#so i remembered like. martin's monologue at the end. and that's it. and it was worth rewatching actually i liked it a lot better this time

[youssefguedira]

you know i was kinda ambivalent towards martin eden the first time i watched it but damn thats good huh

[henrysglock]

Because they blocked me instead of taking it straight from the horse's mouth that they misinterpreted the entirety of Papa Warbucks, I'd like to deconstruct the other things that particular "critique" took issue with, which I had saved to my phone so I could address when I had time. I did that while I had them unblocked/before they blocked me, because honestly I did want them to see my explanations.

Alas, here we are.

Number 1:

This just in. No more daddy kink. Pack it up, guys...let's go home...the kink police are here...

Also, to be clear, it was Henry who did that in PW. It wasn't even something Martin suggested Henry do. Henry's just a little freak who likes to press buttons to see what they do because, in keeping with TFS, Martin refers to his father as Papa. Henry can tell Martin's got daddy issues out the wazoo, it's something they discussed not even half an hour prior, and the poor guy just. blurts it out. It's not like Martin was there rubbing his grubby hands together like "uhuhuhu can I coerce Henry into calling me Papa in bed? uhuhuh". It was very much something on Henry's end.

(However, regarding Henry's button-pushing when he's lacking inhibitions, see also: Henry addressing Martin as "Captain" as a joke, which is a play on the whole "Martin's dad wouldn't approve" thing from earlier in the night. It's a bit.)

Number 2:

Martin Brenner may have been a psychiatrist by trade, but that didn't mean he couldn't recognize a work of art when he saw one.

Martin loved his job, no doubt; the human mind was his passion.

Bro...this is what he does for a living. It's his career. He's never met a puzzle he couldn't solve. He's fascinated by Henry. What a terrible thing. A tragedy, truly, and godawful abuse towards Henry, too. /s

Also, here's the "pouncing on mommy issues and insecurities" in question:

"My mother would say it's one of those ideas that kept me out of the good schools." Oh, there's something. Martin wanted to tug on that thread. A bit daring, especially for a first (and possibly only) date, but it was worth tucking away for later. If there was something he loved, it was taking people apart like puzzles.

"I mean, it was a joke, technically...but it would be kinda interesting to find out what, collectively, is wrong with the lot of us." Martin's reply, in all its blunt, factual glory, was out before he could stop it. "Autism, primarily." The shocked blink that greeted him in the rearview narrowed into amused incredulity as they breezed through the parking lot. "Is this a dinner date or a diagnosis?" Henry snarked, the bite of his tone undermined by the teasing twist of his lips. "Did my mother put you up to this?" Nevermind. Threads exist to be pulled. The backstory lurking behind his date's doe eyes was proving to be an irresistible treat. "That's the second time you've mentioned your mother, Henry. Tell me—is she not pleased that you're attending to the best art school in the country?"

The man literally just wants to know the dirt on Virginia CreeI, yes because it will tell him more about Henry, but also because he's a nosy cunt who likes knowing about the Drama. What a crime. How predatory.

Henry gives it back in kind, though ("Is this a date or a diagnosis?"), and he's very much aware of Martin's tendency to play detective. Henry's not stupid.

Rein it in, idiot. Henry's inner monologue had always been his most scathing critic; it was no different now, as he rounded the front of the town car and willed himself to stop yapping. Forget being trans, this is why no one wants to date you. Remember what Mom said about you and emotional labor? Martin's a psychiatrist, he can smell that stuff a mile away—

And regarding seeing Henry as an experiment, here's the only section where that comes up:

I wonder who made him so reluctant to let people spoil him, Martin thought as he watched the young man across from him fiddle with his napkin. No doubt it's his mother. Perhaps it was the doctor in him, but Henry's attitude towards having money spent on him only made Martin want to dote on him more, to see if he could get him to accept generosity without attaching guilt to it. What had started out as the prelude to one nice meal for a pretty, starving artist was rapidly progressing into a full-fledged experiment, and the best place to start with an experiment was questions. "So, Henry," he broke the brief silence that had fallen between them, "What area of art do you study? Animation, painting..." As expected, the open-ended question had Henry tearing his eyes off the square of maroon fabric in his lap.

The "experiment" in question:

Martin views the thing in general as "how much money can I get away with spending on a nice young man", but there's also a definite aspect of him genuinely liking Henry as a person.

Rather, it was that he had no idea how much he would enjoy Henry’s company on its own, all else aside. He was awkward, obviously, but he was also funny and almost painfully genuine; there was a charm to it all that Martin suspected most people couldn’t evade. "You know, maybe I ought to take you back to Rochester with me after all," he mused, more to himself than to Henry...

Christ. Maybe he wasn't too far off with that basement thing earlier. He shook his head, a little helpless. I met him this afternoon and I'd already like him to be a permanent fixture in my life. I need to get ahold of myself.

And yes, the secret basement laboratory is a running joke. Henry started it.

“Is that funny?” “No! No. I just…You are taking me to dinner, right? You didn’t pick me up at a con to lock me up in your secret underground asylum and study my brain or something, right?” Henry’s giggles slipped into outright laughter, the awkward tension in the car ebbing away as Martin found himself incapable of restraining a smile of his own. “No, Henry. Unfortunately,” he sincerely hoped the young man in his backseat could read the sarcasm in his tone, “I don’t have an underground asylum to lock you away in.” “Oh my God, wouldn’t that be just the thing, though.” Henry cleared his throat and adopted what Martin assumed to be his best impression of a hoity-toity doctor, “‘Longitudinal Study of Midwest Comic-Con Attendees’ Brain Abnormalities’.”

What a travesty, overall. 500 lashes for James Henrysglock.

Number 3:

Girl (gn) please.

It happens 7 times (I re-counted), and one of them was "20-something year old boy" like. That's an adult. You ever heard of older people referring to younger men as boys? People calling it "boy troubles" even when they're in college? No? Okay.

You know how many times Martin refers to Henry as a whole-ass man, though? 12 times.

There's also a whole bit about Martin sitting there worrying because he didn't double check that Henry was old enough to drink. Everyone here knows Henry's a grown ass man.

Mountain of a molehill makin' ass. Christ.

Also, Henry is not at all naive. He knows what he's about.

See:

Henry making the choice, unprompted, to bring protection

He glanced at the bedside digital clock. Seven-ten. He could feel a ball of something nervous and fluttery taking root in the pit of his stomach, the kind that made him feel the need to shake like a wet dog to shed the excess energy. Oh god. Would it be too presumptuous of me to stick a condom in my pocket? He’d never even know if we didn’t…y’know. But if we did, maybe it would come off as thoughtful? Easy? Smart? Full of myself? The clock read seven-fifteen. Henry dug around in his suitcase and produced the single little foil package he’d stuck in there just on the remote chance someone wanted to screw him. It stared him right in the face, pinched between his forefinger and thumb. Better safe than sorry. Right? I should just. Hoo-boy. I’m doing this. Seven-twenty-two. Henry shoved the condom in his front-right pocket as fast as he could, like he was ripping off a band-aid.

Henry reading Martin like a fucking BOOK

Maybe he went into psych stuff to spite his dad, or maybe to figure out what his damage was. Maybe he was an army kid, I know vets aren't always chill about psych stuff. After all, he seems about the right age to have had a dad who went to Vietnam. ... I may have been right about him being a military kid. "What, did he expect you to join the army or something?" "Navy, actually. He was a captain himself, and I suppose he expected I'd follow in his footsteps." Henry wanted to smile at the fact that he'd been right, but he figured it wouldn't exactly be appropriate for the situation and briefly sucked his lower lip into his mouth instead.

What I believe that point from the "critique" is picking up on is that Henry's inexperienced. He's a virgin. He's 21. Thus, he doesn't know how sex normally goes. He's awkward. He doesn't know jack shit about wine selections, other than "cheap and fruity is best".

Also...I'm not sure if OP missed it, but "easily flustered" is one of Henry's BIGGEST character traits. He's a nervous overthinker, a rambler, a dog in a "NERVOUS" vest. He doesn't know how to take praise gracefully. He says cringeworthy things and immediately kicks himself over it.

And yes, Martin thinks it's cute. Because it is cutesy behavior. Read any sugar mommy/daddy fic, and I guarantee they'll see a flustered sugar baby as something worth fawning over. That's part of the genre, I fear.

As for people being under the impression that they're father and son? THAT'S ANOTHER RUNNING JOKE. IT'S A BIT.

It starts in the very first section with Martin being put off by Virginia and thinking that he'd put Henry up in a nicer hotel if he were in her shoes.

“Hilton? God, no. I was lucky my dad talked my mom into putting me up at the ‘8.” If he were my son, he’d be put up in a suite on-site, Martin groused internally. Logically, he knew it was irrational to try and coerce Henry into moving rooms, and that the Hilton likely had no rooms left regardless. That didn’t mean it didn’t irk him anyway.

And then Henry jokes about their age gap re: booze

"D'you think they'll card me?" Maybe Henry wasn't over the legal drinking age, then. It wasn't unheard of for someone to be twenty years old at the end of their junior year. Perhaps Henry was born in September and would be turning twenty-one shortly after beginning his senior year...or maybe he'd graduated high school early. He was attending a prestigious school, after all. Martin swallowed down and staunchly ignored the odd gut-punch feeling that realization came with, and peeked across the table over top of the menu. "Just precautionary, nothing more." "I mean," Henry cocked a mischievous eyebrow, "you could always just say you're my dad. That makes it legal, right?" Recovering quickly from the momentary shock of hearing a statement like that come out of his date's mouth (and as if he hadn't had thoughts along the exact same lines himself just that afternoon) Martin coughed a little and shook his head. "No, no. I'm afraid Indiana is a little too...conservative for parental permission allowances." "Eugh," Henry scrunched his nose like a bunny, vague disgust playing out across his face as he dug his wallet out, "That's a bummer. It's a good thing I'm twenty-one, then, huh?"

It's the same as going "Do I still pass for 12?" about a goddamn kids menu. IT'S A BIT.

Then, the server assumes they're related because of the age gap. This is a play on married couples being mistaken for blood family.

