#someone smarter than me and with more knowledge in religion should add to this because I'm out of words

[uslostinthememories]

There's something so precious about this scene

She stood in front of him a moment, gazing down at his upturned face with a distant look on her own, and then reached up to undo the clasp of her cross necklace. Jean put his hand up for it and watched light glint off the silver chain as it settled in a pile in his hand. Too many years in the Nest had left his childhood faith in shreds, but he closed his fingers over it anyway

And the fact that he never took it off? He kept it with him regardless of his own faith (or lack of it) because maybe that's his best reminder of her or maybe it's about someone caring about him enough to give him something so personal so important to him without expecting anything in exchange.

"Jeremy had a moment to notice the silver cross necklace he wore before the scars littering Jean’s skin put everything else out of mind"

"Jean started to reach for his neck but caught himself halfway there and grabbed his necklace instead"

[zukkaoru]

shhh i’m not on my phone at work got a second wHAT

35:) ramble to me, babe

35. ramble about any fic-related thing you want

corey this is so vague i don't even know where to begin skjgdfhdj uhhhhh what do i want to ramble about,,

WAIT OKAY I GOT IT

okay so back in like. february i think i did another ask game like this and someone (jo?? maybe???) sent an ask about meta/foreshadowing/hidden references for this ultraviolet morning light and at the time, only the first two(?) chapters were out so i couldn't talk about the foreshadowing, bc it was all leading up to the end of chapter six. but i can talk about it now bc the whole fic is up!!

i'll put it under the cut bc i know it'll be long + spoilers for those who haven't yet read tuvml

fic writer ask game

okay so first. all of the foreshadowing for the drowning scene. maybe i did already have a list of these in my google docs in case anyone every asked, maybe not, i won't say

anyway. i added in water/drowning imagery with zuko specifically in this fic, because of the drowning scene, and especially bc in the atla world, water imagery would generally be used with characters from the water tribes rather than someone from the fire nation. so it wasn't just me liking water-related words and shoving them onto zuko for no reason; it was intentional

chapter one:

- He really can’t think of anything more beautiful than Zuko drenched in moonlight - This is what fire feels like when doused with water. - It burns like fire consuming Sokka’s entire body, like he’s been dunked underwater and the surface has frozen over and his lungs are about to give out, but he’s going to keep hitting the ice anyways like he’s strong enough to break it.

chapter two:

- It washes over his body all at once, like a wave pulling him under the surface of the ocean, until his limbs are numb and tingly and his head sways. He’s completely frozen in place, eyes staring straight ahead but not really seeing anything. - He would’ve rather stood across from Azula in the Agni Kai arena and let her shoot him full of lightning, rather been dropped in the middle of the ocean

chapter three:

- Zuko searches the tumultuous ocean that is his mind for the right words - Zuko was telling them about Azula never quite getting the knack for swimming despite their annual vacations to Ember Island when they were little, and Sokka was so happy.

chapter four:

So he lets the words sink, lets them drown in the knowledge that he no longer has the right to talk to Sokka in the same way he used to.

chapter five:

The moonlight pours over him, drowning him in a soft white glow.

chapter six:

But…my doctors have told me that spending the rest of your life letting yourself drown in guilt isn’t going to help anyone.

also, people picked up on vai being a double agent, but no one picked up on the fact that she was a waterbender, even though i did hint at that too:

- Her brown skin is almost as dark as Sokka’s and her face and arms are covered in freckles. - It reminds Sokka of himself a little; the bright blue eyes of a waterbender but no bending ability to speak of. - How can you get better than a play with dragons, a star-crossed love affair, sun and moon symbolism, and a villain who has a secret past that ties them to the protagonist?

beyond that, there are also a lot of parallels/call backs to previous chapters/foreshadowing to future scenes just in general. the funniest one (and also completely unintentional one) is probably sokka and katara calling each other their least favorite [sibling]

“You’re my least favorite sister,” // You are, and I say this from the bottom of my heart, my least favorite brother ever. chapter 1 // epilogue

but there are. several more. and i'm not sure how many of them people picked up on so i will add them all bc i love them <3

Zuko would get himself arrested, kidnapped, killed, whatever if it would keep Sokka safe. // “I would give my life for [Zuko] without a second thought.” … “But would he do the same for you?” chapter 4 // chapter 6

When Sokka’s hand began to retreat, Zuko had reached forward, grabbed it, and whispered, “Please stay.” // “Don’t leave me.” Sokka says it like a prayer … like he would repeat it until he couldn’t remember anything else if it meant Zuko would keep holding him. “Just… stay.” chapter 5 // chapter 7

So they sit - Sokka and Zuko - on the roof of some abandoned building in the outskirts of the city. // “But now I’m pretty sure we’re just destined to be Sokka and Zuko” chapter 5 // chapter 7

“I just don’t think he’s trustworthy enough for this. … when he proves that he isn’t as reliable as you think - when he proves that he’s only ever going to let you down - I’m going to say I told you so.” // “Zuko is kind, and he is trustworthy and reliable. He’d never purposefully let me down” chapter 3 // chapter 6

this ^ was one i was hoping people would pick up on bc it makes the drowning scene/sokka pleading for vai to not hurt zuko that much angstier, but i'm not sure anyone did so now i'm putting those lines right next to each other so you're all forced to confront the pain <3

Is he still in love with Zuko? Is being in love enough? // But what good is any of that? Love isn’t always enough. // “It doesn’t matter who or where feels like home, it doesn’t matter if we’re in love. When you’re next in line for the throne, love isn’t enough.” chapter 3 // chapter 4 // chapter 6

Zuko warms his other hand on instinct, and apparently it was a good call because Sokka squeezes it tighter and presses closer to Zuko. “I forgot my mittens at home,” // I love you doesn’t always take the shape of those three words. … Sometimes, it’s Have you eaten today? or Don’t forget your mittens again! chapter 1 // chapter 6

this ^ is also one i thought people might pick up on but idk if anyone did or not. but it made me🥺🥺 when i wrote it

[religion tw for the last part]

okay i could leave it there but corey gave me an excuse to ramble and i've made the post this long anyways so one more thing! i explained this to corey a while ago when we were having dinner together but i find it very funny so i'm sharing it with all of you i say like anyone has actually read this far

i accidentally made zuko a Christ Figure in tuvml

"but grace, surely that's not possible," you say. "surely there's no way zuko is a christ figure! there aren't any christian themes in tuvml. you didn't even have anyone try to convince vai to forgive zuko or have anyone convince zuko and sokka that they should forgive vai! how could you have a christ figure in your fic???"

let me set the scene. it's 2019, you're a senior in high school, and you decided to take ap literature for the possibility of college credit. your teacher has this book called how to read literature like a professor that he has his classes read chapters from, and one of those chapters talks about Christ Figures in literature. one of those chapters also talks about baptism symbolism, and mentions how oftentimes, characters who are christ figures will go through a baptism of some sort - being "born again" after a scene where they come out of the water

do you want to know what zuko does in this ultraviolet morning light?

he goes into the water. and then he comes back out.

and do you want to know what i had sokka say about zuko shortly before he took a dive into the baptistry water?

Zuko looks away from him, resigned, like he’s ready to die as atonement.

see. i grew up Christian, i went to church every sunday and i have spent the majority of my life memorizing Bible verses either for awana or bible quizzing and. sometimes i just drop biblical words into my writing sometimes bc they're words i've heard since i was a kid, and they're words i learned make you sound smarter at church. so of course i throw them around while writing. i use them in essays, i use them in poetry, and i use them in fan fiction.

so was i trying to make zuko a christ figure in my fic? absolutely not.

but i had sokka say he looked ready to die as atonement (for the sins of his people), and then i had him go into the water, nearly die, and have to be "brought back to life" by suki's cpr, being "born again" after a "baptism" and

well

accidental christ figure zuko i guess

anyway. this went on for a while and i'm not sure anyone bothered reading all of it which. valid.

thank you corey for letting me ramble skjdgfdjgh i'm not sure this is coherent, nor should it have all been in one post, but whatever

[i-just-like-commenting]

Game of Thrones s7e1 mini-review

I’m doing this in the style of my aborted first attempt at watching the show, which is to say that I’m dividing it up into sections.  Like this show always does, it had moments I loved and moments I wanted to beat up the writers for. Spoilers obviously follow.

The Good

Oh did I miss that opening theme song. Never any complaints about the music for this, Ramin Djawadi is a gift.

Look, the opening is ridiculous if you think about it too long (what exactly are Arya's powers, did they skip most of her training so that they could fudge on this for the rest of the series?), but I did love the speech Arya gives while posing as Walder Frey. In a better show this would be the sign of Arya becoming a new villain as she murders a huge number of people in cold blood, though maybe the lines from Jon about not punishing whole families for the crimes of some, and her moment of realizing the red cloaks are human are foreshadowing of her moving away from her single-minded revenge mindset and questioning her actions? We’ll see.

The shot of the white walkers and their undead army approaching. The show has always managed them well as far as I’m concerned, and I wish we would just get to the big final struggle because they’d be great at it.

Tormund eagerly volunteering to defend the Wall. “We’re the Night’s Watch now” -- very cool.

You know, some people are going to complain about the line about Ned and Robb making “stupid mistakes,” but I’m only going to half-complain because no, Ned didn’t, but Robb sure did, and he did so by not listening to the smarter woman nearby, i.e. Catelyn. There is a definite parallel there in Jon not listening to Sansa, who yes, was closer to the halls of power than he’s been in a long time.

Okay, the montage of Sam doing chores as an initiate at Oldtown is actually funny, come at me haters. It also shows Sam’s commitment. He’ll deal with any shit you throw at him - literally - if he can be a maester. I liked everything in Oldtown, honestly, and I hope they keep in the Big Final Reveal.

Sansa talking back to Littlefinger. Dear heavens, girl, just have Brienne kill him. She'd do it, and he's earned it, and if you tell them he killed Lysa you'd have the Vale's men. Is this just misplaced loyalty? Or is she trying to use him?

Most of everything with Beric, Thoros, and Sandor (see the exception below). It’s finally some course correction on Sandor’s characterization, though I wish they’d seeded it last season. Maybe have him obviously trying to cover a sense of guilt, express curiosity about Ray’s version of religion even while expressing doubts, etc. Still, I’ll always take characters acting more like themselves.

Dany’s arrival at Dragonstone was pretty great and suitably dramatic...but as a matter of personal preference, I don’t like “Shall we begin?” as an ending line. Something like “I’ve come home” would’ve given me way more feels. That said, most of my affection for Dany is still book-derived, as she’s basically as much a supervillain as Cersei is in the show.

The Odd

How does Bran having creepy knowledge prove that he's Bran? This speech is a non sequitor to Edd's question - though Edd  obviously brings them inside anyway because he's on Jon's side of "no more bodies for the wight army."

I'm putting this here because I'm going to have to see more, but right now I do not like what's going on with Jaime. We ended last season with him glaring daggers at her after she killed a mass of people with wildfire, i.e. the same thing he killed Aerys to prevent, and he doesn’t even mention it. I'd consider that Bad, but NCW is playing Jaime a bit like a man walking on eggshells, not sure of what he should be doing but pretty sure his sister has gone off the deep end. It's not how I'd write his reaction, but then again it was his reaction to her lesser crimes in aFfC, so as with Sandor it feels like a bit of a course alignment. We'll see where it goes.

The Dumb

The Arbor Gold is red...that's just a simply mistake to fix, especially when it's voice-over.

Wtf is Euron wearing? That outfit looks straight out of Hot Topic, not the late middle ages. His entire performance is just hammy and over-the-top which...isn't completely wrong, so long as it proves to be a front for a personality far more sinister.

"Hands of Gold" sung completely outside of its context of someone taunting Tyrion for his relationship with Shae, by Ed freaking Sheeran in the most obvious, blatant stunt-casting cameo I've seen in a long time.

"Are you old enough to drink?" You had children drinking in earlier seasons, water purification hasn't been invented, this is the most anachronistic question you could put in their mouths. Something like "This might be too strong for someone as young as you" would have worked better.

Um, how is Gilly staying in Oldtown? They brought up how women aren’t allowed in, why is she there, with what everyone believes is their child, without any explanation? Give me some half-assed excuse, like they’re lying about her being his sister or something.

The Bad

How do we show our badass female character is badass? Stick in an unnecessary barb about how she's not going to be knitting. Also, acting like fighting is the only thing they will need to survive the apocalypse. That's poor planning, right there. You need people running supply lines, including making warm clothing so they don't all freeze to death. Sure, let the girls who are willing to fight learn to fight, but not everybody can and not everybody should, male or female.

Sansa doesn't deny admiring Cersei, she just says she learned a great deal from her - true, but given how badly she was treated in King's Landing, I'd like to have heard her add "but that doesn't mean I admire her."

Cersei magically knows everything happening in Slaver's Bay. How? Both of the people she could get intelligence from - Littlefinger and Varys - have defected at this point. Did Daenerys send out messages proclaiming her coming and all its details? Or does Cersei know because she's read the rest of the script?

Tormund leering at an uninterested Brienne, again treated as a funny ship tease, when it's basically him being a stalker.

The complete lack of consistency on snow. Arya-as-Walder says winter has arrived, but she travels only a bit south, only there's no snow to be seen. And Beric and Sandor should be in the same general area (the Riverlands) but there's plenty of snow there. I know they had issues with the weather (curse you climate change!) but it took me out of the story.

Beric: "Why am I here?" Me: "Because the showrunners cut out the enormous plot chunk that is Lady Stoneheart, you should be dead, Jaime and Brienne should have had their own separate plots that lead to them encountering Lady Stoneheart and basically the entire show would have been so much better."