#slightly shocked that I did this

[rapselsstuff]

She

[silverhalla]

Back at it again with another theory: What if Lucanis’ betrayal wasn’t a betrayal at all?

(obviously, spoilers below the cut)

During The Wigmaker Job, we have some dialogue between Illario and Lucanis about their position within both the Crows and the Dellamorte family. Illario wants Caterina to step down so he can take the coveted First Talon spot. Lucanis reassures him that his time is coming, to which Illario makes a snide comment about whether his cousin would ever go against their grandmother’s wishes. When they continue the conversation after the job, Illario states that Lucanis is the potential heir, that he’s her favorite, and that he’s unlikely to say no to her. Lucanis doesn’t argue, only insists that he doesn’t want to be First Talon, and that he hopes she’ll see reason before that. It’s mentioned again in Eight Little Talons - Caterina favors Lucanis. It’s well-known enough among the Crows that Viago and Teia discuss it in front of her (not on purpose, but she doesn’t deny it). He’s her prodigy through and through.

In the opening scene for the Lucanis quest in Veilguard, Caterina is poised, as you’d expect of the First Talon. She’s certain that the body they buried wasn’t her grandson, that it had been altered with blood magic. She doesn’t pose it as a theory, though: she poses it as a fact. It could, of course, merely be her confidence, but there’s another very unusual aspect to the scene – everyone else discusses how Lucanis was clearly betrayed, that someone must have sold him out in order for the Venatori to capture him. Caterina is the only one in that room who never speaks on it. She doesn’t ask for justice, doesn’t mention vengeance, never acknowledges that her grandson was sold out by someone he trusted – perhaps because he wasn’t. 

What if, when Caterina comes to him with a plan, with an impossible request, he’s still her favorite prodigal grandchild, and he still does whatever she asks? She’s had him tortured before as a child, has tortured and starved and beaten him herself before, because it makes him stronger and more resistant to it in the future. He says in The Wigmaker Job that he used to hate her for it, but now he understands. He justifies it. All Crows justify it, because they have to - if they don’t, then the cruelty wasn’t for survival’s sake, and their suffering meant nothing. Perhaps he doesn’t even question it. When Caterina tells him that she has a job for him, he takes it. 

What if the contract has a caveat? Sure, Calivan must die by his hand by the end of it, a little treat for a job well done, but what if his primary mission is reconnaissance, is discovery? The Venatori are using blood magic to torture and corrupt prisoners. It would behoove the Crows to find out what it entails and how to resist it, before it’s turned back on them. It would have to be someone so deeply, unabashedly loyal to her that when she asked them to infiltrate a Venatori prison, expecting torture at best, their own death at worst, they’d take the job anyway, no questions asked - someone Caterina can trust, certainly, but also someone who has never once said no to her.

And Lucanis has always been a loyal grandson. 

[jamiethebeeart]

I'm so very very normal about Dani, I promise (lineart by @five-rivers ) @green-with-envy-phandom-event

[moeblob]

I missed these boys too much..... I spent four hours doing this for my beloved two sons and also Felix. (the foremost is genderbent versions I'm sorry, let me know if I need to tag it)

[altruistic-meme]

another stupid chuuya headcanon where I give him my personal loser traits (with bonus dazai hc too):

hes absurdly shit at handling spicy food. he can't eat it for SHIT it hurts his mouth and is terribly unpleasant. he can and sometimes even will cry if he eats smth too spicy.

despite this he refuses to admit that he has a -10 spice tolerance and will still try and eat it bc he thinks not being able to tolerate spicy food makes him look like a wimp.

it is the one thing he and dazai actually agree on, though dazai's tolerance is somehow slightly worse than chuuya's. baby boy will think black pepper is spicy if there's too much of it.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

My evolution professor this morning: *expresson of confusion* S-so many cats...

Me and the other guy in cat ears: =^._.^= ∫

[mejomonster]

I dyed and cut my hair babyyyyy 💙💙💙

[falderaletcetera]

listen. I don't just love father brown because I first saw it while ill with the flu or because it's consistently kind to the outcast in a way that has reviewers calling it Too Woke, obviously a vote in its favour. or because the recurring thief character is very pretty to watch. though those are significant parts of it.

I love it because after eight seasons father brown sits down with the village drunk (a munitions expert in the war, has a soft spot for the parish secretary, name of harold or blind harry) to find out why he gave a murder suspect a false alibi and harry explains to him, calm as you like, that seeing the life leave someone's eyes changes a person, that it's what he reckons brought father brown to his faith, that it's what drove him to drink, and he didn't see that shadow in the guy the police are chasing this time. and father brown, rather than justifying or correcting or dodging or doubting him, says he knows how unjust the situation is. that he got something good out of the horrors of the war. that harry really didn't.

it is not a perfect show and yes I have problems with it but gosh, this is a character who's largely used for comedic beats, albeit kindly, and a scene like this isn't out of place at all but it still takes my breath away. we could've been left with this as subtext, y'know? I hadn't even put together that his alcoholism must have been trauma. but instead harry tells us this directly, tells us it's about guilt, that that's something he shares with father brown, who is competent and so often cheerful and I can't even imagine when he was younger, and it's a moment of such unexpected humanity and respect. and it's such a strange thing to see these characters side by side like that.

the scene ends with father brown calling harry a good man, and harry denying it ("they was only young lads" "so were we, harold. so were we.") and the two them sharing a drink as father brown gets a bit watery-eyed and I'm crying too over my nice cosy 'this is a concerning number of murders for a sleepy english village' show and just. hi. what. ow.

I also haven't recovered from the episode that turned into a heist halfway through but frankly I'm only mentioning that because I don't know how to wrap up a post like this. (it was good though. there were two separate honeypots, three if you count the impromptu replacement, one character terrible at grifting and one unexpectedly great at it, and, somehow, a con within a con. it was really very fun. get a show that can do both, I guess?)

[4ddi3addie2005]

Before I went to bed I saw the Youtube notif that TADC was going to Netflix and it INVADED my dreams so vividly I have not had such an episodic sequential serialized cohesive dream in months it was literally its own chapter its own short story

[dreamteamemojis]

.

[habitual-creatures]

*running over to check on Evan*

Okay fuck it, Firebrand can you go check what the hell is going on upstairs?

...

O̵͕̐f̶̣̈ ̵̘̽c̴̦̊ǫ̸̈u��̧̇ȑ̶̥ŝ̵̲ë̶̡.̶͕̿.̴́͜.̴̭̌

(( translation

Of course... ))

[harmonicabisexuals]

foreman asking cameron if she's going to rejoin the team in 5.21 and saying "i need someone else who will actually stand up to house" kind of encapsulates all my issues with s4 and s5 tbh. because it's TRUE none of the new fellows are narrative foils/parallels to house in the same way that the original three were and i think the show really suffers from a lack of having someone to push against house's character. cameron was the most obvious example of this, and the show has made wilson's character larger i think partly in response to this but his role still isn't large enough to have the same impact, plus their reactions to and influence on house's behavior manifest in different ways. foreman still provides that foil, but there's only one of him and he can't play that role every episode. even chase, who was the team pushover, finally grew a spine at the end of s3 but of course the show immediately shelves him and he literally runs away from any possible interaction with house in the next two seasons!! i just....so much wasted potential

[steakout-05]

as an Australian you American blokes have got to stop talking about huntsman spiders like that. don't diss my weird little lanky wallclimber friends, they're not horrible awful freaks of nature who chase you and bite you on contact. they're actually very docile and timid and they're very reluctant to bite. like, all they really want to do is hang out on your walls or your ceiling and eat bugs all day. huntsman spiders are way more likely to run away from you and go hide away in your pantry than they are to go out of their way to bite you. biting you would probably put them in even more danger than if they just ran away, and if you are messing with a huntsman spider enough for it to bite you, you were likely being an asshole to it. they do not want to bite people! they don't chase you either, not on purpose anyway. the reason it might seem like one is running towards you is because huntsman spiders have pretty bad eyesight and literally cannot see you properly. it can absolutely be frightening and jarring, yes, i would understand as i have arachnophobia and have expereniced the fear of a huntsman unintentionally jumping or sprinting towards me, but they do not want to chase you or scare you. they are trying to run away. they are in the same boat as you, they're scared out of their wits and are trying to avoid danger. huntsman spiders are not these horrible dangerous freaks, they're just little (and sometimes not so little) guys. they can be scary, but all the miconceptions about them are not warranted or deserved in the slightest! and anyway, they're not even "only in Australia". we are home to many huntsman spiders, but they are also present in Asia, Africa and some places in America. they're not even exclusive to this country so i don't get why "only in Australia" gets hurled at them a lot.

actually, the whole attitude Americans have of Australia having weird and dangerous wildlife and the same old "only in Australia!!1!! kill it with fire lol!!!!1!" reddit drivel is pretty shitty overall tbh. every continent on the damn planet has weird and dangerous wildlife, why are we acting like it's JUST Australia you should stay away from???? America has some fuckin strange animals living there, you don't see as many people making a big stupid spectacle out of that. Australia's wildlife is unique and beautiful and wonderful, no Australian wildlife slander in my notes.

[posallys]

Took my 16 year old sister Christmas shopping and asked her how much money she had to spend and this bitch went "oh i have $1500 from babysitting." FROM BABYSITTING OUR SISTERS??? YOU'RE GETTING PAID?????

[forthegamesmyguy]

y'all seriously overestimating just how much solavellan will even matter. you know the romance in DAI was a single cutscene right? where he dumps you lol. comparatively the least content by far. and this game isn't about the inquisitor. yes it's about Solas but he may or may not have this relationship with last game's player character so, it isn't going to be given center stage. I get being annoyed with the obnoxious chronically fandom-pilled online teenagers and Disney adults, but they do this bullshit in every single space they take up. just ignore them and the rage inducing algorithms of modern social media

instead of being pissed off that one of only two vital choices is whether the Inquisitor said to redeem or stop Solas, how about be pissed off that that decision presumably is what is going to colour your Inquisitor's personality, which now I am left to assume is one of two (.5 for romanced) people, the "redeem" version being you talk soberly about Solas and say shit like "I feel responsible for him... I wish I could convince him to change his mind... He is a good person doing bad things... So sad..." and the "stop" version being you talk aggressively about Solas and say shit like "I feel slighted by him... I wish I had never allowed him access to such resources... He is a bad person doing bad things... So callous..." Like can we instead please be angry that they don't care about respecting the individuality of our different game experiences? This is not about Solas. And this is not about solavellan. It's about apparently the only thing mattering being a check in the box, when the actual experience of this *role playing game* is not universal. Not every inquisitor is going to feel about or respond to Solas in the same ways, even within the confines of solavellan, even within "stop" or "redeem". Like, I have lavellans that romanced him and would treat him kindly, I have some that would treat him bitterly, some that would treat him angrily, some that forgive and some that are furious. Do I get to experience these different possibilities? Apparently not. And it has nothing to do with solavellan. That being a part of the story is not the reason they've limited the flavours here to either one or the other. We shitting on Solas/solavellan now just bc of the most obnoxious voices you could possibly imagine? Ok cool

[ioannemos]

the new hire: somehow, inexplicably, does not turn this whole thing around within the first month

boss:

me: