#this is technically a flashback sequence

[moltengoldveins]

writing snippet

.

“Come on then!” The woman cries from above, her voice clattering down the canyon like an eagle in flight. Nebenai laughs, fingers gripping tighter to her precarious hold, shoulders burning as the healing sigils begin to heat the gouges on her fingertips and the pads of her palms. 

“I’m stuck!” She yells back, and the woman sighs, anchor chain clattering. Then, with easy grace, she kicks off her perch and falls, rope catching, creaking, swinging her out and down and past Nebenai’s position, inches from slamming into her and knocking them both off the cliff. She falls away, then swings back, ankles scraping against stone to come to a terrifying halt pressed against Nebenai’s side. 

“Hi.” Her grin is audible, breathless, the noonday sun is streaking around her head and casting her in painful silhouette. 

Nebenai rolls her narrowed eyes, her smile never faltering. “Oh shut up, help me out here.” 

One broad hand clamps down on the makeshift harness, the other on the rope above them both, and she begins to haul them both up the cliffside. Nebenai soon finds places to wedge her feet and push, helping direct their climb until eventually, gasping and laughing, they spill over the top of the cliff and splay out in the sunlight. 

Beneath them, so far as to be tinted blue by the distance, spreads the valley they just spent the day traversing. Behind a hill, a curl of smoke rises from the camp, tracing upwards into the air like an inkbrush on paper. 

Finally, Nebenai pushes herself up on her elbows, throwing one hand out to block the sun. The woman is already upright, perched above the precipice like a church gargoyle, arms spread wide to balance. Her fingers play in the wind like feathers, or autumn leaves. 

Nebenai reaches out with one foot to tap the woman’s ankle. “You know, you’re going to be the death of me one day.” 

The woman’s laugh is like bourbon, like a dagger, like a swallowed torch. It sounds like it hurt going down. “Please, give me some credit. I already am.” 

[robo-dino-puppy]

*chomp*

[todayisafridaynight]

So what's one of your favorite Tsutsumi fits 😉

random as hell question to be askin 🤨 so mysterious...

but since you did ask probably this one <3 from the second episode of pure <3

[eriochromatic]

Arcane CD Charms 💿💿💿 Track 8/8 Our Love 🥂

saved the best for last!!! Zaundads nation I was NOT about to forget yall.. I know this is technically an s1 song but that flashback sequence was everything!!!

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Rhetorical Devices

Some Examples

Anacoluthon - Syntactical inconsistency or incoherence within a sentence, especially: a shift in an unfinished sentence from one syntactic construction to another. ("you really should have—well, what do you expect?")

Anadiplosis - Repetition of a prominent and usually the last word in one phrase or clause at the beginning of the next. ("rely on his honor—honor such as his?")

Analepsis - A literary technique that involves interruption of the chronological sequence of events by interjection of events or scenes of earlier occurrence; flashback.

Antiphrasis - The usually ironic or humorous use of words in senses opposite to the generally accepted meanings. ("this giant of 3 feet 4 inches")

Apophasis - The raising of an issue by claiming not to mention it. ("we won't discuss his past crimes")

Aporia - An expression of real or pretended doubt or uncertainty especially for rhetorical effect. ("to be, or not to be: that is the question")

Chiasmus - An inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases. ("working hard, or hardly working?")

Dysphemism - The substitution of a disagreeable, offensive, or disparaging expression for an agreeable or inoffensive one. ("greasy spoon is a dysphemism for the word diner")

Epistrophe - Repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect. ("of the people, by the people, for the people")

Hypallage - An interchange of two elements in a phrase or sentence from a more logical to a less logical relationship. ("you are lost to joy for joy is lost to you")

Hyperbaton - A transposition or inversion of idiomatic word order ("judge me by my size, do you?")

Pleonasm - The use of more words than those necessary to denote mere sense; redundancy. ("I saw it with my own eyes")

Syllepsis - The use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent words in the context with one literal and the other metaphorical in sense. ("she blew my nose and then she blew my mind")

Synecdoche - A figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (such as fifty sail for fifty ships), the whole for a part (such as society for high society), the species for the genus (such as cutthroat for assassin), the genus for the species (such as a creature for a man), or the name of the material for the thing made (such as boards for stage).

Zeugma - The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words usually in such a manner that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one. ("opened the door and her heart to the homeless boy")

As with all fields of serious and complicated human endeavor (that can be considered variously as an art, a science, a profession, or a hobby), there is a technical vocabulary associated with writing.

Rhetoric - the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion, and though a writer doesn’t need to know the specific labels for certain writing techniques in order to use them effectively, it is sometimes helpful to have a handy taxonomy for the ways in which words and ideas are arranged. This can help to discuss and isolate ideas that might otherwise become abstract and confusing.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Part 1 ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[youryurigoddess]

Thy Kingdom Airways

Attention all passengers, please fasten your seatbelts. We are preparing for take-off. This time our analytic journey will revolve around planes as a recurring motif in Good Omens 2 and possibly Good Omens 3. Since a part of this post will add some new crumbs of information about the ongoing production to the discourse, please make sure to spoiler tag your replies accordingly.

We’re starting literally at the beginning, AND YES, I’m painfully aware that this is my third time breaking apart this particular scene from the new title sequence (Peter Anderson, I’m in your walls). We’re witnesses to the Second Coming brought to us via Thy Kingdom Airways.

And this big silver plane is actually a part of some good old �� literally 20-year-old — spoilers from the never published Good Omens sequel:

Director Douglas Mackinnon personally chose the poster for A Matter of Life and Death / Stairway to Heaven (1946) to appear here as well. The movie itself is referenced multiple times in both seasons of the show, but what interests us here is the fact that its MC is a British pilot who dies in a plane crash.

He gets another chance at life due to an angel’s error and eventually must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with a radio operator who shared his last moments on Earth over the airwaves.

Douglas is also responsible for the movie playing in the background of The Resurrectionist pub scene in S02E06 — The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), a biopic of Charles Lindbergh, the pilot who made the first nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris.

To finish the transatlantic flight, Lindbergh has to stay awake for 33 hours (33 happens to be biblically significant, i.a. as the age of the crucified Jesus). He succeeds by talking to a fly that had buzzed into the cockpit and reminiscing to it about his life (via flashbacks).

Once an accident, twice a coincidence, three times a pattern, right? So there’s a plane. And a character traveling through time and space to navigate some dangerous circumstances. Looking for help or… clues? The danger is either their own feelings or something more ominous here.

Flash-forward to 2025. It might be completely off, but considering the overall panic I think it’s worth mentioning that I found some crumbs of information suggesting a Good Omens film shoot with a certain amount of angels at an airport right now.

I was casually screening the extras’ profiles for Good Omens 3 the other day, as one does to learn that e.g., one of them is a professional contortionist (really!) and after a while, it came to my attention that a few of the profiles repeated mentions of “angels”, “2nd unit angels”, and “airport” across a few days in late February. Interestingly, some of them also listed sword fighting skills and law enforcement background underneath.

The implications seem obvious to anyone familiar with the plot of the unpublished Good Omens sequel and what I just shared above: please take a minute of your time to consider Aziraphale in a new suit, new hairstyle, a headset, and surrounded by at least one unit of angelic bodyguards in dark glasses.

Now, the filming dates in question consist of days and months only, so technically could also refer to their Good Omens 2 work since some (not all) of the extras were also employed by the show at the time. And Heaven’s corridors scenes could be shot at an airport instead of a studio, right? But the thing is, the background angels seen on screen in S2… don’t seem to match the profiles I found.

A perfunctory social media screening revealed one mention of Boeing 737 interior scenes filmed this month in the area, at Dunsfold Aerodrome. Is this connected? No idea, but if at least some of my speculations are correct, a follow-up exterior shoot at an airport would make sense.

Another interesting crumb that may or may not be related in some way is this photograph from the set shared by Guy Spangler, a professional dressing props specialist and armourer on Good Omens 3. Not quite the big silver plane of Thy Kingdom Airways we’re waiting for, but still!

[hell-is-not-an-excuse]

Helluva Boss versus Achillean Relationships || Chaxxie [1/3]

Let me preface this by saying that I know I'm not the first person to point this out, and I certainly won't be the last. However, it's something that's been tugging at me for a while now. That "something" of course, being the portrayal of MLM/achillean relationships within the Hellaverse, and how they're favoured over everything while bordering into the fetishistic.

I'm going to be the first to admit I have not watched the entirety of Hazbin Hotel. Hell, I made it to the first five or so minutes of the first episode before unceremoniously quitting around the "this body was made to be exploited" line. I'll have a separate post on that later, since my thoughts on that (and Angel Dust as a character, by extension) are long winded and not the focus of this particular post.

So, for today, I will be focusing on one of the three canon MLM ships within Helluva Boss specifically. For the purpose of this post series, I will only be including the ships that have two characters that are named within the series. This narrows us down to Chaxxie, Fizzozzie and Stolitz (which is not technically canon but is clearly endgame, unless the writers are waiting with bated breath to pull the rug out from underneath the audience).

This time I will be talking about Chaxxie, as it's the least touched-upon relationship in the show itself; not only because it's the only past relationship on this list, but it's also the only relationship that contains a one-off character. And yet, I found the lack of chemistry so offensively boring that I felt the need to make a whole post just about them.

So, Chaxxie. There's not a whole lot to talk about with their relationship, as all we get is just over a minute of backstory and a song that screams "unable to take no for an answer". I suppose I could also include their sham almost-wedding, but that comes off less as a shipping moment and more a plot beat, and thus will be disregarded. Even so, I apparently had way more to say about them and the implications of their relationship than I thought, so this post will be long.

Before that however, there's the obvious elephant in the room - Chaz and Millie. Despite being the ex of both Millie and Moxxie, we as the audience never get a perspective of what the relationship between Millie and Chaz even looked like. Not even a throwaway line from Millie herself. Given that Helluva Boss has suffered from a lack of precise characterising of its women up until this point, this is another glaring example to add to the long-suffering pattern.

But what about Moxxie? What do we get as the audience?

In the first of two flashback scenes, we're informed that Chaz and Moxxie meet during Moxxie's induction into the Knolastname crime family. They meet eyes, and Moxxie is charmed right off the bat.

This springboards us into four different instances of the supposed chemistry that these two share with one another, the first being a gunfight in which Moxxie and Chaz reach for the same grenade, with all the flirtation and blushing that could be fit into the few seconds allotted for this sequence.

From there, the sexual intensity ramps up in the next two shots before settling back down into a nude portrait scene reminiscent of Titanic.

In terms of learning about their relationship, we as the audience don't glean much from these scenes, other than the fact that they have an incredibly sexual dynamic. One could also infer that their relationship started as a secret given the request to not tell Crimson that Chaz was at the door in the signage scene, though this is never properly expanded on.

Now, before we venture into the second half of my Chaxxie critique, I want to make two things clear; there is nothing wrong with a couple having an incredibly active sex life. This is true for any pairing with consenting adults, be it Achillean, Sapphic or Hetero. This is something I will expand on momentarily. Second is that despite my griping of the overtly sexual nature of their relationship, I don't find these examples to be "too sexual". By all means, this is quite tame imagery, at least to me. I bring these examples up primarily to highlight that Chaxxie as a ship suffers from sacrificing chemistry for sexuality (whether that be in a manner meant to be comedic, or genuinely sexy).

Back to our flashbacks. In our second and final flashback scene, we are given the unceremonious ending to their relationship. In the midst of a heist, Moxxie is pinned and unable to escape the scene of the crime, as police sirens wail in the distance. Chaz, in a selfish move, makes a grab for the money and leaves Moxxie to the authorities, effectively ending their relationship. This is presented as a great heartbreak for Moxxie, but due to the issues highlighted above, this reveal falls flat.

Moxxie doesn't appear to struggle with feelings of self-worth in the romantic department; this is evident in the way he interacts with Millie, self-assured in his love for her and her love for him. One would think that if this relationship with Chaz was so important to him, that there would be some sort of foreshadowing or hints regarding the feelings or issues that would have been bound to have sprung up as a result of Chaz and his abandonment.

