#tl;dr she's trying to rob him

[thepringlesofblood]

bonus content for those who read the taz: the 11th hour graphic novel and haven’t listened to the podcast arc

disclaimer: so. I lost my book about 1/4 of the way into this post. so the rest of it is just from memory (I did finish reading it several times, I just no longer have it to refer to). I wanted to post this before the next one comes out though, so here we are. If I find my book, I will attempt to finish up the details for the rest of the book. I cover some basic big things from memory, but nowhere near as detailed as the stuff I wrote down when I had the book to refer to. but in the meantime...let’s go!

by god they’ve done it again. 11th hr is a Lot and definitely the most plot-heavy book so far, PLUS they had to include the first lunar interlude where the boys had individual scenes. the result is frankly beautiful. we’re really hitting critical mass now.

as a result a lot more stuff got compressed, cut, changed, or skipped. i’m going to try to at least point out each difference, though there’s no way I could summarize EVERYTHING that got cut in one post. I’m going to be linking relevant episodes (& transcripts thank u tazscripts) instead, for things that are Just Too Much to include.

as always, this post is intended to be Fun and Cool Bonus Content for people who haven’t listened to the podcast, not a manifesto of stuff they “should have” included or a list of flaws. they had 11+ hours of content to squish into one graphic novel, that happened over a period of months. of course stuff got cut. and it’s stuff that was recorded in 2016. that’s eight years ago. of course some things are going to change.

tl;dr - I liked the dang book. you can be sad something wasn’t in the novel while still understanding why it isn’t. here is a list of the stuff that was changed, skipped, compressed, or cut, presented as cool facts & extra info for gn fans who haven’t listened to the podcast.

spoilers ahoy for the 11th hour, but I’ll try to keep spoilers for the rest of the series to a minimum or at least mark them clearly. At the very end I’m going to put a section of series-spoiler theories and observations, very clearly marked

Before getting into the nitty-gritty, there are a few MAJOR changes from the podcast I want to get out of the way first. This list also includes “stuff I remember but don’t have the book to refer back to on”

Several characters and a whole section of the map were cut.

I think this is the first time that any named, plot-relevant characters have been completely cut. The closest we’ve come so far was the bugbears, but they at least had a cameo in the photo in Lucas’ quarters. Luca, Redmond, and Stonefruit Farms fully don’t exist in the GN series.

the boys meet Redmond in ep 46, pt 6 of the 11th hr arc, having met his brother Luca at the end of the previous episode.

long story short, Redmond was the leader of the purple-kerchiefed ruffians and the brains behind the bank robbery, which The Boys had to go through with so that Redmond would help his lowkey-estranged brother Luca raise the temple of Istus from its decrepit state, as they were both devout priests of Istus. The whole key being in the vault thing is GN-only.

Also, Luca is a skeleton bc he was in the temple when it got rapidly old-ified, but dw he’s fine he’s just a skeleton. he gets better.

Redmond’s motivation for robbing the bank is that as a priest of Istus, lady of fate, he follows his gut feelings and intuition, and he had a strong feeling that whatever was in the vault would be the key to taking down the bubble.

they basically took all of the plot-necessary elements from Luca & Redmond and gave them to Ren. In the podcast, Ren actually blasts some of the purple-kerchiefed ruffians out of her bar after they get too rowdy. She isn’t involved with the robbery in the slightest.

Merle’s Temporal Chalice scene

in the podcast, it’s his arm being chopped off. or more specifically, grabbing a crystal that exploded and made him have to get his arm chopped off. 

Him running out on his kids is played kind of for laughs at first in the podcast. Merle is a heel for a lot longer there, bc the funniest improv is usually not the most ethical improv. They do talk about his life and the fact that he has a family, but the offer made by the chalice is for him to have his arm back

frankly, I think they made the right move in the GN. We get very little of Hecuba in the podcast, and I really liked seeing more of that conflict.

Roswell, my beloved

so, in 2016 when they did the podcast, the McElroys were at, let’s say a different place in their journey of learning about the queer community. which is to say that in the podcast Roswell’s pronouns were wildly inconsistent, in part due to them being a clay construct, in part due to them not being introduced with any pronoun in particular [though Griffin clarifies that he intends for Roswell to use they/them a little later on in the arc], and in part bc the boys just weren’t really familiar with the singular they. they tended vacillate between they/them, it/its, and he/him. we all learn and grow. 

in the book, thankfully, Roswell is 100% they/them. fuck yeah. related. The Boys are significantly worse people to Roswell in the podcast. like, significantly. we’ll get into it as it comes up more, I just want to signpost it here. 

e.g. Taako giving Roswell control of themselves and their command word is a GN original, in the podcast The Boys kind of “junebug” them around for large swaths of the last few episodes. also, a significant number of earlier loops involve them basically negging Roswell into believing that Isaak hired outside help (The Boys) with security bc they weren’t cutting it anymore (rude). I much prefer the geologists gambit they go with in the GN.

Diamonds

Paloma’s prophecies cost money in the podcast, so a lot of The Boys’ shenanigans (and a significant number of loops) are in pursuit of getting cash. which, in Refuge, is diamonds. Some examples: 

Before figuring out that you can’t take objects with you, the boys do straight up take some diamonds from the bank post-robbery. 

Taako gets Ren and a patron of her bar, Ash, to sign up and pay for a seminar/magic lesson he’ll be giving tomorrow (one of my all-time fav scenes). This leads to a touching scene at the end when the bubble finally comes down where Taako gives Ren a little certificate that says “first graduate of Taako’s Amazing School of Magic.”

Magnus tries to armwrestle a guy for cash (Merle’s idea), and though he rolls a 27 Strength check, the Goliath barbarian he’s rolling against gets a 28.

Paloma offers 1 diamond for a small prophecy, 10 for a big one. in the GN they aren’t differentiated, and one small prophecy just doesn’t show up as it’s not needed.

the taz fandom wiki has a handy list of all the prophecies she gives in the podcast

ok! let’s go!

Prologue (the bit before ch 1)

this isn’t in the 11th hour podcast.

the information we get about The Visitor in the 11th hour (from The Boys asking various Refuge residents) is that

Jack and June brought them to Refuge

or, they brought Jack and June to Refuge. We hear both things at different times.

they’re depicted in the statue as having a Red Robe and being kinda broad-shouldered.

Roswell never met them. At first they refer to The Visitor with he/him pronouns, but then mention “I say ‘he’, I didn’t know them”

they tended to keep their face hidden (maybe?)

that’s pretty much it

we learn about this interaction much much much much much later in the podcast, not as a scene that is played out, but abstractly as an event that happened, after we find out who The Visitor is. 

that said, I LOVE this scene’s inclusion and expansion. it makes total sense to me.

Jack is never described as having a sketchbook or being an artist. this will come back later. 

the final scene of the arc in the podcast is instead June giving Magnus some previous designs for the statue of Jack, June, & a Red Robe/The Visitor in the middle of town, with a version where the hood of the robe is down and the face of the Red Robe/The Visitor is visible.

Ch. 1

this is where the podcast starts at episode 1 of the 11th hr. 

boyland’s funeral is very accurate. his comically large family of 400 sons (mentioned in CK podcast) is why the Voidfish lights up like that.

the only real differences I could find were:

in the podcast what is erased is basically boyland’s personnel file. like, a report or write-up of who he is and his work for the BoB. johann writing songs about boyland’s life is new.

the only pronouns ever used for the voidfish in the podcast are they/them, it/its, and occasionally he/him. past taz graphic novels have used they/them. on pg 13 of 11th hr, both Johann and Merle use she/her for the voidfish.

I do not like this, but I have a suspicion as to why, and I don’t like that either. see spoiler-y observations at the end for more.

they merged this scene with a scene from the skipped lunar interlude before CK, where The Boys take cpt. cpt. bane’s “file” to the voidfish to be eaten.

 I described this in my other posts, but the two things relevant here are Magnus putting his hand up on the glass and vibing w the voidfish, and this exhange b/w Johann and The Boys:

Johann: When I, um, can I ask you guys a question?

Magnus: Sure.

Taako: Of course, Johann.

Johann: Are you guys really okay with, with this part of the deal?

Magnus: That we get forgot?

Taako: Which part?

Johann: Yeah, are you cool with like, if you beef it down there, the world just forgets about you?

Magnus: Well, I’m not planning on ever dying.

in the podcast, bc Avi isn’t there, Angus operates the cannons (Avi showed him how before he left). he is extremely nervous about it and about killing them on accident. once they’re in the orb taako casts stoneskin on himself “just in case”, but everything works out totally fine, though avi mentions when The Boys land that the stoneskin should’ve thrown off the trajectory.

the gn keeps the spirit of taako trusting no one without the angus psychological damage by having him just cast a better version of the spell angus cast, and I am a fan.

the leveling up stats aren’t right in the book, as I’m sure every dnd 5e nerd has already tweeted about.

they’re all level 10, so magnus should be a level 8 fighter and a level 2 rogue bc 2+8=10, while the other two boys are still just a level 10 cleric and a level 10 wizard bc they didn’t multiclass.

fantasy costco-wise: aside from the stuff they have in the book (all things they do own in the podcast, though hole-thrower and the feather-weight cuirass were from the fantasy gachapon), merle picks up matthias the living grimoire, magnus gets the magnetic charge and the tarantula bracelet, and taako gets the arcane trickster’s glove (no wiki page rip it just gives you some arcane trickster powers) and mockingbird gum.

they beat up the baby worms more before letting them go, it’s a full battle

Ch. 2

in the podcast, when they go through the barrier, they find themselves in an empty white space where they see an old woman holding the cup. she says “It’s you!” with recognition upon seeing them, and then says “find me” before they wake up.

important: every time the boys die in the podcast, they go back to this space briefly before waking up.

sometimes the woman gives a cryptic message, sometimes not, and in their later loops, the woman collapses, breathing heavily.

we find out in the end that this woman is June - she has a whole extended de-aging sequence later that they probably cut so poor Carey didn’t have to do a bajillion character models for June at different ages just for a few panels of dramatic effect.

pg 36 - to head off any dnd 5e nitpickers, Magnus does not have proficiency in rustic hospitality, since that’s not a skill. Magnus does have a character feat called “Rustic Hospitality” that he chose at level 1.

claiming to have proficiency in things you can’t possibly have proficiency in is a longstanding goof both in taz and among people who play dnd 5e in general, because it’s funny.

in the book, they intercut each loop with a scene from lunar interlude 3, and it works really really well. we’ll get to those scenes as they come up.

Is this the first time someone uses he/him for The Red Robe in the gn series? (Roswell says ‘his’)

in the podcast Roswell mentions having never met the visitor, and comments “I say “he”, but I don’t know.”

in the GN, when The Boys tell the director about The Red Robe in CK they use they/them pronouns and so does the director, but after this, even @ the end of the book after Taako guesses that The Red Robe they’ve been talking to isn’t the same Red Robe from Refuge, he and the other boys continue to use he/him for The Red Robe.

“Mystic Analysis”

he just did an arcana check in the podcast, I don’t think Taako had Identify as a spell, which is what the DND equivalent would be. 

they also don’t figure out that Roswell has a command word until much later, during the Diary Of Sheriff Isaak scene.

Griffin basically says “[they’re] an earth elemental, with a bird on [them], and earth elementals don’t generally have birds on them, so maybe it was just nearby when the spell was cast and got caught up in it”

Cassidy

in the podcast, she’s in jail for blowing up the temple of Istus, which she didn’t do.

