#to the SURPRISE OF NO ONE

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Welp, Gabriel's wish was a canon event.

TO THE SURPRISE OF F***ING NOBODY

[hanafubukki]

I’m going to talk about the Knight of Dawn because I don’t see anyone really talk about him?? And with the recent updates I think that’s quite sad and unfortunate.

The Knight of Dawn had similar situations to Lilia and Silver, from their upbringing to the people they loved and how far they would go for them and their sense of justice and loyalty.

But you know what makes me look at book 7 with new eyes?? This

Source

The Knight of Dawn truly loves Silver. I mean can you question it?? When he and his wife put him to sleep until a time of peace came?? Until he met people that truly loved him??

What makes me very soft is the way that he is guiding his son every time the ring glows. He is there protecting him.

The ring saved them in sebeks dream, the ring glowed in Lilia’s dream, the ring shined when silver accepted himself and his love his family, and at the end of the chapter we see the knight smile fondly at his son.

He’s been guiding his son this entire time and honestly, it’s heartwarming and yet heartbreaking. Because even when gone, a parent’s love is always with you.

(Which to add, can parallel Lilia and his love for his boys. Even though he might be gone, he will be with them.)

[deny-the-issue]

I love the look he gets when his brain short-circuits because of a compliment

[bluejayadler]

Is Desire a "friend" of Charles

Got another NGL. Apologies for the delay. This one is only partially my fault. The app didn't initially tell me I had this message, so I didn't see it for 3 days. The other 2-3 days are cause I'm slow. Anyhow, here's the prompt:

And my long rambling 1 am response is below the read more. (No editing, no reviewing, we sending this like the Night Nurse sent herself. Enjoy!

It seem taken for granted that Charles is a friend of Desire's. Why?

I actually don't know. I don't think he is a friend of Desire. I can see the narrative play here. Desire and Despair in the Sandman universe are twins and its regularly mentioned that Desire and Despair are connected, one leading to the other. We taste despair when we desire things we cannot have or things we lose. At the same time, despair can make us desire things - things that would spare us from that despair. So Despair and Desire are very tightly linked and often seen together. And since the boys are inseparable, I think people are drawn to the fun narrative options there. A lot of what I've seen when Charles is tied to Desire is actually Desire seeking Charles out. I haven't read all the Sandman comics in a long while, so I am rusty on things. Still, I do know that Desire is pretty involved in humans lives. Not for the human's benefit but for Desire's entertainment. So I've seen a few fics and headcanons that are essentially, Desire sees that Despair has a plaything in Edwin and so decides to claim the other one in the pair for themself. Which I think can be pretty fitting for Desire's character. I don't really find that as much fun to explore for Charles's character though - for me personally.

I think one reason I struggle to tie Desire to Charles is because so much of the discourse I see is around intimate desire (romantic or sexual) - mostly the idea that Charles is in love with Edwin and desires Edwin but is consciously or subconsciously denying that desire. And I admit, I personally struggle with reading romantic/sexual coding outside very formulaic tropes. I do love payneland as a ship and think that it's endgame for the show. I love the friendship and partnership the boys have. I agree they have "married for 30 years" vibes. I think Charles needs to have his own arc before he realizes that and he needs to learn what love is, given his own abuse history and how that would impact his perception of what love means and if he's capable or willing to give it in that way. At the same time, a LOT of the scenes the fandom points at as proof of Charles's romantic feelings towards Edwin, I don't see that way. I don't read them that way. This might be due to my being very ace/aro or my particular brand of neurodivergent, as I struggle in real life to read a lot of social cues around romantic/intimate relationships. That "they were roommates" joke...yeah, I've done that...to friends who were dating prior to moving in together and only realized they were dating when they announced they were engaged. Not kidding or exaggerating. So yeah, I struggle with reading Charles as madly in love with Edwin romantically in season 1. And I don't associate him with Desire in that regard.

But I do think there's a fun (for me) way to explore Charles being associated with Desire from how I view the season's events. I don't think its as a "friend" though, even in the way that Despair claims Edwin as a friend. First of all, I don't think Charles is as much fun to play with. Charles does have a lot of desire, and there's the obvious relationship with Edwin, be it romantic/platonic/whatever. But for the most part, Charles sets his own desires aside for others. He is the people pleaser and will put his own desires down to put others first. So I think he'd be hard to hold in Desire's realm/power. Not because he doesn't have wants and desires but because he is someone who has gotten very good at setting them aside. He's essentially built up a little resistance, I think. But there is one major desire I think would draw Desire's attention that Charles couldn't protect against.

One desire that Charles held throughout his life that even carried over into his afterlife - to be enough.

Charles wants to be enough. His breakdown at the cliff is all about that. His breakdown in episode 5 is an extension of that. Even in episode 1, we see his reaction to being called out as not appearing to be the brawn. Its played for laughs, yeah, but he gets defensive. He doesn't brush it off or ignore it or even laugh it off. The brawn is his job and he needs to do it, to be good enough at it to protect Edwin and this afterlife they've made together. In ep 3, he starts to touch on the abuse he experienced. "No matter how good I was". Because however good he was at whatever he did, it wasn't good enough. No strong enough. Not fast enough. Not good enough at sports. Not good enough in school. Not good enough when he was alive. In ep 4, he says he's not good enough to help Edwin or Crystal, to save the Devlin girls. Even in death, even as a ghost helping so many others, he's not good enough. He helped save Crystal and Niko. He helped the WW1 ghost move on. He's helped dozens probably hundreds over the years, but its not enough. He's not enough. Not enough to stop his dad hurting him. Not enough for his friends to care for. Not enough for his school to tell the truth. Not enough for Edwin to admit what's going on with the Cat King. Not enough.

Charles just wants to be enough. He has always wanted to be enough. Its the one desire he never sets aside. Its the one desire he holds so tightly to himself that its the first true desire we see burst out of him when he lets the mask of a smile slip away.

And I think this would be an interesting angle to have Desire come in from. Because Charles doesn't know he desires Edwin. He says he doesn't know how he feels but he, they, have forever to figure it out. Imagine Desire showing up and Charles having that confusion - because he hasn't been running from his love of Edwin, he just doesn't know what it looks like yet. But then Desire points out that "desire" isn't just intimacy or sex or pleasure. "Desire" can be a lot of things, like wanted to be enough.

I know I'm a bit biased, as I don't often connect with romantic/intimate plotlines. I love found family and yeah, payneland is a ship I really get behind because its foundation isn't just romantic/intimate like many ships I've seen in tv/media. But I would love to see Desire come in in a different way and explore the different desires characters can have, not just for an intimate relationship, but other things (also not for things like greed or wealth or power as that's already been played out). I think Charles's desire "to be enough" is such an amazing thing to explore as so many viewers would relate to it as well. 

[luna-the-cretar]

Me: I don’t wanna look at the Marius/Lethica tag yet bc I’m haven’t yet seen the two scenes people keep talking about

Also me, looking through the Marius/Lethica tag on ao3:

[basilbots]

Can you rate all TSAMS characters?

This is pretty much my personal opinion/interest of their canon versions (so fanon is not saving killcode here sorry)

Sun: 9/10 (Old) Moon: 5/10 (New) Moon/Nexus: 7/10 Eclipse: 10/10 Lunar: 6/10

Bloodmoon: 7/10

Killcode: 3/10

Solar Flare: 5/10

Earth: 5/10

Ruin: 9/10 Jack: 6/10 Dazzle: 6/10 Dark Sun: 8/10

Creator: 1/10

[aceyanaheim]

But also Odysseus and Athena could have hugged

Like

For me

[lavellaned]

[peachy-keenss]

We can make it if we tried! Just the two of us! You n I

[saltpepperbeard]

what if we get a scene that parallels the moonlight scene in s1ep5. like, ed and stede are in a similar spot where they’re looking at each other from across the way, longing for each other, yearning for each other’s touch and affection. so they’re once again stuck for a few beats looking like this—

but instead of parting ways again, something in them breaks, and they run back to each other to grab hold of what’s hanging in the air between them. they run back to see through what was started, but never finished.

they run back to deeply kiss each other.

[socially-reluctant]

friendly reminder that LoZ: Twilight Princess had a humanoid titty chicken named Ooccoo that would help you in the dungeons and her children were floating heads

[chippdhearts]

@frostysfrenzy requested - CSI + Favourite story arc ↳ Catherine's leaving arc

[cervinae-canine]

writing shit like this is the maybe my one and only reason for keeping twitter

[losthavenmine]

Advent Character Countdown❄️24th December❄️ || No. 1: Cort (The Quick and the Dead, 1995)

[runawaycarouselhorse]

I've seen people draw on paper doilies before, so I figured I'd draw something frilly! Frillish and an equally frilly Trip.

[voltaspistol]