#oops i meta'd

[the-captains]

Maybe the real couch theory this season is Buck learning that he doesn't have to wait until he is perfect and always makes the right decision in order to feel he has worth. He could just... be comfortable now and not have every decision carry so much weight.

I know this is anathema to say in what often feels like a "find your monogamous soulmate forever" culture, but it is OK to have your self-worth be separate from whether you are in a relationship or not.

It is ok for Buck to realize that life doesn't last forever and seek to be happy in the moment.

It is OK for him to want to make peace with his parents. He does not have to forgive them to learn to live with them as people who are trying to do better now, if he wants to do so. This is being an adult! He is growing and learning!!!

I too would love to work out my vicarious loneliness through Buddie but I don't see the end of the season as negating Buck's character and growth as much as is going around. He hasn't reverted. He's being portrayed as a traumatized but surviving, growing human person. And I am here for it, because it heals me too.

[beavesaintmarie]

okay i usually don’t meta outside of my tags lol but i felt like with all this new GOT content we’ve been getting lately i should probably layout how i feel about dark d/any and mad queen d/any theories and what they mean to me. cause i think the two are often conflated and mischaracterized and i just wanna set the record straight on my end. 

now if you know me, you know that i am no d/any fan. by even the slightest measure. and i make no apologies for that. but i do not believe that d/any is going mad in S8. 

i think d/any has become relatively paranoid in recent years but i also think that is to be expected given her background of living under the constant threat of assassination when she was younger. 

but i do think d/any absolutely has the capacity to allow her more darker impulses to rule her emotions and therefore dictate her behavior and choices in s8. 

cause let’s be honest here, d/any’s ambitions for the IT have completely defined who she is as a character these past 8 years. her dragons, her mission to occupy that seat of power and her belief that she is the rightful heir to the throne is her identity.

j/on now becoming a real threat to that; to her identity, will cause issues between them. i think it is naive to believe that on with a series such as this, that the biggest bombshell, 20 years in the making; will have little to no impact on all of these characters’ lives. it’s been carefully constructed to have maximum impact. it’s a tectonic shift in the lives of not only j/on and d/any but also their allies, the starks and the rest of westeros.

and it can’t be solved easily with the option of marriage because of one of these characters would have to agree to take the role of consort, therefore having their power diminished by the other to some degree because at the end of the day whoever is the sovereign is the one with whom the real power rests. 

there’s no real concept of co-rulers in westeros. people often cite alysanne and jaeherys but there are instances in F&B where it was clear that no matter the great influence alysanne had over jaeherys; the final word was ultimately his. meaning that if they came to a stalemate, he was the tie breaker. 

and j/on agreeing to be consort even though he is true heir doesn’t work once you look at the logistics of his own popularity throughout the realm. he’s not just any ole johnny appleseed. 

he’s been hailed as a war hero, people know that he was raised by the most honorable man in westeros and some even consider him to be some kind of god for having literally died and come back to life again. all of that coupled with the blood-claim makes him the king westeros has been wanting and needing for a long time.

and it is of little matter, whether or not, he wants the throne. we’ve seen time and time and time again j/on be put up for jobs he didn’t want but ultimately took on because it was the right thing to do or because it enabled him to get things done that were for the good of the realm. so if he survives and if westeros or what’s left of westeros wants him to lead them, then as history has shown....he will ultimately do so. 

and frankly, d/any’s introduction to westeros has been a VERY rocky one. i won’t go into all of the details but from s7, we can easily infer that the people might not view her as quite the savior she was viewed as in essos.

even with the upcoming WFTD, where most are hoping she proves her worth as a savior of the realm; one could make the argument that if she never had her sights set on conquering westeros and never brought her dragons there with the express intentions of doing so, the NK would have never gotten his hands on a dragon; therefore making his threat to the realm an even more devastating reality than it already was because now he too has nuclear fire power. 

and it also bears noting that she is one of the very few characters left who still has the same primary ambition she’s had since season one and that is why her story ending in her getting the thing she’s always wanted flies in the face of the very structure of this series.

none of these characters get exactly what they want or they do but in a totally different way than they were expecting which......is sometimes worse than not getting it at all. 

