#that within itself shows me that she's doing more than most around her

[sukibenders]

Some fans: Eloise is such a fake feminist, doesn't she see how some girls and women enjoy marriage? Doesn't she see how her privileges give her luxuries others don't? She's so selfish. She doesn't even use her words to support other women!

Also same fans: I wish Eloise would stop talking, like her speaking about feminism at every turn is getting old. Can't she just be quiet and let everyone enjoy the fun? Like yeah talking about women's lack of personhood without a male figure in society, or how they can't go to university, or how sometimes they marry men who will only hurt them but need to for their status is sad to see, but THE ROMANCE-

[gohyemi]

"Is It Love or a Scent?"

teaser

"Get out," Joshua snapped, pulling over to the side of a deserted road. The street was mostly empty, save for a few dimly lit shops casting eerie glows into the night. The silence felt heavy—too heavy.

"I’m sorry—please, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t pour the drink on her, she—"

"Oh, what? You're going to say she did it to herself now?" he cut her off sharply, his eyes glinting red with fury in the glow of the dashboard lights.

Without another word, he reached into the backseat, grabbed her phone and purse, and threw them onto her lap. The gesture wasn’t just dismissive—it was cold.

"You really pissed me off today. Get out."

She froze, too stunned to speak. Her chest tightened, her heart aching in a way that felt deeper than usual. Joshua’s temper was something she had grown used to—fleeting, like a passing storm. But tonight felt different. It's making her eyes sting, but she refuses to let it out.

Silently, she opened the door. Her heels, which had already left blisters on her feet, scraped against the rough pavement as she stepped out. The purse in her arms felt heavier than usual—maybe because it carried more than just her belongings. It carried the weight of realization.

She was already emotionally drained, and now, standing alone in the cold, she felt stripped of every last bit of energy. As she closed the door behind her, Joshua sped off without a second glance, the roar of the engine disappearing into the night.

She stood there under the dim streetlight, shivering—not just from the wind, but from the sudden emptiness Joshua left behind. Then, a rumble of thunder cut through the silence, low and ominous.

“Well… shit,” she muttered, slipping off her heels. Better to walk barefoot than make the blisters worse. The pavement was rough and cold, but it was still better than the sharp sting in her feet. She hurried toward the closest shop, feeling the first drops of rain tap against her bare shoulders like a warning.

And then, in the blink of an eye, the sky opened up.

The gentle drizzle turned into a downpour, sheets of rain hammering the street as if the sky itself was angry. She stood under the awning of the nearest shop, hugging herself tightly, trembling. The cold crept into her bones.

Just as she was wondering what to do next, the door behind her clicked and creaked open.

“Come in, young lady,” a gentle voice called.

She turned to see an elderly man standing in the doorway, a folded blanket in his arms, his smile warm despite the chill in the air. His eyes crinkled kindly at the corners, like someone who’d seen many storms—both outside and within.

She hesitated. “I’m fine, really,” she tried to say, her voice shaky.

But the thunder roared again, and the rain showed no signs of mercy. And Joshua—her so-called husband—surely wasn’t coming back.  ‘asshole’

Realizing she had no choice, she gave a small nod and stepped inside.

The shop was filled with vintage treasures, each item seemingly telling its own story. A row of watches caught her eye—old, yet timeless. Nearby, a delicate vase stood beside bottles in different shapes, some worn with age. But what drew her in most were the small bottle with flowers carved around it. They sat on a wooden shelf, their contents faintly visible—just a little water left inside.

"You like it?" The old man’s voice broke through her thoughts.

She nodded absentmindedly, still mesmerised by the bottles.

"What is this, ajusshi?" she asked, lifting one of the bottles in her hand. She studied the flower pattern—once white, but now its paint had faded to a dusty yellow, as if time had not been kind to them.

The old man smiled softly. "It’s perfume, if you want to know."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Isn’t it expired? Doesn’t it smell bad?" she asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

The old man chuckled, a warm, knowing sound. He turned away, heading toward the back of the counter "Come, take a seat," he said, his voice gentle but firm. "I’ll tell you a story."

As she stood there, still holding the bottle, the old man reached into a drawer and pulled out a pair of fluffy slippers, handing them to her. "Here," he said, offering them with a knowing grin. "Put those heels aside. I can see your date’s an asshole for making you wear that."

She blinked in surprise at his bluntness, but there was something about his words that made her laugh, despite everything. Her shoulders relaxed a little, and for the first time that night, she felt a hint of comfort. Without hesitation, she slipped off her heels and put on the soft slippers, grateful for the warmth they provided.

The soft slippers muffling her steps. She took a seat on the cushioned stool in front of the old man, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders, ready to listen.

The old man settled opposite her with a sigh, his fingers gently tapping the wooden surface “This bottle of perfume,” he began, gesturing to the one still in her hand, “was once crafted by a woman who lived in a house surrounded by the most beautiful flowers you could ever imagine.”

His voice lowered, almost reverent, as if the memory of that woman still lingered in the scent trapped inside the dusty bottle. The rain outside continued to pour, but in that moment, the only world that existed was the one the old man began to unfold.

---------------------------------

Once i'm done with Jeonghan's story then I will publish this one I'm back with another mystery vintage shop series. should I stop until Joshua or continue the story with other members as well🧐 Once i'm done with Jeonghan's story then I will publish this one Check out my other creations on the seventeen list. for sure you guys love it too~

[jinwoosbabyboo]

So, you did a post of the boys being jealous, but I was wondering how would you rank each guy from most jealous to least jealous/possessive? Also, what kind of jealous are they.

P.S. Xavier's "It's nothing personal" still cracks me up. You're hilarious.

Most to Least Jealous

Who's the most to least jealous among the four of them? Here's what I think.

A/N: had to do a little switcher-roo w/ Zayne & Sylus because Zayne definitely gets more jealous than Sylus & it’s adorable

Xavier

Xavier without a doubt is taking first place here. This man was jealous when Jeremiah had his arm around MCs shoulder. He gets upset anytime MC compliments Lumiere. Xavier PLEASE Lumiere IS YOU.

Don't get me wrong I understand the notion of "He wants MC to love him for him not his Lumiere alter-ego" I get that. It's sweet that he's "Xavier .... Just Xavier" with MC.

Aside from him being jealous of himself though even in his myth he gets jealous when Jeremiah touches her or she speaks about Jeremiah he even blew in her eye because she "had a hooligan in her eye" referring to Jeremiah. He wants to be the only person in her eyes, mind, and heart.

Rafayel

Rafayel is jealous, but he's more clingy/needy than jealous (and I love that) He doesn't like being ignored by MC and gets antsy and dramatic when she takes too long to respond.

He wants all of MCs attention at all hours of the day. He wants to have her attention 24/7, but realistically he knows that can't happen so he just wants as much as possible.

Zayne

Zayne does indeed get jealous he’s not as jealous as Xav or as dramatic and pouty as Raf but he gets jealous. He isn’t as expressive with his jealousy but he still has a childlike jealousy vibe. He’s so smitten with MC he just wants all her affection he’s touch starved for heavens sake. He's secure within himself, but he finds the world itself boring and MCs vivacity makes his life interesting. So of course he gets jealous when something else is stealing his girls attention.

Also I imagine him being a little possessive when it comes to doing something for you because that’s how he shows his love. His actions are louder than his words.

Sylus

Sylus is extremely secure in himself he doesn't get jealous. At least that's probably what he tells himself. This man isn't "im gonna pout" jealous he's more of flash/zing of jealousy before setting himself straight like "Wait a minute ... she's mine ... I'm the whole loaf the rest of you are the breadcrumbs" and he's back to his confident self-assured sexy self.

If you want to see him get jealous change his pet name for you and when he asks "Am I the only one to call you that?" if you choose the "You should be" answer he's like "Who else is there? that doesn't matter you have me now" or something like that.

[sunsetosirias]

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is overexposed, and it's why I've grown to hate her.

The show hinges on the audience liking Marinette enough to buy the premise that everything she does is 100% justified, she's never in the wrong and can't suffer consequences that last longer than an episode or else the show doesn't function as an enjoyable story. If you aren't a fan of Marinette, the show becomes a slog to get through, especially the later seasons.

One of the biggest problems I have with the show's narrative is how it shoves Marinette into being the solution to every major conflict, which robs other characters of having their moments, all because "she's super cool" and "please like our perfect protagonist who can do no wrong". I know this is an incredibly salty take but whenever a story tries to force me to love a character, I find myself hating the character more and more overtime.

What got me writing all this in the first place? Well I checked the Miraculous Ladybug fandom tag on Ao3.

Of the 69,749 works on Ao3 as of the time I'm writing this, 55,419 of them are tagged with Marinette as a character. That's 79.464% of the total Miraculous Ladybug fanfics. She's the main character, there's obviously going to be a lot of fanfic about her, I understand that. Here are some other tags that feature Marinette in some way.

Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir / Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug : 36,294

Adrinette: 5254

Ladynoir: 4254

Marichat: 4051

Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug / Damian Wayne: 1903

Last one may seem a little different until you remember that crossovers exist.

Batman - All Media Types: 4945

DCU: 959

DCU (Comics): 253

How many of those do you think are salt fics where Marinette leaves Paris to be "where she won't be taken advantage of" and "be around those who appreciate her". Let's not forget how the Maribat sub-genre began as salt fics and character bashing.

