#the first death in general being good omens as a whole

[helpits4am]

I’m other news after being blind sighted by the Episode 6 ending and somehow running out of energy required to watch another (wtf is my brain), I went on Pinterest and started saving a few pins (thankfully didn’t see anything too spoilerific) and found the calm before the storm, the almost confession, the second death of me caused by this show (and what, the 3rd death in general?). Love these two so much!

[goodomensafterdark]

The GOAD Epic Goblins present - The Serpent and The Owl Volume 0 - The World I Created - Chapter 1

Thank you @quona for this gorgeous artwork!!

Chapter written by @kotias

As per the teaser video shared on Saturday on our subreddit...

We made it.

February 19th, 2024: launch date of the epic fic project.

January 19th, 2025: the publishing of the epic fic, named The Serpent and the Owl, starts.

11 months in the making. Wow.

Total amount of people who wrote or made art for this epic fic: 

69 writers and artists. 

Nice.

Total amount of people involved in the project: 

75 people, including:

35 writers

31 artists

4 creators who took on both writing and art

5 betas (+3 writers and 1 artist who took on the task)

1 podficcer

This is the first part of a series in 7 parts.

Expect a new chapter of this epic fic every Wednesday and Sunday for the next 6 months.

And I promise: there is a happy ending to this story. Just not quite yet.

When I launched this crazy idea, based on Soggy’s request on the GOAD Writers Guild subreddit, I would never have thought it would turn into this.

Hell, part of me didn’t believe the project would succeed. 

Did I wish very hard it would? Yes, of course.

Was I fully convinced it would? No. With such an endeavour, with so many people involved, and a full narration to develop with dozens of participants, I had no way of being certain of it.

And yet, look at this: it’s ready, after 11 months, to be shown to this subreddit and to the Good Omens fandom.

I cannot begin to find the right words to express how I'm feeling as well. This feels a little surreal; we managed to make something cohesive, might I even say a good story, with so many people involved.

Thank you all Epic Goblins so much for being such amazing people to work with ❤️

I have to say... seeing the first bits of conversations that we had on this project, and remembering how everyone was confused and scared at first, throwing ideas left and right and trying to even start to having something coherent and cohesive...

We're finally there, and it's beautiful and glorious and it's thanks to everyone and.... ❤️

Enormous thank you to @theravenmuse for your undying support during this entire endeavour. It took months, but hell, thank you for holding the fort when I wasn't able to, and for this gorgeous spreadsheet that helped us keep track of EVERYTHING.

My most sincere thanks to my dear lieutenants and Art General: @quona @eybefioro @whatareyou42 @gaiaseyes451 @theonewiththeshippinggoogles

You have all done amazingly to keep the teams together, to wrangle them, whether I was here or not, and working so hard to find a cohesion within each team and a narrative direction for each story that was created within the greater narration.

And of course, thank you to everybody involved.

Thank you for trusting me and for following me here. And ENORMOUS thank you to our betas, who have been phenomenal: ModernDayKlutz, DBacklot, WiblyWoblyTimeyWimey, GlitteringRock, ireallyneedmoretea, itsscottiesstark, TheGaroMask, Abaddon Sahar, cordsycords, without whom this fic would not have gotten to the quality it has reached today.

I love you all, thank you all so much for embarking in this crazy adventure with me. We’re done. And we did remarkably well. I am very honoured of having been given your trust, all of you.

I won’t lie, I've been crying from the emotion quite a bit in the last couple of months, and got very teary eyed writing this blurb. :')

Please enjoy the very first chapter to this epic fic project, starting with Volume 0: The World I Created, Ch.1: Bringing upon the Dawn

Word count: 3418 words

Tags (for the whole fic): Crowley's Name is Crawly | Crawley (Good Omens), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, Crowley is a Singularity, Aziraphale is an bird alien, Slow Burn, Porn With Worldbuilding, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Major character death, but… Reincarnation AU, Eventual Happy Ending, not in this part though, Inappropriate use of astronomy, Original People, Monsterfucker Aziraphale (Good Omens), Cloaca, Hemipenes, Crowley is a naga, Crowley is a Giant Snake, Star Snake, This is an epic, Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Bottom Crowley (Good Omens), Top Aziraphale (Good Omens), Power Bottom Aziraphale (Good Omens), Top Crowley (Good Omens), Oral Sex, Crowley's enemy is Life itself, War, Intercelestial War,Aziraphale is "just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing" (Good Omens), Crowley is Bad at Communicating (Good Omens), Crowley is Bad at Feelings (Good Omens), Crowley is Down Bad (Good Omens)

TW/CW (for this chapter): blood, death, war

Summary:

~This story starts, as it will end, in the stars.~

Crawly is a singularity, born in the Empty and thriving in it, until the day Life settles into the universe. As that happens, she descends onto the planets in her vicinity.

Several centuries, maybe even millennia, pass; Crawly got integrated enough in the society of a planet that she (I'll go with she/her pronouns) is the long-standing Queen and main deity of that planet.

Aziraphale comes as a scientist from another planet that hers made an agreement with; thus begins their relationship. Crawly slowly comes to terms with her feelings with Aziraphale as their story evolves and their travels through the galaxy continue.

Excerpt:

Of all the places that Jala could have expected to find the Mother of All Suns, the cemetery of a remote village wasn’t her immediate thought; and yet, when she saw Her, there was no possible doubt.

A statue was standing on a pedestal, holding a sword in front of her legs. She had her eyes closed peacefully, her eternal beauty remained in her stone flesh, a lone ruby shining on her forehead like a diadem. Her hair fell like a veil from her head over her shoulders, arms and waist, circling her entirely.

Jala was certain of one thing; anybody who didn’t need her presence or believe in her would have passed this statue by without much thought, or might have just recognised the shape of the statue as an ancient former Queen of the planet. Jala however remained in awe before it for a very long time, pulled in by its magnitude.

She eventually closed the distance between them, climbing on the pedestal and rising to meet her gaze, raising a hand to stroke the stone cheek. “How long we have looked for you, my Queen,” she whispered, a tear breaking from her eye and trickling down her face. “How desperately we craved your presence.”

The statue remained lifeless between her fingers, but Jala smiled. The end was nigh.

Keep reading here!

~Kotias

[joannerowling]

that g*iman article is so vile holy shit. it makes the stink his fanbase has risen after the podcast even more rancid. at this point im confident that people who are wholeheartedly trying to please the gender movement are either spineless coward or predators who are building themselves a loyal support net. bc even now his fandom still have a problem with victims going to a "terf podcast" and treat it on the same level as actual serial sexual violence. like be fucking real for once. and it took them like a month to start actually taking about the basics instead of running a fucking conspiracy about secret trans rights sabotage.

also, ive made a personal observation. this whole incident has turned me away from good omens book and series 100% the minute I've finished listening to the podcast. I haven't gone back ever since and don't feel any significant loss about it what so ever. Analysing this made the constant moaning about ethics of consuming content from La Sorcière TERF maléfique and producing fan works about it pathetic. if they had any consistent principles, like they demand everyone else to have, it wouldn't be such a tragedy in the first place. I can, of course, recognise that HP probably has a much more significant role for these people than anything g*iman ever produced. but the question remains – if she is so harmful and evil, and she harms you personally, why are you still engaging with her universe and characters? I've read a lot of g*iman to be very confident in saying that his books and comics do contain disturbing shit that is unsettling and unpleasant, and that looks and feels like it was a choice to write it that way. i was being turn away from his works simply because the content was uncomfortable and g*iman was starting to look like a hypocrite because of what he said and wrote. good omens was sorta like the last straw, partially become it was co-written by Prattchet (his attitude towards Rowling soured my experience with his lit too, btw. thnx, Joanne, for sparing me lots of time and nerves 🩵), and it's gone now too. so like, if the hp book are crawling with bigotry that makes them feel unsafe and targeted, why even touch them still? read another book, indeed.