every single person who has actively pursued the IT or even pursued association to the IT has failed in that regard and have been punished by the narrative. cersei being the last person left to be punished. 

and d/any is no different in that regard. she is pursuing a representation of absolute power that at this point has become a proverbial relic of past seasons whereas most of the characters have moved on and have evolved past their season one hopes and dreams. 

which is why i think that once d/any is faced with the many realities she will have to face when she hits WF, it’s going to be very hard for her to process the concept that everything she has worked for for most of her life might be taken from her on a technicality. and i can hear the chorus of ‘well j/on and d/any love each other so they will decide to rule together’ but as i mentioned before, as nice as a notion as that may seem; no matter what: there is only ONE seat of power. 

d/any would have to sit next to j/on the rest of her life with the knowledge that he’s getting something she’s dedicated her life to even though he’s never wanted it and from that grows resentment and bitterness. so i don’t see how that makes for a happy marriage in the long run. 

and if j/on has to sit next to her for the rest of his life, he’d be a living reminder that she is effectively a usurper. and is occupying a seat that is not hers by right. that was given to her by j/on just cause he didn’t want the job. 

...and let’s not forget the concept of a ‘usurper’ is something she has bore nothing but pure contempt for for years. 

so no matter how you slice it, d/any wanting to take what she deems to be hers with fire and blood is the very essence who of she is. she has reiterated it many times on the show. she’s done good things in the pursuit of power yes but at the end of the day, it always comes back to that mission of sitting the IT for her. 

and that notion is at the root of the dark d/any theory. a theory that posits a d/any throwing away any pretenses of this being a noble mission and pursuing the IT with an even deeper passion because she wants it, because she has always wanted it, because it is the crux of her identity, because she believes herself to be only person who truly deserves it because no one has given as much to the cause as she has and therefore whoever stands in her way is a threat. 

right now she believes herself to be the rightful heir but once it’s been made clear to her that she isn’t, will she just abandon everything she’s worked for? her years in essos building her armies, the years waiting for her dragons to grow and most of her youth dedicated to this one cause.... 

will she be satisfied with divesting herself of the identity of being the last dragon? is she even capable of taking on a new identity now when this one has been so heavily entrenched in who she is?

will she be satisfied with having to share power she’s never had any intentions of sharing? 

should she be satisfied? 

and if you’re a d/any fan........would you want her to be satisfied giving all that up? 

lol i’m not a fan of hers and even i feel a way about the idea of her giving all that up... 

[pikahlua]

MHA Chapter 342 spoilers translations

This week’s initial tentative super rough/literal translations under the cut.

1 指令が来た しれいがきた shirei ga kita "Orders have come."

2 なんと？ nanto? "Saying what?"

1 つ…疲れた…！ つ…つかれた…！ tsu...tsukareta...! "I...I'm exhausted...!"

2 捜索範囲が広すぎるぜ… そうさくはんいがひろすぎるぜ… sousakuhan'i ga hiro sugiru ze... "The search range was too wide..."

3 捜索から一時帰還 そうさくからいちじきかん sousaku kara ichiji kikan A brief return from the search

4 こうもヒーローが減ってるとは……深刻だ こうもヒーローがへってるとは……しんこくだ kou mo HIIROO ga hetteru to wa...shinkoku da "That the number of heroes is decreasing this way...things're serious."

1 速やかに就寝しよう すみやかにしゅうしんしよう sumiyaka ni shuushin shiyou "Let's promptly go to bed."

2 […]ちの強みは[…]た[…]手一投足全て[…]繋がる[…] […]ちのつよみは[…]た[…]しゅいっとうそくすべて[…]つながる[…] [...]-chi no tsuyomi wa [...] -ta [...] -shu ittou soku subete [...] tsunagaru [...] "[...] strength [...] every move [...] connect [...]"

3 強くなれって言われたしな つよくなれっていわれたしな tsuyoku nare tte iwareta shi na "You/We were told to get stronger."

4 ちょっとくらい猥談する時間ほしいよな ちょっとくらいわいだんするじかんほしいよな chotto kurai waidan suru jikan hoshii yo na "I want some time to tell a few dirty stories."

5 猥談はいいや わいだんはいいや waidan wa iiya "Hard pass on the dirty talk"

6 でもそうだね demo sou da ne "but yeah, I get it."

1 麗日さん！ うららかさん！ Uraraka-san! "Uraraka-san!"

2 おお！デクくん！ oo! DEKU-kun!" "Oh! Deku-kun!"

3 荷ほどき終わったの？ にほどきおわったの？ nihodoki owatta no? "Finished unpacking?"

4 うんほとんど何も持ってきてない うんほとんどなにももってきてない un hotondo nani mo motte kitenai "Yeah, I brought next-to-nothing."

5 僕も着替えだけ ぼくもきがえだけ boku mo kigae dake "Me too, just a change of clothes."

6 麗日さん うららかさん Uraraka-san "Uraraka-san"

7 あの時はありがとう あのときはありがとう ano toki wa arigatou "Thank you for that one time."

1 ちゃんとお礼を言えてなかった ちゃんとおれいをいえてなかった chanto orei wo ietenakatta "I wasn't able to properly thank you."

2 本当にありがとう ほんとうにありがとう hontou ni arigatou "Thank you so much."

3 […]や[…]れは[…]に…！ [...]-ya [...] -re wa [...] ni...! [basically this is unintelligible]

4 細かい事気にするねぇ相変わらず君は こまかいこときにするねぇあいかわらずきみは komakai koto ki ni suru nee aikawarazu kimi wa "As usual, you concern yourself with the details."

5 外で何してたの そとでなにしてたの soto de nani shiteta no "What were you doing out here?"

6 んー nn "Hmm"

7 街見てた まちみてた machi miteta "Looking at the city"

1 だから街を見てた だからまちをみてた dakara machi wo miteta "That's why I was looking at the city."

2 悍ましい光景を忘れないように おぞましいこうけいをわすれないように ozomashii koukei wo wasurenai you ni "So that I won't forget that horrifying sight."

3 余計な事は考えないように よけいなことはかんがえないように yokei na koto wa kangaenai you ni "So that I won't think about anything unnecessary."

4 僕もーーなんだ… ぼくもーーなんだ… boku mo---nanda... "Me too..."

5 へ？ he? "Eh?"

6 僕も ぼくも boku mo “Me too”

7 死柄木の中に小さな少年が泣いてるのを見た しがらきのなかにちいさなしょうねんがないてるのをみた Shigaraki no naka ni chiisana shounen ga naiteru no wo mita "Inside Shigaraki, I saw a little boy crying."

8 戦いは避けられなくても たたかいはさけられなくても tatakai wa sakerarenakutemo "Even if this battle is unavoidable"

9 その奥にあるものを無視はしたくない そのおくにあるものをむしはしたくない sono oku ni arumono wo mushi wa shitakunai "I don't want to ignore what lies in there."

1 必ず止めよう かならずとめよう kanarazu tomeyou "Let's stop them definitely."

1 絶対うどんだな煮えたぎったやつ ぜってーうどんだなにえたぎったやつ zettee udon da na nietagitta yatsu "He's definitely an udon guy--likes it boiled."

2 ハッ…だったら HA...dattara "Heh...in that case"

3 一緒に食ってやるさ いっしょにくってやるさ issho ni kutteyaru sa "well eat some together."

[notagarroter]

In Defense of Sally Donovan

Sally is one Sherlock character people love to hate. Some people hate her directly, claiming she was unjustifiably mean to our hero. Others claim she is poorly written, and thus direct their ire at the writers. But I maintain that Sally Donovan is not only a great and fully comprehensible character, but that she is *essential* to the universe of the show.

Sally is the *only* recurring character on the show who doesn't like or trust Sherlock Holmes. And she's right to feel this way!

Consider Sherlock from Sally's perspective: here is this posh white dude who shows up at her place of work and acts like he owns the place. Even though he has NO official training and NO professional experience (and, significantly, no legal right to be there), he waltzes in, calls everyone an idiot, and launches into his own amateur theories that, in most cases, will not hold up in a jury trial. In fact, if this were the real world (which, granted, it isn't, but Sally doesn't know that), his very presence could get all these cases thrown out of court. On a professional level, Sally is absolutely right to object to him.