GN Ren mentions later on that the temple got “un-built” which references how in the podcast the temple suddenly aged a matter of centuries in seconds, so from the outside it looked kind of explode-y. and cassidy is known for blowing shit up, so she was blamed. she also theorizes that it might be racism due to her half-orc heritage.

in the GN, cassidy’s arrested for trespassing on the closed mines, which she absolutely has done. it makes more sense, and eliminates a major plot point they cut from the book

she is otherwise pretty much the same, I love her very much

Paloma pretty much stays in her cottage in the podcast rather than sneaking around.

the fantastic exchange of “you guys have been here 45 minutes, what the fuck did you bring with you?!” “you should see what we can do in an hour!” is 100% verbatim from the podcast.

in the podcast, Ren is dead the first bank fire (and in most subsequent bank fires). she also wasn’t one of the bandits, or involved with the bank robbery at all

in fact, in the loop where The Boys were doing the bank robbery, she unexpectedly came in, recognized Taako, and almost blew their cover.

With so little time left on the clock, Taako cast Banishment on her to keep her safe and out of the way, but she made her saving throw - so it didn’t work, but she knew Taako tried to cast some spell on her, and there was a somber moment of her falling backwards trying to get away from him, tears in her eyes.

look it’s a good lil character moment

I can’t emphasize enough how brutal the first description of the bank fire and subsequent world-ending is. Griffin pulled 0 punches.

Magnus rushes in and he describes the scene like “you see a guy, who looks like this. they’re dead. you see two guards. they’re dead. you see a woman holding a tray of diamonds. she’s dead. you see this person, also dead. you see a dwarven bank teller. she might be alive, but it’s hard to tell, and if she was she is on the brink of death”

I think the boys, brogden, and maybe one of the purple-kerchief ruffians (which is how they are described in the podcast) survived the first one, and everyone else died in that bank. it felt so brutal listening to it the first time because you (and the boys) didn’t know about the loop yet, so it was just. horrifying.

I love how they pulled in off in the GN!!! the clock hands are just *chef kiss*

just before Griffin describes the destruction of Refuge, Travis interjects, “Ditto, did you base this on Majora’s Mask?”

while Griffin does not respond in the moment, he later confirms that Travis is correct.

Griffin’s description of the fiery deaths of The Boys: “And you’re being crushed by the shattered earth as it compresses down into the ground. And you hear an anguished scream come from something massive and furious, and all three of you have died…And there’s something about the dying that feels familiar.”

“and then you wake up.” hardcut to end of episode music. v epic.

Ch. 3 (i s2g they’re not all going to be this detailed the major plot differences are mostly out of the way now)

as mentioned, the scenes between each loop in the gn happen in Lunar Interlude III (transcript) (episode) - each of The Boys got to choose a scene to have in between arcs and Justin chose to have Taako give Angus magic lessons.

they’re all more abstract in the eps (Taako establishes a recurring time and place to give Angus lessons, and we get scenes from earlier vs later lessons, various shenanigans, etc.) but the major points are actually pretty much the same, just condensed into one scene in the book.

also taako giving magic lessons in his quarters makes 100% sense, but in the podcast they did it in the cafeteria, and that’s where the LUP is burned into the wall. significant? potentially.

in the podcast angus had made some macarons for taako but forgot to flavor them (he nailed the texture though which is hard to do in a macaron) so he asked taako to prestidigitate them better and then scorching ray happened and blasted em to shreds.

LUP. dude. I thought it was an acronym when I first heard it, bc in the podcast, Griffin says “So your staff, you lost control of it and you blasted the letters “L-U-P” into the wall.” Seeing it in cursive, all gorgeous and capitalized like a proper noun? knocked me the fuck out.

another dnd 5e tiny detail: in the gn, the description for Angus’ first wand says “wonderful stocking stuffer for the young sorcerer in your life”

i could have a whole conspiracy board about this.

skip this if you’re not super into dnd 5e mechanics

the difference (in dnd 5e) b/w a wizard, a warlock, and a sorcerer is:

wizard: gets magic from study and practice - taako is a wizard bc he studied spellcraft and learned how to do it.

warlock: gets magic from making a deal with something/someone far more magical than themselves - garfield is a warlock, so his magic stems from a deal he made with something (the devil??)

sorcerer: has innate magic within them.

this could come from a myriad of places, but usually from heritage or bloodline - maybe your great-grandfather was a god or a dragon or a demon or a djinn or something, or maybe your mom touched a weird rock as a kid and got magic powers that she passed onto you when she had you.

in the podcast, angus is only ever referred to as a wizard. makes sense - regular boy + magic training from taako = wizard boy.

but if he’s a sorcerer, the magic really was in him all along. is taako teaching him to channel it? does he know?

this also fits with a weirdly popular headcanon the taz community had for a while about angus secretly being a silver dragon (in dnd, color = different abilities, diff personality, etc, and silver ones like to shapeshift and pretend to be humans sometimes).

“draconic bloodline” is one of the most common sorcerer backgrounds - it basically just means ‘a dragon got involved at some point in this family tree, so now you can cast ray of frost’.

hmmmmmmm

end conspiracy theory

It is at this point that I lost my damn book. so. I’m just gonna post this bc the next graphic novel is coming out soon and I want to post it before then. If i find my book I’ll finish it up. If you have post-chapter 3 differences you noticed that aren’t already covered, feel free to reply/reblog with them!

Spoiler-y Observations Below!

CAUTION: contains spoilers for the rest of taz balance!

*voidfish speculation: my suspicion is that they’re using ‘she’ for the voidfish to foreshadow that they have a baby, so that makes them a “mother”? i call bullshit, but i’ve heard it used before as a justification for misgendering an enby who gives birth. obvs the voidfish is not a human being, people can have multiple pronouns, it’s not a 1:1 comparison, but i for one (as an enby myself) really liked the voidfish using they/them and feel oddly betrayed at them suddenly changing the pronouns. fingers crossed that there’s a different reason.

"what am statue” is low-key foreshadowing since magnus says it

merle knowing what relativistic time dilation is

LUP was burnt into the wall in the cafeteria in the podcast - lucretia would’ve seen it for sure. so they put it in taako’s room this time...

aw no ‘sorry about the cookies little man’

In 5 or however many years when gn series ends, someone should do a poll of people who only read the graphic novels and see if any of them pronounce “Lup” weird since they’ve only ever seen it written down.

hero wreathed in flames 0.0 I hope Joaquin is still there in the finale but I like the duality here

BATTLEAXEPROFICIENCYEASTEREGG

SNEAK PEEK AT THE HUNGER SNEAK PEEK AT THE STARBLASTER AAAAAAAA

257 - ‘I know him better than you could ever imagine’ because he created you? Oof ouch ow my bones. also....the magnus that made the cup was a very different person from magnus now. it’s not what Julia would want - the cup never met julia, obvs, and does not know the ways she changed him for the better.

Bottom of 327 - sweet Angus boy are you drawing something on that orb?

Istus is like you’ve been serving me your whole lives without knowing it in the podcast - maybe a bit too much foreshadowing for the GN

[youraveragedeltafan]

Jarod and Lola

A small rant fueled by a dubious take I heard on Jarod and Lola's relationship in both the game and first book, I've never fully read About a Girl so I can't vouch for that one.

((Now that I think about it, the OP was probably from a troll but it's too late I'm in too deep))

That being said. Spoilers.

TW for abuse and a brief talk about implied SA

Did Jarod abuse Lola in some way? It's likely, especially considering he slapped her in the first book. While it only happens if Lou decides not to do anything, it shows that Jarod is willing to hurt his child.

To be clear: hitting your kid is never okay. Even when he's trying to get her out of a dangerous situation, it's clear that smacking her did nothing, and that it wasn't an accident. It was retaliation for pushing off his hat. The direct quote is:

"The man’s long and thin fingers are clutching Lola’s bright red arm. The kid continues to flail, knocking back the man who loses his hat in the process. His response is immediate, a slap hard enough to knock her head off her shoulders." (31)

Lola's response directly after doesn't help

"The man sits at the wheel of the cab, and leers at Lola who flips him off. Once the car is gone, she stands up and dusts herself off." (251)

No reaction. We don't know what Lola was like before the Brigades, but I think anyone would be at least somewhat shocked after their parent hit them if it wasn't normal. Even if it was the first time, it's still entirely unnecessary. This was put there for a reason--to depict what kind of a person Jarod was before the attack. It shows that Jarod is not an innocent man who was pushed over the edge, and wasn't exactly a shining beacon of good or even halfway decent parenting before Lola's death.

Even without this, we already know Jarod is an objectively bad person. If we take away the nuance, he's still at his core a scary fictional bad guy who has it in him to hurt his daughter and kill people if they annoy him too much. So yeah, it's not out of the realm of possibility that he abused Lola even before the Brigades, and might have contributed to why she left. This is reprehensible on its own.

HOWEVER

It's okay to like Jarod and find him interesting, he's meant to be the archetypal stranger you shouldn't talk to in horror movies (the hitcher), and plays that part well. It doesn't make you a bad person to like Jarod. Look at it this way: just because you like the Joker doesn't mean you're gonna get a clown mask, rob a bank, then burn the money.

Back to Jarod though. I think if he did anything else, it would've been implied. If they wanted to go that way with his character (SA), I feel like it would be kind of irresponsible of the writers to leave it at small 'hints' (that for the record aren't really there). Making a shrine for your dead daughter isn't weird; the 'shrine' was in front of what was basically her bedroom--something parents of dead children tend to keep untouched. Being obsessed with your dead daughter, while probably unhealthy, isn't weird.

Just because Jarod has a short fuse and likes to threaten and kill people when his cold anger meter breaks doesn't automatically mean he gets some creepy sexual pleasure from doing so. It isn't implied like, at all. The closest things I can think of that's even remotely iffy without context is Better Be Good To Me, but even then it isn't about the crosser, it's about the cop.

TL; DR: Jarod, from what we know in canon, probably physically abused Lola before and after she joined the Brigades, however, there isn't enough evidence to say the writers (both book and game) wanted Jarod to be read as a sexual predator. To be clear: It's fine if that's *your* personal interpretation, as at the end of the day its art, but trying to stand on a moral high ground about a fictional character for something that was never remotely implied in game is really...yeah.

[viiisenyas]

It confuses me that ppl in the hotd fandom say that Laenor loved Jace Luke and Joffrey. Did he tho? cuz... he was out drinking with his buddies and there was only one scene where he was actually being a dad to them. Fr, the only time he stepped in as a dad was when he named Joffrey and that was it.

I think it's a little more nuanced than that, Anon. But if I'm being entirely honest, (if a bit controversial) those children were not his obligation yet when he tried to step in, Rhaenyra kept him at arm's length until it was convenient to her.

Episode 6:

"You don't think to consult me before you name my child?" "He's our child, is he not?" "Only one of us is bleeding." "I deserve some say in the affairs of my own family." "You haven't seemed so interest in our affairs of late."

"I deserve some say in the affairs of my own family."

I find this interesting in particular. Upon a rewatch, I paid attention to Laenor's facial expressions and his tone of voice. Now it could be me, it could be a misinterpretation, but he seemed a bit exasperated if not desperate, almost pleading with Rhaenyra. Given that 10 years has been glossed over, we were robbed of seeing their actual dynamic. But what I can see is that he is attempting to assert his place as her husband, and Rhaenyra just waved him off with the following line of dialogue.

Keep in mind his facial expression deflating after she wanders out of frame. I genuinely do think that he was trying, but again, she kept him at arm's length. And of course this sets up later in the episode when he returns to Rhaenyra's room a bit drunk with Ser Qarl.

Notice how he seems more happy to go back to war?

"After all this time, this is just what I need. A little adventure. A good honest battle to enliven my blood again... A few months maybe - to be back at sea."

I don't know about you, but no man that has been in a happy marriage (hell, even a man who has a close bond with his supposed kids) would want to return to a fucking war unless he has no other choice. The way he says "to be back at sea," was almost in yearning.

At that point, he was more than happy to leave King's Landing because Rhaenyra made it abundantly clear that he's of no use to her.

And she continues to make snide remarks with regards to Ser Harwin's little outburst that brought even more negative attention to their family.

"Are you mad? Do you know what's happened while you've been guzzling all the ale in Flea Bottom - gods know what besides?"

If you watch his expression, it can be read as "What are you talking about," or it can be read as "Excuse me?" Pick your poison. (I don't know about you, but I read that as a homophobic microaggression.)