Reading the article convinced me to listen to the podcast (now that it's been added to Deezer i can do that in the train, yeah!), and my god, it's absolutely horrific what these women went through.

But re: your second paragraph. Here's the thing, i don't think clues about writers doing horrible shit out of the public eye are to be found in their work (as Gaiman himself apparently put it, writers can lie). It's not his fiction which should have tipped people of, it's his actions.

Middle aged married man with kids, publically hanging on tumblr, a website known for being full of insecure teenage girls and younger women who find refuge in fandom culture. Plenty of famous men would probably do the same if they didn't fear it'd look suspect, but the fact that Gaiman was bold enough to actually do it spoke of someone who had compulsions he couldn't reign in even if it would have been smarter. And those types are usually the ones who act on their impulses.

The fact that he has high charisma in general. Not just with young women but older writers as well, men and women. He's reasonably attractive for a man his age and very eloquent. Never trust a man who can make that sort of impression on people.

The way he used Pratchett's death and their friendship to prop himself up. Well, that one is touchy i guess, they were clearly friends, but i don't know, i always had a bad vibe about this. Adapting Good Omens was fine, but he pushed season 2 with this "Terry would have loved this, it's the sequel we always planned on writing" angle i knew he was a manipulator who would steep low to get what he wanted.

The fact he never directly attacked JKR, unlike other men of his ilk (like RT Davies or GRRM), only once published that ask of that anon on his tumblr who said she'd plagiarised Diana Wynne Jones (which she obviously didn't). Gaiman just answered "we should always read more of Diana Wynne Jones" or something like that. Sly fucker.

[queenlucythevaliant]

Okay, here we go. Rating literary allusions in Taylor Swift songs:

The Outside: "I tried to take the road less traveled by /but nothing seems to work the first few times/am I right?"--Starting off pretty well! She tried to take the road less traveled by, but it didn't make any difference. 8/10

Love Story: Whole song allusion to Romeo and Juliet-- All those 2008 jokes about Taylor not having read R&J weren't funny then and they aren't funny now. It's a fun, satisfying subversion. However, I am going to dock points for the fact that Romeo and Juliet aren't a prince and princess, just rich. 7/10

Love Story: "You were Romeo/I was a scarlet letter"--Is the Juliet character in "Love Story" being publicly shamed? Did she do something scandalous? There are zero other lines in this song to suggest that she did, and a fair amount of evidence that she didn't. This allusion confuses rather than clarifies and tbh this is the one people should've made fun of in 2008. 2/10

New Romantics: "We show off our different scarlet letters/ trust me, mine is better" --Hooray! She figured out what the book is about! This is a beautifully executed allusion, where "scarlet letters" represents a mark of something shameful which, in a fun subversion, is being shown off with pride. Fits the song really well. Most improved award, 11/10

Getaway Car: "It was the best of times, the worst of crimes" (A Tale of Two Cities) -- Goes in the category of "fun wordplay, but doesn't really mean anything deeper" 5/10

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: "Feeling so Gatsby for that whole year" --This is a perfectly serviceable allusion, but not a super interesting one. Sub "Gatsby" out with "nostalgic" and the song wouldn't change at all. She could've done a lot more with the reference, given the subject matter of the song. 6/10

cardigan: "I knew you/tried to change the ending/Peter losing Wendy" -- This works! You get a sense of Betty losing her innocence and choosing to leave James and of it being inevitable somehow. Plus, it imbues the song with a lovely fairy tale quality. 10/10

illicit affairs: "take the road less traveled by/tell yourself you can always stop" -- To take the road less traveled by is to do something risky, unpopular, or unfamiliar, not just to take a route through town where you won't run into people. Not totally egregious, but the regression from Debut is disappointing. 4/10

invisible string: "and isn't it just so pretty to think/ that all along there was some/ invisible string tying you to me."(The Sun Also Rises)--Ugggggh. Okay, so "Isn't it pretty to think so?" is this sad, tired, ironic note in The Sun Also Rises. Brett tells Jake, "We could have had a damned good time together" and Jake says "Isn't it pretty to think so?" because their whole situationship was never going to work. It's not a positive thing; it's pure, bitter Lost Generation irony. Completely out-of-place in a song about how two people we're supposed to believe will actually work as a couple. This one drives me nuts, and I don't even like Hemingway. 0/10

happiness: "I hope she'll be a beautiful fool/ who takes my spot next to you" (Gatsby)--Saying this about an ex's future SO is so... off. Like, the reason why Daisy hopes her daughter will be a beautiful fool is because it's easy. The two situations have nothing to do with one another, and not in an interesting way. 1/10

The Albatross: whole song allusion to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," but most notably "She's the albatross/ she is here to destroy you"--The albatross in the Rime is a good omen. The Mariner shoots is for no reason, and the albatross's death is the ostensible source of bad fortune. I wrote a whole separate post on this here. That said, culturally "albatross=bad omen" is common enough, so whatever. 3/10

I Hate It Here: "I will go to secret gardens in my mind/ people need a key to get to/ the only one is mine" -- I like this one a lot. Exactly the right vibe for the song, trying to escape something miserable by going somewhere pleasant. The key is a nice touch. Poor Archibald. 10/10

The Prophecy: "I got cursed like Eve got bitten" --No Taylor, that's not what happened. Famously, Eve was the biter in that situation. 0/10

Cassandra: whole song allusion -- correct me if I'm wrong (I haven't actually read the Illiad), but my understanding is that Cassandra died fairly far into the Trojan war, and not by burning. 4/10

[herearedragons]

✨Let's talk about OCs!✨ How would you describe your OC's personality/aesthetic? What's your favourite thing about them? Tell us a fun fact(s) about your OC or their creation!❤️ Send this to at least 3 people to spread some OC appreciation!❤️

HI HELLO I JUST did a Dragon Age Blorbos appreciation post so now I get to talk about my Watchers also, HECK YES.

I talk about their angsty lore a lot so for a change of pace, going to share my favorite silly things about them

Selene Moonborn:

goes ham for good paper and ink. she used to be a scribe in her acolyte of Ondra years and she doesn't really get to do calligraphy or illustrations anymore (she picks it back up as a little hobby in the timeskip between POE1 and POE2, she doesn't have THAT much time for it though), but she'll still buy the really good stuff if she sees it in the wild. the absolute best thing you can buy for her is a bottle of that shimmery blue ink her temple used, which is nefariously hard to track down, but it's her absolute favorite

incredibly bad at flirting. she's a literal telepath and she still can't do it. her charm works only on Edér and only when she's not doing it on purpose, in every other situation she'll just stand there like 🧍🏻

perpetual :/ face. woman who is too busy holding back The Voices to emote

her cipher brainwaves will sometimes cause wild animals to follow her around for a while (ranger Selene foreshadowing)

Mae Briarheart:

as a Goldpact Knight she is an Efficient and Practical Professional. she is also a show-off. if there's an opportunity to do a sick trick while in combat she WILL take it. also has a flair for the dramatic/intense in general, which she tries to curb but she doesn't always succeed

always has a book in her pack because you never know when you need to kill some time, and they're always the Eoran equivalent of like. Jane Austen. convoluted romances with Social Dynamics are her favorite genre of fiction even though actually being in this kind of situation would drive her up the wall

after POE1 she and Hiravias keep rescheduling their duel where he's supposed to kill her for trespassing on his people's sacred sites and she's supposed to kill him for (checks notes) "being annoying". he keeps showing up like an hour late and going "aw, rats, I missed it" and Mae goes "guess we'll have to reschedule" and then they just hang out. world's normalest friendship

Lorenzo Ciro:

he's shy, but if you give him the space to express himself he WILL. between the events of POE1 and Deadfire he discovers that actually he likes bright clothes and loud singing and maybe the whole death omen branding is not ALL there is to him

in a weird relationship with his summoned phantoms because many of them are people he killed, but also he definitely did conjure a phantom just to have someone to talk to once or twice

kisses Aloth at the end of POE1 and then they don't talk about it for five years (well they do, but basically it boils down to Aloth feeling that he's not ready to be in a relationship and that he needs to take care of other things first, so they wait)

[theresattrpgforthat]

Mint Plays Games - Liminal Horror and On The Hill.

It's time for a new year and some new games, and my first game of the year was Liminal Horror, by Goblin Archives!

I do not consider myself an OSR aficionado, but I'm aiming to try and remedy that a little this year, and Liminal Horror has been haunting since I discovered it's existence.

Since the last time I tried to run an OSR game, I've learned that it's often a good idea to get a sense of how these games are meant to be played through using an adventure, so I went on the hunt for a compelling adventure to play through for this one. I settled on the adventure On the Hill, by M. Allen Hall, mostly because it was free, printed nicely, and I saw some good reviews for it!

The Adventure

On the Hill is a remix of the adventure module Horror on the Hill, writing for Basic Dungeons & Dragons. It's a voidcrawl, an iteration on a pointcrawl. There is a map with locations attached to an encounter die to mark each turn of play with a hint of tension and various omens or clues to keep the game interesting. Many Liminal Horror modules are voidcrawls, and On the Hill is easy to read and navigate, with three different maps - one for the GM, and two for the players to discover as they play.

The basic premise is that you are journeying through a state park, looking for a lost hiker while strange creatures of the hill haunt your steps. There's lore woven in throughout the module, and at the beginning is enough information to let the GM know what to expect from the intial NPCs, as well as a reason for why the Hill is as it is. The PC's will uncover clues in a random order, depending on what the GM rolls on the Clues table, as well as what path they decide to travel. I tried to introduce as much as I could, but overall our group paid little attention to it - and we still managed to cobble together a story in our short amount of time.

Our particular game

The Mechanics

The checks for Liminal Horror are very simple: you only roll when you're in danger, and you're rolling a d20 with the hopes of getting a value under your related stat. There are only 3 stats, and they double as your Health over the course of your adventure. You can take physical damage and wounds, which decrease your inventory, and you can also take metaphysical damage, which can inflict you with Fallout.

Fallout is a kind of strange consequence that changes your character, giving them some kind of benefit but also alienating them further and further from normal society. At the end of the game, death might be kinder than what the weird has in store for these characters. The module comes with a d6 table of custom Fallouts, such as a crown of bone that slowly emerges from hour skull. Our table had a slight brush with Fallout - since we were just running a one-shot, I introduced a Fallout as soon as a character rolled for one. We still only ended up with two Fallout-related consequences the whole game, although the players who did find themselves changed fully embraced those changes. One of them received eyes as black as night, while the other found himself taking on cracked bark-like skin.

As a horror game, Liminal Horror pulls no punches. My GM-ing style is usually very forgiving, as I personally find it hard to punish my players, but I warned the party that this time, there was no more Mrs. Nice-Rabbit - and while nobody died, one player got pretty close. Another one lost his eyes, and I consider that a personal win, when it comes to ruthlessness. A few times I re-rolled a dice, but that was mostly because I kept rolling the same result, and I wanted to keep things fresh, rather than experience like, 6 cave-ins in a row.

The Drawbacks

One thing that I'm still unsure about when it comes to the OSR is the... lack of rules about certain things. I know that in general, it's expected that the party should allow the GM to make a ruling rather than stick rigidly to a detailed set of rules. That being said, the combat rules reference a stress die, and I'm still not entirely sure whether that's a d20 or a different die, and the wording makes it seem as if the topic is covered earlier in the rule-book - and as far as I can read, it's not. This lead to an awkward pause in play, while I tried to figure out how exactly Stress is supposed to work.

The Final Thoughts

Liminal Horror is compact, with simple character creation that allows you to come back quickly even if you die. Most of the time I found myself relying on the module than on the game document, simply because of the amount of stuff in the module. Quinn of Quinn's Quest talks about how modules are where it's at in his Mothership review, and this approach certainly made me appreciate how much of a burden modules take off of the GM's shoulders. At the end of 2024, I felt a little run down from constant reading and GM-ing, and this game was a gentle return that made planning much much easier! I also don't think I'd have achieved the same amount of complexity if I had written my own adventure.

I also personally appreciate the Fallout system. It gives you a chance to impose non-physical consequences on your characters without turning the scary parts of the game into a sanity-eroding circus, which is often one of the weakest parts of traditional horror games.

Also, despite the style of play being drastically different from what we usually do, my players enjoyed it. I let them know ahead of time this was a horror game, and horror was what they signed up for. There's also a lot of really neat adventures out there! I'd recommend checking out The Twisted Classics Jam, the Tales From the Void Jam, and the Horror of America's Jam, which is actually going on from October to April!

If you as a group want to dive into some really freaky, horrific scenarios that treat the characters (and players) with respect, even as they're putting them through the meat grinder, then you should check out Liminal Horror.

[vidavalor]

Nannette Street & Teal

Word-centric analysis of potential Clues about that new location. Filming spoilers for The Finale under the cut.

Some thoughts on Nannette Street which, according to the sign on the side of the shop, is the location of The Teal Bookshop. If you haven't already, do check out @youryurigoddess's very fun post about possible historical connections to Nannette Street.

A couple of other things on teal to start:

The color teal is a combination of green and blue, which factors into a few different things at once. Green and blue together are symbolic of the Earth. The lift/elevator button for Earth in the supernatural lift is green & blue and Nina's Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death is almost entirely in shades of both colors.

When Aziraphale makes the choice at the end of S2, Crowley is positioned in front of the blues and greens of Give Me Coffee and his plants-- very much Crowley + Earth/the world. It's set up to be Crowley is life/coffee and the brown casket box of The Dirty Donkey in the frame and the "going into the light" of the lift being, in this case, a contrasting death...

...which is also funny because coffee is life and freedom but it's also, ya know... brown!... which is also a color of the Earth. Something something about how death is part of life and so on...? Generally, most of the colors on Good Omens are a mixed bag of positive and negative things, just like life is, so this feels like it works.

In the supernatural world paralleling the humans' lives on Earth, pops of blue appear in some angels' wardrobes-- most notably, in those of Aziraphale and Muriel and, in moments where he's echoing a bit of Aziraphale, Crowley. (His dark grey-blue shirts, etc..) Green is associated with Hell, with green-tinted lights and fog surrounding scenes involving the demons. Together, this would make the supernatural world also a bit as collectively teal as Earth...

Teal is a color but... a teal is also the name for a type of freshwater duck and, within the word teal, is also the word tea. I don't really know what to make of an involvement of tea here because tea isn't any better/worse than the beverages more of note in S2-- coffee and hot chocolate-- but this does make me a little curious because a big thing in the story of late has actually been certain characters not drinking tea.

Gabriel not finding tea appealing is part of his first scene in S1 and significant enough of a thing that it's how he ended up with a hot chocolate in 2.01. Muriel's preference to look at their cupperty was a whole thing in S2. We saw Maggie order tea at Give Me Coffee and Aziraphale have a sip of tea in S2 and, maybe not coincidentally, those are the two characters whose status is the most ?????? as of the ending of the season?

One rather eerie way to look at it might be that the beverage that is most frequently ordered from the London-based Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death that is not coffee must be tea, right? Gabriel represents finding a bit of a loophole in the story and he seems to have found that 'secret third thing' option of a beverage as well-- the hot chocolate. This might wind up equating tea with death a bit-- Give Me Coffee or Give Me Tea/Death? Would be in keeping with the American Revolution themes and the Boston Tea Party. Death is also contrasted with the "little death" and tea was to have been had on sexy sushi night in 1.01, which might go along with that, too.

Onto Nannette...

The first wordy thing to know about Nannette is that it's actually intentionally spelled a bit incorrectly. Technically, someone could spell it like this but they almost never do because the correct spelling is actually Nanette. This is an example of something that is a bit wiggly in language, since it's a person's name, but there was definitely a conscious decision to spell it this more unusual way. This is especially true if part of the intent of this name is to draw a connection, as @youryurigoddess suggested in their post, to the real-world Manette Street.

I bring the spelling up because, in the Good Omens novel, there are examples of other interesting choices being made when it comes to spelling other wiggly things. The reason for doing so is related to wordplay, as we'll see. The biggest example of one is in this sentence:

"...gayer than a treeful of monkeys on nitrous oxide."

Technically, this isn't exactly wrong... it's just not the best choice to really fit the sentence. If someone gave me this to edit, I would tell them that "gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide" works better, especially because of the sentence being intentionally nonsensical with the simile for wordplay reasons. Meaning: nitrous oxide is laughing gas and if you gave that to a bunch of monkeys in a tree, they would not be up there for very long as they'd all fall out of the tree laughing. Why pick one over the other? Because the treeful that is in the book that is so into words-within-words means that another word pops up: treeful. You can't get the sea-referencing reef in there if it's tree full, only if it's treeful. There are other examples of things like this in both the book and Demon's Guide to Angelic Beings Who Walk the Earth so it seems a thing worth pointing out.

Mah point is dolphins that it's highly likely that they are choosing to spell Nannette the way that they are because of the words that can be found within it if it has the extra letter n. So, let's look at what Nannette itself means...

Nanette/Nannette is an independent name that is derived from the name for which it is also a nickname-- the name Ann/Anne. Ann/Anne is from the name Hannah and means grace or favor or mercy, sometimes phrased as those things being bestowed by God.

Additionally, the name Ana is rooted in also Ann/Anne. It is also a standalone word that means up in Greek, and is also used as a prefix to mean that in various words. The one most relevant to Good Omens is the ana- portion of anathema.

Ana is also a word located within one of Aziraphale's magic words-- one extremely relevant to S2: banana... and the bananafish.

The etymology of the name Ann/Anne when it is was used as a male name is connected to names related to arn, as in the name Arnold. You know, like, Mr. Arnold of Arnold's Music Shop...

What's also interesting about this is that if you look at the film video where we're looking through the window of The Teal Bookshop and we can see Michael Sheen's character point towards something or someone further into the shop? There appears to be someone else in the shop besides him and Tennant's character. It's hard to tell exactly but that character looks it might be being played by Rich Keeble, who played Mr. Arnold in S2. It appeared to me to be the same actor but it might be all too far away to really 100% tell.

One thing about Mr. Arnold's name, which we now can see is tied a bit to Nannette, is that the arn of it is actually a really significant word in Good Omens. An arn is a sea eagle and, chronologically, it's also the very first hidden word set up for the audience to find in the Good Omens tv series.

It's the word that is hidden inside the words that forms the directions for doing what it is that I'm doing with looking at words-within-words in the first place-- the visual reference to etymology that is the word war being the first thing we're shown in the series and then it revealed to be a word within the word warning.

Everything on the tv set floating in space-- the visual that is screaming "streaming television, like this show" at the audience-- are, when you take them apart, directions to the wordplay happening in the story. It's one of several keys to it that are sprinkled throughout, including things like the nightingales, Demon's Guide, Aziraphale's magic words, etc..

If you take the words-within-words direction in war/warning and then turn around and use it on the word warning, the other hidden word you find there is the word arn-- the sea eagle. A sea-oriented bird is right there at the start, showing the importance of the figurative language around birds and fish/the sea and their inclusion in the hidden language right off the bat.

So, besides the Ann/Anne/Annette that we already looked at above, what other words are there within Nannette?

Nan, nann, net, and nette. Also: the near-homophone nénette.

Nan is a female proper name itself and was originally a nickname for Ann before becoming much more commonly one for pretty obvious reasons for the name Nancy. If you thought we were potentially just looking at anathema above for more the definition of the word than the character with that name, here's where I'll say there could be something else (at least a thematic something else) going on with The Teal Bookshop that is tied to the Device family here because the name Nancy? It's now considered a name in its own right but it began as a nickname for the Middle English name Annis...

....which was just an alternate spelling of the name Agnes.

But there's more...

Nan has also been a shortened bit of slang for a nanny since around the 1930s. Nanny-- which, at one time, was also a nickname for Ann/Anne-- is, as we know, a word used for an adult caregiver of small children who is not also their parent, and one of Crowley's former professions.

Speaking of Crowley, nanny is a word that derived from the animal kingdom, specifically from the word for a female goat: the nanny-goat.

Additionally, the Mrs. Sandwich's of the 1700s would have been running what would have been called in the slang of that time a nanny-house. There is also that a nan once meant the same thing as the derogative term of a nancy boy, used to refer to a male-presenting being who was perceived as being effeminate.

The word nanny comes from the Greek nanna, which meant aunt, like in Aziraphale's flirty French in S2...

The Greek nanna is also the root of the word nana, a term sometimes used in days of old by children to refer to their nanny but which is more commonly used to refer to a grandmother. It's off of this that nan is also used in The U.K. the same way as nana to mean a grandmother.

This potentially adds to Clues in S2 that seem to suggest that Crowley and Aziraphale are Maggie's great-grandparents. It might also potentially support the idea that Michael Sheen isn't actually playing Aziraphale in the filmed scene in the bookshop but Crowley and Aziraphale's grandson. After all, it seems unlikely that they don't do every aspect of fell in a story this word-happy and we're basically missing fell pregnant at this point and there's a midwife right there...

Interestingly enough, nan is also considered an infrequently-used-but-in-existence alternative spelling of naan, as in the delicious bread. The word naan comes from the Persian nân (Persian: نان), which is a word that refers to any variety of bread. Bread is also used throughout many different languages as a word for food in general. I don't speak this language so I'm not 100% on this but I did see a source that said that, in Northern Kurdish, nan is also vulgar slang for to have sex with, kind of like an equivalent to saying to fuck in English. *gestures at the food and sex and all the bread of Good Omens and yeah seems about right lol*

What else is in these Nannette words?

Nann: A nann is a dwarf. In literature, a dwarf was also a supernatural being of small stature... technically, Crowley turned into a literary form of a dwarf in a rather alarming setting in 1827. He drank poison then lost control of his corporation, all within a mausoleum in a graveyard. I bring the death aspect of his dwarf plot because the other use of dwarf, as we know, relates to luminosity and the stars.

A star that is small or dim in light is referred to as a dwarf star.

Our Villain referred to Muriel as "the dim one" in 2.06 (and he can go fuck himself for that) and lights dimming/flickering/going on or off are a whole thing.

There's also that S2 began with the stars being set in the sky and Lesley the delivery guy faded to the stars when he died in S1. We might see the light dimming/going out as maybe relating to death and falling?

Also within Nannette is net: A net, as we know, is a trap. It is a trap most frequently used for fish and birds.

Dagon-- the fish-- knows of traps and she warned about the cardboard box, which our evil memory-thief Saraqael dismissed. I'm inclined, though, to believe that Dagon was onto something here...

Etymologically, the word net has origins in describing spider webs, and we have that whole insect analogy happening: ants, flies, bees, dust mites, murder hornets, etc... the worm in the Valentine's Day teaser. I cannot remember for the life of me right now where exactly I noticed it but somewhere in S2 there's a bit of wordplay that seems to correlate Crowley to a spider. The point of the insect thing seems to be that most of the living beings are more than one of them-- flies are Lord Beelzebub's department, after all-- so it probably doesn't much matter which character is a metaphorical spider because, to some extent, they probably all are.

Finally, there's the pretty much homophonic nénette.

Nénette is French colloquial slang, both for lady bits and for a girlfriend. It is old slang, in a similar in sense of use to "a broad" in the U.S. and "me/my bird" in The U.K.. It is also an archaic word for the head.

Within nénette is nene, which is the nene bird, a Hawai'ian goose, and goes along with themes/figurative language/cant words around America and waterfowl...

...and the word nen, which is a Middle Low German word that means nothing. It is part of the origins of the word none, which is a bit unnerving...

