#reception theory

[i-isa-i]

The songs are about me, actually …

I know swifties have been trained for years and years to read taylor swift’s songs as autobiographical. But idk it just feels so reductive and boring to look for clues about her personal and dating life in order to decode her lyrics. Even if you think the intention of the author is relevant in any way, swift herself said that her songs’ inspirations can’t simply be found via “paternity test”.

But I really don’t think we should care what swift intended the song to mean. I’m begging y’all to consider these lyrics as polysemic texts. First of all, let’s be honest and admit that the persona fed to the public isn’t actually taylor swift and we probably don’t know much about her personal life anyway. So people basically use a fictional character and narrative to apply these songs to. In that case, why not divorce the fictionalized author from the text in the first place? I know we throw around “Death of the author” in fandom spaces all the time but I think it’s something to consider here. Make your own meaning. The songs are about what you want them to be. The songs are about your OTP. The songs are about you.

[weirdingone]

Saw the way of water and... It was aight

I don't think James Cameron has learned much about decolonisation since the last movie.

I've seen people trying to defend this movie by saying it's not real and "why do y'all have to make everything a race thinkpiece"... Meanwhile, these movies have real world mirrors and are literally underpinned by the link between social justice and environmental justice.

It reminds me of Cloud Atlas. Wanting to talk about racial oppression but too arrogant to actually educate itself on the nuances of racism and colonisation. For example, in the first Avatar, Grace opens a school to teach the Na'Vi English. In the real world, such schools were tools of colonisation along with missionaries. This is a grey area that Cameron is either unaware of or willfully skipped over. Not great either way.

There's also a pervasive implication that indigenous people simply had to fight harder and they wouldn't have been colonised along with the implication that having a white leader would have been their greatest asset. If only there was a benevolent white man to lead the primitives to victory.

I'm not saying that James Cameron is, like, a bad person. I'm certain that his heart is in the right place and you can see that he cares very deeply about these things. I just think that he needs to educate himself further before he starts to do more harm than good. The road to hell and all that. I don't think it helps anyone to keep making these self proclaimed anti racist movies that still centre whiteness and do nothing but assure white audiences through cartoonish portrayals of villainy that they would never do anything like that.

The movie itself is okay. If you liked the first one then you'll probably like this one. It's a lot of the same stuff. Also goodness me, this movie is LONG. Jirre fok

Anyway

Grappling with ideas is good. Negotiated readings of art are good. You might disagree with me on this movie and that's fine. I'm not trying to start discourse, just sharing my thoughts. Go argue elsewhere if that's what you fancy. You will find no sparring partner here.

I am curious though how indigenous people, particularly any Pacific islander friends felt about this movie. No wrong answers :)

[gumy-shark]

kageyama parents they could never make me hate you

[a-cat-in-toffee]

ideal humanstuck dynamic the most annoying douchebag in the universe and guy who Really doesnt wanna be there

[huginsmemory]

I feel like Alex Hirsch releasing Book of Bill 9 years after gravity falls finished is exactly the same as Monster University being released 12 years later then Monsters INC but instead of it being like, a supportive movie of people who didn't get their dreams, its a book that resonates with the original teenage audience that adored Bill and the bill/dipper ship at the exact time that the people who were in there teens are now in there mid-late twenties and starting to sexualize older men in mainstream fandom spaces (yes, there is a direct correlation between tumblrs aging userbase jokes about kitchen appliances and old man yaoi jokes) to get the same audience back in and hooked on Billford (something which was always subtextually implied and now essentially canon). Like this man knew EXACTLY what he was doing.

[magnetic-rose]

honestly for as much as i think there’s actual evidence FOR a varric romance in datv, at the end of the day varric has never been romanceable because his writer mary kirby doesn’t like writing romances (and varric is her baby).

maybe that’s changed (she wrote the lucanis romance after all) but she has never wanted to write a varric romance so far, and the writers have never forced her to.

so while i really want a varric romance, it’s wise to lower our expectations.

[rainbow-wolf120]

The RayClone Theory: Why It Could Be Possible

(Massive Spoilers for CLH below) Tw: Ab//se, Imprisonment, D3ath, Really Bad Pacing on My Part <3

With me thinking about this way too much, I’ve come up with a thought. Have you ever wondered why the CLH Rayman is so… different from his in-game persona?