Now moving on to my point above.

"Dark rumours are hunting us, Laenor. They nip at our heels. Questions about our sons' parentage. Vile, disgusting insinuations." "Insinuations, are they?" "They are our sons! Yours and mine. And their true father will not abandon them now to go carousing through the Narrow Sea waggling his sword, and winking at his sailors."

Notice how she finally flips it around? Now, those boys are suddenly Laenor's responsibility. And as you can see with his sarcastic reply, he has no mind to listen to it. And I don't have to point out the second microaggression against his homosexuality.

Now Laenor says this, with conviction.

"I am a knight and a warrior. And I have played my part here. Faithfully, for ten years."

Which really drives home the point that he was trying to be a dutiful husband. He was trying to be a dutiful father. But then, Rhaenyra throws his efforts back into his face.

"You are owed nothing! For ten years you have indulged yourself at court, bought the finest horses, drunk the rarest of wines, fucked the lustiest boys. This was our agreement. I have not begrudged you."

Except she just did. Four times. in the literally same episode. Laenor did what any lord living at court would have done even if they weren't in the clusterfuck situation that he was sucked into.

Now, Laenor is completely done, and it's obvious that he wants no part in it.

"You do not desert your post when the storm lashes." "The wise sailor flees the storm as it gathers." "Very well, then I command you... as your Princess and heir to the throne, you are commanded to remain in King's Landing and at my side."

I'm certain that he was well aware of the rumours swimming about regarding Rhaenyra's actions and of course, I genuinely think he did his best to cover for both himself AND her after the first two Strong kids were born - otherwise he wouldn't be looking for an out in this specific scene. He probably would have left long ago.

TL;DR. I think Laenor did care about those kids, but Rhaenyra alienated him from actually being in their lives until shit hit the fan for her.

[cup-of-hot-worm-milk]

HEARTBREAK HIGH SEASON 2 REVIEW

Likes, dislikes, and some general thoughts.

TL;DR spoiler free review: I give this season a 6.5/10. It’s not bad but compared to the previous season, it certainly felt like a downgrade. Some of the editing choices felt poor, a few characters that had felt layered and realistic had lost their substance,  a couple of interesting plot beats and character arcs were either rushed or solved with very little satisfaction and pay off, and I can’t help but feel a lot of the drama had become far too unrealistic by the end of the season. I had some fun watching the teenage hijinks, and there are stand out scenes/storylines that had me invested from start to finish, but overall I can’t say that this season lived up to its predecessor or my expectations.

Longer rant under the cut! SPOILERS AHEAD!

I’ll start with what I liked and enjoyed (in no particular order):

Cash owns my heart now and forever. Season one had already solidified him as my favourite character, and watching him go through his asexual journey, trying to navigate his relationship with Darren while setting boundaries was… Ugh, so fucking good. I’ve had my own share of relationship anxiety, fearing that because I had no interest in sexual activities that I would be hurting my future partner. Dusty’s whole talk with Cash felt so reminiscent of things people would say to me when I tried to talk to them about my own sexuality. I was so ecstatic when Cash told him to fuck off, because no, asexuals are not robbing their partners of anything. Our sexuality and boundaries in relationships are not problematic or abusive; no person should ever feel like their worth in a relationship is based on whether or not they have sex with their partner. Anyone who says otherwise can fuck right off. I was crying during Cash’s talk with his Nan. 10/10 best storyline.

Quinni not masking was so cathartic. Neurotypicals really don’t understand the stress and mental gymnastics we have to go through every fucking day just so we fit in. It’s so fucking hard and watching her be herself fully was just amazing. Slay honestly.

BI MALAKAI BI MALAKAI BI MALAKAI

All of the Australian pop culture references. So good. Chinese succulent meal. The reference to Scomo shitting himself at the McDonalds. Cash not registering to vote and his friends getting mad at him even though our voting is so shit and never taken seriously (I along with several people I know have written shit on our ballots and have never gotten in trouble ever). THE NUTBUSH. Woodsy’s little jab at Pavlova being from Aotearoa (New Zealand) and not Australia. Ugh, so good. Finally, references I understand /hj.

Amerie and Harper being best friends… Their protectiveness for each other… My heart.

The class camp made me so nostalgic. Can’t speak for every Aussie, but my camp did have the boys sneaking in beer. Although, we all got too scared so we all just had a sip before pouring it all out before we could get caught. We didn’t even get buzzed, lol. Also, the class getting high on shrooms together, oml. 

Malakai and Amerie… Ugh, those two… So messy and complicated and I love them.

Props to HBH finally making an authentic (albeit toxic) love triangle. Only took a while but we got one.

Woodsy helping Harper with driving lessons… My heart.

Quinni being so hyperfixated that she survived her snakebite. She’s just like me fr. I also loved the editing changing when it was her perspective. This is her world and we’re just living in it.

Idk his name but whoever played Chook was genuinely terrifying. 10/10, I wanted to smash his face in every time he came on screen. Truly phenomenal acting.

Actually, I’ll give a round of applause to the entire cast. All of them did stella jobs.

And now… the dislikes (again, no particular order):

Spider’s arc. I know some people like him, but as someone who went to school with, and got bullied by dickheads like him, I could not get behind his whole redemption storyline. I really didn’t like how they blamed his misogyny and arrogance on his toxic mother - it felt like they were saying that men are only sexist assholes because feminists obsess over profiling them all as rapists and abusers which is so fucked on so many levels. It just felt like they were given excuses for his behaviour and how it isn’t really his fault, it’s because of his mothers abuse and I am so fucking over that theme. Abuse does not justify shitty behaviours from ANYONE. It can apply context, sure, but I am not going to excuse someone for being a fuckwit just because they have a shitty homelife. I was abused! I had hurt people around me to cope! That doesn’t make it okay! 

Also… People like Spider are more likely to be misogynistic because of a sexist environment - not because of crazed misandrists believing all men are rapists. I think it would've been much more believable if instead, Spider hadn’t had a father or a close male role model to grow up with and became very insecure about his perception of masculinity and manliness, so he used society and social media as learning tools to form his personality and unfortunately internalised a lot of misogyny.

The conclusion of Spider’s redemption also felt way too rushed. He only stops joining Voss because the man slipped up while ranting and because he got slapped in the face. In season one, it really looked like they were going to explore how Spider’s insecurities around vulnerability and masculinity made him put up a front to shield himself. During his relationship with Missy, some points almost felt like they were going to full dive into exploring it but then they backed out, or they wouldn’t let the scenes room to breathe before rushing into the solution. I would’ve liked it more if Spider had time to really grapple with his worldviews and how hurtful he was being, and working on distancing himself from sexist ideals. It would’ve felt a lot more authentic imo.

And I really was not on board with Missy x Spider. I don’t know, it didn’t feel like an authentic attraction, just more like the writers somehow needed someone to jumpstart Spider’s redemption journey while also providing a convenient romantic love interest. Maybe it could have worked if they two were given more time to develop an understanding companionship and Missy wasn’t into him while he was still a fucking dickhead? Maybe they could’ve had the whole rival's sexual tension thing work if it was given way more focus instead of just “Boy see Girl doing something sexy and fall in love”? I don’t know, romance and sexual interest isn’t really my expertise, so maybe it’s just a me thing.

Rowan’s whole character was a huge miss for me, holy shit. It’s 2024, STOP MAKING MENTAL ILLNESS A FUCKING VILLAINOUS TRAIT. I don’t even know what the fuck his mental illness was supposed to be. I work in youth counseling and psychology, and none of his symptoms feel authentic. Was it psychosis?? Was he supposed to have borderline personality disorder??? Untreated PTSD with severe hallucination and dissociation symptoms??? Type 1 bipolar going through a severe mania episode?? FUCKING WHAT DID HE EVEN HAVE??? For a show that handled autism so beautifully in these seasons, they dropped the ball so horribly with Rowan. Bad character, bad execution, bad storyline, bad everything. Do your fucking research on mental disorders instead of just writing “obsessive and crazy” hbh writers, fucking hell.

Also, why did he need to have this whole dumb past connection with Amerie? Why did Amerie suddenly have a backstory of being a major cunt and bully? Why was none of her shitty behaviour talked about in season one? You’d think when her classmates were ostracizing her for the sex wall and getting everyone involuntarily sent to SLT’s, they would’ve brought up this shit. Spider and Harper had their personal reasons to dislike her but no one else brought up anything. Why not just have it that in the earlier episodes, Bird Psycho was spreading baseless rumours and misinformation? Then have people divided on whether or not they would believe Amerie when she went to disprove them? You can even have others making shit up to add to the situation for more drama.

Sasha and Zoe… Oof, bad execution all around for those two.

Sasha… Oof. Thought her storyline was going to deal with her hypocrisy around activism and being a sjw invested in identity politics. Maybe some exploration on how applying moralism to activism is never a good thing EVER and that you shouldn’t care about oppression just because it makes you look like a better person - you should care about it because oppression is fucking disgusting and needs to be eradicated. Should’ve known they would’ve just made her into a bad joke. Pouring one out for the missed opportunity.

I really thought that Zoe’s character was going to explore sexual insecurities and how everyone has a different approach to sex. Examining the difference between sexual pleasure and sexual intimacy. Maybe even some discussion on how it’s okay to have sex simply just to explore your own preferences and likes, and how no one - especially women  - should ever be slut-shamed for liking sex. But nope, she was a really bad celibacy joke and a plot point for Darren. Yikes.

Speaking of Darren, my fashionable child, look how they massacred you. What was their whole deal with Quinni this season? Did they suddenly forget about her autism? Did they suddenly stop caring about her difficulties with masking? Season 1 Darren “You’re my too much” would NEVER have fucking told Quinni that the world couldn’t play be her rules. Season 1 Quinni panicking in the bathroom at a party? Oh, no, Amerie don’t touch her, that’s not how we help Quinni. We help Quinni by providing a quiet and safe space and reminding her that she is in charge of what we do next. Season 1 Quinni becoming non-verbal due to a meltdown because Sasha was being bigoted? Nope, Sasha you don’t get to talk to Quinni, no one forces Quinni to talk, she will do it when she is ready. Wtf happened Darren? It really just felt like the writers were trying to make drama between them both and decided to butcher Darren’s character to do so. Just… oof. Very bad.

Harper’s trauma being forgotten about or developed after two episodes… What. Nothing about her relationship with her dad, nothing about her relationship with using sex as a coping mechanic, nothing about her PTSD, absolutely fucking NOTHING. Why? She just felt like she was there for other characters to develop off of.

Also, Ant and Harper felt really rushed. I would’ve liked it way more if Ant actually went and befriended some girls before he got into a relationship with Harper, or even if the both of them became friends before they developed a romantic relationship but they really weren’t given room to breathe.

Also also, Ant accomplished nothing?? I don’t remember one significant thing he did this season that gave more insight into his character or that wasn’t just to uplift other character’s developments. It sucks because last season alluded to some religious trauma that I thought we were going to get to explore more. He needs so much more substance than just “haha, funny guy” imo.

Missy and Malakai deserved more to their stories than just relationship drama. Where was their Indigenous culture? Where was Malakai’s ‘gone my country’ story element that helped him last season? We rarely ever get Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander actors able to show their culture even in Australian media, so last season when they brought it up I was so happy but now… No mention of it? Nothing? I loved their friendship and their scenes together but God, I wish they happened more outside of their romantic relationships.

Amerie’s pregnancy storyline felt super rushed. Really wish it had more time to breathe, and to stress the importance of contraception and abortion rights. It all began and ended within one episode… Really felt like it deserved just a little bit more time, y’know? Especially in this day and age. It kind of just felt like last minute drama. Maybe more will come out of it because Amerie told Quinni? I hope the fuck not though because I really do not want Quinni’s character slaughtered.

Cash… Showing Chook… Where he lived… Cash is not fucking stupid. What the fuck was that. Making drama for the sake of elevating the story I guess.