I normally don't unscramble the letters a lot but I did find something fun with Nannette that I thought was worth mentioning...

...Tennant. 😉

Tennant is also a spelling variant of tenant in a way similar to Nanette/Nannette and tenants are relevant to Aziraphale being a landlord.

Pretty much the only conclusion I can come to definitively so far is that they would have been hard-pressed to name this street anything more Good Omens than Nannette. 😂

[dgcatanisiri]

I've seen it said on occasion that it was a refreshing change to have the Inquisitor be unable to persuade and change the minds of the characters around them, that the characters felt "more real" that a brief conversation shouldn't change their entire worldview.

This is bull.

First of all, no one asked for their entire worldview to change, just that they GIVE a little - argue with Vivienne about the merits of mage freedom, be able to point out that fear is learned as much as anything, that the fear of mages has been taught because mages are not allowed to be part of the world that the common folk experience, or even that her view of magic is not shared BECAUSE it comes from so lofty a position in society, as she is a First Enchanter, leader of the Loyalists, mistress to the head of the Council of Heralds. Or, here's one of my personal favorites, the vote to break away from the Circles may have passed by a narrow margin, but it still PASSED, and if Fiona had refused to accept that, she'd have faced a hundred minor revolts instead of a singular organized one, which would have meant that the few who went around, burniating the countryside, would be seen as representative of them all, while have an organized structure to the rebellion allowed them the ability to disavow bad actors.

It's asking Sera to acknowledge that there's more nuance than her definitions of the world offer, or countering to Cassandra that, particularly if she intends to take a position of top authority in the Chantry, she needs to be able to look beyond its dogma and realize that to those who follow a separate faith, the Chant of Light is a herald of death, an omen of doom, because it refuses to allow any who follow a separate faith. It's telling Solas that the Dalish have been forced to build their history from tattered scraps, and rather than condemn them for what they lack, he should acknowledge and appreciate what they've recovered with no more than a vague notion of what the original picture looked like.

Y'know, it's asking to be able to actually ARGUE with these characters, rather than be lectured to by them about how THEIR views are the only proper way to view things, even if those views fly in the face of our experiences as the players, or even just how we roleplay a singular character. BioWare tries to talk up a stance of grey morality and a desire for the answers to be more than black and white, yet here in Inquisition, you ONLY get their stance, and, if you don't agree with it, you are dismissed - which also causes a lot of problems with something like the approval metric, where if you DON'T agree with a character, you'll never manage to unlock their full content - I am generally rolling a male Qunari Inquisitor, and yet I have, in over a dozen characters, only ONCE managed to obtain the rooftop cookies scene with Sera. If you don't get these scenes of character development, then you don't get to have a full view of a character.

And then there's the second and bigger issue - With most of the characters being various flavors of Andrastrian, with most if not all of them buying in to the narrative of the Inquisitor as the Herald of Andraste, a position that is borderline messianic within their religion, why do they NOT listen to the words that the Inquisitor says? If Skyhold becomes a place of pilgrimage as Cassandra notes in the arrival at Skyhold scene, if the Inquisitor is a voice of authority in Thedas like everything the game tells us, why SHOULDN'T their words carry weight, especially with the people closest to them? Why is the Inquisitor NOT persuasive to the people who know them when they believe through much of the game that they have been touched by a divine figure?

It doesn't make sense for the Inquisitor to lack in persuasive ability when the whole game is about how they have become a powerful voice and figure within the world.

So, no. It is NOT a good thing that the characters effectively brush off any attempt that the Inquisitor makes to argue with their stances.

[grimoire-of-geekery]

What is your advice for someone who can read tarot relatively okay for other people but is trash when it comes to reading for themself? (Cards dont make sense and literally every card is reversed despite careful shuffling to get a healthy mix of both upright and reversed cards)

*hugs* I know that frustration all too well.

Ok, so here are some things I say to everyone where tarot reading is concerned:

It's not just what the cards say, it's what they don't say. A tarot deck works by representing the whole world and all of the various turns and twists of fate people can experience. When Death shows up, but not the Ten of Swords, that's because you're dealing with Death, but not in the form of an ending. Likewise, if the Three of Coins appears and not the Eight, then your experience will reflect financial growth and demonstration of your mastery, rather than the learning of that skillset.

For this reason, I encourage diviners to adopt a different method for reading inversions than "the bad version of this card" or "the opposite." For the latter, there's already a card in the deck for any "opposite" meaning you could come up with. For the former... every card can be bad or good in the right circumstance. For myself, I use a method where the inverted cards are signs that the querent will have difficulty understanding that card, and I should take pains to carefully explain that one, pointing out nuances that might be missed. Generally it means the card is "shadowed," or their own beliefs and views obstruct the truth. Another really good one I read recently is the idea of an upright card being "invoked" and an inverted card being "banished," which is a very interesting perspective. I like the idea of "this card is departing from you, or taking its blessing/curse/experience away."

Those two things I say to everyone, just to clear space. The first really specific piece of advice I'd give to you if you're having trouble reading for yourself is do not add cards. Read what's already there. Take a picture of it, note everything in a journal, and look at it periodically. Focus not on what your feeling is, but what the card means. Do research, look it up in books, especially your own writings on the card if you have them. Seriously, adding too many cards makes the reading even harder to read. "Clarification" cards are a joke.

In addition, check your spread. The spreads we use are how we talk to the world and ask for information. Make sure that when you lay those cards in that pattern, you actually want the information the spread can offer. If you're looking for advice, don't ask a spread that's solely about prediction, that sort of thing.

I'd also suggest you take a look at the deck and see if it really expresses how you experience the world, and then I'd do divination that has nothing to do with your wishes for a while, to see if it can accurately relate the world to you. I wanna be specific here- what I'm talking about here is not how you wish the world was, but rather how you experience the world as it is. The deck is meant to reflect the world as it is, and reveal its secrets to you, and if the deck isn't doing that for you in your readings, you may need to use a different deck, or maybe even a different divination method at all.

If all your cards are coming up inverted all the time, that's a sign. The deck is specifically speaking to you and saying something to you. If it were my own deck, that would be a message that "you ain't gonna get it, so you may as well stop asking." I can't say what that omen means for you, but I would consider it a big one, maybe a step or two above "stalker" cards, and just below the significance of a reading that's more than 80% one suit. If that's the case, I'd ask your cards what they're trying to tell you that you're not getting, and record the answers. For myself, I use three-card combinations for those kinds of specific questions.

If you wanna reach out and talk to me more in depth, I'm definitely available if you wanna come off anon and have a conversation, or you can just send a few more anon asks if that's your comfort level. I hope I helped, one way or another. *hugs*

[thoughts-of-bear-undercovers]

Get to know your mutuals

Thanks so much for tagging me @joelsprettyprincess

what's the origin of your blog title?: @thoughts-of-bear is my Halsin fan blog so Halsin = bear guy = me thinking of him all day = thoughts of bear

OTP(s) + shipname: I don't ship much, but I love Ineffable Husbands, Hannigram and Trephacard. I probably forgot some that I like tho

favorite color: Definetly green! I love all kinds of green. But lately orange and other warm colours have grown on me too <3

favorite game: probably still Baldur's Gate 3, maybe Skyrim. I've been spending time with RDR2 too and I really love that too. Although I too have the most hours in the Sims 4 XD

song stuck in your head: right now, none I think.

weirdest habit/trait?: probably being on this platform XD

hobbies: ballet, sewing, videogames, reading, all things art, swimming, listening to music...

if you work, what's your profession? I just got the job as a swimming teacher for little kids <3 but mainly i'm at school (apprenticeship to become a tailor)

if you could have any job you wish what would it be? costume designer, which is my plan I just hope i get to work on some bigger projects later on. my dream would be hollywood or something along those lines

something you're good at: I've been doing ballet for almost 17 years now so that I guess... and sewing

something you're bad at: talking about my feelings ^^ uhh keeping my plants alive... sports that involve catching and/ or throwing things... driving...

something you love: my cat <3 and watching the sunset ... stars ... flowers and trees and fresh air... my bed...

something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: Tolkien's work probably. He is my favourite author and the greatest fandom for me. I've read almost all the books (several times) and even started learning Sindarin at one point XD

something you hate: heartless people. it's just so tiring to see all the hate in the world and the people who hurt so many others simply for their own benefit.

something you collect: do books count?

something you forget: Names. I'm terrible at names (and associating faces with them). I've gotten better at appointments tho

what's your love language?: apart from the fact that I don't really subscribe to the "love language" concept, I've also never been in a proper, longer relationship

favorite movie/show: movie: Lotr obviously, but also those; shows: used to be Good Omens before the whole NG thing :/ I still love my idiots tho... also Stranger Things, Our Flag Means Death, Sherlock, Merlin, TLOU and more

favorite food: oof that is a good question. i love all kinds of food that isn't spicy. but maybe indian dal? or my dad's spaghetti...

favorite animal: goats! I love goats! i want a goat! also snakes and cats

what were you like as a child? umm idk i think i was generally well-behaved, creative and a friendly kid. I definetly know that I've always loved sleeping and was a book-worm

favorite subject at school? chemistry and art!

least favorite subject? sports...and french

what's your best character trait? i've been told i am very kind and i love to help people. and one (1) person finds me funny i'm very proud of that

what's your worst character trait? i cannot stand up for myself and I feel like sometimes i'm a little arrogant (unintentionally)

if you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be? cough should go away :/

if you could travel in time who would you like to meet? that is my favourite superpower!!!! i think Tolkien first, maybe try going to a Queen concert then or idk maybe tell Mary Shelley that i loved Frankenstein...or Monet and his paintings... there's too many options

recommend one of your favorite fanfics (spread the love!): You dare make me decide??? Here's my list that i made some time ago... i gotta add Homecoming by @saintchroma there!! And my favourite RDR2 fic is Baptized by Fire by @hihomeghere. Yeah I probably forgot lots of stuff, but don't be mad pls >.<

I have annoyed too many people via tag lately so I will just leave this open for everyone who wants to participate ^^ have fun people

I love you my moots <3

[inne-edoftherapy]

Good Omens Title Sequence theory

Recently I saw a post where Neil answered an ask about whether there are any clues about season 3 in the season 2 title sequence and he said yes. So I rewatched the sequence couple of times, made screenshots and i also watched BTS of making it. Here is what I found:

In the later part of the title sequence, that is also named the Finale, which was also what Neil described season 3 as, Crowley and Aziraphale seam to lead the huge group of demons and angels to the cinema, I first thought it was just demons, but you can see both Gabriel and Saraquel up front. What caught my attention I that already in the title sequence we can see a banner that says “the second coming”, it’s next to Muriel and it is one of the many other banners, but is the most clear to read. I tried to read others and this is what I got, it’s not a lot, I am lowkey blind and these are blurry: 

Exodus - which is by definition a mass departure of people. The biblical exodus we know is departure of Israelites from Egypt. The whole Moses talks to a burning bush God, brings down the ten commandments, parts the Red Sea. I could be either a future flashback that we will see or it could literally describe the mass leaving of demons and angels, that we can see in the title sequence, lead by Aziraphale and Crowley, first towards the cinema and the up the mountain of what I think is trash or just bunch of things with a very gloomy door at the end which might represent God, because it seams like the most obvious answer, but considering God in the show does not interact as much, they probably need to go through his receptionist - Metatron. As to what I feel about Metatron and his cosmic oat milk latte and the sinister music that accompanied him as he stared sown Crowley, well another show about angels I watched (it’s Supernatural) taught me that Metatron is generally evil and manipulative. 

Here is the glowy door.

Redemption time - by definition the action of saving of being saved from sin, error, or evil. It might seem that it adresses the demons, but in my opinion it doesn’t really make sense? I think it rather refers to the saving Earth from evil, which might be the second coming so maybe also Metatron and the great plan?  Still working on why, but I guess since the whole bunch is lead by Crowley and Aziraphale, it seems like a huge revolution. 

The Kingdom Come - either death, heaven and/or the next world. It’s in one of the prayers - “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” To be quite honest here is where my interpretation skills die.  I think it might be them bringing “kingdom come”, death, end to the great plan/Metatron, bc I don’t think you can kill God? That makes the most sense to me. 

I also noticed a bunch of different era Crowleys that I don’t think we’ve seen in this season? But I might be delusional. 

BUT ITS JUST A THEORY ! ok matpat wannabe

(All screenshots are from the title sequence found on youtube)

[biihanka]

I think the reason why Izzy dying is bothering me so much is bc OFMD is one of the shows that came out right after the superwholock queerbaiting era was ending, and for the first time I thought that "it's okay if my old fave characters didn't had a happy ending bc new characters are coming and it's possible now"

If you where on the fandom back in the day you know what I'm talking about, like it was queerbaiting all the time on these shows. But then Good Omens, OFMD, WWDITS, IWTV came and this new generation of openly queer series and characters took over my life and I was "okay I think I found my safe spot here".

I never cried as much for a characters death like I did for Dean, at the time I even felt relieved that he died bc this bs show would be over and I would never have to go trought that again. I was very wrong. Having showwriters dismiss and treat your faves bad bc of whatever reason, budget cuts, limited episodes, idc is no excuse for bad writing.

In Izzy's case, it literally felt like a deja vu to Dean, spending a whole night crying when there's work the next day, the sadness as if it was a real person who died, almost same circunstances for them too, either from bts problems or show storytelling, it was rushed, it was stupid, it was abusive to characters that finally had a chance at a happy life... either way I could be here all day now but it won't change shit.

I already said why Izzy was my fave and I don't want to sound like a broken record but damn I thought it was gonna be different this time :´)

EDIT: I'm gonna add a little something here that I forgot, sorry I'm really not doing well, but:

The worst of all too is that Izzy is an openly queer character! When I say Izzy's death devasted me is because it felt like I was being queerbaited again!

Yes I know, Lgbtqia+ characters can die on stories and it's okay, I agree, but when you come from a background like this, and literally one of the firsts new gen queer shows pulls these same tactic as the other previous one who traumatized you, well we can feel a little betrayed.

[spacefunclubs]

Actually makes me so upset looking up YouTube and Twitter in the Doctor Who and David Tennant tags and seeing so many transphobes and bigoted losers complain about the latest specials being "woke" over that small scene of Fourteen asking the Meep its pronouns and the metacrisis resolution between Donna and Rose.

It's actually so disheartening, seeing so many people missing the fucking point of Doctor Who, and these are also the same people who shat on Jodie's entire run bc BWAAAA, WAHMAN NO BE DOCTOR!!1!1! and lord knows what's gonna happen when Ncuti's run finally begins and what he'll have to endure with these bigoted losers with a huge ass victim complex. Doctor Who is a show that has been vocally anti-fascist since the beginning with episodes reflecting the UK recovering from the effects of WWII with the Daleks being a metaphor for Nazis, feminism, or hell, even episodes in the new run of Doctor Who way back when it started in 2005 talking about themes of slavery, government corruption, and even subtle LGBT+ themes with Jack Harkness being an openly flirtatious bisexual, Bill Potts being openly lesbian, and hell, even Martha being the first black companion in Doctor Who history (Bill being the second). Not to mention the Twelfth Doctor, who these "fans" claim they stopped watching the show after he regenerated but completely gloss over this fact, sucker punching a racist who was harassing Bill. Not to mention the Doctor as a whole character growing more love and empathy with every new regeneration and not being afraid to emotionally express themselves with love instead of having to hide it, something these "fans" fail to have or even see and understand. So yeah, your "pwecious wittle show" has always been this way, believe it or not!!

And I am SO tired of seeing posts of these bigots asking how much David Tennant got paid for saying that pronoun line or even seeing dumbass video thumbnails of David Tennant saying stupid shit like "RIP DOCTOR WHO" when these assholes gloss over the fact that not only would his character (or any incarnation of the Doctor in general) would HATE these types of people, but also David in general. This whole year, he has been openly showing his support for the LGBT+ community, ESPECIALLY trans and nonbinary folks, between pride pins, the "Leave Trans Kids Alone" shirt, and even voicing his support at certain conventions. AND not to mention his lips were on Michael Sheen in the last season of Good Omens this summer (and his character being a genderfluid demonic entity similar to the Doctor) AND even WAY before that (Richard II) AND playing a trans woman A WHOLE 3 decades ago WAY BEFORE his Doctor Who fame. So no, he wasn't paid to do this shit, he's been doing this for FREE, which is what it costs y'all to not be an asshole. And, not to boast, but when I met him at New York Comic Con last month, I felt so safe around him even with just those few moments when I met him. He's the most kind, humble, gentle hearted soul on this planet and basically the only celebrity I stan bc of all this, so no, I don't think he would support your ideals bc you're just sad and pathetic chronically online cry babies that never felt a touch of a real person.

So fucking tired of dudebros feeling like they're entitled to their "pwecious wittle show" over being "woke" (which BTW, that word has been so overused to death, I don't even think these people know what it even means anymore and just use it as a meaningless insult) when really, they're just coping and seething over the fact that this show ain't for them and wanna be angry for the sake of being angry. So by all means, fuck off and take your anger elsewhere bc we clearly don't need it and it's making me and every other sane fan uncomfortable with your unprovoked anger. It's a trend that I've seen grow between this fandom, the Star Wars fandom, or any other geek-centric fandom online ever since Trump was in power, and it's really sad to see this type of bigotry grow in fan spaces like this. Y'all are better than this, get some help.

[l-in-the-light]

♥️ Your account. Wanna tell sth about yourself? 😋👀

Thank you for liking my account and enjoying its contents! ❤ Say something about myself... um, yeah, sure? So... what should I even say? I'm probably just gonna infodump some facts and interests of mine, and it will turn into a mini essay. I'm sorry, I'm just bad with things like that, but I tried! 😭

I won't be namedropping mysef, but you can call me anyway you like and use any pronouns you want for me too. My zodiac sign is Aquarius. I'm asexual, usually way too blunt (I try my best not to be though) and I'm a rather anxious person in general welp. I was born and lived my whole life in Poland (that forgotten European country, yep), but I'm in love with Osaka ever since I first visited it. I studied philosophy and anthropology at uni (I had also a short two-semester course of psychology).

I have been a manga&anime fan since elementary school back in the 90s. That's when I learned Sailor Moon is a Japanese anime and then I realized most of the animated shows I watched in kindergarten were also Japanese, like Yattaman, Kaiketsu Zoro or General Daimos. You could say I somewhat grew up with animes while not having any idea about it (I did watch other cartoons, but I didn't love them as much as the ones I mentioned. Animes were always captivating on a completely different level to me. The exception was some Disney movies, I was totally crazy over The Lion King). As a child I dreamed of being a superhero and to be able to read other people's thoughts, I blame Yattaman for that somehow lol.

My love to animes slowly grew over the years into fascination with the country of their origin itself. That means I devoured more and more Japanese (pop)culture like music (from anime openings, visual kei to Japanese idol groups; I started from L'arc en Ciel and Gackt, but my biggest love is Kinki Kids), books, movies and live action series, food etc. I fell in love with sushi after tasting it in the first ever opened sushi restaurant in my town. The first time I tried Pocky (I still remember it was strawberry flavour!) was when a friend brought me a single package as a souvenir from their trip, haha. I have been totally crazy about Japanese snacks for a while now. Anything with melon cream soda flavour or any senbei crackers would be easily my favourite, but I also wouldn't chicken out from trying really odd flavours (takoyaki or wasabi flavoured sweet carbonated drink? Count me in! Also wasabi is awesome).

I used to read tons of mangas and watch lots of animes; I have many more-or-less recent favourite series (like Assassination Classroom, Angels of Death or The Way of the House Husband), but over the years there are only some of them I always end up coming back to, no matter how many years have passed. Those are: all Clamp titles (Tokyo Babylon and Card Captor Sakura especially), Death Note (I used to read it when it was just starting coming out, crazy), Saiyuki by Kazuya Minekura, Please Save My Earth, some Ghibli movies (my favourite is Spirited Away), Slayers (anime), Rurouni Kenshin. One Piece now joined the parade of my all time favourites :D

I actually watched and read One Piece for the first time was when I was in high school, then came back to it at uni, then had a decade long break till my friend kicked my ass and told me to finally catch up and move on from Thriller Bark (which is where I stopped that decade ago, lol). I'm glad he made me take on the challenge, it was a while since I got so hooked and engaged in anything. It's also partially thanks to the Netflix's live action, it reignited the love for the series in me again as well. Yes, that means I caught up to be up to date rather recently, I believe it happened in January of this year only, lol. Have been pretty much obsessed ever since.

I adore Good Omens. If I had to choose only one movie to save for the future of mankind, it would be Battle Royale (has nothing to do with Fortnite btw lol). I love escape rooms and board games, but I have only one friend who sometimes likes to do them with me (you know who you are :D). I'm also a gamer, but I have a very peculiar game taste, I enjoy what most people wouldn't even touch with a stick, which is niche indie games, walking sims, puzzle games and horror games (especially, sometimes really obscure, Asian ones). Silent Hill 2 is gonna always be my most favourite game. The only multiplayer game I play is Dead by Daylight.

My favourite youtuber is John Wolfe, it started because of his series of random horror games, it ended with me just enjoying his vibe in general~ lately he does some ghost debunking vids too, it's so entertaining :D

My favourite holiday is Halloween, even though we actually don't celebrate it here so I could never go trick or treating myself, sadly. I'm kinda a tea addict, I love black teas (especially with aromas and things like petals or fruits in it), green teas (sakura green tea ❤), white teas (my favourite is with rose), darjeeling... the only teas I don't like at all are irish cream and earl gray, I'm sorry xD I also don't drink coffee or alcohol because they're too bitter for me, I have a sweet tooth (my hyperfocusing brain mode runs solely on sugar). But if Law joins the Strawhats, just like I predict will happen, I *will* make an exception and drink to that. A freaking rum, even, because arrrr! :D

I also love cats and have one currently, he's called Felix and he is adorable and silly, typical short-haired, white and gray fur cat :D

[invisibleicewands]

Michael Sheen: ‘I find it very hard to accept actors playing Welsh characters when they aren’t Welsh’

Has he taken the concept of authentic casting to a whole new level? Ahead of his latest BBC drama Best Interests, the star explains all

Michael Sheen has had it with the Prince of Wales. Not the man, but the title. “I think it’s ridiculous,” he says. “It’s just silly. I see no reason why the title should continue. Certainly not with someone who’s not Welsh.” 

“That’s not the majority view,” he adds, with resignation. “So, whatever the majority of people want, I’m sure will continue.” 

The star of Frost/Nixon and proud son of Port Talbot is chatting via video from a bucolic spot close to his hometown (a deer has just wandered into view), but even at a distance, it’s not hard to see that Sheen is a man ofstrong convictions.

He has spoken in the past about the opportunity to retire the title after the death of Elizabeth II, as a gesture to “put some of the wrongs of the past right”. In 2020, he returned the OBE he was “honoured” to have received in 2009 when he felt it would make him a hypocrite to give a lecture about how the English king Edward I “put a stranglehold on Wales” at the turn of the 14th century. 

When we chat, he’s about to begin shooting his TV directing debut The Way – co-created with playwright James Graham and documentary-maker Adam Curtis, about a family caught in a civil uprising, set in and around Port Talbot. The BBC project is the first from the production company that he set up with Sherlock producer Bethan Jones to focus on telling Welsh stories because, “You can shout about how bad it is, but if you want to see something be different then do it, you know?”

