#than direct character parallels

[coldgoldlazarus]

Metroid end credits that play like the ones from Across The Spiderverse

[bicheetopuff]

tgck and bkdk parallels make so much more sense when you think of it as Katsuki paralleling Uraraka and Izuku paralleling Himiko instead of the other way around…

[wodimewoahtime]

the course of ivans life is locked in by sua and i think he understands that a little

its ivan who will follow till, its till who will follow mizi, and its mizi who will follow sua (and sua follows mizi too ofc)

just round and around, they go in a circle till theyre picked off for slaughter

mizi doesnt know that, but sua does!!! sua does!!!!

mizi is unaware of the threat thats coming her way, so its up to sua to leave. she doesnt. theyre stuck. when sua follows mizi, ivan sees a priest digging her grave.

my view of ivan sua is very much "ivan is willing to break the system for till, but till wont follow him"

"ivan watches as sua sacrifices herself for mizi within the system"

"ivan is envious because the person she loves is willing to follow her anywhere but the best she can do is die"

i think it says a lot about suas passive suicidal ideation

[notmoreflippingelves]

Robbing the Royal Treasury

↳ Esteban in "King of the Carnaval" vs. Elena in "Royal Treasury Escape Room" (Scepter Training with Zuzo)

[beautifulterriblequeen]

All that's Left is Aaravos

I realized allasudden that I haven't rolled around in Callum's left-handed possession motif yet, so let's poke it with a stick!

First off, I wrote this meta post about how Viren goes left-handed when Aaravos is directly controlling him some while ago. This is going to be Callum's version.

Let's start way back in the beginning, with the first time Callum cast a dark magic spell:

Callum is right handed - we see him sketching with his right hand - but when he does this dark magic spell, he uses his left. I don't see this as any sort of hard indicator of possession that far back, but he could've cast this spell with either hand, and they chose to animate him doing it with his left. A light bit of foreshadowing about handedness.

The next time this becomes an issue is in S4, when Callum gets possessed by Aaravos, which is only possible because he did cast that spell above. There's some very deliberate mirroring with Callum's and Aaravos's stances and reflections, where right = left. We get to see Aaravos, who is left-handed, deliberately using his right hand so that Callum's left hand is the one that gets used:

Later in S4, Callum tries to drop the Key of Aaravos in the lava with his left hand, but he can't manage it.

Once the Pearl is back in Katolis in S6, Callum has a One Ring-esque staring contest with it and seems to lose:

he immediately starts doing left-handed things near the Pearl:

There's even another left-handed cube moment that gets pretty blatant with its Aaravos coding:

In the moment, it's lighting up because Stella is present. But it's also foreshadowing for Aaravos's trickery with the Pearl switcheroo plan - he's already watching and listening to Callum's secret plan.

When Callum sleepwalks to the dark magic dungeon and picks up the pearl, he reaches to open the painting left handed too:

The shock of being overtaken in his sleep forces Callum to make a new plan for the Pearl, and when he says this line out loud, Aaravos sees some wiggle room for himself:

Aaravos needs the Pearl unswaddled by Callum's anti-magic blankie - which tells me that those stitched spells would have worked, if Callum had the real deal. And he also needs the Pearl defenseless in Katolis. He already has a Pharos-shaped pawn, a blind, human-hating dragon who's about to get his wings healed, and a devastated daughter in need of a new father figure.

All Aaravos needs to do to get his Pearl into Claudia's hands and get free is to trick Callum about which pearl he's really holding. The rest will fall into place like clockwork.

And when the dust of Katolis Castle settles, along with the scorched bones of Sol Regem... all that's left is Aaravos.

[ubedoodles]

turtle headshot!

I love Turtle so much, the animus battle scene in his book was so good!! Also the reveal that he MADE Anenome an animus to cover himself?? Shivers. What are you doing Turtle, respectfully. (to be fair he was four (4) at the time, trying desperately to hide his god powers, so)

I wish the books had gotten more into his feelings/reaction to having his magic taken away for good. Especially after he had a whole arc accepting himself and his magic. Like,,, I get why magic was taken away (and I think it was a good decision, actually, because otherwise how could you possibly have any plot when you could just use magic to solve basically anything) and there wasn't really time in the books to get into it. But Turtle was SO SAD when he got his magic taken away the first time!! I don't think we're ever gonna get this, but it would be so cool to see some kind of short (maybe a winglets?) where we see Turtle (and Anenome too honestly) come to terms with their loss of magic and, for Turtle specifically, realize that they aren't useless without it.

[maliciousalice]

Hear me out (or don't... it's fine I'm just venting and mean) yeah um I don't believe Chakotay was saved in Prod*gy s2.

[emblazons]

The post I made was about Will x Imitation Game!Alan Turing yes—

—but don't think it's lost on me that the conversation I pulled (where Joan tells Alan she doesn't want him to be normal/what makes him different is what makes him great) is Alan talking to the woman he said he would marry even knowing he was gay—aka the conformity he (temporarily) agreed to because to do so would make him an outcast /hurt her more....just like someone else we know.

[countdown-til-sanders-take-over]

So hows it going 😀

TMAGP 7 is a WILD ride

[acircusfullofdemons]

fuck it *dials up the aiw vibes for into*

[blorbosexterminator]

For all there is negative to say about the spin-off and Berlin I at least have the comfort to know that Pina would never mischaracterize and misrepresent Berlin as the fandom did when everyone just decided to shut their eyes and ears in the Viking Gold scene and instead assumed the exact opposite of what happened. Just completely ignoring what Andrés literally said in the scene so just they would have a "at core Martín and Berlin are actually the opposite uwu and Martin is so much better" when the scenes were literal direct parallels of each other and where Andrés and Martín said the exact same things just about different cultures and different groups of people

[mikesbasementbeets]

what if i said in s3 elmax parallels jancy while lu/max parallels milven

[oatmealaddiction]

Okay but the weirdest thing about the whole "Brotherhood is better you should skip 03" discourse that's become commonplace now, it sort of forgets the world Brotherhood came out in and why you should watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist. When Brotherhood came out, the original Fullmetal Alchemist was one of the most beloved and most watched animes of all time. Brotherhood assumes you the audience have already seen it because of course you have, everyone has seen it, so it skips important information and speeds the story up because it doesn't want to bore you with things you already know. Have you ever wondered "hey why does the first episode of Brotherhood kind of suck, and why am I being introduced to like 50 new characters, and why are they acting like I know what the hell an alchemist is?" It's because Brotherhood thinks you've seen 03.

The first 7 or so episodes of Brotherhood constitute dozens of chapters in the manga, and the first 25 or so episodes of the original Fullmetal Alchemist. The Nina Tucker episode in Brotherhood, in FMA 03 takes up nearly three episodes. Yoki gets a backstory in 03 and it's genuinely one of the best episodes and taken directly from the manga and Brotherhood glosses over it because: duh, you've already seen it. And so if you skip the original you miss out on dozens of really great character building episodes like Ed and Al meeting Hughes for the first time and getting to spend a whole episode helping him free a train from terrorists, or Ed and Roy having a duel that expands on the relationship they have, or episodes where the brothers just help out random people in towns before the major story gets going.

The original also paces itself quite a bit better than Brotherhood and is more in line with the mangas storytelling. In the manga we don't find out about The Gate until nearly two dozen chapters in, and the same goes for the original anime. Like, that's a twist reveal in those stories, and it's weird that the most watched series is the one where they tell you all about The Gate in the first two episodes because they assume you've already seen the original show.

What's more, people don't know that Hiromu Arakawa helped write for the anime while she was still in the middle of writing the manga, and as a result was inspired to write scenes in Brotherhood that the anime did first. That scene of Edward getting impaled by a falling beam? Directly inspired by a similar scene in the original anime. There's a lot of little instances of that and they're great when you can recognize parallels and things in Brotherhood that are direct references to the original anime, but people don't notice any of that anymore. Because the original anime is just an automatic skip these days, and it's a bummer because people don't realize what a giant it was back before Brotherhood was released. They treat it as *bad,* not realizing it was one of the most beloved anime of its time and the problems people take issue with have a lot more to do with personal taste than any kind of actual flaw in the writing. Brotherhood was never meant to dethrone it, and the original anime was always supposed to be part of the viewing experience which is why those first few episodes of Brotherhood are so fast paced. So like, please stop telling people Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 is a skip, or it's bad, or you don't need it because Brotherhood is better. Regardless if you think Brotherhood is better or not, the original wrote Brotherhood's check. It was huge, it was beloved, and Brotherhood is *banking* on the knowledge you've seen all of it and loved it. And trust me when I say there is so much to love about the original series. It's still my favorite branch of the FMA franchise, and it's worth your time, I promise you.

[agentravensong]

thinking about how the extra area added on to a pacifist run of undertale, the true lab, is about alphys's past mistakes. how it ends with the story reaffirming that, despite the pain she's caused, the thing that matters is that she has now made the choice to do the right thing. she's still worthy of her friends' love.

thinking about how undertale doesn't expect the player to get a pacifist ending for the first time. how it's more likely than not that the player will kill toriel the first time they battle her, how lots of players don't initially figure out how to end undyne's fight without killing her, etc. what it expects — not even expects, really, but hopes — is that the player, if they care enough, will use their canonically acknowledged power over time to make up for those mistakes.

no matter how many neutral runs a player has done before committing to the pacifist run, the thing that matters to the characters, to the story, is that you've chosen, now, to do the right thing.

compared to alphys, the player honestly gets off lightly, in that you're the only one (other than flowey) who really remembers any harm you might have caused. and any direct guilting the game could have done about it is long past at this point. instead, as undertale often does, it makes its point via parallels: alphys caused harm, and she knows it. she has committed to being better. in doing so, she has unlocked for herself a better ending to her story. and she deserves it. she's forgiven.

those structural narrative parallels are all over undertale, if you know where to look. and that's one of the things that makes it so fuckin' good.

[twenty-qs]

You know, one of my favorite under-the-radar interactions in Arcane is actually between Jayce and Vi.

On paper they have…literally nothing in common. One’s the golden boy science nerd, plastered all over Piltover as the symbol of progress, who has actively made decisions on the Council that made life in Zaun worse. One’s a bruiser who cut her teeth on the streets of Zaun, and then prison, as Piltover did its very best to forget she ever existed. They’ve had maybe, like, one actual conversation, in which Vi called him ‘pretty boy’ and Jayce looked deeply uncomfortable. But against all odds—they get along like a house on fire. I think Jayce is the only one Vi would have accepted weapons made of Hextech from; and I think Vi (and Caitlyn, but Vi came first) was the only person other than himself that Jayce would have made Hextech weapons for. They’re so in sync that they literally coordinate battle moves on the fly without needing to exchange a word. It might strike you as weird, at first. It’s just so improbable.

But it makes sense. Because the way they make decisions is almost the same—emotion. Impulse. Punch first, think later. Do what you think is right, and don’t wait for the world to give you permission, because it never will. They trust their gut and make snap decisions. And because the world of Arcane is morally gray, they usually regret it.

Which makes me think that some of the strongest parallels in this new season might actually be between Vi and Jayce. Arcane is about change. The price of change; the promises and dangers of change; and how people change, too. Vi and Jayce have been relatively stable character-wise. They change their minds about things, circumstances around them change, but at least at the end of s2e3, they’re still very recognizably themselves. Still punch first, think later. But the people around them have been undergoing extreme transformations.

Powder is now Jinx. Vi spent the entire first season refusing to see this, then failing to understand this. At the start of season 2, she still can’t reconcile the two in her mind—she can only conceive of them as literally two different people. Powder is dead. (I killed her.) All that’s left is Jinx. (I created her.) But the truth is that Jinx is still her little sister, is still the girl who was once Powder. Powder didn’t die—she changed.