But Sherlock is right! He's brilliant! He solves the cases the police can't! Yes -- *sometimes*. But let's not forget that Sherlock is wrong a lot too (necessarily, or else the show would get very boring). And from the way Sally says, "He'll always let you down" in ASiP, it's pretty clear she has seen him get very important stuff wrong at some point. Stuff that probably made her job a lot harder.

As for calling him a freak -- consider that this is a guy who gleefully shows up at crime scenes and claims to "love a good serial killer". People like that exist in the real world, and "freak" is one of the *nicer* words for them. As for predicting that he will one day start murdering people himself... well, she's not wrong there either, is she?

And why is Sally so essential to the universe Moftiss have built for Sherlock? Because she and she alone acts as the conscience for the whole show. Not Mycroft, not Molly, not Mrs Hudson, not Lestrade, and certainly not John -- all of them love Sherlock too much. For all that Sherlock claims to be friendless and misunderstood, in fact, almost *every* character we get to know on the show adores and admires him. Hell, even the big villains are desperate for his attention. So Sally is left on her own to stand up for the perspective of the normal, decent, rational, responsible citizen -- the kind of person who thinks amateur vigilantes with a semi-erotic attraction to crime should maybe *not* be a part of the justice system.

It's easy to lose sight of that fact, because the *show* loves Sherlock, and so of course do we, the fans. But despite the fact that this version of Sherlock Holmes is brilliant and funny and charming and deeply compelling (not to mention devastatingly sexy), he's not actually a very good person. And Sally's entire purpose on the show is to remind us of this inconvenient fact.

[angrycowboy]

Michael Guerin Week 2019

Day Four - Favorite Scene (Malex)

“And then you look away,” Alex says, believing Michael has stopped loving him in the time since they were seventeen. He’s fumbling a bit, and he’s a little disoriented, and he never maintains complete eye contact - the full reasons why unclear until several episodes later. But it’s Michael’s headshake as Alex says it, unbelieving and denying, because that’s wrong, Alex is wrong. There isn’t a day that’s gone by where Michael Guerin hasn’t loved Alex Manes. “I never look away,” Michael replies, never breaking eye contact, and laying out the depth of his feelings. Because from the moment he turns around to face him, Michael keeps his gaze on Alex. There is nothing more important, more worthy of his attention, than Alex Manes. 

[thrawnisbae]

Okay but what if Konstantine was so salty about Grand Admiral Thrawn because he once outranked Thrawn, but Thrawn climbed the ranks so quickly that he ended up Konstantine’s boss. What really galls him is that deep down he knows Thrawn deserved the promotions. Thrawn is a living reminder to Konstantine of his own mediocrity, and it was Konstantine’s simmering resentment of that which led to his fatal mistake.

[nickelkeep]

Dean’s Deepest Desire

SCROLL PAST, I AIN’T HIDING. So get this...

Dean’s deepest desire wasn’t his father. Or his family back together again.

Dean’s deepest desire is to not be the person who has to save the world. 

Hear me out.

John asks Sam why he isn’t in Palo Alto. They ask John what year it is. It’s 2003. A whole two years before the show starts. They correct him and tell him it’s 2019. They’ve pulled John from before everything as we know it, has even started.

John’s absence is also noted. Zachariah and Castiel, in the pizza shop know that someone has messed with time, and that the Angels don’t like it when someone has messed with time.

When the Winchesters show up in the shop, Zach says the line  "The Winchesters. We had plans for them, until their father went missing."

They didn’t need to stop the apocalypse, because John wasn’t there to make the deal with Azazel. Dean didn’t go to hell to save Sam.

So, Castiel didn’t rescue Dean, cause there was no reason for him to do so.

So we have the world where Sam stayed in college, and became a fancy lawyer, and probably married Jess. Dean stayed an average joe hunter. He doesn’t appear to be very good, or he’s the Jack Sparrow of hunters. (I can totally picture him saying “But you have heard of me.”)

