#she owns 90% of the cast get real

[ilynpilled]

not to actually take power scaling discourse seriously, but remember when george said that his chosen champions in a trial by combat from his asoiaf characters would be arthur dayne if he was still alive, jaime with both hands, or brienne, and everyone got mad and said he said that for virtue signaling actually

[wisteria-lodge]

And now for a HP fandom question - do you have any thoughts on queercoding in the series and if JKR ever actually intended it, and then backtracked, or if it was always completely unintentional? I'm thinking specifically about Lupin and Tonks (as individuals, not as a ship) Inspired by your post about the intention vs how fans perceived Draco Malfoy. Thanks!

So the first thing I want to do is make a distinction between femme-coding and queer-coding. They're tropes with very similar histories, and a lot of works treat them as the same thing. But Harry Potter doesn’t, and I think we can chalk this one up to JK Rowling’s habit of grabbing aesthetics and visuals without really thinking through the history behind them. 

(Like - the goblins. She says she didn’t mean to write an antisemitic thing, and I actually do believe her. But did she use a lot of tropes and images with a long history of being tied to antisemitism? yes.)

So when I say “femme” I mean giving a male character traits stereotypically associated with femininity. Heightened sensitivity/emotionality, an interest in hair, clothes and being attractive, a love of lace/pink/frills, a dislike of violence and physical confrontation, and a preference for the soft power of manipulation, character assassination and poison - versus the hard power of direct confrontation and physical prowess. Are these things super stereotypical? Yes. But they’re ALSO traits you see all the time on male villains, especially ones that you don’t want to seem that threatening. Femme-coded villains show up a lot in children’s media, or as the Big Bad’s #2. They’re not meant to be heroic or sympathetic (since all these feminine traits are not desirable, especially for guys.) But they also aren’t scary, and you can pretty much always play them for comedy. 

For example: see almost every male Disney villain. And JKR was writing children’s literature in the 90s, so of course she’s pulling from the same zeitgeist as the Disney Renaissance. 

JKR loves herself a femme villain. The absolute gold standard is of course Lockhart - who wears pink, wants to start his own line of hair care products, is self-centered, vain, obsessed with popularity… but he sucks in a fight. His entire MO involves manipulating people into thinking he has these traditional masculine qualities when he just doesn’t. But there’s also fussy, prissy Percy wearing his prefect badge on his pajamas. Bitchy, emotional mean-girl poisoners Draco and Snape (especially early book Snape - which is Snape at his most villainous.) Draco, Percy and Snape are also unusual for being male characters who we see crying for reasons other than grief (apparently the only truly acceptable reason for masculine crying). 

Lucius Malfoy is an interesting case because he starts off quite masc. He’s threatening to curse people, the governors are scared of him, etc. But, as the books go on… and he gets less powerful… he also gets more femme. When we meet him in Book 5 he’s no longer threatening people, but bribing them, spreading rumors, and giving interviews to the Prophet casting Arthur Weasley in a negative light. He's also getting really into peacocks. In Book 2 he was a major threat, but as he gets recast as Voldemort’s #2 he becomes a more femme, soft-power villain. When he leads the attack on the Department of Mysteries, he absolutely bungles it, which defines his character (and relationship with Voldemort) for the rest of the series. And it makes sense that Lucius is given this kind of treatment! It’s a way of communicating that there's a new villain in town, a real villain. 

So, are any of these femme-coded villains additionally queer-coded? I’m actually going to say no. Queer-coding is (like it says on the tin) finding ways to imply that your character is specifically gay. Like maybe giving them a same-sex relationship that is written romantically, but not explicitly called out by the text. Or pairing up all of the characters except them. Maybe have other characters joke about them being gay, and use that as a way to talk about the subject with some plausible deniability. Or they could just play suggestively with a cigar, or a walking stick. There are different strategies.  

But Lockhart doesn't get any of that. Honestly, I think that if JKR actually thought of him as gay, she would have been a lot more wary about a scene where he keeps Harry alone with him in his office for way longer than he’s supposed to. And she might have skipped this joke: 

“Harry was hauled to the front of the class during their very next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, this time acting a werewolf (...) “Nice loud howl, Harry — exactly — and then, if you’ll believe it, I pounced — like this — slammed him to the floor — thus — with one hand, I managed to hold him down — with my other, I put my wand to his throat (...) he let out a piteous moan — go on, Harry — higher than that — good —” 

Like. At least she would have picked a different word than “moan,” right? Which unfortunately has slightly sexual connotations. Especially if she wanted to keep Lockhart a buffoon, to properly set up the twist at the end. 

Slughorn also gets femme-coded in a similar way: he loves his candy, his parties, his smoking jackets, his lilac silk pajamas, his web of connections he can use to get stuff (Lucius style.) We are introduced to him squatting in specifically a “fussy old lady’s” house. He’s also unusually emotional, getting weepy at Aragog‘s funeral. But I don’t think we’re meant to read him as actually gay, or else his relationship with Tom Riddle might’ve read a little too close to Tom seducing/trying to seduce him. Which is a beat JKR does subtly play out with Hepzibah Smith, but idk. by that point at least Tom is a legal adult.

(As a side note - the Harry Potter series got so lucky that all of its adult characters are played by absolutely top-shelf actors who are aware of the connotations and history behind various symbols, and do consider these things in their performances. Kenneth Brannagh and Jim Broadbent are good enough to make sure there’s not even a hint of iffy subtext when they play Lockhart and Slughorn. Also, Emma Thompson took the potentially very problematic character of Trelawney and made her cute and sympathetic… and not Romani in the slightest.) 

Draco, Snape, and Percy all have a case of the not-gays. Percy has a girlfriend (we don’t really see her or anything, but we’re told she’s there.) Snape of course gets his whole thing with Lily, and Draco… after one too many beats where it’s clear that Pansy is into him, but he’s not into Pansy…  gets a scene where he’s talking to his buddies with his head in her lap. (JKR uses “no one‘s good enough for me” beats with Blaise, Draco and Sirius, and the idea there seems to be more that they have undeservedly high opinions of themselves, and less that they don’t like girls.)

But, I do agree that a lot of JKR's characters do come across as a little more queer than intended. It boils down, I think, to the general lack of any kind of romance in the Harry Potter books and JKR being generally bad at/uncomfortable with writing male attraction directed at women, BUT being perfectly happy writing attraction directed at pretty guys. And because of that… yeah, it can sometimes feel like maybe Harry has a thing for Cedric. Especially when Dudley goes on to tease him about Cedric being his boyfriend, which I believe is the only actual mention of gay people in the entire series.  

So is there any intentional queer-coding in the book? It’s really subtle, but yes. I think Dumbledore is queer-coded. He is unusually emotional/cries unusually often for a Rowling guy. He is also given a scene which emphasizes his “flamboyantly” cut plum-velvet suit, and his relationship with Grindelwald is implied to be romantic for one book and two movies before being actually confirmed in Fantastic Beasts 3. (With the line of dialogue “I was in love with you.” Big step up from “We were closer than brothers.” which is an odd thing to say about someone you are interested in romantically.) 

But you brought up Tonks and Lupin, two characters very commonly interpreted as queer. So let’s get into that. JKR has said that she considers Lupin’s lycanthropy to be a metaphor for stigmatized diseases like AIDS. And… as incredible as it is to say… I actually do not think that she made the jump from there to thinking that maybe the character suffering from AIDS should be gay.

Because the narrative places so much weight on Lupin being bitten young and then on maybe not being allowed to attend school, I’m pretty sure that he’s not intended to be queer so much as he’s meant to be Ryan White, the literal poster child for AIDS activism who got infected via blood transfusion when he was two. Tragic, absolutely. But not gay. Honestly, I hope JKR was thinking of ‘lycanthropy’ as a metaphor for stigmatized illness in the abstract and not as a comment on gay people specifically. Because otherwise, Greyback’s thing about biting children becomes a mash-up of two of the biggest homophobic boogeymen from the 80s: gay men infecting people with AIDS on purpose because… idk, they hate the world or something. And the influence of gay men somehow “turning” children gay. Both absolutely real, if ridiculous, moral panics.

On top of that, Remus and Sirius do get a pretty clear case of the not-gays early on (“He embraced Black like a brother.”) Buuuut Alfonso Cuarón did think through those implications for Movie 3, absolutely saw Lupin as gay, and directed David Thewlis to play him accordingly. No reports confirming or denying whether Alfonso Cuarón ships Wolfstar, but I think that if I’m an actor trying to make sense of Lupin’s motivations… and I know he didn’t show Dumbledore the Marauders’ Map and didn’t tell anyone Sirius was an animagus… and then I’m told my character is gay… well. Anyway, I think there are absolutely hints of Wolfstar in that performance. 

And there's Tonks. Tonks is introduced during a very spooky segment in Book 5: Harry has been going through it, been left alone at the Dursleys while having what sounds like a depressive episode. It’s dark, he hears intruders. It's a really good piece of writing. But JKR knows that it’s the good guys who are coming and thinks, okay. Let’s make that as clear as possible from the word go. And so the first thing Harry sees is Tonks' pink hair. And what kind of person has pink hair? A young adult. A punky young adult. And what power would a teenager think was cool? Well, the ability to change the color of their hair at will. That, by itself, would have worked perfectly fine for this character.

But then (for reasons best known to herself) JKR goes further. Even though Tonk’s hair changing color is easily 90% of the transformations we see and there is no plot reason her appearance needs to change more than that, we see her drastically change her age and body type. When you think about this power for more than five seconds, it becomes kind of OP. For worldbuilding reasons alone, my instinct would’ve been to tone it down a bit. 

But no, we have this counterculture character who seems interested in her career and not in a relationship, who can easily change anything about her body, and (if her ability works anything like Polyjuice) that means she should definitely be able to change her gender. Cool.

Then, in everyone’s least favorite romance, Tonks and Lupin are paired up. I have heard the argument that this was meant to walk back queer-coding, or to punish people who thought they were queer... but I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t think JKR expected these two to be fan favorites, and then was kind of surprised when everyone wanted to hear about their continuing adventures. 

(There are a handful of characters who JKR clearly really enjoys - and really enjoys writing - that fandom honestly could not care less about. Mundungus Fletcher and Ludo Bagman spring to mind. But the reverse is also true. She had one story for Lupin and people wanted to see more. Tonks is probably supposed to be her comment on immature young adults: she is loud, in your face, causes mild destruction and is “a little annoying at times.” But the fans fell in love with her.) 

So JKR has these two fan favorite characters and nothing for them to do. A romance is something for them to do. JKR also has a kind of weird pattern where good people need to either have kids or take care of kids. It’s not good to be a woman who isn’t involved with taking care of children in some fashion: see Rita Skeeter, Dolores Umbridge, Bellatrix Lestrange. This is also (I think) why Harry names his kids specifically after Severus, Sirius, and Albus. Since they’re good men, JKR had to find a way to give them kids after the fact. 

So yeah. I think we were meant to read Tonks and Lupin having a kid as kind of a reward, or at least as proof of their intrinsic goodness. There also just isn’t another guy in the right age range to ship Tonks with. The only other option is Sirius. 

(Harry in the books and Lupin on Pottermore both suspect that Tonks/Sirius is a thing. Completely forgetting, I guess, that they're cousins.)

[yandere-wishes]

I'm considering the idea of a yandere cheater in spiderverse. All after reading your Miles G, I confess. Miguel was the first wave, but Hobie and Miles G, hit like a tsunami behind.

I don't ask you to write it. Just babbling about my favs... although there's also Aaron, Peter B, Noir,... I love everyone.

But, but in your yandere expert opinion, who would have the toughest nerve to become a cheater and on top of that, being a yandere about reader? From all the charas into and across the spiderverse.

ALSO, WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE, KINDA FUCK, MARRY, KILL???, Tell me, tell me *googly eyes*

In my "expert" Yandere knowledge (jk 🤣jk🤣) I'd say that 90% of the Spiderverse cast could be "cheater" if they couldn't physically be with the reader. Or if they thought that they don't deserve the reader.

1610-Miles: would never cheat, he'd just sit around mopping and dreaming about the reader. He'd also never really think about not "deserving" the reader. He's a really lonely boy and would latch onto his crush no matter what. He'd also fully believe that he was a better match for them than anyone else. He's also confident enough that he's sure he could protect them against anything.

Pavitr Prabhakar: Would also never cheat. When he's in love he becomes devoted to said person and would do anything for them. Cares for them too much to ever be with anyone else. Also if that person is in love with someone else then he would respect their choice and bottle up his emotions. Laching onto the hope that one day the reader would realize they love him more than their current partner. He's practically the walking embodiment of "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift.

Gwen Stacy: Gwen might cheat on the reader if she's trying to distance herself from them. Make them hate her so they leave. But really it's just to protect them, she's fully convinced that she's cursed. Anyone who get's too close to her ends up hurt. So she'll make them leave. Also if her lover is in another dimension then she might go for a relationship in her own dimension just to distract herself from them.

Hobie Brown: Wouldn't mean to cheat. But he might get tempted into having an affair. Nothing serious just something casual. But he tries to keep it a secret from his one true love. Also if Hobie did end up kidnapping the reader and locking them up somewhere then he may have another relationship with someone else. But that person is like a substitute for the reader. He pretends that they are her and that He and the reader are a real couple, but it's actually the other person. Until he can trust the reader enough to take them outside. Does this make sense? I feel like it doesn't make sense.

42- Miles: Will have some causal flings here and there to get their mind off the reader. But also watches them through their window each night. Like he's obsessed but too prideful to fully admit it. If he does kidnap the reader and sees that she's being incompliant. He'll try to make her jealous by going out on cute dates with some other girl. Then showing her pictures. Show her how easily replaceable she is. He'll obviously break her mind until she's begging him not to go out, not to leave her alone. Why is it that every time I write anything for this guy it gets real dark, real quick?

Miguel O'Hara: YES!! THIS MAN IS NOT EMOTIONALLY STABLE. Like he might just make an AI of his lover, talk to her, program her to love him, and convince himself that this is his real lover. If his lover is in another dimension then maybe he'll date someone with certain similar characteristics to her but then kinda get distracted by his duties. He'll just go back lovingly looking at them through a screen.

Peter B: He might get drunk and cheat by accident. But I think that's more something he would have done in the first movie. If the reader is MayDay's mother then no way he's cheating.

Spider Noir: He's too old-fashioned to cheat. He'll treat his lover like a princess. I can't really see him doing anything like that.

Aaron: He might cheat on the reader if he loves her enough. Like his life as the Prowler is dangerous, he knows this. So he'll distract himself with other people as apposed to getting mixed up with the reader and risking their life.

As for me: (I'll do kiss, marry, kill)

MARRY: MIGUEL O'HARA. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS MAN. He means everything to me😍😍. I just want to be his cute little housewife. Someone he can look forward to coming home to. Plus I'd also try to help him out with his whole Spiderman thing.

KISS: MILES G MORALES (prowler miles) I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!! He also gives me lowkey season 4 Eren vibes from AOT lol.

Kill:... Honestly no one. I love everyone so much. Like maybe Miguel so no one can have him but me. But like also Miles G, so you know, no one can have him but me. 😂😂 sorry about that went full yandere for a moment.

[lolotheparagon]

After witnessing many anime gacha games that try to be like Breath of the Wild, im gonna make my own RPG story. And this is my main cast

The idea for Funomena is a story about a woman named Holly and her friend Janice find this cartirdge of an 90s fantasy JRPG world of Funomena at a flea market. Once they boot the game on thier old dusty VCR tv theyve kept from their old apartment, they're both magically transported into the actual world of Funoman, where everyone subconsciously lives by anime and JRPGs archetypes and tropes. Because Holly randomly killed a dragonboar whilst exploring, everyone assumes she is the Chosen One, but they don’t know what the chosen one actually does, so they just leave Holly to figure it out for herself. It also turns out she can go back to the human world anytime she likes so Holly decides she wants to use her chosen one destiny as a way to find out how to get everyone in Funomena into the real world, free from the tropes and archetypes weighing them down.

Each character represents an anime/RPG archetype they're trying to break from and Holly and Janice create a found family with some of their anime companions

[alleunwalk]

because of how sad jujutsu kaisen has been i've been thinking what if they were just all actors and this was just one big drama series/movie.  I CAN DREAM OK?!

jjk actor au 

itadori: he's pretty much the same off-camera and on-camera. just generally so nice and kind to everyone on set. extremely good at remembering his lines last minute (gg photographic memory). always buys the hair/makeup and stylists coffee.  megumi: extremely loud, bubbly, and a total goofball. often breaks character just from laughing so much.  nobara: shes more soft-spoken, dainty and gentle off-camera but she's still a girlboss in her own way. shes a popstar/idol when she's not acting.  gojo: he's surprisingly a lot more reserved off-camera than on-camera but he can be goofy with his castmates, especially geto's actor. loves mentoring and giving advice to rookie actors.  geto: he's a lot louder and extraverted off-camera but put him in a room with gojo and they will literally pop off. the directors and crew groan when they see them together tbd. he and gojo's actor actually used to hate each other back in the day but they became the best of buds during the first tableread. their chemistry on-screen though constantly blows everyone away.  nanami: another goofball off-camera. known for his superior range. played in movies ranging from comedy, horror, and heart-tugging romance. put him in a room with gojo and geto and it ends up being immense chaos that the staff loses their minds. 

*the three of them can not take an interview seriously but they're all known to be extremely A-list top of the top actors in the industry who all have won awards. 

utahime: consider her like the 90s superstar actress of her generation. she started acting since she was a child. just superior all around and an absolute legend. cares for the younger cast very dearly.  shoko: another legend to walk among the set. was also a runway model. she's extremely smart off-camera too and was known to go to a prestigious university. hangs out with utahimes actress a lot.  *all of the cast get shook when they come on set-- the power these women hold is just unmatched. the beauty, grace and class they hold.... 

you can basically think that gojo, geto, nanami, utahime, shoko, sukuna, and toji are all just academy award winning legends among their generation. 

sukuna: his personality is pretty similar to yuji off-camera. just super sweet and kind. was amazed the casting directors found someone who looked just like him as a kid. loves joking around with yuji. breaks character a lot too because yuji keeps making him laugh.  toji: the cast tends to joke about how he could look like megumis real dad. loves telling dad jokes-- which only megumi ends up laughing at for real. (he calls him dad as a joke during cast interviews.) 

maki: a lot more reserved off-camera. gives off really chic vibes and everyone is intimidated by her cool, suave personality. started her career off as a model.  mai: also reserved, just like her sister. they're both pretty introverted off-camera and tend to keep to themselves but hangs out with nobara's actress a lot on the weekends as a trio. they love shopping and going to cool restaurants together.  inumaki: loves pulling pranks on people and filming tiktoks behind set. this kid doesn't take anything seriously but that's what people love about him.  panda: under the panda costume/CG effects is a guy who's just stellar at voice acting but people get shocked by how handsome he is when he doesn't have the costume on. super silly with inumaki and often joins his pranks.  yuta: similar to itadori- his character is the same on/off camera that people can't tell if he's acting. really famous for acting in a lot of melodramas.  todo: HUGEEE nerd and softie off-camera. is the biggest scaredy cat on set hence he's the main target for all the pranks when the cast pulls them (cough* inumaki). loves collecting plushies as a hobby. would not hurt a fly. him and yuji really did become best friends irl. miwa: down-to-earth, just very sweet. pretty much the same on/off camera. she's good at crying on command.  muta: he's very talkative and just loves chatting with anyone and everyone on set. he wants to know everyones life story. just super genuine. like his character, he has a huge crush on miwa.  kamo: SUPERRRR clumsy off-camera. he's always accidentally slipping on the fake blood or dropping something. it's okay though, he just laughs it off.  momo: tends to sit in her trailer and plays video games when it's downtime. very laissez faire about everything but that's what makes her so easy to work with.

mahito: extremely serious off-camera. only keeps things professional. doesn't mess around when it comes to work. doesn't have any bloopers when it comes to his scenes. he's a really nice guy though when you get to know him. choso: golden retriever energy. super talkative and loves getting to know people just like muta. he remembers really endearing memories about people. asks staff members how they're doing and checks up on them. loves hanging out with yuji on the weekends. 

[cloudmancy]

which is worse: d20 tumblr or d20 twitter?

this is such a funny question. frankly I prefer talking with my existing friends over discord over either of them but here's a breakdown of my experience with them

d20 tumblr

feels like a more isolating experience because of the way tumblr is set up in general as a platform. I follow relatively few people here, so all my interactions are from people engaging with my art (love you mwah) or asking me questions. nearly every time I go into a d20 related tag I regret it

I think frankly I disagree with 90% of the opinions on d20 here but because I don't have to see it I can just post my art and go

feels relatively static like there's not a good way to get everyone talking about a specific transformative fandom thing instead of only what's happening in canon because it's a looser more disconnected community

allows for longer posts and the search system on my own blog is great though. I love directing people to go through my tags or archived art

d20 twitter

incredibly, astonishingly, bad at recognizing jokes for people who are fans of a comedy show

way easier to interact with people which means most of the friends I make are from d20twt...

very easy to get everyone talking about one specific thing (ie fhsonas) because of how interactive Twitter is as a platform and how quickly word spreads

downside of this^ is that every time I express an opinion someone disagrees with they tend to assume that this is a majority opinion rather than like, 3-4 popular gay asian artists speaking their mind? when I complained about fhjy 18 battle on here I got interesting and thoughtful reblogs and everyone kept it respectful meanwhile on twitter people started making vaguetweets about how people who hated the episode were morons. stuff like us joking that oisin's grandma's whole mahjong group got murked getting 200 likes VS people directly shitting on us getting 1.7k likes and people going "wait... people are mad about oisins grandma for REAL?! she was going to kill people !!" getting 2k likes. clearly there is some sort of strange authority people put on your words whether or not you're actually just trying to have fun with your friends

I did talk about this more on twitter but I am not a fan of the CRitterfication of d20twt either. feels like much of the fandom is now watching because they're megafans of the cast rather than for the story which leads to some really big toxic positivity bias and the implication that criticism of the show == direct attack on the crew and therefore on THEM because parasocial attachment. I don't think it helps that for a majority of them d20 is their first big fandom experience aside from like... kpop or tswift because they have not developed a lot of the detachment from canon + not being parasocial + ignoring opinions you don't like if they're not directly addressed at you mechanisms that people who've been around have. sorry I'm not trying to fandom elder or whatever here I'm 21 years old but I think it's incredibly hard for me to interact with people whose entire understanding of canon depend on siobhan thompson's opinions like this

tldr;

d20twt has way less reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. better for making friends. I interact almost entirely with 30-40 of my artist friends. (my) d20tumblr experience is more chill and feels like I'm doing a seminar and people come up to ask me questions afterward. more isolating but easier to do my own thing. I do recognize and am fond of a lot of you but I've made one (1) entire friend who I can talk to off platform and not just see on the dash/my notes and that's just the nature of how tumblr works as a platform (it's terrible for conversations)

[mdhwrites]

Have you seen the leaked TOH pilot and pitch bible yet? IMO it’s crazy how most of it is better than the final product.

I have! And... I don't know if I entirely agree with that.

What I found most fascinating about it is that a lot of the contradictions and issues of scope with TOH that doomed it are still in the pitch bible itself. Just some quick examples of what I'm talking about: When talking about themes, they talk about Fantasy versus Reality but it's as shallow as it is in the show. After all, one of the episode concepts pitched within it features a plot that has Luz literally going "This is just like in my fanfiction!" and being better able to handle it because of that.

It builds up the emperor of the land and Belos (known as Oberon) when talking about them but NONE of the plotlines include Oberon in the episode pitches or even mention the coven system for that matter. They are still barely a thing to the show with the only episode concept about that part of the show being the one about William.

An utter lack of real stakes like how King has to face the deep crises of a decision of either being a lackey to the people he used to run with while also losing any chance to ever reclaim his lost power... Or he can save Eda and Luz and lose the chance to work with these people again. That's not really a compelling decision, is it?

The pitch also claims that the show will mostly be about Luz and Eda's relationship and how Luz's determination will push Eda to be a better person... And most of the episodes pitched are still not actually about the two spending time together. Just Eda making Luz upset so she goes off to do her own thing, just like the same problem as in the actual series.

You actually have MORE characters in this version which sucks harder for trying to narrow things down, especially since more of them are disconnected from each other than before. At least Boscha, unlike Pascha, has a connection to literally anyone in the main cast.

You also have stupidity with your magic still. "Look! I need to work hard to make small objects float!" And apparently that's enough to make all of Hexside lose their fucking minds. WHY!? In 90% of settings, that is as basic as the light spell Luz learns. It's why it's one of the first spells Harry learns.

Oh and let's not forget "Almost all known portals to the human realm have been severed" but apparently Amity has access to one of those known portals freely enough to attend two schools. It's a small thing but it would cause problems in theory.

BUT.

I will give credit to this: Luz is MUCH more compelling in this version. I think if there is something that is just unequivocally true, it's that. She is way less inoffensively nerdy, instead her interests being more upfront and troublesome, helping explain why that would be why she is rejected and not because, you know, she puts people in danger. Also her rise to power is just better.

Arguably, Luz in canon is a chosen one essentially from episode FOUR onwards. Now, this is up for debate but being given a power almost out of nowhere, with no training, that no one else has, is usually a sign of a chosen in a narrative. Episode 4 is when she gets the light glyph. She doesn't work for it, it's not a big character growth moment, etc. like that. She mostly just oops into it. Making it that Luz ACTUALLY has to work for her magic and the show actually has to explore how the magic works, making it so she has something to learn is just strictly better, especially for the concept of her learning to be a witch. Eda would actually be able to teach her something instead of shrugging and going "Welp, good luck!"

I will say that the bible does also lean more into an adventurous aspect though. This version of episodes would easily be more fantastical and include more magic in them which would help the Isles not feel so much like our realm. I will say the fact that there's also active anti-human prejudice also would be good because then Luz being human would, you know... Matter. Not that the Isles is really given a personality even here besides the oppression they're theoretically under. It's still a very generic fantasy setting.

A lot of the rest though? It's really not that unique or different from the show itself. Lilith is almost exactly the same, Tibbles is just Gus but a demon, there are slightly more restrictions on things like being human or magic but, you know, the show didn't care about its one law, why would it care about three? Even Amity, who does look better on here, is only because it's on paper. This is literally just Amity's pitch in S1 after all. All the reasons people loved Amity are here.

Conceptually it is fine but I am surprised about how not only this got picked up but also how it was greenlit so heavily as to get a pilot animatic, with voice acting, based on these concepts. There's just some very clear cleaning up that needs to be done, basic questions on its own setting and own logic that isn't even playing into the comedy/fantasy angles that could let you let it pass. It's not all of them or even the majority but a skeptical prereader could even raise these basic sorts of inconsistencies like the ones I brought up above. After all, this is half a season's worth of episodes pitched and a fifth of them are still going to Amity and more of them have Luz directly interacting with King than they do Eda.

There's a final thing I have to bring up due to it being why I think the show changed so drastically from this pitch bible to its final form: This is way more complicated. TOH already has extremely decompressed storytelling and too many elements working in tandem. Meanwhile, every character is MORE complicated in this one and less connected to each other, necessitating that each, except maybe Eda, will take more time to get through their stuff. The writing team either had to sharpen how much they could do in an episode or simplify and congregate elements. We see this a LOOOOT in S2A, especially Escaping Expulsion, where it seems the writers went "Even with three whole seasons planned, we don't have enough time to do everything we want to, the way we like to, so we need to start cutting and simplifying even more than before."

One example of this that's really easy: In the pitch bible, Willow is a random witch who lives near Eda. Well that means she'll likely either take time out of a couple episodes as she's introduced or take up an entire episode just for herself. Tibbles is also just on their own, like in the show. Introducing both of these characters is not really an option. However, put them both into Hexside and suddenly you can introduce three characters at the same time organically, like we saw with I Was a Teenage Abomination.

Luz just being gifted magic is another element to this. Her having to actually experiment for every spell and having to have a real system to her spells limits what she can do but also means spending a LOT more time on her magic. You can't just have a flower open up and give her the glyph of the day as easily, nor have her be able to throw her spells around as she wants. Making it so she just needs reams of paper and/or a marker makes it a lot easier and simpler to have her start casting magic.

This version of TOH would have SHATTERED under its own scope while the current version mostly bends and cracks from it. However, if people do use this to go "FUCK DISNEY EVEN HARDER!" I won't be surprised. Grand scope ALWAYS looks better on paper than it does in action. It sounds epic and multi-faceted and complex. The problem is that it still has to fit its format and it is MUCH harder to execute on than a more simple concept.

There's a reason the only perfect project is the one you never do because you can promise the world without ever having to deliver. So, while it's nice to see an earlier version, I am by no means going to say this would have been a better version of TOH.

======+++++======

Sorry for anyone hoping for a link to the pitch bible btw. I just don't have one as I got given it as a document.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[adachimoe]

If this guy had just been a magician then we wouldn't be dealing with this shit

During one of his Social Link rank ups, Adachi implies some things about his career. I know, I know, he said "I became a cop because GUNS". But also: he's a dumbass.

Thus far, the player has only seen Adachi being a bumbling moron running away from a little old lady at Junes. But we see a side of him we haven't seen before: It turns out that he has sleight of hand and he's quite good at performing magic tricks.

He doesn't think he could have made a living if he had gone into a profession working with his hands, even if he does demonstrate that he's good at it. He does acknowledge that his life might have been different. And when fiction does things like this, we in the audience know that the unspoken implication is that he would be a lot happier this way.

Adachi doesn't exactly try to hide how much he hates his life. But, at the same time, it's not like he tries to do much to change it. Part of it we see in his rank 6 social link when he talks about how "I'm lonely, but it's easier that way". But another part of it is that by being a police officer instead of a magician or something else, he gets to work at a government job. Job security certainly contributes to one's quality of life.

But I think there is something else worth noting about this, and it's based entirely off the year Adachi was born - 1984. (Insert the "literally 1984" calendar meme image here.)

Adachi was born when Japan's economy was flourishing and the Yen was quite strong. Based on the timing, I think his parents had a kid under the assumption that, "Japan is prosperous, the Yen is powerful, things are great, everyone has money, or other valuable assets (stock/land)". If you've played Yakuza 0, this might vaguely sound familiar when it comes to Kiryu's story and his adventures in real estate.

This is a hilariously bad and overly simplified explanation, but it wasn't until the year after Adachi was born when the country and the bank began having economic issues. This eventually lead to the big blow up in the early 90s, stock and real estate nosedived, and the whole country went into a period of economic stagnation called the Lost Decades.

During Japan's period of growth, the country was seen as a powerhouse. My dad remembers when Japanese tourists were traveling all over due to strong yen - really a reversal of how it is now with people flocking to Japan due to how weak it is. People there would get a job and be set for life. While this was thanks to their economy and the assumption that "Wow, we have a lot of $$ in land and/or stocks, things are great", the "hired for life" thing can also be seen as being tied to Japanese labor laws. This changed after the economy exploded, and some companies began taking on temp workers who had less rights and less protections.

If you start to compare Adachi's situation and birth year to the main cast, it's really no wonder they make him so damn mad and frustrated lol.

Yukiko and Kanji can inherit their family businesses. Their families aren't wealthy, but they have stable businesses they operate out of their family homes. They can inherit both land and jobs.

In Yukiko's Social Link, she talks about getting licensed as an interior coordinator as a backup in case the ryokan doesn't work out... Hm, I think learning that she even has options would piss Adachi off further lol.

Naoto I am under the impression is doing well since she already has a career as a detective, plus the backing of her grandfather.

Yosuke's family doesn't own Junes, but his dad is the manager at the Inaba store, and nepotism is a thing. But it seems that he too has options, as in Ultimax, he's going to cram school so he can go to university.

Rise already has a career. Unfortunately, it's part of Japan's terrible and exploitive idol industry.

Even Marie has a career, it seems.

One can assume that if Adachi's parents got on his ass if his grades dropped, then Adachi does not stand to inherit something from his parents (or perhaps their assets lost value?), nor is he already successful.

Chie feels like the outlier here. From what we know about her, her parents don't have a business she can inherit, no famous grandfather, she's not a popular idol, and she doesn't have Main Character privilege. We also know from her Social Link that she wants to become an officer like Adachi.

Really, I think Adachi is too young to have grown up on promises of some kind of prosperous future thanks to Japan's strong economy, merely to have the rug pulled out from under him and have his dreams crushed in 1991 (he'd only be 7, after all). So where Chie might optimistically see the ability to help and protect people as an officer, Adachi might see stability and survival because of his parents and how they raised him and the economic situation.

"Don't be a magician, get a secure job" is something our parents would tell us in the west too, so maybe it doesn't seem that special or related to their economic situation at all. Pretty sure his folks would say it to him even if he was born some 10-15 years earlier. But I think it does help illustrate why he would pick security (or why his parents picked security for him), his failure case (have fun being a replaceable temp worker while waiting for your big break as a magician), and what some of his ire towards the Investigation Team is about (he had to study; why do they get to go kill god after school???). In some ways, he feels like an American millennial whose life was affected by economic circumstance, but everything that comes out of his mouth makes him sound a boomer lol. Get off my dungeon lawn, you damn kids.

[acheronist]

🧛🏻‍♀️⚰️

disclaimer i am not a scholar or a historian or an archaeologist. i just like vampires in a freak way and read a lot of weird articles + listen to podcasts and think about this a lot.

so the vampire burials that i know the most about were done in the general region of like... hungary / slovakia / romania / poland kind of following along the line of the carpathian mountain range. but also then in like, early america as well for some reason. random ass 1700s vampire hysteria panic swept the nation (all 25 square miles of it).

anyways so this area in europe is notorious for vampire folklore anyways so it tracks that where the european vampire folklore was originating = where people are most frightened of it for real. and so the vampire graves that have been excavated and studied are HONESTLY PROBABLY just the graves of like..... normal people who were ill in some way, and therefore cast into a suspicious light, and then died. but it was a fairly common belief that if someone WAS a vampire, especially prior to dying, then they'd return from the dead and attack and kill their family first before moving onto friends and neighbors and the rest of the community. bad for the community. so after the "vampire" in question died, the living would take extra steps to ensure that the deceased would not rise from the grave again and start killing them because well No One would like that! so one one hand its really kind of upsetting that-- essentially-- the dead were being accused and vandalized without the ability to protect or defend themselves AND THEN ALSO having their burial rites get screwed around with. sure you prevented the vampires but now we've got fucking ghosts. great work everyone.

and then on the other hand morbid freaky trivia is so fascinating to MEEEEEEE so here some of the most dramatic methods that i can recall from the top of my head:

dismembering the deceased's corpse ( with an emphasize on decapitation)

and for the decapitation, sickles or hand scythes were placed over the deceased's neck, so if they lived and sat up again, they'd cut their own throat

also rearranging the dismembered body (pieces) or the body (whole) in specific patterns

padlocking the deceased's feet together

placing bricks or rocks into the deceased's mouth, either breaking their teeth or making it impossible for any postmortem vampire zombie bite damage to be inflicted upon the living

pinning the deceased's corpse into the ground via steel or iron stakes to keep them from getting up. often stakes were stabbed thru the heart which is where the motif in media today comes from

but also sometimes removing the heart from the deceased completely and burning it also happened

burying the deceased with wreathes of garlic and poppy seeds and paprika peppers to act as wards to keep them where they were. which is hilarious also when you take into account how much garlic and poppy and paprika gets used in eastern european cuisine

and i might be making this part up LMAO but i feel like in my heart. and brain. that i remember a colonial american(?) story where an autopsy was performed on a recently deceased girl(??) whose organs still looked "fresh" and functional, as it were, and not like the organs of someone dead. because she was obviously rising from the dead and drinking the blood of the living which we can tell from her remarkably fresh organs. this was another great instance of vampire organ harvesting but i for SURE need to go try and find my source for this again.

and similarly, i also am like 90% sure I've read about exhuming someone who had been accused of being a vampire, and judging how their rate of decomposition was going, and if they looked too fresh and alive then they were a vampire and we can brutally kill them again. obviously differences in burial climates and situations would have no bearing or affect upon the body's rate of decay btw.

but then as we work our way up thru history, illegal body snatching also became an incredibly common thing as anatomists and doctors and surgeons needed the bodies to learn from. and I'm SOOOO so certain that grave cages / mort safes were invented because normal people did not want their corpses to be body snatched and turned into underground med student dissection homework. BUT ☝🏻 i have also seen claims that cages over the graves were put in place to keep the vampires IN the grave, not to keep body snatchers OUT of the grave. and then I went hmm. where have I seen big elaborate grave cages before?

mother fucking henry ford has a mort safe cage on his shit, so the only reasonable conclusion to all of this is that henry ford was a vampire. amen. my edible is hitting now and i cant think of a good conclusion to this post sorry. someday i will write an essay. or finish making my gay ass zine about this.

[whomstress]

What it Takes to Feel Real (Part 1)

(Part 2)

Just wanted to explore Jax's more vulnerable side. Gooseworx here on tumblr said in an ask that everyone in the circus including Jax has a reason for why he turned out the way they are when asked if he was just an asshole or was it the circus that made him worse.

And though that's pretty vague I wanted to explore that! So here's a little bit of angst. Don't worry next chapters wholesome break!

‘This isn’t real,’ Jax tries to remind himself every day. It’s one of the things that keeps him sane. He could do anything he wanted here, and none of it would matter when he got out. All the bad behavior, pranks, and things he did just crossed the line. All of them really didn’t matter because, in the end, even if they could feel simulated pain, he literally could not do any real damage to anyone in here.

Wherever their real bodies were, they were much more in danger there than any loony toon charade he could do here. Caine tries to convince them that everything is constantly changing. But nothing ever changes. The same tent, the same sky, the same 90s digtial hell hole every damn day for years. Characters come and go, which is the only exception, except it’s also not. After all this time, he can tell who has it in them and who is going to crack. Only a matter of time is the real surprise before they’re tossed and forgotten with the rest of the cast. Heh “cast”, “characters”, he hated when he realized that’s all he sees them as now.

Knowing he can just do anything and everything he wants to when he wants to without any real-world consequences was something that somehow kept him sane. He probably says something about his psyche, but he doesn’t care to dwell on it. Sure, he was never a nice guy. For whatever reason he was here, he secretly knew he was the one who deserved to be here the most. Whether or not he’d admit it to anyone or himself was another story.

Still, the thought made him bitter. Why him? Yeah, he was a jerk and only got worse in here, but he knew he wasn’t a monster. Well, at least before. He's done some seriously questionable things since he’s been here. Some in private, some in public, and, to be honest, he didn’t care anymore. He knew what everyone thought about him. They think he’s a pest; oh, then he’d be a pest. Everyone here has gotten worse in their own way. Just cause he copes differently to stay alive, they had no right to judge him. None of them were better than him.

Except, one. Ragatha. The light in this tent. She stayed bright when others crumbled to the dark around her. She doesn’t even remember how many years she’s been here anymore, but he knows Kinger and her have been stuck here longer than anyone else. There had been several times he almost broke like everyone, but unlike everyone, Ragatha came to check on him. No matter what kind of asshole he’d been that week to her, trust him, sometimes it got bad. If she saw he was struggling, she’d put everything aside not to lose another “friend.”

He didn’t want to be her friend. For the longest time, they didn’t even like each other. She saw him as an annoyance, and he saw her as just another cog in the machine he got to mess with. He did have to admit that she was the most attractive one there. Probably because she actually had a human body, sort of at least, and so what? Kill him; he had a thing for redheads! However, again, that’s the furthest it went.

Out of everyone in this dump, she was the least annoying and funniest to mess with. Unlike Gangle, who’d cry like a baby, and Zooble, who’d try to beat his ass, she had a range of responses. From completely blowing it off to the cutest, least-threatening little pout to jumping in his arms to get away from a centipede, her reactions were always the best.

He found out the hard way. Things do change here. They got closer; it was the stupidest moment for her, but she saved him from falling straight into the basement when Caine wasn’t looking. The scene was straight from that movie for 5-year-olds, where she held out her hand for him and asked him if she trusted him. He looked at her and then at the pit of hell below him and said, “Yes.”

She grabbed him, nearly falling in herself, and when they were safe on the ground, she cried her eyes out into his fur, holding on to him like she was the one that was almost killed. Maybe it was from the shock, or maybe he was just too damn tired at that moment to push her away, but he let her cry in his arms. Shedding the tears for him, he vowed to stop letting him feel himself years ago. After that, things were different. It didn't matter anyway, he reminded himself; it wasn’t real.

He hated it, but he soon realized that whenever she called them friends, it annoyed him again, but in a different way. He didn’t want to be her friend, and he knew why. He tried to keep his feelings under wraps, still pranking and trying to play it cool, but of course she saw right through him. She knew something was "wrong,” and she wouldn’t leave him alone, no matter how much he pushed her away. Finally, he snapped; he’d purposely been avoiding her for days. Ignoring her and running the second he saw her face. He knew it was lame, but she was driving him nuts. It worked, or at least he thought it did.

He finally came home hours after everyone was asleep, only to find her literally on his doorstep. Rolling his eyes, he kicked her awake and told her to leave, but she didn’t blow it off like most times; she blew up instead. She started yelling, but he really wasn’t in the mood to make a scene and tried to leave her to go into his room. To his surprise, she pushed his door open and slammed it behind them. He joked about how she finally grew some before she came up and got in his face, chewing him out. She was telling him she cared about him, and it wasn't right; he was just ignoring her after all the progress between them. Although he did kind of deserve it, it still pissed him off, and with a wicked smile, he moved closer and closer into her space, making her back into the door and teasing, "Oh, you wanna kiss me so bad right now."

It was a joke. He wasn’t serious. None of this was. Another one of his games to get her to back off. But she didn’t. She didn’t back down, even though he could see how her face was red as he had cornered her against the wall. She still had fire in her. The one that kept her sane His eyes dilated into small squares while watching her expression. They’re practically chest to chest, and he can practically feel her heartbeat every time he takes another large breath to keep his cool.

With her this close, he catches her eyes dart to his lips, and he follows her lead. ‘This isn’t real,’ he reminds himself, and it almost works, almost. Well, at least that’s what he’d tell himself later. But when he looks up at her face, it’s flushed as red as her hair, and she cracks his final resolve with the most alluring and sensual, hushed, “Jax.”

He breaks. Not just a little bit but into a million pieces as his lips crash into hers. The only thought he can process is why he hadn't done this sooner. For the first time since he’s been here, it all felt real. Her lips, his heart that Caine swore he didn’t have roaring in his ears, his lungs gasping for air when they parted for a moment only to crash back together. He was a fucking knock-off bugs bunny kissing a life-size ragdoll in bad 3D animation, and he felt as existent as the memories he had of the life he didn’t mean to leave behind.

Her little gasps and whines, whimpering the only name he ever remembers against his mouth while wrapped in each other's arms, make him feel the most alive he’s ever felt. This damn circus will take it away from him again. He knows this; it’s hell for a reason, but he’ll savor all of it he can. All of her. Even if it’s just for a moment, even if it doesn’t happen again, he can pretend. This isn’t real, but God, for once, he wishes it was.

[questionable-decision]

LISTEN, transmigrator Mobei-jun AU BUT the trick is he transmigrates into modern day. This is either

1) OG Mobei-jun is sweating in the demon realm as OG Binghe is ruling and turns to escapism by consuming his trashy "science fiction" novels set in a world with computers and cars. He falls in love with side character Shang Qinghua and is INDIGNANT! that this hard working author never gets his day in the spotlight and dies out of NOWHERE! What! How could you write this author?! And Mobei-jun is writing a VERY strongly worded letter about it when he dies (via assassination or something) and transmigrates into the real world as some side character model.

2)OG Mobei-jun himself (in direct SQH parallel) writes a terrible sci-fi novel in his spare time to stop from going crazy under OG Binghe's demonic rule. But eventually Binghe finds out and Mobei-jun has to cater to him until the work straight up sucks and eventually Binghe kills him. Only know Mobei-jun is in the real world and has a chance to set right what once was wrong!

Either scenario Mobei-jun is desperate to pursue man of his dreams Shang Qinghua much to EVERYONE's confusion. The System is on his ass for OOC things like "not knowing how to get into a car" and "trying to date a man in public" and Mobei-jun would fight the thing if he could see it.

No idea what this "novel" is about. On the one hand it could be 90% some love story between Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan that the author won't make explicitly cannon and just teases it but its never satisfied. On the other hand: it's still a stallion novel about Luo Binghe fucking and being miserable in modern day (Mobei-jun wrote him that way because OG LBH made him). On the other, other hand: it's a Holden Caulfield type story about Shen Yuan that Mobei-jun was trying to make so literary that it got its head up it's own ass.

Sha Hualing would obviously be the other transmigratory, in fact if this were a straight role reversal AU she would be the Shen Yuan, cast into the role of villain (where Mobei-jun is inexplicably the author)

Does this make any sense? Am I on to something or is this nonsense?

[unsoldd]

𝚃𝙰𝙳𝙲 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙼𝙿𝚃

𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙿(𝚜): 𝐂𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐱 Pᴏᴍɴɪ, ᒍᗩ᙭ 𝗑 ℝ𝕒𝕘𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕒 𝚊𝚗𝚍

Ｚｏｏ ｂｌｅ ｘ 𝒢𝒶𝓃𝑔𝓁ℯ

𝙰𝚄: Human

—————————————

The cast of the digital circus has found an exit deep inside of the circuses code. Not knowing that without that code, hackers and all different viruses and bugs can know enter the circus anytime. Caine, just figuring this out tries to hurry everyone away. But, Pomni, who doesn’t want Caine to be alone in the circus asks him to join them. Caine says he doesn’t think he could as he is an AI and is made of different pixels. Pomni, who isn’t taking no for an answer shoved Caine through the door, along with are boy bubble. And everyone runs through leaving the digital circus to be destroyed by the viruses, bugs and hackers to destroy it.

—————————————

Caine gasps as he looks around to see he’s in a small white bland cubical. He’s in the real world, with Bubble. But, where is everyone else?

—————————————

Everyone wakes up from their escape and find they are in the C&A storage room on the top floor and can’t get the lift to go down to work and the stairs are busted and broken down. While everyone is cheering that they have finally got out of that place, they are also scared as they are stuck on the top floor of an abandoned 90’s building of their old work place. Also, Caine and Bubble are missing. Either Caine and Bubble didn’t make it through or they have been teleported to a different part of the building. Can they all get out of the building in time? In time for what you ask? Well, the construction for the building to be demolished into rubble…

—————————————

I have tweaked their ages a bit but only so it made sense how they all worked in C&A, except for Bubble. They are as followed:

•Ragatha - 30

• Pomni - 25

• Gangle - 26

• Zooble - 25 (Used to be 22)

• Jax - 25 (Used to be 22)

• Kinger - 48

• Caine - 27 (Didn’t have an age before)

• Bubble - 10 (Didn’t have an age before)

—————————————

Their jobs in C&A. Also, I thought of C&A as a Game Developing Company (The C part) and Networking Company (The A part):

[The C’ part of C&A]

•Caine - Animator

•Gangle - Graphic Designer

•Jax - Game Developer

•Zooble - Game Tester

—————————————

[The A’ part of C&A]

•Ragatha - Network analyst

•Pomni - Cloud architecture

•Kinger - CEO of Networking

—————————————

Real Life Names (Nickname) + Genders + Nationality:

•Ragatha=Agatha(Aggie)Ranger-Female-She/Her- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿/🇵🇱

• Pomni = Polly Flex-Grantor - Female-She/Her- 🇰🇷/🇺🇸

• Jax = Jackson (Jax) Xeon - Male-He/Him- 🇺🇸/🇩🇪

• Zooble = Zara Charlie - Non-Binary-They/Them- 🇲🇽

•Gangle=Gabriela (Gabi) Linton-Female-She/Her- 🇫🇷

• Kinger = Keith Scotts - Male-He/Him-🇬🇧/🇷🇺

• Caine = Caine Dentó - Male-He/Him- 🇺🇸

• Bubble = Ben Dentó - Male-He/Him- 🇺🇸/🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

—————————————

This is just a prompt for anyone who is struggling with ideas for books they want to write. No need to add credit this is just for fun for me.

—————————————

Also! These are the photos I’m using as reference for what they look like (IN MY OPINION). Also, pictures were made by deduukk on Pinterest.

Caine and bubble… when I tried finding one for Caine all I got was Caine as a human, but with eyeballs in his mouth… and bubble is impossible! So, on Ao3 someone has already made a pretty good drawing of what Caine and Bubble will look like. The book is:

[psychic-refugee]

I've seen posts from the past year and more so recently, blaming Jenna for "not doing enough" regarding Percy.

This is just my two cents on the issue.

I think people grossly overestimate Jenna’s influence and ability to control her brainless, rabid fans. I do not think people will be like, “oh if Jenna supports him then he must be innocent.” As far as I’m concerned, that’s just as much of a fantasy as Wenclair or Jemma happening.  

Like 90% of her fans that hate Percy have no critical thinking skills, are creepy weirdos who infantilize her and make pornographic AI “art” of her, and their ardor of her is predicated upon whatever fantasy relationship they have with her in their head or fantasy relationship she has with Emma.

They cannot be counted upon to make rational conclusions from evidence that actually exists, they rely on willful ignorance and “what if” scenarios to justify their hateful actions. We cannot assume or even reasonably expect they can be counted upon to change their minds if Jenna gives more definitive statements supporting him than she already has.

Additionally, her opinion on the matter is of no relevance. She didn’t know him nor was she present when the rumours say the alleged incidences took place. She can only speak of Percy as she knows him now. She CAN’T proclaim his innocence to something that she didn’t witness nor has anything to do with her.

Further, she does indeed have her own career to think about. She doesn’t work for him and it’s not her job to rehab the unfortunate effects of a baseless rumour on his reputation and career.

People are forgetting that not only are they friends, but they’re CO WORKERS. Things get dicey when you mix personal friendships and business.

They have to balance both worlds. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made, and people need to learn to embrace the suck.

In the end, this is Percy’s problem, and he doesn’t have the right to ask friends and coworkers to go beyond what they’re comfortable doing, nor go against professional advice, if any has been given on the matter.

I think it’s really unfair to have these expectations of Jenna and the rest of the Wednesday cast/friends.

I also want to point out that we have no evidence that Percy himself has ever asked any of his friends/coworkers to do what you all seem to expect they are obligated to do. If Percy has no such expectation, then we as fans should have no expectation, much less think we have any kind of entitlement to demand these things.

What support she has given, people need to learn to accept and be grateful for it. She’s still his friend on “socials” for whatever that’s worth to people. She hasn’t disavowed him publicly, which we’ve seen she has no issue with stating her position on important matters.

I cannot stress enough how we don’t know what goes on between them in private messaging and real life. Perhaps all the support she has for him is done in private. Privacy is their prerogative and right.

As @shiptillitsinks has stated on her post, Jenna has given support via the podcast when it first happened. As far as I’m concerned, her support has been asked and answered. She does not have to keep repeating herself.

Whatever is happening with the professional side of their relationship, such as WSSF, they know their own business best. That's all I can say on that matter.

[loregoddess]

sooo, because I don't have the Unicorn Overlord art book, I've been searching around to see if anyone's posted scans, or copied over character bio stuff, and found this list of ages, which is...hm! interesting. Mildly unsettling. Josef definitely has the "stress makes you go grey and then white real fast" gene or something, bc like, he's one of the oldest-looking characters (aside from Mordan who is? younger than Josef? what?) and yet he's only 52, which isn't as old as I was expecting him to be based on his design. Anywho, I arranged the characters into groups by age from youngest to oldest below, for viewing ease, so you can contemplate the ages too!

15: Yunifi

16: Chloe, Ridiel

17: Alain, Scarlett, Lex

18: Liza, Celeste

19: Travis, Auch, Nina (Millé is Nina's twin if I recall, so we can assume she's 19 as well), Melisandre, Umerus

20: Kitra, Tatiana, Leah, Gilbert, Govil

21: Sharon, Fran, Virginia

22: Ochlys, Primm, Dinah

23: Selvie, Miriam, Berengaria

24: Hilda, Gammel, Amalia

25: Monica, Aramis, Mandrin, Sanatio

26: Berenice, Adel, Gloucester, Raenys

27: Clive, Aubin, Rolf, Magellan

28: Bruno

29: Nigel

32: Fodoquia

33: Jeremy

34: Ramona

35: Morard

38: Bryce, Ilenia

40: Renault

41: Hodrick

42: Rosalinde, Eltolinde

43: Jerome

45: Colm

46: Bertrand, Gailey

47: Mordon

48: Ithilion

52: Josef

63: Railanor

82: Lhinalagos

85: Galadmir

88: Yahna

154: Alcina

Some interesting things here, it seems? that elves age at about 2.5x that of humans (if you divide any of the elves' ages by 2.5, and round to the nearest whole number, the "adjusted" age seems to match most of the characters as compared to the human characters of the same age, i.e. Rosalinde and Eltolinde would be 16.8 or roughly 17 in human years old which matches with Alain's age group fairly well).

But bestrals, despite the lore implying that owl bestrals live a long time and their shared ancestry with elves, don't...really seem to have spectacular age differences from humans, so perhaps something about the bestral anatomy puts them on an aging scale closer to that of humans.

Angels, unsurprisingly, seem to age at the same rate as humans, which makes sense given that they're just. Humans with wings. That most of them were childhood friends with Scarlett is wild though, there's an 8 year age difference between Scarlett and Sanatio and yet she was outrunning him on that bridge like it was no one's business (and yet Raenys was only a year older and serving as Scarlett's lady-in-waiting, I have so many questions about Albion).

Also I'm losing it at the implications that Ilenia had Alain when she was 19, girl what? Like okay, yeah sure, fantasy vaguely medieval setting, people had kids young, but 19? still seems so young...

Alcina though? Like, she looked that young in the prologue, before she teams up w/ local necromancer Baltro, so like? Did she cast an anti-aging spell on herself at some point? We know Yahna un-ages herself, and that this results in her looking young for the rest of her life, but did Alcina do the same spell? If so how did she manage to survive for...so long? Did Alcina somehow lengthen her own life with magic? From the rapports between Yahna and Rosalinde, we can assume that it's rare for even the most powerful of magic-users to live past a typical human lifespan (if Yahna's anything to go by, a healthy human in Fevrith can live well into their 80s, if not 90s, so we can guess healthy elves live about 200-225 years at their oldest). Alcina is an outlier, and her unhealthy obsession with Gerard does not explain anything about her weirdass aging, except maybe that she preserved herself as best she could so she could meet him again as he would remember her.

Anyhow local army is mostly not made of child soldiers which is, uh, nice compared to other srpgs, but the canon ages are...wild. Can't wait to get my hands on the heights and birthdates.

[purgemarchlockdown]

Milgram and The Rose Bride

(CWs: Child Abuse, Cults, Unhealthy Relationships, Bullying, Sexism, Discussions of Ownership in the context of Marriage, minor mentions of sexual abuse and minor mentions of sexual abuse in relation to Minors)

(Spoilers for Utena!)

Alright so, since I'm putting this on the Milgram blog, most likely most people who see this don't know what the Rose Bride is and what that means so lets answer that question.

The Rose Bride is a concept in the 90s Psychological Shoujo Anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, in which the main premise is that a bunch of highschoolers are dueling for marriage (ownership) of the Rose Bride so that they can revolutionize the world.

Now, the thing is, The Rose Bride is a Real Person, and the implications of her ownership and the environment that Allows for that to happen are explored through the series, and the reason why I'm bringing it up in relation to Milgram is this.

"In the end, all girls are the rose bride."

Let's talk about Mahiru for a bit since her being so focused on romantic love makes it a lot easier to explain what I mean by this.

In T1 we get this interrogation from Mahiru:

T1Q20: What do you think about smoking? I've never smoked before, but I might copy him if who I love smokes.

This is a deeply concerning sentence, Mahiru has just stated that she is willing to do something incredibly physical destructive to herself if the person she loves is doing the same. This connects back to her thoughts on having "matching love."

We fought sometimes, I was happy to get hurt Let's have matching pain, this sickness is pretty bad This is a claim of responsibility From the two of us with matching love

Now, the Rose Bride has to anything the person who is engaged to her tells her to do. The Rose Bride is not allowed any sort of Autonomy or Agency.

(Transcript Link for Utena Scripts)

Touga:  The Rose Bride, cooking? Touga:  You shouldn't do such things as cooking. Touga:  You should only take care of the roses here. Touga:  This birdcage is your territory. Touga:  And you are the beautiful little bird which lives here. Touga:  I want to possess this birdcage, and everything in it.

Touga:  Himemiya Anthy is the Bride of the victor of the Duel. Touga:  While she was engaged to you, the Code required her to obey you.

I Love You:

What am I supposed to do now? If you won’t tell me, I can’t be me

Mahiru is also probably the most traditionally feminine out of the entire female cast. With her priorities being love, romance, and having children.

(Mahiru Interrogation)

T2Q1: What's your opinion on Marriage? Mahiru: It's something I really dream of.

T2Q10: Do you like children? Mahiru: Yup. I always dreamed of having the older being a girl, and the younger being a boy.

Mahiru is willing to do Anything for love, even if it gets her hurt in the process. That's what she's Supposed to want, that's what is Supposed to bring her joy, that's what is Supposed to bring everyone joy. (Mahiru T1 VD)

Es: I honestly have no interest in those matters.  Mahiru: What? No, no. There’s no such thing as that. Being in love is like a landmine. It’ll explode someday, you know? The only thing that differs is whether it happens earlier or later in life. It’ll happen to you too. Even if you don’t have any interest in it now, one day it’ll explode for you as well. All because you’ll have that fateful encounter with your special someone.

Love is what Everyone Wants and if you say you Don't you just haven't found the right person.

Mahiru: Yeah, yeah. You’ll deny it at first. I mean, I was like that as well. Before then, I always admired soap operas and shoujo manga because I thought that they depicted a world different from our own. 

Voice:  Once upon a time... Voice:  ...there was a princess grieving over the deaths of her mother and father. Voice:  Before this princess appeared a prince traveling upon a white horse. Voice:  His appearance gallant, and his smile gentle, the prince enveloped the princess

The amatonormativity in Mahiru's worldview is clear. People are Supposed to fall in love and have the Normal Idealized Heterosexual Romance and there's Nothing Else Outside of That At All.

Mahiru: Yeah, yeah. You’ll deny it at first. I mean, I was like that as well.

Anthy:  But I've been engaged to you, Utena-sama. Utena:  I've told you to stop mentioning stuff like "engagement" and the "Rose Bride." Anthy:  Nevertheless... Utena:  Look, no matter how you look at me, I'm a regular wholesome girl. Utena:  I'm only interested in wholesome boys, not a bride or stuff like that.

And Mahiru does a lot to preserve a "marketable" quality to her actions and behavior. TIHTBILWY is formatted like a magazine, something that is sold and bought by consumers. Erasing the messiness of her relationship or even Romanticizing those qualities to seem appealing.

Giving you love to the point of pulling you down It's just because I still get worried, please forgive me Even when I test you, even the times we do the breakup ritual, Is because I love you

Voice:  but because of the strength of her admiration for the prince, Voice:  the princess made up her mind to become a prince herself! Voice:  But is that really good for her?

The story of the Prince in Utena is one that is a fabrication, it hides and excludes multiple Very Important parts of the story all in the favor of portraying the Ideal Fairytale Heterosexual Romance.

Unlike Utena who chooses to become a "Prince" (which is a concept I'll get into in a bit.) Mahiru is trying to make Herself the Rose Bride. She orientates her life around who she loves, she's willing to accept a lot of abuse for the sake of an Ideal Relationship, she even actively downplays her intelligence and strength! Something that is explored in detail by this post by archivalofsins you should check out.

Now that isn't to say Mahiru isn't a horrible partner. She is, and this is why. Mahiru is Expecting this sort of incredibly idealistic fairytale romance from her partner, an ideal that no person can possibly live up to without harming the people they care about and themselves!

Do you really think you know what love is? If you do, let's just overheat together The things that I only want to say to you, and the things that I want from you Is love

My emotions are out of control, that’s inconvenient? I don’t care!

You can't live up to this and you shouldn't want to! It's an unrealistic and unachievable ideal with a horrific power imbalance to boot! Yet Mahiru is Trying to conform to these ideals, trying to conform to the unrealistic expectations of women and relationships in society, and that's why she's here in the first place.

"He who believes friendship exists is a fool."

So these toxic and unhealthy ideals and expectations are at the core of Mahiru's character and her situation. But there ideals are perpetuated by an environment that promotes this sort of behavior, one that isn't unique to Mahiru's situation.

Muu Kusunoki is a 16 year old teenage girl who is both a victim of bullying and someone who bullies others for her own gain.

She also might of had a homoromantic relationship with her murder victim.

Let’s meet up inside the pain, a place just for me Postmortem makeup to hide my heart, how to solve it is a secret The stabbing of the little devil’s voice, counterattack being a suicide note “I love YOU”

I wonder who that reminds me of.

I'll get into Shiori in a second, but it's important to note that Muu introduces a concept that's present in Mahiru's story but is particularly present in Muu, the concept of the cycle.

Saionji:  No... I was to be the one to rescue her from the coffin this time. Saionji:  No! I am the one who will save her this time. The castle said to contain eternity... Saionji:  the power to revolutionize the world...

The concept of eternity and nostalgia in Utena tends to be depicted as a coffin, one you need to break out of to grow.

Touga:  If the egg's shell does not break, the chick will die without being born. Touga:  We are the chick; the egg is the world. Touga:  If the world's shell does not break, we will die without being born. Touga:  Break the world's shell! Touga-Juri:  For the sake of revolutionizing the world!

The duelists want the Rose Bride so that they can gain the power to revolutionize the world. Who she is does not Matter as much as what she can Give Them.

Now, this idea is particularly present in characters like Shidou and Kotoko who position themselves as saviors, not for the benefit of others but for what they Get out of that arrangement, thematically fitting the concept of the prince.

However, Muu is not the prince, she is not a savior. In fact she always positions herself as the victim, as someone pitiful and weak. (Crying B)

Muu: Hey… Prison guard, when you say “I”… Who are you talking about? Es: [breaking down]  Muu: Prison guard? Es: [stumbles]  Muu: Prison guard. What’s wrong? Prison guard! [shakes Es] Hey! Prison guard! Es: Shut up! Don’t touch me! Muu: [cries] You’re so cruel… I… Even though I was just worried about you… [cries again] I can’t take it anymore. I hate you, prison guard! 

Es pain and breakdown is caused by something Muu said, and yet when Es very sharply tells her not to touch them because their uncomfortable with it. Muu immediately starts crying and talking about how much They got hurt because of what they did, when Es is currently unresponsive due to what she did to them, albeit unintentionally.

Muu needs to to be the victim, After Pain shows all the bad things that happened to her and not Any of the bullying she participated in. It's Not My Fault is a whole song about how everything she did was right actually and that everyone else was wrong.

Now, Muu isn't a master manipulator or anything. She's an impulsive 16 year old. If Muu was a master manipulator she wouldn't be here, would she? She'd be still in school taking the honey up as she was before Rei did whatever she did.

Muu gains power by being pitiful and weak so she'll be loved, and by its' very nature it's self-destructive. She cannot be Happy because if she Was this wouldn't work anymore. She Must be in a worse situation, she must be the victim, or else no one would pity and love her.

I am innocent as everybody desires

Juri: You're just like Shiori... Juri: ...cruelly innocent.

Muu cycles from being "weak and pitiful" to being "queenly and powerful" and tends to hurt herself in the process. This attempt at grabbing power and love through pity Harms Muu, and she seems to even be drowning in a lot of self-hatred and self-pity, and is looking for external validation to confirm that she's "good."

But I guess some of it is my faultMaybe it’s ok as it is I want to feel “alive”, is it ok if I breathe?

Hey, what if If I am a bad girl Don’t hate me. Don’t even try to proof from “After Pain”

And, in an attempt to gain power and control, Muu traps herself in a coffin.

Shiori: This is me, the real me! Shiori: And not the underdog that was living a miserable life in the shadow of the bright shining Juri! Shiori: The real me that surpasses the light. Shiori: Yes, this is the me that controls Juri.

But, it isn't all her fault.

Again, Muu really was bullied, horribly so if were judging by her lyrics in After Pain and the sequences we see in it.

If I was gone, If I had just disappeared I overheard, I found out How much I’m not needed

T1Q4: Is there something you hate? Scary people and ghosts. And right now, school.

Muu isn't lying about this, and Rei isn't fully sympathetic either, she did Hurt Muu and Muu really did want to apologize to her.

T1Q9: Do you have apologetic feelings for who you killed? A: The person who did the wrong thing first should apologize.

Shiori: Juri-san was so kind to me. Shiori: But I thought she was kind to me because she looked down on me, Shiori: and that she had pity on me for being plain and useless. Shiori: That's pathetic! Shiori: So I wanted to change my relationship with Juri-san. Shiori: But what I did with him made me more miserable than before. Shiori: I should have wanted it for myself! Shiori: But now... Shiori: Now I'm on equal terms with her. No, I've won! Shiori: I always had a place in Juri-san's heart. Shiori: I'm the winner! Shiori: What shall I do? I'm so delighted to know my friend's secret I almost can't bear it! Shiori: She suffered alone, looking at my picture in secret... Shiori: That was Juri-san? Poor thing! Shiori: No good! It's still no good! Shiori: How could you look at me like that?!Shiori: Why did it all turn out this way?

The school as a whole is letting a horrible environment of bullying and toxicity be left to rot and fester. You Really Can't create a healthy friendship in a world like that, it just won't let you. If your not friends with someone because you gain something from them, you'll suffer.

Muu: Wow, poor thing,.. I’ll teach you! Friends aren’t like that, you know. Rather than using each other for something, we just get along because we’re comfortable around each other. That’s all. Es: Well, I’m sorry about that. Muu: Haruka-kun is really nice! He accepts anything I say, he listens to anything I tell him. For me, that’s really comfortable. Es: And that’s… “friendship”? Muu: What do you mean? Of course we’re friends! Haruka-kun is happy with it, so it only has benefits for both of us! Es: I, as someone who has no friends, can’t judge, of course, but isn’t that just exploitation? Muu: Exploitation…? Um, I don’t really understand, but… I do help him pick out clothes [in return], and I recently gave him a hairpin I didn’t need anymore as a hand-me-down!

Akio:  But sincerity by itself changes nothing. Akio:  Without power, one finds themself merely depending on others to live.

Jackalope describes this relationship as a "Master-Servant" relationship and it seems like this is the type of friendship Muu is familiar with. She's emulating how her friendships were in school, just with someone else as the servant and her as the master.

T1Q1: What is a friend? A: Someone who properly listens to what I say.

Now this doesn't completely absolve her obviously, what she did was still Very Bad and even though she Breaks the hourglass in her MVs. She doesn't really leave it.

Muu does not want to accept responsibility for her actions, she believes herself to be justified and in the right, even when she has Done Wrong.

This unwillingness to accept when something she did is wrong and the unhealthy environment of Milgram that assigns strict moral value to people's actions and has no nuance in its judgement...leads her back into the cycle she was trapped in.

“A girl who cannot become a princess is doomed to become a witch.”

Now we've tackled the gender roles and horribly toxic cycles and ideals, so, what happens when you Can't work within those confines, or even want to break out of them? Just, hypothetically, if you cannot become a princess (which is everyone because the ideal of a princess is so incredibly unrealistic that anyone who aspires to be it would destroy themselves in the process) or Don't want to be a princess, what happens?

Well.

You become something Other.

Something Evil and Unnatural.

Something that needs to be Punished and Harmed.

So, now, this is where I have to mention that Utena as a show deals with underage sexual abuse, I didn't mention this for the other sections since they were not as relevant to those discussions. However since this section deals with the abuse received by the Rose Bride it feels important to mention.

I will not be referring to it in the context of Amane's due to how we don't have information in the text pointing to Amane being a csa victim. This is for the sake of Tact, as it feels wrong to speculate about it here and I do not feel like I'm the right person to examine this.

It will, again, be mentioned and alluded to, so stay safe and do what's good for your health.

So, Amane Momose is repeatedly dehumanized throughout her story.

This is a consistent theme with her, she is treated as something subhuman and terrifying.

In Purge March, Amane is consistently depicted as scary, threatening, or otherwise evil.

There's even a section in her T2 VD where Amane calls herself "evil," though it is done in a roundabout way while she's talking about Shidou (who I will get to in a bit.)

A: Both pain and illness are trials. According to our teachings, those who run from them are the worst evil there is. That’s one of the four great principles. No matter who you are, that cannot be forgiven. E: What are you…? A: Oh – speaking of which, there is one among the prisoners right now. An evil existence that’s trying to steal people’s trials away from them.

Shadow:  The witch roams this world of darkness even now. Shadow:  Seeking the young and noble, to sacrifice them anew! Shadow:  Surely the light presents an obstacle to the witch, to her dominion over the dark. Shadow:  Beware! Beware! She is still somewhere in this world...

Not only that, but Amane is The Cat, a symbol constantly associated with sin and impurity throughout the MVs with Kazui and Yuno.

And is implied to have actually Been asked if she was human by her parents.

(Amane T1 VD)

Amane: Yes. It is only natural for a person(/human) to apologize to another for breaking a promise. Es: … Amane: Why are you looking so doubtful? Are you not human?

I promise! A good girl that keeps a promise is like, mwah!

Amane is not to be considered human, she's even collared and leashed in her Prisoner design, the medal and bow on her outfits in the MVs being another "collar" of sorts.

Amane Needs to be Restrained and Domesticated or else she'll bring harm to the people around her. She isn't good enough to be a "good girl" and seems to Know This.

Only if, only if, only if I could be a good girl

It's always "I can be a better girl" or "I can be a good girl" and not "I am a good girl," and the line above implies its impossible for her to be one. It's not something she can do.

When she gets punished by her parents its to make her a "better girl," and to "change" her into a "good girl." It is love, for they are not leaving her to die as an animal.

(Amane Interrogations)

T2Q9: What does love mean to you? A: To spread mercy with no limits.

But it’s not scary at all, because it’s love I can really think it’s great. See isn’t it a great thing?

Even though these punishments keep on Almost Killing Her!

It's what she needs to go through to be good! And even if she doesn't even believe its possibly anymore what else can she do? Run? Running away from trials is a sin! One of the worst there is! She can't allow herself to be more sullied than she already is.

Plus she knows this is love, she isn't scared anymore, it's childish to be scared of it.

Akio:  A child like you can't appreciate my ideals. Akio:  The Rose Bride exists because of ideals you don't comprehend.

Plus there's a sort of comfort in it, she knows what happens next. She idealizes Milgram somewhat in T1, believing that it's possible for this world, that resembles her abusive environment so much, could be Good.

Amane: Ah, I am looking forward to it! Seeing whether your judgement will align with that of these higher standards! If that is the case, maybe Milgram would be the right world for us to live in, rather than the outside world! Milgram relies on your judgement, isn’t that right? In that case, you could become the mediator for a far more righteous world!!

There's a comfort in Milgram's strict forgiven/unforgiven verdict system with a (theoretical) possibility of growth! And she later takes comfort in the same religious doctrine that Harmed her when Es does declare her as unforgiven.

If your so used to a situation, even if it harms you, why would you ever want to leave it? It's scarier if you leave it, you don't know what will happen next. At least at home, Amane knows what to do so she can get off a bit longer without getting hurt.

If you become a bad girl, monsters will come out This is the magic that stops that from happening

Akio:  Anthy, the sword. Akio:  That's right. You're a good girl, Anthy.

Amane's suffered for twelve or so years, an eternity trapped in a coffin. A cycle of abuse and pain and horror and fear. Why would she Ever want to leave it when what she's seen of the outside world is so horrible?

Amane: In fact, there have been people who said that to me. I’ve been told things like, “You’re being deceived.” “You can still make it right now.” “You’re crazy.”

People are always positioning themselves as stronger than her, people are always positioning themselves as smarter than her, people are always positioning themselves as Her Prince.

Shidou: I…… I just don’t understand. If everything about MILGRAM is true…… why did a child like you have to become a murderer? Just imagining what sort of circumstances must have led to that, it makes me so sad…… Amane: ……*sigh*. Is that right. I don’t think I’m going to get along with you, Shidou-san. I don’t agree with the fact you refuse to acknowledge that I have my own free will, and that I should be held accountable for my actions, just because I’m a child. I may have only been alive for 12 years, but all the choices I’ve made, even if they weren’t the best ones, were entirely my own. What point is there in you getting sad when I have no regrets myself? ……please give me back my test. It seems you don’t have the concentration levels required to be my teacher. I’m going to get Kotoko-san to teach me instead. Shidou: Amane…… I don’t think that’s true. However smart you may be…… you’re still just a child.

Utena:  Cut it out with that "Rose Bride" or "possession" nonsense. Utena:  That girl is an ordinary girl named Himemiya Anthy! Touga:  Is she? Touga:  Is it true that you're an ordinary girl? Utena:  You don't like it, do you? Utena:  Being the Rose Bride or whatever... Anthy:  I... Utena:  Go ahead, speak your mind! Anthy:  My mind... Utena:  Yeah! Utena:  You hate being treated as the Rose Bride, right? Utena:  Tell him clearly! Anthy:  All right. Anthy:  I hate being treated as the Rose Bride. Utena:  What's so funny?

Amane: You are treating me as a child after all. Because I’m a child, you believe that I must have been brainwashed. It’s not like that. I, too— children, too, understand everything! Please don’t just decide that people must be unhappy.

What she wants doesn't matter! When has it ever mattered? The people who say it does, don't like it when she acts in a manner they don't expect and her parents have made it Very Clear that what she does isn't important to them.

Any sort of happiness she could possibly get tends to come from things that are outside of her cult. And because of that, she isn't supposed to have them, and she is wrong for wanting them in the first place.

And yet...Amane cares so much about having free will and autonomy though, it's her main argument in her T1 VD and her biggest problem with her treatment.

Amane: I see. Then, are the things that I as a twelve-year-old think irrelevant? Are you going to cast aside the feelings that I know I have in this very moment, purely based on the fact that I have not yet lived for a very long time? Judging these things based on someone’s age will not take you very far. Do I, at age twelve, not have my own will?

That's the thing with Amane Momose, she doesn't want to be a "princess."

T2Q13: If you could be reborn, would you still choose to be yourself? A: Obviously.

She wants to stay as her, no matter what. In spite of all of this she doesn't want to be anything else But Her. Even if it gets her hurt.

Amane helped the cat because she wanted to, she saw it hurt and couldn't look away.

Utena:  Hey, save her! Utena:  It's too cruel! Utena:  Save her! Utena:  Save her...

And in the eyes of god, she was wrong for doing so.

Dios:  She can no longer be saved.

’Tis ordained, thou shall follow thine destiny

But again, Amane doesn't want to die.

T1Q12: What is the meaning of life? A: I think it is something you learn for the first time when you look behind yourself when it ends. I do not want to have regrets then, so I live on with all my might.

This was the tipping point of her, how much more is she willing to suffer? How much longer is she willing to stay here? Because she will die, it's not an if, its a when.

So, she decides, to break out of her coffin, and while it is partially due to how she was given a righteous reason to kill her mother. It is a crime that is mainly motivated by self-preservation and hatred.

Amane: Furthermore, isn’t it condescending of you to assume that just because I happen to be a child, I am incapable of hating someone enough to kill them?

Unfortunately for her, the audience isn't as willing to accept that.

I talk about it in more detail over here but we are Constantly positioned in the place of her abusers. From framing to her opinions on us, ever since we voted her guilty in T1 for the primary reason of "making her realize her mistakes." we mimic her parents.

Since she cannot become a princess, she becomes a witch, and is forced right back into that cycle she desperately tried to escape.

And Someday, Together, We'll Shine

So, that's a bit of a downer. But even so we have hope!

It's not exactly easy when the system built is so counter-productive to everyone's wellbeing and development that it often makes them worse instead of better.

But Amane has made a promise to live. Muu Does want to have genuine relationships with the people around her. And Mahiru has admitted her relationship wasn't as ideal as she initially thought.

And sometimes, you just need to see a possibility for something outside of all this to be able to get out of it.

Anthy:  What will you be doing in ten years? Utena:  I dunno. But... Anthy:  But? Utena:  But I hope we can be together like this drinking tea then. Anthy:  Yes. I hope so too. Utena:  I'm sure that'll be great. Utena:  Let's have tea and laugh together ten years from now, okay? Utena:  Promise? Anthy:  Yes. Definitely.

[emilykaldwen]

thinking about that talk with @murmel-malt about how george's ages for these kids in F&B is just... a mess. Like we know George keeps his characters young (Look at... 90% of the cast of ASOIAF being like, 20 and under or what have you) and now I'm on a distraction rabbit hole of how do differently?

Which basically boils down to extending Viserys' reign, and then putting larger age gaps between Rhaenyra's children specifically.

But I thought: Okay, let's break this down side by side for everyone else who is staring at these ages in show vs book canon and trying to make sense of it. I want you to know that you're not alone in this, and I hope this could be a helpful resource for making your own narrative decisions.

TL;DR - the show time jumps do not track and make no sense and has weirdly aged people down and also up and so you make your own decisions. I've put my age recommendations at the bottom of the post.

We know Vizzy doesn't care about the health of his wife, since good lord we know what happened to Aemma and the text specifically states it was not only how young she was when she first started getting pregnant, but also the frequency she was getting pregnant/stillbirths. Like that took a toll. Luckily for Book!Alicent, she was 19/20 when she started having children, and could handle that better

We have two years between Aegon and Helaena, and then 1-2 years between Helaena and Aemond depending on when Aemond was born, and then four years between Aemond and Daeron

With Rhaenyra, we have:

Jace was born at the end of 114 (Rhaenyra is 17, and Jace is the same age as Daeron), Luke is specified as late 115, which... doesn't make sense? Like TECHNICALLY, you could get pregnant as early as three weeks after giving birth (I googled a... lot for this) but like really?

(ETA: I'm not saying this doesn't happen, we have it seeming to happen with Aemond and Helaena, it's the same with Bran and Arya, but as I address below, It doesn't seem to fit with Rhaenyra's character)

Westeros has a 12 month calendar. Jace is a december Baby, which means late 115 means... Oct/Nov/December, which means Rhaenyra was pregnant by February with her second kid.

then Joffrey is born in 117, however it doesn't specify what time of year. We just know that when Aemond loses his eye, Joffrey is 3.

Aegon III is born towards the end of 120 (again, Oct/Nov/Dec). We know that Daemon and Rhaenyra married in 120, not even six months after the death of Laena and Laenor, who died early 120 and Laenor not long after. so with this, like, is Aegon a wedding night baby? Had Daemon and Rhaenyra started boning before they married? (I mean, likely). Then Viserys II is born in 122, then we have a seven year gap before Rhaenyra's birth of Visenya.

Like, I'm sorry, but you want me to believe that Rhaenyra Targaryen who watched her mother have miscarriage after stillbirth for the first 10 years of her life wasn't gonna be more careful about this? Like George, just because we didn't have condoms and birth control pills doesn't mean that there wasn't some kind of bc was used (and there's evidence of that in our real world).

(and like I was saying to Mo: I mean at the end of the day, these ages don't matter, since 78% of these kids died and yes I calculated that percentage, and he wasn't thinking about people digging into the age things because at the end of the day, that doesn't matter for the story he's telling)

Which then brings us to the fuzzy show logic:

The Time Jumps As Follows:

Episodes 1-2: over the course of 6 months.

Episode 3: Two Year Time Jump from previous

Episode 4: No time jump specified but Alicent's given birth. Did Rhaenyra only go to Storm's End? In the book she traveled all the way to Casterly Rock.

No time jump is specified from what I could find for Rhaenyra's wedding but to get everyone there for Rhaenyra's wedding, to put together a royal wedding, you need 6 months at least. Given how big baby!Helaena is, we're looking at a 6-10 month time jump. And I'm sorry but by ship, it's taking like, two-three days to sail from KL to Driftmark, and then you have negotiations that last more than a single conversation. So I feel safe in assuming the 6-10 month time jump between Rhaenyra's return/daemon thing to the wedding. (HOWEVER, everything I found claims there's no time jump, but that's literally impossible because people need time to travel to King's Landing as it takes at least two months from Casterly Rock/Oldtown to get to KL)

Aegon is the child we have confirmation for on his age. He is 3 years old when Rhaenyra is married. We know that Helaena, on the show, is exactly two years younger since Alicent is clearly popping any day on Aegon's 2nd birthday.

The Ten Year Time Jump

Aegon - 13

Helaena - 11

Aemond - 10

Jace - ??? Book canon states he's 4 years younger than Aemond, but there's no way Jace is 6 years old.

Luke - 4 years old. AGAIN, there's no way. I cannot confirm an age for the actor (who did a fantastic job) but he's definitely closer to 5 or 6.

Joffrey - NEWBORN vs being 3 years old at the time.

The Six Year Time Jump

Aegon - 19

Helaena - 17

Aemond - 16?????

Jace - ?????

Luke - 14 years old which makes him 8 years old during Driftmark (Luke's age was confirmed as 14 at the end, he was 13 in the book)

Joffrey - 6 years old

In the book: Aemond is 19 years old when Viserys dies, which should make him 19 years old for the final time jump. But instead Aegon is 19/20 years old.

SO HERE IS MY ADJUSTED SUGGESTION

It's just my suggestion, just my opinion, because again, none of this makes sense.

THIRTEEN YEAR TIME JUMP FOR DRIFTMARK

Aegon - 16

Helaena - 14

Aemond - 13

Jace - 10

Luke - 6

Joffrey - I mean you can keep him as a newborn to track but I don't think there's anything wrong with making him 3-4 years old IMO

ETA: adding in, Rhaenyra and Laenor talk about them trying to have a child, which means this actually builds in time for Laenor and Rhaenyra to try make their arrangement work instead of Rhaenyra just fucking off and hooking up with Harwin immediately.

SIX YEAR TIME JUMP FOR FINALE

Aegon - 22

Helaena - 20

Aemond - 18/19

Jace - 16

Luke - 14

Joffrey - 6 years (if newborn) or 10 years old.

Little Aegon - 6

Viserys - 4/5

I myself write a blend of show and book canon, but have tried to stick to show ages/timelines because frankly, more people have watched the show and I wanted to make barrier to entry easier for people. But the show timeline didn't make sense after Episode 5 so... here you go.

ETA: I FORGOT THE DRAGON TWINS but I suggest Baela and Rhaena to be the same age as Jace or Luke. Book!Canon, the dragon twins are the same age as Luke. Take that how you will.

THIS MAKES ALICENT AND RHAENYRA BOTH 17/18 DURING RHAENYRA'S WEDDING, AND 37 AT THE START OF THE DANCE.