I will concede here, Moxxie not wanting to talk about his past is a fine enough example of why Chaz wouldn't come up in conversation prior to this episode. However, if we as the audience are meant to believe that this relationship was that important to him, it would have been nice to add a hint of abandonment issues to Moxxie as a character.

This could also have had a possible added effect of explaining why Moxxie isn't so quick to leave Blitzø or I.M.P despite his treatment - Blitzø and Loona may be awful to Moxxie, but at least they don't abandon him. At least Blitzø throws crumbs of praise his way. At least Loona comes along with Millie to rescue him and Blitzø from the D.H.O.R.K.S.

Unfortunately, we're still not done here with the Chaxxie scenes, as the biggest and most glaring issue with this ship as a whole comes in at around the fifteen minute mark.

I'll start with the least consequential of my critiques - This scene is just not funny. The punchlines essentially amount to sex, big dick, and the mounting discomfort that Moxxie feels while he repeatedly insists that Chaz leave him alone. There are ways to comedically write a character being uncomfortable with sex or sexual implications/situations. Blatant harassment is not one of them.

Speaking of blatant harassment, this is the moment that any semblance of this ship being worth my time fell apart. The writing is done using Chaxxie as a ham-fisted attempt at giving Moxxie further backstory (at the cost of Millie once again) and is now beginning to decline into the outright uncomfortable.

Even before he begins his song, Moxxie outright tells Chaz to leave. Of course, Chaz completely disregards his demands to be left alone, insisting that he knows exactly what Moxxie wants. This is a common line used by real life sexual abusers against their victims - and yes, though Chaz never actually forces himself onto Moxxie in an explicit manner, his following song is filled with unwanted touch and crude, overtly sexual language.

Look me in the eyes and tell me that Moxxie is enjoying this experience even remotely. He looks put off, alarmed, uncomfortable. And yet this scene is played for comedy, for some reason. This is not the first instance of Moxxie being sexually abused or harassed for comedy either. Even back in Season One, this poor guy was being used for the sort of joke that should have died out years ago.

Overall thoughts on Chaxxie and their contribution to MLM representation.

Do I think Chaz and Moxxie are good queer representation? The easy, fast answer is a resounding "No". Their relationship lacks any sort of depth in canon and looks to be just another vehicle for gay sex jokes, partnered with yet another excuse to harass Moxxie for laughs.

On a slightly longer note, I find them not only to be lackluster representation, but yet another instance in the growing pattern of Vivziepop's achillean ships being either based on sex, or having a heavy emphasis on sex that isn't afforded to her sapphic or hetero pairings. This isn't to say that the other achillean ships don't have moments that are fluffier or not purely focused on sex (after all, Chaxxie is the worst offender of being a pairing based on nothing but sex from a writing standpoint), but the discrepancy between the amount of sex talk from Chaggie and Millie/Moxxie as compared to Fizzozzie, Stolitz and Chaxxie is stark.

It's hard to say exactly what goes on in the heads of the writers, and I am not here to speculate on what they may be thinking at all times. However, the writing behind Chaxxie as a pairing specifically (in the past or not) leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. The inclusion of Chaz does nothing to further Moxxie's character and seems more like a segue into making his bisexuality explicit, rather than taking the time to explore his attraction to men and past relationships meaningfully. Their past relationship is shallow at best, giving me no real reason to care about its end, and does a disservice to the already limited representation in Helluva Boss by painting yet another portrait of a lustful, but ultimately loveless feeling relationship.

[queerfables]

The Rules of the Twist

Given the themes of deception and sleight of hand in Good Omens season 2, I think most of us agree it's at least possible there's some kind of twist waiting to be revealed in season 3. We're bouncing around a lot of theories, but I wanted to take a step back and look at the general shape of what we might expect.

The big twist we've seen before in Good Omens is Crowley and Aziraphale's body swap. (Okay, technically it was an appearance swap. But that just doesn't sound as pithy.) Rather than anticipate an exact repeat of this trick, I'm considering the swap as a sort of model. What does it tell us about the rules Neil plays by when he pulls a twist in this story? What clues can we expect, and what can we not count on? Sure, there's no guarantee that a season 2 twist is going to map exactly onto what we've seen in the past, but I think it's a reasonable place to start. Take these as guidelines and take them with a grain of salt, but if you're sorting through all our fascinating Good Omens theories and trying to decide what you think, you might find them helpful.

So then, what are the rules?

Broadly speaking, Neil plays fair with twists. He foreshadows and includes enough hints for the audience to make a reasonable guess at what's going on, or at least to look back after the reveal and go, "oh, of course". But he still keeps some cards close to the chest.

During the body swap, there are two big gaps in the information we're given:

Key events happen off screen The swap happened between scenes, during a time that it was only suggested, not confirmed, that Crowley and Aziraphale would be together. The transition between these scenes also used film and tv conventions to make that passage of time "invisible" - we see Crowley and Aziraphale get on the bus, and then we see them in the morning going about their days separately, and we're conditioned to think nothing important could have happened in between.

Key tools (eg abilities, items, information) haven't been shown before The swap was not something we'd ever seen Crowley and Aziraphale do, and it wasn't something they'd ever talked about either. It fit comfortably into the established world building but it hadn't been specifically signposted as a possibility.

The other big twist that Good Omens pulled was the romance between Gabriel and Beelzebub as the explanation for Gabriel's disappearance from heaven. Both of these information gaps are involved here too. The offscreen event is obviously the meetings between Gabriel and Beelzebub that lead to them falling in love - up until Gabriel's flashback sequence, the only indication they'd ever met each other was a brief conversation at the airbase during Armageddon. The tool that we haven't seen before is Beelzebub's ability to create a fly vessel for Gabriel's memories (protecting him in much the same way that Crowley and Aziraphale protected each other with their body swap, in fact).

These are pretty big gaps, really. And given that Neil knew there'd be years between seasons 2 and 3, I expect he would have leaned pretty heavily into them if he wanted to hide something. So how do we predict a twist if we can't know where it is and haven't seen what it might involve?

