#this is like the biggest red flag i’ve ever posted maybe ‘i would have to divorce superman’ but like i would

[seveneyesoup]

re: lrb straight up as much as i wanna say marry superman i don’t think i could. bc i feel like in this equation he genuinely likes you and i am very fond of him but not like that. he’s one of the last people on earth whose heart i wanna break but it’s unavoidable. and i haven’t seen much of diana but i feel like if it wasn’t working out i could be like imma level w you i’m pretty sure i’m gay. and she’d take it pretty well and we could get a normal divorce. i do have to kill batman though that’s the correct option always

[martianbugsbunny]

Kay babes, I already posted a salty kinda tongue-in-cheek thing about Kalluzeb, in context of *MANDO SPOILERS* Zeb appearing sans Kallus in the Mandalorian. Because in honesty, he should be on Lira San with Kallus enjoying retirement, but I have no beef with him doing whatever it is he’s doing other than the part where he’s doing it without Kallus, because that is a huge red flag for me.

I thought I would have to worry about the following issues when it came to Ahsoka, but I guess they’re either setting him up for an appearance in that or they’ve decided to explore his post-Empire story in Mando, which is fine. If ye be free of indignation about Kalluzeb/Zeb just being gay, read on! If you’re an apple riddled with the worms of homophobia or if you’re very strongly anti-Kalluzeb, then this is not the post for you, and I would rather you just left now than got mad at me in the comments.

I’m going to specifically discuss this in terms of Ahsoka first, because I’ve had this in my drafts for months, so I wrote it before Zeb getting no-homo’d was a present and immediate danger. This may not be the best-written I’ve ever produced, but it is fairly logical, so please take it in context of the first section being written months ago, and the last section as being written today, and then you’ll be sitting pretty.

So it’s basically common knowledge at this point that Hera and Sabine will appear in some capacity in Ahsoka, and probably going to be in contact with our queen herself. I have doubts that Zeb will be a significant part of the show; maybe a cameo here or there, or they mention him but he stays off-screen. If Hera/Sabine gets off a comm in the back of their spaceship and Ahsoka’s like “hey, who was that?” and Hera/Sabine says, “just checking in with Zeb,” there is a choice. And because I have no faith in anyone to canonize Kalluzeb, this is what feels much more likely to happen: The writers will either throw in a single line after that (such as Ahsoka replying with “oh, cool, how’s his wife?”) or there will be no mention of a spouse. And believe you me, there is literally no reason that Zeb, who would be off-screen at that moment, and whose Rebels ending involved no female Lasat, should have a wife for that throwaway moment. It adds nothing to his story and it would be completely out of nowhere, probably never to be explored again. Mentioning a wife would literally just be the galaxy’s biggest, flashing-neon “no homo” (or, in Star Wars terms, you might say that he got Zorii Bliss-ed). There’s no reason to do it. Not saying he has a wife technically doesn’t even disprove the concept that he might have a wife *sarcastic snort*. So if something like that does end up in Ahsoka, we all know why. There is legitimately no other reason to add in a throwaway line like that other than to disprove the concept of Kalluzeb. Or maybe just to disprove the concept that Zeb is gay. I would honestly rather they never mentioned Zeb at all, even in passing, than throwing that kinda thing in our faces. There is no reason to disprove it. Leaving Zeb with a slightly ambiguous relationship poses no problem. No plot hole. No loose end in desperate need of tying up. There is no reason to officially, explicitly de-canonize Kalluzeb or gay Zeb, because there is no significant woman in his life he might possibly have a solid, built-up, understandable relationship with, and because his most significant person (I would argue) is a man. I can’t say it enough. This is the test. Either we get Zorii Bliss-ed again, or Zeb gets to continue enjoying the grey space. (Because I don’t have enough faith in Filoni, the man who still has not made Ahsoka a splesbian [lesbian in space] to canonize arguably one of the most dramatic potential romances in Star Wars history. Even though Kalluzeb makes sense. Even though Kallus’s entire reformation arc is started by Zeb. Even though in his little screen time as a Rebel, it is still obviously Zeb who means the most to him out of all the Specters. Even though Zeb, who is often portrayed as being kind of rough, is much kinder and more honorable towards Kallus than he deserves, before they’re on the same side.)

In context of Mando, the same rules apply. There is no need to mention him having a wife. There isn’t any urgent need to even explicitly canonize Kalluzeb, other than the fact that Star Wars needs to improve its queer representation by leaps and bounds to get up to standards, and also that Kalluzeb makes a whole lot of sense. I am terrified of him existing in post-Rebels media because thus far, he is without Kallus, and with the way their Rebels storyline ended, there’s really no reason he should be. Kallus should be by his side.

UNLESS Kallus is A) currently enjoying retirement on Lira San, and Zeb is off-world for short periods of time every now and then but goes home to Lira San and Kallus or B) they’re saving Kallus for a moment when Kallus shows up late to whatever business he and Zeb have and we get a quiet, “hey, husband of mine” and there’s no fanfare, no Zorii Bliss situation, just two gay dudes being married and living their lives together.

This is it. This is where I find out if it’s even crossed Filoni’s mind (or the minds of other miscellaneous writers, but he really sticks to his characters) to leave our plausible couple be. This is where I find out if his viewpoint of *paraphrased* “it wasn’t my intention, but I won’t de-canonize it” (https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-rebels-producer-dave-filoni-is-totally-fine-w-1823593680) holds up if he’s going to explore characters close to Zeb (which includes Kallus) post-Rebels.

[skye-huntress]

True Colors: Kids and their Secrets

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, not since 2018 to be exact. For the first two Life is Strange games, I took the biggest choices and I’d talk about what I chose and my rationale behind it, and a few other things when they were relevant. Honestly, I could have made even longer posts about the final choice in the original game but chose to exercise a little restraint. I didn’t do it for Life is Strange 2 because I could never fully get into the game and only played part of it, and my reasons why are a whole other conversation. I intended to do it for True Colors but never got around to it. With the Double Exposure reveal, I’m in a Life is Strange mood so I want to get back into doing these. At the time of this writing, I’ve already finished the first chapter, Side A, and the tears have started flowing already.

Let’s begin then. Alex has arrived at Haven Springs, had an awkward reunion with her brother she hasn’t seen in years, and they start making their way down the main street on a brief tour/meet and greet with the locals. As Gabe steps away for a bit to grovel to his girlfriend for forgiveness for who knows what, Alex meets the kid of said girlfriend, Ethan. The two hit it off almost immediately, bonding over their love of comics, and then Ethan reveals he’s been secretly exploring the old mines in the mountain. That’s a red flag if I’ve ever seen one. Doesn’t take a genius to know that old, abandoned mines are extremely dangerous and no child should be anywhere near them, supervised or not. And if that weren’t bad enough, if you’ve been paying the slightest bit of attention, you’ll see around town and on the MyBlock app warnings of a blast going off that very night. So perhaps it’s not surprising that your first choice is whether to reveal Ethan’s plans to Gabe.

If in the likely event you’re not going into this game completely blind as to what this story is about, you’ve likely already connected the dots. No matter what you do, Ethan’s going up to those mines anyway and that will set off a sequence of events leading to Gabe’s inevitable death. Maybe that makes some people feel like this choice doesn’t really matter, but even for choices like this I think what you choose and why says a lot about you or at least, the kind of person you’re roleplaying as. I am surprised though, the stats for this choice are 50/50 and I can’t really explain why. I had considered that telling on Ethan might cause him not to be so forthcoming with Alex in the future, but given the literal warning signs I was seeing all around, the responsible adult in me couldn’t not say anything. Plus Gabe’s a sweet guy, why would you keep this from him, you monsters?

By the way, feel free to comment your thoughts on this or any of the other choices I cover. That includes the ones I’ve done in the past, I won’t mind.

[demigodofhoolemere]

I’m getting more and more frustrated with Daredevil: Born Again by the day.

First my theory turns out to be correct that Marvel had the Netflix shows canceled so that their rights would expire and the MCU could begin to use the characters. Then they refuse to say whether the MCU counterparts are within the same timeline as the Netflix characters, and continue to be so intentionally muddy and unclear about it that even the literal star of the show has admitted he doesn’t know if he’s working within the same continuity (Marvel, I am begging you to start communicating with your actors). Then they decide to throw away beloved characters and refuse to talk to people. We don’t get Foggy and Karen back despite Elden and Deborah making it clear they want to be there, and they’re far from the only ones Marvel is ignoring. I’ve seen almost every actor who had involvement in the Netflix shows publicly beg to be brought back but it seems that the only ones Marvel is interested in keeping are the biggest names like Daredevil, Kingpin, and Punisher that they know are cash cows. To add insult to injury, they DO apparently want Vanessa back, but not Ayelet Zurer who has been officially recast in the role — and I looked up her filmography to see if perhaps she was just too busy to be there, and she’s not; if anything she’s very available because the show she was doing last year wasn’t renewed and her only upcoming project is a short that’s already in post-production. With Marvel’s track record I have a hard time giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming that they reached out to her and she declined, considering these are the same people who recast Cassie Lang without even having the decency to tell Emma Fuhrmann. And if they wanted Vanessa but didn’t care to keep her actress, it begins to make you worry that maybe they will use characters like Foggy and Karen somewhere along the way but not Elden and Deborah for goodness knows what reason — there have been plenty of rumors about recasting other important characters as well, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility. How disheartening would that be to know they wanted your character but not you?

I feel so bad for all of these people that have gone on the record saying they want to return to their respective characters. So many of them from all of the various shows have more or less publicly pleaded for Marvel to give them a call or throwing out ideas they still have for their character because they felt like they didn’t get to finish telling their story. Jessica Henwick outright turned down the offer of a role in Shang-Chi because if she was going to work with Marvel then she just wanted to be Colleen again, and there’s almost no chance of her ever being rewarded for that loyalty. Christopher Brewster who was Charlie’s stuntman has said that Marvel wouldn’t even let him interview to have his job back — and what’s the point in not letting him back when you don’t even see his face?! It really grinds my gears that they intentionally canceled all of these shows, making a whole slew of actors lose their jobs and also making many of them feel incomplete about their characters’ arcs to boot, to only bring back their favorite few and act like the rest don’t exist or something. When Charlie was turning down roles with bigger commitments in the hope of keeping himself free to be Daredevil again, at least he actually got something out of that effort and gets to be back now (and I am happy for his happiness about it if nothing else), but others who did similarly probably never will.

On top of everything else, the only thing we’re really hearing about the revival so far is that it’s “new” and “exciting” and “different” from the original, which is always a big red flag for me because people always use those terms when they don’t have anything better to say about their project and I almost always end up disliking it because their definition of those things has often turned out to be my definition of “this is my own private hell, oh please make this end”. Marvel in particular has developed a habit of taking my favorite characters and changing everything about them and their world into something I can’t stand, so when I read that something is “different” than before, what I hear is “the thing you loved so much wasn’t fun for us to play with anymore so we’re giving it an overhaul to make it unrecognizable from that boring stuff lol”.

I think I’m gonna have to just live in my little Netflix Marvel bubble forever. It’s nice and warm there and I like it and I don’t trust whatever is going on outside of that bubble. I already feel inclined to sit this project out, which is one more for the growing lineup of MCU projects I’ve been opting to ignore. It makes me sad how many of those there are now.

Also in the new set photo it doesn’t look like Matt’s collar is buttoned down. He always has it buttoned down. This won’t matter to literally anyone on earth but me and it’s a total nitpick but I couldn’t help but notice.

[chicoriii]

Season 4, Episode 17 - Larme Ultime (Rocketear)

So this is a DjiWifi episode from which comes a screenshot I've seen over a month ago (I think). It's good they got it, before season 4 started I really wanted it to happen and to see a kiss between Nino and Alya in it (but that didn't happen and I don't get why, only the main pairing is allowed to kiss in this show or what?), but now I could not be excited about it anymore, because I'm sick of Alya and I'm not able to hide it. Yes, I'm biased, but I'm just a normal viewer and I have right to dislike her favouritism.

My the biggest thought after watching this is that it looks like since Optigami, Alya is not only a deuteragonist, like I said in my post about Sentibubbler, she's actually more like a co-protagonist now. That was an extremely Alya-centric episode (even more than Lie was was about Adrien, as it was mostly Ladybug who saved the world like almost always, also because Chat sacrificed himself again), while in Optigami and this one she has screentime comparable to Marinette. I'm still trying to avoid spoilers (so please, don't tell what's going to happen in the next episodes, I don't want to know), but I'm sure that either 15 or 16 is also highly about her, because we've seen the new Rena's suit in this episode and it looked like it wasn't the first episode with it. But really, I won't be surprised if Alya has lots of screentime in both episodes and all others to the end of the show as well. I don't think Adrien is ever going to get as much special treatment like Alya. :/ The creators have never been as nice to him.

