#this isn't meta but i only made that tag so rip me

[muninnhuginn]

Thanks for the tag, @roseofcards90!

Last song listened to:

Currently watching:

Move to Heaven (kdrama) - this probably isn't my usual fare, but I think I'm liking it so far? (Finished the first two eps) It's basically about telling the stories of the dead and making sure they get the respect they may not have received in life. One of the main MCs is autistic (as in, literally diagnosed) and the writing/acting seems to have a good balance so far with not babying him by showing he is competent but just has different rules and different people "get" him to varying levels? (There are definitely some little bits like the implication that his dad learnt sign language for him that feels warm rather than some writer just googling "common autistic traits") Will see how it goes anyway. It seems like the story of the day is episodic but the character stuff is building in the background.

Link Click (donghua) - Started watching this when s1 was airing but it was airing in the same period as Oddtaxi so the mystery parts of my brain were focused more on that at the time. To simplify it, it's a time travel donghua where the MC has to go back in time in order to retrieve info without altering the timeline. Season two is airing now and whilst I prefer s1 still overall s2 is still pretty interesting? Season one is more episodic/structured into arcs with a character focus, whilst season two is more full pelt mystery (so it's a bit surprising I prefer s1 tbh).

Jujutsu Kaisen (anime) - I'm an anime-only with this and am probably going to remain that way (especially from what I've gleaned about the manga - I might just watch to end of season two then leave it be?). Season two so far has captured me more than season one, though I've not seen the latest episode yet so will see if that holds when we return to the main cast. Either way, the openings and endings are genuinely so well-made. Even if the series goes entirely in a direction I hate I know I'll always have them.

Again My Life (kdrama) - Lawyer guy gets into trouble trying to take down a powerful guy. Gets killed (shocker). Gets sent back to his younger self to do it right this time. Not a super original plot admittedly, but it's a chill story so far and the relationships between the main cast in it (pretty much all platonic at least at this stage) are all really sweet. It's also doing surprisingly well in giving the female characters interesting conflicts

Adventure Time (US cartoon) - Not watching the whole thing and I have seen a number of random episodes out of order before, but am trying to crash course my way through enough to watch Fiona and Cake. Just finished the episode about Finn's ocean phobia and um, bit more yikes than I was expecting at this stage, but okay. Also, unfortunately, I can entirely see what people mean about Bubblegum&Finn being inspiration for Makima&Denji

Currently reading:

Klara and the Sun - first arc complete, extremely worried about some flags I'm picking up, rip. It's from the POV of a robot (AI kinda deal) and narration-wise, it really shows. Klara's pretty naiive in some ways, but the world-building and clues still make their way through the narration filter

House of Leaves - okay, ngl, I'm not far into this at all, but I've been confused about references to it for years and it seems meta so I'm going to get through it

Will bundle manga in together for ones I'm properly keeping up with rather than checking in every few months to catch up so: Skip and Loafer (monthly release), Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun (monthly), Spy x Family (fortnightly). Webtoons: Rebirth (weekly), unOrdinary (weekly).

Current obsession:

idek what I'd count because I'm into a few things rn and none of them to the extent I've done the whole deep dive? I'm being relatively chill, for me, I'd say. I'll say Link Click, Good Omens, Spy x Family are the things I'm most into nowadays? Good Omens is definitely what I have the most reblogs queued up relating to by far. There's just so much art and meta and I'm not used to being into a fandom here that just has so much. It's a bit overwhelming, honestly

Not sure who to tag but anyone who sees this and wants to have a go feel free (and feel free to ping me in it, I'm nosy) ^^

[whenmemorydies]

@moodyeucalyptus - I've tagged you on this post which I think responds to some of what you've raised here (its a post that's taken me about 1.5 months to finish lol). But in short, I absolutely agree with you, Carmy's panic attack peaks with that thought of Natalie. I've come to a slightly different conclusion about his reasons for thinking about Nat though your reasoning makes sense too. I definitely think Carmy is terrified of replicating Donna in himself - which is why he blew up so catastrophically when Richie made the comparison between the two of them during the walk-in fiasco.