Unanswered questions

This is the big one. Looking at where the furniture isn't, you might say.

What's interesting is that the questions that point to a twist aren't usually subtle or ambiguous. For the body swap, the two converging questions were: what did Agnes' last prophecy mean, and how could Crowley and Aziraphale survive their executions? In season two, some of the unanswered questions signposting Gabriel/Beelzebub were: how did Gabriel lose his memory, why was he carrying a box, what was the significance of the song he kept singing, who was he at the Resurrectionist with...

I think guesses about upcoming twists are most convincing when they seek to tie up loose threads from the show. For this reason, I'm a little skeptical of theories proposing the kiss between Crowley and Aziraphale involved some kind of twist. It isn't impossible, I just don't see any unanswered questions there. (Savvy readers may note that I too have speculated about a twist hidden in the kiss. I do find the possibility fun, but it's not a theory I'm seriously committed to). If I was going to really buy into one of these theories, I'd want it to explain one of my big unanswered questions other than "but how could they get into a fight that hurts me so deep in my soul?" That's definitely a question I have, but not technically a mystery.

It's worth noting that in the case of the body swap, we were initially given a false answer to the question "how did they survive their executions?" The angels and demons watching attribute it to Crowley and Aziraphale having "gone native", believing that their natures had fundamentally changed, making them immune to holy water and hellfire. It might be the case, then, that some of the apparently resolved questions this season warrant further investigation. Is there more to the story of Gabriel's disappearance than we know, for example?

2. Unexplained details

If examining an unanswered question is looking at where the furniture isn't, then this is where we take all the pieces of furniture piled up in storage and see if we've got anything that fits. Everything is fair game here: script, acting, music, props, sets, costumes, editing, camera angles, audio effects, visual effects, everything. If it's on the screen or coming through the speakers, it was put there on purpose by multiple teams of highly skilled and attentive creators all working together to create the final product.

I think you could probably do an entire meta on all the little details pointing towards the season 1 body swap, but here are some of the big ones:

"Crowley" sees the restored Bentley, but takes a taxi instead of driving it

"Aziraphale" circles "Crowley" when they order their ice creams, the way Crowley more typically moves around Aziraphale

"Crowley" says "tickety boo", an extraordinarily Aziraphalean phrase

The collar on "Crowley's" jacket is a beige tartan rather than its usual red

There are general differences in the ways David Tennant and Michael Sheen embody the characters throughout the swap

Similarly, Gabriel and Beelzebub's romance has lots of small details pointing to it. The big one that keeps showing up is the connection between Gabriel and flies. He mentions them and interacts with them repeatedly, and although it isn't obvious at first glance, there's a fly in the box that he carries to the bookshop. This all culminates in the reveal that it's the same fly, Beelzebub's gift to him.

Here's the problem, of course: if everything in the show is intentional and crafted with meticulous attention to detail, how do we know what actually matters? This is why I think it's so important to look at the unanswered questions first. There's a joy in seeking out Easter eggs and connecting all the dots, and sometimes you might strike gold this way, but there's also a lot of noise in the signal. It's helpful to know the general shape of what you're looking for, so you'll know when you've found it.

You can reverse engineer this. Start with details that jump out at you and then look for a puzzle they might explain. This works, but it's a little easier to get lost in the weeds, struggling to sort out what's significant and what's a fun reference to another piece of media or a hint to a question that's already been resolved. Going back to the twists we've already seen on this show, the unanswered questions around them were really big and obvious, so I think it's a good idea to ask: if I hadn't noticed this detail, would I have thought this was a mystery that needed solving?

Okay, but what do we do with this?

Well, maybe nothing. These criteria can't confirm or rule out any theories, after all. I'm laying it out like a rubric but it isn't really, I'm just describing a few storytelling patterns we've seen before and making some rough guesses about how they might show up again. If I were really serious about this I'd probably take a look at other examples of Neil's work and see how well my model holds up there, but the truth is I'm not really familiar with enough of his other works to do this. (Confession time: I was always more of a Pratchett fan).

The main reason that I've laid everything out like this is it informs my thinking when I stress test my own theories, and I figured other people might be interested in it. I'm also hoping it will help me to be able to refer back to this when I write meta in the future. For my own purposes, I find a breakdown like this helpful because it gives me a sense of how a writer approaches their story, where they'll tip their hand and where they'll hold things close. It's no guarantee and it wouldn't be any fun if it was, but in a lot of cases we're not aware of our own patterns, so it can be surprisingly illuminating.

[barbie0303]

My thoughts on Dexter per season now that I just finished it:

Season 1

By far the best season out of all of them and the best antagonist (yes, even Trinity)

Love how Dexter is introduced, probably one of the best character introductions I’ve ever seen

The flashbacks sequences are sooo good. The haunting feeling they give, even the happier ones like Laura playing hide and seek with Dex and Brian. 10/10

The foreshadowing for Brian’s reveal in Father Knows Best was brilliant: Dexter thinking no normal person wakes up at that hour while Rudy is there, the focus on Rudy when Dexter says nothing connects him to the house, Rudy’s insistence that Joe was Dexter’s real father.

That scene in the Hotel room was probably one of the top three scenes of the entire show, the way they portray Dexter´s panic as his memories are returning. 10/10

I´m torn because I like both versions of where Brian confronts Dex with Deb (the container vs. the house).

While I understand the narrative choice of having Dexter kill Brian to protect Deb, it felt rushed. Brian was such a compelling character, and his potential was wasted (even more since the later seasons use him in a weird way. They don’t let him haunt the narrative for more than 2 episodes and sometimes he´s outright avoided). They should have waited a bit more if they really wanted that ending, it felt extremely rushed to suddenly have Brian come right back to Dex´s apartment and Dex to go well now you die in the last 10 min of the episode.