Didn't the writes have enough ideas for another story arcs? And thanks to it they were able to save money, because then creators could just reuse old models of villains more than before. Have anyone noticed that S4 has even fewer number of completely new characters than previous seasons? The scientist seen at the start of the episode has detailed model, so she had to be akumatised in any of the previous unreleased episodes (or one of the next ones). And why she looks a lot like Alya, is she her relative? If yes, you know what that means? Another excuse to make an episode full of the fox wielder, because, you know, it’s not like she already got enough occasions to shine in S4. 

Speaking of Rena Rouge's new suit. What a waste, it would be great for a potential chameleon Miraculous, so it seems it won't be ever created for canon. So bad, I think it's one of the coolest animal, so a Miraculous based on it would be awesome. It could one from an African Miracle Box which should appear, since they are planning making an African special. The suit is good and all, but I still feel disappointed that it's not the superpower of a chameleon Miraculous. :(

Why is Nino acting over the top out of nowhere? I like film noir atmosphere, fedoras and especially jazz music full of saxophones (my favourite music genre and instrument), but it looks totally ridiculous when he's like that. I thought it's Marinette's speciality, and he beat her in that category. I'm not trying to say it's a a bad thing, it just feels weird seeing Nino like that. And since I love jazz, I would like to listen to that film noir-esque music more once I got 5.1 audio, since it was hardly heard in the episode. It didn't sound much interesting, but it's too early to judge it seriously.

Too bad they had written the main conflict in the episode using one of the biggest romantic cliche - misunderstanding in which one character see and\or hear something, but not the whole thing, so said character interprets it wrong. Motifs like that are rather annoying, so it's good something similar haven't happened in the Love Square's arc (yet at least). Though I have a big issue with how they write it this season and I'm going to make a post about it (is anyone interested?).

The akuma is one the ugliest and has one of the most laziest power ever. Really? He shoots using tear bullets and does nothing more? I know many people hate Bubbler's design, but no matter how silly it looks, it was much more creative than this.

And of course the whole thing with Alya remembering the whole conversation with Chat Noir was extremely far-fetched. The could think about something more believable, but I'm not surprised it happened, since I think this season is generally more lazy written than previous ones.

On the other hand, I'm surprised that Marinette is actually aware that Shadow Moth should not know that Alya is still Rena Rouge. It seems that the whole episode 15 (or 16) is about they trying to figure out what to do with that problem.  I won't be surprised if Alya would do it all by herself like it happened with protecting charms in Mr Pigeon 72, because it's completely normal that a random person who has never met Fu is better at decrypting the grimoire than someone who has been trained to be a guardian to some extend :/ Still I think they should not be sure that camouflage mode would solve the problem completely. From what I understand the new suit doesn’t make her completely invisible to others. Rena could be seen by anyone who takes a photo of her and then post in on the internet (it won't be believable that she's the only one crazy about superheroes in Paris). But at least they tried to do something and Marinette sees the danger to some extend. It’s something new.

It's not like Alya is careful, she's completely reckless (and they think she's a good reporter material? Don't make me laugh) and she still thinks more about her own fun in being the superheroine than safety of herself or the world. But of course, it's not gonna happen, because plot armor is very strong in this show. I really had a feeling that she acted like a little child in the first minutes of the episode. She's unable to see that her situation is not a joke. She should be all happy that Marinette still lets her to keep the fox Miraculous. She really lacks humility and I see it clearly since Optigami at least. Besides, Marinette ignores another red flags, that Alya is taking pictures of herself in the new suit no one is supposed to see and thinking about posting them on Ladyblog (was Bunnix right that Alya is able to reveal Miraculous secrets on her blog because of her overenthusiasm and lack of ability of seeing consequences of her actions?).

By the way, now I think, if Alya can't keep in secret that she's still Rena Rouge from Nino (which happens because it's needed for the plot), so how could she be all fine with keeping in secret other facts like that Ladybug gave her the fox permanently and she knows her identity (which isn't happening because the plot doesn't require it)? She still has to lie on Nino because of these secrets.

They are making Marinette a big hypocrite this season. Since she revealed herself to Alya, it's been shown that secret identities rule was bullshit from the start, but Marinette is still saying that heroes can't reveal their identities to anyone. What? What has she done before like not revealing herself to someone, so how she dares keep saying about how crucial is keeping secrets from everyone? Sorry writers, I can't take that rule seriously anymore since Alya knows and no one should. Because Marinette told Alya, she could tell it to other persons she trust as well. What's the difference between her best friend and the rest of the people in the world? Is Alya the only person she trusts? In fact, revealing herself to Sabine, for example, would be much better choice. She's actually wise and mature unlike Alya and her secrets would be much more safe with her mother.

I've seen Chat Blanc again on TV recently and I remembered one thing Ladybug told to Bunnix there: "The best-kept secrets are the ones you never share." (Google Translate says that the line is exactly the same in the French original). Some episodes later, she isn't thinking twice if she should tell all the guardian secrets to Alya. Okay, she revealed her identity because of being too emotional in that exact moment, but then when she calmed down, she should be able to think if telling all the Miraculous secrets is a good idea. The other hypocritical thing is telling Chloé "you can't be Queen Bee anymore, because Hawk Moth knows your identity" but still calling the other heroes whose identities have been exposed.

So I can't even blame Alya for telling Nino the truth if the guardian herself is not following her own rules. Not to mention, Marinette doesn't address wrong things Alya is doing at all, so no wonder she feels she could do anything, she won't get punished, no matter what. After all, it's not the first moment in which she does something her best friend forbid her.

And we can say the show has been confirmed that Nino is even worse at keeping secrets, especially in crisis situations, so why people wanted to see Adrien revealing himself to Nino? It's obvious that he would tell Adrien's secret to Alya and maybe some other people as well.

I thought that since S3 finale Adrien is supposed to know identities of every backup hero from seasons 2 and 3 and I was ready to be salty about that as well. But yes, actually after purification of Miracle Queen's akuma, brainwashed heroes didn't detransform. They were forgotten completely and we don't even know what happened with them exactly. I suppose Ladybug took their Miraculous when Chat Noir wasn't there anymore.

Adrien has every right to be angry at Ladybug, she treats him so badly, since Alya knows her own secrets and she doesn't even have the guts to admit that. But I'm going to say about my the biggest issue in the Chat Noir and Ladybug's situation in another post, I hope I would write before the next episode airs.

[queersatanic]

I joined TST about a year ago (but haven't gotten too involved due to the pandemic and my own personal anxiety) and was wondering if you had more sources for all the claims you make against them. I've tried doing my own research, but haven't been able to find much backing up your claims (not that I'm saying you're wrong.) I've noticed quite a few red flags ever since I joined, and am considering dropping my membership to become an "independent Satanist," but I would really appreciate some more concrete sources for why TST isn't as great as they make themselves out to be. It's hard to find much of anything about them online, but most of what I can find just talks about their "activism." (Although it's very likely that I'm not looking hard enough, or maybe just not looking in the right places.) I know you sometimes put sources on your posts about TST, but the ones I've read don't seem to have much information about the topics you're addressing.

The Satanic Wiki is going to link to a lot of primary sources, like government registries and financial documents.

The very, very long piece we did on the history of The Satanic Temple's co-owner and chief speaker Lucien Greaves as well as the fundamental problems with TST's structure utilizes the Wiki but also repeatedly links to news articles, first-person accounts from other members, and statements directly from Lucien Greaves and Cevin Soling themselves.

Same with our Twitter megathread thread, also available on Ye Olde Tumblr.

Both of those have copious sourcing.

There is no shortage of people talking firsthand about the problems with The Satanic Temple, and for all that TST defenders will say, "That was long ago. Things have changed!", they are never really able to point to exactly how things were changed, addressed, corrected, etc. Since it keeps happening.

Honestly, the biggest change may be that they wrapped more people up in NDAs and have been willing to threaten lawsuits against them (like with us), so the "TST is bad, actually, and treated people terribly" posts are fewer not because of an improvement in their behavior but their ability to more effectively silence dissent.

So, a bunch more of those articles under the break.

A lot of these links were even included as "evidence" in a now-dismissed defamation allegation against us, as well as our own explanation of what we learned from former members after we were ghosted by the local TST and accused of a coup.

Once of the requirements of defamation is that the plaintiff demonstrate where something is untrue rather than just makes them feel bad, which TST never bothered to do. So much for "freedom to offend" and "anything that can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise."

If you're looking for news articles, Anna Merlan's pieces for The Village Voice and Jezebel are very good critical, rather than fawning, looks at TST in 2014 and 2018, respectively.

But the Riverfront Times article about the Mary Doe case in Missouri by by journalist Danny Wicentowski is probably the gold standard for understanding why they just are not competent litigators and should not be supported by anyone, financially or otherwise.

[fxntxsix]

I think your post about Austin is a little bit of an overreaction. Vanessa’s interview was very fun and talked about the new phase of her life. She had one comment about past relationships, nothing more. And all the announcement of the Priscilla movie would really do is show how influential the Elvis movie is because clearly there is an audience that Austin and Baz capitalized on. Austin’s biggest awards worry right now is Brendan Fraser. Not his ex or Nate from Euphoria.

Okay hold up nonnie imma address this point wise lmao,

About the "overreaction" - yes it could be true that I am overreacting because I have been told by some people who know me irl that I have a flair for the dramatic so I don't put it past myself lmao. But, and I've said this to a few people in my messages about this post, the only reason I wrote 'For Aus' is because all those thoughts were weighing on my mind since yesterday and honestly I just had to get them out in words for my sanity more than the purpose of making a statement.

I really enjoyed the red and green flags video interview she did for the same magazine I though it was adorable and I'm glad she's thriving in her current relationship and some of her recent roles have done tremendously. However, if you read the written article there is more than one backhanded comment about the time when she was dating Austin.

“The public only sees so much. I’ve been through two very long life-changing relationships, and no one really knows what happened except for me. When I write my memoir, it'll be amazing." - like she just butchered her own 'it was a clean mutual break up' narrative because clearly it wasn't as clean as they said it was.

“I woke up at 27 like, ‘I have no idea who I am, what I want, or what I stand for,’” she says. “I realized how much of myself I gave away to others, when I actually was giving away and turning off pieces of myself,” she says. “When you get older, the sexier boundaries are.” - she was very much in a relationship with him at 27

“I always thought I would be married at 25, because that’s when my mom got married, and then when that didn’t happen, I was like, ‘Oh, OK. So we’re just going to shift everything back a bit.'" - again very much dating him at that point but he was 22 so like?????

His concern with Brendan Fraser is healthy Hollywood competition, it's fair and straightforward. With award nominations there's always that kinda competitiveness as there should be so that's okay. My concern is that all the shit seems to be hitting the fan when these actors are doing their BTS Oscar campaigns and I just hope the Academy/other juries can look past all of this to judge him only on his performance because that's all that matters.

As for the actual film, I'm not saying I'm cheesed off that there's a new film (I mean it's Elvis there would have probably been another film at some point anyway), it's the timing. It is straight up disrespectful and wayyyyy too soon. As peers in the same industry, I would've expected Sophia to let 'Elvis' (2022) run its course and maybe wait for at least the award season to pass before making this announcement. That would've been the right thing to do also any movie about anything Presley will gain traction regardless of the timing just because it's association with Elvis so that shouldn't have even been a concern.

AGAIN, to come back to my point of the original post - we all know that Austin is shy and he has been very very open in sharing his insecurities over the course of this press tour. So, I just wish there was a way to check up on him and make sure that he doesn't give in to those insecurities, as someone who gets panic attacks like they're going out of fashion I understand how easy it is to give in to even half a second of doubt. This was just my very long and twisted way of saying I love Austin even though I know he wont ever see this post or any post on here really.

-Fantasia <3

[distfae]

Eitri is the final villain: an analysis

. Well uh!! I didn’t finish this in time before the chapter was released but if you follow me, you’ll know that I’ve been speculating for weeks that Eitri is the final villain. I’m not sure, but it’s likely that it might have already been given away during this last chapter drop considering the map leaks, but I still want to post this anyway because I worked really hard on this and there’s also an incredibly prominent amount of evidence that backs it up.

For the past few months it’s been eating at me to no end the idea that if not Fáfnir, who is the final villain?

I’ve spent hours digging at the clues and details given by both the game and in the stories of Norse mythology and I can now give a solid answer (and maybe it was super obvious and I shouldn’t have spent that many hours trying to solve something, but to that I say shush, I’m a very slow thinker). With that I’ll share with you the evidence I have compiled to support the claim.

