#this is just a little speculation so take it with a grain of salt

[dr-zeddy]

I also believe that Miquella was jealous of Mohg/saw him as competition regarding his original plans

and intentionally made the Mohgwyn Dynasty look like an awful alternative to what he tried to do with the Haligtree.

This is on my personal speculative side but with the in-game context of what the Formless Mother religion symbolized in the Land's of Shadow, we may assume Mohg and his followers celebrated her in a similar fashion before Miquella took over his mind.

The bloodfiends are literally just vibing until you attack them/invade their territory. Bloodshed isn't the only thing this Outer God represents, it's also a symbolism for maternal love/birth/rebirth for those shunned and cursed (Hence why she blessed Mohg and showed up to the "subjugated tribe" in the Land's of Shadow), which we know from the "Outer God Heirloom"

I believe this deity is still twisted and not to meddled around with, but I don't think the Formless Mother exclusively stands for murdering people. We also know that the bloodfiends resulted to SH occasionally to serve their "mother" (which is in itself a little problematic but it also indicates that they do not walk around and randomly kill everything in their path) (see "Bloodfiend's Fork")

So my take is that when Miquella brainwashed Mohg this entire cult got corrupted too, making it the center of (mercy) killings and death while Miquella is the only anchor of life, we see this in the "Lord of Blood Exultation Talisman":

Spilling blood to create a new life. Which is, naturally speaking, nonsense and as I said before, a lot of things point to the fact that the FM has natural roots, while giving hope to those who were shunned.

This indicates that Mohg had similar goals to Miquella with his Haligtree, offering outcasts a haven/place to be/belong to. Miquella always relied on enchanting/manipulating people to achieve his goals, I guess he was pissed that Mohg was able to do this, only by being naturally charismatic, since we know that he had to be quite the leader if he pulls actual reasonable people like Ansbach to his side. He was the perfect leader for outcasts and the oppressed (see additonally my post about Mohg's appearence being extremley devine in the Land's of Shadow) and therefore was a direct threat to the things Miquella wanted to achieve with his Haligtree. Because why follow Miquella when there already was a similar cult/religion with a charismatic leader like Mohg?

[mycological-mariner]

I’m going through my copy of The Lady Tars and this was just incredible.

William Brown (birth name is unknown) may have been the first black woman to serve in the British Royal Navy. While the book here says Brown served for 11 years as captain of the maintop (others say capt. of the foretop), there’s another conflicting account that has her rated as a landsman in the ship’s muster. The Times wrote about her and this is the main source that she was a foretopman. The paper also says that Brown intended to enlist again as a volunteer and it’s completely plausible she did. However, it’s completely unknown either way. What is known indisputably is there was a young black woman from Granada going by the name of William Brown serving on the H.M.S. Queen Charlotte in 1815.

[setevulpo]

leander the... saint?

on this wonderful day i bring a theory about leander's name, or who he's named after. this is vastly speculation because leander is a mystery and a half in the body of a man, so take it with a grain of salt.

we know very few things about leander's life before canon: he grew up with a hightown family, was considered a prodigy, and left his home because he didn't want to join the senobium.

and then, as per norm at this point, i found a connection with a saint.

meet saint leander of seville, the only one known by that name:

now this is a man with some muscle on the tiddy department

this man is one of four siblings born to an elite family in what is now cartagena, spain. now, all four of them are in the religious area of life, and all four are considered saints.

however, saint leander was exiled by the king liuvigild for protecting his son, who was also canonised as saint hermenegild, and sent away to byzantium. there, it's said he attempted to get the emperor to fight against liuvigild, but failed.

and i gotta point out this dude's staff.

those are both from artistic depictions, obviously, but those decorations are... pretty similar to lilies, in my opinion. or, if i were to talk about a flower looking like that, i'd talk about lilies.

also, the way is bends into a swirl/spiral is quite interesting when you remember leander's (the character, not the saint) connection with immortality, and this little detail in his cg:

you see the swirl?

anyway, i am out of words to talk about them, but i just wanted to talk about how similar leander the character and leander the saint are, and how the character might have been named after the saint.

[nixotene]

Kind of in awe over how similar the actors for tua seem to be to their characters (in interviews at least) so take this with a grain of salt. I just think it’s cool how the casting directors seemed to find the perfect actors to play the roles, both looks and personality wise.

Master list of details I’ve found they share with their characters ig lol

Luther/Tom: loves working out and apparently does his learning while working out (cut to scene of Luther doing push-ups while reading). He’s a big softy and loves bringing the group together. He’s always there to boost his fellow actors self esteem.

Diego/David: Acts big and boisterous but is actually very invested in how others perceive him. Wants to be seen as the cool macho one but (not so) secretly has a heart of gold. He also seems to be the one they’re most likely to lovingly bully. Also dated Ritu (Lila’s actress) but kept the relationship as hidden as possible.

Ritu/Lila: she laughs to hide her true emotions. She overall tries hard to hide her true emotions. Again, secretly dated David and were only found out by fans through their families. Hate to say this one but seemed to break up due to events of s4 (just speculation as they stopped following each other/deleted photos off their socials a little before the season came out which likely means issues while filming it).

Allison/Emmy: cares a lot about her self image. Is a famous actor. I mean, they all are but like she really holds herself as one in interviews. She has a very refined actor way of answering questions while still allowing herself to be fun. Honestly hard to tell if she’s like Allison because I can’t tell how she’s like off screen, which is a good thing. She does often refer to the others in sibling/family terms which is so sweet.

Klaus/Robert: always saying the most unhinged and out there things. Constantly barefoot. He’s the glue that seems to hold them together and always knows how to make light of a situation through use of his quirky humour. I don’t know how watching the final scene together would have gone without him. Also appears to be a drug connoisseur.

Five/Aidan: very quiet until he needs to say something. He seems to very much be an old soul in a kids body. I remember in an interview on how they handled shooting the final scene and he mentioned he didn’t cry until he was alone in his trailer because he takes awhile to process things like that. He just seems like a very thoughtful person.

Ben/Justin: kinda sassy but in the way that you just love him more. The others (especially David) seem to love to bug him constantly. I love this bc Ben and Diego do seem to have been close before Ben died. He enjoys his alone time and solitude. He is soft spoken yet sassy. Honestly feels like he acts like a mix between umbrella Ben and sparrow Ben which I love.

Viktor/Elliot: he’s pretty introverted and doesn’t speak much unless prompted. Just overall a sweetheart that doesn’t want any trouble. He’s also a writer. Also tramsgemder

[jimblejamblewritings]

Sorry to be back on my fanfic blog without fanfic but I do listen to kpop and have listened to NCT’s music so I feel it necessary to speak up.

1. Don’t defend Taeil.

While innocent until proven guilty is still a motto the law should live by, the public’s opinion isn’t formed on useless facts. SM Entertainment wouldn’t remove him from the company unless he did something bad or they feel like there’s no way to prove his innocence in court if he actually didn’t do it. That means something. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for fans to reach the conclusions they have.

2. We don’t know much about the victim for the time being. Please respect that.

Police have only released a statement (from Koreaboo so take it with a grain of salt) that the victim wasn’t a minor his gender. That probably means she was a girl but with Koreaboo’s poor translations it could probably mean she was a woman as well. Don’t go seeking out this victim if they haven’t revealed themselves. Don’t speculate. We don’t know why they haven’t come out yet and the last thing we want to do is subject them to bullying by people who want to defend Taeil. And we don’t need to make the victim a certain person or way in order to show that Taeil committed a crime. He should answer for his *alleged* crimes no matter who the victim is. We don’t have to retraumatize this person to bring them justice.

3. Do not speculate on other members when police haven’t commented.

It is so dangerous to start speculating and accusing other people of witnessing, knowing of, or committing SA. The point is we know the police are investigating Taeil. They have only mentioned Taeil. Do not start throwing around other members names with such recklessness.

You distract from the focus of the crime and are potentially ruining someone else’s life. People grow up with family and roommates that turn out to be killers or SA’ers and they didn’t know until police came knocking on the door. You can get the ick from someone or not fully trust a member but no one’s mind would immediately jump to “I get a weird vibe from this member and it must be because he’s an abuser.” That’s not realistic.

Most people get the creeps and just can’t explain why until a court file is sitting in their hands. Let’s not detract from the known criminal by speculating others. That’s for the police investigation. We will dole out appropriate justice in public court when the police let us know either by their reports or by whatever evidence gets released.

4. Do not drag other idols’ scandals into this.

First of all, what Taeil did isn’t a scandal. It’s a crime. Some of you have twisted agendas and it’s gross to use a SA case to further a hate train. Yoongi drunk on a scooter or Karina’s secret boyfriends or so-and-so’s bad attitude are nowhere near the level of this crime. Leave them out of it. It’s disgusting to try and equate Taeil’s crime to some scandal drama tea. Get a life.

5. Don’t be xenophobic/racist.

Here’s a saying: when you point one finger, there’s three pointed back at you.

South Korea has a systemic issue with patriarchy that aids in contributing to a rape culture. But all countries do with little exception. Talking about the Korean justice system or systemic misogyny is perfectly fine. Do not use this as a moment to “all Korean men”.

It might not sound like there is a difference but here’s an example: “The black community has to address its systemic issues surrounding abusers in the home” vs. “Reminder black men are predators and you can’t trust them.”

Do you see how that sounds? It’s easy for people to slip into racist or xenophobic rhetoric. A lot of people aren’t aware that they are doing it and don’t mean to at all. They just want to talk about the issue at hand. I get it. But remember the rates aren’t exponentially higher in Korea than other countries. We have bad men (and women) all over. No one wants their race or ethnicity to be lumped together as an evil entity. That is, in fact, racism.

So remember, criticize the system and the government and the community environment not an ethnic or racial group.

6. I can’t believe I have to say this but…

Please stop attacking each other on the basis of girl group stan vs boy group stan. You sound deranged. This is a crime not some little playground argument about who’s better.

A hard pill for me to swallow in my younger 20s was the Johnny Depp case. I had to come to terms with my own biases and perceptions that were immediately challenged the moment Amber Heard admitted to being an abuser. The same way it’s not all men well it is some women.

Boy group stans, don’t just attack because people are hurt and confused and insulting you. It sucks, especially knowing you don’t support these abusers. But you must see where they are coming from and try to explain in a more rational way why they can’t just lump you all together or act that way.

And girl group stans, You are not better for being a girl group stan. You yell that boy group fans “don’t know these male idols” but you don’t know these female idols either. Hyuna is literally dating (and talking about marriage with) a man directly involved in the Burning Sun crime. Multiple female idols have been exposed for bullying their members, being violent with them, and then trying to play victim. At the end of the day, neither side knows these people. Don’t start playing the blame game over the gender of idol you stan.

7. Finally, it’s okay to be emotional about this.

You are not the victim, sure, but it’s okay to feel emotions about Taeil or any future crimes. People don’t want to believe others are inherently bad. That’s not even a healthy way to live. We have to see the good or neutrality in people. It’s what humans do. So if someone’s music or acting or sports or any entertainment brought you peace or joy, that’s wonderful to indulge in. If you believed the persona they were giving, you weren’t stupid.

They chose to lie. They chose to be a bad person. And they chose to drag everyone down to witness their depravity. You didn’t know so there is nothing to beat yourself up over. No one knew this about Taeil when they were listening to NCT. Don’t feel guilty for complimenting him in songs or wanting to collect his photocards. He was very good at subduing his red flags and making people think he was something else. It’s about what you do moving forward with the information you have not about the past.

Me personally: I’m going to wait for NCT comebacks a few comebacks from now before I will feel comfortable listening to them again. With the way he’s been fired, Taeil won’t be making money on their songs but I still would prefer if NCT re-recorded at some point and I probably won’t listen to old albums for a while. I don’t own any NCT merch so that’s not something I need to worry about.

If my plan seems feasible and comfortable for you then you are free to follow it. If there is a different way you want to avoid Taeil related things then do what’s best for you.

(This will probably be deleted in September or if there is an update to Taeil’s case. Until then…)

Have a nice day,

~Jimble Jamble

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Milk theory? 👁️👁️

ANYTHING FOR YOU TWO!!!!

ok this is gonna be short and mildly insane. i would like everyone to understand that this is pretty much Entirely unfounded & i'm just reading too much into a teeny little thing. however i've convinced myself that this theory is viable against all better judgement

take these mad ramblings with a Monumental grain of salt. im not to be taken seriously ever

so it all boils down to This

Little

Motherfucker.

the milk carton behind Barnaby's house.

it was added with the last large update, and it Immediately made me lose my mind. it's such a... strange thing to add to the map, which already has Teeny Secrets - along with other choice objects that make me narrow my eyes. but this isn't about them.

The very first thing I thought of when I saw the milk carton was the phrase "no use crying over spilled milk". which, of course, essentially means that there's no point in crying over things you can't change / things already done. There are a couple ways i'm interpreting it with this context

Something is going to happen that Barnaby feels personally responsible for. or is responsible for - either indirectly, or maybe he'll do something terrible. i think it's entirely possible that he might do that possible something for Wally. and again, take this with salt, but Clown has implied through trivia and fun hypotheticals that Barnaby would go to lengths for Wally. and yes, i know. taking evidence from "what would the neighbors do in Among Us" is absurd. IN MY DEFENSE! while the trivia isn't really to be taken seriously, there's always a thought process behind character roles and dynamics and behavior, and that is something that can be (carefully) looked into and applied. like in Among Us, apparently Barnaby would, and i quote, "Barnaby does all the Dirty work if Wally is an Impostor- Anything to help his little Buddy out...". anything to help his little buddy out, huh? like, it's been stated that Barnaby knows things about Wally that no one else does. and it's been mildly implied that he's fairly protective of Wally. and we all know that Wally is getting into some deep shit, and whether he means to or not he's likely gonna fuck everything up for everyone. it's not that big of a leap to speculate that Barnaby might do something drastic/horrible/regret-worthy in Wally's name / for his sake.

2. something terrible is going to happen to Barnaby / directly related to Barnaby, and he's going to be absolutely powerless to do anything about it. though i think that's kind of a given... yeah this section is pretty self explanatory

3. Barnaby is going to go missing. because what used to be on milk cartons? Missing Posters! yes yes i know this one is even more of a reach, since milk cartons didnt have missing posters on them till the 80s, but yk. it's a Thought.

my second thought was "oh ok so when the carton spills, it's curtains for Barnaby." this part of the theory is just me being paranoid that Barnaby is going to wind up kicking the bucket - though i suppose if that were the case, there would be a bucket, not milk. well, if a bucket ever appears, i'm going to start prematurely mourning. Still!

the point is - at some point, that milk is probably gonna spill. it may be just a detail as things get better Worse, or it could be indicative of something terrible happening to / because of Barnaby. the milk spills, Panic Time.

Milk Theory.

[liketwoswansinbalance]

What if Rafal couldn't save Rhian in time? Like Vulcan successfully stabbed him with the pen before Rafal could prevent it?

The comedic answer is that I have one word for you: gibbeting.

That's the more "fun" answer, a form of medieval execution/torture, which was specifically intended to make an example of someone, publicly, to deter further criminal acts, and if Vulcan murdered Rhian, well, he deserves the worst death possible! And why not make it a creative one? However, I think, to an extent, that gibbeting could be too extreme, and that Rafal would recognize that if Rhian were alive, he'd view it as an eyesore, tasteless, or simply too brutal, so it's probably unlikely to happen. But, Rafal might not be above it, considering that the Doom Room exists, so it could go either way, potentially.

Plus, there's some added, bonus "fun" here, in how a certain canon moment would come full circle. Vulcan put Rafal in a birdcage (while he was a black sparrow), and now, Rafal would get the pleasure of hanging Vulcan (or rather, his slowly dying and later, decomposing body) up in a cage, a pretty neat form of revenge, if I do say so myself, haha! Besides, Vulcan was a bit exhibitionistic, wasn't he? So, this would also make for an ironical fate.

⸻

Now for the serious answer. I hope you don't mind it if I get a little more subjective/personal with this one at some point. It's not quite as much an overblown, narrative-style post, and may be more understated than usual.

I took this "what if" ask to essentially mean: how would Rafal react to Rhian's death and how would he mourn Rhian over time? If I misinterpreted your ask, and this wasn't the kind of response you were expecting, please let me know. Also, everything is speculative, of course, so take my interpretations with a grain of salt. I'm open to hearing other opinions!

I think Rafal's immediate, knee-jerk reaction would probably be to murder Vulcan as revenge, but also it would serve the more practical reason of disposing of the tyrant usurper, ousting him from the School permanently. However, I don't think Rafal would find catharsis in it, not this time at least, considering why he is doing it.

He'd have to act on his feet, and quickly, because, Vulcan would still pose a threat to his own life, which would force Rafal to delay any kind of visceral, emotional reaction.

That is why I think the murder would be done instantaneously because speed is more important, and so is getting the task done right. And, having Vulcan dead sooner for everyone's safety is more important than the potential brutality of any kind of gruesome catharsis Rafal could derive from the act. That's why I think Rafal would go about performing this particular murder in a less sadistic fashion, for once, like how Vulcan died in canon by a stab wound, versus the time when Rafal turned Rufius to gold and shattered him, or did worse to others, generally. If Vulcan had simply been a foe who was already incapacitated, that could've given Rafal the opportunity to go for a worse form of murder, but Vulcan isn't harmless.

Thus, employing a "kinder" form of murder in this instance wouldn't be out of sympathy for Vulcan, but more so, to fulfill an urgent need. And, in some sense, the act of murder would be done out of a kind of duty to Rhian, for Rhian's sake and nothing more. I think Rafal deriving pleasure/catharsis out of this murder could possibly be a bit of a slight to Rhian's memory because this is somber business.

Then, after that adrenaline or rage-fueled clarity and the action taken, I think Rafal would next probably feel some kind of uncomprehending fog next because Rhian was suddenly ripped away from him with little warning. His supposedly immortal brother, who was supposed to be with him forever, just died. To an extent, that has to feel surreal.

The surreal feeling could start out as a detached, dissociated feeling, like the kind of out-of-body experience where you're like a third-person observer, (probably a similar feeling as a panic attack?) Like, what? What has my life become? Rhian is suddenly gone, for good.

(The revelation of Rhian's death being real could also prompt a lot of thought as to why their bond wasn't able to save or revive Rhian, and could evoke guilt.)

Once Rafal processes the implications of Rhian's death, his initial outburst could be the most, actual, unbridled emotion he lets out, at all, if ever—maybe, one raw, primal scream of agony into the ether and that’s it. (Yet, I'm also tempted to say, that's too dramatic of a reaction, even for him. As interesting as it is to go to extremes in other cases, I'm attempting to go for something closer to realism here, so bear with me.)

While there is probably a narrow chance, that under the exact, right conditions, he could be driven insane or become an extremist in some way, out of guilt or by how ridiculously unjust the whole situation would be, I think it's a little more plausible that Rafal would just bury himself in his work. He could devote his life to Evil, and still keep it in balance with Good, without Rhian there to keep him in check, even if he was more often the one to keep Rhian in check, from what we saw. (He could also become disillusioned with the world and the Pen.)

Given how I view Rafal, I think he would shut down emotionally but not functionally. He wouldn't let himself dwell on the grief for long, and he might even (irrationally) resent Rhian for dying, at first, on the surface, because he's now got twice the work. And yet, the work would be a welcome distraction from his actual grief.

Additionally, I think Rafal would become numb and immune to all emotional appeals from other people. Not even a trick like Hook reminding him of Rhian would work to convince him to change his mind that he's already made up in any future instance. He's never, never investing himself in the fate of another person again. Not when he could lose them. He just... does his job. Someone has to do it after all.

That said, I think his paranoia level would absolutely skyrocket, too, as a result of the whole Vulcan incident, and that he'd isolate himself more than he already did before.

Now comes the part where this may or may not take a weird turn, and I could be projecting with what I'm about to say, but I think I have actual reason to apply it to Rafal, purely out of thinking it could make sense for him, (as just one of the many possible ways he could take Rhian's death. Again, this is all just my speculation. I could easily be wrong, so keep that in mind.)

Ok, I'm not sure if this is a common or a weird thing to think and I had a feeling it could be controversial. Thus, I'm going to preface it with this: my intention is not to sound callous, but...

I (usually) do not miss people when they are gone. (Death is different from just absence though.)

I doubt that I "miss" people in what is the typical way, from what I have heard from others? Though, I have an explanation. Obviously, it depends, but missing others doesn't occupy my every waking thought. (And thoughts about fictional characters are a different type of thought to arise.)

I feel others' presence when they’re around, and when they’re not around, unless I'm concerned for them, I don’t exactly think about them. It's kind of "out of sight, out of mind," except for the cases in which I actually am holding something to say to them in mind for our next encounter.

I’m sorry if this is strange, but I think that’s how I operate most of the time. I don't "wait around" for people to return because I always have some thing to occupy myself with. Can anyone relate?

I suspect that the reason why is because, to me, missing someone is what I would classify as an active feeling. When someone I love is apart from me, I'm usually busy, regardless of whether they're present or not (that doesn't change), and I know that when you're busy, you don't have the time to feel, at least not active emotions. They just... don't occur to you? Or maybe they are not conscious?

Now, from my view of things, if something you feel becomes a problem, and interferes with your daily functioning or general contentment with everyday life, that could very well surface as a real reaction or outburst. But, that's an entirely different matter. I also think that I am reminded of people at times, but that I usually don't "miss" them without there being some kind of (internal or external) stimuli that causes me to think about them.

Maybe, I'm just projecting onto Rafal too much because I relate to him over other characters, and this is silly, or junk psychoanalysis, but it seemed to fit his character also???

Sometimes, I just want recognition more than I want actual companionship since I don't get lonely. I wonder what that says about me? That I'm an introvert, or lazy because relationships require regular maintenance to sustain them? I promise I'm not a misanthrope!

Ok, back to Rafal. He's sunken himself into his work and as such, he wouldn't actively miss Rhian. (If anyone would like more clarification, I'm not saying he wouldn't grieve Rhian at all. It's not that.)

And, if we're going down a more realistic than dramatic route, he wouldn’t lose his sense of self, or his mind over Rhian. Yes, not even Rhian. I think the only thing keeping him running and tethered to his life would be his commitment to the School/keeping himself alive.

What this makes me think of is how people romanticize grief or unrequited love, how they may end up looking wan and eventually wasting away (well, if we're talking about being heartsick in literary/symbolic contexts...). And, I just don't think Rafal would be the type of person to fall into some kind of "madness" or melancholic malady. Grief just wouldn’t be so debilitating or all-consuming to him because he wouldn’t let it do that to him. He wouldn’t stop eating or sleeping as I would expect these behaviors more from someone like Rhian, not him.

Similarly, he might not indulge in pleasurable things, but he’s a bit of an ascetic already anyway, so that’s that. He could potentially renounce pleasurable things in life out of mourning, in a traditional way, but I doubt that would happen either, to be honest. It probably wouldn't cross his mind. At least, it wouldn't happen on a formal, conscious level, even if he could very well deprive himself without realizing it.

I just don't think Rafal would be engulfed by grief, simply because he isn’t that much of an emotionally driven person or that vulnerable to being swept up by personal tragedy, when compared to Rhian, who's more "wild." He’d only let his grief manifest so far, assuming his emotions do still remained locked down and under his control.

So, while he may think about Rhian regularly, he might just accept the fact of Rhian's death, carry on, and not miss him because Rafal missing Rhian could (implicitly) mean becoming non-functional due to grief (or guilt) and that would be too great of a risk for Rafal to take, considering his current reality alone. Basically, to let himself wallow in those emotions would be an unnecessary "risk," from his viewpoint. That's why he might repress that reflective type of thought.

Such feelings would be too much mess or potential disorder for someone like him, especially if he realized he couldn't keep them contained, and they, as a consequence, actually jeopardized his fate or the School's, assuming the grief made him unable to perform his job properly.

(He'd probably subtly resent the Storian as well, for not preserving Rhian's life.)

Also, one small point: in canon, was his bond with Rhian really, truly all-consuming? Let's stop and ask ourselves that for a moment.

Yes, for a time, their bond may have seemed like it was priority no. 1, but Rafal was apart from Rhian for six months, and might not have consciously missed him, if it took him that long to return after getting an external reminder from his interactions with Hook. It might have taken something outside of himself (like the prophecy) for him to come to the realization that he had to return and reestablish his loyalty to Rhian (which was arguably never gone, just dormant for a while). And this would mean that if left alone to his own devices, had he never been moved by James, or "awakened" and been made aware by Adela Sader, he could have taken longer than even six months to return... if he ever decided to at all, if the thought ever arose in the first place.

So, overall, it would only be rarely, when he has nothing to occupy himself with, that Rafal would grieve in some quiet way, and over time, the grief would fade. It wouldn't leave him entirely, but it would diminish, I think, the more and more he distances himself from everything else.

Also, in canon, I suspect that he lies to himself about how much he cares for Rhian. He never shows Rhian much affection, but he sacrifices his life for him, on instinct, which probably means a grieving Rafal would also lie to himself about how “little” he mourns Rhian. In reality, he’d probably mourn Rhian a great deal more than he could know, but wouldn’t have enough self-awareness to realize it.

Perhaps, at night, he would be haunted by Rhian's memory, and take on Rhian's insomniac trait on occasion. Also, to credit @cursed-daydreamer, I think it would be plausible for Rafal to take on a few of Rhian's traits, unconsciously, to compensate for the loss, and fill his void; it could be a way of keeping Rhian's presence in his life.

Lastly, I doubt that Rafal would publicly erect monuments or dedicate anything to Rhian. He wouldn’t want a painful, visual reminder around. His rituals, if we were to call them that, any form of remembrance, I mean, would likely be private, away from prying eyes and students. Rafal wouldn't want to come across as weak or sentimental. That’s the last thing he needs at the moment, a ruined reputation, another so-called threat to his own life/power. Because, increased paranoia could lead him to believe that if he were to show any sign of vulnerability, more "Vulcans" could prey on him and the School.

He could maintain the cherry blossom trees though, but it'd always be a sobering occasion, and he'd never take the credit.

Besides that, he probably wouldn’t go eulogizing his brother or canonizing him. He can still recognize Rhian's flaws, and to praise Rhian so completely would be "too much," too public, and the performative (or contrived) nature of certain mourning customs like those would probably strike him as "wrong" because they just seem... insincere. I don't think Nevers (if we're assuming Rafal remains Evil) put as much much stock in praise anyway, according to their value system.

The exception to the rule would probably be if he recognized that it would be Rhian's wish, to receive some recognition or a dedication. Then, he would do it, out of reverence, I think. He'd have reason to "excuse" it (Rhian's dying wishes), unlike visible emotions, which don't have an excuse to be felt.

⸻

Also, I was wondering: does anyone agree or disagree? I'm really curious because this ask provoked a train of thought I'd never considered before!

[dnalt-d2]

So we've got a new update on the Admin Situation, and this one's…A little complicated, to say the least.

Basically, Quackity has stated that he is opening the server tomorrow to welcome the new Korean Creators, but for the time being, there will be no NPCs, including the Eggs. He's also temporarily laid off nearly, if not all the workers he has, including the people doing the Twitter Updates.

And apparently many of them found this out through the stream, much like we did. This seems to be the biggest point of contention for many people, and I'll admit I'm not happy about it either. The only justification I can think of for this is that he didn't want people to find this all out second-hand from people who potentially don't have the all the information. But even with that, I think they should have been made aware before us, even if it was just by a few minutes. That wouldn't have been ideal either, but it would've been better than not knowing at all

The person who brought this forward initially, Lea, has stated that she knows for sure that "Jay" (The person who made the unauthorized update before) was fired, but to her knowledge, some of the other Admins who caused the problems are still employed. I think this might be one of those things that she doesn't have the full scope of information on, since we were also just informed that pretty much all the Admins aren't currently employed. We do have to keep in mind that she's getting this information from someone else who is apparently still in contact with the team. However, it's obvious that even some of the Admins who weren't initially fired aren't entirely in the loop, which means she wouldn't have been getting all the information either. So I think we need to take some of the things she says moving forward with a grain of salt

I'm not saying she's lying by any means, but when you have limited information to work with, playing a game of telephone to get that information isn't always gonna be that reliable

On top of all that, a lot of people seem to be in agreement that Quackity may have implied that money was being embezzled from him and Quackity Studios. I'm not going to say much on that, since it's TECHNICALLY speculation. However I will at least say that it doesn't seem entirely out of the question, and I wouldn't be even slightly surprised to learn that this was the case

Regardless of how it happened, there was a loss of funds, and this loss of funds means that the server has to start slower than before. Hence the absence of the NPCs on the server, and the current stop on Twitter Updates. It sounded to me like he's planning on bringing people back slowly, making sure they're paid for their roles from here on out. And as the financial situation stabilizes, we'll likely see more Admins return to their roles

I want to believe as of now that things are improving. If they weren't, I believe we would have heard about it by now, from the other Admins. We've already seen an Admins in charge of one of the Twitter Accounts say something, and I'm sure we'll get more news like that soon. But we would have DEFINITELY heard if absolutely nothing was going on. I don't think it's fair for the Admins to have not been notified beforehand, and I think that should be the next problem to fix for sure. But the way I see it, what's happening now is a step in the right direction. It's only the first of many, and not even necessarily a big step, but it's a step nonetheless

Once again, I want to remind people that we aren't going to see these changes being made until we're shown them. People can try to tell us what they know as they find it out themselves, but for all we know, they're only showing the bad parts of what's going on. We should really take any future information, good or bad, with a grain of salt as well. It's easy to say things are getting better or worse, but I think we should wait until we see the changes for ourselves and go from there

(I also wanna say that I've seen speculation from a few people, mostly on Twitter, that "Jay" is probably just Quackity trying to cover his tracks and make a scapegoat for what's happening. But with the information we have, that seems incredibly unlikely. Lea didn't know who he was when he first made his unofficial statement, but her recent tweets imply that she knows who he is now. And considering that she's the one who brought all this up to begin with, I HIGHLY doubt she'd keep quiet if he was actually Quackity)

So now, again, all we can do is wait, and continue giving our support to the people who need it. I want to believe that things can get better. I want to believe that Quackity is trying his best to improve things

Try and stay positive, everyone. Even if the server isn't the same as before, we'll be fine. Even if QSMP shuts down entirely, we'll be fine. At the end of the day, people's health and mental health is more important than a Minecraft Server, and if you feel like your mental health is being impacted by what's going on, please take some time for yourself. Worrying constantly over something we have zero control in isn't going to help anyone. If you need to take a step back, please do so. And when you're ready to come back, we'll still be here, even if the QSMP isn't. We've built a great community, and it's been incredibly fun being a part of it. And I sincerely doubt it's going away, regardless of what happens next

So make sure you take care of yourselves

[rbr4c1ng]

Hii! I was wondering if you could maybe explain the bus bros fallout or p2p gate or pretty much all of the McLaughlin-Newgarden lore to me since I'm only getting in to IndyCar now and I want to be caught up before the 500. I understand this is a big ask but I've seen that youve posted about it and I just NEED to know. Any links to other pieces of lore would also be much apreciated. Completely understand if you don't want to write anything though so thank you so much I advance!! <3

YES ABSOLUTELY I WILL EXPLAIN! this is my special interest dw i could write an 18 page essay about their lore.

SO basically scott came into indycar from supercars in 2020-2021 ish and him a josef started getting along like super well, which is honestly a bit odd bc josef is known to not really let people get so close to him, so scotty is a bit of an outlier in that respect.

eventually! they make bus bros!!! wooooo everyone loves it etc etc they have fun making it…. until they don’t! leading up to their breakup there were QUITE a few clues that they knew it was gonna end in flames like scott talked about it on off track (see audio excerpt below) and on hot seats with hinch if i remember correctly?

there’s also a fair share of articles that mention it. they basically knew it was inevitable but i don’t think anyone thought it was gonna happen so quickly??

so then the winter break leading into the 2024 szn happened! this is about when i started getting really into bus bros and was honestly pretty present for some of this shit (i was at the daytona 24 and st pete so i’ve got some first hand evidence but we will get to that later)… anyways so the rumors start going around that bus bros is over around?? st pete time i think??? a little bit earlier. which is odd given that they seemed okay with each other at the daytona 24, even though i thought it was strange that they weren’t both on tower motorsports anymore cause josef switched to penske porsche but GENERALLY it seemed okay (although based on this pic idk their relationship seems a little charged atp but it’s all speculation really)

then after the rumors come out i think it was jenna fryer’s article that did it in? (idk it has a paywall on it for me right now and i don’t care enough to find it here but there’s definitely excerpts floating around) now i do recommend to take anything jenna fryer says with a grain of salt bc she is essentially a gossip columnist for all intents and purposes. but the article basically said that josef and scotty were done and scott wouldn’t answer any questions about it and was only saying that they’re fine or to ask josef about it (tea from todays 100 days to indy episode actually…). they promptly took down the bus bros merch site and have been relatively quiet since then. at st pete they talked on the podium and didn’t seem too bad but i’ve seen other clips where they won’t even sit next to each other or speak to each other so take that as you will. podiums are pretty much just publicity, cameras everywhere, you’d probably want to seem at least cordial with your teammate.

(pic 1 is mine, pic 2 is a pic of my tv from todays episode LMFAO)

so heres where most of the speculative stuff comes in. Josef dissolved his media company, unfollowed everyone, and cancelled bus bros leading into the 2024 season because he wanted to “get rid of distractions”, and really we could leave it at that, but i find it hard to believe that that’s the only thing that happened.

Josef is the dictionary definition of Penske Perfect, you won’t get any closer to it than him. he’s fucking OBSESSED with this idea of being perfect. perfect season, perfect body, perfect car, perfect team. obviously this isn’t feasible, but scotty seemed to have broken through that block in his little Penske Perfect brain and got him to LIGHTEN UP A BIT. and then the 2023 season happened. sure, josef won the indy 500 but it was one of his worst season finishes in a while and, to make matters worse, scott BEAT him. little scotty mac, supercars champion transplant from 2021 beat josef newgarden at his own fucking game after breaking down his walls and making him soft. i can see how that scared josef honestly. so he ended it. Scott doesn’t see things on a plane of winning/losing imo, everything is just experience for him. hell, he didn’t even know if he would end up in indycar and he sure as hell didn’t think he’d win races so soon AND beat his teammate. to josef, it’s JUST winning/losing. if he’s losing, he needs to be better. and he lost sight of that for the 2023 season. that’s why he had to come back and put an end to the shenanigans bc he knows scott makes him soft.

but that’s just my speculation!!!!! literally could just be nothing. maybe it is to josef, but i know for a FACT it isn’t to scott.

OH and with the p2pgate stuff! basically they had a component in their car that. was not supposed to be there! that prevented race control from turning off their push to pass like normal. (marshall pruitt has a rlly good article explaining it all here) and they were caught in long beach when race control forgot to turn on the push to pass during the sunday warm up and HMMMMM why do the penske cars still have it???? when has this happened before??? oh ok st pete! now they’re disqualified. josef used 9 seconds of p2p when it was not enabled and scotty only used 1.9 and will used none. so i’m led to believe that it was a josef-centered choice IF it was intentional to use the p2p when it was supposed to be inactive.

now josef really laid down the water works for that press conference at barber to the point that i was having a VERY hard time watching it. i felt bad for the guy. he seemed really fucking upset and i almost believe that it WASNT on purpose but. it’s just too good to be true right?

honestly i think this all could tie back to the downfall of bus bros in that scott maybe didn’t want to do the p2p thing but josef was willing to? and maybe that caused some sort of divide between them bc then again for josef it’s about Winning No Matter What, and yes scott wants to win but cheating isn’t the way for him. idk.

for more of their lore when they WERE friends, watch bus bros (duh), admit one, 100 days to indy, scott learns america: nashville, hot seats with hinch, and listen to scott’s episode on off track with hinch and rossi! also there are some very brief interactions between them on some older penske games videos before bus bros was even a thing but it’s not much. there are more but i can’t think of them rn…

sorry for rambling, if you have any more qs feel free to ask!!! i’m always available for brain picking :)

[fatal-blow]

what are some ways hypermobility can effect your body that no-one really talks about?

it's interesting actually because i don't think hypermobility is inherently disabling. we've all heard about those freaks (affectionate) who are active and healthy, but just happen to be able to contort their bodies into unbelievable shapes. so much of hypermobility seems to be the way it interacts with other factors. I'll go over some stuff that i know is directly related to hypermobility though!

hypermobility has little to do with joints, and everything to do with everything else. see, muscles are connected to bone by tendons. hypermobility increases the stretch of the tendons. this is like making the ropes attaching your hammock to the trees really stretchy. so when the actual muscle flexes, it first must pull the tendons tight before it can start moving the bone that it's attached to. ergo, hypermobility makes the muscles work harder to achieve the same results as non-hypermobile bodies.

for a lot of people who have hypermobility and don't realize it, and now have chronic pain, this is often due to the overuse of muscles. you are not weak, you are not frail, you are just very, very tired. please look at my pinned post--learning how to treat trigger points has allowed me to treat my pain!! it's reversible!! you CAN get better!!

relatedly, this is why building muscle can help combat the negative effects of hypermobility. but you can't build your muscles until they've been treated for overuse. this is where i think a lot of physiotherapy falters.

seems to be related to estrogen! because estrogen is involved with collagen synthesis, and collagen is the thing in the tendons that makes things stretchier. I've yet to read more into this in detail, but considering hypermobility seems to affect those with higher levels of estrogen in the body, I'm not surprised.

similarly, pregnancy causes the tendons and ligaments to loosen, presumably due to the aforementioned effects of estrogen. whether or not things go back to normal after pregnancy, I don't know.

hypermobility can also affect the veins and nerves, making THEM stretchy as well. I'm more knowledgeable about the muscular impacts, but I've seen suggestions that varicose veins are more likely, causing the veins to stretch around blockages rather than. be blocked by them.

in a fit of irony, i, personally, think that hypermobility actually saves the body from the effects of stress--or more specifically, body wide muscular tension. because when your muscles get tight enough, they pull on the bones and start pinning nerves and crushing veins--literally crushing you to death. having a wibbly, squishy body could totally counter that. could even be why women tend to live longer than men! this bullet point is pure speculation on my part though, so take that with a grain a salt (or however much you want to trust my hypotheses gjfj)

the way hypermobility presents in people can make it difficult to diagnose. for instance, people who aren't super stretchy could be hypermobile, except their muscles have stiffened up so much that they seem like they have normal range of motion. my mother, queen of eds, is like this! that's why it's important to look across a broad range of diagnostic criteria, and consider your history and the current state of your body.

I DONT...actually think stretching makes hypermobility worse. but i do think stretches need to be targeting the right spots to be effective. unfortunately this requires knowing things both about the human body and your own body. it's a lot of work.

oh also hypermobility can make your body feel less stable and more unbalanced. and when you feel unbalanced you start clenching muscles so you don't fall over. and then those muscles get overused and tired, so you clench other muscles to keep THOSE muscles from failing. it's a nasty little feedback loop that can be difficult to break, and if allowed to continue, it can really fuck your shit up.

but i really do want to stress that so many of the problems related to hypermobility are not only treatable but reversible. muscle overuse is a HUGE problem with hypermobility, but after reading the book in my pinned post (and realizing that every pain pattern in there matched MY pain patterns) I've been able to work on recovery.

like i had symptoms of carpel tunnel, of tendonitis, bursitis, even some symptoms of diabetes and pancreatitis, (and more but if i keep listing them we'll be here all day) and the muscle treatment in that workbook has steadily reduced and eliminated those symptoms. my mother was practically bed bound by her disability and now she can go on short walks and feels better than she has in a very long time. it's reversible. you don't have to be in pain forever. we can all get better (it'll just take a while, I've been doing this for a year and a half and I'm still working at it, but what matters is that I'm better)

[miquella-everywhere]

Miquella and the Carian Royal Family

Okay so, I read somewhere in cut content(which i cannot find for the life of me 😢 if anyone knows what in talking about plz help me out lol) that it was apparently Radagon who introduced Miquella to the Carian Family. Which is... a pretty damn awkward situation all around lol

Like really, can you imagine being Miquella? Going into your fathers previous family and seeing all things that he had done to stifle them; the Preceptors mask, their step-siblings(Ranni and Rykard specifically) hostility to the Golden Order, Rennalas declining mental state... Like what sort of feelings would Miquella have had in that situation?

Could they have been indifferent perhaps? Maybe they felt pity or guilty for Carias decline? Or maybe it was the beginning of a budding disdain for Radagon and Fundamentalism altogether?

Either way, it's evident that Miquella spent quite a bit of time there, what with the Miquellan Knights Sword being based off of the Carian Knights Sword and even the Haligtree Knights, the absolute pain in the ass they are, know a few Glintstone Sorceries meaning Miquella was heavily inspired by the Carians and clearly respected them.

And the Carians also seem to have respected Miquella as well, so much so that one of their own Knights, Loretta, would switch sides and swear fealty to Miquella and their Haligtree, but also remain loyal enough to leave behind her spirit to defend Caria Manor.

So with all of this I can't help but wonder about the relationships that Miquella may have had with the rest of the Carian family, and I plan on discussing it in this post!

Keep in mind that some of this is speculation along with a few personal headcanons, so take all of this with a grain of salt please lol

Rennala

Just... Rennalas whole deal with her grief surrounding Radagon and her obsession with rebirth and the scholars that come from her amber egg is already pretty heavy. And then for Miquella to come in and potentially meet his step-mother(who's mind may or may not have been declining at that point) could lead to a very awkward confrontation.

Could Rannala had resentment towards Miquella? Or could she have been utterly enamored with the eternally young Demigod and treated them as one of her own?

Rennala: My little Sweeting :)

Miquella: Well I guess I'm a little sweeting now 🤷

akdhhsajdh Either way, regardless of her true feelings it's clear that Rennala allowed Miquella residence at Caria Manor, and it's from there that Miquella became acquainted with their other Carian Step-Siblings.

Ranni

Ranni and Miquella are both two characters that, at a glance, seem like they wouldn't get along at all considering the canon lore.

Ranni was a Carian Sorcerer, Miquella was a Golden Order Fundamentalist. Ranni murders Godwyn to further her own agenda, and Godwyn was Miquella's beloved older brother, someone who they loved very dearly, going so far as to concoct a plan to revive his soul somehow. So at first you'd think that Miquella and Ranni would be hostile towards one another considering everything, but as I digged more into the lore and Ranni's passing mentions of Miquella it became apparent, at least from Rannis viewpoint, that there is no ill-will between the two Empyreans.