"Is this going to be on one card, or are you splitting it with your...son?" "...One card will suffice." From across the table, he could feel Henry's eyes trained on his face as he tucked his credit card into the folder. Son. That's...hm. Well. Third time's the charm, I suppose. "Very good. I'll have this right back for you." As soon as the server was back out of range, Martin let himself look back over at Henry, who was still watching him with a sly smile. "Not gonna correct him?" "I wasn't the one who suggested that I play your father on the off chance you didn't bring your ID." Henry shrugged with his eyebrows, a quick up-down of acquiescence. "Touché. Thank you for paying."

And Martin returns the joke that Henry started. IT'S A BIT. IT'S AN INSIDE JOKE.

And when it happens a second time, but without the ability to joke about it, Henry is offended and has half a mind to correct the receptionist before deciding it's not worth the time. (Because he's wise enough to know he's never going to see this person again, so why bother?)

"Creel? Room twenty-two? That room doesn't have an outstanding balance on it." "...What?" "Yeah. A man came by and paid it. He said he knew you. Tall, about six-two, maybe six-three? Brown hair, middle aged? The last name on the card was, uh..." he tapped a few keys, and then squinted down at the computer, "Brenner." Henry's response was out before he could stop it. "You're shitting me." "Nope. I have better things to do than lie to teenagers. Take it up with yer Pop." He would have sputtered indignantly, but he thought better of it when he realized it was simpler to just nod and go on his way than try to explain to the receptionist that no, Martin wasn't his father, he was some well-off guy he'd met at a comic con who seemed to have taken a special liking to him after they'd slept together.

Also, has no one ever heard of calling someone a child to be nasty to them/to tell them that they're being annoying? That is what's happening, here.

The "son" thing was a BIT. It was a JOKE. and as soon as Henry can't joke about it, he's upset by the assumption. He's not happy people assume the two of them are father and son. Christ.

Also, parting notes:

I sure hope you didn't keep those poor people held up for over an hour. Sounds fake anyway, like one of those old tumblr posts with "and everyone in the grocery store cheered".

Also...have you ever heard of the term "hate-fucking"? It's kind of a pillar of fandom.

Okay, that's all I have to say. Cheers!

[laurelwen]

Just me rambling for a minute:

"I can’t remember when I first noticed the change. It’s not that I didn’t see it coming, I just didn’t want to believe it. I guess that’s not much of an excuse, but it’s the truth. I guess it didn’t look good. But he had to die. It was a necessary means to an end. All I can tell you is that the heavens were falling. And the sound, it… the sound… it was incredible. It was… It was like the gods were rejoicing for what was done."

Never forget that Alex is a bad, bad boy. Look at that monologue! How was he going to say all this and Sally just completely forgot about how deeply sus it was? Just because later on he pulls a Sad Wet Cat routine?? And she was like, "yeah, that sounds right, I'm just going to ignore that deeply ominous pronouncement about the heavens falling and the change happening and how Nigel had to die." Not to mention the Cathar stuff, and gestalt, and him deliberately trying to push her off balance with the whole kids thing. She somehow just completely forgot about all that. Absolutely absurd.

I think despite being initially guarded, she went in there expecting Alex to be innocent, which is honestly McKenzie's fault. Martin put her back up immediately by pressuring her to support his Male Cop Gut Feeling™, and she not only refused but then set out to intentionally prove Martin wrong just so she could throw it in her ex boyfriend's face. She went in there subconsciously looking for any reason to disprove McKenzie, and just spoon fed Alex as much time and attention as he needed to give her the excuse she was looking for.

AND ANOTHER THING: let's not ignore the inherent sexism on display in the script. McKenzie's gut feeling turned out to be right and Sally's was absolutely wrong, which values the Manly Hunch and devalues Women's Intuition. Those silly girls, with their pesky emotions and motherly instincts getting in the way of seeing rational truth...even though McKenzie is clearly the overemotional unhinged bitch here. Don't get me wrong, this film treats it's (three) female characters appallingly anyway. Sally is really just there as a stand in for the audience. Suspicious at first then slowly lulled into believing Alex's story only to find out that we've all been duped by this smug little shit.

I have no point to make here, I'm just ranting about my thoughts like an old man shouting at the clouds.

[Like Minds Masterpost]

[skrunksthatwunk]

HI IT'S SQUISHY fic ask game time:

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

:3

YAHOO HI SQUISHY TY FOR THE ASK >:33

ok uhhhh uh uh

F: i think if i had to choose anything, it'd probably be the cat petting circle scene from and who do you think i'll be (without you)?, because i am. really really bad at juggling more than like 3 characters in a scene and this has FIVE and it's still really fun to read, at least for me. it's dynamic, though admittedly the attention still mostly falls on kuwabara and yusuke (sorry keiko </3 i wish you were more prominent in this one but alas) everyone carries some weight. i'm also not great at understanding (and thus writing) anger, so yusuke's bubbling frustration through the scene is like.. kinda cool to me. (a/n: eikichi is kuwabara's cat lol)

i'm also including another two from this same fic bc i think they're neat as well :)

(i'll put a transcript of the screenshots at the end under the read more)

honestly, i love writing yusuke's dialogue no matter what he's saying, so this fic's got a few moments i'm very fond of, but didn't include. anyway it's the only good thing i've ever written (<- exaggerating, but it's probably my favorite fic i've written, and maybe favorite prose piece)

i also remember enjoying some of the dialogue between sagawa and majima in tough love for loveless things, and i assume i liked a lot of the stuff for i long for you and your expert hands, but i... haven't revisited that one in a long time (idk why but i'm a little afraid to?? i haven't forgotten it though), so i couldn't point to anything specific really ^ ^'

I: hm... i think i overindulge in characters just talking about nothing, at least when it comes to my writing. if i like them, i like hearing them talk about nothing, and it tends to bloat scenes and drag on, i figure. i also tend to gravitate towards really specific intensely described points of imagery that barely come up again and totally break the flow of the scene (oops). in terms of guilty pleasures in reading, uh...? i'm kind of a sucker for werewolf stuff because i got that dog in me. im drawing a blank ig sorry <3 OH i've always been hopelessly fond of whump / hurt/comfort / sickfic STUFF. legit since i was a child. i like it when they're out of it i like it when they're woozy. and anything with dumb hijinks and/or slapstick is good to me. comedy's hard and i like seeing idiots be idiots. and really introspective/inner monologue heavy pieces are mmmmwah for writing and reading

R: oh man. whatever i'm currently reading often ends up influencing my writing in noticeable (to me) ways. one time i was writing smth for my fiction writing class and i typed out a sentence that felt at once like smth dr seuss would write (you'll never guess what unit my children's lit class was on) and a line from lolita (because that's what i was reading at the time). it's a mashup that worked weirdly well. ANYWAY to actually answer the question, the little prince ruined me as a kid, and a lot of the way i express sadness and emptiness is channeling saint-exupery there. currently, arkady martine and andzrej sapkowski have been influencing my scenery descriptions in particular, because that's what i was most recently reading, but earlier this year i remember cormac mccarthy's the road finding its way under my pen a lot. for really flowery stuff (i don't think you see it much in my fics, but it's not Never), i think of alfred tennyson's maud quite often. this is not a conclusive list im just empty brained :P

X: ohhohohohohhh. god help me but i love making all of them suffer. to love something is to vivi/dissect it. currently kuwabara is the one i'm putting through the most though (<- channeling personal issues into this orange guy), but majima and kiryu were always lots of fun to break down >:). perhaps that's the real answer to the guilty pleasure section

[SCREENSHOT 1]:

“Hey, why’s she goin’ to Kurama and you and not me?” Yusuke complained, pouting at Keiko.

Kuwabara piped up. “Maybe it’s ‘cuz they have manners, unlike some of us.”

“Or patience,” Botan offered.

Yusuke stuck out his leg and prodded Kuwabara’s arm. “Yeah, and how’re your manners workin’ out for ya? You still look like someone’s been playin’ tic-tac-toe on your hands or did she become a saint overnight?”

“Shut up, Urameshi.”

Keiko spoke up from her spot on the floor. “Aw, I think she’s just sweet. Right?” She put her chin on her folded arms and gently rubbed at Eikichi’s cheek. With a warm smile, Keiko turned her head into her arms further, squishing her face, openly endeared. “Even if she bites sometimes.”

“Finally, someone gets it,” Kuwabara moaned. “Keiko, tell Urameshi that for me, will ya?”

Yusuke didn’t buy it. “If she was sweet she’d be sweet to me, too.”

“Benevolence is nearly always conditional,” Kurama said, leaning over to rub Eikichi’s ears. “Perhaps she senses your standoffishness and simply chooses not to engage with someone who does not seem to want her.” Kurama’s brilliant green eyes swept back to Yusuke for emphasis. “You two may have that in common.”

“Wh—?!” Yusuke spluttered a bit, before settling on, “Watch it, fox boy.”

“Aw,” Botan giggled, “Yusuke, it’s alright, you know. Some of us just have an animal-like charm. Meow meow!” She hooked her hands like paws.

“Right, and I’m saying Eikichi’s not so charming. I mean, she’s been ignoring you, too, Botan, whaddyou think?”

“Oh, she’s just lovely! Simply adorable,” Botan cooed.

“Heheh, looks like you’re outnumbered, Urameshi!”

[SCREENSHOT 2]:

Rocking his chair back lazily, Yusuke noticed Kuwabara’s scratch-laced hands and whistled. “Damn, Kuwabara. It’s kinda beating you up, huh? That cat o’ yours. You look like you just fought me, only smaller.”

“For the last time, Urameshi, Eikichi’s a she! Quit it with the it crap or I’ll knock you into next Sunday brunch.” He jabbed his chopsticks at Yusuke pointedly. “And I don’t think you could get any smaller.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. She’s beating the shit outta you. But what’s with that? I thought kittens were s’posed to be all cute n’ cuddly.” Yusuke swirled his drink thoughtfully before taking a swig.

“You’ve never had a kitten, have you, Urameshi?” Kuwabara deadpanned. He had the right to do that now that he was a cat-rearing expert, as if he hadn't learned it very recently himself.

