#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!

[one-black-coffeee]

a list of Good Omens season 2 things from episodes 1-3 that i haven’t seen mentioned in other posts

how much Aziraphale loves music. the way he sighs when his record is interrupted, how he mopes to the front of the shop because he just wanted to listen to the beautiful human creation

the smile Aziraphale has on his face as Jim/Gabriel says “when you don’t know anything at all, and yet you’re totally certain that everything would be better if you were just near one particular person” because yes! he does know! and Aziraphale is so happy to have that knowledge even if he does almost immediately try to hide it

Aziraphale immediately looking to his left when Crowley walks past him in the coffee shop. Crowley is generally to Aziraphale’s left so, naturally, that’s where he looks as soon as he knows Crowley is approaching. but he’s wrong, isn’t he? Crowley walks to the right.

“Give Me Coffee…” material, human pleasure “Or Give Me Death” immortal, heavenly eternity

“no, I would love you to help me. I am asking you to help me take care of him.” Aziraphale isn’t trying to push Crowley away. not with Jim/Gabriel, not with Heaven. he always wants Crowley with him, helping him. and he tells isn’t pretending otherwise anymore

a fly crawling along the bentley’s windshield even before Crowley gets in the car

the deal Beezlebub gives Crowley is the same as the one the Metatron gives Aziraphale, isn’t it? it’s a choice to go back to Hell/Heaven. the difference is in the way Crowley and Aziraphale think. Crowley sees Beezlebub’s olive branch as a trap, a forfeiture of the contented life he has on earth. the system is too broken to be fixed from a position of power. Aziraphale, though, does see it as an opportunity to fix what’s broken

right after Crowley destroys Job’s goats, cores fly away behind him

Aziraphale loves the romantic aspects of love but doesn’t know how to handle the difficult aspects. Maggie says she’s in love with Nina and Aziraphale smiles. Maggie says Nina has a partner, tells him that the situation is complicated, and he sobers, disappointed

the fact that the walls of Job’s home are the same color as the walls in Aziraphale’s bookshop (aka the color of Crowley’s eyes.) the whole of the Job minisope is to tempt Aziraphale. he tries human food for the first time, he works with Crowley for the first time, he lies to Heaven for the first time! everywhere, Aziraphale is met with temptation

Crowley cares for the innocent and the vulnerable. he humors Jemimah and makes her a blue salamander, he refuses to diminish the importance of the goats. when Aziraphale is worried about being a fallen angel, Crowley’s patient

every time Crowley performs a miracle, he draws his hand from the bottom (Hell) up. Aziraphale, however, draws his hand from top (Heaven) down

Michael, Uriel, and Saraqael (and Gabriel when he’s still the Supreme Archangel) wear a cold white. Muriel and Aziraphale wear a warmer, creamier white. except in the Job minisode. then, all the angels wear the warmer white— before Heaven turns cold and institutionalized. even the lighting of Heaven itself changes

Aziraphale invited Michael, Uriel, and Saraqael into the bookshop. they easily could have walked into the shop before Aziraphale got there, but they didn’t. because Aziraphale really does consider the bookshop partially Crowley’s! for the same reason Shax has to trick Aziraphale to get into the bentley, the angels have to wait for Aziraphale to enter the bookshop

Aziraphale popping up from behind the bentley as Crowley approaches and Crowley immediately offering him a “lift somewhere”

in the opening scene of episode three, the reflection just under Jim/Gabriel is “Give Me Coffee…” Gabriel and Beezlebub do get to choose “coffee.” they get to have their joy together

before Muriel interrupts their conversation, the dialogue between Crowley and Aziraphale in the back of the bookshop is shot from behind and over their shoulders. when Muriel opens the door, the angle shifts to face each of them

Aziraphale is not a good city driver.

the look Crowley gives Aziraphale after he turns Elspeth’s stolen body into bones. Aziraphale is so proud of himself, he even tells Crowley “I did a good things!” but Crowley knows better and he’s waiting for Aziraphale to realize the reality. and then the way Aziraphale hugs the jar with the dead boy’s tumor. he cares so much, he wants so desperately to be good and for the world to be good too

Aziraphale is as proud of his “newspaperman” disguise as Muriel is of their “inspector” disguise. how fond Aziraphale is of Muriel because they remind him of himself. a sweet, kind angel who just wants to do the good thing. an angel who is enamored with the human world. even as he and Muriel have tea together, he look at them so kindly. he knows their hesitancy to try human products but he also knows how thoroughly they would love that cup of tea if they’d just taste it

“it’s a bit different when it’s someone you know, isn’t it?” it’s a bit different when it’s not just some demon, when it’s a demon you know is, deep down and just below the surface, good.

that Aziraphale learns just as much from Crowley as Crowley learns from Aziraphale. episode three is Aziraphale beginning to learn the inequality between the wealthy and the poor. episode three is also Crowley learning balance between “the virtues of poverty” and just setting people up for a good life

Crowley, drunk on laudanum, looking for Aziraphale and not finding him because Aziraphale isn’t to his right like he should be. Aziraphale knows to look for Crowley on his left and Crowley knows to look for Aziraphale on his right

[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

[scatterbrainedart]

Alright, if we're still doing the winners' poem, let's talk through some Scar ideas I've seen floating around (and some of my own). But first, see this post breaking down the poem as a whole and explaining why Martyn is definitely mars, if you want.

The Earth:

Probably the most popular. And it makes sense. Scar, full of life, so full of tragedy. Forever growing, like the sunflowers of sunflower valley, and the flowers on his cape. The earth, revolving around the sun and having its tides pulled by the moon. Both of whom he fought to the death, one of whom he won.

A Solar Eclipse:

Ah, more sun and moon. The moon blocking out the sun. Something could be said for parallels of the fight. Of a denied sacrifice followed by a fight already over before it had even begun. A fight that was always going to end the way it did.

Or, perhaps, if we take it another direction. The secret keepers blacking out all his light. He won as a forced villain.

And of course, an eclipse just generally being a bad omen, which also fits into his villainy. It also slightly ties into the sunflowers of sunflower valley. Just a bit. A sliver.

A Black Hole:

Similarly to the eclipse, the black hole is also devoid of light. Even more dramatically so. But still, he has a gravity that managed to pull people in during their last moments.

Mercury:

If I use the same thought process as I did for Martyn's "mars", I must mention the roman god. Mercury was the Roman equivalent of Hermes. He was also the god of thievery, wealth, trading and language. And what is Scar known for, if not for his silver tounge and swindling? Mercury is also the god of luck. And although Scar hasn't really had all that good luck this season, it still drives me to think about the first episode. The hard task, that wasn't all that hard. And the warden, and wither. How he just couldn't seem to die. Luck, maybe.

Mercury is a small planet, often overlooked. I don't think many people expected Scar to be a threat this season, not when he initially struggled to keep both secrets and hearts.

It also has no moons. Scar has no allies. And yes, of course, it's the closest planet to the sun.

The Void:

This is the first season where the end has been unlocked. A cold, lonely place. Makes me think of the word "devoid", and how many things haven't Scar had taken away from him? Potential allies, a home burnt and blown to smithereens.

Pluto:

Barely even a planet. People wouldn't think he'd even be included in the line of notable celestial bodies for this poem. But then again, most people didn't think they'd see Scar win either. And definitely not in the season where taking any damage had lasting consequences. Similar to the point I made about mercury, but when more pointed tbh.

Pluto is the furthest away from the other planets. Pluto is lonely, terribly so. Pluto, who has been told time and time again what he is and what he isn't (planet status, villain tasks), which has alienated him from the other planet (still, it has that little heart looking shape on it. Like a scar. Like a wish to be loved).

Now, of course, the Roman god. Pluto is the god of wealth. Fitting for a man whose whole thing this season was trading (and who, in every other season, also had a thing for material goods and negotiating). Pluto is also the god of the dead. Scar is the only winner to have been killed (by another player, in the cactus ring) and the only winner to have survived.

[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*

[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.

[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.

My favourite writer is Neil Gaiman, my fav book of his is 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.

[envihellbender]

Hen or Chimney as DBD survivors o:

Howie “Chimney” Han

Lore

Chimney remembers when Chimney doesn’t remember. Or rather, he was on the outside witnessing the whole thing. At some point when the virus took hold so close to his Wedding day, Chimney was no longer Chimney. Only he knew it wasn’t really a virus, they didn’t see the cold, wet tendrils wrapping around his legs when he met the gentlemen stuck in the vents. They didn’t see it follow him for days afterwards or the fog slowly begin to cover everything. At some point, he simply split in two. He was like a ghost outside of his own body, watching his old self lumber around cluelessly, watching his amnesiac other half try to piece his life back together. He tried talking to everyone, everyone around his other body, Buck, Hen, Maddie, Jee-Yun… Everyone. It didn’t do any good. The fog got thicker and darker, until he couldn’t find the other Chimney, he did see his mother though, or at least what she would look like now. She was calling out to him, and he followed her voice. He followed it all the way to the camp fire.