The 54-year-old is one of the actors of his generation, a stage star in his twenties (The Telegraph’s Charles Spencer called him “outrageously charismatic”) who went on to create unforgettable screen portraits of Tony Blair (The Queen, The Deal), Chris Tarrant (Quiz) and Brian Clough (The Damned United), alongside his David Frost in Peter Morgan’s play and film about the 1977 interviews that brought down the US president. Recently, Sheen has gained a whole new tranche of fans playing a very arch angel opposite David Tennant’s insouciant demon in Amazon’s Good Omens – not technically gay characters according to the Terry Pratchett-Neil Gaiman source novel, but seemingly in love.

Tennant and he have a natural chemistry on and off screen, Sheen says, adding that “he stops me being too grumpy”. He is a little on the grumpy side. In one exchange, in which I suggest he is a supporter of Welsh independence, he responds hotly: “Show me where it says that. I don’t believe I’ve ever said that.” Sam Mendes compared Sheen to fellow Welsh stars Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton – “fiery, mercurial, unpredictable”. 

But he shares a warm screen chemistry with Sharon Horgan in Jack Thorne’s moving new four-part drama Best Interests. They play the parents of a child with cerebral palsy, the adorable Marnie (played by Dublin actor Niamh Moriarty), who suffers a seizure that leaves her without brain function. The couple find themselves on opposite sides of an unbearable decision: whether or not to switch off their daughter’s life support. Very few will make it through the drama without tears, but the issues it raises will be familiar to all who have followed recent legal battles over 12-year-old Archie Battersbee and baby Alfie Evans. 

Best Interests is “heartbreaking” at times, he admits, which makes the humour that he and Horgan bring to it all the more important. They hadn’t worked together before. “That relationship had to do a lot of heavy lifting. Sharon and I didn’t know each other very well … but straight from the off, we had a very similar sense of humour and made each other laugh.” Moriarty’s is a break-out performance – one scene involving make-up beautifully captures the parent-child relationship. She has cerebral palsy that affects her legs, a condition called spastic diplegia, but she’s not the only disabled actor in the piece. 

Bafta-winner Lenny Rush, 14, who in real-life has a condition that affects his growth, is brilliant as George, who sets his cap at Marnie. Mat Fraser, who plays a legal advocate in Best Interests and portrayed Shakespeare’s Richard III in 2017, has a thalidomide impairment, which likely gave him an insight into Richard’s sense of “my deformity”. 

Thorne, who experienced a chronic medical condition in his twenties, has said in the past that disabled people have been “utterly and totally” failed by the TV industry. In Best Interests, one parent of a child with a disability states baldly that people “hate” disabled people. “I think people can feel very uncomfortable around people with disabilities,” Sheen says. “A lot of the time it’s just to do with ignorance about, ‘Oh gosh, I don’t know, what should I do?’ It can make interaction quite awkward at times, and it can bring out people’s fears.”

The fact that there were several people with disabilities working on the project, he says, was striking because it brought home how rarely he had seen it before. It leads into a discussion of how far actors can credibly play identities they don’t personally inhabit. Sheen has thought about it: “You know, seeing people playing Welsh characters who are not Welsh, I find, it’s very hard for me to accept that. Not particularly on a point of principle, but just knowing that that’s not the case.

“That’s a very different end of the spectrum, but a part like Richard III is such a great character to play, it would be sad to think that that character, you know, is no longer available or appropriate for actors to play who don’t have disabilities, but that’s because I’m just not used to it yet, I suppose. Because I fully accept that I’m  not going to be playing Othello any time soon.

“Again, it’s not particularly a point of principle, but personally, I haven’t seen many actors who have come from quite privileged backgrounds being particularly compelling as people from working-class backgrounds. If you haven’t experienced something, you know, the extreme example is, well, if you haven’t murdered someone, can you play a murderer?”

In 2021, it was reported that Sheen intended to be a “not-for-profit” actor, after selling his own properties to ensure the Homeless World Cup that he had organised in Cardiff in 2019 went ahead when funders withdrew. So, what is a not-for-profit actor?

“There’s no such thing,” he says. “In that interview, I talked about how the ideal I was aiming towards was working like a not-for-profit company. When I put the money into the Homeless World Cup, since then I only owe money, so in terms of profits, there are no profits. I put as much of the money I make as I possibly can into either funding and supporting what other people are doing that I believe in, or starting up projects myself.” 

It’s a measure of Sheen’s confidence that he knows the parts will keep coming. He has become a father again in his 50s; he and his partner, 28-year-old Swedish actor Anna Lundberg, have two young daughters. “My knees creak a lot more,” he says. “It’s a lot harder to get up and down off the floor when you’re playing with the baby.” 

Sheen also has a grown-up daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, 24, from an earlier relationship with British actress Kate Beckinsale. “When my eldest daughter was born, I was still trying to make my way in my career and having to make harder choices about whether to work away from home and how much time to be away and all that stuff,” he says. “This time around, that’s not as difficult as I’m more established as an actor. Physically, it’s hard. But the one thing that is always the same is, you know, poo doesn’t smell any better.”

[zephyruswrites536]

I’m going to make a statement about Mammalian Sighing Reflex because I used to be a strong SBI-DSMP fan, still SBI fan. So if you dislike DSMP in any capacity and just want to hate move away, I don’t like Dream, I was never a true fan of him, as I said SBI.

Now, any Lovejoy fans who also know Wilbur Soot or the ones like me who went through Wilbur’s music and then was there for Lovejoy’s first EP.

Mammalian Sighing Reflex is such a good album. Someone on Reddit described it in its literal sense(I believe) that Mammalian Sighing Reflex is the Reflex that makes a Mammal stop itself from drowning because it needs to stay alive. A human however can stop this from self-control. It’s our primal instinct to save ourselves and that’s what it’s about, the primal instinct to not drown yourself. I probably summarized it slightly wrong- who knows.

As I am American I did not get this first and I believe we were last… anyways

Every song matches up to the next, it’s like Abbey Road’s side B but more depressing. Honestly the whole second half of the Album just hits closer to home than the rest and it just sounds good to me anyways.

I was saying, I can like almost anything Wilbur specifically makes because I have know and heard and loved his music for years now, almost two and a half.

Also, I forgot to mention- the reflex is a panic attack in the animal to survive, it knows it’s dying and is terrified/panicked. Well, any long term(I know I’m not an OG but i have been a fan for two and a half years) Wilbur fans know he has anxiety- I forget if it’s Social or just generalized- but he has talked about having Panic attacks from a young age.

That clues in the album name as well as a decent portion of the songs’ content.

Don’t fully listen to what I’m saying because the music is flowing through my ears and I’m picking up little bits so.

I don’t know which exactly but one of the first four songs there are lyrics about being on tour or heavily suggest a band kind of perspective.

He talked about having a panic attack on stage because he’d forgotten how to play “La Jolla” and I think that’s connects again to the album name.

What I was going to say though is again, before Lovejoy was a thing so SBI DSMP or Wilbur fans are thé ones I’m speaking to now, we all know the beginning of 2021 sucked for Wilbur. In “I don’t think it will end”(very good, makes me feel seen and that’s what this album is for) he describes how he hides away, and a very popular Crimebois quote is when he had talked about how he was sleeping in till the afternoon then would just scroll aimlessly on his phone but Tommy would text him saying “come talk to me” so he’d get up and get ready. The cycle he talks about fits in with that very well to me.

Wilbur splices recordings of himself into it, I know because almost all of us who were his fans in 2020 and 2021 know about the “field video” where he talks about how he could be easily killed by a sniper and not be found for days. From that I can recognize his younger voice and I think it’s in at least two videos, Amazon Standing Lamp and Glass Chalet- I believe-.

That’s all the investigation I’m doing from subconsciously picking up lyrics, so here’s this. This is obviously not my normal content so Good Omens and Our flag means death and The Magnus Archives enjoyers I’m sorry, but the creator means a decent amount to me and now does this album.