If you don't want to read about Marinette in a fic, you wipe out 79.464% of all fanworks on Ao3, maybe more as some works only tag her within a ship.

I think most of the growing vitriol towards Marinette is due to how overexposed she is within the fandom and the show itself. If some of the screen time Marinette had gotten was given to other characters who needed it such as the rest of the class, would the backlash against Marinette be so large?

[utilitycaster]

Do you think this episode is so boring because they brought back the Nein and reminded us how good they are? I keep thinking about this as I'm absently watching this episode, saw your post and would love to hear your thoughts on it. Because like, at least to me, most villains this campaign are painfully boring. But the Weave Mind are also boring. That was fine, M9 handled it perfectly and I loved it. Ludinus is arguably the only kinda interesting bad guy and a PC's mom is in mortal danger and I can't manage to care.

I don't find Ludinus and the Weave Mind boring! I don't find Liliana boring either! And I found Ozo Cruth and Otohan Thull DREADFULLY boring but actually, the fights with them are pretty fucking great. I mean, I have a LOT of criticism about the first Otohan fight that boils down to "this was EXCEPTIONALLY poorly signaled and I'd be PISSED if my character was killed for someone else's arc at this point in the story" but Otohan being boring is about the non-combat elements; she felt very real and compelling as a THREAT, just, she could have been a giant blender of magic knives that the party was going to be dumped in for all she had an impact on the story as a person. But I do think it is because we've seen the Mighty Nein and Vox Machina recently and remembered that they're orders of magnitude more compelling.

I think it's really like...I don't even want to say Bells Hells isn't bonded, but they lack something. I think I alluded to it in the tags of one of my posts but there's no banter between party members or sense of urgency. Like, I enjoyed the whole All-Minds-Burn/Myceit scenes a lot, actually, but after Imogen's initial (justified) panic the pacing felt unbelievably slow until we got to combat. I have found that really, for a good deal of the campaign, you have to kind of take things episode by episode and enjoy the good set pieces and scenes because it simply does not make for a pleasing and rewarding whole. The reason I didn't care about Liliana is, to be fair, partly because I think having her die would be an interesting development, but also because there wasn't a sense of "we can't stop and fuck around with mushrooms, LILIANA IS DYING" within the episode itself. No one was comforting Imogen as they ran through the tunnels. The Mighty Nein showed more personality and investment in the lead up to a fight that really, they had no more stake in other than the broad world-ending ones. As someone who's been playing a LOT of Veilguard which is all about building a close-knit team, and who's had VM and the Nein the past month to compare Bells Hells with, that lack is immediately apparent.

I said, over a year ago (possibly over two, I don't recall) now about one of the relationships in the campaign that it felt like when I see a single episode from a soap opera I don't follow. The actors are imbuing lines with emotion, but everything feels kind of disconnected. Like, this is all in a deeply subjective realm, I cannot give you a strong argument based on logic here as it's very much vibes-based, but I feel like when I watched this, my thought process was "BAFTA-winning Actor Laura Bailey is doing an excellent job of conveying the emotions 'terror and anguish over a dying relative' in this line read, and not "Imogen Temult, a character I've been familiar with since October 2021, is devastated over the potential demise of her mother.' " And I never had that issue with C1 and C2. Like, you can call it je ne sais quoi or the juice or the sauce or chemistry or the spark or whatever the fuck but Campaign 3/Bells Hells simply doesn't seem to have it for a huge number of people who have adored pretty much every other Critical Role work, and that means something. My personal thought is that it's because this has been such a plot-focused campaign without strong DM prepping of what kind of characters would be appropriately invested that we've had the problems we did (rampant indecision, lack of party chemistry due to lack of early opportunities to mingle and meld, lack of investment in each others' lives due to insufficient time focused on backstory-related plotlines), but I could be wrong, and ultimately the root cause isn't super important to this question, which is just. they don't have the it factor.

[breaking-it-down]

hey there, i got word of this by a few people. i have no idea who to tell or how to get this out. but i do know that something has to be said. this is about a few well known outsiders accounts / fans. keep in mind, most of them are minors / early adulthood, but age doesn’t excuse shitty behavior, especially when the safety of others is in jeopardy. this is when a callout is needed!

myegolovesyou / kayla apparently had dinner with melody and recorded their whole conversation without mel’s consent. this person is an avid brody hater, which yk to each their own. its not my place to decide who people support or whatever; however, it’s madddd weird that they are actively crossing multiple boundaries with their platform like starting rumors, spreading hate, and acting as if they need to be on a pedestal. they need to be held accountable and deplatformed. im hoping someone sees this and informs melody too, so she can be cautioned as well and hopefully take her own safety precautions. this person has commissioned bootlegs with groups of fans and leaked all of them to somebody that posted every single one on youtube. they have now since been taken down, but the damage was done and it traces back to myegolovesyou.

same with mckenna, who openly admits to following cast members on their trains, out to their cars, and around grocery stores. i know for a fact she stalks emma and trevor. she started the rumors of brody being on probation? or something? saying she has friends in the cast who told her it. but, verified sources have said otherwise. and said verified source within the cast said they had no idea who she is or what she is talking about. she has also leaked bootlegs that are not hers, nor did she pay for, to the cast without the owner or commissioners knowledge, allegedly. hence why melody follows her. apparently owes money to people that rush with her too, which is estimated $100 or more.

there is a whole group chat of them that act like this. i cannot confirm who the others are, but i do know it’s a lot of the popular fan accounts. these are the same people that were ableist to a disabled fan, use slurs, use racist rhetoric in regards to some cast members, make brody r*pe jokes, spread misinformation about things, make up rumors about cast / fans, abuse and cut the rush line, make the cast insanely uncomfortable, and are just overall mean girls. there is screenshot proof of these claims that can be provided privately.

hopefully this is reaching the right people to spread awareness, especially to the community that this hurts, the actors involved, and others who interact with these people. no one is better than anyone here, nor is being parasocial cute. if you are actively starting drama and talking badly about people in the cast and in the fandom… why are you here and wasting your money? / gen. if you are “friends” with the cast, why are you rushing the show every day, stalking them, spreading rumors about them, talking negatively about them, being weird with them, etc? / gen.

respectfully, we need to do better and stop platforming these people. they need to grow up and stop making the community unsafe and toxic.

honestly i’m not one for spreading drama/promoting harassment, but i have heard some things about this group, and i think this fandom needs to learn to not put those people on a pedastol. the whole fandom severely disappoints me, and i honestly just stopped supporting the show because the fanbase has pushed me out, and the show itself should also be addressing these things. the cast shouldn’t have to address stuff like this. it’s the shows responsibility to provide safety for their actors and they are clearly gaiiling to do so. i blame the show and the community. stop letting people like this gain big followings. yes, i understand that some of them are kids, seeing that the fanbase is 95% 13-15 year old girls, but it’s just so obnoxious. you can’t even excuse it with “they’re kids they don’t know any better” because as someone older than those kids, it’s your job to educate them and tell them what’s wrong with what they’re doing.

i’m not promoting harassment so much as i am spreading awareness-please don’t harass those accounts, that’s just stooping to their level, but as a community we need to grow and learn from these things. seeing things like this makes me lose any respect i had for the community/show as a whole. you can’t even smexcuse it when the show is raising prices the way they are and keeps reposting the casts tiktok’s, which is all fine and good, i don’t give a shit, but if you can do that then you should be able to address the problem at hand and ban these people from the show, that’s more so what they need rather than being deplatforner. i’m surprised that brody allegedly is renewing his contract. i hope whoever stays gets treated better than they have been the last year.

[dw-flagler]

Consider: Case 53 Ashley

how the tables have turned! You've really thrown me a curveball. I was asking because my idea was for me to do my own personal take on case 53 undersiders, but I'd never really considered C53 ashley before!

EXTREMELY LONG POST BELOW

My biggest problem is that, while I am an Ashley Liker, I decidedly am not an Ashley Understander. I think she's super cool (and also some other things) but I don't really feel like I have a good grasp on her character.

I suppose I'll have to show my work. So okay, what is Ashley's trigger & trigger trauma? Her interludes in Eclipse kind of skim over it. Because she triggered so early in her life, and so long ago, it feels like it's, well, not healed, but at least papered over by new stuff.

I've always compared triggers and resultant powers to stereotypical cruel genies: they grant a wish (solve a problem) but deliberately misinterpret it in an ironic fashion, exacerbating the underlying issues and eventually creating a problem they can't solve.

So Ashley's trigger event? Ashley and her mother were abused by her father, a cruel and egotistical man. Ashley tried to fight back, failed (because he was a fully grown man and she was thirteen-at-most, see shakertwelve's dallon age speculation post, and gained a ~striker/blaster power that allowed her to basically kill anyone who threatened her, no matter how strong they may be (quite literally, she's one of vanishingly few capes theoretically capable of straight up killing alexandria, the endbringers and even scion*). The mental aspect basically forces her into becoming a mirror of her father: egotistical to a fault and inclined towards massive retribution for even minor percieved slights. Her power basically is built to punch up, to destroy bullies (like her father) but it makes her into a bully herself (also like her father).

