#this is also apparently a recording with the original cast

[booktomoviebrawl]

Baking accident...

[bi-numi-aliyani]

Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah!... No, actually, it's Yahweh,

A somewhat notable Deity considered by the ancient Israelite people their National God and first attested from the early 9th century BCE.¹

This c. 1518 painting by Raphael is based on a mystical vision of 𒀭Yahweh attributed to the prophet Ezekiel who belonged to a priestly lineage said to be descended from the legendary Joshua. Ezekiel was active during the time the Kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the early 6th century BCE. (Public domain)

𒀭Yahweh was also apparently worshipped among the Edomites, the Israelites' southern neighbors, based on a reference to “Yahweh of Teman” in an inscription on an early 8th century BCE jar discovered at the site of Kuntillet Ajrud in the Sinai with Teman being a major Edomite clan.¹ It's believed the Ajrud outpost was established by the northern Kingdom of Israel as the region fell into their domain after a botched invasion by the southern Kingdom of Judah. The two kingdoms were also under the influence of the Neo-Assyrian Empire at this time with contemporaneous Assyrian records noting both Judahite and northern Israelite representatives at the capital city of Kalhu (known as Nimrud in modern times).²

Illustrations of the two vessels from Kuntillet Ajrud with translations. It's debated if the 𒀭Bes-type figures on Pithos A are meant to depict 𒀭Yahweh and His Consort 𒀭Asheratah, but it should be noted the righthand figure does not actually have visible genitals as the outdated illustration here shows.³ (Source)

Although 𒀭Yahweh is primarily associated with monotheistic religion nowadays for obvious reasons, historical evidence indicates He was first worshipped in a polytheistic context as the Israelite culture distinguished itself from the Canaanite milieu it emerged from. This can even be seen within the Hebrew Bible; A wonderful example is found in the Book of Habakkuk in the form of an archaic Hebrew poem describing 𒀭Yahweh and His Company including the Plague-God 𒀭Resheph (His Name is usually mistranslated as “plague” in English Bibles) battling sea monsters. Another one of the most noted can be seen in the Book of Deuteronomy and indicates 𒀭Yahweh was probably worshipped as One of the Seventy (symbolically “many”) Sons of 𒀭El:

⁸ When Elyon apportioned the nations, when He divided humankind, He fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the Gods; ⁹ Yahweh's own portion was His people, Jacob His allotted share.

Deuteronomy 32:8–9 (adapted from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition, 2021)

𒀭Yahweh very much fits the form of other Storm-Gods worshipped in cultures of the Syro-Palestinian region during the Iron Age. The other most famous example of such a Deity is the Levantine manifestation of 𒀭Ba'al Who is cast as 𒀭Yahweh's greatest Rival in the collection of texts within the Hebrew Bible known as the Deuteronomistic history, although the presence of 𒀭Ba'al's name at Ajrud would suggest this conflict is a later idea. It's even been suggested 𒀭Yahweh was originally associated specifically with destructive elements of weather such as flash floods.⁴ Although there are some respectable academic claims of pre-Israelite attestations of 𒀭Yahweh from the Late Bronze Age, none of these are secure and all of them are very much contested.⁵ The scholar Christian Frevel also fascinatingly proposed in 2021 that 𒀭Yahweh was the tutelary Deity of the Omride clan which came to rule the northern Kingdom of Israel for over a century and established its capital of Samaria.¹

A modern artistic impression of a ritual performed by ancient Israelites at the Temple of 𒀭Yahweh in Jerusalem during the Iron Age. The dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem built by King Solomon (c. 1910) by William Hole. (Public domain)

The emergence of monotheism from traditional Israelite belief is an incredibly convoluted topic that I don't intend to get into the weeds of here. One of the most recognizable milestones therein, though, was the religious reforms of King Josiah of Judah shortly before our dear Ezekiel's time. This saw the absolute consolidation of religious authority in the Temple of 𒀭Yahweh at Jerusalem and even the forced closure of all other cultic sites in Judah. However, there's also direct evidence that 𒀭Yahweh continued to be worshipped among other Gods and Goddesses well after the monotheistic, Jerusalem-centric religion which came to be known as Judaism had entered its Second Temple Period.

Most notably a community of Israelites living on the island of Elephantine at ancient Egypt's southern frontier had a Pantheon in which 𒀭Yahweh was associated with the Goddess 𒀭Anat and another God named 𒀭Bethel.⁶ They even had Priestesses of Yahweh and were apparently on good terms with Jerusalem as indicated by the Aramaic-language texts written in Egyptian Demotic script discovered at Elephantine. An analysis of the narrative of Aaron's Rod in the Book of Numbers has also led to the alluring proposition that worship of the famous 𒀭Asherah as 𒀭Yahweh's Consort may have continued even within the Jerusalemite cult itself during this period.⁷

An altar of incense discovered at the site of ancient Ta'anakh. Although it's dated to the tenth century BCE, predating any secure attestations of 𒀭Yahweh, some researchers believe the top and second-to-bottom registers are intended to symbolize Him with His 𒀭Asherah likewise on the alternating registers. (Source)

There's so many fascinating developments being made in archaeology and the study of history unraveling more about the ancient Israelites and the worship of 𒀭Yahweh before our very eyes. I honestly feel incredibly privileged to be alive just in time to witness such a thing. Although I haven't “worked with” 𒀭Yahweh myself within my primarily Canaanite Pagan practice, I'd be very interested to hear and discuss different perspectives on this fascinating ancient Deity and it'd make me very happy to see what some of you think. Shulmu 𒁲𒈬 and thank you so much for reading!

Another thing

Given what part of the world this all concerns, I feel I would be morally remiss to say nothing of the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people in their homeland and particularly in Gaza. I find this important because earlier today the so-called President of the United States Donald Trump expressed the US's intent to “take over” and ethnically cleanse Gaza at a public event alongside Benjamin Netanyahu, the so-called Prime Minister of Israel. In the face of such great evil, I feel obligated by simple virtue of being a human to state I wholeheartedly support the full liberation of Palestine and an end to the unjust and unlawful occupation with all it has wrought. Arab.org is a website which allows you to support Palestinians via a simple click of a button with no donation necessary along with providing further resources. Free Palestine 🇵🇸

References

Frevel, Christian. “When and from Where Did YHWH Emerge? Some Reflections on Early Yahwism in Israel and Judah.” Entangled Religions 12:2 (March 30, 2021). https://doi.org/10.46586/er.12.2021.8776.

Na’aman, Nadav. “Samaria and Judah in an Early 8th-Century Assyrian Wine List.” Tel Aviv 46:1 (January 2, 2019): pp. 12–20. https://www.academia.edu/43169801.

This was clarified by archaeologist Ze'ev Meshel in communication with Nir Hasson reporting for Haaretz, https://www.facebook.com/share/1JASsUsdcN.

Fleming, Daniel E. “Yahweh among the Baals: Israel and the Storm Gods.” Essay. In Mighty Baal: Essays in Honor of Mark S. Smith, edited by Stephen C. Russel and Esther J. Hamori, pp. 160–74. Harvard Semitic Studies 66. Leiden, Netherlands; Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Brill, 2020.

Pfeiffer, Henrik. “The Origin of YHWH and its Attestation.” Essay. In The Origins of Yahwism, edited by Markus Witte and Jürgen van Oorschot, pp. 115–44. Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 484. Berlin, Germany; Boston, Massachusetts, United States: De Gruyter, 2017.

Cornell, Colin. “Judeans and Goddesses at Elephantine.” Ancient Near East Today 7:11 (November 2019). American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR). https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2019/11/Judeans-and-Goddesses-at-Elephantine.

Eichler, Raanan. “Aaron’s Flowering Staff: A Priestly Asherah?” TheTorah.com, 2019. https://www.thetorah.com/article/aarons-flowering-staff-a-priestly-asherah.

[thatseventiesbitch]

Well guys & gals & non-binary pals - it's here. Another installment of That '70s Show original scripts! This week features S6xE20 Squeezebox.

Not a ton of changes from script to episode in this case, but as always, read on for my dutiful summary! (FYI the cast signatures are a re-print - though still cool!) I absolutely love reading through these and noting the different lines - I hope you all enjoy learning these details as much as I do! 😊

First up: confirmation that the Slurpee Slut's name is Chloe, for the record. It was never mentioned in the episode, though she was listed this way in the credits.

The first (small) change is Eric's additional line when Donna asks about Chloe/Slurpee Slut in the opening scene: "They're all crazy in that business, it's all that slurping." 🤣

Next we have an extra dose of "LOL Kitty is an alcoholic!"... sadly a theme this episode.

There was a longer exchange between Bob/Kitty/Red re: Bob 'welcoming Pam to the house'.

This extended interaction between Eric and Mitch. Apparently photon torpedos are from Star Trek, not Star Wars.

Also - Mitch bables about disco (??) and Kelso doubles down on his burn after learning what braille is. 🙄

Hyde and Red's scenes in the Toyota discussing the Pam situation were pretty much word-for-word, except for this added line from Hyde: "But it's like she's teasing us. It's haunting me, like a sexy, topless ghost."

This cut Eric/Jackie friendship moment 😩. Well, kinda. *lol*

More *lolz, alcoholism!* jokes. Kitty's not interested in the cake Pam brings until she learns it's a rum cake.

This is after its revealed that the guys saw Pam's breasts and Red asks Kitty what she expected him to do: rip the eyes from his head? She says yes, *lol*

Pam's story is slightly different, too. In the episode she says, "This isn't the first time my body has caused a fight. One time I caused a riot on a topless beach in Venezuela. Imagine what you saw, only all tanned and oiled."

In the episode, the scene ends after the guys walk out. In the script, Kitty and Jackie have the following exchange afterwards:

Kitty feeling jealous of Pamela winning her teen son's friends' affection -> 😵‍💫

Next up, Mitch originally tells Donna that not only does he think Eric and Chloe had sex, but that they probably had sex on Donna's bed while laughing at her (🙄)

In the final basement scene, Eric is less offended by Kelso's burn about him and more intrigued by the thought of Donna and Pam hooking up. 😂

I liked Eric's addition here about the time Donna had mono.

Their final exchange where they make-up is also slightly different from the episode:

And that's all she wrote!

Thanks for reading along with me, your host, @thatseventiesbitch!

Other Scripts I've Posted:

S2xE20 "Kiss of Death" S2xE22 "Jackie Moves On" S2xE23 "Holy Crap!" S2xE26 "Moon Over Point Place" S5xE21 "Trampled Under Foot" S7xE8 "Angie"

[tully-tittles]

Boy this is going to be a long post…

Why I hate the A New Brain 2015 revival

So starting off: I don’t necessarily hate any of the crew/cast, but I feel like this production was so soulless for such a soulful show

Casting

Gordon: Jonathan Groff as Gordon was so odd to me, because he just doesn’t really have the same energy as Gordon and I think they just wanted a big broadway star? 5/10

Roger: Honestly I don’t hate Aaron Lazar as Roger, but I think he adds too much vibrato which is very apparent in the cast recording. I do like how he play the character however 7/10

Mimi: I forgot her actress’s name sorry, but I actually really liked her as Mimi, and she was probably the best casted 10/10

Rhoda: Uhm… so… I really REALLY really hate how her actress played her…. I don’t like her as Rhoda AT ALL 1/10 😞

Mr Bungee: (Dan Folger (also just for the record I hate cborle Mr bungee)) I actually sorta liked him as Mr. Bungee, and I think his stage presence was pretty fitting for Mr. bungee 8/10

Dr. Nancy: she was fine. I honestly can’t remember her that much, but from what I do remember she played the part very by the book, which for this production was a smart thing to do 7/10

Richard: so.. why would we cast a tenor as a bass role 2/10

Lisa: I thought she was fine as Lisa, but somebody in my discord server brought up that one of the only poc in this cast was the homeless lady and that’s just… a bit icky… especially since most of the casts I know have at least three or so different poc throughout the cast (usually playing leads), but she did sign up for this so 6/10

The minister: uhm… I don’t have any opinions on him since he was such a small role 5/10

Doctor: ditto 5/10

Staging

I’m gonna go song by song, so starting off we have

Frogs Have So Much Spring Within Them: I think it’s very weird how they cut Calamari, and I don’t like how Rhoda is just at Gordon’s apartment (it also kinda makes me sad since they were at a restaurant, because that’s what actually happened to William Finn). I don’t like how mean Rhoda is. I don’t mind the lyrical change and I actually really like some of them.. just why did we cut Calamari. It’s kinda cool how it’s full connection with Lisa wrapping off Gordon’s bandages but it’s also a very basic way to do it. Also I hate how Rhoda says “dogs” 5/10

911 Emergency: the sirens at the start are way too loud and go on for too long. I do like the lighting here it’s cool 6/10

