#sorry if it's rambly

[o0anapher0o]

The prayer scene in ep 4. Once again there is so much going on.

For one it’s the only time we see ‘Rashid’ in a non-professional capacity. In every other scene he’s there as Louis right hand/blood bag; this is the only time we see him not working. Which means there is no immediate practical purpose for it (intradiagetically). In his other scenes Armand is organising/arranging things, keeping an eye on Louis, managing the household/the interview/Daniel’s treatment, making cocktails, guiding Daniel places. There is always a practical and obvious reason to why he is in the room at any given moment. They might not always be particularly good reasons (otherwise he couldn’t just leave at a whim whenever someone isn’t happy for him to be there), but you can bet if asked why he’s there he’d have an answer.

When he’s praying there is no reason at all. There isn’t even a reason for why he would be praying. Even if we assume this version of Armand is a devout Muslim who does pray regularly (for which we have no evidence, nor any against it. Only being brown doesn’t automatically mean he has to be hereditarily Islamic.), why would he do it in the room next to Daniel within hearing range of the old man. Surely he has his own room somewhere in the penthouse where he could go about it undisturbed. And if it’s just a part of the Rashid persona why include it at all. Because Daniel would expect a servant from Dubai to be a devout Muslim? Then why immediately undercut it by admitting he’s not from Dubai (ref back to not all brown people…)?

For some reason he wants Daniel to see him pray. Of course, the obvious answer is to mess with Daniel some more. The thing is though none of the incidents of Louis and Armand messing with Daniel are random. They always fit with the part of the story Louis is telling in that episode. The deliberately disturbing dinner parallels/illustrates Louis’ struggle with vampirism and provides conversational anchor points to his increased struggle with the morality of it all. Louis feeding from Armand at the beginning of ep 5 mirrors Lestat force feeding on Louis at the end.

In that regard I do not believe for a second that it is a coincidence that the episode in which Rashmand starts to become more than ‘guy behind an iPad’ (and starts blatantly flirting with Daniel) is the episode that introduces Claudia.

I do think the praying goes beyond that though. I think it’s also a way of testing Daniel. Hear me out: Asr namozi.

Again I don’t believe for a moment that Armand saying those words with Daniel in the room was an accident. That didn’t just slip out. He said it and looked to Daniel for his reaction. And that reaction is in fact the interesting part. Because I’m calling complete and utter bullshit on Daniel being able to identify the geographic origin of a language he has heard a total two short words in with any precision. Yes, I know Kazakhstan is ginormous but Crimea isn’t (it’s also nowhere near Kazakhstan. At least not anymore than England is near Italy). That’s a pretty specific location.The only way I would believe that someone could do that is if the were an insane polyglot or if they had had significant exposure to that or similar languages. According to Daniel’s official biography he falls into neither category. However, if we assume that official biography includes a couple vampire induces gaps…

It seems like the vampires are constantly testing Daniel’s memories, or rather the ones he shouldn’t have. Two episodes later Louis asks him point black what he remembers of their first meeting. And the Tintoretto conversation in ep 2 could be a similar thing. I wrote in another post how weird I thought it was to use Tintoretto as a reference (especially seeing the dates are off) and someone argued Armand would know that Daniel has the background knowledge to find that reference useful, but the thing is we don’t have a lot of indication that Daniel, as he remembers himself now, would have that knowledge (and I don’t count the puzzle at the beginning as such an indication. Just because you’re doing a jigsaw of a famous painting doesn’t mean you know anything about art. It only means you thought a picture with lots of figures on it would make a good jigsaw. Obviously not counting Daniel’s subconscious decision making here). I could go on a whole other tangent about that scene but this is already way too long.

The TLDR is Armand is praying in that scene because he decided that for some reason Daniel needed to see that and I think at least part of that reason was that he is testing Daniel’s memory, as he and Louis do this in different ways throughout the season (Other instances include ‘remember the best you ever had’, the proposal ice cream and reading from Daniel’s memoir, maybe even ‘I wasn’t sure you’d remember me’. All those refer to points in time that could conceivably have happened during or very close to the Devils Minion timeline. Most of those prod at the memories Daniel has as supposed to the ones that are missing). Which is interesting because it implies they don’t fully know the scope of the memory wipe.

[unforth]

Y'all I know that when so-called AI generates ridiculous results it's hilarious and I find it as funny as the next guy but I NEED y'all to remember that every single time an AI answer is generated it uses 5x as much energy as a conventional websearch and burns through 10 ml of water. FOR EVERY ANSWER. Each big llm is equal to 300,000 kiligrams of carbon dioxide emissions.

LLMs are killing the environment, and when we generate answers for the lolz we're still contributing to it.

Stop using it. Stop using it for a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. We need to kill it.

Sources:

[radioroxx]

[a-drama-addict]

not caring too much about a fandom’s favourite guy is the worst. you’ll think “oh i’ll look into the tag see if anything new and cool’s there” and it’s just that fucking guy again

[goldiipond]

Top 5 women?

bro i can't even top one woman ha ha h[two drums and a cymbal fall from the ceiling killing me instantly

[risetherivermoon]

ppl dont talk about the fact that even Daisuke's characterization is affected by Jimmy's unreliable perspective. He refers to Daisuke as a spoiled rich kid who has his mommy and daddy behind him, that he's impressionable and stupid, and i do see people kinda characterizing him like that

like he has these rich parents who will dote on him and give him everything, that he's an airhead who isn't good at anything...

yet in curly's perspective we see that he's good at board games, he's trying his best, he's trying to listen to swansea and learn from him. He did get the internship from his parents but not because he wanted to, but because his parents thought he wasn't going anywhere in life, that he needed to be doing something. Daisuke is silly and a positive person but that's just for show, we see in the scene where Jimmy finds him lying on the floor drunk on mouthwash, that Daisuke isn't doing well, he's scared and feels sad about his parents. He makes jokes to cope with the horrible tension on the ship.

people characterize him as a stupid little kid too much for my liking, that's how Jimmy sees him. As a spoiled brat who came on the ship just to be an inconvenience. Even Swansea didn't see him like that, sure he complained about him but in Daisuke's final moments we see Swansea's true colors and how much he actually cares for him. He's an adult, who's putting on this happy go-lucky persona because he truly wants to succeed in life, and he's doing the internship for his mom and dad even though he doesn't want to. So he makes friends, he tries his best, he wants to be on the good side of everyone on the ship.

Jimmy just saw him as an easy target, someone too trusting and easily manipulated. A stupid kid he can use to get what he wants. He even plays with Daisuke's feelings of needing validation from Swansea, someone he looks up to. He tells Daisuke that by going in the vent, he'd make Swansea proud.

Daisuke isn't someone who has it easy or someone who's a stupid airhead. Jimmy just saw kindness and positivity as weakness.

[scorndotexe]

i can't lie to you i loveee bad endings sometimes. what if nothing worked out. what if the characters gave into their worst instincts. what if they became worse. what if there's truly no hope left. what will they do out of desperation? who will they become as their worst selves?

[teaboot]

On of the less intuitive things about love, I've found, of any kind, is the importance of needing things.

I didn't realize it until recently, but I've always seen love as something requiring sacrifice, selflessness, patience, and generosity- to ask for nothing is to be the best person I can be, small and quiet and never in the way, always happy and helpful, self-sufficient and present when desired.

It's only as an adult, now, that I'm beginning to see the selfishness of wanting nothing.

I cut my friend's hair in my kitchen the other day. They wanted a trim and I had the skills, so I offered, and was genuinely excited when they stopped hesitating over "bothering me" and took me up on it. It was a peaceful afternoon, and we had tea and chatted for an hour or more.

My brother and I shared popcorn at the movies a while ago. When I came time to pay, I pulled my card out like a wild western sheriff and slapped it on the machine before he could fight me for it first. The satisfaction was delightful.

Someone called me crying on the phone the other day. Kept apologizing for disturbing me at work, talking about how they were bothering me on my lunch break. I was telling the truth when I told them that really, I was flattered and honored and relieved, knowing that if they were hurting I would know, that I didn't have to worry in silence. It felt good to hear them slowly come down, and to know that they knew it would be better soon, and to hear them laugh wetly on the other end. We're getting together for a visit next week.

It's hard to need things, if you've trained yourself not to. It's hard to want things, when you don't know how to want anymore. Trusting people is difficult, and so is relying on them, but I don't know where I'd be without the people who rely on me.

I've heard a lot of people say, "Nobody will love you unless you love yourself". I've had a lot of thoughts about it. It's not right, but it's not wrong, either, I think.

"Nobody will love you unless you love yourself"... I've always taken that to mean, "You will not be lovable until you develop a positive view of yourself as a person".

Now, I think it's sort of inside-out.

"Nobody will love you unless you love yourself"... because nobody can show their love to you in a way that you can accept until you treat yourself kindly, and learn what you need, and what you want, and how to ask for it, and then give that vulnerability away.

Love, for me, is someone I ask for a ride to the airport. Whether they end up doing this or not is irrelevant.

It's not needy, or selfish, or taking up energy. It's giving the gift of being wanted, and needed, and thought of. It's giving someone the security of being part of someone's life.

[dillyt]

[spacenintendogs]

me booping my moots on tumblr circa march/april 2024

[jettreno]

[camilleflyingrotten]

[darlingofdots]

the vast majority of fanworks are bad, and that's fine, actually. they are bad for the same reason that the average number of legs for a human person to have is less than two: statistics. like with all endeavours and especially creative ones, most people who write fanfiction or draw art of their favourite characters are bad at it. if you line up all the crochet projects in the world, most of them will be, well, bad. some are bad because they're the first thing a person ever made, or the second or third or tenth, and this kind of thing takes practice. others are bad because the person who made them is just not very good at it. maybe they just learned how to make granny squares and they're perfectly happy to never expand or improve on that. most people who dance or bake or garden or braid hair are not amazing at it! and you'd never go to your kid's dance recital or eat your friend's homemade carrot cake and expect the same experience as you'd have at a professional ballet performance or award-winning bakery. And that's if we assume there is an objective measure of Good Art, which there isn't! Some art is just "bad" because you don't like it!

I think though that specifically with fanfiction, we sometimes forget that when we read a book or watch a movie, dozens of people have looked at it and given feedback and made changes and done quality control before the final product reaches our shelves or screens, and that's not counting the original writer's learning process and past experience. A published book is not anyone's first crochet project, even if it is their debut novel. But with fanfiction, the barrier to entry is so low (on purpose! this is a good thing!) that we do get to see a lot of wonky granny squares, and on sites like AO3 they're sitting on the same shelf as the hand-made silk lace wedding dress and you can't always tell just by looking at it which is which. The consequence of this is that we encounter fic that we think is unpolished, has bad punctuation, is out of character, and we are tempted to think "well, this is awful! how dare this person put this wonky granny square on the same shelf as the lace wedding dress!" But that's not how fandom is supposed to work! That wonky granny square is somebody who is really excited about this TV show they just watched and they are reaching out into the void to share their excitement with you. To scoff at them for not making a lace wedding dress is really, really rude. Even if they did make a lace wedding dress, maybe it's just really not your style, or you think they should have used a different pattern, and it's still their wedding dress. You don't have to wear the dress and you don't have to read the fic.

We all know that there is some fanfic out there that is incredible. I think it's important to talk about that! But the vast majority of people who post their writing online are just sharing their little hobby projects that they make for fun and I also think it's important to remember that.

[gingermintpepper]

I think, perhaps one of the funniest things to come from EPIC popularising the Odyssey is that now a ton of people think Poseidon wanted to kill Odysseus.

In the Odyssey, Poseidon has no intention of killing Odysseus. In fact, part of the whole reason Zeus lets Poseidon do whatever he wants even though he thinks Odysseus is rad and should get to kiss his wife is explicitly because Poseidon had no intentions of killing Odysseus. Poseidon wanted to pay back the suffering/inconvenience blinding Polyphemus would have caused. It's a really abstract thing tbh. How do you pay back someone permanently disabling your son? Poseidon's solution was just to amputate Odysseus from his other half; i.e. Penelope. The end game was never murder, it was always an endurance race.

(Od. Book 1: Zeus reassuring Athena that he is not, in fact, a part of Odysseus Hater-Nation. Trans. Robert Fagles)

Also, for those wondering if there's any sort of in text reason for why Poseidon wasn't around in God Games - at the time in the Odyssey when Athena petitions Zeus to let Odysseus leave Calypso's island, Poseidon was -checks notes- on vacation in Ethiopia. Yep. He left to Ethiopia for a festival and thusly was very much absent for Athena's whole "please let Ody go? Please? 🥺" request.

(Od. Book 1: While Odysseus was suffering, Poseidon went to party in the east)

I am begging y'all to read the Odyssey. It's a comedy for everyone except Odysseus and Penelope who are, in fact, suffering 24/7 365.

[youhavethewrong]

It's not the sun's fault!! She doesn't hate you!! It's not her fault our ozone layer is fucked and oil executives created a greenhouse effect in our atmosphere the sun is doing the same thing she's always done!!! she's just shining bright the same as always in order to give us life and plants to eat and happy days to play outside she doesn't know it's fucked up down here she doesn't know leave her alone!!!!!!!

[frownyalfred]

in the realm of like, rich kid problems, I want to someday read/write a fic where Nightwing is slowly establishing himself as a full-fledged JL member and everyone is relieved because finally, there's a nice Bat on the Watchtower who doesn't just shoot down their plans and deny their mission requests. but. while Nightwing is kind, and polite, and charming in all the ways the Bat isn't, he's still Dick Grayson. and Dick Grayson grew up as a very rich kid's suddenly very rich kid, which is to say while Bruce might not take it personally, Dick has been fending off people almost his entire life who were trying to use him for his Dad's money. which is to say, I think once Nightwing is on board and the relationship between him and Batman is at least somewhat well-known, there is suddenly a rush of younger, less-experienced members trying to take advantage of Nightwing, mistaking that kindness and openness for willingness to either voluntarily, or involuntarily, infringe upon and cross Batman's clear-cut boundaries. bribing Dick for a better monitor shift with Batman is one thing (it doesn't really work, Dick can't bribe Bruce with much as it is) but trying to convince Nightwing to lie to Batman? to go against him? his dad? the man who pulled him up when he had nothing and gave him meaning again? that man?? and then comes the inevitable, chilling realization, that while Nightwing might wear a different mask, might wear an open smile on the Watchtower and with friends off-shift, there are some lines he won't cross, same as Bruce. he won't, sure as the sun rises and the rot rolls off the Gotham Harbor in the morning.