Meanwhile, Caitlyn in season 2 is having a cataclysmic change because of her trauma and grief. The Caitlyn Vi fell in love with was brave, precise, determined—and fundamentally kind. She traded her gun away for medicine to save Vi’s life. She didn’t even hesitate. But now, all of that laser focus is being bent on revenge. Caitlyn has become increasingly single-minded, narrow-viewed, her world reduced to the target in her sniper’s scope. If you’re an obstacle, she’ll simply shoot right through you. She promised Vi she wouldn’t change, and then she hit Vi and abandoned her the moment Vi got in the way. Season 1 Caitlyn would never do that.

Vi struggles with change. She never seems to quite—grasp it. Doesn’t understand how the Undercity has changed while she was locked up, stagnant, an insect trapped in amber. She loves people with a sort of nostalgic glow. What the show forces Vi to reckon with is how far she’s willing to love someone before they’ve changed too much. She thinks it’s over with Jinx. She says she doesn’t consider Jinx as her sister anymore. But they are, they’re still sisters, of course they are. Jinx knows this. Jinx loves her sister, even now. Which means there might still be something in her for Vi to love too. But with Caitlyn, is there anything left of the kind girl who gave Vi her freedom and treated her with compassion? Can Vi still love the dictator literally waging war against her people? Should she? (Could she even stop loving Caitlyn if she wanted to?)

Jayce’s arc is just beginning in season 2, so I’m not sure which direction he’s heading in. But the parallels are already showing up. Is Viktor still in there, or is he dead? (Did I kill him?) Is it just the Hexcore using his body now, a monster that must be stopped? (Did I create him?) Jayce, too, might soon be forced to decide if he can still love someone who’s changed past the point of recognition. Or whether he should.

All this is to say that I hope we get more Vi and Jayce interactions this season. And that it’s definitely not a coincidence that we got two divorces back to back.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

#yeahhh i really like the way you put this#god jack in s3 ... his grief; his guilt; everything about his interactions with hannibal too#after bella's death—or even by the time he goes after hannibal in mizumono— he's definitely beyond the constraints &#moral constructs of law enforcement#at the same time hannibal's comparison of him to god is fascinating considering the emphasis on god's duality/cruelty/need for sacrifices#since; as you mentioned; by s3b—despite his pervasive guilt—will becomes the sacrifice once more to jack's agenda#& in conjunction with that; ​post-fall jack's return to his s3a state of mind is definitely far more compelling#wrt the fallout of him sacrificing will one too many times & finally losing him entirely#yet if it came down to a choice; in the moment; btwn saving will but letting hannibal go or finally getting the closure of#hannibal's death at will's expense—especially if will's actions/becoming lead jack to believe will's death would be for the greater good—#i could see it going either way#after all; regardless of not being tied to the considerations of law enforcement; his moral compass is still more inflexible than will's#& in nbc hannibal; one way or the other; all gods demand sacrifices (via @carbonorchestrations)

ooh thanks for these thoughts!

Jack's moral compass is less flexible than Will's, in the sense that he's not torn between good and evil - he's pretty firmly positioned as the good angel on Will's shoulder (while Hannibal is the devil). But he is similar to Will in the sense that he's constantly internally divided - in his case not between righteousness and darker impulses, but between protecting the individual people close to him and sacrificing them for "the greater good." And just as Hannibal influences Will into leaning more towards his dark side, Will's (unintended) effect on Jack is to push him more in the direction of valuing personal loyalties (in season 2 he's all set to put his career on the line in order to defend Will).

Where Jack isn't conflicted, over the course of the show, is on the question of personal justice versus "public" justice. His vendetta against the Ripper is highly personally motivated, because of what happened to Miriam Lass (and later to Beverly, by season 2B), but catching him would undeniably be a public service, so the personal motivations don't conflict with his ideals. But post-canon, I'd love to see him get pointed in a direction that requires his personal vendettas and loyalties to clash with his morals, and just wind him up and watch him go from there.

I've talked before about how Alana in 3B gets to balance her sense of self-preservation with her moral impulse to protect others, but that those two goals might end up clashing for her post-canon. I think for Jack something similar could happen wrt personal and public justice, as well as having to choose between saving someone and killing the bad guy. So I really like what you've said about him having to choose between saving Will and killing Hannibal, or saving or killing Will based on what Will's become.

I think the other thing going on with Jack is the question of what constitutes justice, and specifically what the distinction is between state-sanctioned justice (and murder) and rogue justice. I had Jack in the back of my mind as I was writing this post, and it helped me reach a breakthrough on What Even to Do With Jack in my "Jack encountering Will and Hannibal post-canon" 'verse. Because I'd considered Will offering to help Jack solve some set of murder cases (unsanctioned), but wasn't sure what direction to take that in, but I think "Will persuading Jack to commit murder as a form of vigilante justice" is what I've landed on. (Especially since - to continue the Alana parallels - it might indebt him to Hannibal and/or Will in the same way Alana's murder of Mason Verger indebted her to Hannibal.)

While talking to @menciemeer, something came up re: Jack’s motivations for being in Italy in season 3 that I haven’t seen discussed much - and that is that he’s explicitly there not to catch Hannibal, but to save Will. Here’s his dialogue with Pazzi in Secondo:

Jack: If he hasn’t already, Il Mostro will return to Florence. Pazzi: Come back with me. We have a chance to regain our reputations and enjoy the honours of our trade by capturing the monster. Jack: I’m not here for the monster. Not my house, not my fire. I’m here for Will Graham.

This is even more striking in light of the context for his character that the very next episode gives us - his conversation with Chilton in Aperitivo establishes that he’s been forced into retirement with the FBI, but he’s not interested in regaining his standing or reputation. (Very odd in light of the fact that come the Red Dragon plot, he seems to still have his old job in Behavioral Science). Chilton tries to get him to use Will as bait to find Hannibal:

Chilton: Will is going to lead you right to him. Jack: Oh, no, he’s not. Not to me. I’ve let them both go. I’ve let it all go. Chilton: You dangle Will Graham and now you cut bait? You’re letting Hannibal have him hook, line, and sinker. Jack: You’ll excuse me, Dr. Chilton. I like to be home in the evenings when my wife wakes.

What stands out about this exchange is Chilton’s “letting Hannibal have him” phrasing. It foregrounds not subduing Hannibal, but preventing Will from succumbing to his worst impulses, as a central motivation for Jack in 3A. It’s also significant that it’s his need to care for Bella that leads him to defer pursuing anything relating to Hannibal or Will, because her death is framed within the episode as the impetus for his investment in following Will to Europe - as he tells Will in the funeral scene, “you don’t have to die on me, too.”

So much of Jack’s character arc in the first two seasons is juggling his repeated sacrifice of others for the greater good. His guilt over what befalls both Will and Miriam features prominently in season 2, and during Will’s trial, he’s already prepared to put his career and reputation on the line to stand up for Will and atone for what he feels is his role in Will’s downfall. Both the traumatic events of Mizumono and Bella’s death bring about more of a full turnaround in that direction - Jack becomes less invested in apprehending killers in service of public safety, and more invested in saving the specific person who’s been harmed by that project.

I think this motivation doesn’t always stick in people’s minds because these exchanges get eclipsed by Jack beating Hannibal to a bloody pulp a couple episodes later, as well as his inexplicable return to working for the FBI in 3B. But even in the former altercation, his fight with Hannibal feels personal, more about venting anger and grief than actually apprehending Hannibal. In Dolce, when Will asks why Jack didn’t kill Hannibal, Jack responds “maybe I need you to” (in the same exchange, of course, as “you need to cut that part out”). That scene also establishes clearly that Will and Jack are, like Pazzi, “outside the law and alone.” As in Mizumono, they’re effectively vigilantes - and Jack’s mission is not serving justice for the FBI, but in saving Will from Hannibal’s influence.

This is why, despite the fact that Jack is once again embroiled in FBI business in season 3B, I always envision his role post-canon as being a continuation of what haunts him in the first half of the season - less about catching or killing Hannibal than about rescuing Will. It’s a lot more compelling to me, at least, than him simply continuing to be the face of law enforcement.