#syntax??? what’s that????

[hallwyeoo]

Ellie’s memory of the golfing scene and what it tells us about her.

🚨spoilers for tlou2🚨

I think Ellie’s flashback to Joel’s death is very telling of how she internalized the event and the meaning she applied to his death. It’s also a good demonstration of her relationship to autonomy. Let’s break down the elements that were inconsistent with the actual event:

The stairs/hallway are much longer than they were. This suggests a sense of helplessness, an inability to get there fast enough. Joel is constantly out of reach.

There is blood on the floor outside of the door. Not entirely certain on this one but my hunch is that she blames herself for not seeing more obvious signs of violence/not knowing something was wrong sooner.

The door is locked, another roadblock in her path to Joel. She can’t access him, she can’t help, he needs her and she isn’t there.

Most importantly. Joel yells “Ellie, help me” (which he didn’t in the actual scene, he just screams. He doesn’t say a word in the actual scene)

Ellie hearing Joel scream for her help, calling for her while being horribly beaten, and her being repeatedly impeded on her way to him suggests that what she took away from his death is that she wasn’t enough. They always helped each other, always had each others backs, always got up. Ellie views his death as a failure. She was too slow, too weak, not smart enough to save him. She failed him when he needed her most. She is absolutely helpless to save him, just like she was helpless to save Riley, Tess, Sam, and Jessie (and Marlene, and humanity, and and and-).

Once again, Ellie makes a decision (staying with Riley, going to the fireflies, staying with Joel, being the cure, trying to forgive Joel) and once again her autonomy and ability to find closure is ripped from her.

This is the inciting incident of tlou pt2, this is the moment where Ellie’s whole world shatters the same way Joel’s did at the start of pt1. Ellie enters into the same cycle (which I like to call the “Joel cycle” because… yeah.) that he did, and throughout pt2 she stays in the “20 years later” phase of the cycle. She is changed, she has lost her light, lost what she fought for. She lost her chance to genuinely forgive Joel and rebuild their relationship. She is stuck in a gruelling and violent world that she has no anchor in, at least not anymore. His death is so sudden and so incredibly violent that it practically gave her (and me as well, tbh) whiplash. She’s in a state of total shock.

On another devastating note, this is one of the three times in tlou that we see Ellie beg (that I remember). The first is begging Joel to get up at the university of Eastern Colorado, the second is begging him to get up and for Abby to stop, and the third is begging Abby to not kill Dina because she’s pregnant. (Two times she begs Joel to get up, one time he doesn’t. Two times she begs Abby to spare her family and one time she does. What a beautifully haunting contrast)

To wrap up, every person creates an internal narrative, a story of their life that is crafted from their context and lived experiences. The meaning we derive from those experiences doesn’t always reflect the truth, and that can sometimes bite us in the ass majorly when we experience a traumatic event. We tend to want to find someone or something to assign blame to, some reason or rationale to why it happened. We tell stories. We write them in our minds about ourselves and what happens to us and what that says about us.

But Ellie is wrong. Joel’s death happened in response to a conscious and willing choice he made. It is in no way her fault, and there was absolutely no way for her to know or to stop what was happening. I think Ellie knows that much on an intellectual level, It just doesn’t change how devastated she is over the whole event. It can’t change the fact that she FEELS as though this was all her fault, that Joel did what he did to save her, that she could have saved him. That she should have.

[rongzhi]

[cat's name: 大黄/Da Huang ("Big Yellow")]

English by me :)

[inchidentally]

"short and easier to read" babe I am so sorry to you and everyone else for how my insane posts come out - it's why I link to so much stuff bc it is a struggleee for me to not write just run-on sentences ;__; but I do get what you mean and I promise I tried my best - it's def shorter than the og and in smaller bites if that helps ??

(I actually wrote this on someone else's laptop so it's got proper punctuation and capitalization and everything!)

For those who don’t know: Oscar is an acts of service guy Lando is a words of affirmation guy. Let’s remember that someone’s love language is how they choose to express themselves, not what they should demand of others!

Oscar is also very much not a PR guy, for anyone totally oblivious to the obvious (and that all his "greatest hits" in PR were done unintentionally or bc he's awkward or bc his mom is cooler than him). For example, Oscar brings up his girlfriend of 4-5 years a fair amount but it’s almost hilariously not gushy or romantic (having a “cuddle” is as far as it goes lasfgjlsagfl). But he’s said himself that for the most part he’d prefer not to have too much private life available to the public. *His downtime with Lando joins in with all his other social life in being extremely limited to the public. 

The “thanking the sponsors” thing is one of Oscar’s safe, approved speeches he pulled from Andrea so that Oscar doesn’t have to do spontaneous on-camera speaking. Sorry but not all of us are good at it and it’s wayyyy easier to just have some rehearsed pre-approved soundbites. He tends to have a few that he repeats for a while until he updates the list lsafjslafhlafh.

He also very openly struggles to do on-camera speaking and no one knows that better than Lando who’s had to help him a huge amount. 

It does seem to be mostly cameras that make him stressed bc he was fine thanking Lando for his help in Baku at the fan stage in Singapore and overall he can use more of his dry humor when he's speaking to people rather than just to a camera. 

Lando’s recent inclusion of Oscar in his media responses to this degree is a reaction to Hungary and Monza - normally, his post race responses focus on himself and his own performance (which is literally normal and the default for drivers!!). The recent emphasis on teamwork/Oscar is something he feels he needs to do with his own PR work right now. He’s a smart man who’s been doing this a long time, so his reasons are valid no matter what fans think. He’s not sitting there working out or analyzing Oscar’s PR, just his own. 

People are absolutely running away with themselves over Monza and ignoring that apart from that one moment, Oscar is widely popularly seen as the supportive teammate role. To the point where last year and even part of this year, Lando was criticized by a lot of fans for not acknowledging Oscar enough.

Going off of that, let’s show how easy it is to take PR and media to make one of them look bad by turning it around onto Lando (!! this is for an example, I do NOT endorse hating on Lando for any of it !!)

Lando openly disliked being referred to as the “older teammate” and kinda left Oscar to his own devices so much last season that Oscar wouldn’t know where he was going a lot of the time and even semi-joked “my teammate’s abandoned me” (again, reminder this was not a source of drama for anyone but fans). He got called a little duckling a lot bc he’d tail Lando closely so as not to lose him. In fact it started irking some people that Lando would spend so much time with Carlos or Daniel and not getting to know his new teammate and helping him out with his rookie season of F1 the way Carlos did for Lando.

In every team photo where Lando has had a podium and Oscar has had nothing (and sometimes due at least in part to team orders!) which is very often! the comments sections have always had plenty of ‘Oscar is such a great team player, always happy and showing up for Lando no matter what’. So the whole ‘Oscar doesn’t do enough for Lando’ narrative is extremely recent and at odds with the rest of reality.

Please read the very first part of my enormous full post bc Lando didn’t thank Oscar for his Miami win, he praised his driving.

Even though at Silverstone this year Lando got on the podium and Oscar didn’t, Oscar made the fan stage all about bringing Lando out of his disappointment and even said he did the shoey “to make us feel better” and then dedicated the top row of his IG that week to photos and videos of him and Lando. Special note that this is in no way Oscar’s home race and he was solely seeing it as emotional for Lando and McLaren - and he had zero reason to personally be very happy after that weekend.

I’ve seen Melbourne this year get mentioned in the team orders discussions on my fyps, so that’s a handy example in many ways: Despite Melbourne being Oscar’s literal hometown race - and Lando even filming some Quadrant stuff at Oscar’s childhood karting track where a corner is named after him* - this year Lando didn’t acknowledge Oscar really at all over the weekend until someone mentioned him at the end of the podium press conference. Lando acknowledged that Oscar following team orders made his (Lando’s) drive a bit easier in Melbourne this year but said that he was faster than Oscar and deserved third over him anyway. (Good contrast to Hungary and even Carlos stating that something an undercut due to pit strategy shouldn’t erase one teammate being faster/more dominant in a race in order to give the other teammate the win!) He did PR work with pretty much everyone except Oscar actually, even doing promo for his (Lando’s) dad’s electric scooters on the new dotmov acc. Kind of like him being on a similar PR campaign at Singapore this year because of a sneak preview of Quadrant rebranding and announcing the Landostand at Silverstone  - he went for the biggest PR hits and posted Daniel on his jpg account, did a golf day with Carlos and Max F and was more active on socials than he had been for months. All while only having Oscar in one photo out of the whole weekend’s carousel despite the McLaren double podium. You could even read into him cutting Oscar and Oscar’s trophy out of two of the shots if you wanted! (He did include Oscar in the big group photo after the podium celebrations.)

*I saw some ppl say he didn't include Oscar in the Melbourne karting filming bc McLaren doesn't cross over with Quadrant, which isn't true. Zak has shares in Quadrant and Bianca has been included in the Quadrant rebranding launch with Lando's Singapore helmet design.

See how easy that was to flip it around?? If you’re even slightly biased against a driver or never see flaws in another- or are dying for two teammates to hate each other - then confirmation bias will always find plenty of “evidence”! Because the reality is that after the Austin GP, Lando found his “older teammate” mode and began helping Oscar out with his rookie year. In Melbourne, Lando spent his first day filming for his .mov account including the Oscar jersey and merch he came across - and Oscar mentioned how he and Lando talked about Lando filming at his old track. (Again, not PR coordinated or filmed, just mentioned!) And that after the Singapore race this year, they beamed at each other every other second of that night, filmed a deliriously happy post race video and joked in the cool down room - I honestly doubt have even noticed yet what the other has posted to IG salfhsalfafa. All of the negativity fans are coming up with is their own personal spin and does not resemble how Lando and Oscar are behaving to or speaking about each other.

They base their relationship on their conversations and interactions solely away from the public and the cameras and don’t do any inflammatory commentary about each other. They bragged about the door in the team hub that separates their drivers rooms from everyone else and leaves them open only to each other. Their communications only matter to each other when in private.

Segueing on from that: media and social media are literally PR. Lando is extremely skilled at it now and Oscar is not at all naturally skilled and is still learning. Lando is quick to be able to adapt his media responses, Oscar is not and often sounds stilted and uncomfortable. But it still has nothing to do with how they think of each other and talk to each other personally.

And “Landoscar” has never had the typical PR bromance aspect that we all love in other teammates, and it never will. Lando and Oscar mention but don’t broadcast or package their downtime together and they don’t share their private dynamic with fans or the media apart from the glimpses we see in more relaxed content. It’s just their choice! And just like it doesn’t mean Lando and Oscar are less friends because they don’t PR their relationship, it doesn’t mean the friendships who do utilize PR are less friends! 

And tbh that’s a good note to leave on: that seeing two drivers with no PR to gain from openly liking and respecting each other should mean that we as fans place less importance on the PR responses they give to media and put on social media. So many people want them to hate each other (Netflix even begging them outright) and rivalries get far more headlines and fan engagement, that if these two didn’t like each other or even were blah about each other, they wouldn’t waste time trying to fake it (side note ppl actually thought this joke was deadly serious for a short while). F1 isn’t team sports, no one really cares if drivers or teams appear “friendly” unless they’re desperate for money/engagement to keep them afloat (even there, Alpine prove it clearly isn’t a priority to have friendly teammates when you’re lower down the grid!)

There is absolutely nothing to be gained for them in faking the smiles and laughter and twinning. Equally there’s nothing to be gained by us as fans in judging them and their relationship based on their PR responses and PR work. Lando beams and smiles the same at Oscar after all of Oscar’s awkward, stiff debrief speeches and I kind of want one of these crazy stans to say to him that Oscar is a bad team player and doesn’t show Lando enough appreciation just to watch what his adorable face does in response (don’t do that I’m joking).

[cryobabyy]

Realistic predictions/analysis for the dynamic between Syd and Carmy for s3 and what the writers will potentially do with Claire.

Pls keep in note that my sydcarmy brain was OFF and the Film/Television production student brain was ON when I wrote this. I am trying to imagine their potential romance in the most realistic and grounded way possible don't be mad at me please I'm sensitive sjhdsajdsjdhsfafafjskdlfh okay lets get into it

Carmy is back in a high-end kitchen environment, which means toxic ocd perfectionist Carmy is back because he has yet to deconstruct that part of himself

that being said, he wants that star, not only because it'll justify the pain of gutting his dead brother's restaurant and perhaps soothe his self-loathing, but also because Sydney wants it- and Carmy wants to keep Sydney. He wants to see her get what she wants.

Carmy still has the toxic mindset that success is defined by how much you suffered for it, and how much pain you've endured. He is back in an environment where he will forever be chasing perfection that doesn't exist. He has an incessant need for control that makes him difficult to work with.

Carmen holds the staff, especially Sydney, to impossible standards of perfection

IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT CARMY IS A VERY EXTREME PERSON

HE WILL BE PLAGUED BY BLACK AND WHITE THINKING THIS ENTIRE SEASON (as opposed to the wishy-washy, one-foot-in-one-foot-out vibe we got last season)

Enter the partnership contract lol

To Carmy, the contract is a testament to his commitment to Sydney. He would have a professional and legal obligation to operate at the highest standard. You have my full focus, and I have yours. He's basically trying to correct his mistakes in s2 in the most extreme way.

The problem is that Sydney knows this means she would be legally and professionally bound to Carmen. It means she would have to subscribe to his toxic standards and warped ideas of success to uphold her end of the contract.

Sydney will be forced to reevaluate if the path to success Carmy has laid out will be worth the suffering. We saw last season that the stress literally made her vomit. She is asking herself: does it have to be like this? Is this really the only way?

Sydney will be presented with alternative opportunities because of the attention she's received from being professionally associated with Carmy.

They will become increasingly tempting as The Bear continues to bring out the worst in Carmy

Maybe Carmy catches wind of the attention Sydney has been getting, which he thinks explains why she has been stalling signing the contract.

Carmy feels rejected. Of course, he doesn't realize it's rejection that he's feeling. He confronts her from a professional angle. It devolves into a fight because he'll probably end up lashing out.

"This is what you wanted! I'm giving you what you want!"

It is, in fact, not what Sydney wants. LMFAO

Sydney, of course, wants Carmy. But she wants a version of Carmy that doesn't exist, and she's not sure he ever will.

Sydney's relationship with failure is important for her character. She initially wanted the success Carmen has.

At the end of s3 she realizes she just wants Carmy. As a friend and a creative partner (and in my most unhinged fantasies a lover :P). She wants the Carmy she gets when they're riffing off each other's ideas in his kitchen. She doesn't want the tunnel vision perfection machine version of himself when he's in his chef whites. She grows to resent that version.

s3 wraps up with their relationship on rocky terms

Best case scenario, Carmy tries to change

worst-case scenario, Sydney steps back from the bear

CLAIRE PREDICTIONS

Carmy operates at extremes. He either pursues a personal life or his professional life. In his mind, it is impossible to have both.

Claire and Sydney/The Bear are on opposite ends of the spectrum

If he commits to Claire, he can't commit to the restaurant

If he commits to Sydney/The Bear, he can't commit to Claire

Instead of trying to find balance, Carmy throws himself into Sydney/The Bear

Fak obviously observes that this makes Camry worse, and decides to talk to Claire to suggest some sort of contact between the two. He probably thinks this might keep Carmy from nosediving further. I don't have any guesses for the context of their conversation though. It could be anything. I think it would be hilarious if Fak hurts himself during dinner service and has to go to the ER and the convo unfolds that way lol.

Meanwhile, Carmy thinks he's doing the right thing by presenting his most extreme and professional self to Sydney because he thinks it's what she wants. He wants to give her his full focus.

What Sydney actually wants is fucking BALANCE. Which is exactly what Carmy NEEDS, but doesn't think is possible.

Sydney potentially walks away to find it elsewhere with someone else.

Carmy is angsty about it, obviously.

Carmy and Claire will probably reconcile, before or after his potential falling out with Sydney

If they do get back together, I don't think it's sustainable for Carmy. They both have very demanding careers, and Claire triggers trauma associated with his past. They might like each other, but they are incompatible, IMO.

I do think Sydney and Carmy will end up together eventually tho lol. Eventually, Carmy will realize that Sydney is his balance. The problem is that Carmy currently is incapable of providing Sydney balance. But if he learns that he can be that for her, he might realize that he wants her beyond professional partnership. Fingers crossed lol.

[screechingkroh]

The Seer

Has a general outfit design! This,,, is for lore purposes bc LBD's plan finally goes right 💀 huzzah for her, ig. I wanted to go fancy w it but then I decided to keep it simple for the sake of my own sanity. Pls, I am a silly little guy. I'm drawing this fucker, I need my neurons to stay in place pls.

The Seer is stuck w her ass for a while. Because we literally never see her shit (where she lives, the dynamic the Spider Queen and her goons have, that kind of shit), I get to be silly w it.

Also here's more Seer stuff bc I'm trying to figure out how I want their personality to be LMAO

[dkniade]

I tried translating the description for the Tartaglia perfume in the Genshin Fragrances series (the perfume collab with Primaniacs), but I’m not fluent in Japanese so there might be grammar mistakes and nuances may be lost with word choice. So y’know, please take this with a grain of salt, and feel free to correct me!

This definitely follows the Japanese version’s characterization, haha

Character: Tartaglia

Note: NSFW/suggestive, tone is slightly dark. Translation notes have a few violent example phrases

But first, the layers of notes described on the website (in English):

Top Notes: Bergamot, Eucalyptus, Green Apple

Middle Notes: Jasmine, Orange Flower, Patchouly, Cumin

Last Notes: Floral Ozone, Nutmeg, Tonka Beans, Agarwood

-

(Would that smell nice? Does that match the vibe in the description? I’m not a perfume person, so…)

Product Description

朗らかな笑みが生む危険な光

A dangerous light that gives rise to a sunny smile

心を射貫くライトフゼアノート

A heart-piercing light fougère note

きらりと輝くオレンジフラワーの躍動感に乗せて、飄々と漂うシトラスハーバル。

A citrus herbal that drifts aloofly, matching the liveliness of a glistening orange flower.

冷ややかなパチュリの闇を背後に潜ませながらも、振り返ったその横顔にはトンカビーンズの温もりが宿り、柔らかな表情を覗かせる。

Though the chilly darkness of patchouli lurks in the background, the warmth of tonka beans dwells in that profile which looks back and shows a gentle expression.

それは心地良さと不穏な気配の、不思議なコントラスト。

It’s a strange contrast between comfort and a disturbing presence.

暗と明が放つ軽快な熱に浮かされ、どこまでも翻弄されるフレグランス。

Giving off darkness and light while caught in a flash of zeal, a fragrance that puts you at his mercy completely.

If you enjoyed this, would you also like to check out how his Story Quest’s structure parallels his Character Story, how the Snezhnayan nursery rhyme is like in Chinese, and how he’s characterized in Chinese here?

——

DO PEOPLE REALLY DESCRIBE PERFUMES LIKE THIS. I understand describing the actual ingredients (?) but the rest of it is very flowery. (Update: Primaniacs seems to specialize in interpreting manga/anime/video game characters as perfumes. I read through some descriptions for their other character perfumes; this is the style they use for all of them it seems.) The first two lines sound like a shounen anime opening… but the rest is like a reader insert imagine… And what’s with that last line??

(My initial translation for the last line “暗と明が放つ軽快な熱に浮かされ、どこまでも翻弄されるフレグランス” was “A fragrance that floats between a light heat emitting darkness and light, and toys with you endlessly” but after looking the words up in Weblio I think I messed up the definitions a lot.)

We really need to look up definitions for some words here… (using definitions and examples from weblio)

朗らか (ほがらか)：cheerful, bright, merry.

E.g. 朗らか微笑 (a bright smile), 朗らかに笑う (to laugh merrily)

射貫く(いぬく)：to shoot through (a wall, the heart, etc.); to go through; to pierce; to hit (e.g. the bull's-eye)

躍動感(やくどうかん)：energetic feeling; sense of liveliness; vigor

潜む(ひそむ)：lurk (in, behind, under). E.g. 物陰に潜む (lurk in the shadows)

振り返る(ふりかえる)：look/turn around; (physically) look back (at)

柔らか（やわらか)：velvety (e.g. voice), tender, (physically) soft, mellow

-

—velvety?? 柔らかな表情… 表情 means expression, so, “tender expression”? “Gentle expression”? (Looks back at item description.) I feel like I’m reading a M-rated reader insert vignette.

-

心地よい(ここちよい)(adj.)：comfortable; pleasant

心地良さ(ここちよさ)(noun.)：comfort

不穏な(ふおんな)：disquieting, unpeaceful

e.g. 不穏な犯罪 (a disturbing amount of crime), 形勢不穏なり (The outlook is grave.)

Hm.

-

And now, the last sentence:

-

放つ(はなつ): (of a light or fragrance) give out/off; send out; put forth; emit

芳香を放つ (send forth fragrance; smell sweet)

軽快な(けいかいな)(adj.)：lightweight, light

e.g. 軽快な手(a facile hand), 軽快な挙動(agile/nimble movements)

熱(ねつ)：heat, temperature; fever; enthusiasm

Oh, it could also mean enthusiasm?

浮かす(うかす): to float, to get up (?), to save (money), to be on the mind (??)

e.g. 熱に浮かされる(to be delirious)

Note: this is the same wording used in the perfume description

So “軽快な熱に浮かされ” isn’t “floats between a light heat” but rather something like “caught in a flash of zeal”…?

-

どこまでも: anywhere; in every point, thoroughly; persistently

e.g. 彼はどこからどこまでも武士だ (He is every inch a samurai)

e.g. あなたにどこまでもついて行く。 (I will go with you anywhere.)

e.g. どこまでも目的を変えるな. (Keep to your purpose.)

翻弄される(ほんろうされる): (for people) be made a fool of (by)

e.g. 『源氏物語』に登場する玉鬘も数奇な運命と自らの美しさが引き起こす騒動に翻弄され続けた女性である。(Tamakazura in "The Tale of Genji" is also at the mercy of her fate due to the incidents triggered by her hapless fate and beauty.)

風波に翻弄される: to be toss about by wind and waves

e.g. 船は狂瀾怒濤に翻弄された (The ship was tossed about by the ranging waters)

e.g. 船は翻弄されていた。(The ship was at the mercy of the waves.)

-

The ship examples sound way more sexual than the other example sentences on the page involving (heterosexual) humans huh

-

There’s no doubt a sexual undertone with this last sentence. “Messed with”… “endlessly”/“thoroughly”… “at the mercy of”…

-

“どこまでも翻弄されるフレグランス”

“A fragrance that toys with you endlessly”…?

“A fragrance that puts you completely at (his) mercy”?

“A fragrance that makes you completely submerged in him”?

using “submerged” to evoke the image of waves and water

But, that’s probably not the intention of the product description, and I’m just having fun here

“暗と明が放つ軽快な熱に浮かされ”…

“A fragrance that gives off darkness and light, caught in a flash of zeal”…

…“どこまでも翻弄されるフレグランス。”

…“and puts you at his mercy completely”…?

-

“Giving off darkness and light while caught in a flash of zeal, a fragrance that puts you at his mercy completely.”

-

(Putting this together is.. oh my, lmao. That is about the most erotic perfume description I’ve ever read, and for Tartaglia of all characters🤣 I’d like to imagine this as a battle, but that doesn’t work for him either—in the Chinese version.)

[cisthoughtcrime]

.

[potatobugz]

I think about the implications of Syntax being a human turned spider demon forever, ok ?

[lizardson]

The linguist

[goldammerchen]

Gilbert: Are you guys sure you understand German?

Toño and Fran: ??? Yes? Obviously... (Fran: Sadly)

Gilbert: Watch this *speaks in the strongest BerIinerisch*

[chicago-geniza]

I love to read an 85k femslash fic riddled with grammatical errors that suggest ESL authorship and encounter a line like "God's grace reaches England not without reluctance" (sardonic internal monologue). Magnificent. The fin-de-siecle society novel tradition is everywhere for those with eyes to see

[dragonnnerdd]

Drew the spidey himself for my brother @shadowlit-shows

(Original screenshot under cut)

[doomedcorpses]

"Have we met before ?"

" . . . "

"Possibly in Michigan ."

Feeling like for a Syntax angst,,

[absoluteocellibehavior]

13 years ago I was bright-eyed watching the pilot of Ninjago.

Now, I am once again hooked and cheering on little legos as an adult.

How time flies, huh?

Bittersweet <3

[askblueandviolet]

Hey Mayor, do you like puzzles?

MASTER POST

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[beauleifu]

Someone on here asked me to draw Syntax in a maid outfit and I can't remember who but I delivered!!