“No. ’M not really crazy about animals. Neither's my mom.” Under his breath, Yusuke added, “Knowing her, that’s probably for the best.”

“Wh—? How?!” 

Yusuke shrugged.

Kuwabara huffed. “Ugh, she’s teething right now, okay? And I haven’t got her a scratching post yet. She’ll grow out of it, you’ll see.”

“Whatever you say, man. Just try not to lose any limbs waiting for her to get manners, arright? Don’t wanna make our fights even more one-sided. That’d just be sad.”

“Yeah, right, Urameshi.” Kuwabara puffed out his chest. “Eikichi could take two o’ my limbs and I’d still wipe the street with ya.”

“Hey, try beating me with four limbs first, tough guy.”

The conversation devolved into threats and bickering from there, culminating in little more than wrinkled uniforms and mussed hair-dos, and one final exchange.

“You haven’t even met her, Urameshi, so how could you know what she’s like?”

“‘Cuz you’re carryin’ the proof right there, stupid! Look, don’t take it so personal. I just don’t feel like spending all day roughhousing with someone that far beneath my weight class, even if she is the precious little angel you say she is."

[SCREENSHOT 3]:

Yusuke lounged on the floor, Eikichi sitting on his chest and staring down at him.

“What’re you starin’ at, Stinkass?”

Kuwabara scoffed loudly, fluffing out the pillow Yusuke would use.

Yusuke smirked at him. “Oh, I’m sorry, your highness, I left my manners at home.” He cleared his throat. “What are you staring at, Her Royal Majesty the Queen Stinkass?”

“Man, why'dya only pick mean pet names to give ‘er?” It came out a bit harsher than he meant.

“What?” Yusuke began to sit up, but stopped when he remembered Eikichi’s place on him. He dropped back down and shut his eyes lazily. “These aren’t pet names, they’re, like, insults. That I don’t mean.”

“So ‘Stinkass’ is your idea of an affectionate nickname?”

“Gee, you don’t have to make it sound so damn girly. I’m just callin’ her that ‘cause I like her.”

“Ooh~ so you like her, huh?” Kuwabara sat up on his knees and—once Eikichi got the hint and clambered off—smacked Yusuke’s face with his pillow, holding it over his face. “Whatever happened to not bein’ mushy, tough guy?”

Yusuke wrenched the pillow from his grip and lazily swung it at him, not bothering to get up. “Hey, you told me she doesn’t judge about that sorta thing, right? And I’m learnin’ there’s benefits to bein’ mushy, like kicking ass better.” He shifted to crack his back, then sighed, relaxing into the floor. “I’m just sticking to my way, and sometimes that means calling her Kuwabara’s Favorite Little Shitblaster or whatever.”

[magici-if]

Can i have either 'Y' or 'O' ?

so I only did Y cuz this post got realllllllly long

Y = Yuck (Do they have any pet peeves about their s/o? Are there any habits that might bother their s/o?)

from THIS prompt list

Martin:

Do they have any pet peeves about their s/o?

Just...noise. Their partner chewing loudly/ with their mouth open, talking way too loudly, and picking their nose. Also, their partner queue jumping.

Are there any habits that might bother their s/o?

He snores really loudly and he gets up a lot of times during the night: first he might wanna get a midnight snack, then drink some water, then go to the toilet, then go open the window 'cause it's hot, and the list goes on. Yes, all that in one night.

Those endearing moments where you catch your partner sleeping and they just look so cute? Yeah, never happening with Martin, he's either up or snoring. He also sometimes uses words the wrong way 'cause English isn't his first language.

Demetra:

Do they have any pet peeves about their s/o?

Just, anything that makes her feel like her presence is unappreciated. Cancelling on her the last minute when she had a whole date planned.

When she's talking about something important and her partner keeps interrupting her and not letting her speak.Her partner starting an argument in public or while they're in front of people they know.

Her s/o being on their phone when they're alone with each other. Also her partner leaving her messages on read without even reacting with a heart. (poor dem)

Are there any habits that might bother their s/o?

She texts like she talks: let's say she needs to say a lot via text, instead of writing one big paragraph, she'll end up sending 10 different text bubbles.

Dem 🫶

"okay" "so like" "the craziest thing just happened" "anyways i'll tell you when you get home" "cus I dont wna annoy you w too many messages"

Narrator: watch her send a myriad of messages

Dem 🫶

"are you not gna ask what it is?" ":(" "i miss you"

And then when her s/o asks her what it was, what will happen is:

Exhibit A:

"Oh I have no idea, I don't remember. Must have been something dumb."

Exhibit B:

"Oh no nevermind it was really dumb." / She grins, "I lied, just wanted to get your attention"

Exhibit C:

"Oh yeah! Let me tell you." and it's something really dumb.

Evander:

Do they have any pet peeves about their s/o?

His partner's glasses falling off their nose and them pushing them up by the middle like an anime character. His partner taking his food from his plate without asking. Seeing someone's snus on their gums while they are speaking.

Are there any habits that might bother their s/o?

They're lazy, and it's more of a lifestyle than a habit. He also makes a lot of useless group chats for everything, him and his friends are going to the cinema next Friday?

" '🔥🎥🎥 CINEMA NIGHT GANG 🔥🔥💯💯' was created by 'california's biggest babe (evander) ❤︎'. "

(he's never been in california)

At this point they'll do it on purpose to annoy people. Evander and MC going on a date?

"You've been added to '😈🤓 DATE NIGHT BABES🍆💞' "

"You've been added to 'oops I did it again ⚽️↗↘💥🥅 I scored a cutie.'"

Harley:

Do they have any pet peeves about their s/o?

Harley loves to just sit and talk with people, especially her lover. So her pet peeve would be when she wants to talk but it becomes a monologue 'cause her partner just stares at her and answers with monosyllables.

When Harley and her partner have planned to do an activity, and her partner keeps saying they're about to go get dressed so they can go, but it's been 3 hours and they still haven't done that.

Are there any habits that might bother their s/o?

She's an early bird. Say her s/o accidentally wakes up at 7:00 am, they'll find that Harley has already left, made coffee, left a a cute note saying

"brb!!! wanted to go on a run! I love you!!"

and bought groceries. They'll fall back asleep and wake up an hour later and Harley would have come home, wrote a song about how cute her partner is when they sleep, and bought them a bouquet with their favourite flowers.

Basically lazy mornings together are non existent with her and she'll prolly accidentally wake her partner up like 3 times in a morning.

Echo:

Do they have any pet peeves about their s/o?

When her s/o folds a page on a book instead of using a bookmark, or when they doodle on her textbook with a pen when she'd planned on selling it afterwards.

Also the phrases "Are you angry?" and "Why are you so quiet?" when she's just existing.

Are there any habits that might bother their s/o?

Echo will stay up the whole night playing a video game, watching a series or reading a book, their partner will go to sleep and wake up to find her in the same position. There comes the question: has she slept at all?

The answer is no.

She'll even try really really hard to convince her s/o to stay up with her so they can be together.

Echo will also literally terrorise her partner, she loves sneaking up on people and she's such a try-hard about it. She won't just sneak up on people, no; she'll even use her abyss powers to teleport behind her s/o and scare them.

Dominic:

Do they have any pet peeves about their s/o?

Bad hygiene, especially bad breath/ yellow teeth. Bad communication, like his s/o giving him the cold shoulder after they had a disagreement.

Are there any habits that might bother their s/o?

He's a workaholic, if he can work on a book he's writing, research a specific type of affinity, or read a book about magic theory, he will. This man doesn't know how to relax, his partner will have to force him to sit down and chill together.

He is also probably addicted to playing chess on his phone, if he isn't working or spending time with his partner, he's on the chess.com app. Specifically, the 3 minute long matches, which he'll lose anyways 'cause he forgets he only has 3 minutes and he'll spend an eternity before making any move.

All this 'cause he watched one (!) episode of The Queen's Gambit (didn't have the time to watch the rest, he says).

[notsosilentsister]

What not many people know about me is that I am - can be, with some effort - a half decent actress. I used to dabble in acting in college. The highlight of my career was the role of Gaston, a regular at the titular Lapin Agil, in the Steve Martin play Picasso at the Lapin Agil. The play is about Picasso and Einstein meeting in a Parisan bar at the turn of the century, discussing the respective merits of art and science, and finally bonding over their shared awe for each other's genius. Gaston is an old Frenchman, who only cares about sex and booze. His definining characteristics are that he's perpetually horny and incontinent. His catchphrase is "I have to pee!". He has a long monologue bragging about his sexual exploits which end in his lover (or himself? my memory is hazy) having to be hospitalized due to exhaustion, which our director originally cut, presumably because it contributes nothing to the plot, and very little to the theme. She put it back in, because she liked me, I have to assume, and wanted to give me a bit more to do. It was the role I was born to play.

While the girl other girls playing men in this production used binders, I decided to do without them. Gaston was a fat guy, he could have man boobs. I remember the first rehearsal in costume. Everyone looked awesome in their period costumes, the effect was well worth the discomfort of corsets and binders (I know, I know, well-fitted corsets are not uncomfortable, but let's just assume that the ones used in this production weren't well fitted) . I hadn't found anything in my size at the costume rental, so I had borrowed an old suit from my grandpa. Our very talented make-up artist gave me a red drunkard's nose. It looked extremly convincing. On the bikeride back to my flat, I suddenly found myself crying. I still feel the surprise of those tears on my cheek, quickly enough dried by the airstream, but still dropping relentlessly. I almost never think about the way I look, but here I was, having just looked at myself, devastated by that all too effortless image in the mirror of that old goat Gaston and completely caught off guard by the extent of my devastation.

I sometimes joke that I am a woman just as I am a catholic - assigned the role by accident of birth, raised in the spirit, but mostly lapsed in practice, never quite ready to let go of it for largely sentimental reasons. And maybe that's even true, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't go deep. I might sometimes be flippant about my womanhood, but when I think of that sudden and utter devastation I felt on that ride home from the rehearsal, there is no other way to describe it but gender dysphoria. There was not enough difference between my costume and my regular look. I hated the thought of potentially being seen like that, not too differently, at any rate, beyond the stage. Still, that time playing the old French drunk in college was one of the most fun things I ever did. Because I quickly snapped out of it and reminded myself that it's just a play. I'm a ciswoman who greatly enjoys drag. Precisely because it's not who I actually am. For me, it's a vacation away from home. Sometimes I just need a change of air. For a short while, I don't have to convince anyone as a woman, because that's not the role. And I don't have to convince anyone as a man, because it's just a role! I find that quite liberating. But eventually, I return. If I didn't return, it wouldn't feel like vacation, it would feel like exile.

People often have quite conflicting ideas about the role of performance in a person's life. I think there are at least three different types of performance. There's the performance that serves you, because it becomes reality ("fake it till you make it", an unskippable step of almost any learning process; studies show that people will reliable perform better when they imagine and consequently comport themselves as already possessing the skills they aim to acquire). There's the performance that drains you, because it denies reality (the never diminishing, often too costly, rarely sustainable efforts of masking, slowly but surely setting you on the path to burn-out). And finally there's the performance that serves you, because it is not reality, and by not being reality, drawing it into sharper relief. The trick, I guess, is to not get them confused.

[ebbarights]

for the movie buff ask thingy:6, 23, 41 and 60 pleasssee <3

thank you sm!! <33

6. favorite movie from the 90s?

ooh that's a hard one! i'm gonna say trainspotting. it's a hard movie to watch and it always makes me sad but man. the (subversion of the) choose life monologue is life-changing..

23. favorite movie soundtrack?

the bones and all soundtrack worked so well!! i don't listen to it all the time but i think it was such a good mood-setter for a movie that is verrry dependent on atmosphere. i think i wouldn't have liked it half as much if it didn't have those single plucked strings and the song at the end. My God

41. actors you'd like to see work together?

colin farrell and saoirse ronan... i'm cheating here but i want them both to do a(nother) movie with martin mcdonagh that would be sooo fun. saoirse hasn't done a ton of comedy but what she has done has been very good!! would go see it at least forty times if they did that

60. most visually stunning movie you've seen?

the green knight full stop. came out of that movie confused about everything else but loving the look of it. it's so colourful, the costumes are lived in and beautiful, the bustling castle contrasted with the empty landscape and the devastated battlefield......... i might rewatch this tonight one of my favourite movies for sure. real ones remember my gawain icon

movie buff questions

[hellredsky]

Let’s talk about Oscar’s noms!

It’s that time of the year when we all remember that movies exist and some are nominated for the Oscars. For me, it’s the time when I rush to try to watch every movie nominated, think I haven’t watched enough movies, just to face the truth that I actually watched a lot of them but forgot. The Oscars haven’t been so focused on prizing movies lately, they are more about the cringe and controversy, and it makes me sad a little bit. In the last few years, important movies and achievements have been obscured by stupid celebrity controversy that is just for rating or who knows at this point. So I think my best way to actually express what I feel about movies (besides ranting the entire show while only having like 2 options to vote to, cause I didn’t watch the rest), is to talk about them in written or video form. 

 Ok, let’s talk about movies! 

I will keep this movie talk short and sweet, cause I will avoid spoilers and I just want to write how I feel about these films. 

 Starting with “All Quiet in the Western Front”, a German and US movie also nominated for best international movie, directed by Edward Berger, is a very raw look at war and how can destroy your spirit in seconds. I really loved the way it portrayed the ingenuity of the young soldiers at the beginning, compared with them at the end. No spoilers, but the end is so good in my opinion cause I thought it won’t go to the extreme point I was thinking about, and it did. It surprised me by the end. A little bit slow, but well crafted.  6/10. 

Next on my list is “The Banshees of Inisherin”, directed by Martin McDonagh, it is my option for best picture, but I’m sure it’s not going to win. The movie is a bizarre tale of two friends who fade out of friendship in an abrupt and strange way. There is a full video essay by Ryan Hollinger analyzing this movie, who I really loved as a take and way to interpret the movie and some of its characters. For me, the movie was a ride and show me strong and stubborn characters with their own struggles and justifications for why all this went that way. I have no idea how much I can say without spoiling the experience, but the performances and characterization are the core of the movie. 7/10. 

Next, “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once”, directed by the Daniels. Strong and amazing movie. For sure the top 2 choices to win the Oscar. It is a very well-crafted movie, using intriguing visuals and editing bits to communicate what it wants to show the audience. It doesn’t shy to the silliness and still uses it as a solid point for the main core message of the movie. For sure my favorite monologue involves a cliff and rocks. It is a ride, it is emotional under all the sci-fi multiverse weirdness. Just so good and fun. 8/10 

The last of the best picture nominees that I watched is “Top Gun: Maverick”, directed by Joseph Kosinski. I didn’t vibe with it. At all. I was expecting to know more about the newcomers, seeing more of how they bond as a team and how the mentor steps aside to actually help the new leader shine and guide everyone. Instead, it was a lot of nostalgia (which I don’t feel about Top Gun), recreations of iconic scenes, 2 great editing scenes, good sound mixing, and Tom Cruise running (which made me laugh, don’t ask why). I barely understood their motivations and actions, contrasted with how they showed to be. It was like the script was contradicting itself to get to the “cool” scenes, but not involving the characters in their totality.  One comment I got was that it was an amazing experience in theaters and just looking at the cool stuff and the cool bodies(?), which is fine. But for me, it lacked weight and I expected to push the new crew forward and I barely even met them. 4/10.

The other movies I want to talk about are the animation category. I watched 3 of the 5 nominated to this category and, as much as I know which one is going to win, it will be a really good surprise if my option got the award instead. 

 Let’s start with the obvious one: “Turning Red” by Disney studios. We all know it, it’s Disney. What else we could say? Well, a lot actually. Turning Red is a very solid movie in general. It happens to be animation, which is a great medium to tell this cool story cause it uses its visual media and malleable storytelling to express how characters perceive the world and portray the message in a interesting and fantastic way. Not gonna lie, I’m biased cause I was a kid in the 90s-00s when this movie is pulling their visuals and references, and it touched my inner kid’s soul. But it has a great message for future generations and is also a great piece to help millennials, like me, to heal a bunch of unsaid things. 6.5/10 

Next is “Sea Beast”, a Netflix joint. This movie has cool concept art and I’m pretty sure there is lore here that wasn’t used in the movie I’m sad about it cause the visuals of the world are very rich. But the story only allowed them to show so little and never compromised on distinguishing their characters from other similar characters in similar journeys. In the end, it was very predictable and its message was too on the nose. 5/10.

Last in this category is “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”, also a Netflix production and my choice for a winner. I went to this movie knowing a lot about Pinocchio, about the original story, about all its adaptations, and, obviously, the comparation with the disney one (the true one). This movie is gritty and extreme at times. Cause it is animation as a medium, not as an “only for kids” or “less category” film. The movie shows raw emotions and scenes about war and experiences of exploitation, duty, and what means to be good in the end. It is sad and has a bittersweet ending, like many of Del Toro’s movies, and it also challenges the media with great stop-motion animation. The design of most things is just THE BEST I’ve seen in a while. The designs of the blue fairy are just a delight. 8/10.

And that’s it for now I guess. I’ve watched other movies that weren’t nominated but were part of other awards, and there are some I wanted to watch that I couldn’t do before the ceremony. In any case, I’m happy that I’m back writing about movies and will try to do more often. I will not make this blog only for movies and tv shows rants and reviews, but those are one of my favorite things to watch and talk about, so bare with me. Let me know which movies did you watch and if you are watching the Oscars too. I would love to read your takes on all of these films and more. 

Read you later!

[byzantine-suggestions]

@suburbanbeatnik The most egregious one I can think of is The Eagle and the Swan—the POV character is a celibate monk named Fabianus who grew up in the Hippodrome alongside Theodora, and who works as a scribe/artist/writer under Procopius in the palace. The framing device of the novel is that Theodora has enlisted Fabianus to write her biography, and in practice, this means that there are a bunch of scenes where Theodora is just, like, splashing around in the bath and stripping off her clothes while loudly describing her sexual escapades. (For her official biography, you see.) Fabianus is, of course, super in love with her, and they have that kind of childhood-friends-to-lovers dynamic, but they obviously can't actually become lovers because she's married to Justinian and he's a monk (and possibly a eunuch, too, I don't remember). Justinian's not depicted as a total asshole, but he is pretty dismissive and rude towards Theodora, and there are like five different scenes where something horrible happens to Theodora and she's crying, and Fabianus is left to comfort her because Justinian won't step up.

Three-Headed Serpent and The Color of Power by Marie Heese pretty much cast Narses as the Pathetic Guy, too—like, Narses is really devoted to Theodora and distantly in love with her, and he's obsessed with protecting her and keeping her safe, but obviously, he can never really have her because he's a eunuch and she's married to his boss. It's very "courtly love," if that makes sense. He has all of these internal monologues where he calls her "my lady" and talks about how cute she is and daydreams about having her for himself. Justinian isn't that bad at first, but he becomes steadily shittier over the course of the second book, especially after he gets the plague—there's this little subplot where Theodora basically rules the empire while he's busy being comatose, then he wakes up and recovers, and he's upset that Theodora has "unmanned" him or something. So Theodora goes away to her little palace across the Bosphorus and gets really sick, and by the time she comes back to Constantinople, she's on the verge of death. Justinian is upset by this, but also totally useless and unhelpful, and it's Narses who ends up taking care of Theodora because once again, Justinian won't step up. Ultimately, Theodora dies holding Narses's hand because Justinian couldn't stand to be with her at the end.

Fortune's Child and Too Soon the Night by James Conroyd Martin also used this trope—the main character is a eunuch named Stephen who was a friend of Theodora's before she met Justinian, and—surprise surprise—Stephen is now working in the palace under Procopius. Once again, the framing device of the duology is Theodora asking Stephen to write her biography. I feel kind of bad lumping these books in with The Eagle and the Swan, because they're way classier (there are no cringeworthy scenes where Theodora describes being sexually abused while seductively eating fruit in the bath, for one) and Stephen is much more likeable than Fabianus. But they're definitely built on the same set of tropes—the POV character is still a eunuch who wants Theodora but can't have her, Theodora still is very close to him, and there's still the vague implication that they could've had a romantic connection if things were different. Justinian isn't really an asshole in this duology, and Stephen isn't as much of a shitty niceguy type, so I view these books more fondly. But they're still very much Pathetic Guy POV character books, lol.

And then, of course, there's Maxentius, my beloathed. (I know you've read this one, but for the benefit of my readers: Maxentius is about yet another childhood friend-turned-servant of Theodora, except instead of being a monk or a eunuch, he's romantically unavailable because he's married to Anastasia, Theodora's younger sister. He's sexually obsessed with Theodora, and Theodora flirts with him constantly, so there are like a dozen illustrations depicting a nude or semi-nude Theodora staring at the reader with bedroom eyes. Hilariously, Maxentius reiterates over and over again that his actual wife, Anastasia, is but a pale imitation of Theodora—but all of the women are drawn to look so similar to one another that you can hardly even tell Anastasia and Theodora apart.) It's very much cut from the same cloth as all of these other stories—they have that childhood-friends-to-lovers energy, and it's implied that Maxentius could've married Theodora if she hadn't gotten involved with Justinian first, but now she's Justinian's empress, and everyone involved is resentful about that. I don't know if Justinian has a particuarly dickish personality in this one, but he's definitely drawn to look as unattractive as possible compared to Maxentius, who's built like a Ken doll. And Maxentius does the same thing as Fabianus, Stephen, and (Heese's version of) Narses, where he's constantly thinking about protecting Theodora and envisioning himself as her lover.

Another important part of the Shitty Theodora Book Ecosystem that I forgot to mention is a very specific subtype of romance-ish (?) novel I’ve dubbed the “Pathetic Guy” novel.

Basically, the main character of the Pathetic Guy novel is the eponymous Pathetic Guy, a good-looking and good-hearted young man who’s desperately in love with Theodora, but inaccessible to her for some reason (he’s typically either a eunuch or a monk/priest, or he’s married). The Pathetic Guy is obsessed with Theodora, and Theodora never really feels the same way about him, but she always flirts with him and propositions him for shits and giggles. So there are a bunch of super sexualized scenes where she’s, like, in the bath or getting dressed or getting a massage or something, and she’s deliberately torturing the Pathetic Guy by seducing him from afar while simultaneously letting him know that he can never actually have her. (Usually, the Pathetic Guy goes home and fantasizes about her, which gives the author/illustrator an excuse to include even more sexual content and explain it away by saying that it’s just happening in his dreams or something.) Sometimes there are hints that Justinian is an asshole and that Theodora would be better off with the Pathetic Guy, but, like, women be gold diggers, amirite? So the Pathetic Guy is always thinking “gee, I’d treat her well, but women just don’t appreciate nice guys these days.” And this goes on for a while until Theodora dies, at which point the Pathetic Guy is the only one who’s there for her on her deathbed because every other guy in the world is so meaaannnnn and he’s the only one who really cared about her and she would’ve known that if she had given the nice boy a chance.

[tired-beholding-bitch]

Please give us your aborted rant about Jon and Martin's chemistry and how it was not just the trauma of their eldritch horror jobs that made them compatible! I love to hear your thoughts!!

oh I’d be delighted to, you’ll never see me turn down a chance to monologue about these gays tbh ✨

also that’s so sweet I just 🥺🥺🥺

fair warning this got a bit long and might not be super coherent. mostly me just going absolutely feral with feelings but. yep.

MARTIN: Face it, John, it took almost two years of crisis and trauma to even make us compatible. And that sucks. But here we are.

And I don’t want it to be for nothing. I won’t let it.

the first time I listened to MAG199, this took me by the throat.

and it did especially because for a second there I had been like “oh, that makes sense”. I could see where Martin was coming from, the reasoning he had behind it, and on a first listen running on heightened emotions and a lot of caffeine it seemed like a sound point to make. after all, they are very different people

(yeah I have issues. no it isn’t a sound point.)

I have since had time to think back on it and I’m now declaring it bullshit.

at least in part, I think it might have been some kind of defense mechanism - they can’t have this, and thinking about what they could have had, at the time this conversation happens, might hurt too much.

mostly however it stems, like you would expect, from a place of fear.

it’s so clearly Martin’s own issues with self-worth and his past talking. the slow, insidious way in which if you are made to believe you are hard to love you will be convinced everyone who does love you is only doing it because you’ve tricked them, somehow. the idea other people’s love for you must be conditional because there is no reason for them to care about you simply because you are you. and more specifically that sounds exactly like the kind of shit your anxiety feeds you when you’re terrified you’re going to lose something you don’t feel like you deserve, like at last it's going to catch up to you, so it's easier to downplay it than to admit that, yes, you are allowed to have good things without having to suffer for them first.

and it breaks my heart that he was so convinced - right there, right at the end when anything could have happened - that the only reason they got to have each other were the awful things that happened to them, when it’s so plainly not true.

yes, proximity helps. yes, their situation was never normal and going through the kind of horrible trauma they went through is inevitably going to change you as a person. yes, maybe the things that happened to them even helped them along in realising their feelings for each other.

but it still stands that out of so many things in their lives irreparably changed and lost forever to grief and fear and trauma, their relationship wasn’t one of them.

they didn’t fall in love with each other’s grief and trauma. arguably, they didn’t even fall in love with the people they became because of said grief and trauma.

god, their whole thing is about being able to hold onto the parts of someone that aren’t touched by terror and misery tighter than they can, loving someone so much you can bring them back if they get lost inside themselves. seeing the person beyond the fear.

even when they themselves can’t.

and don’t even get me started on how, yes, Martin is Jon’s anchor to humanity and he has filled that role for a long time, but the same can be said for the reverse. Jon wasn’t only the one to pull him from the Lonely, but also the one that reminds him every day that he is worthy of love and effort when he can’t remember that himself.

which makes this hurt all the more because he’s refusing this comfort out of fear, pushing back when Jon genuinely believes that they could have found and loved each other in a better place, and he would be right.

the parts of them that fit together best were there from the start.

if instead of a worm attack they had had another excuse to get close to each other - and a lot could have worked, really, from getting stuck in an elevator together for 5 hours to ending up the only two people sitting at the table while out for drinks and ending up being bitchy about gym dudes in the corner - and work through the kinks and knots of their relationship, it’s not like they wouldn’t have liked each other.

they balance each other out and fill the spaces where the other can’t reach, and they make each other better for it.

it was just out of reach, but they could have had it.

in a kinder place and in kinder circumstances, if they hadn’t been doomed from the start, they could have had it and that’s a tragedy in its own right.

[andromerot]

Top 5 Mabel moments?

i tried answering this and i decided i will absolutely disregard the top five prompt and just say all of them. sorry.

episode four: the whole treasure hunt is amazing it really got me invested the first time i listened

episode seven: mabel's customer service voice moment. her going off at the king...amazing incredible i love her it was such a good introduction to her

episode eight point five: sometimes i think i would eat you if i could there was a witch in a story who ate a girl she loved and always there afterwards flowers fell from her open mouth i would swallow you up and you would be lobelia on my t

episode thirteen: when we and anna slowly realize who thomas is...ohhhh my god. heartbreaking

episode fourteen: don't you see? how cruel it is to be god?

episode sixteen: the answer is me. anna.

episode seventeen: the fig tree...ohhh my

episode twenty: i thought this is the girl who will eat my heart this is the girl who will come ruin me like fire

episode twenty two: literally EVERYTHING but particularly the "you cannot love me anna i am thorns and mist" monologue, the "all earth fears the purity of fire" "what" "I BROUGHT MY MATCHES WITH ME YOU STUPID USELESS BRANCH", and the moment where she chokes her

episode twenty three: ALL OF IT. ALL OF IT. ITS THE DEFINITION OF LOVE

episode twenty four: everything about ittttt ohhhh my. i've come to barter. one of us has to be the knife. youre the only one that doesnt bore me.we have different ideas of villainy im having a great time. anna and mabel fighting angstily. anna and mabel fighting playfully. and of course. a long time ago you said to me i will love you like a fire loves a forest i said you cannot keep me here and neither of them were true monolgue, one of the first insights into the king and mabels relationship. and ohhh the girls...this is the first time we see them actually together and its literally the middle of the podcast. they are so in love with each other!!! whhjfhj.

episode twenty five: VERATRINE MY BEST FRIEND!!! i love the anna mabel vera dynamic so so much i love themmm i love them. I AM A CREATURE OF MY OWN CREATION AND THAT MAKES ME GOD!!!

episode twenty six: LUNA THORNE. the man sees the girl this is the end of the world. also JACK MADRIGAL!!!

episode twenty seven: the HEARTBREAK the DISTRESS in annas voice when she finds out the extent of sallys cruelty + "it was not your fault, mabel martin" "right, not this time" "nor any other"

episode twenty eight: the whole luna and vera monologue back and forth but especially remember your own birth and is this what its like to be a mother is this what its like to be in love ALSO THE MORSE CODE <33

episode twenty nine: mabel going off at vera and anna being like whoagh i love my wife.

episode thirty: OOUGH. anna limon conquistador of my estate anna limon with the hand of god...and well. the spell anna did...ill never see her ill never know her not in this world. OH AND LUNA AND VERA RUNNING OFF TOGETHER...what then veratrine you i think...

episode thirty one: UAUAUAUAGH underrated fav. this is a nation haunted by its fictions for what do we eat if not history!!! what feeds our engines if not fairy tales!!! owning miss silver...

episode thirty two: UM EVERYTHING. the whole confrontation..."i name mabel martin my right hand my revolutionary my queen" "king"...the Acorn Of The World...brandon...and of course. this is you undiminished look at you.

infinity mirror: i love all of it but my highlights are the yew berries story, the phone call (heheh evil mabelanna moment) (farewell small girl), the way tressas isolation and dissociation starts to mirror late s1 anna and the way her tangents seem to imitate mabels, i sit with hares all unaware...the mourning dove story is heartbreaking...and then the bleeding doll house ohhhh...AND THE FINAL MONOLOGUE!! i unstitch myself from both of you...does the snake eat her own tail she does she does!!! ughh i just love im so so much

ok im gonna reblog this w s6 and s7 favs. because im getting close to the character limit. what am i doinggg

[istumpysk]

since stormxstorm is probably happening in one way or another, and both participants want the other for some purpose they have, who do you think will win? will dany somehow overthrow euron in the end and take his men + ships? will she try to do that, fail, and have it backfire on her? will euron end up separating dany from her nukes and overpowering her? marrying her and using her to end the world with him reborn as the new god? or something completely different

My favourite subject!!

This is what I’m guessing will happen -- key word guessing. Very important to differentiate between theories that are supported by the text, and fanfiction being pulled from my brain. I fully anticipate being embarrassed by George R. R. Martin once the books are released, but I just can’t help myself. Speculating is too much fun!

Before we get started, I want to mention I’m going to try to incorporate the show as much as possible, regardless of how stupid it was. It’s the only thing to go off of, and it likely tiptoed close to the truth.

Okay, let’s go.

Above we see Victarion Greyjoy successfully securing Daenerys as an ally, after the Battle for Meereen.

She’s apprehensive of him, but she’s hungry. She needs his fleet and Westerosi allies. 

Why is she apprehensive? The prophecy.

"No. Hear me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candles are burning. Soon comes the pale mare, and after her the others. Kraken and dark flame, lion and griffin, the sun's son and the mummer's dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal."

Small problem, wrong kraken to worry about.

We’ve discussed the possibility of her misinterpreting the prophecy and assigning each warning to the wrong person, ultimately dooming her. 

Kraken? Not Victarion -> Euron. Lion? Not Tywin, Jaime, or Cersei -> Tyrion. The Sun’s Son? Not Quentyn (doesn’t make sense) -> Aegon. Pretend dragon? Not Aegon -> Jon.

So George establishes a situation where Daenerys doesn’t fully trust Victarion, but she’s unsuspecting of Euron. This is 100% the author’s intent, do you want to know how I know?

The glass candles are burning. Soon comes the pale mare, and after her the others. Crow and kraken, lion and griffin, the sun's son and the mummer's dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal.

This was the original version of the prophecy he read to an audience, before the book’s release.

HE TOOK EURON OUT OF THE PROPHECY.

WHY DO YOU TAKE EURON OUT OF THE PROPHECY? TO CREATE A SITUATION WHERE DAENERYS ISN’T CONCERNED ABOUT HIM.

OMG Storm x Storm. OMG she’s so fucked.

Okay, sorry. Focus. What does Victarion get in return for his fleet? No idea, ask someone else. But she had to give up something big, and they both want to marry her.

Well, lulz, Euron wants more than just that, but work with me here.

We have two Greyjoy men vying for the same Queen. What does that remind us of?

Right. I promise this will come together!

So. Victarion secures Daenerys, and now acts as a liaison between Euron and Daenerys.

Why? Well, because regardless of his internal monologue and hatred for his brother, we have to remember that Victarion is i) an idiot, ii) operating roughly 15 steps behind his brother, and iii) continuously demonstrating he’s submissive to Euron.

Victarion brings Daenerys to Euron.

OMG she’s so fucked.

Daenerys is smitten, he’s Daario on steroids for a reason. She’s instantly drawn to him. It’s so, so bad.

Stuff happens, I don’t know. Are they going to marry, have sex, hold hands? Probably not, but she’ll get herself too close, have her guard down, and be in big trouble.

Eventually Euron is going to Euron. Meaning, it becomes clear to Daenerys that This Is Very Bad™.

War. Carnage. Annihilation. Magic. Blood. Lots of weird shit.

Not only do we get Daenerys vs. Euron, we get Greyjoy on Greyjoy violence.

Victarion (again, pictured above) sides with Daenerys, wanting revenge on his brother. 

Euron takes down a dragon, before all is said and done (probably not like this though). We all celebrate. Euron, you’re the best. King Shit.

Daenerys strikes back. Too much firepower (heh).

Euron finally gets his. But how? Daenerys or Victarion? Bran? Something else?

Victarion. Maybe?? Smells like it. Two brothers, two rivals, fighting for the same Queen, meet their mutually assured destruction. Victarion gets his revenge, but at what cost?

...for the record, they do not have a fist fight on a beach. I’m 78% sure.

Euron? Dead. Victarion? Dead.

Daenerys? Badly wounded from Euron (and Dorne!), down 2-3 dragons, but still has gas in the tank. The wolves are waiting for her.

The end.

🦑🖤🐉

[ghostbustermelanieking]

some thoughts on mag 200

i’ve been having trouble articulating this, but i wanted to get some thoughts down on mag 200, and the ending of tma as a whole, now that i’ve heard the finale twice and had some time to process it all. putting this under a cut in case people don’t wanna see it -- there’s gonna be a lot of praise here, but also some legit criticism. this is a way to sort through my feelings more than anything else.

first off, relistening to the finale, and sitting on it for a while, has made me feel a hell of a lot better about the whole thing. the episode comes off a lot better when you’re not vibrating with fear and anticipation, in my opinion. the final statement was very fitting and cool -- not my favorite ever, but i can appreciate it a lot as a final closing for the fears. and i don’t have an ear for soundscaping but the sound in that statement was cool as hell. the jonah magnus gets fucking murdered scene is incredibly satisfying. a lot of other people have said this, but i love that jon finally got his revenge, and was able to lash out against jonah for all the years of manipulation and beng used, and for tim and sasha and everything else. that was perfect. i genuinely thought we might not get a scene like this after 193 but i am so glad we did. incredibly satisfying. the girls made it out!! i am very glad that they’re ok and moving on and seem to be leaning on each other. (By God I Will Wring Found Family Out Of This Podcast If It Kills Me.) and the admiral’s okay. love that

and the jonmartin ending. oh my god. while i was never the biggest fan of the possibility of martin having to kill jon, the way it went down was so painful and good. i loved that final scene. i love the ambiguity -- that they might have died but maybe they didn’t, maybe they’re all right and happy and we can decide for ourselves -- i love that i got exactly what i wanted, that i get to have my cake and eat it too, all the angst of a jmart death and still the possibility of happiness... i am going buckwild. i love it. the longer i spend with this ending, the happier i am with it. i really really loved it

on another note... i do have some reservations about the finale and the season as a whole. i understand peoples’ irritations with the finale, and while i’m trying to focus on the things i did like, i definitely have some irritations. for one, i definitely wish the finale had been longer. i would’ve loved to see more of what wtgfs and basira were doing, and the actual lighting of the archives, etc. and while i completely understand why the scene at the panopticon went as quickly as it did -- it comes off very much as wild, frantic impulse in the heat of the moment where they’re in danger and trying to protect each other -- i do wish it had gone a little slower. 

in my mind, the biggest issue in season 5 ended up being pacing. and this might be a personal preference thing -- there’s a lot of things within the show that i don’t personally vibe with, but i don’t necessarily think they’re badly written. but i do think season 5 was slow. and while slow things can certainly work in a certain context (season 4 comes off wildly slow til you listen to 160), i wish more of what actually happened in season 5 had been baked into the end game. the season felt like it had a lot of filler, which drives me mildly crazy, because the end game feels rushed and i don’t think it NEEDED to be. i liked a lot of what season 5 did -- there’s some impeccable episodes, the character interactions are weirdly lighter and softer than they have been in previous seasons, and i wouldn’t trade a lot of the things that it’s given us (all the jonmartin interactions, jon and georgie briefly rebuilding their friendship, martin and melanie friendship, wtgfs scenes and intimacy, backstory, lore, etc) for anything. but i do think it could’ve been structured and paced a little differently. i also think it could’ve given some more screentime to the character stuff we got from episodes like 161, 170, 186, 190, 191, 192, 199... i absolutely love both martin centric monologue episodes, but i hate that we didn’t get anything like that for jon. (or for melanie or georgie or basira...) the best episodes of the season, imo, are the ones that broke from traditional form of domain statement domain, and the ones that focused in hard on backstory, lore, character introspection, character interaction... i wish we had more of this. 

when it comes to the jonmartin arc... i know this has been a point of contention with a lot of people, but i don’t hate it at all. maybe it’s just because i relistened to the majority of the season back in january, but a lot of the more grating moments that seemed large week to week (martin pressuring jon to smite people, the disagreements they had earlier in the season, jon using martin as bait in 176, etc etc) come off a lot more minor when you’re binging. personally, relistening to act i made those interactions come off as things they were struggling with through continued support and reassurance. there were absolutely things i wanted addressed, especially with the “kill bill arc” -- the disagreements early in the season, and how it seemed to turn on its head in the argument they have in 194. (i didn’t like martin blaming jon for the kill bill arc and i was hoping it would get brought up.) i also wanted to see a discussion of martin going with annabelle in 194 -- i wasn’t really ever mad at martin for doing it, but i did want to see them talk it out. 

but! after relistening to 200, i think i have a better handle on why that couldn’t have happened. martin goes behind jon’s back to go with annabelle and they don’t talk about it; jon goes behind martin’s back to sabotage the plan everyone agrees on in order to prevent the fears from spreading. if they’d had a big talk about trust, and working through martin going off with annabelle, and then jon turned around and did the same thing, more or less... it would’ve completely soured that discussion. jon and martin needed to be in a place of discourse for this ending to work. 

