#there are so many parallels and hints and maybe references to their past and U G H

[schnaf]

Xdinary Heroes BEGINS (2021) -> Troubleshooting (2024)

[rainycloudh-blog]

Dictionary of literary terms (A-U)

A

Alliteration:

The repetition of sounds at the beginning of words. It is what gives many a tongue twister its twist: How can a clam cram in a clean cream can.

Allusion:

An (in)direct reference to another text, e.g. the Bible

Anaphora:

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

Antagonist:

An antagonist is the opponent to the protagonist/main character.

Antithesis:

A rhetorical or literary device in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed.

B 

Bias:

A prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair.

Broadsheet:

A newspaper with a large format, traditionally regarded as more serious and less sensationalist than tabloids.

Byline:

A line at the top of an article giving the writer's name.

C 

Caption:

A text that accompanies a photograph or illustration.

Character:

Character is the term used about the persons in a work of fiction. We distinguish between main characters (see below) and minor characters. In contrast to the main characters, who may be round and dynamic, the minor characters tend to be rather flat: they do not change or develop.

Chorus:

Part of a song that is repeated after each verse (= refrain in poetry)

Cliché:

A cliché is an idea or phrase that has been used so much that it does not have any meaning any more.

Climax:

The climax is the moment at which the conflict comes to its point of greatest intensity and is resolved. It is also the peak of emotional response from the reader.

Column:

a. A regular article on a particular subject or by a particular writer.

b. A vertical division of a page or a text.

Composition

Composition is the term used about the structure or organization of the events in a story – the elements of a text. A typical composition gives the events in chronological order, maybe with a flashback or two.

D 

Dialogue:

Dialogue is a conversation between two or more characters in a piece of literature. It can be written as direct speech (with quotation marks and “he said”) or the conversation can be presented as indirect speech (reported speech), not using the exact words used by the characters.

E 

Editorial:

A newspaper article expressing the editor's opinion on a topical issue.

Ellipsis:

Ellipsis is the term used when there is a significant jump in time to a later point in the story. The word refers to the fact that something has been left out.

Essay:

An essay is a composition giving the writer’s personal thoughts on or opinion of a particular subject or theme.

Ethos:

A form of appeal based on the speaker's character (e.g. reliability).

Exposition:

Exposition is a narrative technique that provides some background and informs the reader about the plot, character, setting, and theme of a story. In classical short stories, the exposition will be placed in the opening, but in modern short stories it may be placed anywhere – or even left out.

F 

Figurative language:

Figurative language is often associated with poetry, but it actually appears quite often in prose as well. It describes things through metaphors and other figures of speech.

First-person narrator:

The first-person narrator uses an “I”, takes part in the story but has no direct access to the thoughts and feelings of the other characters. Be aware that the “I” can only see things from his/her own point of view, and this also limits the reader to that one perspective – can he/she be trusted? (See unreliable narrator.)

Flashback: Flashback is an entire scene which leaves the chronological narration for a while and jumps back in time from the point which the story has reached. The purpose of a flashback is to provide background for present events.

Flashforward:

Flashforward is an entire scene which leaves the chronological narration for a while and jumps forward in time from the point the story has reached. The opposite of flashback.

Foreshadowing:

Foreshadowing is hints or clues in a story that suggest what will happen later. Some authors use foreshadowing to create suspense or to convey information that helps readers understand what comes later.

Formal language:

Formal language is a style of writing that often uses fairly complex sentences and neutral, sometimes technical, words that tend to be more difficult/abstract than common everyday words. Formal language is often used in official public notices, business situations, and polite conversations with strangers.

G 

Genre:

We say a poem, novel, short story, fairy tale, etc. belongs to a particular genre if it shares at least a few characteristics with other works in that genre.

H 

Hero:

The hero is the central character around whom the events revolve and with whom the audience is intended to identify. If the hero is female, we may use the term heroine. If the hero (or heroine) has an opponent, the villain would often be the preferred term for him (or her). If the hero behaves in an unheroic way, we could talk about an anti-hero.

I 

Informal language:

Informal language is a style of writing that uses everyday (spoken) language. It usually uses simple sentences and everyday words, sometimes slang and/or dialect.

Imagery:

Imagery is the use of vivid description, usually rich in words that appeal to the senses, to create pictures, or images, in the reader's mind.

In medias res:

In medias res is the term used when a story does not begin at the beginning, introducing the setting, the characters or the context of events, but instead opens “in the middle of things” (this is what the term means in Latin).

In retrospect:

Most stories are told in the past tense, thus indicating that they describe past events. But some stories - especially first-person narratives - make this much clearer than others, probably to remind the reader that the narrator is no longer the same; he or she is now older, maybe even wiser. The reader also understands, of course, that the events still mean something to the narrator. A story like this is told in retrospect, we say.

Interior monologue:

The written representation of a character's inner thoughts, impressions and memories as if the reader "overhears" them directly without the intervention of a narrator or another selecting and organizing mind.

Inverted pyramid:

The metaphor used in journalism to illustrate the placing of the most important information first.

L 

Limited point of view:

A narrator with a limited point of view knows only the thoughts and feelings of a single character, while other characters are presented only from the outside. This is also called a restricted point of view.

Logos:

Appealing to the receiver's logic and reason.

M 

Main character:

The main character is the central character around whom the events revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify.

Metaphor:

A direct comparison, used when you describe someone or something as if they were something else. If the comparison uses the words 'as' or 'like', it is called a simile: Human breath is like a dangerous weapon.

N 

Narrator:

The narrator is the one who tells a story, the speaker or “the voice” of an oral or written work. Although it can happen, the narrator is rarely the same person as the author.

Novel:

A novel is a long and complex story, usually with several characters and many related events.

O 

Omniscient narrator:

An omniscient narrator has a godlike perspective, seeing and knowing everything that happens, including what all the characters are thinking and feeling.

Onomatopoeia:

A term used about words that sound like the thing that they are describing. Animal sounds may be the best examples: quack, meow, croak, and roar!

Oxymoron:

A paradoxical antithesis with only two words: freshly frozen, deathly life.

P 

Parallelism:

The use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose which correspond in grammatical structure, sound, metre, meaning, etc. E.g. Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I will learn.

