#very bad foreshadowing appears

[cometstuff]

Yahoo, it's the eighth one. "Do(oodle) your work."

Yayayayay, the eighth one of this sequence of 10 chaotic jumbles of thoughts. Here's another breakdown of what is going on.

So we have "Lil guy" who's crying on the floor with the iconic words of "jskddkssdjjjksdd".

Then we have three fruits, "the orang, the straw, the banan". I drew those three because I heard my friend drew those digitally for a class.

B E A N (congrats, it's a shiny)

"tringle cat", a cat made of triangles.

a cool marble thing

another flower (this is me actually testing the hack for the first time)

And finally, a guy with bad shading saying "da hel?"

Yep, more doodles done and analyzed, sort of. Good day/afternoon/evening to you all.

[lerokpaw]

🐉Dragon grass 🐉

You lit incense, but you didn't even think what it would lead to

!!!nsfw !!! !!! 18+ !!!

! All characters 18+!

Female reader

Sorry english don't my first language. But I hope you enjoy it 🐉

Status : Couple Y/N - Perfect (The head of a dilapidated dormitory)

A small heat source in the form of a green firefly lit the way for one of the most mysterious people in Twisted Wonderland or for you Tsunagotaro/Mal Mal/Malleus. His task at the moment was to see your face, or rather a smile on it. But first of all, to invite you on a little evening date. You and the future king of the Valley of Thorns have been dating for about six months and one of his favorite pleasures was to see you in a good mood, and if his favorite combo in the form of you, gargoyles, your love and beautiful art, which he saw in all of the above, were collected in one place and at one time, then Malleus was literally melting with love. And in the sky you could see how the stars were shining brighter. Wandering in his thoughts, the Dragon discovered that he nuzzled your door, while accidentally touching the bell with his horn, and he notified the resident of the Dilapidated dormitory of his majesty's presence. Hearing rapid footsteps on the stairs, the so-called Tsunagotaro moved away from the door and waited for your face to appear in its crack.

-Hello, Mal Mal! -"Greetings, my dear," horned smiled with his trademark gentle smile.

-Oh, listen - She slightly covered the already small gap as if to show that he does not have to see what is behind it. But now Malleus' interest has only grown.

-Yes, honey?

-I understand that you probably came for me on a date, but I'm a little unprepared… And could we sit here in the dorm today?

-I dare not refuse my dear couple this request, - he bowed familiarly You laughed a little

-Then come on in, I'm sorry, I'm a little at home.. I'm going to run to the kitchen for ice cream and return it, go to my room for now.

-Ice cream? Won't you need any help? - he already imagined how his favorite dish would be on his tongue.

-It's not worth it! Come into the room! - I was already shouting from the kitchen. The old wooden floorboards and stairs creaked under your boyfriend's feet. He was slowly moving deeper into the dorm when he felt a pleasant and sweet smell in his nose. Approaching your room, he realized that this fragrance was coming from there. When he entered, he saw Grim, who also exchanged a glance, but no longer friendly

-"Henchman, you brought that Tsunagotaro again without my knowledge! Malleus just narrowed his eyes and smiled at the furry creature.

-Don't go make-up, please, if something doesn't suit you, then go downstairs - she shouted through the whole dorm

-I'll actually go to the Adeuce duo then! At that moment, the monster ran out the door and pointedly slammed it -Sorry, Small, for this performance - she said calmly as she approached the room

-It's okay, I understand, my dear

-Your ice cream

-Thank you very much

Sit on the bed Have you started noticing how your boyfriend's pale face is starting to turn purple?

-Honey, are you hot?

-what? Oh, I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what's going on.. Am I just not used to it?

-Hmm, do you have an allergy to herbs?

-As far as I know, no, why? - now he was interested in what was happening to his body.

-Well, I just lit incense.. And I thought maybe they made you feel bad.

he approached you slowly and carefully, trying not to scare you off

- Can I smell you? -N-an unexpected offer- you blushed slightly - but I don't mind - you pushed the hair that was lying on your neck to the side, as if trying to tie it into a bunch

-Thank you - Mal said almost in a whisper and approached your neck inhaling the armat and now his previous sensations have doubled. As if waking up, he jumped back.

-I just don't know… It seems to me… - after these words, he attacked you with a sensual kiss. You've kissed before, but this… It was something that foreshadowed something more. After you stopped getting enough air.

-As if I want all of you - finally the thought was complete.

-What!? I'm sorry!? He abruptly leaned back from you

-Oh, I'm sorry.. I just.. I don't know what came over me Malleus rubbed the back of his head confused

-No! It's not that I'm against ours.. Continuations.. You started gesturing actively

-It's just me.. I didn't expect you to. Similar actions

-Hmm really? Malleus said, approaching you with a slightly mischievous smile and half-open eyes.

-Y-Yes! I am.. Sorry. I'm a little nervous.

-Maybe then you're not ready? I'll understand.. I won't insist - he gently took your hand and kissed it gently

-I didn't say that! It's just… this.. Nervous

-Are you afraid of me? -No! I love you very much! And as you can see, when you're so close to me, I don't push you away. Because I'm not afraid..

-Then I'll try to be gentle... Malleus smiled at you tenderly and ran his hand over your cheek You're blushing

- You always know how to embarrass me. Tsunagotaro gently ran his hand down your neck and ran his fingers a little over the top of your pajamas. He pressed his nose against your shoulder and inhaled the fragrance, his pupils sharply narrowed

-Darling? - He said in a slightly trembling voice

-What is it?

-Are you sure you agree to what happens next? I won't be able to restrain myself..

-Yes.. Just be gentle to start with You felt his smile appearing on your skin. It was important for him to hear the permission from your mouth. Now small spikes and a tail began to show on his back. Although it wasn't visible through his clothes yet

-Good...- he slowly began to take off your shirt. After he took it off, he said

-Darling.. I didn't think your kind had such cute gadgets..

He pointed to his chest and gently kneaded it with his hands

-Tell me if it hurts you. even in his lust-intoxicated state, he tried to take care of you. -M?!

She turned her head away, blushing

-Except yours.. Is there no view of them?

-There is, but I never paid attention to it…

He leaned against the chest area with a languid look and began to kiss her slowly and sensually.

-Mm.. The taste is as incredible as the smell ~

After his words, you whimpered softly while he kissed you and smiled, and his hands slowly made their way to the area below your stomach. Now Malleus was slowly sliding towards your stomach and was already kissing you there.

-Mm~ My rose.. Will you let me go on?

-Yes.. Oh sure The horned fairy grinned and his hands pulled the elastic of your night pants a little, gently pulling them off you. After that, your underwear became his barrier to your wonderful taste, he puffed up a little from this fact. But he continued to slowly spend his hands removing this obstacle, while feeling like you were already wet. Pushing your legs apart a little, the scent of your arousal hit him right in the nose and the smell of incense gave him even more strength to continue.

-It really looks like rose petals.. - he said, spreading your vulva

-Mm!? Where.. How? Where did you find this comparison? - She said, looking at him with one raised eyebrow

-Well.. He massaged it a little with his fingers and looked down intently.

-It's a little awkward..

-What could be more embarrassing than my position in front of you?

-Hehe, you're a darling.. Once.. When I was younger, I became interested in the topic.. Mating. And I asked Lilia what it was like.. Well, he told me that "everything is so beautiful for women that I look like rose petals" Frankly, I did not believe him, and I did not quite understand what he was talking about. But now that I see it all in person.. His words make sense

-Well, that's an interesting comparison..

-Do you think so?~ - he said in a seductive tone when his face was between your legs, where he slowly ran his tongue between the folds -Mh!? - you jumped a little out of surprise, thereby hitting him a little in the nose with your hips

-Honey, calm down.. Otherwise, I'll go crazy before I give us pleasure~ I'm already holding on with all my strength so as not to eat you.. That smell.. Intoxicating~ - Malleus tightened his grip on your legs, scratching them a little with his claws, starting to run his tongue up and down.

-Mmm~

-That's what I wanted to hear, my rose ~ -

He mimicked the movements of his tongue in your petals. Quickly finding the middle, he rushed there. Each time, his movements became more violent, as he quickly began to lose his composure. Listening to your moans, he couldn't hold back his own mooing, thereby sending you impulses that didn't help you not melt in his grip.

-Ah! - From his accidental sharp thrust, you moaned and mechanically moved your hands to his horns. With these actions, you finally pulled the trigger from the dragon, who was now furiously beating his tongue at you and your petals

Driving in like that for a couple more minutes, you felt a wave of pleasure begin to catch up with you. Malleus felt your back begin to arch and your legs to shake.

-Mm~ Have you already?

-Don't talk.. Ah! Go on..

-Hehe - you felt his smile tremble in you

-Mmm~Ah! - when he hit you with his tongue the last time, you sprayed him in the face, squeezing between his legs. The dragon rose slowly, carefully releasing your legs. His eyes were sparkling with a green light, and his whole face was in your netar. He licked his face and approached your already breathless face.

-Malleus.. phew..

-Yes, my rose ~ before you say it, I want to say that you are magnificent both in taste and aroma, as befits a flower ~

-You.. The dragon is too greedy..

-Naturally ~ - he gently tucked your hair behind your ear.

-Phew..

-Are you ready to continue? ~ - Malleus is clearly pissed off after your taste

-WHAT!? We just did..

-Hehe, this is just the beginning, I want to feel your nectar not only on my lips ~

-You.. You're vulgar! - you got up and hit him with a pillow

Ahaha, darling, but you like it ~ He stopped you by grabbing your hand - And since you're already so active, I can continue~

The incense finally burned out.. But the smell of "Dragon Grass" has long filled the whole room..

[l3monlem0n]

Some Murder Drones Episode 7 screenshots I thought were interesting and my thoughts on them :>

SPOILER WARNING!!!! is spoilering

Nori, despite being a middle aged woman with a child, appears to be an Otaku or otherwise likes "edgy" and "scene" stuff, as well as listening to nightcore, very much like her daughter. Good for her tbh you're never too old to have fun

She also has a photo of Khan and what I can only assume is baby Uzi, though it appears to have blue eyes, but maybe it's just the lighting. Still very cute she has a pic of her husband

As well as all the previously mentioned Otaku stuff, she also drew herself as an anime character. She has a skinsona. Phenomenal (pos)

Nothing much here, just Uzi coughing up blood. Girl got the goop (gore) inside of her already

Lab Space. Apparently the Church was just down there and not even the humans know why. The canonicity of this is questionable; it could just be a joke

OT, as per google, stands for "Occupational Therapy". Makes sense for the context, and makes the bottom text funnier

"Fun Time To Universe Big Crunch: 87". The Big Crunch is a hypothetical way the Universe could end, where the universe folds on itself and shrinks into a single point. 87 "what" I don't know. If it's months, that 7 years and 3 months

Honestly the Murder Drones lore is super confusing. I think what this is trying to say is that every other Zombie Drone is doing poorly, (Except for Yeva), they are trying to reactivate 002 (Nori) via the USB. I'm not sure what this means. Maybe they only got the results they wanted from the two of them, and are trying again with Nori since she was the only other one that worked (also why they got Yeva when she failed; this may all be referring to how the episode opened up) Also, the date says SER. As revealed in the episode Cabin Fever, Copper-9 has months that Earth does not. SER most likely stands for Seramorris, the month revealed in that episode

Looks like the "bad event" wasn't the first one. Certainly was the last one though lol

Just a good pic of ghost/hologram V with the scary stuff. Might use this as a wallpaper

You can literally see the hole in his neck where N bit him in...

...And it's to the point his HEAD FALLS OFF. (including because I didn't notice the first time around)

Yup, the idea that Uzi became the Admin for N and V is completely true. I wonder what would've happened if she didn't, since Cyn didn't react whatsoever

friggin bug (very pos)

You would not believe how difficult it was to get a good pic of this (I'm using snipping tool lmao). Always a pleasure to see Uzi's doodles. Things her gun can do (upper right):

NOT judge her

Forced prom date (?)

