#the friend that it’s speculated to be about made either a post or story referencing the lyrics in relation to her personal experience

[reputayswift]

i don't find it insensitive personally because (to my knowledge) she's never said what the song is about, people have just projected their personal interpretations on it

.

[kaibutsushidousha]

Thoughts on Kirschtaria?

I love Kirschtaria lots but he isn't exactly easy to talk about. Olympus was 4 years but I still think it's too early for this post. Kirschtaria is the one who knows what the entire Animusphere plot is about. Until his final scenes, where he opens rebellion against the CHALDEAS and tries to unfold his secret plan, he's under constant surveillance by the priestess and pretty much all of his actions and speeches inform of CHALDEAS's (Marisbury's) beliefs rather than his own. A good analysis of Kirschtaria needs to wait until we know what exactly he was involved with.

The post-rebellion parts, where we get to see his past and learn about his ideals, are not easy to talk about either because Kirschtaria is too much of a straightforward hero behind his mage posturing and 5D chess. He's cheerful, accepting, driven to be productive, loves his friends, believes in everyone's inherent potential to be good, and wishes to end inequality above all.

One of the parroted Animusphere beliefs that Kirschtaria showed to genuinely believe in is the idea that humans are unequipped to immediately make the right choice but he puts a positive spin to it making we are experts in fixing mistakes later.

I don't think I can find anything original to say by explaining how his experience with Pino taught him that beauty can come from the least expected places and how much that is reflected in his relationships with Caenis and Beryl, so I guess all I got to close off this with post with is some speculative trivia that never leaves my brain.

I strongly believe Kirschtaria's characterization is the result of Nasu really wanting to write his original version of Jesus but knowing exactly how much of a bad idea it is to portray the central figure of a massively active religion. This is the same guy who made the Buddha into a boss character with no speaking roles and removed Hassan's Allah Akbar chant from every rerelease of Fsn for sensibility reasons. Jesus himself gets referenced as the Messiah sometimes but never by name. Nasu plays safe with this kind of thing.

So instead of Jesus, we have Kirschtaria. Named after the Japanese "kirishito" spelling of Christ, but written with a very unusual romanization because Nasu really wanted the English spelling of the name to contain an anagram of Christ (irscht). Then he put Kirsch through the basic Jesus plot of carrying out a major project to free mankind from its history of sin and enable everyone to do better, with the only life paid as the price being his own. And in true Jesus fashion, this ends with Kirschtaria dying by the side of a huge sinner that he personally pardoned and inspired to be better. And since subtlety is for pussies, we also get a scene where Caenis sees Kirschtaria shirtless and practically straight up says "Dude, you look like one of those Jesus portraits".

I could continue with commentary on how Pino being poor, sickly, and homeless is in line with the standard archetype of characters who appear to receive miracles in the Gospels, or how Nasu's interest in Jesus is tangible again with his next story portraying both Avalon le Faes as prophesized saviors born through special means for the sole purpose of going on a painful journey of pilgrimage fated to culminate on them sacrificing themselves to absolve the people of an ancestral sin but I think it's better not to stretch the idea too much.

[akuma-tenshi]

hello fellow idv'ers i made a twitter thread on ithaqua, nathaniel, the morningstar essence, and its parallels to the canon story and how it's basically itha's power fantasy

full transcript + the pictures i used under the cut if you don't want to / can't use twitter (completely understandable), just a warning it is LONG

the post i was quoting got deleted before i could finish this. so anyway here's a thread on my thoughts on the morningstar essence, its parallels to itha and nathaniel's dynamic in canon, and how i think it's the perfect example of canon themes in an essence

before i start: this may be heavy on speculation on itha's personality. itha is a character who feels like we're given both a lot of content on his personality and none at all, so if what i say comes off as a reach, take it with a grain of salt. i'm not the arbiter of itha.

also this thread is not very nice to nathaniel. he's grown on me as a character after looking more into him for a fic but itha isn't nice to him here so i won't be either. i also refer to ithaqua as itha for the sake of the character limit. i'm aware that isn't is full name.

so my best friend and i have talked about this at length, and it's been in my thoughts for a while. at the end of the day, morningstar is itha's power fantasy, the strength he wished he had over nathaniel. at the end of the day, he won, he killed nathaniel, but nathaniel perhaps got off easy in his eyes. a quick death was possibly a mercy, as he couldn't really afford to make him suffer; at the end of the day, itha likely cares a lot more about protecting his mother than hurting her tormentor, meaning he just needed nathaniel out of the way.

however, it's likely itha wishes nathaniel did suffer. it's very interesting how in morningstar's trailer (which will be referenced a lot here), he's portrayed in chains, very similarly to how itha's mother is seen in her captivity in itha's original trailer.

and while yes, "show the character chained up if they're imprisoned" is just imagery 101, it's still an interesting parallel, and i doubt it's a coincidence. the difference here is that nathaniel is the one in chains, not itha or his mother; nathaniel is the powerless one.

it all really screams "i'm going to make you suffer the way you made my mother suffer", and while that isn't the theme of the essence itself, it's absolutely something that carries through from itha's original story. the use of themes that only really hit right if you take in the context of the original character is honestly a genius way to get people invested not only in the essence storyline, but the character as well, and like mentioned above, they use it a lot. however i do think it's best applied when it comes to the morningstar essence.

another interesting detail is that nathaniel was a king in the morningstar essence, being literally referred to as a "walking sun". and it takes this a lot further than just "parallels with itha and his mother" — instead of being in a disadvantaged position and persecuted for simply being a scapegoat, nathaniel is in a position of power — one that was possibly unjust or cruel, given other skins in the essence; we'll get to that later — and fell, was overthrown by his brother who was cast out. again, mirroring their dynamic in canon.

again, i'll get to the "possibly unjust ruler" thing later, but the idea that itha is less interested in a direct reversal of their roles and more in making nathaniel "fall from grace", and that being, in his eyes, a more fitting punishment than what he got, is fascinating to me.

i also want to discuss the use of colours. in canon, itha and nathaniel are opposites — itha's association with cooler, darker colours (mostly black / grey with a bit of bluish-teal) against nathaniel's brighter, fiery red cloak.

morningstar initially took me aback because it's such a departure from the theme we'd seen with this hunter: a character heavily associated with ice and wind and snow being given an s-tier that is so heavily reliant on reds and fire and sun imagery. but it makes so much sense if you think about how he's now in nathaniel's place. the tormentor, the jailor, the king dressed in fiery red. notice how he still keeps the darker colours: black still dominates his design, with the red cloak (a clear imitation of nathaniel's) taking on a much darker shade than the reds commonly associated with nathaniel. every bright colour used is either toned down or contrasted against something darker. and not only does that fit with the eclipse theme — a bright sun covered by a dark mass — but also itha's reflection or imitation of nathaniel.

so about the "unjust king" idea. this doesn't really come through in the original trailer, but it's expanded upon in the descriptions of the skins themselves. and while i do think the idea is a little confused and not fully realised, it does add some context to the story.

first of all, uh.. slavery exists!! or existed. it's made clear in the descriptions of the encroached, the chosen, the suffered, and (possibly) the zealot's descriptions that there was a clear class divide, with a suffering under-class and privileged upper-class.

this is also mentioned in the design / story notes of the essence. that under nathaniel, there was a clear divide between the classes, and that with itha's help, the enslaved / outcasted were able to rise up, help overthrow his brother, and establish a new order in the chaos.

it's clear that nathaniel's "order" could only be maintained with this hierarchy, and when it's challenged and overthrown, he and the tower fall, replaced with itha's "chaos". again, it's not a fully realised story and has its holes, but it's fitting nonetheless.

it's also mentioned in the description for morningstar. "witness them break free from their shackles and bring down the sun" is not only a banger line imo, but also a VERY strong connection to itha's position and how, despite being in a "weaker" position than nathaniel, he was still able to overpower and kill him. the idea of an oppressed under-class rising up and overthrowing their oppressors is not only a common storyline, but also very much matches to itha, thrown away and forgotten, besting nathaniel, who was raised to be more powerful.

there are also luchino and "nathaniel"'s descriptions, which convey the idea of itha being born into this position but being cast out, only to return later, which is present in both storylines.

in canon, itha was believed to be stillborn. not wanting his birth to be a stain on the family, his parents abandoned him in the woods and claimed nathaniel as their only son. the "witch" took him in and raised him as her child before she was captured by nathaniel and his mob and itha had to kill nathaniel in order to rescue her. itha being cast out against his will in both storylines — being abandoned at birth due to his "stillbirth" in canon, and being sentenced to death / exiled in the morningstar essence — only to return and exact his revenge is an interesting addition that further ties the two stories together.

one more detail i'd like to include before finishing this thread is the inclusion of talk of gods (including false ones) and demons. morningstar is clearly inspired by lucifer, who is also referred to as both the morning star and helel (which is not just a fandom name; morningstar is referred to as helel in the official backstory to the essence). i won't get too into the religious stuff but lucifer is known to have been cast out of heaven for proclaiming himself to be above god — also a crime committed by itha in the essence.

i could do a whole other thread on the religious ties in this essence, but that's the long and short of it. there's a lot of discussion of the "word of god" and "beliefs", and even references to the tower of babel, another biblical tale.

so why am i talking about this? first of all, witch hunts, which nathaniel and itha's backstory heavily draws from, were not only infamously known for targeting almost exclusively women, but were also religiously motivated. those who led them believed they were doing the righteous thing by hunting down these "witches", and that they were only doing what was right in the eyes of god. nathaniel himself was most likely religious; i can't speak on itha, but i do think he at least knew of religion, with his talk of gods and demons in his trailer.

and that gets into my second point. in itha's trailer, he talks a good bit about gods and demons, particularly their atrocities committed against his mother. the use of and references to religion in this trailer are put front and center and expanded on in the morningstar essence, helping to give more light to the themes touched on in itha's trailer.

in conclusion, while i don't think the morningstar is the very best essence, i do think it's incredible and is the best example of the creators taking a theme that's present in the original story, expanding on it, and making something wholly new and incredible.

i hope this thread has been interesting and perhaps given a new appreciation for both itha and his essence. thank you so much for reading if you got this far. tune in next week where i analyse all of ganji's skins to make a point about how integral freedom is to his character /j

[teal-skull]

Hi I saw your post about the phrase "se ei ole mistään kotoisin" and the book you linked looks interesting I just might get it 👀 I have an Amazon gift card that I want to spend on something fun and I was wondering if you have any Finnish book recommendations!! Either with translation or in simpler Finnish works too :D

Omg!

Ngl you were in my mind when I was writing that book recommendation :3 I hope you will enjoy it if you end up getting it! But keep in mind that because it is humorous it is not a deeb dive but rather scracthing the surface.

I will have to do a confession here that I don't read too much of finnish literature (something that I need to fix)

A general tip: try adding "selkokirja" (or selkosuomi/selkokielinen) to your search. Selkokirjat are books writen, or re-writen into simpler finnish than the original. (yle's website has a section "selkouutiset" where you find news in selkosuomi

Sorry, I wrote you a really long list, but maybe more is better so you can pick and choose.

-The moomin books by Tove Janson! Pick any one, Comet in Moominland and Midsommer Madness are my faves. They were originally written in swedish because Tove was swedish-speaking finn, so finnish editions are translations. There's also comics.

-Not Before Sundown by Johanna Sinisalo. English translation (and many other) is available of this one. This book is about a gay man called Enkeli (angel) who takes a baby troll into his house and tries to take care of it. But troll is part of a wild nature and the night. From tiny snippets we follow how this turns out. Finlandia Prize winner.

-The Unkown Soldier by Väinö Linna. This is THE Book in Finland. A finnish classic and the nation's "collective memory" of the Continuation war against Russia. Many movies made out of this one. According to wikipedia there is a new english translation from 2015, which is better than the previous but some of the localization has been critizied.

-The Purge by Sofi Oksanen. A very dark and depressing book set in the soviet occupation of Estonia. Haven't read this one yet but it is widely popular. Check wikipedia for more info.

-Ja hän huutaa: Splatterpunk-Antologia (Aaave Taajuus, 2014) I took you like violence and blood, well here's a collection of splatterunk short stories writen by different finnish horror authors. Havent read all of them yet, but the ones I have read have been... good in a way of "I wanted to be disgusted and I got what I wanted". Let me tell you, these shortstories are propably the most gruesome shit writen in finnish horror scene. All warnigns ably. You honestly just need to read the backcover. It's only available in finnish but I don't think the language will be too complex.

-Pyöveli by Anneli Kanto. Only available in finnish but it's a humortictic, grotesk story set in medieval Finland following the son of an executioner, a newly (un)happily married judge in Vaasa and a peasant determined to get a new, succesfull life.

- Magdalena Hai writes speculative finnish fiction

Some recomendations by my friends: -Ilkka Remes is a thriler writer but I couldn't find any of his works translated

-Childrens books: Risto Räppääjä -books (K makes references to him in few songs!) and Heinähattu ja Vilttitossu.

-Kepler62 by Timo Parvela (Scifi)

-Varjot by Timo Parvela (fantasy)

-Hirviöasiakaspalvelu, kuinka voin auttaa by Anni Nupponen (monster customer service), the publisher is Osuuskumma

-Leena Krohn writes horror/fantasy

Also some classic finnish books are:

-The seven brothers by Aleksis Kivi, the first novel writen completely in finnish. I read this one, at first it was fun but near the ending draged on way too long, sori Aleksi. You will see this one being referenced all the time.

-The Egyptian (Sinuhe egyptiläinen) by Mika Waltari.

-Minna Canth's plays like Työmiehen Vaimo or Annaliisa. They deal with women's position in the victorian era.

[mirror-to-the-past]

Okay, I'm speculating more about Xion's deal at this point, and it's embarrassing that it's taken me to Day 117 to realize at least some of it:

First of all, why was I even debating on my earlier theorizing post who Xion's "origin person" might be? Of course it's Sora! Why? BECAUSE SHE WIELDS THE KINGDOM KEY (of course, there's the whole thing in the KH1 journal about Riku being the one meant to originally wield the Kingdom Key, but I'm gonna set that aside for now, because he's got a different Keyblade at this point in the story- Kingdom Key is now Sora's). I must've seriously turned off my brain, or just overthought things to the point of exploding, but it took the "Xion's Keyblade" day where she and Roxas were waving it around for me to go "oh. OH." And just... have a bit of a facepalm moment.

As for her origins, I believe Axel and Saïx's more recent conversation gives me grounds to believe she is not a Nobody of typical origin. It's more obvious, in retrospect. If my "Sora had another heart" theory had any merit, than she would've been found around the same time as Roxas, but it was weeks (I think) later for Xion to be taken into the organization. Saïx claims that Xion found her origins in Castle Oblivion along with Naminé, which is a place associated with Naminé and her memory-scrambling abilities. Given that both Roxas and Xion have their memories scrambled as, what I can assume, a byproduct of Sora losing his own memories in CoM (therefore preventing the true Sora Nobodies from being able to remember their origin life), I can assume Roxas has the majority of Sora's memories, and Xion likely exists to house a specific kind of memory that may or may not be important to Sora's being (At this point that "specific kind of memory" seems to be founded in Sora's friends and overall childhood nostalgia, given that Xion can only recall staring out at the ocean with "someone," likely referencing times where Sora, Kairi, and Riku would stare out at the sea from either the Paopu tree or the docks, as demonstrated in KH1). Anyway, why would Xion exist like this?

Well, this could've been because of external manipulation in some way that I couldn't begin to explain, in terms of Sora's memory separation/restoration process. Xion might have been made in a semi-artifical way, as a means to an end. What end? Dunno.

Alternatively, she may not be a result of external manipulation, and moreso that there are memories Sora was previously unaware of that manifested itself into a being to house those repressed/forgotten memories- Xion. More loose of an additional factor, but it would fit with her all-black color scheme. I also just think it would be neat to have a duality factor for her and Roxas: Blonde-haired Roxas as the open emotions and memories, the conscious. Black-haired Xion as the hidden emotions and memories, the unconscious. It'd be a cool way to personify aspects of an individual's psyche in a Jungian-esque way, as well as a follow-up of my current hunt of "let's spot Sora's repressed negative feelings!" ("Happy faces," "Sora's forgotten memories in CoM," "Anti Form," he's pretty much got a potentially concerning Example per game, so far)

The second explanation is probably not what the narrative is going for, but it'd be neat.

Before I forget, branching off of that last post regarding Xion's hood that apparently has lore relevance... the only explanation I can think of is that her face can change, and she's hiding it for whatever reason, or Roxas' POV makes it look like she's hiding her face for whatever reason. If we're going off the logic that she's a Sora Nobody, perhaps her face looks like Sora in those moments she obscures her face? It'd be a strange power, if you can even call it that, as Roxas has done nothing of the sort, nor has any other Nobody changed to look like their original people (I have no idea about the other guys, admittedly- I've never seen their original selves, but Roxas doesn't look like Sora, sooo...). Another potential point for the "she's not a natural Nobody," theory, perhaps.

We'll see how accurate I was with this, later...

Side ramble...

I love how Kingdom Hearts utilizes personified characters (Nobodies) meant to demonstrate some aspects of a character's personality in a compartmentalized breakdown of their psyche, while still having those characters contain personalities and arcs of their own. It's so neat holding Roxas and Sora next to each other in my head and just going "hm, and what could that mean?" For example, on the following "Vacation" day, I thought it was interesting how Xion and Axel were able to follow some of their own desires (if I take what they did on their day off as truth, but anyway), like Axel lazing around unapologetically and Xion having the motivation to train and get stronger, while Roxas couldn't find a drive for himself outside of his friends. It was both sad and endearing, and compounds quite nicely on what can be observed in Sora's previously demonstrated self-sacrificing traits. He's too wrapped up in others to figure out his own wants.

[villanevedenier]

No, it's not Bunny who persuades Julian and anyway we, as the readers, are never let to speculate that. What we can observe, however, is the difference between Richard and Julian's first and second meeting. The first time they meet, Richard appears composed, logical and self-assured ("five students is not very many"); the second time, R. is obviously lying and attempting to impress Julian and "fit in" by denying/ underestimating his own social class ("orange groves, failed movie stars, lamplit cocktail hours by the swimming pool, cigarettes, ennui"), all in all a person very susceptible to being influenced by a glamorous figure like Julian and joining a cult-like group- also, a person away from a family that might care and protect him.

I do think that analysis of tsh on tumblr often takes the form of wild speculation and attempts to validate our already pre-existing assumptions, but the text itself is incredibly rich and gives answers to pretty much everything.

This is the post this ask is referencing

It was actually @estherdedlock who made the post/point (I highly reccomend looking through their blog if you like tsh) and while I do agree with them that its possible that Bunny could have talked to Julian and said something about letting Richard study Greek. I don't think that's the only explaination.

It's clear that Richard is much more determined at his second attempt, but also Julian's priority in their first meeting is with whomever's in his office (I personally think Henry, but others think Camilla) whereas the second time he gets "[I'm] never too busy for an heir to the French throne, if that is in fact what you are?". (27) (more than likely being sardonic, but clearly happy to talk to an enthusiastic potential Greek student)

I personally think it's likely that Henry or Bun mentioned Richard in coversation, being that they met him at the same time, and that our mystery student in his office in the first meeting was aswell. But that the decision to allow Richard to study was ultimately Julian's. We all know he's a romantic; and Richard freely admits to embriodering his past in the second meeting. Julian laps it up "Never had my efforts been met with such attentiveness"(28).

I completely agree that Richard was sold on the Greek clique from the beginning. I personally love the irony in "had I stayed in California I might have ended up in a cult" to the events of the story and the later line about the joy of potentially being bonded to life by death with his new friends. Other (smarter, more well-read) people have pointed out that all of our Greek clique lack father figures (or in Bunny's case, have a very strange relationship with his father). And reading Richard's lines about his parents "My father was mean, and our house ugly, and my mother didn't pay much attention to me" (6).

I don't know that I agree with the last comment so much. Tumblr in general is very pro-headcanon/speculation; but the majority of people I see speculating on TSH have quotes to back it up, either that or they get questioned on it. You're right that the novel is incredibly rich, Tartt once described herself as a minaturist working on a large scale, wich I love. All three of her books are so detail rich that you can (and I have) spend hous and hours reading and rereading for quotes and themes and the such.

Page nums are from the British/30th anniversary copy of TSH

(ty for the question/ giving me an excuse to tsh post)

[kindestegg]

Deltarune: On tea, relationships, and why people probably need to stop exaggerating

Alright, so ever since the introduction of the “character flavored” teas in chapter 2, there has been a lot of discussion about them. If you haven’t heard of it yet, in Deltarune Chapter 2, there’s an item that’s a tea that you can buy from an NPC and choose the flavor of, giving you a flavor that is named after a party member. So, Kris tea, Noelle Tea, Susie Tea, and Ralsei Tea.

The fun thing about this item is that it can more or less be used to “track” the relationships between the characters, so to speak. For example, if Noelle has the Susie tea, even if she’s not supposed to drink it due to normally leaving the party, she’ll still have a reaction to it, wondering if they would sell this in gallons and recovering an absurd amount of HP, 400 to be precise.

(this is long as hell, so please continue reading under the cut)

These teas are also actually a reference to a book series Toby is a fan of, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, which does have a chapter about students having ice cream flavored after their classmates. This is most evident when the characters drink their own tea, which tastes like nothing to them and recovers the least amount of HP: 10. In the books, the students also could not perceive the taste of their own flavor of ice cream.

So, the fandom gets ahold of this information and starts testing out the teas and how characters react to them, right? The thing is, I’ve seen people kind of exaggerate the importance of these items and even the meanings of them, and while I think everyone’s entitled to harmless headcanons speculating on the relationship of characters, the problem is people are using these teas as immutable proof and part of their theories.

One of such exaggerations comes mostly in the form of the infamous Ralsei Tea, as to which Kris apparently does not show much reaction, though curiously Ralsei is still happy to see Kris drinking it, and it only recovers 60 HP. For reference, the teas usually cap at a good 120 HP, which is when a character loves the flavor, Noelle being the outlier because she really is just that in love with Susie. For the most part the Fun Gang has pretty positive reactions to each other’s flavor of teas, recovering 120 HP… with the exception of Kris’ reaction towards Ralsei tea.

And the problem starts now: Due to this, people started using this little tidbit in their theories, claiming this was proof that Kris actually dislikes or even hates Ralsei, that we should be ashamed of ourselves for making Kris hug Ralsei, that it is torture for them that we choose nice dialogue options towards Ralsei, some going as far as to claim this is somehow tied to the infamous “Ralsei is secretly evil” theories.

But does this speculation hold any actual weight when analyzed more deeply?

… No. I’m sorry, it just does not, I’m not going to entertain this. In this post, I’m going to deconstruct how the teas really work, and exactly why claiming that this is good enough proof that Kris would dislike Ralsei is an exaggeration at best and downright false at worse.

To truly make a precise conclusion, we must first look at the full picture. We know that 10 HP means “tastes like nothing”, and we know that 120 HP means “tastes amazing”, but are there any other reactions that aren’t either 10 or 120, aside from the 60 HP we already know from Ralsei tea?

Pictured: Noelle reacting to Kris tea.

Pictured: Kris reacting to Noelle tea.

Pictured: Ralsei reacting to Noelle tea.

Pictured: Noelle reacting to Ralsei tea.

I think what people forget here is that you don’t have to really adore someone or outright hate them. Sometimes you’re more neutral on people. And I think that’s what happens here. As you can see here, Ralsei recovers 10 less HP for Noelle than Kris does for him, and still calls her flavor “soft and sweet”. Meanwhile, Noelle claims his tea has “nothing in it”, even though she still recovers 50 hp.

Does this somehow mean Ralsei hates Noelle, or she hates him, for that matter? … No, that wouldn’t make sense, they just met, they know nothing about each other. We do learn here one important thing though, flavor is not tied to HP recovery, as in, the flavor of each character’s tea will taste different to a different person based on what they perceive of them.

As a comparative example, while Kris tea tastes like apple juice to Susie due to her always smelling the apple shampoo they use, Kris tea tastes like blueberries, which is a reference to Kris’ appearance in the Dark World. So while Ralsei tea tastes like nothing to Noelle as she can’t perceive him well enough yet, it still heals 50 HP due to it not being her own tea, and Ralsei heals for the same amount, but he seems to perceive others based on appearance and wants to find something good to say, so he ends up tasting it as something “soft and sweet” because that’s what Noelle appears like.

We can also gain a new “base” HP recovery that is accounted for when characters drink tea that is not their own: 50 HP. And we know 50 HP means “I was literally just made aware of your existence and can’t comment much on you yet”. Now, if you look at Kris and Noelle, they recover 70 HP from each other’s tea. In Noelle’s words, they have been neighbors their entire lives, yet they still find it hard to call each other friends, necessarily. Although you can choose the prompt “we’re friends”, the reasoning still stands: Kris and Noelle just don’t have that much to say about each other. If you remember, when you visit Rudy at the hospital in chapter 1, then Noelle afterwards, they’ll comment on how Kris usually isn’t as involved or interested in their neighbor’s business, suggesting they really don’t hang out as much as you’d think.

So, 50 HP, 70 HP. Where does that leave us for Ralsei’s 60 HP? Does it actually reveal evidence of hatred or at least dislike?

… The answer, if you’ve been paying any attention, is no, of course not. If 50 HP means “literally just learned the other exists” while 70 HP means “not exactly great friends but have known each other for a long time and shared memories”, then that puts Ralsei at a pretty advantageous spot all things considered. Even with him acting somewhat suspicious, even with him being a creature from an entirely new magical world Kris was made aware of literally a day ago, even with Ralsei’s clingy behavior, Kris considers him more than just some random person they just met, and almost a good acquaintance to the level of Noelle.

And sure, you could still bring up comparisons to the higher HP recoveries, like Susie recovering 120 HP from everyone despite also not really being exactly friends with any of these people for too long, and for that I will say…

That girl will eat anything and considering they are all flavors she enjoys she’ll obviously down it in a second, and

Susie is just… a more open person. Once you get her guard down and let her know you truly want to be her friend and think she is cool, she’ll immediately consider you a friend and part of her team. (It’s also kind of sad in a way because it shows she may be desperate for the feeling of belonging but let’s not get into that right now).

Kris, however, is a much more reserved person. Once again I must remind you how everyone in Hometown comments about Kris not usually being very outgoing or talkative. Hell, even when they drink Noelle tea, no one can tell whether they like it or not. Susie may be an exception to this rule, simply because they do have a lot in common, particularly to the fact she was also always an awkward quiet person that their classmates could never place and would often get in trouble. Even if she was mean to them and a downright bully in chapter 1, teens can still have some pretty weird appreciations, and you can tell they must have been wanting to befriend her from the start. It simply just is a better relationship to them. Otherwise, people they haven’t invested in knowing well will probably not cause the same reaction.

Bottom line is… why are we having this debate again? In the end, it feels rather silly. Yes, Kris doesn’t recover 120 HP from Ralsei tea. Big deal? That doesn’t mean they hate or even dislike him, that there’s a deep turmoil and conflict going on between the two already. Ralsei is just a new friend they are still getting used to, that’s it. Can’t blame the kid for having boundaries.

For further proof, if you learn more about the content that is being referenced here, you’ll learn that in the same chapter of the book, there is actually a way for one’s flavor to taste “horrible” due to a person being perceived that way, but at no point in these reactions it’s suggested anyone’s flavor tastes bad, that any of them are disgusted, so I doubt any of these reactions can be seen as dislike.

Dang… this got a little long… but I just felt like I had to make this post because, reiterating, I find myself a little irritated at the fact people will use the tea’s reactions as part of their theories, claiming it as actual proof, when it is far from proving anything.

And before someone brings it up, yes, Kris has been shown to prefer Susie over Ralsei, do I have to point out the flaw in that logic? Preferring someone doesn’t mean you outright dislike the other person.

Moral of the story is: Don’t take conclusions for your theories without good backing in canon, feel free to make your headcanons but don’t state it as proof, byeee.

[lizacstuff]

Liza that 3rd fragman 👀 "if I was born a 100 times I'd fall in love with you everytime" Eda saying this is their last obstacle and nothing can separate them, serkan's "I'll be right back, close your eyes I'm here" If this isn't all a red flag for shits about to hit the fan then I don't know what is LOL (but also how cute to Edser look and them telling each other they love each other very much 😭😭😭)

That fragman is both the SWEETEST and the MOST OMINOUS thing I’ve ever seen. ALL AT ONCE.  

Friends... we’re gonna go through some things.  That being said, everything is going to be great. These writers have been solid so far, and I have faith they have come up with something really interesting to increase the longevity of this show. And I don’t know about you, but I’m prepared to go through some things if it means keeping Eda and Serkan for longer.  (I heart them)

This show is about Eda and Serkan and their love story, at it’s core it’s a comedy, it will all lead to happy things, but... yeah, buckle up! 

I have a lot of asks both about the fragman and last ep, so I’m going to answer a bunch under the cut. 

Anonymous said: The fandom theories about episode 28 have gotten so wild that I literally think the most shocking thing would be if they actually got married and were not separated (emotionally or physically). What if the earlier painful episodes were to make us believe that things couldn't possibly go right in 28 and it's a reverse psychology trick?

You could be right!  I like your thinking. I checked on twitter and I had to back away slowly. The juvenile temper tantrums were too much for me today.  

Look, I think it’s clear something big is coming. It has to, there has to be something that shakes up the show. Some of the theories are more upsetting and catastrophic than others, but the writers won’t do anything that dings either character or their love for one another.  Whatever happens will showcase the connection between these two and the chemistry between the actors, that’s the point of everything, and anything that does those things is gonna be a-okay with me. 

@jan31​ Hi Liza. Do you think we are going to see the wedding in 28 or they will leave it on a cliffhanger for next week. Lots of theories going round mainly cos of Neslihan saying new dimensions coming in episode 29, which could just mean married life etc. I have seen suggestions of memory loss, it's all a dream since episode one. I would personally love Eda to wake up like in episode one but for it to be a total turn around and she is the boss and Serkan the employee. Eda being robot yildiz appeals to me!!! I know it will never happen but leave me here with my dreams!!

I started the day at 90% sure they’ll be married in 28/29, but now I’m down to like 30% that they’ll get married in these episodes. I really, really want them to get married before whatever happens happens, because every scenario I can think of for this reset or starting again, seems like it would be better if they were married.  

However, the shooting spoilers from today, make me question that. Namely the videos where Hande appears to still be wearing the ring on her right hand. We shall see, that could be for many reasons. 

Honestly, though, I wouldn’t hate a memory loss storyline. Seeing one of them (and Serkan’s line in the trailer makes it seem like it might be him) lose their memory and have to fall in love all over again? There are worse fates for a shipper than getting to experience that all again but in a different way.  

Anonymous said: Your response to the fandom drama anon was so good, it's exactly how I feel. While I don't know what the old posts that were like are (that's shady as fuck) I did see all the other drama go down and wow. The actresses def need to stay in their lane and some of the fans, hoooo boy, it's obvious they're young based off their reactions alone. Had to unfollow some people once I realized what they were like. Also some of the IRL shipping reminded me of col*fer stuff, reading into everything and blowing it out of proportion (which then gets picked up by paps....). But you're right in that at least the show related drama is tame compared to OUAT. But still, people being too careless even while they know the paps see everything and harass Kerem and hande (omg did you see the video of hande the other day stopped in the van and she looked so overwhelmed 😔)

You’re referencing this post here about yesterday’s drama. 

Today Neslihan made it worse by addressing everything and claiming she didn’t like all those Hande-bashing posts because... wait for it... she was HACKED. Oy. Hackers got in and went back two years to like gross posts about Hande? Sure, Jan. While I don’t believe that for a second, I guess that at least gives her cover with Hande so they can all pretend it’s true and move on so it’s not awkward on set.  But, yikes, she needs to consult a publicist, she took a narrative that was circulating in certain circles in fandom and made sure all her followers were aware. Not very savvy. 

As for the paps coming after Hande, yes I did see her in the car, she did look overwhelmed. Back off vultures!!! That’s why I think Kerem sometimes throws himself to the wolves so that doesn’t happen. She always handles them like a pro, but you can tell she’d rather be anywhere else on earth than talking to them. 

The pap stuff is worse than I’ve seen before, they’re like vultures circling for any conjecture (sometimes made up out of thin air) they can turn into a question and blame fans. OUAT actors dealt with nothing like this. Also I can’t believe they never ask about the show. Like after last week? They could legit ask about the sex scene which probably would have given them some angle on the actors that they wanted, (especially since it was too hot for Turkish TV) but they let that pass them by, and instead asked the same questions about being together that they never answer. Dumbasses. They are not only awful people, they are awful at their jobs. 

In Van, the paps pay off crew members for info, they always know more than fans. Also I don’t remember stars of my shows getting this level of tabloid attention before. Except for on Riverdale, Lili and Cole generated that level of interest, and while I didn’t pay terribly close attention to them, I feel like they rarely talked to the paps, were just photographed. Also I don’t suspected the CW of calling the paps on them, but I suspect either the network or production company of sometimes calling them on Hande and Kerem. 

Anonymous said: Do you think it’s weird that they didn’t touch the kidnapping at all in either trailer? They might not have filmed it in time for the 1st one but certainly the 2nd. And I’m definitely not complaining about the ones we got because its like a fairytale but the kidnapping was the cliffhanger...? 🧐 I think they should’ve just left the princes storyline at “he went back to his country” but then they didn’t so......

If they’d left his story at just going back to his country, then the Prince really wouldn’t have served his purpose. He was brought on to cause some sort of trouble, so they probably need him to cause the trouble before he goes, lets hope it ends with this kidnapping!

And to answer your question, yes, I do think it’s weird that neither trailer touched on it. On any other show I’d think it was a huge red flag, but on this show maybe not as much because  a) there’s obviously a lot of romance in this episode, it’s not crazy that they are focusing on that to draw people in with the promos  b) this show likes to do cliffhangers that end up being no big deal, that happens a lot.  

Who knows it could turn out to be a big deal that shapes the rest of the episode in some unexpected way (Eda’s captured the whole episode and she’s dreaming about wedding prep, or... who knows) but I think it’s more likely that they resolve in the first 5-10 minutes and then move on.  Since we know from the summary (not that I trust those) that Serkan goes on the bachelor weekend, it feels like the Prince is taken care of prior to that. I don’t think he’d leave her alone for a second if there was a chance the Prince was still a threat. Perhaps Babaanne is pissed he tried to kidnap Eda and tells them she’ll handle it herself???

Anonymous said: Semiha not being in the promo is highkey suspicious. The actress is promoting the episode lol. She's about to Evil Queen this wedding ceremony but you know what, I'm fine with whatever she has planned if they end up married at the end of the day. What's funny is that since a lot of fans these days will assume that there will be shocking negative plot twists, not actually having one here would be a plot twist so I hope the writers keep them together for whatever's next haha

You’re not wrong, at this point, having this wedding take place would be a shocking twist for all of us!  As for Semiha... hmmm... it will be interesting to see what her reaction is to Eda being kidnapped by her pick of suitor. Serkan Bolat might be the son of the man indirectly responsible for her parents death, but he would never hurt her. Take note, Grandbag!  

Anonymous said: Do you mind sharing your speculative scenarios?

After the trailer today, I don’t know if I can even remember some of them. 

Memory loss

Grandma forces Serkan to choose between Eda and his company/wealth,  he chooses Eda and they start over from scratch with nothing

Time jump

AU starting over, showing a different path they might have taken together

Dream

These actors playing different characters in a new story

I don’t think the last three are likely, but they did spring to mind after some of Neslihan’s teases. 

Anonymous said: So this show doesn't get like fantastic ratings (it actually seems to be on the lower end compared to all other dizis airing) but the social media engagement is off the charts. Why is that?!? Is the show just extraordinarily popular internationally? or that this is a "shipping" show? I'm floored by the numbers - its like no other show/fandom is even trying

The ratings were terrific during the summer. But to your point, it has a huge fandom both in Turkey and internationally, but it’s worth noting that most of those charts you see where it beats every other show in every imaginable social metric is just for Turkey.  

It’s one of those lightning in a bottle situations where you get the right property and the right actors together at the right time and magic happens.  And, for sure, the number one reason is the shipping. Shipping drives fandom engagement, and a fantastic ship with a juicy, fun, tropey love story is what this show offers. It also offers up two extremely attractive, talented, likeable leads with off-the-charts chemistry (plus the added speculation about an off-camera relationship that has intrigued more than a few fans, tabloids and gossip sites and fueled interest) who have done a good job of building the fanbase through their social media engagement. Plus the timing is part of it as well. I don’t know about you, but this show hit the spot during this pandemic and the horror of 2020. We all needed this escape. 

Anonymous said:Do you think something happened in the writers room after the backlash of 25 and fan disappointment after Ayse's announcement? I feel like a switch flipped and now we're in fanficland with how much good content we've gotten in these last two episodes. Like I thought maybe they should wrap up the series soon before the characters got completely off the tracks but they may be finding their groove now and I'm interested to see what their next twist is after they can write out Balca/Seymen.

I don’t know about a switch flip, this show has been fanfic land since the first episode!  The tropes! That is how I described it to multiple people when I first started watching: an AU fanfic come to life.

As for the writing changes, no, I don’t think backlash after 25 affected 26 or 27, because 26 was already 90% shot, and 27 already written. However, I assume they themselves could tell that 25 got just too dark and had strayed pretty far from the DNA of the series. While I didn’t think it was bad, it was not fun to watch and this show ought to be fun to watch. 

Let’s hope, however, that the backlash affects future episodes in that they know what works... and what doesn’t.  The last two episodes definitely felt reminiscent of the first batch of episodes. Light, funny, romantic. If they can keep that tone... I’ll be thrilled.

Anonymous said: i didn't realize how much i missed "together" edser until watching 27.. it's been so long since they were "officially" together and we also had such few episodes of it.. ppl have been comparing it to 12 and while in some ways i agree, edser are always so different here than they were there. 12 was them navigating their new relationship.. they were more shy and finding their footing.. here they are very much established, as they should be after knowing their love for so long in comparison to 12!

Yes, it was lovely. You know I’ve preached a lot about how even though Eda and Serkan were broken up, they’ve still been together all this time. And it’s true, but there is something about them truly being together that is magical. We never got enough of that the first time around (a writing mistake in my opinion) and they’re so good together it’s lovely to watch. 

Anonymous said: Serkan not asking for help from Balca when asking his team for help with the marriage gifts preparations and refusing her offer of help when she asked made me so happy. Good job Serkan! He's learning! She's not trustworthy!

Yes, that was a good moment. And he was eyeing her very warily when she offered. The thing I don’t understand is how has no one caught on that she’s working with Babaanne? That entire office is filled with nosy people, has no one remarked on the number of times Balca has gone up to the office or they’ve disappeared for lunch at the same time? Come on Leyla! Come on Melo! Notice these things!  

Anonymous said: Fingers crossed that we finally make progress towards getting rid of Seiman & Balca now that all the girls were drugged and Eda was put in the car in the last episode. Unless Seiman has a change of heart and takes Eda back inside before anyone wakes & the guys get there then the show has to address it. Although I do not think Balca is going to back down unless Serkan straight up tells her he has zero interest in her and never will. Totally fine if that happens in the next episode.

Will Balca backdown even if she’s humiliated like that? She’s so delusional I’m not sure. What I am sure is that she’s dangerous. This came in before we saw the other two fragmans that have no mention of the kidnapping. Hard to picture how that is so easily resolved. Unless she frees herself (which seems unlikely in her groggy state) or maybe Melo’s future boyfriend is able to stop it before they get far?  Or I don’t know. I just know that I want to see Serkan lose his mind and all the other characters see Serkan lose his mind and then I want it to be over. LOL.

Anonymous said: As much as I am loving everything Edser, I cannot wait for Seiman, Balca and Grandma to be gone. And I am even more annoyed to think that the show might try to redeem all 3 characters. All 3 of them are truly awful people and no need to waste air time trying to make the audience think any different. Just my opinion...🤷🏻‍♀️. Show please finally expose those 3 for the psychos they are and get rid of them.

Bye bitches!  I don’t think there’s any redemption for Balca and Seiman. They both have poisoned/dosed people, hard to come back from that.  And there is no need to redeem them because neither is compelling enough to be a long-term character. But maybe Granny, we probably will see a redemption arc for her. 

Anonymous said: i know you were worried a few weeks ago that with ayse leaving as writer, we probably wouldn't have the same sort of comedy as previous episodes... but istg the whole kiz isteme scene, especially with chef alex, had me almost crying with laughter. especially when serkan off the cuff just goes "well if that's an option..." to everyone misunderstanding alex "wanting" ayfer for 2 nights and then eda ready to beat him with the flowers he bought her... comedic gold lmao.

SO GOOD! I was thrilled to see that sort of comedy, the sort of comedy we’d come to expect, from these writers. I think it bodes very well indeed!  

That scene was amazing. I know Neslihan said that much of it was improvised. Probably that line from Serkan (since Serkan is SO out-of-his-mind in love I’m not sure he could even joke about having Eda only two nights a week! LOL) was improv from Kerem, and Aydan asking about the other nights, and Seyfi bringing up the weekend. And Eda’s very Hande-esque “Ser-KAN.” 

I just love rewatching that scene and checking out everyone who is breaking character and just losing it. Cagri most of all. He’s blurred aback there but you can see Ferit spends the whole time laughing or trying to stifle a laugh. Reminds me of Cagri in the scene in 18 when they’re watching the security footage he was losing it in that scene as well. 

Anonymous said: i'm scared - I think they are really about to give us all of these happy EdSer scenes only to have something happen RIGHT before the wedding ceremony due to Babaanne. Based on the last episode, I don't think there's any chance of a breakup (knock on wood) but what if Serkan gets arrested, goes to jail for 2 years, and we get a time jump?

This was sent before the last two teasers, so yes I think something is gonna happen. We shall see!  I don’t really think Serkan going to jail for 2 years is in the cards, at least I hope not!  Besides if Babaanne did that she would have no hopes of ever reconciling with Eda, so that seems unlikely she’d follow through and leave him there for so long a time. 