Character Design

In Heroes, the color palettes used in the character designs are most always designed to be contrasting. There is always a firm distinction between allies and enemies in each book, mostly noted by their design.

As an artist, I’m aware color and design can tell a lot about someone’s character, and especially as much for professional concept artwork like Heroes. I decided to put together a quick venn diagram of similarities and differences between the design choices of the Niðavellir siblings. While it may not have been as important to the plot in the past, I think we can all agree that Book 5 is different in so many ways--when the villain isn’t the true villain, you have to look for context clues to figure out who is.

Eitri’s design, in all sorts of ways, has struck me as nothing but odd. Out of the four dvergar introduced in the story, her design sticks out like a sore thumb. Very strange that her color scheme is so misguiding if she’s a supposed ally of Niðavellir. 

The counterargument is that perhaps not all characters within a specific group will share the same colors. But I remind you again that this isn’t Soul Eater, where every character looks like they’re going to a different place. When I say every country, I mean every country introduced in this game has a specific design and motto for their characters that is carried through each individual signifying their status. And then there’s Eitri. Aside from the “pure coincidence--spicing it up” claim for this there’s also the fact that Eitri isn’t necessarily royalty, which may explain the differing colors in her design. I do believe, in fact, she’s the first character introduced lacking in a military status. That could be another point, too. Perhaps her color scheme signifies a lack of status, but I then raise again, why is it only Eitri?

Another thing I would like to point out is that her sprite has a weapon in it. I theorize this may be Brokkr, which in Norse mythology is Eitri’s brother, if we follow the trend of dvergr weapons being named after a relative in their mythology counterpart (I’ll talk about this later). Currently, she is the only character introduced in this book who doesn’t have a combat unit in-game. Have you ever thought about why she doesn’t have a combat unit yet despite having a weapon in her sprite with no explanation for it? This specifically is one of the biggest things that jumped out at me while looking at this, and it’s a huge red flag. Why the weapon?? Like I said, it’s unlikely that we’ll have new characters up until this point, so working with what we have, Eitri would be the last unit we face in combat. There’s always the possibility of new characters--Ylgr and Hrid were introduced incredibly late in Book 2--but the lore in Norse mythology tells me we might already have everyone we need.

Book V in Norse Mythology

Fire Emblem Heroes tends to follow Norse mythology to a moderate degree. Pretty much all of the characters introduced following Book 1 have some kind of tie back to Norse myth. The storyline of Book 5 is by far the book we’ve seen the heaviest following of its myth counterpart, despite it still being pretty loose. Since the characters present are directly named after characters from myth as opposed to being personifications of places or objects, we can see where Book 5 might take us. This bit involves a lot of speculation rather than solid evidence, but I think it’s something worthy of noting for future reference. 

First, a rundown of what happens in Norse myth:

Ótr is killed by Loki, having mistaken him for a real otter.

Loki shows off the catch to the dwarven king Hreiðmarr and the royal family. In outrage, Fáfnir and Reginn held the accompanying Æsir captive while the king demanded reparations for Ótr´s death in the amount of gold that could be stuffed inside of its skin and by the amount of red gold that could cover its outside. He would only release them when Loki could give him those reparations.

Loki catches a dwarf named Andvari, whose ring (Andvarinaut) granted him riches. Loki forces Andvari to give up his gold and his ring, however, the dwarf laid a curse that anyone who possessed the stolen gold would be destroyed by it.

Loki uses this gold for the reparations. All was covered except for one protruding whisker, which was covered with the cursed ring Andvarinaut. Fulfilling his request, Hreiðmarr released the Æsir and they went on their merry way.

In a fit of greed, Fáfnir kills Hreiðmarr to hoard all of the gold. He eventually went out into the forest to protect his fortune, turning into a dragon and breathing poison into the surrounding land so nobody could reach him. 

Reginn asks his foster son Sigurðr to kill Fáfnir. He agrees as long as Reginn forges a blade for him--Gramr is reforged (might expand on this part later).

Sigurðr is successful in slaying the dragon. While Fáfnir dies, he asks who Sigurðr is and who sent him. Upon finding out that it was Reginn, Fáfnir tells Sigurðr that his father may be planning to kill him as well, and to be careful.

Upon cooking Fáfnir’s heart and tasting the blood, he hears the language of the birds, who confirm his suspicions and warn him that Reginn plans to kill him.

Without hesitation, Sigurðr kills Reginn before he can make a move, and leaves with Fáfnir’s gold.

((There’s also a specific part from one of the texts I read where an old sage in the forest directs them to Gramr but I literally cannot find it for the life of me. If someone else can I will be eternally grateful))

There’s about 3 names here that aren’t represented as characters in game: Hreiðmarr, Andvari, and Sigurðr.  Hreiðmarr is already the name for Fáfnir’s weapon. Sigurðr is the only role here that hasn’t been filled by someone in the story. There's Andvari; however, I believe Andvari may be more significant of Niðavellir history rather than being an actual character since Andvarinaut is a direct parallel to the Crown of the Dvergar. Sigurðr’s role is the only major Norse character that isn’t present in the Book 5 story if you don’t technically include Loki, so I feel like because of this we won’t be having any new characters in the book anytime soon. I’ll expand on this later with Eitri.

It’s a lot. I didn’t include all of the details, but that is the gist. If you skim it, you can see that Reginn does not have the same destiny as her Norse counterpart. 

From what we see in the movie, it’s pretty well set in stone that Reginn is going to be the one to defeat Fafnir in the (or rather, a) final battle using Gramr, meaning Reginn takes the position of Sigurðr in some degree.

Inferring from this, we may see other Book 5 characters behave differently to their lore counterpart as well, meaning there’s not a lot here that is completely set in stone.  Eitri specifically doesn’t have much of an involvement in the story of the three brothers. The only connection I could find is in some adaptations an encounter with an old sage in the forest who points Sigurðr in the direction of Gramr, which I mentioned that I literally cannot find a source for this anywhere except from memory, so this might not be exactly on the money. Eitri’s lore is actually more revolved around pride in craftsmanship. In Norse mythology, Eitri created the golden boar Gullinbursti, Thorr’s hammer Mjölnir, and a golden ring called Draupnir (not to be confused with the aforementioned Andvarinaut) in a bet that him and his brother Brokkr could build better tools for the gods than the Sons of Ivaldi. The interesting thing about this is that Loki set this up and even encouraged their competition behind the scenes. Just from this alone, though, we can find possible motifs for Eitri being a villain in the future. She does appear to be very ambitious with her craft.

Dialogue Analysis

With all of that said and done, we also have to analyze clues from the dialogue itself.

I first want to point to the thing that first rose my suspicions of Eitri, and that actually starts with the very first scene in the book. Yes, that very fishy scene with Fáfnir and the hooded figure.

The hooded figure talks to themself about something of a failed experiment, even going as far as referring to Fáfnir as an “it” like some kind of lab rat. This hooded figure also takes pride in their work, it seems, talking about how it’s a shame to see it go to waste. I was trying to figure out who this might be for the longest time, but I think I can now safely conclude that this is Eitri. 

“As something of an inventor myself”. This little bit right here is the giveaway. Inventors are going to spend a lot of time going through trial and error, which is what appears to happen during the first scene, whatever the experiment may be. Out of all of the characters, Eitri is the only one where the shoe fits.

Not only this, but she also speaks like she has superior power to him: “Fáfnir  can’t afford to punish me.” It’s quite possible that she does, too. If this is the case, being someone who could match or even surpass Fáfnir in strength could make her a likely candidate for being the one behind his corrupt behavior.

Ulterior motifs being displayed here. I genuinely don’t believe she’s telling the whole story here. Why would she need Gramr? Her desire to harness its power by itself is incredibly suspicious.

Overall, it’s a little hard to pick at her dialogue, but she’s quite flaky with her responses and seems to be rather self-centered in her motifs. I don’t believe she’s here to help, but rather to spur her own motivations. I will save a speculation for motifs for another post since I just want to get this out there first, but this is the long short of it.

I’m going to pan through this next chapter that got released, but I certainly hope you can see where some clues were dropped beforehand. Thank you so much for reading this, I’ll have a follow-up post here soon ^^

[ultimatetrashgoblin]

My thoughts on Immortal Heart Society

DISCLAIMER: These are my OPINIONS. I do not claim any of this as fact, you are allowed to disagree with me. (Spoilers for Cassius and Alanna season 1)

First impressions for this series could have been better. There are plenty of problems with this series so far that I will address, but for now, let’s focus on the positives.

The writing is beautiful. As an avid reader and writer, one of my biggest pet peeves is lazy and unimaginative writing. IHS had some incredibly written lines, and I was immediately hooked even if I hated the love interests.

(I don’t have many screenshots but here are a few I did take)

The plot is interesting. While the pacing is a bit off at times, I found the concept of a corrupt secret society intriguing, and the mysteries surrounding the father was enough to get me invested.

The Inner Circle is (mostly) likable. I’m a sucker for found family, and my favorite series on this app (EAA, QoT, GIL, etc.) will usually have plenty of group banter, and the Inner Circle is no exception. One of my favorite scenes in Alanna’s route was in Richard’s office when everyone realized Alanna and FMC were exes.

Kiran. No further explanation. Lovestruck let me date her please.

For the most part, IHS seems like a promising series. But of course, when you have plenty of amazing side characters who would make wonderful LIs, you decide to premiere your series with the arrogant asshole and the compulsive liar.

Cassius Tarkhan

I should probably begin by saying I’m usually not a fan of the “rude, snarky, arrogant” LIs and read Cassius’s route solely because I was excited for the new series. So please take what you’re about to read with a grain of salt, since I am probably extremely biased against him.

This is a direct quote from me reading Cassius’s first few episodes: “I want to punch this man in his stupid fucking face.” I said this out loud, which should give you an indication of what’s to come.

As far as first meetings go, Cassius was probably one of the worst. At first it was all “fun banter oh look at the chemistry” until he sees the invitation and becomes the most insufferable pricks I have ever seen. (I’m sorry, but was that supposed to be romantic?! If I were in FMC’s position, I would be terrified!)

Most of the season went by with Cassius being infuriating and not telling FMC anything, and me questioning if I was actually supposed to like the guy I was supposed to be romancing. The villain dude (I don’t care enough about him to try to remember his name) was boring and creepy. I also had a strong desire to punch him in the face, but I’ll settle for him turning to stone.

It wasn’t until the season finale that I actually started to like Cassius. He started to open up more to FMC, he showed vulnerability, and was generally more tolerable. Hopefully we’ll be able to see more of this Cassius in later seasons, because I believe that it might save his route and maybe I won’t want to punch him in the face as badly.

As for the ending, I’ve read the final episode multiple times and I’m still not exactly sure what happened in that final scene. Cassius tells FMC that he won’t let her meet with the Society on her own and then... is he about to kiss her? This is a genuine question I’m asking I honestly couldn’t tell. It seemed like he was going to but it was very unclear to me.

If I was going to rate this season as a whole, I’d give it a 3 out of 10. Hope to see better next season, because he does have the potential to be better, but that wasn’t shown until the end of the season.

Alanna McKenna

At first, I liked Alanna’s route. I was excited about have an LI who was an ex, she was attractive (except for that weird smirk expression what was that???), she was funny, and I’ve already talked about how much I love the writing.

Then the lying started. I’ve had the misfortune of dealing with my family, many of which are narcissistic pathological liars, so I consider myself pretty decent at figuring out patterns in their behavior. And Alanna fits them to a T.

Please note that I am in no way educated on this topic and do not have the authority to state anything as fact. I am making observations based on personal experience dealing with people like this, and I encourage you to view Alanna’s behavior for yourself and come up with your own conclusions.

My first red flag was the emotional manipulation. Near the beginning, this was in the form of flattery. If FMC started asking questions, Alanna would flirt with her, which would cause FMC to either become flustered or flirt back, both outcomes momentarily distracting her from the original topic.

To FMC’s credit, she does notice when Alanna starts deflecting (she mentions recognizing certain behaviors from when they were together), but she backs down. As someone who hates confrontation, I can understand FMC’s reasoning for this. I find trying to communicate certain issues with these people exhausting. It tends to feel like speaking to a broken record, and can become emotionally draining. However, this is the exact outcome that these people want. They hate being called out on their lies, and when pushed further (in my experience), they tend to result to guilt tripping.

The flirting I could ignore. When I first read it, I thought that was just her personality (which is partially true). But then FMC stood her ground more, and Alanna fell apart. She started crying, talking about how much pressure she was under, making up excuses (a prime example of this was her saying that she thought ghosting FMC would make it easier, which I’ll touch on later), and causing FMC to doubt her (valid) reasons for being angry with Alanna.

I feel like it’s also necessary to talk about Alanna interacting with the other society members. FMC was noticeably uncomfortable with how genuine Alanna seemed to be, and I understand the feeling of betrayal of thinking you know a person, only to see them act like a complete stranger at the drop of a hat. The mental turmoil of wondering which version of this person is the real them, and whether your entire relationship was all a lie.

That part was way longer than I expected, so let’s talk about the “villain”. I’m glad that Arabella isn’t the big bad even if she tried to kill FMC, because she seems like such a genuine person and I’m tired of season WOC be villainized in visual novels (I’m not naming names but you know what apps I’m talking about Choices). I hope that FMC and Alanna will be able to help her and her sister, and that Arabella will get a redemption arc in the future and maybe a route.

The cliffhanger was actually sort of unexpected. FMC finally called Alanna out on her bs (GOOD👏FOR👏HER👏) and tried to leave the Society. Lowkey kind of scared to see how they follow this up in season 2, because it seems like they’re ready to murder FMC.

If we ignore the LIs themselves, I did prefer Alanna’s route to Cassius’s. I feel like we got to see more of the other characters, and I thought the pacing was better. But I don’t like either of them. As I’ve said Cassius seems like he’s improving, but Alanna? Nope. I’m staying for the plot and Arabella, but I’m more than willing to drop her route if this pattern continues (especially if I decide it’s too triggering for me, my mental health is more important).

Rating: 2/10

Final thoughts

As I stated previously, while IHS’s initial premiere wasn’t the best, I believe this series has the potential to be good. My main issues are with the pacing, and above all, the LIs (which isn’t good for a visual novel story centered around romancing the LIs).

Overall rating: 3/10

This is my first time doing something like this so any feedback would be very appreciated. Feel free to offer any criticisms, and let me know if I should make a series out of this! (This did take me a while so if I decide to continue doing this it might not be posted until a day or two later)

[alexthemagicaldevil]

Of Medea, Jason, and Other Tragedies

Some of you might remember a post I made a little while ago comparing how Quackity and Technoblade fit into the lore of the DSMP. Here are my thoughts via a 3k words of angst:

Read it on AO3

There was nothing left of L’Manburg.

It was something universally understood and known. Something that was never questioned. Something that everyone just accepted so that they could move on and not think about the nation that had too many traitors, too many broken promises, too many memories. It was something that everyone thought they believed so that they wouldn’t go looking for little pieces left behind, pieces that miraculously survived the desimation.

But Quackity knew the truth. Those little pieces could be found without looking too hard, whether it be in the fractured relationships of the SMP or the physical evidence that managed to not become ash at the bottom of a crater. And Quackity, well, he held both of those pieces in the palms of his hands.

In one hand, he held the souls of those fractured by L’Manburg’s memory. Fundy and his desperate need of a stable family, with a past scarred by a father that went mad and nightmares that haunt his waking actions. Sam and his futile attempts at control, gradually being poisoned as he pushes everyone away and tries to single handedly keep the server’s god locked in his own prison. Purpled and his lack of legacy, even in a place he so heavily influenced and his skills so valued yet so dismissed. Foolish and his beautiful builds and broken heart, running away from his destructive past and wanting peace despite the possibility of godhood sitting at his fingertips.

In the other hand, Quackity held a poster, one of the last remaining remnants of the place he had once fiercely declared home. He has no idea how it survived. Most of the physical pieces of L’Manburg that could be found were sections of buildings just far enough away from the explosions, items in random chests, or whatever was on the citizens at the time. Yet somehow, through all the fire and TNT, this poster had survived.

Technoblade. Wanted dead or alive.

Quackity had found it relatively soon after Doomsday, wandering around the crater where L’Manburg once stood. It was slightly singed on the edges and an entire corner was gone, but there it was, lying on the ground innocently, Technoblade’s mocking eyes staring at him with something like satisfaction.

He should have left the thing there. It would have eventually faded away like the rest of L’Manburg with enough time under the elements. Or maybe he should have burned it and forgot it was there in the first place. Whatever he should have done, picking it up, carefully folding it, and stuffing it into his back pocket was definitely not it. But he did. And it stayed with him for a long time.

At first, it was just there, a burning reminder in his back pocket of all he failed to do and what he promised to accomplish. It was there as he built Las Nevadas from the ground up, barely noticeable besides the constant nagging reminder in the back of his thoughts. It was there when he hired Purpled and Technoblade to take care of the Eggpire that had gone on for far too long, growing heavier and heavier each time the Blood God looked at him. It was there when he found out about Kinoko Kingdom for the first time, how the only three people he thought he could trust, the reasons he built Las Nevadas in the first place, left him behind without a second thought.

(The poster didn’t feel heavy then, but it did feel like it was laughing at him. Low and monotone, coming from deep within his memories.

The poster didn’t feel heavy then, but the two rings threaded through a chain around his neck did. They felt like shackles threatening to weigh him down and drown him.

Quackity removed the rings and hid them in a chest after that. Somehow, though, they still felt suffocating).

The poster was there for everything, tucked away in his back pocket, even when he began recruiting members for Las Nevadas. Through Foolish and Fundy, Purpled and Sam, and even through Slime. It knew everything, Quackity would find himself thinking. Of course, there was no way for a poster to know anything, but it didn’t stop the thought.

It wasn’t until after Wilbur visited him with Tommy after his revival (and so many memories of Pogtopia) that he finally took the poster out of his pocket. He was alone at the time (as he always is these days, it feels like, even surrounded by other beings) and in his unfinished casino. Sam had left nearly an hour ago to continue his duties as the Warden at the prison. The echoes of their conversation reverberated through Quackity’s mind.

Technoblade is going to the prison to see Dream tomorrow, he remembers saying. I trust you know what you have to do.

Of course, Sam had replied, the intense green of his eyes sparking in the dim lighting of the casino. You’ve done your part. Now I’ll do mine.

Quackity stared at the glass of whiskey in his hand. It had always Schlatt’s drink of choice, when he was still breathing. The smell reminded Quackity of the long nights he spent as Vice-President to a man barely sober enough to stand, let alone run a country. How many times had he put the smallest amount of poison in Schlatt’s drink, hoping that this time, it would be enough to end him for good? How many days had he spent hiding bruises and putting on fake smiles, wondering if it was all worth it? How many nightmares had he endured, thinking about everything Schlatt did and made him do?

He drank all the whiskey in one go. It burned his throat and pooled like fire in his stomach.

The glass made a satisfying thud on the counter as Quackity set it down. It was then that he finally reached for the poster in his back pocket, holding it almost gently in his scarred hands. He traced the edge of it with his finger, thinking deeply.

Quackity unfolded the poster, one fold at a time. The folds were deep from the sheer amount of time it’s spent in his pocket. It was honestly a miracle that it was still intact, given the state it was in when Quackity found it and the constant strain it’s been under since.

When Quackity finished unfolding the poster, he placed it against the wall and used his empty whiskey glass to hold it up. It looked just like he remembered, even back when the Butcher Army was first created. Sure it was faded and threatened to fold on itself at any moment, but it was still there. The reward, Technoblade’s face, the L’Manburgian flag.

Quackity stared into Technoblade’s red eyes. It was only a drawing, but whoever had done the picture nailed the resemblance to the Blood God. The scar over his eye and lip itched just looking at it.

“You know Technoblade,” Quackity found himself saying. “Before we met, I always had a healthy respect for you. Who didn’t? Everyone was in awe over the Blood God, the most terrifying fighter of our generation, rumored to never be able to die.” He sighed. “Of course, fighting was never my strong suit. You found that out first hand,” he added with some humor, though it felt flat. “Still, a part of me longed to do what you do. Words can only get you so far, get you so much respect.

“They say you should never meet your heroes. Something in that has to be true, because ever since I’ve known you, my life has been nothing but one bitter failure after another.” The poster didn’t reply, and Quackity understood with some absurdity that he was literally talking to a poster as if it were a real being. Still, he continued on.

“Well, maybe that’s giving you too much credit, but it sure feels like that. It’s just,” he trailed off slightly, moving his hands around, trying to figure out some way to articulate his point. Words were supposed to be his weapons, but here, vulnerable and trying to express something that’s been gnawing at him for so long, they scrambled in his throat. “Somehow you come out of every battle, every conflict without a single mark, yet I’m punished for every decision I’ve made since I came to this Primeforsaken SMP.”

And those words, Quackity realized, are when the floodgate inside his chest burst.

“No matter what you do, who you hurt, who you kill, what everyone wants or tries to accomplish, you have never paid for anything you’ve done to the people of this server. I remember when we took down Schlatt with Pogtopia, how you were so insistent that the government had to be taken down, all the while talking about how it was the people’s choice to live how they wanted to live. Well guess what, shithead? The people, L’Manburg, us, we decided that we wanted a government, one that listened to us and one that we could trust. And what did you do once the people made their choice? What did you do after we had called you our friend and said you didn’t have to live by our ways if you didn’t want to? You called us traitors. Said we used you, when all you ever wanted was an excuse to push your own anarchist bullshit down the throat of any server that would give you the time of day. You’re somehow the biggest hypocrite I’ve ever met, even in a world where Dream runs around as the Admin.

“But that’s not even the worst of your sins, isn’t it? I’ve watched you blow up countries with no remorse, execute a child on the whim of a dictator, corrupt and hurt every single person I’ve ever cared about, destroy what I put every ounce of my heart and soul into like it was nothing.”

There were tears aching behind his eyes now. Quackity took a shuddering breath, trying to calm his hurting heart. He thought about Schlatt and his time in Pogtopia, thought about Tubbo and Tommy and Niki and every other L’Manburgian face as they realized the nation they loved was gone at Technoblade and Wilbur’s hands. “And what were your consequences for all of this? What karma did the oh so powerful universe decide you deserved?

“Nothing. Not a single, goddamn thing. For all your violence and bloodshed, you get to live in a nice cottage in the Arctic, filled with friends that celebrate your birthday, and not a single regret.”

Quackity smiled blankly at the poster, raising his hands. By now he was full on pacing in front of it, his shoes making soft noises against the tile. All the while, Technoblade’s red eyes watched his every move.

“But what about me? Prime knows I’m the furthest thing from a saint this server has to offer, but at least I had good intentions. I went against Wilbur during the elections not because I wanted power, but because I saw what he was doing and no one else was going to call him out on his bullshit. I mean, come on! Running a single party election in a so-called democratic nation? Now, that doesn’t mean I didn’t do bad things. I should have left Schlatt the moment I realized just how bad he was. I shouldn’t have waited until after he ruined L’Manburg and executed Tubbo to join Pogtopia. It haunts me every waking moment.” Quackity stopped his pacing for a moment, lost in the memories. Tubbo screaming, the flash and bang of a firework. The explosion of color from the second firework immediately after, because the first one hadn’t been enough. The burning in his chest as he was hit with a firework of his own.

“And then, after you and Wilbur decided to blow it all to kingdom come, I did everything I thought was best for L’Manburg. I helped people. I rebuilt everything you destroyed and made it better. I wanted to hunt you down and make you pay for everything you did.” His scar began to itch again. “But I guess we both know how that turned out.

“And what were my consequences for this? For doing my best, realizing my mistakes, trying to fix them, trying to protect those around me? What karma did the oh so powerful universe decide I deserved?

“Everything. I was punished for everything. Every place I called home, every person I called a friend, every time I fell in love, anything I tried to protect, every time I tried to be happy, I was punished for it. Somehow in this fucked up version of the story, I’m the villain that needs to be punished for their actions, while you’re the blameless hero that gets a happily ever after!”

Quackity was near yelling at this point. It felt good to let out all of his emotions after so long, putting everything into the open even if no one else heard him. He forced himself to calm down slightly, running a hand through his hair.

“Have you ever heard the story of Medea and Jason?” he asked abruptly. The air of the casino seemed to shift uncomfortably with his sudden change of tone, lighter and lower than before. “You probably have, with your obsession with Greek Mythology and shit. You know something interesting about Medea, though? Even though she did horrible, and I mean horrible things, she never lost the favor of the gods. She abandoned her country for some random dude she fell in love with, plotted the murders of her brother and father, as well as murdered a princess with a poison so strong that it killed anyone she touched, and even killed her own children. Yet she doesn’t pay for any of it. Through all of the murder and sorcery, the kept her favor with the gods, and was allowed to have a happy ending. Hell!” Quackity let out a barking laugh. “She doesn’t even die as far as anyone knows! Greek mythology is known for its love of horrible and dramatic deaths, yet of all of the myths she shows up in, never once does it mention her eventually dying, even of old age! Sounds like someone else we know, doesn’t it?”

He paused for a moment, as if expecting a reply. Of course, there was none.

“Now Jason, Jason, on the other hand, we see something interesting. You see, he loses his favor with the gods, specifically his patron Hera, because he was trying to marry another woman even though he was already married to Medea and had two children with her. Can you imagine your patron goddess being the lord of marriage and family, and then you trying to marry another woman? The balls on that man, I’m telling you. The point is, none of his heroic deeds mattered in the end. He lost favor with the gods, lost his wife and children, and ended up dying alone, crushed under the weight of the Argo. The only thing left to immortalize his heroism ended up being the cause of his death.”

Quackity suddenly paused. His words echoed in the casino around him. No longer was he pacing. Instead, he stared long into the distance, as if he could see something through the thick walls. The weight around his neck was nearly unbearable. When he spoke again, it was just above a whisper.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is you are an awful lot like Medea. Doing horrible things left and right with the gods still choosing to favor you, still getting a happy ending despite all the pain and grief you’ve caused. But…” he trailed off, looking back at the poster. It may have been his imagination, but Technoblade’s eyes seemed less mocking, somehow.

“I have hope. Maybe you’re not Medea. Maybe, just maybe, you’re Jason. You’ll do something so terrible that you’ll lose your favor with the gods, lose everything that ever mattered, and you’ll be crushed under the weight of what once proved your worth.” Quackity walked forward, reaching out his hand. His fingertips stopped less than an inch from the surface of the poster, just hovering. Waiting. Contemplating.

“But I can’t wait for that to happen. I can’t wait for the universe to finally decide you’ve lost its favor.”

He dropped his hand. “You once said something, Technoblade. You said: treat others as they have treated you. That was your excuse for everything you’ve done. I tried to enact that saying once before, and I lost a life because of it. This time around…”

Quackity finally snatched the poster from the place on the wall, rattling the glass in the process. He refused to acknowledge that there was the finest tremble in his hands, making the poster shake.

“Well, the universe already made me the villain of this story. Might as well act like one.”

Quackity ripped the poster to shreds, piece by piece, one of the last remaining pieces of L’Manburg destroyed at his hands. Soon it was so shredded that it was unrecognizable, a pile of paper falling softly to his feet. When it was gone, it felt like pressure was relieved from Quackity’s shoulders. For the first time in a long while, he smiled genuinely.

He walked out of the casino, leaving the pile there for another day. He was sure Slime would clean it up without much fuss.

And if the weight around his neck grew to be nearly unbearable-- well, that was no one's knowledge but his own.

[shoutosteakettle]

⤷ pairing: shouto x reader x katsuki

⤷ genre: angst

⤷ word count: 2062

⤷ warnings: love triangle, and just bad writing on general my bad

⤷ a/n: gonna post this right now because the more and more i look at the more and more i hate it. thank you @ererokii​ for being my best hype woman, beta-reading, and for making banner at this point half of everything on my blog is here because of her so you guys say thank you too

☆彡

“Love is such a fickle thing, y’ know?”

“How do you mean,” Shouto asked, his legs rested on your bed, his arse sat atop the floor of your Yuuei dorm, and his head slightly cocked to the side.

“One day I’m head over heels for a person, but then the next, I can barely stand the sight of them,” you sighed, sitting up from your spot on your bed.

“Well, my love for you is one thing that I’ll always be sure of,” Shouto said, looking up from his phone, his eyes meeting yours.

“Awww, Shou, I love you too,” you cooed, reaching down to ruffle his silky soft hair.

This was the platonic prison that Shouto Todoroki was trapped in. In the deepest depths of the friend zone in which he resided, and as hard as he tried to climb his way out, every attempt ended with his pride wounded and part of his heart broken.

“Maybe I should finally tell Katsuki how I feel about him,” you suggested, turning to your best friend for some of his more than well-known advice.

“Y/n, I’m all for whatever makes you happiest,” if happiest means being with me, was the part of that sentence he left out.

You looked over to the alarm clock on your desk, reading the big bright numbers that started back at you, “Jeez, it’s already twelve? Maybe you should head back to your room, it’s getting kinda late, and we don’t want Aizawa-Sensei getting his panties in a twist.”

“Yeah,” Shouto chuckled, gathering his things before standing up and walking over to the bedroom door. “Goodnight, Y/n. Sleep well, okay.”

You watched as Shouto slipped out of your room and into the hallway, and you could tell that he wanted to say something more. He always seemed so worried about your well-being, but that’s what ‘besties’ are supposed to do right...? You did your usual rounds of checking your socials and double-checking your alarm before finally turning off your phone and closing your eyes, more than ready to drift off into dreamland.

Across the dorms, Shouto was making an impromptu visit to Katsuki’s bedroom. He stood in front of his door, debating whether or not having the conversation he was thinking of was worth it. Shouto brought his hand up, bringing his fingers to the middle of his palm before striking the door once, then twice, and lastly, a third time.

From outside the room, Shouto could hear the shifting around, and angry grumbling coming from inside. When the door opened, Shouto was met with a particularly annoyed set of red eyes. “What the fuck do you want,” Katsuki asked through a yawn, resting one arm on the doorway, awaiting an answer from the half and half bastard in front of him.

“I was hoping that we could talk,” Shouto said, waiting for an invitation into the blonde’s room. Bakugou moved his arm from its relaxed spot on the doorframe, turning around to walk into his bedroom, signaling for Shouto to follow behind him.

Shouto closed the door behind him and watched as Katsuki turned on the lamp on his desk, finally letting some light into the otherwise dark bedroom, before taking a seat on his bed. Standing in front of him, dressed in his- well, your favorite pair of his pajamas, a button-up cotton top, and matching bottoms decked head to toe in multi-colored snowflakes, Shouto was finally ready to have what would prove to one of the hardest conversations of his life.

“Don’t just stand there looking like an idiot. You came here to talk about something, right? So talk,” Katsuki asked, more than ready to go back to sleep.

“I know how you feel about Y/n,” Shouto began, watching as the sleep fell from Katsuki’s face, “And I feel the same way about her. She’s planning to confess to you tomorrow, and I need you to reject her.” There was a moment of silence that couldn’t have lasted longer than a couple of seconds, but to Shouto, it felt like an eternity, and in that eternity, he could feel his whole coming crashing down around him. Three years of pining couldn’t go unrequited, he wouldn’t let that happen, and especially not because of Katsuki Bakugou.

“Why in the fuck would I do that,” Katsuki smirked, this was his chance. Katsuki had fallen in love with you the very second that you stepped foot into Yuuei High School, and three years he’s tried his best to keep his feelings to himself, in fear of losing the relationship that the two of you had built. The grin on Katsuki’s face grew wider and wider with every thought of you being his.

“Please, Bakugou,” Shouto knew his position in all of this. For three years, he watched from the outside as you fell more and more in love with Katsuki, and you, him. And every day, Shouto hated the both of you a little more. They say the line between love and hate is a fine one, and to be honest, Shouto couldn’t tell the difference between the two emotions anymore, but what he did know was that if you were going to spend the rest of your life with someone, it was going to be him.

“If Y/n wants to be with me, who am I to stop her,” Katsuki asked, standing up from his bed one last time, once again making his way to his bedroom door holding it open for the now unwelcome pest who was invading his home and preventing his beauty rest, “I’ll sleep on it.”

With that, Shouto saw himself out of Katsuki’s bedroom. When Shouto had finally made it back to his own dorm, the first thing he did was flop onto his mattress, thinking about the choices that would have to be made tomorrow. Now that his hand was being forced, Shouto had no choice but to be the one to claim you first.

ミ☆

The sound of birds chirping outside your window, followed by your alarm, meant that it was the start of your day. You went about your usual schedule, brushing your teeth, washing your face, and taking a shower before you made your rounds back to your bedroom so you could get dressed and look presentable for your classes. You grabbed your backpack off your desk chair and took your phone off its charger and slipped it into your skirt’s pocket before double-checking that you didn’t forget about anything and leaving your room.

As soon as you turned the corner, your face was met with a familiar broad chest. After removing your nose from in between his pecs, you looked upland greeted the red and white man with one your trademark smiles, “Good morning Shou!”

“Good morning, Y/n. How did you sleep,” Shouto asked, going about his usual ways of checking up on you.

“I have a better question, what are you doing on the girl’s side of the dorms mister,” you asked, scolding him in a playful tone, “Is it possible that the Shouto Todoroki could be a peeping tom?!”

“Maybe. There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Y/n,” Shouto joked back, but his tone didn’t exactly match the vibe. “Speaking of things you don’t know, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

“What’s up? You know you can tell me anything right,” you reassured him, running your hand up and down his arm to double down on your words.

“I know how you feel about Bakugou, but I can’t let you confess your feeling to him without letting you know how I feel,” all it took was that one sentence for everything to begin making sense; the double-takes he would make when you would walk down the halls, the emotion you couldn’t quite put a finger on when he would worry for you, but what should’ve been the biggest red flag was how sincere each and every ‘I love you’ that left his mouth sounded. How could you have been this dense? “Y/n, I’ve been in love with you ever since our first year here at Yuuei, and I need you to know that Bakugou isn’t the one for you because the only person capable of loving you as much as you deserve to be loved is me.”

The emotions stirring in your heart were too much to handle at once, of course you loved Shou, how the fuck could you not. Since day one, he had put you under his spell, and you’d been secretly pininng after him ever since, but you were never bold enough to be honest about how you felt. You were snapped out of your thoughts when you felt a calloused thumb begin to wipe away the tears streaming down your face. Without thinking twice, you grabbed Shou by his tie, bringing him closer and closing the gap between the two of you, “I love you too, dummy.” You felt his lips brush against yours before he leaned in even closer, deepening the kiss between you two.

On the walk from your dorms to your school, you and Shou shared your stories about how and when you fell in love with each other, and for a while, things seemed like they would be okay.

Classes seemed to be going by quicker than normal, which was always a good thing. You tried your best to pay attention to the lessons, but you couldn’t help but giggle at the butterflies you felt in your stomach every time Shouto would look over at you. And Katsuki couldn’t help but get more and more pissed every time he saw the silent interactions between you and the half and half bastard.

“Aizawa-Sensei, may I be excused,” you asked, despite the fact that you had yet to be called on, but by the squirming you were doing in your seat, he could tell that you meant business. Aizawa made sure to remind you to take a hall pass off the hooks next to the door before leaving the classroom. On your walk to the bathroom, you noticed that everything felt brighter, as if the sun had finally come out from hiding behind the clouds.

After you’d finished your business in the stall of the girl’s bathroom, you opened the door only to be startled by the sulking blonde in the corner, “Jesus fuck, what are you doing in here Suki?” He didn’t answer your question, he just stood in his spot, staring back at you. It took you a minute to notice, but you knew something was wrong when you saw that his usual docile expression was… sad.

“Y’know you’re the only person I let call me by that dumb-ass nickname,” Katsuki asked you, uncrossing his arms and pushing himself off the tiled wall. He saw you smile fall at his harsh words, but right now he was too worked up to even care, “I didn’t spend three years wrapped around your pinky and bending to your every will for you to be making googly eyes at anyone but me.”

“Katsuki-”

“No, it’s still my turn to talk,” you watched as Katsuki took a deep breath, preparing himself for the words about to leave his mouth, “I’m in love with you, and I know for a fact that you feel the same. I don’t know what’s going on between you and Todoroki, but I do know that I could make you happier than he ever could, because when I think of a person I’m meant to be with your name is the first that comes to mind.” Before you had a chance to process the emotional mess that Katsuki had dumped on you, you felt his index finger underneath your chin, forcing you to look up at him, followed by a quick touch of your lips to his.

And just as fast as the kiss had happened, Katsuki had left the bathroom. You brought your hand up to your mouth, feeling the ghost of the lips that had just touched yours, and overwhelmed with feeling and understanding the dilemma ahead of you, you dropped down to the floor, not even bothering to try and hold in your tears anymore.

The world that had felt so bright before was no longer. How could you bask in the warmth of the sun, when you could only have one?

[geode-to-joy]

Ok so I had time to think about the whole Kfam cancellation thing. And in the end I'm kinda conflicted. Because on one hand, Kfam was one of the podcasts that got me through the second half of my second year in Uni and started my interest in podcasts in general and maybe even writing my own eventually (definitely doing that now). Even in the start of COVID I was listening to this podcast. The music and sound design was something I greatly enjoyed too.

On the other hand, it was dealing with the "jokes" in podcast itself and how the creators, specifically Kyle, handled valid criticism on how queer/gay characters where portrayed and handled. Because we really needed a Bi character to continue the stereotype of Bi people being sexual deviants who doesn't give a fuck about consent and boundaries.

Not even going to touch the racial profiling and stereotypes. Along with the "woke" feminism and girlboss attitude with the female characters cause we'll be here all night and I don't want to deal with that right now.

My main issues was the handling of valid criticism, not the type you find in fandoms with yelling and harrassing of the creators and VAs. I'm talking about what I mentioned earlier. And I'll admit, I've been out of the fandom for a long time, as in, as soon "as I learned about the hiatus" long and moved on to better podcasts that suited my tastes (more queer rep and such) so I missed a lot and since I don't have twitter, even more.

But I was able to picked up on stuff from looking around on here, and never have I've seen a fandom with such a lack of presence on tumblr as this one. Which was kinda of a red flag looking back 😂. Cause even baby started this year podcasts had a bigger presence on here than Kfam. The second one was the Discord server. The unofficial Official Kfam discord server. Had the biggest "Be well King Falls :)" vibe I've ever seen. Made Ba sing se look like just a peaceful city. Everything had to be "uwu positive 🥺" all the time! Singing praises to the creators (specifically Kyle) and a "no negative space 😤😤 " policy. Unless it was to talk about people rightfully complaining about the show.

Ever wanted to actually feel the presence of the "Big brother" atmosphere? It was this server. Kyle was everywhere. After a conversation about a simple question about why there was a voice change for Emily and being linked to a post about it minutes later, I dipped from the discord for a while. I did not feel comfortable in that fabricated "found family" vibe going on in there. Only to find out about the cancellation of the podcast by the server nuking itself today. On sammiversary, the most important day in the podcast and fandom. What a horrid way to treat your fans.

So today was wild.

I just mostly feel bad about the fans who wanted the show to come back and be better and get the conclusion for the plot and see their favs live happily in the end. And for the cast and crew who went through so much for their fans and tried to give us and themselves the best performances that they could. So I wish that they get their recognition and move onto to better pasture and job opportunities in the podcast realm. And not work for a creator who would purposely screw them over and use them as free therapist for their problems.

Just wishing the best for the cast and crew.

[salarta]

What don't you like about Lorna's characterization in X-Factor?

Thanks for asking!

I believe in transparency, so before I get into that, I want to provide a little background on the point of view I’m coming from that influences my opinions.

I was opposed to Lorna being on X-Factor when it was announced. There was already a lot of bad blood and history for me with Marvel as a result of these past few years especially. I won’t exhaustively detail all of it, but the bottom line is, I was already in a place of having a low opinion of current X-Men comics in general.

Then when it was announced she would be on X-Factor, not even as the leader but just as a team member, that immediately grated on me. She’s been buried and sidelined for so long, and now she’s not only right back on the same title yet again after 30 years - that’s a second wave fringe title - she’s not even leading it, or doing other, more meaningful things outside it simultaneously.

Then I saw the interviews by X-Factor’s writer at announcement, which immediately gave me a couple red flags. One, the writer couldn’t seem to say a single thing about Lorna besides essentially “Magneto is her dad and Havok is her ex.” Not even about trauma, of which Lorna has tons of it. Yet she had no problem acknowledging trauma as an important story point for other characters. Two, in trying to form her opinion of Lorna, she said she talked to a couple friends, one of which she said put the Lorna x Havok relationship in a “new light” for her. Meaning she was limiting her fan input just to a couple people she knows and whatever biases those two have, at the exclusion of all others.

That’s my background. Before a single issue dropped. Now let’s get to the things I have problems with since it’s started getting published.

And I do welcome people correcting me if I’m incorrect about details of the book. Being wrong happens. The only true path toward a better future for Lorna is honest assessment.

My biggest problem with X-Factor’s characterization, as a whole, is that it completely disregards important parts of her history in the way she should think and act, and instead treats her like a blank slate.

This is clearest in X-Factor #4, the issue during X of Swords where Rockslide dies. Lorna is a survivor of the Genoshan genocide. We saw how deeply that wounded her. We outright saw her experience of being hailed as a sovereign princess by the people of Genosha, followed by those same people begging Lorna, specifically, to save them. Only for Lorna to be unable to do so, and unable to handle all the death and carnage and pain around her (note these pages are in order of her experiences, not publication order).

After the Genoshan genocide, we saw how not only did she survive this, she had those moments replaying constantly in her head and all around her until the other X-Men dug her out of Genosha’s ruins.

She suffered immensely from what happened to her. So much. But by the end, after dealing with the strain and trauma for so much time, she started to settle into a role from that experience somewhere in between Xavier and Magneto - which is extremely appropriate, considering her very first appearance in comics was all about her struggling between the “good of the X-Men” and the “evil of her father’s blood flowing through her veins” (as it was incredibly simplistic at the time).

This is the Lorna that came out of her hardships with Genosha. The one who felt the weight of those deaths and took them on to a point of being ready to fight for mutant rights.

In spite of this, Marvel has been ignoring the Genoshan genocide concerning Lorna’s history for 15 years now. Refusing to acknowledge it at all, as they let Jean fight Cassandra Nova on its ruins, and let Storm act outraged about its dead, and let Axis exploit it for Red Skull while Lorna’s written as off doing something completely unrelated.

The problem noted in the paragraph above is not X-Factor’s problem alone. It’s a running problem across all of Marvel.

But where X-Factor differs and is far, far worse is that X-Factor #4 not only completely ignored this event in her history. It had her behave as if she had no concept whatsoever of death and loss, had never received the development she did from the Genoshan genocide.

For over 15 years, Lorna’s been wiped from the Genosha story even though she went through the genocide and had served at Magneto’s side (before learning she was his daughter after all) during his rule. Not once in any of that time did Marvel allow the deaths of millions crying for her specifically to save them to impact their treatment of her. It’s been as if she suddenly no longer gives a damn about them.

But one mutant she doesn’t know at all dies nearby and she has a complete breakdown, running around unable to figure out what to do with herself, getting yelled at by her father to make the prophecies come out and later on wishing she could just disappear and stop being a part of anything at all?

That is not Lorna. Or rather, maybe it could count as Lorna from the 90s before Genosha ever happened. But it is absolutely not post-Genosha Lorna, the woman who endured the pain of millions dying all around her and came out of it a woman ready to fight through that pain.

Perhaps if this story acknowledged and incorporated the Genoshan genocide, did an incredibly good job justifying her behavior through that and making it all make sense, I would feel differently. But as it stands? This is an insult to everything she’s endured.

Which gets me to my other big complaints about this book. It doesn’t ACTUALLY acknowledge anything about her history at all.

This is where fans of the book will say “Oh X-Factor acknowledged Giant-Size X-Men when she built the base” and things like that. No. The book has only vaguely hinted at that history, which is very different from truly acknowledging and using it. The few times the book does this, such “acknowledgments” last for exactly one panel, and you have to be a real hardcore Lorna fan or long-time reader to have any chance whatsoever of seeing those statements as callbacks to her past. If you’re a casual reader, Lorna’s comment to Krakoa before creating the base could just as easily be read as that Lorna and Krakoa used to date and had a really bad breakup.

I’ve been asked before what would count as acknowledging her past. So here’s an example. Instead of the vague hinting with Krakoa, Lorna could’ve explicitly said something along the lines of “Hey, remember when Storm and the others helped me launch you out into space?” That would have been enough for a casual reader to know the amazing feat she did, its importance relative to current Marvel events, AND that she has a history with major known names in the franchise. 

But as written? It’s just a silly little joke of a character who’s apparently never done anything notable or interesting “before now.”

Aside from these problems, I’m not keen on what has over time appeared to be a running theme of “Lorna is stupid” on this book. It started with this simple “joke.”

An important note: this panel is out of context. It looks worse by itself, but I have since been corrected by a reader that what happened before this was Northstar trying to charge in, Lorna trying to stop him, both getting caught in this trap, followed by Rachel’s quip. And they do have a history from before X-Factor. They were on the same team, Starjammers, in the late 00s to early 10s.

If this was the only case I had, I wouldn’t be bringing it up. It’s fine taken in isolation. There’s a question of why Lorna’s the sole target of the quip when it was Northstar’s fault, and a problem that people could easily misremember this in the future as Lorna taking the blame. But a single moment is no big deal.

But then we have the scene from X-Factor #4 above where Magneto’s written as yelling at her, putting her down for not being able to get the prophecies out. Lorna even explicitly calls it a “fitting humiliation” during that story.

And then we have the most recent issue. Where Siryn outright calls Lorna dumb as the story has her act in a way that makes her being called that appropriate.

In other words, three times now, Lorna’s been presented as the object of ridicule. As a failure who isn’t able to make plans, think ahead, or handle these stresses that come her way. In essence, it’s wiping out the development she received not just from her experiences on Genosha, but also from her time as leader of All-New X-Factor. Would YOU expect this character, as presented, to be at all capable of leading her own team some day? Or of leading people in a movement, harkening back to when she was called the Queen of Mutants both post-Genosha and when she was initially revealed and Magneto was believed to be dead?

My expectations of X-Factor before it started releasing issues were low, as stated above. But as it’s been releasing issues, it’s just been confirming my worst thoughts about Marvel and how little they think of this amazing character who’s been through so much and never receives her due.

All it’s doing is exploiting her to sell the book and promote everyone else on it. That is my straightforward assessment and opinion of the book. None of the stories or moments truly address anything Lorna’s experienced. The initial story was about Aurora, setting up Northstar as the leader, and forming the team. The Mojoworld story was about Shatterstar. X-Factor #4 was about Rockslide and his death. The latest story is about Siryn.

And it’s great for all these other characters that they’re getting all this care and attention that they often don’t get. But it doesn’t have to come at Lorna’s expense. If she’s going to be on the book, it has to actually give a damn about what she’s been through and how it’s shaped her, and openly acknowledge her too often forgotten past spanning 52 years.  

I am not saying X-Factor taken as its own thing is bad. I’m not saying it treats any of the other characters bad. I’m saying it’s bad for Lorna, and she’s better off not on it even if she doesn’t get to join the new X-Men team. 

I will end off on a bit more of a positive note for people who happen to like this book. There are a couple things I do like about it.

I like the creative usage of Lorna’s powers in building the team’s base, and in having the prophecies encoded in electromagnetic signatures. Those are an excellent way to show she can be and do other things besides “bend spoons,” and she’s not just “Magneto with boobs” as far as power usage.

I also like that the book does not have a sexism problem in its treatment Lorna. Past treatment of Lorna had this problem in a big way, as demonstrated by this awful as fuck cover from X-Men Blue.

And I partly like the very last few panels of X-Factor #4, in that Lorna gets to do some public speaking among mutant colleagues. I loathe the treatment leading up to it, and I think it could’ve been much better if it followed the vein of one of the variant covers of Lorna holding up a sword in front of an army as if urging them onward to battle as a warrior queen would. But it was still better than okay.

But those few good bits do not in any way make up for the bad as I’ve seen it in this book.

[mkstrigidae]

from the ask meme abt writing, i have a few questions about your writing process! how do you stay organized with so many pov’s in AWPH? i always wonder what writing app/site fic writers use (word, google docs, etc.), and if it’s not too much, could you show a screenshot of how that looks?

Hi friend! :) I am terribly sorry it’s taken me a while to answer this- life has gotten in the way

Oof- so the answer to that question ‘how do you stay organized’ is probably ‘I don’t’, but I’ll do my best. (this ended up long and fairly disorganized)

About APWH POVs:

For the different POVs, there isn’t really a process I have to choose whose POV is used for what scene- I’d probably be more stern about it if were writing a novel, but because it’s fanfiction, I kind of just go with whatever feels right at the time. There is one thing that’s absolutely deliberate, though- I’ve never written a scene from Petyr’s POV, because he’s the exception to narrative omniscience.

There have been a few instances where I’ve had to switch whose POV i was writing from as I went along, or after I finished a scene- Meeting Jon Arryn is an example from the most recent chapter. Initially, it was from Sansa’s point of view, but Sansa overthinks everything and so it kept going off in all sorts of weird directions and I couldn’t pin it down. Once I started writing as Robin, it got much easier.  

The single most difficult thing about keeping all the different characters straight is remembering who knows certain things, and who doesn’t know certain things.

Take this, for example. The two characters closest to omniscience are Oberyn and Sansa, but where Oberyn knows Baelish’s history and can understand certain aspects of his motivation because of years of working on the case and studying him (in addition to a hefty understanding of human psychology), Sansa isn’t always completely aware of how important certain pieces of evidence are, or how relevant certain things are to Petyr’s motivations. The two of them understand Baelish more than anyone else, but in drastically different ways. The biggest thing is that Oberyn is aware of Petyr’s relationship with Catelyn, and how he feels about her, whereas Sansa has no idea about that, and still doesn’t really understand why Baelish took her in the first place (although she’s been doing a repeat speedrun through the five stages of grief throughout the entire thing, poor kid).