I actually came to the conclusion that Carm was thinking about the role he now has to ensure The Bear succeeds - not just for his chosen family like Sydney and Marcus - but for his birth family too, in particular for Natalie and the next generation of Berzattos. I think for Carm, inheriting The Beef after his father's failure to run it, and then Mikey's failure to run it, is a huge weight. What if he fails to run it too? He doesn't want to saddle another generation of his family with this burden/debt. Anyway, there's more (so much more, I need to figure out how to cull shit) in the meta linked above!

Re: the scrunchie. During my rewatch, I actually did not see Syd wearing one scrunchie during season 3! Doesn't mean she isn't wearing one under that scarf (what a lovely thing if she was). I think it was @thoughtfulchaos773 who did a post about the meaning behind some of these hair accessories and she noted that scrunchies are associated with teenage love? So it makes sense that we see them on Syd in s2 when perhaps she's going through that "phase" of her relationship with Carm? Getting to know him, flirting, ALMOST going out (RIP Kasama date, we hardly knew ye).

I hear you re: Richie. I have only begun to warm to him after season 3 but he was such a nightmare of a character to me in season 1-2 (including after Forks lol).

Also shout out to you getting the burning pot shots from the 3x03 panic attack. My arthritic fucking joints couldn't click the trackpad fast enough to pause and catch them LOL. And yes - Carmy was panicking just thinking about meeting Claire. His subconscious KNOWS the girl is not it!!!

The Claw, The Scrunchie and The Prayer Card: Part 2 (Timing)

A couple weeks ago, I posted a prediction on the significance of the hair claw, the scrunchie and the prayer card that appear in Carmy's apartment in season 3. In that analysis, I suggested that these items represent three particular characters on the show and Carmy's relationships with them (FYI: the hair claw = Natalie, the scrunchie = Sydney and the prayer card = Richie). We see the scrunchie and the prayer card together at the end of 3x09 Apologies, placed in the same spot in Carmy's apartment. The first and last time we see the hair claw however, is in 3x01 Tomorrow, the first episode of the season.

In their reblog of The Claw, The Scrunchie and The Prayer Card meta, @moodyeucalyptus queried why we didn't see the hair claw with the scrunchie and the prayer card at the end of 3x09. I had my suspicions about this, but it wasn't until recently that I think I've come to a clearer understanding about the separate presentations of these items in season 3 and what the timing of their appearances means, particularly for Carmy's relationship with Nat and with his birth family.

Natalie is haunting Carmy

Or rather, the Berzatto family is haunting Carmy. Let me explain.

We see the hair claw in Carmy's apartment in the first episode of season 3. I think its early appearance in the season is for two reasons:

The first is that the hair claw is a legerdemain, meant to look like a token of Claire's given its appearance in 3x01 in between scenes of Claire at home and at work. I think the purpose of this sleight of hand was to misdirect the viewer's attention to Carmy's love life from the outset and misleadingly establish it as the primary source of his mental anguish this season. As I've noted here, I don't think Claire is the main source of Carmy's anguish.

In fact, it seems pretty clear that Claire herself is a legerdemain: a stand in for Carmy's relationship with The Berzattos. This has been discussed in various places on Tumblr including in this fantastic post by @brokenwinebox contrasting shots of Donna/Donna with Carmy and Claire/Claire with Carmy, as well as in this *chefs kiss* comparison between shots of Claire and the Berzattos done by @currymanganese. I also had a theory where I posited that Claire is a reverse-engineered haunt, maintained by Carmy to keep his brother Mikey in his life, after the latter's death.

We also have this LA Times article in which The Bear's Andrew Wehde (cinematographer) and Joanna Calo (showrunner, executive producer, writer and director) say the following:

All of the above is to say that Claire and her relationship with Carmy seriously appear to be sleights of hand masking the truth of the main source of Carmy's anguish: his birth family.

Which brings us back to the hair claw, which, as I've said here, I believe belongs to Carmy's sister, Natalie Berzatto.

If we are working on the basis that the hair claw belongs to Carmy's sister and not Claire, lets get to the second reason that we see it in 3x01 and not with the scrunchie and prayer card in 3x09.

First, we need to note that Carmy's relationship with the owner of this hair claw - Natalie - is inextricably linked to his relationship with his birth family, the Berzattos. Natalie is his biological sister from that family and she's also the ONLY Berzatto family member that Carmy is seen having any contact with in the present after returning to Chicago to run The Beef in season 1.

