I just read a detailed account of the Bal des Ifs and I’d never realised how funny this event was when you don’t focus on Madame de Pompadour. All I was taught at school is that it was the masquerade ball in 1745 where Louis XV first took (public) notice of la Pompadour, but what I didn’t know was that the former royal mistress had recently died so there was a vacancy so to speak, and a lot of noblewomen showed up specifically hoping to catch the King’s attention.
But he came dressed up as a shrub (a yew tree similar to the ones in the royal topiary gardens) along with seven other men in identical costumes, so no one knew for sure which one was the King. People always focus on how Madame de Pompadour recognised the royal shrub and talked to him, but what about the women who didn’t!! History is written by the winners but I want to hear about the women who doggedly danced the minuet with random shrubs hoping this one was the one. My book mentions that a determined noble lady followed a yew tree outside the room on a hunch, only to find that she had bet on the wrong shrub. This is what the shrub costumes looked like by the way, imagine stalking one all over the park of Versailles at night because you think his gait looks kingly and you are an ambitious noblewoman
maybe the reason Anya suddenly revealed her secret to Damian, of all people, is because she felt guilty about knowing his deep desire for familial love. he didn't mention it, but it was painfully obvious in the way he looked at her with this soft, sad smile:
anya is so strong. i would've cried and hugged him 😭
but lo and behold, anya wasn't so strong after all. after trying so hard to keep her ability a secret, she told damian anyway – and without hesitation too.
crying... this panel is everything to me
personally, what Anya did was equivalent to a hug. maybe she felt bad... maybe guilty... maybe she wanted him to feel less alone... maybe she pitied him... maybe she sympathized... or maybe she felt it was the right thing to do. but in her own way, she definitely did it to make him feel better and less alone :')
maybe i'm just yapping. but the two of them are so similar in so many ways. Damian despite being part of a real family longs for real connection. and Anya, despite loving her family so much, secretly wishes what they had was truly real – a family not held together by a mission or conveniences, but just that, a simple family. they both just want a home man
this chapter was perfect in so many ways. these kids make my heart hurt, and i'm so scared yet excited for what Endo has in store for the next arcs <3
I used to believe that bugs were little robots. Lots of people do, it’s the prevailing opinion next to “i’ve never thought about it”. Then I watched a mother wasp mourn her child. An animal who stretched after a nap and did little dances when her daughters returned from flight. Now she is opening her fourth capped hexagon and finding a pale white stillborn. She grasps the baby gently in her jaws and does not put it down for over 24 hours. Carries her loss, pacing back and forth the length of her enclosure. It is not the behavior of a robot.
So I think about the prior odds. Scenario A, bugs are robots. Why do I believe that? Because they are so tiny. Because if they are not robots then my world [where “insect exterminator” is a job title and I can buy a can of mass death at home depot] does not make sense. They must be insignificant.
The wasp makes me reconsider. Scenario B: her kind are like mine. cry when we are sad and happy when we play. Has this feature evolved many times? Or is it common to all the children of the precambrian worm? Every shark in the ocean swimming in their own feelings. Every bird and every cat knowing the thrill of being alive? The wasp made me realize that my whole moral picture is wrong. We’re not alone on this planet,
"rhaenys could have ended the war by dracarysing all the greens right there" yes because a distant relation to the throne deciding to barbecue an anointed and publicly positively hailed king and his entire family who is well loved within the city and in multiple other parts of the country for the sake of the succession of a far-away princess no one was ever on board with who hasn't been seen by the populace in literal years, her psycho husband, her three obvious bastards, and two toddlers from the psycho husband would go over super well with westeros and especially in king's landing where scores of the still-cheering population were killed for no reason by that same dragon who would do the barbecuing, because when targaryens act unilaterally without thinking of how the people would react there's never any problem, which is why the storming of the dragonpit and robert's rebellion were actually just collective delusions dreamed up by readers who hate rhaenyra and not key parts of the story and house targaryen's history that directly contributed to their demise and are intrinsic to the plot
truly team black stans are made up of only the most genius and media literate amongst us
symbrock must be made canon in venom 3 because i overhyped the first two movies to my straight friend and she surprisingly liked them and asked me to keep her updated and now she needs to see them kiss on screen so she can reduce her internalized homophobia and i can come out to her
I think the best possible time travel fic would be to slingshot Harrow from the end of Harrow the Ninth back to the beginning of Gideon the Ninth. Highest hilarity potential, highest angst potential, highest pining potential
Things Harrow knows now that she didn't before:
Who Alecto was
The names of God and his lyctors
The secret of lyctorhood
That the lyctor trials are a death trap
Gideon could be easily persuaded to die for her
Gideon dying for her is the worst thing possible
She would do almost anything to prevent Gideon from dying
Gideon's sword is haunted by a very angry and oddly familiar-looking woman who bears a remarkable resemblance to Gideon
Things Harrow still doesn't know:
What Alecto is
Gideon's parentage
Jackshit about BOE
Mercy and Augustine are both traitors
Things Harrow knew then and still knows now:
Gideon—this Gideon here and now—hates her
She owes a debt of two hundred lives and a future to the Ninth
The survival of the Ninth depends on her becoming a lyctor
I put them next to each other casually without much thought, but I've had to redraw them in this set up so many different times in the development of this project that I kinda ship them now??? like why are they always lookin at each other like that