Season 2

Love the concept of Season 2 because Dexter is the one being hunted and technically being the villain if we compare it to other shows or even this one

I actually liked Lila at the beginning of the season and she actually gave Dexter pretty sound advice pre-dating

I like how the moment Rita suspects that Dexter might not be a good influence for her kids, she keeps Dexter out of her life. She’s grateful for his support, and that may be why she is giving him a chance. But she won’t let slide anything that might hurt her or her kids. Love her character

Wish the addict storyline wasn´t ditched

Hated that Dex and Lila had sex… this man has intimacy issues c’mon. I don’t mind the cheating storyline but it could’ve been better if they kept it to emotional, because those can be just as devastating

Doakes and Dexter’ interactions is so fun, love their bickering

Kinda wish that Dexter kept researching his bio fam. Literally, Joe was just mentioned one episode and was never brought up again and we barely know anything about him and Laura beyond the incident

HATED that they introduced the concept, that Dexter was sabotaging cases before the show began (undermines his code)

I liked Gabriel as Deb’s love interest and I’m not gonna lie and say that her falling for Lundy didn’t raise my eyebrows, but I understand it from a character’s perspective. She didn’t realize she was dating the serial killer she was chasing, why not hook up with the guy that identifies them for a living

Both scenes where Dexter confronts Santos Jimenez, man. You can feel how Dexter´s anger and grief over what happened and how unused he is to feel like that

The scenes with Doakes in the cabin were incredible. Michael C. Hall’s portrayal of a sinister Dexter is chilling. Shame he was toned down after this season. (a bit understandable for S3-4, but c´mon)

Season 3

This season should have been the one with the FBI hunt and Season 2 should’ve been the one with Miguel Prado/the skinner (minus Rita being pregnant and getting married, that stays in S3)

I haven’t read all the books, but I prefer Astor and Cody as resilient kids who inspire Dexter over having them being serial killers on training wheels (also I love how this is an example of how signing off a kid as fucked up instead of believing in them can make the difference. I mean it’s Astor/Cody vs Brian/Dexter)

I was frustrated a bit when Rita asked if Dexter knew anything about his family and he says no, she takes it at face value. Like girl, you helped to pack his bio dad’s stuff when he died and told you his mom was murdered months ago (ngl, kinda wish he confided in Rita about who Rudy actually was and the shipping yard massacre.)

I like Dexter and Miguel’s relationship, but it got better and more interesting once they started fighting and going with their power plays

Rita and Syl have such a good relationship, I was surprised how much the writers decided to develop it. Wish Syl appeared more in S4.

This season has the only good Angel romance story (his eventual relationship with LaGuerta isn’t bad, but I really liked more Gianna)

The way I gasped when Dexter told Deb about Harry cheating on Doris with a CI (even if I found odd that she never asks for Dexter´s help with her research or to get more info from him)

I felt robbed when the “Dexter getting kidnapped�� scene was a fake out. Wanted to see Dexter vs another serial killer, but now he´s the one caught. The one from the next episode was cool, but a bit rushed, especially how Dexter gets his chance to escape because the skinner had to go to the other side of the factory for his tools, lol

I loved that scene with Ramon in ep.12 and funnily enough Dex opened up more to him in that scene than he ever did to Miguel (emotionally at least), wish he was kept around for a little while after that

I like the scene where Dexter forgives Harry and decides he wants to be a good father for his son. It was such a heartfelt moment

Season 4

I think that this season is carried overall by John Lithgow’s performance as Trinity. The rest of it is a bit overrated.

Wanted to see more of Dexter juggling being a father of three and a serial killer and not him stalking Trinity

Felt sad when Lundy was killed. Didn’t like that Deb cheated and broke up with Anton to rekindle with him, but he was a great character.

I think they revealed who Trinity was too early (or took too much time to kill him), because the last 3 episodes felt that they were dragging and that the writers had already decided that Rita dead was the last shot.

Dexter feeling only embarrassment for killing an innocent was funny but so odd considering the previous season

The Thanksgiving episode was so good, Dexter being ready to murder Trinity in his kitchen 10/10

The storyline where Deb finds out who Brian really was is so disappointing, like the scene with Dex and Deb in 4x12 is good but the research process... talk about underwhelming. That she learns it just because a newspaper happened to name both kids in Laura’s obituary was weird and kind of a plot hole considering that we know Dexter in S1 researched everything related to the Shipping Yard massacre and that most of the files were destroyed. I think it would’ve been better if she learned Laura had two kids and had to keep digging to learn the second kid’s name, have Matthews reveal it to her or bring it up to Dexter and notice how cagey he gets, idk.

Killing Rita was a mistake. If they wanted to shake up the status quo, they should have had her suspect Dexter’s secret or discover he’s a killer.

Season 5

This season is so underrated

I do understand why a lot of people rank it lower, tho. Because, Dexter and Lumen’s storyline is the only strong one, the PI side plot was boring as hell and Deb relating to the barren girls because of Rudy was good but ehhh… considering that the show goes back and forth on making Brian relevant and ignoring his existence, it’s just there

I don’t mind that Astor and Cody taking some time off the series, but it sucks that they were practically written out of the story after that

Listen I love Dexter and Lumen’s relationship, but I’m glad she got to move on with her life.

I think this is the only season that gives the villain(s) the proper amount of screen time where he acts like it with full knowledge from the characters and the audience. They weren´t rushed and they didn´t overstay their welcome

Season 6

This season is mid

Love Dexter and Harrison’s relationship, he’s such a good dad. The amount of warmth and tenderness he shows towards him is the highlight of the season

Brother Sam was a good character and I hated they killed him off, but he´s a bit repetitive in some parts, especially since this was right after the Lumen arc

Brian should have been used more as a manifestation of the Dark Passenger, easily the best episode of the season

Dexter trying to do the same thing as he did with Trinity of doing everything to find the bad guy first sucked and wasn´t even that engaging.