Harper’s and Amerie’s dumb fight in the last episode that was really there so Rowan could have a mental breakdown. Yikes.

Wasn’t a big fan of some of the music choices. Few great songs, few iconic songs (Untouched by the Veronicas my beloved), but overall some pretty dodgy choices. I like BLACKPINK, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not that popular in Australia? And The Cranberries are amazing but again, not really an Australian favourite? Idk, just felt like they were picking from the Top 500 Charts.

Okay, the whole fire thing was really fucking stupid. In 2019-2020, NSW had massive out-of-control bushfires that ravaged the country. We have incredibly intense fire-safety because out country is so fucking flammable. Our sprinklers don’t run on electricity - the heat melts the protective plug on the sprinkler, and then water is released from where it’s stored in the pipes. We have fire blankets and extinguishers. The school would’ve been doused. And by the way, there is no such thing as only two teachers chaperoning formal. Not for 25< kids. And the cohort teachers would’ve been invited to go anyways?? And if a crazed man with fire did appear out on the oval, the students would’ve legally had to evacuate to another safe place. Cops and the firefighters would’ve been called immediately. All of the last episode was just such unbelievable bullshit, oml.

“Oh but the school is really sketchy” Idgaf, that whole fire thing was so stupid.

The afl over nrl holy shit. Like, as a queenslander, that shit really fucking hurt to see, I am so sorry sydney goers.

Alright some general thoughts:

Much of the drama in this season just didn’t feel authentic. Most characters were forced to make stupid or unrealistic choices so that drama could happen rather than just allowing the plot to naturally allow for intriguing stories to unfold. I felt like this season was forcing everyone to be involved in something tremendous at every single point, only then to become overwhelmed with how to finish or solve the issues so it was quickly given a bandaid or ignored in favour of moving onto something else.

The first season had the main issues of separating Amerie from her classmates, of people trying to navigate relationships with all the messiness of being a teenager, and of dealing with things that you don’t know how to solve. Characters were given time to be emotional, to make mistakes but not be villainized for them. Scenes and problems were given room to breathe, there was time for all of the story beats to develop and come together.

This season felt more akin to something I’d see in Riverdale or Pretty Little Liars. Over dramatised problems and a mystery that involved pretty shitty characterisation to pull off.

I still like Heartbreak High, and if there is a third season, I’ll definitely give it a watch, but overall, I’m not very enthusiastic about season 2.

One other thing is more related to the backlash I’ve seen from two of the main characters, Malakai and Missy. Some people are infuriated that these two bisexuals have ended the season in a straight-passing relationship and… Okay. I’m not going to sugarcoat any of this; stop being biphobic cunts. You complaining about these two characters ending up with an opposite-sex partner is biphobic. Bisexuals aren’t limited to only ever being in same-sex relationships, fuck off.

Okay, now I’m done.

[interdimensionalburnout]

((Quick OOC post, and hopefully the last one I need to say about this recent drama in my personal life for a while. In the aftermath of this stupid fucking adventure, we still have to find a place to live long-term and get unpacked.

((Once I'm good and used to working 7AM to 3:30PM again, and this emotional bullshit's smoothed over, I can get back to having fun hobbies and put some more time into RP again!

((SO! What's happening to Mick! Bullet-points edition, as little word-salad as possible (I'm a prosy kinda fruitcake):

In April we found out mom had been "robbing Peter to pay Paul," and in doing so had racked-up a 16,000 dollah electric bill.

That happened at the same time the landlady wanted to send an appraiser to the house to assess value and damage, because she and her siblings want to sell it so they can pay to put their mother in a retirement home (I have strong opinions on that).

They never communicated with us, never even offered to transfer all the money we'd already paid in rent towards, you know, buying it ourselves.

They actually were kinda dickheads about it, but it's also fine because that house is a money-pit and they deserve each-other.

Mom bullshits the electric company, the landlady doesn't immediately kick us out, but we keep slowly packing anyway.

Eviction Notice in June, extended until the 28th of August.

Things keep getting heated, blame keeps getting thrown around.

The tension keeps rising to a boil. Lots of things get left behind in the move, personal items, valuable items. My plants had to be packed into a blue-box, likely dead by now.

Dad's work puts us up in Air B&B's until we can get into a house he's trying to buy. Dad gets a loan and a realtor, and finds out that Florida is a "Spousal State," meaning he can't get a house without his wife signing for it. Their marriage is on the fritz and has been for fifteen years (at this state, this thing was fucked as soon as they said "I Do.") but he was willing to sign a contract for the next 30 years with her anyway.

Things keep getting heated and mom's grip on everyone keeps fraying further. Moving five animals and four humans (one of whom is borderline immobile and infirm) takes two trips to Gettysburg, and then two trips to Florida.

The tension rises again, mom calls dad's job to try and cow him. She'd tried that once before, fifteen years ago when they almost divorced before, and back then dad told her that, "if you ever do that again, I'm getting a divorce."

I get a job super fucking fast and already put in eightish hours

Dad and I have to take off yesterday in order for him to finally drive mom back north. She takes the smallest dog, leaving her other dog with me and dad and jay (sibling), because she can barely take care of the small baby let alone both babies.

Dad will be driving back down to florida soon,

And the rest of our lives will, I guess, start.

He also asked his realtor to help us find a rental that'll take two medium-sized dogs and two small cats.

TL;DR- Mom and dad have been fighting in a flawed marriage from the minute they put rings on, their kids have been caught in the middle and it derailed our adult lives, but the (failed) move provided the final straw that broke the camel's back, and now mom is gone and we have to get on with our lives,

and I'm too numb about it to really feel happy or sad.

[unremarkablechap]

META : ARTHUR'S TRAUMA . ↳ AND WHAT IT DOES TO HIM .

We all know that Arthur isn't perfect. Though generally very cordial, polite, and considerate, he has a sort of air to him of emotional instability and jealousy. Also, he can be a bit defensive and self-centered from time-to-time, often putting himself first when it comes to situations that may induce any emotional, physical, or psychological damage to him. If things aren't necessarily the way that he finds suitable for him, he tends to flee the scene.

So, that begs the question. Where the heck did all those glaring flaws come from?

( TL;DR -- Loads of emotional abuse by an emotionally absent father, the death of a mother, and a woman who never gave him a secure relationship lead him to have a rather temperamental attitude. Both because he subconsciously doesn't know how else to get his feelings out but by being as emotional as possible as he was never taught to rationalize or emotionally regulate and because he never had the chance to put himself first having been forced to watch someone who had autism as a preteen. )

Let's start with Sally Boyle. The first woman that Arthur ever loved. He knew her since primary school and used to watch her from her window from time-to-time, the pervert! Without knowing how else to approach her as his mom was already sick from an odd disease and couldn't help him talk about women, he waited to spend time with her until she began living with him.

It was a wonderful time at first. As hinted in the game multiple times, Sally encouraged Arthur to trespass in places they weren't supposed to. They blew up a postbox, and they put fish in the fountain at a park. Normally Arthur isn't this type of person -- he's very sheepish and to himself. He'd rather read a book than go off and rob a place. But because Sally had that spunk and he loved her to bits, he did it for her because he wanted to spend time with her.

But then she started spending time with other people:

"The thing is, I don't trust her. She was always so wonderful when she was there, but a girl like Sally always has so many better places to be, and better people to be with, or worse people that she prefers anyway for some reason." -- Arthur's Notebook in game.

Which immediately hints that she never made their relationship secure. Now you may doubt that but here is a note from Sally when she kisses him on impulse.

"why did i do that?

it was nice. why didn't i ever do it before?

because look at what happens. i fuck everything up. think, sally, think!" -- Sally's Notebook in game

At multiple points in Sally's act, you hear reminiscing from her thinking about how much she loved Arthur, but she could never just take that step to make it official. She only knew how to use men because she doesn't trust or necessarily like them. And because she never made a relationship secure with Arthur, he felt like she was never honest. And never wanted to be around. Or always fancied someone else, even if she never really did.

But Arthur can only comprehend what he believes to see. He is so adamant on what he witnesses, as he is an extremely analytical person. Though he gets that from being a stupendous student and excelling at english class, he was also abused from his father. And those abused are often more than not, rather astute at others body language and emotions. Though it doesn't outright say it, you can gather the hints at it in his memories.

At the memory in 7:28, it talks about Arthur's father calling his son down from a tree after realizing he's being sent off to Germany. Instead of trying to rationalize the situation and allow his emotions to be regulated or teaching him to regulate them, he simply manipulates him into coming down.

At 10:55, the memory talks about Percy wondering why the Germans are taking the kids away. Instead of taking a moment to regulate emotions, Arthur lets them out impulsively and regrets it a second later. This hints again, he was never taught to regulate.

At 14:20, there's another memory where the same thing happens again.

At 17:50, Arthur's father tells his son that they're bringing him Sally from her house. Begrudgingly, Arthur disagrees and says that she's an idiot. Instead of trying to explain how that's not generous of him, he says "you two should get along perfectly." Literally him bullying his child.

At 20:21, the memory talks about how Percy doesn't want Arthur to leave for Germany. But it also says that their father never really talks to Percy, opening up a whole new can of worms for his abusive nature. Also, if you look at their birthdays, they are genuinely less than a year apart, meaning that his father wanted to have a kid as soon as they realized that he wasn't "normal."

And at the last memory, his father tells Arthur he doesn't talk bollocks all the time when he realizes that Percy is gone forever. He never wanted that child. And frankly, because he's such a shit man, he never treated Arthur right to begin with.

He just wanted to have a kid to seem "proper" to everyone. He never knew how to raise something and didn't want to after his wife died.

Throughout the game, there are various voicelines articulated by Arthur that describe a hatred toward his father. He never missed him, he never treated Percy right, and he was generally a pisspoor person. Though he did teach Arthur how to be a handyman and punished him whenever he fucked up at school or trespassed with Sally, it doesn't add up to horrible mistreatment, manipulation, and general lack of decent parenting over the years.

After all, he was left to raise Percy on his own as a child. He wasn't equipped to raise Percy! He didn't know how to handle someone with autism! In fact, there's a voiceline Arthur says that hints that he didn't even know what Percy had!

"I remember when they came back from London, Mum wouldn't stop crying for a week, but all Percy could talk about was the train." -- Arthur Voiceline whilst Idle.

"They never told me what that specialist said, the one in London, when they took him to see him." -- Arthur Voiceline whilst Idle.

Arthur never felt like he could do anything by himself. He never had a childhood, and as such, he grasps what control he can have now since his father never cared for his brother and his mom died when they were growing up. If he can try and manipulate a situation or perhaps a person ( which his dad did too, btw, like father like son ) , maybe he can get off scot-free? Though that usually only happens, as I said before, in situations he doesn't seem that would be pleasant to him.

Percy wasn't a pleasantry. He loved his brother and cared for his brother, but he was just so tired. He wanted to be by himself. He wanted to have a childhood that Percy was having. So, because he neglected the emotional regulation thanks to a neglectful father, his impulsive behaviors lead to the departure of his brother.

Arthur has grown so much. But because of his father, because of Sally, and because of the death of his mother, there are just some pieces of himself that he can never change. Emotional regulation is extremely tough, and his expressive nature, exploding rage, and immense jealousy is a prime example of that.

[yallemagne]

I think I have finally figured out the anti-badass Jonathan Harker reasoning. At first, I will admit, I was judgy. I judged the entire group to be the people who would like to see Jono castrated simply for being a popular character. There are still people like that, but it's not the entire group.

TL;DR: I think some people are misconstruing Jonathan having superior strength and reflexes as the writers turning his PTSD into a superpower. This isn't the case, and I do believe a problem is that people refuse to read the stories they are making claims about.

Now, no doubt, some fanworks recently have taken to giving Jonathan superpowers, basically. They do the same with Mina, but she becomes a psychic rather than a strong fast man, so her strengths are not even detected by these outcrying people because they are more subtle.

Here is the thing about superpowers: in media that have powerless people that gain powers, it is nearly always a result of a traumatic event. Even in cases where the hero might not have mental trauma from the event, powers usually result from severe physical trauma. Bruce Banner's gamma radiation, Peter Parker's radioactive spider bite, Barry Allen getting hit by lightning, and a superhero typically not deemed to have superpowers: Bruce Wayne witnessing the murder of his parents.

It's just a trend in stories for people to face adversity and rise above it. In universes that have radioactive spiders, that involves getting spider powers and fighting crime. In a universe with vampires, it involves vampire-like powers and fighting vampires.

Now, there are some cases in which weaponizing the trauma of a character can be very demeaning. Often superhero women who weren't born with superpowers suffer exclusively from sexual trauma. Even superpowered women that were born with it tend to be assaulted as part of their "character arc". This can lead to the terrible assumption that to become a strong woman, you must first suffer through sexual trauma and then get revenge on men. Part of making a character a girlboss is making her a damsel, putting her through a traumatic event that robs her of her femininity, giving her traditionally masculine traits, and then trying to add back in the feminine by having everyone around her objectify her and having her use her sexuality as a weapon.

Perhaps, part of why people have problems with Jonathan getting superpowers is because he's so femme-coded. Um. But he's not a girlboss. He's not really transformed into a traditionally masculine figure unless you think that any amount of physical strength is exclusively masculine. Some people may headcanon him as becoming outwardly aggressive, and that can be seen as "alpha male" material, but most people just have him be slightly more aggressive than he was before his character arc. Just because he is now more active and self-advocating than a damsel does not mean he is a macho man.

Let's go into Jonathan's supernatural strengths and how they could possibly be seen as a derivative of his PTSD.

He has super strength. This is seen in the book when he throws Dracula's dirt box off the back of a cart. Most fanfics that utilize his strength bring this scene up multiple times. Now, an adrenaline rush caused by fear or anger can result in great physical strength in a time of danger. Think like a mother lifting a car to save her child. It is possible because the human body is rather strong and often our own subconscious doubts about our strength can inhibit us.

I've seen in some fanworks that Jonathan can tap into this adrenaline seemingly at will, and someone could interpret this as Jonathan having increased fight-or-flight hormones from his PTSD. Understandable. I think that people lean more toward Jonathan having a strong fight response to perceived danger without acknowledging his instinct to flee or freeze when met with danger. It prioritizes active aggression which can be utilized during a conflict. In the first part of the book, we mostly see him freezing up or fleeing from danger. He runs away from the Weird Sisters rather than trying to fight them and the only fight he gets in before October 3 is slapping Dracula with that shovel. He freezes up and faints both when he meets the Sisters and when he sees Dracula in London. I have already named the instances in which he responds to danger with fight, so, they do exist, but perhaps people want to see more of him running away or freezing up? I suppose it is good to include a variety of reactions because people don't always react in the most convenient way to trauma.

He has heightened reflexes. See how he strikes at Dracula before he has the chance to gloat? See how he chases the man out a window? This is also a result of heightened adrenaline and increased situational awareness possibly caused by his PTSD. He's hyperaware of his surroundings to protect himself and others.

Jonathan having increased situational awareness especially can be seen as a PTSD superpower because it can be so debilitating in real life. I don't think people calling for a more accurate depiction of traumatized Jonathan are asking fanfic writers to write him accidentally cracking every tea cup he ever holds, so his reflexes are probably the thing they take issue with.

LET ME USE AN EXAMPLE. @see-arcane! COME UP ON THE STAGE!!

I'm just thinking about this work in particular because I read it most recently: Penclosa. Spoilers, of course. Go read it.

Well. Um. Yeah, the entire crux of the teaser is that Jonathan is suffering from PTSD and trying to find a treatment that will better the quality of life of both him and Mina... but from personal experience, anyone can just take a single scene from your writing completely out of context and thoroughly change the meaning of the scene by applying their own biases to the work.

Jonathan runs from the very back of an audience onto a stage to prevent a man from caning Miss Penclosa to death. It is very convenient that Jonathan was agile enough to get to the front of the room in time, catch Atherton by the wrist, and chop the cane in one fell swoop. "What happened to his PTSD debilitating him?"

Well, him reacting in this way is a trauma response!

"WHAT?" I hear you cry, "TRAUMA RESPONSES ARE BAD!"

Not always!

Jonathan establishes in the previous scene, after defending Mina's honour against Atherton by running him off, that he was traumatized by the results of him going along with the team's decision to isolate Mina for chauvinistic reasons. What happened to Mina made him decide that he was never going to sit down and stand by while people make disparaging comments about women ever again. No offence is too small, no insult is too minuscule, no aggression is too micro to be countered and corrected. The same man who tried to passively humiliate Mina went on to attack a woman who tricked him into humiliating himself.

Jonathan is suffering every day from the guilt of having put Mina in danger. From having put all of Britain in danger! No matter how many times she tries to get him to realize that he suffered too and that suffering was not earned, he can't accept it. He has survivor's guilt. He throws himself into danger to save a woman he just met. Imagine if he'd gotten on that stage but hadn't caught Atherton's wrist. He would have been injured instead. Why was he able to intercept the man's strike?

HE TRAINS GODDAMMIT.

He has done so much work. He copes with his trauma by conditioning himself to use the effects of it for good. He is riddled with guilt for all the times he froze up or ran away, so he has decided that if he is going to have a radical response to danger, it will be him fighting the danger.

When everyone at the party is like "oh my god you're a hero!" he says "no, I'm not." and it's not just him being humble. It wasn't a conscious decision to save the day, it was instinctual. He has trained his instincts to serve him. Rather than trying to mellow himself out and limit the intensity of his reactions, he uses that intensity as a tool.

You can train your body to react a certain way to outside stimuli. That's part of how therapy helps people. But Jonathan hasn't fully conquered his PTSD simply because he taught himself to redirect his energy. He still has debilitating nightmares and crippling self-doubt.

Buuut if someone just hears that there is a story where Jonathan has super strength and super speed and a super bitch face, they might just be turned off from the get-go and refuse to read the story. And then proceed to spread misinformation about the author's intent because similar themes exist in their other stories. It's unfortunate, but this is the internet.

EDIT: lol, apparently a lot of it is, indeed, just someone who wants to see Jonathan castrated as I said up top, but I made this after seeing a different person with a more tame attitude toward the "issue".

[ivalice-tifalucis]

I'm watching the documentary really fast now I'm in the middle of episode 3 and I want to take a break because I have life lol and then this is the thumbnail on my netflix

Sincerely, your certified CC moment.

Can't help talk about it...

Anyway, I also have skimmed everything beforehand and they did skip a lot of Take That stuff. Might have cut some based from the footages I see on the trailer that don't appear on the actual cut, which makes sense, he doesn't want to overshadow his friends or painted weird pictures when they're about to release an album around a week from now. He once again said he felt sorry of everything he did to Gary in front of Teddy as if she is Gary, that's interesting. I wanna know what you guys think when you get to this part.

And oh yea, they show Teddy a lot here, front side. But it's only her maybe because she's now 11 and old enough to be shown to camera and besides she is the only Rob's children ever shown her face to public, the rest of her siblings never. I'm pretty sure we're gonna see a lot of her faces from this documentary soon. I'd love to screenshots but Netflix doesn't allow you to do that and I'm too lazy to try bypass that. I just wait until someone do it. Anyway, she looks so beautiful and grown up now. She sings her own song on piano at the end. Her dad's pride and joy.

Tbf, I have never really seen Nobody Someday and I don't know how many footage from that documentary re used for this documentary but I feel like there are a lot because I have seen the bits and they look somewhat familiar. The new stuffs mostly come from Guy Chambers camera which surprise me that they dig his relationship with Guy a lot although at the end weird that they didn't mention Guy has now returned since. It's like if people don't follow Robbie Williams a lot they would think his best songwriter has left him and never return. Well, he has returned and remain each other's best friends. In fact, Robbie's stuffs post Take That reunion since 2013 are produced by Guy Chambers. Also they talked about Nicole Appleton and Geri ginger spice, but we already know that, except now there are more footages.

And the story stops in 2011. The ending is when he reunited with Take That and then skipped to present when he is now living his life well with his family.

Tl;dr if you are big Robbie Williams fans and have watched documentaries and biographies about him and follow Ayda on instagram, there is nothing you haven't known yet. If you like Robbie because you like Take That or vice versa, there is also nothing you haven't known yet.

Also Tl;dr this is bad documentary for someone who never know Robbie Williams before.

[hitchell-mope]

Remakes and fans should let things stand on their own.

Now I’ve never watched mash. Up until like last year I always thought that it was an hour long drama and not a half hour comedy. Mostly because I only ever knew about the dead chicken that was really a dead baby. But @rpsocsandcanonohmy told me about Klinger who dressed up as a woman in the hopes of getting Blighty’d out of the army on the grounds of insanity and how today they would probably fuck it up by making him transgender when it doesn’t make sense for the character. Which got me thinking.

In general. I think remakes can be a good thing. When done properly that is. Take the 2016 Jungle Book remake for instance. It gave Mowgli a proper character and agency as opposed to him just being a plot device for the animals

But. With things like mash you really need to remember when the original is set and when the original was made. @rpsocsandcanonohmy telling me about Klinger made me think how Sally Rogers would he ruined by a modern writing team.

Sally Rogers is a wonderful character. Man hungry. Hilarious entertainer. Gifted comedy writer. Wants to get married. She’s also the same height as Dick Van Dyke and has a raspy voice. So knowing a modern writing team’s shaky grasp on why she was groundbreaking. They’d probably make her a man hating lesbian. Either that or they’d turn her into a home wrecker by having an affair with either Mel, Rob or Buddy. All of whom are married.

And that goes for golden girls as well. I’ve seen people on tumblr ship Dorothy and Blanche. Now that in itself isn’t a bad thing. It’s just not my thing. Ship and let ship you know. But it seems to me that sometimes certain fans try to use shipping as a way to get past things they think unsavoury like Blanche’s man hungry nature. Which kind of befuddles me a little bit because apart from the typical jokes about it, mostly because on Dorothy and Sophia, Blanche was never ashamed of her hobby. So why should the fans be?

It applies to more modern things as well. Supernatural would probably never be made today because Dean Winchester goes against everything modern audiences think a male co-lead should be. And he’d probably be the villain nowadays what with his perviness, binge drinking and his very present Oedipus, Electra and brother complex. That is to say if hellers are rightfully left out of the conversation like they should be.

Take avatar for another example. The Netflix adaptation excised Sokka’s sexism in the early episodes because it was “politically correct”. Obviously failing to understand that he worked through that and won over the girl who made him see he was wrong.

Hell. It applies to modern things set in the past. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen posts either hinting or outright demanding a pride episode from stranger things that blatantly ignore that it’s set in Indiana during Reagan’s America. Aka. A time of sadly rampant homophobia. So frankly I forgive the show for not having Will and Robin be out and proud because it just doesn’t fit either the time period or the genre of the show.

Mash, The Dick Van Dyke Show, the golden girls, supernatural, avatar, stranger things. They’re all either beholden to or a product of either when they were made or set. And trying to change that to make a modern audience at ease is just plain stupid.

TL;DR: it all comes down to it being a feature and not a bug. People should accept things as they are. If you don’t like it then don’t like it. But don’t try to ruin it for people who accept the features as they are just because you don’t like it. Just accept that what it is isn’t for you and please. Move on. This goes for both fans and writers looking to remake. Don’t treat a feature like it’s a bug because then you’ll be getting rid of what made it interesting in the first place.

[knowledge-based-wumpus-agent]

I decided to beat TotK last night and here are my thoughts about it

turbo spoilers for the final sequence of Tears of the Kingdom ahead

God bless the Cece Hat. The devs really went off with all the insane outfits in this game.

