#tldr 3 misses his ''''dad''''. lol

[son1c]

Why does 3 look so sad?

Why?

because he "grew up" adored by shadow, constantly tended to, fed and brushed and held. because for the first part of his very short life, 3 felt loved. but then, one day, that suddenly stopped, and it's like the person that 3 knew, died. even though shadow was still there, he wasn't the same... and he would never be the same again.

[ofmdrecaps]

09/10-17/2024 Daily OFMD Recap Pt 1

Hey all. Sorry about the format, and I even said this was coming yesterday and then some crazy shit happened ONCE AGAIN because life is crazy like that. Please bare with me as I get the different parts out -- and please let me know if I missed anything major!

TLDR; David Jenkins; Rhys Darby; Kristian Nairn; Vico Ortiz; Con O'Neill; +

Part 2 / Part 3

== David Jenkins ==

David has been at it again, making us cry even more with admiration of our beloved Captain.

Source: David Jenkins Twitter

And David reached out regarding the other trailer drop anniversary!

Source: David Jenkins Twitter

Coming up in another section for Taika in part 2, as we know whenever Taika goes to any event, someone complains about him, so David sent a very sweet reminder about him (although the second one, I'm not sure if he's calling Taika old or not lol).

Source: David Jenkins Twitter

And just in case you weren't tearing up from Chaos Dad's kind words, he has some for the fans too.

Source: David Jenkins Twitter

And just a friendly reminder that fanfiction CAN help you go places. (Lincodega now works as a writing assistent for IWTV)

Source: David Jenkins' Twitter

== Rhys Darby ==

In related but news, Rhys did a cameo for Kitten Rescue LA! They constantly get so many kittens in that they can't take care of. This is a really sweet video of him endorsing, but as mentioned below, there's a CW you should be aware of.

CW: Mention of Pet Euthanasia

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kitten Rescue LA (@kittenrescuela)

Rhys is also giving us more Substack Content previews-- this time of Bill Napier from Short Poppies <3 Wanna subscribe to his substack? Check it out here!

Source: Rhys Instagram

Rhys has announced on his substack (the non-paid content) that he'll be touring next year!

Source: Rhys' Substack

If that isn't enough Rhys for you-- good news! He'll be in Los Angelos at the Largo at the Coronet at 8 PM on October 1! Get tickets here! (Special thanks to Sara for pointing this out!)

Source: Largo LA (found via Sara aka chaoticmulaney on Twitter)

== Kristian Nairn ==

Kristian's book has arrived at his house! He did an unboxing video for everyone to check out! Only a week or so left til release!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kristian Nairn (@kristiannairn)

Oh, Kristian mentioned he was going to be getting a tattoo while and Portland, and hey look, it's Kristian's New Tattoo!

Source: Kristian's Instagram

Need more of Kristian? Well look no further, he's got a new DJ Appearance happening Oct 4, 2024 at the Ministry of Sound Club in London!

Source: Kristian's Instagram

== Vico Ortiz ==

So much news for Vico! First and foremost, Vico was voted a Fan Favorite Out LGBTQ+ Actor in the Autostraddle TV Awards!

Source: AutoStraddle TV Awards

Vico also has some exciting things coming up-- they mentioned an upcoming Momentus Event on their Patreon (free version)!

Source: Vico's Patreon

Looks like Momentus is excited ...and dropping hints!

Source: Be Momuntus Twitter

Vico also had some more pics from Rose City Comic Con they wanted to share--

Source: Vico's Instagram

Vico did some amazing work for Elder Scrolls Online and is seeing some love coming down the pipeline-- they have some BTS up for it on their Patreon if you're interested!

Oh I almost forgot to mention, Vico was featured on Dimelo Season 2 Episode one!

== Con O'Neill ==

Con's new short film, "The Men" is FINALLY coming out on October 25 at the AlnwickPlayhouse! Our friends over at @adoptourcrew were kind enough to let our UK Crew know where and when they could catch it before the rest of the world! Get tickets here!

Source: Adopt Our Crew Instagram

Continued in Part 2!

[ukuraichu]

i was a teenage exocolonist is so fun so much so infact that i ran to my laptop to post my thoughts because i simply have so much to say and therefore have to type a lot.

ANYWHO. im going to document some things about my current runs. I've played the game twice and have amassed about 18h in the 2 days i've had it (woah.) so the hyperfixation is truly hyperfixationing. anywho x2. RAMBLING TIME. (under the cut)

SO IN MY FIRST RUN, i play as sol (they/them). i LOVE my dad, i love my mum but she's a little tough on me. i know she scolds me because she's worried about me and she just wants me to do well but it still. AHHH. i get frustrated and lash out sometimes. but i still love my mum. my childhood friend is marz, who i think is really cool but also i like to compete with her! she can't be the only coolest person ever. i don't remember what i picked as the augment though. ANYWAY.

i wasn't very close with tammy, but when she passed her presence was heavily felt. especially in the secret funtimes club. she would have loved to make friendship bracelets with us. i was enamoured by the very serious and focused and locked in autistic girl (tangent) who i grew up with. i went to classes mostly as an excuse to spend time with her and so that she would like me and pay attention to me, to think that we were of equal standing. her best friend was marz and i was jealous. i asked anemone to be my best friend and she said yes! but we grew apart over time anyway. I did some exploring, but not a lot of it. not enough to see a lot, but enough to sneak out with Dys. I explored and found a pet Hopeye, affectionately named Fungle (after the among us map LOL). I didn't know Dys very much though. he ran away, or went missing, or maybe blew up the colony when i was growing up. i never saw him again.

there was a famine and my mum died. my dad died soon after because of the shimmer. i never found out why. i just locked into robotics and engineering more and more. i named the little robot Ronaldine.

i don't remember the specifics of everything. the finer details are blurry. i just remember dedicating a lot of time with tang and spending time and time again with her, over, over, over. i didn't save the colony. we fell and died. also i didn't like the helios. but i was an obedient kid for the majority of my life up until my dad died and i started to become less obedient.

i grow old, i think. i made a lot of mistakes, but i still grow up. my partner at the time tang, becomes dejected and apathetic and hyperfocused on what happened to dys. i can't save her and she separates herself.

i start again

i wake up again

run 2!!!!!

this one went better. TLDR i saved tammy, not tonin or mum or dad i didnt know how. i become best friends with dys but also date his sister but also flirt with dys and his alien lover sym who i also flirt with but have to decline his advances because im dating tang and i cant tell her i made out with an alien </3. i also spent A LOT of time in the SFC, and work with marz to campaign to overthrow the government. also marz is one of my best friends in this run. also my nemesis, markedly, because i stole her dream job. but because im so close to sym like wow so close, he takes me to meet his big alien leader and is like. homie. i dont like humans but sym likes you and we could like. collab or something idk. like a peace plan. i accept his peace plan, im thinking so forward. so i bring about peace to the world. my mum and dad would have been so proud. i grow old and tang grows old and we break up but the love we shared was still there.

WAHHHH,...., thinking.

also i did NOT clock that tang was trans in the first run. when she said her body was modified i thought she meant. she literally used to be an actual robot. not genome therapy. my bad. love you tang. also when i become best friends with dys and he said he always knew she was his sister RAHHH it made me RGAHSGGFSDF because WOW. theyre literally SOUL BONDED whether they want to be or not. i want them to reconcile i need to get them to talk. idk how i build rex's bar but i WANT IT RAHHH

[etherealspacejelly]

hi dad, i'm having some internal conflict. i've always been a really anxious person (which is probably due to undiagnosed anxiety disorders) and i've never really "fit in." i've been treated as weird all my life. i've never understood tone and i get in a lot of trouble with my parents for this (even though i've explained i can't control it), i go nonverbal for brief periods of time occassionally, loud noises and bright lights cause me pain like extreme headaches, i always feel the need to follow self-created routines in order to feel safe, i don't understand social boundaries all too well, i intensely hyperfixate, i'm extremely hyperempathetic, etc. i've never understood why i'm the way i am. then i started learning more about autism and i think i may have it. many of my autistic friends seem to think so.

but my parents don't believe me and don't like me researching mental health stuff. they don't think i'm "autistic enough" because my mom used to work with autistic kids who were almost always nonverbal and on a more extreme end of the spectrum. i mask all the time too, as a defense mechanism since i get in so much trouble for misunderstanding. hell, my parents won't even get me an official anxiety diagnosis (even though i've had symptoms since the moment the signs can appear) because they think "labels don't matter."

and the big problem that comes along with this is, i don't want to self diagnose and seem disrespectful to diagnosed autistic people. i've done a lot of research and gotten a lot of opinions from neurodivergent people in my life, but i still feel fake because i have no access to a diagnosis. so many people have told me to try to get one and my parents completely refuse.

is it okay to self diagnose? will diagnosed people find this disrespectful? i'm not exactly sure how to go about this. it'll most likely be several years at best before i can get medically diagnosed.

tldr; i may be autistic but i have no access to a diagnosis and feel guilty about self diagnosing. any advice?

thank you and sorry if this was too vent-ish, i just wanted to see if you had any thoughts <3 feel free to ignore this ask if it's too overwhelming /gen

baby. honey. sweetpea. let me tell you something

autistic people actually dont care if you self diagnose. in fact, many of us are self diagnosed. diagnoses can be inaccessible for many reasons, and its perfectly understandable if you cant or dont want to get one

i can absolutely relate to you. my mum works with disabled kids too, and insisted that i couldn't be autistic because she "would have known". she considers herself an expert, but somehow missed all the signs in me. i guess because i am also quite high masking.

you definitely sound autistic to me, and if other neurodivergent people who know you agree then you probably are. autistic people can sense each other lol

i remember once when i friend of mine came to me and was like "hey btw im autistic" and i was like "yeah i know. you told me" and they were like. "um. no i couldnt have told you i only got diagnosed a few days ago and this is the first time we've spoken since then" and i was like. oh. i just Sensed it, you know? i just fuckin knew

so yes. you can self diagnose. thats perfectly fine. and if anyone tells you that you cant or that you're somehow "harming the autistic community" you can tell them to fuck off. self diagnosis does not harm the autistic community in any way, but it can really benefit people like you.

i hope someday you can get the accommodations you need and deserve. in the meantime, please give yourself grace. you're trying your best. and im proud of you, ok?

[triphimi]

WHY I THINK WILLIAM AFTON WASN'T A GOOD FATHER TO HIS KIDS (based on games)

I often see people claiming William was caring father to his children because he didn't intent to directly murder them. Or that he went crazy after CC died and because of grief he started "taking away" other people's children which I don't think makes sense since during fnaf 4 there's already rumors about haunted robots and CC is still alive. One could argue that then Elizabeth is already dead but it doesn't make sense even more since that means he build a murderous animatronics before he would even have a reason to "grief". He was just a psycho who while not keen on purposefully killing his own children also not caring about them too much.

If we belive Fredbear plush isn't haunted and is William talking to CC through a walkie-talkie then that's already pretty weird since the plush was kind of hostile towards everything and was usually talking "badly" about Micheal rightfully so but if it's William then why wouldn't he just try to make Mike stop if he cared about his younger son? And if we belive Fredbear plush is haunted and isn't William then still the fnaf 4 bedroom and "observation" was a thing and even though I belive both brothers were in there at least once it's still fucked up and nowhere in games is it called protection but just an observation (what kind of observation and for what?). William didn't care about CC's well being and him literally always crying.

Now let's look at his relationship with Elizabeth. He did make an anomatronic that was supposedly "just for her" (we know it's BS but he wouldn't tell his daughter she was made for child murder lol) and did tell her to not get near her so he did care about her to some extend, right? Yes but no. He didn't want her to be killed but once she eventually died and he noticed she possessed Circus Baby he didn't give a shit about her as a person. He then saw her as something he can experiment on. He did some experiments on her remnant. Most likely put some in the scooper. Perhaps other Funtime animatronics. Took some of her remnant away from her current body basically tearing her soul apart. And then as we know Circus Baby's pizza world was closed for a long time. There's no care for his daughter. The most he did was he sent Michael there after some years to "put her back together" and not even go himself. And speaking of Michael...

Michael was basically allowed to bully his brother, yes. But that doesn't mean William loved him. As I said earlier I think both brothers were tied to the fnaf 4 bedroom and because Michael has nightmares about that place he had to be there. Just further proving that William didn't care about his kids' feelings. If the "observation" was also some kind of experiment then there's no place for care. Then later in life when Michael was most likely and adult and the only living Afton child his father sent him to "save" Elizabeth (???). There's no way William wouldn't know that there's a huge possibility Mike would die. As long as he wasn't in danger himself. Eventually Mike gets Scooped and dies (kind of) and William is most likely already "missing" (as if springlocked) because Mike can't seem to find him and says that "he's going to find him".

I don't have much to say about them in fnaf 3 since springtrap doesn't talk there even if we think Mike is the night guard here but in FFPS he still doesn't seem to care. Not about Mike. Not about Liz since she still feels the need to "prove herself" to him.

Also I feel the need to address it that it's not an attack on people who make headcanons and AUs where William is a good dad. You do you. It's just my interpretation of how I think canon William would be like with his kids

TLDR; William was a self absorbed person who while didn't necessarily want to kill his own kids but didn't really care if something bad happened to them and would "sacrifice" if it meant something to gain for him.

[rilu-artblog]

You ever see a take so bad about that it makes you want to actually post something?

Anyways Gerald and Sheila do love each other, they just happen to be characters in a long running dark comedy cable tv show so of course their relationship is gonna appear whack sometimes

Warning for discussion of characters fictional sex life below, no photos but I just wanna make sure y’all know what you’re in for:

1. “They’re not sexually attracted to each other anymore”

Bro what show are you watching??

These two have literally never cheated on the other (both of the Cartman’s dad episodes imply that they both slept with Liane so maybe they did have a threesome) and Gerald not getting an erection that one ep is because.

He’s an older guy. Not because he’s not attracted to his wife anymore. In fact it’s probably why they do their UPS role plays and why Sheila is ok with Gerald watching porn, it shows how healthy their sex life is. Like, Sheila straight up had sex with Chef and was just outside the room like how was it honey :)

We clearly see them having sex with each other many times, but I’ve seen some arguments say that because their room is dark when they have sex, it clearly means Gerald doesn’t want to see Sheila and hates having sex with her? I’m sure many couples have sex in low lighting, but in-universe they probably turn off the lights so that their kids don’t come into the room (which clearly never works lol). Or out of universe, the network won’t allow them to show a full sex scene on cable tv (considering they also don’t allow them to show full frontal nudity except for the movie and streaming eps).

Anyways, tldr: the Broflovski’s love having sex with each other probably to the detriment of their sons lol.

2. However, I can get why some people don’t see them as emotionally loving each other. We see lots of moments where Gerald is scared of Sheila and Sheila can get really pissed off with him.

And of course, a lot of these moments come from Gerald, as while he’s not wrong sometimes that Sheila can be meddlesome, he does hide a lot of his shit from her because he’s afraid of being (rightfully) punished. Especially in season 20, we do see Sheila miss him and try to be open with him, Gerald doesn’t reciprocate not because he doesn’t love her but because he’s focused on his trolling.

We can either assume their relationship is always like this outside of season 20, where Sheila is putting in more effort than Gerald, or assume that this is just a special circumstance and Gerald is a bit more attentive outside of this season (which I think the show kinda implies? Idk might just be me lol).

3. So are these two an unhealthy relationship? Mmm depends, in the real world obviously yeah. But in the context of South Park the show, not at all.

Whenever people go “oh minor character’s parents are the healthiest/best parents on the show and have the best relationship” it’s like…well yeah duh, we don’t know anything about them.

As parents of the main characters, they are hands down the most loving. They’re not shown fighting with each other or cheating on each other (the hot tub incident is iffy but I think Gerald is just stupid when it comes to friendships lol). They definitely have their flaws, but never in a way where it feels like Sheila is parenting her husband, she rightfully calls him out.

It might seem like a low bar but again, considering the show, the two of them treat each other kinda ok. Season 20 really soured their relationship for a lot of fans, which is expected, but I think for current fans who’ve gone through the 3 almost divorces of Randy/Sharon, any marriage that doesn’t rely on “god I hate my nagging wife” jokes is a relief.

TLDR: You can like or hate characters for literally any reason, people can depict them any way they want, I just got really annoyed for no reason lol

[devondespresso]

WIP WhhhMonday Nightish

Once upon a time Devon was tagged in a wip wednesday by @eriquin and meant to do it but missed both wednesday and the weekend before remembering again. totally unrelated, Devon is working on getting their official adhd diagnosis.

i also noticed that the past snippets shared in wip-whatever posts have been purposefully the least interesting parts because i was worried about spoilers, which is dumb because that's created the unintended consequence of my tag is full of everything i don't like as much and a very different impression of what my fic is (as seen by most of these snippets being my rewritten scenes despite the actual fic being mostly new in-between scenes)

TLDR: WIP Whatever-day-it-is: But Actually For Fun This Time

The Rules

Post the file names of up to 5 of your WIPs for people to send you asks

Post a snippet of one of those WIPs

When people send you an ask with the name of one of your WIPs, write 3 lines of that WIP.

(Optional) Post the lines you wrote.

You can send multiple requests especially since this is going on through the weekend!

The WIPs

we're doing bulleted chapter titles to share from since that was my favorite and genuinely most productive format I've used. Feel free to ask for as many as you want, I plan on working on this basically all week

Karen Wheeler POV Bonus Chapter (Prologue kinda? side story in the same universe?? Bonus chapter set after season 1 and way before ch 1)

Steve, are you okay? Are you okay, Steve? (ch 9)

What's this? The consequences of my actions? (Is that a motherfucking Lovejoy reference?) (ch 10)

Kidnapping? no. surprise adoption. (lol get taken care of BITCH) (ch 11)

NEXT CHAPTER BC IDK HOW TO TRANSITION (ch 12) (a very tentative title for the next chapter to be written)

The Snippet

here is my favorite and most recent scene I've written, which takes place before they junkyard where Steve and Dustin are at the grocery store to get that ungodly amount of raw meat they have to toss around (also i've split chapters up a bit in the name of structure so the third chapter is now called "Mommy Issues Central". Lemme know any goofy vine reference ideas you guys have or if it should stay like that) (fear not, Get Yo Fucking Dog Bitch lives on still as chapter 4)

___

They turned down the next aisle, lining the edges of the cart with some other pasta-related shit that he could still probably use. They heard someone coming over from the next aisle and before he could turn the cart around Mrs Wheeler pulled up.

"Oh, Steve ...and Dustin. What're you boys up to?"

He took a short breath to work their story into something without Mike, but Dustin beat him to it.

"He's teaching me stuff." 

He was imitating the tone Steve used but still way too vague. Mrs Wheeler held up a smile, her brows slightly lifted.

"Y'know, like cooking-" Steve said, throwing in a little gesture to the cart.

"And cars, changing oil and things. Y'know just.. dad stuff."

Dustin's part convinced her, Mrs Wheeler's expression softening into a real smile.

"Well I won't keep you long," 

She nodded off to the side to talk to Steve one-on-one.

Great.

“Are you and Nancy okay?”

“Wh- we’re- Why? Did she say something?”

“No, no, she’s just been… closed off, lately. And I drove her to school the other day, she didn’t say why.”

“Sh- yeah, that- that’s on me. Sorry.”

“Did you break up?”

“No no, definitely not. We’re kinda… we’re working on it. I’m going to try and make it better, after y’know..” he gestured to Dustin behind him.

“Right.” she smiled again, “Let Nancy know she can talk to me about any of this? Please? I tell her but- I don't know, maybe it’d be different coming from you.”

He held up a smile for her.

“Yeah, sure. Mind if we..” he jutted a thumb towards the end of the aisle.

“Yes, go ahead.”

He gave her a short wave and turned back to Dustin, who studied random shit in the aisle like Steve would believe his sudden fascination with olive oil outweighed childish curiosity.

“Steve-”

He turned back around, seeing Mrs Wheeler coming back up to him and whispering again.

“I know I’m not your mother, but you can talk to me, too. Both of you, okay?”

He kept the smile in place and nodded again, and she finally went back to her cart.

Dustin “Definitely-Not-Eavesdropping” Henderson followed him out of the aisle, thankfully waiting until they were out of earshot to ask.

“What's going on with you and Nancy?”

“Thought we had ‘much bigger problems than my love life’?”

He pulled up to the deli, stopping to pretend to look at the options.

“We’re not dropping everything for it but we can still talk.” he groaned.

“I’ll tell you later, kay? Not exactly the best place to talk.''

___

Tags

@stobinesque @spoookysix @marvel-ous-m @alexcharmsyou @museumgiftshoperaser @blushweddinggowns @sharpbutsoft @fag4dykestobin @findafight (no pressure ofc and feel free to switch it to actually wednesday fhuhjdklashj) (also just let me know if you don't wanna be tagged in these)

[crockettmarcel]

okay ❤️ yay ❤️ thank u @janfraiser

if anyone has not seen the post I am elaborating on, you can find it here. it's important to note that this is literally just me indulging my silly little headcanons. but also I'm right <3

this is going to be long so I'm putting it under a cut :)

anyway. in 5x02, Crockett said he's "fourth year". he did not specify what he was in his fourth year of (to this day I'm pissed that the writers did that to us), but it's safe to assume that the four years have been spent in one place (there is nothing to suggest he moved to Chicago at any point before during the four years). if 2019/season 5 is his fourth year in Chicago, this means he moved there in 2016/end of season one or beginning of season two (2019 is fourth, 2018 third, 2017 second, and 2016 first)

Sarah left at the beginning of season four (2018) which means there was at least an eighteen month/two year overlap when they were both at med

we only saw her do one night shift, but that doesn't mean it's the only one she did the entire time. it's entirely possible that she crossed paths with Crockett on more than one occasion. in fact, I'd be surprised if they didn't know each other

she broke up with Joey in April 2017 (2x19, Ctrl Alt), which gives us over a year when she was single and both she and Crockett were at med

there is literally nothing in canon that goes against the idea of Sarah and Crockett sleeping together. we know that after Joey, she didn't want to date Noah, and that could have been for any number of reasons, including but not limited to her having some sort of relationship with Crockett. or maybe it started later, in season three, and it really was just a quick little fling, or a one time thing

as for the pregnancy aspect, as I have mentioned in previous posts [x] [x], I think that the most likely way for Sarah to become a mom is a cryptic pregnancy. which, again, there is nothing in canon to prove that she didn't experience

obviously she is not pregnant here (she would be approx five months for it to line up with lolly's birth) (I literally only included these because I love her and I miss seeing her. also sorry that the first pic is such poor quality that's my bad)

however! cryptic pregnancies do not leave you visibly pregnant. and also you yourself do not know you're pregnant. all this to say, once again there is nothing in canon that says she didn't sleep with Crockett and get pregnant, then moved to Texas and gave birth to Lolly

she has only been mentioned once since she left (by Elsa in 4x10), and that's it. Crockett joined the show in season 5, by which point Sarah was long forgotten. he hasn't mentioned her, but that doesn't mean he never knew her, especially if things were very lowkey/almost secretive between them. it's their business what happened, not everyone else's. no point bringing her up, or people will just ask questions

and as for Sarah not telling him about Lolly? she's living almost a thousand miles away, and they both have good careers (I'm hoping she does now lol). he would drop everything in Chicago to go and be Lolly's dad in Texas, and I don't doubt that Sarah would know that. would she want him to give up his life? and what if things didn't work out between them? their relationship in Chicago could have only lasted 16 months, but even though she appeared to be the one who ended things with Joey, she was still obviously upset by the breakup afterwards. I can't see her immediately moving onto Crockett without a second thought

the other option, which is a little more unrealistic, is that Sarah Did tell Crockett about Lolly, but insisted he not give up his life in Chicago. again, if things were very lowkey between him and Sarah, he's not going to suddenly announce that he has a daughter with her. he's the type of guy that would be willing to keep the secret for her

anyway. tldr. there is literally nothing in canon to suggest that Sarah and Crockett didn't have a fling in season three that ended with her having a cryptic pregnancy and raising Lolly alone in Texas. I'm autistic about this show (and especially about Sarah and Crockett) so if there was anything, I would know about it

thanks for reading if u are as insane as me and got this far <3

[emperorcartagia]

thoughts about my oc/canon stuff under the cut.

so. aurellio and refa. aurellio was essentially born as a joke, saying "what if i made a centauri oc lmfao" and also, "what if, as a parallel to londo and adira, refa had his own dancer in a pre-canon timeline back home on centauri prime and they were both boys!" since yknow. refa is such an effective foil to londo i figured it would be a fun, kinda cute idea.

i also think it does narratively fit in well with b5. take londo, who isnt the best example but we see him commit all these horrible acts but we know about his love for adira, before we even see him start to reform or even start to really commit atrocities we know he has a heart. we find this out in the third episode. spectacularly done.

a better example of this would actually be bester, one of my other absolute favorite side villains. bester was never redeemed. bester, however, is given opportunities for the audience to see his heart. irt his family, his expectant lover, and his somewhat emotional reactions to the telepaths dying in season 5, though caused by him. we still hate him, he never gets redeemed, his love for the people in his life does still exist and doesnt excuse or justify his actions. it gives him a lot of depth that i also really enjoyed!

that is kind of what i'm trying to do with refa. aurellio is a late 20 something year old centauri who is majorly unaware of what refa is doing or does or will do in relation to his schemes to rise to power. i also think that in this pre-canon timeline (around 2253-2257) is when refa is doing little things to slowly climb to where we see him in the show. he always had a lot of power being the lord of his house so he didnt need to do much, but i think the ten or so years leading up to his appearance in the show was a slow, hands-off rise to power. so aurellio, who has no real relation to House Refa aside from being a patron, isnt involved or knowledgeable about house refa's politics.

i would get into the "refa is a good family man" headcanon i have but tldr: celes was his last wife because he chose her. he chose her because he genuinely loved her and he chose to have senna. his other wives and his other children operate moreso like londos wives and him did where there was no love and only obligation. so senna and celes get favored. senna cared enough about her father to throw rocks at londos head years later about it, so i think that they did have a good relationship. refa spoiled her, would do anything for her, which was strange for a noble centauri man to be so obsessed with his youngest daughter. maybe he knew she was always destined for greatness. weh. and well, when this baby is like "dad, i wanna be a ballerina" like most 3 year old girls want to be, he says "of course my love, let me find you the best teacher possible": enter aurellio. who he chooses. who senna also chooses.

so yknow. refa gets a boy toy as a treat. aurellio is almost a part of his family as a treat. they kinda sorta love each other, as a treat, and it also works with aurellio's unconventional relationships he has with his lesbian wife bestie and her twin, the actual love of his life. so like yay centauri polyamory.

i just feel like sometimes i have to justify doing what i'm doing with my oc/canon stuff bc 1. it's refa🤢 and 2. ive been in fandoms before that were hostile to me about liking villains And trying to expand on them and make them more than what the show gives us. im VERY satisfied with refa's character in the show. these headcanons arent filling a void that was missing because i dont think they needed to be expanded on in canon, i just like refa/the centauri/my centauri oc and expanding on centauri lore is fun. so 🤷‍♂️

if you wanna read my fic about aurellio and refa, here it is

i will also say i really do appreciate the kind words ive gotten about this because lol i was nervous about it due to previous experiences where stuff about not only my taste for the villains but also my ocs has gotten me harassed, vagued, made fun of to my face, etc. so thank you for being so kind 💫 i'm so happy aurellio is loved because i love him a lot as well.

[cisthehuman]

Cis the Human--April 21,2021

Trigger warning: Discusses loss of family member, suicide ideation, self harm, PTSD, and depression

TLDR: April 21 is a very, very bad day for me. CisLunar is heavily based upon my own grief I'm experiencing.

I have thought heavily on whether to share these things about me. However, I feel like having them out in the open will not only show more about the human running this blog and streams, but shed light on the CisLunar story as a whole. This will be a stream of consciousness type writing as most of my posts on here. So please bear with the changing topics and such. As this is personal, I won't go too in depth in some of the harder things. It is, to put lightly, a bummer to remember and rehash. But here we go.

T.S. Elliot, one of my least favorite writers, famously started one of his most famous works with the line: April is the cruelest month. Who knew I would agree with him?

April 21, 2021 is when I watched my father leave for work as usual and received a call in the middle of the day with the news of him passing away suddenly.

To put things in perspective, I was raised in a very sheltered household and some of my closest relationships are with my family. My father has his own shortcomings, as we all do as people, but he was a major part of my life.

Dealing with the heaviness of surviving him was hard. Not only that, my whole family was grieving the missing piece in our unit. As someone who has some unchecked/undiagnosed issues, it set off poorer habits I thought I left behind. I thought of different ways to end things, I used a razor to scar my skin again, and impulsively sought out to destroy things that made me happy. I forced myself into isolation because I believe it was what I deserved.

I would relive that day for months, and became extremely anxious and afraid of everything. Now, it is a complete blank space in my memory. All I can remember is feeling everything and nothing at the same time.

I have a very vague recollection of getting out of a terrible setback, and remembering a moment between my father and myself. He told me to remember to take care of myself in these bad times. I didn't know what to do take care of myself aside from doing what has always given me peace--creating.

I started writing about grief and the emptiness it brings and the weight is has on a person. This writing slowly turned into the story for CisLunar. While it has now gotten a lot more fictional parts, there are some particular details that are based in my reality.

I'm not sure why I wanted to share this aside from April being a very hard month for me. I always try to stream a lot during this month, and some how I always get something to make me go on a hiatus. Maybe the universe is telling me to take it easy during April.

Today makes 3 years since I lost my dad. Three years ago, I changed into a different person. While I'm not whole or the person I used to be, I have been able to rise out of the darkness that consumed me. I'm not saying these things to get pity points or any condolences. I guess I'm just trying to finally allow myself a little space to share this uncomfortable news.

Don't worry too much about me though, by the time you're reading this, I would be well into my at home spa day. I've been able to make positive habits to combat the bad ones.

I'm going to awkwardly end things here--my tolerance for rehashing this is going away. I'd like to think/talk about happier things now lol

For those that read--thanks. For those who understand what I'm going through--let's hope it all gets better for us.

See you on the next one.

[mochi-prosperity]

The Mochi Prosperity Challenge!

Round 1, House 2- Turner

-Told yah I would have better screenshots this time!-

"What the...?"

-Oh, hello Benjamin! How are you and Ethan doing?"

"Again.... What the?"

-TLDR I am Mochi and I am in charge of helping this neighborhood out and thrive! Do not worry whether or not I am real or not, or if you are or not.-

"I was not worried about that...I might be now.."

-Lovely. How is the house treating you?-

"Quite small I must admit. But I guess with it just Ethan and I now it really does not matter the size."

-Yes well, I only have so much to work with. Tell me about yourself!-

"Ah, yes, I am Benjamin Turner, I am a single father to my dear boy Ethan here, and I strive to be the chief of medicine one day."

-Ah what a cutie Mr. Ethan is!-

"Yes, he takes after me I would say. Honestly though I ... I don't remember if he takes after his mother or not."

-I will say he takes after you don't worry your little head of such trivial matters such as...-

"Such as my missing wife?"

-I wouldn't say she's missing... Rather just ... not here.-

"hmm."

-The house seems quite cozy for sure huh...I swore I made it bigger.-

"You built this house? How? You're not even real"

-I don't think now is the time to get into what is real or not, and I don't think you'll win this argument.-

"I beg to differ, I am a smart man. Either way, I am on the hunt for a job!"

-Chief of Medicine... Do you think it would be on the classified page of the newspaper?-

"Now come on. Of course not. But maybe a starting position is."

"Drat there seems to be nothing up my alley, I shall take what I get I guess. How does oceanography sound?"

-It sounds wet and stinky.-

"Wonderfully perfect!"

-Okay weirdo, I will assume you are a slob aren't yah?-

"Huh how'd you guess?"

-Guess I am just lucky...-

"Well better get my dear boy Ethan a nanny for when I am at work."

-I love that you are doing that, because I would hate to have my second household to have a child taken away.-

"Second household?"

-Yes! You are apart of my little experiment in this neighborhood. The are five families, and you are second in my rotation!-

"I do love experiments, I just am not sure if I consented for me nor my son to be apart of one..."

-NONSENSE I have the consent forms right here. Nevermind that. When do you start your job?-

"... 3 am tomorrow."

-Oh, ew.-

"Yeah I will concur with that statement."

-How sweet!-

"Saying goodbye before work to my little man. He's my number one here."

-:) very cute. I love the little family dynamic you have going on-

-Gooooood luck Benny boy!-

"Don't call me that."

-What the hell...-

"googoo"

-Oh Ethan! Sorry! I shouldn't be saying inappropriate words in front of you!-

*giggle*

-Ethan your nanny is....special. She's been standing there for hours staring at nothing and doing nothing. Maybe she's broken?-

*coos*

-I see your father needs to teach you to talk. I am not sure how many milestones we will be able to do this round for you before your birthday.-

"Dear me that was the most unfun thing I have ever experienced"

-Dear you lol-

"I'm sorry?"

-Never mind. Maybe tomorrow's newspaper will have your chief of medicine on the front page!-

"Don't be smart."

-I thought you liked smart!-

-Speaking of smart your little one seems to be swimming in your toilet.-

"Ethan, honey, no please. Daddy's too tired for this"

-The joys of single parenthood.-

"I mean honestly is it going to hurt him... Maybe he's trying to be like me, I come home wet and stinking of fish from this job. Like Dad like son?"

-Whatever floats your boat dude.-

-It seems I was right bout ya'll not having enough time for proper milestones. But at least hes growing up happy! Happy birthday dear boy. Our neighborhoods first birthday!-

"We got this little one, make a wish! Daddy will try his best to make it come true."

-Sweet!!! Don't make me cry.-

"Hi Mochi!"

-Hello, Ethan! How is your birthday going?-

"So fun!"

"Okay, Dad! Lets dance before you gotta work!"

"Oh Ethan, okay. If it makes you happy it makes me happy."

-I love the sweet autonomous moments like this :)-

-First day! Kick butt little one!-

"I'm not that little anymore Mochi!"

-Surrrrre. Literally aged from a toddler less than 12 hrs ago but sure.-

-Oh, you're both home at the same time! How was school and work?-

"My grades aren't great..."

-I don't think they normally would be on your first day. Don't worry your wanna be doctor dad is probably gonna help you get them to A's asap!-

"Who knocked over our trash?! Ethan was it like this when you went to school?"

"No Daddy!"

-I think it was the nanny when ya'll left..-

"Okay kiddo. School work time!"

-Told yah Ethan, Benny boy here wants you to go to private school. Ain't no way he gonna let you slack off.-

"Ain't ain't a word miss Mochi!"

-Ethan. I like you. Lets keep it that way.-

-How's the hunt Benjamin?-

"Still nothing! I would even take being a candy striper!"

-How ...How old are you?-

"Huh? Why?"

-I do not think candy stripers are a thing anymore.-

-oooo! Our first chance card!-

-Hell yeah we love promotions. Maybe next round I'll give yall a little renovation to the house. Get you and Ethan your own bedrooms.-

"I wouldn't mind that!"

"Oh, Hello Emmy!"

-Emmy! How is my girl doing?-

"Came to say hello! Benjamin is my closest friend here in the neighborhood!"

-He's off limits.. Ya'll are founders, so just friends for you.-

"OH MOCHI! No! Nothing like that. I don't even think we're attracted to each other!"

-Oh would you look at that yeah no chemistry. But best friends! And so quick wow!.-

"Fudge!!"

-Ethan!-

"I said fudge!"

-Its the intent though. Either way. How was school.-

"I got a B"

-That's great! Is dad helping with homework at night?-

"Yes! That's why I thought it would be an A by now!"

-It takes time!-

-Oh Emmy is still here!-

-.... what? Why are you talking about that with a child sleeping like 2 feet away-

"We aren't being nasty! He'll learn about it sooner or later anyways! He's the son of a soon to be Chief of Medicine!"

-Benny boy, I hate to break it to yah but soon is maybe not the right word since you haven't even landed a job in the medicine field.-

"Stop calling me Benny boy!"

-No its cute-

"Its not."

-Hey Emmy I think its time to leave girlie. Nearly time to go for me and the boys seem dead tired.-

"Oh yes, of course. Thanks for having me Benj.... Benny boy! *giggle*"

*Benjamin glares*

"Have a good time Emmy. Mochi you're not funny."

-I think I am!-

-My sleepy second household comes to the end of their first round. I think they'll be my favorite. But theres more to see! Hopefully this week or weekend I will get part 3 up!:)-

[chaos-mybeloved]

Finished obx season 3 in one go (because I won't have another time to watch it) and I have feelings

Kiara's parents are so funny to me because I get the whole hey you were missing for 6 weeks and you keep running off and hanging out with bad influences that's fine I get that but when she was telling them what happened to her and why she was doing what she was doing they just straight up didn't believe her?? LOL

CLEO AND POPE I REPEAT CLEO AND POPE!!!! i love love love love loved them. Pope deserves to have a pretty girl blushing over him and trying to cheer him up and talking to his parents with him!!!! they were so cute

listen they really try to play Sarah and John B up like this perfect whirlwind romance but by God they are failing the moment John B was outta Sarah's line of sight she went 🥰Topper🥰whole time big John was tryna get John B to rob an old lady at gunpoint you can't make this up

topper topper topper there is something wrong with you

okay listen I have mixed feelings about Kie because she handles situations so weird in my opinion like the Pope thing didn't have to go down like that and she didn't have to handle her parents like that either because you can see a better example with how Pope himself deals with his parents so obviously it didn't have to be like that that being said GET YOUR MAN BOO!!! she did her damn thing this season I must say from stealing Rafe's boat to openly admitting her feelings to JJ and communicating?? get it babe

JJ my beloved you will always be famous

rafe didn't stand out to me this season idk yes he was deranged as usual but his motives made more sense this season if that makes sense like him trying to sell the cross to make his dad proud (typical rafe daddy issues) and then wanting to keep his life in Kildare where he is seen as King Kook (understandable) and melting down the cross (he didn't care about the treasure he just wanted money which, fair)

TLDR; I enjoyed the season! the characters and relationships were interesting and don't ask me about the plot because that's not what I watch this show for :)

[loverboy-ish]

ok im back + fed + watered so ummm @lycanthrology hey hi im reporting back (spoilers Under the cut.)

it was fun! shark movie that doesn't take itself too seriously and it has a Budget. those sharks (megalodons) are CGI. obviously. but you know, Quite CGI. also kinda ugly but that's just a personal opinion (and i like them for it). its got an environmentalist slant to it. meiying is there :) she's a teenager and being a teenager in a shark movie it's great i care about her so much in this silly shark movie. The Dog From the first movie turns up. Pippin? peppin? :3 tldr silly movie jason gets eaten by a shark......... TWO!!!!

ok spoilers under the cut :3 /srs about spoilers but also some a bit silly

SUYIN'S DEAD. D: the actor's alive so idk maybe she just didn't want to or wasn't invited back or scheduling issues... :( suyin i miss you...

the first scene was so fun watching the like. um. chain? the fucking... FOOD CHAIN as it were, play out. bugs get eaten by bigger bugs, get eaten by lizards, get eaten by (as my dad calls them) Big Angry Newts, get eaten by t-rex, get... :) eaten by Megalodon. silly movie so its not that deep but its fun :^)

THERE'S TRAITORS IN THE MIDST. funny to watch them die lol. hubris ^_^ and also the villains who are so obviously. meant to be villainous from the get-go hjihdfiojmdyhgijmyfiohryiowjhiotr

erm. oh yeah the underwater deaths from those three other divers were kinda sad... u_u one guy gets yoinked, one girl gives up, one girl doesn't have enough time before her face explodes due to pressure + cracked helmet

MEIYING IS SO BRAVE ALSO not really a spoiler and its a Trope but defying stepdad's orders to 1. sneak aboard the diving submarine and 2. to save someone from the water. i love her favourite character :)

erm. giant octopus. :3

ohgh meg 2 is out at the cinemas... dad says he wants to relax tomorrow tho so umm. hm. well maybe i can get him to go see it with me i think he was looking forward to it :3

[the-last-cuddlebender]

I straight up check your profile daily for the southern raiders analysis you’re working on. 👀👀 where IS IT 😩

bRUH I am so excited to drop this analysis you have no idea (It’s creeping up to 22k+ I am gonna cryyyyyyyyyyyy). The only problem is that my TSR analysis and “Moon theory” are so incredibly hard to structure and articulate. I’m happy you’re so excited for it, though!!! Truly, it’s an honor. I’ll give you a taste of my madness and what’s to come, but be warned: it may be a bit hard to follow because TSR (from how I’ve come to understand it) is about the vagueness of beginnings, endings, and cycles, so there isn’t really a starting point for me to begin with. (So it may seem a tad bit like a ramble in some points that I haven’t fleshed out yet/am summarizing for this ask)

This analysis has me on trails like THIS brilliant nonsense, and I am 1000000000% here for it:

Roku: “The spirit's name is Koh, but he is very dangerous. They call him The Face Stealer.”

Katara: “We’re going to find the man who took my mother from me.”...“That’s him. That’s the monster.”

Lion Turtle: “To bend another's energy, your own spirit must be unbendable, or you will be corrupted and destroyed.”

Roku: “When you speak with him, you must be very careful to show no emotion at all. Not the slightest expression, or he will steal your face.”

Hama: “Congratulations, Katara. You’re a bloodbender.”

(If Katara had killed Yon Rha, she would be giving up her identity--her face. Not only would she have become a killer, but she would be killing what made her Katara)

Aang: “Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.”

Forgive him--approach him for what he is, not the faces your memories or your heart are having him wear. See him for the pathetic man he is in that moment right in front of you.

Aang’s forgiveness is seeing someone for the sum of their parts. It’s judging them and seeing through into their very soul, just like the Firebending Masters saw through Zuko being the Crown Prince and Aang being the Avatar. That meant nothing to the Masters. What did matter to them was who the boys were right there, right then, right in front of them.

“Why should I hold a grudge against you for something you did in a past life? After all, you’re a different person, now. You’ve come to me with a new face.”

But anyways...

If I can give no other take-away from my analysis and moon theory, it’s that Yin and Yang are not two entities; they are three. I think the fandom’s misunderstanding of it may be why the discourse on TSR (and Aang, Katara, and Zuko) is so black and white (pun intended lol). 

“But Yin and Yang are obviously two things. Don’t you know the symbol?” I hear some people already saying.

Wrong, sir.

It has never been just Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang have never existed as just two things.

They are Yin and Yang and Wu Wei.

(Aunt Wu has her name for a reason, and she has the mark of the wise in her hair for a reason, too...AND she is at odds with Sokka in The Fortuneteller for a reason, too!!!...but that’s for the analysis😉)

Balance isn’t good triumphing over evil. Balance is good and evil. Balance is standing on the flow between two opposites--it’s the compliment that connects them. (The koi fish live in an oasis for a reason.)

I’ll explain what Wu Wei is later in the full analysis (like many things in here), but here’s some of my evidences and proofs for the “Yin Yang trio”:

The Tibetan “Wheel of Dharma”

(I’ll also explain the Wheel and Dharma and etc. later because it has everything to do with Koh and the moon) Long story short, the wheel and its spokes are representative of the 8 steps to enlightenment and the cycle of rebirth. 

Look at the hub of the wheel. It’s a swirl made of 3 parts.

It is also a white lotus

Here’s the colored version of the wheel (as an alter):

Recognize the colors?

BLUE, WHITE (or gold, depending), & RED

These are the “THREE TREASURES” OR JEWELS.

They symbolize DHARMA, BUDDHA, & SANGHA respectively. 

KATARA, AANG, & ZUKO

water, air, & fire

T H R E E

Bato: “Ice dodging is a ceremonial test of wisdom, bravery, and trust.

Bato: “The spirits of water bear witness to these marks...”

Why does Bato say spirit(s) plural? The Ocean and the Moon are only two spirits. The Ocean can’t be two things. Right?

WRONG

Yue: “The legends say the Moon was the first waterbender. Our ancestors saw how it pushed and pulled the tides and learned how to do it themselves.”

The Moon--singular. The Tides--plural (push and pull)

Lion Turtle: “In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energy within our senses.”

The moon pushing and pulling the tide is the moon bending the energy of its world. 

Katara finding balance between “being too weak to do it” or “strong enough not to” is her bending the energy within herself.

It’s two solutions written as a question but said as a statement.

Yue: “Our ancestors saw how it pushed and pulled the tides and learned how to do it themselves”

THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS IS ABOUT AANG AND ZUKO LEARNING FROM KATARA. Katara had already learned from Aang and Zuko all leading up to TSR. That was her studying. TSR was her test.

TSR is Zuko’s and Aang’s studying. Sozin’s Comet is their test.

Bato: “For Sokka, the Mark of the Wise. The same mark your father earned. For Katara, the Mark of the Brave. Your courage inspires us. And for Aang, the Mark of the Trusted. You are now an honorary member of the Water Tribe.”

Aang - Wise (”you’re pretty wise for a kid”)

Katara - Brave (the same mark her mother earned)

Zuko - Trusted (”I was the first person to trust you”)

Sokka - Bato ("I am to have no part in this--you pass or fail on your own.”)

Yin and Yang are nothing without their dance. The Avatar and the Firelord mean nothing if they don’t have a world to rebuild.

The valley means nothing if there isn’t anyone to live in it.

Fighting is useless if there isn’t someone to fight for, otherwise it is “selfish and stupid”

Katara had to have a reason to return from Yon Rha. She needed to have Aang waiting for her. If she didn’t have a reason to stay, then she wouldn’t have a reason to go.

To have a reason to sleep, a person has to have a reason to wake up.

Katara: “Aang. He just took his glider and disappeared. He has this ridiculous notion that he has to save the world alone; that it's all his responsibility.”

Hakoda: “Maybe that's his way of being brave.”

(Bato: “For Katara, the Mark of the Brave. Your courage inspires us.”)

Katara: “It's not brave! It's selfish and stupid! We could be helping him! And I know the world needs him, but doesn't he know how much we need him, too? How can he just leave us behind?!”

(It was, in fact, not easy for Aang to ‘do nothing’)

Katara: “I understand why you left. I really do, and I know that you had to go, so why do I still feel this way? I'm so sad and angry...and hurt.”

Hakoda: “I love you more than anything. You and your brother are my entire world. I thought about you every day when I was gone, and every night when I went to sleep, I would lie awake missing you so much it would ache.”

(AND YUE IS ONE OF THE ONES TO SAVE AANG IN THE OCEAN FOR A REASON)

Thinking and missing: a matter of mind (who) and heart (want). 

Iroh: “Who are you? And what do you want?”

Sokka: “We need to go back. I wanna see Dad, but helping Aang is where we're needed the most.”

Mai: “I love Zuko more than I fear you.”

BUT YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT THE MOON FOR A HOT SECOND???

I’LL TELL YOU ABOUT THE MOON

I’LL TELL YOU ABOUT 2 MOONS

OH

OH REALLY???

OH REALLY, ZUKO

A FEW HOURS YOU SAY?

THEN TELL ME, ZUKO

WHY IS THE SUN GOING UP

WHEN IT IS THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT A FEW HOURS LATER

AND KATARA IS SLEEPING SO YOU CAN’T TELL ME IT’S BECAUSE YOU RISE WITH THE SUN OTHERWISE SHE’D BE WIDE AWAKE DURING THE FULL MOON THAT SHE USES TO BLOODBEND NOT EVEN TWO MINUTES LATER

THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS A HARVEST MOON

WHICH IS THE LAST FULL MOON OF THE SUMMER 

(and looks off color when it rises/falls because of the angle of the rise/fall in the atmosphere...it’s normal once overhead)

AND SYMOLIZES HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF

“We’re going to find the MAN who took my mother from me.”

“That’s him. That’s the MONSTER.”

8 spokes on the wheel

Katara was 8 when Kya was killed

8 steps to enlightenment (the “Eightfold Path”)

8 phases of the moon

8 faces of Koh

“One of your previous incarnations tried to slay me! Be it 8 or 9 hundred years ago” (but time is an illusion, so hundreds mean nothing)

THE OTHER TWO MOONS THAT ARE CONSUMING MY EVERY WAKING MOMENT???:

1.) The WOLF MOON--the first full moon of the new year (a love between the wolf and the moon in the harshest winters...connection is kindof obvious lmao)

2.) THE THUNDER MOON

The Thunder Moon is the full moon of July. It is also known as the Buck Moon--for when young buck regrow their antlers.

Yue: “My hair turned white.”

Zuko: *cuts and re-grows his hair*

Aang: “I have hair?”

The Thunder Moon--the full moon of July--is also the beginning of a certain Buddhist holiday.

DHARMA DAY

WHICH CELEBRATES THE BEGINING OF BUDDHISM AND THE FIRST OF THE 8 STEPS (the first spoke of the Dharma Wheel) TOWARDS ENLIGHTENMENT

AVATAR IS ALL ABOUT CYCLES

THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS IS ALL ABOUT BREAKING THEM

I haven’t even touched Jung, Koh, Hinduism, and Buddhism yet

or the fact that Katara and Kya are the only characters in the entire series to wear moons on their clothing and that, together, they form an actual lunar phenomenon

or why the spirit oasis isn’t a complete circle

or the fact that this thing that Aang is told to chase is just like Whaletail Island:

or how important the Great Divide and the Solstice are

AND I’M JUST GETTING STARTED

BECAUSE EVERYTHING IN THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS--RIGHT DOWN TO THE SOUND DESIGN--IS ABSOLUTELY MONUMENTAL IN UNDERSTANDING THE SHOW, ITS MESSAGE, ENERGYBENDING, AND LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE

TLDR: Idk how the heck I’m going to arrange or articulate this analysis because it is WILD. Be warned: There is literally no exact beginning and ending to this analysis because the whole point of Yin and Yang is that is has no beginning or ending (...kindof...), so you’ll have to bear with me once I’m done editing it into something that’s somewhat coherent.

These are just SOME of the things I’ve been able to answer with my moon theory and analysis of The Southern Raiders as it currently stands:

Why “letting go” isn’t really letting go (as we understand it...see: Aang’s confrontation with Koh)

Why Lake Laogai and the Spirit World are symbolically the same thing.

Zuko’s advice to the bullfrog is actually a summary of the show, energybending, the origin of bending, and the definition of Aang’s “forgiveness” I stg

Why “Sokka’s instincts” are the reason Katara yells at Sokka

Believe it or not, every time Katara mentions her mother, it is at specific times for specific reasons.

^^^same thing for the moon, lack of moon, moon positioning, etc.

Katara’s mother’s necklace is more important than we realize.

Who the faces of Koh are and WHY they are there.

The true meaning of Jet’s sacrifice.

Why Jet’s episode about the dam explains the entirety of TSR as it pertains to Katara (all the way down to the little girl who runs to get her doll after the dam breaks)

Why Katara actually DID forgive Yon Rha, and the fact that she doesn’t even know it is proof that she did

^^^^^Aang’s definition of forgiveness is completely misunderstood by the fandom, and the way he “forgives” is sososo much deeper than “moving on”, and it is DEFINATELY by no means “doing  nothing” or “excusing” past actions.

The importance of lightning, Zuko, Aang, and Katara.

The absolutely monumental and not nearly talked about importance of Jeong-Jeong like holy crap.

How Katara and Azula are just as much of a Yin and Yang as Zuko and Aang but not in the way we think they are

Why Koh has the Blue Spirit’s face

Why Koh DOESN’T have the Painted Lady’s face.

Who Ni-Ni from Katara’s campfire story in The Puppetmaster is 

How and why Iroh was able to learn firebending from the Masters even though he didn’t have a partner. 

How/Why Azula had her breakdown and why she saw her mother in the mirror

Why “Leaves from the Vine” and “Four Seasons” are the same song, explain Azula’s downfall, and explain the Yin and Yang of TSR.

Why Katara and Sokka are so often mistaken for parental figures.

Why Aang’s flashbacks to the Air Nomads are so important in understanding TSR.

Why Toph and Suki disappear after the campfire in TSR.

How Hakoda, Gyatso, and Kya are all connected.

Why it is so dang important that Azula shows up in the beginning of TSR.

The importance of the Spirit Oasis.

Energybending, healing with waterbending, Aang’s trauma, and Zuko’s scar.

Why Zuko gives Katara the exact opposite advise in TSR that he gave her in the catacombs. 

How everything could be predicted and read by the moon.

WHY YIN AND YANG ARE THREE THINGS AND HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THREE THINGS.

HOW ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL OF THIS TIES BACK TO THE MOON AND BUDDHIST BELIEFS--AND YEAH THE MOON AND BUDDHISM AND HINDUISM ARE MORE CONNECTED IN ATLA THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE.

AND HOW IT LEADS INTO OUR MODERN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SELF--BECAUSE JUNG TOOK GREAT INFLUENCE IN HIS DEVELOPING THEORY OF THE CONSCIOUS AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS FROM THE HINDU/BUDDHIST RELIGIONS 

^^^^AND ALSO THE THEORY OF THE SHADOW AND THE PERSONA 

The ocean is a deep, dark, unknown place with a lot of hidden monsters (like Yon Rah). Katara needed a light to find her monster, but she also needed somewhere she could breathe when she came back up for air.

If she didn’t have both Zuko and Aang, Katara would have drowned. 

I wasn’t kidding when I said this was a thesis, and what I’ve said and listed here isn’t even all that I have.

btw This all does line up on the traditional Yin Yang symbol we know and see in the show, but I don’t have enough space here for that lmao. That’ll be in the analysis

I hope you enjoyed this little taste, my friend, because I need to sit down for a hot second before my brain leaks out of my ears. Sorry for the ramble. I promise the analysis isn’t like this lol. This is just me trying to summarize as best as I can. 

***Disclaimer: My points are always subject to change since I am still researching. These are the facts as I’ve found and applied them to the evidences I’ve noted from in the show. I’m always open for friendly discussion or any directions to better sources on Buddhism/Tao/Jung!***

[maschotch]

hello my friend, wanted to ask you to rank the team from least favorite to most favorite. and to tell you i hope you have a good day!

ahh ok ok ok like the whole team or just the core 7? fuck it: all of them

jj: explanation here but tldr? white pinterest mom vibes and im nota hashtag feminist girlboss

kate: same reasons as jj but i thought she was funny while she lasted and i liked the human trafficking episode with her niece that was crazy

rossi: racist wealthy italian. "i used to be in the mafia" and "im a war veteran" are his only other personality traits. need i say more? his best moment was when he gave hotch a gun to kill himself ajsdlghsjg

seaver: wattpad energy im sorry gamergirl

matt: breeding kink. my vietnamese and filipino friends have had too many interactions with kpop stannies and koreaboos for me to support wasian kids with white moms im sorry

reid: he's not low on purpose i just don't really like any of the story arcs that surround him specifically and hes the most annoying ab his daddy/mommy issues than anyone else on the team (why cant he be normal about it like morgan lol) and i know enough other people love him to make up for him not being my absolute favorite

alex: another low empathy legend. i find her fascinating and i love lveo lveolevoevlevoelvoevleovelvoe her relationship with reid!!! thats his mom right there!!! (no disrespect diana- a boy can have two moms<3)

stephen: he was such a funky little guy. had that weird dad energy that we've missed since gideon left. didn't deserve to go like that, the scene with monica brings me to tears everytime, i wish he could've been there longer and had a chance to develop his relationships with the rest of the team more

tara: i loooove her she's so cool and smart. i wish she had more storylines about her tho :/ but thats the racism ig lmao

gideon: literally just a fucked up guy he's so goofy and weird. and it's kinda like the opposite of spencer--he's higher on my list bc i know he's low on so many other people's and honestly the weirdo freak deserves better. i want someone to hannibal him so so bad

jordan: ok i thought she was fucking awesome??? i really wish she had stayed longer but i also loved how she always struggled with the job because of how personally she took everything. she looked at this nightmare of a life and said "no thanks :) not for me" and i respect that. but i love her relationships with the team especially emily morgan hotch <3

penelope: ????do i even need to say anything she's gorgeous and funny and literally the glue that holds the team together like this show would not be shit without her in it

morgan: another one i feel like goes without saying he's just such a good man so gentle and sweet and kind and loving and protective. he takes all the hurt he's experienced and uses that to fuel his love and devotion for others. and he's so so smart he just doesn't need to rub it in everyone's face all the time. he's just got that tmasc swag and his tits always steal the show<3

luke: baby boy baby he's my absolute golden boy fr. he's going higher than morgan/penelope which seems a little off but i'm grading on a curve: he didn't really get any storylines and he wasn't there for that long. latino king and im a sucker for sign language. his crush on garcia is sooooo cute and just the way he was always there for her emotionally even when she didnt want him to be.. .giving him infinite gold star stickers

elle: badass cuban?? the way she instantly settled into the bau family?? putting everyone in their place?? how her leaving left a permanent scar on everyone who cared about her?? the potential for vigilante elle?? haircut in the second season?? her smile??? teh gUn HoLsTerskasj j??? what's not to love?? i wish she lasted longer :((((

hotch: hes my boring white man i will hype this bitch up so much!!!!!!WILL defend southern boy hotch to the death. trans man autistic man trying-to-be-better-than-his-father man <3 hes sooooooo expressive and emotionally open especially when he goes -_- i love him so so much

emily: she's so so so smart and hot <3 i love my low empathy queen <3 normally i dont really like ~rich white girl with mysterious international connections~ trope but she manages it perfectly bc its not her whole personality you know? she's all about second chances and trying again and building a new life for herself out of the ashes of her old one and it doesn't always work but she keeps trying anyway and i love love love her

[retvenkos]

ahhh okok— i have to say, i am team suho for ju kyung, buut that doesn’t stop me from absolutely adoring seojun ( i like to say that he is for the viewers ). i actually prefer the show over the comic! i feel like it stays more true to its original theme and the overall development in the story is *chef’s kiss*

nonetheless, the comic still holds a place in my heart as it is just so fun despite its flaws and its so easy to be drawn in. my quarrel with it tho is it just drags on so long 😭 ( doesn’t stop me from reading it tho as im too far into the hole lol )

nixie, all of your opinions are so valid!!!!!!!! i am team suho in the comic (the way his growth is sO. IMPORTANT TO ME), but for the show i'm team seojun despite knowing how it's all going to end, and for sO! MANY! REASONS! (which you know i'm going to get into under the cut,,,,) i mean,,, how can you not be team seojun when he’s doing that!!!!! when he’s singing that!!!!!!!! when he’s looking at jugyeong like that!!!!!!!

and yes, i agree that the show handles a lot of the overarching themes better (esp. the like,,,, bullying, and the antagonism between suho and seojun over seyeon, etc.) and i think it's in a large part due to the fact that the story is more strapped for time, and so they're forced to bring up Important Plot Points sooner than in the comic. the show also benefits from a lot of Knowledge in that, at times, the comic adds flashbacks that come out of left field with little ceremony or buildup. The show, however, is pretty up to date with character backgrounds, and so they're able to flesh out characters a little more maturely, often with that backstory in mind. i also think the show worked wonders when it brought in additional characters like jugyeong's dad (!!!!!! he was sorely missing from the comic and his every appearance brings me joy.), as well as amalgamated 2+ characters into one for ease of storytelling - yoo tae-hoon as both lee taehoon and aiden kim my beloved <3, sujin as both sujin and chaerin my heart <3.

and omg,,,,,,, the length of the comic,,,,,,,,, i have too many thoughts, so they're all going under the cut:

TLDR; as it pertains to the comic, the overall narrative of true beauty suffers because jugyeong is a poor choice for the main pov protagonist. she suffers from a perfectionist lens where consequences for her actions are never realized, and her arc is stagnant throughout the majority of the story as it has a simple resolution with no confounding choices or missteps.

as it pertains to the show, hindsight and a shift in the narrative structure was able to create a more dramatic, more concise storyline that makes for a more invested viewing.

okay.

so, to begin, i think the comic drags for one primary reason, and it's not the insane number of installments (although that is deserving of recognition as well, asdfghgf). the #1 most damning thing about true beauty is that, im ways more than one, jugyeong is a terrible protagonist.

now, i don't mean she's a bad character - she definitely has something special going on in that she was bullied mercilessly and still chooses to see the good in people rather than the bad, and her whole "i have a secret that no one can know about and i will go to any lengths to keep it that way" is fun and interesting to engage with! ..... but as a side quest. the problem with jugeyong as a protagonist is that she's far too squeaky clean. her big lesson from this comic is to learn to love herself - bare face and all - so that she can accept the love of others sans doubt. that's a fine lesson in and of itself to learn, but the problem is that it's a little too straightforward, and it's a little too easy - especially for the slowburn, 200(+) episode format. there's just not enough there to be substantial, and the author isn't keen on making jugyeong's story any more complicated than it has to be.

i mean, the biggest stakes after suho and seojun make up (which we will talk about in good time) is "when will seojun see jugyeong's bare face?" and that is just an eventuality. there's a bit of mystery in how he will react, but there's only one right answer in the eyes of many viewers, and so jugyeong's main theme and main storyline is without real investment.

and the author clearly knows this, because she continues to tack on dramatic subplots, which are all plausible, but hinge a lot on jugyeong being naive or pleasing, and not learning the lesson from the last time she was victimized. the only way to bring investment is to create these elaborate plots, where everyone is bashing their heads into the wall, asking "jugyeong wHY?" and tuning in to see if she finally gets the hint this time.

and so, the comic version of true beauty suffers a lot, because we can't have progression in jugyeong's thematic storyline without the story being finished, and yet the author doesn't allow jugyeong to regress in her plotline or make morally dubious left turns, in order for progress to then be made.

and i want to touch real quick (real quick, i say, as though any of this is concise) on what i mean by allowing jugyeong to regress or make a hard left. jugyeong has this secret that she desperately wants to keep... and yet the story never backs her into a desperate corner where she has to make dicey and consequential decisions to keep it.

whenever there's going to be consequences for jugyeong deceiving people, or not trusting those she's in a relationship with due to her insecurities, those get swept under the rug in the face of acceptance........ and they never stew or come back to cause problems.

in the jugyeong/seojun breakup, there is no room to think about or address the way that jugyeong not trusting seojun damaged their relationship, or the way that jugyeong avoiding situations to keep up the ruse led to some of their downfall. because of the framing of the story, the fault lies entirely with seojuns new career (and, incidentally, his reasons for needing this career are never brought up to jugyeong - or, at least, she never considers them).

this plot armor to protect jugyeong goes as far as the time skip - which exists almost exclusively to show that jugyeong had time to ~mourn the loss of suho~ before she fell in love with seojun. timeskips in a show are used to jumble character arcs and change the status quo - there's supposed to be new mysteries and marked changes to characters. if you think about it, the true beauty time skip..... really didn't deliver any of that. we got (1) suho going radio silent, (2) seojun having to provide more financially for his family, and maaaaybe (3) jugyeong and seojun spending more time together. nothing else really changes! and arguably, those three things did not require a timeskip to address.

imagine the conflict, if jugyeong were to move on from suho to seojun faster. if readers were to see her moving on, and think "??? jugyeong... isn't that a little fast???" and her entire narrative being "no way! i've always liked seojun, and he's present, and he's here, and he's willing to love me as i am - or, at least, the version of me that he knows." already, we have so much more conflict! the layers of jugyeong's deception! she's taken a hard left! she's regressed a bit! now we have a more compelling way to push the story forward - they both have increased guilt over the situation, jugyeong's deception will amount to something when they're aired, and tension will ensue!

jugyeong severely lacks from a perfectionist lens wherein she does nothing unambiguously wrong, and her ambiguous choices are reframed so they're out of the picture, when conflict arises.

which brings me back to my original point, being that the comic drags because it has no interesting narrator.

if you've read this far, you're already humoring me, so just imagine real quick how interesting it would have been if our main narrators were suho and seojun.

because they both have such strong feelings about each other, and all that happened with seyeon, they would both be a little unreliable in their storytelling at the beginning. suho would start the story, ofc, and instead of it beginning with jugyeong's bullying, it begins with the duality of the girl at the comic shop and the girl at school. suho learns about her double life, and then the reason for such grand deception can be a bit of a mystery - lightly hinted at, as always, but the true form of it never learned until jugyeong and suho are much closer. and then, you have the added mystery of suho and his father's distance, whatever happened to seyeon - that boy people only mutter about when suho is around - which would be a very slow burn mystery with lots of tension, and finally, whatever the hell is going on between seojun and suho.

and!!!!!! when it's finally seojuns turn to be introduced into the story, he can become a narrator as well. perhaps, at the end of some of the earlier episodes, there were hints at who this character is - for the last few panels of some installments, there's this other mystery narrator who has the same pictures as suho but seems to have a very different life. when we finally get in deep with his pov, we see suho as this callous young man rather than this awkward, lonely boy. the duality of their pov's could be so interesting!!!!

then, because true beauty makes a habit of having one or two episodes being in another character's pov entirely, we get the occasional pov of jugyeong where we can really highlight the mistreatment she faces, and how she's good, despite.

and hey! if we want to keep the time skip in, shift pov's then, to it primarily being jugyeong's story. or the other way around! keep jugyeong's pov in the beginning, but introduce suho and seojun's narration at the time skip.

a shift in pov would be great justification for a timeskip, and i'd be behind it, then.

i think the story of true beauty works great, but it would be elevated if it focused more on interpersonal drama, the messiness that comes when insecurities intersect with love, the way that one's past influences then, and how people can still become friends and mend broken ties, if they approach a situation with acceptance and forgiveness.

which brings me to the show. (preface saying that i’m only 10 minutes into episode 10)

the show flows better than the comic for many reasons, but here are the most important three, imo.

the stakes are higher than in the comic. not only is there more physical fighting and aggression, but the bullying jugyeong faces is more imminent and raw, - as there’s the rooftop scene, as she transferred rather than age into high school, and as her bullies come out of the woodwork again and again. in the show, it’s fine that jugyeong drags a bit with her arc because the conflict is more present, the story is more concise, and the story (thus far) has taken place entirely in high school, where drama is Heightened in a way it functionally isn’t in adulthood. all these characters are stuck together in the same space for the majority of the day, so of course jugyeong’s secret is a more imminent threat.

the show slowly develops the lives of side characters. this goes back to my (much) earlier comment about the show having Knowledge of who the characters are. in the comic, the backstories of other characters are revealed in a sort of hit-and-run manner, the way that backstories are often presented to real people in real life. we know nothing of sujin’s past, and then, in an episode that’s well into the 150 mark, we suddenly learn that sujin was childhood friends with suho before they had a falling out, that she was a harp protege, and that she has many parallels to jugyeong as well. the same happened with suho and seojun. suddenly, we’re introduced to facets of their character that were simply Not Present before. with some of the characters, there was foreshadowing and mystery. with many, there were not. the show fixes this by slowly fleshing out these characters, rather than doing a drive by at the end of their arc. we also have the inclusion of juyoung having a crush on gowoon, jugyeong’s parents, the heegyeong/joonwoo relationship, and the tae-hoon/suho friendship which puts emphasis on other characters besides jugyeong.

suho’s growth is exponentially slowed down. now, don’t get me wrong - i hate this aspect of the show with my dying breath - but, credit where credit is due, slowing down suho’s character development does wonders for the slow burn of jugyeong’s plotline. now that jugyeong is not alone in being the only character who hasn’t grown, her slowness is seen less as a flaw of the story and more of a fatal character flaw. suho is a markedly reserved character. it makes sense, then, that his growth would be slow and painful. the problem in the comic therein laid when suho surpassed jugyeong in growth. by all accounts, jugyeong should grow faster and easier than suho, because she’s more open to it (and because she’s a main character with relatively few flaws but like,,,,, we already know that) when, in the comic, she grows slower than suho, it’s clearly a flaw of the writing. in the show, jugyeong is still not growing any faster than her comic counterpart, but suho is growing slower (much to my chagrin), and so jugyeong’s arc is strengthened by proxy. of course, slowing suho’s growth feeds into problems all of their own (literally seojun is doing the MOST in this show and it’s a shame he's being overlooked for suho, who can’t even be kind for an extended period of time), but at least it makes the main character more bearable to handle.

the show, due to its concise nature, and the power of hindsight, is able to create a more fulfilling story than the comic, as it’s not spread so thin, and it can fix a lot of the structural problems of the comic.

however, as i’ve already mentioned, it degrades suhos arc by slowing the pacing and painfully dragging him along, while seojuns arc is walking briskly by his side and shining in the sun. seojun is such a compelling character in the show as he recognizes his feelings sooner, acts on them with the same pace, has still yet to resolve his conflict with suho leading to maximum angst, and still manages to be the More Present love interest in a story where suho is not yet Gone. despite the fact that the show has a clear endgame ship, and seojun is the second love interest, there’s more stakes and intrigue in the story, due to its structure and pacing.

(it’s also arguably a stronger “which one?” ship war, as they’re both actively and genuinely vying for the same girl at the same time. in the comic there’s a lot of “you just missed the conflict! she was with seojun two episodes ago, and only now are you, suho, actively pursuing jugyeong!” like,,,, for realistic relationships, it’s better that they have a swell in one relationship just as the other whimpers, but for the drama and enjoyment of audiences, a more active ship war can lead to more engagement.)

okay,,,, i haven’t even said everything i think about true beauty, but i’ve thoroughly exhausted the topic, and won’t push my luck any farther, lololol.