Heart and Music: I love how Gordon’s and the Minister’s voices blend, and the beeping noises throughout the song is cute. Where is Roger… why did they not do something similar to the original with that dance… 4/10

Mother’s Gonna Make Things Fine: Gordon’s too calm, but Mimi is amazing in this. I hate the ensemble part in this… unnecessary 8/10

Skipping that dialogue “song” with the doctor it was fine

Be Polite: This was inexplicably frustrating to watch. It’s such a boring way to stage this song 3/10

Sailing: This song can be done beautifully, but the way he just stands there the whole time makes this amazing song entirely forgettable. They could’ve done this way better 3/10

Skipping another dialogue song right before Gordo’s Law of Genetics

Gordo’s Law of Genetics: I hate how all of the voices are so high it makes this very hard to listen to. I kinda hate how Gordon was just watching during this whole,e song and smiling it just made me mad 2/10

And They’re Off: I like how the Doctor was the father, but I also like it when he’s faceless. I don’t understand why the lighting was blue… I’ve always pictured this song as yellow, but like blue is a calm color… this song is about gambling which is pretty goddamn stressful 4/10

Roger Arrives: MY THIRD FAVORITE SONG IN THIS SHOW!! They delivered the lines so flatly it was disappointing 5/10

Just Go: Gordon’s too nice… be forceful why are you so calm… 3/10

Poor Unsuccessful and Fat: WHY DID WE CAST A TENOR AS A BASS ROLE it sounds like forks on a plate no offens.. also why did Mr Bungee walk on where did his scooter go ☹️ -1/10

Sitting Becalmed In The Lee of Cuttyhunk: MY FAVORITE SONG YAYYAYAY!!! I hate how this is staged. It was SO creative in the original. His face being projected is genuinely the funniest thing ever. EVER. Why would change it… Why is Gordon screaming over the ensemble that made me mad. Also again with the blue?? Why is the ensemble just standing around. WHY DID THEY CUT THE BEST LINE IN THE GODDAMN SONG…. So boring! 1/10

Skipping Craniotomy or wtv it’s called it was fine, but I don’t like how it was played as a comedy

An Invitation to Spend the Night in my Arms: They cut Rhoda’s part but maybe that was a blessing because I don’t like how she acts, also Gordon and Roger don’t have enough stage chemistry I’m kinda disappointed 3/10

Change: Why is she talking to Gordon?? She’s talking to the audience during this song. Her preformance wa stood though so 7/10

Yes: I don’t like the added part, also how nice Mr. Bungee is and non- dictatorial. I don’t like his crashout he sound like an average white American dad which was so odd… 2/10

In the Middle of the Room P1: He’s too emotional, like in the original cast it was really jarring (in a good way) going from Bungees crashout to an emotionless Gordon after his final song was rejected 4/10

Throw it Out: I love Mimi in this cast 5his was really entertaining and funny! But, there’s that whole bookshelf full of book and the only clears one row… 9/10

In the Middle of the Room P2: Pretty boring no comment really 4/10

A Really Lousy Day in the Universe: This is a pretty boring number in most cast and this is no different, it’s fine 5/10

Brain Dead….: oh… boy… where do I start… now, tell me WHY did we make this an ensemble dance number? Why is the ensemble dressed as patients I DONT UNDERSTAND? Is it like Gordon scared that he’ll die like other people who get craniotomies? Why wasn’t this established earlier if so? ALSO OH MY LORD that random “funny” pause where they drag off the body hurt my soul. WHY ARE WE TRYING TO MAKE THIS A COMEDY NUMER. Whoever directed this didn’t understand the point of this song and it hurts me AND WHY DOD WE CUT THE REST OF THE OPEREA THAT WAS LIKE THE BEST PART… I genuinely hate the staging here SO TERRIBLY MUCH -10/10

The Music Still Plays On: This is probably my least favorite Mimi song in this cast, because her voice is too clean for Mimi, but it’s still nicer compared to the rest of this 6/10

Don’t Give In: I hate this song in this cast. It gives me a headache and I can’t even get headaches that’s how bad it is.. Chip Zien come back. That’s all I have to say 1/10

Skipping Craniotomy reprise it was fine

You Boys Are Gonna Get Me in Such Trouble: now.. would we cast a tenor as a bass? It made me uncomfortable when Richard started slapping Roger’s ass 💔💔 -1/10

Sailing (Reprise): MY SECOND FAVORITE SONG!! I like how this is done! Finally some sensible blue lighting. Better stage chemistry

Homeless Lady’s Revenge: I don’t understand why Roger is wearing the same outfit throughout the entire musical.. Gordon’s way too nice GET MEAN PLEASE THIS ISNT YOU 3/10

Time: Very boring staging why are they all just looking at Gordon I hate how minimalistic this is 2/10

I Feel So Much Spring: I hate this why are they all standing around him CORNY STAGING 😞! Very bland ending for a bland show… you can make this a very impactful ending or you can do this…

Concluding thoughts

Sorry for my incoherent ramblings I was watching it and just writing things down as I went. Compared to the original cast this absolutely FAILED. If I’m recalling this correctly this cast was put together for like a week long performance for some theater’s summer season, but if you’re looking for a quick and easy show this is such a horrible choice, because of how much character is in the music and the book. You really need a director who’s on the same level as the musical to do it well, or else this will happen.

EDIT: I’m actually not sure what Richard’s voice type is so sorry if it’s not bass 😞, but I think my point still stands that revival Richard’s voice is too high ☹️

[on-this-day-btvs]

November 6, 2001

Once More, With Feeling aired for BTVS season 6, episode 7. This was the only BTVS episode performed as a musical. All of the regular cast performed their own vocals, although two actors (those who played Willow and Dawn) were given minimal singing at their request. Apart from vocal and choreography prep: "[actual shooting] took something like 19 hours of singing and 17 hours of dancing in between shooting four other episodes."

The demon Sweet (shown in a blue suit above) is played by Hinton Battle, a three-time Tony-winner. This is his only Buffyverse appearance.

(mod note: Apparently Hinton Battle also choreographed the dancing in this episode!)

Commonly referred to as "OMWF," the episode was nominated for a 2002 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction. (If it had won, the award would have gone to Christophe Beck and Jesse Tobias.) Despite the nomination, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences neglected to include the title on the ballots. The Emmy was awarded to the Opening Ceremony of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

In March 2019 a vinyl press of the original cast recording was released, with cover art by Paul Mann (shown above).

The moderator is unaware of any recordings of the 2002 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony ever being sold, in any format.

(image create to illustrator Paul Mann) (vinyl details and image via Consequence) (SMG quote and other information via wikipedia)

[hyperpotamianarch]

All right, guys, I get it. People like Percy Jackson posts, people don't like posts about Yo’av ben Tzəruya. The ridiculous part is, it's not even my Percy Jackson post! It's just my specific reblog to someone else's Percy Jackson post. It's possible that it's popular because it's specifically about shipping and parallels to Greek myth. Who knows.

I shouldn't be annoyed. It's just people encountering this guy's Percy Jackson post. But why, oh why does it appear that so many of them encountered specifically my reblog?

Anyway, I wanted to write a little more about Yo’av. Because, like, I've just read about his joining Adoniya's supporters and about his eventual death by the hand of Bənayahu ben Yehoyada‘. There's material there to talk about. But honestly, at this point, I'm just going to sound like a broken record- TO ANYONE WHO READ MY ORIGINAL POST ABOUT HIM, THAT IS!

Sorry, sorry, that came off as a little unhinged. But people here talk about Tanach fandom, wondering if it exists - but are apparently busy only with the shipping. I get why gay representation in the Tanach is important to you, but can't you also engage with deep dives about this character who murders people out of loyalty to the uncle who really didn't want these people dead?

Maybe I should've tried figuring out Avishay, he's more tricky. He's the first of Tzəruya's sons to get mentioned, even though I believe he's called "the brother of Yo’av". He stands by Yo’av's side, but the most he ever does is suggest to David that they should kill someone, then actually obey when David tells him not to. He cooperates with Yo’av on killing Avner, but that's in vengence for ‘asa’el. He's mostly a part of the supporting cast, really.

Anyway, why is shipping so popular with people?

[melverie]

⸺ LESSON 11 ⸺

Solomon

Lucifer

two bitter exes

demons & angels (& humans)

strange feelings & soup

records of a banshee

fragments of the past

misc

- lesson 10 || lesson 12 || all posts so far -

Since season 3 releases starting July 2, I hope I can finish the recap by then ;-; I actually have a few more thoughts on the 'two bitter exes' & 'records of a banshee' categories, but I'll put them in their own posts. It also has to do with 10-A btw :) General spoiler warning for all of Obey Me Nightbringer, as well as for the original Obey Me taglist: @lonely-north-star

⸺ SOLOMON ⸺

treat for the Solobesties <3 [11-1; pic below]

Solomon says he hasn't been to the reaper's cave in a long time [11-4], but we went there in OG season 2?? Was that really that long ago??

Solomon apologizing to MC for putting them in this situation [11-8; pic below]

we learn that the rule at the Fountain of Knowledge is that no promises can be made there and Solomon claims he forgot about it [11-8]

Solomon reminds us that we can't return home even if we wanted to [11-12]. Thanks Solomon ._.

Thirteen gives MC the brothers' grimoire and adds that, since grimoires are born at the Fountain of Knowledge, that's probably why Solomon wanted to come here in the first place [11-16]

⸺ LUCIFER ⸺

apparently Diavolo and Barbatos wanted to come with Lucifer, but Lucifer somehow managed to talk them out of it. He also told Belphegor to stay with Beelzebub [11-14]

if MC tells him that he isn't actually angry, Lucifer doesn't answer and instead just looks annoyed [11-14]

he has moments where he seemingly calms down for a second only to immediately go back to trying to recreate the OG's lesson 16 incident [11-14]

⸺ TWO BITTER EXES ⸺

(hi the category title is a joke. That being said, re-read lesson 11-14 and you'll know what I mean)

Solomon calls Lucifer out on essentially needing Diavolo's permission to do anything because he swore complete loyalty to him for all eternity [11-14; pic below]--which is SO funny to me btw?? Like, Solomon is really out here acting like Lucifer wasn't actively committing treason the first time they properly met back when the exchange program first started -> that being said, he does seem to put a lot of emphasis on Lucifer having sworn his loyalty to Diavolo... -> also why is Solomon provoking Lucifer further btw, the situation does NOT call for that

Solomon mentions that Lucifer already sees him as an enemy which then caues Lucifer to fall silent and change the subject [11-14]

Lucifer casts a spell on Solomon and MC to immobilize them. I have a few problems with this because

1. I might have misremembered, but wasn't it (offhandedly) mentioned in NB season 2 that Lucifer was still learning demon magic? OG Solomon should definitely be able to easily break free of the spell then 2. Solomon easily overpowered pissed off Diavolo once 3. Solomon thought a war against the entire Devildom by himself 4. even if Solomon isn't necessarily stronger than Lucifer, the OG has stated multiple times that they are on par with each other

You can argue that Lucifer's magic was enhanced because he was so pissed and overprotective of his brothers in that moment, but Solomon is also super protective of MC. He should have absolutely been able to overpower Lucifer here -> also, Solomon later does break free from the spell, however he was only able to do so because Lucifer lost his composure after seeing the grimoire [11-16]. I call shenanigans, but that's for another post... (-> also just wanted to say that I love overprotective Luci. That was such a good moment ❤️ [11-14; pic below])

when MC decides to hand the grimoire over to Lucifer, Solomon seems saddened by their choice, and Lucifer questions if they truly know what they are doing [11-14]

⸺ DEMONS & ANGELS (& HUMANS) ⸺

Solomon asks MC to side with humanity [11-8] -> he wants the other realms to see humans as equals -> he does kind of make it sound like he won't be able to side with humanity himself for whatever reason [11-8; pic below]

⸺ STRANGE FEELINGS & SOUP ⸺

Leviathan calls Thirteen the 'mean and scary type'. Asmodeus rightfully points out that Leviathan should have no idea what kind of person she is [11-12]

both Leviathan and Asmodeus seem kind of bothered by how much Thirteen loves MC [11-16]

⸺ RECORDS OF A BANSHEE ⸺

once again, the only two brothers that originally went to free Beelzebub also happen to be the only two that now attack MC for being human. Who knows what would have happened had Solomon and the rest of the brothers not shown up when they did

while discussing the lesson @misc-obeyme (hi CC!! Thanks for letting me post this <3) pointed out that the entire situation with Beelzebub was probably orchestrated by Nightbringer to force MC into revealing the truth [discord server lol; pic below]

⸺ FRAGMENTS OF THE PAST ⸺

Solomon's past!

1. he and Thirteen met back when he was a kid [11-8] -> he was looking at her through a lattice window from the basement and shrieked when they made eye contact [11-10] 2. Thirteen says that back when they first met Solomon's soul was captivating [11-10] 3. Barbatos brought Solomon to the Fountain of Knowledge when he was on the verge of death and nursed him back to health. Once his wounds were healed, Solomon left. Thirteen doesn't know where to [11-10] 4. Barbatos gave Solomon the title as "the Witty Sorcerer" and told him that he now has to look after the Fountain of Knowledge [11-10] -> ever since then, Solomon's soul has changed 5. Thirteen says that Barbatos let him experience whatever he wanted which is why he lost his innocence and why nothing scares him anymore [11-10]

⸺ MISC ⸺

Thirteen lore Thirteen lore Thirteen lore Thirteen lo--

1. she lives in the 'Otherworld'. [11-4] Solomon says it's called that because Thirteen enjoys her freedom 2. she already has the RAD uniform because Diavolo gave it to her in hopes of her attending the school. After modifying it a little, she now wears it because she likes it [11-6] 2. each level in the reaper's cave has a different rule that must be followed, otherwise One Must Pay the Price™ [11-6] -> the rule at the Fountain of Knowledge is that no promises can be made there [11-8]. MC later promises the brothers to help them and Must Therefore Pay The Price™ [11-16] 3. she has an older sister called Candy ( @too-much-gacha is that you? XD). Solomon says he hasn't seen her ever since she fell victim to one of the traps decades ago, Thirteen claims she's fine [11-6] 4. she hated the human world back when she first met Solomon because of how depressing it was with people dying left and right due to diseases [11-10] 5. apparently reapers are supposed to stay neutral, but Thirteen does her own thing [11-16]. Queen <3

Leviathan gives us the basics on how grimoires work [11-16; pic below]

Asmodeus turns into Leviathan's personal interpreter for a second, you love to see it lol [11-16]

Satan and Luke bonding over a cat ❤️ [11-A] -> btw has anyone else noticed that they've sort of become a dup lately? They keep sharing Nightmares and events...

[manyplushtoys]

Firffels: the Wuzzles Competitor That Disappeared

Recently, I found this toy at my local thrift store. I thought it was an oddly cute nativity toy, but upon closer inspection the tush tag read "FIRFFELS. I'm glad to be a SHAMEL." I did a quick search online and the first result was this page on Ghost of the Doll, a toy collector's site that archives information about 80s/90s toys and includes a forum where anyone can seek help with identifying toys. This lead me down a rabbit hole of figuring out just what Firffels were: a failed line of toys promised to be the next hot phenomenon, with minimal documentation online and a handful of toys floating around in thrift stores.

Other than Ghost of the Doll, I found info about Firffels in this 2010 blog post by Trish Babbles (written in an edgy, mean-to-be-funny style that I think is too uncharitable, but it was a different time to be online lol) and this blog post by AF Blog. My other info comes from Othello Bach's website dedicated to the book itself (her personal site is no longer functional) and from a handful of youtube videos I found of a Firffels commercial. Many thanks to these sources, without them there'd be like, nothing online about these creatures.

Firffels are based on the children's book Who ever Heard of a Fird? by Othello Bach, first edition published in 1984 by Caedmon Childrens Books (upon Googling, it appears that Caedmon is owned by HarperCollins now and focuses on audiobooks). The story follows Fird, a fish-bird hybrid, as he travels the world to find other firds. Along the way he encounters a goofy, lovable cast of other hybrid animals who have all never heard of a fird. The story ends with fird learning to love his uniqueness and find peace with being who he is. As is apparent in the Amazon link above (not sponsored, just showing my work), a used copy is $86 dollars right now. An audiobook narrated by Joel Grey (an actor that I'm unfamiliar with who is apparently known for his role in Cabaret) was also released on cassette, listed on Ebay for $75+. Luckily, there is a youtube video of someone doing a complete read through of the book, but the camera angle is poor. This is the only visual record I could find online of the interior illustrations by Michelle Dorman, other than a brief look at a few in a low quality VHS promo rip I'll get to in a minute, and the image below from an Ebay listing. There may be a few more photos in some Etsy listings that I missed.

In Trish's blog post they complain that Shamel is an ugly monstrosity and there were a few comments on Ghost of the Doll's forum of the same nature about Shamel, but I think Shamel is the cutest one! It just looks like a new breed of camel, meanwhile Fird in the background here is...he's so cartoonishly goofy. Idk how else to describe him. He's so fuckin' goofy. He'd make squeaky Spongebob-esque sound effects when he walks, I imagine.

The book was allegedly a hit and Remco bought the merchandising rights. They went all in, as is detailed in the 5 minute promotional video below. Based on a cast of 6 characters, plush toys and posable action figures hit the market with a promise that Hanna Barbera would develop an animated tv show starring Firffels, housewares would be made, there'd be a clothing line, and Design-a-Firffel contests would be held. A few housewares seem to have been made and plush toy sewing patterns were released, but I was unable to find evidence that anything else moved forward.

Absolutely fucking insane fact: according to this video, Caedmon Publishing was owned by Raytheon at the time. Thanks Raytheon for these cuddly children's toys and also, uh, horrific weapons of war?

After I bought Shamel, I went back to the store to see if there were more. There were! I found Bertle and Elephonkey, who still had the original tags. I swear the day earlier I had seen a frog toy with butterfly wings but it wasn't there anymore. I remember passing over it and thinking "eh, butterfly wings on a frog aren't cute," and did not bothering even looking at the tags. My mistake. Turns out that toy was worth a decent amount of money and was part of this whole story.

Bertle's pink belly super bright in real life, like neon. There is a sunbleached spot on it's front.

Elephonkey is the only one with original tags. I also included an image of the tush tag. For each toy the tush tag is the same but displays the character's name.

Hybrid animals are not a unique concept. Wuzzles, a line of plush toys that were animal hybrids with wings and likely made to compete with Care Bears, are brought up in most posts and forums where Firffels are mentioned--usually to disparage Firffels as being knock off, less successful Wuzzles. Wuzzles weren't exactly successful either, though they definitely lasted longer and had more reach, likely due to the backing of a Disney/Hasbro budget. AF Blog in 2015 makes a good point that I agree with: it's unlikely that Wuzzles and Firffels were ripping each other off due to production timelines. Toy lines can be in development for years before any information is made public. It takes a long time to design toys, then get them to a manufacturer, then go through the revisions process. Not to mention the time it takes to ship things out, negotiate contracts at every step of the way, etc. And, as AF Blog notes, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was released in 1984, a year before the first Wuzzles tv episode aired, and Firffels hit the market a year later.

People draw hybrid animals all the time. For example, furry adoptable artists draw hybrids all the time (take a shot every time you find a closed species that is a feline with a fish tail or deer feet or some other animal's defining trait), the Lego movie had Unikitty, and I literally went to Walmart today and in the toy section there was a miniature rabbit-like rainbow animal with wings and a unicorn horn there. The thing that makes these toys potentially appealing, in my opinion, is that they choose safe and popular traits: sparkly horns and feathery wings, for the most part. Things that are easily marketable.

The thing with Firffels is that they combined animals with traits that are less immediately appealing. Image below from Ghost of the Doll.

Some of them are cute but the others miss the mark. Personally I like Shamel and Bertle (the plush version only tbh).

Worth pointing out is that the character illustrations do not match the toy designs. If you go back and watch the commercials included in the 5 minute promo video, you can see that the Bertle plush and action figure are brown and green rather than pink and blue, and that Shamel's hair is brown instead of purple. I saw varied photos of the Butterfrog plush: some were lighter green while others were darker. Could be an issue with differing cameras, but I don't know for certain. And then there's Elephonkey, who is the most inconsistent of the bunch:

The first image is the prototype toy as it appears in the commercial. It is grey and flesh colored, with odd looking plastic hair. The second image is from Ghost of the Doll, of how the Elephonkey action figure actually appeared in stores. Third is a photo of my Elephonkey plush. Compare it with the official character art...well, he's not my favorite design in any incarnation.

I think the toys in the commercials were prototypes that were changed to brighter colors so as to appeal more towards girls. In the 30 second plush commercial there are 4 girl actors and 1 boy actor, with the camera shots getting closer to and focusing more on the girls' faces, so it would make sense. In contrast, the action figure commercial features 1 girl and 2 boys, and most of the camera shots are of the kids' hands playing with the toys, giving off a more boyish, gender-neutral vibe. Classics of gendered marketing, am I right? lol. But I think the change was a good one. I wouldn't have picked up Shamel if I hadn't seen the purple hair, and I definitely would not like Bertle if he wasn't pink. It gives the toys more of a cohesive style, a unique identity, and they fit in more alongside the Wuzzles/Care Bears visuals with the vibrant, happy colors. There's more of a toy-like quality to them, which increases the cuddle-ability and inspires more of an urge to play.

Discovering and logging all this inconsistency has been pretty fun. But it makes me think that these toys were probably doomed by a chaotic, unorganized development process behind the scenes. And given that the book was published in '84 and toys hit the market in '85...the signs seem to point to production being rushed.

To be fair to Firffels, it was probably a little harder in the 80s to hit it big with kids. You had to be lucky, you had to have connections with the right distributors, you had to anticipate what is universally appealing to children--one of the most unpredictable audiences out there--and you had to pay to air your commercials during prime child viewing hours. These are all things that are still true, but we have the internet now and the advertising power of the internet is scary. Going viral on TikTok has the potential to skibidi someone's toilet career. iPad babies are growing up into grade school kids who throw birthday parties every year and get toys as gifts. We are living in an era where mass-producing cheap little polyester plushies and plastic figures is easier than ever and corporations have massive budgets to pump into kids' eyeballs through every advertising avenue they possibly can. They don't even need to come up with the designs anymore, they can just partner with whatever Roblox game is popular right now and capitalize on that. Maybe Othello Bach should get on Roblox.

Actually, it appears that Bach was given the short end of the stick by the time Firffels were pulled. Though her personal website is no longer up, her other website dedicated entirely to Whoever Heard of a Fird? has some info:

At the height of Fird's success, with over 100 licensees cramming the store shelves with children’s merchandise and an animation contract with Hanna-Barbera, the book and all the merchandise suddenly vanished from the shelves.  Although she lost the rights to several other published children’s books at the same time, Othello has never received a reasonable explanation for what happened.

So this passage actually clears something up for me. This whole time something that hasn't really lined up is that I had assumed that Othello Bach published the book first and then was approached for merchandising rights after the book sold well. I actually think now it's possible that from the get-go the book was written with the intention for it to become a worldwide sensation. Not so much Bach's intent, though. I have some professional familiarity with licensing and other such creative publishing contracts, particularly with books. Based on what I know, I believe it's more likely that Bach pitched her manuscript to Caedmon Publishing and Caedmon, seeking to create popular IP, was like, "this has potential and we are going to sign you on not only for the book, but for more." That might be why the character designs are so strange: they were trying too hard to get famous quick and had instructed the illustrator (it is regular practice for publishers to pair authors with an illustrator and given how much was on the line for this IP, Bach might not've had much input here) to design characters that could also become toys. It's unlikely that Michelle Dorman, a kids book illustrator, had product design skills needed to make standout, awesome toy designs. Not a knock on her, illustrators just have niches within their field that they're best at it. It's why you see so many illustrators complain about how often they get approached to design logos--that's not what we do, thank you.

What's sad is that clearly Bach had signed a bad contract that gave away most of her rights as the writer to the publisher. She openly says so above. My guess is that Caedmon told her they needed more rights than usual to be able to conduct so much merchandising (like signing contracts with Remco, much easier to do when you don't have a third party also involved), and because they were pouring so much effort into it on their end. Bach is just the writer, so while the original idea is hers, Caedmon would have matched her with an illustrator and taken charge of all the licensing and merchandising. For a publisher this is a huge commitment financially and personnel-wise, so it makes sense why they would have put forth a contract that gave them so many rights. If Firffels had become as popular as they'd hoped, they don't want to not own the IP. They would have poured all those resources into it and not be able to reap all the rewards because that pesky author would own it. It's almost like contracts like these are predatory and only serve the interests of the publisher. Almost like publishers are companies existing in a capitalistic system and therefore only serve profit, not people. Almost like companies will never truly have artist's best interests at heart, and if you are ever to sign a contract with a big publisher you need to have a good lawyer by your side.

It makes me so sad to read that they didn't even give her a reasonable explanation as to why everything was cancelled. She does not even appear to have any of the merchandise on hand, as all the photos on her website are from Ghost of the Doll. In hindsight we can guess, obviously, why the cancellation happened but I'm in the moment it was probably upsetting. It's still upsetting, given that she has included this in her website for the...revamped book!

However, like Fird, Othello refused to give up. For the next 20 years, she tried to regain the rights to her work. Entertainment attorneys assured her it would never happen.  They said, "It can't be done!" But... it could be done and Othello did it, regaining the rights back to all her work.

Yeah, so, I actually think this is the saddest part about the whole thing. She managed to get some of the rights back and republished the book with...new art...that looks so fucking BAD. Image from her website:

Sorry to this illustrator, but got damn. There is no sauce to this art whatsoever. It is unseasoned, not even salt and pepper. This looks like ass and would never fucking fly with any editor worth their chops. It took me ages to figure out that the long yellow curved line is Fird's tail. Like, this is so unbelievably sad to me. I don't even really like the original art a whole lot, but compared to this...

My informed guess as to what happened is that Bach lawyered up and fought. As we know, Caedmon is now owned by HarperCollins. I can't say for certain but there was probably some case to be made that Caedmon being sold breached the contract, or nullified parts of it, or perhaps the contract expired. It could even just be that HarperCollins didn't care about an old, unprofitable IP and granted Bach her rights back. There is also Remco to consider: they also hold some of the rights, but probably just for the merchandise? Given how prominently their logo is displayed on the toy tags, they might actually own a significant share. Perhaps they were happy not to have anything to do with the book so long as the merch rights weren't touched. I don't know! There's no info about it on the site and this stuff is usually under NDA.

So Bach got her rights back, but she's just the writer. She doesn't own any of the art, so in order to republish the book she had to hire a new illustrator. She likely did not have a huge budget for it, maybe even paying for it out of her pocket because the Choice Books logo she has in several spots on the Fird website appears to be for a distribute on demand service, in place of a traditional publisher.

As the writer, she also would not have gotten the rights to use the original audiobook, so she had one re-recorded. It also appears like she does not have the rights to the name "Firffels" either, as the only places it appears on the site are in photographs of merchandise and in titles specifically referring to the work that is still owned by Caedmon. She carefully refers to her own work as "Fird" for short or the book's full title, probably because she cannot legally imply that she owns or made anything else.

I dug into this thinking it would be a quick look at some strange, forgotten toys from a bygone era. Instead I found a story about how an artist can so easily be shafted by publishers. Everything always loops back around to workers' rights, it seems. Stories like this about shitty publishing contracts (see: Webtoon if you want to get into something current) still appear so often, man. It's depressing, and indicative that the publishing industry needs some reforming ASAP. Like, Illustrators, when are we getting a proper union?

But I'm glad Bach got her rights back and got her book republished within her lifetime. I'm sad she didn't have the budgets for a better illustrator. Sorry to bring that up again, I work as an illustrator irl and I have opinions about craft, lol. Also I just think that given how hard Bach had to fight, she deserved to have better art made. That being said, here's another link to her current website. There's not much there but what is there is a monument to a battle she fought and won, and is proud of.

The lack of detailed, clear, centralized documentation of these toys frustrates me. One of the most frustrating things about the internet for me is that there are few easily accessible, publicly available archives of toys--even for modern toys. I've had to use Amazon reviews and Ebay listings and broken online stores to decipher publication years. With this in mind I decided to do a write up and provide clearer pictures of the toys that I have (I'll take hi res pics in natural lighting too someday). Archives are important to me and the internet kinda sucks for it, I say as someone who started this blog for that purpose. If Tumblr goes down, so does everything I've posted here. As an artist who works primarily digitally, one of the scariest things is knowing that I'm laboring over an ephemeral body of work. It's just not going to exist for very long unless I print it out on archival materials. Data is not the same as a physical object. My Firffels have survived for 39 years but the digital art I draw every day is unlikely to last past 10 years because websites die and files get deleted.

I bought the Firffels from my thrift store thinking I'd resell them. I'm low income so I sell many of the things I thrift. I prefer to buy the older toys or the ones that need cleaning because it makes me feel better about being a reseller (I don't want to take away options from low income kids in my area, ya know?). But I'm putting in the labor to freshen them up and I'm putting in the effort to make unavailable toys available again, at least for one person. And I don't have a whole lot of shelf space to display the toys in my collection...but for now I think I'll keep them.

[project-sekai-facts]

sorry if this has been sent in/answered before, i tried searching thru the blog and couldn't find anything

i remember you made a post a while ago about beta character designs and mentioned this miku and shiho(?) placeholder card

i just found this year old reddit post theorizing that the character isn't actually shiho and might have been a "human mc" design, which, along with another commenters note about unused virtual live audios

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectSekai/comments/12kk4l9/i_dont_think_this_beta_character_was_shiho/?chainedPosts=t3_txq6vn

mm, i don't really agree with that person. saying "it looks nothing like shiho" isn't exactly a valid point. like that's not how character design works, sometimes there are massive changes. like there's too much evidence pointing towards that character being then-shiho. she's absolutely not final shiho, but she was the shiho character back then. the design matches with what we can see of the leoneed concept arts, and matches with shizuku's early design.

my theory is originally then-shiho was the "ichika" character: the face of marketing who was probably the audience surrogate miku fan, before these attributes were given to ichika. in all honestly i think it's likely that then-shiho was completely reworked into final shiho for whatever reason, still being the leoni bassist and shizuku's sister but with a new design and personality. and hey shizuku might've been changed first who knows. i think this is kinda what OP was meaning, but they completely denied the fact that then-shiho looks very related to then-shizuku, moreso than their final designs look related. like they had her down as a totally new character when imo it's pretty clear then-shiho was just reworked into what we have now. also apparently when yukki auditioned, she was cast as shiho before they even had character art of her, so that kinda backs up that she was reworked later in development (cannot find the source for this but i keep seeing people metion it for like the last 2 or so years).

and well the art is labelled as placeholder so it was probably drawn just for the sake of testing the game before finalised stuff was being drawn and implemented. the final character designs were completed in early 2019 iirc but initial planning and dev would've started long before then, since the game was first revealed later that year looking close enough to the game we saw at launch. the art style has some resemblance to early bandori cards which also makes sense since clpl is an offshoot of craftegg and it was probably one of their artists that drew that card probably not long after garupa opened service. like those blurred out arts of n25/ln/mmj are clearly very old and from the very early game concept stages.

also those voice clips were probably recorded by staff for testing. the last one is introducing a song to be performed and I think they're saying Tell Your World, which means these are stand in voice clips are placeholders for Miku. it might even be Saki Fujita voice recordings but i don't really have much to compare it to other than a few short pjdiva cutscene things.

[ballonleaparadise]

Some thoughts on episode 89 and the next Horizons arc:

. This episode made me cry so much lol Then I cried again watching the subtitles. Friede and Orla are my comfort characters. I can't believe they 'killed off' Friede and Charizard with Orla and the kids watching. Damn.

. Whether Friede is actually dead, I don't know. I think he'll come back in some shape or form. I was thinking if he did pass away he might be contactable through the crystal pool, but apparently it only works through time travel so maybe not. I think the most likely scenario is that Charizard managed to save him from falling and they are out there somewhere. What bothers me is that they haven't been seen for a year. Some people have speculated that he's been captured by Spinel, which seems plausable with Spinel's track record 😅

. Speaking of Spinel, I hate this man. He might be one of the best villains in the pokemon anime. Gibeon was redeemable because he lost his mind over his rakurium obsession. Spinel though... He's not mad, he knows exactly what he's doing and doesn't care. I have to wonder where the other rising volt tacklers are after he framed them. They're likely in hiding, but there's no mention so far of what specifically happened to them.

. In terms of the upcoming arc, I love the time skip designs- especially Roy's. His jacket looks like Friede's, which reinforces how much he inspired him. Captain Pikachu is also travelling with him. It looks like Roy is the only rvt member who continued training after the events of Rakua.

. I'm not sure how I feel about shiny mega Lucario joining the cast. It's cool, but I'm a bit tired of the same pokemon being milked in the anime. I liked the trio's former teams because they were full of original pokemon that hadn't had a chance to shine in previous series. The only good thing about Roy having a Lucario (aside from advertising) is that it parallels with Friede's Charizard. They are both fan favourite ashimons that are capable of mega evolution. Since Roy has always looked up to Friede, this could be a nice nod to their friendship.

. Liko's design change is the least drastic imo, but this makes sense from a narrative perspective. In the arc teaser, it was revealed that Liko has lost her confidence and struggled with her mood since the events of Rakua. Therefore, a drastic change wouldn't seem right. I feel like this arc will be about her reclaiming her confidence and rediscovering her identity.

. Ult looks like an interesting character- I always wanted Roy to have a rival. I'm neutral about Sableye, but I'm glad the writers gave him an original partner. According to the VAs, Ult dislikes Liko. I'm sure they'll find common ground but I hope he isn't horrible to her.

. Ann has been in the previews, so it looks like she'll at least be present at the beginning of the next arc. Also, her Dewott has evolved?! If she sticks around, I can see her and Liko deepening their rivalry/friendship. If not, maybe Dot and Liko could have their own rivalry.

. Speaking of which, it's not clear what Dot will be doing in this arc. It looks like she's been hiding away streaming, which is sad but also makes sense. Regardless, I love her new headphones (although the cord hanging off them can go). Her hair is slightly longer and one of her eyes is visible, which symbolises her growing confidence.

. It is hard to tell from the news we've had so far if the other rvts will have a significant role in the upcoming arc. The fact that they're not in the poster isn't surprising since they are supporting characters. However, I'm wondering if Friede's absense will give them space to grow on their own. Orla was his childhood friend, so I want to see what happened to her after the events of Rakua. Murdock was also really close to Friede, and will have to take care of Dot on top of that. Friede and Charizard had such a huge impact on all of the rvts so I hope their reaction won't be left offscreen.

. I somehow forgot to address lol this but it's weird to have an official anipoke time skip. I thought from the poster that the time jump was bigger, but one year means that they'll have time to cover everything we've missed. I want to know how Roy met Lucario or Riolu and what his journey through Kalos was like. Did he train against Korrina? I also want to know how him and Ult met.

Overall, I'm so hyped for arc five. Seeing the kids (uhhh I mean teenagers) trying to save the rvt's reputation shows how far they have come. I know I'll miss Friede and his Charizard though. I really do hope they return at some point.

[ca-suffit]

i agree when it comes to female characters whatever their origins, I think the showrunners did the best they could. I did find weird that anne rice never wrote any queer female characters, it's all subtext. the books are really filled with sexism and while anne rice wrote the mayfair's witches, with a main female characters it's still full of incestuous rape and I couldn't believe amc took the decision to make an adaptation of those books. Just the whole stuff with 13 years old mona mayfair... I really never understand why anne rice wasn't comfortable with her female characters. anyway we could still have merrick in iwtv. they could change some elements of her plot.

tw csa

Anne Rice included a lot of themes that are popular and common still in modern stories and ppl tend to not understand the main difference of why ppl take offense to Anne's writing and not others. Case in point, this thread I responded to the other day on twt:

Here is the source (from her official website) for what OwlsGoldberg was referencing (thnx to them for sharing this link in the thread too) "O.K. I just read a book I recommend. It's called THE DEADLY FEAST by Richard Rhodes. The book centers around a man named Carleton Gajdusek. Carleton Gajdusek is a Nobel Prize winner and he's in prison--apparently for fondling a 14 year old in a shower. I have not seen the court record and I'm not in any way qualified to judge what goes on. All I want to say is that I highly recommend that you get the book. That the contribution of Carleton Gajdusek to medicine and to science has been fantastic and that I personally am looking into the whole question of child molestation, children's rights, because it concerns me. I remember being a young adult, and I remember being real angry that I wasn't allowed to do things that other adults were doing. I was working full time and I was living in a rooming house and I didn't like being classified as a teenager, because somebody wanted to sell me something expensive. I know I sound angry--I am. I am angry. But we've got to revise our concept of teenagers in this country. If we want to stop the crime in this country we've just got to realize that 14 and 15 year old people are adults, they are not children. And leading them to believe that there is a fundamental difference between play killing and real killing."

That's not even all of it for that twt thread, but u get the point. Nobody can ever criticize anything with Anne Rice without ppl saying it's just misogyny or ....whatever that accusation of queerphobia for a cast member is about (there was no clarification who that's referencing but I'm guessing it's Sam Reid bcuz this fandom rides hard for white queerness in him / Lestat at any chance, especially in order to silence other issues). It's always easy for these ppl to erase everything about anything else except "victimization" of a rich white woman. This only happens within the fandom too, as most ppl outside it don't respect Anne Rice at all for her behavior or writing....and that's without even knowing the depths of this kind of stuff. U couldn't pull this crap on any person on the street, they'd rightfully think ur terminally online and fucking weird.

Anyway, back to the point about themes. Anne Rice had repetitive themes that ppl will argue are for "the genre." The thing is tho....it has to still serve a purpose to the story to be any good. Most of the time (at least for my knowledge of TVC books), there isn't a reason to have these things present. She simply has a fixation on them and a lot of them are things that hurt women just for the sake of doing it. The reader is also uncomfortably made to feel like this is all supposed to be ok too, which is the main issue ppl have. It's not critical or intentionally envoking horror and dread....it's just saying "this is what being a girl/woman is" and giving the message to love ur abuser (most often a very old white man in TVC), which many survivors of a lot of things find triggering af.

Mentioning Merrick too, that's a character I rly liked and yet was wasted all over. The book with her name is narrated by David Talbot, this elderly, white, British pedophile, and we spend more time hearing his gross thoughts about her as a child and other similar shit in his life (always with underage poc) instead of spending time with her in her own head as an adult. Or Louis, for that matter, who is also more who the book is about than David, yet Davis is our narrator.

There's a lot more I could write but I'd never stop tbh. It's clear to most everyone who isn't finding excuses that Anne Rice just wasn't a good writer and had so many issues with misogyny and a lot of other things. I've never seen any other author excused so much from criticism, especially one who was so obviously known in life as being a rly unlikeable person, particularly to her own fanbase. If it weren't for other ppl, there wouldn't even be a fandom for her work. She v much almost destroyed it by herself.....but she's dead now, so ppl have been quick to start rewriting history and accusing others of anything they can think of to avoid criticism. Just like she always did.

[mint-merriment]

assorted screenshots from aleks le's persona 3 reload stream because i actually tuned in (and stayed the whole time)

SPOILERS FOR THE GAME (november onwards) AND ALSO THE VIDEO (watch the video first)

everyone was introduced with the wrong name and character at the start lmao. like the character and name were matched up but a different person came on screen.

since aleks was busy, justice slocum (shinjiro) ended up playing through the game and making an assortment of saves to skip through the game so it doesn't take like 10 hours lol

they repeated the gag from the yukari/mitsuru episode and its STILL funny XD

important images with alejandro saab (akihiko) holding koromaru plush (zeno is out iirc)

CAT WITH RYOJI SCARF. ft suzie yeung (fuuka) and someone else doing what all of us want to do

jonkler jumpscare! ie xander mobus (joker from p5) cameo after they went and talked to edogawa, whom he voices (along with a plethora of other npcs). also, well timed balatro in the bg

presenting valerie arum, one of the long-running voice directors of the persona series and also voice actress of a number of characters! she directed p3r and shared a bunch of interesting tidbits about the casting process :0 lets see if i can remember some of them-

the auditions actually made very little attempt to hide who the characters were. both zeno robinson (junpei) and allegra clark (mitsuru) both figured it out just from reading it. allegedly, junpei's name was rendered 'doompei midori'

the way valerie contacted the va's was by calling them and telling them she was speaking to [their role]. some of them didn't pick it up immediately lol, and suzie was actually told in person

aleks didnt get booked for a while (because the person in charge of those bookings didn't know he had Significant Double Casting due to being p3 protag- and therefore a lot more lines) and thought he didn't actually get the role lmao

heather gonzales wasn't originally the va for yukari but then valerie went 'i know a gal' and a couple of sessions in, the producer was convinced

valerie was the one who told zeno to read for Every character in a future audition because she Really wanted him for junpei, despite the fact that aleks usually voices 'silly' characters and zeno 'serious' characters

suzie apparently had a cold and didn't have her voice for a lot of the recording- also, the navi lines are extremely time consuming because it requires multiple variations of every status line for every character

zeno robinson (junpei) ended up late for his return as he is allegedly wont to do, and everyone both in the stream and in chat started memeing on where he might have been. for his triumphant return, everyone pretended to be dead and/or sleeping XD

for the last day, everyone decided that m4k0t0 would play marvel rivals until sundown. and then they skipped through the maya s.link scene XD

everyone is here!

justice steals alejandro's joke during the jack bros theurgy XD the joke in question is "what did the wasabi say to the bee? wasa-bee!" (allegedly, he kept stealing the joke during the anniversary stream, but they cut it out every time LOL)

for the final boss, aleks ends up fusing messiah, always a banger to do. however they had to delete mada to do so, and thus came the tide of 'rip mada' and other such things

in a move that surprised basically no one, aleks le pulled out the Full Ass Cosplay for the final boss XD

an old classic

SURPRISE YURI LOWENTHAL !!! but sideways. lol. second attempt went better

valerie leaves at the tail end of the journey with chat giving a fond farewell :)

made it to the end :)

other notes:

the camera was So funny in this stream because it wouldnt stop moving and focusing on seemingly random things, or aleks, or someone other than the person they were trying to highlight. (at some point the camera got cancelled for racism)

the light flashed off of justine lee's (ken) sunglasses while she was lurking in the back and scared aleks while he was adjusting the camera- i think it ended up clipped (it did)

justice ended up feeling bad for rejecting mitsuru, so he romanced aigis

[some-small-mercy]

Harding - Drowning in Memories

Harding isn't the first time that a character's whole personality and vibe were basically scooped out and replaced between games to make them a better companion - but it's a bit odd, when the whole reason she's a companion in this is what a fan favorite the old her was in Inquisition.

Full text below the cut

Heritage and Memories

Lace Harding was, if I remember the fan reception of Inquisition a decade ago accurately, a surprise fan favorite when she first appeared. To the point that she was pretty clearly elevated to the status of ‘next game’s main cast’ at the end of Trespasser in large part because of how much everyone already loved her. Ten years later, and despite a total lack of ideas or enthusiasm, they finally had to follow through

Okay, that’s too harsh. Secondary characters being promoted to full companion status and getting an entirely new personality and character design in the process is hardly a new thing in Bioware games, and I love Merrill fair too dearly to complain that much about it. Still, it is striking how much the Lace Harding of Veilguard just comes across as an entirely different person from the Scout Captain of the Inquisition. You can argue that a whole decade has passed, of course she’s changed - I would be somewhat sympathetic to this if you could look at her (or any returning female character, really) and possibly guess she’s supposed to be at absolute minimum in her mid-late thirties. See also the fountain of youth Isabella apparently found and then didn’t bother to share with Varric. 

Leaving the discontinuity (and the fact that she also talks and feels much more like someone in their twenties than someone who was accomplished enough to rise to commanding the Inquisition’s entire scout corps without notable nepotism or patronage a full decade ago) aside, Harding’s writing is working under a heavy burden. Two of them, actually. She is simultaneously the vessel for a bunch of exposition and revelations about dwarven lore and for all the fanservice nostalgia calling back to southern Thedas and the cast of Inquisition. Between the two, it’s a bit of a struggle for Lace as a character to really shine through. 

Harding’s central internal conflict is, as the game presents it, that she’s something of a people-pleasing doormat who doesn’t voice her opinions or fight for her preferences to avoid making a scene. Which is, frankly, a trait that is much more told than shown outside the specific couple of scenes dedicated to it. This unexpressed frustration and anger is made something everyone needs to care about when she becomes the first dwarven mage in recorded history - which is to say, she can move the occasional block of rock around as you explore the map. Otherwise it never really comes up - and begins feeling echoes of the howling, vengeful rage of an awakening titan in the Deep Roads below Tevinter. 

Harding is not a woman who felt much of a connection to her dwarven heritage, by all accounts. Family that has lived on the surface for long enough to have a stable inherited farm, religiously Andrastian, considers herself Fereldan more than anything else as far as nationality goes, has devoted herself body and soul to first the Inquisition and then hunting Solas for the better part of her adult life - prior to the sudden empathetic connection to the titan (and the revelation about the origins of dwarves as a species and what Solas did to the titans) we never get a sense it was a subject she spared any real thought for. 

Now, not to say you can’t do a story about someone forging a connection to heritage they’d not really cared about previously as a mature adult. But the game never really seems interested in digging into what a change this is. Harding is The Dwarf on hand, and so gets deeply, passionately angry about the injury the elven gods did to the titans literal millenia ago (and if you play an elf the game awkwardly invites you to apologize on behalf of the entire elven people, for some odd reason). Over her quests, you get a lot of revelations about the origins and metaphysical nature of dwarves and their relationship to the titans, which she mostly accepts with awe. Which is frankly rather odd - you would expect at least a bit of fear or resistance to the revelation that your entire species was at one point the hive mind/physical extension of eldritch primordials. But the game doesn’t seem to even let Rook seem nonplussed by the idea, let alone Harding. 

(It’s not at all the game Veilguard is, but you could do a decent gloss on the sudden link to the titans as ethno-nationalism; suddenly becoming deeply angry at a powerless minority for mythological crimes against your people they have some genealogical connection to, the subsuming of individual identity into being extensions of a spiritually and metaphysically greater and more significant corporate body, going from having never heard of a body of traditions and rituals to being incredibly invested in them over the course of a few weeks. You see my vision.)

That self-discovery and the very light gestures about anger issues aside, Harding’s arc is really at least as much about the Kal Sharok dwarves as it is about her. Which is something of an issue, because they were clearly supposed to be a full faction with at least Mourn Watcher/Lords of Fortune levels of content at some point before that was cut and the assets only used for Harding’s personal content. This was probably the correct decision - the very last thing the game needs is another faction and hub area with barely anything to do in it or connection with the rest of the game - but it does mean that the final reveal of this mysterious thaig that has been built up for literally the entire history of the franchise ends up feeling more than a bit bathetic. Apparently they’ve really gotten over all the violent, vicious isolationism in the past decade, having happily taken Shaper Valta in and made her some sort of preeminent religious authority and now also being more than happy to welcome Harding and Rook in to come see her.

Kal Sharok’s whole central mysteries - how they survived the collapse of the Deep Roads and the centuries of darkspawn attacks since, what their society looks like, what sort of terrible secrets are they hiding, whether their society as institutionally horrifying as Orzammar’s - are either ignored entirely or glossed over in a few seconds of dialogue. Which is forgivable, given how limited the screentime they have is, but you do end up being left slightly wondering why bother . There’s one particular point where there’s an ominously vague, implication-laden answer to ‘how did the thaig survive’ that feels like nothing so much as the setup to a real revelation later on - but the whole subject is then never touched on again. Many such cases, I suppose. Still, I can dream of a game where all the resources that were wasted on the Lords of Fortune went towards them instead and the combined effort gave you enough content for one semi-complete faction plotline. 

Harding’s ties to the Inquisition and Southern Thedas writ large are also - not necessarily bad on their own, but they do make her by far the most obvious example of how much different parts of the game’s writing doesn’t agree with itself. She’s going to go camping back ini Fereldan or see her mom in her idyllic little farm, you say? Weird, that missive from the Inquisitor just told me that the entire kingdom is basically one giant blighted apocalypse. But in Harding’s defense literally everything is better if we pretend those southern front missives don’t exist, so. 

Harding’s memories of the Inquisition feel - well very nostalgia-pandering, honestly. But more than that, like a causality of the game’s decision not to bother with imported worldstates or save files. Still, she would have been the idea character to actually go into the meaning and significance of the choice to disband the Inquisition or not (a choice which otherwise comes up literally not at all, if I recall correctly) and provide some texture and backstory to what the last ten years of hunting for Solas has looked like - but no, her reminiscing is strictly waving the names of characters from the last game in front of you and saying she missed them. 

Speaking of those ten years - of everyone in the cast, Harding should be the one with a real and significant preexisting relationship with Rook. The two of them were Varric’s right and left hands, they’ve been working together for years before the game began. Unfortunately, the game barely even gestures at this after the prologue, and does nothing at all to make your friendship with Harding seem like it has any particular history or existing texture to it. 

A New Beginning

Given full free rein I would, being totally honest, probably throw out Harding’s entire story and replace it with something totally new and different. But that’s not really what this exercise is about. 

So, assuming we are limited by the requirement to keep things in the same general shape? I would lean heavily into Harding being an Inquisition agent - it is the faction the game tells you she’s a part of every time you look at the party select screen. Make her come across as more of a mature professional soldier, someone who's been fighting and spying for more than a decade now, with the life-or-death commitment to the cause that implies. Frame the people pleasing as less a matter of fear and insecurity, and more a matter of devaluing her own preferences compared to avoiding conflict on the team and potentially hurting their chances of success saving the world (give her a slightly unbecoming martyr complex about this). Add a conversation or two where she bites down arguments or doesn’t speak up about things that frustrate or inconvenience her on a level even slightly more significant than ‘pretending to like coffee’ and ‘getting annoyed with how many books a friend is bringing on a camping trip’. Before her arc, the general impression should be a friendly smile and focus on the mission hiding a spring so tightly wound it’s one bad day from exploding. (This sort of characterization would probably make the apparent age difference between her and Taash as they romance start shading into Something That’s Talked about. Dealer’s choice whether that’s reason to cut it or keep it, honestly - they would at least be able to get some good dialogue bonding over the whole ‘falling in a gap between two cultures and legacies’ thing). 

The sudden connection to the primordial essence and wellspring of the dwarven race would be significantly less welcome, at least at first - she would lose control of her powers and either threaten to or actually do some real collateral damage before she learns to get it slightly under control and goes looking for answers - something that she wouldn’t be at all eager to do in the first place. If you’re giving her a conflict-avoidant, people-pleasing personality then going on a whole remote trek to make contact with a violently isolationist thaig is not something she’s going to suggest or advocate for on her own behalf. You can either provide the actually-quite-valid excuse of finding out more about the titans being helpful to fight the gods that killed them the first time, or just guilt trip and brow-beat her into it. In either case, the reports of the earthquakes imperiling Kal Sharok would be what finally motivates her to go find a solution in a titan. 

Which is to say, make Harding’s quest feel like a bit of an expedition - a longer single quest without easy ways to escape halfway through. You’re in the deep roads, make it feel different than everywhere else with their convenient elven teleportation mirrors on hand. Which also helpfully adds a bit more variety to the experience of playing through all the companion quests, especially as hers would begin rather further into act 2 than most of the others’. 

The fact that what we see of Kal Sharok seems to be half-overrun by darkspawn and this doesn’t even seem to be a cause for panic or much of a crisis is less than ideal, on a few different levels. Rather than making Valta an honored religious authority with her own whole throne room, instead present her as a remote mystic, staying further in the depths and closer to the heart of a titan - make seeking her out a bit of a quest in its own right. Which neatly justifies as much spelunking through inhospitable and poorly laid out caverns and slaying hordes of darkspawn as desired. 

The boss fight against ‘the titan’ is one of the more interesting things in any of the companion quests, mechanically speaking, and definitely worth keeping. Though I would make the boss fight much more like Harding , rather than just being a rock-mage using her face. Summon some golem meatshields and hit Rook with those nasty status-effect arrow tricks! 

In any event, her struggle as a character would in this case be between being a loyal and reliable agent of the inquisition on one hand, and an inheritor of the titans on the other. She’d react to the revelations of what dwarves were and what the stone sense is with a sort of horror at first, especially when she realizes what that means about her abilities and the ever-increasing rage boiling within her. It would be up to Rook to help her decide which side of things to embrace, and have more significant effects on her character and her resolution either way (if she suppresses the titan’s anger, do something like replace the final scene with the Kal Sharok shaper with an Eluvian conversation with Dagna, maybe?). 

And, okay, just two of these left! Going by which of them I can think of more to say about, next is Belara I guess? 

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I listened to the Taskmaster audiobook Absolute Casserole a couple of weeks ago, and I enjoyed that. I must admit I wasn't too excited when they first announced it - Taskmaster's widespread efforts to capitalize on their recent success, including cash grabs like this book, were inevitable but still a bit annoying, I find. And I figured, I don't need a buy a book to get Taskmaster stats. I have my personal spreadsheets for that.

But I listened to the audiobook anyway, and I ended up enjoying it. The little recaps were fun, and I did enjoy some of the stats. Though I have to object to one stat in which they claimed that Australia has a 3/3 winning record for Taskmaster champions (3 players, 3 champions), while Canada is 2/2 (2 players, 2 champions). I have made posts before about how Canada and Australia are tied on this, with two players on UK Taskmaster each, and in both cases, their players have a 100% winning record. Sarah Kendall and SamCam from Australia, Katherine Ryan and Mae Martin from Canada.

The Absolute Casserole book acknowledges this, but tries to argue that Morgana Robinson is Australian, so they're actually 3/3. And that's no fair. According to Wikipedia, Morgana Robinson moved to the UK when she was three years old. Come on. You can't count her toward the Aussie stats.

This matters, of course, because I have been looking forward to seeing who pulls ahead first in the Canada vs. Australia on UK Taskmaster battle. Unfortunately the Aussies do have a far better reserve team than we do, as their next comedian to be cast in the UK will be someone cool and capable like Adam Hills or Bec Hill or Lou Wall or something (I don't actually know who the next Aussie on UK TM will be, but I bet it'll be someone with a barrier for a last name), while Canada's reserve team is more... look, I think Phil Nichol is very very funny, but he doesn't seem like a person who'd have the cross-section of required skills to win a trophy for the Canadians. Tom Stade. Craig Campbell. Bobby Mair. Tony Law. Stewart Francis. I'm pretty sure Glenn Wool's moved back to this side of the ocean. John Hastings definitely has. But still, Canada's reserve team, of comedians who live/work in the UK but have not been cast on Taskmaster before - we're definitely not as strong as the Aussie reserve team. I'm not sure why it is that besides Katherine Ryan and Mae Martin, apparently all Canadian comedians who move to the UK are middle-aged white guys who seem like they might have difficulty getting dressed by themselves in the morning, and definitely don't seem competent to count eggs faster than Felicity Ward.

Anyway though, I had no idea the Taskmaster book has declared that the Aussies are ahead. I did not think of Morgana Robinson as Australian.

Also, none of that was the reason I've made this post. The actual reason I've made this post is to say that, while the book was largely a cash grab that basically printed out a Taskmaster statistician's Twitter feed, it did have new information in the form of tidbits from the original version of Taskmaster, the live Edinburgh Festival show. And while the Edinburgh stuff was the only genuinely new information in the book (besides the fact that apparently Morgana Robinson was born in Australia), if you combine all the Edinburgh tidbits that were scattered throughout the book, they add up to about 45 minutes, which is a pretty decent chunk of time. The reason I know that is that I decide do exactly that and make this compilation:

That audio file is just all the Edinburgh-based chapters of the audiobook, and I recommend listening to it for any Taskmaster fans who've not bothered with the entire book, because those are the parts where you'll learn information that you couldn't get just by re-watching the show. Some of it was stuff I already knew, some of it was new to me. Some of it was stuff I'd previously pieced together, but it was nice to have it all laid out there. And Alex reads out a bunch of his old emails, which is quite a cool primary source of about the inception of Taskmaster.

My main takeaway from this is that, as I've said before, Josie Long should be owed a spot on that TV show. For being the only live champion who's not been on the TV show yet (to be fair there's only one other champion, who's Mike Wozniak), and for being the only woman in the very boys-filled boys club that was Alex Horne's friends circa 2010.

This book also confirmed the story that I had heard before, but still find funny, that basically, Taskmaster exists because Alex Horne was jealous of Tim Key winning the Perrier Award. Who says that focus on awards isn't good for the entertainment industry?

[ultravioart]

I have been going through Overwatch lore again, especially the video content, and I noticed that Overwatch is probably using 'sacred geometry' as a basis for it's scifi-magics?

(Please note I am not spiritual/religious and do not follow this belief. These are simply observations of what Overwatch has used.)

Shambali/Iris: uses chakra locations + 'sacred geometry' patterns in the Iris design. This part isn't that strong but it's notable. We do know Aurora's sentience is tied to quantum mechanics in lore, and we can make a guess omnic energy (only omnics can use omnic energy, not much is elaborated) is perhaps a 'scifi-magic' version of quantum mechanics (like how Tracer uses scifi magic time powers, etc). 'Sacred geometry' places a large importance on light as a form of conciousness, and Aurora's ascension involved her becoming light and becoming a geometric pattern. As seen with Sigma, Zenyatta floats with no explanation, but under 'sacred geometry' systems it makes perfect sense as Zenyatta tapped into his abilities through sacred geometry practices (meditation, etc).

Sigma: He is a direct reference to 'the song of the spheres' (hearing the melody of the universe by being able to sense 'sacred geometry') + his weapon's shapes represent 'aether' aka 'universe' according to sacred geometry/alchemy. Sigma has a singularity directly within his 'source' chakra location (explaining his mental state), and his gravity powers can be explained through sacred geometry spiritual practices (floating, etc). Sigma states 'the melody is a harness' backwards in his origin short, and sacred geometry seems to place importance on patterns, frequencies, and connecting with the 'vibrations' of the universe.

LifeWeaver: in his hero origin short, the 'flower of life' symbol is shown in his biolight tree. This is an undeniable explicit reference to sacred geometry, and it would make sense that his biolight tech works because hardlight tech can exactly trace (atomic level) the 'sacred geometry' of the universe to power healing.

Moira: Honestly it's pretty funny, but apparently 'sacred geometry' also deals with genetics. Moira's character makes COMPLETE sense if sacred geometry is the sci-fi-magics system in Overwatch. Moira is wanting to 'evolve' humanity (a conspiracy followed by sacred geometry believers that humans are on the cusp of a spiritual evolution through frequencies/patterns in dna), and if Moira's work taps into sacred geometries, it explains why others were unable to replicate her experiments (as confirmed in declassified). If one meddles where they shouldn't and disrupts cycles, according to sacred geometry beliefs, they can become ill. Moira has been meddling, explaining why her arm is deteriorating. Reaper's powers are also explained, as how can Reaper's conciousness remain if his body and brain becomes a mist? If it's through genetics solely, sacred geometry would allow that. (I personally prefer the idea Reaper's conciousness has been recorded digitally and he lives within nanobots, which explains how Ramattra could have created failed recreations of conciousness in Wargod Ana, etc. It is canon that nullsector has created botched recreations of certain heroes like Ana, etc. But sacred geometry explains reaper within genetics alone.)

Ngl I never was a fan of overwatch having true magic/spirits because it ruined many aspects of the story ('Do omnics have souls' was a huge rhetorical question in Overwatch, but if Kitsune spirits exist then yeah no duh omnics do have souls lol.) Also confirming Shinto beliefs as the 'correct' religion is pretty awful to do in Overwatch since it's so focused on a global, diverse cast. I would much prefer no true magic/spirits which legitimizes all faiths as personal beliefs OR have a universal scifi-magics source which legitimizes all faiths as real and drawing from the same source. And with sacred geometry, it's vague enough to apply to pretty much any culture, as 'the flower of life' patterns has showed up in various cultural arts (... because its a combination of circles.)

Anyways, I will look through more lore to see if I can find more instances of 'sacred geometry' being referenced in Overwatch, but Sigma and LifeWeaver are the main supporting evidence pillars of this hypothesis! Then the Shambali/Iris stuff can be inferred. And Moira is a fun guess lol.

[cannoli-reader]

Watching the Wheel of Time show, Season 2, episode 4

Originally posted on readandfindout.com on 9/8/2023

01:27 Are we already getting a Forsaken audience with the Dark One? Way to shoot your wad, show. Jordan saved this for book 6, with lots of buildup so that when we got to see an exchange with the Dark One, it meant something. It came following two of the best books in the series, with the most dramatic action and plot advancement, and at the start of the series shifting from plot-driven to character-exploration stories. It was both earned, and set up, and also positioned in the series where there would not be a need to top it. This show hasn’t been super clear on what the deal is with the Dark One or the Forsaken. Given the sensationalistic nature of TV, and the inclinations demonstrated of the showrunners, they are going to want and need to keep topping stuff. So, you know, good luck with that.

2:31 Okay, disregard, looks like he’s just breaking a Seal to “wake the other Forsaken.” And apparently you do that by casting spells, with words.

I’m rather curious how that aspect of channeling works with regard to the Seanchan channelers, with their gags.

3:55 Lindsey Duncan, you don’t belong here. I’d say your on-screen sister doesn’t either, but she appears to be a primary perpetrator of this nonsense.

4:44 For the record, Moiraine was the youngest in the family, ITB, so I am guessing that this elderly retainer is announcing Lady Lindsey’s “older” sister with emphasis on “older”, so we can be shocked at the difference in ages between Rosamund Pike and Duncan (I will refer to her as Anvaere when they say it on the show). Because there is literally no reason for him to say that. He would say her name if he felt the need to clarify which of her sisters. Not because that’s the custom in Cairhien, but because that’s how normal people talk. This is written this way for no reason other than shock value.

5:02 Are you not entertained!

7:09 Saying he is not good company “for anyone!” invites the assumption that Rand is referring to the danger of his channeling. Except he says that to justify his turning down an invitation to an isolated cabin in the mountains, so he can stay in a populous city! It could be that he’s afraid of hurting Selene, but that doesn’t fix anything, it just makes it seem like Rand is only interested in avoiding harm to people he cares about, and isn’t all that concerned with the safety of extras and redshirts strangers.

What an improvement on the book character, who cared about every casualty, and every peasant who suffered from his actions. But at least this one has had as many sexual partners as the show has had seasons, and he hasn’t even gotten together with any of his canonical love interests yet. This makes it mature.

And I am aware that a possible motivation for Rand to refuse Selene’s offered getaway is to stay near Logain, but in that case the excuse should be something like “the patients at the nuthouse need me.”

Also, the episode is called “Daughter of the Night” and that Forsaken Ishamael freed had long hair. Are they doing some sort of fakeout with Selene?

7:23 They are doing a slightly better job of making the Tower look white this season.

7:54 That was not how I pictured a banded Accepted dress looking, but I suppose you don’t see hems much on camera, and the more colorful cuffs are easier to notice.

8:17 Two things – First, it's in character for Egwene to be fixated on the symbols or signs of others’ status rather than the personal cost entailed in obtaining them.

Secondly, they reused the footage, I think. At about 8:13, Egwene slowly tilts her head to look at Nynaeve’s ring, before they cut to the other angle as she reaches out to touch it, and we see Nynaeve’s reaction. Then, when the camera goes back to Egwene, it looks like the same image, and she starts to tilt her head in preparation to leaning to touch the ring. And the shot at 8:16 is identical, before cutting back to Nynaeve saying she should go.

Where we should have seen Egwene looking apologetic and Nynaeve defensive, we … don’t.

8:51 While the sentiment is well-intended, Egwene has no knowledge on which to assert that it wasn’t real. Book!Egwene was fond of running her mouth and offering ill-informed opinions, but she wouldn’t claim something like this that she had no way of knowing.

9:09 If he can’t be Moriaine’s warder, Lan is going to be a hippy. Never mind that he devoted his life to protecting the world from the Shadow and waging a one-man war against the Blight. That’s not the kind of vocation or lifestyle you become disenchanted with, or see in a new light, after a personal tragedy. It’s an actual problem with tangible consequences. They have not done the legwork to make us care about this new character and have stripped away just about anything that made cool or different from any generic swordsman.

9:33 All little girls are obsessed with combat and martial skills. What a progressive world. Of course, they would rather spar with warders than pay any attention to the exotic and beautiful Aes Sedai. And what are they even doing here?

10:18 And when they are at dinner with said Aes Sedai, the only thing anyone can talk about is the sexual aspect of her bonds. Now, that’s not necessarily an unrealistic thing for close friends and family to tease about, but this is a TV show with a limited amount of time to convey their narrative. In fact, one of the main defenses raised on behalf of the show’s lack of substance is that they didn’t get enough episodes or time to do it right. How much of the time they do have is going to be spent giggling over unorthodox sexual relationships?

Hey, remember last season, when they spent most of a whole episode on the tragic warder who killed himself to avoid being raped by Alanna and her Warders? It was such an important story to tell that they left the future savior of the world hanging while Moiraine and Alanna discussed his fate and Lan wasted hours chatting with him and drinking and we had to attend multiple ceremonies pertaining to his tragedy. What was the point of all that? How was it necessary to set up this? The “previously on” bit suggests that this is all about saving Lan from the loss of a bondholder, but they haven’t shown him to be in anything like the condition Steppin suffered. Nor have they established the rules enough to understand this. Since Moiraine is alive and well, it gives the impression that the bond is some sort of addiction, which, way to go show. It’s addictive and rapey. Maybe if you want to portray a different concept, don’t leer over the (invented) sexual implications in just about every relevant scene.

And what is with all the families? Lan had a family back in Fal Dara, Liandrin has a dying son, Moiraine visits her family manor and sister, and now Alanna is bringing her newest warder home to meet the family. One of the adaptational choices "Game of Thrones" made was to de-emphasize all the elaborate aristocratic family connections, because there isn’t time for that on a TV show, even if it was pretty important to a lot of aspects of the books’ story. Why are they dragging all of this in, when it’s not important to the story and there are so many things they can’t be bothered to explain, and we are in the fourth of eight episodes and I still could not tell you what this season is about? We’re 20% of the way through the episode and we have yet to see Mat, Perrin or Elayne and Alanna’s family have had more lines sniggering about her sex life than Egwene and Nynaeve have spoken combined this week.

10:27 This scene of Lan peeing went on for 17 seconds before he spoke to Alanna.

11:06 OMG. Alanna has thoughts in her head beyond her sex life and making inappropriate jokes about the Power. Now, what is the difference between Lan’s bond being ripped from him, and taken by Moiraine? How did Moiraine take it, if she can’t channel? Why have they spent so much effort to highlight the danger of Lan’s situation if it turns out that’s not actually his situation?

And why was it necessary to accost Lan while urinating to have this talk? It’s not like she needs to snatch a moment of privacy when she can, she’s an Aes Sedai, she can make the time.

11:34 Name dropping Cadsuane again. They really want to jam her into this ASAP. And for the record, Nynaeve was promoted to Accepted much faster than Cadsuane. Cadsuane took six years and Moiraine and Siuan both took much less, so it’s not even like she would be the standard anymore. If you want to name-drop her, just say “Not even Cadsuane made it that fast.”

12:20 Is that a concept Alanna has difficulty with, believing that ice was once water? Like, it’s generally wet, and located near water, and starts to melt as soon as you touch it…

More importantly, how are they fucking with Moiraine’s backstory? The big thing that happened to her 20 years in the past, shortly before bonding Lan was hearing the Foretelling of the Dragon’s Rebirth. Lan should know all about that. Because she told him when she bonded him, because that’s the kind of thing that would be criminally irresponsible to keep from someone in that situation.

12:29 These characters are caught up in a mission to save the world from an apocalyptic war. Who gives a crap whether or not one of them is, or has ever been, happy? We have other things to be doing. Any time now.

12:42 What are our fantasy protagonists up to? Don’t know. Moiraine is moving back into her childhood bedroom and unpacking.

13:15 That is the most ridiculous fake painting ever. It looks like someone photoshopped Pike’s face into a CGI-generated portrait with an “old painting” filter. The question is, is that supposed to be Moiraine and her mother, Moiraine and a heretofore unknown child she lost and got turned to ice as a result, or Moiraine and Lady Lindsey? Because she’s older than her sister, don’t you know?

13:59 The nuthouse woman addressed Moiraine as “my lady” not “Aes Sedai.” So why is Lady Moiraine allowed to demand a private meeting with Logain? This is why it makes no sense for Logain to be anywhere but the White Tower. To quote a vastly superior show also starring Lindsey Duncan, Logain “may be broken like a Dacian catamite and still be dangerous…As long as he can be propped on a horse, he is dangerous!” The Tower should absolutely be keeping the tightest of controls on him, not leaving him in an asylum in another country, permitted to have noble visitors without supervision.

All of this was explicitly laid out in the text, for the slow-witted or script-writing portion of the readership. That I can quote the applicable principle from an unrelated TV show based on historical figures, that aired in Robert Jordan’s lifetime, means this is not just being picky about differences from the books, or WoT source material. This is how the world, how human beings and human institutions, function! You can’t just toss all this out and maintain verisimilitude and audience immersion.

14:53 They make it worse with every line. Set aside what we know about the White Tower from a book series apparently as equally unrelated to this show as “Rome” on HBO is to either version. Moiraine has just cited two factions with strong interests in having access to Logain, whose wishes she arranged to be thwarted, in addition to violating basic security and political tactics. How did this come to pass? How did Moiraine accomplish this? How did she get the Tower to do something against its own interests by real world rules, not just those of the setting, when she was basically in a lot of trouble during her last visit to the Tower, following Logain’s capture, and ended her visit with a sentence of exile?

Again, this makes no sense just from what they put on screen, forget the world building.

14:56 Congratulations on blowing Rand’s cover if Logain didn’t actually have his real name. Giving Logain all this information would be disastrous if he feels like revealing Rand out of spite or boredom or maybe to avenge himself on Moiraine for her role in his downfall, for which, he indicated at the outset of this conversation, he holds her responsible. For what it’s worth, in addition to being a perfectly rational expectation based on human nature, as well as his behavior and lines in this scene, it is absolutely in Logain’s wheelhouse in his book characterization, where he did, in fact, cheerfully spread stories to discredit the Aes Sedai and cause trouble. Even after regaining his abilities, he behaved like a spiteful jealous dick toward Rand.

15:40 This is sooo deep you guys! Moiraine has insights, you see, because she’s talking about herself, too!

15:49 Moiraine is backing away. That she is avoiding contact, when she can allegedly channel, and strongly, as Logain would know from trying to fight her shields, while also affecting an attitude of superiority, should be a flashing neon sign that she is not nearly as in control as she is pretending.

16:54 I have to say, they aren’t letting me down with Egwene. Even when legitimately concerned about her friend, she can’t help but be sensitive to the difference in rank, and what’s more, from the smile at this timestamp, Elayne has that figured out about her.

17:10 “She was there for me last year…” Two episodes ago, Egwene was whining that Nynaeve was never there for her, she was always sparring with warders or something.

17:15 Bzzt. Wrong. Egwene, in no medium, loves Rand “more than anything”. She was dumping him for the Wisdom job on the show and in the books, was ready to move to a whole new part of the world if that’s what it took to get such a job for herself.

18:00 Oh, give it up, already. Hopefully someone will put the kibosh on this because she’s an Accepted now.

18:20 Why does someone who can’t channel know this? Why is this the first thing we have heard of the reaction to Nynaeve’s test and its aberrations? Why does this guy care that Nynaeve channeled during the test? Did he read some irrelevant novel?

18:35 Warder backhandedly denigrating Aes Sedai to a student. Gotta love coherence and plausibility.

19:43 Leane implied with that absurd rationalization that she is not, in fact, in communication with Siuan. If she is, she does not need to split hairs like that. Which means she is lying about Siuan being aware, because she could not know this. If she did know that Siuan is aware, then she would have no need to come up with that ridiculous justification.

They should have omitted the Three Oaths. These writers are not smart enough to handle them.

20:08 Leane’s reaction is just silly. What did Liandrin say that was so shocking or outrageous? She actually looks like Liandrin made an uncouth joke. That was an expression of astonished disbelief, when what they should have been going for is troubled concern. What is she astonished about? The idea of Siuan falling or Leane falling with her? That Liandrin would say so out loud? If the former, it could say something about the authority and presumed permanence of the Amyrlin Seat and authority structures. If the latter, about Aes Sedai customs and practices, and in turn, tell us something about Liandrin, that she would defy those customs. Or maybe about Leane’s naiveté that she is shocked at the idea. But they don’t develop this stuff enough, because it does not pertain to polyamory or homosexuality.

20:35 Perrin says “You’re the one leading us, not them,” to the man who is behind all of “them,” and “leading” only Perrin and that loser wolf behind him.

23:19 Perrin, the answer to your question about why Elyas hasn’t come until now, is that he was not cast, because he’s not important to Egwene, who was the show's protagonist of your adventures last season, and they are trying to manage the negative reaction of people who would have preferred Elyas to Steppin the Tragic Warder or Dana the Dumpy Darkfriend.

24:14 Why do we care about Hopper’s name, or at least enough to table the discussion of saving Ingtar, Loial and the Badass Shienaran from captivity? That aside, it was not a bad introduction to the whole wolfbrother thing, proving that they could easily have put it in the first season, where Elyas belonged, instead of multiple scenes of trying and failing to explain the Way of the Leaf. An obscure ideology that doesn’t have much present day relevance to the story, versus the fantasy abilities of one of the three leading characters? Let’s have three different scenes where two different characters try (and fail) to explain the former, and leave the latter until halfway into season 2.

24:52 If you’re going to be all about the old-timeyness of this lifestyle, look up how long it takes to make bread and why it’s not something you start gathering the water for shortly before dinner. The yeast should have been rising long before this.

25:12 You don’t need to tell Lan about the first few weeks after the bond has been broken, because just last season, the two of them accompanied Steppin the Tragic Warder on a month-long journey following the death of his Aes Sedai. And because the prior scene with Lan established that his situation is not like the other ones and the same rules don’t apply to him. In fact, Alanna strongly suggested that there is no point to all this rehab bullshit.

25:25 What are the timelines again? What does Lan mean by the bond being masked for the last six months? Isn’t that about the time jump between seasons? That’s not masking the bond. The bond is gone, and there is nothing to mask. Did he mean before the Eye of the World? Because in the Tower, Lan confronts Moiraine about masking the bond right before her rendezvous with Siuan, and she says that it’s been two years since she masked it. Then, in Fal Dara, the morning Moiraine & Rand leave, Lan tells Nynaeve that she has masked the bond, to conceal her departure (Or possibly for the canonical reasons she would have masked it, because her warder was having sex in the same building). She was not masking it for any significant amount of time before she lost the ability to channel, so IDK where six months comes in.

25:32 And Maksim says he thought he was the only warder who could go that long, suggesting that the warder is somehow afflicted or deprived by the Aes Sedai making the bond. When Moiraine admitted to masking the bond before going to Siuan, she joked that she thought Lan could use a break. That would be a highly inappropriate joke to make if Lan had something to fear from her masking for an extended period of time. Not to mention a highly inappropriate practice, subjecting your warder to that just to get laid. While multiple potential dragons reborn are scattered around the city with only Lan to watch him and no way for Moiraine to know if he’s in trouble until she decides she’s had enough nookie.

26:18 What is the big revelation here? Why would it be shocking and scandalous that Alanna masks Maksim’s bond continuously? How does this prove Lan can do whatever they have in mind? How does any of this fit with the difference between an Aes Sedai masking the bond with a warder, and the consequences to a warder when the bond is broken? Are they saying that Moiraine masking the bond before heading into the Blight shielded Lan from the effects of her being stilled? That might fit with how Alanna described it. But if that’s the case, why all the fuss since? Why are three people, two of whom should know better, treating Lan like she died and he’s in danger of going down Steppin’s Tragic Warder path?

30:08 The Lanfear brainwashing is awfully slow-paced. Can’t wait for the whiplash when Rand gets dragged into something interesting, with only four episodes left in the season, and lots of time to be spent on Moiraine’s relationship with her sister and Lan and the Pervert Trio.

30:13 Bet they’re so proud of this scene intro.

31:04 Min looks like a man.

31:17 How would Min’s visions tell her that someone she has never seen will come looking for a particular room in an inn?

31:57 We are approaching a point, if we’re aren’t already there, where Nynaeve has had more screen time with Liandrin than with all the other Two Rivers folk.

32:28 Why do Accepted dresses have a cutout in the front?

33:33 EVERYTHING Liandrin says about the Power is always backwards. Men who channel go mad, because the Dark has “cursed” the Power, they are not cursed because they go mad! And why would the Shadow curse them for killing people they love? Wouldn’t that be something the Light or the Creator would curse them for?

Given how the same shallow pseudo-feminist idiots this show panders to have seizures at the implications of the story that there are differences between the sexes, I would not be surprised if Liandrin’s version is correct, that men simply cannot handle the One Power and go mad as a result, and thus are susceptible to the Shadow because of their crimes.

34:13 This season, Liandrin claims to rule this world, speaking for the Aes Sedai & Tower. Last season, she said the world is cruel to women who try to rise up because men still control much of it.

34:27 This is not advancing the plot or telling us anything important about the characters. This is Aes Sedai fan fiction. Edit from the future: Even worse, because it's a headfake. This is just more trying to make an evil character deep. Book!Liandrin wasn't deep, because becoming a Darkfriend is not a legitimate choice or point of view. You're just an asshole if you do it.

35:24 What kind of spy report mentions that stuff? How is this anything other than the most transparent attempt to wind Nynaeve up? In the books, she was very skeptical of Liandrin’s claims and was only willing to go along because Liandrin had to explicitly tell her the stakes, and also because Egwene kept interfering with her efforts to learn more. Because Book!Nynaeve was not an idiot. But hey, at least this one is black, which is important for all the young black women out there who need good examples to look up to.

35:29 The conversational thrust of the last two scenes with Lan was that he could go where he wanted, even to Moiraine, or to the woman he loves. So why is he still sitting here with these freaks?

36:12 And in a trope-infested script, this would be time for a comment that Lan or Ihvon is also working on wisdom, or it is still eluding him. Given the adolescent sensibilities of this show, an equal possibility involves a sexual pun referencing Nynaeve.

37:55 So Ihvon says that warders remind the Aes Sedai they are not gods. How? Why? Then Lan comments that he doesn’t think Alanna needs help with that, to Ihvon’s amusement. The script seems to think that Lan just accused Alanna of having a god complex or being somewhat less than humble, but what he actually said was that he does not think she needs anyone to remain her than she’s not a good. In other words, she sucks so badly that no one could mistake her for one, or she is extremely humble and doesn’t need help recalling her true status.

38:44 I’ve forgotten what that letter is. Was that the poem Moiraine cheated Domon out of?

39:55 So the Damodred backstory is that “Uncle” ruined them. That tracks, but I feel like I am hearing a story about a Victorian or Edwardian family that lost their fortune and can barely afford the servants. Instead of a King leading a country into the most brutally destructive war in its history and the family lost the throne but remain the second most powerful house in the realm. Which is just a touch more interesting.

40:06 I am really trying to watch this scene keeping in mind what Liandrin told Nynaeve just before this, so I can see the thematic through line and how Liandrin’s advice about coping with longevity is relevant to anything other than a WoT fan’s navel-gazing speculation about what it’s like being an Aes Sedai.

40:20 Yes, in fact, the Tower teaches that exactly of Aes Sedai. They are all about keeping calm no matter the provocation. "Smiling at someone who spits in your eye" might as well be in the test for the shawl.

40:25 It is that kind of ruin! The head of the number two family in the kingdom should never have had to beg for leftovers. They brought Moiraine back into her family, and destroyed the meaning of her family, which is that she comes from a long line of tyrants, culminating in a man who brought the nation's destruction about through his pride, and Moiraine utterly rejects them, to the point of not even signing her family name on what she purports to be her last testament.

Now they are just a bunch of people who suffered some financial and social setbacks in her absence, but have succeeded in reclaiming their position and snagging the best marriage partner on the market.

The Dowager Countess of Downton Abbey fell asleep watching this.

41:07 I am sorry, but Moiraine’s dress looks absolutely ridiculous, and if that is the point they are trying to make, they are failing, because it does not look remotely like it belongs in the same setting as Anvaere’s clothes, or those of anyone else in Cairhien.

41:53 I don’t see it. There was nothing in all of that to correlate with the idea of Aes Sedai having to lose their own lives or becoming detached from the world. It doesn’t fit with anything. The way Anvaere is talking, Moiraine’s network of spies were something of her old life, before going to the Tower and she has taken over it in her absence. Except she was talking about having spies last season, in Tar Valon. Why would she give them up in a royal capital city, especially since Tar Valon is not home to her and she spends her life traveling around the world? Or does Anvaere’s coopting of her spy network relate to her stilling? Again, how?

I also suspect the writers know no more than the Kenobi writers about espionage and intrigue, because I don’t see how Anvaere is going to keep spies from sharing their information with Moiraine. These are not sworn operatives trained in a spy academy and devoted to their mistress. They are people who, by definition, are willing to trade their knowledge to people who are not supposed to have it. The most Anvaere should have come away with was that she had access to the take from Moiraine’s network. All she is doing here is warning Moiraine that if she wants to be secret, she’ll have to evade her old spies. Which she should be able to do. There’s also the question of spies Anvaere has employed in her absence, but her boasting could be a ploy to make Moiraine overlook that…

What the conversation boiled down to is that Anvaere built up her own power base in Moiraine’s absence, and now the tables have turned since Moiraine lost the one she had accumulated on her own. All it does is slow down the plot for an episode, without really giving us any character work on Moiriane or useful world-building. And does Anvaere know she’s unable to channel? Silly Cannoli. Why would establishing that very basic part of a character’s operating knowledge be important?

43:12 I don’t know if this is Egwene’s ego talking, or idiotic screenwriters. It was firmly established last season that anyone but the Dragon Reborn would have died if they had gone with Moiraine and Rand. I mean, it wasn’t established firmly, but the script acted like it was, treating anyone who questioned that point as obstructionist or idiots. So no matter how Egwene trained, she could not have helped a damn. A better way to put it might be that if she had been better, she might have saved Amalisa and those two other chumps the Lady of Fal Dara murdered with her incompetence, alongside all the men they abandoned to die at the wall.

Curiously, in the BOOK, Egwene DID go to the Eye of the World and she did try to fight and failed to channel effectively, leading Rand to go back to stop her, drawing the eye of the Forsaken who pursued him instead of Egwene. This motivation would make a lot of sense for Book!Egwene. But it has no bearing on the show.

43:37 What’s Elayne’s motivation for following them that isn’t going to completely character assassinate her? ITB, she was drawn by the ta’veren pull of Rand, whom she has yet to meet. And heard lots of things through the spyhole between her and Egwene’s room that suggested this was a problem that needed all hands on deck and other rationalizations. Edit from the future: Okay, to be fair, they accounted for that, and only that, problem.

44:49 Now how does she plan to haul their unconscious carcasses all the way to Falme? And why? I be this is all going to be for some reason the show pulls out their ass at the last moment, just like the Eye of the World last season.

Just when it seemed like Show!Liandrin was on her way to being a fully-realized character with a new portrayal, she’s just same old Liandrin and all the other stuff was to throw us off the track.

:slowclap: Well played, sirs.

45:25 Min’s aunts exploited her viewings by making her work as a fortune teller! Wow. How many families and backstories can they destroy?

45:55 Here he goes again, claiming that the Father of Lies and the Betrayer of Hope are the same person.

46:21 Confirmed, Liandrin is your basic Black Ajah. But at least it’s not her viewings that guided her to the inn and the attic, it was Liandrin’s instructions, I guess.

Now tell me why we are supposed to be invested in this girl’s danger? Who is she to us? What relationship does she have to the main characters, aside from betraying Mat in their jailbreak?

And going off book knowledge of her role, I can imagine Mat saving her from Ishamael and something brings them to Falme where the other plotlines are converging and Rand shows up, and Perrin meets Aviendha, so each group of friends brings Rand a different girlfriend, isn’t that sweet?

48:29 I was about to ask if the show actually knew what the Shadow’s plan was, if Ishamael is trying to manipulate stuff, but random Myrddraal are trying to assassinate Rand, however when he lost the sword, I realized Lanfear is probably doing it to get him to channel.

49:29 “You know me, right?” is a dumb argument for a male channeler to make, just as it was dumb for the characters in the books to say that they did not believe Rand would hurt them, because the point of the madness is that it does not matter what you want to do, or how moral or trustworthy you are, you’re going to hurt people because of it. Book!Rand understood this very well. Yet another character they made more stupid onscreen.

50:17 If the first thing male channelers do when they go mad in this (and only this) version of the story, is kill the people they love, Rand has been criminally irresponsible starting a relationship. And he’s the one saying it. This is his understanding of the situation and his actions in comparison.

52:06 Those were lines he should have got from his actual love interests. As it is, it will just be trite if Elayne or Min says them, too. And as the threat in the relationship, it’s not a position Rand can argue to them.

54:38 Calling Lanfear the most dangerous Forsaken is not being super feminist, because you could make a good case for Graendal or Moghedian, and Semirhage is grossly overrated. Lanfear was a psycho stalker chick, whom no one took seriously and got outsmarted by everyone she tried to manipulate.

55:18 So the Forsaken are unkillable, now. Until the writers back themselves into a corner and have to come up with some exception. Whee. Can’t wait.

As far as Moiraine’s Oaths still holding … I give up. I don’t know if she’s taking advantage of the ignorance about severing to give herself credibility or what exactly her channeling status is, or if the writers even remember which is which and what the rules are.

55:19 Dave Hill wrote this one. Remember last season, when we discovered he was the guy who joined the "Game of Thrones" writing staff when it started to go in the toilet.

55:23 Liars!

Now I am wondering about the logistics of the damane plot. At this point, it makes more sense for Liandrin to just kill Elayne, rather than go through the effort to drag her to Falme with the other two, unless they are all going to wake up as damane. And I could see them doing that so their fave Egwene looks like less of a twit (her capture ITB was far from her best moment), and then extricating themselves from captivity. If they want to be legitimately smart, they have already established Elayne's tech skills, so they could incorporate that into an escape plan. I suspect they will not be smart, and will simply have the girls escape through Awesomeness, and possibly also some method that does not actually paint them in as good a light as the books did.

No telling where they are going with Superhero Moiraine, scoring an even more improbable victory over Lanfear than ITB, because the allegedly most dangerous Forsaken doesn't know how to set a ward when she is going to be vulnerable. The worst part is, as with her scene with Logain, she starts talking the badass voice and they think she's being epic and cool, but she's almost always saying something stupid and that voice makes her seem like a buffoon. I guess we're done with tragically suffering Moiraine and back to insufferable Moiraine. I wonder if they realize that her best moment this season was when she warned Domon to flee and gave him extra money, more than she had scammed, to help him do so? Because most of her "cool" moments come across as her being high on the smell of her own farts.

Perrin was enslaved, then rescued and you wouldn't know it this episode aside from a throwaway line. But at least we got an explanation of his powers, and were introduced to Hopper. Who was a homicidal asshole and incompetent teacher ITB. Given their track record of making everyone worse, I'm a little worried about Hopper going forward.

Mat appeared on screen.

Just going from the books, I have to assume there is a confrontation with the Seanchan as the climax of the season, through this episode seems to have forgotten the Horn of Valere is a thing. Anyway, the major antagonists have appeared in a single episode and were alluded to in another. What in all the blather about Aes Sedai relationships did they think was better than moving that plot along at a more even and dramatic pace?