Anonymous said: With the last week's sex scene, they did a lot of fade outs but the scene was basically still there so it wasn't much wasted effort for the actors. But for what they're teasing in episode 28 - idk how they can get away with showing them in the shower at all if Serkan lifting Eda with her clothes on had required blurring? Is Eda dropping her robe even pushing it? It's intriguing indeed.

Great questions. We’re 36 hours from finding out (well I'm longer than that because I wait for the English subs, hee hee) All I know is I want to see these scenes.. one way or another! 

[wherevermyway]

the FiVE:RACHA project (1/7) // black mirror AU // 18+

chapter one: freedom series navigation: [desktop] [mobile]

⚠ POTENTIAL TW: READ WITH CAUTION! ⚠ pairings: lee minho x kim seungmin | hwang hyunjin x lee felix x yang jeongin | bang chan x seo changbin x han jisung rating: explicit! 18+ warnings/tags: creator chose not to use archive warnings, descent into madness, horror, thriller, technological implants, blood and gore, alcohol abuse, some sexual content in later chapters but it’s not, like, smut. word count: 3,101 also on AO3

PS: i made a carrd for this. check it out if you’re interested!

originally posted: 26 december 2020

Several years ago, five men created a website for South Korea's international rap sensation, 3RACHA. The website, The FiVE:RACHA Project, was almost as popular as the group themselves. About two years after the website went live, FiVE:RACHA had the opportunity to meet 3RACHA.

Immediately after they meet, the members of FiVE:RACHA and 3RACHA go missing. The FiVE:RACHA Project website is down. Their Twitter account has been deactivated, and 3RACHA stops posting. A few months after their meetup, it was announced that 3RACHA had disbanded. Nobody knows what happened to either group.

Nobody knows, until now.

For some, modern day fame comes at a price that is too high to pay.

disclaimer: this is a work of fiction! any reference to persons in this work of fiction are purely coincidental. the characters referenced from Stray Kids are  interpretations loosely based on their personalities in the group and do  not represent the real people behind the personas. if this, or any of  the content included in the warnings above make you uncomfortable,  please stop reading now.

// note: with other darker stuff i post, i’m not totally sure i’ll post the entirety of this fic on tumblr. if not, i’ll do a little notice post for people interested to keep following it on AO3.

...Do you wish to proceed? To learn the truth of FiVE:RACHA and 3RACHA?

What is the true price of fame?

A Foreword:

Several years ago, there was a fan site, The FiVE:RACHA Project, dedicated to South Korea’s most famous rap group, 3RACHA. One day, it went down without notice. The site, as well as their Twitter account with over four million followers, was almost as well-known as the rap group itself.

3RACHA mysteriously disbanded several months after FiVE:RACHA went down. Nobody has seen or heard from the members of either group since the disbandment. There are several theories and myths surrounding the disappearances of both groups, but most of them are incorrect.

Be aware that, no, FiVE:RACHA did not go down because the site moderators were bored of 3RACHA. No, 3RACHA did not disband because Supreme Entertainment was about to collapse due to widespread fraud and their political scandals within the Korean government.

The stories of FiVE:RACHA and 3RACHA are very much deeply intertwined within each other, and the truth is uncomfortable to witness.

This novel’s authors, comprised of some of the most loyal fans of both groups, will remain anonymous and stay in hiding due to fear of being caught by the one responsible for the disappearances. An individual outside of our group found a Shinyu of someone involved in this, someone discarded in the Han River many years ago. How the implant survived with no living host for so long is beyond remarkable.

In case the Shinyu is defunct or replaced by the time you’re reading this, allow us to explain. The name comes from “close friend” in Japanese, likely as a play on words for how close the implant gets to its host, both physically and socially. The Shinyu was created in Tokyo in 2025; it is a small technological implant embedded under the skin of the right side of everyone’s temples.

Everyone has one placed at thirteen, and it encodes all of our visual, tactile, and auditory data, syncing it to our phones and uploading it to personal servers in the cloud. The data is encrypted, and requires access from both the Shinyu and the phone to decipher. It allows us to integrate technology into our daily lives, records our memories and important moments, but there is a price we all pay for this. Critics have been outspoken about this since its inception, but the governments never listened.

Alas, we digress. The Shinyu is vital to uncovering so much information that has been hidden and speculated on after all this time. Regardless of our personal opinions regarding the ethics of the device, we are grateful that we were able to obtain one of the implants. It has been vital to connect a lot of the missing pieces of the greater picture.

The authors have spent years decoding the information from this implant. Thanks to an anonymous source, we were able to obtain the personal computer of someone in FiVE:RACHA, personal cell phones of both groups, access to the database of Supreme Entertainment and its defunct myIdol data, some declassified legal information, and archives of both FiVE:RACHA and 3RACHA’s Twitter accounts.

Why have we chosen to extrapolate all of this data in the form of a novel? Perhaps we would like it to serve as a modern day parable for the plights of technology being so intricately interwoven between us all now. We, as humans, are now one with technology. Technology is literally embedded into us. It is astounding that technology allows us to interact so closely with famed idols now, beyond some barriers that critics have denounced for being inappropriate or unhealthy.

Some of us may pay the ultimate price for this.

Some of us, unfortunately, already have.

However interconnected we are with technology and how close we can get to those of which we idolize in society, though, humans will still crave entertainment. That is why this was written almost as a work of fiction. Those that pay attention to the story will be rewarded. Maybe not immediately, and maybe only after self-reflection, but readers will be rewarded. That much can be promised.

Above all else, we cannot stress enough that modern day fame and convenience comes at a price that is too high for some to pay. Stay safe, err on the side of caution. Disconnect from your Shinyu if you choose to proceed any further, because you never know who is watching.

— Curators of The FiVE:RACHA Project

One: Freedom

Nobody really knows who exactly manages FiVE:RACHA, just that it’s a group of five fans that run a fansite for the popular rap group 3RACHA. Their website is the most well-known and widely used out of the millions of fans that are out there. It always has live updates for the members: Bang Chan, Seo Changbin, and Han Jisung. There are daily paparazzi photos of at least one of them slapped up on the front page, embedded social media posts from each of the members updated as soon as they post, and hard-to-find facts about each of them.

Hell, one of the FiVE:RACHA members went through and coded up a section of the site dedicated to decoding natal charts for each of the members. Again, like most things about FiVE:RACHA, the source of this information was a mystery. Nobody’s sure exactly how they obtained 3RACHA’s birth times and locations. Some had speculated that it happened the same day the government had announced that there was a security breach of some of their databases, because the timing was oddly convenient.

To most casual fans, it sometimes felt really fucking weird to have so much information on idols readily available at their fingertips. However, to 3RACHA’s most dedicated, most obsessed fans, it was perfect. Exactly what they wanted. Their work seemed well-appreciated by the broader community, since the amount of Twitter followers FiVE:RACHA had was comparable to 3RACHA’s following, nearly half of their total count: 4,100,000 to 8,500,000.

There was nothing else that could compare to the controlled insanity that The FiVE:RACHA Project had to offer.

The FiVE:RACHA website was an international sensation, known to most 3RACHA fans, even those that opposed it. There was even a small, but growing, fanbase for the members of FiVE:RACHA, something that was slightly worrisome to them, but they had remained anonymous for so long, they weren’t really overtly concerned over it.

“This article is bullshit, man. ‘Controlled insanity’? None of this is controlled, it’s just insanity.”

Idle hums and trills of various electronics thrum in a dark room. Two young men stare at several computer monitors in a daze, lost in their own worlds as a ticker tape-like feed of coding and statistics flew past them on screen.“Let ‘em talk, dude,” the younger-looking man with blue hair scoots away from his computer and sighs. “Fuckin’ gossip rags. Anyway, I can’t stare at this CSS anymore. I can’t figure out why the embedded feeds are busted. Can you take over on this, Seung?”

The slightly older man with short, shaggy black hair rolls his neck, snapping some joints, not bothering to look away from his screens. “Yeah, yeah,” he stops poring over the article written about them on one screen, tabbing away to another. He cracks the knuckles in his fingers, and waves his hand in the air as he taps a couple of keys on his keyboard. “Go take a break, Jeongin. Hyunjin was looking for you, anyways. Probably got something good from a source of his, since he’s in one of his giddy moods.”

As Seungmin settles into his work, Jeongin chuckles as he stands up and stretches. He takes a couple steps over to the other computer desk and pats the older man on the back. “Thanks, dude,” he says with a smile and walks out of the server room, out into the hallway that leads into the open living room of their flat. The ambient humming of the room stops as he shuts the door, now replaced by the sound of his feet shuffling, the muffled noises echoing against the hardwood floor.

Five men all lived and worked in this large apartment together: Yang Jeongin, Kim Seungmin, Hwang Hyunjin, Lee Felix, and Lee Minho. Collectively, this was where they lived and breathed The FiVE:RACHA Project. Running the largest, most extensive fansite for South Korea’s most famous rap group, 3RACHA, was more than a full-time job. They all equally poured their hearts and souls into maintaining the website and their Twitter account. It proved to be almost too much for five people alone to handle as their shifts sometimes went from twelve hours and bled into sixteen, sometimes twenty-four hour shifts.

Minho, the leader, didn’t trust anyone but the original five to the project, however. Jeongin could hear the oldest man’s airy voice echo in his ears: “I trusted the four of you with this. Now, it’s devolved into something I don’t even recognize. There’s no way anyone deserves to see what we’ve done. Imagine if it got out that we were the ones in charge of this monstrosity?”

Jeongin glided into the kitchen, and pulled his phone out of his back pocket, eyeing the time. 13:36. He had another hour left of his shift, and he was exhausted after yesterday’s all-nighter. 33 hours of work, with only a small nap in between was rough on anyone, and he was starting to feel it, physically. His Shinyu Implant would ping him once every hour that he was very low on sleep, reminding him that it was unhealthy to go without sleep for so long and that he would not be able to drive. As he slinked his way to the fridge, he shoved his phone back into his pocket and yawned. He opened the fridge, the contents in the shelves of the door clattering as they abruptly shifted around.

The first thing he saw was a bottle of unsweetened coffee and, while he knew he shouldn’t drink caffeine within a few hours of hopeful sleep, Jeongin went against his instincts and reached for the bottle anyways. As he opened it, the cracking of the seal reverberated against all of the hard surfaces and sounded much louder than it should have, startling the man awake a bit.

He hated unsweetened coffee, but there was no way he would make it through another hour or so of coding maintenance without it. Jeongin polished off the entire bottle within seconds, grimacing in disgust the entire time. He tapped his right temple twice, and grumbled. “Set reminder, after work: grocery shopping. Have Hyunjin drive. Add to list: energy drinks. The good kind, none of that berry-flavoured shit.” A very faint, nearly inaudible ding responds after he’s done speaking, and Jeongin moves to discard the bottle into the recycling bin.

“Innie?” Almost as if the devil himself heard Jeongin’s request, a familiar voice rounded the corner of the kitchen. “Oh, good, I thought that was you. Anyway, you won’t believe the content I got from Yeji at Seoul Scoop, dude,” the lanky, beacon-like blond grins wildly at Jeongin, walking into the kitchen. “I actually got a photo of Chan and Changbin looking awfully close at KNECT’s backstage event a couple days ago. Think they were celebrating their recent win a little too hard.”

Hyunjin proudly slaps a grainy photo down on the countertop, where Changbin is sitting in Chan’s lap, arms wrapped around the older man’s neck. Sure, it could easily be explained away as friendly closeness, since everyone knew that all of the guys were very close friends, and the area was cramped. The photo, however, would cause a lot of panic within the community.

Jeongin smirked as he eyed the photo, taking it into his fingers and bringing it up close to his face. “The shippers are going to have a field day over this, you know.”

“I know,” Hyunjin shakes some of his hair out of his face as he arrogantly places a hand on his hip, shifting his weight to one side. “It’ll be great traffic for the site. I’ll have Seungmin put it on the front page later.” He takes a couple of steps closer to Jeongin and pulls the younger man to his chest, stroking his hair down. “I love you, but you look like shit. Why not call it a little early today?”

Jeongin shook his head, burying his nose into the older man’s shoulder, letting his eyes flutter shut with a sigh. “Seungmin and I are trying to fix a string of broken code that’s causing the social media feed to bug out a little bit. Definitely wanna have that fixed before we upload this.”

A clattering of keys startles both of the younger men, causing them to look behind Hyunjin. “Don’t worry about it, Jeongin,” a third voice speaks from the entrance of the kitchen. “Seriously, you worked really hard yesterday, and I’m sure we’ll manage. I’ll be sure to wake up Felix a little earlier and we’ll fix the coding.”

“You’re home early, Minho,” Jeongin chuckles once as he nods. “Figured you’d be stuck in the office for a few more hours.”

“Nah,” Minho dismissively waves his hand in the air as he walks over to the sink, rinsing his hands. “Seungmin called me earlier and said you were nodding off at your desk, asked me to come home early.”

A look of guilt washed over Jeongin’s face. “Shit, my bad.”

“Don’t apologize,” Minho smiles as he towels off his hands. “I appreciate all of the work you did yesterday; completely revamping the social media section was hard. But I can’t have you possibly miscode something and have it break the site because you’re running low on sleep. You’ve started getting pings, haven’t you?”

Jeongin sheepishly nods his head and mumbles an affirmation.

Hyunjin rolls his eyes and elbows the young man in the side. “I thought I told you to take a nap, dude?”

“I did!” Jeongin whines. “It was, like, a half-hour, though.”

Both Hyunjin and Minho roll their eyes at Jeongin. “Get out of here,” Minho scoffs, walking towards the server room. “Go to bed. I don’t wanna see you back in the server room until tomorrow morning.”

Jeongin opens his mouth to protest, but Hyunjin drags him away, up the stairs towards their bedroom. A ping comes from his implant, a transparent box popping up in the lower right-hand corner of his vision. The soft voice of the AI reverberates against his skull, allowing him to hear it as if it were a real voice whispering into his ear. It reads off the notification from his display.

“Movement away from workplace detected. Reminder: grocery shopping later, have Hyunjin drive. Would you like me to pull up your list?”

“No.” A low grumble comes up from Jeongin’s throat as he taps his temple twice to dismiss the notification. “Hyunjin,” he sighs, “we’ve gotta go grocery shopping.”

“You’re too tired,” Hyunjin shakes his finger without turning to look at Jeongin. “The grocery store will still be there tomorrow.”

“I’m out of my energy drinks, though,” the younger man protests.

Hyunjin smiles, opening the door to their bedroom and whispers. “I’ll be sure to get some for you. Go cuddle up with Felix and get some sleep.”

“Hyunjin, I—” Jeongin is cut off as the older man grabs his wrist, pulling him into his chest. They share a brief kiss before Hyunjin guides him into the bedroom.

“Shh, Lixie is sleeping.”

There’s a shuffling that comes from the bedsheets, and a sleepy voice grumbles. “Not anymore.”

“Aw, mornin’, babe,” Hyunjin says with a smile. “Sorry to wake you. Minho’s probably gonna come ask for you in a bit, anyways, though.”

Felix rolls over, sitting upright as he runs his hands through his brassy blond hair. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Jeongin sighs as he makes his way over to the bed, bringing an arm up to the blond and wrapping him in a lazy hug as he pulls them down to the bed.

The blond lets out a soft laugh. “Don’t worry about it, man,” he turns his head to face the bluenette and offers him a quick peck on the lips. “I couldn’t sleep much, anyways. Finding out about that myIdol rumour yesterday had my brain going kind of wild.”

“You heard about it too, huh?” Hyunjin says, colliding down onto the bed opposite of Felix. “Someone at Seoul Scoop told me about it this morning. It lets fans connect with their idols, like they’re actually directly messaging them.”

“That’s weird,” the bluenette sleepily grumbles into Felix’s shoulder.

“I think so, too.” Felix says with a frown as he nuzzles his head against Jeongin’s forehead, staring up into the ceiling.

Hyunjin shrugs with indifference. “I dunno, I think it’s pretty interesting.”

Jeongin lifts his head and stares down Hyunjin with a smirk. “You just want to pretend like Changbin cares about you.”

The older blond frowns as he flips off Jeongin. “Like you wouldn’t want Jisung to send you a ‘Have a wonderful day, bestie!’ message?”

The youngest member flops back down onto the bed. “Okay, that’s fair. It’s still weird, though. Seems so artificial and fake, I guess.”

“Well,” Hyunjin sits up, offering a hand out to Felix, “I’ll have more information on it tomorrow, probably. Why don’t you let yourself sleep for a while?” Felix takes the hand offered to him, and both men stand up. “Lixie and I will go out and get some groceries and get you those nasty energy drinks you like so much.”

Jeongin grumbles as he wiggles his way up to the pillows, half-asleep and irritated from the loss of warmth from Felix. “Just not the berry ones, okay?”

“I’ll see what we can do,” Hyunjin says with a smirk before he spins on his heel and walks out of the room. “Love you, Innie!”

“Don’t worry,” Felix leans down to kiss Jeongin’s forehead, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t get the kinds you hate. Let yourself actually sleep, too. We’ll make it all work out, okay?”

Jeongin mutters some sort of incoherent affirmation as he lets his heavy eyelids flutter shut. Seungmin would be able to fix the CSS by himself, he figured, trying not to worry too much about how broken small parts of the site were. He heard Felix say something else as he quickly faded off into sleep, but it didn’t register fully as he sank into the abyss.

There were a lot of sleepless nights ahead of them, whether FiVE:RACHA felt it coming or not.

[kagrenacs]

Explaining the Iceberg #5

*Not everything is covered, take note of trigger warnings before the links

Altmeri Poetic-Architecture: Referencing a response by Lawrence Shick to a question about Alinor buildings resembling insect wings and glass. There was a lot of criticism directed towards the appearance of Altmeri buildings in ESO when it first debuted, and then again when Summerset launched. Shick commented that, despite fanciful descriptions, their materials are still practical, and that architects can’t create buildings from poetry.

Megalomoths: Similar to the Sunbirds of Alinor, Megalomoths are spaceships that look like moths.

Dreugh Undersea Cities: From Mankar Cameron’s and Vivec’s writings. Both indicate the dreugh have (or had) their own empire, or other sorts of colonies that exist underwater.

Possi/impossipoint: Some more MK jargon, an impossipoint is a point in time where nothing suddenly becomes something. Likewise, a possipoint is where something that exists, can become something else. Essentially moments in time where something changes.

Night Mother is Mephala: A well known theory by this point. An in-universe and out of universe theory that Mephala is actually the Night Mother, and that the animosity between the DB and Morag Tong is her own creation.

The Oghma: Presuming this references to the Oghma Infinium. A book created by the wizard Xarxes, he named it after his wife, Oghma, who he made from his favorite moments in history. In general, an Oghma seems to refer to a journal or a recorded history.

Sovngarde on the moon: Shor/Lorkhan is the ruler of Sovngarde. His corpse is also said to be the two moons. This theory ties the two together and proposes Sovngarde is/is on the moons.

Misanthropic Space: Not much on this one. Taken together, Misanthropic means dislike of humanity. The book Sithis mentions that Sithis the god is sometimes thought of as misanthropic. Considering he’s also considered the void itself, Misanthropic space may refer to this.

Tharnatos: The Cyrodillic sect of the Mythic Dawn, mentioned in the Redguard forums. As a side note, tharn-atos probably refers to the Tharn family, of which Jagar Tharn had ties to Mehrunes Dagon

Continental Time: This draws from MK’s C0da and other threads. At the end of c0da a new universe is born, in a later thread (since deleted, it was a jab at the Otherkin community), MK states that this universe is Akavir, and that Yokuda (misspoken as Hammerfell) was the past (this might be a reference to timezones in the real world, but judging from previous comments from MK regarding his writing on the Redguard history I doubt this). This would mean the Redguards are from an entirely different universe and not related to the other humans, which is racist! This lore has since been disowned by MK and LadyN, but fans still perpetuate this theory. This post discusses racism within the writing. (PLEASE NOTE, that if you click the final link or search for MK’s statements on the Redguard lore, there are some anti-indigenous statements by him) https://betterbemeta.tumblr.com/post/190628347692/corsairesix-fallout-new-vegas-2010

The Marukhaki Selective: A sect of the Alessian Order that was named after the First Era prophet Markuh. They caused the Middle Dawn, an especially long Dragon Break, by trying to remove Auri-El from Akatosh.

The Prime Gesalt: Another name for the Numidium. Gestalt comes from the german word for shape, and refers to a school of psychology that essentially looks at behavior and consciousness as a whole. Essentially this is probably referencing the theory that the souls of the Dwemer became the ‘skin’ of the Numidium, like cells in a body.

The Jills: Described as ‘female dragons’ (why they’re female when dragons traditionally have no gender, and not just a subset of dragons/Aka, is an unfortunate product of cis writers). They’re agents of Akatosh(more attributed to Alkosh, the dragon-cat) who mend tears in time. They’re described sometimes as sub-gradients which essentially means they’re small shards of Akatosh’s soul.

Versidue-Shaie still alive: Not much was found on this, but i don’t think much is needed. Probably a theory that the Tsaesci Potenate of the 1st Era wasn’t assassinated and is alive.

Molag Bal Destroyed Tamriel: Not much found on this either, I didn’t look particularly hard however, because there’s a lot of nasty shit people write about Molag Bal! If I had to take a stab at it, I'd assume it looks at the fragments of Nirn in Coldharbour and theorizes these may be from previous Kalpas. Possibly from Kalpas Molag Bal himself destroyed.

Seekers and Ascended Seekers: A possible (if flimsy) connection between Hermaeus Mora’s Seekers (seen in Dragonborn) and the Ascended Seekers of Morrowind. The book, Sithis has a line that states ‘Come unto the Sharmat Dagoth Ur as a friend AE HERMA MORA ALTADOON PADHOME LRKHAN AE AI’   This thread discusses this theory and why there’s probably no connection better than I can.

Ordinated Receptile: Possibly another name for the Eye of Magnus. The King of the Kamal from Akavir landed at Winterhold stating he was searching for the ordinated receptacle 

Varlinance+ No results from any site, there seems to be a typo in this entry

Rorikstead: A theory stating that Rorikstead is actually a cultist hotspot. Based on the fact that one of the characters seen in Skyrim, Rorik, states he founded the town. Previously in this area there was a town named Rorik’s Steading, founded by a man named Rorik. There are other key points, Rorikstead having good crop production and soul gems found in every house.

Sovengarde Shor’s Kalpic Army: Sovengarde is described as a hall where the spirits of Nords wait until the ‘final reckoning’ If taken with the obscure text ‘Shor, son of Shor.’ This is explained by the Kalpa cycle, where the universe is reborn and the Ehlnofey wars begin again. Also, this resembles the Norse mythology of Ragnarok.

World-Refusals/Anti-Creation: A primarily Dwemeri school of thought. Basically the denial of the world and existence, either to return to the state prior to the creation of Mundus (godhood essentially) or the nothingness/collective unity of souls before things learned to be separate. 

Mathematical Atheism: In the context of tes, this is probably another Dwemer belief. Mathematical Atheism is used to describe a couple different things over the years, but taken in context, I’m guessing it’s comparable to the irl philosophy that math isn’t something fundamentally woven into the universe. It’s more like a language humans have came up with to describe what we see, and aliens may have a totally different language of math than us.

Many Ysgramors: As if one wasn’t enough, a theory based on the fact that Ysgramor exists as a Draugr, and as a Soul in Sovengarde. Either the deeds of multiple people got attributed to his name, or there were multiple people named Ysgramor.

The Crux of Transcendence: another name for the Mantella (the big old soul gem that powers the Numidium when the heart doesn’t)

(D)aedric artifacts sentient: Fairly straightforward, artifacts are the essence of a d/aedra, condensed into an object, they also change hands fairly often, appearing in random locations, possibly by a mechanism inherent to the artifacts themselves. Excluding special cases like Umbra, this theory proposes the artifacts may make conscious choices to jump around.

Paleonumerology: A field of study within tes. Numbers carry significant symbolic value (the sharmat, 1+1, the tower being a 1, ect). Paleonumerology is studying these numbers, their historic basis, and their relation to the physical world. Remember when I said math is the language of the universe? Well this would be it.

Jagar Tharn was good: An argument supporting Jagar Tharn. If he was such a powerful mage, there’s a chance he knew Uriel Septim would be the last heir, and imprisoned him to keep the dragonfires lit. There’s more to it than that, here’s the full thread if you’re interested.

Aldmeris was real (in my mind): The ingame theory that Aldmeris is nothing more than a myth, acting as a setting for ancient stories, or a previous name for the Summerset Isles and/or Tamriel.

Vivec killed Moraelyn: Moraelyn, a member of the Ra’athim clan, was called the witch-king of Ebonheart, during the first era. He has no notable connection to Vivec, so i’m a little confused at this one. My best guess is Moraelyn was likely a proto-version of Nerevar, therefore this might be a roundabout statement regarding Foul Murder

Divine Skin/Dwemer Numidium Skin: A noncanonical statement by MK saying he believes the Dwemer’s souls were collectively absorbed, becoming the Numidium’s ‘skin’ 

The Dream: The thought that the entirety of the TES universe is either metaphorically, or literally, a dream. Metaphorically speaking, it’s a way to conceptualize the universe, everyone is a character playing a part in the dream, an individual in their own right, but ultimately a part of a greater whole. Literally speaking, the universe may be the Dream of Anu, who is using the universe to comprehend his grief at the loss of Nir and Padomay. It may also be the dream of an entity higher than Anu, called The Godhead. And even beyond this, the Godhead might be a metaphor for the creators of The Elder Scrolls, the world being their creation/drea

True Nords are all Bandits: The observation that bandits within Skyrim often call the gods by their Nordic names, rather than acknowledging their imperialized counterparts. 

Sotha Sil’s Last words: An obscure text written BEFORE the release of Morrowind. The author is anonymous, but many speculate that a dev wrote this.

Deep ones: In oblivion, in the town of Hackdirt there are books mentioning the worship of ‘The Deep Ones’ as you descend into the town you can see where the townsfolk worship these entities. There are a good deal of theories about what the Deep ones are, but they’re probably taken from the Cthulhu Mythos, specifically the Shadow over Innsmouth and the short story ‘Dagon’. 

Nirnroot tiny towers: https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/4qdw78/tiny_towers_a_nirnroot_theory/ A half-serious theory that states Nirnroots are created by the Hist to reinforce the towers and prevent them from ‘erroding’ 

The Loveletter from the Fifth-Era: A noncanonical MK text that acts as the precursor to C0da. A letter sent from the future discussing Landfall and the events afterwards.

Kagrenac possessed Dagoth Ur/Sharmat: Dagoth Ur was said to hold the same motivations as Kagrenac, ie: remove colonizers from their home. Going a step further to look at non canonical sources, specifically the Dwemer Numidium Skin statement, Kagrenac was attempting to share godhood among the Dwemer, and may have succeeded. Morrowind shows us that Dagoth Ur was attempting to do the same. The main theory here is that Kagrenac’s spirit may have possessed Dagoth Ur and was the source of his motivations, or that an entity more powerful than both of them, the Sharmat, possessed them/took them over. The Sharmat may be metaphorical or literal, either a desire for power, a hunger for something more (which is comparable to Lorkhan creating Nirn, in an effort to find something more/enlighten everyone, or to his darker manifestations, the Greedy man, the thief, ect.)

Cuhlecain Reman Bloodline: In universe speculation that Emperor Cuhlecain (the ‘emperor’ before Tiber) and Reman are related.

Cyrodiil Spread to the Stars: Found within ‘Where were you when the Dragon Broke?” Empress Hestra of the Alessian Order, who ruled during the Middle Dawn, stated that the Cyrodiil empire spread to the stars. This could refer to the goals of the Marukhati Selectives in ‘removing Auri-el from Akatosh’, effectively exerting will upon the gods(stars) themselves. Or more likely, a reference to the out of game texts discussing space travel during the Middle Dawn.

Anti-CHIM: Separate from Zero-Summing (having an existential crisis so hard you disappear) although the two are sometimes used synonymously. While CHIM is realizing you’re just one part of a larger whole, while retaining individuality, and Zero-Summing is realizing you’re one part of a whole, but unable to accept that, Anti-CHIM is a person realizing their part in the universe, but refusing to accept it, instead gaining the ability to manipulate the universe but essentially seeing themselves as the center of it, instead of another part. https://teslore.fandom.com/wiki/Anti-CHIM:_A_Concept_and_Theory

Thalmor and Jygalagg: A theory that states that the Thalmor worship Jygalagg due to his nature as the prince of ‘order’

Dibella=Y’ffre: A thought that these two deities of nature and beauty are the same entity. This theory is mostly hinged on the (very cishet) thought that mer are feminine and have the masculine god Y’ffre (who is described as female in lore occasionally), and men are masculine and have Dibella who is feminine.

The Void Ghost: Described as the lost spirit of Lorkhan, who remains because his work isn’t done. 

House cats are Khajiit spies: Referring to the Afliq, a form of Khajiit that resembles a housecat. Because of this they’re often used as spies.

TEM (Warspore Tiberia): From the text Cyrus vs.Tiber Septim, either a battleship or battlespire.

The Athedorix Conundrums: A book that is never actually seen in game, and only mentioned briefly. Said to contain 9 riddles that drive people mad.

Aetherius Dream Visitation: Pretty much what it sounds like. The ability to travel to one another’s dreams (probably through the Dreamsleeve)

Revelation at the Death of Alesh: While this doesn’t directly refer to anything I've found, I'm guessing it’s discussing Marukh the Prophet, who in a state of near death was visited by Alessia’s spirit.

Empire ended in 3E 417: This year could be seen as a beginning to an end. The warp in the west occurred, allowing the Underking to die, keening and sunder were lost to Dagoth Ur, which eventually lead to the empire taking an interest in Morrowind and the Heart being ‘destroyed’ leading up to the events of Morrowind and Oblivion and the end of the Septims. As a side note, this seems to be an original theory by the original author of the iceberg, as i can only find it in association with discussions like these.

Coldharbour is the remains of Lyg: The only discussion on this is on 4pleb, while I don’t give enough shits to read that thread, if I had to guess this would be a theory connecting Coldharbours mimicry of Tamriel, to Lyg being a parallel to Tamriel

Falmer White souls: An observation that in Skyrim, the Falmer souls fit into white soul gems, instead of black soul gems. Some theorize this is a result of the Dwemer’s curse upon them, shrinking their souls.

[arlakos]

Miraculous New York Special: First Trailer Impressions

I’m gonna be brief with this statement: I’m not really looking forward to the special. Sure it’s a new episode, but i got burnt out on canon long ago, and the ao3 salt-fest has left me in a state where i haven’t really quit, but haven’t been motivated to make a lot of ML posts.

That being said, its got the fandom excited for new miraculous content, as well as myself, so lets talk about the trailers. Here are the trailer vids that I’ll be referencing in the video and be talking about.

(For reference, this was made on the 22nd of September, so this is all speculation and first opinions. Don’t flame me if one of my speculations are proven correct.)

First of all, every single hero released for the trailer thus far has so far been female, with knightowl and sparrow being unconfirmed. That being said, if its anything like the comic its based on, im pretty sure the New York Hero team will push the message of ‘Only girls get to be heroes/heroines, while the boys are regulated to be side kicks’ - justliketheactualshow heyyyyyyyyy!~

Also, its been confirmed that one of the heroes Names is Snowflake. Either Astruc really likes lame puns, or he didn’t hear the memo about the marvel comic hero with the same name. 

Or he did hear about it, but thinks its good and that people who downvoted it are ‘fake fans’ 😒.

Chances are Snowflake will have a sidekick named Safe Space, and if she does im gonna need a ice pack for my forehead cause i already want to slam my head against the desk.

Also RIP my boi Doorman. You had only one role in the comic and even that was taken from you by the show. 

F in Chat for my boi Doorman :(

And his partner, Uncanny Valley

Oh, and Victory too. She seemed like a cool characters.

Actually, just and F for all the ret-gonned heroes. At least the Quantic Kids have company now in the shiny light of shelved ideas.

Back on the Topic of Sparrow, i reckon he’s going to get the short end of the stick this episode. Considering that he has no actual powers in the comic, and the fact he can’t run from a swarm of a rockets and has to end up being saved by Ladybug, I reckon he’s going to be Chat Noir levels of usefullness. That is to say - he’ll probably be made by Astruc to be incompetent in the face of the ‘better’ female heroes.

SPEAKING OF LADYBUG HOLY HELL I AM ALREADY ANNOYED-

Look, i read the comics (unfortunately) and chances are Ladybug is going to be the main focus of the episode again. 

Yeah, i know, Ladybug is the main character and all, but ideally I’d hope to see an avengers situation where all the heroes partake in the battle and contribute equally, and it would be nice to see Ladybug (and Cat Noir) get some mentorship from older and more experienced heroes...

Chances are though, the actual heroes will treat Ladybug and Cat Noir like sidekicks and ignore them, only for there to be a situation where Ladybug can fix everything while the other heroes cant, or for Ladybug to have on option on how to win the battle where its the only right one while the other decisions the other heroes make and wrong and Lila-levels of evil and... 

Yeah im getting a bit to mad at this, but long story short, Ladybug is gonna steal the spotlight from the other heroes, and everyone will adore her like the Mary Sue she already partialy is.

“Nothing is impossible for Ladybug” Yeah, like talking normally to a boy to a boy you like, instead of relying on convoluted plans to make him fall for you.

Oh, Hawkmoth is in the episode? Damn... I was actually really hoping that we would get to see some new villains this episode, and not just more stinking akumas. 

The hell does he want with antique guns though....

Oh damn... Nevermind... It seems he found a new miraculous, considering the pendant around Gabriel’s neck and the white glowing Kwami. Shit just got a lot more interesting...

Looking on the trailer now, it could also be likely that Hawkmoth will have his own side story that will be going on while the heroes are fighting the New York villains, so it would mean we will get to see actual new villains in the show. 

I’m actually hoping Gabe story involves him teleporting to Paris...I like the idea of him using his time away from Adrien to further his plans and not being there as a result of Adrien.

In any case, I’m hoping for Hawkmoth to only appear towards the end of the show with whatever plan he has cooked up.

Speaking of akumas (and moving on to the 3 eyed girl), its a high chance that with Hawkmoth in new Yorks, she’ll be an akuma in disguise based on the trailers alone. With her being a possible fan of the american heroes, she’ll probably want in on the heroism, making her a perfect target for Hawkmoth. I mean the purple eyes are quite notably creepy, and the skin looks altered like other akumatized villains. Yeah, i expect this to be a Volpina situation all over again.

On a side note, my friend @twin-books​ said that she looks like a monster high character, and I honestly cant blame her. At first glance she looks like a mummified Cleopatra. XD

On a more positive note, I really like the orchestral Version of the Miraculous Ladybug theme. Its really great, and has an avengers vibe to it...

...but on that same note, Astruc probably deliberately made it that way, considering he has an ego the size of Ego from MCU, and probably thinks he can make movies better than most Marvel creators. He thinks himself on the same writing level as the Russo Brothers, but in reality he’s on the level of Kathleen Kennedy. Which is to say...very low 😈.

Actually wait, I just realise Zag does all the Miraculous music... nvm its really goddamn good, but my previous point still stands.

I don’t know if this is just be being annoyed at the Captain Marvel film, but Majestia reminds me too much of said heroine. I dunno, she rubs me the wrong way. I hope Majestia’s attitude wont be the same as Captain Marvels, but its likely considering Astruc’s idea of ‘good female heroes’

That being said, I like the other heroes designs, even Artica (im not calling her Snowflake). Considering I don’t know much about the heroes in the show, im gonna try to be positive and like them before I judge them.

So this has been my speculations/ first opinions on the New York special! I really hope the episode will be good, but if it isnt... well I’ll try to enjoy the good parts at least.

P.S. If you like, please reblog

[cherryblossomwatts]

Hii, can you tell me what happened between Shane and Garret?

absolutely, anon!

basically. shane and garrett used to be incredibly close - they described themselves as platonic “soulmates,” best friends for life. garrett was heavily featured on shane’s channel, and connected shane with andrew, essentially setting them up for the success and critical acclaim they’ve achieved today. for a few years the whole “squad” was really happy and all appeared to get along well.

once shane started collaborating with j* and more “high profile” youtubers, however, things started to change. the last time garrett was seen in any of the squad’s videos (in person) was in ryland’s taco bell hotel video. he was also featured very briefly in shane’s second series with j*, and also attended the opening of the morphe store with them where they “premiered” shane’s collection.

shane’s made it clear by now that he doesn’t associate with garrett anymore. i’m not sure exactly when this happened, but i believe it was at some point during the beautiful world of shane dawson series. garrett wasn’t paid homage to or referenced a single time in his makeup collection or merch line - whereas ryland, andrew, tana mongeau, and trisha paytas all had shades/lipsticks named after them. andrew even has his own hoodies. you’d think garrett would be a given in the collection, since shane described him for years as his “soulmate,” but there’s absolutely nothing.

my own personal theory is that shane drifting away from garrett is due to a combination of three things: 1) shane’s sudden, dramatic increase in income, 2) the influence of j*, and 3) the influence of ryland.

shane is turning into a completely different person imo, as i referenced in this post. money has changed him. as for j*, he made his sexual interest in garrett disgustingly clear in his first series with shane. he told shane he would pay garrett’s rent for months if he would have sex with him, in complete seriousness. i don’t personally believe that garrett had sex with him, although it is a possibility. my belief is that j* either turned on garrett after being rejected by him, or they did have sex and it for some reason didn’t go or end well. either way, i think j* has been influencing shane to push garrett away and get him out of his life.

and finally, ryland is an incredibly vain and jealous person. i find it hard to believe that he isn’t extremely jealous about shane’s previous, obvious attraction to garrett, and the fact that they dated and were physically intimate for a brief period of time. he “played nice” on camera and pretended to be friendly with garrett, but it’s been clear for a while that he doesn’t like him very much. i think he’s also been encouraging shane to cut ties with garrett for a long time.

however, garrett’s the one who’s semi-officially cut the friendship short. he’s replied to tweets referencing shane’s slander of sociopaths (read: the entire jake paul series), and has liked posts referencing getting rid of toxic people in one’s life. i think it’s possible shane wants to become friends again, or at least stay on good, if somewhat distant, terms, as he still follows garrett on tiktok (garrett doesn’t follow back) and posted a picture of him on his instagram story the other day. but i don’t know if that’s ever going to happen. garrett also used to be incredibly self-deprecating around shane, and constantly displayed insecurities about his body - but now that he’s been staying away from shane and spending more and more time with andrew, he hasn’t made a single derogatory joke about his appearance this year (as far as i’m aware - correct me if i’m wrong!).

(shane also didn’t congratulate either garrett or andrew for their song hitting #3 on hip hop charts. i think that says it all.)

so there you have it, anon. this is mostly my speculation, of course, but it’s become increasingly more obvious as time has passed that things aren’t right between shane and garrett. i really hope that eventually things are rectified, because i truly loved seeing their friendship - but if garrett is truly better off without shane (which it seems like he is), then more power to him. garrett’s happiness and mental health is so, so important. his videos and content thrive when he’s in the right headspace.

shane can keep buying gucci slides and making dumb conspiracy videos, for all i care. maybe he’ll wake up someday.

[imbellarosa]

The Larry Song by Van McMann

Or, that one time you accidentally wrote your best friend and bandmate a love song about being on tour without him and he tweets about it confirming it. This review is especially dedicated to @dalek-in-heels​ because she had to hear me talking about how I’ve been listening to this song FOR DAYS and wanted to talk about it. Oooh oooh and also to @belgianreader2​ because we actually are 7 hours apart and although I’m not writing her love songs just yet, this song always makes me laugh bc I think of her. It is, as always, all under the cut because i have A LOT of words and don’t want to clog anyone’s timeline. 

SIDE NOTE: I’ll be back to political content in the morning, I just need to post something for myself right now. If you’re looking for a way to get involved tonight, The Rolling Stone actually compiled a great list here. If you match my donation from earlier today or a donation that I made last week, let me know and I will write a prompt for you, if you’d like it. 

Okay, onto the song. The first thing I should clarify is that the song is not actually called Larry - it’s called 7 and its by a rock band (a british rock band? maybe?) called Catfish and the Bottlemen. I’m not actually lying when I say it’s by Van McMann, though, because that’s the lead singer, and sole writer of this song. I call it the Larry song in my head because the first line of the song is “Larry call a load of smoke in/I want to lose a couple days/I know we never struggled coping/but I never want to.”

 I know that it’s about a dude named Larry for a couple of reasons: the first is that it’s literally in the song. So. There’s that. The second is that both Van and Larry confirmed it. Larry Lau is Van McMann’s best friend and the guitar technician for the band. Van confirmed it here in an interview for Radio X in the UK, and Larry Lau tweeted on April 19th, 2016: “Ahahah funny as when your best mate puts you in a tune then it goes all over the radio #lotofshoutouts” (the tweet also had a bunch of emojis that didn’t copy paste well, but they are: a phone - you’ll see why later - a cloudy sky, an alien, and the number 7). 

The thing is - this song is called 7 because of the timezone difference. And here lies the actual story. This song is about their relationship while Van is on tour.  (I have to assume it’s their relationship because his name is the only name-drop in the whole song. The only other name-drop in the album is the song “Emily”, which seems to be about meeting up to catch up with an old flame in a pretty sweet goodbye song. Yes. I listened to the album, debated if I wanted to do a review, and decided that actually, I liked this song the best and wanted to focus on it. Sue me.). ANYWAYS. He talks about how:  And I'd beg you, but you know I'm never home/And I'd love you, but I need another year alone/And I've tried to ignore it every time you phone/But I never come close/And I don't think through things, I never get time/'Cause I don't think things through...” 

So that’s where the phone comes in haha! I also think that it’s really interesting how he talks about this relationship: just because he’s in love does not mean that he’s about to postpone his tour (his career, his life) for this relationship. And I know that some people might think that this means it’s not a good one or that it’s a sad song but...I actually think it’s very healthy? I mean, in the context of the album definitely, but we’ll go through some thematic stuff in a bit.

 However, even as a standalone song, I think this is a very healthy attitude for a dude in his 20s to have. Or even a dude at the beginning of his career, no matter their age. Like. This is your chance man, so good for you for taking that. If your relationship is meant to be, it can survive a time difference and different ambitions and everything else that you have to do to grow and find yourself. Even if you need the year alone to do so. 

On to the themes that I like in this song that are reoccurring throughout the album! The smoke thing. People speculate that “call a load of smoke in” means “let’s go smoke” (there’s also speculation that it means “throw a smoke bomb on stage, but in context of everything else, I don’t really think so?). I like the reading that “call a load of smoke in/I want to lose a couple days” means - let’s go do our thing, I want to spend the next few days doing nothing together. The smoking thing comes back in the song “Anything” - also written by Van - where he says, “ I won't smoke if you don't no more/'Cause I know you hate the taste of it/And I don't wanna picture our first born/If you've stopped discussing names with me/But if it means that we get through then you know I'm up for anything”, and in his song “Soundcheck”, he mentions that he’s rushing through rehearsal to meet up for a cigarette break (which, if that song is also about Larry, it would make sense? because they would be working together? and so they could have a smoke break together). 

Let’s discuss: I think that it would make sense that this is both an activity they do together, and a habit that they try to break, depending on how their relationship is going. For example, if they’re doing great, and they can’t stay away from each other, then it’s “call a load of smoke in” or “let’s go meet during your break” (that’s not the lyric, sorry haha). But if their relationship is going sour, then it’s “do you need me to stop smoking? what can i do?”. And I think that’s a very normal reaction for a twenty-something-year-old person to have? It smacks of obsession and insecurity and love. You want to be with them at every moment, even though you know you can’t be. You understand that you have to do your thing, but you’ll do it a bit faster if you get to have a couple of moments with them, and if things are going not so great, then, well, you start obsessively reflecting on what you think you might need to change about yourself. 

Another theme that keeps popping up in the album is thinking things through. Like, Van is clearly an impulsive person. He says here “I don’t think through things, I never get time”, and he says in the song “Twice”: “ 'Cause when you love the way you’re living/It's just hard to fret about much/Because if I got time I just regret most of it”, and then he goes on to list a bunch of mistakes he made. Hey, at least he’s self-aware, you know? I don’t really think this is significant to the story of the song other than it gives a bit of context to the person writing it. I also don’t really know anything about either of these guys personally, other than the interviews and such that I’ve found, so if i’ve just messed something up massively, please let me know haha. 

ANYWAYS - to close! This song also includes gems like “I know we (Larry and Van) never struggled sleeping/But I never want to..”. Which like, ah, yes, I too tell my completely platonic bro and bandmate that I never want to struggle sleeping with them! Of course! Happens ALL THE TIME. 

Nah, but really. It’s a great song in a pretty good album (the other songs I referenced are “Anything”, “Twice”, “Emily”, and “Soundcheck”, all of which I really enjoyed. I also liked “Postponed”, but be warned - that’s a sad song pretending to be a happy one). I searched, but I couldn’t find a relationship history for either Van or Larry, and apparently, they’ve been friends since childhood, and I think I’ve read this story once or twice. Or maybe seen the movie? So that’s what I have to say about that. 

My final thought is that I would have paid an indescribable amount of money to see the rest of the band listen to the song the first time around. Like. Imagine the glances that the rest of them shared like ... “uh... who’s going to tell him this is a love song?”. I would also LOVE to watch this song get performed live because I think that would also be remarkably telling, and also because it would make me giggle uncontrollably. 

This song comes from an album called “The Ride”, and it’s followed by an album called “The Balance”, which I haven’t finished, but is also pretty ok. Anyways I need a ship name for these two so if anyone has one I really want to hear it. Is Lan cooler or Varry? Or Vanry? or McMau if we’re doing last names. Actually, McMau seems pretty cool. 

[ladylannisterxo]

{ST A} [1/4] If you want... So I was reading more of the article for the newest season of Stranger Things just a few days ago. Not many people are posting about it though, I had to do my own research. Anyway! This is the Satanic Panic era in the 1980s. Remember when the Byers (along with El) moved? They moved to Mexico. Hopper's in Russian. Some of the newer characters are high schoolers in some part of the story, or they are either guards and mental patients in an asylum. And there are some new

[2/4] faces in this season. I'll list some of them, probably not all the new characters. Eduardo Franco as Argyle, Jonathan’s new best friend. Jamie Campbell Bower as Peter Ballard, orderly at a psychiatric hospital. Joseph Quinn, playing Eddie Munson, an audacious 80’s metalhead who runs The Hellfire Club in Hawkins High’s official D&D club. [3/4] Robert Englund - and it looks like he may be inspiring just as many nightmares in Stranger Things, with his character Victor Creel - a serial killer. Tom Wlaschiha (best known as Jaqen H’ghar in Game of Thrones) as a Russian prison guard who befriends Hopper. Sherman Augustus as an intelligent, no-nonsense man who believes he knows how to stop the evil in Hawkins. And Nikola Djuricko as a Russian smuggler. Mason Dye plays Jason Carver, his story is similar to Steve's. Y'know.. rich boy who [4/4] becomes tracked in this new world of chaotic creatures. That's how I took his backstory. And I know... that's a lot of the new characters, a few of the original characters don't have that much fleshing out (in my opinion). And I'm not sure how I will feel about the newest season, but there are actors I recognize. So, at the moment, I'm watching some of those actors in this season. Not sure about the story yet, so I can't say much about it. / I didn't mean to send that many messages to you.

-----

Whoah!! Okay, first, don’t apologize! I did ask and thank you so much for providing all this incredible information! I’m going to put everything under the cut just because there is much to unpack here.

Okay. So, Mexico? Alright, I can get behind that. Sounds like we’re going to be splitting our time in about three different ways: Hawkins, Mexico, and Russia. Although, I remember Stranger Things on Twitter made that announcement post that was something along the lines of ‘we’re not in Hawkins anymore’ or something like that? But it looked more like the Upside Down... so perhaps we’re going there too? Hmmm...

I also googled all these actors you mentioned just so I could put a face to the name lol. Let’s start at the beginning:

Eduardo Franco [as Argyle]. Okay, so I’m not too familiar with any of the other films/tv shows he’s been in but I do recognize him (maybe from a trailer or something). I like the idea of Jonathan having a best friend, he’s been severely lacking in that department for the last three seasons so yeah, gimme the bromance! I’m here for that!

Jamie Campbell Bower [as Peter Ballard]. Holy w o w, they got Jamie!? I recognized him immediately!! Alright, orderly at a psychiatric hospital? What is the reason for a psychiatric hospital this season? And is it in Hawkins or in Mexico?? Who is living in there that we need to know about? I know that in the post I referenced in the last ask, there was speculation that Billy could be residing in there (if he is, in fact, alive) but that’s all just speculation. Hmmm...

Joseph Quinn [as Eddie Munson]. So, a metalhead? I remember there being a bit of an uproar when this was first revealed a few months back because we technically already had that in the form of Billy Hargrove and they killed him so why replace him with someone else?? Seems like he’s going to be a tad different though since he’ll be running a D&D club but I guess we’ll find out.

Robert England [as Victor Creel]. I mean, enough said, right? This guy is a legend so you know whatever he brings to the show is going to be incredible! It’s strange though because Stranger Things isn’t listed on his IMDB page but I did google it and it’s confirmed in quite a few articles. Just... why a serial killer though? What does that add to the story? Especially since our main group of protagonists are basically children. That’s a tad bit concerning. But maybe that’s why the psychiatric hospital is necessary... maybe he’s a patient?? There’s a lot they seem to be wanting to do in the span of about nine episodes.

Tom Wlaschiha [as Dmitri]. That’s according to his IMDB page and it looks like he’s only going to be in the first two episodes... or at least that’s all he has credited. So is the Russia thing going to only span two episodes and then Hop will be back where he belongs?? I do like this actor though so it’s really cool to see him in something else!!

Sherman Augustus [as Lt. Colonel Sullivan]. Also according to his IMDB page so yeah, I can see a Lt. Colonel being an intelligent, no-nonsense kind of man. Interesting!

Nikola Djuricko [as Yuri]. Russian smuggler... sure, okay. But why?

Mason Dye [as Jason Carver]. According to his IMDB page, he’s only credited in the first episode so not sure how big of a role he is going to have but if he’s supposed to be a knock off version of Steve? Nah, don’t really want it tbh. Like, unless they show us with Jason that alternative route Steve could have taken with being a complete dick (like he was in S1), I’m not sure why his character is entirely necessary. Guess we’ll have to wait and see...

What I do find interesting about all of these new characters you mentioned is that they’re all men... why? Are we not getting any new female characters? Does anyone know? That’s kind of ridiculous if you ask me. I did see a BTS shot floating around a week or so ago that looked to be showing Kali and her group (from S2) so it looks like they’re making a return but again, the question is still... why? I have a lot of questions but still not a lot of answers at this point.

Based on some of the actors I googled, S4 looks to be nine episodes long and IMDB has the first three episode titles listed: [1] The Hellfire Club, [2] Tick Tock Mr Clock, and [3] You Snooze You Lose.

I don’t know. Looks like S4 is coming sometime in 2021 so I’m hoping since we’re nearing the end of 2020 (finally!), we can hopefully start to see some more announcements in the form of trailers soon.

Sorry this response is so stupidly long but thanks again for sending this all over to me, you’re awesome!! <3

[artistic-mathematics]

I, uh, had the woooonderful experience of... watching the 4th season of She-Ra just now.

Major. Spoilers. Ahead. You have been warned.

Thoughts/Initial reactions?

I hate this show. I love and hate this show. No, I hate it. Love it. Hate. Love. Crew-Ra, w h y?

I definitely didn’t cry many, many times during the season.

Reference of Angella’s... absence made me cry a few times. Micah’s realization... can’t even imagine how awful that was for him. Glimmer’s struggle in accepting she’s gone... (hopefully for now or I will actually fight Crew-Ra...) was just. Ow. Glimmer yelling at Adora about how it was her fault that Angella was gone? Yeesh, no, that was also so upsetting, yikes.

Everyone was crying and I felt the need to join in because I also got sad.

Razz cried...

Then Micah cried over Angella...

Then Hordak did once he found out Catra lied to him...

Glimmer and Adora fighting with each other was so upsetting. It was awful. Please don’t let them fight again.

Scorpia finally said what we all wanted her to say.

Micah’s baaaaack, and he’s awesome!

Nope, not crying again. What do you mean I’m crying? What?

Was... was that Kyle doing something useful for once?

Did Light Hope actually show emotion? Am I dreaming?

Glimmer as a badass queen is literally so amazing. Her flaws really just make her better. I was basically screaming at the screen during the time she thought talking to Light Hope was like, the key to using the weapon, but turns out that it wasn’t the case, but it worked out in the end anyway and Scorpia has cool lightning magic now? Aaaaa!!

Mermista and Scorpia were such moods during this season.

My new headcanon is that Shadow Weaver gardens just so she has something to kill in her spare time.

Glimmer freeing Double Trouble to have them mess with Catra was the best. revenge. ever. Hats off to you, Glimmer.

Past theories proven right/wrong, and my thoughts on them? Theories I’m referencing here: Part 1, Part 2, Season 4 Trailer Analysis

Status of Micah, Angella, and Mara

Micah’s... quite alive, as we’ve seen. Glad I got something right!

However, Mara... is most likely gone. There’s absolutely no indication that Mara could possibly be alive at this point, other than the warped reality (which oh look, Micah’s alive!), but I think Crew-Ra made it pretty clear that she’s gone. Rest in peace, Mara.

Doesn’t mean I’m giving up on this theory, though :)) I think Mara and Adora would make great friends.

There’s still hope for Angella, especially since the portal was reopened and portal capabilities are now possible. Reopening this wormhole most likely meant freeing Angella, and I believe she’s out there somewhere. Micah was. Angella must be out there.

Hordak’s possible redemption arc

I guess his redemption arc... already happened? He fell... in “love”. He cared for Entrapta, which is pretty obvious.

He’s been “rebooted”, but that was clearly due to some tech stuff, so I believe that Entrapta may be able to undo that. They had a pretty great relationship, and I’m sure it can be restored. If that is true, then Hordak will most likely try to turn against Horde Prime, with Horde Prime’s great monologue in the end.

Entrapta’s status and stance

Haha, in this theory I said the Rebellion would find both Micah and Entrapta. Case closed, I win.

Entrapta is basically joining the Rebellion again. I thought it would be due to the realization of Catra’s betrayal, but it really ended up being something better -- the realization that the Princess Alliance never gave up on her, and never meant to left her behind.

Catra’s fate

Mmm. I thought Catra might join Horde Prime. During the last episode, however... she realized that her actions were pushing everyone away, she saved Glimmer from having her mind wiped, and she seems to be... overall... walking towards the good side. She did tell Horde Prime that he needed her... but I think it may have been to save her own skin after seeing Hordak. I think that was vague for the cliffhanger. I really hope Catra is truly seeing the light.

Madam Razz

I may have been completely right about her, and I’m so happy about this.

I decided in the end that she wasn’t a First One, but just a really old Etherian, and what do you know, she was confirmed to be that.

I said she was some sort of magical being, which definitely was part of it. Her powers... well, I said she may have time-traveling experience or is an all-seeing being of some sort, which I was... well, pretty close, I guess. It definitely wasn’t her memories messed up, as Mara confirmed that she was seeing into the future -- talking to Mara about Adora, and that’s how Mara was able to straight-up talk to Adora without playing the whole name game.

Catra’s redemption arc (and Beast Island)

Hey, Catra’s redemption arc seems to be beginning!

So much for Catra being the queen of Beast Island, however. That was proven wrong, unfortunately.

And aggh. The two ways I mentioned... were both wrong. I mentioned Hordak may find out about Catra’s lie and get sent to Beast Island, or Catra gets away with lying and ends up trying to become Horde Prime’s second-in-command. Neither of those quite happened. Hordak did find out, but kind of ended up trying to blast Catra into bits instead.

Light Hope and the First Ones

Holy. Hell. I was actually pretty close on this one.

Light Hope, at least, isn’t an end-game villain. In fact, she went against her own programming to save Etheria and Adora from their fate.

The First Ones, however... how much do you want to bet that Horde Prime has some connection with them? This may very well be the end-game villain right here. Horde Prime first, then the First Ones, because I’m pretty sure they have some connection. This definitely can’t be the end of the road for the First Ones. They made such a major part of the story and suddenly this just... goes away? Yeah, this can’t be.

My speculation of the First Ones leaving as Mara stranded Etheria... well, I wasn’t completely wrong, I guess. They were already leaving.

My idea about the First Ones conquering Etheria and needing She-Ra for that... oh boy.

A general speculation

During this short prediction, I mentioned that She-Ra was a massive struggle for power, and I wasn’t wrong. Those who end out on top are truly the people who widen their perspectives.

We see all of our current protagonists do this (biggest examples would be Glimmer during the last episode, Scorpia, and Entrapta). Catra is on her way, so I have good reason hoping for a redemption arc for her.

Horde Prime won’t make it too far. He really won’t.

Scorpia

So not exactly a theory, because I somehow completely neglected to mention how Scorpia may be getting a redemption arc real soon in my theory posts (and ended up sticking this in my quick analysis of the season 4 trailer) but I guess I was right there as well. Scorpia really was being treated awfully by Catra and... well, she finally said what we were all thinking.

Double Trouble

Not really a theory either, because I mentioned it in my quick analysis of the season 4 trailer, but I was mostly right.

I just want to mention that I said almost exactly what Mermista said -- how Shadow Weaver was too easy of an answer, and that it wasn’t her. I mentioned Double Trouble could easily be the spy, but may also help the Rebellion out instead. And what do you know, they did!!

Current theories?

Angella is still alive. Fight me on this. (And maybe Mara, but I might be a little too optimistic hoping for this...)

Catra’s getting a redemption arc...

Razz and her time-traveling powers of sorts?

New theories?

The sword broke, but Adora should be able to transform back into She-Ra somehow.

Razz mentioned specifically that the sword is not She-Ra. Adora is She-Ra. The sword is, well, just a sword. Adora is still capable of turning into She-Ra, she’ll just need another way. Oh, and when has Razz ever been wrong?

Horde Prime is connected with the First Ones, somehow.

I did mention this before, but they seem quite related.

Also, did I mention that Horde Prime seems to have advanced tech like the First Ones had... but it may just be the progress they made? In like, an actual universe that wasn’t Despondos?

The princesses’ powers?

Towards the ending of the last episode, Glimmer showed that her magic was glitched... sort of.

I believe that they’ll be able to get it back. I just think Adora’s sword severed the connections and they’ll have to go back to their runestones to reconnect themselves, as the runestones did go black after Adora broke the sword. I think they’ll be fine, but Glimmer will have to go back and she doesn’t really have the ability to do so as of right now... and maybe, just maybe, reconnecting the connections of all the other princesses (to their respective runestones) is the key to bringing back Adora’s ability to turn into She-Ra. Rest in pieces to the sword, though. Never even got a chance to see Adora turn it into a gun... Ah well, haha.

I’ll make new theories when I’m not utterly tired out... so until next time, I guess. Hope you all enjoyed this very unorganized post.

[otp-armada]

I am not looking forward to these flashbacks. 

To date, we’ve had four onscreen kisses shared between Bellamy and Echo with additional, smaller moments of other forms of intimacy. I’d rather the show refrain from adding more tally marks to the count. 

If humans were gifted with the capacity for purging unwanted memories, then all this discomfort would be a moot point. I suppose there’s always alcohol as a fallback option, but not even the prospect of temporary amnesia is worth destroying my liver. Turning to alcohol to drown my B/E-related sorrows would probably qualify more as self-harm than self-help.

I’d much prefer to cut directly to an imminent breakup scene without the pomp and circumstance of an agonized Echo’s trip down memory lane. 

If anything, supplying us with visual evidence on how happy they were together is an even sadder remark on the state of B/E’s fragility, knowing it took 0.001 seconds for the mere mention of Clarke’s name to bring it all to ruin. No collection of past happy moments shared on the Ring erases the fractures in their relationship that occur between them afterward, originating with the revelation of a still-living Clarke. I'd be an absolute fool to believe otherwise. 

But if Jason deems a tour of their greatest hits as necessary to the story, I trust his judgment. Showing us B/E's origins as their romantic relationship begins to fall apart in real-time brings it full circle, and it lends gravitas to the story he's telling with Echo. With this particular arc, the bigger picture is still Echo's evolution. It's not about B/E.  

Once season 7 started, there was a visible shift in how Jason utilized B/E.  Whereas seasons 5 and 6 primarily used B/E as the third leg in a love triangle designed to keep a pining Bellarke apart, season 7 uses their master-spy dynamic to bolster Echo's development almost exclusively. Post-season 6, Bellarke is so primed to get together, one honest admission of mutual feelings without Echo as an obstacle and BOOM. Canon couple. 

Echo has a more extensive role than girl-to-be-dumped, and I'm not upset over it. She gets to stand up as a character after the majority of her life has been marked by slavery for her crown, and I'm not upset over it. As indemnification for the loss of her relationship, this orphan-turned-soldier is finding her place in a supportive, loving family while developing a sense of identity and independence, and I'm not upset over it.

I would’ve preferred Jason found a way to take her on this path without B/E remaining intact this far into the final season and theoretically for the foreseeable episodes. I would always choose to end them sooner rather than later, given a choice. But I understand why Jason didn't. 

Echo can’t very well outgrow a master-spy complex if there is no master to her spy. And as much as I hate it, the romantic aspect of B/E is a believable, convenient tool to keep this complex in place until her story comes to fruition. Would Echo act so extremely in service to a recent ex-boyfriend who left her for another woman? Probably not. As far as I can tell, the pinnacle of her arc is the moment she realizes she has to break free from Bellamy. So narrative structure demands B/E stay together, however technically, long enough for her to break those chains. 

I was initially excited about the flashbacks, if only because I took them as a sign of an impending breakup. But the timing doesn't pan out. Aside from the logistics of Echo and Bellamy presumably on separate worlds, and with her thinking him dead, we've only just reached the point where Echo might start to ask herself those hard questions she's been avoiding. She must have noticed a change in her relationship. Between Psychosis!Emori, B/E's 6x04 fight, and Anomaly!Roan, she's had enough cause for doubt. But I think she's suppressed any urge to reflect upon it for a number of reasons. Love. Continued hope they'll last. War. A mission to save him. It took a lot of meticulous maneuvering to corner Echo to this point. Now that we're here, I don't think Jason would pull a reverse Uno card in a 40-minute episode. It seems more likely that he will let her continue to stew in her emotions. Either she'll keep sinking until she hits rock bottom, or she'll start learning how to swim. 

Jason could always prove me wrong. And if I am, I'd never be happier for him to do so. If I'm not? It's at times like this when I am reminded of the resolution I made at the end of season 6- rest easy in the comfort of knowing B/E will meet its inevitable end but do not try to speculate when that might be. Attempting to discern the specifics of "when" brings one only misery. 

Jason’s signature sometimes-too-fast, other-times-too-slow pacing, is often liable to tempt one into ripping their own hair out. That being said, I’ve seen enough of this show to trust in his ability to tell a damn good story. Faith in his competency for the craft just requires on our part, the patience of a saint. 

If nothing else, it isn’t my story to tell, so I’ll just have to suck it up and find a way to deal with any disappointments I may feel. Or I can try to find the value within the story told. It's a better alternative than to be left bitter. No promises, though.

Maybe Echo’s actions against the Disciples aren’t reprehensible, considering the people she’s killing are those complicit in kidnapping and torturing her people. But Orlando was a good, honorable man whose naïveté convinced him to play for the wrong team, yet helped our heroes when he didn’t have to. Not unlike Shaw, whom Echo sold to Diyoza to fulfill her mission. But I assume “We are not his people” is residual mistrust leftover from Ryker’s betrayal of her. She miscalculated the feelings of one possible defector before, she won’t make the same mistake twice. 

If she was able to save Bellamy in the end, I’m sure she’d be able to justify the spilled blood it took to get there. But Orlando suffered at her hands for nothing, and she may not be overly concerned with morality, but she cares for the people she grows close to. Unless the episode proves otherwise, I’d like to think Orlando’s fate will weigh heavily on her. 

They may not have been close. But five years in close quarters with only a few people akin to friends for comfort, it'd be hard not to feel the slightest bit attached.

Those of us who believe in Bellarke know Echo is the third-party obstacle in a love triangle. But what is far more interesting is the role she played in the seasons-long Blake siblings struggle. 

Echo was persona non grata to both siblings following her and Octavia's mountaintop fight. Six years later, she highlights the difference in the siblings' maturities. Whereas Bellamy has learned to embrace empathy and forgiveness with open arms, Octavia is cold and unyielding. On a more personal note, B/E represents Octavia's persistent unwillingness to respect Bellamy as his own person, with needs and wants independent of her. 

After her soul searching on Skyring, I thought she had buried the hatchet, as per her lack of vitriol in her 6x12 conversation with Bellamy, and enthusiastically joining forces with Echo in 6x13. Maybe she did. But Octavia has also proven herself an unreliable narrator, and Hope feels indignation on her aunt's behalf. Whatever the case, there's a reason why the dialogue keeps referencing Echo and Octavia's hostile history. And I think it's building to a head in 7x07. 

I think mutual love for Bellamy is healing the divide between them when Echo is at her most fractured. She's isolated from Bellamy and the rest of Spacekru. Left in pain and seeking retribution as Octavia did, which, as we know, is where it all went wrong for the latter. Octavia, more than most, is in the best position to empathize with what Echo is currently feeling and how pain can destroy her if she lets it consume her. 

If Octavia can remind Echo she's not alone, if a former enemy can convince her she belongs and welcome her with open arms- as her brother did before her- it might do well in healing some broken piece inside of her. And it would be a roundabout display of Octavia's newfound maturity. This is good for both of them. This spiral she is in will require her to look inward. Since her fixation with Bellamy is partly what landed her in this mess, absolution cannot come from him. She can only find it in herself if she wants it. But I'd be glad if Octavia can help see her through it. This is what I mean about seeking value in the story told. We're so concerned about Octavia calling Echo family, about the possibility of it legitimizing B/E, it doesn't occur to us that it's about the characters themselves. And B/E is only a vehicle used to bring us there. It's easier to see when not consumed by automatic seething rage, as typical of our fellow Bellarke compatriots, for anything remotely associated with Echo.

If my heart and mind weren’t chanting “BELLARKEBELLARKEBELLARKE,” there’s a good chance I’d be able to better appreciate the complexities B/E gives to the development of the four characters it directly impacts. 

Our side of fandom has made lots of accusations about B/E since 5x01. It’s a forgettable, physical relationship worth little to Bellamy. B/E is unhealthy for reasons x, y, and z. We generate a different example in every episode. Click slideshow for more details. But the fact of the matter is, much of this isn't true. Until Echo went postal, B/E wasn’t unhealthy. Bellamy just had a greater love for Clarke. Up until their ending scene in 6x04, there was nothing they couldn’t come back from together, if both committed themselves fully, no more walls. It's not a particularly popular train of thought among us, but Jason absolutely could've written B/E as an endgame pairing. And all it would take to deliver a final killing blow is the inclusion of a single damning scene.

We can gripe over the length of time they've stayed together. But, in spite of what most people think about every new B/E development and Bellarke separation, Jason has never actually dropped an ax on Bellarke. Hope persists.

Jason is responsible for the development of dozens of characters, major plots, and dozens of smaller subplots. But our fandom reduced the story chiefly to Bellarke's romance. Our villains are those who stand in their way. Namely Echo, the only outside love interest to be an official obstacle. We fashioned Echo as our enemy. In lieu of removing her from the narrative (which is not in our power to do), we've done everything within our purview to diminish her. If Jason won't treat B/E and Echo as the jokes we know they are, we'll do it ourselves. Minimizing her role in the story makes it a hell of a lot easier to erase a character we'd rather didn't exist for our preferred ship to advance.

Lord knows how many times we've claimed she has no story. That absent relevance or substantial bearing, she's there simply because Jason is partial to her for some elusive reason. But the reality is, we never looked for her story because we wanted to be able to claim its inexistence. We wanted to be able to say she's frivolous to the story, and by extension, to Bellamy. We want to be able to dismantle B/E when it appears Jason doesn't. Except he is and has been doing so since day one. 

Months ago, on a whim, when I was feeling benevolent towards Echo, I wrote a long post HERE giving her the benefit of the doubt, and I said:

In the grand scheme of the story, I think this is the purpose Echo serves, to represent the part that says, “We’re all human. No matter what tribe we belong to, we fight for the same reasons. We love the same way. When you leave allegiances aside, when you see someone for who they are at their core, an enemy today can become a friend tomorrow.”

True peace, a series-long running theme for our heroes, begins with embracing former outsiders like Echo and Emori. Easy to lose sight of this when focused on ship wars. 

It is perfectly acceptable not to love all the components of a story. It is understandable to focus your attention on those select segments you find appealing. But a tunnel-visioned mindset lands you in trouble when you become resentful at the reminders that a story is a composite of more moving pieces than just the parts you like. And when you forget that screentime allotted to developing those pieces ahead of what you favor is permissible. Everything on a show has its time, all in due course. 

On the other hand, B/E shippers overinflate their ship's significance. They take canon and twist it to say, "Look at how strong B/E is, Bellarke could never. B/E is endgame, and Blorkes are delusional." Their conclusion of an epic love is another bias-based fandom interpretation that doesn’t hold water, either. 

I think the reality of B/E lies somewhere in a muddled middle of these two extremes. 

One last point, and I'll get off my soapbox. Despite what the melodramatic diatribe in my opening paragraph suggests, B/E is never as atrocious as fandom makes them out to be. Greater fandom treats anything remotely associated with B/E as the next great catastrophe. And as it turns out, it never really is.  

 Tagging @sometimesrosy, because I think, after years of combating opinions you don’t agree with, it might be a refreshing change of pace to know some of us do have more balanced views regarding B/E. If I do say so myself.