No, it’s not because it's a remix. Think deeper. Examine them under a microscope.

It could be because… they’re not the same person.

Now, this may sound like another silly cartoon theory, but hear me out. I have… proof. Aka overanalyzing, but school taught me to do that.

So, what is the RayClone Theory? Well, to put it simple, the Rayman we see in the show isn't the ‘first’ Rayman. There’s been many in the past. Many, as in 5 or so. How? That’s what this post is for. So, let's go back to the beginning. Mushing both Rayman and CLH lore alike.

To make this simpler, we’re gonna establish a rule. Referring to all the Raymen in the show as ‘Rayman’ is very, very confusing. So I will make a list:

OG Rayman - Rayman CLH Rayman - Ramon Rayplacement - Fakeman

Get it? Got it? Good. Let’s start.

According to the Rayman lore, Rayman was created with one purpose in mind: To protect the Glade (or, in this case, Dimension X). He was created for one thing only. To protect. To be the ‘hero’.

In the games, he’s never failed before. He thrives and beats the bad guy. But remember, this isn’t the games. It’s a remix. A what-if. This leads into:

What if Rayman failed? What does he do then?

And not like, fails as in Rayman 2, fail as in royally fucked up. Fail as in, the closest one to him dies by ‘his hand’. No, not Globox, he was considered alive by Adi. But you know who he didn’t confirm?

Betilla the Fairy.

You could be thinking: “Duh, of course she wasn’t mentioned. He was being broad.”, but he mentioned Razorbeard. His ass wasn’t relevant since Rayman M. So why mention him, but not Rayman’s literal mom??

Because she's not alive. 

Eden (and America) has always been a resource hungry society. It’s human nature. In this timeline, society progresses much quicker than in the real world (flying cars in 1992). Progress needs resources. Have you ever noticed that Eden is barren of all plant life? It’s because Eden (or America) used it all for industrialization.

How does this relate to Rayman? You know how the Glade of Dreams is a lush forest? Resources from massive jungles to deep oceans to towering mountains? Imagine what a power-hungry company (or companies) would do if they discovered this.

*Insert How Bad Can I Be Here*

The creation of the Super-Scope must’ve been revolutionary. The ability to travel to other dimensions with one click of a trigger. Resources galore.

Sarah Fisher mentions in ep2 that the Golder Super-Scope was stolen from Eden’s labs. So, what’s stopping Eden from creating this material? Nothing. That’s what.

Eden, still a sorta underground company, creates this gun and finds Dimension X. Filled with lush resources ripe for the picking. The critters of the Glade don’t know their ‘bad guys’. They don’t look inherently bad. So they leave them be.

Rabbids. The little bunny fellas.

The Kaiju monsters in the show. How does that become a monster? It’s easy. Toxic chemicals. Not just any toxic chemicals, but Eden’s toxic chemicals from polluting the Glade.

I’m getting distracted, back to Rayman.

Kaiju Rabbids started popping around Dimension X. They started small and inefficient until they got bigger and bigger. Rayman took care of them, yes, but one day, he got absolutely bombarded by a hoard of Rabbids.

A massive war broke out between the citizens of the Dimension and the Rabbids. No one knows how it started because Eden left after it got all it needed.

Rayman, having ‘hero-ing’ literally coded into him, fights back. Others help, yes, but it’s mostly Rayman doing the fighting. 

This leads into Betilla, and how she died.

Rayman was getting jumped by Rabbids, so she came in to save him, risking her life as a result. Yes, her sacrifice did stun the Rabbids and cause them to flee into the depths of Dimension X, but Rayman feels like he’s one to blame.

No one really fully ‘died’ in the games. Sure, they got kidnapped, possessed, you name it. But no explicit deaths besides villains.

So, imagine what that does to a guy when his first, full on death witness was with his creator, his mother.

He doesn’t take it too well.

Yes. Rayman was a hero and drove out the Rabbids, but he didn’t save everybody. He couldn’t save his mom.

He failed.

Lost and confused, Rayman runs to find… something. He runs away, something he’s never done before. He never backed down from a fight. So why is he now?

Well, because he’s scared. Scared for his life and others.

Betilla saved him with her own life. She died because of him. Heroes are supposed to be giving the sacrifice. Not receiving it.

Rayman blames himself. If he’s out of the picture, then no one else would risk their life for his.