I feel like the open world structure of the game kind of robs the final Ganondorf fight of it's intensity honestly. Like he's just sort of waiting down in the underdark for you to come and try to kill him while you're catching butterflies or whatever. He's all like pff what a pathetic opponent but it's like bro what are YOU doing down here you should've hunted me down when I had three hearts

I LOVED the whole thing with Zelda turning herself into a dragon it's so fucked up. But her just getting cured by Rauru and Sonia really misses an opportunity for a Came Back Wrong moment. Like a) I think you should have to do a final, incredibly arduous task to turn Zelda back. Like I'm talking Soulslike maybe ARG tier of difficulty where nobody in-game thinks curing her is possible but Link has faith and he looks like an insane person for being so persistent about it. And then irl people are in forums online trying to crack the code. And b) when you finally turn her back she ought to be like kind of fucked up, like maybe she still has horns or the weird eyelashes. It's just kind of dumb to me that Zelda's main contribution to this whole quest is her colossal endurance, just sort of staying alive for EONS waiting for Link but in the end she can't remember it! That's dumb as hell she should be like permanently psychologically fucked up by it that's traumatic as hell. But of course all of the other characters would be very understanding and supportive about it.

Likewise, I thought it was cool that Link straight up loses his arm at the beginning of the game, like Rauru literally says he couldn't save it and had to amputate it. I think it's dumb that after Rauru and Sonia channel through Link to turn Zelda back, Link's arm just, comes back?? No explanation. Why! I think it would be very cool if Link just like didn't have that arm anymore and is like getting used to using his non-dominant arm for stuff in the final cutscenes. The game is over what does he need it for?? If they ever make a third game Purah can just give him a cyborg arm or something idk. Like why can't we have consequences here. TL;DR the events of TotK seem like they ought to have a HUGE impact on the characters, but in the end everyone just sort of returns to the status quo as if all that crazy ass stuff didn't happen to them. I would have loved to see a more bittersweet ending where the characters have to grapple with being irrevocably changed by the adventure. I wanted the game to end on a shot of Link and Zelda sharing a moment as they watch the people of Hyrule rebuild society and Link only has one arm and Zelda has horns and it symbolizes how everything has changed but their like love is still there you know?

[hoxooster]

THANK YOU SO MUCH for the very great answer i will cherish it forever (and probably be back next week with another idea/question/whatever that has basically nothing to do with this one)

Now this probably doesn't have much to do with wolfie but more with me trying to approach plot holes

Because I've been, let's say, mentally sketching, on what could be wolf's daughter. What I can't really wrap my head around, though, is how she would be able to actually find him. Yeah, the payday gang is basically known all over the world and all that, but how would she _find_ him??? Find as in able to actually confront the guy? i will basically throw all the ideas i currently have at you, please wear your seatbelt

Seriously help me because I honestly don't know how she would find him, let alone meet him, which literally is the main fucking plot point :(

Worlds biggest sidenote and one of my main concerns: Did wolf commit crimes and shit in sweden too? What did he do? (No, illegal parking doesn't count because it is fucking impossible to park correctly in stockholm)

OOOOOOOORRRRR this stuff i'm writing could take place in pd3??? Or like what the game currently is in? (Downtime between the games) So the gang is back together in new york and all that but not yet heisting? Ok i just realized how heavily dependent my idea is on Bain so that went down the drain. (nice rhyme) (how would she even know they are in new york) (this idea is swiss cheese due to plot holes)

Maybe he goes to Kiruna after the secret ending? To the cabin. It's far from Stockholm, so accidentally running into his family at the grocery store wouldn't happen. UNLESS his wife went to court after he left the country, got protected identity, and now lives untraceable somewhere in sweden with the kids? And some shit like this goes down with wolfie?? Okay at this point i feel kinda bad for you for having to try and keep up with my train of thought.

tl;dr - i have questions for you.

How could wolf's daughter possibly find him so she could confront him? Going to random banks and hope the payday gang decides to rob them while she's there seems a bit.. inefficient.

Did Wolf commit crimes in Sweden as well? If so, what do you think?

Do you think he would go back to Kiruna after the secret ending?

Bonus: do you think his wife ever gets courage to find someone new after the shitshow with wolf?

Don't feel pressured to answer it all if you don't feel like it. Take care, I appreciate you a lot <3

Alrighty then, let's get into it.

Like I said before, it depends on what set up you have for their past.

If she doesn't know, then why would she know about him heisting now? Even if they saw reports on the TV that showed his picture--which I doubt, because the only heisters that get talked about on the news in other countries are ones who also commit crimes in their countries, as far as I am aware--it's been years since they've seen him. We don't know what Wolf looked like before he started heisting. I mean, we can just use older pictures of Ulf as a base if we really want to, and it's probably the best and only option that we've really got, when you think about it. This was Ulf when he was 21ish:

Baby-man. Anyway, if he looked like this before he left them, then why would they recognize him from his police sketches now?

If she does know, then why in the hell would she even want to confront him? Say that she knows about what he did before he left and has heard about him on the news. Why in the ever-living FUCK would she want to confront a known cop and hostage-killer?

Here, as an example, I'll give you a lil' backstory on my parents. My father is a narcissist and a psychopath--I've mentioned this on here a few times--and he gets violent and abusive VERY QUICKLY when he has to deal with anything he 'doesn't like'. When my mom told him that she wanted a divorce, he got a hammer, went into the backyard, and brutally murdered one of their dogs so they 'wouldn't have something else to fight over in court.' My mom still remembers the groans that dog made as she tried to quickly get me and book it out of there before he could hurt us too.

Now, like I said in my previous answer:

So, after seeing him lose his shit more than a few times when she was a kid, having him disappear from her life, then show up in police sketches on the news where he's referred to as a robber and murderer... Yeah, I don't think that she'd want to be around him. She'd probably start running as soon as she saw his face, to be honest.

So, in my opinion for your story, you should go with that she doesn't know about his old and new heisting life. It just makes it so much more believable that she would actually want to meet up with him and ask "What gives? Why did you leave?"

As for how they would meet, you have a bunch of options. Wolf used to be a programmer as his day-job in his old life and he's very intelligent. Sometimes, kids will follow in their parents' footsteps for careers they want to go into. Failing that, Wolf's kids're most likely wicked smart too. So, you can always go for an exchange student or 'goes to college in America' type of deal, if you want them to meet up accidentally. It can even be during a heist, if you want extra ✨drama✨ for the whole thing. Or, like you said, they can meet-up accidentally (or maybe even intentionally) in Sweden during one of his visits.

If you want them to meet intentionally, then I would recommend that you look up videos and articles and whatnot people have posted about their own experiences with tracking down a family member. Use those to get your inspiration for what you want to do with them, 'cause I'm not a good source for this. The only reason why I met up with my father again while I was in my early teens was due to a lie his then-wife sent my ma in an email. She said that 'he wanted to reconnect with me', when it turned out that she was forcing the meet-up to try and drag me to a wedding for a step-brother that I hate and am afraid of for some reason. So...

As for committing crimes in Sweden, I already half-answered that question last time.

Considering how he was alone at the time, he probably started out by robbing small stores and businesses. Maybe even smaller banks. You can actually find videos of former bank robbers who worked alone and hear about the methods they used. I personally like this video the most, as he looks at and breaks down film-based robberies from his own perspective. After that, since his company went under due to another company, he might have tried robbing them. Maybe this score was even what put Wolf on Bain's radar. Who knows?

Wolf visits his cabin in Kiruna at least once a year.

This is mostly in reference to the fact that the real-life Ulf Andersson left OVERKILL and made his own studio and game, but the first sentence is still relevant. So, he probably went there and set up shop, yeah.

Bonus round for the ex-wife: It's possible. I don't see why she would avoid relationships, unless she personally wanted to. 'Cause their divorce wasn't based on a 'he's a man and I believe that all men are pigs now because of what happened' issue, it happened due to a 'he had a mental breakdown and he isn't safe anymore' issue. My ma had plenty of boyfriends when I was growing up--not that I met many of them, because my ma wanted to keep me and our homes/apartments safe. She also remarried in 2009 to my step-dad, so Wolf's ex-wife could either be alone, in a relationship, or married to someone else. It has been ~7-8 years, after all. Shit happens.

[liauditore]

ok so

(short answer: gem but only if you just kinda write the character from the ground up)

I kinda dislike AU scenarios like this (note: I am a hypocrite) where you just assign each character essentially another one's kinnie because eventually you run out of characters with similar traits and you kind of have to just slot someone in somewhere they obviously don't belong and it makes it. feel like you don't gaf about that one specifically but you HAVE TO do it in order for the AU to AU.

In addition to that despite that redraw I don't think I would actually enjoy an eva AU for traffic smp the themes and storyline just clash way too much for me to actually think about it for too long without going insane and killing someone. Like to accept a universe with shinji pearl and asuka scott for the ENTIRE eva storyline is to accept a universe where 1. they are teenagers (eva's storyline doesn't really work if they aren't) and 2. pearl at some point sexually assaults scott which is um not something I plan on exploring anytime soon.

Assigning rei someone is especially problematic imo because rei's arc, to me, is the tragedy in that she is never allowed to actually be human. Her origins aside my read always has been that she had the potential to live normally but gendo robbed that from her. I've heard that this gets subverted in the rebuild films but I try not to think about the rebuild films. This is rough when you put that next to traffic smp where the tragedy, to me, is that everyone is Painfully Human and it causes all their problems. Idk I just feel like whoever you pair with rei would be a disservice to both rei and whoever you choose.

tl;dr I Don't Like the idea of this I unfortunately care too much about both traffic smp and eva to give this a fun answer.

However. I do really like thought experiments so:

In the scenario where this is just a ground-up eva AU with no scott and pearl attached I think the only person who wouldn't make me mad as rei is etho, specifically in the context where you attach some 404 lore to him and him kinda. learning to open up over the course of the series. It would have to be like. Super Early Days clone etho but it wouldn't offend me I think.

Scott is also kind of a rei pick if we make him a Little bit ooc, probably more something akin to esmp scott's personality, and lean in to the "hunger games career" angle a bit (since both the careers and rei are essentially factory-made child soldiers)

In the scenario where the pearl/shinji and scott/asuka terms are non-negotiable I think the best case scenario is to just forgo rei's personality and keep the themes and slot in Gem, just replacing the emotionless aspect of rei's personality with Gem's more boastful nature (this might be a bit similar to asuka but. hey that creates an interesting dynamic with scott/asuka I think especially considering how scott and gem were in SL). This would essentially be a new character but so would scott/asuka and pearl/shinji so. shrugs. This would make for gempearl potential too which is 👍

Alternatively in a super duper high IQ play (that would make for way less Fun but would be cool and drives me personally less insane than gem) you could just do. pearl again. but specifically esmp pearl/santa pearla to play with the whole lilith thing rei goes through at the end of the series + makes the whole "clone of shinji/pearl's mother" thing make alot more sense and be a lot less uncomfortable. Plus I do kinda like Pearl/Pearl as a ship lmao it makes for killer imagery

If pearl is shinji and scott is asuka, who would be double life's rei?

anon idk if you want me to answer this I'm insane (I'll reblog this in a sec with a way too intricate answer)

[salturia]

      WHY MUST HUMANS WASTE POTENTIAL ON STUPIDITY? Even a simulated concept of weather can conduct cold, and the manner of his dressing is far from optimal. The scarf that wraps about his frame haphazardly adds no function to his garb outside of being an aesthetic extension. Arturia’s heart and soul may naturally be frigid, but that does not reduce the impact of outside ailments. Is this the setback of being a simple nobody before an actual Servant? How highly inconvenient. Additional layers of clothing will be required to bear with this treacherous winter. He has them.

      “If you intend to spoil the usage of your orange draperies, give them to me. I will surely find a better use for them on my own body.”