The control aspect, though: that's the part I can't quite grasp (get it?) It's cruel, sure, but how is it ironic? My best guess is that it plays into a sort of superiority/inferiority complex and also her bipolar disorder (technically not entirely canon but heavily implied), where it basically forces her to feel useless and incompetent whenever it misfires, which it's especially prone to do when she's feeling anxious, stressed, or depressive. It makes a self-perpetuating loop. Feeds into a superiority/inferiority complex? Forces higher highs, lower lows? I told you, I'm not an Ashley Understander**.

So, we come to what I think she'd look like and how her powers would function as a Case 53.

My personal idea is that she'd be, like, a statue of a greek goddess, a real athena type. Sharp features, severe expression, but still, you know, a greek goddess. But the statue is made out of metal of the same kind as the leftovers of her power: it would be twisted, scorched, and irregular, looking like it was once larger but other pieces were torn off (especially around areas like the shoulders and elbows, giving the impression she used to or should have more than 4 limbs). Deceptively light, though.

Deceptively light, because her statue form would be mostly hollow, like the statue of liberty or something. And inside it would be a wanton-style telekinetic storm, made out of her power. Basically, the idea is that her physical body is just a shell, and her "real" form would be the storm, which could move itself to move the shell in-turn.

Her power would be actively expressed through blasts (and I know ashley's supposed to be the moon in the starsong dichotomy but) I imagine as being visually similar to a solar flare. I also like the idea that using her power more actively destroys her statue form (it quickly rebuilds itself, within less than a second in most cases). Additionally, if her statue form is injured the storm leaks out like blood, though that would only last for a little while because it would rebuild itself (though much slower than if she intentionally used her power). Oh, and she can theoretically blast her self (because remember her body is made out of her power now, so a punch is basically her extending her more malleable self out in a direction, rather than projecting a thing) out in every direction, completely destroying her body, and it won't kill her, but there's not much utility to this.

I really like the idea of this version of Ashley still having to eat, sleep, and breathe, but that would make literally zero sense on account of her not having any biology at all. But actually I think that's a point in its favor?

She has a similar but not identical mental situation as canon ashley. She has a mental illness which is exacerbated by her power (and the fact that she's a case 53 means she'll literally never be diagnosed), but it's taken in a very slightly different direction: Canon Ashley is primarily "compelled" to dominate or command others around her, she always wants to be in charge of the situation. She has a secondary focus on always being the best at everything and never losing (or losing face). This version of ashley has that be flipped on its head. So now the never losing part is the main thing and the being in charge is the secondary thing. Ultimately, this is pretty much the same as canon.

Oh, and basically her voice is like, made out of the noises her power makes, so it sounds really fucking scary to hear once, but if she uses it a lot it is just irritating. As a byproduct of this, she doesn't actually need to move her "mouth" to speak.

My idea for this is basically that her power as a case 53 is similar to your idea for lily's--it's Ashley if she literally were her power. Her body being this fake shell is supposed to be a literal expression of her superiority/inferiority complex caused by her power, disorder, and persona, where she's this perfect statue but it completely falls apart when you take a closer look. This is part of why I like the "still has to eat and breathe" thing because it makes no sense at all but she still has to do it: her perfect image is revealed to be a lie. Like, she takes medication for bipolar disorder and needs to drink water to swallow it: where the fuck is it going? She would still have her control issues with her power (of a slightly different fashion, her power would "leak" out more as a loss of concentration rather than her moving her hand wrong), leading to a concerning tendency for her to blow her body apart at complete random.

Since her actual body is made out of her power, using her blasts doesn't cause any recoil (unless it hits something it somehow can't destroy) because you don't get blown across the room when you wave your arm, do you?

This actually plays into how I'm imagining her trigger: basically, she's from an alternate earth (this could very easily be a wildly different earth, as opposed to your imagining of sabah or lily's triggers. domestic violence is common even in the middle ages or whatever), and she suffers something almost exactly the same as her canon trigger event, but without the part where she triggered. Her dad beat her with a fire poker until she almost died, but cauldron steps in and gives her a vial shortly before death (thus the brute aspect rather than the mover aspect!) and dumps her on bet as part of the nemesis program (though she's not edict or licit's nemesis), weirdly enough in the middle of the white mountains, where she terrorized several small towns for a few months.

I'm not sure what would happen after. She probably would get inducted into the wards, but she could also follow a similar trajectory to canon ashley as well.

So that's my idea for case 53 Ashley. I'm not totally satisfied with it (honestly it kind of feels more like "breaker ashley" rather than "case 53 ashley"), but I think it's a neat concept at least.

tl;dr: i'm not smart enough for this, ask kaoinim.

[emeryhiro]

My thoughts on The Book Of Carol Episode 1

-Spoiler-free edition-

I know that some information about what was discussed during the panel has already been posted online, but I personally will try my best to refrain from posting about it since that was what was requested before the episode showing, and the panel.

Setting the tone for the rest of season 2

Firstly, Episode 1 immediately starts the season with huge emotional implications, primarily focusing on Carol and her current mindset. I truly believe that if they keep at this pace, we will have Daryl and Carol on an even field within the spinoff by the end of season 2.

Over the seasons of the main show, we got the chance to see so many layers of Carol, but since the screen time on that show had to be shared with so many other characters, we never got to go as far into Carol's mindset as we wanted to. But after watching this episode, I now know beyond a doubt that Melissa has the talent and Carol has the depth to be a brilliant leading character. She can fill an entire episode with her storyline, and there would not be a dull moment; on the contrary, during the showing, I constantly had chills because of the absolute power of Melissa's performance.

Storyline split ratio

As Norman has already said, The Book Of Carol will not be an exact 50/50 split between Daryl and Carol. There will naturally be slightly more of a focus on Carol, which I found was already so evident in Episode 1. The heavier focus on Carol was done beautifully, and like I said earlier Melissa fulfilled the role of a leading character so perfectly that I couldn't help but be a little disappointed whenever I saw that a scene had changed away from her.

Carol's mindset

Carol's mindset and emotional state had me in a chokehold this episode; I don't think there was a single scene between Carol & Ash that didn't bring me to tears or leave me with chills. As Melissa mentioned in her behind-the-scenes interview for Daryl Dixon episode 6, Carol's journey is about her mindset and how she needs to know that her friend is okay.

This theme is already heavily touched on in episode one and delivered in a way that brought me to tears repeatedly. They utilised a few vital flashbacks and some moments where we find Carol alone, going through some powerful emotional moments that opened old wounds and addressed certain things that were never fully resolved on the main show.

One of the most heartbreaking moments we see of Carol alone revolves around a song that Carol sings along with (to herself); even though the song itself has very simple lyrics, I immediately thought that it fully explains why Carol is prepared to do anything to get Daryl back.

Even before watching the episode, we knew that Carol would do anything for the ones she loves, but this current situation with Daryl truly asks more from her than anything she has ever done before. Still, there is no hesitation within her about how many lines she is willing to cross to find him again.

In all this Carol also showed some immense growth, especially in how she handled guilt and loss compared to her actions and mindset in season 10.

Daryl's change

This is mentioned in the new season's synopsis, so I no longer classify it as a spoiler. The synopsis stated that "Daryl struggles with his decision to stay in France" which appeared to be very true to me in episode 1.

I saw a colder, more aggressive, and mentally exhausted side to Daryl, which is evident in how he handles all his conversations with people from the Nest and how there seems to always be an slight undertone of resentment in his words that he is trying to hide.

Additionally, while watching season 1 of Daryl Dixon, I noticed that the longer Daryl is away from Carol, the more he regresses into his trauma. It's like all progress is being lost, and he's slowly turning back to his old ways, not standing up for himself and hiding in Merl's shadow.

Additional quick takeaways:

Ash is an angel and must be protected

Genet looked scary and really creeped me out at one point, which was really thrilling and showed the possibility of a really interesting villain for the season 2 arc

It appears that (according to Norman) we'll be getting more screen time with some of the other characters, like Sylvie and Losang

Some of the nest members' scenes evoked a sense of impending doom and eerieness, which suggests that there may be more to the Nest than meets the eye, with perhaps something sinister hiding within it.

This episode had gorgeous cinematography, which I personally liked more than season 1's, and I found that it felt richer too.

Episode 1 of TBOC is now, by far, my favourite episode from any of the spinoffs. It shows that when a show about Daryl and Carol is true to its characters, it becomes a natural success and a beautiful piece of the story.

Melissa's voice and influence are clear in how Carol's story is told in this episode. And Melissa herself seemed very proud of the work that had been done for season 2.

Norman teased one of his favourite upcoming scenes, which is of Daryl and Carol bickering like an old married couple, and Melissa teased about her favourite location where they slept and woke up surrounded by horses (I'm just imagining Norman waking up and immediately being terrified)

Melissa was absolutely glowing in person and exceeded any and every expectation that I may have had of her

Conclusion and final thoughts

If episode one is a good example on which to base my opinion, then I'd say that season 2 looks very promising, with the very likely possibility of surpassing the main series in ranking as my favourite show.

It has planted seeds to potentially resolve many of Caryl/Daryl's storylines that were left unresolved in the main series, in a way that's true to who Carol and Daryl are and how even we, as viewers, envisioned it should be.