Allows her to say she had friends before she frickin murdered them with sci-fi machinery

The cut off text at the bottom: Plan B: Normal gun + Shoot really fast

This is while Tessa is looking for something in the lockers. Claws, chains, magnets, Wings, and scribbled "HELP". Looks like the lockers were all specifically to hold the infected worker drones. Oof

We are in the future now baby. We have rererererereCAPTCHA. Funnily enough, it still couldn't stop a robot

There is a message board where someone who doesn't like robots is talking. They also are scared. Also no one else is using this system, which is unsurprising. "Ur aight ;)" Wait is the winky face intentional foreshadowing? Or unintentional?

We get the names of a bunch of other Worker Drones. Unfortunately for all 029 fans, her name was not visible. (also can someone tell me what "JWEB" could be short for?) And Yeva is said to have a patch. That may be the crucible thing idk

Cyn (which I will be calling this version Skyn [Skin + Cyn]) apparently took of the space suit just to give Doll the Withered Foxy jumpscare. Honestly really terrifying. If this photo was teased before release I think the fandom would've exploded

Just N being a good boy :3

The MDs, Cyn's pets. Nori refers to them as "Nerfed" so the "Entity" can ensure control, and says they were made to destroy other hosts. I don't know why Cyn would want them dead, but I'm not the loremaster here. YouTube line is there because I couldn't be bothered after the Railgun image

Probably already confirmed, but doubly confirmed that a symptom of the Solver is giving Drones organic insides. A Worker Drone body with a rib cage and guts. I wonder what would happen if the infection continued uninterrupted (also R.I.P. Doll I loved you :frown:)

I'm sure everyone noticed, but when Uzi tried to manipulate Tessa, the ERROR noticed appeared. Already hinting Tessa is not all she says she is

Apparently the Solver can create Black Hole Saws. Interesting development (Blackhole Blitz)

I know most people (I think) see this as a joke and N just being a bit of goofball. But honestly, I think he did it intentionally to shock Cynuzi and give Nori a chance. In the Pilot, he licked V's sword to surprise her too, which means he isn't unfamiliar with doing something weird and surprising for the advantage

Skyn eating Doll's core. R.I.P. Doll again. Seriously, was that Doll in Core Form like Nori was? Or was Nori a fringe case because she was "Exorcised" and this is just a regular core? Questions, questions. Also yeah the Solver also gives you a Core. Fun

This tag makes me think that this body is Cyn's actual body. Not longer a hologram, but her actual body from the mansion. The reason Tessa gave N, J, and V their names was because that was the first letter of their Serial Designation (she's very uncreative). However, Cyn's tag was slightly faded, which meant her SD couldn't be seen, so Tessa gave her the name "Cyn" after her P/N, even though the other 3 already have the same P/N as Cyn (Tessa, again, is very uncreative)...

...and for some reason, Cyn or the Solver, which ever theory you subscribe to, decided to wear Tessa as a skin suit for some twisted reason. It did help her with the Captcha. Also scary because this doesn't have the right proportions for an adult (unless Cyn really forced that skin on), which leads me to believe that this is a Younger Tessa, and she faked having an older voice. Maybe I shouldn't call her my wife... I'm sure Eldritch J is still available :^)

(Seriously, the eyes are burnt out, leaving two eye holes over the visor, so she gives herself two X eyes so it looks better. Also yeah we found out what that thing on the "It Came From Copper-9" poster came from. It really was Cyn or Skyn)

Just a frame of the final...frame... for coolness. I'm probably also going to use this for a background. Also, this is definitely Copper-9. You can see the ring and ringless moon together on the right. Uzi somehow got sent to orbit after falling in the meat hole

Well that was all for now. This series has consumed me entirely, body and soul, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Goodbye and goodnight

[anthurak]

So I was thinking more about the potential hints and foreshadowing we’ve gotten about Loona’s backstory, particularly her “this kid probably sets dogs on fire” bit from Murder Family that likely points to Loona having some backstory and/or trauma involving fire. And then I remembered that we’ve actually seen a bit of an association between Loona and fire.

For one, there is her I.M.P. lighter we first saw in Seeing Stars and again in Mastermind which is DEFINITELY meant to symbolize her relationship with Blitzo. For one, we can definitely assume this lighter was almost certainly a gift from Blitzo.

And when we first see it in Seeing Stars, the lighter is clearly meant to represent the messy, dysfunctional but still genuine and earnest love and care Blitzo has towards Loona, and that Loona in turn recognizes. At first Loona can’t get the lighter to work over and over, much like how Blitzo, in her words, “fucks up, all the time”. But the lighter does eventually work for Loona in the end, just like her relationship with Blitzo. As Loona puts it; “He’s trying. That’s more important that you think.”

Which also makes this lighter’s second, and seemingly final, appearance in Mastermind rather interesting. The lighter shows up when Loona is trying to burn the records, and is once again finicky and refusing to work. Only for Blitzo himself to take the lighter and throw it into the booze-soaked paperwork and send it all up in flames. Which, given the symbolism that Seeing Stars attached to this lighter, is rather… interesting.

In the short term, this could be a nod/hint to Blitzo’s attempted big heroic sacrifice moment later in the episode, ie; Blitzo throwing away his life/relationship with Loona in a desperate attempt to keep her/them safe. Though I also have to wonder if this might be hinting at something else further down the line next episode/season.

Obviously, Loona’s and Blitzo’s relationship does not seem in ANY way endangered by the end of this episode, and is even used as a contrast to emphasize how Stolas may very well have DESTROYED his relationship with his own daughter. But you never know what kind of developments we might see next episode, particularly given the likelihood of Sinsmas focusing on a conflict between Octavia and Stolas, and the possibility of Loona becoming heavily involved in it.

But going back to the original point of this post, let’s look at the other notable association Loona has been shown with fire. Which, interestingly enough, not only also happened back in Seeing Stars but was even associated with the I.M.P. lighter.

I am of course talking about Octavia lighting Loona’s cigarette after she can’t get the lighter to work.

Those who have been following me long enough might remember my very first Loona-Octavia post a couple years back where I discussed this very interesting bit of symbolism. If this janky, unreliable lighter Loona struggles to get to work represents her likewise loving and caring yet still messy and dysfunctional relationship with her father, then what does that say about Octavia lighting Loona’s cigarette when she can’t get it to work?

As I said back in that original post, I still think this is very likely hinting to Octavia representing a much more reliable and dependable friend in contrast to the messy, dysfunctional relationship Loona has with her father, which in turn would parallel Loona being the same to Octavia.

And you know, given that we saw Blitzo send that I.M.P. lighter up in flames this last episode, I wonder if next episode might have another moment of intimate cigarette-lighting between Loona and Octavia?

Finally, circling back to the start of this post, I think all this makes Loona’s comment in Murder Family and the potential foreshadowing it holds to her backstory all the more interesting.

Like her father, it seems probable that Loona has some kind of trauma or other general bad experiences with fire in her past. Yet we also see, particularly in the scene in Seeing Stars, Loona having a very positive relationship with fire as well. With fire being tied into symbols of both Loona’s messy yet sincere relationship with her father, AND the start of her new, likely very close friendship with Octavia.

It actually makes me think of what we saw of Fizzarolli’s relationship with fire in both Oops and Mammon’s Midseason Special.

The former showed us fire representing this great FEAR and trauma for Fizzarolli, reminding him of the explosion that maimed him all those years ago.

Yet the latter showed Fizzarolli not one bit uncomfortable with OZZIE’s fire. He plays with it as part of his performance, and later the fire is even shown PROTECTING Fizz as part of Ozzie’s big transformation. Which of course is made all the more poignant when we remember that Ozzie seems to have been the one most involved in Fizz’s recovery and healing. Essentially to Fizz, fire represents both a terrible event in his life, but also all of the good that came after it.

So I have to wonder if we’ll see something similar with Loona.

[coffin-ramblings]

There are so many layers to Ashley's and Andrew's names' meaning that I realized in the Mr. Graves' first name post, but had to make it its own separate post.

Andrew is tied to drawing breath and Ashley is tied to ashes, which are very bad to inhale. Guess who died from breathing in something bad for her lungs? This can also apply to the two siblings, as both of them breathing in the same vicinity are toxic for them, both mentally and emotionally (almost any random moment can cause an argument and distrust) and physically (Andrew's smoking). However, they need each other like the air they breathe, unable to go on without the other, even if they're horrible to each other.

Ashley in the beginning syllable sounds like "I", which makes sense as she's the main protagonist and we see her POV the most. Andrew starting with "and" makes it seem like he's secondary to someone, which he wants to project the image of seemingly being like a doormat follower of Ashley. A friend pointed out that it ending with "drew" also sounds like "rue", and he definitely feels rue for being in love with Ashley and letting Nina die.

Andrew means "strong man" and it fits as Andrew's the muscle of the duo. He's also focused on "killing" Andy, his kid self, in an attempt to grow up. However, in that pursuit, he loses sight of the importance of his child self and it can lead to further tragedy for both him and Ashley.

Ashley means "dweller on an ash tree meadow", which can indicate despite how murderous she appears, Ashley just wants to live in peace with Andrew, and meadows are often thought to be peaceful places to live. Ashley has an interest in plant-growing, as shown when you interact with the plants on the balcony in chapter 1, the narration says she was caring for them but they died during quarantine, which may be a piece of foreshadowing and/or related to the theme of her name. Also, I found out while looking up the cultural significance of ash trees that the Yggsdrasil is a huge ash tree that connects the Nine Realms, just like how Ashley has access to the realms in between. With how trees are important in Coffin through Lord Unknown and the high amount of plants in the preview screenshots, it may be foreshadowing to future events. They are also often associated with life, a complete contrast to the major death themes surrounding the Graves family. This can symbolize Ashley's and Andrew's ability to create new life, whether it is metaphorically with the two needing to remake one from scratch now they're legally dead, or literally with her and Andrew having a kid.

[jjcanwrite]

Under The Moonlight /|\ An ateez × reader fic

Under The Moonlight ~ Chapter II

Pairing: OT8Demi-wolfAteez! × HumanReader! (Hwa focus in the chapter (i changed my mind) with slight Hongjoong and Mingi focus as well!)

Sypnosis: It's about midwinter in the forest you reside in, that time of year where it's absolutely beautiful to watch in during the day but the worst frustration to go through at night. A forgotten lanter turns into a forgotten home, and you quickly find yourself in the tight grip of none other than Song Mingi, a young wolf in the pack you met a few months ago, who has every intention to bring you back to the pack's closing and finally keep you there..~

Series content warnings!: heavy but not dark concepts like violence, insecurities, mental health, slight depictions of gore, mentions of blades, etc - Polygamy - Eventually smut- Animalistic/hybrid tendencies e.i, marking, heats/ruts, scents/scenting, clingy behavior, growling, the boys do have tails,ears,and heightened senses, ect. - Reader does develop some kind of animal mindset after marking (this will be elaborated on later. It's kind of like a second sex but..not.)

Chapter content warnings: Slightly toxic behavior? Nothing bad, but i realise some of the thoughts they have can be seen that way. - Cranky Hwa - Protective Hwa - Posessive Joong (but not in the way you assume) - non dialouge mentions of heat/rut/mating cycles, no explicit convo yet - subtle foreshadowing😦 - chapter is once again, pretty tame. There a bit of a fluffy/cute moment with Hwa and reader tho😖

A/N: Once again! Leave any questions in my inbox and I will answer them as quick as I can ~

Sorry for how long this took to get it :( I was having no motivation ☹️

Word count 1300-1400

~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~

"I brought a gift.."

He mumbled smally, his voice just loud enough for Hongjoong to hear. He clearly thought he was in trouble, it was violently present in the way he whimpered under Hongjoong's stare.

"A gift?"

Hongjoong grumbled, scanning over Mingi with the sass his gaze occasionally carried. When his eyes landed on your own, they softened slightly a sigh leaving his lips as he fought of the smile that appeared on his lips at the thought of..keeping you. He knew when Mingi had scented you, he knew it immediately. And while it was a long lasting claim, it wasn't a permanent one.

Fuck..the thought of digging his teeth into your skin as he gently stroked your hair as a silent apology-

No.

He needed to stop.

He needed to talk to Mingi, and get you situated.

But..man, he really hoped he could convince you to stay with him and his pack.

His hand ran through his hair before returning to cross over his chest along with the other one. His eyes darted between your face and Mingi, debating on how he should respond to the situation.

Unbeknownst to you, but annoyingly present to him, Mingi had entered his peak of primality, or a 'feral' as they liked to call it, a bit earlier than the rest of the back, it was more common than you'd guess but- God, does it make this situation so much more troubling.

Mingi was attached to you, they all were really, but Mingi was glued.

On a normal day, a little voice in the back of his mind ranted on and on about how he needed to protect you. Hold you. Provide for you. Make you ..his.. .Make you theirs. However, in a time like this, where his only instinct was his primal one, it was the only voice he heard. And it was loud Hongjoong could almost hear it himself, but he played it off as a placebo effect.

The older wolf knew Mingi wouldn't just let you go, and there was a very good chance he would get aggressive if asked, which was defintely not something Hongjoong wanted to introduce you to right now but- what else was he supposed to do?

He honestly felt a bit lost, Mingi wouldn't let you go, and half of him didn't even want Mingi to let loose of you, but-

you didn't want this.

You wanted to go home.

To your less safe..less warm..less Ateez..home.

The thought brought a sigh from his lips, just how in the world was he supposed to get you home? It was late, it was dark, not to mention hunting season. He almost wanted to scold you for even being out this late in the first place!

"Mingi. Let her go."

A voice sounded behind the 3 of them, the familiar tones of the eldest wolf's voice echoing softly within the den.

When the 6 struggled to properly listen to Hongjoong, Seonghwa was always the one to step in before their captain got fussy.

And free you were, Mingi's hands reluctantly loosening their hold on you, not fully letting go but barely hanging on. He pouted against your neck before you took a step forward, running a hand through your hair and smoothing our your clothes, hoping to situated yourself before you thanked the elders an-

"Where do you think you're going?"

Seonghwa spoke again, an eyebrow raised as he took a few steps to stand next to Hongjoong, the mentioned man wrapping a arm around Hwa in a sideways hug, grumbling about how no one ever listened to him.

You froze at Seonghwa's command. He was usually incredibly gentle, willing to go about things calmly and explanatory before he ever got argumentative or defensive

Guess it wasn't the same when he was woken up to his slightly feral pack-mate having brought a human home.

A human he knew..

A human that smelled really nice..

A human that looked really nice..

A human that with one fleeting moment, just her combing though his rugged fur after him and San had spent a few hours playing in the dirt, had sparked something in him he'd only felt with his pack..

A human he really liked.

His eyes narrowed in on Mingi, the taller guy sinking into himself. He could practically feel the discontentment in Seonghwa's stare. His ears flattened against his head and he, as if sensing Seonghwa's thoughts, sat down and tucked himself into the corner of the den's entrance, effectively removing himself from your vicinity.

"Darling.."

The way the pet-name left his lips made you shiver, the way he said it, it made it seem predatory. Seonghwa didn't even mean for it to come out that way, but he was rather satisfied with the way it got you stuck in place. He hated being rough, only willing to indulge if it was playful, but it would have to suffice I'd it got you to listen, which Hongjoong clearly hadn't even tried.

"Why, in God's great world, would you ever think it was a good idea to leave your home in the middle night?"

The question was rhetorical, but the intrusive tone in his tone made you slightly defensive. It wasn't your fault! Without the light the bunnies tended to eat away at your crops :(

Seonghwa took a few steps closer to you, standing closer than Hongjoong was but further than Mingi had been.

"Did you even think to consider if maybe, God forbid, what would've happened if it wasn't Mingi who found you? If it was another pack? If it was those damned bears?"

He spoke, his voice raising slightly as he ended his words, his feet edging closer to yours.

There was a sharp spike of..something in his eyes, you weren't sure what, but it seemed like concern. Concern weaved into protectiveness

Announced to everyone but you, a deep protectiveness.

You sunk down into yourself slightly. You couldn't argue, you didn't have a place to. He was right and you knew it. You didn't even want to imagine what could've happened in literally anything else besides one of them had gotten to you first. You had to admit he was right, even with how much you hated being wrong.

"I-...I know Hwa..I know it wasn't smart I just-..I'm sorry for worrying you."

The mentioned wolf softened at your words, taking the last few steps towards you, but they were much more natural and relaxed then the past intimidating ones. He slowly wrapped an arm around your waist, pulling you into his chest and his opposite hand gently scratched at your scalp, his head leaning down onto yours, trying to distract himself from the aching urge to pressing a kiss to your forehead as you whimper about the sting of his canines on your h-

"..I know you're sorry Darlin'..You just have to be more careful. You can't be leavin' your house this late, escpacially this time of year."

He assured, his tone making it clear that he wasn't mad at you, but frustrated with your actions.

He knew how you worked by now, knew what you needed to hear before you spiraled.

His fingers gently pressed into your back, massing the flesh above your spine gently as a soothing tactic. He smoothed out you're hair gently, petting you in the same way you often did him.

"You're staying here tonight."

"What! Hwa, I have to-"

"No. You are staying here and that is final. It's much to late and way to dark for you to be leaving. You are staying here, and there will be no arguments."

You let out a small "hmp" at his words, gently headbutting his chest in protest. You knew you weren't going anywhere, once Seonghwa had made a decision it was final and the only person that could override that was Hongjoong, but captain had made it clear earlier he felt the same way the eldest did with the matter. In all honesty?..you didn't really want to leave anyways..

~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~•♡•~

Taglist: @mimikittysblog @shakespeare-in-the-park7 @mrsminseochoi

[vigilskept]

Saw your tags on the last few posts and hard agree! Between the ever present Fen'harel foreshadowing AND Sandal's prophecy AND Mythal's reckoning? It always seemed like the Veil coming down was that proper big bang finish that would rewrite all the rules in a satisfying and interesting way. One of my issues with Veilgaurd is I feel like it took the series' opportunity for a destinct ending away. Personally, I believe good stories end. I don't want 30 DA games in a MCU verse. And now, to have the series end they have to come up with a stopping point that makes more sense than the Veil. Or revisit the Veil. And what would be the point in that when they wasted all the foreshadowing?

yes, exactly!! i felt like i was going insane on my soapbox there, thank you!! it really feels like they ran up against the natural end point for the franchise and just decided to do a little shimmy around it. i just don't see what exactly that achieves except to set up a new, bigger bad which we have no real stake in.

was i curious about the executors prior to veilguard? yes! but i expected them to appear in this game since they clearly had an interest in solas' plans!! not for them to have 3 completely missable interactions followed by the worst idea of a post credit scene i've ever seen. whatever curiosity i had about what they were up to & how the kossith relate to what's across the sea is pretty much gone at this point.

a "shadowy cabal" who's secretly responsible for all of the evil enacted in this world by people in power is not a plot i care to see play out in bioware's hands. it's a stupid, elders of zion ass direction to take things and was not worth trashing over a decade of build up.

there is nowhere they could take that plot thread (already relying on the worst possible trope...) that would give dragon age a more satisfying conclusion than dropping the veil.

it would've resolved or set up a potential resolution for all of the major conflicts that have been established up to now!! (mages under the chantry, tevene class structure/slavery, oppression of elves, the blights, the waking titans, etc. etc. i could go on!)

and with the way veilguard ends... it looks to me like they wanted to somehow get the implied resolutions that would come out of dropping the veil without committing to it. that's why no matter what you do, dorian or mae will become archon and singlehandedly restructure tevinter society. the load bearing piece of "mageocracy can't function if everyone's a mage now" is gone, so we have to have a poorly executed sideplot to resolve this plot thread for us instead...

i'm sure people will feel differently, but i personally would've found it more satisfying if the veil fell and the franchise wrapped up there. for good or ill, it changes everything and we can all have the time of our lives speculating about the Implications thereafter.

if they really wanted to(/needed to promise EA they could) make more games in this setting — they could've gone backwards! there's lots of stories you could tell throughout thedas in the gap between the fifth blight and solas' ritual! there's lots of stories you could tell about the centuries between andraste's rebellion and the fifth blight! there's so much happening in the background here that they've hinted at through codices that if they really wanted more content in this setting, there is so much room to expand on those.

could they set up world shattering events like "tearing down the veil" again? no. but i think that was a very obvious one and done situation, and i don't think anyone came into this franchise expecting their dragon age games to have stakes that apocalyptic until trespasser! i think there absolutely would've absolutely been an audience for a game about the assassination of queen madrigal or the fog warriors' resistance on seheron if they hadn't fumbled this....

[thesandyhooktragedy]

i find adam lanza’s notes and sketches for a screenplay called “Lovebound” really interesting for a number of reasons, but it doesn’t seem like anyone talks about it much

it’s not very hard to notice that a lot of the things mentioned in Lovebound appear in lanza’s own life. it also presents more of an insight into lanza’s fascination with human sexuality, as well as pedophilic relationships

Lovebound, from what i can tell, centers around a ten-year-old boy exploring his sexuality. early in lanza’s sketches of the screenplay, he implies that the main theme of the entire screenplay would be the ten-year-old learning that his “relationship” with a pedophile is no different than any other relationship

this part is fascinating to me. not only does it imply the theme stated previously, it also displays that the ten-year-old possibly has a fascination with guns, much like lanza did. it also references familicide.

before attacking Sandy Hook, lanza committed matricide by shooting his mother—a form of familicide. it makes you wonder how much of this screenplay—if ever fully written—would’ve been lanza projecting onto the ten-year-old main character. perhaps he had thoughts of shooting nancy long before his plan for Sandy Hook was ever conceived.

lanza wrote his thoughts on marriage in form of a response to another person on the internet, carnage_complex. lanza closes his response with this:

above, lanza implies that marriage is “restrictively binding”. and, as he says in his response to carnage_complex, he states that he sees marriage as “innately mutually abusive”. lanza’s stance on relationships seems to be that he believes non-committal, casual relationships are the only way that a relationship cannot be abusive. relationships must be “boundless” (get it?)

(i encourage you to read through the entire document, it displays a lot about how adam felt about relationships and human connection in general. he also mentions eric harris and dylan klebold towards the end)

during this sketch of a scene, after discussing familicide, the goths hand the ten-year-old a pistol and tell him to “do what he considers is best”. one possible motive that’s been widely agreed upon for lanza’s attack on Sandy Hook is that he thought he’d be “freeing” his child victims from the burden of life by killing them. perhaps this was heavier foreshadowing of what lanza would later do, as well as a reflection of his thoughts on murder as liberation

lanza’s notes on Lovebound begin to end with an excerpt from an article on Heinz Kohut, a psychoanalyst, and his tutor

this excerpt, i believe, reflects a lot of lanza’s beliefs about pedophilia. lanza seemed to possess the belief that pedophiles in relationships with children deserved as many rights as anybody else. the description of kohut’s relationship with his tutor sounds very romanticized and leads us to believe that it did kohut a great deal of good rather than traumatize him, as pedophilic relationships do to children. lanza argues in his 35-page-essay defending pedophilia that pedophilic relationships would be “beneficial to both parties”.

the last page of the notes on Lovebound end with this:

earlier in the notes, the ten-year-old is sexually assaulted by his father. maybe lanza was referring to more sexual assault being inflicted on the ten-year-old when he said “bad things?”