Load-Out

Chimney has the following three unique Perks:

Small & Fast

You’re smaller and faster than your peers. When inside of the killer radius, your walking speed increases by 80/90/100%

Ornithophobia

A superstitious nature makes you instinctively hold your breath in anxiety when seeing a bad omen. When within 5/10/15 metres of a crow your screams of pain are muted by 70/80/90%.

Rebar On The Brain

It isn’t the first time you’ve had a thick, metal appendage stuck inside of you. The first time you have been hooked, your health bar does not decrease unless you try to unhook yourself for the first 20/30/40 seconds.

—

Henrietta “Hen” Wilson

Lore

Hen was a paramedic. A firefighter. A doctor. Mother Hen. Mama Hen. A wife. A friend. So many different pieces that never quite fit together fully. That was what the Entity liked best, before all that she was a Pharmaceuticals Rep, the cold, dark side of medical care than feeds death and rot rather than fight it. That was when the tendrils struck, Hen felt them stroking her back every night, especially when she was alone. When she was with Eva she felt them twist around her limbs, and the Hen that cheated, that lied, that ran back to Eva, she was the one the Entity took. That night Hen split into two, one went back to Karen, one went back to being a parent, to making things work. She went back to safety and joy, whilst Eva withered away. The one that stayed with Eva was ripped away from her life like an amputated limb. That was until Eva died of a heroin overdose in Hen’s arms, she couldn’t save her… But Hen thought she did for a moment. She thought she saved her, and had one more night of love before she awoke next to the campfire.

Load-Out

Hen has the following three unique perks…

Doctor Henren

A paramedic with a rocket scientist wife, you’ve learned from her wisdom and your own experience how to make equipment such as Med Kits, Torches, and Toolkits much more effective. After you have been hooked for the first time your items recharge by 33/66/99%.

Mother Hen

Your kind, loyal nature makes you a natural maternal figure within the 118. If you take a hit for another survivor Mother Hen activates, a boost of adrenaline protects you and Endurance activates for 5/10/15 seconds. If you and the survivor go 45/40/30 more seconds without being hit you recover a health state.

Interim Captain

You’re used to taking the reins whenever the 118 Captain is absent. Your team members would always look to you for instructions and guidance. When you are working on a generator with others you receive a 20/30/40% bonus, and when another survivor fails a skill check you have the opportunity to take it for them and fix the mistake.

[fieldofdaisiies]

two month story wrap up and shout out part 2: canon/fanon ships

I haven't read many stories in the past months, but I managed to catch up with some. so were we go, a little shout out to amazing creators and my absolute favourite stories I have read lately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remember, We're Madly in Love - by @velidewrites; Feysand AU; as all her work incredibly well-written and very exciting to read, one warning: you won't be able to stop, so save some time to read it, it is so worth it. not only are the characters were well developed but the whole scenery is so beautifully described in so much detail and with so much love

You and I are going to change the world - by @velidewrites; Shadow&Bone AU; there is only one chapter out so far, but from that you already know that this is going to be another amazing story by this incredibly talented author.

The Valkyrie's Wolf - by @headcanonheadcase; such a cute idea to write about Gwyn and Ithan; I loved the idea and loved the little stories for SJM romance week even more. also if you like Gwynriel you definitely have to check out her other works, such a talented writer.

Cowboy Like Me - by @separatist-apologist; Nessian AU; the idea...god, I loved it. save a horse ride a cowboy, you know? now serious, just like all her other stories so incredibly well written, loved it so much.

The Death of Peace of Mind - by @separatist-apologist; Eris x OC, and when Eris Vanserra meets a bad omen's song I know immediately it is good and it was...so damn good.

I've Got a Hundred Thrown Out Speeches I Almost Said to You - by @the-lonelybarricade; you want angsty Elucien, you shall receive. I loved this so much and felt the pain and all sorts of emotions, so so well written.

You Look Like Bad News - by @the-lonelybarricade; Elucien; this is most definitely the fic I have read the most on this platform, I cannot even count the times of how often I went back to this fic just to read it again. this is just sooooo good, so you all have to read it, this is an order!!

Forget Me Not - by @moononastring; Elucien; this is the first Elucien story and I have no idea how many times I have re-read it, probably as many times as the you look like bad news story. I still love the story just as much as the first time reading it, it is simply amazing.

fics I am looking forward to reading (because they look soooo good)

Prythians Fantasia - by @vulpes-fennec; an acotar circus au that looks more than promising and I am literally counting the days until it comes out

Ex Luna Scientia - @kingofsummer93; acotar x hogwarts AU; like you already caught my attention when choosing a latin titel, because that is what I did with all my big stories. I cannot wait to finally start reading this, because everything about it sounds so amazing.

Trust in My Hate - by @ofduskanddreams; Azris owns my heart and I know for sure this story will too. looking so forward to reading it.

You Can Be the Beauty and I Can Be the Monster - by @isterofimias; Tamlin x Briar you say? I cannot believe I haven't read that yet and now that I discovered it I cannot wait to finally read it.

art shoutout:

@krem-does-stuff and all her art works. she is an incredibly talented artist and does such beautiful art it always draws small tears to my eyes. she deserves to have her art seen by everyone, it is truly incredibly.

general shout out to

@sunshinebingo @autumndreaming7 @acourtofthought @lady-rieldyriel @iambutmortal @octobers-veryown @captain-of-the-gwynriel-ship @queercontrarian I couldn't decide for a specific story of yours or you don't even write and just contribute to the fandom in other ways, so here my little shout out to you for being so vital in this fandom and all of you adding so much positivity. you are amazing.

💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛

[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.

[confuseddimensiontraveler]

As soon as I heard Crowleys playlist had Take Me To Church on it i lost my shit, and now that the new season is out (and I’ve had the song on loop for an hour) I finally wrote my analysis of him and this song! also all of this is just my interpretation, please don’t hurt me I’m young and feeble.

Major Good Omens 2 spoilers ahead!! You’ve been warned

Take Me To Church + Crowley Analysis (does not include all the lyrics soz)

My lover's got humor

She's the giggle at a funeral

Knows everybody's disapproval

I should've worshiped her sooner

Aziraphale is not very good at social cues or understanding human matters, and knows what happens when he disobeys heaven and how they feel about him, but he still does what he thinks is best; both of which are things Crowley likes about him. Crowley didn’t even fully realize he loved Aziraphale until Nina and Maggie (my hero’s) had to shove it in his face.

If the Heavens ever did speak

She's the last true mouthpiece

Aziraphale is one of the last few angels who does things that can really be considered good/godly, like helping humans and just being generally nice.

Every Sunday's getting more bleak

A fresh poison each week

Each time Crowley is forced to interact with heaven it just gets worse and worse, like being kicked out and then heaven trying to end the world, until they take Aziraphale away from him.

"We were born sick", you heard them say it

My church offers no absolutes

Everyone keeps telling them it’s unnatural for an Angel and a demon to be friends + the church not offering absolutes as in all the angels talking about the great plan though no one really knows what it is.

The only Heaven I'll be sent to

Is when I'm alone with you

Crowleys never going to make it back to heaven, and the closest he’s going to get is his relationship with aziraphale. Plus the only times he’s actually seen happy are with Aziraphale.

I was born sick, but I love it

Command me to be well

A-, Amen, Amen, Amen

He doesn’t want to go back to heaven either, he likes being a demon, he just wants them to be able to be them. He wants to want to do whatever Aziraphale wants, but he doesn’t, he has his own interests too.

Take me to church

I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies

Crowley follows Aziraphale basically everywhere, including literally a church despite what it does to him, and in his mind they shared a similar devotion because they’re “partners”. Like when Aziraphale trusted him to shoot him for a magic trick. So when Aziraphale leaves, it makes him feel like the whole thing was a lie. He even waits for him to come back, but he doesn’t, and it leaves him feeling abandoned.

I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife

Offer me that deathless death

Good God, let me give you my life

After the kiss, Aziraphale only says “I forgive you.” like it was a bad thing. Then he left, and Crowley can’t die, but that almost makes being alone worse. He spends so long just being there to protect him, and then he’s gone, and he no longer has someone to spend eternity with.

If I'm a pagan of the good times

My lover's the sunlight

The definition of pagan is “a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main or recognized religions,” so in Crowleys case, he’s a pagan of the good times because supposedly god wants to destroy the earth, which means by choosing to try to stop it, he’s going against Christianity. Aziraphale is just the sunlight to his darkness (I love them so bad).

To keep the Goddess on my side

She demands a sacrifice

Crowley makes many sacrifices over the course of the 1st season to prevent the end of the season, and eventually he’s forced to give up Aziraphale to heaven after they remove Gabriel because he vetoes Armageddon.

Drain the whole sea

Get something shiny

The first time they really talk is when God floods earth, and it’s also when some of the initial seeds of rebellion are implanted in Crowley specifically. Aziraphale has already given away the sword, but it’s the first example Crowley cares for people (very not-demon-like), which is what leads to their friendship/seeing each other as kindred spirits.

Something meaty for the main course

That's a fine looking high horse

What you got in the stable?

This could either be about heaven in its entirety or Aziraphale, with both acting like Crowleys below him when really they’re much more similar than that, and that all the angels isn’t perfect either.

We've a lot of starving faithful

That looks tasty

That looks plenty

This is hungry work

The demons are plenty in numbers, and greed is literally one of the seven deadly sins. Even being less “demon” than most of them, Crowley isn’t perfect. He wants a lot. Plus some of the things he does take a certain… demon-ness other people don’t have, but they get results.

No masters or kings when the ritual begins

There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin

When it’s just them working together, there’s always the looming presence of heaven and hell, but that’s not what they’re representing, respectively. Each side commits atrocities in the name of war, but with their “gentle sin” being rebelling against their organizations, it separates them from that. They’re just an “us”, to Crowley.

In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene

Only then I am human

Only then I am clean

Oh, oh, Amen, Amen, Amen

On earth they’re usually brought together by chaos and tragedy—the first season's whole hook is armageddon. In the madness of it they both lose their sides, quite literally being seen as going native, and in Crowley's mind, that scrubs him of his demonic responsibility. In the show, demons are shown to be especially dirty, with their mud and maggots and frogs and flies and stuff.

Take me to church

I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies

I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife

Offer me that deathless death

Good God, let me give you my life

In the end, the whole thing can be interpreted as an allegory for being gay and the effects of religious trauma has on that, just like the song :D thanks for indulging me, and sorry if this didn’t make any sense, the wound is still fresh 😭

[burr-ell]

To your Laudna post from earlier- I started having doubts about this character concept when Marisha said on 4SD that she wanted Laudna to be a character who was legitimately over their trauma. Just because…ok, if that’s the case, where is the character going?? What’s the growth, or the arc? (Which, to bring a bit of my bias into it, is why I think her most interesting interactions are with Ashton, who continues to poke that trauma and insist that she is not, in fact, past it.)

And to your point, if the idea is to have the character be over this trauma and for it to not play a large part in their life, why exhume Delilah for it?? Why dig up an old villain for a part that could easily be played by any random necromancer in Exandria?

It’s just such a bizarre series of choices, especially contrasted with Beau and Keyleth, who had such great character growth over their campaigns.

Yeah, that worried me too. I think the character has inched a little closer to full acknowledgment that she is not, in fact, over it (the Hound of Ill Omen rp, her killing of Bor'dor being explicitly because of her trauma around betrayal), but the fact that this was even the initial concept is very troubling.

I had some of the same reticence with Orym, since Liam was pretty upfront that he was meant to be Just A Guy who'd already been through the grieving process—but not only did Liam really put a lot more thought into what that would actually look like, the grief and recovery are not actually the point of Orym's story. Instead it's about the experience of what it means to be a foot soldier in a world full of legends, and that's a potentially engaging arc in its own right. He's not in my top ten or anything, but I generally enjoy what he's bringing to the table.

Laudna's just...a mess, and as you said, it really stands out when you compare her to Beau and Keyleth. I recently watched 2x30 for the first time, and the conversation between Beau and Caleb in the carriage on the way out of Shadycreek Run about what Beau's really doing and why she's with them was such a great scene. Her moment in 2x27 after Molly's death is good, but that more quiet conversation was so simple and yet established her so well. Keyleth, for her part, doesn't do a whole lot for me, but she doesn't really have to for me to recognize that she's a solid, well-developed character. Even Patia, who was around for a fraction of the time, was an absolute tour de force—and Patia makes the comparison even starker because she was created and developed at the same time as Laudna.

Like, there may be a turnaround here, but my charitable readings have worn thin, and even if this character does turn a corner, you still have to deal with the fact that she spent what will probably be at least half the campaign faffing around. Stories aren't made on potential; they're made on using it.