The art book says that they destroyed the dimension, but Globox, the Teensies, and even Razorbeard are alive, so the dimension can’t be unlivable. So what if this use of ‘dimension’ was less literal?

This may sound far-off, but Rayman’s “dimension” could be talking about Betilla. She created him, so she is his ‘dimension’.

This transition into Eden! Or, America currently.

Rayman goes into America looking for a fresh start. To find his purpose. He failed his original purpose (which was to be a hero and save everybody), so he blocked out everything that happened originally to start a fresh start.

Or, every immigration story ever. Leaving behind what you loved for a better start.

He needed a new purpose. And that purpose is to be an entertainer!

His origin in America is the same as the show. He goes to college, gets outcasted, and rises with Eden.

Things are different here than with Ramon. Rayman is… less constricted here.

Back when Eden was new (most likely had good intentions), they weren’t worried about Rayman finding the truth. There was no truth to find. So Rayman was allowed to explore, make friends, talk to people and hybrids below his social class.

One day, he met a hybrid journalist. One of the lower-income hybrids, but a very strong writer. Rayman admired their work, being a news reporter and all, and the two became really good friends, even with him getting them a job at Eden.

Then, the journalist goes snooping. Eden wasn’t as terrible as it is in the present day, but it still did bad things. The hybrid craves justice (like any other journalist) and stations a revolt. It affects Eden, but nothing major except getting the journalist put in jail.

Rayman finds out and goes to give his buddy a visit and to ask what happened. Rayman (still under the influence of Eden) explains that they shouldn’t have revolted and that Eden is great. The hybrid shows him the articles and photos (which were disapproved by Eden so they weren’t published) and explains their side of the story. Since the journalist was low-income, they experienced the biases and issues of Eden first hand.

Rayman obviously seeks the truth as well, promising that he could save the journalist. He goes to the Board of the Directors with the proof and articles, demanding an explanation. Not in a violent way like Ramon, but in a diplomatic manner.

(Keep in mind, Rayman has been questioning Eden in recent weeks from folks he’s talked with in his downtime)

Sound familiar? Of course it does. It happens in the show. Clones are still clones, y’know?

The Board, unsure on how to react with their poster boy finding their fucked up ways, tells Rayman that they’ll explain tomorrow.

Rayman, still trusting of the Board, agrees and waits it out. The next day, he awakens, chained in a dingy room.

Why? Well, the Board knew that Rayman’s act wouldn’t be as efficient if he knew what he was saying was bullshit. Think Disney’s Bolt. So what do they do?

Try out their latest technology, of course. And that was a cloning device.

Now, you can’t just clone Rayman. He’s an alien. Not an organic lifeform. So, how did Eden approach it?

Lums. Take bits of Rayman, combine it with various animals, and boom. Almost perfect Rayman clone.

Clones are never perfect. Each one has an imperfection, little or big. And the Lums is what gives Rayman his main form.

So, chain him to the basement so he’s always on hand. Duh.

Rayman stays in that basement for at least 10 years. Sad, alone, and going insane. He can’t die; he’s immortal. Eden goes through at least 4 or 5 different RayClones before landing on Ramon. I’ll go into Ramon in a bit.

When a RayClone is too imperfect or steps out of line, the Board sends one of the Niji 6 to eliminate them. This is shown by this line of dialogue:

“Taking care of”? What do they imply by that? Maybe it implies that they were sent to assassinate Rayman, or in this case, Ramon. 

So, RayClone bodies can’t exactly decompose. Yes, they can die and lose consciousness, but those Lums inside them don’t allow the body to rot. So what happened to those bodies? Leave them in the depths of Eden to rot.

Back to Rayman, one day, he manages to slip his hand loose from the chains and free him. This happens when Ramon is just made. The Board orders the Niji 6 to hunt and bring back Rayman. During his escape attempt, Rayman accidentally causes an explosion ‘killing him’.

We’re gonna pause his story and shift to Ramon.

Now, I wanna talk about his reaction to Red in ep3. Clones share the same memories as the original, but they don’t experience it the same. It’s like knowing something and actually being there.

The Rabbids attack, but Ramon isn’t really stressed about them attacking. Was he that faithful in the Niji 6? Or was it something else?

Was it because he doesn’t have that trauma about them?

When Red calls Ramon an “interdimensional alien scum," Ramon bursts? Why? Because he experienced it. He experienced being belittled and talked down by his colleagues at work. He knows how it feels, so he’s pissed.

If Rayman was in his place, Rayman would be fidgety and panicky about the Rabbids and brush over Red insulting him. If anything, Rayman would be thanking Red for stopping them. Yes, Rayman was talked down in college and his early days, but the Rabbids changed his life.

You could argue that it’s because he had his cry before the cameras were running, but he shows no sign of that. No voice cracks or eye twitches. And the fight just happened, which explains the presence of Red.

Going back in time for a moment-

Ramon was the latest RayClone and the last one with the ‘death’ of Rayman. This makes Eden super protective over him and his opinion on Eden. Other RayClones in the past were either too disfigured to seamlessly become Rayman, or found / was close to the truth. They need to keep Ramon pure.

How does one keep something pure and untouched? Isolated them, of course!

(Note the use of the word ‘illusory’ here)

This also explains the ‘Eden-generated’ scripts. Rayman wrote his own scripts. Rayman said his own opinion. Now, 10+ years later, Eden writes Ramon’s scripts. Ramon says Eden’s opinion.

If he was stripped of his freedom, then how would he be infected with the truth?

If he wasn’t needed anymore.

This is where Fakeman comes in. I think Fakeman is Raymesis, due to those yellow eye highlights you can see in a split second.

The Board wasn’t as faithful in Ramon as they were previously. He might’ve had some outbursts before ep3. They needed a backup. They can’t clone him, the clone would be to fucked up. They needed another Rayman.

Remember the Rabbid invasion in ep2 / 3? While the Niji 6 was dealing with the kaijus, guess who was snooping around the Glade for a Rayplacement?

Raymesis was kidnapped and forced to work for Eden if he liked it or not. They weren’t going to clone him yet, but to keep him in line, instead of acceptance (like they did with Rayman), they used threats.

This explains Fakeman’s uneasiness in ep6 with Retribution Day. That was his first big acting event, and the one Eden decided if he’s replacing Rayman on stage or in the basement.

Look at his face when it’s canceled. Bro looks scared shitless.

But Fakeman and his lore / personality is a whole ‘nother post.

Ramon follows the same path as Rayman. Seeing something unfair (Rayman’s friend getting arrested and Ramon losing his job), and doing something about it.

It’s that Ramon is filled with vengeance and anger because his whole life was a lie.

Rayman is filled with doubt and confusion because he just refound his purpose, and that was a lie.

Rayman’s whole journey throughout this is finding his purpose. His original purpose was to ‘save everybody’, and that failed. He went to America to find a purpose and did with Eden. In his character bio in the art book mentions this purpose line.

“Even happier that Eden gave him purpose”. Why? Because he lost his original purpose! He felt he was nothing before Eden gave him everything. He’s under the mindset that Eden gave him his meaning of life again.

They quite literally saved his life.

Anyway, what does Rayman do after his ‘death’? Have an identity crisis of course! He was locked up for over 10 years, his brain is scrambled eggs at this point!

He failed his purpose for Eden, so he resorts back to his original purpose: Be a Hero.

But, what about the Rayman on TV? Is he the real one?

Rayman’s mindset is that he was created to be a hero. Heroes are brave, speak the truth, and rise up against bad. What is the Rayman on TV doing?

He’s being brave, speaking the ‘truth’, and rising up against ‘bad’.

What’s the real Rayman doing?

He’s being a coward, secret about what he knows and saw, and hiding against the bad.

Heroes don’t do that. So Rayman must be a fake. He must be the RayClone. He’s the mistake. At least, that’s what he made himself think.

Now, I won’t get into my ideas for Season 2. If people want it, sure. I will. But for now, I’ll leave it at that. This is 2200+ words, and I’m grasping at the air at this point.

If you disagree? Great! If you don’t? Great! Tell me your own thoughts / theories then!

[paraducksspace]

this just in: rereading a fanfiction you wrote in 2017 in which you project a few mental issues and coping mechanisms onto your favorite character. will have you comparing your writing style to how you write your favorite oc going through a similar set of circumstances.

ive changed so much but the way my brain processes anxiety and overthinking is Exactly the same.

[usagifuyusummer]

I've been snooping around since Rebirth came out because, man, ever since FFVIIR, I can't stop thinking about FF7...

After seeing Zack's parents, I can definitely see how his hair is both a mix of his parents styles. The front part from his mom and the spiky parts from his dad.

We do know Zack's light blue green mako eye color isn't natural, so from what we can see from his parents, we can conclude that Zack had a more brown-ish green-ish grey-ish lighter eye color before becoming a SOLDIER?

(Does anyone else have a more accurate desription on what they think Zack's original eye color might be like?)

I wonder how Zack looks like with the eye color we can see from his parents here. Admittedly, I do think that the scene is quite dark for me to truly observe his parents models design, since it is really different from the OG design.

I wish there was someone out there who could rip those models out for people as curious as me to observe. As they did bring up some info on Gongaga that I thought was really intriguing, like why tell us that? Why bring up that the Cetra descendants settled in Gongaga and lived in seclusion??? Why not just give us a full mock history book in the game that tells us the places where the Cetra have migrated or were prominent in? I have even more questions in my head than answers right now... Its brainrotting bad lmao.

Hm, I hope Part 3 clears up the questions I have on Zack and some FF7 stuff...

And how in the hell the Planet as a character is going to be portrayed??? Will Zack or the whole cast meet Minerva again to beat her ass up the second time??? Is Genesis even possible at this point, since there's only one part left to explain this whole thing...

I really hope Zack gets a DLC or specific story parts if they didn't have time to fully expand on some Crisis Core loose ends, Jenova and Dirge of Cerberus stuff... Maybe they're planning to do that after the main games end??? I don't know, there's just too many uncertainties right now. And I'm just rambling out of my mind lmao.

Side note, I didn't know what to describe Zack's parents eye colors, so if what I wrote in the poll is not accurate, sorry for that. Unless either someone tells me, or I read/watch an analysis of this somewhere, then I'll change it. This is the limit of my knowledge on this so far. Discussions are open for anyone of course, if there are any who think about this as much as I do lol.

I don't know if polls can be reopened, since I don't really want to have a time limit on this one. I'm just curious on what others think of this. If my post ever gets far of course... That's why I didn't want the time limit. I'll see what happens then. Thanks for reading my ramblings this far.

[borrelia]

OH OH BRAIN BLAST

okay the other echidnas can be holed up in another dimension or something (the appropriate amount of stc's really VAGUE interpretaions of games) and for the past few thousand years theyve been occasionally sending out scouts to try to find mobius and the floating island again. they know that, bc of tikal, they will b able to safely return when knuckles is there. many scouts fail to find mobius or die/vanish.

dr zacharys a really learned guy who had a real good plan for finding mobius. he was sentenced to/volunteered as a scout. he spent years braving the horrors but determined to find mobius. he found it, but before knuckles got there. when he returned to the others and they found out knuckles wasnt there they said mm okay well not right now then. he was devastated, betrayed. he'd been thrown to the wolves for nothing?! instead of telling them where the island is, he makes his way back to it in whatever slow transport he has procured. he will steal the chaos emeralds and have his revenge on those ungratefuls... unfortunately for him, THIS time knuckles WAS there..

[northern-passage]

So I have a theory that every Hunter has something on the otherside of the Vel. It's how they're able to draw upon and use it, because of this connection.

It's also how Hunters are able to close rifts. Because you have to ask yourself: If the Hunter closes it on this side, who (or what, to be more precise) closes it on the otherside?

But I've been thinking about the entity from C2, and starting a new playthrough I'm at the part where the Hunter is remembering the Ladder and this passage comes up:

During a particularly rough segment of the Ladder you completely lost your appetite and had insomnia so bad you began to see things constantly, a dark shadow always looming just beyond your vision.

Now obviously this could just be what it says, a side effect of the Hunter's insomnia, but... is the dark shadow the creation of the Hunter's... "opposite"?

i'll say.. not quite. i suppose these are light spoilers, but i want to talk about it hehe and throw you all a bone (though most of you are already very close to getting it right)

the connection hunters have mainly pulls power from the dark magic of the Vel itself, and the magic present on the other side, rather than from any sentient beings (like how mages pull power from natural forces: fire, storms, etc). however, it can latch on to something and drain it if it's in the wrong place at the wrong time when the hunter opens the Vel - or if it's patiently waiting for the hunter on the other side, which is exactly what happens in the isolation district. if the hunter is the one that voluntarily opens the Vel, you'll get this line:

