#parallels maybeeee

[setmeatopthepyre]

just thought this was neat (from the 8x06 stills)

[accioepiphany]

Ok new thought. You think all these parallels between Carmy and Syd. How she is sort of turning into him in a bad way (the hurt, the anxiety, she just taking Carmy's shit without complaining). Is going to be some sort of wake up call for Carmy?

If in season 4 he realizes he has taken her on a downward spiral close to his... of isolation and worry and self-harm. And seeing it in her is so awful he just can't take it. Like if he were to witness a panic attack like the one she had in Forever, I think he would die. I mean, I think it would finally take him out of his black hole and realize he is doing harm to others you know? And not just to others but to Sydney! I feel something like that would make him go all "never again" and suddenly he would rehabilitate himself instantly, like a bucket of cold water... and he will really listen to everything she says and manage to communicate better and finally turn into less of an asshole in the kitchen??

[istherewifiinhell]

anyway before that episode BIT ME. i was thinking. tuvok neelix caretaking behaviours. please

[tategaminu]

SOOO the title for 05X6 dropped and I'm going feral

Be prepared to hear my long ass theory about this episode and why it will be the rayllum fully gets back together episode (I'm annoying)

Of course we already know season 6 will mirror S3 or at least that's what it looks like. "Moonless Night" is episode 5‚ the same one when Callum and Rayla first got together‚ just as 4 had the title of the place they reach. (The Midnight Desert‚ The Starcrapper)

I have to add‚ just as season 3 had Nyx‚ there's this sky girl called Astrid who may act as the Nyx parallel‚ who knows.

I don't use Discord but my info provider (hello there) told me Devon said episode five would be emotionally heavy and a favourite. A person said ep2 of season 5 were their favourite because the cute rayllum moments and Devon said "until 5 of 6" 🧐

Aparently, it was confirmed by writers this episode would DESTROY people KILL EVEN, well maybe not that but you get me. We know how emotional these two blorbos are for each other right? and we for them. In Discord, a person said ep2 of season 5 were their favourite because the cute rayllum moments and Devon said "until 5 of 6" 🧐

Now let's go to the juicy part. The title. This title is absolutely loaded. like wth. We all know whose favourite girl is related to the moon right? of course we are worried. But I think she's gonna be ok, in the end at least, let me explain.

Of course I'm asuming this scene from the teaser may be from episode 5. We see Callum falling in a moonless night but I'm guessing the title isn't that literal. I think Callum is falling emotionally and literally just as he has before for Rayla. He fell in love with her‚ he fell off a cliff for her and then fell emotionally when she left. The sky he is in is dark‚ no moon‚ representing his own mental state without Rayla. Rayla left him at night just as Callum is falling in the night (omg)

Callum had a moonless night every day for two years because his guiding moon wasn't in his life. I think they may talk about it or it will affect Callum in this episode some way.

Note that the teaser opens with this scene, next we have Aaravos saying "we are all of us, stardust, held together by love for an instant"

(wow subtle foreshadowing you guys)

and the teaser ends with Callum losing his love wings. The wings he got for her. Basically opening with a rayllum scene and closing with a "rayllum" scene ya know

In Chasing Shadows Rayla specifically mentions the stars in his eyes‚ when he does the big speech:

Now‚ what do I think will happen?

EP3: They visit the Silvergroove? just like in ep 3x3. Maybe visit Ethari? "heeey your husband is alive ok bye". My own guess is that they will get the boat from the leaked scene there since there are moon animals in that thing and reach the frozen ship with that.

Ep4: they reach destination and meet the sky elves, Astrid included, with no hiccups. ba dum tss

Ep5: Basically 05x3 but different and sexier

Whatever Callum is about to do I highly doubt Rayla will agree with it because you know how they are (me getting hurt is ok but not you). He convinces her like he did in TTM‚

But this time Rayla is the one to say it

I think that even if Callum promises he will be ok‚ he will have a "I want you to know" moment again and that may lead to talking about her leaving. This may derive into a kinda argument. Callum and Rayla can't continue their talk because they get interrumped (once again) but the memories of a broken heart and feelings affects him badly. He's just emotionally distraught and loses his love wings because whatever. I doubt Rayla isn't seeing any of this, you know how she is. She didn't spend 7 hours watching him sleep to actually not watch this like c'mon

This time Rayla may be the one saving Callum from falling (literally and metaphorically). Now yeah Rayla can't fly but maybeeee

A: she calls out for his name, "waking" him up

B: she just jumps (im going for this one) like Callum did for her. She jumps, not knowing if it's going to work, wakes him up after catching him‚ Callum is able to get his wings back and fly them both into safety, Callum gets his love wings again for her but this time she's being the savior (in the most part). Maybe even completing whatever mission they ask as well. TOGETHER.

After this we may get a Rayla is a hero speech or this time Callum is a hero speech, I don't know‚ I think it would be more fitting if it's from Callum and the hero Callum speech is from Rayla to her parents. Whateve, they finally have their three sesaon dragged conversation and they both kiss like in S3 but maybe reversed this time (Rayla kissing first and apologizing and Callum kissing her next) and they fully come back together :'). I dont think we will get an I love you until ep 9 but we won't really need it here right? we already know!

The episode ends with them kissing under the moon. Moonless Night ending with with a moon night (metaforically and literally)

Now‚ this is just my own guess and it sounds very very self-indulgent (heh) but a girl can dream

[rainbow-string-tied-me-to-you]

Guilty as Sin? is about Harry Styles

I mean there are some lyrics that points to that which alludes her other songs which are written about HS.

This is literally the music video of OOTW (excuse the grainy ass images, but the point still stands. x | x)

The lyric image below, that's wonderland, baby.

See:

Now, these next two are a bit far-fetched (I say "far-fetched" but I do think they parallel each other) but in the haylor fandom, august and labyrinth are both assumed to be songs about haylor.

This part of the song parallels the lyrics to these two songs:

Like in labyrinth, girlie pop is already saying the same thing where in one little thing can make her fall back in love with this man all over again. ALSO, PLANES, them paper airplanes. It's like a haylor staple.

Up next, we have this part of the song. It's basically her having "clandestine meetings" with her "illicit affairs" lover. Also, again with August.

Like if we lean into the "folklore and evermore are just stories Taylor made up in her head," and the albums just being her ways of escapism, then I do say that this is her imaging things that never happened, thus:

Moving on to this part

Now, I'm moving to a little bit of clowning stage here, but we're all clowns at the end of the day, anyway, 'cause we'll never know until Taylor confirms it herself. Anyways, this reminds me of All you had to do was stay, specifically the part where she screams "Stay!"

Ending that and moving on.

I mean..... this is just Slut! summarized.

Also, just for a little more of that sprinkle of clown territory, I also interpret this part --

-- to her may or may not be "recalling" things with maybeeee them flings. I mean:

[remdeans]

tell me…….. about having bobby as a father……… what was that like :3

omg hiii elle!!

okok so i know canonically bobby never had kids because he was scared he'd turn out like his dad BUT i think he would've been a great girldad . like obviously he wouldn't be perfect because no parent is perfect . but he'd be good and loving. maybe a little overprotective over his baby girl, but that's fair after what happened to his wife (she's still killed by a demon in my timeline, so rem never knew her and was raised by just her dad)

but yeah . i feel he'd parallel sam and dean's dad in the way that where john went wrong, he'd father her better (i'm so great at words) . which is to say, he wouldn't raise her into the hunter life but he would of course explain to her what really happened to her mom when she's old enough to understand and tells her about the lore . and when she's at a reasonable age, he'd teach her how to use a gun and defend herself from monsters in case he's not able to since he's still a hunter. but he tries not to bring that stuff home and would probably go out on hunts less with a kid, preferring to stay home with her and just answer calls and give hunting advice. but if he does go out on hunts, he'd leave her with Jody or another hunter friend until he gets back

he's also definitely the type of dad to help with homework and get confused and a little pissed off because "it wasn't like this when I was your age" .

rem was kinda more tomboyish being raised by just her dad though (i'm also "tomboyish" but that's not the point) . but bobby would make sure she had Barbies, my little ponies, maybeeee spoiled her just a little bit (Dean definitely still makes fun of her for being a Daddy's girl and mockingly calls her "Princess") but he just wanted her to have a better childhood than he did . he'd also take her hunting (as in deer hunting, but only once because it made her cry) and fishing and play catch because he's not entirely sure how to raise a little girl but he's trying his best

for this reason, she had issues making friends in school and was often outcasted, so sam and dean were the only ones who could really understand her growing up .

i think he'd still have a bit of a problem with alcoholism because that kind of thing doesn't just go away like that. but I could see him accidentally raising his voice once and working on himself because he doesn't want that for his kid

TLDR; not perfect but he tried his very best

[facefullofsadness]

oh my god you just singlehandedly saved the aeri community on tumblr with ur latest aeri ficz/!2@:&:&:!3’ please im so down bad tje model au OHHH MY GOD so dopamine coded… pls more aeri ficasjsej i CANT EVEN put into words fr i love ur writing and keepnthem aespa fics coming on speed dial 😣😣💯💯💯

RAAAHHHHH THANK YEWWWW SAUR MUCH!!! no literally this draft has been diligently worked on since the start of june and then dopamine dropped during their concert and I was listening to it but the lyrics had me like... wait a damn minute... why is she talking ab me rn... ☠️☠️ no chat I'm telling u me and her are on the same wavelength we're like this fr 🤞!! thank u for loving the fic and enjoying my writing! I enjoyed writing it even though she had me up till 5 am writing it some days, more aeri/aespa fics incoming I promise u that, maybeeee parallel line solo song inspired fics incoming? hmmmmm???

[allgremlinart]

does he have plot relevance or do u just like old men

re: Jeong Jeong

WELL MAYBE IT IS BOTH !! LEAVE ME ALONE !!!

like yes technically he appears in maybeeee 3 episodes but his initial meeting with Aang sets up Aang and Zuko's parallel firebending journeys in The Firebending Masters and also he provides important worldbuilding re: Fire Nation deserters and adds depth to Zhao so WHADEVER !! old men who live in caves are important to ME...

[koumeowkami]

OHHH btw I used to have an insane 2winmez brainrot too so I get you so much. I started with the Nayu-Hina and Kana-Yuta parallel too but then I moved on to something else and I actually believe that it'd be fun to see Yuta and Nayuta interacting, I think Nayu would definitely feel that Yuu is similar to Kanata and would (perhaps) become comfortable in his presence a bit easier?

As for Kanata and Hinata I have a whole writing in which Kanata starts being so annoying by Hina because he's unbearable until they reach. a point. in which Hina opens himself and Kanata sees past his cheerful facade and sees all the pain. It's then when he understands, and perhaps he also sees that at the end of the day, he's not too different from Nayu, but to him either. As a person who sacrificed everything for their beloved brother.

I think that once they bond they'd understand each other so much. Both pairs have a reason to respect the other because they literally match each other's moral criteria which is insane to me. I also want to see the Aois teaching the Yatonokami some acrobatics while skating because I'm so fucking sure Kanata would be like "pff I can do that too obviously" and proceed to fail miserably

(srry for the amount of text, my brain randomly started braining and I had to share)

ngl the pairings are pretty changeable cause generally speaking they all get along well together!! and i get that nayuta would feel at ease with yuta since his attitude is similar to kanata's, he'd be instantly attracted to him and maybeeee finally have a chance to be a kind of an older brother (since he can't do that with kanata) ???? tho yuta probably wouldn't let him do that, i don't think nayuta would baby him a lot since he doesn't like that either djdbdj

kanata would definitelyyyyy get closer to hina once he finds out his true feelings, i really think he would relate a lot to him and hinata would even help him understand nayuta's point of view better?

GOD THE AOIS TEACHING ACROBATICS TO KANATA WOULD BE SO FUNNY. i think kanata would hate being taught something since he's a bit prideful (hence him immediately trying to do that and failing miserably) but then end up loving it and probably mixing it with his breakdancing!!

anyways DON'T BE SORRY AT ALL. please share more if you can !!!! i love having people to ramble about 2winmez with 🩷💜

[laggingbehindreality]

OKSO vanoras a character from vincent the secret of myers (an indie point n click investigation and horror game that takes place in a dystopic future) and spoilers. a thing she did at the end of one chapter was kill vincent in self defense and maybeeee also apathetically. vincent has a strong relationship w another male character and there's a lot of romantic tension too, bunch of tragic things happened to him that makes it hurt even more. basically the fandom acts like vanoras evil incarnate calls her a bitch etc etc when it'd like. she's a fucking parallel to vincent. she has the same tragedy too ITS SO CLEAR THAT IF SHE WASNT A WOMAN SHE WOULD NOT BE TREATED THIS WAY!!!!!!!

ough ;<; well now youve got me interested to look up a lets play of this game and see for myself, thanks for clearing that up

also smal thanks for being the first non-bot to send me an ask for a while now that was a nice change of pace ovob

[onewomancitadel]

i think one of my favorite knightfall parallels has to do with how both of them want to be really important in the context of the "story" of RWBY (both of them id say are really genre savvy as characters) and yet think so much lesser of themselves than everyone else does. jaunes "theyre the ones that matter" moment in haven where cinder then purposefully injures someone else to deny him his "heroism" vs cinders "without you i am nothing" moment in v8 and jaune after the fact ends up killing penny as a way to deny her "maidenhood"

That's a really interesting point! I do have a deviation of interpretation with the Jaune-Cinder sequence at Haven, but I'll totally give you that you elaborated on it this way to demonstrate your point - the same is true of the situation with Penny, because I think there is ironically something redemptive here.

Cinder rejects Jaune's heedless self-sacrifice. Jaune similarly rejects the notion that Cinder needs the Winter Maiden power, because newsflash: she's already the Fall Maiden. That's basically the implication with her character and why she was successful getting the Fall Maiden power but not the others. (Looking at what you already have is the Fall Maiden's lesson in the fairytale).

In a really warped way, it is actually... oddly good for both of them? They actually in some strange way affirm to them that their erroneous beliefs about themselves are incorrect? It's especially weird that Cinder, in so many words, is actually... telling him his life is special, in a fucked up way which is so delicious I want to throw things. In that same process he awakens his Semblance, aka the beginning of his true purpose (and that his life matters and has some meaning).

Of course what I think is interesting as well about the Haven sequence is that Cinder is projecting and probably made uncomfortable with his sentiment towards himself. This is the 'Without you I am nothing' villain, who has crystalised her pain into a glass shard. Then you've got the whole Rhodes and Huntsman thing, and it starts getting personal quick. The fact I'm made to think about these associations and associate these two emotionally makes me pause.

I completely agree with you about genre-awareness; both of them have assumptions about what sort of story they're in and it both guides their mistakes (villainy/cheating into Beacon and the responsibility Jaune feels for Pyrrha etc.) as well as actually potentially guides their redemption and maybeeee even their romance. The idea that the two ostensibly lesser or unimportant characters who were tied through enmity are in actual fact tied through romance which heals the cosmic wound of the story is of a dramatic irony on such a scale I cannot convey to you how amazing I think it is. They think they know what story they're in and that they're not important and they're working against that without even knowing what direction they're really going.

So the fact that what you've articulated here actually describes both a denial of what they ostensibly want to be (in a wrong way) but is also rooted in something oddly redemptive is what makes me endlessly fascinated with this pairing. Then you've got the fact that there's this kind of dizzy dance where they're effectively skirting around each other narratively, you're almost in the right direction, you're almost there and you don't even know it - Cinder is something (the Fall Maiden, or just who she is, as she is) on her own terms and Jaune really can save someone and actually find the real bleeding wound and be a 'Huntsman' in the way nobody was expecting. I especially like it because the hero is archetypally meant to cut the bad guy down. That's basically what a lot of people believe about Jaune and Cinder anyway. The idea that he's not the archetypal hero but a better person is more interesting to me and strangely tonally appropriate. It's not like it's a passive relationship, either, and I think that is what's redemptive too: the maiden is the dragon both, so you can't just break her out of the tower.

That sense of 'close, but not quite there' with them is so interesting to me because like, what other conclusion am I being led to but romance.

Thanks for your ask anon, that was a great observation. <3

[dawnssummers]

they set up parallels between buffy and riley as secret demon hunters with very different philosophies and then they explicitly have adam relate to riley as 'creations' of maggie walsh and yet it feels like missed potential! they never even seem to spell out that experimenting on demons is a bad thing! maybeeee there are media law limitations around messaging but it's like. maggie dies for her follies / we see that adam can't be controlled but adam could and should have expressed more frustration over being intended as some kind of weapon and also maggie should have been framed more as a natural result of this environment and not a mad scientist outlier. and riley has his crises of purpose and does help oz escape but there's never a real moment of showing that this whole operation was bad because i actually don't think it's a grey area i just think the military is bad. and i mean we would also have to look at the idea that maybe there ARE harmless demons which yes we SHOULD consider. angel is good at showing demon diversity and like different shows different main protag purposes but still. we get so close to Some kind of commentary with oz being captured and it gets dropped. and then riley just rejoins the military what was up with that. the military operation that was secretly feeding him drugs so that he could hunt demons who would then be experimented on??? i also just remembered they literally chipped him. dude what the hell. he actively does not know how to adjust back to "normalcy" after all that. when buffy was the one being secretly drugged on behalf of the organisation that she worked for bc they didn't see her as a person she eventually walked out and only came back when THEY could work for HER and i'm not even trying to pit riley against buffy i am saying that this was badly executed he and the boys could absolutely have left in that helicopter to be rogue demon hunters. bc however much i want him to die for cheating on buffy it would have been a good end to riley's narrative to have him not be in the military.

buffy and riley have been used as weapons while adam seems to have been created for that purpose. and at the end of s4 we start to dig into what it means to be the slayer and buffy once again refuses to do it alone. generally there are distinctions drawn between buffy who has this calling to protect people (being called a 'killer' is shocking bc it isn't how she sees herself, it's not what she wants to be) and the initiative who comes in thinking they can hunt. Then there's adam's demons vs humans thing which was silly like why give him this vision to populate the world with versions of himself (???) when he could be having a proper identity crisis as well. literally have the incitement be either part of his programming or true disillusion with a humanity that created him. idk this was a chance to further interrogate military and slayer systems just as s3 started and ended with unionisation. and most importantly i hate the military...

btvs season 4 if they had committed more to the anti-military / child soldiers / war machine ideas

[justlookatthosesausages]

Five spirits, and five times we see the elemental stones

[goatsandgangsters]

EPISODE SEVEN LET’S FUCKING GOOOOO

I’m so grateful to past!me for resisting the urge to finish last weekend, because this is such a nice reward after a very Hectic Week

OH WE’RE JUST IMMEDIATELY STARTING WITH EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER WANTED, hUH???? THEY’RE REALLY JUST GIVING ME EVERYTHING HUH?????????? 

oh they really were just like "well I guess we can't keep his full name under wraps for three seasons" huh!!!!

….my TV randomly turned itself off in the middle of this flashback. Just full on shut itself off. NOT EVEN MY TV IS EMOTIONALLY PREPARED FOR THIS. shadow summon so hard my goddamn tv just goes black. 

anyway prequel duology WHEN?????????????

I JUST THINK. PERSONALLY. THAT HIS DRIVE TO PROTECT GRISHA FIRST AND FOREMOST IS HIS MOST COMPELLING CHARACTER ASPECT. AND THAT—HOWEVER DISTORTED HIS METHODS BECOME—HIS DRIVING FORCE AND THE REASONS THAT BROUGHT HIM TO THIS PLACE ARE, THEMSELVES, UNDERSTANDABLE AND COMPELLING. AND I’M GLAD NETFLIX AGREES WITH ME ON THIS.

also I like that they were like "what's the easiest visual shorthand to convey that ben barnes is younger now" and some genius was like "narnia hair?”

must be all the sNOW because the scene with alina and the stag full on gave me c h I L L S

OH THESE ARE SOME. HM. PARALLELS. OCCURRING. WOW. WHAT WITH THE ARROWS AND ALL. 

oh Kaz you are eXTREMELY BAD AT THIS. oh wait actually, maybeeee doing better? OKAY I’LL GIVE HIM POINTS HE’S DOING BETTER! OHHHH OKAY NO ACTUALLY GOOD JOB, KAZ, GOOD JOB. I’m fucking EMOTIONAL. I’M!!!!!!

OH OKAY GROSS, WHAT IS THIS, HANNIBAL?????????

milo, the goat’s name was milo

J E S ?

I love Jesper so much. I have nothing specific to say, other than I love Jesper so much

oh genya absolutely CRUSHIN IT in this scene

NOT GONNA LIE, IN TERMS OF DYNAMICS, THE MAL/DARKLING SCENES HAVE BEEN HANDS DOWN THE MOST TERRIFIC?? Like I think part of what I like so much about Darklina in the trilogy is that they—bar none—have the MOST interesting scenes together (I mean, it’s certainly not the ONLY reason, but the richness of all their scenes certainly helps). Like, every scene they have is like 10x more Charged than everything else. And I gotta say, the scenes with Mal and the Darkling? REALLY BRINGING THAT ENERGY TBH oh it’s so fraught and delicious and they play off each other EXCEPTIONALLY WELL I’m thriving

OH JESPER LOOKS FLY AS HELL!!!!!!!! DAMN BOY, WHAT A LOOK!!!!!!!

IS THAT

OH MY GOD

IT’S HIM

IT’S MILO

MILO TO THE RESCUUUUUUUUE!!!!!! I have never related to Mal more in my entire life than in this moment of him sweet-talking a goat

you know how I said the darklina scenes in the books are the most Interesting, most Charged, and most Fraught? they still are but jesus christ these are even MORE FRAUGHT and even mORE BETTER

FINE!!!!! MAKE ME YOUR VILLAIN!!!!!!! Me:

I think if you combined Kaz, Inej, and Jesper’s entire wardrobes from this whole season, you’d like… you’d have Gender. you’d do it. you’d have The Gender.

No mourners!!! No funerals!!! Me again:

god I hate this show it’s so fucking gOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ginmo]

so I'm reading Feast for Crows for the first time and I just stumbled over the story of Ser Galladonof Morne, the Perfect Knight, and I'm getting so many Braime vibes? I mean, the knight who holds honor above all and the one who lost thier heart to them and gifted them a magic sword, like.....I need a minute

YES I’M SO HAPPY TO GET THIS IN MY INBOX

“Ser Galladon was a champion of such valor that the Maiden herself lost her heart to him. She gave him an enchanted sword as a token of her love. The Just Maid, it was called. No common sword could check her, nor any shield withstand her kiss. Ser Galladon bore the Just Maid proudly, but only thrice did he unsheathe her. He would not use the Maid against a mortal man, for she was so potent as to make any fight unfair.”

NOW there is a very clear Jaime and Brienne parallel to this tale with Oathkeeper being the “enchanted sword” that the Maiden (Jaime) gives to Ser Galladon (Brienne) after she lost his heart to him. Just like Brienne and Jaime are beauty and the beast with the roles and genders reversed, their genders and roles can be seen as reversed for this tale as well. (Although, it can even be argued that Jaime is somewhat of a symbolic maid, considering the only person he has ever been sexual with is his twin, and since there’s that delusion of being the same person then…) Oh and this story? IS TOLD BY BRIENNE. It’s introduced IN HER POV like………….

Anyway

“No common sword could check her, nor any shield withstand her kiss. “

Oathkeeper? Yessum. Valyrian steel is forged from magic and is known for being incredibly sharp and superior to ordinary swords.

And then Crabb responds to the story like

Crabb thought that was hilarious. “The Perfect Knight? The Perfect Fool, he sounds like. What’s the point o’ having some magic sword if you don’t bloody well use it?”

“Honor,” she said. “The point is honor.”

That only made him laugh the louder. “Ser Clarence Crabb would have wiped his hairy arse with your Perfect Knight, m’lady. If they’d ever have met, there’d be one more bloody head sitting on the shelf at the Whispers, you ask me. ‘I should have used the magic sword,’ it’d be saying to all the other heads. ‘I should have used the bloody sword.’ ”

And then later Brienne is all

“I should have used the magic sword.” 

“Podrick,” said Brienne. “There’s a sword and scabbard wrapped up in my bedroll. Bring them here to me.”

And

It wasn’t fair. She could not fight without her magic sword. Ser Jaime had given it to her. The thought of failing him as she had failed Lord Renly made her want to weep.

SHE (-cough-GRRM-cough-) EVEN FUCKING DIRECTLY RELATES OATHKEEPER TO THE JUST MAID -AKA THE SWORD THE MAIDEN GAVE GALLADON- I JUST………..!!!!!!

HOW. MUCH. CLEARER. DOES. HE. HAVE. TO BE??

Also

“Ser Galladon bore the Just Maid proudly, but only thrice did he unsheathe her. He would not use the Maid against a mortal man, for she was so potent as to make any fight unfair.”

Unlike the show, Brienne keeps Oathkeeper hidden most of the time, and only uses it against men in two separate occasions to defend herself.

As for what this little tale could maybeeee mean for her character (besides the obvious of Jaime and Brienne being a romance)? Let’s look at Brienne drooling over it.

When she slid Oathkeeper from the ornate scabbard, Brienne’s breath caught in her throat. Black and red the ripples ran, deep within the steel. Valyrian steel, spell-forged. It was a sword fit for a hero. When she was small, her nurse had filled her ears with tales of valor, regaling her with the noble exploits of Ser Galladon of Morne, Florian the Fool, Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, and other champions. Each man bore a famous sword, and surely Oathkeeper belonged in their company, even if she herself did not.

So here GRRM is setting her up to be like one of those heroes, and she even brings up Ser Galladon. SO it’s possible she’s going to parallel Ser Galladon WHICH MEANS there’s one theory that is all like-

“but Ser Galladon was no fool. Against a foe eight feet tall mounted on an aurochs, he might well have unsheathed the Just Maid. He used her once to slay a dragon, they say.”

[thoughts-in-a-moon-crater]

(this whole ordeal got me analyzing things shot by shot whenever possible now... so as i'm rewatching things,)

9. in TSiP, there's a TON of light purple/lilac overlays anytime there's john and sherlock. reminds me of the theme colour for john and mary's wedding in TSo3. seems to me the colour of wedding/reunion/celebration has been established and laid bare in the first episode of john/sherlock first meeting... mrs hudson wore a purple dress top like the bridesmaids when she welcomes the two the first time. what could this be suggesting? :)

10. in TBB sherlock accesses john's laptop to use the email (although he has his own laptop and phone... wonder why he actually uses john's laptop). anyway, john quickly snatches back his laptop while sherlock is in the middle of typing an email, which means he has not logged out, which means unless sherlock 'logs out of all devices' through his laptop/phone/other device, john would have access to his emails (and in this modern day, that also means ALL connected accounts). remember, earlier sherlock also (very gently and sweetly, tho i may be biased) let john to use his card for shopping, which john takes out of sherlock's wallet himself. maybeeee it's me but it seems to me by the SECOND episode sherlock and john have practically established trust and laid bare their vulnerability (at least very much for sherlock but not so much for john as sherlock actually goes out on his own way to pry into john's privacy). then we have the 'he's my friend/colleague' at the bank and 'that (a date) was what i was suggesting'. i find this funny because earlier in TSiP sherlock pretty much reads that john is flirting with him with his 'married to my work' comment but then afterwards he consistently tries to get closer almost flirting (and attached) to john and then sulks his way out in TGG when he has a little 'domestic' with john over the solar system or something (which is also absurd in my view because as much as sherlock doesn't care about the solar system, his laptop wallpaper as he googles the ancient vases IS A BLUE-RED GRADIENT OF A GALAXY, ALMOST AS IF JOHN (who is always associated with blue-red for some reason even on his wedding flower brooches....) IS SHERLOCK'S UNIVERSE. HUH). maybe when i have the energy i'll edit this out with snapshots but i just need to point out how sherlock's blue night pajama dress thingy(?) is slightly off his left shoulder when he gets up from the couch to see john leaving from the window... and THEN by the end of the episode we have a 'you... ripping my clothes off in a darkened swimming pool people might talk' pose....... okay what a parallel here. but sherlock doesn't care what people think, except what john thinks. whaaat is going onnnnn

also if i could give some emotional context... i am VERY open about stuff like my mental health etc but when one of my colleagues offered to share with me a subscription account, i haven't gotten back to them and probably never will because that feels too vulnerable to me and i am not ready to be attached that way with someone i don't trust enough to accept me for what i am, genuinely, no matter how much they said they will, not without specifics. that's how unguarded yet guarded i am and so i relate to both john and sherlock's personal level of privacy

11. also, i've always noticed this red thread sewn on the upper left side of sherlock's coat. what i've heard so far (at least from watching anime), a red string sorts of symbolizes a soulmate connection. and that string is placed near his heart? i wonder if there's something worth looking into this one, still.

12. also in TSiB,

john: (after obviously adjusting his pose to get a better angle at sherlock's crotch... in Queen's...) are you wearing any pants?

sherlock: no

john: okay

sherlock: ...

john: ...

sherlock and john: (catches each other's eye contact and bursts out laughing, john never asking sherlock to put his pants on, just a "sherlock forgot his pants" remark)

also john about irene being naked in front of sherlock in her own home: OH GOD ABOVE WTH PUT SOMETHING ON PLEASE HERE'S A NAPKIN

13. in TLD, sherlock says he has planted the recording device into john's stick for 3 weeks now. wonder if the recorder has some sort of a wireless transfer ability that would allow sherlock to basically eavesdrop him throughout the 3 weeks (which is also about a month according to mary - but for john it's "ages" :p). if the recorder does, then sherlock would've known which warehouse john's headed, and might... have been wanting to see john actually? but then it seems like between the revelation of the location and when john arrives there it doesn't seem like there's enough time for sherlock to build up 'shezza', or does he? another thing would be made easier (tho is already possible since sherlock can always deduce things away, especially when he knows john quite intimately) is all his plans 2 weeks prior to the grand entrance at the 'therapist's' place. just a fun thought!

so... johnlock.

my conclusion that is built (and is still building on) a mishmash of theories i've been reading (thanks tjlc-iers) is pretty simple. take note that i'm competently Bad at social cues and subtexts, due to neglect as a child or being autistic - one could wonder, but the point remains. anyway, i've taken interest in the literary analysis somehow (not complaining) and here's what i've got and getting behind so far, without claiming any of this to be the absolute truth:

1. johnlock is real, but they're taking it slow. i love me some slow burns and mutual pining so i'll forgive moffatiss for the agony they're putting me through. it's a cross i'll have to bear

2. mrs hudson is an unrepentant shipper

3. so is mary. i think mary is somewhat an anti-hero, a lil villainous but only coz she's a badass. i think she truly does love john but she also knows that john also loves sherlock, and is fond of teasing john about it. i think mary chooses to take the bullet for sherlock NOT because she wants john to hate him, but because she was prepared (with the video and all) and has got nothing to lose. the video serves as a great evidence to me that mary loves john and wants him to be happy, happier than their married life, and she knows john can have that with sherlock. "i know what you could become" sounds to me what a johnlock shipper would say

4. season 4 wasn't terrible or beyond repair, but it IS beyond me. it's a breakthrough, probably EMP, it was draggy at first and very hard to follow with all the moving out of focus thingy going on throughout the season, it's not taken the usual fast-paced beat for the most part (at least it doesn't feel that way to me). i've only watched it once though, i still don't have the courage to sit through it all again. the emotional mess.

5. i believe in sherlock's second 'i love you' to be about him noticing john's reflection on the black screen of the countdown timer

6. and please can we talk more about the canonly mentioned: that john and sherlock do love each other 'the most in this world', tho they always clump that statement together with another person (i.e. mary), probably just to make it less obvious and focused??

7. i googled the baker street flat's front and it doesn't seem that the windows of the attic (probably where the never-shown john's room is) are similar to that of attic-like room where sherlock meets ella to figure out what to 'do' with john, but isn't it intriguing that out of ALL possible settings for a therapy room, this one sherlock's in resembles an attic?? someone's who's better at subtexts please figure this out for me