#spaghetti order

[girl4music]

‘To Helicon And Back’ is such a fascinating but heartbreaking episode. There’s so much to be said about the role-reversal transition in the episode and how it affects and progresses everything that follows on from it in the Spaghetti Order of the episodes.

Everything Xena wanted to avoid with Gabrielle travelling with her has happened - only, it really has nothing to do with them travelling together, but rather the obligation and responsibility of the Amazon nation. Although, you could argue that if Gabrielle didn’t meet Xena and didn’t travel with her at all, then she’d never have became an Amazon Princess. 

GABRIELLE: “Xena, you should take command. Take it!”

XENA: “The Amazons aren’t going to listen to me, Gabrielle. You’re it. You’re it!”

This is the only place where Gabrielle is the leader. Where Xena has to follow Gabrielle’s order. Where Xena has to ask for Gabrielle's permission. Where Xena has to stand outside and wait for Gabrielle. Aside from a few who were infatuated with her, the Amazons barely batted an eyelash at Xena. Some couldn't even tolerate her. Every time they visited the Amazon village, it was always "Our Queen's back!

... Oh, and Xena's with her."

I think the Amazons felt the same way Gabrielle's birth family did about Xena. That she took their pride and joy away from them. They were always abandoned and someone was left to reign in her place as Regeant so they never truly had an AMAZON QUEEN in Gabrielle.

Regardless… This is the only place where Gabrielle is the Alpha and Xena is the Omega. So when Xena says "You're it". She means her own presence is invisible to Gabrielle's tribe and that the Queen, in this moment especially, was all that could be seen. Gabrielle was it because Xena was expendable and inconsequential to the Amazons. They simply didn’t care if she was there. They only cared about Gabrielle returning to them.

It’s not ever Xena’s story when it’s an Amazon-heavy episode. It’s Gabrielle’s because Gabrielle is their own and the only reason why Xena is allowed to be there as part of their community is because she’s Gabrielle’s.

Xena has no control or authority with the Amazons and she’s absolutely fine with it because she knows she doesn’t deserve it. So she just acquiesces to the fact that the dynamic between her and Gabrielle is in opposition to how it is when they’re anywhere else and maybe some part of her actually likes the fact that within the views of the Amazon nation, Gabrielle is the hero and Xena’s the irritating tag-along sidekick. They don’t need her there and she’s fully aware of it but she knows Gabrielle needs her there because she knows she’s her whole life and she can’t possibly be the hero or the warrior without her there with them. Yeah, some part of her likes it. Loves it even because she’s happy Gabrielle is getting all the attention. But there’s a larger part of her that is absolutely fucking terrified of what that entails and does not want it to ever happen.

GABRIELLE: “I don’t want to be buried with the Amazons.”

XENA: “Alright. Well, in 50 years, when the time comes-”

GABRIELLE: “Xena, I want to lie with you, with your family, in Amphipolis.”

XENA: “What about your family?”

GABRIELLE: “I love them but I’m a part of you. I want it to be like that forever. I love you.”

I think the most tragically heartbreaking thing about this episode and its role-reversal transition is that Xena had to face the reality of her worst fear coming true in that Gabrielle is becoming more and more like her as a warrior in such a way where she always knew would be the inevitable outcome of their partnership but that Gabrielle would never have considered would because when she told her sister in the first episode that she was going to be a warrior just like Xena… she had no idea what the hell she was getting herself into. But Xena always did and Xena can’t do anything about it now. She can’t stop it. She’s absolutely helpless in preventing the transition from happening at this point. She just stands there watching the nightmare unfold before her very eyes. Looking into a mirror reflection of the sins of her past in the one conscious being in existence that saved her from her own damnation and in ending her own life before it had ever really began. Just the same as how she was forced to see it happen in ‘Remember Nothing’ and so she pulled back out of the deal with the Fates in giving her a second chance to live a simple quiet, peaceful life without bloodshed.

It is a very POWERFUL visual and dialogue that wrecks you at the end of ‘To Helicon And Back’ because you know just how painful it is for Xena to have to face the reality that this is it now. That it’s finally happened in this life and reality and it will keep happening from this moment onwards because she cannot do anything about it anymore. There’s no deal with the Fates to break. No alt-reality to change or destroy. She can’t reverse time or do anything to prevent what’s happening at and in this moment.

Gabrielle has chosen Xena over herself in every way and in so doing has forced Xena to bear witness to the sacrifice Gabrielle has made in becoming just like her.

XENA: “You won.”

GABRIELLE: “I don’t think I did. With each battle, I lose more of myself.”

XENA: “War’s tough on the soul, Gabrielle.”

GABRIELLE: “Yeah.”

It’s in this moment that they both feel this role-reversal transition as one being passing into and becoming each other because that was always the nature of their soul and therefore their inevitable fate.

[baalzebufo]

tfw the existential nightmare clone of yourself wont leave you alone so you just end up hiring him to work at your pizzeria

[maglorthecrab]

Can you doodle wrightworth on like one of those stupid lady and the tramp spaghetti dates

🙏🙏🙏🙏

this is such a cute idea, thanks man! doodle requests are still open to all :)

[hammerings]

IMAGINE: Your tempad accidentally teleports to the philippines and now sylvie works at jollibee.

what are you ordering?

[manicplank]

headcanon

The Noise had (anonymously) been fucking with Peppino and screwing up pizza orders for a while before they fought in the tower. This is what built up their rivalry before they even formally fought met, and why The Noise's fight feels so different from the others'.

[gideonisms]

Had such a Day. Idk what's making me approachable to everyone but I need to stop doing it

[devourerslugcat]

Concept art for my custom lizard, the Moss Lizard!

I made this a while ago but I thought I would post it since these guys are what I am currently working on in my mod! (it's turning out to be a lot harder to make them than I thought, since the RW code is such a mess lol)

[mortalscience]

Law and Order Criminal Intent - s01e11 - The Third Horseman Eames: Promise me a margarita when this is all over.

[pinkygrocket]

Pizza_Time.floor

[columboscreens]

[girl4music]

AKEMI: “I’ll be your student, Xena. You’ll take me with you. You’ll teach me everything you know.”

Oh, the audacity, Tapert. THE AUDACITY!

I swear this was riskier than the actual episode.

Xena. The woman warrior known for picking up young girls and falling in love with them. And then they die.

Except it was the other way around this time. Xena died. And the young girl had to live without her. Until she died and then they’d reunite again in another life.

And on and on and on. To me this was way better than “happily ever after” but I digress. I’m one of the very few longtime Xenites that actually likes ‘AFIN’. Appreciates it for its beautiful aesthetics even if the story is a little whack and the endgame is so unfair.

However, watching ‘AFIN’ in the Spaghettl Order is not that bad considering it’s a mid-season finale instead and ‘When Fates Collide’ rewrites the timeline and then it moves straight on to The Ring Trilogy.

Anyone else find it ironic that Xena’s sins with the most grievous consequences were unintended arson?

Cirra, Callisto’s hometown. A fire she never intended to cause wiping out Callisto’s family all except for her, resulting in her going on a life-long venge-streak to hunt Xena down and absolutely destroy her soul.

Higuchi, capital of Japa. A fire she never intended to cause wiping out 40,000 men, women and children because she was intoxicated and grieving over a young girl she had fallen in love with and committed seppuku to whose souls ended up becoming devoured by Yodoshi, Lord of the Darklands so that they died unabsolved, were trapped and had to be avenged.

It’s just ironic to me that the things that had the worst consequences for Xena were things she never even meant to happen. Has anyone else even picked up on this parallel and about Xena’s individual arc in general?

The things she meant to do, she never payed for.

The things she didn’t, she payed a huge price for.

It’s like it’s saying it doesn’t matter what she does - be it good or evil - she can’t escape from it and will suffer.

Imagine purposefully committing all these crimes, destroying all these lives and causing so much pain….

And yet you’re brought to justice over something you never even meant or wanted to happen. It’s insane.

But it’s as I keep saying. Redemption is not chosen. You can’t make it happen. It’s decided by others.

You can devote your life (and your unlife) to redeeming yourself from the evil you’ve done (or haven’t done)

It makes no damn difference because what YOU do wont’t ever matter. All that matters is what you do.

So absolutely,… the greatest consequences to your actions may not even be actions you ever intended.

Which just goes to show you how much actions in general do have consequences. There’s no control. Things spiral out of order and the chaos will damn you.

I understand ‘AFIN’. I don’t like what it’s telling me or showing me but I understand the awful message of it.

Redemption isn’t earned. It can’t be. It’s only decided.

It’s not up to you. You either get it or you don’t.

So whatever you do to atone for your sins or continue to perpetuate those sins doesn’t matter at all.

You just do it anyway because that’s all that matters.

Xena got let off for everything she intended to do.

But she paid the worst cost for everything she didn’t.

The only choice she could make in this was what happened to her. The choice to stay alive or stay dead.

She chose to stay dead and leave behind her love.

THAT is what ultimately redeemed her.

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

@frogberrycake29 A bit like that, yeah! I usually just turn every single layer on, lower all of their opacity and just draw on top of that. Like this:

I can't really focus without all the layers turned on, so ig this method also kinda helps with that too

[duckapus]

Had two Squid Memes ideas related to the Splatoon DLCs

First is that...well, Tartar's entire identity is built on the fact that humans are long extinct in Splatoon canon. But that's obviously not the case in SMG4 canon. And as a consequence, Tartar is one of the very few non-Mario characters to remember a world without memes. And the combination of dealing with two conflicting sets of memories, discovering that the version of humans he'd built up in his mind was completely wrong and they're really no different from inkfish in the ways he'd decided mattered (and decided were crimes worthy of mass execution), and suddenly being flooded with memes all at the same time absolutely broke him and he went from "bring back the superior species" to "fuck all y'all I'm blowing up this whole fucking planet have fun in hell!"

The other thing is that I'm having Western Spaghetti and the initial Side Order runs before they clear the first Palette and escape happen at the same time. If only so Andi, Crabcake, Deep Cut and the Squid Sisters can go "are we seriously the only ones who weren't trapped in simulations this month?"

[glitterspaghettiketchup]

MY TAMARI ARRIVED!!!

[skierisa]

Me: "well, last time I actually had a good night of sleep and woke up uninterrupted was like... A week ago, so a should go to bed at max at midnight, so I can wake up at 10am at max"

Also me: *writing this at 2am*

[spaghetticat3899]

When you’re trying to give someone a hypothetical example so they understand something better, then they respond as if you’re saying that’s exactly what you’re telling them to do, and you just kinda sit there wondering if you should say something or avoid the very real possibility that they’ll take your reply as an insult rather than confusion