At the very beginning of the game you encounter Ranni at the Church of Elle and she asks you if you are riding a Spectral Steed called Torrent, and, if you say yes, Ranni seems pleased by this and gives you a Spirit Calling Bell and the Lone Wolves Ashes, both items that were entrusted to her by Torrents former Master to hand off to you. (which also implies that Miquella knew Torrent would choose a Tarnished like what???? 😳)

Later on she specifically says that she is pleased to see Torrent hail and hearty, and when you hand her the Finger-Slayer Blade she extends her thanks to Torrent in his part in all of this.

So, CLEARLY, there is much more going on here than we're being allowed to know, with Torrent likely acting as an extension of Miquellas will while they slumber.

But the important thing that can be gathered from all of this is that Miquella and Ranni seem to be pretty okay with each other for the most part. And if you subscribe to the theory that Miquella sent Malenia to fight Radahn to free the moon and their fate, like I do, then it becomes fairly obvious that Ranni and Miquella have quite a bit in common, and perhaps even have a shared fate.

But unfortunately we'll have to wait until the DLC to get any concrete confirmation for any of this lol 😭

Radahn

The most important thing you need to understand about Radahns character is that he is kind. He is a good man who was respected by his Generals and Soldiers alike, and he was a man who loved animals as well. So if you think that he didn't see his two cursed younger siblings and thought, "Wow these two need a role model," then you are wrong.

jk 😂

But really, I can't really find much of a connection between Miquella and Radahn, other than the locations of Miquellas Lily in Redmane Castle and Sellia, which indicates that Miquella did spend time there, but the more important connection to focus on is the relationship between Malenia and Radahn.

Malenia likely always aspired to be of use to Miquella, especially with how dedicated they were to finding a cure for her, so she probably trained to be able to weild a sword from a young age despite the Rot essentially crippling her. And Radahn most likely found that to be very admirable of his younger sister, so my theory is that while Miquella stayed at Redmane and studied at Sellia, Radahn probably taught Malenia a few things or two about combat and the art of war, before she ended up meeting her Blind Master later on.

And if anything this just makes their final confrontation in Caelid all the more tragic :'(

Rykard

While Miquella was famed for blessing the low and the meek, Rykard was infamous for his cruelty and blasphemy. You wouldn't think that these two would have anything in common, but they actually have quite a few parallels to one another:

They are both sons of Radagons (who both became estranged from him later on)

They both have a proficiency for mechanical engineering i.e Rykards Iron Virgins, Miquellas Pulley Bow/Crossbow and Prosthetics

They both have a form of disdain for the Golden Order: Rykard and his blasphemy, and Miquella outright rejecting Fundamentalism

So with all this I can imagine that their relationship/interactions would have been... Interesting to say the least.

Now this part is speculation/headcanons, but with Miquella's arrival to Caria Manor Rykard would definitely have felt disdain for his prodigal half-sibling, and would have likely ribbed Miquella as eloquently as possible. But Miquella, an Empyrean, steadfast and determined, would not have backed down from Rykard.

Cue the most intense discussion about Religion and Science in the Lands Between ever. Everyone within earshot of these two are terrified 😂

So I can imagine that despite their differences Rykard and Miquella probably had a mutual respect for one another. Heck, it hasn't been posted yet, but in my Lily Hunt in Mt. Gelmir you can find several Miquella's Lily's in some pretty unlikely places, meaning that Rykard did allow Miquella to be on Mt. Gelmir doing... whatever it was that they were doing there lol

Also

Wouldn't you say that the Tonic of Forgetfulness is a little too floral for Rykards aesthetics???? 🤔

I mean, in cut content, if Miquella/St. Trina had the ability to make Dream Brew, which doubled as alcohol and a way to peer into someones deepest secrets, it wouldn't be too farfetched if Miquella could craft a brew that could erase someones painful memories.

If this theory is correct then it definitely puts an interesting spin on Miquella and Rykards relationship; two characters who are complete polar opposites to eachother.

But if Rykard commissioned Miquella to create a tonic that would give Tanith the option to spare herself from the potential pain of Rykards blasphemous path, how could Miquella refuse such a request? After all, they know very well about the desire to relieve someone of their pain and suffering.

[irradiatedsnakes]

hi so i’ve been following you for a little (mostly because of dinosaurs and mechanisms) but i’ve been curious about this and don’t really know where else to ask, how do you find dinosaur references? i’ve been wanting to start drawing some dinos again but really have no idea where to go for references or inspiration.

my go-to's are skeletal references and 3d models!

for skeletals, the gold standard is scott hartman's. he's done sooo many and they're all very good- you can find them on his website here. https://www.skeletaldrawing.com/

i do think his life reconstructions tend to be on the shrinkwrapped side, but his skeletals are great.

for skeletals, gregory s. paul is another great resource. if you can find a physical or digital copy of the princeton field guide to dinosaurs, it has skeletal references for a LOOOOT of dinos.

greg paul's life reconstructions should also be taken with a grain of salt- shrinkwrapping and pronated hands abound. his taxonomy is also notably controversial (he's the lead author on that tyrannosaurus regina/rex/imperator paper from a while back..), so double-check the genus/species names you're referencing.

(he also has the princeton field guides to marine reptiles and pterosaurs, but i haven't read those so i can't comment. haven't heard great things about the pterosaurs one, though- if you want pterosaur references, go for pteros.com, pterosaur.net, and mark witton's "pterosaurs" book)

now for 3d models- skeletals are all well and good, but if you're not drawing a dinosaur from the side their usefulness can be limited. sketchfab is my go-to to find 3d reference. i look for skeletons/skulls from museums that have been digitized, mostly-

but i'll also look for full reconstructions, just reference them in the same way you'd reference any other art piece (with care).

i also sometimes use the video games saurian and prehistoric kingdom? they both allow you to spin around the models of their animals, and their reconstructions are both super good.

lastly is to reference the work of other palaeoartists! this especially fits in for the inspiration part.

here's a few awesome palaeoartists around the internet (tyhank you to billymayslesbian for helping me put these together!)

mark witton

fred wierum (aka fredthedinosaurman)

john conway

alphynix (here on tumblr under the same name)

julio lacerda (this hatzegopteryx image is one of my favorite palaeoarts ever tbh)

joschua knüppe (here on tumblr at knuppitalism-with-ue, i'm especially a fan of his work recreating classical paintings with extinct primates)

and for more cartoony/styilized work:

miquel camiodraws

johan egerkrans

abby howard (here on tumblr at abby-howard)

natalia jagielska

greer stothers (here on tumblr at pangur-and-grim)

nev (saint-nevermore here on tumblr, this picture is one of my favorite palaeoarts of all time)

for some more books, check out all yesterdays by darren naish and john conway, which takes a highly speculative look at reconstructions of prehistoric animals, mostly dinosaurs.

also look at mark witton's the palaeoartist's handbook, which is exactly what it sounds like and i think could be VERY helpful for what you're looking for.

[genericpuff]

The LO TV show isn't happening, and here's why.

Now, before I begin, courtesy to /u/Princess_Space_Goose because they're one of the driving forces behind these observations concerning stuff in the entertainment sector and they were the first ones to make a comprehensive post about it over on reddit shortly after we got into it in the Discord and compiled everything we knew. But I also REALLY wanna talk about this and I'm surprised to see I haven't yet. They've covered reddit, so I'm covering Tumblr LMAO

Disclaimer: Long post ahead. Much of what I say below is speculation but there's a lot of damning evidence to support it. Take it with grains of salt.

Rachel has vague-posted about the show a couple times over the past few years, but very sparingly so, always stating that it's "in the works" without anything to actually show for it. This would have been fine back in 2020 or even 2021 (the pandemic did bring a lot of television/movie development to a crawl) but we're over halfway through 2023 now.

So where's the show? Who's running it? What is it gonna look like? Which streaming service is it going to be hosted on?

We literally do not know any definitive answers to these questions because nothing has been revealed and at this point in the game, that's basically a death sentence. LO has been on a noticeable decline in stats over the past year, while we obviously can't access the backend numbers (and neither can Rachel as far as I know because WT guards them with an iron fist which is a whole other topic for discussion) it's still very clear by the comic's rating slowly but surely dropping and the like count average lowering (obv the like count isn't indicative of view count but if the ratio has remained the same, that means if the like count lowers, the viewership is likely lowering too). There's also been certain behavior from WT over the past year that hints at the comic not doing well, such as its VERY aggressive ad campaigning which often undercuts other series on the platform that are far better than LO and deserve the spotlight, but lose it anyways because WT just wants to keep its golden goose on life support even after its heart has stopped beating.

So the fact that we don't know the answers to these questions still after 4 years is NOT good. We don't know anything and while that was excusable 3 years ago, at this point, it's more indicative of the project being at a standstill or dropped completely, and what we dug up and discussed in the ULO Discord (and what was later posted to reddit) proves it with some very telling information dissected from LinkedIn and other sources.