"There's a familiar presence with you now, the faint rattle of chains ringing in your ears, and you let it step into your shadow - let it step into //you//. Together, you break into a run across the courtyard."

the hunter is pulling power directly from the entity here because it was literally following them and waiting for the opportunity to get through to them. it tried previously with the wraith, but ultimately failed since both it and the wraith were weaker, and then again the night before by luring the hunter into the woods so it could see them alone, but it still wasn't strong enough to break all the way through, even though it did get the hunter to open the Vel then.

when the Vel is torn open by the hunter in the isolation district, they are doing it forcibly and deliberately - there is no resistance from them anymore, so the entity is finally able to break all the way through.

if you do not open the Vel, it will end up collapsing on its own, mainly due to the fact the Vel was already incredibly fragile there but also because the entity is pushing in on the other side. you'll get a different scene where it will actually speak to you, and even though the hunter tries to resist, they're too weak in that moment, and the entity is able to forcibly let itself in.

and while the entity does tend to take the shape of the hunter, that's not it's "true form" and it will change shape quite a bit as the story progresses. now that it has made direct contact and finally attached itself fully to the hunter, we're going to be seeing it a lot more 👀

so it's not the hunter's shadow, necessarily, though you are right about that specific line regarding the Ladder - that comment about the dark shadow was deliberate. the thing that's following the hunter has been following them for a long time, but it existed long before the hunter did.

[haladriel]

A Shadow Shared: Sauron, the Southlands and the struggle against darkness

So! This follows my earlier post theorising that a certain melody may be Sauron and Galadriel's. 

In his latest blog, Bear McCreary has included a version of this melody! It’s referenced as the development motif in The Halbrand Theme, as follows, from 'D7/F#' to 'Cm':

There are some small differences in the intervals, but the shape is the same.

This supports the theory that this particular leitmotif is tied primarily to Halbrand, and by extension, to Sauron. And all of the themes associated with Halbrand/'Sauron in Halbrand form' are shared with the Southlanders. But that's not to say that while it’s busy deepening the narrative connection between Sauron and Southlands, it can’t also link, and become linked to, Sauron and Galadriel.

(It’s worth noting that there is as yet no mention of 'Halbrand as Sauron' in Bear’s blog yet. He promises to explain more of his thinking on why he used the same theme for Halbrand and the Southlands at a later date.)

In an episode cannily called ‘A Shadow of the Past’, in the establishing shots for the village, this version of the theme crops up introducing the Southlanders' community and evoking their struggles – powerless against the prevailing forces around them (the visible cold, the damp earth, the recent inclement weather), against the prejudice of the elves (visible in-shot), and against the dark, thousand year history of their people. A bunch of intriguing narrative parallels when drawn up by these melodies against a troubled, peace-seeking Sauron.

If the main part of the Halbrand/Southlanders theme introduces a rustic, folkloric character, reflected in the briefly emotional, mid-theme motif is the tragedy and inescapability of the Southlanders' darkness-shadowed fate.

(soundtrack to Episode One: A Shadow of the Past, The Southlands, 00:34-00:46) McCreary highlights that in his writing for Rings of Power, a ‘shared theme implies […] a ‘head of state’ character, like King Durin, or Sadoc Burrows, supporting the revelation that Halbrand might be descended from a line of kings’.

Or, indeed, from a line of Morgoth’s supporters who can’t escape their past. 

Although I haven’t gone through the rest of the score in detail (yet, watch this space for a possible future master post), the motif seems to be at its most prominent and potent during the scenes with Galadriel and Sauron; this is why I noticed it there, with them, first. In their scenes we are presented with a more complex and emotionally infused rendition of the fatalistic melody first introduced in the Southlands. The intervals are wider, more yearning; the harmonies more complex; the orchestrations deeper. These are moments of angst, despair, indecision, and the tension between possible futures – particularly for Sauron, who's continually speaking in riddles and double tongues – but they are also moments of hope.

Thus, precisely where this motif is used specifically in the context of Sauron and Galadriel is worth keeping an eye out for, because it indicates a narrative peak in his tragic, antiheroic struggles. So far, it’s been used twice in key moments in their relationship that are also turning points in their choice-making: deep, revelatory scenes, both packed full of double-meaning.

Assuming the reading that, in The Rings of Power, Sauron is in his repentance era (and perhaps more of an opportunistic Annatar than a consistently devious one), in the context of its parallel use for the troubled Southlands, this theme seems to speak specifically to Halbrand/Sauron’s internal struggles: to find peace, to escape from the darkness of his past, and to handle the inner conflict as he weighs the alternative futures Galadriel offers him – whether it’s her meddling returning him involuntarily to Middle-earth (disrupting his peace and facilitating his return to darkness) or her encouragement to stay and fight by her side (binding him to the light).

The leitmotif being ‘Halbrand’s’ by name, and most enticingly, Sauron’s by meta, does not stop it from becoming shared with Galadriel, the intradiegetic kindling and foil for his angst, close by his side through his moments of vulnerability, and he to hers. In the Second Age, each of Sauron’s struggles with his fate and darkness involves Galadriel, just as her strife against darkness (both his, and her own) is inextricably bound to his. It’s impossible to separate them, so tightly are they bound.

Sauron and Galadriel’s Rings of Power story and the scenes that punctuate it are centred around their tragic partnership. Any motif signalling his turbulence may becomes theirs. Their struggles are inseparable, and like the doomed lands and people of the Southlands, their ship is destined to fare poorly on the tides of fate.

[silveredsound]

Oh it’s good to read someone being realistic about Harry and I loved ‘sarky little perfectionist’: exactly, exactly. I do think over 14 years there’s been growth but I think of him as a delightful creature, of excessive beauty and work ethic, who embodies the scene in Succession where Tom Wambsgams tells Cousin Greg that he’ll teach him how to be rich. (If you didn’t see Succession that’ll be lost!) An absolute pro at being connected to wealth and artists in secret ways that we get the tiniest, occasional glimpse of. I find it fascinating, because I’m from a family like Harry’s, and the very active choices he makes to ‘be rich and connected’ are so kind of hidden, but it’s impossible for them to be accidental, which makes me think: who is he really?

And we don’t know! Wonderful. Good for him. He seems broadly to be a decent guy but what I wouldn’t give for a peek behind the curtain 👀

Ohh I love the excessive beauty and work ethic description - v true.

Like I think it's so funny, he's all 'Hi, I'm Harry's at the start of every gig and I am sure he is humble and he's clearly not a twathead who lords it about, but also, he signed his fucking management contract on a yacht in the Bahamas in front of the paps and he's literally mates with his label chief (who did nothing about getting rid of Dennis Handlin grr) not to mention the fact that James Cordon is a known absolute prick and Harry is known to be very polite and professional even in the face of insane levels of attention and intrusion - how does that worrrkkkk?

His friendship with Tommo is my favourite and I think they hang out a lot and I have a theory that KD is about them.

Anon 💙💙

[alsaurus-loves-dean]

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[catilinas]

just explained prisoner 24601 releases a sammich on parole to one of my favourite lecturers :/

[mayday505]

I know a lot of fic writers have their own interpretations of different character dynamics (for example Mori and Dazai) I KNOW THERES POINTS OF CONTENTION OR WHAT NOT but like I wish ppl would leave others alone for having a dif take bc I got a comment on A Horse Named Cold Air (my comments were moderated at the time so I just deleted it on the spot) saying that basically my interpretation of Dazai and Mori wasn’t correct and that Dazai wasn’t abused. And now. I could go into detail on why contextually I think that that is factually incorrect in regards to canon but I won’t bc it’s not abt that.

However. What it is about is letting fic writers mind their own business bc hey yeah maybe some of the stuff is canonically inaccurate! (And again I could argue about how that’s largely because there are so many gaps w Dazais backstory anyway that it’s kinda up to interpretation anyways bc we simply don’t have all the knowledge) BUT! That’s none of ur fucking business how I intend to write MY fic. U don’t like it? Write your own. That’s the beauty of fandom baby.

And especially like bc. You never know what the author is basing those dynamics on or how much of it is projection. I sure as hell know I project a fuck ton onto Dazai and Mori’s dynamic and it’s actually rlly upsetting when ppl comment like “oh this is inaccurate he wasn’t abused” bc like cool??? U can read it that way??? However me. Being someone to relates to him thru the lens of my own abuse. I’m gonna take a certain interpretation and I’d like to have that in peace.

AAAAA the day people learn ao3 etiquette and general human decency is the day I will rest.