Cas doesn’t have free will. He stays in Heaven (or wherever Sam blasted him to). Seals don’t break, Luci isn’t let out. Apocalypse flavor of the season never happens. Mary never comes back.

Flash forward to Sam and Dean doing dishes in the kitchen. Sam’s upset because it’s not fair. I get it Sammy. You see Mom and Dad happy. But you and Dean of all people know that life isn’t fair.

Yet. Dean has learned his lesson. Dean’s desire is to not be the person to save the world. To not have this shit piled on his plate. But he wouldn’t be who he is. He doesn’t know that Dean Winchester. But he knows this one. And he likes this one. And even with all the shit they’ve been through, he has his family. The one he has made. He has Sam. He has Mary. And he has Cas.

His deepest desire was a question. And he has his answer.

[offcolord]

HEADCANON 002.  //  CHANGE OF HEART 

Regarding Lars’ character growth. A lot of people associate his character development being pinpointed to Off Colors, when Steven revives him. But, I believe it started pre-pink; and it’s in part because of Steven. DISCLAIMER. If you read this in a shippy manner, please take a good 50 steps away from me, thanks.

Lars has grown since we first saw him by a lot. A lot of his changes can be attributed to Steven, directly, and indirectly. Of course, with Steven being the main character and a catalyst of peace and nonviolence, this makes sense.

Anytime that Lars is around Steven, even in the beginning, while there is a lot of malice, Steven -- even if temporarily -- manages to break Lars out of his shell. For the longest time, Lars wanted nothing more than to be cool; to fit in and be seen in a positive light. This involved pretending to be someone that he wasn’t, and this would supersede any effect that Steven might’ve had on him. As well as supersede anything/anyone that actually mattered to him ( ie - Sadie ). We’ve seen time and again Lars disregarding Sadie’s feelings -- who can’t quite brush off the hurt like Steven can -- several times.  Lars begins to see this -- such as in Island Adventure. Albeit, whatever wrong that he could see that he did, in his mind was balanced out by the wrong he felt by Sadie -- even if they were both in the wrong, in my opinion. Lars isn’t looking at any of this through rose colored lenses; he knows who he is and what he is doing. He knows he’s being fake; but he’s a teenager, and he wants to fit in. At this moment in time, that’s the most important thing to him. In Lars and the Cool Kids, Steven wears him down even more when Lars goes a little too far in insulting his mother/Rose Quartz. After this -- and Lars genuinely shows remorse -- Lars isn’t quite as harsh to Steven, even if he’s visibly annoyed by him.  After the aftermath of The New Lars, in The Good Lars I believe is when Lars hits the bottom of his change of heart -- with the party, and his cake. He is torn between something he loves ( baking ) and something he yearned so much to earn ( the acceptance of the Cool Kids ). Ultimately, he makes the wrong decision and throws out the cake.  In I Am My Mom, he is still at the rock bottom before his turn around; we see his slight hesitation when Sadie is grabbed by Topaz. But, true to his fear and selfishness, he runs -- despite having an outward desire to want to help her. We see all of this peak in Stuck Together -- Lars’ lack of desire to help Steven in a manner of escaping, all building up to his break down/rant -- when Steven snaps at him ( What’s your problem?! ) and Lars breaks down with  “Why do you think I'm capable of anything?! You think I can do all this stuff, but I can't! I can't because... I'm a wuss, Steven. I'm just afraid. I've always just been stupid and afraid. Not like you. You're always helping people. You're never afraid.” At this point -- I believe that Lars sees Steven as a very strong person. Someone who has no fear, someone who is good. Someone that he picked on because he believed that it was someone he could never be. And, this was a turning point because Steven gave him the revelation that he is afraid.  His change of heart was a long time coming, and did not start just with Steven reviving him. There was a straw that broke the camel’s back, so to say, with Lars defending the Off Colors that lead to his initial death -- something I believe was sparked by his earlier break down with Steven, and Steven’s later affirmation of It’s okay to be afraid, paired with the desire to help these strangers that risked themselves to save them; all of this STILL pre-pink.  Lars came into being “pink” with a change of heart, the pink was a merely, in part, a device to illustrate how far he has come.

[nekofantasia]

“Blood smell makes you throw up? I mean, sure if it’s rotten but it wasn’t that bad.”

[jennathearcher]

Wonder Woman or Harley Quinn

Give me two characters in my inbox

“vs.” for who I think would win a fight

“or” for who I like better

“+” for how I ship them (platonic, familial, romantic, not at all)

OH JEEZ BREAKING OUT THE TOUGH CHOICES RIGHT OFF THE BAT. I should have expected nothing less from my followers, and that’s a compliment since they know me so well :P 

I mean, I love them both SO much, both have been dear to me since childhood and my love for both of them has since been renewed through their appearances in recent DCEU movies; all of which made me feel like a small child again seeing my heroes come to life on the big screen. While I tend to have a clear bias towards Suicide Squad in all things, because I love it and all the characters in it with all my heart and soul, I did just see Wonder Woman last night and I think I speak for everyone when I say HOLY FUCKING–

I think it comes down to whether you place more value on a character that’s deeply admirable or a character that’s deeply relatable, I suppose. In a way, Diana and Harley are polar opposites, though they also have very strong similarities to each other. 

Diana stands for truth, justice, love, and virtue, whereas Harley stands for chaos, fun, and eccentricity; though love is also very important to her in her own way. 

Diana had a very pure kind of first love with Steve, albeit not without its ups and downs, that ended up motivating her and making her stronger, while Harley fell hard and fast for the wrong guy and made a lot of bad choices because of it that irrevocably changed her life; though I’d say her relationship with J did make her stronger as well, just in a different way. 

Diana is still so full of hope for the future even after everything she’s seen and experienced, Harley is full of bitterness towards the rest of the world for alienating her and is determined to own who she is in spite of them. 

Harley is a social outcast, both because of the choices she’s made and part of who she fundamentally is as a person. Diana started off her journey as something of a social outcast once she left Themyscira, but was able to learn and grow and integrate herself into the outside world; if anything her experiences give her a very unique view of the world. 

(Admittedly, their experiences differ vastly; considering Harley is of the modern age and gained her metahuman abilities later in life, and Diana is a hundred-plus-year-old demigod who spent her formative years isolated from the rest of the world.)

With all that being said, both of them value love above all things, both of them strive to be accepted in a world that doesn’t deserve them, both of them were made stronger through their connections with other people (not just in a romantic sense), and both of them speak their minds regardless of what other people might think of them for it.

Ultimately: Diana is the type of person I want to be in the future, whereas Harley is more like the type of person that I am currently. 

Both of them are equally important to me, because Harley shows that you can still be a hero and succeed even when the rest of the world has given up on you, and Diana shows that showing your emotions and having compassion for others is a strength, not a weakness. I would also say that both of these characters make good role models for young girls, in different ways.

So it’s very difficult for me to choose between them, even just for the purposes of this meme.

Just to get personal again for a moment: I have a lot of anger and bitterness inside of me, and it’s very hard for me to control that, especially when I’m emotional. Right now, I feel like I might never get to be the type of person that Diana is, no matter how much I want to be, because I would have to change who I am as a person in order to do so. That’s a very disheartening thought.

But in the comics, Diana and Harley have interacted with each other many times, both on opposite sides and as allies. I’ve seen examples of moments where Diana has shown pride in Harley, and even admiration towards her for her ability to beat the odds and prove everyone who doubted her wrong. 

So maybe if I can at least strive to be someone that Diana would be proud of, that might just be good enough for me.

With all of this in mind, I might have to go with Harley for now, but just know that I love both of these characters deeply and hold them very close to my heart, and always will.

I also want to cosplay as both of them eventually

[gncrevan]

i just hope and beg that suicide squad will not go down the battered and brainwashed road in regards to harley. i need her to be the person who became what she is now out of her own free will, following the joker because he showed her freedom and he made her laugh. i think her origin was always a happy rather than a tragic story; we don't really know her background but judging from her job and being successful at such a young age she must have been working very hard, i think she always felt like she had to prove something, like she had to be better than everyone else in order to count, and she built up this whole professional persona but that was never really her. she loves being emotional and childish and silly and that is why joker could so easily charm her because he never took her less seriously based on that, he never made her feel like she can only achieve things and do things as long as she keeps up appearances, he showed her absolute freedom to just do whatever she wanted and that's why she followed him and fell in love with him, he embodied everything she never allowed herself to be and that was the catalyst for her transformation. i'm not going to pretend their relationship isn't abusive and he doesn't manipulate her because all of that is absolutely true, and he definitely did prey on her back when they met, but she's a highly intelligent women, she didn't just fall for a bunch of lies and stories, she fell for the offer of absolute freedom and a life philosophy that does not think about consequences, and she made the choice to take it for herself, not for him. that's why she continues being harley even when they are not together because it is her true self, and that's why she feels so grateful to him despite all his abuse because he was her catalyst and she can't separate that from her feelings for him. that's why she will ultimately always choose the joker, because choosing him the first time was the best thing that ever happened to her and her harley quinn persona that makes her happy is entirely entangled with him and she doesn't want to risk losing that persona, that sense of self.

[lady-feste-pendragon]

I still haven't finished series 5 of "Merlin," so I don't *entirely* know how Merlin's post-series existence plays out, though I've gleaned some of it through Tumblr osmosis. But can we think about the poor guy visiting a modern Renaissance faire (if you have not already done so elsewhere)? Because I imagine his reaction would be both horrified and amused.

aRW YOU KIDDING

He'd probably LOVE it. At first.

I mean, to be honest, the Ren Faire version of medieval England is probably closer to the BBC Merlin version than real medieval England is. It's cleaner, healthier, nicer, friendlier, with brighter colors and more moral standards and definitely a great deal more joy. 

When he first discovers Ren Faires, he's taken aback and a teensy bit insulted. He walks around, correcting things in his mind. Jester would never have wasted their time in the streets like that, he thinks. Tournaments weren't nearly this pleasant. Why is that person volunteering to be the witch they all fake burn at the stake?? People actually DIED, is this all a joke to them?

But then different things get to him. It's a familiar environment, with the added upsides of the food is so much better and no one stinks, and there are smiling faces all around him reveling in the spectacle of the past. And he finds himself at home. So he follows a bunch of faires, and he uses them to forget. To pretend. He goes to every one he can find, traveling huge distances in something similar to desperation if he runs out of local events. He ceases to live in the present world for several years and does nothing but stroll around reenactments and faires and festivals and pretend no one he loved died. He loses himself. 

Eventually he ends up roaming around with a specific group long enough that the actors recognize him and ask him if he'd be interested in joining. After all, he's really into the faires. He goes to every one, always comes in really authentic costumes, acts like he was actually there. He's really knowledgeable and friendly and he'd made a great addition to any faire troupe. He accepts. It's the mechanics of planning the things and putting them together and seeing how they work from the inside that jars him out of his make-believe land. It's really hard to pretend it's still the middle ages when he has to help set up the tents and look for wifi hotspots and cater to tourists in jeans and t-shirts sniffing distastefully at prices in booths and paying with credit while snapchatting their friends.

And after a while, he starts wondering how much he's missing out on in the real world, and his fellow actors are a little weirded out about how he sometimes forgets himself entirely and starts speaking middle-English and grabbing at the shoulders of armored men with their backs turned and stammering apologies when he realizes the people he's calling for are long gone. He starts to look around the the faires with a yawning ache in his stomach, grief reopening like no other pain he's felt before, and he becomes angry and surly and he cries, sometimes, when no one's looking.

He leaves the faires entirely behind soon after that, and rarely attends anymore. Except sometimes, when he feels too much like a stranger in time, he buys a one-day ticket and enjoys himself, dressed in modern clothes, smiling at all the actors but rarely speaking to them, attending all events and fights and displays but hardly ever touching anything. He stays while the hurt and the grief grows first sharper, then unbearable, then eases off into an uncomfortable little voice in his head, and then he leaves. 

[pumpkinpaix]

and the fucking awesome animation during the moving sequence seriously i have slowed it down to the frames and watched the bathroom emerge bit by bit it's awesome like the toilet actually kind of weirdly blooms and bursts and spits out the toilet paper dispenser it's fucking hilarious and um excuse me the bombing scene where everything familiar is engulfed in flames and ruin like that's such good visual storytelling, destroying visual symbols and parallels right before our eyes because of the war - the train, Sophie's windows blown out, even though they just moved in and it's technically "new", those are also the first images we see in the entire movie, there's significant emotion associated with that dumb train and her dumb room and it's literally just gone in a second how cool is that for eliciting emotion without even really saying it.

[sensiblethingtodo]

I had an epiphany and since you were in a rant I thought what the heck.. It bugs me now watching the scene where Jesse slams the door on B. If he PAYS ATTENTION to movies he'd understand why she pushes people away. Hello Jesse there's this thing called Defense Mechanism. And if he cared about beca in the way he should, he'd understand it and stop being such a fragile puppy. I don't want to hate Jeca but I despise Jesse and just hope he's a bit downplayed in pp2 or at least portrayed better.

dgjsdlfhsd!! oh my God. the thing about me and jesse is that i don't hate him. i just don't like him and beca together. they would work more as friends than anything. it bugs me SO much when the general audience paints jesse as the "perfect guy" and how beca is "such a bitch" for pushing him away. and because i love beca SO much, i will always be on her side. and god, beca has issues written ALL OVER her. her "fuck off" attitude and "wow this shit is so lame" front. anyone with a brain could tell that beca obviously has issues dealing from her parents' divorce. it's so cliche yes but jesse really should've backed off. he is your typical "nice guy" which i HATE. but again, i don't hate him. i just think he needs someone who won't take his bullshit *coughaubreycough* 

BUT unfortunately, ebanks is pretty much in love with jesse. SIGH. and it'd be so unrealistic if beca and jesse were still together but let's see. i really think the second movie should just be the girls with no love interest but sigh, can't have that.

[midgar-incidents]

Oh but that shot of Dr. Lecter with the American flag in the background.

You're not even from the US, you are the US, coming in on your old world wealth with the hunger of imperialism. Tall tailored emblem of the vanity and conspicuous consumption of capitalism. The manipulation that tells us it's our fault and not the system when we fall. Cultured smart rich white guy whose charismatic systematic authority no one will challenge. You sit right there and reveal the predatory violence behind every privilege, the brutality behind the person-suit of civilization, the pursuit of happiness that never scruples from wanton destruction—not only justifying those acts, but elevating them… You just sit there and do that.

[weirdcuneiform-blog]

how about rohun

rohun is interesting.  like, really fucking interesting.  you don't even know.

a lot of people have told me, "you haven't studied enough history.  if you studied more romanian-hungarian relations you would not ship it" and i'm just like ??? i didn't ship it before i read the history; now that i'm a bit more educated i actually do.

i said earlier that i think bulgaria and romania know each other better than anyone else possibly could, but my second favorite trio ever is romania-bulgaria-hungary and it's for a reason. i like to think that despite bulgaria and romania being close, hungary is the second runner-up: as their enemy, she has to know their strengths and weaknesses, their likes and dislikes.  she has to know what they can survive in order to know how to defeat them -- keep your friends close and your enemies closer, after all.

hungary and romania are strangest kind of rivals.  they've fought the same enemies, for the same land, even for the same people when the occasion calls for it.  they're geographically close and have to deal with the same shit, the same powers bearing down on them.  and yet through all of it they continue to clash, to say, "if you can get through this then god help me i'll get through it and better."  the things they hate about each other are the things they hate in themselves; they use their rivalry to push themselves to be better people.  to fight, and to win, and it doesn't matter how or when you finish as long as you finish first.

they are actually the perfect example of a kismesis pairing, i think.  they've been at war with each other for so long that if they were to lose that competition with each other it would destroy them.  because even when all the other battles are won or lost and all the other nations are allies, they will always have each other to best.

so i don't ship them red in canonverse haha.  i think that they could get along, but with all the bad blood between them there's no way that could happen outside of an au.  but they make a perfect black couple.