#we're no strangers to death

[yutamayo]

My master says I just have a unique spirit.

[group-dynamic]

Very Minor Spoiler for Episode 7 (S2) of Rings of Power

Thinking casually about Galadriel's declaration earlier this season that caring for that which is most fragile and most dear is the duty entrusted to all elves and how Celebrimbor's gentle care in noticing and greeting that little mouse is what allowed him to see past Sauron's deception. :)

[backjustforberena]

The Stranger has visited me more times than I can count, Grand Maester. I assure you… he cares little whether my eyes are open or closed.

[widowshill]

the locket, motherhood, & marriage.

139 / 139 / 136 / 136 / 191 / 191 / 191 / 142 / 134 / 143 / 143 / 144 / 144 / 139 script / 144 / 280 / 144 / 144 / 192 / 279 / 279 / 279 / 279 / 143

[brionysea]

here's another example of mike breaking the pattern by being the first one to do it

bonus foreshadowing:

[khaosssss]

i just got called an edog what the hell man

anyways rant in tags. ignore if you like

[no-context-nonsense]

It's Saturday! Time to cry, bitches ❤️

[bitegore]

baru cormorant seems to me to be a series that suffers miserably for me having read machineries of empire first. unfortunately everything BC is doing strikes me as something MoE did better and more believably and with much a greater and more grounded eye for how systems, complex system interaction, and oppression like. work

[tabbytabbytabby]

Spinning Through Time

Word Count: 3,266 words

Rating: Teen and Up

Warnings: Major Character Death

Fandom: Stranger Things, Teen Wolf

Relationship: Steve Harrington/Isaac Lahey

Tags: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Angst, Falling In Love, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Time Travel, Flashbacks, Letters, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Hopeful Ending, Bad Things Happen Bingo

Summary: When Isaac Lahey gets sent back to 1988, all he wants is to get back home. Then he meets Steve Harrington, and everything changes. He falls in love. But soon, they both find that time isn't always on their side.

Read on AO3

For the Never Got to Say Goodbye space for @badthingshappenbingo. Card under the cut.

[boyhowdy5]

Reading up on the current Dream drama like a suburban mother listening to her kids explain the lore of the game they've been playing in the woods for a month

[worthyking]

writers strike coming to an end? perfect now let's execute will byers as quickly as possible

[merrilark]

hm.

// world news for ts

[starrycloak]

tw discussions of su1cide and death ideation

Sometimes I think about this post and others that shed light on Vecna's (albeit twisted) compassion for struggling living beings, particularly the four victims of '86. Obviously he had something to gain from those murders (compared to the 79 massacre, on top!), but 1) it has never been explained why and how exactly those killings created so much energy to open gates and 2) in a not too similar parallel to those animals caught in traps and eventually killed around the Creel house (put a pin on whether you think Henry, One and Vecna -hell, or even show Henry and TFS Henry- are one and the same or if you subscribe to the Edward/Henry theory), perhaps the whole 'prey on the weak' wasn't necessarily 100% malicious, but rather (in Vecna's mind) a "merciful" act.

Aligning to the "vecna's curse was a sui allegory", he might have thought that each of the '86 victims were hopeless in regards to their living situations AND their inner strength/coping mechanisms to deal with them and their own futures. In fact, that might have probably been the only reason why he could create a psyonic connection with them in the first place. For example, even if Chrissy's or Patrick's parents, "the ones" (obvs not the only) that were causing them pain, were removed from the equation, their impact and presence would still remain in everyday life and haunt their children forever. They didn't really have anybody (seems like therapy wasn't working either, or they might not have commited to that process by openning up) to rely on, and they weren't in a place to willingly look for companionship at all.

The sad reality is that sometimes, even in a supernatural universe, it's impossible to make trauma and triggers dissapear for good and begin anew with a clean slate. For instance, it wouldn't be enough to undo Billy's death for Max to heal, but also undo his previous abuse of her, her mother not protecting her, her dad emotionally abandonning her, Billy's own abuse by Neil, and so on, or stopping Fred from running off after the accident, the accident in the first place, him having done anything prior to prevent him losing control of the vehicle in the first place, etc. It's a cycle that would go on with them lacking a support system and/or not having developed the skills to cope and seek for community and love on their own terms. I guess that, for Vecna, that was just the system (everybody around you) being rigged as usual and handicapping them -those four were not only dealt a bad hand, but they didn't (and would never have) have what it takes to play and come out on top. They couldn't even handle the visions he sent them, so how could they face reality?

Turns out a very powerful supernatural being is as capable of rewriting the past (or at least he can't yet), along with all its individual strings and webs, as us normal humans are irl. It's natural to wish that getting rid of those things, those people who seem like the biggest obstacles between someone and a fullfilling life would fix everything, but there are too many variables at play; it takes changing too many minds for real and for good. Perhaps Vecna, underestimating/ignoring the power of a support system and willpower (hence why only Max escaped the first time and continues to cling to life -because, unlike the others, she had a chance and the support to realize that she did want to live and that there was a way out of the darkness), thought that the four couldn't make it on their own into the future anyway. They were weak, isolated by their own doing, too broken, and in so much pain to go on -it was pointless and more cruel for them to continue to exist. Like he did to the trapped and wounded animals in the Creel house, he "facilitated" the ending of their suffering, also probably thinking that, by dying at his hands to make him more powerful, their lives wouldn't have been (in his eyes) worthless.

or maybe he was angry that far too many people are lazy cowards for not putting time and care into committing to make systemic changes nor break the cycle of abuse so he doesn't have any faith in anybody and they were easy targets idk

sorry this derailed so far away from will's vanishing. all i can say is that i, too, don't believe in that the "main villian" of ST is 100% evil. that'd reductive and scapegoat-ish to the ideas that began it all: forced comformity, perpetuating cycles of abuse and systems that fail everybody.

Deducing what may have actually happened to Will Byers on Nov 6, 1983 using evidence from the show.

Trigger warning: M*rder, s*icide.

part 2. part 3.

Before I begin, I just want to remind everyone that this show has many layers to it. What I mean is, if you watch carefully, a piece of dialogue can actually mean two (or more) things. The dialogue can be meaningful for the specific scene (surface level) and it can be a sneaky way to foreshadow something else entirely (subtext).

From this specific moment, we can assume that moving forward: any and all mentions of JFK’s assassination will actually be about Will’s disappearance (subtext).

So when the writers gifted us with these mentions, they are actually referring to the conspiracy surrounding Will’s disappearance. So let’s investigate, shall we?

Here’s the briefest overview of the JFK assassination: Oswald was convicted of assassinating JFK. Oswald denied his involvement stating that he was “a patsy”. Many conspiracy theories believe that Johnson was actually the one responsible.

Both Mrs. Driscoll and Dustin do not believe that Oswald assassinated JFK. Mrs. Driscoll is an outcast; she’s an older woman with schizophrenia. The guys who work at the newspaper are quick to dismiss her for these reasons. Now remember, this is Stranger Things, the show about outcasts being right and those fitting the norm being wrong. Then there’s our beloved Dustin, who states that “Oswald was a patsy”. Thus we can conclude: Johnson assassinated JFK, and Oswald was a patsy.

So… who if Will is JFK in this equation, who are our “Johnson” and “Oswald” counterparts?

Well right now, I assume most people believe Vecna is responsible for Will’s disappearance. He is our “bad guy”. So my guess is that he is our “Oswald”.

Who is our “Johnson”? Now remember, Johnson was someone close to JFK, he was the vice-president. He had something to gain in this. I believe Lonnie fits the bill the most for our Johnson.

So many clues surround Lonnie that tell us he was actually responsible. Plus, remember, he has something to gain from Will’s death: life insurance.

Though to be far, I am definitely not ruling out Brenner and Hawkins lab being involved in this too.

So… what happened exactly then? I’m not certain but this is my theory:

Lonnie was prepared to kill Will that night, but his plans were thwarted by our “Oswald”. Vecna swooped in and saved Will from his fate. His “come with me if you want to live” moment.

Moving further into the theory territory… here is a prediction:

- Our characters believe that the only way to defeat Vecna is to travel back in time and “stop him”.

- They travel back, stop him, then return finding out that the alternate present is much worse. By this I mean: Will was murdered, Mike ended his life by suicide, Joyce got admitted to Pennhurst Asylum, Jonathan was struggling with addiction, Lonnie got his payout, etc.

- Thus realizing that “killing” Vecna is and never was the solution here.

Now you may be thinking: but Vecna is 100% evil, why are you trying to redeem him? Well, the thing is, he’s not. Vecna is a villain but he’s not 100% evil. The show isn’t that simple friends. Plus, remember, nothing is exactly as it seems in this show.

[lanteanserver]

I think technically speaking, I'm not an Irish Catholic or an English Catholic, but I'm a Ro[a]m[i/a]n{g} Cat{-}holic until and unless they excom{m/eow}nicate me, and really, if they're going to do that,

[reinemichele]

Like... I think it's great that we can go through comments/reblogs on here nowadays, I feel like it's a lot more of a "community" where you can get an impression of other ppl's thoughts and emotions, whereas in like 2011-2013 you could just see "x liked this post, y reblogged this post" in a list and if you wanted to see ppl's thoughts you had to click through individual posts

But I also feel wary of how much info I put on posts with questions like polls/reblog chains (which I think are fun!) because I know that I'm . neurotic and traumatized and in need of therapy, to be blunt and succinct.

Like, there was a poll about if you're afraid of planes and why, and I started to type out this anecdote about how in 2015 my mom won an award for work that involved going to a ceremony states away, and we were Very Terrified during the 4 plane rides.

I'm leaving out details to the anecdote for brevity here, but I looked at the text, and thought about how anyone looking through the notes could be like "lol what the fuck is wrong with you" / "lol what happened to you" / "lol you need therapy"

Like, you know, people claim this site isn't fueled by a desire for clout or success, but that's abjectly not true. The social currency is just more influenced by "funny"-man gimmicks and inside jokes than follower counts (and only because follower counts aren't visible; we're not inoculated from that being a motivator). People are always looking for the right, poorly-worded or misinterpret-able post they can derail with a one-liner. It's not enough for people to call people's childhood traumas "daddy issues" anymore.

When people ask me insensitive shit about my dad's death, it's fun to trot out the grisly details and watch the regret at getting an answer form on their face. But I don't have a specific incident like that for the plane thing. Like, you can just google about CPTSD and hypervigilance in environments you can't control or easily escape. Banal information that isn't satisfying to deliver.

I'm careful about what details I share and I withhold a lot of them, so I don't think I'd be unable to handle being on the receiving end of bad intentions. But I don't want to put the target there on public posts that people will all be looking through the notes of if I don't have a method of having fun with it, you know?

[hermit-frog]

when i was around 13, one night i got a feeling i'd never had before (and never after (of that intensity)) that something was about to happen. that night, my maternal grandma died.

tonight, i had a dream about my parental grandma (for the 1st time in my life. we're not close. i'd seen her 3 times). told my dad this morning. he just texted me that she died this afternoon. wtf?