Lovebound is very interesting to me, and i wish people would talk about it more! it not only offers an insight into how deep lanza’s obsession with pedophilia and human sexuality was, but is also another example of his affinity for screenwriting!

how do you feel about Lovebound?

[amemoryofwot]

In regards to WoT show Liandrin I think there's a certain point where a character in a show needs to portray concepts that are otherwise lore or exposition. Like, the writers didn't do so much with her because they think she's Super Neat in the books or something, but because as a relatively one noted early intro character she's in a convenient place to tackle some Stuff onto. Some examples I can think of are:

The Vileness - as this is like one of my personal fave WoT topics I YELLED at her intro in the very first episode. It's the Vileness!!! She's hunting down and Gentling men unsanctioned without a trial! She only has Reds with her there, and it's so completely different to the procedure for Logain where she has the Greens. She even put them into a position where they felt they had to Gentle Logain early, I maintain that she slipped that shield for a fraction of a second.

The ability of the Black Ajah to lie - The rewatchability of the show remains peak, it's super fun to see all the places she's definitely lying, bringing into play that hidden Black Ajah wild card of Being Able to Say Anything. Again, the first intro scene, where the critics were so pressed she misrepresented the taint. Ah yes, famously man hating Black Ajah Liandrin just might have something to say about that, yeah.

The unnaturally long lifespan of a channeler in relation to others - Watching your child age and die is a pretty horrific consequence of this, and one example is enough to explain why none of the other women have children either. This does get verbalized in the books but again showing examples is going to be more impactful in a visual medium than someone saying it out loud.

Black Ajah recruitment - I don't know whether she truly thought she would get Nynaeve as a Black, certainly at least she thought she could argue her into the Red (why Heal the aftereffects when you can go after the cause?) but it does show there is a recruitment process involved. Albeit in the books it seems to be limited to capturing a person and demanding they swear to the Dark or they will be killed, the show has at least tried to provide some hot nuance with Liandrin, Min, Dana, etc. You can argue RJ had some clear cut ideas of what made a Darkfriend (petty, selfish, etc) but these are human emotions in general, the world for the most part isn't divided into a subsection of Bad People that only have these emotions. Plus some of RJ's ideas of what a Good Person is (namely, self-sacrificing) isn't always, uh, good.

The general idea that Darkfriends may appear helpful or good, but have a secret agenda - when the eps first came out there was a lot of pushback that Liandrin got some of Siuan's scenes. I think this was all to entirely sell us on Liandrin is On Our Side Actually, because in the book it is actually hilarious how Min's like "hey gang I have a bad feeling" and then Liandrin shows up out of nowhere to whisk them away. Plus the scene with the sword and wrapping them up in Air and stuff is not really a great look. It was enough to seem like she's trying to help, but coming across in a really traumatic way that on hindsight of the betrayal makes it even more abusive. Now, we are constantly suspicious that other Aes Sedai may end up being secret Blacks

That the Forsaken have different agendas, and use Darkfriends to implement them - using one single character like Liandrin and shunting her from Ishamael to Lanfear (and ultimately to Moghedien) helps illustrate how the Forsaken work without giving away too many secret identities.

Anyways that's the one's I can think of now. Again truly the show is so efficient with its writing, practically every line has some lore or foreshadowing or twist to it, and expanding on these honestly somewhat flat characters is a really effective way to illustrate these concepts.

[wishful-thinking64]

One Hell of an Unpopular Opinion #03

Characters like Barbie Wire, Chaz, Crimson, Octavia, and Stella only exist as plot devices to garner sympathy for other characters. _______ I knew fully well that Chaz and Crimson were going to merely be plot devices for Moxxie the more I watched Exes & Oohs. And sure enough, Chaz was killed at the end of that very episode and Crimson is yet another wacky cartoon villain that the narrative expects for you to take seriously. Both of these characters existed so that the audience could gain sympathy (or at least pity) for Moxxie being raised in a Mafia family and having been abused as a child along with being betrayed by his ex-boyfriend (who also happened to be Millie's ex-boyfriend for some reason.) Other than Moxxie's Mafia family upbringing making zero sense the more you think about it, Viv has basically done this exact backstory before in the form of Angel Dust (with the whole mobster backstory who was also abused by his father.) However, the Exes & Oohs episode and title actually stems from one of the HH mockup episodes that was originally about Charlie and Vaggie coming across Charlie's ex, Seviathan (yes, that's what Viv named him), and his sister, Helsa, while they were at a dinner party.

Now, do I think Chaz and Crimson could've had the potential to be good characters? In all honesty, no. Especially not Chaz. The guy is a harmful stereotype of pansexual people and how, "They'll sleep with anyone," which no, they won't. I'm not pansexual myself but that thought process is as gross as it is fucking stupid. The only person who I've seen even re-writing Chaz has been Loves Art23 (I mainly know her for YouTube videos being critical on Hazbin Hotel + Helluva Boss along with other shows like the disaster known as High Guardian Spice) and I think she's done a fairly good job so kudos to her for making him work. Personally, though I'm scrapping him as that gives me one less character to worry about when re-writing HB. Crimson would have to be heavily and I mean HEAVILY reworked/re-written in order for him to make any actual sense. That and I'm tired of every character having some variation of the same daddy issues in the Hellaverse. Which means he's also gonna get axed from me. Moving onto the ladies I mentioned, let's start off with Barbie Wire.

Having been foreshadowed since the pilot of I.M.P. (as seen when Tilla was still Barb's and Blitzo's older sister rather than their mother) Barbie Wire was an anticipated character by fans for years! And then her actual appearance finally happened in Unhappy Campers, an episode hated by practically everyone who saw it, and no one really cared about her showing up, other than the fact that the writers thought that having her seduce a BARELY legal adult would make for a good joke, when in reality, it only made everybody uncomfortable and several people dislike Barbie because of it. Sure, near the end of the episode she had that "emotional" scene with Blitzo that wants the viewers to feel bad for him and Barbie before she left but in the long run it didn't matter as fans barely even talk about it because of how uneventful it truly was. So, with that out of the way, would I keep Barbie Wire around for a rewrite of HB? To that I say, yes! There are several paths Barbie Wire's overall character could go in. If you're mainly sticking to canon, then what you have to work with is a former circus performer who lost her mother in a fire caused by her twin brother that left his own best friend to rot and be disabled for the rest of his life. It's very likely that this very fire, caused her to be out of a job and probably even homeless for a bit which could explain why she ended up becoming both a drug attic and a drug dealer. Homelessness is one of the few things that nobody wants to experience. It causes people to be filled with a sense of overwhelming loneliness and desperation as many of them either believe that there's nothing they can do or they do anything and everything that they can to get out of it even if that means resorting to crime. If you wanted to have her be loosely based on canon instead, you could make it to where she never learned about who started the fire and actually stuck with Blitzo well into adulthood. Have her become one of the members of I.M.P. and later down the line have her learn through someone like Fizz or maybe Cash (her and Blitzo's father) what actually went down that day. Have her be rightfully pissed off at Blitzo for screwing over multiple people along with being the one responsible for killing their mom. Anyway, let's proceed onto Stella and her daughter Octavia.

As much as the narrative wants me to hate Stella with a burning passion cause she hurts Stolas, I can't do it for multiple reasons but I'll list my top three. #01.) Stella's just as (if not even more so) stuck in this arranged loveless marriage as Stolas is. #02.) If the man I had no choice in marrying not only cheated on me with a man from one of the lowest classes in all of Hell but IN OUR OWN HOME & SHARED BEDROOM NO LESS? OH, FUCK NO!

#03.) This woman had to spend 9 months having to nourish and care for a baby inside her stomach that she had with a man that didn't even want to sleep with her. On top of that, she had to have become pregnant with Octavia when she was a young adult since current day Stolas and Stella are only in their mid 30s. I need you to let that information sink in.

In short, I can't hate Stella for loathing Viv's pathetic self insert bird twink with every fiber of her being.

Having said that, would I have Stella in my HB rewrite? Well, considering that I plan on keeping the war that happened in the bible that caused Lucifer and several angels to fall from grace, one of which being Stolas. Kind of. Allow me to elaborate, I would keep Stella as Octavia's mother but I wouldn't have her marry Stolas. I'd have her be a surrogate mother that way Stolas still gets an heir and Octavia could still exist. Speaking of Octavia...

We all know that she exists to make Stolas look like a better person as several stans of this show love to say how much of a good dad Stolas is when he isn't. He neglects Octavia frequently in favor of Blitzo and only pays attention to her when she's gone although EVEN THAT doesn't last long as shown in Seeing Stars where HE KNEW Octavia was missing on Earth but rather than ACTIVELY look for his daughter, what does he do? HE SITS THROUGH A STUPID LIVE COMEDY SHOW CAUSE BLITZO IS PERFORMING! HE COMPLETELY SIDELINES HIS OWN DAUGHTER IN FAVOR OF A LIVE COMEDY SHOW!

God, Octavia deserves so much better than to have a dad like him. I'm keeping Octavia for my HB rewrite so that this poor girl not only realizes how much of a bastard her dad is but eventually gets the found family she deserves. I don't plan for it to be through I.M.P. though. In closing, the characters of this show deserve to be better developed but especially the women in them.

_______

That was a long one to get through cause it's been on my mind for a while. Thank you all for reading through it and bye for now everybody!

[postsforposting]

We Are Gathered Here Today

Nathan "Priscilla" Summers is from the future. Technically he was recently born, so he's....jailbait.

"My Sharona" is a song by The Kinks about lusting after a younger woman, asking when she's gonna give it up.

When you gonna give to me, g-give to me? Is it just a matter of time, Sharona? Is it j-just destiny, d-destiny Or is it just a game in my mind, Sharona?

As the Xmen are planning to attack Cable and Providence, Wade's singing My Sharona. Insinuating that they're going after an innocent, young, nubile....

...Priscilla, the jailbait wife of Elvis, King of rock 'n roll.

Wade's reaching out, offering his hand through the fourth wall, to serenade Cable. Who immediately snatches him away to "make a dramatic entrance".....

Cable's making his vows, Wade asks for dick (it's where he keeps his heart--remember the heart boxers later on?) and Cable's head breaks through the bottom wall up under Wade (anal joke).

Nate claimed he couldn't bodyslide without Wade, and it was implied they can't go anywhere without each other to separate locations. Yet here Wade reappears by himself at the Xmansion, and Nate presumably went to Providence. At least twice, Nate blips people across the planet and doesn't invoke a bodyslide: Lightmaster to space, and Anaconda to NYC. There's no reason he can't blip himself.

Every time he slides with Wade, it's deliberate. Not required, not an accident. Nate chooses him, every time. He took Wade on his dramatic entrance deliberately, to invoke Scary Dog Privileges. Making Cable a....giant phallic object tease carrot.

Wade reappears with the Xmen and asks for a new ID with his "new name" on it. Why would he need a new ID for a new name, pray tell?

These jokers got married between the panels.

On the way to attack Providence, where everything happens for a reason as ordained by god, Wade's singing on the way to see the Big Kahuna--euphemistically about to "see god". You know what sacrament is ordained by god? By god-the-creator-authors who exist beyond the panels, a sacrament where everyone loves a dramatic entrance with fancy new clothes?

Ennio Morrison is best known for scoring spaghetti westerns, most famously the genre satire The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Among other implications, it's foreshadowing that these "good guys", who ignored basic ethics in the previous panel, aren't meant to win this battle and that appearances aren't what they seem.

The actual lyric in Wade's song is "Celebrate the moment of our love". A song about marriage.

