#there's def some foreshadowing

[skitskatdacat63]

2023 Dutch Grand Prix - Fernando Alonso(ft. Max Verstappen & Pierre Gasly)

[ashen-laguz]

screaming crying throwing up ect ect over canto 4 and not even like. the main story part. just

i think the voice acting was what really hit in home for me tho like holy SHIT. the VA's have been doing a phenomenal job in general and this is just one of the most recent examples. gregor sounded so DISGUSTED. HORRIFIED. which like of COURSE he wouldn't have a great time hearing something like this, i don't think mr "i have intense survivor's guilt over running away from the war and my fellow g corp soldiers w/ even worse bug mutations then me, but wtf was i supposed to do to save my own life" is really gonna take "deserters are the worst <3" very well. goddamn.

but then his follow up of just

you tell em bud, you don't just have to accept the shit people fling at ya anymore, live your own life ;w;

..but also damn i love all the sinners but. they sure are just kinda shitty people lmao. faust following up like "idk the robots are important too" and outis flat out "i think it was fair when deserters got executed when i was a soldier so this is fine <3" (on top of outis just. ignoring ishmael melting right in front of her just cause dante can fix that lmao)

like bruh yall are gonna say that??? right to gregor's face???? riGHT NOW???? BRUH.

(honestly considering ishmael also has the whole survivor's guilt thing. saying that around her would Also be a dick move if uh. ya know. she wasn't melting.

shout-out to dante for being the only bitch who seemed to actually pay attention to that part and outis only caring about it upon the realization of "omg when dante has to fix her, it's gonna hurt them ohno :(" outs stfu we know you're full of shit lol)

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

So i finally listened to The Magnus Protocol and uhh holy shit, yall mind if i

[The contents of this post has been deleted]

[jrueships]

This is lowkey a stupid ass question but is your username jrue ships like different ships involving jrue or is it jrue’s hips 😭😭😭

yes !

[acourtofquestions]

How do we go from:

Even when this world is forgotten whisper of dust between the stars, I will love you.

All the way to:

He tried to scream. Tried to get off his knees, to find some way to them. But the black wind roared in, ripping and tearing everything in its path. They were still staring at him as it swept them away, too. Until only dust and shadow remained.

[kumomist]

intense insane staring into the distance and still crying over north no2

[tragicclownwrites]

🤡

[lesbiansanemi]

Damn I miss the high of the first half of jjk

[ravingraeven]

Spoose just beat Alan Wake (for my sake. hah. rhyme.) and i just chefs kiss

def top games for me

[xamiipholia]

Since it’s been a year since Burning Shores came out, some thoughts on Seyka:

TL;DR: Great character, really happy with her as a love interest for Aloy. They do some really interesting things with her that I never really see addressed so I wanted to talk about them.

She is tangibly shown to be much more of a match for Aloy through gameplay. Compared to other npcs, she solves things faster, does more damage, is a much more formidable melee combatant, faster climber - she even has a fucking Valor Surge using her Focus that does pretty significant tear damage to large machines like Slaughterspines. Environmental storytelling- Seyka’s skiff has at least 2-3 Tiderippers’ worth of parts, meaning she’s been out on her own killing the things to build boat motors, and she has some ambient dialogue that strongly suggests she’s fought and killed Slaugterspines before. Is some of this npc tech advancements in Burning Shores? Maybe, but it feels intentional. 

Seyka has a natural probing curiosity about the old world that for the most part Aloy’s other companions didn’t have without some significant hand-holding from Aloy to get them started, and some of her close friend (but not base team) characters just don’t have at all. I don’t mean this as a moral judgement, everyone is different and has different strengths and priorities , but it’s absolutely critical that a partner for Aloy have that kind of curiosity - it’s such a big part of her character. While she lives in this new world, she’s never going to be entirely a part of it. Like she says, she finds belonging in individuals, and not really the tribes. I don’t really see Aloy settling down in Meridian or Mother’s Heart. She needs to have a life of exploration and discovery and Seyka seems cut from that cloth too, whether she was always that way or being marooned gave her a fresh perspective.