But there are basic facts of the story, and then there’s the ‘who knows what’ aspect of it. Someone broke into the Stark’s home in White Harbor and stole Sansa from her bed- this is a fact. But only a few people know who it was that broke in or how it was done. An assassin was hired to kill Petyr Baelish at the airport and failed. The Lannisters know who the assassin is, but Oberyn and Daemon don’t yet.

There are lots of complicated relationships among the characters too- Jon knows more about Robb than any of the rest of them, except maybe Rhae, who only ever shows vulnerability to Willas and Marg, and so the rest of us don’t really get to see her soft side. Arya’s relationship with Catelyn is extremely complicated, and as such, she has a lot of baggage going into meeting Sansa that Sansa has no idea about. Lyanna is aware of what’s generally going on politically, and is working on several important stories that could provide some insight to Oberyn, but they haven’t talked about politics too much recently, because Oberyn’s too busy with the investigation and Lyanna’s busy with her job. There are secrets that Robb has been keeping for an extremely long time, and secrets that Sansa’s keeping without even realizing it. There are a lot of things that were odd or abnormal or red flags in Sansa’s childhood that she doesn’t even realize are odd, because she has no other frame of reference.

In terms of keeping the other stuff straight, I have a page at the beginning of the APWH Master Document (it’s so long dear god), that basically has character names, ages, locations, and time zones written down. I’ve tried making like, character info compilations, but I’m not very good at updating them so I stopped that (although I found a particularly funny bit about the targs in one that’s sampled below).

Generally, I think it’s more important to understand how your characters react to certain situations and their most basic personality traits and values, rather than just having a long list of stats on them, so that tends to be my approach. If I’m worried that I’m about to write something that conflicts with a previous plot point, generally, I’ll go back and skim the story for mentions of them to double check- I’ve reread APWH so frequently that I am genuinely sick of the first five chapters, haha.

Unfortunately, a lot of it tends to just be that I have an extremely good long-term memory for details. The trade-off is a god-awful short-term memory, though. It’s partially the ADHD. I’m on the verge of trying to keep things straight with an excel doc, tho.

The timeline is one of the trickier aspects, so I tend to scribble them out anytime I’m thinking about when and where certain events happened. Generally, I use Sansa’s abduction as year zero, because I do not understand how years work in Westeros and have elected to just use my own- here’s a sample of one I scribbled down the other day when I was trying to figure something out.

(Sorry about the post it notes- those are covering some spoilers! ;D)

About my writing process:

It is…. Not as streamlined of a process as I would like, haha. Generally, I go by chapter. I kind of have a rough idea of what I want to happen in each chapter, and generally that evolves as the story does.

For each chapter, I kind of just bullet point out some things that I want to have happen, and then try my hand at writing some of them. Some of my best ideas happen after this process, though, like the scene where Robb and Sansa find out that Baelish moved them out of the city while Robb was in town to avoid a confrontation. But I have those bullet points, and usually rough chapter titles and rough summaries before the chapters start. (Some things blacked out because of spoilers ;D)

I think that if I waited until I was inspired to sit down and write, then APWH would maybe be done by like, 2070, so I usually kind of sit down and just start writing- some of it is good, some scenes I discard completely, and usually, once I hit on something that works, the plot flows where I want it to.

I generally know how I want the chapters to start, based on how the previous chapter ends (My writing time for them usually overlaps bc it’s a natural continuation). Once I figure out roughly how I want the chapter to end, though, the whole thing starts coming together, and it’s easier for me to figure out what doesn’t belong in the middle, and what might be missing.

I started using one master document on word, because I swear to god I did not intend for this story to turn into the behemoth that it is, and that lasted for about twelve chapters before I realized that the damn thing was 368 pages of tiny font (I don’t double space my lines when I write bc I like seeing as much of it as I can). So I’ve switched to individual word docs for each chapter as of chapter 13, and used google docs to share the chapter with the wonderful @nowmywatch-begins who was kind enough to beta read the thing and remove the excess of commas I tend to use. I use color coded highlighting to indicate different things- turquoise means I want to go back and rework something, green means I need to check to make sure something doesn’t conflict with something I wrote previously, yellow is for sections that I might not want in that chapter and might need to move, etc. Anything I end up discarding goes in a section at the end of that chapter labeled ‘outtakes’. I used to have a lot of trouble rewriting things because I hated to get rid of them, so this circumvents that particular issue. I get to keep what I wrote, while still improving the story by being willing to throw out certain parts.

I write out of order frequently so I keep a separate document called ‘APWH- Bits and Pieces’ that I use whenever I’m doing something like that- it acts as sort of a holding tank for these scenes until I feel like they fit in the story. I also just keep random notes in there, questions that I think need answering, random sentences that just come to me, ideas I’ve jotted down when an idea sparks, etc. There’s a lot of stream of consciousness kind of stuff because I tend to process ideas by writing them down, and so I have stuff like ‘okay so what if Lysa did X and Petyr was here and does Sansa have a college scholarship???? Is the Braavosi prison in the northwest or the south? Why is Westeros still a monarchy? do the tabloids follow the royal family like in britain???’

Like, I have the ending for APWH written, but it’s fairly disjointed, and i think I’ll be able to flesh it out more as the story goes along. I like having a general idea of where I’m going with my writing, but I also will modify those ideas frequently as I go- sometimes the characters really do write the story for you.

This is probably not very organized, and waaaaay longer than you wanted, but I hope this answers your question!!! Thank you for the ask! :)

[writingsfromhome]

Lookalike

Request: Can you do another cone song? Maybe lookalike or maniac? [Can you do it like harry dates a lookalike of you?]

A/N: I know this is way later than I said, I honestly wrote four version of this and deleted them before settling on this one and it’s still not the best. I’m just posting it so I can move on to my other ideas. I hope you enjoy it anyway! Soz it ends kinda on a cliffhanger, I didn’t want to make it super long. It already feels really long.

———————————

It was a humid summer evening, not the kind of evening you wanted to step out in. But here I was, in line with my best friend Jules who’d somehow gotten word of this pop-up club that was recently getting more popular with social media. The location would be dropped in code somewhere online for a limited time and then the rest was just word of mouth. Jules worked as a makeup artist so she usually knew what the “in crowd” was doing. This time, she knew where the club was going to be.

Myself, I was just a recent masters-graduate with low job prospects and big time loans. Always tired, single, and at the moment, very, very sweaty. The humidity was really damaging the effort I’d put in for this night out.

“Do you think we’ll spot Ed Sheeran?” Jules asks, her one true desire. “Then I can finally tell him how much he means to me.”

“Don’t know if this is Ed’s scene,” I tease her. “He seems more like a laid-back pub sort of guy.”

“You’re so right,” she still peers around us. “You hoping to see any celebs here? This one’s the biggest so far I’ve heard.”

His face pops into my head but I slam my guard down. “I’ll be lucky just to find a cute guy.”

“Two of you?” The bouncer asks Jules as we make our way to the front-she looked twelve, and we finally head inside. We’d stepped into a storybook.

Vines and tiny lights covered the ceiling and floors, rays of green and pink lights flash around us and the ground was littered with flower petals.

“Oh my god the seats are trees,” Jules whispers in my ear. This was insane.

“They probably have themed drinks,” I grab Jules’ hand and pull her to where I see the bar. We loved a good themed drink.

“This is amazing,” Jules shouts. “I think I just saw Adele!”

On a second look, we decide it was Adele’s doppleganger but we’re soon preoccupied by drinks. I order a Cosmic Boom and take another look around the open space. It was getting pretty full, people dancing but a lot of people hanging about talking.

Jules and I take our drinks to the dancefloor and enjoy ourselves. This was new all over-enjoying myself. I’d spent the last five months working hard at school, job searching, and then a bit of travel. But I was so busy convincing myself that if I worked hard enough I’d forget about the awful year I’d had. Would forget about Harry and the way he left me.

Nobody would believe it, but Harry Styles was my boyfriend for a solid year. We’d met when I was visiting Jules on set of some talk show. He’d been there, after his interview, and mistakened me for backstage crew. He asked me to show him where his room was. He’d been so embarassed when I told him I didn’t work there, but I volunteered to help him find it anyway. I was just killing time ‘til Jules was done.

We had gotten lost and ended up in this storage space where it was clear stage props were stored. We’d found half a car-cut clear through the middle and ended up sitting inside and talking. It was weird, just an hour before that, Harry Styles was this iconic and unattainable person who lived in the fantasy part of my brain. Sitting in the semi-dark with him, in a half-car, and being only a foot away, he was just another person. A regular bloke who was gorgeous, talking to me about his recent mother’s day disaster while I laughed and told him about something similar that had happened when I was a child.

It was quite silly to think we were going to leave that room the same way we walked into it.

He’d leaned in once quiet had settled down around us, both of us just watching the other, afraid that speaking would ruin the moment. His finger had ghosted my face, hesitating, asking me without really asking me. I’d leaned in the rest of the way to tell him it was okay. That’s when I knew I was a goner.

He was gentle with me, but also entirely self assured, leading the way. I couldn’t keep track of his lips or his hands but every part of my body was alive and I lived entirely in the moment for him.

He’d called me later that night asking if I wanted to have dinner at his place. We knew we had something good going. So we kept at it.

Until five months ago.

“Y/N?” Jules says in my ear. I snap out of my memories and look to where she’s pointing. And then back to her ecstatic face. There, sitting near the DJ was actually Ed Sheeran.

“Jules,” I say, lost for words. We had to do this now. We had to approach him, now or never.

“I can’t,” she says close to me. “I’m going to vom right now.”

“Come on!” I grab her and try to move her stiff body one step at a time until we’re only a couple feet away. That’s when the group he’s talking to shifts and I see Harry. Harry with a girl on his arm. My Harry.

“What’s wrong?” Jules halts as my own body goes rigid. “Don’t tell me you’ve got nerves now...oh hey isn’t that Harry?”

“Yeah...” my mouth was dry and I couldn’t believe it. He was here, I really didn’t think I’d see him ever again.

“I need to talk to you,” Harry says as I pour my morning coffee. It was the first week of my final semester so I was actually in a good mood, optimistic before all the deadlines hit. I never saw it coming.

“What’s up?” i was so innocent, drinking my coffee with no idea what else was brewing.

He takes the coffee cup from my hands and puts it down, gathering my hands in his. I notice his hands are slightly clammy, that was the first red flag.

“What’s wrong?” I ask again, the anxiety spiking up.

“No-nothing. I was just thinking about how I have to on tour for the next year. You’ve still got school to finish and a great big career ahead of you. I feel like I’m just going to hold you back and I-“

“That’s silly,” I interrupt. “You’d never...”

“I might. I’ll have tour and you’ll have school-“

“Hold on. Are you just trying to say...is it you who’ll hold me back or me who’s going to hold you back?” I asked, confused. How would Harry ever hold me back? I offered to go on legs of his tour with him when I could. I could do my work on the road. Nobody was going to hold anybody back

Harry opens his mouth to explain but I don’t let him get a word in. How dare he try to twist the situation. He should just say what he felt!

“Is that really it? I’m just a regular girl-next-door who’s run out of her luck with the famous superstar? She could never understand your fame, you could never want her in the public’s eye? Is that it? You’re too good for me? You can’t even think about going public with our rel-“

“Trust me you don’t want tha-“

“Don’t tell me what I want!” The coffee had curdled in my stomach and I felt like dry-heaving but I hold it together. I was so in love with this man, to think about living without him was painful beyond comprehension. But all he saw me as was deadweight. The realisation is crushing. “Just leave Harry. Just bloody leave then, I don’t want to see you! After all we had together I’m just deadweight to you? I’m going to hold you back? And yoy can’t eve be a man and say what you really want!”

He’d ruffled his hair, given some explanation, tried to tell me he loved me but I was somewhere else. My life felt like it was falling apart, and I had a lab to teach in a few hours. He was so bloody selfish. I decided I hated him.

“-show him who cares. Go right up and pretend you don’t even know who he is...” I wasn’t sure how long Jules was talking but she was right. I didn’t care about him. This was my night out.

Jules walks ahead and uses her charm to wriggle her way into the small conversation, inserting me right beside her. She knew the business, taking her time to talk to Ed Sheeran so as not to overwhelm him. In the meantime, my eyes catch Harry’s, and it’s like a movie line. Time slows down, I hear the breath I take and see the surprise register on his face. But I let my eyes skim past his, he meant nothing to me. Instead, they land on his girlfriend and that’s where I fight to hide the surprise.

There’s these photos I see online sometimes, you take a picture and draw it in your own style. His new girlfriend was kind of like that. She looked just like me, except slightly off. More like how I looked last year. Since then, I’d grown out my hair and let its natural colour grow in. But I nudge Jules and use my hair as a curtain, trying to tell her to look. She speaks my language so she sees right away and her eyes widen. She mouths oh my god.

I watch from the corner of my eye while pretending to be engaged by Jules introducing what she does to Ed Sheeran. Harry says something to his girl and she laughs. Jesus, even her smile was reminiscent of mine. I try not to stare, using my drink as a distraction but some small part of me-most of me is upset-but a small part of me feels like I’d won. Harry had told me I wasn’t good enough for him, and then gone out to find someone who looked just like me. That gives me the confidence I need to finally look him in the eye. It’s like he was tracking my moves because he looks at me too. He smiles and I just raise my eyebrows.

“Y/N,” he says in that deep silky voice of his. It carries across despite the noise. My heart squeezes.

“Harry,” I say. I let my eyes slide to his girlfriend and she raises a hand.

“Hi, I’m Katy.”

“Hi,” I smile, she’d done nothing wrong except look like me I guess. She looks up at Harry, waiting for him to introduce us. Ugh.

“And this is Y/N, she’s my best friend but she always says she never understands my absolute obsession with your music.” Jules from the right of me catches my attention. She was introducing me to Ed Sheeran-and exposing me.

“Okay. Ouch.” I give her a look which makes her laugh and shake Ed’s hand. Oh my god. “I’m definitely a fan, just not as big as Jules.”

“She’s more of an indie rock girl,” Harry’s deep voice comes from behind me and I’m surprised to find him standing right behind me.

Jules raises her eyebrow at him, glances at me while Harry and Ed talk before interjecting and resuming her conversation.

“I’d say I’m more of a pop girl.” I turn to Harry. I look for his girlfriend but she’d disappeared.

“But that’s not your guilty pleasure,” Harry says and I avoid the tingle in my stomach as he says it. “And Kat’s gone off with her friend, they saw Adele they want to get a picture.” I don’t bother to say it wasn’t Adele. “How’s it going with you?”

He has to lean in close to be heard and I find myself drawing closer to his orbit. I had to be careful here. I remind myself that I hated him.

“Same old,” I say. “I’ve graduated, now looking for full time work. Travelled a bit too.”

“You finally see those tourist traps you wanted to?”

I forgot how intimately Harry knew me, I wanted to forget how much history we shared. But it’s so painfully obvious now that that would be impossible. Even holding onto my hate was proving slippery.

“The Great Pyramids were better than the Eiffel Tower,” I reference an old conversation we’d had. “So I was right.”

This makes Harry laugh and the club narrows down to just us as he steps to the side with me to a quieter area.

We stand in silence for a moment, just watching each other, memorizing the details about each that time had blurred. Like the laugh lines around his eyes, or the depth to his eyes. It feels like he’s cheating with me, with how fiery and focused his gaze is on me. The unspoken words in his eyes.

“Harry I-“ I raise my hand to tell him I should go, I didn’t want anything to happen we would regret. But he takes my hand and puts it to his warm chest. The words leave my mouth as I look at him again. Really look at him. From afar he looked like he was doing better than he ever was but up close I notice the tired bags and the lost look in his eyes. It was the same one I saw in my own after we’d broken up.

This was ridiculous, I tell myself. He left me, I shouldn’t feel bad for him. I’d won. But I want to ask him about Katy, when he looked in her eyes, did he think of mine? And when he looked at her smile, did I cross his mind? I already knew that he saw me instead ‘cause she looks a lot like I did back then. I wanted to ask him and tell him not to lie.

“How are you doing?” I finally break and ask even though I want to ask, is she just a lookalike?

He looks away, his hand letting go of mine. His fake smile is back on his face as he performs for me once again. “Not too bad. I’ve got a break from tour right now so just layin’ low.”

I look around and point to the club around us. “Laying low?”

“Yeah,” Harry laughs at being caught. “My girlf-Katy-she really wanted to come out to one of these with her girlfriends. She convinced me to come along.”

I didn’t know what to say to that so I just smile. My phone buzzed and I see a text from Jules. I look for her in the crowd and she’s staring at me with a raised eyebrow. I give her the everything is okay smile and she looks relieved.

“Jules is overprotective as usual,” Harry notices. What did he expect, I think, when he’s the selfish arse who broke my heart. The small flame of anger reignites as I watch Jules smile at me with caring eyes.

“She just wanted me to hook up with a cute guy tonight,” I say to Harry. “Spending it with my ex kind of kills the vibe.”

There, I’d addressed the elephant in the room. And just as I suspected, Harry gets uncomfortable.

“So I take it you’ve not got a boyfriend?”

“Nope,” I cross my arms. “Was busy travelling...” and feeling depressed at home I don’t add.

“Right,” Harry straightens up. “Well don’t let me keep you Y/N. Sorry to...”

I look up at him, his pause. His apology seems to be about something bigger than keeping me from the rest of the club. But I don’t mention it. I don’t push it. Yes, I wanted to stay here in this corner of the club with him but I don’t want to make it a big deal. I give him a squeeze on the arm to tell him it was alright. He paints a smile on and I walk away even though I want to just stay.

I walk to Jules, tell her I’d get another drink for us. At the bar, waiting for our drinks, I notice Harry with Katy again, they’re dancing with her friends, she laughs, he pulls her closer.

That was us not long ago, before that morning chat. God. I really did hope, in his head, he saw me instead. Cause...he’d been in mine every day since then. I admit it, some nights, no almost every night...I still though about him. I tried to hide it, I did an amazing job at hiding it, but I couldn’t erase him from my mind. The thought almost makes me laugh as I get my drinks...maybe I just needed to find a lookalike.

[pluviophile-bookworm]

AWAE 3x2 rewatch: thoughts and reaction

This is dedicated to the one and only Lucas Jade Zumann, who turns 20 today. Now, without further ado, let’s dive right into this episode.

When did Marilla become what TVtropes calls an Amazingly Embarrassing Parent? I mean, it was a matter of time, now that she’s a full-on mother to Anne. And Gilbert’s reactions are everything. Everything, I tell you.

How wonderful - Anne is going to town to learn about her past. I love how they incorporated this into her story in the series, it’s, as Anne herself would say, so much more ‘romantical’ than what the books gave her as a backstory. Also, there’s something about train rides that I love so much... maybe it’s because I don’t get to ride on a train very often, so it’s exciting for me... but let’s turn our attention away from me and back to Shirbert on the train again. 

‘Yes, I’ve taken notice of that.’ Wow, the wording. I bet he’s taken notice of something else, too. But with how Anne is treating him, Gilbert doesn’t seem in a hurry to confess any feelings just yet. Plus he seems not to know how... this is so perfect yet so frustrating at the same time.

Matthew’s awkwardness around women warms my heart. He’s just such a precious cinnamon roll and that’s that on that. 

This ride makes it, once again, so clear just how similar Anne and Miss Stacy are. True kindred spirits. Her incessant talking and unquenchable excitement over everything, combined with Matthew’s awkward struggle to find words, remind me so much of Anne’s first ride to Green Gables. 

Mary’s happiness over seeing her son, and his own cheerfulness compared to the last time we saw him are just everything. Everything - I’ve got a feeling I’ll be using this word a lot in this post. This episode is just that good, at least so far. I’ve allowed myself enough time and distance to forget what happens in it (or at least the details, I do remember some major stuff), so I can experience it almost as if for the first time. I love that about rewatches. 

Elijah is thinking about staying - what a lovely family they could be. But he’s quite... wary of Delphine, as if he’s jealous of the family his mother has built herself in his absence. I don’t really know the feeling, but I can tell it’s a horrid one. 

But look who it is - the man himself, Cole Mackenzie! I’ve been so excited to see him again, and now here he is, in flesh and blood. His friendship with Anne is just... you guessed it - everything!

I am so beyond happy to hear Cole talking excitedly about his new school and new friends, and his happy new life. This guy deserves the world - and he’s getting increasingly large portions of it now. So brilliant.

I see we’re being introduced to Winifred Rose here. She certainly seemed like a potential kindred spirit in her introducing scene - too bad her and Anne’s relationship to Gilbert wouldn’t allow this to happen. But who knows - maybe someday in the future... #renewannewithane

May I just say how much I agree with Miss Stacy on the matter of choosing to be single. No one should be forcing you to find a partner if that’s not what you want. I remember coming out to my high school ‘friends’ as aroace. Their immediate reaction was to try and find me a boy. Some people just don’t understand that not everyone needs romantic  (or otherwise) companionship to be a happy, functional human being. I admire Miss Stacy for standing her ground on the matter.

Anne’s traumatic past haunts her more than ever once she goes back to the orphanage she’s spent most of her life in. I think I’m getting traumatised just by watching, imagine what Anne has lived through. 

Poor Anne can’t even muster up the strength to speak, traumatised as she is. Thank gods for Cole, always there to help out. But I guess he must be realising now, just as I am for the second time, just as I was the first time around, how much Anne has really been through in her short life so far. She’s really lucky to have the Cuthberts now, and her friends, friends like Cole. But she’s still haunted by all the trauma. I’m crying. I don’t know if I can carry on with this rewatch. I might just stop right here. 

Seriously, thank gods for Cole. How can he always bring so much light into other people’s lives, even back when he didn’t have that much light in his own? And to be honest, Anne does the same for people. She’s done it so many times that she needed someone to do it for her for once. Thank gods for people Cole. 

‘If you’re having fun, you’re doing it wrong.’ That is a serious red flag. I know things were different back in time, but I really think that you can’t have fun with something unless you’re doing it wrong, it’s better not to do it at all. So Gilbert should pursue what makes him happy, not try to stick to formalities that, at best, bind him. But hey, he’ll have to figure that out for himself. I can’t possibly go in there and tell him. But gosh, how I wish I could...

‘The best part of knowing the rules is finding acceptable ways of breaking them.’ I feel like that’s an important message. Rules aren’t meant to be obeyed blindly. It is crucial to know when and how to a rule to make the world a little bit of a better place. I’m not sure that’s the message here in this situation, in fact I think it’s most likely not, but I’m taking what I can out of it, and I’m flying with it. Isn’t that what I always do? Twist any topic towards an aspect I can talk about - since I can’t really talk about a great many things. Well, whatever, let us try and focus on the episode at hand now. I really struggle with staying on track. But I still have half of this episode to rewatch, so let’s get back to where we were. 

Elijah is seriously out of line. Seriously. I get he’s bitter that Delphine is getting the family he didn’t quite have, but his mother is right about him needing to sober up. And Bash’s trying to understand him, but some people really need to meet the business end of things rather than the kind, understanding end. 

‘Catch a man. Is it like fishing?’ Gosh, Muriel Stacy, you crack me up. But she’s absolutely right, you know. Romance and courtship should not be like fishing or hunting. A partner is not an object to be obtained, not a prize to be won. They are a fellow human being with needs of their own. But if Muriel doesn’t want one, as I said somewhere above, she should in no way be forced to ‘catch’ a man.  

Anne needs proof that she was loved... well, look no further than the pair of lone siblings who accepted you in their home and in their hearts. Look no further than the Cuthberts. 

Gilbert is quite unusually cheerful today. I’m guessing that would be courtesy of Winifred. In another universe, maybe. Either way, there is a more serious issue at hand. Elijah again, who else. He’s stolen from John Blythe’s possessions, as if he has the rights to. 

‘Fraternising with savages’? Seriously, Marilla? After all the good things I said about you? Not that they weren’t true, mind you, but that doesn’t make the part about calling other people, fellow human beings, ‘savages’. No one deserves to be treated like that. 

Gosh, that was quite a way to say those three little words. Three heavy, meaningful little words. And sure, as far as I understand, for I am no mother nor do I want to be, worry is the biggest sign of a mother’s love. And despite all the things Marilla said about the Mi’kmaq, she is a good mother to Anne. 

Let’s sum up: Marilla is an amazingly embarrassing mother, but a mother nonetheless; Anne is so cold to Gilbert that he has to resort to awkwardly courting Winifred - why?; Anne’s quest for her own past; Cole returns - thank gods for Cole; Elijah is also back, but I can’t welcome him with open arms; Miss Stacy is a true kindred spirit who, however, does not need a man to be happy; Anne is haunted by her traumatic past; Elijah steals from a dead man; ‘fraternising with savages’ - have we forgotten Anne was also a person whom mothers didn’t want their children fraternising with?; Marilla says ‘I love you’.