#the observer toh

[live-laugh-love-the-archivists]

"Prasing the light is to be a fool praising a liar"

Click image for better quality

[subterra-rose]

[live-laugh-love-the-archivists]

Since it's taking me so long to finish the wips in my drafts. Here's some twinote things I created earlier just for fun.

[anistarrose]

So I have only my two cents to give on the "curing disabilities in fantasy/sci-fi stories" trope, as just one disabled person among many disabled people, but here are my two cents nonetheless.

One defense of the trope is that it's simply a form of escapism, and moreover, a fantasy that disabled people themselves can quite reasonably find joy in — as a feel-good story, a break from all the pain of real life. Many — not all by a long shot, but many — of us would jump at the chance for a cure, after all, and it's not like we're not valid to do so. Lots of us take pride in being disabled, but nevertheless, sometimes it really fucking sucks.

The counterargument to the above is this: that this isn't a realistic trope, and that particularly in combination with the suffocating frequency that this trope is used, this becomes the opposite of a hopeful fantasy. When you have an incurable condition, and the only happy endings you see represented for people like you in fiction are inevitably only achieved once the characters stop being like you — that can be indescribably upsetting.

Disabled characters do not get happy endings while remaining disabled — and fiction is fiction and all, but I'm not going to pretend like this doesn't have gradual, accumulative real-life effects on the amount of effort people/society are willing to put into accessibility and acceptance, because of beliefs like "aren't you going to be cured someday anyway?" Or "isn't this disability just going to stop existing, someday? one way or another?"

I hope I don't have to explain how damaging it is to think the above way, or to imagine a future where disability doesn't exist. (Yes, even though disability is partially socially constructed. That's a load-bearing "partially".)

So, if you couldn't tell, I do generally relate a lot more to the harsher, more critical view of this trope — but I certainly don't want to judge actual disabled people for writing it either (and especially not people with progressive conditions), not when there is genuine catharsis and escapist joy that can be wrung from it. I obviously don't trust non-disabled folks with writing "cure" stories any further than I could throw them, due to a long fucking history of non-disabled people fucking it up — but also, no one should be forced to reveal personal details, let alone medical history, to justify their choice to write something.

This is the paradox that I am willing to come to terms with, by throwing up my hands and saying, "okay, so some of the time I sure don't like it, but it's technically none of my business."

That said: if you're non-disabled, or you're writing about a disability much different from your own (a physical disability when you're autistic, for example), and you want to write an escapist feel-good story featuring disabled characters: I also want to stress that "escapist themes" versus "no one's disability gets cured ever" is very much a false binary. You can have both.

I've never written a "curing a disability" story. But I've both written and enjoyed some extremely escapist, unashamedly hopeful stories revolving around disabled characters — and it's all about accommodation.

A story of any genre where society is more accepting of — and willing to collectively help care for — chronic illnesses and chronic pain? That's escapist, and if it's something that characters once fought tooth and nail for, it's pretty damn cathartic. A fantasy or sci-fi story where medicines are still required to treat a condition, but the medicines are more accessible, more effective, et cetera, may also be escapist depending on the context.

Fantasy service animals, high-tech service robots, magical or indistinguishable-from-magic mobility devices? They're all possibly escapist too. (Just note that a lot of disabled people may still maintain a personal preference for seeing the "real world" versions, and that's that's also perfectly reasonable. Remember that the gripe with the original trope has a lot to do with a lack of variety in representation, justified by arbitrary rules about how fantasy/sci-fi "should" look, and the goal should be not to replicate that.)

So, in conclusion: if you find yourself writing a disabled character, and want to give them a happy ending, I urge you not to jump to "their disability is cured now" without at least thinking through the alternatives. Do your research regardless, and accept that disabled people will likely have a wide range of opinions on whatever you decide to go with — but accept that disabilities themselves are varied, and should not inherently have to consign either characters or real human beings to tragic lives by their mere existence.

[asclexe]

the house md fandom would be fixed by more femlash

[southernbaphomet]

some palette stuff

[shadysadie]

I was looking at Hunter’s bedroom the other day and made some observations One of the things TOH excels in is subtle background story telling, I mean, this is the show that gave us then entire backstory of Caleb and Philip in half obscured paintings. So every time a character’s bedroom is shown, I make sure to really look at it to see what it says about the character, and Hunter’s honestly surprises me a lot because it says a lot about him, but not necessarily things I expected.

First lets look at the things I did expect: a pile of books, newspaper clippings on the wall, the Emperor’s Coven diploma prominently displayed above the bed. This reinforces things we’ve already learned about Hunter at this point: he is bookish, well educated, and very proud of his position as Golden Guard. This all makes perfect sense to be in his room.

The general clutter is a bit surprising because I would have expected a more militaristically tidy room, but instead we have overstuffed drawers and things just thrown about, an unmade made bed, what appears to be a first-aid kit left open, which is a nice indicator that Hunter is not as well put together as he appears to be.

But then we have the first unexpected find, several toys including a Belos doll/action figure. Now in fairness this could be an idol seeing that Hunter more or less worships Belos at this point, and it is placed highest on the shelf, indicating a place of great honor, but given that it is in such close proximity to the giraffe doll and Big City Greens reference, it kind of implies that they all serve a similar purpose.

We don’t know exactly what age Hunter was created at, but given Belos makes a comment about thinking he would “last longer than the others” I’m guessing he’s already reached what is around the typical life span for a Golden Guard. 

Now we don’t exactly how long each Golden Guard lasts but we can figure out an average. 

Given that one of the ingredients is Bone of Ortet, and there are 206 bones in the adult human body, that means Belos could make a max of 206 grimwalkers if he used every single bone. All that appears to be left of Caleb’s body is part of his ribcage and a section of spine, it looks like 8 ribs and maybe 12 vertebrae. That makes 20 remaining bones, plus the one unfinished grimwalker makes it 21. 206-21=185 possible Grimwalkers including Hunter. Lets say Belos has consistently been making Golden Guards for the past 360 or so years, that means on average, each Grimwalker lasted about 2 years. (Holy shit, that’s brutal.) No wonder he stopped giving them individual names and just started calling them all Hunter.

Now I’m sure there were some who lasted longer, and some who lasted shorter, but given what we know about our Hunter, 2 years seems to be a good guess for his age. That means he was “born” at 14, the same age Luz is at the start of the series.

At some point during his very brief childhood, (because yes, fourteen-year-olds, y'all are still children) Hunter actually was given a chance to play with, (or at the very least collect a handful of) toys. That is not something I would have expected, but it is kind of nice. Also, along with the action figures he has a Sprig plushie under his pillow. I know out of Canon that plushie was put there because they had to fill their Amphibia reference quota for this season, but in Canon this means Hunter sleeps with a stuffed animal. And the location of it right under his pillow implies that it is really important to him, I'm willing to bet this is a comfort stuffy and before Flapjack, it was probably the only source of comfort he had. Personally, I’m glad that poor boy had SOMETHING to cuddle up with, titan, he deserves that much at least.

Then we have the pillow itself, like a lot of other things in this room (including the occupant) this pillow is beaten up and ragged. Particularly, compared to the Sprig plush which was probably only owned by our Hunter, given the fact we know he is the youngest Golden Guard (Belos probably gradually started making them younger and younger in the hopes of making them easier to manipulate). The rest of the bed looks like it was probably used for decades. So Hunter sleeps on the same lumpy, tattered pillow that all of his murdered predecessors slept on. And given the fact we know Hunter and Darius (who was mentored by the last Golden Guard) value sewing as an important life skill, y'all know these poor boys are repairing it themselves. #give hunter a new pillow 2023

Finally we have the darkest fucking twist: Hunter is in possession of Philip's Caleb Killing Knife. That is nearly as dark as having Hunter track down the ingredients for his own replacement. Belos at one point made the active decision to give this child-clone of his dead brother the knife he used to kill the original. There is absolutely no reason to do that other than as a twisted inside joke. Belos, you are one sick fuck.

[silversodas]

The two sides of the Caleb ghost or not thing

1.) essays that are sometimes good points but other times are essays that claim they must be illusions because it would be better writing and try to present that as evidence

2.) CALEB CLAIMS EACH ONE AS HIS SON! THEY BOND OVER HECKLING BELOS AND HATRED OF HIM BEING ALIVE!! THE GUARDS NOW CALL THEMSELVES THE CHILDREN OF THE BONES!!!

[fagbearentertainment]

I think the discourse around lunter when hunters face was first show is what lead to huntlow getting so popular

Like I still remember back when hunting palismen aired I was so anti lunter solely bc every post about it was like “grrr you can’t ship them they’re basically siblings (they interacted once at that point and didn’t like each other) and it’s homophobic bc lumity canon 😡😡😡 (luz is canonically bi and as long as the shipper isn’t being homophobic toward amity/lumity it’s not homophobic imo)” I don’t think I even saw any shippers, maybe like 1 or 2 but that was it it was all hate posts 😭😭😭

I genuinely think that widespread discourse is what bumped huntlow up from crackship to pretty much the most popular ship in the fandom, I saw it happen in real time, the ppl were desperate for a boy x girl ship in this canon wlw world

[mybrothercainmybrotherabel]

Just had to re-write a big portion of what I had planned because I realized that Philip has already robbed Caleb's grave and started making Grimwalkers before Elsewhere and Elsewhen. The good news is, I'm gonna get to have a lot of fun with the Titan and Caleb watching Luz and Lilith.

Other observations: the way those ribs are sticking out of what looks like a still bloody corpse, yikes.

I can also assume he has been numbering his grimwalker attempts. I can only assume they have not been going well, since that hand is reaching up like the failed attempt we saw in FTF. Interesting he is all the way up to four and presumably still has not succeeded since he does not have a grimwalker with him and still has to recruit mercenaries to help him out. I wonder if the Collector gave him the information he needed to make the grimwalkers stable.

He already has the Belos cloak, we know he starts proselytizing while he is still Philip, so I wonder if he starts cooking up the idea for Belos before or after he decides to make grimwalkers.

Last note, this is the first time (and possibly only time) we see a knife with Belos/Philip's things that is not the Caleb Killing Knife, which is strange because we almost exclusively see the Caleb Killing Knife with his belongings.

[wills-art]

THEY KILLED HIS FUCKING BIRD MAN

[ID: an eight image comic of Hunter and Flapjack from The Owl House, paired with lyrics from the song Virtute at Rest.

1: The ending of Thanks to Them. Flapjack sits on an unconscious Hunter, nuzzling at his face. Glowing green blood covers cracks in his body, and he’s surrounded by glowing balls of light. Text reads, “You should know I am with you, know I forgive you”

2: A drawing of a photograph taped into a scrapbook, of the Hexsquad plus Vee. There are several stickers taped onto the picture. They’re all smiling at the camera. Text reads, “Know I am proud of the steps that you’ve made”

3: Hunter looking out unhappily from a bathroom mirror post-Thanks to Them. His hands grip the countertop, and his forearms frame the picture, as if looking out from around his chest. Text reads, “Know it will never be easy or simple”

4: A zoomed in sequel to the last image. A ghostly Flapjack looks up from where he’s perched on Hunter’s hand, surrounded by glowing light. Text reads, “Know I will dig in my claws when you stray”

5: Hunter cups a transparent Flapjack in his hands, smiling gently. His hair has been cut back to how it was before the possession. Text reads, “So let us rest here”

6: Hunter and Flapjack during season 2, looking out the window of Hunter’s room in the castle. Hunter’s arms are crossed on the windowsill, and Flapjack sits on his shoulder. Text reads, “Like we used to”

7: Hunter leans against a blue palistrom tree around sunset, eyes closed peacefully. Text reads, “In a line of late afternoon sun”

8: A grave between the roots of the same tree at night. Pink flowering bushes grow on either side. A pair of berries is laid in front of the headstone. Text reads, “Let it rest, all you can’t change. Let it rest and be done.” End ID]

[curseofhyperfixation]

The Observer

 An unknown entity with the ability to see everything, they’re often called an imaginary friend to specifically selected young Collectors. They’re harmless until provoked, they only have a bright purple outline that paints their appearance.

  The Observer is secretive, never revealing too much about themselves or what they know.

 Observer puts immortals or gods to eternal slumber by eating their essence, he rarely ever does this for two reasons and one of which is that as long as they do not pose a threat to the universe and someone is able to stop them from doing so then he’ll leave them alone. The second is…

They don’t taste very good.

He doesn’t receive the power of those he consumes, he just erases them along with the power they’ve had.

He does have one friend, he keeps a close eye on them while they have no idea of it.

Have more lore as a sorry for being gone for week(s?) :D

[ask-thearchivists]

heck ya, join this archive and you have the chance to possibly meet the last living titan.

The Copyist: I really would rather not. You have to understand what this sounds like when you make these suggestions to us. It sounds like you want to make it possible for us to die. It sounds like you are suggesting we allow ourselves the possibility to be murdered. Stop it.

[lilmcttens]

Another thought occurred to me. Speaking of Alador According to the Episode "Reaching Out" Amity seems to be the only Blight child thus far to think Alador was pretty cool there's some more of her bonded daughter and youngest child showing. He was kind enough to make her abomi-mittens and

For Titan's sake LOOK AT HER! Mittens is clearly taking after her dad. Just jobs of a different sort! She's a stem witch!

She's turned into such a Daddy's Girl. She's Daddy's GIrl~

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

Ah lilith and the hexsquad have been turned into puppets. The classic "all of the heros friends getput in peril at the last minute to raise stakes so the main character can Prove Herself out of Love For Her Friends but her friends arent in any actual peril bc the audience knows it wouldnt fit with the shows themes" trope

[h4zardousch3micals]

I just had an epiphany

so do y'all remember that thing where old-timey human stumbled into a world of monsters and magic and slowly over time became one of them by consuming things from their realm (possibly artificially extending their lifespan) until they're barely recognisable as human and then one day new humans show up they insist they've always been a part of this world even if they probably weren't