#parallels abound
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anakin's unparalleled ability to become his vehicle, to extend his awareness beyond himself and mesh into the machinery, disappearing into the environment of the race, the battle, and reacting with superhuman unconscious skill and reflex—it's been with him since he was a small boy, and continued well into his adulthood. it's a fundamental part of who he is and how he interacts with the force, the context in which he excels beyond any other human. he doesn't have to reason, doesn't have space to even think, he's bigger than himself and transcends himself. qui-gon told him to feel, not to think, to trust his instincts, and this is the only time when that advice is completely valid. when anakin is a pilot, he can forget about all his pain and fear. he can be really free to lose himself, and become the best version of himself at the same time.
#anakin skywalker#infinitely beloved#his best self behind the control of a ship#terry brooks' phantom menace and matthew stover's revenge of the sith#parallels abound#sw
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i’ve been rotating priest seb and fighter pilot max in my head since i saw that tag just so u know
i have a few ideas but like. i wanna know what You think
Dorian you're in L-U-C-K have you seen this yet? Have you seen it!!! Anon dropped priest seb and fighter pilot max going to a confessional and expected me to stay sane I'm gnawing on it like a baked potato with bacon bits and sour cream and butter and chives!!!
Wanna know what I think? I think Max is the youngest pilot in his cohort, I think he outflies his instructors, I think he's daring and bold and he rewrites the rulebook and pisses off his peers and he's that guy and he's IT until he doesn't get chosen for some top clearance level mission, something about not working well with others, something about not playing by the rules, and suddenly he's left unmoored.
Angry. Lost. As a joke one of the recruits suggests going to church. Max nearly punches him. But he's got nothing better to do on a Sunday since he's got no mission to accomplish. He goes to church.
The priest tells silly jokes that the congregation must be paid to laugh at. Except Max is laughing too. He's got a cheeky little grin and a kind, soothing voice, and the collar looks just that bit looser on him than it has on any other man who's worn it before. At the end of the service, the priest goes, Remember, it doesn't matter how long since it's been since your last confessional. God has no timeline.
Max stalks out of the church doors. Gets to his car, then stalks back. He does this two more times that by the time he gets to the box, the church is empty. Well good, there's his decision made for him then.
But the priest is still there.
He tries to remember the words. Forgive me Father for I have sinned. My last confession was--
Jesus. Ah, crap. Probably petitioning the lord in this way isn't the best thing to do at the moment. But he can't remember the last time he's sat in the box.
The priest says, very kindly, Go on, son.
Max swallows. Pride, and avariciousness, and greed, and I think I'm better than them, and it should have been me, the sky welcomes me like no other, they fly as if their feet are still mired in the dirt, and I do as if the earth has no hold on me, and--
He stops. The priest hasn't said a word. Well, they asked him to confess, so he did. Max waits, half-expecting the priest to chastise him in his stupid fatherly way.
The priest laughs. Fighter pilot, huh?
Yeah.
That brings back memories.
Max blinks. Wait, what? You fly?
Flew, the priest corrected. I was young once, and--
Please, Max says. You're still young, anyone can see that. And then he flushes when he realizes he'd just alluded to being very aware of how the priest looks.
Oh sue him. The priest is handsome, alright? He’s not blind.
Why, thank you. The priest sounds delighted with the compliment. Oh my god. What kind of priest is this? But I was saying, I was young once, and I used to think the sky belonged to me as well.
Max leans in, entranced, never mind that he can just about picture how this priest is sat, one leg probably crossed over the other, cheeky smile on his face as he recounts his story. And? Did it?
No. The voice is tinged with wistfulness now. The sky never belonged to me. As does any of God's creation.
Ah. That's what loneliness sounds like, Max is well aware.
The priest leads him through a prayer of contrition. Max recites it by rote, when there are a million other questions he wants to be asking. Amen, he says, and there's a pregnant pause.
The priest's voice is soft. I hope you will return, son.
Next Sunday, huh. Well. It's not like he has anything better to do.
#athy texts#fanfic#rpf#max/seb#and then he keeps coming back#and then he wrangles the story out of seb#parallels abound#youngest cockiest genius#until he went on a mission and ignored the rules and in doing so had to be saved by a friend who sacrificed his life for him#and seb decided to act out the word penitence#anyway max falls in love#this is what i'm thinking#but dorian now you must tell me#what are YOU thinking#priest/fighter pilot au
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Seeing the flashbacks in 7x08 sheds so much light on Bobby's reaction to certain events during the show.
Why Bobby treated Buck the way he did after the embolism and the lightning strike. It's so much more than just being an overprotective parental figure.
The first time was this fear that Buck was in front of him, coughing up blood and dying. He couldn't save his father from dying, but he sure as hell could try and save Buck. And do everything in his power to make sure he remains safe and out of danger.
And then Buck dies after being struck by lightning. He sits vigil at his bedside when he knows there's a chance that Buck will pull through. And he comes back. So, of course, this time, he treats him differently; of course, he overcorrects and gives him slack in his performance review. Of course, he's gentler with him, Buck woke up. And his father didn't.
Their relationship is so complicated in that Bobby views Buck as his son, but he's also been this trigger for the trauma he experienced with his father.
What happened with his father also reinforces why Bobby struggled so much with being unable to sus out Jonah. Bobby put on his headphones and didn't notice what was happening in his house.
#911 on abc#911 spoilers#911#911 abc#bobby nash#evan buck buckely#all this to say really that this was one of my favourite episodes of this season#The parallels abound#and it makes the Bobby and Buck dynamic that much more intense and complicated and good#I also would love to see Bobby being able to give Eddie more advice in the future about the ones you cannot save#and how you cannot use people to fix your guilt over the losses you've suffered and things you wish you did differently
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sorry going back to this people don't understand how fucked gaslighting is and generally downplaying the impact of psychological abuse. but think about how isolated Louis is. think about how long it's just been the two of them. think about how Armand fosters a paternalistic "protective" environment for Louis (his "prison of empathy") and how the one time we see Louis try and access emotional support outside of Armand pre-Dubai (making a connection with Daniel, speaking about Lestat and Claudia, two big no no zones for Louis and Armands relationship) he is brutally punished. Think about how Louis can't trust his own mind, how he needs Daniel (just like he needed Claudia with Lestat) to help make sense of his story. Like... how must that feel? To be trapped in a cage, being told it's for your own good and believing it. Internalizing the victim blaming (apologizing to Armand for his attempt, "I don't consider myself abused") because to realise after so many years together, a relationship predicated on running away from a past abusive relationship, that it is the same would be for it all to crumble. Which is why the finale is so powerful -- it's Louis taking back control.
basically . can we talk about this shot.
#iwtv#loumand#louis de pointe du lac#sry this is a rambly mess#and this is not even factoring in the reveal that armand actually directed the play.#the note about the hoarding?#armand is constantly framing louis as a hysterical woman 😭#< s1 and s2 parallels abound. i love this show#my text
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Personally I want Garp to break out with Pudding and punch Blackbeard as hard as he can as a last Fuck You before he can finally keel over but maybe that's just me
#old man we gotta make use of what remaining power ya have to get Pudding OUTTA there#or at least that's where I think the plots headed#it's either that or Kuzan being undercover is still something thats on the table#monkey d. garp#opspoilers#one piece spoilers#one piece ch 1126#opspoiler#Another thought I had was Blackbeard using Garp to lure out Luffy as some sick parallel to Marineford which is. lol. fun 💀#speculations abound
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I will never get over how on the nose stewy and Marcia’s names are. Oh wow stewy u changed ur name from “sincere” to “person who manages property and finances” wow ur so subtle. Omg Marcia ur name means war. Fucking poetry. You two should be friends. It’s so silly <3
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I like Eowyn, Eomer and Faramir now too.
Bring on the protective, slightly patronizing brother-sister dynamic. So anime.
Bring on the mutual healing and romance in a hospital ward. Not sure if that’s anime but it’s still one of my favorite things.
#parallels to flowers of Mordor abound as well#lotr#lord of the rings#lanespoiler#faramir x eowyn#eowyn#Faramir#eomer#crossover#anime#flowers of mordor au
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this trip home has been soooooo fjdlksaghdslka; i've started JOURNALING
#visited old work today and it was 30% really nice and 70% WEIRD#it really feels like it has entered a dark parallel universe. shadow realm. weird vibes abound. it is not the same place I am mourning#and I am mostly just sad for the people left there because no one seems happy. but it really affirmed why i left#i do not feel the need to go back any time soon
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Rumours abound! Do we need to ready the crabs?
Probably not, but I can tell you what I personally am hoping for, to whit:
Charles survives this. It's quite important to the crumbling of the royal brand that he lives as long as possible so we have a dramatically unpopular king for as long as possible, because this is the age of "I get to vote for who wins the jungle, WHAT DO YOU MEAN I can't vote for a prettier king"
Steven Colbert has just announced that William has been having an enthusiastic affair with some Marchioness of somewhere or other. I want this to be true.
There will be some royal announcement of something today. It will probably be about Charles' cancer prognosis, but I hope - God do I hope - that it will actually be the announcement that Kate is divorcing William for infidelity, because I cannot stress enough that the best case scenario here is that the only popular one left is massively tarnished by grubby scandal. Even if Charles does then die, the replacement is his gross grubby son who has taken after him in the one way that made Charles himself hated by the public. I want to see the headline "Like father like son: Diana would be appalled" across the front page of the Daily Mail, with side by side photographs of a weeping Diana and Kate to highlight the parallels. I want to see the Times call Kate our 'Queen of Hearts' as she nobly and sadly leaves Buckingham Palace with her crying children. I want everyone to remember that Camilla was the evil Other Woman who should never have been queen, as they now gaze upon the Marchioness of Chumbawumba (I literally don't know where she's from) and shriek 'homewrecker'.
Will this happen? Probably not. But I can dream.
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hey kitkat, if its not too much trouble, could you make a propaganda post for the silt verses? I've been seeing you talk about it a lot (i have spoilers marked dw) but im afraid to look up anything about it. is it horror? all i know about it is val <- horrible woman(?) so im intrigued. was wondering if it'd be possible for a silt verses post a la that trc post you made a while back
OH, ABSOLUTELY. i think about 95% of my followers have no idea what this media is about, so this ask is very exciting. i'll preface it by saying that i think it's edged out the dreamer trilogy for my favorite story Ever -- it's exactly on par with the first two books in terms of Reading My Heart Off The Page.
the premise:
the silt verses is a now-complete horror-tragedy narrative podcast set in a fantasy world that has many parallels to our own. this fantasy world is embroiled in late-stage corporate capitalism and is ravaged by the effects of colonialism, war, and oppression.
in this world, gods are created through sacrifice and belief. there are thousands of them, with thousands of individual religions.
the problem is that gods must be fed through human sacrifice. and if they aren't fed, they die.
and people are very invested in keeping their gods alive.
sacrifice is considered a necessary part of society, something that's as essential as breathing. the idea of simply not making sacrifices is considered a violent, radical, leftist anarchist position that is simply unsustainable. or so the state would have you believe!
but. SOME gods have been outlawed, and worshiping them WILL get you killed by the government.
the state says that it's because these gods are uniquely evil, and too dangerous or sadistic or wild to be fed.
in actuality, gods are outlawed when they don't serve the state or corporations' purposes. the question at the heart of the worldbuilding is always, "is Anything you've been told about the gods and the magic true? how much of this world is socially constructed? who benefits from the way things are?"
Metaphors Abound.
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the cast:
the first season follows four key narrators; the second season introduces a fifth; the third a sixth.
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carpenter - sister carpenter is an older woman who was born into an outlawed river-worshiping faith. she has seen her entire family murdered by the state, including her brother, parents, and grandmother. she briefly left the faith but returned to the parish because she had nowhere else to go; her relationship with her river and her church is complicated at best.
carpenter begins the series as a """devout""" disciple of the river parish. in actuality, her faith has been slipping for a Long Time. she's no longer certain that she loves this god she's been killing for for her entire life.
she begins the series investigating some unexplained "miracles," aka Deeply Fucking Horrific Murders, that appear to have been done by her god.
alongside her is brother faulkner.
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faulkner - faulkner is a kid, somewhere around 19 or 20 years old when the story starts. he was NOT born into the river faith, but was instead called to it, back when he was still a rural farm boy living with his father and brothers. his first sacrifice was his brother, who he drowned on the farm. he later left home to find the parish.
faulkner has been with the parish for a pretty short period of time, but he truly IS a devout fanatic. because of this, he does not get along with carpenter. the two of them bicker a lot. carpenter thinks that faulkner is a stupid country bumpkin who's naive and full of starry-eyed optimism, and he annoys the piss out of her.
faulkner is not a dumb country bumpkin.
but he knows how he sounds and he knows how he looks. so he plays the part of the starry-eyed child with ease.
he is planning to kill carpenter.
he knows she's slipping, he knows she's losing her faith, and he wants her dead. he's been asked to keep an eye on her because the parish knows she's slipping, too.
uh oh!
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hayward - investigating officer hayward is a police officer in the religious homicides division of the greater glottage police force. this police force has jurisdiction over outlawed gods. hayward's job is to find outlawed gods, arrest/kill their worshipers, and report them to the government.
he is the main antagonist of season one. crucially, he's a Good Cop - he's friendly, affable, funny and likable. he's kind of a dickhead bastard, but in the way that the protagonists of Cop Tv Shows (TM) often are. he offers to "help" the people he's arresting. he's good at playing the role of a good guy who just needs to uphold the status quo for the good of society.
but. he is, first and foremost, a cop. and the narrative has a Lot to say about cops. and about other people whose job is to Enforce The Law.
so. don't think that him being a Good Cop means that he's Actually a good guy or that he's not dangerous to the protagonists. Hoo Boy.
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paige - paige duplass is a corporate boardroom executive who works for a marketing firm that creates gods. her job is to do all the marketing and branding for new corporate mascots. what does the god look like? how does the worship work? how are the sacrifices made?
but her company's profits are waning. and they need to return value to the shareholders.
so. they're going to kill their employees.
not paige, of course! she's a highly valued member of the team. she just has to keep everyone calm and be a kind, upbeat manager while the Layoffs approach. everything is fine, everyone. we aren't going to kill you :) don't worry :) just keep smiling :)
the horror of this gives her a crisis of conscience; after all the murder goes down, she leaves to go on a long drive.
which becomes longer still when she's taken hostage by carpenter and faulkner.
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shrue - season two introduces shrue, a spineless liberal politician who runs on a """left-wing""" platform but really could not care less about anything except polling numbers. they're willing to do rotten, ugly propagandist things for their campaign -- including killing the river god. and all of its followers. for the good PR! :)
not great news for carpenter, faulkner, or their people.
but then shrue experiences Actual Violence up close for the first time. and it Shakes Them To Their Core.
and, well. suddenly they're not so comfortable being a spineless liberal politician anymore.
too bad they've locked themselves into their role and cannot fucking escape it!!
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val - introduced in season three, VAL is the saint of a god of liars, purposefully created by the government for use as a weapon. she is the remnants of a woman who killed herself to serve her country. she does not remember who she is or what else she wanted, aside from her mother's approval.
as the saint of a god of liars, whatever VAL says becomes true..... as long as someone is there to listen. you're a loyal soldier? no, you died of a tumor as a child. you're a politician begging for mercy for the sake of your infant child? no, your baby has an insatiable taste for flesh and ate your sorry ass. etc
she's a monster and a sadist; she enjoys killing people to try to fill the emptiness in her. she is in terrible pain all the time and does not understand why. and she is becoming increasingly disillusioned and sick with herself, the government she serves, and the Utter Pointlessness of all this systemic violence.
but how do you break a cycle when you Are the cycle?? how do you get better?? how do you change anything??
much to consider.
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overall, it's as close to a perfect story as it gets imo. literally every detail is carefully, painstakingly chosen to further the themes, arcs, characterization, etc. the plotting is suspenseful, the horror is Deeply Fucking Scary, the storylines are gutwrenching, the voice acting is spine-chilling, and the characters are So Fucking Compelling.
also, i get frustrated by representation-first fiction recs, but if you get this far and want to know: it's Deeply queer. faulkner, paige, and shrue are all trans (shrue is they/them, paige is a post-transition trans woman, faulkner is a trans guy who's recently started T). carpenter is aroace, there's casual representation and normalization of trans n gay people throughout the ensemble cast.
and more importantly, it's just. So Damn Good.
@valtsv @deermouth you two are the other main silt verses bloggers i know, so if you want a pitch for your followers.... here is this!
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no, like,,,
an episode one parallel? a dream made reality? a race to get to one another? heart eyes and smiles and caresses abound? two well-lit, well-angled kisses?? an "i love you" ???
GUYS, THE SHEER AMOUNT OF FOOD WE HAVE ON THIS SHIP,,,,
#OFMD#OFMD Season 2#OFMD S2 Spoilers#Gentlebeard#Blackbonnet#Edward Teach#Stede Bonnet#Revenge Rambles#I'm simply going to be cemented to those two minutes all day hsdjkssd#I AM NOT GOING TO BE LEAVING THOSE TWO MINUTES
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as a DM adding symbolism to a world, especially religious symbolism, is really funny due to the sorts of ramblings it produces from me. hitting up the friend group that isn't in the session so as not to spoil my players: "hey do you guys think it'd be too obvious if i made this shopping sequence have a bunch of weighing involved with a cashier named jack to foreshadow the anubis parallels later on in the campaign?"
what makes this sort of thing funnier is when it's for minecraft. i talk to my friend (who's also in the server and gave me a bunch of ideas to add more allegories) and go "hey do you think the pishon river out of eden, surrounding a place with gold and onyx abounding, could be sufficiently translated to a piglin haven in the overworld?" i love writing
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Blyke and John: Parallel Characters
I’ve written multiple entries about this,
[x] [x] [x]
But I’m back to make a comprehensive analysis about the glaring similarities between these two. I’ll try not to repeat myself here.
‼️SPOILER WARNING for the whole series‼️ but this mostly focuses on the story before John’s suspension.
Firstly, this scene:
ch. 121
This conversation takes place near the beginning of the Joker arc. It’s after John targets Zeke, after he targets Juni, and the day before he goes after Seraphina’s kidnappers. The timing is important.
“If someone hit your best friend, would you let it slide?”
That question is supposed to remind us what John does to people who hurt Seraphina: hunting them down and sending them to the hospital. Blyke shooting a destructive beam really close to John was an example of a trait they share: they both blow up violently when people mistreat their friends.
John’s downward spiral carries strong themes of hypocrisy. He’s angry at the world, he’s angry at himself, and as a coping mechanism, he chooses to believe that everyone else is as bad as he is. That means that most of the traits he hates others for are the same things he hates about himself. In this scene, Blyke is unintentionally calling out this hypocrisy: “What I did is no different from what you do”.
But Blyke’s just trying to connect with John here, he has no idea what John’s been doing. And John, of course, doesn’t give a shit about what Blyke has to say. This line was here for the audience to notice.
They’re both so similar, but their similarity immediately causes tension between them because, well, John was on the wrong end of Blyke’s protectiveness.
I really love the way this was written— there are so many flashbacks to this scene, but they remember it differently. John remembers the part that hurt him— he’d describe it as “the time that jackass shot a beam at me”. Blyke remembers the part that hurt him, or rather, hurt Remi: “the time that jackass hit Remi for no reason”.
Blyke and John are both hotheaded characters with strong ideals. They’re similar enough that Seraphina points it out:
(ch. 80)
As Blyke grows as a character, he becomes more like John: sticking up for low tiers and speaking out against the injustice in the world. But while Blyke is doing that more, John is going in the opposite direction, until they are fully opposed to each other.
Speaking of Blyke’s character arc, it took me a few rereads to actually understand what part of him changed. His kindness, selflessness, bravery— all of those things were there from the start. Blyke’s character arc was about becoming more aware of his surroundings, and how his carelessness can harm others. Blyke was never malicious, but after X-Rei and integrating more with the school, he becomes aware of people suffering around him and how he unintentionally contributes to it. He becomes less reckless, privy to the flaws in the system he grew up not questioning, and uses his power more responsibly. He even comes up with a more controlled way to wield his ability. The part of Blyke that changes is his maturity.
Part of John’s character arc is also about being careful. It’s not as close of a parallel as other things are, but one of the things that John works on during his redemption arc is holding back. Both of them learn self-control throughout the series, and for John, that means acting early before his emotions spiral out of hand.
Adding onto my first point about the two of them wanting to protect their friends— the fact that they can’t do that makes them both angry and desperate. For most of the story, the “block” that prevents John from protecting Seraphina is in his head. It’s his own trauma that holds him back. The block that prevents Blyke from protecting his friends is, guess what? Also John’s trauma! Parallels abound.
Another thing I noticed in Episode 80 is this:
Notice that when Seraphina says “I’d take that over strength any day,” John is looking at the camera. He’s avoiding Sera’s gaze. Seraphina is saying she prefers honesty over strength. John is very strong, and very dishonest, but Seraphina thinks the opposite because John is so dishonest. John appears to be reflecting on this disconnect.
In relation to this analysis, Seraphina is actually pointing out a major difference between Blyke and John. Beyond that, she’s praising Blyke’s traits, (less strong but very open) above John’s traits, (strong as fuck but a liar with his pants on fire). Furthermore, John really cares what Seraphina thinks of him. Knowing that she would think less of him is the main reason why he spent so much time and effort preventing her from catching his lies.
This leads into my main point here: Blyke is the “goody-two-shoes” version of John. Or, more accurately, the person that John wants to be. Blyke has a clean track record and doesn’t really get into trouble. He is respected and left alone by the school without being hated and feared, he de-escalates conflicts without taking things too far, he doesn’t lose control, he’s someone Seraphina thinks highly of, hell, even his grades are better! Blyke represents everything that John wants to be, and the person that he could have been if he’d gone down a different path.
But, crucially, John is also what Blyke wants to be. Well, not wholly, but his ability? His strength? It’s one of the things John hates about himself, but Blyke wants that strength so desperately that he risks his life for it over and over again.
They’re both desperate to be like each other, even when they hate each other the most. Neither of them have any idea how alike they already are.
I don’t know what Season 3 holds in store for us, but I do hope that John realizes that Blyke embodies who he wants to be, because mutual jealousy would be a very interesting dynamic to explore in my opinion. I also hope that it ends up being something they can bond over, by helping each other accomplish their personal goals. (Blyke being another helper in John’s character arc, and John helping Blyke train.)
A side note: John beat up Blyke four separate times. That’s more than any other character, which is interesting because John’s main rival is supposed to be Arlo. For reference, John has beaten Arlo twice, three times if you count the time when Seraphina intervened, and he only beat him unconscious once. But John beat Blyke to the point of passing out all four times, the worst of which being a shot clean through his chest. (shoulder? Unclear. S1 finale).
It’s odd, isn’t it? Out of everyone, Blyke is the one who John physically hurt the most. John’s only grudge against him is an old memory from episode 33, of an event that didn’t actually harm him. John’s grudge against Arlo is much more serious and again— that’s his main rival. So why is it that he’s so much more violent towards Blyke?
The problem here is that I’ve been thinking about these fights as “John picking on Blyke”. And that’s… kind of true? But while Blyke didn’t start any of these fights, they were all consensual in a way. He didn’t seek to fight John, nor was he ever happy about fighting John, but he was always a willing participant.
(138, 153, 206, & 211)
In three out of these four fights, John didn’t even expect to be fighting Blyke going into it. This is significant because while Arlo is John’s main rival, John absolutely fills that role for Blyke. Blyke’s own agency is what leads to most of these events. The reason, narratively speaking, why they fight so much is not for John’s character, but for Blyke.
For John, his reason for fighting Blyke so much is not narrative but moreso symbolic. John is angry at everyone and everything, but ultimately the person he hates the most is himself. It’s only fitting that the character most like him would bear the brunt of his wrath.
As John is having his positive character arc (suspension and post-suspension), he is becoming more like Blyke, and the two of them reach a point where they’re even more similar than they were at the start of the series.
In the Rowden amusement park, John does start to realize how similar they are:
(249)
Additionally, I want to draw your attention to the parallels between this scene:
Blyke and John’s argument in chapter 249
(which the image limit won’t let me add, scroll until you see red hair.)
And this scene:
Argument in ch. 121 (it’s at the beginning)
Two sides of the same coin.
Furthermore, in the S2 finale, Blyke is shown being taken to Keon. There is an implication that by Season 3, Blyke and John will share Keon-related trauma as well. Despite my pessimistic predictions, I do hope that this is a similarity that can bring them together rather than tear them apart.
#unordinary#I had another point that i had to cut#because it was about the john slaps remi scene#and how like blyke knew he wasn’t gonna miss and hit john by accident but john doesn’t necessarily know that#and that john assumes the worst (blyke was aiming for his head) bc he’s mad#and blyke also assumes the worst (that john hit remi for no reason). But when i was looking for screenshots to back it up#and i was looking for the one panel where john referred to blyke as “that idiotic redhead who tried to blow my brains out”#as proof of john assuming the worst#But then i found it and it doesn’t even say what i thought it said#it says “THREATENED to blow my brains out”#Smh john didn’t even assume the worst. He knew it was jyst a threatening shot even thogh he was mad#And then my whole thing kinda falls apart because blyke assuming the worst is actually just the logical conclusion since he can’t read mind#Like how was he gonna know john was having trauma issues#Yargh okay so i think i cut all the parts that don’t really make sense but it’s late so this is a low quality proofread#Gonna be honest this is NOT structured very well#Theres more to be said about john hating other people for the same reasons he hates himself#and I didn’t quite hit it#but it’s lateeeeeee#something about how Blyke is so similar to john but lacks most of what John hates about himself so John projects his insecurities—#back onto him anyway#Something about in ch 249 when he says something something “because I couldn’t cope with the fact that you guys weren’t actually bad people#Yeah idk im too tired to get into it#blyke unordinary#john unordinary#oh also has something to do with when john says “i may have deserved those classes but they sure as hell don’t” about keon#i think that’s significant#analysis#i have a bad feeling that someone in my notes is gonna purposely misinterpret my “goody two shoes” blyke statement ngl#”did you say that blyke is perfect and john is evil”#like something like that
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Last Twilight: Episode 6 reflections
Welp! Once again! Aof Noppharnach! Thanks, buddy! Fist bump. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE AFTER THAT.
I'm gonna live, because we get ANOTHER flirty episode 7 next week, woop woop. But let me review what we've all been screaming about today.
Anti-August rhetoric is abounding, yes. I would argue that the narrative themes that the character of August presented during this episode were set up in episodes well before this disaster that August created happened.
This episode demonstrated Aof's mastery of dissecting interpersonal engagement and relationships, as well as offering an examination of chosen vs. unchosen familial bonds. The examination in particular of the nature of nuclear (unchosen) family bonds -- especially in the face of the impact of a traumatic event like Day's sudden blindness -- is subtle and exquisite so far. I'll get more into this in a moment.
The show's been laying all of this down for us since the start, paralleling the impact of the unchosen bonds Day has with the world he has left around him, with the chosen bonds he's made with Mhok, and vice versa. That is all happening alongside Mhok's continued internal emotional journey of change and stablization, which again, I'll touch on in a moment.
In episode 5, we heard Day describe his sports partnership with August as akin to an "arranged marriage."
Day showed us in the last episode that he did the majority of the lifting of the partnership he had with August. Day HAD to be the emotional stabilizer of the partnership in order to win championships. Akin to the Asian practice of arranged marriages -- it certainly takes two to tango. But if the CULTURAL expectation--
(THE HUGE AND ENORMOUS AND ASSUMED CULTURAL EXPECTATION IN ASIA, mind you, which we are reading between the lines here) --
of the OUTCOME of an arranged marriage is to 1) have children, and 2) not get divorced -- well, if someone isn't pulling their weight, the partner has to clock some overtime shifts.
Day did overtime, and boop, fell in love with his badminton partner. I don't blame him. All that work to get to know August's ins and outs? And the way August looks, mmhmm? Yeah, I get it. August may have been a butt, but Day doing that all that work to accidentally find himself on the attraction path wouldn't be surprising to me.
We get to episode 6. We see that Day is being failed by his unchosen family. We still don't know what the deal is with Night, despite Mhok's inquiries. (I apologize to @respectthepetty for not finding their theory post that Night was behind the wheel of the car accident that first affected Day's eyes -- shout-out, Senpai.) We see Day's mom sort of failing him prior to his birthday. We see that Day was sort of expecting his mom to fail him anyway.
I wanted to capture Day's mom's emotional reaction here because... we know past stuff is percolating. Day's mom's career comes first and has come first. The wins come first, as they should have been for Day when he could still see and could still play badminton.
Day was prepared to be disappointed. That hug at the end of this scene with his mother was a sigh of relief for Day that his mom came through, but we don't know the extent to which his mother hasn't come through in the past, except by way of having kept Day inside for a year after the onset of his blindness.
And then Day was failed, again, by unchosen family.
August says, "I'm willing to do whatever makes him happy," but, just like nuclear/unchosen family -- you have to KNOW the people around you to KNOW what ACTUALLY makes them happy. Nuclear/unchosen family can't just clock in and clock out of family work. It takes more zhuzh than that.
For example: changing diapers might be a role a parent performs. It'll make a baby happy to feel clean and dry. But are the babies happy to actually wear a diaper? No. They don't know from diapers. The babies will be happy with loving, caring, and attentive parents showing them attention. From there, emotional growth will flourish.
Love, here, is not exactly about roles and tasks, as August is defining happiness above. Love is about something different -- it's about paying attention, at all times, to the people you love, and responding accordingly.
Unchosen family can very well fail you, because at the end of the day, they're still "family" by blood and sometimes bond. That's why it's important for so many of us to have CHOSEN family that shows up for us.
REMEMBER: BETWEEN DAY AND MHOK? DAY CHOSE MHOK. THAT'S A CHOSEN RELATIONSHIP FOR DAY, FINALLY, FOR ONCE IN HIS LIFE.
And Mhok comes into Day's house, starts to take care of Day like a partner, starts to get to know Day's ins and outs, and boop -- Mhok has found himself falling for Day. Quite the different paradigm from August, who did and does shit.
And in episode 6? Here comes Mhok, barreling in from the start of the episode, re-shifting the paradigms in Day's life that were created by the unchosen people that preceded Day in close proximity. I love how the VERY first scene of this episode started with Mhok announcing himself to Day in Day's room -- very unlike the way that August had silently slunk away from the bar in the previous episode.
And all the ways that Mhok is right behind Day as August engages through the episode, checking in, vibing. And respect to Mhok for taking some time away from the birthday party at the end, too. Did it break my heart to hear Day calling for Mhok before August's final arrival? For sure. But Mhok needed some space to process --
-- and then he came back, watched what was happening, and you know what struck me? We again saw a moment where Mhok has changed, as I mentioned last week.
Mhok could have pummeled August! Imagine if that shit went down at the start of the series. Lil' August wouldn't have any damn teeth left. Remember that Mhok pummeled that m'fer that Porjai was with, TWICE.
Mhok didn't kick August's ass this time around. Mhok held himself, he asked August questions. Day also knew what Mhok was capable of, but Mhok held himself. FUCK. Exquisite!
And then.... we got the rooftop, we got the rooftop.
This is a great series. THESE ARE GREAT EPISODES.
Couple other quick notes:
1) JIMMY AND SEA! JIMMY! THOSE LOOKS ON THE ROOFTOP! YOOOOOOOO.
2) I just want to acknowledge all the sensualness of this episode by way of scent and touch, and trust the family on posting about it.
That being said:
I've been known to be intrigued by scented things emanating from Aof's shows in the past. He had posted on IG a few weeks ago about a perfume company he likes, I went to check it out, and bloop, I got myself a sampler for the holidays.
I clocked the cologne that Day gifted Mhok.
As far as I can tell, this specific bottle called Tiwa doesn't exist -- although I love that the fake brand is "UNTOLD STORIES," written at the top. Tee-hee.
Coincidentally, a scent called "Tiwa" was created by a company called Parfum Prissana, out of Thailand (they look great, I want to smell them one day).
A website reviewing Prissana's Tiwa notes the description of the scent that came from Prissana itself:
Atmosphere of the day time in a countryside of Thailand. The smell of local cooking herbs and spices and there is fruits orchards and precious woods near by. Tiwa means day time in Thai.
Well, well, well.
#last twilight#last twilight meta#last twilight the series#last twilight the series meta#aof noppharnach#backaof noppharnach#jimmysea#jimmy jitaraphol#sea tawinan#mhokday#mhok x day#day x mhok#morkday#mork x day#day x mork#mark pakin#namtan tipnaree#film rachanun#ohm thiphakorn
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4 MINUTES – COUNTING DOWN
We're now just shy of the mid-point in 4 Minutes (three eps down with five more to go) and I've been avidly watching, but getting quite confused at the same time by all the twists and turns.
Part of that confusion stems from not being able to watch the "Sultrier" version at first, despite getting Viu Premium. (How do they come up with these euphemisms though? Remembering that KinnPorsche also had a "La Forte" incarnation. 🤣) The sanitized 4 Minutes was annoying, not just because the sexy bits were cut out, but also because we missed important, informative parts of the narrative.
For example, Korn and Ton Kla's Ep.1 sex scene was actually an in-your-face illumination of their relationship dynamics, and also a parallel with Win and Ton Kla's own Ep.3 turn in the sheets later, that revealed so much about their characters in the vein of show-don't-tell.
Ep.2's tryst between Korn and Fasai was also missing, as was (inexplicably) the conversation between Korn and a smoking Great in Ep.1. I can only presume it was Great's cigarettes that caused that scene to be snipped, because other scenes also had alcohol and ciggies all blurred out. Highly annoying, but anyway – I finally found out what was going on with Viu Premium, so if anyone else is having trouble finding Sultrier, I will share some tips in a different post.
And with that out of the way, I finally got to watching the unbutchered 4 Minutes – and I'm finding it smart, sexy and oh-so stylish in the mold that we've come to expect from Be On Cloud. Sumptuous cinematography and visuals are now quite a BoC hallmark, that started with KinnPorsche and continued in Man Suang – and 4 Minutes so far has been a delight to take in, a cinematic and super-twisty supernatural thriller overflowing with signs, symbols and scenes (possibly) pregnant with hidden meaning, so much so that the fandom is all a-flutter, me included.
Directing (and editing) has been taut, and I think Director Ning Bhanbhassa Dhubthien does much better when given free rein (unsaddled by screenwriting duties, and P'Pond maybe! 🤣) My take is colored by Man Suang – its huge potential for intellectual engagement (all that historical drama and political intrigue!) was unfortunately not developed to a satisfying extent; its most potent elements were given insufficient screentime, watering down what could have been a truly juicy experience for the viewer. Perhaps it might have done better as a mini-series with a longer timeframe for the developments to unfold, but that's a remake for another day perhaps.
Anyway, back to 4 Minutes. They've been really stoking the furnace with clues to the truth underlying the narrative, and fan theories abound as to what it all might mean while we breathlessly await revelation.
So I can only guess at some of the stuff, and nod at some of the visuals. But here's some of what I've picked up on.
The title 4 Minutes (especially with so many references in Ep.1 to cardiac arrest) is quite likely a nod at the widespread belief that when the heart stops beating, you only have four minutes to start resuscitation before the process of brain death begins to set in. (I'm seeing a lot of different opinions about this online, with some sources insisting the window of time is much longer. But there are enough mentions of the four-minute deadline in more than a few Thai sources that I think this is probably the intended significance, especially since screenwriter Sammon is also a medical doctor who would know of this notion's currency in popular culture. Here's an example in Thai media: CPR กู้ชีวิต ก่อนสมองตายใน 4 นาที/CPR saves life before brain death in 4 minutes.)
After the four minutes are up, it is too late to save the stricken patient – so there is a sense of urgency underlying the notion. (For another work that plays on this, see Madonna's song 4 Minutes where the urgency being messaged is about saving the planet instead.)
But with cardiac arrest, the premise is that even when corporeal death is signaled (cessation of the heartbeat being the traditional marker of this), a person's life-force still has that small window of time for human intervention to make a difference, a sort of ultimate last chance beyond the final frontier, if you will.
This aligns somewhat with what we're seeing of Great's do-overs, each time he is thrust back four minutes into the past. But I think there's also a bit more to it, based on what we're seeing in Episode 3.
Among all the fan theories online, this one by @myezblog caught my eye: Theory - plot is pretty much revealed.
Now, whenever Great is alone, we see that his clocks reset (and Great is aware of this too, by Ep.3). In Ep.1, his clock showed 11:00am (at timestamp 05:00, after his call with Title). And in Episode 2 we were shown Great's clock turning to 11:01 at timestamp 35:06, and in Episode 3 it went to 11:02 (timestamp 41:37).
But the ominous 11 o'clock actually put in an appearance even before these instances. Looking back, at the start of Episode 1 we were shown that the patient in the Emergency Department Resus bay basically flatlined at 11:00 – that was their time of death.
If it's really Great whose heart stopped on that Resus trolley in Ep.1, what we appear to be seeing is a flashback of events playing in his head, leading up to the time of his cardiac arrest (11:00).
And what his clocks are showing him (and us) whenever he's alone during that flashback is basically a countdown of the four minutes that he has, before he is brought back (hopefully) or is gone forever (I hope not – it wouldn't be much of a series then!).
So in the coming episodes, we should be watching for Great's clocks to tick up to the 11:04 mark – that is likely the time horizon when Great is jolted back to the present, hopefully having learnt some lessons reviewing his past that will be key to solving his conundrums in the present and the future.
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Weird thought. Imagine Cryptid!Blue Beetle. Not cryptid Jaime, but cryptid Blue Beetle. Like, what if he doesn’t become a superhero, so less public exposure, but they still see this weird 6-limbed being flying around every now and then. And well, those upper limbs are very obviously alive, just from how they move, and equally obviously not human. So he becomes like, Mothman. Everyone has a story about the Beetleman, about his flat, black and blue face, about its (his? Her? Something else? Nobody has gotten close enough to, ahem, check.) wings and bug limbs. Cities outside of Palmera city think it’s a hoax made up for tourism money. “It’s literally ripoff mothman. It can’t be real,” and so on.
Jaime is unaware of this until it’s too late, because he sometimes goes out for joy-flights, or perches on buildings and structures previously too high for him to reach. This creates rumors of a cryptid.
First time he runs into someone as Blue Beetle, he’s too flustered to talk, so he just bolts off into the sky. Rumors abound.
Also. What if in suit, Jaime has clawed, two-toed feet. Like this.
Two short little claws off the front of the boot, so it has two clawed toes. (At a less severe angle than the claws in the picture, more parallel than perpendicular, like dog or cat toes.) Maybe little spikes like that on the back of his thighs as an extra touch?
YES YES TO ALL OF THIS
Jaime not having the general exposure of a superhero would be so hard on him though. At least in cannon he can say ‘Well I have a world destroying weapon in my back but at least I’m using it to be a hero!’ And gets reaffirmed in that title. But here? Noooooone of that lmfao. He’s trying his best, but from his perspective it would all just feel like some desperate attempt to not turn into a ‘bad guy’. No body wants to get their shit rocked by the justice league, ESPECIALLY not our poor little big boy.
#this is a fun idea dude I really like it#blue beetle#jaime reyes#khaji da#made me laugh#my art#sketch#asks#blue beetle au#blue beetle headcannons
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