#the good place theories

[allegorymetaphory]

Oh wow. I just realized that it could be the "ride or die protocol" Janet "engaged" in season 1 episode 12, Mindy St. Claire, that's probably responsible for a lot of shenanigans. Janet says it will make her "loyal to Jason forever." What if that persisted through all of the reboots and memory wipes? That's the "mutation" Michael talks about in season 2 episode 6, Michael and Janet, that "somehow got amplified with each reboot."

If it's Janet's protocol that causes her love for Jason to persist and grow, that means she loved him enough to choose to love him again and again. Beautiful.

[biceratops7]

***

Same energy 👆

[swan2swan]

The more things change, the more things stay the same, eh, Darius?

[catboyglover]

born to be the token sarcastic character in a sitcom, forced to be a real person

[densewentz]

it's not just me who can't get over it, right?

[neversetyoufree]

Alright. Okay.

So the entire time I've been reading VnC, I've been assuming that Noé is the sole known survivor of the Archivistes in a relatively normal way. I've been assuming that something happened to the Archiviste clan within Noé's lifetime, just before his human "grandparents" found him in the snow. Obviously I wondered about what happened—who slaughtered them if they were killed and what else might have happened if they aren't all dead as we've been told, but I never questioned the timeline. I assumed that the Archivistes must have been alive and kicking until recently, even if Noé's last remaining family was living in hiding from the rest of vampire society or something like that.

But. We don't actually know that that's true. We don't know a single thing about the timeline of the Archivistes' extermination other than what Nox says about them having all died "long ago." Noé is nineteen years old, and we have no idea how old Nox is. Could the fifteen to seventeen years between Noé's first adoption and the present day be enough to count as long ago?

This is Jun Mochizuki we're talking about. There is extensive precedent in her work (by way of Pandora Hearts) for characters turning up seemingly out of nowhere, often with no memory, and in Pandora Hearts, these cases never had a simple answer. It was always caused by the time-bending properties of the Abyss.

It is entirely within the realm of possibility for the rest of the Archiviste clan to have died years, decades, or even a century or more before Noé was found by his human grandparents. We don't have precedent yet for anything that messes with time in VnC like PH's Abyss, so I don't know how this could have happened, but I don't think we can fully discount the possibility. The outer bounds of world formula rewriting as a power are yet to be fully explored, so it's hard to say firmly that anything's impossible. There might be a way for Noé to exist in the present even if the rest of his clan was killed well over nineteen years ago (be it by PH style time-bending or by some entirely different mechanism).

It's still possible (and even likely) that the Archivistes died or disappeared less than twenty years ago, but it's not quite the concrete fact that I've been thinking of it as this entire time. It's entirely possible that Noé's backstory contains Mochizuki Timeline Fuckery, and now that I've had that thought, I can't unsee it. The author of Pandora Hearts going out of her way to say that her protagonist was found mysteriously alone and crying with no memory of how he got that way is. conspicuous as hell.

[priceofreedom]

Wutai FF7 replay 69/?

[the-labyrinth-of-me]

Wait did both Alice and Zane record Alan when he was at his lowest point? Didn't Alice make her exhibition to show the world what she sees? To show Alan the truth about himself? That it never was Scratch visiting and terrorizing her, but Alan himself? Did she depict his "self" and Zane depicted his "persona"? The two sides of him that he wishes he can eliminate bc they brought him into trouble (Scratch representing anger and the fallouts with paparazzi and stuff, Zane representing his self-destructive behavior with alcohol and drugs and the party nights)? The both sides that caused his marriage to start falling apart? Was that the reason Zane made that video of Alan when they were on that booze and drug-fueled bender while working on the Return manuscript? Is this party video the companion piece?? Alan's downward spiral, same as Alice's photos? Do they fucking work together aasdffjfjfkfk

[appendingfic]

Someone: Glass Onion just throws out references to celebrities without any point, the way TBBT threw out names of things from sci-fi in the place of jokes

Me, who watched The Good Place: No, it's a joke ABOUT these rich influencers who needlessly name-drop everyone they've ever met "oh this is Jared Leto's hard kombucha". Miles is just the evil counterpart of Tahani

[transmaverique]

amab and afab, if they were used as shorthand for the actual full phrases that they signify, with emphasis on the "assigned" part, and an understanding that they are enforcements of normative (ie, dyadic and cisgender and binary) sex, would be like. really useful. but people took the terms and started using them as shorthand FOR normative sex instead of the ENFORCEMENT OF normative sex. so when other trans people (almost always dyadic trans people) ask for your agab they are almost always asking for your Original Genital Situation. your starting point, so to say. and the reason FOR asking is also almost always bc they are trying to also enforce a certain kind of normativity within queer spaces (which is stupid bc being queer is inherently non-normative but here we are). like, you cant be a lesbian if you're ftm, bc you ARE m, so if you ARE a lesbian, then that means you're lying about some aspect of your identity. does that make sense?

it is always always always incredibly.... i do not trust dyadic trans people that use cagab terms, even moreso than i do not trust dyadic trans people that just use agab terms. agab is also coopted intersex language, but the "coercive" part of cagab SPECIFICALLY refers to medical "intervention" of intersex characteristics, such as "corrective" surgeries and hrt. i am deeply fucking suspicious of any dyadic trans person that uses those terms exactly the same as described above, even moreso if they do so bc "all gender is coercive".

like. yeah. that's true. but you use these terms to erase and overtake intersex discussions on the medical abuse of intersex infants. and i cant help but wonder why you would feel the need to do that.

[kooki914]

What are asgore and spades favorite colors

[mumblesplash]

one convenient thing about this site is that most changes to the collective sense of humor are announced via a series of viral posts in which our resident killjoys unceremoniously declare a joke to be "over" and "never funny in the first place", something they have usually been trying to do since the moment they caught wind of the latest festivities but generally don't succeed in until the novelty has worn off among our largest demographic: people who are terrified of being cringe.

at first glance this seems like an obvious recipe for toxicity, but fortunately we also have a healthy population of passionate Things Enjoyers balancing this out, and the hater to creator ratio has achieved a relatively stable state ever since the twitter exodus of 2017 shocked the platform into an ecosystem reset.

the real question is whether this balance is resilient enough to adjust for an influx of new users fleeing both twitter AND reddit in rapid succession. the lack of detrimental impact so far is certainly promising, but residents in particularly vulnerable parts of the site ('respectable' fandoms, discourse-prone mutual circles, people with strong feelings about taylor swift, etc.) are advised to take precautionary measures in the coming weeks

[itsnobodysproblem]

Most Sherlock Holmes adaptations I've seen tend to place their Final Problem towards the mid point of the series (or even a bit earlier) - it's also in my opinion the best way of going about it, so you have time enough for the characters to adjust after the reunion but they know each other well enough for the events of Fina to be devastating.

Sherlock & Co is done with 20 of the adventures. How many are there? Fifty-something? Almost sixty? Let's say we'll be entering mid-point territory after the 25th story.

So let's pretend for a moment that we have 5 more stories until The Final Problem. Ok.

Estimating an adventure at 3 episodes each, that would mean little over 3 months - maybe 3 and a half? Starting, of course, from the end of Sign of Four, which will be somewhere in December.

So let's say 3, maybe 4 months into 2025. That would be, what? Late march, early april?

Early april?

John having to tell the listeners that Sherlock is dead, in early april?

Quick calendar search reveals what I was praying it would - the 1st of april will be on a Tuesday next year.

So what I'm saying

What I'm saying is Sherlock &Co has the opportunity to do the funniest fucking thing

[raycatz]

midnight thoughts: like, I know there's a decent number of people in the LU fandom who haven't played the games or have only played botw/tears onwards. So, how familiar are people with zelda music? Like, would anyone be interested in like a fandom discussion post talking about music that stands out from each title?

[amygdalae]

When you go into a new song what do you listen for from it? The instruments, the vocals, how the guitar or percussion are doing, etc

I'm often grabbed by a strong, unconventional melody, I'm particularly charmed by anything in minor key. I like music that feels layer-y. I like when there's a build up to a more intense part of the song. A lot of the time though what I like in a song is really on a case by case basis! This sort of tugging, swelling feeling in my chest. oh also I love really crunchy grimy bass. and a danceable rhythm (though thats not a requirement).

I love love wistful songs! i love stuff I could listen to on the bus ride home, when it's dark. I love aching or conflicted feelings in a song. I love when a song has voice samples from films

[fizzyrodeo]

so. stella's rumored backstory. how are we feeling? do we;

a) think it's going to demonize her further instead of giving another layer to her character

b) think it's going to be one of the many happenings in that episode that makes it even clearer that stella doesn't have substance and is nothing more than a plot device [much like what happened to a certain cowboy]

c) think that it won't be touched on by stella herself, but a different character [probably andrealphus because no cisgender females in this show can exist without a man being drastically involved in their development]

d) think it will reveal information that causes a debate of double-standard in the fandom

e) all of the above