We've been together for a long-long time So gather glory girl, your love's all mine Never thought this love affair would last I'm here to say those thoughts are in the past

girl you made my dreams become reality (Yes, I know how much you care)

(Yes, I know how much you care) maybe it's the joy that you bring, you're my life, my everything

I want you my love, never let go We'll make it through, yeah We got to be strong, right or wrong I'll love you forever

Weddings usually involve special clothes and rings. Wade was VERY SPECIFIC about his wedding dress clothes....

He kept the....golden....panties and showed them off to the B.A.D. Girls after the Black Mamba dream. People love showing off their wedding rings, especially as proof of heternormativity.

As the Xmen make their way through Providence to Cable, they go directly to nothing but the best honeymoon penthouse suite to find Cable floating on the precipice (orgasm joke). Wade overcomes all objections to the union to stand up with him.

Cable already knows everything. He already knows Wade's on his side forever. Because they've already eloped.

Cable wastes no time in flipping him over, rocking his world and sending him off the precipice, to the other side away from the battle. Taking care of him. Cable himself floats upsidedown when he's meditating; holding Wade that way is a dominance powerplay but it also means he's treating Wade how he would himself. He's got the same euphemistic power over Wade as he literally has over himself.

Cable says he planned all this, including holding Wade on the edge, dumping him on his back with his legs in the air and "merging" with Wade at the Church (missionary marriage joke, on several levels). Did he plan to lose to the Xmen, and only reversed course to fight when Wade showed up to save him? Or is he lying, and he planned to show the world he could only be taken out by something weird and strange a "higher form" of virtually omnipotent life?

The subtext is that SS and Wade, who just blew off the Xmen, are the same. SS gets praised for it while Wade, also doing what he thinks is right, is getting shafted for it. Wade recognizes that, and is hiding his frustration by claiming "it's cool": it's read as "this is great", but the wordplay can also mean "it doesn't bother me". It most certainly does given that third panel "wtf" expression.

The weird and strange Deadpool, fully aware of what goes on beyond the panels, is responsible for taking Cable out. He's following Cable's wish--not an order, an expressed desire and expectation--to take him out. For many kinds of mind-blowing death. He's gotta return the favor, after Cable did it twice for him. At first sight, no less.

He's trusting that Wade will do it, and letting Wade decide for himself.

That show of trust, especially with his body/life after this, makes Nate's later civil war and hallucination shenanigans all the worse. Nate knew all along that the war would happen, and which side he'd be on. But he led Wade to think he was on the registration side--used Wade's desire to be above board, to be a hero, to be on the right side of things--so that he'd have someone he could trust not to kill him in order to undermine the Fifty States Act that the war was a trojan for.

He gives Wade the opportunity to kill him after all that, but Wade doesn't take it. I don't think he refused because Nate didn't deserve it or he thought it was acceptable. I think Wade refused because he thinks it's what WADE deserves. Did he know shooting him wouldn't work, or would it not matter either way? He'd thought Nate was different, wouldn't do that to him, that....everyone deserved to be saved.

I think that's why the divorce happened how it did, because Wade had finally gotten what he wanted, and Nate ruined it. I don't think it was coincidental, I think it Wade's success was planned, and Nate always planned to ruin it. The control freak needs something to control; short of being able to save anyone, dependency is almost the same thing.

Nate doesn't ask Wade to come back to Providence after the civil war stuff. He instead tries to force him with the hallucinations. For all he says everyone deserves heaven, he sure doesn't take chances when he thinks he won't get his. Does Nate think he doesn't deserve Wade, and that's why he tries to force it instead of risking rejection? Trying to make himself an excuse so he doesn't have to admit what he wants?

If we assume Nate's always known about the Split Second events, then he's after Wade because he knows Wade cares. Every time they touch, he gets this feeling he's the one exception. But he wants him to admit it. Nathan wants to be the one desired by the guy who needs no one.

If we don't include the SS retcon events, then Nate is after Wade because Wade's the one guy who'll never admit anything. The one who won't let himself be saved, can't be saved. Nathan Summers, patron saint of lost causes and martyrdom. Wade pushes everyone away because he thinks he'll ruin everything; Nate thinks he has a duty to fix everything even at his own expense.

After the Church events that ruined Wade's appearance again, Nate does apologize....but only weeks later. He won't admit he wants anyone, instead attempting to force them to come to him.

Cable hired Wade to go after the facade virus. He wanted him to succeed, to bring it to the Church. Cable didn't need to show up and interfere at all....except that he couldn't resist providing a little friction, making things hard, making sure Wade would enjoy blasting him in the face before asking Wade to take him out. Nate just couldn't keep his hands off.

Wade's not just Cable's herald, he's his other half, the satan to his jesus. The sweet little carrot to Cable's big stick.

Which is funny because Wade is taking the fall, unwittingly, for Cable every time. Never asks him to clear things up with the world, doesn't expect him to, and Cable never offers. The world needs a sacrifice, a scapegoat, and the perfect way to do that is the guy who can't die. The guy who can't physically be harmed....much like Cable himself, protected by his powers. I think Cable knows how much it hurts Wade, but he does it anyway. Does he do it in spite of sentimentality, or does he do it because Cable thinks he himself doesn't deserve to be saved? That ruining the one person who knows him is his penance? Does he do it for the same reason Wade pushes people away, that he'll ruin everything he touches like Dom said? But he keeps going back to Wade, so does he regret his actions or is it that he just can't resist reaching out? And can't resist blowing it all up again before Wade can get disillusioned about Cable saving him? Hurt him first, push him away first, before it all goes sour outside your control. Like Wade does to push everyone away. Be the one to end it because that's better than it being taken from you.

I think Wade keeps coming back to Cable because at least with him, getting screwed over is for a good purpose. Instead of the usual "he deserves it". Cable makes sure Wade knows he doesn't deserve it, that he wishes there was another way. Is there no way? Or do they just keep doing stupid things to stay together because both want the other to admit it first?

Nate doesn't trust he can change anything despite trying anyway, and Wade doesn't think he can be a hero. Same coin. They both ruin their own stuff, the difference is that Nate can get back up again smelling like roses. Ruthless in the worst way. And that's why he just keeps screwing Deadpool.

[kerubimcrepin]

LIVEREAD: WAKFU, THE GREAT WAVE [TOME 1, Chapters 1-3]

I want to preemptively say that I wasn't the biggest fan of The Great Wave, while reading it originally. It had less to do with the contents of the comic, and more with the pacing — it's written in a very... webtoon-unfriendly way. Every week I'd wait, and then not much would happen.

I am hoping it will be less exhausting to read this comic this time, but there just isn't a lot that happens in it. It's quite sad, really.

Now that I am done with the "hey, I am not the biggest fan of the way this was executed, at least in this tome" warning, I want to say that I actually really like the idea of a tragic story. Like fuck yesss. With all the amount of foreshadowing we got, we deserve to see how Yugo's good intentions are going to bring disaster.

I will be honest, the day this dropped I went to discord and everyone was screaming "THEY ADDED PORN TO WAKFU" and then when I was finally able to read the comic after someone finally pirated and sent it to me, I saw the world's shortest scene of intimacy between a married couple.

Normal world.

Anyway: STOP FUCKING WHILE WEARING THE WORLD-ENDING MAGICAL NUKES ON YOU.

Hey chat! This reminds me of a very poggers thing I had said a while before this manga realeased:

You have no fucking idea how bigly I won. And this isn't even the last win of mine in this manga. No, I just keep winning and winning. Please, Tot Ankama, I beg you through whatever psychic link we have: do this thing you did to Yugo to Joris too. He deserves it.

In the future, I will be liveblogging myself reading the entire tomes too; instead of making small posts, as the comic releases chapter by chapter.

One of the reasons why? I love writing this post, while knowing full-well that these are Grougalorasalar's words.

MAN, I predicted Grougalorasalar using emotionally manipulative language that's pretty much "you're a fraud, you're amoral, DIE" in nightmarish visions sent to people ages before this manga happened, in my fanfic. And I was so giddy — because I love the idea of 'Salar torturing people like that, and because it means I got something right without having too much data to back it up!

First Joris war criminal arc, then Salar emotional abuse via nightmare visions arc... How is my taste so similar to Tot's??

I think it's very funny for Salar to be moralizing now. My brother in crepinjurgening, you were trying to resurrect your lizard son by shattering his soul forever and bringing him unimaginable suffering so that you can go commit more war crimes together?

Then again, his war crimes had virtually no chance of ending the world. I suppose it's natural for a Black Fire dragon to understand the sort of danger Yugo presents — the fact that they may all end up the same way the Necro world is...

I guess his morals are as weird as Joris's (world ending = bad, war crimes = sometimes good if they do those themselves?). Similarities are only to be expected, since they influenced and changed one-another irrevocably.

this shuoild happen to joris too. pleask.

LITERALLY IT'S SO FUNNY. HE'S SEEN THIS SORTA SHIT HAPPEN AGAIN AND AGAIN AND IS STILL GOING DOWN THAT ROUTE. BRO? 😭

Somehow I really doubt that Grougalorasalar's involvement in this situation is going to improve it in any way.

"I am the black dragon Grougalorasalar and I am going to save the world" ok and flowers can sing, and the world is made of pudding. Get a grip.

[twirling my hair around my fingers, giggling cutely] A shadow you say? This reminds me of Dofus MMO lore :3

I've seen people be upset at there being bigotry towards Eliatropes, but really — this has been coming since season 2. You've seen what a shitshow the idea of another class appearing caused back then.

Maybe it's my "knowing too much about hupperage oppression lore" and "knowing just a little bit about ouginak oppression lore" bias kicking in, but I'm not surprised? Eh?

THEY MULTIPLIED?!

Guys I don't think they're happy.

Originally this made me giggle: "ohh, is Joris going to have to choose between Bonta and his friendship with Yugo, in the future tomes of this manga? I wonder what he will choose, tee-hee."

But ngl, considering the fact that Joris has already demonstrated choosing Yugo over Bonta in season 4, and has been implied to be at odds with the government of Bonta during some ages, and downright opposed in others — I think we know the answer.

Literally not how it would work in real life. Even if Aurora has the right to inherit the throne in some way, her father is completely unrelated to that. He shouldn't even be here — if Aurora has the right to inherit the throne, it means she was made a member of the Sheran-Sharm family, and is no longer a part of her original family, because— [STARTS FOAMING AT THE MOUTH FROM ANGER]

[squash1]

THREES THREES THREES:

Oh hello. I want to talk about the stylistic/textual role of Threes in The Raven Cycle.

Threes – as a general concept and as a number – are a major symbol and motif in the series. Maggie tells us that threes are important from the very first book: from Maura’s favorite saying being “good things come in threes” to Persephone telling Adam that “things are always growing to three or shrinking to three,” threes are discussed at length in the text of the narrative. Maggie also shows us that threes are important as a motif/symbol for important aspects of the story: three Raven Boys, three Fox Way women, three Lynch brothers, three main ley lines, three sleepers, etc. Threes are, textually, incredibly significant in The Raven Cycle, and we know this because we are shown AND told it throughout the entirety of the books. 

We all know the significance that is given to threes in the story itself, but what I want to talk about is the usage of a thrice-repeated word or short phrase (going forward I’m referring to this as “Threes” or “a Three”) as one of Maggie’s writing signatures (across the series, there are 65 Threes). This creates a meta level to threes being an important aspect of The Raven Cycle universe. A classic example of a Three (one of my favorites, in fact) is from The Dream Thieves: 

“As they walked, a sudden rush of wind hurled low across the grass, bringing with it the scent of moving water and rocks hidden in the shadows, and Blue thrilled again and again with the knowledge that magic was real, magic was real, magic was real.” (TDT, 12)

In a way, the Threes join the intradiegetic (what is happening within the narrative itself) with the extradiegetic (what the narration is communicating solely to the reader). The reader and characters are told explicitly that the number three is significant, important, notable, and powerful. In using Threes as a writing signature after giving the reader that information, the Threes are designed to signal to the reader that this line, this moment, is important.    

So the question is: What Are The Threes Trying to Tell the Reader??? 

Amazing question. 

In my recent TRC reread, I was already keeping track of Threes, because I was curious to see how many times they appeared. And then my sister, who was also rereading, said something interesting (after reading this Three from The Raven Boys):  

“He was full of so many wants, too many to prioritize, and so they all felt desperate. To not have to work so many hours, to get into a good college, to look right in a tie, to not still be hungry after eating the thin sandwich he’d brought to work, to drive the shiny Audi that Gansey had stopped to look at with him once after school, to go home, to have hit his father himself, to own an apartment with granite countertops and a television bigger than Gansey’s desk, to belong somewhere, to go home, to go home, to go home.” (TRB, 370)

My sister said: “Adam’s like Dorothy.” And then she said: “Wait. Do you think the Threes are like a spell? Or… a wish?”

Which was……. Interesting. 

What I have determined, after completing my reread and spending way too much time analyzing this, is that a Three is either a wish, a hope, a longing, a prayer – or, alternately, a warning, a curse, a negative promise. 

In either sense, Threes are a foreshadowing of what is to come – whether it be good or bad. Threes exist to signal to the reader that they should be paying close attention to whatever is being said or observed.

Threes in….. Everything Else: 

Before we get too far into TRC Threes, let’s talk about the precedent for three being an important number in art, math, storytelling, etc. I found some interesting information about how three is a satisfying number for the brain: 

Grouping things in threes leverages the power of repetition to aid memory; denote emotional intensity or importance; and ease persuasion (research by Shu & Carlson (2014) found that three positive claims is the most effective for persuasion).

Three is the smallest number that the brain can still recognize as a pattern, and the brain loves pattern and repetition. This is true in visual art – having three main compositional figures to create a pleasing image – and also in storytelling and narrative. Using threes for repetition in storytelling is a very common occurrence. 

Some classic examples of repetitive threes are Shakespeare’s “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” or Lincoln's “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.” In each of these examples, a repetition of three is used to create pleasing auditory rhythm. There is something inherently memorable about literary Threes. 

Perhaps the most interesting information I found while digging into the precedent for threes is about the rule of threes in folktales. This information happens to come from Wikipedia (side note: Wikipedia is a modern tool of collective consciousness and we should utilize it more). This page describes how in its most basic form, the rule of threes in storytelling is just beginning, middle, and end. Because this is such a common convention, writers tend to “create triplets or structures in three parts.” It then talks more directly about the use of threes in folktales: 

“Vladimir Propp in his Morphology of the Folk Tale, concluded that any of the elements in a folktale could be negated twice so that it would repeat thrice.”

This is especially interesting to me. The idea that an element of a folktale “could be negated twice so that it would repeat thrice” shows up prominently in the plot of The Raven Cycle – a book that is heavily influenced by folktale motifs – but also in so many of the folktales/fairytales we all know. A classic example of this would be Goldilocks and the Three Bears – Goldilocks must try porridge that is too hot, too cold, and then, finally, just right. The journey of these three actions is satisfying to the brain because it is a complete pattern: the third and final result of “just right” porridge is only satisfying because of the two “not right” porridges that preceded it. 

Getting back to Stiefvater Threes:

For anyone who’s seen The West Wing (and even those who haven’t), here’s a good way to explain what I think the Threes are doing. You know that thing they do during a The West Wing “walk and talk” where two characters will be throwing information and little quips back and forth at each other rapid-fire, and then suddenly, they will both stop walking, and the camera will stop moving, and they’ll say a line that contains really important information that you need to know to understand the storyline of that episode? That’s what Maggie’s Threes are doing for the reader. That’s what 6:21 is doing for the characters. It’s intentional: the writers/directors/actors/camera operators on The West Wing know that they’re throwing a lot of information at you, and know that they need to get you to pay attention to the most important parts somehow, so they do it by forcing the viewer to lean in and listen. It changes the focus and energy of the scene from something with momentum to something that pauses, and therefore makes you pause. 

The Threes compel the reader to pause and consider the information being delivered as more important than they might consider it if it was not written as a Three. “Maura’s expression was dark” does not read the same as “Maura’s expression was dark, dark, dark.” And in a text where characters directly state the magical importance of threes, compounded by three as an overarching motif, there is clear intention and meaning behind these written Threes.

In the context of TRC, Threes act as a fourth-wall break.

They are essentially a way to poke the reader and say: “Are you paying attention? Because you should be.” 

These Threes use a symbolic motif – the rule of three – that is already heavily discussed in the text – to get the reader to pick up on the internal motivations of the character who is “wishing” their Three or the narration which is using a Three to foreshadow some important aspect of the plot. 

The Threes are like the literary equivalent of a record scratch. It stops you in your tracks, breaking the established rhythm and making you take notice of what is being said in a new way. 

Let’s Look at Some More Threes (but just a few don’t worry)!

1. We get a classic Three, and a very Gansey Three, right after the group comes out of Cabeswater: 

“‘What about that thing in the tree?’ Blue asked. ‘Was that a hallucination? A dream?’ 

Glendower. It was Glendower. Glendower. Glendower” (TRB, 231).

Finding Glendower is one of Gansey’s core wishes, one of his core longings. Although this line is a literal answer to Blue’s question – he saw Glendower in the tree – in making it a Three, Maggie has given it added weight and meaning. It is prayer-like in its intention. It is almost an incantation: by saying it in Three, Gansey wishes it into being.

2. In The Raven Boys, after Gansey has bribed Pinter to keep Ronan at Aglionby and has learned that Noah has been dead the whole time they’ve known him, we are given this Three: 

“The Pig exploded off the line. Damn Ronan. Gansey punched his way through the gears, fast, fast, fast” (TRB, 311). 

This moment foreshadows what directly follows: a distinct lack of fast as the Camaro breaks down and Gansey is held at gunpoint by Whelk. This Three is not a prayer, but a warning, and an indicator to the reader that something important is about to happen. Had Gansey not been trying to go so “fast fast fast,” the car might not have broken down; because the Three incanted it, disaster follows. 

3. To return to a Three I have already mentioned, but follows the typical Three structure: 

“...to go home, to go home, to go home” (TRB, 370). 

In this scene, Adam’s wish is less about actually wanting to return to his literal home, because his house was never really a home for him. Adam’s wish/longing is for a home that he could return to, that he would want to return to. He is longing for a place/feeling/experience that does not exist for him. The Three in this sentence comes after a string of active wishes/longings, and by ending with this Three, it casts a spell of sorts, honing in on the truest underlying wish that Adam has. In using the phrase “to go home” three times, the narrative is making sure you, the reader, know that this want, this need, this wish, is the most Important to Adam, and will drive his actions for the rest of his story. 

Most of the Threes feel like this. They are often tacked on at the end of a sentence or embedded in a sentence. They’re an addendum to the action of the story. They’re like casting a spell – once to manifest, twice to charge, three to cast. 

…..And Some Other Types of Threes:

Then there are the Threes that don't follow the typical pattern of the same word repeated three times one right after the other, but are still a Three in a different way.

There are short phrases/sentences that are repeated three times throughout a page or chapter. In the prologue of The Raven King, we get this: 

“He was a king…

He was a king…

He was a king.

This was the year he was going to die.” (TRK, 1-3)

In this case, the Three acts as a promise of Gansey’s kinghood, but in ending the sequence with “this was the year he was going to die,” the promise of the three is given a condition: it is not going to be a joyful kinghood, but instead a kinghood intertwined with the death we’ve known is fated for Gansey.

One of Adam’s Threes from Blue Lily, Lily Blue, uniquely breaks the mold of Threes in a format that does not appear anywhere else in the four books: 

“It was his father. 

He opened the door. 

It was his father. 

He opened the door. 

It was his father” (BLLB, 242).

❋ (We’ll talk about this one more in-depth later.)

There are also a few “unfinished” Threes: 

In The Raven King when Ronan is having a nightmare (infected by the demon) about Matthew and the mask, he has this Three: 

“Ronan’s throat was raw. I’ll do anything! I’ll do anything! I’ll do anythi 

It was unmaking everything Ronan loved. 

Please” (TRK, 96). 

With the uncompleted Three, there is an uncast wish. Ronan’s wish is about Matthew, yes of course, but also about being willing to do anything to keep those he loves (ie. Adam, Gansey, Blue, his brothers) out of the reach of the “unmaking.” This unfinished Three serves to foreshadow the harm that does ultimately befall first Adam and then Gansey as a result of the unmaking of Cabeswater by the demon: without the Three spell completed, his wish is not fulfilled.

*This is Not all the uncommon/mold-breaking Threes, just a few that are interesting!

Do All Threes Come to Fruition???

The short answer is: No. Or at least not in that way. 

Once again looking at the text of The Raven Cycle, we are given an answer of sorts. In discussing Gansey’s predicted death, Maura says:

“First of all, the corpse road is a promise, not a guarantee” (TRB, 155).

This seems to apply to Threes as well. Threes are not a guarantee. They are a promise. Not all Threes come to fruition the way one might expect – or at all, for that matter. The important part of Threes is not that they will definitely come true, it’s that they could come true, because the Three gives them the potential to come true. 

Structure, Structure, Structure:

The main Threes structures are:

Three of the same word separated by commas: 

“magic, magic, magic” (TRK, 59).

A short phrase/sentence separated by periods:

“My father. My father. My father” (TDT, 369).

A short sentence that is repeated three times throughout a page/paragraph:

“Gansey did not breathe…

Gansey did not breathe…

Gansey did not breathe” (TRK, 209).

A word that is repeated three times and is connected by “and”:

“Round and round and round!” (BLLB, 224)

Italics vs. Non Italics:

Italics in The Raven Cycle are often used for character’s inner thoughts/anxieties. This continues to be true in the context of Threes. A Three that is not written in italics indicates a promise, or some foreshadowing of a plot point being foretold through the Three – it is typically more “real” – whereas a Three that is written in Italics seems to indicate a wish/hope/longing that is unattainable in some way. Italics almost always indicate a Three that may never come to fruition, or at least not in the way the character hopes it will. 

An example of this distinction can be found in chapter three (hah) (I don’t believe in coincidences and neither does Gansey) of The Raven King: 

First we are met with Ronan wishing/hoping to return home:

“That morning, Ronan Lynch had woken early, without any alarm, thinking home, home, home” (TRK, 24). 

This home, home, home, is in reference to the idea of home rather than the reality. Ronan is wishing to return to a home that does exist physically, but is not the same as in his memory – he wants to be at the Barns as it was in his childhood. 

Then, in the very same chapter, Ronan actually returns home and we are given this Three: 

“Slowly his memories of before — everything this place had been to him when it had held the entire Lynch family — were being overlapped with memories and hopes of after — every minute that the Barns had been his, all of the time he’d spent here alone or with Adam, dreaming and scheming. 

Home, home, home” (TRK, 27).

This second home, home, home, is about the actual reality of being in his childhood home – the good and bad that has existed in the years since the childhood he longs for. 

The Addition of AND:

The most notable use of “and” is in Noah’s very last chapter:

“Sometimes he got caught in this moment instead. Gansey’s death. Watching Gansey die, again and again and again” (TRK, 416).

When “and” is added into a Three, it becomes circular, cyclical. The “and” gives the Three a sense of infinity, or creates a loop of sorts. 

This Three operates in the same way “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” does in Macbeth – it is meant to convey the endlessness of time, a relentless cycle of tomorrows.

❋ While there are not many of these Threes with “ands” in The Raven Cycle, there are other examples of Threes or Three-like occurrences that fulfill the same purpose as the “and.” For example, remember this Three:

“It was his father. 

He opened the door. 

It was his father. 

He opened the door. 

It was his father.” (BLLB, 242).

In this case, instead of the word “and,” the Three (It was his father) is connected by “he opened the door.” This Three is accomplishing the same feeling as “again and again and again” – the feeling of being caught in an endless loop. 

Another example of an (implied) “and” in The Raven Cycle is: Gansey’s life. Gansey starts out alive and then dies as a child only to be reborn, and then killed again through his sacrifice, and then reborn for a final time. Gansey is Alive, Dead, Alive, Dead, Alive. And so Gansey’s life is a cycle of Three.

As with the Threes that contain “and,” Gansey starts where he ends: alive. 

Other Ways Threes Show up in The Raven Cycle:   

I will state the obvious once again: there are three Raven Boys, three Lynch brothers, three Fox Way women, three sleepers, three main ley lines (the lines that “seem to matter” to Glendower’s story), Gansey the Third (Gansey Three, Dick Three). 

There are also the more obscure: the “three kinds of secrets” in The Dream Thieves prologue and epilogue; each Lynch brother inheriting three million dollars from Niall Lynch; the three figures with Blue’s face on the tapestry and later as a vision in Cabeswater; Adam and Gansey going to DC for three days; the shield pulled from the lake having three ravens embossed onto it; Ronan having dreamt Matthew at the age of three; the door to the Demon’s room needing “three to open” it; Aurora Lynch staying awake for three days after Niall died. 

And of course, we have the ley line symbol/chapter header:

And then there are the 300 (three hundred!) Fox Way “villain” readings. (This was something that was particularly interesting to me.)

The first antagonist we meet is Whelk. When he comes for a reading at 300 Fox Way, he first pulls the Three of Swords. 

When the women all draw cards together, they pull identical cards for Whelk: three of the Knight of Pentacles, then three of the Page of Cups. After drawing, essentially, three threes (the Three of Swords, then two sets of three matching cards) in this reading, the first Three of the entire series appears: 

“Maura’s expression was dark, dark, dark” (TRB, 124). 

The second “antagonist” we meet is the Gray Man, who comes to 300 Fox Way in The Dream Thieves to “observe.” Maura, Calla, and Persephone are predicting which card is on the top and bottom of the stack and the first card, predicted by Calla, is the Three of Cups off the top of the deck that Mr. Gray is holding (a remarkably happy card in stark contrast to Whelk’s Three of Swords). 

When the third antagonist, Greenmantle, comes for his 300 Fox Way Reading he also draws the Three of Swords. The fact that each of the three antagonists come for a reading is in itself a sort of Three, but to further the importance of these moments, each of them draws some sort of three-related card. 

All of the examples I have touched on have been more symbolic references to Three as a motif of the books as a whole. However, Threes also show up in the literal number of times important quotes are said/written. 

I was tracking some of the most well-loved TRC lines to compile them, and noticed that the lines “don’t throw it away” and “safe as life” happen to appear exactly three times throughout the series. This was honestly pretty surprising based on the importance of those quotes – I would have assumed they showed up far more. Actually, they both appear twice in The Raven Boys and once in The Raven King. Threes, and the importance of Threes, is embedded so strongly into the narrative of The Raven Cycle that even the quotes we all think of as the most beloved of the series follow this rule of Threes. 

Now, could you chalk some of these up to coincidence? I guess. But Gansey doesn’t believe in coincidences so I don’t either. So what’s the point of all these Threes?

Conclusion???

In a literal, literary way, Threes are a fourth wall break to make the importance of a moment obvious, but I’m not sure what the larger “point” of Threes is. My best analysis comes from the idea of The Raven Cycle being all about time and Threes playing into the importance of time as a sort of record scratch or loop. The Threes, as a stylistic, written motif, seem to connect the time-based cycle the characters experience to the time-based cycles the reader experiences by reading the books. 

But my conclusion feels incomplete and so I would like to rely on the collective for this one – just about the most Raven Cycle thing you can do. So I’m asking you, the collective you, what conclusion would you draw? What do you think? 

What I do know for sure is that Threes are magic, magic, magic.

For Your Convenience: Here is the textual significance given to threes within the books (chronologically): 

And here are the Threes, Threes, Threes (compiled):

(If you made it to the end of all this, I love you. Have a gold star and a hug <3)

[tossawary]

I still think that the ending of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" was poorly foreshadowed, specifically the lion turtles and the energy-bending. (Not Aang not killing Ozai! I like that part! It suits the themes, it suits the characters! That part is fine. I am glad that the last airbender found a way forward that respected his people and beliefs.)

Like, I saw ATLA when it was originally airing and I thought these things kind of "came out of nowhere" at the time. I have heard the arguments to the contrary over the years and I have never really been persuaded by them, while at the same time personally agreeing that the lion turtles and the energy-bending absolutely do fit the world and lore! They are fitting elements! They work! I like this ending at the same time that, in my personal opinion, I think it was poorly established.

I think that the story BEGINS to establish lion turtles and energy-bending well enough. We meet both many other spirit beings and bending-capable animals earlier on, including the Moon and Ocean Spirits who apparently gave the world water-bending. S2 introduces Ty Lee's chi-blocking techniques and Guru Pathik teaching Aang about chakras. There are also a handful of lion turtle easter eggs in the background of some episodes, the most prominent perhaps being on a scroll in Wan Shi Tong's library.

But the story then jumps from these various establishing elements all the way to "lion turtles are real and not extinct and telepathic and can also energy-bend and Aang has suddenly mastered this new art well enough to take someone else's bending away permanently, and these relatively new elements are going to resolve the main conflict of the show". It feels like "1+1=3" to me. I think that last jump in the story is too big. Like, we're REALLY close, but I personally needed another 1 in there somewhere to bridge that final gap and get to that 3.

(Includes some fic ideas / suggestions on how to maybe add to strengthen the foreshadowing under the cut.)

The fact that a lot of people, especially more casual viewers, were really confused by the way all of these elements suddenly came together at the end says to me that, no, the foreshadowing that WAS done (there WAS foreshadowing, I cannot rightfully say that it all came completely out of "nowhere", but it) was not good enough. Or maybe I should compare it to someone presenting me with all of the necessary ingredients for a cake and then telling me that it IS cake? Yes, all of the right ingredients are HERE, I agree, this COULD be a really great cake, but... you still have to mix it all together in a bowl and then put it in the oven to bake to get that specific cake. It's not quite cooked yet.

(Okay, wow, that sounds kind of mean. Maybe I should compare it more to a missing stair? We have MOST of the staircase, I just need one last step to get to the Deus Ex Machina at the top. To be clear: I don't think a "Deus Ex Machina" is inherently bad. I often like them a lot. I just wanted a little more foreshadowing than the stuff that is already there.)

In storytelling, there's this technique casually called "The Rule of Three". (And yes, of course, rules were made to be bent or broken depending on what story you're trying to tell, but usually, these rules exist because they are effective.) This rule is also sometimes known as "Introduction, Pattern, and Payoff". (It has other names, but that's how I remember it.)

Very loosely, this rule states that an important element of the story must appear at least three times. 1. It must be introduced / established in the world. 2. It must appear again to remind the audience that it exists / and establish a pattern such that the audience begins to expect it to appear again later. (And is hopefully excited for it.) 3. Payoff. The element returns in an important way, probably to resolve part of the plot. The previous two appearances have acted as foreshadowing for this ending.

There's also a "Rule of Two" version of this general storytelling technique. Like, "If this special crystal can zap the bad guy and save the day, we have to have shown or at least told the audience that it can do that BEFORE the big final fight scene."

In regards to ATLA, no, I don't think that a scroll in a library or a statue in the background of some scene served as adequate introduction and reminder for the existence of lion turtles, so it didn't necessarily feel like a payoff for me that they solved the main conflict. (It's the "solved the main conflict" that's most of the issue for me. If the lion turtles had just appeared in another episode as a random cool thing like those sea monsters by Kyoshi Island, I would not have cared.)

I actually think that the establishment of other spirits like the Moon Spirit and bending-capable animals like sky bison and dragons can serve as a decent enough "Step 1) Introduction". Though this does not establish that lion turtles specifically exist, we have established that powerful creatures similar to lion turtles exist. But I still needed a solid "Step 2) Pattern / Reminder" that would have established that lion turtles specifically exist and are important BEFORE one shows up at the end like that.

I think that there's at least one episode somewhere in Book 1 or Book 2 that could have been cut in favor of an episode where the Gaang meets and rescues a young lion turtle baby or something.

Maybe Guru Pathik could have learned his ways FROM a lion turtle? Aang could have gone to an isolated village somewhere (with more brown people besides just Guru Pathik?) where people are living in harmony with a lion turtle, or maybe even on the back of a lion turtle! That would be cool!

Concept: Aang encounters Guru Pathik living alone on the back of a lion turtle which doesn't talk to people anymore (Aang swims down to look at its face and it doesn't even look at him), because its kind have been hunted nearly to extinction and it's tired of violence. Guru Pathik learned his ways from his old teacher, who learned from his old teacher, all the way up the teaching lineage from a person who once learned from the lion turtle itself before it gave up on the world. Guru Pathik tends to this nearly empty temple on the back of a silent lion turtle who ignores him, because he will not forsake his teachings even when the world seems uninterested in hearing them and the old lion turtle seems like it could die any day now. The people in the fishing village on the shore think that Guru Pathik is crazy and most of them don't even believe that the floating island really is a lion turtle, it's just weird geography.

Guru Pathik could also have chi-blocking abilities! We could see him demonstrate them in self-defense! He could teach a few chi-blocking moves to Aang, who could later go on to use them occasionally in Book 3, and it would have been really cool to see Aang exploring non-bending skills. We don't need Guru Pathik to explicitly name energy-bending here, but I would like to connect him just a touch more strongly to chi-blocking. Like, he IS connected already by helping Aang clear chakras, which is kind of like a reverse of chi-blocking, but it would be nice to establish Guru Pathik as somewhat capable of the opposite but perhaps not liking to use the skill.

Aang really vibes with this dying culture of pacifists, but he still has to leave Guru Pathik before he can finish the training. Later on, he can encounter Guru Pathik and the silent lion turtle again, and he can confess to them how desperately he doesn't want to have to kill anyone, no matter what his past lives say. He just wants to STOP the violence and restore balance to the world without sacrificing himself. And THEN the lion turtle could wake up and gift him with energy-bending.

Or something like that! The foreshadowing doesn't have to be THAT heavy-handed, but SOME brief appearance by an actual lion turtle would have served as a better "Step 2) Pattern" to me.

Things like chi-blocking, chakras, water-bending healing, water-benders losing their bending when the Moon Spirit was killed, and even Zuko's spiritual turmoil serve as a good "Step 1) Introduction" to the concept of energy-bending to me. The ingredients are THERE. But again, I would have liked some clearer "Step 2) Pattern" that had actually baked the cake in regards to this being a skill Aang had specifically.

The above episode concept with Guru Pathik on the back of a lion turtle could have worked as a "Step 2) Pattern / Reminder" for energy-bending.

ANOTHER option would be to have Aang temporarily lose his bending at the beginning of Book 3, after Katara resurrects him with that special spirit water after Azula killed him at the end of Book 2.

I think Aang losing his bending for at least 3-4 episodes would have been really good for him / the show. So much of Aang's identity is tied up at this point in being the Avatar and the responsibilities of being the Avatar. Losing his bending, especially his AIR-BENDING, and his connection to the spirit world and his past lives would send him into a personal crisis. The Gaang could worry over whether or not a new Avatar has somehow been born or if the Avatar powers are gone forever. The characters could confront the fact that perhaps they've been relying too much on Aang as the Avatar and what they'll do now without the Avatar.

Also, it would be really funny if Aang woke up and picked up his glider to jump off that boat, then just fell into the ocean, and Katara needed to fish him out. (Which would then transition into the dramatic revelation that he has lost his bending!!!)

Katara could use her healing abilities to tell Aang that what's happened to him feels a lot like Ty Lee's chi-blocking. Katara would then probably try to emphasize with Aang, who gets angry with her and says she has no idea what this feels like! Katara could then have a really good intimate scene with Aang over how scary it was when the Moon Spirit was killed, what it physically felt like to lose that spiritual connection, and how scared she was even afterwards about what it would have been like to permanently lose that connection to her people and her culture. Aang then apologizes to Katara and they resolve to find his bending again.

Aang then goes on some spiritual journey with his friends to reconnect with his bending and his past lives as the Avatar. Probably some partially internal spiritual journey with Guru Pathik's teachings. Katara and Toph could both talk about what bending means to them personally as different people, and also what it feels like to them as they interact with the elements of the world around them.

Aang could have some cool fight scenes where he dodges some random thugs using all of his bending skills (martial arts) without the actual bending, air-bending techniques, water-bending techniques, and earth-bending techniques, and then finally some chi-blocking techniques that Guru Pathik showed him. There could be some scene where Aang saves a kid from these random thugs and realizes that he can still do good in the world even if he's not the Avatar! Even if he's not a bender anymore!

There could also be some REALLY funny scenes of Aang trying to get Appa and Momo to teach him how to reconnect with his air-bending. Aang mimicking their movements and so on. (Sokka: "Is that... working so far, buddy?" Aang: "NO! They're terrible teachers!!!" Cue sad Appa bleating and offended Momo chittering.)

You could even do it in a cycle of sorts, where Aang reconnects with his air-bending first using Guru Pathik's teachings and his friends' help. (He is OVERJOYED.) And then Aang slowly regains water-bending and earth-bending over the next few episodes, culminating in him having to face his fears learning fire-bending again. I think you could accomplish this storyline by squeezing it into about 3-4 episodes, or else starting off with losing then regaining air-bending plus the Avatar state in the first 2 episodes of the season and then threading relearning the other elements in the background through later episodes.

ANOTHER option where Aang temporarily loses his bending is after the eclipse, because he has a spiritual crisis over the fact that he was resolved to kill someone and he really doesn't want to do that. I don't like this option so much because it feels a little too late in the season compared to kicking off Book 3 with the drama of Aang losing his bending(!!!), but it's an option.

See, if Aang temporarily loses his bending and has to find it again somehow, then the show could establish what this kind "energy-bending" and spiritual manipulation within a person looks like. If Aang has had to get his bending BACK, then it would better establish Aang then using this ability he has now practiced on himself to take bending away from another person. It's a pleasantly surprising twist that Aang figures out how to reverse a previously established energy-bending technique and successfully uses it against Ozai.

And then the ending, though arguably still in the realm of a Deus Ex Machina (which is cool), would feel more like "Step 3) Payoff" instead of "What just happened?" We needed to see more obviously that Aang was capable of ANY kind of energy-bending before it saved the day like that.

Anyway! This post became way longer than originally intended! I hope this has made it clear that I like both the lion turtles and energy-bending as concepts. I think there are many elements in the show that begin to introduce lion turtles and energy-bending as Aang uses it as things that COULD exist. I just think that the show needed some kind of additional baking step in the middle to establish a pattern and use those ingredients to foreshadow that specific "an ancient lion turtle teaches Aang energy-bending and Aang then uses it against someone else" ending.

[realscreaminggoat]

my rough draft for the song analysis essay is done! it took me forever but i would appreciate feedback if you have any 💜💚

(spoiler warning)

The Ballad of the Witches Road Analysis

Marvel is gay now, that is pretty exciting. Now that the hook is done, it is time to get into the essay. Agatha All Along is a show about Agatha Harkness, a 350 year old witch, and how she, her ex, her found coven, and their gay adopted teenager trek down the Witches Road (which does not exist), to get what they want most. It is a long and dangerous journey, but worth it in the end. They sing a song/protection spell, and if listened to closely, it foreshadows a lot of Agatha’s past, and the terrible event of her son’s death, all to an exciting and upbeat tune.

The first verse is sung entirely by Agatha, so of course it would relate solely to her. She sings, “I have learned the lesson/Of all that’s foul and fair”. This is referencing her son Nicky, who was destined to die at birth. She begged Lady Death, otherwise known as Rio, to help him live, and Rio agreed to break the rules and give them more time together because she loved Agatha. Nicky was alive for six more years before Rio had to take him. Nicky’s death was her lesson on all that foul and fair, because although it hurt and she was angry with Rio for years, she eventually learned that it had to happen, and Rio was just doing her job. The verse then goes on to discuss Agatha’s present time, as well as the Road. She sings, “The road is there/And so I dare/To risk this heart of mine”. Rio was on the Road, and Agatha was stuck with her while still angry over Nicky’s death. She remembered how much she loved Rio during her time on the Road, and that she was just doing her job by taking Nicky. The song transitions of a chorus which most states “Down down down the road/Down the witches road” many times over again, before moving to the second verse (also sung by Agatha)

Verse two references both the present and Agatha’s past with Rio. The verse begins with the lines “I have known the power/Of midnights in the wood/”. This, of course, is about the night that Nicky died. He died during the night. Rio came to take him without waking Agatha, most likely because she knew that Agatha would protest. That was a very powerful time in Agatha’s life, and the grief of losing her son also helped her to become more powerful by fueling her rage to kill other witches. Next the song references Agatha and Rio’s relationship with “I’ve danced inside the circle/Of all that bad and good”. Rio is seen as both bad and good by Agatha because her job is necessary for life and must be done, but it also causes her massive amounts of grief over the loss of Nicky. Now, back to the present with the lines, “Tame your fears/A door appears/To love that never dies”. They are on the road now, and forced to be together after everything that has happened, and Agatha is reminded of her love for Rio. Even after everything that happened between them over the centuries her love for Rio never died. The song goes back to the past with the next part, the bridge.

The bridge is arguably the most important part of the song, with multiple meanings and interpretations. The bridge seems very straightforward at first, reminding the audience that the song was written as a love song, and it can be connected to Agatha’s situation very closely. The bridge goes as follows, “If I can’t reach you/Let my song teach you/All you need to keep our love alive/If I can’t hold you/Remember what I told you/It’s the only way we survive/We survive”. This is going all the way back to Nicky, Agatha’s son. He was the one who made the first ballad, and although it did not include these lyrics, the song itself was a way of putting a name on what he and his mother did to stay alive. They travelled and tricked other witches into attacking Agatha, and then she stole their power and killed them. This helped Agatha to become more powerful, but it also kept Rio busy, and stopped her from being able to come and collect Nicky, who was supposed to die at birth. Rio gave them extra time together, but Agatha still tried to prolong that time as much as possible. Eventually Rio did have to take Nicky, and after word Agatha turned the song into a ballad and used it to trick witches into believing in the Road, and that singing it would open the Road. When the road did not open they attacked her and she stole their power in hopes of gaining enough to bring her son back. The song taught them that their Road (travelling and killing witches) was a way to stay alive, and that it was the only way to stay alive. The audience is then transported back to the present with the next verse (after a brief guitar solo), that has lyrics relating to each witch on the Road.

Verse three, if listened to closely, references each of the main characters in the show. The verse begins by stating “The Road is wild and wicked” to state that now it is talking about the present. The next line states, “Winding out of time”. This line references Lilia, because her time on the road led to her doing what other Marvel characters have called “time slipping”. She began to experience her life out of order, and had moments of saying something random that confused the people around her. She was living outside of normal time. Billy is referenced next. One of his reasons for going on the Road was that he wanted to find his brother, thus the lyric “What’s lost is found” was added to this verse, because he ended up finding his brother in the end. “What fierce is bound” is in reference to Jen, who was bound of her power over a century ago, and all she wants is to get it back. She gets her power back when she reaches the end of the Road, unlike Alice and Sharon, who do not reach the end. Alice and Sharon die before the end, which explains the line “We’re broken and we’re burned”. Although one could argue that they both got what they wanted. Sharon wanted to leave, and her death certainly got her off the Road, while Alice wanted to find out what happened to her dead mother. Following her into death most likely means they got to meet and she could ask her mother what happened to her. Last but not least the line “But take a breath/And dance with death/My love cannot be turned” is a direct reference to Agatha and Rio. She avoided Rio for centuries, and she hated her for what she did. The Road forced them to be together (thus the “dance with death” line), and Agatha cannot deny her love for Rio. The ultimate point of the show is that Agatha loves Rio, and Rio loves Agatha. It is fitting that they be the last reference made in the song, as they loved each other until the end.

Each verse delves into Agatha’s trauma, and the life changing event of her son's death, while also discussing the present experience of the Road, and how those two experiences relate. It also discusses Rio, and how Agatha cannot stop loving her, and how she came to understand that Rio loves her and did not want to have to take Nicky from her. The song is one of the most powerful parts of the show, littered with foreshadowing and tragedy disguised as an upbeat tune.

(im tagging people who interacted with the og post if you want removed just message me

@sweetestberryofthebunch @silentwordsmyth @kissing-chefs @jade-lopez-maximoff @fakeagatha @babyqueenfangirl @popcorn-plots @milli-moi @clericallyinsane @lesbiifem @nevergraciee @diescrydarm @piinek @sp00kyb4be

[thearcaneblog]

Oh my God I’m so angry. I just read the absolute WORT take on the physical appearances of the “bad” characters in Arcane. They complained that the “bad” characters were always depicted in worse lighting and as ugly, whereas the “good” characters were depicted as more flattering.

Like, oh my God. Tell me you don’t understand story analysis without telling me you don’t understand story analysis.

This is a common trope in ANY storytelling medium. It’s called “the mark of greatness.” It is a physical disability or mark on the body that sets a character apart. Oedipus’ feet are deformed because his parents tried to kill him. Harry’s lightning bolt scar, Luke Skywalker’s hand, etc., are all pivotal to furthering the plot and are important for fully nuanced characters and storytelling.

Let’s use Sevika since we know the most about her. She, like most of the characters in the show, is morally complex. When she feels like Vander’s choices lead to inaction and continued oppression she joins Silco. In the process two VERY important things happen to her character because one thing happens. And that is the loss of her arm. 1) by losing her arm she is baptized into Silco’s service. Losing something important, like let’s say an ARM, cause the person to change which is why it’s a baptism. 2) She literally sacrificed her arm to become Silco’s arm. Everything she does, she does in the name of Silco. This is HER mark of greatness. The physical absence of an appendage symbolizes, and I’m going to be redundant here, her loyalty to Silco and how she is the brawn of his operation.

Now. Let’s talk about Silco. Silco is missing/has limited use of his left eye. It’s a mark of greatness again, but IT IS SO MUCH MORE SINCE IT’S AN EYE. EYES ARE INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT IN STORYTELLING! The fact that it’s only one eye means his vision/focus is singular. He cares about his operation, about having Zaun become its own city, but NOTHING is more important to him than Jinx. Almost every time we see him in a scene, Jinx is brought up and often defended by him. Jinx is his damaged eye. She’s the only one he has a (literal) blind spot for.

The Chem Barons are more complex since we don’t know them like other characters. But speaking of them as a group, and still along the lines of “the mark of greatness,” their appearance is absolutely A+ storytelling. Their appearances signify their power, fear, and corruption. It’s all about unchecked power and technological and chemical experimentation. They warn of the consequences of aligning one’s humanity with destructive power.

Amara is a little different. While she is not deformed per se, she is older with wrinkles and has a forehead adornment. Again, like the Chem Barons, this reflects wisdom since it is on her forehead and power. Power as a trade union member, and the foreshadowing of her possession by the Black Rose. EVERYTHING IS DONE ON PURPOSE!

Don't come at me with some surface-level bad take like "I'm tired of 'bad guys' looking ugly." It is SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT!