of these metas may remedy them for you - or maybe not! Either way, I think they’re an interesting read.

Rayla is not a damsel in distress

Predictable

Why would Rayla be okay with this in the end?

Other Misc Thoughts

Romeo and Juliet comparisons (thanks, Viren’s VA)

The Way Rayla Has Always Been Set Up as Both Callum’s Salvation and Destruction

Rayllum’s parallels to Aaravos’ “Patience” story (which relates to their overall dynamic I think)

Callum and Rayla always liking/loving each other “too much” than is good for them / Callum as an Icarus figure (boy with wings who flies too close to the literal or proverbial sun)

Why the cube can’t just be positive / Why Rayla’s absence can’t just be positive

TTM / S4′s ATLA Comparisons and Parallels

TDP and Tarot: Rayllum as the Lovers and Aaravos as the Devil

Adam and Eve Comparisons

Alternatives

So let’s just say I’m wrong and all of this foreshadowing, meta, etc. has been for nothing? Cool! I had a good time writing it, theorizing with other people, writing my own fics, and immensely enjoyed reading other people’s fics regarding the theory as well. I have donned my clown wig before with far less reason to and with far less fun as a result, so I’ll have no regrets if that ends up being the case here.

However, and this is what I’ve always come back to in terms of wracking my brain and narrative for this theory is that even with less than one day to release, I have never seen an alternative theory that actually answers all the questions this one has set out to, namely:

What is the Cube?

How do Callum and Rayla ultimately reconcile?

How does Aaravos get out of his mirror?

At least, not all at once, and not in a way that offers up tangible arcs for characters past-S4 either, or in arcs that feel feel a little bit less effective. Now, if Callum loses the Key just out of his own foolishness, that means the finale arc is just a mad dash to try to get it back, which the team will ultimately fail at, but that almost feels like too big of a punishment for something he was so heavily manipulated into (I think he’d have more guilt over that than if he’d made an actual Choice under coercion, y’know?). If the key isn’t crucial to getting out, then why highlight it so much this season? If Callum’s finale arc is just about resisting temptation, than how does that lead to Aaravos getting out — isn’t that too positive a note to end on, and a bit too repetitious of 2x08 if it’s that simple, arguably? And again, it feels like this season has to start addressing the dark side of Rayla’s self sacrificial tendencies and start edging towards fixing them (ergo her realizing she has worth) since it was all those issues compounded that made her leave in the first place?

So perhaps our closing note is to say that, although it’s not as though there are no real alternatives to CHET, there are none out there that currently find answers for what to do with all the pieces on the board and how to achieve the outcome we know S4 is spiralling out to, and that is why for all these reasons, I am very hopeful and excited that I may be right going into S4, for each and every reason provided above.

Happy last day of hiatus, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!