@pyrrhiclegend

[anx1oustig3r]

why do you draw dark willow like that

tbh i could give a snarky answer but i’ve had my lunch and a painkiller so im in a good mood rn

for me a big thing with character design that i love is trying to reflect the characters personality and attitude in the design and … i think i gotta take a moment to talk about valve’s issues with character writing in dota, specifically with poor little mireska sunbreeze

an addendum i also believe that anyone’s read of the character is perfectly fine and valid, this is just mine and i get that it’s extremely different to the Oversight one that’s more popular

tl;dr: i see her as a dangerous, evil character and draw her more sharp to reflect that

mireska in particular really suffers from her canon design. i dont think it’s bad mind you, i actually like it a lot, but i will say the first time i saw the character my response was “ugh of course, waifu porn bait, not surprised.” then i read her lore and i was SHOCKED because the character presented in the lore just didn’t line up with the visuals. now granted, the character in game is very “haha mischievous little fairy” but thats where i want to bring up the inconsistencies.

im firm in my stance that snapfire is the most interesting and well written character in dota, but i seriously believe that spot could have been mireska if they just commit to what was set up with her.

this is her lore piece in game and there’s key words here: spiteful, contempt, manipulation, cutthroat. along with the note that she was GOOD at dealing with this stuff. she fit in with it and even says herself if it wasn’t for her father she’d have stayed in revtel

it’s pretty evident here. mireska is an absolute piece of shit made worse by the fact that this is very clearly an active choice she’s making and has zero intention to change if these lines are anything to go by.

(tumblr is glitching so im praying it chose the right photos)

it doesn’t really come across when you load her into the game. it’s just, cheeky waifu at best. she doesn’t seem all too effected by what she’s supposedly been through. granted that’s the standard of dota writing, but thats what i’m getting at. the lore sets up one character but then the game presents you with another very watered down one note version of them.

so the mireska i draw comes from the character presented in the lore. a rebellious asshole who was fucked up enough to burn her families estate down to the ground AS A CHILD and steal a family heirloom purely to rub salt in the wound of her father, clearly there was some messed up dynamic there but the game wont really elaborate further outside of “overbearing”. i often find myself thinking it would have been great if they let her acknowledge this in game, especially since it’s evident some years have passed since the fire, you don’t become wanted in 6 nations with a nasty reputation and armies worth of assassins and bounty hunters after you in just a couple of weeks.

does she feel any guilt for what she did? has she realised that she’s set herself down a spiral of self destruction but she could stop it at any point as dontè implies? does she know this but trying to change and be better is basically admitting that she’s in the wrong which she would rather tear her own wings off than admit that?

i don’t know if im crazy for having this read of her, or looking too hard into a game that regularly gets memed on for not having any lore, but personally these themes of holding yourself accountable that hang on the back of her character are fascinating and resonate a lot with me. and i guess that’s why i draw her the way i do. i see her as this rough, conflicted character who’ll shank you first, rob you blind and not bother to ask questions. someone with a bitter past that she’d rather leave behind and be the worst version of herself purely to spite whatever expectations were put on her in childhood (given her father was a merchant king and the way she talks about him, there was clearly SOMETHING)

so i use a lot of sharp shapes, hard edges typical of a roguish dangerous character. dark outlines, fangs and claws to exaggerate that she’s a monster and a clear threat. she’s thin and gangly like a bramble stick you’d find walking in the woods in the dead of night, with cat eyes that gleam in the darkness like a predator watching.

i could talk about why i read a very queer interpretation of her too but i think i rambled enough as it is and this is gonna get posted to reddit where gamers will laugh at me and send anon hate to this blog but what can you do, such is life im afraid.

[itsdappleagain]

You ship Carmen x Julia right? I respect that but I don’t really understand where the ship comes from. Could you just explain why some people ship it? It seems like a nice ship, it really does.

Hi anon, thanks for the nice question :)

I understand where you're coming from and I hope you don't mind if I go on a little ramble as an answer.

This is very, very long, so...under the cut!

(If you want a tl;dr: They have strong mutual trust and romantic undertones for the entire show. EMPHASIS on the trust!! Trust trust trust)

I think the shipping first started gaining momentum in S1 E6, the Chasing Paper Caper, or, as a lot of Julethief shippers know it as, the Train Scene. Some of this might have been this look:

Or the way Carmen immediately gave her a nickname: Jules.

Another thing from this scene was this:

Carmen: This seat taken?

Julia: Actually, yes...but feel free to use it until my partner returns.

Carmen, looking up, eyebrow raised: Partner?

Julia, clearing her throat: Travel partner.

While it was natural that Carmen may want to ask about someone else joining them and compromising her, there are very few reasons Julia would clarify that Chase was her travel partner specifically; wouldn't that make a good cover, especially if this stranger never met him?

It's been a constant throughout the show that Carmen and Julia put a lot of blind trust in each other. Carmen, upon figuring out that Julia is a law enforcement agent partnered with Devineaux, does not immediately dismiss her as wanting to arrest her, like Chase had been trying to do until that point (and beyond). Instead, she lets slip a hint of her identity (mentioning the Magna Carta's theft) and later leaves the Magna Cartas for her to find.

This is presumably because Julia began talking about history in a way that resonated with Carmen, who was also focused on saving artifacts and such for the cultural value and history, rather than the worth.

Throughout the whole show while Julia is at Interpol and, more notably, ACME, she continuously defends Carmen with little evidence and a lot of people against her. This begins in the very first and second episodes, where Julia proposes that Carmen steals from other thieves.

Devineaux: What is it now Ms. Argent? I am driving!

Julia: Inspector Devineaux, the purported crime scene is actually filled with stolen goods of all kinds. Cash, bonds, art.

Devineaux: What? Was the apartment owner not the robbery victim?

Julia: That's what I said! So I did some fact-checking. The owner on record isn't an individual, but an import-export company. But even more intriguing? The places Carmen Sandiego recently robbed: the Swiss bank, the art gallery in Cairo, the Shanghai amusement park? All have ties to the same company.

Devineaux: Ms. Argent! What is it you are trying to say?

Julia: Well, what if...for whatever reason...Carmen Sandiego were a thief who only steals from other thieves?

Though Chase is confronted with the exact same evidence, he dismisses it until carmen practically shoves the evidence in his face in Season 3, when Julia is gone.

Julia defends Carmen time and time again, even when Chief reveals she saw Carmen in the same room with the injured Devineaux. Julia's face falls, but in the very next episode (the start of season 2, her real time to shine without Devineaux around) she says she wants him to wake up so he can prove Carmen didn't do it.

In the very last episode of S1, Devineaux confronts her about working with Carmen in a way that really summarizes her feelings.

Devineaux: Do not be coy, Ms. Argent. I know you were referring to La Femme Rogue, your silent partner.

Julia: And? So what if I was? Carmen Sandiego left the stolen Magna Cartas on my train seat, presumably for me to find. She returns stolen Vermeers to museums and $10 million postage stamps to children's charities.

Devineaux: Stealing things only to return them makes absolutely no sense.

Julia: I agree, which is why I do not believe she is stealing these things to begin with.

The trust does not go one way. Both the agent and the thief, with only a little to catch each other's trust, seek each other out for help.

For Carmen, all it took was the one moment on the train; for Julia it was the returned artifacts and paintings.

They next meet again in Season 2 Episode 4, the Fashionista Caper. A reminder that Carmen has only met her one time in a casual conversation about their interests in which Carmen figured out she was law enforcement.

Carmen is confronted by Julia with a gas gun, but instead of something like she did to Zari (snatch the gun and knock Zari out) the following happens:

Carmen: Showtime.

Julia: Carmen Sandiego, you are under arrest!

Carmen, smiling: Jules, right?

Julia: Hands in the air, now!

(Carmen snatches the gas gun from her outstretched hand. Julia looks shocked and immediately freezes with no other immediate action. Carmen poises the gas gun in her direction but turned up and away from her, looking her up and down.)

Carmen: You're not really dressed for the occasion, but we'll make it work.

(Carmen tucks the gas gun back in Julia's jacket, a sign of the trust she's putting in her.)

Julia: What?

Carmen, taking her by the hand: Come on. I need your help.

Julia: To do what?

Carmen: The reason you're here. Save those Medicis.

(Carmen swipes a hat for each of them, looks back at her, and leads her onstage.)

Carmen, putting Julia's hat on: Keep it natural. Just imagine an invisible string pulling your head straight up from your spine. Walk with long strides and smile.

(Julia needs no further convincing and does exactly what Carmen says to save the dresses; this also solidifies her belief that she was right about her, despite Chief and Zari's doubts.)

After this, they save the gowns. The brainwashed models break through and Carmen immediately steps in front of Julia, protecting her. Julia does leave eventually, after asking "What about you?"

And even then she looks back.

Later, reviewing the footage with ACME:

Chief: I can't argue with the results, Argent...though your choice of partner was a bit outside the box. It has been a challenge trying to reconcile all of Carmen Sandiego's...contradictions.

Julia: Perhaps, but I feel I now know enough to propose we stop trying to capture Carmen Sandiego.

Julia (at Chief's skeptical look): What if we tried to recruit her?

This is Julia's goal from this moment on. The next time they meet is Stockholm.

Julia, upon arriving and beginning to tail "Carmen", immediately asks Chief to call off the team so they can speak privately. This works, at first; Carmen (again showing the trust) finds her and pulls her away, asking her to call off the agents. Julia replies that she's already done so.

Then we all know how it goes; Chief realizes Julia is missing, Zari shoots her, she ends up half-dead and frozen in the woods after saying "Trust you, huh?"

But at the end she speaks to Chef before passing out. And then, when ACME rescues her, she and Julia share a look. Duane Capizzi the showrunner, made a comment on this explaining the look.

A friend of mine messaged him privately with a question something along the lines of "Was that look Carmen gave Julia at the end of The Stockholm Syndrome Caper one of betrayal?"

This is his response:

Big words:

-Heartbreaking

-Vulnerable

-Hero

Another thing, leading into Season 3: Julia's resignation from ACME.

In the S2 finale Carmen hacks into ACME's files to see what happened with Dexter. because of this, Chief basically declares war on Carmen.

Chief: Carmen Sandiego has crossed a line and I'm dedicating ACME to taking her down. Ready to bring the heat, Agent Devineaux?

Its the very last line of S2 and a huge turning point for Julia. Until now she'd been gaining Carmen's trust, persuading ACME she can be an ally. This is undone.

From the MOMENT we see her in S3 she has a noticeable change. She's less motivated, more visibly depressed, clearly reluctant.

Like Duane says: This moment is a big reason why J resigns in S3: she can't bear to do something like this to Carmen again.

Her argument with Chief in S3 E2 is what causes her to resign, the tipping point where she goes to be a teacher of history. Remember her line?

Julia: Oh no, I love my job! I just love history even more I suppose.

(Coincidentally when Carmen comes to her yet again for help in her office in England, she mentions: "Who knew my two key areas of interest would ever intersect?")

I'll transcribe the argument.

Julia: Nothing was stolen..

Chase: That we know of!

(Chief here mentions Sonia's line of art thefts, pressing the blame on Carmen. Devineaux agrees.)

Chief: I'm thinking this little pitstop was intended as a diversion, to shake us off the trail of her actual scheme.

Julia (downtrodden): Or perhaps Ms. Sandiego was simply here for some other non-criminal reason.

Chief (snapping, slightly mocking): Like what, Agent Argent? A sudden interest in contact sports? Or do I need to remind you that carmen Sandiego recently hacked classified data from ACME.

Julia (voice rising): Yet I cannot see a likely motive for her to steal masterworks from museums other than dropping them into our laps unharmed and revealing the weak links in security to the museums she borrowed them from!

(She is now standing very close to Chief, fist clenched. Devineaux is standing back, looking uncomfortable. This is the most passionate we've seen from her all season; Chief's call to action previously was met with only a sigh.)

Chief: Devineaux, take a walk.

(Chase leaves.)

Chief: Look, Argent. You are among ACME's finest...when your head is in the game.

Julia, determined: My head is in the game, Chief. (Pause, a shift) Its my heart that isn't. Not anymore.