Seyka did risk death using the focus and decided to do it anyway- in Rheng’s notes he calls for capital punishment for her. The threat is never *too* present but honestly I think that’s a broader critique of the series and pretty consistent with the writing of conflicts in Horizon. I agree they could have played up the dramatic tension a bit, but this is a person who weighed the risk of a military execution by a totalitarian state and immediately decided it was worth it to save her sister and others. I think Aloy can intimately relate, given what she went through for Beta.

Even though it’s a DLC, she has a TON of screen time, probably comparable to Kotallo in HFW, and Horizon does SO much storytelling through gameplay and ambient dialogue. I think she’s given a LOT of narrative space to breathe. She’s also has her own musical cues and leitmotifs that do a ton of foreshadowing work through the DLC - in terms of musical cues and framing she’s very associated with the acoustic guitar, and the flute melody in ‘Her Sky, Her Sea’ has for Aloy and Seyka the same function that ‘It Can’t Last’ does for Ellie and Dina in TLOU2 - next time you play Burning Shores, listen for it. That and the guitar cues from ‘The Idea of Home’ and ‘For His Entertainment’ do a lot of emotional work. It’s great stuff.

Okay and lastly- YMMV on this one - I’ve def talked about it with friends before but I don’t think I’ve said it on Tumblr. I’m a firm believer that meta narratives and the way that stories are situated and created in our own world matter and that art deserves to be taken seriously and dissected. I love Horizon, but it, and Aloy as a protagonist, are absolutely drenched in white savior and colonial storytelling tropes. Every time I play Frozen Wilds, all I can think of is Jack Sparrow going “and then they made me their chief”. There’s a lot of iffy stuff in the games, as much as I absolutely love them. We’ll have to see how H3 goes, but Burning Shores is MUCH better about this and honestly Seyka is a huge part of it. The story centers itself on a queer woman of color who is pretty tangibly presented as Aloy’s equal with her own strengths and weaknesses throughout the story and takes the lead just as often if not more than Aloy does, which I find really refreshing. It doesn’t entirely fix Aloy’s white savior issues but I think it’s a really good move for the narrative that continues the themes found in HFW about community and connection.

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds (2017)

[splinterclan]

Can I just say I love how you tell Splinterclan's story? For other clangen tumblrs it's sometimes hard for me to remember who is who but you make every character so unique and each small event so powerful that it's easy to remember and fall in love with all the characters! Even the new kits!

Also the pmv makes me worry that something bad is going to happen to/around Droplet........... I feel like you're leading up to something 🧐

Thank you so much ;___;!!! I def set out trying to go fast like some clangens but I always get way too tangled in details. I can't help thinking about how every character would react to events and wanted to draw and show those feelings. I love playing in the sandbox the clangen provides, it's been really fun! I don't think there's a right or wrong way to do it bc I def wish sometimes it didn't take so long to get thru each moon but i have dug a grave to lie in here LOL All clangens are great!

And we shall seeeee ;Y I will say I started that pmv a long time ago tho so any foreshadowing it has is mostly? unintentional?

[whateverisbeautiful]

♥️ Ranking Richonne

#19: This Is Good (S6E15)

I mean...do I even need to explain? 😏 I always love this scene for its relaxed, happy, and intimate vibes and for really solidifying that all the romantic sexual tension Rick and Michonne had pre-canon would play out just as perfectly once they could finally act on it and be in love out loud. They do intimacy so well and naturally. The best word to describe this scene is straight-up sensual. And as they let themselves be fully immersed in their Richonne bubble in this scene, I truly believed what they believed - the world is theirs...

I didn’t realize how much opening minutes really used to be blessing us in this series. Cuz in 6.15 we get to see Rick and Michonne cuddled up again for the first time since their canon ep.

And I love that after seeing some couple-y moments with Glenn and Maggie and Abe and Sasha in this episode opener, we get this scene that reminds you there are some powerhouse newlyweds a part of this TWD couple list now. Won’t He do it! 😊 

The scene opens with Judith on the baby monitor, which lets you know this is the bedroom of her parents. Plus the baby monitor made an appearance in Rick and Michonne's 6.10 canon moment as well so it sorta connects the two scenes in a way. And their family truly feels so whole now that Rick and Michonne have embraced that they’re meant to be.

I adore the way they're wrapped up in each other, and Michonne’s smile, and the way Rick's kissing her shoulder and like being as close to her as possible. 😍 They just both seem so genuinely content. And even half asleep they can’t keep their hands off each other lol. When I tell you these two are magnets - all you have to do is watch their body language in this scene to know it’s true. 🧲

And then Michonne takes that apple and bites it, and I love the subtle expression Rick makes when she does that. And then this show said, if y'alls' glasses somehow ain't fogged up yet then let’s just keep serving steaminess and have Michonne feed Rick the apple lol. They're wild for putting this moment in, and I'm here for it. 😋

Just their breaths and laughs in this, I love that in this quiet moment, their love is so loud and clear. And the apple suggests two things - 1) Adam and Eve fall-of-man foreshadowing and 2) that they are the hottest couple in all of television. 🔥👌🏽

It’s additional perfection when she runs her hands through his hair, and he immediately goes back to wrapping her in his arms. Um every second of this scene is a blessing. 😍 And of course Rick kisses her again, and the way she rubs his hand that’s holding the apple...Cup runneth over, y’all. It’s so great how natural and comfortable they are to be like this so soon after making their feelings for each other known.

It really does go to show that now they get to do what they've always wanted to do.

Like this feels like a whole passionate morning routine already and the married vibes are immaculate. It confirms how the physical aspect of this relationship was truly the final piece of their already perfect union. They’re happy and fed, and so are we. 😌

And in Rick’s first dialogue of the scene he says the only fitting thing to say on a blissful morning like this. “This is good.” And Michonne agrees it is and notes how Jesus came through. And did. Won’t he do it. 🙌🏾

Rick is really confident saying, "They all did, and they’re going to keep coming through." Homeboy is feeling really hopeful and confident during this period of the show and part of it is def cuz he’s now officially in a relationship with the baddest chick in the game. IJS. 😌

Michonne mentions how Maggie wants her and Glenn to set up watchpoints and Rick is in that lovely 'take a break' mood so he tells her to 'stick around.'

I love that it’s such a common theme for Rick to always want to extend his time with her. I repeat - the world can always wait when Rick is with Michonne. 

It’s cute that part of his pitch for her to stick around is that 'Judith isn’t even up yet.' Mom and Dad, y’all. And then Rick really makes his pitch enticing when he starts kissing all over her and making her laugh. 😊

The way they can make each other smile and laugh like no other is the absolute best. (and Rick is more hungry for her than the apple ijs) I love that they’re so unabashed in expressing their love and desire for each other. And you know I’m always happy to see Rick and Michonne's playful side.

Like how great is it that we get to watch a couple that's so grown and mature while still having something youthfully energetic in their want for each other too. 🙌🏾

Michonne is disciplined like no other tho so she laughs and says, "wait no." Rick stops and looks at her asking, "yeah, why not?" in that fine voice and idk how Michonne remembered what she was saying with Rick over her like that lol. But, like I said, Sis is more disciplined than most so while her body language is certainly saying she'd love to stay in bed with him, she also wants to keep her commitment to Maggie and Glenn.

I love how she again runs her hands through Rick's hair while saying  Maggie has them on a schedule and she doesn’t want to piss off a pregnant lady. And then Rick’s subtle pout. Every cute choice was made in this scene, I’m telling you. 🥰

Also I was like Michonne, sis, this is your chance to enjoy yourself and maybe even be a pregnant lady too, Maggie will understand lol. Like tell me Maggie wouldn't be like...

But Rick understands and doesn’t want to piss Maggie off either lol so he playfully tells her to go. It’s cute the way he says, "not that pregnant lady," and Michonne says, "right." Always in agreement.😊

And as we know, mornings like this blissful s6 one with Rick will have Michonne also one day being a pregnant lady who's nothing to mess with in the future. 👌🏽

(Side note: I’ve noticed every time Rick and Michonne have a scene chatting in bed together, the one person who comes up each time is Maggie. This scene in 6.15, the bedroom scene in the Sanctuary in 9.01, and their gorgeous bedroom scene in their home in 9.03. Rick and Michonne express care for Maggie's well-being every time, which is part of why it's so unfortunate that Maggie’s relationship with Rick and Michonne ended with a falling out. And the fact that all we know is something vague occurred and somehow Maggie and Michonne grew distant after Rick was gone. It's sad cuz they were shown to mean a lot to each other but then ended on a sour note.)

Rick says go and Michonne laughs as she starts to get up, and Rick again looks so rested and satisfied eating his apple and laying in bed. Michonne be giving that man life, y’all. 😊

Michonne notes that Maggie is worried about an attack and again Rick is confident saying when they come for us, not even "if," but "when," they’ll be ready. He’s extra confident saying this won’t be like before, and "the world's ours, and we know how to take it."

It’s sweet that Rick again takes his time to really reassure Michonne. It’s like he can sense that Michonne too might be having some concern about the looming fight, and so he’s so gentle but certain when he tells her everything they need is inside these walls and they aren’t losing any of it again.

I love that Rick feels they have everything they need, and I know he and Michonne having each other is very much included in that for him. And you can’t fully see it, but you can tell he comfortingly places his hand on her, really wanting her to know, “we’re not losing any of it again.” 

And then I love how Rick says, "I’m not." Basically saying, trust me whatever is trying to take from us is going to have to go through me, and it won’t end well for them. And Michonne knows it too so I love the way she believes him and boosts him up saying, “No you’re not.”

She knows Rick is a fighter and a force to be reckoned with. It’s part of why she fell in love with him, and you can see that in this moment.

Also hearing Rick just eating the apple again lol, homeboy ain’t worried about no outside threats in this moment. He’s too busy on cloud nine. Having good fresh food, a strong community, a healthy family, and a goddess of a wife has Rick like...

And because she’s a fighter too, Michonne takes his hand and also says, "I’m not," cuz they’re cut from the same cloth, really and truly. And you just believe the two of them so much when they say this.

Even knowing Negan is coming, you just feel like ultimately he’ll be no match for Rick and Michonne because those two together are unstoppable. 💯

I love that they got this peaceful morning moment to just fully enjoy each other's presence and affirm to each other that what they have is good and not going anywhere. These at-home scenes always paint such a great picture of why Rick and Michonne make for the absolute best husband and wife.

And again, the sensuality of this whole scene is A1. In every inch of every frame. And I remember loving this scene back then but watching it back now it’s even more sensual and sweet than I remember. Like it’s so good from beginning to end and solidified that Rick and Michonne really do work perfectly as a couple. I love the way they talk to each other and so visibly want each other. I’ll say it 1000 times. 

Two more cute moments I just want to note in this 6.15 ep are Rick ratting out Michonne and low-key himself too, when he reveals to Morgan that Michonne did steal that protein bar back in King County. Like he thinks he's telling on Michonne but also Rick,...

Cuz Rick stayed letting the world know he remembers pretty much every detail about Michonne. 😋 I love that Rick remembers so much from his first run with Michonne in Clear and then Morgan’s smile like 'oh I know your girl took it.' Also, I just love any time Andy and Lennie get to act together. Legendary talents. 👏🏽

And then I really love the Rick and Abe scene towards the end of the ep too. It’s one of the most heartfelt exchanges between two men on the show imo, and I like how Abe was the tf member who always most wanted the Richonne tea. He’s one of us lol. 

It’s always heartwarming seeing Rick ask Abe specifically if Michonne is back yet. Like I’ve said before, some of Rick's Day Ones are out there, but of course, his wife is his utmost concern. And Abe is so compassionate when having to reveal that Michonne is still out there. It’s heartrending that Rick can’t even hide the concern he feels and wants Michonne back home. 

I appreciate that Abe seems to notice this and wants to talk about love when asking Rick if he’s scared to go back to it and let someone in close. We know from the "rules keep changing" scene that letting someone in is big for Rick. So he pauses for a moment and answers "yeah" twice.

Abe brings some levity saying how he’s basically ready to blaze a path of his own (with Sasha 😊💜) even despite this world's penchant for taking things away. And Rick’s amused face at Abe is cute.

Then the way Rick stays standing at the gate, almost wanting to will Michonne home. So sweet. 😭

And extra sweet is Abe kindly saying, "any second now" to reassure Rick while he’s in this state of feeling off because Michonne's not okay somewhere, so even from afar, Rick's not entirely okay right now either. 

Rick had been feeling so unshakeable all ep, but Michonne being out there while the looming threat of the Saviors is high shows that there are still things he worries about, and of course, Michonne and her safety are high on that list.

I love that despite the scary aspects of letting someone in, in that world especially, Rick and Michonne still dared to do so fully with one another. And because of it, they get to enjoy blissful mornings filled with love like this one here. It was giving newlyweds and married-for-years all at the same time, and I'm eternally here for it. 😌

[borwski]

spymaster, becoming the doctor, and gardening – a little character study

anyone else obsessed with the master and margarita short story?? no?? just me?? oh well you’re getting a character analysis anyway, long rant about spymasters obsession with the doctor via mushrooms under the cut :3

tw for dissociation and substance induced hallucinations (weird ahh mushrooms as torture)

for those of you who haven’t read the master and margarita (i def recommend its super fun) it’s about what dhawan!master was doing during his 77 years on earth in that time skip during spyfall 2. he’s a mushroom farmer in russia, crazy hijinks and thoschei references ensue. maybe i’m going too deep into it but i really love the idea of him as a gardener and what that implies for everything we see in ttc/potd

i’d like to start with the fact that out of all the masters, dhawans is the one least confident in his identity. classic who masters and saxon held their title with pride with their “he’s the master and you will obey him” shtick. missy, even when she was debating her morality, never saw herself as anything other than missy. her title wasn’t being questioned, it was what she chose to do with it. meanwhile, spymaster just... loses himself after looking into the panopticon. he’s faced with the reality that the doctor is more important than he could ever be, and given that he sees his worth as interwoven with hers (the history between us, constantly refers back to their past/when they were equal), this makes him lose all sense of self. it used to be theta and koschei. the doctor and the master. now it’s just the timeless child and….. that’s it. there’s no significant place for him in her life. what’s he supposed to do now, when he’s based his whole history around her?

easy! fracture himself into different personalities, hide behind disguises (i mean, THREE disguises in one episode? calm down dude) in an attempt to hide his unimportance. while the timeless child is the story of child abuse and colonialism, a hurt the doctor will have to live with even if she can’t remember it, the master sees it as a triumph. he is lesser. she is the timeless child and she has existed forever and he is some dumb timelord who fell in love and meant nothing to her in the long-run. he feels like he’s not deserving of being in his own skin anymore so he hides behind whatever name and personality he can find.

but the thing about all his disguises is that they are so human. agent o, a shy little analyst at MI6 with the wide eyed stare and wits to be the doctor’s companion. rasputin, famous bachelor and a piece of history the doctor would notice. he says he despises humans but he dresses up as them because well, do you know who does love them? the doctor :(

which is why his name and intentions in the master and margarita are soooo so interesting to me. first off, his human alias is mikhail (“son of god”, writer of the og master and margarita) afanasyevich (“immortal”, also the og writer of master and margarita) gospodinov (roughly translated to “lord” and “master”). he steals a name, just like rasputin in potd, with a lot of weight on who he is right now. an emphasis on “immortal” “time lord” when hes dealing with the pressure of ttc. hes basically copying the doctor and making a title for himself like the ‘timeless child’ to feel equal again. it’s not the only time he copies the doctor either, hes basically working for “evil russian unit” in this short story. 

(remind you of anything?? yes im talking about the doctor-master. super cool foreshadowing on how hes been trying to become/be one with the doctor before potd)

and it’s literally in the text. the whole reason he spends months cultivating mushrooms for russia is to change history a bit so that jo grant’s marriage will be ruined. such a Doctor thing to do, kind of parallels clara and danny. to love a human is to be overly dramatic over them. the master, again, uses humans for his own benefit but has never been overly fond of them, with the exception of the doctors little companions. hes copying her again.

but the thing is, he keeps cultivating them. he gains a love for caring for them. mushrooms are just mushrooms until they arent. in a time where he thinks he’s the doctors opposite, he begins farming mushrooms bc of jo grant, a detail the doctor would remember just bc he misses her. he couldve spent his time escaping and getting back to his regular timeline to defeat the doctor, but he stayed. because of a human attachment. very doctor-y.

and if that bit of nostalgia wasn’t enough, he even hallucinates the third doctor in this. Which. okay. give me a non-thoschei explanation for this.

i just really like what that short story has to offer as far as the masters obsession with other people and his disguises go. and what it means for him to spend months of his live caring for something, like the doctor would, when all hes done before is kill. what does it mean for the champion of death to cultivate life :(

nyways, if you made it this far, i really hope you enjoyed !! i just love talking about spymaster can you tell lmfaooo and if you liked any of this id recommend reading the gardener by ritheh on ao3 which expands on his whole “killer heals for once” thing its soooo good <33 ok bye see u guys next time

[wendytestabrat]

Should Kyman be canonized or just kept the way things are with their weird relationship? XD

ok this is a rlly good question. i personally would love to see it canon bc i have absolutely no life and i ship two animated 4th graders together but i acknowledge the fact that the majority of south park fans don’t give a shit abt ships and only watch the show for the comedy LOL. so yeah i can see how them making kyman canon would piss off A LOT of people or ruin the show for them (and canonizing pretty much any ship between the four boys) so if it doesn’t happen it’s not the end of the world for me. however, i do feel like there are some things they could do to make kyman happen that would be satisfying for ALL the fans so it won’t seem like something that comes completely out of nowhere. first of all south park is a COMEDY and i’ve talked abt betore how kyman works 100x better than any other fanon ship bc it’s funny af and works with the tone of the show. so yeah they would rlly have to crank up the comedy on it to the max so it’s not something that’s taken too seriously. i mean i do feel they should give us serious moments of C&K here and there to show some character growth and development between the two characters and their bond, but yeah the primary focus of a sitcom is to be funny with only occasional serious/emotional moments here and there. BUT ALSO i feel like matt & trey would need to amp up the obviousness in the hints we’re getting. even tho the kyman shit seems rlly obvious to the testies bc we’ve overly dissected it, i feel like most people don’t notice this shit bc the hints are so damn subtle lol. even tho there are some people who have said that people they know irl who are just casual viewers notice the kyman shit but i feel like the majority of people don’t care and aren’t looking too much into it. bc yeah if matt & trey make it more clear that kyman is a thing and cartman and kyle like each other and continue giving us hints and foreshadowing, except this time they make it more noticeable among casual fans, then i feel like more people might root for it and it’ll feel earned when it does happen. i feel like it would need to be more like the gay hints abt stewie in family guy which are soooo obvious to literally everyone it’s just a known canon fact at this point that stewie is gay LOL (and there’s even compilations on youtube of it). however, the gay shit with cartman is def more debatable and more subtle so a lot of people don’t notice or care. so yeah i think if they’re rlly serious abt making kyman canon matt & trey need to stop pussying around and make it a little more clear and tackle it head on. the show def has done a good job developing their relationship throughout the years and the ship gets more and more intense each season, so yeah all they need to do is keep up the good work with that while sprinkling in a little more gayness and cranking up the obviousness and intensity of their romantic tension.

[dim-paper-lanterns]

caught chp 16 of wsms right before I turned in 😈

[Pony was] fiddling with a loose playing card he’d found in the cup holder of the T-bird; the ace of hearts now WHY does that feel like a chekhov gun?? whats up with the detail 🤨

“But just running? Ain’t that boring?” Dallas asked, glancing away from the road and over to his brother momentarily. Greasers didn’t really do sports. It didn’t seem like something Ponyboy would be all that in to anyway. DALLY 👿👿👿

“You let me know your meet schedule. I wanna come see you win.” He said, giving a gentle squeeze before letting go. DALLY 😊😊😊

he's trying, oh my GOD is he trying

super happy that dally is actually keeping it together for pony (stable job, saving money, etc.) was genuinely expecting him to be crazy unstable and relapse hard for the angst factor. pumped to see that's not the case. Pony deserves better

actually...now that I mention it....you're not just building this up to let it crash, are you 🤨🤨

not dally's tipping point being that pony said that time shepard had a longer jail record 😭😭 he's so 17 yo boy

STOP IT RN dally hoping pony would have a stronger reaction at not being able to stay with him full time

The older boy was doing his best to hide how excited he was. He felt like a kid again. HES 17 LET HIM BE A KID 😭😭

Sure, it was small, but it was bigger than the room they’d had in New York. I'm not liking that implication 🙁😟😟 also, idk if I'm imagining things, but I sort of got the impression that the Winstons were living a bit better back in NYC. maybe not soc level, maybe middle class? idk, but that would def raise some eyebrows as to why the brothers' room was so small.

THE TRAIN TRACK SHEETS STOP IT RN

And Dallas wasn’t going anywhere. that feels a bit like foreshadowing. THAT FEELS A BIT LIKE FORESHADOWING 👿👿

not pony beefing w the FUCKING HORSE 😭😭

NOT PONY-HORSE AND JOHNNY-HORSE BEING FRIENDS 😭😭😭

lnd I need to thank you so hard for that little moment of pony-kid talking to pony-horse. was grinning like an idiot the whole time.

📎 Where the Sun Meets the Storm by Legends_Never_Die

[loveandlegacy]

nothing ever stays dead: part ii

jinx, viktor, death, and rebirth

(note: this is the second part of a singular essay. i had to split it into two because tumblr caps how many images you can have in a post 😭 part i is here.)

bodily transformation

as foreshadowed in the montage in episode 5, shimmer is the medium through which this resurrection is possible. viktor's first katabasis reinforced this foreshadowing when he emerged in singed's cove of water and flowers. the presence of the proto-shimmer at the boundary of arcane's underworld is in keeping with the cuts of shimmer in the montage in enemy. shimmer creeps close to death and plays a role in extracting organisms from the weird space between being alive and being dead.

viktor's life-and-death-and-life-again journey parallels jinx's progression towards transformation in oil and water. while jinx is getting torture-resurrected, viktor's experiments with shimmer and the hexcore (as guided by singed's suggestions about transformation) have already transmuted his body. in these parallel experiences, a new truth crystallize: proximity to death changes you physically.

oil and water is an episode full of omens and images of death, dying, and the dead. we have mel's flashbacks, ambessa's ominous presence in general, jinx's near-death, viktor killing sky, and jayce killing a child in the shimmer factory all presented to us in under 60 minutes. but only viktor and jinx, by virtue of crossing into the underworld, have undergone physical metamorphoses.

a shift in their character designs is consistent with this. for the most part, other characters in the main cast maintain unchanging designs throughout the events of the story unless they change from children to adults. the major exceptions to this are vander, deckard, singed, sevika, and silco. notably, singed and silco both have critical near-death experiences that are reflected in changes to their actual facial features, both with scarring on their faces and damage to an eye.

in contrast, vander and deckard are the only characters who have dramatic changes to their overall physical build and these changes occur before they die.

shimmer is the engine for their metamorphoses and they both die in fairly short order following this. singed and to a lesser degree silco on the other hand survive ordeals that should have killed them and they do so seemingly without any shimmer-based intervention, at least as far as we’re shown. their survival and vander and deckard's deaths create a set of poles for jinx and viktor to exist between.

singed and silco live but are physically changed by their pretty critical brushes with death — notably on their faces. vander and deckard die despite shimmer altering the entirety of their bodies. jinx and viktor survive their death-encounters, but shimmer is part of that survival, and part of what changes them as much as death itself does. specifically, they undergo both full-body physical changes and changes to their faces, but not as dramatically vander and deckard’s bodies change nor as dramatically as silco and singed’s faces change.

jinx's almost-death and resurrection leaves her ashen and changes her facial features by granting her the glowy pink shimmer-eyes.

this is extra prominent in the recent clip from season 2, where she's so pale she looks almost bloodless.

she also gains some change in actual physical ability. shimmer seems to have made her capable of feats of almost superhuman speed and strength.

meanwhile, shimmer and the hexcore give viktor his transhuman hand and leg, which are defs the most obvious transformations at first glance. but death and the hexcore change his face specifically as well. in episode 6, he says that he can feel his body eroding. by episode 9, his condition has deteriorated so severely, and the hexcore has seemingly sapped him of his vitality, that his face is sunken and hollowed out. his design begins to match how singed looked before he was burned: a skull.

in this way, arcane asserts a pattern for viktor. he’s been changed through his doubled journey into the metaphorical underworld, which gave him transhuman body parts. and he's changed again at the end of the season because, it turns out, surviving a near death experience doesn't mean you're actually very far from death.

his illness has him back in its clutches, maybe in part due to the hexcore's "punishment" for him trying to destroy it in the wake of sky's slaughter. the effect is ominous and carries through to his final scene in the council chambers where the death-mask that has become his face is even more emphasized by the light cast from the blood moon.

it's interesting. even though the change in their designs shares some logic with how singed and silco’s designs change (something about their faces looks different), jinx and viktor’s transformations don’t make them completely resemble their respective parental figures. they have no scarring. they don't look like people who survived any kind of life-threatening physical trauma. they look like people who skipped right from 'alive' to 'something else' — not quite undead, but definitely not part of the world of the living in the way they might have been before.

so….what does all this add up to?

ig i would say that using both characters as avatars, arcane posits something specific about people who cross back and forth between life and death: once you do it, you lose access to life in its completeness. and it seems like this will carry through to season 2.

assuming he survives the bombing (call that two for two in terms of symbolic journeys to the underworld that match literal near-death experiences), viktor is set to become the machine herald. in the lore and by his own admission, he's chasing something outside the boundaries of life as we know it.

he might survive his second passage through near-death, but the double-death and double-resurrection will cement his position in the story as something not-quite alive, or at least not alive the way other people are alive. sky is dead, he’s been changed by the hexcore. he can’t go back to how things were before all this happened even if he wanted to. instead he’s set to become the figurehead of a cult that revolves entirely around shedding the limits of the flesh and all this adds up to several transformations too many. the life he lived in season 1 is just that — life. he’s beyond that now.

and since viktor's life and death and life cycles precede and in some ways predict jinx's, i'm excited to see how her story will take shape against his in season 2. she has less lore for us to rely on, but viktor's doubled resurrections suggest that jinx will have to have a second near-death experience and that her survival will peel her even further away from any attachments she had in life.

it’s hard to make serious predictions based on trailer content alone, especially when we have the precedent that the trailers for arcane are intentionally designed to be misleading, but the presence of multiple revolutionary murals, coupled with the blue-haired inx-es, does at least to me imply that jinx’s eventual hagiography is on the horizon — and this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

despite what she seems to symbolize to the undercity, i actually sincerely doubt that jinx will have any kind of redemption arc in season 2, and i further doubt that her potential saintlike status will permit her to form new personal relationships or to fully heal old wounds with the people she loved once.

after all, there’s a big difference between people loving jinx the symbol and people loving jinx the person, and i think that her status as a symbol confirms that there is no space in the world of the living for jinx the person. she can be one or the other, but not both — especially if, like viktor, she has a second brush with death ie the mechanism by which even living people can be split off from life.

so where does this leave her?

probably not reconciling with vi, unfortunately. the way the trailer is edited, it would seem like jinx and vi eventually repair their relationship enough to join forces against a presumed noxian invasion, but i don’t think it’ll really go down that way.

i think this shot is a misdirect for a lot of reasons, but to keep from writing out into a tangent, i'll highlight the main thing: jinx's scribbles. historically, these scratchy hallucinations appear at their most intense when jinx is in a state of duress.

it's kind of a thin thread to hang on, but their presence in this shot — where jinx has also changed (and presumably cut) her hair — leads me to believe that this moment is a difficult one for her, not an instance of triumph.

it seems more likely to me that at this point in the story, jinx has transformed somehow and no matter how she moves through the world she, like viktor, can't restore any aspect of the life she had before her resurrection(s) because that life belonged to a living girl.

jinx post-near-death-experience (possibly post-two-near-death-experiences) isn’t a congregant of life anymore. she’s something else.

her reconciliation with her sister will either never really come, or won’t be fully realized — by no fault of either of them. that's the tragedy of ghosts right? everything from the past is always there, and always just out of reach.

in their final confrontation in season 1, jinx tells vi that nothing ever stays dead. looking at the evidence laid out here about viktor and jinx herself, this is obviously true, but it’s not a complete statement of how death and resurrection work in arcane.

things may come back from the dead, but death changes a person. jinx can’t un-die even if she also didn’t stay dead. she can’t reconcile with her sister because she’s an avatar of something beyond life, and she won’t be able to participate fully in the new world that her followers are fighting to build.

she may help fight off the noxians, but the future doesn’t belong to her or to viktor, even if they helped unleash the kind of upheaval that would usher in a new era for piltover and zaun.

only the living have the gift of a future.