The painting was hilarious, I can´t even be mad, lol

Deb´s therapist sucks at her job, lmao. She´s like: "Oh you´re in love with your brother in a romantic way." And the only evidence she has of it is Deb hugging Dexter after someone attacked the police station with poisonous gas, that she dated Brian and that Deb told her the only constant she has had after all the horrible stuff that happened to her is her brother (yes, they are weird about each other, but the therapist hasn´t seen or heard that)

Season 7

The first five episodes are sooo good, the rest is pretty bad. Only some scenes managed to pick up a little

That flashback with Harry and Dexter… ouch

Love seeing Dexter trying to escape death traps, I was cheering watching how he was going around that fucked up labyrinth

Isaak Sirko was a better character and antagonist than Hannah, he deserved more on-screen time

Hannah McKay was Dexter’s worst love interest, at first I liked how she interacted with Dexter but after they had him (in an OoC manner) alter his report to "make her trust him" it took a nosedive. Which is a shame since I like the actress when I watched S1-2 from Chuck, she was good in that

Don´t know how to feel about Matthews knowing almost all along about Dexter, I think it would have been better of he suspected something when Brian came around and figured it out after the BHB thing happened

Dexter using the Moser lastname when he confronted Estrada. Oof

Love how Dexter tricked LaGuerta with the shirt, but hate that this basically put a count down on her days in the show

Season 8

The concept of Vogel was one of the worst ideas the show ever had (Ik that in the book, Harry says he consulted "some people" before he decided to train Dexter. But he probably meant he researched sociopaths and talked to professionals in hypotheticals not that he strait up teamed with a psychiatrist to "create" Dexter)

The Brain Surgeon is the most boring villain of the show (yes, even Travis was more interesting) he was diet!Brian and that´s giving a complement

The show just feels tired and bland, don´t get me wrong that started around S6. But now, it looks exhausted of itself and even cheaper than previous seasons

Bringing Hannah back was forced and unnecessary. Dexter taking her back after everything, especially after she poisoned him and Deb, felt completely OoC, let alone leaving Harrison to be raised by her

Kinda zoned most of the season if I´m honest

Dexter not killing Saxon was stupid, this guy never learns

The ending sucks, as everyone says. Why a lumberjack?

New Blood

This show was not good… to say the least

DeXter doesn´t come off as out of practice, he´s stupid

Switching Harry for Deb as the main hallucination was the only good idea

Harrison´s trust in Kurt felt so shallow, it was pointless drama

Harrison remembering Trinity is ridiculous (especially since there were two seasons that address how that´s not possible. With Dexter it made sense because he was three, Harrison was 10 months old), he´s probably more traumatized from being raised by Hannah and ending up in foster care.

Dexter used M-99 not ketamine, what were the writers on? This one made me angry because most of Angela´s case is based on that

Angela figuring out Dex is the BHB because she googled it… so frustrating

“Open your eyes and look”, such a cringe scene. HATE IT

[bitter-sweet-farmgirl]

Loyalty, Honour, A Willing Heart (Prt. 2)

2. Balin’s Storytime

When Fili and Kili attempt to scare Bilbo over the orcs and whatnot, Balin goes into his story about the battle of Azanulbizar, which ties into what I was talking about prior.

It is a glimpse into Thorin's past life and what he is, but it also looks at his character through a different lens.  It shows the devotion his people have to him.  Because at the end of that sequence once we come back from the flashback, you can see Thorin is standing there reliving those memories.  Balin’s telling the story, and he says, “there is one I could follow, one I could call King.” 

And then, we cut to all the rest of the Company awake and standing around, (stark contrast to when we enter the scene and everyone is asleep), essentially silently confirming--and standing as witness--to the fact that they trust Thorin.

There is zero chance that any of them would be going on what is essentially a suicide-mission to reclaim Erebor where they have no idea what they are going to find.  And are probably going to die on the way. 

There is no reason why they would go unless they were 100% devoted to Thorin.  If they had any small bit of doubt about him and his leadership, or just him as a person, they would not be on that quest.  Those people are DEVOTED to him.  They have a choice, and they have decided to trust in Thorin to lead them straight and bring them through this.  Or, if not, they are willing to die by his side. 

For his cause. 

Another thing that I noticed later after thinking about this was how all the dwarves who did join him are technically working-class. There is not a drop of royal blood in their veins. (Exceptions being made for Balin, Dwalin, Oin and Gloin, as they are also descended from Durin, but from a 'non-royal' line).

They’re tinkers, toymakers, miners.  They are not nobles.  The nobles--which would be the council in the Iron Hills that Thorin went out to talk to about the quest--told him no.  They did not follow him.  Which, given that Thorin is their King (in a way) and very powerful and has the bloodline behind him, speaks a lot about what they think about him.

The people who do join him on this quest are ordinary people. "Hardly the stuff of legend", to quote Balin. They are the last people you would pick to go fight a dragon. But they came when the others who are qualified would not.

And seeing who chose to follow him, I think this scene has a very powerful message about how Thorin has been with his people.  He’s very empathetic, he’s very kind with them.  I mean, he worked as a blacksmith for years.  What princeling VOLUNTARILY goes and does blacksmithing? 

It is an extremely dirty and physically taxing job. And, while historically blacksmiths were viewed as important members of their community, how we see Thorin portrayed (in his 9 second clip) makes me wonder if in his case, that didn't hold true.

I'm sure there could be some sort of racial prejudice about having a dwarf blacksmith (which, technically you would want them because of their talent with metals), but despite that, I wonder if he didn't get treated poorly because he was a dwarf in a human settlement.

He was not obligated to take that job. There are many other jobs he could have chosen to go with if he HAD to take a job. He also could have chosen not to work at all!

But he chose to do the hardest job there was out of his options.

Thorin, of royal lineage, who has known no other life, decided to become a blacksmith to earn money for his people. It speaks absolute volumes about his character and him as a person.

[guardian-angle22]

Is TK a Christmas baby? Aka born in December because it’s his birthday this ep and I’m not seeing any Christmas decorations unless I’m mistaken

sooo... technically, yes. we had a flashback/dream/memory sequence in 1.09 that was labeled 'DECEMBER 2001' and Owen and Gwyn are arguing in the background about Owen not showing up for TK's birthday.

However, I think you should treat dates, timelines, ages, etc with the smallest grain of salt you've ever seen when it comes to our beloved 911 Lone Star.

The LS timeline is a bit.... Jeremy Bearimy.