This is her turning point. This is when she takes off the ACME blues and goes back to her black and red suit. Color symbolism has always been a huge part of the show and this is no coincidence.

After that, we don't see her until S4, but Carmen does continually ask about her.

Carmen: Devineaux, where's Jules today?

Chase: That is classified. But Ms. Argent is doing...other things.

Carmen: Shame. She's probably a better driver...

Carmen: I might have been able to trust Jules, but it seems Devineaux's riding with a new partner.

Carmen, after explaining the museum's weak spots and giving Chase the masks: Jules would understand. (Smiles, winks, and zips away.)

These throughout the season, especially the second one, are significant. Carmen trusts her. Julia trusts Carmen. It has been that way since the show's start and remains that way.

(It could also be implied that Carmen wants to know if she's alright.)

Then, we don't see Julia until a few episodes into S4. Chase has realized Carmen is "good" and has found Julia. Her overall mood is slightly cold (after all, he has abused her on this topic for three whole seasons). She keeps this until one certain moment.

Chase: Julia! What a coincidence..

Julia (not taking his crap): Is it..

(Chase sighs, his little lie over. They move to her office.)

Julia, cold: To what do I owe this "coincidence"? A sudden interest in dull facts and boring things?

Chase: (Giggles nervously, realizing the barb) Ms Argent...Julia. (She glares) Since you resigned from ACME I've been seeing things quite differently.

Julia (curt, choosing a book): Differently how?

Chase (uncomfortable at her look): Well...as you might see things! Except with less clarity, far less... as if I wore your eyeglasses, but splattered with mud! (With the air of beginning a long tale) It began in Venice, Italy after being assigned a new partner on a case where we were-

Julia, interrupting: Agent Devineaux. I do not think it wise for you to be sharing classified ACME business.

Chase: But I need your help! So that I may better assist Carmen.

(Julia's change is noticeable. She is truly paying attention now; her gaze lifts from her book at Carmen's name, her back straightens, her eyes widen.)

Julia: Is she alright?

Chase, exasperated: Of course she is alright. She continues to make us chase our tails.

(Julia smiles, eyes brightening.)

Chase: Please Ms. Argent, I must know. Is the Crimson Ghost bad..or is she she good?

Julia, pausing, looking aside: That is a complicated question.

Julia asks how carmen is immediately after Chase mentions her name, smiling when Chase mentions she's practically thriving.

After this, Carmen retrieves a VILE artifact and comes to her at Player's note of where she now works (he calls her her "favorite ACME agent" :3)

When Julia sees Carmen in her audience, it is a stark contrast to Devineaux. With Chase, she spots him, raises an eyebrow, and continues before confronting him later.

With Carmen, she stops, stutters, and immediately ends the lesson, meeting the thief and leading her into her office. I won't put down the whole scene, just a few key parts of it I'd like to call attention to.

Carmen: Way to follow your heart, Jules.

Julia, after closing the blinds, smiling: You remembered.

After this, Carmen notices her meeting with Devineaux on the counter. Julia again clarifies that it is just lunch. This also brings attention to the fact that Julia could not meet with Chase for another week or two; Carmen she ended class for immediately and continued speaking with at all hours for days.

Carmen, smiling gently: I'm guessing you left ACME to get away from all this. I won't be offended if you decline.

Julia, smiling back: Who knew my two key areas of interest would ever intersect?

This is big. Julia stated her two key areas of interest to before be law enforcement and history. Carmen assumes she left to get away from the adventure, but in fact Julia left because ACME was hunting Carmen.

Julia and Carmen then decode the artifact and Carmen says she has to leave. Julia expresses surprise that there are more artifacts and Carmen says this:

Carmen: Keep it safe for me? I'll be in touch.

The lines about being "quick studies" in the next episode are ones we're particularly fond of as well as we get to see Carmen and Julia interact more than they ever had before, and sync with each other. They catch onto each other's patterns and fire playful banter at each other.

(Carmen also has Julia as Jules in her phone.)

And then Julia gets kidnapped. Carmen is worried, clearly, when Julia does not pick up. She paces and tries every means she has available to her to reach her.

Even teaming up with Chase.

The scene in the pyramid is a great one, from Carmen's softening eyes across the cavern:

To Carmen getting distracted enough by Julia being in danger to allow herself to be caught and knocked out.

The ensuing fight where she battles with a sword to protect her isn't half bad either ;)

Julia also leaves her a message in her blog. When Player asks how she knows its not a trap, Carmen responds that Julia would have worded it differently.

THE TRUST.

Then of course Carmen gets mindwiped, yadda yadda. Julia is back on ACME, who are conflicted as Evil Carmen starts toying with their views. Throughout all of it, Julia stays loyal to Carmen, insisting she is on their side, playing a long game, they shouldn't get in her way.

The only real thing in S4 I want to call attention to is Julia's dialogue in the final fight (Don't you remember me? I'm your friend, Jules!) (she also tackles Carmen which has fed a lot of fires) and the fact that one of the first memories Carmen gets back is her protecting Julia in Italy...

Now, there's one episode I haven't mentioned, and that is the interactive: To Steal or Not to Steal.

And this is the one I wanted to close on because this is the one that really has some good material.

Sticking with the theme of trust: You have the option to betray Julia. If you do, you fail. You HAVE to trust her to win the game (unless you go with the winter rescue option but not many did.)

If you trust her, she trusts you, and Carmen drops off all the stolen artifacts to her apartment, gives her her coat and hat, and also..

Red roses.

Julia is also blushing in this scene!

The other part of TSONTS I want to mention is the optional dance scene at the party. Carmen, while waltzing, slips into a daydream about dancing more wildly.

In this dream, she imagines Julia watching her.

Anyways, that's about all I have for canon, but what about what I have from the showrunner, Duane?

There have been many comments regarding Julia and I recommend pestering @be-bi-do-crime if you want them all ;)

However, the one thing he did say was that all of the energy with Carmen and Julia, all the scenes, dialogue, and actions (including the roses)...if we saw it, it was intentional.

So, above all, trust, trust, trust for the whole show.

So yes, I did just make that whole essay and I hope you had the energy to read it all, anon. If you want to know anything else about any other aspect or ship, or want to know about even more stuff from OLD games and things not even related to the 2019 show go ahead and message again. I hope I answered your questions.

[ellrond]

I posted 2,100 times in 2022

That's 1,284 more posts than 2021!

230 posts created (11%)

1,870 posts reblogged (89%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@frodo-baggins

@alethiometry

@klngfili

@westenra

@haleths

I tagged 2,089 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#rings of power - 352 posts

#elrond - 282 posts

#lotr - 208 posts

#fanart - 186 posts

#ask - 132 posts

#house of the dragon - 97 posts

#bridgerton - 93 posts

#silm - 92 posts

#anon - 92 posts

#galadriel - 83 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#‘bilbo this is fingon felagund you may have heard of-‘ ‘love what you did with the caves i used to live in somewhat of a cave myself’

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

In early notes by Tolkien the marriage of Elrond and Celebrian was 2500 Third Age and he originally planned to have Celebrian travel to Lothlorien in 2600 Third Age when she was actually killed, a mere hundred years after her marriage to Elrond so anyway thanks Tolkien for revising that but also fuck him for giving her that fate anyway when it adds nothing to the story and she could have been the ruling lady of Rivendell during LotR 😭😭😭

188 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

#4

The fact that they didn't even give new Elrond the sexy long locks he deserves we really are getting robbed 🤧

Literally not to be a bitch but who the fuck is that skinny twink, Hugo didn’t put his whole Weavussy into 5 films as Elrond for this wisp of a tween to come in and not even give us 22” of lace front

288 notes - Posted February 10, 2022

#3

Galadriel and Elrond in Vanity Fair’s First Look at the Rings of Power

344 notes - Posted February 10, 2022

#2

Is Halbrand Sauron? Probably.

Spoilers ahead!

TL;DR: it’s too lazy for him to be Aragorn 2.0- they want us so badly to come to the conclusion that he’s a lost king, it is too easy for that to be the truth. He’s in the right place at the right time to fill the role of Sauron in Numenor and he is of the right, charming, slippery, calculating disposition.

My main reason is they’re laying on this idea of him being Aragorn 2.0 way too thick and it’s the biggest red herring out there. We’ve seen the ‘lost king fulfilling his fate’ story already in the Lord of the Rings and in the Hobbit and it’s tired and lazy and boring.

So what does Sauron want to do in the books? He wants to infiltrate Numenor and recruit the people there to his side and he successfully does that over years of lies and manipulation when the majority of Numenoreans are poisoned against elves, Valar, and each other because of him. Sauron’s end goal in Numenor is ultimate control.

Now let’s look at the evidence in the first three episodes.

Episode 1:

Gil Galad says that he and Elrond foresaw that if Galadriel had continued trying to stop Sauron, she would inadvertently help him

Episode 2:

When the sea monster comes towards the raft, Halbrand advises to stand still to avoid detection when no one else suggests it and it initially works as it doesnt attack them - how would someone from a landlocked region have any knowledge of an ancient sea monster?

Galadriel asked why he separated his raft from the main one to save himself and he said ‘why be part of the larger target?’ - this could be alluding to the fact that Sauron’s forces are in central middle earth while he’s in the middle of the ocean

He talks about suffering and losing his home - Sauron served Morgoth in the First Age and their home was in Angband which was destroyed by the Valar in the War of Wrath. Sauron lost his home and he lost his master

Galadriel tells Halbrand to bind himself to her which is pretty loaded language when she could have just told him to tie himself to her. It’s at this point that he could have let Galadriel die, but he may already know that she could provide him with leverage in the future.

Episode 3 is where it gets way more obvious

Sauron is a charmer - in the books, Celebrimbor is all but in love with him when he’s in disguise. Halbrand flirts with Galadriel and charms her and goes above and beyond for her, like taking Finrod’s dagger from Elendil to give back to her

The moment he gets a bit of freedom, Halbrand goes to a blacksmith and asks for work and says his work is the best the blacksmith will have ever seen. Sauron is a mighty smith who learned under Aule, the god of smithery. Why’s he so set on having access to a smithy? He goes so far as theft to enable his pathway to work

Sauron took the name of Lord of Gifts when he was disguised with the elves, and what does he do in the tavern? Orders rounds of drinks for everyone

When he’s cornered in the alleyway he fights off 5 strong Numenorians with barely a scratch - Sauron was skilled in hand-to-hand combat

He’s eager to appease Tar-Miriel the queen and be seen as trustworthy. Yes, he is captive at the moment, but he has an easy charm even with great lords and ladies that do not befit his station

The figure at the end of the episode is another red herring - it’s not Sauron himself, but a commander of his, perhaps even the Witch-King of Angmar?

It makes sense that Sauron himself would be far away from the Southlands and the centre of his power when he knows that the elves keep watch - whether that be Gil-Galad from afar, or the Silvan elves who are now withdrawing.

His current location of Numenor where Sauron wants to be, and he is developing his relationship with Galadriel who is key to the entire race of elves. If he can manipulate her, he has an easy journey ahead of him. Remember, she ends up being a ring-bearer herself and although her ring is not made by Sauron, her fate is tied to the One Ring and to Sauron.

He’s also wanting to start crafting whatever and promises his work will be the best. He’s already privy to the two factions in Numenor - those who follow the old king and those who follow the queen - and is beginning to learn more about them.

As already said, he’s a charmer, he’s likeable, he has some sense of destiny about him, and he’s good-looking to boot. That’s Sauron’s go-to disguise. To many people familiar with the lore, it seems obvious that Halbrand is not the good guy Galadriel wants him to be. I think this will also lead into conflict between Gil Galad, Elrond, and Galadriel and a decline in her confidence and place in the world over the coming seasons, along with her rising from the ashes.

376 notes - Posted September 10, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

obsessed with how tidy he keeps his hair around Gil Galad versus the floppy hair in Khazad Dum. look at this

Gil Galad is like that grandmother who pulls kids close and combs their hair until they yell

690 notes - Posted September 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →