#which in their case i'd argue is kinda sorta like really important?

[whentheynameyoujoy]

Yeah, honestly, this. It feels like the show took a look at rape victim no. 1, then rape victim no. 2, and decided that if they didn't like being with their rapists, then having what so far seems to be consensual sex with each other would be the height of hypocrisy.

Criston Cole is a knight of common birth in a medieval, feudalist world who rose to the highest position a knight could hold in the realm, who was pressured into sex with the member of the royal family directly responsible for his position as Kingsguard, resulting in him almost ending his life out of guilt for breaking his vow.

Alicent Hightower is a grown up child bride to an older king who was forced to perform her duties no matter the hour, who visibly disassociated during the act, who never had the luxury of thinking of her own desires at any point in her life, who birthed and raised her babies while still a child herself.

I would ask this show to explain how these two individuals overcame their sexual trauma and ingrained beliefs about duty and sex to start an extremely active sexual relationship but I know deep down that this is as far as the writers want to explore these characters in relation to this pairing:

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

TMAGP 33 Thoughts: WITTY SUBTITLE REDACTED

It's our first guest written episode of the season, and the first since all the way back at 26. I do hope the guys weren't getting lonely. This week's was written by Aaron Blanton. They're the showrunner of What Happened In Skinner, and maybe some other stuff too? Honestly, their web presence kinda sucks so I'm not inclined to go digging. However, it might be worth doing just that given this week's ep was a really good one.

Spoilers for TMA, and TMAGP episode 33 below the cut.

It's straight into the thick of it with Celia listening to another Institute statement. This one briefly mentions Dr. F Welling again, who you'll remember was mentioned in episode 17 with Welling Mutare Materia, briefly in 21, and who Sam saw turn into a skellington in 28. Probably. Welling is likely to be a very important character as we dig into the Institute more in this universe, and I'd be very surprised if we don't get a real appearance by him at some stage. Although they do leave it unclear whether or not the interviewer was Welling himself. In either case another Institute statement means another round of viabilities. Low across the board here, which I think makes a lot of sense in most of the theories I've heard about what these may mean. Given the "potential acquisition risk" there isn't much you can really do with it. Whatever those categories do mean it is more than likely you need some measure of control, Evil Blackpool Pleasure Beach is a hard thing to wrangle.

As for the statement itself, I really liked this one. The format of only hearing one side of it but knowing when the other side is talking was done very effectively IMO. This one was also pretty Archives-y which makes for a nice change of pace. Playing on some of the tropes that series made well-worn. It's a mashup of elements we've seen attributed to a variety of Dread Powers in TMA but very little we've not seen before. Although I do think this one strikes quite an interesting balance in context to the OIAR. It's specific enough that you sorta know what Victoria saw but vague enough that you don't really know what's happening. Transformation is presumably what happened but it doesn't seem particularly cohesive either. The Pleasure Beach didn't stay that way, more than just the pier changed, and it even affected her date. While you could say all those elements transformed it does seem to be lacking something. So it's a case that ends up with a heading you can't really argue with much but equally feels quite incomplete. Not that this is a problem. It's a really good statement.

Alice: Do you know anything about computer codes? Celia: No. Alice: Do you speak German?

I love that Colin is so far off the deep end with the FR3-D1 conspiracies he's learned German to try and understand it. It's not incredibly noteworthy on its own as it's a known quantity but it's not the only reference to German we get.

And speaking of, we've got a brand new voiced character, Brett Larz. He's an American by the sounds of it but the surname is German. Which isn't to say he's German but the connection is likely to be important, at least in terms of weight of references, as the series has been steeped in German before the show even aired. More importantly he's also working for Starkwall, an organisation I'm very eager to learn more about. I don't think this interaction really told us much we didn't already know but hopefully we'll be seeing more of Brett soon.

Gwen: As the new manager it behooves me to check these things and although our current security arrangements are satisfactory [bzzt]

I do wonder if Gwen is going to end up going for this. She's in a tricky spot of knowing fuck all about what she's gotten herself into while also being traumatised about all those monsters. Given she is so keenly aware of how inadequate security is, and deathly afraid of the things that go bump in the night, it'd make sense if she jumps on that. And fast. I'm also really curious to see if we're going to get Lena's side of this. Lena set that meeting up before she was fired so she clearly had some plan for it. With the OIAR's and Stakwall's history it'll be interesting to see how much more of that past we'll see.

Brett: And a secure one for you and your team. We can protect you from whatever comes your way. I guarantee it. [bzzt]

Assuming the static is a lie detector, and detects purposeful lies, Brett knows for sure that whatever is gunning for the OIAR is more than Starkwall can handle. Which does seem pretty likely given what our beloved Mr. Bonzo can manage on his lonesome.

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Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet and Terminology Sheet

DPHW Theory: 2365 all sounds about right to me. Not much to explain there. Pain might be a little higher than I'd expect but not wildly so.

CAT# Theory: 2 is another of those ones that sounds like a great fit for People/Place/Object, as a pier is a place, but it's also full of weird people. Not to mention the leviathan. So even if that is what it ends up being I think it's fundamentally flawed as a system of categorisation as it stands. Even if it's all the place that's doing it the case number and heading then fails to accurately describe what you'd actually be responding to.

I have a 2,000 word outline for an essay on why it's not Subject/Agent/Catalyst from before the season break too. I'm not sure that one is needed now. Low/Low/Low getting 2 doesn't make a great deal of sense IMO. Fairly obviously too.

R# Theory: B is exactly in line with my theory on it. A man did very likely go missing but the nature of said disappearance is outlandish in the face of more mundane explanations.

Header talk: Transformation (Pier) -/- Fear (Void) is a little interesting. I'm not entirely sure that is what this was. All of it just seems a little off to me on this one.

[demigods-posts]

I’ve only read PJO and HoO so idk if this is still the case but I don’t like how the Hypnos cabin replaced the Aphrodite cabin as the butt of the jokes. Does there really have to be ‘that one cabin’ that everyone makes fun of?

Initially in PJO the Aphrodite cabin wasn’t taken very seriously and they were kinda seen as useless in comparison to the others. Obviously Selina disproved the stereotype and getting Piper’s perspective/ journey in HoO further established them as a respectable cabin. But it feels like as soon as that started we got the brand new Hypos cabin to fill the role as the comic relief?

Like sure Clovis tries to help Jason with his amnesia and he helps carry messages but most of the time Clovis is mentioned he’s just falling asleep and waking up at comical times. He doesn’t get a enough recognition imo

And the Hypnos cabin is just sleeping all the time?? I get that they navigate the dream world and stuff, that’s important. But shouldn’t they train as well? In the Lost Hero, Clovis is described as looking ‘like he’d never lifted anything heavier than a pillow’ which is obviously hyperbolic. But still! A huge part of CHB is teaching campers to fight for their lives in case they need to fend off the literal monsters that can smell them and track them down? Seems pretty inconsistent that the Hypnos kids wouldn’t be able to defend themselves

And I want to know more about them! Why are they sleepy all the time? When Percy was about to get the blessing of Achilles, Nico put a bunch of skeletons to sleep which made Nico very tired, is it like that? Are the Hypnos kids using their powers every night to help the insomniac demigods get some rest? Are there other powers they can have besides putting ppl to sleep and navigating the dreamscape? ‘Cause it seems like Nico can sorta do those things a bit as well. Is there anything specific Hypnos kids?

Sorry if I’m going on and on but I’m just so curious about this very underrated and vaguely-described cabin.

You have very valid questions that I don't have the answer to, lol. But I do agree with you that it seems inconsistent that chb is designed to train demigods to fight for their lives, yet some demigods just...don't? why wouldn't they at least train, you know, just in fucking case lmao. and also, i don't see why certain cabins are the butt of the joke either. i'd argue it's for the sake of the plot, something to pace the story by giving the reader a break when the tension is thick. but the demigods making fun of other demigods? like, come on now. y'all's life expectancy is way too low for y'all to make fun of each other :|