[ultfreakme]

Kyora & Hakuri: The meaning of 'Storehouse'

So we got our very first non-Chihiro Color Page and it's Hakuri! It's a shock of a page because for the first time in forever a cover isn't red, and doesn't contain our protagonist. Even more shocking is the way Hakuri is donning clothes that resemble his father Kyora in a backdrop that is very similar to the old Sazanami Auction Storehouse.

During the final showdown in the Rakuzaichi Arc, we get a flashback sequence where we see a young Hakuri saying he'll be the head of the Sazanami Clan.

Technically, with the dissolution of the Rakuzaichi and through possessing Storehouse + Isou, Hakuri is pretty much the Head. But in doing so he has redefined what the Storehouse means.

With Kyora and the remaining Sazanami legacy, the Storehouse existed to exalt the owner. It's a treasury, it holds all the 'valuables' meant to increase the power and value of the Owner of the Storehouse. The Storehouse exists to service its possessor. It's exploitative and inherently dehumanizing and was used exclusively to strip others of their agency- by registering the people that were trafficked and even his own family.

It was used entirely to devalue people.

With Hakuri, who's guilt-ridden for his own role in the Rakuzaichi with the fresh memory of how he dehumanized Ice Girl, the Storehouse (and Hakuri himself) exist solely in service of others. Storehouse is physically taxing and Hakuri is constantly endangering himself when he uses it. This is because of practical reasons where he has little experience, but also thematically- he is devaluing himself in service of others. It costs him every time he activates it, but he doesn't care about the damage to himself.

Hakuri has turned the Storehouse from a treasure hoard to what it's name suggests its use is- a place where people can keep and take things they need. He has reduced himself down to pure utility.

This view of himself as a "tool" is specifically highlighted in him giving Tobimune to Samura. His assigned goal along with Chihiro is to protect the Wielders. Hiyuki makes a very interesting comment-

Hakuri is sort of established as someone who isn't functioning for himself or on his own anymore. He follows others. With Chihiro gone, he's now a tool to be used by Uruha, Samura and the Makizumi.

He also knows the damage of dehumanizing people or determining value based on like, a merit system of any sort so to him the Makizumi aren't any different from the Wielders and he wants to help them too.

With Samura basically declaring what he needs and what he wants to do, what is Hakuri to do here but to oblige to his requests? He services them, he's going to be useful to them.

I think that's what the new cover is meant to highlight. While Kyora fought so hard to protect his Storehouse and the things within, Hakuri fights to protect everything outside of it, everything human and autonomous.

[shootbangdang]

Lord Shen forged his own spear

A theory...

ok there's a chance some of you eagle-eyed Shen studyers already know this. But a few months ago I was checking out models from the game Showdown of Legendary Legends, and I noticed this:

"Huh, that's weird, the blade is all messed up." I wondered why the game devs decided to make his spear so assymetrical and imperfect. Until I compared it to his spear in the movie:

Clear as day, the thing has a very pronounced curve along its axis. Now I wondered if this was just a technical gaffe, so I looked further back into Shen's development:

Still there. But just to be sure, I went back to the clay model:

And all the way back to the drawing board:

Yep! Fully intentional.

Now I can only guess as to why it's forged so crudely, and my only conclusion can be that he made the "guandao" himself. Perhaps he took it as a sign of pride for him to need to forge his own weapon with zero outside help.

This could be supported by the fact that the weapon he used in the panda massacre is completely distinct from this one:

And no, it's not just a stylized version for the flashback. It's a real weapon that actually exists, and is seen in Kung Fu Panda 3:

So, Lord Shen lost or discarded this weapon after the panda massacre. Thereafter, he forged himself a new one with a lobed blade, one less connected to his old home's "flame" theme and more with his own "eye" design. There is only one small issue with this theory, however...

The durn thing shows up in the 3D portion of Po's flashback. So, it's a wash? Not quite. There's still the possibility Shen forged it himself before he was banished, or that the filmmakers forgot to switch his spears out for this sequence.

If he did make the weapon himself, that also means it was his decision to add this cute goth collar to the crossguard:

That's the end of the theory. Hope I gave you some cold hard steel to chew on.

[filletedfennysnake]

🎥🍑

📽️– which tale would you like to see as a stand-alone movie: MORIAEN!!! moriaen moriean moriaen. I’ve given THOUGHT to this okay.

I want it to be long and colorful and funny and ahistorically lush– like the first three pirates of the caribbean movies. except better.

I want actual time spent in the movie devoted to making moriaen’s orgins more clear (I personally really dislike the word ‘Moor’ because while technically it indicates someone is a Black Muslim 1) that doesn’t fucking narrow it down and 2) it’s a still pejorative word no matter how you slice it). my non-cannon compliant backstory for moriean is that his mom is Shona and he grew up as part of the royal family in Great Zimbabwe (I know I know that’s not realistic because it’s in Southeast Africa. just pretend aglovale got blown off course or something. he still would have thought he was in ‘Moorish’ lands and Great Zimbabwe is so cool I just really really think it needs to be talked about more).

the start of the movie should be in moriaen’s perspective, as he says goodbye to his mom and sets off by ship to England. cut to gawain and lancelot several months later, who are leaving camelot to go find percival. eventually they run into moriaen, who is tall for his tender age of 13 (but not ridiculously tall like in the original medlit. sorry there’s just too much proto-racism tied up in that for it to be left in. he’s baby. let him be baby). I do think moriaen wins his fight with lancelot mostly through luck, but the movie needs to make it clear that it’s unreal how good at fighting this tween is. and then the adventures proceed from there :)

I think the plot has to be tweaked in some areas because I want there to be genuine, educated depictions of xenophobia in medieval Europe, but for the most part that’s it. just moriaen being a cool and plucky kid on a quest while lancelot and gawain are flirting in the background

YES this movie should be the one that makes remarkable cannon. I think they’re already together at the start of the film and casually trying not to out themselves, but there are still hints throughout for those with eyes to see. I have this really vivid image in my head of them dancing by a doorway; lancelot spins gawain and then leans in for a kiss before someone interrupts. we officially find them out after lancelot rescues gawain from the angry mob and torture device. they make out while covered in blood (gawain is naked. like in the source material). I want the queer rep in this movie to be at least a little unhinged, you know how it is.

we get to see what happened with aglovale and moriaen’s mom as moriean tells the story to gawain and lancelot, there should be a long flashback sequence in which we learn that aglovale taught her English and she taught him Shona (which is how moriaen can communicate with the rest of the cast).

for absolutely no reason other than self-indulgence I think palomides and dinadan should be there. briefly. lancelot and gawain are both like ohhhh hey pal! this is our new adopted child. he says he’s from Zimbabwe, do you know where that is? and palomides (who grew up in Egypt) is like. uhhh where??? frankly I think this scene would be a valuable lesson for a lot of white people (Africa = fucking massive and ecologically and culturally diverse. yayyy <3)

gareth is there and he’s dumb and sexy and blonde.

aglovale isn’t a bad guy but he and moriaen do need to work through some things.

what else. there needs to be at least one group hug between lancelot gawain and moriaen. perhaps before moriaen and algovale leave

sorry this is too many words but. do you see my vision.

🍑 – arthur’s ass: already answered. although while we’re here. I think lancelot is all tits and no ass while gawain is all ass and no tits.

[nocturnal-nexu]

Oh my gosh guys, guys, guys!!!

Idea time!!!

I personally can't see Arin going fully evil.

I can definitely see his frustration and anger, but he's a good kid, and I dont think he'd do anything malicious on purpose. But I do think he's in a prime position to get manipulated right now. He's at his lowest point, and he could possibly be willing to do anything to impress and prove himself to Llyod.

What I think would be really interesting is if, via manipulation, Ras could get Arin to let his guard down and maybe even get him to listen to his point of view a bit.

("I lost my parents too, you know, and I found a way to make it on my own. I had to be strong. I learned that i didn't need anyone else, only myself." I don't know. That might be an angle that Ras could exploit, effectively drawing Arin away from his friends.)

(I mean, I'm assuming, according to that flashback sequence, that Ras's parents weren't really around.)

Maybe Arin would even start to trust Ras a little. Or at least start to doubt Lloyd's methods of teaching. (Which to be honest, Lloyd, you're not doing yourself any favors with your teaching technique, buddy. I know you're trying to encourage the kid, but you're giving him an unrealistic idea of a future self he has to measure up to.)

I think Arin is putting a lot of pressure on himself too.

So Arin doesn't necessarily join Ras, but somehow ends up facing off with him a bit more than usual during fights or something. Ras singles him out, trying to plant more of those seeds of doubt. Maybe Ras gets him alone, and, either willingly or by force, Arin ends up wearing a wolf mask.

I mean, is Shatterspin technically evil if you're using it to fight bad guys? I mean, it's not like his own spinjitzu is helping anyway.

Maybe, Lloyd or Sora look over and see Arin wearing the mask. Maybe they run to him, and ask what the heck he is thinking!

Maybe Arin is embarrassed. He feels sorry and ashamed. He knows he made a mistake. He goes to take the mask off.

But before he can, the gong is struck, and his soul is shattered.

All of the emotions come flooding out. He's angry. So very angry. Angry at Llyod for putting all this pressure on him. Angry at Sora for progressing so far and leaving him behind. Angry at himself for not doing something, SOMETHING, more to find his parents.

We get a scene similar to that bit in Season 4 with Kai and the staff of elements. Arin just loses control, and all the anger, doubt, and fear come spewing out.

That's what I want.

I want him to voice his frustrations to his friends. And at the moment, I think Arin is just so nice that he doesn't want to bother anyone and isn't going to say anything.

But as the saying goes, "even a worm will turn"

In other words, even the nicest and sweetest people will show you how dangerous they can be if pushed too far.

So, um. Arin deserves to go feral. Just as a little treat.

[cephalog0d]

*dragging out conspiracy yarn board* OKAY HEAR ME OUT, THOUGH.

Obviously any take on Janet Drake is mostly fanon because she had a whopping one actual appearance (where she died) and then a flashback and a dream sequence, and obviously there are some very popular fanon takes that get used a lot BUT. I would like to present for your consideration:

Overprotective Worried Mom Janet

Janet who worries constantly about Tim when they're around and even worse when they leave, no matter how much Jack reassures her that they did their research on whoever they've left in charge (nannies, boarding schools, whoever), who starts fighting with Jack more frequently in part because he's more willing to believe that Tim is old enough to handle things and he's fine and she's not.

Janet who doesn't specifically forbid Tim from doing anything even remotely risky, necessarily, but is not good at hiding how she feels about it and influences him anyway because of that.

Janet who just wants to make sure nothing bad ever happens to Tim.

And on the flip side.

Tim who fixates on Batman and Robin, even before he makes the connection to Dick, because they're exciting and dangerous and he can only imagine doing things like that (considering how much it would stress out his mom). The closest he gets is convincing her to let him do karate, which he pitches as being for self-defense purposes.

Tim who learns early on to deal with things that upset him on his own instead of going to his parents with them, because Jack is dismissive and while Janet wants to help she's not good at hiding her own distress. Which is something that he definitely isn't going to continue doing at elaborate scale as he gets older.

Tim who feels obligated to be responsible for the emotional well-being of grown-ass adults, especially parental figures, including downplaying whatever might be going on with him personally and deflecting questions. Who didn't so much learn not to do things that might be dangerous as much as he learned to hide those things and downplay how bad the situation might be. (Again, something he definitely doesn't continue doing.)

(I keep thinking about how this answer to Alfred asking about his parents is technically correct and brushing off the question but should raise a lot more. Does that mean he snuck away from the boarding school but they won't notice because it's a vacation week? Is someone supposed to be watching him and somehow missed everything he's been up to the last few days? Did he just lie to multiple adults (not telling his parents he was on break, telling the school he would be with them, etc) specifically so he could go stalk Batman and take multiple trips out of state to go talk to someone who is basically a stranger and maybe-almost-kinda blackmail him into listening? (It's probably the last one, knowing Tim).)

Anyway, just something I was thinking about when I was rereading A Lonely Place of Dying recently, as an alternative take on what kind of mom Janet might have been.