So far, the only people we know connected to this project are Rachel Smythe (the creator of LO) and Stephanie K Smith (the appointed showrunner). Showrunners are the lifeblood of television series, remember this. Here's a little bit about her:

Lore Olympus still doesn't have a network, this means it has no definitive spot to air, which is not good at this point, because the network is what primarily funds these projects. Think of "Netflix shows" - they're not necessarily made by Netflix, they're made by studios that Netflix funds and as such they're given the Netflix branding because Netflix is their proprietary distribution network and benefactor. So LO has no network or streaming service funding its production. All of her other credited works have affiliated networks/distributors, but LO doesn't.

"But what about Jim Henson Company?" Jim Henson Company bought the rights to LO in 2019 to produce it, that doesn't necessarily mean they were onboard to fund the entire project. Again, these studios need networks to back them, not just for monetary purposes, but with the promise that their project will have a place to go when it's finished, whether it's Netflix, HBO, etc. Think of it like a movie theater - the movie theaters aren't the ones making the movies, but they have deals with the studios to air those movies with the agreement that both sides will be making money.

Jim Henson Company is a production studio, not a network. Not only that, but they're primarily for-hire for puppetry/animatronic projects, they're not the same kind of studio as, say, Laika, or Disney, or Warner Bros. Much of their work is done on the backend, creating animatronics and puppets for kids' productions, monster movies, etc. Currently they're working as the animatronic designers for Five Nights at Freddy's, but that movie isn't a JHC movie, it's a Blumhouse production, which has hired JHC to create animatronics for them.

So, the fact that they were the ones to buy out LO for production rights is... very odd. Because for starters, they don't tend to buy out production rights like major studios, they're typically for hire, but they're also not an animation studio. Any animation projects they've worked on were for concept art and design, such as Word Party, but the folks at JHC primarily specialize in conceptualization and practical effects. That's their whole shtick, it's what they're selling, it's what they get hired for.

That's all early stuff though, stuff we've been speculating on for ages. What came to light recently that spurred on this whole essay was discovering this one section on Stephanie K's LinkedIn:

There are a couple things we can glean from this. First, we know this has to be LO even if it isn't being named, because LO is the only one that was bought by JHC.

This also confirms that LO did end up with a distribution network, specifically HBO Max.

But it also confirms that Stephanie K Smith, the showrunner, is no longer on the project, either due to willingly quitting or being removed. According to the time stamps, she left in April of this year.

This is especially not good because without a showrunner, there's no leader. Showrunners are essential to these projects. So without a showrunner, and without any sort of announcement of a replacement, LO's television show is a ship without a captain, a car without a driver, a Hell's Kitchen without a Gordon Ramsay.

There's mention of an "animated presentation" but as mentioned in that reddit post above, that's not necessarily a pilot, it's more likely it was this. Which can't even really be called "animation", it's just video editing, rigging and tweening, but I digress.

There's a lot more in that reddit thread that dives into some of the details of Stephanie K's stuff, including the HBO Max affiliation and how that potentially connects to the Sydney Sweeney trailer, but ultimately, all of these breadcrumbs add up to one of two things:

LO's television show is in severe development hell which it likely will not come out of for quite some time, especially right now with both the writer's strike and streaming services gutting their animation connections.

LO's show isn't happening at all but with LO's numbers declining and its audience growing more fed up with the series (look no further than the comments on Instagram about LO's recent Eisner win, people are PISSED) Rachel and WT are trying to do as much damage control as possible by dangling a carrot in front of the audience they have left in the hopes that they'll stick around long enough on the promise of a TV show happening to keep siphoning cash and views. After all, there are two things many readers are still sticking around for - the SA plotline, and the TV show, and both of those things are being unnecessarily dragged out in the vaguest way possible with no real resolution in sight.

Neither of these are good, but I think what's even more telling is that, since that post was made on reddit, Rachel has attended SDCC and taken part in a new interview from Girl Wonder Podcast, and when asked about the show, all she had to say was this:

"Um, it’s been really interesting. It’s been educational for me. So, what I—what has been done so far is beautiful. Like, if I could share it, I would. But I can’t. Because it’s very naughty."

IDK if the "naughty" bit is referring to the show or just her revealing info about it, but the fact that NOTHING was shown at SDCC is just. Y'all, I'm sorry, but the show is not happening. If you're gonna show off previews for television ANYWHERE, it's SDCC. It's like the E3 of comics and entertainment media. So the fact that she's STILL VAGUE-POSTING ABOUT IT EVEN AT A MAJOR EVENT WHERE IT'S COMMONPLACE TO REVEAL TRAILERS AND PREVIEWS OF NEW PROJECTS, like... it's just not happening. Jim Henson Company bought the rights to produce LO as a TV show in the summer of 2019. Since then, we haven't seen a SHRED of news, if you google "Lore Olympus TV show" it'll still be the same 2-3 articles from 2019 talking about JHC buying the rights and that's it. If you do further sleuthing, all you'll find is Rachel saying "yeah it's still happening but I can't say anything!" which means fucking nothing at this point. The only 'hope' I have left is that they'll announce it at NYCC which has Rachel in a top billing spot in its advertising, but I'm really not holding my breath at this point.

Animated productions take a while, sure, but LO wasn't the only comic bought for TV production in that late 2010's/early 2020's era. Heartstopper was bought in 2019, and it made it to Netflix by April 2022. And it was live action, a medium SEVERELY affected by the pandemic, unlike animation, which wasn't affected as much because a lot of animation development can be done from home. What did affect the animation sector was streaming services like Netflix gutting their connections to animation studios and putting animated projects on the chopping block... which also doesn't bode well for LO.

It's 2023 now and we still don't even have anything beyond those initial announcement articles and Rachel making empty promises. It's not happening. Don't fall for the "it's coming soon but I can't say anything" nonsense. It's far less genuine now than it was 3 years ago and it has nothing to support those claims that it's actually in development, and ironically far more to support mere speculation that she's lying or doing damage control.

And, if it actually is happening, on a shred of belief in that being a possibility, then it sure as shit isn't being marketed well. Knowing how to build hype in a product is an entire course of knowledge. Marvel is practically the king of building hype, they're why people sit until the very end of the credits now in the hopes of seeing an after-credit scene, even in movies that aren't made by them. LO's numbers are bleeding right now, so to not show anything at even the major events like SDCC is a blatant misfire. Almost like there isn't anything to show in the first place.

You can take all of this evidence as you will. Some of it you may dismiss as "overthinking" or whatever have you. And a lot of it is speculation based on the crumbs we've picked up along the way.

But let me pose you this as a final thought: how can it be a good sign when everything being asked about the show, by fans and critics alike, comes down to "Is the show still happening?"

The best time to reveal proof of the LO television show was 3 years ago. The second best time is now.

[i-am-a-fan]

Thoughts? 👉👈

OH MY GOD OKAY. LET ME MOVE TO MY LAPTOP FOR THIS.

ONCE AGAIN SPOILERS!!!!! FOR SEASON 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I am not a writer on the show nor have actually watched seasons 1-4 in a while, so this is all from my memory and past writings. I rewatched some a lot of episodes for screenshots and evidence.

Long ago in the pilot movie and season 1, I described Redson as awkward, prideful, and quick-tempered. This makes sense as their only real company was their neglectful mother and the bull clones. They wouldn't have had any outside influence as to how to talk to other people or how to form good connections with others. So them stuttering out of control and calling Mk and Mei names, makes sense. They basically have never interacted with anyone their age and MK and Mei are far from your average person.

Another thing to note is that Redson by this point has already been shown to be incredibly intelligent and powerful. Something that gets reinforced in later seasons as well. They are well-versed in magic, magical items, and mechanics. They have the ability to teleport between realms and on the mortal plane, fire concurring, and have the fighting skills to match it. The problem is that Mei is a literal dragon and Mk (that we now know) is a powerful reality-altering monkey demon.

Then we see the behind Redson usual demeanor at the end of season 1. Redson starts to grow weary of his dad and the bones. It's right before the fight between possessed DBK and Mk that we see another trait of Redson: their total lack of self-confidence. The want to prove themselves and their worth is what I assume most of their driving force has been and still is. They just stand there as DBK berates him and is about to KO them. They think of themselves so little, that they weren't going to protect themselves from getting hit by their own father. His mother saving him provides him with evidence that their mother does care for them, and doesn't want them to get hurt giving them the confidence boost to help Mk in the fight.

We then see a shift in their character development in "Revenge of the Spider Queen". Redson at this point is still awkward and prideful, but we see that they value their family so much more. They're willing to do anything for their parents, even after being treated so poorly. During the movie they're held against their will to work alongside Mk's team, saying that he'll go on ahead implying that they still feel that they're above the team. That being said, once their father is released, they still help the team by freeing Mei of his own accord. This is the first time Redson willingly helps the team. (Side note, in the movie we also see that Redson is at least semi-comfortable with Mei's physical affection. It's in season 4 that we see that Redson is uncomfortable with Mk hugging him/being called a hero.)

In season 3, we start to see less of him, but we do see something important-- Redson is working in the food service industry. No, I'm not kidding. Recall that in the second paragraph, I stated that Redson has little interaction with the outside world, well, guess what food service provides him with? Yip. This allows them to not only get closer to their dad but to interact with other people. More so, the stand lets them learn social cues and food service skills which may explain why they start to get less awkward as the series progresses. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, please tip your waiters extra.)

Now, this is where I start to have beef with the show and Redson's development. From here on out, all of Redson's actual character development happens offscreen. There isn't an episode where we see Redson get better at communication with other people, or one where Redson and their family reconcile, we only get snippets (which makes sense because Redson isn't supposed to be a main character.) The previous paragraph is simply speculation.

Later on, we see that they willingly save Mk, Mei, and Sandy. They obviously care about them in some fashion by rescuing them and providing them with food, water, and shelter. They go out of their way (albeit begrudgingly) to bring Mk a warm glass of milk and an extra blanket and save Mei's dragon plushie to give back to her later. However, the best part of that episode is how Redson reacts to hearing about the samadhi fire.

The face that Redson makes when hearing about the fire is that of horror and fear. It's not fully clear in the episode what exactly causes the fear, but it's most likely due to the nature of the flame and Redson's inability to wield it. The telling of the story feeds into their fear of not being good enough-- of not being strong enough-- and the thought of that scares them. They already lost their father twice and doesn't want that to happen again.

At the end of season 3, we get more information on how Redson feels about the Samadhi fire. First, we see that Redson knows a lot about the flame, going on to explain what it is and their theory as to why Mei can contain it. They seem to have trained for the opportunity to wield the fire again by mediation and creating/finding a guide to how to train those who wield the flame. Mei makes a quip about how Redson's hypocritical in their teachings about being short-tempered, to which Redson seems to respond genuinely, knowing that they're still trying to work on this part of themselves. Providing another shift in how they're starting to trust Mei more. Redson's flashback to having the Samadhi fire shows they understand what it was like to have no control over themselves, to feel overrun with power and destruction and they comfort Mei in that moment. Redson acts like they want to destroy everything in their path, but they want to do so out of their own strength and free will.

At the end of the training he fully believes in Mei, but still keeps her at a distance. In the speech they give to Mei, Redson seems to give up the flame stating that the samadhi fire is Mei's power and to not give up on him. In my head, I feel like these are words that Redson wanted to hear themselves when they were under the flame's control. If Redson actually felt okay with giving up the flame is another story.

In season 4, we again see how Redson is unable to protect their family from Azure and the scroll, which feeds into their fear of not being good enough. The ending of that season shows that the families seem to be on good terms and Redson seems to be more relaxed with Mei and Mk.

Now... season 5. Back to the off-development, Redson seems way more comfortable around Mei than before. Mei seems to have found Redson's number, but Redson isn't aware of this. (I'm assuming it's kinda like how Mei put surveillance cameras on everyone without them knowing.) If Redson had been communicating with Mei outside of this, I think I would feel a bit better about how Redson and Mei were interacting with each other.

The fear of not being good enough seems to still be within them, grumbling about not gaining back the samadhi fire. Super shout out to @salemontrial who wrote about a possibility as to why Redson isn't as enthusiastic about Mei, supposedly, losing the fire. "The power came from the might of both of his parents and he wasn't strong enough to wield it... he finds out that this girl who's been ruining his plans is strong enough so he helps her, but how he knows that [it's] possible to wield. He [truly] just wasn't strong enough. So... he does his best... trying to make a version he can control." In all, the grumbling comes from their pride and the fact that one of their biggest fears has evidence.

I think why Redson doesn't immediately yell at Mei is because they know they goofed up. They might be prideful, but when alone, Redson owns up to their mistakes: the hypocrisy about being short-tempered, releasing the LBD, and now owning up to making a fire sprite.

My quam? When Redson saves Mei with the line "I can't do this alone." THIS MAN HAS YET TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT ASKING FOR HELP. Most other things in that episode kinda line up, but Redson has yet to have any reason to have the confidence to outright ask for help. They seem to be getting along with their family more, but the fact that they're still looking for such a devastating weapon, instead of working on their own powers, brings me to believe that Redson has not learned how to believe in themselves. I know we had about 3 episodes in season 3 to see Redson grow more comfortable with Mei and in this season we had 1, but that doesn't mean that Redson's full trust in Mei didn't feel rushed or out of character. He’s inconsistent in this season and it bothers me.

I will say, the fact that Mei invited Redson to help save the world and Redson told Mei how to communicate with him, probably means that Redson is going to become more of a main character in the upcoming season, especially since we saw them training together at the end. Maybe that will help explain why they seem so close.

[ts-witchy-archive]

*Please* go on about Zeus. Im working at reframing my knowledge on him from what media puts him as and that would be so actually helpful?

Okay so this all personal speculation mixed with info I have gathered over the past few years so take it with a grain of salt.

I think the main thing people miss when it comes to analyzing Zeus is that the myths are not meant to be taken literally. Also, the myths are a product of their time quite literally and the gods are meant to be seen as flawed (imo). Zeus was written the way he was because that is what the 'peek' of masculinity was back in Ancient Greece (well partially. not entirely it's more complex than that) but he was written to give explanation to other God's births, complex historical events and more. It's really hard for humans to accept that tragedy, death and heartache are a part of every day life and I don't blame them. I think it's important to remember that, no matter the time period, we're all just confused people trying to explain the unexplainable through art and story telling. It's also easier to share stories with characters that people already know like Zeus. In addition, being King of the Gods gives him a coinvent motive/explanation for a lot of the things that happen in the mythos. The Greeks also interacted with a crap ton of different civilizations and their religion reflected this with the stories that have slowly made their way into the religion (many have Egyptian roots). SO IN SUMMARY, don't take the myths literally. They weren't created to be read that way but rather to attempt to explain huge life events.

I think the best way to reframe your knowledge and view of Zeus is just to start worshiping him if you're Hellenic Pagan. You get comfortable really quickly and experiencing his energy also helps with adjusting. I also felt weird about Zeus when I was first researching and beginning to practice the religion. I feel like it's kind of a universal experience at this point haha.

also, sorry this took me so long to write up and respond. Life has been weird lately and I just have not been on Tumblr. I hope this was a little helpful :) take care

[box-of-chaooos]

Haven’t seen anyone mention this yet but roger gives so much autistic adhd vibes off.

Think about it, chews metal? Stimming, the little fanny pack he always wears with his camera could be a comfort thing. The constant photos of really random things could be him wanting to remember them and collect them because their interests of his.

If you listen closely he makes little noises in the background little hmms, ohs and eee noises.

The ukelele playing could be stimming or a way to communicate better by making up a song of how he feels or a way to focus better by creating songs on the task he’s doing.

The raptor tentacles? Hello?!! He constantly walks with 2 of his tentacles in a raptor position.

He shakes the maraca when he gets excited about the hardware store and than goes to say he has ANOTHER interest in retail? And he’s interested in the way that the scream pump thingy sunny uses works, knows the whole layout of monsters Inc. hyperfixation?

He doodles on his clipboard with crayons when doing his checklist on ‘leaky leaks’

You can see when he gets paint on him he really frantically tries to get it off this could also be not only him wanting it off because it makes him look guilty but the feeling of sticky dry spray paint on his tentacles makes him uncomfortable hence why he ends up crying in the end he’s overstimulated by the paint and the vandalism and the fact he’s scared of being guilty.

This one’s a stretch but he makes ALOT of facial expressions and seems to move his tentacles when he talks, many autistic and adhd people move their hands and make a lot of facial expressions as means o better communication I know I do

Another stretch take this with a grain of salt here but when he’s eating a donut he chooses the plain one out of all of them, green icing, chocolate icing etc etc he goes for the plain one could be that he prefers plain foods rather than strongly sweet things and him taking really small bites to minimalise how sweet it tastes in his mouth

His optimism and childlike behaviour could be hyperactivity or a trauma coping from his dad or both! I don’t think he doesn’t have trauma not at all poor boy has ptsd for sure the way he shakes when sunny entered says SOMETHING and how quickly he gets up after being knocked out like it was nothing? Sir… what happened to you??

Anyways!! That’s just a speculation and a few little things I noticed that I find similar to me and autistic adhd people in general. Don’t have to agree with me but In my eyes he’s 100% audhd