And in Melissa's words from the panel:

"12 years of The Walking Dead, there was a lot unsaid... we picked some of the core issues and built on that"

All I gotta say to wrap this up is get excited!! The future of Caryl is looking bright!

~~~~

I have also written a full spoiler version of my thoughts, which goes into a further in-depth analysis of specific moments and their significance. However, I will post that once season 2, episode 1, is officially released in September.

[showtoonzfan]

Vaggie in the show really did piss me off, I just…feel bad for the character, like Viv HATES her so much and it shows. For most of the season, she’s just Millie 2.0. Her entire character revolves around Charlie. She exists to help her, to make her dream come true. Without Charlie she’s literally nothing and the show FLAT OUT says that itself in the third episode. I love how during that, she says she doesn’t know who she is without Charlie, but then proceeds to sing about how much she wants to protect her, something we already knew. Like…even Viv doesn’t know who Vaggie is without Charlie and that’s fucking SAD bro. How have you had this character for years and can’t even answer simple writing 101 questions about who they are and what they do outside of their partner/peers. And her having an identity crisis arc would have worked, but the show doesn’t do anything with that concept. Husk says she “hates herself”, and while her exorcist reveal may be the reason to that, the show puts no effort into actually showing us that on screen, cause the writers can’t seem to realize that we don’t know who Vaggie is at all OR without Charlie around. What are her likes and dislikes? What are her hobbies? Interests? None of that in the “female led” show!

Outside of her love for Charlie she’s SO flat and empty, and sadly her VA’s performance plays a heavy part in that cause Vaggie now just sounds so bored and lifeless all the time. Then we actually get to her exorcist reveal and I just know Viv stole this idea from the fan theories and decided to do it at the last minute, because the way it’s handled is so poorly done and lazily rushed. I felt NOTHING during that reveal because the show didn’t give me a reason to care. Not just cause everyone and their momma predicted it, but because there is ZERO buildup to it. Would have been nice to see this secret eating Vaggie up emotionally throughout the season and determined to keep it a secret, but nah…just flat out lay it on us like you do with all your characters Viv. Like….maybe develop the character FIRST before you reveal her darkest secret, and maybe actually show how this secret affects said character so we actually give a damn when it’s revealed.

Then near the end she has a supposed “arc” or we’re of course just told that. The moment Carmilla said that Vaggie was “too bloodthirsty and desperate for revenge rather than thinking of the people she loved”, truly shows how Viv doesn’t understand her own fucking characters despite trying to convince everyone she does. All we’ve SEEN is Vaggie thinking about the people she loves. You’ve shown us nothing else outside of that, you’ve said yourself that her whole purpose is protecting Charlie and making her dreams come true so what the hell was Carmilla saying? This of course would have made more sense if Vaggie was someone who desperately wanted to get back at heaven and we see her rage take over her love for Charlie and her plans, but again….we don’t SEE any of that. If anything all we see is someone who DOES care about the people around her and her actions were always out of love. I also hate how her arrival in hell is in flashback mode, this series is so allergic to taking it’s time, cause these are things you could have made into a full episode within itself, same for her meeting and falling in love with Charlie. Vaggie is a character that’s so easy to make likable and deep, and she WAS likable. But Viv could give less of a shit about her, in the end she ended up being so flat. Love how the joke of her name is that she was given that name by a sexist pig character, yet Viv decided to keep said name for her too that’s SUCH good writing.

[lonelyroommp3]

pls what's the zephy saga (if you don't mind) i love fandom drama

okay gather round the fireplace kids it's zephy retelling time. i feel like i do this on a practically annual basis at this point. it's tradition

anyway first i must set the scene. around christmas 2012, tom hooper's star studded cinematic adaptation of the iconic musical les misérables, itself based on victor hugo's magnum opus, was released. within a few months, the film and its healthy sized gaggle of shippable twinks (including, of course, patron saint of fujoism george blagden) would gain enormous popularity on tumblr, causing the fandom to explode in size and leading to other more storied dramas like the great enjonine war of spring/summer 2013. this is not a story about the fandom in that era of expansion.

prior to that, the tumblr les mis fandom was essentially divided into two, maybe three if you squint, camps, who basically only interacted - as far as i'm aware - to beef with each other. it was, in the grand scheme of things, a very small fandom even before you divided it, so within the camps it was very much an everybody knows everybody kind of deal. on one side, you had people who took things like canon era historical research very seriously, very much favoured the book over the musical, had mostly moved here from places like livejournal and forums, skewed older, had their own insane drama (crow!jehan cult anon come back to me my love...) but aren't really a part of this story. on the other side you had a younger (almost exclusively teenage, maybe some of them were early 20s at the time) cohort who took things altogether less seriously, were more appreciative of the musical, favoured modern aus and shitposts over serious meta, etc etc. they were called the les mis jokers and when i tell you i literally made my account on here after months of lurking because i wanted to Be a les mis joker. i went about this in a sane way compared to the protagonist of this story

(the kind of third clique of fans were people who were into the musical more than the book but took themselves more seriously than the les mis jokers. they do not matter in this story)

anyway, i joined tumblr in late november 2012, the movie came out christmas 2012, ALSO around christmas 2012 another new aspiring les mis joker entered the ring. this was zephy. zephy was a little bit older than most of the people on this side of the fandom (25 or 27 depending on what post you read. #subtleforeshadowing), married, pregnant, and (very very cool thing to be in the eyes of any teenager obsessed with les misérables) french. although she moved to new york city mere days after making her account. not only this, but she came in and just immediately had the tumblr way of speaking down pat, knew all the blogs to follow, seemed to come in already knowledgeable in les mis joker injokes (lurking without an account was, as my own story shows, a completely normal thing to do on here at the time, so this didn't raise any alarm bells), immediately integrated herself in with this side of the fandom with absolute ease and became a very beloved and popular blogger very quickly

sadly, all was not plain sailing for zephy. as her blogging career continued, over the first few months of 2013 her personal life became marred by a sequence of increasingly horrible events. in rough order going by the eventual callout post: her sister attempted suicide, she miscarried her twins, she separated from her husband, her husband then took his own life, she was fired from her job, became estranged from her sister, and THEN (remember we're in spring 2013 by now) her entire family were present at the boston marathon when the bombing occurred. zephy was, understandably given all she'd been going through, very very suicidal herself, and-- WAIT! what's this? it's PEYTON BEACHDEATH WITH A STEEL CHAIR

that's right, peyton beachdeath was in (or adjacent to? i'll be honest i don't remember this entirely. never followed him) the les mis fandom at the time, and was alerted to the many concerning posts and suicide notes zephy was posting. "alright," thinks peyton beachdeath, "i'm going to go back through zephy's blog archive and see what contact information i can find so i can get in touch, maybe get this really vulnerable and distressed woman some help and prevent her from harming herself." a genuinely kindhearted gesture!

however. it turned out that when you exposed yourself to zephy's entire blog history in one sitting... things stopped making sense very rapidly. i'll let the artist formerly known as lalondes' findings speak for themselves here

(yes, for those who clicked, zephy's url was felixtholomyes, aka fantine's dirtbag ex who deceived, betrayed, and abandoned her. i have never figured out if this was a mere coincidence in the post-movie scramble for the last remaining canon urls or if zephy was playing us like a fiddle all along with that one)

tl;dr for those who cba reading the entire callout - various crucial things did not add up in zephy's lore, including but not limited to inconsistencies in her age, her supposed email address, and even the number of children she was supposedly pregnant with (eta: other zephy contemporaries have said they remember her posting when she found out she was expecting twins as opposed to just one baby but she just deleted the post, hence why peyton couldn't find it). she also managed to pull off an intercontinental house move and start a new job while obsessively keeping up her brand new les mis fandom blog (peyton hypothesises, and i have to agree, that this move was so whoever was behind the zephy account could post more easily in their own time zone after realising that their initial ploy to be Very Interesting And French was going to be a logistical nightmare)

essentially - at the very least, several key facets of zephy's life story were fabricated. at worst, zephy did not exist whatsoever

after the callout post, zephy deactivated, and to this day i don't know that anybody has figured out who she was. a few people at the time posted that they had theories but nobody (much to my consternation as a certified nosy bitch) shared them with me, and i have no leads other than peyton's aforementioned theory about what time zone they probably lived in. and basically as soon as this had happened the fandom experienced its aforementioned exponential growth and subsequent world war thrE/É so everyone rapidly forgot about it anyway in favour of our new hobby (queer erasure slapfights)

the detail that really vexes and haunts me is zephy posted selfies - they were all the grainy mac photobooth gpoys we were all taking at the time, they were clearly of a person none of us had seen before (EVERYONEEEE was posting face on main in 2012/13 tumblr fandom), so who knows if this was the actual face of zephy & we were really being infiltrated by a whole new face in the fandom, OR it was an extremely elaborate and well done catfishing ruse. idk if anybody ever reverse image searched or even had the thought or opportunity to do so before the blog vanished from existence.

anyway. that's the zephy story. if you were around at the time and have theories i still want to know them 12 (TWELVE) years later. i got my laptop out at midnight for this

[getvalentined]

Thinking about Vincent's involvement in the Queen's Blood storyline and how it's the perfect explanation for everything going south with the game in fairly recent history even though the game has canonically been around for decades. It's genuinely so clever, I'm in love.

So, for anyone who hasn't done the full questline, Vincent is the highest ranking Queen's Blood player in the entire game prior to facing off against the Shadowblood Queen herself and the completion of the questline. (After this, ranks are adjusted worldwide because of game mechanics; Nanaki is rank 10 in the QB Arena at Gold Saucer.)

A lot of people have poked fun at this, like Vincent apparently learned the game really fast and was just naturally really good at it—but no, actually, Vincent played the game before. He's this good because he was champion level back in the 70s, back when he was human.

We know this to be the case because when you match against Lidrehl, he says "the Emerald Witch sleeps in Nibelheim with a monster of chaos, and that is where it will remain." This means that Vincent already had the card when Hojo killed him. It's not clear how the Emerald Witch came into his possession, but you don't make his rank without being a very active player, so it's clear that he was very prolific in the scene back then!

And back then, it was just a game. No mysterious deaths or disappearances. The myth of the Shadowblood Queen and the Emerald Witch was still there, as Lidrehl developed the game based on the story, but everything was fine.

This is definitely because Vincent was active in the scene, and he had the Emerald Witch. The Rebirth Ultimania implies that the Shadowblood Queen is a piece of Jenova (which I thought was pretty obvious since she calls Cloud a "puppet" and he's also apparently the only one capable of facing her head-on), and the Emerald Witch is the soul of a Cetra that serves as the silent warden to her imprisonment within the game. (Imprisoning monsters in cards is not new to the series, either, since FF8 literally allowed players to turn monsters into cards rather than fighting them.) Vincent being so active in the circuit allowed him to spread the Emerald Witch's influence through the scene and kept the Shadowblood Queen quiet, reminded her to keep her head down, kept her from trying anything at risk of being spiritually shitmixed again.

But then Hojo killed Vincent, and the Cetra warden Emerald Witch was in his deck, and that deck was tucked away with his things in Nibelheim. And so she spent thirty years unable to perform her ongoing duty to assure the safety of the planet. This time allowed Jenova the Shadowblood Queen to regain the power and confidence to manifest and start wreaking havoc again, finally building up enough strength to directly possess her current holder—during the period that Sephiroth is calling for Reunion, which presumably helped to really draw her back to full consciousness.

There's a whole detailed storyline here that makes perfect sense, with Vincent's murder literally being the catalyst leading to the resurrection of the Shadowblood Queen, and Hojo never having a clue what he'd done.

This is super interesting to me not only because it actually showed some of the more far-reaching consequences of Vincent's death, but also because it indicates that Hojo has unwittingly been Jenova's most loyal emissary for decades. He gave her his wife, his son, himself—and the first murder he ever committed served to imprison the only power holding a piece of her thought lost to history at bay, allowing her to manifest decades later with her own will and personality completely intact, something that she can't do through Sephiroth.

As it turns out, Hojo and Vincent have been opposing forces in supporting fate's "chosen ones," the forces around them capable of choosing the final fate of the planet, for much longer than either of them ever thought.

Still not a huge fan of the card game itself, but I adore the way it's been woven into the story, and strengthened it as a result.

[greenfiend]

hi i was reading up on your analysis post on lonnie and how it all leads back to his abuse of will--i think its super likely the way you and the other blogposter from a few years back put it together (forgive me for not having their name on hand), but i was wondering how likely you think it is that the duffer brothers actually go in that direction.

everything adds up, but its hard for me to see them use that storyline even if its so perfect to the plot. the way yall talk about the set pieces esp from season 1 is VERY persuasive, but i dont even think lonnie is in season 5 so how would that even work?

Great question! I think we have been led astray from season 1, with so many other characters and plot lines appearing, that we forget what kick-started everything. A good story’s ending ties into the very beginning, which the writers have said season 5 would do.

Will is patient zero (perhaps number 0 too)… Not chronological within the timeline told to us in the show, but upon viewing the show as an audience, he is the very first victim. This fact cannot be understated. What happened to Will was the first domino that fell, the first nuclear fission reaction that triggered a chain reaction.

Now, when it comes to horror, most elements are based on reality. They are metaphors for aspects of the real world. One major theme within the show that connects with the supernatural is family dynamics. As well as childhood trauma and the mind itself.

We have seen dysfunctional family dynamics within: the Wheelers, the Creels, the Hargroves/Mayfields, the lab, El and Hopper, Vecna’s victims… etc etc.

We have seen a glimpse into the Byers. We know they struggle financially. We know Jonathan is being parentified and Joyce is a struggling single mother. We also know that Lonnie does not care for Will, that he left and that Jonathan despises him. Many people here usually just write the Byers off as being a healthy happy family without Lonnie despite what I had just listed.

We also have never seen Will and Lonnie interact.

This fact, along with the mountains of suspicious evidence tying Lonnie to Will’s disappearance is highly suspicious.

But the biggest clue?

Lonnie is forgotten in season 4.

In a season where El has an entire story/arc around repressed memories at the lab with Papa and Henry. Where we see the harm caused by “Papa” towards both El and Henry. Where we are explicitly told that our brains protect us from past trauma by forgetting. At the same time, Lonnie is forgotten. They even made this fact even more clear when they added the scene with Will and Jonathan where Jonathan tells Will about “Larry the construction worker” (Larry and Lonnie both being nicknames for Lawrence and Lonnie's backyard is literally a construction site).

Is Lonnie in season 5? Remember, we know very little of the filming, they kept most things under wraps! However, the actor who played Lonnie was seen in a behind the scenes image for season 4 (see above). There may have been pre-filmed footage of him. But also, the story isn’t about him. It’s not a revenge story, it’s about healing from trauma. He doesn’t need to make much of an appearance at all… perhaps just in flashbacks.

Some other thoughts leading me to this conclusion:

The writers and cast frequently allude to Will's importance to the story as a whole, and aspects of his trauma and queerness are referenced throughout the show frequently.

El was originally planned to die in season 1. The story is not actually centred around her but she has been taking Will's place up until now. Remember: Will “likes to hide”. The connection and parallels between Will and El are more than just that.

Henry was not originally in the plan for the show. The idea of him was there I believe but there is a reason why he wasn't in the show until later. He is NOT the villain of the show. He is a manifestation of the problem, the trauma.

Lonnie was the first suspect in the case of Will's disappearance and was never actually cleared as a suspect. I do not think he literally kidnapped Will in season 1, but he was the reason Will disappeared.

Demogorgon means “Deep Father”, the Mind Flayer = MF = “mother fucker”, Henry also means father as “Hawkins” means “son of Henry”. The connection to father is clear.

Will’s trauma with his father is majorly connected to his internalized homophobia. His father is the main reason why Will feels like “a mistake”. He needs to heal and accept himself for who he is.

There are major twists to come. Most people don’t theorize outside of the basic good vs evil premise… Vecna vs. Will and/or El and the latter winning. But things are not that simple, there’s likely an entirely different story going on beyond what we are told.

I could go on and on but I’ll leave this for now…

[birdofwildness]

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆Fatal flaw part 1

Warnings::reader is basically mini-Tom so watch out.

Summary::Reader and Tom meet for the first time in the chambers. Turns out Tom is not the only game in town

Requested by @kalihien

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆Tom Riddle

In the chamber of secrets, the air was cool and damp. In its recesses, a thick black mold exhaled a rotting, underground smell. Tom Riddle silently jumped down into the chamber, his wand casting a faint light on the slippery stone walls.

And there it was, the statue.

From afar, the massive figure was already visible: Salazar Slytherin's stone face was furrowed and lifeless, its lips slightly parted as though it might whisper at any moment. The eye sockets were empty, like a wizard's soul after a Dementor's kiss.

There was no life here—only some ancient, forgotten horror, dormant between the stones.

Tom closed his eyes for a moment, deeply inhaling the rotting, ancient stench. This was his realm.

A noise broke the unnatural silence. It wasn't the hissing of snakes, nor the slow dripping of water. It was something else. A tiny, careless movement. A quiet, suppressed breath.

Riddle froze in place. His eyes stared into the dimness, his senses alert, immediately recognizing that he was not alone.

Slowly, with threatening calm, he raised his wand. Its light swept over the dark stones, illuminating the deep shadows of the statue, the slimy layer creeping across the floor… and somewhere in the shadows, within the crevices of the walls, someone was hiding.

The boy didn't make a single unnecessary move. "Show yourself," he said coolly.

A brief, heavy silence followed—the kind where everything is decided.

A shadow detached itself from the cold stone wall. He saw the movement, that slow, calculated step forward that gave no hint of fear. There was no rushing. No retreating.

The wand’s light slowly revealed the figure.

A girl stood before him, with dark eyes, her cloak casting a shadow over part of her face. One hand rested on her wand, but she didn’t raise it. Not yet. In the other hand, she held a pile of books.

Tom assessed her. He had seen her before at Hogwarts, but didn’t pay much attention, as she was a year younger than him.

Most people would scream and run away. Or at least tremble, beg, try to explain.