honestly, the more i’ve thought about this final JM arc, the better i feel about it. sure, jon and martin are in a bad place, and they’ve gone behind each other’s backs and been somewhat selfish, but i don’t think this ruins their relationship. for one, martin’s break in trust comes from a place of wanting to save jon and the world. and for another, jon genuinely feels he is doing the right thing, making a decision he can live with. (i have my own opinions as to how ethical jon’s decision was, but that’s another post. and i think the muddy ethics of this ending are on purpose -- it’s horror, a genre that often doesn’t offer ethical decisions.) their final decisions and final moments come from a place of love and protectiveness, and they change their decisions for the other. they still love each other, through all of it. i don’t think these late stage betrayals equivalate jonmartin necessarily being doomed as a couple (not that anyone has said that, but it’s worth saying). and i think it’s important to remember that this is still a relatively new relationship. it existed for approximately three weeks before the literal apocalypse, and it’s been under an immense amount of stress, as well as the constant fear that one or both of them would die. (which they did.) i’m not saying that excuses certain things they’ve said or done, but i am saying i don’t think the relationship is doomed. i think, if jon and martin have survived, they’ll need to work through things. they’ll need to talk it all out. and they’ll be able to! they’ll heal from this one way or another. the tragedy isn’t that jonmartin is doomed, or toxic. it’s that these moments of betrayal are what dooms them. and the beautiful undercurrent of it all is that they still manage to come together, and make decisions that mean they stay together. and that wherever they are, they’re still together. 

all in all, i don’t think season 5 has been perfect, and i can make my peace with that. (tma’s worst is a hell of a lot better than most shows’ best.) (i also think it might be worth considering how covid could have affected certain aspects of how the season was written -- pandemics are stressful, and i can’t imagine what it’s like to finish an enormous, in the works for years project like this in the middle of that. personally, i’m impressed they’ve managed to finish the show through all of this and keep it to a similar quality.) i think critiques are valuable and worth discussing. and i think plot aspects aside, there are several other critique related things that could be brought up about this season that people have articulated much better than i ever could. but i also, personally, want to walk away from the show feeling satisfied. i tend to be weirdly positive about things i love (the x files finale was horrendous, but i managed to get to a place where i was happy with it, for example), and i think that applies here -- even more so because i really did love so many aspects of that finale. i don’t necessarily want to linger in my own mind over what i disliked, especially considering the show is over. although i did want to air out my thoughts. 

i still love this show. i loved a lot of episodes this season, frustrations aside. season 5 will forever be my only live tma experience, and it got me through one of the worst years of my life, and i am very grateful for this. i genuinely did just want to air out my thoughts and get them all down on paper. these are just my opinions -- i don’t want to criticize anyone who feels differently about the finale, or the season as a whole. everyone’s opinion is their own. 

i feel a lot, lot better about mag 200, to the point of genuinely loving it. i hope my appreciation only grows as i get further from that frenzied first day and have more time to sit with it. and i can’t wait to see all the art and read all of the amazing fics that are going to come out of this ending (and write some of my own). it’s been a wild ride. i’m glad i was here for it.

[thisisgonnafuxkinkillme]

Save Me, Please!

Chapter 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  ...

𝔚𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰:

Stalking, gaslighting, phycological manipulation, anything that has to do with the yandere trope.

Months later, you were lonelier than ever. Each day was the same. Work, home. Work, home. Work, home. After that God awful experience, you were utterly uninterested in dating. The only other human you ever communicated with regularly was All Might, and those conversations were so one sided that you couldn’t get yourself excited to see him. He’d never let you get half of a word in before asking another question, or giving another compliment.

You had to admit, though, he was sweet, and he did certainly brighten up your day at least a little bit.

What began as an occasional sighting before work became a daily walk with you. It was almost as if he was your personal escort. 

“I just don't want you to get hurt! You’ve seen the news, haven’t you?” is what he’d say, before whisking you away. You couldn’t really protest all that much in the end. 

One day, as you were leaving from work, you saw him waiting for you. He looked different, and you could definitely tell that he had gotten ready to see you. 

He had his hands behind his back, hiding some kind of surprise. You approached him semi-hesitantly, not sure what he had in store.

“Y/n! I’m so glad I got to see you again!” he beamed. You forced a laugh. He saw you literally every single day. This morning, even.

He presented the gift to you: a comically large bouquet of flowers, of all different kinds, but the most prominent ones in the middle were your favorite. 

How did he know that?

You were shocked, looking up at him for reassurance. He met you with a sweet grin.

“So, um...y/n... I’d like to ask you something,” he mumbled, bending down to meet you at your level. 

“What is it?” 

“Um...would you like to...have coffee with me? Or...something?” 

You spoke before you could think.

“Yes, I’d love to!” 

His face lit up even more than usual, which you didn’t even think could be humanly possible at this point. 

“Are you free tomorrow? In the morning? Or maybe tonight? Or, what about right now? Can you do it right now?” 

“Um... can we do something more like Saturday? It’s only like 3 days away,” you offer. His eye twitches a little.

“Why not tomorrow? I know you get off early. Come on, it’ll be fun!” 

“How...how did you know I got off earlier tomorrow?”

“Oh, you mentioned that to me once! Don’t you remember?” 

“I...I guess I do. Okay, I’ll meet you tomorrow after work, then.”

The day came and went peacefully. You retreated into the restroom right after clocking out to tidy yourself up a little before your...date?

 I guess that's what you could call it.

All Might was waiting for you outside, wearing a completely unnecessarily extravagant suit. This heavily contrasted with your business casual attire, and it brought many unwanted stares.

"Oh! There you are! You made me worry that you may not show up!" He grinned, gripping you in a too-tight bear hug.

It'd only taken you an extra 5 minutes to get tidied up. Maybe even less.

"Um...where are we supposed to be going?" You asked, trying to figure out why he'd be dressing like that.

"I thought you picked out a place!" He laughed. You sighed, shaking your head.

But eventually you both settled on a nice-ish restaurant down the road.

You took your seats and began chatting as usual. Everything was fine, nearly perfect, really, until the waiter came to take your drink orders.

He was around your age, his face soft and kind yet handsome. He was totally your type.

"What can I get for you, pretty lady? Oh, and for you, sir?" He asked, pen in hand.

The hero's eyes flashed.

"I'll just have a soda, please!" You smiled. All Might broke out of his internal monologue for a moment at the sound of your voice.

"I will have one of those as well."

You stupidly didn't notice anything was wrong.

"Alright, here's your sodas, and what can I get for your lovely daughter, sir?"

"my...what?" He slammed his fist on the table.

"Calm down! It's not a big deal!" You scream-whispered. He clenched his teeth, sighing. Your heart was beating out of your chest; you'd never seen All Might ever act like this. Frankly, you were scared.

"I deeply apologize, miss. I didn't mean to assume anything."

"Oh, it's fine! People tell me I look young for my age all the time."

"oh? How old are you, then?"

"That's enough,” All Might gritted. His knuckles were white at this point. 

All Might slammed a few bills on the table, grabbing you by the arm and basically dragging you out.

"Hey, what the hell?! What's your problem?" You spat, crossing your arms.

"My problem is...ugh!! You don't know?"

You balled up your fists. Of course you didn't know.

"Why can't you just tell me? Why do you always need to act so fucking weird around me?!"

His eye twitched. But he remained strangely, unsettlingly calm.

"Oh, y/n... I just want you to stay safe. Surely you can understand that, can't you?" He purred, petting you gently on your head.

You swallowed.

"I...I get that..."

He smiled sweetly, as if nothing was wrong just moments ago.

You spent the rest of your date walking in the park, which was even more ridiculous considering he was still donning the extravagant suit and the weather was much too hot for anything like that.

That night, you flipped on the TV, but stopped as BREAKING NEWS flashed on the bottom of the screen.

"There is currently an 8pm curfew out after the third incident this year of a seemingly spontaneous murder. The victim, 2X year old Martin Grey, is the third victim in a series of seemingly connected murders. Officials Are urging all citizens to stay inside, and to report any suspicious activity."

You sighed, flipping off the television.

I'm so sick of hearing all this negative bullshit news...

It took you much longer than usual to get to sleep that night. Something just felt... incredibly wrong. You tried to convince yourself that you were totally safe, but the darkened corners of your room reached out to you, drawing off of your panic.

Finally, after taking way too many melatonin, your eyes shut and you drifted away.

When you woke up from your not so peaceful sleep, you couldn’t move. You were experiencing sleep paralysis, and no matter how much you fought, not a single muscle even flinched.

In the corner of your room, you saw him.

It was a familiar face, but you couldn’t pinpoint who exactly it was. He was huddled at the head of the bed, silently staring at you while he was bathed in the black inkiness of night.

He noticed your fluttering eyelids, frowning. Yet he said nothing. All you could do was helplessly watch as he retreated out of your room.

You were still fighting the paralysis even after he was gone, as well as the pure terror that came with it.

As soon as you got control of your bodily functions, you immediately shot up and googled what just happened.

“Sleep paralysis is a fairly common occurrence that doesn’t signify any mental or spiritual unrest...” a website told you. You sighed.

It wasn’t real. It didn’t happen.

...Right?

You began your day, and since it was a weekend all you had to do was make a pot of coffee and get going.

When you entered your kitchen, you noticed something.

The window was wide open.

———

“All Might... I think someone broke into my apartment last night,” you whimpered into the phone. You didn’t even say hello. You just had to tell someone, anyone about what happened.

He remained silent.

“I...I saw him,” you mumbled shakily, “but... I don’t know why he didn’t... do anything. I don’t know what he wanted.”

“This is why I’m so concerned for you, y/n. You’re always making mistakes like forgetting to lock your windows, and-“

You cut him off.

“How did you know he came in through the window?”

He didn’t even hesitate, replying, “You just said your window was open. Don’t you remember? You’re so silly sometimes, you know.”

You sighed.

“Can you just come over and help me change my locks? I... don’t feel safe anymore.”

He agreed to stop at the hardware store and come over right away.

He'd never been to your apartment before, so he did have to ask for directions. However, it wasn't hard to find you.

Before you could text him the final turning direction, he was already knocking at your door.

In his hands was a kit for new door locks as well as window locks. That afternoon was filled with lots of unscrewing, questions, googling, and troubleshooting, but once he was finished, you admittedly already began to feel safer.

"Thank you so much. It means a lot to me. Seeing that man was just...really scary." You sighed, eyeing the kitchen window. You imagined him sneaking in ever so quietly, standing in the darkest recesses of your room, silently staring at you.

"Like I told you, I want you to be safe. If you weren't...I think I might just go crazy, you know?" He joked.

"I do have something to ask you, though, y/n," he began, "what did he look like?"

"Well, I didn't get a good look. Really, I was convinced he wasn't real until...the window."

All Might didn't pry. He really didn't want to make you remember something you didn't care to think about.

[notstilinski]

Jacksepticeye Plays Resident Evil: Village! 

Taken from the playthrough of Resident Evil: Village by Jacksepticeye! Some of these have already been edited. You can change them however you see fit! There may be some light spoilers for the playthrough and the game here!

“Alright, come on little Pudgy One.”

“If anything happens, I will just toss the baby at them and run.”

“When you grow up, this will be in a Tiktok.”

“Oh, that’s not a wolf! Unless wolves learned how to grow up, and walk on two legs and have an ass.”

“You don’t know who’s blood that is.”

“I have no weapons except my beautiful hands.”

“Anyone home? It’s me, the protagonist!”

“It’s locked? Well, open it, fuck-nuts!”

“That’s funny, yeah. I saw someone die, like, five minutes ago. Two, actually.”

“Drink to forget your troubles. Like I am!”

“Oh. You didn’t fair to well, did ya, buddy? You didn’t have a respawn.”

“Ah, the magic juice. The magic Gwyneth Paltrow juice.”

“‘Help me, brother!’ I don’t even know who you are.”

“Bro, I don’t even need to do this. I’m just doing it because it’s fun! How fucked up is that?”

“She’s gonna come and smother us all with the clap of her ass cheeks.”

“This is like if Hogwarts had guns.”

“Can I harvest ya for body parts, Mary?"

"Look, you’re fucking dead. You’re not gonna miss an arm.”

“This is my world, and you’re luckily allowed to live in it.”

“Going down is universally a bad thing.”

“This isn’t our home movie, this is The Ring.”

“I love that you’re wearing Doc Martins, but the world doesn’t need to see it.”

“I’m getting too old for this, man. When I was young and spry and didn’t fear death at all, this was fine.”

“The fear of single parenting for a demon child, I can’t handle it.”

“Apart from the emotional hardship that came with it, I felt pretty good about that.”

“I’m gonna have to fight (Name) now, aren’t I? That dirty, dirty slimy man.”

“That’s a great stripper name, by the way. Crystal Fragment.”

“You know there are steps right? Jesus, dude thought he was Batman.”

“If you scream, it actually makes you more brave.”

“How many bullets does it fucking take?”

“We’re gonna be in for a fight, folks. Or not, it’ll probably just be a sex chamber.”

“Remember when everything was just horny and nice?”

“Cool, cool, cool. Maybe she makes Tiktoks.”

“I was hoping she would sit on my face for a while longer.”

“Fools! I am the fool!”

“Why half-arse everything when you can whole-arse half a thing?”

“What happens when you search Elmo on the internet? Googly Elmo?”

“Well, you guys are making lycans. Maybe it’s a human factory!”

“I want space and I want money.”

“Don’t come alive, don’t come alive, don’t come alIVE TO THE SOUND OF MUSIC!”

“God these bad guys and their monologues.”

“I’m securing the bag as the kids would say.”

“Sounds like you’re using him for the majestic man that he is.”

“I’m just throwing out a million scenarios, so one of them will end up being right, and you guys will be like, “man he’s so smart.””

“Thank you, (Name), you’re the best dad ever.”

“I’m the biggest best transformer. I’m Optimus Prime, and you’re Starscream or something.”

“You’re arguably closer to death than you’ve ever been.”

“Shitheads. Shitheads, the lot of ya.”

“Call me Johnny because I just found the cash.”

“Who’s giggling at me? I hate children who giggle.”

“Oh, she turned into a fucking Beyblade.”

[dathen]

~*~BEHOLDING MARTIN MANIFESTO TIME~*~

As promised!!

In TMA 167, Martin was more Beholding than ever before:

Seeking out information that will hurt himself:  Asking what his “domain” was.  This was impulsive, and he didn’t stop to realize that this could be information that could torment him until Jon double-checked to make sure.  

Seeking out information that could hurt others:  Asking Jon if he would have shared the information about the assistants being freed with his death.  I think this was just as impulsive as asking about the domain, and that he didn’t think about the nerve he could be hitting by digging deeper.

Reliving/being trapped in a statement once begun:  He “accessed the archive” in a way we’ve never seen before, and got sucked in and couldn’t stop listening just like Jon in TMA 147 or TMA 160.  It’s possible that this would happen to anyone in earshot, but Martin was able to interrupt Jon in TMA 163.

Has a yet-unnamed domain:  We know of two canon affiliations Martin has with the entities: the Lonely and the Beholding.  It could potentially be another, but the fact we didn’t get an answer leaves this open to Beholding.  Martin did leave the Lonely behind to choose Jon in TMA 159--to choose to See his love.  And what place had Martin chosen, but at Jon’s side?

(Speculation) Possibly filled in some blanks in Annabelle’s conversation:  There are a few theories for why Martin’s description of Annabelle’s call included things she didn’t say, ranging from innocent to horrific, Watsonian to Doylist, but my personal favorite is that he Knew some stuff.  It wouldn’t be the first time.

Frequently, I see Martin held up as the only assistant who didn’t have a Beholding nature.  Tim was searching for information about his brother!  Sasha charged recklessly into danger!  Melanie is pretty much a Jon clone with a youtube channel!  But Martin, where does Martin fit in?

Martin’s a tricky one because I don’t think he started as very aligned to the Eye, but he was conditioned towards it.  A requirement of using the Panopticon was to be aligned with the Eye, and without it an attempt would be “very messy indeed,” in Peter’s words.  But Martin didn’t begin reading statements under Peter’s leadership.  He began under Elias.

Which leads to....the Backup Archivist Theory.

Now, I call it a “theory,” but on my series relisten pre-s5, I realized that it’s pretty explicit in the text to the point that other characters reference it and talk about it openly.  But we didn’t pay too much attention at the time because we didn’t know why a backup archivist would be such an important thing--until TMA 160.

Jonah’s villainous monologue gives us all the context we need for why he would need a backup archivist.  Each time Jonah arranged another of Jon’s scars, e risked losing him altogether and having to start from scratch.  Early on, he barely lifted a finger to make sure Jon survived any attack:

I reasoned if you couldn’t survive a single encounter, you were unlikely to make it through all fourteen. So, when Jane Prentiss attacked, I watched eagerly, one hand on the gas release from the start. 

Jonah’s ambivalence about Jon’s survival leads to the idea that he could always just...start again.  He’d have to redo a few marks, but Jon as the Chosen One was just that--someone he chose.  If Jon failed, Jonah could just choose someone else.

After season 4, I theorized that Jonah had a main backup in mind that changed over the course of the series.  In S1-S2, my guess was Tim, the only other who came to the Institute pre-marked and the only other who was physically scarred in Prentiss’s attack.  But what happens when Tim gets defiant and unmanageable in season 3?  Elias starts putting a LOT of pressure on Martin.  Of the ten statements read by assistants during S3, seven were read by Martin.  The risk of Jon dying was highest at this point, so having someone ready to fall back on makes sense.  A brief timeline of this:

TMA 84 - Martin is the first assistant to read a statement in Jon’s absence.

TMA 86 - Tim refuses to record a statement.

TMA 95 - Martin breaks down after reading a statement, says he hates reading them.

TMA 98 - This is a big one!!      - Martin tells Tim that Elias refused to let him stop reading        statements.      - Tim refuses to help.      - Martin tells Melanie about the pressure Elias is putting on him to read statements, and asks if she could pitch in.      - Melanie offers to ask Elias to cut Martin some slack. 

TMA 104 - Martin takes a coherent statement (!!!!!) from Tim.

TMA 116 - THE BRILLIANT GAMBIT BELOW THAT I MUST ELABORATE ON:

Martin:  No, no!  I can help!  I’ve been reading the statements!

Elias:  Quite right.  Probably best he does stay behind.

Basira:  What, so you have a backup if Jon doesn’t make it?  

Elias:  I’m sure that won’t be necessary.

**WAVES HANDS WILDLY**  IT’S ALL RIGHT THERE!!!   

Remember what they’re trying to do in this scenario: trick Elias into insisting Martin remain behind.  First, you have Martin offering the bait--he’s been reading the statements!  Both his pretending to want to come along and his true goal of being allowed to stay behind assume the same thing: that reading the statements changes him, makes him useful.  Elias takes the bait and plays right into his hands; Martin being conditioned with the statements makes him more valuable to be kept in the Archive.  Why?  Basira point this out immediately, flat-out citing Elias keeping a backup Archivist.  He doesn’t deny it.  

Remember that this was, in Jonah’s words, the most delicate scar to arrange for Jon: the End.  Jonah knew there was a significant risk of Jon not coming back, but by agreeing to let Martin stay behind was giving himself a nice safety net.

....So what does any of this mean?

For one, I think it gives us context to how Martin behaves in season 5.  In season 4, he was locked away behind a door reading statement after statement after statement, playing Peter’s game to gather information about his true goals and the possible dangers to the world, letting the Beholding sink ever deeper.  Season 5 is the first time we’ve seen him interact with anyone but Peter.  Between being saturated in the Lonely for a year and playing the role of a secondary Archivist for even longer, Martin hasn’t come away unchanged on either front.  

Before TMA 167, we mainly saw the Beholding side show through a barrage of practical, mostly-reasonable questions: does Jon Know or know?  How do his powers work?  How does the world work?  How does traveling in it work?  What are the shape of things, their extent, their limits?  We saw that he gets antsy when information is denied or insufficient, such as his turning to Helen for more answers in TMA 166.  But this isn’t all-consuming; he slowed his questions in TMA 164 when Jon hinted that he wanted to wind down, and he distances himself from learning about the horrors around him instead of being drawn to them in fascination.  

When I was getting all excited about Backup Archivist Martin during my relisten, I wasn’t expecting it to have any further plot relevance, just that it was a nice way to explain Jonah’s oddities in how he singled Martin out in S3. 

But now that we’ve seen the Archive and the fledgling Archivist together....I am beginning to wonder if there’s more of this story left to be told.