Paraphrase:

When working with difficult and/or condensed texts - typically poetry (and Shakespeare's plays), it is a good idea to make a paraphrase of the text to clarify its meaning. To make a paraphrase, you "translate" somebody else's words into your own, thus making the text simpler but without losing its essential meaning. A paraphrase is written in prose and can be done line by line, stanza by stanza, or whatever suits the text and your purpose.

Pathos:

Appealing to the receiver's emotions.

Personification:

A figure of speech which gives human qualities to inanimate objects, animals and ideas. The wind can howl, cats can smile, and hope can die.

Plot (and story):

The plot of a story is the order in which the author has chosen to tell the events of a story. It may or may not be chronological. The chronological order in which those events would have happened is called story.

Point of view:

The position from which the events of a story are observed or considered is called point of view. The author must choose to present the story from either a neutral point of view, one person’s point of view, or the points of view of several characters. They can be participants in the events, or simply observers.

Protagonist:

Protagonist is another term for the central character around whom the events revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify. If the protagonist has an opponent, he/she would be called the antagonist.

R 

Receiver:

In the communication model it is the general term used for the audience/listener/reader.

Refrain:

The part of a song of poem that is repeated, especially at the end of each verse (song) or stanza (poem).

Rhetoric:

The art of using language in a way that is effective or that influences people - rhetorical device.

Rhetorical question:

A question you answer yourself, or that needs no answer.

Rhyme:

When two words sound the same, especially at the end of each line.

Rhythm:

- or metre - a sequence of feet. A foot is a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. The most common foot is an iamb: an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in da-DUM.

S 

Scene:

In prose fiction, a scene is one part of the story during which there is no change in time or place.

Second-person narrator:

The second-person narrator uses a “you” about the main characters and his/her actions. It will feel as if this type of narrator is addressing the reader, or as if the reader is a character in the story, which is quite weird, and therefore a second-person narrator is rarely seen.

Sender:

In the communication model it is the general term used for the speaker/writer.

Setting:

Setting refers to the time and place of a story. If the focus is on the conditions and/or values and norms of people at a particular time and place, we talk about milieu or social environment.

Short story:

Short story is the term used about a brief work of prose fiction which usually focuses on one incident, has a single plot, a single setting and few characters. It tends to provide little action, hardly any character development, but simply a snapshot of life.

Showing: Showing is a narrative technique in which a character’s feelings and mood etc. are expressed in an indirect way (through what the character says and/or does) so that the reader may create his/her own images and understanding.

Six Ws:

The six elements that must be covered in an article: What has happened to Who, Where and When, How and Why.

SOAPSTone:

Acronym for the elements you look at when analysing non-fiction: Speaker - Occasion - Audience - Purpose - Subject - Tone.

Sonnet:

A classical poetic form which has 14 lines, subdivided through its rhymes into two parts. The Petrarchan or Italian sonnet: I = 8 lines, an octave, rhyming abbaabba, and II = 6 lines, a sestet, rhyming cdcdcd (or cdecde). The metre is an iambic pentameter (da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM). Shakespeare created his own version which has slightly different rhymes. 

Standfirst:

An introductory paragraph in an article, separated from the body of the text, which summarizes the article.

Stanza:

The grouping of lines in a poem, like the 'paragraphs' of the poem.

Strapline:

An additional headline above or below the main headline.

Stream of consciousness:

In literature, stream of consciousness is a narrative technique in which a character’s thoughts and feelings are expressed as a continuous flowing series of images and ideas running through the mind, thus imitating the way humans think.

Symbol:

A symbol is an object, a person or an event that represents or stands for something else, usually a general quality or an abstract idea.

T 

Tabloid:

A newspaper with small pages, traditionally popular in style and dominated by sensational stories, e.g. The Sun. Today, also some serious newspapers use the small size.

Telling:

Telling is a narrative technique in which the narrator tells the reader directly what characterizes the characters in a story – what they are like.

Theme:

Theme is the central idea, opinion or message that is expressed in the story. The heart and soul of the story.

Third-person narrator:

The third-person narrator uses “he”, “she” or (more rarely) “they”. This type of narrator provides the greatest flexibility to the author and is therefore the most commonly used narrator in literature. The third-person narrator’s point of view is what determines the type even more. If the point of view is from the outside, with no access to the thoughts and feelings of the characters, we call it an objective third-person narrator. If the narrator has access to one character’s thoughts and feelings, it is a limited (or restricted) third-person narrator. And finally, if the narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings of several characters, it is an omniscient third-person narrator.

Tricolon:

A list of three items, building to a climax, e.g. ... the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Turning point: A turning point is a point (usually an event) in a story where the plot takes a (sometimes unexpected) turn, and things change because of this. In long texts, there may be more than one turning point.

U 

Unreliable narrator:

An unreliable narrator (usually a first-person narrator) gives his or her own understanding of a story, instead of the explanation and interpretation the author wishes the reader to obtain.

[anoracle]

002: for any of my messy children wjegjl

are u ready for a monster of a post???

002 | Give me a character & I will tell you

Soren Song:

How I feel about this character: i don’t think i have new ways to tell you how much i love his boy???? and he’s been through so many changes from when you first started playing him in sus, i can’t believe the boy you have now and how much i love him and how much you still put in that childish innocence in him that comes out in bursts in his threads that’s both so soft and heartbreaking all at once bc he’s this giant tragedy of all his wants and fears and not fully able to tell them apart anymore???? and wanting to be loved so much but he still destroys some of his relationships by testing that and wanting to keep up this image he has that’s this plaything that’s destroying himself and being destroyed by others, i hate and love you and some other day i’ll rant AGAIN on how much i love your characterization and writing in general and level of characterization you do, teach me ur ways

All the people I ship romantically with this character: soren x something soft bc i will fight for soft things for this boi u can’t stop me, BUT ALSO, soren/link, soren/noah, lowkey soren/li hua hateship

My non-romantic OTP for this character: soren x lenny, soren x emme, soren x carter, soren x xue, soren x aura, soren x noah

A headcanon with my character: what headcanons don’t we have for emme/soren, but Here We Go Again: so emme having a soft vision of an older soren when she was a young kiddo, imagine a parallel of this when she has another vision of him just before she met him of the soren he will become years from now and just the chaos spiral, and we talked about her knowing the direction he’s heading in, but not fully before they became friends i think? or having a drawing of that too somewhere, one she would try to hide from herself, but not throw away, maybe hidden under her bed, and he could find this one and recognize himself and the person he’s becoming, and the subtle conversations of emme always kind of knowing where he was going and always treating him as she did despite it, or even thinking he could be the one she could finally save/change the future for, and him having not just a hint of what he’s becoming, but a real image and real proof of what he looks like beyond himself, and her having to come to terms with the idea that this isn’t it, him feeling the acceptance from her, but what we talked about too of just him testing that loyalty in Terrible ways

My OTP: I don’t KNow I don’t KNOW, i see u and soj with link and soren, but also where is someone that will not hurt this boy, but Importantly, who this boy won’t hurt and things Longlasting, and everything is hurting my heart

My OT3: if i didn’t say soren/emme/carter i’d be a traitor against myself; soren/li hua/noah even tho i still don’t know really what’s happening???

Sol Qiao:

How I feel about this character: OKAY i know too well about u wanting sol as just this chaos wrecker and turning character development on its head and u are doing so well and this woman is killing me one step further with each thread and headcanon i read????? all while i love everything you do with her characterization and her simply being her, she had this power you can read in your writing of her, this confidence and control she has over everything she does, featuring being so unapologetic about what she’s doing and she’s so manipulative and secretly in control of so much shit around her that she’s this shadow in people’s lives without them knowing, but she Knows and that’s so fun to read and have as a character around, along with her kind of jealousy and want to be this Sole figure in people’s lives sometimes???? keep on killing me with her???

All the people I ship romantically with this character: tbh sol/laurel, i need no explanation. sol/ceydran?? sol and just wrecking shit like she deserves, sol and golden things, sol/me

My non-romantic OTP for this character: sol x li hua, sol x emme, sol x link, sol x lenny, sol x xue, sol x aura, really sol and all these kids she’s mothering or jsut being lovely (Terrible) with, ending my life for

A headcanon with my character: malachi and sol things, when will they not murder me??? i’m still dead at them watching movies together and just those small things we’ve mentioned besides all the shit he does for her just for a taste of blood and at some point for his own wants beyond blood and loss of humanity she’s supporting, and OKAY, but let’s talk about the beyond things and all the little things he does for her bc he could do a lot - lowkey casual bodyguard when they go places even though she doesn’t need it really but the image of a bodyguard helps, reminder of who’s the boss here???? mal and cleaning up her messes that don’t involve blood, it’s just making sure she isn’t bothered where she goes?? mal and sol and him cooking dinners for her and both of them knowing the last time he really cooked it was for a big family and know just him and maybe sol. and just like the movies they watch together, just really pretentious things too 

My OTP: idk yet but i know in my heart, it’s probably a power couple and/or gay 

My OT3: noah/ceydran/sol as what the fuck is happening?? sol/laurel/marci as ladies that could kill me and i’d let them

Theo Nam:

How I feel about this character: i need 10 million rants daily about this boy!! and i know you don’t write softs often and you are doing great my sweet babe this boy!!! theo has killed me everyday since idea of him came up and there’s a really tragic aspect of him that comes up so much in threads and is weaved into how he treats people and how he behaves that’s so nervous and being slightly separated from the world and people, while still being so apart of the world in a way, but really like as roots, as nature and maybe it’s people that don’t understand him and not the other way around bc he’s in this inbetween place of living??? and something that i’ve loved to read too is his possible fall into madness and how he’s facing that or just the way he is around those like nadia and kanta and omari and where that could lead with his character is really interesting bc the questions of what is his mental health with or without these influences around him too

All the people I ship romantically with this character: theo/emme bc u know who i am, theo/aura????, theo x being happy dammit, theo x soft things, theo x sleeping

My non-romantic OTP for this character: theo x cat, theo x kanta, theo x ceydran, theo x omari as terrible things, theo x xue, theo x mal

A headcanon with my character: u know i’m always on my bullshit with softness??? and we’re talking about theo and emme and relearning what family is supposed to be like while they’re both kinda blind together about it?? and pillowtalk of what they think family should feel like - the questions emme’s asking though about what having a big family is like and small stories of living on the farm and only the soft things and stories of emme going through magazines pretending people were her parents and really using tv references for what she thinks family is like, and where this all just develops, from the sad things to the things they idealize about families and silent trying for redefinitions of people that will leave. and then the soft, lowkey sad things of them talking about homes like in the thread now as this dream-like place before maybe they turn real and start to sound like real plans and places bc emme probably associates family too with specific places w/ all their moving around or at least being together, and now their dates in cities but they go stores too just to walk around, casual mention of things they like but know right now they can’t have in any place, before family can be full defined as people and feelings without past pain and having family be something seeming out of reach??

My OTP: theo x emme bc i enjoy nice things for my children

My OT3: nadia/kanta/theo as the worst thing to ever happen in my life??? theo/ceydran/emme as soft funfair things thanks

@fcxxes

[sweetdreamr]

thoughts on thor: ragnarok

I’m gonna preface this by saying that I really really wanted to like this movie. Like. Really.

But, as the Rolling Stones once said, we can’t always get what we want.

Be warned, this is long af.

Hits:

--Valkyrie--um, lethal, gorgeous, haunted by her past? Yes please. I’ve been a sucker for that one since my Xena fangirl days. Her bond with Hulk was also funny and warm (”Angry girl!” made me smile, the more so because she seemed less angry around him.) It was nice to see somebody having fun around here.

--Hela-- Her costume was epic. I was antsy about what they’d do with her clothing, given that it can be pretty, uh, minimal in the comics sometimes. Fortunately that didn’t happen here. She was equal parts scary, funny, and seriously badass, and i enjoyed the parallels between her relationship with Odin, and that of Loki and Thor.

--Grandmaster was fucking hilarious and occasionally cruel, and who knew Jeff Goldblum could rock blue eye makeup like that?

--Fenris. I still wanna pet the puppy. Even undead he is floofy and gorgeous.

--Thor having to see Hulk naked. That’s karma, asshole.

--Loki’s costumes were fantastic, and his ability to be equally resilient yet able to charm his way into the Grandmaster’s good graces (and STAY there, since the Grandmaster is fickle af) is one of the few things about him that stayed in-character.

--It’s nice to see Loki supporting the arts in Asgard. Also, eating healthy is important. U go Loki.

--Matt Damon had the role of a lifetime as Loki. He may as well end his career now, since it’s not gonna get any better than that.

--Odin’s death scene was really beautifully done. Even if Odin suddenly being about to die made no fucking sense. At least he doesn’t seem pissed at Loki, and let us have a nice little moment between them.

--I liked the acknowledgement that Odin’s power and wealth has a really ugly history. For all Asgard’s beauty, it’s built on something truly hideous.

--Loki: “You had ONE JOB.”

--Thor is right about Hulk’s room and its stylistic choices. It was ugly af.

--Literally everything Heimdall. He gets better with every film, but goddamn does he need more scenes. Still, his hair looks great and he’s the unsung hero of the film.

--Thor losing his eye and becoming more like Odin, but hopefully better. Also, harnessing his lightning/thunder powers fucking ruled.

--”Oh? You’re the God of Hammers now?” Odin pls stop making me laugh. I’m trying to hate you over here.

Misses:

Oh boy here we go, strap in kiddies.

--Odin’s power and legacy is shown, as mentioned above, to come from true ugliness, and yet? He doesn’t have to answer for it at all, and instead dies a peaceful death. I liked that scene, don’t get me wrong, but what the fuck?

--Really, Loki? Skurge was the best replacement you could find for Heimdall? Maybe try Ziprecruiter or something next time?

--Thor. Um, has anyone seen this guy? Do you think he knows that some douchebag stole his outfit and is douching his way around the multiverse pretending to be the God of Thunder for most of the film? More on this later.

--Why would the realms have gone to hell after Loki assumed the throne? Nothing in his past within the films indicated to me that he’d be a poor ruler, certainly no worse than Odin. He might get bored with it, and come to dislike it, but Loki can and does do many things he doesn’t particularly like, and does them well. (Exhibit A: playing second fiddle to Thor, etc.)

--How the fuck did Loki’s spell drain Odin of his magic? Also, if Loki is that powerful, how the fuck did Dr. Strange manage to trap him for 30 seconds, let alone 30 minutes?

--Seriously, Odin’s death made no goddamn sense. At all.

--I’m calling a bam on Thor saying “I have a feeling it will all work out fine.” THOR. IT GETS WORSE AFTER YOU SAY THAT. EVERY TIME. STOP.

--Dr. Strange’s cameo was a waste of my fucking time. That’s like 20 minutes of my time that I will never get back. You’d think, being such an experienced actor, that Benedict Cumberbatch’s American accent would be way better, but it sounds awful. Like, really really awful. I’d rather fall for 30 minutes with Loki than have to listen to that auditory nightmare again.

--Who was Hela’s mother? (I mean given that her father is Odin, her mother could be pretty much ANYONE.) Not a big deal that we never found out, but it annoyed me anyway.

--Are we gonna talk about how Hulk has spent the last two years fucking murdering people?

--Also, how the fuck did Odin convince an entire kingdom (or NINE) that his daughter never existed? I’m assuming magic, but as the writers didn’t give enough of a damn to think this was worth explaining, I’m not about to theorize and do their job for them.

--WHY DID I HAVE TO BE SUBJECTED TO HULK’S NAKED ASS? WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO TO DESERVE HAVING TO SEE THAT WITH MY OWN EYEBALLS. THIS IS NOT OKAY.

--The Warriors Three died the most pointless fucking deaths ever, literally for no goddamn reason. There was no need to kill them off, since it would have been perfectly logical for Thor to send them to various parts of the realms to restore peace. Honestly, the only reason for their deaths that I can fathom would have been to increase Thor’s grief, but we never see him learn of their deaths or mourn them, so that can’t be it. Again, pointless.

Remember when I said I’d talk about Thor’s OOC behavior later? It’s later. And OH BOY do i have a lot to say.

--I’m about to contact the authorities and put in an MIA search for Loki and Thor’s character development. It was nowhere to be seen in this film. They were just tossed straight into their old cycle of betray, threaten, beat up. It’s stupid as fuck, and I’m really fucking annoyed that I have to sit through this again. Sometimes it’s entertaining but at this point? It’s just tedious.

I’d also like to point out that the initial relationship presented to us in the first Thor film was really not that cycle. It’s vaguely hinted at, but not completely spelled out. There was genuine love and affection punctuated by the occasional prank, but that’s pretty much all I got. While I recognize that the cycle is a central theme in the comics, the film versions are very, very different. That said, it makes giving the film characters the storylines of their comic book counterparts is a tricky business that needs to be handled a LOT better than it was here.

Spoiler alert: It was not handled well here. At all.

Oh, then there’s Thor’s repeated line of “That’s what heroes do”, which was reminiscent of this:

Not a great parallel to evoke, guys. I’m just saying.

Because last time I checked, heroes don’t leave their brothers tazed and convulsing on the floor. That’s not a hero move, that’s a dick move. Thor is supposed to have evolved from that, and bringing it back for the sake of punchline just feels like a cheap-ass way of getting laughs. (Yes, there’s the possibility that they planned this together, but again, I’m not wasting my time honeypotting for hack writers.)

I mean, the Thor we’ve been presented with so far is warm-hearted and smarter than most people think, and he does his best to make things right when he fucks up.

Except for this movie, apparently.

Also, while I didn’t mind Loki’s ‘looking out for ME’ mindset (it’s one of the few things that actually made sense--I mean fuck, who else is gonna do it?), Thor’s surprise at it was kind of ridiculous. What the fuck did you expect? It’s like he totally forgot that, at the end of the first film, he realized his role in inflicting damage onto Loki that helped to make him into what he was.

Instead it was like:

Um yes. Yes it fucking does. Does this negate Loki’s choices, or his actions? Fuck no. But it did play a role, so let’s at least acknowledge that, shall we? Having said that, it’s logical to conclude that continuing the same behavior that inflicted the initial damage is counterproductive at best. And a shitty creative choice if ever there was one.

Thor’s anger over Odin’s death, and Loki’s supposed causing of it (albeit intentionally) made sense, (i guess? i didn’t understand Odin’s death scene in case u hadn’t noticed) but it was done in such a weird way. “I hate you, oh no wait let’s banter, oh okay now i’m mad at you again, whoops no i’m not” all throughout the film. Conflicting feelings is one thing, but goddamn, pick a fucking flavor.

Also, what the fuck is Marvel’s issue with portraying psychological trauma? The way they do it, it’s like it isn’t even worth mentioning unless it can be played for laughs. (See: Naked Selvig running around in TDW, without much reference as to why he’s doing that. “Oh he’s naked hahaha”, yeah, let’s not treat this with any sympathy at ALL, good job Marvel.)

And in Loki’s case? Oh God. The whole scene where he sees Hulk again is just. So awful. That it’s played for laughs makes it worse. Loki getting his comeuppance from Hulk during the first film after trying to use him actually had purpose (Loki’s defeat and Hulk’s taking revenge at being used), but since he hasn’t done anything to Hulk during Ragnarok, it’s just not all that funny.

I mean, fucking hell, psychological trauma does have absurdities that can lend their way to humor, but doing it at the expense of the traumatized person is fucked up and gross. Whether or not the traumatized person is a nice person or not really doesn’t come into it. Or at least, it shouldn’t.

Myy good friend @icyxmischief has a lot of meta about this on her blog, and she’s way more eloquent than me, so please go read it. It’s amazeballs.

[crowfoodsdaughter-blog]

Shade of the Evening Tree... I would bet money it does this.

The Shade of the Evening Tree... it’s the Essosi version of the Weirwood except inversed in a dark and creepy kind of way. Our writer loves to use symbolism and literary devices to drop clues from time to time...something he does well and does often. There have been many inversions and parallels drawn between the Essosi Shade of the Evening tree and the Westerosi Weirwood noted by readers throughout the fandom.  Today we are going to discuss a possible connection between these two trees and speculate on the enigmatic oily black stones peppered throughout the ASOIAF mythos and worldbuilding.  Before we get started I need to disclose that spoilers from the Forsaken and Arianne chapters will be discussed.  Now let’s get started.

Blackwood / Weirwood

You don’t have to look hard to see the what our writer is doing with these two magical trees.  One only has to look at how the two are described.  We have white trees with red leaves and black trees with blue leaves; this seems ostensibly contradicting and opposing at first glance from a sheer aesthetic point of view.  There are however some striking similarities as both trees are magical and have the potential to both extend life and provide visions.

What has especially captured the attention of the fandom is how our author has chosen to describe the tasting experience of the two trees vision inducing byproducts. There is an eerie similarity that cannot be denied.  For example, here we have Danny ingesting Shade of the Evening:

“The first sip tasted like ink and spoiled meat, foul, but when she swallowed it seemed to come to life within her. She could feel tendrils spreading through her chest, like fingers of fire coiling around her heart, and on her tongue was a taste like honey and anise and cream, like mother’s milk and Drogo’s seed, like red meat and hot blood and molten gold. It was all the tastes she had ever known, and none of them””

And now Bran with weirwood paste:

“The first spoonful was the hardest to get down.  He almost retched it right back up. The second tasted better. The third was almost sweet. The rest he spooned up eagerly. Why had he thought that it was bitter? It tasted of honey, of new-fallen snow, of pepper and cinnamon and the last kiss his mother ever gave him.”

Interestingly, in addition to there being vision inducing trees located in Essos, there was also once a race of small, shy forest folk called woods walkers or Ifequevron who once inhabited the Essosi mainland. 

Immediately south of Ib itself, a densely wooded region that had formerly been the home of a small, shy forest folk. Some say that the Ibbenese extinguished this gentle race, whilst others believe they went into hiding in the deeper woods or fled to other lands. The Dothraki still call the great forest along the northern coast the Kingdom of the Ifequevron, the name by which they knew the vanished forest-dwellers. The fabled Sea Snake, Corlys Velaryon, Lord of the Tides, was the first Westerosi to visit these woods. After his return from the Thousand Islands, he wrote of carved trees, haunted grottoes, and strange silences.  A later traveler, the merchant-adventurer Bryan of Oldtown, captain of the cog Spearshaker, provided an account of his own journey across the Shivering Sea. He reported that the Dothraki name for the lost people meant “those who walk in the woods.”  

TWOIAF further goes on to hint that the Dothraki horselords shunned the forests either from reverence for vanished wood walkers, or because they feared their powers and Corlys Velaryon even reported finding ‘carved trees’ in their forests. Another hint we have of a forgotten CotF-type presence can be found in the secretive peoples of the great and holy Isle of Leng. A people who are known for their large golden eyes, keen eyesight/night vision and their subterranean gods known as the ‘old ones’ lurking beneath the earth. This bit of information we have of the people of Leng has caused speculation of a possible mixture of bloodlines between the natives and the CotF in the ancient past.  Knowing there was a CotF-type presence in Essos, it is quite possible the black barked relative of the weirwood was a part of that magic from years gone by.

 “It will have turned to stone”

So we can see a possibility that the white barked trees of Westeros and the black barked trees of Essos could be lighter and darker versions of one another so to speak.  Now this is where it gets interesting: We know the weirwood petrifies when it dies, pretty simple to comprehend, the trees don't rot they just turn to stone...

 “For a thousand years it has not shown a leaf. In another thousand it will have turned to stone, the maesters say. Weirwoods never rot.”

That was some Tytos Blackwood wisdom for you there. Yes, a guy named Blackwood gave us that little nugget.  Knowing the weirwood turns to stone, if the trees are somehow relatives of each other the same logic could likely apply to the darker version of this tree. Basically, if the white stuff petrifies then the black stuff does too.  So, imagine for a moment what black wood actually becomes when it is petrified…it becomes black stone.

Let’s continue this train of thought and ponder the most mentioned relic of black stone we have in the series, the Seastone chair.  As I mentioned in the beginning, our writer likes to use some symbolism every now and then to drop clues…

Then she saw it: an uprooted tree, huge and dark, coming straight at them. A tangle of roots and limbs poked up out of the water as it came, like the reaching arms of a great kraken.

  “No.” Aeron Damphair did not weigh his words. “Only a godly man may sit the Seastone Chair. The Crow’s Eye worships naught but his own pride.”

Let’s look at the very first time we see someone drink Shade of the evening:

Dany raised the glass to her lips. The first sip tasted like ink and spoiled meat, foul, but when she swallowed it seemed to come to life within her. She could feel tendrils spreading through her chest, like fingers of fire coiling around her heart"

Our writer decided to hide two little hints in our first view of this sorcerous drink, but before Dany actually partakes in the wine of the Warlocks, we are introduced to the grove of shade trees Dany sees outside the HotU.

Long and low, without towers or windows, it coiled like a stone serpent through a grove of black-barked trees whose inky blue leaves made the stuff of the sorcerous drink the Qartheen called shade of the evening. No other buildings stood near. Black tiles covered the palace roof, many fallen or broken; the mortar between the stones was dry and crumbling. She understood now why Xaro Xhoan Daxos called it the Palace of Dust. Even Drogon seemed disquieted by the sight of it. The black dragon hissed, smoke seeping out between his sharp teeth. “Blood of my blood,” Jhogo said in Dothraki, “this is an evil place, a haunt of ghosts and maegi. See how it drinks the morning sun? Let us go before it drinks us as well.” Ser Jorah Mormont came up beside them. “What power can they have if they live in that?” “Heed the wisdom of those who love you best,” said Xaro Xhoan Daxos, lounging inside the palanquin. “Warlocks are bitter creatures who eat dust and drink of shadows.

The wording here is interesting, if you have noticed, the Qartheen warns Dany that the warlocks ‘drink shadows’ and the Dothraki are disquieted by the way the place ‘drinks the morning sun’.  If these words seem familiar, you will notice it is echoed in TWOIAF when Asshai in the shadowlands is described.

“Some say as well that the stone of Asshai has a greasy, unpleasant feel to it, that it seems to drink the light, dimming tapers and torches and hearth fires alike.

Asshai is a haunt of sorcerers known for a ridiculous amount of black oily stone. The city is supposedly made entirely of the stuff and is said to be the size of Volantis, Qarth, King’s Landing, and Oldtown put together.  For some reason Asshai is still much a mystery to maesters and readers alike.  The sheer mass of the materials required tends to rule out most opinions and theories.  What you may find interesting however, is there is a high possibility Asshai was once a very fertile and forested area much like Yeng and Yi Ti.  If you take a glance at a map, you will see that in the past Asshai would have been a part of a forest/jungle fertile that would have stretched from Sothoryos and the Basilisk Isles all the way to Ulthos.

Another thing that I do want to draw your attention to is Ulthos, a land mass just as close to Asshai as any settlement found in Essos. This nearby land mass is a heavily jungled area that is a noticeably distinct color than any of the other forested areas on the map of the known world.  Recently /u/Werthead on Reddit published a tremendous undertaking of his Atlas of Ice and Fire which piqued my interest because the atlas mentions that the jungles of Ulthos are specifically purple-black in coloring on the map.  When I asked for his reference he pointed me to the actual mapmaker Jonathan Roberts who, on his fantastic maps website, mentions that the jungles of Ulthos are in fact meant to be depicted as purple-black in coloring.  I think it is highly possible this was not artistic license and was part of the guidance provided by our writer who commissioned his maps, but who knows, maybe the artist decided it would be good to have a purple-black colored jungle.  The purple part is somewhat confusing, but the black coloring of this tree depot next to Asshai, it has my attention.

Despite Ulthos being extremely close in proximity to Asshai, the possibility exists they were once even closer.  As we have noticed, there are some hints the sea level was lower at some point in the ancient past.  The Thousand Isles, the Neck and the Arm of Dorne are just a few examples.  One detail I would also point to is the artwork for Asshai in TWOIAF.  In the worldbook, it appears Asshai is a half-drowned city.  Again, I’m not sure if the artist just decided that Asshai should be half-drowned in appearance without any guidance, but there is definitely something there.  So not only is it quite possible Asshai was part of a forested and fertile crescent, but there is also the possibility this massive ��purple-black” jungle was located closer to Asshai in the ancient past than we realize.

The years pass in their hundreds and their thousands, and what does any man see of life but a few summers, a few winters? We look at mountains and call them eternal, and so they seem … but in the course of time, mountains rise and fall, rivers change their courses, stars fall from the sky, and great cities sink beneath the sea. Even gods die, we think. Everything changes. -Maester Luwin to Bran

I know what you are thinking, if a shade tree were to truly petrify what are the mechanics that would cause it to be oily? If this is the same stuff, it has to be oily or become oily in some form or fashion. Well as it turns out, Shade of the Evening is also described as OILY.

The Crow’s Eye filled two cups with a strange black wine that flowed as thick as honey. “Drink with me, brother. Have a taste of this.” He offered one of the cups to Victarion. The captain took the cup Euron had not offered, sniffed at its contents suspiciously. Seen up close, it looked more blue than black. It was thick and oily, with a smell like rotted flesh. He tried a small swallow, and spit it out at once. “Foul stuff. Do you mean to poison me?”  

Current storyline significance

From here we now have pondered the possibility of what could be the origins for the black oily stone.  Now let’s look at another quote and see what we make of it:

Though Aeron clamped his mouth shut, twisting his head from side to side he fought as best he could, but in the end he had to choke or swallow. The dreams were even worse the second time. He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood-red sea. He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles.

This last quote is somewhat confusing to some readers as this plainly looks like some straight up Lovecraft monster reference, but remember that Euron is kind of a Shade of the Evening junkie so to speak and Shade of the Evening is basically a brother from another mother to Weirwood paste... and what does weirwood paste do? It weds you to the tree, the writhing tentacles is a greenseer/tree man symbol in Aeron’s dream. See for yourself: 

Your blood makes you a greenseer,” said Lord Brynden. “This will help awaken your gifts and wed you to the trees.” Bran did not want to be married to a tree … but who else would wed a broken boy like him? A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees. A greenseer. 

  The sight of him still frightened Bran— the weirwood roots snaking in and out of his withered flesh, the mushrooms sprouting from his cheeks, the white wooden worm that grew from the socket where one eye had been. He liked it better when the torches were put out.

So, the Shade of the Evening vision basically showed Aeron what his brother actually is... a terrible man with wisdom as deep as the roots of ancient trees… but we are not done yet.

Let's talk about some hairy men for a minute.  The hairy men were kind of everywhere when you look at the text of TWOIAF at least in central and western Essos.  I noticed that there was once a forest inhabited by these CotF-type woods walkers who came into direct contact with the hairy men and not in the diplomatic kind of way. More in the, I am going to commit genocide, take your land and bleed your resources type of way:  

 The God-Kings of Ib, before their fall, did succeed in conquering and colonizing a huge swathe of northern Essos immediately south of Ib itself, a densely wooded region that had formerly been the home of a small, shy forest folk. Some say that the Ibbenese extinguished this gentle race, whilst others believe they went into hiding in the deeper woods or fled to other lands.

  At its greatest extent, the Ibbenese foothold on Essos was as large as Ib itself and far richer. More and more of the hairy men crossed over from the islands to make their fortunes there, cutting down the trees to put the land under the plow, damming the rivers and streams, mining the hills

It is safe to say the Ibbenese didn't get along well with this forest folk that worshipped the black wood trees.  In fact, it seems like the Ibbenese kind of persecuted them in a sense and cut down a bunch of their trees and the maesters even theorize the Ibbenese caused the woods-walkers extinction.  That’s bad right?

What made my eyes completely bug out of their sockets was this line:

The eunuch drew a parchment from his sleeve. “A kraken has been seen off the Fingers.”  He giggled. “Not a Greyjoy, mind you, a true kraken. It attacked an Ibbenese whaler and pulled it under.

So, a "kraken" has pulled under an Ibbenese whaler...makes sense now doesn't it?  Tree roots can look like the reaching arms of a kraken as our writer has pointed out.  This has caused me to speculate that there indeed might be something under the sea.  I think there might be a good chance there is a network of huge roots, which could be why there is the Greensee/Green sea pun that ravenous reader has pointed out in the Westeros.org forums and explains why Patchface came back from the depths with the gift of prophetic vision.  And here is why… detailed in one of Aeron's Shade of the Evening trips:

“Urri!” he cried. There is no hinge here, no door, no Urri. His brother Urrigon was long dead, yet there he stood. One arm was black and swollen, stinking with maggots, but he was still Urri, still a boy, no older than the day he died.  “You know what waits below the sea, brother?”  “The Drowned God,” Aeron said, “the watery halls.”  Urri shook his head. “Worms... worms await you, Aeron.”

In Aeron's dream, Urri is telling him there is no Drowned God, no watery halls, just worms, worms await him.  From what we have seen in the House of the Undying, shade visions are supposed to be cryptic and somewhat prophetic in nature right?  So, what if there is actually something that looks similar to worms or the reaching arms of a kraken under the sea?  Let’s take a peek:

The way the shadows shifted made it seem as if the walls were moving too. Bran saw great white snakes slithering in and out of the earth around him, and his heart thumped in fear. He wondered if they had blundered into a nest of milk snakes or giant grave worms, soft and pale and squishy.  

  The sight of him still frightened Bran— the weirwood roots snaking in and out of his withered flesh, the mushrooms sprouting from his cheeks, the white wooden worm that grew from the socket where one eye had been.

I guess this means we may actually get to see this play out in the chapters due to whatever Euron is doing at the moment.  According to the Arianne I sample chapter there are ‘krakens’ stirring around the Arm of Dorne being drawn to blood of the current hostilities and our Shade of the Evening drinking Euron has something planned in his upcoming battle with the Redwyne and Hightower fleet.  So yeah maybe there will be an Eldrich Apocalypse of sorts, just not the kind most were expecting.  

Before moving on, we are going to take this idea and look at two cultures in Essos who both fear the sea: The Thousand Isles and the Dothraki.  As we have read, the maesters suggest the Thousand Isles is something of a drowned kingdom that has been reduced to hundreds of scattered islands. Before the Thousand Isles were drowned, it was most likely connected to the dark forests of Mossovy ”.   A place whispered to be the haunt of shapechangers.  Additionally, the Dothraki whom the maesters hint could fear the Ifequevron also have a very real fear the sea and will not even plow the earth. 

Ebony and Weirwood

So, let’s back up for a moment and take a look at ebony. There have been many in the forums who have drawn attention to hints of the relationship between the two sets of trees through the writer’s use of ‘ebony’ and weirwood.  These hints are casually floated in front of our faces in the shape of weirwood and ebony doors seen in both the House of Black and White and the House of the Undying.

In the real-world ebony is a black wood of a few species that is so dense and heavy that it sinks or ‘drowns’ in water. Each time our characters encounter ebony, I’m not sure if they can distinguish one type of black wood from another when it comes certain items. It is kind of a tinge of the unreliable narrator that our writer uses from time to time; just like when Bran sees Jaime and Cersei wrestling naked. He is familiar with wrestling, so they are wrestling.  You see, characters might easily have difficulty categorizing a wood that they have never seen before and are unfamiliar with.  The shade of the evening tree is not seen in Westeros or the Free Cities that we have seen, so far, so what makes us so certain our characters can identify it when they happen across seeing it? Basically, they think they see ebony and so ebony is how it is described. 

“At the top she found a set of carved wooden doors twelve feet high. The left-hand door was made of weirwood pale as bone, the right of gleaming ebony. In their center was a carved moon face; ebony on the weirwood side, weirwood on the ebony. The look of it reminded her somehow of the heart tree in the godswood at Winterfell. The doors are watching me, she thought.”

Here we have ebony and weirwood superimposed and contrasting one another with a carved face that does an excellent job reminding Arya (and the reader) of the heart tree in Winterfell.  Pretty simple symbolism, basically black tree/white tree=heart tree. 

In addition to Arya, Dany experienced a similar door in the House of the Undying: 

To her right, a set of wide wooden doors had been thrown open. They were fashioned of ebony and weirwood, the black and white grains swirling and twisting in strange interwoven patterns. They were very beautiful, yet somehow frightening. The blood of the dragon must not be afraid. 

It seems the writer is trying to describe these doors as an allusion to being made of one wood.  Notice how the wording makes it seem as if they were not mechanically pieced together from two different types of wood with descriptions such as the grains twisting and swirling?  The description itself makes it seem almost as if it is made from the same slab of wood.  This imagery makes a great deal of logic knowing there is a black barked tree with similar qualities to weirwood and were possibly one species at one time before they split in their evolution.  Later, shade drinking Dany is fittingly given further symbolism in Mereen as she is sitting equivalent of an Essosi weirwood throne, an ebony bench.  Also, TWOIAF mentions that the people of Asshai ride around in palanquins made of ebony…hmm... must be an abundance of that stuff somewhere nearby. 

There is also another set of doors that should be mentioned although not as enigmatic. We also have ebony and weirwood doors all the way back in Game of Thrones at the forge of Tobho Mott, our friendly neighborhood Qohorik.  This one is a little trickier, but it gets cleared up in TWOIAF. 

Qohor stands on the river Qhoyne on the western edge of the vast, dark, primordial forest to which she gives her name, the greatest wood in all of Essos.

  The Forest of Qohor also yields up furs and pelts of all kinds, many rare and fine and highly prized, as well as silver, tin, and amber. The vast forest has never been fully explored, according to the maps and scrolls at the Citadel, and it likely conceals many mysteries and wonders at its heart.

  The artisans of Qohor are far famed. Qohorik tapestries, woven primarily by the women and children of the city, are just as fine as those woven in Myr, though less costly. Exquisite (if somewhat disturbing) wood carvings can be bought in Qohor’s market, and the city’s forges have no peer.

We also learn of the God of Qohor, the Black Goat.  A deity that requires daily blood sacrifice, and is frequently mentioned when the Lion of Night is mentioned.

“And many names,” the kindly man had said. “In Qohor he is the Black Goat, in Yi Ti the Lion of Night, in Westeros the Stranger.

  “Warlocks, wizards, alchemists, moonsingers, red priests, black alchemists, necromancers, aeromancers, pyromancers, bloodmages, torturers, inquisitors, poisoners, godswives, night-walkers, shapechangers, worshippers of the Black Goat and the Pale Child and the Lion of Night, all find welcome in Asshai-by-the-Shadow, where nothing is forbidden.”

  Beyond her was a man with a lion’s head seated on a throne, carved of ebony. On the other side of the doors, a huge horse of bronze and iron reared up on two great legs. Farther on she could make out a great stone face, a pale infant with a sword, a shaggy black goat the size of an aurochs, a hooded man leaning on a staff.

Basically, Qohor is known for its special wood being the largest forest in Essos and which is described as not fully explored and primordial.  Additionally, what I am seeing with the Black Goat is a deity that is worshipped in the most heavily forested area in Essos, is a fan of blood sacrifice (like a heart tree) and is often associated with another deity that is depicted in the House of Black and White as carved out of ebony…oh yes, and their worshippers can find refuge in Asshai, go figure.

Also, in Lovecraft mythos, Shub-Niggurath is known as the Black Goat of the Woods.  But wait!! What about all of the Lovecraft references? Isn’t C’thulhu coming for the Redwynes? No, but the trees are.

Lovecraft and the Old Gods

The Lovecraft references peppered throughout the story do seem to focus on some watery stuff going on, but there are other Lovecraft nods that cannot be explained with a watery hall.  These places include Ib, Qohor with its Black Goat, N'Gai with its underground city, and the Sarnori are a few examples.  I believe the Lovecraft references could be, at least in part, referring to Old Gods presence surrounding the Long Night narrative. As you can see…  

Ib:

Ib is mentioned quite a few times in this post pertaining to Huzhor Amai and the destruction of the Ifequevron. Ib is also mentioned in "The Doom that Came to Sarnath", Ib was an ancient civilization destroyed by Sarnath. Interestingly, the Sarnori and the Ibbenese also fought in the ancient past.  

Leng:

As previously mentioned, Leng is also has some possible links to the Old Gods with their golden cat eyes, night vision, subterranean gods and blood sacrifice. Leng is possibly inspired by the Plateau of Leng mentioned in various Lovecraft stories.

The Black Goat:

The Black Goat is of course mentioned above in Lovecraft terms is known as “The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young", "The Black Goat of the Woods", and "The Lord of the Wood".

Sarnor/Sarnath:

TWOIAF mentions that the Sarnori got into more than a few skirmishes with the Ibbenese and their Long Night hero, Huzor Amai, “wore the pelt of the king of the hairy men" so he may have been in conflict with them or even descended from them. Awhile back, I also read an excellent thread that provided a very reasonable argument that the Lengii may possibly descend from the tall men or proto-tall men also known as the peoples of Sarnor.

N’Gai:

N'Gai's capital Nefer is an underground city located next to the Mossovy forest which is said to be full of shapechangers. Coincidentally, the N’Gai also have a Long Night hero of their own Neferion. In Lovecraft legend, N'Kai is an underground dominion where Tsathoggua is said to sleep.

The Iron Islands:

The Iron Islands are another drowned area with Lovecraft nods and with their own Azor Ahai like figure and black oily stone. The Grey King literally has weirwood in his legend as he slew the pale demonic flesh eating tree Ygg. The Iron islands of course also have various references such as characters named Dagon, and religious mantras such as “what is dead may never die”.

Stygai:

Stygai is a part of the Shadowlands right next door to Asshai which has black oily stone and a Long Night Hero of its own and was most likely fertile and forested in the ancient past. This is possibly inspired by Stygia from the Conan stories (influenced by Lovecraft) It is a city where magic is strong with promises of sorcery and witchcraft for scholars and dabbling warlocks. It is said a dark shadow has been cast along this land for centuries.

The Church of Starry Wisdom:

This church was founded by the Bloodstone Emperor, possibly another version of a Long Night hero such as Azor Ahai. In Lovecraft’s world, the Cult of Starry Wisdom is from "The Haunter of the Dark".  

The Isle Of Toads:

This is a site of a black greasy stone statue, similar to various Lovecraft stories where there are statues of black or greenish stone with aquatic like aspects. The Isle of Toads is located in the same forested/jungled fertile crescent that contains Sothoryos, Yi Ti, Leng and Ulthos.

 In essence, Lovecraft wasn’t just about C’thulhu, he had a whole slew of different Gods with various aspects. The thing that Lovecraft did with many of these deities is refer to them as the "old ones" and the "elder gods". What our author is doing is GRRM is at various Lovecraft lore and carefully throwing these Easter eggs out there because he has his own version of old ones/elder gods… these are the Old Gods… and in his world they are the trees.

GRRM has done everything possible to make the Shade tree an Essosi Weirwood, so if the white stuff petrifies, the black stuff probably does too.

If I had money to bet...I'd place it on the warlock tree taking a note from its Westerosi cousin.