#to just be loved for being herself

[alicentalicent]

Trying to understand Otto a little more, and this scene is a good exercise. We have a Viserys who is frustrated because Rhaenyra is being a broody teen and he doesn't get why... (maybe because you married her homoromantic best friend idk). He doesn't know how to manage the marriage proposals, which is traditionally the wife's duty, and obviously Otto jumps in to help him.

My first thought about the expression Otto makes was him thinking: “I couldn’t relate LESS” but to be serious for a minute, I think he’s probably thinking “Well, aren’t you in a position to decide what happiness looks like for Rhaenyra, in the long term?”

I do think Otto believes that about Alicent, that the choices he is making for her and the things he's commanding her to do will lead to her happiness. The ambitious mind of a Hightower, Lord Hand, obviously prioritizes having his blood in the royal line, for him that equals happiness. So her feelings and wants and ideas of happiness don't really matter, cause "father knows best". And I think this is actually a good representation of shitty parenting, thinking that your child can be molded into a specific ideal of what the future should look like, in a lot of cases even getting into heights you couldn't reach yourself, and thus fulfill your dreams. Yes, Otto we know you wanted to marry Viserys, get in line Daemon also wanted to.

No, but really, in the next moment, he says that Aegon should marry Rhaenyra and in that way reconcile his desires with Viserys', thinking of their children and grandchildren as no more than pieces on the board. Full circle moment when Alicent literally points out this to Otto in 1x09, beautiful.

Otto shows his love by carefully laying a path before Alicent, with what he believes to be happiness at the end. Is it love, though? For him, it is. We have to ask Alicent, though. That love probably feels like feeding a little bird in a cage , asking her to happily sing the tune of her heart, and complaining when the bird wallows in her misery.

[rubikor]

they were her people

[lotus-pear]

i love you royal trio (minus akechi)

[potassiumprincess]

i think marinette is worse at resting when she's sick but adrien is worse at sitting things out if he's injured. i have no explanation, these are just the vibes

[clouvu]

Nothing in the world belongs to me But my love, mine, all mine

[aingeal98]

The way Orv will dangle the basic premise in front of you like a set of keys and have you going "Ha! So Joonghyuk is the novel's protagonist but Dokja is OUR main character." and you're so busy enjoying that layer of meta text that you don't notice their other hand winding up the Han Sooyoung hammer to whack you with.

[vendimeyers]

Trying to put my finger on the concept of how like the only real interaction between Kaladin and Jasnah in the series is like that one like… not quite argument in like book two where they both present their somewhat opposing moral philosophies and Jasnah talks circles around Kaladin and he walks away kinda bitter and neither of them change their ways over it but three and a half books later his approach to morality leads him to find peace and become a cornerstone influence for good in the world while her philosophy leads her to losing a kingdom and spiraling into self loathing and something something “it was unfair that convincing someone depended not on the strength of ideas but the strength of the arguer.” But he was RIGHT and she was WRONG and I don’t know where I’m going with this but DO YOU GET WHAT IM SAYING

[tubbytarchia]

@mcyt-yuri-week Day 5, Rose/Thorns I never stop thinking about SL episode 8 never ever

[trauma-bot]

sin eater

[gogandmagog]

– L.M. Montgomery, Chatelaine Magazine

[theceaselessidiot]

Eloise Bridgerton being an absolute mood:

and Cressida's reaction of 'this girl is so weird, but I'm into it??? Wait am I into this??'':

[gorgynei]

vaxleth + vex and keyleth's conversation about vax in c1e56

[artkaninchenbau]

For the record, I did figure that out a long time ago, it just gets funnier the more time passes

[painfully-unoriginal]

So I drew these under the assumption that diane used to be part of kitty's crew and realized after that i don't actually know if that's tru or not so uuuuuhhhh probably should've just waited for the movie to come out to start drawing shit but 👍

[mrmeepsmadmind]

i love when ppl draw bumblebee like the happy little creachure he is but also i love when people draw bumblebee like he's had 500 beers in the last 1 hour and still the pain won't even ebb

[jayktoralldaylong]

Alright, there's something I'd like to talk about, and let's come at it with an open mind. When Season one of Arcane ended I was 99% sure that Mel was not going to make it to this season. I was praying for every kind of miracle that could happen just to keep that beautiful goddess on screen but she was the first line of contact for that bomb.

Now that everything has been revealed, I want to talk about that bomb.

Ironically, Season two episode one starts with the exact same shine of gold that ended season one.

See, season one:

Season two:

And when the smoke clears we can see her leaning really close to Jayce, like she got blasted towards him.

Now, looking at the seat arrangements from Season one, I can actually see it a lot better now that I'm taking a second look. We can see that she is standing directly in the line of fire, Jayce is standing to her left and Viktor is sitting in his chair, Jayce's chair. Just about everyone sitting by her right died, Salo is sitting furthest away from the blast, opposite her. He probably saw it just a few seconds before she did.

And when she wakes up, all groggy and out of focus, her hands are on his shoulder. They been there, she did not just put them there, she already had her hands on him. Protecting him.

But what I really want to pay attention to, is the look on Mel's face when she and Jayce take in the damage.

The entire place burned down. Realistically, not a single person should have survived that, especially not unharmed.

Then the damage starts sinking in (Don't look at Jayce, look at Mel):

Look at Mel, as they look around the room of injured Councillors.

Jayce is panicking, full on panicking, he's had his nerves rattled, he's never seen anything like this (unlike Mel who, if the audience remembers, grew up in Noxus). And the sweetest thing is how she follows him around, trying to comfort him, while he's trying to shake Cassandra awake.

And she stays right there by his side, until her mother pulls her away (foreshadowing about their duties pulling them apart perhaps?)

Now, imagine you were in the middle of a disaster, a terrible disaster, and you had the power to save every single person in that room, but you did not know this because no one ever bothered once telling you that you had powers. However, in that moment, you did indeed save one person, without knowing, without even thinking. Who did Mel save?

She saved Jayce. (The craziest thing about that.....is that.... Viktor was literally right beside him. He was right beside Jayce OMG 😭😭).

Watching this scene, I cannot imagine the amount of guilt that threatened to swallow Mel whole ever0y time she saw the aftermath of what happened and a small part of her brain would nag her that she could have prevented it, that she could have protected Jayce's friend.

So why Jayce? Why ONLY Jayce?

"Because she loves him."

Obvious answer, two plus two equals four, but this is Arcane we're talking about, there is more to this simple equation and it is plain to see in their reactions in the aftermath.

Jayce is devastated. He is new to war, he does not know shit about it, it scares him to see all the people that he respects flattened like they are nothing. The Piltover Council means something to Jayce.

To Mel, they are colleagues. They are.... people with names and faces and power. They are people she would help on a normal day, but at the first sign of danger she clung to one person.

Jayce was Viktor's first friend, and he was Mel's too. He was the first person to tell her that she was not crazy. The first person to strangely believe in her dreams, to pour out affection not out of arrogance but genuine care that he was not ashamed or even hesitant to show her. He fought for peace when she began to doubt. When she felt unstable, his naivete and pure heart steadied her.

Mel loved Jayce. Loved him so much that she did not freak out when he was tweaking cause of the Arcane. So much that she fought for him when he was getting outright dominated by his ex. 💀💀 And while it is not the space shattering world changing soul bonded union of javik, I think it is beautiful that Mek loved Jayce.

I think it's ironic that the brotherly love that people keep trying to achieve with Jayce and Viktor was represented so well with Jayce and Mel. I think it's iconic that a male and female character that banged on screen can go their separate ways without a dramatic breakup and without losing the entirety of their care for one another (cause some of it was definitely damaged after their individual trauma).

What I'm trying to say is that Mel loved Jayce. The love was there. Call it romantic or platonic or whatever but she cared about him more than she cared about anyone in that room when that bomb went off.

And it just twists something in my heart....that Jayce was so loved by the two people that meant so much to him. That he gave all of his heart out and they gave everything back because of how selfless his love was. Everyone says Viktor and Mel are out of Jayce's league but they both keep putting him first. (⁠T⁠T⁠) They just cannot resist that all encompassing love of his. It saved Viktor, and it saved Mel who finally found her truth, and lost him to find it.