But this student just stood there. Watching him. Not nervously, not scared… but with interest.

The boy slowly lifted his chin. "Who are you?"

The stranger didn’t answer immediately. A small smile briefly appeared on her face—barely noticeable, as she seemed to enjoy the situation.

"That’s an interesting question, but the answer would be even more interesting." she answered calmly.

Riddle didn’t like such games—he was the one in control, not someone else. Slowly, he circled the girl like a hunter evaluating his next prey.

"What are you doing here?" he asked sharply.

Y/N turned her head, glancing toward the statue, then back at him. "The same thing you are."

The boy paused for a moment. He appreciated the answer. "And what would that be?"

The girl hesitated, thinking about her words. The cold air of the Chamber vibrated around them. "I'm searching for secrets."

Tom nodded slowly. Smart. She didn’t say much, but she didn’t try to explain the situation either.

"Your name," he demanded.

The girl considered for a moment but didn’t answer immediately. "Y/N."

She didn’t reveal much. But now the boy knew a piece of the puzzle.

"Oh...Y/N…" he spoke again, now quieter, slower, to observe her reaction. "Do you know where you’ve stepped into?"

Y/N smiled. It wasn’t a kind, innocent smile—it was the kind that was overly confident.

" I do. More than you do."

Riddle’s eyes narrowed as he studied the girl’s face. He didn’t like it when someone thought they were smarter than him.

"More than me?" he repeated softly, savoring the words. "That’s a bold statement."

Y/N tilted her head slightly, contemplating for a moment before meeting Tom’s gaze. "Bold? Maybe. But still true."

"Foolish little girl," his voice was mocking, but deep down, he was curious. "You claim to know more about Salazar Slytherin’s masterpiece than his own descendant?"

The student girl smiled for a moment, a bit surprised, as she looked over the older boy.

"I wouldn’t have guessed you were Salazar’s descendant," she remarked, her eyes reflecting some astonishment. "That’s… interesting."

Riddle didn’t respond immediately, pausing for a moment to think about her reaction. A brief silence hung between them.

"Why?" he asked, a faint smile playing on his lips.

Y/N leaned back slightly. "I just… pictured Slytherin’s descendant differently."

Tom raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Differently?" he asked, his voice laced with faint mockery. "How exactly?"

"I don’t know… Bigger, more intimidating, darker." She smiled, but there was something challenging in her tone. "Not this composed."

Tom’s expression turned cold, and he folded his arms. For a moment, he simply observed Y/N, as if weighing what to do with her.

"I could turn you in to a professor," he threatened, his voice measured but calm. "As a prefect, I just have to say I heard voices and immediately rushed here."

Y/N paused for a moment, but her expression didn’t change, as the prefect would have expected. Instead, a small, enigmatic smile appeared on her lips.

"Would you really do that?" she asked softly.

"Why not?" he snapped back, watching her every subtle movement. "It would be justified. A younger student in a forbidden place that they have no business being in. A professor would surely find it interesting."

The girl stepped closer to him, staring directly into his eyes, as if searching for an unspoken question.

"Maybe." she said eventually, her voice still calm. "But if that were the case, you would have done it already."

Riddle fell silent for a moment. He didn’t like it when someone saw through him so easily. His gaze shifted to Y/N’s hand, and he took a closer look at the books she was casually clutching. A strange feeling ran through him—a primal curiosity that he couldn’t ignore.

With a swift movement, he knocked the books out of her hands. The thick tomes hit the cold stone floor with a muffled thud, dust rising gently around them.

"What the hell?!" she looked at him indignantly, then bent down to collect them.

Riddle, however, didn’t respond to her question. He just laughed—a quiet, amused chuckle that sounded more mocking than sincere. He slowly bent down to pick up one of the books. As he looked at the cover, his smile faded.

Under his hand was an old, dark leather-bound book. Its title gleamed in gold letters: "The Legacy and Secrets of Dark Magic."

Tom’s expression changed. He no longer laughed. Slowly, he straightened, still holding the book in his hand.

"Where did you get this?" he asked quietly, but there was no trace of mockery in his voice now.

The student picked up the other books.

"None of your business, Prefect."

Tom stared at Y/N for a moment, his fingers still resting on the book’s cover. She was too calm—too confident.

"Not my business?" he repeated softly, his voice dangerously smooth. "But if I tell a professor, then it will become my business, won’t it?"

She clenched his jaw but didn’t back down. "You know, that’s the problem with threats, Tom..." she started, taking a step toward him. "Yes, I know your name. Famous little prefect. If you use them too many times, they lose their power."

Riddle’s eyes flashed. "You think so?" he asked casually, as though the argument didn’t matter, but in reality, every fiber of his being was alert. "Well, let me tell you something. I don’t make empty threats."

"And I don’t back down." she shot back, her gaze almost challengingly piercing into his.

For a long, tense moment, they just stood there, sizing each other up. The air vibrated between them.

Finally, the boy sighed. "Alright. Let it be that way."

"What do you mean by that?"

Tom slowly extended the book toward her, but before she could take it, he added, "I’m giving you a chance. I won’t tell the professors anything… if you prove that you’re not just all talk."

Y/N raised an eyebrow. "And how do you suggest I do that?"

Tom smiled—but it was different from his previous ones. There was no mockery, no superiority. It was more like… a challenge.

"Meet me tonight." he said finally. "Show me everything you’ve learned from these books. Consider this a test."

The girl looked at him skeptically. "A test?"

Riddle nodded. "Yes, a test that will determine if you’re really as smart as you think you are."

Y/N hesitated for a moment, weighing her options. Then she took the book from the prefect’s hand and nodded with a faint smile.

"Alright. But don’t think it will be easy for you."

Tom simply laughed, then turned and walked out. "We’ll see about that."

...

Riddle stood alone in the dark room, the faint flickering light of the fireplace casting sharp shadows on the wall. The Slytherin common room was deserted, the other students long asleep in their rooms, but he was still awake.

On his desk lay an old parchment, covered with notes he had collected over the years. He ran his hand over them, then carefully tucked them away among his books. He didn’t know how seriously his new acquaintance would take their meeting...

He slowly stood up, his uniform immaculate, his movements tight and controlled.

He stopped in front of the mirror for a moment, looking himself over. Not that Y/N’s opinion mattered in any way, but for some reason, the mysterious confidence she displayed both irritated and amused him.

He grabbed his wand and hid it in his robes. Casting one last glance around the room, he stepped out silently, ready to find out whether the student would actually show up—and if she did, how much she was truly worth.

He made his way through the dark tunnels. As he got closer, a strange feeling began to settle in—not uncertainty, but curiosity.

When he reached the entrance, he stopped for a brief moment. The massive, snake-adorned door was already open. The girl had undoubtedly been the one to unlock it.

As he stepped into the Chamber, the cold air wrapped around him instantly. The towering stone columns cast motionless shadows, and the statue of Slytherin loomed menacingly above him.

And there stood Y/N. She showed no fear, didn’t hide in the shadows—she looked straight at Riddle, as if she considered herself his equal.

“You’re late,” she said simply, arms crossed.

The prefect gave a faint smile and slowly started walking toward her, his sharp gaze studying her.

“To my surprise, you are not.”

Y/N tilted her head slightly. “Did you think I wouldn’t come?”

Tom stopped in front of her. “People often throw around big words, but when the moment arrives, few prove they actually meant them.”

The girl smiled—the kind of smile Tom still couldn’t quite place.

“Well, now you know I’m not all talk.”

He let out a quiet laugh. “We’ll see.” He pulled his wand from his sleeve. “Shall we begin the test?”

Y/N stood still for a moment, then slowly drew her own wand as well. Her movement was calm—she knew exactly what she was doing.

“How do you want to start?” she asked, taking a step closer to Riddle.

He looked her over, a satisfied smile playing on his lips. “First, I want to test your knowledge with a duel.”

He raised his wand effortlessly and, with a swift, elegant motion, flicked it. A dark shadow slithered from the ground, twisting like long, thin tendrils across the stone floor. It wasn’t a real attack—more of a test.

“Let’s see how you react.”

Y/N immediately stepped back, her gaze remaining sharp. She didn’t hesitate for even a second. Raising her wand, she flicked it decisively.

“Finite,” she said calmly, and the shadows dissipated as if they had never existed.

Tom raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t impressed—but he wasn’t disappointed either.

“Not bad,” he remarked. “But I expected something more spectacular.”

The girl smiled. “I don’t waste my strength on unnecessary things.”

Tom was silent for a moment before letting out a quiet chuckle. “Oh, unnecessary things? We’ll see about that.”

With a swift movement, he attacked again—this time, not with shadows, but with a small yet dangerous spell. An invisible force shot toward Y/N.

But the student didn’t flinch. At the last moment, she moved—stepping aside and countering with a defensive spell aimed at Riddle. It wasn’t an attack—just a small shockwave.

Tom staggered slightly but quickly regained his balance.

“Well, well,” he murmured. “You’re not as useless as I thought.”

Y/N gave a faint smile, lowering her wand loosely by her side. “Thank you,” she said simply.

Tom narrowed his eyes, studying her as if trying to decipher her true thoughts.

“Don’t be so pleased with yourself,” he replied. “That doesn’t mean you’ve impressed me.”

“We’ll see, Riddle.”

Tom smirked—the kind of smirk that revealed nothing yet said more than intended.

“Now … let’s see if you’re truly worthy of all this. Show me something new.”

---

Tom walked alone in the Slytherin common room, a book in his hands, though he wasn’t really reading. Lately, he had been lost in thought more than ever. His school life had seemed so much simpler before he met Y/N.

Every night, the girl surprised him with new spells, techniques, and strategies. And although, at first, he was irritated by her knowledge, he could no longer suppress the deeper, more grudging sense of admiration he felt toward her.

But he would never admit it to himself.

Their initial meetings had been purely tests—magic, challenges, competition, quick victories. But over time, something shifted. Tom found himself not only observing the spells but also the girl’s every word, every movement.