Indeed, according to Jamie Lee Curtis, Carmy hasn't seen his mother Donna, the only other surviving member of his immediate family (that we've met on the show) since the events of 2x06 Fishes, approximately 5-6 years ago (given the events in season 3 appear to take place in 2023).

By the time we get to 3x01, Carmy's relationship with the Berzattos (including with Natalie) has had a lifetime of impact on him due, among other things, to an intergenerational history of abuse and trauma. Indeed, right before we see the hair claw in 3x01, we see Carmy staring down at the scar on his hand - a scar that @thoughtfulchaos773 has concluded Carmy got on the day he learned about his brother Mikey's suicide - another visual reminder of Carmy's family and the shadow it casts over his life.

Given the above, I believe the hair claw in the season premiere indicates to us that Carmy is entering season 3 with this familial history playing heavily on his mind. Season 3 also starts on the back of the walk-in fiasco in 2x10 which this reblog thread between myself, @bbythurs and @ambeauty discusses as a representation for Carmy of a broken promise to Sydney and the rest of The Bear crew. In that broken promise, we see an inadvertent repetition by Carmy of the behaviours in his birth family that he hates the most (recall his Al-Anon monologue in 2x03 Sundae where Carmy says his family would fuck up things that gave him amusement and enjoyment, but specifically that they would make promises they weren't able to keep). In this way, season 3 starts with Carmy doing everything he can to undo that broken promise, to undo repeating hurtful familial patterns.

In contrast to the above, Carmy's relationships with Sydney and Richie, while not great at the start of season 3, have not yet reached a boiling point and perhaps are not as front of mind for Carmy. By the time we see the scrunchie and the prayer card at the end of 3x09 however, Syd and Richie's relationships with Carmy have massively deteriorated and are hanging on by a thread. They are definitely occupying his mind by then, explaining why the mementos associated with these two characters are revealed to us at that point in the show.

As always, these are my thoughts and an attempt to apply some logic to a season that, due to its lack of actual dialogue, relies on so much interpretation to muddle our way through. I'm not saying this as a total criticism, because my neurodivergent self loves analysing things like this, but I can see why this season put so many off lol. Its been 1.5 months since I did my first run through of this season and I'm still finding new things I missed during my first watch.

Tagging folks below who might be interested but as always, keen to hear from anyone that wants to chat about this stuff:

@currymanganese @vacationship @moodyeucalyptus @thoughtfulchaos773 @brokenwinebox @espumado @tvfantic87 @ambeauty @bbythurs @mitocamdria @turbulenthandholding @anxietycroissant @angelica4equity @devisrina @kdbleu

My next meta will get into just how The Berzatto family is haunting Carmy in season 3...when I finally get around to finishing it. I'm saying it out loud here to force myself to get it done lol. Stay tuned!

[fukuchorror-blog]

WHAT’S YOUR SOCIAL LINK?

TAGGED: stolen from the dash out of curiosity.

TAGGING: @shukuchiho, @shungartistry, @latesco. feel free to steal it.

MAJOR: THE JUSTICE

The Justice Arcana symbolizes a strict allegory of justice, objectivity, rationality and analysis. You are concerned with matters of fairness, and otherwise are very stoic individuals.

SECONDARY: THE EMPEROR

Emperor symbolizes the desire to control one’s surroundings, and its appearance could suggest that one is trying too hard to achieve this, possibly causing trouble for others; some elements in life are just not controllable. Often times, you are troubled by something very personal, and doesn’t know how to deal with it.

TERTIARY: THE FORTUNE

The Hierophant is a symbol of education, authority, conservatism, obedience to rules and relationship with the divine. You are a person who interprets sacred mysteries or esoteric principles. You are matured enough, quite wise and logical. However, you are somehow associated and obsessed with the past.

DO NOT REBLOG. repost.

[tavina-writes]

Tags from @woobifiedvillain

See, I know that this is true of the characters in MDZS, bc it's really funny to me that people argue about which Mr./Ms. War Crimes is really the Worst War Crime Doer of Them All, but it REALLY makes me feel that we would, as a fandom, REALLY not survive any of my old Wuxia faves.

Because like, on a scale of "Xue Yang" to "in his first introductory scene tosses a guy's head severed on the table in a stranger's house (also apparently dug out the guy's lungs and liver somewhere so yeah whoops)" Xue Yang is morally a terrible person in his universe of origin while say, Qiu Chuji is really just a righteous honorable asshole his shixiong keeps trying to child leash. Ma Yu spends most of his time on the page smiling politely and hoping that Poor Hotheaded Shidi's not causing more problems somewhere.

And this isn't even getting into all the background murder people do like it's normal in this universe! There's a woman I ADORE in this universe who's killed 99 people to PRACTICE MARTIAL ARTS. So she can go kill more people better to be clear. Like, she is very much an evil serial killer but I love her!!! She's amazing and she loves her special evil boy very much. The most honorable character in LOCH has murdered 231 people and he's counting but he made sure to check that they were shitty before they got the axe so it's okay! NO REGRETS!

If LQR marched around keeping his kill count list in the triple digits and also have an absolutely iconic scene where he tells a Crimes Person "I have killed 231 people. You're next. :)" the fandom would melt down I feel. Like the "Lan Qiren is not only homophobic but also EVIL" posts would circulate.

Like if we talked about the characters in LOCH the way we do with MDZS it's like, where does the outrage end. Where does it begin? How do you judge? What are we saying about the "brought a 13-14 year old to a killing people party where we kill over a hundred people in total" ?????

"Your og blorbo is a shitty person!!! HE DID CRIMES!!!" and it's like yeah....but Huang Yaoshi is also the sexiest man alive and an absolute tortured dilf so we're stuffing the "ripped out the leg tendons of his disciples," "imprisoned and tortured a man with torture flute music every night for 15 years for the crime of *checks notes* oh yes saying "congrats on your wife being dead!!!! :DDD"" "put his son-in-law and best friend and the aforementioned 15 year prisoner on a suicide boat in a fit of temper," "attempted murder of lots of people who the narrator even SAYS is unreasonable murder lots of times," "lives on a killer maze island avoided by all the neighbors," "killed a servant as an example of "I am very angry!!!"" and "tortures more people with torture flute music" in the closet. His crimes are sexy! I want him to sob in regret in front of his dead wife's coffin in the elaborate tomb he built for her for MORE HOURS. He can't do that if he isn't also instantly regretting his crimes! (Also he loves his daughter. That is very important to me. He's like Wuxia Fantasy Maes Hughes if Maes Hughes was also evil and unstable emotionally.)

But yeah this is kind of why I find the moral outrage of "your fictional little man did CRIMES!!! CRIMES! CRIMES I TELL YOU!" of the meta posts sometimes....really rather funny. "Yeah he did crimes. Do them more! do them harder! do it again! I love crimes!"

it is actually routinely hilarious to me that fandom talks about the number of war crimes everyone has committed and how terrible they are, and "can [X Character] EVER recover from their heinous crimes?????"

And then there's me, who comes from classic wuxia where everyone does approximately 300% more crimes going ????? and then you get. you get this line about REALLY quite minor characters in LOCH Chapter Three "Winds of the Steppes" (emphasis mine):

"Although the Seven Freaks were all very righteous and moral individuals, they were also all very proud and acted very strange, making them well deserving the title of "Seven Freaks of Jiangnan". Each was a master of kungfu and they always worked together, so they have never come out on the short end of the struggle when going up against others in the martial world. Several years ago they got into a fight with the Huaiyang Clan, the seven of them killed over a hundred or so of the Huaiyang Clan members on the shores of the Yangtze. Back then Han Xiaoying was still a kid, but she still managed to kill two foes and the name of the "Seven Freaks of Jiangnan" were famous throughout the martial world."

Just a causal party brunch to be known throughout the jianghu for! Killed a hundred or so people between the seven of you! This is ALSO the event where the Seven Freaks became sworn siblings though they'd all known and loved each other before this.

I'd also like to mention that uhhh Han Xiaoying, the youngest of the Seven Freaks, is introduced the chapter before (chronologically a few days before this information is given to us by the narrator) as "a fisher girl with a copper oar, about seventeen or eighteen years of age."

The Seven Freaks are well known but hardly major jianghu characters in LOCH. They've killed at least a hundred people together in a fight with a minor clan of thugs sometime ago. That is the level of casual violence that would never happen in MDZS. 😌 Hope this helps explain where I'm coming from.