#pub offerings

[littlepawz]

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but just open that bottle of beer you’ve been saving for a special occasion. You deserve it.

[drconstellation]

The Ineffable Ducks

What's with all the ducks in Good Omens that Crowley seems to be inordinately fond of? Turns out, they do have a narrative purpose, they're not just in there as a running joke about Crowley's fondness for the animals of Earth.

They appear in both S1 and S2, and get mentioned in several seemingly random places. Like, really random. There are quite a few in St James Park, where the ducks live, where the international spies also clandestinely meet, where Aziraphale and Crowley meet on several occasions, and where Crowley and Shax have a meeting, exchanging information in S2E1.

Ducks also get referred to here, when Aziraphale suggests they use humans to search and spy out the missing Antichrist, but Crowley insists it will be near impossible because suspicion slides off the boy like water off, what ever water slides off, because he has an automatic defense system.

The he remembers the ducks(!) later in the Bentley when they discuss using their respective networks of highly trained human operatives (Shadwell and the Witchfinder army), and Aziraphale asks if Crowley has a better idea than his. "Ducks!" Crowley suddenly utters.

The ducks that are always there, that you see but don't see, gathering bread crumbs, when any kind of surveillance or secret spy work is being discussed.

Nah, I thought, it couldn't be a sly ref to this famous cartoon by Larson, could it?

Aziraphale and Crowley are always afraid that someone is watching, or listening to everything they do, from both sides. I mean isn't that partly why we got the ending we did in S2, because they have had to be so covert with their communication to each over the centuries they've forgotten how to speak plainly to each other?

Heaven has definitely been watching...

And Hell certainly noticed Crowley's act of kindness in the Edinburgh cemetery, swiftly summoning him to Hell for punishment after his kind deed on behalf of Elspeth.

Then when the duo meet in again 1867 Crowley wonders if "ducks have ears" before declaring they must do - that's how they hear other ducks. So its no surprise that when Crowley asks Aziraphale for holy water that he writes the request on a piece of paper to hide it from those invisible ever-present watchers they know are never far away.

When we come to the start of S2, where Crowley is slouched in St James Park once more, reading the Tadfield Advertiser, and yelling at the Azerbaijani secret agents for feeding the ducks bread. Crumbs, it was alright to do this in the book, and S1, why is wrong now? Has Crowley suddenly become woke and caring for the ducks? Nah.

There's a lot more to it than that. I realized this is the missing Grain offering from my post about altar offerings (see The Altar of Eccles Cakes) in S2. A Grain offering represents a voluntary expression of devotion to God - or the other side you're supposed to be aligned with, in this case.

Shax is part of this scene, discussing the latest news from below, and she mentions some special intel that Hell has received, from their own secret squirrel network. Of course they would meet in St James Park to discuss this, along with all the other spies. While Shax tries to get some intel out of Crowley about what might be going on in Heaven, because she knows he has contact with a certain angel who owns a book shop, Crowley responds by refusing to show any devotion to his former side at this point, and isn't going to give any information away that could be useful. He also doesn't have any intel at this point, anyway, but he's not going to give that away either! Heaven and Hell are toxic, and no one should be going anywhere near them, in his opinion. So stop feeding them that devotional bread!

After Shax asks what they should be feeding the ducks, he eventually says "Frozen Peas. It's good for them, they like it."

The short period of "peas" since they stopped the impending Apocalypse has been enjoyable, and good for Crowley and Aziraphale, but the forced meeting with Beelzebub later that day soon jolts Crowley out of any complacency when they indicate that the "generalized understanding" Crowley thought they had with Heaven and Hell after the body swap to leave them alone, the one Aziraphale-as-Crowley negotiated, while asking for a rubber duck, no less, was looking very shaky and fragile indeed.

And one more random duck ref to discuss.

I was inspired to write this section by lalalunamoth's post calling Muriel a duckling imprinted on Crowley, and of course I did not save it, did I, and a search does not bring it back up again (found it!), so if you're reading this, or know that post, please let me know! I read it, and thought, cute, but nah, then realized that Muriel was sent on a surveillance mission to Whickber St to ascertain the truth of Aziraphale's 25 lazurii miracle. And she did act as the eyes of Heaven, writing up some reports, called Crowley "grice," then followed him around during his escapade in Heaven just like a duckling following a grumpy gander drake while he did his own surveillance measures in a Tactical Turtle neck, channeling his best imitation Sean Connery voice (have you noticed that as well, people?)

No, no, the op wasn't wrong - those big cross ducks, er grice geese, they make good guard dogs, no?

With special mention to Crowley acting as a surveillance duck just prior to this, and Mr Brown doing his own "spying out" of Aziraphale.

To finish this meta, there is one other figure who notably offered the ducks bread, in the book. This passage, which is surely relevant to S3, but didn't appear in S1, shows another character still devoted to God in a way. Lets give Death the final word:

Crowley: "Maybe it's it's all part of a great ineffable plan. All of it. You, me, him, everything. Some great big test to see if what you've built all works properly, eh? You start thinking: it can't be a great cosmic game of chess, it has to be just very complicated Solitaire. And don't bother to answer. if we could understand, we wouldn't be us. Because it's all - all - "

INEFFABLE, said the figure feeding the ducks.

"Yeah. Right. Thanks."

[pauls1967moustache]

[ithacanradio]

the most gorgeous man I've ever known sent me a drunk voice message hurt that i left my job at the bar he goes to without telling him and adding that he saw me on tv speaking about palestine, which turned into me telling my ex boss to give him my number, and the sober voice message was much worse because this sweet guy just tells me that he's so proud of me and then i can feel him like talking with a constricted throat saying he understands that i left and closes with "from the river to the sea" and doesn't it just suck that some things have no hope of ever beginning and yet still end somehow

[haharuspex]

phew, okay, pathologic oc time!!

“I don’t gather. I don’t sing. I don’t dance. That’s for others, but for me - it's to hunt, to pretend, to scavenge. Cattle is content, it knows its purpose, herbs don’t resist when I pluck them, but the rest... Oh, odonghs hate me. Herb brides, too. They tore off my tail once and I haven’t bothered them since."

"Hunter", a steppe creature, is rumored to have crawled out of rivers so deep that their bottom originates in Suok's guts. He (it, she, they, whatever, it doesn't care) took on a more or less humanoid appearance when it first met people, because he hunts best when it imitates its favorite prey. That’s why Hunter resembles herb brides in some ways - he loves to feed on them, because he secretly envies their talent to communicate with Earth. He "steals" this talent after consumption, but it doesn't stay for long.

He does not enter the Town just yet because he's lowkey afraid lmao, but engages in barter on the outskirts. He can exchange twyre of any rarity and the organs of odonghs/herb brides for lemons. He fucking loves lemons. He doesn’t even eat them, he collects them as a kind of treasure, and in his underground lair they somehow, magically ig, don’t rot - they just chill there like a hoard of citrus gold.

His true form is a long black half-snake, and his poison, at worst, can paralyze and kill, and at best (when processed properly) can become an anesthetic or a medicine to boost immune system.

his hair is snakes and twyre and certain daredevils are eager to use it as an ingredient for a homemade snake wine lol

[sojutrait]

just reread the series and this comes on my recommended… we are in a panopticon

[coachbeards]

everyday i try to be normal but the i remember when beard was taken care of and it makes me go WAHHHHHHHHH

[dullahandyke]

Lowering the brightness on my phone so the chatty old man on the bus next to me doesnt see my wallpaper which is in fact aurametis naked gay sex

[borderlineroseaiden]

bpd is actually wild bc i spent like 5 weeks not feeling a fucking thing then this bartender at a wine bar i frequent (and am sorta wanting to befriend) said "i've been worried about you, take care of yourself" and i spent 30 minutes crying on the floor of a public bathroom bc of it

[inspector-montoya-fox]

What are your thoughts about it not being brought up through Thieves in Time that Carmelita lied about Sly being her partner when he pretended to have amnesia? I don't mean this as slander or hate towards Carmelita, I love her a lot, but I think it would have been interesting to see her and Sly discuss how she didn't tell him the truth about who he was when he was acting amnesiac. Though from Carmelita's perspective, I could imagine that having to explain to an amnesiac that they are a master thief in their family's vault would be dificult, so just telling him he was her partner was the easiest story to tell him.

you know what, i've neglected my asks for a hot minute but i'll answer this one just for you silly anon.

the way SP left things off between Sly and Carmelita at the end of Sly 3 is really interesting because you have a romantic relationship being built on a foundation of lies: Carmelita lied to Sly about him being her partner, and Sly lied to Carmelita about having amnesia. going into the next game, it'd be really cool to see if the two would be able to overcome this situation once the truth came out or if it'd break them. other interesting questions: Sly chooses to ignore that Carmelita lied about him being her partner so why wouldn't Carmelita do the same? the last thing that occurs before the lies start is that Sly sacrifices himself to save Carmelita, so doesn't that action show her how much he actually loves her despite the lie? how would the other characters react? would they take sides?

now, keeping all of this in mind, what did we actually get in TiT? well, none of this actually. instead or receiving a really great B-storyline for the game, where Carmelita and Sly are forced to deal with the reality of their lies, we get... Carmelita getting shoehorned into (a) the angry ex girlfriend stereotype; and (b) the loud latina stereotype, both played for laughs while Sly does the bare minimum to fix things and just casually hangs out with his buddies while things calm down on their own. it's so infuriating to see this storyline get neglected but also fully handled through the male gaze, because if the fact that Carmelita also lied was brought up it could make for fascinating dialogue and character development. perhaps it could speak on Carmelita always wanting to be right, or how Sly chooses to let shit slide for the sake of getting what he wants which is very toxic? but no, let's just have Sly's literal ancestors have furry boners for her in the miniskirt and completely remove her for several levels because she's the damsel in distress and needs some time to cool off. because y'know she's a girl and she's way too emotional.

imagine if S*nzaru were capable of telling multifaceted stories, like what a treat that would be. instead of Sly abandoning Carmelita within 3 seconds of the opening cutscene, what if we got a look into their relationship and how they co-existed in a reality they created through lies? instead of having Carmelita fully join the gang in the game's fourth episode and having the entire story presented through Sly (except for those shitty flashbacks with Carmelita voiceover), what if we got to play through Carmelita's version of the story? what happened when Sly told the gang that Carmelita lied about him being her partner? what if Bentley fully took his side because he was always a bit skeptic about her but Murray was all-out Team Carmelita, causing a rift in the gang? what if Murray stormed off with her in Clan of the Cave Raccoon and we got Carmelita & Murray missions?

interesting thing about S*nzaru's take on Carmelita is that it reflects more on them than anything else. because, despite the misogyny and really harmful clichés they attached to her character, i think they never intended to hurt her the way they did. instead, they're just a bunch of horny guys who didn't really have a clue. in their eyes, they were given a character who is overpowered and they chose to trophy her because they don't see the miniskirt, the damsel in distress, the 1cm waist, the angry poc stereotypes or the bellydancing thing as bad or distasteful. in their eyes, Carmelita was a "Mary Sue" (i hate that term) and that's how they chose to handle her even though SP never actually treated her as such. i think Carmelita's scarce appearances in the original series made her flaws a bit more subtle, like her inability to acknowledge Sly as a grey instead of black or white. and S*nzaru never picked up on that or chose to fully ignore it, so they wanted to preserve her as a perfect character who can jump extra high, has a gun, possesses solely positive traits and can get whatever she wants because all the guys go cartoon eyes bonkers over her. and for them, allure = womanhood or femininity, and that is so deeply shallow. everything about their treatment of Carmelita is deeply shallow to the point where their intentions backfired and we got a prime example of misogyny.

so, to answer the question: i think Carmelita's lie isn't brought up in TiT because it would present her as a flawed character. a woman who lies doesn't align with the S*nzaru guys' perception of an ideal woman, and that's what they set out to make Carmelita: the ideal female. it would also over-complicate their shit for brains plot but whatever

[homoeroticgrappling]

This is the closest I'll ever get to feeling patriotic tbh

[xamaxenta]

Very cute that Luffy has never been able to beat Ace in a fight

We were robbed

Of how high that ceiling could’ve been set with these two racing each other to the top

[scratching92]

I started watching Andor the other day because I'm in a Star Wars-y mood again and. God. There is so much I want to say about this show and I'm not even halfway through. It so perfectly captures and builds upon one of my favourite things from Rogue One, which is the brutal, cruel, and deeply mundane tyranny of middle management and bureaucracy. The bad guys are bad not even because they fancy themselves as God-Emperors or anything, but because at least half of them are probably the Star Wars equivalent of Daily Mail readers.

[wittywallflower]

So the Endless are enduring, but the gods rely on belief and will fade away when no one believes in them anymore, right?

Now imagine all those with divinity deciding they have to go meet the Dream King’s immortal human, and make themselves memorable to Hob.

[thesaintelectric]

incredible bit of guernsey lore: theres exactly 2 ISPs and one has ads with people saying 'oh before i switched to [ISP] i had such bad internet' which is a great bit with this knowledge in mind

[hurtlikeawarehouse]

One of the only clips I've seen of Bake Off involved Noel Fielding pronouncing 'charoset' as 'chair-o-set' and I'm still recovering.

GBBO: “A s’more is basically just an Italian merengue sandwiched between two ganache-covered digestives”

Americans: