#there isn’t that same clear

[speciouspessimism]

blahblahblah but throughout trc/before the events of td3 and all does declan think ronan loves him? does ronan think declan loves him? or do they both think the other just wants to see them miserable and dead?

[sweetmapple]

Mostly Hiring manager, but HR manager and PR manager too

[everything-written-down]

Agatha and Rio have an explicit, textual, canonical romantic past and are explicitly, textually, canonically queer. They have had a number of *unambiguously* romantic and sexually charged moments together on screen - NOT innuendo that can be explained away as something else. I want them to kiss, and THEY ARE GOING TO, but if they didn’t it still would not be queerbaiting. They are explicitly queer. Words have meanings.

[godsofhumanity]

[texting] Penelope: Are you eating healthy? Odysseus: Yes... Odysseus: today i ate aged organic milk tossed over seasoned tomato puree spread on baked whole wheat. Penelope: Wow! Let me see? Odysseus: [picture of a cheese pizza] Penelope:

[crunchie-morris]

Do you think the side of tiktok that’s obsessed with butch greaseball knows that female Spot Conlon was in that same theater about a year and a half ago

[worstloki]

AU where Loki doesn’t interfere with Thor’s banishment at all and it takes Thor years to prove himself worthy and when he returns to Asgard everything is just. The same. Nothing seems to have changed at all and everyone greets him like his absence was a minor obstacle that didn’t fundamentally change Thor and the worst part is Loki stepped down from the place as regent without any delay and Thor can’t help but feel there’s something underlaying the way his brother looks at him now and won’t let him touch him and Thor doesn’t know what he could have missed because he doesn’t think he would have found anything wrong with the things around him and how everyone behaves if he hadn’t spent time on Earth reflecting.

[dykedvonte]

I think it’s so ironic that the Pony Express escapes a lot if not all blame in discussion. I can’t even say I am excused from it but it’s just how hard people circle back to the characters alone without considering the environment they were made to be in.

Why would they design a ship where only two of the rooms lock? Not the bathroom? Not the sleeping quarters? We assume that all the companies in the universe are this shallow and careless to their workers but we explicitly know the Pony Express in extra vile. They are fed processed slop pack they can’t even really cook and the ration of those pack is meager at best. They hired and made people with a plethora of conflicting demeanors and beliefs work together on a mission where cohesion is important if not an outright necessity and punish them for not being happy about it. There’s no social protocols, not chain of command other than Captain’s word/choice and the only way to enforce that is with a literal firearm. They don’t allow them to celebrate freely and even took away leisure activities that would make them less stir crazy. They are only allowed a few hours of sleep despite their being no other real responsibilities or work on the ship, no matter the position or its importance. With any crew, with any level of synergy, this was a powder keg waiting for a spark.

I’m not saying characters that made mistakes didn’t make huge ones, but I think part of the horror is that at least for some (this is targeting Jimathan) those mistakes are partly made by a force of the hand. There’s a running theme of lack of choice and being forced into something and the very nature of how The Pony Express expected them to function plays a big part.

[noirandchocolate]

Age of Calamity is such a funny game when you think about it because most of the characters go through Events and use their strengths and suffer hardships and stuff, but honestly they mostly end the game the same as they started it. It’s not “bad storytelling” or anything to have most of the main characters (Link, the Champions, Impa, etc) not change very much character-growth wise, I’m not insinuating that. They’re heroes and it’s fun to watch them BE heroes and in some cases have nice heartfelt moments together, etc.

But it’s just hilarious to me that the characters in the game who DO get some form of character development arc are:

3. King Rhoam (a distant third place but he does realize his kid’s interests were helpful not frivolous and he apologizes and lets her continue leading the army and fights by her side)

2. Zelda (expected, she is the main character after all, and she gets to grow from doubting herself based on her father’s words and how special and talented everyone around her seems to be in comparison, and being upset at not being able to help more, to realizing her worth as a capable leader whose love and passions were what saved everyone)

1. MASTER FUCKIN KOHGA (goes from trying to peace out and let his lackeys take care of every fight, to desperately NOT wanting to leave Sooga and the others behind (poorly and obviously hiding it behind “come on stick together so you can protect me!” while he as the PC for your first play of that mission is clearly doing all the work to protect them); ends up not only joining Zelda’s faction to protect/get revenge for his Clan despite his hereditary beef with the royal family, but PERSONALLY taking to the battlefield including in the final deadly dangerous missions; declares during that final battle that HE is gonna “send that giant menace packing,” ie the very same monstrous entity he previously served)

Like. It’s not even close. Master “Top Banana” “Kill You All To Death” Kohga. Has THE most character development in the game.

And it’s just. So unexpected and therefore great and entertaining to me.

[lunarsolar1]

Did anyone else noticed that Charles seems to be the only one that puts effort to save them from death or being taken away?

Maybe I need to watch the show again, but of all the times they were in danger of being separated, Charles is the first one to step in and defend them. I don’t think I remember seeing Edwin step in or fight or do something to avoid the situation, I wonder why that is? (Unless he did but I don’t remember because I have a brain of a goldfish) but I wonder why, some times it gets me thinking if it was Edwin’s turn to fight for them, is he going to do it? WILL he do it? Is he willing to go as far as attacking someone (like Charles did with the night nurse) or even worse? What would he do in that situation?

It gets me thinking as well, even if Charles doesn’t feel the same way. His feelings for Edwin (platonically) are so so deep and immense that he would literally do ANYTHING to not get separated from him almost like he literally CANNOT live without him, maybe he cannot imagine what he would do if he doesn’t have Edwin by his side. They have been together for so many years, he’s used to him. Losing him would probably send him into a mental breakdown or worse, and that is something interesting to think about.

[grass-tin]

Dreamer but I tried designing her more like a lamb/sheep

This was also an anatomy practice for me

I’ll probably never draw this design ever again lol

[botlabyrinth]

the percy jackson tv show is actually great when there isn’t a little shit in your ear telling you it’s not “book accurate”

[blazingstar24]

The gods basically failed at the ye old Spiderman adage. Great power, great responsibility.

Because truly at the end of it all, they can’t be both humanized and gods. They have too much power. Yes, you can sympathize with them but they aren’t allowed the same allowances as just a regular person. If a superhero chose to save their family over the world, they failed. Because they have a duty, they have power higher than themselves, higher than personal bonds.

And that’s what the gods fail at. The Raven Queen putting on the emotionless mask and saying they were children in their mortal forms is indicative of this. She knows what it means to chose godhood and she is failing at being this objective persona of death and fate. They are all failing at this. Erathis realized this. When what they call a squabble means war and destruction for everyone else, you cannot play the “we’re just a family” card. The power they hold is beyond that and they have a responsibility to use it wisely, to uphold the duty they promised they would.

And the Divine Gate is them choosing. Choosing to be gods or to be humanized. Pelor lamenting the idea of not being able to walk amongst mortals, Melora refusing to leave because she found this world. But ultimately, yes. They cannot walk amongst their creations because they are separate, they are not the same. There is a sheer difference in power that cannot be reconciled unless they give it up. And they can’t. They all choose godhood. They choose to be on a different level than mortals.

They chose power and have to deal with the responsibility.

[theoryofwhatnow]

alex and nigel

what they would’ve actually looked like

[toddtakefive]

thinking about todd and his resolve toward… not quite isolation, but being alone in a room full of people again. he goes along to the study room to sit on his own and do his homework, he sits at the poets table and follows along with what’s being said while keeping quiet, he goes to the meetings at all but doesn’t necessarily contribute (in fact, if you watch him when cameron is telling the story ‘from camp in sixth grade’, you can see that he recognizes it before any of the other poets but doesn’t voice it until they all have). he’s not alone, necessarily, if you want to get technical about it, he’s just lonely, and he’s generally okay with that. he doesn’t have friends and that’s fine, he doesn’t participate in class and that’s fine, he doesn’t have a relationship with his family and that’s fine—he could live without any real connection and he’d have been, more or less, fine.

the thing about when he says “i can take care of myself just fine!” is that he isn’t really wrong, you can infer that he’s been doing it his entire life anyway, it’s that ‘taking care of yourself’ isn’t the same thing as really living or being happy. todd’s an introvert, certainly, and even as he gets closer to the group he defaults to sitting quietly in the background, but he’s also denying himself community out of fear not introversion. todd isn’t friendless because he’s an introvert, although that definitely plays a part, he’s friendless because he pushes anyone that might want his company away. if anyone has every wanted for his attention in the first place. (neil’s unwavering interest in him is unique (even when it comes to the rest of the poets, who are fine with todd coming along and joining the group, but aren’t really hellbent on him being there in the beginning) and his refusal to accept it is a direct result of being so lonely growing up.)

there’s obviously something to be said about the implications of his parents neglect, and the more than likely fact that he grew up friendless, and how those both play a part in in him being so skilled at dodging social interaction/being so avoidant of it, but by the time we see him in the movie he’s all but accepted his fate as being alone his entire life. he’s already accepted being the family disappointment, and he’s already accepted he’ll never amount to anything, and he obviously doesn’t like it, but he’d have managed living with that knowledge without the confirmation that it was all wrong. would he have been miserable? almost certainly. but he’d have managed. he’d done it for that long already, anyhow.

[neixins]

[ID: two pieces of official "yona of the dawn" art. the image on the left features gija dressed in a simple dark blue robe; he's holding a fluffy brown-and-white cat in one arm, and his dragon hand is raised as if he's about to pet it. he's smiling softly and glancing to the right. the image on the right features jaeha taking off his robe; his hair is wet, with several strands coming partially loose from his low ponytail, and there's water dripping down his bare torso; he's looking to the left. the backgrounds of both images feature large windows with red square decorative paneling, though the details of the panels are slightly different. end ID.]

if i told u that these two images are placed exactly like this in the artbook would u believe me

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

I know it’s been talked about ad nauseam, but I think one of the things that got lost in the discourse about TTPD and the muses and whatnot is how one of, if not the core trigger points of the album is the yearning for commitment and perhaps even more poignantly, motherhood.

The reason she was so susceptible to falling for the “conman’s get love quick schemes” is because she was grieving that imagined life with the person she had long assumed would be the one to give her that. What has been beyond clear in several albums, let alone interviews etc, is that those plans for building a family were very much real and top of mind for years, and she kept holding on and shifting her world in service of making that happen. And when whatever happened happened that pulled that rug out from under her, it left her bereft not just for the relationship that had once been her world but also the imagined family she had been hoping for and sticking out the hard times for.

And that’s likely why she was swayed by and trusting of the promises of someone who knew her history and knew how unmooring that loss was to her. It may have been partially about the person himself or lust or whatever, but the core issue was the pain of giving up the dream, and sublimating that dream into this new opportunity in front of her, because she was so desperate to hold onto the last scraps of that imagined life she wanted so badly. (And I don’t mean desperate as in pathetic or negative, I mean as in fighting within the last ounce of energy and hope she had.) It wasn’t rational and it wasn’t love, it was grief, not just for a relationship but even more so for the family it represented.

So to me the core issue of TTPD isn’t just the Joe vs. Matty or whoever of it all: it’s Taylor and her yearning. She wanted a family badly and a life that was theirs and was processing losing that in all kinds of ways. It’s all over the album in overt and subtle lyrics. It may not have been grieving a literal death but I’d bet it felt pretty darn close.

And I’d also bet that’s why we’re seeing… what we’re seeing now.

(I have so many more thoughts about womanhood and motherhood on TTPD but that is another post being worked on piecemeal in my drafts… this is just a little Saturday morning post-zoomies reflection)