#this is about. the end of act three

[vee-lociraptor]

PLAYING ISAT TO CALM DOWN DIDNT WORK I CANT BREATHE

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

None of our hands are clean

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[maibeloved]

Jayvik art I posted on my twitter and posting here before act 3/finale. I have no words. I will truly and I mean deeply miss this show once its over.

[cozylittleartblog]

the piece i made for the @stillalivezine back in 2021

[kirjavas]

making my peace with how lyra was characterised in the show vs the books because so much of it relies on her age and even dafne keen being only one year older than lyra when filming set her up to portray a different character from the very beginning. it doesn't seem like a huge difference but lyra being a child and not a teenager is of fundamental importance to her path in the books so it's inevitable that she was written more like a teenager in the show (and you can't stop child actors from ageing, you can only adapt the writing and directing to match how they mature). the show wrote lyra's arc in accordance with her maturing to the age of around 16, so they chose to have her grow out of her habit of lying and instead wield the power of truth to further her on her journey. it was a different journey from the books, but it got her to the same place: saving her friend and countless others with the power of storytelling and a silvertongue

[aquitainequeen]

I've been reading some excellent posts about the character development of Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero and how this dictates who ends up together and who ends up alone at the end of the story, and I thought deeply upon the fact that:

all three of them are on a journey to gain a brain, a heart, and courage.

Elphaba starts the story already deeply intelligent, but while she's very loving toward her sister, she's emotionally closed off and afraid of losing control of her power and hurting people. She grows close to Dr. Dillamond, opens up to and befriends Glinda, develops a crush on Fiyero, and is eventually motivated by her empathy towards the plight of the Animals of Oz. By the end of Act One she gains the courage to take the Grimmerie for herself to boost her power, to defy Morrible and the Wizard and to bear the hatred of all of Oz for years afterwards.

Fiyero starts the story jaded and apathetic, pretending to be unintelligent, self-absorbed and shallow as he finds it's the easiest way to get through life. He even gets a whole song about how life is ultimately meaningless and it's far better never to try and achieve anything. Then it emerges that he's actually quick-witted and empathetic when he helps rescue the Lion Cub and starts to seriously think about the state of Oz. He falls hard for Elphaba to the point that he spends years trying to find her, but while he originally began to date Glinda because they were 'perfect together', he stays with her because he does genuinely care and doesn't want to hurt her. Roughly half way through Act Two and reunited with Elphaba, Fiyero finds his courage; he gives up everything to join her in defying the Wizard and Morrible's regime, saves her life very nearly at the cost of his own, endures brutal torture and a horrific transformation, and immediately sets out to help her once more. And he's potentially the one who comes up with a trick that not only allows them both to be free, safe and together but which eventually liberates Oz.

Glinda starts the story apparently genuinely self-absorbed and shallow, and while intelligent she's also spoiled and sheltered, finding methods to get her own way and move through life without much thought or effort. She wonders why Dr. Dillamond keeps going on about the past and is enrolled in Morrible's sorcery class purely because Elphaba wanted to repay her; while she repents of the way she initially treated Elphaba and comes to consider her a dear friend, she's far less empathetic to the fate of Dillamond and her renaming herself in solidarity with him is mostly to curry favour with Fiyero; she refuses to join Elphaba in her rebellion against the Wizard because she doesn't think it's a fight that can be won and she doesn't want to give up the position she has or the power she could achieve. Throughout Act Two Glinda goes along with the Wizard and Morrible because she doesn't dare risk losing what she's gained, she doesn't think of how she could use her influence to help those whom the regime is targeting and, while she loves Elphaba and Fiyero, she's very quick to turn around and lash out at her friend when Fiyero 'chooses' her and breaks Glinda's heart. It isn't until the eleventh hour that Glinda truly starts thinking about the methods of Morrible and realises she deliberately killed Nessarose, tries to stop the witch-hunt and rushes to save Elphaba from doing something irredeemable by hurting/killing Dorothy. Glinda's cunning in taking advantage of what she's learned about Elphaba's parentage, her courage in manipulating the Wizard into leaving and imprisoning Morrible, finishes what Elphaba started and Fiyero aided. By the end of the musical Glinda is wise, compassionate and courageous-

-but it's too late, because Elphaba and Fiyero are gone.

[waywardwhispersblaze]

I'll be forever mad that Jayce ruined the moment right there, but not because I think this would've been a perfect ending for them (I don't). I'm mad because if Jayce had just waited five fucking minutes, the resulting scene would've been so juicy.

Look at the way Vi and Cait look at each other here:

Caitlyn: shocked, betrayed, hurt

Vi just looks sad:

We know from their dialogue in ep 8 that while Vi and Caitlyn were making the plan to distract Ambessa, Vi had another one, to bring in Jinx as a contingency in case Caitlyn couldn't be trusted or failed. She had to know Caitlyn wouldn't take it well once she found out. Vi's priority n°1 was saving Vander though, and they likely didn't have much time to think this through. Basically, she had to know that from Caitlyn's POV, it would look like "Vi chooses Jinx over Cait", edition number 2.

And she was likely right! We know Caitlyn lets go of her anger towards Jinx in the next episode, and accepts that Vi has the right to choose her family, but in my opinion, she wasn't there yet in ep 6. Having a broken Jinx locked up in a cell (her single goal for the last few months) while Vi was lying unconscious on her bed for days very likely helped Caitlyn reassess her priorities in life. But here in this scene she literally doesn't have time to think!

Let's look at Caitlyn a bit more here. During their reunion, She probably expected Vi to hate her guts, but instead, Vi looks grumpy, calls her a mongoose and a cupcake in two sentences, and drops the "my dad needs help" bomb after hesitating for a hot, single second. Moments after that, Caitlyn reevaluates her life choices and decides to make a big career change. Plenty of great posts have already been made about Caitlyn's motivations there, but to sum it up, I'd say it was a combination of: her being already wary of Ambessa and not wanting to let a Noxian warlord get her hands on a dangerous weapon / innocent man, being tired of hating herself, and, yes, her feelings for Vi coming back to her in full force.

For a few, glorious moments, she was working with Vi again! Probably feeling more like herself than she had in months. Maybe she started to hope they could reconcile after all. Maybe, she hoped it could be a "do over" for their failed mission with the strike team, where she'd be helping a member of Vi's family, instead of being torn apart by one of them.

... only to find that Vi didn't actually trust her (which was deserved, but still, ouch), and to come face to face with the source of her seething hatred, the single object of her obsession in the last few months. Right after being saved by said source of seething hatred. It's a lot to take in. She had to be simultaneously disappointed and shocked

So, what was she gonna do? There was probably nothing Vi could have said that wouldn't have pissed Caitlyn off right then (no, Vi, saying "she's changed" probably wouldn't have helped), Jinx opening her mouth would have likely made it worse, but at the same time they still had to run away asap. Caitlyn had already betrayed Ambessa, she couldn't go back. Vi pretty much put her in a position where she'd have no choice but to follow along, no matter how angry she was, at least for a little while...

and I made this post just to say, that the resulting bickering would have been hilarious to see :S

(forget about Jayce waiting five minutes, though, what if it they had an hour? what would Caitlyn had done once they were far enough from the Noxian army? point her gun at Jinx? attempt an arrest? (right in front of Vander? gulp) she might have simply ended up separating from them, and that would have been heartbreaking enough, but a completely different story)

((and that's assuming cult member!vander would have just agreed to leave the commune without acting weird))

[ganondoodle]

the closer we get to arcanes finale the more worried i am bc so often .. if not always .. things i like end in a way that i dislike so much it ruins everything else for me

and im so worried they pull a 'this is a multiverse' thing bc then they can say every skin is somehow canon bc its all different universes you seeeeee and jayce went mad bc he lived through all of them or something, or force it to end in a way that makes the champions end up like they are in game- Vi is a shitty cop, Jinx is just heehoo craycray bc xyz etc

[nadiajustbe]

I think the most beautiful thing about writing of Howl and Sophie's pair is that they are written as people before being written as a pair. Let me explain this very quick.

The thing about book Sophie and Howl is that they are not really fully fitting into any "classic" romantic trope. They are not exactly enemies to lovers, as their angry chats are definitely cannot be considered a life or death battle, they are not rivals to lovers because the only aspect of rivalry between them is the cleaningness of Howl's room. They are not friends to lovers, as their relationship just doesn't fit into "friendship" structure at the very start, nor they are roomates (yes, they live in the same house but that's not the core aspect of their relationships). Of course, you can go on and fit the name of the trope you found specifically for them, but that's the thing.

They simply cannot be processed through a pairings lenses only, in order to understand how they act in relationship you need to analyse them separately, as a characters first of all. Cause that's what the book itself does!

Sure, it doesn't have a whole lot of romance instead, but it gives us time to learn and observe the life of incredibly written, alive characters, understand them as personalities first of all, while slowly immersing the dynamic between two characters (in this case, Howl and Sophie) into work. They are written as personalities, both being fully separated and interviewing, changing eachother's point of view.

It's difficult to find a trope for them. They're are not a trope. They are Howl and Sophie, and that's probably the only way their dynamic can be properly described. Just as real people, they are not really fitting into the boxes of linial character progression, but go way deeper into being complex, filled with little differences and moments only people with their personality can have in romantic (or any different) kind of interaction. They're imperfect, and silly, and multidimensional and the reader knows them well enough to imagine them interacting way beyond of what the book says to them.

They are being people before being a ship, a pair of a trope — and that's why they work so perfectly charming in the end.

Howl and Sophie are unique in being themselves.

[diabolicalworldwriter]

there's something sadly funny about the way that Kaladin goes into literally every situation thinking "Too bad I'm not cool anymore 😔"

I mean. I get it. Depression fucks your brain up and you feel detached from yourself and any skills you have or had. The PTSD and chronic fatigue are keeping him from doing things he once managed with far less effort. And it's rather impossible to feel like you can just... do things like you used to when you're struggling at a basic level to simply be.

Still, literally everyone who knows him is like "Kaladin you're so storming cool" and he goes "They're referring to the person I was, who is dead. I'll never be cool again. I'm sorry."

The most hilarious thing? He walks into these moments, thinking 'too bad', and then he does the most objectively amazing thing possible while everyone else just watches in awe.

Kaladin, three seconds after absolutely changing everyone's outlook on life: Aw, it's too bad the person I just was died again. Guess I have to find something else to be cuz I sure can't pull that off anymore.

[westanovencleaner]

well at least the irony of annabeth consistently causing problems for percy's memory while being the only thing he remembered in son is great

[sukibenders]

Racism and misogynoir are so apparent in fandom, especially when it comes to shipping because why is it when a white male, sometimes female but I see it more with the former, character is on screen with a love interest, particularly woc, especially if they're black, and even with all the emotional scenes or just moments where they look at one another in ways different from the rest, it's met with "No, they aren't dating/the show is not going to put them together" but let the other love interest be white as well and suddenly it all makes sense? Heck, the examples I mentioned above don't even have to exist between the latter for some to STILL go and believe this rhetoric (eg. some Jace and Helaena shippers because, even if these two only interacted with a dance but yet we see Baela console Jace, after he seeks her out, apparently it's to far fetched to believe that Jacela could be a thing?!)

Sometimes it could be a headcanon that, largely, would make sense (and oftentimes was birth due to lack of respect that the poc characters could have been given by the writers *cough* TVD *cough*), and yet you'd still have people dismissing it left and right and spewing hate. At a HEADCANON! And I'm not saying that just because the other person in the ship is poc that you have to ship them, I'm not, but it's very apparent to many poc fans in fandom that unless the characters are swapping spit and doing the nasty, the possibility of them being viewed in any romantic lens feels too much of stretch even though their white counterparts don't have to jump through the same loops.

[eglantinesandtea]

Arcane Swan Lake inspired AU with a sneak peek of the storyline

Act I: Birth of a Herald

The story begins in winter. Ximena and her son Jayce are trapped in a blizzard, lost within the woodlands near Piltover. With no way out, and their destination out of reach, it seems like these two will die. Until a young black swan finds them and brings them to safety using his magic.

It turns out that the black swan is actually a magician named Viktor, and he’s one of many denizens of the Enchanted Woods next to Piltover. Viktor introduces Ximena and Jayce to their current main protector and his mentor, the alchemist Reveck. Reveck, with the urging of Heimerdinger and Viktor, decides to allow Ximena and Jayce to stay within the Enchanted Wood. Under the conditions that neither may leave since humans can prove to be tricky to deal with, and they need to protect the woods.

Reveck notes to Ximena that he understands her plight of raising a child alone, since he too was once a single parent himself.

However, Jayce and Viktor soon discover oddities among the forest, forcing them to embark on an investigation that will lead them to a horrible discovery for all the denizens of the woods.

Meanwhile, a young Mel Medarda is the recently exiled heiress to the Medarda family of Noxus. Moving to Piltover with her best friend and assistant Elora has been tough, but getting a foot within the trust of Piltover’s nobles is tougher. That’s not even mentioning the mystery of the Enchanted Woods. With calculated steps, Mel will prove that she can make this city hers.

But first, who’s that boy she sees at the edge of the woods?

[mikimeiko]

Arcane | Season 1 (2021), Christian Linke and Alex Yee

[dykedvonte]

I think the most baffling thing about the Tulpar as a vessel to me is the fact that the ship really did only have a one way communication system.

I know it was cheap but even the most basic of vessels regarding major transport would have some way, shape or form for outside communication. Not only that but there was absolutely no form of innate emergency signal to show they may have been offline or in trouble despite clearly having a system to dock credits if they went off course. It's another factor that really shows that bad situations are made to get worse by design. One person who is required to relay all information to the crew and make all the choices without feedback. No way to update or call for help in case of a dire situation. No way to inform of inner personal conflicts and acquire procedures accordingly.

It really is like they are all in some sort of fucked up solitary confinement. They have their own world with strict roles that are meaningless in the end, as long as the cargo makes it, it doesn't matter what happens on that ship to the company. They don't want to hear anything and will come to conclusions on what happened based on how much pay they can withhold from the workers. Even what they do send is short, sterile and corporate to the extent it was likely written and sent out with a command by some random unmanned computer in an office.

There's something to be said about how unfair it is to force absolute power and control onto one person when you as an entity could do so much more to offload it but I've said it many times before so I won't again.

[mechazushi]

Kafka Hibino

Kafka Hibino.... with visible salt and pepper side burns.

Kafka Hibino.... wearing glasses and has salt and pepper side burns.

Kafka HIbino.... in that black turtleneck and a dark brown leather jacket and also wearing glasses and has salt and pepper side burns.

Kafka Hibino.... wearing that outfit and is an Animal Biology Professor in an College Au.

Kafka Hibino..... asking out Hoshina who is an Advanced Mathematics Professor working at the same college, to have an after-work drink with him.

Slightly DRUNK Kafka Hibino... becoming very forward with an also slightly drunk Hoshina

Slightly Drunk Hoshina... immediately matching Kafka's freak tenfold and Kafka is very much fine with this.