Their encounters soon became routine. Tom even found himself looking forward to them sometimes, though he never showed it. And while, at first, her confidence had been difficult to tolerate, he had grown used to it now.

The jealousy inside him grew stronger, and he increasingly felt that he would be the one to put an end to all of this.

“I’ll get rid of her when I’ve had enough,” he thought one evening as he practiced a spell in his room.

The plan was clear: this had to end. Once he reached his goals.

Sorry I was gone guys😭

[flossylove]

Ahhh okay back again! I realise I literally have not been keeping up to date with my spam messages, but who cares, only I'm reading these to myself lolol.

So. THE CLIPS TONIGHT!!

OMG where do I even start? So I was working during the day, so thankfully time flew by for me - I actually couldn't imagine having to wait around all day, I would've gone crazy! I was so looking forward to tonight, because I'll be honest - this remake is definitely my favourite! Maybe it's because it's my first one I'm ever watching in real time, but I genuinely feel it's more than that. They've made so many positive changes (like, in my opinion making Roko less toxic than William first was), and the cast is just so incredible in bringing the characters to life!

Nora and Roko are so easily my favourite Noorhelm remake by far! Their chemistry just feels so real and authentic (and yes I understand that authenticity and reality is literally the core of SKAM, but some remakes just weren't able to achieve that, in my opinion, but these guys have!) Maybe, also, I just find them to be one of the most beautiful Noorhelm remakes too - sue a girl!!

Okay, back to the actual clips! Firstly, I'll be completely honest, when we got the 22:05 clip with Maša, and she was talking about someone not calling for 3 days.....I genuinely thought it was about a girlfriend! Turns out, nope! Just her mum! But still, I believe in queer Maša being canon. It just works, u know? Also, Nora being such a sweetheart in that clip? Ugh love love love her. My heart literally hurt to see Maša crying, like, please no, I already love her so much. Already I feel she's spoken more words than Linn ever did!

Now onto the 13 MINUTE CLIP!! OMGGGG! Like, I already knew/was hoping it'd be a long clip like in the OG. But, once again, SRAM just outdid itself! I really do love how many one shot scenes there are. Like, I don't think I've seen anyone else talk about that? IDK, maybe some people have and I just haven't been seeing it at all hahahaha. But I noticed it so much in Season 1, and I'm really glad they're keeping it within the filming style! It really adds character to SRAM being it's own thing as well. I feel there's too much to even talk about with that clip but ahhh - Eva and Nix? Hello?? Love them! Nix picking Nora up? And that comment about expecting her way earlier (just goes to show that SRAM is making an effort to actually build Nix and Roko's friendship. Like, in the OG, I swear sometimes William just wouldn't tell Chris anything, like, IDK, to me that never made sense! But in SRAM, we know Roko actually talks to Nix about Nora - which, ugh, I love, such a loverboy!).

I feel like they kinda brushed over Vanessa this clip? Like, she was there in the photos, with both Eva and Tina, and I think Nix too? So like, did she leave with Tina? I guess it makes sense, cos they live in the same neighbourhood, but the fact none of the girls even mentioned her was just....iffy Idk. Nothing too deep, just something I noticed.

Ahh, one thing I just remembered! Right at the start, when Eva introduces that guy to Nora, and says about it being funny if he was called Adam instead. I loved that little throwback to the OG. I don't know if anyone else figured that, but I immediately was like OMG! In OG SKAM, when Eva has the date (the one that happened last Friday, or at least was supposed to? before it fell through? The one Nora lied about being busy for!) it's with a guy called Adam, and Vilde makes the funny joke about them being Adam and Eva. At least, I think that's correct and I'm not going crazy...

Either way, onto the important stuff - Roko and Nora!! I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it. Their banter, their chemistry, the way they bounce off each other so naturally and get the same jokes, just really makes them so enjoyable! Like, yes OG will always have a place in my heart, but, like, sometimes, it felt as though William had no personality. No laughs, No jokes. No smiles. And I get it! The whole 'broody, but only smiley for the right girl' vibe he had going did work! But, like, we're 10 years into the SKAM remakes now, and I'm just really glad they made this change and gave Roko a solid character build-up. I hope I'm making sense hahahaha

I didn't even notice, cos I was too entranced by Nora's singing, but he actually joined in at one part? Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but he does do a little something, before he then starts playing on the synth? keyboard? idk. And he sounded good! I really hope there's a chance for us to see more of that in the future. Some people reckon that instead of it being an essay/article that William helped with, it'll be a song, or a musical project - and I'd really love to see that be true! Also, just a side bar, in the OG, I feel like, once again, with us getting minimal characterisation of William, the guitar was a little random. Like, it was just never mentioned again? I'm pretty sure? It's been a while since I did a Season 2 rewatch, but I just remember always thinking how that felt like it came out of nowhere, and then was never mentioned again? Hahaha. Whereas, like, Roko being into music, being a DJ, has been a key point in this storyline so far.

So, we've mostly covered the clip but still, I just wanna touch on how easily Roko was able to pick up Nora's slight discomfort about singing in front of him (for real, rather than just messing about) and he so quickly just backed away so she was comfortable. Like, that man is for one woman, and one woman only, and her name's Nora. Like, he is so down bad for her!! Which, ugh, as a single girl who's never dated, it's so refreshing, in the big year 2025, to see a representation of a guy not being afraid to have a crush? And yes, I know, like, he's still a teen boy, he still has flaws, and unfortunately his character is fictional, but still, I am loving getting to see him smile at her softly, and take her beauty in and just quietly appreciate her.

Can u tell I love them so much??

Okay, now finally onto the last clip of the episode!! SRAM finally broke their Saturday no clip rule! I don't even think it was/is a rule, they just never seemed to post on Saturdays. Like, at all. Although, saying this....maybe they did in Season 1? And I'm just being silly? IDK, it's too late for me right now and I should be sleeping but I needed to get these thoughts out!

Anyways, we got the clip!! I was so scared we weren't going to get anything following the end of the 13 minute clip, but I kept adding the clips together and was like... 'we should still have 3 minutes left of the episode???' so I wasn't giving up all faith on the sleepover clip!! And I'm glad I didn't!! Once again, I loved - but are we surrpised?? No, not really hahahah

I'm just really loving the way SRAM is putting this storyline together. Like, yes, do I wish I saw what happened in those two-ish hours between the clips? Hell yes. But, I also love how it wasn't all shoved together. So, I am simply living in my own delusion and saying that they spent all that time playing around with the synth and just messing with each other!

Sitting here, rewatching the clip for the 7th time already (note, it's only been 45 mins as I'm typing, since it got uploaded), I just. No words. Love it. I really liked how it started with a reasonable scenario, of Roko sleeping on the couch, but then Oh No, What A Shame, It Smells Of Beer, Guess He Better Sleep In His Bed Again!! And Nora's reaction? Girl, I see you.

The little barrier, iconic as ever!! Their banter about Vito too? The reach-over and breaking of the barrier, was such a small thing in this remake, but once again, I feel it really worked with the scene and Nora and Roko's characters. The physical contact will always get me! I am a physical contact girly, so you can imagine my reaction when in the clip before Roko touched Nora's waist!!

When Nora says she doesn't know how to turn off the light, the way the camera angle was looking, I genuinely thought we were gonna have Roko lean over to turn it off for her. Which, I get is unrealistic hahaha, but I would've loved it. To maybe have seen Nora panic a little as he got closer, get a little flustered... idk - I just can't wait to see Nora when she finally lets him in and fully embraces her crush hahaha

And I really liked how they did it so Roko lies in this version! Now hear me out! I don't condone lying haha, but this was such a little funny lie, about Vito being out with some chick. Like, Nora knowing he was fully lying and making it up, but instead of leaving and getting angry she just stays and jokes with him too. Like, Your Honour, they are in love. They both want to spend time together!

Roko's little smile as he says "You do like me a little." and looks over at her. Beautiful. Absolute Cinema. And the call back to 'Robi' at the end. I really hope they keep including this as a little inside joke between the two. I mean, Roko seems more than happy to respond to it!

The. Way. Roko. Moved. The. Pillows. And. Moved. Back. So. He. Was. Closer. To. Nora. Need I say anymore??? No, I didn't think so. It was so sweet to watch!!

Now finally, and I mean finally, promise I'll be done soon! I really recognised the piano track playing in the background as the camera started to spin around them. It's absolutely a famous piece, I just can't think of what one right now (it's so late, I need to be up in 5 hours this isn't good for me hahaha). But I really love it! And the camera moving - ugh! LOVED IT!

I don't know if anyone will think I'm crazy, but I kinda hope we get a clip tomorrow? Like, with them waking up. I know we won't, because we've gotten the whole episode in these clips. But, I could just imagine the little transition between clips. Like how they did in Season 1, with them panning over the bed with Eva and Jakov. From night to then the morning. I really loved that a lot last season! Made the transitions a bit more fun!

Like I said, it won't happen, but maybe in the future? In a possible future clip? IDK, this is me now just projecting hahaha

Okay, I think I'm all SRAMmed out for the night, so I'm gonna finish this here. I doubt anyone has even made it to the end, but if you did then wow, thank u for dealing with my ramblings! At the end of the day, I'm just a girl with too many thoughts in my head and no one to talk to about SRAM in real life hahaha

~ floss <3

[maidenofsophia]

The Wheel of The Magdalene

Inspired by the Avalonion tradition and their teachings shared with me by @ihearhercalling , I decided to make my own wheel of the year based on the archetypes of Mary Magdalene. This is a work in progress but this is what I have so far.

Imbolc - The Rose Child

Mary Magdalene is seen by many as part of the Rose Lineage, along with figures like Mother Mary, Inanna, Hathor and Venus. There is scarcely any legend regarding her birth or childhood, save for an oral tradition by Sophian Gnostics, who believe her birth was as foretold and celebrated by the mystics of the time, and that she showed great wisdom and compassion from her early years, that would lead to her Calling in the priesthood. It is theorised by many that she was born into a wealthy family, or was given special education and means to provide for herself. But money nor privilege did not corrupt her heart.

Spring Equinox - The Christ-Sophia (Anointer of Wisdom)

The Magdalene is central to the Easter story that takes place around Spring. While Yeshua is the anointed (Christos), it is She who anoints him, he cannot go forward with his sacrifice without her blessing. In my path I do not believe Yeshua thought himself God incarnate, but he was seen as the King and leader for his people, and Magdalene plays the role of the bestowing his Sovereignty. She has earned this right through her own training and redemption that has earned Her the title of Christ-Sophia. Just as Persephone rises to be reunited with her mother and rejuvenates the land, the Magdalene has ridden herself of seven demons that tried to bind her soul, with the help and love of her dearest friend and partner.

Beltane - The Sacred Bride

A title I have mixed feelings on but am learning to appreciate in the context of understanding the Sovereign Goddess archetype. Whether or not the Magdalene and Yeshua were officially married, they carry the Lovers or Union symbolism, that echoes throughout time and into stories like Simon Magus and Helen, Arthur and Guinivere, Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and so on. The Holy Bride is the Goddess within that our own soul seeks in union. Yeshua loved Mary more than all of his disciples, She was the first to receive the vision of his soul existing beyond death, She was the torch that lead him out from the tomb.

Christianity and some other faiths interpret the Bride as fallen humanity, a damsel in distress, awaiting completion in divine marriage, when in truth it is the Bride who is Co-Savior and Redeemer.

Midsummer - The Tower

Arguably the Magdalene's most renowned archetype. People remain split on whether her name Magdalene was simply to denote her being from the town of Magdala, or a title in itself similar to Messiah. After Yeshua's death and parting from this world, it is the Magdalene who is the first to stand among the distressed disciples. She becomes the tower of faith and wisdom to whom Yeshua wished for his church and the kingdom of Heaven to be built from. In Tarot, the Tower fittingly represents upheaval and change. No doubt this one change in particular was seen as too radical to accept for many of the early Christians, as is reflected in The Gospel of Mary when Peter and Andrew try to dismiss her. But Levi chastises them and reminds them of her importance and how Yeshus saw her worthy, who were they to question Her?

Lammas - The Holy Mother

There are a handful of legends where Mary Magdalene becomes a mother herself. The first that I was aware of was from a group of Gnostics in France who believe she had a daughter called Tamar. The more commonly known one popularised by the Da Vinci Code is that Saint Sarah is the daughter of her and Yeshua who arrived on a boat with her mother and Joseph of Arimathea. The Sophian Gnostics led by Tau Malachi believe she had a son, Michael. I personally go with the Saint Sarah legend, but honestly we may never know for certain, and it's possible that she may not have born children at all. But I do still believe she became a Mother in some way, even if it was in her role as teacher and leader of those who did believe Yeshua left his ministry to her. I believe there was a deep connection and relationship between her and Mother Mary, who is also a reflection of Heavenly Mother Sophia. The image of Mary Magdalene as a mother holding her own daughter is symbolic of the Rose Lineage continuing.

Autumn Equinox - The High Priestess

Having lived and been reborn through many experiences, Magdalene sits as High Priestess, leading but also serving her flock, imparting the wisdom she has gained through her years and her connection with the Lady Sophia. As the darkness of the year approaches, She encourages us to gather and harvest all that we have learned to prepare us for the unknown. The teachings of Yeshua live on through her, while also imparting her own teachings of introspection and shadow work. She encourages all of us to find the Rose Child within ourselves, our own Christ Consciousness. That which is hidden, She reveals.

Samhain - The Queen In Exile

While the disciples met rather gruesome deaths, Magdalene's story fades with a whimper as opposed to a bang. Facing persecution, even from those who once called her 'sister', she flees Palestine and is said to have travelled to France. There are other legends that say she went as far as Britain, to Glastonbury itself. The Magdalene is rejected and her legend and role in her male companion's story diminished. She becomes Christianity's own Woman In The Attic. They call her a prostitute and a sinner, merely another soul needing to be saved. But even in this scorned image, she remains at the forefront of Christian art and an inspiration of many who feel they are outcasts or deemed unworthy. While Mother Mary appeared in visions of beautiful white light and singing angels, the Magdalene came to those lost in shadow. She is Lilith and Eve reunited as one. She is Zoe Sophia, living wisdom, the snake whispering at our ear to consume the fruit of knowledge and regain our power.

Midwinter - The Hermit

The most common legend of Mary Magdalene's ending is that she spent the last years of her life secluded in a cave in Southern France. There, many continued to seek her out for her wisdom and blessings. This very cave continues to be a sacred site and place of pilgrimage for those whose hearts call to the Magdalene. The egg is a sacred symbol of the Magdalene, for legend said that she presented one to the Emporer of Rome and made it turn red as proof of Yeshua's resurrection. The cave of eggs is undoubtedly as much a symbol of rebirth as it is for the Magdalene's death. For she knew full well death was not the end. In the Sophian oral tradition, it's said that she called to God the Mother to take her back into Her cosmic womb, and rather than ascend like Yeshua and Mother Mary, the Magdalene instead chose to be reincarnated on Earth to always be present with us, until the time of the Second Coming.

[sanguine-prince]

okay so i just finished helluva boss (but not the shorts which i don’t think i’ll watch)…

and i enjoyed it for the most part. it’s a fun little show and i think that’s how people ought to treat it. i’ve a few thoughts below the cut. i’ve read a lot of glazing and a lot of hate and tbh i think i’m somewhere in the middle which seems like a rare thing in this fandom lmao

my favorite characters were fizz and moxxie & millie (tho the camp episode was so boring oh my goddd) and also ozzie however his design drives me up a wall why does he look like that. however his VA is sooo good

why do they say fuck so much

it feels like a show made for edgy high schoolers idk like it’s fun but it’s 90% sex jokes, ‘witty’ one-liners, and ship content

they interact with issues shallowly—like classism in hell and possibly racism (? if imps are a separate race ? idk)—and tbh i think they should stick to shallow examinations. social commentary is not their strong suit. things won’t hold together if they try to go deeper with this; it’s not a serious show and it should not be taking itself seriously. it works best when it’s interpersonal

i have a big issue w how viv/the writers/character designers portray fat ppl. i rly didn’t get the fat jokes about moxxie in that one ep like was it supposed to be a running gag? the character designs make everyone thin as a toothpick except for mammon who also happens to be the one sin they portray as being the worst and most disgusting. even bee who literally *is* gluttony is disgusted by mammon in that one scene where he’s chowing down in the courtroom. like what sense does that make.

which gets me to my real question that consistently bugged me throughout the whole series: what is the standard of morals in hell? the sins are personifications of their domains, so why are most of them decent folks? does this imply that people are sent to hell based on very conservative christian views—like is that the moral standard in this universe (i haven’t seen hh if this is explained)? like there genuinely weren’t a lot of indications for me for why a sin was a sin. ozzie emphasized lust being consensual; bee was concerned for blitz overindulging; but then verosika and her friends sexually assault moxxie and it’s implicitly brushed off as funny and not a big deal because oh well it is hell after all. idk it just felt inconsistent to me and i’m not sure why everyone and everything was so sanitized if this is supposed to be a terrible place

i liked the backstory episodes those were fun

i feel like they babygirlified stolas by making stella so unlikeable. it feels like the show runners were begging for us to sympathize with him when i thought he was a plenty decent character on his own and they could have made him much more morally complex by letting stella be an actual character. i was hoping there would be a little more ambiguity to it (rather than ‘yay stolas is finally divorcing that bitch’) because i genuinely was a little confused by why octavia was so mad at him at the end of s2 when the show covers his bases—she saw that stella wasn’t letting him call? idk i feel like the conflict should’ve come around the stars episode not the end one it just didn’t make sense to me. her struggle with the divorce made sense in s1 but by s2 they’d made stella such the clear-cut villain that it seemed like she never had a happy family to mourn the loss of. it felt forced that they transferred the conflict she seemed to be set up for having with her mother to stolas just to give him something to be upset about.

i’m not a big fan of stolitz im gonna be honest. idk why they like each other. they went from stolas essentially being a funny thirsty character to making their relationship the main plot line. it felt forced on blitz’s end especially like he went from not caring about him to ‘no actually he’s just too insecure to admit his feelings’ to madly in love?? within the space of a few episodes? there was also the problematic classist overtones as well but i think giving them an overtly toxic situationship would’ve been better and more fitting to the fact that they’re in hell than airbrushing things away so they can be an uwu yaoi pairing.

i enjoyed some of the songs especiallyyy the asmodeus one is s1 that was groovy as hell

i love fizz and ozzie they’re really cute :)

some of the designs got on my nerves (like ozzie and striker etc) but some of them were pretty cool (like fizz and stolas!)

in closing, i think the show is fine and a pretty fun watch it just shouldn’t take itself too seriously because then it breaks down.